Israel and Humanity - Intellectual and religious progress

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II.

The intellectual and religious progress.

We have seen that the principle of human progress is highly affirmed by the Bible and the Rabbis. Lets see what Judaism believes that the intellectual progress of particular interest to religion. It is indisputable that this is an area where all the positive religions have a tendency to proclaim the superiority of ancient times on this day. Therefore if, even on this ground, Judaism professes belief in the perfectibility successively, it will be proof positive that the principle of progress has penetrated far deeper into the Hebrew thought, as he shaped even the most dogmas venerable.

Up the course of time, first consider what has been said about theologians and Kabbalists. On every page of their books, we encounter the idea that the revelation of the mysteries will be made only gradually and that the full knowledge that at least that human nature is capable of acquiring, is reserved for the last time, it ' is to say to the Messianic age. The value of this doctrine for understanding the origins of Christianity is inescapable. There are no idea who return more frequently in the Gospels. Jesus said he came into this world to say out loud, and according to S. Luke, to preach on roofs which before it was taught secretly. As he believed himself the Messiah and his followers felt that open the messianic era, they all thought they were now exempt from any reserve and the esoteric theology of the Pharisees was seen in public and disclosed to a crowd who could not understand the first word. This is not the place to explore the beautiful result of this revelation, but what we want to make is that this early history of Christianity is a response to those who argue that the rule of secret teaching among the Israelites was designed to hide after the novelty of certain doctrines unknown in early Judaism and help them as well, despite their recent importation, the prestige of antiquity. All of that happened at the time of spreading the Gospel denies this explanation plausible. This is certainly not by so-called theological schemes that may have been inspired by the preaching of the early Christian apostles, they, in the mistaken belief that the last time had arrived, wanted to spread the doctrines previously were hidden and they This has contributed in their own way, testimony to the Jewish principle of progressive development of the sacred science.

The religious progress is noticeable even before Moses. Men growing more and more morally superior to Abraham and Moses, Noah is greater than Abraham. Although the Act existed in embryo, we believe, before the appearance of Moses, there is no doubt that it has become something new in his hands and that Sinai does mark vis-à-vis centers of the ancient religion a significant progress. The rabbis, in a clever parable, comparing previous revelations to Moses to the flasks as the master of the house presents its guests, while the revelation at Sinai is like the barrel is emptied by opening its gaping. Moses in this regard has lyrics that astonish by their boldness, only the habit of reading we find that natural. He comes, the patriarchs are exceeded, a more complete knowledge of God appears, a name, but again, at least newly discovered, takes the place of the old divine names or rather it is now their favorite: "I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty, but I have not been known to them my name, Avaya ". It is the same method of evolution; esotericism disappears and we see to discover what was previously hidden, either deliberately or unconsciously in the way of the fruit in the flower. Both forms of mystery may be compatible, too, for the same generation has so many different minds that what is known one can remain secret for another and there is not so say two people have to learn from each other something new.

After Moses, the Act continues to govern the development of religious science. We realize browsing the Bible that exists between ancient and later times a difference in the way of conceiving religion. The fact is obvious and can not find him only two plausible explanations. Although we must admit with the rationalist critique of the introduction of books and dogmas, rites, new, or it is forced to acknowledge the correctness of our theory of the organism growing in all its phases from seed to fruit, always variable, but always identical in substance to the way everything is alive There are things that private life that is both immutable and perishable immutable as long as they last, perishable, since have only short-lived, because in them the nature of identity and change are successive, as they are inseparable in living beings.

There is no denying that the rabbis have adopted this assumption religious evolution. The charge made to them in the Gospel of putting human tradition above the Word of God is sufficient to prove that they were not supporters of immutability. The protests of the Sadducees and the very existence of the party confirmed the criticisms of the Gospels. Historical criticism today, with no hostile intent, however, recognized the representatives of the Pharisees and religious progress movement within Judaism, though in a sense quite different from ours. It should not be confused because the natural growth of an institution, its organic evolution, with changes that would introduce voluntarily to suit the times and places. Both the first amendment is fair, legitimate, orthodox in a word, as the second is false, injurious to the idea that it purports to serve and we might even say unscientific, because science does not know the revolutions, but only transformations slow, unconscious selection radical - the birour of Kabbalah - which is not inconsistent, far away, with the principle of heredity and identity and even the notion of a special primitive type.

But what is certainly very significant is that the Pharisees, with a safe conscience amazing, do nothing to repel the charge of novelty that they send their opponents. They are without hesitation over R. Moses Akiba, the representative par excellence of tradition not only practical, but theologically, the only one, says the Talmud, which was able to deliver safely to the study of Merkaba . It is told in another passage that when Moses went to Sinai to receive the Law, God showed him all the future generations of his successors.

