Now some of the Jewish thinkers, following Jehuda ha Levi, Ibn Daud, and others, though Aristotelians, shrank from the logical conclusion of denying all individuality to the soul, and attributed to it rather a process of purification, which ends with the elevation of the soul-essence to angelic rank and thus guarantees its immortality. Not so Maimonides, who accepted with inexorable earnestness the Aristotelian idea of form as the perfection of matter. The essence of the human soul is, for him, that force or potentiality which qualifies it for the highest development of the intellect, and is alone capable of grasping the divine. Yet it can acquire a part in the creative World-spirit only in the same degree as it unfolds this potentiality to share the divine intellect, whose seat is the highest sphere of the universe. By dint of this acquired intelligence it can live on as an independent intellect, in the image of G.o.d, and thus attain beat.i.tude in the contemplation of Divinity.(933)
7. Naturally the view of Maimonides, that a certain measure of immortality is granted only to the wise,-though they must be morally perfect as well,-aroused great opposition. Hasdai Crescas proves its untenableness by asking, "Why shall the wise alone share in immortality? Furthermore, how can something that came into existence in the course of human life suddenly acquire eternal duration? Or how can there be any bliss in the knowledge of G.o.d where there is no personality, no self-conscious ego to enjoy it?" Therefore Crescas ascribed to the soul an indestructible spiritual essence whose perfection is attained, not by mere intellect or knowledge, but by love of G.o.d manifested in a religious and moral life, and which is thereby made to share in eternal bliss.(934)
8. All these various thinkers find the future life either expressed or suggested in the Scriptures as a truth based upon reason. This is especially the conception of Abraham ibn Daud, who, contrary to his Aristotelian successor Maimonides, sees in self-consciousness, by which the soul differentiates itself from the body as a personality, the proof that it cannot be subject to dissolution with the body.(935)
Besides the philosophic doctrine of the immortality of the soul, however, the traditional belief in the resurrection of the body demanded some consideration on the part of these philosophers. Saadia defends the latter with all his might, endeavoring to reconcile the two as best he can.(936) All the rest leave us in doubt whether resurrection is to be understood literally or symbolically. Maimonides especially involves himself in difficulties, inasmuch as in his commentary on the Mishna he considers the resurrection of the dead an unalterable article of faith, whereas in his Code(937) and in the Moreh he speaks only of immortality; and again before the end of his life he wrote, obviously in self-defense, a work which seems to favor bodily resurrection, yet without clarifying his conceptions at any time.(938) The belief in resurrection had taken too deep a root in the Jewish consciousness and had been too firmly established through the liturgy of the Synagogue for any philosopher to touch it without injuring the very foundations of faith.
Moreover, beside external caution a certain inner need seems to have impelled toward the acceptance of resurrection. As soon as one thinks of the soul as existing or continuing to live in an incorporeal state, one is involuntarily led toward the belief in the soul"s preexistence or even in the possibility of metempsychosis. Thus it seemed more reasonable to believe in a new formation of the human body together with a new creation of the world. Therewith came the disposition to a.s.sign to the soul in the future world a body of finer substance, like that a.s.sumed by the mystic Nahmanides,(939) in order to a.s.sure to the new humanity a wondrous duration of life like that of Elijah.
9. While the popular philosopher Albo rightly declares that the nature of the soul is as far beyond all human understanding as is the nature of G.o.d,(940) the mystics sought all the more to penetrate its secrets. The Cabbalah also divides the soul into three different substances according to the three Biblical names, a.s.signing their origins to the three different spheres of the universe, and reiterating the Platonic theory of the preexistence of the soul and its future transmigration. This division into three parts provided scope for all types of theories concerning the soul in its sensuous, its moral, and its intellectual nature.
Fundamentally the Cabbalah considered the soul an emanation from the divine intellect with a luminous character just like the philosophers. But in the Platonic view of the ascending order of creation, which forms the basis of the Cabbalah, this mundane life is an abyss of moral degradation, so that the soul yearns toward the primal Source of light, finally to find freedom and bliss with G.o.d.(941) Thus the later Cabbalah returned to the teachings of Philo, the Jewish Plato, for whom death was only the stripping off of the earthly frame in order to enter the pure and luminous world of G.o.d.
