Penitential Sabbath (Shabat shubah). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Penitential Sabbath (Shabat shubah). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Author
- Morais, Sabato
- Format
- 13 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/p3gt5g174/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3gt5g174
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx10FF2_5.xml
- content
-
For Sabbath of penitence
Altered, abridged and corrected from an old lecture
delivered twenty years before.
"Return ye backsliding children, I will heal your backslidings." "Behold we come unto Thee, for Thou art the Lord our God." Brethren! Is there a man, who having long been separated from a companion, most beloved, does not yearn for the pressure of his friendly hand? Is there a child who having long departed from the parental home, does not move with rapidity towards the hearth, where a father in open arms, awaits for his return? You answer there can be none. Why are then Israelites so tardy in returning to Him, whose com-panionship is their safest guide, through the devious paths of life, to Him who is the best of friends, the most loving of fathers? How does it happen that they will so often follow their own course, heeding not the land-marks set up by Providence? But hark!...... The voice of warning is being heard. "Traveller, thou who treadest the path of thine own choice. Thine eyes have deceived thy mind. Thou hast mistaken a meteor for a beacon light. Retrace thy steps, ere thou be en--shrouded in darkness". So speaks the thrilling
sound of the Shofar, and so addresses every man and woman in Israel, this Sabbath of penitence, a season the most solemn in our year. Suffer me to become the interpreter of those celestial messengers. We are asked to submit our spiritual infirmities to the Almighty Physician, that we may be tho--roughly healed. I shall stand before you in the capacity of that spice-merchant, mentioned in the Talmud, who walked abroad, offering a restorative and crying thus "Who is it that wishes for life, who lives many days, that he may see good?" Crowds gathered around, anxious to secure so invaluable a recipe. He wrote "Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good, seek peace and pursue it." Whosoever has impaired his moral health, let him accept a prescription, which affords a complete cure. Let him swallow the potion that he may be fully restored. Then will he have lengthened his days. Nay: he will have renewed his youth like the eagle's, and returning to his Father purified, he will have purchased an exist--ence never ending.
We are offered a medicine, which must act in two different manners. I judge it to be an astringent, and a stimulant. You understand, my Brethren! The sentence of the Psalmist, demands not alone our refraining from doing wrong, but our performing what is right. A universal adage tells us that habit becomes a second nature. The maxim applies, of course, both to good as well and to evil habits. But desiring now to refer particularly to the latter, I would say: We are often loth to do at first, what we do afterward constantly, with--out the slightest hesitation, because we overcame learnt to slight set aside the good advice of our conscience. Thus, the practice of disparaging the character of our neighbour, or an indulgence into it imperceptibly grows upon us till it clings to us with great the utmost tenacity. It may be but originally a breezy air whisper, or the Rabbis would call it [Hebrew], "the fine dust of aspersion," soon swelling however into a hurricane carry--ing all things before it. The Thus the evil tongue, grows shop gradually gains in its sharper power to with it cuts right and left [?] piercing pierce through and cut unsparingly, heeding neither people's feelings nor people's reputation. Against a practice so reprehensible yet so rife; we are forcibly cautioned.
A striking command occurs in the book of Leviticus. It forbid us to curse the deaf. Does it mean to imply that we may curse those whose sense of hearing is not impaired? Most assuredly not. It purposes to admonish us not to blacken the character of the absent. To do so thoughtlessly, it betrays a want degree of inconsideration, reflecting upon unbecoming a being gifted with intellect and feelings. To brand the name of our fellow-creatures with the stigma of reproach designedly is cowardly and unjust. Cowardly, because if they were present, we would, most likely, measure our words, lest we commit a personal offence. Unjust, be--cause we can never dive into the motives which occasioned what we censure, we cannot be made acquainted with all the surroundings, with the circumstances that led to error. But if the faults which others exhibit so scandalize our piety, why do we not conform with the precept "Thou shalt surely reprove thy neighbour, and not bear any sin against him." Why do we not confront him, as Elijah faced Ahab, as Nathan sought David? You say to do that, one must be like those inspired men, who did not court Royal favor, who cared not for popular applause; but whom a scanty meal sufficed.
