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 Origin and Function 
 
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 Origin and Function 
 
 of Ceremonies in 
 
 Judaism 
 
 Dr. K. Kohler 
 
 CINCINNATI, OHIO 
 
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 CENTRAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN RABBIS 
 1907 
 
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 THE ORIGIN AND FUNCTION OF CERKMOXIES IN 
 
 JUDAISM 
 
 By Dk. K. KoriLKii, Cincinnati, Ohio 
 
 The significance of ceremony in the rehgious life of the Jew 
 forms one of the main points at issue between Orthodoxy and Re- 
 form. To Rabbinical Judaism the Sinaitic Law, written or oral, is 
 immutable (compare with Maimonides' ninth article his Code H. 
 Yesode ha Torah ix), each of the 613 commandments being re- 
 garded as fundamental (David ben Zimra Responsa i, 344). The 
 distinction made between moral laws dictated by reason and ritual 
 laws which ratlier baffle reason and common sense (Sifra Ahare 
 Moth xiii ; Yoma 67b) does not imply that the former are of greater 
 importance, nor does the latter classification of the Mosaic laws 
 into rational or social and divinely revealed ones (Saadia Emunoth 
 iii. 1-2, Ibn Ezra to Exod. xxi. 2 and Kuzari II/48 ; iii. 7, 11) place 
 the former class higher than the latter. "The divine precepts, 
 whether their purposes are intelligible to us or not, demand unre- 
 served obedience" says Maimonides (Moreh iii. 26, with reference 
 to Yoma 67b, Sanhcdrin 21b, Bereshith Rabba 44, comp. Berakot 
 33b). Nay more. While dividing the Mosaic laws into universally 
 human or social and specifically Jewish or religious precepts, Mai- 
 monides expressly assigns to the latter a higher rank in view of 
 their ulterior spiritual aims and purposes. (Moreh iii. 27 and Mish- 
 nah Commentary Peah. i. i). Nor do Simeon Duran (Magen 
 Aboth at the beginning) and Albo (Ikkarim iii. 25) take a diflferent 
 view -when speaking of the ceremonial laws in contradistinction to 
 the moral and social or juridical statutes, since for them also the 
 former as the religious or divinely revealed ones claim a higher 
 place as constituting the Jewish mode of worshiping God. Viewed 
 in this light, Moses Mendelssohn was in perfect accord with tradi- 
 tion when, rationalist as he was, he declared the ceremonial laws to 
 
be the essential portion of the Mosaic legislation, whereas the ethical 
 laws of the Pentateuch, being- dictates of reason and common-sense, 
 are the universal property of mankind. "In order, then, to have a 
 people of pure theists in the midst of a world of polytheists, the 
 divine law-giver had to bind the members of the Jewish nation to- 
 gether by the observance of certain practices which were to serve 
 as signs and symbols expressive of religious and ethical truths. In- 
 stead of imposed dogmatic beliefs which shackle the -human intel- 
 lect, these ceremonies should form a species of picture-language to 
 awaken and foster certain thoughts in the minds of all and appeal 
 to the h^art of each so as to render them guardians of pure theism. 
 These bonds, then, intended to keep Israel's people together for all 
 time are forever to remain in force, whether their original purpose 
 be still understood or not, until it would please the Most High to 
 reveal His will anew in a legislation as solemn, as positive and as 
 all-powerful as was the one on Sinai." This well-known view pre- 
 sented by Mendelssohn in his Jerusalem, says Zunz in his "Gutach- 
 ten ueber die Beschneidung," 1844, prevailed for some time, and 
 Zunz himself as well as Reggio, whom he quotes, shares it in so far 
 as both lay all stress upon the ceremonial law as being peculiarly 
 Jewish and bound up with the memories a'nd hopes of the Jewish 
 people. It is, however, a great inconsistency on the one hand 
 to denounce submission to an imposed creed in the name of liberty 
 of conscience and on the other hand to demand blind submission to 
 imposed forms of practice which no longer have any meaning for 
 us. It is perfectly logical for him who believes in a supernatural 
 revelation to maintain that, no matter whether they appeal to our 
 understanding or not, the ritual laws demand obedience as "the de- 
 crees of the great Ruler of Life concerning which scrutiny is not 
 permissible." On the part of such as deny the authenticity of the 
 Pentateuch — and here Zunz and Graetz are on the same side as the 
 adherents of the Kuenen-Wellhausen school — blind adherence to 
 usages that have no justification in themselves is. as Dr. Geiger, in 
 his "Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift," 1839, so well characterized it: 
 "Hunde-Gehorsam," slavish practice without conviction, unworthy 
 of thinking men. The whole Reform movement, indeed, as is so 
 lucidlv sliown by Dr. David Philipson in his scholarly work: "The 
 
Reform AlovcinciU in Judaism" (see especially 6-13; 332 f.) hinges 
 on the question whether Judaism is a system of ceremonial observ- 
 ance as binding upon the Jew as is the system of dogmatic belief 
 upon the Christian, or whether Judaism is a system of religious and 
 ethical truths, the ceremonies being only the means to higher ends, 
 not ends in themselves. 
 
 It is not the object of this paper to follow up the warfare waged 
 by the leaders of Reform against ceremonialism. It is fully recog- 
 nized today that Holdheim far overshot the mark or, as Dr. Philip- 
 son aptly expressed it (p. 91 eodem) "he made the serious error of 
 quite underestimating the place of ceremony in the religious life," 
 when he declared the whole ceremonial law to be the outcome of 
 Israel's national life and, therefore, of no validity for Judaism as a 
 religion. Far more correct was the attitude of Einhorn and Samuel 
 Hirsch at the very outset when, in opposing the vagaries of the 
 Frankfort Reform Verein, they emphasized the need of ceremonies 
 as symbolic expressions of the priest-mission assigned to the Jew- 
 ish people (see "Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums," 1844, p. 88 f. ; 
 123 f., 134 f. compare Aaron Chorin "Rabbinische Gutachten ueber 
 die Vertraeglichkeit der freien Forschung" 1842, p. 28). But in 
 how far the ceremonies are to be regarded as essentially Jewish 
 and therefore to be unalterably maintained, and in how far they pre- 
 sent only adaptations from older non-Jewish life and accordingly 
 permit of modifications, alterations, and radical changes is a ques- 
 tion concerning which opinions still widely dififer. In order to 
 reach positive conclusions, a historic review of the ceremonies in 
 their various stages of growth is required, and the principles under- 
 lying their development in the different phases of religious life must 
 be investigated and established. 
 
