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

Title

Hayye Sarah. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated

Author

Morais, Sabato

Location(s)

United States -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

United States -- Pennsylvania

Format

9 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 5

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p31g0jd23/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p31g0jd23

Provenance

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

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx9FF5_6.xml

content

For Chaye' Saráh
[Hebrew]

[Hebrew]. "Abraham was old, well stricken in years and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things." "A useless repetition, mere tautology." So well may many call may some of my hearers may exclaim on reflecting upon the second part of the sentence, which I have just quoted from our section of the Pentateuch. They will argue so: We meet a person whose looks betray old age, and naturally we infer that great numerous many have been the summers which have passed over his head. What necessity was there for the sacred historian, after having informed us that the founder of the Hebrew people had grown old, to add that he was full of years? This question, which any one a tyro slightly acquainted with the sacred holy language could easily solve, by showing the phrase to be, as it actually is, a Bibleical idiom, was propounded put likewise also by the Rabbis, with the view to point a moral. They wisely remark that not all who appear to have reached the extreme end of this earthly existence, and to be on the verge of the grave, are really old, nor do all whom we might at first sight judge to be yet far from making attaining

the allotted term, have youth still in their possession. Some wilfully anticipate quicken the working decomposing process of nature; some deliberately hasten their bring on decrip--tude, or, as the Talmudists express it, cause old age to take a sudden jump leap and tightly fasten upon them [Hebrew]. Frequently Unfortunately those reckless ones, by wasting their energies and by misapplying destroying their faculties in the prime of life, often involve other beings in their own fate, and occasion cause other beings to experience the effects of an untimely decay. Those heedless ones are old in looks, old in feelings,--which is infinitely incomparably worse, because they sought only what would procure the gratification of a passing hour, without allowing the second sober thought to act as a curb preventing the results of rashness, which are sure to be felt for many days and years. "Those who sow wrong doing will reap the same." [Hebrew] They are old because their interests were centred in them--selves and they did not go in quest of the ever returning and ever refreshing pleasure of allaying misery, of promoting the happiness of their neighbors. They are old, because the softening and yet [?] strengthening influences of religion--

--prayer and meditation--have been kept at a distance as useless and futile. You may, my Brethren, have met with such in your walks of life, and recognized the fact that they are not stricken in years, but withered by the blasting wind which their restless unruly passions have forcibly raised. For them the book of Proverbs wrote [Hebrew] "the years of of the unrighteous are shortened."
But you have doubtless seen also persons whom you know to have travelled on this terrestrial journey beyond the ordinary boundaries, and who show no signs of weariness. They enjoy the capacity of satisfying nature's wants because they have been chary not to abuse, nature [Hebrew] "Happy our soul, that has not showed our old age, exclaim the sages. they derived constantly renewed pleasure from laboring to further the welfare of individuals and of communities, because selfishness was brought by them under control, while their sacred ammonious and a firm reliance on Providence imparts elasticity to their limbs, and buoyancy to their minds. Those young-old persons win veneration as a richly earned reward; for in the same book of Proverbs

it's written [Hebrew] "old age is a crown of glory, it will be found in the way of righteousness."
Now you can understand the teaching which our Rabbis meant to convey, by their comment on the sentence which I have cited. "Abraham was old, well stricken in years, and God had blessed Abraham in all things". Pure in morals amidst a corrupt genera--tion, which did shameless violence to foreigners, both in their persons and in their honor, as evinced by the in-habitants of Sodom Egypt, of Sodom and Gerar; yearning with an affection so great deep for all mankind that urged him to offer earnest entreaties even for the atrociously wicked; mighty in that faith, which earned gained for him the just title of Chief of believers [Hebrew], the father of the Hebrew race saw years glide by without feeling that they carried away his powers to do good. Thus I construe the closing part of the sentence. "The Lord had blessed Abraham in all things." For what sweeter blessing can man experience gift can the Almighty bestow on man than that of retaining the warmth of sentiments in the winter of his

existence? The Talmudists, however, differ in their views about the proper application of that expression. Some suppose it to signify that the fruits of the patriarch's industry did not decrease, when he could no longer labor till the ground labor, through for the watching eye of a Ruling Providence rested thereon. Others, surmise that it alludes to his having overcome the ten trials of [Hebrew] to which he had been in a most re-markable manner the ten trials [Hebrew] to which he had been exposed. But of all the various opi--nions advanced,--each of which may point to a moral--I prefer that which explains God's bene--diction to have been a foretaste of the bliss of eternity, while yet on this side of the grave. [Hebrew] [Hebrew]. In what did such a beatitude consist? In the satisfaction of knowing that his child of promise would be his worthy successor; in having discovered in Isaac a dispositoin to hold fast to and spread further the religious ideas imbibed in the parental home. Hence, the anxiety evinced exhibited that those principles might not be lost imperilled through an ill-matched assorted alliance match; hence, the great care taken that Sarah's son should not bring to the tent made vacant by his mother's death, a woman whose blood had been tainted by the sins of the peoples

steeped in revolting idolatry.
Let me draw your attention to the wording of the oath which the Master exacted from the trusty servant to whom he gave a was committed a delicate and responsible charge. "I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of the heaven and the God of the earth, that thou wilt not take a wife for my son out of the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell". The mission which the founder of our religion assumed was one clearly defined. He would establish the Kingdom of God among men and let the ruled recognize their Ruler. What in the phraseology of Christian books bears the name of the lord's prayer, is nothing more than a wish, for the realization of that which Abraham first endeavoured to bring about. and for which For that we ourselves petition in the oft repeated Kedushá, and more expressively so in that of our Ashkenazic brethren, viz "May we hallow Thy name in the world, as it is hallowed in the highest heavens"

Gentilism of antiquity believed that the heavens Empyrean was inhabited by immortal beings, whom they called gods deities, bu divinities but that the mortals should be taken knowledge of by One Supreme Being, that the government of nations and individuals should fall under the immediate supervision of One all-seeing and all-regulating God, was an idea which their intellect could not grasp. Even master the elevated minds of an Ari--stotle in Greece and of a Cicero in Rome remained stran--gers to the sublimest of thoughts, which long centuries before, the shepherd of Ur Chasdim conceived and pro--pagated. Abraham taught the truth that the Creator is intimately related to His creatures, that He tenderly cares for them, and helps them to choose right when they incline their hearts are inclined to do right. The Talmudists discovered the embodiment of our patriarch's mission, in the oath which I have quoted. Thus spoke the master said to his servant. The God to whose guidance I commend thy steps for the happy issue of your journey, is He whom I have proclaimed as the God of the earth. Before Ere I had preached my doctrine, he was feared as a king of the sky. I have set up for Him

a throne in the world wherein we move, that He may ultimately be worshipped as the Monarch of all the [?] habitable globe. That confiding trust which animated and sustained the father of the faithful; that abiding reliance in the spread of righteousness, which rejuvenated and beautified the life of our patriarch, is the inheritance which we left for our enjoyment. May we value it, and not as its primitive owner, and meet him where he abides gloriously, for so write our sages. [Hebrew] On the mountain of the Lord, in the holy place, which they enter who are clean of hands, and pure of hearts, who have never sold undelivered sold their souls to vanity, nor stained their lips with falsehood, there Abra--ham stands. He whom the Lord blessed in all things, while alive on earth, dispenses cl celestial blessings to all who have taken chosen him as their exemplar. and present the The venerable Hebrew ushers in into salvation, those all May we be reckoned among those hereafter who have sought their deliverance beneath the shield of Abraham.

Identifier

p31g0jd23

identifier

SMBx9FF5_6