The most noted Jewish book in the world

Brandeis University Libraries

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The

Most Noted Jewish Book

in the World

BY

Henry Einspruch

PUBLISHED BY

The Lutheran Hebrew Center

1503 EAST BALTIMORE STREET
BALTIMORE, MD.

Copyright by
Henry Einspruch

Printed by Norman T. A. Munder & Co., Baltimore

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The Most Noted Jewish Book

One thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, or ap-
proximately two hundred and eighteen dollars a
page, such was the record price paid by the Phoenix
Book Shop for a mutilated fragment of a book at the Amer-
ican Art Galleries, New York, on March 5, 1926.

Not H. G. Wells, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Rud-
yard Kipling, Anatole France, nor any other modern or
popular writer has ever received royalties on his books
anywhere near approaching the price paid for these few
pages. One might suppose at first glance that it was pos-
sibly an early edition of Shakespeare, like the one for
which Dr. A. S. Rosenbach, the Philadelphia antiquarian,
paid fifty thousand dollars, or some such other rare book.

Nor was it the writings of Homer, Virgil, Socrates,
Csesar, or Marcus Aurelius. Nor those revered by millions
of devotees: the Vedas of India, or its Upanishads, the
Zend-Avesta of the Persians, or the Koran of Mohammed,
the writings of Confucius or Lao-tse, nor, to rise higher,
the Talmud of the Rabbis. But, strange, it was paid for

part of a book of which Voltaire as far back as the middle
of the 18th Century predicted that in one hundred years
no one would read or care for.

What, it may be asked, was this book of which but a
fragment could command such a fabulous price?

It was a Jewish book — the book of the New Testament,
and the priceless pages were a fragment from the writings
of a pupil of Rabbi Gamaliel who lived during the second
Temple, one Saul of Tarsus. And of what importance can
his words be to any one in this twentieth century that they
should command such extraordinary interest?

Our civilization is the product of certain specific causes
and influences. No student of history can deny the fact
that the European and American peoples are on a higher
level of culture than, say, those of India or China. Yet the
civilizations of both India and China antedate those of
Europe and America. In the case of India, we are told by
anthropologists, that their racial stock is of a purer Aryan
type than that of the European. Why, then, has India
never given us the great symphonies and musical harmo-
nies of Beethoven and Bach, the oratorios of Mendelssohn
and Handel; the Shakespeares, Miltons and Dantes of
poetry and literature? Why are artists and sculptors, pio-
neers in reform and world movements in China or India
conspicuous by their absence? Why are they present in
Europe and America, so numerous in all Western civiliza-
tion?

"We Jews do not mind saying," to quote the words of
Claude G. Montefiore, a Jewish savant, "that the greatest

44}

influence upon European and American history and civili-
zation has been the Bible. But we too often forget that the
Bible which has had this influence is not merely the Old
Testament. It is the Old Testament and the New Testa-
ment combined. And of the two, it is the New Testament
which has undoubtedly had the greater influence and has
been of the greater importance.,,1

What is this book, this New Testament of which he
speaks? Its Hebrew name is Winn rp"DH (Heb'rith
Hechedasha) or the New Covenant. It is a collection of
twenty-seven writings, biographic, historic, prophetic, and
a number of personal letters. Its authors, with but one ex-
ception, were Jews; the Hero around whom the whole
book centers, was a "Jew of Jews." Yet, notwithstanding
this racial background, it has been regarded of such value
as to warrant its translation into some 900 different lan-
guages and dialects, a thing that cannot be said of any
other book. No living being has the remotest idea how
many copies or portions of this book have been printed,
but today its circulation easily reaches the billion mark.
Last year alone some twenty million copies were printed
in England and America. As over against the millions of
books issued today it ranks supreme as the world's "best
seIIer.,, And, to quote again Claude G. Montefiore: "If it
is an improper ignorance not to have read some portions
of Shakespeare or Milton, it is, I am inclined to think, a
much more improper ignorance not to have read the Gos-
pels" (the first four portions of the book).2

xThe Synoptic Gospels, p. 101.
2Ibid.

