The Maccabaean

THE purpose of this lecture is to invite you to think with me for a little while about one of the most important problems of Judaism and to examine the different ways in which the solution of this problem has been attempted. To divert you from practical work, and take up your time with abstract speculations, may seem inopportune in a country like this where time is money, and money is the standard by which time is valued—doubly inopportune with a society like yours, which is “endeavoring” in the cause of Judaism, and may possibly object to let its healthy hue of resolution be sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought. It is true, the strong inclination towards theorizing and philosophizing with which the Jew of old was often charged frequently hampered the active life of the Jews. But the lack of theory characterizing the modern Jew has certainly had by far more disastrous results. It is only owing to this want of a sound theoretic basis that our activity is without plan and policy, that our development lacks steadiness and system, that our enthusiasm consumes itself like a straw fire, and that our energy is wasted in single, disconnected actions, born of the moment and lasting for the moment. The Jewry of to-day is like a ship without a captain and without a course, whose direction is determined not by her propelling force from within, but by the whims of the weather from without. Winds and waves toss her whithersoever they like, and a few sunbeams are apt to stop her motion altogether. The passen-

gers, however, are not expected to concern themselves with the course of the ship. But the officers, who have the management of the vessel, are bound to be clear about her course and to pursue it. Let the mass of the people satisfy its desire for activity in noisy little doings which bear no result. You, the intelligent representatives of the people, you have to seek the unifying idea behind the variegated multitude of single actions. Let us therefore leave for a moment the valley with its embarrassing, often meaningless, details, and ascend the lofty height, which will grant us an outlook over the whole. Having surveyed and ascertained our position, we shall descend and resume our practical work with greater enthusiasm, but also with greater steadiness and therefore with greater results.

I said before, the problem we have to consider to-night is one of the most important Jewish problems. To be more correct I have to add that it is the Jewish problem par excellence, all the other innumerable problems of Judaism being but direct or indirect consequences from it. It is the problem which touches the very root of our national existence, the problem—to put it in the words of an ancient Judæophobe—of “a nation dispersed and divided,” or—to express it in the words of a modern Judæophile—the problem of “Israel among the nations.” The existence of the Jews in the “Golus,” in the dispersion, scattered over all the countries of the world, and having no