 The Crigin and Development of Jewish Ceremonies 
 
 When speaking of ceremony, we must dismiss the notion we 
 moderns have that it is a mere conventional form without intrinsic 
 value and meaning. To go back to the Latin, caerimonia signifies 
 reverence and awe like the word religio with which it is frequently 
 coupled, while the plural caerimoniae denotes religious rites, which 
 
in Rome had a inaqical rather than a symbolical character. That 
 is to say, the Roman ceremonies were believed to have a coercive 
 power over the deities. For the pagan mind in general the cere- 
 monies constitute religion, which is viewed simply as a mode of 
 worship void of ethical purposes. In the course of time, however, 
 the original object of these ceremonies is forgotten, and they be- 
 come empty forms until upon a higher stage they are invested with 
 new meaning and made to convey higher thoughts. There is, con- 
 sequently, a singular affinity noticeable between the ceremonies of 
 various people and classes, since, as a rule, they have a common 
 origin in primitive life. Ceremonies are never the creations of in- 
 dividuals ; they grow and change like languages. They are, as 
 Edward B. Tylor in his "Primitive Culture" and his "Researches 
 into Early History of Mankind" calls them, "the gesture-language 
 of theology." The people that crave for rain, for instance, would 
 in solemn manner pour out water before the heavenly power to sug- 
 gest what it should do for them, and henceforth water libation be- 
 comes part of the sacrificial ritual elsewhere. Each ceremony may 
 thus be traced to its origin in primitive time. When the Occidental 
 lifts his hat before a superior today, he is unaware of the far older 
 form of showing submissive self-surrender by stripping oneself of 
 all armaments and equipments which, of course, included the head- 
 gear. This corresponds with the Oriental custom of taking off 
 the shoes, as Tylor has shown. On the other hand, it is regarded 
 as disrespectful in the East to receive, or be seen by, strangers 
 bareheaded, and it stands to reason that it is considered by Orientals 
 still more derogatory to the honor of God to stand bareheaded be- 
 fore Him in prayer or in sight of the sanctuary. (See Mishnah 
 Barakot ix, 5, where the words: "Lo yakel et rosho beshaar ha 
 Misrah" can only mean "One should not bare his head in sight of 
 the Holy of Holies," exactly as the Roman priests officiated only 
 with covered heads. Compare Hughes Dictionary of Islam, s. v. 
 Head; and Jewish Encyclopedia s. v. Bareheadedness). You ob- 
 serve at once the pivotal question at issue : Are we as Jews in Occi- 
 dental life to be Orientals in the house of God, or are we Occiden- 
 tals in every respect? 
 
So are forms of greeting mere questions of politeness to us. But 
 when the Mishnah in Berakot, just quoted, dwells at some length 
 upon an ancient Pharisaic institution to the effect that, contrary 
 to the rule prohibiting the use of the sacred name of God for pro- 
 fane purposes, men should distinctly pronounce the holy Name 
 when meeting each other, as did men in Biblical times, we must 
 come to the conclusion that this usage had a more serious motive. 
 No doubt, the fear of malign influences such as that of the evil eye 
 and the various evil omina prompted these greetings (comp. Psalms 
 cxxix. 8; Ruth ii. 4) the real meaning of which gradually fell into 
 oblivion. 
 
 Robertson Smith in the introductory remarks to his "Religion of 
 the Semites" says : "Behind the positive religions which * * * trace 
 their origin to the teaching of great religious innovators who spoke 
 as the organs of a divine revelation, lies the body of religious usage 
 and belief which cannot be traced to the influence of individual 
 minds. No positive religion that has moved men has been able to 
 start with a tabula rasa. A new scheme of faith can find a hearing 
 only by appealing to religious instincts and susceptibilities that al- 
 ready exist in its audience, and it cannot reach these without taking 
 account of the traditional forms in which all religious feeling is em- 
 bodied, and without speaking a language which men accustomed to 
 these old forms can understand * * * The precepts of the 
 Pentateuch did not create a priesthood and a sacrificial service on 
 an altogether independent basis, but only reshaped and remodelled, 
 in accordance with a more spiritual doctrine, institutions of an older 
 type which in many particulars were common to the Hebrews with 
 their heathen neighbors. Every one who reads the Old Testament 
 with attention is struck with the fact that the origin and rationale 
 of sacrifice are nowhere fully explained ; that sacrifice is an essential 
 part of religion is taken for granted as something which is not a 
 doctrine peculiar to Israel but is universally admitted and acted on 
 ivithout as well as zvithin the limits of the chosen people." These 
 observations have their bearing upon the whole Mosaic Code with 
 its purity and dietary laws. Of course, the, orthodox Jew of the 
 type of David Hoffman in Berlin for whom the Mosaic Code with 
 
its traditional interpretation is divinely revealed and the sacrificial 
 and Levitical laws only temporarily suspended until their reinstate- 
 ment by a divinely ordained power, can only assign mystical, or at 
 best symbolical, reasons to all the ceremonies prescribed by the 
 Torah. We, who behold in relig-ion an ever-progressive force 
 working through the inner consciousness of man, first collectively 
 and afterwards individually, must ascertain the origin and purpose 
 of each and every ceremony in order to find out whether by appeal- 
 ing to our minds and hearts it fulfills a religious function or 
 whether it has become an empty shell with the kernel gone. In 
 doing so, we must discriminate between the ancient ceremonies 
 of Biblical times which are still influenced by primitive notions, the 
 Rabbinical ceremonies which received their mould and character 
 under the influence of conscious but authoritative forces, and 
 modern ceremonies which still lack more or less the authority of 
 historic powers and specific Jewish characteristics. 
 
 I. The Mosaic Ceremonial 
 
 The Mosaic ceremonial system, impressive as it is with the 
 authority of divine legislation and with the grandeur of a great 
 world-wide historic power, speaks to us, nevertheless, in a religious 
 language not our own. We have to retranslate it into our own 
 mode of thinking and feeling. It is based upon sacrifice against 
 which our religious consciousness revolts. It rests upon notions 
 of priestly holiness and purity which we reject. It confines the 
 worship of the Most High to the priesthood and the sanctuary and 
 fails to bring God nigh to the people and home to each heaven- 
 aspiring soul. Mosaism, with its temple cult, it to us — and this is 
 the essential difference between Reform and Orthodox Judaism — 
 only the preparatory stage to Rabbinism with its Synagogical life 
 and to Modern Judaism with its many-centered religious life. 
 Those who call us Karaites or Mosaites know neither what Kara- 
 ism was nor what Reform Judaism staAds for. We believe in the 
 ever-working laws of historic evolution and see in assimilation the 
 force ever at work in Judaism's progress. The entire sacri- 
 ficial cult of the Pentateuch is the result of a powerful assimilation. 
 
