AUTHORITARIAN RELIGION
Judaism, the Judaism of the time of Our Lord's sojourn in Palestine; the Judaism recorded in the Old Testament, authoritative, God-revealed Judaism, has long been a thing of the historic past. It fulfilled its glorious mission, which ended when the expected Messiah, Jesus, came and fulfilled Old Testament principles and predictions, by the institution of anew, a more perfect priesthood, sacrifice, etc.
The failure of Jews to realize this, caused an expression of surprise, considering that Jews claim to be "a people of the Book" (the Old Testament) which sets forth Judaism as an authoritative, priestly religion; as a religion of God's making must be, which it ceased to be. This was dealt with in my "News and Views of Jews" column, published in the A.P.I. Bulletin of the Archconfraternity of Prayer for the Conversion of Israel, conducted by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion. It was noticed in that column, that the latest evidence of lack of proper understanding of the Judaism of the great past in Holy Israel was the declaration of Dr. David de Sola Pool, one of America's foremost Rabbis, that "A PRIESTLY AUTOCRACY HAS NO PLACE IN RELIGION. RELIGION MUST BE GIVEN AUTHORITARIAN VOICE BY THE GREAT DEMOCRACY OF MANKIND."
I proceeded to say, that one need but read the third Book of the Torah (Pentateuch), the Book of Leviticus, to realize that the Judaism of Moses, through whom God revealed His will, was a priestly, authoritative Kingdom of God's making, and not of man's making. Its supreme authority was Moses and his brother Aaron, whom Moses anointed as the first authoritative High Priest, the first Pope, so to speak. The succeeding Jewish pontiffs were descendants of the family of Aaron. It was the recognition of the fact that Judaism was a God-instituted authoritative religion, that prompted Jesus, the Jew of Jews, to say to the crowds and disciples, in spite of the wickedness of the Scribes and Pharisees, that they were to be obeyed, as they sat "in the Chair of Moses" (Matt 23:1-3); just as Catholics are obliged to obey the occupant of the Chair of Peter, in matters of faith and morals.
The Book of Leviticus tells in detail of the duties of the Jewish priests; the sacrifices to be offered to God for the people of Israel, etc. It is a liturgical Book, which may be compared to our Catholic ritual. To call that authoritative priesthood a "PRIESTLY AUTOCRACY" is equivalent to calling God Almighty an
Autocrat.
Rabbi de Sola Pool's declaration that "RELIGION MUST BE GIVEN AUTHORITARIAN VOICE THROUGH THE DEMOCRACY OF MANKIND" is entirely contrary to Old Testament teachings. Yet it appeals to quite a number of persons during these days, when the maintenance and advancement of civic government by the consent of the governed is being fought for, against Red Dictatorship, in cold and hot wars. But the principle is false when applied to religion, which is the relationship of man to God; including man's obligation to obey the authoritative voice of God, expressed by His priestly ambassadors.
The authoritarian voice of God, is expressed, for instance, in the following declaration of Moses:---"If thou perceive there is among you a hard and doubtful matter ... thou shalt come to the priests ... and Judge ... and shall ask them, and they shall show the truth and the judgment. And thou shalt follow their sentence, neither shalt thou decline to the right nor the left hand" (Deut. 17:9-11).