Jewish Theology Part 8

Chapter XXV. Creation As the Act of G.o.d

1. "Thus shall ye say unto them: The G.o.ds that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens. He that hath made the earth by His power, that hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His understanding ... the Lord G.o.d is the true G.o.d."(432) With this declaration of war against heathenism, the prophet drew the line, once for all, between the uncreated, transcendent G.o.d and the created, perishable universe. It is true that Plato spoke of primordial and eternal matter and Aristotle of an eternally rotating celestial sphere, and that even Biblical exegetes, such as Ibn Ezra,(433) inferred from the Creation story the existence of primeval chaotic matter. Yet, on the whole, the Jewish idea of G.o.d has demanded the a.s.sumption that even this primitive matter was created by G.o.d, or, as most thinkers have phrased it, that G.o.d created the world _out of nothing_. This doctrine was voiced as early as the Maccabean period in the appeal made by the heroic mother to the youngest of her seven sons.(434) In the same spirit R. Gamaliel II scornfully rejects the suggestion of a heretic that G.o.d used primeval substances already extant in creating the world.(435)

2. Of course, thinking people will ever be confronted by the problem how a transcendental G.o.d could call into existence a world of matter, creating it within the limits of s.p.a.ce and time, without Himself becoming involved in the process. It would seem that He must by the very act subject Himself to the limitations and mutations of the universe. Hence some of the ancient Jewish teachers came under the influence of Babylonian and Egyptian cosmogonies in their later h.e.l.lenistic forms, and resorted to the theory of intermediary forces. Some of these adopted the Pythagorean conception of the mysterious power of letters and numbers, which they communicated to the initiated as secret lore, with the result that the suspicion of heresy rested largely upon "those who knew," the so-called Gnostics.

The difficulty of a.s.suming a creation at a fixed period of time was met in many different ways. It is interesting to note that R. Abbahu of Caesarea in the fourth century offered the explanation: "G.o.d caused one world after another to enter into existence, until He produced the one of which He said: 'Behold, this is good.' "(436) Still this opinion seems to have been expressed by even earlier sages, as it is adopted by Origen, a Church father of the third century, who admitted his great debt to Jewish teachers.(437)

The medieval Jewish philosophers evaded the difficulty by the Aristotelian expedient of connecting the concept of time with the motion of the spheres. Thus time was created with the celestial world, and timelessness remained an attribute of the uncreated G.o.d.(438) Such attempts at harmonization prove the one point of importance to us,-which, indeed, was frankly stated by Maimonides,-that we cannot accept literally the Biblical account of the creation.

The modern world has been lifted bodily out of the Babylonian and so-called Ptolemaic world, with its narrow horizon, through the labors of such men as Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Lyall, and Darwin. We live in a world immeasurable in terms of either s.p.a.ce or time, a world where evolution works through eons of time and an infinite number of stages.

Such a world gives rise to concepts of the working of G.o.d in nature totally different from those of the seers and sages of former generations, ideas of which those thinkers could not even dream. To the mind of the modern scientist the entire cosmic life, extending over countless millions of years, forming starry worlds without end, is moved by energy arising within. It is a continuous flow of existence, a process of formation and re-formation, which can have no beginning and no end. How is this evolutionist view to be reconciled with the belief in a divine act of creation? This is the problem which modern theology has set itself, perhaps the greatest which it must solve.

Ultimately, however, the problem is no more difficult now than it was to the first man who pondered over the beginnings of life in the childhood of the world. The same answer fits both modes of thought, with only a different process of reasoning. Whether we count the world's creation by days or by millions of years, the truth of the first verse of Genesis remains: "In the beginning G.o.d created the heavens and the earth." In our theories the whole complicated world-process is but the working out of simple laws. This leads back as swiftly and far more surely than did the primitive cosmology to an omnipotent and omniscient creative Power, defining at the very outset the aim of the stupendous whole, and carrying its comprehensive plan into reality, step by step. We who are the products of time cannot help applying the relation of time to the work of the Creator; time is so interwoven with our being that a modern evolutionist, Bergson, considers it the fundamental element of reality. Thus it is natural that we should think of G.o.d as setting the first atoms and forces of the universe into motion somewhere and somehow, at a given moment.

