—Weberian. Capitalism is inconceivable without the Protestant ethic; Judaism is much more Protestant (older, tougher, and purer) than Protestantism; Judaism is the progenitor of Capitalism. “The whole religious system is in reality nothing but a contract between Jehovah and his chosen people, a contract with all its consequences and all its duties.” Every Jew has an account in Heaven, and every Jew’s purpose in life is to balance it by following written rules. To follow the rules, one has to know them; hence “the very study itself is made a means of rendering life holy.” Relentless study and obedience impel one “to think about one’s actions and to accomplish them in harmony with the dictates of reason.” Ultimately, religion as law aims “at the subjugation of the merely animal instincts in man, at the bridling of his desires and inclinations and at the replacing of impulses by thoughtful action; in short, at the ‘ethical tempering of man.’ ” The result is worldly asceticism rewarded by earthly possessions, or Puritanism without pork. 24 The rationalization of life accustomed the Jew to a mode of living contrary to (or side by side with) Nature and therefore also to an economic system like the capitalistic, which is likewise contrary to (or side by side with) Nature. What in reality is the idea of making profit, what is economic rationalism, but the application to economic activities of the rules by which the Jewish religion shaped Jewish life? Before capitalism could develop the natural man had to be changed out of all recognition, and a rationalistically minded mechanism introduced in his stead. There had to be a transvaluation of all economic values. And what was the result? The homo capitalisticus , who is closely related to the homo Judaeus , both belonging to the same species, homines rationalistici artificiales . 25 This was a reinterpretation of the old contrast, most famously expressed by Matthew Arnold, between the legalism, discipline, and “self-conquest” of Hebraism, on the one hand, and the freedom, spontaneity, and harmony of Hellenism, on the other. 26 Arnold had considered both indispensable to civilized life but lamented a growing modern imbalance, produced by the Reformation, in favor of Hebraism. Nietzsche (who provided Sombart with much of his terminology) rephrased the lament and took it into the realm of good and evil— and beyond: The Jews have brought off that miraculous feat of an inversion of values, thanks to which life on earth has acquired a novel and dangerous attraction for a couple of millennia; their prophets have fused “rich,” “godless,”