Adapted from an essay written by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch.
Adapted from the translation by Dayan I. Grunfeld in "Judaism Eternalư" and prepared for publication by Project SEED, Manchester, 1996.
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JUDAISM UP TO DATE
Adapted from an essay written by Samson Raphael Hirsch, Frankfort, 1854.
To reform Judaism according to the needs of the time - this, according to some, is the task of our time, and has, indeed, been the task of all times. It was this which occupied the great teachers of every age, and it is only backward fundamentalists and obscurantists who obstinately refuse to listen to such wisdom and act on it.
Let us see. The object would be to bring Judaism up to date, to adapt it to the needs of the time, to harmonise it with the views generally prevalent at any given period and with the conditions and needs of any given time. If we alter our Judaism so as to bring it into line with the views prevailing in our time among our non-Jewish brethren, - if we remove everything which is inconvenient and burdensome and unpalatable to carry out in the conditions of our time, or the practice of which could cause us to be misunderstood and misjudged by our fellow-citizens, then we have taken to heart and acted on modern wisdom.
Let us see. Was Judaism so suited to the times in the past? Can it ever become so? Could it ever have been so? Will it ever become so?
Was Abraham's Judaism suited to the times when the ruler of his fatherland cast him into the Chaldean fiery furnace because he broke in pieces the idols of his contemporaries?
Was the Judaism of our ancestors suited to the times when, loathed by the Egyptians, they had for centuries to bow their neck under the yoke of slavery and to let their infants be swept away by the waves of the Nile?
Was Daniel's Judaism suited to the times when, with the other youths brought up with him in the Babylonian king's palace, he fed only on vegetables, and when he faced the wrath of the king and death in the lion's jaws rather than omit his thrice-daily prayer with his face towards Jerusalem according to the custom of his ancestors?
Was the Judaism of Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah suited to the times when they entered the burning furnace rather than obey the command of the ruler to bend the knee before his statue?
Was the Judaism of the Maccabees suited to the times when, with heroic courage, they resisted the introduction of the latest Grecian customs and culture?
Was the Judaism of Beth Hillel and Beth Shammai and of Jochanan ben Zakkai suited to the times when the realm of Judea had been laid in ruins by the sword of Rome, when the Temple of Jerusalem had been destroyed, and the sons of Judah had been slaughtered, sold in the slave market and thrown to the wild beasts as a spectacle for the Emperor, or scattered over the whole world?
Time and again, the modern wisdom of that time preached that it was now, at last, time to abandon the old Judaism, to finish with the old separatist customs which were only a source of mockery to their conquerors. Now it was surely impossible to remain Jews and Jewesses any longer.
Our ancestors, however, with true greatness of soul, looked beyond this period of downfall. They drew the bond of faith even tighter, they taught even more passionately the holiness of the law and of Jewish customs, they issued even more insistently their warnings and admonitions, their rules and regulations, in order that no thread of Jewish holiness should be lost in the subjection and dispersion.
Was it a Judaism suited to the times for which later our ancestors for centuries in all lands and in all periods suffered the most ignominious oppression, the most contemptuous scorn, and death and persecution in a thousand forms?
In all, these centuries was Judaism suited to the times?
Did it conform to the views of the dominant society?
Was it not exposed to misunderstanding and harsh judgment?
Was it ever convenient and easy to be a Jew or a Jewess?
And yet we are told that it is the duty of Judaism to be at every period suited to the times!
What would have become of Judaism if our ancestors had considered it their task to bring Judaism at every period up to date, i.e. to bring it into consonance with the views and conditions prevailing in their environment at any given time?
What would have happened if they had done so?
What would have happened if they had taken in Egypt the wisdom of the priests of Meroe, among the Babylonians the mysteries of Mylitta, among the Persians the magic of Zoroaster?
What would have happened if they had taken among the Greeks the Eleusinian mysteries or the Olympian mythology, or later on the philosophic system in favour at any time in Alexandria and Rome?
What would have happened if they had taken among the Celts the wisdom of the Druids, and in the Middle Ages cloisters and monks, as their standard for reforming Judaism?
What is to happen to-day if, in obedience to this modern teaching, the Jews in all climes and all countries are to reform their Judaism in such a way as to adapt it to the views and customs of their fellow-country- men?
In Heaven's name, what kind of monstrosity would it be which passed as Judaism?
