THE sermons in this volume were preached during the darker days of the war. I have tried in them by applying a few fundamental principles of the Jewish conception of life and history to elicit the significance of certain events of these years in terms of a “moral strategy” of the war.
It is with some hesitation that I submit these sermons to a wider public. The spoken word is essentially different from the written one. Committed to print, it must lose some of the force and emphasis derived by it from both the original situation in which it has been spoken and the oratory of the speaker.
To my mind the justification for this volume lies in the persistence of the “original situation,” which will most probably not pass for many years yet. In terms of our moral strategy this war will not be over when the soldier has done his work. For a considerable period yet, mankind is destined to grope in darkness between a world that is irretrievably lost and a new life not yet born, the resolute striving for which requires a moral stamina and depth of vision not yet possessed by mankind in general.
To-morrow will come, but not so soon. I hope that in this no man’s world between yesterday and to-morrow these sermons may be of some help in the clarification of the issues with which they deal.
In conclusion, I wish to thank Mr. M. Simon, M.A., for valuable help and advice in the preparation of the present volume for publication.
LEEDS, Chanucah, 5705.—December, 1944 E.B.