Elijah Benamozegh

“ Why are proselytes called the loved of God, while the just Israelites are called only they who love God? "Because," replies R. Simeon Ben Jochai (the chief of the cabalistic school from which we believe Jesus learned everything) , "proselytes surpass Israelites as much as those loved of God surpass those who simply love him" [21] . "Oh!" he adds, "how God loves proselytes; on whom are lavished all the names with which Israel has been honored, viz: servant, minister, friend!
Abraham, David, were proud to be called proselytes. ”

“ It is Pharisaical tradition alone that points out the duty of striving for the conversion of sinners, rigorously enjoining its practice, even at the sacrifice of our self-love, at the risk of the rudest affronts,—in short, at every hazard save that of humiliating the sinner. For, beside the precept to fraternal admonition, the Pharisees see a provision and limitation against abuse, in the words of Moses as interpreted by them: "Reprove him, but always so that thou dost not expose thyself to sin; that is, to humiliate and put to shame thy neighbor." ”

“ Well! we have, in a passage from the prophets, both the idea and simile that Jesus employs against the descendants and imitators of the prophets: "The word of the Lord came unto me," says Ezekiel; "Son of man prophesy against the shepherds of Israel and say to them: woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed only themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe yourselves with the wool; ye kill the fat sheep, and ye feed not the flock. Ye have not healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up the limb of the wounded. ”

“ In view of these parables we ask which of the two—the first assuming the original intention of God to be the exclusion of the human race and their admission to be but the accident of Israel's refusal,—the second, making God's first thought to be one of justice, love, and universal charity—one that sees in the election of Israel only a temporary expedient, an imperfect realization of the divine idea—which, we ask, is the more noble, humanitarian and worthy of Deity? ”

“ We have spoken sufficiently of it, when treating of Man and the Gentiles. We shall now but add a few special maxims to what we have already said.
We have seen that, with the Pharisees, whoever are modest, merciful, charitable, are of the race of Abraham, and that whoever are otherwise, be they Israelites or not, have no share with the former. If there be any term which, on every occasion, the Pharisees set over that of Israel, it is man. David had said: "God is good to Israel, to men with pure hearts." ”

“ This is why the converted sinner, about whom we are going to speak, is the converted sinner eminently; he who has filled all the conditions of a great penitence,—who, in a year or an hour of heroism and self-denial effaces a whole life of licentiousness or crime. Such a convert, indeed, has no more eloquent eulogists or better friends than the Pharisees. One hour of penitence and good works in this world, say they, is more worth than a whole life in the world to come ”

“ A maxim in Matthew (viii. 1) has some affinity to the love for sinners: "Judge not, that you may not be judged." It must be an old Jewish one, since Joshua Ben Perachia (whom the Talmud asserts was Jesus' Teacher) , and Hillel repeated it. The former taught: "Judge all men favorably." The other, "Judge not thy neighbor as long as thou art not in his place (in the same situation) ." "For," adds Jesus, "as thou metest, so shall it be meted unto thee, and as thou judgest so shalt thou be judged." ”

“ Jesus surrounds himself with all sorts of sinners, new patients to whom he brings a cure; he absolves with a word an adulteress, sits to table with the dregs of the people, and equivocates strangely upon the censures of the Pharisees for not drawing near sinners to convert them, but sitting to table and making free with them, before they were cleansed. ”

“ The Pharisees are so far from being satisfied with a mere formulism, with acts originating in no conviction or feeling, that they have established an important distinction with respect to the indispensable interior changes—one that might surprise us, did we not already know that the epithet, "Religion of love," belongs not exclusively to Christianity. ”

“ If the woman suspected of adultery make an offering of barley without oil or incense, it is because she has descended to the level of the beasts that eat barley. If the incredulous captain was crushed to death by the crowd of buyers, it was because he mocked Elisha's promise of plenty, saying: "Shall God open windows in the sky." ”

“ Against the Pharisees he urges the scriptural and traditional doctrines that they never dreamed of disputing, and that had been ever accredited by the Hebrews. "If a man," he asks his disciples, "have a hundred sheep and one of them go astray, doth he not leave the ninety-nine and go into the mountains to seek the strayed one? ”

“ And in the 17th verse, "As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations." This slur as to Jewish election even free criticism has sometimes made, without reflecting that if the Jews have election it is that they may be less exclusive—that they may become universal. Yes, if they were never fused with mankind at any time or place it is that they might be better united in heart and spirit to mankind in all times and places ”

“ Has not the latter said (Ps. cxlvi. 9) : "God is the guardian of proselytes?" But how expressive the parable used by R. Simeon Ben Jochai to express the divine predeliction for reformed Gentiles! The Gospel has nothing like it, "A father of a family had a flock that went every day to feed, and returned at night. Once a wild goat joined the flock and would not go away from it. The sheep were led to the park, with the goat following; in the morning they were taken to the fields, and the goat still kept with them. So that the father conceived for the goat a great love ”