45}

The Hero of the Book

Civilization has just entered the second quarter of the
twentieth century. Every newspaper, magazine, legal
document, business transaction, all correspondence and
enactments of legislatures, to be intelligible and valid,
must be dated accordingly. But the amazing thing is that
so few pause to ask an explanation as to why we call this
the twentieth century. Surely the world is much older than
twenty centuries, or than twenty times twenty centuries!
From the founding of Rome nearly twenty-seven centuries
have glided by, and more than twenty-four centuries have
come and gone since Aristotle crossed the portals of the
Academy at Athens to be instructed by the immortal
Plato. Yet we say the twentieth century. What event
marked the dawn of this new era? Was it the birth of
Cassar? Of Moses? Of Buddha? Of Mohammed? Nay, it
was a son of our race, the Hero of this Book, whose coming
so turned the stream of the centuries out of its channel
that, each recurring first day of January, the world that
regards itself as civilized tacitly attests the fact that with
His advent a new era of its history began. To regard Him
a myth, as some would have us, would be more futile than
to deny the existence of Alexander the Great or Judas
Maccabeus. And yet the Hero of the New Testament is no
Alexander or Judas Maccabeus. The force that He in-
jected into the world was not military, it was not political,
it was the force of a life and of a life's teaching. This it is
that has caused a book, written twenty centuries ago by a
few Jewish men, to wield to the present day such tremen-

{6}

dous influence; this it is which has made it the beacon for
the learned and the uplifter of the savage. It was this life,
the purest of the mighty, and the mightiest of the pure, of
which Thomas Carlyle wrote: "It is our divinest symbol.
Higher has the human thought not yet reached: a symbol
of quite perennial, infinite character, whose significance
will ever demand to be anew inquired into and anew made
manifest."1

Surely our hearts should leap with pride that He who
was blood of our blood and flesh of our flesh, should have
become the "Light to lighten the Gentiles/'2 Even those
who do not follow Him attest that no other single Per-
sonality in history has succeeded in rallying around
Himself more than 560,000,000 followers and in making
architecture, sculpture, painting, poetry and music agen-
cies through which to lift the human race to a higher level
and up to Himself.

The Gospels — 'Jewish Literature' '

Dr. Max Nordau, the outstanding Zionist thinker next
to Herzl, writing to the American publisher, Isaac Funk,
declares: "We claim the Gospels flowers of Jewish litera-
ture."3 Since, to quote Dr. Nordau, the Gospels are Jewish
literature, the question involuntarily arises, Why has this
Jewish literature found readers and admirers amongst all
sorts of people and nations, amongst Japanese, English-

1Sartor Resartus, book iii. chap. 3.

2Isaiah, chap. xlii. 6; Luke, chap. ii. 32.

3See George Crowley's Tarry Thou Till I Come, p. 559.

{7}

men, Germans, Frenchmen, Chinese, Americans, Italians
— practically the whole civilized and semi-civilized world?
There must have been something of intrinsic and univer-
sal value in this Jewish book to prompt a genius like Tol-
stoy to base his philosophy of life upon it, and to cause most
of the constructive social movements of the present day to
take the Golden Rule,1 one of the basic teachings of the
Book, as the keynote of their pronouncements. It may be
seriously questioned whether the existence of the Red
Cross, that great Sister of Mercy in the crises of war, pes-
tilence, hunger, earthquake, flood and fire could be con-
ceived of apart from the classic story of the Good Samari-
tan, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke.2

And why, in the light of this, it may be asked, did the
ancient Synagogue condemn these writings, threatening
those who read them with the "loss of a share in the world
to come?"3 Surely it was not because of a familiarity with
them; rather, their prohibition grew out of fear that a
knowledge of this teaching on the part of the masses
would undermine such puerile quibblings as to "whether an
egg laid on a festival may be eaten."4 Any other motive
would hardly seem tenable, it was plainly a case of allow-
ing the monster, Prejudice, to get in the way and thus de-
prive us, the rightful possessors, of what was legitimately
our own.

xThe Gospel of Matthew, chap. vii. 14.
2The Gospel of Luke, chap. x. 25-37.
3Sanhedrin, 90a.
4Talmud Babli, Beca, la.