10. With Moses Mendelssohn, who in his _Phaedon_ tried to translate Plato"s proof of immortality into modern terms, a new att.i.tude toward the nature and destiny of the soul arose in Judaism among both the philosophers and the educated laity. Mendelssohn not only endeavored to prove the immortality of the soul through its indivisibility and incorporeality, as all the neo-Platonists and Jewish philosophers had done before him; he also attempted to show from the harmonious plan which pervades and controls all of G.o.d"s creation, that the soul may enter a sphere of existence greater in extent and content than the little span of earthly life which it relinquishes. The progress of the soul toward its highest unfolding, unsatisfied in this life, demands a future growth in the direction of G.o.d-like perfection.(942) At this point the philosopher enters the province of faith, and thus furnishes for all time the cardinal point of the belief in immortality. The divine spirit in man, which is evinced in the self-conscious, morally active personality, bears within itself the proof and promise of its future life. Moreover, this corresponds with the belief in G.o.d as One who rules the world for the eternal purposes and aims of perfection, who cannot deceive the hope of the human heart for a continued living and striving onward and forward, without thereby impairing His own perfection. For we all close our lives without having attained the goal of moral and spiritual perfection toward which we strive; and therefore our very nature demands a world where we may reach the higher degree of perfection for which we long. In this sense we may interpret the Psalmist"s verse: "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with (beholding) Thy likeness."(943) That is: our spirit, when no longer bound to the earth, shall behold the divine glory,-a vision which transcends our powers of thought.
11. In the light of modern investigation, body and soul are seen to be indissolubly bound together by a reciprocal relation which either benefits or impedes them both. Wherein the spiritual bond exists that renders both the physical organs with their muscular and nervous systems and the magnetic or electric currents which set them in motion subservient to the will of the intellect; what the mind actually _is_, into whose deepest recesses science is casting its search-light to illumine its processes,-these are problems which will probably remain ever incapable of solution by human knowledge, and will therefore always afford new food for the imagination. Yet it is just in periods like ours, when the belief in G.o.d is weakening, that the human spirit is especially solicitous to guard itself against the thought of the complete annihilation of its G.o.d-like self-conscious personality. This gives rise to the superst.i.tious effort to spy out the soul by sensory means and to find ways of seeing or hearing the spirits of the dead,-a tendency which is as dangerous to the spiritual and moral welfare of humanity as was the ancient practice of necromancy.(944) It is therefore all the more important to base the belief in immortality solely on the G.o.d-likeness of the human soul, which is the mirror of Divinity. Just as one postulate of faith holds that G.o.d, the Creator of the world, rules in accordance with a moral order, so another is the immortality of the human soul, which, amidst yearning and groping, beholds G.o.d. The question where, and how, this self-same ego is to continue, will be left for the power of the imagination to answer ever anew.
12. Certainly it is both comforting and convenient to imagine the dead who are laid to rest in the earth as being asleep and to await their reawakening. As the fructifying rain awakens to a new life the seeds within the soil, so that they rise from the depths arrayed in new raiment, so, when touched by the heavenly dew of life, will those who linger in the grave arise to a new existence, clad in new bodies. This is the belief which inspired the pious founders of the synagogal liturgy even before the period of the Maccabees, when they expressed their praise of G.o.d"s power in that He would send the fertilizing rain upon the vegetation of the earth, and likewise in due time the revivifying dew upon the sleeping world of man. Both appeared to the sages of that age to be evidences of the same wonder-working power of G.o.d. Whoever, therefore, still sees G.o.d"s greatness, as they did, revealed through miracles, that is, through interruptions of the natural order of life, may cling to the traditional belief in resurrection, so comforting in ancient times. On the other hand, he who recognizes the unchangeable will of an all-wise, all-ruling G.o.d in the immutable laws of nature must find it impossible to praise G.o.d according to the traditional formula as the "Reviver of the dead," but will avail himself instead of the expression used in the Union Prayer Book after the pattern of Einhorn, "He who has implanted within us immortal life."(945)
Chapter XLV. Divine Retribution: Reward and Punishment.
1. The feeling of equity is deeply rooted in human nature, demanding reparation for every wanton wrong and yielding recognition to every benevolent act. In fact, upon this universal principle is based all justice and to a certain extent all morality. Judaism of every age compresses this demand of the religious and moral nature of man into the doctrine: G.o.d rewards the good and punishes the evil. This doctrine, which is the eleventh of Maimonides" articles of faith, const.i.tutes the underlying presumption of all the Biblical narratives as well as of the prophetic threats and warnings and those of the Mosaic law, in so far as earthly success and prosperity were regarded as the rewards of G.o.d and earthly misfortune and misery as His punishments. In the same degree, however, as experience contradicted this doctrine, and as examples multiplied of wicked persons revelling in prosperity and innocent ones laboring under adversity and woe, it became necessary to defer the divine retribution more and more to the future-at first to a future on earth and later to one in the world to come, until finally it developed into a pure spiritual conception in full accord with a higher ethical view of life.
