14 research outputs found
The Bene Israel of India: Politics, Religion, and Systemic Change
No full textThis dissertation will present a partial analysis of the history, religious tradition and change, social life, and political status of the Bene Israel. The other two communities will be described only insofar as their activities have influenced the cultural evolution of the Bene Israel. Narrowing the focus even further, this is a description of the Bene Israel in Bombay. Although there are smaller communities of Bene Israel outside Bombay, they have been omitted because they are not representative of the community. In both New Delhi and Poona, this author was told that to understand what has happened to the Bene Israel, he must study in Bombay
Polifonia i wielość prawd, „The Walled City” Esthery David, tożsamość i inność kobiet indyjskich
No full textIn “The Walled City”, Esther David tells the story of three generations of women from
the Bene Israel. The author, who belongs to this Indian Jewish community, lives in city of
Ahmedabad, which was fortified in the fifteenth century. Esther David animates a constant dialogue
between Jewish and Indian tradition, self and other, masculine and feminine, between the
universal and the particular. Esther David’s books, in particular “The Walled City”, emphasize that
the meeting of cultures, in all its complexity, is an asset that does not threaten identity but reveals
the otherness of self and others.„Miasto murem otoczone” Esthery David opowiada historię trzech pokoleń kobiet
z Bene Israel. Należąca do tej indyjsko-żydowskiej wspólnoty autorka mieszka w Ahmedabad,
mieście zbudowanym w XV wieku. Prowadzi ciągły dialog pomiędzy: tradycją żydowską i indyjską,
własną osobą a innymi, tym co męskie i tym co żeńskie, tym co uniwersalne i tym co specyficzne.
Jej książki, a zwłaszcza „Miasto murem otoczone”, podkreślają, że spotkanie kultur, w całej
swej złożoności, jest zjawiskiem wartościowym, które nie zagraża tożsamości, lecz pozwala
odkryć różnice pomiędzy sobą a innymi
Polifonia i wielość prawd, The Walled City Esthery David, tożsamość i inność kobiet indyjskich
No full textIn The Walled City, Esther David tells the story of three generations of women from the Bene Israel. The author, who belongs to this Indian Jewish community, lives in city of Ahmedabad, which was fortified in the fifteenth century. Esther David animates a constant dialogue between Jewish and Indian tradition, self and other, masculine and feminine, between the universal and the particular. Esther David’s books, in particular The Walled City, emphasize that the meeting of cultures, in all its complexity, is an asset that does not threaten identity but reveals the otherness of self and others.Miasto murem otoczone Esthery David opowiada historię trzech pokoleń kobiet z Bene Israel. Należąca do tej indyjsko-żydowskiej wspólnoty autorka mieszka w Ahmedabad, mieście zbudowanym w XV wieku. Prowadzi ciągły dialog pomiędzy: tradycją żydowską i indyjską, własną osobą a innymi, tym co męskie i tym co żeńskie, tym co uniwersalne i tym co specyficzne. Jej książki, a zwłaszcza Miasto murem otoczone, podkreślają, że spotkanie kultur, w całej swej złożoności, jest zjawiskiem wartościowym, które nie zagraża tożsamości, lecz pozwala odkryć różnice pomiędzy sobą a innymi
Polifonia i wielosc prawd, The Walled City Esthery David: tozsamosc i innosc kobiet indyjskich "
No full textInternational audienceIn The Walled City, Esther David tells the story of three generations of women from the Bene Israel. The author, who belongs to this Indian Jewish community, lives in city of Ahmedabad, which was fortified in the fifteenth century. Esther David animates a constant dialogue between Jewish and Indian tradition, self and other, masculine and feminine, between the universal and the particular. Esther David's books, in particular The Walled City, emphasize that the meeting of cultures, in all its complexity, is an asset that does not threaten identity but reveals the otherness of self and others. KEYWORDS – Esther David, The Walled City, polyphony, Indian Jewish communityMiasto murem otoczone Esthery David opowiada historie trzech pokolen kobietz Bene Israel. Nalezaca do tej indyjsko-zydowskiej wspólnoty autorka mieszka w Ahmedabad,miescie zbudowanym w XV wieku. Prowadzi ciagły dialog pomiedzy: tradycja zydowska i indyjska,własna osoba a innymi, tym co meskie i tym co zeskie, tym co uniwersalne i tym co specyficzne.Jej książki, a zwłaszcza Miasto murem otoczone, podkreślają, że spotkanie kultur, w całejswej złożoności, jest zjawiskiem wartościowym, które nie zagraża tożsamości, lecz pozwalaodkryć różnice pomiędzy sobą a innymi
Solis-Cohen family papers, 1808-1990.
