Julius T. Loeb, “Science vs. Religion,” Atlanta Georgian and News (Atlanta, GA), Sept. 21, 1907. https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn89053728/1907-09-21/ed-1/seq-9/
SCIENCE VS. RELIGION
By RABBI JULIUS T. LOEB, OF THE BETH-ISRAEL CONGREGATION
A Day of Atonement sermon delivered before the Congregation Beth-Israel on Tuesday night.
It were impossible for any human language to adequately translate into words the noble significance and lofty ideal of the Yom-Kippur; a day consecrated in Israel to psychological development, or the probation of the human soul, by virtue of repentance and of reconciliation with God and man. Not merely a fast day or day of affliction; but principally a day of spiritual edification, a “Sabbath of Sabbaths,” which is to give rest to our bodily functions; to lift us out of all the engrossing materialism, and to open up our reasoning faculties to the better appreciation of life’s duties. Shut out entirely from the busy turmoil of the material world, from the cares and drudgeries of daily life, with their customary allurements and stultifying influences, we are on this day invested with the pure and holy atmosphere of sober thought and earnest meditation. We are brought, as it were, in touch with our better selves. In sacred communion with the Divine Presence (text: Leviticus xvl, 30), “for on this day shall He make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord.”
On this blessed day ample means is afforded us for the atonement of our souls before the Lord. On this day free scope is given to the monitor that dwells within the inmost recesses of heart—the human conscience—to assert itself in our resolves for good. “A lamp of the Lord Is the soul of man,” and by means of this lamp we are enabled to throw light on our daily conduct; to institute a search into our moral character, and if it be found wanting in those qualities which should make the perfect man and consistent Israelite, we should at once set about an improvement i[n] our ways.
According to Jewish doctrine, each one of the human race is endowed with a Godly spirit, which it is his duty to develop for his moral good; each one has within himself a portion of the divine.
In Image of God.
“For in the image of God made He man,” was really spoken of the soul. According to Maimonides, the “image of God” is reference to the substance of God, which is the divine spirit—not the outward form.
We, the descendants of the patriarchs, are therefore bid to confess before no priest, nor saint, nor demi-god, save only before the Lord of Hosts, and to Him alone our hearts should ascend in prayer; in the fullest conviction that all mortals are alike dependent upon the mercy of God, as they are all alike subjected to His eternal rule.
Out of fear or ostentation a man will often promise before his fellow man that which he is either unable or unwilling to fulfill. But one could never promise it truthfully before God and his own conscience without subsequently making an effort to carry these promises into practice. Hence, our sages of blessed memory have poetically expressed it in the words, “Truth is the seal of God,” for truth not only inscribes, but seals the human resolve for good.
This great day of ours is, therefore, known in the language of our sages as the day on which our fate is sealed; as this is the last of the first ten days of the year which we give to God and His sacred service, this is the crowning point of our season of repentance.
Season of Repentance.
But why is our first portion of the year a “season of repentance?” Because the acknowledgment of our short-comings and imperfections at the opening of a new period in our existence, and the manifestation of our dependency upon the grace of an all-ruling and all-just Creator at the assumption of life’s duties, forms the basis of all religion. And Yom-Kippur, the most earnest and most sacred day in our religion, is therefore characterized by the efficacy of repentance.
I have often asked the question as to whether or not repentance is a thing that becomes civilized beings; as we claim to be at this so-called enlightened age? And I answered: Repentance not only becomes civilized beings, but it is the highest ideal, the truest means of civilization, and he is no civilized being who feels not the sting of remorse, who has not the capability of correcting himself and of rising to a higher plane of living with every succeeding year.
What is civilization, if not the perfection of the human character, morally, mentally and physically? And now again, what is religion in its substance? Every effort for good, everything that makes for the betterment and improvement of human nature under the divine law of unerring Justice, Spell these correctly, and you find therein none else but what we call “repentance.”