2. As long as in the primitive process of law the family or the clan was held responsible for the crime of the individual, ancient Israel also adhered to the idea that "G.o.d visits the sins of the fathers upon the third and fourth generation," as Jeremiah still did(946) in full accord with the second commandment. It was in a far later stage that the rabbis interpreted the words "of those who hate Me" in the sense of individual responsibility.(947) Only in accordance with the Deuteronomic law which says: "The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers; every man shall be put to death for his own sin,"(948) did the religious consciousness rebel against the thought that a later generation should suffer for the sins of its ancestors, and hence the popular adage arose, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge."(949) It is the prophet Ezekiel who refutes once and for all the idea of a guilt transmitted to children and consequently of hereditary sin and punishment, insisting on the doctrine that personal responsibility alone determines divine retribution.(950) But here a new element affects divine retribution. G.o.d"s long-suffering and mercy do not desire the immediate punishment, the death of the sinner. He should be given time to return to a better mode of life.(951)
But the great enigma of human destiny, which vexes the author of the seventy-third Psalm and that of the book of Job, still presses for a better solution. It is true that the popular belief and popular legends which are preserved in post-Biblical writings as well, insisted on a justice which requites "measure for measure."(952) Still insight into actual life does not confirm the teaching of the popular philosophy that the "righteous will be requited in the earth" and that "evil pursueth sinners."(953) The unshakeable belief in the justice of G.o.d had to find another solution for life"s antinomies, and was forced to reach out for another world in which the divine righteousness would find its complete realization.
3. Biblical Judaism with few exceptions recognized only the present world and the subterranean world of shadows, a view preserved in its essentials by Ben Sira and the Sadducees, who were subsequently declared heretics. In contrast to them Pharisaic or Rabbinic Judaism teaches a resurrection after death for a life of eternal bliss or eternal torment, according as the divine judgment finds one righteous and another wicked. We may leave aside the consideration that the first impulse toward a Jewish belief in resurrection came from the non-fulfillment of the national hope, wherefore it was always bound up with the soil of the Holy Land, as will be seen in Chapter LIV. The fact remains that the divine judgment to follow upon resurrection was consistently regarded as a great world-judgment, which was to decide the future lot of all men and spirits. It must be noted also that the apocalyptic and midrashic literature often identifies the pious with the G.o.d-fearing Israelites as those who shall arise to eternal life, while the wicked are identified with the idolatrous heathen, who are condemned to eternal death, or, as it is frequently expressed, to a second death.(954)
4. Exactly as the old Persian Mazdaism expected the resurrection of all, both good and bad, the believers in Ahura Mazda as well as the rest of humanity, so the apocalyptic writers prior to the Talmudic period describe resurrection as universal: "In those days the earth will give back those who have been entrusted to her, and the nether-world will release that which it has received," according to Enoch LI, 1. Similarly fourth Esdras remarks: "And after seven days of silence for all creatures, the new order of the world shall be raised up, and mortality itself shall perish; and the earth shall restore those that are asleep in her; and so shall the dust give back those that dwell in silence; and the chambers shall deliver those souls that were committed unto them. The Most High shall appear on the throne of judgment, and shall say: Judgment only shall remain, truth shall stand, and faith shall wax strong. The good deeds shall be of force, and wicked deeds shall no longer sleep. The lake of torment shall be revealed, and opposite to it the place of joy; the furnace of Gehinnom will be visible, and opposite to it the bliss of Paradise. Then the Most High will speak to the heathen nations, who have awakened: behold now Him whom ye have denied, whom ye have not served, whose command ye have abhorred. Gaze now here and there,-here bliss and rest, there fire and torment."(955)
The rabbinic form of the doctrine of resurrection is quite unambiguous: "Those born into the world are destined to die; the dead, to live again; and those who enter the world to come, to be judged."(956) And wherever the rabbinic or apocalyptic literature mentions the share of the pious, or of Israel, in eternal life, this implies that, while these enter the world to come, the evil-doers or idolaters shall enter h.e.l.l for eternal death; the understanding being that there is a universal resurrection for the world-judgment.
