Copyright N^. COPyRIGHT DEPOSm / Exodus, Moses and the Decalogue Legislation. ^ The Central Doctrine and Regulative Organum of Mosaism. Substantiating the Biblical Legislation, civil, political, agra- rian; and its Humanity, Benevolence and Charity Laws ; Universal Import and Analysis of the Ten Commandments in parallel with other Codes ; demonstrating prophetic Monotheism and its Ethics as the unique basis for civilized society. By MAURICE FLUEGEL. Baltimore, U. S. A. Author of: Religious Rites and Aspects; Biblical Legislation; Humanity, Benevolence and Charity Laws (of the Pentateuch and Talmud); Messiah Ideals, Vol. I, Jesus of Nazareth; Vol. II, Paul and New Testament; Mohammed and Qoran; Zend-Avesta and Parseeism, Brahmanism and Buddhism; Israel the Biblical People; Philosophy, Qabbala and Vedanta; etc; works published. Copyright secured by the Author, Maurice Fluegel, 1910. Publishers : M. Fluegel Co., Baltimore, Md., U. S. A. B5 1245" -F4 ©GI.A256422 a' The Author's Works to be Published: The Biblical Holidays and their import for civilization ; The Mosaic Genesis, paralleled with other cosmogonies; The Biblical Patriarchs, as a historical aera; The Mosaic State and Church, Leviticus; Religious Rites and Aspects; Credo, Principles, Sanitary Laws. II. Edition, largely increased. The IV. Book of Mo sis. The V. Book of Mosis. These seven Manuscript-Volumes and the three already pub- lished, exhaustively treat of the Pentateuch, Bible, Talmud, and Religion generally, in their world-historic bearings. Philosophy Vol. II; Zohar, Thora and Science ; The Second Judaean Commonwealth and Maccabean War. Each of these volumes of about 300 octavo pages. "Essays and Lectures/' historical, political, theological and liter- ary ; as also : Israel's Battles for Freedom and Renaissance, ''Milhamoth-Ihvh," are unfinished. Table of Contents The leading themes of the volume are : I. Moses, the Liberator from Egyptian bondage ; II. The Ten Commandments, in their all-sided bearings, com- pared with other codes ; III. The Mosaic Sanctuary and worship. Study I. Page Moses the Liberator — Moses and Pharoah 5 Prophecy and Revelation 7 Advent of the Liberator 9 Mosis' Environments and Education 12 Mosis' Flight, the crisis 16 Horeb, Sinai, Arabian Desert 18 The Burning Bush 21 Israel's Labors — Great Thoughts Never Die 22 Medrashim on Moses 25-30 Study II. Moses, the Prophets and their mission — Israel's career 31 Reply and Refutation — Religious, Social and Political outlook 35 Is Israel true to his task? 41 Mission of Christianity 43 Mission of Mohammedanism 47 The Biblical Teachings 49 The Hague Peace Arbitration and the Prophets 51 Charles Voysey on the Mission of the Jews 56 Practical Results of the Exodus, Survey of Egypt 59 History Corroborating 67 Moses faithful to the living and the dead 69 Moses and the Two Arks — American Israel — Bright Sides 71 "Woman to assist 82 Study III. The Ten Commandments — Introduction — Kingdom of priests 86 Sinai's Civilization — Wherefore Israel? Pre- and Post-Sinai 89 The Coronation formula 94 Recapitulation and summary 96 Genesis of the Decalogue 100 Arabia and Sinai 101 Decalogue Text and Sense. I — V Commandments 104 Commandments VI — X. Manifold Stealings — Agadas on that 107 Considerations, Once and Now 118 Study IV. The One God of the Decalogue 12i Divine Existence — Common-Sense Proof — Design in Nature 123 Science and the God-conception. Biblical divine names 126 God and Creation 129 Cause of Evil. R. Aqiba and Vedanta 130 Nebular Theory and Napoleon Bonaparte 132 Psalmist, Job, Kant, Herbert Spencer on that 134 TABLE OF CONTENTS— Continued. Page Summing up 135 Mosaic God-idea contrasted with other systems 136 Dualism — Unity and Trinity — Pantheism — Spinoza 137 Moses, Fichte, Spinoza, Hegel, Skepticism — God and Nature 144 Polytheism and its polity contrasted with Pentateuch 147 The Law of hereidity and entail 153 Biblical optimism — the Rabbis on that 156 History shows free-will 160 III. Commandment — The Oath 162 Study V. The Sabbath of the Decalogue 165 Sabbath and its humanitarian influences 168 Thoughts on the Sabbath 171 Sabbath in America 174 Sabbath or any other day? Sunday and practical men 177 Sunday the Symbol of Trinity — Sabbath and Sunday contrasted. .. .182 American Jews consider! The practical side 185 Theoretical men and Sunday. Talmudical aspects 188 Reverse sides of the problem 194 Appeal for the Sabbath 196 Study VI. Filial Piety and Reverence 20U The Jewish Family — Jules Simon on Americanism 202 Reverence for Country — Reverence for Judaism 206 Reverence for Synagogue — Reverence for Education 210 Reverence for God and Virtue. The several Reverences 213 Study VII. Decalogue, Judaism and Christianity 21V Harmony and Universality of the Decalogue 218 The Banner-Bearer and Oriflamme — Israel's future 22i5 Judaism and Christianity, their differences 227 The Vatican Syllabus of 1870 228 Study VIII. Israel, Champion of the Decalogue 231 Battles of Ihvh — Jerusalem and Rome — Tacitus on it 234 Decalogue and Polytheism 239 Islam and the Jews — The Crusades, Spain 242 West Europe — Poland — Marranos — The Ghetto 246 Nineteenth and Twentieth Century 251 America and New Judaea — Closing Remarks 254 United States and the Decalogue 261 Study IX. The Mosaic Sanctuary or Tabernacle 264 Need of such 266 Import of Tabernacle and Temple 271 Once and Now. Temple and Synagogue 276 The holy vessels of the Tabernacle 278 Worship and Sacrifical Cult 283 Table of Shrewbread. The Candelabrum. The Altars 284 The Holy Ark — Kapporeth, Cherubim form — Outfit 291 Exodus Trilogy. Survey of the volume. The Code 296 Personal freedom. Free soil. Equality. Fraternity. End 300-308 Errata 309 Exodus, Moses and the Decalogue Study /.—MOSES THE LIBERATOR. Generally this second Book of Moses is termed: Ve-ala- Shemothy the Hebrew opening words of the Book. In the vul- gate it is termed: Exodus, the going forth, the issue of the Israelites from Egypt. ^ Into that land they had immigrated under Jacob and Joseph and remained, according to the Bible, 430 years; but according to the rabbinical computation, those 430 years of migrations began with Abraham, whilst the sojourn proper in Egypt, was only of 215 years, encompassing four generations.^ The book is devoted to the narrative of the Benai-Israel, their issue from the Egyptian country and bondage, their start as a nation, the reception of the Law, their sojourn in the wilderness and erection of a portative Temple, the Tabernacle, a unique sanctuary, repre- senting their oneness in nationality, cult and monotheism. The first chapters of Exodus narrate the history of the redemption of Israel and the mission of Moses. As Abraham began a new aera of civilization, establishing his own family as its nucleus and basis, as with Jacob this family grew into a tribe propagating that civilization, even so with Moses, the dribe expanded into a nation, with the task of developing that civilization of monotheism, freedom and labor to its full growth. PHARAOH AND MOSES, CONSERVATISM AND PROGRESS. The first chapters of this book produce before our eyes two leading characters, Moses and Pharaoh. They represent the two great forces of human society, the two phases of our human nature. Two powers are ever in contention in our social world, in eternal antagonism, yet ever working in harmony for the preservation of the race and for its unfolding, its stability on one hand, and its gradual, cautious advance, on the other hand. These two forces are the principles of Conservatism and of Pro- gress. They are the two pillars, the ''Joachim and Boas," the anchor and the sails of the social ship ; the two faces of the 2 IV M., xvi., 1. Four generations, Qorah, son Izhar, son Keliath, son Levi. 6 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Janus-statue, one turned backward, one forwards, one pointing to the past and the other to the future; the two poles of time, the present and stability, the future and advance. Both are urgently and indispensably necessary; they are each other's complement; without either, human society would soon collapse; they are the centripetal and centrifugal forces of the social body. The one insures stability, safety, solidity; the other secures life, move- ment, advance, improvement. Without Conservatism the state is ever threatened with unrest, precipitate change, revolution, shattering and sudden destruction ; without Progress, the State is menaced with stagnation, rottenness and collapse. Every age has its representation of these two supreme social forces, this alluded-to double-faced Janus-statue looking forwards and back- wards. They are incarnated in two such leading personal expo- nents. No doubt, they are social forces, but personified and concrete in these leaders. Four centuries before the Exodus, they were by Nimrod and Abraham, later by Esau and Israel. They are now in Exodus, by Pharaoh and Moses. Moses is the model of those grand men of advance, of movement, of the future ; of those extraordinary men whom history produces but at great intervals, as marking stones and mile-posts of new aeras, of great political and ethical evolutions. Pharaoh is the pattern of the opposite principle, stability. He represents the old and trite, the vulgar and past, the safe side. Moses appears to be the weaker party, but his is, surely, the future. To Pharaoh the world seems to belong; he is legitimate, apparently, his is the present and the past, but his is not the future. Moses is moved by the diviner spirit, by man's nobler nature, by the eternal instinct of amelioration, the inherent right of the masses against the classes, their betterment against the historical right or privi- lege, by universal improvement against the aristocratic minority, by the genius of revolution against class pretensions ; he is the aggrandized Mirabeau, the Lasker, the Virchow of his time, if comparison limps not. Pharaoh, on the contrary, is the Metternich, Bourbon or Ignatieff of his. He represents the guild, the philis- tinism, the legitimacy, the cast-iron class-legality of his epoch. He knows no inherent justice, no inborn equity, no common sense fairness; he knows the reigning statute. He represents Law, not right, reason — prophecy. PHARAOH AND MOSES. 7 A recent thinker states (Nietzsche, in "Menschliches") : There is no right in nature, nothing but force. The forces clash and contend for mastery, so war is the necessary result. Then the belligerents compromise and stipulate terms of peace. These are the elements of right. Without war and treaty there exists no right. In the abstract it is a mere conventional notion, coined by the hungry masses. This sad view underlies all ancient polythe- ism. Prophetism, the Bible is its very opposite pole, and modern civilization is deeply moored in that principle : Right and reason, not force and selfishness. Ancient Babylon, Athens, Rome stood on force and egoism. Jerusalem, Prophetism, Bible with Chris- tianity and Mohammedanism are based on God, Right and Rea- son. Israel's heroic battles for this higher platform saved it for mankind. And this is his great merit for civilization. PROPHECY AND REVELATION. The leading sentence of our Book is again and again^ : "God spake to Moses." This is the motto. God spake to Moses, in deed and in fact. Such a grand, holy Moses-nature is ever the resounding oracle of the Deity. The noble, ethical, social, spiritual truths are revealed to him face to face^, as naturally and plainly as are to us, usual people, the bright sky and its constellations. Is this a miraculous power, lost to us moderns? Was there prophecy? Was there genius? Or patriotism? Was there a vision, or ecstacy, or a symbol? Who can determine, assert? May they not be all identified in one? Who has measured the relation, the heights and depths of human mind and of divine mind? Surely God has no tongue and no lips, He inspires man intellectually — how He inspires? is diversely answered by re- ligious philosophy. Who can tell where is the focus, their point of contact ? The divine rays ever fill the universe, but how shall man make ready to receive them ? Maimonides says : "The human species has some extraordinary exemplars best fitted for the rational soul, and such an extraordinary human intellect, ad- hering fixedly to the divine Intellectus Activus, obtains an addi- tional large emanation which constitutes prophecy."^ In such a II Moses Etc.nti'lO bi^ n'** "lON''^ n^^T) 1 3 This is approximately his modest opinion, frequently uttered as teacher and thinker, in Yad and Guide. 8 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Moses-mind the divine word is ever audible, vehemently sound- ing forth its behests and admonitions. To such a nature it ordains, in a whisper or a shout: Arise,i early in the morning, Moses, rise from the soft pillow of the past and the vulgar, rise and go to meet Pharaoh, (the old time genius and repre- sentative), and tell him: 'Thus speaketh Ihvh: Send forth My people that they may worship Me." — God, the Allgood, the active, driving Mind behind nature, the life principle, the propelling Power of history, calls : Let My people go free that they may serve Me, for they are My servants, not the servants of servants.^ — "God spake to Moses." In such noble natures the divine voice is ever resounding. They are the live-temple of the Divine, its living oracle. They are so sympa- thetic, so public spirited, their soul is so clear, mirroring so accurately the events of history, their ear is so delicately catching up the sounds of suffering humanity that they necessarily be- come their interpreters, in them Deity continually speaks. They are an eternal vehicle of revelation, so sensitive that every world- event strikes them and produces its powerful echo. Mosis' sympathetic nature was a sort of aeols' harp. Every historical air-current passed through its delicate strings, moved and thrilled them and produced harmonious tones, jubilant or mourn- ful, corresponding to the surrounding events. Such was that Moses-nature, ever alert to the woe and weal of his brethren. Hence the refrain: ''God spake to Moses." 1 II M., viii. Rise early in the morning. 2 They are my servants, not serfs to serfs. Rashi and Rabbis, ad locum. Maimonides' Yad and Guide, commenting to Mishnayoth, Sanhedrin, on the dogmas, says, page 127 b: t^sti^n n-i^v ni^sprD j.-ik^ ny ...nin^^t^n m^iiyD nn^D D^ynto ••^yn n^^^i:!:^ km in .na^j niTV« Literally and fully translated: The sixth principle is: Prophecy, viz.: We must know that the human species contains a few individuals naturally endowed with great virtues and perfections, and their minds are so well constituted that they do the more perfectly obtain the intellectual impress and influence. When, thereupon, this human in- telligence fixes itself adheringly to the (divine) Intellectus Activus it obtains a most important emanation (of inspiration).. .These are the prophets and this is prophecy and its substance. To enlarge upon this principle and prove it is not our intention here, and would lead us away from our theme... The Torah testifies to it clearly." PROPHECY AND REVELATION. 9 The opposite pole is Pharaoh. He too remained true to his nature, the eternal type of vulgarity, of historical views and habits, blind prejudice for the old, ever against the new. To him the divine behest goes forth : 'Xet My people go that they may serve Me." But he is slow to realize the new time. Hence : ''His heart holds on," he refuses to Hsten; *'he did not let the people go," we read again and again. See the stupid tough- ness, the holding on to the past, the blind adherence, obstinately clinging to the old w^ays. That is political conservatism. It is called legitimacy, love of order. One rules by divine grace — not in the interest of the people. There is an aristocracy — his- torical, not natural, not of the really best. There reigns the Law — not identical with real justice. There is an accumulation of customs and privileges piled up, high and huge as the tower of Babel — "but there is never the question of the rights born with us." There is a love of order — without love and without order, yea, upholding disorder; Laws accumulating as the cancer, from generation to generation; in the interests of the dynasts and the classes, against the masses of the people. Pharaoh is its represen- tative. Such a stupid conservatism we meet in all the social phases and strata, in private and in public, at home, church and State ; in eating and drinking, in wakefulness or asleep ; in the market and the caucus. People do what they have been doing, not because it is good and wnse, but because it is a habit. An old proverb says : "Having acted wrongly and repeated the wrong, it appears an established right. "^ All that is personified in Pharaoh, the em- bodiment of blind conservatism and stability. Moses calls : Thus speaks Ihvh, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me !" In vain, Pharaoh insists and refuses : "I know not that hypothesis !" ADVENT OF THE LIBERATOR. Wonderful and inspiring, tragic and yet cheering, is the his- tory of the birth and the rise of providential men. It is sublime and extraordinary, but it is in every way natural. Surprising and edifying are the methods of Supreme Intelligence about the destiny of mankind, in mysterious meanderings, winding and tortuous. As an impetuous mountain torrent rushes its stormy waves, through deep ravines, rocks and clefts, straits and sub- terraneous beds until at last it reappears a grand, majestic, vast 10 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. stream, sudden as by enchantment, nevertheless, natural, going from cause to effect, every water-drop it carries is well accounted for, the outcome of the manifold sources; even so are the ways and means of Providence in the mysterious concatenations and meanderings of world history. They are wonderful and myste- rious, but ever rigidly natural, never infringing upon the im- mutable, eternal, divine laws, primordially laid down by the Great Architect of the universe. Even so is the history of the birth, the rise, the life and the mission of Moses to Israel. Read the sagas about the founders, not only of antique India, Assyria, Akkad or Babylon, but even of later Rome, Athens or Carthage, and see what crude and rude myths and marvels are there brought forward to illustrate their heroes ! The more miracle, the greater the hero ! the more the natural laws are set aside, the greater appeared the leader. Nothing of the kind you find around the birth, rise and mission of Moses. They are extra- ordinary, but not encroaching upon the eternal laws of God, deeply laid down in the workings of the universe. This is one of the salient points of the Hebraic sacred Scriptures. Their heroes are men, historic beings, acting within the bounds of our known natural laws. They are extraordinary, fit causes of extraordinary effects. Now let us consider : What is the background to the Book of Exodus and the Mosaic mission? Long before the advent of Moses and the Benai-Israel in Mizraim, that country had been invaded and gradually conquered by the Semitic Hyksos,^ shepherd tribes from neighboring Arabia and Khanaan. Lower Egypt, around the several branches of the Nile, was occupied and personally ruled by their kings, whilst upper-Egypt, was left as yet to the native lords, recognizing the suzerainty of the foreign-born Hyksos princes. Most naturally these were ever apprehensive of the native populations and their yet reigning sub-kings ; cunningly divided and abetted against each other by the crafty polity of the Hyksos sovereign, they were, neverthe- less, ever ready to unite against the foreign invaders. It was ever the Hyksos' policy to call from Arabia and Khanaan as many countrymen as possible, in order to strengthen their own ranks against any possible rising of the natives. Under such a iSee Messiah Ideal, Vol. I, page 124. Hyksos. ADVENT OF THE LIBERATOR. ii Hyksos-Pharaoh, Joseph had arrived in Egypt, as a slave, and sold to Potiphar, the head of the shepherd king's bodyguard. Under such circumstances Joseph had, most naturally, suc- ceeded in gaining the favor of the courtiers, Hyksos, too, as v^^ell as of the king himself. Under such, he had become one of the provincial governors, had occasion to provide for the country during a famine, and thus succeeded to serve well his foreign Hyksos master, and at the same time the native people. During that famine he continued to acquire the entire territory for the Pharaoh, while he saved the population from starvation. He then acquired the consent of the king to settle his own tribe, the Benai-Israel, on the confines of Egypt and Arabia, in "Goshen," the king finding in him a useful and politic minister, and in his tribe faithful allies, countrymen and fellow-shepherds, holding the same position and interests as himself, towards the aboriginal population. But a new situation arrived; the native princes and the native people gradually made common cause and the Hyksos conquerers were driven out of the country. This was a long and wearisome undertaking. Now as the Benai- Israel were not really identical with the Hyksos, as they had not come as conqurers into the land, as their chieftain, Joseph, had saved the land during a famine, and generally had left a patriotic and good record of his government, so his tribe was allowed to stay in the country, after the Hyksos had been ex- pelled. But some time after this expulsion, a change of feeling came on. We read (Exodus i : 8) : And there arose a new King (viz. : a new, native dynasty) who did not know Joseph, and he addressed his fellow-native counsellors : "Behold the foreign Benai- Israel are becoming more numerous and powerful than we. Take care, we must be politic, for they will go on ever increasing, and should war (with the close-by hovering Hyksos) break out, then they may side with our enemies, join in the war against us and leave the land." (II M. I. 10). So a policy of repression, op- pression and systematic destruction was inaugurated, culminat- ing in conspiring against the unborn generations, and drowning every male-child of the doomed foreign race — the policy of the Anti-Semites of today, as of the Pharaohs of the 3,500 years ago. Under such pressing, ominous circumstances, the advent of Moses took place: Two peoples, close-by, are here in array against each other: The one is a formidable majority, under its 12 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. own leaders, with all the resources of centralized power, au- thority, government, armies, statescraft, proud of its indigenous nationality and its recent victory over the Shepherd invaders. It conspires against the other alien clan, apprehensive of the growing remnant of these ''foreigners." Eager to keep them as bondsmen and exploit them, yet afraid of their growing numbers, it determined to check that strength, even by secret or open murder, by destroying the births and growths of the males and retaining but the female half of the dreaded race. The Jew-baiting methods of today, 3,500 years after the Pharaohs, in Russia, Roumania, elsewhere, in our boastful civiHzation, in Christendom, etc., proves that the Pharaonic policy of drown- ing is history, and not myth. Under such circumstances, Moses made his appearance, in this dismal, sublunar world, as the bridge between the contending parties, a child of the enslaved race, brought up at the court of the dominant one. The Pharaoh, thus, unconsciously, educating and equipping a leader of the oppressed against the oppressors. MOSIS' ENVIRONMENTS AND EDUCATION. I said, extraordinary men are the result of extraordinary epochs and new, surprising constellations and environments. Great men are not great by mere chance, not by blind acci- dent or the caprice of fate, or by miraculous grace. History is grounded in law. This is a rabinnical view, too. Abraham became great by efforts and trials, by education and gradual developing. "With Ten Trials he was tried and these made him great," say our sages. ^ Such is also the sense of the Greek myths of Heracles, Theseus, Perseus. Circumstances, efforts, developments create epoch-making men. Hence it is of great interest to know the beginnings, the genesis of great men. The people often surround them with posthumous miracles and prod- igies, thinking that only marvels create marvels. The wise know that only great causes bring forth great effects. Marvels do not explain; while reasonable, though extraordinary causes do. Hence it is not true what some advance, that such causes are later invented, myths explaining myths. No, the birth, rearing I M., 12. Agada DmnNS r\)^v^ nnx ^iD^ ...Dn-i3K no: niJVDJ mc^yn i MOSIS' ENVIRONMENTS AND EDUCATION. 13 and rise of great men are remarkable, and hence they produce remarkable results. There are certain historical critics that aim at flattening all great men and all great events, declaring that everything great is a myth, an exaggeration, that Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, etc., are but myths, they and their deeds, that they either never existed, or never such as depicted in history. This view of vulgarizing great epochs, lowering them to mere commonplace, and their human agents also to commonplace, this view, too, is vulgar. It is not at all criticism, not solving the riddles of history. No, great events and aeras are, no doubt, the result of the surrounding great cir- cumstances, first, and next of great human agents, their repre- sentatives, and both are great and extraordinary, the natural and logical outcome of a vast and incalculable concatenation of things, of which the last ring is an all-wise Providence, governing all by eternal laws. Pseudo-critics tell us that Abraham, Moses, Jesus, etc., are but fictions. Whence come then the deeds, yea, the aeras attributed to them, since every effect must have its adequate cause? If monotheism, with its correlative ideas of right, pan-humanity, sympathy, solidarity, has not been advanced by them, somebody else must have done it, and if somebody has, why not those testified to by history ? It is but envy that belittles mankind and its heroes. Smallness begets smallness. Moses is thus a fact, a historical, real person ; Israel's leader in his Exodus from Egypt, his liberator, the starter of his legisla- tion, the founder of the nation. And these extraordinary facts must have an extraordinary cause; Moses must have been a creative genius, acting in favorable extraordinary environments. What were these ? Our chapters tell us this : From the very start his circumstances were strange and peculiar, calling for a great genius. His people oppressed, full of energy, yet held under the iron thumbscrew of the new Pharaohs and the native Egyptians, suspicious of the foreign race. Its growth was impeded, its members doomed, its births curtailed. He, Moses, himself, is exposed to the mercy of the Nile waves. His mother and sister contrive — what does not love and iron necessity con- trive? — to place him in a casket into the Nile where a court lady frequently takes her baths. She passes by and hears the cries of the baby from the casket in the waves. She guesses that it is a Hebrew one, doomed to perish, and she feels sympathetically, 14 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. more as a woman than as an Egyptian. She saves the child, and calHng for a nurse, the sister, and soon the mother, close by, wait- ing for the opportunity, most naturally offer their services. So, most naturally and without any miracles, the baby, doomed to destruction, is saved by the very tyrants, by a Pharaonic princess, in a simple, still extraordinary way. She, a daughter of tyranny, takes it upon herself to rear a liberator to, and an avenger of, the oppressed people. And mark, this is not a myth, no ! it is history, you see, it is perfectly logical, it is necessarily true, for how else would the enslaved race find a leader, stored with the faculties, the knowledge, the learning, the experience, the energy, the statesmanship, all the resources and equipments re- quired for such a gigantic undertaking — if the Court itself had not undertaken to furnish the first, great requisite, a pariah edu- cated as a leader? Here is one of those extraordinary strokes of divine policy which decide of great events. Here was the occasion, the need for a great liberator, and the Court furnished the liberator! And not only is this a fact, not a myth, but the fact is cogent, indispensably necessary, the pivot, the turn-point of the catastrophe. It is the cue to and the beginning of the entire world-drama. Moses was born a Hebrew slave and edu- cated as a commander, the Numa and the Servius Tullius of the Jewish people, enabled to conceive the plan, lead, prepare and liberate his own pariah-race and make it a historic nation. As Sacred Scripture shows us Egypt, and as we know it by history now extant, it was then at the height of power and civili- zation. At that court was gathered the flower of oriental wisdom, the sciences, arts and crafts of peace and war, of government and statesmanship. There Moses learned all the ancient world knew, so indispensable for his providential undertaking, to rescue and liberate, create and rule a nation.^ There are plenty of legends about his early ambitions and activities, his successes and achievements. We are told that he had been a soldier, a general, a conqueror of provinces, of Ethiopia, that he even had married there a royal princess. No doubt, a gifted young man, patronized by the court, the most brilliant future was open to his genius. Scripture passes all that in silence. Our chapter introduces him modestly and simply: "Moses was tending to the flocks of Jethro, his father-in-law.'' 1 So Maimonides contends, after the Rabbis, that only such extraor- dinary men can perform such deeds; that a prophet must be strong, rich and energetic. MOSIS' ENVIRONMENTS AND EDUCATION. 15 Another proof of its veracity and historical calibre ; it keeps strictly to facts, when depicting the characters of its hero. Now consider : Any other, usual man would have prudently forgotten his affiliation with the enslaved race, would have denied it and rather vaunted and bragged of his princely standing, of his Egyp- tian education, of office, state-sword and preferments. We well know this petty vanity and this prudent meanness, which repu- diate and deny the minority, the losing party and ever hasten into the ranks of the majority, of the winning, reigning class or party. We know of those turn-coats who feel flattered when mis- taken for one of the dominant race. Many a fool says : "I am na Irishman, no Dutchman, no Jew : I am a man ! I am not clannish, I am a citizen of the vast world !" That is mere cant and sub- terfuge. That is the mask of cold selfishness. Such people are no good religionists, no good men, no true patriots and no real humanists. They are cunning, petty egoists. To be a good man, begin to be a good Teuton, Jew or Irishman. To be a citizen of the world you must start as a good patriot of your country. Begia within that small sphere Providence has indicated by your station,, your birth. Doing there your duty you will benefit all humanity and the entire world. ''Whosoever desires to perform something great, must concentrate his greatest energy upon the smallest point."^ So acted Moses, the Hebraic pariah, the world- leader. He who bore an Egyptian pallium, a grandee's sword and uniform, who had enjoyed an Egyptian education and was permeated with cosmopolitan ways of thinking, he had not lost his Hebraic consciousness. He remembered his birth, his parents,, and kindred, his pariah-home and his race, their sad history, and their wrongs. He forgot not his duty towards them and was not dazzled by the lustre of his adoption. Here is the sign of true greatness, of moral worth, yea, of genius, of a great destiny. Let us illustrate this by a quotation from Roman litera- ture: Cicero, speaking of such a man (De Amicitia dialogus) says : "This is an example to be imitated : Has one acquired any kind of superiority, virtue, spirit, fortune, let him divide it with his friends and his kindred. Is one born in an obscure family, of poor parents, modestly endowed, he must be their fortune, honor, iGoethe. Willst Du was Grosses leisten, so richte die grosste Kraft auf den kleinsten Punkt. i6 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. glory."i Here are combined a solid head, a feeling- heart, and an energetic hand; here are vast thoughts and deep sympathies. Where head, heart and hand work in harmony, there is a great man born into the world. A good heart without the solid head, is of little avail. A solid head without a sympathetic heart, often turns dangerous to the world. Such were Sulla, Caesar, Napoleon. Head and heart in harmony, what sympathy erst craves and muses, then plans and contrives with a firm head, and executes with an energetic hand, that makes a leader, a genuine humanist, a historical epoch, a providential instrument of liberation and initiative, an aera in man's annals. Such were Moses and his achievements. THE CRISIS, MOSIS' FLIGHT What is the crisis? When does Moses, the born Hebrew slave, the adopted Egyptian prince, take sides and declare him- self a Hebrew patriot? Bloomed up into manhood, adorned with youth, health, spirit and knowledge, an Egyptian purple-cloak hanging from his shoulders, and an Egyptian sword dangling at his firm side, imbibed with the fumes of court favor and prefer- ment, he nevertheless remembers the wrinkles of his mother, the woes of his kindred and brethren ! His heart prompts him to see them in their villanage. He repairs for the first time to the Hebrew camp. What a sight of woe and brutality, of tears, pros- tration, hard labor! What a sight of human wretchedness and remorseless cruelty ! He feels revolted, horrified ! His blood boils and rises ! What a sight of tyranny, cruelty, and over- bearing on one side, of submission and long suffering, of meek resignation and abject misery on the other! This is Mosis' crisis. His feelings get the mastery over his worldly prudence. The Egyptian grandee yields and recedes in his bosom, and the Israelite predominates. — When he beheld a poor Hebraic laborer writhing under an Egyptian lash, sick with age and ill treatment, the laborer is succumbing under his exhausting work and the blows of his cruel Egyptian task-master, shouting: Work or die, slave ! And Moses hesitates no longer, he draws his good sword, a stroke — and the cruel task-master lies dead at his feet. iCicero. Si propinquis habeant imbeciliores vel animo vel fortuna, corum augeant opes, eisque honori sint et dignitati. THE CRISIS, MOSIS' FLIGHT. j; Quickly a fellow-Hebrew denounces the patriot: "Wilt thou kill me as thou recently didst the Egyptian?" Slavery brutalizes even to ingratitude. The deed is soon reported to the authori- ties and IMoses must flee for his life. He goes into exile. He fore- goes his proud hopes and expectations at the court of the king. He counts himself out from the ranks of the oppressors, and nobly enters those of the oppressed. Clearly he sees and recognizes in his conscience, his task, his providential mission : The liberation of his oppressed race ! He goes into exile, into the Arabian desert, settles in one of its rare oasis, for shelter and meditation, abiding his time, meditating upon his work of enfranchisement, his mission to the Israelitish pariahs. ]\Iany are the legendary reminiscences of his forty years' sojourn in Arabia, as reported in Medrashim, Josephus and rare Gentile sources. Here I shall adduce but one, it is characteristic: The Egyptian courtier-exile, the future liberator earns his daily bread as the shepherd of the flocks of a tent-dwelling Sheikh, a Be- douin, Jethro the Lord of Midyan, an Oasis, there. Once upon a time he misses a young lamb from his numerous flock. The sun glows high on the horizon, with its burning rays perpendicu- larly darting upon the earth ; the shading shrubs, the cooling rocks are rare. The heated desert-sands inflame the air, all is a glowing furnace. But the little lamb is missing. Its anxious mother is distressfully bleating. So Moses goes on its search, for hours ; at last he discovers it. It is lame, fainting and starved ; it cannot move on and utters its last laments, in the deadly sun- rays. Moses raises it in his arms, up to his bosom, pats and con- soles it ; himself exhausted with heat and thirst, he carries it to the mother. And Almighty looking down from His heavenly window, wiped off a pearly tear from his big Providential eye, saying : Mos- es, thou art so sympathetic with a poor, dumb, lame lamb ; Moses, thou wilt sympathize with My poor sheep, the flock of Israel, and, in that instant He intrusts him with the mission to the Hebrew enslaved ones. People looking for and choosing their leaders, should take this legend to heart and see whether such leaders rescue the poor lambs, or rather devour them. i8 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. HOREB, SINAI, THE ARABIAN DESERT. During his forty years' sojourn in the desert, he was continu- ally meditating and brooding over the possibilities of redeeming his enslaved brethren. The lofty, inspiring vista of that sunny, boundless Arabian peninsula, a continent, a world for itself, set apart by nature, a grandiose empire of freedom, where man ever lives in his pristine conditions, in unlimited independence, original force and stern simplicity, so strikingly contrasting with the dazzling, boastful, artificial, over-refined, rotten Pharaonic civilization of ancient Egypt, that matured in his mind the feasi- bility of his hazardous undertaking of liberation. Often he pastured his flocks there in the neighborhood of Horeb, a bar- ren promontory, a high plateau stretching above Sinai, a hoary ridge of mountains, revered and deemed holy already in those antique times. It is a region of mountains, mount on top of other mounts, "Ossa piled on Pelion."^ From its highest peak you see the three continents of the ancient world spreading out at your feet. The great seas of the ancient map, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian or Red Sea, and the Medi- terranean roll their waves around that mountain-ridge. It is the proud, connecting link between Arabia, Asia, Africa and Europe. The Horeb region appears as the root, the base, the nucleus of the ancient world; from its top there spreads a marvelous illimitable vista of beauty and boundless grandeur, awe-inspiring and delighting, expanding the mind of the beholder, lifting up his soul, scattering despondency, creating cheer, energy and hope, displaying the boundless magnitude of the universe and of its Creator, laughing at and frowning upon the pettiness of human lordship, tyranny and overbearing. From the height of Sinai, as his pedestal, dawned and flashed upon Moses, the divine impulse of redemption. There was revealed to him the God of right, of liberty, of justice to the oppressed. There he was inspired with his mission to Israel. Many positivists, now, disclaim all that and say : There was no Horeb and no Sinai, no Moses and no revelation. "All these chapters are but a popular construction, post factum, an intro- duction after the work was completed." But we appeal to the 1 Now termed Gebel Musa, in Arabia Petraea, 8,000 feet high, with a promontory, a 1,000 feet higher still, now assumed as the Scriptural Horeb, both piously ascertained by old, uninterrupted traditions and the pen of poets, dear to the human heart, but unimportant to criticism. HOREB, SINAI, THE ARABIAN DESERT. 19 experience of men of thought and of deed, to men who are not satisfied with traveling on the highways of custom ; to men who strike a path for themselves, the rugged path of initiative, genius and invention; to men who have left some trace of their earthly pilgrimage — where did they take their bold resolve, their peril- ous courage, their noble inspirations to leave the broad road of habit, comfort and commonplace, and turn to the steep and abrupt by-paths of new ideas, bold achievements and long sus- tained efforts? Not surely in the narrow shop or busy mart, not on the noisy exchange, not even in the elegant chair at Church or theater. No, they took it in free nature, in the vast wild forest, on some high mountain peak, on the Chimborazo, or the burning Mount Pelee,^ or the Mount Blanc, at the Niagara Falls, or the ocean shore, on the Kickelhahn of Thuringia, the Harz, the Allegheny, or the Rocky Mountains. There, far from the deafening noise and turmoil of petty interests, far from small ambitions and strife, there the human mind grows, recovers its dignity and rises to the height of its own grand possibilities; and there it finds inspiration, elasticity, energy, enthusiasm ; there it finds revelation, there it conceives the divine behest, to under- take and execute great things, advancing the human race. There is the pristine holy of holies, where the human mind comes in close touch with the Divine Mind and hears the call : Go, Moses, and redeem the oppressed ! And such calls are not few. The Deity ever calls, but rare are those intently listening to the call ! Whence hail these grand char- acters? Wherever you see noble, chaste enthusiasm, warm sym- pathy for the oppressed and lowly, sincere yearning to help, be it even at one's own peril, there is the germ of the liberator, the savior and prophet. A few of such germs grow, mature and realize. Many more decay, wither and die, lured away by petty interests, politics and schemers; wrecked by too great difficulties, or by too great temptations ; not having enough of the prophetic energy. A few great genii remain, the chosen of the chosen 1 I think of the rugged, laborious, noble career of both the Heil- prins, Michael and Angelo, the father and the son, both living and dying, for the advance of their fellowmen, of their race and of science, both inspired of the holy spirit — a wreath to each of them. JM 20 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. ones, a rare select band of God-kissed souls, mighty, spiritual men, with sympathizing hearts and impulsive hands, the flower of the race. They insist, in spite of difficulties, poverty, derision, abandonment, and misconstruction. These are the mile-posts in history, the standard bearers of progress. They hear the divine voice calling: ''Go, rescue, liberate My people, to the end that they may worship Me, the Divine, not the Pharaohs." Now do not quibble about supernaturalism, inspiration, proph- ecy and miraculous visions, or about enthusiasm, patriotism, genius, generosity, duty, sympathy, conscious initiative, genuine yearning to do good. Call it what you please, natural or supernat- ural, prophecy or divine genius, or humane holiness. It is the grand- est, sublimest, it is mind-power, it is divine. Consider it rationally or mystically. It is identical, it is inspiration, it comes from on high, from the Source of all Mind and Goodness. In its sublimest stages it creates prophets, initiators, liberators, hearing the admo- nition : Go and liberate ! I say : It comes from the Sacred self- evident though hidden and mysterious Source of Mind and Good- ness. Or does it come from elsewhere? from petty ambition, from selfishness, from cunning scheming? Not Machiavell would soberly affirm that ! Contemplate and consider : Moses, a pariah adopted by the court, raised and educated as a lord, surrenders the allurements of power, favor and preferment, throws all that to the winds, gives up all those advantages, declares himself a fel- low-pariah, retires to the wilderness, lives upon roots and water and, there, determines upon the even more hazardous and thank- less task, of becoming the mouthpiece of a horde of slaves against their powerful masters ! Can such a resolve come from any other source than that of All-Goodness and All-Power? Again let us appeal to history and fact. Inquire and scruti- nize every great epoch and its human agents, yea, any superior man of your personal acquaintance, and you will find out, he had his Horeb, his Sinai, his sacred mount, where was the crisis of his life, where his resolve upon this or that generous career was determined upon. Even so had Kapila and Buddha, Zoroaster and Jesus and Mohammed, each, had his holy mount. Yea, even minor minds, as Alexander, Cyrus, Plato, Paul, Huss, Bruno, Luther, all, had their sacred mounts, where they had taken their inspiration, their resolution for their tasks. Commonplace men, take their final stand in common, everyday places. Supe- THE BURNING BUSH. 21 rior men rise to the grand vistas of nature, wherever hovers the Shekhina of the God of nature, there their vocation is deter- mined upon. Even so we read in II M. 3. "And Moses led his flock to the Mount of God at Horeb. And he beheld the angel of Ihvh in the flame from the thornbush. . .He saw the bush burning but never consumed. . .So he stepped nearer. . .when the divine voice called out : I am the God of thy fathers ... I have seen the tribulations of my people, in Egypt, I have heard their cry and know their woes ... I will rescue them from the hand of Egypt and bring them unto a land flowing with milk and honey . . . Now, go, I send thee to Pharaoh and redeem Israel from Egypt. . .And Moses said: "Who am I to call on Pharaoh to free Israel?" What a grand tragic! The struggle of genius with human weakness and inimical circumstances! He hesitates at the stupendous un- dertaking and his slender means. He thinks of his wife, chil- dren and sweet home, of parents and kindred in Egypt, of the power and tyranny of the Pharaohs. His courage faints, his human helplessness overpowers him: "Who am I to undertake such a gigantic task?" And God said : "I shall be with thee . . .And this be thy test : on this very mount you shall worship... I am the God of Eter- nity, the Everlasting, I send thee to Israel, go and assemble the Elders . . . Call on the king and tell him : Ihvh, bids us to go and worship him ... I know he will refuse, but I shall compel him and he will let you go.." Mosis' great and sympathetic soul felt enkindled ; his powerful brain was lit up v^ith the flaming thornbush ; mighty Sinai burnt in his mightier heart. The vibrating and flashing thunders voiced forth redemption. It burned and singed and flamed in his sympa- thetic bosom. The thought of liberation lit up and transfigured him ; the immortal thought to free and avenge his brethren, stood clear and illumined before him, and that thought never more vanished. "Behold, the bush was burning, but was never con- sumed." Material fire destroys its own combustible matter ; spirit- ual fire ever burns and never consumes. It ever burns, and is never quenched. It ever burns, cheers, illumines and fires on, but never destroys its bearer. The tenacity, the elasticity of initiators 22 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. is astonishing, visibly upheld by their inherent divine force : "the burning bush, burning, never consumed." Again the burn- ing bush "is the grandest symbol of the redemption- thought of the great liberator. Feels one his warm heart sincerely inspired with, and pulsing for, human weal and improvement ; has one the head to conceive and the plan, with the hand to execute it, to help and rescue his fellows, then that thought, that holy passion, that energy will never die out. His heart will burn and bleed and ache as if to burst into a thousand splinters. His brain will teem and brood and hammer out the plan, until the work will be accomplished. The world is indifferent and coldly looks on the dreamer, the enthusiast." But the enthusiast feels inspired. This very enthusiasm ever burns and shines and cheers him until the work is accomplished. Reader, doubt not ! Great thoughts ever are divine inspirations, God's messengers, holy revelations coming from the Supreme Source of Goodness and Wisdom, revealed from Mind to mind, rays from God to man. They never die. Never! Their human vehicle, the mortal agent, may perish, they never ! Have such thoughts once invaded a human breast, have they once lit up a human brain, then they will ever burn and kindle ever more, and never be put down until realized in fact and in history. They are the utterance. Verb, of the divine angel^ whispering, speaking, roaring, thundering: I have seen the afflictions of Aly people... Go, Moses, and rescue them! The great Moses-heart was itself that burning bush, in his soul the flaming angel called : Moses go and rescue ! Pharaoh shrugged his shoulders: That is none of thy business, Moses, thou senti- mentalist or demagogue! But Moses was not dismayed, he felt the inspiration : "Go, and make free !" ISRAEL'S LABORS. And to this day the wonderful thornbush is burning. It burnt at Horeb; it burnt in Mosis' heart; it burns now in Israel's and mankind's history. Israel represents in history that ever burning thornbush. Lowly, diminutive, dry, despised — yet "the Bush burns and is never consumed." A thousand times beaten, broken, scattered; yet he is erect, entire, undismayed, hopeful, reckoning upon the future.^ From the center of that Agada piin \*2 ni<2n nj^'^,Niny t^nyt^'n -..D^!^t^"n^3 nxsn n^i^h i ISRAEL'S LABORS 23 humble flame the divine angel still and ever calls : I have seen the tribulations and have heard the cry of the people. ''Go and rescue them !" Moses and Israel have ever represented the masses, the laboring people, liberalism, the party of enfranchise- ment. Israel, as once Moses, ever kept up the revelation of every man's rights. The Hebrew is the historical mouthpiece of the divine spirit of advance and of emancipation, ever calling: ''Pha- raoh, let My people go, let them serve God : they are God's ser- vants, not the slaves of slaves." Israel is the champion and emancipator from the social, economical and political yoke, of guilds, classes, priests, dynasts. He is also the protest and the shield against lurking sensuality and materialism. 'Xet go My people, that they may serve God." The divine, the spiritual, the moral, the ideal, is the task of Israel, he is calling mankind to the service of the Divine. Israel never made war for conquest and spoils. His entire history is one great lesson that, not war and conquest, not acquisition and money, not the exchange and the market, but spirituality, ideality, mentality are man's goal. Not pleasure and splendor, but correct thinking, feeling, educating and acting are the grand objects of human civilization.^ GREAT THOUGHTS NEVER DIE. As the Thornbush of Horeb, great thoughts burn and never die out. When in the sixteenth century the idea flamed up that con- science and religion must be free, that man should think and believe according to his own free, honest convictions, then arose V/yclif and Huss, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox, etc., and con- ceived the scheme of the Reformation. And that new principle never more receded. Europe was involved in one common, civil and interstate conflagration, countries were devastated and my- riads perished in battle, by the hangman, or in the vaults of the Inquisition, but free thought and Religious toleration were upheld. When, in the eighteenth century, the principle of political free- dom and equality before the law^, human dignity, no born rulers and no born slaves, dawned upon Europe and America, the world was lifted out of its hinges. Streams of blood flowed, mountains of wrecks were heaped over the old world, the third, yea, the fourth Estate, the people, arose on the debris of dynasts and_ iNot with armies, not by force, but by my Spirit. (Sashana.) 24 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. nobles. Right, bread, freedom and pursuit of happiness for all triumphed. Coalitions and holy alliances yielded to right and common sense. When, after Moses Mendelssohn and with the French Revolu- tion, the idea dawned, that the Jews are part of humanity, that Israel did his share in history, in the labor of civilization, that Jews are not Kammerknechte, not the serfs of the Crown, should pay no Leibzoll^ not be slandered by the Pfaiferif not maltreated by baron and mob, that idea had its struggle, is not yet fully admitted by some. But it is ever gaining ground, never receding, it is bound to triumph, it has the co-operation of every honest and fair-minded man of all races and creeds. When the thirteen North American colonies awakened to the idea of total independence from England, of self-government by the people and for the people, no foreign taxation and no taking advantage, no metropolis, no colonies and no exploitation, Ameri- ca for the Americans, for the oppressed of all nations and noc for the oppressors, no disqualification on account of creed, race and class, classes and masses to be merged into the people, rights, duties, schools, chances, bread and aspirations alike for all — there was an immense conflict, clash of arms, waste of property, bloodshed. But the thirteen colonies came out triumphant. They form now the United States of America; 85 millions of free people, the beaconlight of humanity, the pattern of freedom, social equality and peace. ''Behold the thornbush burned, yet was never consumed.". . .The Angel of Ihvh called from that flame: "I have seen the miseries of the people, I shall redeem them. Go, Moses, I send thee to Pharaoh, to rescue My people from Egypt." Not king and baron, not force and over-reaching, not egoism and sensuality, but God and freedom, right and civi- lization shall rule. Such is constituted the flame of the Burning Bush, the divine voice of sympathy with suffering humanity, and such are the providential men, the liberators sent out to rescue man from the Pharaohs. Such was Moses: A heart warmly feeling for the people, a head conceiving the idea and the means of liberation, a hand of energy, unshaken and undismayed, to realize the designs of Providence, for the advance of mankind, such are con- stituted the liberators, the leaders, the aera-makers, the prophets ; their thoughts are revelations, their deeds are providential, they MEDRASHIM ON MOSES. 25 are divine messengers, they receive and carry to mankind the mandates of God : Go, help, Hberate, improve ! Let us quote here some of the tales and legends, on that memorable epoch, found in Talmud, Commentaries and Med- rashim, all stories claimed to be hinted at by our Sacred text of Exodus, popular tales helping to supplement history: When Pharaoh determined upon cruel oppression, he called together the doomed race and said to them sweetly^ : I pray you, only today help me make some bricks and finish up these necessary fortifications. He set personally an example, took up the basket, shovel and trowel and began busily toiling. Of course every Hebrew laborer zealously followed the royal example, took up the work and made as many bricks as he possibly could in the shortest time. When the night set in, Pharaoh said : Well done, my brave lads : please count accurately how many bricks did you make, each ? Informed of the goodly number, he said : Take care now you fellows ; As many must you make, day by day, or the lash will drop on your lazy shoulders, for every brick you miss (Yalkut, 163). Our modern Pharaohs may learn from that how to ring out taxes and imposts from simple-minded people. (Sota ii b.) R. Aquiba taught: "In reward of the pious women of that generation, was Israel redeemed from Egypt : for when they went to fetch their water from the Nile, God made them fill their pitchers half with water and half with little fishes. They went home, made that to soup with fish and quickly brought both to their husbands in the field, caressed and encouraged them to eat and drink, be of good cheer and have patience in the hard times : "Fear not, not forever will this toil last, soon our God will redeem you from this bondage," giving them the utmost token of their tenderness, hopefulness and love. (Ibid. 163:4.) Once upon a time Pharaoh dreamt :2 He was sitting upon his throne and lo ! an old man stepped before him with a pair of scales in his hand. Then he took all the grandees of the court, tied them up as a bundle of hay and placed them upon one scale, and a young lamb he put into the other scale, and the tiny lamb outweighed all the lords. Awakening and wondering, Pharaoh assembled his Sweetly. Yalkut, Exodus, Tanhuma, Abkhir. '^iQTi ='"]! nQ3 i Ibid. Biography of Moses. riK^DI ,D^D^n nm ^ 26 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. ministers and expressed to them his perplexity at this strange dream. A Senator explained to him : This means that a child will be born to the Hebrew race who, when grown up, will beat all thy ministers, generals and armies, and destroy thy kingdom. In order to prevent this to happen, the king should ordain that every new-born Hebraic male shall at once be killed. The king followed the advice. The two midwives, refusing their assistance to the king to murder the unborn infants, were Jochabed and Miryam, themselves.^ The latter had foretold the birth of Moses as the liberator of his race, hence her inventiveness and extra- painstaking for his safety. From an ancient Biography of Moses the Medrash quotes that, the Pharaonic princess who had adopted the child, named him, Moshe/^ his father called him Heber; his mother, Jeqiithial; his sister, Jered; his brothers, Ahi Sanuch; his grandfather, Abi Socho; and the Israelites called him Shamayah. ''God has listened to our cries." Each of these names has its ominous meaning, of course, in Hebrew, assumed to have been their idiom. When Moses w^as in his third year, Pharaoh was once sitting on his throne, his queen at his right hand, his daughter, Bathia, at his left, the child, Moses, in her lap, and the governors of the empire standing around; when Moses stretched forth his little hand, snatched the crown from the king's brow, and placed it upon his own. The king and his grandees were astonished and dismayed at that, when Bileam, the royal astrologer, arose and said : I still remember, O great king, the dream that thou once didst dream, and my interpretation thereof. Here, this boy, is a Hebrew one, well inspired by fate; he acted that day by cunning, and wittingly, he is an aspirant to the crown of Egypt ! Then wicked Bileam began slandering the entire ancestry of little Moses and concluded with : If it pleases thy Highness, the ambitious boy shall be put to death, at once, before he succeeds in despoiling thee of thy dominion and ruin all our prosperity. Whereupon God sent his angel, Gabriel, in the guise of one of the Egyptian dignitaries, who said : If it please thy Highness, let a sparkling gem and a burning coal be placed before the child ; now if it stretches forth the hand and takes the gem, tlien it acted advisedly and you shall order to kill it ; but if it snatches 1 Iflentical witb the Shiphra and Puah, of the Hebrew text, accord- ing to the Med rash. 2 I saved him (from the Nile waters). MEDRASHIjM on MOSES. 27 and grasps after the fiery coal, we shall know it acted unwittingly and may be spared. The king was satisfied with the test. The gem and the fire coal were brought and placed there at once, and the angel, unseen to all, took up the coal, approached it to the mouth of the infant, which burnt its lips and made it stammer for- ever. Mosis' life was thus spared and he remained yet for 15 years at the court. At the age of 18 years, the blooming youth wished to see his parents and his brethren at their slave-labors. When he saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew. The latter ran to him for help, beseeching him : ''Behold this man came to my home last night, bound me with ropes, criminally assaulted my wife, in my very presence, and now he wants yet to murder me." Whereupon Moses killed the Egyptian, buried him in the ground and returned to the palace (Ibid 166). Curious ! A version of this we find in the story of William Tell, the liberator of Switzerland : A satellite of the governor, Gessler, was about doing violence to the wife of a farmer, who rescues her and kills the ruffian. He is pursued by the governor's soldiers, and about being captured, when William Tell boldly boards and rows him over the stormy lake and lands him safely where he cannot be reached. It is probably an old much used tale, borrowed by the Tell legend. Each poet shaped the story accord- ing to his own taste and his circumstances. The Medrash, wishing to cleanse Moses of the guilt of murder, represents the aggressor as guilty of rape and adultery, and about to commit murder. For this he forfeits his life, and Moses but executed justice upon him. The Swiss folk-lorist spurned the idea of suffering the assailant to dishonor one's wife ; hence her husband kills him even before the crime is accomplished. According to Talmudical law, too, the husband is justified in taking justice into his own hands. It is the natural right of self-defense, too often wTongly appealed to in criminal pleading. The Medrashic legend (Ibid. 167) tells us that Moses was de- nounced by Dathan and Abiram. They were quarreling together, when Moses said to the first : Wicked man, why doest thou smite thy brother? Then Dathan, in revenge^ denounced him to Pha- raoh ; who said : I had enough indulgence with that foundling, now he must die for his murder. Thereupon the executioner smote Moses with his sword, but his neck became of marble and the sword splintered and broke to pieces, whereupon Moses fled 28 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECi^LOGUE. out of the country. The king's bodyguard, being close by, was blindfolded by an angel, and Moses escaped their vigilance. He was then twenty years of age. According to the legend, at the hour when Moses was born, the entire world was filled with light.^ The same is said of many historical and many more mythical heroes of old. It is claimed of Apollo, Horus, and Bacchus, of Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, Mo- hammed, etc. Each aera-making man is born in a dark cave, in gloomy and oppressive environments, the masses sighing for a liberator from political, partisan or racial tyranny, and at his ad- vent the world becomes filled with light and jubilation. No reas- onable critic will begrudge that innocent apotheosis of liberators, after a life of sacrifice and toil. Another legend, still more curious, tells this (Ibid 168), follow- ing the mentioned biography of Moses : Qiqnus, king of Ethi- opia, went to make war upon Syria. When he left, a rebellion broke out in his own country. He returned home and besieged his capital, risen against him. In vain did he attack and storm it from different points, and many of the besiegers fell in the assault. Just then, Moses, fleeing from Egypt, came into the camp of Qiqnus. He was 20 years of age, tall, beautiful, strong and popular, and became the pet of the court and the army. The king soon died and the army chose him as their general, giving him the wife of the dead king. Moses was a heroic leader and contrived, by stratagem, to conquer the rebellious capital. He was then accepted as king, governed Ethiopia for the space of forty years, and beat all his enemies. But then his queen and her nobles made a conspiracy against him, with the object of setting upon the throne her son, by Qiqnus, the rightful heir. Moses was induced to peaceably leave the throne to his wife's son, Munham. At 67 years Moses left Ethiopia and retired to Mid- yan, in the Arabian desert. There he met Jethro-Reuel and confidentially told him about his adventures in Egypt and Ethi- opia. Jethro thought to ingratiate himself with the enemies of Moses by imprisoning him for many years. But Ziporah, Jethro's daughter, clandestinely took care of him and had him fed and clothed, comfortable enough, during all the time of his incarce- ration. Jethro had forgotten him, thinking he was long ago dead. iibid. 166. miti D:5iyn ^3 x^ron^ ntj^o ^*?)^^ nrtJ^a ^ MEDRASHIM ON MOSES. 29 when Ziporah called his attention to him, after ten years. At her advice and intercession, he was released from prison and set at liberty. He then inaugurated his freedom b}'' offering his thanks- givings to the God of his fathers, in the garden of Jethro's mansion, when he beheld there sprightly growing a sapphire shrub, in shape of a staff, into which was engraven the divine name.^ He plucked it off, as if a usual branch upon a tree, and it became a regular staff in his hand. Now that staff is the identical one created contemporaneously with the world and had its history. When Adam was expelled from Paradise, he took that staff with himself and passed it to his successors. That staff came then to Noah, to Shem and to his successors ; to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob and to Joseph.^ When Joseph died and the Egyptians became inimical to his house, his palace was pillaged and the staff fell into the hands of Jethro-Reuel, of Midyan, then a courtier in Egypt. He planted it in his park, to become once the dower of Ziporah, his daughter. All the valiant knights of Midyan tried their strength to pull out that sacred plant and win the hand of the fair Ziporah, but could not succeed, until the rightful owner and successor to Joseph appeared, Moses. He at once took hold of the sacred heirloom, which easily yielded to his grasp. Reuel beholding that in his hand, at once yielded Ziporah^ too, to the legitimate owner of the sacred primordial staff. Zip- orah became thus his dutiful wife, adopting all the pious ways- of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. She bore him two sons, Gershom and Eliezer. (Biography of Moses in Yalkut.) (Pirke Ro Eliezer) R. Aquiba says: The satellites of Pharaoh used the children of the Hebrews as bricks for their strongholds alternately with the clay bricks and mortar. ''God heard their shrieks^ — refers to that. They offered them also as burnt sacri- fices on the altars of their gods," is again deduced from Scrip- tural terms.* To H M. 3 :1. "Moses kept the flocks of Jethro," remarks R. Isaac : God chooses his messengers among the humblest, the 2See Messiah Ideal, Vol. I, p. 122. ntDDH ^y ^X15i'"' inn6J'"'1 2 "Israel bowed on the coach," others read: "Israel bowed on the staffs Instead of hamita, is read by the Septuagint hamate. (II M., ii, 24)— Dnpxj nx DM^K yot^^i 3 ^i^i^n inio DDn« k''!^vi ^ .30 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. pastors of sheep, to lead his human flock. Even so Moses and David — So Cincinnatus of Rome, so the American Washington, the farmer; Lincoln, the rail-splitter; such are the leaders of democracy. — "And he saw his vision and heard the divine voice from the Thornbush (remarks the Medrash Abkhir) : *'Why not rather from some noble tall tree ? For God said : I am in sym- pathy with Israel. He is the humblest among the nations, the thorn among the tall trees, yet ever burning. So is the burning Thornbush my symbol." — The Thornbush burned, but was never consumed — is a fit emblem, too, of Israel enslaved during thou- sands of years, oppressed and maltreated, yet never destroyed, ever burning, enlightening, cheering mankind on in its battles for improvement, ethical, political, economical. Its leaders and emancipators are taken from Israel's ranks or from those who got their inspiration from his prophets. 31 Study II. EXODUS IV-VIII. MOSES, THE PROPHETS, AND THEIR MISSION. "God spake to Moses : Pharaoh's mind is obdurate, he refuses to let My people depart. Go and tell him : Let My people go, that they may worship Ale in the desert."^ (II M. VII: 15). Here Mosaism states it to be its mission to liberate the people, that they may devote themselves to God's service. Providence selected the descendants of the Patriarchs, to become the race specially de- voted to the service of the Eternal, to the higher, the religious, mental and ethical interests, the spiritual concerns of man. We say the spiritual interests of humanity, especially and particularly ; for indeed, the total result of all human development, termed civilization, is a compound of many different elements, among which the spiritual is only one, though a leading one. Every race, €very nation, yea, every outstanding historical personality has a mission to fulfill, has a task imposed upon him. Just as in the harmoniously constituted community, one is an agriculturist, another is a mechanic, a third, a merchant, an artist, a scholar, etc., even so among the great, predominant nations, each has a special mission to realize, for which she lives and labors, suffers and triumphs. And if she neglects her task, she dies, ignomini- ously, is eliminated and her place is taken up by another one, bet- ter fitted for the work. If she fulfills her duty^ if her allotted task is gradually being accomplished, she lives for and with it. Even when fully accomplished, she dies not, but is honorably dis- charged, emerited and lives, absorbed in the eternal existence of mankind. She fuses with humanity, leaving there an ineffaceable trace, the imprint of her honorable activity. Such tasks were imposed upon all the leading historic nations. Assyria, Persia, Egypt, Babylonia had the consolidation of tribes into peoples, by war and subjugation. They inaugurated, thou- sands of years ago, Bismarck's policy of kneading and cementing men together by lead and blood. Greece added to war the culti- vation of science and art. Rome organized a world-state and •"jnari 'Dv riiS n^^ i 32 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. framed laws as its cement. Phoenicia and Carthage, as modern Holland and England, developed navigation, commerce and in- dustries. Germany is, originally, devoted to science, arts, music and domestic virtues. Amerca is to freedom of conscience, social equality and liberty. And Israel, our text says, and history corroborates, has been consecrated to ethical, mental and spiritual interests ; he is the devotee of spiritual development: "Send My people to serve Me." Let us not exaggerate ; no infatuation and no chauvinism, no claiming the whole of the work. I do not in the least pretend that the Hebrew race has done everything. No, other historic nations, too, have largely contributed towards our civilization. Nor is our civilization the ultima Thule, without any strong reliques of barbarism. Still, without infatuation, we may positively affirm that Israel's part in the great concert of human culture and de- velopment is a very prominent one, yea, it is the groundwork of all true civilization. He represents its moral base and founda- tion. Without the culture of man's spiritual interests, to what great use are our arts and commerce? Upon what pillars will your State, your Laws, your family, your freedom, your justice rest? Without the postulate of the one, all-pervading, eternal, all-holy God of justice, truth and reason, the very law of society, the Ten Commandments, lose their authority, drift in the air and lack effectiveness. And without the Ten Commandments human society is an impossibility; society would be one of wolves and bears. Now the God-belief, the Decalogue, the teaching and examplifying thereof, is the historic task and problem of Israel. Therefore I claim and justly insist that he represents the first part in civilization. Therefore it may be taken literally: Israel is My first-born son. ( II M. 4 :21 and 19 :6 . . . ) "Ye shall be unto Me a dominion of priests and a holy nation." He is priest, leader and messiah of mankind. The acute, spirited, paradoxical philosopher, Nietzsche, the most outspoken antagonist, the very opposite pole of the Hebraic doctrine, nevertheless, frankly admits that the Jews have well deserved of mankind, for having produced men as Moses, Jesus, Spinoza; books and ethics as Bible and Psalms, and for having suffered a fifteen centuries' martyrdom just on their account. (Menschliches, Allzumenschliches, by Nietzsche.) And this honor of the messiahship, so onerous and so glorious, so cheering and so sad, this epopee of the Exodus narrates how it MOSES, THE PROPHETS AND THEIR MISSION. 33 has been conferred upon the patriarchal house. Here is the genesis of his primogeniture, the sacred record of his spiritual investiture. The promise to Abraham: "In thy seed shall all the generations of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 10), begins here to be realized. These chapters depict in quick strokes and suc- cinct sketches, the great difficulties under which that world-his- torical appointment took place. 'Xet My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness," in this wild struggle for ex- istence; that by their cultivating man's ethical and spiritual elements, they became the pioneers of a higher civilization than that handed down by Phoenicia, Babylonia or Egypt. This means our text. Juda had the task of clearing the wild forests of bar- barism, of removing the rubbish of paganism, of popular igno- rance and superstitions, of implanting the seeds of truth, rea- son, fraternity and justice unto all, of teaching the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men, inculcating human dignity and spirituality. ''Send forth My people that they shall serve Me in the wilderness," is the motto of the Hebrew's mission, the formula of his Investi- ture. Let them go forth and civilize the world. Let them scat- ter and spread over the earth and teach the pure God belief, the Ten Words, the one human race, sympathy and justice to fellow- men. This Israel taught and acted upon, he alone was sincere, others were politic. ISRAEL'S MESSIANIC CAREER. Over 3,500 years ago the patriarchal people was entrusted with the arduous role of the messiahship. It was crowned and sceptered and enthroned, alas ! with a crown of thorns, sparkling with the gems of his tears, his scepter was the staff of emigration and exile, of the homeless wanderer ; his throne was, century after century, the pillory and the funeral pile, in the regal robes pur- pled with his own blood; running the career of self-sacrifice, tribulation and obloquy. Thus he was proclaimed messiah-king and pariah, teacher and first born son of civilization ; to him was given over the kingdom, not of this bodily world, but that of the spirit, of mind. "Go unto Pharaoh and tell him, the Eternal God of the Patri- archs has sent me to thee, saying: Let go My people, that they 34 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. serve Me in the wilderness. But behold, thou hast until now re- fused to obey." Pharaoh, the type of paganism, materialism, con- servatism, the proudest flower of the antique world, answered (II M., 5:2) : Who is Ihvh, the Eternal, whom I should obey?i So the pagan world has been since answering Israel: What do you speak to us of eternal, spiritual matters, of culture, virtue and civilization; of humanity and holiness, we knov/ nothing about that ! \\ e care for conquests and armies, finances and pleasures, for good cheer and luxury, for warfare, additional provinces and power. Let us alone with your spiritual con- cerns ! So spoke the world three thousand years ago. And the world would to this day, as three thousands of years ago speak the same : "Who is IJiz'h — Adonay — that we should listen unto his voice?" What do we care for all your spiritual interests and concerns ? Civilization means to us power and good cheer and an independent fortune. So they would speak, if it were not for Israel's call, ''Send My people to serve Me in the wilderness ;" if not for the heavy mission, the efforts, the great services the Hebrew has rendered to civilization, to human advance and en- lightenment; if it were not for the Ten Words taught by him. Nay, I will affirm even more. The world is even now, 3,500 years after the Exodus, clamoring for the same: ''Who is your Eternal?" What are, indeed, your spiritual interests? We care for power and good cheer — all other things are either subservient, useless or hypocritical ! That is the cant and the trend of popular philosophems. And what is the outcome of the recent labors of Schopenhauer, Hartman, Nietzsche? Not much more! Woe to the people, woe to present civilization, should such views prevail f Eook around, let us muster history. Who is the champion and support of the present civilization, of spirituality, pro- gress, humane education, freedom, work and bread for all ? Who is the backbone, the Swiss-guard thereof ? It is the minori- ty, the chosen few among the nations, the spiritual and mental aristocracy among the peoples ; not the men of the robe, privilege or sword. And this true, mental aristocracy, simply, are the iln the nomenclature of Egyptian mythology, apparently, that august name was missing, but it was included in the Babylonian calendar, god Ea, the just, good and wise, the builder and friend of man. See on that; my Humanity and Charity Laws of Pentateuch and Talmud. See Sayce: Babylonian Religion. ISRAEL'S MESSIANIC CAREER. 