thought, however : "Next year, she will go where I tell her; she shall not be so foolish again; she shall go where I tell her; to bring back a few miserable kopecks; the old fool!" All this while he swayed in harmony with his
neighbors, smote his breast as actively as they did, and managed to keep up with them in praying. But his thoughts were of his wife's miserable mistake.
LOUIS LIPSKY.
[Adapted]
Spiritual Zionism
SPIRITUALITY. That is the keynote of Judaism and all Zionism that is not in harmony therewith is unreal Zionism.
Earnestly, passionately, I desire the realization of our battle-cry, our heart-cry, “Palestine for the Jews.” In one of my first contributions to the “American Hebrew” nearly twenty-five years ago, entitled “Settling the Eastern Question,” I pictured England, France, Germany. Russia, Austria, America, etc.,—the great nations, settling it by assigning Palestine to the Hebrews. In my last publication in bookform, I picture the great religions pleading for the possession of Palestine, and the decision of the tribunal is, “Give Palestine to the Hebrews.” And in many a contribution, notably to the “North American Review,” I have insisted on “Palestine for the Jews.”
But never will I be content with the realization of.my dream, my hope, my belief, unless ‘‘ Palestine for the Jews’’ means not simply the erection of a Jewish state, but the creation of a spiritual centre for all mankind, a source of spiritual inspiration for Jewish communities throughout the world, so that Palestine shall be for all men a gateway to God, and for Hebrews the bond of union, the impelling force that makes after ideals, the compelling force which will make Hebrew Conduct their realization and therefore the pattern for personal, home, social and civic life for all men of all nations.
Spiritual Zionism, my Zionism, and O reader, surely your Zionism, means this : — "To make known on earth Thy ways, to make known Thy salvation in all nations. The peoples, O God, shall praise Thee. The peoples all of them shall praise Thee. . . . All the ends of the earth shall reverence Him."
And to this end, to bring God into man's daily life, Zionism should, I contend, work. In the very forefront of Zionist effort,
this, I maintain, should always be By speech, by act, every Zionist true to real Zionism, should, I assert, labor to help to bring about this spiritual- ization, not of the Jew only, but of the world at large.
I can conceive of no raison d'etre for the Jew on the stage of history except to exercise spiritual influence, to lead men to God, that their thoughts shall be Himward, their characters patterned after the pattern God sets us in the Holy Book, that our lives shall be consecrated by a consciousness of the Fatherhood of God, of our nearness to Him, and of His nearness to us! "Bring God into human life"—that is Zionism. And I would reason it thus :
I. Is not the consciousness of God in our lives, as “a very present help in time of trouble,” the One to whom we are bidden “to look and be saved,” “the God of the spirits of all Flesh” and therefore our God in after-life and to whose all-sufficient keeping our departed loved ones are consigned — is not the consciousness of such a God in our lives a source of supreme happiness?
II Was not the first message to our nation,"Be a blessing"? What blessing can we carryor have we carried to the families of earth who,saith Holy Writ, are to be blessed through us?It does not, cannot mean material blessings, norgold, nor government, nor fine arts, nor science.These do not constitute true happiness.Individual, isolated Hebrews have truly contributed to all these. But as a nation or race,we have carried to the world spiritual blessings,— the Law which is more precious than go'd;the government of human passions; the finer artswhich aim less at natural beauty than at spiritual beauty, beauty of character, beauty of life;the science of utilizing the laws of Nature's Godfor the development of human nature, for theconstruction and operation of personal, publicand national life. These do constitute true happiness.. These do constitute a blessing, the