Penitential Sabbath (Shabat shubah). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Penitential Sabbath (Shabat shubah). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Author
- Morais, Sabato
- Format
- 9 pages on 4 sheets
- 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/p35h7cd5q/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p35h7cd5q
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx10FF2_12.xml
- content
-
on penitence
[Hebrew] [Hebrew] "Thou has forgotten the Lord Thy Maker, He who stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundation of the earth, and art continually every day afraid, because of the fury of the oppressor" My Brethren! When the words of Isiah just quoted from the prophetic section of this Sabbath, recur to my mind, I feel really pained at heart, for, in them I see a graphic description of an evil which is acquiring preponderance even among the seed of Jacob. I mean: the absence of faith; of that faith in the justice of Providence, which the Talmudists declared to be the characteristic of Israel [Hebrew], and which did form the noblest feature in their national countenance, ere they it became disfigured by the touch of a contaminating world. They who in every page of the written and oral law are shown the never-slumbering eye that watches their human steps, say nowadays to themselves: [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "What is the Almighty that we should serve Him, and what will avail us when we beseech Him?" Nations or individuals may write under the strokes of adversity; but few will seek the cause within themselves; few will follow the counsel of our wise Teachers, that when calamity befalls us, we should scrutinize our actions,
[Hebrew] No say they God is too exalted to take cognizance of those who dwell in tenements of clay. He who is enthroned above the sky, will not lower his vision, to note man's outgoings and coming in. Are our fondest anticipations frustrated? Why: it was the effect of chance. Are our commercial schemes brought to naught? Has the vessel which conveyed abroad our precious machinery gold become a prey to the waves, or to the enemy's hatred? Are we domestically afflicted? It is the effect of chance. Is the soil once smiling with pasture, converted into arid earth? Do the clouds refuse to discharge aid us with their benign influence? Is the face of the land shrouded in darkness? Is a deluge of blood sweeping away her inhabitants? It is all but chance. Oh human stupidity! We will invest with supernatural powers that which has no existence, and impiously deny that there does exist above us [Hebrew] "An eye that seeth, and an ear that heareth". To be sure; God in dealing with his creatures does not work constant miracles [Hebrew] Nature follows its fixed laws. But He who is the author of nature, has not foregone His hold thereof. Its various workings are but the messengers of His
Divine will. Sublunary events are shaped by the finger of the Lord; they subserve His wise purpose [Hebrew] [Hebrew] whether to chastise the wicked; to benefit his people, or to show mankind compassion. Such, my Brethren, is the imparting of your religion; [Hebrew] "The Lord is high, but He looketh below" Such is also the doctrine which our Rabbins exemplified in their lives, and in which they gloried. It is narrated in the Talmud, that an individual personage of acknowledged piety met with reverses. Those who really wished his welfare, advised that he should search, whether he had in his daily walks swerved form the path of rectitude. The intimation occasioned displeasure, and it found utterances vent. "Am I suspected by you, to have acted wrongly"?, asked the same individual, but his friends inquired in return" Do you suspect God to do what is injustice"? [Hebrew] The reproof kindly intended, was meekly received, and amendment followed. Aye, my friends! when the heart is not tainted with the skeptical notions so prevailing in this degenerate age, afflictions, whether public or private will soften it; out of the crucible of tribulations it will issue forth purified sevenfold. But when man looks upon
this nether world, as on a ship without a pilot, and on its denizens as mere jugglers striving to supplant and overreach eachoneanother; when the mind either puffed with mundane knowledge, or void of all intelligence, attributes to blind chance that which is the emanation of supreme wisdom, then neither the gentle admonitions of friends, nor the paternal corrections of heaven will effect a change. [Hebrew] "They have laid hold of deceiving (thoughts), they refuse to repent" But in our text we read [Hebrew] "thou hast forgotten the Lord thy Maker" [Hebrew], but therefore art thou continually every day not in dread of the fury of the oppressor"; that is, thou wilt not confide in Him who alone can save and comfort, consequently art thou agitated by forebodings of sad reverses. For the disbelief in Providence, does not imply a perfect freedom from any apprehension of approaching evils. On the contrary: while he who has the Almighty constantly before his mental vision, will be calm amidst the storms of adversity--for he knows and feels that the Father of mercy will not lay upon him a heavier burthen than he can bear--he who hardens himself against that belief, has a sound of dread terror in his ears; even
