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Information Issued by The Volume XXX! No. 4 April, 1976 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE ASSOaAimi OF MMSH RBVOES HI aEAT BRITAHI Robert Weltsch the course of centuries. That is also true of the other events which followed, and also of the basic ideas developed in this context. It is hardly possible to overestimate the influ­ SOME PASSOVER MEDITATIONS ence of these images and ideas. We know Eschatological Pitfalls that some Westem peoples at one time or another described themselves as "the new The Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and of the central role of the Jewish people Israel"; it is also no wonder that in this about 3000 years ago, tantamount to the birth in all that pertains to the events in the Land process many distortions occurred. On the of Israel as a nation for whose sake we are of Israel is today often forgotten or even other hand, the fundamental concepts connec­ celebrating the festival of Pesach (Passover), debased. ted with the religious evolution of Israel, is a fascinating story which—apart from its It is impossible, of course, to discuss here such as creation, revelation, redemption, have rendering in the second book of the Hebrew the many versions and hypotheses of inter­ also become common to the religious thinking Pentateuch and the ensuing theological inter­ pretations concerning the man Moses and his of western nations. And—perhaps because of pretations—brought on an abundance of com­ mission. The most famous and the most the close connection of the story with the ment, meditation, historical speculation, widespread among the literate Jewish modern national history of the people of the Bible— legends and philosophical analysis. That it is public today is that of Sigmund Freud (1939) such religious concepts have also been inter­ pf supreme importance for the Jewish people who—like many precusors—regards Moses as woven with political aspects or have appeared, is obvious; but it also determined the destiny an Egyptian and draws far-reaching conclu­ in the course of centuries, in a politicised of the whole of the occidental world (Abend- sions about the origin of monotheistic religion. and secularised make-up. This often became land). Without the Exodus—and also some At the beginning of this century, when ques­ the source of critical situations, since nothing other spectacular events of Jewish history tioning the historicity of religious figures like is so dangerous as the mix-up of wordly like e.g, the resistance of the Maccabees Moses and Jesus was in vogue, Ahad Ha'am temporal affairs with images which are not against Syrian domination—Christianity with defined the Jewish position in a famous article of this world. The innate desire for salvation all its consequences would not have emerged (1904): he stressed the reality of a tradition from an insufTerable situation has given the from the Land of Israel. For this reason, if independent of historical truth which is any­ idea of a God-sent redeemer, promised in for no other, those events are an indispens­ how difficult to ascertain. Historical truth, he many pronouncements of the Prophets and able prelude to the history of Christian Europe. said, matters only for scholars, while "we prayed for in the whole Jewish liturgy, an Obviously, the Christian fathers, though some have another Moses of our own, whose image unforeseen dynamic. Yet, the misguided un­ of them reluctantly, must have been aware has been enshrined in the hearts of the timely application of such expectations, when of this; but this consciousness extends to Jewish people for generations, and whose the hour of Redemption has not struck, is niany centuries. It is no accident that a great influence on our national life has never apt to set the world aflame in an apocalyptic composer of German origin but "adopted" by ceased, . Even if you succeeded in demon­ disaster. England, G. F. Handel, who glorified Christ­ strating conclusively that the man Moses never ianity in his masterpiece "Messias" (culmin­ existed, or that he was not such a man as we ating in the jubilant chorus on the Hebrew supposed, you would not detract one jot Pathology of German-Jewish Relations Word Halleluja), applied his genius also to from the historical reality of the ideal Moses subjects like "Israel in Egypt" and the who has been our leader not only for forty This fact has often become a source of triumphal hymn of "Judas Makkabaeus," years in the vidldemess of Sinai, but for confusion, both within Judaism and in the thousands of years in all the wildernesses in Christian orbit, when eschatological ideas of The significance of the Exodus for the which we have wandered since the Exodus'". redemption, and the hope of a forthcoming civilised western world is also manifest in arrival of the Messias, even the imagination great works of art. The central figure of As a matter of fact the biblical story of of an impending end of the world, were Moses, "The Lawgiver" kat exochen, is vener­ the Exodus does not show us an idealized