No full textCorrespondence, diaries, acount books, pamphlets, and other personal and professional materials pertaining to Jacob da Silva Solis and his descendents.Contains the research notes and correspondence for genealogical studies of the Cardozo, Etting, Menken, Nathan, Nones, Peixotto, and Solis families. Includes a list of Jewish officers and men who served in the Revolutionary War, from the state of New Jersey. Contains also a letter to a member of the Solis family written by Joseph H. Hertz in 1893.Contains personal correspondence and two unsigned typescripts on Christianity and Jewish suffering and on socialism; also a memorial tribute by William M. Bunn.The collection consists of the following material: 1) a calendar, for the years 1807-1852, of the major Jewish holidays, as well as a chart indicating the hour Sabbath begins; 2) a letter of solicitation, authorizing Solis to collect funds for Cong. Bene Israel, Cincinnati (1829); 3) two letters from Manis Jacobs (1828 & 1829), president of Shaare Chesed Congregation (Gates of Mercy) of New Orleans, to Solis, informing him of various congregational occurrences; 4) a letter to Charity Hays Solis from Shaare Chesed Congregation, expressing their condolences on the death of Jacob Solis (1930); and 5) a signature of Solis, detached from a letter.Primarily material relating to the School of the Parents' Education Association in Jerusalem and the American Committee working on behalf of the School; includes correspondence with Deborah Kallen, founder and principal of the School, published material relating to the work of the School and the financial records, reports and minute-books, etc. of the American Committee. In addition there is correspondence with Sophie Udin concerning the Hebrew University Library and mniscellaneous letters to and from Henrietta Szold, Stephen S. Wise, John Haynes Holmes, Julian Mack, and Horace Kallen.Primarily correspondence with national Jewish institutions in the United States and Palestine, including the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Zionist Organization of America, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and material relating to German refugees during the Hitler period and even in Palestine.Death certificate, for city of Philadelphia, signed by J. Solis-Cohen.Gift of Ann Solis-Cohen Rosenthal and Charles Rosenthal,Gift, in part, of Solomon Solis-Cohen, 1900.Jacob da Silva Solis-Cohen, surgeon, pioneer in laryngology.Gift of Eleanor and Morris Soble.far031
Seeking Shalom in the Old Eighth Ward: With Biographies of Rabbi Dr. Nachman Heller and Rabbi Eliezer Silver Website
No full textThe Old Eighth Ward was the center of Harrisburg’s Litvak–or Lithuanian Jewish–community prior to the Capitol expansion. While an older German Jewish population was already thriving in the city, the newly arriving Litvak found it difficult to integrate with the pre-existing community. Two synagogues were therefore founded in the ward, Kesher Israel and Chisuk Emuna. The presence of both of these congregations serves not only as a testament to the vibrancy of the Jewish community, but also the diversity among these co-religionists.
Chisuk Emuna–originally named “Chiska Emuna bene Russia,” meaning “Strengtheners of Faith of the Children of Russia”–was the first Jewish congregation formed in the Old Eighth Ward by the Litvak fleeing persecution in Russia. These refugees and freedom seekers hailed from just a few towns in Lithuania (which at this time was a part of the Russian empire) and thus were culturally, linguistically, and religiously tight-knit. As such, Chisuk Emuna represented and served a very specific Lithuanian Jewish culture. The congregation was more than a place of worship for Jewish people, it also served to hold the community together as they adjusted to life in a new city where they did not speak the language, eat the same foods, or celebrate the same holidays. Moreover, the synagogue provided culturally appropriate “social security” for its members, as both health and wellness and funerary practices could be difficult to navigate in the community’s new American home.
However, as the Lithuanian Jewish community began to assimilate in Harrisburg, a divide in the Chisuk Emuna congregation emerged. A number of members of the community felt that their Orthodox beliefs were growing more compatible with the larger American culture. Jewish businesses, especially bakers and confectioners in the Old Eighth Ward, had grown to serve more than just the tight-knit Jewish community, helping to enfold them within the larger multi-cultural fabric of Old Eighth. This led to the formation of a new congregation, Kesher Israel, which sought to maintain Orthodox practices while also engaging more with the public. While most members of Chisuk Emuna conducted both their religious and secular business exclusively in Yiddish, Kesher Israel’s congregants were more comfortable with English. This also allowed Kesher Israel to draw congregants from the larger non-Lithuanian Jewish community in Harrisburg.
