Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/24

 The Book of Coiesis

6 makeup and

inucli of his substMjuent life.

Nor does

liis

his-

tory cease until his hfe has completely ended, and perhaps for the man lives on and his history continues and influences he has set in operation, and which go on working themselves out in the life of the human race until the end of time.

not even then in

the



forces

Similarly the history of a nation, of a people, or of religion begins long before

stage of existence.

It

it

actually steps

begins in

all

forth

a

upon the

the conditions,

forces,

and influences which work together to make that nation, people, or religion what it is at the moment of real, concrete birth, and which largely determine its subsequent life and evolution. And its history does not end until it has utterly ceased to be, and the memory of it is completely lost, and the princi])les of national, social, or religious conduct, which it has evolved, are thoroughly uprooted, if that be possible, from the total life-experience and life-thought of mankind. The history of Israel and of Judaism is, therefore, far more than the mere Biblical record of a few scattered events. It

the

commenced first,

move on

far back in dim, pre-historic antiquity,

])rimitive

when

ancestor of the Jewish people began to

The Bible, imconsciously perhaps, voices a when it begins the history of Israel, not with Moses nor with Abraham, but with creation. And since Israel still exists today, unique among the peoples of the earth, and since Judaism still lives, and we ])roudly proclaim ourselves Jews, adherents of Judaism, endowed with significant

earth.

truth

a glorious mission unto mankind,

it

follows that Jewish his-

tory has not yet ended, and, so far as

and pray,

will

never end.

complete record of the

we

Jewish history

life

can see and ho])e is,

therefore, the

of the Jew, of his experiences,

thoughts, beliefs, and ])ractices. of his ever-growing knowl-

edge of God and of

life,

formed

from the

into conduct,

as believed, proclaimed,

and transand

earliest, simplest, crudest,