Penitential Sabbath (Shabat shubah). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Penitential Sabbath (Shabat shubah). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Author
- Morais, Sabato
- Date Created
- 1894
- Format
- 8 pages on 3 sheets
- Source
- Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
- Sabato Morais Collection, Box 10, Folder 2
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p38912995/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p38912995
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx10FF2_17.xml
- content
-
S. MORAIS,
546 N. FIFTH STREET,
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
65
Penitential Sabbath 55 - 94
[Hebrew]
[Hebrew] "I shall sprinkle you with clear water and you shall be cleansed" So promised God to sinning backsliding Israel by means of the priestly Seer on the the river Cheba. To that prophetic declaration, our martyred Sage, Akiba ben Joseph, added, the following utterance as an incentive to a full confession of our backslidings one's shortcomings or [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "Happy you, O Israel, who is He that cleanses you, and before whom ye cleanse yourselves? Your Father in heaven." Brethren. Waters of regenerative purification are now streaming from the fountain of Divine Goodness. Let all who are conscious of being diseased with sin unrighteousness human sinfulness, draw night that they may be tho--roughly healed. We all have read, how a famous general of antiquity travelled in search of a cure to his sad illness. A suffering leper was Noaman. was. The confidence of his King, the respect of his army, the esteem of nations he valued as nothing, so long as a loathsome malady clung to his skin body. Can there be no remedy for it? the foul disp distemper? A young Jew--ess whom he had captured in battle and had kept retained as his wife's waiting maid, told her mistress that Israel's God, who wounds but also heals, can do impos--sible things by means of his prophets. Quickly Noaman makes ready, to go in search quest of what he yearned after-
a restoration to bodily health. He journeys from Syria to Judea the land of the Hebrews and stands a petitioner at the door of Elisha's dwelling. If the relinquishing of his lofty position, of his great wealth had been demanded to obtain a cure, he would have parted with all. To what end? To enjoy a few years of this fleeting existence in the companionship of mortals, who shunned the leprous. Is the association of the good and the saints in the realm of eternity, the commu-nion of our soul with the Most High, an object of less con--cern? What efforts can be too great that will secure those glorious ends! Yet, the conditions upon which they depend are not at all severe. I have not learned that my religion requires the discipline of the scourge like that of monks and capuchins who flog themselves to please a supposed mediator that believed to intercedes for sinners. The man of Nazareth said to the youth who prayed for a share in the world to come, that to gain it he must dispossess himself of all his substance, saying and turning to his disciple he asserted that "it is easier for a camel to go into the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the King--dom of heaven." Judaism, the religion of reason, does not demand our voluntary self-castigation, nor the surrendering of our wealth. It wishes of those who are morally diseased, to make a clear breast of it to the heavenly Physician and trust the heavenly
Physician Him for a perfect cure. In other words: they must confess that they have lived a life which ill-accords with the dictates of religion and morality Not righteousness and to confess admit that not to fallible man as in the Catholic confessional, but to Him the One who understands our most secret thoughts, who wants our every heart's beating, to know if it throbs nobly or ignobly.
A [Hebrew], says our Rabbis is what the Lord waits for. "I have sinned. Forgive me, O compassionate Father!" God pleaded with the daughter of Zion, because she refused that admission [Hebrew] "Thou dist say: I am in--nocent" Therefore I enter into judgment with thee, because for thou thou dost sayest 'I have not sinned'" [Hebrew] Brethren. If any Israelite enters comes to the synagogue on the most solemn day fast approaching with a proud heart, tacitly declaring that he needs not confess. [Hebrew], because his actions have been always been measured by the square and compass of undeviating justice; that he has never offended the Universal Parent by wronging His creatures in acts, in words or thoughts, let him depart. Yom Kippur will avail him nothing. The waters of purification are flow for those who acknowledge themselves religiously spiritually spiritually diseased. And "who, exclaims the moralist, "who can say boast thus: [Hebrew]
my heart is clean [Hebrew] I am free from sin." If any Israelite imagines wh that when he laid aside the Law, which Moses gave as a heritage to the congregation of Jacob, he walked in the light of progress; that he liberalized the world and made the Jew popular, when he endeavoured to prove his identity with this gentile neighbor, his ab--stinence on Yom Kippur is will be profitless, for he contradicts it is written in the five holiest books, where it is written: [Hebrew] "I have set you apart from other people to be my own." If any one feels no compunction that his children are reared in ignorance of the religion entrusted to our safe keeping, considering it right & proper to leave its adoption or rejection by his sons and daughters, at a maturer age, he cannot be included among those whom Kippur will restore to spiritual health, for it is repeatedly enjoined it is commanded in the Pentateuch [Hebrew] "Thou shalt make (the precepts) known to thy children and thy children's children. Nay, sha thou shall teach them diligently unto thy children, at all times" with no cessation, a fatal error is that of some easy going fathers, who leave the choice of Judaism to the option of their progeny, an a rueful error which has robbed the synagogue of many votaries, and enriched the church, or filled the ranks of skeptics and agnostics. Brethren. Kippur was instituted for such as are aware of their shortcomings weaknesses and failings, not for those who justify in their minds all their deeds.
