Letter to the Editor of the Asmonean
- Contributor
- Editor of the Asmonean
- Location(s)
- Philadelphia
- Format
- Letter. 1 page(s) on 4 sheet(s).
- Type
- Letter
- Language(s)
- English
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3rr1q713/manifest.json
- Physical Characteristics
- Unlined Paper
- Manuscript
- Is Part Of
- http://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q125097480
- content
-
The Revd Isaac Leeser, and the Revd Solomon Jacobs
To the Editor of the Asmonean.
Presuming Sir, that as an editor of a Journal claiming to be impartial, you open your columns for replies to articles appearing in them, I will make a few remarks on the unwarrantable attack upon the rev I Leeser which your last paper contained.
Unwarrantable, for no dispassionate reader could construe the remarks in the Occident, complained of by Mr Jacobs, as unfavorable or unfriendly to him: whilst the letter of Mr Jacobs is imbued with a spirit that will certainly elevate(?) that gentlemans renown as a minster and prove him to be a lover indeed of the principles of Judaism.
A difference of opinion gives no cause for offense; and although Mr Jacobs may deem that “according to the pure and literal version* of the hebrew text Hebrew” I will be with them now that which I will be unto them hereafter” the most expressive of the meaning of the passage, yet there may be others who think that a simple declaration as more consonant with the atributes of a Being who declares “I will be,” because I am superior to all other power “that I will be,” because I exist eternally by and through my own will; but all other beings exist through my will, not by their own innate power. But I leave the elucidation of this passage to the bibical scholar; as to the discourse, it would be presumptuous in me to attempt to review it. A Blair or an Allison—a Johnson or a Walker might stand agast at so difficult an undertaking. Pray what Country has the honor of claiming for her son this profound scholars? in what college do they teach such eloquence and such wisdom as he possesses? Perhaps it is useless to inquire, for one age can produce but one great man. But ye Ministers of America! how trembles as the thunders of the Occident (notwithstanding its editors' jealousy of your talents, your sermons have often greeted us from its pages), how you must rejoice that this literary Sampson has come to your rescue. He will fight all your battles, and you may now lift up your brows to the free light of heaven, unshrinkingly and unappalled. Mourn their gem of the Atlantic at the loss of that effulgent genius who shed his rays over thy ever-green Isle! but thanks to thee, thanks to thee! the minister and laymen of America will shew they how well they can appreciate the transcendent mortal thou has sent to their shores.
Hebrew
*Page 5 of his sermon
* a ? Jacobs does not use italics.
Part of Letter to the Editor of the Asmonean
“Letter to the Editor of the Asmonean”, Isaac Leeser Digital Repository, accessed September 18, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/leeser/item/67426