what is a Jew? by Leo Nikolaievitch Tolstoy "What is a Jew? That question is not as all so odd as it seems. Let us see what kind of peculiar creature the Jew is, which all the rulers and all the nations have together and separately abused and molested, oppressed and persecuted, trampled and butchered, burned and hanged - and in spite of all this is yet alive.
What is a Jew, who never allowed himself to be led astray by all the earthly possessions which his opressors and persecutors constantly offererd him in order that he should change his faith and forsake his own Jewish religion?
The Jew is that sacred being who has brought down from heaven the everlasting fire and has illuminated with it the entire world. He is the religious source, spring and fountain out of which all the rest of the peoples have drawn their beliefs and their religions.
The jew is the emblem of eternity. He whom neither slaughter nor torture of thousands of years could destroy, he whom neither fire nor sword nor inquisition was able to wipe off the face of the earth, he who was the first to produce the oracles of G-d, he who has been for so long the gaurdian of prophecy, and who transmitted it to the rest of the world - such a nation cannot be destroyed.
The Jew is as everlasting as is eternity itself."
from "Jewish world" London (1980) Concerning the Jew by Mark Twain "If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the milky way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heardof, has always been heard of; He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his comercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smalness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names... are also out of proprtion to the weakness of his numbers.
He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it.
The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; The Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other
peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished.
The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and agressive mind.
All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains.
What is the secret of his immortality?"
from the atrticle "concerning the Jews" Harpers (1899)
see "The complete Essays of Mark Twain" Doubleday (1963) Pg. 249
The Passover Haggada The answer to Mark Twain's question is to be found in the Haggada we read in Pasover, namely, G-d's promise:
"Blessed is He who kept His PROMISE to Israel! Blessed be He! This is what has stood up for our fathers and for us! Not one alone has stood up against us, but in every generation they rise up to finish us - and the Blessed Holy One saves us from their hand!"
Why does Judaism live? "No ancient people has had a stranger history than the Jews... Stranger still, the ancient religion of the Jews survives, when all the religions of every ancient race of the pre-Christian world have disappeared... Again it is
strange that rhe living religions of the world all build on religious ideas derived from the Jews... This then is the problem offered by the Jews to the historian. The great matter is not "What happened?" but "Why did it happen?" Why dose this race continue?
Why does Judaism live? How did it realy begin?"
T.R. Glover, Professor at Qween's University, Kingston, Ontario, "The Ancient World", Penguin Books, 1964 Pp 184-191.
G-d's mastery "Many have tried to injure us - but they were not able to destroy us or to wipe us out. While all the great ancient civilizations have disappeared and been forgotten, the nation of Israel who clings to Hashem, is alive today!
What will the wise historian answer when he examines this phenomenon without prejudice? Was this all purely by cahnce!? By my soul, When I contemplate these great wonders (of our continued survival) they took on greater significance then all the miracles and wonders that Hashem
performed for our Fathers in Egypt, in the desert and when they entered the Land of Israel.
And the longer this exile extends the miracle of Jewish existence becomes more obviuos to make known G-d's mastery and supervision over nature and history."
Rabbi Yaacov Emden, 1695-1776 - "Siddur Beit Yaacov" A Higher Immanence.
"Our survey of three and a half millenia of Jewish history is closed. But the story which we have set ourselves to tell is unending. Today the Jewish people has in it still those elements of strength and of endurance that enabled it to surmount all the crises of its past, surviving thus the most powerful empires of antiquity.
Throughout our history there have been weaker elements who have shirked the sacrifices which Judaism entailed. They have been sawllowed up, long since, in the great majority; only the more stalwart have carried on the tradition of their ancestors, and can now look back with pride upon their superb heritage...
From a reading of Jewish history, one factor emerges... the preservation of the Jew was certainly not casual. He has endured through the power of a certain ideal, based upon the recognition of the influenece of a higher Power in human affairs. Time after time in his history, moreover, he has been saved from disaster in a manner which cannot be described as 'providential'.
The author has deliberately atempted to write this work in a secular spirit; he does not think that his readers can fail to see in it, on every page, a higher immanence."