Joining those who left Chisuk Emuna for Kesher Israel, was Rabbi Eliezer Silver, who left his position of leadership at his former congregation to become the first leader of Kesher Israel. While leading the congregation, Silver became a prominent member of American Rabbinical circles. He used this place of prominence to advocate first for Jewish people suffering in Russia and then, after leaving his position at Kesher Israel, became the first president of Vaad Hatzalah (Rescue Committee) that sought to help Torah scholars escape Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It is perhaps no coincidence that a neighborhood that played a prominent role during the American Civil War in assisting freedom seekers would also feature such an important man who worked to save those who may have otherwise died in the Holocaust. Moreover, like those working in the Underground Railroad, Silver was willing to work both within and outside the law to save lives. Even before World War II, he regularly lobbied U.S. presidents to support Jewish people being persecuted in Europe. During the war, he even dressed as a U.S. Army Chaplin and traveled to Europe to gain access to war zones.
Rabbi Silver’s legacy lived on among the Kesher Israel congregation, as he returned in 1933 to help lead the installation service of the congregation’s new rabbi, his son David L. Silver
Rabbi Dr. Nachman Heller only spent a short time in Harrisburg. However, during his time at Kesher Israel Synagogue, he earned a reputation as an important Jewish author, teacher, and intellectual. At a time when anti-Semitism was still rampant, he used his journalistic skill to educate the public about important aspects of Jewish life and worship. For example, he wrote an explanation of the Jewish observances of the Fast of Esther and the Feast of Purim in the Harrisburg Telegraph on March 16, 1908. Similarly, he took great pride in the education of Harrisburg’s Jewish youth, establishing a Hebrew Academy in association with Kesher Israel. Although he left Kesher Israel in 1911 to begin work at another congregation in Charleston, West Virginia, he continued to return to the Old Eighth Ward as a guest lecturer while remaining active as an author and public intellectual.
burg’s Litvak–or Lithuanian Jewish–community prior to the Capitol expansion. While an older German Jewish population was already thriving in the city, the newly arriving Litvak found it difficult to integrate with the pre-existing community. Two synagogues were therefore founded in the ward, Kesher Israel and Chisuk Emuna. The presence of both of these congregations serves not only as a testament to the vibrancy of the Jewish community, but also the diversity among these co-religionists.https://mosaic.messiah.edu/look/1016/thumbnail.jp
"Joining the End to the Beginning" Divine Providence and the Interpretation of Scripture in the Teaching of Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons
No full textIn this dissertation, the author argues that Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons in the second century, reads the scriptures as the living proclamation of the Creator by which he creates and forms human flesh and blood. The scriptural narrative originates in God’s creation of all things ex nihilo and traces the movement of humanity toward its eschatological perfection in the incarnate, crucified, and risen Christ. Thus, the author argues that, for Irenaeus, the scriptures are as anthropological as they are theological. The biblical narrative possesses a continuity that is rooted in the substance of the human body. The very body that was created out of the dust in Adam, preserved from the flood in Noah, catechized by the law in Abraham and Moses, and became accustomed to the Spirit in the prophets is assumed by the Son of God from the Virgin Mary, crucified on the tree of the cross, and raised from the grave. The author maintains that Irenaeus views the scriptures as a single narrative describing precisely that flesh and blood given at the eucharistic altar in the fellowship of the church. Irenaeus reads the scriptures, not only in an intimate relationship with the creation of all things in the beginning and their recapitulation in Christ, but also in accord with an ecclesial dimension. The biblical narrative describes the identity of the baptized, who are joined to the body of Jesus through the baptismal and eucharistic life of the church. From this perspective, the author insists that the meaning of the scriptures, for the second century bishop, is not merely rational, moral or mystical, but truly ontological
Women's life writing 1760-1830 : spiritual selves, sexual characters, and revolutionary subjects
No full textPhDThis thesis uses print and manuscript sources to analyse and interpret women's life
writing at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. I
explore printed works by Catharine Phillips, Mary Dudley, Priscilla Hannah Gurney,
Ann Freeman, Elizabeth Steele, Mary Robinson, Helen Maria Williams, Mary
Wollstonecraft, Grace Dalrymple Elliott, and Charlotte West and discuss the
manuscripts of Mary Fletcher, Mary Tooth, Sarah Ryan, and Elizabeth Fox. Of these
sources, five have never been analysed in the critical literature and six have received
little attention. Considered as a group, this large corpus of texts offers new insights
into the personal and political implications of different models of female selfhood and
social being.
