Studies in Life from Jewish ProverbsElmslie, W. A. L. (William Alexander Leslie)
Religion
Studies in Life from Jewish Proverbs
Elmslie, W. A. L. (William Alexander Leslie)
Proverbs, Hebrew
What solution do the proverbs offer for the stern facts of present-day
commerce? None; but that is no reason why we, following the spirit of
their teaching, should not strive to find a remedy for our more complex
problems, especially since the line along which progress can be made is
surely not difficult to discover. The root of the matter is in the fact
that whilst commercial dishonesty may benefit (in a material sense
only) certain persons, it can only do so at the expense of the many, so
that its elimination would necessarily conduce to the general welfare of
organised society. Meantime it is hard for the individual to kick
against the pricks of a system far greater than he, but it does not
follow that the _community_ of individuals is unable to fight the giant
and slay him. Though the present situation is such that the guilt of the
individual is lessened (it is of course still real), the guilt of the
community in tolerating such a condition of affairs is the more
increased. For union is immense strength. It is the imperative duty of
modern man by collective action (which may require eventually to become
world-wide) to check, diminish and abolish those evil and improvident
conditions which now impose such pressure upon the integrity of
individuals. A herculean task! What then? The resources of civilised man
are already vast, and they increase with marvellous rapidity, We stand
at the beginnings of organised achievement; yet already magnificent
opportunities for the betterment of human life lie within our reach, and
wait only the consent of mind and conscience for their realisation.
False weights have continued, despite the Jewish proverb, these twenty
centuries and more; it does not follow that they need continue to the
twenty-first.
3. Much of the injustice and degradation still prevalent in our
civilised society would be brought to an end by the force of public
opinion, were it not for wide-spread ignorance of the facts. Sometimes
the ignorance is wilful blindness and no true ignorance; men refuse to
look or listen; but as a rule it is due to mere lack of interest and
unimaginative carelessness. No decent man or woman could desire the
appalling facts of child-labour in the mines and factories of this
country during the first half of the last century, or, for the matter of
that, the facts of sweated industries at the present day; but many
respectable people wished not to know and vastly many more troubled not
themselves to know, and so the horrible and disastrous iniquities went
on year by year. Time and again the frank uncompromising proverbs of the
Jews set us an example by their bold recognition of evil. They proclaim
it for what it is, not mincing words but denouncing wickedness
outspokenly and vehemently. A hundred illustrations could be taken from
the maxims already quoted. Here, from sayings not yet mentioned, are
three vigorous assaults on the hypocrite, the oppressor, and the morally
perverted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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