Nahalat tsevi · 1931-09-01 · Heft 11-12 (September 1931) · p. Seite 371

371 It is such a misconception of Judaism that Hirsch combats— and banishes. Hirsch finds incorporated in the Thbrah all the multifarious human activities. There is no function in life which is excluded from the realm of Torah. Ample room is left for artistic expression. The human spirit is not starved. No honest desire is extirpated, no healthy longing is eradicated. But free reign is given to none. The Torah governs and regulates all human activities. Each is allocated to its domain. There is no conflict, no friction in life. The boundaries between ,the permitted and the forbidden are clearly marked. Ethics and esthetics are harmoniously combined. The Torah is never found encroaching upon alien territory, for it encompasses all of life. * ¬ו¬ * Every ideal requires sacrifice. Every ideal is confronted with difficulties and impediments. sMany of these cannot be easily cricumvented. Struggle after struggle may follow be« fore they can be surmounted. It may be a lifelong or an age-old battle: endless strife with fadverse conditions. The idealist may suffer privation; he may lack life’s barest necessitics. But he remains undaunted. He resigns himself cheerfully to his suffering; for he cherishes hisl ideal more highly than his personal comfort. It is a commonplace fact that Judaism as an ideal;has required sacrifice. Of oourse, Jewish suffering was not limited to deprivation of comforts. AU sorts of tortures were suffered and even the supreme sacrifice was brought. But Jews never dismaycd. They realized that achievement of an ideal is associated with suffering. American Jews have forgotten howito suffer for their ideal. They lose devotion to it when it demands sacrifice from them. They adhere to it oniy so long as it is Komfortable or habitual. They forsake it when it makes the slightest demands upon them. A wide dissemination of Hirsch's writings can instil into Jewish hearts such an intense devotion to Torah that no sacrifice will be too great for it. With his conception of Judaism there is bound to come the conviction that the Torah is the Jew's most treasured possession not to be parted with under any circumstances. Torah will again become the supreme ruler of life. By Ephraim Newman, Brooklyn, New York,