A Farewell Address. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. 1854
- Title
- A Farewell Address. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. 1854
- Author
- Morais, Sabato
- Date Created
- 1854
- Format
- 17 pages on 6 sheets
- Language(s)
- English
- Source
- Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
- Sabato Morais Collection, Box 10, Folder 6
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p39s1m448/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p39s1m448
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx10FF6_1.xml
- content
-
154
a farewell address.
1854
Dear Brethren! Is it not natural that in addressing you this morning, conflicting sentiments should agitate my heart? If in fulfilling my official duties I had aimed solely at those which I have contracted with your representatives; if I had been merely your reader in the Synagogue, but a stranger to all of you our of the Synagogue, I should perhaps at this moment be perfectly calm and passive. If I had not (suffer me to say it, for it affords me some comfort) if I had not strenuously sought in the narrow limits of my capacity, to promote your religious and moral welbeing, if I had neither sympathized with you when in sorrow, nor rejoiced at your gladness, and above all if I had not obtained unmistakable evidences that my humble efforts have been affectionately reciprocated by many; kindly and indul--gently received by the majority of you, I perchance should now feel unmoved and unconcerned; but when I bear in mind, that although under stirring circumstances, our intercourse for upwards the of three years, has been remarkably peaceful and mutually satisfactory, when I remember that often when my courage failed, in the arduous task I undertook, the friendly counsel of some of you came to my aid; ought not my breast to heave with quickened throbs in delivering a parting address? Yes, my friends.
I do feel, deeply and sincerely feel much pain in bidding you even a temporary farewell. Nor is my regret counterpoised altogether by the joyful consideration that I shall once more hail my parental roof. Surely it is unutterable pleasure to embrace an aged father after a long absence; it is delightful to breathe anew the air of your native sky, it is sweet to warmly press the hands of the friends of your youth, but it is harrowing to a sensitive heart to behold withal millions of intelligent creatures crushed beneath an iron yoke. Aye, when I contrast the condition of this land, in which your happy lot was cast, with that of the country I now design to revisit, I cannot but feel sorely depres--sed. Italy which gave birth to many a noble heart, and where civilization reigned, when almost everywhere barbarism predomin--ated; Italy where Jewish learning flourished, where Aben-Ezra wrote, Abarbanel taught, and Del Medegs disseminated Rabbinical phylosophy; Italy is at present reduced to the lowest ebb of degradation; and the one hundred thousand of our brethren who inhale its genial air, are nearly through--out the peninsula a mark to opprobrium and persecution. They are vilified because they adore the Only One of Israel, they are contemned because they reject doctrines repugnant
to the religion of Sinai, they are plundered, and caged like ravenous animals because they cling to the faith which we revere. It is therefore, as I have said; when I contrast the freedom; the happiness of which you are here made to partake, with the sorrowful existence of our co-religionists in that land of their captivity, that I doubly regret leaving your midst. Yet although the picture which I have delineated is unfortunate--ly too correct, although to compare your condition in these goodly regions, with that of our brethren in those benighted climes, would be to liken mid-day with to the dead of night, refulgent light with to lurid darkness, nevertheless, I must candidly confess that in one peculiar point (and a very essential one to every hebrew man) you would, my friend, suffer in comparison with those co-religionists of ours; yes, in one respect, not only they would not rank lower than you, but they would be declared your superiors--I mean, in the diligent observance of many religious injunctions. Not that you are second to any in attending to the principles of morality which emanate from the heavenly volumes; not that in your connexion as fathers and husbands, as mothers and as children, you relax in the discharge of your obligations; far be it from me, to impute to you so [?] reprehensible a
negligence, but, my beloved friends, we must not only be moral creatures of God; we must be Israelites. That which suffices to secure to our fellow-citizens of another creed the bles--sing of heaven here below, and felicity hereafter, cannot render our lives acceptable in the sight of our God; for whilst their duties are limited to the performance of the seven Noachite precepts, our belief imposes upon us six hundred and thirt-een ordinances; whilst they can conscienciously labor on the sabbath day proclaimed on Sinai, we, must, not to incur the just wrath of the Eternal, forbear in it from pursuing after our work. Whilst they can gratify their desires with any viand for which they long, we are restricted in that by many prohibitory laws. Whilst their holidays are few, and are principally a time for relaxation and merriment, our festi--vals are solemn periods of our year, which we must employ in exercises purely religious. Whilst they can dress their food at their option, eat the blood of animals, and leave uncovered that of winged fowls, whilst they can array themselves in gar--ments of diverse sorts, whilst they can enjoy the productions of their soil at all times and under all circumstances, our Torah gives us prescriptions which relate to each of the aforenamed,
and to all the minutest actions of our lives.
