Letter from to Isaac Leeser;January 1854 · Isaac Leeser Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Letter from to Isaac Leeser;January 1854

Contributor

Isaac Leeser

Location(s)

Land of Israel

Philadelphia

Format

Letter. 8 page(s) on 4 sheet(s).

Letter

Type

Letter

Language(s)

English

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3g44j997/manifest.json

Physical Characteristics

Unlined Paper

Fragment

Manuscript

content

Vol XI
No 10
Tebeth 5614 January 1854
Palestine.
Writer in the ? whether sought for in the marvellous or in natural causes the fact is undoubted that Palestine has ever been that and of affection to all believers in the Bible. The Monkes Mohamedan has his Al-Charria?, the Christian possess their various churches & shrines; and they all ? less than us attach the highest earthly society to the spots consecrated by the remarkable ? of patriarchal & biblical history. It may be a fanatical error as some would characterise it for Jews to cluster round those places where where formerly they were the lords? but no little better than slaves and beggars and subject to our bearing and tyrannical master. But so they have been from the day the temple fell a sacrifice to the flames whether the ? were the Romans, the Arabs, the crusaders, the Egyptians, or the Turks. At not time for eighteen centuries, and were before the emblem of our national glory fell, were ? the norm than earlier on our own soil; still Palestine was the land of our hope, the country of our desire. But let those who blame the deviant for this feeling tell us why it should not be so? are we so well treated in more civilized countries? are we so regarded as equals in many lands? How many Americas are there in the world? how many Hollands, Belgiums & France? Tell us where are all the liberties which our du? of a ? have obtained in Germany, ?, Hungary & Poland? Where? Dissipated to the ? and ?; and the partial light which dawned six years ago, and which ? to be the harbinger of a brighter day, has left us in greater obscurity and the loosening of the chains of political and religious slavery, has caused us to feel the lightening of the ? with

a thousandfold redoubled painlessness, for dreamers, where is your ? reign? where is your universal ?? where the ? I am of the Lamb and the wolf together? The wars of oppression against freedom still continue, and the wolf yet ? his teeth against the unoffending lamb that is unable to have his prey. Letting go where we will, ? countries where there live in all less than a half a million of our brethren, the body of political slavery and degre-dation is still ours, as are yet excluded from all places of profit and preferment; and even the eight? to a share in the possession of the lands of ? is denied us in many lands. Oh! what a freedom this is! What a state that is to satisfy the longing of the Jewish patriot for happier days for a time when the land of Israel is again to be ours, to be occupied by sons of freedom and industry, sitting each under his own vine? and each his own fig tree with none to make him afraid. Whatever others may do, we do not blame the oppressed, not even the free, in all lands who look toward their ancestral? home or the true country of Israel, where the religion promulgated through Moses is ultimately to stand proud? on the light and life of the world, guiding all mankind to universal freedom, teaching them all a perfect, pure, un? faith, and alone undying in the spirit, for the Creator of all things.
'Hence we say, could a numerous agricultural population? be drawn toward to Palestine, we should not only contribute to towards the permanent relief of these residing there already, but we should open an ? for many who now know of ? only as a ?ionary and received a sacrifice as ? them out on tranquil days, of which they and their father, before them have ? the true signification. If it could be accomplished, that the ? of men ? Israelites of Poland, Russia, ? and Hungary & Turkey

should be planted in agricultural colonies in the callings of the land of Israel, under the protection of the present energetic Sultan Abdul Medjed? with full liberty to organize municipal corporations, permitted to bear arms and fully empowered to use of them in case of an attack from without; we should do much to ameliorate the abject condition of European communities who now are daily exposed to insult and ? of their arrogant and proud oppressors. If his home should become intolerable to an Israelite, he would know whether he could resort and find the means of self support without the danger of being led away from the path of duty, which now alas! is too often the case with those who go to England, France, America? from other countries simply to follow the only pursuit which seems to promise them a speedy return, ? trading in one of its many ? shapes, all other employments being inacceptable to a stranger who is unacquainted with the language & customs of the lands he just arrives in. But now Palestine once open to receive Jewish immigrants; where were its agricultural wealth once more acceptable to our faith; wh were its fields once more fertile and its cities rebuilt anew: not alone that many could unite themselves to its inhabitants to cultivate the soil, sure of a speedy and rich return for their labors; but then who have the genius and lust for business could carry on profitable commerce with all parts of the world in exchange for the varied products of the fields and vineyards, and perhaps the many rich muses? of resonance which now lie unused and unknown, with against ? is raised from the soil and ? skill and labors in every other country. This is no mere dream, the realization of what is beyond the range of possibility; but the same spectacle

was witnessed in ancient times when the ? of Giza & Gideon contained the commerce of the world; when Jerusalem was filled with the wares of all climes and when prosperity and elegance smiled in every city o the prosperous commonwealth. If we revert to the description of Jacob and Ezekiel of the prosperity and elegance of ? and Jews alone we may indeed wonder at the awful desolation which now presides over them & ? of musical ? & refreshment; but at the time it leads us to the condition that under similar circumstances similar results may be ? at some future, if ever distant, day. If the weak places should be built up; if the broken ? should be repaired; if the now dry aqueducts should be restored; if the ? of the inhabitants should be converted into thrift and industry; it cannot be otherwise than that the articles of import would be multiplied beyond calculation. The ? in the wilderness of Syria and Judea would afford food for millions of sheep, whose fleece could readily rival and exist perhaps under that happy sky, ?, serenity on that eastern fairyland, the best mariners of Spain and Saxony; that ? could readily be made to wear on his shroud of the purest fibre after being abundantly fed till the day of his ? with the healthful ? of the whole mulberry which would grow there in abundance ? the commonest care be taken; the bulk of the worth could yield abundant supply of the purest olive oil, for a ? they were ? from us; the ? of Judah would again be laden with the fruit of the vine, and the valleys of Jezreal and Sharon, and Carmel & Tabor, and the plains of Jericho & of the Great Sea would again be bad ?dened with the

