Part 8

It is our firm conviction that Jewish national ideals of old, though buried in books for the last two thousand years, can be turned into reality and be applied to life. This is what we are going to do in Palestine. But, people will ask, if the Jewish ideals are based on life's reality, why did not the Jewish people succeed in making its ideals a force in life when it lived on its own soil and enjoyed independence? To this we reply that the ancient Jewish genius, which devised such grand plans of life, failed, for reasons which we cannot enumerate here, to create the technique and methods, with the help of which these grand plans could have been carried out. The Romans, on the other hand, invented a wonderful technique of life, but failed to devise a plan of life which would make life more worth living than it is now. We have lived under the system of Roman civilization for nearly two thousand years. We have not been imbued with Roman ideals. We have not accepted the Roman doctrine of life, but we have learned a great deal from Roman technique, and we are therefore now equipped with both--with the Jewish idealistic traditions and with the experiences of Roman civilization and Roman technique. Now we are in a position to apply our ideals of old to life, because we possess the methods and the technique of the application. We know today a great deal about administrative and constitutional technique, of which our ancestors knew next to nothing. We know today a great deal about organization, of which our ancestors had not the slightest idea. Having gone through the Roman school, we today know something about organization and this knowledge of organization we are going to apply to our political traditions, to our philosophy of life; we are going to create in Palestine that synthesis of civilization which will be Jewish to the core in its contents and Roman in shape and form. Might will not be right, because man is not only a physical but also an intellectual and spiritual being. Justice and equity will be thoroughly organized and will not be left to the conscience of the idealistic individual only, as was the case in ancient Judea.

Whether the future Jewish State in Palestine will be a republic or a monarchy does not matter. The form of government never testifies to the soundness of the state; there are good monarchies and bad republics. One thing is as clear as day: If there is going to be a Jewish Palestine, it will be a land of justice and freedom, where right will prevail and where the demands of the spirit will be complied with. All forms of life will have to be different from what they are in the pale of Roman civilization. "Thou shalt be a light unto the nations." This must be our ambition.

Jews as individuals can accomplish very little for Judaism, cannot help to realize its ideals and cannot possibly make it a force in life. For two thousand years we have lived in the Diaspora as individuals, and what did we accomplish for the realization of our old ideals, of which we are so proud? Nothing. Only feeble-minded rabbis, who are constantly talking of the mission of Judaism without knowing what they are talking about, can speak of the mission of the Jews in the face of the present catastrophe. Jews as individuals cannot have any Jewish mission in life, but a people can, if it is inspired by ideals.

What we have failed to do as individuals for two thousand years--to make humanity recognize that the political philosophy of the old prophets is much stronger than that of the old Romans--we may be able to realize in Palestine as a people. It is only with reluctance that we use the much abused phrase, "Jewish mission," but if there is such a thing as the Jewish mission, it will only be realized when the Jews are reorganized as a people on the soil of their ancestors and lead such a life as to justify the prediction of the prophet of old: "Thou shalt be a light unto the nations." This is the true meaning of the Jewish mission. This and nothing else.