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The Southern Israelite
Page 55
/ hat / Found Judaism To Be
t of Servian by Aime Patliere, of the Liberal Synagogue, Paris,
the Free Synagogue, Carnegie Hall, Next' York, X. Y„ when lie teas
in America recently.
a child of Israel, and Israel
to which God has spoken,
which He made a covenant,
.it 1 found Judaism to be. We
Revelation. And that is the
of Jewish history, the fact
the whole story rests. That is
i a el is the people which heard
of God and with which God
oivenant, so that it now stands
ness of God in the world and
tiie witness of God for me. And
of that covenant, it feels that
not, it cannot die. Even when
has lost faith in Revelation, he
t he has the duty of living, of
. of keeping his individuality
the nations. A fact, stronger than
negotiations, my brothers, and
«.pite of you and iti spite of all,
•nipeK >oti to remain Jews.
light of that great fact, I
and that Judaism is not at all a
i. which would necessarily suppose
'tie conception, something which
it certain hours as a kitid of addi-
life, gives it for a moment a
mate form, and vanishes a moment
No; Judaism is tiie very life of
w, lile of the body and life of the
d. 1" 'th individual and social, all ruled
sciplined by that covenant made by
' I ■ -rd and his ancestors.
i t time ago, I accompanied to the
a boy, whom I had the honor of
’ for his Bar Mitzvah, and in
a M iice of tho venerable parchment,
"«‘w Mich a young child bent over
1 • l " old thing and with his fresh and
voice the words repeated on
lay in all the Synagogues of the
I thought of those who ask me for
'"'tion of their Judaism: of the
I here it is: it is that child
v< r the holy scroll: on a Sabbath
reading in his turn the weekly
. and taking upon himself, in the
"t his young soul, the redoubtable
i God’s covenant. It is the small
lengthening the long chain of the
tradition. There you have, in a
and poetic form an exact defini-
Judaism, more eloquent than all
■ ’logical formulae that could be
"ill s a>' perhaps, “The reasons
\"ii state are beautiful; but we are
Bings, not saints by any means;
always faced with the painful
' cs of life. Of course, we do not
1 denying the Judaism of our
but we would prefer it to be
inmate to our strength and not
' under its weight, as the mountain
v weight of which God, according
Midrash, threatened Israel when
♦
He offered it the Torah.” I answer you.
Beware of a Judaism which would re
quire no effort, which would compel no
sacrifice. It is not the Judaism of God's
covenant. Beware of a Judaism which
would make the religious idea universal,
but which would destroy the individu
ality of Israel. That has nothing in
common with the Judaism of your fathers.
Israel is not a little church, not a little
religion; Israel is a historical reality,
whose existence in the world bears testi
mony to divine revelation. What is a
Jew? Not only is he one who believes
in God, but also one who has faith in
Israel and in its ideals.
For Judaism binds its children to the
past, but turns them at the same time
towards the future. Through the love
of Zion it awakens in their hearts the
messianic hope. My friends, do not let
us injure the tradition of Israel by re
ducing it to a single idea, even were it
to be that of the one God. It is much
more than that. It means a complete
transformation of mankind, a complete
religious and social, individual and family
regeneration, changing the relations of
nations and those of men lx»th among
themselves and with their Creator, and
event with nature in itself. That is the
salvation of mankind. There is the great
hope which Israel keeps for the world;
for the time will come when, once again,
the voice of God will issue from the new
Jerusalem.
That is the wonderful story of God’s
people. That is what I found Judaism
to be.
A legend tells us that before the
throne of the Eternal is the book of fate,
open for each people. An angel, in charge
of that book, turns the pages as time
goes on. And there is also before the
Lord a book for God's people; and the
guardian angel of Israel turns the pages
one by one. In that book, the last sheets,
those of the messianic times, are sealed
with a triple seal, and the angel himself
has never looked upon their mystery. But.
before the messianic pages, there are,
in the book of Israel’s fate, white sheets,
which the angel, pen in hand, is ready
to fill. Those white sheets, O my friends,
in the story of your people, are being
kept for you.
Fill them worthily!
FREDERICH GUNDOLF, prominent
literary figure and professor of history
at the University of Heidelberg in Berlin,
was the recipient of the famous Lessing
prize, valued at 15.000 marks, now award
ed for the first time by the municipal
government of Hamburg.
—♦
nr
// ith Our Jewish Artists
(Continued from Page 13)
has done the illustrations for
'••wish books. He also does
illustrations for "Kinder Jour-
Noar” and is one of the con
tributors to "Young Israel", the month
ly magazine for Jewish children pub
lished by the Union of American He
brew Congregations.
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