Through this act, we imagine, the order prevailing through an infinitude of s.p.a.ce and time was established for the great fabric of life. To earlier thinkers such an act of a supermundane and immutable G.o.d appeared as a single act. The idea of prime importance in all this is the free activity of the Creator in contradistinction to the blind necessity of nature, the underlying theory of all pagan or unreligious philosophy.(439) The world of G.o.d, which is the world of morality, and which leads to man, the image of G.o.d, must be based upon the free, purposive creative act of G.o.d.

Whether such an act was performed once for all or is everlastingly renewed, is a quite secondary matter for religion, however important it may be to philosophy, or however fundamental to science. In our daily morning prayers, which refer to the daily awakening to a life seemingly new, G.o.d is proclaimed as "He who reneweth daily the work of creation."(440)

Chapter XXVI. The Maintenance and Government of the World

1. For our religious consciousness the doctrine of divine maintenance and government of the world is far more important than that of creation. It opposes the view of deism that G.o.d withdrew from His creation, indifferent to the destiny of His creatures. He is rather the ever-present Mind and Will in all the events of life. The world which He created is maintained by Him in its continuous activity, the object of His incessant care.

2. Scripture knows nothing of natural law, but presents the changing phenomena of nature as special acts of G.o.d and considers the natural forces His messengers carrying out His will. "He opens the windows of heaven to let the rain descend upon the earth."(441) "He leads out the hosts of the stars according to their number and calleth them by name."(442) He makes the sun rise and set. "He says to the snow: Fall to the earth!"(443) and calls to the wind to blow and to the lightning to flash.(444) He causes the produce of the earth and the drought which destroys them. "He opens the womb to make beasts and men bring forth their young;" "He shuts up the womb to make them barren."(445) "He also provides the food for all His creatures in due season, even for the young ravens when they cry."(446) His breath keeps all alive. "He withdraweth their breath, and they perish, and return to their dust. He sendeth forth His spirit, they are created; He reneweth the face of the earth."(447) We are told also that G.o.d a.s.signs to each being its functions, telling the earth to bring forth fruit,(448) the sea not to trespa.s.s its boundary,(449) the stars and the seas to maintain their order.(450) To each one He hath set a measure, a law which they dare not transgress. G.o.d's wisdom works in them; they all are subject to His rule.

3. This conclusion betokens an obvious improvement upon the earlier and more childlike view. It recognizes that there is an order in the universe and all under divine supervision. Thus Jeremiah speaks of a covenant of G.o.d with heaven and earth, and of the laws which they must obey,(451) and in Genesis the rainbow is represented as a sign of the covenant of peace made by G.o.d with the whole earth.(452) As G.o.d "maketh peace in the heavens above,"(453) He establishes order in the world. As the various powers of nature are invested with a degree of independence, G.o.d's sovereignty manifests itself in the regularity with which they interact and cooperate.(454) The lore of the mystics speaks even of an oath which G.o.d administered upon His holy Name to the heavens and the stars, the sea and the abyss, that they should never break their designated bounds or disturb the whole order of creation.(455)

4. Further progress is noted in the liturgy, in such expressions as that "G.o.d reneweth daily the work of creation," or "He openeth every morning the gate of heaven to let the sun come out of its chambers in all its splendor" and "at eventide He maketh it return through the portals of the west." Again, "He reneweth His creative power in every phenomenon of nature and in every turn of the season;" "He provideth every living being with its sustenance."(456) Indeed, in the view of Judaism the maintenance of the entire household of nature is one continuous act of G.o.d which can neither be interrupted nor limited in time. G.o.d in His infinite wisdom works forever through the same laws which were in force at the beginning, and which shall continue through all the realms of time and s.p.a.ce.

