Chapter V
Humility
If Christian ethics boasts that it taught men charity, it arrogates no less the honor of having taught them humility. It should, however, remember that the two greatest Hebrews,—one the spiritual father, the other the political father of ancient Israel,—are eminently and proverbially distinguished for their humility. Abraham esteemed himself but dust and ashes (Gen. xviii. 27); Moses, as the Scripture states with singular precision, was the humblest of all men upon he earth: a phrase well emphasized, and showing the man of God in a light not hitherto sufficiently appreciated, and that invests him, the first, with that aureole of goodness and mildness usually ascribed only to the son of Mary. But far from that, the latter is rather a fiery spirit in an iron mould; he preeminently possesses the will, force, and energy that are but apportioned in the Hebrew law-giver. We should gain too easy a victory by contrasting Judaism with Christianity on the score of humanity. We might turn to the Bible, that abounds in passages where the humble, the meek, the poor in spirit are put at an elevation unknown to the Gospels. But since, as we have said, learned Hebrew writers have fully criticized the Bible, and since Christianity, if not absolutely playing the part of innovator, has so loudly proclaimed its mission as reformer, as restorer of Biblical ethics disfigured by the Pharisees, it is time to sift its claims once for all before another tribunal besides the Church, to wit, that of free Criticism.
When Jesus uttered on the mountain-top these celebrated words: Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; Happy are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth; and elsewhere: Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, &c., was this anything new for Palestine, anything that was not reechoed each day in its temples, schools, and assemblies? A word first upon the true exposition of the preceding fraqments. No doubt but that by "poor in spirit" is meant the humble, for quite similarly do the Rabbis designate them, nemoke rouah (humble in spirit),—from the literal translation of which comes the English phrase—one of the thousand traces of the Rabbinico-Aramean origin of the Gospels, But it is to the promise that ends the verses we would call attention.
In the first, theirs is the kingdom of heaven; in the second, they shall inherit the earth. The latter, we remark, is but a verse taken from the Psalms (Psl. xxxvii. 11). But is there a real synonym in these expressions? It is very probable that there is, above all if we bear in mind the sense we have given to the Gospel "kingdom of heaven," viz.: that of Malchout, the last emanation of the Cabalists, their kingdom of heaven. Now, this kingdom seems to be doubly identified with the object of Jesus' promise; first because it takes, in preference to all others, the name earth, synonymous with kingdom, as Jesus uses it; and again, because this earth, precisely as in the Gospels, is promised by the Cabalists to the meek and humble. And we have but to glance at the Zohar—where averse almost identical with that of the Psalm, Tzadikim yireschou aretz, is interpreted in the same manner, and aretz, earth, is said expressly to be the synonym of kingdom—to be assured both as to the sense we here give the Gospel kingdom, and as to the synonyms of the Kingdom of verse 3, and the Earth of verse 5. Besides, is it not the most common and well-known doctrine among the Cabalists? Is it not the Schechina that is called anava (humility), and which explains Jesus' characteristic humility, that other incarnation, that other Malchout? Is it not from this that comes inspiration? Is it not because of their natural humility that the poor are called the temple or car of the Schechina, of the Kingdom? Is it not as a similar term that the Zohar first, and then the Ticounim call the Kingdom humility? Here doubtless are passages of great importance in the present question, and that seem to confirm all our conjectures.