— THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Articles of Faith
ARTICLES OF FAITH 'Christianity or Islam,
In the same sense as Judaism can not be credited
with the possession of Articles of Faith. Many attempts have indeed been made at systematizing and reducing to a fixed phraseology and sequence the contents of the Jewish religion. But these have always lacked the one essential element authoritative sanction on the part of a supreme ecclesiastical body. And for this reason they have not been recognized
as final or regarded as of universally binding force. Though to a certain extent incorporated in the liturgy and utilized for purposes of iustruction, these formulations of the cardinal tenets of Judaism carried no greater weight than that imparted to them by the fame and scholarship of their No respective authors. None of them Fixed had a character analogous to that Dogmas, given in the Church to its three great formulas (the so-called Apostles' Creed, the Nicene or Constantinopolitan, and the Athanasian), or even to the "Kalimat As-Shahadat" of the Mohammedans. The recital of this "Kalimah " is the first of the five pillars of practical religion in Islam, and every one converted to Islam must repeat it verbatim so that among the conditions required of every believer with reference to confession is the duty to repeat it aloud at least once in a lifetime. None of the many summaries from the pens of Jewish philosophers and rabbis lias been invested
with similar importance and prominence. The reasons for this relative absence of official and obligatory creeds are easily ascertained. The remark of Leibnitz, in his preface to the "Essais de Theodicee," that the nations which filled the earth before the establishment of Christianity had ceremonies of devotion, sacrifices, libations, and a priesthood, but that they had no Articles of Faith and no dogmatic theology, applies with slight modification to the Jews. Originally race or perhaps it is more correct to say nationality and religion were coextensive. Birth, not profession, admitted to the religio-national fellowship. As long as internal dissension or external attack did not necessitate for purposes of defense the formulation of the peculiar and differentiating doctrines, the thought of paragraphing and fixing the contents of the religious consciousness could not insinuate itself into the mind of even the most faithMissionary or proselytizing religions are driven ful. to the definite declaration of their teachings. The admission of the neophyte hiDges upon the profession and the acceptance on his part of the belief; and that there may be no uncertainty about what is
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and what
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incumbent on the proper authorities to determine and promulgate the cardinal tenets in a form that will facilitate And the same necessity repetition and memorizing. arises when the Church or religious fellowship is essential
non-essential,
it
is
Under the necessity of torn by internal heresies. combating heresies of various degrees of perilousness and of stubborn insistence, the No Need Church and Islam were forced to define for Creeds and officially limit their respective Both of these in Judaism, theological concepts. provocations to creed-building were less intense in
Judaism.
The
proselytizing zeal,
though during certain periods more active than
at
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on the whole, neutralized, partly by inherent disinclination and partly b) force of cirRighteousness, according to Jewish cumstances. belief, was not conditioned on the acceptance of the Jewish religion. And the righteous among the nations that carried into practise the seven fundamental laws of the covenant with Noah and his descendants were declared to be participants in the felicity This interpretation of the status of the hereafter. of non-Jews precluded the development of a misMoreover, the regulations for the sionary attitude. reception of proselytes, as developed in course of time, prove the eminently practical that is, the nonothers, was,
r
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— character of Judaism. Compliance with certain rites — baptism, circumcision, and sacrifice creedal
He is inis the test of the would-be convert's faith. structed in the details of the legal practise that manifests the Jew's religiosity, while the profession of faith demanded is limited to the acknowledgment of the unity of God and the rejection of idolatry ( Yoreh De'ah, Gerim, 268, 2). Judah ha-Levi ("Cuzari," 115) puts the whole matter very strikingly when he says: "We are not putting on an equality with us a person entering our religion through confession by word]. We alone [Arabic original, bikalamciti require deeds, including in that term self-restraint, purity, study of the Law, circumcision, and the performance of the other duties demanded by the Torah." For the preparation of the convert, therefore, no other method of instruction was employed than for the training of one born a Jew. The aim of teaching was to convey a knowledge of the Law, obedience to which manifested the acceptance of the underlying religious principles; namely, the existence of God and the holiness of Israel as the people of His covenant. The controversy whether Judaism demands belief in dogma, or inculcates obedience to practical laws alone, has enlisted many competent scholars. Moses Mendelssohn, in his "Jerusalem," defended the nondogmatic nature of Judaism, while LOw among others (see his "Gesammclte Schriften," i. 31-52, 433 et seq. 1871) took the opposite side. Low made it clear that the Mendelssohnian theory had been carried beyond its legitimate bounds. The meaniug of the word for faith and belief in Hebrew (DJIDK) had undoubtedly been strained too far to substantiate the Mendelssohnian thesis. Underlying the practise of the Law was assuredly the recognition of certain i.
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fundamental and decisive religious principles culminating in the belief in God and revelation, and likewise in the doctrine of retributive divine justice. The modern critical view of the development of the Pentateuch within the evolution of Israel's monotheism confirms this theory. The controversy of the Prophets hinges on the adoption by the people of Israel of the religion of Yhwii, that excluded from the outset idolatry, or certainly the recognition of any other deity than Yiiwh as the legitimate Lord of Israel; that, in its progressive Evolution evolution, associated with the of concepts of holiness, j ustice, and rightJudaism, eousness and that culminated in the teaching of God's spirituality and universality. The historical books of the Bible, as recast in accordance with these latter religious
Yhwh
