6 - The Story of the Jews

Way back about 4000 years ago, where the facts of history and the shadows of legend merge together, so that sometimes they can scarcely be told apart, there lived a man named Terah. He lived in the city of Ur (at the top of the Gulf of Iran) with his wife and three sons. And while his sons spent their days out in the pasture-lands tending large flocks of sheep, he himself made idols for the people to worship. His sons also were idol-makers, as well as shepherds, and as fast as they carved or moulded these strange little figures, the people of Ur eagerly bought them. Some of them were even purchased for the palace of the king, Nimrod.

Many pleasant, easeful years passed by, until suddenly one of Terah's sons, called Abraham, realised how absurd it was worshipping bits of stone and clay which he himself, or some other man, had shaped. Why, they might just as well all stand around and worship the loaves of bread that women baked, or pitchers, or sandals, or anything else fashioned by human hands.

There is a legend which tells that Abraham went one day into a hall of idols in the royal palace and, while nobody was looking, attacked them with an axe. He hacked all of the idols to bits except one, then he carefully fixed the axe into the hands of this one.

When the king realised what had happened, he was extremely angry with Abraham. When Abraham pointed out that obviously one of the idols had destroyed all the others, since this one was still standing there holding the axe, the king grew even angrier, and accused the young man of lying as well as of blasphemy.

Then Abraham, in a very strong voice, condemned all idols as worthless. He condemned them before the king and all the other people present with him. He said, 'They have eyes but cannot see, they have ears but cannot hear, they have hands but cannot move'. And finally he declared that there was One God and one only, who saw and knew everything while Himself being unseen.

The king, in a great fury, had Abraham thrown into prison, and ordered that he should stay there for a whole year without food or drink. But God sent the angel Gabriel to him every day, with nourishing foods and drinks, so that by the end of the year, when he should have been long since dead from starvation, Abraham walked out of prison in radiant health.

The Endless Journeyings Begin

This miracle should certainly have convinced the king and his^ advisers of the great power of Abraham's God, and perhaps they were convinced in their hearts. But as they would not admit to it, it was no longer safe for Abraham the breaker-of-idols or for any of his family to remain in that realm.

So eventually they took flight from it, one and all— father, mother, sons, even distant relatives and servants— several hundreds of them, together with their flocks and herds. And thus began the journey ings of the people we call the Jews.

The whole of Jewish history seems to have been one long story of settling and unsettling, of leaving one home and wandering the Earth in search of another, of fleeing from endless hardships in one form or another, and seeking peace.

The first journey brought Terah and his family to Haran. Some time afterwards they went on farther, to the land of Canaan, where the people were friendly enough, and allowed them to settle. The Canaanites were curious about them as well as friendly. They called them Ibris (or those who had come across, over a long distance). And this name (we pronounce it Hebrews) has clung to the Jews ever since.

It was in Canaan that Abraham's two sons were born— first Ishmael, and then Isaac. Isaac had a son Jacob, who was also called Israel. When Jacob grew up and had twelve sons of his own, these were naturally called the Children of Israel, or Israelites, and this name, also, has clung to the Jewish people ever since. Hebrews, and Israelites or the Children of Israel. And they, all of them, worshipped only One God.

Now, these twelve sons, and their children, and their children's children, might have gone on living in Canaan quite happily for ever after, only for the coming of a terrible famine, which lasted for so long that finally there seemed only one thing to do: pack up their belongings and leave, in search of a land of plenty. This was the second great flight of the Jews.

No doubt they hoped to find a land not only of plenty, but also of friendly people. And it seemed that this hope was fulfilled when they came to the rich land of Egypt, fed by .the waters of the Nile. The Egyptians made them welcome, and allowed them to settle in a part of their lands called Goshen.

Here they lived happily for many years, but the Egyptians did not altogether take to them, for they themselves were great idol-worshippers, and the Hebrews, of course, were not. This was all very well while the Hebrews were small in numbers, but when their numbers grew, the Egyptians began to fear that they might rise up against them, destroying their idols and conquering their people. So they, the Egyptians, got in first. They swooped down on the Hebrews and carried them off as slaves. And to make doubly sure of things, they passed a law that every Hebrew baby boy must be drowned.

