ABSTRACT
A metaphysic whose ultimate principle or final reality is the Good, a moralistic metaphysic, binds Judaism and Platonism to gether: that is what constitutes them together the spiritual basis of our modern world. But in the further development Judaism fol lows its own nature, its own practical bent. I t does not indulge in the play of ideas. I t makes an austere selection. What i t takes i t really needs and converts into muscle. Greeks and Germans have a plethora of ideas, ideas both in the modern depressed and obliterated sense of thoughts or notions, as in the grand realistic and substantial sense of Plato, some of them needed and used, but most of them unused, and cheapening and festering through disuse. In the same Parasha following Hoshaya’s initial declaration there is an enu meration of the seven Ideas which the Rabbis have distinguished for the high status of primeval forms or essences present before crea tion. Besides its conspicuous position here, the passage (with some variations) occurs twice in the Talmud (Pesaḥim 54a; Nedarim 39b), and many times in Midrashic literature, so it must be regarded as a known and received doctrine. Our text here in Genesis R. seems to be the most authentic and serviceable one.
