Studies in Judaism 11

Studies in Judaism 11

The work occupies some 350 pages, and is divided into seventeen chapters.

The opening six treat of Religion in general. The author first indicates

the opposite dangers to which men are liable. On the one hand, men are

exposed to extravagant phantasy (_Schwärmerei_), superstition and

ceremonialism (_Werkheiligkeit_). Some, on the other hand, in their

endeavour to avoid this danger, fall into the opposite extreme,

materialism, unbelief, and moral degeneracy as a consequence of their

neglect of all law. He proceeds to say: Even in the ritual part of

religion, such as the regulations of the Sabbath, the dietary laws and so

forth, we find abstract definitions necessary, and differences of opinions

prevalent. In the dogmatic aspects of religion, dealing as they do with

the grave subjects of metaphysics, the mystery of life and death, the

destiny of man, his relation to God, reward and punishment, the inner

meaning of the laws,--in these spiritual matters, the difficulty of

accurate definition must be far greater and the opportunities for

difference of opinion more frequent and important. What guide are we to

follow, seeing that every error involves the most dangerous consequences?

Shall we abandon altogether the effort of thinking on these grave

subjects? Such a course is impossible. Do not believe, says Krochmal, that

there ever was a time when the religious man was entirely satisfied by

deeds of righteousness, as some people maintain. On the contrary, every

man, whether an independent thinker or a simple believer, always feels the

weight of these questions upon him. Every man desires to have some ideal

basis for his actions which must constitute his real life in its noblest

moments. Krochmal here quotes a famous passage from the Midrash.(32) The

Torah, according to one of our ancient sages, may be compared to two

paths, the one burning with fire, the other covered with snow. If a man

enters on the former path he will die by the heat; if he walks by the

latter path he will be frozen by the snow. What, then, must he do? He must

walk in the middle, or, as we should say, he must choose the golden mean.

But, as Krochmal suggests, the middle way in historical and philosophical

doubts does not consist, as some idle heads suppose, in a kind of

compromise between two opposing views. If one of two contending parties

declares that twice two make six, while his opponent asserts that twice

two make eight, a sort of compromise might be arrived at by conceding that

twice two make seven. But such a compromise would be as false as either

extreme; and the seeker after the truth must revert to that mean which is

the heart of all things, independently of all factions, placing himself

above them.

 

Having dealt with the arguments relating to the existence of God as

elaborated in the philosophical systems of his time, Krochmal leads up to

his treatment of the History of Israel by a chapter on the ideal gifts

bestowed upon the various ancient nations, which, possessed by them

through many centuries, were lost when their nationality ceased. We next

come, in Chapter VII., to the ideal gifts of Israel. These are the

religious gift and the faculty and desire for seeking the ideal of all

ideals, namely, God. But Israel, whose mission it was to propagate this

ideal, was, even as other nations, subject to natural laws; and its

history presents progress and reaction, rise and decline. Krochmal devotes

his next three chapters to showing how, in the history of Israel, as in

other histories, may be detected a triple process. These three stages are

the budding, the period of maturity, and the decay. As the history of

Israel is more a history of religion than of politics and battles, its

rise and decline correspond more or less with Israel's attachment to God,

and its falling away from Him. The decay would be associated with the

adoption of either of the extremes, the dangerous effects of which have

been already mentioned. But "through progress and backsliding, amid

infectious contact with idolatry, amid survival of old growths of

superstition, of the crude practices of the past; amid the solicitation of

new aspects of life; in material prosperity and in material ruin," Israel

was never wholly detached from God. In the worst times it had its judges

or its prophets, its heroes or its sages, its Rabbis or its philosophers,

who strove to bring Israel back to its mission, and who succeeded in their

efforts to do so. Even in its decay traces of the Divine spirit made

themselves felt, and revived the nation, which entered again on a triple

course and repeated its three phases. The first of these three-fold epochs

began, according to Krochmal's eighth chapter, with the times of the

Patriarchs, and ended with the death of Gedaliah after the destruction of

the first Temple. Next, in the following two chapters, Krochmal finds the

second triple movement in the interval between the prophets of the exile

in Babylon and the death of Bar-Cochba about 135 A.C. The author also

hints at the existence of a third such epoch beginning with R. Judah the

Patriarch, the compiler of the Mishnah (220 A.C.),(33) and ending with the

expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492). This idea is not further

developed by Krochmal; but it would be interesting to ask, by the way, in

which phase of the three-fold process--rise, maturity, or decay--are we at

the present time?

