Judaism

Elie’s Spiritual Journey In Elie Wisel’s Night, Elie goes through an incredible spiritual change. In the beginning of his book he is striving to become the most devoted Jew he can. This is illustrated by his “crying because something inside me felt the need to cry” as he was praying in the temple. His devotion to Judism is also shown by his desire to study the Kabbalah. When his father discourages him from studying this “world of mysticism” Elie begins looking for his own teacher, and he finds Moishe the Beadle. Moishe helps Elie see why he prays and guide him in the teaching of the Kabbalists.

One of the first times Elie’s faith is tested is when he first gets to Birkenau and sees the crematorium. There people are expecting death yet his father says “May His name be celebrated and sanctified. ” Elie gets mad at his father for saying this, because Elie had an expectation from his devotion to Judism. He expects to have a long life with minimal trials thanks to his devotion. However, when his faith is tested he says: “For the first time I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent.

What was there to thank him for? ” This shows he is disappointed in God. The Bible says “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18) Elie’s attitude is not thankful and even hating. We see that Elie also feels like God has left Elie and the Jews. In chapter 4 a young boy is hanged from the gallows. As he slips in and out of death someone says: “For God’s sake, where is God? ” Elie says “Where He is? This is where – hanging here from this gallows. ” Elie now believes God is dead or has forgotten about His people.

His response shows that he has begun to totally disregard God, and even question himself as well as his faith. Elie is upset that God is allowing the Jews to be slaughtered. “You have betrayed (the inmates) allowing them to be tortured, slaughtered, gassed, and burned! What do they do? They pray before you! They praise your name! ” This statement from chapter 5, during Rosh Hashanah, shows that Elie is definitely mad at God for letting the Holocaust happen. The next two paragraphs show how Elie’s faith has been shattered. “I knew my sins grieved the Almighty so I pleaded for forgiveness. . .

But, now I no longer pleaded for anything. . . I was the accuser, God the accused. ” These two statements reveal that Elie feels the power of the Holy Spirit to ask for forgiveness, yet he ignores it. He chooses instead to accuse God and to block out His voice. Despite all these times when he has denied God, Elie still begins his Nobel Peace Prize speech with a prayer. He goes on to talk about a small boy (him) that has emerged from the Kingdom of Night, the Holocaust. He said “A young Jewish boy discovered the Kingdom of Night. I remember his bewilderment, I remember his anguish. It all happened so fast. Elie also talks about his Judism. He tells everyone that his “First response is to Jewish fears. ” He wants everyone to know that he will not stand by as his people are persecuted. As he draws his speech to a close he says, “Should Israel lose but one war, it would mean her end and ours as well. But I have faith. ” This comment as well as his entire speech, shows that Elie has, perhaps, restored his faith in God, despite his bitterness. However, only God knows his heart. Only God knows what that little boy crying in the temple went through, as he traveled through the Kingdom of Night.

Jennifer Grijalva P. 1 February 28, 2012 Biography Of Eva Beem Eva Beem was the daughter of Hartog and Rosette Beem. She was born on May 21, 1932, in Leeuwarden, Holland. When she was eight-years old,and she was in the school when the Germans invaded Holland in May of 1940. Her father was a high school teacher in the small city of Leeuwarde, in northern Holland. When the Germans invaded. They immediately embarked upon steps to separate the Jews from the rest of the population.

Beginning in October 1940, they was liquidated Jewish businesses and banned Jews from most professions. The Dutch population resisted the anti-Jewish measures enacted by the Germans. But the Germans reacted brutally, and were able to break up most organized resistance. Many Jews were forced into restricted ghetto areas on July of 1941, and after May of 1942, all Jews had to wear the yellow star.

Beginning in mid-July of 1942, the Germans began rounding up Holland’s Jewish citizens. They were first taken to transit camps, and from there to death camps in Poland. Father’s of Eva decided that the family would go into hiding, because they felt that the children would be safer posing as non-Jews in a rural village, Eva and her younger brother were sent to the village of Ermelo with a Christian family, to risk death to save them, but the Nazi found them.

Eva was given a new name and identity, she was known as Linni De Witt, and she was attended to the school along with the other village children. Eva Been and her brother Abraham were killed in gas chambers. She and her brother die on February of 1944. She was only 11 years old when she die in the gas chambers,and her brother was only 10 years old when he die with her sister Eva.

Thematic Essay By Astrella Dacosta The world is filled with many different belief systems. All belief systems are different and influence their followers and the society differently. Judaism and Hinduism are belief systems that are great examples of this. Judaism was developed in a land called Cannan, which is presently Israel. They worship in temples called synagogues. Most people credit Abraham to be the founder with creating Judaism, because he made a covenant with God. Some people credit Moses to be the founder of Judaism because he helped the Jews leave Egypt, and got the 10 Commandments from God at Mt.

Sinai. The 10 Commandments are one of the teachings of Judaism. It gives followers laws to live by. Jews also believed in Monotheism. Monotheism is believing in one god. Jews believed that there was a single god that created the universe and that God also had an individual and personal relationship with every Jew. Judaism had influence on the people and society who followed the religion. A current influence Judaism had on its’ followers is the conflict in the Middle East. Many different religions claim Jerusalem to be their homeland, so they have been fighting for control of the city for years.

Hinduism was developed in India and was a result of cultural diffusion between Aryan invaders and Native Indians. Hinduism followers want to achieve “moksha” which is their goal in life. It means to be freed from “samsara” which is the cycle of being reincarnated. To achieve moksha you must become one with Brahma. Hindus also believe that reincarnation is influenced by “karma” and “dharma. ” Karma is the good deeds a person does in their lifetime. Dharma is the role or job that a person has in their current lifetime. Hinduism also had a lot of influences on the followers.

An influence that is still going on is from that social caste of India that originated from Hinduism is still strongly believed in. The caste system was a class structure that seems harsh to the lowest class. Even though the caste system has been outlawed, many people still heavily believe in it and live by it today. There are many diverse religions around the world. All religions have some sort of influence on their followers based off of how they practice it. Some belief systems are very similar, but still there are differences. Those differences also influence the followers of that religion differently.

HEBREW: THE ETERNAL LANGUAGE WILLIAM CHOMSKY HEBREW : THE ETERNAL LANGUAGE Varda Books 5761 / 2001 skokie, illinois, usa Copyright © 2001 by Varda Books Original copyright © 1957 by THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA All Rights Reserved Second Printing, 1958 New ISBN 1-59045-441-3 Library PDF

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage retrieval system, except for brief passages in connection with a critical review, without permission in writing from the publisher: Varda Books, 9001 Keating Avenue, Skokie, Illinois, USA Prepared as an ebook by Varda Graphics, Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. : 57? 8140 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA To My Children >

Home | TOC | Index PREFACE There has long been need for a book on the origin of the Hebrew language, its struggle for survival in the face of almost insurmountable obstacles, and its survival as a spoken vernacular in our own day. I confess to having for many years cherished the hope that it would some day be given me to write this story. At the same time, I shrank from undertaking a task so vast and important, so basic to the Jewish cultural heritage, and involving so many aspects of Jewish life and history.

When, therefore, the Zionist Organization of America approached me several years ago with the request that I prepare a pamphlet on the subject, Hebrew, The Story of a Living Language, I allowed myself to be persuaded for the very reason that the discussion would be brief and tentative. Yet some of my friends at once began urging me to expand that pamphlet into a full-sized book, and this is the result. The account is far from exhaustive. It is designed primarily for the intelligent reader rather than for the scholar. In the process of popularization much had to be diluted, omitted or condensed.

In many areas the presentation is very sketchy, though, I hope, authentic and accurate. A more comprehensive account will have to await more auspicious circumstances. In the writing of this book I had to resort to various sources of information and to the help of individuals who are expert in certain specific areas, and I herewith wish to pay grateful acknowledgment. I am, of course, primarily indebted to Dr. Solomon Grayzel for his stimulation and encouragement, criticism and advice, in the preparation of this book.

My thanks are due to the following individuals for helpful counsel and information: Judah Lapson, Chairman of Hebrew Culture Service Committee for American High Schools and Colleges; A. Leo Oppenheim, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; Cecil Roth, Oxford vii > Home | TOC | Index viii Preface University, England; E. A. Speiser, Chairman, Department of Oriental Studies, University of Pennsylvania. I also wish to make appreciative acknowledgment of the following publications from which illustrative materials were taken: The Hebrew Scripts, S. A.

Birnbaum; Millon ha-Lashon ha-Ibrit, Eliezer Ben Yehudah; The Field of Yiddish, edited by Uriel Weinreich, Linguistic Circle of New York; Semitic Writing, G. R. Driver, Oxford University Press; A Study of Writing, I. J. Gelb, University of Chicago Press. Recognition is also due to Historische Grammatik der Hebraischen Sprache, Hans Bauer and Pontus Leander, Verlag von Max Niemeyer, which provided a model for the illustration of Branches of the Semitic Languages, on page 22. It is my hope that this volume will stimulate new interest in the Hebrew language among those who know it as well as those who do not.

May the story of the ancient tongue prove as fascinating to my readers as it has always been to me. W. C . March 1, 1957 > Home | TOC | Index CONTENTS INTRODUCTION—The Role of Hebrew in Jewish Life, 1 PART I—How the Language Began to Be Spoken CHAPTER 1—Hebrew and the Languages of Mankind, 17 CHAPTER 2—How the Hebrew Language Began, 32 CHAPTER 3—The Early Non-Biblical Sources of Hebrew, 50 PART II—How the Written Language Took Form CHAPTER 4—How the Hebrew Alphabet Originated, 73 CHAPTER 5—How Did the Vowel-System Evolve? 3 CHAPTER 6—How the Study of Hebrew Grammar Began and Developed, 117 CHAPTER 7—How Was the Text of the Hebrew Bible Preserved? 139 PART III—How the Language Was Preserved CHAPTER 8—How Did the Hebrew Language Grow? 157 CHAPTER 9—How the Hebrew Language Has Kept Abreast of Changing Needs, 172 CHAPTER 10—How Hebrew Evolved as a Modern Vernacular, 184 CHAPTER 11—Did Hebrew Ever Die? 206 PART IV—How the Language Meets Modern Needs CHAPTER 12—The Struggle for Revival, 231 CHAPTER 13—Hebrew in America, 245 EPILOGUE—Hebrew for American Jews, 270 Notes and Bibliography, 281 Index, 313 ix gt; Home | TOC | Index > Home | TOC | Index LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page 1. Hittite Hieroglyphic Writing. Courtesy of I. J. Gelb, A Study of Writing (University of Chicago Press), 1952, page 83 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Branches of the Semitic Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . Geographical Distribution of the Semitic Languages . . 21 22 23 2. 3. 4. Transcription of the Mesha Stone. Courtesy of I. J. Gelb, A Study of Writing (University of Chicago Press), 1952, page 134 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. Hieroglyphic Inscriptions found in Sinai. Courtesy of G. R. Driver, Semitic Writing (British Academy, London), 1954, page 94 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hittite Hieroglyphic Writing. Courtesy of I. J. Gelb, A Study of Writing (University of Chicago Press), 1952, page 82 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 75 6. 77 81 7. The Contents of a Mezuzah. An example of hand-written Hebrew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8. Inscriptions from the Sinaitic Peninsula.

Courtesy of G. R. Driver, Semitic Writing (British Academy, London), 1954, page 94 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . From Hebrew to the Latin Alphabets . . . . . . . . . . 83 87 9. 10. Three Vowel Systems: 1. Babylonian; 2. Palestinian; 3. Tiberian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 11. The Masoretic Text as prepared by the Ben Asher School. Courtesy of S. A. Birnbaum, The Hebrew Scripts, Fasc. 2, page 92 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 12. A Page from the Rabbinic Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 xi > Home | TOC | Index xii List of Illustrations Between pp. 242 and 243 13. Hebrew Calendar from Gezer. Courtesy of S. A. Birnbaum, The Hebrew Scripts, no. 2 14. Sinaitic Writing. Courtesy of G. R. Driver, Semitic Writing (British Academy, London), 1954, pl. 38 15. The Siloam Inscription. Courtesy of S. A. Birnbaum, The Hebrew Scripts, no. 14 16. The Mesha Stone. Courtesy of The Louvre, Paris 17. Lachish Ostraca. Courtesy of S. A. Birnbaum, The Hebrew Scripts, nos. 23, 24 18. Coins of the Second Commonwealth.

Courtesy of S. A. Birnbaum, The Hebrew Scripts, nos. 56, 58, 61 19. Stamps of Modern Israel 20. The Nash Papyrus. Courtesy of Cambridge University Library 21. An Aramaic and Yiddish Version of Had Gadya. Courtesy of The Field of Yiddish: Studies in Yiddish Language, Folklore and Literature Published on the Occasion of the Bicentennial of Columbia University, ed. by Uriel Weinreich, Linguistic Circle of New York, 1954 22. Eliezer Ben Yehudah. Courtesy of Millon ha-Lashon ha-lbrit > Home | TOC | Index HEBREW: THE ETERNAL LANGUAGE >

Home | TOC | Index > Home | TOC | Index INTRODUCTION THE ROLE OF HEBREW IN JEWISH LIFE Hebrew as a Modern Vernacular Barely a decade or two ago there were people who maintained that Hebrew was not a living language. Now, the “sacred language” of the past is the daily vernacular of hundreds of thousands of Jews in Israel. There the language lives in the mouths of school children, bootblacks, busmen, cab drivers, cabaret singers, lawyers, doctors and officials, of the religious, irreligious and anti-religious—indeed, of everyone.

The thick horizontal strokes and thin verticals of the Hebrew alphabet are blazoned all over the country on posters, advertising signs, stamps and coins; on highways, shops, stores and hotels. Hebrew slang, colloquialisms and even curses are freely coined; while the Hebrew Language Academy (formerly, Vaad haLashon), composed of outstanding scholars and writers and sponsored by the Israel government, is vigilantly on guard against the intrusion of any solecisms or barbarisms that might impair the purity of the language.