35- extended Israel, the Israel lapping- and gaining over into his ranks the best and noblest of mankind. "The Sons of Japheth resting- in the tents of Shem.i In these Shemitic tents they have learned the true objects of human existence, viz : Not power and g-ood cheer, but, 'Xet the people go free, that they serve Me." Clear away the impediments of education, growth, mentality, bread-winning, physical and ethical well-being. Thus Israel's problem is not yet solved and accomplished. He and his Gentile allies are still a small minority. Only then will his mission be fulfilled when mankind, the masses, will accept and realize his platform. Let us expound this; it is well worth while. THE REPLY AND ITS REFUTATION. The Gentile world has been replying to this for these many centuries : ''True, the Hebraic people has been the depository of the Sinaic Revelation. True, they have brought great sacri- fices to this their mission, and we readily acknowledge that they have 2,000 years ago well deserved of humanity. But since that time a new doctrine, a higher revelation has dawned upon the world. The entire genius of the Semitic race has been concen- trated, focalized in Jesus of Nazareth, a Hebrew according to the flesh, and God himself according to the spirit; he brought dowa the last revelation, the higher teaching, the salvation, Chris- tianity, not Judaism, is the Taw. The Jews, not recognizing this fact, nor himself as God, Redeemer, Christ, have forfeited all their claims, rights and privileges as the chosen people, their law is abolished, their role of the messiahship has passed away to New Judaism, to Christianity, which has since taken up their part; Christianity, not Judaism, has become the true expounder of the Bible, old and new, has made triumphant the Decalogue, and has taken up the work of civilization. We have conquered for it three hundred millions of pagans, we have made it the relig- ion of the world, the salvation of mankind. You, Jews, have suffered, cruelly suffered; we are sorry, but we are not respon- sible for it; you suffered for having rejected the Lord Jesus, the Christ. The Bible is triumphant without you, and you can now go and disappear; you belong to the past. So Schleiermacher to Harnack. I M., ix, 26. n^ ont<3 p3K>""! ns^7 D^npNns^i 36 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. The refutation of the trinitarian argument may be formulated thus: True, the Gentiles have propagated the Bible all over the world in the West, but they have added to it a most cumbersome and doubtful appendage: The New Testament. What is the New Testament, critically examined ? It is : A number of small homiletic treatises, the remnants of a larger number lost since; containing many good things, many mediocre and many danger- ous, hard, out of the way, entirely foreign to the original scheme, yea, in part, in flagrant contradiction with it; coming from many diverse hands, ages and vastly different systems, all super-and interfused with miracles and impossibilities, not as corollaries and mere paraphernalia, but as its backbone and substance ; with hard- ly any new, rational, substantial idea; what is good is not new and what is new is not good ; the offspring of an ill-suited inter- marriage of Hebrew spirit with Alexandrian Neo-Platonism, Egyptian and Greek mythology, lastly hailing from Hinduism and Parseeism; with economics, ethics, a state, a community, a church, half Judaic and half East-Asiatic;^ with no work, no property, no family, no marriage ; relying on a God of love and of — wrath, on faith in miracles, rejecting nature as the creature of the devil, with despair for all, original sin and hell for most, the earth a dale of sorrow, and salvation reserved but for the exceptional few, for whom a Man-God died on the Cross; a God of love and also of — hell and original sin ; a system come out by a hap-hazard compromise between Bible, Neoplatonism, My- thology and Hindu-Persian philosophems. This is the New Testa- ment, the *'Bible," propagated by Christianity, the New Judaism. True, Gentiles made triumphant the Decalogue with 300 millions of pagans, but they have stricken out the most prominent feature thereof, the very base with which it stands and falls : "I am the Eternal, thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods besides Me." Instead thereof, they teach trinity, incarnation, atonement, ascen- sion and hell unquenchable. True, they have conquered part of the globe to that doctrine — but not by reason and conviction, but by violence and bribery, by missionaries followed by cannon and political supremacy. 1 Among others, Nietzsche reproaches Christianity with having "brought over Asiatic ideas to the West. He exaggerates. The Judaic part of the New Testament is sober, rational, Biblic. It is Paul and his late Alexandrian successors who introduced oriental views and dogmas into the Occident, the Hellenic Christianity. THE REPLY AND ITS REFUTATION. 37 Constantine, called the Great, lived a heathen and died a nominal Christian, for political reasons. Chlodowig, the Frank, lived and died in the same way ; so Theodorus, the Visigoth king ; and even so Charlemagne. He converted all the Saxons — who would not be drowned in the river ! Such a convert was Wittikind himself, the prince of the Saxons, the baptismal fount or the river was the choice. The missionary societies carry the Bible in one hand, and in the other, powder and shot. When, forty years ago. Rev. Stern did not succeed in Abyssinia, the English fleet and guns were sent to assist him. The son of her King Theodorus, a war- prisoner in London, has been thus converted ! The missionaries penetrate the steppes of Tartary, Thibet and China, invade the Sahara of Africa and explore the wilds of America — reading from the Bible to their novices and pagans, glancing with one eye to their salaries, squinting with the other at the armies behind them, and paving, in the name of God, the way for dominion, con- quest, rapine, gunpowder, opium and fire-water. This for the trinitarian conversions abroad. Kind reader ! you will remember, we are here discussing facts, history, truths, so we must be frank, not palliate, but call things by their names. Now the christologist will object ; These are mysteries, supernatural dogmas and views, and human reason is no criterion here. To this we remember Nachmanides, a Span- ish erudite, in controversy with a monk, on the same subject, the monk pleading that even the angels cannot understand the mys- teries of trinity. Coolly Nachmanides replied : Well, if the angels cannot understand it, how should we mortals do?" We there- fore abide by the verse, iv Moses 29 : 25 : Mysteries belong to God, plain common sense to us and our children. RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL OUTLOOK. As to the trinitarian civilization at home, during the one thou- sand years intervening between the ancient and the modern times, Christendom was rather inferior to the Mohammedan Orient. King, baron and bishop equally debauched and crushed the mass of the people. Few schools, no roads, no safety, little industry and commerce, plenty of monasteries, with idleness, cant, tithes and privileges, but no rights for the people; wars among the princes and mad crusades against the infidels ; fierce competi- tion between the spiritual and the secular heads, between Pope and 38 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. king ever distracted the Church and the State. But even modern times did not fare much better. Let us mention a striking sample thereof in Europe, the flower of that civiHzation. Only a generation ago some 600 princes of the Roman Church assembled in council, at the Vatican, and promulgated the syllabus of their Church, as formulated by them. They anathematized everything truly great and humane. All the noblest acquisitions of the mod- ern spirit were proscribed and held up at the index. They de- clared man's liberty, civil and social equality, free conscience, re- ligious toleration, a free State, universal education, separation of Church from State, freedom of the press, of speech and of thought, all that was declared impious and sacriligious ; heresy, error and damnation. Blind faith and obedience, alone, were affirmed as leading to salvation. They wanted a world under the happy rule of the Jesuits and the inquisiton, under the guardian- ship of an infallible chief — a man who never fails ! Where is such a man to be had? Such a man, the Assembly declared, is the Pope — as long as the bayonets of Napoleon III. protected him against his own people ! What is now the political aspect of that trinitarian civiliza- tion? A generation ago the two most advanced countries of Europe were set at deadly feud with one another. Two ambi- tious men, each working for his own aggrandizement and for dynastic or private interests, each trying to eclipse the other, had abetted two generous nations against each other; for mere ambition they placed the arms of destruction into the hands of two sister-nations. They have converted France, the vainglorious, but generous, impulsive France, the garden of Europe, into a human slaughterhouse, soon a social volcano, ever ready to explode. They have spread mourning and desolation over half the globe with myriads of orphans, lonely mothers and widows, all for mere personal ambition. And what is our social aspect now, in 1909? Social upheavals, universal unrest, camps, navies, dreadnaughts, crushing imposts for, and abject poverty of the masses ; affrontery and overbearing, gloomy misgivings and threats of the classes ; all the wealth on one side, all the wretchedness on the other; with trusts, monster companies, on one side, and the defying unions of workingmen on the other, both menacing society ; the plutocrat and the popu- Maurice Fluegel's Exodus, Moses and the Decalogue. RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL OUTLOOK. 39 lar leader, at each other's throat; pauperization, death and an- archy staring into our faces. Really it is the age of dynamite and bombshells, a silent civil war, each trying to overreach and take advantage; yearly plentiful harvests, still daily raising the price of bread, meat, all the necessaries ; no consideration for the next ; hammer or anvil ! It looks as if on the eve of a social revolution by the fourth Estate; the mass of the people, the work- men, the laborers, the disinherited lowly masses ask for their share. They will no longer be pariahs, but gentlemen ! Thus war, paper-money, fluctuation in the street, the market, in commerce and industries, at the Exchange and the royal cabinets, fierce compe- tition, remorseless, pitiless, legalized war, not with the sword, but with crime, poison, cunning and stratagem. This is our civiliza- tion ! This you call Christian ascendancy ! This is the boastful civilization in Church, society and State. This is the vaunted doctrine and these its effects, the seed and its fruit. This is the way that the New Covenant has outstripped the old one; in that manner have they made the Bible triumphant, have they conquered three hundred millions of men for the Decalogue and the true faith. In that sense did they do the work of human improvement. In that sense did they appropri- ate to themselves the mission of Israel, did they realize the call of "Send forth My people to serve Me !" O, a Decalogue, with- out its base: 'T am the Eternal, thy God?" Monotheism and Trinity? A spiritual God and Incarnation? A God of love and — everlasting hell? An Eternal God — who died and was resur- rected? O, Gentiles, the Hebrew Bible teaches : "God made the World." He saw and all was well done ; "Man is created in God's image," viz : man is rational, free and responsible ; vice and virtue, moral happiness and misfortune depend upon himself; the world is made for the glory of the Creator,^ and the well-being of the creatures. There is no devil and no hell in God's creation. Man creates with sin his own hell. The trinitarian theology teaches : Man and the world are radically corrupt, and cannot be saved except by miraculous grace. Man is the victim of metaphysical, external agents, which make him vicious and unhappy in spite of himself ; happiness is but a rare chance ! Nevertheless man's 1 Psalm xix., 2. The heavens proclaim the glory of the All-Power. 40 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. compulsory, native viciousness is punished with eternal hell-fire — except if God chooses to redeem him by his own blood ! That is diabolical! That is rank pessimism, old heathen, Hindu fatal- ism. That is a doctrine of despair. That is old cruel Baal and Moloch mythology ! What crude conception of divine wisdom and justice ! What. poverty of doctrine, what confusion and what logic ? The starting point, Trinity, is untenable and hence all its sequels : original sin, vicarious atonement, miraculous redemp- tion, etc. Not Nazareth taught that, but Paul; that is old, Asiatic fatalism. Eternal hell-fires, universal damnation, pessimism and infallibility, are the train of trinitarianism. Thus it must be admitted that the New Testament has not out- stripped the Old Testament, the New-Jews have not well respond- ed to the call of *Xet My people go forth and serve Me." Israel cannot yet fuse with the majority. Israel belongs not yet to the past. He has yet to struggle, teach and exemplify, he cannot yet depose his armor. His missionary work is not at an end, the wil- derness is yet barren. Half of the Gospel is Biblic, the other half is Alexandrian, both stand in flagrant contradiction to each other. As Nietzsche says : "J^sus tried to rationalize the West, Paul and the Nicaean Council rendered it Asiatic, mystic." The Gentile world has learned Biblical lessons, but it is far from practicing them. The best, the select ones, have learned them, but not yet the masses. The best have learned them, but they do not govern our society. Society is ruled as yet by brutality, cun- ning and over-reaching: England wants India. Russia and Ja- pan covet China. France desires North Africa. Germany squints at Austria. England looks after the Dardanelles ; Egypt, the Soudan. The United States of North America, built up upon the new principle of industry and work, not intrigue, war and conquest — the United States plunged into war with Spain and, annexed on its way, the out-of-the-way Philippines — a very millstone upon its own free neck, to become its dangerous Achilles' heel, exposing itself to entangling risks, alliances and complications, foreign wars and standing armies, the very oppo- site of the wise polity of Washington, Franklin, Monroe, all. As an offset, England exterminated the heroic Boers and annexed their territory, the future United States of South Africa. Capital enslaves the workingmen, the department store swallows up the retailer and the crafts ; the unscrupulous supplant the honest ones. The industries are oscillating, for so is the paper-money IS ISRAEL TRUE TO HIS TASK? 4f — a dangerous social dilemma! Thus the world has learned the lessons of prophetism, but it does not practice them. Hence is Israel's part not yet accomplished. He cannot retire without en- dangering his mission, the practical, real improvement and frater- nization of mankind : the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man. He retiring, the liberal party among the world's nations will collapse, he being their nursery and nucleus. Hence he must stay and insist upon his task. But you smile, Gentile reader, asking : Is Israel really so ideal ? Is he insisting upon his task ? Does he execute it, in fact and in theory, in the Decalogue, the prophetic ethics, their broad un- clouded humanitarianism, reverence to God, justice and love to fellowmen? Is the Jew a whit better than the Gentile? Does he not look to his worldly interests, even more than to his spirit- ual mission ? . . . Dear brother Gentile reader, I am not infatuated with all the peculiarities of my monotheistic brethren, I am no chauvinist. I know their many faults and shortcomings and deeply deplore them. But listen, these salient, ugly features, these abnormal faults and vices are not native to the Jew ; they are the sediment of two thousand years of exile. The Jew's virtues are his own ; his vices are the world's. These harsh excrescences are the direct outgrowth, the necessary and logical consequences of the world's treatment of the Jew. Such treatment exercised upon any other people, would have produced by far more dire results. The Decalogue, the prophetic ethics ever uplifted him; the cruel, inhuman ostracism degraded and corrupted him; the result is the clear, historical outcome! The nations have by far better Jews than they deserve. Can you, Gentile nations, justly and reasonably complain of your own work, and hold the victim responsible for your perpetrations? Do you ever respect him for his virtues — or for his vices? for his self-sacrifice, talent, learning — or for his gold? The maligned, belittled, traduced patriarchal community meekly replies to its critics with a known, pregnant verse from Solomon's song (I, 6) : ''Look not disdain- fully on me that I am so blackened ; the sun has burnt me. My brother-nations were angry with me; they made me the watch- man of others' vineyards, my own I could not watch." — An exile of nearly two thousand years, an antagonism of three thou- sand, and a Ghetto of five hundred; the inquisiton^ the torture, 42 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. the dunghill as his table, the Yellow Patch and the discriminating Draconian laws — such dragon's teeth you have sewed — and you expect now that every individual of this martyr people should be immaculate ! Is not that ridiculous, monstrous, diabolic ! Anti-Semites, you claim : The Jew is not better. ''Did you suffer him to be better?" Did you grant him free development? If you plant on barren soil, allow no water, sun, air, space and proper cultivation, are i^ou justified in expecting a cedar of Leba- non? But more ! In spite of the long, cruel exile, Israel is yet, by far, better than one could presume. Muster human annals and show me a single example of a people maltreated as he, and for such a lapse of time, and I will prove to you the great superiority of the prophetic people, even the victims of the Ghetto : Here are colossal Russia and puny Roumania that treat their Jews as Pharaoh did of old. The nations around, claiming the Bible and Nazareth as their guides — shrug their shoulders and keep quiet ! And the Jews — a few drops of water could end all their millennial miseries — the Jews meekly bear and refuse to sacrifice their con- science. They submit to pogroms^ starvation, pillage, rape, mur- der — or to exile and poverty in strange lands ; they sacrifice all worldly human happiness to ideal goods, conscientious scruples ! Say, you Anti-Semites, can you do the same ? Look at that poor, long-bearded uncultured Polander, who, during a lifetime, sat on the Russian dunghill, bargaining, haggling his rags for a crust of bread for wife and children, daily exposed to the kicks and the robberies of the Russian police — he leaves his Egypt and Pharaoh, leaves his hut and pittance, and with wife and children begs his way into exile. . . Are they not heroes ? Heroes in the noblest sense of the term ? For conviction, conscience, freedom? Is that not the very spirit of prophetism? Can you sneer at them, taunt them for their worldliness, their mercenary propensities? Are they not true de- scendants of Micha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, of the nation of martyrs? Do you not revere your Jesus, Peter, John, for the very same traits? Why, then, do you not respect these same traits in their brethren, the very present, exiled, maligned Jews? But, you say, not every Jew is a Jesus, Peter, or Paul ? Surely not, but neither is every Gentile of such a calibre! Least of all are you such ideals, O ye anti-Semitic hypocrites ! "Ye seek for the splinter in your neighbor's eye and overlook the beam in your own." MISSION OF CHRISTIANITY. 43 Thus we have seen that Israel's mission is not yet accomplished, the Decalogue is still a mere theory. What then is Christianity? What is its task? Has it failed? Is it a historical anomaly ? No ! What is, is relatively, rational and good. It has its full raison d' etrc. Christianity is a powerful and necessary link in mankind's development. It is an indispensable link in the chain, but not its final scope. Christianity is the providential bridge over which the Gentile world is passing, visibly, clearly, to the pure doctrine of the Biblical prophets, of prophetic Judaism. The Christian world is surely not yet the New Jerusalem, but it is to become so^ gradually. Prophetic Judaism is too lofty, too pure, too rational, too ideal for the uneducated crowd. Both, its doctrines and its methods, are above the horizon of the masses, even of the Jewish, rabbinical masses. Hence the innumerable forms and observances of the Talmud. Old Israel himself needed the schooling of ten centuries before the religion of Isaiah, Micha, Psalms, became intelligible to him. Even since that, he needed the hedges and crutches and handles of the rabbinical ceremonialism to reach it. What a bitter strug- gle had not Maimonides and his successors against Jewish, crude misconceptions of Mosaism ? Even so the Gentile world, it needed and needs such a long and wearisome apprenticeship, a prepara- tory school, teaching the plain doctrines of the Prophets with a strong alloy of inherited notions, remnants of ancient paganism, before it will become ripe for pure prophetic monotheism. That intermediate school of apprenticeship, between the present and the ancient mythic times, is Christianity. The ancient world could not pass at once to Judaism. Jesus and the Apostles could not bring about this sudden transition. Paul and more so, his suc- cessors under Constantine, and the Council of Nicaea (325) created trinitarian Christianity, a compromise between Egypto- Greek mythology and Mosaism. That the Gentile masses accepted and that is trinitarian Christianity. Judaism converts by reason, logic, knowledge. The masses need more drastic, palpable means, even coercion, even drowning, powder and lead. The Christian leaders used that freely : "The aim excuses the means." Thanks to the Biblical spirit and the pagan iron, Christianity has greatly extended the limits of civilization, has called the barbarous Teuton tribes into the pale of humane culture, has abrogated pa- ( Adoration Prayer). ins IDn ^n« "T n\n^ Vi^nn DV3 1 44 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. gan, sacrificial worship, has pulled down some of the Chinese walls between the diverse races and creeds, has opened and ex- tended the view towards catholicity in doctrine, towards a greater humanity, equality, right. So Romanism in its time has well served mankind and contributed to human progress. For centuries of the reign of the brute sword, the Pope, alone, commanding by the right of mind, must have become a real savior. Even the monasteries had their purpose ! They were the only place of refuge for innocence and for learning during dark centuries. During that time the Jews propagated the ancient sciences from the Orient, into the Occident. The monasteries and the monks kindly received them and made them indigenate in Europe. But every institution has its time. Popes, romanism, monas- ticism, Trinitarian Christianity had theirs. Each is a ring in the chain of human advance. Each has rendered in turn its good services. They bear, at any rate, some of the noblest traits of Hebraic prophetism. The Church, as the Synagogue, has had her worthy representatives. Her Chrisostoms, Fenelons, St. Bernards, Bourdaloux, rivaled in true eloquence, enthusiasm and piety the Biblical Samuels, Nathans, Jeremiahs, Aliahus and Michas. When "the scourge of God," the Hun-King Attila, invaded Italy, the bishop of Miland, alone, knew how to oppose and tame the de- stroyer with purely spiritual arms. The fierce vandals in Spain and Africa were softened and civilized by Christian bishops. All the other Asiatic hordes, Franks, Goths, Lombards, Anglo- Saxons, Normans, who overran the effeminated Byzantine, the Roman and the western empires, were civilized and softened by her conversion, her spiritual weapons and led towards a higher civilization than theirs had been. When Chlodowig proudly con- sented to become a Christian, in order to extend his dominions, and sullenly entered the church to receive baptism, the bishop exclaimed : *'Bow down thy head, before the Supreme God, proud Sycambrian !" During the long and dreary centuries from the down-fall of Rome to the advent of the Turks and the fall of Constantinople, the barons were lawless and brutal, uncon- trollable and unblushing in their mad ambitions and passions, their pride and avarice, respecting neither law, prince or em- peror, club law was supreme. The Pope alone was respected ; the Church was feared, papal Rome was the only shield of innocence. Many a proud magnate, nay even kings, had to disgorge their MISSION OF CHRISTIANITY. 45 ill-gotten wealth, spare virtue, let in peace the weak. During many centuries the Church alone was the asylum, and the Pope the only protector of the oppressed. They were the shield of justice, the sanctuary of peace, the refuge of learning. Thus Christianity, for a time, and by virtue of her contents, the Hebraic spirit, the force of the prophetic doctrines underlying her insti- tutions, has vanquished barbarism and civilized the world. It is she who has subdued the Asiatic barbarous immigrations and expunged paganism, because she offered a comparatively higher religion and morality. Not her trinitarian theology, but the prophetic doctrine was her nerve. Thus Christianity, undoubt- edly, has done a great deal of good to the human race. It has paved the way to the Decalogue, the Psalms, the entire Bible. But it has paid a big price for its conquests : It has compro- mised with paganism. 'T am the Eternal, thy God, Thou shalt have no other gods besides Me," has been lost sight of. A ''con- cordat" has been made with the old world. That concordat is trinity. That concordat must be abolished and make room for monotheism. The Unitarian doctrine, with its ethics and polity, now already visibly dominant among the thinking portion of mankind, must also penetrate the lower strata of the nations, and pervade the masses as well as the educated ones. The world has now outgrown that compromise, the hanging-bridge, official trinity; the educational transition period from paganism to prophetic monotheism must come to an end and yield its place to pure, unalloyed, uncompromising monotheism. The child dwells in its cradle, man inhabits the spacious, solid house. The swad- dling clothes of the infant fit no longer the adult. They become an incumbrance, rather than a comfort or protection. Trinity was formerly a stepping stone to a higher doctrine, it is now a stumbling block in the way of true religion and science : Jesus was no trinitarian. Does not the New Testament quote his words : I am not come to abolish, but to fulfill the Law. . ."Not a tittle thereof shall be dropped." Again He said : "The first Commandment is : Hear, O Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal is One, and the second Commandment is : Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." — Could he have taught trinity? Three Gods, and himself one of the three ! No ; it is his later Gentile followers who taught that. They broke the very back- bone of the Mosaic Law. And that backbone must be restored. Paul and especially the Nicaean Council eliminated this most 46 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. exalted unitarian principle of Judaism, and introduced God the Father, the Son and Trinity. They are to be considered as the founders of official Christianity. Jesus, surely, was a pure monotheist; he had no share in Paulinian and especially in Alexandrian doctrines. The Council of Nicaea, with its Graeco- Egyptian theology, ethics and philosophy has had its time. Their work of transition belongs to the past. The future must yield to pure mosaism, to prophetic monotheism, without any alloy of politics, country, race, nationality or previous superstitions. Mod- ern Judaism contains all the solid elements of the Mosaico- prophetic religion ! it is mankind's faith ; it is a world-religion. The Gentile world now has once more to receive the Bible and the Decalogue, but to receive them genuine and unadulterated, from the uncompromising hands of Israel. There they will learn to mind the call : "Let My people go forth and serve Me." There they will read the Decalogue with its entire, grand opening, un- sophisticated i^ I am thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. — Thou shalt know this day and take it into thine heart that the Eternal is God in heaven above and on earth be- neath and none besides Him^. Thus speaketh the Eternal, the King of Israel and his Redeemer : I am the first and I am the last and besides Me there are none.^ Behold all God has made is very good^ — i. e., is perfect, for the happiness of the creatures and the glory of the Creator; the world is of God's making; not the devil's; not for hell, not a dale of woe, no pessimism. He created man and woman in his own image,^ viz : with a divine soul rational, free, responsible ; made for wisdom, goodness and hap- piness. — No eternal punishment, no original sin," *'Be witness that I have placed before thee life and death, choose."^ Hence man has his own free will, is responsible; by his own efforts capable of virtue ; not needing miraculous grace, vicarious atone- ment, hell-fire. Thus we see here : One God : pure Mind ; the best creation; one human race: brotherhood; one right: justice to all; marriage, family, parenthood, work and enjoyment for all; HI M., XX, 2. 2V M., iv, 39. And thou shalt know and meditate in thy heart, that the Eternal is God in the heavens above... and none else. » Isaiah xliv, 6. I am the first and the last, besides me there exists no God. 4 Genesis, i, 31. All that He has made, behold, it was very good. 5 Genesis, i, 27. In His divine image He made them male and female. 6 V M., XXX, 19. Life and death I placed before you... choose life. MISSION OF MOHAMMEDANISM. 47 no trinity, or incarnation ; no devil, hell or original sin ; no mon- astery, no impure matter ; no king or priest by divine grace ; but a happy world, freedom, duty, work, dignity, justice and bread for all; with monogamy, brother-men and sister-races. All that is taught and repeated, over and over, in the Mosaic Genesis and in the entire Bible, and was in letter and spirit, accepted by the Nazarean founder of Christianity. Let us now say a word concerning the Orient and the Moham- medan peoples. As the Occidental nations claim that Israel and his Law has been abrogated by Nazareth, the New Testament and New Judaism, even so the Orient affirms that the Hebrew Scriptures and people have been superseded by Mohammed and the Qoran; that Mohammed is the last and greatest of the prophets. He has, indeed, accepted the One God in spirit, the Bible and its morals, the Decalogue, the Sabbath, for a while even the Atonement-day ; also Jerusalem as his Kebla, etc. And all this was propagated among four hundred millions of Orientals. Hence is he greater than Moses, and his followers are the true faithful Jews. This claim the Mohammedan peoples. To this the Jews reply : True that Mohammed at first was, or claimed to be, simply a disciple of Abraham and Moses. His teach- ers and his spiritual atmosphere were no doubt Jewish or unita- rian-Christian. He had probably even some Jewish blood cir- culating in his veins. A legend makes his mother a Jewess. He no doubt taught the God of Abraham, the El-Elyon, the Universal Spirit; with the deeds, duties and virtues as learned from Abra- ham ; his theology and his morality : truth, justice, kindness and hospitality, peacefulness and urbanity, purity and forbearance, as come down from Abraham and remembered in Arabia and Israel. But later on came a second phase, a new period in his teachings, and especially in his real practice. With success, with conquest and victory came strife, war, bloodshed and pride, on one side; with the ridicule and scoffing, the belittling and antagonism by his opponents, other features came out and got the mastery in his mind. There came the evil passions of ambition, dominion, revenge and overbearing: he had to satisfy his followers who thirsted for carnage, booty and slaves, rapine, lust and conquest. So during this second period other principles, non-Abrahamic, unfortunately, unfolded and became preponderant. Hence des- 48 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. potism, slavery, polygamy, small learning, war and conquest in the Orient to this day. Could then Israel accept such a practice, such a Prophet, such a Messiah, with his Qoran and his revelation ? True, he taught one spiritual God and the Bible. But the Deca- logue was strangely crippled by that, practically curtailed, if not annulled. "Thou shalt not steal, not murder, not commit lewd- ness, not covet thy neighbor's wife, house," etc., was lost of sight. *'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" — was entirely over- looked in Mohammed's and his successors' polity. He accepted the heading of the Decalogue, but left out the body of its teach- ings. He taught the theology, but not its paramount outcome, the morals. Christianity accepted the body, in theory, but cut off the heading, the unity of God. Both treated the Decalogue to a Procrustus' bed, lopping off the head or the entrails. You see, Mohammedanism kept on the head and crippled the body. Christianity adopted the ethics without the doctrine. Moham- medanism adopted the doctrine without the ethics of the Decalogue. The practical, baneful results soon became ap- parent in either camp. The Mohammedan exhibits to this day the features of selfishness, carelessness, restlessness, war- fare, lust, polygamy, slavery, small advance in civilization, economical and industrial backwardness, racial and sectarian intolerance — the old barbarous military regimen. Let us hope that the Young Turk party will begin a new aera. As to the State, Church and social conditions in Christendom, we have above surveyed them. Now, the reason of such flagrant anomalies is, because the first teaches the theology of the Bible and Israel, without the morals ; the other theoretically inculcates the morals, without the doctrine, the divine unity. While monotheism alone is the ground and safeguard of the unity of the human race, of justice and right to each and all. The fatherhood of the One God is the dome to the temple of the brotherhood of man. In both, the Mohammedan and the Trinitarian camps, that grave momentum was not sufficiently grasped and accentu- ated, and was since entirely neglected : either religion became a dry, formal creed without deed, a dead root, without fruit ; either became a cold theology, not an ethical standard for right-living. Hence could Israel not side with the one or with the other. Thus Mohammedanism as Christianity are not final, both are MISSION OF MOHAMMEDANISM. 49 but preparatory, paving the way for the higher revelation of prophetic Judaism. They did not abrogate it, they are but pre- paring it. The creed of the Orient and the creed of the Occi- dent are the sharp iron ploughs tearing up the hard ground of ancient barbarism and fertilizing it with the seed of their mother Religion. They have extirpated the Baal, Moloch and Astaroth worship ; they have mitigated former brutality and sensuality; they have prepared the peoples for the full Ten- Words, for the Biblical God-belief and a purer morality, for the call: "Let my people go and serve Me in the desert." "For from Zion conies the Law and the word of God from Jerusalem." This grand preparatory task they have fulfilled. Mankind now is ripe for a step farther. Now let them both come forth, ad- vance and merge into the full doctrine and full ethics of their mother religion, to the entire and unabridged Ten- Words, to the standard of full prophetism : One God, one human race, one right, one Lav^^ ; freedom, bread and education for all; not gold, power, war; not original sin, devil, hell and despotism. Our Church, State and society must take their stand upon a Biblical basis and Israel must hold on until this basis is established. THE BIBLICAL TEACHINGS. Studying the unadulterated Bible, the Occident and the Orient will learn that this world is not the work of the Devil, of the Evil-principle, fatalism, Ahriman or Satan : for it is written : "And God saw everything he had made, and behold, it is very good." No dale of tears, or hell ! Shall man pas- sively enjoy or suffer, in laziness and oriental resignation? No ! It is written : God said : Increase and fill the earth, conquer and rule the earth, sea and sky, i. e., make efforts, work and enjoy! — "Male and female God created man." Hence is woman man's complement, assistant and companion ; no poly- gamy, or slavery. "Sin lieth at thy door, but thou art master thereof," is man's patent of independence; responsibility, no original depravity, no vicarious atonement and no hell fire ; effort and work bring salvation. All existing races are the offspring of one parental pair; thus brotherhood and equality. 50 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. justice, bread, liberty and fellow-feeling for all the Adamites.^ Thus no aristocratic and no priestly privileges, no discrimina- tion of race, sex, caste. They will nowhere find in the Bible a trace of Trinity, or incarnation ; of vicariate expiation or of human infallibility, of hell and eternal torments. There they will breathe the pure, monotheistic air of the first Command- ment; the one, eternal, spiritual God, calling: "Send forth My people to serve Me." Service to God is to do justice to man; love of God is kindness for man : to propagate peace and good will among men. Leading verses in the Thora are : "And thou shalt love the Eternal, thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy might." (V. M. 6:4.), next: "And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." (Ill M., 19:18.) Here Moses, Hillel, Aqiba, Buddha, Confucius and Nazareth coin- cide. Thus veneration to God and sympathy for man — not political or religious warfare, not shiboleth of birth or privi- lege, are the true tests and objects of society. When the Gentile world will have accepted Thora and Decalogue, in deed and fact, plain, pure and genuine, the task of Israel wall be fulfilled; then Israelite and Gentile will both be absorbed in the one great stream of Humanity. Both will rest at the bosom of their Common Father, the God of the Uni- verse, as they come from and finally rest together in the lap of their common, all-absorbing mother, earth; as the prophetic ideal, "Then will God be One and His name be One." Look around, there is progress in history, mankind does improve, however slowly and hesitatingly. And this even is the sense and the contents of our motto : "Send forth My people to serve Me in the wilderness." Bible in hands, Israel was and is as yet the Providential messenger to call on the savage in the wilderness to become a civilized man, or, as repeated by a later seer (Is. 40:3), standing on the shoulders of Moses: "A voice calls in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Eternal God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain be lowered and leveled that the glory of Ihvh shall be visible to all the flesh." Let us now quote the new leaders. iGen., V, 1, reads: "This is the book of Geneology of Adam. When Elohim created him, in the Divine image He made him (rational and responsible), male and female He made them and blessed them." Finely emphasize the Rabbis: This passage is man's patent of nobility and equality; that nobody shall cavil his neighbor on account of sex, birth, race and social station: All are descendants of one couple. THE BIBLICAL TEACHINGS. 51 After the disastrous war between France and Germany, a generation ago, induced by two unscrupulous men for selfish purposes, the French democracy addressed the German democracy, as brothers do brothers, as fellowmen, beseech- ing them, exhorting them, calling on them to stop war and withdraw the invading army in the name of justice and humanity. "Let us proclaim — they say — the liberty, equality and fraternity of the peoples, long live the Universal Republic, the equal rights of man. Let us form a union of the States of Europe." What great thrilling words, shaking off the old, worn-out prejudices of sect and race and country, and sub- stituting instead, one humanity and one right ! The same proclaimed Castellar and the Spanish liberals : ''All the continent shall form one people, and all the nations one family... We salute in you the advent of right and liberty." Such are the footsteps, the vestiges of the messengers of peace and good-will to all. The same tendency we see in the several churches. The summits of the sects and races begin to feel more kindred. The points of consent are more important than those of dissent. A Jewish minister, a Jewish writer, an advocate of Jewish rights, in these Biblical pages above, enumerates the great historical achievements of the Roman and of the Protestant Churches. Some time ago the Evangelical Alliance paid a warm tribute of recognition to the part and the merits of the Jews in mankind's vast history. The em- peror of the Russians started the Peace or Hague Conference, moving for an international High Court of Arbitration be- tween contending parties and peoples. Already conflicts have been averted by such a dawning international Court. In time it is bound to become supreme and discard war. The great inter-social problems, just as the international difficulties, the old and the modern feuds between wealth and poverty, between capital and labor, between classes and masses, can and must be adjusted only by such future Courts of Arbitration. Thus reason and right are gradually and hesitatingly, yet surely, gaining ground over selfishness, force and over-reaching. On this important theme and its bearing on Israel, we recently gave our opinion as follows : THE PIAGUE ARBITRATION AND THE PROPHETS. "And it will be in the days of the far oflf future, when the mount of the house of God will be firmly established on top 52 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. of all the mounts, whereto all the nations will stream, saying: Let us go and pilgrimage to the Ihvh Mount arid learn of His methods . . . for from Zion comes the divine word. . . And He shall judge between nations. . . and they shall change their swords unto pruning hooks, and their spears to harvest tools and they shall no longer learn warfare. (Isaiah 11). And a sprout will rise from Jesses' stem... on whom will rest the divine spirit, the spirit of wisdom and intelligence, of counsel and strength, of knowledge and fear of God. . .Who shall not judge according to mere appearance or hearsay. Right- eousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness his strength.. .The wolf shall dwell in peace with the lamb, and the lion eat straw as the cow.. ." (Is. XL) Such we find the peace-ideal in Prophets and moralists. "Here we find outlined the Hague Arbitration, the Peace Commission, attempted now by our philanthropists, and our wise statesmen^ who recently gathered in New York as preliminary to the coming Hague assemblage, to banish the sword and, instead, put into man's hands the plough and the tools of agriculture and industry: ''That the entire globe may become the Holy Divine Mount, full of God's knowledge and good will to man, as the sea is covered with water." — That great idea of a permanent Peace Court, peace with honor and justice, is a Jewish idea, a prophetic idea, of now nearly 3,000 years ago. It is just and proper that Jews, descendants from the Prophets, should gather around it, foster and nurture it. Israel is a right and spirit-nation, and shall be strongly represented at the Hague Arbitration Commission. "Let me emphasize this with particular fervor. The Jews of America and Europe should earnestly see to it that they are well and solidly represented at the permanent Hague Arbitration Court. They have a right to it, but they also have the duty of it. Their right is a historical, millennial one: Be- cause their leaders, prophets and moralists have first pointed it out as the goal, the idea and the final aspiration of mankind. But it is their duty and racial interest. The Jews suffer as a nationality, a confession and a race. They are persecuted with iron and blood by barbarous nations. They are mortified and maligned even among so-called civilized nations. They are such as Jews ; and as Jews they are entitled to be represented 1 Hon. Jacob H. Schiff and other Jews were not missing there. THE BIBLICAL TEACHINGS. 53 at the World's Peace and Justice Commission. There they shall bring to the knowledge of the great International Coun- cil their grievances, and demand justice as a right for the des- cendants of those who gave the world the idea of universal peace and justice. They, first, said that as long as nations fight there is barbarism, and that, alone, with peace and justice civiliza- tion begins. The papers of April 16, 1907, published the United States Presi- dent's letter on peace arbitration, offering many vistas and points very well presented, while others are questionable. The presiden- tial letter says : ''Though it is our bounden duty to work for peace, yet it is even more our duty to work for righteousness and justice. If they are ever at odds, it is right- eousness whose cause we must espouse." This paragraph hits the nail on the head. To insure peace without justice, fails, the mark. All the great despots of history made the same plea for their wars, conquests and usurpations, claiming that men envy and rob each other, the prince compelling them by superior force to live at peace. So reasoned Alexander, Cae- sar, Tamerlane, Charlemagne, Napoleon. The laws of Hammu- rabi, the Twelve Tables, the Code Justinianus, the several feudal codes, all aimed at peace, but at peace without justice and equity. They simply developed injustice and inequality. The legislator sanctioned and rendered permanent the injus- tice or unrighteousness, conditions which had been created. The statutes perfected and consummated what war and ambi- tion had begun. President Roosevelt deserves well in having called attention to the stern fact that arbitration and peace are only meritorious when they are gained and firmly estab- lished on solid justice and fairness. Peace without justice is worse than war: it is death, slavery without redemption, bru- talizing men by the whip of fear and hope. The letter continues : ''But harm and not good would result if the most advanced nations, those in which most freedom for the individual is combined with efficiency, security and justice, should, by agreement, disarm and place themselves at the mercy of other peoples less advanced and in a state of military barbarism and despotism; if civilized and peace-loving peo- ples, with the highest standards of international obligations and duty, would by disarmament be unable to check other nations with no such standards of obligation." Against this paragraph a closer examination of facts must demur. If The Hague Arbitration Commission would ordain and insist that 54 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. justice-loving peoples should disarm and permit the barbarous ones to remain armed, such dire consequences might well re- sult. But states now advocating peace arbitration are not children and not imbeciles. Their great object and aim will and shall be the universal and total disarmament of all peoples and nations, civilized or not, and making it a standing rule that all international differences shall be settled by arbitration and never by resort to war. And next : "Since 'ultima ratio zis est' the arbitration board will decree and prescribe for every nation, to entertain a stipulated military force under command of a general of their choice, which all such military contingents together shall be ready to forcibly compel any refractory people to do justice, to resign war and submit any and every disagreement, claim or cause, to the same, one, supreme arbitration commission for final settlement, that will secure peace with justice, which our Chief Magistrate so well emphasizes. "Interrogating history we find this ever to have been a method of discarding strife and bringing about peace with justice. France was a monarchy composed of a large number of duchies and kingdoms ever at war with each other. Louis XL, Henry IV. and Louis XIV. compelled the dukes to forego war and resort to arbitration or peace with justice. England had its turbulent barons and earls; Germany had its princi- palities, grand dukes and princely courts, each independent, measuring their rights by their power to make war against each other and even against the sovereign. They yielded at last to the necessity of law and order, recognizing an authority to settle their mutual claims on the basis of peace with justice. "The United States of North America, the expanded united colonies, as soon as they disrupted from England and acquired their independence, did just the same. Each state is governed by law, not by force, and all the states settle their differences by the courts, peace with justice. "Should we hesitate to disarm the civilized nations because the barbarous ones are aroused and resort to war? That would be postponing peace for war; that would be sacrificing civilization to barbarism. As long as we have war between nations we cannot claim to be civilized. And as long as we tolerate international war we must connive, and are conniving, at private wrong. But one would object: The barbarous countries may not submit to disarm and rely on arbitration, but ever prefer to rely upon their force? I doubt that. Let the United States, England, France, Germany, Italy, etc., indorse arbitration and THE BIBLICAL TEACHINGS. - 55 total disarmament, with the proviso of one, single public force to compel all refractory parties, and I deny that Russia or Turkey, or Morocco will dare contradict the reasonable will of the combined civilized powers, and stand up single-handed against the will of civilization, reason and force united in such an arbitration court. Such civilized countries, united under the flag of peace Avith justice, will be irresistible, war will disap- pear, the sword will make room for arbitration, the plow, the tool, and the barbarous peoples will have no other choice than to submit with good grace to the higher civilization, to peace with justice. Behold, what disgraceful, horrifying things went on in Russia, Armenia, Roumania, no less than in Morocco or Persia ! And the civilized peoples stand aghast, ashamed, looking on ! Adopt that policy of disarmament, arbitration and a single international military force, and such crimes against humanity — such shameful perpetrations — will disap- pear. ''Passing over the discussion of other points in Roosevelt's let- ter, we shall close with the remark that it is perfectly true that the problem is vast and difficult, and that ''it is better to ac- complish something, but in the right direction, than to ask much and obtain nothing." But, we emphasize, let enlightened arbi- trators and friends of humanity not block their way by lack of courage. Let them not despair before they begin action. Western mankind is ripe for a treaty of general disarmament and a supreme court of arbitration. They have only to say: We will, because it is our duty, because it is just, reasonable and timely that nations as individuals bring their cases before an arbitration court and that only beasts and savages repair to war. Let them proceed on this road as slowly and cautiously as necessary, but ever uphold this principle and this convic- tion, viz : That in the world as it is, in our present environ- ments, it is possible, desirable and even for any and every civilized nation, correctly understanding her own interests in harmony with those of civilized fellow-mankind, to manfully agree to submit to arbitration all and every difference, which may arise between nations and countries, by an international high court of peace and justice, according to law and equity, and thus gradually form all civilized countries and peoples into one vast United States of the world.^ iPublished in Baltimore American, April 20, 1907. I add that, having written that to our revered friend, Professor A. H. Sayce of Oxford-Cairo, he replied: "I am afraid that as long as man Is "w^hat he is, war will go on," 56 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Thus this great work of human unification, pacification, and fra- ternization, on the platform of prophetic monotheism and the Ten Words, is slowly and gradually, hesitatingly, yet surely being accomplished. The bright day of the reconciliation of Jew and Gentile, of the Orient and the Occident may be discerned on the horizon. It has dawned upon the best of all the nations and creeds. In the first centuries of the present aera, as yet, the world was pagan, worshipping Baal and Astaroth, Assur and Merodach, with human sacrifices, unchastity and despotic all- power. From the fourth to the sixteenth century it became Catho- lic, with trinity and infallibility, with the Pope claiming precedence over Caesar, mind over force, right over the sword — an advance to be sure. In the sixteenth it became Protestant, strongly lean- ing towards the Hebrew Sacred Writ, with some faint recognition of the right of reason and conviction. In the eighteenth century Frederick II, Catherine II, Voltaire, Leibnitz, Spinoza, Mendels- sohn, Kant, and the Encyclopaedists advocated free thought. In the nineteenth the elite, the flower of Christanity was Unitarian, pleading for a free conscience, a free man and woman, a free citizen in a free country : Church, school, press and speech free. One step more, one effort more , some positive science more, a little more frankness, and the masses will be educated, enlighten- ed and gained over to reason, to one God, and one right for all; the world will stand upon Biblical grounds, Jew and Gentile, Arian, Turanian, and Semite will fuse into one humanity. That epoch is yet far away, but the dawn of it, '* the footsteps on the mounts of the peace-messenger are discernible." CHARLES VOYSEY ON "JEWS AND THEIR MISSION."i "What is the mission or destiny of the Hebrew race? The answer to it is, I think, to be inferred from their past history. What have they been, what have they done hitherto; and where do they now stand? Eliminating for the present all reference to miraculous reve- lation, and looking with a cold, calm, and mundane eye on the stream of Jewish history, nothing can be more obvious than the fact that, as a nation, the Jews have been the guardians of a truth which they consider above all things sacred. They had no raison d'etre except as preservers and defenders of this sacred iln the London Jewish World (1870?). CHARLES VOYSEY ON "JEWS AND THEIR MISSION." 57 trust. It is nothing to the purpose how it arose, by whom con- veyed to the people, under whose authority it was enshrined. Whether given by the very mouth of God, or merely by the natural agency of the mind of some great law-giver, the fact re- mains the same, that the Jew believed something which he and his whole race were to guard as the most priceless treasure, and to defend with their life's blood. Not only is this proved by the endurance through, perhaps, four thousand years of that simple belief in all its original purity, in spite of every form of corruption and persecution, but it is also proved by the history of the various apostasies which are re- corded in the Scriptures. It cannot be denied that in the period of the kings of Israel and Judah, masses of the people fell away into idolatry. But never was the nation left without witness for God and His truth. It survived the corrupting influence of the favor of kings no less than the threatening hostility of open perse- cution. The Hebrew Scriptures are a record of the preservation of the sacred trust amidst the degradation and apostasy of nearly the whole people, and amidst the contaminating influences of captivity in idolatrous lands. The fact that it is preserved alive unto this day — not merely in the words of a book, but in the hearts of Jewish men and women all over the world, in spite of contact with every form of religious beliefs more or less idolatrous — furnishes, in my opinion, the strongest possible indication that in the course of Divine Providence the Jews have been perpetuated to this day on purpose to preserve this sacred truths and that they have been scattered into all lands, among all creeds, on purpose to proclaim it, and to teach it to their less enlightened fellow men. Nothing, to my mind, is more remarkable than that while the Jewish race, since its first Levitical organization, have modified considerably some — if not the most important — of the ceremonies believed to be of divine origin ; and while Jews of this present age in various lands show a distinct and de- cided variety in consequence of the inevitable influence of sur- rounding customs, their belief in the one Lord God remains ever unchanged ; identical in every land, untouched by the subtle attractions of a very sensuous and anthropomorphic re- ligion. It is not then for the rites and ceremonies, nor even 58 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. for every detail of Mosaic legislation, that the Jewish people have been so marvellously preserved, but for the maintenance and transmission and, as I hope, universal spread of their one fundamental and imperishable thought, "The Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength." No boasted unity of Christendom in its palmiest days could ever show the unity of Judaism in their one cardinal belief. From the days of Abraham — in whom God promised that all the families of the earth should be blessed, and of Moses, who uttered forth the glorious and immortal song, "The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-sufifering, plenteous in goodness and truth" — down to this very hour, the conception of God has retained its purity, with all the constancy and brilliancy of the sun in the firmament. Only what was once the religion of the few, and impressed by slow degrees and under a stern dis- cipline upon the whole Jewish people, after centuries of back- sliding and apostasy, has now become the universal faith of the Jewish people — the one point upon which there can be no divergence. Circumcision does not make a Jew, for there are races which practice circumcision who are not children of Abraham. Rites and ceremonies do not make a Jew, for these alter with altered circumstances, and are wisely modified by experience and common sense. The "blood of bulls and goats" no longer stains the floors of the temples ; the fumes of the burnt sacrifice no longer ascend to the skies. But the love of the One True God still warms the hearts of devout worship- pers ; and instead of our smoke going up to heaven, heaven sends down to us the kindling flame of brotherly love. Isolation, exclusion, rigidity of forms and ceremonies — all these may have been needful, and may still be needful, as scaf- folding is to the building; but surely the devout Hebrew mind must perceive that these are not the building itself — not the true temple which the Lord hath built, and not man. The sacred trust, then, kept — the Lord be praised ! — unto this hour, never before in all time more cherished, more pre- cious than it is now in the dawn of brighter days for the chosen race, is the object for which the race was called out of bondage, drilled by centuries of painful discipline, sheltered and kept faithful through the most cruel persecution. CHARLES VOYSEY ON "JEWS AND THEIR MISSION." 59 To me, once a Christian, but now animated, strengthened and refreshed by the same trust in the Hving God which in- spired and nourished the souls of Abraham, Moses, Isaiah and the Psalmists — a very Jew in my religious belief, though not in externals — to me, I say, it seems as if the time were come when you Hebrews may, with perfect safety and success, make some efforts to lead the Gentile world into the marvelous light which has cheered you through your many weary pilgrimages. God gives no gift unto men to hide in their bosoms, and not to share it with those who have it not. Not even His best and noblest gifts of faith and love are ours only to keep selfishly for the warmth and comfort of our family and race. The poor Christians, whose attempts at your conversion are so truly ridiculous, are yet moved, let us trust, by a sort of generosity; and though it may be repugnant to your feelings and taste to adopt their tactics, you may take a lesson from their zeal. Christianity and all polytheistic or idolatrous religions are dying. Atheism is gathering its unhappy victims. Anthro- pomorphism is still further degenerating into a shameless worship of the creature instead of the Creator. Judaism still lives — the salt of the earth. Free from idolatry and every subtle form of creature worship, inspiring an imperturbable serenity and a glowing hope, it is alone fitted to come forth once more as the leader of religious thought, the deliverer of souls out of bond- age, and the herald of divine peace to those who are without hope and without God in the world. Would that you could dare to throw open your synagogues — if only once a week — to worshippers of all creeds, to hear an English service and an English sermon ; retaining on your Sabbaths and festivals all your traditional ceremonies as be- fore. You would lose nothing yourselves. You would give a priceless boon to many who, like myself, have hungered and thirsted for words of faith and hope in this wilderness of un- belief and superstition. PRACTICAL RESULTS OF THE EXODUS. Theme: II M. 12 :12.— "On all the gods of Egypt I shall exercise judgment." What is the practical result of the Exodus? What has man- kind really gained by it? What impulse has it given? What 6o EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. are Israel's contributions to mankind's ideas and achieve- ments since 3,500 years? We speak of the new aera of Israel's mission and messiahship : Is that pretense or truth ? What has he achieved and what may he yet achieve? The answer is, summarized, given in II M., 12 :2 : "Over all the gods of Egypt I shall pass judgment!" All the gods, all the powers and principles, all vital institutions have been changed and reno- vated since Moses and the Exodus. Not two stones have been left together of the old religions. The entire ancient polity, in palace and temple, land and government, has been changed and reconstructed, and all was so upon the basis of the Exodus and its new principle : ''I am Ihvh," and its logical sequels. Let us survey history and we shall find our motto literally and grandly verified. Egypt of the Pharaohs was the pattern of the ancient pre- Sinaic polity. The civilization of Hindustan, Phoenicia, Baby- lonia, Chaldea, Assyria in its highest form and noblest type, was in Egypt. The best of the ancient Church and State, of mon- archy and priesthood, classes and people, habits and laws, agri- culture, crafts, commerce and industry, all was there — and since that all was declared deficient and incompetent, meney mene tekal!^ Limb by limb and principle by principle, all and each was removed, an absolute break-down took place and reconstruc- tion was achieved. New laws were laid down for State, society, religion, family, education, human practice and theory, life and as- pirations. And this was effected by Sinai's polity since the Exodus, 3,500 years ago; really and literally realizing the motto: ''On all the gods of Egypt I shall execute judgment, I, Ihvh/' Let us have a careful survey of history, without any bias or preconcep- tion, any made-up opinion, and we shall be agreeably surprised at the amount of improvement mankind has realized since and by the principles of the Exodus and Sinai. EGYPT'S POLITY SURVEYED. I. The base of the State and society of Egypt was religion. What was that religion ? It was polytheism ! As many races and provinces, so many gods, so many capitals and temples ; each deity had its own city, represented in a triad? Such were iDaniel. ...^pn XJD ,t guides ; no, he must hush and obey or leave, give up his con- science or the bread of his family and make room for a more pliable orator. Kind reader! I trust your better conscience will approve of this outspokenness, and your good American common sense will suggest to you the urgent necessity of remedying these crying evils. Thus, without the Sabbath and holidays, our noble rest-and recreation days, the first calling to our mind the people of spiritu- ality, the latter our relation as to nationality, country, history, what shall become of our task as the "kingdom of priests and holy nation?" How shall we hand down Qur mission to our posterity on behalf of fellow-mankind? Or shall we belie ourselves and think to do it by the mere forms and observances, neglecting the Ark of the tablets of the Ever Living ancestral God, and worship, alone, at the sacred ashes ? Or can the Reform imagine to do it by the elegant temples, the fine choirs, and the rhetoric? Will they preserve the spiritual heritage of the ancestors by costly pews, gilt prayer-books, scanty confirmation lessons, and services of state, mere show and ostentation ? Have not the ancient Greek and Roman temples had just as much music, architecture, and ele- gance? and still they miserably collapsed at the onslaught of re- ligious zeal? What is needed is conviction, principle, education, devotion^ energy, higher humane life. Alas for Judaism, if mere observances or temple oratory will be its anchor of salvation ; if we shall hand down to our posterity no longer the holy Ark of Eter- nal Life, but that of the venerable ashes of past recollections, the mere symbols without their contents, or the mere pomp without substance and soul. Reformers ! consider : Reform — and no Sab- bath, and no holiday, no instruction, no good example, nothing but business and frivolity, thoughtlessness and worldliness. O, ye Orthodox ! Orthodoxy and no Sabbath, and no Holidays, but ignorance and bad example, hypocrisy and make-shift ! Is that Reform? Is that Orthodoxy? Is it not a misnomer, either of them? American Israel, ye boast so much of your civilization, your flourishing condition, your sacrifices for your inherited faith. But are you not rather hilarious at the brink of ruin? Don't you close your eyes and stop your ears in presence of stern facts, of religious, mental and moral decadence? (Isaiah 1:2) 'Xisten, O ye heavens, for God is speaking 1 Children I have reared and exalted, but they have rebelled. . . Hear, O ye Lords of Sodom, of what use your many sacrifices,. So EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. your pomp and ceremonies.. .Your Sabbath, moon and holidays try My divine patience, your prayers are but Hp-service and your devotions, lies. (Is. 58.) Call aloud, spare not, tell My people their wrong-doings and the patriarchal house their hypo- crisies !" Why, we fast and pray but Thou seest not? ''Indeed, on your very fast-days you think at your advantage, ostentation and amusement. No ! Otherwise is the fast I choose : Loosen the "bonds of trusts and monopolies, disentangle the business methods ; free the weaker of crushing competition, live and let live ! Then shall your light shine as mid-day-sun and your prosperity flourish as the Eden-Garden.. .1 BRIGHT SIDES. And nevertheless the picture of American Israel does not lack its bright sides either : Bright and cheering, manifold and sub- stantial, encouraging to great hopes in a near future. He counts up now, in 1909, to nigh a million and three-fourths of people. Economicaly all do fairly. A few are wealthy. Many are well- to-do ; all, nearly, earn their bread, laboriously, in the sweat of their brow, yet comfortably, in comparison with the Ghetto. Their ranks count, comparatively, but few lawbreakers. All, even the re- cent immigrants, have a decent appearance; are cleanly, orderly, providing for the family, saving for the future, sending their chil- dren to school, teaching them diverse crafts ; many enter the pro- fessions, some even are in the states service, artists, scholars, be- ginning to show the brilliant, inherited qualities of their race, some faint glamor of the "kingdom of priests" and the chosen people. They have at least in some respects, outdone their fathers, in ex- terior manners, forms and decent, personal appearance. They are gradually throwing off their shy looks, timidity, bent posture, with the old-time jargon, their Ghetto mannerisms, the old-time neglect of person and speech and habits, the sad consequences of the Russian regime, of the late, crushing half-century. They are getting less bigoted and superstitious in their views, less of sticklers, less intolerant and chauvinistic, a few even are broad- minded and educated. They begin to learn civic virtues, to respect and cherish their American fellow citizens, keep up their noble, inherited, old-time charities. Greater still is the progress of the Germanic Jews. They have already founded some of the most magnificent institutions for iWritten on the Atonement eve, as a reminiscence of prophetic addresses. AMERICAN ISRAEL. 8i education, for the sick, the poor, the aged, the neglected, the or- phans and all the striving ones of the newly arrived co-religionists. Some of their rich have contributed princely, shedding honor upon the race and the faith of Israel, and the rank and file have not remained backwards, did their best. And, when we remember that these all belong to the disinherited and ostracized of Europe, who have in one to three or five decades succeeded so much, that re- sult is highly cheering ! Thus there is a fine offset to the above mentioned short-comings. We do not boast, but we need not, either, be ashamed of American Israel, not even of his standing among the civilized American races. He is inferior to none. The fact is, there is no cause for despondency and giving up. Man's entire standing is just as could be expected, just as circumstances allow. The first generation of Jewish American immigrants had to look after bread, bodily self-preservation, economical, commercial well-being, to cottage^, bread and raiment. Competition is fearfully pressing, especially up- on the foreigner. He must fight with might and main to ward ofif from his door the wolf, hunger. Did not our teachers say : "Harder is to make a livelihood than even the passage over the Red Sea." . . . "Turn thy Sabbath into a weekday, but apply not for assistance."^ Our immigrants acted upon that. Our sages often pointedly interpreted in that sense the ingenious verse : "There is a time (temporarily) to set aside God's Law (Berakhoth 54 a) ^ The immigrant acted upon that ; for a time he set aside the Law, the ritual and the ceremonies, to gain a foothold, a livelihood in this bitter struggle for existence. He acted as if he had forgotten them. Still really he ever managed to remain a Jew, even to keep up always the appearance of a gentleman, to remain within the bounds of morality and to prepare for the vindication of his full historical part as a member of "the people of priests and holy nation." A generation has now been spent in these efforts. It is now high time to resume the work of rehabilitation and recon- struction, to constitute the million and three-fourths of American Jews as a notable, significant, cultured and religious community within this great American comonwealth. It is high time to begin the work of reconstruction of Ameri- can Israel. We cannot any longer defer and wait. Hence our nvi3h Tinvn ^xi bin ^nnt?^ ncj'v ;5iid-d^ nynps nona ni^p i niK^y:? ny di^o — '^min nsn Yb n)^vb nv * Often quoted by the Talmud. 82 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. WOMAN TO ASSIST, frankness. I hope not to be misunderstood in giving the picture of the state of things. It is in order to show and convince that we must no longer hesitate, but begin to bring order and Hght into our ethical, religious and educational chaos. We were not sparing the colors, but we had to appeal to the Brethren. We had to clearly point out, fraternally, but frankly, the extent of the dis- temper, in order to energize and induce them to apply the urgent remedy. To cure a disorder, the physician must honestly com- mence with making his diagnosis. He cannot afford to flatter and spare the feelings of the patient at the cost of his life. He must state correctly and distinctly what is the ailment, and that is the intent of the aforegoing delineation. Such a diagnosis is the preliminary to safe curing and an honest statement is the first and indispensable requirement to search for and find out the remedy. That remedy is at hand, if there is the will. American Jews, be not deceived by your commercial competency, your rights and your freedom. You need organization, renovation, eliminating the Ghetto to the last trace, and constituting occidental Judaism on a solid basis. A Medrashic legend narrates, when Moses desired to know the place, exactly, where Joseph's remains had been deposited, then there was but one person of that age alive to inform him thereof. It was a woman : Serach, daughter of Asher, the "wandering Jewess" of those times. She had lived on till the promise given to Joseph was redeemed, and it was she who showed to Moses the place where Joseph's metallic sarcophagus had been lowered down into the waves of the deep bed of the Nile, the rushing waters over his head lulling him to sleep. Then Moses, standing on the shore of the river, called out : ''Joseph ! Joseph ! the time of the redemption of Israel has arrived. ^ Come, arise, ascend from the deep !" And the cold ashes began to glimmer, move and stir at this vivifying call of Moses, of liberty and posterity. The sarcophagus, attracted by the magnetic power of sympathy, coun- try and kindred began to budge and move and rise, and heavily floated up to the surface of the Nile, to join the redeemed." The legend of Joseph's ashes revivified by the sympathy of race, at the instance of a kindred patriot, has its significance. Israel has yet two anchors of salvation deeply moored in the 1 Yalkut ad locum. WOMAN TO ASSIST. 