Israel and Humanity - The Tetragrammaton and the unity of God

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IV.

The Tetragrammaton and the'unité of God.

The study we just did the various monuments Bible does not absolve us to examine more thoroughly the great proof of monotheism that gives us the Tetragrammaton itself. We said earlier that the name reveals the unity of God in its essence and, consequently, monotheism, since its sublime design of God as absolute Being removes any possibility of assimilation to other deities. In desig-Gnant and the source of all life, all power, all energy, the Tetragrammaton is more than a verbal assertion of divine unity [1] It is a philosophy and Maimonides was right to say that the name applied to God by Moses and sent to Israel is proof of the necessary Being. While some critics have claimed that after he had been imagined only a purpose of polemic against the gods, such an assumption, though somewhat simplistic, is not in our view, unreasonable. But then refuse to recognize that the worshipers of the God he professed meant the purest monotheism, claim that despite the confession of unity contained in this August name, they could admit the existence of other deities, this is which seems singularly lacking in logic.

The modern scholars generally agree to give the meaning of Being tetragrammaton this to be necessary and the date of Moses, if not an earlier date. According to Professor Kuenen, a wiser and more independent, Moses was first called by that name of the God of Israel, but he did not invent the word and, although that it should present not all the same sense, was already in use in a small circle of insiders when he chooses to show the God of the Hebrews. This seems to us quite easily reconciled with the statements of Exodus, from which the name was communicated to Moses, as proof of his mission among the Israelites. Those they did not ignorant, they were recognized by this sign of truth of the message. How is it however they want to Moses the name of God who sent him as if they know saient-point? The observation of Mr. Kuenen seems to resolve this contradiction. A small circle of insiders had the sacred name, he was one of their secret teachings and Moses, as the vulgar had not learned. God, as a mark of his vocation, he reveals direct, and now that name is no longer a mystery to anyone. We have here, from this ancient, an example of the normal evolution of Judaism, which is to publish what was originally written in veiled and successively writing what at first was transmitted orally. If opponents of the Kabbalah are willing to pay attention, they will be convinced that Judaism, whether we agree to see him as a divine character, whether we put the same level as other eastern religions, is Anyway something more and better than the inadequate theism which they claim to arbitrarily limit. [2]

The critical rationalist, disputing the monotheism of the Hebrews and assuming the other a historical basis to the story of their sojourn in Egypt, did not notice somehow they refute their own claims. Egyptology in fact established beyond a doubt that the ancient Egyptians came to the design of universal unity, or, in the direction of theism, or in the direction of pantheism. It is not short either, we have seen, whenever we see an analogy between the Jewish religion and Egyptian religion, to report to a loan made by the former to the latter and we said how we hear it. In the presence of such facts, is it possible to deny the significance we attach to it with the Tetragrammaton in ancient Jewish presence in the purest monotheism, except as revealed doctrine or belief that they possessed specific, at least as loan is the Egyptian mysteries? It would follow the approach taken elsewhere and we avoid a contradiction that gives the appearance of a lack of impartiality or critical.

We will post yet another proof that the name of God among the Hebrews meant much the same Being, the One God, and denied by the mere assertion possibility of polytheism: the hatred more or less deaf than the pagans ate against them. They regarded Israel as a nation quite separate and Israel, meanwhile, boasted of being so treated. This idea goes back to the earliest period of Jewish history and it tells us more of a fact of this story. What was the cause of this aversion of the Gentiles? Is it because the Jews worshiped only one national god, rejected any foreign god and professed a strict sum monolatry? There might not be sufficient grounds to justify the antipathy which they were subjected because the system does not monolatry denial of the existence of other gods, but rather the realization of these gods and the legitimacy of their power over the nations who worshiped them. But it is not the same if the religion of Israel was the true monotheism. A gulf separated so that people of all others, and he was really their natural enemy simply by denying the existence of their gods, while the Gentiles, although differing among themselves on the choice of gods to worship, nevertheless agreed to the concept of polytheism and admitted the right of each [3] country to have their particular gods. The name that God gave the Jews was thus a profession of faith which, in fact, separated from the Gentiles and the distance that it felt for them was caused, not the diversity of laws and customs, but an essential difference in religious views. Without doubt the biblical requirements reflect a clear intent to isolate the Jews from all other peoples, but because of preservation can not be explained so far as he was back some great principle that the contact of Pagan would compromise and this principle could be that monotheism. He is the sacred Tetragrammaton reveals it is he who is the foundation of all Mosaic legislation he enters his mind.