We feeble mortals, of course, see but "the hem of His garment" and hear only "a whisper of His voice." Still from the deeper promptings of our soul we learn that science does not touch the inmost essence of the world when it finds a law of necessity in the realm of nature. The universe is maintained and governed by a moral order. Moral objects are attained by the forces of the elements, "the messengers of G.o.d who fulfilled His word."(457) Both the hosts of heaven and the creatures of the earth do His bidding; their every act, great or small, is as He has ordered. Yet of them all man alone is made in G.o.d's image, and can work self-consciously and freely for a moral purpose. Indeed, as the rabbis express it, he has been called as "the co-worker with G.o.d in the work of creation."(458)

5. The conception of a world-order also had to undergo a long development.

The theory of pagan antiquity, echoed in both Biblical and post-Biblical writings, is that the world is definitely limited, with both a beginning and an end. As heaven and earth came into being, so they will wax old and shrink like a garment, while sun, moon, and stars will lose their brightness and fall back into the primal chaos.(459) The belief in a cataclysmic ending of the world is a logical corollary of the belief in the birth of the world. In striking contrast, the prophets hold forth the hope of a future regeneration of the world. G.o.d will create "a new heaven and a new earth" where all things will arise in new strength and beauty.(460)

This hope, as all eschatology, was primarily related to the regeneration of the Jewish people. Accordingly, the rabbis speak of two worlds,(461) this world and the world to come. They consider the present life only a preliminary of the world to come, in which the divine plan of creation is to be worked out for all humanity through the truths emanating from Israel. This whole conception rested upon a science now superseded, the geocentric view of the universe, which made the earth and especially man the final object of creation. For us only a figurative meaning adheres to the two worlds of the medieval belief, following each other after the lapse of a fixed period of time. On the one hand, we see one infinite fabric of life in this visible world with its millions of suns and planets, among which our earth is only an insignificant speck in the sky.

With our limited understanding we endeavor to penetrate more and more into the eternal laws of this illimitable cosmos. On the other hand, we hold that there is a moral and spiritual world which comprises the divine ideals and eternal objects of life. Both are reflected in the mind of man, who enters into the one by his intellect and into the other by his emotions of yearning and awe. At the same time both are the manifestation of G.o.d, the Creator and Ruler of all.

Chapter XXVII. Miracles and the Cosmic Order

1. "Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the mighty?

Who is like unto Thee, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders!"(462)

Thus sang Israel at the Red Sea in words which are constantly reechoed in our liturgy. Nothing impresses the religious sense of man so much as unusual phenomena in nature, which seem to interrupt the wonted course of events and thus to reveal the workings of a higher Power. A miracle-that is, a thing "wondered" at, because not understood-is always regarded by Scripture as a "sign"(463) or "proof"(464) of the power of G.o.d, to whom nothing is impossible. The child-like mind of the past knew nothing of fixed or immutable laws of nature. Therefore the question is put in all simplicity: "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"(465) "Is the Lord's hand waxed short?"(466) "Or should He who created heaven and earth not be able to create something which never was before?"(467) Should "He who maketh a man's mouth, or makes him deaf, dumb, seeing or blind,"(468) not be able also to open the mouth of the dumb beast or the eyes of the blind? Should not He who killeth and giveth life have the power also to call the dead back to life, if He sees fit? Should not He who openeth the womb for every birth, be able to open it for her who is ninety years old? Or when a whole land is wicked, to shut the wombs of all its inhabitants that they may remain barren? Again, should not He who makes the sun come forth every morning from the gates of the East and enter each night the portals of the West, not be able to change this order once, and cause it to stand still in the midst of its course?(469)

So long as natural phenomena are considered to be separate acts of the divine will, an unusual event is merely an extraordinary manifestation of this same power, "the finger of G.o.d." The people of Biblical times never questioned whether a miracle happened or could happen. Their concern was to see it as the work of the arm of G.o.d either for His faithful ones or against His adversaries.