83 ground of history, defying all the rage of indifference, distances and times. These anchors of American Judaism are: Firstly, The magnetic force of adherence of the scattered members to the race ; Secondly, The persevering, instinctive fidelity of the Hebrew woman, that irresistible power, that attraction which for thousands of years has held together our broken ranks, making them feel as limbs of one body, in spite of their many countries and idioms, their ritualistic misunderstandings, their untold misfortunes and unparalleled dispersion. That power of adherence may yet hold good, keep together and re-invigorate the relaxed ties and bonds of American and of universal Israel. Next, that magnetic force of national adhesion may be re-enlivened, those sacred ties of family, blood, history, achievements, faith and reminiscences may once more be resumed and indissolubly knit together by the pure and faithful hands of the Jewish v/oman, the Serach, daughter of Asher, of our days. The power of womanhood is comparatively a new social factor, well known and utilized in Am.erica. Asia knew it not, yea, denied it. The Bible made a great effort to uplift the sex, but the Asiactic society, resting upon brute force, kept it down. The Essenian- Christian revolution developed the Biblical woman's rights. It is American society that practically and finaly uplifted woman to the position of full humanhood. In America she is attaining, slowly, her natural station as a free-born, rational, moral and responsible human agent. Let Israel take hold and utilize that new social power, the next after that of race adherence. When both these factors, the racial Hebraic cohesion and the Hebrew woman prove true, then a new Moses would come and sound the trumpet of spiritual regeneration and of renewed national life; when the new circumstances will call for a new Moses, he will appear. Then will dawn the morn of a fresh, bright, sunny day of regeneration for our beloved brethren of universal and of American Israel. Then will the epoch of re- demption arrive, the Exodus from our modern Egypt, viz : the intellectual apathy, moral torpor and racial disintegration, with the all-absorbing, one-sided materialsm, and render Israel to his calling, as the historical people of culture, ethics and religion; the people of work and of knowledge, the vanguard of humanity, the providential agent of spiritualizing and sanctifying mankind. 84 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. As to the inherent, psychic power of adherence and mental at- traction of the members of Juda, it undoubtedly exists. But if it exists as yet to such an extent as to become a pivot for action, a base of new possibilities and national combinations, that cannot be categorically affirmed. It must be watched and carefully stimu- lated. As to our second factor, the American Jewish women, to you the Jewish patriot must look up for assistance in these days of baleful indifference and disintegration. Sisters, take the initia- tive, nurture and uphold the union of Israel, of the race, of the salient doctrines, the noble principles and the practical humane life taught by Judaism. To you we look up in this grave moment of hesitation. With your Jewish, warm and pure hearts, and with your busy, clean hands you shall keep up the sacred fire of relig- ion, education and refinement ; you shall nurture that bright flame of genuine Judaism in the breast of your husbands, brothers and children. You must entertain the sterling qualities of your race, fidelity to the living and to the dead, to the past and to the future, to wise conservatism and improving advance, to the millenial doc- trines and aspirations of your people. You will thus prepare the advent of the new Moses, who would surely come, without fail, when you and Jewish adherence prove true. Such a Moses will appear and redeem us from our one-sided life of money- making at any price, from our disgraceful indiflferentism and our abject materialism, and make us again, as once, "the kingdom of priests and holy nation," the people of ethics, of knowledge, of thinking and working; the vanguard of mankind, the locomotive of civilization. As such the liberal, original settlers here, the English and Scot- tish dissenters, the French Huguenots, the German farmers and the Irish laborers, etc., have received us on these hospitable, free shores of Columbus' land. They have received us with such favor- able preconceptions and presumptions, viz. : as the genuine Israel of the Bible, of the Decalogue, of "Love thy neighbor as thyself," of peace and good will to all, as the "kingdom of priests," devoted to the higher pursuits of humanity. It is our duty and our in- terest, yea, prudence dictates not to disappoint them, but to show them that Israel's object and mission is still, as of yore, to render mankind better and wiser. When our ancestors emigrated to the Roman world, to the west of Europe and to the east and south of Maurice Fluegel's Exodus, Moses and the Decalogue. WOMAN TO ASSIST. 85 Europe, they came there accompanied, as Moses at the Exodus, by those two arks, with the ashes of the fathers, and the Hve doctrines of the prophets, and they arrived into their new homes with their higher faith and a higher civiHzation, they arrived there as teachers, as inaugurators of a higher culture. ^ So. the Jews accompanying the Arabs to North-Africa, to the Spanish peninsula, and later when passing over to France, to Germany, to Poland, everywhere brought over and imparted to those semi-cultured countries a higher civilization. They created schools for popular education, for the sciences, arts, industries ; translated for them the masters of antiquity and connected them with the great ancient nations. Thus they brought to their \yestern fellow citizens a higher civilization and more refined ethics. We are to do the same in our new America. We must reconqfier our tzi'o arks, neglected during this last emigration. We must continue to be here the people of culture, to foster h^e higher education and ethics, conscience, honor and enlightened God-be- lief. We must not always imitate and admire, but, where necessary, criticise, create, improve and bring out higher patterns of citizen- ship, scholarship, etc., relying upon the good American common sense of the people which will be grateful — and not be afraid' of the jealousy of crafty politicians.^ Then the American people will not mistake us for mere dealers, for obscure, selfish, bigoted -sec- tarians. No, they v/ill recognize in us the triie and genume de- scendants of the prophetic polity, that our task and misskin is to render the United States people : "a people of priests andHaoly na- tion," and gradually, by education, freedom and economic im- provements, create for mankind a United States of the world. iln my personal hearing, Professor Roscher admitted this, in sl lec- ture at the Leipzig University, in the winter of 1885-6. 2 Such a scholarly politician recently said to a foreign-born natuiel- ized scholar: "Forty years ago we used to give oflfice to foreigners, now we do not. My pupil will be my successor." Yes, but whether* the coming generation will be the gainers, that is doubtful. 86 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Study III, EXODUS. THE DECALOGUE, INTRODUCTION. Theme: ''A kingdom of priests and a holy nation." We read in Exodus xix : 2-9 : ''In the third month after the Israelites had left Egypt, they arrived into the wilderness of Sinai . . .and rested opposite to the mount (Horeb). And Ihvh called out to Moses : Thus shalt thou speak to the house of Jacob and tell the house of Israel, Ye have seen what I have done unto Egypt and how I bore you, up, as on eagle's wangs, even to Me. Naw, if you will listen unto My voice and observe My covenant, ye shall be a precious property unto Me, selected from among all the nations^ for Mine is the entire earth — Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. "And all the people answer- ed, saykig: Whatever the Lord has spoken, we shall do." Justly the sages remark here •} This was addressed to the women and to the men, to all, to pi*rest and to laymen, to the young and to the old. Not as with other nations, there is one relig'ion for the learned, the initiated, and another for the uniniti- ated, the common people. No, Israel's doctrines are universal. The^.know no particularism; and even so was the reply universal, all accepted the mission. We?|e^hty and pregnant is this introduction to the Decalogue : ''Ye have geen how I have dealt with Egypt — the pattern of ancient polytheisnv- Now, if you wifl inaugurate and adhere to my cove- nant, fhe civilization of monotheism, ye shall be my specially elected and consecrated people, among all the other nations, for all of them are mine. Ye shall be my kingdom of priests among the nations of the earth." Thus Israel is not a contradiction, not an apposition to, not antagonizing the other nations. No ! He is their complement, leading on to higher phases and developments, in church, state and society, in faith, knowledge and humane life. Thus here, at the very start, Mosaism constitutes Israel as the priestly l!tader, in full harmony and in perfect fraternity with his sister races of the human kind ; and that is of extreme importance. However much the Mosaic lawgiver abominated the idolatrous ways of the antique peoples, he never confounded the latter ones with their idolatry, he ever conceived them as forming but one Yalkut ad locum Dn^JH n^5< — D^Ji^iH npX i THE DECALOGUE INTRODUCTION. 87 with mankind, as part of the one human race, as kindred and brothers, as of the same parental stock, made by the same divine Creator, of the same social nature and the same ethical interests. He taught his own people another theology, other cosmic views, nobler morals and manners, but ever compatible with the other peoples, framed so as to gradually become the doctrine of all of them.i He never entertained race prejudice nor any native, local bias. "Mine is all the earth ; Mine are all the nations." No pro- vincial god and no racial god ; the Deity is universal and humanity is universal! How sublime! How far above the horizon of heathen lawgivers! Whether the Decalogue be the germ and nucleus, or whether it be the epitome of the principles of the Mosaic Legislation, be it that the Sinaic Ten Words are the revelation of three thousand five hundred years ago, or as ^'higher criticism" gratuitously assumes, of but two thousand five hundred years ago, at any rate it is here offered us with all the solemnity of an Organic Law, as the Charter-Magna, the Great Charter of Israel's nationality, as his religious, moral, legal and social Constitution, as a summary and base of his entire legislation. Now here, at this solemn turn-point, it lays down as its corner- stone, the universal God-humanity-and-right-idea : Israel is one of the nations, but chosen and specially selected to uphold a new civilization, gradually to be introduced among all the races, with an outline of laws fit to become the rule of all the peoples and countries ; nothing is timely, local, or national. Here is a unique and sublime universalism, towering above all antiquity. A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS. Here is the gist and scope, the pith and marrow, the precious outcome of the preparatory efforts of the patriarchs and of the Exodus. What was the result of the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? What was the object of the Exodus? To create and establish the model ethical ethnos, ''a kingdom of priests and holy, spiritual nation." The labors of the three Sires and those of Moses and Aaron were but the preliminary, the necessary steps towards calling forth a people devoted to the mental, moral and spiritual interests of mankind. The entire civilization, Egyptian, iLong before Kant, lie set up the rule of conduct as the fittest to become universal. 88 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Babylonian or Phoenician, previous to that aera, was one-sided, a national one. With the Exodus and Sinai spiritual interests en- tered largely into the combinations of the lawgivers and initiators of society, state and church. We have above examined what mankind has profited since the Exodus. The preliminary steps to that was the creation of a .providential live instrument fit to bring about those achievements. This is "the people of priests and holy-spirit nation," a nation ..wholly devoted to mental and ethical concerns. The previous civilization had little of such features. Consider it carefully, it was noisy and brilliant, but not much moral and mental; it was lus- frous, not warm and cheering. It was cold and dreary, a narrow egoism was its root, and despotism, priestly and princely, its chief resources for shaping and molding the savages into cul- tured communities.^ With the Exodus new features came into play, that which became the spiritual leaven of the human species. Consider : Comfortable clothes, an elegant home, an orderly State, are invariably parts of civilization, but not yet the highest civilization. The material elements of human existence, of civil life, though by no means unworthy of our consideration, are not yet the objects of human life itself, not yet its highest aim. Bread feeds and sustains the body, it repairs the wear and tear of our daily waste ; but it has besides a higher import, it restores the integrity of the brain, the seat of the intellect. The best part of what we eat today is soon converted, not only into bone, fat and muscle, but also into nerve and brain, into thought and feeling. Even so our comfortable house, means materially a desirable place or retreat from the inclemency of the weather, rain and snow, cold and heat, but morally a home is a domestic temple of virtue, refinement and happiness. Marriage and family mean, first, the restoration of the passing generation, the conservation of the race, mutual helpfulness in the battle for existence; but in a higher sense they mean the harmonious and sympathetic co-existence, the efflorescent development of social, moral and intellectual beings, based upon identical natures, inter- ests, similarity of temperament and tastes, a union of hearts and feelings, where each party's happiness is enhanced by the happi- iLes nations les plus eclairees, Chaldeens, Egyptians, Graeco-Ro- maines, etaient les plus avenglees sur la religion. . .Bossuet, Discours sur I'histoire Universelle 249. A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS. 89 ness of the other; such are husband and wife, parent and children ; their self-sacrifice, not self-interest, becomes the criterion of real, genuine sympathy, the true corner-stone of the family connection. Even so aims the State, first and plainly, at securing the lives, limbs and property of its inhabitants. Security is the first task of the State, but in a higher sense, it aims at guaranteeing and facilitating our legitimate efforts, possibilities and chances in life, fair justice, education, a well-intentioned society and its amenities, bodily and ethical improvements. It insures to us all the oppor- tunities of becoming more refined and civilized beings ; with as much physical, intellectual, moral happiness as man is capable of. So it is with the objects of home, food and State, and so every- thing else. SINAI'S CIVILIZATION. Thus we have seen everything has a relative and manifold sig- nificance. All private comforts and supplies and all public insti- tutions have many aspects and bearings. They are to answer to the needs of the body first, and next to those of the mind. Now* the entire ancient world, having hardly a word for and an idea of mind, in our sense, all their civilization, even the most boasted one,' even that of the famed Greek society, was mostly but material. To secure as much sensual pleasure as possible, to avoid pain and labor, worry and disappointment, to protect life and limb, to secure property and ambition, to render existence agreeable, that was all the object of ancient civilization, yea, of religion itself. Religion meant the performance of the rites and ceremonies by which man hoped to propitiate the envy and jealousy of the gods, so as to let him alone and not interfere with his safety, his schemes and his pleasures. So man sacrificed to them his best, even his eldest son, his loveliest daughter, in order to gain terrestrial favors. A distressed nation offered on the alter her leader, her- crown-prince, or hero, that she may gain victory or freedom. Such acted King Codrus of Athens, Mesha of Moab, Judge Jephta, the' Greek Agamemnon.^ Such was rehgion. Man bribed the gods for their favors ; the bribe and the favors were material. Mind was not yet known, all was yet sensuous, all the cares and toils were for material goods. iJudges xi. — (Homer) Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigenia to please the gods and obtain favorable winds for Troy, conforming to the augury of Kaihas, the priest. 90 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Man, as a spiritual and intellectual being, was yet in the back- ground. His aim was pleasure and power, not duty ; momentary needs and gratifications, not harmonious development of all his innate faculties. Such it was in hoary antiquity, before the aera of Sinai. With this aera begins the striving for a higher civilization one with moral purposes. Nor is it even today fully and substan- tantially victorious with the majority of the people. When one considers how many hours are passed in the arms of pleasure and sloth, in the solicitude for the body, exclusively, and in pernicious recreations, etc., one will find out that with many of the upper and the lower strata, scarcely one hour in a thousand is devoted to higher, nobler interests. So it is to this day, after more than three thousand years since the Sinaic epoch. Whilst before that period, man lived constantly in the material world. It was the ;time of idolatry, the worship of the senses, and the total neglect of the spiritual parts of human nature. Providence, therefore, stepped in on behalf of man's advance. God selected a living instrument for his revelations and improve- Oients. God sent Moses, the liberator, with the world-redeeming message to the descendents of the Patriarchs, as the advance guard of mankind. *'Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Ye Israelites shall be set apart from among the peoples of the earth ; ye shall be devoted, body and soul, heart, head and hand, to the spiritual domain, to man's unfolding, morally and intellectually, to the adoration of the One God, instead of idolatry ; to the culture of virtue instead of pleasure, of mind in- stead of matter, of thought in place of form. You shall study and cultivate the duties of man above his momentary interests, the constant harmonious development of the human faculties^ not sole- ly the sensuous gratifications of the moment. Each and every one of you shall be a citizen of that "priestly kingdom," that "kingdom of heaven" to bring upon the earth ; that kingdom of priests, administering to man's welfare, not alone of the privileged classes who increase his woes, not of men who lay claim to tithes t;ajid temporal dominion, who feed on the good things of the world and offer mythology to their neighbors ; who claim the right to loosen and to bind, to domineer, enjoy and enslave, and block all popular improvements. No ; but a priestly people whose mem- bers, all, are educated, know their duty, do it, teach it, who learn, think and work, each for himself and his fellowmen. PRE-SINAIC CIVILIZATION. 91 Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Tyre had a State, colonies, nations, armies, conquests, laws, arts, commerce, dynasts and warricrs, clans, races and priestly castes. They had also institutions aiming- at religion, worship, our ''Church." But the Church was but the handmaid of and subservient to the prince, and the priest was his clerk, his tool. With Pythagoras, Socrates, Aristotle and Plato, a glimpse of mind came into the consciousness of the philosopliers. Yet that was out of reach of the positive Lawgiver, legislating for the masses, for the people knew nothing of it. The form, the external outline, or the beauty of the body was the nearest popu- lar approach to the conception of spirit, soul, or mind. ]\lind as essentially different from body is a Mosaic idea. Already in the Creation story we find it distinctly emphasized (Gen. I and III): ''Elohim formed man in his own image... He breathed into his nostrils a breath of life." So ten centuries before 'Plato, w^ith IMosaism, mind dawned upon the world. Then began a new onward movement. The material interests began to subordinate themselves under the mental, moral and spiritual ones. Moses created a people to be its own priest, with no divine^ sacredotal caste. A small class, without lands, with a precarious subsistence, was appointed to attend on worship. (More anciently suchtnay have been the noble-born or the first-born sons).^ Moses insti- tuted the Levites ; whilst the entire people he set apartj among^U the nations then existing, to cultivate and to stimulate the etlaical interests of the human race. A further subdivision of functions took place and there was substituted the tribe of tlie Levites ^nd the Ahronides, because the people had to look after their bodily and political interests. So, were the Ahronides especially entrusted with the Temple service. Nevertheless the salient Mosaic scope was, and remained, that the entire people is the people of t^Dd, of spirituality, the ethical nation, the priesthood of mankina, with a cosmopolitan, humanitarian tendency expressed in its Messiah ideal. Indeed the Jewish messianic Idea ever was cosmopolitan and humanitarian. That was to be a great and holy man who would gather all the tribes of Israel and all the nations ol tbe earth, lead them to Zion as the world's spiritual capital, under fhis 1 (II M., xxiv., 11) The select ones. — Malmonldes w 2 130 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. is just as unintelligible to our human reason and our exped- iences as is creation, miraculously making something out of noth- ing. As little can we explain in what mode inert matter evolves life, or how the brain ganglia produce thought, how spirit unites with the body and induces mental and moral activities. We see in man matter united to mind, but how this is effected, we know not. Genesis, 1 :2, answers : "By the will or word of God." The same say Gabirol, Maimonides, Qabbala, the Talmud. Male- branche and Geulinx say : ''As an artist watch-maker will manu- facture two clocks so exactly identical that, without any con- nection and without any reciprocal influence, they will go exactly alike and ever point to exactly the same time, even such is the harmony between body and mind. They call that occasionalism. That is ingenious, but the Biblical mode is less pretentious and more to the point. It does not claim to pry into the divine labo- ratory of creation ; it teaches us what is useful and leaves alone what is to us unknowable. Jewish philosophers generally imi- tate that discretion. God is infinite spirit, wisdom, power, good- ness, holiness, perfection. He has no shape, or name and unites his infinite attributes in a perfect unity. That Supreme Mind created, emanated or brought forth matter, the bodily universe, in a way not intelligible to us. Buchner, Huxley, Hakel, as once La Mettrie and De Holbach, say: ''There is no mind, there is but matter and force." — Does this better explain than the Bibli- cal modus? Is the materialistic dogmatism more lucid? The exaggerating followers of Darwin's evolution theory, believe that the matter, impinged and actuated by its ever inherent force, evolved the universe, i. e., that matter developed mind, brain se- creted thought ! That is tantamount to the claim that, ink spilt upon paper, will create an intelligent book ! The Biblical, wise discretion answers best : God created the universe, mind evolved matter. God, the Supreme Cause, the Intellectus Activus, Good- ness and Perfection, made the universe wise, good, befitting. CAUSE OF EVIL. R. AQIBA AND VEDANTA. But why is man's own world, his own history, so stupid, so hap-hazard? Why is there disorder, malice, hate, tears and dis- appointment? Why wrong, folly and vice? Already in Job is this problem discussed : What is the cause of evil in this human, nether world? Why is the serenity, order, peace and happiness, CAUSE OF EVIL. R. AQIBA AND VEDANTA. 131 the undisturbed harmony in the physical universe, so much missed in this narrow, terrestrial, human world? So, too, asked the prophets : "Thou, the pure-eyed One, who refusest to see evil, why dost thou look at the wrong-doers? Why art thou silent when the wicked oppresses him far better than himself? So, too, speculated the rabbis : Here is a righteous man un- happy, and here a wicked one happy ?^ The Talmudists offer a hint to the solution : Evil comes not from God, but from the imperfections of man. '*A fully and really good man will ever be happy, but when only half good, only apparently good, he will not. Human history is, in part, shaped by human hands. Man is happy or not, just as himself and liis neighbors make him.^ It is human selfishness and stupidity, ambition, jealousy, invid- iousness and greed, his vicious passions all, which cause man's ills. It is thus just man's freedom of will which, when abused, turns to man's misfortunes, of himself and his neighbors. Ev- erything in nature is subject to rule, to inexorable law, and this law, impregnated with divine wisdom and benignity, tends to the welfare of all. Human selfishness, shortsightedness and ill- directed passions retain a certain share, a margin of autonomy. This margin man often abuses and this abuse is the cause of his own and his fellow-men's Evil; it induces envy, vice, crime and disappointment, failure, pain and tears. R. Aquiba formulated this in a fine scriptural interpretation. (Genesis, III, 22.)^ ''Behold, man is as one of us to know good and evil." That strange-sounding verse means, he boldly ex- plains: "Behold, man is, out of entire nature, the only one ex- ception to choose by himself, between good and evil, he is the only creature endowed with free will. Hinc lacrimae! hence his troubles ; he is free to choose, and is not ever wise to make the best choice; hence, vice, tears and mishap in the human world, a sphere mostly created by himself, his good and wicked instincts ; while in the vast universe there is supreme, inexorable law, the effulgence of Supreme Wisdom, and this does not allow the (Berachoth) ]}i2 m«"io n^yv "lint: 1 pnv |3 pnv ...nioi irNBj' p''nv ...iidj p''nv ...Tytj^n vt^na trnnn no!) 2Maimonides, Guide, part III, answers in the same way. See there, Chapters 12-15. yni niD 1:00 nyrb mn Kin dikh s 132 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. wrong to prevail and the just to be oppressed. Something akin and further developed we find in the Hindu Vedanta philosophy:^ Evil comes into the world, not by God's oversight or shortcom- ings, no, by man's ; but this comes not by his own, individual, personal sinfulness, but by his own and that of his fellows and surroundings : The shortcomings of his fellow-men and his fellow-creatures and from all eternity. The viciousness and fail- ings of all of them are entailed and weigh upon him, crush him and make him suffer; and from such a load he can be redeemed but gradually, by the improvement of all his fellow-creation." This is the far-reaching Hindu doctrine of universal solidarity, transcending our theme proper, but of the highest interest for thinking readers. The failures, vices and tears of man are derived not only from himself, but mostly from his being heir to all the shortcomings entailed from his ancestors, fellow-men, fellow- creatures, fellow-creation, since all eternity. Only then may man expect to be fully happy, when all these defects will be eliminated, the entire world improved and become perfect, and this perfecti- bility appears to be implied in the world-scheme and is actually going on, the universe is ever improving. — A great idea I^ A glimpse of this theory, I believe to find in the much quoted Guide of Maimonides, part HI, with some slight Jewish varia- tion : "Most of man's ills derive from himself, himself a growth from the frail sperma and female blood. . .and generally from his very origin, earthly matter, full of imperfections. There is the source of human troubles. The sage must resign himself to it." The ethical developm.ents of this Hindu doctrine the Jewish teacher passes in silence. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE AND THE NEBULAR THEORY. It was at the dawn of the now past nineteenth century when Napoleon Bonaparte, as yet in the bright morning of his meteor- like career, was camping, with his victorious army, at the foot of the pyramids, in Egypt. Surrounded by his brave generals and some of the leading scholars of the French Sorbonne, he listened to a learned discourse by one of those professors on the important theme, ''The Nebular Theory." It propounded : That iSee my Philosophy Qabbala and Vedanta, p. 252, and Max Mueller'i Vedanta on this point. 2The Adoration prayer (Oleinu) may allude to this same idea: "We hope to Thee... to improTe the universe by thy divine ruling." NAPOLEON BONAPARTE AND THE NEBULAR THEORY. 133 the universe came out by chance, without design, without a de- signer or any inteUigence shaping means to ends. There is nothing but matter and force inherent in matter; matter, force and chance made the all. Originally there was but chaos with molecules ; all a fog, an ocean of minute corpuscula filling the infinity of space, an eternal monotony, in undisturbed rest, all inert, lifeless, motionless. At once, by sojiic accident ( ^^ a shock came into that world-mass of dead, silent particles. That shock disturbed the foggy atoms of the universal, sleeping mass. It disrupted and divided itself into large groups, according to chemical affinities. They began to tumble and fall, some quicker and some slower, according to their specific weight and attrac- tions, thus coalescing with other cognate matter, forming with them larger, separate bodies, rounded globes adhering to their centers bv affinity and the force of gravitation, thus differen- tiating in separate globes according to the same laws. The largest became stars and then fixed stars, attracting to themselves smaller bodies, the planets, their rings, trabants, etc. into the orbits of their own, airy spaces. These self-made suns radiating their light and heat, produced on their planets evaporations, clouds and rainfall ; so came vegetation, the animal kingdom and at last man, with his brain distilling — all by itself — thoughts, intelligence, aspirations, experiences, theories, science, laws, schemes of creed, community, state, civilization ; all, originating in m.atter and force and stimulated by chance ! No primordial mind, no intelligence, no design and no designer, no architect, except — that accidental brute shock,, by mere blind chance, that caused and produced all ! — Napoleon Bonaparte listened intently to this highly interesting discourse, but he felt most disappointed at that sad conclusion, staking the universe upon that poor, acci- dental shock, giving the impulse to creation. Pausing for a while, raising his eyes to the bright, luminous, starry heavens of a beautiful Egyptian night, and pointing with his hand to that enrapturing starry expanse, he slowly and deliberately ut- tered these commonsense words: ''And all this is but chance? That is impossible l"^ And the entire brilliant assembly of uniformed listeners repeated : "Impossible !" And the common- sense of all times will repeat : That is impossible ! lEt tout cela n'est que chance? C'est impossible! 134 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. PSALMIST, JOB, KANT, HERBERT SPENCER. Even so the meditation of Psalm XIX : "The Heavens proclaim the glory of God, and the firmament announces his handiwork. Day unto day and night unto night repeat this manifestation. Without speech or tongue or audible voice, still their rays over-span the earth and their utterances reach the end of the world." Even this is the theme discussed by the poet- philosopher in the Biblical book of Job. When happy and satis- fied we willingly admit the all-presence of Diety, Providence, All-wise divine governmient. But when under a cloud, we are much inclined to assume that mere chance rules. So the God- head silences murmuring, unhappy Job: "Who is it that obscures good sense with foolish words? Gird thy loins and answer my questions : Where wast thou when I laid the earth's foundations ? Where are its bases and where its corner-stone? What holds in bonds the ocean? Where are its sources? Didst thou ever com- mand the dawn, or tune the harmonies of the morning stars? Didst thou ever reach the abysses of the sea? Knowest thou whence comes light? Why darkness, heat and cold? Canst thou bind up the Pleiades or loosen Orion? or lead and bring forth Manaroth in time, or guide Ardhteus and its young? Knowest thou the orders of the heavens or the norms of matter?. . .And Job replies : "Alas, I am too mean, I cannot answer ... I put my hand on my lips !"^ .. .Alas, the creature of yesterday cannot solve the problems of eternity. Our eyes are dazzled by the sun- light, how can we claim to define the Sun of all suns? Even so the philosopher Kant : "Two witnesses testify to the existence of God, the starry heavens above and our humane consciousness within us." Even so Herbert Spencer (First Principles, page 13): "The God-Idea is no invention. . .Duly considered, the diverse forms of religious belief have all a basis in some ultimate fact. . .To suppose them absolutely groundless, discredits human intelligence. . .Religious ideas of one kind or another are almost universal and omnipresent. (Ibidem, page II:.) A candid ex- amination of the evidence, quite negatives the opinion that creeds are priestly inventions. . .Their universality, their evolution, their great vitality show that their source is deep-rooted . . . We are logically compelled to admit that, if not supernatural, they must iJob, Chapters 38-40. SUMMING UP. 135 be derived out of human experiences slowly accumulated and organized.". . . (Ibid., 15-lG.) The religious ideas resulted, along with all other human faculties, either from an act of special crea- tion, or by a process of evolution. . .never by an invention of priests. . . and are conducive to human welfare. . ." SUMMING UP. Let us summarize what we have seen above : The leading doctrine of the Decalogue, the corner-stone of the Mosaic State, is the God-concept; God in the Universe, in the State, the Church, the home ; He is the all-pervading, dominating influence. — Did not paganism also teach that? Yes, but too many, 10,000 gods ! That means 10,000 principles ! The Bible teaches one principle, and that is all-important. Again, the pagan god is force, the biblic one is holiness. The pagan many gods mean,, necessarily, war and conflict; the Biblical Only One is harmony and peace. Hence is the Mosaic God-idea alone the base of civilization : Hearing the testimony of science, common-sense and conscience, we gained there our God-conviction. Examining then nature, we found there God; not simply as an ideal, but as the Reality. You, I, this city, the Sun — all, are but accidental, dependent, ever evanescent; God alone is absolute, permanent and his own Cause ;i God is before nature; God is, even when nature is to be no longer. What is God ? We know not. He is unknowable to human ken. A God definable by m^an is no God at all. We cannot raise the veil of nature, far less see God's face. Ihvh, Elohim, Adonai, etc., designate but our own partial concepts of Him, never His Es- sence, ever shrouded in mystery, impenetrable to human gaze. (I Kings, viii., 12). 'Thvh is pleased to rest in nebulae." How did He create the All ? The Bible is reticent. All it does state is that Mind evolved matter ; whilst materialism claims : Matter evolved mind. Now, of these two unfathomable assertions, the biblical one is by far the more satisfactory. Genesis, Chapter I, is not a history of the mode of creation; that mode remains an iWhat is the cause and what is the final object of the Divine Exist- ence? Artistotle replies: "Since God is eternal and absolute, such questions are inadmissible." Kant replies: "Such questions are use- less, transcendental. Transcending human intelligence and foolish is the question: 'What is the final object of the world?'" Maimonides assuming the universe created, is not fully consistent on this problem. (Guide, part III); a hard nut! 136 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. open problem, probably never to be solved by men. We then examined the Nebular Theory, the materialistic conception of Creation without a Creator, Intelligence, desig-n or designer, cre- ation by chance, by a mere accidental shock, and found that shocking indeed, contrary to all experience and common-sense. Thus we have seen that positive, materialistic science, that the market, the exchange, the politics, the five senses, the physician's knife, do not discover the Divine Presence in the universe. But when we look to our conscience, to nature, to moral science, to the large majority of thinkers and to common sense especially, we find the confirmation of the Decalogue : "I am the Eternal, thy God." As there, so we find God in the universe, in history, in the various temples of all times, in our hearts and in our intelli- gence ; we find that, in last resort, not chance, force and cun- ning rule, but Supreme wisdom, justice, fitness, equity; that the universe is formed and superintended by the Being All-holy. "1 am the Eternal," is thus the foundation stone of the Mosaic society. For the idea of God-holy creates man-holy, with justice, peace and good will in the universe and among men. It sancti- fies all the relations between citizen and State, man and fellow- man, parent and child, husband and wife. Whilst the hypothesis of no-God but force, makes man a brute, and selfishness, bar- barism and war the norm of society. Hence stands our human civilization on the rock of the Decalogue, a Holy-God makes for a civilized man, a pure family and a civilized State. This is the net result of our preceding meditation. MOSAIC GOD-IDEA CONTRASTED WITH OTHER SYSTEMS : DUALISM. Socrates once said to his hearers, jestingly: "I cannot create ideas, but I will try to help you to do so; just as my mother the midwife, she no longer bears children, but she assists others in their labors." Let us begin with advancing the metaphysical ideas of other systems, which, by their contrast, will help to elucidate our own : "I am the Eternal, thy God," simply states that God exists, that he is the reality, not an ideal contrived by poets or priests, ''as the cunningly devised savior of this sickly world-scheme." No ! looking closely and intently at the fleeting and changeable character of the infinite number of bodies of this universe, from a MOSAIC GOD-IDEA CONTRASTED WITH OTHER SYSTEMS: 137 drifting leaflet to the huge sun-globe, we arrive at the conclusion that they are but apparent phenomena, and that their reality, numina, their eternal, intrinsic, never-changing essence is He, the Only One, the all-holy Being. So a great Jewish philoso- pher, much misunderstood by the vulgar, defined : "As the ocean is the reality, to the earnest beholder, whilst the ocean waves are but accidental, perishable and ephemeral, one swal- lowing up the other, and finally, are all absorbed by the deep, even such are all the visible, single bodies in existence, but tiny, fleeting shadows, perishable things, all coming from and sub- merging back into the divine Source, their origin." So the fisher-boy, in his skiff, cares only for the shore, the surface, the waves, the net with fish, his temporal catch; whilst the great navigator Columbus, or Vasco Di Gama, looking for discoveries, for new continents, seeks the grand, vast and boundless ocean as his object; even so looks man for food and shelter, whilst the philosopher seeks and finds but — Deity. *'I am the Eternal, thy God," God is One, not two. — Two Su- preme Principles are taught by Parseeism, the great world-religion of the Persians ; a mighty nation which, under Cyrus and Darius (540 A. C.) had erected the first world-empire, which soon much befriended the Jews, and which was, in many respects, akin to them and to Mosaism. Zoroaster, their teacher, had originally taught the Only One God, Ahura-Mazdao, who was one, spirit- ual, eternal, not embodied or represented by any image. Yet, later and gradually, the Magian priests admitted a dualistic theology. Ahura-Mazdao was the Only-One God of good and of light; and Angro Mainyus was the God of Evil and of dark- ness ; his eternal antagonist, the genius of inert nature and brute force, the devil. Both represented the two reverse sides of existence : mind and matter, good and evil, life and death, sum- mer and winter, day and night, joy and sorrow, virtue and vice, ever contending against each other. The aflinity and the theo- logical antagonism of Judaism and of Parseeism, are a striking analogy of present Judaism and Christianity. And their polemics too have their strong parallelism, they are assenting and dis- senting: So Is. 45, 1-8, discusses Parseeism': "Thus spake Ihvh to his annointed one, Cyrus, whom I hold by the hand, sub- duing nations under him.. .1 walk before thee. . .breaking down the gates of brass and the bolts of iron . . . That thou shalt know 138 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. that I, Ihvh, the God of Israel, have called thee out by thy name, for the sake of My servant Jacob ... I am Ihvh, besides Me there are no other gods. . . That they shall know from East to West, that there is none other but Me, the Creator of light — and of darkness, who makes peace and creates evil, I, Ihvh, do all that ! Thus fraternizing with the Persians, calling their leader, Cyrus, by the august name of Messiah, he, nevertheless, and in the same strain, antagonizes and repudiates their dualistic God-concept, insisting upon "God-one of the Decalogue." Science and com- mon-sence corroborate monotheism. The two opposite phases in nature, light and darkness, pleasure and pain, life and death, etc., are but apparently antagonistic; really they are the sequels, con- dition and physical, absolute necessity of each other. Vice, tears and misfortune are but human, personal feelings and affects. In nature all is joy, harmony, light, happiness. There is no Princi- ple of Evil in nature. There is but Ihvh, good, Existence is good. UNITY AND TRINITY. Nearly all the ancient religions and mythologies had a trini- tarian aspect and basis. They all looked upon the supreme divine powers as consisting in a triad ; so in Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Phoenicia, Greece. So was especially Brahmanism. Hence came trinitarian, gentile christology, following that train of thought and formula ; amalgamating the triad of the Orient with the unitarianism of Judaea, it retained the essence of the latter within the formula of the former. Logically they clashed, but prac- tically they smoothened and prepared the way to conversion by compromise. By that amalgamation, however illogical, the an- cient Gentile nations and their several religions could fuse and merge easily into the new Christianity and at the same time be- stow upon its founder a divine authority, then absolutely neces- sary for its acceptance. As Lessing has remarked : ''The pot of brass desires to be lifted out of the fire with tongues of silver, in order to imagine itself of the same precious metal.''^ We come now to Brahmanism. There we see the trinitarian God- idea the clearest. Examining natural phenomena, the Hindu sages found things arising, developing and decaying; be born, live and die. These three salient stages of one existence, they subsumed, as the effects of three leading powers, a triune deity : iNathan the Wise, Lessing. UNITY AND TRINITY. 139 Brahma, Wishnn and Sivan, hence the trinity of the o;odheacl. But looking closer into nature, we fail to find such three distinct stages or powers. We find no three abrupt stages, but eternal, gradual development. Science declares birth, growth and death as but developments, nominal, not real changes, aspects of existence, rings in a chain of ever continuing unfoldngs, without begin or end. Birth is preceded by the seed, long ago pre-existing, and death is not annihilation. The body dead, changes its appear- ance, its form, not its essence, it continues in other forms.^ What was, is and remains, but in other shapes. Ever is decomposition and recomposition going on. Even the living organism is ever eliminating and assimilating, daily dying and regenerating; we die and are rejuvenated at the same time. All in nature is ebb and flow, birth and death, at each moment. So, also, at each new birth the parent dies of¥ a little, and at each death some new life is sprouting forth from the grave. Nature is one grand reservoir, nothing there is lost or wasted. So are the dying autumn flowers ; so our dear ones in the grave. Birth, growth and death are all one process, uninterrupted, never ceasing, and all induced by one and same divine impulse : "Ihvh is one," not three ! Ancient Egypt had a triad-deity. Each of its dozen of prin- cipalities or nomes had its own triad, one deity represented under the aspect of three ; with its proper idols, its own priesthood, cult and temple; they were grandiloquently taught, under different pompous emiblems and names, yet each triad represented but one divinity, one idea of a threefold nature, as male, female and combination; or as father, mother and child; as positive and negative forces, or electricity or magnetism and their eftect ; or as Osiris, Isis and Horus, etc. Science and common-sense show the futility of such philosophems. Three or a hundred combined make no world-principles, or gods. So official Christianity, too, propounded trinity, but its founders did not. Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew of the Jews. He ever believed in God-One. He neither taught a triad in concrete or in abstract; least did he assume himself as a hypostasis and part of the trinity. Possibly he may have thought himself a descendant of David, a messiah, destined to lead and free the world from Roman oppression and idolatry. So the Caesarian government combined with the Herodian iMaimonides already guessed that: Guide, part I, p. 17. It is iden- tical witti the Mindu metempsychosis, applied to soul and body. 140 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. princes and their high-priestly satellites and removed him as a possible or actual rebel. Thus neither Jesus nor the apostles taught trinity. They all were and remained, to the end of their lives, Jews and monotheists. It was Paul of Tarsus, a Jew with a twofold education, a Judaeo-rabinnical one, combined with a Graeco-Alexandrian one, who seriously took up and advanced the messianic claim, following a mystic Jewish-Qabbalistic doc- trine, that the Messiah, Mushiah, Christ is a primordial, super- natural, divine person, identifying that with the Graeco-Alexan- drine Logos, God's First Emanation. ^ Three centuries later, when the few, original Jew-Christians had been set aside and eliminated by the incoming overwhelming mass of converts, these, the Graeco-Gentile Christians, established trinity, first consisting of God-the-Father, Mary the goddess-mother and Christ, God-the-Son. The Council of Nicea (324 P. C), desir- ing to obliterate that polytheistic origin, changed that into : God- the-Father, God-the-Son and God-the-holy-Ghost. . .all the three to form one triune deity and formally combining polytheism and monotheism. Thus whilst Christianity officially teaches God- Three, in reality it means God-One. The late Franz Delitzsch, of Leipsic University, alluding to this fact, once asked me, in perfect good nature : "Why do you Jews find offense in Trinity, since you, too, have your Elohim, Ihvh, Shekhina, etc.? Don't you, too, mean different aspects of the one and the same God?^' ''Yes," I answered, ''if the masses were each a Franz Delitzsch, and fully, logically realized the meaning of the words ; if the official church would be so out- spoken as yourself; if it taught trinity to be but three names of God, phases, aspects, attributes, and plainly said so in the cate- chism. But it insists, officially, that they are three equally divine persons, sovereign each and individual, three equal, independent, supreme gods, each omnipotent, omnipresent, etc., still all three making One !" Passing over the logical incongruity, see the practical result : The masses neglect entirely the One God in Spirit, persecute the people of the Decalogue, and worship — the goddess-mother or the incarnated God-the-Son ! "I am the Eternal, thy God. . .Thou shalt have no other gods in My pres- ence.. .Thou shalt make unto thee no images, nor bow to, nor serve them." — that is entirely overlooked. And if you call atten- tion to it, you are — damned ! iSee Philosophy Gabbala, etc., on it. THE FOUR ELE:\1ENTS. POLYTHEISM. 141 The Graeco-naturalistic philosophers taught the four elements. Assuming to find in each terrestrial body a composition of earth, water, fire and air, they claimed these to be the elements, the divine substances underlying nature. Chemistry has long ago proven this to be a fallacy ; they being no elements, but composites, each of them consisting of many sub-elements, viz. : molecules, atoms which we cannot decompose, but improved future chem- istry may. The scientific trend is towards the assumption of one single element or substance pervading the universe. Thus, chem- istry, as moral science, coincides with the Bible. Polytheism taught thirty thousand gods. Naive people, un- ripe thinkers and false priests, finding in physical nature and in human affairs so many conflicting forces, fire and water, storm and lightning and earthquake ; king, hero and conqueror ; mount, ocean and star, etc., they imagined each to be an independent power, omnipotent in its own sphere, gods. Science and com- mon-sense has long ago exploded this theory. They are bodies and agents derived from one center, rays of one central dynamis, all necessarily conspiring towards one grand aim, the harmonious universe, all governed by one Mind, which combines all wisdom, will and omnipotence. There are no several creations, no diverse dominions, and no conflicting world-forces. Storms, cataclysms and earthquakes are not caused by warring Cyclops and Titans. No, they are results of one central Power and those forces are but the agents of the universal harmony. Already the ancient, nominally polytheistic, true philosophers, saw that as through a veil, dimly. Some saw it almost clearly and distinctly, as Pythagorus, Plato, Aristotle, Marcus AureHus. They admitted the popular gods as a popular concession, understanding by that the subordinate forces and agents of the Central Power, one and unique. PANTHEISM. SPINOZA. Other philosophers, feeling the weakness of polytheistic sys- tems, contrived to hide and veil their human ignorance and invented a big, hollow word, pantheism : All is God, this bound- less, eternal universe is one compound, animated, forever self-ex- isting and self-governing huge clock. As our one body has many limbs and faculties, all tending to one object, its existence, life, endurance and gradual metamorphosis, even so is this world- clock: One huge animated machine, identical with its governor or machinist ; a storehouse of matter, ever impregnated with mind 142 EXODUS, AIOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. or force, instinctively busy with unconscious self-control, all its parts contributing, as the wheels of the clock, to perfect harmony ; decay and renovation going on by inherent law, the plus there neutralized by the minus here; the ocean ever emptied and ever replenished by its own lakes and rivers. That is the universe, a machine without a machinist, with an automatic law, no lawgiver ! What is its proof? none ! What is really gained by such a theory? What can you make out of it? Do we by it, learn and know more? Does pantheism enlighten, explain? Is it not an empty^ sonorous word to hush up our ignorance? Or is it utilitarian? Ctii bono? For whose benefit is that doctrine advanced? Will man become wiser, more moral, more happy, more industrious by it? No! On the contrary, it is disastrous, it is pessimistic, it robs man of his innate buoyancy, hopefulness, joy in work, in his own creations. It robs him of his humane personality, dig- nity, responsibility, and reduces him to a tool in the huge, soulless clockwork, in the dead abyss of the universe.^ The Decalogue obviates all that. It teaches : God, as Mind, is the All-person- ality; and man is his dim reflex; hence, too, intelligent, personal, responsible, optimistic : "Increase, work, reduce and enjoy." (Gen., 1, 28.) The logician, the metaphysician may demur to this, but practical common-sense will approve : It improves man, and religion is a practical science, teaching ''what man should do and live by it" (III M., 18:5). The Bible says: Elohim created all, viz. : Mind was first, and Mind created matter ; it shapes matter, it vivifies, supports, directs and sanctifies matter. Here is a great factor, a noble lesson, a useful doctrine, a pov/er- ful stimulant to man's improvement and upbuilding. Spinoza did not teach such crude, material pantheism. As the great prophets of old, he was entirely wrapt up in the contem- plation of the Deity. He felt literally absorbed in the Godhead. His condition was Nirvana^ in both, body and Soul. So Shleier- macher styles him justly the "holy Spinoza." His life, his phil- osophy, his religion, his instincts were of one piece, as the branches with the Candelabrum.'^ He looked out, searched and de- scried God behind the veiling screen of nature. . .and felt himself, his fellow-men and fellow-creatures, earth and heaven inclusive, sunk in the bosom of the Supreme One. That One was All to 1 Renouncing the God-belief, I feel as if in a mad-house, having lost my guide (Heine). 2An Agadic interpretation. PANTHEISM. SPINOZA. 143 him. He and the world were mere bubbles, shadows, the only reality was God. So he lived, practiced, dressed, conversed ^nd fed, the plainest ; as Hanina Ben Dossa, he carved out his weekly loaf of bread : this peace is for the Sabbath, this for Sunday, this for ]\Ionday, etc., and this for Friday. For him was happiness and life alone in contemplation, thinking, truth-seeking, truth as the seal of and the avenue to Deity, the only magnet of his souL As to the world, its aspirations and objects, its struggles, pas- sions, triumphs and vicissitudes, they all appeared to him no more important than the bubbles on the bright surface of the tempo- rarilv serene ocean ; or as the huge, angry waves around, whipped by the storms of winter; or by the whim of the contrary currents of men's passions, short-lived creatures, soon to be merged into the abyss of Theamat and swallowed up there, hence not worthy of the notice of the sage. This was Spinoza's view. The world was little by itself and nothing to him; so the One was All to him. And that is Spinoza's pantheism, to him really extreme Deism. The rabbis remember the ascetic Hanina Ben Dossa, "by whose merits the world existed and who needed but one measure of dry dates from the Sabbath to the Sabbath." (Tanith 24. b — Berachoth 61. h).^ That could well be said of the Hollandish recluse. Another fine Agadic saying is: ''The righteous (in paradise) dwell in glory, crown on head, absorbed in the beatitude of con- templating the Deity." This describes the beatitude of our same Hollandish sage. It is absurd to designate him as an infidel, a pantheist, atheist, apostate. The universe, to him, was but the frame, God was the real tableau. Less yet was he an atheist. He was an All-theist. Least of all was he an Apostate. He was an extreme monist. Still, and with all my admiration for this thinker and this character, I am no follower of his, nor would I advise anybody to adopt and follow his eagle's flight. I and you, reader, and most of us, might get giddy when climbing up to the top of that philosophical obelisk. His doctrine is too sub- lime to be reached, and can be so but by the greatest of intel- lects, as Lessing or Goethe, so they were not afraid of following him. Usual mortals should abstain. As you pilgrim to a pyra- mid, through sands and heat, and arriving at its base, you turn •n^^ 2^vb r\2\i^ 144 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Up your head to contemplate and admire its grand proportions, its architecture and subHme suggestions, but you are too prudent to cHmb up to its summit, from fear it may wear out your strength ; even so is Spinoza's philosophy. Study it, contemplate it, but do not adopt it. It surpasses your and my calibre. From its top you may well get the vertigo and tumble down into the mire of despair below. Still I say, confidently, he was no opponent of the Decalogue, he was an extreme and exaggerated One-Gpd believer. He saw nothing but the One ; there is the strength and the weakness of his system. The Mosaic God definition is for man, his is for philosophers. MOSES, FICHTE, SPINOZA, HEGEL, SCEPTICISM. Anochi Ihvh, I, God, am. God is conceived in Mosaism per- sonally, as the Supreme Being, not subsumed under or with the universe. His Will and his powers are immanent, pervade and transcend the world of matter. He is not limited by it; he is its extra-mundane and spontaneous Architect and Creator, the self-conscious Intellectus Activus, the Designer and Effector of all existence and all being; the author of physical nature with its laws and of the moral laws of man. The philosopher, Fichte, denied consciousness and personality to the Deity. The Deity, to him, was man's conscious reason and morality, or the Moral Order of the universe. That, of course, borders on atheism. Spinoza's God-idea, too, is not entirely above the same objection: ''The Deity's thought is creation. Thinking is God's constitutional and essential character, and that thinking is creation." Hence is He not the free, conscious, spon- taneous world-architect. He is the unconscious, impersonal, im- manent law and habitus of the universe. He is the natura naturans, creating nature, whose constitutional, necessary think- ing, brought forth the natura natiirata, created nature. Thus to Spinoza and to Fichte, as to the Qabbala and Vedanta, is God impersonal ; the unconscious Mind in the boundless space and infinite time, unknowable to man. Now, if there be no personal God, consciously dictating duty, right, reason, purity, truthful- ness, whence did man obtain all these axioms and categories of right-living. Whence comes the Moral Order of the universe and the Moral Conscience of man? And if even that would be thinkable in the external world, it would not be practicable in MOSES, FICHTE, SPINOZA, HEGEL, SCEPTICISM. 145 human society; it would be inefficacious and inoperative upon man. Man must have a ''Categoric Imperative, 'Thou shall not kill, not be unchaste, not steal,' " dictated by a personal, conscious, all-powerful authority ; or he will follow his own wayward in- clinations. Therefore the Bible postulates a personal God, Source of all individuahty, self-consciousness and will-power. He is holy and dictates moral and rational duties to man, who is ra- tional, moral and responsible : "Ye shall be holy, for holy am I, your God."i That may be less philosophic, but it is cogent, prac- tically more effective, legislative. Hegel assumes the universe as autonomous, self-existing, rolling on its own intrinsic wheels, guided by its own immanent laws. He reminds of the divine chariot w^th its spontaneous, self-turning wheels and holy Hajoth of Ezekiel's vision (I, 1.), less its "mysterious personality hover- ing upon its firmament." That personality Hegel declines. To him God is personified thinking, conscious alone in the human brain. The human brain and its thinking is the highest revela- ton of the Godhead, everywhere else dormant. Now, if such vague speculations may be satisfactory to the theorist, it can not be so to the practical humanist and to the legislator. If there be no personal, absolute Guide and no independent, autonomous Intelligence in the universe^ whence does it come into the human brain ? Or is man thus apotheosized, and his thought, the Deity ? Is that not the most flagrant idolatry? Brain is but a cluster of ganglia, nerve tissue, but a tool, as any other muscle; how does that secrete and distill morality, intelligence ? The theist, indeed, not Hegel, gives us the answ^er, viz. : The Soul or Mind works it out, as the spider does the cobweb, the bee its honey, or best, as the musician elicits his music from the instrument. The music originally derived from the composer, fills the musician's mind, who brings it out by the instrumentality of the violin or piano. Even so duty, emanated from the Source of morality, is reflected in man's mind, which man realizes in his brain and his deeds. The soul derives its thoughts and categories from the universal divine Source, the ocean of wisdom. Thus, the sum of human goodness and intelligence is not God, as Hegel's scheme pro- pounds. No, that is a poor self-apotheosis ; it is, at best, but a ray emanated from the sun of Supreme benevolence and Intelli- gence to illumine our earthly twilight. The universe, no doubt, exhibits infinitely grander divine revelations than does the human brain. iIII M. 19.1. 146 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Scepticism, doubt despairs of all, of the senses and of reason, especially of all thinking and of all speculation: *'It is possible, theism is right, possibly polytheism, possibly pantheism, or even atheism; and since we are not perfectly sure and safe, hence is all thinking wasteful and useless !" This conclusion is totally incorrect ; that is to say that, since human reason can not fathom all, we should renounce all knowledge; drasticaly put, it means, since the lamp in my hand is not the sun, I should throw it away and walk in the dark ! Or, since my eyes ache, are dim or do not see all, I shall shut them forever. The right conclusion is: Let us use reason, lamp and eyes, and see as much as we can. And what we cannot, good-naturedly resign ourselves. The Bible does show us that: ''The unknowable belongs to God, the knowable is made for us and our children." (V. M., xxix:28.) GOD AND NATURE. Are God and nature identical ? Judaism decidedly replies : No ! God is creator and nature is created. Nature (natura, nasco) is the abstract name of the complex of all concrete things and their laws, existing in the infinite space. Nature means : All things born, or made. Hence when I ask: Who made the world? and am answered. Nature ! That is meaningless, tautology, an empty word to hide ignorance. That illustrates Goethe's remark: *'Just where ideas are lacking, there a word is at hand to take their place." The Bible teaches, "In the beginning God created heaven and earth," viz. : Mind brought forth nature. True, it states that only, and not also how creation came out. That is above our human comprehension. God and creation are equally unknowable to man. We see the universe, we conclude and reason out that God is. We cannot grasp the u^hat and the how of either. And since we cannot understand it, the Bible wisely abstains from attempting to explain it. But for all human pur- poses it suffices us to know, that: In the begin of time, "God created the heaven and the earth." . . And this involves a doc- trine which tallies best with human civilization. The schemes of old and modern philosophers may do for philosophers, not for practical legislators. Practically looked at, in what relation stands God to nature ? The rabbis say : "As creator to creature, as soul GOD AND NATURE. . i47 to body, as thought to brain." Goethe's^ reply may be adduced too : "He stands behind the whirhng wheels of time and weaves (nature) his own garment divine." God is the Universal Mind, and nature his visible, majestic robe. Even so the Psalm 104.2. "He dons the light as His robe, and expands the heavens as his tapestry." The Qabbalistic^ philosopher interprets it in the same sense, in the name of R. Simon b. Yohai. Thus we have seen that moral science, common-sense and leading philosophers, ancient and modern, coincide with the Deca- logue and the Bible that God exists, rules and upholds all. And this God-belief is the corner-stone of the universe and also of himian civilization. It is the first doctrine of the Decalogue, ex- panding in : "Be holy, for I, your God, am holy (HI M., 19 :i). It is its logical syllogism: God-holy sanctifies man and all his rela- tions, those of the parent, consort and citizen; of duty, right and freedom. Whilst God-force means : man is an ape, a brute, with selfishness, war and exploitation. Hence are man's best interests bound up with the Hebraic Decalogue. POLYTHEISM AND ITS POLITY. Exodus, XX, 4. Jewish theologians usually count Exodus xx., 3 — 6, as the Second Commandment. It corroborates the First, enlarging and dw^elling upon it and showing its full import: "Thou shalt have no other gods in my presence, ''al penai/' or as Onkelos translates : besides Me^ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness . . . Thou shalt not bow down to, nor worship them." Following the rabbis, Maimonides (Yad, Mada, Intro- duction) counts these verses as the first prohibiting laws of the six hundred and thirteen commandments of the Thora. They are subsumed to mean : "Not to mentally admit of any divine plurality ; not to tolerate any divine images or figures in relief or color ; not to offer them any manner of veneration ; and least, the one customary to their cult.^ "For I, Ihvh, thy God, am a zealous God, who visits the guilt of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, and bestows lEr steht hinter dem Webstuhl der Zeit, und wirket sein eigen le- bendiges Kleid. sphilosophy and Qabbala, Vol. II. 3 Maimonides Yad, Mada, Introduction, subdivided further still the sentences. 4Bar meni. 148 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. grace on thousands of generations of those who love me and observe my commandments." We have above considered the great gift the Bible has con- ferred on mankind by the Decalogue, with its special message, its leading doctrine, that there is God, that divine Providence exists, that He is One, unity not plurality of Godhead; rejecting thus all mythology, with its host of divinities, its base superstitions, its mean priestcraft, usurpations and hypocrisy, its shameful, un- chaste practices and horrifying human sacrifices, its stupid, un- chaste idol-worship and monstrous mysteries, with idle supernatu- ralism, and gross naturalism, its miracles, necromancy, exploita- tion of the ignorant, apothesis of the worst passions and the worst rulers. All that was bound up and intimately connected with ancient polytheism, idolatry and false cults. Against that the chief effort of the Bible and the Decalogue in special, was directed. The latter prohibits it peremptorily and repeatedly, the entire Pentateuch emphasizing it again and again in a hundred modes, and the prophets made it as often the absorbing theme of their harangues and the chief object of their fiery denuncia- tions, as the crime against God and man ; representing it as the source of all corruptions, vices and misfortunes ; showing the practical importance of a right principle and the banefulness of a wrong one. We need but read history, describing the im- morality, superstition, wretchedness and abject sensuality of the masses, the effrontery, the overbearing and the hypocrisy of the priesthood; the horrors, the lasciviousness, the cruelty of their cults, representing the gods anxious for meat, drink, sensuality, hilarity and setting to man the example of immorality ; and, lastly, the rulers, the patricians, going hand in hand with the hierarchs, dictating the oracles and interpreting them to their own advan- tage. This gives us the cue and shows the reason why the Mosaic Legislator was so severe and intent upon extirpating that mean, polytheistic tinsel civilization, and teach the pure God-man- and morality-ideas. Closely examining this we see that Mosaism is intent more even upon the negative side than the positive one of religion ; it em- phasizes, accentuates and inculcates that besides the One God in Spirit, there are no gods and no divine genii ; that the heathen priesthood, with their so-called philosophies, mysteries, creeds, cults, ceremonies and tenets are false, fraudulent, surreptitious POLYTHEISM AND ITS POLITY. 149 and abominable lies; that the Israelitish people shall shun them, abhor them, not tolerate their temples, images and cults, not even imitate their customs and habits, as heathen pernicious practices. Sternly it enjoins: "When in the land of the Amor- ites, Hitites, Khanaanites. . .thou shalt deny and reject them. . . thou shalt not bow down to their gods, not imitate their prac- tices and habits. Destroy them thoroughly and break down their stylae. . . Gradually I shall expell and exterminate them, until thou wilt occupy the land as thy inheritance. Little by little I shall drive them out and deliver them into thy power. . .Never make any alliance with them, nor v/ith their gods . . . They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they cause thee to rebel against and apostatize from Me, induce thee to worship their gods and become to thee a snare and a stumbling block." (Exod. xxiii., 23-33.) For that reason images of man, sun, moon and stars were forbidden. So were altars, idols, styles, sacred groves and heathen sacrifices. The severest penalties were enacted against image worship. Idol- atrous cities and tribes were to be destroyed root and stem. All communication and alliance between Israelites and heathens were broken off, and their customs rigidly differentiated. The monotheist should be distinguished even by dress, manners, food, etc., from the idolator, so as to prevent any assimilation or re- lapse. (Maimonides, Yad Mada. Hilehoth Akum III-XII. Yo- reh, Deah, 141, 178, 179, etc.) Indeed, considering the host of Biblical texts, vehemently and peremptorily prohibiting idolatry, we find out the real object of Mosaism.i It was rather negative than positive : "Be not superstitious, no idolator !" God requires obedience to the law (I Sam. 15:22), in preferm.ent to sacrifices and incense. The abrogation and expunction of such notions and custom^s hailing from Baal, Moloch, etc., cults, universally dominant su- perstitions, religious parasites, was the first great object of the lawgiver. Comparatively few are his positive commandments, and they are all inscribed on the tablets of the human heart, in experience, conscience, reason. To such prohibitions and enact- ments is consecrated the Decalogue and its expansion, Leviticus xix. 2. iMaimonid. Guide, III, 29. 150 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Around that as the inner nucleus, cluster the five Books of Moses ; which Thora again, had its enlargement and expounding, its adaptations and modifications, according to times and environ- ments, in the Mishna, the Talmud and the Casuists. These com- ment on the Thora, the Thora on the Decalogue, and the Deca- logue puts the chief stress on the abrogation and expurgation of the multitude of heathen forms and superstitions which were then taught in the name of the old heathen religions. Even so Maimonides (Guide III, 25) : To the heathen gods they sacrificed vermin, mice and creeping things, whilst the Thora teaches the only One God, who asks for nothing else but to love and fear him and obey his laws ; not any burdensome services or artificial piety. This is the highest divine service : ''Fear and love of God and of his laws."^ This remarkable chapter, XXIX, of Maimonides' Guide con- cludes as follows *'Our Thora, entirely, its root and center and pivot, tends to blot out those (Sabaean) notions, and expunges them from the hearts and from existence" : 'Their altars ye shall destroy and their sacred trees burn in fire, let their name perish. . . Repeated are these themes in many places, for this is the chief object, followed up by the entire Thora, as our sages have in- formed us in interpreting the verse : "What God has commanded you through Moses" they say : "This teaches that whosoever ac- knowledges idolatry, denies all the Thora, and whoever denies idolatry is tantamount to acknowledging the entire Sacred Writ. Ponder over this.^ The Thora prescribed (II M., 23, 7, etc.) but three yearly fes- tivals when the Israelites appear with their offerings at the na- tional Sanctuary. There shall be but one such temple in the entire land, symbolizing One God, one nation, one creed, and no multiple altars; the Bomos, hights, altars of city, house and country, were prohibited, as leading to superstition and idol- worship. The law ordained but one national temple for the entire people, with comparatively few daily offerings, and these were meant, not as food for God, but as an allowance to the priests and also to deter man from sin. It allowed no room, for -iDDn ^31 ,n:5D minn :)33 isidd T"y"3 riDt^r. ib:^^ ...n>N^v?on pi POLYTEHISM AND ITS POLITY. 151 priest-craft, no mysteries, orgies and bacchanalia ; no unnatural, monastic abstinences and no sacred debaucheries, as in Phoenicia or Babylonia. The Ihvh service was short, plain and chaste. The law insisted upon honest dealings, veracity, purity, charity and very little upon ceremony, fasting, vows, castigations and outv/ard observances. The few ceremonials remaining, as sacrifices, fringes, phylactories, were, in view of the pervading symbolic customs of the times elsewhere, here retained as simple memorials of purity, or origin and history, or of Israel's alle- giance to Ihvh. Mosaism was thus a reaction against the super- stitious, obscene and cruel cults, the daily and hourly repeated gross practices of the heathens, with their never-ending temples, priests, services, observances, oracles, feasts and hosts of ceremo- nies, all calculated to enslave, terrorize, exploit and stultify the people, for the sole benefit of hierarch and king. Mosaism was a protest and a reform against polytheism and its polity. The Lawgiver thus put his chief stress and accent upon the extirpa- tion of idolatry, on the rejection of the interminable, stupid prac- tices and worships, as we find them hugely prevalent among the ancient nations. Such practices were mere contrivances, snares and stumbling blocks, alluring to superstition, ignorance and ex- ploitation by priest- and kingcraft; to cruelty, debasement and debauchery. Remember Jephta sacrificing his daughter; King Mesha, his son; the Moloch, Baal and Ashtoreth bloody and un- chaste cults. All the prophets identify idolatry with superstition, cruelty, infanticide and whoredom. Ezekiel, chap, xvi, is especially drastic on this. One would say that Mosaism was little afraid of infidelity or atheistic tendencies in the people. That there is a God, Creator and Providence is self-evident, to whom, readily enough, man takes refuge in the bitter struggle for existence. But that there is but one God, omnipresent and invisible; that the many heathen divinities are puerile notions and priestcraft, shadows or wrong conceptions of nature's forces, etc., such reas- onings the ignorant do not see so plainly, therefore are they much inclined towards the assumption of as many gods as single powers. And there will ever be plenty of cunning men to exploit the ignorant, cater to such false notions and create pseudo-priest- hoods, cults, superstitions and immoralities. Against such abuses the Mosaic lawgiver turned all his attention and energy, threat- ening with the severest punishments, private and national, the IS2 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. greatest of crimes, polytheism, idolatry. Everywhere else, by di- vine behest, he recommends mercy, toleration, yea, sympathy for the stranger, the non-Israelite, even the Edomite and the Egyp- tian. 