On Something
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claiming that the whole Law and nothing but the Law was the Charter of
Judaism. Others criticised the Maimonist Articles in detail. Certainly
they are far from logically drawn up, some paragraphs being dictated
by opposition to Islam rather than by positive needs of the Jewish
position. A favourite condensation was a smaller list of three Articles:
(i) Existence of God; (ii) Revelation; and (iii) Retribution. These three
Articles are usually associated with the name of Joseph Albo (1380-1444),
though they are somewhat older. There is no doubt but that these Articles
found, in recent centuries, more acceptance than the Maimonist Thirteen,
though the latter still hold their place in the orthodox Jewish Prayer
Books. They may be found in the _Authorised Daily Prayer Book_,
ed. Singer, p. 89.
Moses Mendelssohn (1728-1786), who strongly maintained that Judaism
is a life, not a creed, made the practice of formulating Articles of
Judaism unfashionable. But not for long. More and more, Judaic ritual has
fallen into disregard since the French Revolution. Judaism has therefore
tended to express itself as a system of doctrines rather than as a body
of practices. And there was a special reason why the Maimonist Articles
could not remain. Reference is not meant to the fact that many Jews came
to doubt the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch. But there were lacking in
the Maimonist Creed all emotional elements. On the one hand, Maimonides,
rationalist and anti-Mystic as he was, makes no allowance for the doctrine
of the Immanence of God. Then, owing to his unemotional nature, he laid
no stress on all the affecting and moving associations of the belief in
the Mission of Israel as the Chosen People. Before Maimonides, if there
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