From time to time, moreover, this Academy publishes lists of technical terms covering every branch and aspect of science, industry, technology and the like: some ten thousand new words have gained currency since the establishment of the State of Israel. At least four theatrical companies offer regular performances—all, of course, in Hebrew. Thou1 > Home | TOC | Index 2 Hebrew: The Eternal Language sands of books, magazines, newspapers and brochures on every conceivable topic are in daily circulation.

Close to two hundred periodicals are published there in Hebrew, including fifteen dailies and the rest weeklies, monthlies, quarterlies and annuals. Hebrew books are published in Israel at the rate of more than three a day. The air waves of Israel vibrate to the rhythm of the classical tongue. Outside of Israel, the most significant center of Hebrew culture is America. The language is read, understood and spoken by thousands of American Jews. There are Hebrew periodicals of popular as well as scholarly character; Hebrew books, fictional and scientific; Hebrew language instruction on elementary and college level.

Schools, camps and clubs encourage the speaking of Hebrew. Can there be any question as to the vitality of the Hebrew language? None of the modern attempts to revive old languages, such as Gaelic, Welsh and Indi, can boast of anything approximating the progress made by Hebrew. Yet the Irish, Welsh and Indians have been rooted on their own soil and are free from political, physical and economic difficulties with which the young struggling Jewish community in Israel has had to cope.

Sources of Vitality of the Hebrew Language How was the Hebrew language able to exist and function as an effective instrument of creative self-expression and intercommunication for about two thousand years, without such an essential ingredient for survival as a state or territory? How could Hebrew retain its vitality and elasticity over such a long period of time in the face of such adverse conditions? The answer to these questions may be discovered by considering the unique character of Judaism and its relation to the Hebrew language.

Hebrew has not been a denationalized universal tongue, the medium of a specific religion, in the sense that Latin has been the official language of the Roman Catholic Church. Nor has it been merely a folk tongue like other living languages. As a matter of fact, it has persisted as a living lan- > Home | TOC | Index The Role of Hebrew in Jewish Life 3 guage for many centuries after it had ceased to be a spoken vernacular in the accepted sense of the term, as will be demonstrated in a later chapter in this volume.

Hebrew has been the sacred language of the Jewish people—the language of its religion, culture and civilization. It has been, in sum, the language of Judaism and intimately identified with the national and religious experiences of the Jewish people throughout the generations. The Jewish people can no more be dissociated from Hebrew than they can be dissociated from their own spiritual identity—Judaism. Relationship between Language and Culture An analysis of the nature of language and of Judaism may help to clarify this point.

Language is not merely a means of expression and communication; it is an instrument of experiencing, thinking and feeling, as well as a means of self-expression and personal growth. In investigating the origin of language and “after tracing back its history as far as we can, we see that the earliest language was anything but intellectual, that it was indeed a sort of half-way house between singing and speech with long almost conglomerations of sounds, which served rather as an outlet for intense feelings than for an intelligible expression of them . . ”1 Indeed, even in modern days language is employed “by children (and often by grown people), not so much to formulate and express thoughts as to give vent to feelings . . . ”2 Our ideas and experiences are not independent of language; they are all integral parts of the same pattern, the warp and woof of the same texture. We do not first have thoughts, ideas, feelings and then put them into a verbal framework. We think in words, by means of words. Language and experience are inextricably interwoven, and the awareness of one awakens the other.

Words and idioms are as indispensable to our thoughts and experiences as are colors and tints to a painting. Our personality matures and develops through language and by our use of it. Defective linguistic growth is known to go hand in > Home | TOC | Index 4 Hebrew: The Eternal Language hand with stunted intellectual and emotional development. Deaf and dumb people are, as a rule, intellectually retarded and, in some degree, even callous, unless given means of adequate communication.

What is true of language in relation to individual growth is equally true in the case of the cultural growth and development of a people. Indeed, students of language have come to recognize that the experiences of a group, its mental and emotional habits, its modes of thoughts and attitudes are registered and reflected in the words and idioms of the group’s language. Thus, for example, the word shalom, usually rendered by “peace,” has in effect little in common with its English equivalent. Shalom does not have the passive, even negative, connotation of the word “peace. It does not mean merely the absence of strife. It is pregnant with positive, active and energetic meaning and association. It connotes totality, health, wholesomeness, harmony, success, the completeness and richness of living in an integrated social milieu. When people meet or part they wish each other shalom, or they inquire about each other’s shalom. Similarly, the Hebrew words ruah (spirit) and nefesh (soul) do not have the implications of a disembodiment, such as are indicated by their English equivalents. There is no dichotomy in the Hebrew mind between body and spirit or soul.

One is not the antithesis of the other. These Hebrew words have dynamic, life-giving and motor-urgent connotations. Every living being has a ruah, even the beast possesses a ruah (Ecclesiastes 3. 21). The same is true of the synonym nefesh, which is generally rendered by “soul. ” But nefesh, too, is the property of all living beings (Job 12. 10), including the beast (Proverbs 12. 10). Even the netherworld has a nefesh (Isaiah 5. 14). Furthermore, every living creature, man as well as animal, is designated as nefesh (Genesis 1. 0, 21, 24, 12. 5, 14. 21, etc. ). Both nefesh and ruah often signify strength and vigor, both in a material and a spiritual sense. Voracious dogs are said to possess a strong nefesh (Isaiah 56. 11); and the horses of Egypt, the prophet warns, are weak: they are “flesh and no ruah” (ibid. , 31. 3). > Home | TOC | Index The Role of Hebrew in Jewish Life 5 There is likewise a far cry between the Hebrew word tzedakah (from the stem tzadak, to be just or righteous), with its implications of social justice, and the English word “charity. In the case of “charity” the recipient sees himself beholden to the donor, whose action is voluntary. Tzedakah, on the other hand, has to be performed as a matter of obligation and the recipient is in no way indebted to the donor. The needy have a right to tzedakah, while those possessing means have a duty to give it. Indeed, even a poor person who receives tzedakah must in turn give tzedakah (Gittin 7b). There is, likewise, a wide semantic gulf between the Hebrew rahamim or rahmanut and the English equivalent “pity” or “mercy. The Hebrew word connotes love, family feeling (see Genesis 43. 30, etc. ), even motherliness, since it is related to rehem (mother’s womb) of the same stem. None of these connotations is implied in the English equivalents. Similarly, the richly meaningful and historically hallowed implications of the Hebrew torah are totally absent in the English equivalent “law. ” The Hebrew term torah embraces the totality of Jewish creative labor throughout the ages. Just as inadequate is the English translation “commandment” for the Hebrew mitzvah.

In one of his hasidic3 stories, the Hebrew writer Yehudah Steinberg depicts a hasid expressing astonishment at the ignorance and stupidity of the resha‘im (the wicked or the disbelievers ). The main motive for committing wicked deeds, reasons the hasid, is the search and pursuit of pleasure and enjoyment. But is any greater pleasure or joy conceivable than that of performing a mitzvah? Hence, he continues, if the resha‘im were sufficiently wise to realize this, they would abandon their wickedness and would all become tzaddikim (righteous or strictly observant Jews), just for their pleasure’s sake.

This type of reasoning was not unique among traditional Jews. Simhah shel mitzvah, the joy of performing a mitzvah, constituted an integral element in the pattern of the Jewish way of life. To be sure, the word mitzvah originally meant no more than a command in the accepted sense. But the specific reli- > Home | TOC | Index 6 Hebrew: The Eternal Language gious experiences of the Jewish people, their feeling of exultation in the performance of religious responsibilities, invested this word with a cluster of associations and connotations not originally inherent in it.

Is it conceivable that one could get a thrill out of performing a mitzvah if it were merely a “commandment”? Every language, including English, has a stock of words which are charged with the emotional and intellectual experiences of the people employing it. To illustrate, within our own experiences, the English word “fireside” came to assume a new connotation as a result of listening to the fireside chats inaugurated by the late president, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Similarly, the word “filibuster,” originally signifying a freebooter or pirate, is now employed in the United States in the sense of hindering legislation by means of long speeches or other parliamentary tricks. One may also add, as examples, such expressions as “go to bat,” “strike out” and the like. The richer and the more intense the historical experiences of a people, the greater is the number of such words in its language and the more emotionally charged they are. When translated into another language, they become devitalized and almost meaningless.

Such words are not mere linguistic units; they are cultural deposits. But they cannot be transmitted in isolation. They take on their meaning and gain in richness of association and connotation only through the context of experience. In the past some Hebrew words and expressions survived in the vernacular of the people long after the Hebrew language had ceased to be popularly spoken. They were kept alive by the intimate contact which the majority of the people continued to maintain with the Hebrew literary sources and by the persistence of Jewish forms of living and habits of thinking.

Furthermore, one can readily quote a host of expressions and idioms which, though composed of words in the vernacular, encase, in effect, Hebraic thought-patterns. It would seem that as long as the Jews were rooted in their traditional patterns of life, they were sensitive to the inadequacy of the vernacular in expressing and conveying the emotionally charged meaning > Home | TOC | Index The Role of Hebrew in Jewish Life 7 of certain Hebrew words. They therefore persisted either in retaining the original words and expressions, or in investing the Hebraic mental pattern or idiom with the garb of the vernacular.

In this manner a great many words and expressions, as well as idioms, found their way into the various vernaculars employed by the Jews throughout the history of their dispersion. Such dialects arose as Judaeo-Greek, Judaeo-Arabic, JudaeoPersian and the like. The best known of these dialects, surviving to this day and incorporating a considerable proportion of these Hebraic elements, are Ladino, a Judaeo-Spanish dialect employed by the Jews in the Balkan States and Morocco, and, especially, Yiddish.

At present, however, especially in this country, Jewish patterns of life no longer provide a suitable functional context for these words and expressions. The distinctive features of the Jewish climate characteristic of traditional Jewish ghettos, especially those of Eastern Europe, have almost completely disappeared. The specific vocabularies and idioms of Jewish life no longer function; they have been translated into English equivalents. Yamim nora’im are High Holy Days, a siddur is a prayerbook, a mahzor is a High Holy day or Festival prayerbook.

Yom tov has been replaced by holiday. Such traditional Hebrew terms as hazzan (cantor), shammash (sexton),’aron kodesh (holy ark), menorah (candelabrum), sefer torah (scroll of the Torah), gabbai (an elder in the synagogue), etc. , once commonly employed, have fallen into desuetude. A good Jew is no longer mekayyem a mitzvah, or is a shomer shabbat. Instead, he is performing a command or good deed and is a Sabbath observer. He does not drink le-hayyim (to life or health); he drinks to happy days, and so on.

The contact with the literary Hebraic sources remains, therefore, the only avenue to these cultural deposits. The Meaning of Judaism The meaning of the terms “Jews” and “Judaism” has, likewise, been a source of confused thinking. Are the Jews a race, > Home | TOC | Index 8 Hebrew: The Eternal Language a nation, a religious group, or what? Is Judaism only a body of beliefs and practices, or of nationalistic symbols and slogans, or of cultural ideas and literary compilations, such as could be conveyed by one linguistic vehicle or another?

Much futile argumentation relative to these matters may be found in our recent literature. The disputants seem to ignore the fact that a feeling of kinship exists among Jews of all “races” and colors, of all parts of the world, regardless of whether they are orthodox, reform or even atheistic. To be sure, some or all of the elements mentioned above may be found in the Jewish group or in Judaism, as the case may be, not in an additive sense, but rather in an integrative or chemical sense.

Hence, the whole is not like any of the parts, just as common salt is not in the least like the sodium and chlorine of which it is compounded; or just as water is nothing like its elements, oxygen and hydrogen, of which it is a compound. The compound ABC is larger than the sum of the parts and different in character from each of them as a result of their integration and reciprocal influence. In such a compound the individual component elements are changed and modified. Removing one of these elements or substituting one for another will destroy or change the whole compound.

All this is equally true of the cultural, national and religious elements that make up Judaism. Jewish religion is, in effect, a distinctive, dynamic life-pattern, constantly and progressively adapting itself to changing needs and circumstances; it is accordingly intimately bound up with the Jewish people, their history, culture and civilization. It is in this vein that Judah Halevi interprets the very first Commandment, where the Lord is referred to as “thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt,” and not as the God who created the universe and humanity.

This purports to emphasize, Halevi asserts, the close identification of the Torah with the Jewish people and their historical experiences. 4 It is significant that neither biblical nor mishnaic Hebrew possesses a term for either “religion” or “Judaism. ” To this day > Home | TOC | Index The Role of Hebrew in Jewish Life 9 no specific term for “religion” is to be found in Hebrew, while the concept “Judaism” (Greek Judaismos) stems from alien soil. It was invented by the Jews of the Hellenistic Diaspora to indicate the contrast between their faith, or way of life, and “Hellenism” (Hellenismos). The Hebrew term for this concept (yahadut) was probably coined by Rashi (1040–1105). The traditional term for this concept, employed in the Bible and in the Talmud, is “Torah. ” Now this term, as has been said, embraces the totality of Jewish beliefs and practices, ideals and ideas, in fact, all the products of the Jewish creative genius through the centuries. “The Commandments,” according to one source, “imply all that is included in the Bible, the Mishnah, the Talmud, whether legal or homiletic in character.

In fact, any interpretation which at any time a faithful student is likely to offer before his teacher was already presented to Moses on Mount Sinai. ”6 When the rabbis were in doubt about the legality of certain rituals and practices, they would say: “Go and see how the people conduct themselves. ”7 The conduct of the people in a normal traditional environment served as a guide for establishing and codifying certain laws and rituals; indeed “a custom may nullify a law. ”8 No religion in the accepted sense of this term would permit such latitude.

Significantly, the Hebrew term for law, whether ritual, ethical, criminal, or civil, is halakhah, a word which signifies “conduct. ” Peculiar historical circumstances, the analysis of which is outside our province, have operated in the case of the Jewish people in such a manner as to merge race, nationality, culture and religion into a composite unit, which is articulated in a distinctive language, with the result of modifying the individual characteristics of each of the components. Hence, the laws applying to each of them in isolation will not apply to any or all of them in integration.