'Xove him as thyself," "for strangers ye were in his land." Such is Mosaic sympathy. Elsewhere^ we have seen at large the broad, Hberal, hu- manitarian spirit pervading the Mosaic laws and polity. We need not search far. In Exodus, xxii, 20, we read: "A stranger thou shalt not over-reach or oppress, for strangers you were in Egypt — (xxiii, 9:13)... The Stranger thou shalt not oppress. Ye know how he feels, ye were strangers in Egypt . . . On the Seventh day shall recuperate thy slave and thy stranger — (V M, 24..). Never wrong thy laborer, whether thy brother or a stranger ... Pay him before sunset, for he is poor and looks up to thee for his support ... Do not bend the right of the stranger, the widow and the orphan. . . When thou reapest thy fields, remember the stranger, the orphan and the widow. . . Remember, thou hast been a slave in Egypt." Here are verses, and such you find by the hundreds in the Pentateuch, which you will rarely meet in ancient, yea, in modern legislations. Nativism, the social distemper of even our present twentieth century times, had no room with Moses. Why then is he so exceptionally se- vere towards the clans and tribes of Khanaan? But one thing explains this : his abomination of their vices and the fear of assimi- lation. His severity and uncompromising hostility to the native Khanaanites are not foreigner-hatred, not modern race prejudice, not selfishness dubbed as patriotism : "Judaea for Judaeans." No, it is explained only on the score of infection and contagion, the fear of the allurements of the seductive idolatry, debauchery and immorality of the natives. The history of the manners, prac- tices and cruelties of even the most enlightened nations of an- tiquity, proves that his misgivings were well founded, he aimed at a cordon, a quarantine against physical, mental and moral contagion. 1 Spirit of the Biblical Legislation. THE LAW OF HEREDITY AND ENTAIL. ^Si (Exodus, XX, 5.). "Thou shalt not bow down to, nor worship them (the false gods), for I am a zealous God, visiting the guilt of the fathers upon the children, to the third and the fourth generations of those (lawbreakers) who hate Ale, and am gracious to thousands (of generations) of those who love Me and keep Aly commandments." After the foregoing remarks, the reader will easily grasp this verse. The Lawgiver must hold up the severest punishment for the greatest of crimes, idolatry, even to the third and fourth generations. We find this fre- quently repeated: II AI., xxxiv, 7 — IV M., xiv, 18, etc. Many who overlooked that, found our text exceedingly severe, yea, unbecoming the justice and micrcifulness of the Supreme Arbiter: "Consider, they say, the God of love of Christianity, and the God of vengeance of Mosaism; the one forgives the actual, repentant sinner, the other entails and avenges the sins even upon the inno- cent children, to the third and fourth generations ; there is a god of mercy and here a God of v/rath! Other Christian theo- logians, remembering that an attack upon the Pentateuch, the Old Testament, profoundly shakes the New Testament too, reared upon that basis, try to explain our text by their Christian, Paul- inian doctrine of original sin ; they say that here is alluded to that, to the sin of Adam and Eve, their disobedience in Paradise, the divine ire enkindled thereon, and the curse entailed upon their entire posterity. The Original Sin is at the bottom of this harsh verse." But this mystical, theological, oriental, etc., explanation does not explain at all. Our next text says: "God visits (remem- bers) the guilt to the third and fourth generations — not further, and is gracious to thousands of those who keep the divine com- mandments." That means : Stern justice. Whilst Original Sin is a diabolic injustice. It involves a curse forever — for right- eous and unrighteous alike. Hence we are constrained to seek for another clue to our text than the God of wrath and the ''Original Sin." What is that clue? Examining this nucleus of Mosaic legislation, as in this very pericope of Mishpatim (II i\I., chap. 20-24) v/e do not find here any trace of an entail of crinie to the descendants of the criminal. The criminal, alone, is to bear his punishment — crime and punishment are personal ; never is his fam- ily involved therein. In the same spirit the Talmud excludes any tes- timony of relatives for or against near kin (B. Sanhedrin 27. b). 154 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Whilst we know well that in ancient Gentile legislations such a responsibility is most salient. The entire family was held as collateral to the perpetrator. That was a recognzed tenet in criminal and political jurisprudence, even to be saliently found in the Codes of Hammurabi, Persia, Greece, Rome and Germany. But more, V M., xxiv, 16, expressly declares : "The fathers shall not die for their children, nor the children for their fathers ; every one shall suffer for his own guilt." And this the Talmud finely stretches to mean even that no relatives shall ever be called upon to witness against his kin. Both Scripture and Talmud, teach just and humane, legal axioms, towering far above the codices of entire antiquity. Now is not that apparently in flagrant contradiction to ''He punishes the guilt of the fathers to the third and fourth generations"? To elucidate this theme, let us look to stern facts in real nature. Do the defects and qualities of parents descend to their posterity? Are innate propensities hereditary, entailed upon the descendants? Is there any such a natural family-vendetta, such a blood-solidarity? Interrogating closely the facts of physiology, biology, botany, zoology, sociol- ogy, with statistics in hand, it appears that the law of heredity and entail is such an iron rule, incontestable, undeniable, for good and for bad. The virtues and the vices, the strong and the weak features of the parents do descend upon the offspring. The race, family and parental influence is powerful upon the posterity. Nay, some claim it alone powerful, even all-powerful ; that all the properties and characteristics of the offspring are to be sought and found in the seed, the root, the sires. Darwin believes to have shown that exceptional traits and properties of one bird, if paired carefully and diligently kept up with its likes, avoiding any cross-breeding, will reproduce and perpetuate the same char- acteristics in the offspring, to such an extent as, in the course of time, to develop a new genus. And Darwin's successors believe even that this proper pairing alone is sufficient to account for the diverse species and races differentiated, by such selection, from one common stock of ancestors, far different from their late descendants. Now passing from physical peculiarities entailed by descent, to mental and moral ones, we find them less sharply defined, because more complicated, still showing the law of entail. Do we not distinguish strong, alert, spirited races and stocks from weak, lazy and stupid ones? Are not drunkenness and THE LAW OF HEREDITY AND ENTAIL. 155 lasciviousness, just as bad sight, hearing, breathing, etc., as melancholy, cruelty and madness to be retraced to the parents? Whilst sobriety, healthy senses, good nature and cheerfulness, mentality, sharpness and wit are the same, to a certain extent, entailed by the sire upon the young. Certain like dispositions of the body induce corresponding moral and mental ones in the offspring. Thus with the conception, with the germ, the parent transmits his bodily and his ethical predispositions, defects and perfections, vices and virtues, bad and good qualifications. This is the law of heredity, the influence of entail. Now, the human judge can not peep behind the curtains of creation, therefore he has no right to excuse or to inculpate anyone on the score of heredity. Hence the positive maxim of Mosaism : "The parents shall not suffer for the children, nor these for the parents ; every one is to bear the punishment of one's own short-comings." But in nature, in God's own realm, we do find that law of universal solidarity, of family and racial responsibility. The human judge must leave that out from his testimony : God, the Lord of na- ture, takes it well into his account. Hence our text : "God visits, by entail, the sins of the parents upon their children." This is an inexorable axiom. The young are nothing else but the renovated parents, but the developmxcnt of the seed, hence they suffer for or enjoy of the parental advantages and disadvantages, just as an apple savors of the root and the tree it is plucked from, for good and for bad. This law of descent and entail has but recently been discovered. It is the well known new discovery by Darwin, in his book on the "Descent of Man/' showing up heredity in nature, that the peculiarities, proclivities and bents, good or bad, go down to posterity and would be forever continued, if not mitigated and even annulled by cross-fertilization and propagation from an- other stock, which destroys the original drift of nature. Now this law of heredity we find in the Ten Commandments. What our naturalists but half interview, and only since yesterday, the Mosaic Lawgiver revealed thousands of years ago, viz. : that the virtues and vices of the root are to be found in the tree, blossom and fruit. We have seen above that the Hindu philoso- phers also half-guessed this stern law of universal solidarity of man's race, yea, they claim, of all creatures. This may even be the philosophical background of the doctrine of original sin, 156 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. eighteen centuries ago, propounded by Paul from East-Asian sources and grafted upon Christianity : The v/eakness of the race clings eternally to each member thereof. But he took it one-sided, pessimistically. In truth, the original virtues, too, of the race adhere to the offspring. The offspring is simply a repro- duction, a regeneration of the sire, for good and for evil, physi- cally and morally. The Hindu explains by this the Origin of Evil; Paul calls it, the Original Sin; in reality it is the original design of Providence. It is the habitus of existence, the working economy of nature, the bodily and ethical continuity, the immor- tality of the race. Everything in the parents is reproduced in the offspring, which is sim.ply a rejuvenation of the sires in every sense, good and bad, and possibly the good seeds are conditioned by the bad ones. Long before Darwin and other modern naturalists, Moses and the prophets, all, have recognized the import of the race and its influence upon its individual members. The holy seed, Zera qodesh, is again and again accentuated in the Bible as of para- mount importance. We are apt to think this a notion of prejudice and racial self-complacency. It may be solid acquired experi- ence. The Greek and the Roman world, too, termed all other nations, barbarian; but later this was deemed mere prejudice, derived from overweaned selfishness;. Now come our most modern naturalists and stolidly emphasize, yea, exaggerate its importance. Mosaism holds the middle course. Race is impor- tant, but it is not alone important. Education and principle are even more important. It rejects the Khanaanites, not on account of race, but of idolatry, inchastity. BIBLICAL OPTIMISM. Behold the moderation of the optimism of the Mosaic Law- giver. Contemplating the evident and uninterrupted solidarity of the racial units in nature, and stating the severe fact that: *'God avenges the sins of the fathers upon the children," he qualifies that : 'To the third and fourth generation" — no further. *'But he bestows grace to a thousand generations of those who keep the divine Law." Here is the Mosaic serene outlook, its optimism, the hopefulness and buoyancy characteristic of the monotheistic viewpoint. Vice and guilt are to be traced down to the third and fourth generations, then they are eliminated, BIBLICAL OPTIMISM. 157 self-clestroying. Virtue, the good, ever increases and is entailed upon the descendants to a thousand generations, i. e., Uves forever. Evil is self-consuming, the good is and remains perpetually. This is inherent in the very being of the good and the bad. They are primordially so constituted that the good is permanent and propagating, the bad is barren and finally decays. It has its effects, goes on for a w^hile, and if not corrected and eliminted, it destroys, as a virus, or cancer, the body on which it festers. It dies or it kills, but it does not stay. This is deep in the economy of providential nature. In conformity with the biblical view, this is represented, not as a dead law, but as the living law, the be- nignity of the law (II M., xxxiv., 6) : "Ihvh, IlrJh, God of love and grace, long-suffering, merciful and truthful, reserving His grace to thousands (of generations), patient of sin and rebellion, not cleansing the unclean (sin must be atoned and not gratui- tously remitted), visiting the guilt of the sires upon the descend- ants, to the third and fourth generations." It is admirable how the Lawgiver reconciles the justice of God with His mercy : With a deep psychological insight, he penetrates the secret work- ings of nature, which is forbearing yet exact, patient yet inex- orable, reproducing that immutable law as primordially abiding in God, long-suffering yet avenging wrong, misericordious, yet strictly just, therefore punishing evil for three to four genera- tions, but rewarding virtue to a thousand — for ever and aye ! And this too we m.ay verify in fact. The gangrene of vice goes on but for one, two, or three generations, during w^hich it miust be eliminated or it destroys the individuals infected by it. It is killed or it kills. Children of vicious parents must miake an effort, expel and eradicate the fatal propensity ; or, if they yield, it increases in virulence and destroys themselves. Heredity is the natural bent. As in a , dangerous declivity we must make an effort and stop, or we are hurried down the precipice and dashed to pieces ; even so, our vices ; if not stopped, they destroy posterity, and the family or race becomes extinct. Hence our text : "A^ice goes down to the third and fourth generations." Only those ful- filling the divine laws of their own nature, will stay. Vice anni- hilates itself, virtue alone is perpetual : Here is the monotheistic optimism: God is just, but merciful. His universe is guided by 158 RABBIS ON THAT both, justice and mercy.^ The Decalogue and the thirteen divine attributes^ teach it ahke, illustrating the lesson : Parents, beware of evil propensities ; they harm you, the individual and the posterity. In an ingenious parallel way, the rabbis discuss our theme (B, Sanhedrin 27. b) : "We read (V M., xxiv, 16) : "The fathers shall not die for their children," etc. Wherefore this repetition. . since we know that (Ibid.) : ''Everyone dies by his own sin"? And they interpret circuitously : "That means, that parents should not die by the testimony of their children (the testimony by and against one's near relatives). But is written (Ibid). "He visits the guilt of the fathers upon the children"? That takes place when the children persist in the bad habits of the fathers . . . for it is said : ''Each dies by his own sin" — The children are punished for their sire's sins, only then, when fatally propagating them". . .So it is written (III M., xxvi., 37) : "They shall stum- ble each through his brother," that means, through the bad ex- ample of his brother, because men are responsible for each other, since they should have forewarned them and they did not." — The rabbis try to conciliate here the apparently contradictory verses, by the ingenious suggestion of the (Mitschuld) competitive, cum- ulative guilt and by the mutual solidarity of the members of the same society. Naturally, the bent for the weakness of the par- ents is entailed upon us. But we are not compelled to follow such inclinations ; we are morally, psychically free, we can and should resist them, and resisting we shall vanquish them. When lazily yielding to the fatal proclivity, we double its virulence and it fiercely overpowers us, until, at last, it destroys our sinful pos- terity. This ingenious way of reconciling the apparently con- tradictory verses, shows that the rabbis guessed part of present natural science and social science, the import of race or heredi- tary influence and men's mutual responsibility. The law of heredity and natural entail makes the naturalist a fatalist and pessimist, lazily giving up the battle before it is fought. If all in the offspring comes from the sire, if all of the parent goes iSee Maimonides Guide, III part, 52, end, commenting on the verse: "I am doing merc5% justice and love on earth," and showing con- clusively that, practically and theoretically, a priori and a posteriori, Providence rules in love, mercy and justice. 2Exod. 34.6, the thirteen divine attributes or midoth. RABBIS ON THAT. i59 down to the child, wherefore should the young generation work, fight, cultivate, strive for good and react against evil inclina- tions ? Such reasoning is fatalism, viz. : we are what we are, born to and for it ; no use struggling against mighty nature ; indeed, as little as struggling against the lightning. That is vis major. The best is to submit with stolid resignation ; for we can neither improve nor spoil what is once rooted in us ! That is oriental fatahsm : But the Bible rejects that (V. M., ii and 30). "Behold, I have placed before thee life and good, death and evil : choose !" How then shall we mediate in the fatal trend of the innate impulses of hereditary entail, and the spontaneous choice of the truly good? By the plenary exercises of our hu- mane autonomy, by our free, strong volition in that limited margin as the benign Creator has allowed us. Limited as this our free will is, it is sufficient to allow us a free selection be- tween right and wrong. And this freedom will be confirmed by our experience. No doubt the nature of our parents is deeply implanted in ours : But are we for that its slaves ? Can w^e not react, improve, correct, better it ? By all means ! Nature is powerful, but not all-powerful upon man. We can react and reform, if we will. Look to facts : Are all the virtues of the sire descending upon the offspring? Do we not daily see excel- lent parents of w^orthless children, and a fine issue from mean sires? Are the children of great fathers ever great? By no means ! Very often the very contrary takes place. Genius is rarely hereditary. How, then, can we reconcile the law of heredity with our daily experience ? The answer is : Nature works by multiple channels and factors, not by simple ones. We are such or such, not by one reason and cause, but by a hundred. We are good or bad, noble or mean, ignorant or learned, strong or wxak, rich or poor for many reasons. Each cause separately contributed to the result. Often even these many factors run in contrary directions, for and against, they cross or corroborate, annul or assist each other, counterbalance and cancel, or dupli- cate and increase their respective influences. Only the balance of power remains, the residue after the counter-effort is de- ducted. Hence comes the difficulty to clearly show each cause of each effect, because there are many effects of many crossings causes. There are some apparent causes, but many secret ones intervene, cancel, modify, change and thus entangle the problem. i6o EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. No doubt the parents have great influence, but climate, food, education, surroundings, example, habits, personal tastes else- where contracted, change, modify and, not seldom, annul the home influence with the original bent. A practically successful father, will be imntated by his children ; a luckless one neglected, and thus his profession, views and tastes, respectively, embraced or discarded. HISTORY SHO¥/S FREE WILL. Abimelech was so unlike his father, Gideon. Pious Eli's sons were abominably wicked. The sons of the popular prophet and ruler, Samuel, were abhorred and shunned by the people. How unlike was the learned and effeminate Solomon to his father, the enthusiastic, pious and warlike David? And how unlike to either v/ere their progeny? Mathatias Hasmonoy and his five valiant sons easily showed the identity of their stock; but their successors degenerated, even to mediocrity. Antipater and his sons, Phasael and Herod, appear great in comparison to the later Maccabean princes and their ovvu as well as their hybrid pos- terity. Alexander of Macedonia wept at the victories of his father, Philip, ''leaving nothing for him to accomplish." Still room was left for him to conquer the Persian world-empire. But his premonition was verified, his mother and children, his dynasty and house all soon perished ignominiously. Caesar and Augustus were great, yet degeneration began even with Tiberius. A'es- pasian and Titus were followed by the contemptible Domitian, Hiero of Syracuse by the despicable Hieronymus (200 A. C), proving the same theory of degeneration after strong parents. The Frank, Pepin of Herestal, Charles Martel and Charlemagne showed up the rare example of three generations of great men; but their posterity, still masters of the terrestrial globe, greatly degenerated. Only one Bourbon, Henry IV., was great, and only one Napoleon Bonaparte. None of their posterity came up to the sire. That seems well to be the rule in psychology and in history: Great men have rarely great, bodily successors, as if God deprecated an aristocracy of genius. The decay begins first morally, next mentally, last physically, the race becomes extinct. Too much greatness, success, applause, adulation and luxurious- ness, spoil, overwean, corrupt and at last destroy. The virtues and energies of the fathers are obliterated and lost, their vices HISTORY SHOWS FREE WILL. i6i multiply, overgrow and stifle them. Why then this contra- diction? The law of heredity, physically, and the parallel the law of degeneracy, ethically and mentally? To all appearances, be- cause physical, psychical, ethical, educational and sociological laws, too, are here at work; hence a complication of influences, pro and contrary, resulting from diverse crossing and cumula- tive factors which we can not retrace and disentangle. Not only parents form the mental and ethical idyosyncrasy of their child, but a hundred factors besides, and these complex causes have their complex effects. So history tells us the fact that Domitian v.-as a Flavian^ but not the causes why he was so dissimilar to his father and his brother — the Flavians. In fact, it is very hard for children of great men not to appear in history as inferior to their sires. Already the close neighborhood and the challenging comparison are dangerous. . . It is for this that Alexander wept at the victories of his father. The fate of his children and dynasty proved the correctness of his misgivings, incorrect only by a single generation. Again, great men are called forth mostly by extraordinary environments, opportunities and efforts ; and these are usually wanting to their children. These lack the opportunity, the stimulus and the noble ambition. They lazily rest upon the laurels of the fathers. For them there is no poverty and want, no detractions, and no ambition to urge them on, as happily their great predecessors had. But they have flatterers, debauchery and luxuriance to effeminate and weaken them. Above all, they lack the historical, social and political opportunity. Not every day needs the world great men, and v/hen they still come, they are in the way and ostracised, as in Greece. Their father has done all and nothing is left for them to do. Their father worked and acquired ; they enjoy and waste ; small, rich children of a great, poor father ! The sire's virtues and qualities, his health, frugality, self-restraint, rapid, solid work^ make-shift, inventiveness, self- reliance, quick perception, initiative, enthusiasm, emulation, elas- ticity, self-sacrifice, wall-power, noble striving, all that is mostly lost to the easy-going offspring. Their atmosphere is quite an- other, surfeit and luxuriance and effiminacy ! In such a soil those virtues do as little thrive as oranges in Iceland. Whilst all the ancestor's native weaknesses, frailties, vices, ever commensurate with his virtues, but restrained, luckily, and held in the back- ground, in abeyance, by his wide-awake opponents, find their i62 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. fell and fatal outlet in the present, altered situation, and rich, tempting environments. The father's sins are thus abundantly en- tailed upon the poor and denuded, spoiled and over-lucky children. Hence the law of entail has its exceptions. No fatalism and no despairing misgivings. There is such a law, but there are many others crossing it, which cancel each other and leave room for free-will and effort. Birth, seed and root are much, but not all. The parents' good and bad qualities are in germ deposited in the temper of the child. But there are other factors, too, at play. Now choose, cultivate and inaugurate the virtues, restrain and uproot the vices. These will dwindle and disappear within three to four generations; while the bright sides wnW be strengthened and increased and bring out a prosperous race. The gradual im- provement of the human kind proves the correctness of this view, hinted at in our texts, Biblical and rabbinical. . . No fatalism thus ! There is inclination, but not compulsion to follow the bent of heredity. Will-power, good habits, precepts, examples and prin- ciples will correct bad seed. The Bible claims that within the limits of the universal law, of primordial necessity, man enjoys a certain margin of free will and liberty, and that margin is suffi- cient to choose one's course and be master of one's own fate ; and human consciousness corroborates this belief in our freedom of will.i THIRD COMMANDMENT. THE OATH. The Third Commandment solemnly completes and closes the first part of the Decalogue : ''Thou shalt not utter the name of Ihvhy thy God, falsely, for Ihvh will not let him go unpunished who will utter His name falsely. ^ In primitive times, honest, naive, unsophisticated man invoked the holy name out of venera- tion and piety, or to affirm and aver claims unproven, by an appeal to the Deity, calling on it to witness to the truthfulness of his affirmation. No doubt, as custom gradually makes law, an oath, an attest by the Deity, soon Vv^as admitted as a semi-legal proof and a juridical means in litigation for settling contestations. This custom and this law we find among all ancient nations. The laws of Hammurabi, of the Roman and the Greek Codes use such. The plain expression of our text shows it as an acknowl- iSee Maimonides Yad Mada, on this theme. {<"it^'^ elsewhere '^p^ 2 THIRD COMMANDMENT. THE OATH. 163 edged mode of proving claims. This gave rise to different modes of using and abusing the divine name in common inter- course. One abused it on vain and frivolous occasions by idle swearing; another in blasphemous, boisterous, inaccurate affirma- tions; then in averring by it actual falsehoods, telling lies and hypocritically calling God to witness to them; finally came the legal and juridical oath to settle contests of litigants. The Third Commandment solemnly warns against these several modes of abusing the hallowed name of the Deity. It does not prohibit its honest uses. It desires only to spare and limit it to rare, truthful, judicial and important occasions, as a means to discover unproven truth. The word Shov covers this. At first, it means: vain; next, frivolous, uncalled for; finally, falsely. "Do not bear, or utter, the divine Name, in any of these ways ; reserve it for veracious, solemn and weighty opportunities, to certify and at- test honest affirmations, for God will not let go unpunished him who will abuse of His holy name." As the oath was and is used in cases not possible to prove otherwise, or not easily provable, so the lawgiver forewarns that perjury will be punished by God who, omniscient, ever knows the hidden facts.. .Thus the oath seem.s to have been extensively used and misused at all times, as a pious invocation, as an idle prattling, as a vulgar vociferation, as an honest affirmation, and as a legal testimony, a judicial proof before the courts of jiistice. So III M., 19 :13 ordains : "Ye shall not swear falsely by My name." As a legal proof it is men- tioned in III M., v., 1, 22, 23— IV M., v., 19— V M. xxii. 9 10 etc. It ordains to swear by God's name in V M. vi., 13-15. Whilst swearing by that of other gods is a heinous crim.e, accounted as idolatry and warned against by all the prophets. The custom pre- vails to this day: "By God!" "Herr Ye!" "By Mohammed!" Such is the tenacity of inherited views and habits ; man will con- tinue lying and perjuring. In case of perjury the law ordaineth public confession, resti- tution of the damage with a fifth part over and above it, and the offering of a sacrifice in the Temple (III M., v., 22).. .It is ex- tensively treated by Philo. De Decal., 756; and in the entire Babylonian treatise Shebuoth. There, page 39a, it is said that at. the proclamation of that Third Commandment the entire world trembled, in consciousness of its transgression. The Talmud admits the oath as a half-proof, and only in absence of witnesses. i64 EXODUS. MOSES AXD THE DECALOGUE. The claimant has the burden of the proof. ^ It divides it in : Firstly: idle, meaningless, vain swearing, SJicbiiatJi Bitui; second: frivolous lying with unholy swearing, SJicbuatJi Slioz' or Shaker; thirdly: affirmation of a claim and honest entrusting, Shcbuath piqudin : fourthly: the oath of testimony, averration before a court of justice, SJicbuath Eduth? See ^laimonides Yad, ^I. Th, Hilchoth. Shebuoth I. and XL, 1, etc.— B. Shebuoth '29b. in- flicts the piniishment of 30 stripes (^malquth") upon wilful perjury. Cicero (Leges. II, 9) as also Homer frequently mention perjury to be punished by the Gods, Zeus himself being the guardian of oaths and avenger of perjury. Following the Hebraic Bible and ancient custom, modem legis- lation admits often the testimony of an oath at court, but only half-heartedly, correctly feeling that parties in litigation do not shrink from invokng God's name in vain, yea even in flagrant de- fiance of the truth. So, unfortunately, the v%itnesses of both the litigants are sworn in before giving testimony, each side claiming facts diametrically opposite to one another, one of them necessarily lying ! The Agada already was fully aware of that and dissuaded from going to law as begfuiling into perjury.^ When at eighteen years of age my guardian swore away my inheritance, holding a scroll of the Law in both his anns. one of the bystanders, knowing the facts, sarcastically remarked to him : *'What an excellent Thora? Is it not? You owed that money, now you owe no longer! — It would be time the legal oath should be abolished altogether from a judicious court. The judge knows, people at litigation lie. Still the mummery, the blasphemy, the impudent fraud goes on and niins all conscience and remorse. If the con- testants hide the truth without an oath, the oath, with the Bible in hands, will not make them reveal it. Our modern legislators should mind the Third Commandment : ''Bear not the name of God in vain." The legal oath should be abolished, it proves nothing but frivolitv. nny ni'iir ,xnp^^ nm** .s'l- rrzi" .v::*2 nyizi'* - "So Jesus dissuaded from going to law and any manner of oatb» that was Agadic, Essenian ethics and psychologically perfectly true. Study F.— THE SABBATH OF THE DECALOGUE 165 The Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue is (H M., xx., 9) : "Remember the Sabbath-day to sanctify it. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the Seventh day is a rest to Ihvh, thy God. Thou shalt not do any work ; thou and thy son and thy daughter, thy male and female slave, thy cattle and the stranger within thy gates, for within six days Ihvh has made heaven and earth, the sea and all in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore Ihvh blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it." The closing verses apparently, refer to Genesis ii., 1-4 : ''On the seventh day Elohim had completed his work and he rested on the seventh day, wherefore he blessed and sanctified it." V M., v., 12-15, repeats with some change :^ Observe the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as Ihvh, thy God, has bidden thee"... that thy male and female slave may rest as thyself. And thou shalt remember that a slave thou hast been in Egypt and Ihvh has brought thee out from there with a mighty arm, "therefore He bade thee to observe the Sabbath day." Whilst II M., xxiii., 12, condenses : "During six days thou shalt perform thy labors and on the seventh day thou shalt rest, that thy ox and thy ass may rest, and that the son of thy female slave and the stranger may recuperate." Here are the leading texts concerning the Sabbath, which are most nu- merous in the Pentateuch, the Prophets and the Hagiographers. They are repeated again and again, nearly as often as the para- mount doctrine of the Unity and spirituality of the Deity. As monotheism is the chief doctrine of Mosaism, so is the Sabbath its main practical institution, enjoined with almost the same solem- nity, reiteration and insistence as the first. The lawgiver spares no time, place, opportunity or inducements to strengthen, uphold and impress it upon the minds and the veneration of his follow- ers. Its observance is accompanied by the greatest promise of worldly and spiritual welfare and its infraction is threatened with divine wrath and human death penalty. It is termed the Sign of the Mosaic Covenant, 0th Berith. And that is not simply a s^^mbol, an outward emblem of a certain idea or a historical remi- niscence, as for instance the sign of the covenant with Abraham "lISl*', in II M. 20 it reads : Ti!JT 1 i66 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. or with Noah.^ No, it is the great practical and reaHstic establish- ment of Mosaism, characterizing Jewish perennial life. A Jew observes the Sabbath-day and believes in the One God in Spirit. We have largely and elaborately treated of that great. Mosaic, settled order in a previous volume,^ and refer the reader thereto. There we have seen that the Sabbath is the symbol of Mosaism in the most exalted and pregnant sense. It is not merely a sign, standing for a tenet or a doctrine; no, it is its very object and foundation. It is a social, religious and humanitarian institution, of the grandest dimensions and far-reaching results. It is the ground- work and base of the Mosaic religion, civilization, people and state, expanding to the utmost bounds. We have surveyed there the immense spread of that establishment : three hundred millions of Christians and four hundred millions of Mohammedans, ac- cepted and imitated it. Philosophers, political economists, social- istic leaders, radical cosmopolitan thinkers cannot do away with it, and recognize the practical urgent usefulness of a periodical rest- day. Jewish mysticism, the Agada, Medraschim and Oabbala are fond of it. Its glorification passed even into the common parlance and daily prayerbook. The Sabbath is a household word of civili- zation. Poetry and mysticism bestow on it the most endearing epithets : It is the "bride," "princess," "queen of Israel :" Come, my friend, let us go to meet the bride, let us welcome the presence of the Sabbath.3 Qne of the greatest modern poets of Jewish genius and birth, based upon that a most charming fairy-tale, strikingly depicting its refreshing influence upon individuals and the people, especally the down-trodden Jew of by-gone ages : "A prince born in the purple is by malice and witchcraft degraded and changed into a canine beast, a brute with brutish instincts and habits, a mean animal, fawning, snarling and sneaking at the mas- ter's feet, licking the hand that tenders him a morsel of m.eat, bowing and dancing, grumbling and barking alternately for a consideration, feeding on carrion, from every dunghill, in all the public places. Such he passes during the six week days. But when Friday eve arrives, lo ! a princess appears, mysterious, fair, lovely as the m.oon. She appears with her wand in hand. She (1 M. 9.13) n^p — 1 M. 17.13) nb'i2— II M. 31.13) nn3 nix i 2Spirit of the Bible Legislation, p. 13. SAssumed by Jeh Halevy, Sabbath ritual hymn. n^3 n«"lp^ ^"TH HD^ 3 THE SABBATH OF T?IE DECALOUGE. 167 nods and smiles, and the malicious spell is broken, the barking dog is again a king, a king with royal pride and dignity, with generous sentiments and noble thoughts, every inch a king. And the re-instated royalty puts on the regalia. Crown on head and scepter in hand, he woos and marries the mysterious fairy-prin- cess." The parable, sad, sweet and charming is easy to under- stand. The king degraded into a barking brute is Israel, once sovereign of fair Judaea, degraded by tyranny and sophistry, since Pompeius, Titus and Hadrian, to the very middle of the last cen- tury, aye, to this very day, by priest and Cossack, by cruel perse- cutions, slander, misunderstanding and fanaticism, into a barking dog. And the mysterious princess who arrives once weekly, weds him, and restores him to his antique dignity, to the principality of mind, is the Sabbath-day. Sabbath it was that for nearly 18 centuries broke the chains of the enslaved, gagged and benighted Ghetto-Jew and made him again a prince in the domain of character. During those long cen- turies when baron and bishop were crude, illiterate, he alone was educated. Do you remember the happy, bright, glorious Sabbath- eve and morning, a generation or two ago, beyond the Atlantic? What toil and drudgery, what agony and wretchedness during the preceding six weekly days, and what consolation and cheer, hopefulness and holiness on the Sabbath ; the Sabbath-eve with its blessed lights, the consecrated table, the white loaves, the blessed cup, the cheery repast and merry songs. ^ And the Sabbath-day with its congregational life, its holy services, the family gathering, the hospitality, the study and fraternal calls ? They were no empty ceremonies, but customs fraught with genuine spirit and humane elevation. That kept the Jew alive in the tomb of the Ghetto for long, dark ages, a fore-taste of a better existence, in future aeons of existence.2 And this benign and elevating influence of the Sabbath on the Ghetto-Jew is visible in history on the Gentile masses too. Poverty, despotism and ignorance built for them a Ghetto no less than for the Jew. A look at the peasants in East- ern, and even in Western Europe shows their condition hardly better than that of the Hebrews. To them, too, the Sabbath brought some rest, consolation, and hope for better times. Also them the Sabbath rescued from total degeneration. t>)Tp ,m3-i3 ,nn^Dr ^ 168 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Now we must not misunderstand history. Not everything of the past must be eulogized, and not everything of the present criticised. I do not wish back those times of toil and starvation during the week, and plenty of Shalet,^ and, in part, imaginary bliss on the rest-day. I prefer modern freedom, citizenship and economic well-being to all the delights of the Ghetto. But what I do regret, what I do wish to see restored in the modern Jewish home is, the spirit, the energy of those times, the true mentality, the sincere religiousness, and the firm will-power to continue as a light to the nations,- as a ''minority wherein the divine spirit moves" ;^ I wish to see restored the unshaken trust in God, in right, in reason, in honesty ; the high sense for intellectual pleas- ures, educating, thinking, studying; the respect for learning and for character ; the simplicity, frugality, purity, modesty, solidarity, sympathy ; the family adherence, the strength of each unit and the national cohesion, the strong physique and the noble spirit- uality of the old time Jew; that I wish to be restored to modern Israel as a pattern for mankind at large. These virtues were all the alumni and concomittants of the blessed princess Sabbath. The Western Jew has since gained much during the week, but is he still the prince of mind?. . . THE HUMANITARIAN SABBATH-INFLUENCE. Elsewhere, as mentioned, we have attempted to trace the in- fluence of our institutions. That influence is manifold and world- wide. When one throws a stone into a large sheet of water, that sudden impulse will induce a gradual commotion on its entire surface ; first a bubbling circle around the stone, which circle will cause another one, that still another, etc., each new circle larger than the preceding one, all clustering around the center, extending and covering the entire superficies of the water-sheet. Even such is the efifect of our great rest-day establishment on the ocean of humanity. It means first to be a day of cessation from manual work, a pause from weekly labor, an abstention from every day's cares, in order to recreate the forces and refresh the bodies of the great mass of hard-working people. It means next to offer iThe favorite dish of old Ghetto existence. ■Is. 49.6. D^"i3 "i^xb ^rnnj 2 SMatthew Arnold on Minorities THE HUMANITARIAN SABBATH-INFLUENCE. 169 the time and desire for mental, moral and spiritual concerns ; to offer for any kind of mind-culture the leisure and opportunity, for the development of the multiple capacities, instincts and aspi- rations of our innate higher humanity, as science, religion, art, sympathy, sociability, worship, mostly neglected during the six week days, absorbed in the exclusive cares for the body. Thirdly, Sabbath aims at the socio-political amelioration of men, at the emancipation and equalization of the plebeian majority from the yoke of the reigning minority, the masses from the classes, within the same country and nation. When these poor, hardworking masses rest and recreate bodily, cultivate their minds, mentally and ethically, at least one day in the week, they will gradually rise in the social scale, break their politico-social shackles, acquire the desire, the aspiration, the energy and finally the means to conquer their human dignity, their legal and political equality and liberty.! Sabbath means, fourthly, the elevation and emancipation of the several human fractions, nationalities, peoples, countries, races of the one, identical great human species. It offers to the subju- gated masses everywhere, the opportunity for bodily recuperation, mental and moral elevation, political and social justice from foreign yokes and native exploitations. It will in time succeed to inspirit, energize and elevate them, politically and socially, economically and industrially; to enfranchise and liberate the subjugated races and countries, internationally ; to free from tute- lage and downright conquest people from people, sect from sect, race from race and country from country, the subjugated from their masters. It will unyoke the Pariah from the Brahman and Kshatria, the Hilot and barbarian from the Spartan and the Greek, the serf and villain from the baron and the bishop. It will free the woman, the child, the orphan, the poor, the working man, the toiling peasant, the ostracised ones, from legal and eco- nomical inferiority, from the harsh employers, aiming at pluto- cracy by the capital acquired at his expense. Capital and savings by thrift, are blessings to society, the poor and industry. It is turned to a curse by heartless selfishness and over-reaching. Through the great opportunities of the Sabbath, Pariah, Helot, ■3 See on the Sabbath, theme, Maimonides Guide, part III, Tame Hamitzvoths, where he emphasizes besides the bodily rest and recrea- tion chiefly the timely creation of the world, important in his time, not so much in ours. 170 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Gibeonite and toilers of the glebe will rest and recreate bodily, develop spiritually, rise socially and break the odious yoke of exploitation, of assumed superiority and inferiority of race, creeds or sects, treacherously kept up by the interested parties. Finally and fifthly, Sabbath is the consecrated day of rest, rec- reation and happiness to the brute too, to the entire living crea- tion, to all feeling mortal beings. It is the weekly holiday for all beings gifted v/ith life. It is the epoch of rehablitation and emancipation from all sorts of usurpations, artificial, historical, enforced bondages ; the restoration to the original, natural con- dition, that of being dependent upon God and self, not man. It invests with rights even the brute, the dumb and mute, yet feeling animal kingdom, man's drudges and vehicles of burden, still his assistants in the work of civilization, as the ox, the ass, the horse, the tools and conveyances of his labors. As such and for their own sake, they are entitled to life, protection, sympathy, health and well-being. Therefore to them too, the Sabbath vin- dicates and guarantees a weekly day of rest and recuperation. Thus the Sabbath is the divine institution of enfranchisement and rehabilitation. It is the habeas corpus against all sorts of usurpations, against historical, conventional, artificial bondages ; against racial, sexual and sectional pretenses ; against individual, class, guild, state and caste privileges. It is the return to the natural, original conditions of feeling beings, before man came in with his selfish, cruel, suicidal encroachments. It proclaims prospective freedom to all rational and moral creatures, to the ground down toiler of the soil, the spiritually, educationally, and economically neglected, the politically degraded, the socially os- tracised, the subjugated individual, tribe, race, country and sect. Finally it vindicates some protection to the dumb brute, the assist- ant of man and his indispensable tool.^ All this is distinctly ex- pressed or implied in the Decalogue (II M., 20 and V M., 5.) : ''Observe the Sabbath day and sanctify it. . .Six days shalt thou labor and perform all thy work, but the seventh day is a pause, a rest unto Ihvh, thy God; Thou shalt not do any work; thou, thy son and thy daughter ; thy male and female slave, thy ox and thy ass and all thy beasts, and the stranger in thy gates — that thy male and female slaves may rest as thyself. . .for remember, a no^ynni D^mj lyi i^c* nsin n*^ .i^ns "iisj' Dinnn k^ i THE HUMANITARIAN SABBATH-INFLUENCE. 171 slave thoii hast been in Egypt and God rescued thee from thence, for that purpose he ordained thee to keep the Sabbath-day." Here are the mentioned five-fold objects of the institution : To protect the body, the mind, the freedom and the well-being of the indi- viduals, the classes and the stations of man, inclusive of the pro- tection of the brute. To that day, of such a vast, world-wide import to human bet- terment and allsided happiness, the Lawgiver vindicates an ex- alted origin. He identifies it with the very creation and the rise of man : After the world of matter and animality had been completed, and mind, civilized mian, Adam, made his appearance, the Sabbath was inaugurated.^ Whilst at Sinai it v/as solemnly or- dained, promulgated, blessed, sanctified, declared obligatory upon the Hebraic nation, and consecrated by the divine Lawgiver as the time set apart for elevating and spiritualizing man and his surroundings. It is the flag of Mosaism, Oth Berith, the basis of human civilization. The Lawgiver is most solicitous to im- press upon, strengthen and uphold it, by all means at his disposal, reward and punishment, divine and human; God and the State are its guardians ; stripes, even death and extirpation^ when warned, are set upon its transgression; it is mentioned and re- peated again and again, forcibly and circumstantially in the creation chapters, in the I and II Decalogue and in a hundred more passages of the Bible. SABBATH THOUGHTS HERE AND IN "BIBLE LEGIS- LATION." We quote here part of our characterization of that theme from our previous treatise, "Spirit of Biblical Legislation," p. 142- 163 : The Sabbath-day is set apart by divine Providence for the* bodily, mental, moral, spiritual, political and ethico-social advance of man. It is a day devoted to bodily recreation, moral improve- ment, mental culture, spiritual uplifting and social rehabilitation; for liberation from the weekly drudgery and soaring up to a higher plane of humane existence, moral, religious, scientific, esthetic and humanitarian, to everything divine in hum.an nature ; 1 Some sort of a popular Sabbath or rest-day was known to the pre- Sinaic world, as further on shown. m3 ,nn^D ,nipbo ^ 172 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. raising man to that messianic zone where his entire life will be one great divine service, when duty, virtue and happiness will become coincident, the different aspects of the one and the same prism of perfect humanity . . . In Exodus xvi., 26, one may find a hint that the Hebrews in Egypt had a notion of the seventh day of rest, and from Assyrio- Babylonian discoveries we may learn that such a custom was not unknown in the Orient, older than Sinai and Abraham,^ some sort of a popular sport- or rest-day. But it is only in Mosaism where it received its prominence, its sacred dignity, as a solemn rest, consecrated to God, Sahhaton^ VQadsho, for body and mind, peremptory, categoric, for rich and poor, master and slave, even the beast of burden. That grand role in history as the Sabbath, it received solely and singly since the epoch of Sinai. History can positively trace it only since the Arabian epoch. From that date on, it became the 0th Bcrifh, the flag and banner of Israel's religion. Gradually it reached the Western Gentile world, became generally adopted, and the base for human civili- zation, emancipating, enlightening and elevating the masses wherever it penetrated, and assumed the import and dimensions of a universal institution. The Christian world celebrates it on Sunday, the Mohammedan one on Friday, the East- Asiatic peo- ples too will soon adopt, and may solemnize it on Monday. Still it is the self-same disguised Mosaico-prophetic Sabbath or weekly rest-day. Its import is the fact of consecrating a weekly pause for rest and mentality. It must be a weekly rest-day, not every ten days, as tried by the French revolution, not every month, nor a voluntary, individually preferred rest-day. No, only a uni- versally accepted, permanent day will answer our humane needs, and that is the prophetic weekly God-blessed Sabbath. On that day there shall be made no distinction between master and slave, Judaean and Gibeonite, between races, origins and castes. By bodily rest, spiritual and mental cul- tivation and leisure for education, men will gradually acquire the will, the power and the intelligence to conquer their conquerors.. . .The rest-day establishment is the great benefactor of the dependent, the uneducated, the socially ostracised, the con- quered races and the brute creation. Justly interpreting the text, the Talmud imposes the Sabbath rest of slaves and beasts as a iSee ibid., 146. SABBATH THOUGHTS HERE AND IN "BIBLE LEGISLATION." 173 positive duty of the Jew. Read the Commandment and its detail sentences carefully, and observe how the lawgiver was anxious to make it a universal rest and recreation. He knows human nature ! Lest the upper classes might cunningly mis- construe the object and aim of this weekly arrangement; lest the employer, the speculator, the historical aristocrat may usurp it for himself and his own class, and consider it as his privilege; lest he should pretend that his kin alone are the children of God, that the pariah and the Hilot, the peasant, the wage-laborer have no claim upon that holiday, and thus exclude the son of toil from the protection of this universal institution of freedom — the law- giver, a son of toil himself, repeats with so much emphasis and sums it up with so much stress : "That thy man- and maid-servant may rest as thyself." The strong, free and rich have leisure, ease and liberty enough. But the majority, the laboring masses, the ninety-nine out of every one hundred, need the day urgently, peremptorily. They do need all the solicitude, tender care and sympathetic protection of society and the law. Society and law must step in and protect the weak and poor especially. So the lawgiver, the divinely ordained representative of society, the con- secrated organ of divine, universal justice, the prophetic mouth- piece of the Legislation of Horeb, of Israel, of mankind, not only of the historical aristocracy, steps in and emphatically ordains : ''That on the Sabbath-day the poor and dependent shall rest like the master." And well knowing man, changing feelings with dress, he sternly recalls to the mind of the overbearing aristocrat and exploiter: (Deut., v., 15) Thy gold and silk and titles are but of yesterday : a slave thou hast been in Egypt and I, God, have freed thee by my sovereign power, therefore be not selfish, allow the poor his chance of recuperation. Remem- ber thou art not born a master, not in the purple, a slave thou hast been in Egypt. Justice has been done unto thee, do justice to those humble and dependent upon thee, for the mighty arm of Supreme Justice is outstretched alike over him and over thee." . . . Kind readers ! Remember your own Egypt, in Ireland, Germany, Russia, of yesterday, or a century ago. In America, the conse- crated ground of freedom and justice to all the ostracised, let the poor have his weekly Rest-day. Do not begrudge it to him or her, thy man-servant or thy maid servant, thy middle-man, clerk or workman. Remember, when the bright Sabbath miorning dawns 174 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. upon the awakening eyes of those dependent upon thee, let each of them feel and say : ''Today, I also, am a free, rational happy being, I can recreate, breathe freely, enjoy my existence, be with my family, see my friends and commune with my God. The diverse many-sided scopes and aspirations, the far-reaching objects of the Sabbath-day are slowly but surely being attained. Observe the sure, silent, steps of history, from Sinai to Washing- ton, from Moses to Tolstoy. ''How lovely are on the mounts the feet of the messenger, announcing peace, and salvation, that, O Zion! thy God reigneth (Is., 52., 7)." Look to these grand stations and mileposts of history: Sinai, Karmel, Zerubabel and Maccabeus ; the One-God-faith accepted by the Shomites, then by the Arians, nearer yet by Northern Europe ; the liberation by the French, American and West-European revolutions . . . Do you hear that revolutionary tocsin roaring? That is the reverbera- tion from Horeb, emancipating and elevating the poor masses. These are the workings of our Decalogue with its grand, world- vast Sabbath Institution, enfranchising mankind." SABBATH IN AMERICA. Now in the beginning of the 20th century, here in North America, we may say that its first great object is fairly being attained: Women and children are free and protected. There are here no serfs of the glebe, and no lords of the manor; no drudges and no born patricians. The poor and the working men fight for their betterment, and they will attain it. At any rate there is free government by and for the people, free vote, free speech, free press, free education, free conscience and free worship. Even in Europe, the nationalities and creeds, races and sexes stand up and fight for their autonomy. We have here no born reigning and no born serving classes. A vast democracy reigns, no dominant church, but compulsory secular education, equality in State and before the Law. "That thy man and maid-servant shall rest as thyself," is realized. What then is here the mission of our seventh day institution? "Remember the Sabbath-day to sanctify it." "Observe and reserve it for sanctification (II M. 20.8 and V M. 5.12)" expresses it. Ingeniously the Agada interprets: ''Rememr ber" and ''observe" were pronounced in one breath,"^ viz : Re- Midrash, ad locum, nn« "imn inn "IIOK^ ^ SABBATH IN AMERICA. 175 member and observe the Sabbath-day for sanctified purposes. It is the time set aside for the working classes to educate themselves ; the time for religious, mental, moral and spiritual culture and uplift- ing. Just here in America are material concerns, the cares and anxieties for the bodily and economic welfare, more absorbing, yea crushing, than at any time before and any place else. No use minimizing the sordid evil. It pervades nearly all the strata of American society, from humblest to highest. During the entire week there is a hurry, a bustle, a strife, a struggle for money-making and lucre, as if earthly existence was unlimited, as if the soul's salvation was at stake, as if the daily bread depended on that. All the energies, all contrivances, all ingenuity and all efforts are brought out for pecuniary acquisition, any other acquirement is lost sight of. Every brain is on the rack, every heart in an agony to discover new ways and methods for making an ''independent fortune" the sole, universal ideal of existence ! The m.aterialism, the sensuality, the idolatry of Mammon, the adoration of the Golden Calf are nowhere so prevalent as just in our Western hemisphere. Elsewhere, birth, glory, achievements, learning, character, count — with us. Money ! The European poverty explains the American immigrant's greed; that explains, but it does not justify; man is more than a stomach. The chief object of Sabbath should therefore be to counteract and mitigate these one-sided blindfolded tendencies, to save, at least, one day out of seven for non-material concerns. On the seventh day let us visit the house of God, there to strengthen and elevate our minds by instruction, prayer and meditation. Let us listen to a sermon or a lecture calculated to offer real and true ethical benefit. Or let us take up a good book, sometimes Isaiah or the Psalms, and sometimes on old or a modern thinker and writer for edification. Or let us admire art, a fine picture and a good symphony are refining also. Or let us go out of town into the vast, green, blooming areas of nature, there to admire and adore ; to adore the Creator by admiring his grandiose handiwork. No temple gives us so grand a conception of the Lord of nature as the sublime aspect of that boundless nature itself, with its illimitable starry dome, heaven's canopy, and its innumerable shining worlds, ever attuning their praises to the Grand Maker. 176 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Or let us attend to our family's well-being, our children's school- ing, see a friend or visit the sick, or look at the communal interests. Such are the objects becoming the Sabbath, worthy modes of sanctifying the day by improving the indivdual and the society. Unfortunately the Sabbath is most ruthlessly neglected, yea, desecrated in America more than ever and anywhere else. It is desecrated by Orthodox and Reformer, whatever these terms may mean : facts are too flagrant to need much comment. I will only call attention in illustration of one of the many sad consequences of that fact. That is the ignoble materialism, reigning just here and now, the neglect of higher education, of true culture and nobler aspirations, the lack of esthetics and real refinement, people catering generally to ostentation, money-making and sen- sual pleasures. Out of a million of American Israelites I do not know 50 men, remarkable for anything else than finance and business smart- ness. I do not know such 45, not 40, not 30, not 20, not 10. Oh, what a terrible fall ! Israel, once the nation of mind and culture, is now the people of Mammon. True, this reproach is not alone at the address of the Jew, it is a general one, justly applied to the present American idiosyncrasies, without difference of race, creed or nationality. It is the darkest reverse-side of our democ- racy. But it weighs doubly heavy upon the Jew. Because "no- bility obliges"; he is representing the ''kingdom of priests and holy nations." As such more is expected of him. Besides he is a minority and more conspicuous. "He must be of gold to pass for silver. " Wherefore be a minority if it is not superior to the majority !.. .That peculiar money-taste has impressed itself even upon our language: "He is worth thousands!" is a common phrase, prizing a rational man according to his purse ; forgetting that he may be worth a million ducats and yet be absolutely worthless. What a vulgarity! What false measurements to apply to ethical beings in assuming that merely to have money, implies to have brains, morals, worth ! How much does such an estimate degrade man's own better self ! The immigrant is prized by his capacity to make a livelihood. But a prosperous nation of 80 millions should repudiate such crude notions. So at the mercy of wind and wave do people drift about on the stormy SABBATH IN AMERICA. 177 ocean of life, and when the harlot, fortune, turns her back upon them, when they lose the money, they have lost everything, "they are worthless," and pitilessly despised. Their money has fled with their wits, their social standing, their self-respect, they are worthless in every sense and lie prostrate at the feet of the Golden calf. Often we hear well-meaning parents complaining of the cal- lousness of children, of their lack of ambition, of application, of their dislike of study. No, the children are the victims, not the authors thereof. Do not impugn the young, you wTong them twice. The young are but the offspring of the old, and bear the consequences thereof. Their faults proceed from the parents, not from nature. The child sees the father first make the money, by any means, and then spend it by all means, but never read or study, and of course, it contracts the same tastes and habits. Every one has a parlor; who has a library? Every one is bent on amusement ; how many read serious books, anxious to improve ? Who sets to the young the example of an intellectual enjoyment, a generous pursuit, a noble aspiration? The attentive boy and girl find the parents working during the week, working on the Sabbath and playing or idling on Sunday. When and how should they learn and contract the habits, taste and zeal for intellectual and refining pursuits ! Pondering over all the social and moral factors of American society, the conviction forces itself upon the thinking contem- plator that the great cause of American materialism lies in the fact of the general neglect and the improper use of the Sabbath- day, and that a restoration of the Sabbath alone will improve m.atters. Nothing short of this will ! SABBATH OR ANY OTHER DAY? Practical people, engrossed solely by the struggle for existence^ ask the following : Alust we still continue, now as of yore, in America as on the entire globe, to celebrate the Rest-day on the 7th day of the week? The Decalogue says: "for six days shalt thou labor. . .and on the seventh day is a rest." Can we not rest each and every one, according to our convenience and utility, on any one day out of seven? The Decalogue refers to the last day, to the very close of the week of divine creation 178 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. (Gen. II.l). But now that modern astronomy has so marvel- ously expanded the universe, that even this our own solar system has many v/orld-planets, each having its own day, viz. : the time of its rotation around its own axis, hence is our day of 24: hours pecuHar to itself, to this terrestrial globe, not to any other planet, the less so to any other solar system; hence can the Sabbath mean simply one day out of seven for recuperation. Could we not therefore choose, each his own day, or whenever it suits most of us, or even coincide with the respective majority of the nations among whom we dwell, in the United States, Europe, Asia or Africa ? Must we cling to the 7th day Sabbath as heretofore, or could we American Jews choose another day? True we need a day for rest, culture, worship, etc., but would not any other day answer the purpose? Whenever we have the time and leisure? So practical people ask who have not fully grasped the problem, who imagine they can create a Sabbath at will, adding still : ''We are reformers, we look to the essence, not the forms ; why not change the customary day if it is not convenient to the community, if it clashes so much with the majority? Why not continue the institution with all its benefits on any other day, more in harmony with surroundings and industrial interests? There is no use hushing up. Let us ventilate and frankly dis- cuss this arduous problem and find out the balance of reason. To these objections the answer is : Shall the Sabbath day answer its purpose, as intended by the providential legislator, viz : Ic qadsho, for sanctification, to improve man, to recreate his body, mind and soul, to raise his social, humane and political status, then it must be universal, for all, and permanent, year after year, for centuries and milleniums, here and in any part of the terres- trial globe as far as possible. It must be accepted and kept as by divine authority, enjoined by law and state, have the auriole of antiquity, be taught and imbibed with our mother's milk, con- temporaneous with Adam, creation, civilization. And such is the Sabbath of the Decalogue alone. Alone then can it be effica- cious. W^hilst if you choose your Sabbath according to your ov/n convenience, every year or week having its own convenience, once on that day and next time on another day of the week, and, of course, your neighbor too is to have his free selection of his rest day — then, I ask, would that be really a holy day, a Sabbath, set apart for sanctification, with all the far-reaching results and SABBATH OR ANY OTHER DAY? I79 effects we have above contemplated ? By no means ! That would be an idling day, a jolly-day, not a holy-day, not a God blessed Sabbath ! A Sabbath-day needs the impress, the halo of eternity and universality, observed by all your fellow men, your congre- gation, your nearest and dearest. While if all its authority is your own, individual, temporary selection, it is empty, void, inoperative. The Sabbath of the Decalogue alone has that para- mount authority. It is affiliated with the very creation. As the week consists of six working days, and one, the last, is a Rest, even so creation lasted for six days, and the seventh God blessed and hallowed ; then later, mankind maturing, God ordained it on Sinai, as Israel's rest-day, for ever and for everywhere, without regard to time, place and individual convenience. That is a holy Sabbath. And since we have seen that trinitarian Christianity is but a phase in human development, bound to follow the univer- sal law of progress, that therefore trinity is silently preparing mankind for monotheism — then I can not see why the Sunday- rest should not make room for the genuine Seventh-day-Rest. Further on we shall elucidate this. SUNDAY, PRACTICAL MEN AND FACTS. But practical men reply: These are philosophical, theoretical, theological considerations. Contemxplate now the realistic, prac- tical side of the problem. We now labor under tremendous diffi- culties : One to a hundred compared with other denominations, under crushing competition, v/ith great needs, and with more social and economical envy than ever before. In Europe, a cen- tury ago, the Jew alone occupied with trade, he alone was the go-between, the middle-man between producer and consumer. The barons busied them.selves with war, politics, gallantry; the peasants with manual field-labors. The Jew was the merchant, the industrial, the brain man, the banker, the traveling agent; he had little or no competition to fear. He could then choose his own market-, work- and rest-days. This was the case in Poland, Russia, Prussia, the Danubean and Balkan Provinces, Hungary, in part even until recent date. Conditions now have changed there too. Quite other circumstances prevail in America. W^e can hardly compete with the native Yankee merchants and industrials. How Maurice Fluegel's Exodus, Moses and the Decalogue. i8o EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. can we afford to vacate on the Sabbath, the hoHdays and the Sundays? Just on the Sabbath is the leading weekly business day. How could we stand competition? We and our families would be crushed out and pauperized ! We must yield ! not yield the weekly Sabbath rest, but merely the customary day. We shall once begin counting from Monday, then Sunday will be the 7th, every Sunday will be the 7th day, and so on. Sunday has the halo of 15 — 18 centuries. 300 — 400 millions celebrate it. Our American neighbors observe it, the State law insists on it. The seventh day Sabbath is in fact swept away. Ninety out of a hundred observe the Sunday. Besides must we not count the good feeling of our neighbors ? Must we not avoid provocation? Not try to conciliate and please? Why should we not fall in with the majority? So speak our practical men, honestly believing the Sunday-Sabbath will suit the purpose. Now pause and inquire first, and you will find out that just the Sunday fits the least for our Sabbath object. Examine the fol- lowing data : When we select the ground and collect the mate- rials for building a farm or a residence for us and for times to come, not a cottage for a season, we begin with examining its soil, composition, strata, surroundings, neighborhood and all the building materals. We have been observng the Sabbath day of the Decalogue and now some suggest to change it for another commercially more convenient day. You will therefore I hope, be desirous of examining the previous history, genesis and mean- ing of the Sunday. From hoary antiquity the Arian heathen world had devoted the first day of the week to the leading deity of their mythologies pantheon, the Sun-God, for fun, disport- ment, jollification and spontaneous relaxation on that Sunday. Even that is little mentioned anywhere. Over 18 centuries ago the few Hebrew followers of the man to whom later was imparted the role of the founder of trinitarian Christianity, and his first disciples, later called Apostles, were humble, devout and sincere Jews, just like their master. He and they sacredly observed and kept the Sabbath of the Decalogue and never contemplated any change, never ! He had said, according to Matthew : Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not iThe Sun the most beneficent force in nature. Even Zeus originally meant light and Apollo-Phoebus, light, was his favorite son. SUNDAY, PRACTICAL MEN AND FACTS. i8i come to destroy but to fulfill, for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. ^ His apostles, disciples and followers, all strictly adhered to this program. They, as he, would have shrunk with horror at the idea of desecrating the Sababth. He and they and even Paul observed the seventh day rest. But Paul, imbued with Greek ideas, gradually may have begun to doubt any preference of days and seasons,^ thinking them perhaps simple ceremonies. Whilst the acknowledged immediate apostles clung to the Law and the Sabbath, without any shadow of doubt or hesita- tion. But deeply impressed with all the features of honesty, suavity, enthusiasm, pure aspirations of their departed master, they soon assumed him as a Davidian, a Messiah, who after his crucifixion Avas resurrected and translated to heaven, as Elijah or Henoch had been. These Hebrew-Christians, viz : Jews believing that Jesus was the expected Messiah, remembered on the Sunday (mourning being forbidden on Sabbath by the rabbinic law) his tragic death, soon his resurrection and lastly his ascension. So Sunday became a day of prayer, fasting and penitence, for the few Jews who clung to the messianic character of their de- parted leader. The Decalogue-Sabbath continued as heretofore, to be celebrated on the 7th day, the last of the week, as the day of rest, recreation and sanctiiication. Such it continued for two to three centuries, by the apostles and the first bishops, who lived and died as their master, pious Jews. But gradually that original He- brew-Christian sect, the Ebionites, the Baptists, the Revivalists, etc. dwindled away and died out. Their remnants were out-crowded by, or fused with, the huge masses of Gentiles from all the neigh- boring nations, that flocked to the Christian camp, at the an- nouncement of Paul and his later followers, that the God of Israel will readily receive them into his Church and his parental heart; that Israel's God is the God, the only One, Spirit, Mind, the Unknown God of the Greek world ; that he desired no local or sectional observances, but virtue and good deeds and willingly accepts on these terms the Gentile too to his grace and benefi- cence. In distinction from the Jews and as their rallying parole, the Gentile Christians accepted Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, in Greek, the Christ, the God-anointed and appointed, and called 1 Matthew V, 17 and 18. Luke XVI, 17. 2Galatians IV, 9 and 10, and other remarks of Paul. i82 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. themselves Christians. From that moment the Mosaic Law and the Sabbath began to step into the back-ground. As all other Jewish holidays, so the Sabbath began to be discarded. The Roman emperor, Constantine the Great, in the IV Century, after long political oscillations and hesitations, finding polytheism ruined, and the world needing a church with a creed and Credo, became a Christian and slowly made Christianty the dominant religion. He made an end to the doubts about the public rest- day. The Gentile world was declared to be Christian; the new religion, as not identical with Mosaism, Judaism and Talmudism. Monotheism compromised with polytheism and became Trinitari- anism ; disestablished was the Mosaic Law, but the prophetico-social one was retained. That was the content of the Nicaean State re- ligion. The Mosaic 7th-day-Sabbath was abolished, and the Sunday, the day obscurely remembered by the pagan world and originally devoted to the Sun-God as Sunday, was declared to take the place of the Sabbath for the Gentile Christian world. It was, as entire Christianity, a compromise between the old and the new, the Mosaic and the Gentile world, between the overwhelming majority and the humble minority, between the Gentile Chris- tians and the Jewish Ebionites who alone remembered that Jesus, the Apostles, Paul and the bishops of the first two or three cen- turies had been all Biblical Jews ! The Sabbath, as purely Jewish, was abolished and the Sunday of ancient heathen origin, was substituted, thus amalgamating the Biblical monotheistic Sabbath- ideas with the polytheistic ones of Sunday. SUNDAY, THE SYMBOL OF TRINITY. The Sunday- Sabbath is thus the seal and symbol of the trini- tarian religion, saliently distinguishing it from Judaism. It betokens the fusion of the spirit of Judaism with that of poly- theism. The Sunday does not remember the One God Creator, but the Christ as the founder of Christianity, the resurrected Messiah, a person or part of the Trinity, god-the-son, who came to redeem man and the world, who died on the cross and redeemed by his passion the sins of those who believe in his vicarious office ; who resurrected and ascended to heaven, standing there at the right hand of God: God-the-father, himself God-the-son, and God the Holy Ghost being three distinct gods, yet making up one Divine Unity. — This means the Sunday-Sabbath. Sunday SUNDAY, THE SYMBOL OF TRINITY. 