SHRINE
JUDAISM
Shema Yisroel Adonoi Elohenu Adonoi Echod
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord
is One.”
Jewish Ethics,
By the Rev. Morris Joseph.
Religious Systems of the World
1892
The final aim of religion is morality.
This is the central truth of Judaism.
"Ye shall be holy, for
I, the Lord your God, am holy." And the typical
precept used to illustrate this general formula is
a purely ethical one: "Ye shall fear every man,
his mother and his father." "Ye shall
therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which
if a man do he shall live by them; I am the Lord."
The theme is taken up by prophet and palmist. "The sacrifices of God are a contrite spirit."
If sinners would be at one with their Father in Heaven,
they must rend their hearts and not their garments;
if they would have their prayers answered, they must "cease to do evil," they must "seek
justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless,
plead for the widow: if their fasting is to be effective,
they must loose the bonds of wickedness, and let the
oppressed go free.
According to the prophet Jeremiah, the knowledge
of the Lord is but another name of acts of righteousness
and love.
"Did not thy father," he reminds the wicked
king of Judah, "do judgment and justice? He judged
the cause of the poor and needy. Was not this to know
Me? saith the Lord."
So, too, the Talmud declares that "humility
supersedes all the sacrifices."
"He who devotes himself to the mere study of
religion, without engaging
in works of mercy and love, is like one who has no
God." Religious contemplation, is commendable
only when it goes hand in hand with active morality.
"Only the union of the two can make sin forgotten."
The right conduct of everyday life transcends in importance
even right belief. Theology must yield the first place
to morals. "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good;
and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly,
and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"
The Talmud affirms that the heathen
who observes the moral law is equal to the high priest,
and that every good man, no matter what his creed
may be, is sure of Heaven
The Psalmist sets the Lord continually before him,
but only because he knows, that when God is at his
right hand, he will not be moved - his moral stability
will be assured.
"Acknowledge Him: cries the wise man in Proverbs,
"in all thy ways, and He will make thy paths
straight." But the straightening of the path,
the life that is "in the right" is the chief
thing to be desired. The whole truth is pithily summed
up by the Talmud: "Without religion there can
be no true morality; without morality there can be
no true religion."
A distinguishing characteristic of Jewish ethical
teaching is its reasonableness and moderation.
It's marked by no excess, no extravagances. It demands
nothing that's impossible for the individual, nothing
that's inconsistent with the well-being, the existence
of society. Something more than mere almsgiving, which
is too often self-pity masquerading in the garb of
mercy, is recommended by the Pentateuch. Careful study
of the condition and real needs of the poor - a rarer
and more difficult task - this is expressly enjoined.
The rich, according to Deuteronomy, are to open their
hand, not for the purpose of giving mere doles, but
of lending the poor man "sufficient for his need."
And notice that lending rather than giving is here
recommended. The self-respect of the deserving poor
is not to be wounded in the attempt to rob poverty
of its sting. Similarly the Talmud declares that loans
are preferable to almsgiving, and Maimonides, in distinguishing
the merits of various benevolent deeds, assigns the
highest place to those considerate acts which aim
at destroying pauperism and restoring to the poor
their lost independence."
THE BIBLE AND ACTIVITY
The whole Bible is one great picture of activity.
It has no place for monks or nuns; its men and women
seek amid the struggles and trials of the world for
the discipline that leads to moral perfection. Think
only of that exquisite description of the virtuous
woman at the end of Proverbs. The beauty of the portrait
lies not in any abstract loveliness, but in its reasonableness,
in its telling a tale that every heat, every commonsense
mind, applauds. It's the portrait, not of a saint,
but of what's equally noble and far more useful -
a true woman. "She spreads out her hand to the
poor"; "the law of kindness is on her tongue";
but "strength and dignity are her clothing"
and "she looks well to the ways of her household."
She scorns to eat the "bread of idleness."
And it is she that is deemed worthy to be called a
"God-fearing woman" - one whose "works
shall praise her in the gates."
HONORING LABOR
"See a man diligent in his work? he shall stand
before Kings."