Careful scientific investigations comparing the Babylonian, the 
 Phoenician and the old Arabic sacrificial system, including even the 
 terminology, with that of the Mosaic Code, have established the fact 
 beyond a cavil of doubt that the divine lawgiver, or lawgivers, sim- 
 ply adopted the rules and customs of priestly practice prevalent for 
 ages, while at the same time eliminating such elements as were con- 
 nected with idolatry, witchcraft and the abominable orgies of the 
 Astart and Baal cult, and changing form and character here and 
 there to give the whole service a higher and more spiritual meaning 
 and purpose. The fundamental principle that all the sacrificial and 
 priestly practices should, by various degrees of purity and sanctity, 
 lead up to and culminate in the divine ideal of Holiness, in a Holy 
 God whose sacredness is to eradiate from the sanctuary and impart 
 itself to the people over the land, at once lent the system a peculiar 
 and lofty character ; but the system itself as a religious machinery 
 was borrowed from its environments. The central idea which per- 
 vades the entire sacrificial service is the same that underlies the 
 Semitic, if not primitive religion in general, and that is, that only 
 blood as the vital power of man and beast unites and reunites men 
 and God. Only blood possesses the power of atonement (see Lev. 
 xvii. ii). Only blood seals a covenant and reconciles an angry 
 deity. Only the signs of blood protect the houses, the men and the 
 flocks against malign spirits. Read the personal observations made 
 in Bible lands by Prof. Curtiss in his "Primitive Semitic Religion" 
 and by Clay Trumbull as recorded in his "Blood Covenant" and 
 "The Threshold Covenant," and you have the key to many religious' 
 ceremonies of ancient Israel. New light is there thrown upon the 
 twelfth and thirteenth chapters of Exodus which treat of the Pass- 
 over lamb whose blood is sprinkled upon the doorsill and doorposts 
 and of the sacrifice of the firstborn of the flock and the herd to- 
 gether with the signs upon the arm and the forehead. We learn of 
 the shepherds of Arabia and Palestine offering each spring at the 
 increase of their flocks and herds some of the firstborn as a sacrifice 
 called Fedu, — -the same as Pidion, "Redemption," — into the blood of 
 which they dip the hand to put the sign of "a hand" or of a "Tau" 
 (cross) upon the doorsill and upon the forehead of men and sprinkle 
 some upon the flock and the herd to avert ill-luck or to insure the 
 
divine blessing. So is every new household opened by a moving" 
 tribe, or by a newly married couple, consecrated by sacrificial blood 
 warding off evil spirits that may beleaguer it. So is every' grievous 
 sin committed ransomed off by such sacrificial rite. 
 
 Likewise is the life of a child in cases of sickness or distress 
 dedicated to the local saint, bought off by the sacrifice of a lamb or 
 goat, and in case of poverty also by a rooster or hen. We thus find 
 the closest similarity between the practices mentioned in the Bible 
 and those still in use in the Bible lands. Also in regard to the fes- 
 tivities of the ingathering and the firstlings of the yearly produce. 
 As Maimonides, in the third book of his Moreh, has suggested with 
 fine divinatory powers, it was the method of a wise pedagogy which 
 either made use of pagan rites to train the people of Israel for 
 higher religious views and habits, or so transformed the ancient 
 practices as to guard the people against lapsing into heathen vice 
 and cruelty. 
 
 We must bear in- mind that antiquity knew of no other form of 
 worship than sacrifice. However bitterly the great prophets in Israel 
 condemned the heathen mode of bribing deity by the blood and the 
 oil poured upon the altar while Israel's God demanded righteous 
 conduct, they could not abrogate the sacrificial cult. Nor did they 
 intend doing so. They did not accord to prayer and song a higher, 
 place in the service. Even the great seer of the Exile, when giving 
 utterance to the glorious vision of the time when the house of God 
 wt)uld become a house of prayer for all the nations, still beholds 
 the pillars of smoke rising from an altar decked with holocausts and 
 other blood offerings. And so does the incense of sacrifice offered 
 to God from the rising of the sun unto its setting betoken to the last 
 of the Prophets the universality 'of religion. Only the Hasidean 
 Psalms xi and 1 echo forth the clear note of dissent, ushering in 
 a new era of religious life during the Exile, as we shall see. In the 
 Mosaic system the priestly ritual, dominant in all sanctuaries, is the 
 only legitimate one. Prayer, and confession of sin are admitted as 
 occasional outpourings of the individual, yet only at the (niter parts 
 of the sanctuary. Even the inspiring song and music of Levitical 
 choirs find no place, or mention, alongside of the primitive horn 
 (Shofar) and trumpet. 
 
In all likelihood this simplicity is intentional. It was to form a 
 striking contrast to the seductive orgies of the Canaanite. This 
 would also account for the strange lack of ceremonial prescribed for- 
 the different holy days. Only the old shepherd festival of spring, 
 Pesah, transformed into a memorial feast of the Exodus has a more 
 elaborate ritual. The three agricultural festivals still appear in a 
 rather shadowy form except in so far as the number of sacrifices 
 is concerned. Obviously, the lawgiver is concerned only with the 
 regulation of the official cult. As .to the popular festivities, we only 
 learn that the poor, the widow and the orphan, the stranger and 
 the Levite were to participate in the joy of the harvest and vintage 
 and to receive the corners of the field at the ingathering of the crops. 
 From other sources, especially from comparative studies of religious 
 practices, we learn that certain portions of the field were conse- 
 crated by the people to the gods of fertility amidst religious pro- 
 cessions of a half lascivious and half austere character ; and we at 
 once comprehend the meaning and the high ethical purpose of the 
 Mosiac law assigning the corners of the fields to the poor. Also 
 in regard to the Sukkoth festival and the palm, myrtle and willow 
 branches specified in connection therewith, there are several indica- 
 tions in Scriptural passages that the festivities of the water libation 
 held in the second temple originated in ancient times ; only the 
 priestly legislation had no interest in a public ceremonial outside of 
 the sanctuary. 
 
 In the Atonement Day ceremonial we have a peculiar combination 
 of a primitive Semitic and a purely monotheistic rite of expiation. 
 The scapegoat sent out to Azazel, the goat-like demon of the wilder- 
 ness, as Ibn Ezra sagaciously explained the name, belongs to the 
 same category as the bird sent out to carry the disease of the leper 
 into the wilderness (Lev. xiv. 53) and has many analogies in an- 
 cient Semitic usages (see Robertson Smith "Religion of the Sem- 
 ites," p. 402 note, and comp. Orclli "Religionsgeschichte" p. 760 ; 
 and art. Azazel in J. E.). This archaic rite meant for the inhabitants 
 of Jerusalem originally the removal of physical evil for the new 
 solar year (xi. i and comp. Lev. xxv. 9-10). The priesthood, 
 on the other hand, expatiated on the rites of expiation for the sane- 
 
tuary, the effects of which only indirectly affected the people for 
 whom the day was made a fast day. The whole ritual has an exclu- 
 sively hierarchical character which was changed only at the hands of 
 the Pharisees in their combat with Sadduceeism. These only gave 
 it the character of a grand symbolic act of purification and divine 
 atonement. 
 
 The only day which stands out as a genuine Jewish institution 
 without parallel in paganism is the Sabbath. It is emphatically de- 
 clared to be the sign of the covenant between God and Israel (Exod. 
 xxxi. 16-17). Unlike the Babylonian Sabbath which figures as 
 a day of austere stand-still for the royal representative of the na- 
 tion, the Mosaic Sabbath is a day of rest and recreation for the 
 whole nation, including the slave, the stranger and the beast. It is 
 a testimonial to God as the Creator of the Universe as well as the 
 Liberator of man. Still a ceremonial of a positive kind is prescribed 
 only for the priest who, besides the additional sacrifice, places the 
 new shew-bread upon the golden table each Sabbath day while tak- 
 ing home the old (Lev. xxiv. 8-9). 
 