2. With the advance of thought, miracles began to be regarded as interruptions of an established order of creation. The question then arose, why the all-knowing Creator should allow deviations from His own laws. As the future was present to Him at the outset, why did He not make provision in advance for such special cases as He foresaw? This was exactly the remedy which the rabbis furnished. They declared that at Creation G.o.d provided for certain extraordinary events, so that a latent force, established for the purpose at the beginning of the world, is responsible for incidents which appeared at the time to be true interferences with the world order. Thus G.o.d had made a special covenant, as it were, with the work of creation that at the appointed time the Red Sea should divide before Israel; that sun and moon should stand still at the bidding of Joshua; that fire should not consume the three youths, Hananel, Mishael, and Azariah; that the sea-monster should spit forth Jonah alive; together with other so-called miracles.(470) The same idea occasioned the other Haggadic saying that shortly before the completion of the creation on the evening of the sixth day G.o.d placed certain miraculous forces in nature. Through them the earth opened to swallow Korah and his band, the rock in the wilderness gave water for the thirsty mult.i.tude, and Balaam's a.s.s spoke like a human being; through them also the rainbow appeared after the flood, the manna rained from heaven, Aaron's rod burst forth with almond blossoms and fruit, and other wondrous events happened in their proper time.(471)

3. Neither the rabbis nor the medieval Jewish thinkers expressed any doubt of the credibility of the Biblical miracles. The latter, indeed, rationalized miracles as well as other things, and considered some of them imaginary. Saadia accepts all the Biblical miracles except the speaking serpent in Paradise and the speaking a.s.s of Balaam, considering these to be parables rather than actual occurrences.(472) In general, both Jewish and Mohammedan theologians a.s.sumed that special forces hidden in nature were utilized by the prophets and saints to testify to their divine mission. These powers were attained by their lofty intellects, which lifted them up to the sphere of the Supreme Intellect. All medieval attempts to solve the problem of miracles were based upon this curious combination of Aristotelian cosmology and Mohammedan or Jewish theology.(473) True, Maimonides rejects a number of miracles as contrary to natural law, and refers to the rabbinical saying that some of the miraculous events narrated in Scripture were so only in appearance. Still he claims for Moses, as the Mohammedans did for Mohammed, miraculous powers derived from the sphere of the Supreme Intellect. In a lengthy chapter on miracles Albo follows Maimonides,(474) while his teacher Crescas considers the Biblical miracles to be direct manifestations of the creative activity of G.o.d.(475) Gersonides has really two opinions; in his commentary he reduces all miracles to natural processes, but in his philosophical work he adopts the view of Maimonides.(476) Jehuda ha Levi alone insisted on the miracles of the Bible as historic evidence of the divine calling of the prophets.(477) To all the rest, the miracle is not performed by G.o.d but by the divinely endowed man. G.o.d himself is no longer conceived of as changing the cosmic order. Both He and the world created by His will remain ever the same. Still, according to this theory, certain privileged men are endowed with special powers by the Supreme Intellect, and by these they can perform miracles.

4. It is evident that in all this the problem of miracles is not solved, nor even correctly stated. Both rabbinical literature and the Bible abound with miracles about certain holy places and holy persons, which they never venture to doubt. But the rabbis were not miracle-workers like the Essenes and their Christian successors.(478) On the contrary, they sought to repress the popular credulity and hunger for the miraculous, saying: "The present generation is not worthy to have miracles performed for them, like the former ones;"(479) or "The providing of each living soul with its daily food, or the recovery of men from a severe disease is as great a miracle as any of those told in Scripture;"(480) or again, "Of how small account is a person for whom the cosmic order must be disturbed!"(481) Thus when the wise men of Rome asked the Jewish sages: "If your G.o.d is omnipotent, as you claim, why does He not banish from the world the idols, which are so loathsome to Him?" they replied: "Do you really desire G.o.d to destroy the sun, moon, and stars, because fools wors.h.i.+p them? The world continues its regular course, and idolaters will not go unpunished."(482)