Thus, although Christianity may continue to function without a distinctive language, the Jewish religion cannot do so, because it is too intimately fused with elements of race, nationality and culture, all of which are in turn rooted in the Hebrew language. It is inconceivable that any of the > Home | TOC | Index 10 Hebrew: The Eternal Language traditional Jewish prayers, in translation, could evoke the same historical associations, cultural allusions and national memories, as they do in the original Hebrew. Because Jews of old wanted those associations they continued to pray in Hebrew and study their literary sources in Hebrew.

They preserved the language and the language preserved them. Hebrew as the Language of Judaism In sum, Judaism may be defined as the ongoing historical experience of the Jewish people, in which are compounded religious, national and cultural elements. This unique historical experience has been articulated in distinctive words and idioms of the Hebrew language, with which it has become inextricably blended. Disassociate this historical experience from the Hebrew language, and the result is a pale, anemic reflection, a dilution and sometimes even an adulteration of the original experience.

Indeed, some Jewish scholars maintained that the deviations of Christianity from Judaism may be directly traceable to the translations of the Bible into Greek. The original Hebrew words took on, in the Greek translation, connotations which were not intended by the Hebrew authors, with the result that they suggested views and ideas entirely alien to the Jewish spirit. One of the many glaring examples is the origin of the virgin-birth dogma in Christianity, a concept which was associated with the mistranslation of the word ‘almah (Isaiah 7. 14).

In Hebrew the word merely means “young woman”; in the Greek translation it was rendered by parthenos which means “virgin. ” Another example is the word ruah, which in the Greek translation connoted the un-Jewish concept of spirit-versus-body. In the course of their long and rich history, the Jewish people have gone through intensive intellectual and emotional experiences. They have experimented with life and its problems; problems of the relationship of man to man, of man to God, problems of human destiny and of the impact of cosmic forces upon mankind. They have known joys and suffering, hope and despair.

They have given voice to all these experi- > Home | TOC | Index The Role of Hebrew in Jewish Life 11 ences in their own distinctive Hebrew idiom. Language and experience have become intertwined so that one cannot be fully mastered without the other. Who can render in suitable translation the overtones, the cluster of associations and allusions attached to such expressions as shema‘ yisrael, kiddush ha-shem, hillul ha-shem, mesirut nefesh, and a host of others? It cannot be done. Yet such expressions symbolize the warp and woof of our historical religious and national experiences.

These expressions stir in every conscious Jew feelings and images such as could never be evoked in any other language. In the words of Shema‘ Yisrael, for example, we hear echoes and reverberations of the agonized cries of our martyrs from the days of Akiba down to the “rebels” of the Warsaw Ghetto. In comparison the English equivalent, “Hear, O Israel,” sounds flat and insipid. Similarly, the terms kiddush ha-Shem (sanctification of the Name) and hillul ha-Shem (profanation of the Name) are the obverse and reverse of a concept which epitomizes Jewish martyrology throughout the ages.

This concept has been a mainspring of traditional Jewish conduct, by word or act, with the view of hallowing God’s name, even at the risk of death, through proper conduct and avoiding deeds which might profane the name of God. The term mesirut nefesh, likewise, connotes the idea of self-sacrifice and readiness to devote one’s life to an ideal. The English equivalents of these terms fail completely to convey even a shade of the meaning of these repositories of Jewish experiences. Language is, of course, the symbol of meaning, or the expression of ideas by means of articulate sounds or graphic representations of these sounds.

Yet, meaning is not inherent in the sounds or the words, but rather in our personal and group experiences which are fused with the particular words. In themselves words have no meanings; it is our reactions to them or our experiences with them that lend them their meaning. What the words “mean” or convey to us depends on the nature, extent and intensity of our experiences, direct or vicarious, with > Home | TOC | Index 12 Hebrew: The Eternal Language them. The word “democracy,” for example, means one thing to an American, and something entirely different to a Russian communist.

The term “crusade” awakens in the minds of Jews clusters of historical memories and associations totally at variance with those in the minds of Christian peoples. Words are set in the orbit of the experience of the people employing them. When transposed from one experiential orbit into another by means of translation or borrowing, the words change their “meaning. ” Sometimes our experiences are blended and associated with specific forms of the word, with its particular pronunciation or configuration, and only these forms will convey to us meaning to its fullest extent.

A radical change in the form, even of the same word, such as a difference of pronunciation or spelling, may at the outset fail to evoke our experiences associated with the particular word. Hence there is often resistance to spelling reforms or to changes in pronunciation, as for example, in the case of Hebrew, from Ashkenazic to Sephardic, and vice versa. An attempt by Itamar Ben Avi and others, several years ago, to change the Hebrew to Latin script proved abortive in the face of serious opposition. It should therefore be clear that language cannot be taken as a sort of currency or medium of exchange.

Words in one language cannot be rendered by their equivalents in another language without losing something vitally and essentially peculiar to the mentality and genius of the people employing the tongue. It is a delusion to assume that one can fully understand the essence of Judaism in any language but Hebrew. As indicated previously, one cannot get the pristine and genuine message of the Bible in a translation, however effectively executed. Our Sages likened the day on which the Bible was translated into Greek to the day when the Golden Calf was made, “for the Torah does not lend itself to an adequate translation. Dr. Max L. Margolis, editor of the Jewish Publication Society Bible translation, asserted: “It frequently happens that the translator, vainly seeking an equivalent for a Hebrew word or phrase, > Home | TOC | Index The Role of Hebrew in Jewish Life 13 realizes that translation deals not so much with words as with civilizations. ” Consequently, some of the most significant and indispensable sources of Judaism must remain in a certain sense “sealed books” to those who do not know Hebrew.

The wisdom of the Sages, the poetry of Ibn Gabirol, Judah Halevi, Bialik and Chernichovski; or the prose of Mendele, Peretz and Agnon can never be rendered adequately in English or any other language. Nearly every word, every turn of expression or locution employed by these masters of Hebrew literature, springs from the bed-rock of Jewish experiences, literary sources and Jewish folklore, and stirs within us memories, associations and images, such as no translations, however artistically done, can duplicate. > Home | TOC | Index > Home | TOC | Index

ART PART ONE How the Language Began to Be Spoken > Home | TOC | Index > Home | TOC | Index CHAPTER ONE HEBREW AND THE LANGUAGES OF MANKIND Ancient Attempts to Identify the Original Language How many languages are there in the world? How did these languages arise? Did they evolve from one primeval language, or are they to be traced to several basic languages? What was this primeval language, or which were the basic languages? These questions have attracted wide attention among the inquisitive minds of the ancients as well as of modern scholars.

The Greek historian Herodotus reports an experiment conducted by Psammetichus, king of Egypt (sixth century B. C. E. ), with the object of discovering what race of men was first created or evolved. He took two newborn babes, haphazardly selected, and placed them in the charge of a goatherd with strict instructions to bring them up on goat’s milk and to isolate them from any human contacts, so that no word of human speech might reach their ears. In this manner, the king hoped, the children would eventually yield to the promptings of nature and break out into human speech representing the primeval language of the original human race.

The experiment succeeded, according to Herodotus. One day, after two years had passed, as the 17 > Home | TOC | Index 18 Hebrew: The Eternal Language goatherd opened the door of the lonely hut to serve the children their daily portion of milk, they cried out “Bekos! ” and held out their hands. The goatherd reported this to the king, and upon investigation the king discovered that bekos was the Phrygian word for bread. He thereupon concluded that the Phrygians were the first race of men.

The story bears, of course, the earmarks of pure racial propaganda. It is calculated to demonstrate the superiority of the Grecian race, the kinsmen of the Phrygians according to Greek tradition, by attributing to them a higher rank in antiquity than that of the Egyptians. But this experiment was not unique. Similar experiments are said to have been conducted in later ages: by the Mongol emperor Akbar Khan (sixteenth century), the German emperor Frederick the Second (thirteenth century), and King James IV of Scotland (fifteenth century).

The last-named is reported to have shut two infants up with a dumb woman on the island of Inchkeith and ordered them kept there until they were old enough to speak perfectly. These children are said by some to have spoken a pure Hebrew, although the chronicler himself entertained some doubts on the subject. Hebrew—the Mother of Languages There was, indeed, a time when Jews as well as Christians believed that all the languages of mankind derived from Hebrew, the language spoken by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This is, of course, to be inferred from the biblical accounts.

Thus Eve was called Hawwah “because she was the mother of all living” (hai, Genesis 3. 20). Similarly, the woman was called ishshah “because she was taken out of man” (ish, ibid. , 2. 23). 1 In no other language besides Hebrew, the rabbis argued, do we find the terms for man and woman derived from the same root. The Hebrew language, it is therefore to be assumed according to them, was created simultaneously with the world and was the language employed by God in his conversations with Adam and Eve. 2 When Abraham was born, all > Home | TOC | Index Hebrew and the Languages of Mankind 19 he dignitaries of Nimrod’s court wanted to destroy him, says an old midrashic account, and he was hidden in a cave for thirteen years. When he came out of the cave he spoke Hebrew. 3 “It (Hebrew) is, according to tradition, the language in which God spoke to Adam and Eve and in which they spoke between themselves” (Judah Halevi). This traditional view is reiterated time and again during the Middle Ages and later by both Jews and non-Jews. Among the theses offered by the first class of Harvard graduates in 1642 was one entitled Hebrea est Linguarum Mater (Hebrew is the mother of the languages).

Non-Jewish sources resorted to all sorts of whimsical etymologies to prove that the origin of European languages is to be found in Hebrew. 4 In his introduction to the Pentateuch, Moses Mendelssohn restates the view of the primacy of Hebrew and attempts to adduce additional proof in its corroboration. It was only after the fiasco of the Tower of Babel, according to the biblical tradition, that “the Lord did there confound the languages of the earth; and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11. ). Thus, says rabbinic tradition, evolved the languages of mankind, numbering seventy-two (or seventy), twentytwo of which were spoken by the descendants of Japheth, twenty-four by the children of Ham, and twenty-six by the children of Shem. 5 Modern Studies of Indo-European Languages Toward the end of the eighteenth century the study of linguistic science was given strong impetus by the discovery of Sanskrit and the recognition of the relationship of this language to Greek and Latin. It was then and during the major part of the ineteenth century that the Aryan or Indo-European languages were identified and subjected to careful study and scrutiny. No one knows how many languages there are in the world. They certainly can be counted in the thousands. Many of them > Home | TOC | Index 20 Hebrew: The Eternal Language are unrecorded in writing and may disappear without leaving a trace, as many unrecorded languages have undoubtedly disappeared already, while others are known from very scanty records. The majority of the languages of the world are probably those which have never been committed to writing by any of their native speakers.

The most thoroughly investigated language family is the IndoEuropean. This family includes such languages, and language groups, as Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Armenian, Albanese, Celtic, Slavic, Baltic and Germanic. The Germanic group, to which English belongs, is probably the most widely employed, and English is now the most widespread of all languages in the world. However, the language which is known to have retained the greatest number of original forms of the Germanic dialect is Icelandic, a language spoken today by about 100,000 persons.

Similarly, Lithuanian, one of the two surviving languages of the Baltic branch, spoken by several million people who live on the borders of Prussia and Russia, is said to have “preserved many of the forms of Indo-European speech in a less corrupted condition than any of its European cogeners, aye, than any dialect of the entire family which is not at least two thousand years older”6 All these language groups have been identified as divergent forms of a single prehistoric language, hypothetically named Primitive Indo-European.

No records of this primitive language are available, but this may be a mere historic accident. The oldest known member, or near relation, of this family is an extinct language, spoken by the Hittites, a people widely mentioned in the Bible and even regarded by the prophet Ezekiel as among the ancestors of the Hebrew people (Ezekiel 16. 3, 45). The available documents in that language already deciphered are written in a form of the cuneiform syllabary—a wedge-like form of characters having syllabic rather than alphabetic value. These documents date back to about the fifteenth century B.

C. E. Other Hittite documents, written in hieroglyphic script, have already been virtually deciphered. > Home | TOC | Index Hebrew and the Languages of Mankind 21 Hittite Hieroglyphic Writing From I. J. Gelb, A Study of Writing (University of Chicago Press), 1952, page 83. Semitic Languages The language family which concerns us most at this time is that designated since 1781 as Semitic. The origin of this designation is the genealogical record of Genesis 10. 21–31, according to which the peoples employing these languages were descendants of Shem, son of Noah.

These peoples occupied a territory extending from the Mediterranean to the other side of the Euphrates up to the Tigris, or Mesopotamia, and from the mountains of Armenia to the southern coast of Arabia. Through conquests and migrations these languages spread also to parts of Africa and Europe. The Canaanites (Phoenicians, etc. , Genesis 10. 15–20) are traced in the Bible back to Ham, probably on account of their being a mixed race and also because, owing to their paganism, they were regarded with contempt by the biblical writers. However, their language is clearly a branch of the Semitic family, and the prophet Isaiah (19. 8) refers to > Home | TOC | Index 22 Hebrew: The Eternal Language Branches of the Semitic Language > Home | TOC | Index Hebrew and the Languages of Mankind 23 Geographical Distribution of the Semitic Languages > Home | TOC | Index 24 Hebrew: The Eternal Language Hebrew as the language of Canaan (sefat Canaan). Most of these languages are now dead, some having left important literary legacies. The only languages of this family still spoken, besides Hebrew, are: Arabic, Ethiopic, and, to a limited extent, Syriac or Aramaic.

The Semitic languages are generally divided into the following branches: A. East Semitic: Assyrian-Babylonian or Akkadian. This language is known now from inscriptions on stone and clay, in cuneiform writing, dating back to about 2500 B. C. E. In this language were written the Code of Hammurabi (around 1800 B. C. E. ), the Amarna letters (1400 B. C. E. ) and other important documents. It was at one time widely in vogue in the Orient in official circles. It was there a sort of lingua franca, an international language. Later, around the middle of the first half in the last millennium B.

C. E. , it was superseded by Aramaic. B. Northwest Semitic 1. Aramaic Branch. a. Eastern Aramaic or Syriac, of which the language of the Babylonian Talmud is a Jewish modification. b. Palestinian or Western Aramaic, which is represented by portions of the Palestinian Gemara and the Targumim (Bible translations generally included in the traditional Jewish editions of the Bible). The Aramaic portions of the Bible may also belong in this category, although some modern scholars challenge the possibility of establishing the local identity of these portions.

