Lecture 42. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Lecture 42. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated

Author

Morais, Sabato

Location(s)

United States -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

United States -- Pennsylvania

Format

11 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/p36t0hf62/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p36t0hf62

Provenance

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

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx12FF4_22.xml

content

Post Biblical
42

+ could the spirit of Gamliel II have assumed a bodily form, what a withering rebuke they would have recieved, who, a few days ago, offended the memory of the Sage, and defied Judaic rules! A dead Rabbi--so named--whose corpse clothed in a superb official robe, casketted in satin2 and silver1 artistically wreathed with floral tributes unique in their costliness, was a sight to excite the wrath of a the real Rabbi, who ordered to be interred in striking exceptional plainness. But we have lost the simple habits that so beautifully distinguished our people, and another Gamliel might have tried in vain to prevent the a show in the Newark synagogue. In Jammia such senseless pageantry

So distant are the intervals which I allow between each lecture of mine on post biblical history, that nearly always I find it necessary to refresh the memory of my hearers, by alluding to the subject treated in the preceding one, before I deliver another. When I last spoke of the schools flourishing in Judea, I sketched very briefly the life-work of Jo the successor of Johanan Ben Zacckaï, the founder of an academy of sacred learning lore in Jammia. I did not dis--guise the fact that Gamliel II had shown at times a temper apparently unbecoming of the cha--racter of a spiritual guide, but I called summoned history to my support and defended the Sage from the charge of self-will and pride of office. I spe--cially proved his absence freedom from all ostentation by citing the directions he left concerning the simplicity of his own burial, when funerals were universally unwarrantably made public occasions for extravagant display. + But with the death of Gamliel II would not be allowed, after the demise injunction of the great chief man the prestige of the Jammia college, who had presided over its famous school of learning. Now as to the latter, its prestige for the reten--tion of which the the President thereof Gamliel had been so tenacious, as to incur the displeasure of his colleagues, died also away. soon vanished at the decease of the great chief. of its chief

For days the deepest gloom and sorrow began followed. Our ancestors must have believed that the Syro-Grecian monster--Antiochus Epi- that the whole weight of national sins of ages past had been laid upon them, that -phanes had resurrected in the person of the they would now be irrecoverably crushed; that the Torah was doomed hateful Hadrian. to perish together with Israel. The persecution about the year 130 of the vulgar era, enacted by that Roman Hadrian, emperor, precluded the possibility of meeting to study and keep up the knowledge of the written and oral Law. Disobedience to this was the commandments of Sinai was imposed on penalty of death. Those who dared the imperial edict, and in spite of it taught and practised the Mosaic ordinances, were flayed alive, and endured other manner of tortures too harrowing to be described. Indeed, some of the Rabbis, noticing that the dread of the executioner led many to desert the faith, advised the suspension of all religious statutes, till more suspicious terms arrived, limiting their recommendation to the ob-recommending only to observe -servance of the rules which prohibited under all circumstances, idolatry incest and murder. In Talmudical writings this awfully soul-trying period is known by the name of [Hebrew] the period of compulsory apostasy.

Simeon who should have succeeded his father in the presidential chair at the Academy of Jammia, had miraculously escaped death. He hid away in parts unknown, perhaps in Babylon--then Parthia--, where an immense population of Jews had lived since the first destruction of the first Temple. Happily, the murky clouds lowering over the heads of our people, scattered away, the persecution for conscience sake, set in incited by the hateful Hadrian, did was not continue long of very long duration. A just God "whose eyes are too pure to behold inequity" [Hebrew] avenged our cause and the would be philosopher, who tyrannized over our people a remnant of Israel the seed of Abraham, perished expired amidst insufferable bodily pains, which his pretended stoi--cism could not allay. The ascending of Antoninus, deservedly called "pious," upon the throne at Rome, was a joyful event to down trodden Israel. The new emperor-broad minded and cultured--had rescinded the cruel mandate of his predecessor, and allowed the Jews to follow their ancient creed and disseminate their learning. The Talmud naturally sees in Antonius a benefact--or, and surrounds his name with a legendary drawn from the minds appreciative of the worth of the good & great sovereign

All hopes of recovering retrieving regaining political independ--ence had fled, since the last ineffectual struggle under Bar Cocheba, and the bloody massacre at Bither, but the facility received now obtained to make the Bible and the traditions imperishable, was a boon which our progenitors valued beyond all price. The schools reopened, and a2 wider scope; and a1 fresher vigor impulse was imparted to given them. Simeon had returned from his place of concealment at as soon as the tidings of brighter prospects for the future of Ju--daism had reached his ears. He had gone He went to Jammia, that he might with a view to revive the glory of the spot associated with the honored name of his parent, but the most illustrious Sages of his time, who had outlived the persecution, had established an academy in a city called Obsha. Simeon discovered perceived that the supremacy once enjoyed by Jammia could not be recovered, and he joining his colleagues in Obsha was acknowledged in Obsha as chief by reason of his descent lineal descent from Hillel. Before I cease speaking of the school of learning, founded by through the zeal of Johanan Ben Zacckaï, and celebrated deserted abandoned in Talmudical annals the days of Simeon, I must quote a saying of the teachers who were wont to gathered there to impart sacred knowledge.

