in the apocryphal
writings God speaks both to Israel and to individual saints: "I shall be
to them a Father, and they shall be My children."(816) Elsewhere it is
said of the righteous, "He calls God his Father," and "he shall be counted
among the sons of God."(817) We read concerning the Messiah: "When all
wrongdoing will be removed from the midst of the people, he shall know
that all are sons of God."(818) Obviously only righteousness or personal
merit entitles a man to be called a son of God. In fact, we are expressly
told of Onias, the great Essene saint, that his intimate relation with God
emboldened him to converse with the Master of the Universe as a son would
speak with his father.(819) According to the Mishnah the older generation
of "pious ones" used to spend "an hour in silent devotion before offering
their daily prayer, in order to concentrate heart and soul upon their
communion with their Father in heaven."(820) Thus it is said of
congregational prayer that through it "Israel lifts his eyes to his Father
in heaven."(821) In this way prayer took the place of the altar, of which
R. Johanan ben Zakkai said that it established peace between Israel and
his Father in heaven.(822) Afterwards the question was discussed by Rabbi
Meir and Rabbi Jehuda whether even sin-laden Israel had a right to be
called "children of God." Rabbi Meir pointed to Hosea as proof that the
backsliders also remain "children of the living God."(823)

4. In the Hellenistic literature, with its dominating idea of universal
monotheism, God is frequently invoked or spoken of as the Father of
mankind. The implication is that each person who invokes God as Father
enters into filial relation with Him. Thus what was first applied to
Israel in particular was now broadened to include mankind in general, and
consequently all men were considered "children of the living God." The
words of God to Pharaoh, speaking of Israel as His "first-born son,"(824)
were taken as proof that all the nations of the earth are sons of God and
He the universal Father. Israel is the first-born among the sons of God,
because his patriarchs, prophets, and psalmists first recognized Him as
the universal Father and Ruler. From this point of view Judaism declared
love for fellow-men and regard for the dignity of humanity to be
fundamental principles of ethics. "As God is kind and merciful toward His
creation, be thou also kind and merciful toward all fellow-creatures," is
the o