In chapter one, I compare the religious identities presented in the spiritual
autobiographies of Quakers and Methodists. For these women, religious identification
provides a powerful sense of social belonging and enables public participation.
However, it may also lead to a loss of self in the demand for religious conformity and
self-abnegation. In chapter two, I consider the life writing of late eighteenth-century
courtesans. These women adapt available models of femininity and female authorship
in order to establish themselves as socially connected subjects. However, their
narratives also reveal that dependence on the sexual and literary marketplace puts
female selfhood under pressure. In chapter three, I explore the eyewitness accounts of
British women in the French Revolution. I argue that, for these writers, connecting
personal identity to political history is an enabling source of self-definition but it also
exposes them to the risks of self-fragmentation.
In my focus on the social function of women's life writing, I present an alternative to
the traditional alignment of the eighteenth-century autobiographical subject with the
autonomous self of individualism. These narratives allow us to reconsider the
productive and problematic dialectic between personal expression and representative
selfhood, self-authorship and collective narratives, and individualism and social
being. They suggest that women's life writing has the potential to be both the self-expression
of a unique heroine and the self-inscription of a politicised subject
Austin also must be remembered. The Augustinian legacy in Milton's work
No full textWhen I started working on this project, with a limited knowledge of Augustine, but determined to spot his presence in Miltonâs poetry, I was little aware of the intricacy of the relationship between the two authors. At this stage of my research, I do subscribe to Savoyeâs opinion, that this relationship is pervasive. However, one could safely add, it is as pervasive as it is hidden, primarily because of changed cultural paradigms, so that Miltonâs references are no longer familiar to the reader.
As I have pointed out in my presentation of the state of the art, these articulations are hardly made explicit in Miltonâs Oeuvre and also in critical literature they are hardly brought to the surface. My objective has been to make them a little more visible.
I have started my own process of discovery from the works where Milton more openly (but not completely) acknowledges his Augustinian sources, although arguably mediated. As concerns Samson Agonistes, I have presented a reading through Augustinian lenses. I am by no means claiming that mine is the best of all possible readings, but through those lenses I have been able to see a coherence, in Miltonâs dramatic poem, that is not generally recognized.
On the other hand, I thoroughly agree that âone cannot simply take any English poet and turn the post-structuralist critical machine loose on him or her in good faithâ. In particular, I am aware that I have read Miltonâs works against the current critical grain which, with a powerful turn impressed by Empsonâs Miltonâs God, is continually surfacing Miltonâs idiosyncrasies in order to cancel the received picture of a Christian author. Rather, I agree with Cirillo that Miltonâs perspective is that of âa professed Christian poet whose Christian consciousness, no matter how heterodox, colored virtually everything he wrote.â.We may ask, echoing Febvre on Rabelais, âMais de quel christianisme? In accordance with very traditional, even traditionalist Milton Criticism, I think it can safely be stated that Milton is a post-Reformation religious author, and one whose endeavour to âjustify the ways of God to menâ had to come to terms with the difficult task to find signs of providential history in the aftermath of a civil war and in the adverse context of the Restoration. His last published poems deal with this problem in different terms. As readers, we can come to different conclusions as to the texts. Behind them there is the man, âest abyssus humanae conscientiae,â in front of which, after Augustine, I can only say: "nescio"
Review for Religious - Issue 22.2 (March 1963)
No full textIssue 22.2 of the Review for Religious, 1963.EVODE BEAUCAMP, O.F.M.
Sin and the Bible
Throughout1 the New Testament the work of Christ
is presented as a victory over sin. To speak of sin in this
connection is to evoke an agelong experience which is
highly complex and which can not be neglected if one
wishes to comprehend the matter in all its extent and
fullness. The word sin is a familiar one to us; yet it is no
older than the Greek of the Septuagint. Before the Sep-tuagint
there can not be found in the sacred text a single
word exactly corresponding to it. The Alexandrian trans-lator
has included under this single word the varying
nuances of a number of terms; through this word he has
thereby evoked all the forms which were taken through
the course of centuries by the resistance of Israel to the
salvific activity of God.
There can be no question of giving here a study of sin
in the Bible; for that is a problem entirely too large. We
shall simply mark out the essential lines in order that we
might have a better understanding of the problem of sin
and that as a consequence we may be able to provide a
catechetical presentation of sin that will be more richly
nourished by the vitality of the Bible.
