Penitential Sabbath (Shabat shubah). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Penitential Sabbath (Shabat shubah). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Author
- Morais, Sabato
- Format
- 11 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/p3x05xz5d/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3x05xz5d
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx10FF2_11.xml
- content
-
On Penitence
[Hebrew]
An invisible hand laid hold of the Seer prophet who pro- -phesied lived in the country of the Chaldeans, and carried him by a lock of his hair to the holy city of Jerusalem. When there, a voice whispered. "Son of man, come and bear witness to the abominations, which the house of Israel commit in concealment secret." At that command, Ezekiel opened himself a way through a crevice in the wall, and looked in. Shameful sight! Debasing scene! Altars were burning with incense perfume in honor to reptiles and loathsome creatures painted whose image stood engraved all around. "Such is the doing of the elders of thy people," continued the same voice "for, they say 'the Lord sees us not'" He has forsaken the land'".
Brethren! In reading the history of the ancients I have often wondered at the homage that stupidity of men who would pay homage to the lowest of objects in creation. I could easily understand, how awe struck with awe at the majesty of the lu--minary which rides through the measureless space, they heathens would bend down in adoration. Or, how in the clap of thunder they fancied they could hear the rebuke
of some angry god; for because, untaught by revelation they hazans mistook the workings of nature for its all-moving Cause the Omnipotent. But that they should should do reverence to beasts, that they should deify creeping insects, seemed to me inexplicable. "Has man," I would ask myself, "has man voluntarily parted with the noblest of his possessions--Intellect?" But that which at one time excited my asto--nishment has ceased to surprise me. The vision of Ezekiel affords instruction information. Thus, prompted by instinct to worship some object, gave pre--ference to those creatures which might not check by their dreaded power, an indulgence in low appetites. An imperfect indistinct notion of a Supreme Lord may have been entertained by the masses, but then said "the Lord sees us not," and they had and that hence Reason was used crookedly. They People tried to be convinced that worldly affairs cannot fall under the direction of a King enthroned in the highest. That attending to such concerns would be incompatible with His the state of one so glorious, stale; therefore and as they felt at liberty to select their own gods they chose as [?] earthly things representing brutal fostering a prurient wish for animal passions; things which inspired no terror of future punish--ment.
But that baneful error common among pagans,
ought never to have been entertained harbored by the disciples of Moses. The checkered history of the father of their nation, and their miraculous deliverance of the tribes from a galling bond--age should have sufficed to ineffaceably imprint on the tablets of their hearts the belief that "the Lord is high, but still looks below." That alone should have prevented the hallucina--tions of idolatry. But I imagine I hear you now say: what is all that narrative to prove? What is it to us if our fathers stultified themselves? We have learnt better than to bow to perishable objects below our stand- below our standards -ards. Well: if it were really so if we tendered adoration only to the Sovereign Creator, and to none of His creatures the recalling of our ancestors' fatal errors might answer serve no purpose; it might be altogether useless, but when we see the same wrongs reproduced in other shapes and forms, it is fitting that our the minds should be directed to the past and we be made to feel as to an historical warning and the lips be made to confess that in the prophetic confession ought to issue from language our lips "we know O Lord our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers". We consider ourselves more enlightened than our predecessors, and in some instances we may claim superiority, but were our hearts to be probed, but with regard to sterling, not feigned, religion, if our hearts were probed
it might be discovered that like in theirs false notions have supplanted the veneration we owe the only adorable God; that we don't worship not irrational beings in the world but we worship the world itself full of irrationality, the world, or rather the world itself, the world the opinion we wish it to holds about our standing in commercial or social circles; that we sacrifice our highest to secure to that opinion, often irrational, always unstable, we devote our faculties, our noblest instincts to a popularity built best energies on the ruin of not infrequently we sacrifice to it virtue, which is practical religion. And they who have apparently succeeded best in gaining their point, lead the van of sin. They are the elders whom Ezekiel described as burning incense to imaginary deities. But verily more sense--less are they than those ancient chiefs of our people; for, to worship popularity is to set oneself on the mouth of a volcano. Suddenly you may be shattered into atoms. "The Lord sees us not" "The Lord can do us no harm," say think they who walk among the great move in high circles. "The world is a tower of strength, a wall of defence." Yes: so long as layers of gold lie at the foundations, yes, bold men, may take shelter therein, but bela beware of trusting yourselves thereat in such strongholds when the deposit of the precious metal begins to thin off. You may seek in vain for the means of deliverance.
"Thus far I have nothing to fear. My possessions property is are perfectly secure. I own rich lands." But not richer nor larger as vast than those of Ahab the Ruler of Israel." Yet, the absence of rain had made almost an end of his dominions. "My ships cross the sea freighted with goods," Jeoshaphat King of Judah had also had famous vessels which were to make a far extended voyage, but a trecherous wind wrecked them into a shapeless form to pieces. "The many houses I own call mine, cannot be stolen from me" No: but they a pestilential air may become render them valueless. "The stock I have got, yields largely", but it may grow in size to be ultimately like the apple of the dead sea. You think you have seized a fine fruit, but it is ashes. Insecure are all human possessions, and as they leave us, so does the object we preferred to the adorable if Lord the Almighty; whose blessing alone can make rich the object we thought a rock of defense shake under our feet slip from under us, and lets us fall. Alas! How many who conceived they were held up high in the arms of the world, felt the effects of its fickle nature. They experienced then that a false idol had deceived beguiled and veiled their understanding.
