The Wisdom of Israel

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THE HERITAGE OF THE UNBORN PRINCE.
Six things preceded the creation of the world (says Bereshith Rabbah, Chap. I.). Some of them were created; some existed as ideals, as part of the thought of the Creator, to emerge, created, in the future; so that their real being (noumena) was in existence, although ages should pass before their appearance as phenomena.

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The Torāh * was created; for we read (Prov. viii. 22-36), "The Lord possessed † me at the beginning of His way . . . or ever the earth was, etc."; so, also, was the throne of glory, as we read (Ps. xciii. 2), "Thy throne was established from of old (Kedem in front), Thou art from everlasting."

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The patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the people of Israel, the sanctuary and the name of the Messiah, existed in ideal. For it is written (Hosea ix. 10), "I saw your fathers as the first ripe fruit on the fig-tree, at the beginning of time," and of Israel (Ps. lxxiv. 2), "the congregation which thou didst possess before all things." The sanctuary is spoken of (Jer. xviii. 2) as "a glorious throne on high, from the beginning"; while of the name

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of the Messiah, who is the subject of the whole of Psalm xxii., it is written (verse 17), "His name existeth eternally." R. Ahabah Bar Rabbi Zengirah says, "Also repentance, the coming back of the sinner to his God, existed in ideal, before the creation of the world; as it is written (Ps. xc.), 'Before the mountains were brought forth'; from that very hour Thou turnedst man to contrition, ‡ saying, 'Return, ye children of men.'"

The Torah was created before the throne of




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glory, and Rabbi Jeremiah says, in the name of Rabbi Samuel, bar R. Isaac, the ideal Israel—God's witness in the world, to keep His law and spread His truth—preceded all else, even the Torah.

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This may be likened to a king married to a noble and honourable woman, who had borne no children to him. One day the king was seen passing through a thoroughfare, when he called to his attendants and said: "Bring me writing materials and draw up documents dedicating this street to my son. It shall be named after him, and all that pass through it shall know that they are walking in the way that I have given to my son."

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Then all the people exclaimed: "But he has no son, and yet he tells us 'Give this street to my son, name this street after my son.'"

Then some returned and explained to them: "This king is a great astrologer. If he did not see into the future, and perceive the vision of his son that is to be born to him by his queen, he would not have spoken thus."

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In like manner, if the Holy One, blessed be He, had not seen, in the future, the people of Israel who were destined to accept the Torah, he would not have inscribed in that Torah the words: "Command the Children of Israel."


Bereshith Rabbah, Chap. I.

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(The ideal law of right and justice, including the laws of life, the path in which all mankind will one day walk, formed the ideal aim of the whole

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creation. The only reason why it is dedicated to the people of Israel, as if it were given to them alone, is because the Creator knew, from the beginning, that while the other nations would, for centuries, reject it, Israel would at once accept it. Something of the same idea is expressed in the parable of "The Traveller and Tree in the Desert.")


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Footnotes
24:* Torah, "instruction," "Law," here means the spiritual, intellectual, and moral contents of revelation as a whole.

24:† The Midrash rendering, though forced, is here quite permissible; for the word rendered in the A. V. "purchase," really means "to acquire," "to possess," while that rendered "of old time," Kedem, really means "before," "in front."

24:‡ "Contrition" is the correct translation of dakka, which the A. V. erroneously renders in this verse "destruction," a rendering entirely inconsistent with the context and not warranted by the etymology of the word.

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THE TRAVELLER AND THE TREE IN THE DESERT.
Rabbi Levi spoke this parable in the name of Rabbi Johanan.

A certain traveller went forth, and for days he wandered through the desert and found no town, no village, no oasis, no tree and no water, and no living thing. And he went on, day after day, for ten days. And after he had gone on for ten days, he espied one tree in the distance. And he said to himself, "Perhaps beneath that tree there may be water." When he came up to it he found that it stood by a living spring. And when he saw that it was a beautiful tree, with ripe fruit upon it, and beautiful leafage, he rested and cooled himself beneath its shade and ate of its fruits, and drank of the water from the fountain. And it was very pleasant to him, and his soul was refreshed.

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When he arose to go on his way, he said:

"Oh tree, how can I bless thee, and what can I say unto thee? If I say, may thy wood be finely grown, it is so already; if I pray that thy shade may be pleasant, it is so already; that thy foliage may be beautiful, it is already beautiful; that thy

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fruit may be sweet, behold it is already sweet; if I would pray for thee that a spring may bubble up beneath thy roots to water thee, behold the spring is already there, beneath thy roots. If I would say, mayest thou stand in a lovely place, behold thou dost already stand in a lovely place. What blessing, then, is there left for me to wish thee? Only that every tree that is planted from thee may be like thee."

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Thus, when the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, ten generations came and went and none of them was good, and none of them produced a perfectly righteous man, and in the tenth generation, God saw Abraham and tried him, and it was found that his righteousness had deep roots, watered by a perennial spring of faith. He withstood temptation and persecution for the sanctification of the name of the One true God. He fed and sustained passers-by, and helped the penitent. He brought some of his fellow-creatures under the wings of the Divine Presence, and made known the glory of God in the world.