If it were an attempt to substitute the austerity of the Mosaic law—the law given to Moses, not the ordinances decreed by Moses—for the half-hearted Christian idealism of the day, even that would be a task in which all right-hearted men could join. But Moses condemns the modern Jews more severely than anyone else could. They have rejected the Mosaic law. They have built their international power upon the exact opposite of the Mosaic law. Moses was given a law of human society which would have saved civilization its greatest tragedies. Moses has a social program, obedience to which for one day would completely wreck the Jewish international power. Moses is their judge, and when the Law is established Moses will be their destroyer.
Let the Jews think seriously what is this idea which they set up to follow. Let them penetrate the mists and seek out where this idea originated. Let them think forward and visualize the effect if this idea should become regnant. It will not become regnant here; there are safeguards here which the true Israelite will understand; but it is as certain as day that the idea will in the end destroy, utterly destroy, all who trust in it.
This much is gained, however, from the attitude we are now discussing: we have gained clarity of understanding as to just what it is that is in collision; it is two ideas, and one of them is the idea of disruption, fostered by the false and delusive hope that disruption will spare the disruptor.
- “What you say is true, and we Jews could change it if we only would. The trouble is, we don’t want to seem to be driven to it. But I don’t see how otherwise we are to do it.”
Many Jews will recognize this sentiment as their own, but they will be readier to express it to a non-Jew than a Jew. Why? Because prophets must be prepared to suffer in Judah. “Well, if you insist on playing Christ, you must expect to be crucified,” said Lilienthal to Isaac Wise. “O Jerusalem, that stonest them that are sent to thee!”