does make men strong and happy. It creates new interest and enthusiasm, and teaches the value of spiritual joy as against temporal pleasure. Faith not only helps to heal, but it is an offset to materialism. The average Jew, like his neighbor, is often shaken by the hand of fate and fortune. When disaster overtakes him, he is usually plunged into despair and despondency. Melancholy often ensues as a result of material failure, and suicide, once unknown among the Jews, is often resorted to, as the means of solving the individual problem. Judaism still offers in its thought and ritual the spiritual power by which mental unrest may be prevented and checked. The pious Jew knows this truth only too well, and, in his supreme faith, smiles at mere worldly loss. Through his Jewish rearing, he has acquired the power which conquers Discontent, Ennui, Wanderlust, and other modern vagaries. By his positive conviction, he finds Health and Happiness, and drives out every thought or emotion that disturbs the body or mind. To the real Jew, Religion is still what it was to his fathers, an ever-present help in the time of trouble. It fills him with the love of life, with all its manifold moral and spiritual opportunities. In fact, Chayim or Life is the Ruling Passion of the Jewish soul. Life is precious and well-being desirable. For this reason, the Jewish people have been characterized by their longevity. The death-rate among Jewish people is much lower than that among non-Jews, and insurance experts declare that the average Jew is the very best risk. "A Long Life and a Happy One" is a maxim

which sums up the greatest aspiration of a pious Israelite.

The principle of divine healing in Judaism might be further unfolded, but the reader should know by now, that Jewish Science is a living reality in the heart of Israel. The Jew who seeks this spiritual truth, need not step outside of the Synagogue to find it. No alien cult is necessary to teach him the value of prayer as a means of Health and Happiness. Jewish Science contains every important principle in the art of Divine Healing. Christian Science and similar faiths are not needed by the true Jew who knows and loves his Religion. In Chapter 6 of this work, a complete Anthology of Jewish Science may be found. In this Chapter, I have translated in full every passage from the Jewish Bible and Prayer Book, that teaches Divine Healing. To this Anthology, the reader may refer in order to find special literature. He may also make use of the Jewish prayers for the sick, and put them to practical benefit. Suffice it to state that historic Judaism has absolutely taught the principle of Faith-Cure, and that all Jewish literature, Biblical and post-Biblical, teems with references to this theme. Just as Religion in the past has fought the dual problems of Sin and Sickness, likewise Judaism through Jewish Science has combated the twofold evils. In the tents of Israel, the spiritual truth has been taught that the ills of the flesh, and the sins of the soul can be overcome by the divine power of Prayer and Good Deeds.

CHAPTER II.

The Chasidic Movement.

"Presenting in its inner motives one of the most peculiar phenomena of religious psychology in general, Chasidism should be classed among the most momentous spiritual revolutions that have influenced the social life of the Jews, particularly those of Eastern Europe." (Jewish Encyclopedia.)

Jewish Science received its first historical expression in the unique movement known as Chasidism which originated in the Eighteenth Century and has continued to the present time. This unusual cult spread so rapidly that at one time it threatened to overwhelm the entire Judaism of Europe. During its growth, it obtained a hold upon practically all the Jewish masses of Poland and Russia. As stated in the preamble of this chapter, it played a most important role in shaping Jewish thought and life among the Jews of the Old World.

The name Chasidism is derived from the Hebrew word, Chasid which means "A Pious Man." Chasidism. therefore may be well summed up as "Intense Piety." In a manner, it resembles Protestantism in that it assigns the first place in Religion not to Dogma and Ritual, but to Sentiment and Emotion. The Chasidic Movement was in the first place a distinct protest against the rigid legalism that had crept into the Jewish Faith after the Fall of the Second Temple in 70, A. D. In this respect, it was but a recurrence of

a phenomenon that has appeared over and over again in historic Judaism.

For two principles have constantly contended for supremacy in the spiritual life of Israel, the Law and and the Spirit, Formalism and Religious Sentiment. A constant struggle has gone on between these two opposing ideas, or as the Jewish Encyclopedia expresses the thought, "The discipline of the Law was pitted against mystical and individual Mediation." The contest of these contending ideas was reflected first in the struggle between the Pharisees and the Essenes in the Second Commonwealth. The Pharisees represented the Rabbinical Law and contended for the Letter as well as the Spirit of faith. The Essenes who were the early Jewish ascetics spurned the Temple-worship and the observance of the Law. They were the first Jewish free-lances. Later, Talmudism came into conflict with the movement known as the Kabala. The Kabalists were the first pure Jewish Mystics to whom the Law alone was not a sufficient source of spiritual stimulus. Neither Essenism nor Kabalism obtained a strong hold on the masses. The ascetic view of life somehow has never appealed to the Jewish mind, and the esoteric teachings of the Kabala were beyond the ken of the plain people.

Now, the Jewish world was to witness a genuine struggle between the Law and the Spirit. Out of this conflict, emerged what we may call the Jewish Science Sect known as Chasidism. During the course of the ages, the Rabbinical Law had developed

into a rigid system of religion.

The Study of the

Law or Talmud Torah had become the Ruling Passion of the house of Israel. Talmudic learning was exalted as the chief virtue and the Practise of the Law had become the very end of life. Whatever is implied in Jewish orthodoxy, is represented in the term, Rabbinism. Every Jewish duty or Mitsvoh still observed by the orthodox Jew, is a part of this Rabbinical system of life. Line upon line, precept upon precept, the Rabbinical tradition had accumulated, and, at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century, Judaism had crystallized into a code of religious practise.

Now, Rabbinism was to encounter its first stumbling block in the Mystic Messianic Movements that swept over the Jews of Russia and Poland on the threshold of the Eighteenth Century. Political and economic causes favored the spread of mystical ideas. For centuries, the Jews of Poland had enjoyed unlimited freedom and prosperity. Under the special protection of the Polish kings, Israel had grown and flourished in all parts of the Polish nation. The era of happiness did not last long for the Jewish peoples. For, at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century, there ensued a fearful period of persecution and suffering. This was mainly due to what is known as the Cossack Uprising, or the Chmielnicki Rebellion. Poland was turned from a garden spot into a veritable desert by the terrible Cossacks, who, as agents of Russia, brought about the revolution. The whole life of Polish Jewry was