Lecture 52. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Lecture 52. 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 5

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3sj1b93n/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3sj1b93n

Provenance

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

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx12FF5_9.xml

content

S. MORAIS,
546 N. Fifth St.
Philadelphia,

Post-Biblical
52
French school

In speaking of our coreligionists, who lived in France during the middle ages, I necessarily pointed out one man, considered the greatest in his age time. My sketch of Rashi's labors in Hebrew literature, tried to show in what he notably excelled, and why the name of the Sage of Troyes gained among Jews an undying reputation. He was not, however, alone in disseminating learning, for his immediate descendants, and a respectable number of their contemporaries and successors, cultivated the same field as the master had most usefully worked at, and they left as evidences of their activity productions of acknowledged merit. But a sharp line must be drawn between two geographical sections of France in medieval times ages. In disposition and preferences our French fellow-believers of the North, where Rashi was born, differed very strikingly from those of the South. While the former chose to devote their minds principally to Talmud and kindred writings, the latter, without excluding a study of the traditions, delighted in the Bible and its poetry, in philology

and philosophy. They imbibed from their close neighbors in Spain, a spirit of critical inquiry and a deep love for the language in which our prophets had transmitted the teachings of inspired genius. Provence became another Andalusia, and Narbonne a Cordova. Especially after the [?]--a Christian sect in south France during the thirteenth century--rebelled against Papal authority, our people rose socially high by their intellectual acquirements. A family deserving of a niche in the temple of fame, is that called Petis, but best known by all as Kimchis. Its members were French by birth, but their progenitors must have emi--grated from Spain, probably by reason of some popular outbreaks of which we have no account. Still, it is worth mentioning as a curious fact, that they and others among their Jewish countrymen, took pleasure in styling themselves Sephardim, or "Spaniards," simply be--cause of the prestige attached then to the Israelites who made the Iberian peninsula famous by their intellectual learning and the political height stations attained. At all events, we find in the middle of the twelfth century Joseph Kimchi, who flourished in South France, busily engaged in propagating

sacred lore. To him is due the credit of having been the first to compose a Hebrew grammar in a Christian country land, rivalling those of his coreligionists who had excelled in that department in Moorish Spain countries, under the Moors. He called his book Sepher Ha-Zicaron, or "Memoranda," but though often quoted, it has never appeared in print. It may exist yet in manuscript in some rare libraries. Joseph Kimchi was not more fortunate regarding his Scriptural commentaries. That he did write them ap--provedly, there can be no doubt, for so we gather from later sources, but posterity has not seen them. A strange fate would that even his translation form the Arabic of the excellent work Chobath Ha Lebaboth "the duty of hearts" by Bachyé ben Pakoda did not come down to us. But destiny which stood in the way of the father to prevent his giving us the fruits of this thoughts, was favorable to his sons, Moses and David. Of Moses we possess a guide to Hebrew prose and poetry, named Mahalach Shebile ha-daàth and a valuable commentary

on the book of Proverbs, but his brother David has succeeded in gaining an reputation from later generations enviable notoriety which will last while sacred literature finds students. I venture the opinion that second to Rashi, Radak--which word forms the initials of Rabbi David Kimchi's name--is the author most affectionately thought of author by the bulk of a scholars among our people. And deservedly so, for his activity was unsurpassed only by his attachment loyalty to the ancestral faith. Earning but a scanty livelihood by teaching children Talmud, he devoted every hour that he could spare, regardless of fatigue, to supply us with comments on the Bible, marked by an intelligent and impartial understanding of the text. Christian scholars have objected to some of his elucidations, because he exposed the folly committed by the Church in distorting the sense of scriptural passages to apply them, without foundation, to the history of the man of Nazareth. But we Jews must admire his courage and his acumen, as manifested in giving a natural explanation to narratives and sentences in Holy Writ, and avoid--ing mysticism and far fetched allegorical meanings.
As a grammarian and lexicographer, David Kimchi

stands unrivalled. Whether his system be unimpeach--ably correct or not, I would not assume to decide, but all who pronounce the Hebrew, as we, of the Portu--guese ritual, do, have accepted him as our a guide, and I have read that how not a few among our Ashkenazim brethren have trod endeavoured striven to prove that David Kimchi ought to be followed universally in the rules he laid down for reading the sacred language. Those rules have been adopted in colleges and universities among non-Israelites, wherever a chair for Hebrew literature has was established.
Kimchi's endeavours efforts are inestimable in every depart--ment wherein he labored, and to this day men, search--ing into ancient libraries, seek for his hand writing and bring to light what time had hidden away. Schiller Szinessi in Cambridge and Bar Goldberg in Paris have, in a measure, succeeded in that department endeavour.
But it is of the character of our David that I wish briefly to speak, so as to show how well merited was the veneration which that French Jew

