Israel and Humanity - Jewish conception of social life
VI.
Jewish conception of social life.
It remains to consider what idea the Jews had of social life and its purpose because it is obvious that this issue is closely linked to political sovereignty.
"In the ideas of ancient philosophers, says Maury, institutions of government should be less in order to settle and defend the interests that lead people to virtue ... Once we accept that a government regulation that is of interest, it is natural to call directly or through representative all concerned, but the moment the government is viewed as a means of education, absolute form or aristocratic must prevail. The only good, as Socrates said may have in hand the helm. Plato argues that it is therefore a small number of men and in some cases in which one should entrust the government.[1] ". For Aristotle, political sovereignty is, of course, and in a manner superior to any law in the family or the individual who surpasses the others by his virtue. This man or this family has a kind of divinity among men. That is what Scripture wanted to say honoring the judges, the great and holy name of gods [2] and what the rabbis have told their side in so many ways about the superiority of men of learning and sanctity against the vulgar [3] what they have been so strongly criticized. [4] This is the only true divine right, although the supporters of absolute power for one have seen this done in a consecration of their theory. Bossuet wrote that it's great that the Scripture speaks when she says: "You are gods". In a sense this is not entirely false, since the absolute power itself, especially if it's the general consent is the law.
Nevertheless, virtue and interest thus appear as the two supreme principles of government, first in antiquity and the second in modern times. What is the view of Judaism in this serious debate? Two salient characteristics of its economy intimate, as reflected in the Scriptures, will give us the solution of this issue. On the one hand, Judaism is distinguished by the morals of citizens is that she has constantly in view and in this respect was due to see him as a true theocracy. Spiritual perfection, religious if you will, is the raison d'être of institutions at the same time as the final goal it pursues [5]. On the other side, like a strange contradiction, there is nothing in it, nothing at least in its political constitution, which goes beyond this world and is anything but the material interests and the same individual: longevity and posterity in numbers, wealth, power and fame, these are the main if not the only rewards he promises loyalty of his followers. If we merely superficially examine its doctrines, it would even then the goal to which all means that would tend implements, including the spiritual perfection he preaches incessantly. The tangible results once obtained, it does not appear that its aspirations extend further. Is this really his last word and subordination, even saying this bondage of spiritual elements to material interests, sometimes the most vulgar, they represent well the bottom of his mind? The answer to this question can be as much reason with positive or negative depending on the point of view one takes, depending on whether one considers only Moses as legislator of the Hebrews with the books constituting the national code of Israel, or as successor patriarchs and reveals the individual law with Tradition which is the main body. [6] This caveat, although we admit that what matters above all in our present study is the first of these aspects. There is no doubt that in this respect then the public interest is the real purpose of the legislation, spirituality is a means. Does this mean that the best interests of human beings are reduced to the level of inferior things? Well if he sacrificed to the useful and what has eternal value would disappear before it which is only temporarily important? And if this Moses, revealing and prophet, who pronounce the forfeiture of all that humanity looks like the most valuable? God forbid! What's hidden in there, then this blatant contradiction in this coverage of things spiritual to things temporal characteristic in the Pentateuch? A simple truth, but also crucial. Because in political society, the good, moral perfection should be made into law to the extent where they contribute to the well-being of the community. The goal that spirituality should be there preordained can not extend beyond this world, precisely because the political society, unlike the destiny of the human soul, has no other existence than that of here below. Thus the state must protect its legal sanctions under that so that they are necessary for the preservation of society. This does not, moreover, that these rules generally have storage, too, a higher purpose, in that they are always for the individual the most effective way to reach its own perfection.
There is no doubt that the other individual perfection does not react in turn on the status of the company by increasing its strength and its means of action, so that a reciprocal influence society and the individual is lend each other a constant cooperation, however footprint in each of them a peculiar character is by his morality for the individual is useful to the society and the well-being that offers him the Society benefits to the individual. Obviously we are talking here in general terms and that we do not deny that society can influence the morality of its members, or that they do not work too well-being of society . The two great principles of government, virtue and interest, in turn play the dual role of middle and end, virtue, which is an end for the individual, seen as a means with regard to society, and interest, [7] which is the end of the company, is a means for the individual. That is how the two characters of Judaism apparently incompatible, highly spiritual and materialism are the most shocking that the two parts of a system under which both sides must consider the social life, the interest being on the one hand, the end and limit of political action and virtue to be considered, on the other hand, as the rule of conduct and the end of the individual. The interest by virtue and virtue by interest, this is the formula of purposive social life.
It can not we be allowed to dream of a higher synthesis and still aspire to unity. And first, with consideration under a certain direction, one can not deny that it is an interest of a more noble nature without doubt, but still a genuine interest and the interest itself , if only because it is the satisfaction of a legitimate need, is that the performance of a duty to ourselves, an improvement of our nature, that is still a virtue, although a lower order. Moreover, if we leave the sphere of these two ideas to put us at a higher point of view, we understand that these two principles are based themselves in a third, who embraces both or which, if one prefers, serves as their last end, we speak of the universal order, against which the virtue is a means or at least the subjective side of the issue.
Here we reach the most sublime doctrines of Jewish theosophy tells us that in the realm of the divine in the world in the universal order, and true ultimate end of human endeavor, joining the ever-ideal to the real the Logos to Cosmos, the Creator of all created or, as the Kabbalistic formula "the Holy One, blessed be He, his Shekina [8]
This universal order in which the order of the city is an image and a partial realization stands not only as the latter, by means of civil and political institutions, but the whole work of man, moral , religious, liturgical, even ascetic, for the social, scientific and artistic, both by faith than by reason, it leads us to the confines of human knowledge indefinitely remote, [9] it is throwing our work beyond the imaginable limits until last in the unknowable.
We see how Judaism, by its inner organization and the doctrines he has done for his own account of the application, provides humanity with valuable insights into the principles that should govern the relationship between religion and state . Perhaps also consider there be with us after everything we have stated, that in the conflict between Church and civil society now shakes the nations of the West, they, as in crisis Christian dogma would have an incentive to set aside their prejudices and look, back to the source of their culture and beliefs, which solution was previously proposed by Hebraism in these serious issues. [10]
