[continued from previous message]   
      
   Here we confront a knotty question – if real humanism is not the substance of   
   religion's social outlook, then what is this outlook? The question is   
   problematic, not because it is difficult to answer, but because it is   
   dangerous to answer. I can never    
   forget one of my introductory classes in law school. The subject was Property   
   Law, and our professor came into the classroom the first day of class   
   positively grinning like the devil. He posed his question calmly: What is the   
   basis of law; what is the    
   rock on which our social codes are built? Immediately one bright young lad   
   started waving his hand; and, when called upon, he gave this reply, “The Ten   
   Commandments, sir.” Our professor laughed loudly and told the student he   
   should have enrolled in    
   Divinity School rather than in Law School. The next four or five guesses   
   referred to religion, humanism, and previous social codes – all of these   
   responses were shot down by our clever instructor, with efficient sarcasm. He   
   was clearly enjoying himself    
   that afternoon. In the end, we never did give him the answer he wanted, and he   
   never did tell us the answer he was hoping, or not hoping, to hear. That is to   
   say, we gave him the great satisfaction of feeling eminently superior to all   
   of us, which    
   feeling was probably his main concern that day –  another freshman class   
   tested and no threats this year.   
      
   The question of a basis for law and social codes is tantalizing; and, in some   
   ways, intimately connected with the subject of religion despite the   
   understanding, or lack thereof, by that particular professor. He wanted to   
   suggest that property rights lie    
   at the root of the whole legal process – or so I assume – because his course   
   was entitled Property Law and it seems logical that property rights was the   
   subject he attempted to present in that first day's class. In any event, I   
   have no doubt that the    
   entire legal process does turn around the central issue of what is private and   
   what is collective property, and how that property shall be protected. What   
   the professor of Property Law may not have realized and, even if he did, might   
   well have been    
   reluctant to say is that property rights lie also at the core of Western   
   religion. Throughout history the concept of property rights held by the   
   prevailing religion of a country was generally reflected in the legal and   
   economic systems of that land. For    
   now, though, let us leave this very broad thesis and turn to a more limited   
   analysis of Judaism. [21]   
      
   Abraham and the Hapiru God   
   Though Moses is generally taken as the Preceptor of Judaism because it was he   
   who allegedly provided the Ten Commandments and the far-ranging code of ethics   
   of the Jews (including a penal system based largely on the principle of lex   
   talionis, i.e. “eye    
   for eye, tooth for tooth” [22] ) and also many aspects of Jewish religious   
   observance, [23] nevertheless it is Abraham who was the grand patriarch of the   
   Jews and whose impact is still felt today, more even than that of Moses. Ask a   
   Jew Whom does s/he    
   worship; and  the customary reply is, I worship “the God of Abraham” or “the   
   God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. So it was Abraham who first defined God for   
   the Jews, although in his day they were called not Jews but Hebrews or, as   
   many historians surmise,    
   Hapiru.   
      
   On the basis of archaeological excavations in this century, especially those   
   of the royal palace at Mari, an ancient city on the Euphrates, the time of   
   Abraham's life has been fixed at approximately 2,000 B.C. In those days it was   
   customary for the    
   patriarch of any particular clan to select the clan's deity, and thus the   
   clan's patriarch became also the founder of the clan's religious cult. Such   
   was the case with Abraham, who chose for his clan a deity of the popular   
   high-god variety. The clan was    
   to worship the particular “God of the Fathers”; and, in return for that   
   worship, the deity was expected to protect the clan and provide some special   
   favors. Thus, as per the dictates of traditional socio-religious sentiment,   
   which has remained largely    
   unaltered throughout the annals of human history, the clan's chosen deity   
   declared to the clan, “Your God is the true God, and you are the blessed,   
   chosen people of this universe –all other gods are inferior or false, and all   
   other people are cursed.”   
      
   In a rather ordinary fashion, or at least not in a very extraordinary fashion,   
   Abraham founded a religious cult which was destined to leave its imprint on   
   the last four millenniums of human history. Of course it is rather doubtful   
   that Judaism could have    
   survived so long but for the timely assistance of Moses who secured liberation   
   for the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery, and who established the comprehensive   
   religious and administrative code which is still strictly followed by Orthodox   
   Jews of today. But    
   Moses would have been a man without a God, a man without a people, a man   
   without a mission had not Abraham proclaimed his covenant with the Hapiru God.   
   [24]   
      
   Zionism – A Religion Is Born   
   To examine more minutely the essence of Abraham's contribution to Judaism, one   
   must look closely at the Covenant quoted at the head of this chapter. The   
   Covenant provides four essential aspects – first, the promise of God to   
   multiply the clan into a    
   gigantic and politically powerful nation; second, the promise of God to grant   
   to the clan an eternal freehold on the land of Israel; third, the clear   
   position of Abraham as religious and political leader of the clan on the basis   
   of his special    
   relationship to God (which was, in addition, the only apparent reason for the   
   first two promises); and fourth, the rite of circumcision for baby boys, on   
   the eighth day after birth, which “brands” each male member as one of the clan   
   and indicates his    
   inclusion in or acceptance of the previous three provisions of the Covenant.   
   [25]   
      
   Human beings in general – like elephants, sheep and pigeons but unlike tigers   
   and dogs – have always preferred to live collectively rather than to roam   
   about the world on their own. Though physical hardships may be much reduced in   
   this 20th Century,    
   nevertheless even today the world often seems to be and really is threatening   
   to the Jews who must constantly remain alert against the consequences of   
   anti-Semitism. Even today, less than forty years after the German Holocaust in   
   which six million Jews    
   were slaughtered mercilessly, the resurgence of a virulent anti-Jewish feeling   
   in Europe has triggered many terrorist attacks on innocent human beings whose   
   only crime was to have been born a Jew. Thus it is little wonder that most   
   Jews today cling to    
   the existence of Israel as a Jewish state as if Israel were some kind of   
   security blanket, which most assuredly it is not. Today the Jews suffer due to   
   irrational dogmas which arose four thousand years ago in the wake of group and   
   clan clashes. Had    
   Judaism not been promulgated, there could be no anti-Semitism – there could   
   have been no Inquisition, no Pogroms, no Holocaust – neither would the Jews   
   have existed nor would there have been Christians or Moslems to persecute   
   them. But then, as the    
   popular saying goes, if wishes were cars, then beggars would drive. Let us   
   leave this rosy field of fantasy and return to the harsh historical realities.   
      
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)