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The following is from <font size=3>RSRH's Essay Sivan I that appears in
his Collected Writings of RSRH, Volume I. The entire essay is at
<a href="http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/sivan_1.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/sivan_1.pdf<br><br>
</a>One is accustomed to call the Torah "Religion" or
Jewish<br>
Religion, because the word religion describes everywhere outside<br>
Israel the relationship of man to his God or gods; this word, too,
is<br>
invested everywhere else with dignity and holiness; could one then<br>
have found a holier and more impressive designation for the Torah<br>
than religion? And yet, it is exactly this term "religion"
which has<br>
made it so difficult to understand the essence of the Torah. From
the<br>
time when men first drew breath on earth they have had a kind of<br>
religion. The heathen who prays to his fetish, the Aborigine who<br>
moulds his god of honey-dough and paints it with human blood, the<br>
Greek who carved his god of gold and ivory and ascribed to him the<br>
Invention of his arts and indulgence in his own gallantries, and
finally<br>
the adherents of those two world-religions which have come into<br>
existence by combining a few ideas from the Torah with various<br>
conceptions taken from the nations of the world-all these had, and<br>
continue to have some kind of religion. Even the atheist who
despises<br>
religion has, perhaps, himself retained some sort of religion; it may
be<br>
that he denies only the conception which other men have of God, that<br>
he despises only the kind of religion which he finds among other<br>
people. For by religion we understand the conception which men have<br>
formed and are still forming of a Godhead and their relationship to<br>
this Godhead. The religions of mankind are, therefore, human
products-<br>
creations of the mind and spirit of man; and there exists<br>
consequently a genesis, a history of the development of religion and<br>
religions, just as there exists a history of languages, arts and
sciences.<br>
The religion of a people rises and falls together with the other
manifestations<br>
of its culture. Religion is only part of the cultural life of a<br>
nation and is conditioned by it. The more rational and the more<br>
refined men are, the more rational and elevated will be their
conception<br>
of the deity and their relationship to it.<br><br>
No religion can, therefore, in its beginning, rise above the
cultural<br>
level of the nation out of whose midst it arose. No religion, in its<br>
inception, can possibly be in complete contrast to the conceptions,<br>
inclinations and outlook on life of that nation. No religion, in the<br>
ordinary meaning of this word, can easily undertake to raise and<br>
educate the nation from which it sprang, up to its own higher
standards;<br>
for it (the religion) is but a plant sprung from the spiritual and<br>
intellectual soil of that nation, and must, therefore, keep pace with
the<br>
nation's advancement or retrogression.<br><br>
The Torah, however, did not spring from the breast of mortal man;<br>
it is the message of the God of Heaven and Earth to Man; and it was<br>
from the very beginning so high above the cultural level of the
people<br>
to which it was given, that during the three thousand years of its<br>
existence there was never a time yet during which Israel was quite<br>
abreast of the Torah, when the Torah could be said to have been<br>
completely translated into practice. The Torah is rather the highest<br>
aim, the ultimate goal towards which the Jewish nation was to be<br>
guided through all its fated wanderings among the nations of the<br>
world. This imperfection of the Jewish people and its need of
education<br>
is presupposed and clearly expressed in the Torah from the very<br>
beginning. There is, therefore, no stronger evidence for the Divine<br>
origin and uniqueness of the Torah than the continuous backsliding,<br>
the continuous rebellion against it on the part of the Jewish
people,<br>
whose first generation perished because of this very rebellion. But
the<br>
Torah has outlived all the generations of Israel and is still
awaiting<br>
that coming age which "at the end of days" will be fully ripe
for it.<br>
Thus, the Torah manifests from the very beginning its superhuman<br>
origin. It has no development and no history; it is rather the people
of<br>
the Torah which has a history.<br>
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