That saying reveals the right true estimation in which manual labor work, however humble, was held by our preceptors of old. We read: [Hebrew] [Hebrew]. The Rabbis of Jabnè used conversationally to make such remarks as these: to one another [Hebrew] "I am a creature of God, and so is my neighbor; my calling is in the city, he has his own in the country. I rise early to see to my affairs, and so does he. In the same manner as my neighbor (a plain laborer in the fields) does not get grow proud over his vo--cation, so ought I never to become haughty because of mine. One You might say: Why, I earn vast amounts, he earns only a small sum. Let such a one Remember that God does did not promise to re--gard the rich because he can make who could bring in a large offering to the Temple, more than the poor who offered little. The heart must be right (principles must be correct) to receive a Divine approval. It means: Let us understand it: work is honorable, if pursued with honesty and diligence. The horny hands of him who handles holds the hoe and the pick axe are is as valuable to society as that of the extensive merchant who puts down the account of goods exported or imported, or even of that

of him who sits in the hall of legislation and writes laws for a people's government. All workers are necessary to the mainte--nance of civilized communities. None are despi--cable, but the hangers on and idlers hangers on and the false. None but those who fold their arms in idleness, and look up for miracles to ammass gold. Beautifully did the last president of the Jammia college illustrate in one of his maxims the principles rules that should guides the creatures of the earth in their intercourse. Simeon Ben Gam--liel says: "the world exists through the exercise of three virtues; truth, justice and peace" [Hebrew] Truth is the secret spring of success individually and nationally, but when accompanied with a sense of justice, which demands that we should do to others as we wish to be done by, and with the still gentler sentiment of --peace--inspiring self control and self-denial for the sake of promotion union, then our homes are safer than if guarded by armed helmetted dreaded soldiers, then are our countries are protected, better than by a standing armies. Did the character of Simeon son of Gamliel II, who the sage man who taught so well, illustrate exemplify his preaching?

Studying it, I found that the Sage possessed deep sagacity a keen intellect, enabling him to grasp a penetrate into abstruse questions, in all its bearings, that he was very learned as a scholar, and profound as a thinker, but I discovered also that, being human, he was fallible. Hence, his pre--sidency was not free from trials of his own creation. With truth and justice he was girded, but he lacked the splendid ornament, which so embellished the character of his ancestor Hillel--peace; a dis-position to wave the right privileges due to his lofty station, in order to conciliate opponents ensure peace. Like his father he seemed to have entertained an exaggerated opinion of the dignity of his station office, as the recognized chief. The respected which he claimed and and resolved to receive at all hazards in his official public capacity, awakened against him to a degree, the antagonism which his parent had aroused drawn upon him--self. But to speak of that and of other events connected with the life of Simeon of Jam--mia, would be to narrate history in full, while whereas I simply mean to trace some some short faint outlines simply for the instruction of youths, that they may learn understand how knowledge kept our people alive.

I may nevertheless appropriately remark that in more than one respect Simeon illustrated the Rabbinical adg adage: [Hebrew] "the child is the re--production of his parents." He caught the spirit of his immortal father. Gamliel II had rebuked extravagance at funerals, as a waste and a burdensome task tax upon the living, and had sought to put an end to it by his last will and testament. His son told us that "good people do not need a monument over their graves. [Hebrew] their words will eternize them." To my mind The sentence of Simeon stands in fiery letters before my minds eyes as often as a melancholy duty takes me to Jewish cemeteries, and I lament the vast sums sunk there in marble and bronze. Rain and wind, snow and frost will wear out the most stately mausoleums. Posterity may be unable to decipher even the names once engraven thereon, but words that charity dictates and take a practical shape in the support of institutions for the relief of the sick and the aged, for the protection of the fatherless and the outcasts; words of wisdom which promote the knowledge of industry,

counsel thriftness, temperance, change vile soul-debasing taverns into soul ennobling workshops; words of religion which further the cause of learning in schools and seminaries and colleges, they are memorials perpetual glorious, everlasting here and in another world. The men who have effectually spoken those words will never die, though only a plain stone marks out to his offspring the spot where his mortal remains were depo-sited. Let me say it in the comforting language of the psalmist: [Hebrew] "The generation of the upright shall be blessed....[Hebrew] "Unto the upright there ariseth light in darkness"......[Hebrew] "The righteous shall be in eternal remembrance."

Identifier

p36t0hf62

identifier

SMBx12FF4_22