secured from his contemporaries and posterity. He who that prided himself in having descended from a Spanish ancestry, and who affixed to his signature the title Ha Sephardi, could not remain unconcerned, when the most famous among Spanish Jews was un--sparingly fought against. Who has not heard of Maimonides--Rambam, Moses Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon--? His biography has enriched every en--cyclopedia. His works have found admirers and trans--lators almost everywhere. If Moorish Spain had produced only that man, Sephardic Jews would have good reason to boast of their extraction. For a giant of intellect was he, and in theology, in philosophy, in medicine, in lucidness of expression, in a methodical presentation of every subject he treated, Maimonides has risen with the highest. What he wrote in Hebrew and in Arabic to systematise the traditions and to cast a flood of light on the tenets and doctrines of our religion, is simply amazing. And when we bear in mind, that, obliged to leave Spain, through religious fanaticism among Arabs, he became, when abroad, court physician to Saladin, the reigning Sultan of Egypt, and that in so responsible a cpacity and hold- while

carrying on a far reaching correspondence with the learned of his age, he still wrote profoundly and immensely, we must agree that that, to call that Jew of the twelfth century Ha-Nesher Ha-Gadol "the great eagle," "a second Moses" is not to unduly exaggerate.
But the greater the man, the more readily will his errors be detected and call forth will elicit public censure. We indeed ought so to say to wash bathe our lips with in rose water when speaking of referring disapprovingly to the actions of one so immeasurably on above our standing, but truth must nevertheless prevail. In obedience to it, we cannot deny that Maimonides gave a reasonable cause for opposition. Thoroughly saturated familiar with Greek and Arabian ideas, prevalent predominant in his age, he sometime was misled by them and allowed the Bible to be enchained to the wheel of a destructive skeptical doubtful philosophy. Even during his life time the rumb--ling of the thunder which was to burst after his death began to be heard, a but at his demise, when the influence of his personality and his social position were no longer immediately felt, the antagonism held back, broke forth with violence. In Northern France it made itself felt [?] grew irrepressibly terrible, among men learned in Talmudism, and unused to the mode of think--ing of their brethren of the south.

A Rabbi Solomon of Montpellier and two of his pupils created an excitement which was to end unhappily, in many respects. David Kimchi was bent with years and wore out by literary labors, when he undertook a mis--sion in honor vindication of Maimonides. He quitted his city and home and his city to travel to Castiel, where the distinguished phy--sician and sage, Judah Alphachar, lived. He wished to interest that influential personage in the defense of our second Moses. He Alphachar should lead all Spanish Rabbis in the way of terrifying the French Rabbis of the North into silence. But the zealous defender champion was taken very ill in Avila and could not proceed further. Grieved at that unexpected set back, he wrote Alphachar a letter, apologising for his inability to personally pay his respects. That com--munication he sent through one of his nephews. In it he dwelt in the great services which Maimonides had ren--dered Judaism, on the debt of gratitude which all owed that celebrated Spaniard, and on the arrogance of his detractors. But Alphachar sided with the latter, and in language bitter and burning disclosed his objections

to some of the teachings in the philosophical writings of Maimonides. The acrimonious correspondence continued and finally the meekness of our David softened the asperity of Judah's temper, but Kimchi did not attain his his goodly purpose. The two parties widened into two hostile camps, equally fierce, excomu--nicating one another and dragging their religious quarrels to Christian courts, greatly to the detriment of the Jewish cause and the horror of many who suffered martyrdom. For the unfortunate dissension put a sword into the hand of the enemies of our faith. The Christian clergy in South North France saw in the contest waged about the orthodoxy or the "rationalistic" views of Maimonides, a suitable opportunity for inducing the civil authorities to order the extermination of all Hebrew books. Liturgical and Talmudical, philosophical and philological, all were seized and delivered to the flames. But alas! many human beings, who lamented the sacrilege, were also cast into the fire, and, according to a report, the original instigator of the dispute, Rabbi Solomon of Montpellier, and one of his pupils met with a fatal death. Another pupil

who repented, but too late, of having defamed aspersed the character of the illustrious Sage of Cordova, resolved to go on a pil--grimage to Cairo, and at the grave of Maimonides beseech for pardon. But on reaching Toledo he expired, after having endured bodily trials. It is not at all improbable that David Kimchi those sorrowful events may have shortened the days of David Kimchi. He returned to Narbonne to bewail what had happened, and passed away from earth, to leave behind a name which will not die.

Identifier

p3sj1b93n

identifier

SMBx12FF5_9