JEWISH THEOLOGY
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS
ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO
THEOLOGY
SYSTEMATICALLY AND HISTORICALLY
CONSIDERED
BY
DR. K. KOHLER
PRESIDENT
HEBREW UNION COLLEGE
gorfc
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1918
^11 rlghti rctervtd
COPYRIGHT, 1918,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1918.
J. 8. Gushing Co. Berwick <fe Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
TO THE MEMORY
OF
1. Ibeinabeimer
THE LAMENTED PRESIDENT OF THE
BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF
Gbe Ibebrew Iflnton College
IN WHOM ZEAL FOR THE HIGH IDEALS
OF JUDAISM AND PATRIOTIC DEVO
TION TO OUR BLESSED COUNTRY WERE
NOBLY EMBODIED
IN FRIENDSHIP AND
AFFECTION
PREFACE
IN offering herewith to the English-reading public the pres
ent work on Jewish Theology, the result of many years of
research and of years of activity as President and teacher at
the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati, I bespeak for it that
fairness of judgment to which every pioneer work is entitled.
It may seem rather strange that no such work has hitherto
been written by any of the leading Jewish scholars of either
the conservative or the progressive school. This can only be
accounted for by the fact that up to modern times the Rab
binical and philosophical literature of the Middle Ages sufficed
for the needs of the student, and a systematic exposition of
the Jewish faith seemed to be unnecessary. Besides, a real
demand for the specific study of Jewish theology was scarcely
felt, inasmuch as Judaism never assigned to a creed the
prominent position which it holds in the Christian Church.
This very fact induced Moses Mendelssohn at the beginning
of the new era to declare that Judaism "contained only
truths dictated by reason and no dogmatic beliefs at all."
Moreover, as he was rather a deist than a theist, he stated
boldly that Judaism "is not a revealed religion but a revealed
law intended solely for the Jewish people as the vanguard of
universal monotheism." By taking this legalistic view of
Judaism in common with the former opponents of the Mai-
monidean articles of faith which, by the way, he had him
self translated for the religious instruction of the Jewish youth
he exerted a deteriorating influence upon the normal devel
opment of the Jewish faith under the new social conditions.
The fact is that Mendelssohn emancipated the modern Jew
vii
viii PREFACE
from the thraldom of the Ghetto, but not Judaism. In the
Mendelssohnian circle the impression prevailed, as we are
told, that Judaism consists of a system of forms, but is sub
stantially no religion at all. The entire Jewish renaissance
period which followed, characteristically enough, made the
cultivation of the so-called science of Judaism its object, but
it neglected altogether the whole field of Jewish theology.
Hence we look in vain among the writings of Rappaport,
Zunz, Jost and their followers, the entire Breslau school, for
any attempt at presenting the contents of Judaism as a sys
tem of faith. Only the pioneers of Reform Judaism, Geiger,
Holdheim, Samuel Hirsch, Formstecher, Ludwig Philippson,
Leopold Stein, Leopold Loew, and the Reform theologian par
excellence David Einhorn, and likewise, Isaac M. Wise in
America, made great efforts in that direction. Still a system
of Jewish theology was wanting. Accordingly when, at the
suggestion of my dear departed friend, Dr. Gustav Karpeles,
President of the Society for the Promotion of the Science of
Judaism in Berlin, I undertook to write a compendium (Grun-
driss) of Systematic Jewish Theology, which appeared in 1910
as Vol. IV in a series of works on Systematic Jewish Lore
(Grundriss der Gesammtwissenschaft des Judenthums), I had
no work before me that might have served me as pattern or
guide. Solomon Schechter s valuable studies were in the main
confined to Rabbinical Theology. As a matter of fact I ac
cepted the task only with the understanding that it should be
written from the view-point of historical research, instead of a
mere dogmatic or doctrinal system. For in my opinion the
Jewish religion has never been static, fixed for all time by an
ecclesiastical authority, but has ever been and still is the result
of a dynamic process of growth and development. At the
same time I felt that I could not omit the mystical element
which pervades the Jewish religion in common with all others.
As our prophets were seers and not philosophers or moralists,
PREFACE ix
so divine inspiration in varying degrees constituted a factor of
Synagogal as well as Scriptural Judaism, Revelation, there
fore, is to be considered as a continuous force in shaping and
reshaping the Jewish faith. The religious genius of the Jew
falls within the domain of ethnic psychology concerning which
science still gropes in the dark, but which progressive Judaism
is bound to recognize in its effects throughout the ages.
It is from this standpoint, taken also by the sainted founder
of the Hebrew Union College, Isaac M. Wise, that I have writ
ten this book. At the same time I endeavored to be, as it
behooves the historian, just and fair to Conservative Judaism,
which will ever claim the reverence we owe to our cherished
past, the mother that raised and nurtured us.
While a work of this nature cannot lay claim to complete
ness, I have attempted to cover the whole field of Jewish belief,
including also such subjects as no longer form parts of the
religious consciousness of the modern Jew. I felt especially
called upon to elucidate the historical relations of Judaism
to the Christian and Mohammedan religions and dwell on the
essential points of divergence from them. If my language at
times has been rather vigorous in defense of the Jewish faith,
it was because I was forced to correct and refute the prevail
ing view of the Christian world, of both theologians and others,
that Judaism is an inferior religion, clannish and exclusive,
that it is, in fact, a cult of the Old Testament Law.
It was a matter of great personal satisfaction to me that the
German work on its appearance met with warm appreciation
in the various theological journals of America, England, and
France, as well as of Germany, including both Jewish and
Christian. I was encouraged and urged by many * soon to make
the book accessible to wider circles in an English translation."
My friend, Dr. Israel Abrahams of Cambridge, England, took
such interest in the book that he induced a young friend of his
to prepare an English version. While this did not answer the
X PREFACE
purpose, it was helpful to me in making me feel that, instead of
a literal translation, a thorough revision and remolding of the
book was necessary in order to present it in an acceptable Eng
lish garb. In pursuing this course, I also enlarged the book
in many ways, especially adding a new chapter on Jewish
Ethics, which, in connection with the idea of the Kingdom of
God, appeared to me to form a fitting culmination of Jewish
theology. I have thus rendered it practically a new work.
And here I wish to acknowledge my great indebtedness to my
young friend and able pupil, Rabbi Lee J. Levinger, for the
valuable aid he has rendered me and the painstaking labor he
has kindly and unselfishly performed in going over my manu
script from beginning to end, with a view to revising the
diction and also suggesting references to more recent publica
tions in the notes so as to bring it up to date.
I trust that the work will prove a source of information
and inspiration for both student and layman, Jew and non-
Jew, and induce such as have become indifferent to, or preju
diced against, the teachings of the Synagogue, or of Reform
Judaism in particular, to take a deeper insight into, and look
up with a higher regard to the sublime and eternal verities
of Judaism.
"Give to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser; teach a
righteous man, and he will increase in learning."
CINCINNATI, November, 1917.
CONTENTS
FACE
PREFACE vii
INTRODUCTION :
CHAPTER
I. THE MEANING OF THEOLOGY . . . . i
II. WHAT is JUDAISM ? 7
III. THE ESSENCE OF THE RELIGION OF JUDAISM . . 15
IV. THE JEWISH ARTICLES OF FAITH 19
PART I: GOD
A. GOD AS HE MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN TO MAN
V. MAN S CONSCIOUSNESS OF GOD AND BELIEF IN GOD . 29
VT. REVELATION, PROPHECY, AND INSPIRATION ... 34
VII. THE TORAH, THE DIVINE INSTRUCTION . . . .42
VIII. GOD S COVENANT 48
B. THE IDEA OF GOD IN JUDAISM
IX. GOD AND THE GODS 52
X. THE NAMES OF GOD ....... 58
XI. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 64
XII. THE ESSENCE OF GOD 72
XIII. THE ONE AND ONLY GOD 82
XIV. GOD S OMNIPOTENCE AND OMNISCIENCE . . . .91
XV. GOD S OMNIPRESENCE AND ETERNITY .... 96
XVI. GOD S HOLINESS 101
XVII. GOD S WRATH AND PUNISHMENT 107
XVIII. GOD S LONG-SUFFERING AND MERCY . . . .112
XIX. GOD S JUSTICE 118
XX. GOD S LOVE AND COMPASSION , . . . .126
zi
xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XXI. GOD S TRUTH AND FAITHFULNESS . . " . . 134
XXII. GOD S KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM .... 138
XXIII. GOD S CONDESCENSION 142
C. GOD IN RELATION TO THE WORLD
XXIV. THE WORLD AND ITS MASTER 146
XXV. CREATION AS THE ACT OF GOD . . . .152
XXVI. THE MAINTENANCE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE
WORLD 156
XXVII. MIRACLES AND THE COSMIC ORDER . . . .160
XXVIII. PROVIDENCE AND THE MORAL GOVERNMENT OF THE
WORLD 167
XXIX. GOD AND THE EXISTENCE OF EVIL . . . .176
XXX. GOD AND THE ANGELS 180
XXXI. SATAN AND THE SPIRITS OF EVIL .... 189
XXXII. GOD AND THE INTERMEDIARY POWERS . . .197
PART II: MAN
XXXIII. MAN S PLACE IN CREATION 206
XXXIV. THE DUAL NATURE OF MAN 212
XXXV. THE ORIGIN AND DESTINY OF MAN . . . .218
XXXVI. GOD S SPIRIT IN MAN 226
XXXVII. FREE WILL AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY. . .231
XXXVIII. THE MEANING OF SIN 238
XXXIX. REPENTANCE, OR THE RETURN TO GOD . . . 246
XL. MAN, THE CHILD OF GOD 256
XLI. PRAYER AND SACRIFICE 261
XLII. THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF PRAYER . . .271
XLIII. DEATH AND THE FUTURE LIFE 278
XLIV. THE IMMORTAL SOUL OF MAN . . . . .286
XLV. DIVINE RETRIBUTION: REWARD AND PUNISHMENT . 298
XL VI. THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE RACE . . . .310
XL VII. THE MORAL ELEMENTS OF CIVILIZATION . . .316
CONTENTS xiii
PART HI: ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM
OF GOD
CHAPTER PAGE
XL VIII. THE ELECTION OF ISRAEL 323
XLIX. THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE MISSION or ISRAEL 331
L. THE PRIEST-PEOPLE AND ITS LAW OF HOLINESS . .342
LI. ISRAEL, THE PEOPLE OF THE LAW, AND ITS WORLD
MISSION 354
LII. ISRAEL, THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, MARTYR AND
MESSIAH OF THE NATIONS 367
LIII. THE MESSIANIC HOPE 378
LIV. RESURRECTION, A NATIONAL HOPE .... 392
LV. ISRAEL AND THE HEATHEN NATIONS . . . .397
LVI. THE STRANGER AND THE PROSELYTE .... 408
LVII. CHRISTIANITY AND MOHAMMEDANISM THE DAUGHTER-
RELIGIONS OF JUDAISM 426
LVIII. THE SYNAGOGUE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS . . .447
LIX. THE ETHICS OF JUDAISM AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD 477
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 493
INDEX 497
JEWISH THEOLOGY
CHAPTER I
THE MEANING OF THEOLOGY
1. The name Theology, "the teaching concerning God,"
is taken from Greek philosophy. It was used by Plato and
Aristotle to denote the knowledge concerning God and things
godly, by which they meant the branch of Philosophy later
called Metaphysics, after Aristotle. In the Christian Church
the term gradually assumed the meaning of systematic ex
position of the creed, a distinction being made between
Rational, or Natural Theology, on the one hand, and Dogmatic
Theology, on the other. 1 In common usage Theology is
understood to be the presentation of one specific system of
faith after some logical method, and a distinction is made
between Historical and Systematic Theology. The former
traces the various doctrines of the faith in question through
the different epochs and stages of culture, showing their his
torical process of growth and development; the latter pre
sents these same doctrines in comprehensive form as a fixed
system, as they have finally been elaborated and accepted
upon the basis of the sacred scriptures and their authoritative
interpretation.
2. Theology and Philosophy of Religion differ widely in
their character. Theology deals exclusively with a specific
religion ; in expounding one doctrinal system, it starts from
1 Compare Heinrici: Theologische Encyclopaedic, p. 4; Enc. Brit. art. The
ology.
B I
2 JEWISH THEOLOGY
a positive belief in a divine revelation and in the continued
working of the divine spirit, affecting also the interpretation
and further development of the sacred books. Philosophy
of Religion, on the other hand, while dealing with the same
subject matter as Theology, treats religion from a general
point of view as a matter of experience, and, as every philos
ophy must, without any foregone conclusion. Consequently
it submits the beliefs and doctrines of religion in general to
an impartial investigation, recognizing neither a divine reve
lation nor the superior claims of any one religion above any
other, its main object being to ascertain how far the universal
laws of human reason agree or disagree with the assertions
of faith. 1
3. It is therefore incorrect to speak of a Jewish religious
philosophy. This has no better right to exist than has Jewish
metaphysics or Jewish mathematics. 2 The Jewish thinkers
of the Spanish-Arabic period who endeavored to harmonize
revelation and reason, utilizing the Neo-Platonic philosophy
or the Aristotelian with a Neo-Platonic coloring, betray by
their very conceptions of revelation and prophecy the in
fluence of Mohammedan theology; this was really a graft
of metaphysics on theology and called itself the "divine
science," a term corresponding exactly with the Greek "theol
ogy." The so-called Jewish religious philosophers adopted
both the methods and terminology of the Mohammedan
theologians, attempting to present the doctrines of the Jewish
faith in the light of philosophy, as truth based on reason.
Thus they claimed to construct a Jewish theology upon the
foundation of a philosophy of religion.
1 Heinrici, 1. c., p. 14 f., 212 ; Hagenbach-Kautsch : Encyc. d. theolog. Wiss.,
p. 28-30; Rauwenhoff: Religionsphilosophie, Einl., xiii; Margolis: "The
Theological Aspect of Reformed Judaism," in Yearbook of C. C. A. R., 1903,
p. 188-192. Lauterbach, J. E., art. Theology.
2 See, however, Geiger : Nachgel. Schriften, II, 3-8 ; also Margolis, 1. c.,
p. 192-196.
THE MEANING OF THEOLOGY 3
But neither they nor their Mohammedan predecessors
succeeded in working out a complete system of theology.
They left untouched essential elements of religion which do
not come within the sphere of rational verities, and did not
give proper appreciation to the rich treasures of faith depos
ited in the Biblical and Rabbinical literature. Nor does the
comprehensive theological system of Maimonides, which
for centuries largely shaped the intellectual life of the Jew,
form an exception. Only the mystics, Bahya at their head,
paid attention to the spiritual side of Judaism, dwelling at
length on such themes as prayer and repentance, divine
forgiveness and holiness.
4. Closer acquaintance with the religious and philosophical
systems of modern times has created a new demand for a
Jewish theology by which the Jew can comprehend his own
religious truths in the light of modern thought, and at the
same time defend them against the aggressive attitude of the
ruling religious sects. Thus far, however, the attempts made
in this direction are but feeble and sporadic ; if the structure
is not to stand altogether in the air, the necessary material
must be brought together from its many sources with pains
taking labor. 1 The special difficulty in the task lies in the
radical difference which exists between our view of the past
and that of the Biblical and medieval writers. All those
things which have heretofore been taken as facts because related
in the sacred books or other traditional sources, are viewed
to-day with critical eyes, and are now regarded as more or
less colored by human impression or conditioned by human
judgment. In other words, we have learned to distinguish
between subjective and objective truths, 2 whereas theology by
1 A fine beginning in this direction has been made by Professor Schechter
in Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology t New York, 1909.
1 See Joel : "D. Mosaismus u. d. Heidenthum," in Jahrb. f. Jued. Gesch.
und Lit., 1904, p. 70-73.
4 JEWISH THEOLOGY
its very nature deals with truth as absolute. This makes
it imperative for us to investigate historically the leading
idea or fundamental principle underlying a doctrine, to note
the different conceptions formed at various stages, and trace
its process of growth. At times, indeed, we may find that
the views of one age have rather taken a backward step and
fallen below the original standard. The progress need not be
uniform, but we must still trace its course.
5. We must recognize at the outset that Jewish theology
cannot assume the character of apologetics, if it is to accom
plish its great task of formulating religious truth as it exists
in our consciousness to-day. It can no more afford to ignore
the established results of modern linguistic, ethnological,
and historical research, of Biblical criticism and comparative
religion, than it can the undisputed facts of natural science,
however much any of these may conflict with the Biblical
view of the cosmos. Apologetics has its legitimate place
to prove and defend the truths of Jewish theology against
other systems of belief and thought, but cannot properly
defend either Biblical or Talmudic statements by methods
incompatible with scientific investigation. Judaism is a
religion of historical growth, which, far from claiming to be
the final truth, is ever regenerated anew at each turning point
of history. The fall of the leaves at autumn requires no
apology, for each successive spring testifies anew to nature s
power of resurrection.
The object of a systematic theology of Judaism, accord
ingly, is to single out the essential forces of the faith. It
then will become evident how these fundamental doctrines
possess a vitality, a strength of conviction, as well as an
adaptability to varying conditions, which make them potent
factors amidst all changes of time and circumstance. Ac
cording to Rabbinical tradition, the broken tablets of the
covenant were deposited in the ark beside the new. In like
THE MEANING OF THEOLOGY $
manner the truths held sacred by the past, but found inade
quate in their expression for a new generation, must be placed
side by side with the deeper and more clarified truths of an
advanced age, that they may appear together as the one
divine truth reflected in different rays of light.
6. Jewish theology differs radically from Christian theol
ogy in the following three points :
A. The theology of Christianity deals with articles of
faith formulated by the founders and heads of the Church
as conditions of salvation, so that any alteration in favor of
free thought threatens to undermine the very plan of salva
tion upon which the Church was founded. Judaism recog
nizes only such articles of faith as were adopted by the people
voluntarily as expressions of their religious consciousness,
both without external compulsion and without doing violence
to the dictates of reason. Judaism does not know salvation
by faith in the sense of Paul, the real founder of the Church,
who declared the blind acceptance of belief to be in itself
meritorious. It denies the existence of any irreconcilable
opposition between faith and reason.
B. Christian theology rests upon a formula of confession,
the so-called Symbolum of the Apostolic Church, 1 which
alone makes one a Christian. Judaism has no such formula
of confession which renders a Jew a Jew. No ecclesiastical
authority ever dictated or regulated the belief of the Jew;
his faith has been voiced in the solemn liturgical form of
prayer, and has ever retained its freshness and vigor of thought
in the consciousness of the people. This partly accounts for
the antipathy toward any kind of dogma or creed among
Jews.
C. The creed is a conditio sine qua non of the Christian
Church. To disbelieve its dogmas is to cut oneself loose
from membership. Judaism is quite different. The Jew is
1 See Schaff-Herzog s Encycl., art. Apottles Creed and Symbol.
6 JEWISH THEOLOGY
born into it and cannot extricate himself from it even by
the renunciation of his faith, which would but render him an
apostate Jew. This condition exists, because the racial com
munity formed, and still forms, the basis of the religious com
munity. It is birth, not confession, that imposes on the Jew
the obligation to work and strive for the eternal verities of
Israel, for the preservation and propagation of which he has
been chosen by the God of history.
7. The truth of the matter is that the aim and end of
Judaism is not so much the salvation of the soul in the here
after as the salvation of humanity in history. Its theology,
therefore, must recognize the history of human progress, with
which it is so closely interwoven. It does not, therefore,
claim to offer the final or absolute truth, as does Christian
theology, whether orthodox or liberal. It simply points out
the way leading to the highest obtainable truth. Final and
perfect truth is held forth as the ideal of all human searching
and striving, together with perfect justice, righteousness,
and peace, to be attained as the very end of history.
A systematic theology of Judaism must, accordingly, con
tent itself with presenting Jewish doctrine and belief in re
lation to the most advanced scientific and philosophical ideas
of the age, so as to offer a comprehensive view of life and the
world ("Lebens- und Weltanschauung") ; but it by no means
claims for them the character of finality. The unfolding of
Judaism s truths will be completed only when all mankind
has attained the heights of Zion s mount of vision, as beheld
by the prophets of Israel. 1
1 See Schechter : Studies in Judaism, Intr., XXI-XXII ; p. 147, 198 f . ; Fos
ter : The Finality of the Christian Religion, Chicago, 1906 ; Friedr. Delitzsch :
Zur Weiterentwicklung der Religion, 1908 ; and comp. Orelli : Religionsgeschichte,
276 f., and Dorner: Beitr. z. Weiterentwicklung d. christl. Religion, 173.
CHAPTER II
WHAT is JUDAISM?
i. It is very difficult to give an exact definition of Judaism
because of its peculiarly complex character. 1 It combines
two widely differing elements, and when they are brought
out separately, the aspect of the whole is not taken sufficiently
into account. Religion and race form an inseparable whole
in Judaism. The Jewish people stand in the same relation to
Judaism as the body to the soul. The national or racial body
of Judaism consists of the remnant of the tribe of Judah
which succeeded in establishing a new commonwealth in
Judaea in place of the ancient Israelitish kingdom, and which
survived the downfall of state and temple to continue its
existence as a separate people during a dispersion over the
globe for thousands of years, forming ever a cosmopolitan ele
ment among all the nations in whose lands it dwelt. Juda
ism, on the other hand, is the religious system itself, the vital
element which united the Jewish people, preserving it and
regenerating it ever anew. It is the spirit which endowed
the handful of Jews with a power of resistance and a fervor
of faith unparalleled in history, enabling them to persevere
For the origin of the name Judaism, see Esther VIII, 17. Compare
Yahduth, Esther Kabbah III, 7; II Mace. II, 21 ; VIII, i, 14, 38; Graetz: G.
d. J., II, 174 f. ; Jost : G. d. Jud., I, 1-12 ; /. ., art. Judaism. Regarding the
unfairness of Christian authors in their estimate of Judaism, see Schechter, 1. c.,
232-251 ; M. Schreiner : D.juengst. Urtheilc u.d.Jiidenthum, p. 48-58. Dubnow,
Asher Ginzberg and the rest of the nationalists underrate the religious power
of the Jew s soul, which forms the essence of his character and the motive
power of all his aspirations and hopes, as well as of all his achievements in
history.
7
8 JEWISH THEOLOGY
in the mighty contest with heathenism and Christianity. It
made of them a nation of martyrs and thinkers, suffering and
struggling for the cause of truth and justice, yet forming,
consciously or unconsciously, a potent factor in all the great
intellectual movements which are ultimately to win the entire
gentile world for the purest and loftiest truths concerning
God and man.
2. Judaism, accordingly, does not denote the Jewish
nationality, with its political and cultural achievements
and aspirations, as those who have lost faith in the religious
mission of Israel would have it. On the other hand, it is
not a nomistic or legalistic religion confined to the Jewish
people, as is maintained by Christian writers, who, lacking
a full appreciation of its lofty world-wide purpose and its
cosmopolitan and humanitarian character, claim that it has
surrendered its universal prophetic truths to Christianity.
Nor should it be presented as a religion of pure Theism,
aiming to unite all believers in one God into a Church Uni
versal, of which certain visionaries dream. Judaism is noth
ing less than a message concerning the One and holy God and
one, undivided humanity with a world-uniting Messianic goal,
a message intrusted by divine revelation to the Jewish people.
Thus Israel is its prophetic harbinger and priestly guardian,
its witness and defender throughout the ages, who is never
to falter in the task of upholding and unfolding its truths until
they have become the possession of the whole human race.
3. Owing to this twofold nature of a universal religious
truth and at the same time a mission intrusted to a specially
selected nation or race, Judaism offers in a sense the sharpest
contrasts imaginable, which render it an enigma to the student
of religion and history, and make him often incapable of
impartial judgment. On the one hand, it shows the most
tenacious adherence to forms originally intended to preserve
the Jewish people in its priestly sanctity and separateness,
WHAT IS JUDAISM? 9
and thereby also to keep its religious truths pure and free
from encroachments. On the other hand, it manifests a
mighty impulse to come into close touch with the various
civilized nations, partly in order to disseminate among them
its sublime truths, appealing alike to mind and heart, partly
to clarify and deepen those truths by assimilating the wisdom
and culture of these very nations. Thus the spirit of sep
aratism and of universalism work in opposite directions.
Still, however hostile the two elements may appear, they
emanate from the same source. For the Jewish people,
unlike any other civilization of antiquity, entered history
with the proud claim that it possessed a truth destined to
become some day the property of mankind, and its three
thousand years of history have verified this claim.
Israel s relation to the world thus became a double one.
Its priestly world-mission gave rise to all those laws and
customs which were to separate it from its idolatrous surround
ings, and this occasioned the charge of hostility to the nations.
The accusation of Jewish misanthropy occurred as early as
the Balaam and Haman stories. As the separation continued
through the centuries, a deep-seated Jew-hatred sprang up,
first in Alexandria and Rome, then becoming a consuming
fire throughout Christendom, unquenched through the ages
and bursting forth anew, even from the midst of would-be
liberals. In contrast to this, Israel s prophetic ideal of a
humanity united in justice and peace gave to history a new
meaning and a larger outlook, kindling in the souls of all
truly great leaders and teachers, seers and sages of mankind
a love and longing for the broadening of humanity which
opened new avenues of progress and liberty. Moreover, by
its conception of man as the image of God and its teaching
of righteousness as the true path of life, Israel s Law estab
lished a new standard of human worth and put the imprint
of Jewish idealism upon the entire Aryan civilization.
io JEWISH THEOLOGY
Owing to these two opposing forces, the one centripetal,
the other centrifugal, Judaism tended now inward, away from
world-culture, now outward toward the learning and the
thought of all nations; and this makes it doubly difficult
to obtain a true estimate of its character. But, after all,
these very currents and counter-currents at the different
eras of history kept Judaism in continuous tension and fluc
tuation, preventing its stagnation by dogmatic formulas
and its division by ecclesiastical dissensions. "Both words
are the words of the living God" became the maxim of the
contending schools. 1
4. If we now ask what period we may fix as the beginning
of Judaism, we must by no means single out the decisive
moment when Ezra the Scribe established the new common
wealth of Judaea, based upon the Mosaic book of Law, and
excluding the Samaritans who claimed to be the heirs of
ancient Israel. This important step was but the climax,
the fruitage of that religious spirit engendered by the Judaism
of the Babylonian exile. The Captivity had become a re
fining furnace for the people, making them cling with a zeal
unknown before to the teachings of the prophets, now offered
by their disciples, and to the laws, as preserved by the priestly
guilds ; so the religious treasures of the few became the com
mon property of the many, and were soon regarded as "the
inheritance of the whole congregation of Jacob." As a matter
of fact, Ezra represents the culmination rather than the
starting point of the great spiritual reawakening, when he
came from Babylon with a complete Code of Law, and pro
mulgated it in the Holy City to a worshipful congregation. 2
It was Judaism, winged with a new spirit, which carried the
great unknown seer of the Exile to the very pinnacle of pro
phetic vision, and made the Psalmists ring forth from the
harp of David the deepest soul-stirring notes of religious
1 Erub. 13 b. 2 Neh . VIII, 1-18 ; Ez. VII, 12-28.
WHAT IS JUDAISM? n
devotion and aspiration that ever moved the hearts of men.
Moreover, all the great truths of prophetic revelation, of legis
lative and popular wisdom, were then collected and focused,
creating a sacred literature which was to serve the whole com
munity as the source of instruction, consolation, and edifica
tion. The powerful and unique institutions of the Synagogue,
intended for common instruction and devotion, are altogether
creations of the Exile, and replaced the former priestly Torah by
the Torah for the people. More wonderful still, the priestly lore
of ancient Babylon was transformed by sublime monotheistic
truths and utilized in the formation of a sacred literature ; it
was placed before the history of the Hebrew patriarchs, to
form, as it were, an introduction to the Bible of humanity.
Judaism, then, far from being the late product of the Torah
and tradition, as it is often considered, was actually the
creator of the Law. Transformed and unfolded in Babylonia,
it created its own sacred literature and shaped it ever anew,
filling it always with its own spirit and with new thoughts.
It is by no means the petrifaction of the Mosaic law and the
prophetic teachings, as we are so often told, but a continuous
process of unfolding and regeneration of its great religious truth.
5. True enough, traditional or orthodox Judaism does not
share this view. The idea of gradual development is pre
cluded by its conception of divine revelation, by its doctrine
that both the oral and the written Torah were given at Sinai
complete and unchangeable for all time. It makes allowance
only for special institutions begun either by the prophets,
by Ezra and the Men of the Great Synagogue, his associates,
or by the masters of the Law in succeeding centuries. Never
theless, tradition says that the Men of the Great Synagogue
themselves collected and partly completed the sacred books,
except the five books of Moses, and that the canon was made
under the influence of the holy spirit. This holy spirit re
mained in force also during the creative period of Talmudism,
12 JEWISH THEOLOGY
sanctioning innovations or alterations of many kinds. 1 Modern
critical and historical research has taught us to distinguish
the products of different periods and stages of development
in both the Biblical and Rabbinical sources, and therefore
compels us to reject the idea of a uniform origin of the Law,
and also of an uninterrupted chain of tradition reaching back
to Moses on Sinai. Therefore we must attach still more
importance to the process of transformation which Judaism
had to undergo through the centuries. 2
Judaism manifested its wondrous power of assimilation
by renewing itself to meet the demands of the time, first
under the influence of the ancient civilizations, Babylonia
and Persia, then of Greece and Rome, finally of the Occidental
powers, molding its religious truths and customs in ever new
forms, but all in consonance with its own genius. It adopted
the Babylonian and Persian views of the hereafter, of the upper
and the nether world with their angels and demons ; so later
on it incorporated into its religious and legal system elements
of Greek and Egyptian gnosticism, Greek philosophy, and
methods of jurisprudence from Egypt, Babylon, and Rome.
In fact, the various parties which arose during the second
Temple beside each other or successively Sadducees and
Pharisees, Essenes and Zealots represent, on closer obser
vation, the different stages in the process of assimilation which
Judaism had to undergo. In like manner, the Hellenistic,
Apocryphal and Apocalyptic literature, which was rejected
and lost to sight by traditional Judaism, and which partly
fills the gap between the Bible and the Talmudic writings,
casts a flood of light upon the development of the Halakah
1 See M. Bloch : Tekanot, and art. Tekanot J. E. Regarding inspiration
see J. E. ; Sanh. 99 a ; Meg. 7 a ; Maim. : M or eh, II, 45 ; comp. Yerush. Ab.
Zar., I, 40; Horay. Ill, 48 c; Levit. R. VI, i ; IX, 9; and Yoma 9 b. The
laying on of hands for ordination (Semikah) implied originally the imparting
of the holy spirit, see J. E., art. Authority.
2 See Geiger, J. Z., I, p. 7.
WHAT IS JUDAISM? 13
and the Haggadah. Just as the book of Ezekiel, which was
almost excluded from the Canon on account of its divergence
from the Mosaic Law, has been helpful in tracing the develop
ment of the Priestly Code, 1 so the Sadduceean book of Ben
Sira 2 and the Zealotic book of Jubilees 3 not to mention
the various Apocalyptic works throw their searchlight
upon pre-Talmudic Judaism.
6. Instead of representing Judaism as the Christian
theologians do under the guise of scientific methods as a
nomistic religion, caring only for the external observance of
the Law, it is necessary to distinguish two opposite funda
mental tendencies ; the one expressing the spirit of legalistic
nationalism, the other that of ethical or prophetic universalism.
These two work by turn, directing the general trend in the
one or the other direction according to circumstances. At
one time the center and focus of Israel s religion is the Mosaic
Law, with its sacrificial cult in charge of the priesthood of
Jerusalem s Temple; at another time it is the Synagogue,
with its congregational devotion and public instruction, its
inspiring song of the Psalmist and its prophetic consolation
and hope confined to no narrow territory, but opened wide
for a listening world. Here it is the reign of the Halakah
holding fast to the form of tradition, and there the free and
fanciful Haggadah, with its appeal to the sentiments and
views of the people. Here it is the spirit of ritualism, bent
on separating the Jews from the influence of foreign elements,
and there again the spirit of rationalism, eager to take part
in general culture and in the progress of the outside world.
The liberal views of Maimonides and Gersonides concern-
1 Aboth d. R. Nathan,!; Shab. 30 b with reference to Ezek. XLIII-XLIV.
1 See Geiger : Z. D. M. G., XII, 536 ; Schechter, Wisdom of Ren Sira, p. 35.
1 See J. E., art. Jubilees, Book of. Very instructive in this connection is
a comparative study of the Falashas, the Samaritans, especially the Dosithean
sect, and the still problematical sect discovered through the document found
by Schechter, edited by him under the title Fragtnents of a Zadokite Sect.
14 JEWISH THEOLOGY
ing miracle and revelation, God and immortality were scarcely
shared by the majority of Jews, who, no doubt, sided rather
with the mystics, and found their mouthpiece in Abraham
ben David of Posquieres, the fierce opponent of Maimonides.
An impartial Jewish theology must therefore take cognizance
of both sides ; it must include the mysticism of Isaac Luria
and Sabbathai Horwitz as well as the rationalism of Albo and
Leo da Modena. Wherever is voiced a new doctrine or a
new view of life and life s duty, which yet bears the imprint
of the Jewish consciousness, there the well-spring of divine
inspiration is seen pouring forth its living waters.
7. Even the latest interpretation of the Law, offered by
a disciple who is recognized for true conscientiousness in
religion, was revealed to Moses on Sinai, according to a
Rabbinical dictum. 1 Thus is exquisitely expressed the idea
of a continuous development of Israel s religious truth. As a
safeguard against arbitrary individualism, there was the prin
ciple of loyalty and proper regard for tradition, which is aptly
termed by Professor Lazarus a " historical continuity." 2 The
Midrashic statement is quite significant that other creeds
founded on our Bible can only adhere to the letter, but the
Jewish religion possesses the key to the deeper meaning hidden
and presented in the traditional interpretation of the Scrip
tures. 3 That is, for Judaism Holy Scripture in its literal sense
is not the final word of God ; the Bible is rather a living spring
of divine revelation, to be kept ever fresh and flowing by the
active force of the spirit. To sum up: Judaism, far from
offering a system of beliefs and ceremonies fixed for all time,
is as multifarious and manifold in its aspects as is life itself.
It comprises all phases and characteristics of both a national
and a world religion.
1 See Yer. Hag., I, 76, and elsewhere.
2 Ethics of Judaism, I, 8-10; Geiger : J. Z., IX, 263.
3 See Pesik. R., V, p. 146 ; Midr. Tanhuma, ed. Buber, Wayera 6 and Ki
Thissa. 17. Comp. the legend of Moses and Akiba, Men. 29 b.
CHAPTER III
THE ESSENCE OF THE RELIGION OF JUDAISM
i. We have seen how difficult it is to define Judaism clearly
and adequately, including its manifold tendencies and insti
tutions. Still it is necessary that we reach a full under
standing of the essence of Judaism as it manifested itself in
all periods of its history, 1 and that we single out the funda
mental idea which underlies its various forms of existence
and its different movements, both intellectual and spiritual.
There can be no disputing the fact that the central idea of
Judaism and its life purpose is the doctrine of the One Only
and Holy God, whose kingdom of truth, justice and peace
is to be universally established at the end of time. This is
the main teaching of Scripture and the hope voiced in the
liturgy; while Israel s mission to defend, to unfold and to
propagate this truth is a corollary of the doctrine itself and
cannot be separated from it. Whether we regard it as Law
or a system of doctrine, as religious truth or world-mission,
this belief pledged the little tribe of Judah to a warfare of
many thousands of years against the hordes of heathendom
with all their idolatry and brutality, their deification of man
and their degradation of deity to human rank. It betokened
a battle for the pure idea of God and man, which is not to
end until the principle of divine holiness has done away with
every form of life that tends to degrade and to disunite man
kind, and until Israel s Only One has become the unifying
power and the highest ideal of all humanity.
1 Comp. Geiger: Nachgel. Schr., 11,37-41; also his Jud. u. s. Gesch.,
I, 20-35 ; Beck : D. Wesen d. Judenthums ; Eschelbacher : D. Judenthum u. d.
Wcscn d. Christenthums ; Schreiner, 1. c., 26-34.
16 JEWISH THEOLOGY
2. Of this great world-duty of Israel only the few will
ever become fully conscious. As in the days of the prophets,
so in later periods, only a "small remnant" was fully imbued
with the lofty ideal. In times of oppression the great mul
titude of the people persisted in a conscientious observance
of the Law and underwent suffering without a murmur. Yet
in tunes of liberty and enlightenment this same majority
often neglects to assimilate the new culture to its own superior
spirit, but instead eagerly assimilates itself to the surrounding
world, and thereby loses much of its intrinsic strength and
self-respect. The pendulum of thought and sentiment swings
to and fro between the national and the universal ideals,
while only a few maturer minds have a clear vision of the
goal as it is to be reached along both lines of development.
Nevertheless, Judaism is in a true sense a religion of the
people. It is free from all priestly tutelage and hierarchical
interference. It has no ecclesiastical system of belief, guarded
and supervised by men invested with superior powers. Its
teachers and leaders have always been men from among the
people, like the prophets of yore, with no sacerdotal privilege
or title ; in fact, in his own household each father is the God-
appointed teacher of his children. 1
3. Neither is Judaism the creation of a single person,
either prophet or a man with divine claims. It points back
to the patriarchs as its first source of revelation. It speaks
not of the God of Moses, of Amos and Isaiah, but of the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, thereby declaring the Jewish
genius to be the creator of its own religious ideas. It is there
fore incorrect to speak of a "Mosaic," "Hebrew," or "Israel-
itish," religion. The name Judaism alone expresses the pres
ervation of the religious heritage of Israel by the tribe of Judah,
with a loyalty which was first displayed by Judah himself
in the patriarchal household, and which became its char-
iDeut. VI, 7; XI, 19.
THE ESSENCE OF THE RELIGION OF JUDAISM 17
acteristic virtue in the history of the various tribes. Like
wise the rigid measures of Ezra in expelling all foreign
elements from the new commonwealth proved instrumental
in impressing loyalty and piety upon Jewish family life.
4. As it was bound up with the life of the Jewish people,
Judaism remained forever in close touch with the world.
Therefore it appreciated adequately the boons of life, and
escaped being reduced to the shadowy form of "otherworld-
liness." 1 It is a religion of life, which it wishes to sanctify
by duty rather than by laying stress on the hereafter. It
looks to the deed and the purity of the motive, not to the empty
creed and the blind belief. Nor is it a religion of redemption,
contemning this earthly life ; for Judaism repudiates the
assumption of a radical power of evil in man or in the world.
Faith in the ultimate triumph of the good is essential to it.
In fact, this perfect confidence in the final victory of truth
and justice over all the powers of falsehood and wrong lent
it both its wondrous intellectual force and its high idealism,
and adorned its adherents with the martyr s crown of thorns,
such as no other human brow has ever borne.
5. Christianity and Islam, notwithstanding their alienation
from Judaism and frequent hostility, are still daughter-reli
gions. In so far as they have sown the seeds of Jewish truth
over all the globe and have done their share in upbuilding the
Kingdom of God on earth, they must be recognized as divinely
appointed emissaries and agencies. Still Judaism sets forth
its doctrine of God s unity and of life s holiness in a far superior
form than does Christianity. It neither permits the deity
to be degraded into the sphere of the sensual and human,
nor does it base its morality upon a love bereft of the vital
principle of justice. Against the rigid monotheism of Islam,
which demands blind submission to the stern decrees of
inexorable fate, Judaism on the other hand urges its belief
1 See Geiger : Nachgel. Schr., II, 37 f.
c
i8 JEWISH THEOLOGY
in God s paternal love and mercy, which educates all the chil
dren of men, through trial and suffering, for their high destiny.
6. Judaism denies most emphatically the right of Chris
tianity or any other religion to arrogate to itself the title of
"the absolute religion" or to claim to be "the finest blossom
and the ripest fruit of religious development." As if any
mortal man at any time or under any condition could say with
out presumption : "I am the Truth" or "No one cometh unto
the Father but by me." 1 "When man was to proceed from
the hands of his Maker," says the Midrash, "the Holy One,
Blessed be His name, cast truth down to the earth, saying,
Let truth spring forth from the earth, and righteousness
look down from heaven. " 2 The full unfolding of the reli
gious and moral life of mankind is the work of countless gen
erations yet to come, and many divine heralds of truth and
righteousness have yet to contribute their share. In this
work of untold ages, Judaism claims that it has achieved
and is still achieving its full part as the prophetic world-
religion. Its law of righteousness, which takes for its scope
the whole of human life, in its political and social relations
as well as its personal aspects, forms the foundation of its
ethics for all time ; while its hope for a future realization of
the Kingdom of God has actually become the aim of human
history. As a matter of fact, when the true object of religion
is the hallowing of life rather than the salvation of the soul,
there is little room left for sectarian exclusiveness, or for a
heaven for believers and a hell for unbelievers. With this
broad outlook upon life, Judaism lays claim, not to perfec
tion, but to perfectibility ; it has supreme capacity for grow
ing toward the highest ideals of mankind, as beheld by the
prophets in their Messianic visions.
1 John XIV, 6. Comp. Dorner, 1. c., 173; and his Grundprobleme d. Re-
ligions philosophic; Orelli: Religions geschichte, 276 f.
2 Gen. R. VIII, 5.
CHAPTER IV
THE JEWISH ARTICLES OF FAITH
i. In order to reach a clear opinion, whether or not Judaism
has articles of faith in the sense of Church dogmas, a question
so much discussed since the days of Moses Mendelssohn, it
seems necessary first to ascertain what faith in general means
to the Jew. 1 Now the word used in Jewish literature for
faith is Emunah, from the root Aman, to be firm ; this denotes
firm reliance upon God, and likewise firm adherence to him,
hence both faith and faithfulness. Both Scripture and the
Rabbis demanded confiding trust in God, His messengers, and
His words, not the formal acceptance of a prescribed belief. 2
Only when contact with the non-Jewish world emphasized
the need for a clear expression of the belief in the unity of
God, such as was found in the Shema, 3 and when the proselyte
was expected to declare in some definite form the fundamentals
of the faith he espoused, was the importance of a concrete
confession felt. 4 Accordingly we find the beginnings of a
formulated belief in the synagogal liturgy, in the Emeth we
1 See Schechter : Studies, 147-181 and notes 351 f. ; Mendelssohn : Ges. Schr.,
III,32i. Comp. Schlesinger : B uch Ikkarim, 630-632; Bousset : Religion d.
Judenthums, 170 f., 175, and thereto Perles : Bousset, 112 f.; Martin Schreiner :
! c - 35 f-J J- E., art. Faith and Articles of Faith (E. G. Hirsch) ; Felsenthal,
Margolis, and Kohler, in Y. B. C. C. A. R., 1897, p. 54; 1903, p. 188-193;
1905, p. 83; Neumark: art. Ikkarim in Ozar ha Yahduih; D. Fr. Strauss:
D. christl. Glaubenslehre, I, 25.
1 See Gen. XV, 6; Mek. to Ex. XIV; J. E., art. Faith.
Deut. VI, 1-6; XI, 13-21; Num. XV, 37-41.
4 See Bousset, II, 224 f. The term Pistis = faith, assumes a new meaning
in Hellenistic literature.
19
20 JEWISH THEOLOGY
Yatzib l and the Alenu? while in the Haggadah Abraham
is represented both as the exemplar of a hero of faith and as
the type of a missionary, wandering about to lead the heathen
world towards the pure monotheistic faith. 3 While the
Jewish concept of faith underwent a certain transformation,
influenced by other systems of belief, and the formulation of
Jewish doctrines appeared necessary, particularly in opposi
tion to the Christian and Mohammedan creeds, still belief
never became the essential part of religion, conditioning sal
vation, as in the Church founded by Paul. For, as pointed
out above, Judaism lays all stress upon conduct, not confession ;
upon a hallowed life, not a hollow creed.
2. There is no Biblical nor Rabbinical precept, "Thou
shalt believe!" Jewish thinkers felt all the more the need
to point out as fundamentals or roots of Judaism those doc
trines upon which it rests, and from which it derives its vital
force. To the rabbis, the " root " of faith is the recognition
of a divine Judge to whom we owe account for all our doings. 4
The recital of the Shema, which is called in the Mishnah
"accepting the yoke of God s sovereignty," and which is
followed by the solemn affirmation, "True and firm belief
is this for us" 5 (Emeth we Yatzib or Emeth we Emunati), is,
in fact, the earliest form of the confession of faith. 6 In the
course of time this confession of belief in the unity of God
was no longer deemed sufficient to serve as basis for the whole
structure of Judaism ; so the various schools and authorities
endeavored to work out in detail a series of fundamental
doctrines.
3. The Mishnah, in Sanhedrin, X, i, which seems to date
back to the beginnings of Pharisaism, declares the following
1 See J. E., art. Emeth we Yatzib. z See J. E., art. Alenu.
3 See J. E., art. Abraham in Apocryphical and Rabbinical Lit.
4 Sifra Behukothai, III, 6 ; Sank. 38 b ; Targ. Y. to Gen. IV, 8.
1 Ber. II, 2 ; see Kohler : M onatschrift, 1883, p. 445. Kohler, 1. c.
THE JEWISH ARTICLES OF FAITH 21
three to have no share in the world to come : he who denies
the resurrection of the dead ; he who says that the Torah -
both the written and the oral Law is not divinely revealed ;
and the Epicurean, who does not believe in the moral govern
ment of the world. 1 We find here (in reverse order, owing
to historical conditions), the beliefs in Revelation, Retribu
tion, and the Hereafter singled out as the three fundamentals
of Rabbinical Judaism. Rabbi Hananel, the great North
African Talmudist, about the middle of the tenth century,
seems to have been under the influence of Mohammedan and
Karaite doctrines, when he speaks of four fundamentals of
the faith : God, the prophets, the future reward and punish
ment, and the Messiah. 2
4. The doctrine of the One and Only God stands, as a
matter of course, in the foreground. Philo of Alexandria,
at the end of his treatise on Creation, singles out five prin
ciples which are bound up with it, viz. : i, God s existence
and His government of the world ; 2, His unity ; 3, the world
as His creation; 4, the harmonious plan by which it was
established; and 5, His Providence. Josephus, too, in his
apology for Judaism written against Apion, 3 emphasizes the
belief in God s all-encompassing Providence, His incorporeal-
ity, and His self-sufficiency as the Creator of the universe.
^he Mishnaic Apicoros corresponded to the Greek, Epicoureios, and was
no longer understood by the Talraudists ; see Schechter : Studies in Judaism, I,
157. It is denned by Josephus : Antiquities, X, n, 7 : "The Epicureans . . .
are in a state of error, who cast Providence out of life, and do not believe that
God takes care of the affairs of the world, nor that the universe is governed by
a Being which outlives all things in everlasting self-sufficiency and bliss, but de
clare it to be self-sustaining and void of a ruler and protector . . . like a ship
without a helmsman and like a chariot without a driver." Comp. also Oppen-
heim in Monatschr., 1864, p. 149.
See Rappaport: "Biography of R. Hananel," in Bikkure ha Itlim,
1842.
1 Contra Apionem, II, 22. See J. G. Mueller : Josephus Schrift gegen Apion,
3H-3I3.
22 JEWISH THEOLOGY
The example of Islam, which had very early formulated a
confession of faith of speculative character for daily recitation, 1
influenced first Karaite and then Rabbanite teachers to elab
orate the Jewish doctrine of One Only God into a philosophic
creed. The Karaites modeled their creed after the Moham
medan pattern, which gave them ten articles of faith ; of these
the first three dwelt on: i, creation out of nothing; 2, the
existence of God, the Creator; 3, the unity and incorpo-
reality of God. 2
Abraham ben David (Ibn Daud) of Toledo sets forth in
his "Sublime Faith " six essentials of the Jewish faith: i, the
existence; 2, the unity; 3, the incorporeality ; 4, the omnip
otence of God (to this he subjoins the existence of angelic
beings); 5, revelation and the immutability of the Law;
and 6, divine Providence. 3 Maimonides, the greatest of all
medieval thinkers, propounded thirteen articles of faith,
which took the place of a creed in the Synagogue for the fol
lowing centuries, as they were incorporated in the liturgy
both in the form of a credo (Ani Maamin) and in a poetic
version. His first five articles were: i, the existence; 2, the
unity; 3, the incorporeality; 4, the eternity of God; and
5, that He alone should be the object of worship; to which
we must add his loth, divine Providence. 4 Others, not
satisfied with the purely metaphysical form of the Maimoni-
dean creed, accentuated the doctrines of creation out of nothing
and special Providence. 5
1 See Alfred v. Kremer : Gesch. d. hersch. Ideen d. Islam, 39-41 ; Goldziher,
D. M. L. Z., XLIV, p. 168 f.; XLI, p. 72 f., which passages cast much light
upon the Jewish Ani Maamin.
2 See Jost : Gesch. d. Jud., II, 330 f . ; Frankl : art. Karaites in Ersch und Gru-
ber s Encyclopaedic; Loew: Juedische Dogmen, Ges. s. I, 154; Schechter, 1. c.
3 J. Guttman: D. Religions phil.v. Abraham Ibn Daud; David Kaufmann,
Gesch. d. Attributenlehre; Neumark: Gesch. d. juedisch. Phil. vols. I and II.
4 Maimonides: Commentary on Mishnah, Sanh., X, i; Schechter, I.e.,
163; Holzer: Gesch. d. Dogmenlehre, Berlin, 1901.
5 See Loew, 1. c., 156; Schechter, 1. c., 165.
THE JEWISH ARTICLES OF FAITH 23
This speculative form of faith, however, has been most
severely denounced by Samuel David Luzzatto (1800-1865) as
"Atticism" 1 ; that is, the Hellenistic or philosophic tendency
to consider religion as a purely intellectual system, instead of
the great dynamic force for man s moral and spiritual eleva
tion. He holds that Judaism, as the faith transmitted to us
from Abraham, our ancestor, must be considered, not as a
mere speculative mode of reasoning, but as a moral life force,
manifested in the practice of righteousness and brotherly
love. Indeed, this view is supported by modern Biblical re
search, which brings out as the salient point in Biblical teach
ing the ethical character of the God taught by the prophets,
and shows that the essential truth of revelation is not to be
found in a metaphysical but in an ethical monotheism. At
the same time, the fact must not be overlooked that the
Jewish doctrine of God s unity was strengthened in the con
test with the dualistic and trinitarian beliefs of other religions,
and that this unity gave Jewish thought both lucidity and
sublimity, so that it has surpassed other faiths in intellectual
power and in passion for truth. The Jewish conception of
God thus makes truth, as well as righteousness and love, both
a moral duty for man and a historical task comprising all
humanity.
5. The second fundamental article of the Jewish faith is
divine revelation, or, as the Mishnah expresses it, the belief
that the Torah emanates from God (min ha shamayim). In
the Maimonidean thirteen articles, this is divided into four :
his 6th, belief in the prophets; 7, in the prophecy of Moses
as the greatest of all ; 8, in the divine origin of the Torah,
both the written and the oral Law ; and 9, its immutability.
The fundamental character of these, however, was contested
1 See P. Bloch: "Luzzatto als Religionsphilosoph " in Samuel David Luz
zatto, p. 49-71. Comp. Hochmuth: Gotteskenntniss und Gottesverehrung, Ein-
leitung.
24 JEWISH THEOLOGY
by Hisdai Crescas and his disciples, Simon Duran and Joseph
Albo. 1 As a matter of fact, they are based not so much upon
Rabbinical teaching as upon the prevailing views of Moham
medan theology, 2 and were undoubtedly dictated by the
desire to dispute the claims of Christianity and Islam that
they represented a higher revelation. Our modern historical
view, however, includes all human thought and belief; it
therefore rejects altogether the assumption of a supernatural
origin of either the written or the oral Torah, and insists that
the subject of prophecy, revelation, and inspiration in general
be studied in the light of psychology and ethnology, of general
history and comparative religion.
6. The third fundamental article of the Jewish faith is
the belief in a moral government of the world, which mani
fests itself in the reward of good and the punishment of evil,
either here or hereafter. Maimonides divides this into two
articles, which really belong together, his loth, God s knowl
edge of all human acts and motives, and n, reward and
punishment. The latter includes the hereafter and the
last Day of Judgment, which, of course, applies to all human
beings.
7. Closely connected with retribution is the belief in the
resurrection of the dead, which is last among the thirteen
articles. This belief, which originally among the Pharisees
had a national and political character, and was therefore
connected especially with the Holy Land (as will be seen in
Chapter LIV below) , received in the Rabbinical schools more
and more a universal form. Maimonides went so far as to
follow the Platonic view rather than that of the Bible or the
Talmud, and thus transformed it into a belief in the con
tinuity of the soul after death. In this form, however, it is
actually a postulate, or corollary, of the belief in retribution.
1 See Schechter, 1. c., 167 and the notes.
m 2 See Horowitz : D. Psychologie u. d. jued. Religions philosophic, 1883.
THE JEWISH ARTICLES OF FAITH 25
8. The old hope for the national resurrection of Israel took
in the Maimonidean system the form of a belief in the coming
of the Messiah (article 12), to which, in the commentary on
the Mishnah, he gives the character of a belief in the restora
tion of the Davidic dynasty. Joseph Albo, with others,
disputes strongly the fundamental character of this belief;
he shows the untenability of Maimonides position by referring
to many Talmudic passages, and at the same time he casts
polemical side glances upon the Christian Church, which is
really founded on Messianism in the special form of its Chris-
tology. 1 Jehuda ha Levi, in his Cuzari, substitutes for this as
a fundamental doctrine the belief in the election of Israel
for its world-mission. 2 It certainly redounds to the credit of
the leaders of the modern Reform movement that they took
the election of Israel rather than the Messiah as their cardinal
doctrine, again bringing it home to the religious consciousness
of the Jew, and placing it at the very center of their system.
In this way they reclaimed for the Messianic hope the uni
versal character which was originally given it by the great
seer of the Exile. 3
9. The thirteen articles of Maimonides, in setting forth
a Jewish Credo, formed a vigorous opposition to the Christian
and Mohammedan creeds ; they therefore met almost uni
versal acceptance among the Jewish people, and were given
a place in the common prayerbook, in spite of their deficien
cies, as shown by Crescas and his school. Nevertheless,
we must admit fhat Crescas shows the deeper insight into
the nature of religion when he observes that the main fallacy
of the Maimonidean system lies in founding the Jewish faith
on speculative knowledge, which is a matter of the intellect,
rather than love which flows from the heart, and which alone
leads to piety and goodness. True love, he says, requires
1 See J. E., art. Albo by E. G. Hirscb, and the bibliography there.
1 See Schechter, 1. c., p. 162. Isa. XLIX, 9, and elsewhere.
26 JEWISH THEOLOGY
the belief neither in retribution nor in immortality. More
over, in striking contrast to the insistence of Maimonides on
the immutability of the Mosaic Law, Crescas maintains the
possibility of its continuous progress in accordance with the
intellectual and spiritual needs of the time, or, what amounts
to the same thing, the continuous perfectibility of the re
vealed Law itself. 1 Thus the criticism of Crescas leads at
once to a radically different theology than that of Maimonides,
and one which appeals far more to our own religious thought.
10. Another doctrine of Judaism, which was greatly under
rated by medieval scholars, and which has been emphasized
in modern times only in contrast to the Christian theory of
original sin, is that man was created in the image of God.
Judaism holds that the soul of man came forth pure from the
hand of its Maker, endowed with freedom, unsullied by any
inherent evil or inherited sin. Thus man is, through the exer
cise of his own free will, capable of attaining an ever greater
perfection by unfolding and developing to an ever higher degree
his mental, moral, and spiritual powers in the course of history.
This is the Biblical idea of God s spirit as immanent in man ;
all prophetic truth is based upon it ; and though it was often
obscured, this theory was voiced by many of the masters of
Rabbinical lore, such as R. Akiba and others. 2
11. Every attempt to formulate the doctrines or articles
of faith of Judaism was made, in order to guard the Jewish
faith from the intrusion of foreign beliefs, never to impose
disputed beliefs upon the Jewish community itself. Many,
indeed, challenged the fundamental character of the thirteen
articles of Maimonides. Albo reduced them to three, viz. :
the belief in God, in revelation, and retribution ; others, with
more arbitrariness than judgment, singled out three, five, six,
or even more as principal doctrines ; 3 while rigid conservatives,
1 See Schechter, 1. c., p. 169. 2 Aboth, III, i ; Gen. R. XXI, 5.
8 See Schechter, 1. c.
THE JEWISH ARTICLES OF FAITH 27
such as Isaac Abravanel and David ben Zimra, altogether
disapproved the attempt to formulate articles of faith. The
former maintained that every word in the Torah is, in fact,
a principle of faith, and the latter l pointed in the same way
to the 613 commandments of the Torah, spoken of by R.
Simlai the Haggadist in the third century. 2
The present age of historical research imposes the same
necessity of restatement or reformulation upon us. We
must do as Maimonides did, as Jews have always done,
point out anew the really fundamental doctrines, and discard
those which have lost their holdup on the modern Jew, or which
conflict directly with his religious consciousness. If Judaism
is to retain its prominent position among the powers of thought,
and to be clearly understood by the modern world, it must
again reshape its religious truths in harmony with the domi
nant ideas of the age.
