Tolstoy on the Jews
Tolstoy wrote:
I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation.
If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations …
They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews.
They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more and more happily than any other nation, ancient or modern…
The Jew is the symbol of eternity.
He is the one who for so long had guarded the prophetic message and transmitted it to all mankind.
A people such as this can never disappear. The Jew is eternal. He is the embodiment of eternity.
Reading the end of Anna Karenina one may find that the Levine (who in my opinion is the character Tolstoy identifies with the most) is going through an internal revelation that goes very much in-line with the ideas of Chessed and Gratitude in their Jewish sense.
Thanks for sharing!