VIEWS AND REVIEWS
"THE POLITICAL IDEAL OF THE PROPHETS."
Prof. Israel Friedlaender has just published in pamphlet form his splendid lecture, which was delivered a year ago before the Jewish Theological Seminary on "The Political Ideal of the Prophets." With characteristic insight and sympathy, Dr. Friedlaender analyses and describes the ideals of the Jewish prophets, and shows how our leaders of old were animated by the great overwhelming passion for social justice and righteousness. The writer or lecturer presents the prophets not only as great idealists but also as men of a practical interest in every-day life, whose desire it was to identify themselves with all the struggles of their people and to help them in their striving for a higher life. The lecture is replete with passages from the Bible illustrating the writer's theme and there are throughout many suggestive examples and explanations given, which, combined with the clear and simple style of the noted teacher and thinker, makes this pamphlet an important contribution to the literature of the subject. Describing the character of the prophets, Dr. Friedlaender says:
"The prophets of our people had little sympathy with those who proclaimed, my kingdom is not of this world and believed that the problems and perplexities of humanity could be solved by fleeing into the desert. The prophets were neither visionaries nor hermits. To them the kingdom of Heaven was a kingdom on earth and the calling of preachers in the desert was essentially distasteful. Their place was in the midst of their people and even the high-strung prophets, who in a moment of despair longed for a lodging place in the
wilderness to leave his people and to go from them, clung to his nation in all the crushing disasters that befell it.
"And the higher prophecy rises, the loftier its aspirations, the more human becomes its appearance, the readier does it discard all external characteristics: the distinction of the class, the mannerisms of the school, the cant of the profession. The true prophet even resents the title of a prophet, and he bitterly scorns the professional 'men of God' who ostentatiously display the hair mantle of prophecy in order to cheat. The true prophet is a ben Adam, a "son of man" in the best human sense of the word: he is an affectionate husband, a loving father, a loyal citizen, a self-sacrificing patriot. But, while in external life in nothing distinguished from his fellowmen, the fountain from which his life springs is essentially and fundamentally different—for his soul is full of the spirit of God and the Divine word is shut up in his bones, as a scorching fire, not that flickering harmless flame which lights the hearth, but that raging fire of God which splitteth the rock. For while human and humane as long as the interest of man are concerned, the prophet becomes implacable and inhuman when these interests clash with those of God. The prophet is a man of reality. He is uncompromising, pitiless and regardless, ready to sacrifice everything and everybody, including himself; when his convictions are at stake. And while an obedient member of society when the latter in turn is obedient to his ideals, he fearlessly challenges society when it refuses to conform to his standards, and, with love of humanity in his heart, becomes a man of strife and a man of struggle to the whole earth. It is this dualism, this con-