5. The whole system of eschatology in connection with resurrection arose undoubtedly from the Persian doctrine, according to which death together with all that is evil and unclean is created by Ahriman, the evil principle, and will suffer annihilation with him, as soon as the good principle, Ahura Mazda, has achieved the final victory. Then Soshiosh "the Savior," the descendant of Zoroaster, will begin his kingdom of eternal life for the righteous, coincident with the awakening of the dead.(957) Pharisaic Judaism, however, gave the hope of resurrection a deeper moral and religious meaning. The proofs, or rather a.n.a.logies from nature, of the seeds springing from the earth in a new form, of men awakening from sleep in the morning, or of the original creation, are shared by the rabbis and the New Testament writers with the Persians. On the other hand, proofs based on the prophetic hope for the future are purely national. So also are those proofs based on the Biblical pa.s.sage that the G.o.d of the fathers had sworn to the Patriarchs to give them the Promised Land.(958) Likewise the reference to the wondrous resurrections related in the history of Elijah and Elisha offers no proof of a universal resurrection. A striking point and one which deepens the idea of retribution is the simile of the Lame and the Blind(959) employed by Jehuda ha Nasi in a dialogue with the Emperor Antoninus. The latter had said that at the last judgment both soul and body might deny all guilt. The body may say: "The soul alone has sinned, for since it has parted from me, I have lain motionless as a stone." And the soul, on its part, may reply: "It must be the body that sinned, for since I have parted from it I soar about in the air free as a bird." To this Jehuda ha Nasi answered: "A king once possessed a garden with splendid fig-trees, and appointed as watchmen in it a blind man and a lame man. Then the lame man spoke to the blind man, "I see fine figs up there; take me upon your shoulders, and I shall pick them, and we can enjoy them together." They did so, and when the king entered the garden, the figs were gone. But when they were held to account for it, the lame man said, "How could I have taken them, since I cannot walk?" And the blind man said, "And I cannot see." Then the king had the lame man placed upon the shoulders of the blind man and judged them both together. In like manner will G.o.d treat the body and the soul, as it is said:(960) "He calleth to the heavens above-that is, the heavenly element, the soul-and to the earth beneath-the earthly body-and places them together before His throne of judgment." "
6. It cannot be denied that the idea that the soul and body, having committed good or evil deeds together in this life, should receive in common their reward or punishment in the world to come, satisfied the Jewish sense of justice better than the conception developed by h.e.l.lenistic Judaism (after the Platonic and, in the last resort, the Egyptian view) that the soul alone should partake of eternal bliss or torment. Nevertheless the philosophically trained Jewish thinkers of Alexandria could not bring themselves to accept a bodily resurrection, and therefore emphasized so much more strongly the great day of judgment and the reward and punishment of the soul in the world to come. Still we find much inconsistency among various authors, sometimes even in the same work, in the conception of future bliss for the good and torture for the wicked.
These varied according to the more sensuous or more spiritual view taken of the soul and the celestial world, and according to the literal or figurative interpretation of the Biblical allusions to "fire," "worms,"
and the like in the punishment of evil-doers, and of the delights awaiting the righteous in the future.(961)
On this point free play was allowed to the imagination of the people and the fancy of the Haggadists. Still, throughout, the solemn thought found its echo that mortal man must give account to the inexorable Judge of the living and the dead for the life just completed, in order to be ushered, according to his deserts, into the portals of the celestial Paradise or of h.e.l.l.(962) This led to the view that this whole mundane life is but like a wayfarers" inn for the life to come, or the vestibule of the palace (more precisely the "banquet-hall") of the future.(963)
7. A further development of the principle of justice in application to future retribution led not merely to such a depiction of the tortures of h.e.l.l and the delights of heaven that the maxim: "measure for measure," so often deviated from in this life, could find complete realization in the world to come. An intermediate stage also was devised for those whose merit or guilt would enroll them neither among the righteous for eternal bliss, nor among the wicked for eternal punishment. While the stern teachers of the school of Shammai insisted that these mediocre ones must undergo a twelve-month process of purification in the fires of Gehenna, the milder school of Hillel maintained that the divine mercy would grant them admission into Paradise even without the fires of purgatory(964), either through the merit of the patriarchs(965) or owing to the deserts of a son who has been trained to reverence for G.o.d, as is indicated by the legend concerning the Kaddish prayer.(966) In any case, the teaching of Hillel concerning the all-sufficing mercy of G.o.d swept aside the old hopeless conception that eternal suffering in h.e.l.l awaits the average man, which was adhered to by the Christian church in connection with its dogma of the atoning blood of Christ. Likewise, in the dispute of schools as to whether or not the bliss of eternal life would be accorded also to the righteous among the heathen, the more humane view of Joshua ben Hananiah prevailed over the gloomier one of the Shammaite Eliezer ben Hyrcanos, and therefore the doctrine became generally accepted, "The righteous of all nations shall have a share in the world to come."(967)
8. The apocalyptic writers, who largely influenced the New Testament, and also the Haggadists refer with fond interest to the banquet of the pious in the world to come, where they would be served with heavenly manna as bread, with wine preserved from the days of the creation, and with the flesh of the Leviathan or the fruit of the Tree of Life.(968) On the other hand they elaborated the tortures of the evil-doers in h.e.l.l which are to afford a pleasing sight to the pious in heaven, just as the torments of the sinners are aggravated by the sight of the righteous enjoying all delights.(969) But at the same time we meet with a more refined and spiritual conception of future reward and punishment among the disciples of R. Jehuda ha Nasi, in the Babylonian Rab, and the Palestinian R.