Many attempts of this character have been made by modern
rabbis and teachers, most of them founded upon Albo s three
articles. Those who penetrated somewhat more deeply into
the essence of Judaism added a fourth article, the belief in
Israel s priestly mission, and at the same time, instead of the
belief in retribution, included the doctrine of man s kinship
with God, or, if one may coin the word, his God-childship?
Few, however, have succeeded in working out the entire con
tent of the Jewish faith from a modern viewpoint, which
must include historical, critical, and psychological research,
as well as the study of comparative religion.
12. The following tripartite plan is that of the present
attempt to present the doctrines of Judaism systematically
along the lines of historical development :
1 See Loew, 1. c., 157, and his " Mafteah," p. 331 ; Schechter, 1. c.
Makk. 23 b.
1 See J. E., art. Catechism by E. Schreiber.
28 JEWISH THEOLOGY
I. GOD
a. Man s consciousness of God, and divine revelation.
b. God s spirituality, His unity, His holiness, His perfection.
c. His relation to the world : Creation and Providence.
d. His relation to man : His justice, His love and mercy.
II. MAN
a. Man s God-childship ; his moral freedom and yearning for God.
b. Sin and repentance ; prayer and worship ; immortality, reward and
punishment.
c. Man and humanity : the moral factors in history.
III. ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD
a. The priest-mission of Israel, its destiny as teacher and martyr among
the nations, and its Messianic hope.
b. The Kingdom of God: the nations and religions of the world in a
divine plan of universal salvation.
c. The Synagogue and its institutions.
d. The ethics of Judaism and the Kingdom of God.
PART I. GOD
A. GOD AS HE MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN TO MAN
CHAPTER V
MAN S CONSCIOUSNESS OF GOD AND BELIEF IN GOD
1. Holy Writ employs two terms for religion, both of
which lay stress upon its moral and spiritual nature : Yirath
Elohim "fear of God" and Daath Elohim "knowledge
or consciousness of God." Whatever the fear of God may
have meant in the lower stages of primitive religion, in the
Biblical and Rabbinical conceptions it exercises a wholesome
moral effect ; it stirs up the conscience and keeps man from
wrongdoing. Where fear of God is lacking, violence and
vice are rife ; 1 it keeps society in order and prompts the
individual to walk in the path of duty. Hence it is called
"the beginning of wisdom." 2 The divine revelation of Sinai
accentuates as its main purpose "to put the fear of God into
the hearts of the people, lest they sin." 3
2. God-consciousness, or "knowledge of God," signifies an
inner experience which impels man to practice the right and to
shun evil, the recognition of God as the moral power of life.
"Because there is no knowledge of God," therefore do the
people heap iniquity upon iniquity, says Hosea, and he hopes
to see the broken covenant with the Lord renewed through
1 Gen. XX, n. Ps. CXI, 10; Prov. DC, 10; Job XXVIII, 28.
Ex. XX, 20.
29
30 JEWISH THEOLOGY
faithfulness grounded on the consciousness of God. 1 Jeremiah
also insists upon "the knowledge of God" as a moral force,
and, like Hosea, he anticipates the renewal of the broken cove
nant when "the Lord shall write His law upon the heart"
of the people, and "they shall all know Him from the least
of them unto the greatest of them." 2 Wherever Scripture
speaks of "knowledge of God," 3 it always means the moral
and spiritual recognition of the Deity as life s inmost power,
determining human conduct, and by no means refers to mere
intellectual perception of the truth of Jewish monotheism,
which is to refute the diverse forms of polytheism. This
misconception of the term "knowledge of God," as used in the
Bible, led the leading medieval thinkers of Judaism, especially
the school of Maimonides, and even down to Mendelssohn,
into the error of confusing religion and philosophy, as if both
resulted from pure reason. It is man s moral nature rather
than his intellectual capacity, that leads him "to know God
and walk in His ways." 4
3. It is mainly through the conscience that man becomes
conscious of God. He sees himself, a moral being, guided by
motives which lend a purpose to his acts and his omissions,
and thus feels that this purpose of his must somehow be in
accord with a higher purpose, that of a Power who directs and
controls the whole of life. The more he sees purpose ruling
individuals and nations, the more will his God-consciousness
grow into the conviction that there is but One and Only God,
who in awful grandeur holds dominion over the world. This
is the developmental process of religious truth, as it is un-
iHos. IV, i, 6; II, 2; XIII, 4-5.
2 Jer. IX, 23; XXII, 16; XXXI, 32-33.
8 Deut. IV, 39 ; VII, 9.
4 Knowledge as intellect is brought out as early as the Book of Wisdom,
XIII, i ; see especially Maimonides : Yesode ha Torah, 1, 1-3 ; Moreh, 1, 39 ; III,
28. In opposition, see Rosin : Ethik des Maimonides, 101 ; Luzzatto and Hoch-
muth, 1. c. ; also Dillmann : H. B. d. alttestamentl. Theol., 204 f.
CONSCIOUSNESS OF GOD AND BELIEF IN GOD 31
folded by the prophets and as it underlies the historic frame
work of the Bible. In this light Jewish monotheism appears
as the ripe fruitage of religion in its universal as well as its
primitive form of God-consciousness, as the highest attain
ment of man in his eternal seeking after God. Polytheism,
on the other hand, with its idolatrous and immoral practices,
appeared to the prophets and law-givers of Israel to be, not a
competing religion, but simply a falling away from God. They
felt it to be a loss or eclipse of the genuine God-consciousness.
The object of revelation, therefore, is to lead back all mankind
to the God whom it had deserted, and to restore to all men their
primal consciousness of God, with its power of moral regenera
tion.
4. In the same degree as this God-consciousness grows
stronger, it crystallizes into belief in God, and culminates in
love of God. As stated above, 1 in Judaism belief Emunah
- never denotes the acceptance of a creed. It is rather the
confiding trust by which the frail mortal finds a firm hold on
God amidst the uncertainties and anxieties of life, the search
for His shelter in distress, the reliance on His ever-ready help
when one s own powers fail. The believer is like a little child
who follows confidingly the guidance of his father, and feels
safe when near his arm. In fact, the double meaning of
Emunah, faith and faithfulness, suggests man s child-like
faith in the paternal faithfulness of God. The patriarch
Abraham is presented in both Biblical and Rabbinical writings
as the pattern of such a faith, 2 and the Jewish people likewise
are characterized in the Talmud as "believers, sons of be
lievers." 3 The Midrash extols such life-cheering faith as
the power which inspires true heroism and deeds of valor. 4
5. The highest triumph of God-consciousness, however, is
attained in love of God such as can renounce cheerfully all
1 Ch. IV. * Gen. XV, 6 ; sec J. E., art. Abraham.
1 Shab. 97 a. 4 Mek. Beshallak 6, p. 41 ab.
32 JEWISH THEOLOGY
the boons of life and undergo the bitterest woe without a
murmur. The book of Deuteronomy inculcates love of God
as the beginning and the end of the Law, 1 and the rabbis
declare it to be the highest type of human perfection. In
commenting upon the verse, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy
might," they say: "Love the Law, even when thy life is
demanded as its price, nay, even with the last breath of thy
body, with a heart that has no room for dissent, amid every
visitation of destiny !" 2 They point to the tragic martyrdom
of R. Akiba as an example of such a love sealed by death. In
like manner they refer the expression, "they that love Thee/ 3
to those who bear insults without resentment; who hear
themselves abused without retort; who do good unselfishly,
without caring for recognition; and who cheerfully suffer as
a test of their fortitude and their love of God. 4 Thus through
out all Rabbinical literature love of God is regarded as the
highest principle of religion and as the ideal of human per
fection, which was exemplified by Job, according to the oldest
Haggadah, and, according to the Mishnah, by Abraham. 5
Another interpretation of the verse cited from Deuteronomy
reads, "Love God in such a manner that thy fellow-creatures
may love Him owing to thy deeds." 6
All these passages and many others 7 show what a promi
nent place the principle of love occupied in Judaism. This
is, indeed, best voiced in the Song of Songs: 8 "For love is
strong as death ; the flashes thereof are flashes of fire, a very
1 Deut. VI, 5; X, 12; XI, i ; XIII, 22; XXX, 6, 16, 20.
2 Sifre to Deut. VI, 5. 8 Judges V, 31. 4 Shab. 88 b.
6 See Testament of Job, and notes by Kohler, in Semitic Studies in Memory
of Alexander Kohut, 271, and Sota, V, 5.
Sifre, 1. c.
7 See Yoma, 86 a; T. d. El. R., XXIV; Maimonides, H. Teshubah, X;
Crescas: Or Adonai, I, 3. Comp. Testaments Twelve Patriarchs, Simeon 3,
4; Issachar, 5 ; Philo : Quod omnis probus liber, 12 and elsewhere.
8 Song of Songs VIII, 6, 7.
CONSCIOUSNESS OF GOD AND BELIEF IN GOD 33
flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench that love,
neither can the floods drown it." It set the heart of the Jew
aglow during all the centuries, prompting him to sacrifice his
life and all that was dear to him for the glorification of his
God, to undergo for his faith a martyrdom without parallel
in history.
CHAPTER VI
REVELATION, PROPHECY, AND INSPIRATION
1. Divine revelation signifies two different things : first,
God s self-revelation, which the Rabbis called Gilluy Shekinah,
"the manifestation of the divine Presence," and, second, the
revelation of His will, for which they used the term Tor ah
min ha Shamayim, "the Law as emanating from God." 1
The former appealed to the child-like belief of the Biblical
age, which took no offense at anthropomorphic ideas, such
as the descent of God from heaven to earth, His appearing to
men in some visible form, or any other miracle; the latter
appears to be more acceptable to those of more advanced
religious views. Both conceptions, however, imply that the
religious truth of revelation was communicated to man by a
special act of God.
2. Each creative act is a mystery beyond the reach of
human observation. In all fields of endeavor the flashing
forth of genius impresses us as the work of a mysterious force,
which acts upon an elect individual or nation and brings it
into close touch with the divine. In the religious genius
especially is this true; for in him all the spiritual forces of
the age seem to be energized and set into motion, then to burst
forth into a new religious consciousness, which is to revolu
tionize religious thought and feeling. In a child-like age
when the emotional life and the imagination predominate,
and man s mind, still receptive, is overwhelmed by mighty
visions, the Deity stirs the soul in some form perceptible to
1 See Sifre Deut. XXVI, 8 ; Sanh. X, i ; J. E., art. Revelation ; Dillmann,
61 f. ; Geiger, D. Jud. u. s. Gesch. I, 34 f.
34
REVELATION, PROPHECY, AND INSPIRATION 35
the senses. Thus the "seer" assumes a trance-like state
where the Ego, the self-conscious personality, is pushed into
the background ; he becomes a passive instrument, the mouth
piece of the Deity ; from Him he receives a message to the
people, and in his vision he beholds God who sends him. This
appearance of God upon the background of the soul, which
reflects Him like a mirror, is Revelation. 1
3. The states of the soul when men see such visions of the
Deity predominate in the beginnings of all religions. Accord
ingly, Scripture ascribes such revelations to non-Israelites as
well as to the patriarchs and prophets of Israel, to Abime-
lek and Laban, Balaam, Job, and Eliphaz. 2 Therefore the
Jewish prophet is not distinguished from the rest by the
capability to receive divine revelation, but rather by the
intrinsic nature of the revelation which he receives. His
vision comes from a moral God. The Jewish genius perceived
God as the moral power of life, whether in the form expressed
by Abraham, Moses, Elijah, or by the literary prophets,
and all of these, coming into touch with Him, were lif ted into
a higher sphere, where they received a new truth, hitherto
1 See Deut. XIII, 2-6, where prophet forms a parallel to dreamer of dreams.
God appears in a dream to Abraham (Gen. XV, i, 12), to Abimelek (Gen. XX,
3, 6), to Jacob (XXVIII, 12; XXXI, n; XLVI, 2), to Laban (XXXI, 24),
to Balaam (Num. XXIV, 3), and to Eliphaz (Job IV, 3-6). Dream-like visions
open the prophetic career of Moses (Exod. Ill, 3-6), Samuel (I Sam. Ill, i,
15, 2 1), Isaiah (Is. VI, i f.), Jeremiah (Jer. I, n f.), Ezekiel (Ezek. I, 4), and
others. Revelation in the Bible is Mahazeh, hazon, and hizayon, "vision"
whence hozeh, "seer"; or march, "sight," whence roth, "seer." See also
Geiger: Urschrift, 340; 300. Prophecy without dream or vision is claimed
for Moses (Num. XII, 6-8; Exod. XXX, n; Deut. XXXIV, 10; see Mai-
monides: Moreh, II, 43-47; Albo, Ikkarim, III, 8). The revelation on Sinai
is described as "the great vision," or march: Exod. Ill, 3; XXIV, 17; com
pare Deut. IV, n-V, 23, according to which only a "voice" is heard. Instead
of God the later prophets see an angel, as Zach. I, 8, u ; II, 2 f. Compare
Yebam. 49 b, as to the difference between Isaiah, who saw God in a vision, and
Moses, who saw Him "in a shining mirror." He will appear in the latter way
to the righteous in the future world, Sue. 45 b; Lev. R. I, 14; I Cor. XIII, 12.
1 See Gen. XX, 6 ; XXXI, 29 ; Num. XXIV ; Job IV, 16 f. ; XXXVIII, i.
36 JEWISH THEOLOGY
hidden from man. In speaking through them, God ap
peared actually to have stepped into the sphere of human life
as its moral Ruler. This self -revelation of God as the Ruler
of man in righteousness, which must be viewed in the life of
any prophet as a providential act, forms the great historical
sequence in the history of Israel, upon which rests the Jewish
religion. 1
4. The divine revelation in Israel was by no means a
single act, but a process of development, and its various
stages correspond to the degrees of culture of the people.
For this reason the great prophets also depended largely
upon dreams and visions, at least in their consecration to the
prophetic mission, when one solemn act was necessary.
After that the message itself and its new moral content set
the soul of the prophet astir. Not the vision or its imagery,
but the new truth itself seizes him with irresistible force, so
that he is carried away by the divine power and speaks as
the mouthpiece of God, using lofty poetic diction while in
a state of ecstacy. Hence he speaks of God in the first person.
The highest stage of all is that where the prophet receives the
divine truth in the form of pure thought and with complete
self -consciousness. Therefore the Scripture says of Moses
and of no other, "The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as
a man speaks to another." 2
5. The story of the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai is
in reality the revelation of God to the people of Israel as part
of the great world-drama of history. Accordingly, the chief
emphasis is laid upon the miraculous element, the descent
of the Lord to the mountain in fire and storm, amid thunder
and lightning, while the Ten Words themselves were pro-
1 The Hebrew word for prophecy is passive, nibba? or hithnabbe , "to be
made to speak," or "to bubble forth," the Deity being the active power,
while the prophet is His mouthpiece.
2 Ex. XXXIII, ii ; Deut. XXXIV, 10.
REVELATION, PROPHECY, AND INSPIRATION 37
claimed by Moses as God s herald. 1 As a matter of fact, the
first words of the narrative state its purpose, the consecration
of the Jewish people at the outset of their history to be a nation
of prophets and priests. 2 Therefore the rabbis lay stress
upon the acceptance of the Law by the people in saying :
"All that the Lord sayeth we shall do and hearken." 3 From
a larger point of view, we see here the dramatized form of the
truth of Israel s election by divine Providence for its historic
religious mission.
6. The rabbis ascribed the gifts of prophecy to pagans as
well as Israelites at least as late as the erection of the Tab
ernacle, after which the Divine Presence dwelt there in the
midst of Israel. 4 They say that each of the Jewish prophets
was endowed with a peculiar spiritual power that corresponded
with his character and his special training, the highest, of course,
being Moses, whom they called " the father of the prophets." 5
The medieval Jewish thinkers, following the lead of
Mohammedan philosophers or theologians, regard revelation
quite differently, as an inner process in the mind of the prophet.
According to their mystical or rationalistic viewpoint, they
describe it as the result of the divine spirit, working upon the
soul either from within or from without. These two stand
points betray either the Platonic or the Aristotelian influence. 6
Indeed, the rabbis themselves showed traces of neo-Platonism
Ex. XIX, 19; XX, 19. Ex. XIX, 1-8.
Shab. 88 a after Ex. XXIV, 7.
4 Seder Olam R., I and XXI ; Lev. Rab. I, 12-14 ; B. B. 15 b.
Hag. 13 b; Sanh. 89 a; Lev. R. 1. c.
8 See Schmiedl : Stud. u. jued.-arabische Religions philosophic, 191-192 ;
S. Horowitz: D. Prophctologie i. d. jued. Religions philosophic; Sandier: D.
Problem d. Prophetic i. d. jued. Religions philosophic; J. E., art. Prophets and
Prophecy; Emunoth III, 4; Cuzari, I, 95; II, 10-12; Emunah Ramah, II,
5, i ; Moreh, II, 32-48; Yesode ha Torah, VII; Or Adonai, II, 4, i ; Ikkarim,
III, 8-12, 17; Nachmanides to Gen. XVTII, 2; Abravanel to Gen. XXI, 27;
Corap. Husik, Hist. Med. Jew. Phil., Index s. v. Prophecy; Enc. Rel. Ethics,
art. Philosophy and Prophecy.
38 JEWISH THEOLOGY
when they described the ecstatic state of the prophets, or
when they spoke of the divine spirit speaking through the
prophet as through a vocal instrument, or when they made
distinctions between seeing the Deity "in a bright mirror"
or "through a dark glass." 1
The view most remote from the simple one of the Bible is
the rationalistic standpoint of Maimonides, who, following
altogether in the footsteps of the Arabic neo- Aristotelians,
assumed that there were different degrees of prophecy, de
pending upon the influence exerted upon the human intel
lect by the sphere of the Highest Intelligence. He enumerates
eleven such grades, of which Moses had the highest rank, as he
entered into direct communication with the supreme intel
lectual sphere. Still bolder is his explanation of the revela
tion on Sinai. He holds that the first two words were under
stood by the people directly as logical evidences of truth, for
they enunciated the philosophical doctrines of the existence
and unity of God, whereas the other words they understood
only as sounds without meaning, so that Moses had to inter
pret them. 2 In contrast to this amazing rationalism of Mai
monides is the view of Jehuda ha Levi, who asserts that the
gift of prophecy became the specific privilege of the descend
ants of Abraham after their consecration as God s chosen
people at Sinai, and that the holy soil of Palestine was as
signed to them as the habitation best adapted to its exercise. 3
The other attempt of some rationalistic thinkers of the Middle
Ages to have a "sound created for the purpose" 4 of uttering
the words "I am the Lord thy God," rather than accepting
the anthropomorphic Deity, merits no consideration whatever.
7 . It is an indisputable fact of history that the Jewish people,
1 Horowitz, 1. c. p. 11-16; Gen. R. XVII, 6; Lev. R. 1. c.; Sanh. 17 b;
Philo : De Decalog., 2 1 ; de Migratione Abraham!, 7 ; comp. I Corinth. XIII,
12.
2 Moreh, I c. 3 Cuzari, 1. c.
4 Kol Nibra : Moreh, I, 65 ; Emunoth, II, 8 ; Cuzari, I, 89.
REVELATION, PROPHECY, AND INSPIRATION 39
on account of its peculiar religious bent, was predestined to
be the people of revelation. Its leading spirits, its prophets
and psalmists, its law-givers and inspired writers differ from
the seers, singers, and sages of other nations by their unique
and profound insight into the moral nature of the Deity. In
striking contrast is the progress of thought in Greece, where
the awakening of the ethical consciousness caused a rupture
between the culture of the philosophers and the popular
religion, and led to a final decay of the political and social
life. The prophets of Israel, however, the typical men of
genius of their people, gradually brought about an advance
of popular religion, so that they could finally present as their
highest ideal the God of the fathers, and make the knowl
edge of His will the foundation of the law of holiness, by
which they desired to regulate the entire conduct of man.
Thus, religion was no longer confined by the limits of nation
ality, but was transformed into a spiritual force for all man
kind, to lead through a revelation of the One and Holy God
toward the highest morality.
8. The development of thought brought the God-seeking
spirits to the desire to know His will, or, in Scriptural language,
His ways, in order to attain holiness in their pursuit. The
natural consequence was the gradual receding of the power of
imagination which had made the enraptured seer behold God
Himself in visions. As the Deity rose more and more above
the realm of the visible, the newly conceived truth was real
ized as coming to the sacred writer through the spirit of God
or an angel. Inspiration took the place of revelation. This,
however, still implies a passive attitude of the soul carried
away by the truth it receives from on high. This supernatural
element disappears gradually and passes over into sober, self-
conscious thought, in which the writer no longer thinks of
God as the Ego speaking through him, but as an outside
Power spoken of in the third person.
40 JEWISH THEOLOGY
A still lower degree of inspiration is represented by those
writings which lack altogether the divine afflatus, and to
which is ascribed a share of the holy spirit only through gen
eral consensus of opinion. Often this imprint of the divine
is not found in them by the calm judgment of a later gen
eration, and the exact basis for the classification of such
writings among the holy books is sometimes difficult to state.
We can only conclude that in the course of time they were
regarded as holy by that very spirit which was embodied in
the Synagogue and its founders, "the Men of the Great
Synagogue," who in their work of canonizing the Sacred
Scriptures were believed to have been under the influence of
the holy spirit. 1
9. Except for the five books of Moses, the idea of a me
chanical inspiration of the Bible is quite foreign to Judaism.
Not until the second Christian century did the rabbis
finally decide on such questions as the inspiration of certain
books among the Hagiographa or even among the Prophets,
or whether certain books now excluded from the canon were
not of equal rank with the canonical ones. 2 In fact, the in
fluence of the holy spirit was for some time ascribed, not only
to Biblical writers, but also to living masters of the law. 3
1 According to the rabbis, the working of the holy spirit ceased with Haggai,
Zechariah, and Malachi, who, with Ezra, were included also among the "Men
of the Great Synagogue." See Tos. Sota XIII, 2; Seder Olam R. XXX;
Sanh. ii a. See J. E., art. Synagogue, Men of the Great; Holy Spirit; In
spiration. Comp. B. B. 14 b, 15 a ; Yoma gb ; Meg. 3 a, 7 a ; I Mace. IV, 46 ;
Ps. LXXIV, 9 ; Josephus, Con. Apion., I, 8 ; Philo : Vita Mosis, II, 7 ; Aristeas,
305-307. As to the difference between the spirit of prophecy and the holy
spirit, see Cuzari, III, 32-35; Moreh, II, 35-37. The Essenes claimed the
holy spirit for their apocryphal writings; see IV Esdras XIV, 38; Book of
Wisdom VII, 27.
2 On the disputes concerning canonical books, see Yadayim III, 5 ; Ab. d.
R. N., I, ed. Schechter, 2-3 ; Shab. 30 b; Meg. 7 a. Comp. B. K. 92 b, where
Ben Sira is quoted as one of the Hagiographa.
3 See Tos. Pes. I, 27; IV, 2; Sota XIII, 3; Yer. Horay. Ill, 480; Lev.
R. XXI, 7.
REVELATION, PROPHECY, AND INSPIRATION 41
The fact is that divine influence cannot be measured by the
yardstick or the calendar. Where it is felt, it bursts forth as
from a higher world, creating for itself its proper organs
and forms. The rabbis portray God as saying to Israel,
"Not I in My higher realm, but you with your human needs
fix the form, the measure, the time, and the mode of ex
pression for that which is divine." l
10. While Christianity and Islam, its daughter-religions,
must admit the existence of a prior revelation, Judaism knows
of none. It claims its own prophetic truth as the revelation,
admits the title Books of Revelation (Bible) only for its own
sacred writings, and calls the Jewish nation alone the People
of Revelation. The Church and the Mosque achieved great
things in propagating the truths of the Sinaitic revelation
among the nations, but added to it no new truths of an es
sential nature. Indeed, they rather obscured the doctrines
of God s unity and holiness. On the other hand, the people
of the Sinaitic revelation looked to it with a view of ever
revitalizing the dead letter, thus evolving ever new rules of
life and new ideas, without ever placing new and old in op
position, as was done by the founder of the Church. Each
generation was to take to heart the words of Scripture as if
they had come "this very day" out of the mouth of the
Lord. 2
1 R. h. Sh. 27 a; Mak. 22 b. Sifre Deut. VI, 4-
CHAPTER VII
THE TORAH THE DIVINE INSTRUCTION
i. During the Babylonian Exile the prophetic word became
the source of comfort and rejuvenation for the Jewish people.
Now in its place Ezra the Scribe made the Book of the Law
of Moses the pivot about which the entire life of the people
was to revolve. By regular readings from it to the assembled
worshipers, he made it the source of common instruction.
Instead of the priestly Law, which was concerned only with
the regulation of the ritual life, the Law became the people s
book of instruction, a Torah for all alike, 1 while the prophetic
books were made secondary and were employed by the preacher
at the conclusion of the service as " words of consolation." 2
Upon the Pentateuch was built up the divine service of the
Synagogue as well as the whole system of communal life,
with both its law and ethics. The prophets and other sacred
books were looked upon only as means of "opening up" or
illustrating the contents of the Torah. These other parts of
1 On the term Torah see Smend: Lehrb. d. alttest. Religions gesch.; Stade :
Bibl. Theol. d. Alt. Test., Index s. v. Torah; W. J. Beecher : Jour. Bibl. Lit.,
1905, 1-16; "Thora a Word Study in the Old Testament." For Torah as
Law, see Neh. VIII, i ; Joshua I, 7, and throughout the Pentateuch ; as moral
instruction, see Hos. IV, 6 ; VIII, i ; Is. I, 10 ; V, 24 ; XXX, 9 ; LI, 4 ; Mic.
IV, 2; Jer. XXXVI, 4 f . ; XXXI, 32; Ps. XVI, 8; Prov. VI, 22; VII, 2;
Guedeman : Quell, z. G. d. Unterrichts, at the beginning ; Claude Montefiore :
Hibbert Lectures, 1892, p. 465 f.
*Nehematha, which means the Messianic hope; see Kohut: Aruch V, 328
and Appendix 59.
42
THE TORAH THE DIVINE INSTRUCTION 43
the Mikra ("the collection of books for public reading") were
declared to be inferior in holiness, so that, according to the
Rabbinical rule, they were not even allowed to be put into
the same scroll as the Pentateuch. 1 Moreover, neither the
number, order, nor the division of the Biblical books was
fixed. The Talmud gives 24, Josephus only 22. 2 Tradition
claims a completely divine origin only for the Pentateuch or
Torah, while the rabbis often point out the human element in
the other two classes of the Biblical collection. 3
2. The traditional belief in the divine origin of the Torah
includes not only every word, but also the accepted inter
pretation of each letter, for both written and oral law are
ascribed to the revelation to Moses on Mt. Sinai, to be trans
mitted thence from generation to generation. Whoever
denies the divine origin of either the written or the oral law
is declared to be an unbeliever who has no share in the world
to come, according to the Tannaitic code, and consequently
according to Maimonides 4 also. But here arises a question
of vital importance : What becomes of the Torah as the
divine foundation of Judaism under the study of modern
times? Even conservative investigators, such as Frankel,
Graetz, and Isaac Hirsch Weiss, not to mention such radicals
as Zunz and Geiger, admit the gradual progress and growth
of this very system of law, both oral and written. And if
different historical conditions have produced the development
1 See B. B. 13 b ; Meg. Ill, i ; IV, 4 ; comp. Ned. 22 b ; Taan. 9 a ; Shab.
104 a; Sifra Bchukothai at end ; Eccl. R. I, 10; Ex. R. XXXVIII, 6. Zunz:
Gottesd. Vortr., 46 f., and art. Canon and Bible in the various encyclopedias.
As to Torah for the whole Bible, see Mek. Shira i; Sanh. 37 a, 91 b; Ab.
Zar. 17 a; M. K. 5 a; comp. I Cor. XIV, 2 1 ; John X, 34; XII, 34; XV, 25.
For Torah as Nomos, or Law, see II Mace. XV, 9.
2 Bousset, 1. c., 128-129.
On the divine origin of the Torah, see Sanh. 99 a; Sifra Kedoshim 8;
Behar i ; Behukothay 8. Regarding the meaning of mdammin dh ha yadayim
in the sense of taboo for the holy writings, see Geiger : Urschrift, p. 146.
4 Sanh. 99 a ; Maim. H. Teshubah III, 8.
44 JEWISH THEOLOGY
of the law itself, we must assume a number of human authors
in place of a single act of divine revelation. 1
3. But another question of equal importance confronts us
here, the meaning of Torah. Originally, no doubt, Torah
signified the instruction given by the priests on ritual or ju
ridical matters. Out of these decisions arose the written laws
(Torotti), which the priesthood in the course of time collected
into codes. After a further process of development they ap
peared as the various books of Moses, which were finally
united into the Code or Torah. This Torah was the foun
dation of the new Judean commonwealth, the " heritage of
the congregation of Jacob." 2 The priestly Torah, lightly
regarded during the prophetic period, was exalted by post-
exilic Judaism, so that the Sadducean priesthood and their
successors, the rabbis, considered strict observance of the
legal form to be the very essence of religion. Is this, then,
the true nature of Judaism ? Is it really as Christian
theologians have held ever since the days of Paul, the great
antagonist of Judaism mere nomism, a religion of law,
which demanded formal compliance with its statutes without
regard to their inner value? Or shall we rather follow Rabbi
Simlai, the Haggadist, who first enumerated the 613 com
mandments of the Torah (mandatory and prohibitive), con
sidering that their one aim is the higher moral law, in that
they are all summed up by a few ethical principles, which
he finds in the i5th Psalm, Isaiah XXXIII, 15; Micah VI,
8 ; Isaiah LVI, i ; and Amos V, 4 ? 3
4. All these questions have but one answer, a reconciling
one. Judaism has the two factors, the priest with his regard
for the law and the prophet with his ethical teaching ; and
the Jewish Torah embodies both aspects, law and doctrine.
1 Comp. Kohler: Hebrew Union College Annual, 1904, "The Four Ells of
the Halakah."
8 Deut. XXXIH, 4. * Mak. 23 b.
THE TORAH THE DIVINE INSTRUCTION 45
These two elements became more and more correlated, as the
different parts of the Pentateuch which embodied them were
molded together into the one scroll of the Law. In fact, the
prophet Jeremiah, in denouncing the priesthood for its neglect
of the principles of justice, and rebuking scathingly the
people for their wrongdoing, pointed to the divine law of
righteousness as the one which should be written upon the
hearts of men. 1 Likewise, in the book of Deuteronomy,
which was the product of joint activity by prophet and priest,
the Law was built upon the highest moral principle, the love
of God and man. In a still larger sense the Pentateuch as a
whole contains priestly law and universal religion inter
twined. In it the eternal verities of the Jewish faith, God s
omnipotence, omniscience, and moral government of the world,
are conveyed in the historical narratives as an introduction
to the law.
5. Thus the Torah as the expression of Judaism was never
limited to a mere system of law. At the outset it served as
a book of instruction concerning God and the world and
became ever richer as a source of knowledge and speculation,
because all knowledge from other sources was brought into
relation with it through new modes of interpretation. Various
systems of philosophy and theology were built upon it. Nay
more, the Torah became divine Wisdom itself, 2 the architect
of the Creator, the beginning and end of creation. 3
While the term Torah thus received an increasingly compre
hensive meaning, the rabbis, as exponents of orthodox Juda
ism, came to consider the Pentateuch as the only book of reve-
Jerem. XXXI, 32.
Comp. Schechter, Aspects, p. 120-136, and see Ben Sira, XXIV, 8-23;
XVII, 1 1 ; Baruch III, 38 f . ; Apoc. Baruch XXXVIII, 4 ; XLIV, 16 ; IV
Esdras VIII, 12; IX, 37; Philo: Vita Mosis, II, 3,9; Gen. R. I; P. d. R.
El. III.
3 This apotheosis of the Torah is put in a wrong light by Weber, Juedische
Theologie, 157 f., 197, but is stated better in Bousset, 1. c., 136-142.
46 JEWISH THEOLOGY
lation, every letter of which emanated directly from God. The
other books of the Bible they regarded as due only to the
indwelling of the holy spirit, or to the presence of God, the
Shekinah. Moreover, they held that changes by the prophets
and other sacred writers were anticipated, in essentials, in
the Torah itself, and were therefore only its expansions and
interpretations. Accordingly, they are frequently quoted as
parts of the Torah or as "words of tradition." 1
6. Orthodox Judaism, then, accepted as a fundamental
doctrine the view that both the Mosaic Law and its Rabbinical
interpretation were given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
This viewpoint is contradicted by all our knowledge and our
whole mode of thinking, and thus both our historical and
religious consciousness constrain us to take the position of
the prophets. To them and to us the real Torah is the un
written moral law which underlies the precepts of both the
written law and its oral interpretation. From this point of
view, Moses, as the first of the prophets, becomes the first
mediator of the divine legislation, and the original Decalogue
is seen to be the starting point of a long process of develop
ment, from which grew the laws of righteousness and holiness
that were to rule the life of Israel and of mankind. 2
7. The time of composition of the various parts of the
Pentateuch, including the Decalogue, must be decided by
independent critical and historical research. It is sufficient
for us to know that since the time of Ezra the foundation of
1 Dibre Kabbalah, R. h. Sh. 7 a, 19 a; Yer. Halla I, 57 b; see Levy, W. B.,
s. v. Kabbalah.
2 The personality of Moses was at first exalted to almost superhuman
height; see Ben Sira, XLV, 2; Assumplio Mosis, I, 14; XI, 16; Philo: Vita
Mosis, III, 39 ; Josephus : Antiquities, IV, 32 b ; Bousset, 1. c., 140 f. In contrast
to the Church view of Jesus the rabbis later emphasized the human frailties
of Moses: "Never did divine majesty descend to the habitations of mortal
man, nor did ever a mortal man such as Moses and Elijah ascend to heaven,
the dwelling-place of God," taught Rabbi Jose (Suk. 5 a).
THE TORAH THE DIVINE INSTRUCTION 47
Judaism has been the completed Torah, with its twofold
aspect as law and as doctrine. As law it contributed to the
marvelous endurance and resistance of the Jewish people,
inasmuch as it imbued them with the proud consciousness of
possessing a law superior to that of other nations, one which
would endure as long as heaven and earth. 1 Furthermore, it
permeated Judaism with a keen sense of duty and imprinted
the ideal of holiness upon the whole of life. At the same
time it gave rise also to ritualistic piety, which, while tena
ciously clinging to the traditional practice of the law, fos
tered hair-splitting casuistry and caused the petrifaction of re
ligion in the codified Halakah. As doctrine it impressed its
ethical and humane idealism upon the people, lifting them
far above the narrow confines of nationality, and making
them a nation of thinkers. Hence their eagerness for their
mission to impart the wisdom stored in their writings to all
humanity as its highest boon and the very essence of divine
wisdom.
See Deut. IV, 6-8; Jer. XXXI, 34-35; Philo : Vita Mosis,II, 14; Jo-
sephus: Apion, II, 277.
CHAPTER VIII
GOD S COVENANT
i. Judaism has one specific term for religion, representing
the moral relation between God and man, namely, Berith,
covenant. The covenant was concluded by God with the
patriarchs and with Israel by means of sacrificial blood, ac
cording to the primitive custom by which tribes or individuals
became " blood brothers," when they were both sprinkled
with the sacrificial blood or both drank of it. 1 The first cov
enant of God was made after the flood, with Noah as the rep
resentative of mankind ; it was intended to assure him and
all coming generations of the perpetual maintenance of the
natural order without interruption by flood, and at the same
time to demand of all mankind the observance of certain laws,
such as not to shed, or eat, blood. Here at the very beginning
of history religion is taken as the universal basis of human
morality, so developing at the outset the fundamental prin
ciple of Judaism that it rests upon a religion of humanity,
which it desires to establish in all purity. As the universal
idea of man forms thus its beginning, so Judaism will attain
its final goal only in a divine covenant comprising all hu
manity. Both the rabbis and the Hellenistic writers con
sider the covenant of Noah with its so-called Noahitic com
mandments as unwritten laws of humanity. In fact, they
are referred to Adam also, so that religion appears in its
^ee Herodotus, III, 8; IV, 70; Jer. XXIV, 18; H. Clay Trumbull: The
Blood Covenant, New York, 1885; Kraetschmar : D. Bundervorstellung i. A.
Test., 1896 ; J. E. and Encycl. of Rel. and Ethics, art. Covenant.
48
GOD S COVENANT 49
essence as nothing else than a covenant of God with all
mankind. 1
2. Accordingly, Judaism is a special basis of relationship
between God and Israel. Far from superseding the universal
covenant with Noah, or confining it to the Jewish people,
this covenant aims to reclaim all members of the human
family for the wider covenant from which they have relapsed.
God chose for this purpose Abraham as the one who was
faithful to His moral law, and made a special covenant with
him for all his descendants, that they might foster justice
and righteousness, at first within the narrow sphere of the
nation, and then in ever-widening circles of humanity. 2
Yet the covenant with Abraham was only the precursor of
the covenant concluded with Israel through Moses on Mt.
Sinai, by which the Jewish people were consecrated to be the
eternal guardians of the divine covenant with mankind, until
the time when it shall encompass all the nations. 3
3. In this covenant of Sinai, referred to by the prophet
Elijah, and afterward by many others, the free moral re
lationship of man to God is brought out; this forms the
characteristic feature of a revealed religion in contradistinc
tion to natural religion. In paganism the Deity formed an in
separable part of the nation itself ; but through the covenant
God became a free moral power, appealing for allegiance to
the spiritual nature of man. This idea of the covenant sug
gested to the prophet Hosea the analogy with the conjugal
relation, 4 a conception of love and loyalty which became
typical of the tender relation of God to Israel through the
centuries. In days of direst woe Jeremiah and the book of
See Gen. DC, 1-17; Tos. Ab. Zar. VIII, 4; San. 56 a; Gen. R. XVI,
XXIV ; Jubilees VI, 10 f. ; Bernays : Ges. Abh. I, 252 f., 272 f. ; II, 71-80.
1 Gen. XV, 18; XVII, 2 f.; XVIII, 19; Lev. XXVI, 42; Jubilees I, 51.
Ex. XIX, 5; XXIV, 6-8; XXXIV, 28; Deut. IV-V, XXVIII, XXIX;
Comp. I Kings XIX, 10, 14; Jer. XI; XXXI; XXXIV, 13; Ezek. XVI-
XVII. Hos. II, 18-20.
E
50 JEWISH THEOLOGY
Deuteronomy invested this covenant with the character of
indestructibility and inviolability. 1 God s covenant with
Israel is everlasting like that with the heaven and the earth ;
it is ever to be renewed in the hearts of the people, but never
to be replaced by a new covenant. Upon this eternal renewal
of the covenant with God rests the unique history of Judaism,
its wondrous preservation and regeneration throughout the
ages. Paul s doctrine of a new covenant to replace the old 2
conflicts with the very idea of the covenant, and even with the
words of Jeremiah.
4. The Israelitish nation inherited from Abraham, accord
ing to the priestly Code, the rite of circumcision as a "sign of
the covenant," 3 but under the prophetic influence, with its
loathing of all sacrificial blood, the Sabbath was placed in the
foreground as "the sign between God and Israel." 4 In
ancient Israel and in the Judean commonwealth the Abra-
hamitic rite formed the initiation into the nationality for
aliens and slaves, by which they were made full-fledged Jews.
With the dispersion of the Jewish people over the globe, and
the influence of Hellenism, Judaism created a propaganda in
favor of a world-wide religion of "God-fearing" men pledged
to the observance of the Noahitic or humanitarian laws.
Rabbinism in Palestine called such a one Ger Toshab so-
journer, or semi-proselyte ; while the full proselyte who ac
cepted the Abrahamitic rite was called Ger Zedek, or proselyte
of righteousness. 5 Not only the Hellenistic writings, but also
the Psalms, the liturgy, and the older Rabbinical literature
1 Jer. XXXI, 30-32, 34-35 5 XXXIII, 25 ; Deut. XXIX, 14.
2 See Ep. Hebrews VIII, 8 f. ; Gal. Ill, 15 ; I Cor. XI, 25 ; Matt. XXIV,
21, and parallels.
3 Gen. XVII, n.
4 Ex. XXXI, 13-17; comp. Deut. X, 16; Josh. V, 9; Isa. LVI, 4-6. See
Mek. to Ex. XIX, 5, the controversy between R. Eliezer and R. Akiba, whether
the Sabbath or circumcision was the essential sign of the covenant.
6 Ker. 9 a ; Yeb. 45-48 and see Chapter LVI below.
GOD S COVENANT 51
give evidence of such a propaganda, 1 but it may be traced
back as far as Deutero-Isaiah, during the reign of Cyrus. His
outlook toward a Jewish religion which should be at the same
time a religion of all the world, is evident when he calls Israel
"a mediator of the covenant between God and the nations,"
a " light to the peoples," -a regenerator of humanity. 2
5. This hope of a universal religion, which rings through
the Psalms, the Wisdom books and the Hellenistic literature,
was soon destined to grow faint. The perils of Judaism in
its great struggles with the Syrian and Roman empires made
for intense nationalism, and the Jewish covenant shared this
tendency. The early Christian Church, the successor of the
missionary activity of Hellenistic Judaism, labored also at
first for the Noahitic covenant. 3 Pauline Christianity, how
ever, with a view to tearing down the barrier between Jew
and Gentile, proclaimed a new covenant, whose central idea
is belief in the atoning power of the crucified son of God. 4
Indeed, one medieval Rabbinical authority holds that we
are to regard Christians as semi-proselytes, as they practically
observe the Noahitic laws of humanity. 5
6. Progressive Judaism of our own time has the great task
of re-emphasizing Israel s world-mission and of reclaiming
for Judaism its place as the priesthood of humanity. It is
to proclaim anew the prophetic idea of God s covenant with
humanity, whose force had been lost, owing to inner and
outer obstacles. Israel, as the people of the covenant, aims
to unite all nations and classes of men in the divine covenant.
It must outlast all other religions in its certainty that ulti
mately there can be but the one religion, uniting God and
man by a single bond. 6
1 Ps. XXII, 28 f. ; CXV, 1 1 ; CXVIII, 4 ; Is. LVI, 6.
2 Isaiah XLIX, 6-8. 3 Acts XV, 20, 29.
4 See J. E., art. Saul of Tarsus; Enc. Rel. Eth. art. Paul.
* Isaac ben Shesheth : Responsa, 119. Comp. J. E., art. Christianity.
See further, Chapter XLIX.
B. THE IDEA OF GOD IN JUDAISM
CHAPTER IX
GOD AND THE GODS
1. Judaism centers upon its sublime and simple concep
tion of God. This lifts it above all other religions and
satisfies in unique measure the longing for truth and inner
peace amidst the futility and incessant changes of earthly
existence. This very conception of God is in striking contrast
to that of most other religions. The God of Judaism is not
one god among many, nor one of many powers of life, but is
the One and holy God beyond all comparison. In Him is
concentrated all power and the essence of all things; He is
the Author of all existence, the Ruler of life, who lays down the
laws by which man shall live. As the prophet says to the
heathen world: "The gods that have not made the heavens
and the earth, these shall perish from the earth and from under
the heavens. . . . Not like these is the portion of Jacob ;
for He is the Former of all things. . . . The Lord is the true
God ; He is the living God and the everlasting King ; at His
wrath the earth trembleth, and the nations are not able to
abide His indignation." l
2. This lofty conception of the Deity forms the essence of
Judaism and was its shield and buckler in its lifelong contest
with the varying forms of heathenism. From the very first
the God of Judaism declared war against them all, whether at
1 Jer. X, ii ; 16 and 10.
52
GOD AND THE GODS 53
any special time the prevailing form was the worship of many
gods, or the worship of God in the shape of man, the per
version of the purity of God by sensual concepts, or the di
vision of His unity into different parts or personalities. The
Talmudic saying is most striking: "From Sinai, the Mount
of revelation of the only God, there came forth Sinah, the
hostility of the nations toward the Jew as the banner-bearer
of the pure idea of God." 1 Just as day and night form a
natural contrast, divinely ordained, so do the monotheism of
Israel and the polytheism of the nations constitute a spiritual
contrast which can never be reconciled.
3. The pagan gods, and to some extent the triune God of
the Christian Church, semi-pagan in origin also, are the out
come of the human spirit s going astray in its search for God.
Instead of leading man upwards to an ideal which will encom
pass all material and moral life and lift it to the highest stage of
holiness, paganism led to depravity and discord. The un
relenting zeal displayed by prophet and law-giver against
idolatry had its chief cause in the immoral and inhuman prac
tices of the pagan nations Canaan, Egypt, Assyria, and
Babylon in the worship of their deities. 2 The deification of
the forces of nature brutalized the moral sense of the pagan
world ; no vice seemed too horrible, no sacrifice too atrocious
for their cults. Baal, or Moloch, the god of heaven, de
manded in times of distress the sacrifice of a son by the
father. Astarte, the goddess of fecundity, required the
"hallowing" of life s origin, and this was done by the most
terrible of sexual orgies. Such abominations exerted their se
ductive influence upon the shepherd tribes of Israel in their
new home in Canaan, and thus aroused the fiercest indignation
of prophet and law-giver, who hurled their vials of wrath
against those shocking rites, those lewd idols, and those who
1 Shab. 89 b.
Lev. XVTII, 2, 27 f.; Num. XXV, 3-8; Hos. IV, 10; V, 4-
54 JEWISH THEOLOGY
"whored after them." l If Israel was to be trained to be
the priest people of the Only One in such an environment,
tolerance of such practices was out of the question. Thus in
the Sinai tic law God is spoken of as " the jealous God " 2 who
punishes unrelentingly every violation of His laws of purity
and holiness.
4. The same sharp contrast of Jewish ethical and spiritual
monotheism remained also when it came in contact with the
Graeco-Syrian and Roman culture. Here, too, the myths
and customs of the cult and the popular religion offended by
their gross sensuality the chaste spirit of the Jewish people.
Indeed, these were all the more dangerous to the purity of
social life, as they were garbed with the alluring beauty of
art and philosophy. 3 The Jew then felt all the more the
imperative duty to draw a sharp line of demarcation between
Judaism with its chaste and imageless worship and the las
civious, immoral life of paganism.
5. This wide gulf which yawned between Israel s One and
holy God and the divinities of the nations was not bridged
over by the Christian Church when it appeared on the stage
of history and obtained world-dominion. For Christianity
in its turn succeeded by again dragging the Deity into the
world of the senses, adopting the pagan myths of the birth
and death of the gods, and sanctioning image worship. In
this way it actually created a Christian plurality of gods in
place of the Graeco-Roman pantheon ; indeed, it presented a
divine family after the model of the Egyptian and Babylonian
religions, 4 and thus pushed the ever-living God and Father of
mankind into the background. This tendency has never been
Num. XV, 39; Ex. XXIII, 24; Deut. XX, 18; Sanh. XII, 5; X, 4-6;
Ab. Zar. II-IV ; Sanh. 106 a : "Israel s God hates lewdness."
>Ex. XX, 5; Deut. IV, 24; VI, 15.
3 See Philo : De Humanitate ; Doellinger : Heidenthum u. Judenthum, 682,
700 f. ; I. H. Weiss : Dor Dor we Doreshav, II, 19 f .
See J. E., art. Christianity.
GOD AND THE GODS 55
explained away, even by the attempts of certain high-minded
thinkers among the Church fathers. Judaism, however, in
sists, as ever, upon the words of the Decalogue which con
demn all attempts to depict the Deity in human or sensual
form, and through all its teachings there is echoed forth the
voice of Him who spoke through the seer of the Exile: "I
am the Lord, that is My name, and My glory will I not give
to another, neither My praise to graven images." 1
6. When Moses came to Pharaoh saying, "Thus speaketh
JHVH the God of Israel, send off My people that they may
serve Me," Pharaoh so the Midrash tells took his list
of deities to hand, looked it over, and said, "Behold, here are
enumerated the gods of the nations, but I cannot find thy God
among them." To this Moses replied, "All the gods known
and familiar to thee are mortal, as thou art ; they die, and
their tomb is shown. The God of Israel has nothing in com
mon with them. He is the living, true, and eternal God who
created heaven and earth ; no people can withstand His wrath. " :
This passage states strikingly the difference between the God
of Judaism and the gods of heathendom. The latter are but
deified powers of nature, and being parts of the world, them
selves at one with nature, they are subject to the power of
time and fate. Israel s God is enthroned above the world
as its moral and spiritual Ruler, the only Being whom we can
conceive as self-existent, as indivisible as truth itself.
7. As long as the pagan conception prevailed, by which
the world was divided into many divine powers, there could
be no conception of the idea of a moral government of the uni
verse, of an all-encompassing purpose of life. Consequently
1 Isa. XLII, 8. Scripture always emphasizes the contrast between Israel s
God and the heathen gods. See Ex. XII, 12; XV, n; XVIII, n; Deut.
X, 17; also in the prophets, Isa. XL; XLIV, 9; Jer. X; and the Psalms,
XCVI, CXV, CXXXV. Absolute monotheism was a slow growth from this
basis.
See Ex. R. V, 18.
56 JEWISH THEOLOGY
the great thinkers and moralists of heathendom were forced
to deny the deities, before they could assert either the unity of
the cosmos or a design in life. On the other hand, it was pre
cisely this recognition of the moral nature of God, as manifested
both in human life and in the cosmic sphere, which brought
the Jewish prophets and sages to their pure monotheism, in
which they will ultimately be met by the great thinkers of
all lands and ages. The unity of God brings harmony into
the intellectual and moral world ; the division of the godhead
into different powers or personalities leads to discord and
spiritual bondage. Such is the lesson of history, that in poly
theism, dualism, or trinitarianism one of the powers must
necessarily limit or obscure another. In this manner the
Christian Trinity led mankind in many ways to the lowering
of the supreme standard of truth, to an infringement on justice,
and to inhumanity to other creeds, and therefore Judaism
could regard it only as a compromise with heathenism.
8. Judaism assumed, then, toward paganism an attitude
of rigid exclusion and opposition which could easily be taken
for hostility. This prevailed especially in the legal systems
of the Bible and the rabbis, and was intended primarily to
guard the monotheistic belief from pagan pollution and to
keep it intact. Neither in the Deuteronomic law nor in the
late codes of Maimonides and Joseph Caro is there any tol
eration for idolatrous practices, for instruments of idol-wor
ship, or for idolaters. 1 This attitude gave the enemies of
the Jew sufficient occasion for speaking of the Jewish God as
hating the world, as if only national conceit underlay the
earnest rigor of Jewish monotheism.
9. As a matter of fact, since the time of the prophets Juda
ism has had no national God in any exclusive sense. While
the Law insists upon the exclusive worship of the one God of
. VII; XVII, 2 f.; XX, 16; Maimonides: H. Akkum, II-VII;
Melakim, VI, 4 ; Yoreh Deah, CXII-XLVIII.
GOD AND THE GODS 57
Israel, the narratives of the beginnings in the Bible have a
different tenor. They take the lofty standpoint that the
heathen world, while worshiping its many divinities, had
merely lost sight of the true God after whom the heart ever
longs and searches. This implies that a kernel of true piety
underlies all the error and delusion of paganism, which,
rightly guided, will lead back to the God from whom mankind
had strayed. The Godhead, divided into gods as is hinted
even in the Biblical name, Elohim must again become the
one God of humanity. Thus the Jew holds that all worship
foreshadows the search for the true God, and that all hu
manity shall at one time acknowledge Him for whom they
have so long been searching. Surely the Psalms express, not
national narrowness, but ardent love for humanity when
they hail the God of Israel, the Maker of heaven and earth,
as the world s great King, and tell how He will judge the
nations in justice, while the gods of the nations will be rejected
as "vanities." * Nor does the divine service of the Jew bear
the stamp of clannishness. For more than two thousand
years the central point in the Synagogue liturgy every morn
ing and evening has been the battle-cry, "Hear, O Israel, the
Lord our God, the Lord is One." And so does the conclusion
of every service, the Alenu, the solemn prayer of adoration,
voice the grand hope of the Jew for the future, that the time
may speedily come when "before the kingdom of Almighty
all idolatry shall vanish, and all the inhabitants of the earth
perceive that unto Him alone every knee must bend, and all
flesh recognize Him alone as God and King." 2
1 Ps. XCVI-XCIX.
J See Singer s Prayerbook, p. 76-77, and J. E., art. Alenu.
CHAPTER X
THE NAME or GOD
1. Primitive men attached much importance to names,
for to them the name of a thing indicated its nature, and
through the name one could obtain mastery over the thing or
person named. Accordingly, the name of God was con
sidered to be the manifestation of His being ; by invoking it
man could obtain some of His power; and the place where
that name was called became the seat of His presence. There
fore the name must be treated with the same reverential awe
as the Deity Himself. None dare approach the Deity, nor
misuse the Name. The pious soul realized the nearness of
the Deity in hearing His name pronounced. Finally, the
different names of God reflect the different conceptions of
Him which were held in various periods. 1
2. The Semites were not like the Aryan nations, who be
held the essence of their gods in the phenomena of nature such
as light, rain, thunder, and lightning, and gave them cor
responding names and titles. The more intense religious
emotionalism of the Semites 2 perceived the Godhead rather
as a power working from within, and accordingly gave it such
names as El ("the Mighty One"), Eloha or Pahad ("the
Awful One"), or Baal ("the Master"). Elohim, the plural
form of Eloha, denoted originally the godhead as divided into
a number of gods or godly beings, that is, polytheism. When
1 See Cheyne s Diet. Bibl., art. Name and Names with Bibliography ; Jacob :
Im Namen Gottes ; Heitmueller, Im NamenJesu, 1903, p. 24-25. The Name for
the Lord occurs Lev. XXIV, 1 1, 16 ; Deut. XXVIII, 58 ; Geiger, Urschrifl, 261 f.
2 See Baudissin, Stud. z. Sent. Religions gesch., I, 47; 177; Robinson Smith :
Religion of the Semites; Max Mueller, Chips from a German Workshop, I,
336-374-
58
THE NAME OF GOD 59
it was applied to God, however, it was generally understood
as a unity, referring to one undivided Godhead, for Scrip
ture regarded monotheism as original with mankind. While
this view is contradicted by the science of comparative re
ligion, still the ideal conception of religion, based on the
universal consciousness of God, postulates one God who is
the aim of all human searching, a fact which the term Heno-
theism fails to recognize. 1
3. For the patriarchal age, the preliminary stage in the
development of the Jewish God-idea, Scripture gives a special
name for God, El Shaddai "the Almighty God." This
probably has a relation to Shod, " storm" or " havoc" and
" destruction," but was interpreted as supreme Ruler over the
celestial powers. 2 The name by which God revealed Himself
to Moses and the prophets as the God of the covenant with
Israel is JHVH (Jahveh). This name is inseparably con
nected with the religious development of Judaism in all its
loftiness and depth. During the period of the Second Temple
this name was declared too sacred for utterance, except by
the priests in certain parts of the service, and for mysterious
use by specially initiated saints. Instead, Adonai "the
Lord" -was substituted for it in the Biblical reading, a
usage which has continued for over two thousand years.
The meaning of the name in pre-Mosaic times may be inferred
from the fiery storms which accompanied each theophany in
the various Scriptural passages, as well as from the root
havah, which means "throw down" and "overthrow." 3
1 See J. E., art. God. Comp. also Encycl. of Religion and Ethics, art. God.
Primitive and Biblical ; Name of God, Jewish.
2 Gen. XVII, 11; Ex. VI, 3, and commentators; Gen. R. XLVI. The
Book of Job, where the name Shaddai is constantly used, refers to the patriarchal
age.
1 Ex. Ill, 14, and commentators, espec. Dillmann. Comp. art. Jahweh in
Prot. Realencyc. and Cheyne s Diet. Bible, art. Names, 109 ff., where different
etymologies are given.
60 JEWISH THEOLOGY
To the prophets, however, the God of Sinai, enthroned amid
clouds of storm and fire, moving before His people in war
and peace, appeared rather as the God of the Covenant, with
out image or form, unapproachable in His holiness. As the
original meaning of JHVH had become unintelligible, they
interpreted the name as "the ever present One," in the sense
of Ehyeh asher Ehyeh, "I shall be whatever (or wherever) I
am to be " ; that is, "I am ever ready to help." Thus spoke
God to Moses in revealing His name to him at the burning
bush. 1
4. The prophetic genius penetrated more and more into
the nature of God, recognizing Him as the Power who rules
in justice, mercy, and holiness. This process brought them
to identify JHVH, the God of the covenant, with the One
and only God who overlooks all the world from his heavenly
habitation, and gives it plan and purpose. At the same time,
all the prophets revert to the covenant on Sinai in order to
proclaim Israel as the herald and witness of God among the
nations. In fact, the God of the covenant proclaimed His
universality at the very beginning, in the introduction to the
Decalogue : " Ye shall be Mine own peculiar possession from
among all peoples, for all the earth is Mine. And ye shall
be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." 2 In
other words, you have the special task of mediator among
the nations, all of which are under My dominion.