 As the great Memorial day of the deliverance from Egypt, the 
 Passover feast also occupies a central position in the Mosaic num- 
 ber of holy days. Many ceremonies cluster around it to become re- 
 minders of important religious and ethical laws, the unleavened 
 bread of primitive time (See Tylor's "Anthropology," p. 267) having 
 been rendered symbolic of the hastened exodus of Israel from the 
 land of bondage. 
 
 There remain for discussion, then, those ceremonies particularly 
 enjoined as signs for the body. The most important of these is the 
 sign of the Abrahamitic covenant. Here, too, the pedagogical tend- 
 ency of the Mosaic law becomes evident as soon as we compare the 
 rite prescribed in Genesis xvii. iif. with the one in use among all 
 the other tribes in Arabia, Africa and Australia, and find traces of 
 the older primitive form also in ancient Biblical time. I refer to 
 the stone knives used by Zipporah and Joshua which, as shown by 
 Tylor ("Early History," 217) point to a cruder age, and to the 
 connection of the rite with marriage in the story of Shechem (Gen. 
 xxxiv). It is the consecration of manhood at the approach of 
 
 10 
 
puberty and before marriage that is intended by the practice in 
 primitive life, and the painful ordeal becomes a test for the youth, 
 as in similar savage customs. Obviously in assigning the tenderest 
 age of infancy as the time for the performance of the rite, when 
 the pain, or consciousness of pain, is minimized, whereas Ishmael, 
 the father of the Beduin tribe, is circumcised at thirteen years of 
 age, the act is elevated to the dignity of a solemn initiation of the 
 child into the Abrahamitic household. The solemnization of the act 
 by a public festivity, however, as is done by the Moslem who calls it 
 "the feast of purification" (comp. Joshua v. 9 and the art. Cir- 
 cumcision in the J. E.) came into use only in post-Biblical time. 
 Whether the Deutcronomist (Deut. x. 16; xxx. 6; compare Jere- 
 miah iv. 4 and ix. 24), in symbolizing the rite accepts the view 
 of the priestly Code or deprecates it, is a matter open to controversy. 
 There is no doubt, however, that the idea of the Blood-Covenant 
 prevailed also in relation to this rite, as may be learned from its 
 relation to the Passover feast (Exod. xii. 44-48). And this leads 
 us to the "sign" on the hand and between the eyes mentioned in 
 this connection in Exod. xiii. 9 and 16. Rabbinical tradition re- 
 fers this to the Phylacteries introduced in post-Biblical time. But 
 Samaritan practice to this very day helps to elucidate the passage. 
 The blood of the Passover-lamb slaughtered on Mount Gerizim is 
 put on the arm and the forehead of the children, as has been wit- 
 nessed by Petermann "Reisen in Orient" I, 137; Stanley "Eastern 
 Church" I, 561 and others. Out of such custom which has talis- 
 manic cliaractcr, the Tefillin or Phylacteries developed, just as the 
 Mezuzzah grew out of the other talismanic practice of bedaubing the 
 doors with blood in the shape of a hand and the like. The Deute- 
 ronomic law-giver (vi. 8-9; xi. 18-20) suggests by way of symbol- 
 ism " the binding of the words of the Law on arm and forehead 
 and the inscription of the same on the doorposts," a practice met 
 with among Moslems today and among Christians of old ; and this 
 became a fixed ceremonial law, although the talismanic character of 
 both the Tefillin and Mezuzzah is occasionally alluded to in the 
 Targum and the Talmud (see my article in "Monatschrift," 1893, p. 
 445 f.). The Zizith, too, which in Deut. xxii. 12, appear to be 
 merely enjoined as a lesson of public decorum, are in the Holiness 
 
 11 
 
Code (Numbers xv. 37-41) prescribed as a ceremonial practice of 
 a religious nature, though the talismanic character of the purple blue 
 thread upon the fringes is generally assumed by modern commenta- 
 tors and seemingly confirmed by Talmudic utterances. (See Tosif- 
 ta Berakot at the close and Midrash Tehillim to Psalm vi.) 
 
 A real consecration of the entire people of Israel as God's holy 
 priest-nation is expressed in the dietary laws, the priestly origin 
 and character of which cannot be doubted by the student of com- 
 parative religion. Whether R. Smith's theory of the totemitic sig- 
 nificance of the unclean,' or tabooed, animals, be accepted or not, 
 the fact that the laws of the Hindoos, of the Persians, the Babylon- 
 ians and the Egyptians forbade the same classes of animals to the 
 priesthood and that the Mosaic Code itself takes it for granted that 
 the distinction between the clean and the unclean animals dates 
 back to the oldest, the Noahidic, times (Gen. vii. 2), proves that 
 the underlying principle is not a social or hygienic but a specifically 
 religious one as stated (Lev. xi. 44; xx. 25 f . ; Exod. xxii.'so; 
 Deut. xiv. 21 comp. Ezek. xiiv. 31 and Judges xiii. 4; and the 
 art. Dietary Laws in J. E.). It is the great legislative attempt to 
 carry into practical effect the prophetical idea expressed at the Sinai- 
 tic Revelation: "Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a 
 holy nation." It was, however, on a higher stage, in a more con- 
 genial religious atmosphere that this great plan could be brought 
 nearer to its realization, and this was the period of Hasidean or 
 Pharisaic and Rabbinical Judaism. 
 
 2. The Ceremonies of Pharisaic and Rabbinical Judaism 
 
 The difference in the religious life between pre-Exilic and post- 
 Exilic Israel is so marked and so amazingly great that the rabbis 
 could account for it only by the legend that the founders of the 
 Synagogue, "the Men of the great Assembly," had seized the Yezer 
 ha Ra by magic and exterminated him from the earth so as to make 
 an end to the idolatrous propensities of the people (Yoma 69b; 
 Sanh. 64a). The fact is that with the rise of Persia a new spirit 
 entered the world and brought about a great change especially 
 among the Jewish exiles. The higher conception of deity which 
 
