Return to the Promised Land.. Jacek Surzyn

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ of life, both biological and spiritual, on laws and principles given by God ensures the possibility to experience freedom: it is faith, the sphere of religious experience based on the relationship between humans and their creator (God). In this way, human experiences freedom in the content of the act of faith, content disclosed by God, which occurs in the “theoretical” field. Freedom can be “thought” (in the sense of “awareness”) before it is experienced by man empirically/practically. The possibility of experiencing freedom before the achievement of the state of full development opens human to total religious experience, in which Hess can see the greatness of Jewish faith.⁸³

      Jewish covenant with God, before whom Jews represent the whole mankind as the chosen nation, is a great act showing to humans the nature of their freedom. Thus, Judaism discloses the goal of any progress and development of humanity, that is, the coming of the Messianic era. In this sense, Jews face the historic task ←56 | 57→of “ushering” mankind to the Messianic worldly era, which will end the entire development of human organism. All its parts or members (peoples, races, nations) will achieve the fullness of their nature, the organism will be fully mature, and this will ensure humankind full achievement of their natural freedom, this time understood as the full awareness of their nature and essence. In accordance with this vision, the history will end, and humankind will reach the state of happiness. Those who are supposed to lead mankind to the Messianic era are Jews: that is their worldly mission.

I. 6 Historic Mission of Jews

      The belief in the coming of the Messianic era has always been present in Jewish history. Hess emphasizes that the Messianic belief is symbolically expressed in Shabbat.⁸⁴ For Jews, Shabbat is an expression of interpenetration of the created world and the transcendence of divinity. The celebration of Shabbat symbolically reflects the time of the Messiah: the time of eternal happiness. In addition, Shabbat is the discovery of the secret of the act of creation, because it was part of the creation of the world: God worked for six days, and after finishing the work and seeing that all he had done was very good (complete), he rested. Shabbat is the expression of the completeness of the act of creation, so it reflects the ultimate goal of any activity, which – once initiated – must end. Jewish celebration of the Shabbat shows the ultimate goal of any activity, first of all with reference to human actions: maturation and growth of human organism. According to Hess, the Biblical description of creation only has its proper meaning from the perspective of Shabbat. Shabbat teaches man using symbolic language that when the act of creation was completed, God called to existence the creature of the higher order: human. It was then that God, celebrating the natural Shabbat, initiated the proper history of mankind.⁸⁵ Hess points out that creating human and Shabbat begin the history of creation of the social world, whose development still continues and which will celebrate its Shabbat after the completion of the world history – the coming of the Messianic era. The author concludes: “Here, in this conception, you can see the high moral value of the Mosaic genesis history, ←57 | 58→in which supernaturalists have discovered a system of science. As you see, my esteemed friend, the very biblical Sabbath-law in itself inspires us with a feeling of certainty that the uniform, eternal, divine law governs alike both the world of Nature and the world of History.”⁸⁶

      So, Jews have an important tool to learn the actual goal of the world history. In this sense, Hess points to the important context of Shabbat, which shows the purposefulness and finality of creation, and the finitude of all that exists. Therefore, Hess considers as fools those who fall victims to the thought of full rationalization of all that exists and elimination of irrational issues, fashionable in the modern time (he particularly means contesting religion and the experience of faith) uncritically assume that in the history of mankind the progress has been unrestricted and endless. Civilization, culture, and human world are in the state of permanent growth, unrestricted progress. Such a vision leads to a dangerous isolation of humans from the world of nature, and to the rejection of the existence and application of some supernatural laws and principles. Another consequence is literal understanding of human freedom as the law to do anything you want. Hess argues that such thinking and such a vision of reality result only from the ignorance of its supporters. Human world cannot be separated from the surrounding world of nature, and from the transcendent divine sphere. Philosophy has shown many times that on the one hand, human is related to the world of nature through their physical characteristics, and on the other hand, they experience some situations indispensably connected with their nature, which from the perspective of reason are just unexplainable and really meaningless. For example, the context of human death. For Hess, faith can help in this situation, because it is the only way to experience the meaning of human existence. The perspective of the beginning, the end (goal) of history and the context of creation, resulting from faith (revelation) give meaning to human life and shows its ultimate goal. Faith also liberates humans, giving them the proper moral sense of freedom. According to the author, all this is maintained and present in Judaism in an excellent way, and the tradition of Shabbat is what connects all the issues.⁸⁷

      History overcomes the cult of death, and this occurs only in the Messianic time. Freedom and progress as the two factors determining human activity are ←58 | 59→linked with the coming of the Messianic era. The Jewish religion has been preparing people to it for ages, and Jews themselves are prepared to lead mankind on the way to the Messianic goal. Humans as an organism are beginning to achieve their state of maturity, so in Hess vision, the age of the Messiah – the Shabbat of history – is approaching.⁸⁸

I. 7 The Project of the Jewish State

      It what binds the whole reasoning of the author is the proposal that goes far beyond the tradition of the Diaspora and introduces the religious concept of return to Zion into the area of political solution that has never been taken into consideration by the Jewish tradition. Therefore, Hess concept includes the already mentioned transition from sacral to secular meaning of Messianism and the related idea of return to the Promised Land. Hess becomes a precursor of philosophical Zionism, although the idea of returning to Zion and establishing the Jewish state is not presented systematically in his work but is treated as a certain slogan, without showing specifically the practical (political) actions that could contribute to the implementation of this idea. Hess only presents a vague plan, although it reflects the awareness of political and social reality affecting the potential achievement of the state goal by Jews. First of all, he assesses the state of awareness of and “spiritual” preparation of Jews to carrying out their mission, and he leaves the rest to the context of global solutions, that is, some necessary actions caused by the constancy and inevitability of the historical process. The author also tries to notice the symptoms of changes that can lead Jews to Zion. First of all, it is of course Jews’ national self-awareness, already mentioned a number of times. Another positive aspect which according to the author helps attain the dream of having their own state is the current process of colonization of Palestine. The great Aliyah is a complementation, and it may even serve as an impulse stimulating Jewish masses to actively participate in building the nation on the basis of Jewish settlements being created in Palestine. Hess thinks that although the philanthropic movement basically proved to be insufficient, it contributed to arousing the Jewish spirit and directing activity to the building of a new society. Jews taking part in the colonization of Palestine are definitely the ←59 | 60→most active core of the whole community and at the same time one of the most enlightened Jewish groups, because being taken out of the traditional orthodox Diaspora, they are susceptible to new trends and tendencies dominating in external social and political life of the rapidly developing nations of Europe. It is noteworthy that Hess also reflects on the potential allies of Jews in their activities leading up to political and social arousal, but as part of preserving their own distinctness and awareness, mostly national, with the indispensable element of pursuit to create their own state. Where, then, does the author recommend looking for allies and where are the enemies? In response, he opposes the thought, ever-present in Jewish awareness (or at least in some circles in the Diaspora), about the potential agreement with Christianity, with which the Diaspora has coexisted for ages, but СКАЧАТЬ