Tradition and Reality: The Impact of History on Jewish Thought 0394 464257

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The Impact of History on

Modem Jewish Thought

$ 6.95

In the early nineteenth century, as Jews through-

out Western Europe acquired political and legal

European thought currents began to erode the dependence of Jewish intellectuals on their religious and historical tradition. This erosion was fostered by a movement of Jewish instatus,

tellectuals in

Germany who put

religious tradi-

had reserved

tion in the role the historian

the records of his civilization; that

is,

for

as keys to

understanding what has been and might be, but not necessarily as guides to what should be. In this

volume, the third book in the Contempo-

rary Jewish Civilization Series, streich

Nathan Roten-

examines the trends of thought (the

Science of Judaism) and six prominent nineteenth-century scholars— Leopold Zunz, Hein-

Nachman Krochmal, Simon Dubnow, Ahad Ha-am, and Chaim Nachman Bialik rich Graetz,

—who

attempted to replace the religious bonds

by principles of different character. Against the general direction in which these scholars move, however, Dr. Rotenstreich posits

again the question of the role of Jewish religious tradition as such.

He

fundamental closeness of revealed

this tradition to the

word of God. He reasons

venation of tradition has to tions implied in the Judaic i.e.,

to

man

and

discusses the intimate

that a reju-

come near

to no-

view of the world,

as a being judged

by

his deeds.

(Continued on back flap)

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2016

https://archive.org/details/traditionrealityOOnath

CONTEMPORARY JEWISH CIVILIZATION SERIES In cooperation with Institute of

Contemporary Jewry,

Hebrew University of Jerusalem moshe davis, Editor

OTHER VOLUMES

IN THIS SERIES!

Yehuda Bauer,

Flight

Simon N. Herman,

Moshe

and Rescue Brichah

Israelis

:

and Jews

Davis, The Changing Jewish People

(to be published in 1973)

Tradition and Reality The Impact of History on Modern Jewish Thought

TRADITION and

REALITY The Impact

of History on

Modern Jewish Thought

by Nathan Rotenstreich RANDOM HOUSE

NEW YORK

Copyright

© 1972 by Nathan

Rotenstreich

All rights reserved under International

and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. isbn:

Inc.,

0-394 46425-7

Library of Congress Catalog Card

Manufactured

in the

United States of America

98765432 First Edition

Number: 71-159369

FOR GERSCHOM SCHOLEM Master and Source of Inspiration

AUTHOR’S NOTE

this

book

an attempt

is

the Jews insofar as

contemporary mind of

shaped by attitude to tradition. The

is

it

methodical assumption is

to reveal the

is

that the

contemporary Jewish mind

a conglomerate of different intellectual trends,

a crisis in Jewish history

which originated

century and has continued into our

seems to

crisis

among Jews

lie in

task

I

emergence of a

time.

the nineteenth

The core of

historical consciousness

set

own

tradition

for myself

and the norms inherent

to trace

is

and analyze

quality passed as a result.

the

mind of

knowingly,

this

vidual thinkers

Though my main concern

the present,

mind of

I

assume

that,

in

it.

the salient

phases through which their attitude to tradition and

is

this

and, particularly, in the application of that con-

sciousness to their

The

the

own

in

stemming from

its

binding

in this

book

knowingly or un-

the present has been shaped by indi-

whose teachings continue

to influence opinion

and behavior.

Moshe Davis, Head of the Institute of Contemporary Jewry of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem I

wish to thank Professor

for the suggestion to write this

Alice

Mayhew

for their

work

book and Max Gartenberg and in editing the

manuscript. Mrs.

TRADITION Grabriele Schalit,

who

has also deserved

my

me on I

helped

and helped me

should here also express

me by

the

The Lucius N. president,

my

appreciation for the assistance for Jewish Culture.

Littauer Foundation and Starr,

have helped

preparation of the present book but in

of Jewish ideas over the years. their continuing interest

I

worked with

greatly.

Memorial Foundation

Mr. Harry

REALITY *

prepare the index and glossary,

gratitude. Mrs. Saphir-Braun

the manuscript

provided

me

and

am

my

me

its

distinguished

not only in the

study of the history

deeply grateful to them for

and support.

N. R.

Jerusalem, 1972

CONTENTS

author’s note

ix

part one Background introduction

chapter one

part

two

3

The Meaning of Tradition

History Against

in

Judaism

Norms

CHAPTER TWO

The Science of Judaism

THREE

The Eternal People and

FOUR

Judaism Considered by the Historical

Method

seven

Its

six

37

History

49

part three Peoplehood and chapter

21

Sociological Shift and Ideology

FIVE

7

Its

63

Past

National Revival and Traditional Values Cultural Ingathering

97

TRADITION

part four

1

Reformulating Ideas

1

1

3

GLOSSARY OF CONCEPTS AND HISTORICAL TERMS INDEX

REALITY

141

xii

The Problematic Situation of the Present

chapter eight notes

and

1

37

PART ONE

Background

INTRODUCTION

the theme of this book place in

is

the fundamental shift that has taken

modern Jewish consciousness— in

their past

the attitudes towards

and towards tradition held by the generations of

Jews since the early nineteenth century.

The far-reaching quences of

this

intellectual,

change

emotional and social conse-

and

for Jews, individually

collectively,

can be understood only when we take into account the religious character of the Jewish past and the consequent traditions

demand

that

and values be observed with binding constancy.

religion based

on revelation which took place

subjection of the to creativity;

it

now

to

in the past requires

what has come before;

assumes that there

is

A

it

no room

boundaries

sets

for independent

formulation except for commentary and elaboration on the given body of truth.

Once Jews were granted involved longer

in

filled

political

and

legal rights

the cultures of their environments, the whole scope of their lives.

from the mainstream of world

history, they

No

and became

tradition

no

longer excluded

began to

live

simul-

taneously in the Jewish and non-Jewish environments. The fixed

system of religious norms was shaken by the impact of the

TRADITION modern mentary.

It

was not

‘action’

was there

that

matter

of

in the Bible,

but

1

In the nineteenth century

to research. Tradition itself

and

literary

historical,

in the Bible

4

vital

com-

you made your discoveries and defined

yourself and your values .”

mentary gave way

REALITY

For over a thousand years “the

historical sense.

and exciting

and

became

philological

com-

the subject

examination

according to the standards and concepts prevailing in modern scholarship.

A

implicit

this

in

process of what

may

be called de-sacration was

attempt towards objective examination and

study.

How

did Jews react to the introduction of historic relativism

into the discourse of their generations? Since the tradition might

now

be seen as no longer having the binding character of the

supra-historical, there were Jews it

on

historical grounds.

to Jewish history entity.

They

rejected

The other response has been

result

from

its

refused to be

bound by

any sense of attachment

and would not recognize the Jews as an ethnic

as historical, part of the evolution

The

who

to see the Jewish tradition

in.

time of the Jewish people.

would then be the emancipation of Jewish peoplehood

immersion

in religion

and

tradition.

But a people, being

at least partially defined as a historic entity,

cannot evade the

question of

though no longer

its

relation to the past. Tradition,

the sole imperative, remains a factor in the present.

What happens when begins to erode,

is

not easy to describe. Liberation from the

past takes place in time; discernible line.

The

the authority of a millennial tradition

it

does not follow a straight and easily

stages in the process are at the

components of the mind of the

same time

present.

Thus, for example, the nineteenth-century philosopher of history,

Nachman Krochmal,

the eternal position

and the

tried to find a synthesis

between

historical transformations of the

Jewish people. His solution was a cyclical concept of Jewish history. This concept, in

among Jews

popular formulation,

is

not

uncommon

today, who, having experienced both the Holocaust

and the restoration of the Jewish Commonwealth, see the

first

5

Background

as representing a period of decline in the cycle

a period of resurgence. There

Krochmal

here, yet

is

and the second

no conscious dependence on

Krochmal’s teachings appear as factors

in

an evolving Jewish consciousness. In the following pages

we

shall consider

such thinkers as

Krochmal, such historians as Graetz and Dubnow, and the founders of the “Science of Judaism,”

who shaped modern

Jewish research and historical consciousness. They were followed

by others,

like

Ahad Ha-am and

Bialik,

who, against the new

background of modern Zionism and the national renaissance, tried to

All

come

these

to grips with the relation

men gave

expression to the erosion of traditional

Jewish consciousness and additional

momentum

of the State of Israel the problem.

in so

doing gave, as a matter of

to the process

itself

2 .

fact,

Indeed, the establishment

has aggravated, rather than resolved,

For the new commonwealth involves Jews

diversity of social, tivities

between past and present.

economic and

political experiences

in

and

a

ac-

which go beyond the boundaries of traditional concepts.

Clearly, the shift

from one period of history

not removed the problem.

It

has only placed

it

to another has

on a new

level.

CHAPTER ONE

The Meaning of Tradition in Judaism

in

order to comprehend

meaning and

the

significance

of

“tradition” in Judaism, three of the principal definitions generally given to the

The

first

word must be

distinguished.

meaning of tradition ( Massoret )

word-for-word carrying over of the dotting,

tuation,

syntax,

accents,

amended. Tradition

in this

sense

is

text etc.,

a

refers to the faithful,

of the Bible, the punc-

unchanged and un-

documentary and

textual

discipline.

The second meaning of of religious writing

body of work a running

is

in

its

commentary on

nineteenth-century

declared that the

theoretical

first

first

aspects. This

comprising

and second meanings of tradition,

Christian

philosopher

F.

J.

Molitor

refers to the external aspect of the its

internal aspect, that

word is,

its

1 .

This distinction, however, does not do

complexity of the subject. in

legal

the Scriptures. In trying to establish

of the Bible and the second to content

and

whole domain

essentially Biblical interpretation,

a connection between the

the

tradition refers to the

which

it

is

expressed

is

To

full justice

to the

separate content from the words

to fail to recognize the dialectic of

TRADITION

and

REALITY

8

V

tradition inherent in

textual

its

and

its

only through interpretation, after

It is

text receive their

legal-theological aspects. that the

all,

meaning, significance and value.

words of the

On

the other

hand, however, the second meaning of tradition implies the basic assumption of difference between that the literary

Judaism

— and here there

Judaism and the other positive

document

with a

to tradition in

and the interpretation of content strict

extended

its

To

regard for words.

put

this

is

its

religious

life

inseparably conjoined with

life.

purely textual

intimately connected

another way, tradition

meaning from the sphere of words

when

content

religions

actually the basis of religious

is

A religious value is thus assigned aspect,

no fundamental

is

to the sphere of

struck roots in the text and

became

it.

These two meanings, however, do not exhaust the idea of

With

tradition.

the introduction of a third

realms of literary

production and

enter into historical reality

meaning we leave the thinking and

theoretical

— specifically,

the history of a

group

or people. In

this third

as shaped

life

The third

transition is

meaning, tradition comprises the

and handed down from generation from the

first

totality

of

to generation.

two meanings of tradition

to the

again connected with the very nature of Judaism. Since

the literary

document

fabric of the social

life

an essential factor

is

not merely theoretical but the very

of the community, the text

itself constitutes

the historical continuity of the people.

in

In other words, the content of the Bible entails obligations in the

conduct of the individual and the community; and as

practical

such conduct touches on the sphere of history, a necessary relation

is

established

among

text, interpretation

and the history

of the society. Although the three meanings of tradition

become

manifest in the course of Jewish history, their interrelation

not merely historical but also systematic, involving a

problems which we

From thought,

will

is

number of

have to consider.

the point of view of the it

is

development of modern Jewish

principally the second

and

third

meanings of

Background

9

tradition

— namely,

the

which reveals content

interpretation

and the people’s actual experience

relation

in

to

a

literary

document— that concern us most. And from this viewpoint, it will be instructive to see how these two meanings were approached from two

intellectual extremes, that of the

Middle Ages and

that

of the nineteenth century. In

Introduction

his

Pakuda

1080) states that there are three gates to the knowl-

(ca.

edge of God: to

(1)

Moses; and

who

received

sound reason;

— as

(2) the

books of the Torah given

handed down from our ancestors

(3) the traditions

them from the Prophets. 2 Here Bahya presents knowledge

three sources of religious tradition

Hovath Ha-Levavoth, Bahya ibn

to

coexistent

— reason,

revelation

the

and

and complementary. Bahya does not

analyze their interrelations, although he understood that tradisource of religious knowledge, appeared at a stage of

tion, as a

religious

life

revelation

subsequent to revelation. The sequence

in

time of

and tradition did not influence Bahya’s opinion as to

the reliability of tradition as a legitimate source of religious

knowledge.

The secondary character of

became an

attention in the Middle Ages,

element

in

tradition,

the philosophical

and

centuries,

and a central problem

revelation

comes

first

which received scant

increasingly important

historical

thought of

later

nineteenth century.

in the

and tradition second, obviously the

If

latter

becomes derivative and secondary. But the secondariness of tradition

is

meaning of

offset

by the

revelation,

fact that tradition

is

spirit

of the times.

language of values: the value of revelation original

avenue

and primary stage of

while the value of tradition

is

To

put this

in its status as

religious

consciousness,

derived from

its

being the advanced is

now a

between tradition and revelation which did not appear these

in the

lies

stage of progress of that consciousness. But there

Middle Ages, when

to the

which must be re-interpreted continually

according to the changing

the

the

two sources of

edge were thought of as existing side by

side.

religious

tension in the

knowl-

TRADITION This

tension

is

apparent

in

REALITY

and

Abraham

10

attempt,

Geiger’s

formulated against the background of the nineteenth century, to distinguish four periods in Jewish history. These were: (i) the

period of revelation, which coincides with the Biblical era; (2) the

Talmudic period;

Talmud up

(3) the period

from the completion of the

to the eighteenth century;

and

(4) the period

from the

eighteenth century onward, described as the period of criticism.

The

three post-Biblical periods were characterized by Geiger as

governed by tradition, 3 and

it is

evident that in each succeeding

traditional period the original revelation

becomes increasingly

remote.

Solomon Formstecher,

a contemporary of Geiger, posited

three stages in the development of Jewish religious consciousness:

prophecy and tradition. In prophecy the word of

revelation,

God, being the its

principle of religious creativity,

living relation to

datum expressed

man, whereas

either in the

in tradition

Torah or

appears

still it

in

appears as a

books of the

in the

Prophets. Tradition, according to Formstecher, connotes reflection applied to the

that the

more

first

two stages of

as

datum.

It

would appear then

religious consciousness constitute a

authoritative source than the third, since they are founded

on a vivid and stecher this in

word of God

is

direct contact with

God’s word. But

not the whole case. Although

the religious sense than

it

may

what he

Formstecher thus links the

calls the

them from the

first

— that

third stage,

period the

its

human in

which comprises the period of religious

is

medium

medium of

the immediate apprehension of the

literary expression

typical expression

is,

period of religious objectivity to distinguish

knowledge

of God, and

less reliable

two stages together

subjectivity. In the earlier period of Jewish history the

religious

Form-

revelation or prophecy, tradition

includes a factor lacking in the former two creativity.

be

to

is

prophecy. In the modern

of religious knowledge

and formative force

word

is

is

reason, and

its

tradition.

Here we find a clear expression of the tension already alluded to.

Tradition, the source of religious knowledge in Judaism

Background

11

which appears ty,

becomes

later in time,

distinctive in

subjectivi-

its

and subjectivity now appears as the very principle of

From

consciousness and content.

this

religious

standpoint the

Talmud

could be considered superior to the Bible because, being a creation of the third stage,

rooted

it is

in reflection.

philosophy of history and theory of knowledge trends of Jewish thought

came into conflict with

tions of Judaism’s fundamental documents.

do

logical to

so,

was not possible

it

in the

their

But here the modernistic

own

Although

evalua-

seemed

it

to assign inferior status to the

comparison with the Talmud as

Bible as an earlier

document

a later document.

The contradiction nevertheless opened

in

towards understanding tradition and assessing

and

religious status

its

a path

epistemological

4 .

THE RELATION BETWEEN REVELATION AND TRADITION Can also be formulated as a transition from the metaphysical-transcendent to the historical-immanent sphere. This transition has pects, time

and content. Revelation

the standpoint of

man;

it

a finite occurrence from

is

From God’s

revelation in an atemporal occurrence.

The

we meet

transition in time, moreover,

is

is

On

revelation revelation

the one hand, tradition

on the other,

it

without tradition is

is

its

is

transiin

is

and de-

the immediate link after

interpretation. is

The

inter-

constant and ongoing:

undefined;

void of meaning. Yet tradition

and revelation is

accompanied by a

to be cultivated

dependence of revelation and tradition

ship

in the very essence

contained and implied

and reservoir of the contents

revelation;

cal

Thus

Revelation serves with respect to tradition both as

tradition.

veloped.

standpoint, however,

a fundamental contradiction.

tion in content, since revelation

origin

as-

takes place in historical time, which as

such can be determined.

of revelation

two

is

tradition

without

essentially histori-

essentially supra-historical. Their relation-

aptly expressed

in

the Catholic description of revelation

as the caput et origo of tradition.

TRADITION

REALITY

and

But here we encounter another problem as

well.

Revelation

as a divine act forms a link in the chain of history, that

Revelation

in tradition.

12

is,

a link

therefore not only the content which

is

serves as a basis for history but also the initial or founding event in

the continuing historical

history through

God who

process.

Thus

content and through

its

reveals himself in

its

creates

revelation

dependence upon

But only the content of revelation

it.

enters into the continuity of tradition, while the act or event of

revelation itself remains transcendent against that continuity.

Gershom Scholem

Professor tradition

comes

and revelation

explains

Absolute of the divine word, which ceiver .”

plants itself between the is

revelation,

and

its

re-

5

In classical

Roman

defined in two ways.

and

between

relation

way: ‘Tn Judaism tradition be-

in this

moment which

the reflective

the

Catholic thought, the relationship

From

is

a substantive point of view revelation

tradition are regarded by the

Church

as completely identical,

tradition being held to be only a conservation of the revealed

content. In spite of this identity, a formal distinction

between tradition and revelation: the former

Church on behalf of God, the tion,

tion

latter of

God

is

alone

sphere of the absolute, while tradition

in the

made

a matter of the 6 .

This distinc-

however, leaves out the aspect of modality: that is

is

is

is,

in the

revela-

sphere

of relations, including the relation with the sphere of the absolute.

Hence

the primary

perplexity:

problem of

how does

the sphere of the absolute establish the

sphere of relativity, and the absolute

in

and

religious consciousness entails a

how can

relativity be

the lines between the spheres of

determined?

attempting to answer these questions, we may consider

the relation between the It is

two spheres as one of opposite vectors.

possible in this light to understand the well-known dictum of

Yehuda Halevi

that the public character of the revelation

Mount

evidence of

Sinai

its

reliability.

points to a dialectic paradox.

Tradition

is

on

The very statement

— the

record of the

13

Background

on Mount Sinai

revelation

revelation

itself.

—

presented as evidence of the

is

Without tradition there

is

no intersubjective

in-

formation to confirm that the revelation took place; or to put it

nevertheless the

From

whose foundation

tradition,

differently,

medium

the ontological

bound up with

is

is

is

conveys our knowledge of

it.

and material point of view, tradition

revelation, but

ness revelation

of revelation

that

revelation,

is

bound

is

from the point of view of conscious-

to tradition.

Furthermore, the content

the content of traditional (that

historical)

is,

consciousness.

But

consciousness assumes

this

as given to tradition

beyond

it

by revelation. not aware of

is

When its

content not as

is

own

but

dependence upon the dimension

become attenuated or

religious content

its

the historical consciousness of

the distinction between transcendence

it,

tends to

its

and immanence

when

the

identified with the substance of history.

We

meet such a tendency

in the

philosopher of history

obliterated, as occurs

thought of the nineteenth-century

Nachman Krochmal, who

regarded the

Absolute Spirit as the substance of the history of the Jewish people,

that

is,

as

the

people’s national

religious consciousness has only

But genuine

spirit.

one way open

to

it,

namely,

perpetuating the tension between an absorption in revealed

content and a realization of the absence of sovereignty over that content.

We

can therefore understand two opposed solutions to the

problem of the relationship between revelation and tradition which appear

in

Judaism. The mystical or “ecstatic” solution

seeks to abolish normal consciousness, for consciousness ab-

sorbed

in a

transcendent content has no position of

its

own. The

mystic attempts to pitch his consciousness on the level of the

substance of content

Content

is

— in

God

rather than the

word of God.

never a part of consciousness, and never ceases to be

of overriding validity. The polarity between consciousness and content

is

thus resolved by the submergence of the former in the

latter.

There

is,

on the other hand,

the concept of created reason.

TRADITION

and

in the

According

to this view, functional consciousness

— or

correlated

7

permeated

is

The created consciousness

with the content of revelation.

it

14

modern Jewish philosophy of Hermann Cohen.

elaborated

thus related

REALITY

— to

the revealed content.

is

Since

was created by the Revealer himself, consciousness becomes an

integral part of the revelatory process,

and a way

is

opened

for

meaningful, continuous exposition.

within the sphere of Judaism a further connection must be pointed out, a connection which cannot be deduced from the

formal status of the idea of tradition. The historical community, the Jewish people, as a

community

living

its life in

both the substance for the materialization of

and an active agent

substratum

8 .

is

made between

The community which was made

community becomes integration a

in

two

and the

life

of the

From

this

number of conclusions may be derived regarding

meaning of

Through

itself,

the substratum

integrated in the sphere of faith.

tradition, not as the principle of religious

consciousness but as the totality of

tradition

the

society or whether religion has society as a

norms thus becomes a norm

the third

conception

relationship pointed out by Schleiermacher, namely,

whether religion

for

becomes

commandments

in that materialization. In this

of Judaism a distinction can hardly be

modes of

time,

this

life.

connection with the community, the idea of

became not merely a

principle constituting the historical

consciousness of the Jews but also an idea that created and fostered their historical reality.

Tradition

classical in

idea

Roman

may

be of

some

interest here

between the idea of tradition

to note the difference

and the

It

of tradition

in

Roman

in

Judaism

Catholicism.

Catholicism, bound to the sphere of dog-

matic and theoretic statements of the Church and also to hierarchical structure, tional aspects of the to

combine

the

is

life

demand

composed of the of the Church.

theoretical

It is in

and

its

institu-

essence an attempt

for an authoritative interpretation of the

Background

15

dogma

demand

with the

Church throughout

for a hierarchical administration of the

the generations. Tradition in

Catholic sense does not comprehend the

of communities,

because

full totality

Catholicism

communities a dogmatic and

its

represents

institutional system

them from the outside. Therefore, we

Roman

of the

life

these

for

brought to

find in Catholicism the

need for stressing the formal characteristic of tradition, such as universalitas, antiquitas, consensus

omnium.

tion in Judaism, however, the totality of

tradition aspect.

is

The

tradition.

life

It is

but, at the

doctrine.

limited neither to

its

In the idea of tradilife

dogmatic nor

involved, and

is

to its institutional

of Jewish society constitutes the very content of

determined by tradition

same

in

fact as the historical

its

meaning

beyond the sphere of theory or

time, passes

Tradition

in its theoretical

formulation appears

theoretical

in

consciousness of the Jewish community, a

consciousness that creates and

reflects the history

of that com-

munity. Thus tradition necessarily involves the tension between

meaning and consciousness, on

the sphere of

and

the sphere of actual history

this integration, tradition as a

the

historical

life

the one hand,

and

time on the other. Through

norm of

becomes involved

life

in

and complex problems of the community.

life

In this third, or social,

meaning, tradition

is

called

upon

solve problems in the relations between the generations. idea of tradition as a totality of the actual

based on two assumptions: that there

is

life

to

The

of a community

is

and

a

a transmitting

receiving generation but that the creative expressions of the receiving generation

norms contained Moreover,

all

in the legacy

the

with the meanings and

are concordant

of the transmitting generation.

generations are enveloped

in

an absolute

sphere of values which determines their internal relations beyond their

relationships in

time,

between generations do not to the legacy.

specific

that

affect

The idea of tradition

reality with a

rejects the

so

the their

in this

meaning, that

temporal differences

common

adherence

sense identifies historical

is,

the

word of God.

It

view that a transition from the sphere of meaning

TRADITION to that of in reality

everyday

implies a change in

life

and

REALITY

meaning or

16

change

a

9 .

The outlook based

in tradition

between meaning and

considers history as a synthesis

Without

reality.

this synthesis there

is

no

sense in the relation between the generations based on a religious, ethical or theoretical

factor

is

that of

norm. But

meaning;

reality

possess the factors which shape

reality

is

it

synthesis the determining

datum and does not

a

and constitute

its

in itself

content.

relation between the

— time

and meaning

time. In other words,

it is

the generations which

two factors establishing

—

is

one-sided:

historical

from meaning to

not only the historical consciousness of

is

fashioned by the religious content

consciousness being only the conservation of this content historical reality its

It is

substratum for the materialization of meaning.

merely the

The

in this

is itself

meaning

theoretical

—

— but

established by the content. Tradition in is

the content of the generations’ con-

sciousness and also the causative force that creates their reality.

History thus

is

condensed into meaning. As causative

tradition presupposes a correlation

the transmitted content

is

between the generations:

not innate or indigenous to a genera-

tion but merely given in the

imposed and

force,

word of God. The legacy

willingly identified with

is

both

by the successive genera-

tions.

As ideally

a result of such identification, the generations

absorbed

in the legacy.

of every generation calls for

The present its

it is

tradition,

if

historical experience

identification with the past.

The dimension of the past becomes in fact,

become

the decisive-normative one;

the only dimension in the concept of time inherent in

we

leave out of account the future as the dimension of

redemption or messianic salvation. For, following the formula of Saint Augustine, we point the present

is

may

always the presence of the past but the past has

an independent status and

The

say that from the traditional view-

is

only the past in regard to the present.

factual existence of the present

existence in the sphere of meaning.

is

thus not an independent

From

the point of view of

1

Background

7

independently, but from the perspective

reality the present exists

of meaning the present

an offshoot only. This concept of the

is

dimensions of historical time mirrors the religious view of history

which holds the past

to be superior to the present.

significance of the past as the reservoir of content torical

one;

its

validity

is

based on

But the

not a his-

is

relation to the absolute

its

content of revelation.

Thus we can understand important turn Secularization

from

life

to

is

— the

crisis

an attempt to detach the in

of everyday

and determining

new meaning.

from an offshoot

present

of secularization.

reality

the determined

tradition by the creation of a

the

elevate

Jewish history

integration

its

meaning of

in

the philosophical significance of an

to

It

seeks

an autonomous

division of time, to the level of an independent causative factor.

How, we may reality possible?

ask,

is

To answer

between tradition as the consciousness.

this attribution

of meaning to present

the question

totality of life

The connection of

we must

distinguish

and tradition as

historical

generations with

the

one

content and the identity of that content over the generations establishes continuity. But tradition

is,

actual reality of a people comprises a

appear

in

in fact,

cumulative; the

body of contents which

the course of history through their relation to the

one content. In addition to being cumulative, tradition selective.

A

historical

is

also

concept of tradition has to come to terms

with differences of opinion in Jewish history and with the facts

of different and clashing movements and trends. All of these divergences are aspects of tradition, but decisions respect

The

to

them have been

practical

problem

is

with

rather than dogmatic.

historical

in tradition

made

thus that of the relationship

between accumulation and selection;

how

to justify selection

within the scope of an accumulated totality. So factors of value

and meaning are introduced into the present rather than

come from

history,

and these inhere

in

the past.

With the secularization of Jewish

life

teenth century, the process of selection

beginning

became

in

the nine-

a challenging

TRADITION and unremitting one.

If

Judaism was

and

REALITY

to be preserved, then

what means? And what aspects of Judaism were relevant

18

by

to the

changing autonomous present? The answers were of several kinds, as can be seen in an examination of the chief trends of

thought and representative thinkers on the problem of tradition

and

reality.

PART TWO

History Against

Norms

CHAPTER TWO

The Science of Judaism

in

the course of the nineteenth century a movement emerged

which became known as Wissenschaft des Judentums or the “Science of Judaism.” The manifestation of this

movement

is

a

confluence of scholarly, historical and philological investigations

summed up

in articles

and books concerning various aspects

of Judaism and the Jewish people. Yet underlying output

is

Jewish thought

in

modern

the dominant figure

who was born was

still

article

and one which has

a definite ideology,

in

in the

left its

stamp on

times.

Science of Judaism

Detmold, Germany,

is

Leopold Zunz,

in 1794. In 1817,

a student in the University of Berlin,

“On

this scholarly

Rabbinical Literature.” In

it

when he

Zunz wrote an

he argued for the

recognition of Jewish literature and religion as subjects for university research

and instruction, pointing out

tion with other disciplines

history

and

of these disciplines.

literature of the Jews,

in

its

their

their

connec-

consequent place

in

the

“Here,” he wrote, “the whole largest scope,

is

put forward as

subject matter for research, without concern as to whether

its

TRADITION

norm

content ought and can be also the

total

evaluation.”

REALITY

and

for

our

22

own

1

The importance of

this

work cannot be overestimated.

It

struck so responsive a chord in the world of younger Jewish

scholars and intellectuals that within a year of 1

8

1

its

publication in

Zunz together with Eduard Gans and Moses Moser was

,

able to found a Society for the Culture and Science of Judaism,

whose expressed aim was “to bring relations with the age

society attracted

— Heinrich a

and the nations

some of the

few years,

its

harmonious

which they

in

live.”