 12 
 
lent to life in general a moral purpose, though based on dualism, 
 demanded of the Parsee a purer form of worship. The rising ^nd 
 setting sun, the waning and waxing moon, the various phenomena 
 of nature presenting the combat of light with darkness, and of life 
 with death, were greeted with invocations and prayers rather than 
 with bloody sacrifice. The sensual worship of the lascivious Baby- 
 lonian deities made way for an adoration of the god of light whose 
 heavenly court appeared as the prototype of the court of the Persian 
 King of Kings. Again it is the principle of assimilation which is 
 at work in the shaping of the Jewish religion. Alongside of the 
 temple with its sacrificial cult attended to by the Sadducean hier- 
 archy, the Synagogue arises as a new centre of religious life created 
 by "the humble" or "pious ones," the saints of the people, impreg- 
 nated with the prophetic truths and echoing forth their lofty aspira- 
 tions in the psalms and then in a liturgy shaped after Parsee models. 
 An intense, religious enthusiasm which finds its resonance in the 
 people's heart is awakened by these Hasidim, of the type of Daniel, 
 and expresses itself in ceremonies of a far higher order than is the 
 priestly ritual. The latest writer on the Jewish liturgy, Dr. EUbogen 
 in the "Monatschrift" is quite at a loss to explain the origin of the 
 recital of the Shema witli the preceding benediction praising the 
 Creator for the light of day and Israel's Only One for the light of 
 the Torah. Yet Rappaport and Schorr, as I indicated in my article 
 above referred to, pointed out the way of tracing it to Parsee influ- 
 ence. It was not imitation, as our anti-Reformers would say, but 
 assimilation that prompted this and many other great improvements 
 upon the old priestly cult. Yes, the Anshe Kneseth ha Gedolah, the 
 founders of the Synagogue, were reformers in adopting the Parsee 
 ceremony of greeting the orb of light at its rise every morning and 
 every evening at its setting; but whereas the worshipers of 
 Ormuzd with their magic formula hailed the sun as deity, the Hasi- 
 dim invoked God as the Creator of Light and Darkness, expressly 
 accentuating the monotheistic doctrine in contradiction to the dual- 
 ism of Persia. I cannot here go further into detail. Let me merely 
 call your attention to the fact again overlooked by Dr. Ellbogen, 
 that, in order to give expression in due form to "the acceptance of 
 the yoke of God's Kingship"— Kabbalath Ol Malkut Shamayim, as 
 
 13 
 
is the term for the Shema recital — the ceremony of putting on the 
 TefilHn and of wrapping the head into the Zizith (ornamented shawl 
 or Tallith) — were made regular parts of the morning prayer, for 
 which also the Parsee custom offers an analogy. In fact, most of the 
 morning benedictions are adaptations from the Parsee ceremonial. 
 I will single out the one recited at the crowing of the cock, the sacred 
 messenger of the god of light. The solemn greeting of the new 
 moon is undoubtedly also an adaptation of a Parsee practice to the 
 Jewish faith. Nay more. As has been shown convincingly in the 
 seventh and eighth volumes of Schorr's "He Haluz," the whole 
 Pharisaic principle of investing life with ceremonial observances 
 and corresponding benedictions is taken over from Parseeism. 
 
 The leading idea of the epoch ushered in by the Persian dominion 
 was the assertion of the right of the individual in the religious life 
 of the nation. And of this the Synagogue became the powerful ex- 
 ponent, revolutionizing religion by instituting in place of the sacri- 
 ficial priestly pomp a simple service fervent with true devotion and 
 rich in instruction to appeal to all hearts. God stepped, as it were, 
 out of the darkness of the Holy of Holies, to which only the elect of 
 the priesthood had access once a year, into the full daylight of rea- 
 son and knowledge to become in reality the God and Father of all. 
 The Torah in the hand of the scribe, the teacher and preacher was 
 to become the property of all ; and around the ark containing it and 
 the desk from which it was read and expounded to the congregation, 
 sprang up ceremonies full of meaning and impressiveness. The 
 Torah lent to the Sabbath and holy days a significance they could 
 not have had in ancient Israel; it gave to each season of the circling 
 years a new charm and rhythm. Out of the heart of the religious 
 community blossomed forth the ideas which transformed the three 
 agricultural feasts and the feast of the temple expiation on the tenth 
 of Tishri with its herald, the day of the Shofar blowing, into the 
 great awakeners of religious thought and sentiment, and around 
 each there began to cluster specific ceremonies of soul-stirring 
 beauty and grandeur. 
 
 But here, too, we must not lose sight of the historic law of evolu- 
 tion. It is always the few elect who usher in new ideas. Such, in 
 
 14 
 
the epoch we are speaking- of, were the Pharisean brotherhoods 
 which, in reclaiming' for their assemblies the sanctity of the priest- 
 hood guaranlccd to Israel in the preamble of the Sinai Constitu- 
 tion, gave a new solemnity to their Sabbath and holy day meals by 
 the Kiddush and Habdalah ceremony, made the Passover night 
 resonant with tlic joyous strains of the Plagg-adah, transformed the 
 farmer's feast of the firstlings into a memorial day of Sinai and 
 created the great autumnal season of religious revival for the Jew. 
 The daily meals were also lifted out of the common-place and in- 
 vested with priestly holiness by these brotherhoods. Seated around 
 a common table they began and finished with benedictions and other 
 ceremonies in imitation of temple practice and that of other reli- 
 gious fraternities. In like manner, social events, such as weddings 
 and funerals, or the initiation of youths into the study and practice 
 of the Torah, the Bar Mizwah celebration, were made specific reli- 
 gious solemnities. (See art. Bar Mizwah; Benedictions, Essenes 
 and Pharisees in the J. E.) Gradually a new factor of religious 
 life enters and opens a new sphere, for ceremonial observance. 
 Woman as builder and guardian of the home is more and more 
 recognized, and the rigor of the Mosaic purity laws as well as the 
 austerity of the Hasidean saint gives way to the dictates of common 
 sense. Henceforth the Jewish home is emblazoned and enriched 
 with new ceremonies which accord to woman a prominent place in 
 religious life. The kindling of the Sabbath lamp and the baking of 
 the Sabbath bread, and the like, invest domestic life with new means 
 of sanctification. In the same measure as the Jew withdraws from 
 the political arena to form an exclusively religious community in 
 the midst of the nations, his life from the cradle to the grave be- 
 comes a round of ceremonial observances distinguishing it from 
 his surroundings. Yet as the real purpose and origin of all these 
 rites and ceremonies are forgotten, the impression obtaing that sepa- 
 ration, distinction of the Jew from the non-Jew, is the sole object, 
 and non-Jewish habits, even of the most innocent kind, are con- 
 demned as included in the Mosaic prohibition of Hukkat ha Goy. 
 which refers only to the lewd practices of the i(k)latrous nations. 
 
 But such is the power of assimilation working unconsciously in 
 
 15 
 
Judaism that almost every age and country added customs and cere- 
 monies of pagan origin and superstitious character. Such a one 
 is the rite of Kapparoth, the waiving and slaughtering of a cock, 
 respectively hen, for males and females, on the eve of Yom Kippur, 
 a sort of vicarious sacrifice met with also among Mohammedans and 
 likewise the ransoming of the dangerously sick, "Pidyon ha Nefesh"' 
 (see Curtiss, "Eodem" 28, 233). 
 
