DUTIES OF THE SUBJECT AND OF THE CITIZEN
by Samson Raphael Hirsch, Horeb 96
Now these
are the
words of
the letter
that Jeremiah
the prophet sent
from Jerusalem
unto the
residue
of the
elders
which
were carried
away captives,
and to the
priests,
and to the prophets,
and to all the
people, whom
Nebuchadnezzar
had carried away captive
from Jerusalem
to Babylon,
...
Thus
saith the
Lord of hosts,
the God
of Israel,
unto all that
are carried
away captives,
whom I have caused
to be carried away from
Jerusalem
unto Babylon:
Build
ye houses,
and dwell
in them, and
plant
gardens,
and eat
the fruit of them;
take ye
wives, and
beget sons
and daughters;
and take
wives for
your sons,
and give
your
daughters to
husbands,
that they
may bear
sons and
daughters; that ye may
be increased
there, and not diminished.
And
seek the
peace of
the city whither
I have caused
you to be carried
away captive,
and pray
unto the Lord
for it;
for in
the peace
thereof
shall ye have
peace. .
. . JER. XXIX, Iff.
607 Thus God calls upon the Jews carried off into captivity in Babylon to settle there, to further the good of that country as citizens and subjects, to pray for its weal-the country which had forcibly taken them to live in its midst. He demands that every Jew find his own well-being only in that of the country, and, even as for his own, to work and pray for the welfare of the country-and yet Israel was not to spend longer than seventy years there! Thus for all time did God lay down
Israel's duty towards those countries and nations to which, far from being brought forcibly, they have freely emigrated, in which there is no predetermined time for the length of their stay, in
which each salutes the soil which gave him birth, in whose princes and Governments everyone recognizes the safeguard of his material well-being, and whose weal and woe Israel has now shared for thousands of years. Let us repeat-in whichever land Jews shall live as citizens, as inhabitants or enjoying special protection, they shall honour and love the princes and Government as their own, contribute with every possible power to their good, and fulfil all the duties towards prince and land which a subject owes to his prince, an inhabitant to his land, and a citizen to his
country.
608 When Israel was still united in a common land they did not call themselves
Am, one people, for the reason that one
common soil bore them all. For, alone among all the peoples of the earth, the
possession
of the land and the ensuing organization of the State was for Israel not an end
but a means to the better fulfillment of their Jewish duties. The Torah did not
exist for the State, but the State for the Torah. And only the Torah, the idea
of being joint bearers of a spiritual calling, fused the individuals into an
association of human beings whose inner cohesiveness is reflected in the term Am (literally,
society) and whose character in the wider sense as a nation is designated by
the term Goy, that is to say, a corporate body or a people.
And
even later on, far away from her land, when Israel sees her visible bonds of
nationhood broken, the dispersed Jews call themselves Am, one nation, not in remembrance of a land once jointly
possessed, not looking towards the future when God, as His words through the
prophets teach us, will once more have united them, but in the consciousness of
being, in the present as in the past, bearers of an eternal idea, an eternal
mission, and of a God-given destiny which, in Israel, overshadowed, and
still overshadows, the existence of the State, and which therefore has survived
the State's downfall. We mourn over the sin which brought about that downfall,
we take to heart the harshness which we have encountered in our years of
wandering as the chastisement of a father imposed on us for our improvement,
and we mourn the lack of observance of the Torah which that ruin has brought
about. Not in order to shine as a nation among nations do we raise our prayers
and hopes for a reunion in our land, but in order to find a soil for the better fulfillment of our spiritual vocation in that reunion and in the land which was
promised, and given, and again promised for our observance of the Torah. But
this very vocation obliges us, until God shall call us back to the Holy Land,
to live and to work as patriots wherever He has placed us, to collect all the
physical, material and spiritual forces and all that is noble in Israel to
further the weal of the nations which have given us shelter. It obliges us,
further, to allow our longing for the far-off land to express itself only in
mourning, in wishing and hoping; and only through the honest fulfillment of all
Jewish duties to await the realization of this hope. But it forbids us to
strive for the reunion or the possession of the land by any but spiritual means.' Our Sages say God
imposed three vows when He sent Israel into the wilderness: (I) that the children of Israel shall never seek to re-establish their
nation by themselves; (2) that they shall never be disloyal to
the nations which have given them shelter; (3) that these nations
shall not'~_ oppress them excessively (Kethuboth, III, I). The fulfillment of
the first . two
vows is confirmed in the pages of history; about the third, the nations
concerned must judge themselves.
1 See footnote on page 14:5, Vol. I.-Ed. Note.
609 It is therefore Israel's religious duty, a
duty imposed by God and no less holy than all the others, in whatever land they dwell in, not only
to fulfill all the duties which the laws of that land explicitly lay down,
but over and above that, to do with thought, word and deed everything that can
contribute to the weal of that nation. Among those duties Jeremiah enumerates,
in the first place, that of settling down as a proper citizen, establishing a home and
maintaining it. Although by doing so the individual is only directly promoting
his own well-being, nevertheless the welfare of the nation depends on the way
such self-interest is pursued; for the nation's weal is based on the countless
individual homes united in their honest endeavour. In the second place,
there is the duty to obey the laws of the land and any regulations which the
country's king and authorities promulgate for the general good (dina d'malchuta dina); to give honestly and
joyously all that the community demands for the common good from the individual
in the way of treasure, energy and wisdom; and to sacrifice even life itself when the
Fatherland calls its sons to its defence. But this outward obedience to the laws
must be joined by the inner obedience: i.e.,
to be loyal to the State with heart and mind, loyal to the kings, to guard the honour of the
State with love and pride, to strive with enthusiasm wherever and whenever you
can so that the nation's institutions shall prosper, so that every aim which
your country has set as its national goal shall be achieved and furthered; above all, however, to work
for the three pillars of every congregation of human beings, be it the State or be it the
community, for emet, for din, for shalom for truth, for
justice, and for peace, and for the community spirit in each individual. What has been said
in this respect on duty to the community (see the preceding chapter) also
applies in its entirety to your duty as subject and citizen.
And this duty is an unconditional duty and
not dependent upon whether the State is kindly intentioned towards you or is
harsh. Even should they deny your right to be a human being and to develop a lawful human life upon the soil which
bore you-you shall not neglect your duty. Render justice unto yourself, unto the name which you bear
and unto the duty which
God lays upon you: 'Loyalty towards king and country and the promotion of welfare wherever and
however you can.'
No comments:
Post a Comment