Bo. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Bo. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated

Author

Morais, Sabato

Location(s)

United States -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

United States -- Pennsylvania

Format

12 pages on 4 sheets

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?

Language(s)

English

Source

Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

Sabato Morais Collection, Box 9, Folder 11

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3xw48f3f/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3xw48f3f

Provenance

Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx9FF11_3.xml

content

An explanatory lecture
on
Parashat Bo
[Hebrew]

Brethren! The age in which we live, is in a super--lative degree an age of inquiry. Child-like faith--said to accomplish marvels--cannot be met, with any more frequency among our neighbors, whose religious dogmas rest entirely for support upon it, than among Israelites, who are free to exercise their reasoning faculties touching their belief. It would be idle to argue whether that circumstance works advantageously or prejudicially to society at large. We have to deal with facts, as they stare us in the face, and be equal to the exigencies of the time. Many preachers may pine for a return of the days, when an occasional exhortation respecting the observance of ritual or moral behests, formed the extent of their successful efforts. The days in which a willful audience felt edified by the mere recital of their obligations, remain in the memory of some, only as a reminiscence of the past. The present generation demands more, and that minister might as well be set aside as super--annuated, who is unable to satisfy the claims of a religious community. So much

aiming to undermine Holy Writ is heard everywhere; so widely spread are the writings antagonistic to it, that people's eyes seem turned to the pulpit; as to the a repelling force against the inroad of skepticism. Its unwillingness, or incapacity to enter the lists, will be interpreted as a virtual surrendering of all points, damaging to the cause it must uphold, while strength--ening its opponents. It behooves then the pulpit to accept the position in which the times have placed it, and come up vigorously to the task. When human reason raises aggressive arms against reve--lation, it should be fought against with the same weapons. And those I have just made ready in vindication of a truth, we share in common with all who put faith in the good book.
We learnt that the deliverance of Israel from bondage was miraculous; that is, Moses directed by God, terrified Pharaoh, by means of unsufferable plagues, into a final relinquishing of his tyrannic hold. Some modern historians, unable to disprove the fact that the descendants of Jacob, were enslaved by the rulers of a certain Egyptian dynasty, and that their

release from thraldom, and their crossing over to Aka, could not be effected without a powerful agency, strive to give a natural aspect to that which the world has ever regarded as preternatural. They do not deny that repeated strokes humbled the oppressors of the Hebrews, but they contend that the land of Mizraim was ordinarily subject to the same inflictions. According to the theory they advance, Moses the exceptional education which Moses had received, afforded him a profound knowledge of the peculiarities of the country of his birth, and he availed himself thereof, to predict the evils which were to happen. And as the populace are generally credulous, he could with facility inf inspire them with awe, and accomplish his high purpous. I think, that one needs not be covered with an armour of steel to break through such an array of arguments. I would say to those who so reason: Deny altogether scriptural narratives, and invent what best accords with your prejudgments, to account for the existence of the Hebrew race in Palestine;

but if you follow at all what has been registered in the Pentateuch, and what is corroborated by sub--sequent writings, you will find no support, but open, unanswerable refutations. Who will, for a moment, entertain the thought that the messenger of the Lord anticipated to bend the king's will to his designs through events of common occu--rence? Imagine Moses foretelling Pharaoh that the frogs would leave the river, which at times be breeds them, and enter his habitation, his bed-cham--ber, his kneading-troughs, even his oven--the mo--narch knowing full well, that such was the sequence of the reflux of the Nile--how ludicrous must that [?] have appeared, and how unapt there--fore to effect the object in view! Again: If a hail-storm, such as that which swept along the territories of the land of Ham was a periodical visitation, would not every one have attended to the warning of the prophet, when he said "Now go gather in thy cattle, and all thou hast in the field, for.... upon whatever the hail shall fall, will die". Would not all have evinced anxiety to seek shelter for

for themselves, and their animals in houses and fold, rather than be found exposed to the destructive consequences of that scourge? It has been confidently asserted, to explain perhaps such recklessness in the multitude, that what the incidents we have perused in th our two last sections of Exodus, did not come to pass in so rapid a suc--cession as it might seem form the text, but that years elapsed between each of the ten plagues; hence people had grown heedless. The plain records of of the Bible shows that assertion to be totally unfounded. We read: "Moses was eighty years old.....when he spoke unto Pharaoh." And in Deuteronomy: "Moses was one hundred and twenty years old, when he died.", while we are cont repeatedly told, that the forty years intervening, were spent by the son of Amram as the leader of the tribes in their perigri--nations through the wilderness. We must either reject absolutely the words of Holy Writ, or admit that only within the space of a few months took place the wondrous events, which wrought Israel's liberation from slavery. But it is truly surprising

