(A
Di
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Syn—5‘11,-
JUDAISM - A WAY OF LIFE
Fpr those who have only just rejoined us after their holidays, let me explain that,
summer being also a time for refi‘esher courses, we are having a little refresher course,
of which this is the second instalment, in the essentials of Judaism.
Judaism, we said. last week, is the culture of the Jewish people.
course, that it is essentially a religious culture,
anti
It turns out, of
we might therefore have said more
simply and more conventionally that Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people,
But
there are difficulties about the worl’d religion. Because, in English usage, it derives
its connotation largely from the model of Christianity,
11:
may not altogether fit Judaism,
just as a suit, tailor-made for one perspn, may sit awkwardly on another; it may be too.
short in the sleeves or too broad in the shoulders.
To call Judaism a religion in the
Christian sense is to say in some ways too little and in other ways too much.
it is better to avoid. the word altogether.
and we can get along without it too.
Now on one
lev_e1,
Classical Hebrew never had a word for religion,
Culture will do nicely.
the one we talked about last week, the culture of the Jewish people
is a complex of ideas.
I say a complex rather than a system because it Was never system-
atised, at least not authoritatively.
Judaism has no creed. in the Christian sense.
has always maintained a large measure of freedom in the matter of belief.
course make a number
Therefore
61‘
It
It does of
very important affirmations about the universe, about God and man,
about nature and history.
But it makes them implicitly rather than explicitly; they are
a matter of consensus rather than dogma; and different people may verbalise them different—
15’.
M
In any case, Judaism is more than that, more than a way of understanding the universe,
more than an interpretation of the data of experience.
i_s;
it is even more concerned with what
139.
It isn't only concerned with what
It speaks not only in the indicative
but, even more characteristically, in the imperative.
It doesn't only make statements;
_ 2
it makes recommendations.
hogééktgt.
..
It doesn't only tell us what we may believe; it tells us
It seeks not only to inform but to guide,
It isn't only a way of thinking;
it is a way of living.
Of course the two are connected.
It is because Judaism, as a philosophy, considers
man free to choose how he will live, that it bothers to ask how he should
11176.
It is
because it ascribes sovereignty to God that this question is for it tantamount to asking:
what does He require of us?
And it is because of its teachings about the relationship
between God and man that it regards the question as answerable.
So these two sides of
Judaism, the descriptive and the prescriptive, the theoretical and the practical, are
interconnected,
But they may also be viewed separately.
The way of life can be looked
at even apart from the way of thought; and that's whafi'we want to do this morning.
Our starting—point, once again, is that human beings are free to behave in a great
variety of ways.
Now in some areas it matters little or not at all how they behave.
.
Which side you get out of bed, how you tie your shoe—laces, or whether you eat your
dessert with a spoon or a fork: these things are of no consequence.
But other aspects
of human behaviour are significant, and it is these which Judaism seeks to regulate.
And to say that they are significant is to say that they are ethicalu significant, that
they involve questions of right and wrong in the moral sense.
So what we're looking for
is 'the ethical £11191 which Judaism stresses.
The first of these, I suggest, in order of impdartance, and the suggestion may sur-
prise you, is freedom.
Now there are ofv‘foourse many kinds and degrees of freedom, and
they are not all equally important.
In practice any organised society must limit the
freedom of its members, and all that can be demanded is that it should limit it as little
as possible.
But there is a basic freedom which is indispensable: freedom of th;;;1¥2:nd
worship, ideological freedom.
For onn’that everything else depends.
of the other values of Judaism can be perpetuated.
Without that none
And therefore a tyranny which
.
3 _
..
suppresses this funclamental freedom must be resisted by any means.
expreSses this by saying that if
(Maia
a.
Jewish tradition
government tries to force you to commit idolatry
kochavin) you must refuse uncompromisingly.
The conditions in whiégzgixe Jewish
value system can be expressed and transmitted must be maintained at all cost.