At this time a baby boy was born to a Hebrew woman who, instead of drowning him, placed him in a little basket and set this drifting off down the Nile. She stood watching it as it disappeared into the distance, hoping with all her heart that it would be found by some kind Egyptian family who might take pity on the tiny baby asleep inside it, and raise him to manhood. She could not for a moment have imagined what actually did happen— that the Pharaoh's (king's) own daughter would find him only a few hours later, when she went down to the river to bathe.

The Pharaoh loved his daughter so much that when she begged to be allowed to keep the baby, he could not refuse her, even though the child was a Hebrew. So little Moses (for that was his name) grew up to young manhood in the king's palace, surrounded by affection and luxury.

But there came the time when he began to realise that he was not like the rest of the Pharaoh's household, either in the way he looked or in the way he felt. He wondered about this a great deal, and asked questions, and finally learned that he was not an Egyptian, but a Hebrew, Now he understood why it was that he had always been saddened and angered by the cruel way in which the Hebrew slaves were treated. One day, when he saw one of the many slave-drivers mercilessly beating some of them, he rushed at the man in a rage, and killed him.

Now, of course, his own life was in danger, and he took flight into the desert. He travelled far from the great, wonderful city of the Pharaohs, which was the only home he had ever known, and at last came to an oasis. Here there was a fine home in which a priest named Jethro lived, with his daughter Zipporah. Jethro offered shelter to Moses and, soon realising that he was a truly great man, offered him his daughter in marriage.

So, for a while, Moses enjoyed a happy family life in the home of Jethro. Day after day he tended flocks of sheep as they grazed over rich pastures, and the quietness and peace of this simple life filled his heart with contentment, after all the pomp of the Pharaoh's court and the noises of the great city.

The Exodus and the Ten Commandments

But his happiness did not last for long, because, when he thought of the city, he thought also of his enslaved kinsmen, and as day after day passed, he realised that he would never be able to rest until he had freed them from their cruel masters.

So—risking his own life—he went back into the land of Egypt and into the Pharaoh's palace, and demanded that the Hebrews be set free. He demanded this in the name of the One God. But the king did not believe that this God had any authority. Besides, the Hebrews were such useful slaves that he had no intention of parting with them so lightly.

However, the story tells that the God of Moses caused one plague after another to come down upon Egypt: toads, vermin, flies, water running blood—each more terrible than the last—and finally the death of the first-born child in every Egyptian family. Then, but only then, did the Pharaoh give permission for the Hebrews to leave his kingdom, and this was the beginning of the great Exodus of about 700,000 people, the greatest that the world remembers.

Once again the Jewish people set out on foot, to wander across deserts in search of a peaceful home, and it was 40 long years before they finally reached it.

Soon after their departure from Egypt, the Pharaoh changed his mind about letting them go, and sent his armies to bring them back again. But the waters of the Red Sea are said to have closed in over those armies, drowning them to the last man, and the Children of Israel continued on their way.

A few months later, Moses went away by himself for a few days, hoping that in the silence of his aloneness God would speak to him, giving him the strength and wisdom that he needed as the leader of a whole race of people. He climbed into the rocky heights of Mount Sinai, and it was there that the inspired words of the Ten Commandments came to him.

Nine of these commandments were to do with people's lawful conduct towards one another, but the first and most important of them was: 'I am Jehovah thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: thou shalt have no other gods before me.'

It was this one commandment which made the Hebrews different from any other tribes wandering in the deserts. Theirs was a stern, just God, demanding complete obedience and absolute loyalty—'Thou shalt have no other gods'—and He in turn was their guardian and protector. They were His 'chosen people', and He was their Jehovah.

But whereas other people had gods—or idols— that they could see and touch, Jehovah was invisible, and it was sometimes very difficult for the people to keep that first commandment, very difficult for them to keep worshipping and believing in a God whom they could not see. Even while Moses was away from them for a few days on Mt Sinai, they got busy and turned all of their jewellery into a golden calf, then flocked around worshipping it; and several other times through their earlier history the Hebrews had been tempted by the easier worship of idols.

