NOW!
August, 1942
**Deuteronomy XXVI, 1-2.“AND it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possesseth it, and dwellest therein, that thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the ground … and thou shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.”
Naturally, this commandment, which was the expression of the gratitude of the people for the good land which God gave them, could only be fulfilled in the land, after Israel had taken possession of the land. As the Talmud remarks: “The commandment of the First Fruits was not binding before the land had been conquered and divided among the tribes of Israel”. In view of this, the comment in the Midrash is rather surprising: “Do this commandment, for in the merit of its fulfilment you will enter the land”. The question is rightly asked: How could the observance of this commandment help the Israelites to enter the land if the prior condition of the “First-Fruits” was the possession of the land? How could the Israelites fulfil the commandment of the “First-Fruits” outside the land and before its conquest?
This is not merely an academic question, concerning a practice which has been in abeyance for thousands of years. The answer to it contains a deep significance for ourselves at the present moment.
1
Nations have laws and statutes, they have their moral codes and customs, religious and social traditions, which are often based on a more or less sound sense of fair-play and equity. But in critical periods, like wars or other great upheavals, they are prepared temporarily to suppress their sense of justice and fairness, to suspend their own moral codes; they allow themselves to act and to behave as the needs of the moment dictate without considering right or wrong, good or evil. A certain aim must be achieved at all costs, and to this one aim everything must be subordinated. And thus, it often happens that people or nations who sincerely strive to establish the rule of justice and humanity on earth adopt the methods of that evil against which they are struggling. The dictates of conscience and the moral sense are overridden or ignored until the return of more normal circumstances may afford us leisure to attend to them. As one so often hears people say in these days: Let us first win the war, afterwards we shall deal with such luxuries as social justice and a better chance for all, etc., etc.
This brings us back to the old controversy: do ends justify means or not? Are we allowed to put on one side justice and truth and humanity for a while, until we have created the circumstances—never mind by what means—in which these ideals may be established as the governing force in national as well as international life, or are we not allowed to do so?
It is a problem with which every nation is confronted in times of peril, the problem which Israel had to face for the first time when it was girding on its strength for the conquest of the promised land. It was a critical moment. It was war. The land had to be conquered, the future of the people was in the balance, for everything depended on the success of this martial undertaking. At the same time, there were heavy handicaps under which Israel was labouring. There was the Torah, there were commandments, the heavy burden of laws and statutes, there was a definite way of life prescribed by God. Should they not postpone all this—Judaism, the Law, the commandments of God—until after victory and conquest? Just as the commandment of the First-Fruits depended on the peaceful possession of the Land, was not the whole of the Torah obligatory only in normal times, in times of peace, but not in times of a great national emergency?
The answer of Judaism, however, is: “… fulfil this commandment … ”, yes even this commandment of the First-Fruits, of which you think that it can only be fulfilled after the conquest of the land, fulfil it now, even now whilst you are preparing for the conquest. It is true there is no land, no temple, no first-fruits as yet. But this commandment is not a mere formality, some superstitious ritual which is to be performed with a basket, some fruits, and a priest in a temple. There is sense in it, there is a purpose behind it. Offer the first-fruits of your land as a symbol of your acknowledgment of God as the supreme Lord over the land on which we live as tenants only. As He said: ** Leviticus XXV, 23.“… for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me”. The idea, the intention of the commandment is eternal. There may be no land, no temple, no fruits, the symbols may wither away; the principle remains. And because of this: fulfil it now! Now is always the right moment. Show it now, without fruits, without the land, before the conquest, yes at this critical hour prove that you are prepared to accept the sovereignty of God. Now is always the right time. For ends do not justify means. Truth must not be shelved, morality not deferred, and God cannot be postponed until the danger has passed and the emergency is over. Laws and statutes, moral codes and ideals, are no mere luxuries with which one may dispense in times of danger. On the contrary, they are the life-blood that sustains us during the battle and gives us strength and perseverance until the very end.
Now is the right moment; in the merit of Now will you inherit the land. Evil cannot be fought with its own methods; evil is contaminating. And the Promised Land cannot be conquered without keeping alive those very ideals to which we intend to dedicate it after we have taken possession.
2
It would be possible to apply this thought in general to the present world-struggle, but we will confine ourselves here to an important aspect of Jewish life on which the Midrash we have quoted may throw some light.
The Jewish nation and our communities are confronted with innumerable tasks to-day. All the old foundations of Jewish life have disappeared. We have to rebuild Judaism, both materially and spiritually, all over the world. All over the world, I say, and not only in Poland or Germany or Rumania; here too, in this country and in America and in Australia—everywhere. There is chaos everywhere, and not only in the occupied countries of Europe. There is chaos here and in America. There is chaos in our communal organisations, chaos in our religious life, in Jewish education, in our national aspirations, chaos in the heart and the mind of the modern Jew, chaos or emptiness. Wherever you turn, there is always the same lack of principle, the same lack of knowledge and humility. But when you point in detail to the sore spots in Jewish life, when you suggest certain remedies, when you ask for something that should be done, the usual answer is: there is a war on, we must wait, first we must conquer the promised land, then we shall offer “First-Fruits”. Jews think that Judaism can hibernate for the duration. We postpone Judaism, and do not realise that from Judaism alone can we derive the strength that we need to survive and to enter the promised land.
Most of these “there-is-a-war-on” replies, when urgent and vital tasks of Jewish life demand our attention, are but the excuses of laziness and self-indulgence, of irresponsibility and indifference. Now, if ever, is the time for deepening Jewish consciousness, for spreading Jewish knowledge, for safeguarding traditional Jewish life, and for planning and preparing the Jewish future with all our remaining spiritual and material resources. Now and not to-morrow!
In these days of Elul let us remember the old Jewish word T’shuvah. What is needed is repentance and return; return to God and His word all over the world. And the very essence of repentance and return is “Now”. Return cannot be shelved. He who returns to-morrow has not returned. Repentance to be carried out in the future is no repentance. The man who returns cannot postpone the change of his ways until to-morrow. He is urged to act now. “Now” is the secret of life, it is the safeguard of to-morrow.