The primary foundation of the future Yavneh must be built out of a fraternal organization of special and even exceptional individuals, all of whom espouse the following goals: 1) to live and to educate children according to the highest ideals of Israel, 2) to clarify and deepen these ideals, 3) to teach and to spread these ideals among Jews in general and Jewish youth in particular, and 4) to clarify and properly illuminate these ideals for non-Jews as well.

“To live according to the highest ideals of Israel”—what does this mean? It means that every Jew who declares himself a member of this association must embody in his life not only the humble simplicity of “Jacob” but also the loftier spiritual power of “Israel.” “Jacob” allowed himself to be frightened away by Laban and Esau, he bent and bowed before them, spoke submissive words to them, sent Esau gifts, feared retaliation by the Canaanites and Perizzites. And even though he received a divine promise that the Almighty would forever guard him, protect him, be with him wherever he might go, “Jacob” continued to feel afraid, continued to feel overwhelmed by an fear that would never leave him. In contrast, “Israel” represents one who is embattled by giant forces throughout the darkness of night, but overpowers them and forces them to bless him as the morning star rises in the sky. Today, we continue to live in the terrifying darkness of night. The colossal forces rallied against us continue in their ever greater ambitions to strike us down. But so too endures the promise of an approaching day.

The new association of Jews which I wish to call to life must consist of people who know that Israel’s struggle in the midst of its two-thousand-year old night of exile is not a struggle for national existence alone. Nor does its struggle represent a plea to bring forward one political or economic ideology or another. Rather, Israel’s struggle aims above all else to lift up life, to illuminate it, to render it holy. Contrary to what our enemies may ascribe to us, ours is not a fight for external power. Ours is a struggle to make manifest the kingdom of heaven, an embodiment of the strictest notions of justice and truthful expressions of life’s fraternity, vitality, freshness, purity, and holiness. Externally, this struggle is garbed in religio-doctrinal forms on the one hand, and socio-political forms on the other. However, the inner essence of this struggle much more fundamentally comprises our fight for transcendence and purification; our desire to triumph over heaviness, stagnation, and backwardness, over the abyss and destructiveness to which material reality can lead. This is the struggle of humanity, created in the image of God, against the blind forces of nature.

The belief in progress, the belief that the world is always getting better, lies not only in our blood and flesh, but in the innermost soul of every Jew. Despite what many maintain, this notion of progress is not Aryan. It is pure Israelite. Genuine Aryan thought falls in line either with the truly pessimistic conceptions of Hindu-Buddhist philosophy, or as Ovid says in his poem Metamorphoses, posits the degeneration of the world’s joy and goodness over time. (For Ovid, existence began with a golden age, was succeeded by a silver age, a bronze age, then an iron age from which blood and sorrows endlessly spill). Israel alone faithfully awaits an age that will come, the Messiah who has not yet come and who will bring the world to the completion of repair. Without surcease, Israel alone awaits this “end of days,” this time of eternal peace, this great and holy Sabbath of Sabbaths within history. However much this belief in eternal progress appears in other philosophic systems or scientific theories, the aspiration towards perfecting and illuminating reality ultimately derives from Israel’s belief in the “end of days,” from our belief that we must eternally strive towards this “end of days” through continuous improvement.

The difference between the ordinary philosophic-scientific belief in progress and Israel’s messianic belief in an eternal striving towards an “end of days” primarily consists of the fact that “progress” focuses solely on a process of perfecting technology, commerce, industry, and empirical sciences. In the best case, this philosophic-scientific notion of “progress” also focuses on the perfection socio-economic conditions. But for Israel “progress” means something more. It means a never-ending religio-ethical and mystical-transcendent process of “purification, clarification, and uplifting.”

Many believe that “progress” in the pure European sense of the word also brings with it an improvement and refinement of human behavior, as well as ever more exacting standards of justice. Reality mercilessly dispels such a belief, however. Rousseau demonstrated with the greatest clarity that advancements in science or technology in no way guarantee advancements in human ethics. Tolstoy, among others, demonstrates this point even more sharply.

Israel’s faith, however, is based on something different: belief in an eternal good that inheres in all places and at all times. It is an eternal good whose being, existence, and sustenance all derive from that which “every day and forever renews in its goodness the deed of creation.” This is a faith in the divine light, placed into the soul of every human being, especially into the souls of Israel, who have come down to earth only to give it light and that is the entire purpose of their descent into bodily existence. The meaning of history from Israel’s perspective is to reveal how this light unfolds, both in them and around them, ever more brightly, ever more purely, ever more mightily.

Every evil deed—every transgression—that a person commits debases, darkens and pollutes not only the one who does it, but the entirety of existence. Because with every transgression, the impurity of existence thickens. But what exactly do we mean here by “impurity?” Impurity is that which stops up, conceals and disallows the divine light to penetrate. In parallel fashion, every good deed, every mitzvah that a person sincerely performs, refines, beautifies, and consecrates not only its agent, but the entirety of existence. With every good deed (be this in thought, word, or—most of all—in action) the wall that divides material existence from the light of God grows thinner and thinner.

All this is in regard to the individual. Regarding the collective, one must multiply the above by billions and trillions. Even so, one ray of light drives away much darkness. In any case, there is both a transcendent and immanent creative power in the good deeds of humankind, and of Israel specifically, of whom it is written: “This people have I created for Me; they shall tell My praise” (Isa. 43:21). Such deeds drive out the heavy clouds that conceal the most exalted sun. If this process is not always externally visible, that is because it takes place first and foremost internally, within the most deeply hidden recesses of the human soul. But when this process verges on completion, divine light will break forth with awesome power. And at that time all will clearly perceive it. “And the glory of Y-H-W-H will be revealed; and together will all flesh see; for the mouth of Y-H-W-H has spoken” (Isa. 40:5).

Not only will the spirit be capable of seeing at this time, but the “flesh,” the body, will sense it completely.

And from this proceeds the awesome holy task, a task to which all Israelites who recognize themselves as newly created will feel called. In fraternity, togetherness, and communion with all those who feel similarly, each will consecrate his own powers to bring to fruition, both within and around themselves, the process of “clarifying,” “uplifting,” and “elevating” humanity.