48}

The Teaching of the Book

The entire New Testament is not a very large book.
There are tractates in the Talmud which are much larger
than all the writings of the New Testament combined. But
we know of no book so compact, yet containing such wealth
of thought, so capable of stirring the heartstrings of the
race as is this book of less than 400 pages. Nowhere in the
whole range of the world's literature can we find anything
approaching it in beauty and strength. Though uttered by
Jews, it is not for this or that group of people, but for uni-
versal man. Even a cursory reading of any of its twenty-
seven writings will bear conclusive evidence of the truth
of this assertion. Whole libraries have been written on the
teaching of Jesus; in this brief compass we can call atten-
tion to but a few of the matchless religio-ethical principles
taken at random from its pages. Tolstoy, the great Russian
mystic, has summarized them under what he calls the five
great commandments.

"The first commandment —

To offend no one, and by no act to excite evil in others, for
out of evil comes evil.

The second commandment —

To be in all things chaste, and not to quit the wife whom
we have taken; Jor the abandoning of wives and the changing
of them is the cause of all loose living in the World.

{9}

The third commandment —

Never to take an oath, because we can promise nothing, for
man is altogether in the hands of the Father, and oaths are
imposed for wicked ends.

The fourth commandment —

Not to resist evil, to bear with offences, and to do yet more
than is demanded oj us; neither to judge, nor to go to law, for
every man is himself full of faults, and cannot teach. By seek-
ing revenge men only teach others to do the same.

The fifth commandment —

To make no distinction between our own countrymen and
foreigners, for all men are the children of one Father."1

Turning to the teaching proper, we find there the most
striking and fundamental rules for the government of our
relation to God and to man. In clear and positive declara-
tions Jesus enunciates His principles as follows:

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Matthew v. 7.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons
of God. Matthew v. 9.

Judge not, that ye be not judged. Matthew vii. 1.

Give to him that asketh of thee, and from him that would
borrow of thee turn not thou away. Matthew v. 42.

!The Essence of the Gospel, p. 177.

{io>

Every one who is angry with bis brother shall be in danger
of the judgment. Matthew v. 22.

Ye are the light oj the world. A city set on a hill cannot be
hid. Matthew v. 14.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Mat-
thew v. 8.

Swear not at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne oj
God; nor by the earth, jor it is the jootstool oj His jeet; nor by
Jerusalem, jor it is the city oj the Great King. Neither shalt
thou swear by thy head, jor thou canst not make one hair white
or black. Matthew v. 34-36.

Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you. Luke
vi. 27.

When thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet bejore thee, as
the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that
they may have glory oj men. But when thou doest alms, let not
thy lejt hand know what thy right hand doeth. Matthew vi. 2, 3.

Lay not up jor yourselves Ueasures upon the earth, where
moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and
steal; but lay up jor yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not
break through nor steal: jor where thy treasure is, there will thy
heart be also. Matthew vi. 19-21.

God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship
Him in spirit and in truth. John iv. 24.

*11>

No man can serve two masters: for either be will hate the
one, and love the other; or else be will hold to one and despise the
other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew vi. 24.

Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye
shall drink; nor yet j or your body, what ye shall put on. Is not
the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment?
Behold the birds oj the heaven, that they sow not, neither do
they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father
Jeedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they? Mat-
thew vi. 25, 26.

Be not anxious for tomorrow: for tomorrow will be anxi-
ous for itself. Matthew vi. 34.

Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye,
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Matthew
vii. 3.

All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto
you, even so do ye also unto them; for this is the law and the
prophets. Matthew vii. 12.

Give, and it shall be given unto you, for with what measure
ye mete it shall be measured to you again. Luke vi: 38.

The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sab-
bath. Mark ii. 27.

All they that take the sword shall perish by the sword.
Matthew xxvi. 52.

02 >

Foolish vows do not bind a man nor unwashen hands defile
him; the things that defile a man are evil thoughts and deeds,
murder, theft, violence, adultery, false witness, blasphemy.
(Condensation of Matthew xv. 1-20.)