The

brightest Jewish youths of Germany

Heine was for a time a member

magazine which Zunz

after a

the Jews into

edited.

— and even published

Although the group dissolved

ideals continued

to

spread throughout

Europe and new centers of the Science of Judaism sprang up in

France and Galicia as well as

in

Germany, continuing

into the

twentieth century.*

for all the excitement

stirred, the Science

it

of Judaism was a

rather austere discipline and not a religious revival in any sense. It

was not

interested in preserving the continuity of Judaism.

Neither was

it

part of any effort directed at liberating Judaism

from dependence on traditional values and forms. Nor did

it

stem from a desire to acquire objectivity by the extinction of feelings of involvement or

commitment.

assumption that the severance of

the

It

all

was based instead on connections with the

world of tradition was an accomplished, incontrovertible

The purpose of

the Science of

Judaism was not

world but, by close study, to understand This

is

Judaism,

was

to

entirely different

its

make

to restore that

it.

from the many endeavors

traditions, laws,

fact.

to interpret

customs and habits whose purpose

plainer to the people the intent and

meaning of

The Science of Judaism underwent significant changes as it developed. In this study, we shall be concerned only with the founding generation, whose programs *

and ideas are particularly relevant

to

our subject.

23

Norms

History Against

On

their heritage.

the contrary, these selfsame endeavors

became

material to be studied under the Science of Judaism with detach-

ment and without regard This

who

to

the feelings they might arouse.

much

conceptual attitude owed

scientific or

to Hegel,

made

likened philosophy to the owl of Minerva, which

appearance only

sun had

in the evening, after the

nature, conceptual thinking adds nothing the Science of

new

By

its

very

object,

and

set.

to

its

Judaism offered nothing substantive.

principal

Its

function was to discern the given and to elevate

proper context and to determine

evolution. Furthermore, the special in its

human

place in

its

mark of

this

the

to

it

of the known, specifically to understand Judaism

level

its

in

its

cultural

approach

lay

assumption that the chain of creativity had been broken,

the source of inspiration

had dried up, and the previous,

body of Judaism had been did not derive

laid to rest

2 .

historical perspective

its

living

The Science of Judaism from the

feeling that

it

was introducing changes into the world of Judaism, but from a consciousness of the distance between that world

this attitude of the

among

from theological preconceptions.

these

especially

its

which by

independent

First

field

was denied an

a desire

for

and foremost

creativity,

and

documents, as material either of service

Church or opposed and inimical

literature,

in

was the Christian view of Jewish literary

itself.

the accomplishments of

Jewish past achieved further expression

liberation

the

detachment toward

and

right should

position that this literature

3 it .

Post-Biblical Jewish

have been acknowledged as an

and appraised by

intrinsic value

to

to

criteria distinctive to

Judaism,

by the Church. The Church’s

was merely symbolic represented

a

distortion, according to the view of the Science of Judaism.

The proponents of

the Science recognized post-Biblical

as possessing independent value, its

own terms without

by external

criteria.

Judaism

which could be understood on

being tied to preconceptions or measured

TRADITION The very carried with that

is,

one

outline

24

rejection of the Christian theological view, however,

a rejection of any normative status for Judaism,

it

which the past of Judaism might serve as a guide or

in

the

to

REALITY

and

present.

every detail as important carefully distinguished

every detail as holy

4 .

The research in

which regards

attitude

defining the overall pattern was to be

from that subservience which regards

Later

in the

century,

when

the Science of

Judaism became a part of the movement for Jewish national revival, the past

was reconsidered

present, but this had

and

no place

in

terms of

in the original

its

value to the

program of Zunz

his colleagues.

the detachment upon which the Science of Judaism was based was, in

fact,

diametrically opposed to

all

The Science of Judaism did not embrace from the present, extolling contrary,

placing

it

openly declared

itself at

superior virtues.

On

the

disengagement from the past,

its

German

5 .

In this respect,

it

differed

its

from

Historical School, which also studied the

past conceptually but regarded

The

its

the past as an escape

a distance from the past in order to maintain

objective, conceptual attitude

the so-called

for

it

forms of romanticism.

it

as a force guiding the present.

Historical School did not arrogate to itself the right to

sever historical relationships with the past; arising out of a present

awakening and

it

rejected

any attempt

initiative to act freely

and

independently, since such action would, specifically, break with

The achievements of

the past.

Volksgeist, or

“The

the past were a manifestation of

Spirit of the People,” of

which the creativity

of the present was an organic outgrowth. Thus to the Historical

School the concern with the past was limited by a subjective, and even selective, principle. The Science of Judaism, on the other

hand, started out from and endeavored to maintain a total objectivity

6 .

This attitude extended to the very heart of Judaism, the

realm of values.

It

was an indisputable premise of the Science of

25

Norms

History Against

Judaism that states of

literary

documents

existed

which revealed certain

mind, that these documents could be examined, and

that the states of

mind could be learned from them.

particular people

and circumstances were involved

document and

tion of each

as an empirical fact.

their

human

societies

what they revealed about the

and friend of Zunz, Isaac Marcus virtues or shortcomings of Judaism.

In their

produc-

for their content,

which produced them, according

to the Science of

in the

involvement was to be accepted

The works might be studied

for their literary quality or for

In addition,

Judaism must be

7

to the historian

prove the

Jost, but not to

The only values of relevance scientific values.

examination of the present, as well as the past, the

founders of the Science of Judaism maintained the same detach-

ment, focusing their attention on the examination of literary and linguistic

Wolff,

documents. Together with

Zunz

colleague

his

initiated the study of the existing

and the processes

at

work

in

it

community and

as a legitimate field for research.

In the terminology of their time, their tical.”

In present-day terms, they

much

like

modem

Immanuel

work was

engaged

called “statis-

something very

in

8 sociological-demographic studies.

Like that of any other science, the program of the Science of

Judaism was

laid

out

in

disciplinary

compartments.

Zunz

delineated three aspects of Judaism as areas for research: (i) the

dogmatic aspect,

in

which the relationship of

God

to

man was

defined; (2) the historical or symbolic aspect, which took in the nature of the covenant between institutions

life

and the various

were bound up; and (3) the ethical and the

juridic-societal aspect.

9

nature of Judaism exist

own

Israel

which witnessed the covenant and with which the

acts of religious

its

God and

characteristics.

These differing aspects of the essential in a variety

We

of forms, each possessing

look upon the dogmatic side of Juda-

ism from the point of view of the ideational content of Judaism, the historical side

the people

and

its

from the point of view of the development of institutions,

and the sociological

side

from the

point of view of the ethical idea which motivated social action.

TRADITION The world of Judaism appears

REALITY

and

in all these aspects;

it is

26

composed

of innumerable elements and forms a multiplicity of associations within and outside the boundaries of Judaism. Research resolves

Judaism into approach

also

marked

off

two general areas for

doctrine or the ideas of Judaism, and studies.

its

objective

analytical.

is

Zunz

components, since

individual

its

Alongside these he placed the

critical

grammar

field

research:

or language

of history, embracing

language and ideas from the time of their origin until the present.

10

History does not disclose anything

Judaism;

it

new

in the content

of

does not deal with phenomena unknown to the other

two areas but only adds a new perspective. The

historical under-

standing of the development of ideas has been neglected up to

now, declared Immanuel Wolff

in his

programmatic

article,

“On

Concept of the Science of Judaism,” because the center of

the

attention has been on the theological investigation of the content

of ideas from the point of view of their religious-normative significance.

The time has come

their true time context

To law,

to

was

really the starting point

document, idea or event was only the

of course, apparent

in

phenomena. Every given datum, every

all

process. This process

phenomena

begin real historical research.

the Science of Judaism history

understanding

for

and

to regard these

result of historical

and the changes occurring at

any given instant.

It

in

it

were not,

was necessary

to

bring a longer duration of time into focus in order to discern the

process and determine

involved

in

this

content. Yet the technical difficulty

its

did not invalidate the view that the process

was constant and ongoing. Only a recognition of nature of

phenomena and

their

lead to their understanding.

1

absorption

in the

the historical

process could

The Science of Judaism was

fore not satisfied merely to regard

Judaism

there-

as a legacy of the

past and as an object for historical investigation;

it

sought to

understand the historical processes within Judaism which fact

in

had molded Judaism.

This historical process was

first

established (logically rather

27

History Against

Norms

than chronologically)

in respect to the relationship

religious idea of Israel

and

the idea in the abstract

its

acceptance by the people, between

and concretely

The Science of Judaism emphasized distinguishing

the

Judaism was religious

in the

it

first

rose

in its

program

that

one of

attempt to arrive at a true recognition of the to

and coincided with

its

a barrier interposed itself between the religious

had been defined

in theoretical

terms and as

it

existed

concrete consciousness of the people. The development

which occurred

ment

of the Jews.

in the life

of the historical development of

features

which corresponded

idea

content. At idea as

its

between the

in the

in

Judaism was seen

as a progressive

improve-

grasp of the religious idea. Religious consciousness

from the sensual

to a

more

elevated stage in which

God was

conceived of as personal and then to an even higher level where

God appeared

in the

world as a whole. Thus the division of the

Jews into the two kingdoms was connected with progressive refinement. level

this

The Kingdom of Judah reached

Israel

12 .

This view of the nature of the historical process

was a major departure system, as

it

in

in the

to the historical process as

it

as a fact, but only in the

paid absolutely no attention

It

operated

failed to see

how

in the life

of Jewish society

the development of religious

consciousness was intertwined with changes

The philosopher Solomon Steinheim,

a

in society.

contemporary of the

founders of the Science of Judaism, tried to show

terms of the Jewish religion

beginning

in

Judaism

nineteenth century, recognized

and development

area of religious consciousness.

whole and

in

Jewish thought. The Jewish theological

was formulated

historical process

in

a higher

of religious consciousness than the secessionist tribes which

formed the Kingdom of

as a

process of

itself.

He regarded

this

connection

the concept of a

time as the distinguishing feature of any religion of

revelation: Revelation, he said,

is

an act occurring

in

time and can

be defined only against the background of time. After a prerevelation period there occurs a break in time tion

becomes a

fact.

Once

and then the revela-

the revelation takes place, however,

its

TRADITION content does not change or develop revelation

is

a surprise

enter into history.

It

and

in historic time.

made once and once

gift,

REALITY

The content of

only.

It

does not

remains forever separate from the historical

process, since revelation, the appearance of the Divine,

Who

remains outside history, has no need of either time or history It

therefore possible to assert that there

is

28

Any

time from one revelation to another.

is

1 .

no transition

revelation

is

in

a break-

through of new content, independent of history and unconnected with any previous revelation.

Though each

revelation occurs in

time, the time process does not bind one revelation to another.

Hence revelation

no history

as such has

14 .

However, history

enters the revelatory process in another sense, namely, through subjective,

the

human

dimension.

the objective content of revelation,

The

Mankind and

strives

to

grasp

so continually advances.

active factor in this evolutionary process of revelation

man; versa

is

it

we who develop through

From

1 .

revelation and

point of view, history

this

is

is

not vice

external, having

no

contact with or influence on revelation. History and process are

human

facts related to the

path of mankind striving to achieve a

complete recognition of the religious idea which,

and immutable. Progressing towards a

eternal

full

in

itself,

is

appreciation

of the content of the revelation, mankind passes through the

same stages of biological development

as the idividual:

from

infancy to childhood, from childhood to adolescence and from

adolescence to maturity

Judaism

is

religious

16 .

the absence of any

ideology, given

man, who

One of

is

in

the distinguishing

development revelation.

subject to change

in the

marks of

content of

its

Process characterizes

17 .

This view of Jewish history as the realization of a religious idea

which of

itself

as the Science of

remains fixed underwent serious modification

Judaism evolved. One such modification was

Jost’s recognition of the

history

18 .

the Jewish

community

as the unit operating in

In writing about the Oriental countries, Jost treated

community, which responded

group, as a factor

in

to

its

environment as a

Jewish history. Thus he added a social dimen-

29

History Against

Norms

making

sion to the concept of Jewish history by

phological

between

differences

mor-

plain the

communities of the

distinct

Diaspora. Although Jost limited his study to the relations between

Jews and the surrounding peoples and did not concern himself

work

with processes at

importance of

basic

his

community

the Jewish

in

contribution

cannot

19

itself,

be

the

denied.

It

attenuated the view of Jewish history as tied to the religious idea

by establishing a connection between the historical process

and the actual

of the group.

life

Another modification of principles

Zunz

periods in

between

may

20

the

and

Biblical

In his opinion, the

smoothly,

be found

in

certain

his study of Jewish literature.

Jewish literature, calling the

Judaism.

proceeded

view

which Zunz evolved from

distinguished

latter

this

undisturbed

first

post-Biblical

Hebraism, the

development of Judaism

by

sudden

leaps.

21

This

continuity attested to the connections between the various stages in

Judaism, but without obscuring the differences between them.

Development

resulted

from both internal and external causes,

and only the combination of

all

acter of each historic situation. cess thus affected

the causes determined the char-

22

Changes

everyday religious

beliefs

pro-

in the historical

and

actions.

Zunz saw work

as the turning point in the development of Judaism the

of Ezra the Scribe (5th century, B.C. E.), cal character to Scripture.

23

who

ascribed a canoni-

In his overall view, history

was

thus a real process, not merely the path towards a fixed goal, to the attainment of a religious idea.

only

even

in if

one brach of Jewish

we agree

in

some

Zunz implemented

literature, liturgy

respects with

and

theory

ritual,

Hermann Cohen

was a mere collector of antiques, we must admit

his

that

but

Zunz

that in the

underlying principles which he established he was a true historian. Jost’s History

Graetz

of Judaism

— the

foremost work of

its

kind before

— was doubtless an implementation of the plan formulated

by Zunz for the study of the historical development of Jewish religious ideas.

To sum up:

In

mapping

a

program

for historical research,

TRADITION the Science of

Judaism marked

the study of the Jewish

development of the

two main

off

community

and

REALITY

30

lines of inquiry

—

the concrete, and the

in

religious idea. In effect,

it

laid the

for the study of the history of the Jewish religion.

foundation

The

vision of in

some

respects circumscribed. Their rationalistic bias restricted

them

the scholars identified with this science, however,

for the

most part

was

to the study of the rationalistic currents in

Judaism and Jewish history and excluded, deliberately or inadvertently,

any other trends,

first

among which was

the mystic.

Nevertheless, even in delineating the program of their activities,

way

they opened the

view of the evolution of

to the historical

Jewish religion. By so doing, they took a stand between the naive conception of Jewish history as progress towards the

attainment of an eternal ideal and the view which regarded the ideal as interwoven with the process.

Judaism was presented entity

two forms:

in

an independent

and as a part of the general framework of

Science of Judaism considered its

as

own

from history distinct

itself,

independence being derived

its

which established Judaism as a separate and

phenomenon. History and

inevitable conclusion that

historical research lead to the

Judaism

is

separate and cannot be

absorbed into other topics of research. The historical individuality

The

an independent entity with

it

character, the proof of

history.

and distinctness

justifies

of

fact

and vindicates the

its

special

study of the history of Judaism. In the early period of the Science of Judaism, no one inquired about the factors which gave this

independence and sustained

tent that the Science of Judaism

from the

living

it

24 .

On

rise to

the contrary, to the ex-

was a consequence of detachment

Jewish tradition,

it

was plausible not

to ask

what

sustained and preserved this Jewish separateness. Nevertheless,

it

could have been asked what sustained and preserved Jewish individual existence

in

days gone by.

To

the extent that the Science of

Judaism inquired into the fundamentals of Jewish separateness, a simple answer could have been offered:

it

pervading Jewish

.

life

which kept

it

alive

was the

25

religious idea

History Against

31

Norms

However, the broader perspective of the Science of Judaism, and what distinguished

was something

particularly,

it

was an estab-

again. Jewish individuality, as an area for research, lished fact.

But as a historical

interwoven with and an aspect

fact,

of historical relations as a whole, arrogating this broader territory to

it

had

itself,

yet to be explored. In

the Science of

proceeded from the assumptions that the

was

life

one of the aspects of

26

this general

its

was

in activities

relationship to the whole.

it

literature

was

expanse of spiritual activity 27 .

The study of any one such aspect of

of spiritual

and that Jewish

,

Judaism

totality

reflected in Jewish activities, just as

outside the limits of Judaism

else

On

did not involve losing sight

the contrary, the whole could

be comprehended by recognizing the particular character of

each part.

from

was the essence of

It

details,

historical research to

from individual constituents,

proceed

organism

to the total

they comprised, and the whole could not be grasped without an

understanding of these parts.

To comprehend

the overall spiritual

system was thus the main, true goal of historical research, the study of the particular and partial manifestations being, as were, a

means

historical fact,

to this end.

it

Judaism, though an independent

was bound up with

the totality of spiritual manifes-

tations.

This totality was given the rather indefinite or even “Divine spirit ,” tion

and functioned as

historical activity.

meant

to

28

catch-calls for

imply that the

spirit, the

all

manner of cultural and

Perhaps the very vagueness of the terms was real

content of

spirit

which Judaism

and language were thought

of this

is

the Science of Judaism

was the discovery of

own

in

specific

one. Since litera-

to be keys to the

literature.

understanding

This bias was acquired by

from the Historical School, whose purpose

spirit.

However, the Science of Judaism was

not drawn to this view by idealistic hopes only; its

lies

Science of Judaism accordingly assigned great

importance to the study of

secure

“spirit,”

phrases which had no precise denota-

historical manifestations, of

ture

name

historical position.

As we may

it

wished also to

recall,

it

proceeded

TRADITION from the assumption that Jewish standstill

and had even begun

in literature,

and

literary creativity

to decline

29

REALITY

had reached a

If life

.

32

reflected

is

then Jewish literary inertia, in this view, must be a

sign of the inertia of Jewish

The study of

life.

literature in general

generation which gave

rise to the

was the heritage of the

Science of Judaism

30 ;

it

was

natural for the latter to view the study of Jewish literature as

complementary

to the study of literature as a whole.

were differences

among

the exponents of the Science of

what theoretical direction

as to

literary

Yet there

Some argued

to take.

works were expressions of

a

single

content.

Judaism that

all

Others

maintained that each work was unique and differed from others. But both sides agreed that

all

all literary

creations represented

stages governed by the laws of evolution,

and both embodied

the general aspiration of arriving at a comprehensive view of literature as a whole.

The view

that Jewish literature

was a part of general human

culture did not originate with the Science of Judaism.

one of Zunz’s instructors

at the

nized Jewish literature as a

De Wette,

University of Berlin, had recog-

component of

culture as a whole

31 .

But such scholars and thinkers as de Wette and Herder had confined themselves to Bible studies, whereas the

proponents of the

Science of Judaism took post-Biblical literature as their main field

of study.

It

was

Biblical literature that his

recognition of the extent of this post-

in

Wolff asserted,

in

the article outlining

program, that the long attachment of millions of people to

any uniform study.

From

spiritual ideology of itself

marks

off

an area for

the premise that historical-cultural activities express

the spirit of the people,

Zunz

arrived at an outlook resembling

Wilhelm von Humboldt’s view of the nature of historical research. According

to this view,

no

actual, specific situation could be

understood except through an appreciation of the ideas which

produced

it.

Ideas themselves were the creation of the reflective

spirit, intuited,

nizes

them

understood and seized by the genius, who recog-

as they

come

into being. This intuitive

power was

33

History Against

Norms

characteristic of the artist, but also of the historian.

the historian

artist,

into a single whole.

whole. with

To

must encompass

He must

and work them

details

see every part as relating to the

which constitute the general background

ideas

Von Humboldt’s shaping was probably stronger is

it

like the

evaluate the myriad scattered data, he must be familiar

the

which

all

For

32 .

influence on the Science of Judaism

that that of Hegelian philosophy, with

Von Humboldt was

frequently associated, since

less

involved than Hegel in complicated metaphysical constructions.

He was

easier to follow,

and

his

comprehensive view of history

allowed the Science of Judaism to justify

As

influential as

times themselves. the Science of

Judaism only.

It

Von Humboldt on was

movement were

this

the age of science

existence.

its

— so

the founders of

Judaism believed. Yet while they sought

to the spirit of the age, the

They had no

the

to

adapt

adaptation was to be formal

intention of conforming to the prevailing

climate of opinion in respect to changing social and political conditions. Their intent was to engage in a totally objective

For them, Judaism

scientific investigation.

the times is,

meant

a

Judaism purified

33 .

Here the absence of romantic tendencies

Judaism

is

particularly noticeable.

accordance with

the crucible of science, that

in

Judaism studied and understood

in

in

the Science of

basic tenets were related

Its

to the age of rationalism rather than to the age of romanticism.

Hence

it

could afford to disregard the anti-scientific and

tional trends current in

the Science of i79o’s in

its

own

Judaism arose

time. In this respect, although

in the

i

820’ s

evaluation of science and

its

and reason. This evaluation

led

,

life

it

was

in

still

also to

to achieve

know

34 .

tied to the

terms of intellect

Eduard Gans, who witnessed

the beginning of the Science of Judaism, to say that

wanted was

irra-

what

his

age

self-consciousness— not only to exist but

Such attachment

to the rationalistic, speculative

temper, however, led to the difficulty shared with classic rationalism, that of accounting for religion in general and Jewish religion in particular.

The Science of Judaism

therefore seized

upon

the

TRADITION

and

REALITY

approach of German philosophy, which recognized a value and sought to understand

it

34

religion as

as the crystallization of a

rational idea.

the desire to harmonize with the social

and

spirit

of the times also had a

dimension. The fathers of the Science of

political

Judaism wanted access

and salons of

to the councils

their time;

as a division of scientific research, the Science of

Judaism was to

serve as their admission ticket. This entailed a

somewhat

carious balancing act. For

from the

if,

on the one hand, they were detached

Judaism of tradition and used

living, creative

pre-

tachment as the springboard for

this de-

their historical researches,

how

could they, on the other, being Jews themselves, validate their claims to

by

civil rights

preoccupation with the very

their

field

from which they considered themselves removed?

The rights it

rationale for the Science of

is

therefore

somewhat

nevertheless. Historic

which

all

living

Judaism as a basis

strained, but

— the Judaism of the past from had been severed — was a spiritual

manifestation, a structure from which ty ramified,

among them

were equal

in

wrought

areas outside Judaism

the

in

many branches

history, philosophy

35 .

rights in society

in the spiritual

and the

state.

of creativi-

and poetry. These

to the spiritual creations that

had been

Hence those who studied

works of Judaism and brought them

were entitled to rights

shall try to follow

Judaism

attachment

worth

we

for Jewish

to the light of all

men

area and, by extension, to

This claim was reinforced by the

works emanating from the Science of Judaism themselves, by the spiritual maturity they expressed. Specifically, because these

creative

works were

everyone,

scientific

and by

regardless of religion,

definition the property of

they

brought people closer

together and put an end to the alienation of the Jew from his

environment. The

from

scientific

discoveries,

study

scientific in

other

and the very

fact

study of Judaism did not differ fields,

regardless of its conclusions or

of engagement

conferred the right to press demands.

in scientific

research

35

History Against

Norms

was concerned, the scholars of the

Insofar as value content

Science of Judaism conceded that their claims were not founded

on

their

own deeds

but on the subject matter of the science

itself.

Their position might be presented thus: we are studying a great tradition;

we

are educated people doing research.

for civilization

was being created by

science,

A new

basis

and the Jew who

participated in this grand and noble undertaking was no less

deserving than anyone else

36 .

The Science of Judaism would

serve as a guide in the search for objectivity. the Jews

in

on the same

making of

their

reality

level as

the

and determine

other citizens

modem

world.

38

37 .

It

their

It

would reveal

ability

would contribute

to

live

to the

CHAPTER THREE

The Eternal People and Its History

to Jewish theologians of the preceding generation the questions

Judaism were

raised by the Science of

eternal

and inaccessible

to

all

Judaism was

irrelevant.

Nachman

of the changes of history.

Krochmal, however, took a middle position. Unwilling Judaism was not

the idea that historicity of tion.

1

eternal, he could not

isolate the aspects of

he could

Judaism which were but the products of

was

it

and immutable and so be

lasting

able to defend Judaism against erosion.

Krochmal was

live

if

development and therefore not permanent, he would

discover whatever in

at the

deny the

Judaism, which he called the problem of his genera-

His approach to the problem was a direct one:

historical

to accept

bom

in

2

Brody, Galicia,

in

1785.

He married

age of fourteen, as was the custom of the time, and went to

in

the

home

Habermann,

in

of his father-in-law, a rich merchant

named

Zulkiev near Lemberg. Free to study, he read

Hebrew philosophy, but

also the

German

philosophers Kant,

Fichte and Schelling, as well as Hegel, whose system particularly attracted him.

Krochmal wrote one book,

which he

Guide for the Perplexed of the Time

his

ideas:

his

death by Zunz (who also gave

1851.

in

it

its

title)

,

set forth

edited after

and published

in

TRADITION

and

REALITY

38

Differing as he did with the Science of Judaism as regards the

death of Judaism, Krochmal nevertheless turned to that Science for

answers

to

some of his own

To acknowledge

basic questions.

that certain values were relative implied, in his view, that they

had arisen through the serve as a dye, the

scopic slide, to

way

mark

historical process.

his

practical and,

history

certain organisms are stained off those concepts

completely explainable by

A

Thus

well.

had arisen

in

on a micro-

and ideas which were

it.

you wish, an apologetic motive animated

if

approach; yet he was impelled by a reasoned,

motive as

intellectual

His work entailed showing that some Jewish values time and were therefore not absolute, but

sought to establish the absolute nature of Judaism and ferentiation

would

from other

spiritual

and

historical cultures.

mal’s ultimate purpose was to prove that Judaism

is

it

also

its dif-

Kroch-

eternal, that

even though Judaism enters into history and undergoes change

and transformation,

it

does not suffer the fate of mortal things.

His historical view oscillates between two poles: Judaism as absolute and Judaism as immersed in the historical process.

The problems inherent arise

from

this

in

Krochmal’s

historical

perspective

dualism and from his desire to establish some

equilibrium between the two conceptions.

krochmal

begins with the Spiritual Absolute. The Absolute

eternally present, not a historical element.

It

nature, the source of

The

all

spiritual elements.

metaphysical

is

is

in

relationship be-

tween the Spiritual Absolute and the individual spiritual elements existing in the world

framework of

and

history.

its

peoples does not occur within the

The Absolute

exists as

and

in itself; its

manifestation requires no time process. But for this very reason, the Absolute provides

So

it

Spirit

is

no basis

for

assuming the

reality

of history.

necessary to conclude that the two poles, the Absolute

and the actual events of

history, exist side

being dependent on one another.

by side without

39

History Against

Norms

The absence of any necessary relationship between two poles

made

is

Absolute, which

clear by calling to

the source of Judaism,

is

physical entity but

is

also identical with

however, raises a problem: Deity, that

is,

mind

is

it

these

that the Spiritual

not only a meta-

is

God. This

identification,

possible to assume that the

the absolute reality that exists apart from the world

and history, has any need of the historical process? Certainly

may its

it

be asserted, from religious motives, that both the world and

God,

history need

Him. But

it

His sake.

To

is

difficult to

history

is

God

maintain that

declare that there

God and

tween

that their very existence gives evidence of

is

needs history for

a necessary relationship be-

tantamount

to asserting that

God

is

dependent on history. Hence establishing a relationship between the Absolute

and the process of becoming poses, according

Krochmal, a

difficulty

which

we

posit a

Absolute as God.

If

and history, we imply a that

is

arises

from regarding the

distinct

Spirit

mutual relationship between

God

historical god, a developing god, a

not eternally present, whose reality

to

god

not absolute and

is

from the world. Conscious or unconscious reasons pre-

vented Krochmal from accepting such a view.

This

reality, as

external to

Since will,

God

it is

it; it is

God,

is

not only independent of history and

also does not intervene in the course of history.

the Absolute Spirit having

impossible to hold that

to set or to

change

its

He

no aspect of personal

actively intervenes in history

course. While

Krochmal

taken from the realm of religion, which sees his

metaphysical conception makes

it

God

emergence,

its

as personal,

impossible for him to

describe the Absolute in these religious terms. historical process

often uses terms

Not only

autonomous and independent, but

course and

its

is

the

specific

laws are not dependent on any

its

absolute.

From a Spirit

certain point of view, however, a relationship between

and the

historical process

can be posited without changing

the essential nature of either. Spirit, full

power only “through

the

Krochmal

medium

said, achieves its

of a long period of time

TRADITION and a large number of people.” By

this

and

REALITY

he was not referring to

the metaphysical nature of the Spirit as such, but to our 3

of conceiving

it .

Our conception of the

time process; that

in the

manner

Spiritual Absolute occurs

does not attain

is, it

its full

clarity at the

revelation but only in the course of historical development. the people of Israel at the foot of

40

Mount

Sinai did not, in the

Even mass

grasp the true meaning of Torah until the time of the return of

from Babylon,

the exiles

The Absolute Steinheim,

however,

itself,

is

after the passage of a

clearly not

like the revelation as

does need to become recognized, but the

it

process of history

is

not the progress of the

Conception

is

a

human To sum

It is

woven

it

activity;

it

knowing

does not transcend

up: insofar as a relationship exists between history and

cognition. is

human

spirit in

boundaries, just as the Deity does not trespass them.