5. In the Wisdom literature and the Psalms the God of
the covenant is subordinated to the universality of JHVH as
Creator and Ruler of the world. In a number of the Psalms
and in some later writings the very name JHVH was avoided
probably on account of its particularistic tinge. It was
surrounded more and more with a certain mystery. Instead,
God as the "Lord" is impressed on the consciousness and
adoration of men, in all His sublimity and in absolute unity.
1 Ex. Ill, 14- 8 Ex. XIX, s, 6.
THE NAME OF GOD 61
The "Name" continues its separate existence only in the
mystic lore. The name Jehovah, however, has no place what
soever in Judaism. It is due simply to a misreading of the
vowel signs that refer to the word Adonai, and has been
erroneously adopted in the Christian literature since the
beginning of the sixteenth century. 1
6. Perhaps the most important process of spiritualization
which the idea of God underwent in the minds of the Jewish
people was made when the name JHVH as the proper name of
the God of the covenant was given up and replaced by Adonai
-"the Lord." As long as the God of Israel, like other
deities, had His proper name, he was practically one of them,
however superior in moral worth. As soon as He became
the Lord, that is, the only real God over all the world, a dis
tinctive proper noun was out of place. Henceforth the
name was invested with a mysterious and magic character.
It became ineffable, at least to the people at large, and its
pronunciation sinful, except by the priests in the liturgy.
In fact, the law was interpreted so as directly to forbid this
utterance. 2 Thus JHVH is no longer the national God of
Israel. The Talmud guards against the very suspicion of a
"Judaized God" by insisting that every benediction to Him as
" God the Lord " must add " King of the Universe " rather than
the formula of the Psalms, "God of Israel." 3
7. The Midrash makes a significant comment on the words
of the Shema: "Why do the words, the Lord is our God
precede the words, the Lord is One ? Does not the par
ticularism of the former conflict with the universalism of the
latter sentence ? No. The former expresses the idea that the
Lord is our God just so far as His name is more intertwined
1 See Prot. Enc., art. Jahveh, p. 530 f.
2 See J. E., art. Adonai ; Bousset, 1. c., 352 f.
8 Ber. 40 b. On the alleged " Judaisirung des Gottesbegriffs," see Weber,
1. c., 148-158.
62 JEWISH THEOLOGY
with our history than with that of any other nation, and
that we have the greater obligation as His chosen people.
Wherever Scripture speaks of the God of Israel, it does not
intend to limit Him as the universal God, but to emphasize
Israel s special duty as His priest-people." l
8. Likewise is the liturgical name "God of our fathers"
far from being a nationalistic limitation. On the contrary,
the rabbis single out Abraham as the missionary, the herald
of monotheism in its march to world-conquest. For his use
of the term, "the God of heaven and the God of the earth" 2
they offer a characteristic explanation: "Before Abraham
came, the people worshiped only the God of heaven, but
Abraham by winning them for his God brought Him down
and made Him also the God of the earth." 3
9. Reverence for the Deity caused the Jew to avoid not
only the utterance of the holy Name itself, but even the com
mon use of its substitute Adonai. Therefore still other
synonyms were introduced, such as "Master of the universe,"
"the Holy One, blessed be He," "the Merciful One," "the
Omnipotence" (ha Geburati), 4 "King of the kings of kings"
(under Persian influence as the Persian ruler called himself
the King of Kings) ; 5 and in Hasidean circles it became cus
tomary to invoke God as "our Father" and "our Father
in heaven." 6 The rather strange appellations for God,
"Heaven" 7 and (dwelling) "Place" (ha Makom) seem to
originate in certain formulas of the oath. In the latter
name the rabbis even found hints of God s omnipresence :
"As space Makom encompasses all things, so does God
encompass the world instead of being encompassed by it." 8
1 Sifre to Deut. VI, 4. 2 Gen. XXIV, 3. 8 Gen. R. XXIV, 3.
Shab. 87 a, 89 b ; Mek. Yithro IV. 5 See J. E., art. Menu.
8 See J. E., art. Abba and Names of God; Weber, 1. c., 148 f.; Bousset,!!,
356-361; Schechter: Aspects, II, 21-28.
7 See J. E., art. Heaven; Levy, W. B. : "Shamayim."
See Pes. X, 5; Ber. 16 b; Ab. Zar. 40 b; Gen. R. LXVIII, 9, referring
THE NAME OF GOD 63
10. The rabbis early read a theological meaning into the
two names JHVH and Elohim, taking the former as the
divine attribute of mercy and the latter as that of justice*
In general, however, the former name was explained ety-
mologically as signifying eternity, "He who is, who was, and
who shall be." Philo shows familiarity with the two attri
butes of justice and mercy, but he and other Alexandrian
writers explained JHVH and Ehyeh metaphysically, and
accordingly called God, "the One who is," that is, the Source
of all existence. Both conceptions still influence Jewish exe
gesis and account for the term "the Eternal" sometimes
used for "the Lord."
to Gen. XXVIII, n and Ex. XXXIII, 21 ; P. d. R. El. XXXV; PCS. Rab.
104 a; comp. LXX, Ex. XXIV, 10; see also Siegfried: Philo, p. 202, 204,
217; Schechter, 1. c., 26, 34. The passage in Mekilta on Ex. XVII, 7, which
refers Makom to the Sanhedrin (after Deut. XVII, 8), seems originally to have
been a marginal note belonging to Ex. XXI, 13, where Makom is the equivalent
of Makam, a place of refuge, and put here at the wrong place by an error;
Against Schechter, 1. c. 27 note i, Bousset (p. 591) thinks that ha Makom
for God is Persian, where both space and time were deified. See Spiegel:
Eranischcs Alterthum, II, 15 f.
1 See Gen. R. XII, 15 ; XXX, 3 ; Targum to Psalm LVI, n ; comp. Philo,
I, 496; Siegfried, 1. c., 203, 213.
CHAPTER XI
THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
i. For the religious consciousness, God is not to be dem
onstrated by argument, but is a fact of inner and outer ex
perience. Whatever the origin and nature of the cosmos
may be according to natural science, the soul of man follows
its natural bent, as in the days of Abraham, to look through
nature to the Maker, Ordainer, and Ruler of all things, who
uses the manifold world of nature only as His workshop,
and who rules it in freedom as its sovereign Master. The
entire cosmic life points to a Supreme Being from whom
all existence must have arisen, and without whom life and
process would be impossible. Still even this mode of thought
is influenced and determined by the prevalent monotheistic
conceptions.
Far more original and potent in man is the feeling of limi
tation and dependency. This brings him to bow down before
a higher Power, at first in fear and trembling, but later in
holy awe and reverence. As soon as man attains self -con
sciousness and his will acquires purpose, he encounters a will
stronger than his own, with which he often comes into conflict,
and before which he must frequently yield. Thus he becomes
conscious of duty of what he ought and ought not to do.
This is not, like earlier limitations, purely physical and
working from without ; it is moral and operates from within.
It is the sense of duty, or, as we call it, conscience, the sense
of right and wrong. This awakened very early in the race,
64
THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 65
and through it God s voice has been perceived ever since the
days of Adam and of Cain. 1
2. According to Scripture, man in his natural state pos
sesses the certainty of God s existence through such inner
experience. Therefore the Bible contains no command to
believe in God, nor any logical demonstration of His existence.
Both the Creation stories and those of the beginnings of man
kind assume as undisputed the existence of God as the Cre
ator and Judge of the world. Arguments appealing to reason
were resorted to only in competition with idolatry, as in Deu
teronomy, Jeremiah, and Deutero-Isaiah, and subsequently
by the Haggadists in legends such as those about Abraham.
Nor does the Bible consider any who deny the existence of
God ; 2 only much later, in the Talmud, do we hear of those
who "deny the fundamental principle" of the faith. The
doubt expressed in Job, Koheleth, and certain of the Psalms,
concerns rather the justice of God than His existence. True,
Jeremiah and the Psalms 3 mention some who say "There is
no God," but these are not atheists in our sense of the word ;
they are the impious who deny the moral order of life by word
or deed. It is the villain (Nabal) , not the "fool " who " says in
his heart, there is no God." Even the Talmud does not mean
the real atheist when speaking of "the denier of the funda
mental principle," but the man who says, "There is neither
a judgment nor a Judge above and beyond." 4 In other words,
the "denier" is the same as the Epicurean (Apicoros), who
refuses to recognize the moral government of the world. 6
3. After the downfall of the nation and Temple, the situ
ation changed through the contemptuous question of the
1 Metaphysical proofs for God s existence have been outlawed since Kant.
God is the postulate of man s moral consciousness. See Rauwenhoff, 1. c., 236-
357-
1 See art. Atheism, in J. E. and in Enc. Reli. and Ethics, II, 18 f.
1 Jer. V, 12 ; Psalm X, 4 ; XIV, i ; LIII, I.
4 B. B. 16 b ; Targ. to Gen. IV, 8. See above, Chapter IV, 3.
r
66 JEWISH THEOLOGY
nations, "Where is your God?" Then the necessity be
came evident of proving that the Ruler of nations still held
dominion over the world, and that His wondrous powers
were shown more than ever before through the fact of Israel s
preservation in captivity. This is the substance of the ad
dresses of the great seer of the Exile in chapters XL to LIX
of Isaiah, in which he exposes the gods of heathendom to
everlasting scorn, more than any other prophet before or
afterward. He declares these deities to be vanity and naught,
but proclaims the Holy One of Israel as the Lord of the uni
verse. He hath " meted out the heavens with the span," and
" weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance."
Before Him " the nations are as a drop of the bucket," and
" the inhabitants of the earth as grasshoppers." " He bringeth
out the hosts of the stars by number, and calleth them all by
name," "He hath assigned to the generations of men their
lot from the beginning, and knoweth at the beginning what
will be their end." 1 Measured by such passages as these and
such as Psalms VIII, XXIV, XXXIII, CIV, and CXXXIX,
where God is felt as a living power, all philosophical argu
ments about His existence seem to be strange fires on the altar
of religion. The believer can do without them, and the un
believer will hardly be convinced by them.
4. Upon the contact of the Jew with Greek philosophy
doubt arose in many minds, and belief entered into conflict
with reason. But even then, the defense of the faith was
still carried on by reasoning along the lines of common sense. 2
Thus the regularity of the sun, moon, and stars, all wor
shiped by the pagans as deities was considered a proof of
God s omnipotence and rule of the universe, a proof which
the legend ascribes to Abraham in his controversy with
Nimrod. 3 In like manner, the apocryphal Book of Wisdom 4
1 Isa. XL, 12-26; XLVI, 10. 2 See Bousset, 1. c., 295-298.
3 See J. E., art. Abraham. Ch. XIII.
THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 67
says that true wisdom, as opposed to the folly of heathenism,
is "to reason from the visible to the Invisible One, and from
the cosmos, the great work of art, to the Supreme Artificer. "
5. Philo was the first who tried to refute the "atheistic"
views of materialists and pantheists by adducing proofs of
God s existence from nature and the human intellect. In
the former he pointed out order as evidence of the wisdom
underlying the cosmos, and in the latter the power of self-
determination as shadowing forth a universal mind which
determines the entire universe. 1 Still, with his mystical
attitude, Philo realized that the chief knowledge of God is
through intuition, by the inner experience of the soul.
6. Two proofs taken from nature owe their origin to
Greek philosophy. Anaxagoras and Socrates, from their
theory of design in nature, deduced that there is a universal
intelligence working for higher aims and purposes. This so-
called teleological proof, as worked out in detail by Plato,
was the unfailing reliance of subsequent philosophers and
theologians. 2 Plato and Aristotle, moreover, from the
continuous motion of all matter, inferred a prime cause, an
unmoved mover. This is the so-called cosmological proof,
used by different schools in varying forms. 3 It occupies the
foremost place in the systems of the Arabic Aristotelians,
and consequently is dominant among the Jewish philosophers,
the Christian scholastics, and in the modern philosophic
schools down to Kant. It is based upon the old principle
of causality, and therefore takes the mutability and relativity
of all beings in the cosmos as evidence of a Being that is
immutable, unconditioned, and absolutely necessary, causa
sui, the prime cause of all existence.
1 Philo : De Somniis, I, 43, 44 ; Zeller : D. Philosophic d. Gricchen, III,.
2, 307 f. ; Drummond : Philo Judaus, II, 4-5.
* See D. F. Strauss : Christl. Glaubenslehre, I, 364-399 ; Windelband : Hist,
of Phil., transl. by J. H. Tufts, ad ed., 1914, p. 54, 98, 128, 327.
* See Windelband-Tufts, 1. c., 145, 292.
68 JEWISH THEOLOGY
7. The Mohammedan theologians added a new element to
the discussion. In their endeavor to prove that the world
is the work of a Creator, they pointed as evidence to the
multiformity and composite structure, the contingency and
dependency of the cosmos ; thus they concluded that it must
have been created, and that its Creator must necessarily be
the one, absolute, and all-determining cause. This proof is
used also by Saadia and Bahya ben Joseph. 1 Its weakness,
however, was exposed by Ibn Sina and Alfarabi among the
Mohammedans, and later by Abraham ibn Baud and Mai-
monides, their Jewish successors as Aristotelians. These
proposed a substitute argument. From the fact that the
existence of all cosmic beings is merely possible, that is,
they may exist and they may not exist, these thinkers con
cluded that an absolutely necessary being must exist as the
cause and condition of all things, and this absolutely un
conditioned yet all-conditioning being is God, the One who
is. 2 Of course, the God so deduced and inferred is a mere
abstraction, incapable of satisfying the emotional craving of
the heart.
8. While the cosmological proof proceeds from the tran
sitory and imperfect nature of the world, the ontological proof,
first proposed by Anselm of Canterbury, the Christian scholas
tic of the XI century, and further elaborated by Descartes
and Mendelssohn, proceeds from the human intellect. The
mind conceives the idea of God as an absolutely perfect being,
and, as there can be no perfection without existence, the con
clusion is that this idea must necessarily be objectively true.
Then, as the idea of God is innate in man, God must neces
sarily exist, and for proof of this they point to the Scriptural
verse, "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God,"
1 See Strauss, 1. c. ; Kaufmann, 1. c., 2-3, 58 ; D. Theologie d. Bachya, p.
222 f.; Husik : Hist. Jew. Phil., p. 32 ff., 89 ff.
2 Kaufmann, 1. c., p. 341 f., 431 f. ; Husik, 1. c., 218 f., 254 f.
THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 69
and other similar passages. In its improved form, this ar
gument uses the human concept of an infinitely perfect God
as evidence, or, at least, as postulate that such a Being exists
beyond the finite world of man. 1
Another argument, rather naive in character, which was
favored by the Stoics and adopted by the Church fathers, is
called de consensu gentium, and endeavored to prove the re
ality of God s existence from the universality of His worship.
It speaks well for the sound reasoning of the Jewish thinkers
that they refused to follow the lead of the Mohammedans in
this respect, and did not avail themselves of an argument
which can be used just as easily in support of a plurality
of gods. 2
9. All these so-called proofs were invalidated by Immanuel
Kant, the great philosopher of Konigsberg, whose critical in
quiry into the human intellect showed that the entire sum of
our knowledge of objects and also of the formulation of our
ideas is based upon our limited mode of apperception, while
the reality or essence, "the thing in itself," will ever remain
beyond our ken. If this is true of physical objects, it is all
the more true of God, whom we know through our minds
alone and not at all through our five senses. Accordingly,
he shows that all the metaphysical arguments have no basis,
and that we can know God s existence only through ethics,
as a postulate of our moral nature. The inner consciousness
of our moral obligation, or duty, implies a moral order of life,
or moral law; and this, in turn, postulates the existence of
God, the Ruler of life, who assigns to each of us his task and
his destiny. 3
10. It is true that God is felt and worshiped first as the
supreme power in the world, before man perceives Him as
1 See D. F. Strauss, 1. c. ; Windelband-Tufts, p. 292, 393.
D. F. Strauss, 1. c., 375, 394; Windelband-Tufts, 1. c., 450.
1 See Windelband-Tufts, 1. c., 549-550.
70 JEWISH THEOLOGY
the highest ideal of morality. Therefore man will never
cease looking about him for vestiges of divinity and for proofs
of his intuitive knowledge of God. The wondrous order,
harmony, and signs of design in nature, as well as the impulse
of the reason to search for the unity of all things, corroborate
this innate belief in God. Still more do the consciousness
of duty in the individual conscience and the progress of
history with its repeated vindication of right and defeat of
wrong proclaim to the believer unmistakably that the God
of justice reigns. But no proof, however convincing, will
ever bring back to the skeptic or unbeliever the God he has
lost, unless his pangs of anguish or the void within fill his
desolate world anew with the vivifying thought of a living God.
ii. Among all the Jewish religious philosophers the high
est rank must be accorded to Jehudah ha Levi, the author of
the Cuzari, 1 who makes the historical fact of the divine reve
lation the foundation of the Jewish religion and the chief tes
timony of the existence of God. As a matter of fact, reason
alone will not lead to God, except where religious intuition
forms, so to speak, the ladder of heaven, leading to the realm
of the unknowable. Philosophy, at best, can only demon
strate the existence of a final Cause, or of a supreme Intelli
gence working toward sublime purposes ; possibly also a moral
government of the world, in both the physical and the spiritual
life. Religion alone, founded upon divine revelation, can
teach man to find a God, to whom he can appeal in trust in
his moments of trouble or of woe, and whose will he can see in
the dictates of conscience and the destiny of nations. Reason
must serve as a corrective for the contents of revelation,
scrutinizing and purifying, deepening and spiritualizing ever
anew the truths received through intuition, but it can never
be the final source of truth.
1 See Kaufmann, 1. c., p. 223 f., and, opposed to him, Neumark : Jehuda
Halevi s Philosophy, Cincinnati, 1909. See also Husik, 1. c., 157 ff.
THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 71
12. The same method must apply also to modern thought
and research, which substituted historical methods for meta
physics in both the physical and intellectual world, and which
endeavors to trace the origin and growth of both objects and
ideas in accordance with fixed laws. The process of evolu
tion, our modern key with which to unlock the secrets of
nature, points most significantly to a Supreme Power and
Energy. But this energy, entering into the cosmic process at
its outset, causing its motion and its growth, implies also an
end, and thus again we have the Supreme Intelligence reached
through a new type of teleology. 1 But all these conceptions,
however they may be in harmony with the Jewish belief in
creation and revelation, can at best supplement it, but can
certainly neither supplant nor be identified with it.
1 Compare C. Seligman : Judenth. u. moderne Anschauung. The philosophy
of Bergson, which eliminates design and purpose from the cosmos and places
Deity itself into the process as the vital urgent of it all, and thus sees God forever
in the making, is pantheistic and un- Jewish, and therefore cannot be considered
in a theology of Judaism. This does not exclude our accepting minor elements
of his system, which contains suggestive hints. H. G. Wells God the Invisible
King (Macmillan, 1917) is likewise a God in the making, man-made, not the
Maker and Ruler of man.
CHAPTER XII
THE ESSENCE OF GOD
1. An exquisite Oriental fable tells of a sage who had been
meditating vainly for days and weeks on the question, What
is God? One day, walking along the seashore, he saw some
children busying themselves by digging holes in the sand and
pouring into them water from the sea. "What are you doing
there?" he asked them, to which they replied, "We want to
empty the sea of its water." "Oh, you little fools," he ex
claimed with a smile, but suddenly his smile vanished in serious
thought. "Am I not as foolish as these children?" he said
to himself. "How can I with my small brain hope to grasp the
infinite nature of God?"
All efforts of philosophy to define the essence of God are
futile. "Canst thou by searching find out God?" Zophar
asks of his friend Job. 1 Both Philo and Maimonides main
tain that we can know of God only that He is; we can never
fathom His innermost being or know what He is. Both find
this unknowability of God expressed in the words spoken to
Moses: "If I withdraw My hand, thou shalt see My back
that is, the effects of God s power and wisdom but My
face the real essence of God thou shalt not see." 2
2. Still, a divinity void of all essential qualities fails to
satisfy the religious soul. Man demands to know what God
is at least, what God is to him. In the first word of the
1 Job XI, 7.
2 Ex. XXXIII, 23 ; Maim.; Yesode ha Torah,I,8,io-, Moreh, I, 21 a; Kauf-
mann, 1. c., 431 ; Philo : Mutatio Nom., 2 ; Vita Mosis, I, 28 ; Leg. All., I, 29,
and elsewhere. See J. Drummond: Philo Judaus, II, 18-24.
72
THE ESSENCE OF GOD 73
Decalogue God speaks through His people Israel to the reli
gious consciousness of all men at all times, beginning, "I am
the Lord, thy God." This word / lifts God at once above
all beings and powers of the cosmos, in fact, above all other
existence, for it expresses His unique self-consciousness. This
attribute above all is possessed by no being in the world of
nature, and only by man, who is the image of his Maker.
According to the Midrash, all creation was hushed when the
Lord spoke on Sinai, "/ am the Lord." l God is not merely
the supreme Being, but also the supreme Self-consciousness.
As man, in spite of all his limitations and helplessness, still
towers high above all his fellow creatures by virtue of his free
will and self-conscious action, so God, who knows no bounds
to His wisdom and power, surpasses all beings and forces of
the universe, for He rules over all as the one completely self-
conscious Mind and Will. In both the visible and invisible
realms He manifests Himself as the absolutely free Personality,
moral and spiritual, who allots to every thing its existence,
form, and purpose. For this reason Scripture calls Him
"the living God and everlasting King." 2
3. Judaism, accordingly, teaches us to recognize God,
above all, as revealing Himself in self-conscious activity, as
determining all that happens by His absolutely free will, and
thus as showing man how to walk as a free moral agent. In
relation to the world, His work or workshop, He is the self-
conscious Master, saying "I am that which I am"; in rela
tion to man, who is akin to Him as a self-conscious rational
and moral being, He is the living Fountain of all that knowl
edge and spirituality for which men long, and in which alone
they may find contentment and bliss.
Thus the God of Judaism, the world s great I Am, forms a
complete contrast, not only to the lifeless powers of nature
and destiny, which were worshiped by the ancient pagans,
1 Ex. R. XXDC, at the close. Jer. X, 10.
74 JEWISH THEOLOGY
but also to the God of modern paganism, a God divested of all
personality and self-consciousness, such as He is conceived
of by the new school of Christian theology, with its pantheistic
tendency. I refer to the school of Ritschl, which strives to
render the myth of the man-god philosophically intelligible by
teaching that God reaches self-consciousness only in the per
fect type of man, that is, Christ, while otherwise He is entirely
immanent, one with the world. All the more forcibly does
Jewish monotheism insist upon its doctrine that God, in His
continual self-revelation, is the supermundane and self-
conscious Ruler of both nature and history. "I am the Lord,
that is My name, and My glory will I not give to another,"
so says the God of Judaism. 1
4. The Jewish God-idea, of course, had to go through many
stages of development before it reached the concept of a
transcendental and spiritual god. It was necessary first that
the Decalogue and the Book of the Covenant prohibit most
stringently polytheism and every form of idolatry, and second
that a strictly imageless worship impress the people with the
idea that Israel s God was both invisible and incorporeal. 2
Yet a wide step still intervened from that stage to the complete
recognition of God as a purely spiritual Being, lacking all
qualities perceptible to the senses, and not resembling man
in either his inner or his outer nature. Centuries of gradual
ripening of thought were still necessary for the growth of this
conception. This was rendered still more difficult by the
Scriptural references to God in His actions and His revelations,
and even in His motives, after a human pattern. Israel s
sages required centuries of effort to remove all anthropo
morphic and anthropopathic notions of God, and thus to
elevate Him to the highest realm of spirituality. 3
i Isaiah XLIV, 6.
8 Comp. Dillmann, 1. c., 226-235 ; D. F. Strauss, 1. c., I, 525-553.
3 See J. E., art. Anthropomorphism and Anthropopathism. Comp.
Schmiedl, 1. c., 1-30.
THE ESSENCE OF GOD 75
5. In this process of development two points of view de
mand consideration. We must not overlook the fact that the
perfectly clear distinction which we make between the sen
sory and the spiritual does not appeal to the child-like mind,
which sees it rather as external. What we call transcendent,
owing to our comprehension of the immeasurable universe,
was formerly conceived only as far remote in space or time.
Thus God is spoken of in Scripture as dwelling in heaven and
looking down upon the inhabitants of the earth to judge them
and to guide them. 1 According to Deuteronomy, God spoke
from heaven to the people about Mt. Sinai, while Exodus
represents Him as coming down to the mountain from His
heavenly heights to proclaim the law amid thunder and
lightning. 2 The Babylonian conception of heaven prevailed
throughout the Middle Ages and influenced both the mystic
lore about the heavenly throne and the philosophic cosmology
of the Aristotelians, such as Maimonides. Yet Scripture
offers also another view, the concept of God as the One en
throned on high, whom "the heavens and the heaven s heavens
cannot encompass." 3
The fact is that language still lacked an expression for pure
spirit, and the intellect freed itself only gradually from the
restrictions of primitive language to attain a purer conception
of the divine. Thus we attain deeper insight into the spiritual
nature of God when we read the inimitable words of the
Psalmist describing His omnipresence, 4 or that other passage :
" He that planted the ear, shall He not hear ? He that formed
the eye, shall He not see? He that chastiseth the nations,
shall He not correct, even He that teaches man knowledge ? " 5
The translators and interpreters of the Bible felt the need
of eliminating everything of a sensory nature from God and
Ps. XXXIII, 13-14.
Deut. IV, 36 ; Ex. XIX, 20. Comp. Gen. XI, 5. Isa. XLVI, i.
* Ps. CXXXIX, 7-10. B p s . XCIV, 9.
76 JEWISH THEOLOGY
of avoiding anthropomorphism, through the influence of
Greek philosophy. This spiritualization of the God idea was
taken up again by the philosophers of the Spanish-Arabic
period, who combated the prevailing mysticism. Through
them Jewish monotheism emphasized its opposition to every
human representation of God, especially the God-Man of the
Christian Church.
6. On the other hand, we must bear in mind that we
naturally ascribe to God a human personality, whether we
speak of Him as the Master- worker of the universe, as the all-
seeing and all-hearing Judge, or the compassionate and merci
ful Father. We cannot help attributing human qualities and
emotions to Him the moment we invest Him with a moral
and spiritual nature. When we speak of His punitive justice,
His unfailing mercy, or His all-wise providence, we transfer
to Him, imperceptibly, our own righteous indignation at the
sight of a wicked deed, or our own compassion with the
sufferer, or even our own mode of deliberation and decision.
Moreover, the prophets and the Torah, in order to make God
plain to the people, described Him in vivid images of human
life, with anger and jealousy as well as compassion and re
pentance, and also with the organs and functions of the
senses, seeing, hearing, smelling, speaking, and walking.
7. The rabbis are all the more emphatic in their assertions
that the Torah merely intends to assist the simple-minded,
and that unseemly expressions concerning Deity are due to
the inadequacy of language, and must not be taken literally. 1
"It is an act of boldness allowed only to the prophets to meas
ure the Creator by the standard of the creature," says the
Haggadist, and again, "God appeared to Israel, now as a
heroic warrior, now as a venerable sage imparting knowledge,
and again as a kind dispenser of bounties, but always in a
1 See Ab. d. R. Nathan II ; Bacher : D. Exegetische Terminologie, I, 8 ;
Schechter, 1. c., 35.
THE ESSENCE OF GOD 77
manner befitting the time and circumstance, so as to satisfy
the need of the human heart." l This is strikingly illustrated
in the following dialogue: "A heretic came to Rabbi Meir
asking, How can you reconcile the passage which reads,
"Do I not fill heaven and earth, says the Lord," with the one
which relates that the Lord appeared to Moses between the
cherubim of the ark of the covenant ? Whereupon Rabbi
Meir took two mirrors, one large and the other small, and
placed them before the interrogator. Look into this glass,
he said, and into that. Does not your figure seem different
in one than in the other ? How much more will the majesty
of God, who has neither figure nor form, be reflected differently
in the minds of men ! To one it will appear according to his
narrow view of life, and to the other in accordance with his
larger mental horizon. " 2
In like manner Rabbi Joshua ben Hanania, when asked
sarcastically by the Emperor Hadrian to show him his God,
replied : "Come and look at the sun which now shines in the
full splendor of noonday ! Behold, thou art dazzled. How,
then, canst thou see without bewilderment the majesty of
Him from whom emanates both sun and stars?" 3 This re
joinder, which was familiar to the Greeks also, is excelled by
the one of Rabban Gamaliel II to a heathen who asked him
"Where does the God dwell to whom you daily pray?"
"Tell me first," he answered, "where does your soul dwell,
which is so close to thee? Thou canst not tell. How, then,
can I inform thee concerning Him who dwells in heaven, and
whose throne is separated from the earth by a journey of
3500 years?" "Then do we not do better to pray to gods
who are near at hand, and whom we can see with our eyes?"
1 Gen. R. XXVII; Mek. Ex. XV; Pes. d. R. K. 109 b; Tanh. to Ex. XXII,
16; Schechter, 1. c., 43 f.
f Gen. R. IV, 3 ; comp. Pes. d. R. K. 2 b ; Schechter, 1. c., 29 f.
* Hul. 59, 60; Sanh. 39 a ; Philo : De Abrahamo, 16.
78 JEWISH THEOLOGY
continued the heathen, whereupon the sage struck home,
1 Well, you may see your gods, but they neither see nor help
you, while our God, Himself unseen, yet sees and protects us
constantly." 1 The comparison of the invisible soul to God,
the invisible spirit of the universe, is worked out further in
the Midrash to Psalm CHI.
8. From the foregoing it is clear that, while Judaism in
sists on the Deity s transcending all finite and sensory limi
tations, it never lost the sense of the close relationship between
man and his Maker. Notwithstanding Christian theologians
to the contrary, the Jewish God was never a mere abstraction. 2
The words, "I am the Lord thy God," betoken the intimate
relation between the redeemed and the heavenly Redeemer,
and the song of triumph at the Red Sea, "This is my God, I
will extol Him," testifies according to the Midrash that
even the humblest of God s chosen people were filled with
the feeling of His nearness. 3 In the same way the warm
breath of union with God breathes through all the writings,
the prayers, and the whole history of Judaism. "For what
great nation is there that hath God so nigh unto them as the
Lord our God is, whenever we call upon Him?" exclaims
Moses in Deuteronomy, and the rabbis, commenting
upon the plural form used here, Kerobim, = "nigh," remark :
"God is nigh to everyone in accordance with his special
needs." 4
9. Probably the rabbis were at their most profound mood
in their saying, "God s greatness lies in His condescension,
as may be learned from the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writ
ings. To quote only Isaiah also : l Thus saith the High and
1 Mid. Teh. Ps. CIII, i ; Sanh. 39 a.
2 See Weber, 1. c., 149 f., 157; Bousset, 1. c., 302, 313; von Hartman: Das
religioese Bewusstsein. Against this Schreiner, 1. c., 49-58, and Schechter, As-
pects, 33 f.
Mek. and Tanh. to Ex. XV, n.
4 Deut. IV, 7 ; Yer. Ber. IX, 13 a.
THE ESSENCE OF GOD 79
Lofty One, I dwell in high and holy places, with him that is
of a contrite and humble spirit. l For this reason God selected
as the place of His revelation the humble Sinai and the lowly
thornbush." In fact, the absence of any mediator in
Judaism necessitates the doctrine that God with all His
transcendent majesty is at the same tune "an ever present
helper in trouble," 3 and that His omnipotence includes care
for the greatest and the smallest beings of creation. 4
10. The doctrine that God is above and beyond the uni
verse, transcending all created things, as well as time and
space, might lead logically to the view of the deist that He
stands outside of the world, and does not work from within.
But this inference has never been made even by the boldest
of Jewish thinkers. The Psalmist said, " Who is like the Lord
our God, that hath His seat on high, that humbleth Himself
to behold what is in heaven and on earth?" 6 words which
express the deepest and the loftiest thought of Judaism.
Beside the all-encompassing Deity no other divine power or
personality can find a place. God is in all ; He is over all ;
He is both immanent and transcendent. His creation was
not merely setting into motion the wheels of the cosmic fabric,
after which He withdrew from the world. The Jew praises
Him for every scent and sight of nature or of human life, for
the beauty of the sea and the rainbow, for every flash of light
ning that illumines the darkened clouds and every peal of
thunder that shakes the earth. On every such occasion the
Jew utters praise to "Him who daily renews the work of
creation," or "Him who in everlasting faithfulness keepeth
His covenant with mankind." Such is the teaching of the
men of the Great Synagogue, 6 and the charge of the Jewish
1 Isa. LVII, 15. See also Deut. X, 17-18; Ps. LXXXVI, 5-6. Comp. R.
Johanan, Meg. 31 a.
1 Ex. R. II, 9 ; Mid. Teh. Ps. LXVTII, 7. Ps. XL VI, 2.
4 Ab. Zar. 3 b. * Ps. CXIII, 5, 6.
Ber. 60 b. Singer s Praycrbook, 291.
8o JEWISH THEOLOGY
God idea being a barren and abstract transcendentalism can
be urged only by the blindness of bigotry. 1
11. The interweaving of the ideas of God s immanence and
transcendency is shown especially in two poems embodied in
the songs of the Synagogue, Ibn Gabirol s " Crown of Royalty "
and the " Songs of Unity" for each day of the week, composed
by Samuel ben Kalonymos, the father of Judah the Pious of
Regensburg. Here occur such sentences as these : " All is in
God and God is in all"; " Sufficient unto Himself and self-
determining, He is the ever-living and self-conscious Mind,
the all-permeating, all-impelling, and all-accomplishing Will" ;
"The universe is the emanation of the plenitude of God, each
part the light of His infinite light, flame of His eternal em
pyrean" ; "The universe is the garment, the covering of God,
and He the all-penetrating Soul." 2 All these ideas were
borrowed from neo-Platonism, and found a conspicuous place
in Ibn Gabirol s philosophy, later influencing the Cabbalah.
Similarly the appellation, Makom, "Space," is explained by
both Philo and the rabbis as denoting "Him who encompasses
the world, but whom the world cannot encompass." 3 An
utterance such as this, well-nigh pantheistic in tone, leads
directly to theories like those of Spinoza or of David Nieto,
the well-known London Rabbi, who was largely under Spino-
zistic influence 4 and who still was in accord with Jewish
thought. Certainly, as long as Jewish monotheism conceives
of God as self-conscious Intellect and freely acting Will, it
can easily accept the principle of divine immanence.
12. We accept, then, the fact that man, child-like, invests
God with human qualities, a view advanced by Abraham
1 On pantheism in Judaism see Seligman, 1. c.
2 See Sachs : D. religioese Poesie d. Juden. inSpanien, 225-228 ; Kaufmann :
Stud. u. Solomon Ibn GabiroL
3 See Siegfried: Philo, 199-203, 292; Gen. R. LXVIII, 10; comp. Geiger:
Zeitschr., XI, 218; Hamburger: R. W. B., II, 986.
<SeeGraetz: G. d. J., X, 319.
THE ESSENCE OF GOD 81
ben David of Posquieres in opposition to Maimonides. 1
Still, the thinkers of Judaism have ever labored to divest the
Deity of every vestige of sensuousness, of likeness to man, in
fact, of every limitation to action or to free will. Every con
ception which merges God into the world or identifies Him
with it and thus makes Him subject to necessity, is incom
patible with the Jewish idea of God, which enthrones Him
above the universe as its free and sovereign Master. "Am I
a God near at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?
Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him ?
saith the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth?" 2 "To
whom will you liken Me, that I should be equal?" 3
1 See Maimonides : H. Teshubah, III, 7 and R. A. B. D., notes.
Jer. XXIII, 23. 8 Isa. XL, 25.
CHAPTER XIII
THE ONE AND ONLY GOD
1. From the very beginning no Jewish doctrine was so
firmly proclaimed and so heroically defended as the belief in
the One and Only God. This constitutes the essence and
foundation of Judaism. However slowly the people learned
that there could be no gods beside the One God, and that
consequently all the pagan deities were but " naught and
vanity," the Judaism of the Torah starts with the proclama
tion of the Only One, and later Judaism marches through the
nations and ages of history with a never-silent protest against
polytheism of every kind, against every division of the God
head into parts, powers, or persons.
2. It is perfectly clear that divine pedagogy could not well
have demanded of a people immature and untrained in re
ligion, like Israel in the wilderness period, the immediate
belief in the only one God and in none else. Such a belief is
the result of a long mental process ; it is attained only after
centuries of severe struggle and crisis. Instead of this, the
Decalogue of Sinai demanded of the people that they worship
only the God of the Covenant who had delivered them from
Egypt to render them His people. 1 But, as they yielded more
and more to the seductive worship of the gods of the Canaanites
and their other neighbors, the law became more rigid in pro
hibiting such idolatrous practices, and the prophets poured
forth their unsca thing wrath against the "stiff-necked people"
1 Lev. XIX, 4; XXVI, i ; Isaiah II, 8, n ; Psalm XCVI, 5.
82
THE ONE AND ONLY GOD 83
and endeavored by unceasing warnings and threats to win
them for the pure truth of monotheism. 1
3. The God of Sinai proclaims Himself in the Decalogue
as a " jealous God," and not in vain. He cannot tolerate
other gods beside Himself. Truth can make no concession
to untruth, nor enter into any compromise with it without
self-surrender. A pagan religion could well afford to admit
foreign gods into its pantheon without offending the ruling
deities of the land. On the contrary, their realm seemed
rather to be enlarged by the addition. It was also easy to
blend the cults of deities originally distinct and unite many
divinities under a composite name, and by this process create
a system of worship which would either comprise the gods of
many lands or even merge them into one large family. This
was actually the state of the various pagan religions at the
time of the decline of antiquity. But such a procedure could
never lead towards true monotheism. It lacks the concep
tion of an inner unity, without which its followers could not
grasp the true idea of God as the source and essence of all
life, both physical and spiritual. Only the One God of reve
lation made the world really one. In Him alone heaven and
earth, day and night, growth and decay, the weal and woe of
individuals and nations, appear as the work of an all-ruling
Power and Wisdom, so that all events in nature and history
are seen as parts of one all-comprising plan. 2
4. It is perfectly true that a wide difference of view exists
between the prohibition of polytheism and idolatry in the
Decalogue and the proclamation in Deuteronomy of the unity
of God, and, still more, between the law of the Pentateuch
and the prophetic announcement of the day when Israel s
1 Comp. Ex. XX, 3 ; XXII, 19 ; XXIII, 13 ; with Deut. VI, 4 ; IV, 35, 39 ;
XXXII, 39 ; Isaiah XL to XLVIII.
* See Dillmann, 1. c., 235-241 ; D. F. Strauss, 1. c., 402-408 ; A. B. Davidson :
Theology of O. T., p. 105 ; 149 f.
84 JEWISH THEOLOGY
God "shall be King of the whole earth, and His name shall
be One." 1 Yet Judaism is based precisely upon this higher
view. The very first pages of Genesis, the opening of the
Torah, as well as the exilic portions of Isaiah which form the
culmination of the prophets, and the Psalms also, prove suffi
ciently that at their time monotheism was an axiom of Ju
daism. In fact, heathenism had become synonymous with
both image-worship and belief in many gods beside the Only
One of Israel, and accordingly had lost all hold upon the Jewish
people. The heathen gods were given a place in the celestial
economy, but only as subordinate rulers or as the guardian
angels of the nations, and always under the dominion of God
on high. 2
5. Later, in the contest against Graeco-Egyptian paganism,
the doctrine of God s unity was emphasized in the Alexandrian
propaganda literature, of which only a portion has been pre
served for us. Here antagonism in the most forcible form is
expressed against the delusive cults of paganism, and exclu
sive worship claimed for "the unseen, yet all-seeing God, the
uncreated Creator of the world." 3 The Rabbinical Haggadah
contains but dim reminiscences of the extensive propaganda
carried on previous to Hillel, the Talmudic type of the propa
gandist. Moreover, this period fostered free inquiry and
philosophical discussion, and therefore the doctrine of unity
emerged more and more from simple belief to become a matter
of reason. The God of truth put to flight the gods of false
hood. Hence many gentiles espoused the cause of Judaism,
becoming "God-fearing men." 4
6. In this connection it seems necessary to point out the
difference between the God of the Greek philosophers
Xenophanes and Anaxagoras, Plato and Aristotle and the
God of the Bible. In abandoning their own gods, the Greek
1 Zach. XIV, 9. 2 Deut. IV, 19 ; Jer. X, 2.
* Bousset, 1. c., 221 f., 348. * See Chapter LVI, below.
THE ONE AND ONLY GOD 85
philosophers reached a deistic view of the cosmos. As their
study of science showed them plan and order everywhere,
they concluded that the universe is governed by an all-en
compassing Intelligence, a divine power entirely distinct from
the capricious deities of the popular religion. Reflection led
them to a complete rupture with their religious belief. The
Biblical belief in God underwent a different process. After
God had once been conceived of, He was held up as the ideal
of morality, including both righteousness and holiness. Then
this doctrine was continuously elucidated and deepened, until
a stage was reached where a harmony could be established
between the teachings of Moses and the wisdom of Plato and
Aristotle. To the noble thinkers of Hellas truth was an object
of supreme delight, the highest privilege of the sage. To the
adherents of Judaism truth became the holiest aim of life for
the entire people, for which all were taught to battle and to
die, as did the Maccabean heroes and Daniel and his asso
ciates, their prototypes.
7. A deeper meaning was attached to the doctrine of God s
unity under Persian rule, in contact with the religious system
of Zoroaster. To the Persians life was a continual conflict
between the principles of good and of evil, until the ultimate
victory of good shall come. This dualistic view of the world
greatly excels all other heathen religious systems, insofar as it
assigns ethical purpose to the whole of life. Yet the great
seer of the Exile opposes this system in the name of the God
of Judaism, speaking to Cyrus, the king of Persia ; "I am the
Lord and there is none else ; beside Me there is no God. I
will gird thee, though thou dost not know Me, in order that
the people shall know from the rising of the sun and from
the west that there is none beside Me. I form the light and
create darkness ; I make peace and also create evil, I am the
Lord that doeth these things." l This declaration of pure
1 Isa. XLV, 5-7.
86 JEWISH THEOLOGY
monotheism is incompatible with dualism in both the phys
ical and the moral world; it regards evil as being mere
semblance without reality, an opposing force which can be
overcome and rendered a source of new strength for the vic
tory of the good. "Out of the mouth of the Most High
cometh there not the evil and the good?" l
8. The division of the world into rival realms of good and
evil powers, of angelic and demoniacal forces, which originated
in ancient Chaldea and underlies the Zoroastrian dualism,
finally took hold of Judaism also. Still this was not carried
to such an extent that Satan, the supreme ruler of the demon
world, was given a dominion equal to that of God, or inter
fering with it, so as to impair thereby the principle of mono
theism, as was done by the Church later on. As a matter
of fact, at the time of nascent Christianity the leaders of the
Synagogue took rigid measures against those heretics (Minim)
who believed in two divine powers, 2 because they recognized
the grave danger of moral degeneracy in this Gnostic dualism.
In the Church it led first to the deification of Christ (i.e. the
Messiah) as the vanquisher of Satan; afterwards, owing toa
compromise with heathenism, the Trinity was adopted to
correspond with the three-fold godhead, father, mother,
and son, the place of the mother deity being taken by the
Holy Ghost, which was originally conceived as a female power
(the Syrian Ruha being of the feminine gender). 3
9. The churchmen have attempted often enough to har
monize the dualism or trinitarianism of Christianity with the
monotheism of the Bible. Still Judaism persists in consider
ing such an infringement upon the belief in Israel s one and
only God as really a compromise with heathenism. "A
1 Lam. Ill, 38.
*Shetke Reshuyoth, see Hag. 15 a; Deut. R. I. 10; Eccl. R. II, 12; Weber,
1. c., 152; Joel, Blicke in d. Religions gesch., II, 157.
8 D. F. Strauss, 1. c., 409-501 ; J. E., art. Christianity.
THE ONE AND ONLY GOD 87
Jew is he who opposes every sort of polytheism," says the
Talmud. 1
10. The medieval Jewish thinkers therefore made re
doubled efforts to express with utmost clearness the doctrine
of God s unity. In this effort they received special encourage
ment from the example of the leaders of Islam, whose vic
torious march over the globe was a triumph for the one God
of Abraham over the triune God of Christianity. A great
tide of intellectual progress arose, lending to the faith of the
Mohammedans and subsequently also to that of the Jews an
impetus which lasted for centuries. The new thought and keen
research of that period had a lasting influence upon the whole
development of western culture. An alliance was effected
between religion and philosophy, particularly by the leading
Jewish minds, which proved a liberating and stimulating force
in all fields of scientific investigation. Thus the pure idea
of monotheism became the basis for modern science and the
entire modern world-view. 2
11. The Mohammedan thinkers devoted their attention
chiefly to elucidating and spiritualizing the God idea, begin
ning as early as the third century of Islamism, so to interpret
the Koran as to divest God of all anthropomorphic attributes
and to stress His absolute unity, uniqueness, and the incom-
parability of His oneness. Soon they became familiar with
neo-Platonic and afterward with Aristotelian modes of specu
lation through the work of Syrian and Jewish translators.
With the help of these they built up a system of theology
which influenced Jewish thought also, first in Karaite and then
in Rabbanite circles. 3 Thus sprang up successively the philo
sophical systems of Saadia, Jehuda ha Levi, Ibn Gabirol,
Bahya, Ibn Baud, and Maimonides. The philosophical hymns
and the articles of faith, both of which found a place in the lit-
1 Meg. 13 a. * Comp. Lange: Gesch. d. Materialismus, I, 149-158.
1 Alfred v. Kremer, 1. c., 9-33 ; J. E., art. Arabic and Arabic-Jewish Philosophy.
88 JEWISH THEOLOGY
urgy of the Synagogue, were the work of their followers. The
highest mode of adoring God seemed to be the elaboration of
the idea of His unity to its logical conclusion, which satisfied
the philosophical mind, though often remote from the under
standing of the multitude. For centuries the supreme effort
of Jewish thought was to remove Him from the possibility of
comparison with any other being, and to abolish every con
ception which might impair His absolute and simple unity.
This mental activity filled the dwellings of Israel with light,
even when the darkness of ignorance covered the lands of
Christendom, dispelled only here and there by rays of knowl
edge emanating from Jewish quarters. 1
12. The proofs of the unity of God adduced by Moham
medan and Jewish thinkers were derived from the rational
order, design, and unity of the cosmos, and from the laws of
the mind itself. These aided in endowing Judaism with a
power of conviction which rendered futile the conversionist
efforts of the Church, with its arguments and its threats.
Israel s only One proved to be the God of truth, high and
holy to both the mind and the heart. The Jewish masters of
thought rendered Him the highest object of their speculation,
only to bow in awe before Him who is beyond all human
ken ; the Jewish martyrs likewise cheerfully offered up their
lives in His honor ; and thus all hearts echoed the battle-cry
of the centuries, "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord
is One," and all minds were illumined by the radiant hope,
"The Lord will be King of the earth; on that day the Lord
shall be One, and His name shall be One."
13. Under all conditions, however, the doctrine of unity
remained free from outward compulsion and full of intrinsic
vigor and freshness. There was still room for differences of
opinion, such as whether God s life, power, wisdom, and unity
are attributes distinct from His being, and qualifying it,
1 See Draper s Conflict between Religion and Science.
THE ONE AND ONLY GOD 89
or whether they are inherent in His nature, comprising His
very essence. This controversy aimed to determine the con
ception of God, either by Aristotelian rationalism, as repre
sented by Maimonides, or by the positive religious assumptions
of Crescas and others.
This is Maimonides statement of the unity : " God is one ;
that is, He is unlike any other unit, whether made one in
point of numbers or species, or by virtue of composition, sepa
ration, and simplification. He is one in Himself, there being
no multiplicity in Him. His unity is beyond all definition." 1
Ibn Gabirol in his "Crown of Royalty" puts the same
thought into poetic form : "One art Thou ; the wise wonder
at the mystery of Thy unity, not knowing what it is. One
art Thou ; not like the one of dimension or number, as neither
addition nor change, neither attribute nor quality affects
Thy being. Thou art God, who sustainest all beings by Thy
divinity, who boldest all creatures in Thy unity. Thou art
God, and there is no distinction between Thy unity, Thy
eternity, and Thy being. All is mystery, and however the
names may differ, they all tell that Thou art but one." 2
14. Side by side with this rationalistic trend, Judaism
always contained a current of mysticism. The mystics ac
cepted literally the anthropomorphic pictures of the Deity in
the Bible, and did not care how much they might affect the
spirituality and unity of God. The philosophic schools had
contended against the anthropomorphic views of the older
mystics, and thus had brought higher views of the Godhead
to dominance; but when the rationalistic movement had
spent its force, the reaction came in the form of the Cabbalah,
the secret lore which claimed to have been "transmitted"
(according to the meaning of the word) from a hoary past.
The older system of thought had stripped the Deity of all
reality and had robbed religion of all positiveness ; now, in
1 Maim. : Yesode ha Torah, I, 7. Sachs, 1. c., 3.
90 JEWISH THEOLOGY
contrast, the soul demanded a God of revelation through
faith in whom might come exaltation and solace. 1
Nevertheless the Maimonidean articles of faith were adopted
into the liturgy because of their emphasis on the absolute unity
and indivisibility of God, by which they constituted a vigor
ous protest against the Christian dogma. Judaism ever found
its strength in God the only One, and will find Him ever
anew a source of inspiration and rejuvenation.
1 See Sclimiedl, 1. c., 239-258.
CHAPTER XIV
GOD S OMNIPOTENCE AND OMNISCIENCE
1. Among all the emotions which underlie our God-con
sciousness the foremost is the realization of our own weakness
and helplessness. This makes us long for One mightier than
ourselves, for the Almighty whose acts are beyond comparison.
The first attribute, therefore, with which we feeble mortals
invest our Deity is omnipotence. Thus the pagan ascribes
supreme power over their different realms to his various deities.
Hence the name for God among all the Semites is El "the
Powerful One." 1 Judaism claims for God absolute and un
limited power over all that is. It declares Him to be the source
and essence of all strength, the almighty Creator and Ruler
of the universe. All that exists is His creation ; all that occurs
is His achievement. He is frequently called by the rabbis
ha Geburah, the Omnipotence. 2
2. The historical method of study seems to indicate that
various cosmic potencies were worshiped in primitive life
either singly or collectively under the name of Elohim, " divine
powers, " or Zibeoth Elohim, " hosts of divine powers. " With
the acceptance of the idea of divine omnipotence, these were
united into a confederacy of divine forces under the dominion
of the one God, the "Lord of Hosts." Still these powers of
heaven, earth and the deep by no means at once surrendered
their identity. Most of them became angels, "messengers" of
the omnipotent God, or " spirits " roaming in the realms
where once they ruled, while a few were relegated as monsters
to the region of superstition. The heathen deities, which
1 See Hebrew Dictionary, El; comp. Dillmann, 1. c., 210, 244.
1 See Levy, W. B. : Geburah.
92 JEWISH THEOLOGY
persisted for a while in popular belief, were also placed with
the angels as "heavenly rulers" of their respective lands or
nations about the throne of the Most High. At all events,
Israel s God was enthroned above them all as Lord of the
universe. In fact, the Alexandrian translators and some of the
rabbis actually explained in this sense the Biblical names El
Shaddai and J .H. V.H. Zebaoth. 1 The medieval philosophers,
however, took a backward step away from the Biblical view
when, under the influence of Neoplatonism, they represented
the angels and the spirits of the stars as intermediary forces. 2
3. According to the Bible, both the Creation and the order
of the universe testify to divine omnipotence. God called
all things into existence by His almighty word, unassisted by
His heavenly messengers. He alone stretched out the heavens,
set bounds to the sea, and founded the earth on pillars that
it be not moved ; none was with Him to partake in the work.
This is the process of creation according to the first chapter
of Genesis and the fortieth chapter of Isaiah. So He ap
pears throughout the Scriptures as "the Doer of wonders, "
"whose arm never waxes short" to carry out His will. "He
fainteth not, neither is He weary." His dominion extends
over the sea and the storm, over life and death, over high and
low. Intermediary forces participating in His work are
never mentioned. They are referrred to only in the poetic
description of creation in the book of Job: "Where wast
thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? . . . When the
morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted
for joy." 3
1 See Septuagint to Job V, 17; VIII, 3, and II Sam. V, 10; VII, 8, and
Ber. 31 b.
2 See Schmiedl, 1. c., 67 ff. David Neumark thinks that both the prophet
Jeremiah and the Mishnah knew and rejected the belief in angels. See his
article Ikkarim in Ozar Ha Yahduth.
3 Gen. XVIII, 14; Num. XI, 13; Is. XL, 12; Jer. V, 22; X, 12; XXVII,
5; XXXII, 17; Zach. VIII, 6; Job XXXVIII, 7; XLII, i.
GOD S OMNIPOTENCE AND OMNISCIENCE 93
Proof of God s supreme power was found particularly in
history, either in His miraculous changing of the natural
order, or in His defeat of the mighty hostile armies which
bade Him defiance. 1 Often the heathen deities or the celestial
powers are introduced as dramatic figures to testify to the
triumph of the divine omnipotence, as when the Lord is said
to " execute judgment against the gods of Egypt" or when
"the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." 2
4. God s power is limited only by His own volition. "He
doeth what He willeth." 3 In man the will and the power
for a certain act are far apart, and often directly conflicting.
Not so with God, for the very idea of God is perfection, and
His will implies necessarily the power to accomplish the desired
end. His will is determined only by such factors as His
knowledge and His moral self-restraint.
5. Therefore the idea of God s omnipotence must be coupled
with that of His omniscience. Both His power and His
knowledge are unlike man s in being without limitation.
When we repeat the Biblical terms of an all-seeing, all-hearing,
and all-knowing God, we mean in the first instance that the
limitation of space does not exist for Him. He beholds the
extreme parts of the earth and observes all that happens under
the heavens ; nothing is hidden from His sight. He not only
sees the deeds of men, He also searches their thoughts. Look
ing into their hearts, He knows the word, ere it is upon the
tongue. Looking into the future, he knows every creature,
ere it enters existence. "The darkness and the light are alike
to Him." With one glance He surveys all that is and all that
happens. 4 He is, as the rabbis express it, "the all-seeing Eye
and the all-hearing Ear." 6
Deut. Ill, 24; XI, 3; XXVI, 8; XXIX, 2; Jer. X, 6; Ps. LXV, 7;
LXVI, 7; LXIV-LXXVIII; I Chron. XXIX, u, 12.
2 Ex. XII, 12 ; Judges V, 10. 3 Daniel IV, 35.
<Ps. XI, 4; XXXIII, 13 f.; CXXXEX; Jer. XI, 20; XVII, 10; Job
XII, 13 ; Dan. II, 20 f . * Aboth U, x.
94 JEWISH THEOLOGY
In like manner the distinctions of time disappear before
Him. The entire past is unrolled before His sight ; His book
records all that men do or suffer, even their tears ; 1 and there
is no forgetfulness with Him. The remotest future also is
open before Him, for it is planned by Him, and in it He has
allotted to each being its days and its steps. 2 Yea, as He
beholds events ere they transpire, so He reveals the secrets of
the future to His chosen ones, in order to warn men of the
judgments that threaten them. 3
6. The idea of divine omniscience could ripen only gradually
in the minds of the people. The older and more child-like
conception still remains in the stories of the Deluge and the
Tower of Babel, where God descended from heaven to watch
the doings of men, and repented of what He had done. 4 Ob
viously the idea of divine omniscience took hold of the people
as a result of the admonitions of the prophets.
7. Philosophical inquiry into the ideas of the divine omnip
otence and omniscience, however, discloses many difficulties.
The Biblical assertion that nothing is impossible to God will
not stand the test as soon as we ask seriously whether God
can make the untrue true, as making two times two to
equal five or whether He can declare the wrong to be right.
Obviously He cannot overturn the laws of mathematical truth
or of moral truth, without at the same time losing His nature
as the Source and Essence of all truth. Nor can He abrogate
the laws of nature, which are really His own rules for His
creation, without detracting from both His omniscience and
the immutability of His will. This question will be discussed
more fully in connection with miracles, in chapter XXVII.
Together with the problem of the divine omniscience arises
the difficulty of reconciling this with our freedom of will and
1 Mai. Ill, 16; Ps. LVI, 9.
2 See New Year liturgy, Singer s Prayerbook, 249.
Amos III, 7. ; Gen. XVIII, 17. 4 Gen. VI, 5 ; XI, 5 ; XVIII, 21.
GOD S OMNIPOTENCE AND OMNISCIENCE 95
our moral responsibility. Would not His foreknowledge of
our actions in effect determine them? This difficulty can
only be solved by a proper conception of the freedom of the
will, and will be discussed in that connection in chapter
XXXVII.