At the farthest row, he saw R. Akiba who, on every little word in the Torah, the mountains of doctrines preached. And as Moses did not understand what the rabbi said, he felt a sharp pain and did not calm down until he heard R. Akiba which concluded by saying: "All of these doctrines we come from Moses, who received at Sinai" This wonderful passage would most subtle denigration of the written law, if it was actually the most profound apology. This image of Moses who does not understand what they say on his behalf, it would therefore preached himself and not be reassured that when he hears the most modern theories relate to his own Pharisaic teaching on Sinai, is a masterpiece of truth, depth, there is a whole system of concordance of the written law and oral law, and the immutability of progress, condensed into a few words. Does the seed, if it were endowed with intelligence, will recognize in the plant? Does the child recognizes itself in man? No, because the difference is too great and that consciousness and memory are not there to prove the continuity, the identity of existence. But the plant will recognize the germ, the man will recognize himself in the child, because evolution is already an established fact, all moments of life are connected to each other and form an unbroken chain which allows be to assert its own identity.

There is no reason to be surprised after this if the Zohar puts R. Simon Ben Yohai above Moses, saying it was unaware that his face was radiant, while the master of Kabbalah well knew. The Midrash Rabbah, commenting on the words of Genesis: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light ", said:" Let there be light! it is Moses, and there was light, this is R. Simon Ben Yohai ". Nothing more beautiful, more original, more expressive than this comment, is the power and the act put in front of each other is the preparation and implementation, design and accomplishment connected together. as the beginning to end. Who knows - and we believe there is more than a guess - if Jesus saying: "Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets: I am not come to abolish them but to fulfill ". He has not heard of an accomplishment as we say. It's the only explanation to reconcile the attitude he had taken a reformer and his capacity as developer of doctrines that is kept secret until the ideas of movement and conservation of which Jesus is the representative in turn. Not only to the branch to print and regulate the movement's growth throughout the plant and that is the function of the trunk, root, that is to say the whole nation, or better yet his genius, this anonymous force , but generally that embraces its past, present and future.

The Pharisees have even made the miracle of giving citizenship to a word that in any other religion, heterodoxy is synonymous to the word hiddousch new. Among them, the novelty is legitimate. The word is always taken in good part. Innovation is seen as a worthy and indispensable elements of the worship life, and forms with respect for tradition the regular rhythm of religious history. Thus they argued that any hiddousch , all that can be said again that studying the Torah was revealed to Moses on Sinai. How so, if this is new? Obviously the same way that the teaching of R. Akiba may be linked to that of Moses. Elsewhere the nail and the plant, as a symbol of fixity, immutability, the other as an emblem of growth and development, we are introduced to serve this dual property of the Act. It's about this verse from Ecclesiastes: "The words of the wise are like goads, and compiled in a book they are like nails driven taught by one teacher ". The words of the wise would it be so mobile and changeable as the sting? commentators say. No, because they are compared with nails. Would they be so barren as the nails do not grow or multiply? No, it is said that these nails are planted.

It suffices to recall a truth which we hope to further demonstrate complete: that's for Judaism, the Bible and Tradition, the Written Law and the Oral Law merge with the divine Logos, Wisdom creative and thus with the law of beings, the entire universe, the cosmic law. In this grandiose conception of the Divine Law, how is it possible to deny that progress is, for any finite intelligence, one of the conditions of the notion that it may acquire? The Act is the Logos, the divine knowledge that the whole man is not confined therefore never fully possess, so that according to the Rabbis of the fifty gates through which one can pass to reach his knowledge, forty-nine were open only to Moses, the fiftieth having been reserved to God alone . Another rabbi tells us that the reason it is written that Moses received the Law from Sinai and not that God gave the Law to Moses, because Moses was unable to receive it whole. It is said that Moses received it, to signify that he received what he was entitled to understand . In addition, the text does not , the Act but only , Law, and he does not let Moses received from God, but the Sinai . Why? It does not ascribe to God a thing imperfect.

Finally, again under the same principle, the rabbis tell us why the Israelite called for the reading of the Law in the synagogue does not say the blessing before the reading: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who gave Act "but he said:" Blessed art thou O Lord, who gives the Act (at present), because, they say, the Act is not given once or ten times or a thousand times for all but it is given continuously, it is a spring that flows and never dries.

§ 2.

If among all the Jewish schools, that of the Pharisees is the only one who has professed the principle of progress is not to say that it has been unfaithful to the Bible. It is full of promise that religious knowledge will only increase, it will reach its highest level in recent times and that God's Spirit will spread, so all men without distinction of age, sex, or condition: "After that proclaims Joel, I will pour my spirit upon all flesh: and your son and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men will have pictures, and your young men shall see visions ". "And they shall teach more than his neighbor, for his part said Jeremiah, and every man his brother saying, Know the LORD! because all know me, from the smallest to the greatest, says the LORD. ". And Habakkuk: "The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, like the bottom of the sea by the waters cover , all words that it was thought completed at the advent of Christianity, while from all sides saw the emergence of prophets and inspired, because as it was believed that the messianic era was opened, it was expected usually this light scattering.