Absolute

the

conceived by

dependent on time. In contrast to

Hegelian doctrine,

itself.

thousand years.

Spirit,

this

relationship

not inherent

into

in the

established

is

Absolute

history as a succession

by our

Spirit as such,

nor

of concrete events.

But Krochmal nevertheless required of historical research that

it

upon

should discern the character of a people and the influence it

of the Absolute Spirit

any given time. This assumes

at

that the element of metaphysical Spirit does exist in the historical

process and that

it

can be revealed by historical research

logical contradiction.

the basic dualism is

—

Here Krochmal’s theory of history reveals

which gives

rise in

it

to several problems. History

autonomous, a primary dimension

to be taken for granted.

But history— and with Krochmal history usually means Jewish history

—

is

also the

Absolute, which history

is

is

medium

of the Spirit, the substance of the

the ultimate substance of

all

a primary field in a real time-occurrence;

change, a concatenation of events. However, since to a metaphysical Absolute, latter,

history.

it is

also

it

it is

Thus

consists of

connected

some manifestation of

the

which from the point of view of metaphysics needs neither

revelation nor history. to place history

and

Krochmal accepted

Spirit side

this

by side: history

metaphysical element even though

it is

dualism and tried is

the account of a

also the account of actual

41

Norms

History Against

had granted the existence of a succession of

events. Hegel, too,

independent events, but he regarded them as of reason, thus,

own dualism However,

as

this

mission

a sense, fusing history and metaphysics. But

in

Krochmal made no his

fulfilling the

weakness

accepted

no questions.

raised

if it

He

such a fusion.

effort to create

Krochmal’s thinking offered an

in

advantage to historical research. Since history was not bound to metaphysics,

could become an autonomous discipline, with

it

historical forces alone determining

and moulding

Krochmal

it.

himself did not draw this conclusion, since he was not aware of the methodological implications of his reasoning, but

from

inferred

his writings as a whole. [His

ship between Spirit

it

may

be

view of the relation-

and history did not compel any prejudgment

of the sequence or relationship of events in time.]

it

may

be asked:

if

history

an autonomous entity, then

is

how

and by what means does Jewish history become dependent on Spirit? is

The answer, which

that Jewish history

is

solves a specific historical problem,

cyclical in character.

After a period of flowering, a period of decay sets the cycle begins over again. Spiritual

The

cycle

is

in,

and then

not powered by the

Absolute but by social and psychological forces (the

disintegration and disappearance of creativity) and the

of organic

life

(aging and dissolution).

rhythm

The Absolute, however,

guarantees that after a period of decline, a period of regeneration

and growth

will follow.

fication of the

But

Abolute

this

guarantee

Spirit, since

by

is

its

not due to any revivivery nature the

Ab-

solute neither dies nor revives nor intervenes in the course of history.

Thus Krochmal’s statement

that “the Spiritual Absolute

has to protect us and save us from the fate of tences”

is

not so

much

with ups and

Krochmal

temporal

exis-

a contradiction as an affirmation of the

cyclical character of Jewish history. Since the

all-encompassing and

all

infinite,

Jewish

Absolute

history

downs but without ending. One

the lack of a transition

too

Spirit

is

continues

notices here in

from metaphysics

to history.

TRADITION The metaphysical element has

to

and

REALITY

42

perform the function of history;

the infinite element has to preserve the perpetuity of the process,

the continuous course of Jewish history.

though the historical process physical to assure

element, that

its

That

autonomous,

is

it

to say,

is

even

needs the meta-

continuation. If not for the metaphysical

Krochmal saw, he would have been unable

maintain

to

any period of reawakening and revival following upon a

period of decay involved the same subject. Here,

was wrestling not only with the

it

seems, he

religious question of the eternity

of the Jewish people and the special historical laws which set

it

apart from other peoples, but also with the internal problem

of the continuity and identity of the historical process. Since he

saw no proof of itself,

this continuity

he was forced to posit a non-historical element connected

with history, that Spirit,

within the historical process

is,

the metaphysical element of the Absolute

which the eternal process

in history parallels

time. This bridge across his dualism

went one way only, leading

from the

historical to the Divine, but not

latter, as

has been said, has no need of history at

But the metaphysical element only in

Jewish history

— that

or reflects in

back again, since the

fulfills

all.

a specific function

of preserving historical continuity;

it

does not affect the actual succession of concrete, historical events. In other

words, the dependence of history on the metaphysical

applies only to the it.

framework and not

to the occurrences within

History remains essentially autonomous.

However, the

special character of Jewish history

mal’s particular concern with

it

must be borne

in

and Kroch-

mind. The focus

of this concern was not the relationship of one event to another, or the transition from one to another, but the continuity of

substance which connected the events. This continuity was not integral to the actual historical process, to the events

and

their

governing laws, but underlay their ultimate meaning. Krochmal

was no doubt influenced by the German history, their

idealist

philosophy of

which regarded events not from the point of view of

inner relationships but of the idea governing them; in

addition, however, his religious outlook has to be considered.

43

History Against

Norms

Judaism conceived of history as a chain forged out of a substan-

and of tradition as the continuous development of

tive tradition

an eternal body of truths. Krochmal was not able to free himself entirely

it is

from

this view.

possible, at

to regard

first sight,

Krochmal’s approach

example of the drawing

the actual process of history as another

of analogies from living organisms, so prevalent

Underlying

was

this practice

separable part of the evolution

an

is

in-

nature and does not exist out-

scheme of events

side the limits of the general

his day.

in

the view that history

in

to

world. Ac-

in the

cording to this view, history proceeds as a slow growth, an adaptation to circumstances, an absorption and overcoming of obstacles. tialities.

itself;

It

makes no sudden

development

is

it.

The

is

set

from within history

Though

propelled by inner forces.

historical process consists of in

brings out latent poten-

it

The course of this development

the

progress

leaps;

growth from a root, there

positive

the

a certain

is

and constructive prevails over the

negative and destructive. There

is

thus a kind of grace in this

conception as applied to history, where the builders outnumber the wreckers.

creasing

Then

humane

activity directed

the growth

whole process can be seen as one of

the

values and

human

and flowering of an organism

is

in

nature

followed by

the historical analogists, especially Herder, tended to the positive over the negative

human

worth, with every

towards these ends. Although

in-

its

itself

death,

emphasize

4 .

Krochmal, on the other hand, emphasized the negative, the processes of decay and disappearance. There historical evolution in the

a

first

stage of

marked by development and progress, but

second stage there

is

an exhaustion of strength followed by

decline and ending in disappearance.

maintain that there

is

is

Thus we can no longer

continuous accretion of values.

contrary, in the transition from

first

to

On

the

second stage progress

is

brought to a stop. But

this

is

not the whole story, for like organic

life,

history

TRADITION is

made up

REALITY

and

And decay

of both growth and decay.

itself is

not

may

dis-

necessarily a denial of progress. Certain characteristics

appear from a particular society

and

in history

44

remain pre-

yet

served in the historical process as a whole.

The grain of

this idea

can be found

discusses peoples that decline

Krochmal, where he

in

and disappear but whose

elements are taken over by other peoples. Yet ascertained to what extent such a transference

or

how

there

is

it

spiritual

cannot be

true progress,

is

successfully values are thereby preserved, or whether

then a consciousness of improvement.

whole

history as a

To maintain

that

progressive, even while individual stages

is

pass in and out of existence, requires a concept of history as a

whole, of a continuity of particular historical links, and such a

conception

is

However,

lacking in Krochmal. this lack

is

not an oversight.

tinuity can be said to exist only

awakened to

where the creative forces are

Hence continuity applies

to rebirth after their decay.

Jewish history alone. Only there,

has creativity

shown

To Krochmal, con-

Krochmal’s judgment,

in

a capacity for renewal after

decline

its

and

apparent disappearance.

though krochmal did not regard history

as

process, as a garden in which each year the

blooms are larger

and brighter,

his idea of

of historical-social

life

perspective, history

is

it

is

nature nor

its

its

own

somewhat

tied

as biological

all

from the force of

own, neither does

to the

notion

From this life. Though

character.

in

only an aspect of

effectively severed

individuality of

decay was

an ameliorative

it

organic spirit,

have

history has its

own

no

specific

laws which differ qualitatively from those of

other organisms. Biological and not historical forces control

and shape

man and

his institutions.

But not entirely: the disintegration of a community or people,

Krochmal it

believed,

may

also be brought

about by the prosperity

has achieved. In admiring the beautiful and the splendid, the

people’s desire for pleasure

becomes inflamed and higher ideas

45

Norms

History Against

become subservient

and

to the senses

their satisfaction.

Wealth

and possessions, pride and haughtiness wax and proliferate; increasingly, the few lie

dominate the many. So the causes of decay

not only outside of history,

The

itself.

decline of a nation

is

organic nature, but

in

consequence of

the

its

in

history

attainment

of a certain peak of development, a certain level of power and

accomplishment or of be had

in

Once

self-realization.

abundance, there

no longer any need

is

Creative drive slackens and decay sets

The completion of any progress.

stitute

It

satisfactions are to

in.

cycle in decay does not in itself con-

no

entails

spiritual

regarded as the fulfillment of a destiny,

growth, nor can

like the clearing

on which another people with a historic mission part.

The very

basis of such an idea

as a whole possesses continuity is

for effort.

—

is

— that lacking

it

be

of a stage

will

play

its

the historical process in

Krochmal. Decay

a necessary fact, an inevitable consequence of specific causes,

but

is

it

not the instrument of a designing reason. In essence,

even Jewish history

Krochmal conceded

is

not the fulfillment of a mission or destiny.

that Divine

Wisdom had chosen

the people

of Israel “to teach the absolute faith of the Torah to mankind,” but his conception of since to

God

included no basis for that choosing,

him God was impersonal. Even though Jewish

where decay

is

followed by revival,

is

different

history,

from the history

of other peoples, neither development nor the addition of values can be found.

To

be sure, one

may

new

discern a certain

limited progress in Jewish history.

Only with the return from the

Babylonian

conception revealed

Sinai

exile did the religious

become

the

common

possession of the masses

at

Mount

in its full

From that period onward, however, no real progress took place. “And from then on the Torah remained engraved purity.

on the tablets of our hearts and has never departed from our generations since.” Even the progress that occurred between the Sinaitic revelation

and the return from Babylon brought no addi-

tions to the old values,

The change

lay in

and no introduction of any new values.

the refining

religious consciousness.

And

and purifying of the people’s

after the period in

which religious

TRADITION

and

REALITY

consciousness matured, history continued. So Jewish history

bound up with

not

of some purpose.

is

the idea of progress or tied to the realization

It is

maintained by

its

substance, the Absolute

regardless of whether any additional development, or

Spirit,

new

of

revelation

the

46

or the striving towards

truths,

some

goal, occurs or not.

Krochmal’s

theory was not intended to apply to

cyclical

history in general, but only to that area of history in which

Jewish history occurred. The distinguishing characteristic of Jewish history was

But

this

exception to the universal rule did not exempt Jewish his-

from

tory

continuation beyond the period of decay.

its

the forces

which operate

in

history generally.

after a period of revival has begun, the organic laws

and disintegration in

sets in as

operate

did in the previous cycle, just as

the histories of other peoples. In Jewish history, however,

there

is

The

germ of renewal.

the

idea that history proceeds in cycles

Krochmal, and even

Sefer

in

Ha- Temunah* There

spiritual essence of the

any

was not

original with

Jewish literature there was to be found a

some ways

cyclical theory, in

*

it

still

Even

similar to his, in the mystical

the

Torah

is

declared

to

book

be the

world process. This essence goes beyond

specific explanation,

any given

literary or linguistic

formu-

an important difference between the cyclical theories formulated in ancient philosophy (as well as by Nietzsche, for example, in modem philosophy) and Krochmal’s hypothesis. In the former, the recurrence of cycles is based on a But there

is

limitation or absence of spirit, which also accounts for their repetitiveness. In the latter,

it

is

the

abundance of

spirit that leads to

ever

new

cycles following

the decline of the old. In this connection,

it is

interesting to

compare Krochmal with Vico,

to

whom

sometimes said to be indebted, despite a scarcity of information concerning Vico in the German literature of Krochmal’s time. Vico postulated not only a repetition in the structural form of each cycle— from barbarism to heroism to humanism but he also assumed that internal concrete relationships were similar as well. Thus the differences between the patricians and plebeians in ancient Rome were repeated in the opposition between the nobles and serfs in the Middle Ages, etc. Though Krochmal found a likeness of structure in all cycles, he distinguished between framework and phenomena, so that the latter could be dealt with independently and on their own terms, without regard to phenomena in other cycles. Thus Krochmal represents a distinct and significant he

is

—

difference

compared with

relation to Vico.

Vico. S.

Rawidowicz

stressed in his studies

Krochmal’s

47

History Against

The Torah

lation.

Norms unconditioned and

is

its

discoverable in the cycles of the world

(

manifold aspects are

shemitot ). They deter-

mine the nature and characteristics of every sphere

Krochmal knew of this work or theory

the same:

is

abundance of

the

Jewish history causes

it

not, the basis for his

other peoples and nations

is

own

on and renews

However, there

limited, so their historical processes

and

their

fullness,

its

itself.

Krochmal

a cardinal difference between

is

and the author of the Sefer Ha-Temunah. The the cycles

cyclical

spiritual content of

are limited in duration, while Jewish history, out of carries

Whether

which animates

spirit

The

to continue.

5 .

latter

appearances as radical changes

regarded

in the

order

of the world, as cosmic and religious cataclysms, destructions of values. Every

new world

cycle

and the differences

structure,

had

in

own

its

individual laws and

nature between the cycles pre-

cluded smooth transitions from one to another. Upheavals oc-

which new aspects of the Torah, hidden during previous

curred

in

cycles,

made

their appearance.

Not

so to Krochmal.

To him

the

relationships between the cycles were sustained by the fact that

they

all

and the

occurred

realm of history. The continuity

in the

later cycle evinces

the world or the order of

no radical changes life

found

in the

is

smooth,

pattern of

in the earlier.

Indeed, at just this point, a basic difficulty confronted Kroch-

mal how account :

for the transition

from one cycle

to another, the

reawakening of creative forces within the cycle which had reached lie

its

terminus? Since the seed of a new flourishing cannot

in disintegration,

history.

the

reawakening cannot be generated

Krochmal’s answer was that

it

in

was generated by the

metaphysical element deriving from the Absolute

Spirit.

All

events from growth to disintegration are propelled by forces

present in history, but the beginning of growth, the starting of the cycle,

is

spiritually determined.

preserved in significant form

— of

A

religious motif

is

here

a beginning conditioned by

something outside of history, by a metaphysical element which is

identical with

God.

Krochmal recognized

that

all

cycles were not the same, that

TRADITION

and

REALITY

48

changes occurred between one cycle and another. The second cycle

in

began with the return from

Jewish history, which

Babylon, was not a mere copy of the social and historical forms of the cycles.

first.

There were, nevertheless, parallels within different

The decrees following

and the decrees

the destruction

Spain, the Sabbetai Zevi

in

of the Temple

movement and

the

bore significant resemblances. The similarities

heretical

sect

were not

criteria for evaluating particular periods of history or

for the study of their

phenomena, but they were

cyclical evolutions, since

some of

useful in tracing

these characteristics appear in

periods of growth, others in periods of decay. While cyclical factors thus

imposed a degree of system upon

the historical

process, they did not impair the independence of the individual

phenomena. These were

judged

in a

dual light:

as they fitted into the general pattern of history,

and

in

historical

their particular nature

enon,

moreover,

and

fulfilled

the historical process itself

to be

significance.

a

was

The

cyclical

methodological cyclical, the

place of a specific fact in any cycle fixed

its

terms of

phenom-

function.

Since

determination of the

location in the process

as a whole. In

laying out a

program of

historical research,

Krochmal

did not dwell on periods and their cyclical evolution, but rather

on the

specific data

which composed them. This,

a fundamental principle. Individual in the

in his

view,

phenomena should be

richness of their variety. Individual differences

was

studied

must not

be obscured for the sake of establishing uniform structures. In actual practice,

Krochmal

connected with the

beliefs

still

confined himself to problems

and opinions of the Jewish people;

he found no place for social problems. But his principles obviously had a wider importance than his application of them.

CHAPTER FOUR

Judaism Considered by the Historical Method

krochmal proceeded from

the eternal to the historical. Heinrich

Graetz studied the history of Judaism and the Jewish people for their

own

sake, in the belief that only in

its

history could

Judaism be understood. Graetz, whose History of the Jews

supersede in the

all earlier

works

in its field,

province of Posen, Germany,

he was deeply impressed by

in

was

to

including Jost’s, was born in 1817.

Samson Raphael

Letters of Ben Uziel and the cause of

began

eleven volumes

As

a

young man,

Hirsch’s Nineteen

Orthodox Judaism. He

his literary career shortly after he entered the University

of Breslau, by writing articles opposing the Reform Movement. Thereafter he figured frequently

in

controversy. In 1879, three

years after the completion of his history, which he had begun to

publish in 1853, he was charged, on the basis of a strong antiassimilation statement he had a foe of Christianity

and the

made in volume German people.

The accusation placed him under remainder of his

life.

When

the

eleven, of being

a cloud for almost the

Union of German Jewish Congre-

gations created a commission for the study of Jewish history in

Germany

in 1885, the

foremost historian of the Jews was not

TRADITION invited to join

it.

REALITY

50

But the importance of the History of the Jews

could not be gainsaid.

It

Russian and Hebrew and, this

and

has been translated into English, in part,

Yiddish and French, and to

day remains a standard work. Before he proceeded

lay out the position

endeavor, Graetz attempted to

in the

from which he would write the story of

his

people. Like Krochmal, he accepted the essential position of history,

but with a difference.

Krochmal, as we have

seen,

hypothesized an oscillation between two poles of Judaism a metaphysical-religious system

— as

on the one hand and as an

agglomeration of historical facts on the other. Krochmal

tried to

bridge the gap between these poles, but their separation

still

remained. Graetz took a decisive step forward, declaring that

whoever to

failed to see

understand

it

at

all.

Judaism

in its historic perspective, failed

Judaism as history and Judaism as

coincide, he said, since Jewish history

is

religion

a manifestation of the

substance of Jewish religion. As Graetz was a historian,

perhaps not surprising that he took the essay,

But

if

“The Construction of Jewish History”

which he heralded

him

this view.

to regard

his

life

work, we

will find

it

is

we look

at

(1846),

in

reasoning that led

any concept of Judaism outside the perspective of

history as meaningless.

AT THE university of breslau,

at

which he matriculated

Graetz had been taught that any complex of

human

ideas could

be understood not through introspection, but only by historical experience,

was not a subject therefore of

way of

by pondering deeply on the course of

events lying outside the individual.

objectivization

in 1842,

human

Man’s self-consciousness

for psychology, but for history. This creativity

was a consequence of

Hegel’s sweeping assumptions about the nature of history and its

position in the development of the Spirit. Graetz’s instructor

in

philosophy, Julius Braniss, had been a particular influence

in this regard.

1

Norms

History Against

51

Thus when Graetz examined

the various philosophical at-

tempts— by

the Science of

Judaism and philosophers of Judaism

— to

Judaism and

its

define

whelmed by

was not over-

basic principles, he

the disagreements he found.

Each of his predecessors

had studied Judaism from one point of view or another; each

had based

of Judaism on a specific body of content

his idea

accordance with

his

own assumptions. Graetz

resultant lack of concordance. In his eyes, the

of Judaism revealed true

when viewed

They were

false

its

appreciated the

many

rich spiritual substance,

concepts

and

were

all

as particular aspects of the essential Judaism.

only when, by attempting to invalidate others,

they set themselves up as the basic concept as that of reconciling

definitions of

in

all

2

Graetz saw

.

his task

of the partial, seemingly conflicting,

Judaism as basic elements of a greater and more

inclusive system.

This reconciliation, he affirmed, could not be effected by

thought or introspection but only through history “historicization” of these views

all

— by

the

conceptual views. Moreover, none of

was valid except insofar as

it

entered into the course

of historical events, thereby becoming an active, historical force.

To

put this another way, each specific concept of Judaism,

that

it

was

specific,

the extent that

However, the determined

it

was true insofar as

was separated from

relative

in isolation,

is

to this level

was

relative,

relativity

it

false.

but only within the whole historic framein

defining

the

substance of

How does the time-process become of history? We shall deal with this question

crucial.

For the present, however,

let

abandonment of any

elevated later on.

us observe one important conse-

quence of Graetz’s approach to Judaism as history: the

was

but to

nature of each concept could not be

work. Thus history’s function

Judaism

its

it

in

it

entailed

speculative attempt to construct a

systematic, abstract view. For Graetz systematic doubt served as a positive basis for the justification of a historical perspective.

Graetz sought,

in particular, to reconcile

two principal views

of Judaism by converting them into aspects of Jewish history.

TRADITION One view was of Judaism

as a legal, political

was of Judaism

the other

and

REALITY

52

social system;

as a religion with an ideological or

philosophical basis. Graetz had been

made aware

of the contra-

by the development which

these two views

diction between

and

Jewish reflective thinking had reached

in his time, largely in the

writings of Mendelssohn, Steinheim, Hirsch

and Formstecher

3 .

Graetz avoided the temptation of a middle ground, since to him taking such a position seemed only an easy compromise. Instead, he posited what he called a “magic

and religious

bond” between

the political

and un-

principles, the connection being an inner

breakable one. This bond, however, was not something given at the outset

but only became manifest in the historical time-

The two

process.

principles appear in succession and, by their

alternation, determine the course of Jewish history. Judaism, as

substance

far as its

is

concerned, appears then as the combination

of the political element with the religious

in its precise

sense

4 .

Graetz made no formal distinction between the two elements as abstract categories of ideas.

comes about only through the connection

the

The divergence between them

working of

between them occurs

history.

in the flux

and Graetz separated these elements only

That

is

to say,

of time only,

in respect

of time, not

by conceptual distinction.

this

fundamental aspect of Graetz’s approach becomes

especially clear

if

we

call to

mind

that he did not try to explain

and prove the existence of the “magic bond” by

He

logical deduction.

did not seek to find a transition point where the political

and religious were linked, or a bridge connecting one other. Instead, he in history.

the

bond

saw the bond appearing as a matter of

History, by

in the

to the

its

fact

very nature, reveals the existence of

succession of

its

events, not in the simultaneous

existence of ideas and attitudes in juxtaposition. Thus, after the

first

period of Jewish history, which bore the stamp of state

and law, came the second, which bore the stamp of dogma and

53

History Against

Norms

The connection between

religion.

was therefore not

and the religious

the political

logical but chronological. In this belief

was supported by a

basic assumption

of the philosophy of

history of his time: that the historical process reveals rationality.

He

history,

relationship,

This relationship, which

is

the

transition

of content.

not a matter of succession in history

but one of reciprocity, involves the “magic

bond” between two

constant components: the Jewish “tribe” {Stamm) as

other,

body and

the

Torah as

Judaism thus

spirit.

not a religion

is

history of a church

in the

narrow

sense, or the

which represents the development of a

doctrine and no more.

It

is

the evolution of a people as well.

primarily, the history of a culture, the bearers of which

are not certain

whole

5 .

the historical relationship, the transition in time, Graetz

derived a conceptual

is,

separately

first

and singly and ultimately united and interpenetrated

It

rational or

is

believed that the primary idea of Judaism

was the revelation of the two aspects of its

From

Graetz

6

The

.

appear

in

outstanding individuals, but the people as a

dimension of Judaism, moreover, does not

political

an abstract

community

legal

formulation, a code of laws, but

as a social aggregate

— in

human form

in a

as the Jewish

people. In the present period of Exile, of course, the political

element element

is

absent, the place of the state being taken by the social

in

its

narrowest sense. Even

in

his youth,

therefore,

Graetz was speaking of the “magic bond” between the Torah, the people of Israel

The people terized it

and the Land of

exists either in

by laws and

statutes, or in

religious dimension,

many

7 .

conjunction with the

terms of

assumes when the bond between

The

Israel

it

its

No

peoplehood, which

and the

on the other hand,

is

state

is

its

ception of

God,

ideological

works as they are revealed and developed

this aspect

severed.

constituted in the

Torah and

offshoots.

charac-

state,

longer restricted to the con-

of Judaism embraces literary and in

Jewish

history. In his History

of the Jews Graetz broadened the two prin,

TRADITION ciples, the political

and the

religious,

REALITY

54

on which he had based

his

and

understanding of the structure of Judaism, to include the national as a continuation of the political

dimension, and culture and

ideology as a continuation of the religious.

dimensions characteristic of certain

made them

He found each of these

specific periods,

and yet he

the distinguishing features of Jewish history as a

whole. In other words, while these elements were partial and

determining the horizontal structure of Judaism

relative factors (its

the

order

in time), they also

appeared

structure of Judaism, as elements present in

vertical

periods of Diaspora history. Therefore to

one form or other,

in

was possible

it

in all

for Graetz

speak of the eternity of the Jewish stock and to discover

Judaism

in the multiplicity, if

not the dualism, of

its

elements,

by using history as a unifying instrument.

To

components of Judaism,

the two

and the dogma,

the law

Graetz added a third, not intrinsically bound up with either but pointing to the future

Judaism that

it is

— the messianic belief.

8

has been said of

It

not a religion of the present but of the future.

Graetz accepts the future as a dynamic of Jewish survival. Without belief

in a

Messiah there would be no sense

which the people, as

it

were, lives.” Judaism

an actual time-process, because history

in the

is

hope

‘ k

on

tied to history,

is

directed towards the

it

be historical or con-

future.

The

definition of Judaism,

ceptual,

is

bound up

Graetz with something

in history,

Judaism manifested

i.

Two main

Judaism

is

features distinguish

paganism

nothing, ex nihilo nihil fit; is

2.

its

ideal state.

freedom of the

first

a negation, a

Judaism from paganism:

that out of nothingness

paganism

is

while

nihilo,

comes

based on the belief

an all-encompassing, self-propelling force;

only nature in denial of the

is

it

was a type of protes-

based on the concept of creatio ex

the basic tenet of

that nature

When

itself as

denial of paganism. In this respect Judaism tantism.

else again: the

between Judaism and paganism.

relationship

appeared

in

whether

God

Paganism therefore leads

ethical will, since

is

to a

man’s deeds are

determined by the natural forces. Judaism, however, posits a

55

History Against

Norms

gulf between the natural

contrasted with God,

and the Divine. In

its

view, nature, as

non-existent and only the result of the

is

exercise of divine will. In these distinctions

phy of

his

acknowledging

not the

latter.

necessary,

Formstecher, ex-

his indebtedness to the former,

though

Steinheim made creatio ex nihilo a basic feature of

pursuing the idea through

and characterizing creation as an a

to the Jewish philoso-

contemporaries, Steinheim and

plicitly

his thinking,

Graetz conformed

spirit

been Graetz’s main influence

various ramifications

act of free choice, rather than

natural development.

contradiction between

its

Formstecher explored the

and nature and appears in the

have

to

matter. Graetz’s description

of Judaism as the “Religion of the Spirit” (in the Introduction to the first

volume of

his History) is the precise title of a

Formstecher published liminary essay).

It

in

may

work by

1841 (five years before Graetz’s pre-

also be appropriate here to note the

reappearance of the contradiction between the religion of nature

and the religion of history,

in

Moses Hess’s Rome and Jerusalem

published in 1862.

We may have already inferred that in his definition of Judaism, Graetz stood partially on historical and partially on conceptual ground. In outlining the differences between Judaism and paganism, Graetz

showed

that

Judaism was not merely a

opponent of paganism, had not arisen and

in conflict

system of

historic

solely in opposition to

with paganism, but comprised an independent

belief.

His use of the negative term protestantism to

designate Judaism was a dialectic rather than a historical

one-

one that entailed a substantive ideological polarity rather than a relationship between events in time. Yet he never lost sight of the historical dimension, defining Judaism, in

ment,

in

terms of

its

legal-political

components, as well as

ment of

in

terms of

and its

its

its

inner develop-

dogmatic-religious

location in the develop-

the religious idea in general, by the contradictions be-

tween creation and progress, freedom and necessity,

spirit

and

nature.

Thus, though Graetz’s conception of Judaism was

tied to a

TRADITION historical

view of

its

and

REALITY

56

values and principles, in respect both to the

course of Jewish history and history

in general,

it

also involved

value judgments, either explicit or implicit, on the superiority

of Judaism over paganism. Here Graetz the historian identified himself with his contemporaries, the philosophers of Judaism.

we have already

indicated that Graetz was able

to assign a

function to the historical process in Judaism as a system of

thought, since idea

—

time

9 ,

view the process was the reflection of an

gave concrete evidence of what was latently potential

it

in the idea. in

in his

The process was

like the

the manifestation of the substance

sowing and cultivation of a seed. Within the

concatenation of events was a spiritual core, the extensions of

which reached beyond mere history, making of Jewish history the realization of an idea. This core, moreover, existed prior to

was

in

and

essence detached from history.

the spiritual and ideological content of Judaism served Graetz as the means for delineating the periods of Jewish history

and as the distinguishing features of the three major periods into

which he divided

it.

inated.

The focus of

effort

is

and

social element

predom-

upon national and

political

In the first period, the political

consolidation and on raising the people to an acceptable level

of spiritual

life.