And no one, my brethren, who is sealed with the covenant of our father Abraham, no one who wishes to remain a Jew, can with impunity infringe upon those commandments, for the same Omnipotent voice which promulgated that sublime code of moral laws, that wrought so wonderful a change in the [?] of men, taught us also, those ceremonial ordinances intended to remind us continually of our eventful origin and of the mission entrusted to us; no where in the pages of scripture are they pronounced to be of a minor importance, nor has their practice been2 ever1 abrogated. True, there are a portion of men who differ from our views, and who profess that the doctrines which constitute Judaism, were preparatory to a milder dispensation, which was to exonerate men from those tenets which concern the individual in his outward worship. But without striving now to refute their assumption, or dissuade them from their notions, I will ask you, children of my people! can we believe that God who is prescient, ubiquitary and Most Wise, could have bestowed on us, a law which would succumb to the effects of time? A law which, emanating from the source of all perfections, should in sub--sequent ages be declared imperfect? "Is God a man that
should deceive, or the son of man, that He should repent?" But if it had been his blessed, will that our fathers should only receive a temporary law, why is it not so recorded in Holy Writ? Why did the Deity, on the contrary, promise that after we should have expiated our delinquencies in exile, He would vouchsafe to restore us to our pristine glory, provided we sedulously attended to all the behests which He then imposed on us?..Hear my brethren, they are the words of our God "When thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Eternal and perform all his commandments, which I command thee this day, then shall the Eternal thy God make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land for good, because the Eternal will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers." (only) If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Eternal thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law." Do we need a clearer exposition touching the permanency of all our laws? Can any man ascribe to the fountain of all knowledge, ignorance of future events, when the whole chapter from which we have quoted, refers to our present state among
the gentiles, and to the era of our promised restoration? Can any son of Israel after perusing the verses I have cited, bill the reproaching voice of his conscience by saying that whilst he pursues a moral course in his communion with his fellow-beings, he can dispense with the other statutes of his professed religion? Can he pacify his mind by the thought that his numerous connexions with individuals of another creed, or his engrossing commercial intercourse are an extenuation for his disregard of the ceremonial laws? No, he is not a son of Israel who argues so; he is not a son of Israel who for lust of gain, for fear of ridicule, or in order to pander to the wish of the ungodly, wittingly slight any of the injunctions inscribed in the Mosaic code.
And yet incredible as it may seem, we have heard men, who not alone bear the name of Jews, but who assume to teach Judaism, boldly assert that the omission of many of our tenets is no longer to be considered a sin, that when they clash with our mercantile or scientific enterprises, they must not be heeded, that since the light of phylosophy has shone upon us, we have become convinced of the inutility of some of the Biblical and most of the Rabinical enactments.
That to enforce in this enlightened age antiquated laws which only suited our fathers who dwelt in different climes, is a futile attempt, bordering on insanity. Such are the doctrines which these new expounders of our faith inculcate, such prin--ciples they instil by their own example, sustaining withal that they alone comprehend the spirit of Judaism, that neither our Sages of old, nor nay of their adherents, could perceive the light of progress which it emits. If it be so then, my brethren, and we for centuries have sought to please our Maker by practices which are vanity; if our teachers have led us in the way of error if we have been groping in total darkness, let us hail this new light now offered to our gaze; let us cease to be Jews. Repair ye no longer on the Sabbaths of the Lord and on the festivals to this consecrated spot, for it is detrimental to your wordly interest. Indulge freely in whatsoever your soul yearns for, since f both the clean and the unclean were created for your gratification; never afflict yourselves by fasting, lest your health might be impaired. Rear your offspring in the knowledge of that which may prove to them pecuniarily advantageous, but do not subject them to the abstruse study of dogmas which have become lifeless; of a language which is perfectly dead.
