Letter from Moses N. Nathan to Isaac Leeser;October 21, 1866
- Title
- Letter from Moses N. Nathan to Isaac Leeser;October 21, 1866
- Author
- Moses N. Nathan
- Contributor
- Isaac Leeser
- Date Created
- 21 October 1866
- Format
- Letter. 8 page(s) on 8 sheet(s).
- Type
- Letter
- Language(s)
- English
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3ft8f52x/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3ft8f52x
- Physical Characteristics
- Unlined Paper
- Manuscript
- content
-
St. Thomas, 21st Octr. 1866
My dear Mr. Leeser.
At length I enjoy a day's ease from toil and of comparative coolness, leaving me sufficient time and energy after the exhausting and incessant heat of over five months duration to drop you a few lines; not in answer to your last, for I have mislaid your letter, put in some safe place, which has escaped my memory.
If the situation at Savannah did not materially interfere with your high position as the leader and exponent of orthodoxy, that is, if the acceptance of it did not, in a measure shelve you, by consigning you, to so comparatively insignificant a sphere, I would be the first to advise you to quit Philadelphia, and honorably retire to a spot where your influence might still be felt, and when the duties would be to you light and easy, and above all a resting place to breathe in and enjoy yourself after your laborious and toilsome career. Could you not manage to issue the Occident there? That you should have a disinclination to leave Pa. when your world-wide reputation
has been established, is natural; but remember it is not with your Hebrew, but Hebrew. You can without desertions the holy cause still fulfil the command, Hebrew Hebrew, and be as useful as ever, tho the locality be smaller. You have earned your olium, and if you can enjoy it ?, why not avail yourself of so seasonable an opportunity, in the society of those who would hail your coming with enthusiasm, and in a climate more genial to your partly worn out constitution, enfeebled by excessive work in the cause of your people. I think you ought, and so will every true friend of yours. We don't want you to drop at your post from sheer fatigue; say then to us Hebrew, and accept the post.
Orthodoxy, from the stand-point, I view it, cannot long maintain its ground in America, nor elsewhere concessions must be made; not in the homeopathic doses you wish to administer, but in heroic quantities, as the M Dr say Hebrew and a Hebrew are not enough, and as Mr Moïse justly observes if you concede them, the precedent is at once established for granting more. You have fought a good fight, but overwhelming odds are against you.
If the fabric of historical Judaism is to be saved from utter demolition, for, on the score of Scriptural Judaism, I have no fear, fair compromises must be made. I have long held out against changes by individual congregations, but our orthodox leaders give no sign of life, utter no sound, to cheer their supporters and followers. The pressure from without increases daily in intensity, and the faithful Hebrew must either yield to the demands made, or give room to others who will effect a complete bouleversement of the existing state of things.
I have been interrupted for some hours by the sad tidings of the loss of the Evening Star. Some of the passengers said to be lost have relatives among my congregation, but I declined to give Hebrew until their fate had been ascertained. I have however very little hope of their being alive.
Revenons à nos moutons. Have you read the articles in the “Archives Israelites” written by Cohen, Chief Rabbi in Algiers, during the last few months? Their fairness is indisputable and their accuracy has not been impeached, and, what is more, cannot be. His account of the Hebrew
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particularly of the second day Hebrew which I had been taught to believe had been kept in Jerusalem from the days of Ezra has no such historical basis, but dates from a very recent period; and, to my astonishment, I learned for the first time that on that day, the common daily prayers are said in Jerusalem, and not those for the festival. I had heard before that some of the Hebrew from the Holy City came to Synagogue in London on Hebrew with their Tephillin on. Really, therefore if our orthodox guides do not bestir themselves and clean up the obscurities which envelop our minhagim, particularly their origin and history, much will be swept away which should be retained. A book has been in my library for years, called Hebrew, which curiosity induced me lately to peruse, as it is frequently quoted by Zumy? in his Gottes dienstliche Vorträge, and not alone the reasoning of the author, but the support it receives from dist quotations of distinguished writers, truly orthodox, have entirely shaken my faith in the Rabbinism of the middle ages, little as I believed in it before. I had often begun to read this volume, but it seemed to be exclusively directed against the stassidim?, and so it did not interest me, whereas now I am going thro' it carefully.