 

The next five chapters may be regarded as an excursus on the preceding

two. Krochmal discusses the Biblical books which belong to the period of

the Exile and of the Second Temple, such as the Second Isaiah, certain

Exilic and Maccabean psalms, Ecclesiastes, certain Apocryphal books, and

the work of the Men of the Great Synagogue. They contain, again,

researches on the various sects, such as the Assideans, Sadducees,

Pharisees, Essenes, the Gnostics, the Cabbalists and their relation to the

latter, and the Minim,(34) who are mentioned in the Talmud. In another

part of this excursus Krochmal describes the systems of the Alexandrian

Jewish philosophers, such as Philo and Aristobulus, and discusses their

relation to certain theosophic ideas in various Midrash-collections. The

author also attempts to prove the necessity of Tradition; he shows its

first traces in the Bible, and explains the term Sopherim (scribes); and

he points out the meaning of the phrase "A law unto Moses from Mount

Sinai,"(35) and similar __EXPRESSION__s. He gives a summary of the development

of the Halachah in its different stages, the criteria by which the older

Halachahs may be discriminated; he seeks to arrive at the origin of the

Mishnah, and deals with various cognate topics. In another discourse

Krochmal endeavours to explain the term Agadah,(36) its origin and

development; the different kinds of Agadah and their relative value.

Chapter XVI. contains the Prolegomena to a philosophy of the Jewish

religion in accordance with the principles laid down by Hegel. In the

seventeenth and last chapter the author gives a general introduction to

the Philosophy of Ibn Ezra, and quotes illustrative extracts.

 

The space of an essay does not permit me to give further details of

Krochmal's book. I am conscious that the preceding outline is deficient in

quality as well as in quantity. Yet, even from this meagre abstract, the

reader will gather that Krochmal reviews many of the great problems which

concern religion in general and Judaism in particular. Zunz somewhere

remarks that Krochmal was inspired in his work by the study of Hegel, just

as Maimonides had been by the study of Aristotle. I give this statement

solely on the authority of Zunz, as I myself have never made a study of

the works of the German philosopher, and am therefore unable to express an

opinion on the question.

 

Now there is no doubt that Krochmal's book is not without defects. The

materials are not always well arranged, there is at times a want of

proportion in the length at which the various points are treated, and the

author occasionally seems to wander from the subject in hand. But we shall

be better able to account for these and similar technical faults, as well

as to appreciate the real value of the author's work, if we consider the

following fact. Nachman Krochmal's object was to elaborate a philosophy of

Jewish history, to trace the leading ideas that ran through it, and the

ultimate causes that led to its various phases. But, unfortunately, at the

time when Krochmal began to write, there did not exist a Jewish history at

all. The labours of Zunz were conducted in an altogether different field.

Not to mention the names of the younger scholars then unborn, Graetz, the

author of the _History of the Jews_, and Weiss, who wrote a history of the

Tradition, were still studying at college. Frankel's masterly essays on

the Essenes and the Septuagint, his well-known work, _Introduction to the

__ Mishnah_, and the results of Geiger's most interesting and suggestive

researches on the older and later Halachah, and on the Pharisees and

Sadducees, had yet to be written. Rapoport's great treatise, _Erech

Millin_,(37) had not been published at that time, and Steinschneider was

not yet working at his historical sketch of Jewish literature. It was not

till six years after Krochmal's death (viz. in 1846) that Landauer's

memorable studies on the Jewish mystics were given to the world. Even the

bad books of Julius Fürst, such as his _History of the Canon_, and his

still worse _History of Jewish Literature in Babylon_, were then

unwritten. Neither the most charlatanic _History of the Opinions and

Teachings of All the Jewish Sects_, by Peter Beer, the universal provider,

nor Jost's most honest but narrow-minded and superficial _History of the

Jews_, was of much use to Krochmal. Jost's more scholarly works were not

published till long afterwards. Krochmal was thus without the guidance of

those authorities to which we are now accustomed to turn for information.

