Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-11-24
y "THE AIM OF GENIUS"
BY Rabbi Jacob H. Kaplan

scorned and hooted off the stage of life
but they said to the world in unmistak-
able accents: 81 will not let thee go
until thou recognize in my cause a
veritable blessing
This is the aim of genius everywhere
at all times.
This. throughout the centuries, was
the aim, object and mission of Israel:
81 will not let thee go until thou bless
me-"
From the moment when the first
patriarch, Abraham, took up his wan
dering staff, leaving his home in which
he gathered the fancies of childhood,
up to the present time when the sons
of Israel are scattered over the entire
face of the earth, our aim and object
has ever been to become a blessing to
the peoples of the earth.
The whole story of Abraham's life.
now his mighty soul felt circumscrib-
ed in his fathers idolatrous home,
how he made inroads into his soul in
search of his God, how he showed 9TH
| ers the way to God, how he left his
lulllCl > Jus " 81 Nllhti SOtNtl tudl
God would send him, how, through all
his complicated life, he daily sought
the luxury of doing good, how he
would seek peace at any cost, when
only his own interests were at stake,
but how he would fight like a true SOL
der when other peoples welfare vas
involved, not taking so much as a shoe
| laaz Co.. IT. tro,l1o An th;, 10, oil
these silent voices of a great soul won
for him the acknowledgment that he
had indeed lived to be a blessing to
those who knew him; and as m noble
deed is an infinite of noble deeds, so
Abraham was promised that not only
those who knew him, but in the char
acter, "In thee all the nations of the
world shall be blessed"
Isaac's life tells the same story. The
meek, gentle, peace loving disposition
of Isaac had in view the same object,
and accomplished the same results. At
Esek the Philistines took away his well
Of water and he quietly pitched at Sit
nah and dug another well. Again the
Philistines stopped his well and again
nc removed and dug another at Recha-
both, until finally Abimelech, king of
the Philistines, came to Isaac n ex-
tended to him the hand of fellowship
saying: Let there be peace between
us, for thou art the blessed of God"
And Jacob, too, in that night, when
he fought with the angel in the dark
ness shows the same tenacity to prin-
ciple, which in the end wins from the
most stubborn, icy, unappreciative
heart an acknowledgment that persist
ence in a righteous principle is indeed
worthy of the highest admiration.
Let me CO." says tie angel to JAG
OBJ. for the light of morning is break
ing in upon us. and Jacob answered:
Il will not let thee go. until thou bless
me-"
In Egypt the children of Israel might
have been just as happy and perhaps
much happier in their ignorance and
in their slavery than they were ever
since. In fact their freedom worked
havoc to Egyptian society and brought
much misery to Israel. More than
once did the children of Israel, seeing
only the immediate result of freedom,
murmur against Moses. and curse him
for this unheard of innovation into
their lives, this upsetting of their ac'
customed status of society.
1t is not because there were no
graves enough in Egypt that thou hast