In Memoriam - A Eulogy on the Late Rev. Isaac Leeser, Delivered at the Synagogue, Seventh Street, Above Arch, on Saturday, February 8, by the Rev. S. Morais, Minister of the Congregation. · Isaac Leeser Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

In Memoriam - A Eulogy on the Late Rev. Isaac Leeser, Delivered at the Synagogue, Seventh Street, Above Arch, on Saturday, February 8, by the Rev. S. Morais, Minister of the Congregation.

Author

Sabato Morais

Date Created

8 February 1868

Location(s)

Philadelphia

Format

Print. 1 page(s) on 1 sheet(s).

Type

Print

Physical Characteristics

Unlined Paper

Typescript

Is Part Of

Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Isaac Leeser Collection

content

IN MEMORIAM.
A Eulogy on the Late Rev. Isaac Leeser, De-livered at the Synagogue, Seventh Street, Above Arch, on Saturday, February 8, by the Rev. S. Morais, Minister of the Congregation.
What the pillar of cloud was to our fathers by day and the pillar of fire by night, are the wise and the learned to us, O fellow Israelites! We walk at the light which their bright intellects emit. Our progeni-tors, wending their steps through trackless deserts, cast a look around, and lo! a guide from heaven led them forth. We, the travelers of a road rough and rugged, see a beacon illumining our horizon. At its radiance we can always discover a safe issue. Oh! how lurid would be the mist created by its absence. But Israel will never be enshrouded in darkness. I read it in the chronicles of truth, "He will not take away* the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people."
The future will, like the past, be directed by God's own agency. To the end of time the house of Jacob will produce men whose spiritual teaching shall mold the minds of multitudes. Let us never fear that infi-delity will dethrone piety; that the rule of wickedness will supplant that of godliness. A Gideon arose and the idols were scattered away.
Samuel became the judge when the children of a high priest contaminated the altar. The same day which beheld the instruments of Roman torture tear the life of the great Akibah, saw the birth of Rabbi Judah, the prince of knowledge.
Yet, though the history of all ages affords the con-solatory assurance that the Lord will not leave the flock of his pasture a prey to the devouring wolf, a feeling of dismay seizes us when faithful shepherds vanish from our presence. To us, whose vision is narrow, it appears as if none could be found to fill up the void. For those whose spirit was wafted to the abode of eternity, we considered vigilant guardians, trustworthy servants of their Master. We seek for their equal, but meet the sluggard and the faithless. Shall we then be condemned if the love we bear reli-ions instruction incites us now to lament?
The pain we experienced at the loss which the lite-rary world sustained by the death of a Jewish savant in Italy, was scarcely abated when the melancholy tidings arrived from France that another among the greatest had descended to the grave. Munk has not long survived Luzzatto.
Those two giants of intellect, who had very nigh reached the highest point of human knowledge, were cut off while yet vigorous. Those two mighty laborers in the field of science ceased to dispense the delicious fruits they had gathered. One was surprised by death while diving into the depth of scriptural exe-gesis and philology: the other while engaged (oh, wondrous undertaking!) without sight, to collate ancient manuscripts and set in order a library most extensive and rare. For quenched was the light of those eyes which had discovered treasures hidden in obscurity. But how refulgent that mind, whose working enriched the world with volumes historically and philosophically profound! Munk, like Luzzatto, continued, without rest, to pour out new ideas, that others might slake their thirst at the fountain of his wisdom. But at the bidding of the Most High the gushing stream dried, and we have not since beheld another flow so copiously.
But the prediction of Ezekiel seems to have been al-most literally verified in us for "a sad report follows the other hastily," to tell us that "the law hath ceased to be imparted by a priest." Yes, that descendant and true disciple of Aaron, who ministered to one congre-gation in Northern Europe, but taught ever son of Israel who loves the language, the literature, and the religion of his people, has also recently departed from earth. He has joined the two illustrious beings that had but shortly preceded him to the dwelling of joy. But we—what have we not lost on the day that Rap-paport was seated among the blessed? Him we could ask, and his lips would impart sublime knowledge. For "the law of truth was in his month;" "he walked with God in equity and peace," "and did turn many away from sin. Aye, an angel of the Lord of Hosts was he."
Rappaport was my ideal of a Rabbi. Exceedingly learned, yet exceedingly meek. Rigidly attached to the traditions of the fathers, but willing to concede when by yielding nothing sacred was surrendered. And him I would fain have consulted, if the ritual of the Syna-gogue, so variously and erroneously represented in this country, can ever be unalterably fixed by a syno-dical convention. Alas! He also has gone hence, and the noblest monument of his extraordinary talent remains incomplete. His Encyclopaedia of the Tal-mud, and of collateral works, forming in itself a world of learning, may, perhaps be suffered to molder away as a writing of no value.