Altogether, we must guard against applying our human type
of knowledge to God. Man, limited by space and time,
obtains his knowledge of things and events by his senses,
becoming aware of them separately as they exist either beside
each other or in succession. With God all knowledge is
complete ; there is no growth of knowledge from yesterday to
to-day, no knowledge of only a part instead of the whole of
the world. His omniscience and omnipotence are bound up
with His omnipresence and eternity. "For My thoughts are
not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith
the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so
are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than
your thoughts." 1
1 Isa. LV, 8, 9.
CHAPTER XV
GOD S OMNIPRESENCE AND ETERNITY
1. As soon as man awakens to a higher consciousness of
God, he realizes the vast distance between his own finite
being limited by space and time, and the Infinite Being which
rules everywhere and unceasingly in lofty grandeur and un
limited power. His very sense of being hedged in by the
bounds and imperfections of a finite existence makes him long
for the infinite God, unlimited in might, and brings to him
the feeling of awe before His greatness. But this conception
of God as the omnipresent and everlasting Spirit, as distinct
from any created being, is likewise the result of many stages
of growing thought.
2. The primitive mind imagines God as dwelling in a
lofty place, whence He rules the earth beneath, descending
at times to take part in the affairs of men, to tarry among
them, or to walk with them. 1 The people adhered largely to
this conception during the Biblical period, as they considered
as the original seat of the Deity, first Paradise, later on Sinai
or Zion, and finally the far-off heavens. It required prophetic
vision to discern that "the heavens and the heavens heavens
do not encompass God s majesty," expressed also in poetic
imagery that "the heaven is My throne and the earth My
footstool." 2 The classic form of this idea of the divine omni
presence is found in the oft-quoted passage from Psalm
CXXXIX. 3
1 Gen. IV, 16; XI, 5; XVIII, 21; XXVIII, 16; Deut. XXVI, 15; Micah
I, 3 ; see Strauss, 1. c., I, 548 f .
2 1 Kings VIII, 27 ; Isa. LXVI, i. 3 See above, Chapter XII, 5.
96
GOD S OMNIPRESENCE AND ETERNITY 97
3. The dwelling places of God are to give way the moment
His omnipresence is understood as penetrating the universe to
such an extent that nothing escapes His glance nor lies with
out His dominion. 1 They are then transformed into places
where He had manifested His Name, His Glory, or His Pres
ence (" Countenance/ in the Hebrew). In this way certain
emanations or powers of God were formed which could be
located in a certain space without impairing the divine omni
presence. These intermediary powers will be the theme of
chapter XXXII.
The following dialogue illustrates this stage of thought:
A heretic once said sarcastically to Gamaliel II, " Ye say that
where ten persons assemble for worship, there the divine
majesty (Shekinah) descends upon them ; how many such
majesties are there?" To which Gamaliel replied: "Does
not the one orb of day send forth a million rays upon the earth ?
And should not the majesty of God, which is a million times
brighter than the sun, be reflected in every spot on earth?" 2
4. Nevertheless a conception of pure spirit is very difficult
to attain, even in regard to God. The thought of His omni
presence is usually interpreted by imagining some ethereal
substance which expands infinitely, as Ibn Ezra and Saadia
before him were inclined to do, 3 or by picturing Him as a
sort of all-encompassing Space, in accordance with the
rabbis. 4 The New Testament writers and the Church fathers
likewise spoke of God as Spirit, but really had in mind, for
the most part, an ethereal substance resembling light pervad
ing cosmic space. The often-expressed belief that man may
see God after death rests upon this conception of God as a
substance perceptible to the mind. 6
1 Comp. Amos IX, 2 ; Jer. XXIII, 24. J Sanh. 39 a.
1 Comp. Kaufmann, 1. c., 70 and 71, notes 130, 131 ; Strauss, 1. c., I, 551.
* Makom, see above, Chapter X, 8-9; Schechter, Aspects, 26 f.
Luk. 45 b; comp. I Corinth. XIII, 12, based on Ex. XXXIII, 28; Ps.
XVII, 15.
98 JEWISH THEOLOGY
A higher standpoint is taken by a thinker such as Ibn
Gabirol, who finds God s omnipresence in His all-pervading
will and intellect. 1 But this type of divine omnipresence is
rather divine immanence. The religious consciousness has a
quite different picture of God, a self-conscious Personality,
ever near to man, ever scanning his acts, his thoughts, and his
motives. Here philosophy and religion part company. The
former must abstain from the assumption of a divine person
ality ; the latter cannot do without it. The God of religion
must partake of the knowledge and the feelings of His wor
shiper, must know his every impulse and idea, and must feel
with him in his suffering and need. God s omnipresence is in
this sense a postulate of religion.
5. The second earthly and human limitation is that of time.
Confined by space and time, man casts his eyes upward toward
a Being who shall be infinite and eternal. Whatever time
begets, time swallows up again. Transitoriness is the fate of
all things. Everything which enters existence must end at
last. "Also heaven and earth perish and wax old like a
garment. Only God remains forever the same, and His years
have no end. He is from everlasting to everlasting, the first
and the last." So speak prophet and psalmist, voicing a
universal thought 2 ; and our liturgical poet sings :
"The Lord of all did reign supreme
Ere yet this world was made and formed ;
When all was finished by His will,
Then was His name as King proclaimed.
"And should these forms no more exist,
He still will rule in majesty ;
He was, He is, He shall remain,
His glory never shall decrease." 3
1 See Kaufmann, 1. c., 100 f.
2 Isa. XL VIII, 12 ; Ps. XC, 2 f. ; Oil, 26, 27. On the process of develop
ment of the idea of eternity, see Neumark, 1. c., II, 77.
3 Adon Olam, Singer s Prayerbook, p. 3.
GOD S OMNIPRESENCE AND ETERNITY 99
6. But the idea of God s eternity also presents certain
difficulties to the thinking mind. As Creator and Author of
the universe, God is the First Cause, without beginning or
end, the Source of all existence ; as Ruler and Master of the
world, He maintains all things through all eternity ; though
heaven and earth " wax old like a garment," He outlasts them
all. Now, if He is to manifest these powers from everlasting
to everlasting, He must ever remain the same. Consequently,
we must add immutability as a corollary of eternity, if the
latter is to mean anything. It is not enough to state that God
is without beginning and without end ; the essential part of
the doctrine is His transcendence above the changes and con
ditions of time. We mortals cannot really entertain a con
ception of eternity ; our nearest approach to it is an endless
succession of periods of time, a ceaseless procession of ages and
eons following each other. Endless time is not at all the same as
timelessness. Therefore eternity signifies transcendence above
all existence in time ; its real meaning is supermundaneity . l
7. This seems the best way to avoid the difficulty which
seemed almost insuperable to the medieval thinkers, how to
reconcile a Creation at a certain time and a Creator for whom
time does not exist. In the effort to solve the difficulty, they
resorted to the Platonic and Aristotelian definition of time as
the result of the motions of the heavenly bodies ; thus they
declared that time was created simultaneously with the world.
This is impossible for the modern thinker, who has learned
from Kant to regard time and space, not as external realities,
but as human modes of apperception of objects. So the con
trast between the transient character of the world and the
eternity of God becomes all the greater with the increasing
realization of the vast gap between the material world and the
divine spirit.
1 See Strauss, 1. c., 562, 651 ; Kaufmann, 1. c., 306 f.; Drummond : Philo
II, 46.
ioo JEWISH THEOLOGY
At this point arises a still greater difficulty. The very idea
of creation at a certain time becomes untenable in view of our
knowledge of the natural process ; the universe itself, it seems
to us, extends over an infinity of space and time. Indeed,
the modern view of evolution in place of creation has the grave
danger of leading to pantheism, to a conception of the cosmos
which sees in God only an eternal energy (or substance) de
void of free volition and self-conscious action. 1 We can evade
the difficulty only by assuming God s transcendence, and this
can be done in such a way as not to exclude His immanence,
or what is the same thing His omnipresence.
8. Both God s omnipresence and His eternity are intended
only to raise Him far above the world, out of the confines of
space and time, to represent His sublime loftiness as the
"Rock of Ages," as holding worlds without number in "His
eternal arms." "Nothing can be hidden from Him who has
reared the entire universe and is familiar with every part of it,
however remote." 2
1 See Chapter XXV below.
2 Tanh. Naso ed. Buber, 8 ; Gen. R. IX, 9 with reference to Jer. XXIII, 24.
CHAPTER XVI
GOD S HOLINESS
1. Judaism recognizes two distinct types of divine attri
butes. Those which we have so far considered belong to the
metaphysical group, which chiefly engage the attention of
the philosopher. They represent God as a transcendental
Being who is ever beyond our comprehension, because our
finite intellect can never grasp the infinite Spirit. They are
not descriptions, but rather inferences from the works of the
Master of the world to the Master himself. But there are
other divine attributes which we derive from our own moral
nature, and which invest our whole life with a higher moral
character. Instead of arising from the external necessity
which governs nature in its causes and effects, these rest upon
our assumption of inner freedom, setting the aims for all that
we achieve. This moral nature is realized to some extent even
by the savage, when he trembles before his deity in pangs of
conscience, or endeavors to propitiate him by sacrifices. Still,
Judaism alone fully realized the moral nature of the Deity;
this was done by investing the term "holiness" with the idea
of moral perfection, so that God became the ideal and pattern
of the loftiest morality. "Be ye holy, for I the Lord your
God am holy." 1 This is the central and culminating idea of
the Jewish law. 2
2. Holiness is the essence of all moral perfection ; it is
purity unsullied by any breath of evil. True holiness can be
1 Lev. XIX, i.
1 Comp. Dillmann, 1. c., 252 f. ; Strauss, 1. .,"593 f. ; RauwenhofT, 1. c., 498-
505 ; Lazarus : Ethics of Judaism, Chapters IV- V.
101
102 JEWISH THEOLOGY
ascribed only to Divinity, above the realm of the flesh and the
senses. " There is none holy but the Lord, for there is none
beside Thee," says Scripture. 1 Whether man stands on a lower
or higher level of culture, he has in all his plans and aspirations
some ideal of perfection to which he may never attain, but
which serves as the standard for his actions. The best of his
doings falls short of what he ought to do ; in his highest efforts
he realizes the potentiality of better things. This ideal of
moral perfection works as the motive power of the will in setting
for it a standard ; it establishes human freedom in place of
nature s compulsion, but such an ideal can emanate only from
the moral power ruling life, which we designate as the divine
Holiness.
3. Scripture says of God that He " walketh in holiness," 2 and
accordingly morality in man is spoken of as "walking in the
ways of God." 3 "Walk before Me and be perfect!" says
God to Abraham. 4 Moses approached God with two petitions,
the one, " Show me Thy ways that I may know Thee ! " the
other, "Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory !" In response to
the latter God said, "No man can see Me and live", but the
former petition was granted in that the Lord revealed Himself
in His moral attributes. 5 These alone can be understood and
emulated by man; in regard to the so-called metaphysical
attributes God will ever remain beyond human comprehension
and emulation.
4. In order to serve as vehicle for the expression of the
highest moral perfection, the Biblical term for holiness, Kadosh,
had to undergo a long process of development, obscuring its
original meaning. The history of this term gives us the
deepest insight into the working of the Jewish genius towards
the full revelation of the God of holiness. At first the word
1 1 Sam. II, 21. 2 Ps. LXXVII, 14.
3 Deut. X, 12 ; XI, 22, and elsewhere.
Gen. XVIII, 19. B Ex. XXXIII, 13-23.
GOD S HOLINESS 103
Kadosh l seems to have denoted unapproachableness in the
sense in which fire is unapproachable, that is, threatening and
consuming. This fiery nature was ascribed by primitive man
to all divine beings. Hence the angels are termed "the holy
ones" in Scripture. 2 According to both priestly practice and
popular belief, the man who approached one of these holy
ones with hand or foot, or even with his gaze, was doomed to
die. 3 Out of such crude conceptions evolved the idea of
God s majesty as unapproachable in the sense of the sublime,
banishing everything profane from its presence, and visiting
with punishment every violation of its sanctity. The old
conception of the fiery appearance of the Deity served espe
cially as a figurative expression of the moral power of God,
which manifests itself as a "consuming fire," 4 exterminating
evil, and making man long for the good and the true, for right
eousness and love.
5. The divine attribute of holiness has accordingly a double
meaning. On the one hand, it indicates spiritual loftiness
transcending everything sensual, which works as a purging
power of indignation at evil, rebuking injustice, impurity and
falsehood, and punishing transgression until it is removed from
the sight of God. On the other hand, it denotes the conde
scending mercy of God, which, having purged the soul of wrong,
wins it for the right, and which endows man with the power of
perfecting himself, and thus leads him to the gradual building
up of the kingdom of goodness and purity on earth. This
ethical conception of holiness, which emanates from the moral
nature of God, revealed to the prophetic genius of Israel, must
not be confused with the old Semitic conception of priestly or
1 See J. E., art. Holiness. The Assyrian Kuddisu denotes "bright," "pure,"
according to Zimmern in Religion und Sprache, K. A. T., 3d ed., 603.
1 Deut. XXXIII, 3 ; Job V, i ; VI, 10; XV, 15 ; Ps. LXXXIX, 6, 8.
1 Ex. XIX, 21 f. ; XXIV, 17 ; I Sam. VI, 20; Josh. XXIV, 19; Isa. IV, 3;
VI, 3, 13; X, 17; XXXI, 9; XXXIII, 14; Hab. I, 13.
4 Deut. IV, 24; Ex. XXIV, 17.
104 JEWISH THEOLOGY
ritual holiness. Ritual holiness is purely external, and is
transferable to persons and things, to times and places, accord
ing to their relation to the Deity. Hence the various cults ap
plied the term "holy " to the most abominable forms of idolatry
and impure worship. 1 The Mosaic law condemned all these as
violations of the holiness of Israel s God, but could not help
sanctioning many ordinances and rites of priestly holiness
which originated in ancient Semitic usages. Hence the two
conceptions of holiness, the priestly or external and the pro
phetic or ethical, became interwoven in the Mosaic code to
such an extent as to impair the standard of ethical holiness
stressed by the prophets, the unique and lofty possession of
Judaism. Hence the letter of the Law caused a deplorable
confusion of ideas, which was utilized by the detractors of
Judaism. The liberal movement of modern Judaism, in
pointing to the prophetic ideals as the true basis of the Jewish
faith, is at the same time dispelling this ancient confusion of
the two conceptions of holiness.
6. The Levitical holiness adheres outwardly to persons and
things and consists in their separation or their reservation from
common use. In striking contrast to this, the holiness which
Judaism attributes to God denotes the highest ethical purity,
unattainable to flesh and blood, but designed for our emulation.
The contemplation of the divine holiness is to inspire man
with fear of sin and to exert a healthful influence upon his
conduct. Thus God became the hallowing power in Judaism
and its institutions, truly the "Holy One of Israel" according
to the term of Isaiah and his great exilic successor, the so-called
Deutero-Isaiah. 2 Thus His holiness invested His people with
1 Comp. the name Kadesh and Kedesha for the hierodules consecrated to
Astarte. See Deut. XXIII, 18; I Kings XIV, 24; XV, 12; Hosea IV, 14.
Comp. Zimmern, 1. c., p. 423.
2Isa. I, 4; V, 12; X, 20; XII, 6; XLI, 14; XLIII, 3 f.; XLV, n; and
elsewhere.
GOD S HOLINESS 105
special sanctity and imposed upon it special obligations. In
the words of Ezekiel, God became the "Sanctifier of Israel." 1
The rabbis penetrated deeply into the spirit of Scripture,
at the same time that they adhered strictly to its letter.
While they clung tenaciously to the ritual holiness of the
priestly codes, they recognized the ideal of holiness which is
so sharply opposed in every act and thought to the demoraliz
ing cults of heathenism. 2
7. Accordingly, holiness is not the metaphysical concept
which Jehuda ha Levi considers it, 3 but the principle and source
of all ethics, the spirit of absolute morality, lending purpose
and value to the whole of life. As long as men do good or
shun evil through fear of punishment or hope for reward,
whether in this life or the hereafter, so long will ideal morality
remain unattained, and man cannot claim to stand upon the
ground of divine holiness. The holy God must penetrate and
control all of life such is the essence of Judaism. The true
aim of human existence is not salvation of the soul, a desire
which is never quite free from selfishness, but holiness
emulating God, striving to do good for the sake of the good
without regard to recompense, and to shun evil because it is
evil, aside from all consequences. 4
8. The fact is that holiness is a religious term, based upon
divine revelation, not a philosophical one resting upon specula
tive reasoning. It is a postulate of our moral nature that all
life is governed by a holy Will to which we must submit
willingly, and which makes for the good. How volition and
compulsion are with God one and the same, how the good
exists in God without the bad, or holiness and moral purpose
without unholy or immoral elements, how God can be exactly
opposite to all we know of man, this is a question which
1 Ezek. XX, 12 ; XXXVII, 28; Ex. XXXI, 13, and elsewhere.
1 See Sifra and Rabba to Lev. XIX, 2.
1 Cuzari IV, 3 ; Kaufmann, 1. c., 162 f. Aboth, I, 3.
io6 JEWISH THEOLOGY
philosophy is unable to answer. In fact, holiness is best
defined negatively, as the " negation of all that man from his
own experience knows to be unholy." These words of the
Danish philosopher Rauwenhoff are made still clearer by the
following observations: "The strength in the idea of holiness
lies exactly in its negative character. There is no comparison
of higher or lesser degree possible between man s imperfections
and God s perfect goodness. Instead, there is an absolute con
trast between mankind which, even in its noblest types, must
wrestle with the power of evil, and God, in whom nothing
can be imagined which would even suggest the possibility of
any moral shortcoming or imperfection." 1 As the prophet
says, "Thou art too pure of eyes to look complacently upon
evil," 2 and according to the Psalmist, "Who shall ascend into
the mountain of the Lord, and who shall stand in His holy
place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart." 3
9. The idea of holiness became the preeminent feature of
Judaism, so that the favorite name for God in Rabbinical
literature was "the Holy One, blessed be He," and the acme of
all ceremonial and moral laws alike was found in "the Hallow
ing of His name." 4 If the rabbis as followers of the Priestly
Code were compelled to lay great stress upon ritual holiness,
they yet beheld in it the means of moral purification. They
never lost sight of the prophetic principle that moral purity is
the object of all human life, for "the holy God is sanctified
through righteousness." 5
1 Rauwenhoff, 1. c., 504. 2 Hab. I, 13.
3 Psalm XXIV, 4-5.
4 L. Lazarus : Z. Characteristik d.juedisch. Ethik, 40-45 ; M. Lazarus : Ethics
of Judaism, p. 184.
*Isa. V, 16.
CHAPTER XVII
GOD S WRATH AND PUNISHMENT
1. Scripture speaks frequently of the anger and zeal of God
and of His avenging sword and judgment, so as to give the
impression that " the Old Testament God is a God of wrath and
vengeance." As a matter of fact, these attributes are merely
emanations of His holiness, the guide and incentive to moral
action in man. The burning fire of the divine holiness aims
to awaken the dormant seeds of morality in the human soul
and to ripen them into full growth. Whenever we to-day
would speak of pangs of conscience, of bitter remorse, Scripture
uses figurative language and describes how God s wrath is
kindled against the wrongdoing of the people, and how fire
blazes forth from His nostrils to consume them in His anger.
The nearer man stands to nature, the more tempestuous are
the outbursts of his passion, and the more violent is the reaction
of his repentance. Yet this very reaction impresses him as
though wrought from outside or above by the offended Deity.
Thus the divine wrath becomes a means of moral education,
exactly as the parents indignation at the child s offenses is
part of his training in morality.
2. Thus the first manifestation of God s holiness is His
indignation at falsehood and violence, His hatred of evil and
wrongdoing. The longer men persist in sin, the more does He
manifest Himself as "the angry God," as a "consuming fire"
which destroys evil with holy zeal. 1 The husbandman cannot
1 Comp. Dillmann, 1. c., 258 f.; J. E., art. "Anger."
107
io8 JEWISH THEOLOGY
expect the good harvest until he has weeded out the tares from
the field ; so God, in educating man, begins by purging the
soul from all its evil inclinations, and this zeal is all the more
unsparing as the good is finally to triumph in His eternal plan
of universal salvation. We must bear in mind that Judaism
does not personify evil as a power hostile to God, hence the
whole problem is only one of purifying the human soul. Be
fore the sun of God s grace and mercy is to shine, bearing life
and healing for all humanity, His wrath and punitive justice
must ever burst forth to cleanse the world of its sin. For
as long as evil continues unchecked, so long cannot the
divine holiness pour forth its all-forbearing goodness and
love.
3. On this account the first revelation of God on Sinai
was as "a jealous God, who visiteth the sins of the
fathers upon the children and the children s children until
the third and fourth generation." So the prophets, from
Moses to Malachi, speak ever of God s anger, which comes
with the fury of nature s unchained forces, to terrify and over
whelm all living beings. 1 Thus Scripture considers all the
great catastrophes of the hoary past, flood, earthquakes,
and the rain of fire and brimstone that destroys cities as
judgments of the divine anger on sinful generations. Wicked
ness in general causes His displeasure, but His wrath is pro
voked especially by violations of the social order, by desecra
tions of His sanctuary, or attacks on His covenant, and His
anger is kindled for the poor and helpless, when they are
oppressed and deprived of their rights. 2
4. Thus the divine holiness was felt more and more as a
moral force, and that which appeared in pre-prophetic times
to be an elemental power of the celestial ire became a refining
1 Ex. XX, 5 ; Isa. XXX, 27 f. ; Nahum I, 5 f.
2 Ex. XXII, 23 ; Num. XVII, 10 f. ; XXV, 3 ; Deut. XXIX, 19 ; XXXII,
21 ; Isa. IX, 16.
GOD S WRATH AND PUNISHMENT 109
flame, purging men of dross as in a crucible. "I will not exe
cute the fierceness of Mine anger, says the prophet, "for I
am God and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee, and
I will not come in fury. " l So sings the Psalmist, "His anger
is but for a moment ; His favor for a life-time." 2 In the same
spirit the rabbis interpreted the verse of the Decalogue, "The
sin of the fathers is visited upon the children and children s chil
dren only if they continue to act as their fathers did, and are
themselves haters of God." 3
The fact is that Israel in Canaan had become addicted to
all the vices of idolatry, and if they were to be trained to moral
purity and to loyalty to the God of the Covenant, they must
be taught fear and awe before the flame of the divine wrath.
Only after that could the prophet address himself to the con
science of the individual, saying :
" Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire ?
Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings ?
He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly ;
He that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from
holding of bribes,
That stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes
from looking upon evil ;
He shall dwell on high ; his place of defense shall be the munitions of
rocks ;
His bread shall be given, his water shall be sure.
Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty ; they shall behold a land
stretching afar." 4
Here we behold the fiery element of the divine holiness
partly depicted as a reality and partly spiritualized. The
last of the prophets compares the divine wrath to a melting
furnace, which on the Day of Judgment is to consume evil
doers as stubble, while to those who fear the Lord He
1 Hosea XI, 9. Psalm XXX.
Targum to Ex. XX, 3 ; Sanh. 27 b. Isa. XXXIII, 14-17.
no JEWISH THEOLOGY
shall appear as the sun of righteousness with healing on
its wings. 1
5. The idea as expressed by the prophets, then, was that
God s anger will visit the wicked, and particularly the ungodly
nations of heathendom, and that He shall judge all creatures in
fire. 2 This was significantly altered under Persian influence,
when the Jew began to regard the world to come as promising
to the righteous greater bliss than the present one. Then the
day of divine wrath meant doom eternal for evil-doers, who
were to fall into the fiery depths of Gehenna, " their worm is
never to die and their fire never to be quenched." 3 This
became the prevailing view of the rabbis, of the Apocalyptics
and also of the New Testament and the Church literature. 4
The Jewish propaganda in the Hellenistic literature, however,
combined the fire of Gehenna with the Stoic, or pagan, view
of a general world-conflagration, and announced a general
doomsday for the heathen world, unless they be converted to
the belief in Israel s one and holy God, and ceased violating the
fundamental (Noachian) laws of humanity. 5
6. A higher view of the punitive anger of God is taken by
Beruriah, the noble wife of R. Meir, 6 if, indeed, the wife of
the saintly Abba Helkiah did not precede her 7 in suggest
ing a different reading of the Biblical text, as to make it offer
the lesson : "not the sinners shall perish from the earth, but
the sins." From a more philosophical viewpoint both Juda ha
Levi and Maimonides hold that the anger which we ascribe to
1 Mai. ill, 2, 19 f.
2 Deut. XXXII, 35; comp. Sifre, 325; Geiger: Urschrift, 247, regarding
Samaritan text. Zeph. I, 15 ; Isa. LXVI, 15-16.
3 Isa. XVLI, 24.
4 See J. E., art. "Gehenna"; Mid. Teh. to Ps. LXXVI, n, and LXXIX;
Ned. 32 a; Taan. 9 b; Yer. Taan. II, 65 b; Ab. Zar. 4 a and b; 18 b;
Ber. 7 a; Shab. 118 a; Sanh. no b; Gen. R. VI, 9; XXVI, n, et al. ; comp.
Romans II, 5 ; Eph. V, 6 ; I Thess. I, 10.
6 Sibyll. II, 170, 285 ; III, 541, 556 f., 672-697, 760, 810; Enoch XCI, 7-9.
8 Ber. 10 a; Midr. Teh. to Ps. CIV, 35. 7 Tan. 23 b.
GOD S WRATH AND PUNISHMENT in
God is only the transference of the anger which we actually
feel at the sight of evildoing. Similarly, when we speak of the
consuming fire of hell, we depict the effect which the fear of
God must have on our inner life, until the time shall come
when we shun evil as ungodly and love the good because it is
both good and God-like. 1
1 Cuzari IV, 5 ; Moreh I, 36, and Commentary to Sanh. X, i.
CHAPTER XVIII
GOD S LONG-SUFFERING AND MERCY
i . In one of the little known apocryphal writings, the Testa
ment of Abraham, a beautiful story is told of the patriarch.
Shortly before his death, the archangel Michael drove him
along the sky in the heavenly chariot. Looking down upon
the earth, he saw companies of thieves and murderers, adul
terers, and other evil-doers pursuing their nefarious practices,
and in righteous indignation he cried out : "Oh would to God
that fire, destruction, and death should instantly befall these
criminals!" No sooner had he spoken these words than the
doom he pronounced came upon those wicked men. But
then spoke the Lord God to the heavenly charioteer Michael :
"Stop at once, lest My righteous servant Abraham in his just
indignation bring death upon all My creatures, because they
are not as righteous as he. He has not learned to restrain his
anger." * Thus, indeed, the wrath kindled at the sight of
wrongdoing would consume the sinner at once, were it not
for another quality in God, called in Scripture long-suffering.
By this He restrains His anger and gives the sinner time to
improve his ways. Though every wicked deed provokes
Him to immediate punishment, yet He shows compassion
upon the feeble mortal. "Even in wrath He remembereth
compassion." 2 "He hath no delight in the death of the sinner,
but that he shall return from his ways and live." 3 The divine
holiness does not merely overwhelm and consume ; its essen-
1 Testament of Abraham, A, X. 2 Hab. Ill, 2.
3 Ezek. XVIII, 23, 32 ; XXXIII, n.
112
GOD S LONG-SUFFERING AND MERCY 113
tial aim is the elevation of man, the effort to endow him with a
higher life.
2. It is perfectly true that a note of rigor and of profound
earnestness runs through the pages of Holy Writ. The
prophets, law-givers, and psalmists speak incessantly of how
guilt brings doom upon the lands and nations. As the father
who is solicitous of the honor of his household punishes unre
lentingly every violation of morality within it, so the Holy One
of Israel watches zealously over His people s loyalty to His
covenant. His glorious name, His holy majesty cannot be
violated with immunity from His dreaded wrath. There is
nothing of the joyous abandon which was predominant in
the Greek nature and in the Olympian gods. The ideal of
holiness was presented by the God of Israel, and all the doings
of men appeared faulty beside it.
But its power of molding character is shown by Judaism at
this very point, in that it does not stop at the condemnation of
the sinner. It holds forth the promise of God s forbearance to
man in his shortcomings, due to His compassion on the weak
ness of flesh and blood. He waits for man, erring and stum
bling, until by striving and struggling he shall attain a higher
state of purity. This is the bright, uplifting side of the Jewish
idea of the divine holiness. In this is the innermost nature
of God disclosed. In fear and awe of Him who is enthroned
on high, " before whom even the angels are not pure," man,
conscious of his sinfulness, sinks trembling into the dust before
the Judge of the whole earth. But the grace and mercy of the
long-suffering Ruler lift him up and imbue him with courage
and strength to acquire a new life and new energy. Thus the
oppressive burden of guilt is transformed into an uplifting
power through the influence of the holy God.
3. The predominance in God of mildness and mercy over
punitive anger is expressed most strikingly in the revelation
to Moses, when he had entreated God to let him see His ways.
H4 JEWISH THEOLOGY
The people had provoked God s anger by their faithlessness
in the worship of the golden calf, and He had threatened to
consume them, when Moses interceded in their behalf. Then
the Lord passed by him, and proclaimed: "The Lord, the
Lord, God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant
in goodness and truth, keeping mercy unto the thousandth
generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin ; and
that will by no means clear the guilty ; visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children and upon the children s children,
unto the third and unto the fourth generation." * Such a
passage shows clearly the progress in the knowledge of God s
nature. For Abraham and the traditions of the patriarchs
God was the righteous Judge, punishing the transgressors.
He is represented in the same way in the Decalogue on Sinai. 2
Was this to be the final word ? Was Israel chosen by God as
His covenant people, only to encounter the full measure of His
just but relentless anger and to be consumed at once for the
violation of this covenant? Therefore Moses wrestled with
his God. Filled with compassionate love for his people, he is
willing to offer his life as their ransom. And should God him
self lack this fullness of love and pity, of which even a human
being is capable? Then, as from a dark cloud, there flashed
suddenly upon him the light of a new revelation ; he became
aware of the higher truth, that above the austerity of God s
avenging anger prevails the tender forgiveness of His mercy ;
that beyond the consuming zeal of His punitive justice shines
the sun-like splendor of His grace and love. The rabbis find
the expression of mercy especially in the name JHVH (i.e.
"the One who shall ever be") which is significantly placed
here at the head of the divine attributes. Indeed, only He
who is the same from everlasting to everlasting, and to whom
to-morrow is like yesterday, can show forbearance to erring
i Ex. XXXII-XXXIV, 7. Comp. Num. XIV, 18.
1 Gen. XIX, 1-28; Ex. XX, 5-6.
GOD S LONG-SUFFERING AND MERCY 115
man, because in whatsoever he has failed yesterday he may
make good to-morrow.
4. Like Moses, the master of the prophets, so the prophet
Hosea also learned in hard spiritual struggle to know the divine
attribute of mercy and lovingkindness. His own wife had
proved faithless, and had broken the marital covenant ; still
his love survived, so that he granted her forgiveness when she
was forsaken, and took her back to his home. Then, in his
distress at the God-forsaken state of Israel through her faith
lessness, he asked himself : " Will God reject forever the nation
which He espoused, because it broke the covenant? Will
not He also grant forgiveness and mercy?" The divine
answer came to him out of the depths of his own compassionate
soul. Upon the crown of God s majesty which Amos had
beheld all effulgent with justice and righteousness, he placed
the most precious gem, reflecting the highest quality of God
His gracious and all-forgiving love. 1 Whether the priority
in this great truth belongs to Hosea or Moses is a question for
historical Bible research to answer, but it is of no consequence
to Jewish theology.
5. Certainly Scripture represents God too much after
human fashion, when it ascribes to him changes of mood from
anger to compassion, or speaks of His repentance. 2 But we
must bear in mind that the prophets obtained their insight
into the ways of God by this very process of transferring their
own experience to the Deity. And on the other hand, we are
told that "God is not a man that He should lie, neither the
son of man that He should repent." 3 All these anthropo-
1 Hosea I-III; XI, 1-9; XIV, 5. Comp. Micah XIII, 18; Jer. Ill, 8-12 ;
Isa. LIV, 6-8; LVII, 16 f.; Joel II, 13; Jonah IV, 2, 10 f.; Lam. Ill, 31;
Ps. LXXVIII, 38 et al. See DUlmann, I. c., 263 f.; Davidson Theology of
0. T., 132 f.
Gen. VI, 6; I Sam. XV, n; Jer. XVIII, 7-10; Joel II, 14; Jonah III,
10 ; IV, 2.
Num. XXIII, 19 ; I Sam. XV, 29 ; see Targum and commentaries.
n6 JEWISH THEOLOGY
morphic pictures of God were later avoided by the ancient
Biblical translators by means of paraphrase, and by the philos
ophers by means of allegory. 1
6. According to the Midrashic interpretation of the passage
from the Pentateuch quoted above, Moses desired to ascertain
whether God ruled the world with His justice or with His
mercy, and the answer was : "Behold, I shall let My goodness
pass before thee. For I owe nothing to any of My creatures,
but My actions are prompted only by My grace and good will,
through which I give them all that they possess." 2 According
to Judaism justice and mercy are intertwined in God s govern
ment of the world ; the former is the pillar of the cosmic
structure, and the latter the measuring line. No mortal could
stand before God, were justice the only standard ; but we sub
sist on His mercy, which lends us the boons of life without our
meriting them. That which is not good in us now is to become
good through our effort toward the best. God s grace under
lies this possibility.
Accordingly, the divine holiness has two aspects, the over
whelming wrath of His justice and the uplifting grace of His
long-suffering. Without justice there could be no fear of
God, no moral earnestness; without mercy only condemna
tion and perdition would remain. As the rabbis tell us, both
justice and mercy had their share in the creation of man, for
in man both good and bad appear and struggle for supremacy.
All generations need the divine grace that they may have time
and opportunity for improvement. 3
7 . Thus this conception of grace is far deeper and worthier of
God than is that of Paulinian Christianity ; for grace in Paul s
sense is arbitrary in action and dependent upon the acceptance
1 See J. E., art. Anthropomorphism and Allegorical Interpretation.
2 Tanh. Waethhanan, ed. Buber, 3.
3 Gen. R. VIII, 4-5. See Morris Joseph : Judaism as Creed and Life, p. 59,
90-95-
GOD S LONG-SUFFERING AND MERCY 117
of a creed, therefore the very reverse of impartial justice. In
Judaism divine grace is not offered as a bait to make men
believe, but as an incentive to moral improvement. The God
of holiness, who inflicts wounds upon the guilty soul by bitter
remorse, offers also healing through His compassion. Justice
and mercy are not two separate powers or persons in the
Deity, as with the doctrine of the Church ; they are the two
sides of the same divine power. "I am the Lord before sin
was committed, and I am the Lord after sin is committed" -
so the rabbis explain the repetition of the name JHVH in the
revelation to Moses. 1
1 R. h. Sh. 17 b ; compare, J. Davidson, 134 ; Koeberle : Suende und
Gnade, 1005, p. 625, 634 f . ; but p. 658, 614, are misleading; Weber, 1. c., 154,
260, 303 f., altogether misrepresents the Jewish doctrine of grace.
CHAPTER XIX
GOD S JUSTICE
i. The unshakable faith of the Jewish people was ever sus
tained by the consciousness that its God is a God of justice.
The conviction that He will not suffer wrong to go unpunished
was read into all the stories of the hoary past. The Babylo
nian form of these legends in common with all ancient folk-lore
ascribes human calamity to blind fate or to the caprice of the
gods, but the Biblical narratives assume that evil does not
befall men undeserved, and therefore always ascribe ruin or
death to human transgression. So the Jewish genius beheld
in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah a divine judgment
upon the depraved inhabitants, and derived from it a lesson
for the household of Abraham that they should "keep the way
of the Lord to do righteousness and justice." 1 The funda
mental principle of Judaism throughout the ages has been the
teaching of the patriarch that "the Judge of all the earth
cannot act unjustly," 2 even though the varying events of
history force the problem of justice upon the attention of
Jeremiah, 3 the Psalmists, 4 the author of the book of Job, 5 and
the Talmudical sages. 6 "Righteousness and justice are the
foundations of Thy throne" 7 this is the sum and sub
stance of the religious experience of Israel. At the same time
man realizes how far from his grasp is the divine justice:
1 Gen. XVIII, 19. 2 Gen. XVIII, 25. 3 Jer. XII, i.
4 Ps. LXXIII, 12. 6 JobX, 22 f.
6 Yer. Hag. II, i ; Elisha ben Abuyah. * Ps. LXXXIX, 15.
118
GOD S JUSTICE 119
1 Thy righteousness is like the mighty mountains ; Thy judg
ments are like the great deep." 1
2. The Master-builder of the moral world made justice the
supporting pillar of the entire creation. "He is The Rock,
His work is perfect, for all His ways are just ; a God of faith
fulness and without iniquity, just and right is He." There
can be no moral world order without a retributive justice,
which leaves no infringement of right unpunished, just as no
social order can exist without laws to protect the weak and to
enforce general respect. The God of Judaism rules over man
kind as Guardian and Vindicator of justice ; no wrong escapes
His scrutinizing gaze. This fundamental doctrine invested
history, of both the individual and the nation, with a moral
significance beyond that of any other religious or ethical
system.
Whatever practice or sense of justice may exist among the
rest of mankind, it is at best a glimpse of that divine righteous
ness which leads us on and becomes a mighty force compelling
us, not only to avoid wrongdoing, but to combat it with all the
passion of an indignant soul and eradicate it wherever possi
ble. Though in our daily experience justice may be sadly
lacking, we still cling to the moral axiom that God will lead
the right to victory and will hurl iniquity into the abyss.
As the sages remark in the Midrash : " How could short-sighted
and short-lived man venture to assert, All His ways are just/
were it not for the divine revelation by which the eyes of Moses
were opened, so that he could gaze into the very depths of
life?" 3 That is, the idea of divine justice is revealed, not
in the world as it is, but in the world as it should be, the ideal
cosmos which lives in the spirit.
1 Ps. XXXVI, 7 ; see Davidson, 1. c., 143 f. ; J. E., art. Justice; Hamburger :
Realencydopaedie, art. Gerechtigkeit ; Dillmann, 1. c., 270 f. ; Strauss, 1. c., 596-
604. Bousset, 437 f., is misleading.
Deut. XXXII, 4. 3 Tanh., Jithro 5.
120 JEWISH THEOLOGY
3. It cannot be denied that justice is recognized as a binding
force even by peoples on a low cultural plane, and the Deity is
generally regarded as the guardian of justice, exactly as in
Judaism. This fact is shown by the use of the oath in con
nection with judicial procedure among many nations. Both
Roman jurisprudence and Greek ethics declare justice to be
the foundation of the social life. Nevertheless the Jewish
ideal of justice cannot be identified with that of the law and the
courts. The law is part of the social system of the State, by
which the relations of individuals are determined and upheld.
The maintenance of this social order, of the status quo, is
considered justice by the law, whatever injustice to individuals
may result. But the Jewish idea of justice is not reactionary;
it owes to the prophets its position as the dominating principle
of the world, the peculiar essence of God, and therefore the
ultimate ideal of human life. They fought for right with an
insistence which vindicated its moral significance forever, and
in scathing words of indignation which still burn in the soul
they denounced oppression wherever it appeared. The crimes
of the mighty against the weak, they held, could not be atoned
for by the outward forms of piety. Right and justice are not
simply matters for the State and the social order, but belong
to God, who defends the cause of the helpless and the homeless,
"who executes the judgment of the fatherless and the widow, 7
"who regardeth not persons, nor taketh bribes." 1 Iniquity is
hateful to Him ; it cannot be covered up by pious acts, nor
be justified by good ends. "Justice is God s." 2 Thus every
violation of justice, whether from sordid self-seeking or from
tender compassion, is a violation of God s cause; and every
vindication of justice, every strengthening of the power of
right in society, is a triumph of God.
4. Accordingly, the highest principle of ethics in Judaism,
the cardinal point in the government of the world, is not love,
1 Deut. X, 17-18. 2 Deut. I, 17.
GOD S JUSTICE 121
but justice. Love has the tendency to undermine the right
and to effeminize society. Justice, on the other hand, develops
the moral capacity of every man ; it aims not merely to avoid
wrong, but to promote and develop the right for the sake of
the perfect state of morality. True justice cannot remain a
passive onlooker when the right or liberty of any human being
is curtailed, but strains every effort to prevent violence and
oppression. It battles for the right, until it has triumphed
over every injustice. This practical conception of right can be
traced through all Jewish literature and doctrine; through
the laws of Moses, to whom is ascribed the maxim: "Let the
right have its way, though it bore holes through the rock *",
through the flaming words of the prophets 2 ; through the
Psalmists, who spoke such words as these : "Thou art not a
God who hath pleasure in wickedness ; evil shall not sojourn
with Thee. The arrogant shall not stand in Thy sight;
Thou ha test all workers of iniquity." 3
Nor does justice stop with the prohibition of evil. The
very arm that strikes down the presumptuous transgressor
turns to lift up the meek and endow him with strength. Jus
tice becomes a positive power for the right ; it becomes
Zedakah, righteousness or true benevolence, and aims to re
adjust the inequalities of life by kindness and love. It engen
ders that deeper sense of justice which claims the right of the
weak to protection by the arm of the strong.
5. Hence comes the truth of Matthew Arnold s striking
summary of Israel s Law and Prophets in his "Literature and
Dogma", as "The Power, not ourselves, that maketh for
righteousness." Still, when we trace the development of this
central thought in the soul of the Jewish people, we find that it
arose from a peculiar mythological conception. The God of
Sinai had manifested Himself in the devastating elements of
1 Yeb. 92 a; Yer. Sanh. I, 18 b.
Amos V, 24; Isa. I, 17, 28; XXVIII, 17; LIV, 14.
1 Ps. V, 5-6.
122 JEWISH THEOLOGY
nature fire, storm, and hail ; later, the prophetic genius of
Israel saw Him as a moral power who destroyed wickedness by
these very phenomena in order that right should prevail. At
first the covenant- God of Israel hurls the plagues of heaven
upon the hostile Egyptians and Canaanites, the oppressors of
His people. Afterward the great prophets speak of the Day of
JHVH which would come at the end of days, when God will
execute His judgment upon the heathen nations by pouring
forth all the terrors of nature upon them. The natural forces
of destruction are utilized by the Ruler of heaven as means of
moral purification. "For by fire will the Lord contend." *
In this process the sense of right became progressively re
fined, so that God was made the Defender of the cause of the
oppressed, and the holiest of duties became the protection of
the forsaken and unfortunate. Justice and right were thus
lifted out of the civil or forensic sphere into that of divine
holiness, and the struggle for the down-trodden became an
imperative duty. Judaism finds its strength in the oft-
repeated doctrine that the moral welfare of the world rests
upon justice. "The King s strength is that he loveth justice,"
says the Psalmist, and commenting upon this the Midrash
says," Not might, but right forms the foundation of the world s
99 l>
peace.
6. Social life, therefore, must be built upon the firm founda
tion of justice, the full recognition of the rights of all individuals
and all classes. It can be based neither upon the formal
administration of law nor upon the elastic principle of love,
which too often tolerates, or even approves certain types of
injustice. Judaism has been working through the centuries
to realize the ideal of justice to all mankind ; therefore the Jew
has suffered and waited for the ultimate triumph of the God of
justice. God s kingdom of justice is to be established, not in
a world to come, but in the world that now is, in the life of
1 Isa. LXVI, 1 6. * Ps. XCIX, 4 ; Tanh. Mishpatim i.
GOD S JUSTICE 123
men and nations. As the German poet has it, "Die Weltge-
schichte ist das Weltgericht" (the history of the world is the
world s tribunal of justice).
7. The recognition of God as the righteous Ruler implies a
dominion of absolute justice which allows no wrongdoing to
remain unpunished and no meritorious act to remain unre
warded. The moral and intellectual maturity of the people,
however, must determine how they conceive retribution in the
divine judgment. Under the simple conditions of patriarchal
life, when common experience seemed to be in harmony with
the demands of divine justice, when the evil-doer seemed to
meet his fate and the worthy man to enjoy his merited pros
perity, reward and punishment could well be expressed by
the Bible in terms of national prosperity and calamity. The
prophets, impressed by the political and moral decline of
their era, announced for both Israel and the other nations a
day of judgment to come, when God will manifest Himself as
the righteous Ruler of the world. In fact, those great
preachers of righteousness announced for all time the truth of a
moral government of the world, with terror for the malefactors
and the assurance of peace and salvation for the righteous.
"He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples
with equity" becomes a song of joyous confidence and hope
on the lips of the Psalmist. 1 This final triumph of justice does
not depend, as Christian theologians assert, on the mere out
ward conformity of Israel to the law. 2 On the contrary, it
offers to the innocent sufferer the hope that "his right shall
break forth as light," while "the wicked shall be put to silence
in darkness." 3 We must admit, indeed, that the Biblical
idea of retribution still has too much of the earthly flavor, and
Ps. XCVI, 13; XCVIII, 9.
See Bousset, 1. c., 357~366; Weber, 1. c., 259-279, and comp. Suk. 30 a,
where it is stated, referring to Isa. LXI, 8, that "good deeds can never justify
evil acts."
1 Hosea VI, 6; Ps. XXXVII, 6; I Sam. II, 9.
124 JEWISH THEOLOGY
often lacks true spirituality. The explanation of this lies in
the desire of the expounders of Judaism that this world should
be regarded as the battle-ground between the good and the
bad, that the victory of the good is to be decided here, and that
the idea of justice should not assume the character of other-
worldliness.
8. It is true that neither the prophets, such as Jeremiah,
nor the sages, such as the authors of Job and Koheleth, actually
solved the great enigma which has baffled all nations and ages,
the adjustment of merit and destiny by divine righteousness.
Yet even a doubter like Job does not despair of his own sense
of justice, and wrestles with his God in the effort to obtain a
deeper insight. Still the great mass of people are not satisfied
with an unfulfilled yearning and seeking. The various reli
gions have gradually transferred the final adjustment of merit
and destiny to the hereafter; the rewards and punishments
awaiting man after death have been depicted glaringly in
colors taken from this earthly life. It is not surprising that
Judaism was influenced by this almost universal view. The
mechanical form of the principle of justice demands that " with
the same measure one metes out, it shall be meted out to
him," l and this could not be found either in human justice
or in human destiny. Therefore the popular mind naturally
turned to the world to come, expecting there that just retribu
tion which is lacking on earth.
Only superior minds could ascend to that higher ethical
conception where compensation is no longer expected, but
man seeks the good and happiness of others and finds therein
his highest satisfaction. As Ben Azzai expresses it, "The
reward of virtue is virtue, and the punishment of sin is sin." 2
At this point justice merges into divine holiness.
1 Sota I, 7-8 ; Tos. Sota III ; Mek. Shirah 4 ; B. Wisdom XV, 3 ; XIX, 17 ;
Jubilees IV, 3, elsewhere, comp. Math. VII, 2, and parallels.
2 Aboth IV, 2.
GOD S JUSTICE 125
9. The idea of divine justice exerted its uplifting force in
one more way in Judaism. The recognition of God as the
righteous Judge of the world Zidduk ha Din l is to bring
consolation and endurance to the afflicted, and to remove
from their hearts the bitter sting of despair and doubt. The
rabbis called God "the Righteous One of the universe/ 2 as if
to indicate that God himself is meant by the Scriptural verse,
"The righteous is an everlasting foundation of the world." 3
Far remote from Judaism, however, is the doctrine that God
would consign an otherwise righteous man to eternal doom,
because he belongs to another creed or another race than that
of the Jew. Wherever the heathens are spoken of as con
demned at the last judgment, the presumption based upon
centuries of sad experience was that their lives were full of
injustice and wickedness. Indeed, milder teachers, whose
view became the accepted one, maintained that truly righteous
men are found among the heathen, who have therefore as
much claim upon eternal salvation as the pious ones of Israel. 4
1 See Levy, W. B. : Zidduk; comp. Ex. IX, 27 ; Lara. I, 18; Neh. IX, 33.
1 Gen. R. XLIX, 19 ; Yoma 37 a. Prov. X, 25.
<SeeTos. Sanh. XIII, 2; Sanh. 105 a; Yalkut Isaiah 296; Crescas: Or
Adonai, III, 44.
CHAPTER XX
GOD S LOVE AND COMPASSION
i . As justice forms the basis of human morality, with kind
ness and benevolence as milder elements to mitigate its stern
ness, so, according to the Jewish view, mercy and love rep
resent the milder side of God, but by no means a higher
attribute counteracting His justice. Love can supplement jus
tice, but cannot replace it. The sages say : 1 "When the Creator
saw that man could not endure, if measured by the standard
of strict justice, He joined His attribute of mercy to that of
justice, and created man by the combined principle of both."
The divine compassion with human frailty, felt by both Moses
and Hosea, manifests itself in God s mercy. Were it not for
the weakness of the flesh, justice would have sufficed. But
the divine plan of salvation demands redeeming love which
wins humanity step by step for higher moral ends. The educa
tional value of this love lies in the fact that it is a gift of grace,
bestowed on man by the fatherly love of God to ward off the
severity of full retribution. His pardon must conduce to a
deeper moral earnestness. 2 "For with Thee there is forgive
ness that Thou mayest be feared." 3 R. Akiba says: "The
world is judged by the divine attribute of goodness." 4
^en. R. VIII, 4-5 ; XII, 15; Midr. Teh. to Ps. LXXXIX, 2; comp.
Ben Sira, XVIII, n ; Testaments of XII Patr. : Zebulon 9 ; Ap. Baruch XL VIII,
14; IV Esdras VIII, 31; Psalms of Solomon IX, 7; Prayer of Manasseh, 8,
13-
2 See J. E., art. "Love." Both Weber, 1. c., 57 f. and Bousset, 1. c., 443 f.
show Christian bias.
3 Ps. CXXX, 4.
4 Aboth III, 19; comp. B. Wisdom XI, 23, 26; XII, 16, 18; Ben Sira,
II, 18.
126
GOD S LOVE AND COMPASSION 127
2. As a matter of course, in the Biblical view God s mercy was
realized at first only with regard to Israel and was afterward
extended gradually to humanity at large. The generation of
the flood and the inhabitants of Sodom perished on account
of their guilt, and only the righteous were saved. This attitude
holds throughout the Bible until the late book of Jonah, with
its lesson of God s forgiveness even for the heathen city of
Nineveh after due repentance. In the later Psalms the divine
attributes of mercy are expanded and applied to all the crea
tures of God. 1 According to the school of Hillel, whenever
the good and evil actions of any man are found equal in the
scales of justice, God inclines the balances toward the side of
mercy. 2 Nay more, in the words of Samuel, the Babylonian
teacher, God judges the nations by the noblest types they
produce. 3
The ruling Sadducean priesthood insisted on the rigid
enforcement of the law. The party of the pious, the Hasidim,
however, according to the liturgy, the apocryphal and the
rabbinical literature, appealed to the mercy of God in song
and prayer, acknowledging their failings in humility, and made
kindness and love their special objects in life. Therefore with
their ascendancy the divine attributes of mercy and com
passion were accentuated. God himself, we are told, was
heard praying : "Oh that My attribute of mercy may prevail
over My attribute of justice, so that grace alone may be
bestowed upon My children on earth." 4 And the second word
of the Decalogue was so interpreted that God s mercy
which is said to extend "to the thousandth generation" is
five hundred times as powerful as His punitive justice,
which is applied "to the third and fourth generation." 5
1 Ps. CXLIV, 8-9 ; comp. Ben Sira, XVIII, 13.
5 Tos. Sanh. XIII, 3. > Yer. R. h. Sh. I, 57 a. Ber. 7 a.
5 Tos. Sola IV, i, with reference to Ex. XX, 5-6. The plural, laalafim, is
taken to mean two thousand.
128 JEWISH THEOLOGY
3. Divine mercy shows itself in the law, where compassion
is enjoined on all suffering creatures. Profound sympathy
with the oppressed is echoed in the ancient law of the poor
who had to give up his garment as a pledge : " When he crieth
unto Me, I shall hear, for I am gracious." 1 In the old Baby
lonian code, might was the arbiter of right, 2 but the unique
genius of the Jew is shown in adapting this same legal material
to its impulse of compassion. The cry of the innocent sufferer,
of the forsaken and fatherless, rises up to God s throne and
secures there his right against the oppressor. Thus in the
Mosaic law and throughout Jewish literature God calls him
self " the Judge of the widow, " " the Father of the fatherless," 3
"a Stronghold to the needy." 4 He calls the poor, "My
people," 5 and, as the rabbis say, He loves the persecuted, not
the persecutors. 6
4. Even to dumb beasts God extends His mercy. This
Jewish tenderness is an inheritance from the shepherd life of
the patriarchs, who were eager to quench the thirst of the
animals in their care before they thought of their own com
fort. 7 This sense of sympathy appears in the Biblical pre
cepts as to the overburdened beast, 8 the ox treading the corn, 9
and the mother-beast or mother-bird with her young, 10 as well
as the Talmudic rule first to feed the domestic animals and
then sit down to the meal. 11 This has remained a characteristic
trait of Judaism. Thus, in connection with the verse of the
Psalm, "His tender mercies are over all His works," 12 it is
related of Rabbi Judah the Saint, the redactor of the Mishnah,
1 Ex. XXII, 26; comp. 21, 23.
2 See Harper : Code of Hammurabi, 1900 ; Oettli : D. Gesetz Hammurabis
und d. Thora Israels, 1903; Cohn : D. Gesetz Hammurabis, Zurich, 1903;
Grimm: D. Gesetz Chammurabis und Moses, Cologne, 1903. Also M. Jastrow,
Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions, p. 255-319.
8 Deut. X, 18 ; Ps. LXXIII. 4 Isa. XXV, 4. 5 Ex. XXII, 24.
Ex. R. XXVII, 5 ; Eccles. R. to III, 15. 7 Gen. XXIV, 19.
Ex. XXIII, 5. * 9 Deut. XXV, 4. 10 Lev. XX, 28 ; Deut. XXII, 6.
11 Git. 62 a, with reference to Deut. XI, 15. * Ps. CXLV, 9.
GOD S LOVE AND COMPASSION 129
that he was afflicted with pain for thirteen years, and gave
as reason that he once struck and kicked away a calf which
had run to him moaning for protection ; he was finally relieved,
after he had taught his household to have pity even on the
smallest of creatures. 1 In fact, Rabban Gamaliel, his grand
father, had taught before him: " Whosoever has compassion
on his fellow-creatures, on him God will have compassion." 2
The sages often interpret the phrase "To walk in the way of
the Lord" -that is, "As the Holy One, blessed be He, is
merciful, so be ye also merciful." 3
5. Thus the rabbis came to regard love as the innermost
part of God s being. God loves mankind, is the highest stage
of consciousness of God, but this can be attained only by the
closest relation of the human soul to the Most High, after
severe trials have softened and humanized the spirit. It is not
accidental that Scripture speaks often of God s goodness,
mercy, and grace, but seldom mentions His love. Possibly
the term ahabah was used at first for sensuous love and there
fore was not employed for God so often as the more spiritual
hesed, which denotes kind and loyal affection. 4 However,
Hosea used this term for his own love for his faithless wife, and
did not hesitate to apply it also to God s love for His faithless
people, which he terms "a love of free will." 5 His example
is followed by Jeremiah, most tender of the prophets, who gave
the classic expression to the everlasting love of God for Israel,
His beloved son. 6 This divine love, spiritually understood,
forms the chief topic of the Deuteronomic addresses. 7 In this
book God s love appears as that of a father for his son, who
lavishes gifts upon him, but also chastises him for his own
B. M. 85 a; Yer. Kil. IX, 4.
Tos. B. K. IX, 30; Sifre, Deut. 96.
1 Sifre, Deut. 49 ; Shab. 133 b ; comp. Philo : De Humanitate.
4 See Concordance to ahabah and hesed. Note especially Hos VI 6
*Hos. Ill, i; XI, i, 4; XIV, 5.
Jer. XXXI, 2, 19. T D e U t. VII, 8 ; X, 15.
