Lev ha-Ivri (The Heart of a Jew)

What would our ancestors have done if they had seen a Jewish community appointing a prayer-reader and a rabbi for themselves dressed in the vestments of a Christian priest, and setting up an idol in the Temple of the Lord, by placing before the Holy Ark an alien individual, who raises his hand against the views of the Torah and whose throat speaks, in the presence of an open grave, in a foreign language to Jewish people, in the manner of a gentile priest coming to preach among the Jewish people? Even if we fall short of the spiritual level of our ancestors by not being prepared to sacrifice our lives on account of a minor sin, as they would do, even in regard to the current matter, where the legal obligation to sacrifice our lives is greater, as is made plain in tractate Sanhedrin 74—that at a time of anti-Jewish decrees made by the government, one must allow oneself to be killed rather than transgress even for a minor sin, and the Gemara proceeds to ask: “What is to be considered transgression of a minor precept?” to which the reply is given: “Even to change one’s shoe-strap!”—and Rashi, of blessed memory, has explained this in reference to the type of shoe-strap worn by Jews—even in the case of a mere custom such as this, whereby Jews are distinguished from gentiles, where no precept as such is involved, but rather, merely a Judaic custom, an individual must sanctify the Name of the Almighty in public. See ad loc. “Said R. Jacob: ‘The minimum definition of “in public” is ten Jews’”—and how much more so is this the case, then, where a change of language is involved. The entire pedigree and position of Israel was staked out by virtue of a Jewish custom, i.e., that they did not alter their language, and we may also invoke the case of the eighteen decrees [which the House of Shammai forced on Jewry] with the threat of being thrust through with a sword in the event of dissent, as cited by the Ḥatam Sofer Vol. II to Even ha-ezer; and how much more ought this to apply to customs relating to the religion and the synagogues that are in the public domain of Jewry! Now, praise be to God, blessed be He, there are currently no governmental decrees against us, as the Almighty has given us a ruler of kindly disposition—may his majesty be exalted; and we are able to stake out an affirmative position for ourselves, not through the sacrifice of our lives, but merely through inward efforts on our part. If we do not uphold our tradition even in this manner, but remain silent, our iniquity will be greater than we can bear—Heaven forbid—for presently, we can already see the results before us, when we regard all those countries in which they acted overwisely against the views of the Torah and the words of our rabbis of blessed memory, and perceive what has befallen their descendants—and you are no different from them! The ancestors of these people hailed from Germany and from Prussia, France, and Italy, lands from which virtually the entire Torah and fear of God issued forth to Israel, and at the time of the decrees of the year 4856 [1096], one hundred and twenty holy communities sacrificed their lives in the German provinces alone; nonetheless, millions of ancestors such as these, who shed their blood for the sanctification of the Divine name, were unable, by reason of their merits, to shield their descendants, because they had gone astray from the way of Israel and the Jewish path and the landmarks set by the Torah, persisting in their deviation and adding to it, to the point where they have already introduced, in those communities in Germany which were great from ancient times, an organ in the synagogue with the image of a crucifix upon it.—Observe how other aspects of Torah, and the precepts and fundamental principles of the faith, have been forgotten and abandoned by them! They go about in an unrestrained manner, bereft of all faith, and, like a wild young ass, pursue their own desires, and their faith consists only of their financial gain. Thus, if such has been the fate of the seed of holiness on account of their altering the path of Israel and the customs of our ancestors of blessed memory, then, a fortiori, there is no need for concern in respect of our descendants coming after us, as their tragic destiny is a foregone conclusion. If we adopt a merely passive stance over this matter, that would constitute a sin too heavy to bear, and, a fortiori, this would apply to one who encourages or strengthens this path of wickedness; for if a person sins, he being in the class of “one rebelling on account of his own natural desires,” even if this extends to all the prohibitions of the Torah, he has merely sinned against himself, and perhaps he will yet return to the Almighty; but one who causes others to sin and draw the seed of Israel along to destruction, is guilty of infinitely great evil; and anyone who causes the public to sin is not afforded the opportunity to repent. Indeed the Torah states that “You shall slay the animal too,” since a human being has been involved in a sin on its account—even where it occurred unintentionally, and a fortiori, where it occurred intentionally. Should we claim that we are unaware of any such thing, i.e., that people are strengthening the hands of evil in this manner, can there possibly be upon earth someone so idiotic as not to have been affected by this matter? How did Berlin originally become launched on this path? They had a “preacher” named Solomon Plesner, who used to sit virtually all day long, enwrapped in a prayer shawl and tefillin, studying the Zohar, who performed deeds like one of the holy ones on High; but once the gate had already been opened to reform through one who was a very righteous individual in their estimation, they subsequently dismissed Solomon and hired for themselves another “preacher”; “when they were fed, they were sated,” and Berlin, and likewise all the other places, acquired renown. Who is there so simpleminded as not to understand this matter—that the people will want only a Jeroboam and will not wish to hear of Jerusalem? Even a one-year-old child can understand the schemes and the snares of this evil; if, despite all this, they persist in such conduct, then undoubtedly those persisting in it are genuine disciples of Jeroboam, and all their bowings and prostrations are merely great outward symbols, but their interior is as forbidden food; their hearts turn aside to other gods, away from the Almighty; for true piety involves exercising caution in regard to a matter requiring investigation, and fasting and weeping; similarly, all the upright practices and the noble character traits are merely branches and leaves of the Tree of Life, and if the roots are lacking, and in particular, that root principle which the prophet Habakkuk came to encapsulate within one overarching principle: “And the righteous shall live by his faith”—if the heart is, in truth, distant from the Almighty, then a wind comes and uproots and overturns all these branches and leaves. Accordingly, as for anyone who strengthens, or draws himself close to, these so-called religious leaders, there can be no doubt that his heart is rooted in heresy, or in a lack of faith, or that there are seven abominations in his heart, or he is genuinely simpleminded and foolish, believing everything; for this too they will have to bear their sin, as they have become a stumbling-block unto the House of Jacob, both to our own generation and to those generations succeeding us.