Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/47

 The Book of Genesis supporters

of

who sought

prophets

the

29 to

win

for

their

masters a larger and more comprehending audience.

The Religious and

Spiritual Significance of the Stories

of

Genesis Just

because

the

prophetic

idea

and

fundamentally ethical and moral, these

sound a positive

and moral

movement were

stories

Genesis

of

But they teach, not abstract ethics and morals, but ethics and morals as an integral part of Israel's religion, as conceived and evolved through Israel's religious history, and from the standpoint of Israel's God and the standard of life established by Him. The patriarchs are each models of Jewish life and teaching. Abraham's hospitality, his faith in God, his readiness to make even the supreme sacrifice of his only, beloved child, ethical

note.

typify the Jewish ideal of hospitality, of faith, sacrifice and

Not Abraham's faith alone is pictured, but also and even more, the Jew's eternal faith in the God of his obedience.

fathers.

type of

Abraham all

Jewish

Similarly

is

far less a historical character than the

life,

Jacob,

faith

at

and devotion.

first

deceitful,

covetous

and

un-

scrupulous, yet in the end purified, noble and magnanimous, is

less

a historical person than the exemplar of the great,

eternal truth, first fully enunciated by Hosea, of the

power

of true repentance, repentance which comes not quickly nor easily,

but as the result of long and bitter

when through

trial

the dark and terrifying night

and purgation,

we

wrestle with

own lower selves and base inclinations, and at last, when the dawn of the new day breaks, we step forth triumphant, purified and regenerate, to live a new life, the life which God has ever called upon the Jew to live. the evil spirit of our

Joseph, too, hero of a beautiful romance,

is

the inspiring

pattern of the characteristically Jewish virtues of self-control, resistance to

temptation,

high

idealism,

loyalty

to

kindred,