5. In Judaism neither Biblical nor rabbinical miracles are to be accepted as proof of a doctrinal or practical teaching.(483) The Deuteronomic law expressly states that false prophets can perform miracles by which they mislead the mult.i.tude.(484) We can therefore ascribe no intrinsic religious importance to miracles. The fact is that miracles occur only among people who are ignorant of natural law and thus predisposed to accept marvels. They are the products of human imagination and credulity.

They have only a subjective, not an objective value. They are psychological, not physical facts.

The att.i.tude of Maimonides and Albo toward Biblical miracles is especially significant. The former declares in his great Code:(485) "Israel's belief in Moses and his law did not rest on miracles, for miracles rather create doubt in the mind of the believer. Faith must rest on its intrinsic truth, and this can never be subverted by miracles, which may be of a deceitful nature." Albo devotes a lengthy chapter to developing this idea still further, undoubtedly referring to the Church; he speaks of miracles wrought by both Biblical and Talmudic heroes, such as Onias the rain-maker, Nicodemus ben Gorion, Hanina ben Dosa, and Phinehas ben Jair, the popular saints.(486) In modern times Mendelssohn, when challenged by the Lutheran pastor Lavater either to accept the Christian faith or refute it, attacked especially the basic Christian faith in miracles. He stated boldly that "miracles prove nothing, since every religion bases its claims on them and consequently the truth of one would disprove the convincing proof of the other."(487)

6. Our entire modern mode of thinking demands the complete recognition of the empire of law throughout the universe, manifesting the all-permeating will of G.o.d. The whole cosmic order is _one_ miracle. No room is left for single or exceptional miracles. Only a primitive age could think of G.o.d as altering the order of nature which He had fixed, so as to let iron float on water like wood to please one person here,(488) or to stop sun, star, or sea in their courses in order to help or harm mankind there.(489) It is more important for us to inquire into the law of the mind by which the fact itself may differ from the peculiar form given it by a narrator. With our historical methods unknown to former ages, we cannot accept any story of a miracle without seeking its intrinsic historical accuracy. After all, the miracle as narrated is but a human conception of what, under G.o.d's guidance, really happened.

Accordingly, we must leave the final interpretation of the Biblical narratives to the individual, to consider them as historical facts or as figurative presentations of religious ideas. Even now some people will prefer to believe that the Ten Commandments emanated from G.o.d Himself in audible tones, as medieval thinkers maintained.(490) Some will adopt the old semi-rationalistic explanation that He created a voice for this special purpose. Others will hold it more worthy of G.o.d to communicate directly with man, from spirit to spirit, without the use of sensory means; these will therefore take the Biblical description as figurative or mythical. In fact, he who does not cling to the letter of the Scripture will probably regard all the miracles as poetical views of divine Providence, as child-like imagery expressing the ancient view of the eternal goodness and wisdom of G.o.d. To us also G.o.d is "a Doer of wonders,"

but we experience His wonderworking powers in ourselves. We see wonders in the acts of human freedom which rises superior to the blind forces of nature. The true miracle consists in the divine power within man which aids him to accomplish all that is great and good.

Chapter XXVIII. Providence and the Moral Government of the World

1. None of the precious truths of Judaism has become more indispensable than the belief in divine Providence, which we see about us in ever new and striking forms. Man would succ.u.mb from fear alone, beholding the dangers about him on every side, were he not sustained by a conviction that there is an all-wise Power who rules the world for a sublime purpose.