immense harvests, the hundredfold yield, which ? ? them. Cotton too, and hemp, and fruit of various kinds, the Indian corn, the potato, the yam, the banana, and other products anciently unknown in Palestine could be readily intro-duced and yield their increase in unexampled plenty, if the labourers were used there to prepare the soil for their reception. And can it be doubted that so many articles what in their raw or manufactures state would feed? a ready demand in other countries, ? not soon enrich their producers, and elevate them, as successful commerce always does, to a high state of refinement and elegance?
The ruinous cities would soon be rebuilt; the books of the timid billers of tillers of the soil who now fear, to work diseasing the assault of the maraud? ?, would soon make place for the compatible farm-?; the pastures now desolate would resound with the bells of the returning flocks and hearts at evening led forth home by the little and gay shepherds, as in ancient times; the parts which are now rarely visited by the ships of foreign nations, because there is so little for them to carry away would soon be filled with vessels displaying the flag of every country; and the roads on which now painfully? ? the camel of the caravan in its slow progress, would be made noiseful by the thundering steam car in its impatient ? to reach the place of its destination; and all because industry once more should would have breathed life & vigour into the listless indolent ? few that now vegetate not live, starve and not enjoy life in a land which formerly nourished the millions of men and cattle, and now produces scarcely enough to feed its remnants handful of persons coming as they have

done from many climes without concert of action without any cohesion or unity of purpose. The Turks are merely the rulers, and are not, we should judge our ? the Arabs are too indolent to make good farmers, and totally unacquainted with the improved state of European agriculture, or are given to ? and ? true to their ancient national character so that from the ? population not much can be expected, unless they ref? their customs altogether which is not likely to take place in centuries to come, unless some now ? revolution should compel them thereto. The Christian inhabitants are not many, and being either mountaineous, who have? isolated from civilization or ? and connected with monastic and other religious establishments; if we have understood correctly the accounts of travellers, are not likely to contribute much to the improvement of the land. The Jewish population, which may reach twenty thousand in all is too few, and for that matter too ignorant of manual labors to do any thing for their own advancement. Is it therefore wonderful that Palestine presents to the eye of the stranger so little of what is ?, and immeasurate with the description which we have received of its former popul?ness and magnificence? Nay it is at most a wonder that a vestige has been left, after all the battles and earthquakes and other causes of desolation, to show that Baalbec, and ? and Jerusalem were at one time such cities as but few of modern times can com-pare with; and if something is not done to restore them the few fragments of ancient days must crumble away in the cause of coming generations and leave not a wreck behind. If therefore a new life could be infused in Palestine; if a new population industrious and inured to toil could be gradually infused on the stagnant

masses which now encumber its surface, there can be no question but that proportionate good results would be speedily brought to view; for the indolent, seeing the superior advantage of industry, the happy affects of independence through labour, would naturally be ? either to the village of the soil or to the mechanical pursuits required to supply the many wants of a farming population. This again would react or commence, goods from foreign lands would have to be brought in to furnish the requirements for the workship, the manufacturing and the ? of the table; and this would again be the ?runner of internal improvements, by high ways canals and rail roads, to bring the fruits of ? the reach of our ? and to enable to producers? to dispose of his surplus where it is needed.
There is no conceivable reason why Palestine & Asia Minor should be given over to sterility and disolution when in former ages they were not alone the misery of mankind, but the seat ? knowledge and religion were scattered all over the earth. Egypt may have been the home of early architecture and the priests who guarded a secret knowledge of a purer ? of by than the majority of the people possessed; but it was nevertheless from the inhabitants of the first mentioned lands that the religions which now govern the world were derived; and through them taught at first in Arabic and Mohamed was a rather of the same land it was only from Palestine that his system advanced under various guises as the conquering system, destined to ever ? others in to ?less ? to universal dimension. Fine P? too, it is assisted, that the system of alphabetical writing was first carried into eastern Europe, and ? is in result a higher philosophy notwithstanding the corruption of the Greek & Romans

than was known among them before that time, and savage lords were thereby connected into elegant and refined communities. And shall it be so forever that all their lands shall be only desolate and without the foot of man and beast to pass through them? It is true that the Scriptures have recorded a fearful ? over the lands of these who relying on their strength and wisdom ? of the law of God and walked after their imaginations of their own & unbridled heart. But it is likewise true that the same authority promises consolation and a restoring of the ancient glory; and the only question is how this is to be accomplished. We will not at pre-sent enter into a reception of the prophecies bearing on this topic; nor investigate how far we should rely on a sudden development of the divine policy which is to affect the great and ? predictions of Israels sun; but it surely cannot be wrong for us to endeav-our to promote the happy future by some exertions of my own. It may be that all efforts will be in vain; it is possible that a curse doth rest on the land which it is not yet the time to have removed; it is possible enough that the man is yet wanted who could be a leader in this blissful regeneration. Still we think that it is worthwhile to make an effort to aid our brothers ?? on the spot with the means to make our effort not realize our self amelioration which they are now anxious to effect, bring sick at heart of the life of paupers; ? which is a never ending always recommencing service of ?, & is indeed a pity that hitherto the very love for our religion has been made the moving principle of fastening ? on the land of Israel. “To offer for the love of the holy land “was and is considered highly meritorious; to maintain a deed ? praiseworthy and salutory; whereas all this must only perpetiate the ? which the pious thought they

The above text refers to Occident Volume 11 No. 10 pages 477 through 486. Click here to view.

Identifier

LSDCBx2FF1_7