183 blends the new and the old elements and constitutes the badge of Christianity, just as Sabbath is the badge (Oth Berith) of Judaism. But holy seasons are not created by an imperial edict. It requires something else than the interest and the policy of the prince and his hierarchy. The Sabbath was abolished for the Gentiles, but for centuries the Sunday hardly gained by that. It continued the occasion of hilarity and jollification for the masses, and for a few, that of fasting and penitential worship, but not as the day for rest, culture, happiness, and sanctification for all. The Christian world had no Sabbath in the sense of the term. In the beginning of the Eighth Century, the previous sudden and amazing revolution in Arabia, and the rise of the Mo- hammedan po^ver having shown the weak points of Christian- ity, the Emperor Leo, of Constantinople made an effort to in- vigorate it. One of his reforms was the solemn transfer of the sanctity of the Biblical Sabbath to the Christian Sunday. But he did not succeed much better than Constantine and the Ni- caean Council four centuries earlier. It was a day of official worship and popular merriment, not in the Mosaic sense, a universal holy rest and moral uplifting. The despised and down-trodden Jews had their ancient Sabbath, not so the Gen- tile world. Not until the epoch of the Protestant Reformation, far in the Sixteenth Century, when Luther, Calvin and Knox succeeded to effect a Sunday-rest. Coming nearer the spirit of the Bible in other respects, they succeeded in clothing the Sunday with part of the authority and the benefactions of the Sabbath. In North Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and more even in Scotland, England and North America, there is a Sun- day Sabbath, worthy of the name, devoted to general rest, worship, quiet home life, and recreation. Nevertheless it falls short of the Mosaic Sabbath. It is marred by its undeniable historical origin. It is not even there a day of genuine cheer and sociability and mental and humane culture. It is still half a penitential day. It is half a mystic day. It reminds one of crucifixion and ascension. Hence it is termed the Lord's day and too much monopolized by the ministers for repeated church going and sermons. It has still the atmosphere of gloom and monotony, distinctly remembering the old Jew- Christian Sunday of yore, of fasting and penitence, of the pas- i84 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. sion and the death on the Cross, as claimed by the Church. It is half and half a day of mourning and castigation. The serene, cheerful, realistic, sky-blue atmosphere of the Biblical Sabbath, the day of joy and recreation, of moral, mental and hygienic uplifting of body and niind^ when the family members and friends assemble around the sacred hearth in token of peace and hapiness, that character it lacks even today. It is a Puri- tan Church day, a ministers', pietistic day; it is not, as intended in the Bible and advised by physiology and hygienics, a day for every man, woman and child, for their bodily, mental, moral, esthetic, political and social betterment and happiness. Contrasting the ideas symbolized by each of these days, in the respective camps, we find that, Saturday-Sabbath repre- sents : God-one, Mind, Spirit, Cre- ator of the Universe. God pure Spirit, changeable; un- God Eternal, omnipresent, omniscient. Only One. God Allpowerful, Allwise, Allgood. Best world. God's crea- tion, for the happiness of all. Man in God's image, free, rational, moral. Man with reason and free choice of good or evil, capa- ble of virtue and happiness. ]^,Ian is by reason and ef- forts master of fate. Sabbath-rest, energy, sanc- tification, joy. This means Sabbath. Whilst Sunday brings to mind these ideas : God three, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Logos- Creator. God incarnated, assumed forms and phases, hypos- tasis. God, born, died, resurrect- ed, split in three. God frustrated, overreach- ed by the devil, crucified. Worst world, by devil and sin, doomed to hell ; Man tainted with original sin doomed to eternal hell, from his very birth. Man radically bad and un- happy. Only blind obedi- ence and blood of Christ save — fatalism ! Man doomed, deeds avail not, creed is all, grace, not m^erit. Sunday, gloom, penance ; God died on Cross. This means Sunday. Is. 58, is.ijiy r\2^b ns-ipi i SUNDAY, THE SYxMBOL OF TRINITY. i8s To uphold the one set and oppose the other, Israel suffered martyrdom these last 15 centuries. Here is the Sabbath and its ideas and there the Sunday, its background and concepts. These are no artificial construc- tions, they are facts, stern historical data. In accepting the seventh or the first day, the one or the other flag, we accept the one or the other set of ideas, respectively, symbolized by each. The two pregnant sets of tenets, diametrically oppose each other. You can not harmonize or blend them. For the Sabbath ideas Israel has been battling during these last thirty- five centuries. For them he has been suffering daily martyr- dom in the last fifteen, just for not acquiescing in these Siinday views. Shall he now give up the Sabbath ideas and adopt the Sunday ones : Triune God, incarnated, born and died, resur- rected and ascended bodily — to heaven, to improve the world, (spoiled by the Devil), and redeem the Christian portion of man- kind ; leaving all other men to their doom, eternal Hell, tainted from their birth by the original sin of Adam and Eve; salva- tion to be obtained only by the blood of the Messiah, man's deeds being of no avail ? Shall he, can he do so ? AMERICAN JEWS CONSIDER. Does any one of you believe in that? No ! You do not believe ! How then could you accept the Sunday-Sabbath, the official exponent and flag, historically pledged to these tenets, the mystic faith of the triune believer, diametrically opposed to all your convictions, reason and common sense? Or do you imagine you could retain the seventh day Sabbath-ideas with the Sunday as the Sabbath? Think a little ! Could you accept the flag of Russian autocracy and retain American democracy? Would that not be flagrant inconsistency, hypocrisy, lack of principle? Is there not imminent danger that with the Rus- sian flag you will become Russian slaves? Some years ago I discussed this matter with the well known late Professor Franz Delitzsch, a fine teacher of the Leipzig University, a real admirer of Jewish character, but an ardent conversionist. Pointing out to him the above argument, he said : "I am fully aware of this forceful argument. I know well that not all is correct in our own camp ... as yourself I accept the Unity and spirituality of God, but I wish that you, i86 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Jews, overlooking these anomalies, should come over to us and help us correct them." To which I at once rejoined: "Would you advise one to move into a shaky house and then begin rebuilding its walls and roof? Is it not wiser first to repair it and then to move in? We Jews help you best to make that repair when standing outside, pointing out the defects and respectfully urging you on to correct them." Indeed would the Reformation have taken place, if Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Melanchton, etc., had not found the Bible intact in Jewish hands, which enabled them to amend at least some of the official incongruities ? . . . Even so I say to you American Jews, Could you wisely and safely accept the Sun- day-Sabbath and then improve the principles underlying it? Is that not tantamount to moving into a shaky house and then begin rebuilding base, walls and roof ? How can you think of Sunday-Sabbath? Does not faith, logic and history constrain you to the conclusion that all those who accept the Credo: ''Hear O Israel, God is One," must cling to the Sabbath of the Decalogue, its flag of thirty- five hundred years ago? THE PRACTICAL SIDE. But your practical economical interests suffer by the Sab- bath, the multiple holidays, the two weekly rest-days. To this I reply : Your ancestors were politically and economically worse ofif, nevertheless they kept their Sabbath and holidays. They remained in the Ghetto princes of the mind. Pauperized they were by the boycott, the ostracism during the week, not by the Sabbath-Rest. You plead : "We can not keep our Sab- baths and holidays, considering economically, the needs of our families, we must support them." But you forget that just on account of your children, you must set them an example of conviction, character, principle ! Children need not only bread and raiment, but also character. "Not on bread alone man liveth, but on all flowing from the Divine breath. ^ We happily live in a land that can support a hundredfold popula- tion larger than the one it harbors ; but there is great scarcity of character now a days. Parents should not alone accumulate Dnxn n^n^ nnb Dni)n bv fc<^ ^a ^ THE PRACTICAL SIDE. 187 riches for their successors, but leave them, besides, principles, convictions, character, moral courage ! Imagine what do our young think, when seeing their parents work during the week, the Sabbaths and holidays, in spite of the Decalogue — and sending them to school to learn : ''Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Besides the mentioned historical reasons, so cogent and threatening, pleading for the Mosaic rest-day, even practically you could not utilize the Sunday for rest and worship. Of the few Sunday trials in Europe and America, none has proved a success. When people neglect their own Sabbath, they will not better observe the Christian rest-day. The Berlin, New York, and Chicago-attempts have completely failed. Hoisting an insincere flag, one with false colors, those initiators neces- sarily became callous to the principles of the true flag. "Ethical" indifferentism, apostasy, nihilism, these profit by it. Again forget not that the Decalogue rest-day has yet powerful friends, even among liberal Christians. Everywhere you will find them silently siding with it. There are millions of Uni- tarians, of Anti-Trinitarians, of Christians not accepting the dicta of the Council of Nicaea. There are millions and tens of millions who disclaim Paul's heresies, who prefer the Arian or even the Ebionite school, who desire to separate the wheat from the later chaff, who aim with Franz Delitzsch at a re- vision of the dogmatics, the Christology, asking the aid of Israel outside of Trinity. Such a current is to be surmised and found among the very founders of the American Com- monwealth, since Franklin to this day. Here comes the silent tendency to vacate on the Sabbath besides the regular Sun- day, generally practiced, in the schools, often in Court, etc. ; coming in vogue in Commerce and Economics and in part, in industrial establishments ; workingmen's associations, too, are drifting in the same direction. Even the large, educated masses of Christianity can not help recognizing that the Jewish minority have a right to a fair hearing, that Bible and Deca- logue plainly point to the seventh day Sabbath, not the Sunday of old polytheism. Thus the Sabbath is not irretrievably lost. It may soon become a legal holiday, five days weekly work should provide for the bodily wants, and two days left for mental and moral needs. The great movement for an i88 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. eight-hour working day, points that way. The fact is, today's workers are overworked. One half of society toils too much and is wrecked, and the other half is out of work and wrecked by starvation. Let five days weekly be devoted to bodily needs and tv/o reserved for mental and spiritual development. This may prove to be a solution of the social problem, of pauperism and lack of work. Both m.ay have their main source in over-work and under-work of the classes and the masses. Five work days and two rest-days may cure both, pauperism and plutocracy, with ignorance, profanity and vulgarity. Now considering the Decalogue, the times, the social aspects, the relig- ious problem, all appearing to go in the same direction, all being clearly in the right, why despair of reason and logic? Why should not mythology at last recede? Why set an example of treason to principle, history, ancestors and mankind? Be- hold nineteen hundred years ago the Occident, with Christian- ity, came nearer the Hebraic Bible and the Decalogue ; twelve hundred years ago the Oriental Mohammedans ; four hundred years ago Protestantism did, now comes liberal Christianity, the Unitarian tendency. You see, mankind moves on, reason and right are advancing. Even remorseless Russian and Rou- manian anti-Semitism deprecates religious and racial intoler- ance, claiming that but economic considerations underlie their discriminations. You see the tigers begin to be mitigated. They eat up the lamb, not for its creed, but because it is fat and weak. Let us unite with the world's liberals and we shall be strong, strong by right and by might. To do one's duty is a powerful force. You can not give up your doctrine, mono- theism, nor your flag, the Sabbath, whilst betraying your mil- lennial mission to mankind. THEORETICAL MEN ON SUNDAY. We have discussed the opinions of practical men concerning a Sunday-Sabbath. We shall now quote some of the sugges- tions of learned men, citing even rabbinical authorities claimed as favoring such a transfer, and shall see that such claims are inadequate. There is a well known Talmudical Agada purporting that: ''The Sabbath is given unto you, not you to the Sabbath."! Upon such fine, pithy Medrashic sayings, Paul D3P nac^n np« ,n^t^•b d^jhj Dn« n^ i THEORETICAL MEN Ox\ SUNDAY. 189 and his successors founded their scheme of enfranchising the Gentile Christians from the BibHcal holidays and other ob- servances, forgetting the radical difference that exists between the Law or Halakha, and the Agada, mere homiletics. Is this not calculated rather to deter from, than attract to such inno- vations?. . .Of the same caliber is another familiar rabbinical quotation : "Make thy Sabbath a working-day and be in no need of (being assisted by) men." 1 This too is an agadic, practical saying, and not meant as a legal maxim. To work on the Sabbath as on a week-day, was and remained a crime if done willfully and spitefully, to insult the Law. The incident, in the time of Moses,^ of a young man collect- ing wood on the Sabbath, and being stoned, as a Sabbath- breaker, is a striking proof of it. It was severe, a deterring example, and only temporary, especially since the man had not been forewarned, as required by the rabbinical law in all such cases. ^ Nevertheless it shows that the law was and remained that week-day work on the Sabbath is forbidden, and that poverty is no excuse. In the wars of the Maccabeans and later those between Judaea and Rome, defensive war, viz., to protect life,"^ was allowed, not offensive v/ar, since any kind of work is forbidden on the Sabbath, even on extreme occa- sions. The Synagogue has a special service on every Monday and Thursday morning, with special prayers and readings of part of the weekly pericope from the sacred Scroll. This is an old arrangement, dating from Judaea, in order to accommodate visitors from the country who could not come to town on the Sabbath, and give them an opportunity to attend the services and readings of the law on those two weekly market and court-days. Why then, say some learned Sunday friends, can we not do the same Sunday for those who are not able to worship on the Sabbath? The answer is, because: The Mon- day and Thursday services never supplanted the Sabbath, whilst the Sunday service does and will supplant it, as proven in the Berlin and Chicago and many other Sunday-Sabbath 2 (IV M., XV, 32.) Picking up wood. 190 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Congregations. At first the regular Sabbath-services were deserted, then they were entirely stopped to patronize the Sunday worship, at last, when these had fairly ruined the Sab- bath, they in turn were neglected and at last are or soon will be dispensed with. Who surrenders his own Sabbath, will not spare his neighbor's one. Another difference between then and now is this : The Judaen country-folk could not attend the Sabbath services, just on account of the Sabbath forbid- ding traveling and journeying over more than two thousand yards. 1 Hence thev could fairly ask for an extra week-day service, upon fair moral grounds. While modern men neglect the Sabbath and the Synagogue on business grounds, and such will not care much for Sunday-services. Facts prove it. No doubt, there is no cause for forbidding worship and instruc- tions on Sunday, as it is a general vacation day, and should be utilized ethically in our hard-pressed times. But if one insists on Sunday and refuses any other day or evening for worship, there is ground for suspicion that he is catering to the majority, not desire of and reverence for religion or instruction. Another such idle argument is the second Passover,^ viz: The Pentateuch ordaineth for a person who happened to be away from home, or levitically unclean on the Passover, the fourteenth of the spring month, the anniversary of the Exodus, then he shall celebrate it just a month afterwards. *'Why then, contend some parties, could we not on similar grounds postpone our Sabbath to Sunday? Once done so, every Sun- day will be the seventh day counting from Monday !" That argument limps. The second Passover was a partial, indi- vidual temporary provision, for persons hindered by necessity, by vis major from attending Passover, and willing to conform to the well established rule. Whilst here people propose to disestablish and abrogate, for ever and ever, an institution of thirty-five hundred years ; of the grandest dimensions and far- reaching results, and fuse it with, or rather supplant it by another institution originally and ostensibly established to antagonize it, and contradict every thing intended by it. The medium comparationis of this parallel is totally lacking and the argument is illogical. 2 IV M., Ix, 10. THEORETICAL MEN ON SUNDAY. 191 It is well known that the Jews celebrate their holidays according to the lunar cycle, and since that is shorter than the real, solar one, they insert, periodically, an extra 13th month in the year,^ to equalize them approximately. Now this offi- cial statement, so important for religious life, belonged to the duties and privileges of the Chief or Nassi^ the Judge, and the Supreme Court in Judaea. About this we read in Bab. San- hedrin, ii, a: "One adds an additional thirteenth month only with the consent of the Nassi : It happened once to Rab. Gamaliel who had gone on state affairs to the ruler of Syria and tarried there, that his Court made such a declaration (of a leap year of 13 months), expressly, conditionally: If consented to by Rabban Gamaliel. He soon returned and declared:'' I do agree to it," then that became law. Such a leap year was decreed only when indispensable, as on account of the bad roads, defective bridges, decayed Passover-ovens, or far-away Jewish pilgrims for Jerusalem.. .One shall enact no leap-year on account of the kids, lambs and pigeons being yet too tender (for sacrificial purposes), but such may be made an accessory ground for a leap-year. So R. Yanai says in the name of R. Simeon, son of Gamaliel, the Nassi, who wrote to the Congre- gations : "We inform you that the pigeons and lambs are too tender and spring time has not yet arrived. So I was pleased to increase this year with 30 days."^ Here we see that a leap-year, with postponement of the entire festive cal- endar of the year, was declared by the Patriarch, on grounds perfectly human and realistic, in order to make it convenient to the people to pilgrim to the Temple and Jerusalem. "Why then should we moderns, our learned antagonists could say, not be allowed to transfer the Sabbath to the more convenient Sun- day?' The answer is the same as before mentioned: Because then it was not a transfer, but a re-adjustment on an actual iMaimonides Yad, on New Moon. n^^n nx nn^yi r^^ub nn^^i fc^moss^ jd^sj^ ^vn nitj>"i b)^'b i^n^ We abbreviate the following, containing the theme, there: ^D^3i N-ibmn .|i3b i:nj« px;ni» ...n:sj^:) ivo ^nx .d^k^di D^njn 192 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. calculation, and putting it aright, harmonizing the lunar cycle so as to come up to the practically important solar one. Such a computation and promulgation could properly be made only by the nation's Supreme Court and its head, the conditions when, where, why and the frequency of such intercalations and many more greater and minor considerations had to be taken into account. Whilst our Mosaic Sabbath, is clear, doubted by none, and subject to no fluctuations. Now to post- pone it and allow it to be supplanted by Sunday, the originally polytheistic day, and later, the symbolic institution of an avowedly opposite doctrine and religion — that holds no com- parison with the leap-year case invoked. There, again, is the question of a temporary enactment, inserting the intercalary month when the Sanhedrin thought it fit and proper. In our case it is to be a permanent and definite weekly transfer from one day to another, from one certain platform to its very dia- metrically opposite one ; the surrender of the grand, Mono- theistic Institution to a Trinitarian one ! So tor instance, the Rabbis allow the prophet to temporarily postpone a biblical commandment, as Elijah sacrificed on Karmel, on the ground of expediency :^ But if he dare cancel it definitely, or dare change it totally to another one, then he is declared an im- postor, a false prophet and death is his punishment. In Bably. Sabbath 69b. we read.^ Rab Hunah said: *'When one was long on the road or in the wilderness and knew not when the Sabbath is, then he shall count six days and the seventh is his day of Sabbath. Chiyah says : He observes (as his Sabbath) one day and then counts six working days. In what do they differ? One opines: as the creation, (six crea- tive days and the seventh is rest), and the other: as Adam did (His advent was on the close of Friday, and at once he ob- served the Sabbath and then counted six working days). Raba says : Every day he shall work for his livelihood, except on that day (as his own Sabbath) : Shall he die on that day? No, he shall prepare on the preceding day for two days. But Ps. 119-126 ^imin )^Z}r] i"b n)^vb ny 1 D''»"' ntj'K^ njitt ,n3K^ ino^^ ynr i^^xi i3n»3 ik ^nna i^n» n\i 2 'D^o^ nt^E^ njini nns dv -lOK^n noit^ si -12 k^\t .nns nv id^d) THEORETICAL MEN ON SUNDAY. 193 possibly just that day was the Sabbath? Well, let him work every day for his livelihood, without any exception and that day (his own Sabbath) let him distinguish by the consecrated Cups at its beginning and its close." Here, we see — our learned antagonist would say — that in case of doubt as to the right time, any one day after or before six working days, will do, w^hy then should w^e not do the same in this din and bustle of the struggle lor existence? The reply we have given above holds good here too. The Talmud attends there to rare cases, to individuals, astray and ignorant of the right day, and ad- vises them in such a dilemma ; now such a casualty can not be made a rule, not a precedence for an entire community in nor- mal conditions, w^ell knowing the date and calendar, to change definitely and permanently the seventh day for another, a day of a diametrically opposite character. Remember Again Some will barter the seventh day for the first of the week; and some, in Mohammedan countries, for Friday, the sixth of the week; and some, for other reasons good in China, for Wednesday or Thursday. That can make a day for self-indulgence, not a Sabbath-day for sanctification. Israel having been a unit in the dispersion, for fifteen hundred years, will be broken up, simply, by such a splitting and isolation. The forward Sunday- Sabbath Jews will tear away from the mass of the Jews, amalga- mate, surely, with the dominant denominations and at last be swallow^ed up and lost among the surrounding majorities; That is what we have to face when tampering with our re- ligious bases. The stages of such a result are already, dire- fully, visible. Such people begin with both, Saturday and Sunday services, they may soon pass to Sunday-Sabbath serv- ices and a Rabbi ; then proceed to Sunday and a Unitarian min- ister, then to Sunday and universalist speaker, to land at last at ethical culture, singing unions, in indiiferentism, Mammon- worship and sensuous materialism, the famous doctrine of Man a Machine. Other minor legislatic objections we easily pass in silence. The Sunday- Sabbath may thus prove to be the Rubicon passage, the bridge leading from Judaism out into the Gentile camp. The grand-children of such ancestors may soon scoff and sneer at those old benighted, "damned" Sabbath-Jew^s !". . .The iron logic of things is: If you accept the flag, you must take with it too, its principle. Sunday means Non-Judaism.. Considering the infinitessimal Jewish minority. 194 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. to take Sunday in the service of Judaism, is just as feasible as : to dash down a steep mountain, with impetuous, youthful stellions — in order to avoid the abyss below. Look to such recent Sunday-Sabbath attempts, here and there. At first people flocked to see its workings, it was a marvelous success ! After a genera- tion its results are, indififerentism, conversion, nihilism. Still we must not close our eyes to the reverse-sides, as the ostrich hides its head, when pursued by an enemy. There is no denial that the social conditions are threatening. Our Non- Jewish American fellow-citizens are all in business, competi- tion is pressing and a great majority of our coreligionists believe they can not afford to vacate on the Sabbath, the holi- days and besides, the Sundays ! The Mosaic Sabbath in fact is neglected, hence no Sabbath, no worship, no religion, no instruction ; less of morals, and of intellectuality ; wild chase for money and sensuality, that means decadence ; an awful prospect for the once "kingdom of priests and holy nation." — Under such conditions to try Sunday-Sabbath is tantamount to strike off the head — in order to cure the patient ! Why not rather try, for worship, the Friday evening, or the Sabbath afternoon? Why not begin insisting on the Sabbath-rest in the sanctum of the family? Until relief will come from other quarters, the advance of liberal Christianity towards the Deca- logue? Until the Jews will gather up courage to fully restore the Sabbath of the Sinaic Religion? There is a way where there is a will ! ''No ! replicates the practical sociologist. No ! there can be no will when there is no way out of the dire dilemma. Insist- ing on the seventh-day-rest makes the Jew ominously clash with the hundred-fold non-Jewish majority! We not only lose their good will, but also our family's daily bread. To vacate two- days weekly, in busy America, will infallibly ruin us commer- cially, and soon alas, socially. It will re-erect the old pulled down Ghetto-walls. It will condemn us to a perpetual gohith, exile. And for what purpose? To whose profit? Our modern Sunday rest-day is a purely civil institution. It aims solely at man's best bodily and moral interests, not at credos, religion and metaphysics. No body identifies it with Trinity or Unity, with God's creation or the ascension ; The ancient rabbis added an entire month at will to the year, changing all the holidays THEORETICAL MEN ON SUNDAY. 195 for small considerations . . . Why can we not do a day in such stress? Man needs a day for recuperation, recreation and men- tal elevation ; the metaphysical or the religio-symbolical and the historical back-grounds and considerations have now lost their import. God rests not on the Sabbath, He being the Active Principle; and each planet having its own day, the Sabbath is but earthly. God requires worship on any day. A life of duty is the highest divine service. We, men, need a Rest. Why not take it when practically offered by society, the State, by the immense majority, giving scope to really universal peace and recuperation and, at the same time bridging over the chasms of sect, sad history and old prejudices? All coincides here for peace and good will, nothing is left out except, mostly, arti- ficial symbolism, petty, priestly Shiholeth! . . . . Here stands Hercules at the cross-ways. The Talmud refers to the prophet Elijah (tiqu) the settling of such hard cases. In the messianic times when myth will vanish and reason rule supreme, then this difficulty will easily be removed. In our discussion of the second Decalogue, in Deuteronomy, we have enlarged on this topic and shall here add but this : That in extreme circumstances Israel would find some clue to the hard solution of the difficult problem even in Bible and Talmud. So HI M. 18.5 reads: "Ye shall observe my statutes and my judgments which a man shall do and live by them." This the Rabbis (Sanhedrin. . .and oft elsewhere) rigorously and literally interpret: "My statutes and judgments which a man shall perform in order to live, not to die." This means that the Mosaic legislation aims at rendering man happy and hail, not to shorten his life and render him miserable. There- fore the Rabbis enacted, that in times of distress when "the Jew is forced to choose between trespassing over any com- mandments or death, then in self-preservation, lie shall tres- pass and save his life;" except: Idolatry, incest and murder, these three alone he shall not commit, but rather die. All the other Commandments, he may neglect in order to save his life." If now our Sunday-Sabbath advocates would seriously succeed to prove that the Jew, in this twentieth century, in the civilized part of the world, has come to such a pass, viz. : that the observation of the Mosaic seventh-day-Sabbath would make him starve, then there would be ground for a plea. 196 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. So says Maimonides Guide III, 41 : ''Know that concern- ing transgressions, the distinction is fourfold : firstly is : com- pelled transgression, by vis major; secondly by mistake and involuntarily; thirdly intentionally; fourthly high-handedly. Now, compelled transgression is not punishable and there is no sin here whatever. Unintentional transgression implies sin and requires atonement, but there is no punishment for such. Intentional transgression entails the due, prescribed punish- ment. Whilst he who transgresses spitefully, high-handedly, publicly, willfully, to show his contempt and dissent from the Thora, his avowed antagonism to the Law, he is termed a blasphemer and deserves all the rigor of the Statutes." This explains why the Spanish Marranos, compelled to go to Church and outwardly to conform to the dominant religion, called themselves Onossim, viz. : compelled to conversion, not voluntary apostates. Submitting to force, by soldiers and monks, they believed to be excused and not incur the punish- ment of idolatry ; at the same time assuming that the Church of Torquemada and of Ferdinand and Isabella were not idola- trous, an assumption which may well be contested. Original Christianity surely is not, image worship is. Now when the idols and images will be abolished, with their myths and prejudices, then even the hard Sabbath problem will be easily solved. APPEAL FOR THE SABBATH. Not trying to raise the veil of the future, leaving human destiny to Providence, let us conclude : We have seen that Sunday is a relic of ancient polytheism, originally devoted to the Sun-god of mythology ; that its later ideas are : Man-god, divine incarna- tion, God dying on the Cross, to retrieve the world, spoiled by the devil, and man corrupted by original sin ; next it means resurrection, ascension, atonement, trinity or God three and still one, redeeming by his blood, and his crucifixion a fraction of humanity and abandoining its major part to eternal Hell-fires, etc. Sunday-Sabbath is thus the first ring of that gradually forged, dogmatic, cast-iron chain that begins with the triune divinity and closes with infallibility, fatalism and eternal hell. Whilst the Sabbath of the Decalogue is, a priori, the living pro- test against all that. It teaches God-One, pure Spirit, Creator of the best possible universe. Eternal, All-powerful and All- APPEAL FOR THE SABBATH. 197 benign ; it teaches man free and responsible, capable of working out his own salvation, by choosing right and doing the good. This represents Sabbath and that does Sunday. Now, well acquainted with the platform of each, compare and choose ! See, American Jews, whether you can shift the Sabbath to the Sunday? There is but one alternative, viz: Whosoever accepts trinity, atonement and resurrection, a man-god and incarnation, a world corrupted by the devil, and man eternally ruined by original sin since Adam's fall — whosoever declares that Israel's martyrdom for these last 15 centuries has been a folly, an ostentation and a crime,that he should now yield to the above ideas, not care for reason, conviction, truth and their consequences, give in to the vociferation of Anti-Semitism and pass over to the majority — let him accept the Sunday-Sabbath with its accompanying plat- form. But whosoever accepts the doctrine of God-One, incor- poreal, pure-Spirit, eternal. Creator of the w^orld, for good, and of man for freedom, virtue and humanely possible happiness ; that Israel has a mission, a mission divine. and socially humane, all important to mankind ; that he has suffered martyrdom for the great interests of mankind; that his religion should descend to his children and they continue to teach and exemplify those doc- trines until, not only the chosen few, but the Gentile masses will accept and act upon them ; whosoever acknowledges as his credo : Hear, O Israel, God is one — he will not yield to the Sunday- Sabbath, the seal of: God the father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; he will adhere to the Sabbath of the Decalogue, the symbol and th Berith of God, One, sole Creator and Providence. He will cling to principle, common sense, conscience and the great ethical interests of mankind; he will abide by the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments, of Sinai, without change, compromise or abridgement ! American Israel ! Having struggled through these last dreary fifteen centuries, having powerfully assisted to liberalize western mankind, living now as citizens of this free United States, built upon biblical, non-sectarian grounds, where State and Church are rigidly separated, where race, creed and conscience are not to be interfered with, — shall we, now and here, yield to what our ances^ tors did not in the Ghetto, in poverty and cruel persecution? Brethren, it is your duty, your interest and your honor to stand 198 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. by your millennial, your own flag, by your own Sabbath ! Breth- ren, show your children that you have a conscience and a prin- ciple, that you are a nationality standing on historic grounds; not for business, but for moral^ rational and humanitarian inter- ests ; that you stand for principle ! Reformers, what-for all reforms, if one should not care for either form, essence or prin- ciple? Orthodox, what use of all the old forms, if one neglects the most venerable, practical institution of Mosaism, symbolizing its highest ethics and doctrines ! Sisters in Israel, in your homes with your young ones, ''Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy !" Begin restoring the Sabbath at your own hearth, make your house a sanctuary by adhering to your religion ! Orthodox, here is the oldest form of Judaism ; cling to it ! Reformers, here is the most pregnant doctrine, the oldest, the newest and the latest reform : Observe the Sabbath day ! Women in Judah, your husbands advance the plea of competition, bread, iron necessity. What hinders you from having the Sabbath kept in the family- sanctuary, so sweet and lovely in this land of freedom, but vul- garized and profaned by the lack of Sabbath and holidays ! Sisters in Israel, you have ever been the great hope, the anchor of Salvation of your people. When the billows of persecution and prejudice raged most violently against it, your noble mothers affronted with magnanimous courage, all the hatred, cruelty and misery of long, dark, barbarous ages. Your sex was the immov- able rock amid the raging dreary sea of oppression. Your noble mothers stood there unshaken and undismayed, the anchors of the tottering ship of Judah, setting an heroic example to their hus- bands and sons, how to fight for a great cause. Ye present daugh- ters of such mothers, ye descendants of Miriam, Deborah, Jael, Judith, Maccabean women, show that you have not degenerated from your ancestors. Brothers and sisters of Israel, remember your history, your task, your ethical interests and stand by them. Your part now is as great as ever your ancestors' was. The present crisis is ominous, an attack outside and inside the ranks. Brothers and Sisters, Reformers and Orthodox, you know, Anti- Semitism outside. But remember that inside, the havoc which infidelity, lucre, coarse materialism, ignorance, frivolity, time- serving and mean make-shift, open or in disguise, have already wrought in our ranks. There is no use mincing and hushing, palliating and sembling. The signs of decadence stare into the APPEAL FOR THE SABBATH. 199 eyes : Scepticism and immorality, irreverence to God and to parents, to honor and to virtue, neglect of true culture, serious study and noble ideality; the mad chase for Mammon and sensu- ality, at the risk even of decency, health and economical welfare. Brothers and Sisters ! American Israel has come to a crisis. The Sabbath is the high-water mark. Stand by your flag. It is a great and awful turnpoint, this alternative ! It is not the cause of a mere form, an old observance. No, your flag is at stake. It is the question : Shall you change the flag at the imminent risk of endangering the leading principles ? American Israel, cling to your flag, it represents both, the doctrine of Israel and the civili- zation of mankind. Will and you can ! 200 VI. Study.-mUAh PIETY AND REVERENCE. We have seen that the Decalogue is the Organic Law of Israel. It is of mankind. It begins with settling his firm state basis upon the God-belief. As the universe has God as its author, even so the State, the citizen and the people of Israel, God is their author, liberator and Providence : *'I am thv God, who has freed thee from the yoke of Egypt. Thou shalt have no other gods. Thou shalt not utter his name frivolously." That is the pre- amble to the Organic Law. From that it proceeds to insti- tute the Sabbath for man, the bridge and connecting link between the Deity and humanity, the epoch when the divine transfuses the human, sanctifies and elevates it. Now with the fifth Commandment the organic Constitution arrives at the human society. It establishes firmly the family as the rock, the corner- stone and unit, from which society, people and state gradually develop. What is the chief condition, sine quae non, of a solid society ? A solid family ; when the family is pure and sound, the people and the country are ; if not, not. What constitutes a solid, strong family? The correct relation of its members, that between parent and child : Honor and reverence thy father and thy mother, that thy days ixi the land given thee, may endure." (II M., 20-12.) Wilt thou man, live long and prosperous ? Rev- erence and cherish thy parents ! Wilt thou stay permanently in thine own country ? Respect and honor thy parents ! Here is a wholesome lesson of wise conservatism. Wilt thou prolong and sweeten thy own days ? Then, prolong and sweeten those of thy predecessors. Do that from motives of simple prudence ; do it from elevated moral motives, gratitude for good received, rever- ence for progenitors, elders, teachers, patrons. Reverence them as you do God in heaven, they are your Providence on earth. The Rabbis place such reverence among those leading duties, "the principal of which is reserved for the hereafter, and the fruit for this world ;" or the principal abides with the future prosperity of society and the fruit for the individual and the family." This great duty is enjoined time and again in the Pen- tateuch, Talmud and Codices ;^ it is put frequently in juxtaposi- III M., XX, 15, 17. —Ill M., XIX, 3, and XX, 9.--V M., XXVII, 16, etc. Kidushin 30b, 40a. Tur Joreh Dea Kibed Ab., 240-241. FILIAL PIETY AND REVERENCE. 201 tion with the Sabbath rest. The death penahy, even stoning by the Congregation is set upon its transgression. Gross disrespect is criminally punished and even gross disobedience.^ We must not forget that these laws were enacted thousands of years ago and may have been the view of thousands more, in the Orient, at the very dawn of societies, rude times, later mitigated by the Rabbis.2 Nevertheless the principle, due respect, reverence, and even obedience when young, to parents, holds good to this day. It is a perfectly natural, psychological instinct strikingly illus- trated by a well known tale : An irreverent, adult son bade his own little boy to fetch up from the cellar an old, mouldy blanket, to cover his sire in the garret. The youngster brought up half of the blanket. "Why did you not bring the whole?" asked the father. ''The other half I reserved for you, Papa, when old," replied the boy. — Youth is much prone to exaggerate the value of youth and underrate that of age, wisdom, experience. Hence the frequency of the commandment of filial piety and reverence for parents. No doubt the parents owe their children just as much in love and support as the children owe reverence and obe- dience to them. But parental tenderness and selfsacrifice is by far louder and deeper seated than filial piety. Both are natural instincts, but of unequal strength; because the first is far more important for bringing up the race. Parental love needs no long legal repetitions. Without any express law, parents do daily sacrifice themselves to their young. Not always do so the young towards parents. The cause is plain. Each present generation awaits its future from the coming generation, not from the past one. Each individual desires its own perpetuation and this can be attained only by offspring carefully reared. Nature, there- fore, implanted deepest the parental instinct. We delight in the success of our children, just as in our own. Whilst the off- spring's love and reverence towards parents must be cultivated by society and by law commanded, or else it may be neglected, since man is wholly ingrossed by the future, and has little time left for the past. And nevertheless, though less than parental love, filial piety is important to society; for if children will be generally forgetful and disrespectful to parents, then nobody will IV M. XX, 18. The rebellious son. 2Sanhedrin, 71a, renders death penalty nigh impossible for the rebel- lious son. 202 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. care to be a parent, to have a family, provide and care for chil- dren who, thus, will perish from lack of parental love. "Honor thy parents that thou mayest live long," is deep psychology and sociology, not only ethics. Besides the natural bent and instinct, parents must also be hopeful that, in rearing a family, they grow for themselves friends, companions and defenders for their old age, who will stand up for them and fight their battles when weak with age. To such parental resource alludes the excellent verse, Ps. 127.5: Happy is the man who thus provides his quiver (with children). They will plead his cause in the city-gate.^ No doubt this motive is selfish, but the true Legislator never despises and neglects rational and humane selfishness, a leading constitu- ent of human nature : ''The Thora is given to man, not to angels." True idealism must be founded in realism, or it is a sham. THE FAMILY. Filial piety has ever been a leading trait of the Jewish family. We have frequently alluded to it in our Scriptural writings. We saw it in the family of the patriarchs, in the generation of the Exodus, and it was reverently noticed in history ever since, down to the Ghetto and the 19th century passed by. When our fathers lived in the European backlanes, in the gloom, poverty and wretchedness of ages gone by, there was one gem illuminating and cheering that long dark night of exile. That was the Jewish family, its sweet intimacy, the love and devotion of the parents, the adherence of the several fraternal members, the respect, profound veneration and obedience of the children towards the parents and the love of the parents to the children, the mutual devotion of hus- band and wife, the sweet, noble relation and the inviolable sacredness of the marital union, the simple biblical man and wife building up the family; he the toiling breadwinner, she the patient, cheering helpmeet and assistant, both eating the bread of innocence with tears and resignation, posing the solid cornerstone of the Ghetto-Society with a family reared in virtue and strong in practical life. As a beakon-light on the tempestuous ocean, the Jewish family, the parental selfsacrifice and the filial piety illu- mined and cheered the gloom of the Jewish Ghetto. iSo recently the great financier, Harriman, declared children a cause of practical success. THE FAMILY IN AMERICA. 203 American youth, let not that noble gem be plucked from your family diadem. Let us be frank: There is something in our modern democracy, liberty, equality and easy going ways, which tends towards marring, paling and deteriorating that millenial trait, reverence; which causes carelessness, impertinence and insubordination to invade the family-hearth. Beware of that! Preserve that sacred gem, that precious heir-loom, intact in your houses, guard it as your eyeball. It is more costly and precious than all our gobelins, brussels, velvets and laces. Let us remem- ber that all we are and all we have, our blood and our force, our name, fame and standing, our education and station in life, our powers and capacities physical and mental, all, come from our parents, we are simply a younger copy, their rejuvenation, the result of their bodies and minds, their labors, results and self- sacrifices. We are their bodily immortality, their glory and sweetest, noblest hope, their regeneration and second self. Moreover, remember that your parents are European emi- grants, men and women who have left their old home, associates and friends, the green spot of their cradle and the sacred hillocks of their fathers' ashes. They have left all and come hither, friendless, speechless, penniless, cheerless, to fight here anew the bitter battle of life, to build up here a home, a community, a schoolhouse for you, American born youths ! Can you do less than ''Reverence your father and mother, that your days may be long and successful upon this your new God-given native land?" Let me quote here the following in intimate connection with our theme : Americanism in France, by Jules Simon, deploring the Influence of Western Ideas. The opinions of M. Jules Simon, the great French writer, philosopher and ex-minister of education, says the New York Tribune, 1892, are always read with interest and profit. He is a friend of America and an admirer of her history and many of her institutions. But he does not hesitate, while praising American virtues, to throw a strong searchlight upon Ameri- can vices. "I love the Americans," he said recently in an article con- tributed to a Parisian journal, ''but I do not love Americanism so well. 204 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. *'In 1492 Europeans discovered America and transported Europe to American shores. Americans, having flourished and become very powerful in the course of four centuries, have invaded Europe and transported America here. "The American having no past, always looks toward the future. He is a traveler who does not believe that his journey is ever finished. In marching ahead of us, he accustoms us to move on, too, and for that I am thankful. He induces us also to accustom ourselves to lighter luggage, but for that I am less grateful. Gladly would I lighten material baggage, but sentimental baggage and burdens I renounce with reluctance. I believe that the twentieth century, which I shall never see, will have its merits; but the sixteenth, the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, which I know, were beautiful enough. ''During these centuries now past there was an institution which, I acknowledge, has been retarded in its progress, but which made life very sweet and very pure ; it was the family. "One lived then at home. One died in the house where he was born. One closed the eyes of his father. There was no corner in the blessed home which did not recall a caress or a precept of the mother of the family. She was always the model and the apostle of virtue. She was venerated, and on her account her whole sex was venerated. There was no question then of lax morals, of crimes or passion. The law, respect, love received and given, honor and probity inherited and treasured, were shields against crime and against error. People said of a man : 'He was a man well born ; he was a man well educated.' One aspired to become the founder of a family. "I picture to myself a happy and virtuous family of that past time. It is respectable and not too austere. It is acquainted with the pleasures of life, but they are pleasures in accord with duty and self-respect. It cultivates science and good literature, and pays no heed to frivolous literature. The art cultivated in such a family is only that grand art which awakens ideas of eternity in the human mind. The members of the family re- ceive and associate with only polished people, having the same beliefs and similar tastes. They have the gift of tears, as well as that of smiles, because they feel strong enough to acknowl- edge that they are moved to enthusiasm and rapture by heroic deeds and beautiful works. THE FAMILY IN AMERICA. 205 "And again I fancy a family of persons pressed and busy, who disdain everything that is not new and trample upon everything which might interfere with their progress. The father and mother have merely consented to marry one an- other; the marriage is a matter of arrangement, business or convenience. As honest people they observe the binding stip- ulations until they find them too strong, too heavy. They then announce in a straightforward way that they wish to separate, and ask a magistrate to put an end to their union, thus declar- ing publicly that they love in other places. The children do not bear the yoke of obedience as in that age when it was absolutely necessary that they be guided and protected. Even in this happy age, however, they must also be supported, and this necessity is the principal band which binds them to their parents. At the age of one and twenty years they are eman- cipated by law, unless they have already had recourse to the courts, which can shorten the time of servitude in the family. The strong and holy bond of former years has given place to the marriage of adventure, facilitated by the divorce, and to a guardianship made easy by the boarding school and by the laws governing the emancipation from family control. "Again, while the family exists as a family — menaced by divorce and these laws — it is often diminished as much as pos- sible, in accordance with the decrees of fashion. The child is first sent to a nurse, and afterward, whether boy or girl, is placed in a boarding school. The father and mother have a house where they receive their friends. The father deserts it for the club. He finds in the club the solitude which he desires ; games of chance, if they be to his liking, and all the luxuries which he cannot have at home. He even goes there to take his meals. With the day at the Exchange and the evening with his friends, what becomes of his wife? She calls upon her neighbors ; she makes her own plans ; she prepares herself by degrees for a divorce. "If we are to believe the enemies of the great American republic, there are the great hotels there as auxiliaries of the clubs, hotels which are worlds within themselves. They have their good points ; it is possible to live within them and escape scrutiny, and they offer a great variety of entertainment. One may sleep there and thus dispense with the hypocrisy of having 2o6 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE his own fireside. Monsieur and Madame may have their own rooms there and eat at the table d'hote. It is not necessary, even, that the rooms adjoin one another. "We must remember the dinners also, as well as the clubs and hotels. I do not speak of official dinners, of the grand dinners given for display, of the small dinners for friends. . . . The dinners of which I speak are an institution which grows daily and which furnish the married man, who wishes to live as a bache- lor, with excuses for not remaining at home. "There are more dinners," continues M. Simon, "than one can count. There are the annual dinner of the Institute, the monthly dinner of the Academy of Fine Arts, the dinner of the Economists, the dinner of the Society of Political Econ- omy, the dinner of the men of letters, the dinner of the Univer- sal Literary Association, the dinner of the Alpine Club, the dinner of the Celtic Club. . . ; it would fill the columns of a news- paper to recount them all. . . What an excuse to live away from home, to have no home, to be a husband only occasionally ... I know that these customs do not preclude a Pasteur and Alexandre Dumas ; but the former custom did not preclude a Descartes or Corneille. Emancipation is necessary, but too much is not neces- sary. If a man wishes to grow, he should not detach himself from the world. He can do nothing without the aid of others. . .The master of the future is the past." REVERENCE TO COUNTRY. Our Fifth Commandment transgresses the family, it has a wider scope ; it does not refer only to the relation of the bodily parent and child, it alludes also to parental love and filial piety of another kind and a vaster compass, to reverence towards our spiritual parents, towards God and religion, country, na- tionality, historical associations, teachers, ethical models and ideals. We have spoken of the reverence due to parents. After our parents, the next reverence, American youth, we owe, is to our Country. Honor the United States country, cherish the United States people, respect its laws, and institutions, uphold its humanitarian principles with its Union, its Consti- tution and its grand preamble, securing life, liberty and pur- suit of happiness to all its inhabitants, guaranteeing freedom REVERENCE TO COUNTRY. 207 of conscience, of government by and for the people, equality of races and separation of Church and State; building up, for the first time in history, a great country and a powerful nation, without a dynasty, aristocracy and dominant church, upon the basis of one God, one moral and political law, one human race, equal rights and duties to all nationalities and creeds, sexes, masses and classes. Love your fellow-citizens as your fellow- men; let old prejudices of creed, origin and race vanish, as the ice melting before the genial sun-rays. The American soil is not stained with Jewish martyrs' blood ; the statute book is free of sectarian discriminations. Uphold the principles and the Constitution of this your vast and hopeful country. No use hushing! There are tendencies to the contrary, do not let them prevail. Qualify yourselves as good and patriotic citi- zens. Be peaceful and lawabiding, careful in the selection of your trade and avocations. Do each your utmost to be a useful factor in your community. In this way: "honor thy American fatherland and thy mother, the United States. Contribute to her prosperity : 'that your days may be long upon the soil God has given you." REVERENCE TO ISRAEL AND JUDAISM. Older yet is the reverence you owe to your father Israel and your mother religion. You are justly happy in being native Americans. But you should feel no less proud of being native American Jews. You are citizens of the country of Washing- ton and Franklin, of Lincoln and Garfield. But look still fur- ther back, you hail from the country of the hoary Hebraic Patriarchs and of the Prophets, mankind's ethical teachers. Your ancestors were bodily fed with the wheat and the milk of Karmel and Bashan, your own bodies are with those of the Hudson, the Ohio and the Mississippi, whilst your souls are nurtured with the ideas hailing, both, from Horeb, Karmel and Moriah and from the Themes, the Vistula, the Pyrenees and chiefly the Teutonic academies. Be proud of your double historic origin. All counted up, it is the most illustrious in mankind's development. You belong to a race well tried in the crucible of four thousand years' battles, and of fifteen cen- turies' cruel persecutions. If it is true that the fittest survive, your race must count among the best and the strongest. The 2o8 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. civil law declares you of age at 21 to 25 years. But the Law of^ Judaism declares your majority at 13 years. At 13 begins your responsibility, for well-born souls are prematurely ripe.^ Remember well your race's patent of nobility, the Decalogue and the several reverences it imposes upon you, by virtue of being the descendants of those strong men and women who, camping in the wilderness, stood around Sinai and listened to its proclamation. There are great historic moments when men stand nearer to heaven, w^hen a question to Providence is free, when they can take a glimpse behind the curtains of destiny, w^hen they are, in some sense, the moulders of their destiny. Such was the hour of the promulgation of the Decalogue which stamped you as the Providential Israel,^ the champions of the divine in the human, the priestly people and holy nation, de- voted to the mental and moral interests of mankind. Remem- ber, Juda, thy calling ! American Jews ! fight on the battles of your people and your doctrine. They are the identical battles and interests of entire mankind, of human civilization. Your people is nothing else but their advance guard, and "your doctrine hails from Zion, the word of God coming from Jerusalem (Is. II, 3). Carry aloft their banner, their triumph is mankind's triumph. Let not worldly consideration, wealth, honors, majority, example tempt you to desertion. In the minority the divine aflatus breathes. Nobody ever gained by apostasy. Did Borne Heine, Cassel, Gans gain? Compare their, alas, tarnished fame with that of Moses Mendelssohn. Cling to your flag. Be a good Jew and it will not harm you to be a Jew. Thousands of converts would with tears in the eyes, corroborate that ex- perience. The king of Prussia for long urged Meyerbeer to be converted. Meekly he replied : "Majesty, do you believe I shall then write better music?" No, genius creates inspiration, apostasy dries it up. Well are times somewhat brighter : bigotry is more political than fanatical. The wheel and the rack, the torture and anto- da-fes are no more in use. Yet modern anti-Semitism is not more merciful. The Russian pogroms prove it. The past century has gained for the western Jew his civil and political iLes ames bien nees n'attendent pas les annee.. (Ru,cine Athalie.) 2Thou wrestledst with gods and men and conqueredst. (I M. 32, 29.) REVERENCE TO ISRAEL AND JUDAISM. 2og emancipation, but the social one is yet to be conquered. The prejudices of origin, race and sect have not died out. To ex- aggerate the Hebrew's defects, to beHttle his virtues, to curtail his chances, to take advantage of his isolation, to ostracise him, push him aside, arouse the envy and ill will of noble, priest, Philistine and mob against him, to fan up and stir up the dying embers of fanaticism against him, is not yet out of fashion. The Jew of the twentieth century is not yet bedded upon roses, he must yet be of gold to pass for silver. Such are the drawbacks of every minority. But they are compensated by many advantages. "The divine spirit breathes in the minor- ity," justly said Matthew Arnold. A minority strong enough to resist, will in time, acquire a tremendous majority force and become the chariot of history. The Hebrew minority has gained, by patience, great elasticity of body and mind. They live in all climes, identify and appropriate to themselves the best of all civilizations, control better their capacities and passions, have a higher standard of morality, more energy, so- briety, thrift, working-habits. That compensates for the disad- vantage of being a minority. Well, young friends ! reverence your nationality and your doctrine, conquer your full equality, raise the social ban, and render to the name of Jew its pristine meaning, its sterling ring, as the oldest son of civilization. ^ Onwards, struggle for Israel's doctrine, ethnical and social position and recognition; with courage, forbearance and patience ; disarm your antag- onists by being a superior minority, by capacity, honesty and forgiveness ; by modesty, industry and frugality. Fight with the arms of sympathy, science, logic and common sense. Ap- peal to the common sense, to the conscience of your more en- lightened American fellow-citizens : "Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Have we not all one country, one law, one interest? Is not the United States built upon the platform of : The common fatherhood of God, and the common brotherhood of men? Does not the Constitution guarantee life, liberty and the pursuit of hapiness to all its in- habitants? Have not their dissenting ancestors, in old Europe, suffered from the same foes, under the same ostracism? "Why then fellow-citizens, should not Jew and Gentile in America 1 (II M., 4, 22.) Israel is my first-born son. 210 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. be "brothers? Why be untrue to each other and the Consti- tution of the fathers.^ Appeal to the sound American common sense, then the last social discrimination against the Jew will disappear. You will not be Hebrews (strangers) here, not be ^'tolerated," no, you will have here your home, your fatherland, your full political rights and your social equality, as justly respected fellow-citizens of the Jewish denomination. REVERENCE TO CONGREGATION AND SYNAGOGUE The next reverence you owe to your Congregation and your Synagogue. When growing up to full manhood and woman- hood, be members of some Hebrew religious body. Remember well, limited man must have some standard, and badge of be- longing. Mankind is too large and indefinite and must be sub- divided into many minor groups, as races, peoples, creeds and denominations. Participate in the privileges and in the bur- dens of some such subdivision and congregation. The egotist hides his selfishness under the cloak of non-sectarianism. He claims, "he is no Jew and no Christian, he is a man." That is pure subterfuge. We are too insignificant for rendering serv- ices at once to the entire human race. We are useful to man- kind by being profitable to one fraction thereof, there where Providence has placed us ; to our family, our kindred, our community, our religion, our country, our historical associa- tions. We serve the human race by serving some of its sub- divisions. Let us be fair, sympathetic, and just to all our fellow-men. But our love and work must be calculated for and aim at benefitting one section thereof, then it will benefit all. There is room for cosmopolitanism and for particularism, for humanity and for sect. Justice, liberality and good-will to all ; our immediate efforts, our special care, for those of our provi- dential surroundings ! Say with modest dignity, with undis- guised satisfaction : "I am a Jew and an American, a citizen of the youngest nation and a member of the oldest race and faith. I stand upon American Law and I reach out to that of Sinai. My race represents the civilization, the religion elab- i(Malachai II, 15). Has not one God created us, have we not all one God, why shall we be false to brethren. . . REVERENCE FOR EDUCATION. 211 orated and refined in the crucible of four thousand years, from Mesopotamia to the Hudson and the Rio Grande. The heart and kernel thereof is humanitarianism, but until recognized and adopted universally, I must keep up some forms and sym- bols special to it and sectarian. This is the meaning of the Jewish Congregation, Jewish forms and Jewish peculiarities. American Jews, as long as monotheism, the Decalogue, the Bible and their tenets are not yet universally accepted and practiced, as long as we are a "Peculiar people" for holding fast to them, so long shall we need peculiar forms : extra Hebrew worship, language, festivals, race-marriage, Sabbath-Schools. Here we are particular and special, in any thing else we are plain and simple Americans, just and sympathetic towards all our fellow-citizens, without any discrimination of race, creed and origin. In that way are Israel, mankind, country, sect and faith brought into full consonance and harmony by the teach- ings of Horeb. REVERENCE FOR EDUCATION. Let us now mention the reverence we owe to education, ac- quisitions of all sorts of knowledge, higher science, arts, refiner ment, manners, urbanity. American youth, utilize well your schools, your books and libraries, your scholastic opportuni- ties, all. Reverence your teachers no less than God and par- ents. ^ It is the teacher that develops your mind, nourishes and grows your mentality, awakens your moral sense, implants upon you the ''image of God." Resume and embody here the historic task of your people, as the mental educator of the world's civilized nations. Wherever your ancestors came they did not adopt the lower civilization of the natives, but intro- duced there their own higher culture. They introduced higher standards of education, culture, morality, refinement. So they did when coming un1o the Roman world, N. Africa, Spain, West- ern and Eastern Europe. You must do the same in America. Your immigrating parents could not as yet attend to that part of Israel's mission, entirely engrossed as they were by the cares for the mere subsistence. That part done, it is incumbent (Sandhedrin 19 B.) n^'o^ Hl)^2 212 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. upon you to attend, first, to your own higher education and thus qualify yourselves as mankind's teachers, as the descend- ants of the ''kingdom of priests," as educators. "To learn and teach" is probably the highest duty of the patriarchal people.^ Cherish and cultivate therefore, knowledge, science and char- acter, the divinest sparks of human nature; man actually means mentality, reason, knowledge. Knowledge is power, is life, humane and divine, immortal. Remember, yours is the oldest civilized people of known history.^ Your great ethical Constitution, the Decalogue, claims an antiquity of three thou- sand and five hundred years : Israel is called the nation of the Book. At Sinai was held up to him the great ideal of a ''king- dom of priests, viz : of learners and teachers. To be a Jew and be ignorant, is a contradiction, is incompatible. Your vaunted Jewish descent, traits, blood are of small avail, of little account, if not ripened and developed into and combined with cultured heads, hearts and hands. Show, Amercan youths, that you have not degenerated from your stock, that the silks and dollars and sweets of this land have not spoiled you. You can not afford to say : "Father has made money and we shall enjoy it ; father has worked and we shall rest upon his laurels." Dear friends, fine clothes, diamonds and dainties should not satisfy patriarch-begotten youths and maidens. No, you must improve upon your parental program. You must continue where your fathers have stopped ; you will resume and continue what they have commenced. They have done their share of the work. The poor immigrants have honestly built up for you a country, a home, a livelihood ; you shall continue the noble work. Utilize your leisures, your means, your schools, your golden opportunities. Cultivate your brains, your minds and your hands. Acquire a solid education. Be not satisfied with a bread and butter one. Be no paper-doctor, strive for expanding your mind's and body's horizon. Ever aim at the highest you can and attain it, in science, art, industries, litera- ture, state and society. And be not satisfied with the usual standards. The American generally aims at wealth and his education is the fit tool for that. Israel is the priest-people, .y:3b Dn^Jti'i .ii^bb) 'I'if^bh -n^n nj:3 nnin Dr^^n ^ 211 M., IV, 22. Beni bechori. REVERENCE TO GOD AND VIRTUE. 213 the book-people, he aims at knowledge and duty per se, at the expansion of the human capacities and possibilities. There- fore let your aspirations strike higher. Therefore set in this mercantile country a nobler example, improve the higher edu- cation, that of the heart and the intellect, the humanitas. Imi- tate not poor patterns, but set the better example. Try to aim and to reach the farthest. Your otherwise pre-occupied fellow- citizens expect of you that much needed example. Small spir- its may feel jealous and apprehensive. But the pattern Amer- ican, the genius of Franklin and Garfield, of Emerson and The- odore Parker will applaud and cheer you. Let the bulk of our honest masses go to agriculture, common trades and indus- tries ; whilst the master-minds shall devote their energies to the higher walks of humane activity. Let us soon have our American Muncks and Zunzes, Geigers and Graetzes, Rappo- ports and Francks, our American Boernes, Simons, Laskers, our American Gabirols and both the Mendelssohns, the Heines and Halevy's, our American Cremieux and Disraelis. The Irish- Americans are smart, the Scotch-Yankees are shrewd, the Southerners are stately. Let the Hebrew mind, mind its his- torical calling, as the priestly kingdom, the higher education of the human race. REVERENCE TO GOD AND VIRTUE. V/e have now arrived, attentive Readers, at the highest Rev- erence, the root and the top of all piety, whence love to parents, to country, to nationality and to science flow and take their in- spirations. The highest Reverence we owe is to God and virtue. God is the root, virtue the fruit; God is the motive, virtue the result. God and virtue ever go together and vanish simul- taneously. Without the God-root, virtue is a mere, evanescent, shadowy flower. Let the grand and solemn reminiscences of Exodus, Sinai and Horeb, Revelation and Decalogue, Israel's his- tory and ancestral achievements deeply impress you, and gain for you the profound and inefifaceable persuasion that the fashiona- ble nihilism and the flat sensualism of our times are sophisms and fallacies. Carry home from this study the conviction that there is a living Providence, a universal Moral Order that has im- planted into our nature and that expressly dictates honesty and 214 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. truth as man's rule of conduct; that rewards virtue and avenges innocence ; that goodness carries its own satisfaction and furnishes us with the best arms and the courage for Hfe's arduous battle, viz: a serene conscience, the dignity of duty fulfilled, and the best claims to our rights; with nothing to fear, to hide or to blush for. Living up to the axiom of: "Honesty is the best policy;" we gain the consciousness of having walked in the straight line which is ever the shortest and the safest in the long run. Further on, continuing our study on our theme, the Ten Com- mandments and their bearings, we shall see the above fully con- firmed : That crime and vice are slippery and allow no safe standing room ; they shine luridly, like rotten wood in the darkness, insinu- ating themselves like siren's song. Beware of temptation ! It begins as a delicate silk thread, grows soon into cable thickness, and finishes in digrace and ruin. Young Americans, when in presence of temptation, remember this study of the Decalogue on Rev- erence. Think of the gray haired father, of the venerable wrinkles of the mother, of the disgrace to your people, race and escutcheon, of the blush and tears of those who love you. Think, reconsider, stop, avoid the first wrong step. The first is the easiest to avoid ; soon it may be too late ! Friends, remember : Will you prosper and abide in America, the country God gave you? Then cling to virtue as to the firmest foundation to stand upon; cling to the belief in God, in Israel's mission, in truth and in liberty, in an improving humanity. Insist on your rights, do fully your duty and fear nobody ! THE SEVERAL REVERENCES. Let us conclude. What does the fifth Commandment con- temiplated, recommend in regard to the future of Israel in America? It recommends manifold Reverences. Reverence for the past and for the future. Be no mummy; vegetate not in and be not absorbed by the past, but utilize the past, in your preparation for the future. Let the ashes of the fathers be the blessed seed of the children. Remember Mosis' two arks, one with the ashes of Joseph and the other with the law of the Ever Living. Let the present be the bridge connecting both. Never break off and never stop the process of human amelioration. Let improve- THE SEVERAL REVERENCES. 215 ment ever go on, let the past ever develop, but the future must be its offshoot, no break ! Ever hold fast to tried principles in their new applications. Never apostatize, allow neither stagnation nor revolution, but ever go by evolution. As the tree begins with the seed, proceeds to the root, developes in the stem, the tree, the branches, the twigs, the blossoms, the leaves and the fruit, ever renovating, regenerating and producing fresh, young sprouts, but all of the exactly identical principle, the original seed — even so, American Israel, with all your renovations and moderniza- tions, adaptations and reforms, look to it that the original seed and sap be not corrupted and exchanged for a shallow indift'er- entism. Do not sell your noble birth-right for a pot of lintels. Ever see that the essence, — I say the essence — of the "kingom of priests" the mentality and morality of the Patriarchal seed, and the Sinaic Decalogue be and remain identical and intact. And the five-fold reverences above enumerated point to that essence. Do practice those many Reverences. Behold, this is a young country, is little over a century old. All the higher virtues could not yet be cultivated here. As the American has pulled down many idols of the old world, in State, Church and Society, King, noble and priest, guild, classes and masses, he became somewhat impressed with the vague feeling that all the ancient world's reverences are but idolatries. History, poetry, virtue, study, ideality, character, name and veneration — all faded and paled by his realism. The state, the church, the parental relation, the marital tie, friendship, patriotism, science, glory, even philanthropy, all became secularized, vulgarized, divested of their halo, examined with the microscope of their practical utility, of business interest. Studying the noble facts, ideas and tenets of the Decalogue and the Exodus, venerated by mankind as the dawn of our Western civilization, I wish to call your attention to the importance of the etherial ideal principle of Reverence, in danger of being eliminated from American psychology. Friends ! Hold fast to that principle, often abused, but essential to all true nobility and grandeur. The V. Commandment recommends to you the fol- lowing Reverences as important for your theoretical and practical success, as a necklace of continuous venerations, viz : Reverence for yotr Parents, for your American Country, for your people, for your religion, and for higher education, all growing from the same root : reverence to God and to Duty ! Let these five fold 2i6 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Reverences, combining the past and the future, be well remem- bered and practiced by the young generation. Then, without fail, America will be your prosperous home with your full civic and political rights, your social equality and your humanitarian mis- sion. Any remnant of mediaeval prejudice will yield to merit and character. At that noble price you can afford to stay a minority. The divine spirit breathes in such a minority.