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great world religions, and, more
to
the point, in modern political ide–
ologies. For scientists, says Tomberg, the human soul itself (considered as
a notion) may be an
egregore
generated collectively by hundreds of mil–
lions of individual cells. Such notions take us very far afield. But we have
already been carried far out by Jewish history, and it may be just as sensi–
ble to look for understanding in the depths as in the shallows. If there
are spiritual entities coming from above there may be others rising from
below. Anti-Semitism - Jew-hatred - may be one of the most enduring
of these
egregores.
In any case, this is not an invitation to speculate on hermetic ideas.
It is rather a confession. Something with Kabbalistic affinities. Let us
leave it there.
Where there are problems it is generally thought that there are solu–
tions. Indeed there is no point in formulating a problem if one gives up
all hope of finding an answer. But what if the Jewish problem should be
one for which there is no solution? Viciousness against Jews will never
end in any foreseeable future. Nor will the consciousness of being a Jew
vanish, since the self-respect ofJews demands that they be faithful to their
history and their culture, which is not so much a culture in the modern
sense as it is a millennial loyalty to revelation and the belief in redemp–
tion. A philosopher whose views on the subject of Judaism have influ–
enced me says that those modern Jews for whom the old faith has gone
will prize it as a noble delusion. Assimilation is an impossible, a repulsive
alternative. What is left to us is the contemplation of Jewish history.
"The Jewish people and their fate are the living witness for the absence
of redemption," this philosopher writes, and he states further that the
meaning of the Chosen People is to testify to this: " ... the Jews are
chosen to prove the absence of redemption. It is supposed ... that the
world is not the creation of the just and living God, the Holy God, and
that for the absence of righteousness and charity we sinful creatures are
responsible. A delusion? A dream? But no nobler dream was ever
dreamt."
I said at the beginning of this talk, "My first consciousness was that
of a cosmos, and in that cosmos, I was a Jew." After seventy-odd years,
some fifty of which have been spent in writing books, I can do no more
than describe what has happened, can only offer myself as an illustration.
The record will show what the twentieth century has made of me, and
what I made of the twentieth century. Thank you.
John Gross:
Saul Bellow has given us a very powerful address, as your
applause signifies. I can only offer a few scattered remarks by comparison.
But I do want to try and have a stab at one very big question: what