In this period,

which ends with the destruction

of the First Temple, the historical process fluctuates between the natural course of national

life

and a

striving to actualize the

conception of God. In

the second period, the scales

religious side. Social

tance,

and

religion

and

become weighted on

political activities declined in

the

impor-

became dominant. The period ends with

the destruction of the Second Temple.

Even though the people then went into

exile, its unity

was

57

History Against

Norms

preserved.

The

creativity:

Judaism becomes

third

period

introspection, the people

Graetz found the tially different

manifested tent

was

tion

is

from the

becomes

its

seeks

land and engaging

self-aware.

two periods of Jewish history essen-

third. In the

former a certain content

which had not appeared before. True,

itself

latent in the idea of

history

itself in

first

by intellectual

knowledge, and

science,

Removed from

intellectual self-recognition. in

characterized

is

Judaism, but

it

this

con-

had not manifested

— and from the historical point of view, manifesta-

all-important. Graetz defined these two periods in terms

of their

new

content.

He could

which revealed nothing new.

It

not so define the third period,

was a period of self-examination,

of contemplation of the content manifested

in the

two previous

periods, during which the religious creativity of Judaism pro-

ceeded without any reflection as an unsophisticated creativity.

As against

the unmediated nature of the earlier periods, the third

appears as a mediated attempt to understand Judaism, self-conscious.

It

What transition

in

become

does not, however, represent a fusion of the

two previous periods, the being absent

to

and

legal

political basis of

Judaism

exile.

reason did Graetz put forward,

it

may

be asked, for the

from the unmediated unsophisticated periods

to the

mediated and self-conscious one? The transition from the to the

first

second period was brought about by the richness of the

substance of Judaism, which sought to manifest in the historical

process, but this

itself

was not true of

which followed. Graetz answered the question

outwardly

the transition

terms of the

in

historical experience of the people. In the period of exile, the

Jews were excluded from participation

in

the activities of the

world around them; they could find no external outlet for their productive energies. Hence the most outstanding created a world of inner thought

10 .

to the self-conscious stage, then,

among them

This advance from the naive

was not the

fruit

of an inner

development, the outgrowth of an idea, but the consequence of circumstances which bore no relationship to the ideological

TRADITION substance of Judaism.

It is

REALITY

and

58

well to point out that in this circum-

Graetz was not unique. Furthermore, his

stantial explanation

conception of the development of Jewish history

conditioned

is

by certain metaphysical assumptions, which are not explicitly stated

and which deserve

examined.

to be

Hegel regarded the dialectical progression as consisting of an ascent from the unmediated to the mediated stage, as a chain

of concepts lying unexplained on a lower level and becoming

on a higher level, not by being newly given but by being

intelligible

The

postulated and rationalized.

mediated and mediated stages stage being

is

difference between the un-

therefore only relative, every

unmediated as compared with the stage

just

above

Yet the very rhythm of the dialectical process depends on transition

from the unreflective

formulation and transposed

this

to the conscious. it

from

its

it.

this

Graetz took

conceptual context to

the area of history.

Graetz also borrowed from Hegel

in

another respect. Hegel

regarded religion as a lower stage than philosophy, as unmediated in

comparison with philosophy, which

The advance from

is

composed of concepts.

the stage of religious imagery to that of

conceptual philosophy was,

addition, a development within

in

consciousness, ascending to ever higher degrees. This progression, too,

Graetz placed

itself,

area of history. Religious creativity

which manifests an ideological content,

unmediated. in

in the

order to

reflective;

It is

not self-conscious, does not reflect

know

hence

is

itself.

it is

The study of

superior to

its

by nature

upon

itself

religious creativity

object. This reflection

is

is

not

only philosophical but also involves knowing and formulating

—

it

is

science.

Hence Judaism

as a science

than Judaism as religious creativity.

is

on a higher

What was

level

a stage in the

evolution of self-consciousness for Hegel became a stage

in the

advance of the historical process for Graetz. Here Graetz also

member

reflects the aspirations

of the generation engaged

in

of his time. As a

the Science of Judaism,

he did not regard his scholarship and that of his contemporaries

59

History Against

as a

mere

Norms

isolated enterprise but as a link in the chain of Jewish

history, as an epochal advance.

ing

from the

state of

reflective

the Science of Judaism.

Science

of Judaism

creativity.

It

it,

Judaism was emerg-

an unreflective religion and acquiring a new

outlook produced by in

As he saw

thinking— an outlook

crystallized

His expressed view was that the

added nothing

nor enriched Jewish

to

was a secondary phenomenon, beginning

Jewish creativity had exhausted

itself.

To

this extent

after

Graetz

adopted the position of the Science of Judaism.

but reflective thinking, period of Judaism, also preservative

force.

fulfilled a historic

is

it

is

encounters

spirit are

acted as a

defining

its

in its historical process.

This

By not being part of any

become

a universal people.

their surroundings,

they maintain their

particular environment, the Jews

integrity

by

it

able to distinguish between itself

the essence of Diaspora history.

By not merging with

function:

Judaism,

Self-conscious

nature in conceptual terms,

and the phenomena

the distinctive feature of the third

and independence. So viewed,

Talmud and

the

its

not a deviation from the path of Judaism but necessarily

follow from the basic premise of Judaism as a protest against

polytheism and pantheism and the religion of nature which both

embody. Greatz did not regard Judaism as a phenomenon of culture in general,

nor did he

try to find a

connection between Judaism

and general

history. In the essay outlining his

the analogy

between Judaism pursuing

its

program, he cited

individual path and a

current in the ocean. However, far from signaling the end of

Judaism, the Science of Judaism was an expression of

its

will

to survive.

so

much for

the substance of the historical

development of

Judaism, according to Graetz. As for the formal structure of

TRADITION development, the laws governing

that

from Graetz’s preliminary essay or from duction to the

first

volume of

his

we

it,

REALITY

and

learn

60

either

little

his History. In the Intro-

major opus, Graetz announced

that he wished to engage in the study of Jewish history, his free of theological preconceptions,

mind

concentrating on the general

laws of history. Yet he remained silent as to what these laws were.

He seems

have accepted the widely prevailing view of

to

and decay

history as a process of sprouting, growth, maturity

activity, Its

emergence and

Krochmal’s words,

(in

growth,

decay and disappearance). But Jewish history

development,

in its area,

begins over again; decay

by new growth and vigor. The cycle of occurred three times.

One cannot

mal here, although

in

rise

and

and

vigor

unique.

is

followed

is

has in fact

fall

help being reminded of Kroch-

actuality Graetz

was probably not

in-

fluenced by Krochmal’s theory of cycles.

Krochmal’s Guide for the Perplexed of the Time had been

when he was

published in 1851 and was available to Graetz

working on the

And

in the

there

is

no

first

volume of

his

History two decades

later.

preliminary essay, written before Krochmal’s Guide

,

Yet the brief

explicit reference to historical cycles.

description of Jewish cyclical history appearing in the Introduction to Graetz’s first

volume

differs substantially

from Kroch-

mal’s systematic exposition, and shows no interest in the logical

and

historical

problems with which Krochmal was prepared

to

deal.

The

structural form of the historical process described in

“The Construction of Jewish

History’’

the notions of organic structure

History

itself.

However,

we

is

different

find in the

from the

volumes of the

the latter are consistent with the

former

with respect to the division of Jewish history into three “phases,” as Graetz called them, tracing the transition

another

each

in

none of the periods or successor;

why Jewish

none

period.

Despite

their

from one phase to

essential

differences,

is

completely dissociated from

is

a closed circle. Yet Graetz never explained

history followed the particular course

its

it

predecessor

had.

We may

61

History Against

Norms

infer as the reason the

need of the ideological content of Judaism

Judaism

to manifest itself in history. After the political aspect of

had been achieved, the religious aspect sought

and so Jewish history passed from period.

It

might

justifiably be

asked

its

to be expressed,

political to

why

its

religious

the political preceded

the religious period chronologically, since

from the ideological

point of view both elements are components of the overall idea.

Graetz offered no theoretical reason for the sequence

from

however, that

this.

He merely

his observation of concrete events.

his value

judgments compelled

it,

It

derived

may

be,

the political

stage being lower than the religious in the Hegelian progression

1 .

CHAPTER FIVE Sociological Shift

and Ideology

by the end of the nineteenth century the direction of Jewish thought had altered. The historical approach to Judaism had gained broad ground, while other points of view the

religious-metaphysical

one

— had

— and especially

been called into doubt

and put on the defensive. The work of Simon Dubnow, who began

in

the i88o’s as a follower of Graetz, was in the

historical tradition, but

it

entailed a significant shift from ideas

formulated as determining Jewish social

new

life to

the Jewish people as a

entity/

The development of Jewish generally

is

historical writing in this period

characterized by a gradual transfer of interest from

the description of events to the searching out of the laws inherent their flow.

in

1

This cannot be accounted for entirely by the

emergence of a more penetrating

discipline.

Nor can

it

be im-

puted wholely to a sense of obligation to Jewish historiography felt

in

by

later

historians to complete the work, already begun,

tracing formative and operative causes in the flow of historical

events.

There

is

another,

more fundamental reason

for the shift,

one the historians themselves were not always conscious the fact that the historical approach

of:

was no longer seriously

TRADITION challenged and the misgivings small effect.

The need

examine the ways

From

for indirect

it

64

endorsements by appeal to

became possible

it

worked without

that history

a beginning in which

REALITY

once had evoked were now of

it

uncontroversial premises had passed, and to

and

had

to feel

distraction.

way through

its

the

realm of eternal values, Jewish historical thought had evolved

and matured

where

the point

to

matters in a historical light and

what comprised

ideas of

Dubnow’s work

Bom into

i860

in

II

could deal with spiritual

in

accordance with definite

history.

affords the clearest evidence of this evolution.

in the

World War

it

province of Mogilev, Russia, and living on

(he

was

by the Nazis

killed

in 1941),

Dubnow

attempted to create a synthetic, synoptic account of Jewish

endeavor on the assumption that the Jewish

history, basing his

people

is

“the most historical of

What he meant by

Dubnow people

is

defined the historical

if it

“historical”

word

not unambiguous, and

is

least

at

in

peoples.”

all

two

different ways.

has created cultural values that have

A left

an indelible mark upon humanity. (On the other hand, a people is

non-historical

if

it

has

sense, a people’s historicity

left is

no such notable

an index of

its

In

this

creative power.

The

trace.)

people which produced the Bible and instituted monotheism is

thus a historical people. But a people

terms of

its

duration as an entity

historical, in

this

in time.

sense, than others.

also historical in

is

Some

peoples are

The span of

people’s existence leaves no doubt as to

its

more

the Jewish

historical status,

duration-wise.

But there

is

a qualitative difference between these definitions.

Whereas a study of

the traces

and

historical creations

the

two

survey

draws a

classes of peoples

of historical

left

line

literary

and non-historical), a

life-spans

itself.

its

of demarcation between

(historical

peoples’

distinctions within the class

by a people and

in

time

establishes

Chronological limits are not a

criterion for determining the place a people occupies in history,

world

nor are they a measure of the influence wielded by that

people upon the course of

human

evolution.

Its

life-span

is

but

65

History Against

Norms

an attribute of a people considered confines of

its affairs,

and has no bearing on history

Dubnow’s point of view which we suffice to

within the limited

in itself,

at large

reflected in his idea of nationality,

is

shall presently discuss in detail. In this context

touch upon those of

underlying

its

will

it

aspects which are related to the

Dubnow’s

of

principles

2 .

The

thought.

historical

character and status of the Jewish people of his time were, ac-

cording to

Dubnow,

the

work or

of history.

result

unfolds within the time-process. At

life

its

need and

territorial

these stages,

only

the

to

the

its

growth

level

in

of

and through

all

this

—

had occurred

For outside of history a people can neither

in history.

its

of national existence

crowning phase of peoplehood. And

is

level

cultural-historical

had attained the highest

life is

people outgrows

The Jewish people, having passed

existence.

the final,

rises

Finally,

people’s

inception that

of an ethnical-natural character. The next stage of the political-territorial one.

A

exist

nor be understood.

The

crucial importance of history

on the character of national

The

existence can be seen from another angle. the subjective ties that bind

life lies in

The

basis of a people’s

members

its

to

its

history.

individuals are aware of their connections to the group only

insofar as they consider themselves

bound

to

history. History

its

engenders the people, and history consolidates

it

into an integral

whole. In other words, the historical process as a given fact

is

from which any study of the evolution and

the assumption 0

national

and

of the Jewish people necessarily proceeds;

destiny

this is the point of

Edmund Burke in thought, Dubnow does

Unlike Jewish

Dubnow’s work 3 English thought or Ahad Ha-am

departure of

not

.

make

in

a point of the historical

heritage passed on from generation to generation, but rather

emphasizes the historical process brings about.

It

was

together with his vistas, that led

him

and the changes that

it

the character of his historical conception,

commanding view of

the broader historical

to reject the idea of an eternal people existing

outside of time or indefinitely in

We

itself

it.

have seen that Krochmal had

tried

to

establish

the

TRADITION and

eternity of the Jewish people

to present

the people’s absolute spiritual essence.

concept of eternity

Dubnow,

for

whom

66

as the reflection of

it

Krochmal employed

the

over

it

to the historical-temporal realm.

approach was unchallengeable

the historical

from the very outset,

REALITY

theory after carrying

in his historical

from the metaphysical-religious

and

contrast rejected such metaphysical

in

notions as “eternity” or “the Absolute .”

duration of events that lends

itself to

4

History pertains to a

measurement and determi-

nation in terms of the particular time of the events’ occurrence. Eternity

An

by definition timeless.

is

necessarily an eternal people;

from antiquity up

to the present.

the span of

in time,

its life

is

it

The Jewish people’s

its life

is

not

a people living in history

has invested

of an “undying” people, but

enduring people

in

it

with

time

its

historicity,

singular quality

nevertheless finite

is

and can be gauged. In the light of

lacks

all

of

its

Dubnow’s

theory, the idea of an eternal people

primary content.

A

historical

approach excludes

the possibility of employing religious or metaphysical concepts

which remove cording to

their objects

Dubnow,

from the domain of

the events constituting the

life

history.

Ac-

of the Jewish

people are historical par excellence. The singularity of the Jews’ status in history

but precisely to

is

its

not due to

its

detachment from the process,

being rooted and persisting

dubnow’s sociological perspective,

the

in

it.

most familiar aspect

of his historiography, affords further evidence of the governing principle of his work.

The

sociological

approach

to historiog-

raphy implies that the subject matter of historical research the people, that

and struggle

is,

“the national personality,

for survival .”

concerned with

literary

5

and

its

genesis,

growth

Historical research so slanted spiritual values;

it

is

is

not

treats the various

values as expressions of the people’s character. Since spiritual

values are the offspring of the people and cannot be taken as

independent of

it,

historical research should deal with values

67 not in

Norms

History Against in

terms of their material, religious or literary significance, but

terms of a people which cannot be understood save as a living

community. Thus the sociological perspective represents a further step

away from

the realm of eternal values

toward concentration

on the temporal domain. The primary assumption that the alone constitutes the ground of historical reality

latter

the idea that history can be understood in

its

justifies

only from a

reality

sociological point of view.

The

actuality of the temporal process

through

all

of

to

a motif that runs

Dubnow’s thought. To understand

and situation of a people one must study ment;

is

its

the character

historical develop-

understand national history one must look upon the

people as a community living

in time.

History

is

both the starting

point and the terminus of any investigation of a people. In this sense,

Dubnow may

historical

approach

be said to have completed the circuit of the to Judaism.

He proceeds on

the assumption

of the people’s historicity and arrives at the conclusion that the people’s history

is its

only reality.

to the people; the second

The

work out

Jewish historical thought.

first

step

is

from the people back

is

sociological phase of

as an attempt to

The

from history to

its

history.

Dubnow’s thought may be regarded

ideas put forward by the fathers of

Or

it

can be taken as a supplementary

perspective extending the field of historical conception beyond the spiritual-creative formulations stressed by Jost, Graetz

Krochmal.

It

and

can also be considered as a reflection of the social 0

agitation of the times and a result of attempts to found a Jewish

movement which would be and in

historical in

social

content. That

its

and contemporary all

in its basis

these factors are operative

Dubnow will emerge from a consideration

of his programmatic

conception of Jewish national existence.

But before turning to tion.

The

historical

not identical, nor

The

is

this,

we must make

a critical observa-

and sociological approaches

there any intrinsic reason

why

to history are

they should be.

historical viewpoint reduces the history of a people to its

development

in

time; the sociological assigns primary importance

TRADITION to the social factor in the historical process.

REALITY

68

One may deny

the

and

applicability of the concept of eternity to a people as a social unit, as if

any people occupies a singular position But

historical events.

in the

course of

by no means clear whether the concept

it is

of a people can be divorced from the factors which form and

mould

its

way of

which define

—

literature or the practices

its

spiritual values

its

recall the part

life

played by the Halakhah

the sociological

beliefs

and aspirations. One need only the shaping of the

in

Jewish people’s pattern of living to see that

Thus

and

approach

this

to history

is

is

so.

a supplementary

perspective induced by considerations which do not necessarily

follow from the historical approach that without the latter, with

its

itself.

history

is

somewhat

unclear.

the

prised

and

component

in

inclined to distinguish be-

life,

which

to his

mind com-

and institutional elements, and

organizational

its

quite true

either.

sociological

He was

tween the foundation of national

is

logical or philosophical

grounds for taking a sociological position,

Dubnow’s conception of

it

rejection of metaphysical

would be no

religious concepts, there

Yet

superstructure, or the totality of its creative works.

He

its

apparently

believed that society constituted a living entity without regard to this superstructure.

biological sense, nor

from

its

But a society

is it

a people

its

independent or entirely distinguishable

concrete being not reflected in this superstructure,

would not

level, either.

Take

community

for

exist at the organizational or biological

the struggle of the Jewish people as a historical

its

rights

and status

character of this struggle

It

not an organism in the

creation.

Were

search

is

for

nourishment

in

is

in the

modem

world.

The

not analogous to an organism’s a hostile ecological environment.

presupposes a definite attitude towards history and the Jewish

people’s place in

it.

Thus, for example, a decision must be taken

as to whether history constitutes an external

framework

that

does not affect the way of life of a society or whether an anchorage in

history

is

the sine qua non of national existence in

its

strictest

69

History Against

A

sense.

Norms

social entity

non-existent without an awareness of

is

which

the nature of society, in the light of

evaluates

itself.

What

and what

is

existence of a historical

contemplates and

not sociological

is

community,

it

the character of

the

in

which

is

— and Dubnow rightly underlined the relation people and history — not nearly as clear-cut,

defined by history

between a

its

is

simple and unambiguous as would appear from the tacit or

Dubnow’s

explicit presuppositions of

IN

theory.

ORDER TO ESTABLISH THE CONTEXT of Dubnow’s views On

problems of Jewish existence and thought,

Jewish

is

it

their relation to his historical

appropriate here to touch upon the question of the

people’s

extra-territorial

existence.

There are several

attitudes towards extra-territoriality dictated by divergent con-

cepts of what a people’s existence

term, ‘‘extra-territoriality”

is

is.

In the strict sense of the

a geographical concept denoting the

existence of a people without specific geographical confines. But the term also has political

and

The

social connotations.

of the Diaspora as being extra-territorial

is,

in fact, the line

demarcation between the Zionist and non-Zionist, or Zionist, theories of Jewish collective existence.

predicament of the Diaspora solely ter

is

also to imply that the

For

of

anti-

to see the

in its extra-territorial

charac-

problem of the Diaspora can only

be solved by the abolition of extra-territoriality, that territorial

idea

ingathering of the people.

On

is,

the other hand,

by a if

one

holds the territoriality of national existence to be a primitive stage of national growth to be outgrown, one no longer conceives of the territorial

problem of Jewish national existence

in

geographical-

terms, or else one looks at extra-territoriality as a

problem or anomaly

Dubnow

held

to be

overcome.

national

that

existence

evolved

from the

material to the spiritual and from external simplicity to inner

complexity

growth

is

6 .

Only

at

the so-called material stage of national

there a connection between the people

and

existing

TRADITION external factors, one of which

people

is

political level of existence,

its life is

and autonomous but

intrinsic

The

is

transition to the next

and

REALITY

the stage

to

level

framed by a

the

70

when

a

territorial-

political struc-

by the ownership of or

tural shell. This latter level, characterized

sovereignty over territory,

At

territory.

from the ethnic-natural

rises

and

not based on bonds which are directly

on the

fact of statehood.

final stage in the

evolution of a

people entails the disappearance of external criteria and their

replacement by subjective ideals virtue of

From

its

Now

people exists by

the

inner attributes.

this

point of view, the extra-territorial existence of

the Jewish people

phenomenon but

is

not an anomalous or undesirable political

mode

rather the highest attainable

existence, a level at

which other peoples have

nationality, according to

tessence

7 .

Dubnow,

of cultural-historical

or

of collective

yet to arrive. Jewish

thus represented the quinspiritual

peoplehood

8 .

The

extra-territoriality of the Jewish people,

both

moval from a particular land and

in dispersion, therefore

bears witness to to

its

its

exalted position

among

all

true that one does

refer to the

come

its re-

peoples and also

across passages in

Dubnow

selves,

good or

ideal.

resign our-

Diaspora

and cultivate the national existence of the

greater part of the Jewish people which inhabits

so

We

says, to the historical necessity of the

strive to preserve

territoriality

Dubnow which

Diaspora as an external necessity that must be ac-

cepted, rather than as a desirable

ment

terms of

durability.

It is

and

its life

in

9 it .

Here extra-

does not bespeak a high stage of national develop-

much

as an inexorable fact.

The Jewish people must

take this fact into account, acknowledge

and endeavor

its

irresistible force,

to fortify national existence within the limits

it

defines. In the last analysis, to

the

however, Dubnow’s position with regard

Diaspora remains constant. For both

his

theoretical

premise and his practical assessment lead to the same conclusion the extra-territorial Jewish people

must build

its life

within the

Norms

History Against

71

given

framework of

premise, there

is

its

dispersed existence. According to his

no need

to provide a territorial basis for national

existence; practically, there basis.

And

same:

to

in

problem of the Diaspora

either case the

way of safeguarding

a

find

powers

creative

no possibility of providing such a

is

or, at the very least,

independence as a spiritual-historical

may

so that they

be enabled to

live

the

people’s spiritual-

the

of preserving

its

historical

not only as other

cultural

claim to

entity. In laying

autonomy, Jews must put forward

cultural

is

demands

human

beings

but also as sons and daughters of a particular historical people. 10

The

solution to the problem of Exile

but

in

it

securing an organized

not in overcoming

life

within the conditions

it

imposes.

Dubnow’s al

way of

lies

existence

is

practical

program

consonant with

for safeguarding Jewish nation-

of shifting centers of

his theory

Jewish history. Over the ages, according to

this theory,

not one

but several territorial centers have served as the focal points of

Jewish national

life.

Thus even

of the Jews as manifested

geography.

To

in

their history

the distinguishing

space but also

and Spain

is

creativity

independent of

put this another way, extra-territoriality

basic sense of dispersion and detachment is

and cultural

the social

in

mark of

time— from

to the shifts in

from a

single

— in

the

center—

the Jewish people not only in

the land of Israel, then via Babylon

Jewish existence

in the

nineteenth and

twentieth centuries.

Jewish activity should therefore aim national center, which in

Jewish community

in

at fortifying the existing

Dubnow’s time was

Eastern Europe;

it

must

essentially the strive to

keep

abreast of and serve the evolutionary development of Jewish history at every stage. In the course of time the center of gravity

of Jewish this

life

might

shift to

would make no

Jewish

existence

an area other than Eastern Europe, but

essential difference.

spiritual nature

of

would remain unshaken, no matter what

external circumstances prevailed. activity in

The

the Diaspora

and

Thus

the

program

for Jewish

for the Diaspora’s sake springs

TRADITION

and

REALITY

72

organically from the idea that collective existence apart from territory

is

not a problem which calls for change

pattern

in the

of Jewish national existence.

We

have seen

how Dubnow’s approach

to national

problems

dovetails with his historical theory, according to which national

character and status are both products of history.

to alter either. Since the people’s extra-territoriality

with

its

futile

history, to try to

impossible

It is is

bound up

change the situation would be both

and undesirable. For one

thing,

it

would

result in a regres-

sion from the present spiritual stage to a previous one, less

advanced. For another, as Jewish history has been enriched by migration and the transplantation of national centers, so

would be impoverished by being confined

to

it

one population and

one place. It

would appear that

sibility

recommends moving with

emerges. But the matter

it

did not believe in the pos-

of a national renaissance in the sense of a return to national

roots. Indeed, he

as

Dubnow

is

the historical trend

not quite this simple.

Though he

seems to be saying that we must accept the direction of history, he does not believe that this direction can be followed as a matter of course. Rather, he saw the need to translate

it

into a specific

plan of action. This plan of action did not embrace a comprehensive

way of

life

but embodied a struggle for political and cultural

rights in the countries to

where Jews

lived.

Dubnow was

propose such a plan for the Jewish community

inclined

in the

United

States with revisions dictated by the different conditions there. It

may

Jewish

be that the programs proposed by others for enriching life

in

America, by way of organized, comprehensive

institutions, reflected their

way

Dubnow’s

ideas, at least as far as

some of

sponsors were concerned. For Dubnow’s plan was related to territory.

community history.

The

in

in

no

Even the establishment of a Jewish

Palestine could not alter the course of Jewish

Palestinian

community would be

a further

example

of the pattern of Jewish history, another link to the chain of national centers in time past, another locus in the network of centers in the present.

73

History Against

there

Norms

however, a certain tension between the historical and

is,

Dubnow’s thought. The prominence of motif and method in his thought underlines the

sociological aspects of the sociological

organizational and institutional aspects of national existence.

Now,

among

evidently, territorial and political elements are

constitutive factors of the institutional phase of national

emphasized by the sociological approach; but from a viewpoint their necessity

open

is

question

to

the life

historical

— unless

they are

taken to be lapses from the already achieved extra-territoriality in earlier stages

of Jewish

life.

Dubnow had

In the end,

non-territorial substitute for territoriality, the

dilemma was by way of Jewish

communal For

and

his

to find a

way out of

autonomy and

political

cultural rights.

Dubnow

territorial consolidation

substituted political-

cultural consolidation— the organized cementation of Jewish exis-

tence by legal

means and administrative bodies with

of schools and research

institutes.

a

Thus, ultimately,

network

Dubnow

does not accept the absolute rationality of extra-territoriality, but rather

tries,

within the framework of extra-territorial exis-

tence, to find the advantages afforded

This being

mous

context

is

territoriality.

one cannot help wondering whether autono-

so,

existence

by

in

Diaspora

the

within

an

extra-territorial

indeed historically superior to territorial existence,

which grants a certain measure of autonomy as a matter of 0

course

— autonomy not despite the lack of territory but precisely

by virtue of territorial sovereignty, autonomy within the frame-

work

of,

state.

The

and guaranteed by, a Jewish rather than a non-Jewish issue at stake

is

not the technical one of whether and to

autonomy could,

practically,

did not go the whole

way toward

what extent

extra-territorial

achieved, but

why Dubnow

ritoriality

sense.

For

and admit that all

his

it

is

its

original

ter-

basic

emphasis on the sociological aspect of Jewish

history and existence,

Dubnow

tualist, like the fathers

of

— implicitly

operative in

be

or explicitly

finally turns

modem

— he

out to be a

Jewish thought against

set himself.

spiri-

whom

TRADITION Be

this as

it

now’s thought

may,

— the

it

is

and

REALITY

perspective qua historio-

graphical theory and the national perspective qua ideology interrelated. This

Dubnow said,

is

the

is

not to suggest that

without reservation, that Dubnow’s ideology

as has been stressed, there

two

is

At

the

same

is

it

be

the practical

time, however,

certainly a connection between

distinct facets of his thought, a

connection enhancing

on both the historiographical and national

reflection

facets of

work.

With

the shift

from values

century idealistic scientific

to

peoplehood, the nineteenth-

momentum came

questions Jewish thought raised in

theory

image of the historian and national thinker which casts a

the

his

in his historical

— are

mouthpiece of ideological thought. Nor can

translation of his historiography.

these

Dub-

clear that the diverse aspects of

strictly historical

74

in that

to

an end. Yet the

century would re-emerge

our own against the background of the Jewish renaissance, to

whose problematic

now

turn.

situation

— and

its

expressions— we

shall

PART THREE

Peoplehood and Its Past

CHAPTER

SIX

National Revival and Traditional Values

the rise of historical consciousness

in

Jewish thought brought

about a weakening of the bonds of tradition, which could

itself

be subsumed under history and therefore could no longer be

regarded as a super-historical norm. The beginning of a move-

ment

for national survival

produced a counter-trend: an examina-

tion of Jewish values versus

the chief figures in this

Ahad Ha-am

bom

(the

Asher Ginzberg

The son of

a

and within Jewish

One of

development was Ahad Ha-am.

pen-name means “one of in

history.

1856

in the

the people”)

was

province of Kiev, Russia.

prominent Hasid, he received a thorough Jewish

education and married at sixteen. Later he traveled to Western

Europe and studied

at the

universities of Vienna, Berlin

Breslau. Returning to Russia, he called

was drawn

Hibbath Zion (Love of Zion),

much

Odessa, not so

The

led

to the

and

movement

by Dr. Leo Pinsker

in

as follower as sympathetic critic.

