Lecture 16. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Lecture 16. 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/p3j960v4g/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3j960v4g

Provenance

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

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx12FF3_16.xml

content

Post-Biblical lecture
16th

Brethren. The historian would have a delightful task, if he could always relate that families who rose to eminence, in a community, through their own praiseworthy demeanour, succeeded in maintaining, for ages, their standing and re--putation. But instances of that kind are more than rare. Often, too often, pride, ambition, avarice, many unruly passions supplant destroy the seeds of ancestral virtues, so that the second or third generation will witnesses a sad decline. in the They will see the descendants of those, whose greatness seemed destined to continue without end sadly chan deteriorated changed. A melancholy illustration of this fact, are is offered by the offspring of John Hyrcanus. The rule of that son of Simon, the As--monean, had brought redounded to his glory to himself and to that of Israel. With the exception of his having allowed the error he committed, in his latter days, in having allowed a fit of anger, to estrange him from the popular Pharisees, and make [?] draw him favor among towards the aristocratic Saducees, his life was an uninterrupted series of triumphs to the national cause. Not so the life of his successors. Hyrcanus had left five sons, but his last will and testament declared demanded directed that his wife was to should act as regent, till his second son Antigonus had grown older.

Possibly, the remembrance of that banquet, which had was attended with unfortunate consequences--as I explained in my last lecture of the course--had taught the Prince wisdom. He may have determined the dying ruler to make provisions for a separation of church and state. He may have wished finally to entrust Aristobulus, the his eldest, with the government, and to invest Antigonus with the priesthood. But Aris--tobulus goaded on by an uncontrollable greed of for power, seized the supreme command before his mother could had the time to set forth and enforce her claims. With horror I tell it. He cast into a prison her that had given him birth into a prison and having put laid his three in fetters three of his brothers, who might have opposed his audacity, in fetters, assumed the a title never worn by his pre--decessors, that of King of the Jews. But Destitute as that unrighteous king was of the moral qualities which had adorned exalted characterized his family, he possessed nevertheless the military prowess of the Mac--cabean race. He had fought side by side with his father in the campaign against the Samaritans, Samaria, and his younger brother had been his brave companion on the field of battle. Aristobulus was therefore partial to Antigonus; and had even shown a disposition to make him share the kingdom. But the prophet has written; that the wicked are like a troubled sea, which cannot rest.

Such was the precise state of Aristobulus--rolling and tossing upon a sea of fears. His wife Salome, or Alexandra, who disliked her young brother in law, had poisoned the mind of her husband. She insinuated that Anti--gonus was plotting to make himself absolute ruler the sole king. And he who had cause to fear dread Divine vengeance punishment, believed.
Antigonus had just won a brilliant victory over the Itureans--an Arab tribe, whom he, wrongfully, compelled to accept Judaism--and come back had returned home covered with glory. Aristobulus who was lying sick at the time, heard of his brother's return arrival, of his having gone to the Temple followed by his conquering victorious soldiers, and dressed in a magnificent armour, of his having stood forth and offered a prayer for the recovery of the king, and of the deep impression his appearance had made. Queen Salome and her favorites, playing on the excitable temperament of Aristobulus, interpreted that incident with malice aforethought. They alleged that Anti--gonus was trying false; that he tried to ingratiate himself with the people, and that he was so as to preapreing the way to get rid of for supplanting his brother, at the first opportunity. Aristobulus was loth to credit it, for in reality he loved the valiant Antigonus. Accordingly, he sought an interview with the latter, and sent a message that he should immediately present himself immediately at the palace.

But he gave secret orders that if his brother came in his military garments, he should be killed before he reached the king's chamber. The treacherous queen won the messengers over to her side, and induced them to say to the unsuspecting youth, that the king desired to see how splendidly he looked in the new armour he had lately worn. Antigonus was crossing a dark passage leading from the Temple to the royal castle of Baris, when the dagger of an assassin slew struck him dead. The news of that unnatural death tragedy, brought on the unnatural son and brother a paraxism of grief which culminated into a severe hemorrhage. The servant who carried away the basin fell on the spot in which Antigonus had been murdered, and the blood of the wicked met that of the innocent which cried for vengeance. Artistobulus slew the hand of a Righteous Judge sle stretched to strike him, and he soon expired in the agonies of remorse.
His demise was the deliverance release of his imprisoned brothers. The mother had died--I prefer to believe from her having denied herself food in her anguish of mind, than to credit the report that Aristobulus had starved her to death. By the influence of Salome, Alexander Janneus was crowned king.

