GEN834 The ideal Jewish home is created by the conviction that a blessing unfolds itself within the life of husband and wife and their children through the family. This is both of a natural and of a spiritual order. Home life is on a partnership basis; there is the love and the care of the parents for their children and there is the obedience and the respect of the children towards their parents. In their father and mother, the children have before their eyes that union between man and wife which is Kiddushin (holy). It is from the care and love for him that the child first learns the meaning of God as “Our Father who art in Heaven (avinu she’bashamayim).”  One of the many answers that could be given to the question “What is Judaism?” is this: It is a religion in which the family is in possession of God’s blessing and in which the parents hand down this blessing to their children. It is in the happiness of the family life that the Jew experiences his nearness to God.  The question might also be asked “What is marriage?” The answer could equally be given very simply. It is not merely a social relationship but an attempt to create joy and peace in the world, to build a sanctuary out of a worldly institution. Husband and wife and enabled through marriage to share in the creative work of God, “renewing the creation every day continually” Singer’s Prayer Book, p. 37.  Both can sustain life and make it holy; empowered by their life together to bring out the best that is in them.  “Thou are consecrated unto me by this ring according to the Law of Moses and Israel” is the translation of the nine Hebrew words by which the bride becomes a wife. They form a gateway through which the couple proceed towards their future life of joy and holiness, at the same time impressing upon them that they are now dedicated to each other for life. Jewish family life will always be the main reason for the survival of our people; for it is the ideal home that forges characters able to withstand extinction. No gain in national territory could ever offset the tragedy that would ensue were those ideals of Judaism – marriage, the Sabbath and Kashrut – to suffer a decline in the State of Israel. Thucydides, the historian of the Peloponesian Wars, records that Greece fell not because of the clash of arms but because home life was being destroyed.  Rome had a similar tale to tell. On account of the danger existing to the sanctity of marriage not only in the Golah [i.e., exile/diaspora – AJL] but also in Israel, it is the task of spiritual leaders constantly to be on their guard to defend and explain the ethical import of a Jewish union. … Marriage is holy, for it gives to men and women the opportunity of taking art in the miracle of creation and provides for the children resulting from such a happy union the best environment for their sound and healthy development – a united and happy home and the love and care of devoted parents. It is also blessed, because it offers to the majority of men and women the greatest chance of achieving personal happiness and the joy of companionship with a beloved and chosen partner. Judaism sees in marriage a mitigation of the essential loneliness of life and the opportunity of shared interests which gives content and significance to things around us.  LEHRMAN 246-9

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GEN865 Our duty as Jews is clear: to hallow God before all men by doing good. To act otherwise, is to profane the conception of Jewish divinity. Judaism has set its face sternly against any manifestation of extremism, whether religious asceticism or pagan hedonism. Any lip-service to a cause was denounced, and a formal action when divorced from moral content received the lash of condemnation. Our prayers were called by the Rabbis “the service of the heart” (avodah she’ballev). Sotah 31a.  Torah, wrongly translated by the Greeks as nomos (Law), literally means ethical teaching upon all the relations of life. To do one pious act out of love for God was considered more meritorious than to perform many out of fear, declared one Rabbi. Similarly, it is not the number of precepts a Jews fulfills that matters as much as how he performs them. Berachot 5b   The Torah is clear upon the responsibilities that devolve upon the Jewish life. [this verse; Jeremiah 31:33] Man is not born a sinner; he descends to that state of his own volition. He can ascend again to the Godly life by his resolve to break from evil. “Behold, this only have I found that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” Ecclesiastes 7:29 LEHRMAN 171-2

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GEN887 In Judaism, God is regarded as transcendental: “The heavens belong to God: it is the earth that He has given to the children of men.” Psalm 115:16 He is, however, also immanent in that He has prescribed guidance on every aspect of life, intimate and public, holy and secular.   All those qualities that should be most pronounced in human conduct are made to appear conspicuously in our description of the heavenly attributes.  Here is a typical presentation of ethical Judaism in the Talmud. Sotah 14a. “Rabbi Hama, son of Rabbi Hanina, said “What means the text ‘Ye shall walk after the Lord your God’? Deuteronomy 13:5. Is it, then, possible for a human being to walk after the Shechinah?  Has it not been said: ‘For the Lord thy God is a devouring fire’? Deuteronomy 4:24. But (the meaning is) to walk after the attributes of the holy One, blessed be He.” …  God visited the sick, for it is written: And the Lord appeared unto him by the oaks of Mamre,” so do thou also visit the sick.   Since the preceding verses deal with Abraham’s circumcision, it is deduced that the occasion was when he was recovering.   LEHRMAN 6