Ahad Ha-am’s thought can be discerned main controversies in which he was now to become

basic features of

in the three

involved.

The

first

concerned questions relating

ment of agricultural settlements during the

last

in

to the

manage-

Palestine by Hibbath Zion

two decades of the nineteenth century. The

TRADITION Hibbath Zion movement was founded

and

REALITY

78

the i88o’s, mainly

in

by

Russian and East European Jews, for the purpose of establishing such settlements and improving their conditions.

When

Ahad Ha-am charged Hibbath Zion

settlements began to falter,

with failure to screen prospective applicants for aliyah

ment

the

settle-

and moral character. The inade-

as to their personality

quately trained immigrants, he said, lacked “preparation of the

heart”— a phrase which watchword.

In

ment found

became a

later

social

and ideological

Ahad Ha-am ’s

view, the crisis in which the

was

psychological

itself

essentially

and

move-

ethical,

and out of the resultant controversy there emerged one of Ahad

Ha-am’s central concepts, namely, was

first

and foremost

prepared for

its

the concern of an elite

task

The conditioning of

that settlement in Palestine

spiritually,

and

to

be

ideologically.

group was an indispensable

select

this

ethically

which had

prerequisite to successful settlement in Palestine.

The second controversy centered upon political

Zionism

the

early

the

days of that movement.

one must be careful

this dispute

from

in

theoretical

aspects.

the basic principles of

the practical

to distinguish

With

regard

In

former,

the

to

Ahad Ha-am shared the view of the successors to Hibbath Zion who argued that Theodor Herzl’s political Zionism neglected practical

work and achievement

relied solely

on external

in its Palestine

political conditions to

program and

advance the work

of settlement. They further pointed out that political Zionism

was not favorably it

inclined towards cultural activities

failed to recognize that a

renewal of the Jewish

and that

spirit

was

in-

dispensable to Jewish revival generally. Steeped as he was in

Jewish

tradition,

political

Zionism

Ahad Ha-am for

their

reflected in their private views ical

to

phase of the

this dispute

central

difference

in

objective

detail

after

which Ahad Ha-am took

also

chided

ignorance

the

of Jewish

founders of culture,

as

and public programs. The theoret-

focused upon a basic disagreement as of Zionism.

We

must consider

this

describing the third controversy part.

in

Peoplehood and

79

This

last

Past

Its

controversy was

in

the province of literature and

concerned the nature and aims of the new Hebrew expression.

Ahad Ha-am advocated

more

a

intense preoccupation

with

Jewish subjects and with the cultural resources of the Jewish past, so that the

modem

Jew would be imbued with a sense of the

historical continuity of Jewish culture. This controversy

second of

— though

common In

they

fall

within different areas

and the

— have a number

features.

one sense,

modem

Zionism has

its

origin in the preoccupa-

of Jewish thinkers with a satisfactory solution of the

tion

The attempts

place of the Jewish people in the world at large.

problem gave

resolve this

rise to

to

two schools of thought, one

Ahad Ha-am.

represented by Pinsker and Herzl, the other by

The former analyzed

the existence of the Jewish people from the

vantage point of

relationship to the political and social en-

vironment

in

its

which

it

happened

as rejected, the ideological

being

anti-Semitism.

To

to find itself.

The Jews were seen

and practical form of Pinsker

and

their rejection

Herzl

anti-Semitism

constituted the fundamental problem of the Jewish people

—

what was then technically known as the Jewish Question. This point of view reflected the disappointment of Jews

in the

Emanci-

pation which had seemed to promise them equal social and political rights.

Herzl were they

in

at first

embraced

after the

It is

perhaps no accident that both Pinsker and

ardent advocates of Emancipation, and that

— and

indeed created

— political

Zionism only

wave of disillusionment which followed

Southern Russia and the Dreyfus Affair

in

the

France.

appreciate the feelings that led to this change

— the

pogroms

We

can

desire of

Jews to become a recognized and accepted part of

their society,

on being spurned. Eager

to join in the

and then life

their frustration

of the people around them, they were driven instead into

increasing isolation, so that the Palestine solution presented itself to

them with particular

Ahad Ha-am’s

force.

position was based on an altogether different

assumption. The problem of the Jewish people, he believed, was

TRADITION that

was drawing too

it

close to

and

REALITY

80

environment, despite an

its.

admitted tension between the Jews and their surroundings. In

more

fact, the

isolated they

Jews be

likely to feel a

Jewish

culture

need

the

intensely

would the

with the dominant non-

to identify

absorbing

by

more

the

felt,

qualities,

latter’s

thereby

own uniquely Jewish qualities. The assimilative Ahad Ha-am saw in the making in his own time had two

attenuating their

process

precedents

in

Jewish history— Alexandrian Jewry

century before the

common

in

the last

and Spanish Jewry during the

era,

Middle Ages. This adaptation of Jews to an alien environment, he

would not only tend culture, but

would

felt,

to vitiate the creative elements in Jewish

also jeopardize the inner unity of the people.

Since the environments in which the Jews lived were politically

and nationally

would be

far

from uniform, the adaptation eventually

to different cultures

and

traditions. Consequently, the

Jewish people would break up into separate sub-groups ac-

cording to the respective cultures

The

chief task of Jewish revival

and, by creating a

members sought

its

was

new common

check

to

and Herzl,

the objective facts tended to

draw

rather than

further

Only the socio-national effect

upon

this

the Jews

away from,

will,

the unity of

now was placed. Ahad Ha-am held that

which

in

In sharp contrast to Pinsker

to,

this disintegration

basis, preserve

Jewry amid the historical conditions

to adopt.

it

and Judaism closer alien

their

environment.

he believed, could have a restraining

tendency, by

means of independent Jewish

organization and the Palestine solution. Thus where Pinsker and Herzl posited the

will,

Ahad Ha-am

posited necessity; and where

they posited necessity, he posited the will.

The problem of

Ahad Ha-am

the unity of the Jewish people as seen

deserves to be examined

more

closely.

by

Ahad Ha-am

interpreted this problem from the standpoint of Jewish history in the

Diaspora, seeing that the unity

With the

loss of the Jews’ political

is

basically a religious one.

and

territorial center, the

Jewish religion both as a faith and as an institution became the

Peoplehood and

81

Past

Its

sole unifying force

—a

force

which Ahad Ha-am viewed on the

owed

level

of a historic factor. The Jews

mon

past going back to the Bible, and not to any geographical

area that they happened to occupy

in

oneness to a com-

their

common.

But the historico-religious bond that held the people together

weakened progressively and threatened

Thus the

finally

to

Jews would be determined henceforth by

fate of the

their geographical dispersion,

which dictated the conditions of

their existence in all spheres, including their cultural

The primary

disappear.

task of Zionism, therefore,

was

life.

to find a

new

unifying ground for Jewish national existence in the form of a

Jewish center

in Palestine, universally

The establishment of such cess of disintegration

a center

acknowledged by

would put a

all

Jews.

halt to the pro-

and would perform the function

hither-

by the Jewish religion and Jewish historical contin-

to served uity.

The question called

to

which Ahad Ha-am addressed himself he

“The Question of Judaism and Jewry”

to distinguish

it

from the question which Pinsker and Herzl had posed and named

“The Question of the Jews.” The

difference involved the national

Jewish people as a historical and cultural entity,

fate of the

in

contrast with their status in the society in which they lived or

with their entitlement to equal social and political rights.

An

additional distinction

made by Ahad Ha-am had

to

do

with the subject of Jewish revival. For whose benefit was this 0

revival? Pinsker and Herzl were concerned with the individual

Jew

in his daily struggles

whereas Ahad

Ha-am had

and frustrations view

in

all

in

an alien society,

of Jewry as a whole.

He

furthermore expected that each individual Jew would place national status.

existence

above

Thus he connected

his

private

and personal

interests

revival with the task of an elite,

not in the technical, but educational sense he had criticizing it

take

in

Hibbath Zion. Rather, he demanded of

upon

itself

though

mind when

this elite that

extraordinary duties without receiving special

privileges in return

and

that

its

members regard

their personal

TRADITION

and

REALITY

people and

fates as identical with that of the entire

its

82

historical

destiny.

There

still

if

Ahad Ha-am,

a practical

connection with Jewish immigration to Palestine.

difficulty in

For

remained, according to

one assumed the basic question to be that formulated by

Pinsker and Herzl,

framed

in

it

was obvious

that

its

answer should not be

terms of the entire Jewish population of the Diaspora.

Since the goal of political Zionism was, therefore, simply not

Ahad Ha-am’s

feasible,

center”

was

solution

create

to

“spiritual

a

in Palestine.

the idea of this “spiritual center” was expressed by Ahad

Ha-am

variously at different stages of his literary and public

We

career.

are often led to believe that the concept arose as an

alternative

to

Judenstaat.

Herzl’s

However, Ahad

Ha-am’s

mature, not polemical, view reveals no such opposition and no desire

on

up an antithesis

his part to set

formulation,

but

something

rather

Herzl’s political

to

supplementary

formulation and expressing a particular quality inherent

Ahad Ha-am conceived to be “spiritual”

the Jewish

that

to

in

it.

the function of the center in Palestine

by reason of the physical distance that separated

community

there

from other Jewish communities

the Diaspora. In terms of world Jewry, the influence wielded

in

by

Eretz Israel could only be “spiritual.” But this was no small thing.

The Jewish community

among Jews throughout

in

Eretz Israel would

the rest of the world a desire to identify

themselves with the Jewish people and

cupying a

specific

would serve

common

geographic area

as a unifying force

its

more powerful and

experiences of the distant past.

in the

effective than

this

basic

matter was

Holy Land. He understood, however,

that the influence of Palestine life it

community

Ahad Ha-am’s in

Oc-

Jews of the world would be eager to defer to the small

Jewish community

of

historic legacy.

in the present, this

psychological and sociological assumption that the

awaken

achieved as well as on

Jewry would depend on the quality its

spiritual

and

literary creativity.

Peoplehood and

83

in

regard to

the Palestinian

insofar as the old

Ahad Ha-am

this creativity,

community could become

was able

it

modem

traditional functions.

— so

Ahad Ha-am

in historic

Judaism and

he believed

— had

crum-

world religion no longer performed

The question

as to

continuity was to be explicitly religious

by

between

of his conception. The religious

basis of Jewish unity in times past in the

a spiritual center only

however, he was confronted with a

difficulty that lies at the very heart

and

that

spiritual elements of the

community must be rooted

spiritual heritage. Here,

bled,

believed

to develop a conscious continuity

and the new bases and that the

Eretz Israel its

Past

Its

in the negative.

its

whether Jewish historical character was answered

in

The new Judaism would

respect

the Jewish religion as a significant creation of the people, but the

Jewish revival would not be necessarily subject to

its

imperatives,

or at least be free to reinterpret them.

Two

reasons, one historical and the other theoretical, ac-

counted for

this view. Historically,

the generation to

forsake that

its

could not be expected that

it

which Ahad Ha-am addressed himself would

contemporary attitudes on account of a continuity

no longer was. Theoretically Judaism, as Ahad Ha-am

understood

was not

it,

Ahad Ha-am

essentially a faith but a system of ethics.

was, no doubt, deeply influenced by the positivistic

currents of thought prevalent

in the

nineteenth and

in the early

twentieth centuries; he was one of the few Jewish thinkers of his time affected

The

sources.

more by English and French than by German

decisive factor, however,

was

his belief that the

strong attachment of historic Judaism to ethics rather than religious belief

was

sufficient to

ensure the historical continuity

of Judaism. Singling out ethics as the basic ingredient of Judaism,

Ahad Ha-am would emphasize

the

Judaism, more rooted

than

historical

One

in

ethics

importance of prophetic in

faith

proper, in the

development of Jewish thought throughout the

of the ways

in

which Ahad Ha-am

justified his

ages.

emphasis

on ethics was by comparing the Jewish and Christian attitudes towards the subject. Judaism

is

concerned more with social than

TRADITION with individual ethics, and

it

REALITY

and

holds society responsible for the

realization of ethical imperatives in the social sphere.

on objective

lays stress

justice,

light

Judaism

not on love and compassion.

Judaism judges the deed, not the doer;

does

it

this

according to a

standard and not, as with Christianity,

fixed, objective

84

of subjective motives or the promptings of the

human

in the

heart.

Obviously, social justice and social ethics are closely related

Judaism, the tion of the

We itself

first

being

second

in

and implementa-

in fact the realization

1 .

can thus understand

Ahad Ha-am’s

which

elite,

identifies

with the fate of the people, as representing a realization of

The ultimate purpose of

the ethical content of Judaism.

Jewish revival, indeed,

is

condition for this revival

the revival of Jewish ethics. But the is

implicit in each Jew’s willingness to

adhere to these ethics here and now, that

is

to say, to give priority

people as an entity over the fate of the individual.

to the

Ha-am

distinguishes between essence

The essence of Judaism preserved in the allegiance.

modem

is

the

ethics, a

world and

and

Ahad

manifestations.

its

system of norms which can be to

which

all

Jews can give

The manifestations of Judaism, including

their

the religious

one, change in the course of history.

was ahad ha-am’s constant aim

it

to discern the line

historical continuity that joined the present to the past.

of the

Although

he formulated his thoughts on this subject at various times, they ”2 are most fully elaborated in two essays: “Moses and “Flesh

and Spirit" ( Bassar Varuah ), 3 published his

work At

the Crossroads

Ahad Ha-am’s

(

in the third

Al Parashat Drakhim).

views on Zionism and culture

kind of genealogical tree whose highest point

may

is

its

synthesis of political and ethical elements.

emphasis upon either leads

Undue

stress

over-concern

upon

with

to

Ahad Ha-am, Too great an

extremism or one-sidedness.

the political factor in the

day-to-day

be seen as a

prophecy. The

essence of the prophetic conception, according to is

volume of

affairs,

life

of society, an

constitutes

for

Ahad

Peoplehood ami

85

Its

Past

An

Ha-am

political materialism.

so that

it

is

people,

is

a “killing the flesh,” an asceticism transferred from

tom from

excessive emphasis on ethics,

context

its

in the

day-to-day

The prophets

the realm of the individual to that of society.

the bearers of the total national ideals, the realization of those ideals in the

a vital social ethic,

life

becomes

stale

and

Spirit”) as a criterion

ena and institutions.

and the court

is

and

used by

by which

He

sees

to

in

futile

— and a deviation

Israel.

Ahad Ha-am

historical

the

deviation

Judaism

in

Jewish

in

opposed

(as

The

history.

In the Essenes,

becomes a the

on the

spirit

the

altar of

who

what we

materialistic)

movements

assimilationist

versions of this tendency to shun political as a sacrifice

to

nineteenth century appear to him as

in the

later

of ethical purity removed from

life

spiritualistic

phenom-

would be revived

social reality, he finds the prototype of the ascetic, or call

“Flesh

(in

archetype of the political

under different conditions by the Sadducees.

may

is

the institutions of kingship

factor triumphant, a tendency which

despised politics and led a

aim

their constant

measure

Biblical times an

in

are

of the people. Without

life

from the teachings of the prophets of

The prophetic viewpoint

and

of the

life

modem

indeed to offer

life,

an abstract ethical

ideal. Israel

it

then

without a body. Spirituality becomes not only

aim but the

sole

content of Jewish

life.

The

flesh

— the

Jewish people as an entity— is to the assimilationist not only

something subsidiary but actually dangerous, a hindrance the

development of the It is

spirit

and

its

conquest of the world.

not our purpose here to evaluate the correctness of this

historical analysis but rather the implications that

drew from

it.

He

tendency

in

“Flesh and

most recent manifestation of the

materialistic

political

Zionism

Jewish history, as a case of an extreme view

assimilationism

views always do) to the

Ahad Ha-am

(in

criticized

Spirit”) as only the

is,

to

— producing in a vision

Jewish state alone

4 .

This

its

opposite

(as,

he noted, extreme

of Israel confined to is

— that

its

“body,”

a clear, deliberately formulated

rather than polemical statement of

Ahad Ha-am’s

position on

TRADITION Zionism and

political

REALITY

86

place in history. If the goal of the

its

was the

assimilationists

and

of the

life

and

spirit only,

to this

end

they were prepared to sacrifice the social and national integrity

of the Jewish community, the political Zionists were willing to jettison Jewish cultural values in the interest of political unity.

the

In

larger

historical

perspective,

Zionism was a

political

recrudescence of the materialism of the royal court and the

Sadducees, and a life-view inimical to prophecy and the prophetic spirit.

Over and against these extremes Ahad Ha-am posited a belief

whose source he saw

found embodied

prophecy and whose visions he

in

Judaism: cultural Zionism. Past

in Pharisaic

experience, he said, shows that both assimilationism and political

Zionism, having no firm hold upon the heart of the people,

command

disappear and give place to the only belief that can their full allegiance, that

days of the as

we hope,

principle,

first state

there

is

promulgated by the Prophets

and by the Pharisees

body over

suppression of the body for the

spirit’s sake,

body by the

A relates

spirit.’’

at

in

but the uplifting of

the end

of his essay

“Moses”

well

said

that

Moses

is

rein-

every age.

The prophetic

does not remain in abeyance for long; it soon reasserts its hold on the recalcitrant prophet. So, too, the prophetic people was brought to heel and spirit

restored to self-consciousness.

And once

again

we

see in

Moses, and the same Spirit that summoned him thousands of years ago and sent him all unwilling on his mission, repeats its imperious summons to our generation at this moment: “And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all; in that faint outline the reincarnation of

ye say:

We

be

nor the

thinking to a millennial tradition:

The Cabbalists have carnated

spirit,

will

5

well-known passage

Ahad Ha-am’s

the

the

fundamental

on the national as on the individual plane,

neither the ascendancy of the

the

its

in

second. “If,

in the

to be a third [Jewish state],

will

will be as the

nations ...

As

I

live, saith

the

87

Peoplehood and

Its

Past

Lord God, surely with over you .” 6 Here

God

mighty hand

a

Himself seems

whose program

.

.

will

be king

I

to stand against political

was

a sense

in

.

to create a nation

Zionism,

like

other

demand a more spiritual kind of commonwealth. The name Bnei Moshe (Society of Sons of Moses) that Ahad Ha-am gave the organization he founded as a kind of Order, nations,

and

to

contained the idea of a reincarnation of the

master of the prophets, and served to imbue

spirit its

of Moses,

members with

a feeling of sacred purpose.

ahad ha-am’s conception embraced between the ethical and the

political

also that between the individual

goal of

human

not only the relationship aspects of Judaism but

and society with regard

to the

existence. In the Biblical literature of the classical

prophetic period, this goal was taken to be the preservation of the

communal

the fulfillment in practical it

in

turn was considered to exist for

life

of the ethical values whose bearer

which

life,

was. According to

Ahad Ha-am,

aspire to an equal fusion of society to a synthesis

more It

which favors the former, which he conceived

to be

not our purpose to enlarge on this theme, except to

how Ahad Ha-am

point out plicitly)

and the individual, but rather

and comprehensive.

basic is

prophetic Judaism does not

related his idea (though not ex-

the original sources

to

and

to

basic outlook of

the

Judaism. As noted previously, he criticized Hibbath Zion and especially political as a

whole

Zionism

at the center

for failing to put the Jewish people

of Zionist aspirations, and for neglecting

to establish the vital ties that unite the individual

national revival of the Jewish people. In “This

(Lo Zeh Ha-Derekh) Ahad understand

how

Ha-am

Not

declares that he

is

the

Way”

unable to

the “language of self-interest” which speaks to

each individual according to his be called to serve

Is

Jew with the

in

own

status

and ambitions can

place of the national sentiment which unites

TRADITION all

hearts in a

common

It

efficacious in

its

was working

was both more important and

in

the practical realm

what he believed

in

88

appeal.

obvious that even

is

REALITY

purpose. As between the individual and

society, he held that the latter

more

and

Ahad Ha-am

be the tradition of the

to

prophets. Indeed, he asserted that the ethical idea of prophecy

was

sufficient to give the

Jewish revival

impulse and content.

its

Cultural Zionism, which for him was the solution to the real

problem of Judaism, merely meant

a return to the ethical ideas

of the religion of the Bible. In other words, the generation of the

which had been enjoined

revival,

identify

to

with the

itself

entire people, need only follow the ethical imperatives of the

prophets to

in

order to achieve

Thus Ahad Ha-am

goal.

tried

merge the national impulse with traditional thought.

The emphasis on Judaism

Biblical

by Ahad in

its

which

the individual

in the

finds expression in

books of Ezekiel and Job was interpreted

Ha-am as a departure from the authentic ethical principle

Judaism. In “This

Is

to

complain about the

in

his

Not

the

them and

private

life

to

lift

up

their

rewarded.

A

life

whose purpose was

which righteousness was

in

the rise of the individual as the

result of the decline of a society

aspirations.

perishes

the

apart from that of society, a

Ahad Ha-am saw

man who

common weal failed to hearts. Men then discovered a

when

and contentment and

pleasure

he states that the Jews began

fate of “the righteous

righteousness” only

inspire

Way”

which could no longer

parallel analysis

is

found

in

satisfy his

Hermann Cohen’s

conception of the prophetic ideal as based on society and the people as a whole. The book of Ezekiel, with individual, his sins also a departure ethical

and repentance, represents

from

tradition.

in

in

Cohen’s view

to the individual

Ahad Ha-am, 7 falling away

was

of

inter-

as a progressive

.

difference in the outlook of these

ularly evident here.

emphasis on the

this shift of the center

contrast to

development and not as a

The

But

and religious consciousness

preted by Cohen,

its

two thinkers

Ahad Ha-am, who was

is

partic-

interested in the exis-

Peoplehood and

89

Past

Its

tence and revival of a united Jewish people, interprets the emer-

gence of individualism as a weakening of the social structure.

Cohen, concerned with the

religious ideals of Judaism, tends to

minimize, ignore and even despise national goals and stresses

For Ahad

the spiritual position of the individual in Judaism.

Ha-am

the enduring content of

early social

origin;

for

Cohen

Judaism it

is

determined by

is

determined by the

refinement of religious consciousness, placing

in

its

later

the central

position the individual, his sin and repentance.

what was

it

prompted Ahad Ha-am

that

of cultural Zionism

upon Zionism

as a

in

to seek the origin

prophecy? Ahad Ha-am did not look

new movement;

to

him

it

was

the highest

expression of the ancient desire of the Jewish people to re-create its

national existence and to preserve

conditions of the age.

Ahad Ha-am’s

its

unity under the social

thinking

is

permeated by a

basic assumption that the existence of the people rests

upon

covenant made by the generations with one another.

tacit

a

A

people’s existence, he holds, cannot be explained in terms of its

present attributes alone, and by this token the Jews' desire to

establish a sovereign state

is

based on an active corporate

nourished by a consciousness of the past. alism shows

little

Ahad Ha-am’s

Its

German Romanticism, and

it

and irrationalism. According

bears resemblance to the political

to

constant and which

in

its

Judaism

latter’s

Ahad Ha-am,

and all-pervading force of history has of nationality owes

in

ideological roots were deepest in

thought of Adam Muller, although without the

spirit

nation-

of the positivism that was so dominant

other areas of his thinking.

The

will

its

mysticism

the irresistible

source

in

the past.

being to this power, which is

is

fed by the spirit of Biblical

prophecy.

Ahad Ha-am tions

lay

a

believed that behind the covenant of the genera-

profound consciousness of

Biblical

Judaism, a

consciousness that bound the generations to one another and

TRADITION united them by virtue of a

common

source.*

and

REALITY

90

should be remem-

It

bered that one of the basic ideas of the Jewish Enlightenment

was

image of the

that of the Bible as the ideal

romantic view of Scripture

Haskalah also tended

of

Israel.

This

the rationalistic circles of the

in

modify Ahad

to

life

Ha-am's

positivistic

outlook.

Ahad Ha-am historical

did not find

factors

behind

tradition, although he

basically concerned see in

necessary to inquire into the

it

the

was wont

continuous

prophetic

Jewish

to use historical labels.

He was

with psychological characteristics, as

“Moses,” where he most

we

clearly set forth his ideas of the

prophet and his mission. The prophet, he held,

not to be

is

viewed as a concrete personality responding to a unique historical situation, but rather a type defined

man

of truth,” “a

of extremes,” and the

are characterological ones, to

God’s active intervention

ity

by general qualities like.

and they do not in

of the individual and the

— “a man

These qualities

refer to actual ideas,

human history or to the responsibilpeople to God. Thus Ahad Ha-am

deprives the image of the prophet of

its theistic,

or faith, element,

and disregards the dependence of individuals or the people on the laws laid

mitment

down by

the divine legislator.

Ahad Ha-am’s com-

modernist conception explains

to the

his neglect

of the

content and substance of prophecy. Here he clearly modernizes traditional ideas to enable If

the prophet

nated by

God

that function

is

to cling to tradition.

not an apostle with a heavenly mission, desig-

to act as a is

modern man

“channel” between

reserved to the priest.

Him and

The prophet

is

the people,

moved by

human control. category, Ahad Ha-am

an inner imperative, by a vision of faith beyond

By turning prophecy into a psychological

sought to establish the genealogy of spiritual Zionism. position

was not unlike

His

that of medieval Jewish philosophy,

which also regarded prophecy as a “natural” phenomenon *

Ahad Ha-am

continuity of the

Orthodox view which derives the historical generations from the Written and Oral Law alone and eschews

differs with

the

any additional external impulse.

Peoplehood and

91

conditioned

Past

by individual

however,

latter,

Its

in

psychology.

differed

It

from the

two respects: the medieval philosophers did

not separate prophecy from traditional faith, and they placed

Moses beyond class

the limits of natural

phenomena— as

it

were, in a

by himself.

and

in his desire to find a historical basis for his ideas

own

the issues of his

modern views

generation,

Ahad Ha-am

to clarify

own

read his

into the early history of prophecy. But he

was

unable to resolve satisfactorily the problem of continuation or renewal, or of the continuation that

is

at the

same time

a

renewal. His ideas relating to the historical events of his age shed

some

light

on

this question.

Ahad Ha-am’s views on

the forces that shape history

and the

sources that nourish national experience have been pointedly

analyzed by Yehezkel Kaufmann. as the prime factor in

society

8 .

The people

Kaufmann pinpointed

Ahad Ha-am’s is

biology

thinking about history and

a social organism which

is

animated and

sustained by the elementary instinct for preservation and survival.

On

close examination

this

instinct

presents two aspects: the

biological urge to continue existing through time to

menace — individual or

may

be direct, as

in

collective

— at

it

and deal with

Kaufmann

any point. The menace

open persecution, or

turation, but in either case the healthy

and the response

subtle, as in accul-

organism

will

recognize

it.

frequently refers to a phrase which

Ahad Ha-am

took from biology when analyzing the dynamic character of Jewish history: “the urge to survive.”

however, that

Ahad Ha-am

It

used the phrase

is

difficult to

in its

purely biological

sense, or else regarded the urge to survive as the

factor in history.

mon name

for a

It

seems

to

number of

have served

prove,

predominant

Ahad Ha-am

as a

com-

forces that are not necessarily, or

not entirely, biological.

Ahad Ha-am

defined the urge to survive in a very general

TRADITION

and

REALITY

92

sense as “an inner force that bolsters national feeling” and as

“the will of the generations.” This suggests factors

in

the

life

of the people which are at once biological, cultural and social. Specifically, “the will of the generations” implies a force that

more

and essence, or one

historical than biological in origin

that does not precede history but

is

is

created and formed through

it.

Furthermore, the urge to survive exhibits a curious dialectic

development, often using for

in its

are clearly contradictory.

and the doctrine

tion

its

For example,

that

purpose doctrines that the doctrine of assimila-

makes of Jewish

nationality a purely

religious idea could both be instruments of the urge to survive,

either explicitly or else disguised in other forms. Since both these

doctrines deny Jewish national cohesion, they seem to negate the will to survive as a people proper. But they

not willy within

— for

a

definite

Through to

historical,

of Jewish national existence

social

and

“cunning of reason,” the

the

ideological

setting.

dialectic of the

apparently destructive

converts

survive

structive

the preservation

make — nilly and

forces

into

urge

con-

and preservative ones. Thus the relationship between

means and ends

neither simple nor unambiguous.

is

It

entails

distinctions between the visible will of the advocates of assimilation,

the

biological

and the hidden

phenomenon

entity

of the assimilationists themselves,

of the generations behind

will

clearly not rooted in biology.

when Ahad Ha-am employs

it

So we

—a

historical

see that even

biological terminology he

may have

non-biological considerations in mind.

the truth

is

that there

Ahad Ha-am’s

was no

single unifying principle

governing

thinking. His analysis of historical forces and the

role of the individual in society contains a

number of

diverse

elements, which the fragmentary character of his writings cannot

alone account

for.

