e city whither I have caused you to be
carried away captive, and pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace
thereof shall ye have peace,"(1018) became the guiding maxim of Jewry when
torn from its native soil. It impressed upon them, once for all, the
deeply rooted virtues of loyalty and love for the country in which they
dwelt. To pray for the welfare of the State and its ruler, under whose
dominion all citizens were protected, and so in modern times for its
legislative and administrative authorities, has become a sacred duty of
the Jewish religious community. To sacrifice one's life willingly, if need
be, for the welfare of the country in which he lived, was a demand of
loyalty which the Jew has never disregarded. "The law of the State is as
the law of God"(1019) taught Samuel the Babylonian, and another sage of
Babylon said, "The government on earth is to be regarded as an image of
God's government in heaven."(1020)

8. But, after all, the community of the State or the nation is too
confined in its cultural work by its special interests and particular
tasks ever to reach the universal ideal of man, that is, a perfected
humanity. Where the interests of one State or nation come into conflict
with those of another, far too often the result is enmity and murderous
warfare. Therefore there must be a higher power to quench the brands of
war whenever they flare up, to cultivate every motive leading toward peace
and harmony among nations, to impel men toward a higher righteousness and
to obviate all conflict of interests, because in place of selfishness it
implants in the heart the self-forgetfulness of love. Religion is the
power which trains peoples as well as individuals toward the conception of
one humanity, in the same measure as it points to the one and only God,
Ruler over all the contending motives of men, the Source and Shield of all
righteousness, truth, and love, the Father of mankind as the only
foundation upon which the grand edifice of human civilization must
ultimately rest. Thus it teaches us to regard the common life and endeavor
of peoples and societies as one household of divine goodness. Every system
of belief, every religious denomination which transcends the limits of the
national consciousness with a view to the broader conception of mankind,
and binds the national groups and interests into a higher unity to include
and influence all the depths and heights of the human spirit, paves the
way toward the