A sense of our imperfections must lead us humbly to God with a [Hebrew] on Yom Kippur, relying on the compassionate Father for a cleansing away of what is impure in our actions or conceptions. Each of us in his respective sphere must be conscious of his shortcomings, and to confess that before the Lord, to implore His assistance that we may hence-forth shape our course in a manner acceptable in His sight, is the object of the day which the house of Israel is about to solemnize. We may have fallen short in the performance of our duty as social beings. We may not have heeded the ex--cellent proverb [Hebrew] "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein is a breaking of the spirit." We may not have been always guarded so as not to wound our neighbor's feelings, disparageing his worth, tarnishing his character reputation. As parents we may not have bestowed equal attention on the moral as on the physical development of our offspring, forgetting that the soundest foundations of one's character, are love of industry and religious probity. [Hebrew] "By what will a youth keep his way pure? by observing God's word." As children we may not have exhibited so high a degree of respectful consideration for the earthly authors of our exist-ance as due them, unmindful of the injunction [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "Listen to thy father who has begotten thee, and slight not thy mother, when she has grown old."
As partakers of the same paternal and maternal care we may have been wanting in that spirit of mutual forbearance, which harmonizes dif--ferences and sweetens the home, where we still are, or have been gladly provided for and kindly sheltered; ignoring perhaps that [Hebrew] "A brother is born to help his brother in time of distress". As Israelites, we may not have cooperated with the good, to elevate the condition of the lowly and needy, to further their education, or we may have misled the unsophisticated and unwary by an open disregard of Mosaic ordinances, thus substan--tially transgressing the behest that we should not lay a stumbling block in the way of the blind [Hebrew] But though every one of us--God forbid--were guilty of all those sins, he would be cleansed and become as white as snow, as pure as a newly born babe, if he will say in his heart of hearts [Hebrew] "I have sinned," and regret--ting that it is so,--mistrusting his own powers, will lean upon God for support to become regenerated in virtue. For these are two of the essentials to the cleansing of the soul [Hebrew] An unreserved acknowledgment of our backslidings and a sense of compunction for their existence.
By [Hebrew] we shall have declared that to follow our own devices, is to meet a moral death; to be guided by the dictates of religion, is to cling to everlasting life. We shall have proved that frailty is inherent in our nature, perfection belongs solely to God. And our humiliation, our contrition, our penance and supplications will stand at the bar of judgment on the dreaded day of Kippur, and earn for us pardon and durable blessings [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "Happy you O Israel, who is He that cleanses you and before whom ye cleanse yourselves! Your Father in heaven". But a third essential must also be fulfilled. We w Would we clasp again in our embrace a way-ward child, who after a long absence, while in the pursuit of vice, returns home admitting his frowardness but refusing to forsake his low habits and vicious companions? Would we not exact especially, that a total change of conduct, as a pledge of his repentance? Unless a determination to alter what is wrong in our habits accompanies attends our [Hebrew] we may cry aloud a thousand times. [Hebrew], it will avail us nothing. We must vow to repudiate faults to which we have been [?]; to hold fast to righteous resolves, to become upright in our social relations, pure in our domestic affections, charitable to man, pious towards God, and continue thus not a day or a month, but always.
[Hebrew] "Confession, contrition and a rejection of sin," that is the threefold cord, will which will bind us indissolubly with our forgiving God. Let our own hands weave it. To day we possess strength and knowledge and will to accomplish the task, to morrow we may have been left only the power to lament our powerlessness. With this reflection, I commit myself and you & all, with the sincerity of a prayer, to the infinite goodness of Israel's God. May He be your counsellor, breathing into your souls sen--timents of the deepest righteousness, the sublimest virtue and an abiding love for whatever ennobles human nature. Amen. - Identifier
- p38912995
- identifier
- SMBx10FF2_17
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/91098