Johanan and his pupil Simeon ben Lakish. "In the future world," says Rab, "there are no sensual enjoyments nor pa.s.sions, but the righteous sit at the table of G.o.d with wreaths upon their heads (like the Greek sages at a symposium!), feeding on the radiance of the divine majesty, as did the chosen ones of Israel on the heights of Sinai."(970) R. Johanan teaches, "All the promises held forth in Scripture in definite form as reward for the future, refer to the Messianic era, whereas in regard to the bliss awaiting the pious in the world to come, the words of Isaiah hold good: "No eye hath seen it, O G.o.d, beside Thee." "(971) Simeon ben Lakish even went so far as to say, "There is neither h.e.l.l nor paradise. Instead, G.o.d sends out the sun in its full strength from its encas.e.m.e.nt, and the wicked are consumed by its heat, while the pious find delight and healing in its beams."(972)
However, the popular imagination demanded more perceptible pictures of heaven and h.e.l.l, if fear of punishment was to deter men from sin, and hope of reward to lead them to virtue. The description of the modes of reward and punishment for the future in the Koran is the outcome of mingled Persian and Jewish popular conceptions, and its cra.s.s sensuousness exerted in turn a decisive influence upon the entire Gaonic period,(973) leaving its mark upon even so clear a thinker as Saadia. Not only does he admit into his philosophic work all the crude and conflicting descriptions of the future world, but he also argues for the eternity of the punishments of h.e.l.l and of the delights of heaven as logical necessities, because only such could sufficiently deter or allure mankind, and a righteous G.o.d must certainly carry out His threats and promises.(974)
9. The entire Jewish philosophy or theology of the Middle Ages remained under the influence of the traditional belief in resurrection. Even Maimonides, whose purely spiritual conception of the soul and of salvation is utterly irreconcilable with the belief in bodily resurrection, and who accordingly dwells instead, in both his Moreh and his Code, on the future world of spirits, with explicit emphasis on their incorporeality, did not have the courage to break altogether with the traditional belief in resurrection. In his apologetic treatise on resurrection he even attempts to present it as a miraculous act of G.o.d beyond the grasp of the intellect. He omits, however, to specify what purpose this miracle may serve, since in the Maimonidean system reward and punishment would be administered in the world of spirits in a much purer and more satisfactory manner.(975) The same standpoint is taken also by Jehuda ha Levi as well as by Crescas and Albo.(976) If then resurrection be a miracle, it falls outside the scope of philosophic speculation and becomes a matter of faith; accordingly the mystics from Nahmanides down to Mana.s.seh ben Israel a.s.sociated with it the grossest conceptions.(977)
10. The actual view of Maimonides concerning future retribution is expressed clearly and unambiguously in both his early product, the commentary on the Mishna, and in the ripest fruit of his life work, the Mishneh Torah, where he says "Not immortality, but the power to win eternal life through the knowledge and the love of G.o.d is implanted in the human soul. If it has the ability to free itself from the bondage of the senses and by means of the knowledge of G.o.d to lift itself to the highest morality and the purest thinking, then it has attained divine bliss, true immortality, and it enters the realm of the eternal Spirit together with the angels. If it sinks into the sensuousness of earthly existence, then it is cut off from eternal life; it suffers annihilation like the beast.
In reality this life eternal is not the future, but is already potentially present and invariably at hand in the spirit of man himself, with its constant striving toward the highest. When the rabbis speak of paradise and h.e.l.l, describing vividly the delights of the one and the torments of the other, these are only metaphors for the agony of sin and the happiness of virtue. True piety serves G.o.d neither from fear of punishment nor from desire for reward, as servants obey their master, but from pure love of G.o.d and truth. Thus the saying of Ben Azai is verified, "The reward of a good deed is the good deed itself."(978) Only children need bribes and threats to be trained to morality. Thus religion trains mankind. The people who cannot penetrate into the kernel need the sh.e.l.l, the external means of threats and promises."(979) These splendid words of the great thinker require supplementing or modification in only one direction, and that has been afforded by the keenest critic among Jewish philosophers, Hasdai Crescas. Too deeply enmeshed in the Aristotelian system, Maimonides found the happiness and immortality of man solely in the acquired intellectual power which becomes part of the divine intellect, and the mere knowledge of G.o.d is to him tantamount to the blissful enjoyment of the pious in the radiance of G.o.d"s majesty. Consequently those who strive and soar heavenward through their moral conduct and n.o.ble aspirations, without at the same time being thinkers, receive no reward. Against this Aristotelian one-sidedness Crescas emphasizes G.o.d"s love and goodness for which the righteous yearn, and in whose pursuit man finds perfection and happiness. Not for the sake of attaining bliss shall we love G.o.d and practice virtue and truth, but to love G.o.d and practice virtue is itself true bliss. This is the nearness of G.o.d referred to by the Psalmist and declared to be man"s highest good.(980) There is no need of any other reward than this, and there is no greater punishment than to be deprived of this boon forever.(981)