Perhaps it was because of this that Moses ordered an ark to be built, which he called the Ark of the Covenant. He had it covered with a mantle of gold and silver, and carried with the Children of Israel wherever they went. In it were a few sacred relics and the two tablets of stone on which the Ten Commandments were written. But also it was said to hold the spirit of the Lord Jehovah, and in this way the many who could not believe without seeing were given something to see. The Ark of the Covenant kept reminding them that their God was continually in their midst.

The knowledge of this gave them strength and courage. With Jehovah on their side, they went forward knowing that none could stand against them. And indeed, this was the way it happened, when finally they came and took possession of their Promised Land, which again was Canaan, or Palestine. Now at last it seemed that their long travels were at an end. This was their home, where they would live in peace and plenty for ever after.

The Ten Commandments had been their code of law in the desert. Now more than ever they were the Law in the forming of their kingdom. For the Children of Israel, their history and their religion were one. The commandments of their Jehovah were also the law of their land.

A Kingdom—and the Prophets

For 300 years they were ruled by groups of men known as the Judges. Then, all their different tribes (there were 12 of them) merged together into a kingdom. Their first king was Saul, their second was David who wrote the Psalms, their third was Solomon, famed for his great wisdom and for building the first Temple of God. But then, after this, bitter arguments arose, and the kingdom separated into two parts. That in the north was called Israel, and that in the south Judah.

The people of Israel were wealthier than those of Judah. They also had, adjoining them, the Canaanites who worshipped the god Baal, and gradually, many of the Israelites started worshipping him too. But the people of Judah remained faithful to Jehovah.

Naturally, a divided race of people is much weaker than a united one, and the Hebrews were now divided. The Assyrians swooped down upon Israel and conquered it in 722 B.C.—and its people have never been heard of since.

These are the mysterious Ten Lost Tribes. Then, about 140 years later, Judah was overrun by the Babylonians, and its people were taken off to Babylonia as prisoners. There, surrounded by idols and idol-worshipping, many of them weakened, and started believing in the gods of those who had conquered them. Not only could these other gods be seen and touched, but they had obviously brought victory to those who worshipped them, whereas the Hebrews, with their loyalty to Jehovah, had all too often been plagued by sufferings.

However, deep in their hearts they knew that these arguments were false, that their God was indeed only One. And it was this inner voice of the people themselves that sounded outwardly in the words of the Prophets.

The Prophets were men of great moral courage who seemed to arise from the Hebrew people whenever those people became overwhelmed by a sense of hopelessness, or of doubt, or of attraction toward evil. The Prophets spoke bravely exactly what they thought, without worrying about their own safety or about the fact that no one particularly liked them. After all, nobody enjoys hearing unpleasant truths—and these were what the Prophets made a practice of voicing. Wherever they saw evil— whether in priests or rulers or among the ordinary people—they loudly condemned it.

But they did far more than rant against evil. They also raised the crushed spirit of the Hebrews, and reminded them of their purpose in life, as those through whom the One God would bless all mankind. They preached the love and mercy and forgiveness of God, rather than His harshness and anger which the people had feared through the years of their desert wanderings. And the Prophets also told them about the one who would save them, at long last, from their sorrows and hardships. 'For unto us a child is born,' declared Isaiah—and that child would be the Messiah, the Prince of Peace.

The voices of the Prophets were voices that no Hebrew could ignore, for they spoke his own innermost thoughts and longings. Now, too, it was realised that God was not only kind and merciful, but that he was also everywhere at the same time. If he was the God of the Hebrews and the Hebrews were scattered far and wide, then God must be far and wide too. And in just such a simple way, the Hebrews early realised what we call 'omnipresence'—that is, the presence of God everywhere and at all times.

With and Without a Homeland

About 50 years after the Babylonians conquered Judah, the Persians conquered Babylonia—and this was the beginning of quite a happy period for the Hebrews, because the Persians were kind to them. They called them Jehudis, since they had come from Judah, and it is from this that we get our word Jews. So now they had three names—Jews, Hebrews, and the Children of Israel or Israelites.

The Persians also allowed them to return to Judah and settle there as they had before. Solomon's wonderful Temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians, but now the Jews built a new one, and it seemed once again that they might live on there, happily ever after.