Second'in importance, and this also may surprise you, is
m
313% 31:133.
01‘
course
a society which safeguards the essential freedoms may still fie very unsatisfactory in
other ways.
But then it mustZ‘be improved, not overthrown.
Judaism, as I understand it,
is opposed to revolution except in a situation of out—and-out tyranny which precludes all
moral decency and progress.
Otherwise the government must be respected. and its laws obeyed.
The principle is (ii—m d'malchuta £133, that the law of the land is law. For Judaism conpmvidu
Hamewm-k
siders that a stable society if: the necessary
for the realisation of its values.
can”
But it isn‘t only political anarchy that can destroy this
Frmmork
exam.
It is also
licentiousness in so far as it undermines the fabric of society and, in particular, family
life.
That is why gillui are ot, incest and adultery, follows idolatry as the second of
the three "cardihal sins" which Judaism will not countenance in any circumstances.
The third is of course sh'fichut damim, the shedding of blood.
is the sanctity
61'
human life.
fihat is involved here
There is indeed a wider principle also, the priuniple of
bal tashchit, "You shall not destroy".
on the basis of this all wanton destruction is
forbidden, for example of animals, so that hunting as a sport can hardly be defended from
a Jewish point of View; and of vegetation, which is a good warning against the pollution
of the environment that has become so grave a problem in our time; and. even of man—made
iects,
a condemnation of all vandalism.
tmmauw-allq
i
more important.
But in the case of human beings the matter is
For man was created in the image of God.
a human life is to destroy the most sacred thing there is.
Therefore to destroy
It is, as the 'Rabbis said,
equivakent to destréying the whole world, for human life is iniflititely precious, and
irfinity cannot be multiplied.
That is why Judaism, from the beginning, abhorred war and
_
4 -
set before mankind the goal of a world at peace.
That toofiis why the Rabbis were so
worried by capital punishment and did their best to abolish it in practice.
And that
is why the converse of the shedding of blood, the saving of life, became, under the
name of Bikkuach nefesh, the higmest—priority positive obligation.
Next in the héérarchy of Jewish values comes, I suppose, justice.
has innumerable implications.
me,
Indeed, virtually everything else can be derived from
It is based on the idea of equality.
it.
This of course
but every life is as sacred as every other.
atnwlL-l paJo-kg
Not only is human lifeAsacred,
No man, as the Rabbis put it, has a right
to say: My ancesters were greater than your ancestors, or my blood is redder than yours.
All hman beings are inéeed intrinsically of equal worth.
sci-m
From this it fofllows, first of all, that they are entitled to equality before the
Law—court justice must be
law.
crime,
iW‘PMEAL
It is indeed its function tp punish
so that law and order may be maintained. But it is also its
function to protect the innocent, to ensure that no—one is unjustly apprehended, convicted
or sentenced, so that the law-abiding citizen
my
look to the
MERE
judiciary and the
police, not with fear, but with confidence, as being on his side, as being the guardian
Iccqrih
ML
of his liberties.
.
innocent, that a society is to be judged.
m
civilised society, however backward it
If
fir—1,
WWW.
And it is by the way if fulfiils this function, the protection of the
Sou
my
If it
(Lou
we“
m
Ha]
I‘m
it is a
be in other respects,
not, it is an uncivilised
y, however advanced it may be in other rapects,
MSHIMLL +{CL‘M0LBSI‘A‘I-‘1.
But equality before the law is only one aspect of a just society. It must see to it,
as far as it can, that its citizens receive a fair deal in all matters.
It must there-
fore prétect es;.ecially those who are at risk: the stranger, the poor, the opphan, the
widow; all minorities, all who are waggugdil
got
my
be unable to look after themselves.
And more generally, society must ensure that goods are fairly distributed.
This doesn't
necessarily mean egually distributed, but it does mean that for any inequality there must
be a good reason, such as the incentives which, in the present state of human nature,
.r
_.