They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they
that are sick. Matthew ix. 12.

Be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to
kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both
soul and body in Gehenna. Matthew x. 28.

What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul? Mark viif . 36, 37.

// thy brother sin, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive
him. And if he sin against thee seven times in the day, and
seven limes turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt for-
give him. Luke xvii. 3, 4.

He that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And
whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled; and whosoever
shall humble himself shall be exalted. Matthew xxiii. 11, 12.

This selection is by no means exhaustive. We have but
touched the periphery of the body-content of the book, a
minute analysis of which would require volumes.

{13}

The Gospels and the Rabbinic Literature

No Jewish scholar of any prominence today fails to
recognize that the teaching of Jesus forms one of the most
unique religio-ethical codes in the world. Dr. Joseph Klaus-
ner, Professor in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in
his epoch-making book, Jesus oj Nazareth, His Times, His
Life and His Teaching, affirms, "In the ethical code of
Jesus there is a sublimity, distinctiveness and orginality, in
form unparalleled in any other Hebrew ethical code."1
But independent as Klausner is of Jewish tradition by ad-
mitting "distinctiveness and originality" in the teaching
of Jesus, he has not fully succeeded in liberating himself
from the general Jewish contention that this teaching
has its basis in the Rabbinic literature. It cannot be
denied that there exists a striking similarity between some
of the teachings of Jesus and the sayings of certain Rabbis.
But what basis is there for the view that it was Jesus and
not the Rabbis who indulged in plagiarism? When the
Talmud, for example, in Sanhedrin 100a, attributes to
Rabbi Meir the saying:

"With what measure a man metes it shall he measured to
him in heaven "

— a saying identical in spirit as well as in phraseology with
that uttered by Jesus in Matthew vii. 2:

'With what measure ye mete it shall be measured unto
you,'

1 lmim i"n i:dt ,nsian ran p. 448.

414}

Dr. Klausner, like Graetz and Geiger before him, elects
to make of this a case for the Rabbis. In the interest of
historic accuracy, however, it must be noted that Rabbi
Meir was not yet born at the time Jesus gave wing to the
above maxim.

Dr. Klausner, it is evident, despite his claim to objec-
tivity in the presentation of facts, was hampered by his
intense nationalism and by the apparent prejudices which
mar so many of the pages of his otherwise most interesting
book. But while Dr. Klausner failed to reach the heights of
objectivity, Claude G. Montefiore, the Jewish savant, suc-
ceeded to a much greater degree in his commentary on the
Synoptic Gospels, in which he discusses the problem of the
relation of the Gospels to the Rabbinic Literature with the
candor of a free spirit. To the question, Upon which side
lies originality? he avers: "When Talmud and Gospels are
compared, the originality is almost always on the side of
the Gospels."1 And to those who are forever looking for
parallels between Gospel and Talmud he pertinently re-
joins: "A great book is more than its own sentences taken
singly or disjointedly. A great personality is more than the
record of its teaching, and the teaching is more than the
bits of it taken one by one. It must be viewed as a whole.
It must be judged as a whole. It has a spirit, an aroma,
which evaporates when its elements or fragments are
looked at separately. This piecemeal way of looking at a
book, a teaching, a person, is perhaps partially one of the
evil results of Jewish legalism.

xThe Synoptic Gospels, Vol. 1, p. 103.

U5J.

"There is a certain spirit and glow about the teaching
of Jesus which you either appreciate or fail to appreciate.
You cannot recognize or do justice to it by saying: 'The
teaching of Jesus comprises the following maxims and in-
junctions. Of these some are borrowed from the Old Testa-
ment, some are paralleled by the Talmud, and a few are
impracticable.' The teaching of Jesus, which has had such
gigantic effects upon the world, is more, and other than a
dissected list of injunctions. It is not merely the sum of its
parts; it is a whole, a spirit.

