Lecture 13. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Lecture 13. 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/p32805h7j/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p32805h7j

Provenance

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

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx12FF3_13.xml

content

13th lecture on post-biblical history

Brethren. In the series of short post-biblical lectures, that I delivered at different intervals, during last winter, I had arrived at the period, in which the memorable events, that we have just celebrated, took place. I acknowledge my vanity. As I intend leaving those lectures, wit ha few more of writings of my pen behind me, in the hope that they may prove one day of some use to Philadel--phia Israelites, I had designed resuming my course last Sabbath. I believed that the season would make it then fitting to enter into details about the characters of the venerable priest of the house of Hashmonaï, or Asmonean, and his five heroic sons. But on reflection, I changed my mind. I remembered that the main incidents that gave origin to the Hanuccah festivity, are familiar to all my hearers. I therefore feared that a minute account might be wearisome. Should, however, kind hands undertake hereafter to collect any of my published or unpublished writings, and shape them properly to give them permanence,

many lectures on the Macabees will be found among my papers, wherewith to form a connecting historical link between what has been said before and what will follow.
Still, without speaking more particularly of the difficulties which Judah and his brothers grap--pled with and overcame after their father's death; of the wars they waged and the victories they won, I wish to leave a special record of the end, which those benefactors of our people met, in the pursuit of the noblest cause.
The battle of Bethsura manifested the intense earnestness of patriotism. The Syro-Grecians, mar--shalled by a general of consummate skill, had brought upon the field a redoutable army. It displayed a hundred thousand infantry, twenty thousand cavalry, and thirty two elephants, from the towered back of which combattants hurled their javelins with a fatal aim. Suddenly, one man is seen to break from the Judean ranks, and approach the hugest of those monstrous animals. He has opened

himself a way in the midst of troops, which his sword mows down like grass, and, crouching, stabs the hideous beast, and is crushed under its ponderous body. Who was that soldier that so rashly went going in search of a certain death? Why did he seek it in so strange a manner?...No rashness prompted that act. Love of Liberty impelled it. In the veins of that soldier ran the blood of Mattathias, the priest and and champion of his race. Eleazar erroneously thought that the elephant of immense size, whose trappings bore royal devices, held on its back the young Ruler of the Power which oppressed Israel. Samson-like he would cause by his fall a destruction havoc among his enemies. To die that Judea be free, and Judaism safe, was the irresistible impulse of that brave Asmonean. He of the fine va-liant brothers, was the first to lay his life upon the altar of his faith, as a voluntary offering.
What Eleazar longed for, Judah, the indomitable Mac--cabee, finally gained. The land of the patriarchs

after having been convulsed by the agonies of a threatened extinction, enjoyed for a while com--parative ease. But a fierce storm unexpectedly burst upon it. Our lion hearted deliverer was then ill prepared to weather it. Three thousand men only were at his disposal, when a fresh army led by Bacchides marched on Jerusalem, spreading terror and woes as it advanced. Defeat stared the those fighting thousands in the face. They could not be stirred up fro the unequal strife. Judah was implored to spare himself for better times, and seek safety by flight. "Never shall the rising sun behold so inglorious a sight" answered the fearless warrior. "Never shall it behold an Asmonean showing the foe his back." If this be my last struggle, posterity shall not say that I have stained by cowardice the record of an illustrious past." Eight hun--dred clung to our hero. Desperate but terrific is the onslaught. The daring few rush on the right wing of the opposing army, break its centre, and force it to a hasty retreat. Judah and his phalanx performs deeds of prodigious valour,

but the left wing has discovered the disorder with which the right was thrown. Quickly it closes upon the Maccabee; many a enemy lies at his feet. At length, overpowered by number, but still grasping his sword he falls where his precious blood crimsoned the soil he gallantly defended.
Profane history has handed down names, to which all instinctively pay homage. WE bow to the memory of an Aristides and a Cincinnatus, of a Robert Bruce and a Gustavuas Adof Adolphus, but our Judah claims the highest honor, because his prowess hammered down the citadel of Falsehood; his loyalty to Truth rescued a nation from debauching idolatry. Judah deserved eternity on earth, and a living monument has been reared to him in the hearts of the eternal people he benefitted. His body, recovered by his surviving brothers, received interment in the burial place of the noble sire, amidst the tea sobs and tears of grateful myriads.
But the cause for which the bravest of the Asmoneans sacrificed his existence, could not be lost, so long as any of Mattathias' sons lived. Jonathan assumed the command, and rallied the patriots to the defence of country and creed.