But because we are unable to rise to the standard of our superiors, we2 should1 come down to the level of our inferiors, of the beings in the brute creation, that shrunk within themselves inflict sting us ar unawares? One may put on his armor himself to repel the attack of an open enemy, but he will be unprepared to ward off the onslaught of a concealed foe? How shall he compel the detractors of his character, to return to him the fair name of which he has been robbed, if he does not know who and where they are? Nay: the offenders themselves may be incapacitated from repairing the mischief they have done. For it is easy to create an unfavorable impression about an individual, but very difficult to erase it. You remember that Pharaoh's magicians could turn the rods into serpents, but a power from above could alone restore them to their primitive condition. Therefore says our sentence "Keep thy tongue from evil: If thou canst not make favorable mention of thy neighbor's doings, forbear injuring his reputation by innuendos or defamation. Remember that we all are frail mortals, and like reeds apt to bend under
the stormy passions rising within us. The faults with which we unscrupulously charge others, may be imputed to ourselves, for, the Sages have reasonably [inserted above: wisely] asserted, that we should not trust our virtue, till the day of our death. We ought therefore to keep close to Him whose compa--nionship will guard us from becoming entangled in the meshes of sin; heed the advice of the loving Father, who will guide us aright, and keep our tongue from evil withhold our speech when it may do evil. But if to use a foul tongue is to be guilty of theft against our fellow mortals, to speak with guile, is to steal man's precious possession, his mind [Hebrew]. Many will contend that to banish deception altogether from society, is an utter impossibility. Constituted as society the world is, we must blend a little guile with our dealings, in order to proceed smoothly. The promotion of our temporal welfare may imperatively demand it. And we may do so, inflicting no pain on others, nor acting to their detriment, while benefitting ourselves. Bu the sentence I have quoted admits of no qualification. Not because a fault is pre--valent, is its commission is less offensive to the Deity. According to our expositors, to proffer services, which we know in advance they will be declined, is a deception,
debasing of our nature. To be pressing in invitations, which we are certain will not be accepted, to lead persons to believe that their presence affords much pleasure, that to see it again will be happiness to us, and similar expressions, rarely meant in earnest, is to violate the injunction [Hebrew] "Keep away from false matter." The Talmud il--lustrates its teaching by the narrative of the following in--cident. A Rabbi renowned for his learning was taking a walk for his recreation with his pupils. While proceeding in his way, he was met by a certain personage returning from a long journey. That individual mistaking the object of the Rabbi, said: "It pains me to think that you should have taken the trouble to walk our purposely to welcome me home." "Not so" interrupted the honest teacher of old. "Such had not really been my intention. I simply desired to find some diversion in strolling about for a while." Others might have confirmed a mistake, which would possibly prove advantageous, or at all events, have remained silent, allowing him who was deceived laboring under a mistake, to make his own construction. The Rabbi would have deemed that an unpardonable prevarication, and quickly he disabused the mind unwittingly de--ceived. In like manner as he would keep his tongue from evil,
so did he restrain his lips from speaking guile. But however essential it is to the restoration of our moral health that we abstain from the two sins of which I have hitherto referred, we cannot hope to remain sound and well, unless our negative goodness is accompanied by positive righteousness. As with regard to our bodily pre--servation we may be obliged to have recourse alike to stimulants as well as to astringents, so touching our spiritual recovery we must feel incited to active virtues, in the same manner as we are checked from [?] vice. Our sentence tells us that Judaism is not a negative but a positive religion, that is, it demands of its votaries, To "depart from evil, and do good" [Hebrew] To "seek peace and pursue it" [Hebrew] But what is good? What is the good, so important to our health, and which the Psalmist urgently recommends? I open the pages of profane history, and discover that it has not always conveyed the one meaning. There was a time when it was men considered it good to sacrifice our nearest and dearest to the shrine of implacable gods. There was a time, when it was children deemed it good to cut the threads of their parents' life,
to lessen the pain of protracted diseases. There was a time when it was people judged it good to wash out the stain imagined to have been cast on our honor, with the blood of the offender. There was a time when it was so called [?]polished nations reckoned it good that the many should labor for the few; and that the bulk of mankind be a footstool to those whom chance has lifted high. Even in our own days, the signification of that word varies according to climes, and to the degree of civilization men of different lands have attained. Thus a Brahmin will not understand it like a Turkish Mufty. Nor either of them as a minister of the Nazarene church interprets it. What is then to us Hebrews the supreme good we must choose, as essential to our salvation? Our Bible, my Brethren! The word of God breathed into holy men, that is the good to which we must cling. I have given you a good instruction, forsake not my Law." [Hebrew]. To others the term good may have a relative meaning, to us Israelites it has had a positive signification for the last thirty five centuries, adherence to the moral and ceremonial behests is good; it is working for our deliverance; through the restoration of our moral and spiritual health.
