Lecture 19. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Lecture 19. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated

Author

Morais, Sabato

Location(s)

United States -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

United States -- Pennsylvania

Format

12 pages on 5 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/p3wm14c5n/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3wm14c5n

Provenance

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

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx12FF3_19.xml

content

Post Biblical Lecture
19

Brethren. Israelites of the present age, and in particular those in particular of North America, will scarcely appreciate the cause which hasten--ned the capture of the Temple by the army of Pompey. Our ancestors progenitors would not engage in manual labor upon the Sabbath of the decalogue. During the war of independence, Mattathias and his wise-hearted associates had exercised their authority also on matters of conscience with a to a good purpose. They had induced their coreligionists to set aside, for the time being, the holiness of the seventh day, when the law of self-preservation imperatively demanded it. That measure was sensible and in perfect harmony with the leading principles of the Pharisees, thus expressed in the Talmud: [Hebrew] "Nothing must stand in the way of sheilding one's own person from immediate danger." But in after years a distinction appears to have been made between bearing arms and fighting on the defensive, and raising fortifications, or throwing down embankments upon the Sabbath. Specially the Sadducees, who, like the Caraites of later ages, closely ad--hered to the letter of the Hebrew Scriptures, considered such undertakings on that day unwarrantable in any event. The seige which the Roman general had laid against the Sanctuary was proceeding slowly, for the beseiged kept the enemy at bay.

Our ancestors were quick in sending off their arrows with a deadly aim, and in demolishing engines of destruction. Finally, a curious circumstance was brought to the notice of the foreign enemy. Every seventh day, the Jews would look on inactively, see and only fire back when attacked. Had the perfidious Antipater directed attention to that? The sur--mise is not at all ill-founded. But Pompey however was but too glad to avail himself of the information. He ordered that not a bow-shot be discharged on that day; the time should be em--ployed in filling up the ditches, in undermining the towers; in drawing the battering-rams near the walls. At the expiration of three months a terrible gap breach was made on the north eastern side of the Temple. That ill-fated space opening gap invited the heathens to rush on to the slaughter. A massacre followed in which twelve thou--sand of our people perished. But not all of them were pierced through by the Roman javelin. Some having dis--puted in vain every inch of ground, in vain, fell by the sword in they grasped with their own hands; others cast themselves headlong over the embankments ramparts, rather than be cut down by the heathens pagans. A majestically appaling sight met the Romans. The priests had heard the crash which foretold their sure death.

They had heard the approach footsteps of their slayers, but did not stir. It was the great day of atonement, some historians have said. The servants of Israel's God continued in the performance of their Sacerdotal functions, till their blood crimsoned the floor of the hallowed edifice. Even a the soldier, inured to hardened in cruelty, was struck with awe admi--ration at such intrepidity. IT was natural for arbiters who have narrated dwelt on Ro--man exploits, naturally to have deemed that which a sense of deep piety and resignation dictated, the mere effect of superstition, but they themselves could not nevertheless withhold a meed of praise.
Josephus refers to Greek and Latin authors in support of his assertion narrative of that sublime episode. But Pompey having set foot on the spot so renowned through the known world, would see all which it contained. He even presumed to fling aside the veil which hid the holy of holies, and crossed its sh threshhold. Great was the astonishment in discovering there nothing but an empty space. No earthly, no heavenly representation arrested his attention. That, was incomprehensible to a polytheistic race. A service tendered to an invisible spirit could not be under--stood by men, whose folly had peopled the sky with mutually

loving and mutually hating gods and goddesses, and whose fancy chiselled them in marble, and moulded them in bronze, or drew pencilled them upon canvas.
A distinguished Jewish French author remarks that this very absence of images may have given rise to the charge of Atheism brought against us by the an--cients. As the adoration of false divination is a vi--sible shape, was then universally paid and deeply rooted into the minds, the report that Jews would not allow the representation of any likeness in their worship, forced the con--clusion that Jews must be the haters of religion; confirmed atheists. Whatever opinion Pompey may have formed, he certainly showed a consideration which neither his predecessors nor his successors evinced. He restrained his cupidity and that of his army. He did not rob the Temple. He commanded that it be cleansed of the human blood which had flowed within its precincts, and the usual rites be resumed. But the foreign chief was by no means so considerate throughout. Many a head which carried itself high was he cut off; many a possession which had dearly been purchased he seized; many a heavy tax he imposed.

The Roman general who pretended to have come to Judea to Jerusalem as a mediator and to settle a quarrel between two contending parties, acted with the merciless policy of his government. He divided to conquer. Hyr--canus, whose cause he prte pretended to warmly advocate, was ridiculously left a crownless king. Judea became a virtual dependency of Rome, under the vigilance of its cringing hierling--Antipater the Idumean. The warlike Aristobulus, with his two sons and two daughters were taken prisoners to Rome, as a trophy, to grace the triumphal entry of the victor into the eternal city. Queit was restored--the quiet of the grave; for how could peace be enjoyed with the loss of all that Maccabean valor had gained?
Suddenly the prevailing calm was disturbed. Alexan--der, the older son of Aristobulus had escaped from the hands of his captors. Round him rallied several thou--sands who had battled under his father. With them the dashing fiery youth made inroads into the country and harassed the Hyrcanus-party. Antipater who had done Rome service at various times, asked for assistance

