Lecture 12. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Lecture 12. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated

Author

Morais, Sabato

Location(s)

United States -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

United States -- Pennsylvania

Format

10 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 12, Folder 3

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3fj29z0k/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3fj29z0k

Provenance

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

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx12FF3_12.xml

content

12th lecture on
Post-Biblical history.

Brethren. We are not about to celebrate Hanuccah, but my historical series requires that I shall speak of the events incidents which gave ori- fired up -gin the zeal of heros sainted men and gave origin to the semifestival of the Temple re-Dedication. I will do so be--cause necessary to the thread of history comprehension of the the chain of events which I have been sometime engaged to in realting but I will proceed with as much brevity as consistent with as the intelligeblenessnce of the subject well admits. I know that my audience can dispense with detailed accounts, and can fill up supply present omissions with that which has been narrated to them at length on other occasions. In this lecture which I delivered last, I told of the treasure of one man, who became a backbiter and an informer, and thus brought a worthy minister of God into disrepute, and endangered the honor of his religion, and jeopardised the welfare of his people. But that man was, after all, a stranger to the high-priest whom he tried to injure. We may surmise that some personal grudge or jea--lousy stirred up Simon the Benjamite to acts deeds of treachery infamy. But Still such feelings, unjustifiable in any human being, would not be expected in persons of supposed to lurk in the breasts of creatures in whose veins the same parental blood and flows. lineage Onias III was however so unfortunate enough as to find that those who had been nurtured by his mother,

and fed and cared for by the same loving father, plot--ted to supplant him and bring cause his grey hairs to be down with sorrow to the grave. A proverb in that Scriptural book, which deserves to be framed in gold, says that a lad will disclose even in his boyish actions whether his doings future conduct will be right and proper. Joshua, the brother of Onias showed early in life an unjewish turn of mind, when he exchanged a name of which he might have felt proud, for that of the fabulous hero of the Argonautic expedition--the Greek "Jason." And the sequel proved that hollow were his professions of adherence to the belief in the Unity, for that the priestly mitre he longed to put on wear he intended as a shield against the arrows of an outraged nation, & that he would not scruple stepping into power by trampling under foot the holiest institutions of his ancestral faith.
Seleucus King of Syria had died, and a suspicion lay on Heliodorus,--the official courtier whom he had trusted--, of having poisoned his master, to seize the crown. There was none at the time likely to oppose the usurper. Demetrius son of Seleucus was then kept at Rome, as a hostage. Antiochus, a brother of the late king, having left Italy, was travelling in Greece, and no doubt Heliodorus had no doubt taken precautions to gane gain the army on his side. The news of the usurpation spread

abroad and reached Antiochus while he was staying at Athens. He at their tindings he sudden Suprred by ambition, he hastened to Syria, and by with the aid of foreign soldiers fought Heliodorus, slew him and assumed the government under the title of Antiochus IV. He bore also that the surname of Epiphanes, meaning "the illustrious," but which in truth he could only claim that epithet of ferocity & fanaticism were synonymous with greatness. It was to this king, that Jason came, as an ambassador if feigning to present the respects of the Hebrew nation. The deceitful messenger Our ancestors had received a generous treatment from Antiochus III and his son Seleucus had not been honorably hostile to them, but the deceitful self-constituted ambassador knew well that the dissipated ruler craved for gold, and that that the new ruler he addressed was of a different temperament. Dissipated and greedy he craved for gold, but while his treasury was and sought it in vain in his exhausted treasury. Jason insinuated himself into the good grace of the new monarch, and offered to raise the Jewish tribute to about half a million of Dollars every year, if his older brother Onias should be stripped of the sacerdotal authority, and he himself be made high clothed with it. priest Then as an earnest of his willingness to please the Syrian ruler potentate, the traitor pledged hisself word to give devote a large sum towards building in Jerusalem a gymnasium and an academy. In the first, exercises abhorrent to the purely chaste religion of Moses were to be intro--duced; in the second, the philosophy of the school of

Epicurus was to supersede the study of the Law and traditions. Nothing better than that could meet with the views of a pof potentate sovereign steeped in vice and heathenism. Jason's unrighteous scheme, was therefore carried out in full. Onias was transported to the capital of Syria, so as not to be a hindrance to the consummation of the devised plan. devised The youths of Israel soon learnt were but too apt to learn how to rival their idolatrous neighbors in public sports and in the subtle & speculation & subtle knowledge of the Greeks. The Temple was deserted, and the teachings of the Hebrew Sages despised. Three years the impious Jason thus defied God and grieved to death the faithful ones among our people. He had the royal sanction and support, and he had the besides young a strong element in Judea on in his side favor. For our so many of our boys and girls were charmed with a change that broke the monothony of a life under Biblical and Rabbi-nical restrictions. But in an unlucky hour The old cry which [?] the wrath of the inspired Ezekiel sounded again: "We will be like other nations." and Jason was the man to gratify a prurient wish for reviva imitation. What, if the pious raised their heads in horror at his sending gifts to the Olympic games, so long as he was allowed to wield the sway. But in an unlucky hour for himself, Jason sent to pay the tribute to Antiochus IV, a younger brother, who like the oldest was called Onias, but who had taken the more euphonious Grecian name of Menclaus.