We

must look,

historicism, prevalent in his day,

phenomena

in

rather, to the principles of

which sought

to explain all

terms of their historical roots and necessarily

Peoplehood ami

93

Its

Past

was inconsistent and without

resulted in a system which

Ahad Ha-am from

and laws deriving

requires dialectical explanations

positivistic

unity.

sociology to give his thinking purpose and

order, just as he requires strictly biological explanations.

important thing for him

ment but

more than

manner of

not the

development

the

aspiration as

is

He

itself.

a record or

historical develop-

sees the

drama of man’s

mere events, as the unfolding

of the Volksgeist, the Genius of the national soul.

phenomenon, he

isolated

The

Man

not an

is

affirmed, but the product of particular

circumstances of time and place, custom and tradition.

yet ahad ha-am shared a tendency to regard values isolated state, separate

view

it is

from the time process. Although

in

an

in his

from history that absolute, eternal values emerged, they

eventually detached themselves from

time and became

in

it

independent and ahistorical. The historical process, so to speak, overflowed subject to

its

banks and

left

a deposit that

movement. When Ahad Ha-am speaks of national

its

character as determined by history, he has things:

leading

national character as formed its

own independent

existence.

mind two

in

history

in

The

helps him describe the various stages values, but

was no longer

distinct

but also as

historical conception

in

the development of

does not prevent him from seeing these values as

it

independent, their validity eventually unaffected by their develop-

ment

in

time. This dualistic

between source and

and the

latter

placed

approach makes

validity, the in

for a distinction

former being rooted

in

history

an absolute normative sphere.

However, we must not ignore

the anti-historical elements in

Ahad Ha-am’s thinking, particularly his view that the sources of values may lie outside of history. The idea of God, for example, is

prior to any historical process and entered history from without.

Judaism, as the religious

Ahad Ha-am understood and

ethical consciousness

of sensibility and attach

it

to

an abstract

it,

is

an attempt to raise

above every ideal.

Hence

finite it is

form

explicit-

TRADITION ly

REALITY

and

94

defined as a system that divorces values from their develop-

ment

in time.

To

from the standpoint of

to be absolute his

Ahad Ha.-am

the extent that

takes certain values

their source

and

validity,

conception must be considered to be anti-historical

normative

in the

sense that these values represent

— or

norms which

by virtue of their eternality lay claim to our allegiance.

Ahad Ha-am of Judaism.

No

bases his normative position on the history

than medieval Jewish philosophers, the

less

historicists of the nineteenth

religion as

century looked upon the Jewish

an absolute value. This conception held the Jewish

people to be involved

in a nationality

challenged without jeopardy to

movement, which by

its

its

whose values could not be

very existence.

very nature was a link

The national

in the historical

chain, must therefore be considered as an attempt to reformulate

and preserve absolute values. This would seem

to be the precise

meaning of “renaissance.”

THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THESE thinking

system in

in

TWO TENDENCIES

in

Ahad Ha-am’s

may

be interpreted as a reflection of the absence of

his

philosophy. His views, however, were not born

vacuo but arose from a clearly defined national

movement

which also struggled with the problem of reconciling these

movement

ferences. If the national

a

new dimension

to

a return to the source.

renewed nationalism tion or revival

is

is

at

it

That

may

in

the

be regarded as also looking to

to say, the driving force of a

is

times seen as directed toward a restora-

— an interpretation, moreover, which

to the essential

alism

represented an attempt to add

Jewish existence, to forge a new link

chain of historical tradition,

dif-

meaning of the movement.

directed to the source,

it

If this

is

not foreign

urge to nation-

possesses at the very outset a

goal that can be pursued inflexibly by

very nature of the Jewish national

its

adherents.

Thus

movement — which was

the

seen

both as a historical development and a repository of eternal values

— imparted

to

Ahad Ha-am’s

thinking

its

characteristic

95

Peoplehood and

dual quality. thinking

is

To

less

Its

Past

be sure, such a contradiction at the heart of his

than satisfactory, but his presentation and refor-

mulation of the problems that engaged the best Jewish minds of the nineteenth

and twentieth centuries

is,

unquestionably, an

achievement of lasting importance.

Ahad Ha-am's statement therefore,

more

of the inherent problems seems

significant than their

solution his thinking

is

more of

a

attempted solution. As a

compromise than

a synthesis.

CHAPTER SEVEN Cultural Ingathering

with bialik we come

full circle

of the Science of Judaism

To

back

— but

to the ideas of the

founders

with an essential difference.

the latter, the treasures of Jewish creativity endured as the

remains of a culture that had reached

its

To

terminus.

Bialik,

they comprised the most valuable possession of a living people

and

and future

a guide to their intact survival

Haim Nahman

Bialik

was born

in a

small village

Russia, in 1873.

When

and he was sent

to live with his grandfather, a

and extreme

piety.

As

became caught up

a

in

creativity. in

Volhynia,

he was seven years old, his father died,

youth

at the

man

of learning

Yeshiva of Volozhin, Bialik

the fervor of

publishing an article on colonization

contemporary problems, in Palestine, as well

as his

poem, in his early twenties. But he found the Y eshiva oppressive and moved to Odessa; here he met and received encouragement first

from Ahad Ha-am. His in 1901. In

first

volume of poems was brought out

1905 he founded the distinguished

Hebrew publishing

house “Moriah,” whose success gave him the his writing career. In time, he

Hebrew poet of

came

leisure to

pursue

to be regarded as the greatest

his day, the laureate of the

Jewish renaissance.

Following the Russian Revolution, he continued

to

champion

TRADITION the cause of

culture and

Hebrew language and

with the Soviet authorities. Through

and

earlier,

Ahad Ha-am had come

1924, where

in

lived

He

1921.

in

98

into disfavor

fell

the' intercession

Gorki, he was allowed to leave Russia Tel Aviv

REALITY

and

of

Maxim

settled in

three years

there for the remaining decade of his

life.

against the background of the Jewish renaissance and the

movement

through Zionism a Jewish society,

to create

inevitable that a concern with culture

the importance of this

culture

arise.

Ahad Ha-am.

for

We

have seen

In Bialik too,

the central concept.

is

However, prises all

theme

would

was

it

Bialik’s observation that a people’s culture

forms of

its life,

from the lowest

cannot

to the highest,

be taken for his characteristic point of view.

1

He was

com-

primarily

concerned with what he termed “the highest forms” of culture.

These he conceived as the sum-total of

all

people’s creative powers, manifest in

social

tions

on the one hand, and

its

the expresssions of a

mores and

in its literature, in the

institu-

broadest sense,

on the other. Bialik looked upon culture both as a national treasure and as a spiritual reservoir;

experience which through time had

Because

it

was rooted

that heritage,

it

was

people’s collective

in

it

was the

fruit

of the people’s

become enriched

in

meaning.

2

an ancient heritage and also symbolized

tightly

and inseparably interwoven with the

life.

The distinguishing mark of

Bialik’s conception of culture

is

the central position he assigns to the legacy of past generations.

This

is

why

Bialik’s discussions of cultural questions are

nated by a conviction that history It

may

be said,

is

domi-

an essential part of culture.

in fact, that the historicity

of culture

is

the

domi-

nant motif running through Bialik’s thought.

as

From the viewpoint of human creation, he regarded an amalgam of man’s intentions, opinions, thoughts,

and expressions of will, as well

as the gifts of

culture desires

heaven and nature. 3

Culture was primarily a manifestation of intention, of man’s

99

Peoplehood and

Past

Its

power of self-determination. which man’s

in

It

and the

will

comprised, as

by which he regulated

rules

conduct were configured. Thus,

we seek

if

future direction of a people’s cultural past, since

its

channeling.

by

To

its

put

life,

very nature that it

were, the molds

it

to

we need

life is

his

determine the to understand

voluntary and

self-

pointedly, Bialik’s treatment of culture

revolves around the twin ideas of volition and regulation, and

problem that concerns him

the

light

— to

how

is

to bring these qualities to

and direction.

the level of consciousness

before proceeding to a detailed analysis of Bialik’s views,

behooves us

to look at his conceptual

it

framework. Bialik believed

that in the consciousness of the Jewish people the secular idea

of culture had taken the place of the theology-centered one of

Torah

4 .

He

himself was involved

in this shift.

ceived of culture as rooted in the past, either the direction in

which

Though he con-

he did not challenge

still

had developed or the dethronement

it

of theology which this development entailed.

And

Bialik does

not seem to have questioned at any time the legitimacy of the heir-apparent.

Indeed, Bialik regarded historical trends as irresistible and believed voluntary self-regulation

No

circumstances and currents. nature, Bialik thought

to will

— “nature”

be subject to historical in

the world

can

resist

connoting here the sum-total

of given circumstances. The will has decisive weight only when it

is

in

harmony with

historical tendencies,

with history the will must

fail

5

It

.

is

the

and

in

spirit,

any contest or genius,

of the time which has determinative force. The very idea of the

overthrow of religious tradition historical-spiritual

make

its

flow.

favor of culture reflects a

with which Bialik could not but

in

dealing with the dominant current of

his day, Bialik

sought to ride with, rather than check,

his peace.

thought of

movement

in

The

Thus,

finality of Bialik’s

to surprise us, even

when we

acceptance of history ought not

recall the

ambivalence towards

it

in

TRADITION some of are

REALITY

native license

to unequivocal statements than are the imagi-

and depths of the creative process. So

was concerned,

acknowledgment of

trend

of his

the

particularly

on the future of Jewish

tenets

far as Bialik as

and psychic

intellectual

his

historical

the

major

was

it

determined

views

which

day

of his

on culture, and

culture.

ONCE — SAYS BIALIK — RELIGION REIGNED SUPREME; now sway

is

we must gather everything

ending,

Hebrew language

embodies and

crystallizes the transition

Where

generations.

embodied

in

6 .

its

one

Bialik

rank of a national legacy which

to the

and constitutes a replacement

that

into the folds of

language, a language which represents our family tree raises the

100

thought

his poetry. For, clearly, the rules of systematic

more conducive

thinker

and

from

for the religious

religion to culture

norms

previous

in

he asserts that “the heart of peoplehood 7

form ,”

he

merely putting

is

this transition

is

more

pointedly. Bialik’s formalism,

which

who

likely to surprise those

is

acquainted only with his poetry,

is

frequently encountered in his

one place he

theoretical consideration of national problems. In

Yehuda

traces his position to the twelfth-century philosopher

Halevi,

whose views, he

insists,

are

resemble his

own

8 .

Thus,

according to Bialik, Yehuda Halevi assigned cardinal value to the

form of

religion, land,

some doubts

Bialik entertains

form

language and commandments. Yet

to perpetuate

as to the

power of language

as

and further the people’s cultural existence,

and these doubts lead him sometimes towards a more comprehensive view.

“Woe

language alone is

.

unto that people which bases everything on .

.,”

he exclaims. “Happily for us, language too

but a part.” Nevertheless, he did not take the position that

Hebrew was but

a phase of the religious heritage, the

sanctified as carrier of religious doctrine. Rather, he

sap and fiber of national existence, rooted literal

sense

— the

Land of

Israel.

saw

it

in the soil in its

form as the

most

Peoplehood and

101

To

Past

Its

mind, what distinguishes language from

Bialik’s

other components of a national legacy unity with the

all

organic, indissoluble

is its

of the people. The category of radical change

life

does not apply to language.

Its

content

may

change, but not the c)

language

itself;

undergoes

only

it

development.

Thus,

in

addition to the conventional distinction between content and

form, we find

assertion of a unique inner relation

in Bialik the

women who

between language and the men and which, moreover, entails

and the nation, so

its

own

use

a relation

“The language

self-preservation.

to speak, are the

it,

growth and the grower ,”

10

One can no more separate peopleof a common, national tongue than

he declares metaphorically.

hood from

the possession

one can separate growth from the thing growing.

As he moved away from

a strictly formal conception of

language towards an organic one, Bialik naturally came to em-

From

phasize the historical aspects of language.

of View, there

We

no need

only

if

it

to the level of a holy

we do not banish

all

tongue

meaning of “holy”

perhaps the ambiguity

bond with

is

— but

says,

and

we can do

so

those spirits which have inhabited 1

language during thousands of years

precise

a

to examine, let alone stress, these aspects.

must create and fashion within the language, he

thus elevate

the

is

a formal point

in this

context

intentional

Even though the

.

is

— Bialik

far is

from clear

— and

certainly declaring

the past. In another passage he says that behind

every true language,

in

prose and poetry, stands the speech of the

forefathers, “a host of distant echoes .” Bialik’s shifting

from a formal

function of language

may

12

to an organic treatment of the

reflect his essentially dialectical

view

of the renascence of the Jewish people. The more he stresses the formal aspects of language, the precisely in

its

hausted. This character, of

Because

it

more he seems

status as a form, the

same its

status

is

being rooted

to realize that,

Hebrew language

but the reverse side of in the entire history

reaches back into the past, language

is

its

is

not ex-

historical

of the people. the

medium

in

and through which the connection with the world of bygone

TRADITION generations

maintained. This bond

is

mediated through language. past as a binding

norm

It

entails

and

REALITY

102

not direct but

itself is

no acknowledgment of the

but only a continuing awareness and

responsiveness to the past’s enduring content. Basically, Bialik is

interested in preserving the past in the consciousness of the

present, rather than in forging a deeper,

with

In a tradition-permeated

it.

automatic as well as deliberate

more intimate

relation

language he sees a guarantee

— that

the creations of old will

be preserved in those of the present and future.

BIALIK’S AFFIRMATION OF HISTORICAL TRENDS, On the One hand,

and

his

other,

view that these must be regulated deliberately, on the

form the ultimate support of

{kinus) the creations of Jewish genius

his project

of ingathering

down through the ages, and

of his vision of the Jewish culture of the future, nurtured once

more on

the native

ground of the land of

“time of ingathering republish or

make

literary creation

’’

1

Israel. In

Bialik called for an organized attempt to

available again the chief

through

proclaiming a

all

documents of Jewish

the ages. Yet underlying this practical

program were considerations of a

historical

and ideological

character which deserve pointing out. Bialik insisted that he

own

program but rather

individual

to a drive

history.

immanent

The major

the past, he said,

was

this drive

that he

his

was giving voice

of the people throughout

in the heart

The sources of

historical.

was not simply putting forward

its

were psychological as well as

difference

between

that his generation

the

had made

present

and

explicit

what

had before been implicit as twin characteristics of the national soul in an age-long process of successive materialization:

two

immutable tendencies, the one toward outgoingness and

ex-

pansion, the other longing for ingathering and singularity

The inner rhythm of

harmony with

these

two psychological forces he found

the goals of the present.

political process

The physical or

of territorial ingathering

in the

Land of

14 .

in

socioIsrael

People hood and

103

was

Past

Its

paralleled, so to speak, by the spiritual enterprise of assem-

bling

the

throughout the world.

people’s treasures scattered

There were,

in fact, several levels

of meaning implicit

in Bialik's

conception of ingathering.

speaking of “the essential characteristic of ingathering

In

meant

Bialik

to imply that behind the project lay

apparent on itself in all

’’

1

more than was

surface— an elemental force that revealed

the

aspects of the social history of the people. Bialik

even went so far as to apply the expression “ingathering of the exiles’’

to the cultural dispersion

physical and the spiritual ideas of the

Land of

is

in the

somewhat

the

case of the parallel

(which Bialik

Israel as a spiritual center

spiritual creations. Here,

to identify the

The analogy between

even closer

Ahad Ha-am) and

took over from

16 .

the ingathering of the people’s

however,

it

was obviously impossible

technical process entailed in the latter

with the all-encompassing reality of the former. But the fact that Bialik viewed in

the

Land of

them

as related can be seen in his call to

shoulder the task of assembling, and thus

Israel to

preserving, the treasures of the people, otherwise extinction day by day

and hour by hour

referred to the idea of rescuing

was the cornerstone of Ahad in a restricted

creativity. In

Jewry

17 .

doomed

to

Bialik explicitly

— which, as we have seen, Ha-am’s thought — and applied Judaism

it

sense to the saving of the great works of Jewish

drawing

common denominator

his analogies, Bialik

sought to establish a

of historical processes and forces and to

The

culture to

be created would constitute an explicit, concentrated

crystalli-

show

that these

would

direct

Jewry

in

Eretz Israel.

zation of a primal Jewish historical tendency. This idea of a collective effort brings us to

another aspect of Bialik’s alignment

with historical trends, though one which Bialik himself failed to

develop as

might be desired.

fully as

In dealing with classical

usually emphasized

its

Hebrew

collective

or Judaic literature, Bialik

and even anonymous character.

In contradistinction to the literature of ancient Israel, that of the

Diaspora bears, according to

Bialik, the

stamp of

its

individual

TRADITION authors

18

must have caused

It

.

no small pain

poets,

REALITY

and

104

most individual of

Bialik, the

to point out that'individuality in art

is

out

of tune with the character of classical Jewish creation, that personality

is,

as

were, one of the expressions of the Diaspora.*

it

The ingathering

anonymous

so far as

its

execution was concerned.

bear no personal mark, since effort of

deemed

project obviously could not be

many people and was

its

Still,

history,

impossible on the basis of spurious

harmony with saying goes,

counterpart

foresaw

Bialik

as

its

Land of

dawn of

of Jewish

in this late stage

The undertaking was

it.

the spirit of the

if it

would

realization presupposed the

individual attempts. In a sense, one might say that the

Jewish history finds

it

to be

in

basic

which, as the

Israel

does not make us any wiser, yet arouses the

collective spirit. Bialik

was consciously following

who

of scholarly predecessors,

likewise had

in the

footsteps

made compilations

of the works of former generations, as a continuing literary process, which had

From

its

beginning with the Bible.

presupposed as well as effected by the ingathering,

history,

bears witness to a guilty national conscience.

The

express the will of the people “as long as in itself

The

bond with

a psychological point of view, the very

responsible for saving

distinction between living

its

project

heart

its

treasures, living

and dead treasures

would it

felt

and dead .”

is

111

an important

one for Bialik and implies the need for a selection, one which

will

favor the living over the dead. But Bialik does not wish to sever

connections with the bygone world. distill it

the past, not to bury

must be

ballast.

rid

There

of those of is

it.

its

He has come,

Still, if

the past

still

still

Compare

more than

its

sense of responsibility

awaiting crystallization and channeling

conscious ingathering. This vague yet insistent feeling,

bordering on guilt towards the past, *

were, to

a need for a final reckoning with the burden the

inchoate,

in a fully

it

to be preserved,

aspects which are no

people continues to shoulder, as long as is

is

as

the views of

calls for relief

by way of an

Ahad Ha-am and Hermann Cohen on

versus the collectivity in the preceding chapter.

the individual

Peoplehood and

105

Its

Past

elucidation of the desirable relation between the present and the past.

One outcome of birth of a

new

assemblage still

is

a reckoning with the past

would be the

creativity. Bialik says that the sole

purpose of the

to

expand the sphere of influence of

to be written

set a seal

20 .

In other

words, the selective gathering

on the legacy of former times. Then the past

longer constitute an oppressive weight, as

because

the literature

it is

bequeathed

in its

it

will

no

will

does now, precisely

and assigned an unqualified

entirety

ancestral dignity.

Yet

it

is

not only to lighten the load of the past, and thus

disencumber the present, that the ingathering must be

selective,

but also to guide the present towards accepting, rather than rebelling against, the past. barriers

The ingathering must break down

and create a unity between old and new, so

are fused without

impediment

21 .

Bialik

is

that the

how

not clear as to

the selective process will effect this union, unless

it

involves

two

some

kind of reactivation of the old, including a reinstatement of

its

normative value for the present. Yet whether a revival of the past to this degree

was intended by

Bialik

is

a

moot

question,

since he never really distinguished between the technical import

of his project as an inventory and reflection

its

profounder significance as a

of a cultural renascence.

Bialik, every renaissance

is

In

essence, according to

but a return to the origins by a

new and

short route, the latest revolution of an old wheel. But Bialik seems to

have been unable to cope with the dialectical nature of renais-

sance, which

is

always Janus-faced: one aspect turned towards

the old, the other towards the new.

it

may

be as

an endeavor

to resolve the

relation of the present to the past the very notion of

ambivalence of the

— an ambivalence immanent in

ingathering— that Bialik frequently charac-

terized the past as the fostering soil of the present

22 .

“It

is

not

a question of the old,” he says, “but rather a question of soil for

TRADITION new

the generation of a

“Even

of the past and

lies in its

since there

far,

acknowledgment of its

departure for creativity the past

roots into the soil .”

its

of course, does not get us very

ity

it

in the present.

age.” But the eternality of the

we

it is

and appreciate.

see

— loyalty

to

(

Bialik, the value of

will

always be material

never consumed, nor

is

does not demand our

soil

In Bialik, the accent

the past

and a yearning

antithetical

for rebirth

—

to a national renaissance.

criticized the idea of a

“Treasure of Judaism”

Ahad Ha-am

Otzar Ha-yahadut) put forward by

soil that

remains on the

harmonize the

both of which are essential and germane

Although Bialik

a world of

what feeds and grows upon the

present, though he does attempt to

tendencies

This,

the normative author-

For

There

inexhaustibility.

constant awareness;

is

23

exploitation as, say, a fertile point of

for the creative process because “the soil

does

106

culture.” In another passage he remarks:

the spiritual world sends

difference between an

REALITY

and

in

an attempt to

isolate the core of Jewish creativity, his presentation of cultural

problems and

his

suggested solutions were obviously dominated

by the influence of

wrong

to include

Ahad Ha-am, so much so that Bialik among Ahad Ha-am’s

we must remember posals. Unlike

that Bialik’s were

Ahad Ha-am,

it

would not be

followers. Yet

modest or minimal pro-

Bialik does not essay to raise the

content of traditional Judaism (for example, Judaic ethics

Ahad Ha-amian value. He considers

the

in

sense of the term) to the rank of a normative it

sufficient to

assemble the source materials

of Judaism and to expect no

more than an acknowledgment of

their generative potentiality.

He

is

more

than to care for the continuation of a

inclined to take stock

set

of beliefs or norms.

the present and future stages of culture are not limited by the past the

new

Bialik

is

upon which they

feed.

But

in

describing the nature of

creations that will spring out of the soil of the past,

vague, to say the

least.

There

is

one matter, however,

Peoplehood and

107

Its

Past

which he attributes central importance and gives much

to

thought, especially

on “Jewish Law and Lore”

his essay

in

(“ Halakhah Ve-aggadah ”), namely, the need to establish tradi-

component of

tional law as a Bialik, the legal

the people’s cultural

life.

For

code of Halakhah represents a firm, solid frame-

work diametrically opposed

spontaneous innovation. This

to

explains the paradoxical twist which he gave to the Zionist ideal

of an earthly national existence.

The in

status of traditional law

was

a central

nineteenth-century Jewish thought and

was

the criticism of tradition

as

some

said,

life.

literature,

from the thinking of

and

Halakhah.

his time

by

Talmud not as a negation of human emotion or, the embodiment of casuistry and sophism, but

rather as a constructive restraint.

body of

codified

Hebrew

essentially a criticism of

In this matter Bialik differed

evaluating the

bone of contention

To

Talmud

Bialik, the

traditional law represented a call to a

as a

way of

Here again, Bialik the thinker overshadows Bialik the poet

and finds the

solidity of fixed

creative ventures.

Ha-am,

molds preferable

Significantly,

in

to the liberty

appreciation of

his

Bialik asserts that the great force of the

of

Ahad

man’s teaching

demand for an orderly, well-defined way of life, though debatable if Ahad Ha-am makes a clear call for a strict social

lay in his it is

discipline.

One might

describe Bialik’s viewpoint

as spiritual realism based

upon

in this

matter

the principles of the established

Halakhic regulative authority. This carries over to his thinking

on language, whose power, he

asserts,

creation to be taken for granted. That

of culture which exists ah

initio as a

is,

lies

in

language

its is

a

status as a

component

matter of course, and as such

constitutes a regulative factor.

As an

individual creator, Bialik sees the hackneyed linguistic

form as concealing outworn emotions; as a thinker concerned with culture and society, he regards the customary mold as part of the objective existence of the collectivity and regards as binding by virtue of

its

soundness and

historicity.

it

TRADITION in

and

REALITY

108

a sense, Bialik’s thought epitomizes the whole history of

modem Jewish ideas.

Bialik does not pretend to solve the

problem

of tradition. Indeed, he consciously avoids any fixed solution by

regarding the present stage of Jewish history as transitional only.

While various nineteenth-century thinkers believed they had laid

the

illusion.

open.

problem

to rest,

Bialik could not entertain such an

Yet, acknowledging his perplexity, he kept the door

He

called

selective as that

upon

his

generation to

knowledge might

the past

Knowledge of

be.

might power a new wave of creativity;

know

it

first,

the past

might also be no more

than a summation.

Where does will

the

open door lead? The

be devoted to that question.

last

part of this

volume

PART FOUR

The Problematic Situation

of the Present

CHAPTER EIGHT

Reformulating Ideas

what we have

seen

in all

of the thinkers whose ideas we have

Zunz through

considered, from

Bialik,

is

the effect of a reinter-

pretation of the concept of Jewish tradition, which had

come

to be

understood as something primarily identical with the historical process of the Jews’ religious heritage. Considered in previous

norm because

generations a binding the tradition total

had come

of changes

and opinions.

If

to be

it

was

was

existent

customs

to serve as a guide to behavior, this

new norms,

from those of tradition

tradition

in revelation,

viewed by these thinkers as the sum

had undergone, together with

In large part, the at

was rooted

it

be in accordance with different

it

or even

that were

itself.

impetus behind

social

norms

would

this

and economic.

In

new way of looking the nineteenth

and

twentieth centuries, Jews were given opportunities that had been

denied them for centuries, to

live

their lives

among

different

peoples and cultures and to become an integral part of their host environments.

tended to

make

The

ideological formulations of the times

these opportunities

were welcomed or rejected, but of tradition that

testifies to the

more

accessible,

at a certain

whether they

price.

A

concept

changes that have taken place

TRADITION way

within Judaism and opens the the

norms

that provide

men

and

REALITY

denying

for further changes by

with imperatives

is,

in the

112

end, de-

structive of tradition as a vital governing force.

But during the time of change with which we have been dealing, the question of

norms was never absent from Jewish

thought. Confronted with the possibility of striking roots

in

non-Jewish cultures and enjoying their advantages, Jews always

remained concerned with preserving

their identity as

Jews

in

terms of a tradition which linked them together. The proposed solutions covered a wide range of attempts and attitudes, and

some of The

the

more important formulations

first

of these proposed solutions

The Orthodox do not deny

are worthy of notice.

is

modern Orthodoxy.

the existence of other nations

cultures.

Even Samson Raphael Hirsch accepted the

historical

changes

— except that

and

fact

of

he considered these as occurring

outside the bounds of the Jewish people.

The Jews,

as Hirsch

viewed them, were exempt from the historical process because the religious truth imparted to If history, in

race,”

it

is

that process

“the education of the

1 .

human

applies only to peoples that are without Torah. While

Israel lives

some

Lessing’s phrase,

them anteceded

among such

peoples and

in their cultures,

Torah and

things which are external to the

meaning. But the worldly passing their day-to-day

world of Torah,

is

life

of Jews

and

life

its

(

its

it

absorbs

authentic

derekh eretz), encom-

needs outside the inner

not detrimental to the latter because

it

is

impervious to change.

From

Hirsch’s point of view, the relation-

ship between Jews and

Torah

is

not comparable with the relation-

ship

between other peoples of the world and derekh eretz

the

Jews dwell outside the stream of history and the others

within

it.

;

Relationships between Jews and other peoples are

basically tangential

and do not

affect the

metaphysical essence of

the Jews.

This denial of historical experience to Jews, however, presents several kinds of problems.

It

assumes that there can be

a

union

of Torah and derekh eretz albeit a superficial and mechanical ,

The Problematic Situation of the Present

113

one, that does not influence the content of Torah.

view of history that must be managed inner

life

rests

on a

such a way that the

in

of Judaism always remains untouched. The Orthodox

norm

wishes to maintain that the Jewish history,

It

and that

which

that

is

not to be found in

given in history does not

is

fall

within the province of the norm. But the separation he creates in effect a

distinction

compromise, and one that makes no philosophical

An

between the essential and the non-historical.

Orthodox Jew prays he actually

is

lives,

— as

it

were

— outside

and then returns

to this

the world in which

world

to

which

his

prayers do not pertain.

There are religious movements

acknowledge

historical changes, but

establish limits in

States, are

committed

common

where

Judaism which

which nevertheless seek

Reform Judaism

extent at least

to

lofty ethics of prophetic

— those

the

United

The problem they

face in

particularly

in

the line on innovation.

inclined to seek the limits of

is

change

in the

Judaism, the idea of an ethical universe,

men

all

some

to this view.

draw

to

— to

Movement,

of the Conservative

the principle that

modem

one direction or another. The various currents

of Reform Judaism, as well as

is

in

as children of their heavenly father

constitute one humanity, ora vision of the reign of ethics through-

out the world.

These

religious,

intellectual

or philosophical

assumptions constitute, for Reform Jews, the ultimate core of Judaism. This core

is

not subject to change, although

its

ex-

pressions have changed in the past and continue to change in the present, as they should properly do.

within a dynamic tradition

change and ultimate alike.

is

influenced by

normative

a constant factor it,

which influences

and which nevertheless has an

significance

humanity and Judaism

for

Insofar as ideas have universal meaning, they influence

tradition

and are

in

turn influenced by

Conservative Judaism is

is

For what we have here

in

its

it.

various expressions, however,

not content with determining the constancy of certain ideas

that possess universal significance.

It is

interested also in establish-

TRADITION

foster

their

own

tus

life

possessions

peculiar

preservation of the synagogue the

REALITY

114

and holds that Jews must promote

ing a special Jewish corpus

and

and

made

thus

is

and norms. The

a constant factor in

of Jews. Conservative Judaism also confers a definite sta-

on various commandments

only as a

summary

2 .