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GEN895 The stranger in our midst. Allied to the kindliness we must show to the weak and the dying, the poor and the orphan, is the sympathetic treatment we must accord to the stranger in our midst.   The command “to love the stranger” occurs at least thirty-six times in the Torah, for “were ye not strangers in the land of Egypt?”   So kind has the Jew been to all in need or who have been alone in a strange environment, that it is no exaggeration to say that the word “stranger” has almost disappeared from his vocabulary. Each was made welcome to enjoy hospitality; each was asked to “feel at home” in our midst. Abraham gladly welcomed the wayfarers, little suspecting that they were angels in disguise [this verse].   The rigorous measures introduced against strangers of another faith in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah Ezra 9:2, 10:3; Nehemiah 9:2, 13:3, 23 were born of the desperate conditions of the times. Judaism had to be saved, a drastic step had to be made; with the result that those homes which were founded on mixed marriages had to be set up anew, divorced of the non-Jewish partner. This cannot be regarded as a measure of exclusiveness and chauvinism with which the Jewish people are credited by their maligners and detractors. The early chapters of the Torah and Books of Ruth and Jonah, with their accounts of men and women of other faiths who embraced the Jewish God, are proof that the racialism of Ezra was the exception rather than the rule. LEHRMAN 214

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GEN928 To be ethically-minded is to be pure in the eyes of God Numbers 32:22; avoiding the slightest breath of suspicion Chullin 44b and being always pleasant Ketubot 17a and respectful of another’s views. In the words of Derekh Eretz Zuta – he must not be “awake among those who sleep, or asleep among those who are awake; not weeping when others laugh, or vice versa; not sitting when others stand, or vice versa; not learning aloud, when others re reading quietly, or the reverse”. In general, he will not be awkward or angular in the company of others. He will be considerate of others. When the three angels visited Abraham in his tent they ate and drank with him, though it was not their custom so to do [this verse] When Moses ascended on high he did not eat for forty days and nights, for such was the custom in heaven. Exodus 34:28  LEHRMAN 279-80

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GEN966 “Atonement by Repentance” is a cardinal teaching. An important day in the year (Yom Kippur) is dedicated to this belief.   No vicarious savior, no miracle or sacrament can achieve for him what only his own life and conduct can do. This goal is advocated for the whole of mankind as well as for each individual. The true purpose of existence and the real nature of faith are to be found only in the dispensation of goodness and in the amelioration of suffering. To spur the Jew on this Elijah-like task of succor and reconciliation, the moral commandments have been given – sign-posts at every turn of his path, admonishing, encouraging the pilgrim on his progress.   This is what Judaism means to the thoughtful Jews – a task to be fulfilled and a mission to be borne. As a nation, Israel will survive on its own land if it displays a readiness to serve mankind and a determination to fulfill itself through ethical conduct in diplomacy and statecraft. No other guarantee for the survival of our nation is valid; no other raison d’etre of our individual lives is deserving of consideration.   [this verse; Isaiah 1:16-17, 41:1; Jeremiah 31:31-33; Micah 6:8; Psalm 15, 24:3-5; Proverbs 8:13; Job 28. ]. LEHRMAN 169-70

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GEN1048 Humility. First among these [ethical tools which seek to shape our character] aids to the Godly life is humility. The greatness of God is best seen in His modesty, says R. Johanan. Megilah 31a   Humility avoids the extremes of self-effacement on the one hand, and of self-glorification on the other. Jeremiah does not consider it sinful to rejoice in achievement so long as one recognizes that all blessings flow from His gifts. The prophet only denounces the boastfulness which results from the mere acquisition of wealth, strength or wisdom. Jeremiah 9:22-23. Haggai 2:9 echoes this declaration in his statement that God is not impressed with material riches without a corresponding wealth of the spirit; to which the Psalmist 147:2 (sic?) adds strength and the Book of Proverbs 21:30 wisdom.   Among men material things are considered things that matter most; but He loves “a broken and a contrite heart” Psalms 51:19 His chief demands of man are “Justice, Mercy and Humility” Micah 6:8 Abraham spoke of himself as "but dust and ashes"; and the glory of Moses was his humility Numbers 12:3 The fact that this quality is singled out in the character of one who was the paragon of all virtues is the measure of its importance. Isaiah 66:1-2 ranks this virtue above the building of religious shrines, a belief expressed in other parts of the Bible. Deuteronomy 8:10-18; Isaiah 10:13-15; Psalms 127:1. Besides Abraham and Moses, Gideon [Who refused a crown; Judges 8:23], Saul and David are also displayed as models of meekness.   LEHRMAN 255-6

