Penitential Sabbath (Shabat shubah). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Penitential Sabbath (Shabat shubah). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Author
- Morais, Sabato
- Format
- 12 pages on 5 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/p3nk36r07/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3nk36r07
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx10FF2_8.xml
- content
-
On Penitence
[Hebrew]
[Hebrew]
In the year that King Uzziah died, a vision of unequalled grandeur opened before the mind of a prophet. Isaiah saw the Almighty Being, whose word quickened the world into existence, enthroned upon high. Angels hovered around and above. With faces veiled, with outstretched wings soaring aloft, they invited one another to sing the praises of their Omnipotent Maker. The vaults of heaven rung again with the voices of Sef Seraphim. They cried "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory". We, my Brethren, often repeat that sublime praise hymn. We even signify by the upraisinglifting of our body, that if we could join cast off what is ma--terial in our nature, we would join the saintly chorus. Yet, I feel I will not be charged with arrogance, when I say, that we do not quite understand what we utter. Its meaning, simple as it may seem, remained unknown to me
also till the approaching of this great season, when I remembered that the object of the peni--tential days is to draw every one born in Israel nearer to God by a life of righteousness. I asked myself: "How can unrighteousness offend God, since He is infinite in power."? But I dis--covered the answer in that sentence, which the son of Amoz heard from the unstained lips of archangels. [Hebrew] "The whole earth is full of His glory". In the Temple above where sainted creatures tender Him worship, all speaks of the Majesty of the Universal King, but upon earth God's glory is manifested in the impress of His boundless goodness. Where--ver we turn, evidences are given that a spirit all-mighty and beneficent dwells among us. Every blade of grass announces that truth. Every ripple mark tells that the Eternal cares for the world in which mortal beings we move. But for whom did the earth, abounding replete with blessings, issue from the plastic hand of God? For whom, but for man?--the crowning work of creation. Of him it may correctly be said [Hebrew]
"the last brought forth, but the first in thought? In man, gifted with reason, is therefore the glory of the Lord to be most bril--liantly manifested; in man made only "a little lower than angels" would the Source of all per--fection be mirrored. Man's heart is a throne and veritable sanctuary to the Supreme. There an altar can be raised with an unquench--able fire--the fire of love for whatever is en--nobling of human nature. But the heart tainted with wickedness dishonors God. The man habitually corrupt, insults offends his Maker. He is guilty of ingratitude, for he perverts the splendid faculties which the Creator im--planted within into our minds, and by the exercise of which He would be sanctified on earth as He is in heaven. Whereas the Deity wished to abide within us, as in a Tabernacle, the impious reject the association of the best of Friends, to by following destructive sin causes the departure of the best of friends. It is a maxim of our Sages, that human arrogance forces the Lord to
to abandon the earth [Hebrew] and commenting on the passage of Isaiah, that I chose for my text, they Rabbis write [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "Man should not dare to tread the ground with a proud gait," for the whole earth is full of the Glory of God. But, while admit--ting, my brethren, that pride is despicable, even when engendered by the possession of rare qualities of the mind--though in reality the wise will always be humble--, agreeing with the moralist of old that haughtiness is one of the seven abo--minations of God, still, indulgence in it may prove comparatively harmless. But false-hood, dishonesty, practices debasing to degrading our nature, are crimes that grievously offend our beneficent Maker. Picture to yourself, one who makes profession of friendship. He vows declares that he is ready to serve you disinterestedly. He pledges his word that no circumstance will alter the feelings he pretends to entertain. He thus succeeds in gaining your confidence, only to abuse it, and deliver you to sorrowful disappointments. Should he be ever so bright
and intelligent, ought he to be considered an object through whose agency the Creator of intellectual man will receive glorification? And what sanctification can the Almighty derive from him who is smart, in holding unjust balances, and fraudulent weights? From the vile vulgars who assert that all is allowed in business, from him who looks upon his fellow-mor-tals not as the means by which legitimately to earn a mutual subsistence, but as the unsuspecting dolts, through whose credulity he may fill his cof--fers? with gold? And the dissolute, who rake their brains to discover whom they may corrupt, in order to effect their wanton purposes; they who study not the elevation of God's creatures but their degradation; those who insinuate themselves into your favor, to steal a treasure you value most--the spotless character of the inmates of your household, are they the fitting representatives of God's glory which fills the earth? No: as well might we say that the drunkard, who issues forth at midnight from the den of vice, reeling and staggering as he attempts to walk, is the right exponent of man's dignity;
or that the gambler and the idler who waste away their means and their energies are types of human industry. The spirit that pervades the Universe can be hallowed only by virtue. The sons of Eli stood the highest among the Hebrew nation. They were judges and priests. But of them the Scriptures narrate that they sin they committed was exceed--ingly great before the Lord, because their immoral conduct brought God into contempt. Therefore the heavenly messenger who foretold the too indulg--ent father the doom of his family, said in the name of the Omnipotent Master [Hebrew] "Those who honor me, will I honor, but those who despise me, shall be treated as vile". The man polluted with social vices may offer at the altar; may linger in the house where the Law is expounded, but as he profanes that altar and that Law by his demeanour in the outer world, he will have injured most seriously the belief he claims to profess. They who watch him closely, will be apt to make religion a synonym with hypocrisy, [Hebrew]; and the name of God will be continued.