Tradition

is

conceived not

of changes but also as a system of guiding

com-

principles that are constant.

The normative

mandments ( mitzvot ) has

roots in a system of Jewish beliefs

and opinions, but tion of the Jewish

it is

its

also justified with respect to the preserva-

community. Leaving aside the question of

ultimate value, a particular its

antiquity

status of the

— because

it

cohesive factor in Jewish creation of a style of

commandment may

has worked, because or because

life,

life.

It

may

be honored for

has been a

it

has contributed to the

it

be said that, whereas tradition

once had a normative status by virtue of

now acquired, among norm 3

its

its

content,

it

has

other things, the status of an instrumental

.

the movements discussed above regard themselves as religious

and view the concept of tradition from

different religious stand-

points. But in describing the responses to the reinterpretation of

tradition as dynamic,

we must

which are not primarily

also attend to those

religious, such as

movements

Zionism, Yiddishism

and basically secular movements.

What

all

of these movements have

in

common

is

the goal of

preserving the Jewish people as an ethnic, historical entity under

modem conditions. be approached

in

between Jews and

These conditions,

two ways: either

in

our present context,

in

terms of the relationship

their political, social

and cultural environment,

or in terms of the continued existence of the Jewish people.

non-religious

movements

see

it

They do not regard

a vital factor that

is

and

tradition as a

part of

The

an inner problem concerning the

persistence of the Jewish people past.

may

its

relation to

its

historic

norm, nor do they consider

some abstract system of thought,

as

1

The Problematic Situation of the Present

15

modem Reform

does

interpretation

may

Judaism.

contrast

In

to

the

dynamic

of tradition, these movements propound what

be called the idea of tradition as cumulative.

Within the tradition, they proclaim, there

movements, ideas and basic

is

room

for various

The elements they

religious beliefs.

hold necessary for the preservation of the Jewish people

in the

present world are similar to those considered to be necessary by

other national, rather than religious, cultures.

Foremost among these elements Jewish history, though not

in the

a recognition of ties to

is

sense of adherence to concepts

of the past and religious modes of conduct of the past. The

connection to the norms of tradition

is

superseded by a conscious-

ness of the present, which though different from the past

nevertheless to be considered

its

continuation

is

— at least from the

standpoint of efforts to preserve the Jewish people as a national entity.

Insofar as

represents a

it

national

deserves to be upheld in the present

European nations value

say,

in

past,

much

their history.

the

Jewish history

same way

that,

These nations do not

regard their past as having inflexibly determined their customs

and

but

beliefs,

still

contemporary existence as stemming

see their

from the works of preceding generations. Thus they honor past without observing

turn to

worthy

to be studied

same

In the

what they consider

its

obsolete forms and

and because

it

contains treasures

as their heritage

it

and known.

spirit, these

medium

only as a

their

peoples study their

own language

not

of communication but also as a creative

instrument through their cultural stages. They preserve their

own

thought, history and literature and assign these authentically

national schools.

subjects a

A

Jew

special

place in

the

traditionally studies the

curriculum of their

Talmud not

in

order to

acquaint himself with the world of his fathers, but to familiarize himself with a document that has normative meaning for him here and now. But

approach

it

as a

it

is

possible for a student of the

document of

Talmud

to

the past; then he proceeds like a

TRADITION Chaucer scholar or

mar— with There

like a student

and

however,

movements

that

dynamic sense;

is

another

aspect

worth noting

that

is,

they

all

116

of the history of French gram-

no necessary sense of attachment is,

REALITY

in

to

its

values.

non-religious

of the

relation to tradition in

select

and

its

identify themselves

with particular, constant elements from the body of tradition,

elements which are not religious or ethical ideas proper. Thus

Zionism,

in its

more comprehensive

Land of

ship of the Jewish people to the factor in Jewish

life

sense, chooses the relationIsrael as

one constant

throughout the ages and, as another, the

Hebrew language. Now,

people’s relation to the

these

two

ele-

ments occupy a central position within the world of Jewish

Even

tradition.

endeavored

the

Reform Movement, which

to reduce

Judaism

elements as essential

to

its

programs capable of being

tradition.

them not only

realized

we have noted

basic ideals, regarded these

components of the

Zionists were inclined to view

as

— as

But the

as ideals but as

norms

feasible

for the

present day.

The same

Movement Yiddish

is

rationale applies mutatis mutandis to the Yiddishist

or to the Jewish

Workers Movement. For

these,

the central, decisive element in the determination of

The choice of

the ethnic-cultural identity of the Jewish people. the Yiddish language

is

also of a methodological significance.

Yiddish was not the language of the forefathers but was acquired late, it

when Jews entered

became

the cultural world of

the language of

many Jews

Germany. However,

and,

the course of

in

medium of Jewish expression and creation. Its roots went down deep enough so that it could be

centuries, the historical

considered a part of the national culture, an element of the

dynamic, historical experience of the Jews. Within despite the fact that Yiddish status granted

Hebrew — it had

this

was not accorded sufficient prestige

experience

the historical

and impact

constitute a factor of historical continuity that was, and likely to

to

seemed

continue to be, unaffected by those processes which

alter the cultural

image of Jewry.

117

The Problematic Situation of the Present

the various approaches to tradition discussed above have one aspect

They seek

in

common:

a relationship to tradition qua tradition.

to discover in tradition definite elements of content

whether that content be one of ideas, mitzvot or national sur-

vival— which can have normative value for the present day. But there

another approach to tradition that

is

not explicit in

is

such ideological and popular movements as we have already considered.

modem

The

achievement

period of great scientific and

has

been

by a

characterized

technological

among

tendency

individuals and people throughout the world to obliterate the differences between historical cultures

patterns of

common

by

on various on the is

of a

who

more

and he

men. But we know also that

all

not only an

same

time.

also leads

— or

He

is

involved

in

lives

a historical culture

is

in his

not wholly, he resides

areas of

as

human an

life

dispute with

it.

not universalistic, and

contribution to the process of Just

and varied

particular relationships,

if

in certain

he

community, but

rich

Neumann

factor. Partly,

within a historical culture or

aspect.

a world

may lead— a

attached to what Erich

differentiating

modem man

While he experiences existence

anonymous member of

Freud called the father

Now

homogeneous

scientific culture that tends to universalism,

private areas. is

to create

including beliefs and opinions that are held in

levels at the

level

a being in

life,

and

its

peculiar

history consists in this

artificial

language

may

be

invented to serve the end of universal communication and yet not replace the national languages used in everyday literary creation, so the historical culture persists

life

and

in

along with the

universalism of science. In the intimate circle of the family a historical language, not Esperanto, is

is

spoken. So

modem man

also a particular, historical being, attached to partial

and

fragmentary interests and perspectives.

The nature of this attachment may be described

as existential,

TRADITION to distinguish

from attachments formed

it

and in

material or substantive decisions, although

much

very

its

REALITY

118

accordance with content

may

be

the same. Thus, for a Jew, the existential decision

can lead to an attachment to particular ideas derived from Jewish

Hebrew language and

tradition, or to the

the

whole tradition as one of the various

to the

Land of

Israel,

or

historical traditions

or even as one of the basic traditions that have deeply influenced

Western culture. But there substantive

and

The

is,

latter are post

formed out of

an important difference between

The former

attachments.

existential

origine relationships; that origin.

is

are ab

they are binding by reason of their

factum relationships,

to be

likely

feeling or sentiment or even practical considera-

tions.

We

have looked

Jew who affirms

at

ways

the world

approaches the problem of

in

beyond the scope of Judaic

sive

own

his loyalty to his

norms—

traditions

and cultural existence.

to the preservation of his ethnic

now

modem Jew — the

which the

and

We may

extend the scope of our inquiry and raise more comprehenquestions based on the assumption that Judaism

ical,

cultural

modem

and

spiritual entity.

world for a

Namely:

spiritual heritage that

is

Is

there

is

a histor-

room

in the

consciously separate

and might even be regarded as separatistic? And can we go

beyond a discussion of a given consolidated tradition and consider

assumptions of Judaism throughout the

basic

certain

centuries which bear on the problems that beset

in

a general way, we are forced

at the

beginning of

And

of tradition?

comprises the

this

to return to the question raised

book: what

is

meaning of the concept

the

the answer, finally,

beliefs,

must be

opinions and ways of

people here and now. In tradition there

between

man

as he thinks

thought and lived

and

lives in the

in the past,

and

it

is

is

A

tradition

is

that tradition

life

observed by

a close relationship

present and

man

as he

obvious that between

them there must be an enduring system of code of conduct.

men today?

belief

and a

fixed

an impossibility for someone

The Problematic Situation of the Present

119

who maintains

that

all is in

to the idea of tradition there

any attachment

in

an element of what we

is

conservatism, for to hold to the past

wary of change. Conservatism

ways not because of

Thus

a state of flux.

is

to preserve

is

may

and

it

to be

disposed to cling to ideas and

their intrinsic value,

although

prepared

is

it

defend their value, but because of their age and status

to

call

in

the

past.

The

intellectual

and

world of Judaism

social

modem

tradition,

and the dilemma of the

reality. Is

he obligated to preserve Judaism and

creations of the venerated past, that

is,

Jew

a world of

is

is

based on

this

tradition as

its

for conservative reasons,

or by reason of his appreciation of their content? In

approaching

fact— although

it

this

question

we must consider an

instructive

dilemma — that

the Jewish

tends to deepen the

tradition as an aggregate of ideas forth in the

Halakhah and not

and regulations has been

in the Bible.

connection, with which we shall deal

and the Halakhah. But such

There

later,

is

of course a

between the Bible

Biblical ideas as those of creation,

judgment and guidance of history, justice and the

the

set

like,

do not

themselves create a tradition of fixed and permanent regulations.

Such a tradition grows out of the encounter between general rules

and

expression

their

The Bible and as such

is

is

account for

concrete situations.

based on the idea that

judged by

Furthermore, because he to

in

God Who is

his actions.

his responsibility

is

created

in is

We may

His image. called

The Halakhah

is

man

say that

upon

from

it is

only

as answerable for

at the basic idea

to reach the conclusions derived

the Halakhah.

man man

here different from that of Christianity on

deeds that we are able to arrive

and

a responsible being

The Judaic conception of man and

by means of a conception which views his

is

a thinking being,

one hand and Islam on the other.

the

man

of Halakhah

this idea that constitute

connected to the Bible not only

from the literary-exegetical point of view, since the Halakhah regards the Bible (or in the traditional formula, the Torah given to

Moses on

Sinai) as

its

authority, but also because the

Halakhah

attempts to determine the system of fixed, specifically defined

TRADITION norms according

which man

to

and

REALITY

does one

to be judged. If he

is

thing he will be punished in accordance with his guilt, and

does another he

The normative

will

be rewarded

force of the

man is called upon summons directed

Halakhah

to him.

if

he

his merit.

assumption that

lies in its

conformity with a

The Halakhah

specifies the content

man

is

idea that

Halakhah derived from

the

accordance with

to follow certain paths in

summons. The

of this

in

120

summoned

is

the Bible but

which

it

one that

invested with

obligation and interpreted in concrete ways.

There

are,

however, aspects of the transition from general

principles to particular definitions

lematical for Halakhah.

The

limits.

and precepts that are prob-

The process of concretization has no

idea of justice, for example, in itself offers no basis

deepening and expansion by establishing the

for

may

conditions under which justice

specific

be said to reside. But

Jewish it is

im-

perative that justice should be realized within the realm of the

concrete; therefore the Halakhah sets up rules for the giving

of charity to the poor, the codes and procedures to be followed

by courts

in interpreting the

law and similar matters. But

it

is

always possible to increase the number of regulations, since every situation

is

peculiar and every

in

life

its

physical, biological

well as the relations of to

in a

web of

and

to his fellow

God. Concerned with

and

may

man

particulars,

to regulate

spiritual aspects as

man,

detailed prescriptions derived

divert his attention

action lends itself

The Halakhah attempts

to detailed characterization.

private

human

it

to the

community

involves the Jew

from the norm which

from the basic meaning of Halakhah.

Every thought or pattern of behavior has an existence of its own,

and its

its

meaning can be distorted when

it is

regarded

in

terms of

fundamental ideas alone. Broken down into detailed rules

and instructions, there

may

it

presents a danger of petrification, for then

be a blurring of the relation between the particular

instance and the general idea, between the individual deed and the higher law that governs

A

different kind of

it.

problem of the Halakhah

is

based on the

121

The Problematic Situation of the Present

fact

that

particular acts occur in

all

circumstances of men’s the its

Halakhah derives

undergo changes

lives

are dated.

The

in time,

but since

authority from timeless revelation and

its

formulation from situations

judgment of matters

The manner and

time.

in the past,

tends to render

it

present according to patterns which

in the

Halakhah constrains

particularity of the

to

it

regard (to take a simple example) the turning on of an electric light as

work, and work

is

forbidden on the Sabbath according

concept of work as defined

to the

unknown. Thus

the

— in

into general

electricity

human

this

behavior, but

it

work of

instance the

also turns such

starting a fire -

norms.

Although such inner problems are of the greatest the

Halakhah

as a system of

,

Judaism. But

this

Halakhah

modem

Jew

will

do so because

ideas to which he can subscribe.

not a unique act of judgment

so that he

existence

world

— in

is

made

and

-and he

will,

to

and

God

contains valuable of this kind

at a particular is

is

time but a

required to shape his

responsible for his deeds in

his private

at large,

it

A commitment

never-ending process. Each individual Jew life

a historical

not indefinitely adhere to Judaism

will

because of its antiquity, but

in the

to be affirmed as a

is

body of laws and should not become merely For the

in all

modern

system of norms must be reformulated,

light of its basic principles, if the

relic.

gravity,

norms of human conduct

areas, remains the key to the solution of the crisis of

living

was

Halakhah not only reduces general ideas

to the particularities of

particularities

when

a time

in

all

spheres of his

life, in

his relations with the

as the ultimate

Judge of the universe

social

therefore, subscribe only to

norms which

are

consistent with his highest ideals, his intelligence and his knowledge.

Even a secular Jew would not

his life

it

unreasonable

to

mold

unceasingly in accordance with such norms. This idea

of the Halakhah will find world. These in the

find

its

own new

new expressions may

expressions

in the

modern

not be identical with

some

present-day Halakhah. But the tradition will be preserved

and given new

life

even as

it

is

changed.

TRADITION

A exist

formulated

As a

many

during the

— points

State, a political entity

generations

REALITY

own day — the

particular historical event of our

and existence of a Jewish

and

122

creation

which did not

which the Halakhah was

in

up an additional need for such change.

factor in the preservation of Jewish unity, Israel has rendered

the unifying force of the

superfluous. So

Halakhah

more than

to a greater or lesser degree,

,

ever in

its

history, the vitality

and

continuance of the Halakhah are dependent on the philosophical value of

its

ideas

— including an

and ideological status of

The

first

acknowledgment of

Israel.

modern Judaism was

question that confronted

of the normative value of tradition.

We now

to this question entails a return to

norms

above and beyond

tradition, but

that are behind or

new norms

will arise a

new

its

impetus

does not require Jews to

it

regard tradition as a closed and sealed book. to

that

answer

see that the

Such a return receives

tradition.

from the existence of

the topical

From an adherence

tradition that will at the

same time

be a perpetuation and a transformation of the old, effecting a

meeting between tradition and

reality

and being affected by that

very meeting.

BUT THE TRADITION WE ARE TALKING ABOUT

— old

and new-

has a religious basis, and the problem of the value of religion in the life

of

modem man

has a decisive bearing on the survival

of Jewish tradition in any form.

contemporary world Middle Ages and

place of religion in the

from the one

differs

after.

The

To

it

occupied

in

the

a large extent that place has been

taken over by the culture of science, to whose concepts and

world views

modem man

has shown a ready attraction.

fundamental struggle of any religious tradition or idea times has not been with

with

its

alternatives

in

its

counterpart

the

in

in

The

modern

another religion but

non-religious world

of scientific

thought.

The grave problem presented

for religion

by science must be

The Problematic Situation of the Present

123

anybody

dealt with by

religious tradition. This

down; But

interested in preserving or building a is

important place

its

same time

at the

That function

is

its

world must be acknowledged.

in the

proper function must be understood.

to delineate relationships within reality;

not,

however, to explain

some

modem

is

not to say that science has to be put

reality

a reality. Religion

is

— specifically

not able to

creation, according to which reality

from the point of view of

tell

us

why

there

the monotheistic religions

one possible explanation. This

offers

In the formulation of

itself.

philosophers, science

is

it

implied

is

the

is

religion, reality

in

the idea of

work of God. Indeed, is

not an independent

and self-enclosed sphere that can be defined

in

terms of

its

relations as, for example, energy can be defined as an aspect of

matter. Reality as a whole cannot be

comprehended from

within.

To be able to turn to the source of reality is no small thing to one who is not content to accept it merely as given. Perhaps most men do not wish to inquire into the matter, but such an inquiry has a logic and justification of its own which constitute the basis of the religious

approach

does not and cannot invalidate it

can divert inquiry away from

Modem

to the world.

this it,

approach;

but

it

science

can obscure

it

cannot deprive

it

of

it,

its

content or direction. Similarly with respect to

evolution of the that

man

is

species,

it

does not account for the fact

a thinking creature, a being

concerning his reality as a

human

man. However science explains the

own development and

who

asks questions

the nature

and origin of

whole. Religion, on the other hand, does provide an

answer, though one which does not pretend to be rational, for the simple reason that data.

The

divine

is

not based on the evidence of facts or

religious concept of

human

reason as emanating from

reason or revelation exists on an altogether different

plane from less

it

its

evolutionary or genetic counterparts, but

it is

no

respectable for that. Yet religious speculation, including

that of Judaism,

raised by

man

must come

to grips with the basic questions

concerning himself and his world,

if it is

to sustain

TRADITION amid

itself

and

REALITY

124

and anti-religious

the competition of non-religious

alternatives. In this respect

is

it

of paramount importance that religious

modem

thinking understand the peculiar character of

The dictum, “If there expresses

it

is

a

God, how could

bear not to be

I

Modem

to succinct perfection.

atheism.

atheism

is

God?”

based not

only on doubt of God’s existence or on the argument that God’s existence cannot be demonstrated by rational means, but also in the

view of God’s existence as limiting man’s expansion and

autonomous power, world.

as an

Modem Jewish

impediment

to his

dominion over all the

thought must appreciate

with his kind of atheism, whether

it

appears

its

confrontation

an intellectualized

in

form or as an unformulated sentiment which nevertheless broadly influences

No

human

attachment

actively

behavior.

to tradition

can

and cultivated creatively

in

and of

in the

itself

modem

be maintained

world, and no

attachment to tradition can be fostered by tradition live in a

world

in

which decisions with respect

conceptions and traditions must be conditions and by

itself.

We

to specific religious

made under present-day

way of confrontation with

problems.

real

Such decisions can no longer be taken on the basis of patterns of thought of the past. The

modem man who

still

clings to religion

implicitly affirms religious values, but this affirmation vital significance in

a life-context to which

In this respect, the position of Jewish

from that of religious thought concerns decide after

us, after all,

in

is

in

lack

largely irrelevant.

thought

general.

is

not different

The question

not strictly a Jewish question.

that

Can we

favor of Jewish religious thought and tradition only

approving the religious approach

something

it is

may

special,

even

if

in

general?

Or

is

there

not exclusive, which Judaism can

offer?

the skepticism concerning the normative value and validity of the Jewish tradition

is

in fact

an aspect of the criticism directed

The Problematic Situation of the Present

125

against tradition in general. This criticism stems from the

modern

world view which encompasses two interrelated phenomena:

modem

science,

which operates from

and the modern

that apply to the data of sensibility;

on the idea of equal

rights

hypotheses

intellectual

and obligations

for

all

based

state,

men, regardless

of nationality or religion. Tradition, whether regarded from the viewpoint of science or the state,

is

conceived as a body of given beliefs and opinions

come from

that

the past and are validated

Science

antiquity.

understanding

proceeds

on the assumption

— as

we

formulation of

its

Pascal.

like

beliefs,

not hesitate to attack the

find in the criticism of Descartes

even of a philosopher-believer in the

will

man’s

that

not to be disturbed by his religious

is

whatever they may be, but yet latter

by their

largely

and Bacon and

The

principles (as in the

modem

American

state

Bill

Rights) assumes that the individual’s relation to the world

unique and unmediated, and that

who

are

bom

this relation applies to all

of is

men

equal. His equality with his fellows defines each

man’s position as a

citizen

of his country, regardless of his

adherence to any particular tradition.

The context,

situation of the Jewish tradition as normative

particularly

acute,

is,

in this

because Judaism presupposes a

world view different from, but parallel

and even more compre-

to,

hensive than, that of science and the state. Leaving aside the

question of the relative merits of each, the Jewish tradition has a value over and above unity

its

content:

it

has preserved the historic

of the Jews throughout the generations and in every

generation.

Hence

the attack

on tradition

is

not only a peril to

basic religious tenets but a destructive agent of national-historical significance.

Both style

of

modem life

traditional.

that

science and the

modem

state tend to foster a

follows universal principles which are not

Today’s Jew does not

find himself

one tradition and placed within another of Christianity), but thrust out of a

mode

(as, for

of

life

removed from example, that

that

is

traditional

TRADITION into is

one that

is

not,

and which

is

REALITY

continually extending

made anew.

continually being

and

the

In

itself

126

and

Middle Ages, Jewish

thought was confronted with the ideas and traditions of Chris-

was with these other systems of

tianity

and Islam, and

belief.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam

conflict

its

all

offered themselves as

bearers of eternal truths, and no small part of the efforts of

medieval philosophers was devoted to the end of going beyond their limited particularities

and demonstrating

philosophic value. But this

is

A

particular system

universality. istic

From

is

level,

it

when

is

we

this

is

and

find today.

immersed

in a universal-

not formulated on a conceptual,

the

world and thus also

act are rooted in a scientific in

a strictly

within a tradition which

The ways we

and egalitarian attitude to

human approach

man. Thus we

relations with his fellow

unnecessary to depart

are

implicit in our daily culture.

live

social

from what we

not upheld or abandoned for the sake of

the very outset

system, and even

philosophic

different

their universal or

man’s

ourselves

find

not a tradition and from which

is

order to achieve a universal

in

to

is

it

mode

of

life.

We have elsewhere alluded to the multi-level character of modem life — to sectors of existence which modem man shares with the generality of other men, and sectors his private

life.

But there

may

be,

in

which he

and indeed there

member

of a society, of a religion; a northern Italian

from a southern

Italian,

we

also find the beliefs

may

And

in

Such a

is

a

different

may

be

such intermediate

and ways representative of a

ular ethnic or national tradition.

expressions,

is

an American from the Midwest

distinguished from one from the South. areas

are, inter-

A man

mediate areas that are neither public nor private.

lives

tradition, in

partic-

some of

its

be neutral with respect to the character of

universal existence or, conversely, the latter to the differences in the tradition.

may

it

offers

— and

this is

Judaism

— may

But the tradition

particularly true of religious traditions such as

take on value because

reconcile itself

modes of response and conduct

that are not available in the general sector.

The Problematic Situation of the Present

127

A tradition contains symbolic elements inimical to the scientific

or technological

approach

mode

to the world,

of

life

which, being based on a rational

naturally averse to symbolism. Such

is

symbolic activity as the observance of traditional holy days and the celebrations at

home

irrelevant to science, as

is

connection with them are deemed

in

prayer. Science neither encourages nor

opposes prayer, which has

its

origin in expectation

and entreaty

rather than in the interpretive approach of science to reality.

Furthermore,

if

one wishes

to

maintain that the speculative side

of Jewish tradition, which attempts to account for the structure of the world from a factual point of view,

is

not decisive, one

might say that we are dealing with something larger than the scientific

mode

of

The

life.

scientific

mode

of

life

does not

in itself

generate guidelines of conduct for man’s relations to himself, to his fellow

men

or to the world.

development of he

to

is

his intellectual

It

may

man

lead

to the full

powers without suggesting what

do with them or when he should employ them.

Here the moral content of a tradition such

as

Judaism may be

of the most significant use in evaluating science and technology

with respect to

modem

man, on the one hand, and

attachment to such a tradition appears

modem

this culture;

refine

and strengthen

tradition. Science side

culture.

It

may

to

be related to the general

not be possible to escape

on the contrary, there

from

observing

and technology, on the other. Thus an

the limits of science

problem of

in

it,

is

and some of the tools

and tradition are not

like

no choice but

to

for this task

in

lie

two spheres existing

by side and mutually exclusive; each contains the possibility

of a complementary relationship with the other, even though there

is

no complete harmony between them.

a tradition based on ideas Ideas tend to expand. Even

is

when thought out by one

they can be absorbed by another. collective effort, they

may

faced with a special difficulty.

When

individual

they are the product of a

pass from the group that originally

TRADITION

and

REALITY

created them to another group or other groups. This true of the ideas

which comprise the Jewish

extent that this tradition the property of general

To

give

rooted

is

in the Bible,

Western

two instances:

is

obviously

To

tradition.

the

become

has also

it

128

culture.

historical experience leads to a

life

accordance with religious and ethical imperatives; the widow

in

and the orphan are Biblical ideas

entitled to special consideration

Thus many Jews

in

their leaders.

our time are surprised to discover that the

Jewish tradition which they believed to be obsolete

meaning

for them.

While immersing themselves

culture, they believe that they

own

tradition.

are

which have become part of the general fabric of

and been accepted both by the masses and

ideas

— these

To

still, if

indirectly,

the extent that the one

may

has

still

in the general

adhere to their

be regarded as a

substitute for the other, the universality of traditional Jewish

ideas thus presents a grave danger to the tradition. If

he assumes that tradition has

become a substantive

of the culture of the non-Jewish world, the

modem

Jew

part

is still

able to retain a special relationship to his tradition because of the peculiar value of

its

source,* which non-Jews also recognize

as a factor in Jewish thought.

The

tradition

may

then be acknowl-

edged as part of the general culture and as one of the material sources of that culture. This was the position adopted by Her-

mann Cohen, who saw the rational character of the Jewish religion, and who also saw the religion of reason bound to the historical

and

literary sources of

But the adoption of

Judaism.

this position

immediately gives

two important questions. Has the Jewish tradition

really

rise to

become

an integral part of Western culture or only certain parts of

And have

it?

these parts not suffered significant changes in the

process of becoming absorbed in the alien culture? Let us take as an example one of the basic ideas of Judaism,

namely that God, the Creator of the universe, judges men’s

*

That

is,

the Bible

and Jewish

liturgy as well as Jewish

medieval philosophy.

The Problematic Situation of the Present

129

There have been many interpretations of

actions.

Judaism

In the Christian polemics against to

mean

We

that

need not

Judaism

God

if

idea.

has been explained

stresses justice to the exclusion of mercy.

determine the correctness of

in this context

interpretation. But

it

this

we take

the idea of

this

man’s responsibility

to

based on God’s overriding authority with respect to man,

can we honestly say culture? Insofar as

it

one of the ideas shared by Western

is

it

on the traditional view of God’s

rests

nature and position vis-a-vis the world, the answer must be negative.

Perhaps there

even a contradiction between the

is

and those

ideas of the culture of the environment the Jewish tradition. In the former there is

to

an aspect of judge

man on

except within scientific

scientific

its

limits

do one thing or another,

of his capability as determined by

knowledge. Jewish tradition, on the other hand, tends

to regard the limits of a his capabilities,

by

— which character — not

a tendency

and technological

the basis of his ability to

the

is

that govern

man’s actions as being independent of

and as defined by imperatives imposed on him This

his sense of responsibility.

is

a very basic difference

between the conceptual world of Judaism and that of Western culture.

Perhaps what we have here conceptual worlds of religion but

in the case

of Judaism

most

severe. In this light,

in its

core has

to

become

in

this

an opposition between the

general and secular culture;

opposition will be found to be

no Jew can

really

argue that his tradition

a part of the general culture.

acknowledge that the reverse

his life

is

is

true,

He

is

bound

and that he must spend

choosing between ideas and tendencies which are contra-

dictory.

He cannot

solve the

problem simply by adopting an

attitude of quietism.

The Jew

can,

of course, reject the conceptual world

Judaism altogether and look upon himself as a Western world. But

if

full citizen

of

of the

he does so, he no longer has the right to

argue that his attachment to Western culture

an allegiance to Jewish tradition. The Jew

is

at the

who

same time

advocates the

TRADITION

and

REALITY

complete assimilation of Judaism into Western culture to

acknowledge the contradictory

fact that

not taking place, and thus the argument that

is

no solution

in the

We

may

must return

norm of

to the basic ideas

man

The

idea of

God

the Creator,

may

universe,

as subject to divine

Who

is

at the

the tradition

from which tradition

may

arose and from which a coherent philosophy

to

be the decisive

Jewish tradition. For adherence to the tradition

times of crises cannot arise from the

itself.

has taken place

it

to the problem.

This leads us finally to consider what

in

bound

is

such an assimilation

is

elements

130

judgment

be evolved.

in his relation

same time the Judge of

the

well serve as the nucleus for such a philosophy.

One can envisage different renderings of this idea, including some that may not sound religious at all. But no interpretation and

that fails to distinguish between core

shell

is

likely to

prove

satisfactory.