“Repentance is the divinest thing within man,” says Thomas Carlyle; and why? Because repentance is the most significant mark of the higher nature of man, which distinguishes him above the beast of the earth. Man alone of all created beings can be moved by repentance. The animal below knows it not. Hence it is that when you find a man slow to the awakening of conscience it means that this man is descending to the level of the brute. But the keener the sensitiveness of conscience the stronger the man, and the higher his standard of morality.
Rabbi David Philipson very wisely remarks with reference to this subject: “Raise men,” he says, “by education and training to a proper appreciation of the efficacy of repentance, and you will have accomplished what neither bastinado, nor exile, nor fine, nor prison cell have during these many sad centuries achieved.”
We can safely assert that out of one hundred offenders against the laws of a state, and of morality, there are ninety-nine—or you might as well take in the other one hundredth part—who committed their deeds without the full knowledge of what they were doing.
Insanity In Sin.
“Man will not commit an offense unless he be moved by a spirit of insanity,” says the Talmud. The habitual sinner just merely did not stop to think it over, for lack of reasoning his conscience was gradually lulled to sleep, and the result is moral stagnation.
Hence it follows that what we all need as human creatures for the fortification of our character and the perfection of our soul is to pause at frequent intervals and think it over, to throw the searchlight of investigation on our moral condition and endeavor to fortify all the weak points therein; that means—to repent and amend. In such manor only can we hope to become good men, loyal citizens and useful members of society.
From what we have premised we may easily comprehend that repentance—the embodiment of religion—is only the counterpart of civilization, and one without the other is simply an impossibility.
Those individuals who still keep up their harangue—“down with religion! Away with prayer, repentance, and so on”—they are away behind the times, and are hopelessly below the standard of civilization. For along with the progress of the ages religion is towering high, spreading its benign wings over all reasoning beings and constantly aiding in effecting the cultivation of the human mind and character. The salutary influence of religion is going from strength to strength and permeating all sections and spheres amid the human family. There is scarcely a man prominent in human affairs, or filling a high and responsible position in the world, who is not animated by sentiments of religion. The newer discoveries and scientific researches have only opened up newer avenues for religious thought.
Will Never Cease.
Religion is not a technical contrivance, nor a mere philosophy, which soon should give way to any newer mode of thinking; but it is the ever-present attribute of him that is created in the image of God, and, as was well exorcised by one of our modem philosophers: “Religion will cease only with man, not among men.”
Whatever the outward forms of religion, the ideal thereof is everlastingly the same. It is the alliance of man with God, the Divine Presence; the constant yearning of the human soul after the Spirit of All.
The slogan “Science Versus Religion” is a mere chimera. Science may well form its technical construction round nature, origin and growth; it may either prove or disprove certain doctrines or theories; it may put into operation that all-pervading force known as electricity, and may show a thousand wonders within nature; yet science never will fathom the mystery of nature’s first causer, never will unravel the enigma of life and death, and never outroot from the human heart the belief in and knowledge of a God.
We hear of so many men of learning engaged in psychical research, and in the various other branches of science, who after many years of study and scientific investigation have pronounced themselves confirmed believers in God.
Upon his discovery of a “plurality of inhabited worlds” a Camille Flammarion stops, gazes in wonderment at the vast panorama spread before his eyes, the countless worlds set in array throughout the boundless expanse of the universe; all governed and preserved in a wonderfully harmonious order by a master hand that is invisible and intangible, yet existent in its effect. And learning of the many worlds of existing beings which we dreamt not in our philosophies, this savant finally learns also of the existence of a world of Spirits.
Science and Religion.
Or when a man like the late John Ruskin, who devotes himself to the philosophy of arts, and he finds that what mankind hitherto believed to be deprived of all life—that which we still continue to call inanimate substance—that, too, lives its life and dies its death. And Ruskin is thus convinced of the fact that what man does not see, even if he have it before his eyes, does not signify that it is not. And could he then do it otherwise but form his conclusion, that as much as the life of the mineral kingdom below is hidden from our view, yet still it is existent, and its effect is perfectly evident; so there is a Spiritual kingdom above, which we can not grasp with our ordinary senses, and whose existence is nevertheless a perfect reality.
