him that the law which he codified was to him the Law of God.



CHAPTER III

ARTICLES OF FAITH


It is often said that Judaism left belief free while it put conduct
into fetters. Neither half of this assertion is strictly true. Belief
was not free altogether; conduct was not altogether controlled. In the
_Mishnah_ (Sanhedrin, x. 1) certain classes of unbelievers are
pronounced portionless in the world to come. Among those excluded
from Paradise are men who deny the resurrection of the dead, and men
who refuse assent to the doctrine of the Divine origin of the Torah,
or Scripture. Thus it cannot be said that belief was, in the Rabbinic
system, perfectly free. Equally inaccurate is the assertion that conduct
was entirely a matter of prescription. Not only were men praised for
works of supererogation, performance of more than the Law required; not
only were there important divergences in the practical rules of conduct
formulated by the various Rabbis; but there was a whole class of actions
described as 'matters given over to the heart,' delicate refinements
of conduct which the law left untouched and were a concern exclusively
of the feeling, the private judgment of the individual. The right of
private judgment was passionately insisted on in matters of conduct, as
when Rabbi Joshua refused to be guided as to his practical decisions by
the Daughter of the Voice, the supernatural utterance from on high. The
Law, he contended, is on earth, not in heaven; and man must be his own
judge in applying the Law to his own life and time. And, the Talmud adds,