"That spirit has characteristics of genius. It is great,
stimulating, heroic; it may not always be 'practical' but
it is always, or nearly always, big and grand. Even if you
find separate or close parallels for 970 out of say, 1000
verses in the Gospel in which Jesus is the speaker, and
even if you put them together and made a nice little book
of them, you would not have produced a substitute of
equal religious value. The unity, the aroma, the spirit, the
genius, would all have fled. Or, rather, you could not in-
fuse them into your elegant collection of fragments and
tit-bits. 'Morceaux choisis remain just Morceaux cboisis.' "l

That the contention of Claude G. Montefiore that
"When Talmud and Gospels are compared, the originality
is almost always on the side of the Gospels" is not a mere
statement, but can be supported by evidence, may easily
be adduced from the following parallels:

^he Synoptic Gospels, p. 104.

{16}

GOSPEL

TALMUD

Blessed are the merciful: for
they shall obtain mercy.

— Matthew v. 7.

He who is merciful toward his

fellow creatures shall receive

mercy from heaven above.

— Rabbi Gamaliel Beribbi, 3rd Century
A.D.-Shabbath, 1516.

Let your speech be, Yea, yea;
Nay, nay.

— Matthew v. 37.

Let your yea be yea, and your

nay be nay.

—Rabbi Abbaye, died 338 A. D.
-Baba Mezia, 49a.

Behold the birds of the heaven,
that they sow not, neither do
they reap, nor gather into barns,
and your heavenly Father feed-
eth them. Are not ye of much
more value than they?

— Matthew vi.26.

Hast thou ever seen a beast or
a bird that followed a trade, and
yet they are fed without toil. But
these were only created to minis-
ter to my Maker. Was it not
right, then, that I should be sup-
ported without toil?

— Rabbi Simeon ben Eleazer, 3rd Cen-
tury A. D.-Kidushin, 826.

Every one who is angry with
his brother shall be in danger of
the judgment.

—Matthew v. 29.

Whosoever lifts up his hand
against his neighbor, though he
do not strike him, is called an
offender and sinner.
—Rabbi Resh Lakesh, A. D. 212-280.

-Sanhedrin, 93a.

Why beholdest thou the mote
that is in thy brother's eye, but
considerest not the beam that is
in thine own eye?

— Matthew vii. 3.

Do they say, take the splinter
out of thine eye, he will answer:
"Remove the beam out of thine
own eye."

— Rabbi Jochanan, surnamed Bar
Napha, A. D. 199-279-Baba
Balhra, 156.

{17}

Blessed are they who are per-
secuted for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is the Kingdom of

Heaven.

— Matthew v. 10.

Be rather of the persecuted
than of the persecutors.

—Rabbi Abahu, A. D. 279-310.
-Baba Kamma, 93a.

If ye forgive men their tres-
passes, your heavenly Father will
also forgive you.

— Matthew vi. 14.

Be not anxious, saying, What

shall we eat? or, what shall we

drink?

— Matthew vi. 31.

The harvest is plenteous, but
the laborers are few.

— Matthew ix. 37.

Freely ye received, freely give.
— Matthew x. 8.

Whosoever shall exalt himself
shall be humbled; and whosoever
shall humble himself shall be ex-
alted.

— Matthew xxiii. 12.

Whosoever forgives the wrong

done unto him, God will also

forgive his sins.

— Rabba, died 331 A. D.-Massecheth
Derech erez sutta, viii : 4.

He who still has bread in the
basket, and saith, What shall I
eat tomorrow? belongeth to
those of little faith.

—Rabbi Eliezer, died A. D. 177.
-Soiah, 486.

The day is short and the task

is great, and the workmen are

sluggish, and the reward is great,

and the Master of the house is

urgent.

—Rabbi Tarphon, A. D. I20.-Aboth
ii. 15.

As I have taught you freely,

so teach you freely.

— Samuel, died 257 A. D.
-Nedarim, 47a.

Whosoever makes himself lit-
tle in this world for the sake of
the word of the law will be made
great in the world to come, and
whosoever makes himself a slave
in this world for the sake of the
word of the law will be made free
in the world to come.

— Rabbi Jeremiah, died 250 A. D.
-Baba Meziah, 856.

{18>

The Sabbath was made for
man, and not man for the Sab-
bath.

Mark ii. 27.