Excepting the aid that he derived from the writings of Azariah de

Rossi,(38) Krochmal was therefore compelled to prosecute all the necessary

research for himself; he had to establish the facts of Jewish history as

well as to philosophise upon them. Hence, in the very midst of his

philosophical analysis, the author was bound to introduce digressions on

historical subjects, in order to justify as well as to form the basis of

that analysis. He had to survey the ground and to collect the materials,

besides constructing the plan of the edifice and working at its erection.

Nevertheless, it is precisely for these historical excursuses that

Krochmal has deserved the gratitude of posterity. He it was who taught

Jewish scholars how to submit the ancient Rabbinic records to the test of

criticism and the way in which they might be utilised for the purpose of

historical studies; he it was who enabled them to trace the genesis of the

tradition, and to watch the inner germination of that vast organism. He

even indicated to them how they might continue to connect their own lives

with it, how they might derive nourishment from it, and in their turn

further its growth. I may assert with the utmost confidence that there is

scarcely a single page in Krochmal's book that did not afterwards give

birth to some essay or monograph or even elaborate treatise, though their

authors were not always very careful about mentioning the source of their

inspiration. Thus Krochmal justly deserves the honourable title assigned

to him by one of our greatest historians, who terms him the Father of

Jewish Science.

 

So far, I have been speaking of the importance of Krochmal's treatise and

of its significance in the region of Jewish Science. It is necessary, I

think, to add a few words with regard to the general tendency of his whole

work. I have already alluded to the characteristic modesty of Krochmal; I

have pointed out how little he cared for publicity, how dearly he loved

retirement. The question accordingly presents itself--What can have been

the real and sufficient causes that prevailed upon him to yield to the

solicitations of his friends and to write upon what the Talmud would term

"matters standing on the heights of the world"?

 

The answer to this question may, I think, be found in the title of

Krochmal's book, the _Guide of the Perplexed of the Time_. It is indeed a

rather unusual coincidence for the title of a Hebrew book to have any

connection with its subject matter. The same merit is possessed by the

_Guide of the Perplexed_ of Maimonides, the title of which undoubtedly

suggested that of Krochmal's treatise. There is, however, one little

addition in Krochmal's title that contains a most important lesson for us.

I mean the words "of the Time." By these words Krochmal reminds us that,

great as are the merits of the immortal work of Maimonides--and it would be

difficult to exaggerate its value and importance--still it will no longer

suffice for us. For, as Krochmal himself remarks, every time has its own

perplexities, and therefore needs its own guide. In order to show that

these words are no idle phrase, I shall endeavour to illustrate them by

one example at least. In the _Guide of the Perplexed_ of Maimonides, Part

II., Chapter XXVI., occurs a passage which runs thus: "In the famous

chapters known as the 'Chapters of R. Eliezer the Great,'(39) I find R.

Eliezer the Great saying something more extraordinary than I have ever

seen in the utterances of any believer in the Law of Moses. I refer to the

following passage: 'Whence were the heavens created? He (God) took part of

the light of His garment, He stretched it like a cloth, and thus the

heavens were extending continually, as it is said (Ps. civ. 2): He

covereth Himself with light as with a garment, He stretcheth the heavens

like a curtain. Whence was the earth created? He took of the snow under

the throne of glory, and threw it; according to the words (in Job xxxvii.

6), He said to the snow be thou earth.' These are the words given there

(in the 'Chapters of R. Eliezer the Great'), and I, in my surprise, ask,

What was the belief of this sage? Did he think it impossible that

something be produced from nothing?... If the terms 'the light of His

garment' and the 'snow of glory' mean something eternal (as matter) they

_must_ be rejected.... In short, it is a passage that greatly confuses the

notions of all intelligent and religious persons. I am unable to explain it sufficiently."