The Jemish Religion
7
most primitive beginnings down to our own present day aye, even down to tomorrow, if we can but raise the curtain of the future but a Httle, and behold the stage set for tomorrow's act. However, we are unable to trace our history in all its The most we can do is to details back to its actual origin. begin with the earliest period of our Bible narrative and follow the history of our people and our religion through
and centuries, noting the fortunes and through all these, whether good or ill, the ever-growing knowledge of God and of the meaning of life, and the constantly expanding consciousness We are, of mission and message, down to our own day. in a very real and positive sense, as important actors upon the stage of Jewish history as were the heroes and sages of successive
which
old.
generations
befell
We
them,
are the heirs of
all
our glorious past.
Jews we must know what Judaism is. what Judaism is only when we know
its
not merely in Bible times, but throughout
knowing Jewish history
thus,
we can
light of present times, conditions,
make Judaism what
it
To
And we
be true
know
can
complete history,
all
and when,
ages,
reinterpret
it
in
the
and needs, and can thereby
has alw^ays been in truth, not merely
a religion of the past, but also a religion of the present and the
future, a religion of God's true life on earth.
vast knowledge, and given only to the few to
It
know
is
a
with
any degree of fulness. Yet upon every Jew rests the duty of learning all of Judaism that he can, that through it he may come to feel as a Jew, think as a Jew, and interpret life
and duty as a Jew.
The Periods of Jezmsh History It
is
a
fallacy
of
a
large public,
sadly unfamiliar with
Jewish tradition and literature, that the Bible is our only book, and that all our history is contained in the Biblical
