nsciousness, only through the reciprocal
contact of race with race, through the cooeperation of the various circles
and classes of life which extend beyond the narrow limits of nationality
and have in view common interests and aims, whether in the pursuit of
truth, in the achievement of good, or in the creation of the useful and
the beautiful. Only when the various nations and groups of men learn to
regard themselves as members of one great family, will the life of the
individual find its true value in relation to the idea and the ideal of
humanity. Then only will the unity and harmony of the entire cosmic life
find its reflection in the blending of the factors and forces of human
society.

7. Judaism has evolved the idea of the unity of mankind as a corollary of
its ethical monotheism. Therefore the Bible begins the history of the
world with the creation of Adam and Eve, the one human pair. The covenant
which God concluded after the flood with Noah, the father of the new
mankind, has its corresponding goal at the end of time in the divine
covenant which is to include all tribes of men in one great brotherhood;
and so also the dispersion of man through the confusion of tongues at the
building of the Tower of Babel has its counterpart in the rallying of all
nations at the end of time for the worship of the One and Only God in a
pure tongue and a united spirit on Zion's heights.(997) Whatever the
civilizations of Greece and Rome and the Stoic philosophy have achieved
for the idea of humanity, Judaism has offered in its prophetic hope for a
Messianic future the guiding idea for the progress of man in history, thus
giving him the impulse to ceaseless efforts toward the highest of all aims
for the realization of which all nations and classes, all systems of faith
and thought, must labor together for millenniums to come.

Chapter XLVII. The Moral Elements of Civilization

1. Because Judaism sees the attainment of human perfection only when the
divine in man has reached complete development through the unimpeded
activity of all his spiritual, moral, and social forces, it insists upon
the full recognition of all branches of human society as instruments of
man's elevation, either individually or collectively. It deprecates the
idea that any force or faculty of human life be regarded as unholy and
therefore be suppressed. It thus rejects on principle monastic
renunciation and isolation, pointing to the Scriptural verse,