^ iFirst addressed to a youthful audience, about 40 years ago, as also the following: 217 VII Study. DECALOGUE, JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY. In the preceding pages we have seen that the Decalogue is the embryo or the nucleus, the epitome or the central-doctrine of the Mosaic legislation — according to the assumed standpoint of the reader. It is the leading chapter therefore of the entire Sacred Writ. It is even of a vaster import. It is the Corner-stone of human civilization past and future. It is a category of human nature. It will never be obsolete, disestablished and will ever be the sole and unique basis upon which all the races unite, for the Qoran too, as also Egyptology^ contain versions of these leading features of civilization in which all mankind can reconcile and unite in one bond of brotherhood. It stands upon the fatherhood of the One God of the universe and its necessary corolary, the brotherhood of all men. And the promulgation of the Com- mandments, their universal dissemination, is Israel's great raison d'etre, his activity in the past, present and future, of his indestruc- tibility, his eternity. After having analyzed the Decalogue in the abstract, solely as a doctrine, we shall now treat of it as con- crete, as vested and incarnated in a people, as the platform of Judaism. We shall see now that Israel is battling for it, for it he continues in the minority, in its interest he deems it his duty not to enter into and fuse with the majority. By that the thoughtful reader will gain the conviction that he fights not for privilege, for national ascendency, for political dominion, nor for any personal private advantage, but for the great aspirations of mankind, for the only platform upon which all the races and countries can stand and unite under the aegis of one God, one law, one right, one duty and one interest for all. This promulgation of the Ten Commandments is his providential mission, is the great cause and the necessity for a priestly people, its representatives. That same mission is and was the shield, the arms defensive and offensive of that puny Hebrew race, waging a world-war for 3,000 years, a phenomenon so abnormal and yet so necessary for mankind's advance. When that Decalogue will become an accomplished iSee on that Mohammed and Qoran, in my: Humanity, etc., of Pen- tateuch, Egyptology. 2i8 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. fact, when it will be accepted in its entirety without quibbling and sophistry, when it will become both the doctrine and the rule of conduct of the mass of the people, not only of the scholar and the thnking classes, when it will become the daily, practical, norm of life, not an abstract theory for the elite, then there will be no need of division, for Israel and for a Gentile world. They will then both emerge into the one Humanity, under the Provi- dence of the One God. I say : The Decalogue as the rule of conduct only of the elite, viz : the elite of Israel, and gradually of the elite of the civilized races. The masses of both have heard of it, but not taken it to heart; it is not yet their norm of prac- tical life. The bulk of Israel differs only thus far from the Gentile masses that it has accepted it, formally and externally, since the Sinai epoch, and is thus its historical banner bearer. Hence the ethical necessity of Israel's continuation. As the prophets of old, so the Israelitish Elite only represent that doc- trine in truth and in deed, and these prophetic select ones will gain over the masses, Jewish and Gentile. We shall later on, further elucidate it. DECALOGUE, ITS HARMONY AND UNIVERSALITY. We said : The Decalogue is the Central-doctrine of the Mosaic Legislation, the base of human civilization, the leading feature of the entire Sacred Scriptures. Indeed, closely examining it, we find there the epitome of all man's duties, towards God, towards himself and towards his family, people, country and fellow men, all. Follow it up and you will have a good and happy individual, citizen, people, State, church. At the very opening it lays the only possible foundation for a human Commonwealth and its effective legislation. It begins with the solemn affirmation of the existence of God, the Principle, the Supreme Authority in whose name the State is established and the Code is promulgated. God is the author of its freedom, its nationality and its organic Law. He watches over its wellbeing, the reward of the fuUfilment of his will. This God, the Decalogue teaches, is only one, no other independent powers or gods besides him. And this is not mere theory, not priestly jealousy. This Divine Unity has its practical significance. It means the unity of the Creative Power, the harmonious working of his will in the parts, the universality of the DECALOGUE, ITS HARMONY AND UNIVERSALITY. 219 Law. It means the world made for the peace, the happiness and the perfection of its creatures. It excludes the possibility of hell, Devil and original sin, of eternal punishments, of racial dis- criminations, invidiousness and intolerance. This God is strictly a Unit ; he is one, not two, not three, not many and not the all. That means Monotheism, not trinity, not dualism, not polytheism, not pantheism, and not atheism. All these sociologically considered, are unfit for a humanitarian State and social compact. This God, the Decalogue further teaches, is spiritual and no incarnation, containing nothing bodily^ not accountable to human senses, with no sensual attributes, as doing, speaking, walking, standing, angry or pleased, not amenable to affect or change. Man can mentally and ethically only understand and feel him, not by his five senses. The divine Essence is not comprehensible by man ; we learn his existence, all-power, etc., by the testimony of the universe, by the workings in nature, his effects. The world proclaims the God-existence. It is, hence must He be. It is well done, powerful, wise, answering its purpose, harmonious, orderly, law-abiding, beautiful, hence must all these attributes be his emanations, as all the rays issue from the sun. And when the Bible gives to God human attri- butes and affects, it is only parable, simile, it "speaks in human language." Man knows, is inspired, bid by God — mentally, morally, conscientiously, never bodily or sensually. (See Mai- monides Guide Part I). God being the spiritual essence, he cannot adequately be represented by a body or any emblem. The less can he have a vicar, a son, a partner, an associate. He is unique, and he alone is the Only One, all else has its equal : No symbolic idols ! The divine spirit shall be conceived by our human spirit not grasped by our senses. We are to conceive him mentally, our eye, etc., can not see him. It is a fact that whenever mian began to symbolize, viz. : represent the deity by any signs or emblems, idolatry was the unfailing and fatal result. Man began to worship God in some image, soon he worshiped the image as God — du sublime au ridicule. — At last he derided the image as a fetish and disbelieved in God, hypo- critically keeping up the semblance as a scarecrow for others. This is the history of all divine representations : Symbolism, idolatry, hypocrisy, Atheismi. You will find this verified everywhere, in Greece after Socrates, in the Roman world at 220 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. the epoch of Paul, in Romanism shortly before the Reforma- tion, and at the end of the eighteenth century. The mask is used no longer. The God and Providence idea will always command respect, symbolism soon loses its relish. The masses will ever take the symbol for the idea, and the idol for the ideal, and idolatry with hypocrisy will ever be the result of symbolical religion. Hence, "Thou shalt make unto thee no graven image ! "Remember thou hast seen on Horeb no figure and no likeness." God is One, pure Spirit ! On that solid base of the Only One, spiritual and eternal God, the Decalogue erects the great structure of a civilized society. It first founds the institution of Sabbath, a day set apart for the recreation and regeneration of the body and for the cultivation of the divine in the human, for bringing into closer touch the divine and the human, a day when man of earth reaches out to heaven to reconquer his marred spiritu- ality. By that institution brutalized conventional man be- comes again natural man, and regains his liberty, his humane dignity, his birth right in God's likeness. Toiling, unhinged, artificial, wrangling society is ever coming nearer its ultimate future conditions; the ideal, deeply imbedded in man's mind and higher aspirations. Sabbath is the red thread to that ideal ; by it he becomes aware that he is gifted with divine poten- tialities, with intelligence, morality and a hundred noble ca- pacities. The Decalogue re-created the Sabbath-institution as man's great Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, his rehabilitation into his God-intended conditions. Sabbath is the hanging bridge and connecting link between the divine and the human, earth and heaven, matter and spirit, the vulgar and the sublime, the angel and the brute in our own breast. Neglecting that day, not using it, or misusing it for unholy or vulgar purposes, giving it up to business or to frivolous amuse- ments, is committing moral and intellectual suicide, is killing the angel in our heart and leaving us to the control of the brute ! After the Decalogue had established a divine Principle as Supreme Guide, after it has given us the Sabbath as the means of our connection with that, and has taught man self-culture and his obligations towards his Guide, it then inculcates his duties to society, by establishing the first link thereof, the fam- DECALOGUE, ITS HARMONY AND UNIVERSALITY. 221 ily and the relation of parent and child, a reciprocity of love and respect, self-sacrifice and obedience : ''Reverence thy father and thy mother." Honor and pay defernce to your parents, re- spect and cherish them. Look up to them as to God on earth. They represent in our youth, the Deity by many of its attri- butes : age, w^isdom, providence, goodness. The Decalogue then continues to inculcate the chief obliga- tions towards our next, to society at large, by declaring sacred and inviolable the life, the purity, the property, the veracity and the upright dealings of man. It penetrates deeper, prescribing the sacredness of even the thoughts and feelings of our inner- most soul. Thus it completes a code of ten rules, indispensably necessary to the salvation of the individual and the state. It is an organic law, a rudimentary Code for the unit and the state, an outline of a social compact, embracing all the elements of a civil- ized society, beginning with the root : God ; going on with the stem : the Sabbath and the family ; the branches, man's rights and duties ; the leaves, blossoms and fruit, tfie meditations, sensations and deeds. It is a convenant with a succinct enum- eration of our duties towards our God, towards ourselves, to- wards our family and society at large. The Decalogue is therefore justly to be considered as a legis- lation in embryo. The rest of the Pentateuch is but the devel- opment of the seed, the necessary complement, amplification and adaptation to the ever changing environments. The Pro- phets represent its backbone, its principles, its universal hu- manitarian application. The historical Books, the hagiographs are the representation of its struggles, failures and conquests within and without, over paganism and barbarism, since Sinai to the epoch of the Maccabeans. The Mishna and the Talmud are the expounding and the adaptations to later ages and changed surroundings, and history since that time, is but the continuation of that struggle, its partial triumphs and partial failures in the Occident and the Orient, Christianity and Mo- hammedanism. It is therefore historically and critically cor- rect to say that the Ten Words are the central doctrine of the Mosaic Legislation and the leading enactment of the entire Sacred Scriptures. But it is critically correct to affirm furthermore that they are the foundation and basis of all human civilization, for I 222 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. ask, can any one imagine a society to thrive without the recog- nition of a Supreme Authority of Law, without consecrating higher humanity, family, life, chastity, property, truth, and moral self-restraint, one's own desires? Without the acknowl- edgment of the principles expressed in that Charter? Can we base a state on atheism? Without spiritual culture? Without filial piety? Without the consecration of work, honor, owner- ship, veracity, self-restraint? Evidently no political body could subsist and thrive without. You might as well build a house without a firm ground, base, walls or roof ! A state not recognizing the Ten Words will be a state of anarchy and club-law, will be a society of wolves and bears. A civilization without the Decalogue is a knife without a blade whose handle is missing. It is therefore again critically correct to afhrm that this He- braic Organic State Law is unsectarian, is broadly humani- tarian, is the corner-stone of human civilization, is the sole and unique basis upon which humanity can stand, thrive and unite on terms of right, freedom, universality and sympathy. The Hebraic Decalogue is the Great Charter of man. Its chief merit and sublimity consists in its universality, constituting Prophetic Judaism as the ultimate faith of mankind. THE BANNER-BEARER AND THE ORIFLAMME. Indeed the guardianship and propagation of these Ten Prin- ciples has been entrusted to Israel, the descendants of the people of the Exodus and of Sinai. To them has been handed over the palladium of humanity, to them the sacred fire which was with Moses enkindled on the bush of Horeb, at whose flame was successfully lit, age after age, the refulgent torch of human civilization. That Oriflamme, burning upon the central Arabian Peninsula, spread its beneficent blaze through Israel, over Asia and Africa, Europe and this new Western world ; that light which now glows, warms and cheers the hearts of the Orient and Occident, of all the Gentile races, will gradually invade and gain over the extreme lands of Mongolia, China and Ja- pan ; that light of Horeb, like the flashing thunderbolt of na- ture, has illumined, struck and overturned the entire fabric of the old world. It has scattered the phantoms of the Greek THE BANNER-BEARER AND THE ORIFLAMME. 223 Olympus, shattered to pieces the Roman sword on the ruins of its collapsed capitol, subdued the fierceness of the Teutonic in- vasion and made them the era of a new Western culture ; that light has purified and prepared the globe's atmosphere for the reception of the Sinaic platform, of "Love thy neighbor as thyself," repeated over again and again since that epoch, by the founders of Christianity, of Mohammedanism and later of Buddhism. That platform and its great parole of the Golden Rule, has since been adopted by the leaders of the American and the French Revolutions, it is the great aspiration of present philan- thropists and humanitarian thinkers. That holy fire of truth, fraternity and justice has been kept up and entertained by the people of Israel, for these three thousand five hundred years, over the entire habitable globe. Gentile world, consider ! That v/as a tremendous work, an awful and dangerous undertaking ; to oppose alone all the ancient peoples combined and take up the gauntlet for initiating the new polity of One God and one right for all ! To claim to be better, to teach and act on the principle : that not selfishness, pleasure and over-reaching, but justice, truth and altruism prevail; "that not armies and not force, but divine right conquers! (Sachariah, 4.6)." Who can handle fire vv^ithout burning his fingers? Who can barely catch the lightning without being struck? Even so Israel. He has well burnt his fingers, has terribly scorched his face. ''Do not wonder that I look so swarthy, uncouth and awkward." (Song of Songs, 1.5). He is still shaking with that terrible shock. Every Jewish face, every Jewish breast bears the deep marks and scars of that gigantic millennial struggle. Consider the magnitude of the undertaking. Prometheus arrayed against Olympos ! Consider : Ancient society had a thousand gods, a thousand clans with a thousand claims and conflicts : The Decalogue has One God^ one right and peace. The ancient society had kings, warriors, barons and slaves : The Decalogue teaches God, a free people, work and duty. The ancient so- ciety had a country with masters and glebe men : The Deca- logue has an inalienable acre for each man. Ancient society had a slave-woman and slave-children : The Decalogue, free women, monogamy and free children; a free state with free and equal citizens, no Helots and no Pariahs. The ancient society had cunning priests, with profusion of temples, sacri- 224 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. fices and observances, superstitions, horrifying offerings and priestcraft ! The Decalogue insists on law, reverence, schools, filial piety, righteousness, purity and truth telling. The ancient society had selfishness, warfares, conquests and ambitions : The Decalogue, right, sympathy, arbitration and peace ; war only in defense, not offense. Now it was puny Israel's huge task to bring over the ancient world to the ways of the Sinaic doctrine. Was that not a tremendous task? Is It a wonder when so much antagonism, misconstruction, invidiousness were engendered? Your own Jesus, O Gentiles, antagoniz- ing priests and hypocrites, Herodians and Caesars, was nailed to the cross. Is it a wonder when Juda, opposing all the world's political and ecclesiastical tyrants, had to bear His cross? The entire Hebraic history is the record of that millennial, bitter struggle and martyrdom. In order to teach to the world the Abrahamic or Mosaic polity, he had to renounce most of the amenities of life in civilized society. In order to teach the polytheists justice, reason, sympathy, he had to submit to be denied the common rights of man. The marks and scars on his front and breast, the noble, bloody, badges of honor won on a thousand battlefields fought for human rights, those marks and scars the mob decried as the Kain's signs of deicide ! O the unthinking masses ! falling prostrate in wor- ship at the feet of a Jewish martyr, so far as to declare him God, they overlooked the w^hole nation of martyrs and acted towards them as if there were no God and no human ri$"ht, no reason, no common sense and no truth. Despoiling an entire nation for the benefit of one member thereof, they declared Israel, the Sar-El, the patriarchal blue-blood, the Teacher, the Messiah of mankind — they declared him the pariah of man- kind ! And the silk or cotton mob dared place their foot on the neck of their Teacher and spiritual savior. For long dark centuries he was denied a country and a sheltering roof, a piece of honest bread, protection to the cradle of his babe, the air and the light of the sky. Do you remember the 53d chap- ter of Isaiah, that chapter which Christians ref^r to their mes- siah of Nazareth? Read that chapter carefully and you will find, it refers, not to one particular Jew, but to the Jewish peo- ple, the providential, historical redeemer of mankind, he who has redeemed the world from paganism, superstition, sensual- ity and ignorance, from the slavery of king, priest and idol. THE BANNER-BEARER AND THE ORIFLAMME. 225 That chapter 53, sketches in touching strokes, the glorious, painful and sad career of the Hebraic people, during millen- niums, over the entire globe. It narrates how that ethnos suf- fered in order to improve mankind; all fellows and brethren, children of the one heavenly father, who asks of them no other service and worship but to love and tolerate each other, be just and merciful towards one another, live and let live and act up to the policy of: Honesty is the best policy. Until recent times Israel did not regret his heavy historical charge : He meekly performed his work at any cost. Indeed to suffer for a great cause never lowers, and rather aggrandizes an individual or a people. Ethically he has greatly and solidly gained by these struggles. It is no small honor to be an Israelite indeed. He has been slandered and calumniated since Pharaoh to Pobe- denostzeff. Yet gems shine forth even when trod in the dust under foot, and precious stones need no gold setting to show forth their brilliant lustre. Judah is scattered all over the world, — as a seed to bear rich harvests for mankind. He lives in Peking, London and California, in Malacca and in Archangel, in Siberia, Naples and Florida, everywhere as the teacher of the Decalogue, Everywhere that has been his great spiritual merchandise, at all times he was handing it around, peddling it along on his eternal migrations. Everywhere the Ten-Words were the contents of his practical life and his theoretical teachings. They were his arms defensive and offensive. Everywhere he was called upon to answer the invidious question : Jew, what do you stand by and for ? Jew, what is your business ? Why don't you fuse with the majority? Why do you continue isolated, an exception?"' And his answer ever has been : "We Jews stand by the Decalogue. We stand for human civilization. Our business is — to propound and examplify justice to every man. Our task is to teach and practice the doctrine : I am the Eternal thy God. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Abraham and Moses taught that first, and since Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed have learned and taught it. But as yet it is a mere ideal, a theory. You Gentiles claim to have learned it, but you still misunderstand, misconstrue and misapply it. And as long as this is so, in theory and in practice, my task continues as a Jew. I can not put aside my gloomy armor, my crown of thorns, and my martyr's scepter. I must still stand isolated, though in your midst, and continue to 226 ISRAEL'S FUTURE. teach, until you have learned to live and practice on the principle of the fatherhood of the One God and the brotherhood of the one mankind. As to the future, as long as Israel will continue to teach and practice the Ten-Words, he will be invincible, he will live and ethically thrive. But the moment he flinches and yields the Decalogue to worldly temptations, the moment he follows the bad example, materialism and selfishness, instead of setting a good one of spiritually and altruism, that moment his right-to-be will be forfeited. — Israel is an insignificant minority; historically and providentially he is instituted the teacher of the majority. As such he must be ethically better. And as soon as the minority is not better, it has lost its own import, and being numerically by far inferior, it inevitably sinks below the greater number. The minority is and must be superior to the majority, to make up by quality for the lack of quantity. It must be above it in force viz., mentally and morally. Then it is a leader and the impulsive divine spirit moves in it. The moment it is no longer such a force, it has abdicated. Its historical mission and its right-to-be, both, are at an end. The religious ceremonies alone will not help. The host of forms without a spark of spirit will not help. The galvanic batteries of the Qabbala carry no fire. Remember this and meditate on it, you, all whom it may concern. Brethren. Only a minority intellectually and morally superior, can claim to be the Sinaic 'Teople of priests and the holy nation," acting as ''a light to the nations." That determines Israel's future. A scholar recently gave out as his opinion that the Jew has taught ail he ever knew over and above the Gentiles, that these have learned all he had to teach, that his task is now over| except to return to Palestine. I can not agree that Israel's task is ended . . . The Gentiles have not learned all. Only the Gentile elite has. The masses have neither learned nor do they practice. Old paganism is dead, but the new paganism lives. Its forms are dead, its evil spirit lives. Even the Jewish masses in the Ghetto have decayed. The elite alone, the modern prophets have learned and do practice. Hence is Israel's mission far from finished, because it is far from being accomplished. The masses, Jewish and Gen- tile, need still the official, historical Israel, the Sinaic people of JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 227 priests, the select, scattered prophetic band, to continue and incul- cate the hoary yet ever new doctrine, in theory and practice. As ancient Israel and Judah, in spite of their own personal idolatry, clustered around the prophetic school and, by their bulk, helped that nucleus to make monotheism dominant in Judaea, Samaria and the Roman world, even so, is Israel of the dispersion indis- pensibly necessary, by its inherited, latent, potential instincts, to assist the elite in and out of Israel, to counteract the reigning materiaHsm and to make the Decalogue man's rule of conduct, in fact and in deed. JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY. Not wishing any longer to pry behind the curtains of Provi- dence, let us return to our study and emphasize our theme proper : The leading and salient distinction between Sinaic Juda- ism and trinitarian, official Christianity. This real and great point at issue between the monotheistc Jew and the trinitarian Christian is our very text : *'I am the Eternal, thy God, thou shalt have no other Gods besides me." It is God-One and God-three or triune; God pure spirit and God incarnate. Here the Jew cannot yield, here he will and shall never yield, never ! Even baptism can not change it. Mark well? Boerne, Bartholdi, Heine, Disraeli remained monotheists to their end. And this issue is of no small import; it is not purely theoretical; it is not an abstract issue merely, theological or metapsysical. No, it is fraught with the most realistic consequences. It involves the practical problems of man, life and world; concerning duty and right, freedom and slavery, virtue and vice. On this peg Official Christianity has long hung its pile of dogmas and tenets, theories and practices : Salvation by grace and the blood on the Cross ; creed and not deed ; eternal hell for all outside of the church : papal infallibility and royal supremacy, divine right of kings ; government by born rulers ; eternal tutelage of the people ; sub- jection of reason to blind faith and authority; proscription of all progress all amelioration and intellectual education; holding all in the thumbscrews of the status-quo-ante, and searching one's ideals in the far past, not in the gradually advancing future. Let me emphasize that, just for these interests, proscribed by offi- cial dogma and Creed, the Mosaist is struggling; he is not in the least fighting for a national and local God, but for the God 228 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. of the universe; not for ancient Judaea, but for the salvation of the entire globe. He bears a warm interest in the country of his fathers. That country on the Jordan has well deserved of man- kind, as the cradle of the patriarchs, of his nationality, of his doctrine, of the Jewish, the Christian and the Mohammedan religions. But his historical horizon is vaster and his mission, as distnctly outlned by his Teachers and confirmed by history, embraces the globe with all its human myriads. Nearly 2,000 years ago he has been robbed of his proper country, and has since become a citizen of the world. Wherever he finds a soil for the Decalogue, there he settles and works for the good of his new country. He is expecting and busily preparing for the advent of a better future, for mankind's liberation from superstition, ig- norance, pauperism, political and sectarian oppression ; from folly, vice and tears, for the reign of truth, freedom, universal educa- tion and happiness for all, the platform of the Sinaic Law. He has been these last 2,000 years, especially, struggling for freedom of conscience, for human dignity, for justice to all, for the aboli- tion of all distinctions of race and caste, for the cessation of the reign of privileges and war, and the beginning of the dominion of justice and sympathy to all, for the platform of an improved and reconciled humanity under the aegis of One God and father. Let us quote an example : THE SYLLABUS OF 1870 AND ISRAEL'S PLATFORM. The last third part of the past 19th Century gloomily rang with the debates and defying reports from clerical Rome, from the ecclesiastical Court at the Tiber, the Vatican. The present gen- eration has listened still to the dying utterances of that papal syllabus of 1870, the ultimatum which the Tiber-Pontifex Maxi- mus gave to the 19th century civilization. Rome that no longer conquers by her whilom legions, tried the force of her bulls. Once more she made the effort and sent forth her demons of superstition to enslave the world. The present pontiff wisely never more showed any such mediaeval proclivities. It was then the last, I hope. In that syllabus the head of the Trinitarian Church proscribed all the great conquests of the modern times and their efforts, all that man has gained since Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and Knox to Washington and Franklin, Lessing, Kant, THE SYLLABUS OF 1870 AND ISRAEL'S PLATFORM. 229 Mirabeau and Lafayette; since the Renaissance to the American and the French Revolutions. All that the Vatican solemnly rep- robated and stigmatized as heresy and sheer damnation. In one immense net it entangled and anathematized man's freedom of government, of belief, of thought, of speech, of the press and of action; universal suffrage, universal education and all efforts for future amelioration. The Syllabus binds you, hand and foot, gags your mouth, hushes your voice and delivers you over, pros- trate, at the feet of the confessional and the despotism in church and State. Such were once the traditions and the aspirations of the official church and, historically, they are as yet the same. In presence of such a dread defiance, a few Hebrew ministers, convened then (1870) in Cleveland, felt inspired with the Macca- bean courage, and deemed it their sacred duty to take up the gauntlet flung into the blushing face of the 19th century, of modern democracy and of civilization. As a protest against the Syllabus, those Hebrew ministers proclaimed the noble religious and social platform of Judaism. We have above seen it. The reader knows it, it is saliently and diametrically opposed to the Syllabus ; it vindicates and upholds the Magna Charta of human rights. In the above discussion of our theme, we have again and again emphasized these grand, humanitarian and universal, doctrinal, spiritual, moral, social and political principles of the Mosaic Religion. They are the platform this Code and faith stand upon. Do you detect there any privileges of race, any prejudice of sect? Can you suggest any other set of principles upon v/hich all men can peaceably unite as brethren ? No ! it is the only one, that of the Decalogue, there is no other one ! The civilized world has long ago, silently, mentally, adopted it, at least in theory. The best and noblest of all races stand and act upon it. Our noble United States Constitution is framed upon it. Educated, fair-minded people of all creeds admit that "the right- eous of all sects will enjoy eternal life." All profess that : "Love thy neighbor as thy self" applies not alone to the members of such a creed and such a denomination, but to the entire human family. All believe in civil and religious liberty, in government for the good of the entire people, exercised by the best of the people. All expect man's messianic redemption by the elevation and frater- nization of the human race; its improvement by education, fru- gality, better economics and morality; by freedom, work justice 230 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. and sympathy. And all that stands upon the immovable rock of the Legislation at Sinai, upon the eternal basis of the Deca- logue. Nevertheless the official v^orld hesitates to fully accept the foundation upon which this platform stands : The divine Unity ! Can this declaration of principles, can the Decalogue stand with- out Monotheism; without ''I am the Eternal?". . .No! Hesitat- ingly, slowly, yet surely, the bright day of the Divine Unity and of the human fraternization is approaching. Some more instruc- tion imparted to the people, a little more outspokenness on the part of the expounders, teachers and the educated classes, and Monotheism will prevail, the last creedal discrimination will dis- appear. Jew and Gentile, already one in the sciences and the State, will be one in doctrine too. Then Jew and Gentile will pray together in the words of Maleachi (H. 10), "Have we not all one father, has not one God created us all, why shall we not be true to one another ! And the Eternal Father will graciously look down upon his reconciled children. He will unite them all, in justice and sympathy. The Malkhus Shaniaim, the Kingdom of heaven will dawn upon earth and together they will proclaim : ''Hear O Israel-mankind, the Eternal Being is God, the Eternal is One." All hail to you, O Israelites, all hail to you, children of Adam, the great day of redemption is approaching, its footsteps are visible on the heights of human intellect. Let everyone of us contribute towards its definite arrival. Let every one do it by kindness and truthfulness, by enlightenment and education, by dropping all prejudices and antiquated preconceptions against his fellow-men, of whatever creed, race, or country; by honest work, correct thinking, modest demeanor, active virtue and humane sympathy. 1 Let us therefore not be discouraged by the slow advance of mankind, the tardy arrival of the Messiah. Let every one assist and strenuously contribute towards the advent of the epoch foretold by the sages and prophets of old and of modern times : ''When the kingdom of heaven will improve the Vv^orld and one God be universally acknowledged ; when all idola- tries will disappear and m.ake room for the great messianic time of reason and justice, when God will be one and humanity one.^ ilNIicha; and Lessing's Nathan the Wise. 2Adoration praj'er. Sach. 14, 10. — Is. 52, 7. 23t VIII Study. ISRAEL; CHAMPION OF THE DECALOGUE. (II M., 19.8) "All God has spoken, we will do !" We have seen the Decalogue is the Central Doctrine of Mo- saism and the base of human civilization, advocated, pro- pounded and championed by Israel, its banner-bearer; that Israel is not the opponent, but the ethical teacher, marching in the van of mankind, during the last three thousand five hundred years; that this is his allotted, historical task, his providential mission, from Sinai to Washington. Let us now review history and see whether this is substantiated. Every people or group of men combined in a state, has a task to fulfill, a mission to accomplish, some elements of civilization, some part of the providential harmony in history, especially allotted to it, to work out. That task conscientiously and en- ergetically performed, the people thrives, holds its own, de- velops into ever larger proportions, into a historical nation, a great race ; failing to do so, it decays and dwindles into a tribe, a clan, a horde and is finally absorbed into and supplanted by another people, better adapted to fulfill its expectation and solve the providential problem. So the task of ancient Assyria, Babylonia and Persia w^as to do the work of unifying the hundreds of inimical and ever warring, petty states and clans and form vast, continental, as- similated nations, out of a host of conflicting, heterogeneous barbarians, by Bismarck's "blood and iron policy," Assur, Nabuchadnezzar, Dejocet, Cyrus really first practiced it. With greater success still did Rome take up their task, when they had collapsed. Rome cultivated the world-State-idea, in combina- tion with law, agriculture and professional warfare : From 753 A. C. to 476 P. C. throughout twelve centuries, that was its historical mission. According to the myth, its founders, Rom- ulus and Remus were the sons of the god of war, they were suckled by a she-wolf, the elder then murdered the younger, occupied alone the throne and made war, the state-idea the nerve of the Romans. The spirit of that harsh and gloomy myth is the true historical cue to Rome's problem. Phoenicia, Carthage and their numerous colonies built up commerce, in- dustries, crafts, navigation and colonization. That was their 232 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. providential problem : To connect the different fractions of mankind separated by mountains, deserts, seas and great dis- tances, and make them the highways and connecting links of far away peoples. As Persia and Rome founded empires on land, so they bound up and civilized maritime dominions no less wonderful. Another task was that of the Greek, far-famed Peninsula. The Hellenic, multiple, puny republics were great still in another sense. They cultivated freedom, manhood, patriotic wars, arts and sciences. Puny Greece whose terri- tory, north and south combined, would not have satisfied one of the Persian satraps, which ''had hardly standing room for the Persian hosts counting by millions," puny Greece produced in the higher realms of human activities, more genius and talent than all the other contemporaneous peoples put together — one people excepted, the Jewish one. This people and the Greek one became the great factors of human civilization, the two wheels of the globe's chariot of advance. Even so have mod- ern nations their historical allotments, achievements and their own national genius. Russia seems to have inherited the Medo-Persian task, agglomeration of states by brute force. The Teutonic races regenerated the effete Romano-Greek so- ciety, first by infusing into it fresh blood and spirit, then by their purer civilization, derived from their recent biblical eth- ics. England, Holland and the United States of North America appear to continue the problems of Phoenicia, Carthage and Greece combined, viz. : the cultivation of freedom, political and social, on one hand, of commerce, industry and dominion of the sea on the other hand. France and Italy appear to be heirs to the versatility and impulsiveness of Athens especially, for good and for bad. We now arrive at the other great factor of hum.an advance, Israel. As all the great races, even so the Hebraic one, has its own special, historical mission in the human con- cert, conforming to its providential genius; Israel's task is re- ligion. Religion in its broadest sense, the ethical obligations, activities and aspirations, the moral instincts of human nature, the cultivation of duty, piety, goodness, equity, all that is most useful to civilized society ; the Categoric Imperative : That man's motive and rule of conduct should not be power, interest, pleasure, wealth, but wisdom, conscience, truth, justice — duty ! Our duty because so ordained by God, by the world's pre- ISRAEL AS THE CHAMPION. 233 established Moral Order; because it is the rule of Eternal Wisdom, Justice, fitness, inherent in nature and proclaimed by the voice of God — that is Israel's great contribution, that is his mission to mankind. Some Greek sages guessed it darkly, the Prophets clearly saw and distinctly revealed it, and Israel heroically championed it. When Israel stood around Horeb, three thousand and five hundred years ago, narrates a hoary biblical tradition, listening to the world-redeeming revelation which has since become the Great Charter of civilization, man's Bill of Rights and Duties; when he listened to the grand, far-reaching ideal : "Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation," viz. : a free, moral, cultivated people, with no nobles and no mob, no plutocracy and no paupers, no Brahmans and no Pariahs, but each and every one a free man and a citizen, working and think- ing, knowing and doing his duty and enjoying his rights, an equal member of the national democracy — then they answered (II M., 19, 6-8) "All the Eternal has bidden we will do." It will be the theme of this chapter and this volume to show that this tradition is confirmed by history. History proves that from Sinai to Shilo, Karmel, Jerusalem, the Diaspora and Washington, for three thousand and five hundred years, in all great emergencies and crises, Israel collectively, as a people, representing one socio-ethical doctrine, has kept his hoary promise, has clung to his task, has never consulted interest, popularity, ease or power, but alone and only duty, conscience ; that he has resigned country, sacrificed home, comfort, life, and did what conscience bade him do ; did what he believed that : "God has spoken." Through vicissitudes unparalleled and harrowing suflferings, he has proved himself true to his milliennial mission, to his solemn promise at Sinai : "V/hatever the Eternal has spoken, we will do."^ Israel has never sur- rendered, never given up his providential task. God with thee ! March on, bear and abide, thou historical sufiferer, onward! No surrender ! (II M. 19, 8—24, 7) ytDtJ^ji nsj^y: .n^v^ n^ nnn isj'n ^3 1 234 "LE GUARDE MEURT ET NE SE REND PAS." ^ There is a modern, historical legend with a pointed motto, v/ell illustrating our theme, viz.: When in 1815 C. E., near by the Hollandish village of Waterloo, the French Grand Army under Napoleon, was finally beaten by Wellington and Bluecher, and proudly summoned to surrender^ the imperial guards shouted in reply: 'Xa Guarde meurt et ne se rend pas." "The Guard dies, but will not surrender." This legend in French history, is a reality in Jewish history, a rousing fact, proven and demonstrated there for thirty-five centuries, a stern deed, evidenced and repeated on a hundred battlefields, over and over, during the career of the Patriarchal people, the imperial guard of Monotheism, the Decalogue, the One Living God, mankind's Charter and platform. The people of Sinai did answer and act upon the motto : "The Guard dies, but sur- renders not." Israel has had a hundred Waterloos in his mil- lennial history. Frorr. Moses to Washington and Roosevelt, a hun- dred times he has been challenged and vehemently called upon to surrender, and every time he shouted back : "Israel dies, but sur- renders not !" In our present time of skepticism, worldliness, chilling selfishness and prudence, in both the camps, Jewish and Gen- tile, with antagonistic anti-Semitism on one hand, and on the other religious indifferentism, it is the sacred duty of the pro- phetic "watchman in the night" to raise his voice and thrill the heart and the conscience of the reader with the recital, the picture, the deeds and the sufferings of the past, that our young may learn how to grapple with the difficulties of the present and how to vanquish them. IHVH'S BATTLES. During the long period between Moses and Ezra (1500 — 460 B. C.), Israel was yet but a federation of tribes, one of the many peoples inhabiting Khanaan, rather held together alone by race and history, not yet fully conscious of their identity in religion, nationality and racial task, far from Monotheism in reality, constantly amalgamating with the surrounding clans in iThe Guard dies, but surrenders not! First published in part in 1870, Jewish Messenger, New York. IHVH'S BATTLES. 235 creed and matrimonial unions. Thus Eliahu (I Kings, 18.21) forcibly brought out the crisis of differentiation: *'Why do you halt between two ways? Why sit between two stools? Why are you wavering betw^een Ihvh and Baal, montheism and polytheism, right and might, duty and interest, virtue and sensuality? And that was a happy crisis. The people awoke at his powerful voice and dimly realized that Ihvh, the Su- preme Being, is God, not Baal and Ashtore^"h. So the ball began rolling against idolatry, and at the time of Ezra, Mono- theism came out victorious, with pure religion, religion not as a barren scheme of empty ceremonialism, but as a pregnant program of human life, of virtue, wisdom and useful activity. From Zerubabbel and Ezra to the Maccabeans (535 — 167) Jewish consolidation and assimilation began to take place. The original tw^elve clans of the Benai-Israel and the later tw^o opposition empires and claims of Ephraim and Jehuda, fused into the one people and country of Judaea. The remnants of the aborigines, Moebites, Edomites, etc., were all absorbed. After a thousand years of warfare and strife, they gradually became one nation and one doctrine : Monotheism and Israel, Judaism and the Decalogue. They became also one blood and race, homegeneous in feeling and in creed. That full and rinal unification took place within Judaea and Judaism. Whilst without^ the final differentiation between Israel and paganism was effected. Monotheism definitely separated from polythe- ism. A Jew^ meant not simply an inhabitant of Judaea, but one distinguished by creed, deed, life, habits and speech from other nationalties — just as much as white from black. The world then, was simply marked out by these dividing lines, Jewish and Gentile, monotheistic and polytheistic, duty and pleasure, justice and interest, purity and sensuality. Judaism was not a purely theological, religious or metaphysical denomination ; no, it was sharply defined and differentiated in practical life, in food, drink and dress, in education, speech, habits, thinking, believing and feeling. When now 167 B. C. Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) arose with the determined design, the arms and terrors of his all-power, as the head of the then greatest empire of the world, to efface that distinction and assimilate Jew and Gentile, when he called Maurice Fluegel's Exodus, Moses and the Decalogue. 236 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. upon the Jews to surrender their doctrinal and practical peculiarit- ies, merge with others and become Greeks, they stoutly an- swered : No ! ''Whatever God has bidden, we shall do — No sur- render !" The Syrian Great king displayed his overwhelming forces and w^aged his bloody war against the Hebraic nationality, without leaders, arms and treasury, nevertheless it insisted : *'The guard (of the Decalogue) dies, but surrenders not !" Nearly thirty years that Maccabean warfare lasted. Judaea was totally devas- tated and ruined. Not two stones were left in the same place. Every hill became a fortress, every iron an arm, every man a patriot and a soldier, everything was staked upon that issue : re- ligion and nationality. At last the Graeco-Syrian empire yielded, was vanquished and shattered. The dynasty of the Seleucidae, the heirs to the largest part of Alexander's world-empire, split in opposite factions and became a prey to Rome and its neighbors. Whilst puny Judaea remained the victor, for a time a considerable power, the cradle of that spirit destined to conquer paganism. JERUSALEM AND ROME. From the rise of the Maccabeans to the struggle against Rome, Israel prepared himself for his world-contest. Israel, monotheism and Decalogue on one side ; Rome and the world and poy- theism on the other. That epoch lasted from 170 B. C. to 70 P. C. Jerusalem and Rome were respectively the capitals of these two programs : Monotheism or polytheism, duty or interest, force or right, man's two poles. The Jewish world had the spirit, the Gentile one the sword. So each proved the stronger in its own domain, hence the terrible clash and shock. The Roman state- religion was unhinged and wavered. It had lost its hold upon the people, and the Gentile masses began to listen to the call that "from Zion comes the law, and the word of God from Jerusalem." Rome, Alexandria, Antiochia, Damascus apparently inclined to- ward the Decalogue. The gods of the Olympus paled and faded, and ever more discredited. The Gentiles turned their eyes toward the faith and the morality of Jerusalem. Greek sages still taught ethics, but they had no basis to build upon. The Olympian pow- ers were mere phantoms, abstractions and often rather quoted as examples for vice. The state was unhinged since the fall of the JERUSALEM AND ROME. 237 Julians.^ The legions now created the Caesars, four emperors struggled for mastery. Rome rested solely on intrigues and the sword. Sensualism, ambition, brute force, cunning and over- reaching were put up as the standard of wisdom. Society felt dismayed. Negation is no base for life. The people need a posi- tive, encouraging, spiritual principle, and for that they looked up to — Jerusalem. After the decay of Graeco-Syria, Rome be- came the head of the Gentile world, and hence the great opponent of Jerusalem. The two represented, respectively, might and right, iron and spirit, war and peace, conquest and work, sensuality and duty, pleasure and holiness, the monotheistic Decalogue and Olympian polytheism. So the conflict became unavoidable, bitter, desperate, one of life and death.^ Mighty Rome was deeply shaken by it. Four emperors, as said, claimed her throne. Gaul and Germany arose in arms, the empire tottered fearfully. She used her best legions and generals with the entire pagan world on her side to vanquish puny, isolated Judaea, after a fierce, bloody war of four generations from 63 B. C. and Pompaeus to 70 P. C., Vespasian and Titus. At last Rome and Asia, combined, conquered Jerusalem, reduced her to a heap of ashes, killed, dispersed and scattered her children, who died for her cause, first in Ju- daea, soon wherever there was a Jewish settlement throughout Asia and Africa. They perished under the Sinaic war cry : ''The guard dies, hut surrenders notT 1 Tacitus histor., liber 1, II. Opus aggredior opimum casibus, atrox praeliis, discors seditionibus, ipsa etiam pace saevum. Quatuor Principes ferro interemti. Trina bella civilia plura externa ac plerumque per- mixta . . . . Jam vero Italia novis cladibus, vel post longam sseculorum seriem repetitis, afflicta. Haustae aut obrutse urbes. . . .Urbs incendiis vastata, consumtis antiquissimis delubris, ipso Capitolio civium mani- bus incenso: pollutse caeromonias: magna adulteria: plenum exiliis mare: infecti caedibus scopuli. Atrocius in urbe saevitum. Nobilitas, opes, omissi gestique honores pro crimine, et ob virtutes certissimum exitium, 2 Tacitus histor. liber 5, XXVIII. At major belli moles in Judaea agitabatur. Titus, cum cuncta expugnandis Hierosolymis apta strux- isset, adulto jam vere, operi institit, morarum impatiens. Utrimque paribus animis certatum .... Ibid. 30. Nee hostilium virium aspectus, nee promissa, ne horrenda quidem fames, quae jam saeviebat, feroces animos molliere. Immo ipsi transfugae, Titi dementia in castra Romana recepti, occulta medita- bantur crimina Ultionemque nova ruina parabat Joannes. . . .Simonis enim instinctu, tres juvenes urbe, raptis facibus, egressi, machinas aliis aggeribus impositas, per medios hostes, per tela, per gladios, incendendas susceperunt, et incendere Adverse casu baud fracta Titi constantia. 238 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. But their soul, the spirit of Jerusalem, did not die. The Deca- logue was not buried under her ruins. No ! The Decalogue con- quered Rome's sword. Jerusalem, collapsed in Judaea, re-arose, phoenix-like, out of her ashes — in Rome. Rome putting her foot on the neck of her rival, crucifying her defenders by the thou- sands, throwing them to the lions in the circus, selling them by the hundreds of thousands as slaves in her markets — Rome soon knelt before her doctrine and her humble exponents in her own capitol. With dismay she heard repeated in her own temples the old Judaeai shout re-echoing from the prophets: ''From Zion goes forth the teaching and the word of God from Jerusalem." Jupi- ter-Zeus had to leave his place in the capital and yield it to the foot-stool of Israel's Only One. Mt. Olympos had to bend down and take upon its shoulders the Mount Moriah. The statutes of the divinities were hurled into dust before the memories of the leaders, prophets, bards and psalmists of Juda and of Ephraim. As announced by Isaiah : In days to come will the Mount of the house of Ihvh be exalted above all the mounts and thereto the nations will stream in pilgrimage (Is. II. 2)." So after Rome had bodily destroyed Jerusalem, Jerusalem's spirit shattered the Roman sword. The Roman imperial sword was broken and the cross erected instead, the cross to which Rome had been nailing the Judaean patriots for nearly two centuries. That same cross now became the symbol for Rome's ecclesiastical empire, the scepter in the hands of her spiritual rulers, the popes, who came to occupy Caesar's throne as — successors to a Jewish teacher crucified by her centuries ago.^ She claimed and ruled the Roman world in the name of Sinai, the Decalogue and the Judaean moralist ! The disciples of that man, a handful of en- thusiasts, armed indeed, not with the sword of Rome, but with the spirit of Jerusalem, overturned Mt. Olympos as did the Ti- tans of old, by the spell of the teachings of Mt. Moriah under the aegis of the Decalogue and monotheism, under the old war-cry of: ''From Zion com.es the law, and the word of God from Je- rusalem." They chased the Olympian powers into the rural dis- tricts, hence called pagans and converted the proud gods into humble, poor devils — daimonia. The Roman world, accepting that Judaean Teacher as their Messiah, apparently accepted mono- theism, the Bible and the Decalogue, in the train of that man. iSee Messiah Ideal, Vol. II, on that. 239 DECALOGUE AND POLYTHEISM. Yes, apparently, but not really ! Happy for the world and for Israel if that had been the case. Unfortunately it was not so. The Gentile conversion was too hasty, hence superficial. It was simply a compromise with the ancient mythology, so much warned against by the Bible. Concessions after concessions were made on vital points, and the Gentile New- Judaism soon appeared to be but a disguised polytheism, a crude, halfway compromise ef- fected by state-craft. The new creed was so latitudinal an, so broad, vague, elastic, that any and every nation, Syrians, Egyp- tians, Greeks, Romans, could easily persuade itself that it teaches but her own inherited doctrines and old views, differing in words and forms alone. The Gentile world was thus allowed to freely enter the wide portals of the church on their own terms, with all their idols and proclivities, each retaining their old polytheistic beliefs, tastes and practices. Could Israel join such a program? The Decalogue was formally adopted, but after mutilation and decapitation : 'T am thy God, thou shalt have no other gods" — had to give way to trinity : God-Eternal yielded to God-born, dead and resurrected; God One and pure spirit, to God-incar- nate, man-god, yea, even to images ; the harmonious world "very well created," to one made by the Evil one; earth's noblest crea- ture, man, made in the image of God, viz. : with reason, free will, virtue and happiness, became the son of hell, heir to unavoidable sin and disappointment; all creation, withered and accursed, a failure, a vale of tears, the inheritance of the devil. Man was dis- honored, tainted with original sin, made for pain, error and mis- fortune, his best deeds and virtues but shining vices, and all his efforts of no avail to ward off perdition — because Adam and Eve had enjoyed of the forbidden fruit ! That crime required that God himself, or at least his son, should expiate it on the cross and atone for — those only who profess to believe ! believe in things contrary to all reason, whilst all other men are to remain irretrievably lost . . . All these strange doctrines did not grow on the tree of the Bible. They came from Judaean mysticism and from Persian, Greek, Egyptian mythologies. Never did Jesus or his Judaean apostles teach such. Paul and the Gnostics did that first, next the Gentile Christians of later centuries. They were finally elabo- 240 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. rated and formulated by the still later imperial hierarchs, not as a well digested, logical, harmonious whole, but rather as a theo- logical mosaic, an ecclesiastical compromise, and a political make- shift, trying to satisfy all, and having in view diverse countries, doc- trines and peoples, so as to make each believe that his own dogmas are openly or silently confirmed, and that by changing the name, every one retained his old religious substance. That was smart politics, but poor logic and poorer theology. And that compro- mise became doctrine and part of orthodox Christianity. Could Juda accept and abide by such a motley Judaism ! The heathen world entering into the Church and claiming to represent reno- vated, reformed New-Judaism, did not only tamper with the lead- ing rational doctrines of old Judaism, no, it radically changed its practice and theory, life and tenets. The entire positive command- ments and polity of the Pentateuch had to give way to the pre- vious Gentile practices. The Sabbath and holidays were abolished. The Alosaic Law, insisted on by Jesus still as the will of Ihvh, and all-important to man's salvation — that very Mosaic Law was declared by Paul, as "the root of evil," good to stimulate sin, not to save ! Faith in the Triune-God, in the ]\Ian-God, was alone de- clared as the condition of salvation. Old Judaism postulated good deeds, as the outcome of the correct creed, of rational principle, as the fruit from the root; Paulinian Christianity declared that creed is all and deed is nothing, all human virtues being but *' brilliant z'iccs/' Old Judaism wisely hedged in and consecrated the pure human instincts, joys and aspirations. The rabbis called that ''building up the world. "^ New-Judaism withered them as the fangs of the devil ; so was marriage, work, providing for to- morrow. The monastery was the ideal, the world not worth existing. Old Judaism taught one law for priest and commoner, for native and foreigner,^ a free state, free citizen and free church, all obeying the one and same law. New Judaism as old polytheism, kept up discriminating laws, castes and conditions and made the Church the hand-maid of state-rulers. Constantine the Great, made the church subservient to his ambitions : he was, according to op- portunity, an unbeliever, a polytheist, a Christian and a zealot, ever watching the drift of popular opinion. — Whilst again later, iSanhedrin 24b. Mishna and Gemara: lushab ha-olom. 2(111 M. 24, 22) One right for all of you, the alien as the native. DECALOGUE AND POLYTHEISM. 241 his priestly successors at Rome and Byzantine ruled the state as the hand-maid of the church. The popes claimed ownership of the world as the representatives of Peter, Peter as the vicar of the messiah, the messiah as the vicar of God ; three assumptions with as many usurpations, all against the Decalogue. Thanks to this threefold usurpation, they assumed a fourth one, viz : to be heir to the Caesars, the masters of the occidental world and rivals of the emperors, east and west. For long these dangerous claimants fomented divisions, hates and wars in Christendom and for a while actually succeeded in being considered as the spiritual and political heads, the suzerains of the world — all as the successors of a Jewish moralist who had died, now some nineteen centuries ago, who had disclaimed prop- erty and war, who would not have two coats, nor two meals with- out giving one to his poorer brother. Soon these crowned popes strangled conscience, upset boundaries, deposed kings, established bloody inquisitions, proscribed whole nations who perished for their conscience and portioned out the world at their pleasure Now all that polity began to be initiated and enacted since the fourth cenhury, with Constantine and the Council of Nicaea, and was the fatal consequence of the hasty compromise made with the polytheistic converts, the Gentile Christians, a compromise accepting de jure, the Decalogue and idolatry de facto. Trinity the goddess-mother, the cross emblem, the cult of im.ages, relics and saints, the abolition of holidays and the seventh day sabbath, etc., all these were concessions made to Egyptian, Syrian, Greek and Roman mythologies. Judaism teaches religion as a micans to enlighten, improve and pacify men. The polytheistic view is that religion is a fit tool in the hands of the rulers to deceive, frighten and subdue the people. Could Israel join hands? Could Old- Judaism fuse and abdicate in favor of New-Judaism? Was prophetism fulfilled? Did the wolf and the lamb graze together? No ! Hence Israel had to go on and continue the battle. He did it at any cost and any price : 'The guard dies and never sur- renders !" 242 ISLAM AND THE JEWS. We come to the rise of Islam. From the fourth century P. C. onwards, the retrogression towards polytheism passed on rapidly. The remnants of the Jew-Christians, viz. : Jews believing that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, were pushed back and thrown out of the ecclesiastical councils ; and Christianity, the New- Judaism, ever more loomed away from its miOther-religion, grad- ually and in fact it became disguised polytheism. Worship was not paid to God-the-Father, very little even to God-the-Son, but mostly to Mary-the-Goddess-Mother. As in Egypt, Isis was the leading goddess, as in Greece Athene, in Rome Minerva, the female cult was preponderant. Even idolatry was not eradicated. After Mary, the new saints, their relics, their images and statues had their shrines and worship. Priest-craft, miracle-workings, and beatifications abounded and found their popular veneration. Ambition, self-apotheosis and overreaching joined superstition, brutalized the masses and made rank scoffers of the classes. Thus from 325 to 600 P. C. gradually true religion had dwindled away, superstition and priest-craft remained, and reaction had to come. We stand now at the threshold of a new historical epoch (622 P. C.) That reaction against hypocrisy and idol worship came, it started from an Arab-Jewish center, Mecca, the leading city of Arabia. Many Jewish clans had fled thereto from devastated Judaea, had occupied free territories and erected there independ- ent principalities. Others lived in Arabian communities, as in Mecca, and influenced them by their higher culture, purer morals, rational religion, finally also by intermarriage, to such an extent that the Jewish worship and race were very popular there. The religious upheaval started in Mecca. Its initiator was Moham- med, a member of its leading clan, the Koreishites, a nephew of the Guardian of the Kaaba, the national Arabian Temple. Moham- m.ed was of Arabian parents, not unmixed v/ith Israelitish blood. He had surely Jewish connections and teachers of whom he had re- ceived popular instructions in Hebraic views, legends and doctrines, a deal of biblic and Midrashic lore. Of such materials, fused with native Arabian ideas and tastes, he formed his socio-religious system, later brought out as his bible, the Koran. He taught: There is but one God, the only one of the Jewish Bible by Moses and the prophets. He is Eternal, pure spirit. Creator and Provi- dence. There is no divine incarnation, no vicar, no son of God ISLAM AND THE JEWS. 243 and no images of Him. Idolatry is the greatest abomination. The Old Testament is God-inspired, binding in its moral and doctrinal part upon his Arabian followers, not its other local and purely Hebraic elements. He accepted, at first, the Sabbath and the Atonement Day, as also Jerusalem as the Kebla of his adherents, and aspired to be recognized by the Jews as Prophet or Messiah. He had sincerely adopted the doctrinal part of the Decalogue, but not so its practical ethics, the second half of it; here he had to reckon with his Arabian environments and followers. They would not easily accept the universality of its moral law peremptorily forbidding murder, lust, treachery and robbery, and Israel could not accept a Messiah without a moral law. So they had to fight — which they did under the war-cray of: "Whatever the Eternal has bidden, we shall do. The guard dies, but surrenders not !" So they lost the great opportunity of gaining a powerful leader and friend. They lost Arabia, several independei^t principalities, hundreds of thousands of their own, slaughtered or sold as slaves — but they clung to their identity, to the Decalogue, in doctrine, and practice. The Arabian Jews were startled and delighted at his advent. But when he asked recognization, as prophet, leader, and Messiah, when they closer examined into his aspirations and habits, his Arabian sensuality, his Bedouin cupidity, his warlike rapacity and unscrupulousness, his cruelty, ambitious wars and greed of conquests, all perfectly natural in a native Arab, bred among his own people, but scantily favored with a glimpse into the higher ethics of the Jews and the Bible — when the Arabian Jews compared their own biblical ethics with those of the Arabian Prophet, the Messiah portrayed by Isaiah, Micah, etc., with that embodied in Mohammed, they could not accept him as prophet and their exponent. And Mohammed was not great enough to condone with their scruples. From a warm friend he became a bitter, remorseless, ruthless foe, and exterminated them from Arabia. THE CRUSADES AND THE JEWS. The tw^elfth and thirteenth centuries brought out a new dark phase of history, the Crusades. The Occident and the Orient engaged in a gigantic duel. Europe vv^as the aggressor for this time, not Asia. It was a tremendous effect from a cause w^hich 244 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. to us moderns is seemingly inadequate. Christian Europe rose against Mohammedan Asia and for two centuries battled over the possession of a — grave, for puny Palestine with the grave of the founder of the Nazarene faith. During two hundred years that duel was fought, without any result whatever, except perhaps that the prestige of the Church came out damaged and that the thick ice-crust of madiaeval clerical rule began to burst and melt away at the sun of the slowly dawning Renaissance. The Sara- cens remained masters of the battle ground. But during this long clash between the creeds of Nazareth and of Medina, a tragic interlude was going on, mournfully telling upon the Jewish people living scattered among the fierce contending parties. Whilst the Christian hosts rolled on as a lava-stream against the infidel Mohammedans, they remem.bered that on their way there, they met with myriads of Jews who had no sympathy with their fanatical warfare, who claimed that the Promised Land belonged not to either of the belligerents, but to themselves, who were, moreover, unbelievers, decried as decides, who had no anris for self-defense, but w^ere reported to have gold. These frequent groups of Jewish settlements, at that time, perhaps the only green spots on earth of law-abiding, orderly, working people, among that semi-barbarous mediaeval "society of wolves and bears," the red-crossed marauders attacked with the savage and fanatical challenge of : "Baptism or death !" This was the horrifying inter- mezzo of the unreasonable strife between cross and crescent. A dreadful havoc took place. Whole districts of Jewish peaceful and industrious colonies were pillaged and devastated, entire coni- munities were slaughtered and destroyed, yea, by hundreds of thousands. Western Israel perished nearly all, but they yielded not their faith : *'The guard dies, but surrenders not.". . . SPAIN. The same mournful motto was illustrated at the end of the fifteenth century. Spain and Portugal had, for many centuries, been engaged in deadly feud with the Moors, the former masters of the once, fiercely, Christian Gothic Pyrenean peninsula. That Romano-Gothic population there had yielded to the Moors and retired within the inaccessible natural fastnesses of the frontier SPAIN. 245 mountains. Gradually Moorish Spain decayed, her erst brilliant and powerful monarchy split into several principalities. The last one, Granada, was finally conquered by united Christian Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella. These then determined upon the total expulsion of the Moors from regained Spain, they being still too numerous and warlike, hence dangerous. As to her large Jewish population, that was as yet spared and conciliated to the new catholic polity, seemingly treated as fellow citizens, and allowed to participate in the new state, society, honors and emoluments. They continued masters of the industries, com- merce, arts, sciences, navigation, and were thus possessed of office, wealth and power. But at last, when the Moors had been suc- cessfully and totally expelled, the turn of the Jews came. As the Pharaohs of old, the Spanish hierarchy and the princes feared : 'Xest the children of Israel might increase, join the enemies and drive the natives out of the land."^ Apparently the Spanish-Hebrew citizens were its most useful population, counting no doubt over a million. But old Gothic popular prejudices were fiercely aroused against them : Misgivings of the church, jealousies of the nobil- ity, frequent risings of the mob, pillage and incendiarism, dra- gooning to the mass and forcible conversions were oft-repeated occurrences. At last they were plainly informed that they had to choose between baptism or exile. When Queen Isabella still hesi- tated to sign the decree of expulsion, Torquemada, her confessor, rushed into the royal council-room with the crucifix in hands, shouting: "Will you again sell Christ for a sum of money?" Isabella signed the decree of the banishment of the entire Spanish- Hebraic population. Apparently the majority thereof had grad- ually yielded, assuming the mask of Marranos, or Neo-Chris- tians. At least 300,000 of the remaining ostracized Jews left the Spanish peninsula. Many of whom were destroyed on the sea fleeing for Morocco or Turkish territories. They perished by the treachery of the captains of their boats, by sickness, pestilence and down right drowning. A mere remnant reached Turkey, Egypt, Palestine : "The guard dies, but will not surrender. . . . What God has bidden, we shall do.". . . III. M. I, 10. 246 WESTERN EUROPE, POLAND. The sixteenth century came on, with persecutions of the Jews in the West of Europe. England, France and West Germany envied Spain and Portugal for their good luck, having robbed their Judaic fellow citizens, killed a part and forcibly converted or expelled their entire Israelitish population. So the European Northwest imitated Spain. A decree of banishment was issued against them. Their grounded property nobody wanted to buy and it thus became worthless. They left with their families, their ancestral faith and the beggar's staff, under the old watchword : *'No surrender ! All the Eternal has spoken we shall do." They wandered to Eastern Europe, especially to Poland. This was then a vast empire, semi-civilized and but half Christianized. The aristocracy, Boyars, Shlachtis, owned and occupied the land, under a free, loose constitution, a limited monarchy, lax and dis- obeyed laws. They formed the upper social strata, the conquerors of the aboriginal subjugated inhabitants. Whilst these latter ones were the tillers of the soil, serfs, attached to the glebe, scarcely emerged from barbarism. This upper class, or nobility needed a middle class, brain-workers, industrials, skilled laborers, lower and higher mechanics, merchants, financiers, scholars, profes- sionals, artists, craftsmen, traders, middlemen between the barons and the peasant serfs ; to utilize, manufacture, transport and dis- tribute the raw produce and native commodities, by factory, shop, export, import, commerce and navigation to render their vast but backward emipire a productive member of the civilized world. The noblemen occupied their attention and leisure, as everywhere else, with sport, pohtics, gallantry and warfare ; the enslaved masses with the small trades and principally, agriculture. The middle link, the intermediate class, the brain-workers and skilled labor- ers, were missing. So the nobility eagerly invited the industrious Jews expelled from the West, to enter their country and society, leaving to them the open position, the rights and the emoluments of the badly missing middle class, the higher social workers, so urgently necessary between the lordly few and the serving masses. The newcomers were admitted to all the civil rights and also some of the political privileges. They promised to develop the resources of the country by their superior activity and civilization, their finances, sciences, industries, arts and business talents. It did not take long, and these new settlers began to prosper there WESTERN EUROPE, POLAND. 247 and fulfil all that their Gentile hosts had reasonably expected of them. Juda's old wounds began to close, the bent exiles began to walk straight and erect. They increased in numbers, wealth and social importance. But soon a turn of fortune came on. The aristocracy grew more and more turbulent, impatient of law and especially of any and every strong and centralized government. Anarchy went on increasing. While neighboring grim Russia, Prussia, Austria pro- gressed in the opposite direction, they framed laws, insisted on civic justice and order, centralized the civil, military and political powers in the hands of the government and thus gained a great start, by social and political stability, over the light-hearted and disorderly Polish independent nobles. The inevitable came on, mutiny cropped up, factions became ungovernable. The Cos- sacks rebelled and made war upon the distracted Polish provinces, under a bold leader, Bogdan Chlemizky. The nobles retired into their lordly castles. But the inoffensive and defenseless Hebrews, having no fastnesses, no arms, no prestige and no leaders, became a prey to the marauders. They first ransomed themselves with their money. But the situation required iron; gold attracted rather the Cossacks. The isolated, defenseless Hebrews, reputed rich, were pillaged, many slaughtered ; as many more fled to the West of Europe, whence they had come over a century previously. The present German Jews are descendants of those Polish refu- gees; whilst the present millions of Hebrews in Poland, Russia, Roumania are the posterity of their once Germanic ancestors, hence their German jargon, intermixed with Slav and Hebrew. THE MARRANOES. About the same time, the seventeenth century, similiar religious and racial persecutions and under the same war-cry, were resusci- tated and enacted in Spain and in Portugal. Those hundreds of thousands of Hebrews who had there been forcibly converted to the Church, known then as Marranos, viz : converted Jews, con- tinued, in spite of their baptism, to be marked out to the populace as a suitable target for derision, malevolence, pillage and frequent onslaught. They were suspected of relapse, that under the mask of Christianity, they had remained secretly Jews ; a separate class. 