The God of the Bible ancl the Problem o] Good anti
Evil
Like all the surroundin~ peoples, Israel united into
one word evil and unhappiness on the one hand, goodness
and happiness on the other. The first of these words is
simultaneously disorder, deceit, emptiness, and death;
the second is virtue, fullness of life, and peace. Every
deed carries within itsel~ its own consequences: evil in-volves
unhappiness while goodness implies happiness:
Do no evil, and evil will not overtake you; avoid wickedness,
and it will turn aside from you. Sow not in the furrows of in-justice,
lest you harvest it sevenfold (Sir 7:1-3).
Moreover, one finds in the Bible different ways of ex-pressing
the same proverb:
This article is translated with permission from the magazine
Catdchistes, n. 49 (January 1, 1962), pp. 5-19. The magazine is pub-lished
by Procure des Frhres; 78, rue de Shvres; Paris 7, France.
4.
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Evode Beaucamp
O.F.M., a Scripture
scholar, lives at Via
di Decima Kin. I;
Rome, Italy.
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REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS
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Those who conceive malice bring forth emptiness; they give
birth to failure (Jb 15:35).
They sowed the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind
(Hos 8:7).
What is original in the Bible is the teaching that good-ness,
physical as well as moral, has only one source: God.
"O Lord," cries the Psalmist, "thou art my welfare; there
is none beside thee." And for Amos the two expressions
"to seek God" and "to seek the good" are perfectly identi-cal;
both the one and the other offer the secret of life
(Amos 5:4-14). The successful issue of human existence
is found on the way which Yahweh points out and only
there:
For this reason will all go well with us, because we obeyed
the voice of our God (Jer 42:6).
You must keep his commands.., that you may prosper, and
your children after you, and that you may live long .... (Dt
4:40).
You must do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord
that you may prosper (Dr 6:18; see also 12:25 and 28).
The Law given by Yahweh to His people is the way of
happiness: "You must keep my laws and ordinances, by
the observance of which man shall find life (Lv 18:5).’°
This is a point which is important to remember when the
idea of the Law is presented; the love of the Jews for the
Torah is incomprehensible if it is not realized that Yah-weh
is legislator precisely insofar as He is father, bene-factor,
shepherd, and defender of His people. Moreover,
this throws light on the well-known problem of reward.
The Bible does not say that happiness is received as a
recompense for goodness but that happiness is the fruit
of goodness and that it is to be found at the end of the
way.
Evil is not treated in the same way as is goodness; the
God of the Bible never attributes to Himself a paternir.y
with regard to evil. For the Psalmists, evil is the absence
of God; and it is towards Him that one must turn to be
freed from it. Nevertheless, it is in relationship to God
that evil is defined: evil is the reverse of what He wills,
of the course of :action that He teaches. As the author of
Chapters Three and Four of Genesis has carefully sho~qn,
the evils which weigh on humanity are not imputable to
the Creator; the responsibility falls on man who has at-tempted
to find his happiness outside of God, to flee his
dependence on Yahweh by himself possessing the key of
good and evil. Man has set himself on the desperate route
that leads far from Paradise:
Woe to them that have wandered away from reel (Hos
O Lord, thou hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be
put to shame; those who prove faithless to you in the land shall
be brought to confusion, because they have forsaken the Lord,
the fountain of living water (Jer 17:13).
Let us remark in passing that the God of the Bible
never reproaches man for his thirst for greatness and
happiness; what is reproached is the attempt to satisfy
this outside of God. Unlikei the gods of Surher and Baby-lon,
Yahweh has the intention of giving His creature the
fullness of life and happiness, but He teaches that this
must be done by Him:
If my people would but listen to me, if Israel would only
walk in my ways, I would quickly humble their foes .... he
would be fed with the finest of the wheat; and with honey from
the rock would I satisfy you (Ps 81:13-14, 16).
Although man punishes himself by separating himself
from God (see Jb 22:3 ft.), the Bible, nevertheless, does
not hesitate to show us Yahweh personally intervening to
punish with all the power of His anger. It is He who
hardens the pharaoh, as it is He who brings evil upon
His unfaithful people:
I am watching over them for evil and not for good (Jet
44:27).
I will set my eye upon them for evil, and not for good (Amos
It is curious to observe how the inspired writers can com-plain
both that Yahweh hides His face and remains dis-tant
from His chosen ones (Ps 88:14) and that He turns
His face against them (Jer 44:11): "The face of the Lord
has scattered them; he no longer regards them" (Lain
4:16). And some of the sacred writers are heard to cry out:
Will you never take your eye off me, nor let me alone till I
swallow my saliva? (Jb 7:19).