11. In the face of these two great thinkers, to whom Spinoza owes the fundamental ideas of his ethics,(982) the question considered by Albo, whether the eternal duration of the tortures of h.e.l.l is reconcilable with the divine mercy,(983) a question which still plays an important role in Christian theology, and which was probably suggested to Albo through his disputations with representatives of the Church,-is for us superfluous and superseded. Our modern conceptions of time and s.p.a.ce admit neither a place or a world-period for the reward and punishment of souls, nor the intolerable conception of eternal joy without useful action and eternal agony without any moral purpose. Modern man knows that he bears heaven and h.e.l.l within his own bosom. Indeed, so much more difficult is the life of duty which knows of no other reward than happiness through harmony with G.o.d, the Father of the immortal soul, and of no other punishment than the soul"s distress at its inner discord with the primal Source and the divine Ideal of all morality. All the more powerfully is modern man controlled by the thought that the universe permits no stagnation, no barren enjoyment or barren suffering, but that every death marks the transition to a higher goal for greater accomplishment. This yearning of the soul finds expression in the Talmudic maxim, "The righteous find rest neither in this world, nor in the world to come, as it is said, "They go from strength to strength, until they appear before G.o.d on Zion." "(984)
Chapter XLVI. The Individual and the Race
1. In every system of belief the object of divine care and guidance is the individual. His soul and his conscience raise him up, especially according to the Jewish doctrine, to the divine image, to G.o.dchildship. His freedom and moral responsibility are the patent of n.o.bility for his divine nature; his ego, controlling external forces and carrying out its own designs, vouches for his immortality. Nevertheless the spirit of the Biblical language indicates rightly that the individual is only a son of man,-_ben adam_,-that is, a segment or member of the human race, but not the perfect typical exemplification of the whole of mankind. From the social organism he receives what he is, what he has, and what he ought to do, both his nature and his destiny; and only in a.s.sociation with the community and under the guidance of the highest ideal of humanity can he attain true perfection. Only mankind as a whole, in its cooperation, as it extends over the vast expanse of the earth, and in its succession which reaches through the centuries of the world"s history, can bring to full development the divine image in man, his moral and religious nature with all its varied potentialities. It is man collectively who in the first chapter of Genesis receives the command to subject the earth with all its creatures to his cultural purposes.(985) In whatever stage of culture we meet man, his modes of thought and speech, his customs and moral views, even his spiritual faculties are the result of a long historic process of development, the product of an extremely complicated past, as well as the basis of a future which expands in all directions. The ancients expressed this in their suggestive way, remarking in connection with the verse of the Psalm, "Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance, and in Thy book they were all written,"(986) that at the creation of the first man G.o.d recorded the succession of races with their sages, seers and leaders until the end of time.(987) And when the Haggadists say that in creating man G.o.d took dust from every part of the world, so that he would be everywhere at home,(988) again they were thinking of mankind. Similarly in the pa.s.sage from the Psalms, "Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before," they explain that G.o.d made the first man with two faces, one looking forward and the other backward, that is, with a Ja.n.u.s head; and thus they regard man in his relation to the past and the future, in his historic continuity.(989) As both physically and spiritually he is the heir of innumerable ancestors who have transmitted to him with their blood all their idiosyncrasies and capacities in a peculiar combination, so will he transmit both consciously and unconsciously the inherited possessions of mankind to future generations for continued growth or for degeneration. He forms but a link in the great chain of history, whose goal is the perfected ideal of humanity, the completed idea of man. This was the underlying thought of Ben Azzai in his dispute with R. Akiba, who held that the princ.i.p.al maxim of Jewish teaching is "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." In opposition to this Ben Azzai presented as the most important lesson of the Bible the verse which says, "This is the book of the generations of man; in the day that G.o.d created man, in the likeness of G.o.d made He him."(990) The G.o.dlikeness of man develops more and more through the evolution of the human race. This is the basic force for all human love and all human worth.
2. This social bond existing between the individual and the race imposes upon him in accordance with his occupation certain duties in the same degree as it confers benefits. Ben Zoma, a colleague of Ben Azzai, expressed this as follows: When he saw great crowds of people together, he exclaimed, "Praised be Thou who hast created all these to serve me." In explanation of this blessing he said, "How hard the first man in his loneliness must have toiled, until he could eat a morsel of bread or wear a garment, but I find everything prepared. The various workmen, from the farmer to the miller and the baker, from the weaver to the tailor, all labor for me. Can I then be ungrateful and be oblivious of my duty?"(991) In the same sense he interprets the last verse in Koheleth, "This is the end of the matter; fear G.o.d and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." That is to say, all mankind toils for him who does so.
