Israel and Humanity - The assimilation theory

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III.

The theory of assimilation.

We said that in the spirit of Judaism all pagan deities are a residue of a conception of God's oldest and most complete. We now show that the idea of God in Israel is the synthesis of all the others.

We know the important doctrine of the Theosophical birour choice, separation, after which Israel would be responsible, in all places and all times of dispersion, to sort truth from falsehood, sacred from the profane, and that is what is impure. It denies the attacks of rationalist criticism about what they call foreign imports, Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Greek or Roman, in Judaism. These imports in what they have undeniably become the point of view of this doctrine, perfectly legitimate and orthodox. Indeed, they were considered such, long before the negative criticism has felt the need for this theory, which proves that it is not an expedient controversy, but one of the fundamental data of the kabbalistic theology. Recognize this is to recognize same time as the God of Israel is the [1], the synthesis of all the others. It is not only in the sense that the original idea gave birth to all religious distinctions, which responds to the development analytical and deductive, but also in the sense that this idea is being formed in a manner more and more richer and more conscious by the work of time and the power of criticism and assimilation attributed to Israel, which responds to changes in synthetic and inductive.

It is a great mistake if we assume that theosophical doctrine of assimilation has no foundation in Judaism outside of the Kabbalah, we have already had occasion to cite evidence to the contrary from the oldest documents, including the episode of Moses and Jethro. This assimilation was to be effected by natural law of affinity, in a spontaneous and impersonal, a kind of action and reaction where the mysterious human will had nothing to do and ran only the divine wisdom. [2] Any thoughtful mind will have already noticed that this understanding of the influence of other religions Judaism does not diminish the originality of it and its autonomy. On the contrary there is no other way to realize also indisputable facts and save the integrity of the Hebrew genius and immutability of the Mosaic revelation.

An organization needs to live to assimilate foreign elements and it is strengthened even more as they become incorporated in it more. We therefore no exaggeration to say that religion is higher must be able to adopt whatever is good in others and we can not therefore believe that Judaism holds the preeminent place, but also admit that it has the highest degree the faculty of assimilation.

Modern criticism recognizes the religious law of mutual penetration. "The most radical revolutions," says Reville, belong to the past by the close and numerous. A religion can be transformed, even appropriating heterogeneous elements without breaking with its fundamental principle and therefore without losing its identity. " Elsewhere he adds: "We obviously can assimilate the influence of Persia on Judaism that a warmer atmosphere, led by a current of air over a land already planted and hastening the development of plants has been out of the ground, but these plants existed already. And it confirms our assertion about how to judge the strength of a doctrine from its ability to assimilate, saying: "In the moral world as in the physical world, there is virtually a law of gravitation is that the doctrines more powerful they attract and retain the scattered and less consistent floating doctrines "[3]

It is not up to how this takes place assimilation, that critics fail to recognize consistent with that we describe. "It should not, says the same author, imagine what kind of loan as thoughtful and calculated. The aristocratic sense of the Jew would have revolted at the idea that he earned to comply with foreign customs. It is through indirect action that often unconscious habits and new beliefs could seep in some Jews, thus acquiring a kind of naturalization [4] and finally take root in the majority as a plant thrust spontaneously "[5]

Some writers finding a considerable degree the faculty of assimilation into Christianity and Catholicism in particular, wanted to see a proof of the superiority of this religion. They do not realize that the distinction between what is to reject or accept contributions from other religions, it is a natural criterion can be provided only by a higher power, a revelation or an intimate instinct race eminently religious. - In addition to the quality found in some extent in Christianity have been inherited from Judaism, it is reasonable to believe that it possesses a much more complete and that no one is not withdrawn, at any time in its history, in favor of a new religion that we know besides him being unfaithful in so many ways.

It is useful to stress here the doctrine of assimilation, as it helps us understand how the God of Israel has been called the God of gods without this phrase in any way jeopardize the Mosaic monotheism.

References

  1. Eloh-ha-Elohim
  2. Page 162
  3. Revue des Deux Mondes, May 1875.
  4. Page 163
  5. Ibid., p. 135.