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It seems that the converse of Hebrew was the rule of our guides in the middle ages, and that either they did not understand the sayings and doings of their revered predecessors, the Hebrew who view large souled and enlightened men, and but introduced a sort of asceticism into Judaism, public & private, or they assumed an authority which modern research questions, and refuses any longer to tolerate. Do not imagine by my writing in this strain that I am going to turn ultra Reformer. The second days are still kept here, and the Synagogue attended by a few, just sufficient to make minyan. With the exception of five Jewish stores, and the remainder are closed by my people on that day the Sabbath, tho' among them are rabid Reformers who keep aloof from the Synag: except on on Rosh Hashanah and Kippoor, until certain modifications in the Ritual and public worship are sanctioned by me. I must yield, or extremes will be resorted to, whose consequences would imperil the conserv-ation of important and fundamental things. What conscientious pangs might have been spared men struggling like myself to preserve the unity of formula in our worship had we been backed by an orthodox Synod of learned & enlightened Rabbis, prepared to direct claims for changes into a channel
or stream whose waters might have fructified Judaism. I say it with pain, with agony, that the want of such a Synod has sent? Judaism to tatters, that it has encouraged rationalism in its destructive tendencies in the west, and promoted the growth of that abominable stassidism? in the east. I have some true and good men among my people, who have travelled and seen much of our various communities in France, Germany, Austria, and other parts of Europe. They are men attached to the old system still, with all its admitted defects, and they lament with me the insouciance with which the orthodox Rabbis regard the spread of irreligion, particularly the violation of the Sabbath, and indulgence in forbidden food, without a united effort among them to check it by wise and well concocted measures. Hebrew. There is, I sincerely believe, more taleah and more real learning among the orthodox than among the Reformers, and yet they allow this “laissez aller” sent state of things to go on. But enough of this for the present.
And now for a little Hebrew relating to myself, with which I beg of you to occupy a trifle of your valuable time. A brother of mine recently informed me of his having met in London Mr. Lem Dyer, brother of our lamented friend Mrs. Osterman,
who info mentioned to him that that lady had bequeathed me and my wife, a legacy of $3000 in her will. It is easy for you, being in the spot, to ascertain, either by writing to Mrs. Symonds, formerly Hannah Dyer, at Cincinnati, or by personal inquiry among her friends the Pollacks, the truth of my brother's statement. I have foreborne so long from addressing Mrs. S. not knowing her right address, that a direct inquiry from me now, would be indelicate. I prefer you being my agent in this to my brother's being so, for various reasons. It will be sufficient to quote the words of Solomon Hebrew. You will be doing me and your old friend Mrs. N a favor by losing no time in letting us know Hebrew.
Our Holy days passed off delightfully, full attendances at Synagogue, great devotion, order, and decorum, and nothing to ruffle the harmony from Hebrew on the eve of that day I confirmed 5 young people 3 girls and 2 boys. Every child almost of 6 or 7 years of age, boy or girl, learns to read Hebrew, and nearly every lady in Synagogue, particularly the young and middle aged reads her prayers in that language, and can follow the leader officiating. Your small Bible
is in every house, and every one of my pupils is furnished with it. Every Jewish child in school, for I have many Christian pupils too, learn, to translate Bible and prayer Book. So you see, tho' we are far from the great centres of enlightenment, and tho' I am as rusty as an old door nail, we can compare, as a Congregation, with the best, and not be ashamed. It would do your heart good to witness the solemnity and decorum of our worship. On Hebrew we began at 8 and tho' nothing was omitted as laid down in the old Portuguese sidder? we finished at 11. Kippoor we began at 6, and at 6 P.M. I dismissed the congregation. I do not allow the Shophar to be blown till the whole of the Hebrew is finished, whereby much confusion and indecency are avoided. For men I to have it sounded before Hebrew there would be a rush to leave, by which the whole affect of the day would be destroyed.
i have written you, not one megillah but Hebrew, so I defer writing more Hebrew. I hope to hear that your health is good, in which my dear wife heartily joins—and with regards to your nieces, and remembrances to inquiring friends, and many years of happiness and comfort I am
yours sincerely
M N Nathan - Identifier
- LSTCAT_item75
- Date
- 1866-10-21
Part of Letter from Moses N. Nathan to Isaac Leeser;October 21, 1866
Moses N. Nathan, “Letter from Moses N. Nathan to Isaac Leeser;October 21, 1866”, 1866-10-21, Isaac Leeser Digital Repository, accessed September 7, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/leeser/item/68201