the identity not only of their hereditary priests, but also of the whole tribe of Levi, of which the priests were a part. Descendants of that tribe, the Levites, still tend to carry such last names as Levy, Levinson, Segal (an abbreviation of segan Levi, or deputy Levite), or derivations of these. The Levites, who in ancient times officiated as assistants to the priests, still perform the rite of washing the hands of the kohanim before the Priestly Blessing, and they have the privilege of being called second to the reading of the Torah, immediately after the priests.
The preservation of the priestly and Levite family identities for two thousand years after the destruction of the Temple in which they officiated is just one case of the preservation by Jews of various traditions and regulations that have no immediate relevance. These practices are retained in reverence for the past, as a substitute for the rites of the Temple, and in anticipation of the eventual return to the Holy Land and the building of the Third Temple there. For this same reason, the laws dealing with Temple sacrifices have been taught, discussed, and elaborated on in subsequent centuries. The Talmud, completed around the year 500 C.E. and still the most authoritative commentary on Halakha, is based on the Mishnah, out of whose six orders one (Kodashim) is devoted to Temple sacrifices, a subject with absolutely no practical application.
Despite the fact that for almost two millennia the Jews have been living outside Palestine and have not engaged in agriculture, agricultural laws that apply only to the Land of Israel have also been continuously taught and developed. The first of the six orders of the Mishnah (Zera'im) is devoted to them. For many centuries the Jews have been learning about and debating these topics that relate only to farming in their ancient land—such as what part of the harvest should be left to the poor, which seeds should not be mixed, what to do with the fruits of a newly planted tree, and how to let the field rest every seventh year—with no opportunity to put these regulations into practice.
The phantom power and hollow courtly rituals of the Japanese emperors, and the phantom existence of Jewish agricultural laws and ancient priestly families may appear as odd conservatism. But the remarkable perpetuity of these institutions with their purely symbolic significance has provided both Japanese and Jews with a familiarity with their antiquity, a national cohesive force, and a system of values and symbols that could later be used for legitimizing change.
Familiarity with their own history has been very pronounced among Jews and Japanese. Although the exodus of the Jews from their bondage in Egypt took place sometime in the middle of the second millennium B.C.E., it is still vividly recalled every spring when Jews gather around the Passover table and recite the Haggadah, the liturgy of the Passover seder, or festive meal. Although for two millennia most Jews have lived far from their ancient homeland, the geography of the Land of Israel has been familiar to every Jewish child. Jerusalem, Jericho, Hebron, and the Jordan River were household words, as were the names of the fauna and flora of Palestine.
Identification with their ancient past has provided the Jews with the strength to bear the difficulties of the present, as each generation regarded itself as the one in which the Messiah might appear. "In every generation," says the Haggadah, "should a person consider himself as if he had personally gone forth out of Egypt.... For not only our ancestors did God redeem, but us also did He redeem with them... in order to give us the land which He swore unto our fathers."
In Japan, the imperial family and the Shinto shrines have been the main repository of ancient arts and reverence for antiquity. The emperors patronized literature and art and were often themselves accomplished poets and artists. The most important poetry collections were compiled and published by the imperial court. By becoming gods the emperors deified these cultural pursuits. Japanese on pilgrimages to the temples and shrines of their land could relive the mythology, history, and art of their nation. At the Grand Shrine of Ise they could worship the progenitress of the imperial family, and at the shrines of Hachiman they could worship the legendary Emperor Ojin, said to have reigned in the third century. Important imperial officials like Sugawara no Michizane in the ninth century, who was deified as the god of literature, and Kusunoki Masashige in the fourteenth century, who was deified as an exponent of loyalty, had their respective shrines, as do Tokugawa Ieyasu and the twentieth-century general, Nogi Maresuke, who committed suicide after the death of Emperor Meiji. Through this deification of their famous persons in special shrines, the Japanese have integrated their past with their present.
Both the imperial family of Japan and the Jewish Halakha enhanced national consolidation. To be a Japanese meant not only to be a native of one country, Japan, but also to be a subject of the emperor. To be a Jew meant not only to be born to a Jewish mother, but also to be subject to the laws of the Torah and the Talmud. Unlike the emperors of China, the Japanese emperor was not considered to be a universal ruler; he was the fatherly monarch of one particular people, a role that served to enhance their sense of community and self-esteem. By performing ceremonies that only he and his biological kin were allowed to do and by mediating between man and god, the Japanese emperor was more similar to the ancient Jewish High Priest than to Western or Chinese monarchs. Halakha did not bind gentiles, and its agricultural rules did not apply outside the Land of Israel. Foreigners could settle in Japan and become Japanese, but no foreigner or ordinary Japanese could ever become an emperor. Similarly, gentiles could become Jews by conversion, but holy duties in the Temple or synagogue had to be performed by those born as priests.
The political irrelevance of the Japanese emperors and the inapplicability of much Jewish religious law eventually also served as progressive forces. Their detachment from actual affairs enabled them later to sanction change. The imperial institution of Japan was often used to legitimize political authority, but it could also serve to delegitimize, making that authority appear as a usurper of imperial prerogatives, as indeed happened when the Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown in 1868. Among Jews, observance of the rich body of law pertaining to life in their ancient homeland served not only as preparation for the coming of the Messiah, but in modern times, could be interpreted as an injunction to terminate the Diaspora, to settle in the Land of Israel and to rebuild the Jewish homeland.
5
Two Peoples of the Book
THE JEWS have long been known as the People of the Book. The book referred to is, of course, the Bible, which for many centuries was the book of Western civilization. As the people who gave the Bible to the world and who played the central role in both the Old and the New Testaments, the Jews held a special position in the Christian world: Although derided as infidels loyal to a mistaken creed, they were allowed to exist and bear witness, through their harsh trials, to the prophesies of that Book. Another reason for the appellation is that writing, compiling, reading, studying, and disseminating books have always been central activities of the Jews. Indeed, Judaism is a religion of books: The Five Books of the Torah, the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible, the six orders of the Mishnah, the two huge compilations of the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds, the innumerable commentaries, the many compendia and codes, the learned responsa, the collections of stories, the anthologies of hymns and liturgy, the books of prose and poetry, the various manuals, textbooks, and reference books— all these held the content of Judaism throughout the ages.
Judaism considers the most meritorious activity of its members to be neither prayer nor performance of rituals, but rather the intensive study of scriptures, especially the Talmud. Pious Jews spend most of their time in front of religious texts, reading, chanting, reciting, analyzing, discussing, and memorizing the texts and their commentaries. The study of these writings for their own sake is considered more important than the study for any practical purpose, such as becoming a rabbi. Not only the act of learning but also the books themselves have acquired a sanctity. A book written or printed with Hebrew letters should not be thrown away or destroyed because it may contain within it the name of God. When worn by age or use, it must be stored away or buried. Moreover, in the kabbalah, a system of Jewish mysticism, the Hebrew letters themselves assumed occult powers and their secret combinations were often used for magical purposes.
Each synagogue maintained a study hall (bet midrash, or in Yiddish,