But supposing that we are not doomed to suffer such results, that despite our backslidings our affluence will remains unimpaired, and hence our po--pularity intact; ought we therefore to be hardened follow in sin, to provoke God by disobeying His commands? set aside the law of God? What if our defiance calls down a punishment severer than the loss of wealth? Say my Brethren. Is not a man on very humble circumstances, but with a sound body richer than the diseased opulent? King Asa could baost of magnificent mansions, but when his audacious culpable conduct towards the admonishing prophet deprived him of the power of locomotion, he must have deemed himself poor indeed. And what Useless is a table laden with luxuries, if we dare not, save at the risk of our health, lay our hands thereon?. It would be then of no avail that our store-rooms are overflowing with delicacies, our cellars with delicious wines. A very plain meal, seasoned with the capacity for enjoyment after a day's labor, or an appetizing walk, is infinitely sweeter than are covetted a repast greatly to be craved for. A gift it is, writes the moralist of old, that God in His mercy grants.
But why harbor any apprehension, cry my youthful hearers. We are in the spring of life, we are vigorous, illness is a stranger to us. The world smiling upon us, and invites us to pleasure radiant with smiles, promises interminable pleasures, if we will only pay homage to it. Ah, my friends. Could you examine every fibre with which your body is interwoven, you would cease boasting. Could you see reflected as in a mirror the interlacing of arteries and veins, which throb in run through your frame you would be struck dumb, and never again pride yourselves on your strength. You would wonder how so complex a texture can remain any time with--out some disarrangements. "I will praise thee," prayfully exclaimed David in a prayful outburst of feelings "for I was fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvellous are Thy works, and my soul knows it well." Is it not the height of temerity in him, whose construction physical corporeal structure may in an instant be shattered, to harden his heart in sin, by reason of his physical powers? Man! will I say in the language of Job: why does thy mind carry thee away, and what do thine eyes wink at, that then turnest thy spirit against God? "Art thou not a worm in comparison with Him, at whose word space was filled studded with lights, and the earth was peopled with beings?
Thou mayest have escaped hitherto His consu--ming wrath, when running counter to His will, for mercy tempers rigor, but it may overtake thee while thou art bent mounting up the ladder of prosperity. The wicked son of Omri had engaged, despite the warning of the prophet, in a war against the Syrians. To avoid recognition, he disguised himself in the garments generally worn by his royal ally of the house of Judah. The victory was nearly won, when, a bow drawn at venture, discharged the arrow that pierced the heart of the impious King of Israel. Nor is it solely with the spear and the lance, amidst the battle's din of war the battle, that Divine justice exacts its due; light--er weapons, agencies very subtle can break up snap off asunder this intricately made body of ours. For many and various are the messengers that the Lord employs. But He has held them back, that they may not visit us, because of His infinite goodness, not by reason of our merits. He has borne with derelictions from duty, that we might live to discover and reform our wrong doings.
Let us not mistake a fatherly tenderness for want of power; let us not attribute construe a love for pardoning into indifference a disregard for our conduct. To the contemporaries of Ezekiel who said "the Lord sees us not," and secretly sold them--selves to a false worship was announced evils a future too literally fulfilled realized. Be admonished and instructed, brother sinners. Cast off the idols of your imagi--nation and adore the Only God, who opens for us denies not a refuge when the world has turned its back upon with indif the unfortunate -ference to our fate. Cease to bow to a receding shadow, the world's opinion, and bend before the Son of truth who that will never withhold beneficent rays to warm and to quicken our existence, when it seemed all but extinguished. Trust not in wealth, lest you find too when late, that you have leaned upon a broken reed. Trust not in health, which a puff of wind may blight. But confide in the Omnipotent, upon whose arm all creation hangs for support. Calling on Him in the hour of need, and receive thankfully the blessings He bestows; not with a rebellious look because it does not equal your ambition, not with a murmur because it will not gratify all your anticipators.
Learn to believe this most essential truth; that hap--piness is a sentiment, kept a fresh by a current run--ning inwardly not outwardly, that the consciousness of having worthily employed nature's faculties of having cherished ennobling aspirations intensifies that sentiment, by [?] and giving the sweetest turn to the bread shared with loved beings. In short, dear Israelites, seek felicity. He will command; and they will compass our city and our homes, avert misfortune, speed on healing, and draw every day of the year, whose entrance we have greeted with psalmody, from the choicest treasures prosperity and uninter--rupted peace. Amen. - Identifier
- p3x05xz5d
- identifier
- SMBx10FF2_11
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/91093