K
130 JEWISH THEOLOGY
good. 1 The mind opened more and more to regard the trials
sent by God as means of ennobling the character, 2 and the
men of the Talmudic period often speak of the afflictions of
the saints as " visitations of the divine love." 3
6. The sufferings of Israel in particular were taken to be
trials of the divine love. 4 God s love for Israel, "His first
born son," 5 is not partial, but from the outset amis to train
him for his world mission. The Song of Moses speaks of the
love of the Father for His son "whom He found in the wilder
ness" ; 6 and this is requited by the bridal love of Israel with
which the people "went after God in the wilderness." 7 It is
this love of God, according to Akiba s interpretation of the
Song of Songs, which "all the waters could not quench," "a
love as strong as death." 8 This love raised up a nation of
martyrs without parallel in history, although the followers of
the so-called Religion of Love fail to give it the credit it
deserves and seem to regard it as a kind of hatred for the rest
of mankind. 9 Whenever the paternal love of God is truly
felt and understood it must include all classes and all souls of
men who enter into the relation of children to God. Wherever
emphasis is laid upon the special love for Israel, it is based upon
the love with which the chosen people cling to the Torah,
the word of God, upon the devotion with which they surrender
their lives in His cause. 10
7. Still, Judaism does not proclaim love, absolute and un
restricted, as the divine principle of life. That is left to the
Church, whose history almost to this day records ever so many
acts of lovelessness. Love is unworthy of God, unless it is
guided by justice. Love of good must be accompanied by
1 Deut. VIII, 5 ; see Sifre, Deut. 32. 2 Prov. Ill, 13.
8 Ber. 5 a ; Sifre, 1. c. ; Mek. Yithro 10. 4 See Mek. and Sifre, 1. c.
6 Ex. IV, 22. 6 Deut. XXXII, 6, 10 f. 7 Jer. II, 2.
8 Song of Songs, R. to III, 7. Comp. Davidson, 1. c., 235-287.
9 See Schreiner, 1. c., 103-112 ; Perles : Bousset, 58 f.
10 Pesik, 16-17 J Mek. Yithro 6, at end.
GOD S LOVE AND COMPASSION 131
hate of evil, or else it lacks the educative power which alone
makes it beneficial to man.
God s love manifests itself in human life as an educative
power. R. Akiba says that it extends to all created in God s
image, although the knowledge of it was vouchsafed to Israel
alone. 1 This universal love of God is a doctrine of the apoc
ryphal literature as well. " Thou hast mercy upon all ... for
Thou lovest all things that are, and hatest nothing which
Thou hast made. . . . But Thou sparest all, for they are Thine,
O Lord, Lover of souls," says the Book of Wisdom ; 2 and when
Ezra the Seer laments the calamity that has befallen the people,
God replies, "Thinkest thou that thou lovest My creatures
more than I?" 3
8. Among the mystics divine love was declared to be the
highest creative principle. They referred the words of the
Song of Songs, "The midst thereof is paved with love," 4
to the innermost palace of heaven, where stands the throne of
God. 5 Among the philosophers Crescas considered love the
active cosmic principle rather than intellect, the principle of
Aristotle, because it is love which is the impulse for creation. 8
This conception of divine love received a peculiarly mystic
color from Juda Abravanel, a neo-Platonist of the sixteenth
century, known as Leo Hebraeus. He says: "God s love
must needs unfold His perfection and beauty, and reveal itself
in His creatures, and love for these creatures must again elevate
an imperfect world to His own perfection. Thus is engendered
in man that yearning for love with which he endeavors to
emulate the divine perfection." 7 Both Crescas and Leo
Hebraeus thus gave the keynote for Spinoza s "Intellectual
love" as the cosmic principle, 8 and this has been echoed even
1 Aboth III, 14. t xi, 23-26. IV Esdra VIII, 47.
* ln . I0 - Zoharl, 44 b; II, 97 a.
8 See Or Adonai, I, 3, 5, an d Joel : Crescas 36-37.
7 Didoghi di Amore; see Zimmels : Leo Hcbraeus, 1886.
Ethics V, proposition XXXV.
I 3 2 JEWISH THEOLOGY
in such works as Schiller s dithyrambs on "Love and Friend
ship" in his "Philosophic Letters." 1 Still this neo-Platonic
view has nothing in common with the theological conception
of love. In Judaism God is conceived as a loving Father,
who purposes to lead man to happiness and salvation. In other
words, the divine love is an essentially moral attribute of God,
and not a metaphysical one.
9. If we wish to speak of a power that permeates the cosmos
and turns the wheel of life, it is far more correct to speak of
God s creative goodness. 2 According to Scripture, each day s
creation bears the divine approval : "It is good." 3 Even the
evil which man experiences serves a higher purpose, and that
purpose makes for the good. Misfortune and death, sorrow
and sin, in the great economy of life are all turned into final
good. Accordingly, Judaism recognizes this divine goodness
not only in every enjoyment of nature s gifts and the favors of
fortune, but also in sad and trying experiences, and for all
of these it provides special formulas of benediction. 4 The
same divine goodness sends joy and grief, even though short
sighted man fails to see the majestic Sun of life which shines
in unabated splendor above the clouds. Judaism was optimis
tic through all its experiences just because of this implicit
faith in God s goodness. Such faith transforms each woe into
a higher welfare, each curse into actual blessing ; it leads men
and nations from oppression to ever greater freedom, from
darkness to ever brighter light, and from error to ever higher
truth and righteousness. Divine love may have pity upon
human weakness, but it is divine goodness that inspires and
quickens human energy. After all, love cannot be the domi
nant principle of life. Man cannot love all the time, nor can he
love all the world ; his sense of justice demands that he hate
1 "The Theosophy of Julius" : "God."
2 Middath tobah.
3 Gen. I, 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 23, 31.
4 Gen. R. IX, 5, 9; Ber. 60 a; Yer. Ber. IX, 13 0-14 b; Taan. 21 a.
GOD S LOVE AND COMPASSION 133
wickedness and falsehood. We must apply the same criterion
to God. But, on the other hand, man can and should do good
and be good continually and to all men, even to the most un
worthy. Therefore God becomes the pattern and ideal of an
all-encompassing goodness, which is never exhausted and
never reaches an end.
CHAPTER XXI
GOD S TRUTH AND FAITHFULNESS
1. In the Hebrew language truth and faithfulness are both
derived from the same root; aman, " firmness," is the root
idea of emeth, "truth," and emunah, "faithfulness." Man
feels insecurity and uncertainty among the varying impressions
and emotions which affect his will ; therefore he turns to the
immovable Rock of life, calls on Him as the Guardian and
Witness of truth, and feels confident that He will vindicate
every promise made in His sight. He is the God by whom
men swear Elohe amen ; l nay, who swears by Himself,
saying, "As true as that I live." 2 He is the supreme Power of
life, "the God of faithfulness, in whom there is no iniquity." 3
The heavens testify to His faithfulness ; He is the trustworthy
God, whose essence is truth. 4
2. Here, too, as with other attributes, the development of
the idea may be traced step by step. At first it refers to the
God of the covenant with Israel, who made a covenant with
the fathers and keeps it with the thousandth generation of their
descendants. He shows His mercy to those who love Him and
keep His commandments. The idea of God s faithfulness to
His covenant is thus extended gradually from the people to the
cosmos, and the heavens are called upon to witness to the faith
fulness of God throughout the realm of life. Thus in both the
1 Isa. LXV, 16. * Deut. XXXII, 40. 3 Deut. XXXII, 4.
4 Num. XXIII, 19; Isa. XL, 8; Jer. X, 10; Ps. XXXI, 6; comp. Dill-
mann, 1. c. 269 f.
134
GOD S TRUTH AND FAITHFULNESS 135
Psalms and the liturgy God is praised as the One who is faith
ful in His word as in His work. 1
3. From this conception of faithfulness arose two other
ideas which exerted a powerful influence upon the whole
spiritual and intellectual life of the Jew. The God of faithful
ness created a people of faithfulness as His own, and Israel s
God of truth awakened in the nation a passion for truth un
rivaled by any other religious or philosophical system. Like
a silver stream running through a valley, the conviction runs
through the sacred writings and the liturgy that the promise
made of yore to the fathers will be fulfilled to the children. As
each past deliverance from distress was considered a verifica
tion of the divine faithfulness, so each hope for the future was
based upon the same attribute. "He keepeth His faith also
to those who sleep in the dust." These words of the second
of the Eighteen Benedictions clearly indicate that even the
belief in the hereafter rested upon the same fundamental
belief.
On the other hand, the same conception formed the keynote
of the idea of the divine truthfulness. The primitive age knew
nothing of the laws of nature with which we have become
familiar through modern science. But the pious soul trusts
the God of faithfulness, certain that He who has created the
heaven and the earth is true to His own word, and will not
allow them to sink back into chaos. One witness to this is the
rainbow, which He has set up in the sky as a sign of His
covenant. 2 The sea and the stars also have a boundary
assigned to them which they cannot transgress. 3 Thus to the
unsophisticated religious soul, with no knowledge of natural
science, the world is carried by God s " everlasting arms" 4 and
1 Ps. XXXVI, 6; LXXXIX, 3, 38; CXLVI, 6; Benediction at seeing the
rainbow, Singer s Prayerbook, p. 291.
Gen. DC, ii. Ps. CIV, 9 ; Job XXXVIII, n ; Jer. XXXI, 34.
Deut. XXXIII, 27.
136 JEWISH THEOLOGY
His faithfulness becomes token and pledge of the immutability
of His will.
4. At this point the intellect grasps an idea of intrinsic and
indestructible truth, which has its beginning and its end in
God, the Only One. "The gods of the nations are all vanity
and deceit, the work of men ; Israel s God is the God of truth,
the living God and everlasting King." l With this cry has
Judaism challenged the nations of the world since the Baby
lonian exile. Its own adherents it charged to ponder upon the
problems of life and the nature of God, until He would appear
before them as the very essence of truth, and all heathenish
survivals would vanish as mist. God is truth, and He desires
naught but truth, therefore hypocrisy is loathsome to him,
even in the service of religion. With this underlying thought
Job, the bold but honest doubter, stands above his friends with
their affected piety. God is truth this confession of faith,
recited each morning and evening by the Jew, gave his mind
the power to soar into the highest realms of thought, and in
spired his soul to offer life and all it holds for his faith. " God
is the everlasting truth, the unchangeable Being who ever
remains the same amid the fluctuations and changes of all
other things." This is the fundamental principle upon which
Joseph Ibn Zaddik and Abraham Ibn Baud, the predecessors
of Maimonides, reared their entire philosophical systems,
which were Aristotelian and yet thoroughly Jewish. 2
Mystic lore, always so fond of the letters of the alphabet
and their hidden meanings, noted that the letters of Emeth
aleph, mem and tav are the first, the middle, and the last
letters of the alphabet, and therefore concluded that God made
1 Jer. X, 10, 15.
2 Emuna Rama 54. See Kaufmann, 1. c., 333 f., 352 f. ; comp. Guttmann :
Religions philosophic des Ibn Daud, 136 f. ; Albo II, 27, at the end ; Maimonides :
Yesode ha Tor ah, I, 3-4; Hillel of Verona refers even to Aristotle s "Meta
physics." See Kaufmann, 1. c., 334, note; Neumark, 1. c., and Husik.,
1. c. passim.
GOD S TRUTH AND FAITHFULNESS 137
truth the beginning, the center, and the end of the world. 1
Josephus also, no doubt in accordance with the same tradition,
declares that God is "the beginning, the center, and the end of
all things." 2 A corresponding rabbinical saying is: "Truth
is the seal of God." 3
1 See Yer. Sanh. I, 18 a.
1 Contra Apionem, II, 22 ; compare J. E., art. "Alpha and Omega."
8 See Yer. Sanh. I, 18 a.
CHAPTER XXII
GOD S KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM
i. The attempt to enumerate the attributes of God recalls
the story related in the Talmud 1 of a disciple who stepped up
to the reader s desk to offer prayer, and began to address the
Deity with an endless list of attributes. When his vocabulary
was almost exhausted, Rabbi Haninah interrupted him with
the question, "Hast thou now really finished telling the praise
of God?" Mortal man can never know what God really is.
As the poet-philosopher says: "Could I ever know Him, I
would be He." 2 But we want to ascertain what God is to us,
and for this very reason we cannot rest with the negative
attitude of Maimonides, who relies on the Psalmist s verse,
"Silence is praise to Thee." 3 We must obtain as clear a con
ception of the Deity as we possibly can with our limited powers.
To the divine attributes already mentioned we must add
another which in a sense is the focus of them all. This is the
knowledge and wisdom of God, the omniscience which renders
Him all-knowing and all- wise. Through this all the others
come into self-consciousness. We ascribe wisdom to the man
who sets right aims for his actions and knows the means by
which to attain them, that is, who can control his power and
knowledge by his will and bend them to his purpose. In the
same manner we think of wisdom in view of the marvelous
order, design, and unity which we see in the natural and the
moral world. But this wisdom must be all-encompassing,
comprising time and eternity, directing all the forces and beings
1 Ber. 33 b. 2 Jedayah ha Penini. 3 Ps. LXV, *.
138
GOD S KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM 139
of the world toward the goal of ideal perfection. 1 It makes no
difference where we find this lesson. The Book of Proverbs
singles out the tiny ant as an example of wondrous fore
thought ; 2 the author of Job dwells on the working together of
the powers of earth and heaven to maintain the cosmic life; 3
modern science, with its deeper insight into nature, enables us
to follow the interaction of the primal chemical and organic
forces, and to follow the course of evolution from star-dust and
cell to the structure of the human eye or the thought-centers
of the brain. But in all these alike our conclusion must be
that of the Psalmist : "O Lord, how manifold are Thy works,
in wisdom hast Thou made them all." 4
2. Accordingly, if we are to speak in human terms, we
may consider God s wisdom the element which determines His
various motive-powers, omniscience, omnipotence, and
goodness, to tend toward the realizaton of His cosmic plan.
Or we may call it the active intellect with which God works
as Creator, Ordainer, and Ruler of the universe. The Biblical
account of creation presupposes this wisdom, as it portrays a
logical process, working after a definite plan, proceeding from
simpler to more complex forms and culminating in man.
Biblical history likewise is based upon the principle of a di
vinely prearranged plan, which is especially striking in such
stories as that of Joseph. 6
3. At first the divine wisdom was supposed to rest in part on
specially gifted persons, such as Joseph, Solomon, and Bezalel.
As Scripture has it, "The Lord giveth wisdom, out of His
mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." 6 Later the
obscure destiny of the nation appears as the design of an all-
wise Ruler to the great prophets and especially to Isaiah, the
1 Jer. X, 12 ; Amos IV, 13 ; Job XXXVIII-XXXDC. * Prov. VI, 6.
job xxxvni-xxxix. < PS. civ, 24.
Gen. L. 20 ; see Dillmann, 1. c., 280 ; Strauss, 1. c., 575 f. ; Hamburger, 1. c.,
art. "Weisheit Gottes"; A. B. Davidson, 1. c., 180-182.
Gen. XLI, 38; I Kings III, 12; Ex. XXXV, 31; Prov. II, 6.
140 JEWISH THEOLOGY
high-soaring eagle among the seers of Israel. 1 With the progres
sive expansion of the world before them, the seers and sages saw
a sublime purpose in the history of the nations, and felt more
and more the supreme place of the divine wisdom as a manifes
tation of His greatness. Thus the great seer of the Exile never
tires of illumining the world- wide plan of the divine wisdom. 2
4. A new development ensued under Babylonian and
Persian influence at the time when the monotheism of Israel
became definitely universal. The divine wisdom, creative
and world-sustaining, became the highest of the divine attri
butes and was partially hypostatized as an independent cosmic
power. In the twenty-eighth chapter of the Book of Job wis
dom is depicted as a magic being, far remote from all living
beings of earth, beyond the reach of the creatures of the lowest
abyss, who aided the Creator with counsel and knowledge in
measuring and weighing the foundations of the world. The
description seems to be based upon an ancient Babylonian
conception which has parallels elsewhere of a divine
Sybil dwelling beneath the ocean in "the house of wisdom." 3
Here, however, the mythological conception is transformed
into a symbolic figure. In the eighth chapter of Proverbs
the description of divine wisdom is more in accordance with
Jewish monotheism ; wisdom is " the first of God s creatures, "
"a mas ter- workman " who assisted Him in founding heaven
and earth, a helpmate and playmate of God, and at the same
time the instructor of men and counselor of princes, inviting all
to share her precious gifts. This conception is found also in
the apocryphal literature, in Ben Sira, the book of Enoch,
the Apocalypse of Baruch, and the Hellenistic Book of Wisdom. 4
1 Isa. XXV, i ; XXVIII, 29. 2 Isa. XL-LV.
3 Prov. IX, i. Comp. A. Jeremias: D. A. Test. i. L. d. i. alt. Orients, 5,
80, 336, 367-
4 Ben Sira XXIV, 3-6, 14,21; Enoch XLII, 1-2 ; Slavonic Enoch XXX, 8 ;
Baruch III, 9 -IV, 4; comp. Bousset, 1. c., 337 f. ; J. E., art. Wisdom;
Bentwich : Philo, pp. 141-147.
GOD S KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM 141
From this period two different currents of thought appeared.
The one represented wisdom as an independent being distinct
from God, and this finally became merged, under Platonic influ
ence, into the views of neo-Platonism, Gnosticism, and the
Christian dogma. The other identified the divine wisdom with
the Torah, and therefore it is the Torah which served God
as counselor and mediator at the Creation and continues as
counselor in the management of the world. This view led
back to strict monotheism, so that the cosmology of the rabbis
spoke alternately of the divine wisdom and the Torah as the
instruments of God at Creation. 1
5. The Jewish philosophers of the Middle Ages, such as
Saadia, Gabirol, and Jehuda ha Levi, followed the Mohammedan
theologians in enumerating God s wisdom among the attributes
constituting His essence, together with His omnipotence, His
will, and His creative energy. But they would not take wis
dom or any other attribute as a separate being, with an exist
ence outside of God, which would either condition Him or
admit a division of His nature. 2 "God himself is wisdom, "says
Jehuda ha Levi, referring to the words of Job : "He is wise in
heart." 3 And Ibn Gabirol sings in his " Crown of Royalty " :
"Thou art wise, and the wisdom of Thy fount of life floweth from Thee ;
And compared with Thy wisdom man is void of understanding ;
Thou art wise, before anything began its existence ;
And wisdom has from times of yore been Thy fostered child ;
Thou art wise, and out of Thy wisdom didst Thou create the world,
Life the artificer that fashioneth whatsoever delighteth him." 4
1 Targ. Yer. to Gen. I, i. Gen. R. I. 2, 5. Sec Schechter : Aspects, 127-137.
1 Kaufmann, 1. c., 16, 107, 113, 163, 325, 418.
Job IX, 4 ; Cuzari, II, 2. Sachs, cl, 6, 227.
CHAPTER XXIII
GOD S CONDESCENSION
i. An attribute of great importance for the theological
conception of God, one upon which both Biblical and rabbin
ical literature laid especial stress, is His condescension and
humility. The Psalmist says 1 : "Thy condescension hath
made me great," which is interpreted in the Midrash that
the Deity stoops to man in order to lift him up to Himself.
A familiar saying of R. Johanan is 2 : " Wherever Scripture
speaks of the greatness of God, there mention is made also
of His condescension. So when the prophet begins, Thus
saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,
whose name is Holy : I dwell in the high and holy place/
he adds the words, With him also that is of a contrite and
humble spirit. 3 Or when the Deuteronomist says: For
the Lord your God, the great God, the mighty and the awful/
he concludes, He doth execute justice for the fatherless and
widow, and loveth the stranger. 4 And again the Psalmist:
Extol Him that rideth upon the skies, whose name is the Lord,
a Father of the fatherless and a Judge of the widows. " 5 "Do
you deem it unworthy of God that He should care for the
smallest and most insignificant person or thing in the world s
household?" asks Mendelssohn in his Morgenstunden. "It
certainly does not detract from the dignity of a king to be
seen fondling his child as a loving father," and he quotes
1 Ps. XVIII, 36. 2 Meg. 35 a. Isa. LVTI, 15.
Deut. X, 17-18. 6 Ps. LXVIII, 5-6.
142
GOD S CONDESCENSION 143
the verse of the Psalm, "Who is like unto the Lord our God,
that is enthroned on high, that looketh down low upon heaven
and upon the earth." 1
2. This truth has a religious depth which no philosophy
can set forth. Only the God of Revelation is near to man
in his frailty and need, ready to hear his sighs, answer his
supplication, count his tears, and relieve his wants when his
own power fails. The philosopher must reject as futile every
attempt to bring the incomprehensible essence of the Deity
within the compass of the human understanding. The re
ligious consciousness, however, demands that we accentuate
precisely those attributes of God which bring Him nearest
to us. If reason alone would have the decisive voice in this
problem, every manifestation of God to man and every reach
ing out of the soul to Him in prayer would be idle fancy and
self-deceit. It is true that the Biblical conception was simple
and child-like enough, representing God as descending from
the heavens to the earth. Still Judaism does not accept
the cold and distant attitude of the philosopher ; it teaches
that God as a spiritual power does condescend to man, in
order that man may realize his kinship with the Most High
and rise ever nearer to his Creator. The earth whereon
man dwells and the human heart with its longing for
heaven, are not bereft of God. Wherever man seeks Him,
there He is.
3. Rabbinical Judaism is very far from the attitude assigned
to it by Christian theologians, 2 of reducing the Deity to an
empty transcendental abstraction and loosening the bond
which ties the soul to its Maker. On the contrary, it main
tains these very relations with a firmness which betokens
its soundness and its profound psychological truth. In this
spirit a Talmudic master interprets the Deuteronomic verse :
"For what great nation is there that hath God so nigh unto
1 Ps. CXIII, 5-6. Weber, 1. c., 154.
144 JEWISH THEOLOGY
them, as the Lord our God is whensoever we call upon Him ? " l
saying that "each will realize the nearness of God according
to his own intellectual and emotional disposition, and thus
enter into communion with Him." According to another
Haggadist the verse of the Psalm, "The voice of the Lord
resoundeth with power, " 2 teaches how God reveals Himself,
not with His own overwhelming might, but according to each
man s individual power and capacity. The rabbis even make
bold to assert that whenever Israel suffers, God suffers with
him ; as it is written, "I will be with him in trouble." 3
4. As a matter of fact, all the names which we apply to
God in speech or in prayer, even the most sublime and holy
ones, are derived from our own sensory experience and cannot
be taken literally. They are used only as vehicles to bring
home to us the idea that God s nearness is our highest good.
Even the material world, which is perceptible to our senses,
must undergo a certain inner transformation before it can be
termed science or philosophy, and becomes the possession of
the mind. It requires still further exertions of the imagina
tion to bring within our grasp the world of the spirit, and above
all the loftiest of all conceptions, the very being of God.
Yet it is just this Being of all Beings who draws us irresistibly
toward Himself, whose nearness we perceive in the very
depths of our intellectual and emotional life. Our "soul
thirsteth after God, the living God," and behold, He is nigh,
He takes possession of us, and we call Him our God.
5. The Haggadists expressed this intimate relation of God
to man, and specifically to Israel, by bold and often naive
metaphors. They ascribe to God special moments for wrath
and for prayer, a secret chamber where he weeps over the
1 Deut. IV, 7 ; Yer. Ber. IX, 19 a, where the plural, Kerobim, suggests the
idea, "all kinds of nearness."
2 Ps. XXIX, 4 ; Tanh. Yithro, ed. Buber, 17.
3 Ps. XCI, 15; Isa. LXIII, 9 j Sifre Num. 84.
GOD S CONDESCENSION 145
distress of Israel, a prayer-mantle (tallith) and phylacteries
which He wears like any of the leaders of the community,
and even lustrations which He practices exactly like mortals. 1
But such fanciful and extravagant conceptions were never
taken seriously by the rabbis, and only partisan and prejudiced
writers, entirely lacking in a sense of humor, could point
to such passages to prove that a theology of the Synagogue
carried out a " Judaization of God." 2
1 Ber. 6 a; 7 a; R. ha Sh. 17 b; Hag. 5 b; Sanh. 39 a. Comp. Schechter,
Aspects, p. 21-50.
8 Weber, 1. c., 157-160.
C. GOD IN RELATION TO THE WORLD
CHAPTER XXIV
THE WORLD AND ITS MASTER
i. In using the term world or universe we include the
totality of all beings at once, and this suggests a stage of
knowledge where polytheism is practically overcome. Among
the Greeks, Pythagoras is said to have been the first to per
ceive "a beautiful order of things" in the world, and therefore
to call it cosmos. 1 Primitive man saw in the world innumer
able forces continually struggling with each other for suprem
acy. Without an ordering mind no order, as we conceive
it, can exist. The old Babylonian conception prevalent
throughout antiquity divided the world into three realms, the
celestial, terrestrial, and the nether world, each of which had
its own type of inhabitants and its own ruling divinities. Yet
these various divine powers were at war with each other, and
ultimately they, too, must submit to a blind fate which men
and gods alike could read in the stars or other natural phe
nomena.
With the first words of the Bible, "In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth," Judaism declared
the world to be a unity and God its Creator and Master.
Heathenism had always beheld in the world certain blind
forces of nature, working without plan or purpose and devoid
1 Plutarch : "De placitis philosophiae," II, i ; comp. for the entire chapter
Dillmann, 1. c., 284-295; Smend : 1. c., 454 f.; H. Steinthal : "Die Idee der
Schopfung" in J. B. z. Jued. Gesch. u. Lit., II, 39-44.
146
THE WORLD AND ITS MASTER 147
of any moral aims. But Judaism sees in the world the work
of a supreme Intellect who fashioned it according to His will,
and who rules in freedom, wisdom, and goodness. "He
spoke, and it was ; He commanded, and it stood." 1 Nature
exists only by the will of God ; His creative^/ called it into
existence, and it ceases to be as soon as it has fulfilled His
plan.
2. That which the scientist terms nature the cosmic
life in its eternal process of growth and reproduction is
declared by Judaism to be God s creation. Ancient heathen
conceptions deified nature, indeed, but they knew only a
cosmogony, that is, a process of birth and growth of the world.
In this the gods participate with all other beings, to sink
back again at the close of the drama into fiery chaos, the
so-called " twilight of the gods." Here the deity constitutes
a part of the world, or the world a part of the deity, and
philosophic speculation can at best blend the two into a
pantheistic system which has no place for a self-conscious,
creative mind and will. In fact, the universe appears as an
ever growing and unfolding deity, and the deity as an ever
growing and unfolding universe. Modern science more
properly assumes a self-imposed limitation; it searches for
the laws underlying the action and interaction of natural
forces and elements, thus to explain in a mechanistic way
the origin and development of all things, but it leaves entirely
outside of its domain the whole question of a first cause and a
supreme creative mind. It certainly can pass no opinion as to
whether or not the entire work of creation was accomplished
by the free act of a Creator. Revelation alone can speak with
unfaltering accents: "In the beginning God created heaven
and earth." However we may understand, or imagine, the
beginning of the natural process, the formation of matter and
the inception of motion, we see above the confines of space
1 Ps. XXXIII, o.
148 JEWISH THEOLOGY
and time the everlasting God, the absolutely free Creator of
all things.
3. No definite theological dogma can define the order and
process of the genesis of the world ; this is rather a scientific
than a religious question. The Biblical documents themselves
differ widely on this point, whether one compares the stories
in the first two chapters of Genesis, or contrasts both of them
with the poetical descriptions in Job and the Psalms. 1 And
these divergent accounts are still less to be reconciled with
the results of natural science. In the old Babylonian cos
mography, on which the Biblical view is based, the earth,
shaped like a disk, was suspended over the waters of the ocean,
while above it was the solid vault of heaven like a ceiling.
In this the stars were fixed like lamps to light the earth, and
hidden chambers to store up the rain. The sciences of as
tronomy, physics, and geology have abolished these child
like conceptions as well as the story of a six-day creation,
where vegetation sprang from the earth even before the sun,
moon, and stars appeared in the firmament.
The fact is that the Biblical account is not intended to
depreciate or supersede the facts established by natural
science, but solely to accentuate those religious truths which
the latter disregards. 2 These may be summed up in the
following three doctrines :
4. First. Nature, with all its immeasurable power and
grandeur, its wondrous beauty and harmony, is not inde
pendent, but is the work, the workshop, and the working
force of the great Master. His spirit alone is the active power ;
His will must be carried out. It is true that we cannot con
ceive the universe otherwise than as infinite in time and
space, because both time and space are but human modes
of apperception. In fact, we cannot think of a Creator with-
1 Job XXXVIII; Ps. CIV.
8 Comp. Albo I, 12, and Schlesinger s Notes, 625.
THE WORLD AND ITS MASTER 149
out a creation, because any potentiality or capacity without
execution would imply imperfection in God. Nevertheless
we must conceive of God as the designing and creating in
tellect of the universe, infinitely transcending its complex
mechanism, whose will is expressed involuntarily by each
of the created beings. He alone is the living God ; He has
lent existence and infinite capacity to the beings of the world ;
and they, in achieving their appointed purpose, according
to the poet s metaphor, " weave His living garment." The
Psalmist also sings in the same key :
"Of old Thou didst lay the foundations of the earth ;
And the heavens are the work of Thy hands ;
They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure ;
Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment.
As a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall pass away ;
But Thou art the selfsame, and Thy years shall have no end." l
5. Second. The numberless beings and forces of theuniverse
comprise a unity, working according to one plan, subserving
a common purpose, and pursuing in their development and
interaction the aim which God s wisdom assigned them from
the beginning. However hostile the various elements may
be toward each other, however fierce the universal conflict,
"the struggle for existence," still over all the discord prevails
a higher concord, and the struggle of nature s forces ends in
harmony and peace. " He maketh peace in His high places." 2
Even the highest type of heathenism, the Persian, divided
the world into mutually hostile principles, light and darkness,
good and evil. But Judaism proclaims God as the Creator
of both. No force is left out of the universal plan ; each
contributes its part to the whole. Consequently the very
progress of natural science confirms more and more the prin
ciple of the divine Unity. The researches of science are ever
1 Ps. CII, 25-27. job XXV, 2.
150 JEWISH THEOLOGY
tending toward the knowledge of universal laws of growth,
culminating in a scheme of universal evolution. Hence this
supports and confirms Jewish monotheism, which knows no
power of evil antagonistic to God.
6. Third. The world is good, since goodness is its creator
and its final aim. True enough, nature, bent with " tooth
and claw" upon annihilating one or another form of existence,
is quite indifferent to man s sense of compassion and justice.
Yet in the wise, though inscrutable plan of God she does
but serve the good. We see how the lower forms of life ever
serve the higher, how the mineral provides food for the vege
table, while the animal derives its food from the vegetable
world and from lower types of animals. Thus each becomes
a means of vitality for a higher species. So by the continuous
upward striving of man the lower passions, with their evil
tendencies, work more and more toward the triumph of the
good. Man unfolds his God-likeness ; he strives to
"Move upward, working out the beast,
And let the ape and tiger die."
7. The Biblical story of Creation expresses the perfect
harmony between God s purpose and His work in the words,
"And behold, it was good" spoken at the end of each day s
Creation, and "behold, it was very good" at the completion of
the whole. A world created by God must serve the highest
good, while, on the contrary, a world without God would prove
to be "the worst of all possible worlds," as Schopenhauer, the
philosopher of pessimism, quite correctly concludes from his
premises. The world- view of Judaism, which regards the
entire economy of life as the realization of the all-encompassing
plan of an all-wise Creator, is accordingly an energizing op
timism, or, more precisely, meliorism. This view is voiced
by the rabbis in many significant utterances, such as the
maxim of R. Akiba, "Whatsoever the Merciful One does,
THE WORLD AND ITS MASTER 151
is for the good," 1 or that of his teacher, Nahum of Gimzo,
"This, too, is for the good." 2 His disciple, R. Meir, inferred
from the Biblical verse, "God saw all that He had made, and
behold, it was very good," that "death, too, is good." 3 Others
considered that suffering and even sin are included in this
verse, because every apparent evil is necessary that we may
struggle and overcome it for the final victory of the good. 4
As an ancient Midrash says: "God is called a God of faith
and faithfulness, because it was His faith in the world that
caused Him to bring it into existence." 5
1 Ber. 60 b.
* Gam zu le tobah, an allusion to his own name. Taan. 21 b.
8 Gen. R. IX, 5. 4 Gen. R. IX, 9-10. 6 Sifre Deut. 307.
CHAPTER XXV
CREATION AS THE ACT OF GOD
i. "Thus shall ye say unto them: The gods that have
not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from
the earth, and from under the heavens. He that hath made
the earth by His power, that hath established the world by
His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His under
standing . . . the Lord God is the true God." l With this dec
laration of war against heathenism, the prophet drew the line,
once for all, between the uncreated, transcendent God and
the created, perishable universe. It is true that Plato spoke
of primordial and eternal matter and Aristotle of an eternally
rotating celestial sphere, and that even Biblical exegetes,
such as Ibn Ezra, 2 inferred from the Creation story the ex
istence of primeval chaotic matter. Yet, on the whole, the
Jewish idea of God has demanded the assumption that even
this primitive matter was created by God, or, as most thinkers
have phrased it, that God created the world out of nothing.
This doctrine was voiced as early as the Maccabean period
in the appeal made by the heroic mother to the youngest
of her seven sons. 3 In the same spirit R. Gamaliel II scorn
fully rejects the suggestion of a heretic that God used primeval
substances already extant in creating the world. 4
1 Jer. X, 11-12 and 10.
2 See his commentary to Gen. I, i ; comp. Neumark, 1. c., I, 70, 71, 80 f., 87,
412, 439, 515; Husik, 1. c., p. 190; D. Strauss, 1. c., 619-660.
8 II Mace. VII, 28.
4 Gen. R. I, 12 ; X. 3 ; Hag. n 0-13 a; Slavonic Enoch, XXV; see J. E.,
art. Cosmogony and Creation; Enc. Rel. and Eth., 151 ff., 167 f.
152
CREATION AS THE ACT OF GOD 153
2. Of course, thinking people will ever be confronted by
the problem how a transcendental God could call into existence
a world of matter, creating it within the limits of space and
time, without Himself becoming involved in the process. It
would seem that He must by the very act subject Himself
to the limitations and mutations of the universe. Hence
some of the ancient Jewish teachers came under the influence
of Babylonian and Egyptian cosmogonies in their later Hel
lenistic forms, and resorted to the theory of intermediary
forces. Some of these adopted the Pythagorean conception
of the mysterious power of letters and numbers, which they
communicated to the initiated as secret lore, with the result
that the suspicion of heresy rested largely upon " those who
knew," the so-called Gnostics.
The difficulty of assuming a creation at a fixed period of
time was met in many different ways. It is interesting to
note that R. Abbahu of Caesarea in the fourth century offered
the explanation: "God caused one world after another to
enter into existence, until He produced the one of which He
said: Behold, this is good. " 1 Still this opinion seems to
have been expressed by even earlier sages, as it is adopted by
Origen, a Church father of the third century, who admitted
his great debt to Jewish teachers. 2
The medieval Jewish philosophers evaded the difficulty
by the Aristotelian expedient of connecting the concept of
time with the motion of the spheres. Thus time was created
with the celestial world, and timelessness remained an attribute
of the uncreated God. 3 Such attempts at harmonization
prove the one point of importance to us, which, indeed,
was frankly stated by Maimonides, that we cannot accept
literally the Biblical account of the creation.
3. The modern world has been lifted bodily out of the
1 Gen. R. IX, i. See Strauss, 1. c., 645 f.
See Schmiedl, 1. c., 91-128; Kaufmann, 1. c., 280 f., 306, 387 f.
154 JEWISH THEOLOGY
Babylonian and so-called Ptolemaic world, with its narrow
horizon, through the labors of such men as Copernicus, Galileo,
Newton, Lyall, and Darwin. We live in a world immeasurable
in terms of either space or time, a world where evolution works
through eons of time and an infinite number of stages. Such
a world gives rise to concepts of the working of God in nature
totally different from those of the seers and sages of former
generations, ideas of which those thinkers could not even
dream. To the mind of the modern scientist the entire cos
mic life, extending over countless millions of years, forming
starry worlds without end, is moved by energy arising within.
It is a continuous flow of existence, a process of formation
and re-formation, which can have no beginning and no end.
How is this evolutionist view to be reconciled with the belief
in a divine act of creation ? This is the problem which modern
theology has set itself, perhaps the greatest which it must solve.
Ultimately, however, the problem is no more difficult now
than it was to the first man who pondered over the beginnings
of life in the childhood of the world. The same answer fits
both modes of thought, with only a different process of reason
ing. Whether we count the world s creation by days or by
millions of years, the truth of the first verse of Genesis remains :
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
In our theories the whole complicated world-process is but
the working out of simple laws. This leads back as swiftly
and far more surely than did the primitive cosmology to
an omnipotent and omniscient creative Power, defining at the
very outset the aim of the stupendous whole, and carrying its
comprehensive plan into reality, step by step. We who are
the products of time cannot help applying the relation of time
to the work of the Creator ; time is so interwoven with our
being that a modern evolutionist, Bergson, considers it the
fundamental element of reality. Thus it is natural that we
should think of God as setting the first atoms and forces of
CREATION AS THE ACT OF GOD 155
the universe into motion somewhere and somehow, at a given
moment. Through this act, we imagine, the order pre
vailing through an infinitude of space and time was established
for the great fabric of life. To earlier thinkers such an act
of a supermundane and immutable God appeared as a single
act. The idea of prime importance in all this is the free
activity of the Creator in contradistinction to the blind
necessity of nature, the underlying theory of all pagan or un-
religious philosophy. 1 The world of God, which is the world
of morality, and which leads to man, the image of God, must
be based upon the free, purposive creative act of God.
Whether such an act was performed once for all or is ever
lastingly renewed, is a quite secondary matter for religion,
however important it may be to philosophy, or however
fundamental to science. In our daily morning prayers,
which refer to the daily awakening to a life seemingly new,
God is proclaimed as "He who reneweth daily the work of
creation." 2
1 See C. Seligman, Judenthum und Modcrne Weltanschauung.
2 The first benediction before the Shema.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE MAINTENANCE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD
1. For our religious consciousness the doctrine of divine
maintenance and government of the world is far more im
portant than that of creation. It opposes the view of deism
that God withdrew from His creation, indifferent to the
destiny of His creatures. He is rather the ever-present Mind
and Will in all the events of life. The world which He created
is maintained by Him in its continuous activity, the object
of His incessant care.
2. Scripture knows nothing of natural law, but presents
the changing phenomena of nature as special acts of God
and considers the natural forces His messengers carrying
out His will. "He opens the windows of heaven to let the
rain descend upon the earth." 1 "He leads out the hosts
of the stars according to their number and calleth them by
name." 2 He makes the sun rise and set. "He says to the
snow : Fall to the earth ! " 3 and calls to the wind to blow
and to the lightning to flash. 4 He causes the produce of the
earth and the drought which destroys them. "He opens the
womb to make beasts and men bring forth their young;"
"He shuts up the womb to make them barren." 5 "He also
provides the food for all His creatures in due season, even
for the young ravens when they cry." 6 His breath keeps all
alive. "He withdraweth their breath, and they perish, and
1 Gen. VII, ii ; VIII, 2. * Isa. XL, 26.
3 Job XXXVI, 6. 4 Job XXXVIII, 25.
6 Gen. XX, 17-18; XXX, 22. Ps. CXLVII, 8-9.
156
MAINTENANCE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD 157
return to their dust. He sendeth forth His spirit, they are
created ; He reneweth the face of the earth." l We are told
also that God assigns to each being its functions, telling the
earth to bring forth fruit, 2 the sea not to trespass its boundary, 3
the stars and the seas to maintain their order. 4 To each
one He hath set a measure, a law which they dare not trans
gress. God s wisdom works in them ; they all are subject
to His rule.
3. This conclusion betokens an obvious improvement
upon the earlier and more childlike view. It recognizes that
there is an order in the universe and all under divine super
vision. Thus Jeremiah speaks of a covenant of God with
heaven and earth, and of the laws which they must obey, 6
and in Genesis the rainbow is represented as a sign of the
covenant of peace made by God with the whole earth. 6 As
God "maketh peace in the heavens above," 7 He establishes
order in the world. As the various powers of nature are in
vested with a degree of independence, God s sovereignty
manifests itself in the regularity with which they interact
and cooperate. 8 The lore of the mystics speaks even of an
oath which God administered upon His holy Name to the
heavens and the stars, the sea and the abyss, that they should
never break their designated bounds or disturb the whole
order of creation. 9
4. Further progress is noted in the liturgy, in such expres
sions as that "God reneweth daily the work of creation,"
or "He openeth every morning the gate of heaven to let the
sun come out of its chambers in all its splendor" and "at
eventide He maketh it return through the portals of the west."
Again, "He reneweth His creative power in every phenomenon
i Ps. CIV, 27-30. * Gen. I, i r. Pa. CIV, 8.
Gen. VIII, 22 ; Job XXXVIII, 33. 8 Jer. XXXI, 39 ; XXXIII, 25.
Gen. IX, 12 f. 7 Job XXV, 2.
See Dillmann, 1. c., 295 f. ; D. Strauss, 1. c., 620-643.
Enoch LXIX, 15-25; Prayer of Manasseh, 3; Suk. 53 a b; Hag. 12 a.
158 JEWISH THEOLOGY
of nature and in every turn of the season;" "He provide th
every living being with its sustenance." 1 Indeed, in the view
of Judaism the maintenance of the entire household of nature
is one continuous act of God which can neither be interrupted
nor limited in time. God in His infinite wisdom works for
ever through the same laws which were in force at the begin
ning, and which shall continue through all the realms of time
and space.
We feeble mortals, of course, see but "the hem of His gar
ment" and hear only "a whisper of His voice." Still from
the deeper promptings of our soul we learn that science does
not touch the inmost essence of the world when it finds a
law of necessity in the realm of nature. The universe is
maintained and governed by a moral order. Moral objects
are attained by the forces of the elements, "the messengers
of God who fulfilled His word/ 7 2 Both the hosts of heaven
and the creatures of the earth do His bidding; their every
act, great or small, is as He has ordered. Yet of them all
man alone is made in God s image, and can work self-con
sciously and freely for a moral purpose. Indeed, as the rabbis
express it, he has been called as "the co-worker with God
in the work of creation." 3
5. The conception of a world-order also had to undergo
a long development. The theory of pagan antiquity, echoed
in both Biblical and post-Biblical writings, is that the world
is definitely limited, with both a beginning and an end. As
heaven and earth came into being, so they will wax old and
shrink like a garment, while sun, moon, and stars will lose
their brightness and fall back into the primal chaos. 4 The
belief in a cataclysmic ending of the world is a logical corollary
of the belief in the birth of the world. In striking contrast,
the prophets hold forth the hope of a future regeneration of
1 See Singer s Prayerbook, 37, 96, 290, 292. 2 Ps. CIII, 20.
8 Shab. 119 b. Ps. CII, 27 ; Isa. XXXIV, 4.
MAINTENANCE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD 159
the world. God will create "a new heaven and a new earth"
where all things will arise in new strength and beauty. 1
This hope, as all eschatology, was primarily related to
the regeneration of the Jewish people. Accordingly, the
rabbis speak of two worlds, 2 this world and the world to come.
They consider the present life only a preliminary of the world
to come, in which the divine plan of creation is to be worked
out for all humanity through the truths emanating from Israel.
This whole conception rested upon a science now superseded,
the geocentric view of the universe, which made the earth
and especially man the final object of creation. For us only
a figurative meaning adheres to the two worlds of the medieval
belief, following each other after the lapse of a fixed period
of time. On the one hand, we see one infinite fabric of life
in this visible world with its millions of suns and planets,
among which our earth is only an insignificant speck in the
sky. With our limited understanding we endeavor to pen
etrate more and more into the eternal laws of this illimitable
cosmos. On the other hand, we hold that there is a moral
and spiritual world which comprises the divine ideals and
eternal objects of life. Both are reflected in the mind of man,
who enters into the one by his intellect and into the other by
his emotions of yearning and awe. At the same time both
are the manifestation of God, the Creator and Ruler of all.
A Isa. LXV, 17.
1 See J. E. and Enc. of Rel. and Eth., art. " Eschatology " ; Schuerer, G. V. I.
II, 545-
CHAPTER XXVII
MIRACLES AND THE COSMIC ORDER
i. " Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the mighty ?
Who is like unto Thee, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders ! " l
Thus sang Israel at the Red Sea in words which are constantly
reechoed in our liturgy. Nothing impresses the religious
sense of man so much as unusual phenomena in nature, which
seem to interrupt the wonted course of events and thus to
reveal the workings of a higher Power. A miracle that
is, a thing "wondered" at, because not understood is
always regarded by Scripture as a "sign" 2 or "proof" 3
of the power of God, to whom nothing is impossible. The
child-like mind of the past knew nothing of fixed or immu
table laws of nature. Therefore the question is put in all
simplicity: "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" 4 "Is
the Lord s hand waxed short ? " 5 "Or should He who created
heaven and earth not be able to create something which
never was before?" 6 Should "He who maketh a man s
mouth, or makes him deaf, dumb, seeing or blind," 7 not be
able also to open the mouth of the dumb beast or the eyes
of the blind? Should not He who killeth and giveth life
have the power also to call the dead back to life, if He sees
fit? Should not He who openeth the womb for every birth,
be able to open it for her who is ninety years old ? Or when a
1 Ex. XV, n. 2 Oth, sign for miracle, Ex. IV, 8, 17, and elsewhere.
Mopheth, Ex. VII, 3, and elsewhere. 4 Gen. XVIII, 14.
6 Num. XI, 23. 6 Ex. XXXIV, 10 ; Num. XVI, 30. 7 Ex. IV, n.
160
MIRACLES AND THE COSMIC ORDER 161
whole land is wicked, to shut the wombs of all its inhabitants
that they may remain barren? Again, should not He who
makes the sun come forth every morning from the gates of
the East and enter each night the portals of the West, not
be able to change this order once, and cause it to stand still in
the midst of its course ? l
So long as natural phenomena are considered to be sep
arate acts of the divine will, an unusual event is merely an
extraordinary manifestation of this same power, "the finger
of God." The people of Biblical times never questioned
whether a miracle happened or could happen. Their concern
was to see it as the work of the arm of God either for His
faithful ones or against His adversaries.
2. With the advance of thought, miracles began to be
regarded as interruptions of an established order of creation.
The question then arose, why the all-knowing Creator should
allow deviations from His own laws. As the future was
present to Him at the outset, why did He not make provision
in advance for such special cases as He foresaw ? This was
exactly the remedy which the rabbis furnished. They de
clared that at Creation God provided for certain extraor
dinary events, so that a latent force, established for the pur
pose at the beginning of the world, is responsible for incidents
which appeared at the time to be true interferences with the
world order. Thus God had made a special covenant, as it
were, with the work of creation that at the appointed time
the Red Sea should divide before Israel ; that sun and moon
should stand still at the bidding of Joshua ; that fire should
not consume the three youths, Hananel, Mishael, and Aza-
riah; that the sea-monster should spit forth Jonah alive;
together with other so-called miracles. 2 The same idea
1 Josh. X, 12-14. See Joel : "D. Mosaismus u. d. Wunder," in Jb. d. Jued.
Gesch. u. Lit., 1904, p. 66-94.
Mek. Beshallah 3 ; Gen. R. V, 4.
M
162 JEWISH THEOLOGY
occasioned the other Haggadic saying that shortly before
the completion of the creation on the evening of the sixth day
God placed certain miraculous forces in nature. Through
them the earth opened to swallow Korah and his band, the
rock in the wilderness gave water for the thirsty multitude,
and Balaam s ass spoke like a human being; through them
also the rainbow appeared after the flood, the manna rained
from heaven, Aaron s rod burst forth with almond blossoms
and fruit, and other wondrous events happened in their
proper time. 1
3. Neither the rabbis nor the medieval Jewish thinkers
expressed any doubt of the credibility of the Biblical miracles.
The latter, indeed, rationalized miracles as well as other things,
and considered some of them imaginary. Saadia accepts all
the Biblical miracles except the speaking serpent in Paradise
and the speaking ass of Balaam, considering these to be
parables rather than actual occurrences. 2 In general, both
Jewish and Mohammedan theologians assumed that special
forces hidden in nature were utilized by the prophets and
saints to testify to their divine mission. These powers were
attained by their lofty intellects, which lifted them up to
the sphere of the Supreme Intellect. All medieval attempts
to solve the problem of miracles were based upon this curious
combination of Aristotelian cosmology and Mohammedan
or Jewish theology. 3 True, Maimonides rejects a number
of miracles as contrary to natural law, and refers to the
rabbinical saying that some of the miraculous events narrated
in Scripture were so only in appearance. Still he claims for
1 Aboth V, 6; comp. Ab. d. R. N., ed. Schechter, 95; Mek. Beshallah, 5;
Sifre Debarim, 355 ; Pes. 54 a; P. d. R. Eli., XIX; Targ. Y. to Num. XXII,
28, where a different list of ten wondrous things is given.
2 Emunoth we Deoth II, 44, 68. Comp. Ibn Ezra to Gen. Ill, i, and Num.
XXII, 28.
3 Moreh, II, 25, 35, 37 ; III, 24 ; Yesode ha Torah, VII, 7 ; VIII, 1-3. Comp.
Joel : Moses Maimonides, p. 77.
MIRACLES AND THE COSMIC ORDER 163
Moses, as the Mohammedans did for Mohammed, miraculous
powers derived from the sphere of the Supreme Intellect.
In a lengthy chapter on miracles Albo follows Maimonides, 1
while his teacher Crescas considers the Biblical miracles to
be direct manifestations of the creative activity of God. 2
Gersonides has really two opinions ; in his commentary he
reduces all miracles to natural processes, but in his philo
sophical work he adopts the view of Maimonides. 3 Jehuda
ha Levi alone insisted on the miracles of the Bible as historic
evidence of the divine calling of the prophets. 4 To all the
rest, the miracle is not performed by God but by the divinely
endowed man. God himself is no longer conceived of as chang
ing the cosmic order. Both He and the world created by His
will remain ever the same. Still, according to this theory,
certain privileged men are endowed with special powers by
the Supreme Intellect, and by these they can perform miracles.
4. It is evident that in all this the problem of miracles is
not solved, nor even correctly stated. Both rabbinical liter
ature and the Bible abound with miracles about certain holy
places and holy persons, which they never venture to doubt.
But the rabbis were not miracle-workers like the Essenes and
their Christian successors. 5 On the contrary, they sought to
repress the popular credulity and hunger for the miraculous,
saying : "The present generation is not worthy to have mir-
1 Ikkarint, I, 18.
1 Or Adonai, III, 5 ; comp. Joel : Don Chasdai Crescas, p. 70.
1 Milhamoth Adonai, last chapters; comp. J. E., art. Levi ben Gershom.
* Cnzari, II, 54.
6 The Anshe maasch, mentioned together with the Hasidlm in Suk. V, 4,
and Sot. IX, 15, are wonderworkers, of whom Haninah ben Dosa, the last, is
singled out. The same epithet was given to Simeon ben Yochai in Aramaic,
Iskan, see Lev. Rabba XXII, 2, and to R. Assi, eod. XIX, i, where it
means, worker in nature s realm. Thus Nahum of Gimzo is called "trained
in the skill to perform miracles " Taan. 21 a; Phinehas ben Jair was also a
wonderworker Hul. 7 a. The whole portion regarding rain-miracles seems
to be taken from a work on the miracles of saints.
1 64 JEWISH THEOLOGY
acles performed for them, like the former ones;" l or "The
providing of each living soul with its daily food, or the recovery
of men from a severe disease is as great a miracle as any of
those told in Scripture;" 2 or again, "Of how small account
is a person for whom the cosmic order must be disturbed !" 3
Thus when the wise men of Rome asked the Jewish sages :
"If your God is omnipotent, as you claim, why does He not
banish from the world the idols, which are so loathsome to
Him?" they replied: "Do you really desire God to destroy
the sun, moon, and stars, because fools worship them? The
world continues its regular course, and idolaters will not go
unpunished." 4
5. In Judaism neither Biblical nor rabbinical miracles are
to be accepted as proof of a doctrinal or practical teaching. 5
The Deuteronomic law expressly states that false prophets
can perform miracles by which they mislead the multitude. 6
We can therefore ascribe no intrinsic religious importance to
miracles. The fact is that miracles occur only among people
who are ignorant of natural law and thus predisposed to accept
marvels. They are the products of human imagination and
credulity. They have only a subjective, not an objective
value. They are psychological, not physical facts.
The attitude of Maimonides and Albo toward Biblical
miracles is especially significant. The former declares in
his great Code: 7 "Israel s belief in Moses and his law did
not rest on miracles, for miracles rather create doubt in the
mind of the believer. Faith must rest on its intrinsic truth,
and this can never be subverted by miracles, which may be
of a deceitful nature." Albo devotes a lengthy chapter to
developing this idea still further, undoubtedly referring to
the Church ; he speaks of miracles wrought by both Biblical
1 Taan. 18 b. 2 Pes. 118 a; Ned. 41 a. 8 Shab. 53 b.
4 Ab. Za. IV, 7 ; comp. Ber. 4 a, 20 a; Sanh. 97 b. 6 B. M. 59 b.
6 Deut. XIII, 2-6. * Yesode ha Torah, VIII, 1-5.
MIRACLES AND THE COSMIC ORDER 165
and Talmudic heroes, such as Onias the rain-maker, Nicode-
mus ben Gorion, Hanina ben Dosa, and Phinehas ben Jair,
the popular saints. 1 In modern times Mendelssohn, when
challenged by the Lutheran pastor Lavater either to accept
the Christian faith or refute it, attacked especially the basic
Christian faith in miracles. He stated boldly that " miracles
prove nothing, since every religion bases its claims on them
and consequently the truth of one would disprove the con
vincing proof of the other."
6. Our entire modern mode of thinking demands the
complete recognition of the empire of law throughout the
universe, manifesting the all-permeating will of God. The
whole cosmic order is one miracle. No room is left for single
or exceptional miracles. Only a primitive age could think
of God as altering the order of nature which He had fixed,
so as to let iron float on water like wood to please one person
here, 3 or to stop sun, star, or sea in their courses in order to
help or harm mankind there. 4 It is more important for us
to inquire into the law of the mind by which the fact itself may
differ from the peculiar form given it by a narrator. With
our historical methods unknown to former ages, we cannot
accept any story of a miracle without seeking its intrinsic
historical accuracy. After all, the miracle as narrated is
but a human conception of what, under God s guidance,
really happened.
Accordingly, we must leave the final interpretation of the
Biblical narratives to the individual, to consider them as
historical facts or as figurative presentations of religious
ideas. Even now some people will prefer to believe that the
Ten Commandments emanated from God Himself in audible
tones, as medieval thinkers maintained. 5 Some will adopt
the old semi-rationalistic explanation that He created a voice
1 Ikkarim, I, 18. 2 Mendelssohn : G. Sch., Ill, 65, 120 f., 320 f.
II Kings VI, 6. Joshua X, 13. 6 Moreh, II, 33-
1 66 JEWISH THEOLOGY
for this special purpose. Others will hold it more worthy
of God to communicate directly with man, from spirit to
spirit, without the use of sensory means ; these will therefore
take the Biblical description as figurative or mythical. In
fact, he who does not cling to the letter of the Scripture will
probably regard all the miracles as poetical views of divine
Providence, as child-like imagery expressing the ancient
view of the eternal goodness and wisdom of God. To us
also God is "a Doer of wonders," but we experience His wonder
working powers in ourselves. We see wonders in the acts
of human freedom which rises superior to the blind forces of
nature. The true miracle consists in the divine power within
man which aids him to accomplish all that is great and good.
CHAPTER XXVIII
PROVIDENCE AND THE MORAL GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD
1. None of the precious truths of Judaism has become more
indispensable than the belief in divine Providence, which we
see about us in ever new and striking forms. Man would
succumb from fear alone, beholding the dangers about him on
every side, were he not sustained by a conviction that there
is an all-wise Power who rules the world for a sublime purpose.
We know that even in direst distress we are guided by a di
vine hand that directs everything finally toward the good.
Wherever we are, we are protected by God, who watches over
the destinies of man as "does the eagle who hovers over her
young and bears them aloft on her pinions." Each of us is
assigned his place in the all-encompassing plan. Such knowl
edge and such faith as this comprise the greatest comfort and
joy which the Jewish religion offers. Both the narratives and
the doctrines of Scripture are filled with this idea of Provi
dence working in the history of individuals and nations. 1
2. Providence implies first, provision, and second, predesti
nation in accordance with the divine plan for the government
of the world. As God s dominion over the visible world ap
pears in the eternal order of the cosmos, so in the moral
world, where action arises from freely chosen aims, God is
1 The Hebrew term Hashgaha Providence is derived from Ps. XXXIII,
14, hishgiah, "He observes." See J. E., art. Providence; Davidson, 1. c., 178-
182; Hamburger, R. W. B. II, art. Bestimmung; Rauvvenhoff, 1. c., 538 f. ;
Ludwig Philippson: "Israel. Religionsl.," II, 98 f. ; Formstecher : "Religion
des Geisles ," 114-119.
167
1 68 JEWISH THEOLOGY
Ruler of a moral government. Thus He directs all the acts
of men toward the end which He has set. Judaism is most
sharply contrasted with heathenism at this point. Heathen
ism either deifies nature or merges the deity into nature.
Thus there is no place for a God who knows all things and
provides for all in advance. Blind fate rules all the forces of
life, including the deities themselves. Therefore chance in
cidents in nature or the positions of the stars are taken as
indications of destiny. Hence the belief in oracles and divi
nation, in the observation of flying arrows and floating clouds,
of the color and shape of the liver of sacrificial animals, and
other signs of heaven and earth which were to hint at the
future. 1
On the other hand, Judaism sees in all things, not the for
tuitous dealings of a blind and relentless fate, but the dispen
sations of a wise and benign Providence. It knows of no
event which is not foreordained by God. It sanctioned the
decision by lot 2 and the appeal to the oracle (the Urim and
Thummim) 3 only temporarily, during the Biblical period.