_ 5 _
are apparently inflspensable.
miHv M [M NW“;
Judaism doesn't necessarily demand socialism, but it can
(N
M (tad
a!
walk.“
Wild».
only tolerate the kind of caPitalism that is Mecca-d by a good deal of egalitarianifim,
Now this obligation to establish justice rests, of course, not only on the government
but on every citizen.
ised kind
-
kuLM M M“
It should. characterise all human relationships, both of a special—
.
for instance, between parent and child, [teacher and pupil, merchant and
custamer, employer and emplgee — and of a general kind, between any two human beings who
come into contact with each other.
The general rule is: Love your neighbour as yourself.
That is, remember that he is like yourself, your equal, your brother, and treat him
accordingly.
The implications are of course both positive and negative.
Negatively it
means, as Hillel put it: Don't do to others what you would dislike if it were done to you.
Don't rob them, don't defraud them, don't hurt them in any way.
Judaism stresses especially
that it is possible to hurt others not only physically and economically, but mentally and
emotionally, by deception, by slander, by gossip, by damaging their reputation or lowering
their self-esteem All these it forbids under the headipg of
M,
oppression.
But then of course there is the positive implication: the duty to act towards othefs
as you would like them to act towards you, to go out of your way to help them when they
are in need, to do whatever lies within your power to enhance their welfare and their
happiness: to comfort the bereaved, to visit the sick, to befriend the lonely, to shelter
the homeless, to feed the hvngry and to help the impoverished to rehabilfla‘te ‘themselves.
All such acts are strongly urged under the heading of tz'dakah, charity, and g'milut
chasadim, good deeds.
They are, we have assumed so far, motivated by the principle of justice, that is, by
the sense of the fittingness that all human beings,'since they are equally
worthy, should
receive the same concern for their well—being.
This can be a very powerful motive; it
can amount to a passion, especially when outraged by the denial of justice.
It has been
a major force in social progress, and a sound guide in regulating the conduct of
individuals
towards one another.
To act justly is aiways, or nearly always, to act rightly.
-6But there is also another motive which Judaism praises highly, and that of courwe
is love.
Love is something more than respect for the inherent worth of others and
for the equal rights of all.
It is a kind of empathy.
It is feeling with them, as
when the Bible says, "You know the heart of a stranger, since you were strangers in
Egypt; theréfore love him as yourself."
It is satisfying the needs of others, not
merely because they deserve it as ybur equals, but because you have identified yourself
bQWw
with them; thay—arevpart-Uf‘ynuj-ané—fihegaflone—you feel their needs as your needs.
is, in the literal sense of the word, compassion.
QM
64’
And in the deepest sense of all it
is the love of God, reflected in the lave of man, created in his image.
HUM—mm
in
J-
(cw.
HL
cavikv'A,
a;
kum‘la'.
Love is not as reliable a motive of conduct as justice‘
And therefore it must never take the place of justice.
snarily the most loving action.
It
It is the just action.
7;l°" 7““
It can become sentimentality.
The right action is not nece-
But when justice is reinforced
by love, the action acquires a special beauty which Judaism fully recmgnises and strénsly
commends.
These then are some of the features of the way of life which Judaism teaches; the
principles, standards, values and ideals it wants to see implemented in all human re—
lationships.
This prescription for the good life is not, of course, unique.
In this
area, even more than in theology, there is much overlappihg with other religions and
ideologies.
for other
But this, I think, can be said: that/ho/human culture has this matter of
the regulation and elevation of human cénduct been quite so central 5 preoccupation;
no other culture has pursued it with quite so relehtless an intellectual energy; and
precisely
no other culture has worked out its implications so matiauimmxiy and so comprehensively.
But however much or however little the Jewish code of conduct may diffier from any
other, it makes up at least one third of what Judaism is about, and with the fundamental
affirmations of Judaism aboytflihe universe, two-thirds.
considtred next week.