 The rites connected with marriage, birth and death present a 
 strange combination of ancient Oriental and Occidental practices. 
 The wine and the benedictions at the wedding date from the time 
 when the sacrificial meal cemented the matrimonial covenant (see 
 Clay Trumbull, "The Blood Covenant" and Tobit viii. 5), whereas 
 the ring as a symbol is a mediaeval innovation. Few people are 
 aware that the bridal veil, which lent the name to the Roman nup- 
 tials, is but a survival of the cutting-off of the bride's hair, a prac- 
 tice still adhered to in Russia among Jews and Gentiles (see Lip- 
 pert "Cultusgeschichte" II, 125, 155 f. and Ralston "Russian Folk 
 Songs," 27 f.). So has the Rabbinical prohibition to have wed- 
 dings take place in holy seasons its parallel in Roman custom (see 
 Lippert, p. 99), while the forbidding of weddings during the Omer 
 days corresponds to the Roman and English avoidance of May wed- 
 dings. (See Landberg in Geiger's "Zeitschr," 1869 p. 81 ff.) 
 
 The solemnizing of the Berith Milah is neither Biblical nor Tal- 
 mudical but was apparently adopted from the Mohammendans among 
 whom also the Rabbinical festivity of the Shebua ha Ben, "the 
 seventh day of the child" is found. (Comp. Klunzinger "Bilder aus 
 Ober Aegypten," 1877, p. 181 f. ; Lane "Customs of the Egyptians 
 of To-day," III, 138, German Translation, with Baba Bathra 6Db 
 and Loew's "Lebensalter.") Especially interesting is the adoption of 
 the feast of Naming the Child, from the Germans under the heathen 
 name of Holle Kreisch for the daughter, obviously for the reason 
 that Oriental tradition had made no provision for this family event 
 (see Pedes in "Graetz Jubelschrift" p. 24). Especialy large is the 
 number of practices adopted by the Jew from his surroundings in 
 the event of death. Superstition, deisidaemonia, "fear of the dem- 
 ons" as the Greeks call it, is the child of fear. Most funeral rites 
 
 16 
 
were originally means of pacifying the dead who claimed their part 
 from the living. Out of the sacrifices to the dead, transformed 
 later into sacrifices for the dead, developed all the rites and pray- 
 ers that at a more advanced stage became sources of comfort for the 
 living. .The ancient fear died away and piety stepped into its place 
 to preserve the old customs in a new garb and in a new spirit. 
 There is nothing -that so appeals to the Jew with his innate love for 
 the fathers who sleep in the dust as does the Kaddish and the Yahr- 
 aeit. Yet both have their origin in fear, fear of the purgatory and 
 fear lest the unlucky day again brings death. They have obtained 
 a prominent place in Jewish life, though their origin and character 
 are un-Jewish ; not Christian, as Zunz says, but Persian and Baby- 
 lonian. 
 
 In thus reviewing the entire system of Jewish observances as they 
 have come down to us through the centuries, we find them to be 
 indispensable forms of expressing the religious feelings prompted 
 by the various events of life. As we advance in culture, enlighten- 
 ment and refinement, these various ceremonies may appear to us 
 as empty shells void of meaning, but we must never forget that 
 nothing grows on the tree or in the soil without the shielding leaf 
 and husk. Abstract truth and ethical practice fail to satisfy the 
 religious craving of man. He needs ceremonies that impress him 
 with the nearness and the holiness of the divine. And while the 
 Mosaic Code placed the sanctuary and the priesthood into the fore- 
 ground, often ignoring the life of the people, we see Pharisaic and 
 Rabbinic Judaism creating new ceremonies or transforming the old 
 so as to impress the Jew on all occasions with his priestly sanctity. 
 He rejoices in the multitude of observances which surround his 
 life like so many guardian angels. Unlike his Christian neighbor, 
 who from fear of the Satanic powers of evil surrenders to blind 
 dogma, he sees his path of life lined with ceremonies which secure 
 to him the divine favor. 
 
 The question for us today, however, is: Can these ceremonies of 
 traditional Judaism still occupy the same place in our life? True, 
 they have accomplished much for the Jew of the past in ofifering a 
 wondrous discipline which drilled him to do soldier's duty in defend- 
 
 17 
 
ing the ancestral inheritance and in shunning- no sacrifice to uphold 
 it against a world of bitterest enmity and intolerance. Still, thev 
 have long ceased to impress us with the idea of priestly holiness and 
 have become "the work of men inculcated by rote." Rabbinical 
 ceremonialism has become as unbearable to us as the sacrificial sacer- 
 dotalism was to the prophets of old. It is just as much fetishism for 
 us to wear the Tallith and the TefiUin, tliough the Talmud consigns 
 the head not adorned by Tefillin to Gehenna (Rosh Hashanah 17a), 
 as to have the Aaronides still chant the Priestly Blessing in the Syn- 
 agogue. The dietary and purity laws, whether Mosaic or Rabbini- 
 cal, are dead and buried for us, and no power in the world can re- 
 suscitate them. And this is the case with many other ceremonial 
 institutions deemed fundamental by the law-observing Orthodox. 
 We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that, as our entire Weltan- 
 schauung changes, so must our religious views necessarily change. 
 In order to have a positive religious value and significance, cere- 
 monies must either directly or symbolically express thoughts and feel- 
 ings that appeal to us while elevating, hallowing and enriching our 
 lives. Romanticism which only loves ancient practices because they 
 are picturesque representations of a dead past is not religion, which 
 must above all be the voice of a living truth, of a living God. 
 
 3. The Ceremonies of Modern Jud.\ism 
 
 Before discussing the need and the function of ceremonies in 
 modern Judaism, we must be clear as to what we would call Modern, 
 or as it is commonly termed. Reform Judaism. To most people, 
 some of our Reform Rabbis included, Reform appears as something 
 arbitrary, as a sort of eclecticism which singles out such of the 
 laws and institutions of Judaism for observance as appeal to reason 
 and common sense and suit our convenience, more or less, while 
 disregarding or rejecting the rest. Moreover, they find it to be 
 paradoxical to disclaim the authority of the written and oral Law 
 and at the same time lay claim to loyalty to the Torah as divine 
 revelation. It is unquestionably this very perplexity which has in- 
 duced many Reformers to seek refuge in Nationalism. The fact is, 
 Reform Judaism is just as much the necessary outcome of our his- 
 
torical age of research as was Rabbinism the result of bhnd belief 
 in authority. The principle of evolution offers us the key so to re- 
 read the past as to enable us to see its continuity in the present, no 
 matter what changes altered conditions have brought about. Look- 
 ing beneath the surface of the letter and the form, we find the same 
 laws that have been at work both in the Mosaic and in the Rabbinic 
 period of Judaism to be still at work in the modern epoch ; only 
 with the essential difference that in the former stages the work was 
 (lone by unconscieais forces of the Jewish genius for which the reli- 
 gious terminology is revelation and inspiration, God working 
 through the chosen organs and authorities, whereas in our age of 
 reason the religious progress is achieved by us in resix)nsc to the 
 dictates of our own religious consciousness. The recognition of 
 the fact that both Mosaism and Pharisaism have been borrowing 
 and adopting forms of religious practice from their surroundings in 
 the shaping and reshaping of the religious life of the Jewish people, 
 entitles us to pursue the same method of the remodelling of the pres- 
 ent Judaism in order to revitalize and quicken its forces. Of course, 
 innovations and reforms at first militate against the justly venerated 
 authority of the past, and it requires a successive period of tacit as- 
 sent to legitimize them and render them integral parts of the whole 
 system of religion. No doubt, to the prophet Elijah as well as to 
 Hosea xii. lo th^ Solomonic Temple with all its sacerdotal pomp 
 appeared as an imitation and assimilation of Phoenician worship, 
 while in the priestly Code this very sacerdotal cult is represented 
 as divinely patterned. Exactly so will much that is now decried 
 as Christianizaticn by our short-sighted retrogressionists, viz. : 
 our Reform temple with its organ and female singers, its family 
 pew's and all its Occidental characteristics, receive its full acknowl- 
 edgment as Jewish by coming generations who will no longer know 
 of the former dissent. Each age creates its own divine authorities, 
 is the maxim voiced in the Rabbinical saying: "Jephtha the Judge 
 in his age is the same as Samuel the prophet in his." Life is bound 
 to assimilate forms as well as ideas and will sanction such assimila- 
 tions as have strengthened and vitalized the religious idea. 
 
