Elijah Benamozegh

“ An ethics that attains such heights has no rival to fear. Like Moses, who, according to the doctors, strove with the angels, it touches the very throne of God.
If there be a vice opposed to humility, it is pride and anger. Though the Gospel condemns both by implication in its exhortations to humility and meekness, it is very far from reaching that vehemence of condemnation which the Pharisees incessantly pour upon them And we shall still be told, that those against whose pride and inordinate vanity Jesus thought proper to inveigh, were the holy doctors of Israel! ”

“ God is found on the side of the persecuted. Is it only, they add, when the oppressed and the oppressors are equally just or impious? Is it only when the oppressor is an unjust man and the oppressed a just one? No; though the oppressor were just and the oppressed unjust, God is ever on the side of the latter. ”

“ They who bear injury without returning it, they who hear themselves slandered and retort not, whose only impulse is love, who welcome with Joy the evils of life, for them is it written in the prophets: The friends of God shall shine like the sun in his glory. ”

“ We shall not multiply citations from the Bible; as the Pharisees are on trial, they are the persons accused of being inferior to Jesus; these therefore we should ask for an account of their ethics. The world, they say, is held together only by the merit of those who close the mouth when disputations arise. ”

“ In one place they see Israel compared to the bravest and fiercest carnivora, to the lion, the wolf, and especially the serpent; in another it is to a dove God likens his Church. Whence this contradiction? "Ah"! say the doctors; "Israel is strong as a lion, wise as a serpent, but also innocent as a dove: strong and prudent with wolves into whose midst he is sent, to keep their strength at bay, to thwart their crafty schemes; but, innocent as the dove that gives its neck to death, Israel goes joyfully to martyrdom for his God and his faith." [48]
Another of Jesus' favorite symbols is the child. ”

“ Has not tradition preserved a favorite saying of the elder Hillel, long prior to Christianity: "My abasement shall be my elevation, and my elevation my abasement." [15] Is it not he who said: "He who grows proud shall perish." [16] Is not the following saying his master Abalion's? "Flee grandeur." [17] Has not one of the most ancient doctors said: "Be humble even to excess, for is not man's last hope the worms of his grave?" [18] Did not their disciples say: " Be lowly ... whoever humbles himself shall be exalted, and whoever exalts himself shall be humbled. ”

“ We know that when Christianity saw not the era of the resurrection dawning as quickly as it expected, when, with good grace or with bad, it found itself engaged in our actual life, with its needs, demands, and future, it took care to distinguish counsel from precept, and simply recommended voluntary poverty. ”

“ And does the passionate man fare better? Already, before Jesus, had the Bible condemned him; the most ancient doctors had said: "Be not given to wrath." [44] They refined soon upon the old maxims: "Whoever," they tell us, "abandons himself to anger, has no respect for the Schechina itself." [45] "If the passionate man be a prophet his inspiration leaves him; if a doctor, he forgets his learning." [46] Who would believe it? The Pharisees, all submissive as they were to the authority of the Prophets, hesitated not to write these words: "Why was Elias snatched so soon from the earth? ”

“ Where, on the contrary, shall one find it? in the lowly-minded, like water that comes from the mountains to sojourn in the valleys. [9] One is not ashamed, they say elsewhere, to ask even an inferior for water to slake thirst; so the great should not blush to ask the meanest for information as to the law. ”

“ Happy are they who weep, said Jesus, for they shall be comforted. Pharisaism also had said: "Whoever mourns for Jerusalem shall share its future joy." [33] "The tears of the distressed reach easily the throne of God." [34] "They are the greatest help, the most necessary condition to every prayer." [35] And what is noticeable is that the acknowledged chief of the Cabalistic school, R. Simeon Ben Jochai, is the author of the following maxim: Man is not allowed to laugh unrestrainedly in this world. Jesus continues (Mat. v. 7) : Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. ”

“ Abraham and Moses.—The Bible.—The "poor in Spirit."—The Kingdom and the Earth that are to be their heritage.—Cabalistic Sense necessary for the Comprehension of the Law.—Greatness of the Humble.—Authority.—Example of Jesus.—Submission to Injury.—Other Beatitudes.—The Persecuted.—Pride.—Anger.—Serpent and Dove.—The Child.—Self-Denial.—Voluntary Poverty.
If Christian ethics boasts that it taught men charity, it arrogates no less the honor of having taught them humility. ”

“ Far from that; nothing comes so frequently to their lips. "With the humble God makes his Schechina rest." [6] Who is the true sage? said an ancient doctor; he who may be taught by all. [7] God's science is not in the heavens, said Moses; that is to say, add the doctors, thou shalt not find it in those whose pride reaches the sky. ”

“ There is my God, "Wouldst thou know how much children are loved by God? When Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians, the representatives of all Israel (who were there for the sacrifices) , went away, but the Schechina still remained. The Sanhedrim broken up, the Schechina still rested within its walls; but when the children ware carried away prisoners, then the Schechina went with them, for it is written: 'Thy children have walked captives before the enemy ”