Jonah. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. 1897 · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Jonah. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. 1897

Author

Morais, Sabato

Date Created

1897

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 30

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3804z41v/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3804z41v

Provenance

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

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx9FF30_1.xml

content

S. MORAIS,
546 N. FIFTH STREET,
PHILADELPIHA, PA.

97
On the book of Jonah

On Friday of last week, while I was watching the ebbing away of a very dear friend's life, a reporter of one of our city journals, called at my house. In my absence, he left a note. He asked that I would furnish an article respecting a question agitating at present some of the Churches. In the evening, the same person called again, to inquire whether I had agreed to do as he wished. I answered that I could not attend to his request, it being then my Sabbath. The visitor left evidently displeased, because I did not at once prepare a writing which might show my standing theologically. His employer would display in capital letters how Jewish orthodoxy and Christ--ian orthodoxy share one the same opinion. But truly, in my mind, the very contrary is the fact. Our neigh--bors, born under what they term a new dispensation, are taught to believe that a verbal dictation of all of the Scriptures emanated from a heavenly Power. Therefore when a minister of the gospel--chafing under such a restrictive creed--gives utterance to broader views,

some of the churches rise up in arms. Not so the Synagogue. Intelligent Israelites, however reverent in their sentiments, will never acknowledge that in the lapse of many centuries, during which copyists wrote down the different books of our Bible, not a single oversight could ever have occurred. I incline to free the Pentateuch from that possibility for two reasons: firstly, because it being read seriatim every Sabbath, its correct readi wording became fastened upon our people's memory; secondly, because it being the very foundation stone of our religion, it command--ed the profoundest attention of our Scribes, so as to prevent the last inadvertence. Not so regarding the prophets and Hagiographa. Notwithstanding the care of our copyists to avoid any errors, it may have happened that discrepancies about names, dates, locali--ties or even the narrative of some events may have crept in. Now, if Heber Newton, or Professor Briggs, or Robertson Smith, or other occupants of Church pulpits had confined their criticism to what I have just alluded, I certainly would not declare them unfit to preach. Most assuredly I would not

raise a hue and cry to have them expelled from their office, if they did not subscribe to the absurd notion--held by some Anglican churches--that the so called authorized version of the English Bible, has a Divine sanction. But those learned clergymen have enlisted in the ranks of "the higher criticism", which does not scruple to put tear down roots and branches in Holy Writ. The lines of the patriarchs are in their sight sheer myths; the stupendous events by which the author of all things, made nature transcend its limits to help and to instruct some; to punish and confound others, they deny and denounce as impossibilities. Very lately Dr Layman Abbath of Brooklyn, scandalized protest--ant churches, by casting ridicule on the story of Jonah. He considered that narrative puerile and incredible, un--worthy of the Bible which Jews have preserved. Archbishop Ryan the head of Catholicism in our city, was interviewed, and he spoke. Rev Dr Henry Clay Trumbull, also of Philadelphia, the editor of the Sun-day School Times, set forth his opinion.

The former intimated that he is not disconcert--ed in the least, because his church takes no heed of writings opposed to what it has ac--cepted of old, and to which the highest authorities at rome, have applied their pontifical seal. The latter brought his erudition to bear on the subject, and discussed it in its various features. I read also on that topic an anony--mous article signed "a Jew" on that f topic, sen--sibly put together from a conservative stand-point. Now, to in my judgment the story of Jonah, has an essentially moral value. Let us first cast a retros--pective glance on the time in which the son of Amit-taï lived. The ten tribes, who had seceded from Judah and Benjamin, after the death of Solomon, & who, under Jeroboam the son of Nebat had constituted them--selves into a separate kingdom, were ruled then by Jeroboam II., son of Joash. That monarch had shown himself energetic and valiant. According to historical accounts, he had reconciled by his military prowess, a number of cities which Syria had forcibly taken from Israel. But if the political situation of the seceding tribes had improved under Jeroboam II., the religious condition

was still fast hurrying on to the a final decline[?]. Amos, not at all misled by the apparent success achieved on the battle field, pictured in colours not to be mistaken, the moral plagues praying upon the vitals of the state--the oppression of the poor; the luxurious extravagance of the rich; the looseness of domestic relations; the hypocritical performance of ritual ceremonials. Angered at that, a false preist accused the right--eous prophet of sedition. He would foretell of coming evils have them ba--nished from the kingdom. "Go" said he "flee to the land of Judah, earn there thy bread, and prophesy there". But the fearless denouncer of sin answered: "I am not a prophet, neither am I a prophet's son. I am only a herdsman, and a gatherer of wild figs. But the Lord took me from behind the flock and said unto me 'Go, prophesy against Thy people Israel'".
A contemporary of the undaunted shepherd-seer was Jonah son of Amittaï. Born at Gath Hepher--a city in the tribe of Zebulun--he could detected the approaching dissolution of the kingdom of Israel. Doubtless, Jonah lamented