But will you, my beloved friends! consent to a change so subversive of all the lessons you have imbibed from your infancy? Oh ye descendants of those who without demur declared before their Legislator and Saviour [Hebrew] that they would execute and obey, will you repudiate this holy Torah, because it is a bridle to the appetites, because it curbs the immoderate passion for lucre?; will you wantonly reject it, because it demands some sacrifice; while its preservation has cost the lives of myriads? Will you lay an impious hand upon the word of God, and alter it at will, in order that its injunctions may not impede the furtherance of your ambitious schemes? Let it not be said so of you O [Hebrew] "Hope of Israel"....... Before the holy ark towards which we turn in offering our supplications, and wherein the standard of truth is deposited. On this doubly sacred day, with whose solemnity you are impressed let us promise that we will not swerve from the dictates of the law; that we will readily relinquish temporary enjoy--ments and the fleeting goods of the world, to implicitly perform the will of our Father who is in heaven, let us promise that we will maintain intact the precious heritage of our fathers, that the religion of Sinai shall be the rule of all our actions; our sole guide when we sit in our houses,
to instill imprint it into upon the tender minds of our children; when we walk by the way, in the pursuit of our daily occupations, so that probity and justice may actuate [?[ us; in the pursuit of our daily occupations; when we lie down, that we may ask our--selves whether we have advanced or retrograded in the path of virtue; when we rise up, that we may be reminded of the duties we owe to Him who granteth slp sleep to our wearied limbs, health and vigour to our frame, sustenance to our bodies. Ah yes, my friends, keep the truth in your heart, and suffer me to repeat it once more. He is not an Israelite who would not resign a single gratification to fulfil the religion of promulgated by the Eternal. He is not of the stock of Abraham who abandons this imperishable treasure entrusted to us, to rashly embrace new fangled doctrines. You may become proficient in learning, and men will call you wise and erudite, but believe me there is no human science so capable of inspiring you with the true love for good, so able to maintain you steadfast in the career of virtue, as the glorious religion which is peculiarly ours; for it prescribes salutary laws for all the human actions. No terrestrial prosperity will render you happy, if you disdain to abide by the directions of God,
for, unless you are totally depraved, that still-small voice that whispers to our conscience will will ultimately be heard, and the years will draw nigh when you shall say "I have no pleasure in them". Without your religion which affords at once light and warmth, light to illumine the mind, and warmth to quicken the sentiments, no weal can be durable; for without such a religion as that granted to Israel, which while it guides us from the cradle to the grave, it points out to us the way of salvation, and it ensures us a temporal blessing and a spiritual felicity, without such a religion; virtue, morality and piety would be names without signification. Aye, it was your religion, my brethren, that instructed mankind in the knowledge of the Supreme Author of all good, it was the Jewish religion that taught lessons of benevolence and mercy towards our neighbor, of respect to his property, of obedience to our parents; It was the Jewish religion that had an eye of compassion over all the creatures of God nay even over the dumb animals; and to enforce the principles of morality so early taught pure, it instituted ceremonial observances, which are a watchful guard in the walks of life that our steps may not be diverted from the rightful path. And shall we forsake a religion so sublime, or would it in a fashion that may suit all the whims of mortals; shall we make the immutable word God yeild
yeild to the infinite numberless changes of human society? Never, never will we postpone it to the rebellious impulses of the flesh, to the hallucination of the mind, or to the advice of the ungodly. We will keep undefiled this divine religion, faithfully observe the laws of Horeb which were, are, and will everlastingly be the glory of Israel. Ɵ My friends! once more ere I quit your circle, I feel it a stringent duty to exhort you with all the energy of my soul to adhere unwaveringly to the practical as well as to the moral injunctions of the book of books; to walk in the light which it emits, to abhor the darkness of error, to shun and detest vice and crime, to cling to the religion of our fathers, as to the only anchor of your eternal salvation. And if sinners strive to entice you from it, the religion of our fathers, consent not. If they say, come with us, we will walk in the way of progress, you shall acquire renown, honour, and wealth, listen not to them. Suffer not your feet to follow the their steps, for they run to evil, their minds devise but sin, their hearts conceive but perverted sentiments.