Thus does human life rest upon a reciprocal relation, upon mutual duty.(992)
3. Man is a social being who must strike root in many spheres of life in order that the variegated blossoms and fruits of his spiritual and emotional nature may sprout forth. The more richly the communal life is specialized into professions and occupations, the more does the province of the individual expand, and the more difficult it is for him to attain perfection on all sides. According to his faculties and predisposition he must always develop one or the other side of human endeavor and pursue now the beautiful, now the good, now the true and now the useful, if as the image of G.o.d he is to emulate the Ideal of all existence, the Pattern of all creation. Consequently he may reflect some radiance of the divine glory in his character and achievements, whether as moral hero, as sage and thinker, as statesman and battler for freedom, as artist, or as the discoverer of new forces and new worlds; and yet the full splendor of G.o.d"s greatness is mirrored only by mankind as a whole through its ceaseless common action and interaction. Therefore Judaism deprecates every attempt to present a single individual, be he ever so n.o.ble or wise, as the ideal of all human perfection, as a perfect man, free from fault or blemish. "There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside Thee,"
says Scripture.(993) Instead of extolling any single mortal as the type or ideal of perfection, our sages rather say with reference to the lofty characters of the Bible: "There is no generation which cannot show a man with the love for righteousness of an Abraham, or the n.o.bility of spirit of a Moses, or the love for truth of a Samuel."(994) That is to say, every age creates its own heroes, who reflect the majesty of G.o.d in their own way.
4. As man is the keystone of all creation, so he is called upon to take his full share in the progress of the race. "He who formed the earth created it not a waste; He formed it to be inhabited," says the prophet.(995) True humanity has its seat, not in the life of the recluse, but in the family circle, amid mutual love and loyalty between husband and wife, between parents and children. The sages, with their keen insight into the spirit of the Scripture, point to the fact that it is man and wife together who first receive the name of "man," because only the mutual helpfulness and influence, the care and toil for one another draw forth the treasures of the soul, and create relations which warrant permanency and give promise of a future.(996)
5. Still the family circle itself is only a segment of the nation, which creates speech and custom, and a.s.signs to each person his share in the common activity of the various cla.s.ses of men. Only within the social bond of the nation or tribe is the interdependence of all brought home to the consciousness of the individual, together with all the common moral obligations and religious yearnings. Through the few elect ones of the nation or tribe, G.o.d"s voice is heard as to what is right in both custom and law, and through them the individual is roused to a sense of duty. It is society which enables the human mind to triumph over physical necessity by ever new discoveries of tools and means of life, thus to attain freedom and prosperity, and, through meditation over the continually expanding realm of G.o.d"s world, to build up the various systems of science and of art.
6. But the single nation also is too dependent upon the conditions of its historic past, of its land and its racial characteristics, to bring the divine image to its full development in a perfect man. Humanity as a whole comes to its own, to true self-consciousness, only through the reciprocal contact of race with race, through the cooperation of the various circles and cla.s.ses of life which extend beyond the narrow limits of nationality and have in view common interests and aims, whether in the pursuit of truth, in the achievement of good, or in the creation of the useful and the beautiful. Only when the various nations and groups of men learn to regard themselves as members of one great family, will the life of the individual find its true value in relation to the idea and the ideal of humanity. Then only will the unity and harmony of the entire cosmic life find its reflection in the blending of the factors and forces of human society.
7. Judaism has evolved the idea of the unity of mankind as a corollary of its ethical monotheism. Therefore the Bible begins the history of the world with the creation of Adam and Eve, the one human pair. The covenant which G.o.d concluded after the flood with Noah, the father of the new mankind, has its corresponding goal at the end of time in the divine covenant which is to include all tribes of men in one great brotherhood; and so also the dispersion of man through the confusion of tongues at the building of the Tower of Babel has its counterpart in the rallying of all nations at the end of time for the worship of the One and Only G.o.d in a pure tongue and a united spirit on Zion"s heights.(997) Whatever the civilizations of Greece and Rome and the Stoic philosophy have achieved for the idea of humanity, Judaism has offered in its prophetic hope for a Messianic future the guiding idea for the progress of man in history, thus giving him the impulse to ceaseless efforts toward the highest of all aims for the realization of which all nations and cla.s.ses, all systems of faith and thought, must labor together for millenniums to come.
Chapter XLVII. The Moral Elements of Civilization
1. Because Judaism sees the attainment of human perfection only when the divine in man has reached complete development through the unimpeded activity of all his spiritual, moral, and social forces, it insists upon the full recognition of all branches of human society as instruments of man"s elevation, either individually or collectively. It deprecates the idea that any force or faculty of human life be regarded as unholy and therefore be suppressed. It thus rejects on principle monastic renunciation and isolation, pointing to the Scriptural verse, "He who formed the earth created it not a waste; He formed it to be inhabited.(998)"
2. Accordingly Judaism regards the establishment of family life through marriage as a duty obligatory on mankind, and sees in the entrance into the marital relation an act of life"s supreme consecration. In contrast to the celibacy sanctioned by the Church and approved by the rabbis only under certain conditions, and exceptionally for their holy exercises by the Essenes, the Tannaite R. Eliezer p.r.o.nounces the man who through bachelorhood shirks the duty of rearing children to be guilty of murder against the human race. Another calls him a despoiler of the divine image.