248 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. generally intermarrying only among themselves, keeping up their Judaic practices and idiosyncrasies, their aristocratic manners and separateness, their inherited wealth, their commercial monopolies, their international, secret relations, and that as pretended Chris- tians they were accaparating and occupying high offices in State, in Church and even at Court. They were especially suspected by the Church as Judaizing, viz. : as keeping up not only Jewish ideas and theories, strictly monotheistic and biblic, but, on special solemn occasions, practicing Jewish rites, customs, observances, dietary habits, discriminations in marriage, on Sabbaths, holidays and fast-days. They were thus under suspicion of being still Jews at heart and in mind. Tales were running that Spanish grandees were surprised in their secret conclaves, in garret or in cellar, in prayer, on the Atonement Day, or Passover Eve, fasting and confessing, or enjoying the unleavened cakes (Mazza) behind bolted doors.i Many court ladies were detected with an amulet, inscribed with the solemn credo (Shema), close to their bosom. Yea, Marrano bishops were found, officiating at church in their robes and crucifix — and a Hebraic talisman close to the heart. A rigid inquisitional tribunal was instituted, with spies and guard- ians to watch over renegades. Their servants, their creditors, their employees, their enemies were encouraged and abetted to espy and denounce them. At the least indices of ''judaizing," they were incarcerated, their fortunes sequestered or confiscated, their children torn from their arms and placed in monasteries. Whilst they personally had to answer to an inquisitorial interrogatory ; the wrack, wheel, thumbscrew and other torments were applied to their bodies to force a confession of apostasy. Such mysterious procedures, often auto-de-fe's on the market place were enacted to strike terror and enhance the awe for the holy mother, Church ! In such a manner hundreds of thousands of Marranoes were frightened back and kept within the folds of the faith of Rome, while myriads perished under tortures or in fire, and thousands found means of escape to North Italy and France ; especially to Holland, which was then breaking away from the tyranny of Spain and therefore inclined to tolerate those unhappy victims of fanaticism, priestcraft and tyranny combined. ^ ^y "nnon TiDKS of the Agada, may be a remnant thereof, now said with open doors to guard against espionage. "Pour out thy wrath over the barbarians." 249 TRACES IN THE RITUAL. Marranos were forcibly converted Jews of Spain and Portugal. The etymology is very obscure. I give it as my own guess that it is derived from the corrupted popular pronunciation of the Hebrew word abarianim, root ahar, transgress, and at the same time, Bbri, Hebrew. Adrian, denoting a transgressing Hebrew, a Jewish Apostate. In the well-known introductory prayer of the Atonement Eve, we read: ''With the consent of the meeting on high and below (of God and the Congregation) we allow to pray with the Abarianim'' (the transgressors). That refers to the Marranos, and is a later intercalation of the Spanish period of enforced bap- tism. May be even, it is of earlier centuries of such forced con- versions frequent in mediaeval and later history. This intro- ductory Kol-N^idrai-pra.ytr intimates that such apostates were nevertheless considered as Jews, admitted to the Congregation at worship, and absolving them of their oaths of allegiance to the new faith forced upon them. A certain critical tact is my guarantee for this hypothesis. The reader may use his own judgment. Mark well, the root let- ters of Abarianim : y ^ *i the identical ones of both the words abar, trespass, and Ebri, Hebrew ; the rest are suffixes, ian and im. The bulk of that prayer shows on its face that it was composed much earlier than the Spanish period, in Syria-Babylonia, when religious vows were in vogue; later on neglected, and during the Spanish persecutions re-introduced, with the preamble and the conclusion alluding to the Marranos, half estranged, but still Jews at heart : "Let it be forgiven to the entire Congregation of Israel and to the convert dwelling among them," viz : the con- verted, Jewish Apostate, abariani'in-=- Marrano in slang. THE GHETTO. The eighteenth century arrived, when the Church felt bitterly disappointed on realizing that Spanish Judaism still exists and still clings to the old faith of the Decalogue ; that neither spolia- tion, exile, terrorism or even fire-death were potent enough to hold them in the spiritual ranks of the majority, though often enough dragooned Into the church. The hierarchy now invented 250 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. a new method of conversion, the Ghetto, viz., ostracism and exile within the very Hmits of the cities. The Jews were ordered to remove from the respectable parts of each town and to settle apart, in dismal, out of the way lanes, suburbs or districts for themselves, separated by iron gates and walls from the rest of the place. They were thus bodily, ideally and socially divided off from the Chris- tian community, relegated into specially discriminated Jewish quarters, Jewries, Jew-lanes, and there treated as outcasts, gyp- sies and pariahs. Such Jewries were termed Ghetto, of a doubtful etymology (perhaps Hebrew Goloth, exile, or German Gasse, lane) ; located on the extremity of the town, a picked out gloomy, unhealthy quarter, close to the dumping grounds, the dunghills and swamps, with narrow crowded alleys, with dingy, petty, awk- ward-looking, many-storied huts, with little free space, light and air; locked up, from without, by frowning walls and iron gates, during every night; the near-by dumping grounds, the narrow lanes and crowded high houses rendering its climate the least salubrious. In day-time the Jew could go to town, peddling, shop- ping, or on his brokerage-errands, but well marked off from the rest of the population, by a yellow round patch of cloth, attached to his hat or on his breast, thus singled out as a target for the mob, exposed to insults, stones and pillage. He was not admitted to any public office, to any honorable employment, to the public schools, to any respectable trade, to gain a clean, honest morsel of bread. Alone the trades of pawn-broking, loaning out on in- terest, "usury," selling old clothes and peddling were kept open to him — or baptism ! So he remained in the Ghetto, economically a pauper, socially a pariah, industrially a drudge, but mentally and ethically very often by far superior to the dominant popula- tion, even to the nobles and the clerg}^ A gypsy politically and socially, he was still devoted to study, thinking, poetry; to Bible, Talmud, sciences, arts ; morally by far superior to his tormentors and his converters. Mendelssohn and his Jewish generation were reared and grew up in such a gloomy ghetto. Boerne, Heine and hundreds of compeers well knew it as the cradle of their race. The American and the French Revolutions broke out, proclaimed the equality of races and creeds, with freedom of conscience and universal suffrage. Lafayette and Mirabeau, Robespierre and St. Juste vindicated the freedom and equality of all men. So the THE GHETTO. 251 Jew, too, shouted hosannah ! The Ghetto-walls crumbled and fell ; the inmates began to mingle with their fellowmen. The French Revolution did the great work of emancipation practically. The American one had preceded it theoretically. So dawned the nineteenth century. Was now the old war-cry silenced : Was Israel no longer asked to surrender or die? Let us continue and see. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. The nineteenth century was ushered in with the great tocsin and the Messianic trumpet of the American and the French Rev- olutions, by the sound of the rousing Marseillaise under the peace- motto of : Liberty, equality and fraternity ! An entire phalanx of Jewish bards, artists and enthusiastic writers, of the caliber of Heine, Boerne, Zunz, Auerbach, Meyerbeer greeted the new flag with their paeans and their styles. Thousands of Jewish youths enlisted under it, fought and died under it, in those gigantic con- tinental liberation wars. Israel, too, thought to be entitled to the benefits of the new era. The Ghetto-walls were pulled down un- der the blast of the freedom and equality cornet. Alas, but the reawakening from that fraternity dream soon followed. He had got his emancipation without the necessary struggle, the spring came without its previous storms, and it soon proved insecure. Liberty must be conquered, not obtained as a gift. Equality and freedom were first granted to them as French citizens, but soon came the bargaining, taking away and again doling it out by piece- meal and diverse discriminations. And this shameful game of cat and mouse, of wolf and lamb, has been going on during all this long nineteenth century : ''All human beings are free and equal ; all the inhabitants of the soil are citizens ; all tax-payers have the vote ; every duty corresponds to a right ; that is one phase. But soon another phase emerged : No ! The Jews are foreigners, aliens, not free, not equal, not citizens, they are Semites ! O shame ! At the very close of this vaunted nineteenth century we were dumbstruck at the horrifying shrieks from Rus- sian pogroms; from Roumanian noyades and expulsions ; by the French Dreyfuss cause celehre ; by East-European ritual-murder- trials. Daily we are astonished at the anti-Semitic venomous 252 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. harvest springing up all over the area of modern civilization. It began with puny Roumania, where the writer of these pages made his first campaigns in defense of his unhappy countrymen, and where he labored and hoped in vain to carry their emancipation to- gether with that of the country.^ Therefrom, pest-like, it spread to Germany. Germany's pedants indorsed that modern social malady, anti-Semitism : The Jew is not to be hated for not believing in trin- ity, not on account of his religion, but of his race, his nationality. He is not an Aryan. No, he is a Semite. This silly theory would soon have blown over, if not for Russia, well prepared for such a dragon's seed, by its Moscovite barbarism, by its brutalized peasantry, by its fanaticized, diversely compounded populations. In that half-Asiatic Russia the Romano-Teutonic dragon-seed has developed most venomous, mephitic miasma. I do not wish to start any Cassandra forebodings : May be that cloud of barbar- ism will soon collapse and disappear, and may be not. It may spread throughout the civilized West and cover with its funeral ashes the face of more advanced Europe. The nineteenth century started under bright auspices, the twentieth shows a relapse. For two generations an inoffensive, semi-oriental population, counting by many millions, the very bulk of an ancient nationality, has been there ostracized, outlawed, at last banished and cast out. Old and young, gray heads, women in child-bed, delicate children, have been torn from their humble homes and dragged away, starving, in midwinter, to the Pale of Russia, or over her fron- tiers, into exile and destruction. Pogroms were planned and executed with the connivance, even with the foreknowledge of the rulers. Incendiarism, pillage, rape and murder were openly toler- ated, enacted, encouraged, in presence of the military, against an inoffensive, defenseless, law-abiding people, counting by millions — for being Jews, for clinging to the faith of their ancestors, for praying in the language of the Patriarchs and the very founders of earlier Christianity ! Even in Germany it is fashionable to Jew-bait, belittle the He- brew, set him down as an alien in his step-mother country; him who had lived there before Caesar conquered the Rhine, or Tra- janus subjugated the Dacians, for two thousand years there was his country, stood there the cradle of his children, was there the 1 During the years 1859 to 1864. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 253 tomb of his fathers, for long centuries before Charlemagne plant- ed there the cross. And all these prophetic populations bear and suffer under the old war-cry: "The guard dies, but will not surrender !" We stand now in the twentieth century, and this war-shout rings still in our ears : The minorities must die or surrender ! Listen, hear ! The shrieks of the Poles in Prussia, of the Jews, Poles and Tartars in Russia, of the various oppressed in Bohemia, Ireland, Roumania, Galicia, Bosnia; the Fins and Germans on the Baltic shores ; anti-Semitism makes its appearance in Austria, France, even in England. Alas, have not there labored Huss and Coper- nicus, Joseph II. and Dome, Lessing and Mendelssohn, Kant and Humboldt? Here Mirabeau, Cremieux, Adolphe Franck, Gam- betta ; there Montefiore, Disraeli, Jessel. A thousand other liberal minded statesmen, scholars, writers, poets, artists have illustrated Europe. Still the minorities are aliens ! Still anti-Semitism ex- ists ! As in olden times of Pharaoh and of Haman, so later of the crusaders and the Spanish fury. So now of Plehva and Po- biedonostieff. The Moscovite scourge, the Vatican Syllabus and the German Jew-baiting — what an infernal pedigree belongs to anti-Semitism ! These battles for freedom, Milhamoth, Ihvh, have been fought from Sinai to the Seine and the Moscow, under the flag of the Decalogue, by the same monotheistic people, against the same Hamans, stupidity and selfishness. Thus for three thousand and five hundred years, from Sinai to Washington, since 1500, before, to 1900 post-Christian Era, Is- rael battled for the Decalogue. For that lapse of time, he sacrificed everything to his task, as the expounder and champion of the Organic Law of civilized society. We stand now in the first decade of the twentieth century. We may have in America over a million and a half Hebrews as citizens of this free country, from the very beginning started on the broad humanitarian basis of these Ten Words, on the platform of liberty, equality and fraternity; without any hierarchy or privileged classes; with separation of state and church ; with absolute freedom of conscience ; after men like Moses Montefiore, Ad. Cremieux, De Hirsch have shown the true capabilities of the Jew. And withal, fanatics and politicians have created anti-Semitism ! 254 AMERICA AND NEW JUDAEA. American Israel ! Times are now brighter, at least in the West, at least in this New World. Here at least I do believe there shall never be occasion for the war-whoop of Torquemada, Sergius and the imperial Cossacks ; to fight over those satanic warfares, a compound brew of old race-hatred and mystic doc- trines, confusedly amalgamated with brand-new economical jeal- ousies. Still, even in America a few such danger-specks over- hang our social sky. There exists here a party compounded of selfishness and race-pride, with a fringe of religious fanaticism, which clique may grow and become a real menace to the very foundations of this unsectarian society; a party which in the face of our United States Constitution strives at introducing prac- tical social discriminations on denominational and racial grounds ; which prides itself even of being at heart anti-Semitic, anti-Ro- manist, anti-Latinist, anti-Dutchman, which aims at creating here a dominant race and church, a blue-blood of some kind ; at fanning up slumbering mediaeval embers and shadowy opinions, but really aiming at political self-aggrandizement, the creation of an aris- tocratic group, an American nobility in state and government. Should any such a challenge ever come to you, American Jews, be not dismayed, you, too, will answer: "No surrender! Give me liberty or give me death !" You dearly love your new country, your citizenship, your offices, your cosy homes, but you prize and love your freedom of conscience, your old and venerable origin, your patriarchal descent, your hoary reminiscences, the long and honorable scars of your three thousand years' history. You will allow no one to pluck from the American escutcheon its grandest features. A free conscience, separation of state and church, a state for all races, origins and creeds is the grandest gem m the noble American diadem. Your motto too will be as of yore : ''What ever God has spoken we will do." Here an idea strikes me, a grand vista : It was in anno 1492 when Columbus set sail for the discovery of America (with Jewish money, not that of Queen Isabella, as often claimed). On board he had many Spanish adventurers of Marrano- Jewish descent, and the very first European setting his foot on the West Indian islands was such a Marrano-Jew, his interpreter,sent down by the illustrious leader to see, speak and examine the native islanders. Now, consider : In the same year, 1492, half a million of He- AMERICA AND NEW JUDAEA. 255 brews were forcibly baptized in the Spanish peninsula. We can- not exactly compute how many were destroyed. At least three hundred thousand were brutally thrown out of their homes, driven into exile and forcibly embarked into ships for Africa, Turkey, Egypt, Palestine, most of whom treacherously perished on the voyage. Now the idea strikes me, if instead of that, they had emigrated to America, what a grand vista opens before our eyes ! The Hebraic Plymouth fathers would have come to America centuries earlier and would have founded a greater, freer New- Judaea on the continent discovered by Columbus. But even now it is not too late, four centuries are lost, still not all is lost. As yet the American Northwest is free, vast and fer- tile enough for a population ten times larger than the entire Hebraic nationality. To mature a plan of immigration, coloniza- tion, agriculture, commerce and industries for an American New- Judaea would be wise and perfectly feasible, desirable in the ex- treme; for American natives and new immigrants, for Christian and Jew ; for Jewish settlers from the East and South of Europe who are ostracised and without a fatherland. It would be desirable for the American Northwest, as yet depleted of inhabitants and little productive from lack of brains and hands. It would meet the wishes of those Eastern and Southern Europeans who suffer from over-population or bad government and yearn for an outlet for their surplus fellowmen. Such a practical scheme of Jewish immigration to the American Northwest, we say, would be wise and practical, patriotic, American, politic and humane. Salutary for the Jews and patriotic for the United States and its vast, waste areas. In place of seeking a country for the Jew in out of the way regions, teeming with harrowing uncertainties, palpable im- possibilities and insurmountable difficulties ; or, instead of scatter- ing and breaking, shrinking and impeding the stream of Jewish emigration, one should rather lead and direct it into its right channels, places and modes. And this expressly with the out- spoken design and intent of creating a New-Judaea under the protecting wings of the American eagle ; a New-Judaean State as one of the States of this United States of North- America ; a New- Judaea as Idaho, Nebraska or Illinois ; there to locate the Lion of Judah side by side with the star-spangled banner of this vast democracy. Here is a fruitful idea, advantageous to the Ameri- can continent, acquiring for it the nation of thinkers, of mind, 256 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. of the Bible, and the Decalogue, the masters of learning and of industry; advantageous to the million of Jews already here and to the millions of ostracized Hebrews seeking a home, that they may find it here on these hospitable shores. For all parties con- cerned such an idea would be wise and practically advantageous. But it must be more than a mere scheme. The idea must ripen to a concrete being, with a body, bones, muscles and ar- teries. Such a scheme I have submitted in 1864 to the Alliance Isr.Universelle of Paris, in a pamphlet handed to Mr. Narcisse Levin, then secretary of that society, whilst the late Adolphe Cre- mieux was its venerated president. But the scheme never became flesh and bone, it never matured to action. My French pamphlet was since lost by the "Archives Israelites" of Paris. Pity for these forty-five years. The idea never was acted upon. Territory should have been acquired of the United States government, which then wbuld have been cheerfully granted ; just on the same terms as to other newcomers. No extra charter was necessary, no special stipulations, no autonomy guarantees ; simply ground, coun- try, citizenship acquired for settlers,, colonists, immigrants ; then farms at a small outlay erected and Jewish exiles settled therein ; a log-cabin, with an enclosure, a plough, some utensils, cow and sheep bestowed on them, on easy terms ; thus Jewish colonization estab- lished, and, in part, non- Jewish, too. In a generation or less, such Hebraic settlers being in the majority, would form a state, a Ju- daean federal state within the one body of the United States people. The territory of a Jewish majority would, ipse se, form a state with a Jewish majority, a New Judaea, still an integral part of the un- denominational United States of North America. No political intrigues necessary, no religious jealousies aroused, no extra- charters needed ; still a New-Judaea created as natural as Mary- land, New Haven or Rhode Island. This would settle the Jew- ish problem. Establishing such a New Judaean state as an inte- gral part of the unsectarian United States of North America, would best and easily settle this vexed Jewish question in Europe and in the world. Hundreds of thousands and millions of Jews would stay there where they are now, in Europe, Asia, etc. But the Jewish nationality would have a home, a country, a flag, a spot where it has the majority, with, most logically, its governor, rep- resentative power, militia, a voice in Congress. And the or- phanage, the exile of the patriarchal people would be at an end. North America would gain a new star and Europe make good the wrong of a thousand years. 257 CLOSING REMARKS. We have held a succinct review of Israel's history, from Moses and the Sinaic epoch to Washington, Roosevelt, Taft. For thirty- five centuries this is going on, one battle ground with one identical war-shout : Israel champions the Decalogue and never surren- ders ! Now mark ! In spite of unparalleled, harrowing persecu- tions, he did not die and did not surrender ! Why so ? He did not die, just because he surrendered not! Had he yielded he would have perished ! Whosover gives up his place allotted by Providence, whosoever shirks his duty, loses his right to exist. Who fails in his historical mission, is soon supplanted by another more fit for the task. While he who is right, has the courage of, and insists on his right, he who performs the duty corresponding to the right, he will succeed. This is the universal moral law, as sure as the physical law of gravitation. Several serious writers have recently turned their attention to this "Jewish question" and published their remarkable replies. Their conclusions are identical : The Jewish people may count among the strongest races extant, physically, mentally, indus- trially. They have been proved and steeled in the crucible of a long continued, arduous battle for existence. They are the out- come of natural selection, the survival of the fittest, after a strug- gle of three and one-half millennia. All their weaklings have dropped on the long, rough road. Only the strongest and ablest have remained. And this remnant is tenacious, holding its own, patient and persevering; endowed with self-reliance, moral courage, self-sacrifice and will-power, resourceful in shift and drift and practical shrewdness, ready thought and fancy, enduring and willing of work, full of iniative ; in the industries, arts, sciences, lit- erature, statesmanship, eloquence, ideality, tempered with pru- dence, realism and sobriety; moreover, they are endowed with special, racial virtues, of their own acquisition, and with partic- ular racial defects and vices, entailed, yea, forced upon them by the stress of long adversity, having lived for two thousands years as a minority, for four thousand in voluntary isolation, at last in malevolent ostracism. Contemplating this many-sided, compli- cated historical problem, we conclude that the Hebraic virtues are to stay and become the patrimony of mankind ; whilst their vices, 258 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. entailed by the surroundings, borrowed from, or forced upon them by their enemies, contracted by contagion — these vices they will throw off with the improved social and economical circum- stances. Tempered and hardened by long adversity, millennial, cruel and malicious persecution, sharpened by experience and trials, upheld by stern principles, a noble religious doctrine, tem- perate habits, in diet, matrimony and mental training, inured to diligence, saving and prudence, Israel is one of the superior races, undoubtedly he is bound to succeed ; and anti-Semitism must and will fail, the struggle is hard, but the issue, safe. But we must not omit the shades in the picture. Their worst draw- back is a misunderstanding of the universal laws. Everything is governed by cause and effect, not miracles. Follow up Israel's his- tory and you will find they often attributed, in critical moments, supernatural, wrong causes to national events. They constructed the world's government on whimsical grounds, contrived by their own fancy, by their misled and misleading leaders. They ever ex- pected the Deity, arbitrarily and condescendingly, to interfere on their behalf in this world's logical transactions, instead of studying nature's immutable, wise and inexorable laws, no doubt the best possible, emanating from the Supreme Source of Wisdom and fitness. Instead of studying and coming up to these eternal, di- vine laws, Israel came before the Deity with his bold pretences and prescribed to Omnipotence what to do or to omit, praying that for his sake Providence should change these rules, or, at least, a while suspend them, for his convenience, and offering for that a puerile consideration ! And this mode of thinking and con- structing the universe and its law-abiding government is by no means Mosaic, nor rational, nor justified by daily experience. It is a remnant of paganism. The gods were in man's image and so their ruling. Prayer and victims influenced them and bent their will. The Mosaic Providence is law personified. Closely looking, there is law, wisdom, necessary causes and effects, causes bearing the effects in their lap. Israel in many of his historcial crises in- vented puerile reasons for eternal, stern facts, and prayed the Deity to make 2 plus 2 equal to 5. Hence disappointment ! Instead of living up to law, he desired laws expressly made for his whims. Among all nations short-sighted or crafty priests pretended to be able to bend the divine will, the laws of nature, and the blind masses willingly believed it. So Judge Jeptha offered his daugh- CLOSING REMARKS. 259 ter for a victory ; King Mesha, his son ; the priest Kalchas pre- vailed on Agamemnon to sacrifice Iphygenia. When Nebuchad- Nezzar besieged Jerusalem, priests and courtiers persuaded im- potent Zedekia to resist : God will interfere by a miracle in his favor, will make two plus two equal to five. Honest Jeremiah said : "No ! Submit and bear the yoke until better times will come. Pray for the peace and prosperity of Babylon, for your prosperity de- pends on Babylon's !" The Greeks were indignant at the Mace- donian yoke, but Phocion advised submission, for he was a friend, not a flatterer of his people. In a great crises the Romans were chauvinistic, and expected the interference of the Deity, but hon- est Cato advised not simply prayers and sacrifices for miraculous divine help, but bravery, self-sacrifice. God ever helps a good cause, but he helps through the honest efforts of the party fight- ing for redress. Cowards must submit. ^ Judas Maccabeus and his pious and brave kinsmen reckoned upon divine assistance, but to come through their own brave arms and prudence.^ God surely helps a good cause, on condition that men fight for that good cause. The Jewish people expect miracles and remain passive. Here is the trouble, here the mistake and its results ! Other kindred features are superstition, racial vanity, dreams of self-importance, Groessen-Wahn, over-bearing in his very rags, sneering at the fortress and the palace from the Ghetto-garret- window, holding to forms belonging to the past and deeming of sacred importance what is but an old-time drapery. Such frailties render Jews unamiable, anti-social, vainglorious, puerile and ob- stinate; to the unthinking even ridiculous and hateful. It is not their rational doctrines and their pure morality, the essence of Judaism, which harms them, but the antiquated forms and anti- social manners of the mediaeval Ghetto- Jew which rendered him odious to the masses. Still, closely, psychologically considered, are not all their faults, defects, vices even, of a heroic origin and character?. . .At any rate, these many weak points and idle peculiarities, they have contracted in the long diaspora; and they are fast ridding them- selves of such, as fast as they find a home with rights, as soon as iCato the Elder, in a great Roman crisis. See Titi Livii, H-stor. Libri. 2A daily experience recognized by Mathatias and his sons, but not by their later successors of the Judaco-Roman war; as little as by the Zionists of to-day. 26o EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. their social and economical circumstances improve. The alluded- to vices and defects were entailed upon them by their Pharaohs, Hamans, Ignatieffs, whilst the old-time obstinacy, race vanity, stickling, etc., were their strong tortoise-shell against the arms, stones and darts of two thousand years' cruel persecutions. The ex- uberant rites, observances and ceremonies, the notions of supe- riority and over-sanctimoniousness were their thick furs and warm waddings during the long, chilly, social winters. They set up superstition against worse superstition, racial pride against overbearing racial hate; contempt against derision, belittling, pil- lage and exile, the only arms of the meek and weak against the harsh and strong, of the victim against the oppressor. In this long and arduous battle of the Decalogue and its polity of purity, justice and reason, against the polytheistic world and its polity of brute force and coarse sensuality, I count even more upon moral factors, than upon ethnical and physiological ones. The Jew will come out as victor over anti-Semitism, because man- kind is silently and instinctively his active ally in that war ; because mankind's interests incline thereat, yea, peremptorily demand it; because monotheism and the Ten Words are mankind's Organic Law, are the safest foundation for the rights and duties of in- telligent beings. The Jew fights for mankind's rights and true interests, and mankind is bound at last to find that out and come to his assistance. The Decalogue is the only possible platform for democracy, universal peace, freedom and justice. The He- braic prophets were the first tribunes of the people. They first advocated the people's social position ; its interests, human dig- nity and possible developments, against prince, noble and soldier. At all times lordly egoism relying upon the ignorance of the masses, combined against the people and its champions, the Jews. Montesquieu (Grandeur et decadence des Romains, Chap. XV) correctly remarks : "The common people of Rome hated not, even, the worst emperors. Since they had lost their once political importance and were no longer occupied with war-making, that plebs became the vilest of all people. It considered commerce and arts as things becoming slaves, and the distributions of bread- stuffs made it neglect even agriculture." Even so nobles and mob combined against Jews during the long, dark Middle Ages, not appreciating his labors. Now the nations need but more edu- cation to realize the grave import of the Hebraic platform, iden- CLOSING REMARKS. 261 tical with the old prophetical one. With a better understanding of the Great-Charter formulated by the "peculiar people," the nations will recognize, adopt and make it theirs. In one word, the victory of Israel is the triumph of the people, of democracy and the masses against privilege ; therefore anti-Semitism will yield. The Decalogue is the great charter, mankind's Bill of Rights of universal peace, of education, of bodily, mental and economic betterment. So the late French statesman and writer, St. Hillaire, expressed it tersely: "Anti-Semitism is a folly. Should the Jews succumb and yield, that would be the greatest misfortune that ever befell mankind." Contemplating the lurid horizon of the present, yea of the last half-century of the world's history, the philanthropist staggers in his hopefulness and is nigh despairing of human betterment. Such a well-balanced thinker as Professor A. H. Sayce, of Oxford and Cairo, after a long and glorious career of scientific labors, experiences and travel, recently replied to my remark : Whether our men of science should not join their efforts to those advo- cating the problem of the Hague arbitration commission : "I am afraid, men will fight as long as human history will last." Still let us not give up the cheering hope that gradually common sense, universal education, the salient interests of all, plain jus- tice and calm wisdom will finally succeed and eliminate inter- national war, racial prejudice and religious fanaticism, THE UNITED STATES AND THE DECALOGUE. I said : Israel's doctrine, monotheism and the Ten Words are mankind's platform. It upholds democracy, peace, universal edu- cation, work and bread for all. It postulates and guarantees the same burdens and emoluments to each and all, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" in the reach of all. Its creed embodies the universal fatherhood of God and men's universal brother- hood, the harmonious co-working of individuals and nations, the unity of the human race, their bodily and spiritual affinity and their identical interests. And this platform substantiates the same rights and duties for all intelligent beings : No discrimina- tion against sex, creed, or country; no domineering classes and subject masses; no noble-born and pariahs; but all free and equal, 262 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. all learning, thinking, toiling and enjoying the fruit of their labors. Hence no polygamy and no pariah-races ; no disfranchisement of the public vote, the government for and by the people and every right corresponding to a duty. Hence a free state, a free Church, a free conscience, a free farm to each family, free speech and free press. Hence education, chances, bread, and unchequered devel- opment for all. This is Israel's program ; this is implied in the economical and social phases of monotheism and the Decalogue ; this is their logical and necessary sequence and outcome, saliently held forth again and again, on every page of the Pentateuch and the Prophets. Nor does the Talmud and Moralists militate against this. The rabbis multiplied the observances and ceremonials, simply as means and handles, or as so many arms of defence against the then prevailing, fierce antagonism. Such accumulation of sym- bols and religious practices were the coat of mail against tlie darts bristling around the Hebrew; to screen him against subju- gation and absorption. Isolated and lonely in that desert, his inimical surroundings, he was to be protected by this tortoise- shell. And with him was to be preserved his saving doctrine. By these multiplied rites the Talmud preserved both the body and the soul, the Jew and the Decalogue ; both indispensably nec- essary for mankind's bodily, ethical, social and economical gradual reconstruction. Mark it well : That broad liberalism of the Pentateuch is fully reflected and embodied in the lofty moral and social teachings of the rabbis, whenever they were not dimmed and marred by cruel provocations. These, naturally, induced counter-measures, rigor- ism, new precautions and hedges in their distress, harsh, tempo- rary enactments, in dire self-defense {horaath Shaah). And that platform of monotheism and the Decalogue is the aspiration of present-day democracy. True democracy and pro- phetism are identical. Both are champions of the Ten Words, with their expoundings in Leviticus XIX and the entire five Books of Moses. Both embody the Mosaic man and state con- cept, the Biblical right and justice scheme, with their civil, politi- cal, agrarian and economical institutions. All these point to- wards one Supreme Rule, one human race, one right and one duty to be realized in the future society. THE UNITED STATES AND THE DECALOGUE. 263 Even this is the ideal sketched by Isaiah II. and Micha IV: It shall come to pass in the far-off future when the Mount of Ihvh will tower high above all the mounts and all the nations will hasten thereto, saying let us go there and learn of His ways . . . for God will arbitrate between nations . . . and they will change their swords into pruning hooks and no longer wage war against each other . . . Even the non-Jews associating themselves with the Divine Name, will be admitted to this holy mount and their prayers be accepted, for My house shall be the house of prayer for all the nations.". . .Here is the programme of the new democracy, so- ciety, humanity, the United States of the world. This is the Mosaic doctrine and its political ideal. It is, essentially, the back- bone of Christianity, its ''kingdom of heaven on earth." It is the aim and object of all true religion. Modern democracy is the essence and the goal of the commonwealths of this xA^merican continent. Is is the child of the Biblical man and State theory. What the seers of Judaea have dreamed and schemed, what they have aspired at and labored, lived and died for, that mankind is pledged to realize and embody. The United States' social scheme is the first to clothe with flesh and bone the visions of the Judaean tribunes, since IMoses and Samuel to Moses Mendelssohn and Lasalle. The Washingtons, Franklins, Lincolns, Garfields, Cleve- lands are the echoes, the connecting links between us and the aspirations of Sinai, Karmel, Moriah. The United States is bound to take its stand upon holy ground. Our star-spangled banner, waving over eighty millions of free and equal citizens, is inscribed with the Ten Words, mankind's Great Charter from Sinai. It is proclaiming to the world, One Ruler, one mankmd, one Right and one Duty for all. Right shall, alone and finally, be might. From Moses to Washington, from Horeb to the Rocky Moun- tains, fromi Monotheism to Democracy, there is going on but one continuous elaboration of one string of principles. And these principles must and finally will be victorious, right alone must be might and no surrender! 264 IX Study.— "Tn^ MOSAIC SANCTUARY. "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.'* (Exod. 25, 8.) Re:trospect. In the preceding studies and chapters we have considered the people of Israel, leaving Egypt and acquiring their personal free- dom and national independence ; then leaving ignorance and its accompanying idolatry — since, at all times, the ignorant were sinful and idol-worshippers^ — they became the recipients, in the grand Arabian ntmosphere of Sinai, of the Ten Commandments, the solid basis and foundation of their everlasting-spiritual nation- ality. Elsewhere (in Spirit of the Biblical Legislation) we have considered the Mosaic Laws, the necessary and logical develop- ments and the complement of the principles of the Decalogue, elaborated in II. M 22 and 23, into a civil, political and social Code, for the •>'overnment of the primitive Hebraic Common- wealth. We have seen that a close comparison between that leg- islation and the most renowned ones among other nations, shows the decided superiority of the first over the latter ones ; that the freedom of the individual man, the position of the woman, the human dignity, the strict equality of the different members of the community and the independence of the nation, were firmly secured and grounded, standing on and moored in the immovable rock of the equal distribution of the national wealth, man's civil and political equality ever going hand in hand with his economic one^ and indispensably necessary. We have seen, moreover, that this paramount foundation of equality, spiritual, civil, political and economic, was at the very start guaranteed by the Mosaic Code, there more emphasized and accentuated than by any other ancient one. And equally superior are the Mosaic Benevolence and Charity laws with their humanitarian institutions, treated in another vol- ume.2 Our sympathetic duties towards the poor, the stranger, NDn XT "in pNi T'Dn pxn oy ^h ^ 2In Greece and Rome this parallel was neglected, hence the eternal friction and final collapse of the republic. SHumanity and Benevolence in Pentateuch THE MOSAIC SANCTUARY. 265 the debtor, the criminal, especially towards the Levites, the widows and orphans, even our feelings of solidarity and benevo- lent pity towards our suffering fellow-creatures, with all their enactments, are undoubtedly superior to analogous provisions of any of the ancient and even of the modern religious and political systems. Nowhere in other legislative Codes do we find so emphatically and unflinchingly stated : that the land belongs to none, finally, but alone to God ; that He has lent it to the citizens, to all the citi- zens alike, to be distributed, squarely, by equal shares, and by lot, among the adult communal males, for the maintenance of their respective families, never to be alienated, ever to remain as the patrimonial heirloom, from father to son and their posterity so as to insure their future well being, and possibly altogether to avoid pauperism and plutocracy, enslavement and lordism, buying and selling of power and dominion, the great social and moral stumbling blocks of all times and all countries, which, to this day, are the Scylla and Charybdis, the threatening Damocles' sword overhanging civilized society, termed the social problem, and more than any thing else, engrossing the attention of wise states- men, economists, philanthropists. ^ All this proves conclusively, that Mosaism, though undoubtedly originating in a tribe, a nationality, a sect, and specially enacted for a certain race and country, nevertheless is fully capable, in its leading features, its dominant principles, of becoming a universal polity, a platform for civilized mankind at large. Considered from the highest standpoint, we see that the spirit of the uni- versal religion, the Spirit of God,^ really and literally, has dictated that Mosaic Code. For all human laws emanate from and are dependent upon time country and environments ; whilst laws that are eternal and universal, fit for all circumstances, can surely claim as their source, the highest authority. Divine Wisdom itself. THE SANCTUARY, TABERNACLE, FORM, OUTFIT. In our Scriptural chapter now contemplated, a new set of laws is elaborately displayed to our gaze and our meditation. The great theme here before us, is : ''They shall make unto Me a sanc- tuary that I may dwell in their midst." (II M. 25, 7.) After iSee Biblical Legislation, III, 80. 266 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Israel had conquered his freedom, acquired his nucleus of civil and moral laws and, spiritualized by the Sinaic revelation, had risen to a high ethical level, an opportunity was offered to him for keeping up a constant communion with the Divine, a Sanc- tuary for the Shcchina became thus necessary, a place where the Israelite could ever and always find the Deity in his reach, a tabernacle where the Divine could ever meet the human and sanctify it. Hence our theme, "Ye shall construct for Me a sanc- tuary that I may reside among you." Kind Reader ! This present chapter is necessarily suggested in this place, by our survey of the book of Exodus, of which it is an important part, occupying chapters 25-40. The many practical, realistic, historical problems of the preceding pages will rarely occur here. It is a theoretical study of the highest import, embracing man's moral and intellectual phases, and dealing with the divine in our bosom. For the thoughtful it will form a welcome contrast, a change of theme and, for that very reason, a suitable climax to the various subjects treated in this volume. Our present theme is : ''Ye shall erect a Sanctuary that God may dwell among you." DO MEN NEED ONE? Do we need a sanctuary to meet God ? We answer : True, the Godhead tolerates no limitation, He is everywhere ; His residence can not be localized. No doubt, there are great moments in the career of man, of transcendent individuals and of nations, there are indeed great and extraordinary opportunities, when puny, dust-born man rises to the Diety, at one single bound ; when he overleaps in one salto mortale the immeasurable gap between earth and heaven, matter and spirit, the human and the divine; when our finite being widens and grows and merges with this vast world around us ; when we, poor mortals, take up the Infinite into our narrow bosom ; when we, atom of dust, become identified with the universe. Such an important moment is when, after long laboring under deadly disease, the reconvalescent feels again life and health buoyantly welling in his bosom. Such a moment is when, after an oppressive consciousness of the dreari- ness of human existence, we for once listen to the heavenly voice of true, genuine and unselfish sympathy. Such a moment is when suddenly a revelation dawns upon us that we live, bear, and DO MEN NEED ONE? 267 labor for a great, immortal cause. Such is when, standing at the death-bed of a dear parent bidding us an eternal good-bye ! Such is when listening distmctly from the rosy lips of our dear, sweet baby stammering out : Papa ! JMamma ! Such a shattering and elevating moment we witness when, from the height of human prosperity, we tumble down into the depth of misfortune — yet hear our strong, manly conscience whispering : Courage ! Quiet ! All is lost ; but honor remains, thy human dignity is safe !^ Such is when after long and drear}^ years of intense struggle with opponents, we at last stand triumphant — without loss of self- respect, and the rare lesson as clear outcome : Honesty is the best policy ! Rising now to higher historical planes, such a moment is at hand, when a nation, bleeding, in the deathly throes of tyranny, conquers in a desperate effort her inalienable rights, her freedom. Such a moment dawns upon the horizon when humanity, feeling the urgency of mental and moral regeneration, after a long and bitter struggle, conquers a higher religious or social polity. Such a great moment was that of Israel at his lib- eration from Pharaoh. Such was that when the Roman world embracing the chaste Moriah doctrine ejected the sensuality of Olympus. Or that of the Germans upon the call of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin ; or when our thirteen colonies arose at the call of Frank- lin and his friends ; or when Europe felt thrilled at the sound of the Marseillaise. At such great epochs, in such supreme crises, such historical upheavals, of intense efforts, rare and unique turn- points in the life of great individuals and of historical nations, then man at once rises to God. Then we witness a great revela- tion in our soul, our own Sinai. Then wt need no Sanctuary oi stone. Then heaven's great dome is our most suitable Temple ; then Deity is revealed to our minds in her brightest majesty. God is then in direct communion with man. At such upheavals human nature is taken out of its hinges, our terrestrial self becomes di- vine. We need no longer any crutches to raise us to heaven. We need no man-made sanctuary, no ceremonies, rites or symbols. Mat- ter drops at our feet. We are in the immediate presence of the Shechina. But such moments, alas, are rare and short. As the quick flash and blast of the lightning, they toss us out of our accustomed i"Tout est perdu sauf I'honneur." (At battle of Pavia.) 268 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. sphere. But soon the relapse comes, a terrible fall, as the story of the Gigantes, from heaven to earth. Then we again become aware of our finiteness. We feel again miserably dragged down to our level on earth. We are then the more exhausted, the greater the effort had been. Our wings are the more plucked and curtailed, the loftier our previous flights. We recognize that we are earthly mortals, that we cannot spare the human crutches, that traditional religious ladder to attain at the spiritual and reach the divine. We learn that we need a special place, a shrine, hymn, ritual for communion and worship. We need a temple, emblems, holidays, set-prayers, rites, observances, sym- bols. And this is the sense and scope of our theme : ''Ye shall make Me a sanctuary that I rest in your midst." No doubt. Heaven's high arch is the fittest dome for worship- ping the Master of the Universe; the starry constellations above are the grandest choir; the sun rising and setting, is the sub- limest hymn. The prospect from Mount Sinai, or even Mount Blanc, or the Rocky Mountains, or the Niagara falls, upon limitless space, inspires us with the grandest concepts and feelings of ado- ration for the mysterious Builder of all existence. But consider- ing calmly, with our eyes open, and with our hands on our heart : How often has heaven's majestic dome inspired us with devotion? The daily wonders of nature tune and fill the beholder with awe and admiration. But he mostly lacks the disposition of mind to realize their spiritual incentives. It is only when secluded from the deafening turmoil of the world, with its strivings, passions and warfares. It is only when in the Temple, crowded with worship- pers, blazing with symbols, ringing with prayers and hymns, that we become aware of our Divine Master. There, the lofty, stern walls, the venerable Shrine, the solemn choir and hymns, the Ark with the Law-scrolls, the numerous worshippers, these direct to and concentrate our attention upon spiritual things. The peals of the organ and the still murmur of the devout, awaken us to the absolute fact that there is within the deep recesses of our soul a half-veiled mystic world connecting us with the great World- Mystery. Organ, hymn and cult loudly re-echo and reverberate in our well-tuned mind. The solemn sentences of confession, prayer, scripture, impress us ; all that, participated in by so many coreligionists, friends and relatives, illustrates to us the solemn inscriptions in sacred characters, looking down upon us from DO MEN NEED ONE? 269 the sacred Temple walls: ''Know before whom thou standest ! Know thou art in presence of the King of Kings, the Only One ! They shall erect for Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them." Even so, with ancient Israel and our subject-matter, after the trying effort of the Exodus, the passing of the Red Sea,^ the over- throw of the Egyptian pursuers, the promulgation of the Sinaic Organic Law, after so many extraordinary occasions where they had seen Providence "eye to eye,'' in fulfillment of the traditional covenant with the Patriarchs — they now returned to the common level of human existence. And now they found out that they needed the earthly means of communion with the divine. Hence the behest : "They shall make Me a sanctuary that I dwell among them." Therefore, the human helps for securing divine contact. God is omnipresent, "full of His glory is the universe," but for distracted, dissipated, passion-bound man he is in the house of prayer. Therefore the importance of securing a place for wor- ship, for perpetual revelations, a permanent Sinai. Therefore the Mishkan, Tabernacle, not a Sinai which was irremovable and fixed in far-ofif Arabia, but a Temple that would wander with them about in the desert, follow them to Palestine, later accompany them from age to age, from country to country, through all their vicissitudes, to all the habitable regions of the globe, Babylon, Africa, Europe and America. Such a Tabernacle became necessary and that is our theme, its import and occasion. Our Agadists were fond of, yea enthusiastic over this theme and brought out many tender and exquisite parables on this occasion, ingeniously and poetically illustrating the idea that civilized Laws and institutions are ever the outcome of Supreme Wisdom, that the Thora is identical with Divine Intelligence, God's first-born child."2 'T have presented you with the Law, God said. So my divine Self goes with it." Once upon a time a king had an only daughter, whom he loved above every thing. When she blossomed up into graceful maidenhood, he promised her hand to a noble prince who had wooed for her. When the day of mar- riage approached and the prince came to take her to her new iSo-called; biblical Yam-Suph, the Bullrush-sea, perhaps the Lake Sirbonis, according to Bruggsh-Bey. ^^jd:? ^t^D... nm ^mso: ^n^nD .minn nx D3^ ^m^o r]'2"p"r] -idx « 270 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. home, the royal father said : Give her away to you I cannot, for my heart yearns for her ; refuse her to you, I can not, either, she is your lawful wife. What then is to be done? Well, let me make you this proposition, it is the best compromise, and I hope you will accept it, viz : Wherever you go with her, there prepare for me a room in your palace and then she will be with you and still with me, too. — Even so, after the Deity had vouchsafed to man the Thora, he said: "Prepare for Me a sanctuary that I abide with you near her." And this fine parable is ethically true, later often repeated by many moral and political thinkers. Indeed, order, harmony, law, justice, peace are among the great attributes of the Godhead. Rea- son, truth, equity, sympathy, eternal fitness and benevolence emanate from Him. Hence, wherever the Law abides, also rea- son, truth, goodness dwell — there God resides, without fail, God the embodiment of everything good and great and true. Our Sages make here another pointed remark : Previous to Israel's receiving the Thora in the Sinaic atmosphere, we read repeatedly and variously (II M. 24), **Moses went up to God," after its deliverance, the divine behest is : "Make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among you," viz : At first man rises to the divine Mind, next God descends to the Temple made by man. At all the great historical epochs which mark the advance of cul- ture, when one chapter closes and another opens in the annals of mankind, when a new, higher phase of human civilization makes its appearance, then the tremendous abyss of social anar- chy rocks and travails, bringing forth in its throes a new order of things, the newly discovered continents for striving humanity. Great teachers, initiators, extraordinary geniuses arise from among the people, with new ideas, impulses and methods ; they rise to the Deity, the source of all Law and civilization. Thence they bring down the germ of new endeavors into our human sphere : They receive the Thora on the divine Mount^ and hand it down as the much-needed panacea for man's troubles, as the soothing oil for the sea of human passion. At once peace, order and justice are established; God again resides among men, society is satisfied and feels to rest on the firm basis of reason, sympathy and fitness. 1 min no on the DTl^Xn "in All the great lawgivers had their sacred mounts. Politicians and magicians work in caves. Initiators and prophets have their divine mounts. 271 THE IMPORT OF TABERNACLE AND TEMPLE. The second Book of Moses principally treats of three subjects: The Exodus from Egpyt, the Ten Words with the gradually de- veloped Mosaic legislation, and the creation of the national Tem- ple, a Tabernacle, a portable sanctuary where the Benai-Israel were to meet with God, worship Him and receive continued inspi- ration, guidance and behests. The Tabernacle and its minute description occupies nearly thirteen chapters of H. Moses, giving all the details about its site, construction, dimensions, materials, shape, outfit, vessels, offerings, cult, priesthood, vestments, altars, compartments, functions in their special details and particularities. Later on, we shall see wherefore was all that circumstantiality. Here we premise only that in the sacred books of India, Baby- lonia, Assyria, Egypt, we find no less attention paid to the great national sanctuaries there. In fact, the recently discovered liter- atures of the Old World, show that in prehistoric times, the state clustered around the church, the church being the center and nucleus of the State, and the priesthood, the marrow and nucleus of the people. Theocracy was the form of government. The Temple was the heart, the corner-stone, the soul of the nation. Hence its paramount importance. Not soldiers and kings, not Nimrods, but Gudea, Malki-Zedek, Abraham, Moses, men of brain and religion, not of war and conquest, established cropires and peoples. Let us now have a closer survey of the import of Israers first national Temple here described. Many have asked : Why should the erection of a house of wor- ship find so much space and attention in the history and the Code of Mosaism? Why are therein given such minute descriptions of the numerous and various vessels, materials, arrangements and forms of that edifice? We have alluded to similar descriptions elsewhere. Looking into the voluminous expoundings of our own pious commentators, we find there many whimsical and curious answers to our query, all of a mysterious nature, hinting that the Tabernacle, Tent of Appointment, Sacred Meeting place, was of paramount importance, not only then, for the Benai-Israel tribes, but for the universe entirely. They claim that there is a prototype sanctuary in heaven, the residence of the Schechina, the divine Majesty, and that the Tabernacle of Mosis was its sacred 272 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. copy, its double; as kings have many palaces, so God has many, one residence on high and another here below on earth, just in the center of the world.^ But we are not here to discuss mysticism, or the residence of the God of Israel, whom Solomon already had described as not to be encompassed by all the heavens, as boundless in space and time, omnipresent and eternal.^ God resides nowhere and never rests. He is the ever active creator, thinking Principle of the universe. Should He stop ^ and rest for one moment, all would collapse into chaos or annihilation. As the heart is ever moving, throbbing, propelling; as the blood is constantly circulating in the body, to and fro ; as from the beginning to the end of life, the pulse remains ever astir, active, and when it stops its functions, at once life too stops and is extinct — even similar is the Deity, the heart and Soul of all existence, the Life of the universe.^ Intelli- gence, Energy, Activity, Impulse and Source of all. He never rests. He resides everywhere and needs no special residence in space or time.^ Even such is the Ineffable Being described in our text (II. M. 24, 15) : "Moses went up to the mount, enveloped in clouds and thereon rested the Majesty of Ihvh" — not He Himself rested — "and the vision of His glory was as a consuming fire on the mountain top." Thus the majesty of Israel's Ineffable One was reflected on Sinai and from there the prophet caught up a glimpse of the divine. Look here, how anthropomorphism is carefully discarded. The lawgiver is anxious to have you cling to the God-idea, but not under any mythologic form as current in his time: God is the Supreme Mind, the ever active Intelligence cre- ating and superintending nature, all existence. What now is the bearing, the actual sense of our theme? What meant the ancient sanctuary, the Mishkan? The presence of God was not limited by it. He being everywhere. But it was intended as the place where the people should meet Him, should iTahur-ha-arez, The Jerusalem Temple, too, had in its Holy of Holies a basic stone Eben-Shethia, claimed as the center of the world. The temples of Babylon, Mecca, etc., made similar claims. See Sayce's Religion of Babylon, II, 374. 2 I Kings, viii, 27. Behold the heavens and the heavens of heavens contain thee not, the less can this house, 3Hai-01om. ^Maimonides' Guide, after Aristotle. THE IMPORT OF TABERNACLE AND TEMPLE. 273 come prepared, properly tuned, in the right disposition of mind, the calm of the soul, the open eyes and the attentive ears, to find and see, listen to and hear the Godhead. The ancient sanctuary, as the modern one, is the special, consecrated place where man is to meet the divine. God, all-pervading, omnipresent, is present to man in the sanctuary, especially. Now the ancient Temple was, in many regards, more important than the modern one. The present house of worship, synagogue, church or mosque, has not fully the same significance as the Temple for ancient Israel. We moderns have as many houses of worship as there are many congregations. Yea, there are now^adays many shrines without congregations, houses of worship without worshipers. The Temple of our times is to many persons a solemn place for an occasional call. To others it is an opportunity for state and display. To others again it is the fifth wheel in the social carriage, utterly dispensable. To others, even one of scof- fing and irreverence. As there has always been preaching with- out point or contents, and spiritual men without spirit and with- out spirituality, even so with many people, w^orship has lost all credit, all credence, and all real meaning, it has become a mere stale lip-service, a banality. And this will go on so until men will succeed in having things called by their right names and the right men in the right places. Otherwise it was with the ancient Mishkan of Israel. It was not a Temple, but the Temple, the people's foundation, the cor- nerstone of Society, the only one national sanctuary, one Temple for the one people of the One God. Every Jew, wherever he re- sided, when praying, turned his eyes and thoughts towards that unique sanctuary. When the Reubenites in Joshua's time and the Samaritans in that of Ezra-Nehemiah, attempted to establish an extra shrine, it was cried down as rank apostasy. That one and unique national sanctuary had its own special, hereditary, conse- crated, national priesthood. A stranger who tried to intrude was to die for his presumption.^ Around that unique house settled the leading priestly families, the hereditary and anointed spiritual caste and the high-priest on top. There resided the great national authorities, the Synhedrion, the chief officers and magistrates, and close by the rulers and government. There was the brain, iThe stranger approaching shall die. IV M., i, 51. 274 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. the heart and the nerve of the people closely grouped together. The public cult, service and worship did not consist, as in the Synagogue to-day, in simple prayers recited by a lay-man, but in various, complicated sacrifices and offerings, with religious pageant, a magnificent ritual requiring a numerous, carefully trained, hereditary priesthood to superintend it properly and effec- tively. This sacrificial cult and its ceremonies and rites were the privilege of and limited to the one great national Temple. It was termed Tabernacle, Mishkan, so long as the Hebrews were not definitely settled; it was later termed Sanctuary, Baith-ha- miqdash, from the times of King Solomon, who rebuilt it in stone, and during the first and second Jewish Commonwealths. Thus the ancient Temple was not simply a house of prayer, Baith-hatep'hila; no, it was the great important central institution of the Judaic State and people. It was the nucleus and founda- tion stone of the patriarchal race and its country, its citadel and capitol, the indissoluble bond, the unbreakable connecting tie between the scattered millions of the Diaspora, the center of gravitation and focus of all powers, social, political and religious. It was the Hebraic Kebla, the symbol of the unity of ancestry, blood and doctrine, the golden girdle of the union of the Twelve Tribes of ancient Benai-Israel, hailing from the scattered pasture- grounds of the Patriarchs in Khanaan ; with their originally many cults, clans and bloods of Amorite, Hittite, etc., origin. This unique, national Temple was emblematic : That all their diverse elements and tongues have fused and coalesced into the one people, race, faith and country of Judaea. Mount Moriah was the great fastness, the Capitol of the monotheistic world, as the Roman capitol on the Mount Palatine was the summit and head of the polytheistic world. It was the fountain-spring of the national life, the blood- reservoir of Judah. When tribe after tribe, district after dis- trict, city after city, and limb after limb were torn away from the Jewish body and country ; when Assyrians, Babylonians, Per- sians, Romans, Arabs, dismembered and lacerated the nation and led away captive entire tribes, still the nation lived. Israel was not struck to the heart, he was profusely bleeding, but the national soul still remained intact, the vital energy yet welling from brain and heart, soon restored and re-integrated the lop- ped-off limbs of the trunk, that national soul yet remained inte- gral, full of the inherited energy. It needed but a short respite, a THE IMPORT OF TABERNACLE AND TEMPLE. 275 favorable opportunity to effect restoration, and such wonderful restoration repeatedly took place. So when the Persian Cyrus and Darius, authorized the captive Jews to return to their ancestral country, Zerubabel, Ezra and Nehemia, began the restoration of the country with the resto- ration and establishment of the Sanctuary on Moriah. So when the Maccabean leaders had routed the Syrian tyrant and ex- pelled his lieutenants and his armies from the heart of Judaea, the national independence was inaugurated with the freed, restored Temple. The Temple-rededication, Hamikah, meant the re-estab- lishment of the Judaean commonwealth. So later, when Ves- pasian and Titus had conquered every Judaean city and every stronghold, when they had slaughtered myriads and sold under the hammer more of its defenders, still they had not conquered the nation, it was yet pulsing in the heart. Only when they had burned down the Baith Ha-Miqdash, then Unis Judaeae, it mourned its Ninth of Ab, Rome triumphed, apparently. Still the nation revived and lived in its doctrine, in the schoolhouse, in the higher Temple restored in Yamnia by R- Johanan ben Sakkai, a better fighter than Bar-Geora and Bar-Kochba. When the physical force failed, there was yet hope for the intellectual one. Thus we have surveyed the import of the Sanctuary in Jew- ish history. We have seen, the Baith-Hamikdash was to ancient Israel his palladium, the central focus, the life-source of his existence. We shall therefore no longer find It strange that the Mosaic Legislator, spent so much care upon its establish- ment. We shall easily understand why so many chapters of Exodus are occupied with the description of all the great and the minor objects and arrangements of the Tabernacle. It was not simply a prayer-house, no, it was the most important insti- tution of the nation. It contained, religiously, politically, nation- ally, the entire soul-life of the people, the seat of all the powers, bodily, ethically and intellectually of the Commonwealth, the shrine where the national soul was breathing, in eternal touch with the Deity, the universal Soul. We emphasize : No doubt the Deity is infinite and eternal, at all times and everywhere, all pervading, not only in the Temple and on holidays. But everywhere else than in the sacred place and the sacred hour, man is not with God, not in a mood to feel, to be aware of and in touch with Him. The worldly cares and 276 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. troubles, the arduous struggle for existence, the never resting passions, pulling our heart in a hundred directions : hope, fear, anxiety; ambition and disappointments, love, hate, jealousy, re- venge; all that shuts out the divinity from our eyes, feelings and thoughts. The solicitude for bread and gain, for today and to-mor- row, renders us blind, deaf and mute to the divine presence. The sanctuary is to counteract and neutralize these evil influences. The sacred place and hour are calculated to hush away for a time and exclude the passions with the worldly cares from our mind. Fear, covetousness, invidiousness, sensuality are silenced ; ambition, rivalry and disappointment are soothed. In the sacred place and hour we recognize the Deity within and around us, chastizing us, frowning on us, encouraging us, inspiring us with sweet hope, suave resignation and the will to be better and hap- pier. In the sacred hour and place, in prayer and meditation we take a better survey of things around and in us, passions arc soothed, reason and conscience awaken, the ever-speaking voice of God filling the universe, reverberates into our minds. In the sacred hour and place we stand "face to face" with God perme- ating all. The Prayer-house is our Baith-El, our Gate of heaven, our Jacob's ladder, the mysterious spot where we ascend to heaven, where the divine messengers descend to us, where we hold communion with the Supreme Source of Existence. And this is the import of our theme : "They shall build Me a sanctuary that I dwell among them." God is everywhere — for man He is in the hour and place of worship. ONCE AND NOW. Such was the sanctuary, Mishkan, in olden times. What is the Synagogue of today? Let us be plain. The Synagogue is what the Sanctuary was, a Synagogue is not. Such is the Institution, in spirit ; the structure simple, is not. The Syna- gogue, in the abstract, justly aspires to be what, once, the Temple was. To-day, a Synagogue, generally, is not what the Temple once was to ancient Israel of Judaea. There are to-day many synagogues in every large city. Each of them is built by a set of wardens for their special constituents. Each congregation is a unit for itself, not identified v/ith either its country or nationality. Just as a part is not the whole, but a ONCE AND NOW. 277 fraction of the whole. Can we apply our text, in all its preg- nant import, to the present Synagogue? "They shall build for Me a Temple that I may rest among them." No absolute reply can be given to this query, we must qualify and specialize the problem. The Synagogue in the abstract, is identical with the Temple of Mosaic times, each concrete Synagogue is not. Why so? In our modern epoch of decentralization, division of labor and of function, ethical, intellectual, professional and social, divisions too have been decentralized and separated. The politi- cal and national functions of the ancient Sanctuary have been separated and are now elsewhere, greatly performed by other institutions and other functionaries than Temple and priests. Nevertheless the share of influence and importance of the Syna- gogue is still very great. Even in our times of divided influ- ences, if the Synagogue is devoted to its truly helpful objects, teaching, improving and enlightening, then it is qodesh, holy ; it is a Miqdash, a sanctuary, and God resides therein. If the people come there and seek Him, then they will find Him ; if their minds are w^ell prepared, they will not be disappointed. Consider this well : It is not the costliness, the elegance, the high dome of the edifice, not the splendor and wealth of the outfit, not the elaborate music, not the wordy eloquence of the pulpit which qualify a hall to be a sanctuary. No ! It is the sincere desire of the leaders to do good, the determined will of the Congregation to improve, the caliber of the teachings, intel- lectually and morally, the deep meditation and the fervent prayers which are the nerve, the essence and the import of the worship. These do make a room, a sanctuary. If the contents are holy, qodesh, then the house becomes a sanctuary, a Miqdash. If man seeks there his nobler self, in touch with the divine, then it is a house of God, now as once. Even so say our Agadists :^ "Beautiful art thou, my dear one. Thine eyes, a pair of doves (Song of Songs, 1, 15). — Lovely art thou, O Israel, lovely in the family, in the Synagogue and at work ; exhibiting everywhere charity, purity, godliness. Lovely ^:n .HNS^ nnDEj' ,Dpb n^^n tmsj^ni n^an -n^nnx ^sj>yo3i -^^i^v^^ (Yalcut, 375} Dvn pD i:nn yhv 278 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. in this world and in that to come. As the dove meekly submits to the slaughterer, even with such resignation is Israel suffering a long martyrdom, for the higher ethics and the nobler doctrines taught in the temple of Moriah and in the Synagogue of the Dispersion. And as long as such are taught and practiced, God is in the Synagogue, and the Synagogue is a sanctuary. THE HOLY VESSELS OF THE TABERNACLE. Having discussed and analyzed the import of the Mosaic itin- arary Mishkan (Sanctuary), let us now further elucidate our theme and succinctly examine its suggestive component parts, its sacred vessels and ritualistic ingredients. They are described in our passage {II M. 25) in all their details and specifications, in many chapters and pericopes. And this was not simply meant as a memorial record for the national archives, but with the in- tent and purpose of keeping and preserving the exact plan and all its details and minutia, a verbal fac-simile for future refer- ence; as if intending to recommend that model-structure, with all its component parts, as a pattern for ages to come, as the one ordained by God, and thus enable posterity to build a permanent definite Temple, after the sketch of that temporary Tabernacle. Jewish annals show indeed that this pattern was followed up, on a larger scale and proportions, later in the Temples built by Solo- mon, Ezra-Nehemia, the Maccabeans and Herod. According to the verbatim statement in this (H M. 25th) chapter, frequently and insistingly repeated in that connection in our pericope, Moses was bid to build the Tabernacle after the model and prototype shown him on the holy mount. So we read (H M. 25, 9) ''Thou shalt make me a sanctuary exactly as that I now show thee... the likeness of the Tabernacle and all its vessels, just so ye shall do". . .We have alluded to our expounders who took this literally and mystically : "Long ago our sages have whispered into our ears that the Mishkan was modeled after the pattern of the universe,"^ i. e., it is a microcosmos representing in miniature the very cosmos. Viz : A vague mystical view was entertained by the ancients that, there exists in the heavens the very prototype of a divine palace, of which this our Mosaic struc- •iK^^n^ ^r^nn D^iyn n^jnn ^y ncy:: pt:r^t^' /r^TS yV'n i^J -inD i (Akeidoth Itzchack 36 B.) p^n: nSiynK> 1^3 jn^"! ^^'^^^ P^nj K^n THE HOLY VESSELS OF THE TABERNACLE. 