Part 15 (2/2)
Tales of adventure, stories of travel, were the topics of conversation during the evening. After the dessert the talk took a more serious turn.
The liberty enjoyed by the Jews in America was a fruitful theme for discussion and many were the questions asked by the interested group.
That Israelites were politically and socially placed upon the same footing with their Christian neighbors was a source of gratification, but that some religious observances were in many cases neglected or totally abolished, appeared to these pious listeners as very reprehensible.
”You see,” said Philip, in explanation, ”where a number of Jewish families reside in one place it is still possible to obey the dietary laws, but in inland towns, where the number of Israelite families is limited, it becomes an impossibility to observe them. Nor do they deem it necessary that all the ceremonies that time has collected around the Jewish religion should be strictly observed. Those Israelites who soonest adopt the customs of their new country soonest enjoy the benefits which a free and liberty-loving nation offers.”
Hirsch Bensef shook his head, doubtingly.
”Then you mean to imply that it becomes necessary to abolish those usages in which one's heart and soul are wrapped!” he said.
”Not at all,” answered the American. ”There are thousands of Jews in America as observant of the ordinances as the most pious in Kief. Yet it seems to me that a Jew can remain a Jew even if he neglect some of those ceremonials which have very little to do with Judaism pure and simple.
Some are remnants of an oriental symbolism, others comparatively recent additions to the creed, which ought to give way before civilization.
What possible harm can it do you or your religion if you shave your beard or abandon your jargon for the language of the people among whom you live?”
”It would make us undistinguishable from the _goyim_,” answered Bensef.
”The sooner such a distinction falls the better,” said Philip. ”You may recollect reading in history that in the time of Peter the Great the Russian n.o.bility wore beards and the Czar's efforts to make them shave their faces provoked more animosity than did all the ma.s.sacres of Ivan the Terrible. Now a n.o.bleman would sooner go to prison than wear a beard.”
”We never read history,” interposed the childish treble of Mendel. ”If we did we should know more about the great world.”
”That is indeed a misfortune,” said Philip, sadly. ”Every effort to develop the Jewish mind is checked, not by the gentiles, but by the Jews themselves. Had I been allowed full liberty to study what and how I pleased, I should never have been guilty of the excesses which drove me from home. A knowledge of the history of the world, an insight into modern science, will teach us why and wherefore all our laws were given and how we can best obey, not the letter but the spirit of G.o.d's commands.”
The faces of the little group fell visibly. This was rank heresy. G.o.d forbid that it should ever take root in Israel. Mendel alone appeared satisfied. He was absorbed in all the stranger had to say. This new doctrine was a revelation to him. But Philip did not observe the impression he had created. He had warmed up to his subject and pursued it mercilessly.
”The Israelites in America,” he continued, ”are free and respected. They enjoy equal rights with the citizens of other religious beliefs. They are at liberty to go wherever they please and to live as they desire, and are often chosen to positions of honor and responsibility. Such distinctions are only obtained, however, after one has become a citizen, and citizens.h.i.+p means adherence to the laws of the land and a.s.similation with its inhabitants. It was not long before I discovered, through constant friction with intelligent people about me, the absurdity of many of my ideas and prejudices. The more I a.s.sociated with my fellow-men the more difficult I found it to retain the superst.i.tions of by-gone days.”
”But in giving up what you call superst.i.tion,” said the Rabbi, ”are you not giving up a portion of your religion as well?”
”By no means,” said Philip, eagerly. ”If Rabbi Jeiteles will pardon my speaking upon a subject concerning which he is better instructed and which he is better qualified to expound than myself, I will endeavor to tell why. You well know that until after the destruction of the second Temple the Jews had no Talmud. They then obeyed the laws of G.o.d in all their simplicity and as they understood them, and not one of you will a.s.sert that they were not good and pious Jews. Then came the writers of the Talmud with their explanations and commentaries, and the laws of Moses acquired a new meaning. Stress was laid upon words instead of upon ideas, upon conventionalities instead of upon the true spirit of G.o.d's word. After five centuries of Talmudists had exhausted all possible explanations of the Scriptures, the study of the Law eventually paved the way for the invention of the _Cabala_. A new bible was constructed.
The pious were no longer content with a rational observance of the Mosaic command, but a hidden meaning must be found for every word and in many cases for the individual letters of the Pentateuch. The six hundred and thirteen precepts of Moses were so altered, so tortured to fit new constructions, that the great prophet would experience difficulty in recognizing any one of his beautiful laws from the rubbish under which it now lies buried. New laws and ceremonies, new beliefs and, worse than all, new superst.i.tions were thrust upon the people already weakened by mental fatigue caused by their incessant delving into the mysteries of the Talmud. The free will of the people was suppressed. Instead of giving the healthy imagination and pure reason full power to act, the teachers of the _Cabala_ arrogated to themselves the power to decide what to do and how to do it, and as a result the Jewish observances, as they exist to-day in pious communities, are bound up in arbitrary rules and superst.i.tious absurdities which are as unlike the primitive and rational religion of Israel as night is to day.”
This bold utterance produced a profound sensation in Bensef's little dining-room. Murmurs of disapproval and of indignation frequently interrupted the speaker, and long before he had finished, several of his listeners had sprung up and were pacing the room in great excitement.
Never before had any one dared so to trample upon the time-honored beliefs of Israel. For infinitely less had the ban been hurled against hundreds of offenders and the renegades placed beyond the pale of Judaism.
The Rabbi alone preserved his composure. Mendel lost not a word of the discussion. He sat motionless, with staring eyes and wide open mouth, as though the stranger's eloquence had changed him into stone.
”No, this is too much!” at length stammered Hirsch Bensef. ”Such a condemnation of our holy religion is blasphemy. Rabbi, can you sit by and remain silent?”
The Rabbi moved uneasily upon his chair, but said nothing.
Philip continued:
”That your Rabbi should be of one mind with you is natural, but that does not in any way impair the force of what I have said. You will all admit that you place more weight upon your ceremonials than upon your faith. You deem it more important to preserve a certain position of the feet, a proper intonation of the voice during prayers than to fully understand the prayer itself, and in spite of your pretended belief in the greatness and goodness of G.o.d, you belittle Him by the thought that an omission of a single ceremony, the eating of meat and milk together, the tearing of a _tzitzith_ (fringe) will offend Him, or that a certain number of _mitzvoth_ (good acts) will propitiate Him. Do you understand now what I mean when I say that superst.i.tion is not religion?”
”But,” returned Goldheim, ”the _Shulkan-aruch_ commands us to do certain things in certain ways. Is it not our duty as G.o.d-fearing Jews to obey the laws that have His sanction?”
”Undoubtedly! If you were certain that this book contained His express commands it would be inc.u.mbent upon you to observe them, only, however, after having sought to understand their meaning. But you know, or ought to know, that the book was written by a man like yourselves, who was as liable to err as you are. Many of these commands were excellent at the time in which they were given, but change of circ.u.mstances has made them absurd.”
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