Turn your gaze away from me, that I may be glad (Ps 39:13).
Yahweh never ceases to assert His exclusive right to
bestow good on His chosen ones even when they turn
away from Him to their own loss. In the evils which then
beset them, there can always, be detected the avenging
pursuit of a cheated love:
So I will be unto them like a lion; or like a leopard by the
road I will lurk. I will rend them like a bear robbed of its
cubs; and I will tear off the covering of their heart (Hos 13:7-8).
Pursued by the love he has denied, the sinner sees him-self
abandoned by all: "Thou has put friend and com-panion
far from me" (Ps 88:18). He is abandoned even by
the earth which bears and nourishes him:
I am bringing upon them a disaster which they shall not be
able to escape (Jet 11:11).
I will rend and be gone; I will carry off, with none to rescue
(Hos 5:14).
Sin
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REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS
Behold, I am going to make a groaning under you (Amos
2:13).
Unlike the Egyptian god Aten, Yahweh is not indif.
ferent when He distributes life and happiness. His gifts
are always made from a personal and jealous love. Hence
He can not but react vigorously when man prefers deceit,
nothingness, and ruin to His love. The blows which He
deals as well as His tragic silence can lead the wanderer
back to the road of return:
I withdraw to my own place, until they realize their guilt
and seek my face, searching for me in their distress (Hos 5:15).
And yet it is necessary that this appeal be heard and
followed:
It was I that gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities ....
it was I that withheld from you the rain, three months before
the harvest .... I laid waste your gardens and your vineyards ....
I sent a pestilence like that of Egypt among you .... But you did
not return to me (Amos 4:6-10).
When sin is presented as disobedience to the Law of
God, it is necessary to realize that this Law is the path
marked out by God and leading to life and happiness; to
disobey it is to wish to conduct one’s life by oneself and
to run towards one’s own ruin. The God whose love has
been scorned will not be content to let us leave; He will
inexorably bar the way that leads to peace just as formerly
He posted the cherubim with their swords of fire to pre-vent
Adam and his descendants from access to the Para-dise
that had been lost:
They are a people who err in their hearts, and do not know
my ways. So that I swore in my anger that they should not enter
into my rest (Ps 95:10-11).
The Special Demands o[ the Covenant
The Bible is not satisfied with presenting man in con-frontation
with God; for the Bible the heart of the matter
is the elect one in confrontation with the God who has
chosen him. The peace dreamt of by the Jews of old,
peace between the members of. one community, peace
with the external world and the earth where men liv~.~-
this peace is the fruit of the covenant of Sinai (see Lv
26:3-13; Dt 11:13-15).
From the viewpoint of the history of religions, one of
the most original characteristics of this alliance is the tact
that the initiative belongs exclusively to God and not at
all to the people; it is Yahweh who has chosen Israel and
not Israel who has chosen Yahweh. From the beginning
to the end of the Bible, Yahweh repeatedly emphasizes
the absolute liberty of His choice, a liberty that gives Him
the right to demand obedience without reserve or mur-mur.
The elect one should adjust his conduct to the direc-
tives given by his God; he must seek that "which is right
in the eyes of Yahweh"; he must "march perfectly before
Him" without "swerving" from the way "either to the
right or the left."
Hence.the existence of Israel was constitute~ by the
acceptance of these demands;~and these;demands were
unceasingly renewed nor were they ever fully completed
at any given moment of history. The more Israel, through
a better understanding of the obligations of the covenant,
wished to submit to them, the larger the number of them
grew. In its always unsatisfied thirst to stay perfectly
close to the divine will, the chosen people never ceased
to develop the principles at the base of the Mosaic legis-lation
of the Decalogue (Ex 20:3-17; Dt 5:6-21) and of
the code of the covenant (Ex 20:22-26) into the different
priestly codes and the enormous growths of the rabbinical
tradition.
Since there existed this demand for a perfection never
perfectly attained ("You must be holy; for I, the Lord
your God, am holy" fLy 19:2]; "Be perfect as your
heavenly Father is perfect" [Mt 5:48]), an exhaustive list
of sins is nowhere to be found in the Bible; prophets,
Psalmists, and wise men give us but certain ones among
many. In every epoch and in all circumstances, the obli-gations
of the covenant remain unlimited; the human
party of the covenant never succeeds in rising to the level
of the demands of the divine party. Basically, the sin of
later Judaism will be to pretend to arrest this movement
of divine improvement by attempting to imprison the
divine will within the walls of a definitive and rigid tra-dition.
