Penitential Sabbath (Shabat shubah). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. 1890 · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Penitential Sabbath (Shabat shubah). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. 1890

Author

Morais, Sabato

Date Created

1890

Location(s)

United States -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

United States -- Pennsylvania

Format

8 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 10, Folder 2

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3js9ht65/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3js9ht65

Provenance

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

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx10FF2_4.xml

content

For the Sabbath Teshubah/50

[Hebrew] "Be not afraid dismayed because of them, lest I confound thee in their presence". So a heavenly voice addressed Jeremiah, when in his youth he was sent forth early in his youth to the performance of an tremendous appalling task--a people's reformation; nor did he wince and waver in the face of overwhelming difficulties, and constant dis- delu-appointments -sions. Now, brethren, if remembering that a man whose holiness was exemplified in all his deeds could not win back to virtue those who had deliberately forsaken it; if that the burning eloquence of a prophet did not soften the obdurate, in sinning, was it not rash too presumptuous in one like myself to believe that I he could convert to God some who did not give Him religion a thought? Yet, in the early spring days of my ministerial enthusiasm, I fancied that I could accomplish wonders; that at my summons an army of gallant defenders to the Torah would rise; that I would make hundreds, if not thousands, rally round the standard of the ancestral traditions. In my eagerness to do a fulfill a sacred mission, I would then ac-cost an Israelite, whose summary of religious duties

was conventionally to enter this spot on the Day of Atonement. I would say to him: "Brother. Your pre--sence in the house of prayer on Kippur at so distant an interval simply shows that you have not broken altogether with the faith in which you were born and raised reared, but your habitual absence from the Synagogue, and your daily practices prove you an inconsistent Jew. Do not let your conduct so belie your profession." Well: what has time produced? Do you wish me to tell the num--ber of failures I met with in my pastoral under--takings? Why, they are countless beyond computation, and not surprisingly so. Just think, that I had considered my words of so much weight as to crash man's pride, to compel sinners transgressors to confess their shortcomings, to and humbly vow a life in full accord with the devotional outpourings of Yom Kippur.
I did overrate my influence egregiously. The zeal which I felt for the Law that I was called upon to teach and enforce, spent itself in the vain effort to reclaim Israelites, who said in their hearts,--occasion--ally, within my hearing--as people said of Saul chosen to guide them [Hebrew] "Of what use can this one be to us". My age did not warrant then my reproving

older persons, high-toned persons. Still, I do not regret that spite delusions disappointments, I never kept silent, even if my grey hairs have has suggested to me less rigor in passing judgment on my neighbor's actions; more sobriety, so to say, in private and pu--blic admonitions. I am not sorry that I gave my convictions free scope, because had I shrank from duties which my office imposes out of pusillanimity, the ungracious charge thrown lately into my teeth, that my ministry has after all been rich only of deserters and renegades of every des--cription, would burn like blazing fire in my soul. No: I do not claim to be "the pious pastor of a pious congregation," as a successful, daring "reformer" taunting--ly called me in the press, but neither have I skulked behind falsehood, in order not to lose carry popularity favor among with influential transgressors. Like Jeremiah I may say in all humility that I heeded the caution: [Hebrew] "Be not afraid dismayed because of them, lest I confound thee in their presence" And like the priest of Anathoth I may declare: [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "I sat not in the company of mockers and enjoyed it." Earnestness was my official robe.

The avaricious who denied their religion and their people help, did not receive a curtsey; obeisance at my hands. The hypocrisy of lip worship, I branded in the name of the God of truth. The tyranny of such exercised at home over wives and children, and their servility practised abroad among towards the power--ful, I condemned unsparingly. I turned away as from biting serpents when advised to resort to worldly policy, so as to gain followers.
I trusted for support and deliverance on Him whose mission I had assumed, and He did not shame me because of my hope. If I cannot raise the huzzahs which certain ministers spout out, as if they redeemed Judaism from extinction, I may thankfully say that not all of this venerable body have repudiated the cause which I warmly espoused. Among those of the generation that I first met, and of the generation born since, some hold to the Torah as expounded from this sacred desk. May their fidelity continue as an exemplar, du--ring many returns of this solemn period of our year, in which the sincerity of the pious, may, under Providence,

bring the sinful to repentance.
But it is to youths, whose hearts are not tainted with the corruption of a materialistic age; to youths who have not yet learned to hug the idols of the imagination--gold and luxury--to them I eagerly look for the vindication avenging of this congregation from the iniquitous accusation of godlessness. They will meet fearful obstacles. The battles of the passions is raging, waxing hoter every day. To conquer, youths must become heroes. With less bra--very they also will succumb. More ridicule faces them; to adhere to the Torah is to evince a mind still grossing in the darkness of barbarism; there the vicious call a to refusal to enter into the pleasures of the game of chance and of the exhilarating bowl, is sheer cowardice, and then what are the quams of conscience but childish impressions; what the fear of a super--human punishment, but superstition? How very many have fallen slain in that war between high duty and low propensities? On this Sab--bath devoted to the most serious thoughts, I say to my successors. Friends, when I and others my coevals, or of maturer years shall have passed

away, you will be our builders. Let the instrument principally handled be the love of virtue; your plummet the word of God. Understand: Judaism does not preclude the enjoyment of Divine bounty; but it warns against abuse which creates satiety, palls the sense of gratification. Nor does it dispute a right to the acquisition of wealth, but it cautions against the sacrificing of our noblest instincts to gold. It teaches to apportion our time so, that our body may receive the needed rest, our spirit its elevating agencies, and all that to one sublime end, to the beautifying of our nature, to fit us as worthy ci--tizens of the world, and aspirants of an endless immortality. Youths of my people? In the enthusiasm of your years, raise your undim--med vision to God, at whose hands you have obtained the existence in which you delight, and sanctify that existence by unswerving integrity. With Ecclesiastes I preach: [Hebrew] [Hebrew] Hebrew]

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, while evil days have not come, nor have the years drawn nigh, when you may say: 'We have no pleasure in them? For all dies away, except the memory of a well spent life. Like the flower that opens at the genial touch of the morning dew, but withers before evening, so will strength and comeliness fade away. But the knowledge of having remained uncorrupt, that is, of having walked with God, who watches our steps, and counts our every pulsation, will become a crown of glory. So have we been assured in the book, that presents religion as personified Wisdom [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "She will set upon your hand an ornament of grace". When verging towards the grave, you will behold it and become imparadised in the contemplation. May thus the youths of this congregation be diademmed, and in all their seniors who believe in the redeeming power of repentance may be fulfilled the scriptural sentence "Yet that did cleave to the Lord your God, are alive every one of you this day" [Hebrew]

Identifier

p3js9ht65

identifier

SMBx10FF2_4