sincerely the predicted doom of the nation, in whose midst he was born and reared. But he seemed to have lacked the courage of his convictions. A firm believer in God's heavenly attributes, the book which bears his name proves him to have been. His own words attests it. For he says: "I know, O Lord! that Thou art a compassionate and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in loving-kindness, and recalling an evil sentence." Yet Jonah could not rise to the height of an Amos and hurl the arrows of prophetic rebukes at men in power, who dragged a nation to the verge of ruin. Hence, when the celestial vision demanded of him a peculiar mission, distasteful to his feelings, he demurred. Jonah's disobedience was not the prompting of wickedness immorality, but rather the ef--fect of a deep-set belief. How could he go among the enemies of his own people, urge repentance, as a saving skill against destruction; & witness the happy effective immediate results of his exhortations? Would not Assyria, the mighty empire steeped in idolatry, who by hearkening to the admonition and repenting, make the obduracy of Israel

more shameful, more unpardonable, by contrast? Instead of embarking on a ship going to Nineveh, as commanded, Jonah sailed on another bound to Tarshish, or Tartisus, a city in Spain, early colonized by Phenicians. The story of the storm with its consequence is household words. It needs requires not repe--tition. The fugitive prophet saw in it the raging tempest the hand of the Lord of heaven, who made the sea as well as the dry land, & whose universal Power, he, as a Hebrew, feared. [Hebrew] [Hebrew] Such was his confession. But the moral conveyed by that untoward circumstances is deserving of our solemn consideration. The sailors on the vessel were not of the seed of Jacob. They had not received a Law which commands that no one should stand idly, when the life of a neigh--bour is threatened [Hebrew]; yet instinct--ively they tried with might and main to save Jonah from a watery grave. For, the Almighty has implanted in every human breast feelings of a common brotherhood, and men need not be Hebrews, in order to obey their dictates; But though those who have sprung from Abraham, the Hebrew, must on no

occasion, under no provocation turn a deaf ear to the humane ordinances of nature's God. Now, brethren, alluding to mo the tactics of the school of modern skepticism, I will remark, that the principal point of attack at which "the higher criticism" directs its weapons, is the narrative of a sea-monster having swallowed Jonah and laid him again unscathed on dry land, after three days. The first mistake lies at the door of the new testament, which declares ex cathedra the fish to have been a whale. Hence whales have been measured, to show the impossibility of the account left in the Jewish scriptures. But the truth is that I find no mention whatever in our test of a word justifying the translation inserted in the Christian scriptures. I read thus Jo" [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "The Lord had prepared a great big fish to swal--low up Jonah," thus leaving the question of the species of that dweller of the sea, undefined. I shall not quote the Rabbis, who say that a special monster had been created in the primordial days of the world,

of such a huge form that might answer a predestined Divine purpose. The Talmudists, may have intended in this instance, as usual with them, to allegorize. Nor can I presume to assert, like archbishop Ragan that naturalists have discovered how in ancient days sea monsters large enough to swallow not one persons but a number of persons together did existed, Nei--ther will I theorize like the Reverend Dr Trumbell, on the reason for punishing the disobedient messenger by means of an acquatic animal, alleging that it was to typify Jonah's mission to Assyria, whose chief deity was Dagon, an image partly represented partly in the figure of a man and partly in that of a fish. I simply will say that to attempt to explain the inexplicable is folly. The very first chapter of the Pentateuch tells that God created [Hebrew], that is, marine monsters of extraordinary size, the workings of which are absolutely unknown to me, but which, no doubt, serve objects designed by their Sovereign Maker. Aside from the great truth great who truth, which the Bible means to impart, namely, that the Author of nature can mould nature as He wishes and that what we call miracles is an amplification

of the limits originally assigned to nature by God, and not a violence done to it, aside from that verity, the story of Jonah teaches that to try to run counter to the ordination of our Maker, is to run to self destruction. But a still more important lesson we Jews derive from the four chapters of that small book in our Bible. We learn that the prophets of Israel were sent by the Universal Father not only for the sake of our people, but for the moral improvement of all sentient beings, even for the benefit of those who erroneously worshipped imaginary deities, in order to the Almighty would prevent their disastrous end, through which national corruption must bring on. Therefore God commissioned one of His servants to warn and to admonish gentiles. The short-sighted messenger did not grasp the sublime object. He lamented the repentance of heathens, lest it reflect on the stubbornness of his own people. Jonah cared more for the [?] which afforded him a shelter form the rays of the sun than for myriads of the idolatrous Ninevites, and he was rebuked by the Uni--versal Creator. How fitting it is, that on Yom Kippur, the day set aside for our most serious reflection on penitence and fraternal reconciliation, how fit it is that the book of Jonah should be read in every Synagogue, where believing Congre--gations assemble in prayers and fasting! I shall let the Higher Criticism sharpen the weapons of ridicule to strike the little volume in our safe keeping. I will still glory to hold it in our possession and point out the broad views and sublime noblest of principles which it aims to teach mankind.

Identifier

p3804z41v

identifier

SMBx9FF30_1