I shall not ask whether we act as if we adhered with fidelity to that good. The walks of this Sy--nagogue with a triumphant tongue speak of our heedless--ness. They tell us to compare the throng which assembled here on the last Rosh Hashaná, with the slender number who came to sanctify the Sabbath of penitence; and to Judge for ourselves draw the conclusion. Aye: the Sabbath, the sign of the covenant between the heavenly Legislator and his people, is wantonly desecrated. Not exclusively by those, whose famished children look for a morsel doled out to them by their indigent parents, but specially by such, who could well spare of their superfluities, the earnings of the holiest day. The Sabbath is set at nought, and as a legitimate issue, we contemplate the chilling apathy of the rising generation for the ancestral faith; the undisguised aversion evinced by our children for what concerns the ordinances of Holy Writ the Decalogue. Parents have said within my hearing, that they will not bias the minds of their minds of their sons and daughters. When arrived at the age of maturity, the truths enunciated by
Moses and the prophets will assert themselves, and strike a deep root into the minds of intellectual Israelites. But are we so certain that they will discern between sublime verities, and that which bears the semblance thereof? Is it not more probable that in the continual din, in the tur--moil of a busy life, our offspring will not bestow their thoughts upon a subject all-important to their hereafter? Our law-giver who knows human nature because He framed it, would not that we trust to future circumstances the education of our children. He recommended "Thou shalt teach the commands dili--gently." "You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them." Between each maternal kiss, and paternal embrace, we ought to instill into them the principles of the Mosaic code. Explain that life is not a ceaseless grappling with fortune. That higher duties than gathering pelf have been imposed upon creatures destined for immortality. That such alone, who have learnt how to combine the gathering of their own daily bread, with the accomplishing of their obligations to God and their fellow creatures beings are the chosen representatives of Judaism. Then will we have "departed from evil", "and done good," while we will also have "sought peace and pursued it." The peace of our
mind, feeling that we have used our best endeavours in discharging the task required at our hands as fathers and mothers in Israel. The peace of our progeny, whom we will have supplied with a support, through the ever--changing incidents of this terrestrial existence. The peace of the community, we will have furnished with members, whose integrity rests upon the immoveable basis of a belief in a Judge, at exacting an account of our deeds. Do that good, parents; follow that prescription, which proves a complete restorative. Let our spiritual health be ever de--clining, we may recuperate the necessary strength. And provided we follow the companionship of our heavenly friend, and heed the counsel of our beneficent Father, the voice invitingly exclaiming. "Return ye backsliding children, I will heal your backslidings" will joyfully proclaim "I have forgotten your sins, and your trespasses shall not remembered any more" Oh let us all return, with throbbing hearts to our forgiving Lord "Behold we come unto Thee, for Thou art in very deed the Lord our God" [Hebrew] [Hebrew] - Identifier
- p3gt5g174
- identifier
- SMBx10FF2_5
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/91144