 Now there can be no question as to the need of ceremonial prac- 
 tices in our age. Doctrine alone, however lofty, does not stir the 
 
 19 
 
soul and bring it in touch with the great Fountainhead of HoHness 
 and Love. Rehgious acts do. They awaken and deepen, as Lazarus 
 says in his "Jewish Ethics," the sense of duty in us. They develop 
 our spiritual faculties because they appeal to our emotional nature. 
 They impress us with the holiness of life much more than abstract 
 truth can. They bring all the lessons of religion home to us in 
 striking, persuasive and attractive form. The skeptic who remains 
 cold when he hears arguments, however convincing, is moved to 
 tears when some ceremonial act brings back to him long-forgotten 
 memories roused by associations of thought and sentiment con- 
 nected therewith. No religion can be without such memorial 
 "signs ;" least of all, Judaism with its wondrous history of achieve- 
 ment and of endurance. Ceremonies are the educators and moni- 
 tors of the people ; they speak to old and young, to sage and simple- 
 minded alike the language of faith, of hope and of loyalty. When 
 the Torah scroll in its time-honored garb of splendor is held forth 
 before the assembled congregation, the words : "This is the Law" 
 resound in our ear and heart with the glorious tale of the centuries 
 of Jewish heroism and martyrdom, with the world-wide message 
 of its perennial truth. So should each ceremony be another appeal 
 to lofty aim and noble action. It comes to us as a means of sanctifi- 
 cation of life and of consecration to duty. Every event or experi- 
 ence in life, each turning point in nature and history should link 
 mortal man to the throne of the everlasting King and invest the 
 commonest incidents of daily existence with the dignity of divine 
 service. This is the underlying idea of ceremonial law in Judaism, 
 and our strenuous age of worldly ambition and greed can least' af- 
 ford to be without this educating influence. 
 
 The question is, however, in how far do our inherited religious 
 practices fulfill this aim and object? There is no dispute among 
 the most radical that the Sabbath and festival days are still most 
 potent ceremonial institutions performing the function of educators 
 for the Jewish community, the home and -the individual. They re- 
 vive the dormant soul of the Jew ever anew, giving rhythm, pathos 
 and charm to the life of all and each. But, then, are the ceremonies 
 connected with each real signs and testimonies svmbolic of the truths 
 
 20 
 
they are to convey? Do they speak an inteUigible language to the 
 young for whom they are, according to Scripture, chiefly intended? 
 Here is the place where Reform has to step in and render the old 
 ceremonial attractive, suggestive, and impressive for the new gen- 
 eration. We all realize today that the ceremonies for the home have 
 not received sufficient attention. The importance of hallowing and 
 enriching the Jewish home life has not been fully appreciated. 
 Dr. Berkowitz has made a good beginning with his Sabbath Eve 
 Kiddush. A corresponding Kiddush ceremony we shall soon have 
 for each of the holy days, something similar to the Passover Hag- 
 gadah. But there is no need of stereotyped traditional formula. 
 We ought to create fitting expressions of the ideas suggested by the 
 day. It is unnecessary to say that the older generation ought to rein- 
 troduce the beautiful parental blessing at 'each family reunion or 
 Sabbath and holy day eve to render the whole more impressive. It 
 must be placed to the credit of the Reformers that the ceremony of 
 the kindling of the Hanukkah lights has been revived in homes 
 where the Christmas tree threatened to captivate the young hearts 
 and lessen their pride in their ancestral faith. Yet much more ought 
 to be done by us to awaken the sentiment of loyalty and love in the 
 young by the introduction of new appropriate forms where the old 
 ones have lost their impressiveness. 
 
 At present we need means of strengthening the self-respect of the 
 Jew, of arousing his Jewish consciousness. Especial emphasis 
 must therefore be laid upon the ties that bind him to his past which 
 alone will fill his soul with pride in his great heritage. In religion 
 especially, where reverence plays so prominent a role, the ancient 
 institutions must be treated with regard and awe, and as long as 
 any religious observance proves helpful it should be retained. We 
 can herein learn from nature never to cast off the old before the new 
 is strong enough to weather the storms. If the wholesome effect 
 made by ceremonies upon the parents is observed by the child, they 
 will not fail to work by the mystery of sympathy upon the latter in 
 the plastic time of youth. Upon the much neglected home of the 
 Jew, then, the ceremonial system should be centred. Religion should 
 stand as sponsor at the naming of the child and should solemnize 
 
 21 
 
each important event in the hfe of the household, thus rendering 
 the home a true sanctuary, and father and mother its priest and 
 priestess, as of yore. Even the recital of the Shema each morning 
 and evening might be transformed into a solemn domestic service 
 to leave its ennobling and hallowing impression upon each member 
 of the household. 
 
 We must bear in mind that we are in a great transition period. 
 The yoke-bearing age is behind us. Formerly the ceremonies were 
 to be observed as divine command ; for us today they must have an 
 intrinsic value in order to be of binding force. Religion must first of 
 all voice the innemiost craving of the human soul as a child of God. 
 Ceremonies which assign to woman an inferior rank according to 
 Oriental notions are out of place with us. Reform Judaism recog- 
 nizes woman as man's equal and sees in her deeper emotional nature. 
 which is more responsive to the promptings of the spirit, the real 
 inspiring influence for religious life in the household. Accordingly 
 all the ceremonies in the domestic life today should be Occidental 
 rather than Oriental in form and character. 
 
