BROTHERHOOD

AT the beginning of the Atonement service the most venerable men in the congregation solemnly repeat from the Almemor[74]: ‘With the permission of the Court on High, and with the permission of the Congregation below, we declare it permitted to pray with hardened transgressors’. Why this custom? In some communities of the Middle Ages there were persons who, by their conduct, had placed themselves outside the pale of Judaism; cowardly apostates, for example, who sold their souls; informers, who spread broadcast false accusations against their brethren; insubordinates, outcasts, criminals. Throughout the year these never sought spiritual fellowship with their brethren. On Yom Kippur, however, they would steal into some corner of the synagogue and join the worshippers in prayer. The Rabbis thereupon instituted this solemn declaration, in order to proclaim in most unmistakable terms that, no matter what is a man’s mode of life—slanderer, apostate, outcast—he is still a brother. ‘We have transgressed, we have dealt treacherously, we have robbed,’ do we pray. We associate ourselves with the most forlorn souls that sin in darkness, because we recognize that society—we ourselves—are largely responsible for their actions. Many a time has our evil example misled others, and become a stumbling-block in the way of the blind. And all our Yom Kippur vows to rise to a higher life are useless, unless we endeavour to raise others who have fallen. A traveller wascrossing mountain heights of untrodden snow alone. He struggled bravely against the sense of sleep which weighed down his eyelids, but it was fast stealing over him, and he knew that if he fell asleep death would inevitably follow. At this crisis his foot struck against a heap lying across his path. Stooping down, he found it to be a human body half buried in the snow. The next moment he held him in his arms, and was rubbing and chafing the frozen man’s limbs. The effort to restore another unto life brought back to himself warmth and energy, and was the means of saving both. The same law obtains in the realm of the soul. In order that our spiritual vitality may quicken into new life, we must help others in highest matters of faith and hope.

‘Heaven’s gate is shut

To him who comes alone;

Save thou a soul,

And it shall save thine own.’

J. H. HERTZ, 1898.

I WILL seek that which is lost, and will bring again that which is driven away, and will bind up that which is broken, and will strengthen that which is sick.

EZEKIEL 34. 16.

ATONEMENT PROMISE AND ADMONITION
I

SEEK ye the Lord while He may be found,

Call ye upon Him while He is near;

Let the wicked forsake his way,

And the man of iniquity his thoughts;

And let him return unto the Lord,

And He will have compassion upon him,

And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways,

And My thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven,

And returneth not thither,

Except it water the earth,

And make it bring forth and bud,

And give seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth:

It shall not return unto Me void,

Except it accomplish that which I please,

And make the thing whereto I sent it prosper.

ISAIAH 55. 6–11.

II

THEN shall thy light break forth as the morning,

And thy healing shall spring forth speedily;

And thy righteousness shall go before thee,

The glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward.

Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer;

Thou shalt cry, and He will say: ‘Here I am.’

If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke,

The putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedness;

And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry,

And satisfy the afflicted soul;

Then shall thy light rise in darkness,

And thy gloom be as the noonday;

And the Lord will guide thee continually,

And satisfy thy soul in drought,

And make strong thy bones;

And thou shalt be like a watered garden,

And like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places,

Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations;

And thou shalt be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

ISAIAH 58. 8–12.