The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1908-04-22

But God rebukes His ministering
angels and bushes their song, what.
VIII We sing while my children lie
dead on the banks of the seal" The
boastfui, hard-headed Egyptians.
these too are Gods erring children.
Can there be anything more exquisite.
more delicate. more exalted in senti-
ment? We hear such sentiment
praised in these days Of the Chris
tan Spirit" The Jew is commonly
denounced as harsh, cruel, revengeful.
vlndictlVe, yet ages before Christian
ity was. the sage of the book Prov
erDs adlHOnished: "In the downfall
Of thine enemy thou shalt not ret
1olce! Even the old Mosaic code,
condemned as it is for it's lex tai
ionis,' the rigid requirement of eye
for eye, tooth for tooth, declared that
even the beast of thy foe shalt thou
not pass heedlessly by when thou
seest him fallen under his burden.
but shalt surely relieve him." The
tender spirit of mercy and equity
which runs through all Jewish law
and practice is wantOnly and will
fully ignored and misinterpreted. One
wearies Of hearing everything hu-
name, kindly and noble claimed as
Christian, for that very spirit as con-
trasted with the brutality of the
Egyptian best explains why Israe!
survived.
Whence sprang this great difference
which resulted on the one hand in
the devastation of Egypt and on the
other In the perpetuation of Israel?
Clearly enough from the difference in
the underlying principles which in
splred the motives and doings of eth
er people. Egypt worshipped the sun.
moon and stars. 1t set it's mere Gre
alton in the place of the Creator.
Egypt worshipped bulls, cats and
lambs. 1t served the mere brutal. No
people ever advanced higher than it's
ideals, Israel looked beyond nature
to natures God. It's religion was spir-
ltual 1t conceived of God as perfect.
1t aimed to be like God. This sublime
idealism created it's code of pure and
perfect ethics. it's saintlike characters,
It's sublime martyrs
If all this be the true explanation
of the contrast between Egypt dead.
and Israel living, then this closing day
the contrast, places upon us three dis
tlnct obligations. IsraePs religion
being a religion of life which centers
about the home, We must resolve to
deepen the home ties and sanctify
them in the spirit of the beautiful
Seder service. Our religion must pass
from the home into all our activities,
touch life at all points, identifying and
eXalting all our interests
If Israel has survived because it's
historic consciousness has been sus-
tanned, then must we see to it that in
this era the abysmal ignorance of
Jewish matters which still prevails be
removed from among us. The in
SEPARATIONS Of the noblest past must be
made to stir our youth to loyalty
and ZEAL 1t is the ignorant Jew who
Is ashamed Of being a Jew. The cow
ardly, weak and renegade Jew is he
in whose soul has never awakened a
responsive thrill to the grandeur Of
our heroic past.
Last and highest of all, let us dedi-
cate ourselves to the beautiful and
exalted ethics which Judaism has Civ
en- the world and as the messenger of
which 1t has commissioned us to be
"the- priest-people'' to mankind If
Jewish ethics are still decried as in
ferior to the Christian ethics; if we
are charged with low standards and
If ito Jew" means to cheat, then must
we make that name a synonym for in
tegrity. Let us remember that Israel
struck the first telling blow for free
dom because the people believed in
freedom and they believed in the God
Of freedom. 1.-THE people feared the
Eternal and they believed in Him."
Ethics without religion are as tree
whose roots are torn from the soil
whence it draws the sap of nourish-
ment. You may have a reasoned ethics
but it will not last There must be
life, warmth, deathless devotion for
the right You can not have morality
without a passion for good. 1t is the
love Of God which frees the soul for
morality. Let each one conquer with
in himself daily impulses to do evil,
to be cruel, to do unkindness and to
sin. Do this through the passion for
righteousness and you will be able
truthfully to sing God is my strength.
He is my song. He is become my sal
vation.'-Henry Berkowitz, in Ameri-
can Israelite.