The progressive erosion of life,

norm

in

articulated by trends in Jewish thought, has reached

We can in

tradition as the

Jewish its

end.

only return to primary concepts: the position of tradition

human

life

contemporary tendency

as against the

to live in the

present even at the expense of the future. Here Jewish thought

has to face what might be called the anthropological problem of tradition in

And

human

again not only

life.

in

terms of the idea of tradition, but

in

terms of the validity of substantive ideas, Judaism has but one alternative: to attempt to reformulate

some of

the basic notions

of the world outlook expressed in Judaic sources. Here, too,

and history might be the main

man

issue and, to paraphrase

ancient Talmudic adage, everything else

is

an

but commentary.

NOTES

INTRODUCTION 1

Leo Steinberg, Excerpts from Conference

II,

Daedalus,

Summer

1969, p. 792. 2

On

the philosophical systems of these thinkers, see the present

From Mendelssohn to Rosenzweig, Jewish Philosophy Modem Times (New York, 1968).

author’s

in

CHAPTER ONE 1

In his Philosophie der Geschichte, oder

Ober die Tradition (Frankfurt

M., 1827), I, p. 18. See A. Zifroni’s edition of Sefer Hovath Ha-Levavoth (The Duties

a.

2

3

4

of the Heart) (Jerusalem, 1928), p. 7. Das Judentum und seine Geschichte (Breslau, 1865-1871), I, pp. 74 ff. (English: Judaism and Its History, tr. Ch. Newburgh, New

York, 1911, I, pp. 86 If.). See S. Formstecher, Die Religion des liche

Darstellung des Judenthums nach seinem

wicklungsgange und Berufe 1841), 5

pp. 87,

in

Charakter,

der Menschheit (Frankfurt

in

M.,

“Offenbarung und Tradition Kategorien im Judentum,” Uber einige Grundbegriffe in his

des Judentums, Frankfurt a.M., 1970; pp. 90 ff. A. Deneffe, S.J., Der Traditionsbegrijf, Studie

(Munster

a.

Ent-

199, 201.

Consult the profound analysis als religiose

6

Geistes, eine wissenschaft-

Westph., 1931),

p.

1

15.

zur

Theologie

TRADITION 7

132

ff.

Scheiermacher, Uber die Religion, Reden an die Gebildeten unter ihren Verachtern (Leipzig, 1920), pp. 110 ff. (English: On Religion Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers tr. J. Oman, New York, F.

,

,

1955, pp. 103

9

REALITY

H. Cohen, Die Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums (Leipzig, 1919), pp. 82

8

and

ff.)

See the present author’s Between Past and Present: History (New Haven, Conn., 1958), pp. 20-21.

An Essay on

CHAPTER TWO 1

Zunz, Gesammelte Schriften (Berlin, 1875),

L.

2

Ibid.,

3

Ibid., p. 57.

4

Ibid.

5

On

p.

I,

p. 5.

4.

non-romantic element in Zunz’s views see Ch. Steinthal, Vber Juden und Judentum. Vortrage und Aufsdtze, ed. G. Karpeles the

(Berlin, 1906).

6

between the Science of Judaism and the Historical School. See “Eine Erinnerung an friihere Zeiten (Gliickwunsch-schreiben an Herm Dr. L. Zunz in Berlin zur Vollendung des siebzigsten Jahre am 10. August 1863),” in Abraham Geigers Nachgelassene Schriften, ed. L. Geiger (BerlinLondon, 1875-1878), I. On the attitude towards the Historical School see F. Bamberger, “Zunz’s Conception of History. A Study of the Philosophic Elements in Early Science of Judaism,” Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research XI Geiger pointed out

this difference

(New York, 1941), pp. See I. M. Jost, Geschichte

ff.

1

7

der Israeliten seit der Zeit der

Maccabder

auf unsere Tage (Berlin, 1820-1847), I, p. 8. See also I. Wolff, “Ober den Begriff einer Wissenschaft des Judenthums,” Zeitschrift fur die Wissenschaft des Judentums, ed. L. Zunz, 1/1 (Berlin, bis

1822), p. 15. 8

9 10 1

1

Zunz, Gesammelte Schriften, I, Gesammelte Schriften, I, p. 100.

p.

134;

I.

Wolff, op.

cit.,

p.

18.

Ibid., p. 7. Ibid.,

12

I.

13

S.

pp. 134-141.

Wolff, op. L.

cit.,

pp. 4

ff.

Steinheim, Die Offenbarung nach

goge (Frankfurt 14

Ibid.

15

Ibid., p. 29:

16

Ibid., pp.

17

Wolff, op.

18

B. Z.

a.

M., 1835-1865),

“UTr entwickeln

nicht sie;

dem I,

p.

Lehrbegrijfe der Syna26.

sondem

sie uns."

32-33. cit.,

p.

6.

Dinaburg (Dinur),

Israel

Ba-Golah

(Israel in the Diaspora),

NOTES

133

the fifth

volume of

1926), pp. 14

his extensive history

of Israel (Tel Aviv, 1925/

ff.

19

Ibid., p. 15.

20

Gesammelte Schriften, I, p. 101. Zunz, Nachtrag zur Literaturgeschichte der synagogalen Poesie

21

(Berlin, 1867), p. 26.

22 23

Gesammelte

24

Ibid., p. 42.

25

Wolff, op.

26

Zunz, Gesammelte Schriften,

27

Ibid.

28

Ibid.

Schriften,

I,

pp. 6,

7.

Ibid., p. 99.

cit., p.

1

p.

I,

42

f.

Ucko, “Geistesgeschichtliche Grundlagen der Wissenschaft des Judentums (Motive des Kulturvereins vom Consult

S.

Jahre 1819),” Zeitschrift fur die Geschichte der Juden

Deutsch-

in

Jahrgang (Berlin, 1935), pp. 1-34. Zunz, Die gottesdienstlichen Vortrage der Juden, p. 448. Idem, Gesammelte Schriften, I, p. 42. F. Bamberger, “Zunz’s Conception of History. A Study of the Philosophic Elements in Early Science of Judaism,” Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research XI (New York, 1941), land, V.

29 30 31

pp.

32

1

ff.

“Ober

Aufgabe des Geschichtsschreibers (1821),” in Wilhelm von Humboldts Ausgewahlte philosophische Schriften, ed. J. Schubert (Leipzig, n.d.), pp. 81, 85, 89. The traces of von Humboldt’s view die

can be found 33

34

I.

Wolff, op.

in cit.,

Zunz’s writings. p. 24.

The address of Gans was published with an Introduction by Zalman Rubaschoff, the now President of the State of Israel, Zalman Shazar. See “Erstlinge. Einleitung zu den drei Reden von (Berlin, Eduard Gans im Kulturverein,” Der Jiidische Wille I

1918-1919), pp. 30

ff.

35

Zunz, Gesammelte Schriften,

36

Ibid.

37

Wolff, op.

38

On the critical evaluation of the Science of J udaism consult Gershom G. Scholem, “Wissenschaft vom Judentum einst und jetzt,” in

cit., p.

I,

p.

53.

23.

Judaica (Frankfurt

a.

M., 1963), pp. 147-164.

CHAPTER THREE 1

On

the philosophical position of

ico-philosophical

view,

see

the

Krochmal, apart from present

author’s

Mendelssohn to Rozenzweig, Jewish Philosophy (New York, 1968), pp. 136 ff.

in

his histor-

book.

From

Modern Time

TRADITION 2

Moreh Nevuhei Ha-zeman incl.

and

REALITY

134

Guide for the Perplexed of the Time), Kitvey Rabbi Nachman Krochmal, ed. Sh. Rawidowicz

in

(Berlin,

(

The

1924), p. 247.

references in parentheses are to this

edition. 3

Guttmann, Philosophies of Judaism, The History of Jewish Philosophers from Biblical Times See the chapter on Krochmal in

Franz Rosenzweig pp. 365 ff. to

W. Silverman (New York,

D.

tr.

,

J.

1966),

4

J.G. Herder, Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit,

5

Herders Werke ed. H. Diintzer (Berlin, n. d.), Dritter Teil, Ch. XV. See G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (Jerusalem. in

,

1941), p. 175.

CHAPTER FOUR 1

2

J.

Braniss (1792-1873) was professor of philosophy in Breslau.

H. Graetz, Die Konstruktion der judischen Geschichte, Eine Skizze

=

(Berlin, 1936) (henceforth in

Die Konstruktion)

p. 7 (first

published

1846).

5

Die Konstruktion, pp. 19 ff. Graetz, Geschichte der Juden von der dltesten Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart, ed. M. Brann (Leipzig, n.d.), I, p. XXXI. Die Konstruktion, pp. 20 ff.

6

Geschichte der Juden, ed.

7 8

Die Konstruktion, p. Geschichte der Juden

9

Die Konstruktion,

3

4

1908), IV, pp.

1

ff.

18. ,

IV,

p.

3;

Die Konstruktion

,

pp.

18-21.

p. 21.

10

Geschichte der Juden, IV,

1 1

Hermann Cohen in

Horowitz (Leipzig,

S.

p.

3.

deals with Graetz’s conception of Jewish history

Graetzens Philosophie der judischen Geschiche,

Schriften (Berlin, 1924),

III,

pp. 203

incl. in

Judische

ff.

CHAPTER FIVE 1

Dinaburg, Israel Ba-Golah (above, Ch. II, n. 18), Part I, pp.

See D. Z. ed. cit.

(Israel 18

S.M. Dubnow, Jewish History, An Essay

3

History (Philadelphia, 1927), pp. 3 ff. See “The Doctrine of Jewish Nationalism,” phia, 1958), pp. 76

4

New Judaism

In the Introduction to the

Ibid., p. 3.

Diaspora),

in

the Philosophy

of

in

Nationalism and

ed. K. S.

Pinson (Philadel-

ff.

Hebrew

World-People (Tel Aviv, 1923), 5

,

the

ff.

2

History, Essays on Old and

in

p.

version of his History of the 1.

135 6

NOTES Nationalism and History

10 7

Ibid., p. 86.

8

Ibid., p. 99.

9

Ibid., p. 186. Ibid.,

pp. 78,

CHAPTER 1

1

p.

76.

37.

SIX

See “Jewish and Christian Ethics”

Memoirs,

and

tr.

ed. L.

in

Ahad Ha-am,

Simon (Oxford,

Essays, Letters,

1946), pp. 127

ff.

2

Ibid.,

pp. 2

3

In the

above work, under the heading “Judaism and Asceticism.”

4

Op.

5

Ibid.

6

Ibid., p.

7

H. Cohen, Die Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums (Leipzig, 1919), pp. 215 ff. Consult the present author’s Jewish

cit.,

126.

p.

115.

Philosophy

8

ff.

in

Modern Times: From Mendelssohn

Rosenzweig

(New York, Chicago, San Francisco, 1968), pp. 66 ff. Y. Kaufmann, “Yiqarei Deotav shel Ahad Ha-am” (The Principles of Ahad Ha-am), Hatekufah XXIV (Warsaw, pp. 421

ff.

CHAPTER SEVEN 1

to

Devarim Shebe’al Peh

2

Ibid., p. 201.

3

Ibid., p. 177.

4

Ibid. , p. 52.

5

Ibid., II, p.

6

Ibid., p.

7

Ibid., p. 167.

8

Ibid., p. 165.

9

Ibid., p. 171.

144.

165.

10

Ibid.,

11

Ibid., II, p. 129.

12

Ibid.,

13

Ibid., p. 230.

14

Ibid., p. 40.

15

Ibid., p. 41.

16

Ibid., p. 64.

I,

I,

(Tel Aviv, 1935), p. 176.

p. 15.

p. 208.

80.

1

7

Ibid., p.

1

8

Ibid., p. 113.

1

19

Ibid. , p. 66.

20

Collected

Works ( Tel Aviv,

1953),

II, p.

24.

Basic 1928),

TRADITION 21

Devarim

22

Ibid., p. 202.

23

Ibid., p. 200.

,

I,

p. 186.

and

REALITY

136

v

CHAPTER EIGHT 1

Neunzelm Briefe

iiber

Judentum

Nineteen Letters of Ben 2

Uziel;

published

in 1836).

(English:

Being a Spiritual Presentation

of the Principles of Judaism, tr. B. Drachman, New York, 1942). Consult: M. Davis, The Emergence of Conservative Judaism, The

America (The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1963-5723), pp. 283 ff. On its differences from the Reform Movement, ibid., pp. 11-14. Emancipation gave birth to many internal and external controversies. For a comment on one of these aspects, see present author’s “For and Against Emancipation: The Bruno Bauer Controversy,” Leo Baeck Institute Year Book, IV (London, 1959), pp. 3 ff. The present author dealt with the present-day climate of opinion in his Humanism in the Contemporary Era. The Hague, 1963. Historical School

3

(first

in

19th Century

GLOSSARY OF CONCEPTS AND HISTORICAL TERMS

Cabbalists— Proponents of the mystic teachings of the “Cabbalah” (literally,

Derekh Eretz

“tradition”).

— Good

behavior, deportment, in the sense of following

the rules pertaining to one’s actions in worldly affairs.

Ecstatic (solution)— Characterized by an exalted state of feeling to the

exclusion of rational thought.

Essenes— A body of pre-Christian Jews who lived a monastic life with community of property, practicing charity and hospitality, and observing a strict daily routine of prayers and work. The Essenes believed in the immortality of the soul and in a rigid determinism, condemned slavery and animal sacrifices, and thus placed themselves in opposition to the Jewish ritual

German

Historical School

—A

life

of their time.

school of thought which regarded law

and not merely an expression of political Accordingly, law was to be identified with custom, tradition

as a historical product will.

and the Volksgeist or genius particular to a nation or people. The school was founded by Savigny (1779-1861), influenced by Herder (1744-1803), Burke (1729-1797) and Hegel’s conception of the

Halakhah

spirit.

(literally,

“way

to

walk”)— In

contrast to

Haggadah

(“tale,”

“narrative”), the legal part of Jewish tradition, codified by Rabbi

Judah ha-Nasi (135-c. 220) and comprising the juridical body of the Talmud and the later commentators. Haskalah (literally, “cognition”)— A movement in Eastern European Jewry towards Enlightenment which began in the early nineteenth century and which sought to infuse traditional Judaism with

TRADITION modern

and

cultural ideas. Inspired by the thought of

sohn, the

movement spread

REALITY

138

Moses Mendels-

via Austrian Galicia into

both Russia

and Poland. Massoret— from Masorah, the system of critical notes on the external form of the Biblical text, representing the literary labors of innumerable scholars, beginning probably in pre-Maccabean times. The original meaning of the word was “fetter” (suggesting the idea of fixation of the text, the placing of a fetter on changes); later Masorah assumed the sense of “tradition that was handed down.” Pharisees (literally, “separatists”)— An ancient Hebrew party which is believed to have become a sect in reaction to the attempt of Antiochus Epiphanes (2nd century b.c.) to eliminate the distinction between Jews and Greeks. The Pharisees believed in oral law to explain the Torah, in the immortality of the soul, and in the resurrection of the dead. They insisted on a strict observance of the law, developing a system of hermeneutics whose major rules were formulated by Hillel (fl. 30 b.c.-a.d. 9). Sadducees (probably “adherents of the Sons of Zadok”)— A Jewish sect or party of the last three centuries preceding the fall of Jerusalem (a.d. 70). According to Flavius Josephus, they did not believe in fate nor in the immortality of the soul or resurrection,

emphasizing responsibility and free will. The Sadducees rejected oral tradition and recognized only the authority of the written law. Though as patriotic as the Pharisees, they were influenced by Hellenism. Their adherents were typically the wealthy and the aristocrats.

Shemitot (originally, “Sabbatical years”)— A law or practice according

which each seventh year the land was not to be sown, cultivated or reaped and debts were to be remitted according to the Law of Moses. Talmud— Two works of the Palestinian and Babylonian schools of the Amoraic period (3rd~5th centuries a.d.): the Mishna and the Gemara. The Mishna, in Hebrew, is a systematic collection of religious-legal decisions developing the laws of the Old Testament (in contrast to the Nigra or scripture). The Gemara, in Aramaic with Greek and Hebrew expressions, comprises an interpretation and elaboration of the Mishna. to

Sefer

ha-Temunah or Temunah

Book— A

cabbalistic interpretation of

the evolution of the cosmos, according to which the secret content

of

God

reveals itself in various interpretations or phases

and

in

book first appeared in print in 1784. Professor Gerschom Scholem regards it as an independent Jewish parallel to the theory of Joachim of Floris successive periods. Written

(d.

1202),

which posits three

c.

1250, the

historical stages

three figures of the Christian Trinity.

corresponding to the

139

GLOSSARY

“doctrine")— The Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) considered as a single work, represented by the Scroll of the Law. Yiddishism— A cultural movement which emerged in the twentieth century and whose aim it was to make the Yiddish language the basis of Jewish national identity and the core of the Jewish cultural renaissance. Polemically, Yiddishism took a negative position towards the revival of the Hebrew language as well as towards Zionism as a movement that denied the viability of the Diaspora, although there were Zionists who were culturally at home with Yiddish. Zionism A movement toward independence of the Jewish people in a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine. Political Zionism was initiated by Theodor Herzl in 1896. Torah

(literally,

—

INDEX

105-

66 Krochmal on, 38-41 Ahad Ha-am, 65, 77-95, 97, 98, Absolute

Spirit, 13,

103, 104, 106

background

of,

77

controversies involved

77-82 Zionism and, 77-82,

in,

85-86 A I Parashat Drakhim (Ahad Haam), 84 Alexandrian Jewry, 80

cultural ingathering and, 106-

ambivalence immanent in, 106 conception of culture, 98-99 conceptual framework, 99-100 language and, 100-102 present and future stages, 107

84,

Anti-Semitism, 79 Anti-Zionism, 69

84 Atheism, 124

Babylonian exile, 40, 45 Bahya ibn Pakuda, 9 Bassar Varuah (Ahad Ha-am), 84 Bialik, Haim Nahman, 97-108, 111

102-105 background of, 97-98

Braniss, Julius, 50

Burke,

Edmund, 65

Cabbalists, 137

Assimilationist movements, 85 At the Crossroads (Ahad Ha-am),

affirmation of historical

97-108

trends,

Cohen, Hermann,

14,

29,

89,

88,

104 Conservative Judaism, 1 1 3-1 14 “Construction of Jewish History, The” (Graetz), 50, 60 Created reason, concept of, 13-14 Creatio ex rtihilo, concept of, 54-56 Cultural ingathering, 97-108 affirmation of historical trends,

102-105 ambivalence immanent

in,

106 conception of culture, 98-99

1

05—

INDEX Cultural ingathering ( cont’d .) conceptual framework, 99-100 language and, 100-102 present and future stages of,

106-107 Cultural Zionism, prophecy and,

consciousness, RevelaFunctional v tion and, 14

Gans, Eduard, 22, 33 Geiger, Abraham, 10

German

89-91 Cyclical historical theory, 41-48 difference between Krochmal’s hypothesis and, 46 world cycles (shemitot ) and,

47-48

142

Historical School, 24, 31,

37 Ginzberg, Asher, see Ahad Ha-am Gorki, Maxim, 98 Graetz, Heinrich, 29, 49-61, 63, 67 background of, 49 historical

method and, 49-61

concept of creatio ex nihilo,

54-56 fundamental aspect

De

W. M.

32 Derekh Eretz, 112-113, 137 Diaspora, 29, 54, 59, 69, 70, 71, 72, Wette,

L.,

103-104 Dreyfus Affair, 79 Dubnow, Simon, 63-74 background of, 64 80, 82,

of,

52-56

reflective thinking, 59

and ideological content, 56-59 structural forms, 59-61 Science of Judaism and, 58-59 Guide for the Perplexed of the Time (Krochmal), 37, 60 spiritual

extra-territoriality concept and,

68-74 sociological perspective,

66-69

137 Hebrew language, 116, 118 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich,

Ecstatic (solution), 137

Eretz Israel community, 82, 83, 103 Essenes, 137 Eternal Judaism, 37-48 Absolute Spirit, 38-41 approach to the problem, 37, 38 cyclical historical hypothesis, 41-

48 dualism, 38, 40-41, 42 Science of Judaism and, 37, 38 Extra-territorial existence,

Halevi, Yehuda, 12, 100 Halakhah, 68, 90, 107, 118-122,

69-74

Ezra the Scribe, 29

Johann Gottlieb, 37 “Flesh and Spirit” (Ahad Ha-am), Fichte,

84, 85

Formstecher, Solomon, 10, 52, 55

23,33,37,41,50 dialectical progression and, 58 Heine, Heinrich, 22 Herzl, Theodor, 78, 79, 80, 82 Hess, Moses, 55 Hibbath Zion (Love of Zion) movement, 77-78, 79, 87 Hirsch, Samson Raphael, 49, 52, 112

Historical method, 49-61

concept of creatio ex nihilo, 5456

fundamental aspect of, 52-56 reflective thinking, 59 spiritual and ideological content, 56-59 structural forms, 59-61 History of the Jews (Graetz), 49, 50, 53-54, 60 ‘

INDEX

143

History of Judaism (Jost), 29

Moriah (Publishing House), 97

Hovath Ha-Levavoth (Bahya ibn Pakuda), 9 Humboldt, Wilhelm von, 32, 33

Moser, Moses, 22

“Moses” (Ahad Ha-am),

Ideology, sociological shift and,

National revival, traditional values

63-74 extra-territoriality

attitudes,

69-

74 reasons for, 63-64 sociological perspective,

Jewish

66-69

Law and Lore ( Halakhah V e-aggadah ) 107 ,

Jewish Question, the, 79 Jewish Workers Movement, 116 Jost, Isaac Marcus, 25, 28-29, 67

Muller,

84,

86-87

Adam, 89

and, 77-108 Erich, 117 Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 46 Nineteen Letters of Ben Uziel (Hirsch), 49

Neumann,

“On “On

the Concept of the Science of Judaism” (Wolff), 26 Rabbinical Literature”

(Zunz), 21-22 Orthodox Judaism, 49, 90, 112-113

Peoplehood, 77-108 Kant, Immanuel, 37 Kaufmann, Yehezkel, 91

Krochmal, Nachman, 13, 37-48, 49, 50, 60, 65-66 background of, 37 Eternal Judaism and, 37-48

97-108 national revival and traditional values, 77-108 cultural ingathering,

Pharisaic Judaism, 86 Pharisees, 138 Pinsker, Dr. Leo, 77, 79, 80

Absolute Spirit, 38-41 approach to the problem, 37, 38 cyclical

historical

hypothesis,

41-48 dualism, 38, 40-41, 42

Lessing, 112

Lo Zeh Ha-Derekh (Ahad Ha-am), 87-88

Massoret, 138

Mendelssohn, 52 Middle Ages, 9, 46, 80, 122, 126 Mitzvot, 1 1 Molitor, F.

J.,

7

“Question of the Jews, The,” 79 “Question of Judaism and Jewry, The,” 79

Rawidowicz, S., 46 Reform Judaism, 49, 113, 115, 116 Reformulating ideas, tradition and, 111-130 based on ideas, 127-130 Conservative Movement, 113114 non-religious movements, 114116 Orthodoxy, 112-113

Reform Judaism,

113,

115,

116

INDEX Reformulating ideas ( cont’d science, 112-124 skepticism, 124-127 various approaches to, 1 17-122 .

Religious consciousness Absolute Spirit and, 13 Kingdom of Judah, 27 stages of, 10 Revelation functional consciousness and, 14

meaning

of,

Ha-Temunah

(mystical book), 46-47, 138 Shemitot, 47-48, 138 Skepticism, tradition and, 124-127 Society for the Culture and Science

Sefer

of Judaism, 22 Society of Sons of Moses

between tradition and, 11-12 concept of created reason, 13-

attitudes,

69-

74 reasons for, 63-64 sociological perspective,

66-69

Spanish Jewry, 80 Spiritual Absolute, see Absolute

14

12-13 14-18 within Judaism, dialectic paradox,

Spirit

Catholic Church and,

Steinheim, Solomon, 27-28, 40, 52,

55

11, 12, 14, 15

Steinheim on, 27-28 Roman Catholic Church,

Bnei

63-74

relation

Roman

(

Moshe), 87 Sociological shift, ideology and, extra-territoriality

1

144

11,

12,

14, 15

Rome and Jerusalem

(Hess), 55 Russian Revolution, 97

Sabbetai Zevi movement, 48 Sadducees, 138 Schelling, W. J., 37 Schleiermacher, Friedrich Ernst, 14 Scholem, Gershom, 12 Science of Judaism ( Wissenschaft des J udentums) 21-35, 37, 38, 97

areas of critical research in, 26 attitude of detachment, 23-34 disciplinary compartments of,

25-26 Eternal Judaism and, 37, 38 Graetz and, 58-59

26-34 26-30

historical research,

programs

for,

spiritual manifestations, 31

study of literature, 31-34 purpose of, 22-23 scientific study, 34-35 Secularization, crisis of, 17-18

Talmud, 138 “This

Not the Way” (Ahad Ha-am), 87-88

Is

Torah, 139 Tradition Eternal people and history, 3748 historical method and, 49-61

meaning of, 7-18 Halakhah and, 118-122 national revival and traditional values, 78-108 reformulating ideas and, 111130 based on ideas, 127-130 Conservative Movement, 113114 non-religious movements,

114-116 Orthodoxy, 112-113

Reform Judaism,

1

13, 115,

116

122-124 skepticism, 124-127 various approaches to, science,

122

1

17-

145

INDEX

Tradition

(

Wolff, Immanuel, 25, 26

cont’d .)

between revelation and, 11-12 concept of created reason, 13-

relation

World

cycles

(

shemitot ), 47-48,

138

14

12-13 within Judaism, 14-18 Roman Catholic Church, 11, dialectic paradox,

14,

Yiddish language, 12,

15

1

16

Yiddishism, 114-115, 116, 139

Science of Judaism, 21-35 sociological shift and ideology,

63-74 Treasure of Judaism (Otzar Hayahadut), 106

Union of German Jewish Congregations, 49

Zionism, 69,98, 107, 114-115, 116, 139 Ahad Ha-am and, 77-82, 84,

85-86,88, 89-91 Zunz, Leopold, 21-22, 24, 25, 29, 32, 37, 111

background of, 21-22 See also Science of Judaism Vico, Giambattista, 46

(

Volksgeist, 24, 93, 137

J udentums)

Wissenschaft des

ABOUT THE AUTHOR nathan rotenstreich is Ahad Ha-am Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Born in Sambor, Poland, in 1914, he emigrated to Palestine in 1932. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Hebrew University, and was a post-doctoral fellow

at the

University of Chicago.

Dr. Rotenstreich served as Principal of the Youth Aliyah

Teachers Training College from 1944 to 1951. In 1951

member of the International Institute of Philosophy and a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He was Rector of the Hebrew University from 1963 to 1969. He was Visiting Professor at the Graduate he became a

Center of City College, New York, 1 969 to 1970 and Visiting Fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa

Barbara during the summer of

Professor Rotenstreich

is

the author of

1

970.

numerous

books and articles in both Hebrew and English, including Jewish Philosophy in Modern Times: From Mendelssohn to Rosenzweig, The Recurring Pattern— Studies in Anti-Judaism in Modern Thought, and Experience and Its

Systematization: Studies in Kant.

with Professor into

Hebrew.

S.

He

is

a co-translator,

H. Bergman, of Kant’s three Critiques

Tradition and Reality

is

the third of a series of books

about modern Jewish civilization to be published by

Random House. Already published and

Israelis

This series

are Flight

and Jews: The Continuity of an

is

and Rescue: Brichah,

Identity.

under the general editorship of Dr. Moshe Davis,

Contemporary Jewry, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The series is published with

head of the

Institute of

the cooperation of the Institute.

traditionrealityOOnath traditionrealityOOnath

I

i

traditionrealityOOnath

(Continued from front flap)

According of the to the

to Dr. Rotenstreich, the

dilemma

modern Jew is a result of his adherence modern world and his vague attachment

to that basic notion of Judaism. In Tradition

and Reality he holds tion has run

its

that the erosion of tradi-

course.

A

renaissance of tradi-

tion calls for the renaissance of principle under-

lying that tradition.

Jacket design by Robert Giusti

Random House,

Inc.,

New

York, N.Y. 10022

THE RANDOM HOUSE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: the Unabridged Publishers of

and College Editions, The Modern Library and Vintage Books Printed in U.S.A.

4/72

Nathan Rotenstreich) is Ahad

Ha-am Professor

of

Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Born in Sambor, Poland, in 1914, he emigrated to Palestine in 1932.

M.A. and Ph.D

degrees from the

He

received his

Hebrew University, and was a post-

doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago.

From 1944

to 1951 Dr. Rotenstreich served as Principal of the

Youth Aliyah Teachers’ Training

College. In 1951 he

became a

member of the International Institute of Philosophy and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He was Rector of the Hebrew University from 1963

Graduate Center of City College, York, and a Visiting Fellow at the Center of the Study of Demo-

been a Visiting Professor

New

to 1969. Dr. Rotenstreich has recently

at the

cratic Institutions in Santa Barbara.

Nathan Rotenstreich is the author of numerous books and articles in both Hebrew and English, including Jewish Philosophy in Modern Times The Recurring Pattern Studies in Anti-Judaism, and Experience and Its Systematization: Studies in Kant. He has also co-translated, with Professor S. H. Bergman, Kant’s three Critiques into Hebrew. ,

:

394 - 46425-7