In their gratitude for this kind treatment, they took a particular interest in the Persians' way of life, and in their religion. At this time the religion of the Persians was very much influenced by the teachings of a man called Zarethusa, or Zoroaster, and the Hebrews not only studied these, but accepted some of them into their own religion.

It was from Zoroaster that the Jews learned about Heaven and Hell. It was also from him that they gained a broader idea of the Messiah. True, he would still be born as one of their race, but instead of being their saviour and theirs alone, he would come as the saviour of all men throughout the entire world—and even of animals.

Once again, we see the religion of the Jews growing hand-in-hand with their history.

But less than 700 years after they had resettled in their own land and rebuilt their wonderful Temple, they were once again overrun by enemies and scattered abroad, and their Temple was once again destroyed. First they were conquered by Alexander the Great, then by the Syrians, and finally by the Romans. Not much more than a hundred years after the birth of Jesus, the Jews no longer had any homeland that they could call their own. They spread, wandering through the countries of the Near East and Europe, settling wherever they could—not as welcome newcomers, however, but as strangers distrusted and despised.

One of the saddest facts about human beings is that they tend to condemn anything or anyone different from themselves; anyone with a different colour, a different type of living, a different way of thinking. And so it was that the Jews were disliked wherever they went. They were hunted out of one place after another, and whatever they wanted to do seemed to be forbidden. So, whether they liked it or not, they were forced to cluster together into separate little communities or ghettoes, and keep entirely to themselves.

But ghetto after ghetto was wiped out by people who hated them. This began centuries before Christ, and has been going on ever since, right into our own twentieth century.

Yet, after the horrors of World War II, a rather remarkable thing happened: For the first time in about 19 hundred years, the Jews actually returned to their old homeland. There, in 1948, they established the State of Israel. And although it sometimes seems as if peace will never settle upon that troubled land, surely a time of peace must eventually come.

The Jews and their Religion

Now what, in reality, are these strange people who have had such a tormented history? What is a Jew? This question is often asked, and it is difficult to answer, for a Jew is neither a race nor a religion, but perhaps a mixture of the two. His religion and his history have grown together. The Jew's way of thinking has been one of the main reasons for the things that have happened to him. In their turn, the things that have happened to him have made gradual changes in his way of thinking.

But the most important part of his religion has always been the belief in One God, whole and undivided, and having all power. Right from the beginning, thousands of years ago, it was this which made Judaism completely different from any other religion on earth.

Its turning away from 'other gods' has been so strict that its churches (or synagogues) have no paintings or images in them (even of men such as Abraham, Moses or the Prophets) for fear that the people might start worshipping them as idols.

The highest point and the very hallmark of Judaism are the words 'The Lord our God, the Lord is One'. This phrase has come ringing and echoing through the long ages of Jewish history. More than a mere phrase, it is a prayer, and it accompanies a Jew from earliest childhood to the moment of his death. He should say it every morning and every evening, and keep the feeling of it with him always.

The Jew recognises God not as the greatest among many gods, but as the One and Only- always, at every moment of the day and night. And since he thinks of man as God's image, then man must also be continuously one. He cannot be a creature divided into different parts like body and soul. He should do manual work or follow his profession as much with his soul as with his body, and he should worship God as much with his body as with his soul. His comings and goings in the affairs of every day should be the same as a prayer, and his home should be no different from his church.

To remind him of this, every Jew should keep, just outside his front door, a tiny box containing a few verses from the Holy Scriptures. Seeing this, he then enters a temple as well as his home.

But it is not enough to recognise 'The Lord our God, the Lord is One'. A Jew must also love God absolutely—'with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might'.

And of course, since man has been made in God's image, the Jews learn that they cannot love God without also loving their fellow man. This is beautifully worded in one of their sacred books, Leviticus:

'Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment.... Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart. ... Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. ... And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him ... thou shalt love him as thyself. In fact, a good Jew considers the doing of good deeds (known as mitzvah) as one of his most important duties.

The Torah and the Talmud

This, then—loving the One God with your whole being, and your neighbour as yourself—is the very core of Judaism. This, in a few words, is the Jewish religion. But surrounding this central idea there are even more rules for correct behaviour under all circumstances than there are in Confucianism. The Old Testament of the Bible is filled with them, and the great body of literature known as the Talmud is filled with them.