We know that even in direst distress we are guided by a divine hand that directs everything finally toward the good. Wherever we are, we are protected by G.o.d, who watches over the destinies of man as "does the eagle who hovers over her young and bears them aloft on her pinions." Each of us is a.s.signed his place in the all-encompa.s.sing plan. Such knowledge and such faith as this comprise the greatest comfort and joy which the Jewish religion offers. Both the narratives and the doctrines of Scripture are filled with this idea of Providence working in the history of individuals and nations.(491)

2. Providence implies first, _provision_, and second, _predestination_ in accordance with the divine plan for the government of the world. As G.o.d's dominion over the visible world appears in the eternal order of the cosmos, so in the moral world, where action arises from freely chosen aims, G.o.d is Ruler of a moral government. Thus He directs all the acts of men toward the end which He has set. Judaism is most sharply contrasted with heathenism at this point. Heathenism either deifies nature or merges the deity into nature. Thus there is no place for a G.o.d who knows all things and provides for all in advance. Blind fate rules all the forces of life, including the deities themselves. Therefore chance incidents in nature or the positions of the stars are taken as indications of destiny.

Hence the belief in oracles and divination, in the observation of flying arrows and floating clouds, of the color and shape of the liver of sacrificial animals, and other signs of heaven and earth which were to hint at the future.(492)

On the other hand, Judaism sees in all things, not the fortuitous dealings of a blind and relentless fate, but the dispensations of a wise and benign Providence. It knows of no event which is not foreordained by G.o.d. It sanctioned the decision by lot(493) and the appeal to the oracle (the Urim and Thummim)(494) only temporarily, during the Biblical period. But soon it recognized entirely the will of G.o.d as the Ruler of destiny, and the people accepted the belief that "the days," "the destinies," and even "the tears" of man are all written in His "book."(495) Thus they perceived G.o.d as "He who knows from the beginning what will be at the end."(496) The prophets, His messengers, could thus foretell His will. They perceive Him as the One who "created the smith that brought forth the weapon for its work, and created the master who uses it for destruction."(497) However the foe may rage, he is but "the scourge in the hand of G.o.d," like "the axe in the hand of him who fells the tree."(498) No device of men or nations can withstand His will, for He turns all their doings to some good purpose and transforms every curse into a blessing.(499)

3. Naturally this truth was first accepted in limited form, in the life of certain individuals. The history of Joseph and of King David were used as ill.u.s.trations to show how G.o.d protects His own. The experiences of the people confirmed this belief and expanded it to apply to the nation. The wanderings of Israel through the wilderness and its entrance to the promised land were regarded as G.o.d's work for His chosen people. The prophets looked still further and saw the destinies of all nations, entering the foreground of history one by one, as the sign of divine Providence, so that finally the entire history of mankind became a great plan of divine salvation, centered upon the truth intrusted to Israel.

Beside this conception of _general_ Providence ruling in history, the idea of _special_ Providence arose in response to human longing. The belief in Providence developed to a full conception of care for the world at large and for each individual in his peculiar destiny, a conviction that divine Providence is concerned with the welfare of each individual, and that the joyous or bitter lot of each man forms a link in the moral government of the world. The first clear statement of this comes from the prophet Jeremiah in his wrestling and sighing: "I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps."(500) Special Providence is discussed still more vividly and definitely in the book of Job. Later on it becomes a specific Pharisaic doctrine, "Everything is foreseen."(501) "No man suffers so much as the injury of a finger unless it has been decreed in heaven."(502) A divine preordination decides a man's choice of his wife(503) and every other important step of his life.

