The Jewish Religion

“Man is the most privileged of creatures; he has been made in the image of God. His privilege is still further enhanced by the fact that he has been made aware of his distinction” (Aboth iii. 14). There is in man a consciousness or feeling of a certain relation between him and a superior Being, on whose Will his own existence depends. This consciousness is the basis of religion, but is not religion itself. It is the influence which this feeling exercises over man’s actions and conduct in life that forms the essence of religion. When man begins to feel that he is responsible for his actions to a higher Being, and forms his actions in harmony with this feeling, he may be called religious. Two elements must therefore be distinguished in religion: the notion of man’s dependence on and responsibility to a superior Being, and the influence of this notion on his actions: religious belief and religious practice, or faith and duty. Religious belief or faith, in its most simple and most general form, may be said to be common almost to all mankind; and in the great variety of faiths, produced by various circumstances and experiences, this simple idea may easily be detected as the fundamental principle of all of them. The same can be said with regard to religious practice. There are certain fundamental principles of duty which are recognised and adopted by the most diverse religious sects; they form, as it were, the common stem from which a large number of branches spring forth in all directions. These branches diverge more and more the larger they grow and the more numerous they become. Judaism is one of these various religions. It has been the source of most of the religions of the civilised world, and is destined to become, in its simplest principles, the universal religion. What is Judaism? or what does Judaism teach its adherents to believe, and what does it teach them to do? The answers to these two questions form the main subject of every book on our holy religion. The answer to the first question must include our doctrine about God, His attributes, His relation to the material world, and especially to man; the mission of man, his hopes and fears. The answer to the second question must include our duties toward God, toward our fellow-men, and toward ourselves. Both answers must be based on that which we are taught in the Holy Writings, and especially in the Torah. Recourse may be had to philosophic speculation, to which, indeed, the first question peculiarly invites, but the result must be rectified by the teaching of the Torah.

• Ean/ISBN: 9781465573896
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