At that early period, when these documents were written, no distinction between Eastern and Western Aramaic existed, according to these scholars. The oldest documents in the Aramaic language date from the eighth century B. C. E. A few centuries later, especially around > Home | TOC | Index Hebrew and the Languages of Mankind 25 the beginning of the Christian Era, Aramaic gained wide currency over large tracts of Western Asia, superseding several languages, among them Assyrian, and to a considerable extent also Hebrew.

The theory held by some Jewish and non-Jewish scholars that Aramaic had completely displaced Hebrew is without any foundation and has been effectively disproved. But Aramaic undoubtedly exercised a tremendous influence on the evolution of the Hebrew language, and left its impress upon it. For about a millennium (from about 700 B. C. E. to around 650 C. E. ) Aramaic was employed as the official language of the Near East, until it was replaced by Arabic as one result of the Mohammedan conquests (of the seventh century C. E. ). When Assyria conquered the Aramean states and incorporated them into its empire, it adopted the language of the anquished. The spread of this language was facilitated especially by the Persian Empire which flourished during the fifth to third centuries B. C. E. The imperial policy of Persia was generally favorable to the preservation of the national mores and culture of its subject peoples. The Persian chancery accordingly chose to correspond with the provinces of Western Asia in their own peculiar dialect, Aramaic. Aramaic is still spoken by a few thousand Syrian Christians and Jews in Kurdistan, and various other isolated localities in the Orient on the borders of Persia, Iraq, Turkey and in Syria near Damascus.

A considerable number of the Aramaic-speaking Kurdish Jews have recently immigrated into Israel. 2. Middle Semitic or Canaanite Branch. a. Moabitic, known especially from the famous inscription of King Mesha, ninth century B. C. E. The character and significance of this inscription will be discussed in a subsequent chapter. b. Phoenician, the language spoken in Phoenicia, as well as in the Phoenician colony of Carthage in North Africa, close to the present site of Tunis. The Phoenicians continued to identify themselves as Canaanites down to the Roman period.

Its oldest known inscriptions are of the > Home | TOC | Index 26 Hebrew: The Eternal Language twelfth or fourteenth century before the Christian Era. Around the early part of the first millennium B. C. E. , Phoenician enjoyed the status of an international language in Syria and nearby coastal Asia Minor, until it was replaced by Aramaic by the end of the eighth century. It continued to flourish in Carthage until several centuries into the Christian Era, and was still spoken in the time of Augustine in the fifth century C. E. c.

Hebrew. The oldest portions of the Hebrew Bible probably date back to about 1300 B. C. E. , and the language has never ceased to be employed in most Jewish localities as a literary medium, as well as for purposes of written (if not spoken) intercommunication. In oral use it has been restricted largely to houses of worship and study, although there is ample evidence to prove that even for conversational purposes oral Hebrew has been employed, in a limited degree and in certain localities, throughout the history of the Jewish people.

Furthermore, many words and expressions dealing with intimate personal and national experiences have been incorporated into the various languages spoken by the Jewish people in the lands of their dispersion. Similarly, many Hebrew idioms have infiltrated, in translated forms, into the various Jewish dialects, such as Yiddish and Ladino (a Judaeo-Spanish dialect), and have persisted there to this day. In modern times the vitality and adaptability of the Hebrew language have been demonstrated to a remarkable degree, as a spoken language in Israel, and in many Jewish communities outside of Israel. . Ugaritic. A vast and significant literature has been > Home | TOC | Index Hebrew and the Languages of Mankind 27 unearthed since 1930, shedding much light on biblical literature and language, in modern Ras Shamra, on the coast of Syria, opposite Cyprus. This Canaanitic literature was written in an alphabetic cuneiform script, indicating consonants and even some vowels. It contains epic poems typical of ancient Canaanite religion and civilization during the Late Bronze Age, when Ras Shamra was the site of Ugarit, the wealthiest Canaanite city.

In language and style, this literature resembles to a remarkable degree the poetic portions of the Bible. Biblical literature and language must have been influenced tremendously by the highly developed culture and civilization of Ugarit. 3. South Semitic. a. Arabic and its various dialects. The earliest records of Arabic are of the third century B. C. E. Since the seventh century C. E. the territory of the language has extended, as a result of the Mohammedan conquests, to embrace large tracts of Asia and Africa. It is now in oral and written use by nearly forty millions of eople, besides serving as the sacred and official language of Islam. b. Ethiopic and its dialects. This language is used on the east coast of Africa (Abyssinia). It emerged into the light of history towards the beginning of the fourth century C. E. , immediately after the conversion of the Abyssinian Kingdom to Christianity. The language is still used in Abyssinia in modern dialects. Uniformity vs. Diversity in Languages Attempts were made by students of language to discern relationships between the Indo-European and the Semitic lan- gt; Home | TOC | Index 28 Hebrew: The Eternal Language guages. These attempts stem from the assumption that both these language families evolved from the same parental stock. In proof of this assumption scholars adduce the examples of the Hebrew banah (built) and the Latin pono (compare English “exponent,” “expound”); also ba‘ar and Greek pyr from which originate the English “pyre,” “pyro-,” and “fire”; Hebrew yayin (wine), Greek oinos, Latin vinum, Arabic waynun; Hebrew sheba, Sanskrit saptan, Latin septem, English “seven. A medieval Jewish scholar collected over two thousand Hebrew words, which, in his opinion, were the basis of a similar number of words in Latin, Greek and Italian. 7 Such attempts are now largely discredited. If there is a relationship between the two language families, and there may be, the available evidence is inadequate and inconclusive. Mutual borrowing and mere accident may account for these relationships. The division of languages is, according to biblical tradition, a curse or punishment inflicted upon mankind for the daring attempt of the people of Shinar to erect there “a tower, with its top in heaven” (Genesis 11).

To this day the multiplicity of languages is viewed by some people as an affliction responsible for misunderstanding and dissension among individuals, groups and nations. If people spoke a common language, it is held, discords would disappear, wars would be eliminated, peace and good will would reign in the world. Unsuccessful attempts have accordingly been made to devise a universal language, or to urge the adoption of one of the most widespread languages as a common language. That the adoption of a common language will serve as an effective instrumentality of peace is highly questionable.

History can record many wars among peoples employing the same language. But it is a matter of grave doubt whether the adoption of a common language is feasible. Even if the peoples of the world would consent to adopt such a language, it would in the course of time split up into various, mutually alien languages and dialects. We may note, as an illustration, the tendency of American English to deviate in its development, both > Home | TOC | Index Hebrew and the Languages of Mankind 29 in idiom and vocabulary, from British English.

Even in the same country the people of certain generations find it difficult or impossible to understand the language of their ancestors several generations back. It may, incidentally, be seriously questioned whether the adoption of a common language would be desirable from a cultural point of view, even if it were possible. A common language would impose, to a considerable degree, common cultural and literary patterns. Witness the influence of English culture and literature on early American life and literature. Such a language would certainly result in the impoverishment of world culture and civilization.

The Trend in Language towards Diversity Language (Sprache in German, lashon or safah in Hebrew), as indicated by its etymology, is basically a speech experience. It is transmitted by word of mouth from parents to children. We speak and pronounce words as we hear them spoken and pronounced by our elders, who in turn learned them from generations preceding them. It seems quite obvious to us that we speak exactly as do our parents and elders, and they believe they do the like with reference to the generation which preceded them. Yet, over a period of several generations there have been evident linguistic changes and modifications.

The language of Shakespeare is no longer the English we speak; while the fourteenth century English of Chaucer, and far more so the English of Alfred the Great of the ninth century, are to us virtually foreign tongues. When, for example, was the Latin senior reduced to the French sire and the English “sir”? When did the Anglo-Saxon deofol (Latin diabolus) evolve into the modern English “devil”? How did these radical changes in form and pronunciation occur? When did they inject themselves into the language? Each generation of speakers would certainly disclaim responsibility.

Evidently the process of language transmission is imperfect. Both our hearing and our capacity for articulating or imitating > Home | TOC | Index 30 Hebrew: The Eternal Language the sounds which we hear are imperfect and inexact. Hence language is subject to modification and change. Both growth and decay are characteristics of language development, as they are of biological development. Some phonetic elements gradually disintegrate and disappear, while new ones sprout and emerge. Occasionally, the variations are so great as to produce an entirely new offshoot, a new dialect or a new member of the language family.

Two main factors generally operate as controls in the process of linguistic change: (1) isolation and (2) possession of written records. A people occupying a circumscribed territory and relatively unexposed to contacts with other races or peoples is more likely to preserve the original forms of its speech than a people bent on expansion, migration or collision with other races and peoples. Similarly a common literature often exercises a strong conservative influence on the language and shields it from the intrusion of alien elements and from radical phonetic and dialectical divergencies.

For this reason, the changes in English since Shakespeare’s time are not as pronounced as those during the interval between his period and that of Chaucer, and they are especially less significant than the changes during the five centuries preceding Chaucer, when England was assimilating the Normans. 8 Reason for Relative Unity in the Hebrew Language The literary control on linguistic change is particularly marked when, as in the case of the Hebrew language, the common literature is integrated with the religious traditions and experiences of the people.

The Hebrew people were thrown into contact and collision with other people. Its vocabulary was considerably enriched by the admission of numerous foreign words borrowed from the many peoples among whom they dwelt. Yet the original linguistic pattern of Hebrew remained more or less intact. Thus we speak of biblical Hebrew as a unitary phase of the language, distinguished by typical characteristics of grammar and style. Yet, the interval between the earliest biblical documents, such as the Song of Moses or the > Home | TOC | Index Hebrew and the Languages of Mankind 1 Song of Deborah, on the one hand, and the books of Koheleth and Esther, on the other, is as long as the interval separating the period of Alfred the Great from our own day. Furthermore, the twenty-two centuries subsequent to the biblical period failed to impair the pristine pattern of the language. The result is that modern Hebrew writers may choose to employ biblical Hebrew as the medium of their literary expression, without the need of apology and without fearing that their writings will be incomprehensible or even regarded as unduly archaic.

What is the explanation, in the case of Hebrew, of this unique linguistic phenomenon? How did the Hebrew language escape the transmuting effects of time which are in evidence in other languages? To be sure, the fact that the ancient biblical texts lacked a fixed system of vocalization and were very scantily supplied with vowel-signs is in large measure responsible for the seeming phonetic uniformity of the Hebrew language. But it cannot be doubted that the Bible and the esteem with which it has been cherished throughout the centuries, counteracted and prevented fundamental changes in the structure of the language.

Unlike Latin, which has been the language of the Catholic church, that is, of the clergy, without becoming the language of the faithful or of the multitude, the study of biblical Hebrew has been pursued throughout the generations by young and old with more or less zeal and assiduity. A great many new wordcoinages, word-forms and idioms have indeed been added to the language since the days of the Bible. Yet the original organic pattern of the language remains intact.

To this day children in elementary grades are trained and grounded in the intricacies of biblical Hebrew, while in the writings of practically every Hebrew author one may find a goodly number of word-structures, phrases, and turns of expression typical of the Bible. As a matter of fact, modern Hebrew sometimes shows preference for biblical usages over mishnaic or medieval usages. The biblical phrases and expressions of thirty-five centuries ago pulsate with vitality and vigor almost on a par with the language spoken in Israel today. >

Home | TOC | Index CHAPTER TWO HOW THE HEBREW LANGUAGE BEGAN Aramaic Background of Hebrew Some forty centuries ago, during the first half of the second millennium B. C. E. , a family or clan led by a chieftain named Terah, emigrated—so the biblical tradition has it—from UrKasdim, a city of immemorial antiquity in Babylonia, to Haran in northwestern Mesopotamia, with the intention of proceeding from there “into the land of Canaan” For unspecified reasons Terah and his clansmen settled in Haran and apparently abandoned the idea of journeying on.

It must have been a long time after settling in Haran that one of the sons of Terah, named Abram (later renamed Abraham), after his father’s death, received a call from God saying: “Get thee out of thy country . . . unto the land that I will show thee. ” Whereupon Abram, heeding the call, resumed the journey into Canaan, taking with him “Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran . . . and into the land of Canaan they came. ” This clan, headed by Abram, was by no means a nomadic or bedouin band.

It was made up of settled or semi-settled herdsmen, who migrated with their wives and children and with their servants, cattle and other belongings. Abram must, ac32 > Home | TOC | Index How the Hebrew Language Began 33 cordingly, have achieved in Haran considerable status and authority. Jewish tradition explains his departure from there by attributing to him a revulsion from the idolatrous practices prevalent in his native land and by the “call” to go forth and establish a new and “great nation” in the “land of Canaan. ” It was to be a rather peaceful venture.

Yet, we find Abram capable of mustering fighting forces among his clansmen and allies adequate to attack and defeat the armies of four victorious kings, and thus retrieve his nephew Lot and all the booty that had been captured from five defeated kings headed by those of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 14). Furthermore, Abimelekh, the Philistine king of Gerar, was eager to conclude with him a treaty of peace; the native Amorites, Mamre, Eshkol and Aner, were his confederates; while the Hittites accorded him honor and referred to him as “a mighty prince” (ibid. 23. 6). In the traditions of the Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, and other peoples, Abram would undoubtedly have been described as a mighty chieftain leading a victorious invasion. His heroic exploits and glorious feats of conquest would have constituted the theme of epic sagas and poems. But the Torah, as the etymology of the term implies, is primarily designed to teach moral and religious lessons, not to tell stories or report historical events.

Hence, all these warlike exploits in the life of the “fathers” of the Jewish people are glossed over and mentioned only incidentally. During a period of famine, Abram and his clansmen traveled to Egypt, but only for a brief sojourn. As soon as conditions improved they returned to Canaan, where they were to make their permanent home. They were part of a wave of migration that gravitated from the north and the east during the first half of the second millennium B. C. E. toward the grasslands of the more fertile South, with the object of conquest and occupation.

