t is that Jewish commerce has been an
important cosmopolitan factor in the past, and is still working, to a
certain extent, in the same direction.(1167)

10. New and great tasks have been assigned by divine Providence to the Jew
of modern times, who is a full citizen in the cultural, social, and
political life of the various nations. These tasks are most holy to him as
Jew, the bearer of a great mission to the world, which is embodied in his
heritage, the Torah. However splendid may have been his achievements in
the fields of industry and commerce, of literature and art, his own
peculiar possession is the Torah alone, the religious truth for which he
fought and suffered all these centuries past; this must forever remain the
central thought, the aim of all his striving.(1168) Every achievement of
the Jewish people, every attainment in power, knowledge, or skill, must
lead toward the completion of the divine kingdom of truth and justice;
that for which the Jew laid the foundation at the beginning of his history
is still leading forward the entire social life of man to render it a
divine household of love and peace. In order that it may carry out the
world mission mapped out by its great seers of yore, the Jewish people
must guard against absorption by the multitude of nations as much as
against isolation from them. It must preserve its identity without going
back into a separation rooted in self-adulation and clannishness. Instead,
the great goal of Israel will be reached only by patient endurance and
perseverance, confidently awaiting the fulfillment in God's own time of
the glorious prophecy that all the nations shall be led up to the mountain
of the Lord by the priest-people, there to worship God in truth and
righteousness. The Law is to go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem, as a spiritual, not a geographical center. This vision
forms the highest pinnacle of human aspiration, rising higher and higher
before the mind, as man ascends from one stage of culture to another,
striving ever for perfection, for the sublimest ideal of life. This is
characteristically expressed by the Midrash, which refers to the Messianic
vision: "And it shall come to pass in the end of days, that the mountain
of the Lord's house shall be established as the top of the mountains, and
shall be exalted above the hills."(1169) "One great mountain of the earth
will be piled upon the other, and Mount Zion will be placed upon the to