The Book of Coiesis
6 makeup and
inucli of his substMjuent life.
Nor does
liis
his-
tory cease until his hfe has completely ended, and perhaps for the man lives on and his history continues and influences he has set in operation, and which go on working themselves out in the life of the human race until the end of time.
not even then in
the
forces
Similarly the history of a nation, of a people, or of religion begins long before
stage of existence.
It
it
actually steps
begins in
all
forth
a
upon the
the conditions,
forces,
and influences which work together to make that nation, people, or religion what it is at the moment of real, concrete birth, and which largely determine its subsequent life and evolution. And its history does not end until it has utterly ceased to be, and the memory of it is completely lost, and the princi])les of national, social, or religious conduct, which it has evolved, are thoroughly uprooted, if that be possible, from the total life-experience and life-thought of mankind. The history of Israel and of Judaism is, therefore, far more than the mere Biblical record of a few scattered events. It
the
commenced first,
move on
far back in dim, pre-historic antiquity,
])rimitive
when
ancestor of the Jewish people began to
The Bible, imconsciously perhaps, voices a when it begins the history of Israel, not with Moses nor with Abraham, but with creation. And since Israel still exists today, unique among the peoples of the earth, and since Judaism still lives, and we ])roudly proclaim ourselves Jews, adherents of Judaism, endowed with significant
earth.
truth
a glorious mission unto mankind,
it
follows that Jewish his-
tory has not yet ended, and, so far as
and pray,
will
never end.
complete record of the
we
Jewish history
life
can see and ho])e is,
therefore, the
of the Jew, of his experiences,
thoughts, beliefs, and ])ractices. of his ever-growing knowl-
edge of God and of
life,
formed
from the
into conduct,
as believed, proclaimed,
and transand
earliest, simplest, crudest,
