Basic HTML Version
A. ALAN STEIN BACH
Introduction
i
F
rom
its
ea r l ie st
g ene s is
,
a people embarks upon a two-fold
career of ultimate consummations: it must evolve a viable, en
during history and it must create an authentic indigenous cul
ture. These two factors, indissolubly interrelated and interde
pendent, coalesce to mold the pattern and the goals of its civil
ization, its peoplehood.
Beginning with ancient times, both history and culture pre
sent a paradox for the Jew. While weaving his own tapestry of
history, he himself became a filament of history in a world out
side himself; the Bible created by his cultural genius became in
extricably intertwined with the cultural life of civilized peoples.
T he first volume he created, the Bible, not only undergirds Jew
ish religion; it provided the scaffolding for the New Testament
and for Christianity. Indeed, the Jew has attained a unique
place in the realm of culture. Humanity worships and prays to
his God, sings his Psalms, venerates his prophets, and espouses
the ethical concepts of his moralists.
All this would not have been possible were it not for a felici
tous turn in Jewish history—the triumph of the Maccabees more
than twenty-one centuries ago. Had the Syrian Antiochus IV
prevailed, Judaism would have been obliterated, and there would
not have been Christianity. Subsequently, had the Jew not suc
ceeded in maintaining his cultural identity in the next 1,000
years, the Golden Age in Spain would never have dawned, with
the chilling corollary tha t both the Moorish and the Christian
civilizations would have been denied the contributions of the
Jewish poets and philosophers, scientists and commentators.
Coming closer to modern times, it cannot be denied that, if
the Jewish cultural identity had not survived, human knowl
edge since the French Revolution would have been considerably
impoverished. T he German poet Friedrich Schiller had pro
claimed, “Willst Du den Dichter recht verstehn, Must Du in des