ft-repeated teaching of the rabbis.(825) Likewise, "Whoever takes
pity on his fellow-beings, on him God in heaven will also take pity."(826)
Love of humanity has so permeated the nature of the Jew that the rabbis
assert: "He who has pity on his fellow-men has the blood of Abraham in his
veins."(827) This bold remark casts light upon the strange dictum: "Ye
Israelites are called by the name of man, but the heathen are not."(828)
The Jewish teachers were so deeply impressed with man's inhumanity to man,
so common among the heathen nations, and the immorality of the lives by
which these desecrated God's image, that they insisted that the laws of
humanity alone make for divine dignity in man.

5. Rabbi Akiba probably referred to the Paulinian dogma that Jesus, the
crucified Messiah, is the only son of God, in his well-known saying:
"Beloved is man, for he is created in God's image, and it was a special
token of love that he became conscious of it. Beloved is Israel, for they
are called the children of God, and it was a special token of love that
they became conscious of it."(829) Here he claims the glory of being a son
of God for Israel, but not for all men. Still, as soon as the likeness of
man to God is taken in a spiritual sense, then it is implied that all men
have the same capacity for being a son of God which is claimed for Israel.
This is unquestionably the view of Judaism when it considers the Torah as
entrusted to Israel to bring light and blessing to all the families of
men. Rabbi Meir, the disciple of Rabbi Akiba, said: "The Scriptural words,
'The statutes and ordinances which _man_ shall do and live thereby,' and
similar expressions indicate that the final aim of Judaism is not attained
by the Aaronide, nor the Levite, nor even the Israelite, but by
mankind."(830) Such a saying expresses clearly and emphatically that God's
fatherly love extends to all men as His children.

6. According to the religious consciousness of modern Israel man is made
in God's image, and is thus a child of God. Consequently Jew and non-Jew,
saint and sinner have the same claim upon God's paternal love and mercy.
There is no distinction in favor of Israel except as he lives a higher and
more god-like life. Even those who have fallen away from God and have
committed crime and sin remain God's children. If they send up their
penitent cry to the throne of God, "Pardon us, O Father, for we have
sinned! Forgive us, O King, for we have done ev