This desire to seek “fresh woods and pastures new” was undoubte

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM Contains explanations of the moral maxims of Christ in accordance with Spiritism And their application in various circumstances in life By ALLAN KARDEC Author of THE SPIRITS’ BOOK Unshakable faith is only that which can meet reason face to face in every Human epoch ____________ This English translation is taken from the 3rd edition of the original French, as being the one containing all of Allan Kardec’s final revisions, published in 1866. INDEX NOTE: The numbers placed at the end of the various items in each chapter indicate the number(s) of the paragraph, for quick location.

PUBLISHER’S FOREWORD TRANSLATOR’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE PREFACE INTRODUCTION 1. The objective of this work. – 2. The authority behind the Spiritist doctrine. The Universal control of the Spirit teachings. – 3. Historical facts. – 4. Socrates and Plato, the forerunners of the Christian idea and Spiritism. Chapter 1. – I HAVE NOT COME TO DESTROY THE LAW The three revelations: Moses, Christ, Spiritism: 1 – 7. – The alliance of science and religion: 8. – Instructions from the Spirits: The new era: 9 – 11. Chapter 2. – MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORD 31 The future life: 1 – 3. – The regality of Jesus: 4. A point of view: 5 – 7. – Instructions from the Spirits: An earthly regality: 8. Chapter 3. – IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE ARE MANY MANSIONS 37 The different states of the soul in its spiritual wanderings: 1 – 2. – The different categories of inhabited worlds: 3 – 5. – Earth’s destiny. The cause of earthly miseries: 6 – 7. – Instructions from the Spirits: Superior and inferior worlds: 8 – 12. – Words of tests and atonements: 13 – 15. – Regeneration worlds: 16 – 18. – The progression of the worlds: 19. Chapter 4. – EXCEPT A MAN BE BORN AGAIN HE CANNOT SEE THE45 KINGDOM OF HEAVEN Resurrection and reincarnation: 1 – 17. Reincarnation strengthens family ties, whereas a single life would destroy them: 18 – 23. – Instructions from the Spirits: Limits of incarnations: 24. – The need for incarnation: 25 – 26. Chapter 5. – BLESSED ARE THE AFFLICTED 55 The justice of afflictions: 1 – 3. – Causes of present-day afflictions: 4 – 5. Past causes of afflictions: 6 – 10. – Forgetfulness of the past: 11. – Motives for resignation: 12 – 13. – Suicide and madness: 14 – 17. – Instructions from the Spirits: To suffer well or badly: 18. – Evil and its remedy: 19. – Happiness is not of this world: 20. – Losing loved ones. Premature deaths: 21. If he had been a good man he would have died: 22. – Voluntary torments: 23. – True misfortune: 24. – Melancholy: 25. – Voluntary trials. The true hair shirt: 26. – Should we end our neighbor’s probation? 27. – Would it be licit to hasten the death of someone incurably sick who is suffering? : 28. – Sacrificing one’s own life: 29 – 30. – Making one’s own suffering useful to others: 31. Chapter 6. – CHRIST THE CONSOLER 77 The gentle yoke: 1 – 2. – The promised consoler: 3 – 4. – Instructions from the Spirits: The advent of the Spirit of Truth: 5 – 8. Chapter 7. – BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT 81

What should be understood by the words ‘poor in spirit’? : 1 – 2. – He who exalts himself shall be debased: 3 – 6. – Mysteries that are hidden from the learned and prudent: 7 – 10. – Instructions from the Spirits: Pride and humility: 11 – 12. – Mission of the intelligent person on Earth: 13. Chapter 8. – BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART 91 Simplicity and pureness of heart: 1 – 4. – Sinning by means of thought. Adultery: 5 – 7. – True pureness. Unwashed hands: 8 – 10. – Offences. If your hand is the cause of an offence, cut it off: 11 – 17. – Instructions from the Spirits: Let little children come unto me: 18 – 19. Blessed are those whose eyes are closed: 20 – 21. Chapter 9. – BLESSED ARE THE MEEK AND THE PEACEMAKERS 99 Insults and violence: 1 – 5. – Instructions from the Spirits: Affability and mildness: 6. – Patience: 7. – Obedience and resignation: 8. – Anger: 9 – 10. Chapter 10. – BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL 105 Forgive others so that God may forgive you: 1 – 4. – Reconciliation with your adversaries: 5 – 6. – The sacrifice most agreeable to God: 7 – 8. – The mote and the beam in the eye: 9 – 10. – Do not judge others if you do not wish to be judged in return. He that is without sin, let him be the first to cast a stone: 11 – 13. Instructions from the Spirits: The pardoning of offences: 14 – 15. -Indulgence: 16 – 18. – Is it permitted to reprehend, observe imperfections or to comment on the evil in others? : 19 – 21. Chapter 11. – LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF 115 The greatest commandment. Do unto others as we would have them do unto as. The parable of the creditors and the debtors: 1 – 4. – Give unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar: 5 – 7. -Instructions from the Spirits: The law of love: 8 – 10. – Selfishness: 11 – 12. – Faith and Charity: 13. – Charity towards criminals: 14. – Should we risk our life for a criminal? : 15. Chapter 12. LOVE YOUR ENEMIES 125 Return goodness for evil: 1 – 4. – Discarnate enemies: 5 – 6. – Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also: 7 – 8. – Instructions from the Spirits: Vengeance: 9. – Hate: 10. – Dueling: 11 – 16. Chapter 13. – DO NOT LET YOUR LEFT HAND KNOW WHAT YOUR 135 RIGHT HAND IS DOING Do good without ostentation: 1 – 3. – Hidden misfortunes: 4. – The widow’s mite: 5 – 6. – To invite the poor and the lame. To give without thought of recompense: 7 – 8. – Instructions from the Spirits: Material and moral charity: 9 – 10. – Beneficence recompensed by ingratitude: 19. Exclusivist beneficence: 20. Chapter 14. – HONOUR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER 151 Filial devotion: 1 – 4. – Who is my mother and who are my brothers? : 5 – 7. – Corporeal relationship and spiritual relationship: 8. – Instructions from the Spirits: Children’s ingratitude and family ties: 9. Chapter 15. – WITHOUT CHARITY THERE IS NO SALVATION 159 What the spirit needs in order to be saved. The parable of the good Samaritan: 1 – 3. – The greatest of the commandments: 4 – 5. – The need for charity, according to Saint Paul: 6 – 7. – Without the Church there is no salvation. Without truth there is no salvation: 8 – 9. Instructions from the Spirits: Without charity there is no salvation: 10. Chapter 16. – IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO SERVE BOTH GOD AND 165 MAMMON The salvation of the rich: 1 – 2. – Preserve yourself from avarice: 3. – Jesus in the house of Zacchaeus: 4. – The parable of the bad rich man: 5. – The parable of the talents: 6. – The providential utility of riches. Trials of riches and misery: 7. – The inequality of riches: 8. – Instructions from the Spirits: True property: 9 – 10. – The application of riches: 11 – 13. Detachment from earthly possessions: 14. – Transference of riches: 15. Chapter 17. – BE PERFECT 179

Characteristics of perfection: 1 – 2. – The good person: 3. – The good Spiritist: 4. – The parable of the sower: 5 – 6. – Instructions from the Spirits: Duty: 7. – Virtue 8. – Those who are superior and those who are inferior: 9. – The worldly person: 10. – Look after both body and Spirit: 11. Chapter 18. – MANY CALLED, BUT FEW ARE CHOSEN 191 The parable of the wedding feast: 1 – 2. – The narrow door: 3 – 5. – Not all those who say: Lord! Lord! will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: 6 – 9. – Much will be asked if he who receives much: 10 – 12. – Instructions from the Spirits: To those who have will be given more: 13 – 15. A Christian is recognized by his works: 16. Chapter 19. – FAITH TRANSPORTS MOUNTAINS 201 The power of faith: 1 – 5. – Religious faith. The state of unshakable faith: 6 – 7. The parable of the dry fig-tree: 8 – 10. – Instructions from the Spirits: Faith, the mother of hope and charity: 11. – Human and Divine faith: 12. Chapter 20. – WORKERS OF THE LAST HOUR 207 Instructions from the Spirits: The last shall be the first: 1 – 3. – Mission of the Spiritists: 4. – The workers of the Lord: 5. Chapter 21. – THERE WILL BE FALSE CHRISTS AND FALSE PROPHETS 211 A tree is known by its fruits: 1 – 3. – The mission of the prophets: 4. The prodigies of the false prophets: 5. – Do not believe all the Spirits: 6 – 7. – Instructions from the Spirits: The false prophets: 8. – The character of the true prophet: 9. – The false prophets from the spiritual world: 10. Jeremiah and the false prophets: 11. Chapter 22. – WHOM GOD HAS JOINED TOGETHER LET NO MAN PUT 221 APART The indissolubility of marriage: 1 – 4. – Divorce: 5. Chapter 23. – STRANGE MORAL 225 Hate the parents: 1 – 3. – Abandon father, mother and children: 4 – 6. – Leave to the dead the care of burying their dead: 7 – 8. – I have not come to bring peace, but dissension: 9 – 18. Chapter 24. DO NOT HIDE THE LIGHT UNDER A BUSHEL 233 The light under a bushel. Why Jesus spoke in parables: 1 – 7. – Do not keep company with the Gentiles: 8 – 10. – The healthy do not need a doctor: 11 – 12. – The courage of faith: 13 – 16. – Carry your cross. He who will save his life, shall lose it: 17 – 19. Chapter 25. – SEEK AND YOU WILL FIND 241 If you help yourself then heaven will come to your aid: 1 – 5. – Behold the fowls of the air: 6 – 8. – Provide not gold in your purse: 9 – 11. Chapter 26. – GIVE FOR FREE WHAT HAS BEEN RECEIVED 247 GRATUITOUSLY The gift of healing: 1 – 2. – Paid prayers: 3 – 4. The moneychangers expelled from the Temple: 5 – 6. – Gratuitous mediumship: 7 – 10. Chapter 27. – ASK AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN 251 The quality of prayers: 1 – 4. – The efficacy of prayer: 5 – 8. – The action of prayer. Transmission of thought: 9 – 15. – Intelligible prayers: 16 – 17. – Prayers for de dead and for suffering Spirits: 18 – 21. – Instructions from the Spirits: The way in which to pray: 22. – Happiness proportioned by prayer: 23. Chapter 28. – A COLLECTION OF SPIRITIST PRAYERS 261 Preamble 261 1. GENERAL PRAYERS 262 The Lord’s Prayer: 2 – 3. – Spiritist Meetings: 4 – 7. – For the Mediums: 8 – 10. 2.

PRAYERS FOR THE ONE WHO PRAYS 270 To Guardian Angels and Protecting Spirits: 11 – 14. – To turn away the bad Spirits: 15 – 17. – In order to ask that some defect within ourselves may be corrected: 18 – 19. – To ask for strength to resist temptation: 20 – 21. – Thanksgiving for victory over a temptation: 22 – 23. – To ask for advice: 24 – 25. – Afflictions of life: 26 – 27. – Thanksgiving for the obtaining of a favor: 28 – 29. – An act of submission and resignation: 30 – 33. – When in imminent danger: 34 – 35. – Thanksgiving for having escaped a danger: 36 – 37. – At bedtime: 38 – 39. – On sensing approaching death: 40 – 41. 3.

PRAYERS FOR OTHERS 280 For someone who is afflicted: 42 – 43. – An act of thanksgiving for a benefit received by someone else: 44 – 45. – For our enemies and those who wish us ill: 46 – 47. – Thanksgiving for blessings received by our enemies: 48 – 49. – For the enemies of Spiritism: 50 – 52. – Prayer for a child that has just been born: 53 – 56. – For one who agonizes: 57 – 58. 4. PRAYERS FOR THOSE NO LONGER ON EARTH 286 For someone who has just died: 59 – 61. – Those for whom we have affection: 62 – 63. – For suffering Spirits who ask for prayers: 64 – 66. – For an enemy who has died: 67 – 68. – For a criminal: 69 – 70. For a suicide: 71 – 72. – For repentant Spirits: 73 – 74. – For hardened Spirits: 75 – 76. 5. PRAYERS FOR THE SICK AND OBSESSED 294 For those who are sick: 77 – 80. – For those who are obsessed: 81 – 84. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF SPIRIT COMMUNICATORS 301 PUBLISHER’S FOREWORD Ask any Spiritualist in the United Kingdom how many branches of Spiritualism there are, most will reply two: National Spiritualists and Christian Spiritualists. Yet in Brazil there is a group of Spiritualists or, as they call themselves, Spiritists who follow the teachings of Allan Kardec who far outnumber all the Spiritualists in the U.

K. Kardec wrote a number of books on the subject of Spiritism. It has been our policy to publish all aspects of Spiritualism leaving the reader to make up his or her own mind as to which path to follow. When Janet Duncan of the ALLAN KARDEC STUDY GROUP asked us if we would be interested in publishing a new translation of The Gospel According to Spiritism, we decided yes. This volume is the result. We hope The Gospel According to Spiritism will be the first in a series of all the Kardec works.

The Gospel According to Spiritism is the Spiritists view and explanation of the New Testament as brought to us by the Spirits and codified by Allan Kardec. TRANSLATOR’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am most grateful to all members of the ALLAN KARDEC STUDY GROUP and to all those who have helped in any way whatsoever, be it through prayer, advice, motivation or help with typing and most especially I wish to offer my heartfelt thanks to Martin Edmonds for hours of painstaking corrections, to Chloris Morgan our Publisher’s Reader, and finally to Glaucius Oliva for undertaking the responsibility of the final verifications with the original French.

Our most grateful thanks go to the Spiritist ‘brother’ who generously donated the entire cost of publication. May he be eternally blessed and may his desired anonymity be respected. We, the incarnate workers, have done our best to make this translation as authentic as is humanly possible. Our very special thanks must however, go to all the many Spiritual Helpers who have taken an active part in this translation. Many are the times I have been conscious of their presence, offering incentive and sometimes even dictating passages.

