South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-09-18
WORLD ADMITS
ITS IGNORANCE
WILLING to Admit There Are
Things No One Knows,
Says Rabbi CrOnbaCh.

Appropriate services marked the
observance OF Atonement DAY al the
Temple Bethel Saturday morning..
Rabbi Cronbach treated the subject
i Know" he said i'm part:
"One of the significant contrasts
between the present age with its un-
questionable striking contributions 10
progress and by-gOne centuries when
progress took the snails pace is just
this-that we are wont candidly TO
confess that we do not know. Five
hundred years ago people knew deli
nitely all about heaven and all obout
hell They knew precisely who had
gone TO those respective places. PeO-
ple could tell you 800 years ago just
as few can. still at the present day.
tell YOU, all about the angels and an
about the saints. People knew the
magic substances and the magic for
mula by which devils could be cast
out and witches rendered innocuous.
About the past people knew every
thing. Any Rabbi OF 500 years ago
could give you the most positive and
detailed information about Adam and
Eve, Enoch and Noah, Abraham and
Moses. Even the future was not
sealed book. By means Of Oracles.
horoscopes, and Bible verses, people
could predict the future. telling YOU
readily and without hesitation about
Cog and MagOg, about Messiah. the
son OF Joseph, and Messiah, the SON
of David. about the resurrection OF
the dead, and the punishment of the
sinners. But this decadent age Of ours
with its laboratories and observator-
les. its inics, and its surveys, its IL
braries and universities. has ceased 10
possess this immense amount of
knowledge.
Modern science should be praised
for its modesty. one OF the serious
indictments brought against our
churches is that they are not equally
modest. It is not at all improbable
that many a good man and woman
who could otherwise join hands with
us in our religious endeaVors is drlV-
en- away by our aftectauon to know
what we do not know.
History contains more uncertain
ties than any other subject studied by
serious men Previous To the advent
of a certain German scholar named
Nieburg. myth and legend and chron-
fcle and fiction were all mixed up to-
gether and called history, with little
or no attempt to discriminate.
My being a Jew depends not upon
my opinion touching matters of ages
ago but upon my attitude touching
upon matters of today. Rest your
Judaism upon what you do know. DO
not rest that precious possession upon
the unsafe pedestal of what YOU 90
not know. / am a Jew because
somehow every Jew / see appears
somehow related to me, ] am Jew
because every Jewish child is my
love and my own. ] do not know
ANYTHING about Adam. But / do
know where my heart is turning ever.
That is what makes a jew of you
the affections of Your heart, not the
doctrines of your head
I'VE know that the world Is full or
experiences. full of impressions which
can put into our souls the thoughts
that will save When we know TINS,
we know that our Rcdeemer liveth.
we do not know what is beyond
the grave. But we do know that there
are times when we stand upon the
mountain SUBMITS of life. There are
times when we love with love that
f. deathless. There are times when
we see with a sight that is selfish.
Wait until those heaven-touching mo-
ments before YOU decide the questions
of "a hereafter.
A person engaged in quarrel Is
utterly incompetent TO gauge the mer-
its of the case concerning which he
nuarrels Here also is where candor
and right would make it say i do not
know