Cecil Roth, "A History of the Jews" Shocken (1961) Pp. 423-424 The indestructibility of the divine decrees
"The Jews have played an all-important role in history. They are pre-eminently an historical people and their destiny reflects the indestructibility of the divine decrees. Their destiny is so imbued with the 'metaphysical' to be explained either in material or positive-historical terms.
I remember how the materialist interpretation of history, when I attempted in my youth to verify it by applying it to the destiny of peoples, broke down in the case of the Jews, where destiny seemed absolutely inexplicable from the materialistic standpoint. And indeed, according to the materialistic and positive criterion, this people ought long ago to have perished.
It's survival is mysterious and wonderful phenomenon demonstrating that the life of that people is governed by a special predetermination, transcending the process of adaptation expounded by the materialistic interpretation of
history.
The survival of the Jews, their resistance to destruction, their endurance under absolutely peculiar conditions and the fateful role played by them in history; all these point to the particular and mysterious foundations of their destiny"
"The Meaning of History", London (1936) Pp. 86-87, by Proffesor Nicolai Berdyaev, Moscow Academy of Spiritual Culture.
Divine Providence The existence of the Nation of Israel, with no territory, no army, for 2,000 years despite being hated and persecuted by murderous mighty enemies - is a valid historical proof for the never ceasing Divine Providence. It's also a proof of the truth of Biblical prophecy (by Bible we mean the 24
Books canonized by the Jewish sages).
Here are some of the prophecies promising the everlasting existence of the Nation of Israel:
"And I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and your descendants after you THROUGHOUT THEIR GENERATIONS, AN
ETERNAL COVENANT; to be your G-d and the G-d of your descendants after you."
Genesis 17:7 "Yet even so, even when they are in their enemies' land I will not reject or spurn them, lest, by wiping them out, I make void My covenant with them; for I am their G-d. I will remember them because of the covenant I made with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt under the very eyes of the Gentiles, that I might be their G-d."
Leviticus 26:44-45 "As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says G-d. My Spirit, which rests upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, SHALL NOT DEPART FROM YOUR MOUTH NOR FROM THE MOUTHS OF YOUR CHILDREN, NOR FROM THE MOUTHS OF YOUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN, SAYS G-D, FROM NOW ON TO ALL ETERNITY."
Isaya 59:21 "For the mountains may move and the hills be shaken, but My love shall never move from you, nor My covenant of peace shall be shaken, says G-d, who has compassion on you."
Isaya 54:10 "But even in those days, declares G-d, I WILL NOT MAKE A FULL END OF YOU. And they shall ask, 'Why did our G-d do all these things to us?' you shall answer them, 'because you forsook Me and served strange gods in your own land, so you shall serve strangers in a land not your own'."
Jeremiah 5:18-19 "Thus says G-d, who establishes the sun to light the day, the laws of the moon and stars to light the night; Who stirs up the sea into roaring waves, Whose name is the Lord of Hosts; IF THESE NATURAL LAWS SHOULD EVER GIVE WAY BEFORE ME, SAYS G-D, ONLY THEN SHALL THE OFSPRINGS OF ISRAEL CEASE TO BE A NATION BEFORE ME FOR ALL TIME."
Jeremiah 31:34-35 "But fear not, O Jacob My servant, neither be dismayed, O Israel; be assured, I shall redeem you from afar, and your children from the land of their captivity; and Jacob will again be quiet and at ease and none shall make him afraid. Fear not, O Jacob My servant, said G-d, for I am with you. I will cause the downfall of all the nations to which I have driven you. BUT OF YOU I WILL NOT MAKE A FULL END. I will correct you in just measure, but I will not utterly destroy you."
Jeremiah 46:27-28 "For I am G-d, I do not change; you are the children of Jacob, YOU WILL NOT CEASE TO BE."
Malachi 3:6 "No weapon fashioned against you shall prevail; and every tongue that launches acusations against you, you shall prove false. This is the heritage of the servants of G-d, their vindication from Me, says G-d."
Isayah 54:17 |
