The Jewish advance., 1881-07-01

of Lebanon. No palms are necessary in
order to be good, and to be good IS better
than beauty. .Judea always appeared
to me like piece of the Occident which
had lost itself in the midst of the Orient.
In fact this land, with it's spiritualistic
faith, its severe, chaste, even ascetic
morals, in short, with it's abstract soul
fulness, this land and its people always
formed the most odd contrast to the
neighboring countries and the neighbor-
ing nations who practised the most luxu-
riantly gay and notorious worship Of
nature, dissipating and squandering their
lives in bacchicalian sensual jubilee.
Israel dwelt piously beneath it's fig g-tree.
and sung the praise of the invisible God
and practiced virtue and righteousness
at the time when in the Temples at
Babel, Nineveh, Sidon and Tyrus, those
bloody and cruel orgies were celebrated
over the description of which one is
shuddering Taking these surroundings
in consideration, one cannot admire
enough this early greatness of Israel.
[ do not like to speak of Israels love OF
freedom, when at the same time not only
in their surroundings, but with all the
nations Of antiquity, even the philosoph-
ical, slavery was justified and flourish
ing, in order not to expose the Bible in
the eyes of the present rulers Yess
instead of struggling against impossibiii
ties, instead of decreeing in dizzy
headed fashion the abolition of the right
of possession, Moses only endeavored to
suit the same to morality. He sought
to harmonize possession of property with
sarEoeaiisy me "a
and this he achieved by establishing the
jubilee, when every patrimonial estates
which among agricultural people always
was land property, that passed into the
hands of strangers returned to the orr
ginal owners, no matter in what manner
the same lost it's possession. This insti-
tuition forms the strongest contrast to
the statute of limitation of the Romans.
:. Moses did not want to abolish the
right of possession, he rather desired
that everybody should enjoy it in order
that nobody should, through poverty,
become slave with the sense of servil-
ity Freedom was always the last
thought of the great emancipation, and
this thought of freedom breaths in all
his laws which concern pauperism. He
hated slavery beyond measure, almost
with resentment. =. E. But ifa slave whom
the law had set at liberty, was by no
means willing to leave the house of his
master, so Moses ordered that the incor
rigible ragamufin should be nailed by
his ear to the door-post of his masters
house %, Moses, our teacher, Moshe
Rubbenu, great opposer of slavery, give
me hammer and nails, that l may nail
our tender minded slaves in the black
red-golden livery, with their long ears to
the Brandenburg gate"
Truly the spirit OF Jewish law and
Jewish history came over this erring son
of Israel, and has brought him revela-
ton, the depth of which only few be-
fore him could fathom, none having been
able to represent so lightful. Just as
we'll as Heine possessed the right under
standing for the deep wisdom of the
laws and the spiritual struggles in the
thousands of years of the Jewish his
tory, he correctly understood to appre-
ciate the genuine sublimity of the poesy
which flowed from the soul of the great
est Jewish poet of the middle ages,
Hardly did Michael Sachs, the preacher
with the psalmitic soul and prophetic
language, unveil the covered beauties Of
the religious poetry of the Jews in
Spain" and especially having restored
lustre to the clouded glory of the poet
Jehuda Halevi Allhassan, when Heine,
deeply moved bv it, erected monument
to this troubadour, his corelgionist and
fellow artist. With his magic staff he
reused the shadow of Jehuda Halevi
from the grave, producing him in the