This work has brought me great joy and I can only hope that all who come to read it may likewise receive comfort and enlightenment, be strengthened and upheld along life’s troubled pathways. J. A. Duncan TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE This is no ordinary book. This is not a book which is usually read from cover to cover, afterwards to be placed on a bookshelf and forgotten. This is a book for daily use, for moments of trouble, when we feel in need of orientation and guidance, a bedside book, a book to be constantly on hand, to take with us in our hand-luggage when we travel.

In other words this is a book offering something very special to each person who may read and study it. A book which brings peace of mind and which comforts in times of bereavement. A book even for those who have only a faint knowledge or belief in God and Jesus. This is a book which can change lives by bringing tranquility out of chaos, certainty out of disbelief, compensation for both material and spiritual losses. But most importantly it brings us answers to many questions that we may have been asking, those famous questions such as ‘Who and what am I? ‘ ‘Where did I come from? ‘What am I doing here? ‘ ‘Where am I going? ‘ It brings us rational and logical explanations of such matters as reincarnation, inequality of wealth in the world, the reasons why we sometimes hate certain people on sight, and the many disharmonies that exist between husband and wife, brother and sister, parents and children, and many more. Probably this book will play its greatest part in helping humanity towards a better understanding of LIFE and lead Man towards spiritual enlightenment through its usefulness when used as readings in Churches and Study Groups.

It can also be of great help at times of stress, grief or when we are at a loss to know what to do, to open the book casually, after a moment’s thought and read at the point where our eye first falls upon the page. Finally, but certainly not the least of its uses is that it brings the ‘key’ to the Bible parables in everyday language together with the deep meanings behind the teachings of Jesus. This is the third book of the Doctrine as codified by ALLAN KARDEC whose real name was HIPPOLYTE LEON DENIZARD RIVAIL and we offered here a brief biography of this remarkable and dedicated man.

He was born in Lyon, France on 3rd October, 1804 into a family who for many generations had been either lawyers or magistrates. He was an intelligent child and was taught high principles of honor and morals by his parents. At an early age he showed strong inclinations towards the sciences and philosophy. When he was ten years of age he was sent to the Institute of Pestalozzi at Yverdun in Switzerland, where he soon acquired the habit of investigation and learnt the art of free thinking.

At the age of fourteen he began to give free lessons to school fellows who were less advanced and on occasion was asked to teach officially by Pestalozzi himself in his absence, due to his natural ability in this field. He became a fervent disciple of Pestalozzi and was much loved by the great man. In 1822 at the age of eighteen, Hippolyte returned to France. A year later he took up residence in Paris and in 1824 published his first book entitled: ‘A Theoretical ; Practical Arithmetic Course. ‘ This was so successful that it continued to be reprinted till as late as 1876.

He had an instinct for methodology and this was only the beginning, for he was to publish many other books on varying subjects including ‘A Classical Grammar of the French Language’ (1829). Some of these were adopted by the French University and the sale of these books rendered him a sufficient income to live on while he continued to give free lessons to school children. He taught chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, physics, rhetoric, comparative anatomy and physiology. He spoke fluent Italian and Spanish, had a profound knowledge of German, English and Dutch and some knowledge of Latin, Greek and Gallic.

He also translated a number of books, choosing those which he liked best. These included several by Fenelon which he translated into German. He opened his first school in 1825. It bore the name ‘First Grade School’ (Ecole de premier degre), for superior teaching and the following year he opened ‘The Rivail Technical Institute’ whose teaching was based on that of Pestalozzi. He married Amelie Gabrielle Boudet on 6th February 1832. She was nine years his senior, a writer, teacher of fine arts, poetess and artist. She was a perfect companion and helper, being dedicated and uncomplaining.

She played an important part in all her husband’s activities and sustained him through many financial difficulties encountered during his life, and greatly assisted him in his teaching. This extraordinary man could have become renounced and wealthy through his various talents, but this was not to be. He was a man with a mission! Between 1848 and 1850 an explosion of spirit phenomena occurred in America and even more strongly in Europe. In the last book of the codification ‘Posthumous Works’ published by Amelie, Kardec had written: “It was in 1854 that I heard about ‘Table-turning’ for the first time. His friend Mr. Fortier brought him the initial news of these extraordinary happenings: “The tables also talk! ” Kardec’s reply to this was: “I will only believe when I see it and when it can be proved to me that a table has a brain which can think, nerves to feel with and can also become somnambulic. Until then, allow me to see nothing more than fantasy in these stories! ” He had always been a disbeliever of such things as ghosts. After various encounters with Mr. Fortier, in 1855 he was finally persuaded to attend a seance and his curiosity was aroused.

He then became a frequent visitor at the seances held in the house of a certain Mr. Baudin. It was in fact here that he began his studies and research. He was never to become a medium, but was highly intuitive. On 30th April 1856 a medium in his group received the first indications from Spirit of his mission. His wife always accompanied him to all the meetings and eventually became his secretary, upholding him in every aspect of his work. He adopted the ‘nom de plume’ of ALLAN KARDEC at the suggestion of Spirit, so that the works of the codification should not be confused with his own works.

The first book of the codification (The Spirits’ Book), was published in 1857. This same year he also began meetings in his own home. A year later he founded ‘The Parisiene Society for Spiritist Studies’. The few remaining years of his life were dedicated to his work, the completion of the Codification, and to lecturing on Spiritism and its philosophy. He also made exhaustive journeys in order to take the word to as many places as possible, all of which he completed at his own expense. In 1867 he met Leon Denis, who became his disciple, and who later published a series of classic works on Spiritism.

On March 31st, 1869, having just finished drawing up the constitution and rules of a new society that he planned to form, while seated in his usual chair at his study-table in the Rue Sainte Anne, in the act of tying up a bundle of papers, his busy life was suddenly brought to an end. The passing from Earth into the Spiritual World was instantaneous, a peaceful falling asleep a fitting end to a life well lived. But although the physical man is no longer with us he lives on in Spirit, continuing his work by inspiring, stimulating and encouraging us to continue our search for knowledge.

In his introduction to THE SPIRITS’ BOOK, Allan Kardec expresses his opinion that new ideas need new terms and so he formulated the words SPIRITIST and SPIRITISM to give a clear and precise meaning to this doctrine. In his day the word Spiritualist meant the opposite to Materialist, but it did not follow that a Spiritualist believed in the existence of spirits or the possibility of communication with the invisible world. He employed the word Spiritism to stipulate the fundamental principle of the Spiritist theory which is the relation of the material world with spirits or the beings of the invisible world.

A Spiritist is one who adheres to this doctrine. We continue to use these terms today as the ideas they represent become more fully understood. Amongst those ideas is the study of the interrelationship between the two worlds, visible and invisible; the scientific, philosophical and religious aspects of existence; the ever pressing need for man to instruct himself, to cast aside all mystery and superstition; to accept responsibility for the life he leads today and the life he is making for himself in the future by his present actions, or lack of them, as the case may be.

As life gathers momentum, as the world goes from crisis to crisis at this time, we are more and more conscious of the reality of the truths contained in Kardec’s books. As the world prepares for a New Epoch, which is already dawning, we realize the need for all humanity to grow towards this knowledge, to seek enlightenment so as to be prepared. When this time will finally be upon the world then mankind will be able to appreciate the greatness of this man’s vision into the future. However, we must not forget one important fact, that in order to meet the future we must make preparations in our TODAY!

Each moment that passes cannot be recovered, therefore we must make use of every instant to grow SPIRITUALLY! To open up our horizons, to broaden our minds, to seek and cultivate our SPIRITUALITY! We are Spiritual Beings, we are all immortal creatures! If we are to one day find happiness and peace then we must consider our whole being! While we go on thinking of ourselves as material people, we are only looking at half of ourselves and here lies the secret of so many mistakes, so many unhappiness and so many failures. But in order to recognize these truths we must also be prepared to accept the responsibilities that go wish them.

For every person this wider and deeper knowledge of LIFE carries with it the need for self analysis, self-correction and self- improvement. Without these things we are all standing still, marking time, going nowhere! If this book helps even one person to take just one step forward then it will have done its work. God never demands the impossible of any one of us, nor gives us burdens for which we do not have the strength; so if we try to make a conscious effort to better ourselves then we have begun our journey into the future, towards the LIGHT, where one day victory, peace and joy will be ours.

London, 1987 Janet Duncan PREFACE The Spirits of the Lord, who are the Virtues of Heaven, move as does an immense army upon receiving orders from their commander spreading out over the face of the Earth and, similar to the stars which fall one after another from the skies, are come to illumine pathways and open the eyes of those who cannot see. In truth I say unto you the times are come when all things will be established in their true light, when the darkness shall be dissipated, the prideful confounded and the just glorified.

The great voices of Heaven reverberate like the sound of trumpets and the choirs of angels assemble. Mankind, we are inviting you to this divine concert. Take up the harp and lift up your voices in unison so that, in a sacred chorus, the sound may extend and reecho from one extreme of the universe to the other. Fellow beings, beloved brothers and sisters, we are here beside you. Love one another and say from the bottom of your hearts: Lord! Lord! In so doing you fulfill the wishes of the Father who is in Heaven; then you too may enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH INTRODUCTION 1.

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS WORK The Gospel can be divided into five parts: the events in the life of Christ; the miracles; the prophecies; the words taken by the Church on which they based their dogmas; the moral teachings. The first four have been the object of controversies. But the last, however, has remained constantly inviolate. Before this divine code even incredulity bows down. This is the common ground where all cults may be united, the flag under which all may gather, whatever their creeds may be, because it has never been a matter of religious dispute, which always and in all places has originated from dogmatism.

Moreover, if it had been discussed, then all cults would have found their own condemnation within it, seeing that, in the majority, they have held on to the more mystical rather than the moral part, which demands an intimate reform from each one. Specially prepared for mankind, it constitutes a code of rules on how to behave in every circumstance of private and public life and offers the basic principles for all social relations, founded on rigid justice. It is, finally and above all, the infallible route to lasting happiness and the uplifting of a comer of the veil that hides the future life.

This is what forms the exclusive objective of this work. Everyone admires the moral behind the Gospel; everyone proclaims its sublimeness and the need we have of it. However, of the many who proclaim their faith, believing what others have said or relying on maxims which have become proverbs, few know the basis and even fewer understand it or are able to deduce the consequences of it. In many cases the reason for this is in the difficulty of understanding the Gospel, which for many is quite unintelligible.

The allegorical form used and the intentional mysticism of the language make it something we read because we feel we ought to, because our conscience tells us to or because we are obliged to, as one would read prayers, without understanding them and consequently without taking any benefit from them. In this way the moral precepts go unnoticed, scattered here and there between a mass of narrative. This makes it impossible to get the general idea of the whole or to take these ideas as specific subjects for reading and meditation. It is true that various works have already been written concerning the evangelic moral.

But after being put into modem prose they have lost their primitive simplicity, which at the same time constitutes their charm and authenticity. Many others also deal with the best known maxims reduced to the simplest form of proverb. These then are no more than aphorisms, deprived of part of their value and interest due to the lack of accompanying accessories and the circumstances of the enunciation. In order to avoid this undesirability’s, we have collected together in this work all the subjects, so to say, that go to form a universal moral code without distinction as to creed.

In these citations we have kept all that is useful to the development of these ideas, putting aside only that which does not pertain directly to the matter. Apart from this we have kept scrupulously to the translations by Sacy (1) and to the division of the verses. But instead of following a chronological order, which would have been impossible and have made no sense, we have methodically grouped and classified the various maxims according to their respective natures so that they fallow on, one from the other, as much as possible.

Indication of chapters and verses permit reference to the original texts whenever desired. These details refer only to the material side of our work, which its own would be of secondary importance. The main objective was to put these teachings within easy reach of everybody by means of clear explanations, especially those passages which have, until now, remained obscure and so unfold the full consequences of these teachings and the manner in which they may be applied Tu. all walks of life. This is what we have attempted to do together with the help of the Good Spirits who assist us.

Many paints in the Gospel, the Bible and in the writings of the sacred authors are in general unintelligible, some even appearing nonsensical for lack of key which would help in understanding their true meaning. This key is to be found in its mast complete form within Spiritism, as those who have already made a serious study of it can verify, and as many more in the future will also come to recognize. Spiritism is to be found throughout ancient times and repeatedly during the different epochs of humanity. We find vestiges in many places in the form of writings, in beliefs and in monuments.

This is the reason why at the same time it is opening new horizons for the future, it is also projecting a no less brilliant light upon the mysteries of the past. As a compliment to each precept we have added some well chosen instructions from amongst those dictated, in various countries and to different mediums, by the Spirits. If they had been taken from only one origin they would probably have suffered the influence either of the person or the ambient, whereas the diversification of origins proves that the Spirits give teachings without distinction and that no one person is specially rivileged. (2) This work is for the use of everyone. From it we may all discover the means by which we may apply Christ’s morals to our daily lives and how best to go about it. This applies very be able to understand them and will see themselves incessantly compelled to put them into practice, according to the counseling of the Spiritual guides. These instructions coming from Spirit are really the voices from Heaven who have come to enlighten mankind and invite him to specially to Spiritists. ________________ 1) The version by Le Maistre de Sacy was always used by Kardec, but for the English translation the King James Version has been quoted. (Translator’s note. ) (2) It would have been possible, without doubt, to have presented many more communications from Spirit on each subject, all of which were received in cities and centers other than those cited. We wished, however, to avoid monotony and useless repetition and so have limited our choice to those which, from their base and form, apply more adequately within the plan of this work, reserving for future publication those we have not been able to use here.

With respect to the mediums, we have refrained from naming them. In most cases they themselves asked not to he mentioned and so we have made no exceptions. It is also a fact that the names of these mediums would not add more value to the work of the Spirits. The mentioning of them by name would only be an incentive to personal pride, to which serious mediums give no importance. They understand fully that their part in the work being merely passive, the value of the communication in no way exalts their personal merit.