The Marconi discovery of but a few years duration has carried into practice a matter which so-called scientists had pronounced an utter impossibility; namely, communication by the intangible.
To the unreasoning mind all these things are, perhaps, of little consequence. An additional planet discovered by the astronomer, another composition of the various quartzes found by the scientist, or the demonstration of a marvelous communicative power in the invisible world, may not interest him that is preoccupied with selfish things, but must interest every believer in God who may feel the truth that “the heavens relate 'the glory of God;' and the expanse telleth of the work; of His hands.” We who are enjoined to think must learn therefrom the in significance of our own wisdom and the nothingness of our earthly strength, in the presence of Almighty Providence, and of Nature, unconquerable and insearchable, which is but a wonderful emanation from Him alone. On this most sacred day of ours, when we come to atone for our souls before the Lord, it is especially our duty to feel that we are in His Divine presence, that this day and every day we are in His safe keeping, and that by Him we are animated and prompted to do good, in manner as our wise teachers have dictated to us; that is, by means of penitence, prayer and benevolence. “Penitence” being the proper realization of the rules and duties of life which we may have overstepped. And this to be accompanied by our sincere prayer before God that He may help us in our endeavors for good, and with the practice of “benevolence.” that is, “good will,” toward all mankind. And those ideals are inculcated in the text we have chosen for our consideration.
“For on this day he shall atone for you” by means of repentance; to cleanse you by the pure and sincere outpouring of your devoted hearts: that is, prayer; and before the Lord you shall be cleansed from all your sins, is defined by our sages of the Mishnah.
Make Restitution.
Offenses of man against man Yom Kippur will not atone for, unless one would own up his guilt to his neighbor and make restitution therefor.
Rabbi Elozor-Ben-Azarjah deducts this from the third clause of the text. “Of all your sins ye shall be cleansed before the Lord.”
Before entering the presence of God we must remove from our hearts every motive of ill-feeling, envy, malice or hatred toward each other and the world at large. And in such manner only can we hope to be cleansed from guilt, purified and reconciled with God and man.
This, our Yom-Kippur, stands forth in its awful significance and solemnity above all the days of the year, and is so rigidly emblematic of the school of endurance in which the Jewish people have been trained and the affliction to which they were subjected at all times. We now live in an age of investigation, and I can picture to myself how many of the outer world ask it in silence: Now, what is there in the Jewish Yom-Kippur? What profit is there in the fasting; in the penitence and the prayer? And why is it really so that if one wants to “get smart” and help himself to a good dinner on Yom-Kippur, that the injunction is held out against him, “And that soul shall be cut off from amidst his people.”
To account for the importance of the Yom-Kippur, to know what the Yom-Kippur has done for us in times past and present. It will suffice to say that this day, this once a year calls the roll of our people together and places us all before God as one united Israel. This day has thus saved us from moral degeneration under such trying circumstances which would crush any other element under their weight. This day has taught us of steadfastness and sturdiness of character. And if the Jewish character is a mystery, the Yom-Kippur may offer the key to this mystery.
Many, of course, look upon the Jew with no end of amazement. “These Jews certainly are a peculiar race,” they say. Why are they so stiff necked? Why can’t they give up the fight against an overwhelming majority? Why are they so reduced, and yet so conspicuous? Why are they so few and yet virtually filling the earth? So degraded and yet so influential? They are likened unto the “dust of the ground,” and likewise unto the “stars of heaven.”
The Jewish Nature.
