the only One, as the bond of
unity for all men, despite their diversity of ideas and cultures, and His
truth will be the beacon-light for all humanity. As the Psalms, prophets,
and the opening chapters of the Pentateuch speak a language appealing to
the common sense of mankind, so the divine worship of the Synagogue must
again strike the deeper chords of humanity, in its weal and woe, its hope
and fear, its aspirations and ideals. Therefore it is not enough that the
institutions and ceremonies of the Synagogue are testimonies to the great
past of Israel. They must also become eloquent heralds and monitors of the
glorious future, when all mankind will have learned the lessons of the
Jewish festivals, the ideals of liberty, law, and peace, the thoughts of
the divine judgment and the divine mercy. They must help also to bring
about the time when the ideal of social justice, which the Mosaic Code
holds forth for the Israelitish nation, will have become the motive-power
and incentive to the reestablishment of human society upon new
foundations.

Jehudah ha Levi, the lofty poet of medieval Jewry,(1523) speaks of Israel
as the "heart of humanity," because it has supplied the spiritual and
moral life-blood of the civilized world. Israel provides continually the
rejuvenating influence of society. Israel's history is the history of the
world in miniature. As the Midrash says,(1524) the confession of God's
unity imposes upon us the obligation to lead all God's children to love
Him with heart and soul and might, thus working toward the time when "the
earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the
waters cover the sea."(1525) All the social, political, and intellectual
movements of our restless, heaven-storming age, notwithstanding temporary
lapses into barbarism and hatred, point unerringly to the final goal, the
unity of all human and cosmic life under the supreme leadership of God on
high. In the midst of all these movements of the day stands the Jew, God's
witness from of old, yet vigorous and youthful still, surveying the
experiences of the past and voicing the hope of the future, exclaiming in
the words of his traditional prayers: "Happy are we; how goodly is our
portion! how pleasant our lot! how beautiful our inheritance!"(1526) Our
faith is the faith of the coming humanity; our hope of Zion is the kingdom
of God, which will include all the ideals of mankind.

Chapter LIX. The Ethics of Judai