But soon it recognized entirely the will of God as the Ruler
of destiny, and the people accepted the belief that "the days,"
"the destinies," and even "the tears" of man are all written
in His "book." 4 Thus they perceived God as " He who knows
from the beginning what will be at the end." 5 The prophets,
His messengers, could thus foretell His will. They perceive
Him as the One who "created the smith that brought forth
the weapon for its work, and created the master who uses it
for destruction." 6 However the foe may rage, he is but
1 Jer. X, 2. See art. Divination, in J. E. ; Diet. Bible; Enc. R. and Eth.
2 See Lev. XVI, 8f.; Num. XXVI t 56; Josh. XVIII-XIX; Prov.
XVIII, 18.
3 Ex. XVIII, 30; I Sam. see LXX; XIV, 41.
4 Ex. XXXIII, 32; Ps. LVI, 9; CXXXIX, 16; comp., however, the
Babylonian "tables of destinies."
5 Isa. XL, 21 ; XLI, 4, 22 f. ; Amos III, 7. Isa. LIV, 16.
THE MORAL GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD 169
"the scourge in the hand of God," like "the axe in the
hand of him who fells the tree." 1 No device of men or
nations can withstand His will, for He turns all their doings
to some good purpose and transforms every curse into a
blessing. 2
3. Naturally this truth was first accepted in limited form,
in the life of certain individuals. The history of Joseph and
of King David were used as illustrations to show how God
protects His own. The experiences of the people confirmed
this belief and expanded it to apply to the nation. The
wanderings of Israel through the wilderness and its entrance
to the promised land were regarded as God s work for His
chosen people. The prophets looked still further and saw
the destinies of all nations, entering the foreground of history
one by one, as the sign of divine Providence, so that finally
the entire history of mankind became a great plan of divine
salvation, centered upon the truth intrusted to Israel.
Beside this conception of general Providence ruling in his
tory, the idea of special Providence arose in response to human
longing. The belief in Providence developed to a full con
ception of care for the world at large and for each individual
in his peculiar destiny, a conviction that divine Providence
is concerned with the welfare of each individual, and that the
joyous or bitter lot of each man forms a link in the moral
government of the world. The first clear statement of this
comes from the prophet Jeremiah in his wrestling and sighing :
"I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, it is
not in man that walketh to direct his steps." 3 Special Provi
dence is discussed still more vividly and definitely in the book
of Job. Later on it becomes a specific Pharisaic doctrine,
"Everything is foreseen." 4 "No man suffers so much as the
injury of a finger unless it has been decreed in heaven." 5 A
1 Isa. X, 5, 15. Isa. VIII, n ; Ps. II, 2 f. ; Deut. XXIII, 6.
Jer. X, 33- 4 Aboth III, 15. Hul. 7 a.
170 JEWISH THEOLOGY
divine preordination decides a man s choice of his wife * and
every other important step of his life.
4. This theory of predestination, however, presents a grave
difficulty when we consider it in relation to man s morality
with its implication of self-determination. While this ques
tion of free will is treated fully in another connection, 2 we
may anticipate the thought at this point. The Jewish con
ception of divine predestination makes as much allowance as
possible for the moral freedom of man. This is shown in
Talmudic sayings, such as Everything is within the power of
God except the fear of God," 3 or "Repentance, prayer, and
charity avert the evil decree." 4 Thus Maimonides expressly
states in his Code that the belief in predestination cannot be
allowed to influence one s moral or religious character. A
man can decide by his own volition whether he shall become
as just as Moses or as wicked as Jeroboam. 5
5. The service of the New Year brings out significantly
the Jewish harmonization between the ideas of God s fore
knowledge and man s moral freedom. This festival, in the
Bible called the Festival of the Blowing of the Shofar, was
transformed under Babylonian influence into the Day of
Divine Judgment. But it is still in marked contrast to the
Babylonian New Year s Day, when the gods were supposed
to go to the House of the Tablets of Destiny in the deep to
hear the decisions of fate. 6 The Jewish sages taught that on
this day God, the Judge of the world, pronounces the destinies
of men and nations according to their deserts. They thus
replaced the heathen idea of blind fate by that of eternal
justice as the formative power of life. Then, moved by a
desire to mitigate the rigor of stern justice for the frail and
failing mortal, they included also God s long-suffering and
1 Gen. XXIV, 50 ; M. K. 18 b. 2 Ch. XXXIV. 3 Ber. 33 b.
4 R. h. Sh. 17 b; New Year s liturgy. 6 H. Teshubah, V, 1-2.
See, on the Zagmuk festival, Zimmern, K. A. T., p. 514 f.
THE MORAL GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD 171
mercy. These attributes are thus supposed to intercede, so
that the final decision is left in suspense until the Day of
Atonement, the great day of pardon. Some Tannaitic
teachers l find it more in accord with their view of God
to say that He judges man every day, and even every
hour.
Of course, the philosophic mind can take this whole view
point in a figurative sense alone. All the more must we rec
ognize that this sublime religious thought of God liberates
morality from the various limitations of the ancient pagan
conception of Deity and the more recent metaphysical view.
In place of these it asserts that there is a moral government
of the world, which must be imitated in the moral and religious
consciousness of the individual.
6. The belief in a moral government of the world answers
another question which the medieval Jewish philosophers
and their Mohammedan predecessors endeavored to solve,
but without satisfying the religious sentiment, the chief con
cern of theology. Some of them maintain that God s fore
knowledge does not determine human deeds. 2 Maimonides
and his school, however, say that it is impossible for us to
comprehend the knowledge and power of God, and that there
fore such a question is outside the sphere of human knowl
edge. "Know that, just as God has made the elements of
fire and air to rise upwards and water and earth to sink down
ward, so has He made man a free, self-determining being,
who acts of his own volition." 3 The Mohammedans would
often give up human freedom rather than the omniscience
and all-determining power of God ; but the Jewish thinkers,
Tos. R. h. Sh. I, 13; R. h. Sh. 16 a.
1 Saadia : Emunoth, IV, 7 ; Bahya : Hoboth ha Lebaboth, III, 8 ; IV, 3.
1 //. Teshubah V ; Moreh, I, 23 ; III, 16-19 ; comp. Cuzari, V, 20-21 ; Albo :
Ikkarim, IV, i-n ; Gersonides : Milhamoth, III, 2; VI, 1-18; Isaac ben She-
sheth: Responsa, 119; Lipman Heller to Aboth III, 15. See Joel: Levi ben
Gerson, p. 56.
172 JEWISH THEOLOGY
significantly, with only the possible exception of Crescas, 1
laid stress upon the divine nature which man attains through
moral freedom, even at the risk of limiting the omniscience of
God.
7. The philosophers failed, however, to emphasize suffi
ciently a point of highest importance for religion, God s
paternal care for all His creatures. Indeed, God ceases to be
God, if He has not included our every step in His plan of
creation, thus surrounding us with paternal love and tender
care. Instead of the three blind fates of heathendom who spin
and cut the threads of destiny without even knowing why,
the divine Father himself sits at the loom of time and appor
tions the lot of men according to His own wisdom and good
ness. Such a belief in divine Providence is ingrained in the
soul, and reasoning alone will not suffice to attain it. There
fore even such great thinkers as Maimonides and Gersonides
go astray as religious teachers when they follow Aristotelian
principles in this very intimate matter. They assume a
general Providence aiming for the preservation of the species,
but include a special Providence only so far as the recipient
of it is endowed with reason and has thus approached the
divine Intellect. A Providence of this type, the result of
human reasoning, is a mere illusion, as the pious thinker,
Hasdai Crescas, clearly shows. 2 For the man who prays to
God in anxiety or distress this bears nothing but dis
appointment.
The Aristotelian conception of the world has this great
truth, that there is no such thing as chance, that everything
is foreseen and provided by the divine wisdom. But religion
must hold that the individual is an object of care by God,
that "not a sparrow falls into the net without God s will," 3
1 See Or Adonai, II, 3 ; comp. Joel : Hasdai Crescas, 41-49, 54~55 5 Neumark :
"Crescas and Spinoza," in Y. B. C. C. A. R., 1908, vol. XVIII, p. 277-319.
8 Or Adonai, III, 24. 3 Gen. R. LXXIX, 16 ; comp. Matt. X, 29.
THE MORAL GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD 173
that " every hair on the head of man is counted and cared for
in the heavenly order," 1 and that the most insignificant
thing serves its purpose under the guidance of an all-wise
God. We use figurative expressions for the divine care,
because we cannot grasp it entirely or literally.
8. The Bible in the Song of Moses compares divine Provi
dence to the eagle spreading her protecting wings over her
young and bearing them aloft, or urging them to soar along. 2
The rabbis elaborate this by referring to the twofold care
which the eagle thus bestows, as she watches over those who
are still tender and helpless, shielding them from the arrows
below by bearing them on her wings, but inspiring the maturer
and stronger ones to fly by her side. 3 In the same way Provi
dence trains both individuals and generations for their al
lotted task. A little child requires incessant care on the part
of its mother, until it has learned how to eat, walk, speak,
and to decide for itself, but the wise parent gradually with
draws his guiding hand so that the growing child may learn
self-reliance and self-respect. The divine Father trains man
thus through the childhood of humanity. But no sooner does
the divine spirit in man awaken to self-consciousness than he
is thrown on his own resources to become the master of his
own destiny. The divine power which, in the earlier stages,
had worked for man, now works with him and within him.
In the rabbink phrase, he is now ready to be a " co-worker
with God in the work of creation." 4 Only at those grave
moments when his own powers fail him, he still feels in the
humility of faith that his ancient God is still near, "a very
present help in trouble," and that "the Guardian of Israel
neither slumbereth nor sleepeth." 5
9. At this point philosophy and religion part company.
1 B. B. 16 a; comp. Matt. X, 30; Luke XII, 7.
1 Deut. XXXII, ii. Mek. Yithro 2 ; Sifre ad loc.
* Shab. 119 b. * Ps. XL VI, 2 ; CXXI, 4.
174 JEWISH THEOLOGY
Philosophy cannot tolerate the removal of the dividing line
between the transcendent God and finite man. Hence the
relation of man s free will and divine foresight cannot be
solved by any process of reasoning. But when religion pro
claims a moral government of the world, then man, with his
moral and spiritual aims, attains a place in Creation akin
to the Creator. Of course, so long as he is mentally a child
and has no clear purpose, Providence acts for him as it does
for the animal with its marvelous instinct. Through His
chosen messengers God gives the people bread and water,
freedom and victory, instruction and law. The wondrous
tales describing the divine protection of Israel in its early life
may strike us as out of harmony with the laws of nature,
but they are true portrayals of the experience of the people.
Whatever happened for their good in those days had to be
the work of God ; they had not yet wakened to the power
hidden in their own soul. Their heroes felt themselves to be
divine instruments, roused by His spirit to perform mighty
deeds or to behold prophetic visions. It is God who battles
through them. It is God who speaks through them. Both
their moral and spiritual guidance works from without and
above. At this stage of life autonomy is neither felt nor
desired. When man awakens to moral self -consciousness and
maturity, this inner change impresses him as an outer one;
the change in him is interpreted as a change in God. He feels
that God has withdrawn behind His eternal laws of nature
and morality which work without direct interference, and in
his new sense of independence he thinks that he can dispense
with the divine protection and forethought. As if mortal
man can ever dispense with that Power which has endowed
him with his capacity for worthy accomplishment ! Thus in
times of danger and distress man turns to God for help;
thus at every great turning point in the life of an individual
or nation the idea of an all-wise Providence imbues him with
THE MORAL GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD 175
new hope and new security. And in all these cases the great
lesson of providential direction is typified in the history of
Israel as related in the Bible.
10. The idea of Providence, indeed, belongs also to certain
pagan philosophers, who observed the great purposes of
nature which the single creature and the species are both to
serve. The Stoics in particular made a study of teleology,
the system of purposive ends in nature. Philo adopted much
from them in his treatise on Providence. Later the popular
philosophic group among the Mohammedans, the so-called
" Brothers of Purity," based their doctrines of God and His
relation to the world on a teleological view of nature. In
fact, the Jewish philosopher and moralist Bahya ben Pakudah
has embodied many of their ideas in his " Duties of the
Heart." l
Jewish folklore preserved in rabbinic literature has
also attempted a popular explanation of the obscure ways of
Providence, in strange events of nature as well as the great
enigmas of human destiny. Thus the flight of David from
Saul affords the lesson of the good purpose which may be
served by so insignificant a thing as a spider, or by so dreadful
a state as insanity. 2 Vast numbers of the Jewish legends
and fables deal with adversities which are turned into ulti
mate good by the working of an all-wise Providence. 3
1 See David Kaufmann : "Theol. d. B. b. Pakudah," p 240
2 Mid. Teh. to Ps. XXXIV; L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, IV, 89-90-
Alphabet of Ben Sira.
Comp.Maasehhbuch; Tendlau : Sagend.jued. Vorzeit.
CHAPTER XXIX
GOD AND THE EXISTENCE OF EVIL
i. A leading objection to the belief in divine Providence
is the existence in this world of physical and moral evil. All
living creatures are exposed to the influence of evil, according
to their physical or moral constitutions and the peculiar con
ditions of their existence. Heathenism accounts for the
powers of darkness, pain and death by assuming the exist
ence of forces hostile to the heavenly powers of light and life,
or of a primitive principle of evil, the counterpart of the
divine beings. But to those who believe in an almighty and
all-benign Creator and Ruler of the universe, the question
remains : Why do life and the love of life encounter so many
hindrances? Why does God s world contain so much pain
and bitterness, so much passion and sin ? Should not Provi
dence have averted such things? The answer of Judaism
has already been stated here, but we need further elaboration
of the theme that there is no evil before God, since a good
purpose is served even by that which appears bad. In the
life of the human body pleasure and pain, the impetus to life
and its restraint and inhibition form a necessary contrast,
making for health; so, in the moral order of the universe,
each being who battles with evil receives new strength for the
unfolding of the good. The principle of holiness, which cul
minates in Israel s holy God, transforms and ennobles every
evil. As the Midrash explains, referring to Deut. XI, 26 :
"If thou but seest that both good and evil are placed in thy
176
GOD AND THE EXISTENCE OF EVIL 177
hand, no evil will come to thee from above, since thou knowest
how to turn it into good." 1
2. The conception of evil passed through a development
parallel with that of the related conceptions which we have
just reviewed. At first every misfortune was considered to
be inflicted by divine wrath as a punishment for human mis
deeds. Nations and individuals were thought to suffer for
some special moral cause; through suffering they were
punished for past wrong, warned against its repetition in the
future, and urged to repentance and improvement of their
conduct. Even death, the fate of all living creatures, was
regarded as a punishment which the first pair of human beings
brought upon all their descendants through their transgres
sion of the divine command. The Talmudic sages clung to the
view of the Paradise legend in the Bible, when they held that
every death is due to some sin committed by the individual. 2
This view, which was shared by paganism, was accom
panied by a higher conception, gradually growing in the
thinking mind. As a father does not punish his child in
anger, but in order to improve his conduct, so God chastens
man in order to purify his moral nature. Good fortune tends
to harden the heart ; adversity often softens and sweetens it.
In the crucible of suffering the gold of the human soul is puri
fied from the dross. The evil strokes of destiny come upon
the righteous, not because he deserves them, but because his
divine Friend is raising him to still higher tests of virtue.
This standpoint, never reached even by the pious sufferer
Job, is attained by rabbinic Judaism when it calls the visita
tions of the righteous " trials of the divine love." 3 Thus evil,
both physical and spiritual, receives its true valuation in the
divine economy. Evil exists only to be overcome by the
1 See Gen. R. IX, 5, 10, n ; Dillmann, I. c., 309-318; D. F. Strauss, 1. c., II,
343-384.
Shab. 55 a. Ber. 5 a, after Deut. VIII, 5 ; Prov. Ill, 12.
N
178 JEWISH THEOLOGY
good. In His paternal goodness God uses it to educate His
children for a place in His kingdom.
3. According to the direct words of Scripture good and
evil, light and darkness, emanate alike from the Creator.
This is accentuated by the great seer of the Exile, 1 who pro
tests against the Persian belief in a creative principle of good
and a destructive principle of evil. The rabbis, however,
ascribe the origin of evil to man; they take as a negation
rather than a question the verse in Lam. Ill, 38: "Do not
evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?"
Thus they refer this to the words of Deuteronomy, " Behold,
I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil ;
choose thou life !" 2
Such medieval thinkers as Abraham Ibn Daud and Mai-
monides did not ascribe to evil any reality at all. 3 Evil to
them is the negation of good, just as darkness is the negation
of light, or poverty of riches. As evil exists only for man,
man can overcome it by himself. Before God it has no es
sential existence. Unfortunately, such metaphysics does not
equip man with strength and courage to cope with either pain
or sin. The same lack is evident in that modern form of
pseudo-science which poses as a religion, Christian Science,
which has made propaganda so widely among both Jews and
non-Jews. Christian Science declares pain, sickness, and all
evil to be merely the " error of mortal mind," which can all
be dispelled by faith; such a view neither strengthens the
soul for its real struggles nor convinces the mind by an appeal
to facts. 4
4. Frail mortals as we are, we need the help of the living
God. Thus only can we overcome physical evil, knowing
1 Isa. XLV, 7. 2 Deut. XI, 27 ; see the Midrash ad loc.
3 Emunah Ramah, ed. Weil, 93 f. ; Moreh, III, 10.
4 See M. Lefkovitz, "The Attitude of Judaism to Christian Science," in
Y. B. C. C. A. R. XXII, 300-318.
GOD AND THE EXISTENCE OF EVIL 179
that He bears with us, feels with us, and transforms it finally
into good. We need it also to overcome moral evil, in the
consciousness that He has compassion upon the repentant
sinner and gives him courage to follow the right path. The
modern philosophers of pessimism had the correct feeling in
adopting the Hindu conception, and emphasizing the pain
and misery of existence, repeating Job s ancient plaint over
the hard destiny of mankind. The shallow optimism of the
age would rather conceal the dark side of life and indulge in
outbursts of self-sufficiency. Yet if we measure it only by a
physical yardstick, life cannot be called a boon. Against
shallow optimism we have the testimony of every thorn and
sting, every poisonous breath and every destructive element in
nature s household, as well as all vice and evil in the world of
man. The world does not appear good, unless we measure it
by the ideal of divine holiness. If God is the Father watch
ing over the welfare of every mortal, all things are good, be
cause all serve a good purpose in His eternal plan. Every
hindrance or pressure engenders new power ; every sting acts
as a spur to higher things. Short-sighted and short-lived as
is man, he forgets too easily that in the sight of God "a
thousand years are as a single day," world-epochs like
"watches in the night," and that the mills of divine justice
grind on, " slowly but exceeding small." But one belief illu
mines the darkness of destiny, and that is that Go.d stands ever
at the helm, steering through every storm and tempest toward
His sublime goal. In the moral striving of man we can but
realize that our every victory contributes toward the majestic
work of God. 1
1 See Morris Joseph, 1. c., p. 108, 127 5. \ C. Seligman, 1. c., 50-68.
CHAPTER XXX
GOD AND THE ANGELS
i. Judaism insists with unrelenting severity on the abso
lute unity and incomparability of God, so that no other
being can be placed beside Him. Consequently, every men
tion of divine beings (Elohim or B ne Elohim) in either the
Bible or post-Biblical literature refers to subordinate beings
only. These spirits constitute the celestial court for the
King of the World. 1 All the forces of the universe are His
servants, fulfilling His commands. Hence both the Hebrew
and Greek terms for angel, Malak and angelos, mean "messen
ger." These beings derive their existence from God; some
of them are merely temporary, so that without Him they
dissolve into nothing. Although Scripture uses the terms,
"God of gods" and "King of kings," still we cannot attribute
any independent existence to subordinate divine beings. In
fact, Maimonides in his sixth article of faith holds that wor
ship of such beings is prohibited as idolatry by the second
commandment. 2 Thus the unity of God lifts Him above
comparison with any other divine being. This is most em
phatically expressed in Deuteronomy: "Know this day, and
lay it to thy heart, that the Lord He is God in heaven above,
and upon the earth beneath; there is none else," 3 and "See
1 Gen. VI, 2; Job I, 6; II, i; XXXIII, 7; Gen. XXXII, 29; XXXIII,
10 ; Jud. XIII, 22; Ps. VIII, 6.
2 Comp. Mek. Yithro 7 through 10; Hul. 40; Tos. Hul. II, 18; Ab. Z.
42 b ; Maimonides to Sanh. X ; Targ. Y. to Ex. XX, 3.
3 Deut. IV, 39.
180
GOD AND THE ANGELS 181
now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with Me ; I
kill and make alive ; I have wounded and I heal, and there is
none that can deliver out of My hand." * The same attitude
is found in Isaiah: "I am the Lord that maketh all things,
that stretched forth the heavens alone, that spread abroad
the earth by Myself." "I am the Lord and there is none
else; beside Me there is no god." 2 Such conceptions allow
no place for angels or spirits.
2. It was certainly not easy for prophet, lawgiver, or sage
to dispel the popular belief in divine beings or powers, which
primitive Judaism shared with other ancient faiths. No
sharp line was drawn at first between God and His accom
panying angels, as we may infer from the story of the angels
who appeared to Abraham, and the similar incidents of
Hagar and Jacob. 3 The varying application of the term
Elohim to God and to the angels or gods is proof enough
of the priority of polytheism, even in Judaism. The trees or
springs, formerly seats of the ancient deities, spirits, or de
mons, were now the places for the appearance of angels,
shorn of their independence, looking like fiery or shining human
beings. Popular belief, however, perpetuated mythological
elements, ascribing to the angels higher wisdom and some
times sensuality as well. Such a case is the fragment pre
served in Genesis telling of the union of sons of God to the
daughters of men, causing the generation of giants. 4 Ob
viously the old Babylonian "mountain of the gods," with its
food for the gods, became in the Paradise legend the garden
of Eden, the seat of God ; 5 and the Psalmist still speaks of
the"angels food," which appeared as manna in the wilderness. 6
On the whole, the sacred writers were most eager to allot to
the angels a very subordinate position in the divine household.
Deut. XXXII, 39. Isa. XLIV, 24 ; XL, 5.
Gen. XVIII and XVII, 11,13. * Gen. VI, i f
Comp. Ezek. XXVIII, 13 f. 6 Ps . LXXVIII, 25.
1 82 JEWISH THEOLOGY
They figure usually as hosts of beings, numbered by myriads,
wrapped in light or in fleeting clouds. They surround the
throne or chariot of God ; they comprise His heavenly court
or council ; they sing His praise and obey His call.
Scripture is quite silent about the creation of these angelic
beings, as on most purely speculative questions. At the
very beginning of the world God consults them when He is
to create man after the image of the celestial beings. For
this is the original meaning of Elohim in Gen. I, 26 and 27
and V, i : "Let us make man in our image, after our like
ness" ; " And God created man in his own image, in the image
of godly beings He created him." This view is echoed in
Psalm VIII, verse 6: "Thou hast made him a little lower
than godly beings." In Job XXXVIII, 7, both the morning
stars and the sons of God, or angels, "shout together in joy "
when the Lord laid the foundations of the earth. 1
3. In Biblical times which does not include the book of
Daniel, a work of the Maccabean time the angels and
demons were not invested with proper names or special func
tions. The Biblical system does not even distinguish clearly
between good and evil spirits. The goat-like demons of the
field popularly worshiped were merely survivals of pagan
superstitions. 2
In general the angels carry out good or evil designs accord
ing to their commands from the Lord of Hosts. They are
sent forth to destroy Sodom, to save Lot, and to bring Abra
ham the good tidings of the birth of a son. 3 On one occasion
the host of spirits protect the people of God ; on another they
annihilate hostile powers by pestilence and plagues. 4 At one
time a multitude appear, led by a celestial chieftain ; at an-
1 See Dillmann, 1. c., 318-333; Davidson, 1. c., 289-300; J. E., art. Angel-
ology; Enc. Rel. and Eth. IV, 594-601, art. Demons.
2 Lev. XVII, 7 ; Deut. XXXII, 17 ; Isa. XXXIV, 14. 3 Gen. XVIII.
* Ex. XXIII, 20; II Sam. XXIV, 16; II Kings XIX, 35 et d. See J. E.,
art. Angelology.
GOD AND THE ANGELS 183
other a single angel performs the miracle. In any case the
destroying angel is not a demon, but a messenger of the divine
will. Originally some of these primitive forces were dreaded
or worshiped by the people, but all have been transformed
into members of the celestial court and called to bear witness
to the dominion of the Omnipotent.
4. The belief in angels served two functions in the develop
ment of monotheism. On the one hand, it was a stage in the
concentration of the divine forces, beginning with polytheism,
continuing through belief in angels, and culminating in the
one and only God of heaven and earth. On the other hand,
certain sensuous elements in the vision of God by the seers
had to be removed in the spiritualization of God, and it was
found easiest to transform these into separate beings, related
to Deity himself. Thus the fiery appearance of God to the
eye or the voice which was manifested to the ear were often
personified as angels of God. This very process made pos
sible the purification of the God idea, as the sublime essence
of the Deity was divested of physical and temporal elements,
and God was conceived more and more as a moral and spiritual
personality. Hence in Biblical passages the names of God
and of the angel frequently alternate. 1 The latter is only a
representative of the divine personality in Scriptural terms,
the presence or "face" of God. Therefore the voice of the
angel is to be obeyed as that of God himself, because His
name is present in His representative. A similar meaning be
came attached later on to the term Shekinah, the "majesty"
of God as beheld in the cloud of fire. This was spoken of in
place of God that He might not be lowered into the earthly
sphere. For further discussion of this subject, see chapter
XXXII, "God and Intermediary Powers." In fact, we note
that the post-exilic prophets all received their revelations, not
from God, but through a special angel. 2 They no longer
1 Ex. Ill, 2-4 ; XXIII, 20-21 ; Isa. LXIII, 9. Zech. I, 9 f. ; II, i f.
1 84 JEWISH THEOLOGY
believed that God might be seen or heard by human powers,
and therefore their visions had to be translated into rational
thoughts by a mediating angel.
5. Persian influence gave Jewish angelology and demon-
ology a different character. The two realms of the Persian
system included vast hosts of beneficent spirits under Ahura-
Mazda (Ormuzd) and of demons under the dominion of Angro-
mainyus (Ahriman). So in Judaism also different orders of
angels arose, headed by archangels who bore special names.
The number seven was adopted from the Persians, while both
names and order were often changed. All of them, however,
were allotted special functions in the divine household. The
pagan deities and primitive spirits which still persisted in
popular superstition were given a new lease of life. Each force
of nature was given a guardian spirit, just as in nature-wor
ship ; angels were appointed over fire, water, each herb, each
fountain, and every separate function of life. A patron angel
was assigned to each of the seventy nations of the world men
tioned in the genealogy of Noah. 1
Thus the celestial court grew in number and in splendor. A
beginning was made with the heavenly chariot-throne of Eze-
kiel, borne aloft by the four holy living creatures (the hayotti),
surrounded by the fiery Cherubim, the winged Seraphim, and
the many-eyed Ofanim (wheels). 2 This was elaborated by
the addition of rows of surrounding angels, called " angels of
service," headed by the seven archangels. Of these the chief
was Michael, the patron-saint of Israel, and the next Gabriel,
who is sometimes even placed first. Raphael and Uriel are
regularly mentioned, the other three rarely, and not always
by the same names. The Irin of Daniel known as "the
Watchers," but more precisely "the ever-watchful Ones"
1 See J. E., art. Angelology.
2 Ezek. I, 4-24 ; X, 1-22 ; Isa. VI, 2 ; Dan. IV, 10 f. ; VII, 9 f. ; VIII, 16 f. ;
X, 13 f . ; Enoch XV, i f ., and elsewhere.
GOD AND THE ANGELS 185
are another of the ten classes of angels included. Below these
are myriads of inferior angels who serve them. Their classi
fication by rank was a favorite theme of the secret lore of the
Essenes, partly preserved for us in the apocalyptic literature
and the liturgy. The Essenic saints endeavored to acquire
miraculous powers through using the names of certain angels,
and thus exorcising the evil spirits.
This secret lore seems to be patterned after the Zoroastrian
or Mazdean system. It is noteworthy that the most promi
nent angelic figure is Metatron, the charioteer of the Merkabah
or chariot-throne on high, which is merely another form of
Mithras, the Persian god of light, who acts as charioteer
for Ahura Mazda. 1 Two other angels are mentioned as
standing behind the heavenly throne, Akathriel, the crown-
bearer of God," and Sandal phon, "the twin brother"
= Synadelphon.
6. A striking contrast exists between the simple habitation
in the sky depicted in the prophetic and Mosaic books, and
the splendor of the heavenly spheres according to the rabbinical
writings. The Oriental courts lent all their grandeur to the
majestic throne of God, on which He was exalted above all
earthly things. The immense space between was filled in by
innumerable gradations of beings leading up to Him. There
was no longer a question how far these other beings shared
the nature of God ; His dominion was absolute. Still a new
question, not known to the Bible, arose, as to when the angelic
world was created and out of what primordial element. At
first a logical answer was given, that the angels emanated
from the element of fire. Later the schoolmen, trying to dis
pose of the angels as possible peers or rivals of the eternal
God, ascribed their creation to the second day, when the
heaven was made as a vault over the earth, or to the fifth
1 See J. E., art. Merkabah, though still doubted by Bousset, 1. c., p. 406.
For Akathriel see Ber. 7 and J. E., art. Sandalfon.
1 86 JEWISH THEOLOGY
day, when the winged creatures arose. 1 On the whole, the
rabbis denied every claim of the angels to an independent or
an eternal existence. Just because they firmly believed in the
existence of angels and even saw them from time to time,
they felt bound to declare their secondary rank. Only the
archangels were made from an eternal substance, while the
others were continually being created anew out of the breath
of God or from the "river of fire" which flowed around His
throne. Thus even the realm of celestial spirits was merged
into the stream of universal life which comes and goes, while
God was left alone in matchless sovereignty, above all the
fluctuations of time.
On the other hand, the rabbis opposed the Essenic idea of
assigning to the angels an intermediary task between God and
man, and deprecated as a pagan custom the worship or invo
cation of angels. " Address your prayer to the Master of life
and not to His servants ; He will hear you in every trouble,"
says R. Judan. 2 Some of the teachers even declared that any
godly son of Israel excels the angels in power. It is certainly
significant, as David Neumark has pointed out, that the
Mishnah eliminates every reference to the angels. 3
7. In spite of this, none of the medieval Jewish philoso
phers doubted the existence of angels. 4 Indeed, there was no
reason for them to do so, as they had managed to insert them
into their philosophic systems as intermediary beings leading
up to the Supreme Intelligence. All that was necessary was
to identify the angels of the Bible with the "ideas" of Plato
or the "rulers of the spheres," the "separate intelligences"
of Aristotle. By this one step the existence of angels as
cosmic powers was proved to be a logical necessity. The ten
1 Jubilees II, 2 ; Slav. Enoch. XXIX, 3 ; I, 3 ; Gen. R. Ill, n.
2 Yer. Ber. IX; Sanh. 93 a; Hul. 91 b; Ned. 32 a; Gen. R. VIII, XXI;
Midr. Teh. to Ps. CIII, 18; CIV, i.
3 Neumark, 1. c. 4 Schmiedl, 1. c., 69-87.
GOD AND THE ANGELS 187
rulers of the spheres even corresponded with the ten orders of
angels in the cosmography of the Jewish, Mohammedan, and
Christian schoolmen. The only difference between the Aris
totelian and the rabbinical views was that the former held
the cosmic powers to be eternal; the latter, that they were
created.
In both Biblical and rabbinical literature the angels are
usually conceived of as purely spiritual powers superior to man.
Maimonides, however, following his rationalistic method, de
clared them to be simply products of the imagination, the
hypostases of figurative expressions which were not meant
to be taken literally. To him every force and element of
nature is an angel or messenger of God. In this way the
entire angelology of the Bible, including even Ezekiel s vision
of the heavenly chariot (the Merkabati), in becoming a part
of the Maimonidean system turns into natural philosophy
pure and simple. 1 Of course, Saadia, Jehuda ha Levi, and Ga-
birol do not share this rationalistic view. To them the angels
are either cosmic powers of an ethereal substance, endowed
with everlasting life, or living beings created by God for
special purposes. 2
The later Cabbalistic lore extended the realm of the celestial
spirits still more, creating new names of angels for its mystical
system and its magical practices. Yet in this magic it sub
ordinated the angels to man. In fact, it followed Saadia
largely in this, making man the center and pinnacle of the
work of creation, in fact, the very mirror of the Creator. 3
8. For our modern viewpoint the existence of angels is a
question of psychology rather than of theology. The old
Babylonian world has vanished, with its heaven as the dwell-
1 Yesode ha Torah, II, 4-9 ; Morch, I, 43 ; II, 3-7, 41 ; III, 13 ; Husik, 1. c.,
303 f.
1 Emunoth, IV, i ; VI, 2 ; Hoboth ha Lebaboth, I, 6 ; Cuzari, IV, 3 ; Emunah
Ramah, IV, 2; VI, i ; Ikkarim, II, 28, 31.
1 Zohar, III, 68 ; Joel : Religions philosophic dcs Zohar, 278 f.
i88 JEWISH THEOLOGY
ing place of God, its earth for man, and its nether world for
the shades and demons. The world in which we live knows
no above or beneath, no heaven or hell, no host of good and
evil spirits moving about to help or hurt man. It sees matter
and energy working everywhere after the same immutable
laws through an infinitude of space and time, a universe ever
evolving new orbs of light, engendering and transforming
worlds without number and without end. There is no place
in infinite space for a heaven or for a celestial throne. A
world of law and of process does not need a living ladder to
lead from the earth below to God on high. Though the stars
be peopled with souls superior to ours, still they cannot stand
nearer to God than does man with his freedom, his moral
striving, his visions of the highest and the best. Through
man s spiritual nature God, too, is recognized as a Spirit;
through man s moral consciousness God is conceived of as the
Ruler of a moral world ; but this same process at once does
away with the need for any other spirits or divine powers
beside Him. God alone has become the object of human
longing. Man feels akin to His God who is ever near ; he
learns to know Him ever better. He can dispense with the
angelic hosts. As they return to the fiery stream of poetic
imagination whence they emerged, nebulous figures of a glo
rious world that has vanished, man rises above angel and
Seraph by his own power to the dignity of a servant, nay, a
child of God. Indeed, as the rabbis said, the prophets, sages,
and seers are the true messengers of God, the angels who do
His service. 1
x Ned. 20 b; Midr. Teh. Ps. CIII, 17-18; Ibn Ezra: Introduction to his
commentary on the Pentateuch.
CHAPTER XXXI
SATAN AND THE SPIRITS OF EVIL
i. The great advantage of Judaism over other religious
systems lies in its unified view of life, which it regards as a
continuous conflict between good and evil influences within
man. As man succeeds in overcoming evil and achieving
good, he asserts his own moral personality. Outside of man
Judaism sees no real contrast between good and evil, since
both have emanated from God, the Spirit of goodness. Ju
daism recognizes no primal power of evil plotting against
God and defying Him, such as that of the Persian dualism.
Nor does Judaism espouse the dualism of spirit and matter,
identifying matter with evil, from which the soul strives to
free itself while confined in the prison house of the body.
Such a conception is taught by Plato, probably under Oriental
influence, and is shared by the Hindu and Christian ascetics
who torture themselves in order to suppress bodily desire in
their quest of a higher existence. The Jewish conception of
the unity of God necessitates the unity of the world, which
leaves no place for a cosmic principle of evil. In this Judaism
dissents from modern philosophers also, such as John Stuart
Mill and even Kant, who speak of a radical evil in nature.
No power of evil can exist in independence of God. 1 As the
Psalmist says: "His kingdom ruleth over all. Bless the
Lord, ye angels of His, ye mighty in strength that fulfill His
word, hearkening unto the voice of His word." 2
1 Compare Gen. R. to Gen. I, 31. Ps. CIII, 19-20.
189
JEWISH THEOLOGY
This increased the difficulty of the problem of the origin of
evil. The answer given by the general Jewish consciousness,
expressed by both Biblical and rabbinical writers, is that evil
comes from the free will of man, who is endowed with the
power of rebelling against the will of God. This idea is sym
bolized in the story of the fall of man. The serpent, or tempter,
represents the evil inclination which arises in man with his
first consciousness of freedom. So in Jewish belief Satan,
the Adversary, is only an allegorical figure, representing the
evil of the world, both physical and moral. He was sent by
God to test man for his own good, to develop him morally.
He is "the spirit that ever wills evil, but achieves the good,"
and therefore in the book of Job he actually comes before
God s throne as one of the angels. 1
2. In tracing the belief in demons we must draw a sharp
distinction between popular views and systematic doctrine. 2
During the Biblical era the people believed in goat-like spirits
roaming the fields and woods, the deserts and ravines, whom
they called Seirim hairy demons, or satyrs, and to whom
they sacrificed in fear and trembling. 3 As Ibn Ezra in
geniously pointed out in his commentary, Azazel was origi
nally a desert demon dwelling in the ravines near Jerusalem,
to whom a scapegoat was offered at the opening of the year,
a rite preserved in the Day of Atonement cult of the Mosaic
Code. 4 In fact, in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Palestine
diseases and accidents were universally ascribed to evil
spirits of the wilderness or the nether world. The Bible
occasionally mentions these evil spirits as punitive angels
sent by God. In the more popular view, which is reflected
1 Job I, 6.
2 See J. E., art. Demonology; Satan; Belial; Enc. Rel. and Eth., art.
Demons and Spirits, Jewish; Davidson, 1. c., 300-306; Dillmann, 1. c., 334~34;
D. F. Strauss, 1. c., II, 1-18.
3 Lev. XVII, 7; Deut. XXXII, 17; Isa. XIII, 21; XXXIV, 14.
4 Lev. XVI, 8; see Ibn Ezra; J. E. and Enc. Rel. and Eth., art. Azazel.
SATAN AND THE SPIRITS OF EVIL 191
by apocryphal and rabbinical literature, and which was in
fluenced by both the Babylonian and Persian religions, they
appear in increasing numbers and with specific names. Each
disease had its peculiar demon. Desolate places, cemeteries,
and the darkness of night were all peopled by superstition
with hosts of demons (Shedini), at whose head was Azazel,
Samael; Beelzebub, the Philistine god of flies and of illness; *
Belial, king of the nether world ; 2 or the Persian Ashma Deva
(Evil Spirit), under the Hebrew name of Ashmodai or She-
machzai? The queen of the demons was Lilith or Iggereth
bath Mahlath, "the dancer on the housetops." 4
The Essenes seem to have made special studies of both
demonology and angelology, believing that they could invoke
the good spirits and conjure the evil ones, thus curing various
diseases, which they ascribed to possession by demons. While
these exorcisms are not so common in the Talmud as they are
in the New Testament, there remain many indications that
such practices were followed by Jewish saints and believed
by the people. Often the rabbis seem to have considered
them the work of "unclean spirits," which they endeavored
to overcome with the "spirit of holiness," and particularly
by the study of the Torah. 5
3. This answers implicitly the question of the origin of
demons. Obviously the belief in malevolent spirits is incom
patible with the existence of an all-benign and all-wise Creator.
Accordingly, two alternative explanations are offered in the
rabbinical and apocalyptic writings. According to one, the
demons are half angelic and half animal beings, sharing in
telligence and flight with the angels, sensuality with beasts
and with men. Their double nature is ascribed to incom
pleteness, because they were created last of all beings, and
1 J. E., art. Beelzebub. J. E., art. Belial.
1 Enoch VI, 7; J. E., art. Ashmodai; Levy: W. B., Shemachzai.
4 Levy : W. B., Lilith; Iggereth. * J. E., art. Demonology.
JEWISH THEOLOGY
their creation was interrupted by the coming of the Sabbath,
putting an end to all creation. 1 According to the other view
they are the offspring of the "fallen angels," issuing from the
union of the angels with the daughters of men as described in
Gen. VI, i f. These spread the virus of impurity over all the
earth, causing carnal desire and every kind of lewdness. The
whole world of demons is regarded as alienated from God by
the rebellion of the heavenly hosts, as if the fall of man by
sin had its prototype in the celestial sphere. 2 A rabbinical
legend, which corresponds with a Persian myth, ascribes the
origin of demons to the intercourse of Adam with Lilith, the
night spirit. 3 On the other hand, the archangel Samael is
said to have cast lascivious glances at the beauty of Eve, and
then to have turned into Satan the Tempter. 4 The Jewish
systems of both angelology and demonology, first worked out
in the apocalyptic literature, were further elaborated by the
Cabbalah.
Angelology found a conspicuous place in the liturgy in
connection with the Kedushah Benediction and likewise in
the liturgy and the theology of the Church. 5
On the other hand the belief in evil spirits and in Satan,
the Evil One, remained rather a matter of popular credulity
and never became a positive doctrine of the Synagogue.
True, the liturgy contained morning prayers which asked God
for protection against the Evil One, and formulas invoking
the angels to shield one during the night from evil spirits. 6
But the arch-fiend was never invested with power over the
soul, depriving man of his perfect freedom and divine sover
eignty, as in the Christian Church.
1 Aboth V, 6; P. d. R. El., XIX; Gen. R. VII, 7.
2 Enoch VII ; Yalkut Gen. 44, 47. 3 Erubin, 18 b.
4 P. d. R. El., XIII; Yalkut Gen. 25.
5 See Abrahams Ann. to Singers Prayerb. XLIV f . and for the Church, Enc.
Rel. and Eth., Demons and Spirits, Christian.
e Abrahams, 1. c., p. 7, 196; XX, CCXV.
SATAN AND THE SPIRITS OF EVIL 193
4. In the formation of the idea of the arch-fiend, Satan,
we can observe the interworking of several elements. The
name Satan in no way indicates a demon. It denotes simply
the adversary, the one who offers hindrances. The name was
thus applied to the accuser at court. 1 In Zechariah and in
Job 2 Satan appears at the throne of God as the prosecutor,
roaming about the earth to espy the transgressions of men,
seeking to lure them to their destruction. In the Books of
Chronicles 3 Satan has become a proper name, meaning the
Seducer.
The Serpent in the Paradise story is more completely a
demon, although the legend intends rather to account for
man s morality, his distinction between good and evil. Satan
was then identified with the serpent, who was called by the
rabbis Nahash ha Kadmoni, "the primeval Serpent," after
the analogy of the serpent-like form of Ahriman. Thus
Satan in the person of the serpent became the embodiment of
evil, the prime cause of sin and death. 4 Possibly a part in
this process was played by the Babylonian figure of Tihamat,
the dragon of chaos (Tehom in the Hebrew), with whom the
god Marduk wrestled for dominion over the world, and who
has parallels in the Biblical Rahab and similar mythological
figures.
We must not overlook such rabbinical legends as the one
about how the poisonous breath of the serpent infected the
whole human race, except Israel who has been saved by the law
at Sinai. 5 Occasionally we hear that the Evil Spirit (Yezer ha
Ra) will be slain by God 6 or by the Messiah. 7 These Haggadic
sayings, however, were never accepted as normative for reli
gious belief. On the contrary, they were always in dispute,
1 Ps. CIX, 6. Zech. Ill, i ; Job I, 6. *l Chron. XXI, i.
See B. Wisdom II, 24; P. d. R. El., XIII.
6 Shab. 146 a; Yeb. 103 b; Ab. Zar. 22 b.
Suk. 52 a. 7 Targ. to Isa. XI, 4.
o
194 JEWISH THEOLOGY
and many a Talmudic teacher minimized the fiendish character
of Satan, who became a stimulus to moral betterment through
the trials he imposes. 1 Philo, allegorizing the legends, turns
the evil angels of the Bible into wicked men. 2
5. As to demons in general, the Talmudists never doubted
their existence, but endeavored to minimize their importance.
They changed the demon Azazel into a geographical term by
transposing the letters. 3 They explained "the sons of God
who came to the daughters of men to give birth to the giants
of old" as aristocratic Sethites who intermarried with low-
class families of the Cainites. 4 As to the rest, the entire
belief in demons and ghosts was too deeply rooted in the folk
mind to be counteracted by the rabbis. Even lucid thinkers
of the Middle Ages were caught by these baneful supersti
tions, including Jehuda ha Levi, Crescas, and Nahmanides, the
mystic. 5 Only a small group fought against this offshoot of
fear and superstition, among them Saadia, Maimonides and
his school, Ibn Ezra, Gersonides, and Juda Ibn Balag. To
Maimonides the demons mentioned in Mishnah and Talmud
are only figurative expressions for physical plagues. He con
siders the belief in demons equivalent to a belief in pagan
deities. "Many pious Israelites," he says, 6 "believe in the
reality of demons and witches, thinking that they should not
be made the object of worship and regard, for the reason that
the Torah has prohibited it. But they fail to see that the
Law commands us to banish all these things from sight, be
cause they are but falsehood and deceit, as is the whole
idolatry with which they are intrinsically connected."
1 B. B. 16 a. 2 De Gigantibus, 2-4.
3 Sif ra Lev. XVI, 8 ; Yoma, 67 b.
4 See the Ethiopia "Adam and Eve"; C. Bezold, Die Schatzhoehle, p. 18;
comp. Gen. R. XXVI.
5 See D. Cassel : Cuzari, p. 402 note.
6 M oreh III, 29-37, 46; Ibn Ezra to Job I, 6; comp. Finkelscherer :
Maimunis* Stellung zum Aberglauben, 1894, p. 40-51.
SATAN AND THE SPIRITS OF EVIL 195
6. This sound view was disseminated by the rationalistic
school in its contest with the Cabbalah, and has exerted a
wholesome influence upon modern Judaism. Thus Satan is
rejected by Jewish doctrine, while Luther and Calvin, the
Reformers of the Christian Church, still believed in him.
Milton s " Paradise Lost" placed him in the very foreground
of Christian belief, and the leaders of the Protestant Churches,
up to the present, accord him a prominent place in their
scheme of salvation, as the opponent and counterpart of God.
In his work on Christian dogmatics, David Friedrich Strauss
observes acutely : "The whole (Christian) idea of the Messiah
and his kingdom must necessarily have as its counterpart a
kingdom of demons with a personal ruler at its head ; without
this it is no more possible than the north pole of the magnet
would be without a south pole. If Christ has come to destroy
the works of the Devil, there would be no need for him to
come, unless there were a Devil. On the other hand, if the
Devil is to be considered merely the personification of evil,
then a Christ who would be only the personification of the
ideal, but not a real personality, would suffice equally." 1
At present Christian theologians and even philosophers have
recourse to Platonic and Buddhist ideas, that evil is implanted
in the world from which humanity must free itself, and they
thus present Christianity as the religion of redemption par
excellence. 2 Over against this, Judaism still maintains that
there is no radical or primitive evil in the world. No power
exists which is intrinsically hostile to God, and from which
man must be redeemed. According to the Jewish concep
tion, the goodness and glory of God fill both heaven and
earth, while holiness penetrates all of life, bringing matter
and flesh within the realm of the divine. Evil is but the con-
1 Christliche Glaubenslehre, II, 18.
Euken, D. Wahrheitsgehalt d. Religion, p. 384, 402; Bousset, Wesen d.
Rel., p. 239.
196 JEWISH THEOLOGY
trast of good, as shade is but the contrast of light. Evil can
be overcome by each individual, as he realizes his own solemn
duty and the divine will. Its only existence is in the field of
morality, where it is a test of man s freedom and power. Evil
is within man, and against it he is to wage the battles of life,
until his victory signalizes the triumph of the divine in his
own nature. 1
1 See H. Cohen : Ethik des reinen Willens, 282 f., 341 f., 428 f., 593 :
"Eine Macht des Boesen gibt es nur im Mythos." "Dieser Mythos fuehrt
folgerichtig zum mythologischen Gottmenschen." M. Joel, in his article,
"Der Mosaismus und das Heidenthum," in J. B. j. Gesch. u. Lit., 1904, p. 49-
66, ascribes the belief in demons to Greek influence. He holds that the pro
phetic teaching of God s unity was the best bulwark against demonology and
mysticism.
CHAPTER XXXII
GOD AND THE INTERMEDIARY POWERS
i. In addition to the angels who carried out God s will
in the universe, the Biblical and post-Biblical literature recog
nizes other divine powers which mediate between Him and
the world of man. The more a seer or thinker became con
scious of the spirituality and transcendency of God, the more
he felt the gulf between the infinite Spirit and the world of the
senses. In order to bridge this gap, the Deity was replaced by
one of His manifestations which could appear and act in a
world circumscribed by space and time. 1 As we found in
prophecy the direct revelation of God giving way to a mediat
ing angel, so either "the Glory" or "the Name" of JHVH
takes the place of God himself. That is, instead of God s
own being, His reflected radiance or the power invested in
His name descends from on high. The rabbis kept the direct
revelation of God for the hallowed past or the desired future,
but at the same time they needed a suitable term for the
presence of God; they therefore coined the word Shekinah
"the divine Condescension" or "Presence" to be used
instead of the Deity himself. Thus the verse of the Psalm : 2
"God standeth in the congregation of God," is translated by
the Targum, "The divine Presence (Sliekinati) resteth upon
See Dillmann, 1. c., 341-35 ; Weber, 1. c., 177-190; Bousset, I. c., 336,
346; Davidson, 1. .,36-38, 115-129; Schechter, Aspects, p. 21-45; Schmiedl,
1- c., 35-48; J. E., art. Holy Spirit ; Logos; Memra; Metatron; Name of
God; Shekinah; Enc. Rel. and Eth., I, 308-312.
f Ps. LXXXII, i.
197
1 98 JEWISH THEOLOGY
the congregation of the godly." Instead of the conclusion of
the speech to Moses, "Let them make Me a sanctuary, that
I may dwell among them," ] the Targum has, "And I shall
let My Presence (Shekinah) dwell among them." Thus in
the view of the rabbis Shekinah represents the visible part of
the divine majesty, which descends from heaven to earth,
and on the radiance of which are fed the spiritual beings,
both angels and the souls of the saints. 2 God himself was
wrapped in light, whose brilliancy no living being, however
lofty, could endure; but the Shekinah or reflection of the
divine glory might be beheld by the elect either in their life
time or in the hereafter. In this way the rabbis solved many
contradictory passages of Scripture, some of which speak of
God as invisible, while others describe man as beholding Him. 3
2. Just as the references to God s appearing to man sug
gested luminous powers mediating the vision of God, so the
passages which represent God as speaking suggest powers
mediating the voice. Hence arose the conception of the
divine Word, invested with divine powers both physical and
spiritual. The first act of God in the Bible is that He spoke,
and by this word the world came into being. The Word was
thus conceived of as the first created being, an intermediary
power between the Spirit of the world and the created world
order. The word of God, important in the cosmic order, is
still more so in the moral and spiritual worlds. The Word
is at times a synonym of divine revelation to the men of the
early generations or to Israel, the bearer of the Law. Hence
the older Haggadah places beside the Shekinah the divine
Word (Hebrew, Maamar; Aramaic, Memra; Greek, Logos) as
the intermediary force of revelation.
Contact with the Platonic and Stoic philosophies led
gradually to a new development which appears in Philo. The
Ex. XXV, 8. 2 Ber. 17 a.
8 See Ber., 1. c., Rab s reference to Ex. XXIV, n.
GOD AND THE INTERMEDIARY POWERS 199
Word or Logos becomes " the first-created Son of God," having
a personality independent from God ; in fact he is a kind of
vice regent of God himself. From this it was but a short step
toward considering him a partner and peer of the Almighty,
as was done by the Church with its doctrine that the Word
became flesh in Christ, the son of God. 1 In view of this the
rabbinical schools gave up the idea of the personified Word,
replacing it with the Torah or the Spirit of God. The older
term was retained only in liturgical formulas, such as : " Who
created the heavens by His Word," or, "Who by His Word
created the twilight and by Wisdom openeth the gates of
heaven." 2
3. As has been shown above, 3 Wisdom is described in the
Bible as the first of all created beings, the assistant and coun
selor of God in the work of creation. Then we see that Ben
Sira identifies Wisdom with the Torah. 4 Thus the Torah,
too, was raised to a cosmic power, the sum and substance of
all wisdom. In fact, the Torah, like the Logos of Plato, was
regarded as comprising the ideas or prototypes of all things
as in a universal plan. The Torah is the divine pattern for
the world. In such a connection Torah is far from meaning
the Law, as Weber asserts. 5 It means rather the heavenly
book of instruction which contains all the wisdom of the ages,
and which God himself used as guide at the Creation. God is
depicted as an architect with His plan drafted before He began
the erection of the edifice, a conception which avoids all
danger of deifying the Logos.
4. Several other conceptions, however, do not belong at all
to the intermediary powers, where Weber places them. 6 This
applies to Metatron (identical with the Persian Mithras), 7
1 John I, 1-6. 2 Singer s Praycrbook, p. 96, 292.
Ch. XXII. See Prov. VIII, 22. XXIV, 9 f.
Weber, I.e., 197 f. L. c., 178 f.
7 See Kohut: Jued. Angdologic, 36-38; Schorr: He Halutz, VIII, 3;
J. E., art. Merkabah.
200 JEWISH THEOLOGY
whom the mystic lore calls the charioteer of the heavenly
throne-chariot, represented by the rabbis as the highest of
the angels, leader of the heavenly hosts, and vice-regent of
God. That no cosmic power was ascribed to him is proved
by the very fact of his identification with Enoch, whom the
pre-Talmudic Haggadah describes as taken up into heaven
and changed into an angel of the highest rank, standing near
God s throne. 1
5. The only real mediator between God and man is the
Spirit of God, which is mentioned in connection with both
the creation and divine revelation. In the first chapter of
Genesis the Spirit of God is described as hovering over the
gloom of chaos like the mother bird over the egg, ready to
hatch out the nascent world. 2 God breathed His spirit into
the body of man, to make him also god-like. 3 The prophet
likewise is inspired by the spirit of God to see visions and to
hear the divine message. 4 Thus the spirit of God has two
aspects; it is the cosmic principle which imbues primal
matter with life ; it is a link between the soul of man and God
on high. The view of Ezekiel was but one step from this, to
conceive the spirit as a personal being, and place him beside
God as an angel.
The prophets and psalmists, feeling the spirit of God upon
them, considered it an emanation of the Deity. Still, a pro-
founder insight soon disapproved the severance of the Spirit
of God from God himself, as if He were not altogether spirit.
Therefore the accepted term came to be the Holy Spirit.^
In this form, however, his personality became more distinct
and his separate existence more defined. Henceforth he is
1 See Targ. Yer. to Gen. V, 24 ; J. E., art. Metatron. Comp. Eth. Enoch
LXX, i, and Slav. Enoch III-XXIV.
2 Gen. I, 2. 3 Gen. II, 7 ; VI, 3 ; Job XXXII, 8.
<Num. XI, 17 f.; XXIV, 2; XXVII, 18; Ex. XXVIII, 3; XXXI, 3 f-J
Isa. XI, 2 ; LXI, i ; Ezek. I, 12, 20.
Isa. LXIII, 10 ; Ps. LI, 13.
GOD AND THE INTERMEDIARY POWERS 201
the messenger of God, performing miracles or causing them,
speaking in the place of God, or defending His people Israel.
Nay, more, the Holy Spirit is supposed to have dictated the
words of Scripture to the sacred writers, and to have inspired
the Men of the Great Synagogue in collecting the sacred
writings into a canon. 1
Moreover, the workings of the Holy Spirit continued long
after the completion of the Biblical canon. All the chief
institutions of the Synagogue originally claimed that they
were prompted by the Holy Spirit, resting upon the leaders of
the community. This claim was basic to the authority of
tradition and the continuity of the authority of Jewish
lore. It seems, however, that certain abuses were caused by
miracle-workers who disseminated false doctrines under the
alleged inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Therefore the rabbis
restricted such claims to ancient times and insisted more
strongly than ever upon the preservation of the traditional
lore. For a time a substitute was found in the Bath Kol
("Echo" or "Whisper of a heavenly voice"), but this also
was soon discredited by the schools. 2 Obviously the rabbis
desired to avert the deification of either the Holy Spirit or
the Word. Sound common sense was their norm for inter
preting the truth of the divine revelation. In other words,
they relied on God alone as the living force in the development
of Judaism.
6. But some sort of mediation was ascribed to several
other spiritual forces. First, the Name of God often takes
the place of God himself. 3 When the name of the Deity was
called over some hallowed spot, the worshipers felt that the
presence of God also was bound up with the sacred place. 4
1 See J. E., art. Holy Spirit. See J. E. art., Bath Kol.
See Tos. Sola XIII, 2 ; XXLV, 1 1 ; compare Levy : W. B., Shem; Geiger :
Urschrift, 273 f.