An inconsistency so frought with mischief, but occasionally met in every age, is denounced in a withering reproach by the inspired Asaph. The Psalmist ironically styles Israelites who practise it "the saints who have made a covenant with the Lord by a bloody sacrifice" [Hebrew] [Hebrew]--as if the external observances of the faith, were a license for the commission of social wrongs. And after having condemned the culpable acts of which the false are guilty, the writer concludes [Hebrew] [Hebrew]. "Whosoever offers thanks giving glorifies Me, and to him that sets his way aright, will I show the salvation of God." That sentence, I am impelled by a sense of duty to quote for your edification, fellow Israelites, at this most solemn period of our year. Virtue is the ladder through which we may scale the heavens and be eternized, for its exercise is a hymn to the God whose glory fills the earth. And what is obligatory on all intelligent beings is doubly incumbent on ourselves, the people of God, for us the prophet addressed when he said [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "I have told it, I have said saved, I have proclaimed
it when there was no stranger among you; and ye are my witnesses that I am God." The same voice that thundered at Sinai "Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy" commanded never to steal, never to swear falsely, never to do our neighbor harm with our hands or with our tongue. Whether it be Moses, urging us to be holy, as the Lord is holy, whether it be latter prophets, declar--ing that we have been chosen as heralds of God's goodness, or whether the uninspired but wise teachers of old instruct us, the object is one and the same [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "Virtue must be joined with piety, but religion is an empty word, where mo--rality is left in abeyance." We who have been thus early taught, must exercise exceeding caution, lest any of our actions occasion [Hebrew] I need not mention a fact widely known a derivative from rectitude by any of our race, is visited upon the whole Jewish community. Unjust as this may appear, it is nevertheless
a heavenly ordination. We were brought nearer to the source of truth; we should exhibit a vaster amount of godliness. But while I rejoice that as a body we compare favorably with our gentile neighbors--certainly so as a rule in our domestic relations--, candor impels me to add that, at times, events are chronicled to the dishonor of Him whose glory fills the earth. Brethren. If a Jew ever declares within your hearing that deception practised upon non-Israelites is no offence against God, correct the fatal heresy [Hebrew] [Hebrew]. He who lowers the name the Almighty, will not enjoy felicity hereafter. He has tried to show the inefficacy of the heavenly Law, and He will be rejected by Him who promulgated the Law. But, my dear companions in this journey of life, you all know well how liable we all are to swerve from the path of righteousness, how, swayed by circumstances, we are carried away into a whirlpool of sin. God in His infinite mercy has therefore set apart the present season, for the revision of
the past. He desired that Israel, in whom we would be signally glorified, [Hebrew], examine at stated periods, whether the charge entrusted at Horeb has been faithfully carried out. To prevent a complete corruption of the people designed to perpetuate eternal truths, God annually pre--pares for them waters of purification. Let us, my brethren, hail the Divine fountain, which flows for our sake, and seek there our spiritual regeneration. Weak are we in purpose, but the Omnipotent will strengthen our righteous resolves, if we lean upon Him. Let us beseech our Father that our sense of right may be henceforth keenly felt; that it may be unmistakably visible in our intercourse with all mortals, and that a reward of a pure life be blessings sweet and lasting upon our families, our Congregation and upon the house of Israel, even until all of us after a long series of nobly spent years here below, may join above the heavenly chorus of Seraphim that sing: [Hebrew] "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory" - Identifier
- p3nk36r07
- identifier
- SMBx10FF2_8
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/91095