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The tendency of Talmid’s Essay in The Occident for
Nissan, 5607, is to impress on our mind, that God must needs circumcise
our heart, or in other words influence us with a desire for virtue;
because, according to his mode of belief, man is born in original sin.
This idea is very difficult to be understood. For if it is God’s holy
will that man should love virtue, why did He send him into this state of
life with an original sin, this great and insuperable stumbling-block to
the pursuit of virtue? If it is the highest attribute of man to possess
freedom of will, and if this is the basis of all moral excellence: then
is the notion of original sin, and God’s direct impulse, quite
impossible. If man can act only under guidance of a supernatural
influence, how can God reward or punish him? Or how can we explain then
the passage of the Bible (Deut. 5:29): “O that there were such an heart
unto them to fear me and to keep my commandments always, that it be well
with them and their children for ever?” It is a sublime and
philosophical principle of our religion, that from the hand of the
All-good never any evil can come; wherefore we know nothing of an
original sin, nor of a devil, nor a sacrificed saviour to redeem the
human race from their iniquities.
Talmid, however, attempts to prove the correctness
of his views by the words of Deuteronomy, 36, and of Aben Ezra’s
assertion, מאתו העלילה הראשונה “from
Him is the first impulse.” I have to state here, that the old
philosophers never employ the word עלילה as the cause of good, for when such an idea is to be conveyed,
they make use of the word סבה or
עילה; they use
עלילה only in its strict sense, the
cause of evil; the author of רוח חן gives no other explanation of this word. To come to a correct
understanding. of Aben Ezra’s meaning, we must first refer to a passage
of the Rambam, which he repeats three times, in הל' יסוד התורה—הל'
תשובה —and
ה' פרקים that “God
deprives the deeply fallen sinner of his power of will, till he has
suffered his merited punishment, when only he is restored to his dignity
of man, and obtains again the power over himself;” and this is,
according to the opinion of the Rambam, the severest punishment in this
life. He thus explains several passages in Scripture, for instance: “And
the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh,” (Exodus 9:12;) “Harden the
hearts of this people,” (Isa. 6:16,) &c. &c. This doctrine of our
learned Rambam is quite plain; not only because without it many passages
in the Bible, Talmud and Midrash could not be explained, but because the
common observer can find a thousand proofs for it in practical life. The
obdurate sinner sleeps his sleep of sin in the dark night of his
ignorance; let the thunder of the Almighty roll terribly over his head,
let, the lightnings of the most High rend asunder the veil of the
darkness which envelopes him: he still sleeps, has terrible dreams, and
starts up frightened by these visions—but immediately sinks again into
sleep. This is the punishment from the Lord for him who will not listen
to the divine voice, when it calls to him in accents of love: “Till
here, and no farther! stand still and consider!” For him who has emptied
the cup of sin, and in his intoxication keeps the cup cleaving to his
thirsty lips. And when this cup of virulent poison is at length quite
drained, he casts it down, shatters it to fragments, and in his madness
he snatches up the shattered pieces, and licks off the single drops that
perchance adhere to them, till they are soiled with the blood of the
sinner. If we now ask, whether such a punishment is not in contradiction
with the idea of a benevolent Deity, of a just God; we ought to seek for
a solution m the words of Isaiah (26:10, 11): “Let favour be showed to
the wicked, never will he learn righteousness, in the land of
uprightness will he continue dealing unjustly, and will not behold the
majesty of the Lord. Lord! when thy hand is lifted up they will not see;
but they shall see and be ashamed.”
Only by taking this idea of the Rambam for our
guide can we understand Deuteronomy 28:64: “And the Lord shall scatter
thee among all people, from one end of the earth even unto the other,
and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy
fathers have known, even wood and stone.” On account of the sinful life
of the Israelites, the sin of idolatry is prophesied to them as a
punishment. Can one sin be a recompense for another? But according to
the views of the Rambam, it is the very punishment which we might
expect; the helplessness, namely, which follows on habitual
transgression; and so the vicious will have a full knowledge of their
vices, without possessing the free will to abandon them.
In Deut. 29 it is said that, if the Israelites
would walk in the ways of the Lord, they should partake of his
blessings; then follows a delineation of their dreadful fall, and a
severe retribution for their iniquity is threatened. And to the question
asked by the nations: “Why hath the Lord done thus to this land?” the
answer is given: “Because they forsook the Lord their God, and served
other gods.” And lastly, it is said: “And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are
written in this book.” Why are the nations introduced here as
propounding questions? Why would God bring all his curses over our
land? Might not the people repent? and does not the Talmud lay it down
as a principle אין לך דבר שעומד מפני התשובה “Repentance extinguishes every guilt?” To this we answer, because God
will, at some future day sure to come, be acknowledged by all nations,
who, when they behold so terrible a punishment, might come to believe
that God never pardons a sin, but punishes continually. Therefore does
the Lord say to the nations: “The inhabitants of this land have erred so
grievously, that my whole anger was aroused against them, in such a
manner that it took from them their freedom of will to call on me for
mercy, until they had suffered my whole punishment; wherefore the land
presents the fearful picture of desolation which strikes the eye of the
beholder.” With chapter 30 begins the second section of this prophecy,
and refers to the time when God’s punishing hand will be removed from
Israel, and they will be restored to their freedom of will:
והשבת אל לבבך “And thou wilt cause
thy will to come back to thy heart:” (the Hiphil has no other than a
causative meaning.) And thenושבת עד ה' אלהיך Thou wilt return even unto the Lord thy God, and He will receive thee
again, and thou shalt be his accepted nation, his chosen people, the
peculiar treasure of the Most High.” With the sixth verse
commences the reply to the question, whether the persecutors of Israel
shall remain unpunished; and it says: ומל ה'
אלהיך את לבבך “When the Lord shall have circumcised thy heart.”
But how? or in what way? Does God then give the impulse to the good? Not
a word is said here on this point; and we with perfect justice now apply
the words of Aben Ezra: מאתו העלילה הראשונה
“From Him came the first cause of a hardened heart, for this was the
punishment; and now he has taken away the punishment, and the heart is
circumcised; but those who have persecuted thee, whose vices were as
heinous as thy own, shall now bear the same burden of obduracy.” Talmid
will not understand the other passage from Aben Ezra, and no doubt
better yet, if we add that he and the Rambam belonged to the same
philosophical school.
W.
(To be
continued.)
NOTE.—The great length of several articles in our
present number reluctantly compels us to divide W.’s article, also to
postpone Talmid’s third essay for a later period.
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