There is no need to emphasize that the same dan-ger
lies in wait for every spiritual life, that there will
always be a tendency to substitute for the unlimited de-mands
of Christian perfection a code of limited rules
which each person can hope some day to fulfill com-pletely.
The covenant not only implies the demands of a bond
faithfully maintained between God and His people, but
it also includes the demands of a union between the in-dividual
members of this people. Yahweh expects that
His people should practice among themselves the justice
and mercy which He has bestowed on them. The pious
Israelite must never forget to share his joy with the
stranger, the orphan, the widow; for, as Deuteronomy
puts it: "You must remember that you were once a slave
yourself in Egypt" (Dt 16:12). For the same reason it is
forbidden to retain one’s brother in the state of slavery
(Lv 25:55; Dt 15:15); nor ought one to treat a stranger
with scorn (Lv 19:34; Dt 24:17). In this principle can be
seen the first outline of the thought of the Master: "Love
each other as I have loved you."
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Hence it is that along with the infidelities of the people
towards God, the absence of social justice appears as the
chief accusation directed by Yahweh against Israel. From
the beginning of prophetism (for example, with Elijah),
the struggle is waged on two fronts: opposition to the
introduction of foreign cults and the respect for the rights
of the weak (Naboth’s vineyard, 1 K 21). As the Lord
Himself emphasized, the entire legislation of Israel re.
volves around this double commandment: to love God
with one’s whole heart and one’s neighbor as oneself. The
same is to be found in the warnings of the prophets, the
Psalmists, and the wise men:
You have been told, O man, what is good and what the Lord
requires of you’. Only. to do l’ustice, and to love kindness, and
to walk humbly wtth your God (Mi 6:8; see also Jer 7:5-11).
It will not be useless to insist somewhat on this capital
point; since we have too great a tendency to distinguish
sins against God and sins against neighbor, it is necessary
to show how every sin against God leads to injustice with
regard to neighbor and how every sin against one’s neigh-bor
is a blow struck against the rights of God. The first
chapters of Genesis in the Yahwist and priestly redac-tions
already present evil under this double dimension.
The murder of an innocent person follows the act by
which Adam made himself independent of his Creator,
while the union of the sons of gods with the daughters
of men (probably an allusion to sacred prostitution) in-volves
the unleashing of violence upon the earth. In a
more general way, the Bible unites under the single He..
brew word resha’ the idea of both impiety and evil-doing,
The person who so acts is frequently referred to through-out
the Psaher; he is a person who intends to do without
God and to live his life entirely by himself and who, in
consequence, makes use of force, deceit, and lies:
The fool says in his heart: There is no God. Such men are
corrupt; they do abominable deeds; there is not one who does
good (Ps 14:1; see also Ps 9; 10; 12; 52; 62; and so forth).
His adversary and his victim is the just man, the man
who expects salvation and justification from God alone
and who therefore does not seek to take the law in his own
hands nor do himself justice at the expense of others.
The life of David furnishes an excellent illustration
of these two cases of the evil man and the just man. Sens-ing
that Yahweh would give to him the crown of Saul,
David steadfastly refused to touch the sacred person of
the king; for he intended to owe his royalty: to Yahweh
alone and he did not wish to do things wrongly. Accord-ingly,
through terrible execution or a no less terrible
curse, he decisively disassociated himself from all those
who wished to hasten the event by doing violence to
Saul or his son or the general of his army (2 S 1:15; ~:28
ft.; 4:10 ft.). In contrast to the dynasties of, usurpers, the
dynasty of David was not in its origin tainted by blood (2
K 2:5).
But in the affair of Uriah, the king of Jerusalem took
a completely opposite c#ur.se; here he acted,asian impious
and evil person. Nathan" recalled to the guilty monarch
everything that Yahweh had done for him and pointed
out to him how He was still ready to do more. But David
had lacked confidence; he had chosen to take care of him-sell
and this he did at the expense of one of his own
subjects. There is, then, no rejection of God which does
not eventually turn into injustice, just as there is no in-justice
which is not a disregard of the power of the God
of :the covenant.
For a Christian, to sin is not only to disobey the eternal
laws of the Creator; it is also a refusal of the covenant
and a scorning of the love of the Father of all.