how a determined wish to divest of the miraculous, what bears on its face the unmistakeable [?] of a supernatural emanation, will so obscure the mind's eyes, that they cannot any longer see. The lesson of this Sabbath, lays great emphasis upon the cir--cumstance that the swarm of locusts when the east wind carried over all Egypt, was a calamity unprecedented in the its annals. For so was the divine messenger commanded to address the refractory king. "Behold I bring to-morrow locusts in thy borders.....and they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of Egyptians, what neither thy fathers nor thy father's fathers have ever seen to this day." Yet, skeptical writers hold tenaciously to their opinion, and insists that nothing befell Mezraim to which its geogra--phical position did not render it liable! But we our will cease to surprise at the extravagances of those who urge their own untenable notions, rather than concede to the Almighty a power ever the [?] alter the laws He has made, over His handiwork will increase ten fold, when we learn that how a learned critic gives us his assurance that all the first born of Egypt

perished by the raging of the small-pox; just as if that virulent pestilence could select its victims with unfailing precision both among men and among beasts. That novel idea, however, did not meet with general favor among rationalists, and some of them have endeavoured to improve on it. Their audacity went so far, as to intimate that an army secretly organized by Moses, made a fell suddenly on on--slaught the first-born,--who constituted the defenders of the throne--and made havoc in their midst. A theory so absurd might excite laughter, were it not that it has unhappily found advocates among in--dividuals, who pride themselves on exercising the fun--ctions of Rabbis in Amonea. Good heavens! What teaching can the present generation imbibe from such preceptors! The most glorious event in the history of our people. That event which foreovershadows all others, by reason of its ultimate results to the whole hu--man race. The event stamped with the signet of God on all our religious observances. That event ever upon our lips [Hebrew] "in memory of the coming out of Egypt," that stupendous event, I say,

is reduced by Rabbinical Neologists into a suc--cessful revolt from among a handful of slaves. Preposterous it is indeed in the highest degree to believe that any could penetrate the pls palace and the prison, the stable and the barn, and, as by intuition, slay all the first-lings, and those who claimed seniority of by birth to their mother's children. It is preposterous, because reason repells it. It is preposterous, be-cause the people, who dared not lay hand on their oppressors, during a period of impervious darkness; the people who were appalled at the sight of their former masters, while marching to victory under the guidance of the Most High, cannot be supposed to have deliberately attacked the Egyptians in their private domiciles. It is preposterous because because such an insurrection would have met with resistance, and Israel instead of being hastened away from the land of their thraldom loaded with silver and gold, would have been thrust back to eternal servitude, loaded with fetters and heavy burdens. But it is more than preposterous:

it is blasphemous. On the fourteenth of Nissan, Moses issued this proclamation "None of you shall come out of the door of his house, till the morning." [Hebrew] Who were they then who made the attack, and before whom the portals of all dwellings flew open, that they might pierce with the sword young and old, the rational and the irrational among created beings?.....
Dear Brethren! I sincerely hope that none among my audience have been tainted with the imparting of a new school, whose analysis of the Bible is the subversion of revealed religion. But how needful nevertheless it is that you will strengthen the citadel of your heart-faith--with sound reasonings. Unless you abide segregated from the rest of the community, you must hear the cavils of prejudice and unbelief. To give credence to miracles, means to possess a mind obtuse, dwarfed. Hence, whatever partakes of the marvellous in the annals of the Jews, must be so construed as to give it a more sensible form. I have offered this morn--ing some illustrations of the sagacious method of

transforming the preternatural into natural. So great is the antipathy of the skeptics against what--soever their intellects cannot grasp, that they will go in quest of every species of subtlety rather than bow the head, and acknowledge that there are things which baffle their comprehension. Man! Worm[?]! Thou wilt dispute Holy Writ because it gives admission to miracles. But is thy bodily construction, or are thy mental faculties less wonderful and incomprehensible than the deeds by which the Almighty saw fit to chastise tyranny, and deliver a world-enlightening and humanising nation? Fain would I, my friends! that they who boast of understanding all which comes under the head of so termed natural laws, explained to me the properties of light, the power of the magnetic needle, steadily pointing to the poles; the all lunar attraction of the oceans, and seas, and rivers. I am so ignorant, that I by myself cannot discover the power which causes me to think, nay, not even that which closes my eye-lids, so that I fall into a slumber.

Dear Brethren! Listen to a word of friendly instruction. Neither our Bible, nor our Sages point to miracles, as the basis of the Jewish religion, but to deny them altogether, and thus circumscribe the powers of the Omnipotent, is arrogant in man, is audacious, is impious. Let not a son, or a daughter of Israel be guilt of that sin.

Identifier

p3xw48f3f

identifier

SMBx9FF11_3