It is written, Ye shall keep
the Sabbath, therefore, for it is
holy unto you (Exodus 31. 14).
It is handed over to you, not ye
are handed over to the Sabbath.

— Rabbi Jonathan ben Joseph, (flour-
ished after the destruction of the
Temple.)-Yoma, 85a.

Every one therefore that hear-
eth these words of mine, and do-
eth them, shall be likened unto a
wise man, who built his house
upon the rock; and the rain de-
scended, and the floods came,
and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house; and it fell not;
for it was founded upon the rock.
And every one that heareth these
words of mine, and doeth them
not, shall be likened unto a fool-
ish man, who built his house
upon the sand; and the rain de-
scended, and the floods came,
and the winds blew, and smote
upon that house; and it fell: and
great was the fall thereof.

—Matthew vii. 24-27.

A man who studies the law,
and acts in accordance with its
commandments, is likened unto
a man who builds a house the
foundation of which is made of
freestone and the superstructure
of bricks. Storms and floods can-
not injure the house. But he who
studies the law but is destitute
of good actions, is like unto' a
man who builds the foundation
of his house of brick and mortar,
and raises the upper stories with
solid stone. The flood will soon
undermine and overturn the
house.

— Elisha ben Abuyah, A. D. 138.
-Aboth de Rabba Nathan, chap. 24.

In citing these parallels it was not our object to exhaust
the material. Professor Herman L. Strack, in his monu-
mental commentary on the New Testament in the light of
the Talmud and Midrash1 has brought together several
hundred such parallels, showing conclusively that in al-
most every instance where parallels do exist, the authors to

1Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch.

{19}

whom the Talmud attributes these sayings lived at least
one, and in several instances even three hundred years
later than did Jesus. To attribute then, the teaching of
Jesus to the Talmudic literature is to betray an ignorance
of sources and historic data.

How then, may we account for the existence of parallels
between the Gospels and the Talmud? Matthew, the biog-
rapher of Jesus, relates that wherever Jesus went the
masses heard Him gladly, and that His fame spread rapid-
ly throughout the Judean land. There are a number of ref-
erences in the Talmud proper telling of discussions be-
tween Jewish Christians and leading Rabbis.1 Would not
all this indicate that the words of Jesus had become com-
mon property, passing from lip to lip, thus entering the
Talmud and there sailing under false colors?

The Ideal of Jesus

The teaching of Jesus is His Magna Charta, His
supreme ideal for the race. The Western peoples, the most
virile nations of the world, espoused this teaching be-
cause of its challenge to a higher and nobler life. In a
comparatively brief period of time Christianity had con-
quered the world. Roman emperors, Greek philosophers,
sturdy barbarians — all were drawn to the Teacher of
Nazareth, and for now nearly twenty centuries the world
has been nominally under His sway and has regarded itself
as Christian. But Christianity is more than a mere name,

xAboda Zara, 166, 17a, 276. Jerusalem Shabbath, Ud.

420}

it implies an ethic as well as a belief. This has not always
been properly evaluated even by those who regard them-
selves as Christians.

Jesus made faith in Himself and in His teaching a car-
dinal requisite, but placed equal emphasis on personal
conduct. To use a well-known saying of His: "Not every
one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my
Father who is in heaven."1 In harmony with the spirit of
this saying, James, an early disciple of Jesus, declares:
"Faith without works is dead."2 A man's faith, therefore,
is to be judged by his deeds.

It cannot be claimed that nominal Christianity has
ever reflected the spirit of Jesus or that of His teach-
ing. The pogromist, the instigator of racial antagonisms
and of war, to cover his shameful and brutal act, may ap-
propriate to himself the name Christian, but his deeds are
in direct antithesis to the ideal of Jesus. The failure of
those who call themselves by His name to act in conformity
with the spirit of His teaching is therefore a reflection not
upon Him, but upon themselves. An ideal is never to be
judged by the deeds or misdeeds of those who merely use
it as a cloak; one could no more condemn the Ten Com-
mandments because the great mass of Jews have failed to
live up to them, than to condemn the teachings of Jesus
because of their ruthless violations.3

xThe Gospel of Matthew, chap. vii. 21. 2James, chap. ii. 26.
3 Let it be clearly understood, it is not our purpose to minimize
the anti-Jewish agitation of a Henry Ford, the stupidity and the in-

