ABSTRACT

All the considerations that urge us to promote the health of the body impel us also to cultivate the well-being of the mind. Our intellectual powers are God’s handiwork, and all that handiwork ever is, as it was at the beginning “very good.” Even the Rabbins, though for them the study of the Scriptures was the highest of all joys, could keep a place in their affections for secular learning. The Scriptural and the Talmudic writings vie with each other in praising the contented spirit, in castigating the narrow, envious mind that can discern no blessings save those which are denied it. The cultivation of the spirit further includes the cultivation of the religious sentiment. It is a common mistake to imagine that faith in God may be dismissed from the thoughts as a matter of little or no moment.