Funeral orations. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Aug 1892 · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Funeral orations. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Aug 1892

Author

Morais, Sabato

Date Created

26 August 1892

Location(s)

United States -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

United States -- Pennsylvania

Format

5 pages on 2 sheets

Rights

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

Language(s)

English

Source

Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

Sabato Morais Collection, Box 11, Folder 7

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3n58d49r/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3n58d49r

Provenance

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

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx11FF7_27.xml

content

S. MORAIS,
546 N. Fifth St.
Philadelphia,

A funeral address
August 26, 1892
"Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in His holy place? He that has clean hands and a pure heart" Clean hands he had, unpolluted by the holding of ill gotten lucre. A pure heart he possessed, unsullied by wicked envy. For years I had observed D. H's ways, as a child of the covenant and a social being, and I did approve. Not in every instance had he conformed to the pre--scribed rules of the faith, but his nature was intensely religious. I bear a moral conviction that sins of omission, occasioned by circumstances and surroundings, were sorrowed for by my brother. But while he regretted shortcomings, earnest he was in fulfilling duty. How eager in his wish to serve the Jewish cause! His knowledge of its high claims on our time and efforts, he illustrated beautifully, as he sat at a teacher's desk facing young pupils; as he directed a school during a stage of its history, when none other could gratuitously as--sume the task of superintending it, and as he intelligently con--ceived and overlooked the formation of classes to foster the culture of our national literature. And in all good doings, so perfectly free from any show of self importance, so useful and so gentle he was! Watching such proceedings I felt

thankful. The greater I deemed my indebtedness to D H, as a coworker of mine in a common field of utility, because I con--trasted his demeanour with that of some of his coevals, who, born in our fold, soon grow strangers to it--heedless of its demands on our joint endeavours. My friend's daily pursuits necessitated his frequent absence from home, but when abroad he still mingled among his fellow believers, inquired into their communal state, sought their temporal welfare and evinced a lively interest in whatever promoted their religious progress. I recall his return to our midst after a sojourn in the West, designed at the outset as a permanent residence, and I shall not easily forget the narrative of his impressions during his stay in a city beyond the Alleghenies. In his discourse the speaker dis--closed a mind, imbued with sentiments of unswerving devotion to the ancestral creed, and of abhorrence to a wil--ful desertion to the ancestral of its leading tenets.
In a death so premature as that of our D H, the Jewish community has sustained a decided loss, Philadelphia became bereft of a man of unblemished character. Would that it were in my power to relieve the keen grief which a lasting separation on earth has caused both relatives and friends.

Considering myself among the latter, I can only unite with the very many who now lament an untimely de--parture, hurtful to congregational, charitable and scholastic institutions....I am instinctively drawn towards all who labor to uphold principles which prophets and Sages honored and declared obligatory. The dear deceased revered ancestral doctrines. Never was he guilty of that levity which the thoughtless sadly mistake for liberality. He always referred to Judaism and its behests in terms of profound respect, therefore I took unfeigned pleasure in him, and therefore I sin--cerely deplore the void which pitiless death has created. But it ill becomes a servant of Israel's God to utter complaints, when a melancholy event calls for conso--lation. What, if I a finite and powerless being, cannot offer it? Listen, O bereaved ones, listen to the Royal psalm--ist. He has tendered the afflicted the needed comfort: "Who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in His holy place? He that has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to vanity, nor swear deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and benevolence from the God of his salvation".

The upright Jew, the loyal citizen, the dutiful son, the loving brother, the trusty friend will be missed here below, but up in the Tabernacle of the Lord, in the contemplation of the essence of his heavenly Maker, in the companionship of imparadised spirits, in the remembrance of his good deeds, D H, the virtuous will live blissfully to all eternity.
May it be so, O God of infinite mercy. Grant that any failure in duty may have been atoned for by years--alas too short--yet full of praiseworthy activity. Let the everlasting doors be opened, that Thy servant and worshipper D H. be admitted into the association of the angelic host who declares Thee thrice Holy. On Thy paternal goodness he leaned for support here and hoped to obtain it hereafter. For Thou art the God of the living and of the dead, our only Saviour, whose name we bless from the cradle unto the hour of death. Amen.

Identifier

p3n58d49r

identifier

SMBx11FF7_27