Why can a Jew economize in the smallest degree, and he can spend so lavishly as to outstrip the multi-millionaire? Why is the Jew craving for the favor of every nation, only to become the benefactor of the nation that favored him? Why is the Jew so poor, and yet so rich, so frugal and so benevolent? Why is it that he offers a contrast to the world, even in his natural habits? Why can a Jew drink to his heart’s content, and yet he is [a]s a rule, exempt from the comm[on pl]ague of excessive drink which sm[itte]n its thousands?
For an answer to these questions look to his religion, to this blessed Kippur day and the other biblical ordinances. See him endure today’s fast cheerfully and call it a Yom-Tov, a “feast day,” a holy convocation among the other set feasts of the year, whereon he is bid to “rejoice before the Lord,” by eating, drinking and sharing the bounties of nature, together with the poor and the needy ones of the land. Study the nature of the Jewish sacred institutions and you will find their intent and purpose to uphold the equilibrium of body and soul; to realize the truth that “for everything there is a season, and a time is for every pursuit under the heavens.”
To know how to suit the time for everything; to set bounds to all earthly things; to enjoy the blessings of life with proper moderation, and thus to maintain the equanimity of substance and soul, is the secret of life, and the fulfillment of life’s duties.
We Jews are taught to lead a well-balanced life, and to avoid extremes in any direction. Our religion is a religion of life, and save only for this one day in the year, which it enforces most rigidly, and the few days of Jewish national mourning over the loss of the temple, as instituted by the sages, the Jewish religion permits of no fasting and no self-mortification. It demands us to be men and women fully alive to all responsibilities, as well as to all sensibilities of life.
Asceticism, prohibition or teetotalism of any sort are strange to the Jewish spirit, and strictly prohibited by the Jewish law. We find not in the entire history of Judaism a single one of our patriarchs, prophets, priests and sages, who were sent to enlighten the world, that they should have made a practice of any of these things.
Prohibition Question.
On these grounds I have had occasion some time ago to oppose a movement for total abstinence in Washington, D. C. Yet the overwhelming wave of prohibition that recently swept over this Georgian state, and by an act of legislature has wiped out the further traffic of alcoholic beverage from its territory, was just following in the wake of an ocean of excessive drinking. And this is a perfectly natural manifestation, as one extreme would always bring on another. From what I have learned subsequently it appears that people here had carried the matter too far, and they never knew when to stop in their excesses, while the liquor dealers in this place simply ignored all the laws of morality and public decency until the citizens could endure it no longer, and the result followed in the overthrowal of the entire branch of industry. For thus it is that one extreme will always be repaid by another extreme—“measure against measure,” is the penalty meted out in the course of nature.
I am glad of one thing, however, that all Jewish citizens here are elated over the passage of the prohibition bill, which, they say, will wipe away disgrace from the Jewish name on account of the sins of a few. Even Jews engaged in this line of industry have expressed themselves before me as being exceedingly glad to get rid of the thing that proved detrimental to the interests of the community. The Jew can easily adapt himself to circumstances, and I am sure that those of our people hitherto engaged in the liquor trade will soon find employment in other directions, end will never regret the change.
By the observance of the Yom-Kippur and of other sacred institutions of the ancient faith, the Jew has learned to get along without drinking whenever this be necessary; to sacrifice his own comfort and ease to the public cause, and willingly to yield up even his means of gaining a livelihood in order to render himself at one with all the world.
As ordinary children of men, we Jews have an equal claim with all the rest of our fellow creatures on the blessings of nature and nature’s God, and hence it is our duty, under all circumstances, to contribute our share to the welfare and prosperity of the place wherein our lot is cast. But as Israelites it is especially incumbent upon us to strive and labor, to long and pray for the realization of that end for which our religion, for which in truth all religion, stands: namely, a reconciliation with God and man, the principal purpose for which this most sacred day is designed.
Let us then know how to value and profit by this day of grace which God has so mercifully vouchsafed unto us, and let this day beget in us the strength of character and the radiance of the higher life for which we are to strive during all our days on earth. And may God accept in mercy our fasting and prayer. May He bless and protect us and pervade our souls with heavenly light. Amen.