applied to a situation arising from factual ated by the whole of mankind. There are picture. It does not conceal the failures and political events by self-appointed false innumerable glorifications of him, of which I shortcomings nor the—to say the least— prophets, ecstatic revellers, impostors or down­ only want to mention two, albeit the generally ambiguous character of the people. They right madmen. These are the pitfalls of chilias­ Perhaps best known: the sculpture by Michel­ were the usual human beings, dominated by tic thinking and the resulting fanatical move­ angelo, which for miUions of people has materialist desires and sensuality who really ments. In this respect a modern German established the valid image of the Man, and do not readily take upon themselves privations author, Jorg von Uthmann, believes to have Schiller's essay Die Sendung Moses, from and burdens for the sake of an invisible good found a close similarity between Jews and which I want to quote the first paragraph in or god. This is demonstrated in an unsur­ Germans, but it seems to me that the main the original (with apologies to readers any- passable way in the story of the Golden Calf, point of this reasoning, what he calls the liow familiar with this text):— revived in our time in the grandiose orgy parallelism of Geschichtstheologie of the two scene of Schonberg's opera Moses and Aron, nations, refers more to the Judaeo-Christian "Die Griindung des jiidischen Staates which leaves Moses in despair. relationship than to national or ethnic durch Moses ist eine der denkwiirdigsten characteristics. Anyhow, this well-written and Begebenheiten, welche die Geschichte aufbe­ interesting booklet' deserves closer attention. wahrt hat, wichtig durch die Starke des Israel and Christian Nations Verstandes, wodurch sie ins Werk gerichtet Jbrg von Uthmann, a German diplomat Worden, wichtiger noch durch ihre Folgen The Exodus, after all, is a kind of archetypal (born in 1936), who served in the German auf die Welt, die noch bis auf diesen Augen­ Embassy in Israel in 1965 under the first blick fortdauem. Zwei Religionen, welche drama in which relationships within a people, den grossten Teil der bewohnten Erde all the tensions, the mass psychology and the Ambassador Pauls, propounds the thesis of beherrschen, das Christentum und der eternal antinomy between dark instincts and a certain kinship between the German and Islamismus, stiitzen sich beide auf die ethical commandment find their classical ex­ the Jewish people, which he thinks can be Religion der Hebraer, und ohne diese wiirde pression. No wonder that the basic metaphors observed both in the national character and es niemals weder ein Christentum noch from the Bible have been used—or abused— in the history of the two. It reveals itself einen Koran gegeben haben". so often whenever some sort of so-called in a sort of congeniality, or elective affinity, liberation movement made its appearance in This sounds perhaps like a truism, and a ' Jorg von Uthmann. DoppelgSnger, du bleichcr Getelle, Sreat part of Schiller's essay could not be ' Quoted from the translation by Leon Simon (East & Zur Patholoflie des deutsch-judischen Verhalfnlsses. Accepted by us today, but the simple truth of Wesf Library Londor), also printed in "Nationalism and Seewald Verlag, Stuttgart 1976, 189 S. DM 22. ttie Jewisl] Ethic", edited by Hans Kohn, Schocken Books the indebtedness of Christians and Moslems New York 1962. Continued on page 2, column 1 Page 2 AJR INFORMATION April 1976 The famous twelth-century Italian abbot SOME PASSOVER MEDITATIONS Joachim di Fiore predicted a "Third Reich" which would redeem mankind by establishing Continued from page 1 a universal realm of the Spirit. From there the Nazis borrowed the name for their Reich. This had theological and apocalyptic under­ producing both enthusiastic love and furious of the German but at the same time kindred tones, but in historical terms it regarded itself hatred. The love manifested itself on the like a brother; there must not exist two as the successor of the First Reich of Charle­ Jewish side after the appearance of Moses Chosen Peoples, he concluded. magne and the second of Bismark (which was fragmentary as it excluded Austria). The Mendelssohn when most Jews in Germany Now to history. Uthmann speaks at length adored German culture and accepted the Third Reich (of Hitler) had to surpass all of about the notorious discord which prevented its predecessors. German way of life. It explains the profound the establishment of a unified Germany while nineteenth-century identification of Jews in other Europeans built their nation-states. The In analogy, Mr. Uthmann interprets the Germany with the humanist German culture Germans persisted in the dream of the Holy ancient Davidian kingdom as the first Jewish of the classical enlightenment which created Roman Empire and their political ideal was state, the Maccabean empire as the second, one of the most spectacular periods of assimi­ always tinged with theocratical elements.
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