The Jewish Religion
9
Judaism completely from a knowledge However, with children of the customary
alone.
this
period
religious
school
oi
understand
age it is almost a sufficient achievement to have taught the Bil)lical It is not period in a constructive, even though elementary manner. only the period of Israel's beginning and first growth, l;ut also the ^'et we shcnild foundation period of our knowledge of Judaism. and unless the supernever forget that it is only the foundation structure of the later history be erected upon this foundation, there We must never will be no complete nor perfect edifice of Judaism.
sight of
lose
the
fact
that in the religious
school
we merely begin
study of Judaism, which should go on steadily throughout the If we realize this clearly and insist thereon Jew's entire life. that
we
strongly,
and women
will
undoubtedly come
in
men
time to hold our Jewish
until long after the usual period of
religious school at-
Then at last we will be able to look forward confidently tendance. and proudly to a full and authoritative knowledge of Jewish history and of Judaism on the part of our Jewish men and women. Meanwhile, if now in our religious schools we can accomplish a little more than mere instruction in the history of the early Biblical period, if we. can, at least, throw out a few hints about the life, thought, and teachings of the rabbis in the Palestinian period, and thereby acquaint the children somewhat with the spirit of Judaism which obtained in that momentous period, we will have taken an important step
forward. t
The Sources of Jewish History Naturally the chief source for the history of the Biblical periods
the Bible itself.
is
But the Bible
is
a large work,
comprising, according to Jewish tradition, twenty-four books,
Jewish literary activity extending over approximately a thousand years. Actually the Bible is not so the product of
much
a
least
the
mere book, remains
as
it
thereof.
a
is
It
national
can
literature,
readily
be
'
or
seen
at
that
the various parts and books of the Bible, written at different times,
under different conditions, and by different authors,
are naturally of unequal value for the study of Jewish history. it
off
We
can never, therefore, take the Bible
word
for word,
and
feel confident that
in
hand, read
we have
thus