We find monotheism into the feeling of nationality. Many awards are indeed rabbinical unity of God in close correlation with the unity of Israel. What to say except that it appeared as the result of that one, in that laws designed to separate Israel from other nations and to maintain its special character had absolutely ultimate aim is to preserve monotheism which this people had only the deposit? And Moses said unto Balaam is speaking of the Hebrews: "They are a people who share his home in which no part of nations' [4], and in another passage he says himself: "Today you have a promise from the Lord (Tetragrammaton) it will be your God ... and now the Lord has made you promise that you will be his chosen people "[5]

Before concluding this chapter on the Tetragrammaton, creed and abbreviated sublime unity of God, we should like to recall here the services that this dogma has rendered to science. Doubtless we are not of those who contemplate the dogmatic propositions, even more important that the utility side, so that the only value beliefs should be sought in the moral and social benefits that flow from it. If that Judaism is a Judaism of mind very mercantile. But if the practical is not the sole rationale, nor the ultimate goal of knowing the truth, he at least is the natural consequence. We quote the words of a scientist who [6] reported in the monotheistic faith powerful factor for study and worship of truth and justice rendered thereby in Israel, the guardian of secular dogma: "The idea of a God who tolerates his side is none other God, which no longer appears as a human drama surrounded by fables unworthy, but as the Supreme Being and absolute claims for himself all the aspirations legal rights, and discovers that omniscience to punish any transgression, the idea of God transmitted for centuries from generation to generation, has finally reacted to the science itself and the human mind is accustomed to designing a single reason of things and ignited in him the desire to know the reason "[7]

It is quite correct to emphasize the unity of science is based on the unity of God, but we may add that the idea of science, and therefore the very notion of truth, no other basis. The scientific truth and absolute, which is when an 'act of science, presuppose the ontological absolute, absolute in itself, that is to say, the one God, for the absolute, c 'is the perfect unit and it may be something else. Polytheism is contrary to that relativism in religion of relativism in the field of science, we might as well call a sort of polytheism scientific. So many truths that different mentalities, as many gods as worshipers.

In front of the learned that we have cited, it is curious place of another author who seems to lead to diametrically opposed conclusions. "In Hindu pantheism and shirk Greek writing Morselli we have the most beautiful creations of the epic, as well as nature worship that never die out in the Aryan We are indebted the rehabilitation of the material that made possible the triumphs of modern science "[8]. We condemn these sanctions also contain statements that, in our opinion, an element of truth. Exclusive monotheism supports the concept of a single truth and thus the cult of science, but it does not develop the feeling of nature to the same extent as pantheism or polytheism. If you want to get faith in absolute truth, a prerequisite for believing in the real value of science, together we will touch the love, the cult [9] of the nature, belief in God is transcendent, that of Tetragrammaton, as well as belief in immanent God, the Divine Presence in the world (Shekina), both reconciled with the doctrine of emanation, ie the one true God that does not limit the time or space, present in the reality of things and surpass the greatness of the infinite. That is, we will not tire of repeating the full faith of Judaism. [10]

References

  1. Page 92
  2. Page 93
  3. Page 94
  4. Numbers, XXIII, 9.
  5. Deuteronomy xxvi, 17,18.
  6. page 95
  7. Mr DUBOIS RAYMOND in Scientific Review , January 19, 1878, p.676.
  8. Nuova Antologia Italiana , June 1880, p.125
  9. Page 96
  10. Page 97