by the world at large, the maintenance by the Jews
of a separate corporate existence is a religious duty
incumbent upon them. They are the “witnesses”
of God, and they must adhere to their religion, showing
forth its truth and excellence to all mankind.
This has been and is and will continue to be their
mission. Their public worship and private virtues
must be the outward manifestation of the fulfilment
of that mission.’
SOME CONCEPTS OF JUDAISM
Though there are no accepted Articles of Faith in
Judaism, there is a complete consensus of opinion
that Monotheism is the basis of the religion.
The Unity of God was more than a doctrine. It
was associated with the noblest hope of Israel, with
Israel’s Mission to the world.
The Unity of God was even more than a hope. It
was an inspiration, a passion. For it the Jews
‘passed through fire and water,’ enduring
tribulation and death for the sake of the Unity.
All the Jewish martyrologies are written round this
text.
In one passage the Talmud actually defines the Jew
as the Monotheist. ‘Whoever repudiates
the service of other gods is called a Jew’ (Megillah,
13 a).
But this all-pervading doctrine of the Unity did not
reach Judaism as an abstract philosophical truth.
Hence, though the belief in the Unity of God, associated
as it was with the belief in the Spirituality of God,
might have been expected to lead to the conception
of an Absolute, Transcendent Being such as we meet
in Islam, it did not so lead in Judaism. Judaism
never attempted to define God at all. Maimonides
put the seal on the reluctance of Jewish theology to
go beyond, or to fall short of, what historic Judaism
delivered. Judaism wavers between the two opposite
conceptions: absolute transcendentalism and absolute
pantheism. Sometimes Judaism speaks with the voice
of Isaiah; sometimes with the voice of Spinoza.
It found the bridge in the Psalter. ‘The
Lord is nigh unto all that call upon Him.’
The Law brought heaven to earth; Prayer raised earth
to heaven.
As was remarked above, Jewish theology never shrank
from inconsistency. It accepted at once God’s
foreknowledge and man’s free-will. So it
described the knowledge of God as far above man’s
reach; yet it felt God near, sympathetic, a Father
and Friend. The liturgy of the Synagogue has been
well termed a ‘precipitate’ of all the
Jewish teaching as to God. He is the Great, the
Mighty, the Awful, the Most High, the King. But
He is also the Father, Helper, Deliverer, the Peace-Maker,
Supporter of the weak, Healer of the sick. All
human knowledge is a direct manifestation of His grace.
Man’s body, with all its animal functions, is
His handiwork. He created joy, and made the Bridegroom
and the Bride. He formed the fruit of the Vine,
and is the Source of all the lawful pleasures of men.
He is the Righteous Judge; but He remembers that man