4 Deut. XII, 5, ii ; II Sam. XII, 28; Neh. I, 9; Jer. VII, 12, 14.
202 JEWISH THEOLOGY
"My name is in him," says God of the angel whom He sends
to lead the people. 1 The invocation of the name was believed
to have an actual influence upon the Deity. Furthermore,
since God is frequently represented as swearing by His own
name, 2 this ineffable name was invested with magic powers,
as if God himself dwelt therein. 3 Thus it came to be used
as a talisman by the popular saints. 4 Indeed, God is de
scribed as conjuring the depths of the abyss by His holy
name, lest they overflow their boundaries. 5 Moreover, the
Name, like the Word, or Logos, was regarded as a creative
power, so that we are told that before the world was created
there were only God and His holy Name. 6 Owing to the
introduction of Adonai (the Lord) for JHVH, the pronuncia
tion of the Name fell into oblivion and the Name itself be
came a mystery ; therefore its cosmic element also was lost
and it dropped into the sphere of mystic and philosophical
speculation.
7. Another attribute of God which received some attention,
owing to the frequent mention of the omnipotence of God in
the Bible, was ha Geburah (the Power). A familiar rabbinic
expression is : "We have heard from the mouth of the Power,"
that is, from the divine omnipotence. 7 Two fundamental
principles were early perceived in the moral order of the
world : the punitive justice and compassion of God. These
were taken as the meanings of the two most common Biblical
names of God, JHVH and Elohim. Elohim, being occasion
ally used in dispensing justice, 8 was thought to signify God
in His capacity as Judge of the whole earth, and hence as the
divine Justice. JHVH, on the other hand, meant the divine
mercy, as it was used in the revelation of the long-suffering
1 Ex. XXIII, 21. 2 Jer. XLIV, 26; Isa. XLV, 23.
Midr. Teh. to Ps. XXXVIII, 8 ; XCI, 8. * Taan. Ill, 8.
8 Prayer of Manasses, 3. 6 P. d. R. El. III.
7 See Levy : W. B., Geburah. 8 Ex. XXI, 6.
GOD AND THE INTERMEDIARY POWERS 203
and merciful God to Moses after the sin of Israel before the
golden calf. 1 Thus both the rabbis and Philo 2 often speak of
these two attributes, justice and mercy, as though they consti
tuted independent beings, deliberating with God as to what He
should do. The Midrash tells in a parable how before the
creation of man, Justice, Mercy, Truth, and Peace were called
in by God as His counselors to deliberate whether or no man
should be created. 3
8. One Haggadah concludes from the passage about Crea
tion in Proverbs, that there are three creative powers, Wis
dom, Understanding, and Knowledge. 4 Another derives from
Scripture seven creative principles : Knowledge, Understand
ing, Might, Grace and Mercy, Justice and Rebuke ; 5 and
seven attributes which do service before God s throne : Wis
dom, Judgment and Justice, Grace and Mercy, Truth and
Peace. 6 By combining these lists of three and seven this was
finally enlarged to ten, which became the basis for the entire
mystic lore. Thus the Babylonian master Rab enumerates
ten creative principles : Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowl
edge, Might and Power, Rebuke, Justice and Righteousness,
Love and Mercy. 7 It is hard to say whether the ten attri
butes of the Haggadah are at all connected with the ten Sefiroth
(cosmic forces or circles) of the Cabbalah. These last are
hardly the creation of pure monotheism, but rather emanations
from the infinite, conceived after the pattern of heathen ideas. 8
9. The assumption of all these intermediaries aimed
chiefly to spiritualize the conception of God and to elevate
Ex. XXXIV, 5 f.
J Gen. R. XXI, 8 ; Targ. Ps. LVT, n, and see Siegfried : Philo, 213 f.
1 Gen. R. VIII, 5, after Ps. LXXXV, 11-12.
4 P. d. R. El. Ill ; Midr. Teh. Ps. L, i, ref. to Prov. Ill, 19-20.
6 A. d. R. N. XXXVII, ref. to Prov. Ill, 19 f.; Ps. LXV, 7; LXXXV, 21-
22; Job XXVII, ii.
9 Ref. to Hosea II, 21-22. 7 Hag. 12 a.
See J. E., art. Sefiroth, the Ten ; Yezirah, Sefer.
204 JEWISH THEOLOGY
Him above all child-like, anthropomorphic views, so that He
becomes a free Mind ruling the whole universe. At the same
time, it became natural to ascribe material substance to these
intermediaries. As they filled the chasm between the super
mundane Deity and the world of the senses, they had to
share the nature of both matter and mind. Hence the
Shekinah and the Holy Spirit are described by both the rabbis
and the medieval philosophers as a fine, luminous, or ethereal
substance. 1 The entire ancient and medieval systems were
modeled after the idea of a ladder leading up, step by step,
from the lowest to the highest sphere ; God, the Most High,
being at the same time above the highest rung of the ladder
and yet also a part of the whole.
10. Our modern system of thought holds the relation of
God to nature and man to be quite different from all this.
To our mind God is the only moral and spiritual power of life.
He is mirrored in the moral and spiritual as well as intel
lectual nature of man, and therefore is near to the human
conscience, owing to the divine forces within man himself.
Not the world without, but the world within leads us to God
and tells us what God is. Hence we need no intermediary
beings, and they all evaporate before our mental horizon like
mist, pictures of the imagination without objective reality.
Ibn Ezra says in the introduction to his commentary on the
Bible that the human reason is the true intermediating angel
between God and man, and we hold this to be true of both
the intellect and the conscience. For the theologian and the
student of religion to-day the center of gravity of religion is
to be sought in psychology and anthropology. In all his
upward striving, his craving and yearning for the highest and
the best, in his loftiest aspirations and ideals, man, like Isaiah
the prophet, can behold only the hem of God s garment ; he
seeks God above him, because he feels Him within himself.
1 See J. E., art. Shekinah; Cuzari, II, 4; IV, 3.
GOD AND THE INTERMEDIARY POWERS 205
He must pass, however, through the various stages of growth,
until his self-knowledge leads to the knowledge of the God
before whom he kneels in awe. Then finally he feels Him
as his Father, his Educator in the school of life, the Master
of the universal plan in which the individual also has a place
in building up the divine kingdom of truth, justice, and holi
ness on earth. For centuries he groped for God, until he
received a Book to serve as "a lamp to his feet and a light to
his path," to interpret to him his longing and his craving.
Israel s Book of Books must ever be re-read and re-interpreted
by Israel, the keeper of the book, through ages yet to come.
Well may we say : the mediator between God and the world
is man, the son of God; the mediator between God and
humanity is Israel, the people of God.
PART II. MAN
CHAPTER XXXIII
MAN S PLACE IN CREATION
1. The doctrine concerning man is inseparably connected
with that about God. Heathenism formed its deities after
the image of man ; they were merely human beings of a larger
growth. Judaism, on the contrary, asserts that God is
beyond comparison with mankind ; He is a purely spiritual
being without form or image, and therefore utterly unlike
man. On the other hand, man has a divine nature, as he
was made in the image of God, fashioned after His likeness.
The highest and deepest in man, his mental, moral, and spiritual
life, is the reflection of the divine nature implanted within
him, a force capable of ever greater development toward
perfection. This unique distinction among all creatures gives
man the highest place in all creation.
2 . The superiority of the human race is expressed differently
in various passages in Scripture. According to the first chap
ter of Genesis the whole work of creation finds its culmina
tion in man, whose making is introduced by a solemn appeal
of God to the hosts of heaven: "Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness." 1 This declaration proclaimed
that man was the completion and the climax of the physical
creation, as well as the beginning of a new order of creation,
1 Gen. I, 26, and the commentaries.
206
MAN S PLACE IN CREATION 207
a world of moral aims and purposes, of self-perfection and self-
control. In the world of man all life is placed at the service
of a higher ideal, after the divine pattern.
The second chapter of Genesis depicts man s creation
differently. Here he appears as the first of created beings,
leading a life of perfect innocence in the garden of divine bliss.
Before him God brings all the newly created beings that he
may give them a name and a purpose. But the Serpent enters
Paradise as tempter, casting the seed of discord into the
hearts of the man and the woman. As they prove too feeble
to resist temptation, they can no longer remain in the heavenly
garden in their former happy state. Only the memory of
Paradise remains, a golden dream to cast hope over the life
of struggle and labor into which they enter. The idea of the
legend is that man s proper place is not among beings of
the earth, but he can reach his lofty destiny only by arduous
struggle with the world of the senses and a constant striving
toward the divine. The same idea is expressed more directly
in the eighth Psalm :
" What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?
And the son of man, that Thou thinkest of him ?
Yet Thou hast made him but little lower than the godly beings (Elohim)
And hast crowned him with glory and honor.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands ;
Thou hast put all things under his feet."
3. According to the Haggadists, 1 before the fall man ex
celled even the angels in appearance and wisdom, so that
they were ready to prostrate themselves before him. Only
when God caused a deep sleep to fall upon man, they recog
nized his frailty and kinship with other beings of the earth.
The idea expressed in this legend resembles the one implied
in the legend of Paradise, viz. man has a twofold nature.
With his heavenly spirit he can soar freely to the highest
1 Gen. R. VIII, 9.
208 JEWISH THEOLOGY
realm of thought, above the station of the angels; yet his
earthly frame holds him ever near the dust. It is this very
contrast that constitutes his greatness, for it makes him a
citizen of two worlds, one perishable, the other eternal. He is
the highest result of Creation, the pride of the Creator. 1
Thus he was appointed God s vice-regent on earth by the
words spoken to the first man and woman: "Be fruitful,
and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it ; and
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of
the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the
earth." 2 The rabbis add a striking comment upon the word
R du, which is used here for "have dominion" but which may
also mean, "go down." They say: "The choice is left in
man s own hand. If you maintain your heaven-born dignity,
you will have dominion over all things ; if not, you will de
scend to the level of the brute creation." 3
4. An ancient Mishnah derives a significant lesson from
the story of the creation of man 4 : "Both the vegetable and
animal worlds were created in multitudes. Man alone was
created as a single individual in order that he may realize
that he constitutes a world in himself, and carries within
him the true value of life. Hence each human being is en
titled to say: The whole world was created for my sake.
He who saves a single human life is as one who saves a whole
world, and he who destroys a single human life is as one
who destroys a whole world."
5. While it is man s spiritual side which is the image of
God, yet he derives all his powers and faculties from earthly
life, just as a tree draws its strength from the soil in which it
is rooted. Judaism does not consider the soul the exclusive
1 Gen. R. XIV, i. 2 Gen. I, 28.
3 Gen. R. VIII, 12 ; P. d. R. EL, XI.
4 Sanh. IV, 5, correctly preserved in the Yerushalmi, and the addition in
the Babli, Me Yisrael, ought not to have been inserted by Schechter, Ab. d.
R. N., p. oo.
MAN S PLACE IN CREATION
209
seat of the divine, as opposed to the body. In fact, Judaism
admits no complete dualism of spirit and matter, however
striking some aspects of their contrast may be. The whole
human personality is divine, just so far as it asserts its free
dom and molds its motives toward a divine end. In recog
nition of this fact Hillel claimed reverence for the human
body as well as mind, comparing it to the homage rendered
to the statue of a king, for man is made in the image of God,
the King of all the world. 1 Thus the Greek idea that man is a
microcosm, a world in miniature, reflecting the cosmos on a
smaller scale, was expressed in the Tannaitic schools as well. 2
The stamp of divinity is borne by man in his entire heaven-
aspiring nature, as he strives to elevate the very realm of the
senses into the sphere of morality and holiness.
6. In this respect the Jewish view parts from that of Plato
and the Hindu philosophers. These divide man into a pure
celestial soul and an impure earthly body and hold that the
physical life is tainted by sin, while the spirit is divine only
in so far as it frees itself from its prison house of flesh. Ju
daism, on the other hand, emphasizes the unified character
of man, by which he can bend all his faculties and functions
to a godlike mastery over the material world. This appears
first in his upright posture and heavenward glance, which
proclaim him master over the whole animal world cowering
before him in lowly dread. His whole bodily structure cor
responds to this, with its constant growth, its wondrous
symmetry, and the unique flexibility of the hands, with which
he can perform ever new and greater achievements. Above
all, we see the nobility of man in his high forehead and reced
ing jaw, which contrast so strikingly with the structure of
most animals and even with many of the lower races. Indeed,
primitive man could scarcely imagine a nobler pattern by
which to model his deity than the figure of a man.
1 Lev. R. XXXIV, 3. * Ab. d. R. N. XXXI.
210 JEWISH THEOLOGY
7. In fact, the Biblical verse, "God created man after the
image of the divine beings" (elohim), was originally taken
literally, in the sense that angels posed as models for the
creation of man. 1 The phrase was referred to the spiritual,
god-like nature of man only when the difference between
material and spiritual things became better understood, and
man obtained a clearer knowledge of himself. Man grew to
feel that his craving for the perfect, whether in the field of
truth and right, or of beauty, is the force which lifts him, in
spite of all his limitations, into the realm of the divine. His
soaring imagination and ceaseless longing for perfection disclose
before his eyes a partial vista of the infinite. The human
spirit carries mortal man above the confines of time and space
into those boundless realms where God resides in lonely
majesty. 2
Man did not emanate perfect from the hand of the Creator,
but ready for an ever greater perfection. Being the last of
all created beings, as the Midrash says, he can be put to
shame by the smallest insect, which is prior to him. Yet
before the beginning of creation a light shone upon his spirit
that has illumined his achievements through untold genera
tions. 3
8. The resemblance of man to God is attributed also to
his free will and self-consciousness, by which he claims moral
dignity and mastery over all things. 4 Still, all these superior
qualities which we call human are not ready-made endow
ments, free gifts bestowed by God; they are simply poten-
1 See Jubilees XV, 27 ; comp. Gen. R. VIII, 7-9 ; Ab. d. R. N., ed. Schechter,
P- IS3-
2 See Jellinek : Bezelem Elohim; Philippson, 1. c., II, 58-72 ; Dillmann, 1. c.,
325. The words of Plato (State, X, 613, and Thcatetos, 176), "Man should
strive for God-likeness through virtue, and be holy, righteous and wise like the
Deity," may have influenced the ethical interpretation of the Biblical term.
3 Gen. R. VIII, i.
4 See Gen. I, 26 ; Comm. of Rashi, Saadia, Ibn Ezra, Nahmanides, and Ob.
Sforno.
MAN S PLACE IN CREATION 211
tialities which may be gradually developed. Man must
strive to attain the place destined for him in the scheme of
creation by the exertion of his own will and the unfolding of
the powers that He within him. The impulse toward self-
perfection, which is constantly stimulated by the desire to
overcome obstacles and to extend one s power, knowledge,
and possessions, forms the kernel of the divine in man. This
is the " spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty, that
giyeth them understanding." * Thus the teaching of modern
science, of the gradual ascent of man through all the stages
of animal life, does not impair the lofty position in creation
which Judaism has assigned him. Plant and animal are what
they have always been, children of the earth ; man with his
heaven-aspiring soul is the image of his Creator, a child of
God. Giver of name and purpose to all things about him,
he ranks above the angels; he " marches on while all the rest
stand still." 2
1 J b XXXII, 8. Zach. Ill, 7 ; see comm.
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE DUAL NATURE OF MAN
1. According to Jewish doctrines, man is formed by a
union of two natures : the flesh, which he shares with all the
animals, and the spirit, which renders him a child of God.
The former is rooted in the earth and is earthward bent ; the
latter is a "breath from God" and strives to unfold the divine
in man until he attains the divine image. This discord brings
a tremendous internal conflict, leading from one historic
stage to another, achieving ever higher things, intellectual,
moral, and spiritual, until at last the whole earth is to be a
divine kingdom, the dwelling-place of truth, goodness, and
holiness.
2. According to the Biblical view man consists of flesh
(basar) and spirit (ruah). The term flesh is used im
partially of all animals, hence the Biblical term "all flesh" l
includes both man and beast. The body becomes a living
being by being penetrated with the "breath of life" (ruah
hayim), at whose departure the living body turns at once into
a lifeless clod. This breath of life is possessed by the animal
as well as by man, as both of them breathe the air. Hence
in ancient tongues "breath" and "soul" are used as synonyms,
as the Hebrew nefesh and neshamah, the Latin anima and
spiritus, the Greek pneuma and psyche. A different primitive
belief connected the soul with the blood, noting that man or
beast dies when the hot life-blood flows out of the body, so
that we read in the Bible, "the blood is the soul." 2 In this
1 Gen. VI, 12, IQ. 2 Gen. IX, 21 ; Lev. XVII, u, 14.
212
THE DUAL NATURE OF MAN 213
the soul is identified with the life, while the word ruah, de
noting the moving force of the air, is used more in the sense
of spirit or soul as distinct from the body.
Thus both man and beast possess a soul, nefesh. The soul
of man is merely distinguished by its richer endowment, its
manifold faculties by which it is enabled to move forward to
higher things. Thus the animal soul is bound for all time to
its destined place, while the divine spirit in man makes him
a free creative personality, self-conscious and god-like. For
this reason the creation of man forms a special act in the
account in Genesis. Both the plant and animal worlds rose
at God s bidding from the soil of mother earth, and the soul
of the animal is limited in origin and goal by the earthly
sphere. The creation of man inaugurates a new world. God
is described as forming the body of man from the dust of the
earth and then breathing His spirit into the lifeless frame,
endowing it with both life and personality. The whole man,
both body and soul, has thus the potentiality of a higher and
nobler life.
3. Accordingly Scripture does not have a thorough-going
dualism, of a carnal nature which is sinful and a spiritual
nature which is pure. We are not told that man is composed
of an impure earthly body and a pure heavenly soul, but in
stead that the whole of man is permeated by the spirit of God.
Both body and soul are endowed with the power of con
tinuous self-improvement. In order to see the great su
periority of the Jewish view over the heathen one, we need
only study the old Babylonian legend preserved by Berosus.
In this the deity made man by mixing earth with some of its
own life-blood, thus endowing the human soul with higher
powers. In the Bible the difference between man and beast
does not lie in the blood, although the blood is still thought
to be the life. The distinction of man is in the spirit, ruah,
which emanates from God and penetrates both body and soul,
214 JEWISH THEOLOGY
lifting the whole man into a higher realm and making him a
free moral personality.
Still the Bible makes no clear distinction between the three
terms, nefesh, neshamah, and ruah. 1 Philo first distinguished
between three different substances of the soul, but his theory
was the Platonic one, for which he simply used the three
Biblical names. 2 The Jewish philosophers of the Middle Ages,
beginning with Saadia, took the same attitude, even though
they realized more or less that the division of the soul into
three substances has no Scriptural warrant. 3 In rabbinical
literature this division is scarcely known, and there is little
mention of either the animal soul, nefesh, or the vital spark,
ruah. Instead the word neshamah is used for the human
psyche as the higher spiritual substance, and the contrast to
it is not the Biblical basar, flesh, but the Aramaic guph, body. 4
This bears a trace of Persian dualism, with its strong contrast
between the earthly body and the heavenly soul.
4. In fact, rabbinical Judaism does not recognize any
relationship between the soul of the animal and that of man,
but claims that man has a special type of existence. The
Midrash tells 5 that God formed Adam s body so as to reach
from earth to heaven, and then caused the soul to enter it.
In the same way God implants the soul into the embryo before
its birth and while in the womb. Before this the soul had a bird-
like existence in an immense celestial cage (guph = colum
barium), and when it leaves the body in death, it again takes
1 See Dillmann, 1. c., 355-361 ; Davidson, 1. c., 182-203 ; comp. Gen. R.
XIV, n, where these three terms are given, and also yehidah, Ps. XXII, 21;
XXXV, 17, and hayah, Ps. XCLIII, 3; Job XXXIII, i.
2 De Leg. Alleg. Ill, 38.
3 See Horovitz : D. Psychologie Saadias; Scheyer : D. psycholog. System d.
Maimonides; Cassel s Cuzari, p. 382-400; Husik, 1. c., IX, 41; and see also
Index : Soul.
4 Sanh. 91 a, b; Nid. 30 b~3i b; Sifre Deut. 306, ref. to Deut. XXXII,
i ; Lev. IV, 5-8.
5 Ab. Z. 5 a; Gen. R. VIII, i.
THE DUAL NATURE OF MAN 215
its flight toward heaven. There its conduct on earth will
reap a reward in the garden of eternal bliss or a punishment
in the infernal regions. The belief in the preexistence of the
soul was shared by the rabbis with the apocryphal authors
and Philo. 1
However, rabbinical Judaism never followed Philo so far
in the footsteps of Plato as to consider the body or the flesh
the source of impurity and sin, or "the prison house of the
soul." This view is fundamental in the Paulinian system of
other- worldliness. For the rabbis the sensuous desire of the
body (yezer) is a tendency toward sin, but never a compul
sion. The weakness of the flesh may cause a straying from
the right path, but man can turn the desires of the flesh into
the service of the good. He can always assert his divine
power of freedom by opposing the evil inclination (yezer ha
ra) with the good inclination (yezer ha tob) to overcome
it. 2 In fact, the rabbis are so far from acknowledging the
existence of a compulsion of evil in the flesh, that they point
to the history of great men as proof that the highest charac
ters have the mightiest passions in their souls, and that their
greatness consists in the will by which they have learned to
control themselves. 3
5. In the light of modern science the whole theory separat
ing body and soul falls to the ground, and the one connect
ing man more closely with the animal world is revived. In
this connection we think of the idea which medieval thinkers
adopted from Plato and Aristotle, that there is a substance of
souls nefesh hahiyonith which forms the basic life-
1 B. Wisdom, VIII, 20; Slav. Enoch XXIII, 5; Philo I, 15, 32; II, 356;
comp. Bousset, 1. c., p. 508 f.
2 Gen. VI, 5; VIII, 21; B. Sira XV, 14; XVII, 31; XXI, n; Ber. 5 a;
Kid. 30 b; Suk. 52 a, b; Shab. 152 b; Eccl. R. XII, 7; comp. F. Ch. Porter:
"The Yezer ha Ra" in Biblical and Semitic Studies, 93-156; Bousset, 1. c.,
462 f.
8 Suk. 52 a, b.
216 JEWISH THEOLOGY
force of men and animals. Physiology and psychology re
veal the interaction and dependence of body and soul in the
lowest forms of animal life as well as in the higher forms, in
cluding man. The beginnings of the human mind must be
sought once for all in the animal, just as the origin of the
animal reaches back into the plant world. Indeed, Aris
totle anticipates the discoveries of modern science, placing
the vegetative and animal souls beside the spirit of man.
Thus motion and sensibility form the lower boundary-line
of the animal kingdom, and self-consciousness and self-deter
mination are the criteria of humanity.
Yet this very self-conscious freedom which forms man s
personality, his ego, lifts him into a realm of free action under
higher motives, transcending nature s law of necessity, and
therefore not falling within the domain of natural science.
Dust-born man, notwithstanding his earthly limitations, in
spite of his kinship to mollusk and mammal, enters the realm
of the divine spirit. In the Midrash the rabbis remark that
man shares the nature of both animals and angels. 1 Admit
ting this, we feel that he is tied neither to heaven nor to the
earth, but free to lift himself above all creatures or sink below
them all.
6. Endowed with this dual nature, man stands in the very
center of the universe, and God esteems him " equal in
value to the entire creation," as Rabbi Nehemiah says of a
single human soul. 2 Rabbi Akiba stresses the image of God
in humanity when he says: " Beloved is man, for he is cre
ated in God s image, and it was a special token of love that
he became conscious of it. Beloved is Israel, for they are
called the children of God, and it was a special token of love
that they became conscious of it." 3 The Midrash compares
man to God in exquisite manner: "Just as God permeates
the world and carries it, unseen yet seeing all, enthroned
1 Gen. R. VIII, n. 2 Ab. d. R. N. XXXI. Aboth III, 18.
THE DUAL NATURE OF MAN 217
within as the Only One, the Perfect, and the Pure, yet never
to be reached or found out ; so the soul penetrates and carries
the body, as the one pure and luminous being which sees and
holds all things, while itself unseen and unreached." 1 The
conception of the soul is here divested of every sensory at
tribute, and portrayed as a divine force within the body. This
conception, which was accepted by the medieval philosophers,
is thoroughly consistent with our view of the world. The
soul it is which mirrors both the material and spiritual worlds
and holds them in mutual relation through its own power.
It is at the same time swayed upward and downward by its
various cravings, heavenly and earthly, and this very tension
constitutes the dual nature of the human soul.
1 Ber. 10 a; Midr. Teh. Ps. CIII, 4-5.
CHAPTER XXXV
THE ORIGIN AND DESTINY OF MAN
1. Of all created beings man alone possesses the power of
self-determination ; he assigns his destiny to himself. While
he endeavors to find the object of all other things and even of
his own existence in the world, he finds his own purpose within
himself. Star and stone, plant and beast fulfill their purpose
in the whole plan of creation by their existence and varied
natures, and are accordingly called "good" as they are.
Man, however, realizes that he must accomplish his purpose
by his manner of life and the voluntary exertion of his own
powers. He is "good" only as far as he fulfills his destiny
on earth. He is not good by mere existence, but by his
conduct. Not what he is, but what he ought to be gives
value to his being. He is good or bad according to the direc
tion of his will and acts by the imperative: "I ought" or
"I ought not," which comes to him in his conscience, the voice
of God calling to his soul.
2. The problem of human destiny is answered by Judaism
with the idea that God is the ideal and pattern of all morality.
The answer given, then, is "To walk in the ways of God, to
be righteous and just," as He is. 1 The prophet Micah ex
pressed it in the familiar words: "It has been told thee, O
man, what is good, and what the Lord doth require of thee :
Only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with thy God." 2 Accordingly the Bible considers men of
the older generations the prototypes of moral conduct, "right-
1 Gen. XVIII, 19 ; Deut. VIII, 6 ; X, 12 ; XXXII, 4. 2 Micah VI, 8.
218
THE ORIGIN AND DESTINY OF MAN 219
ecus men who walked with God." Such men were Enoch,
Noah, and above all Abraham, to whom God said: "I am
God Almighty ; walk before Me, and be thou whole-hearted.
And I will make My covenant between thee and Me." 1
The rabbis singled out Abraham as the type of a perfect man
on account of his love of righteousness and peace ; contrasting
him with Adam who sinned, they beheld him as "the great
man among the heroes of the ancient times." They even
considered him the type of true humanity, in whom the
object of creation was attained. 2
3. This moral consciousness, however, which tells man to
walk in the ways of God and be perfect, is also the source of
shame and remorse. With such an ideal man must feel con
stantly that he falls short, that he is not what he ought to be.
Only the little child, who knows nothing as yet of good and
evil, can preserve the joy of life unmarred. Similarly, primi
tive man, being ignorant of guilt, could pass his days without
care or fear. But as soon as he becomes conscious of guilt,
discord enters his soul, and he feels as if he had been driven
from the presence of God.
This feeling is allegorized in the Paradise legend. The
garden of bliss, half earthly, half heavenly, which is else
where called the "mountain of God," 3 a place of wondrous
trees, beasts, and precious stones, whence the four great rivers
flow, is the abode of divine beings. The first man and woman
could dwell in it only so long as they lived in harmony with
God and His commandments. As soon as the tempter in
the shape of the serpent called forth a discord between the
divine will and human desire, man could no longer enjoy
celestial bliss, but must begin the dreary earthly life, with its
burdens and trials.
Gen. V, 22; VI, 9; XVII, 1-2.
2 Gen. R. XII, 8; XIV, 6, ref. to Josh. XIV, 15.
8 Ezek. XXVIII, 14.
220 JEWISH THEOLOGY
4. This story of the fall of the first man is an allegorical
description of the state of childlike innocence which man
must leave behind in order to attain true strength of char
acter. It is based upon a view common to all antiquity of a
descent of the race ; that is : first came the golden age, when
man led a life of ease and pleasure in company with the gods ;
then an age of silver, another of brass, and finally the iron age,
with its toil and bitter woe. Thus did evil deeds and wild
passions increase among men. This view fails utterly to
recognize the value of labor as a civilizing force making for
progress, and it contradicts the modern historical view. The
prophets of Israel placed the golden age at the end, not the
beginning of history, so that the purpose of mankind was to
establish a heavenly kingdom upon the earth. In fact, the fall
of man is not referred to anywhere in Scripture and never be
came a doctrine, or belief, of Judaism. On the contrary, the
Hellenistic expounders of the Bible take it for granted that
the story is an allegory, and the book of Proverbs under
stands the tree of life symbolically, in the verse: "She (the
Tor ah) is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her." 1
5. Still the rabbis in Talmud and Midrash accepted the
legend in good faith as historical 2 and took it literally as did
the great English poet :
" The fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden."
In fact, they even followed the Persian dualism with its evil
principle, the primeval serpent, or the Babylonian legend of
the sea-monster Tiamat, and regarded the serpent in Paradise
as a demon. He was identified with Satan, the arch-fiend,
and later with evil in general, the yezer ha ra? Thus the
1 Prov. Ill, 18. 2 Gen. R. XVI, 10 ; Shab. 55 b. * B. B. 15 a.
THE ORIGIN AND DESTINY OF MAN 221
belief arose that the poisonous breath of the serpent infected
all generations, causing death even of the sinless. 1 The
apocrypha also held that the envy of Satan brought death
into the world. 2 This prepared for the dismal church doc
trine of original sin, the basis of Paul s teachings, which de
manded a blood atonement for curse-laden humanity, and
found it after the pagan pattern in the vicarious sacrifice of
a dying god. 3
Against such perversion of the simple Paradise story the
sound common sense of the Jewish people rebelled. While
the early Talmudists occasionally mention the poisoning of
the human race by the serpent, they find an antidote for the
Jewish people in the covenant with Abraham or that of Sinai. 4
One cannot, however, discern the least indication of belief in
original sin, either as inherent in the human race or inherited
by them. Nor does the liturgy express any such idea, espe
cially for the Day of Penitence, when it would certainly be men
tioned if the conception found any place in Jewish doctrine. On
the contrary, the prevailing thought of Judaism is that of Deu
teronomy and Ezekiel, 5 that "Each man dies by his own sin,"
that every soul must bear only the consequences of his own
deeds. The rabbis even state that no man dies unless he has
brought it upon himself by his own sin, and mention especially
certain exceptions to this rule, such as the four saintly men
who died without sin, 6 or certain children whose death was
due to the sin of their parents. 7 They could never admit
that the whole human race was so corrupted by the sin of the
first man that it is still in a state of sinfulness.
6. Of course, the rabbinical schools took literally the Bib
lical story of the fall of man and laid the chief blame upon
1 Shab. 146 a; Yeb. 103 b; Ab. Zar. 22 b; Shab. 55 b.
B. Wisdom, II, 24. Romans V, 12 f.
4 Shab. 146 a. Deut. XXIV, 16 ; Ezek. XVIII, 4.
Shab. 55 a, b. Shab. 32 b.
222 JEWISH THEOLOGY
woman, who fell a prey to the wiles of the serpent. This is
done even by Ben Sira, who says: "With woman came the
beginning of sin, and through her we all must die." 1 So the
Talmud says that due to woman, man, the crown, light, and
life of creation, lost his purity, his luster, and his immortality. 2
The Biblical verse, "They did eat, and the eyes of them both
were opened," is interpreted by Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai
and Rabbi Akiba as "They saw the dire consequences of their
sin upon all coming generations." 3 The fall of man is treated
most elaborately in the same spirit in the two apocalyptic
books written after the destruction of the Second Temple,
the Apocalypse of Baruch and the IV Book of Esdras. 4 The
incompatibility of divine love with the sufferings of man
and of the Jewish people on account of the sin of the first
man is solved by an appeal to the final Day of Judgment,
and the striking remark is added that, after all, "each is his
own Adam and is held responsible for his own sin." We
cannot deny that these two books contain much that is near
the Paulinian view of original sin. It seems, however, that
the Jewish teachers were put on their guard by the emphasis
of this pessimistic dogma by the nascent Church, and did
their best to give a different aspect to the story of the first
sin. Thus they say: "If Adam had but shown repentance,
and done penance after he committed his sin, he would have
been spared the death penalty." 5 Moreover, they actually
represent Adam and Eve as patterns of repentant sinners,
who underwent severe penance and thus obtained the promise
of divine mercy and also of final resurrection. 6 Instead of
transmitting the heritage of sin to coming generations, the
1 B. Sira XXV, 24. 2 Yer. Shab. II, 5 b.
3 Gen. R. XIX, 10, ref. to Gen. Ill, 6-7.
4 Apoc. Baruch XXIII, 4; XL VIII, 42 f.; LVI, 6; and especially LIV,
14-19; IV Esdras III, 7; VII, n, 118.
6 Pesik. 160 b; Num. R. XIII, S-
e P. d. R. El., XX; comp. Adam and Eve, I; Erub. 18 b.
THE ORIGIN AND DESTINY OF MAN 223
first man is for them an example of repentance. So do the
Haggadists tell us quite characteristically that God merely
wanted to test the first man by an insignificant command,
so that the first representative of the human race should show
whether he was worthy to enter eternal life in his mortal garb,
as did Enoch and Elijah. As he could not stand the test,
he forfeited the marks of divine rank, his celestial radiance,
his gigantic size, and his power to overcome death. 1 Ob
viously the Biblical story was embellished with material from
the Persian legend of the fall of Yima or Djemshid, the first
man, from superhuman greatness because of his sin, 2 but it
was always related frankly as a legend, and could never in
fluence the Jewish conception of the fall of man.
7. Judaism rejects completely the belief in hereditary sin
and the corruption of the flesh. The Biblical verse, "God
made man upright ; but they have sought out many inven
tions," 3 is explained in the Midrash : "Upright and just as
is God, He made man after His likeness in order that he might
strive after righteousness, and unfold ever more his god-like
nature, but men in their dissensions have marred the divine
image." 4 With reference to another verse in Ecclesiastes : *
"The dust returneth unto the earth as it was, and the spirit
returneth unto God who gave it," the rabbis teach "Pure as
the soul is when entering upon its earthly career, so can man
return it to his Maker." 6 Therefore the pious Jew begins
his daily prayers with the words: "My God, the soul which
Thou hast given me is pure." 7 The life-long battle with
1 Gen. R. XII, 5 ; XIX, n ; XXI, 4 f. ; comp. Shab. 55 b.
2 See Windishman : Zoroastrische Studien, p. 27 f.
a Eccl. VII, 29. 4 Tanh. Yelamdenu to Gen. Ill, 22.
6 Eccl. XII, 7. Shab. 152 b.
7 Ber. 80 a. The rabbis did not have the belief that the body is morally
impure and therefore the seat of the yczcr ha ra, as is stated by Weber, 1. c., 228 f.
See Potter, 1. c., 98-107; Schechter: Aspects, 242-292. It is wrong also to
explain Ps. LI, 7, "Behold I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my
224 JEWISH THEOLOGY
sin begins only at the age when sensual desire, "the evil in
clination," awakens in youth ; then the state of primitive
innocence makes way for the sterner contest for manly virtue
and strength of character.
8. In fact, the whole Paradise story could never be made
the basis for a dogma. The historicity of the serpent is de
nied by Saadia ; 1 the rabbis transfer Paradise with the tree
of life to heaven as a reward for the future ; 2 and both
Nahmanides the mystic and Maimonides the philosopher
give it an allegorical meaning. 3 On the other hand, the Hag-
gadic teachers perceived the simple truth that a life of in
dolence in Paradise would incapacitate man for his cultural
task, and that the toils and struggles inflicted on man as a
curse are in reality a blessing. Therefore they laid special
stress on the Biblical statement: "He put man into the
garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." 4 The following
parable is especially suggestive: "When Adam heard the
stern sentence passed : Thou shalt eat the herb of the field,
he burst into tears, and said : Am I and my ass to eat out of
the same manger? Then came another sentence from God
to reassure him, In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread, and forthwith he became aware that man shall attain
a higher dignity by dint of labor." 5 Indeed, labor transforms
the wilderness into a garden and the earth into a habitation
worthy of the son of God. The "book of the generations of
mother conceive me," as inherited sinfulness, as Delitzsch and other Christian
commentators have done, following Ibn Ezra, who refers this to Eve, the
mother of all men. The correct interpretation is given by R. Ahha in Lev. R.
XIV, 5 ; " Every sexual act is the work of sensuality, the Yezer ha ra." Comp.
Yoma6pb. Needless to say that Hosea VI, 7 ; Isa.XLIII, 37; Job XXXI, 33
do not refer to the sin of Adam.
1 See Ibn Ezra to Gen. Ill, i.
2 See Taan. 10 a; Ber. 34 b; D. comp. Enoch XXIX-XXXII ; Seder Can
Eden, in Jellinek, Beth ha Midrash, II, III.
3 Moreh, II, 30; Nahmanides to Gen. Ill, i.
Gen. R. XVI, 8, ref. to Gen. II, 15. 6 Pes. in a; Gen. R. XX, 24.
THE ORIGIN AND DESTINY OF MAN 225
man" which begins with Adam is accordingly not the history
of man s descent, but of his continuous ascent, of ever higher
achievements and aspirations ; it is not a record of the fall
of man, but of his rise from age to age. According to the
Midrash 1 God opened before Adam the book with the deeds
and names of the leading spirits of all the coming generations,
showing him the latent powers of the human intellect and
soul. The phrase, "the fall of man," can mean, in fact,
only the inner experience of the individual, who does fall from
his original idea of purity and divine nobility into transgres
sion and sin. It cannot refer to mankind as a whole, for the
human race has never experienced a fall, nor is it affected by
original or hereditary sin.
1 Seder Olam at the close ; Gen. R. XXTV, 2.
CHAPTER XXXVI
GOD S SPIRIT IN MAN
1. Man is placed in an animal world of dull feelings, of
blind and crude cravings. Yet his clear understanding,
his self-conscious will and his aspirations forward and up
ward lead him into a higher world where he obtains insight
into the order and unity of all things. By the spirit of God
he is able to understand material things and grasp them in
their relations ; thus he can apply all his knowledge and
creative imagination to construct a world of ideals. But this
world, in all its truth, beauty and goodness, is still limited
and finite, a feeble shadow of the infinite world of God. As
the Bible says : "The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord,
searching all the inward parts." l " It is a spirit in man,
and the breath of the Almighty, that giveth them under
standing." 2
2. According to the Biblical conception, the spirit of God
endows men with all their differing capacities ; it gives to
one man wisdom by which he penetrates into the causes of
existence and orders facts into a scientific system ; to another
the seeing eye by which he captures the secret of beauty and
creates works of art; and to a third the genius to perceive
the ways of God, the laws of virtue, that he may become a
teacher of ethical truth. In other words, the spirit of God
is "the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of
the Lord." 3 It works upon the scientific interest of the in-
1 Prov. XX, 27. 2 Job XXXII, 8. 3 Isa. XI, 2.
226
GOD S SPIRIT IN MAN 227
vestigator, the imagination of the artist and poet, the ethical
and social sense of the prophet, teacher, statesman, and law
giver. Thus their high and holy vision of the divine is brought
home to the people and implanted within them under the in
spiration of God. In commenting upon the Biblical verse,
"Wisdom and might are His ... He giveth wisdom to the
wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding," l
the sages wisely remark, "God carefully selects those who
possess wisdom for His gift of wisdom." Even as a musical
instrument must be attuned for the finer notes that it may have
a clear, resonant tone, so the human soul must be made
especially susceptible to the gifts of the spirit in order to be
capable of unfolding them. Thus the Talmud records an
interesting dialogue on this very passage between a Roman
matron familiar with the Scripture, and Rabbi Jose ben
Halafta. She asked sarcastically, "Would it not have been
more generous of your God to have given wisdom to those that
are unwise than to those that already possess it ? " Thereupon
the Jewish master replied, "If you were to lend a precious
ornament, would you not lend it to one who was able to make
use of it? So God gives the treasure of wisdom to the wise,
who know how to appreciate and develop it, not to the unwise,
who do not know its value." 2
3. Thus the diverse gifts of the divine spirit are distributed
differently among the various classes and tribes of men, ac
cording to their capacity and the corresponding task which is
assigned them by Providence. The divine spark is set aglow
in each human soul, sometimes feebly, sometimes brightly,
but it blazes high only in the privileged personality or group.
The mutual relationship between God and man is recognized
by the Synagogue in the Eighteen Benedictions, where the
J Dan. II, 20-21.
*Tanh. Miketz 9; comp. Tanh. Yelamdenu Wayakhel, where the story is
told differently.
228 JEWISH THEOLOGY
one directly following the three praises of God is devoted to
wisdom and knowledge: "Thou favorest man with knowl
edge, and teachest mortals understanding. So favor us with
knowledge, understanding, and discernment from Thee.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, gracious Giver of knowledge." 1
This petition, remarks Jehuda ha Levi, 2 deserves its position
as first among these prayers, because wisdom brings us nearer
to God. It is also noteworthy that the Synagogue prescribes
a special benediction at the sight of a renowned sage, even if
he is not a Jew, reading, " Praised be He who has imparted
of His wisdom to flesh and blood." 3
4. Maimonides holds that in the same degree as a man
studies the works of God in nature, he will be filled with
longing for direct knowledge of God and true love of Him. 4
"Not only religion, but also the sciences emanate from God,
both being the outcome of the wisdom which God imparts
to all nations," thus wrote a sixteenth-century rabbi,
Loewe ben Bezalel of Prague, known usually as "the eminent
Rabbi Loewe." 5 The men of the Talmud also accord the
palm in certain types of knowledge to heathen sages, and did
not hesitate to ascribe to some heathens the highest knowl
edge of God in their time. 6 As a mystic of the thirteenth
century, Isaac ben Latif, says : "That faith is the most per
fect which perceives truth most fully, since God is the source
of all truth." 7 Of the two heads of the Babylonian acade
mies, Rab and Samuel, one asserted that Moses through his
prophetic genius reached forty-nine of the fifty degrees of
the divine understanding (as the fiftieth is reserved for God
alone), while the other claimed the same distinction for King
Solomon as the result of his wisdom. 8
1 Singer s Prayerbook, p. 46. 2 Cuzari III, 19.
8 Ber. 58 a; Singer s Prayerb., p. 291. 4 Yesode ha Torah, II, 2.
8 Nethibot Olam, XIV. 6 Pes. 94 b.
7 Shaare Shamayim, IV, 3. 8 R. h. Sh. 21 b.
GOD S SPIRIT IN MAN 229
5. Thus the spirit of God creates in man both consciously
and unconsciously a world of ideas, which proves him a being
of a higher order in creation. This impulse may work actively,
searching, investigating, and creating, or passively as an
instrument of a higher power. At first it is a dim, uncertain
groping of the spirit ; then the mind acquires greater lucidity
by which it illumines the dark world ; and, as one question
calls for the other and one thought suggests another, the
world of ideas opens up as a well-connected whole. Thus
man creates by slow steps his languages, the arts and sciences,
ethics, law and all the religions with their varying practices
and doctrines. At times this spirit bursts forth with greater
vehemence in great men, geniuses who lift the race with one
stroke to a higher level. Such men may say, in the words
of David, the holy singer : "The spirit of the Lord spoke by
me, and His word was upon my tongue." l They may re
peat the experience of Eliphaz the friend of Job :
" Now a word was secretly brought to me,
And mine ear received a whisper thereof.
In thoughts from the visions of the night,
When deep sleep falleth on men,
Fear came upon me, and trembling,
And all my bones were made to shake.
Then a spirit passed before my face,
That made the hair of my flesh to stand up.
It stood still, but I could not discern the appearance thereof;
A form was before mine eyes ;
I heard a still voice." 2
In such manner men of former ages received a religious reve
lation, a divine message.
6. The divine spirit always selects as its instruments in
dividuals with special endowments. Still, insight into his
tory shows that these men must needs have grown from the
II Sam. XXIII, 2. 2 Job IV, 12-16.
230 JEWISH THEOLOGY
very heart of their own people and their own age, in order
that they might hold a lofty position among them and com
mand attention for their message. However far the people
or the age may be from the man chosen by God, the multi
tude must feel at least that the divine spirit speaks through
him, or works within him. Or, if not his own time, then a
later generation must respond to his message, lest it be lost
entirely to the world.
The rabbis, who knew nothing of laws of development
for the human mind, assumed that the first man, made by
God Himself, must have known every branch of knowledge
and skill, that the spirit of God must have been most vigorous
in him. 1 They therefore believed in a primeval revelation,
coeval with the first man. Our age, with its tremendous
emphasis on the historical view, sees the divine spirit mani
fested most clearly in the very development and growth of all
life, social, intellectual, moral and spiritual, proceeding
steadily toward the highest of all goals. With this empha
sis, however, on process, we must lay stress equally on the
origin, on the divine impulse or initiative in this historical
development, the spirit which gives direction and value to
the whole.
1 Gen. R. XXIV, 7; comp. Jubilees III, 12.
CHAPTER XXXVII
FREE WILL AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY
1. Judaism has ever emphasized the freedom of the will
as one of its chief doctrines. The dignity and greatness of
man depends largely upon his freedom, his power of self-
determination. He differs from the lower animals in his in
dependence of instinct as the dictator of his actions. He
acts from free choice and conscious design, and is able to change
his mind at any moment, at any new evidence or even through
whim. He is therefore responsible for his every act or omis
sion, even for his every intention. This alone renders him a
moral being, a child of God ; thus the moral sense rests upon
freedom of the will. 1
2. The idea of moral freedom is expressed as early as the
first pages of the Bible, in the words which God spoke to Cain
while he was planning the murder of his brother Abel:
" Whether or not, thou offerest an acceptable gift," (New
Bible translation: "If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted
up? and if thou doest not well,") " sin coucheth at the door ;
and unto thee is its desire, but thou mayest rule over it." 2
Here, without any reference to the sin of Adam in the first
generation, the man of the second generation is told that
he is free to choose between good and evil, that he alone
is responsible before God for what he does or omits to do.
This certainly indicates that the moral freedom of man is
not impaired by hereditary sin, or by any evil power outside
1 See Dillmann, 1. c., 301 f., 375; J. E., art. Freedom of Will.
Gen. IV, 7.
231
232 JEWISH THEOLOGY
of man himself. This principle is established in the words of
Moses spoken in the name of God: "I have set before thee
life and death, the blessing and the curse ; therefore choose
life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed." * In like
manner Jeremiah proclaims in God s name: " Behold I set
before you the way of life and the way of death." 2
3. From these passages and many similar ones the sages
derived their oft-repeated idea that man stands ever at the
parting of the ways, to choose either the good or the evil
path. 3 Thus the words spoken by God to the angels when
Adam and Eve were to be expelled from Paradise: "Behold,
the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil," are
interpreted by R. Akiba: "He was given the choice to go
the way of life or the way of death, but he chose the way of
death by eating of the forbidden fruit." 4 R. Akiba empha
sizes the principle of the freedom of the will again in the terse
saying: "All things are foreseen (by God), but free will is
granted (to man)." 5
4. At the first encounter of Judaism with those philosophi
cal schools of Hellas which denied the freedom of the human
will, the Jewish teachers insisted strongly on this principle.
The first reference is found in Ben Sira, who refutes the ar
guments of the Determinists that God could make man sin,
and then goes on: "God created man at the beginning, en
dowing him with the power of self-determination, saying to
him : If thou but wiliest, thou canst observe My command
ments ; to practice faithfulness is a matter of free will. . . .
As when fire and water are put before thee, so that thou may
est reach forth thy hand to that which thou desirest, so are
life and death placed before man, and whatever he chooses of
1 Deut. XXX, 15-19. 2 Jer. XXI, 8.
3 See Sifre Deut. 53-54 ; J. E., art. Didache.
4 Gen. Ill, 22 ; Mek. Beshallah 6 ; Gen. R. XXI, 5 ; Mid. Teh. Ps. XXXVI,
3," LVIII, 2.
6 Aboth III, 15, but see Schechter : Aspects, 285, note 4.
FREE WILL AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY 233
his own desire will be given to him." l The Book of Enoch
voices this truth also in the forceful sentences : "Sin has not
been sent upon the earth (from above), but men have pro
duced it out of themselves ; therefore they who commit sin
are condemned." 2 We read similar sentiments in the Psalms
of Solomon, a Pharisean work of the first pre-Christian cen
tury : 3 "Our actions are the outcome of the free choice and
power of our own soul ; to practice justice or injustice lies in
the work of our own hands."
The Apocalypse of Ezra is especially instructive in the
great stress which it lays on freedom, in connection with its
chief theme, the sinfulness of the children of Adam. "This
is the condition of the contest which man who is born on earth
must wage, that, if he be conquered by the evil inclination,
he must suffer that of which thou hast spoken (the tortures
of hell), but if he be victorious, he shall receive (the reward)
which I (the angel) have mentioned. For this is the way
whereof Moses spoke when he lived, saying unto the people,
Choose life, that thou mayest live ! . . . For all who knew
Me not in life when they received My benefits, who despised
My law when they yet had freedom, and did not heed the door
of repentance while it was still open before them, but disre
garded it, after death they shall come to know it !" 4
5. Hellenistic Judaism also, particularly Philo, 5 considered
the truly divine in man to be his free will, which distinguishes
him from the beast. Yet Hellenistic naturalism could not
grasp the fact that man s power to do evil in opposition to God,
the Source of the good, is the greatest reminder of his moral
responsibility. Josephus likewise mentions frequently as a
characteristic teaching of the Pharisees that man s free will
1 Ben Sira XV, 1 1-20. Enoch XCVIII, 4.
1 IX, 7. 4 IV Ezra VII, 127-129; IX, 10-11.
Quoddeus immutabilis, 10, I, 279; Di confusione linguarum, 35, I, 432;
Quod detenus potiori insid, 32, 1, 214.
234 JEWISH THEOLOGY
determines his acts without any compulsion of destiny. 1
Only we must not accept too easily the words of this Jewish
historian, who wrote for his Roman masters and, therefore,
represented the Jewish parties as so many philosophical schools
after the Greek pattern. The Pharisean doctrine is presented
most tersely in the Talmudic maxim : " Every thing is in the
hands of God except the fear of God." 2 Like the quotation
from R. Akiba above, this contains the great truth that man s
destiny is determined by Providence, but his character de
pends upon his own free decision. This idea recurs frequently
in such Talmudic sayings as these: "The wicked are in the
power of their desires ; the righteous have their desires in
their own power;" 3 "The eye, the ear, and the nostrils are
not in man s power, but the mouth, the hand, and the feet
are." 4 That is, the impressions we receive from the world
without us come involuntarily, but our acts, our steps, and
our words arise from our own volition.
6. A deeper insight into the problem of free will is offered
in two other Talmudic sayings; the one is: "Whosoever
desires to pollute himself with sin will find all the gates open
before him, and whosoever desires to attain the highest purity
will find all the forces of goodness ready to help him." 5 The
other reads : "It can be proved by the Torah, the Prophets,
and the other sacred writings that man is led along the road
which he wishes to follow." 6
As a matter of fact, no person is absolutely free, for in
numerable influences affect his decisions, consciously and
unconsciously. For this reason many thinkers, both ancient
and modern, consider freedom a delusion and hold to deter-
1 Josephus, J. W., II, 8, 14 ; Ant. XVIII, i, 3. 2 Ber. 33 b.
8 Gen. R. LXVII, 7. Comp. P. R. El. XV.
4 Tanh. Toledoth, ed. Buber, 21.
B Shab. 104 a; Yoma 38 b~3Q a; Yer. Kid. I, 67 d.
Mak. 10 b; ref. to Ex. XXI, 12; Num. XXII, 12; Isa. XLVIII, 17;
Prov. Ill, 34.
FREE WILL AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY 235
minism, the doctrine that man acts always under the com
pulsion of external and internal forces. In opposition to this
theory is one incontestable fact, our own inner sense of free
dom which tells us at every step that we have acted, and at
every decision that we have decided. Man can maintain his
own power of self-determination against all influences from
without and within; his will is the final arbiter over every
impulse and every pressure. Moreover, as we penetrate more
deeply into the working of the mind, we see that a long series
of our own voluntary acts has occasioned much that we con
sider external, that the very pressure of the past on our
thoughts, feelings and habits, which leaves so little weight for
the decision of the moment, is really only our past will influ
encing our present will. That is, the will may determine
itself, but it does not do so arbitrarily ; its action is along the
lines of its own character. We have the power to receive the
influence of either the noble or the ignoble series of impres
sions, and thus to yield either to the lofty or the low impulses
of the soul.
In this way the rabbis interpret various expressions of Scrip
ture which would seem to limit man s freedom, as where God
induces man to good or evil acts, or hardens the heart of
Pharaoh so that he will not let the Israelites go, until the
plagues had been fulfilled upon him and his people. 1 They
understand in such an instance that a man s heart has a pre
vailing inclination toward right or wrong, the expression of
his character, and that God encouraged this inclination along
the evil course ; thus the freedom of the human will was kept
intact.
7. The doctrine of man s free will presents another difficulty
from the side of divine omniscience. For if God knows in
1 Ex. IV, 21 ; VII, 3, and elsewhere; see the Jewish commentaries to these
passages. Comp. Pes. 165 a; Num. R. XV, 16. See Schechter, Aspects,
280-292.
236 JEWISH THEOLOGY
advance what is to happen, then man s acts are determined
by this very foreknowledge ; he is no longer free, and his moral
responsibility becomes an idle dream. In order to escape
this dilemma, the Mohammedan theologians were compelled
to limit either the divine omniscience or human freedom, and
most of them resorted to the latter method. It is charac
teristic of Judaism that its great thinkers, from Saadia to Mai-
monides and Gersonides, 1 dared not alter the doctrine of man s
free will and moral responsibility, but even preferred to limit
the divine omniscience. Hisdai Crescas is the only one to re
strict human freedom in favor of the foreknowledge of God. 2
8. The insistence of Judaism on unrestricted freedom of
will for each individual entirely excludes hereditary sin. This
is shown in the traditional explanation of the verse of the
Decalogue: " Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation of them that
hate Me." 3 According to the rabbis the words "of them that
hate Me" do not refer to the fathers, according to the plain
meaning of the passage, but to the children and children s
children. These are to be punished only when they hate God
and follow the evil example of their fathers. 4 Despite ex
ample and hereditary disposition, the descendants of evil
doers can lead a virtuous life, and their punishment comes
only when they fail to resist the evil influences of their pa
rental household. To illustrate the Biblical words, "Who can
bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" 5 the rabbis single
out Abraham, the son of Terah, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz,
and Josiah, the son of Manasseh. 6 Man, being made in
1 Saadia: Emunotk, III, 154; IV, 7 f.; Bahya : Hoboth haleboboth, III, 8;
Cuzari, V, 20; Moreh I, 23; III, 16; H. Teshuba, V; Gersonides: Milhamoth,
III, 106 ; Albo : Ikkarim, IV, 5-10 ; see Cassel notes, Cuzari, p. 414.
2 Or Adonai II, 4; comp. Bloch : Willensfreiheit des Hisdai Crescas;
Neumark : Crescas and Spinoza, Y. B. C. C. A. R. 1908.
3 Ex. XX, 5. 4 Sanh. 27 b.
B Job XIV, 4. 8 Pesik. 29 b.
FREE WILL AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY 237
God s image, determines his own character by his own free
choice ; by his will he can raise or lower himself in the scale
of being.
9. The fundamental character of the doctrine of free will
for Judaism is shown by Maimonides, who devotes a special
chapter of his Code to it, 1 and calls it the pillar of Israel s
faith and morality, since through it alone man manifests his
god-like sovereignty. For should his freedom be limited by
any kind of predestination, he would be deprived of his moral
responsibility, which constitutes his real greatness. In en
deavoring to reconcile God s omnipotence and omniscience
with man s freedom, Maimonides says that God wants man to
erect a kingdom of morality without interference from above ;
moreover, God s knowledge is different in kind from that
of man, and thus is not an infringement upon man s freedom,
as the human type of knowledge would be. However,
Abraham ben David of Posquieres blames Maimonides for
proposing questions which he could not answer satisfactorily
in the Code, which is intended for non-philosophical readers.
The fact is that this is only another of the problems insoluble
to human reasoning ; the freedom of the will must remain
for all time a postulate of moral responsibility, and therefore
of religion.
//. Teshubah, V.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE MEANING OF SIN
1. Sin is a religious conception. It does not signify a
breach of law or morality, or of popular custom and sacred
usage, but an offense against God, provoking His punishment.
As long as the deity is merely dreaded as an external power,
not adored as a moral power ruling life from within for a
holy purpose, sin, too, is considered a purely formal offense.
The deity demands to be worshiped by certain rites and may
be propitiated by other formal acts. 1 For Judaism, however,
sin is a straying from the path of God, an offense against the
divine order of holiness. Thus it signifies an abuse of the
freedom granted man as his most precious boon. Therefore
sin has a twofold character ; formally it is an offense against
the majesty of God, whose laws are broken ; essentially it is
a severance of the soul s inner relations to God, an estrange
ment from Him.
2. Scripture has three different terms for sin, which do not
differ greatly in point of language, but indicate three stages
of thought. First is het or hataah, which connotes any
straying from the right path, whether caused by levity, care
lessness, or design, and may even include wrongs committed
unwittingly, shegagah. Second is avon, a crookedness or
perversion of the straight order of the law. Third is pesha,
a wicked act committed presumptuously in defiance of God
and His law. As a matter of course, the conception of
1 See Morgenstern, " The Doctrine of Sin in the Babylonian Religion" in
Mitth. Vorderas. Gesellsch. 1905.