As with most of the other great religions, the ideas and history of Judaism were spoken among the Hebrew people for hundreds of years before they were written down. In fact, they were not collected into written form until the Jews returned to Israel and rebuilt it, under the protection of the Persians. The whole work, when finished, became known not as the Old Testament, of course (that was a name given to it much later) but as the Torah. It was made up of five books said to have been composed by Moses— Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—also King David's beautiful Psalms, and the teachings of the Prophets.

These writings—the Torah—were all looked upon as the word of God, made known to the Hebrews as his chosen people. And as they were the word of God, it became a Hebrew's first and noblest duty to understand every smallest detail of them.

A few years before the birth of Jesus, a learned man named Hillel spoke very much the same as Confucius might have spoken, about the virtues of study. 'He who refuses to learn, merits extinction,' he said—and also, 'more Torah, more life; more study, more wisdom ... more righteousness, more peace'.

Those who studied most and understood most clearly were looked upon with great honour as both scholars and teachers, and were called Rabbis.

For many hundreds of years, all this learning, this enormous mass of detailed study and explanation, was kept to the spoken word. But finally, in the sixth century A.D., it was written down, and became known as the Talmud, which means 'study'.

This Talmud is a truly remarkable work, filled with information and instructions on an amazing variety of subjects—on everything from folklore, astronomy, legal matters and taxation, to the way in which one should pray, and give charity, and prepare food. To the Jew, good conduct in everyday affairs is a matter of religion. The food he eats, the clothes he wears, his life in the community, the bringing-up of his children, his feelings toward his wife—all these are part of his religion.

As do the teachings of Buddha and Confucius, the Talmud tells the Jew to avoid all extremes, either of pleasure or of suffering—and if he is an earnest Jew, he avoids them. 'The Law may be likened to two roads, one of fire, the other of snow. To follow the one is to perish by fire; to follow the other is to die of the cold. The middle path alone is safe'.

The Talmud tells him to 'Love thy wife as thyself, and honour her more than thyself—and, if he is an earnest Jew, he does.

The Talmud tells him every detail of how he should conduct himself on the Sabbath, which begins on the evening of Friday and ends on the evening of Saturday, and every detail of all the other holy days and festivals throughout the year. There are special rules and ceremonies for every one of them—and also, of course, special names.

Festivals—and the Dream of Peace

The Jewish New Year, for instance, which comes in September or October, is called Rosh Hashanah. Close to it is a particularly holy day called Yom Kippur—a very quiet and thoughtful time, for remembering one's true relationship with God. Then there is the eight-day festival of Hanukkah, celebrating an ancient victory over the Syrians. This comes near to Christmas, and is a happy time of games and singing and the giving of gifts.

There are many other festivals as well, but one of the most important is the Passover, which comes in March or April, somewhere near the Christian Easter. This is in remembrance of the time when Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, but only after the Angel of Death had visited the first-born child in every Egyptian family—and 'passed over' all Hebrew families without touching them.

At the feast of the Passover, matzot is eaten. This is thin, flaky 'unrisen' bread, because the Hebrews fled from ancient Egypt so hurriedly that they could not even spare the time for their bread to rise into proper loaves. Also, at the Passover feast, an extra glass of wine is placed on the table, and the door is left open, because there is an old belief that the prophet Elijah will return one year, during this time, to announce the coming of the world's Saviour, or Messiah.

So many rules—so many festivals—so many traditions and ceremonies. And millions of Jewish people practise these, throughout the world, without stopping to understand their meaning any more than other people understand the meaning of other religions. In Judaism— because it is a religion and a history all in one—the meanings are particularly varied, colourful, and individual. But they are, after all, only the outer garments of the religion. Right in deep, at its heart, Judaism is very quiet and simple—and here, at this level, no other great religion of the world could be hostile to it, for at the heart of every great religion there is love.

As Judaism expresses it, this love is for the One and Only God, and for the whole of his creation. And, with the coming of the Messiah, there will also come perfect peace—the Kingdom of God on Earth. In the words of one of the greatest Hebrew prophets, Isaiah:

'They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.' And—'They [the nations] shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more'.