4. This theory of predestination, however, presents a grave difficulty when we consider it in relation to man's morality with its implication of self-determination. While this question of free will is treated fully in another connection,(504) we may antic.i.p.ate the thought at this point. The Jewish conception of divine predestination makes as much allowance as possible for the moral freedom of man. This is shown in Talmudic sayings, such as "Everything is within the power of G.o.d except the fear of G.o.d,"(505) or "Repentance, prayer, and charity avert the evil decree."(506) Thus Maimonides expressly states in his Code that the belief in predestination cannot be allowed to influence one's moral or religious character. A man can decide by his own volition whether he shall become as just as Moses or as wicked as Jeroboam.(507)

5. The service of the New Year brings out significantly the Jewish harmonization between the ideas of G.o.d's foreknowledge and man's moral freedom. This festival, in the Bible called the Festival of the Blowing of the Shofar, was transformed under Babylonian influence into the Day of Divine Judgment. But it is still in marked contrast to the Babylonian New Year's Day, when the G.o.ds were supposed to go to the House of the Tablets of Destiny in the deep to hear the decisions of fate.(508) The Jewish sages taught that on this day G.o.d, the Judge of the world, p.r.o.nounces the destinies of men and nations according to their deserts. They thus replaced the heathen idea of blind fate by that of eternal justice as the formative power of life. Then, moved by a desire to mitigate the rigor of stern justice for the frail and failing mortal, they included also G.o.d's long-suffering and mercy. These attributes are thus supposed to intercede, so that the final decision is left in suspense until the Day of Atonement, the great day of pardon. Some Tannaitic teachers(509) find it more in accord with their view of G.o.d to say that He judges man every day, and even every hour.

Of course, the philosophic mind can take this whole viewpoint in a figurative sense alone. All the more must we recognize that this sublime religious thought of G.o.d liberates morality from the various limitations of the ancient pagan conception of Deity and the more recent metaphysical view. In place of these it a.s.serts that there is a moral government of the world, which must be imitated in the moral and religious consciousness of the individual.

6. The belief in a moral government of the world answers another question which the medieval Jewish philosophers and their Mohammedan predecessors endeavored to solve, but without satisfying the religious sentiment, the chief concern of theology. Some of them maintain that G.o.d's foreknowledge does not determine human deeds.(510) Maimonides and his school, however, say that it is impossible for us to comprehend the knowledge and power of G.o.d, and that therefore such a question is outside the sphere of human knowledge. "Know that, just as G.o.d has made the elements of fire and air to rise upwards and water and earth to sink downward, so has He made man a free, self-determining being, who acts of his own volition."(511) The Mohammedans would often give up human freedom rather than the omniscience and all-determining power of G.o.d; but the Jewish thinkers, significantly, with only the possible exception of Crescas,(512) laid stress upon the divine nature which man attains through moral freedom, even at the risk of limiting the omniscience of G.o.d.

7. The philosophers failed, however, to emphasize sufficiently a point of highest importance for religion, G.o.d's paternal care for all His creatures. Indeed, G.o.d ceases to be G.o.d, if He has not included our every step in His plan of creation, thus surrounding us with paternal love and tender care. Instead of the three blind fates of heathendom who spin and cut the threads of destiny without even knowing why, the divine Father himself sits at the loom of time and apportions the lot of men according to His own wisdom and goodness. Such a belief in divine Providence is ingrained in the soul, and reasoning alone will not suffice to attain it.

Therefore even such great thinkers as Maimonides and Gersonides go astray as religious teachers when they follow Aristotelian principles in this very intimate matter. They a.s.sume a general Providence aiming for the preservation of the species, but include a special Providence only so far as the recipient of it is endowed with reason and has thus approached the divine Intellect. A Providence of this type, the result of human reasoning, is a mere illusion, as the pious thinker, Hasdai Crescas, clearly shows.(513) For the man who prays to G.o.d in anxiety or distress this bears nothing but disappointment.

The Aristotelian conception of the world has this great truth, that there is no such thing as chance, that everything is foreseen and provided by the divine wisdom. But religion must hold that the individual is an object of care by G.o.d, that "not a sparrow falls into the net without G.o.d's will,"(514) that "every hair on the head of man is counted and cared for in the heavenly order,"(515) and that the most insignificant thing serves its purpose under the guidance of an all-wise G.o.d. We use figurative expressions for the divine care, because we cannot grasp it entirely or literally.