Views, customs, needs, vary from land to land, from decade to decade. But where is there a religion which was doomed to wander through all lands and all times like Judaism -- and we are told to bring it everywhere up to date!
But, above all, what kind of thing would Judaism be if we dared to bring it up to date?
If the Jew were permitted to bring his Judaism up to date at any time, he would no longer need it anywhere; it would not be worthwhile anywhere to speak any longer of Judaism.
We should then seize Judaism and cast it out among other misbegotten products of delusion and superstition, and hear no more of Judaism and the Jewish religion.
If the Bible is to be for me the word of G-d and Judaism and Jewish law the revealed will of G-d, is it possible for me to stand on the highway of human progress and anxiously question every mortal pilgrim on earth about his views and opinions, compounded as they are of dream and waking, of sense and nonsense?
Is it for me to submit the word of the living G-d for the approval of every Tom, Dick and Harry, mould it to suit his fancy, and then to say: "See Judaism brought up to date, see the word of the living G-d as approved by men and purged and purified by men!"
If the Bible is to be for me the word of G-d, and Judaism and Jewish law the revealed will of G-d, is it possible for me to ask my belly, my sensual enjoyment and comfort, my temporary advantage, whether it is also sweet or easy or profitable or agreeable? Is it possible for me to take religion, my religion, which has been given to me by my G-d as a standard with which to measure myself, my generation, and all my action and inaction, and trim it to fit the meanness, the sensuality, the petty-mindedness of my own desires at any particular time?
Can I falsify the Divine measuring-rod to suit my own passing needs and then boastfully exclaim: "Look, here is Judaism thoroughly sifted and brought up to date, here is the word of G-d Almighty cut down to the measure of my own weakness. See how well in step with it we are, both I and my generation!"?
Let us not deceive ourselves. The whole question is simply this. Is the statement "And G-d spoke to Moses saying", with which all the laws of the Jewish Bible commence, true or not true?
Do we really and truly believe that G-d, the Omnipotent and Holy, spoke thus to Moses? Do we speak the truth when in front of our brethren we lay our hand on the scroll containing these words and say that G-d has given us this Torah, that His Torah of truth and of eternal life is planted in our midst?
If this is to be no mere lip-service, no mere rhetorical flourish, then we must keep and carry out this Torah without omission and without carping, in all circumstances and at all times.
This word of G-d must be our eternal rule, superior to all human judgment, the rule to which all our actions must at all times conform; and instead of complaining that it is no longer suitable to the times, our only complaint must be that the times are no longer suitable to it.
And if, again, in carrying out this word of G-d we choose to follow the teachings and instructions that have come down to us from the Rabbis, we can and must do this only if and because we recognise in them the same Divine origin as in the written word of G-d. They have been handed down to us by previous generations with the same guarantee, as a tradition transmitted from G-d, from the same Omnipotent and Holy G-d to Moses, and from Moses orally through every succeeding generation for the purpose of regulating the practical observance of the word of G-d. This tradition is the orally transmitted word of G-d, as Rabbinic Judaism has taught throughout the centuries of its history.
But if this tradition is no tradition, - if it is only a pious mask under which a priestly caste has imposed its views on the people as the orally transmitted word of G-d, - if fathers and mothers have with it deceived their sons, daughters and grandchildren, letting them live and suffer, endure and die, for a fraud and an illusion, - if it is permissible to us also to be each one his own oracle and to remodel the Biblical law according to his own views and opinions, - then - then it is no longer, it can and ought to be no longer the word of G-d; then G-d did not speak to Moses; then we have not the word of G-d in our possession; then we, and with us the whole of mankind whose hopes of salvation are rooted in this word, are all deceived and deceivers, - and it is time to shake off openly the whole miserable encumbrance.
This is the alternative, there is no other course open. If Judaism has been established by G-d then it is destined to teach the age, but not to let itself be taught by the age.
From the very beginning, G-d placed Judaism, and with it its adherents, in opposition to the age. For thousands of years Judaism was the only protest against a completely pagan world. And if this opposition diminished from century to century, this was not because Judaism altered itself to suit the non-Jewish conditions at any given time, but because more and more seeds of the Jewish spirit, sparks from the Jewish word of G-d, found a lodgment in the bosom of the non-Jewish world, and more and more the Jewish word of G-d fulfilled its silent mission on earth.
Rabbi Abraham Hassan can be contacted on 0161 740 0906, or write at abraham@seed2.demon.co.uk