We also find in the book of Daniel significant texts: "Many will start the study and knowledge will increase that is to say that progress is occurring not Only by expanding research, but also by the intensity of efforts. Therefore the sacred writer adds: "Those who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and those who have taught many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever" .

After mentioning these grandiose predictions, hardly would he need to speak with a legislative provision and ritual inspired by the same principle, but which by its positive nature, is well calculated to please the minds less speculative. This is the Talmudic rule according to which the latter came from the doctors should be preferred as previous religious authority . It presupposes that the latter came to be in possession of all that his predecessors have taught is thus better able to make a new step for science, it is obvious that there is a solemn sanction given to principle of progress. We confess that we could easily find passages that seem to contradict this doctrine, do they put the old doctors infinitely above the new, providing the first title and praise the most pompous and the second qualifying most contemptuous. The contradiction disappears, in our opinion, once we distinguish between the individual and mass. The great individuals are more numerous and more impressive in ancient times as in modern times and it is this decrease that we deplore. That rises to the contrary, it is the general level of the crowd, thanks to greater diffusion of knowledge facilitated by these wonderful instruments that are writing and printing. It should be noted also within Judaism some striking coincidences . It's almost at the invention of alphabetic writing as the book of the law appears. Tradition begins to be documented when Western civilization widespread use of manuscripts. Finally, the esoteric teaching is made available to all those who are able to enjoy it at the time of the discovery of printing.

But here is something that demands our attention and demands an explanation from us much more than the rabbinical judgments on the comparative merits of ancients and moderns. We refer to the myth of Adam, after which the perfection have been sharing the man behind, while from the sin that brought the world the physical evil with moral evil, humanity instead of moving forward would be forfeited. Is there not a formal denial brought to the doctrine of progress? We have already partially answered this objection about human perfectibility. We will also observe here that the myth in question, Adam is presented to us as both more perfect and less perfect as in other respects than the real man and history, as had to be precisely the man primitive. Based on the idea that Judaism is the Golden Age, early humans were naturally better endowed with certain faculties, including, spontaneity or inventive faculty. The truth is that near the origin, not only the human body is more active, but moral activity, too, is more intense. "As in any age organic developments are more vivid than in childhood," said one author, and any time there is more movement than that. Mythology is excusable to represent the gods in the beginning, because it never happened so many happy inspirations and amazing inventions " How can you be surprised after this lapse of sensation he felt when, in subsequent ages, man sees his faculties diminish primitive?

But the perfection of Adam did something historic? Arguably, it is true that everything the Bible tells us of the happiness of Adam has no other purpose than to portray the ideal of perfection that man can and must achieve. We also found examples of this idealization: "As the human mind tends to locate the ideal and once designed to take sensible forms, to persuade himself that he does is not fooled by any illusion as indeed has the past on the future of the undeniable advantage of having belonged to the world of realities, sometimes progressive people themselves replace the praise of what they believed to have existed, necessarily uncertain expectancy of a successful future. Greece, particularly Athens, in Athens the party had long respected the Socratic ideal for such a primitive Sparta which the legislature was, in the words of the Pythia, perhaps less a man than a god. Rome too was an ideal of his first time. ". But the idea that other people have made of primitive perfection has a key difference with that of Judaism. While among other nations of the design progress, assuming it existed, was implicit, unconscious, in Judaism the contrary, it appears bright as a doctrine well established, and much more so than the notion of perfection at the beginning of humanity, because while it is only found in the book of Genesis and, surprisingly, is no longer found here and there throughout the Bible as a weak echo and uncertain, quite disproportionate to the importance of the story of Eden, he should be fully taken in the literal sense, the idea of progress instead fills the whole of Scripture.

Between the system of Greek mythology who, with the golden age, placed perfectly to the born and the modern thinkers who return completely to the end of time, what is the position of Judaism? He professes a doctrine asserting the intermediary's final perfection by the steady development of the principle. As we said, progress in Judaism is a path, which implies a point of departure, a routing and a goal. This granted, to those who ask us if the Jewish perspective, man has advanced or declined, we will answer "The man grew up. Therefore it has lost in spontaneity and natural instinct, but he won like being free, conscious and morally. The first men we were superior in instinct as are the animals, but we exceed them by reflection.

It is in this sense that the rabbis, saying compared the prophet and the wise man or man of science, have made this great maxim that the wise man is superior to the prophet . This does not mean that human wisdom is better than inspiration. Without doubt, the prophet has more, but his individuality is less pronounced because he is not aware of everything he owns. The wise, to some extent, has created himself by his persistent efforts and his conscience is stronger, although the content is less than that of an intelligence inspired. The prophet is superior in capacity, the wise intensity.

What is characteristic of the doctrine of progress in Judaism, is the controversy that has occupied the Jewish theologians about the relative superiority of man and angel. That's why we say a word now.