ai, not in the dry
ritual of the Talmud, but in the stupendous imaginings of the Cabala,
that the real dreams and aspirations of Jewry have been transmitted
through the ages. Belief in the coming Messiah may burn low, but faith
in the final triumph of Israel over the other nations of the world still
glows in the hearts of a race nurtured on this hope from time
immemorial. Even the free-thinking Jew must unconsciously react to the
promptings of this vast and ancient ambition. As a modern French writer
has expressed it:

Assuredly sectarian Freethinkers swarm, who flatter themselves on
having borrowed nothing from the synagogue and on hating equally
Jehovah and Jesus. But the modern Jewish world is itself also
detached from any supernatural belief, and the Messianic tradition,
of which it preserves the cult, reduces itself to considering the
Jewish race as the veritable Messiah[815].

Some colour is lent to this statement by an article which recently
appeared in the Jewish press, in which it is explained that, according
to the teaching of the "Liberal Jewish Synagogue," the beautiful
passages in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah concerning "the Man of
Sorrows acquainted with grief," usually supposed by Christians to relate
to the promised Messiah, are interpreted to modern Jewish youth as
relating to Israel and signifying that Israel's "sufferings were caused
by the sins of other nations," who thus "escaped the suffering they
deserved." Consequently "Israel has suffered for the sake of the whole
world[816]." How this amazing pretension can be maintained in view of
the perpetual denunciations of the Israelites throughout the whole of
the Old Testament is difficult to imagine. On their entry into Canaan
they were distinctly told by Moses that the Lord their God had not given
them "this good land" on account of their righteousness or the
uprightness of their hearts[817]; long afterwards Daniel declared that
all Israel had transgressed the law of God[818]; Nehemiah showed that on
account of their rebellion and disobedience they had been delivered into
the hands of their enemies[819]. Isaiah spoke of the iniquities of Judah
in burning words:

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of
evildoers, children that are corruptors!... Wash your, make you
clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes;
cease to do evil; learn to do well, etc.[820]

Th