And If Not Now, When? - Martin Buber

        I frequently hear some among us saying: "We too want the  spirit of Judaism to be fulfilled; we too want the Torah to issue  forth from Zion, and we know that to realize this purpose the  Torah must not be mere words, but actual life; we want God's  word on Zion to become a reality. But this cannot happen until  the world again has a Zion, and so first of all we want to  build up Zion, and to build it with every possible means." It may, however, be characteristic of Zion that it cannot be built  with "every possible means," but only bemishpat (Is. 1:27),  only "with justice." It may be that God will refuse to receive his sanctuary from the hands of the devil. Suppose a man  decided to steal and rob for six years, and in the seventh, to  build a temple with the fortune thus amassed; suppose he succeeded would he really be rearing temple walls? Would he not  rather be setting up a den of robbers (Jer. 7:11), or a robber's  palace, on whose portals he dares to engrave the name of God?  It is true that God does not build his own house. He wants us  to build it with our human hands and our human strength,  for "house" in this connection can mean only that at long last  we may begin to live God's word on earth! But after we have  laid the foundations of this house by his means, bemishpat, do you really imagine that God is not strong enough to let it be finished by those same means? If you do imagine that, stop  talking about Judaism, Jewish spirit, and Jewish teachings! For  Judaism is the teaching that there is really only One Power  which, while at times it may permit the sham powers of the  world to accomplish something in opposition to it, never permits such accomplishment to stand. But whatever is done in  the service of that power, and done in such a way that not only the goal but the means to that goal are in accord with the  spirit of justice, will survive, even though it may have to struggle for a time, and may seem in great peril, and weak compared to the effective sham powers.  

I should like to bring a concept of the utmost importance  home even to those who cannot or will not understand the language of religion, and therefore believe that I am discussing theology. I am speaking of the reality of history. In historical reality, we do not set ourselves a righteous goal, choose whatever way to it an auspicious hour offers, and, following that  way, reach the set goal. If the goal to be reached is like the  goal which was set, then the nature of the way must be like  the goal. A wrong way, that is, a way in contradiction to the  goal, must lead to a wrong goal. What is accomplished through  lies can assume the mask of truth; what is accomplished  through violence, can go in the guise of justice, and for a  while the hoax may be successful. But soon people will realize that lies are lies at bottom, that in the final analysis, violence  is violence, and both lies and violence will suffer the destiny history has in store for all that is false. I sometimes hear it said that a generation must sacrifice itself, "take the sin upon itself," so that coming generations may be free to live righteously. But it is self-delusion and folly to think that one can lead a dissolute life and raise one's children to be good and happy; they will usually turn out to be hypocrites or tormented.