Discreet and full of caution, he perceived that he was unable, for a time, to measure arms with the Syrians. He therefore withdrew to a place of safety, and as an act of prudence, sent, by means of his brother Johanan, the military equipage and baggage, to the safe-keeping of a friendly tribe of Arabs. Johanan led the troops, which conveyed those im--plements of war, through the wilderness. They were proceeding straight towards their destination, when a horde of hostile Arabs surrounded them in a man--ner which precluded a manly resistance. The free--booter slaughtered every person, and plundered all property. Thus another member of an immortal family, stamped his name with the seal of mar--tyrdom to patriotic duty. But his blood did not remain unavenged. Jonathan vowed to make the marauding tribe pay dearly for their treachery. As they had done to his brother, so would he deal with them. Lying in ambush, he wished upon a large party, who escorted a princess to the city of the prince, her wedded lord; cut it off, and seized a

rich booty. The martial spirit, + not all the military genius, of Judah, shone upon Jonathan. Associated to the wise-hearted Simon, be compelled victory to perch on his banner. The faith-ful Judeans he inspired with fresh vigour; the faith--less he humbled to the dust. He rooted the Syro-Grecians and shamed Jewish Grecianists. He challenged respect and made veteran generals own that valor dwelt yet with the descendants of David. He studied opportunities, and with masterly ability lay laid hold thereof in the interest of his land and his people. Jonathan ought to have died full of years upon a bed of honored tranquillity. But fate decided otherwise. A fouler treachery than that which had set sent Johanan to an untimely grave, put an end to the life of Jonathan. He, naturally sagacious, and exceedingly chary, was entrapped in a snare which Perfidy had spread out. I Tryphon, an unscrupulous chief, who had raised on the throne of Syria a young son of his former master, with the ulterior motive to dispossess him of it to his and make himself king, re-quested an interview with our hero. Jonathan

agreed, but he arrived at the appointed place with forty thousand soldiers under his orders. Tryphon was not prepared for that significant greeting; Hence he simulated friendship. His tokens of regard were royal. He lavished gifts, and promised a surrendering of fortresses garrisoned hitherto by Syrian troops. He asserted that to settle that amicably, he had requested a personal interchange of thoughts. As a pledge of sincerity, he invited the Asmonean to accompany him with a small retinue, as far as Ptolemaüs, or Acco, promising to return that sea--port town to the Judeans. The deception proved but too successful. Jonathan believed. Dismissing his soldiers, he chose a thousand as an escort and entered Ptolemaïs. Fatal error! The gates were shut on him, and not one of his thousand men was left to tell that their mighty leader lay enchained in a dungeon. But Nevertheless, the dire event soon spread like a wild fire, and every patriot grasped the hilt of his sow sword. How to avenge the execrable wrong, without exposing the beloved defender of his race to an ignominious death, was the harassing thought. A nation grieved to the core and perplexed,

turned their eyes to a great counsellor. Simon, whom the aged father had declared a first in wisdom, was sought after. While Judah leaded a small but invincible band of fellow believers to the field of honor, Simon had stood as his brother's adviser. While Jonathan scattered the adversaries of Israel like chaff, Simon had lent his sabre and his pen. Now that the hour had struck, when he must sum--mon his arm and his intellect to the salvation of Judaism, Simon the Asmonean was not found wanting. Addressing his compatriots, he promised fealty to the grand cause for which his sire and his four brothers had freely bled. Then, as an earnest of his determination to thrust back the wretchedly vile Typhon, and, rescue Jonathan, he took vigorous measures to fortify and guard all assailable points.
In my next lecture of the course, I shall refer to what followed that soul-stirring event, and, briefly describing the administrative abilities and success of Simon, I shall narrate his tragic end. and the character of his successor.

Identifier

p32805h7j

identifier

SMBx12FF3_13