Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/70

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The Book of Genesis

52

makes

a physician, of another a merchant,

other a farmer. or

To have condemned them

and of

all to

still

an-

be farmers,

merchants, or physicians, would have been unjust and

So God calls each of His children to the task for which it is best fitted. The Greeks He bade bring to the world the sense of order, symmetry and beauty, and these became, in one line of evolution, art, and in another line, The orderly, proportionate thinking, logic, and philosophy. Romans He bade bring to the world organization, law, government, administration. And unto Israel He revealed Himself, and bade Israel bring this knowledge of Him to the cruel.

world, because, of

all

peoples, Israel

knowledge and

ceive this

to

was

best fitted to re-

discharge this mission.

mind and

Israel

were attuned to was the knowledge best absorb all peoples, it could God and, of all His children of God, which He sought to reveal to because, as these folk-tales show, from the very dawn of its history Israel thought about God and pondered over the Much thinkmysteries of life from the standpoint of God. ing must in time beget much knowledge. So Israel came to know about God sooner than any other people. Therefore the task of proclaiming this knowledge devolved upon Israel, best fitted because

its

soul

was chosen by God for its glorious mission. And believe, and as the world has come to believe with us, the knowledge of God and His worship and the life He has intended that men shall live, is the supreme and

Israel

since, as

we

knowledge, therefore Israel people, chosen

not

because, of

all

peoples,

mission of

all.

This

innate and eternal Israel

truth

therefore as

above

all

others, God's chosen

favors at God's hands, but

was best fitted for this sublimest and inspiring truth of Israel's religious genius, and of God's choice of His messenger and the witness of His it

vital

unto mankind, the

folk-tales

is,

for special

full

appreciation of

these ancient

of our fathers brings home most convincingly and

appealingly.