Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/82

64 brother's keeper?" He had expected a negative reply. But to his utter surprise and consternation the answer came back,if not expressed directly in words, yet fully implied in God's dealing with him, "You are your brother's keeper, and are responsible for his life and welfare and happiness". This is Judaism's unvarying answer to this eternal, universal question, and this answer makes this story for us more than a mere folk-tale, as it was at first; it makes it pulsate with Jewish life, thought, and belief.

To a certain extent even primitive peoples have answered this question in much this same way, that man is his brother's keeper, provided, however, that that brother be actually of one's own flesh and blood. Brotherhood was originally limited to members of the clan or tribe. And even in this twentieth century the conception of brotherhood has seemingly developed but little beyond national and denominational lines. Men are still held far apart by racial, national, or religious differences. Competition is an approved principle in modern economic life. And often, for little or no cause, ties of, flesh and blood are severed at a stroke. In the social life of many peoples, and in our own social life today, brother-hood is often held in light esteem.

In significant contrast, Judaism has advanced a positive conception of brotherhood and brotherly guardianship. It holds that we are our brother's keeper in the most literal sense; that we are responsible, not only for his life, but likewise for his welfare, happiness, and opportunity for development. In the first place, it has affirmed this idea in relation to the real family life. The family and the home in Israel have always been institutions whose sanctity paralleled in every respect that of the Temple itself. In the Jewish home parents and children, brothers and sisters, have been bound together by the closest and most indissoluble ties, until the Jewish home and Jewish family life have become proverbial. Our history is rich in stories of brotherly devotion.