Israel and Humanity - International Law in Judaism

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III.

International Law from Judaism.

The concept of nationality is not a mere Hebraism for philosophical or theological, it is a feeling which has vivacity, we believe, no need to be demonstrated. Instead, it is so obvious and so ardent that rival religions and [1] independent criticism in turn have accused many times of being too exclusive. What we did not sufficiently noticed, however, is that this feeling is never separated from the Jews of that of humanity. This idea of an anthropologist learned that the development of mankind in different nationalities will hasten the general upgrading of the human race is authentically Jewish.

Moreover, the mere fact of Judaism have been if not a nationality in itself, at least the founder, organizer, the raison d'être of a nation, already shows the value that this feeling must have in his eyes. His most cherished beliefs solemnly recognize the sacred right of peoples. Do proclaims he not divine providence exercised indiscriminately on all sections of humanity, that God is the Judge of all nations as well as individuals and they perish by their own fault, that equal justice governs Israel and other nations that any attack against national independence is a crime that the Supreme Judge punishes because he is the redeemer of Israel, it also boasts of being the savior of any oppressed nation and that if he defends his people against the attacks of his enemies, He also prescribed to respect the borders of other states? There is no doubt in all these doctrines the foundation and consecration of international law.

If the existence of patriotic feeling among the Jews is so obvious that it would be superfluous to elaborate more on this subject, it should, however, analyze and seek out the elements. It's hard to believe that one can find in one of the oldest documents of the book of Genesis the basic concept of citizenship with its conditions of realization and it all fits perfectly with what ethnology and sociology teach us today, yet it is so. After listing the descendants of Noah says the sacred text, with a clear insistence Japheth: "By these were the isles of the nations according to their land, by language of each, their families, according their nations' [2] and the children of Ham and Shem: "This is the son of Ham, those are the son of Shem according to their families, their languages, according their countries, their nations' [3] This [4] is not there a formula insignificant. We find this passage in the presentation of the three elements that are necessarily a nation: race, language, homeland, the first two being based on physical or moral nature of man, while the third is the result of the human work and the culmination of two others. This device even more clearly in this passage of the Song of Moses: "When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided the children of men, he fixed the boundaries of peoples [5] ". Raschi the comments, saying: "When God divided the land among the people he gave to each nation separately from distinct borders, so that she could no longer be confused with others."

It seems that this text suggests quite clearly that the separation and dispersal of peoples took place precisely for the formation of nationalities. Therefore when God told the first man: "Fill the earth and subdue it, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth," the distinction of nations was already included in the original design of the Creator and would necessarily result from the completion of this duty imposed on man and the fulfillment of divine promises, because the differences in climates, different physical conditions could not fail to produce varieties of the human type. Our globe, was in fact used to serve humanity as bodies to souls, as they will determine their diversity and specific character, physiology of temperament and their relationships with the world. Paul in his speech to the Athenians, echoed the doctrines of Judaism, when he says: "God has willed that all men out of one blood to dwell on all the surface of the earth, who determines the length of time and the bounds of their dwellings [6] ".


References

  1. Page 392
  2. Genesis, X, 5
  3. Ibid., X 20, 31.
  4. Page 393
  5. Deuteronomy, XXXII, 8.
  6. Acts XVII, 26