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GEN1089 The Omnipotence of God created in the heart of the Jew a sense of reverence for the life around him and a holy awe for its mysteries. The pages of Holy Writ reflect such longings and sensation. [this verse, Exodus 1:17, 3:6; Psalm 2:11; 8; 111:5; Proverbs 1:7; 9:10, 15:33, 16:6].   LEHRMAN 153

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GEN1111 In a treatise entitled “Ornaments of Woman” one of the saints of the early Church, Tertullian, writes bitterly: “O woman! Thou shouldst always wear mourning and rags, in order to show thy penitence and thy weeping and atoning for they great crime of having corrupted humanity soon after the Creation. For thou are the one who first tasted of the forbidden fruit and who first transgressed the law of God. It was thou who hast seduced man whom the devil himself did not dare to approach.” The Jew found it therefore hard to heed the claim of Christianity that it was the first to teach that “God is love”.  He preferred, though threatened by the inquisition and the torture-chamber to embrace the new creed, to remain a member of “a stiff-necked people” ever ready to die for Judaism than to live for Christianity. From the Gospels, especially from the Epistles to the ancient Greek and Roman communities sent by Paul, the real architect of Christianity, it is evident that it was Judaism that first liberated woman and converted marriage into an inviolable sacrament. [In Hebrew, the words for man and woman – ish and ishah – contain the same two letters (aleph and shin), sharing equally between them the two letters (yod, he) which form one of the name of God. [This will be more closely seen from the Hebrew איש (man) and אשה (woman); the word for God is יה.   Incidentally, R. Meir points out, if you leave out the two letters spelling the name of God, the word left, in both cases, is אש (fire), indicative of the consuming nature of such a Godless relationship. Could the equality of the sexes have been more forcibly and picturesquely described?] the words Kiddushin and Nissuin [both describing marriage but literally meaning “holy” and “uplifting” – AJL] should be sufficient guarantee for the protection of woman in Judaism and should convince all but the bigot that marriage is a loving alliance of Godliness and happiness.   In such an ideal union, the wife is not the slave of the husband but his better self with whom her husband should always confer and whose good advice he should ever be ready to follow. “Whatever Sarah shall tell thee to do, listen to her” was the behest God gave to Abraham when he felt disinclined to act on her advice of banishing Hagar from his home [this verse].  The Jew does not “fall” in love; he rises.  Our religion never wearies in reminding its adherents that “to be fruitful and to multiply” is the first command in the Torah. “A man’s home is his wife” Yoma 1:1. If he treats here as an inferior being, he will be responsible for the destruction of his home-life and of his general welfare. LEHRMAN 253-4

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GEN1176 What Judaism Should Teach Today.   So scientific has our world become that even the milk of human kindness has been condensed.   Nations are becoming as heartless to universal suffering as the inventions that inflict their misery. Now, more than ever, must Jewish ethics be gain promulgated from the New Judea if humanity is to be restored to a balanced mode of existence. Solicitude for the rights of the weak, the poor and the lowly; kindness towards all, be they men or animals, are the desiderata to-day.  “Tenderness to animals”, said Lecky, “is one of the most beautiful features of the Old Testament writers.” The lives of the leading characters of the Bible bear ample evidence of their reaction towards sympathy and consideration for all. Rebekah’s qualification to become the wife of Isaac was her kindness to Eliezer and his camels [this verse]; Jacob was chosen as the father of the founders of the Twelve Tribes of Israel by reason of his tenderness for his flock. Genesis 29:7; 33:13. Balaam was warned that if he struck his faithful ass, he would be slain Numbers 22:30f and the Psalmist praises God who “openth His hand, and satisfieth the desire of every living being.” Psalms 145:16 LEHRMAN 323-4

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