Human Resistance and God’s Final Victory
The covenant supposes a history; it is at the center of
a plan that develops by stages. At each of these stages man
tries to block the plan, but his actions do not prevent God
from having the final word. It is interesting to follow
step by step the resistances of those who were the bene-ficiaries
of the covenant, for in them are to be found all
the possible forms which man’s refusal of God’s offer can
take.
1. The choice of the elect from the midst of a humanity
immersed in sin. Because the human race had turned
from Him and had obstinately buried itself in evil, Yah-weh
drew forth from it Israel in the desire to make of it
a people who would follow His directives. Hence the
election of Abraham is presented in the Yahwist tradition
of Genesis as the last effort made by Yahweh to prevent
His creation from going to perdition apart from Him.
This evil had begun when Adam, in his desire for in-dependence,
had lost Paradise. Nevertheless, Yahweh did
not abandon this fugitive from Him; He gave him the
hope of a future victory over the evil in which he had
immersed himself; He had even covered the nakedness
that the guilty couple had become aware of. To the first
couple, punished by their pride, there succeeded a gen-eration
of murderers: Cain and his descendants. Once
more Yahweh intervened to prevent fallen humanity
from disappearing, from the earth under the inexorable
blows of the curse of blood. The union of the sons of the
gods with the daughters of men provoked such a release
of violence that Yahweh decided on the complete de-struction
of His work. Nevertheless, He saved from the
catastrophe a just man with whom He concluded a cove-
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REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS
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nant. This was not yet the last act of the drama; the last
scene of the beginnings of the human race is the episode
of the tower of Babel, the dispersion of the sons of Adam
after their aborted attempt to construct a tower that
would reach to heaven.
Nevertheless, the efforts of Yahweh to arrest man in
his vertiginous descent into the abyss were not in vain;
for, after the episode of the tower of Babel, a new history
begins: the vocation of Abraham, the epic of the patri-archs,
the covenant of Sinai. To the first scene of a uni-versal
invasion of evil, there succeeds that of the increas-ingly
solicitous enterprise of God with regard to a people
whom He would choose for His own.
Under different forms the same idea is found almost
everywhere in the Old Testament. To explain the fact
that Israel had taken the place of the Canaanites, the
legal texts, for example, tell us that the latter were chased
from their land because they had done "what was evil in
the eyes of Yahweh"; He had determined to give their
land to a people who would agree to live according to
His will. But misfortune would come to this people if
they ever dared to imitate the conduct of their predeces-sors;
He would not hesitate to deprive them of the land.
The falling back into the world of sin from which Yah-weh
had drawn them led Judah to its ruin, as Jeremiah
and Ezekiel emphatically pointed out.
The sin of the elect is in fact a return to the sin of the
nations after having been freed from it. Each election is
pictured as a rupture:
Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house
(Gn 12:1), Forget your people and your father’s house (Ps
45:11).
The call of God implies an ascent towards Him by the
practice of what is "right in His eyes" and by a renuncia-tion
of "what is evil in his eyes." This initial break must
continue throughout the course of time; this requires a
constant effort at disencumbrance, for the surrounding
world never ceases to exert pressure on the elect to make
them fall back under its law. This is the drama of every
vocation, not only to religious life but to Christianity
self.
2. Resistance to the hand that guides. After He had
led the people from Egypt, Yahweh made them cross the
desert before bringing them to the Promised Land. The
desert is the sign of temptation, a testing of faith. In other
words, Yahweh would not give the land of Canaart to
the Hebrews unless they abandoned themselves to Him
without reserve by remaining faithful to the memory of
the marvelous act of liberation by which they left Egypt.
But hunger, thirst, and fatigue quickly overcame the
faith of the former slaves of the pharaohs. They soon
forgot the extraordinary epic of the Exodus; they mur-mured
and rebelled against Moses and Aaron; they be-came
enraged at seeing themselves in a venture which
seemed to be pointless; and they dreamed nostalgically
of the onions of Egypt. They refused to march forward
on the grounds that the:.P~-omised Land W~s~’fi0t good
enough and because the enterprise was to their minds a
doomed one (Nm 14).
This lack of confidence induced the people of Moses
to attempt to assure themselves of the protection of their
God by placing Him at their service and by forcing His
hand as they wished. This is what the Bible calls "tempt-ing
God." Instead of Yahweh "tempting" and trying the
people in order to make them proceed according to His
will, it was Israel who tempted its God, attempting to
bring Him into the service of human caprice. Hence
when Moses delayed coming down from the mountain
and Yahweh made them wait for His answer, the He-brews
made the golden calf, a material representation of
their God which would allow them to control Him and
to
