Lecture 27. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Lecture 27. 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 4

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3vm43g6w/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3vm43g6w

Provenance

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

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx12FF4_7.xml

content

Post Biblical lecture
27

Brethren. In the general view which I have asked you to take of the annals of our ancestors during the existence of the second Temple Sanctuary, your minds have mostly been directed to men and events in Palestine. To day you are requested to turn away your looks awhile from Jerusalem and notice the checkered life of a Jew in Rome. The Hebrew lad to whom I allude had lived there long from his boyhood and was raised among the childrens and relatives of the emperor Tibe--rius. Asmonean blood ran in his veins, but all that was left in him to recall his noble descent was a disposition to associate with the great, and to give largely of his means to show a generous spirit. His father was Aristobulus, the son of the unhappy Marianne, and whom the unnatural Herod had executed on suspicion of treason. His mo--ther was Berenice daughter of the wicked Salome, the sister of Herod. The latter had called his grand child Agrippa, in honor of a relative and general of Augustus Caesar, who bore that name. Owing to political agitations in the capital of Judea,

Berenice had emigrated to Rome and taken there her young son Agrippa and her daughter Herodias. Their income derived from family bequests--was not sufficient to enable Agrippa to vie in splendor with patricians and princes. So long as his mother lived, he was somewhat checked in his extravagance, but after her death he indulged in it beyond measure. His wife Cyprus, who was his first cousin, and whom he married early seems to have been an estimable person, and moderate in her wishes, but Agrippa could not be restrained by good wise counsel. He spent both what belonged to him--self and what was the property of relatives and friends. His ambition to shine among the mag--nates of the land became uncontrollable, and he con--tracted debts, which he could not possibly discharge. Hunted Harassed by creditors, and ashamed of his poverty, he stealthily left Rome Italy and journeyed to Judea. It will be remembered that his sister Herodias had gone there before, when she shamefully deserted her husband in Rome to marry Herod Antipas ruler of Galilee. At her request, Agrippa

received the nominal office of governor of Tiberias--the newly built city--, with a modest pay, but he was by nature too proud to remain there long and his brother in law was too mean. This one did not let let an occasion pass by, when he could make Agrippa feel little, throwing into his teeth the mo favors gained by relatives, and without which the high spirited Maccabee would be in a miserable condition plight. To a man like Agrippa such reproaches were deep wounds. He could not endure them, and he soon left departed from Galilee to go to Syria, where he hoped to find help in the Roman governor, with whom he had been on familiar terms at Rome. But even there political intrigues com--pelled him to wander further in search of means to keep life. Through a freed slave of his mother, he obtained a loan on usurious interest. With it that money he had determined to return to Italy, but he had not travelled far, when a previous creditor stopped him short and demanded his money due. Agrippa promised it, but knowing that to pay up would be to remain penniless, escaped at night and reached

Rome, where he met with a hearty welcome from at the hands of the emperor Tiberius. Scarcely had he the time to congratulate himself on that reception, when a letter arrived from the creditor who had overtaken him been baffled in Syria, explaining to Tiberius the uggly conduct of Aggrippa. The emperor peremptorily ordered that the debt be discharged according to promise. Agrippa had again recourse to some of his mother's friends for a loan. and He would have thus continued to drag an existence, making debts to pay up debts, and would have died poor obscure and unhonored, but for his intimacy with Cassus Caligula, grand nephew of Tiberius. Yet, over this close friendship came very near to sending him to the scaffold. One day the two were riding out and talking louder than discretion would suggested, Agrippa expressed the wish that Tiberius might soon die and Cass Caligula mount up the throne. by the driver was overheard The conversation was overheard by the driver, and the impru--dent Agrippa was cast into a prison and heavily laden with chains. For six months he lay there uncertain of the sentence which might be

passed on upon him. One day morning Unexpectedly a freed slave who had been in the service of the Asmonean family called at the prison and cried in Hebrew "the lion is dead." Agrippa understood it and broke out in exclamations of joy at his forthcoming deliver--ance. The prison's keeper believing that Tiberius had really died, congratulated Agrippa and invited him to a rich dinner. But while eating, the news came that the emperor had only fainted. and He had revived and would be up again. Terror stricken, the host and his guest imagined already that their doomed had been sealed. Consternation seized every body, for all Rome had thought hoped that the tyrant had passed away, but what nature failed to do, foul play did accomplished. Tiberius was suffocated smothered under bolsters and pillows. Caligula having been pro--claimed emperor, exchanged the Agrippa's iron chains into for golden ones of the same weight, and gave presented them to Agrippa him. As Phillip his uncle, son of Herod I, who had ruled over a third part of Judea with wisdom and kindness, had died without children, Caligula gave that bestowed the same pro--vince to on Agrippa and added to it other principalities.