to repel Alexander and his dashing [?] followers. Gabrini Scaurus, Antipater's friend had gone back to Italy, but Garinius who had suc--ceeded him as governor of Syria did not delay to comply with the request. He despatched an army marshalled by a captain famous in history; famous in among English speaking peoples through the creation of their immortal Shakespear. Mark Antony chal--lenged the young Jewish leader to the fight. The impetuous Alexander accepted, but he was overpowered and routed and compelled to rela retire into a fortress. There he would have sustained a long seige, and finally died of starvation, had not his mother's eloquence and personal bearing come to his rescue. That Jewess has been described by historians as one who favouring the the idolatrous overbearing Romans. I prefer to believe that she was loyal to her husband, the Asmonean; that only to save him and her children from an ignominious death she had not shared their captivity dissembled. Fearing that if Alexander defied the Roman power still longer, those dear to her in Rome would have been exacted, she presented herself before Gabrinius. Her address made a profound impression. Alexander

was allowed to leave the fortress unmolested, disband his troops and live in privacy. Gabrinius then dismantled the principal strongholds, and to further dismember Judea divided it into five districts, appointing a separate council over each of them. This arrangement, which ignored the claims of Hyrca--nus did not suit the latter, nor did it agree with the am--bitious plans of Antipater, who was in reality master of the impotent high-priest. But before any action had could been taken upon it, Aristobulus and his second son Antigonus had fled from Italy, and reached Palestine. The appearance of the two descendants of Mattathias was hailed by the patriots, who hated Rome and its mercenary vassal, Antipater. A vast multitude offered to stand by their former King and recover for him the royal diadem. Aris--tobulus accepted only some eight thousand picked men soldiers inured to the hardships of the field, and possessed of military knowledge. A rash attempt to break up the serried legions of Rome with a few com--battants! Prodigious acts of valor were displayed, the father and his son fought desperately, till covered with wounds

they fell into the en hands of the enemy. They were put in fetters and sent back to a Roman prison. It was due to a promise given by Gabrinius to the mother of Alexander, that the captives were not sentenced by the Senate to pay with their lives for their foolhardiness.
But the complete defeat and its sad consequences, did not calm the agitated spirits. Alexander tried again to accomplish with thirty thousand what he failed to attain with one third of that number. The result proved equally disastrous. Judea seemed fated never again to rise from a state of lowliness abject galling dependence. The last stages of her history are so closely con--nected with the events in Rome, that to explain the former, a reference to the latter is unavoidable[?]. My reference will be very slight.
The triumvirate of Crassus, Pompey and Julius Caesar had been formed. The three were to divide among them--selves the world and its riches. Crassus chose Syria, and superseded Gabrinius in Palestine.

All will remember the unenviable character of Crassus. He was said to be the wealthiest Ro--man and the most avaricious of men. Our people had suffered much by the greed of former consuls and governors. Judea had been plundered by those of the Greek and Latin race, yet, the conduct of such was generosity itself in when compared with the demeanour of Crassus. He entered Jerusalem as a friend of Hyrcanus, but more than for the priest, he cared for the Temple. He had The greed The covetous triumvir had learnt that to it the faithful, then scattered into different countries, sent precious offerings, and he determined to [?] make them his own. The guardians of the treasury would willingly had yielded much, if the rapacious Roman would only have respect consecrated vessels. One Eleazar, the chief super--intendent, after having received a solemn oath that nothing more would be asked, delivered to the thieving chief general a wedge of solid massive gold in the shape of a beam enclosed encased in another of made of wood, but Cressus va--lued oaths as much as he cared for the lives of his soldiers. He robbed, pillaged, profaned and outraged. Then leaving the Judeans to lament their impotency he turned his marched on to cohort to the country spread havoc in ruin in the land of the Parthians.

But there Nemesis awaited him. Treachery had been his companion through life, and by treachery he was caught into the snares of death. Pompey, the other member of the triumvirate, having grown jealous beyond bounds of Ceasar's popularity, resolved to rid him--self of an associate who was by far his superior in talents and resources and talents. The two rivals turned their country into the battle ground field of their bloody disputes. But before the decisive battle had been fought on the plains of Pharsalia, had been fought, Casar Caesar sought of bringing Asia under his control. He knew that Antipater favored Pompey, and he would therefore create a counteracting force. With that object in view, he set Aris--tobulus free, and gave him command over two legions. But the Asmonean King did not enjoy the opportunity, which he so fondly craved for. He was poisoned by men who sided with Pompey, and his body was preserved in honey till it could be carried to the ancestral burial place. Alexander met with a severer sadder end. At the instance if the same partizans of Pompey, he was beheaded in at Antioch, after a mock trial for treason.

As we mentally accompany those two brave Maccabeans to their untimely grave, we can almost see the shadow of the iniquitous Idumean pass before us with a joyful smile. For who but he could have brought about the fatal issue? Who but he was vitally interested in the extinction of the family, that gave us heroes, statesmen and sages? The race of the upstart could not rise but upon the ruins of the illustrious. As we proceed, we will be shown the waving of the chords of unrighteousness by which Antipater dragged us down to the lowest ebb of degradation and forced his own children up to the summit of power.

Identifier

p3wm14c5n

identifier

SMBx12FF3_19