Another rabbi says that such a one renounces his privilege of true humanity, in so far as only in the married state can happiness, blessing, and peace be attained.(999) It is significant as to the spirit of Judaism that, while other religions regard the celibacy of the priests and saints as signs of highest sanct.i.ty, the Jewish law expressly commands that the high priest shall not be allowed to observe the solemn rites of the Day of Atonement if unmarried.(1000) Love for the wife, the keeper and guardian of the home, must attune his heart to tenderness and sympathy, if he is to plead for the people before the Holy G.o.d. He can make intercession for the household of Israel only if he himself has founded a family, in which are practiced faithfulness and modesty, love and regard for the life-companion, all the domestic virtues inherited from the past.
3. Another moral factor for human development is industry, which secures to the individual his independence and his dignity when he engages in creative labor after the divine pattern, and which rewards him with comfort and the joy of life. This also is so highly valued by Judaism that industrial activity, which unlocks from the earth ever new treasures to enrich human life, is enjoined upon all, even those pursuing more spiritual vocations. "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings."(1001) "When thou eatest the labor of thy hands, happy art thou and it shall be well with thee."(1002) In commenting on this last verse, the sages say: "This means that thou wilt be doubly blessed; happy art thou in this world, and it shall be well with thee in the world to come."(1003) Again they say, "No labor, however humble, is dishonoring,"(1004) also: "Idleness, even amid great wealth, leads to the wasting of the intellect."(1005) Moreover it is said, "Whoever neglects to train his son to a trade, rears him to become a robber."(1006) True, there were some among the pious who themselves abstained from partic.i.p.ation in industry, and therefore proclaimed, in the same tenor as the Sermon on the Mount, "Behold the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven, they sow not and reap not, and their heavenly Father cares for them."(1007) But these formed an exception, while the majority of Jewish teachers extolled the real blessing of labor and its efficacy in enn.o.bling heart and spirit.(1008)
4. Neither does Judaism begrudge man the joy of life which is the fruit of industry, nor rob it of its moral value. On the contrary, that ascetic spirit which encourages self-mortification and rigid renunciation of all pleasure is declared sinful.(1009) Instead, we are told that in the world to come man shall have to give account for every enjoyment offered him in this life, whether he used it gratefully or rejected it in ingrat.i.tude.(1010) Abstinence is declared to be praiseworthy only in curbing wild desires and pa.s.sions. For the rest, true piety lies in the consecration of every gift of G.o.d, every pleasure of life which He has offered, and using it in His service, so that the seal of holiness shall be imprinted even upon the satisfaction of the most sensuous desires.
5. Judaism, then, lays special emphasis upon sociability as advancing all that is good and n.o.ble in man. The life of the recluse, according to its teaching, is of little use to the world at large and hence of no moral value. Only in a.s.sociation with one"s fellow-men does life find incentive and opportunity for worthy work. "Either a life among friends or death" is a Talmudic proverb.(1011) Unselfish friendship like that of David and Jonathan is lauded and pointed out for imitation.(1012) Through it man learns to step beyond the narrow boundaries of his ego, and in caring for others he will purify and exalt his own soul, until at last its love will include all mankind.
6. "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend," says the book of Proverbs,(1013) and the sages derive from this verse the doctrine that learning does not thrive in solitude.(1014) A single log does not nourish the flame; to keep up the fire one must throw in one piece of wood after the other. This applies also to learning; it lacks in vigor, if it is not communicated to others. Wisdom calls to her votaries on the highways, in order that the stream of knowledge may overflow for many. For both the culture of the intellect and the enn.o.bling of the soul it is necessary that man should step out of the narrow limits of self and come into touch with a larger world. Only in devotion to his fellows is man made to realize his own G.o.dlike nature. In the same measure as he honors G.o.d"s image in others, in foe as well as in friend, in the most lowly servant as well in the most n.o.ble master, man increases his own dignity. This is the fundamental thought of morality as expressed in Job, especially in the beautiful thirty-first chapter, and as embodied in Abraham,(1015) and later reflected in various Talmudic sayings about the dignity of man.(1016) Everywhere man"s relation to society becomes a test of his own worth. The idea of interdependence and reciprocal duty among all members of the human family forms the outstanding characteristic of Jewish ethics. For it is far more concerned in the welfare of society than in that of the individual, and demands that those endowed with fortune should care for the unfortunate, the strong for the weak, and those blessed with vision for the blind. As G.o.d Himself is Father to the fatherless, Judge of the widows, and Protector of the oppressed, so should man be. "Works of benevolence form the beginning and the end of the Torah," points out R. Simlai.(1017)