The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-07-14

anticipated the conscious u~tterance OF
modern Jewish thought. In rejecting all
individual concrete Messiahs, which came
across its history IL but remained true to
the Messianic prophecy. which IL an ideal
of a time and not the exact predicting OF n
particular event.
Now l come to the second part OF DR..
Wise'a utteranoe, which in my humble
opinion muat have been the main cnnse Of
the gentlomnn's angry comment. Mo- do
tion of the body. Nobody believes in that
now, etc." Let ms say right here that at
the risk OF without warrant assuming to In
terpret what DR.. Wise meant, think he
did not use the word nobody" an un.
limited sense. Probably in his goo d natured
general conversational tone, no meant to
assert no clear headed thinker, whose
authority commands respect believes i'll
said doctrine. Or to limit the word moro
narrowly still, he may have meant no emf
may the universal idea OF reformed
Judaism, as far ms know Is
already completely embodied in the
prayer book Of Temple Emanu-Ml in New
York. and essentially in DIR. Wise's own
prayer book which is in use here. What
of attitude towards the doctrine held by the
rabbis, this would not be the place to state
them. They can all be summed up in the
saying the belief clashes with our opinion
of probability, and in no sense does 1t coin
eide with the belief in the Immortality of
tho soul, as the writer in his last paragraph
illogically assumes.
Now i think it is impolite, to say the
least, to make the sneering innuendo i'm
piled in the remark, "All Jews may now be
Sadducees:' Even if the modern view were
entirely identical with Sadduceeism the re-
proach will sit very lightly on us. For the
church view of Sadducees and Pharasees of
the different parties and tendencies of
thought as presented in the source
which the writer draws his Inspiration,
presents as historical a picture of the actual
facts, as a future student would gain of our
modern society from the extreme exaggera-
ted picture of it, presented in Bellamy's
Looking Backward" But it is also in
correct to deny the character of advanced
thought to Il thought which is also IAN
tique." When Europe was aroused from
its long sleep by the spirit of the Rennais-
sance. and by the protestant cry of back to
the original institutions, very much anti
guilty was resusitated and yes the thoughts
were very advanced, compared with tn ose
held by the r~esisters of the Illuminating in
~fluences. So sometimes very old truths
become the advanced thoughts after q lapse
of darkness.
But old or new. this is what reformed
Judaism teaches to-day, and 1T has the
honesty to express it. For strange as 1T
may appear to the professor, there is a
great latitude given In the Jewish syna-
gosue in thought upon doctrines of the ma
ture of the one discussed. The Jewish
thinker was never bound by a rigid system,
as the full discussions in our whole lltera-
to say that the Talmud holds this or that
opinion. The Talmud, by the way, is an
encyclopedia of Jewish thought for five
centuries. It is not always safe to cite it
with such freedom as the writer does. If
he will be kind enough to point out the
~ 4~,,4I .-~- Aho
will inform him why modern Judaism de-
parts from the old view. But above all we
claim to exercise the right for ourselves
upon such matters.
And now l wish to touch upon what in
the writer's opinion is an overwhelming
condemnation of the advanced thought
In short there are not less h 200, 600, COO
Of people who now believe in the "resurrec-
ton of the body" Aside from the fact that
the Jewish race was never overawed by the
crushing COVER of numbers otherwise it
would have ceased to exist long ago. In mat
ters of faith and even more formidable weap-
ons that the mere enumeration of those who
differ from it could shake it's belief in what
it considered true. | must in all earnest
ness insist that heads do not count in such
matters. Heads count in a presidential
election, and unfortunately they often
count twice and three times, but they are
as heads of no account, in the truth or
falsity of a thought. l would from my
prejudiced Jewish point of view for
example eliminate from this formidable
number say loosely co. 900. 600 Russians, a
people who tolerate such q tyrrany as that
of the czar, and who with no doubt the ex-
ception of the noble souls the upholde,s of
advanced thoughts lend themselves to the
carrying out of the barbarous and inhuman
policy against their fellow men without ris-
ing in their might against it, are for me no
criterion as to their belief in any doctrine.
And GO I MIGHT ra0nna tho fnrp,iinhla Mum
Der at will. But a word to the wise is
sufficient. Multitudes are no proof. Let
him look for the thinkers and see how
many believe in the doctrine. Nay, I will
90 further, let him ask about him amongst
his a~cquaintances, how many had thought
over the matter at all, and are ready to say
they believe in 1t with the same clearness
existence Of a God He viii
soon discover that applying this method
his formidable number of those that be-
lieve in the resurrection of the body
will shrink, and shrink, and shrink. Now
reformed Judaism simply expounds Off
cially what its adherents in their hearts
believe. We have faith in the immortality
of the soul, but beyond that we do not go.
For we open the door wide to all possible
vagaries of the fancy If W shall 60 further.
So far l have merely placed my senti-
ments for what they are worth as against
the orthodox Christian sentiment of the
writer. But in his asst paragraph he makes
two statements which are introduced with
a semblance of argument. The first ia
logically incorrect, the second is again
purely subjective opinion.
IF we are to continue our identity in a
future state and live there as perfected
human beings, it will take a thought very
much advanced, how this can ba accom-
plished unless our spirits are clothed in bod
les rendered incorruptibls and immortal"
This is not logical. For the writer assumes
what he would find difficulty in proving,
namely. that our identity is dependent on
our bodies, and therefore to deny the
resurrection is to deny Immortality of
the soul. But every tyro in
philosophic reflection and physcbologi-
cal analysis knows that our identity
rests on our self consciousness. not on our
bodies. We feel ourselves the same by vir-
tue of the ego, or conscious self in us
which unites the past with the present, our
with our hopes, our experiences
with oar thoughts, and not by virtue of our
bodies. We can imagine cur limbs ampu-
tated and yet we are the same. and 80 by a
little abstraction in thought We get the no,
ton OF a principle in us which is distinct
from the body. Now the faith shared in by