The Syrian King was just then preparing to go to wage war against Egypt, and naturally he felt the want of larger resources to defray the expenses of the company. Menclaus was not ignorant of the way by which his perfidious brother relative had won power. The teaching that Jason had practised, served as a pattern for his one near relative akin to copy. Menclaus assured Antiochus of an additional sum of three hundred thousand dollars, if he should be raised to the high-priesthood and Jason be set adrift. The King of Syria thirsted for gold. To him who had lived long enough in Rome to grow unscrupulous about the means of obtaining his accomplishing a purpose, Menclaus appeared a now preferable better tool than Jason. Accordingly, he deposed the latter and ordered that his younger brother should wear the mitre and breast plate the ephod & breast-plate. But Jason was not Onias who rather that plunge his country into civil war, allowed himself to be divested of the sacred office he worthily filled, and chose to live in exile and obscurity. Jason resisted his brother's pretentions demands, with the drawn sow sword. Menclaus was too feeble to attempt entering venture unaided upon the field of battle. The reprobate had reckoned upon a schism which he might create, but on discovering his dangerous situation, harried back to Antiochus

and requested an army to back his pretensions. To induce secure Antiochus to a ready compliance, the atrociously wicked Jew promised that once installed into his office, he would use his au--thority to surrender his land to Jupiter and Venus mythology, and chase away from thence Adonaï and the Torah. Now began the time that tried men's souls. Judaism or Gentilism; unyielding morality, or a pliant code of ethics; that was the burning question. I shall not relate th eper--fidy of Menclaus in robbing the sanctuary of its precious vessels and selling them to heathens to pay the an exhorbitant tribute as the price of his apostacy. bribe of iniquity. I shall not describe the indignation which that sacrilege aroused, and the manly protest of Onias III from the place of his exile banishment, and which protest remonstrance cost the good man his life. I will cast a veil over the unnatural contest between Jason and Menclaus, when Antiochus was reported to have died in fl fighting Egypt, and I will refer you

to the second book of the Maccabees for a narrative of the wretched end of the two detestable brother apostate brothers. But I must say a word in honor of the heros who did not flinch before the engines of tortures. Antiochus Epiphanes had reso reasons to believe that the Jews favored the Egyptian cause and looked anxiously for the down--fall of Syria and its aggressive ruler. Our coreligionists in North Eastern Africa could not have concealed their hatred of a King who had encouraged Jason and Menclaus in their [?] deed, of injury, who ground down the inhabitants of Pales--tine with exactions, and treated a tributary nation as me--nial slaves. Upon the battle ground field Antiochus must have met in Alexandria Memphis and elsewhere many Hebrews levelling their arrows against at his mercenary soldiers. And when he moreover was told that Jerusalem had shown signs of gladness at the tidings of his death, he grew impatient with revenge. To wreak it, he beseiged the capital of Judea, stormed it, and for three days let vented his fury, slaughtering away till the streets swam with in blood. Through it the maddened king waded and opened his way to the Temple. He resolved to pollute what Jews held as Hebrews considered sacred. Impure beasts

were seethed on the fire of the golden altar, and the holy courts besmeared with the loathsome flesh of the swine. To render the situation still more unbearable, he left as governor of Judea a certain one Phillip, a man of a ruffianly, ruthless and and rapacious. disposition. Then he sanguinely under--took a second campaign against Egypt. He had humbled Palestine to the dust; if he could only subjugate the proud kingdom upon the Nile, his name would be dreaded in the East Orient. Pont Antiochus IV committed the same error into which Antiochus III had fallen. He forgot to reckon an outside power that stood in every King's way, and dictated terms which dared not be refused. Alexandria was very nigh within the grasp of the Syrian ruler potentate, when he received a message from Rome couched in these terms: "Antiochus shall not make woe on the Ptolemies." The commissioner who presented the missive was happened to be an old friend whose intimacy the combatting king ruler had enjoyed during his stay in the eternal city. Antiochus fancied relying on that circumstance fancied that he might evade the danger of a denial reply answer question. But the Roman drawing a circle

on the sand with the point of his staff forbid Antiochus coming close to him before having assented to the order of the senate. In utter confusion & humiliation Epiphanes, "the illustrious," stammered out "I will." It has been written that the wrath of a king is a herald of death. To our fathers it proved death, but also resurrection. Antiochus retraced his steps from the spot whence he had imagined to re--turn covered with glory. Judea lay in his way. Upon it he would exhaust his deep-seated rancour and thus allay his mortification. Israel shall be no more a religion and a people. Extermination or Grecianism must now be the alternative. The Abrahamic covenant, the Sabbath, the dietary laws are an insult to civi--lization, let none be so rash as to observe them. The money for Temple worship, shall replenish the empty coffers of the ruling sovereign. And to execute this satanic decree, Appollonius was charged to spread terror around by fire and sword. But the extreme evil brought its wholesome cure. When tender women suffered themselves to be thrown from a high tower with their circumcised infants tied round their necks, rather than live in sin; when men venerable for their age and character, allowed the rack to tear their bodies, rather than let a desecration of the Law pollute their souls, then a spirit which had seemed irreconcilibly extinguished hopelessly quenched, flashed up anew. Metoism tolled. Men buckled on the armour to strike for their civil and religious rights upon Zion hills the ban--ner of freedom waved, set up by pure hands patriotism, pious ardor and the love of Truth.

Identifier

p3fj29z0k

identifier

SMBx12FF3_12