<21>

The teaching upon which Jesus placed the most in-
sistent emphais for His followers was that they should love
and not hate, that they should not fight wrong with wrong,
but defeat it with goodness. In the great commandment
given to His disciples He said: "A new commandment I
give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have
loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all
men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to
another."1

Discipleship, it follows, is not concomitant with the
mere bearing of His name, the name Christian, it rests
upon the doing of His will; and the highest expression of
His will is that we "love one another." This principle must
motivate our every action in the relation between man and
man, between race and race, between white and black,
between Jew and Gentile. It is this, this His supreme ideal,
which Jesus holds up for us, and for which He gave His
life.

Doubtless due to the background of our experience, we

humanity of the Nordics, the anti-Semitic waves in Poland, Rou-
mania, and Hungary. What we are contending is that an ideal or
teaching must be able to stand or fall on its own merit, unaffected by
the action of individuals or groups. Would it be fair to condemn the
Jewish race because the rabble of Amsterdam, fired by the Synagogue
authorities, hounded the lofty-minded Baruch Spinoza, even in cold
blood aiming at his life, finally excommunicating him from the Con-
gregation of Israel with the most violent curses of the Jewish ritual?
Or would it be fair to charge the whole Jewish race with the inhuman
treatment of that other noble soul, Uriel Acosta, who was driven to
suicide by the Synagogue? We repeat, an ideal or teaching must be
judged on its own merit.

xThe Gospel of John, chap. xiii. 34, 35.

422}

Jews may question the possibility of ever realizing such
an ideal, of getting men to drop their petty differences,
their national and geographic divisions, and actually to
"love one another." But the experience of twenty centuries
proves that all other attempts to unify the race have failed;
selfishness is still dominant in the hearts of men, racial
pride and prejudice, now here, now there, are continually
flaring up. The welter of blood and misery of the World
War should have been sufficient to demonstrate the futility
of an indulgence in hate and selfishness. Twenty centuries
more may come and go and mankind's dream of universal
brotherhood be no nearer realization than it is today.

Are we then never to find a way out of the maze?

Across the wreckage of human failure, the blatant ma-
terialism of our civilization, and above the babel of its
confusing noises, the speculative Utopias and panaceas of
philosopher, diplomat and politician, the call of the Christ
comes to men:

"/ say unto you — love your enemies; do good to them that
hate you; overcome evil with good; love one another that ye may
be children oj your Father in Heaven."

{23}

ISAAC LICHTENSTEIN
For 34 years District Rabbi of Tapio-Szelo, Hungary, wrote:

I had thought the New Testament to be impure, a source
of pride, of over-weening selfishness, of hatred, and of the
worst kind of violence, but as I opened it, I felt myself
peculiarly and wonderfully taken possession of. A sudden
glory, a light, flashed through my soul. I looked for thorns,
and gathered roses; I discovered pearls instead of pebbles;
instead of hatred, love; instead of vengeance, forgiveness;
instead of bondage, freedom; instead of pride, humility;
intead of enmity, conciliation; instead of death, life, salva-
tion, resurrection, heavenly treasure.

From Two Letters: or What I Really Wish, p. 3.

*24>

BY H. EINSPRUCH

In English

Jewish Confessors of the Faith
The Eternal Problem
The Triumph of Truth
In Life and in Death

In Yiddish

The Gospel of Matthew

(Published by the American Bible Society
The Eternal Problem
The Triumph of Truth
For Truth and Nation

The Most Noted Jewish Book in the World
The Penitent Sinner

(Translated from Tolstoy)

The Mission of Israel

(Translated from B. A. M. Schapiro)

In Russian
The Triumph of Truth

The New Testament — the Most Noted Jewish Book in the
World, may be obtained through any Jewish or non-Jewish book
store. The price per copy ranges from as low as ten cents, up to as
high as ten dollars.

3 9097 00449249 3

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pruch, WiBnry ,t 1892
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n the world

DATE DUE

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