"Woe to them who are wise in their own eyes" exclaims the prophet. They abandon the spring of living waters, to dig for themselves broken cisterns, but they shall fall into the pit they have dug, unheeded and disconsolate. "Woe to their souls" continues Isaiah "because they have awarded evil for themselves." for, the impious live in a perpetual war with themselves, and whilst they would persuade others to follow their example, they know not how to persuade themselves that they
act rightly. Whilst they endeavour to appear learned and to acquire the name of leaders of civilization, they are constrained to our own to their hearts, that their science is rottenness to their bones and destruction to their spirit. They are compelled to acknowledge to their inward selves, that as religion is a supreme want of man and that as all religions are founded upon the revelation of Horeb, to which reason and intellect must bow2 reverently1, all their philosophical disquisitions are useless, and that far better it is to be guided by the religion of our fathers than, to adore God in child-like faith, than to lose oneself in a maze of subtle ratiocinations. Nay, the irreligious fig envy the righteous, to whom that sun of truth, without which we should frequently slide in the devious paths of life, is a beacon light; and they also willingly would be led by that unquenchable light, but pride holds them tight in its grasp, and on to its altar shrine they are forced to sacrifice their happiness and that of their posterity. Let it not be so of you, my beloved ones! let religion be your sovereign virtue, let it be the mast and the sail the compass by which you steer toward your bark through this stormy sea of life, let it be a comfort to your souls among so many and so frequent [?] trials to which mortals are exposed; let religion be your supreme delight at all periods and under all circumstances. And in bidding you a hearty
farewell, let me leave your midst do so with the assurance firm conviction that you will remain Israelites in practice as well as in spirit; and that you will keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to perform his statutes, his judgments, his commandments, his judgments and his testimonies as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all your doings, and in whatsoever you undertake, [Hebrew] [Hebrew] Great all All-mighty God! Grant that thy word, like the morning dew which irrigates and fertilizes the earth, may enter our hearts, and become our consellor and our guide. May it be light to our feet, that we may walk uprightly in the way of thy precepts for "thy law is perfect and converteth the soul, thy testimony is sure; and maketh the simple wise" May the brightness it emanates irradiates illumine our spirits, that we may never abandon justice and charity. Allow not iniquity to dwell within us, and save us O God! from the errors of such who, elated by worldly knowledge, raise presumptuously their voice against the dictates of Thy wisdom. Grant that amidst the trials, the dis--sapointments, the sorrows of life, thy word may prove to us a strong--hold whither we shall take refuge and obtain repose. May it
be the beacon light that shall lead us securely to the possession of that eternal inheritance which is in the land of the living.
Merciful God! I humbly beseech Thee for the sake of these thy children who stand in awe to receive thy blessing. Be to them a strength every morning a daily and an hourly support, also their salvation in the time of trouble. Shield them against pestilence that walketh in darkness, and destruction that wasteth at noon. Bereave them not of their beloved children whom they teach to adore Thy name. Deign to bless the husbands and their wives who jointly labor for the religious education of their off--spring. Strengthen them in Crown with success their laudable undertaking; grant to them their daily wants, that theirs may be called the abode of tranquillity. Assuage the sorrows of the afflicted, and inspire them with resigna--tion to thy will, by the hope of an ampler requital in the dwelling of the immortals. Bless the youth of this holy community, and may they early learn that to steadily follow thy law, will afford them a delight more durable than that of mundane gratifications. Bless the aged and may their piety, suavity and calmness, teach us by their examples that the latte rend of the life of the righteous is serenity calmness and peace. Bless me also O Eternal in whom I trust, may I, though unworthy of thy and may thy boundless mercy grace, shead shed [?] tears of joy, in clasping to my heart my gray headed pardon me, thy fatherly compassion shield me, thy gracious goodness parents, the sisters whom I love, the brother of my affection, the friends favour me now and evermore. Amen.
of my sweet recollection. May Thy mercy pardon me, thy compassion save me, thy goodness favor me. Amen. - Identifier
- p39s1m448
- identifier
- SMBx10FF6_1
Part of A Farewell Address. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. 1854
Morais, Sabato, “A Farewell Address. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. 1854”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed October 18, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/83284