Of all the sons of John Hyrcamus, Janneus, or Yannaï as he is called in the Talmud, ought to have been the excluded last to raise from power holding sway. For his father had entertained shown an open dislike to for against him. Josephus attributes it to a certain dream at the time of the child's birth, but it may be that other motives influenced the parent. If this had entertained fore--bodings about the future of that son, his presentiments were fearfully too well founded. realized. For Alexander Janneus marked stained his first step to the throne with the blood of one of his surviving brothers, allowing while he let the other, who was of a peaceful temperament, to live in honored comfortable obscurity. To tell the history of that Asmonean ruler, would be to relate the history of foreign and civil wars, of defeat and discontent, of infidelity and immorality. It would be to show a stormy life, which began in blood shed and ended in debauchery. For the warlike disposition of Janneus led him to constant fighting, in which he was seldom victorious and frequently vanquished. He fought the Syrians and lost; he fought the Arabs and lost, and as a mutual hatred existed between the King and the bulk of his people, he surrounded himself with foreign troops. Like the Popes of Rome before the unification of Italy that Jewish Pontiff called upon his Swiss soldiers to slaughter away, whenever he found his temporal or sacerdotal dominion in jeopardy.

The Judeans were belonged mostly to the sect of the Pharisees. They looked with dissatis--faction upon a descendant of Mattathias, who openly provokingly defied the ancestral traditions. One day, on the feast of Taber--nacles, when Janneus was about to offer the libations in a manner contrary to rule, a Pharisee threw at the King the citron he was carrying in his hand,--an indignity, which others soon imitated. That scandalous scene in the Temple, cost the lives of six thousand persons, who had assembled for the worship. During a number of years, Alexander Janneus contended against struggled in vain to over crush the revolutionary party, which constituted the largest majority of the Jewish people. Over fifty thousand perished through that unhappy struggle contest. Weary of the contest, i[?] quarrels, the king took occasion advantage of a signal victory he had gained, to send for the national representatives, of the nation, and ask what he could do to bring about a reconciliation. "To die," was the instantaneous reply. The answer widened the rapture, but Janneus knew how to take revenge for public insults. His cruelties were gained for him the horrid epithet of "Doker" Assassin. Some of are of opinion that the name given him, by reason of his ferocity, was "Thracida," meaning barbarous, as the Thracians were reputed to have been.

But I dislike am loth to dwell on a subject which brings to view the degeneracy shocking depravity of a scion of the illustrious Asmonean family. English speaking Jews will find an elaborate ac--count of the reign of Alexander Janneus, written in choice language and with much erudition, in the second volume of the Post Biblical History of Dr Morris J. Raphall, late Rabbi Preacher of in the Bené Yeshurun congregation of New York. With that Jewish divine, I admit that the authority we have, may, in a measure, be prejudiced one sided. Janneus may not have been altogether the monster, which Josephus, who was a pronounced sure decided Pharisee, makes him. That some of the Talmudists call him Yannaï "Rashang" wicked, it cannot excite surprise, for the Talmud, which is jealous for the preservation of ritual laws, could not have transmitted handed down a good report of a king, who not alone disobeyed those laws, but defied despised and persecuted the guardians thereof. We are told, that when a slave belonging to Janneus had been guilty of man's slaughter, the Sanhedrin, summoned also the King. He came and sat seated himself. down The President, Simon Ben Shattach, said "Rise, for now thou art not now in the presence of mortal beings, but before the Supreme Judge, whom we represent."

The King haughtily replied: "Not as thou sayest, but as they say." Simon Ben Shattach turned to his colleagues, but they, intimidated by the looks of the arbitrary ruler, hang their down their heads. The President sternly rebuked their administered a scathing rebuke. At another time, to spite the Pharisees, whose detestation of their king was so intense, and as frequently to [?] break out into insur--rections, he slew some and forced others into exile.
Simon Ben Shattach, who was the queen's brother, secreted himself, till his sister's influence restored him to liberty. Yet, notwithstanding his the numerous crimes of Alexander Janneus, it may be that prejudice omitted the description of redeeming qualities, and painted in darker blacker colours what was sufficiently repulsive. Certain it is, that his was he ever evinced a turbulent spirit. While suffering acutely with a fever, he resolved to lay seige against Ragaba--a fortress on the eastern side of Palestine. The queen accompanied him in that expedition, from which he hoped to issue forth gather a harvest of glory. But the hour had struck, when the degenerate Asmo--nean, would be summoned to the highest tribunal. Terror seized his royal consort, at the thought of what might befall herself and her offspring.

She wept and lamented and begged that he would make some disposition for her safety and that of her children. She knew too well how unpopular her family had become. Janneus recommended that she would conceal his death from the army, till the fortress had been taken. She should, meanwhile, hasten to Jerusalem and place leading Pharisees in important offices. Then bring some prominent members of that sect to view his dead body, and ask that they might do with it as they deemed best; give it a burial, or expose it to public disgrace. And he added. "If thou wilt follow my advice thou wilt be queen, in accordance with my testamentary request, and the Pharisees will accord to grant me a funeral more splendid than thou couldst ever give." Alexandra obeyed the parting injunction, and thus she secured for her husband a magnificent obsequies, and for herself the throne. In my next lecture I shall speak of her character and of the stirring events, during her reign.

Identifier

p3j960v4g

identifier

SMBx12FF3_16