Jewish History | Page 8

primarily in the historical
consciousness, in a certain complex of ideas and psychic
predispositions. These ideas and predispositions, the deposit left by the
aggregate of historical impressions, are of necessity the common
property of the whole nation, and they can be developed and quickened
to a considerable degree by a renewal of the impressions through the
study of history. Upon the knowledge of history, then, depends the
strength of the national consciousness.[5]

[5] A different aspect of the same thought is presented with logical
clearness in another publication by our author. "The national idea, and
the national feeling," says Mr. Dubnow, "must be kept strictly apart.
Unfortunately the difference between them is usually obliterated.
National feeling is spontaneous. To a greater or less degree it is inborn
in all the members of the nation as a feeling of kinship. It has its
flood-tide and its ebbtide in correspondence to external conditions,
either forcing the nation to defend its nationality, or relieving it of the
necessity for self-defense. As this feeling is not merely a blind impulse,
but a complicated psychic phenomenon, it can be subjected to a
psychologic analysis. From the given historical facts or the ideas that
have become the common treasure of a nation, thinking men, living life
consciously, can, in one way or another, derive the origin, development,
and vital force of its national feeling. The results of such an analysis,
arranged in some sort of system, form the content of the national idea.
The task of the national idea it is to clarify the national feeling, and
give it logical sanction for the benefit of those who cannot rest satisfied
with an unconscious feeling.
"In what, to be specific, does the essence of our Jewish national idea
consist? Or, putting the question in another form, what is the cement
that unites us into a single compact organism? Territory and
government, the external ties usually binding a nation together, we
have long ago lost. Their place is filled by abstract principles, by
religion and race. Undeniably these are factors of first importance, and
yet we ask the question, do they alone and exclusively maintain the
national cohesion of Jewry? No, we reply, for if we admitted this
proposition, we should by consequence have to accept the inference,
that the laxity of religious principle prevailing among free-thinking
Jews, and the obliteration of race peculiarities in the 'civilized' strata of
our people, bring in their train a corresponding weakening, or, indeed, a
complete breaking up, of our national foundations--which in point of
fact is not the case. On the contrary, it is noticeable that the
latitudinarians, the libres penseurs, and the indifferent on the subject of
religion, stand in the forefront of all our national movements. Seeing
that to belong to it is in most cases heroism, and in many martyrdom,
what is it that attracts these Jews so forcibly to their people? There
must be something common to us all, so comprehensive that in the face

of multifarious views and degrees of culture it acts as a consolidating
force. This 'something,' I am convinced, is the community of historical
fortunes of all the scattered parts of the Jewish nation. We are welded
together by our glorious past. We are encircled by a mighty chain of
similar historical impressions suffered by our ancestors, century after
century pressing in upon the Jewish soul, and leaving behind a
substantial deposit. In short, the Jewish national idea is based chiefly
upon the historical consciousness." [Note of the German trl.]
But over and above its national significance, Jewish history, we repeat,
possesses universal significance. Let us, in the first place, examine its
value for science and philosophy. Inasmuch as it is pre-eminently a
chronicle of ideas and spiritual movements, Jewish history affords the
philosopher or psychologist material for observation of the most
important and useful kind. The study of other, mostly dull chapters of
universal history has led to the fixing of psychologic or sociologic
theses, to the working out of comprehensive philosophic systems, to the
determination of general laws. Surely it follows without far-fetched
proof, that in some respects the chapter dealing with Jewish history
must supply material of the most original character for such theses and
philosophies. If it is true, as the last chapter set out to demonstrate, that
Jewish history is distinguished by sharply marked and peculiar features,
and refuses to accommodate itself to conventional forms, then its
content must have an original contribution to make to philosophy. It
does not admit of a doubt that the study of Jewish history would yield
new propositions appertaining to the philosophy of history and the
psychology of nations, hitherto overlooked by inquirers occupied with
the other divisions of universal history. Inductive logic lays down a rule
for ascertaining the law of a phenomenon