Elijah Benamozegh

“ Has it transcended in this respect the teachings of Judaism, that have, withal, not infringed on the places and rights of country and society? We dare assert that, in spite of the enormous sacrifices it has made, it gives us an idea of universal charity far less grand than that bequeathed us by Judaism. And we may risk the assertion that the latter, by preserving the rights of country and society, has made charity more active (if possible) , more tender, more humane, and in short, more charitable. Christianity sees in man but man in the abstract, or even at most but the Christian. ”

“ Easy for Christianity, that knows no country or nationality to dispute a religious nation's, a sacerdotal kingdom's right of existence and the consequences of that right; to be scandalized whenever the preservation of Israel demands a restriction of that limitless charity which is the final object of the restriction. Israel, with erect head and calm heart, shall never blush for its political character, given it by the God of Christians, nor for the exercise of the rights appertaining thereto. But has Christianity itself no enemies? ”

“ Manor woman, freeman or slave, Jew or Pagan, according to their works alone shall the holy spirit come to them. They point to Aaron as a model, inviting us to have his love towards men and to lead them to the Law. To hate them would be to give up life. Love for humanity knows no restrictions; we should love idolators even. ”

“ Is it nothing, above all, that the affirmative doctrine prevailed in the synagogue (conformable to the belief of all Israel to-day) , that Socrates, Plato, and Marcus Aurelius, should have their places in Paradise by the same title as Abraham, Isaac, or Moses? Is it naught that the Pagan, the idolater, should be esteemed as neighbor, towards whom fraud is strictly forbidden; that one law prohibits the robbery of Jew or Pagan; that they have been so scrupulous as to forbid their inoffensive methods of gaining the good will and esteem of the idolater, to which, we already made allusion ”

“ We need but call to mind one important doctrine, one that is more peculiar to Judaism than to any religion or to any nation, one that is the essential base of universal charity, and without which no philosophy can ever succeed in transfusing man's heart with that tender brotherly love, which is its direct consequence—and that is unity of origin. ”

“ In a word, Judaism presents a new point of contact for men; by multiplying relations, it doubles, triples universal charity; and, instead of the dry abstraction, man, that Christianity would have us love, it gives its adherents something more real, more alive and similar to ourselves something with affections and wants like our own—a father, a citizen, a patriot. ”

“ Man, his brother, created like himself in the image of God, the worshiper of the same God, though he be not a disciple of Moses, a father, brother, son; a member, in short, of a family, and above all one that has a country, a nationality;—and as the Jew himself is also a citizen, one of a nation, he can sympathize with the affections appertaining to citizenship and nationality, with the joys and sorrows, virtues and heroisms these relations beget. ”

“ Let us remember that long before liberty and equality were spoken of, Israelitic tradition showed how eminently favorable was this great doctrine to these two principles among men. "Why," say in the Talmud, these much-misunderstood Pharisees, "has man got but one origin? It is first, that no one may say to another, 'my father is greater than thine;' [1] and secondly, that no people or family may, with justification, put another in subjection." Alas! how many such tyrannies have we not in the world! How would it be if each people and race had a separate origin? ”

“ We have seen the spirit, not only of the Mosaic law, but of the Pharisaical interpretation—these eternally persecuted Pharisees, the objects of implacable hate—and who, notwithstanding, with impassive heart, with serene and immovable spirit, maintain all that is visibly humanitarian in the Mosaic law, and by exhibiting it under a new aspect, and revealing its many-sidedness, bring at last Hebrew charity, human fraternity, into high relief. ”

“ It is right that God should afflict those who afflict you, and that you should have respite when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven ... in flames of fire, taking vengeance upon those who know not God and obey not the Gospel. ”

“ No! it says man, that is the Gentile himself. Without being a convert to Judaism, without even troubling himself about the Mosaic law, provided he studies and practises natural morality, he may equal in dignity the high priest of Judaism. We may boldly say that they never omit an opportunity of illustrating the universality and eminent humanitarianism of their ethics, at the risk even of compromising the election of Israel, his rights or national prejudices. ”

“ Here it is that the humanitarian side of Israel's existence shines forth. We can easily comprehend that Moses might communicate his great ideas respecting the unity of our origin, the grandeur of man and of his destiny, to some tried disciple, to a school, or, better still, to missionaries who would force them on the attention of an ignorant world. ”

“ The laws protecting the stranger and full of lore and charity towards him, are everywhere mentioned: Love the stranger as yourselves (Kamokha) ; for you have been strangers in the land of Egypt, for you know the mind of the stranger, his sufferings and humiliations;—words as noble as significant, for they make us see in this stranger naught but a man, of a religion, morality, and origin diverse from those of the Israelites, just as were the latter from those of the Egyptians. ”

“ Yes, say they, all the world hates Esau,; all the world hates Jacob. And do they think they deserve this hate? They cannot even understand it. They seek in vain what Israel has done, to merit the scorn of the Gentiles; they do not even suspect that difference of faith has caused it, so remote from them in the idea of a religious enemy. ”

“ Man has been created in like image of God; he is the king of creation; all ought obey him, that he may ennoble and spiritualize all, by leaving on them traces of the mould from which he himself was struck. Is this representation an exaggeration on our part, or is it truly according to the meaning of the strict Mosaic text? ”

“ Does not the great patriarch become his prophet and apostle? Does he not importune God on behalf of those wicked people of the plains, with whom his family had no affinity whatever? Does not God himself tell him of his intention respecting these sinners ”

“ He who honors his fellow-creatures. As to property: Let the property of thy fellow-man be for thee as sacred as thine own. "Shouldst thou find thine enemy's ox or ass strayed," said Moses, "thou shalt bring it him;" and that, says R. Yoschia, though he be a pagan or idolater. If the civil law allows usury from the Gentiles, the moral law, through the Pharisees, forbids it: and one of them, a witness, doubtless, if not a victim of pagan cruelties, after seeing at the circus the massacre of his brethren, entered the Bet hamidrasch and taught: Thou shalt not lend on usury even to a stranger. ”

“ Yes, the religious enemy is a creation altogether Christian, unknown to Judaism, impossible even, the moment it admits that eternal salvation is not thq exclusive heritage of the Mosaic Law. So this charity, that with the Jew is stopped only by the political enemy, the Christian cannot entertain towards the religious enemy. And let it not be said that this refers to posterior abuses and alterations. The Gospel is there to attest that the genius of Christianity is true to itself from the most remote times. ”

“ Truth herself must indeed have inspired the Hebrew lawgiver, if, in the midst of a people who accounted all close to their frontiers as enemies and barbarians, he was bold enough to proclaim a doctrine that went in the very teeth of that exclusionism in which each nation had entrenched itself. ”

“ Does he not, in the Mosaic history, interpose continually, avenging fratricide, drowning a corrupt generation, giving Noah laws, directions, which, far from being confined to that people to be formed by Moses, are the inheritance of all mankind. ”

“ The former, although with proscriptions and constant carnage before him, hesitates not to retort upon his adversaries: Yes, we are your religious enemies. The Doctors see in it but the hatred of Paganism towards them;—as to theirs, they see it not, for they feel it not. ”