The dignity of honest labor couldn't be more forcibly
expressed. The wise man in Proverbs reserves his fiercest
indignation, his most biting sarcasm, for the sluggard,
with his plea for a little more slumber, his excuses
about the lion in the street. And the Talmud once
more is the echo of Holy Writ. The Rabbis insist on
the glory of studying the Law, with almost wearisome
iteration. And yet these very men were the most enthusiastic
preachers of the Gospel of Work the world has ever
seen. "The study of the Law," they said,
"that doesn't go hand-in-hand with active industry
is doomed to failure." "Great is labor,"
they also taught, "for it honors the laborer."
MANLINESS
Manliness - this is the dominant note of the Jewish
ethic.
"It is a good sign," the Rabbis characteristically
remark, "when a man walks with head erect."
One is reminded of Longfellow's Village Blacksmith, "who "looks the whole world in the face."
The same idea is discernible in the old Levitical
law that warns us against hating our brother in our
heart. If we have a grievance against him we're to
go to him in a straightforward way, and tell him so
to his face. "Thou shall surely rebuke thy neighbor."
What a host of fatal misunderstandings would be prevented
if this salutary command were generally obeyed.
But while so much emphasis is laid on a robust morality,
it must not be supposed that the gentler virtues are
overlooked.
The crowning excellence of Moses, Israel's Lawgiver
and greatest prophet is his meekness.
THE ATTITUDE OF JUDAISM TO WOMAN
Akiba,
too, the master of a legion of disciples, the martyr
for the cause of Judaism, owed his eminence and his
fame to his wife. She first inspired him with the
enthusiasm which made him a teacher in Israel. She
has her Biblical counterparts in a Miriam, a Deborah,
a Huldah, an Ester - in the typical virtuous women
I spoke of just now. The Rabbis would not have understood
the expression "single blessed." "He
who has no wife," they taught, "lives without
happiness, without religion, without blessing."
In their opinion, clearly, marriage wasn't a failure. "The unmarried man," they declared, "is
not a complete man," an idea which Shakespeare
has expressed more fully:- "He is the half-part
of a blessed man, left to be finished by such as she;
and she a fair divided excellence, whose fullness
of perfection lies in him." The utmost tenderness
and consideration is enjoined on the husband. "The
tears of the injured wife are counted in Heaven."
A BROAD MORALITY
The notion that Judaism teaches a narrow morality,
to be practiced for the exclusive benefit of the Jew,
is as erroneous as the cognate idea that the God of
the Hebrew Bible is a mere tribal God. It's impossible
to explain away the stubborn fact that the old Mosaic
Code contains the maxim, "Thou shall love thy
neighbor as thyself:," and that, as thought to
prevent any misunderstanding of the words, it almost
immediately repeats the command in reference to the
stranger. Similarly, the poor man is to be liberally
and considerately helped, even though he be a stranger
or a sojourner; he is the Israelite's "brother."
The following is from the work of the eleventh century:
"Speak the truth; be modest' live on the coarsest
fare rather than be dependent on others. Shun evil
companions; be not like the flies which swarm in foul
places. Rejoice not when your enemy falls; be not
both witness and judge; avoid anger, the heritage
of fools."
The following maxims are two centuries later;
"Serve
not thy Maker because thou hope for Paradise, but
from pure love of Him and His commands. Give thy life
for His service, like a soldier in battle. Deceive
no one, neither Jew nor Gentile; quarrel with no one,
whatever his creed. If one would borrow of thee, and
thou hast doubts of being repaid, do not lie, saying
thou hast no money. On him that oppresses the poor
or buys stolen goods, no blessing rests. If a murderer
would take refuge with thee, consent not to hide him,
yea, though he be a Jew. Honor the virtuous Gentile,
not the irreligious Israelite. In morals Jews and
Christians, as a rule, are alike. On those that clip
the coin, on usurers, on such as have false weights
and measures, or who are in any wise dishonest in
business, there is no blessing.
The worst failing is ingratitude; it must not be
shown even to the brute.
More guilty even than those who are cruel to animals
are the employers that ill-treat their servants. Pay
thy debts before thou give alms. If one has cheated
or injured thee in any way, let not revenge tempt
thee to do the same to him." Here again are a
few sayings chosen almost at random from various writers: "The alms given in health are gold; in illness,
silver; left by will, copper." "Put no one
to the blush in public; misuse thy power against no
man." "Beware of drunkenness, and thou will
not have to repent of shameful behavior." "A
man's virtues are pearls, and the thread on which
they are strung is the fear of God; break the thread,
and the pearls are lost one by one. But without morality
there can be no real performance of religious duty."