279 ture was an exact copy,i and that to this refers the verse (25, 9) quoted. This view Philo, the Jewish philosopher of Alexandria, ingeniously elaborated,- showing that the sacred edifice symboli- cally remembered the universe, that the Mishkan proper and its external parts, represented the material world, that its Holy of Holies, Qodshai-Qodoshim, recalled the ideal universe; its four- fold coverings meant the four terrestrial elements ; the Two Cherubim were emblematic of the creative and the conserva- tive Powers; the seven lamps of the candelabrum (Menorah) alluded to the seven planets (of old astronomy) ; the Table with the twelve shewbread, recalled the Zodiac with its twelve con- stellations ; the altar of incense, man's gratitude for his sus- tenance, food, water, etc. Josephus (Antiquities, HI, 6 and 7) follows this trend of exegesis with small variations and many further minute speci- fications and elucidations, conforming to the threefold concep- tion of the world of ancient astronomy. According to him, the Aula, Hazor, of the Mosaic edifice symbolized the earth ; the Mishkan does the surrounding sea, and the Holy of Holies is emblem of the heavens. He says verbatim: The proportions and dimensions of the Tabernacle prove to have been an imita- tion of the system of the world. . .for the third part thereof to which the priests were not admitted is, as it were, a heaven re- served for God (Ibid., 6, 4, and Ibid., 7, 7). All that was a rep- resentation of the universe, consisting of three parts, viz : two for the priests and laity, such are land and sea for man, and a third division for God, the Holy of Holies ; twelve loaves were on the table, according to the 12 yearly months. The candle- stick branching out into seven lamps symbolized the seven divisions of the planets. Its seven lamps referred to the course of the planets. The four vails represented the four elements, viz : the fine linen, the earth ; the purple the sea ; the blue, the air ; the scarlet, the fire. The vestments of the high-priest were em- blems of the same." Some fathers of the Church, in part at least, adopted a similar interpretation. So do most of our older Jewish commentators, Radak and Abarbanel. More sober and rationalistic is Mai- monides (Guide, III, 45, etc.). He interprets our sacred struc- n^^D':)) nbv^b e>ip?D 1 2Philo. Vita Mosis III, 665: Ta necte, the ideal, and ta aisteta, the sensual. 28o EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. ture and its arrangements in the literal sense, not unlike to our above expounding: It was the great national Meeting-house of man with the Deity, for worship and inspiration. Its parapher- nalia, vessels and cult, all was calculated to impress upon the Congregation the Mosaic doctrines in their full and extreme op- position to polytheism and its heathen practices. But some Agadists enter into even more minute details, likewise proving the symbolic character of the sacred edifice, as a miniature copy of the universe ; others again as a miniature of the human body. The Church utilized that method in its own interest, viz : The Mosaic Mishkan was an anticipation and prototype of the future church, the Christian Congregation, the pope, as head thereof, the college of dignitaries, their sacred office and functions, etc. There will be no end of rehearsing all what phantasy and mystic speculations tried to fasten upon our simple theme. Further on we shall see some analogy to this in the Temple symbolism of Western Asia. According to our text, viewed by the searchlight of criticism, common sense, the contemporaneous history of neighboring Babylonian and Assyrian, and the sound interpretation of oriental, metaphorical language, we shall easily understand our subject, and especially verse 9th, alluding to a model shown to Moses on the sacred Mount. We shall find this without recurring to any artificial mysticism and farfetched alle- gories. Still we do admit a natural, rational symbolism, one befitting the occasion and the times, and well authenticated by a critical exegesis of ancient sacred books. To my mind the text clearly enough means, just what it expresses. It is the detailed description of the great Israelitish, theocratic Institu- tion, of the central national Sanctuary ; important at all times, but all-important at that hoary epoch and for ancient and re- ligious Israel, as corroborated by similar phenomena among the Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, as above alluded to. Taking into consideration those remote ages and environments, that event well stands out before our gaze with its full meaning and import, without having reference to myth or mysticism. An event, 3500 years old, in Western Asia, where Cult, hierarchy, worship, were of the very first social, political and ethical im- portance; a young society, an incipient state, resting upon a sacerdotal and theocratic basis, and destined for long centuries to continue so, as above hinted at, for such circumstances the THE HOLY VESSELS OF THE TABERNACLE. 281 sanctuary was to be the very foundation and nucleus of the commonwealth. The Cult was to form the strongest national bond of the Twelve Tribes. The one national Temple represented, both, the unity of the Deity and the unity of the clans. The sanctuary was also to symbolize the Deity in touch with the congregation, residing in its midst and leading it on, in peace and in war. It was a moving Sinai for perpetual revelations. Considering all that, the erection of the Tabernacle will appear to us as an event of the very greatest moment, and we shall find it fully justified that a large part of the II. Book of Moses is mainly occupied with its narrative, its minute description and its full arrangements. This point admitted, the sequel will appear perfectly natural. During that great period of formation and national birth, the escape from Egypt, the triumph at the Red Sea, or, according to Bruggsh-Bay's researches, the lake Sirbonis, the camping in the wilderness of Arabia, and the advent of the Sinaic period, the lawgiver did first elaborate his grand, Organic Law, the Ten Words, His social and ethical basis of his nascent people, the pillars upon which stands the civilization of Israel and of mankind. Then, still continuing in that vigorous atmosphere and that constructive epoch, for forty days (Ibid., 2i, 17) and then for forty years, a succinct outline of civil, penal and agrarian Code, later also of home-industrial laws was developed from the principles laid down in the organic Law. This was just what was indispensably necessary for an incipient people. So were gradually matured and promulgated the materials and ele- ments of the pericopes denominated : Jethro, Mishpatim, Ter- uma, from 11. M. 19th onwards. In the same epoch of the Israelitish establishment, the lawgiver formed in his exalted mind and saw mentally and ideally, the outline of a national Sanctuary, its urgency, its objects, its arrangements, structure, sacred vessels, minor utensils and all its paraphernalia. He saw all that in his idea, in his meditation, inspired thought. And of this inspiration we find in our chapters the faithful copy and description. So the artist sees in the mirror of his mind, his painting or his marble statue he is going to produce, long before he handles chisel or brush, long before he touches the marble or the canvas. He sees and contemplates it clearly, fully, with his mind's eye as plain and distinct, as if he had a pattern before his gaze. And 282 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. this is the hkeness of the Tabernacle alluded to in 11. M. 25, 9, fully delineated in the middle part of our Book of Exodus. ^ A certain analogy, if not a pattern to our subject-matter, we find in the recently deciphered religio-philosophical concepts in ancient Egypt and in Babylonia. There the view was assumed that : Of each and every single object of this material world, there exists, first, a spiritual model, called : image, original, double, prototype, fac-simile, spirit or Soul, of each material body. These vague popular notions were then philosophically elaborated, so as to really mean that : The prototypes of each kind or species, are the realities of the world, permanent and abiding; while their grosser doubles, the bodily imitations which we see, are but ephemeral, evanescent, mortal. Such a proto- type was termed in Egypt the Ka, and pretty much the same thing was denominated in Babylon the Zi, viz : life, spirit. Ka and Zi are not perfectly identical, nor is either fully identical with our concept of soul, yet they are so, essentially, though diversely expressed.^ Prof. A. H. Sayce points out, that this view became later even the doctrine of the Ideas of Plato. The Platonic Ideas were the elaborated Egypto-Babylonian Ka and Zi doctrines, metaphysically reconstructed, first crude popular beliefs, distilled and formulated to a logical, metaphysical con- cept. At the Academy of Plato it was taught that all things, bodily and mortal, are but copies from such prototypes. Ideas which emerged from the divine laboratory, the thought of Deity. At first God thought the universe and each of its species ; His thought created the Ideas; and these Ideas condensed as the single, bodily objects of the visible world. These Ideas alone are real and permanent. In concrete, material form, they are infinitely multiplied, in mortal, ephemeral, earthly copies. They are the bodily objects we, men, grasp with our senses. Leibnitz elaborated this theory into his own doctrine of the Monads, Strikingly similar is the mode of thought underlying our theme (II M. 25, 9) : Moses saw, ideally, in the Sinaic sphere, the pattern and the plan in outline, of his young nation's coming sanctuary, and in that inspiring atmosphere he received the "^All as I show thee. The likeness of the Tabernacle, and of all its furnishings, so ye shall do." 2See Maspero, Hommel, Zimmerman on that, and especially A. H. Sayce's Religion of Egypt and Babylonia, Edinburgh, 1902, pp. 48, 56, 58, 185, 276, etc. THE HOLY VESSELS OF THE TABERNACLE. 283 divine call upon him to realize the sketch materially; to realize it as a Mislikan, a meeting-place for his people with the Deity ; to copy the prototype he had seen in his vision on the Mount, as a substantial edifice for sacred purposes. WORSHIP AND SACRIFICIAL CULT. The most sacred parts of that structure were : The Holy Ark with the two cherubs, the two altars, the candelabrum and the table of shew-bread. The Holy Ark contained the two tablets of stone with the Ten Words engraved on them and, according to further reports, also some reliques of national import to be preserved for posterity. Our text ordains : To place in the Arch the Testimony, Eduth (II M., 25, 21), which is assumed as identi- cal with the Decalogue-scroll. Whether it contained also copies of other parts of the Pentateuch, is claimed by some, but critically not proved, rather disproved. Of next importance were the two altars, one for incense and one for bloody sacrifices ; the candlestick with the seven lamps and the Golden Table with the twelve shewbread. Their analogon, too, one finds in the chief sanctuary of Babylon, but having there a vastly different meaning. There they can be decidedly retraced to idolatry, ancestor and star-worship, anthropomorphism and polytheism. The ancient polytheists used to offer food, drink and incense to their departed ones. A large and prosperous posterity, combined with conquest, soon raised the tribal patriarch to a na- tional genius, a god. The gods had been men, leading, heroic chieftains became gods. To them gifts, bloody sacrifices and in- cense were offered on their graves. When, in the course of time, they became gods, such offerings continued to be deposited on their altars. Most, if not all, of the Egyptian and Babylonian shrines were both tombs and temples, tombs of the original mor- tal occupant and temples of the canonized god, the apotheosized ancestor. All that is pure idolatry, execrated and severely pro- hibited by Mosaism. In the Bible and Talmud it is ever remem- bered as idolatrous ''funeral-offerings. "^ It began with the su- perstitious assumption that the dead will revive and enjoy of such gifts, and it culminated in the other more heinous pretense that they have become gods, nay, even the Supreme God. 1 Sibhai-Methim. 284 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Such were the Babylonian Merodach, the Assyrian Assur and the Egyptian Osiris. Then dead-offerings were thus the very center of idolatry. They rested upon the superstition of deified men and anthropomorphized gods. Mosaism proscribed and ve- hemently forbade all such offerings to the dead, divinized man and humanized gods. But, in the course of prehistoric times, sacrifices of animals, meats, incense and libations had become the universal mode of worship, even with peoples and sanctuaries in- clining towards more pure and lofty ethical religions. So Mo- saism, too, had to concede sacrifices as a mode of worship, but only to the One, Spiritual God, the Supreme Mind, not to many, nor to material divinities. Moreover, it expressly stated that these sacrifices are not meant as God's food and drink, but as a symbol- ical atonement for man, an expiation for his sins, an expression of repentance of the worshipper, or of his reverence and gratitude for divine benefactions. The Bible and the Pentateuch are per- fectly plain concerning the significance of the sacrificial cult. The prophets mention it even with small tenderness, often almost with irony. These sacrifices are emblems merely of transgression, ex- piation and forgiveness, old forms for ever-living ideas, and con- tain nothing of anthropomorphism and polytheism. Maimonides, the great teacher of the twelfth century, with all his reverence for authority, is perfectly plain : Sacrifices are a popular con- cession.^ TABLE OF SHEWBREAD. Even so plain and positive are the other leading parts, the holy components of the Mishkan, vastly differing from such a possible parallel in polytheistic cults. Let us look to their import, seriatim, as described in our chapter II M., 25, etc. As hinted at : Mai- monides' Guide III, is very plain and outspoken concerning the sacrificial cult. He declares it to be a remnant of prehistoric, pagan habits and practices, in Mosaism but a compromise, rather tolerated and conceded to, than ordained in the monotheistic cult, ,ni:]npn y-i ,miDyn p ]^^n ni^ 12-1x^3 Maimonid Guide III 46 1 .b'?:i i:)V''y xt:n px rj^'D n^'y: sb dn Again Ibid, iii, 47, he says: See the startling difference between burning one's son to an idol — and offering a pigeon or a handful of flour in the service of God. Maimonides hereby plainly suggests that the sacrificial service of the Pentateuch was a mere compromise. In place of human sacrifices to the idols, the people were conceded animal sacrifices to God. TABLE OF SHEWBREAD. 285 just as often declared by the prophets and psahiiists. Whilst this greatest of mediaeval teachers is rather reticent concerning the meaning of the sacred vessels of the Tabernacle. At his epoch he had good reasons for his reserve. His plainness regarding the sacrifices caused him too much trouble and obloquy, so he says (Guide III) : "To this day I know not what was the meaning of the Golden Table with the twelve shewbread." Present times allow us to explain : We read that in the Babylonian Merodach Temple, too, stood such a table with as many loaves. But the difference is in the meaning and import of that sacred piece of furniture. There it meant the bread of the god. Thousands of years pre- viously it meant the nourishment of the departed ancestor, later apotheosized as Merodach. In the Mosaic Mishkan it symbol- ized, not God, but man and his needs. It was publicly consumed by the priests and offered by the people, representing their need of divine assistance in the battle for existence. So, I believe, the following may be said on that head : The table with the twelve shewbread remembered the material side of man : man as a bread-eater, his needs as a mortal being. It repre- sented the wants of the congregation, its petitions for bodily sup- port, during the twelve yearly months, of the twelve tribes of Benai Israel; health, sustenance, bread and raiment. Man consists not solely of mind or soul, but also of body, and provision for the body's sustenance and preservation must be made. Hence the supplications to the Deity, to provide for the numerous earthly necessities of the people and its material prosperity. The Taber- nacle, the splendidly consecrated residence of the protecting God- head, was, naturally, a place to offer before the throne of Mercy, petitions for subsistence and daily supplies, as also to offer to Him grateful thanks for benefactions already obtained. The shew- bread, lehem hapanim, bread of the Presence, we said, was to be found in the Babylonian Merodach Temple, and even so denomi- nated : Akel Pani. There it meant bread for the god Merodach, or Marduk. Here it symbolized man and his bodily needs, with his petitions and thanksgivings to Providence for the daily bread. Anciently bread was the emblem of man. So also in Homer man is designated as hrotos, bread-eater. ^ iBrotos, brute, Brod, bread eating-man and animal. On Akel Pani, and lehem hapanim, see A. H. Sayce's Religion of the Babylonians, p. 455. Also, Zimmerman. Whether Akel pani be identical with panis, bread, is improbable. Why should Semites use an Aryan word? 286 THE CANDELABRUM. When the bodily needs are provided for, as food, clothing, housing, what comes next? Mental needs, cares for the cultiva- tion of the mind, the development and training of our nobler self, our qualifications and capacities. Animal man once satisfied, ra- tional man steps in, asking for light, knowledge, culture. Man is born with the rudiments of reason, the faculties to acquire knowl- edge by experiences and meditation. \\'ithout culture the mind remains dwarfish, rudimentary, soon rust sets in and it shrinks prematurely. Thus mentally crippled, man then moves and sneaks on blindly, groping his w-ay with his physical eyes, wdien missing his mental ones. As open eyes in the dark are useless, even so is rudimentary reason without the torch of culture and knowl- edge. To contemplate the world lit and illumined by science and experience, or dark with ignorance, is vastly different. To ob- serve and examine the starry heavens, the roaring ocean-billows, the prairies teeming with animality, the meadows blooming with rich harvests and odoriferous plants ; or to listen to recitations from Euripides, Schiller or Haydn's compositions, outfitted with the understanding of poetry and harmony, equipped with the study of astronomy, geology, botany, biology, etc., or ignorant of all that — is radically different. The one sees, indeed, the infinitude of the universe with all its wondrous grandeur, harmony, regu- larity, beauty ; the other looks on, stupidly and unconcernedly, without any clear understanding of what he sees. He wonders rather why others are enraptured, while he is callous, because ig- norance renders him blind and indifferent. The enthusiasm of the poet, the artist, the scientist, he never experiences. The sailor visits all the lakes, seas and continents, without noticing anything else than good, cheap hostelries. Aristotle, Galileo and Bacon, Humboldt and Herbert Spencer espied the laws of nature in their own. private study. Thus the culture of our mental ca- pacities is all-important. Now these higher elements of our hu- manity, ethical feeling, reason, intelligence, love of knowledge, ap- plication, acquisition of experiences and sciences, the aspirations of the real, the higher man, that is represented by the candelabrum. Mcnorah, with its seven branches of light, the "seven sciences," the "seven planets" of old astronomy. Light has been justly con- THE CANDELABRUiM. 287 sidered in ancient and in modern times as the most befitting em- blem of knowledge and science, because what light is for the body, science is for the mind. Without light the body gropes in the dark and is in danger at any moment to shatter and break down. Exactly the same is knowledge for the mind. The mind without experience and knowledge is practically not existing. Without knowledge man is hardly a man. Etimologically man means a bodily creature endowed with reason, iiicns. Intelligence thus, is properly the characteristic and essence of man. Man without mind, mens, is a sword without a blade. Man consisting of both body and mind is thus represented in the Tabernacle, bodily by the shewbread, mentally by the chandelier with its seven branch- lamps, his diverse and manifold mental and moral capacities, apti- tudes and possibilities. He supplicates the Deity for the salvation and support of his body and of his spirit, for material and for intellectual food. THE ALTARS. After these needs are supplied and provided for, what are the next higher cares and aspirations? They are the w^ants of our soul, our highest self, those of our heart in its noblest stages. Our highest self is vaguely designated by the Greek, thumos; Latin, animns; Hebrew, /c"^ ; German, C^^f/n/^/Zz ; corresponding to English vague, mind, heart, soul. That is the seat of our noblest feelings, sympathies and aspirations, of our true and essential humanity. The Gernucth, heart, is our highest and noblest self, the divine in man. Animals, too, have ideas and sentiments. Birds build their nest ; they love and provide for their young. The beaver erects cottages and builds bridges. The ants live in society and in communities. The dog is true to his master, even starving. But none has wiiat the English term heart, the German Gemueth, the Hebrew Ich, the Latin animus, the Greek, perhaps, thumos. Ethi- cally it is wider than the earth, deeper than the ocean, sublimer than the starry heavens and vaster than the universe. Small is bodily man ; vast is his mind, boundless is his heart. As matter, man is a brute ; as spirit he is above the ape ; as soul or heart he is the peer of an angel. As an animal he needs a little food, as mind he needs vast knowledge, as soul he needs spirituality, enthusiasm, holiness, beatitude, immortality, messianity, unison with the Infi- nite Godhead. Desponding in his loneliness, doubtful in his think- 288 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. ing, he is alone blessed in his all-consciousness, as an atom integral with the starry heavens. "Himmlisches Yauchzen . . . Zu Tode betruebt". . .Close-by the grave, hoping for heaven, fused with the universe, absorbed by the Deity, Nirvana — that is man as a psy- che, Gemueth, thumos, soul. Of such an extra Gemueth' s entity, the needs are higher than his mental and his intellectual endowments. They are ethical, spir- itual, ethereal, divine. Man's longing for absolute truth, full jus- tice, pure sympathy, universal fellowship, ideal goodness, perfec- tion — are of such a nature. Our religious needs, communion with the divine, the eternal, such longings — faith alone creates and satisfies, not cold thinking, reason and intellectual knowledge. It asks for intuition, immediate, absolute. Mark well this vast distinction between our intellectual needs and those of our spirituality, the heart, the Gemueth. Positive knowledge, mathematical science is, comparatively, but of a small compass. Our entire human life is dominated rather by ideas, aspirations and cravings, scientifically not proved and substantia- ted. Our sense of duty, virtue, purity, justice, generosity, nobility, charity, altruism, adherence to principle, abiding faith, self-sacri- fice, patriotism, pan-humanity, spirituality, religion, perfection, holiness — all these highest of humane aspirations, uplifting man above the animal sphere, making up his real distinction, the vast gap, the immeasurable gulf between man and brute, never to be bridged over by the evolution hypothesis, or by educational devel- opment — all that can not be proved by syllogisms, and bears no mathematical demonstration. It is an innate postulate for the vast majority of people. All that is within us, aparently born with us, entailed froni a long line of civilized ancestors reared under the same ethical ideals, "organized impressions," to use a known Herbert Spencerian phrase. All that fills our soul, dictates our course of life and our individual actions, clings to us during all our existence. Still it is not mathematically proved, it is ethe- real, an undefinable postulate, an ethical category, not demon- strable. We assume and believe it by a sort of intuitive conviction, a tacit faith, a psychical instinctive assent. Call it an inborn cate- gory, an organized inheritance, a moral instinct, a mysterious pre- monition, Ahnung. We can give no proof of its absolute objective reality, still it is subjectively alive, it dictates our daily doings as truism and iron fact. THE ALTARS. 289 Now, all these feelings and ideas which we may designate as intuitive perceptions, belong to the domain of faith. They are innate, organized religion. The concept of religion subsumes them all. That religious domain is not antagonistic and inimical to science and logical thinking. No, far from that. That religious domain is most probable. It is a daily, silent experience, counting as a certainty to the vast majority of men. The average man as- sumes it and assents to it as a matter of course, without asking for any further proof. Therefore shall true religion never be in contradiction to science and logic. When Thomas Aquino form- ulated his axiom : ''Credo quia absurdum est," he made religion a poor compliment. It can never go counter and override stern logic. We can never treat as a religious truth what we positively see to be the opposite of logical, mathematical truth. Hence is Thomas Aquino's rule a fallacy. But without doing violence to reason and clear consciousness, we may assume that religion often reaches beyond reason and transcends reason. Many ethical in- tuitive assumptions may be true subjectively, and even objective- ly, still we are logically unable either to prove or to disprove them. Such are the above enumerated highest concepts and ideas. Such is our faith in God, soul, truth, virtue, wisdom, that "honesty is the best policy." To claim to beHeve what I see and know not to be true is hypocrisy or stupidity. But to assume as true what I in- tuitively see and feel to be true, but I can not give the mathe- matical proof thereof, nor is there anything proving the contrary, that is perfectly admissible, correct and fair; that is humanely established truth; the vast majority of rational mankind have been acting on that principle, for, my doubts may be erroneous, my reason may be inefficient, while stern facts are not. In our con- science and consciousness we find the obligation of rendering jus- tice to our next, truth above all, sympathy as an element of hap- piness, duty as a category and rule of conduct, family dearer than self, and the God-belief, with justice and reason as supreme rule, towering above all, as basis, dome and substantiation of all. Still all that we can neither mathematically prove nor mathematically disprove. But w^e can show its strong and salient probability, its veri-similitude, and that is sufficient, that constitutes a moral truth. And this is the position of Mosaism, of the Jewish moral- ists and of all the ethicists of Greece, Babylon, Egypt. It is cor- 290 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. corroborated, too, by leading philosophers of old and modern schools. 1 Now this our own spirituality, the very principle and essence of man, as distinguished from the animal, the thymos or soul, in the highest sense, aspires, by perfection and holiness, by a life devoted to reason and truth, at the reunion with its sacred source, the divine. The human soul is a drop from that source, a spark from that world-flame, just as a molecule is an atom of the ma- terial world. As the river ever tends to the ocean, as the sun-ray emanates from and tends back to the light-source, even such is the bent of the well-developed man, to rejoin its divine origin. And this trend of the mind towards the divine, which already Horner^ experienced : "All men have a longing for the gods," and which Reuchlin liked so well, this its eternal strivings upwards and onwards, for perfection and holiness, is beautifully and fit- tingly symbolized in our Tabernacle by the altar. On the sacri- ficial altar, the animal dies, and in the shape of a burning cloud, ascends on high, decomposed into its original elements. On the altar of incense the precious spices burn up in an odoriferous fire- column, rise heavenwards and as an ethereal pillar of perfume and sweet-smell, reach heaven, a fit emblem of our higher humane aspirations, our ethical endeavors, our longings for perfection, holiness, intellectuality^ divesting ourselves of all materiality, setting the soul free to commune with its sacred source and be- come one with the Divine ; the sublime vision of occidental im- mortality and oriental Nirvana. The altar illustrates the idea that the animality in man becomes eliminated, dies in self-sacrifice, and the purely spiritual elements, mind in the highest sense, soars up and merges into its ineffable fountain-head,^ the Deity. Thus, the table of shewbread represents man as a body, the candelabrum represents man as an intelligence, and the altar represents man as a spiritual, religious being. Taken into careful consideration old Eastern symbolism and speculation, times and environments, these emblems well answer their purpose. To the Oriental the language was suggestive and plain. iPythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Kant's Practical Reason, Descarte's Philosophy, Herbert Spencer's Ethics, Principles. 20dysee III, 48. Pantes de Theon chateoussi onthropos. 3See Maimonides' Guide, III, 54. ■^Akin to that is the Brahmanic, not Buddhistic Nirvana. The three- fold soul was taught in Egypt as Ka, Kuh, Ba; and in Hebrew litera- ture as Z'^: nr^^} nn See IMaspero on that and A. H. Sayce's Religion of Babylon and Egypt, p. 60. 291 THE HOLY ARK. Are our bodily needs provided for, is our reason cultivated and instructed, is our soul spiritualized, imbued with great ethical aspirations, continually and unswervingly directed towards the Divine, then communion with Him will surely follow. The Deity will impart to us His revelations. Our spiritual cravings and efforts will attain at the higher, yea, the divine truths.^ The Godhead will impart to us doctrines and teachings leading to man's highest salvation. These future revelations, this unison of the divine with the humane, is represented by the Holy Ark, Arofi haqodesh, containing the Two Tables with the Mosaic organic law, the ethico-social contract, the Covenant of the Ten Words, the doctrine which man apprehends as the eternal, moral, mental and social verities, as the nucleus of divine principles underlying our ethical state ; not simply as expedients of sickly, pale, human ingenuity, contrived by political economists ; not as cunningly devised checks and weights upon daring selfishness ; not as tram- mels imposed by the mentally stronger minority to intimidate the weak majority,^ but as innate social categories, as eternal prin- ciples of the just, the true, the wise and the equitable; as ethical rules of conduct, prescribed by Eternal Wisdom for human bet- terment, peace and sanctification. The Holy Ark is the focus where the human mind m.eets with the divine Mind and both come in touch. As when the positive and the negative poles of electricity, coming in contact, burst forth in flaming reverbera- tions, even so the Ark with the Testimony was the focus where the prophetic soul soaring upwards reached the World-Soul, and under peals of Sinaic thunder and lightning emitted the electrical spark of the great Decalogue doctrine; a nucleus of leading ax- ioms that grandly and everlastingly influence man and connect him firmly and indissolubly with the Supreme Mind, leading him onwards to ever greater self-improvement and ever higher planes of civilization and perfection. iThe Rabbis say: The righteous dwell (in Paradise) crown on head and enjoy of the beauty of the Shekina. This sensuous trope Maimon- ides, Yad, Mada, expounds: They reach the utmost limits of the truth. Guide III states this as the object of the sage on earth. Such is the Hindoo Rishi, intellectually the highest. 2Schiller's Resignation: "Des kranken Weltplans schlau erdachte Retter, . .den Menschenwitz der Menschen Nothdurft leihet." 292 KAPPORETH AND CHERUBIM. The Holy Ark was covered with a lid, Kapporeth, "Cover of Atonement," a golden ceiling over that chest, to the right and the left side of which stood mystic figures termed cheruh, cherubim in plural, two such cherubs stood on the lid, human figures in youthful beauty and innocence, with uplifted wings, spreading out high and wide over the ceiling, on a level, as if flying, the two pairs of wings forming thus a kind of sacred canopy to the ark and its golden covering beneath. Perhaps the wings rather repre- sented the mercy-seat whereupon the divine Majesty was moving, as Zeus on eagles' wings. The scriptural terms are :(n M., 25, 23) "I shall meet thee there and speak to thee, from above the Kap- poreth, between the two cherubs above the Ark of the Testimony, whatever I shall bid thee for the Benai Israel." This would con- vey that the lid of the ark was the seat, and the cherubim with their wings outspread, formed the canopy. So in Isaiah vi, 2 : ''The Deity was sitting on a high throne, with seraphim (not cherubim) hovering on each side, with outstretched wings ; while Ezekiel's seat of revelation is more elaborate: four Hajoth with straight feet and outstretched wings, with fourfold faces, the eagle conspicuous, but one spirit moving spontaneously in the four Hajoth. Upon their heads rested a kind of platform, the out- stretched wings beneath the platform ; above the heads and wings appeared like a sapphire throne and above this a similarity of a vision of a man, and I saw like the color of hashmal, as a fire- blaze round about it ... as the colors of the rainbow on a rainy day. . .Such was the halo round about it; such the vision of the semblance of the glory of Ihvh. And I fell on my face"(Ezekiel I.) Here the divine Mercy-seat seems to rest upon the out- stretched wings, above the heads of the four living creatures the Hajoth, the vehicle of the divine revelation. So we read in the Davidian hymn (II Sam. xxii, 11) : ''He rode on the cherub, flew and revealed Himself on the wings of the storm." So also Ps. 18, 11. — We said the lid was denominated Kapporeth, from the Hebrew kapor, to cover, atone, forgive; the mercy-seat, wherefrom the Deity was ideally assumed to grant pardon and oblivion of sins, to vouchsafe revelations and deliver behests to the faithful. That was the most solemn moment of the atonement-day when the KAPPORETH AXD CHERUBIM. 293 higfh-priest entered the Ploly of Holies, with the pan of fire-in- cense in hands, stepped before the ark, sprinkled a few drops of blood towards the curtain of the ark, pronounced a prayer and was presumed to obtain forgiveness of sins from that very mercy- seat for Israel and its priesthood. In the chest of the Ark, beneath the lid, was placed the law, termed Bdiith, the Testimony. Whether this comprised but the two tables of stone, or the scroll with the Ten Words, or many more scrolls of the Pentateuch, the opinions differ. Other reliques of national import, too, were preserved there, as hinted at above. So we read : "I shall meet thee there, and speak to thee from above the Kapporeth, between the two cherubim above the Ark of the Testimony, all whatsoever I shall impart of my behests to Israel." (II M., 25, 23). We have hinted at some analogies with our theme in Babylonia. In the area of the Temple of Bel-Merodach, the highest deity in Babylon, stood an imposing structure, a three hundred feet high square-tower, termed Ziggiirat.^ It had seven floors or stages (seven heavens and seven planets). The seventh stage corre- sponded to the Holy of Holies, it contained no image whatever, but it did contain a golden table with shewbread, and a golden couch from which the deity was presumed to deliver its oracles to a prophetess who, alone, was admitted to that exalted place. There, too, one finds other formal similarities with that of the Temple of Herod especially. But spiritually the two sanctuaries were as distant as monotheism is from polytheism. ''I shall impart to thee there all I may ordain to Israel" again has another, most significant, bearing. It implies the important verit}- that the Sinaic revelation was and is not the final one vouchsafed to Israel ; that God has not spoken the last word in that Eduth, or Testimony, deposited within the ark ; that the Deity will never cease his revelations of further truths to human intelligence ; that betterment, progress, is solemnly promised and confirmed as infinite. W^e emphasize this verse. It states that the spiritual com.munion between God and man will ever be enter- tained in the Holy Ark, in conscience and reason ; that m.any new revelations w^ere and are in store, reserved for aspiring hu- lA. H. Sayce's Religion of Babylon, p. 454. Ziggurat claimed to be the foundation stone of the world. It corresponded to the Eben Bhethia of the Herodian Temple, mentioned above. J94 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. manity, and that God has never stopped his inspirations to those who seek them sincerely. The Mercy-seat between the two cheru- bim was the august place reserved in the Tabernacle for such new, ever continuing teachings ; and this Mercy-seat is not destroyed with the Moriah Temple by Titus and his army, but ever subsists and emits its divine inspiration in the human mind. FORM OF THE CHERUBIM. The form of the cherubim on the ark is differently described by sacred and profane writers. Antiquarians believe they repre- sented angels, genii of the divine, winged, young male figures, the body prone, inclined forwards, looking toward each other and downwards, the wings fully spread out, tending upwards. All four wings on a level ; the figure witnessing thus of a double nature, human and angelic, with feet and wings. Standing on the lid and soaring heavenwards, again symbolized, yea, denicted, man's double nature; his material eye b^nt earthwards, and his psychical eye, his ethereal, winged mind, directed towards the spiritual realm; ever he stands on the dust of the ground and aspires to the light of the skies ; he grasps for the earthly bounties and longs for heavenly harvests ; he anxiously treasures up the acquisitions of the past and constantly drifts and aspires to new discoveries and further revelations ; conservative to obstinacy, ever looking to his ancestry, still dashing headlong to new experi- ments, higher developments and humane improvements. Such new revelations bind man ever more to the realms of the eternal and the divine ; he becomes ever more ethical, spiritual, and his perfectibility is infinite; he may yet discover the higher laws of health and life ; yea, extend human life to centuries ; with- out pain and sickness ; he may yet travel through the airy spaces from New York to Berlin during one night. Will he also dis- cover the panacea against folly and vice ? Theoretically he may ! THE MISHKAN AND ITS OUTFIT. Thus the ancient Tabernacle represented the idea of ever ad- vancing humanity, from the past to the future, ever onwards; both conservative and progressive ; treasuring up the experiences of the past and using them as the bridge for new efforts, new ac- THE MISHKAN AND ITS OUTFIT. 295 quisitions, ever thus remaining in touch with the Divine, ever de- veloping with the universe; men, universe and the divine — one unfolding stream. And the tabernacle was its miniature picture, a plastic popular illustration of the grand world-panorama, and its motto was our verse: ''They shall build Me a sanctuary that I dwell among them." No doubt, we hear frequently enough: ''Wherefore a temple? We need dwelling, school, court and pleasure-houses, that an- swers to some definite human purpose. But wherefore prayer- houses ? Poor reasoning ! We have above discussed it and say here but in short : We are animal and reason ; but we are even more : Soul, Gemiieth, thymos; and that, too, has its needs. It needs a house of worship, an opportunity for the cultivation of our highest endowments and capacities, the real laboratory of civilization, the propelling force, the locomotive and steam of our humanhood. What is the cause that we so often hear complaints made about the lack of the nobler virtues^ the higher learning, veneration for parents and superiors? What is the cause that "marriage is a failure," higher education deemed waste of time? Wherefore complaints about moral decrepitude, about intellectual mediocrity, contempt of everything, except — an independent for- tune? What is the cause that the young often desolate the par- ental heart ? That no less often the parent sets to the young such a poor example ? The cause is : Neglect of true worship, of sincere prayer. We have enough of lip-service, of cold pomp and mechanical ceremonies ; not enough of heart-prayer, of true self- examination, of insight into our heart, of the culture of our nobler self. These need the temple. Of these the house of worship is the proper sphere, the opportunity where we rid ourselves of our coarser materialistic alloy and aspire towards the true and th^ good. The table with the shewbread as yet represents man with his bodily needs, for Mosaism is not a religion of ascetism ; it aims not at the monastery; nor at the grave as did Egypt. It rather puts forward this actual, earthly world, as the scope of its legislation: "Observe my statutes and judgments, which man shall perform and live by them." (Ill M., 18, 5) This pregnant verse the Talmud correctly emphasizes : Live, not die by them.^ The Thora is for the preservation, not the deterioration of man, Dna T\)D'^ N^i...Dn3 ^ni 1 396 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. the world is to be built up.^ But at the same time the law aspires at rendering the earth heavenly, not a sea of misery and vice, but of wisdom and happiness ; to edify, refine, sanctify and improve man. We sum up. The sacred candelabrum, as in the synagogue, now, the continual lamp — Ner Tamid — remembers man's intel- lectuality, reason, knowledge, all-sided development, as the aim of life, symbolized by its seven branches, its sevenfold light. The altar represents his moral conscience at one with reason, faith and reason in harmony, our religious aspirations and our mental strivings reconciled. The ark with the testimony is emblematic of revelation, man ever in communion with the Intellectus Activus, inspired by Him whenever sincerelv desired, the union of the human soul with the divine Mind. The Kapporeth or Mercy- seat with the cherubim, is the promise of eternal revelations, sym- bolizing tlie ever-continuing communion of the Divine with the striving, aspiring spirit of man. man's capacity of infinite develop- ment, of bodily, mental and ethical perfection. And all this is finely expressed by our leading theme : "They shall make Me a sanctuary, that I dwell among them." In the prayer-house man is a spiritual being and the Shekina rests in his bosom. EXODUS AND ITS TRILOGY. In the preceding pages we have discussed the several sections and chapters of the II Book of Moses, then discussed and ana- lyzed their leading themes and subjects bearing upon its doctrines, laws and worship. We have first seen the history of the issue of the Benai-Israel from Egypt ; next the Decalogue, the Revela- tion from the Sinaic period and its successive unfoldings, an out- line of a Code ; finally the construction of the Mishkan, Israel's oldest house of worship. These leading topics with many minor ones, occupy the entire Second Book of Moses. We have espe- cially considered the three middling sections, or pericopes of that Book, II M., 19 — 25, denominated: Jethro, Mishpatim, Teruma,^ and devoted to these subjects. These three sections forming a sort of Trilogy, treat, in some sense, of the soul, the body, with the Is. 45—18 mv^ n3EJ>^ 1 2 Judgments, heaves, Jethro was Mosis' father-in-law. EXODUS AND ITS TRILOGY. 297 limbs and the external frame of the Mosaic structure. The peri- cope Jethro, closing the history of the Exodus, enlarges upon the advent of the Sinaic period, with its memorable era-making reve- lation of the Ten Commandments, the Great Charter of Israel and of mankind, the basis and substantiation of all manhood, human dignity, right and duty. It is the distinctive line and differentia- tion between man and brute, the epitome of man's spirituality, as a being knowing duty, freedom, God. It is his eternal Bill of Rights against all sorts of usurpations, dynastic, hierarchic, social. The Decalogue epoch divides human history in two halves, before and after it. It is leading in JNIosaism. The sacred books of ancient Egypt, Babylonia^ and Khanaan may have contained many faint premonitions of it, or may have been but an echo from the Mosaic Code, for, in spite of big-mouthed claims, it is far from being squarely ascertained which of them has th^ safe priority. The unity of the Godhead, his spirituality, a weekly rest-day, reverence for parents, truthfulness, honest dealings, sa- credness of matrimony, of life, of property, etc., are moral cate- gories of eternal reason. Hence some heathen priests and philos- ophers could and may have had and even uttered some faint ideas about such rules of conduct. Indeed, the hieroglyphic and cunei- form records of the old world really and daily bring to light such evidences, and this corroborates the Sinaic doctrines. But no- where do we find that they were the practice and the fundamental principles of any people and state. We find them scattered and far between, in mouldering Babylonian or Egyptian libraries and rituals, intermingled with mean superstitions and petty practices, as mere priestly craft, reveries or philosophical desiderata. Is- rael is the people and Mosaism is the realistic Code, where these norms are laid dowm as principles, as primary rules of conduct, as socio-ethical conditio sine quae non, as the corner-stone under- lying the very foundations of human society. That is the dis- tinctive mark of Israel : "Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and holy nation." (II M., xix, 6). That was the lullaby at his cradle, the motto of his existence, his banner for now thirty-five centuries as a world-embracing faith. The next scriptural portion, Mishpatim, II M., xxi, 25, is the necessary sequel, the logical result, development and complement of the great Mosaic organic law, the Ten Words. Mishpatim is 1 Religion of Babylon by Maspero, Book of the Dead. 298 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. the code of law, an outline of principles to decide between right and wrong, mine and thine, to maintain order and justice in a young community, to decide causes private and public, civil, po- litical, penal, industrial, agrarian. Finally we have analyzed Teriima, the place, arrangements and ideas underlying the insti- tution of the Tabernacle ; Israel's model sanctuary, his first shrine of national worship and instruction, where his great doctrine, his gradually developed laws and the entire polity of early Mosaism and later Judaism were to be preserved, unfolded, studied and inculcated. SURVEY OF THE VOLUME AND CONCLUSION. At the conclusion of this study, let us have a cursory retrospect and survey the chief features of the different themes which have engrossed our attention. Section, Jethro, exhibits to us, in first instance, the Decalogue. What are its leading traits? They are as follows : God is the basis of the universe, the state and man. God is the source of all, mind and matter, spirit, force and body ; life and all existence ; wisdom, truth, right, duty, freedom, will and conscience. God is not identical with, or absorbed by the universe. He is not its law, in the abstract, nor merely its moral order. He is the origin and the creator of all ; spontaneous, omniscient, omnipotent, and all-benign. He is pure spirituality, eternity, omnipresence ; alone the Providence of the universe, of mankind, of Israel. The Sabbath is instituted for bodily rest, moral, mental, social, spiritual uplifting of man, vindicating to him the right, duty, time and possibility to recuperate, strengthen and cultivate himself; to strive after truth, wisdom and happiness, thus to develop and transform his native animality into rational humanity, the off- spring of the ape into the son of God. The world is pervaded, spiritualized and upheld by the divine presence, and man is vindicated as a moral, rational and spiritual being; the universe is declared not to be a self-moving machine, a huge automatic clockwork, and man is uplifted from the rest of the animal realm and declared to be a rational, ethical, free and responsible agent; the Decalogue sanctifies all existence and permeates all man's feelings, acts and entire life by the faith in and the Providence of God, and with the ideas of justice and SURVEY OF THE VOLUME AND CONCLUSION. 299 duty, equity, purity and holiness. It consecrates the relations of husband and wife, of parent and child, of citizen and common- wealth, of pure habits, desires and affections, of work and prop- erty, of truthfulness and purity of feelings and thoughts, en- nobling and translucidating all with the new truly Mosaic axioms of duty and responsibility, of obligation ever corresponding to right, the two ever going together in civilized society. By this is not claimed, I emphasize again and again, that Mo- saism is the inventor of these social categories and should take out a patent of proprietory right upon such and similar tenets. No ! The Decalogue is not an invention, nor even a sudden dis- covery. But it is the slow and gradual result of long and deep observation, meditation and experiences, gathered for thousands of years, and finally reduced to and promulgated as an organic social code during the great, creative and constructive period of Sinai.i We emphasize and repeat that it is not an invention by any one single man, but the solemn confirmation and by divine authority, of the universal basis of civilized society, re-echoed, reverberated and sanctioned at the start of Israel's national existence. The Decalogue is a category of eternal reason, benevolence and equity, repeated and promulgated by the Mosaic lawgiver as the funda- mental law of Israel's society, state and church. And since it is the eternal norm of divine reason, therefore we find it pervading, at least vaguely and in general outline, also in the sacred books of Egypt and Babylonia ; of Zoroaster, Manu and Buddha, of Pythag- oras and Lao-Tze, of Plato and Confucius. The Ten- Words-code is not a plagiarism upon Babylonian inscriptions, or the Egyptian Book of the Dead, or any other cuneiform, hieroglyphic, etc., Htera- ture, but it emanated from the One Supreme Sacred Source of all law and reason. And this makes the Sinaic revelation even more im- portant, since it is not a novelty, but the outcome and result, the world-aspect, Welt-Anschauung, the seal and confirmation of the universal law of reason and morality, promulgated as the ructt- mentary, organic law of the newly constituted Hebraic nation. All the rays of light, truth and holiness which had irradiated in prehistoric times from all the sages and civilizations of the iThe Scattered moral precepts in Babylonian and Egyptian litera- tures never rose so high. First of all, the Pentateuch postulated duty and responsibility as absolute norms. Alone the Decalogue bids: Tkou Shalt! 300 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. ancient world, were selected, gathered and purified, sifted and distilled, harmonized and crystalized in the revelation during the Sinaic epoch. Scattered elements thereof one may find in the lit- erature of China, Egypt and Babylon, Persia, India, Rome, Greece and Phoenicia. But to select, gather, sift and combine all that into one harmonious whole, in a succinct, small compass, as one organic code, accessible to and comprehensible by the people, re- tainable in the memory of the humblest and give it that solemnity, publicity, authenticity, as the supreme national code and doctrine, binding upon all for all times and places — that is the import of the Sinaic Decalogue, and that is the merit of Israel. THE CIVIL CODE. PERSONAL FREEDOM. After the doctrines contained in the pericope, Jethro, comes the Civil Code, Mishpatim. What are its leading principles? They are shortly these : Liberty, a Hebrew can and shall never be en- slaved ; he may alienate and hire out his work, for six years, in the seventh he must go free. He can hire out his person or his labor, but he can not sell himself, nor can any one buy him as a piece of goods, or chattel. (II M., xxi, 1-5.) The less can a Hebrew woman be sold and made any one's property. When a minor, poor and sold by her father, her master, or his son, are in fairness presumed to marry her; then she must be treated by them as any other marriageable girl. If that tacit condition, that a priori expectation be not fulfilled, then she shall go free, the master has lost her purchase money. (II M., xxi, 7-12.) FREEDOM OF THE SOIL. This absolute liberty of man and woman is solidly based upon another Mosaic freedom, quite unique in ancient history, to which no other lawgiver, priest or philosopher ever gave utterance. Even the noblest and best thinkers of old, acknowledged the legiti- macy of force, the right of the stronger to domineer, and the duty — not alone the prudence — of the weaker to yield and obey. Neither the wise, good and ideal Socrates and Plato, nor the more realistic Aristotle demurred from that iron axiom : Ultima ratio, ms. The world and its fullness, the soil, man and his work, all be- long to the victor. Mosaism alone states otherwise. (II M., ix, 29.) FREEDOM OF THE SOIL 301 "Thou shalt know that to Ihvh belonj^s the earth — (II M., xix, 5.) To Me appertains all the land.— (Ill M., xxv, 23.) The ground shall not be sold for ever, for Mine is the earth, ye are but my settlers and tenants." — Hence come the year of release and the Jubilee ; the right of redemption of the family farm ; the prohibition to make profit or interest on money, goods and fruit of the soil, the veto against enslaving a fellow citizen ; of abusing, misusing, vexing or over-working him. Hence the reservation of parts of the crops for the poor, the stranger, the Levite, the widow, the orphan, etc. The Pentateuch alone states and declares, plainly and boldly, not afraid of being ostracized as a socialist, that to God belongs the soil, that the ground is merely let out to the people, to be distributed in equal shares among all the male citizens, so as to constitute a hereditary, inalienable and perpetual family acre, which shall be cultivated and rendered productive by its temporary holder or farmer, to be left intact to his children and children's children. Such a life-tenant could pawn or sell or forfeit by law the crops of his tenancy for six years, no longer. On the seventh year, the alienated family-field became free and returned to its legitimate previous proprietor, its first occupant. Thus land, farm, man, woman, work were declared free and in- alienable, none born a pauper, none a lord; a man for every woman, work for every working mxan, all are free and equal ; no means to buy up votes, and no want to mduce self-asservation. Free men, free women, free soil ; servants and property they were of God alone ! No hum.an enslavement and no landgrabbing or accaparation were tolerated. No plutocracy with monopolies and despotism on one hand, and no pauperism, meanness and self- surrender on the other hand. A free state, with a free soil, free labor for a free society of free and equal citizens. This bold doctrine of free soil, the land belonging alone to its Maker, God, that man owns only what he has produced, whilst the ground is but usurped, never made by man, we find also in the Talmud, overlooked by the commentators, or from timidity passed in silence during baronial times. It is in the Babyl. Sanhe- drin (58 b.) legitimately deduced from a pregnant biblical verse: "The strong holds the ground and the privileged one occupies it." (Job. xxii, 9.) This R. Eleaser correctly expounds : "The ground 302 EXODUS, !-.IOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. is given away onl)' to the man of strong arms."^ Only the rob- bers first laid claim to the soil. J. J. Rousseau opined the same : ''The strong made an enclosure, saying this ground is mine." The Psalm, xii, 11: Who (diligently) works on his soil, will have plenty of bread to eat, R. Lakish interprets : He who slavelike works (hard on) the soil, will satiate himself with bread; if not, not.2 The Pentateuch repeatedly threatens Israel with the loss of his country, if he is disobedient to God, if he is not resting during the year of release, or if not freeing the Hebrew servant after six years, or if serving strange gods ; viz. : God is considered as the liege lord of the community and the country, whose lands he has bestowed upon his vassal-people, on condition that they recognize him as supreme king, devoutly serve him as such and respect the freedom of their fellow-citizens. Now, as a re- bellious vassal forfeits his freehold, even so Israel, when re- bellious to the commandments of his King. So, too, the prophet Jeremiah (xxxiv, 10) denounced the Judaean nobles for not re- leasing their Hebrew slaves, threatening them with the loss of their country, their lives and their own liberty in just retribution. Thus we find the freedom of land, of work, of man and of woman as one set of correlated principles in Mosaism. THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUALITY. After the doctrines on the freedom of the soil, men and work, comes the other principle, equality. Every man being the son and servant of God, is a free citizen, and every citizen is the equal of his fellow-man, he is exactly as much worth as his neigh- bor, in rights and in duties, in emoluments and in obligations ; there are to be no classes and no masses, no aristocracy, plebeians or pariahs ; the state is a democracy, governed by the elders, selected by universal suffrage, and all are equally to obey the law, viz. : The will of God, interpreted and executed by the elders. There is, indeed, besides the laity, a priesthood, of the tribe of Levi, but they were far from being an aristocracy. They had nothing in common with the Brahmanic, Magian or Druidic castes. It is but Says R. Eleaser niniT sb sb DK...Dn^ v^^' ^2V2 lovy nj^y dx 2 In Hebrew the same root means to work and to serve. EQUALITY. 303 later that they obtained some sacerdotal privileges, after their connection with and partisanship for the Davidian dynasty. For long they were rather counted with the poor, the widows and orphans, later they were endowed with but scant territories, scat- tered throughout all the twelve clans. As such they are depicted in the blessing of Jacob (I M., xlix, 7.) Their ascendancy and privileges began with the Davidian dynasty, having sided with it during its troubles with the house of Saul. With the destruction of the kingdom of Judaea, and the collapse of the Davidians, the Ahronides assumed a princely importance, during the entire sec- ond Jewish commonwealth. Withall pure, original Mosaism was a democracy, royalty was an innovation ; almost a rebellion against God (I Sam., 8.) The principle of the equality of all the citizens before the law is forcibly illustrated by the legal formula pervading the entire Mosaic code: ''Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, etc." (II M., xxi, 24.) The code Mishpatim, as the entire Pentateuch, frequently recurs to it. The rigid axiom is talion, retaliation, in nature ; not by com- pensation in money or any sort of compromise. The rabbinical code changed the talion axiom into compensation, still ''eye for eye and tooth for tooth" is the ideal formula of equality, the un- compromising rule of democracy. . . . Indeed, if one man is as good as his neighbor, then one man's eye or tooth is as good as his neighbor's eye or tooth. Whilst if you substitute a money com- pensation and with different ratings, then equality and democracy are destroyed. The Christian founder, a moralist and idealist, aiming at establishing the Messianic empire, the kingdom of heaven on earth, despising the world, work, property, going-to- law, he, member of a society of monastics (Essenians), on a com- munistic pattern, a Philanstere, preached : "Whosoever takes away thy coat, let him have thy cloak too. Who smites thee on thy right cheek, offer him thy left one. Resist not evil." (Math. V, xxxviii, 41; Luke vi, 29.) The world is not worth while wran- gling f or . . . But pray, fast and hasten on the advent of the king- dom of heaven. . .That was his ideal object for his ideal world, not for the real one. But with such bases, views and assump- tions, you will never build up a human society, a live-state. And, indeed, it has been truthfully remarked by Jean Jacques Rous- seau and other clear-sighted writers that there has never been reared up a truly Christian state in the world — except, perhaps, 304 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. the monastery, or theoretically, the Catholic church — if there all ambition and politics were left out. Even America, apparently a democracy, does not stand on Christian ethics as formulated by the founder. Strict right and talion alone are the principles of human society, that alone guarantees equality. The strong ones steal coat and cloak, smite on the right and left cheek. Society must be shielded by talion, or anarchy will ensue. FRATERNITY AND SOLIDARITY. The next principle of Mishpatim is sympathy, humanity, fellow- ship, social solidarity, the duty each citizen has towards the com- munity, his neighbor. Correctly reasoning, he has an interest, and hence a duty to help render him happy, as much as in his power. The fact is that, really, human happiness is inter-depend- ent, solidary. And moreover, when one social member is wronged, made wretched, entire society is a party to the wrong, willfully or not, by commission or omission ; hence it is responsible and must redress it, or it will at last suffer for it. Thus the misfortune of each man, each a social member, falls back on the entire society. Therefore must all society help alleviate the misfortunes of each member. Sympathy, charity, altruistic helpfulness are therefore viewed in the Mishpatim code, not as alms-giving, but as a duty of the rich towards the poor, as the rich man's duty and the poor's right. ^ It is the poor man's minimum right, it is the least which can be done for him . . . God gave the land and its harvests to the community on condition that part of those bounties go to the poor, the uneducated, the ostracised. How much superior this political economy is to other views and codices, we have considered in our "Biblical Legislation." It is superior because it fathoms the bottom and ventilates the cause of the evil. The Mosaic sympathy and humanity is not degrading, wretched almsgiving. It is constructed upon the solid rock of fellowship and humane solidarity, upon common sense and altru- ism. It is not sentimental charity, not dictated by mere pity, less so by ostentation; but as an act of private justice, and redress for public wrong, each single social member magnanimously offering atonement and restitution for corporate social injustice committed. iJoseph Chamberlain once said that charity is the ransom of the rich from the poor. That is poor charity and poor political economy. FRATERXITY AND SOLIDARITY 305 On the other hand, true beneficence is prompted by consummate prudence, by intelHgent self-interest, a deed with the rational mo- tive that my neighbor's well-being or wretchedness strongly re- flect upon myself, that without recurring to communism, the state is one integral, industrial, economical, ethical and political body ; that altruism is at one with wise egoism ; that my own true interests, in the long run, are my neighbor's true interests ; that altruism and egoism, both wisely and harmoniously combined, cover and supplement each other. This is the political economy, the social philosophy of the Mosaic Humanity, of the laws of the pericope Mishpatim and of the entire Pentateuch. That is closely elaborated in many Talmudical treatises, it passed to other legis- lations as charity laws, gradually enlightening political econo- mists and philanthropists. Once more, let us not make any comparisons between that and the communistic socio-ethical teachings of the New Testament. The aim and scope of the Old and of the New Testaments are dif- ferent, hence also their miCans, their sociology. Mosaism aimed at founding a state, establishing a people, with earthly citizens, with whom work, property, marriage, family, right and self are funda- mental. The founders of Christianity despised the actual world, hated the entire Roman and the upper Judaean society, despaired of and aimed at their subversion and improving men into saints, angels fit for their hoped for "kingdom of heaven," the general Utopia of the dreamers and schemers, Jew and Gentile, of that age of Roman suprem.acy, violence and visible decomposition. The Essenio-Christian scheme was the antidote of the universal corruption. The ''kingdom of heaven" was their salto niortale and poverty their supreme virtue. Another was the scope of the Old Testament. Moses gave laws for men, for a live-state, with citi- zens struggling for existence, striving for happiness, in this pos- sible, realistic world, even under the rule of the Herodians and Caesars. Christianity preached ideals for a monastery with Essenians and angels. The later leaders of the church, the Constantines, the Patricians and the hierarchs, indeed, talked of the ideal hum.anity of the pre- vious Messianic ages and doctrines, but really acted upon the polity of the Caesars and Borgias. Hence Mosaism teaches (HI M., xix, 19) : "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in secret. Thou shalt neither bear a grudge on him, nor shalt thou be revengeful." 3o6 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. Expostulate thy cause with him, frankly insist upon being righted if thou feelest wronged. Christianity recommends : Offer the left cheek to him who smites thee on the right one, etc. The first teaches to pardon and condone, the latter ordaineth: Love thy enemy. (Luke vi, 27.) All these discrepancies are easily ex- plained when we consider the realistic scope of the Sinaic law and the ideal scheme of the builders of the heavenly kingdom. The Mosaic doctrine aims at a reality ; the Messianic one at a Utopia. Thus these far-reaching schemes of human brotherhood, social equality, political liberty and universal solidarity, at least within the limits of the Hebraic nationality, are decidedly biblical. They are the fundamental principles of the code of Mishpatim. They are the necessary and logical developments of the Ten Command- m.ents. They are not the product of later times and peoples, not of free and ever-militant Greece, not of selfish, entangling, bloody Rome, not of the barbarous Teutons, not even of free Switzerland or Holland, not of the American and French revolutions. No, they are essentially Mosaic. They sprang from the sociological and ethi- cal genius of the Hebraic ethnos and psyche ; they grew upon the tree of the Pentateuch. While modern freedom with Lessing, Rous- seau and Mirabeau, with the Amercian and French revolutioniz- ing human fraternity ideas, while even the nineteenth century's regenerating views of Lasalle, Virchow, Bamberger — are the late fruit gradually cu11q4 ^i^d gathered from that venerable millenial Biblical tree, whose roots and ramifications reach back to Sinai. The third of our Trilogy is the pericope or section termed Teruma(II M. xxv, etc.), treating of the erection of the Mishkan, Tabernacle, a sacred tent claimed as corresponding to the pro- portions of the universe. Its three principal parts, Court, Holy Place and Holy of Holies answer to the ancient division of heaven, earth and sea. Whilst from another standpoint, that illustrates in solid matter, the ideas of : Mind pervading the universe, creation by God pirituality of man, sanctified by the Sabbath, sacredness of human affairs, as life, marriage, parenthood, property, purity, veracity. And all this underlies and substantiates human free- dom, equality and dignity, without which man is a brute. These ideas the Tabernacle represents in its materials and sacred furni- ture, a court, a sanctuary and a Holy of Holies. Next, the golden table with the twelve shewbread, represents man and his bodily needs; the candelabrum means light and reason; the altar, our FRATERNITY AND SOLIDARITY 307 longing for the divine; the Ark, revelation realized; the Mercy- seat and Cherubim : revelations to come, future inspirations, infinite progressiveness, perfectibility, the eternal connection of the hu- man mind with its sacred Source, the Intellectus Activus, the Su- preme Mind. And this is the sense of our theme: "They shall make Me a sanctuary, that I dwell among them." Indeed, a place containing doctrine, law and worship is the sanctuary where the Deity dwells. A sumptuous structure without these three is a palace, not a sanc- tuary, to which our verse cannot apply. A proud hall, with costly, sumptuous furniture, a magnificent dome, elegant music and fine oratory — but without doctrine, faith and truth-seeking, is a palace, a temple of Mammon, vainglory and hypocrisy, our theme has nothing in common with such a show. The temple discussed in these pages, once a modest tent or tab- ernacle, has been the seed and pioneer of millions of houses of worship, aspiring to the very same objects : doctrine, worship, truth- seeking, improvement. It developed into the magnificent temples of Solomon, Ezra-Nehemia, the Maccabeans and Herod. It was the seed of thousands of synagogues in the dispersion. It expanded into the millions of churches and mosques, all over the entire terres- trial globe. Originally it was a transferable portative tent, later a magnificent structure on Mount Moriah. It wandered then with the Israelites, the Judaeans and finally the Jews of the dispersion. But it grew ever vaster and more important. The Christian Church and the Mohammedan Mosque took Israel's sanctuary as their model for myriads of sacred structures over the entire habit- able globe. Its worship was first administered by a few descendants of Ahron, Kohanim, kinsman of Moses. Then this priesthood of the Ahronidae passed in the diaspora, actually to all Israel. Soon it gained over the Occident as Christians, and the Orient as Mos- lems. It refreshes the souls of the most civilized portions of man- kind of all the continents and the islands of the earth. Every- where, essentially teaching, with various local colorings and dra- peries, the same doctrine of the Decalogue : The one Divine Mind, the one human nature and interest, the one code of rights and duties, as in our Trilogy, the civilizing import of worship: Man in communion with the Divine. 3o8 EXODUS, MOSES AND THE DECALOGUE. We have concluded our survey of the leading aspects of the Ten Commandments, in conjunction with our two preceding vol- umes, on the civil, political and agrarian Laws, and on the Human- ity and Benevolence ones of the Pentateuch. We have admired their divine, uncommon, common-sense ; their justice tempered with mercy ; befitting all times, peoples and countries ; containing the elements of the world-religion, for all mankind ; incomparably superior to all the antique legislations, and in many regards not reached even by present codices which are yet brimful with in- justices and inequalities on account of creedal, national, class and country prejudices. Now, Reader, ponder ! Can Israel, shall he, nevertheless, yield to millennial misunderstandings, give up that Pentateuchal code, these prophetico-Mosaic doctrines and pass over to the Major- ity?. . .Or shall not rather the Majority consider their own best interests, give honor to the truth and accept the doctrines of the Minority? Would it not be time, after those barren discussions of fifteen long centuries about Three and One, to lend ear and heart to the call of truth, reason, common sense and universal peace, to the identical call of the antique prophets, the apostles and the modern sages, scientists and philanthropists, all advo- cating the Mosaico-prophetic platform, containing the elements of civilized man's reHgion? . . . That call was uttered by (Isaiah, II, 2) : "It will come to pass in the far future, when the great na- tions will proclaim, let us rise to the Mount of Ihvh, that He may teach us in His ways and we follow in His paths . . . for from Zion Cometh the doctrine and the Word of God from Jerusalem. . . that he be our Arbiter and we do away with sword, strife and controversy." — Mankind has learned the prophetico-lNIosaic les- sons during these last two thousand years. Would it not be time to act upon them ? Reader, pause and consider ! . . . ERRATA. Page Read Instead of 12— Middle dominant one — the Pharaoh. . dominat one. The Pharaoh. 17 — Below flock of Israel! And in that., flock of Israel, and in that 18 — " dispelling despondency scattering despondencj-- 23 — " My Spirit. (Sacharia) .My Spirit (Sashana) 39 — Above pauperization, dearth pauperization, death 53 & 55 — Above. Hague arbitration Biblical Teachings 87— Middle Charta Magna Charter-Magna 95 — Belowv of sacrifice and altruism of sacrifice, austerity 110— Middle Keep my Sabbaths; Keep my Sabbath. 110 — Below of the prohibition of prohibition 134 — Above .'All-presence of Deity all-presence of Diety. 139 — Below with the Hindu with the Minda 140 — " Philosophy, Qabbala Philosophy Gabbala 148 — Middle Apotheosis of the Apothesis of the 149 — ^Below in preference to in preferment to 154 — Above a recognized tenet a recognzed 156 — Middle solidly emphasize stolidly emphasize 158 — " But it is written TBut is written 164 — Above 39 stripes 30 stripes 174— Middle by the Shemites by the Shomits 174 — Middle.. . . enfranchising mankind enfranchising mankind." 179 — " manual and field manual field 193 — Below minor legalistic legislatic 201 — " neglectful and disrespectful, .forgetful and. . . 203 — Middle their labors, efforts labors, results 208 — Below and auto-da-fe's auto dafes 214 — Above avenges wronged innocence, .avenges innocence 215 — Middle classes and privileges classes and masses 226 — " one of spirituality one of spiritually 236 — " world and polytheism .world and poytheism 238 — " in the Capitol in the Capital 244 — " but were reputed were reported 253 — Middle Disraeli, Jessel? Disraeli, Jessel. 253— " Milhamoth Ihvh Milhamoth, Ihvh 260 — Below appreciating their labors his labors 266— Middle to the Deity to the Diety 270— Below... n"iin rnc nnin no r LEJo '10 ). ', Exodus, Moses and the Decalogue Legislation. M. FLUEGEL. l^^T k ^V' ^^^is Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: June 2005 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111 r