NOT BY MIGHT……
On the Sabbath after the fall of Paris
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IN the Haftorah of the day we read the famous sentence which seems to be the summing up of the message of Judaism to the world and which expresses the only hope of humanity in this hour of trial and suspense. **Zechariah IV, 6.“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts”.
Never have human hearts wished these words to be true more earnestly than they do to-day. On the other hand, never was the human mind more doubtful as to the essential truth of this sentence than it is to-day.
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit” … there is comfort in this, there is hope in this. But is there more, more than mere comfort and, it may be, unfounded hope, cleverly devised only for those who are in need of such comfort and hope because they are without might and without power? Is there truth in this, truth that can be proved by the facts of our life? Is there historic truth in this?
It is not a little pathetic to observe how obstinately we Jews—a nation that has long forgotten what real might and power are—have always insisted on the tenet of “Not by might”.
Again and again in our history we have had to suffer the brutality of power. Again and again we have had to experience in our own life how might rules in this world and how dark and dreary a fate is meted out to those who have nothing more to rely upon than spiritual and moral strength. Never has there been a nation on earth with more reason to respect power than the Jews. But in spite of their experiences no nation has ever treated the exhibition of bare force with more contempt than the Jews. Again and again we witnessed the success of force and material might, again and again we proclaimed: “Not by might but by my spirit, saith the Lord”.
How is such an attitude to be explained? How can it be so obstinately maintained in the face of innumerable facts that seem to stultify it? Do we Jews not know this world? Do we not know human nature? Do we not know life? Have we not witnessed the course of human history long enough? Have we not seen force march from triumph to triumph, trample upon the creations of the spirit, ruthlessly destroy moral standards of living, and break everything that in the name of justice or right or truth stood in its way? Have we not learned yet that the only thing that is able to humiliate force is more force? Do we really walk about the world with our eyes shut to the facts? Or do we perhaps cling so obdurately to this unreasonable belief of ours in the spirit because we are so utterly powerless that there is nothing more left for us but this comfort of the weak, this hope of despair?
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I believe that Judaism knows man fairly well; it also knows history and understands it, and because of this Judaism declares: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit”.
This is, indeed, our comfort, this our hope. Not the comfort of weakness, nor the hope of despair; but the comfort of fortitude and the hope of strength.
Hope comes of strength, it is justified, when there is faith behind it. And it is the entire faith of Judaism that is the foundation of our hope for the ultimate victory of the spirit. It is our faith in God that stands behind it. Faith in God involves faith in life, it means faith in the ultimate value of life, in a moral purpose slowly but surely realising itself in life. Faith tells us that this world has been created by Him not for the purpose of being destroyed by the devil. Faith in God declares that the world can never be delivered up to the ravaging powers of darkness and destruction.
Our faith in God, our trust in reason, our confidence in life, our unshakable belief in a moral purpose of history, all this has been summed up in the courageous words: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord”. For us who are Jews, this is the very essence of life. If these words do not hold true, life itself is nothing but a horrible nightmare. If the spirit will not conquer, life itself must perish. If justice is to succumb, mankind will be wiped out. If truth is not to be victorious, the whole of the Universe must disintegrate, fall to pieces, and vanish in the void.
Our faith in the ultimate victory of the spirit is unshakable. It is as strong as life is, and it will last as long as life will last on earth.
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But what about the facts of life? Do they not prove that we are mistaken in our faith? Does not life show that it is always the fittest that survive, the mightiest and most powerful? To this we Jews have lived the answer: No.
Our own life, our own history gives evidence to the contrary. It is true, often we saw brutal force triumphant, but just as often we saw it humiliated, wallowing in the dust, trodden even by the feet of the weakest. Again and again we witnessed the success of barbarous might, but in many more cases we watched its destruction and annihilation.
We Jews are the witnesses of human history. There is one thing that we have never experienced: the ultimate triumph of barbarism. Among all the western nations we are the one with the longest memory. We have known almost all the tyrannies of the world, we felt their whip on our own bodies, and to-day we can give evidence that there was not one among them that we have not seen totter and tumble, fall and crash.
