The record-union., 1899-06-11
JESUS,
THE JEW.


In this city few evenings since by II.
Weinstock:
Looking back into my early boyhood
days, the picture is WILDLY brought TO
my mind Of the. old Rabbi under whose
instruction. I received my religious
training Though thirty odd years have
since passed, distinctly recall him as
he sat at the head of the table sur
rounded by Jewish lads between the
ages of and ID, his long flowing locks
and white beard giving him the ap-
pearance of one of the Biblical patri-
archS.
l recall how innocent he was OF all
worldly knowledge with what contempt
he looked upon secular instruction, ana
how to him the sum of all human WIS
dom was confined to the Torah and the
Talmud. The greatest living savanl
or philosopher, If unable to read He
brew, was to him an ignoramus. All
truth, all knowledge worth Knowing
had, in his opinion, been uttered by tine
Hebrew prophets and the great JEWISH
Talmudists and commentators. TO look
elsewhere for wisdom or knowledge
seemed to him waste of time and en-
ergy, and showed a lack OF apprecla-
ton for Jewish thought and Jewish ut
erature. The Talmud explains the say
ing i'm Joshua. 1.-THE words of this
Torah shaM not cease from thy mouth
and thou shalt mediate thereon day
and night" and to my old and plous
religious teacher this injunction lett
no room for the study of anything but
Jewish lore.
/ recall, upon one occasion, how one
of the pupils, in some way. brought into
the religious school a book containing
the name of Jesus, 1 remember when
this was made known by some other
lad who had noticed it, with what IN
dignation the rabbi spoke, and how ne
regarded the act as most sacrllegiouS
and deserving of the severest censure.
/ further remember how he delivered an
imprisoned discourse to his puplis
upon the centuries of suffering to which
the Jews had been subjected because
of Jesus. How the Jews had been made
outcasts and wanderers over the face
of the earth. How, for hundreds OF
years, they had been robbed and pillag-
ed, tortured and plundered, now their
boards had been torn from their roots,
their teeth drawn from their Jaws,
their bodies cast into foul dungeons,
how time and again they had been put
on the rack, subjected to the thumb
screw and burnt at the stake, all. all
on account of Jesus.
I remember how aroused and impas-
stoned he became while recounting the
frightful sufferings and calamities
which had been visited upon the Jews.
for all of which. in his opinion, Jesus
was primarily responsible. How, then,
he concluded, could any self-respect-
ing, loyal Jew take into his hand even
book containing the name of Jesus:
How could the name of Jesus be
thought of without connecting it in the
mind of the Jew with the centuries OF
inhuman outrage and persecution visit
ed upon him by the followers of Jesus?'
For many years these utterances and
teachings chung to my mind, and,
doubtless, had their influence in warp
ing my thoughts and coloring my opin-
IONS / could not but sympathize with
the feelings and sentiments of my peo-
pie, and, in common with my orthodox
teacher. feel within my heart and soul
that the badge of suffering had been
placed upon the Jew by the words and
acts of Jesus. All this I felt before
had had an opportunity to read and
to think for myself before the words
and the deeds and the sentiments of
the Nazarene We're known to me. In
time the life of the man from Galilee
became to me of profound interest; /
read the story of His life as told in the
New Testament, I read the conception
of Jesus as portrayed by some OF the
ablest modern Jewish and Christian
scholars; l carefully studied His utter
ances as presented in the gospels; and
the picture of this great and wonderful
character grew to me to be very diff
ferent one from that painted by my
venerable and pious, but uniformed
Hebrew teacher. / found that. accord
ing to New Testament traditions, Jesus
was born a Jew, lived a Jew, died a
Jew. / found that He preached nothing
but Judaism in its purest and simplest
form. I found that the thought of es-
tablishing a new belief or even a new
sect, was fartherest from His mind;
that His aim was not to follow after
the heathens, but to seek out the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. I found
that His mission seemed to be to uplift
the lowly and expose wickedness in
high places. I found that He gave His
heart, His soul, and His very being to
the poor. to the sick and to the needy.
He said: Il am not come to heal the
sound; have been sent unto the sick. v
I found that He was a man of I'M
bounded sympath and of great moral
courage. that He was simply striving
to practice and to preach the moral
code established by Moses and the
prophets, and to literally put into prac-
tice in His daily life, the great law CIV
ers' precept of love thy neighbor as
myself" l found His teachings consist
ed chiefly in preaching:
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
BLESSED are they that mourn.
BLESSED are the meek.
blessed are they that hunger and
thirst after righteousness.
Blessed are the merciful.
blessed are the pure in heart
blessed are the peacemakers.
blessed are they which are persecut-
ed for righteousness sake"
/ found these We're all Jewish teach
ings reduced to clear and simple form,
which the most orthodox and pious
Jew could not but accept as a part Of
his own faith.
Why, then. was it that. as the out
come of such ethical Jewish utterances,
the Jew should have been so mistreated
by the followers of Jesus. and Jesus
SO much condemned by the Jews?
Then followed, on my part. study
of Christianity and the causes which
led to Jewish persecution. 1t took but
little reading to learn that Paul, the
Grecian Jew, and not Jesus, was the
real founder of Christianity; that Paul