It would be foolish to allow oneself to become vain about an intelligent work to which one had only lent mechanical assistance. Thanks to the relationship between man and the invisible world, which has henceforth been established on a permanent basis, the law of the Gospel which the Spirits have taught to all nations, will no longer be a matter of dead words because each one will put the Gospel into practice. 2. THE AUTHORITY BEHIND THE SPIRITIST DOCTRINE The Universal Control of the Spirit Teachings

If the Spiritist Doctrine were of a purely human conception it would offer no more guarantee than the enlightenment of those who actually conceived it. But no one on Earth could seriously contemplate the pretention of possessing the exclusive and absolute truth. If the Spirits who made these revelations had manifested to only one man we would have no guarantee of their origin since we would need to believe, on his word alone, what he said he had received as teachings from them. If we accepted perfect sincerity on his part, the most he could do would be to convince his circle of acquaintances.

He would be able to form a sect, but never be able to form a world congregation. God wished the new revelations to reach mankind by the quickest and most authentic path, so He entrusted the Spirits to deliver them from pole to pole, manifesting everywhere without conferring the exclusive privilege of hearing these words to any one individual. One person might be deceived, could even deceive them self, but this could not happen when millions of people see and hear the same thing. This constitutes a guarantee for each one and for all.

For the rest, it is possible to make one man disappear, but it is not possible to make everyone disappear. It is possible to bum books, but you cannot bum Spirits, and even if all the books were burnt, the base of the doctrine would still be inexhaustible because it is not to be found on Earth and would reappear in every place so that all might partake of it. If there is a shortage of men to diffuse it, there will always be Spirits whose action reaches everyone and even those whom no person can reach.

So then, it is the Spirits themselves who do the propagating with the help of innumerable mediums, disseminating all over the world. If there had been but one interpreter, however favored be might have been, Spiritism would barely be known. To whatever class is belonged, that interpreter would have been the object of caution to many people and not every nation would have accepted him, whereas the Spirits communicate to the four corners of the Earth, to all peoples, to all sects, to all parties and everyone accepts team.

Spiritism has no nationality and does not stem from any known cult that might exist; nor is it imposed by any social class seeing that any person may receive instructions from parents, relatives and friends from the beyond. This is haw it had to be accomplished if it was to lead all mankind towards brotherhood. If it did not maintain itself in neutral territory it would nurture dissensions instead of pacifying them. The force of Spiritism, as well as the cause of its rapid spread, resides in this universal teaching.

Where the word of one solitary person, even with the help of the press, would take centuries to become known by all, millions of voices are making themselves beard simultaneously in every corner of this planet. All are proclaiming the same principles and transmitting them on all levels, from the scholarly down to the most ignorant, in order that no one is disinherited. So far, this is an advantage that no other doctrine bas to offer. If Spiritism then be the truth, it is not afraid of being unwanted neither by man, nor of modern revolutions, or of the physical subversions of this globe, because nothing can touch the Spirits.

This is not however the only advantage which comes from this exceptional situation. It also offers an unattackable guarantee against all misgivings which might arise, be it from someone’s ambition or be it through the contradictions of some Spirits. We cannot deny that these contradictions are obstacles, but they bring their own remedy with them alongside the ill. We know that Spirits, due to differences in their various individual capacities, do not possess all the truth and do not claim to. It is not given to all to be able to penetrate certain mysteries.

The knowledge of each one is proportional to their evolution. Ordinary Spirits know nothing more than does Man himself, but amongst them, as amongst men and women, are those who are presumptuous and falsely wise, who think they know everything, boot who in fact are ignorant; these are the systematical ones who take their own ideas to be the truth. In short, it is only the highly evolved Spirits, those who are almost completely dematerialized, who find themselves free from earthly ideas and prejudices.

It is also known that less scrupulous Spirits do not hesitate to deceive by taking names which do not belong to them in order to impose their utopian ideas. As a result of all this and in relation to all that is outside the exclusive field of moral education, the revelations that any one medium may receive will have an individual character, without any stamp of authenticity and should be considered as personal opinions, from this or that Spirit, and it would be imprudent to accept them or thoughtlessly propagate them as absolute truths.

The first corroborative test to be undertaken is without doubt that of reason, to which it is wise to submit, without exception, all that comes from Spirit. Any theory in evident contradiction to good sense, or against rigorous logic, or positive facts that have been previously acquired should be rejected, however apparently respectable be the name by which it is signed. This test will no doubt be left incomplete due to the lack of illumination of some people and the tendency of many to take their own opinions as judgments of truth.

That being the case, what are those who deposit absolutely no faith in themselves to do? They should seek what seems to be the majority and take this as a guide. This then, is the manner in which you should proceed when judging what is said by the Spirits, who are the first to offer the means of so doing. Complete concordance of Spirit teaching is the best proof of authenticity. However, it is important that this be received only under determined conditions.

The weakest type of concordance is obtained when the medium, of his own accord, interrogates many different Spirits about a doubtful point. It is evident that, if the medium is under an obsessing influence or dealing with a mystifying Spirit, then that Spirit may say the same thing under different names. Neither is it any adequate guarantee to conformity when communications are received by different mediums at the same centre because they may be under the same influences.

Only one sure guarantee exists for spirit teachings: This is the concordance that exists between revelations which have been received spontaneously by a large number of mediums not known to each other and located in different places. It is understood that we are not referring to those communications which deal with secondary interests, but those referring to the basic principles of the doctrine. Experience has taught us that when a new principle is to be presented, it always happens spontaneously in different places at the same time and in the same way, if not in actual form at least in general content.

On the other hand, if by any chance a Spirit formulates eccentric doctrine based exclusively on its own ideas and excluding the truth, you may be sure that this idea will remain confined and undoubtedly will collapse when confronted with instructions received from many other places, similar to many examples which are already known. It was this exclusiveness which destroyed all the biased doctrine which sprang up at the time of the initiation of Spiritism, when each one explained the phenomena according to their own beliefs, before the Laws that govern the relationship between the visible and invisible worlds became known.

That is what we have based yourself on when formulating a principle for the doctrine. We do not insist on it being true just because it might be in accordance with our own ideas. Neither do we have the least desire to uphold our self as being the sole possessor of the whole truth and we have never said to anyone: “Believe in this because it is I who tell you”. We consider that our own opinion is nothing more than personal, which might be true or false, as we are no more infallible than anyone else.

It is not because we were taught a principle that we believe it to be true; it is due to the fact that it has received the sanction of concordance. The position in which we find our self is that of receiving communications from almost a thousand serious Spiritual Centers, scattered over highly diversified areas of this planet. This gives us the possibility of observing on which principles concordance is established. It is this concordance which has guided us till today, and it is the one which will go on guiding us in new fields still to be explored.

We have noticed while studying these communications, coming from France and outside, that from the very special nature of the information a new path is being sought and that the moment bas arrived to take a step forward. These revelations, many times given through veiled words, have frequently passed unperceived by many who receive them. Others have thought themselves to be the sole receivers. Taken in isolation, we would have given them no importance and it is only the coincidence which proves their seriousness.

Later, when these new teachings reach the public, there will be many who will remember having received the same orientation. This general movement which we are studying and observing, together with the assistance of our Spiritual Guides, is what helps us to judge whether it is the correct moment to do something or not. This universal verification constitutes the guarantee of the future unity of Spiritism and will annul all contradictory theories. It is here that in the future we shall find our criteria for the truth.

The cause of the success of the doctrine as put forth in THE SPIRITS’ BOOK and THE MEDIUMS’ BOOK was due to the fact that everybody bad received confirmation, direct from Spirit, of what these books contain. Whereas if all the Spirits bad come to contradict them they would have received the same fate suffered by others who expounded imaginary concepts. Not even the support of the press would have saved them from shipwreck. But on the contrary, deprived as they were of this support, they nevertheless opened new paths and have made rapid advancement.

This is because the Spirits offered their support and goodwill which not only compensated but surpassed the lack of goodwill and the part of Man. This is what will happen to all ideas, whether emanated from Man or Spirit, which prevail even in the face of this confrontation and this is the final test whose strength no one can deny. Suppose it pleased some Spirits to dictate a book, under whatever title you choose, offering contrary teachings; let us suppose their intention was hostile, with the object of discrediting the doctrine and maliciously provoking apocryphal communications.

What influence could these writings exercise if they were refuted by all other Spirits? Anyone wishing to launch a doctrine in their own name should first seek assurance in combined concordance from the Spirits. There is no comparison between a system devised by only one person to that of another devised by everyone. What can the arguments of slanderers, wishing only to belittle, achieve against the opinion of the masses, if millions of friendly voices from space make themselves heard in opposition in every comer of the Universe, as well as in family homes?

What happens to the innumerable publications which have the pretention of destroying Spiritism? Which of them has as much as caused a hesitation in its march? Till now no one has considered the matter from this point of view without forgetting the most important fact: each one has been depending on themselves, without counting on the Spirits. The principle of concordance is also a guarantee against any alterations to which Spiritism might be subjected by other sects wishing to take possession of it for their own ends, and so change it to suit their own ideas.

Whosoever tries to deviate Spiritism from its providential objective will never succeed, for the simple reason that the Spirits, as a universal body, will cause any ideas contrary to the truth to fall. From all this stands out the main truth which is that he who wishes to oppose the established and sanctioned ideas could, to be sure, cause a localized perturbation lasting but a short while, but could never dominate the whole, not even for a moment and certainly not over a period of time.

We should also like to point out that instructions given by Spirits on points not yet elucidated by the doctrine should not be considered as law, until these instructions have been duly isolated and proven. Neither should they be accepted except with all doe reserve and under the heading of ‘awaiting confirmation’. From this we understand the need for greater prudence before making any such communication public. But if they are deemed fit to be publicized they should be presented as mere individual opinions, possibly true, but awaiting confirmation.

It will be necessary to wait for this confirmation before proclaiming it as a complete truth, unless you wish to be accused of levity or of irreflected cruelty. The Superior Spirits proceed with extreme wisdom in their revelations. They never touch on the most important questions, except gradually, until our intelligence shows itself to accept a more advanced truth and when circumstances show themselves to be favorable to a new idea. This is why they did not reveal everything from the outset, and still have not told everything.

They never give themselves to impatience, like those who want to eat the fruit before it is ripe. It is useless to try to hurry things forward beyond the time designated by Providence for its revealing, and if you do try, the serious Spirits will always deny their assistance. Those Spirits who are frivolous are not the least preoccupied with the truth and consequently will give answers to anything and everything. So it is in this manner that whenever a question is premature, contradictory answers will always be found.

The principles mentioned above have not been formed as the result of a personal theory; they are consequences which have been forced upon us from the varying conditions within which Spirit communication is manifest. It is quite evident that if one Spirit says one thing and thousands of other Spirits say something different, we presume the truth does not lie with the solitary communicant. For someone to imagine they possess the troth against all the rest would be quite illogical, be it man or Spirit.

The really ponderous Spirits, if they do feel completely or sufficiently clarified about any subject never give a definite answer, but declare that they are merely giving their own point of view and suggest that we await the necessary confirmation. However large, beautiful or just an idea appears, it is impossible to unite opinions right from the first moment. The conflicts which arise in this case are the inevitable consequences which such a movement would cause, and they are necessary so that the truth may be emphasized and the sooner this happen the better, so that any false ideas may be discarded.

Any Spiritists who feels worried by this situation may be tranquil, as all these isolated claims will fall before the enormous and discerning force of universal concordance. It is not the opinion of any man which will produce unity, but the unanimous voices of the Spirits; it will not be any man, least of all myself, who will destroy the Spiritist orthodoxy, neither will it be a Spirit wishing to impose whatever it may be. This unity will be accomplished by the universal gathering of Spirits who communicate throughout the world, by order of God.

This is the essential character of the Spiritist Doctrine; this is its force and its authority. God desired that His Law be set upon an immovable base and so did not trust the se fundamentals to only one fragile being. Before such a powerful tribunal, where neither conspiracy, rivalries, sects or nations are known, all opposition, ambition and those who seek individual supremacy will fall. We ourselves will fall if we try to substitute our own ideas for those of God. He alone will decide all lawful questions, impose silence a disagreement and give reason to those who have it.

Before this imposing accord, from the voices of Heaven, what value has an opinion of a mere man or that of one Spirit? It makes no more impression than a drop of water in the ocean and even less than a child’s voice in a tempest. Universal opinion, like that of a supreme judge, is the one which is pronounced last, being formed from all the individual opinions. If one of these contains the truth it merely shows its own relative weight in the balance and if it is false it cannot prevail against the rest.

In this immense concourse all individuality disappears and this constitutes yet another disappointment for man’s pride. This harmonious assemblage is already being formed and before the turn of this century we shall see its full brightness shining forth in such a manner as to dissipate all doubt. The field is prepared and from now a patent voices will receive the mission of making themselves heard in order to congregate Man under one banner. But until this actually happens, all those who fluctuate between two opposing points of view can observe in which way general opinion forms.

This will be the correct indication as to the declaration of the majority of the Spirits and the varying subjects about which they offer orientation, and are an even more accurate sign as to which of the two systems will prevail. 3. HISTORIC FACTS In order to better understand the Gospel, it is necessary to know the true meaning of many of the words used which bear relation to the customs and the Jewish society of the time. Some of these words no longer have the same meaning and have frequently been misinterpreted, which in tom has led to uncertainty.

When the full meanings are explained, it shows the real sense behind certain maxims which, at first sight, appear rather strange. SAMARITANS – After the division of the ten tribes, Samaria became the capital of the dissident kingdom of Israel. Destroyed and rebuilt various times, under Roman rule it became the administrative head of Samaria, one of the four divisions of Palestine. Herod the Great beautified Samaria with sumptuous monuments and to gratify Augusto, gave it the name of Augusta, in Greek Sebaste. The Samaritans were almost constantly at war with the kings of Judah.

Profound aversion, dating from the time of the separation, perpetuated between the two tribes causing them to avoid any kind of reciprocal relations. In order to widen the schism, and to avoid going to Jerusalem for religious festivities, they built themselves a private temple and adopted some reforms. They only admitted the Pentateuch, which contained the laws of Moses, rejecting all other books to which these were annexed, and their sacred books were all written in ancient Hebrew characters. According to orthodox Jews, they were heretics and consequently despised, excommunicated and persecuted.