The remaining third is to be
n
'
Q‘s!—
avmsu
- A WAY OF LIFE
Fpr those who have only Just rejoined us after their holidays, let me explain that,
summer being also a time for refresher courses, we are having a little refresher course.
of which
£1113
15 the second instalment, 1n the essentials of Judaism.
Judaism, we said last week, is the culture of the Jewish people.
It turns out, of
course, that it is essentially a religious culture, and we might therefore have said more
-
simply aim more conventionally that Judaism is the religgon of the Jewish people,
But
there are difficulties about the worl’d religion. Because, in English usage, it derives
its connotation largely from the model of Christianity, it may not altogether fit Judaism,
Just as a suit, tailor-made for one perspn, may sit awkwardly on another; it may be too
short in the sleeves or too broad in the shoulxlers.
To call Judaism a religion in the
Christian sense is to say in some ways too little and in other ways too much.
it is better to avoid. the word altogether.
and we can
591:
along without it too.
Therefore
Classical Hebrew never had a word for religion,
Culture will do nicely.
Now on one level, the one we talked about last week, the culture of the Jewish people
is a complex of ideas.
I say a complex rather than a system because it was never system-
atised, at least not authoritatively.
Judaism has no creed 1n the Christian sense.
has always maintained a large measure of freedom in the matter of belief.
It
It does of
course nuke a number of very important affirmations about the universe, about God and man.
about nature and history.
But it nukes them implicitly rather than explicitly; they are
a matter of consensus rather than dogma; and different people
13.
w
verbaliae them different—
In any case, Judaism is more than that, more than a way of understanding the universe.
more than an interpretation of the data of experience.
1_s;
it is even more concerned with what Egan}; 1a.
It isn't only concerned with what
It speaks not only in the indicative
but. evan more oharacteristicalh, in the imperative.
It doesn't only make statements;
\
- 2 1t nnkes recommendations.
how to act.
It doesn't only tell us what we may believe; it tells us
It seeks not only to inform but to guide.
It isn’t only
a.
way of thinking;
it is a way of living.
of course the two are connected.
It is because Judaism, as a philosophy, considers
man free to choose how he will live, that it bothers to ask how
_he
should live.
It 13
because it ascribes sovereignty to God that this question is for it tantamount to asking:
what does He require of us?
And it is because of its teachings about the relationship
between God and man that it regards the question as answerafile.
Judaism, the descriptive and the prescriptive, the theoretical
interconnected.
But they may also be viewed separately.
So these two sides of
and.
the ‘practical, are
The way of life can be looked
at even apart from the way of thought; and that's what'we want to do this morninhs.
Our starting—point, once again, is that human beings are free to behave in a
variety of ways.
gent
Now in some areas it matters little or not at all how they behave.
Which side you get out of bed,
be}?
you tie your shoe-laces, or whether you eat your
dessert with a spoon or a fork: these things are of no consequence.
But other aspects
of human behaviour are significant, and it is these which Judaism seeks to regulate.
M
And to say that they are significant is to say that they are ethical}; significant, that
théy involve questions of right and
15 the ethical
mug
in the moral sense.
So what we're looking for
which Judaism stresses.
The first of these, I suggest, in order of impartance, and the suggestion may sur-
prise you, is freegom.
Now there are ofmcourse
thqv are not all equally important.
mny
kinds and degrees of freedom, and
In practice any organised society must limit the
freedom of its members, and all that can he demanded. is that it should limit it as little
as possible.
But there is a basic freedom which is indispensaizlo: freedom of thought and
Worship, ideological freedom.
Fononflthat everything else depends.
of the other values of Judaism can be perpetuated.
Without that none
And therefore a tyranny which
L,“
- 5 -
‘=~
I
unppresges this mndAmental freedom must be resisted by any means.
oxprgasps this by saying that if a government tries
Aavodat manila) you must refuse uncompromisingy.
to,
Jewish tradition
force you to commit idolatry
The conditions in which the Jewish
value system can be expressed and transmitted must be maintained at all cost.
