served as lessons in
self-mastery, in curbing carnal desire, and keeping him clean in soul as
well as body. The question remains whether they still fulfill their real
object of consecrating Israel to its priestly mission among the nations.
Certainly the priestly character of these laws is no longer understood,
and the great majority of the Jewish people who live among the various
nations have long discarded them. Orthodox Judaism, which follows
tradition without inquiring into the purpose of the laws, is entirely
consistent in maintaining the importance of every item of the traditional
Jewish life. Reform Judaism has a different view, as it sees in the
humanitarianism of the present a mode of realizing the Messianic hope of
Israel. Therefore it cannot afford to encourage the separation of the Jew
from his environment in any way except through the maintenance of his
religion, and cannot encourage the dietary laws as a means of separatism.
Its great problem is to find other methods to inculcate the spirit of
holiness in the modern Jew, to render him conscious of his priestly
mission, while he lives in unison and fellowship with all his
fellow-citizens.(1453)

6. The tendency to distinguish the Jew from his non-Jewish neighbor in the
course of time found expression in the laws for wearing phylacteries
(_tefillin_) on his forehead and arm, a special sign on the doorpost of
his house (_mezuzzah_) and fringes (_zizith_) on the four corners of his
shawl (_tallith_).(1454) As a matter of fact, the original Biblical
passages had no such meaning, but acquired it through rabbinical
interpretation. The Mosaic law said: "And thou shalt bind them for a sign
upon thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes. And
thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thy house and upon thy gates."
This refers clearly to the words of God, admonishing the people to keep
them in mind, as the preceding verse indicates. Likewise, the precept
regarding the fringes upon the four-cornered garment emphasizes rather the
blue thread in the fringes, which is to help the people remember the
commandments of the Lord, that they may not go astray, "following after
the promptings of their own hearts and eyes." As the name phylacteries
shows, these were originally talismans or amulets. True, the law as stated
in Deuteronomy may be taken symbolically;(1455) but the corresponding
passage in Exodus, which is traditionally referred to the phylacteries,