The antagonism between the two nations was founded exclusively upon their religious divergences, despite the fact that the origin of their belief was the same. They were the Protestants of their time. Some Samaritans are still to be found in certain regions of the Lavent, especially near Nablus and in Jaffa. They observe the laws of Moses more strictly than other Jews and only marry amongst themselves. NAZARITES – The name given in olden times to Jews who took the vow, either temporary or perpetual, to remain in perfect purity. They promised to observe chastity, abstain from alcoholic drinks and not to cut their hair.

Samson, Samuel and John the Baptist were Nazarites. Later on, the Jews gave this name to the first Christians, alluding to Jesus from Nazareth. This was also the name given to a heretical sect from the first phase of the Christian epoch and who, like the Ebonites, from whom they adopted certain principles, mixed the practice of the Mosaic Law with those of Christian dogmas. This sect disappeared during the fourth century AD. PUBLICANS – In ancient Rome this was the name given to those who rented out the collection of public taxes and all kinds of incomes, either in Rome itself or in other parts of the Empire.

They were like the general collectors and auctioneers of taxes in the ancient system in France, which still exists in some regions. The risks they ran made most people close their eyes when it came to their frequently amounted riches which for some were the fruits of levies and scandalous gains. Later on the name ‘Publican’ was extended to all those who superintended public monies and their underling agents. Today, the term is employed in a disparaging way, to denote financiers and agents with very few scruples.

It is said: “As greedy as a Publican” or “as rich as a Publican”, referring to their ill-gotten gains. During Roman role the question of taxes was what the Jews found most difficult to accept, causing great irritation amongst themselves. Many revolts resulted from this problem, so turning it into a religious question, as it was considered to be against the Law. Indeed, a powerful party was formed at whose front put a certain citizen was named Judah the Gaulite, whose objective was to abolish all taxes. The Jews consequently abominated these taxes and all those entrusted with collecting them.

Thence sprang up the aversion shown to Publicans of all categories, amongst whom could be found many people of esteem, but who due to their functions, were despised together with whomsoever kept company with them. Prominent Jews considered it a compromise to have any personal relationship with these people. TAX COLLECTORS – These were the lower class of collectors, entrusted principally with the collection of tools entering cities. Their function corresponded more or less with those of the customs officials and the granting of passes.

They shared the rejection suffered by Publicans in general. This is the reason why, in the Bible, we frequently meet the ward Publican alongside the expression – sinful people. This did not imply debauchery or vagrancy but was a term of scorn, synonym for people who kept bad company persons unworthy to mix with decent people. PHARISEES (From the Hebrew, meaning division or separation. ) – Tradition is an important part of Jewish theology. It consists of a compilation of the successive interpretations given to the Scriptures which became articles for dogmas.

Amongst scholars this was the subject for interminable discussions, most of which were over simple questions as to the meaning of words and their form, just like theological disputes and subtleties of scholastics in the middle Ages. From all this resulted different sects, each one wishing to have the monopoly of the Truth and consequently detesting one another, as so often happens. Among these sects the most influential were the Pharisees, whose chief, Hillel, a Jewish doctor born in Babylonia some 180 or 200 years BC, was the founder of a famous school where it was taught that faith should be put only in the scriptures.

The Pharisees were persecuted at different times, especially under Hyrcania (who was sovereign pontiff and king of the Jews), Aristoblus and Alexander, who was a king of Syria. However, Alexander granted them honors and restored their properties which made it possible for them to reacquire their old powerful status. This was conserved until the ruin of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD, at which time the name disappeared in consequence of the scattering of the Jews. The Pharisees took an active part in religious controversy.

They were faithful practitioners of exterior cults and ceremonies, full of ardent zeal, proselytism, and enemies of innovations, maintaining great severity of principles. But behind the cover of punctilious devotion lay dissolute habits, a great deal of pride and above all an excessive desire to dominate. Religion was actually a means to an end, rather than an object of sincere faith. It possessed nothing of virtue beyond outward appearances and ostentation. Nevertheless, they exercised a great influence over the people, in whose eyes they were sacred. This is how they became powerful in Jerusalem.

They believed, or made out they believed, in Divine Providence, the immortality of the soul, eternal punishment and the resurrection of the dead (See chapter 4, item 4). But Jesus, esteeming simplicity and the qualities of the heart above all else, whose preference within the law was for the spirit which vitalizes to the word which kills, applied Himself throughout His mission to the unmasking of their hypocrisy, and because of this was considered by them to be their enemy. This then is the reason why the Pharisees, together with the High Priests, incited the people to eliminate Him .

THE SCRIBES – This name was given in the main to the secretaries of the kings in Judea and to certain people who understood matters relating to the Jewish army. Later it was applied to those scholars who taught the Law of Moses and interpret it to the People. They joined in common cause with the Pharisees, sharing their principles as well as their aversion to all innovations. This is why Jesus included them when He launched criticism against the Pharisees. SYNAGOGUE(From the Greek SUNAGOGUE meaning assembly, congregation. ). There was only one temple in Judah, that of Solomon in Jerusalem, where all the great ceremonies of worship were held.

Every year all the Jews would go there in pilgrimage for the principal festivals, such as the Passover, the Dedication and the Feast of the Tabernacle. It was on the occasion of these feasts that Jesus would also be present. The other cities did not have temples, only synagogues, buildings where the Jewish people would collect for their Saturday meetings and public prayers, under the leadership of their Eiders, the scribes, or scholars versed in the Law. It was due to this fact that Jesus, although He was not a priest, was able to teach at the synagogues on Saturdays.

Ever since the ruin of Jerusalem and the dispersal of the Jews, the synagogues, in the cities where they went to live, became temples for the celebration of their cults. SADDUCEES – Another Jewish sect founded about 24 BC whose name came from Sadoc, us founder. They did not believe in immortality or resurrection, nor in good and bad angels. However, they did believe in God. But as they expected nothing after death, they served Him having in mind only temporary recompenses which, according to them, were limited by Divine Providence.

With these thoughts in mind, their main objective in life was the satisfaction of all physical senses. As to the scriptures, they followed the texts of the old laws. They would not accept traditions or any form of interpretation. They put good works and the pure and simple observance of this law before all outward practices of worship. They were, as you see, the materialists, deists and sensualists of their time. The sect had few followers, but amongst them were some important personages and it became a political party constantly in opposition to the Pharisees.

ESSENES – They were a Jewish sect founded about the year 150 BC in the time of the Maccabeans, whose members, living in types of monasteries, formed amongst themselves a kind of moral and religious association. They distinguished themselves by their pacific ways and austere virtues, taught the love of God and neighbor, the immortality of the soul, and believed in resurrection. They were celibate, condemned war and slavery, held all their worldly goods in common, and devoted themselves to agriculture.

Contrary to the Sadducees, who were very sensual and denied immortality, and the Pharisees of rigid external practices and only apparent virtues, the Essences never took part in the disputes which caused antagonism between the other two sects. In their way of life they were similar to the first Christians, and the moral principles they professed caused many people to suppose that Jesus had belonged to their community before He began His mission. It is certain that He knew them, but there is nothing to prove that He was related to them, so all that has been written to this effect is simply hypothetical. 1) THERAPEUTS (From the Greek THERAPEUTAY, formed from THERAPEUEYN to serve, meaning: servants of God or Healers. ) – These were Jewish sectarians and contemporaries of Christ, being mostly established in Alexandria in Egypt. Like the Essences, whose principles they adopted, they also practiced all the virtues. They were extremely frugal in their eating habits, were celibate, dedicated to meditation, lived solitary lives and constituted a truly religious order. Felon, a platonic Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, was the first to speak of the Therapeuts, whom he considered as a Jewish sect.

Eusebius, Saint Jerome and other originators of the Church believed them to be Christians. Whether they were, or whether they were Jewish, the fact remains that, like the Essences’, they represent a link in the union betwe

After much deep thought and brainstorming about this reflective statement for the monotheistic religions, I realized how much that I have grown intellectually since the beginning of the semester. It is evident that I truly put what Mr. K said at the beginning of the semester into theory: “don’t believe anything I say. ” Prior to taking this course I had very little knowledge about world religions, and the only knowledge I did have were taken from media sources. I was very eager to learn about Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Sikhism, but not so much about Christianity because I am quite familiar with Christianity.

This assignment made me realize that I never took the time to think outside of the box, and I’m happy to say that I started, not only in this class, but in all of my other courses. The video “History on The Devil” was especially captivating because the word “devil” is synonymous with numerous religions, and used quite frequently in everyday life. I was raised Catholic, and I always associated the Devil with all of the stereotypical ideas and theories like: the fight between good and evil, and the opposite of God. After watching the movie, the meaning of the Devil changed.

Now it means anything that is destructive to one’s self. General examples include not losing 10 lbs. due to lack of exercise, a drug addiction, and abusive significant other, or not pursuing a life-long dream. Personally, the challenge or “Devil” that I face in my life is not completing my degree in a timely manner. I have allowed too many obstacles to come into my path, and delay my success. It is odd how a movie on the devil would offer me motivation to complete school. Chapter 8 Judaism was very intriguing to me because I wanted to visit B’Nai Israel Synagogue for my Religious Visit report.

I did not want to attend the service without a basic knowledge of Judaism because I felt like that would have been somewhat disrespectful and in order to be fully immersed in the culture I needed a foundation. According to the text book Israel refers to “all those who answer the call of God and who acknowledge and strive to obey the one God, through The Torah, or teachings, given to the patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets. ” It is this aforementioned quote that intrigued me to learn more about Judaism.

It was a simple statement, but I wanted to learn more. As a child, I attended a Synagogue for a summer camp. I am not a practicing Jew, nor are my parents or any close relatives, so at times I felt left out. I remember taking Challah bread on Fridays, and reading out of what I thought was “The Bible, which is referred to as Tanakh, but I never learned anything about what Jewish people believed or their heritage. There is more to follow on Judaism in my report. I hate to admit this, but I had several stereotypical views of Islam.

The aspects of Islam that offended me were the treatment of women, how the institution of marriage is treated, the fact that it is a patriarchal religion, and its affiliation with U. S terrorism. After reviewing the text and videos, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Islam means “peace”, and that treatment of women has improved dramatically. Furthermore, polygamy is allowed, but rarely practiced. The spiritual practices and beliefs of Muslims can be summed up in the Five Pillars: belief and witness, daily prayer, zakat (charity), fasting, and Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).

The last religion I would like to touch base on is Sikhism. I grew up in Taos, NM and there was a Sihk temple down the street, and I was always fascinated by this culture. After researching Sikhism in NM, it is interesting to know that Epola, NM houses one of the world’s largest populations of Sikhs in the entire world. Sikhism is a monotheistic religion that originated in India in the 15th century. Their place of worship is called gurdwara. The Five K’s refers to the article of faith worn by the Sikhs which include: Kesh, kangha, kara, kachera, and kirpan.

Jewish feminism has had a significant impact on the development and expression of Judaism. They have faced many obstacles and brought about much change in the Jewish tradition. Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to improve the religious, legal and social role and contribution of women within Judaism. Feminism can be traced back to the early 1970s where women began to question their roles amongst society. For Jewish women, they wanted to focus on the composition of the minyan, the exemption from some mitzvot, exclusion of women as witnesses of Jewish law and the position of women in relation to divorce proceedings.

Each variant has responded differently to feminism and the level of impact as differed amongst Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Jews. Judaism is known for being more patriarchal than many other organised religions. This has made it difficult for Jewish feminists to bring about equity and tzedakah. Jewish feminists have one main agenda and that is to challenge and fight sexism within Judaism. They see their work as part of their duty to tikkun olam and believe their actions bring tzedakah to their faith community.

Jewish feminism created much controversy as many men thought that it would have a weakening effect on Jewish life, however many would argue that it has been strengthened. The Orthodox Jewish communities found the impact of Jewish feminism to be a significant issue for their interpretation of the halakah and how their religion is to be expressed. They seeked change in a manner that can be defended by Jewish law and always worked within the framework of traditional worship. However, amongst the Reform and Conservative Jews, their attitudes have been much greater.

Reform Jews have accepted that a woman can perform any religious ritual that a man does. They were the first group to do away with the mehiztah, that separated men from woman in the synagogue, they felt the customs and practices should be more in keeping with modern society. This had a significant impact as it led to the change in service and synagogue, and the service was rewritten in English from Hebrew. Jewish Feminism called upon all variants of Judaism to reconsider its response to the mitzvot and other elements of the halakah.

Jewish feminists challenged Judaism in areas such as the patriarchal interpretation of sacred texts, role of women in rituals, role of women in leadership eg: Rabbi and the general rights of women. In 1972, ten New York Jewish feminists calling themselves Ezrat Nashim presented a document, “Call For Change”, to the Conservative movements Rabbinical Assembly. This “Call for Change” demanded that women be considered to perform all mitzvot, allowed full participation in religious observances, be counted in the minyan, have equal rights in marriage and initiate divorce.

Judaism was changed by this document in 1977 when Conservative Judaism introduced feminist rituals. Until the 1950s Jewish women traditionally took a back seat in communal worship. The synagogue was divided with a mehitzah as they felt that men could not concentrate and keep their thoughts purely on prayer and their individual connection with God. Jewish feminism’s impact on this issue was significant as they changed the physical direction of the mehitzah in the synagogue so women could see the front and yet the men were still separated from them.

This change of the direction symbolises the change of views. Jewish feminism had a strong impact on the religious observances, laws and services. The role of women amongst society was changed in 1973 when the first female Rabbi, Sally Priesland, was ordained. There were many objections to the allowance of female Rabbis and numerous questions were raised such as their abilty to raise families and cope with the religious demands and if they were able to interpret the Scriptures correctly.

However, non feminists were able to see that these women brought intuitive perspectives that positively questioned the base of the Jewish beliefs. Therefore the extent of change in response to Jewish feminism varies across the differing expressions of Judaism. It has brought new and fresh perspectives to the nature of worship services. Women will continue to demand and receive equality in both the secular and religious worlds. Jewish feminism has brought to each of the variants a closer relationship and a stronger response to the call tikkun olam.