Second in importance, and this also may aux-pulse you, is
m
Q_n_d
31-39;.
01’
course
a society which safeguards the essential freedoms may still be very unsatisfactory in
other ways.
But than it mustb‘be improved, not overthrown.
13 opposed to revolution except in a situation
moral decency and progress.
The principle is
$1515-
91‘
Judaism, as I understand it,
out-and—out
1:e which precludes all
Otherwise the government must be respected and its laws obeyed.
gmg
9333; that the law of the land is law.
For Judaism con-
siders that a stable eociety is the necessary context for the realisation of its values.
But it isn't only political anarchy that can destroy this context.
It 13 also
bentiousness in so far as it undermines the fabric of society and, in particular, family
'life.
That is why
511.1411
m
aregot, incest and adultery, follows idolatry as the second of
the three "cardinal 31m" which Judaism will not countenance in
The third is of course sh'fichut
13 the sanctity 6f human life.
Them
my
the shedding of blood.
circumstances.
What 15 involved here
is indeed a wider principle also, the principle of
pi]: tushchit, "You shall not destroy",
On the basis of this all wanton aestruction is
forbidden, for example of animals, so that hunting as a sport can hardly be defended from
a Jewish point of View;
and.
of vegetatlon,'wh1oh is
a.
good.
warning against the pollution
of the environment that has become so grave a problem in our time; and even
objects, a condemnation of all vandalism.
infinitely more important.
a.
For
mm
or?
nan-made
But in the case of human beings the matter is
was created in the image of God.
human life is to destroy the most sacred thing there is.
Therefore to dastroy
It is, as the Rabbis said,
equivakant to destrbying the whole world, for human life is iniflMtely precious, and
infinity cannot be multiplied. That
‘
is why Judaism, from the beginning, abhorred war and
%
.
Set
\h
‘
befoeankind
-),-
the goal of a world at peace.
That tooyfls why the Rabbis were so
worried lay-capital punishment and did their best to abolish it in practice.
And that
is why the converse of the shedflins of blood, the saving of life, became, unfier the
ham
of gikkuach
n_e_i_‘_es_h,
the highest—priority positive obligation.
Next in the maratohy of Jewish values comes, I suppose, Justice.
has innumerable implications.
of course
Indeed, virtually everything else can be aerived from
It is based on the idea of equality.
it.
7111::
but every life is as sacred as every other.
Therefore, not only is human life sacred,
No man, as the Rabbis put it, has a right
to say: My anaesters were greater than your ancestors, or my blood is reader than yours.
All'h-mln beings are indeed intrinsically of equal worth.
From this it fofilows, first of all, that they are entitled to equality before the'
law.
crime.
It is indeed its funciion tp punish
Law—court Justice must be scrupulously fair,
That is néoessary so that law and order may be maintained. But it is also its
function to protect the innocent, to ensure that no-one is unjustly apprehenfled, convicted
or sentenced, so that the law—abiding citizen
my
look to the 3251333 Judiciary aml the
police; not with fear, but with confidence, as being on his side, as being the guardian
of by, liberties.
And it is by the way it fulfills this function, the protection of the
innocent,‘that a society is to be judged.
m
civilised society, however backward it
If
If it is reliable in this regard, it is a
my be
in other respects. for example economically.
not, it 15 an unciviliaed country, however
advamed it
my be
But equality before the law is only one aspect of a just. society.
in other
meets.
It must see to it,
as far as it can, that its citizens receive a fair deal in all matters.
It must there-
fore protect especially those who are at risk: the sizmnger, the poor, the opphnn, the
widow; all minorities, all who are week, all who may be unable
t'o
look after themselves.
And more generally, society must ensure that goods are fairly distributed.