Our very existence, the fact that we are here to-day, able to witness the gigantic bid now being made by brutal force for domination over the spirit and everything that the spirit stands for, the very fact that the Jews are still able to feel the lash of the tyrant’s whip, is for itself proof enough that, at the end, it is not the tyrannies that survive, not barbarous strength that conquers.
Napoleon said once—and he should have known if anyone—that there were two principles in the world wrestling with each other for mastery, the principle of the sword and the principle of the spirit, and that ultimately the spirit is always victorious.
It is our deepest conviction that the eternal words of the prophet: “Not by might, nor by power” not only express hope and comfort but also state a fact, explain history and proclaim a truth which has always prevailed and will always prevail.
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Of course, this does not justify complacency; it does not mean that we have nothing else to do but to sit back in our easy-chairs, waiting for the ultimate victory of the spirit.
Whenever a generation facing a violent struggle between force and spirit trembles in fear lest the spirit might lose the battle, one thing is certain: that this generation has sinned against the spirit. And before the spirit can conquer, the sins must be expiated, the wrongs redressed.
The sin against the spirit committed by our generation becomes clear when we compare ourselves with our opponents in the present struggle. On their side, the side of brute force, the struggle is carried on with a methodical ruthlessness the like of which the world has never seen. There is one thing of which the adversaries of the spirit know nothing to-day: compromise. They could have avoided this struggle, they could have achieved great advantages for themselves by negotiation and compromise. But, “No compromise” has been the watchword of the forces of darkness. And it is precisely compromise which has been the sin of our generation.
Had we been as faithful to the spirit as barbarism has been faithful to its own intentions, the catastrophe would never have occurred. Had the democratic world been as sincere, as uncompromising, as thoroughgoing in what it tried to achieve as the world of darkness was in the pursuance of its own detestable aims, the tragedy would have been avoided.
But, no. They were thoroughgoing and uncompromising; we were not. We adopted the cause of the spirit as our own, but we were not faithful to it. We professed high and lofty ideals, but we were not prepared to make the sacrifices demanded by them.
We said: Justice! but did not care very much when injustice struck the neighbour down. We shouted: Freedom! and had only pity for those who had been robbed of their share in it. We acknowledged Truth, but were always prepared to accept the fait accompli created by falsehood, treachery, and the perversion of truth.
There was much selfishness in all of us, and out of selfishness we were always prepared to compromise. This was the great sin of our generation against the spirit. To be sure, barbarism will not prevail; but the spirit can be victorious only through the sacrifices of a faithful and uncompromising generation. This is the only hope for the future. Faithfulness and no compromise. When this terrible conflict is over, there will be more faithfulness, more justice, more truth in the world. It may be that then we shall understand better why all this hardship and suffering and destruction was necessary to bring about that better world for which all mankind is longing.
There is a saying in the Midrash explaining the deeper significance of the commandment of the M’norah, of which we read in the week’s portion of the Law.
The question is: Why was it necessary to light a M’norah in the sanctuary? Is the Almighty, who is nothing but light, in want of the light we mortals are able to prepare for him? And the answer is:**Tanchuma, Numbers, B’haalotcha.
Rabbi Chanina said: The Holy One, blessed be He, spoke to man: That eye of yours, there is white and black in it, and you see with the dark part of your eye and not with the bright one. So am I, the Lord, nothing but light, and that is why I need the light which comes from you, the light that is perceived in the midst of darkness. Because there is no darkness with me, I need your help, for I need that light that breaks forth out of the darkness.
This is the task of man: to create light out of darkness, order out of chaos, life and happiness out of destruction.
Darkness there must be, that light may be created.
Chaos there must be, that order may grow.
And all this God has put into our own hands; all this depends on us. For all this God Himself is waiting that it may be performed by us; for light out of darkness, for new life and new happiness out of death and destruction; for that great day when it shall become manifest all over the world that it is not by might, nor by power, but by the spirit of God that human happiness can be maintained.