Thus Agrippa actually stepped from a jail to a throne. But Herodias, wife of Herod Antipas felt jealous of her brother's good fortune. The worthy daughter descendant of her grand-mother Salome, began to devise new schemes for her husband's further aggrandi--sing request to go to Rome, but finally was in--duced to accompany her and represent matters in a way which might prove useful to them--selves and hurtful to Agrippa. But It hap--ened precisely as predicted by the psalmist: "the wicked are ensnared in the work of their own hands." Agrippa prevented anticipated the evil designs of his unkind relatives, and Caligula detecting a conspiracy, allowed him the country of which he had dispossessed Antipas entirely. This prince was banished to Lyons in France and her as his brother Archelaus had been transported to Vienne. It must be recorded to the credit of his wife Herodias, that although Caligula, gave her leave to choose her residence and enjoy some of the revenue of her for--mer dominions, she preferred to share her hus--band's exile and lowly condition.

But Cassus Caligula, who began his reign as a mild and upright ruler, soon turned to be a fiercely brutal and impious. He had sent issued orders that wherever Rome's supreme power was acknowledged, su--preme in power, his likeness should be set up in temples and adored as a divinity. To any other people but the Jews, the demand was of no con--cern. One god more or less seemed perfectly immaterial. But to our fathers, the command occasioned anguish of spirit. The Greeks of Alex--andria were the first to insist on declaring Cali--gula a god and compelling all to worship him. Their object was to stir up hatred strife against the Hebrew race, and they succeeded but too well. The hatred they bore our people was deep inveterate and undisguised. Already when Agrippa passed through Alexandria on his way to his dominions, they had offered him a gross insult, by dressing a beggar as a king and in tatters of different kinds giving him a stick to hold, pretending he was a king, and calling after him Mari, which in Aramaic language means, "my lord", and now they accused the Hebrews all Israelites of treason against Rome for refusing to pay divine honors to its head. Matters took assumed a very serious turn aspect, when synagogues were attacked and the attempt

was made to forcibly place idols therein. Alexandria looked like a battle ground, our ancestors stoutly fought back their assailants, and scenes of carnage were perpetrated. At last a deputation was sent to Rome to seek redress and protection. The most famous among the Jews who undertook to plead for our people was Philo. His copious writings in the Greek language on religion and philosophy have given him a name which will never die. He Philo Judge--or Philon or Jedidiah Alechsandri--has left an account of his mission and a description of the madman Ca--ligula, running as he ran from room to room, stopping a moment to rail at the Jews, because they sacri--ficed to a God they did not know, and denied homage to a god whom they could see, and then going off in a rage, and turning again to the embassy to ask why Jews did not eat pork. Philo The illustrious Alex-andrian Jew, was not successful in his mission, but he and his colleagues must have considered themselves for--tunate to be dismissed by the despot with only the following remarks: "these people are less wicked than

they are unlucky and stupid in not believing in my divine nature." At Jerusalem the resistance to the emperor's will was so deter--mined that Petronius the governor of Judea dared not enforce it, lest rivers rivers of blood flow through the land. He agreed to write to Caligula and tell him the state of feelings existing, though he was sure that his letter would cost him his life. but before that missive arrived, Agrippa had found the way to gain a point which no other man in the world could attain. Informed of what transpired in Asia and Africa among his coreligionists, and being then at the time in Rome, he invited Cassus Caligula to a supper. The food and the art with which it was served surpassed the most ex--travagant expectations. The would-be god drank freely, and appeared was put in so good a humor, that he pressed Agrippa to ask any favor, giving his royal assurance that, however great, it would still be granted. Agrippa very adroitly answered that what he had already received, was suffer abundant proof of the goodwill of the Roman emperor towards his vassal.

He would ask nothing more for himself. But Caligula still urging him on to try the extent of his friendship, Agrippa said: "I do not crave for riches; you have honored me enough with them, but I crave for a favor which will give you the name of an upright man, and me the great honor high distinction of knowing that I have never petitioned you in vain. Pray, let the statue which you wish to have placed in Jewish temples, be not set up there." Caligula was thunder-struck. He never anticipated such a request, but he had pledged his word in the presence of all the Roman quests to grant any favor, and a retraction would have brought contempt and self humiliation. He wrote to Petronius that if his statue had already been set up, it should not be taken down, if otherwise it should not be forcibly placed in Jewish temples. But when the letter of Petronius came to hand, and showed the resolve of our people to fight to the bitter end rather than submit, Caligula grew furious and

and wrote immediately back to the govern--or to choose of what death he wished to die. Providentially the horrid message was detained; it did not reach its destination till after the news of the assassination of the tyrant had restored tranquility. Agrippa was still in Rome when the emperor was dispatched by conspirators. Being an adept in politics,--a thorough diplomatist--he induced his friend Clad Claudius, uncle of Caligula, whom the army saluted king to accept the crown and the Senate to agree to the selection. The reward he obtained for that service surpassed his most sanguine anticipa--tions. Claudius exalted him to the rank enjoyed by his grand father Herod I. Once again and for the last time, the lands of Israel was recon--structed and placed under one head. Agrippa be-came its sovereign. In another lecture, I shall speak of his short rule and of the manner in which it was exercised.

Identifier

p3vm43g6w

identifier

SMBx12FF4_7