in prosperity, he imagines that the destroyer is hastening toward him [Hebrew] [Hebrew]. Thus we read in the book of Job, and so true it is, that if you attentively observe, you will discover that they who boast of their free-thinking, are nevertheless swayed by superstition, which will be discarded by him who only fears the Lord God. Faithful to the teaching of his religion, he will acknowledge that suffering is at the heel of sin. Let me say it in the language of Ezekiel. [Hebrew] "hath the rod blossomed? It is because "pride hath budded forth". Is the arrow levelled at us and shot? It is we that gave it the impetus [Hebrew]. Oh? What carnage & a devastation! look at human unrighteousness I say. Oh what plunder and conflagration! see the prevailing dishonesty and peculation, I exclaim, We ourselves build the steel which traces our condemnation upon adamant. God reviews our deeds in his tribunal, we are faced to pronounce our own verdict. [Hebrew] The inequities he hath committed overtake the wicked man he is held by the cords of his sin. Mark, my Brethren! the words employed by the moralist [Hebrew]. He himself has spun and woven the bands that
irresistibly consign him to misery. It is not the world of chance, but the effect of his own deliberate doings, judged by the omniscient Being whose spirit pervades the universe. Beautifully is this truth illustrated by one of our Sages. He says [Hebrew] "A King had a watch, of which he made a present to his beloved child" God in his infinite love has gifted us with freedom of will; by guiding it aright, we can secure our happiness. That is the watch of which the Talmudist allegorically speaks. If we incessantly attend to its mechanism; it will ever remain under our control. For, It is in our power either to restrain the rapidity of its wheels, or to impart to them a quicker motion. We can also direct the hands and they will register the correct hour of the day; but if we suffer it to proceed without guide and regulation, it will surely lead us astray. We may then be induced to go hurriedly forth when we should have been at rest, or we may keep inert at times that we should be steady at work. The application is obvious, and you have already comprehended to Freedom of will is an inestimable boon of the Deity.
By it are we distinguished from and raised above all animated beings. Accompanied Guided by reason and the expressed word of God, we can through it its medium become a Moses or an Abraham, and gain a proportionate reward here and hereafter. Abandoned to itself, it may will abuse its powers,--through the allurements of passions--, and turn us into a Jeroboam, drawing upon us a corresponding punish--ment and everlasting shame. Therefore it is Hence we find written in the section of last Sabbath [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "Behold I set before you this day, a blessing and a curse. The blessing if you will hearken unto the commandments of the Lord your God; and the curse if you will not hearken to them;" purposing to signify that as the Almighty has endowed every man with unrestrained liberty of action, it rests with him to choose whether to follow he will adhere to the Divine prescriptions and [?] obtain at peace spiritual repose, or to cling to the dictates impartings of his feeble conceptions and be never at rest repose [?] spiritual be never at peace.
Brethren! The opening of this month, which, they who follow our ritual, devote to prepratory prayers and deeds of abstinence voluntary penance, has suggested my brief remarks. Take them to heart. When struck by the
appaling disaster with which we have been nationally afflicted let each of you ask himself "Have my misdeeds been in any degree a cause to this celestial heavenly infliction? And if you discover that you have been relaxed in the rules of morality; that your religion was not pure love for God; if you perceive that in the turmoil of business you became insensible of the cry of justice and charity voice that constantly cries that says [Hebrew], "righteousness, righteousness alone thou shalt pursue"; that, fearing some impending reverse, you forget the Lord your Maker who saves and comforts, and labored strove only to place of your substance gold beyond the reach of the enemy's hand, though to the detriment of the interest of your interest fellow-creation. If you, in short, detect anything in your conduct antago--nistical to the dictates of conscience and Holy Writ, speedily amend your course, that you may, according conformably to the expression of King David, uplift your hands on high, cleared of all pollution, on the solemn days now fast approaching [Hebrew] [Hebrew]. Then He who spread out the heavens and land the foundation of the earth, will mer-cifully decree that they who are held in the captivity of sin, shall not die in the pit dungeon, nor ever lack their the means daily bread of supporting their existence from now and evermore. Amen [Hebrew] - Identifier
- p35h7cd5q
- identifier
- SMBx10FF2_12
Part of Penitential Sabbath (Shabat shubah). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
Morais, Sabato, “Penitential Sabbath (Shabat shubah). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed September 19, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/91091