J ���'

VOL XLVI
GARDENVALE, QUEBEC, SEPTEMBER 4, 1964 � ELUL, 27, 5724
No. 49
5725-YEAR PRELUDE TO TODAY
Rosh Hoshonoh, the New Year, when the completed Torah was first presented to the Israelites, having been finished about 500 B.C.E., 'as the work of priestly writers, must have been a formal occasion, indeed, as its purpose was to give the book of the Law of Moses a public reading for acceptance. Of this event, among the greatest in the history of the Jews, the Book of Nehe-miah gives this account:
"And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in their cities, all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the broad place that was before the water gate; and they spoke unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the Law before the congregation, both men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the broad place that was before the water gate from early morning to until midday . . . and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the Law. And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose . . . And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and when he opened it, all the people stood up. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered: 'Amen, Amen', with the lifting up of their hands; and they bowed their heads, and fell down before the Lord with their faces to the ground; . . . even the Levites caused the people to understand the Law; and the people stood in their place. And they read in the book, in the Law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading."
Because of the priestly writers the Jews became the first people in history to be able to read and write. Because the writers were afraid that the religion of the prophets might be lost, they set it down so that the teachings would live on, and the Jews became the first people to establish the imperative necessity of universal education.
It began with the custom of enlightening wherever people were gathered; of reading, teaching, explaining, discussing, listening, on market days, for example, in the outdoors, when men from the farms came to the city. Hebrew had to be translated into Aramaic; later into Greek and that translation helped to spread the knowledge of Judaism, and later Christianity, through the New Testament which was written in Greek, largely by Jews. The dramatic function which the priestly writers performed grew out of their anxiety to have the Torah understood and read.
It came to pass that, at an ancient time when few people learned to read, all male Jews had to be able to read the Torah and to be tested in public for their own understanding of the laws, and acceptance of them. They learned the meaning of democracy that way, and became its first adherents; and natural stumbling blocks before many advances of tyranny. They became readers, and intellectuals out of what began as religious education.
The new ideas of the Jews really were new. Before them there was no conception In the ancient world of a One God for all peoples, not just for the Jews, who were chosen to interpret; over and above all and everything.
Called to the first formal Reading of the Law they heard new things, not only the menTout also the women; ideas about what was right and what was wrong in the sight of God; about the responsibility of each person for his fellow-men; about a new element of a gentle nature in the relationship between men and women, a fostering care, and protectiveness.
The towering idea of a God of rectitude and justice came to the Jews when the ancients were making their own gods and the Jews were forbidden to create graven images, according to the Law.
While th^'^rophets of Israel condemned sacrifices and burnt offerings they were alone in ancient literature. All their God required of the people was ethical conduct, to espouse justice, give help to the helpless and heavy burdened, an unheard of demand. The source of their moral law was God and their code was severe. The institution of sacrifices was easier.
Not all money was the same: "The hire of a harlot or the wages of a 'dog1 " were "an abomination not to be brought into the house of the Lord your God."
The Jews were alone in the ancient world in the purity of family life. When Plato was advocating that women should be common property there was nothing new about his proposal. It was established theory in his world. Meantime, the Jews were deeply concerned with family life, the teaching of their children, the purity of life at the other extreme from the life of the Romans and Greeks.
The life of the heathen was marked by coarseness, unclean speech, revolting sex practices, the absence of modesty, the low standards, the lack of discipline in conduct, the prevalence of vice, the obvious presence of dregs, whatever was obscene, unseemly, and unbecoming, without any regard for reverence for life.
When a Jewish mother of today warns "That's not nice" she is reaching back across the centuries along which Jewish behavior was charted with relentless precision. Rabbi Meir of Ro-tenberg said in the twelfth century in Germany: "Unlike other peoples the Jews are not accustomed to beating their wives." If the Jews had been accustomed to beating their wives their homes would not have been a good place to bring up children in or to assure that the Hebraic Code, upon which the laws of all civilization are based, would be kept alive generation after generation.
What was praiseworthy and what was deplorable was always well understood by the Jews on the basis of biblical teaching, and lapses of conduct that were considered foreign to Jewish ways were denounced as disgraceful and got stern and swift censure. It was not enough for a Jew to be just as good as anybody else. He had to be much better, he had to have spiritual stamina, and he had to resist habits and vices which would weaken his people and drag them down. His conduct was not excused by the styles of the times but was charged up to the influence of the worst in the general environment which he, poor devil, was so weak as to copy instead of taking the best
How about today? Anything wrong? Is it a time for some exacting New Year resolutions?                                           tic.