238
THE MEANING OF SIN 239
sin was deepened by degrees, as the prophets, psalmists and
moralists grew to think of God as the pattern of the highest
moral perfection, as the Holy One before whom an evil act or
thought cannot abide.
The rabbis usually employed the term aberah, that is, a
transgression of a divine commandment. In contrast to
this they used mitzwah, a divine command, which denotes
also the whole range of duty, including the desire and intention
of the human soul. From this point of view every evil de
sign or impulse, every thought and act contrary to God s
law, becomes a sin.
3. Sin arises from the weakness of the flesh, the desire of
the heart, and accordingly in the first instance from an error
of judgment. The Bible frequently speaks of sin as "folly." l
A rabbinical saying brings out this same idea : No one sins
unless the spirit of folly has entered into him to deceive him."
A sinful imagination lures one to sin ; the repetition of the
forbidden act lowers the barrier of the commandment, until
the trespass is hardened into " callous" and " stubborn" dis
regard, and finally into " reckless defiance" and "insolent
godlessness." Such a process is graphically expressed by the
various terms used in the Bible. According to the rabbinical
figure, "sin appears at first as thin as a spider s web, but grows
stronger and stronger, until it becomes like a wagon-rope to
bind a man." Or, "sin comes at first as a passer-by to tarry
for a moment, then as a visitor to stay, finally as the master
of the house to claim possession." Therefore it is incumbent
upon us to "guard" the heart, and not "to go astray follow
ing after our eyes and our heart." 3
4. According to the doctrine of Judaism no one is sinful
by nature. No person sins by an inner compulsion. But
1 Gen. VI, 3 ; Ps. LXXVIII, 39. a Sola 3 a.
1 Suk. 52 a, b. Comp. Schechter, "The Evil Yezer, Source of Rebellion and
Victory over the Evil Yezer," 1. c., 242-292.
240 JEWISH THEOLOGY
as man has a nature of flesh, which is sensuous and selfish,
each person is inclined to sin and none is perfectly free from
it. " Who can say : I have made my heart clean, I am pure
from any sin?" 1 This is the voice of the Bible and of all
human experience; "For there is not a righteous man upon
earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not." 2 The expression
occurs repeatedly in Job : "Shall mortal man be just before
God? Shall a man be pure before his Maker?" 3 Even
Moses is represented in numerous passages as showing human
foibles and failings. 4 In fact, " the greater the personality,
the more severely will God call him to account for the smallest
trespass, for God desires to be l sanctified by His righteous
ones." 5 The Midrash tells us that no one is to be called
holy, until death has put an end to his struggle with the ever-
lurking tempter within, and he lies in the earth with the
victor s crown of peace upon his brow. 6 When we read the
stern sentence: "Behold, He putteth no trust in His holy
ones," 7 the rabbis refer us to the patriarchs, each of whom
had his faults. 8 Measured by the Pattern of all holiness, no
human being is free from blemish.
5. In connection with the God-idea, the conception of
sin grew from crude beginnings to the higher meaning given
it by Judaism. The ancient Babylonians used the same
terminology as the Bible for sin and sin-offering, but their
view, like that of other Semites, was far more external. 9 If
one was afflicted with disease or misfortune, the inference
was that he had neglected the ritual of some deity and must
appease the angered one with a sacrificial offering. Any ir
regularity in the cult was an offense against the deity. This
became more moralized with the higher God-idea; the god
i Prov. XX, 9. 2 Eccl. VII, 20.
3 Job IV, 17 ; XV, 14 f ; XXV, 5. 4 Num. XX, 12 ; XXVII, 14.
* Yeb. 121 b. 6 Mid. Teh. Ps. XVI, 2.
7 Job XV, 15. 8 Midr. Teh. eodem. 9 Morgenstern, 1. c.
THE MEANING OF SIN 241
became the guardian of moral principles ; and the calamities,
even of the nation, were then ascribed to the divine wrath on
account of moral lapses. The same process may be observed
in the views of ancient Israel. Here, too, during the domi
nance of the priestly view the gravest possible offense was
one against the cult, a culpable act entailing the death pen
alty asham, or "doom" of the offender. We shudder at
the thought that the least violation of the hierarchical rules
for the sanctuary or even for the burning of incense should
meet the penalty of death. Yet such is the plain statement of
the Mosaic law and such was the actual practice of the people. 1
The more the prophetic conception of the moral nature of
the Deity permeated the Jewish religion, the more the term
sin came to mean an offense against the holiness of God, the
Guardian of morality. Hence the great prophets upbraided
the people for their moral, not their ceremonial failings. They
attacked scathingly transgressions of the laws of righteousness
and purity, the true sins against God, because these originate
in dullness of heart, unbridled passion, and overbearing
pride, all so hateful to Him. The only ritual offenses empha
sized as sins against God are idolatry, violation of the name
of God and of the Sabbath, for these express the sanctity of
life. 2 Except for these points, the prophets and psalmists
insisted only on righteous conduct and integrity of soul, and
repudiated entirely the ritualism of the priesthood and the
formalism of the cult. 3 This view is anticipated by Samuel,
the master of the prophetic schools, when he says :
" Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to hearken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim." 4
* Ex. XXX, 33, 38; Lev. X, 2; XVI, 1-2; Num. XVII, 28; XVIII, 7.
Ezek. XVIII, 6 f. ; XX, 13 f. ; Isa. LVI, 2 f.
Hos. VI, 6 ; Mic. VI, 8 ; Isa. I, 1 1 f. 4 j Sam xy>
R
242 JEWISH THEOLOGY
As soon as we realize that obedience to God s will means
right conduct and purity of soul, we see in sin the desecra
tion of the divine image in man, the violation of his heavenly
patent of nobility.
6. Sin, then, is in its essence unfaithfulness to God and to
our own god-like nature. We see this thought expressed in
Job: 1
" If thou hast sinned, what doest thou against Him?
And if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto Him ?
If thou be righteous, what givest thou unto Him ?
Or what receiveth He of thy hand ?
Thy wickedness concerneth a man as thou art ;
And thy righteousness a son of man."
Thus the source of sin is the human heart, the origin of all
our thinking and planning. We know sin chiefly as con
sciousness of guilt. Man s conscience accuses him and com
pels him to confess, " Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned." 2
Not only the deed itself, but even more the will which caused
it, is condemned by conscience. Such self-accusation con
stantly proves anew that there is no place for original sin
through the fall of Adam. "I could have controlled my evil
desire, if I had but earnestly willed it," said King David, ac
cording to the Talmud. 3
7. Sin engenders a feeling of disunion with God through
the consciousness of guilt which accompanies it. It erects
a "wall of separation" between man and his Maker, depriv
ing him of peace and security. 4 Guilt causes pain, which
overwhelms him, until he has made atonement and obtained
pardon before God. This is no imaginary feeling, easily over
come and capable of being suppressed by the sinner with im
punity. Instead, he must pay the full penalty for his sin,
lest it lead him to the very abyss of evil, to physical and moral
death. Sin in the individual becomes a sense of self-con-
1 Job XXXV, 6-8. a Ps. LI, 6. Sanh. 107 a. Isa. LIX, 2.
THE MEANING OF SIN 243
demnation, the consciousness of the divine anger. Hence the
Hebrew term avon, sin, is often synonymous with punishment, 1
and asham, guilt, often signifies the atonement for the guilt,
and sometimes doom and perdition as a consequence of
guilt. 2 Undoubtedly this still contains a remnant of the old
Semitic idea that an awful divine visitation may come upon
an entire household or community because of a criminal or
sacrilegious act committed, consciously or unconsciously, by
one of its members. Such a fate can be averted only by an
atoning sacrifice. This accords with the rather strange fact
that the Priestly Code prescribes certain guilt offerings for
sins committed unwittingly, which are called asham. 3
8. But even these unintentional sins can be avoided by
the constant exercise of caution, so that their commission
implies a certain degree of guilt, which demands a measure of
repentance. Thus the Psalmist says: "Who can discern
errors? Clear Thou me from hidden faults." 4 He thus
implies that we feel responsible in a certain sense for all our
sins, including those which we commit unknowingly. The
rabbis dwell especially on the idea that we are never altogether
free from sinful thoughts. For this reason, they tell us, the
two burnt offerings were brought to the altar each morning
and evening, to atone for the sinful thoughts of the people
during the preceding day or night. 5
9. At any rate, Judaism recognizes no sin which does not
arise from the individual conscience or moral personality.
The condemnation of a whole generation or race in conse
quence of the sin of a single individual is an essentially heathen
idea, which was overcome by Judaism in the course of time
through the prophetic teaching of the divine justice and man s
moral responsibility. This sentiment was voiced by Moses
1 Gen. IV, 13; XV, 16; XIX, 15; Ps. XL, 13.
1 Gen. XXVI, 10; XLII, 21 ; Ps. XXXIV, 22.
Lev. IV, 13 f. ; Num. V f 6. Ps. XIX, 13. Num. R. XXI, 10.
244 JEWISH THEOLOGY
and Aaron after the rebellion of Korah in the words: "0
God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin,
and wilt Thou be wroth with all the congregation?" 1 In
commenting upon this, the Midrash says: "A human king
may make war upon a whole province, because it contains
rebels who have caused sedition, and so the innocent must
suffer together with the guilty ; but it does not behoove God,
the Ruler of the spirits, who looks into the hearts of men, to
punish the guiltless together with the guilty." 2 The Chris
tian view of universal guilt as a consequence of Adam s sin,
the dogma of original sin, is actually a relapse from the
Jewish stage to the heathen doctrine from which the Jewish
religion freed itself.
10. According to the Biblical view sin contaminates man,
so that he cannot stand in the presence of God. The holiness
of Him who is "of eyes too pure to behold evil" 3 becomes to
the sinner "a devouring fire." 4 Even the lofty prophet Isaiah
realizes his own human limitations at the sublime vision of
the God of holiness enthroned on high, while the angelic
choruses chant their thrice holy. In humility and contrition
he cries out : "Woe is me, for I am undone ! Because I am
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of
unclean lips ; For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of
hosts." 5 The prophet must undergo atonement in order to
be prepared for his high prophetic task. One of the Seraphs
purges him of his sins by touching his lips with a live coal
taken from the altar of God.
Under the influence of Persian dualism, rabbinical Judaism
considers sin a pollution which puts man under the power of
unclean spirits. 6 In the later Cabbalah this idea is elabo
rated until the world of sin is considered a cosmic power of
impurity, opposed to the realm of right, working evil ever
i Num. XVI, 22. Tanh. Korah, ed. Buber, 19. 8 Habak. I, 13.
4 Isa. XXXIII, 14. * Isa. VI, 5-7. 6 Pes. 45 b; Gen. R. XXIII, 9.
THE MEANING OF SIN 245
since the fall of Adam. 1 Still, however close this may come
to the Christian dogma, it never becomes identical with it;
the recognition is always preserved of man s power to extri
cate himself from the realm of impurity and to elevate himself
into the realm of purity by his own repentance. Sin never
becomes a demoniacal power depriving man of his divine
dignity of self-determination and condemning him to eternal
damnation. It ever remains merely a going astray from the
right path, a stumbling from which man may rise again to
his heavenly height, exerting his own powers as the son of
God.
1 See J. E., art. Cabala; Abelson, Jewish Mysticism, p. 127 f., 171 f.
CHAPTER XXXIX
REPENTANCE OR THE RETURN TO GOD
1. The brightest gem among the teachings of Judaism is
its doctrine of repentance or, in its own characteristic term,
the return of the wayward sinner to God. 1 Man, full of re
morse at having fallen away from the divine Fountainhead
of purity, conscious of deserving a sentence of condemnation
from the eternal Judge, would be less happy than the unrea
soning brute which cannot sin at all. Religion restores him
by the power to rise from his shame and guilt, to return to
God in repentance, as the penitent son returns to his father.
Whether we regard sin as estrangement from God or as a
disturbance of the divine order, it has a detrimental effect
on both body and soul, and leads inevitably to death. On
this point the Bible affords many historical illustrations and
doctrinal teachings. 2 If man had no way to escape from sin,
then he would be the most unfortunate of creatures, in spite
of his god-like nature. Therefore the merciful God opens the
gate of repentance for the sinner, saying as through His proph
ets of old : "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
but that the wicked turn from his way and live." 3
2. The great value of the gift of divine grace, by which
the sinner may repent and return to God with a new spirit, ap-
1 See J. E., art. Repentance; Claude Montefiore: "Rabbinical Concep
tions of Repentance," in J. Q. R., Jan. 1904; Schechter, Aspects, 313-343.
The works of Weber (p. 261 f.), Bousset (p. 446 f.), and Davidson (1- c., 327-
338) do not do justice to the Jewish teachings.
z Ezek. XVIII, 4; Ps. XXXIV, 21 ; Prov. XIV, 12.
Ezek. XVIII, 32 ; XXXIII, n.
246
REPENTANCE OR THE RETURN TO GOD 247
pears in the following rabbinical saying : " Wisdom was asked,
1 What shall be the sinner s punishment ? and answered, Evil
pursues sinners ; 1 then Prophecy was asked, and answered,
The soul that sinneth, it shall die ; 2 the Torah, or legal code,
was consulted, and its answer was: He shall bring a sin-of
fering, and the priest shall make atonement for him, and
he shall be forgiven. 3 Finally God Himself was asked, and
He answered : 4 Good and upright is the Lord ; therefore
doth He instruct sinners in the way. " 5 The Jewish idea of
atonement by the sinner s return to God excludes every kind
of mediatorship. Neither the priesthood nor sacrifice is
necessary to secure the divine grace ; man need only find
the way to God by his own efforts. "Seek ye Me, and live," 6
says God to His erring children.
3. Teshubah, which means return, is an idea peculiar to
Judaism, created by the prophets of Israel, and arising di
rectly from the simple Jewish conception of sin. Since sin is
a deviation from the path of salvation, a " straying " into the
road of perdition and death, the erring can return with heart
and soul, end his ways, and thus change his entire being.
This is not properly expressed by the term repentance, which
denotes only regret for the wrong, but not the inner trans
formation. Nor is Teshubah to be rendered by either peni
tence or penance. The former indicates a sort of bodily
self-castigation, the latter some other kind of penalty under
gone in order to expiate sin. Such external forms of asceti
cism were prescribed and practiced by many tribes and some
of the historical religions. The Jewish prophets, however,
opposed them bitterly, demanding an inner change, a trans
formation of soul, renewing both heart and spirit.
1 Prov. XIII, 21. Ezek. XVIII, 4.
Lev. I, 4; IV, 26-31. Ps. XXV, 8.
1 Yer. Mak. II, 37 d; Pesik. 158 b. See Schechter, 1. c., p. 294, note i.
Amos V, 4.
248 JEWISH THEOLOGY
"Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the man of iniquity his thoughts ;
And let him return unto the Lord, and He will have compassion upon
him,
And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." l
Judaism considers sin merely moral aberration, not utter corrup
tion, and believes in the capability of the very worst of sinners
to improve his ways ; therefore it waits ever for his regeneration.
This is truly a return to God, the restoration of the divine
image which has been disfigured and corrupted by sin.
4. The doctrine of Teshubah, or the return of the sinner,
has a specially instructive history, as this most precious and
unique conception of Judaism is little understood or ap
preciated by Christian theologians. Often without intentional
bias, these are so under the influence of the Paulinian dogma
that they see no redemption for man corrupted by sin, except
by his belief in a superhuman act of atonement. It is cer
tainly significant that the legal code, which is of priestly origin,
does not mention repentance or the sinner s return. It pre
scribes various types of sin-offerings, speaks of reparation for
wrong inflicted, of penalties for crime, and of confession for
sins, but it does not state how the soul can be purged of sin,
so that man can regain his former state of purity. This great
gap is filled by the prophetic books and the Psalms. The
book of Deuteronomy alone, written under prophetic influ
ence, alludes to repentance, in connection with the time when
Israel would be taken captive from its land as punishment
for its violation of the law. There we read: "Thou shalt
return unto the Lord thy God, . . . with all thy heart, and
all thy soul, then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity,
and have compassion upon thee." 2
Amos, the prophet of stern justice, has not yet reached the
idea of averting the divine wrath by the return of the sinner. 3
1 Isa. LV, 7. 2 Deut. IV, 30 ; XXX, 2-3. 3 Amos IV, 6 f.
REPENTANCE OR THE RETURN TO GOD 249
Hosea, the prophet of divine mercy and loving-kindness, in
his deep compassion for the unfaithful and backsliding people,
became the preacher of repentance as the condition for at
taining the divine pardon.
" Return, Israel, unto the Lord thy God;
For thou hast stumbled in thine iniquity.
Take with you words (of repentance),
And return unto the Lord ;
Say unt Him, Forgive all iniquity,
And accept that which is good ;
So will we render for bullocks the offering of our lips. " 1
The appeal *f Jeremiah is still more vigorous :
"Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord. . . .
Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against
the Lord thy God. . . .
Break up for you a fallow ground, and sow not among thorns . . .
O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest
be saved ;
How long shall thy baleful thoughts lodge within thee ? . . .
Return ye now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways
and your doings." 2
Ezekiel, while emphasizing the guilt of the individual,
preached repentance still more insistently. "Return ye, and
turn yourselves from all your transgressions ; so shall they
not be a stumbling-block of iniquity to you. Cast away from
you all your transgressions, wherein ye have transgressed ;
and make you a new heart and a new spirit ; for why will
ye die, O house of Israel ? For I have no pleasure in the death
of him that dieth, saith the Lord God ; wherefore turn your
selves, and live." 5 The same appeal recurs after the exile
in the last prophets, Zechariah 4 and Malachi. 5 The latter
says : " Return unto Me, and I shall return unto you." Like-
1 Hos. VI, i; XIV, 2 f. Jer. Ill, 12-13; IV, 3; 14; XVIII, ir.
1 Ezek. XVIII, 1-32. Zech. I, 3. Mai. Ill, 7.
250 JEWISH THEOLOGY
wise the penitential sermon written in a time of great distress,
which is ascribed to the prophet Joel, contains the appeal :
" Turn ye unto Me with all your heart,
And with fasting, and with weeping, and with lamentation ;
And rend your heart, and not your garments,
And turn unto the Lord your God ;
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Long-suffering, and abundant in mercy,
And repenteth Him of the evil." l
This prophetic view, which demands contrition and crav
ing for God instead of external modes of atonement, is ex
pressed in the penitential Psalms as well, 2 especially in Psalm
LI. The idea is expanded further in the parable of the
prophet Jonah, which conveys the lesson that even a heathen
nation like the people of Nineveh can avert the impending
judgment of God by true repentance. 3 From this point of
view the whole conception took on a larger aspect, and the
entire history of mankind was seen in a new light. The
Jewish sages realized that God punishes man only when the
expected change of mind and heart fails to come. 4
5. The Jewish plan of divine salvation presents a striking
contrast to that of the Church, for it is built upon the pre
sumption that all sinners can find their way back to God and
godliness, if they but earnestly so desire. Even before God
created the world, He determined to offer man the possibility
of Teshubah, so that, in the midst of the continual struggle
with the allurements of the senses, the repentant sinner can
ever change heart and mind and return to God. 5 Without
such a possibility the world of man could not endure ; thus,
because no man can stand before the divine tribunal of stern
justice, the paternal arm of a merciful God is extended to
1 Joel II, 12-13. 2 See Ps. XXXII, i f. 3 Jonah III-IV.
4 The Hebrew teshubah is translated in Greek metanoia, meaning a change
of mind.
6 Pes. 119 a; P. d. R. El. XLIII.
REPENTANCE OR THE RETURN TO GOD 251
receive the penitent. This sublime truth is constantly reit
erated in the Talmud and in the liturgy, especially of the
great Day of Atonement. 1 Not only does God s long-suffer
ing give the sinner time to repent ; His paternal love urges
him to return. Thus the Haggadists purposely represent
almost all the sinners mentioned in the Bible as models of
sincere repentance. First of all comes King David, who is
considered such a pattern of repentance, as the author of the
fifty-first Psalm, that he would not have been allowed to sin
so grievously, if he had not been providentially appointed as
the shining example of the penitent s return to God. 2 Then
there is King Manasseh, the most wicked among all the
kings of Judah and Israel, who had committed the most
abominable sins of idolatrous worship. Referring to the story
told of him in Chronicles, it is said that God responded to
his tearful prayers and incessant supplications by opening a
rift under His throne of mercy and receiving his petition for
pardon. Thus all mankind might see that none can be so
wicked that he will not find the door of repentance open, if he
but seek it sincerely and persistently. 3 Likewise Adam and
Cain, Reuben and Judah, Korah, Jeroboam, Ahab, Josiah, and
Jechoniah are described in Talmud, Midrash, and the apoca
lyptic literature as penitent sinners who obtained at last the
coveted pardon. 4 The optimistic spirit of Judaism cannot
tolerate the idea that mortal man is hopelessly lost under the
burden of his sins, or that he need ever lose faith in himself.
No one can sink so low that he. cannot find his way back to
his heavenly Father by untiring self-discipline. As the
Talmud says, nothing can finally withstand the power of
1 Pes. 54 a ; Gen. R. I, 5 ; P. d. R. El. Ill ; Singer s Prayerb. 267 f.
Shab. 56 a; Ab. Z. 4 b- S a; Miclr. Teh. Ps. XL, 2; LI, 13.
1 Ter. Sanh. X, 78 c ; Sanh. 103 a ; Pes. 162 ; Prayer of Manasseh.
4 Pesik. 160 a-i6 2 ; Shab. 56 a, b; Gen. R. XI, 6; XXII, 12-13; XXXVIII,
9; XLIX, 6; P. R. El. XX; XLIII; Num. R. XVIII, 6; Ab. d. R. N. I, 32;
Sanh. 102 b.
252 JEWISH THEOLOGY
sincere repentance : "It reaches up to the very seat of God ;"
"upon it rests the welfare of the world." 1
6. The rabbis follow up the idea first announced in the
book of Jonah, that the saving power of repentance applies
to the heathen world as well. Thus they show how God
constantly offered time and opportunity to the heathens for
repentance. For example, when the generation of the flood,
the builders of the Tower of Babel, and the people of Sodom
and Gomorrah were to be punished, God waited to give them
time for repentance and improvement of their ways. 2 Noah,
Enoch, and Abraham are represented as monitors of their
contemporaries, warning them, like the prophets, to repent
in time lest they meet their doom. 3 Thus the whole Hellen
istic literature of propaganda, especially the Sibylline books,
echoes the warning and the hope that the heathen should
repent of their grievous sins and return to God, whom they
had deserted in idolatry, so that they might escape the im
pending doom of the last judgment day. According to one
Haggadist, 4 even the Messiah will appear first as a preacher
of repentance, admonishing the heathen nations to be con
verted to the true God and repent before Him, lest they fall
into perdition. Indeed, it is said that even Pharaoh and
the Egyptians were warned and given time 1 for repentance
before their fate overtook them.
7. Accordingly, the principle of repentance is a universal
human one, and by no means exclusively national, as the
Christian theologians represent it. 5 The sages thus describe
Adam as the type of the penitent sinner, who is granted par-
1 Yoma 86 a, b; Pes. R. XLIX.
2 Mek. Shira 5; Gen. R. XXI, 6; XXX, 4; XXXII, 10; XXXVIII,
14; LXXXIV, 18; Ex. R. XII, i; Num. R. XII, 13; B. Wisdom XI, 23;
XII, 10, 19.
3 Sanh. 108; Sibyllines, I, 125-198.
4 Cant. R. VII, 5, ref. to the name Hadrach, Zech. IX, i.
8 Weber, 1. c., 261 .; Bousset, 1. c., 446 f. ; comp. Perles: Bousset.
REPENTANCE OR THE RETURN TO GOD 253
don by God. The "sign" of Cain also was to be a sign for
all sinners, assuring them they might all obtain forgiveness
and salvation, if they would but return to God. 1 In fact,
the prophetic appeal to Israel for repentance, vain at the
time, effected the regeneration of the people during the
Exile and gave rise to Judaism and its institutions. In the
same way, the appeal to the heathen world by the Hellenistic
propaganda and the Essene preachers of repentance did not
induce the nations at once to prepare for the coming of the
Messianic kingdom, but finally led to the rise of the Chris
tian religion, and, through certain intermediaries, of the
Mohammedan as well.
However, the long-cherished hope for a universal conver
sion of the heathen world, voiced in the preachments and the
prayers of the "pious ones," gave way to a reaction. The
rise of antinomian sects in Judaism occasioned the dropping
of this pious hope, and only certain individual conversions
were dwelt on as shining exceptions. 2 The heathen world
in general was not regarded as disposed to repent, and so
its ultimate fate was the doom of Gehenna. Experience
seemed to confirm the stern view, which rabbinical interpre
tation could find in Scripture also, that "Even at the very
gate of the nether world wicked men shall not return." 3
The growing violence of the oppressors and the increasing
number of the maligners of Judaism darkened the hope for
a universal conversion of humanity to the pure faith of
Israel and its law of righteousness. On the contrary, a
certain satisfaction was felt by the Jew in the thought that
these enemies of Judaism should not be allowed to repent and
obtain salvation in the hereafter. 4
8. The idea of repentance was applied all the more in
tensely in Jewish life, and a still more prominent place was
1 Gen. R. XXII, 27; comp. Sanh. 107 b. Mek. Yithro i.
Erub. 19 a. 4 Mid. Teh. Ps. I, 21 f.; IX, 13, 15; XI, 5.
254 JEWISH THEOLOGY
accorded it in Jewish literature. The rabbis have number
less sayings J in the Talmud and also in the Haggadic and
ethical writings concerning the power and value of repent
ance. In passages such as these we see how profoundly
Judaism dealt with the failings and shortcomings of man.
The term asa teshubah, do repentance, implies no mere ex
ternal act of penitence, as Christian theologians often assert.
On the contrary, the chief stress is always laid on the feeling
of remorse and on the change of heart which contrition and
self-accusation bring. Yet even these would not be sufficient
to cast off the oppressive consciousness of guilt, unless the
contrite heart were reassured by God that He forgives the
penitent son of man with paternal grace and love. In other
words, religion demands a special means of atonement, that is,
at-one-ment with God, to restore the broken relation of man
to his Maker. The true spiritual power of Judaism appears
in this, that it gradually liberates the kernel of the atonement
idea from its priestly shell. The Jew realizes, as does the
adherent of no other religion, that even in sin he is a child
of God and certain of His paternal love. This is brought
home especially on the Day of Atonement, which will be
treated in a later chapter.
9. At all events, the blotting out of man s sins with their
punishment remains ever an act of grace by God. 2 In com
passion for man s frailty He has ordained repentance as
the means of salvation, and promised pardon to the penitent.
This truth is brought out in the liturgy for the Day of Atone
ment, as well as in the Apocalyptic Prayer of Manasseh.
At the same time, Judaism awards the palm of victory to
him who has wrestled with sin and conquered it by his own
will. Thus the rabbis boldly assert: " Those who have
1 See Maimonides, Bahya, and others on Teshubah; comp. J. E., art. Re
pentance; Tobit XIII, 6; XIV, 6; Philo II, 435.
2 See Schechter, 1. c., 323 f.
REPENTANCE OR THE RETURN TO GOD 255
sinned and repented rank higher in the world to come than
the righteous who have never sinned," which is paralleled
in the New Testament : " There is more joy in heaven over
one sinner who repenteth than over ninety and nine righteous
persons, who need no repentance." l No intermediary power
from without secures the divine grace and pardon for the
repentant sinner, but his own inner transformation alone.
1 Sanh. 99 a, Luke XV, 7. The third Gospel more than the others
preserved the original Jewish doctrines of the Church.
CHAPTER XL
MAN, THE CHILD OF GOD
1. The belief that God hears our prayers and pardons our
sins rests upon the assumption of a mutual relation between
man and God. This belief is insusceptible of proof, but rests
entirely upon our religious feelings and is rooted purely in
our emotional life. We apply to the relation between man
and God the finest feelings known in human life, the de
votion and love of parents for their children and the affection
and trust the child entertains for its parents. Thus we are led
to the conviction that earth-born man has a Helper enthroned
in the heavens above, who hearkens when he implores Him
for aid. In his innermost heart man feels that he has a special
claim on the divine protection. In the words of Job, 1 he knows
that his Redeemer liveth. He need not perish in misery.
Unlike the brute creation and the hosts of stars, which know
nothing of their Maker, man feels akin to the God who lives
within him; he is His image, His child. He cannot be de
prived of His paternal love and favor. This truly human
emotion is nowhere expressed so clearly as in Judaism. "Ye
are the children of the Lord your God." 2 "Have we not all
one Father? Hath not one God created us?" 3 "Like as
a father hath compassion on his children, so hath the Lord
compassion upon them that fear Him." 4
2. Still, this simple idea of man s filial relation to God and
God s paternal love for man did not begin in its beautiful final
form. For a long time the Jew seems to have avoided the
1 Job XIX, 25. The Hebrew Goel signifies kinsman as well as redeemer and
avenger, implying blood-relationship. In Job it means vindicator.
2 Deut. XIV, i. 3 Mai. II, 10. 4 Ps. CHI, 13.
256
MAN, THE CHILD OF GOD 257
term " Father " for God, because it was used by the heathen for
their deities as physical progenitors, and did not refer to the
moral relation between the Deity and mankind. Thus
worshipers of wooden idols would, according to Scripture,
say to a stock, Thou art my father." J Hosea was the first
to call the people of Israel "children of the living God," 2 if
they would but improve their ways and enter into right re
lations with Him. Jeremiah also hopes for the time when
Israel would invoke the Lord, saying, "Thou art my Father,"
and in return God would prove a true father to him. 3 How
ever, Scripture calls God a Father only in referring to the
people as a whole. 4 The " pious ones" established a closer
relation between God and the individual by means of prayer,
so that through them the epithets, " Father," "Our Father,"
and "Our Father in heaven" came into general use. Hence,
the liturgy frequently uses the invocation, "Our Father,
Our King !" We owe to Rabbi Akiba the significant saying,
in opposition to the Paulinian dogma, "Blessed are ye, O
Israelites ! Before whom do you purify yourselves (from your
sins) ? And who is it that purifies you ? Your Father in
heaven." 5 Previously Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanos dwelt
on the moral degeneration of his age, which betokened the
end of time, and exclaimed: "In whom, then, shall we find
support? In our Father who is in heaven." 6 The ap
pellative "Father in heaven" was the stereotyped term used
by the "pious ones" during the century preceding and the
one following the rise of Christianity, as a glance at the
literature of the period indicates. 7
3. It is instructive to follow the history of this term. In
Scripture God is represented as speaking to David, " I will be
1 Jer. II, 27. * Hosea II, i. See Jer. Ill, 4.
4 Jer. XXXI, 9; Deut. XXXII, 7; Isa. LXIII, 16; LXIV, 7; Mai. I, 4;
I Chron. XXIX, 10.
Yoma VIII, 9. Sota IX, 15.
7 See next paragraph, and the art. Abba in J. E.
258 JEWISH THEOLOGY
to him for a father, and he shall be to Me for a son," 1 or "He
shall call unto Me: Thou art my Father, ... I also will
appoint him first-born." 2 So in the apocryphal writings
God speaks both to Israel and to individual saints: "I shall
be to them a Father, and they shall be My children." 3 Else
where it is said of the righteous, "He calls God his Father,"
and "he shall be counted among the sons of God." 4 We
read concerning the Messiah : "When all wrongdoing will be
removed from the midst of the people, he shall know that
all are sons of God." 5 Obviously only righteousness or per
sonal merit entitles a man to be called a son of God. In
fact, we are expressly told of Onias, the great Essene saint,
that his intimate relation with God emboldened him to con
verse with the Master of the Universe as a son would speak
with his father. 6 According to the Mishnah the older gener
ation of "pious ones" used to spend "an hour in silent de
votion before offering their daily prayer, in order to concen
trate heart and soul upon their communion with their Father
in heaven." 7 Thus it is said of congregational prayer that
through it "Israel lifts his eyes to his Father in heaven." 8
In this way prayer took the place of the altar, of which R.
Johanan ben Zakkai said that it established peace between
Israel and his Father in heaven. 9 Afterwards the question
was discussed by Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Jehuda whether even
sin-laden Israel had a right to be called "children of God."
Rabbi Meir pointed to Hosea as proof that the backsliders also
remain "children of the living God." 10
4. In the Hellenistic literature, with its dominating idea
of universal monotheism, God is frequently invoked or spoken
of as the Father of mankind. The implication is that each
1 II Sam. VII, 14. 2 Ps. LXXXIX, 27-28. 3 Jubilees I, 24.
4 Wisdom II, 16; V, 5. 6 Psalms of Solomon XVII, 27.
Taan. Ill, 8. 7 Ber. V, i. 8 Midr. Teh. Ps. CXXI, i.
9 Mek. Yithro n. 10 Sifre Deut. 06 ; Hosea I, 10.
MAN, THE CHILD OF GOD 259
person who invokes God as Father enters into filial relation
with Him. Thus what was first applied to Israel in par
ticular was now broadened to include mankind in general,
and consequently all men were considered "children of the
living God." The words of God to Pharaoh, speaking of
Israel as His "first-born son," l were taken as proof that all
the nations of the earth are sons of God and He the universal
Father. Israel is the first-born among the sons of God, be
cause his patriarchs, prophets, and psalmists first recognized
Him as the universal Father and Ruler. From this point of
view Judaism declared love for fellow-men and regard for the
dignity of humanity to be fundamental principles of ethics.
"As God is kind and merciful toward His creation, be thou
also kind and merciful toward all fellow-creatures," is the oft-
repeated teaching of the rabbis. 2 Likewise, "Whoever takes
pity on his fellow-beings, on him God in heaven will also take
pity." Love of humanity has so permeated the nature of
the Jew that the rabbis assert : "He who has pity on his fel
low-men has the blood of Abraham in his veins." 4 This
bold remark casts light upon the strange dictum: "Ye
Israelites are called by the name of man, but the heathen are
not." The Jewish teachers were so deeply impressed with
man s inhumanity to man, so common among the heathen
nations, and the immorality of the lives by which these dese
crated God s image, that they insisted that the laws of hu
manity alone make for divine dignity in man.
5. Rabbi Akiba probably referred to the Paulinian dogma
that Jesus, the crucified Messiah, is the only son of God, in
his well-known saying: "Beloved is man, for he is created
in God s image, and it was a special token of love that he be
came conscious of it. Beloved is Israel, for they are called
the children of God, and it was a special token of love that they
1 Ex. IV, 22. * Sifre Deut. 49. Sifre Deut. 96.
4 Beza 32 b. Yeb. 61 a.
2 6o JEWISH THEOLOGY
became conscious of it." 1 Here he claims the glory of being
a son of God for Israel, but not for all men. Still, as soon as
the likeness of man to God is taken in a spiritual sense, then
it is implied that all men have the same capacity for being a
son of God which is claimed for Israel. This is unquestion
ably the view of Judaism when it considers the Torah as en
trusted to Israel to bring light and blessing to all the families
of men. Rabbi Meir, the disciple of Rabbi Akiba, said :
"The Scriptural words, The statutes and ordinances which
man shall do and live thereby, and similar expressions indi
cate that the final aim of Judaism is not attained by the
Aaronide, nor the Levite, nor even the Israelite, but by man
kind." 2 Such a saying expresses clearly and emphatically
that God s fatherly love extends to all men as His children.
6. According to the religious consciousness of modern Israel
man is made in God s image, and is thus a child of God. Con
sequently Jew and non-Jew, saint and sinner have the same
claim upon God s paternal love and mercy. There is no
distinction in favor of Israel except as he lives a higher and
more god-like life. Even those who have fallen away from
God and have committed crime and sin remain God s children.
If they send up their penitent cry to the throne of God,
"Pardon us, O Father, for we have sinned! Forgive us, O
King, for we have done evil!"; their prayer is heard by the
heavenly Father exactly like that of the pious son of Israel.
1 Aboth III, 13, quoted above, Chap. XXXIV, par. 6.
2 Sifra Ahare 13, p. 86.
CHAPTER XLI
PRAYER AND SACRIFICE
i. The gap between man and the sublime Master of the
universe is vast, but not absolute. The thoughts of God are
high above our thoughts, and the ways of God above our
ways, baffling our reason when we endeavor to solve the
vexatious problems of destiny, of merit and demerit, of ret
ribution and atonement. Yet religion offers a wondrous
medium to bring the heart of man into close communion with
Him who is enthroned above the heavens, one that overleaps
all distances, removes all barriers, and blends all dissonances
into one great harmony, and that is Prayer. As the child
must relieve itself of its troubles and sorrows upon the bosom
of its mother or father in order to turn its pain into gladness,
so men at all times seek to approach the Deity, confiding to
Him all their fears and longings in order to obtain peace of
heart. Prayer, communion between the human soul and
the Creator, is the glorious privilege enjoyed by man alone
among all creatures, as he alone is the child of God. It
voices the longing of the human heart for its Father in heaven.
As the Psalmist has it, "My soul thirsteth for God, for the
living God." l
2. However, both language, the means of intercourse be
tween man and man, and prayer, the means of intercourse
between man and God, show traces of a slow development
lasting for thousands of years, until the loftiest thoughts and
1 PS. XLII, 3.
261
262 JEWISH THEOLOGY
sublimest emotions could be expressed. The real efficacy of
prayer could not be truly appreciated, until the prophetic
spirit triumphed over the priestly element in Judaism. In
the history of speech the language of signs preceded that of
sounds, and images gradually ripened into abstract thoughts.
Similarly, primitive man approaches his God with many kinds
of gifts and sacrificial rites to express his sentiments. He acts
out or depicts what he expects from the Deity, whether rain,
fertility of the soil, or the extermination of his foes. He
shares with his God his food and drink, to obtain His friend
ship and protection in time of trouble, and sacrifices the dear
est of his possessions to assuage His wrath or obtain His favor.
3. In the lowest stage of culture man needed no mediator
in his intercourse with the Deity, who appeared to him in the
phenomena of nature as well as in the fetish, totem, and the
like. But soon he rose to a higher stage of thought, and the
Deity withdrew before him to the celestial heights, filling him
with awe and fear ; then rose a class of men who claimed the
privilege to approach the Deity and influence Him by certain
secret practices. Henceforth these acted as mediators be
tween the mass of the people and the Deity. In the first
place, these were the magicians, medicine-men, and similar
persons, who were credited with the power to conjure up the
hidden forces of nature, considered either divine or demoniac.
After these arose the priests, distinguished from the people
by special dress and diet, who established in the various tribes
temples, altars, and cults, under their own control. Then
there were the saints, pious penitents or Nazarites, who led
an ascetic life secluded from the masses, hoping thus to ob
tain higher powers over the will of the Deity. All these en
tertained more or less clearly the notion that they stood in
closer relation to the Deity than the common people, whom
they then excluded from the sanctuary and all access to the
Deity.
PRAYER AND SACRIFICE 263
The Mosaic cult, in the so-called Priestly Code, was founded
upon this stage of religious life, forming a hierarchical in
stitution like those of other ancient nations. It differed
from them, however, in one essential point. The prime ele
ment in the cult of other nations was magic, consisting of
oracle, incantation and divination, but this was entirely con
trary to the principles of the Jewish faith. On the other
hand, all the rites and ceremonies handed down from remote
antiquity were placed in the service of Israel s holy God, in
order to train His people into the highest moral purity.
The patriarchs and prophets, who are depicted in Scripture
as approaching God in prayer and hearing His voice in reply,
come under the category of saints or elect ones, above the
mass of the people.
4. Foreign as the entire idea of sacrifice is to our mode of
religious thought, to antiquity it appeared as the only means
of intercourse with the Deity. "In every place offerings are
presented unto My name, even pure oblations," 1 says the
prophet Malachi in the name of Israel s God. Even from a
higher point of view the underlying idea seems to be of a
simple offering laid upon the altar. Such were the meal-
offering (flMft&o); 1 the burnt offering (olati), which sends its
pillar of smoke up toward heaven, symbolizing the idea of
self-sacrifice; while the various sin-offerings (hattath or
asham) expressed the desire to propitiate an offended Deity.
However, since the sacrificial cult was always dominated by
the priesthood in Israel as well as other nations, the lawgiver
made no essential changes in the traditional practice and
terminology. Thus it was left to the consciousness of the
people to find a deeper spiritual meaning in the sacrifices
1 Mal. I, ii.
s With its azkarah, the flame of incense rising in "pyramidal " form, generally
translated "memorial," or "memorial-part." Lev. II, 9, 16. For sacrifice
as means of atonement see Schechter: Aspects, 295-301.
264 JEWISH THEOLOGY
instead of stating one directly. The want was supplied only
by the later Haggadists who tried to create a symbolism of the
sacrificial cult. The laying on of hands by the individual who
brought the offering, seems to have been a genuine symbolic
expression of self -surrender. In the case of sin-offerings the
Mosaic cult added a higher meaning by ordering a preceding
confession of sin. Here, indeed, the individual entered into
personal communion with God through his prayer for pardon,
even though the priest performed the act of expiation for
him.
5. The great prophets of Israel alone recognized that
the entire sacrificial system was out of harmony with the
true spirit of Judaism and led to all sorts of abuses, above
all to a misconception of the worship of God, which requires
the uplifting of the heart. In impassioned language, there
fore, they hurled words of scathing denunciation against the
practice and principle of ritualism: "I hate, I despise your
feasts, and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Yea, though ye offer Me burnt-offerings and your meal-
offerings, I will not accept them ; Neither will I regard the
peace-offerings of your fat beasts.
Take thou away from Me the noise of thy songs ; and let
Me not hear the melody of thy psalteries.
But let justice well up as waters, and righteousness as a
mighty stream." l
Thus speaks Amos in the name of the Lord. And Hosea :
"For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge
of God rather than burnt-offerings." 2
Isaiah spoke in a similar vein :
"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto
Me ? saith the Lord ; I am full of the burnt-offerings of
rams, and the fat of fed beasts ; and I delight not in the
blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. . . .
1 Amos V, 21-24. 2 Hosea VI, 6.
PRAYER AND SACRIFICE 265
Bring me no more vain oblations; it is an offering of
abomination unto Me ; new moon and sabbath, the holding
of convocations I cannot endure iniquity along with the
solemn assembly. . . .
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes
from you ; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear ;
your hands are full of blood.
Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings
From before Mine eyes, cease to do evil ; learn to do well ;
seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead
for the widow." l
Most striking of all are the words of Jeremiah, spoken in
the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel : " Add your
burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat ye flesh. For
I spoke not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the
day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concern
ing burnt-offerings and sacrifices, but this thing I commanded
them, saying; Hearken unto My voice, and I will be your
God, and ye shall be My people ; and walk ye in all the way
that I command you, that it may be well with you. " 2
6. However, the mere rejection of the sacrificial cult was
quite negative, and did not satisfy the normal need for com
munion with God. Therefore the various codes established
a sort of compromise between the prophetic ideal and the
priestly practice, in which the ideal was by no means supreme.
Sometimes the prophetic spirit stirred the soul of inspired psalm
ists, and their lips echoed forth again the divine revelation :
"Hear, O My people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I
will testify against thee : God, thy God, am I. I will not
reprove thee for thy sacrifices; and thy burnt-offerings are
continually before Me. I will take no bullock out of thy
house, nor he-goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the
forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. . . .
1 Isa.I, xi-x8. Jer. VII, 21-23.
266 JEWISH THEOLOGY
Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of
goats?" 1 Another psalmist says: " Sacrifice and meal-
offering thou hast no delight in; Mine ears hast Thou
opened; burnt-offering and sin-offering hast Thou not
required." 2
Still, the sacrificial cult was too deeply rooted in the life of
the people to be disturbed by the voice of the prophets or
the words of a few psalmists. It was connected with the
Temple, and the Temple was the center of the social life of
the nation. The few faint voices of protest went practically
unheeded. The priestly pomp of sacrifice could only be dis
placed by the more elevating and more spiritual devotion of
the entire congregation in prayer, and this process demanded
a new environment, and a group of men with entirely new
ideas.
7. The need of a deeper devotion through prayer was not
felt until the Exile. There altar and priesthood were no
more, but the words of the prophets and the songs of the
Levites remained to kindle the people s longing for God with
a new zeal. Until then prayer was rare and for special oc
casions. Hannah s prayer at Shiloh filled even the high
priest with amazement. 3 The prophets alone interceded in
behalf of the people, because the ordinary man was not con
sidered sufficiently clean from sin to approach the Deity in
prayer. But on foreign soil, where sacrifices could not be
offered to the God of Israel, the harp of David resounded with
solemn songs expressing the national longing toward God.
The most touching psalms of penitence and thanksgiving date
from the exile. A select class of devout men, called the godly
or pious ones, Hasidim or Anavim* assembled by the rivers
of Babylon for regular prayer, turning their faces toward
1 Ps. L, 7-13. 2 Ps. XL, 7. 3 1 Sam. I, 13-14.
4 Of ten mentioned in the Psalms, under such terms as "the congregation
of the righteous," "the holy ones," "the devout ones," etc.
PRAYER AND SACRIFICE 267
Jerusalem, that the God of Israel might answer them from
His ancient seat. 1 Thus the great seer of the exile voiced the
hope for "a house of prayer for all peoples" to stand in
the very place where the sacrifices were offered to God. 2
The congregation of Hasidim elaborated a liturgy under the
Persian influence, in which prayer was the chief element, and
the secondary part, the instruction from the Torah and the
monitions of the prophets. The Synagogue, the house of
meeting for the people, spread all over the world, and by its
light of truth and glow of fervor it soon eclipsed the Temple,
with all its worldly pomp. In fact, the priesthood of the
Temple were finally compelled to make concessions to the
lay movement of the Hasidim. They added a prayer
service, morning and evening, to the daily sacrifices, and
opened the Hall of Hewn Stones, the meeting place of
the High Court of Justice, as a Synagogue in charge of the
priests. 3
8. In this manner the ancient sacrificial cult, thus long
monopolized by the priesthood, was gradually superseded
by congregational prayer which was no longer confined to a
certain time or class, and justly called by the rabbis "a serv
ice of the heart." 4 Moreover, the Temple itself lost much
of its hold upon the hearts of the people, owing to the more
spiritual character of the Synagogue. Thus the torch of the
Roman soldiery which turned the Temple into a heap of ashes
broke only the national bond, but left the religious bond of the
Synagogue unbroken. True, the hope for the restoration of
the Temple with the priestly sacrifices was not relinquished,
and officially the daily prayers were considered only a " tem
porary substitute" for the divinely ordained sacrificial cult. 5
1 See I Kings VIII, 48 ; Dan. VI, 1 1. Isa. LVI, 7.
8 Tamid V, i; comp. Kohler: Monatsschr., 1893, p. 441.
4 Sifre Deut. 41 : "What is meant by, To serve Him with all your heart?
this is prayer."
1 Ber. 26 a.
268 JEWISH THEOLOGY
Nevertheless, the deeper religious consciousness of the people
felt that the celestial gate of divine mercy opens only to
prayer, which emanates from the innermost depths of the
soul. Accordingly, some of the Haggadists try to prove from
Scripture that prayer ranks above sacrifice, 1 while others
even identify worship with prayer. 2 They represent God as
appearing to Moses in the guise of one who leads the congre
gation in prayer, His face covered by the prayer-shawl (tallitti),
in order to teach man for all time the mode and power of
prayer. 3 Still these remain isolated expressions of an un
derlying sentiment ; on the whole, the rabbis regarded the
Mosaic legislation, with its emphasis on sacrifice, far too
highly to accord prayer any but a secondary place, either
accompanying sacrifice or as its substitute. 4
9. Through many centuries, then, the belief in the divine
origin of the sacrificial cult remained, even though it could
no longer be carried out. The liturgy contained prayers
for the speedy restoration of the Temple and the sacrifices,
which were preserved by tradition, and nowhere was even an
echo heard of the bold words of Jeremiah denying the divine
character of the sacrifices, 5 even though the idea of the res
toration of the old cult must have been repugnant to thinkers.
The sages of former ages could only resort to a compromise
or an allegorical interpretation. It is noteworthy that the
Haggadist Rabbi Levi considered the sacrifices a concession
of God to the people, who were disposed to idolatry, in order
to win them gradually for the pure monotheistic ideal. 6 This
view was adopted by the Church Fathers, and later by Mai-
monides and other medieval thinkers. On the other hand,
an allegorical meaning was assigned to the sacrifices by Philo
1 Ber. 32 b ; Midr. to Sam. I, 7. 2 P. d. R. El. XVI.
3 R. haSh. 17 b.
4 Meg. 31 b; Yer. Taan. IV, 68 c. But compare Isaac Aboab : Menorath
ha Maor, III, 3 a ; Bahya ben Asher : Kad ha Kemah, art. Tefillah.
6 Jer. VI, 22. 6 Lev. R. XXII, 5.
PRAYER AND SACRIFICE 269
and Jehuda ha Levi, as well as by Samson Raphael Hirsch in
modern times. 1
Reform Judaism, recognizing the results of Biblical research
and the law of religious progress, adopted the prophetic view
of the sacrifices. Accordingly, the sacrificial cult of the
Mosaic code has no validity for the liberal movement, and
all reference to it has been eliminated from the reform liturgy.
In this, however, the connection with the past was by no means
severed. The main part of the service remains the same,
although much of the character and many of the details have
been changed. 2 Only the allusions to the Temple worship and
the sacrifices were eliminated, and the entire form of the
service was made more solemn and inspiring " by combining
ancient tune-honored formulas with modern prayers and
meditations in the vernacular and in the spirit of the age."
The morning and evening services retained their places, while
the additional festal service (mussaf) was abrogated, because
it stood for the additional festal sacrifice. As to the volun
tary element in the old sacrificial system, the peace, sin, and
thank-offerings, this is replaced in the reform ritual, as in
the traditional practice, by private devotions for special
occasions, to be selected by the individual.
The traditional Jewish prayer has certainly a wondrous
force. It remains a source of inspiration from which the
religious consciousness will ever draw new strength and
vitality. It echoes the voice of Israel singing the song of
redemption by the Red Sea: "This is My God, and I will
1 Cuzari, II, 25, see note by Cassel ; Moreh, III, 32 ; comp. Midrash Tadshe
12; I, 177 f.; comp. Hebrews IX-X; Barnabas, I, 25. S. R. Hirsch in Horeb
p. 639 f.
1 See Philipson : The Reform Movement in Judaism for the various views
and debates on sacrifice and prayer. I. Elbogen : D. jued. Goltesdienst i. s.
geschichll. Entwicklung, p. 374 f.,435 f., is written in a more conservative spirit
and unfavorable to American Reform Judaism. Comp. for the traditional
liturgy : Dembitz : Jewish Services in the Synagogue and Home, especially on
the Prayerbook, p. 233-246, and for America, 497-499.
270 JEWISH THEOLOGY
glorify Him ; My father s God, and I will exalt Him." 1
Consequently our liturgy must ever respond to a double
demand; it must throb with the spirit of continuity with
our great past, to make us feel one with our fathers of yore ;
and it must express clearly and fully our own views and needs,
our convictions and our hopes.
1 Ex. XV, 2.
CHAPTER XLII
THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF PRAYER
i Prayer is the expression of man s longing and yearning
for God in times of dire need and of overflowing joy, an out
flow of the emotions of the soul in its dependence on God,
the ever-present Helper, the eternal Source of its existence.
Springing from the deepest necessity of human weakness, the
expression of a momentary wish, prayer is felt to be the proud
prerogative of man as the child of God, and at last it becomes
adoration of the Most High, whose wisdom and whose paternal
love and goodness inspire man with confidence and love.
2. Every prayer is offered on the presumption that it will be
heard by God on high. "O Thou that hearest prayer, unto
Thee doth all flesh come," sings the Psalmist. 1 No doubt of
the efficacy of prayer can arise in the devout spirit. There
can be only the question whether, and how far, the Deity can
allow its decrees to be influenced by human wishes. Childlike
faith anticipates divine interference in the natural order at
any time, because it has not yet attained the conception of a
moral order in the universe and, therefore, expects from prayer
also miraculous effects on life. As the Deity can suddenly
send or withhold rain or drought, barrenness or birth, life or
death, so the inference is that the man of God can do the same
with his prayer. This is the point of view of the Biblical and
Talmudic periods, as well as of the entire ancient world. It
seems almost childish to our religious consciousness when,
1 Ps. LXV, 3. See Wm. James: Varieties of Rel. Experience, 463-477;
Foster: Function of Religion, 183-185 ; Abelson : Jewish Mysticism, p. 15 and
elsewhere.
271
272 JEWISH THEOLOGY
according to Talmudic tradition, the high priest petitioned
God in the Sanctuary on the Day of Atonement for a year
rich in rain and blessed with sunshine and with dew, and at the
same time expressed the entreaty that the prayers of travelers
for dry or cool weather should find no hearing. 1 That the
prayers of the pious may alter God s decree is not doubted for
a moment by the rabbis ; only they insist that God has taken
into account beforehand the efficacy of this prayer in deciding
the fate of the pious, in order that they may petition for that
which He actually plans to do. "God longs for the prayer of
the pious"; for that reason, they say, the Mothers of Israel
were afHicted with barrenness, until the prayers of the Pa
triarchs had accomplished the transformation in their con
stitutions. 2 On the other hand, the rabbis warn against
excessive pondering over prayer and its efficacy, as through it
that childlike faith would be weakened, which is the basis of
all prayer. 3
3. According to the rabbinic viewpoint, prayer has the
power to reverse every heavenly decree, inasmuch as it appeals
from the punitive justice of God, which has decided thus, to
His attributes of grace and mercy, which can at any time effect
a change. When the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah
with the message: "Set thine house in order, for thou shalt
die, " he replied, "Finish thy message and go ; I have received
the tradition from my royal ancestor David that, even when
the sword already touches the neck, man shall not desist from
an appeal to the divine mercy." 4 Nay more, the rabbis
believed that God Himself prays, saying, "Oh, that My mercy
shall prevail over My justice ! " 5 Only after the divine judg
ment has been executed prayer becomes vain. In general,
the entire Talmudic period ascribed miraculous power to
prayer, especially the prayers of the pious, like the popular
1 Yoma 53 b. 2 Yeb. 64 a ; Ex. R. XXI, 6.
3 Ber. 55 a. 4 Ber 10 a. 6 Ber. 7 a.
THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF PRAYER 273
saint Onias or Hanina ben Dosa. 1 In many such cases the
invocation of God was combined with the use of the sacred
name, the tetragrammaton, to which magical powers were
ascribed. 2
4. The two attributes of God, Justice and Mercy, corre
spond to the double nature of mankind, as the sinful man, who
deserves punishment, is called to account by the former, while
the righteous man may appeal to the latter. Accordingly, the
efficacy of prayer could be so explained that, before it. can
influence the decision of God, it demands the reformation of
man. While the unregenerate man meets an evil destiny,
the reformed man has become a different being, and hence in
stead of justice mercy will control his fate. Albo pleads for
this view of prayer, when he cites the Talmudic incident about
R. Meir. It is said that R. Meir interceded for the people of
Mimla, who all seemed to have been doomed to die on attain
ing manhood because they inherited the curse of the priestly
family of Eli. 3 But he also recommended to them that they
should devote their lives to worthy deeds, as it is said in the
Proverbs : 4 "The hoary head is a crown of glory, it is found
in the way of righteousness." 5
Other thinkers ascribe to prayer the power to change the
fate determined by the stars, because it exalts man into a
higher sphere of godliness, exactly like the spirit of prophecy.
Of course, this conception is connected with the belief in
astrology, which swayed even clear thinkers like Ibn Ezra. 6
5. According to our modern thinking there can be no ques
tion of any influence upon a Deity exalted above time and
I Taan. Ill, 8 ; Ber. V, 6 ; Babl. 34 b ; Yer. 9 d.
Pes. R. XXII, p. 114 b; Midr. Teh. Ps.XCI,8; see Schechter : Aspects,
156; 42.
I 1 Sam. II,3i. < Prov. XVI, 32.
8 Gen. R. LIX, i ; Yeb. 105 a, where R. Johanan ben Zakkai is mentioned
instead of R. Meir; Albo : Ikkarim, IV, 18.
8 See Steinschneider : Abraham Ibn Ezra, 126 ff.
T
274 JEWISH THEOLOGY
space, omniscient, unchangeable in will and action, by the
prayer of mortals. Prayer can exert power only over the rela
tion of man to God, not over God Himself. This indicates the
nature and purpose of prayer. Man often feels lonely and
forlorn in a world which overpowers him, to which he feels
superior, and yet which he cannot master. Therefore he longs
for that unseen Spirit of the universe, with whom alone he feels
himself akin, and in whom alone he finds peace and bliss amid
life s struggle and unrest. This longing is both expressed and
satisfied in prayer. Following the natural impulse of his
soul, man must pour out before his God all his desires and
sighs, all the emotions of grief and delight which sway his
heart, in order that he may find rest, like a child at its mother s
bosom. Therefore the childlike mind believes that God can
be induced 