For this we may reasonably lament, O, brethren and friends! For the publication of that inestimable work would clear many doubts, elucidate many ob-scure questions, while adding another jewel to the grown of the law.
But who would have believed that the hand which two months ago recorded the demise of the sage at Prague, would be also palsied in death?
Rest thy aching heart on the bosom of eternity, thou so long racked by deep and earnest thoughts! Thou didst thy work well, and thine alone is the merit, for there was none to help or counsel.
It is even so, my beloved hearers. When Isaac Leeser went forth, armed with firey zeal, to fight the battles of the Lord, he stood alone. A host might have then been arrayed against Israel, but not one was found in our camp able to cope with the foe. A youth arose to the defense of his religion and his people. Was the name of the Jew aspersed? His vigorous pen wrote the words which put the offender to the blush. Were the truths of Sinai impugned? He strove to confound the unbeliever. On the pulpit; in the press; at social gatherings, he stood as the bright exponent of principles which he never forsook, though he bore for their sake the jeers of the scoffer and the con-tumely of the skeptic.
Gifted with versatility of mind, endowed with the powers of an endurance that few can equal; formed by nature with faculties extraordinarily reten-tive, he could accomplish, unaided, more than others with efficient supports. For, despite his clerical duties, necessarily various and onerous in a large con-gregation, the works he produced have been multi-farious, and extensive. Shall I enumerate them? My friends, there is scarcely a religious book of note in the United States of America that does not bear on its title page the name of Isaac Leeser.
The prayers you offer to God, have, by his industry, been translated into the vernacular, and elegantly printed. The Bible you read, for instruction and spiritual comfort, has, by his toil, been freed from biased interpretations, and rendered more compre-hensible. The volume in which your children learn the rudiments of Hebrew knowledge; those which in-form them of the character and dogmas of their reli-gion, and others which unfold before their eyes the wisdom of the ancients, are the fruits of his unwearied perseverance; "for an education" was the motto in-scribed on the banner he first unfolded in this new world, and increasingly upheld. He had discovered that that was the most efficacious means to awaken his brethren to a sense of their religious duties, and he resorted thereto, as evinced by his personal and literary exertions.
Has he been successful? Most assuredly so. Not to the extent of his desires, nor commensurately with his labor; nevertheless to a high degree. I, myself, though comparatively a new comer, can bear testi-mony to the step in advance made in our midst by our coreligionists. Will any one deny that our lamented brother gave the first impetus? No. Others may have done nobly, but Isaac Leeser was the pioneer that cleared away all obstructions.
This fact, which ought to be incontestably admit-ted, was lost sight of by men who are, or profess to be, his superiors. Hence the bitter sarcasm which assailed him, and aggravated his natural irascibility, conscious of having worked indefatigably, he was both pained and angered, when belittled by ungene-rous minds. That he had not explored the depth of Talmudical science; that his acquaintance with our casuistical writers and the Hebrew literature of the day was limited; ought to have been overlooked by reason of the ardor with which he espoused the cause of education, for that is the great debt which America owes Isaac Leeser.
Contrasted with a Luzzatto, he might have been merely a tyro. Munk exceeded him by fact and he would, for certain, have profited by sitting at the feet of the great Rappaport. Yet, he labored even more beneficially than those three universally renowned scholars. For they sought to lead further the already tutored; he sought to be a guide for the untutored. They endeavored to enlarge and beautify the temple of knowledge; he strove to lay its foundations, that it might be set up. Few, very few are the individuals who, in this country, can duly appreciate the masterly productions of those European literati; but Leeser's writings can be read round every fireside advanta-geously, both to the young and to the old. Therefore ought his memory to be revered and eternized.
As to myself, I have performed only an act of jus-tice. Called upon to officiate at the funeral of one with whom I have been associated in the discharge of educational and ministerial functions, I would have pronounced on that mournful occasion, the eulogy he well merited. But I was precluded by the expressed wish of the deceased. Simplicity of manners had been his characteristic through life, and he exempli-fied it in the hour of death. He ordered that the ritual service as recited at the burial of the humblest Is-raelite should alone be heard when he was about to be consigned to mother earth, and none dared con-travene the injunction. But the Ecclesiastical Board, of which I have the honor to be a member, resolved that a public expression of sorrow at the demise of our colleague, was highly due to his virtues and deeds; and I full assented.
My friends! I utter what I profoundly feel when I say that no man of Israel has yet found a grave in this country of our adoption, who deserves to be enshrined
* Literally the Hebrew verb stands in the future tense.

Identifier

LSKAP_New_13

Date

1868-02-08