Tnis doesn't
nacessérily mean equally distributed, but it does mean that for any inequality there must
be a good reason, such as the incentives which, in the present state of human nature,
'
_
a\
are apparently infibspensable.
5V
__
Judaism aoem't necessarily (Remand socialism, but it can
only tolerate the kind. of capitalism that 15 redeemed by
a.
gucd deal
01‘
egalitarianism.
'
Now this obligation to establish justice rests, of course, not only on the government
but on every citizen.
It should characterise all human relationships, both of a special-
1sed kind - for instance, between parent and child, teacher and pupil, merchant and
cuntbmer, employer and emplqpe - and of a general kind, between any two human beings who
come into contact with each other.
“he general rule is! Love your neighbour as yourself.
That is, remember that he is like yourself, your equal, your brother, and treat him
accordingly.
.
The implications are of course both positive and negative.
Negatively it
means, as Hillel put it: Dcu't do to others what you would dislike if it were done to you.
Don't rob them,~ don’t defraud them, don't hurt them in anyway.
Judaism stresses especially
that it is possible to hurt others not only physically and economically, but'mentally and.
emotionally, by deception, by slanaer, by gossip, by damaging their reputation or lowering
their self-ésteem
AIL these it forbids under the heading of gym—ah) oppression.
But then of course there is the positive implication! the duty to act towards others
as you would. like them to act towards you, to go out of your
my
to help them when they
are in need, to do whatever lies within your power} to enhance their Welfare and their
happiness: to comfort the bereaved, to visit the sick, to befriend. the lonely, to shelter
the homeless, to feed the hungry and to help the impoverished
1:0
rehabilmte themselves.
All such acts are strongly urged under the heading of tz'dakah, chatty, and g’milut
ghasadim, good deeds.
They are, we have assumed so far, motivated by the principle of Justice, that is, by
the sense of the fittingnesé that all human beings, since they are equally worthy, should
receive the same concern for their well-being.
can amount to
a.
This can be a very powerful motive; it
passion, especially when outraged by the denial of justice.
a major force in social progress,
tunes-as one another.
and.
It has been'
a sound guide in regulating the conduct of individuals
To act Justily is always.
armarly
always, to act rightly,
'
V
But there is also another motive which Judaism praises highly, and that of course
is love.
I
Love 13 something more than respect far the inherent worth of others and
for the equal rights of all.
It is a kind of empatiw.
It is feeling with them, as
when the Bible says, "You know the heart of a stranger. since you were strangers in
Egypt; therefore love him as yourself."
It is satisfying the needs of others, not
merely because they deserve it as your equals, but because you have identified yourself
with them; they are part of you; and therefore you feel their needs as your needs.
is, in the literal éense of the word, compassion.
'11:
And in the deepest sense of all it
is the love of God, reflected in the love of man, created in his image.
Love is not as reliable
a.
motive of conduct as justice.
And therefore it mat never take the place of Justice.
ssarily the moat loving action.
It can
becom sentimentality.
The right action is not nece-
It is the Just action.
But when Justice is reinforced
by love, the action acquires a special beauty which Judaism fully recbgnises and strongly
commands.
These then are some of the features of the way of life which Judaism teaches; tha
principles, standards, values and ide'als it wants to see implemented in all human relationships.
This prescription for the good life is not ,
of‘
course, unique.
In this
area, even more than in theology, there is much ovxerlappthhg with other religions and
ideologies.
But this, I think, can be said: matting/23:: culture has this matter of
the regulation and elevation of human cdmduct been quite so central a preoccupation)
no other culture has pursued it with quite so relehtless an intellectual anal-g; and
no other oultux-e‘haa worked out its implications so
figit; and
so comprehensively.
But however much or however little the Jewish code of conduct may diffim' from any
other, it makes up at least one third of what Judaism is about, and with the fundamental
affirmations of Judaism aboytyfthe un1Verse, two-thirds.
considered next week.
The remaining third is to be