 In this connection let me speak of the Bar Mizwah ceremony to 
 which many Reform Congregations still adhere. By so doing they 
 ignore the plain fact that the calling up of the thirteen year old lad 
 to read from the Torah is a mere survival of the calling up of all 
 the members of the congregation to the Torah reading. The orig- 
 inal significance, which was to indicate thereby the admission of 
 the lad into the membership of the congregation, has been forgotten 
 and consequently the usage today is meaningless. The moment the 
 Oriental notion of the superiority, of man over woman in religious 
 life was abandoned, a form of consecration for the young of both 
 sexes was instituted in its place and the beautiful rite of confirma- 
 tion was adopted. As a befitting conclusion of many years of reli- 
 gious instruction it exerts a potent influence upon the young Jews 
 and Jewesses, while it has lent new attractiveness to the Shabuoth 
 festival wdiich otherwise lacked a specific or characteristic ceremony 
 in traditional Judaism. Of course, it ought to be simple, a sincere 
 outpouring of the hearts of the young ; we must not allow it to de- 
 generate into an empty display. Another feature in our religious 
 
 22 
 
life of today should be mentioned here. In the same measure as 
 our age refuses to blindly follow the past, realizing the wide differ- 
 ence between our mode of thought and that of our forbears, the 
 need of giving fuller expression to the sentiment of piety has made 
 itself felt. Greater stress than in former days is laid upon the reci- 
 tal of the Kaddish and similar tributes of affectionate regard for 
 the dead. True, such emotional piety can never replace true, reli- 
 gious sentiment. Nevertheless there is a brighter side to it of which 
 account must be taken. The crude belief in resurrection of the past 
 which has been the source of fear and superstitious practices, has 
 made way for the belief in the immortality of the soul. And this 
 has lent new solemnity to that part of the service called Commemora- 
 tion of the Dead — a liturgy which, while emphasizing in classic 
 form the inherited trait of Jewish reverence and piety has invested 
 the Yom Kippur with new luster for the Jew of today. 
 
 But above all the Jewish religion must be presented as a factor 
 of life in humanity's work, in order to win all hearts today. It must 
 accentuate the universal, the human and the practical side of life. 
 It must train man for the service of mankind. By this stand- 
 ard alone is religion judged and estimated. Will Judaism be 
 found inferior to other religions before the forum of humanity? 
 This ethical concept of religion is the Jewish one ever since the 
 great seers of Israel hurled their scathing denunciations against 
 sacerdotalism, demanding individual rectitude and social righteous- 
 ness. The world is coming ever nearer to the lofty prophetic view. 
 Are our ceremonials vocal of this prophetic truth ? I am far from 
 believing that Reform's work is accomplished by a mere remodel- 
 ling of the Sukkah and Lulab or the Shofar to harmonize them with 
 our advanced aesthetical or artistic taste. Reform must become 
 constructive and positive, aggressive and boldly self-confident, more 
 imbued with the creative spirit of the religious genius of Judaism. 
 It is by no means sufficient to have symbols bringing home to us 
 the glorious memories of the past. We must have such as hold be- 
 fore us the great hopes, promises and ideals of the future together 
 with practical lessons for the present. The feast of redemption 
 must tell us of the redemption of an oppressed world and of the 
 
 23 
 
great universal plan of liberty allotting its burdens and its tasks to 
 each and all. So must the Maccabean feast of lights proclaim the 
 ultimate triumph of truth and justice over falsehood, intolerance 
 and wrongdoing everywhere. So will each festival, the Day of the 
 Giving of the Law with its lesson concerning Ruth and the Pros- 
 elyte, and Sukkoth with its peace offerings for the seventy nations 
 of the world, lead us out of the narrowness of the national self to 
 the broad outlook of cosmopolitan humanity with its practical aims. 
 And as the great New Year's and Atonement Days preached since 
 wellnigh two-thousand years the religion of manhood and of broad 
 humanity, may they not become also powerful instrumentalities of 
 uniting and reconciling all classes and races of men by practical 
 modes of readjusting the inadequacies of social life suggested by 
 symbols taken from the Yom Kippur Haphthara (Isaiah Iviii) and 
 the Jubilee idea connected with the Yom Kippur (Lev. xxv) ? 
 
 It has been said that in emphasizing our mission to preach pure 
 ethical monotheism we are fast losing our Jewishness which is main- 
 tained only through separatistic Jewish observances of the Oriental 
 type. It seems to me that they labor under a great delusion who 
 earnestly believe that the Occidental Jew in general will ever fash- 
 ion his social life differently from that of the people amongst whom 
 he lives. And if he were to do so he would merely lessen the great 
 opportunities offered him by this age of ours of rendering his reli- 
 gion "a light to the nations" and "a blessing to all families on earth." 
 To me Judaism is an ever-progressive religion, and in a congenial 
 atmosphere of freedom and moral greatness it is bound to expand, 
 and its symbolic rites will be commensurate in suggestiveness and 
 intrinsic value. No fear, then, that the Jew may lose his identity 
 when he aspires to the highest aims of life, buoyed up with the con- 
 sciousness of his mission for the world. In order to impress the Jew 
 with the greatness of his task and his responsibility as mankind's 
 priest we should have certain ceremonies. It is for this that new 
 symbolic forms may have to be created expressive of the Jew's 
 world-duty as God's chosen one, since the mere prohibition of inter- 
 marriage or the Abrahamitic sign of the covenant is not sulTficiently 
 indicative of Israel's priest-dignity. 
 
 24 
 
I am rcitlier a prophet nor the son of a prophet l)ut I see the day 
 dawning when the larger view and the larger life of the new age 
 of which the Jew partakes in so eminent a degree will suggest reli- 
 gious practices and symbolic observances offering practical lessons 
 of universal love, peace and righteousness to the Jew as humanity's 
 teacher and pattern. Where pessimists see nothing but decline and 
 decay, I see a gradual transformation leading to a rejuvenation of 
 Judaism and a broadening out of its scope and its sphere of influ- 
 ence. 
 
 The Rabbinical dictum oft quoted in favor of abrogation : "The 
 Ceremonial laws will have lost their validity in the world to come" 
 (Niddah 6ib) refers to the world of the spirit in which man has 
 ceased striving and aspiring. As long as man is in a frame of clay, 
 he needs "signs" and "memorials" to remind him of his destiny and 
 duty. Ceremonies are the poetry of religion; they invest life with 
 the beauty of holiness. The need of such has been felt by Judaism 
 all the more because images and signs representing the Deity have 
 at all times been scrupulously shunned. Imperceptibly, however, 
 old ceremonies are transformed and finally replaced by new ones, 
 while some have become distinctive features which must be upheld 
 to keep it from disintegration. As IMorris Joseph in his "Judaism 
 as Life and Creed" correctly says: "That a law or an observance 
 tends to keep up Jewish separateness is by itself no valid argument 
 for its retention. To justify its continued existence it must show 
 that it still serves a moral and religious purpose, that its spiritual 
 vitality is unexhausted. Mere separateness is not an ideal to be 
 cherished. Rightly conceived it is but a means to an end, and that 
 end is the efifectiveness of the Jew as a religious instrument. If it 
 fail to secure that end it is an unmixed evil." 
 
 "Break the barrel but let not one drop of the precious wine flow 
 out!" This is the way the Rabbis characterize a seemingly impossi- 
 ble task. Such is the problem Reform has to solve. Under the in- 
 fluence of time the old forms crumble and fall. We have to see to 
 it that the fragrance, the spirit of the old be not lost as we pass on 
 to the new. 
 
 25 
 
i