Re'eh. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Re'eh. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Author
- Morais, Sabato
- Format
- 11 pages on 3 sheets
- Language(s)
- English
- Source
- Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
- Sabato Morais Collection, Box 9, Folder 27
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3b27qb2k/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3b27qb2k
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx9FF27_1.xml
- content
-
[Hebrew]
[Hebrew]
Brethren! Not until very recently did fully entered fully into the spirit of the sentence with which the section of this Sabbath com--mences. Mark its diction, for, in a few words, it lays down two cardinal principles of the Jewish religion. "Behold I set before you this day, a blessing and a curse." [Hebrew] It is not written [Hebrew] but [Hebrew] as to say, I on penitence for sabbath Elul submit the choice to your free-will. Your own judgment shall determine [Hebrew] or your obedience or disobedience of the ordinances of the Pentateuch. Know, however, that a blessing will flow from your adherence to the same behests now commanded; and offered for your acceptance, while a curse will attend a disregard of those divine precepts. Thus my dear hearers! we have been pithily taught the permanency of the law, and our accountability to the Great Sovereign Judge. Blind belief Upon those two points Judaism mainly rests. A Blind belief does not accord with it. A wiling and intelligent performance of its prescriptions is demanded. But no Israelite can with impunity exonerate himself from discharging the ordinances of his religion. And much less can he allege as p a palliation for his neglect, that they the Divine Legislator intended His behests for other times and places. for We read [Hebrew] "which a curse...if you lest you turn away aside from the way which I command you this day". Whosoever teaches otherwise, teaches heresy.
Brethren! Were you to ask this day, what is that which I desire most in the sacred vocation calling I follow, I would answer that I wish my congrega--tion did not need to be preached to lectured. For, it would be an evidence of their piety, and the highest testimonial I could produce of my success as an servant humble minister of the our Lord. But neither have they reached that degree of righteousness, nor am I so enviably situated. Nay, there are many who despite my constant admonitions, will adhere to irreligious practices. So that I, who would rejoice in being able to praise, am urged by duty to censure. Yet, knowing that, after all, to sin is human, I could find some extenuations to a casual departure from the ordinances of God. I could attribute it to the frailty of our nature; to the ceaseless temptations laid in our way, and so difficult to overcome; but that which I cannot palliate, but which I, on the contrary, must strongly condemn, is a growing disbelief in the truth enunciated in the section of this Sabbath for, that is the source when all impiety arises.
I mean a denial of our accountability to a great
judge for all our doings on earth; a rejection of the doctrine [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "that God will bring every action into judgment, and pass sentence on every secret thing, whether it be good or evil". We are told in the book, which should be our only guide and standard, that a blessing will flow from our obedience of the commandments of the Lord, and a curse from our disobedience, but many professing to be Jews, in--credulously say, and they have said it also within my hearing "Let the device of the Holy One of Israel, come nigh and be effected that we may know it," then will we believe [Hebrew]. Meanwhile they imagine that they can with impunity continue to do what is contrary to the expressed will of their Maker. They will eat & drink and think and act in contradiction of the dictates of religion & say in their hearts. The Lord desires not [Hebrew] And why? Because of the long-suffering of a beneficent God. For the reason that He in his mercy will not immediately let the rod of his chastisement fall upon the back of the sinner. [Hebrew]
[Hebrew] "Because a sentence against an evil action is not executed speedily, therefore the sons of man dare to do wrong.
So wrote the author of Ecclesiastes, and so is illustrated by the conduct of men who were born in Israel. But in all this I recognize the result of a perverted instruction. For, In this material our unspiritual material age if I may use the expression we are taught to submit every thing to human reason, and whatever cannot stand that test must be set aside as [?]. Accordingly we are made to believe that God is too exalted to take knowledge of those who dwell in tenements of clay. That He whom the whole universe cannot contain, will not condescend to note man's outgoings and coming in. That all causes and their effects in sublunary events, depend upon natural laws, and are not to be sought after in the actions of individuals. Oh presumption! Oh fatal incredulity! Surely, I know, that the th A fallible creature, sets up his judgment against the word of the infallible God! Surely, I know, that the Almighty in his dealing with the inhabitants of this world, does not work constant miracles. I am fully aware that [Hebrew] Nature follows its fixed laws. But He who is the author of nature has not surrendered to it his illimitable powers. No,
its workings are but the messengers of His will. They are shaped by the finger of God that they may subserve his wise purposes [Hebrew] Whether to chastise the wicked, or to benefit a people or to show mankind his compassion. Is a country prosperous? the Lord's face of the Lord shines upon it. Is it in a state of internal convuls agitation? God visits upon it the inequity of its inhabitants. And what I have said of a nation, applies with equal force to the individuals. Are we happy at home, and successful abroad? The spirit of God hovers around us. Do we suffer afflictions, or reverses? God admonishes us that we may bethink ourselves and return to duty. Such is my religion, such is must should be your religion, my Brethren, in contrast with a philosophy that would give unto God only a negative existence, while He is the ever-wakeful, the ever acting Being, and impartial Judge. For, this con--solatory doctrine is taught in every page of the holy book; it is manifestly sh inculcated by every word maxim of our prophets sages, and in the maxims of our Sages every word of our philosophers, but is nowhere more explicitly forcibly inculcated than in our the Parasha
you are have read this Sabbath. [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "A blessing shall attend your obedience of the com--mandments of the Lord your God, but a curse your di--sobedience." Yes, the justice of the Lord demands that we be responsible for acts, which are the issue result of our own volition freedom of will. His goodness wills that descrys prompts some we be to rewarded us for our virtuous deeds. Disconnect these ideas, and where God is enthroned, blind chance would be set up. If the Providence of the Lord be not as well as2 general and special1 in its divine character, man is then but a sport to uncontrolling events. His individuality is lost, and with it his accountability But it is written inspired wisdom can proclaims by the wisest of our [Hebrew] that the eyes of God are upon the ways of man, and He observes all his steps. Our impartial judge may not choose to requite us instantenously according to our deserts, but know for certain [Hebrew], that all will be reckoned up. Our Rabbins in the Midrash com--menting upon the first sentence of our this week's lesson make use of an allegory illustrative of our subject They say, a blessing and a curse have been set before us, and it the selection is optional: with no which but it sometime happens
that the former blessing bears the semblance of the latter cause, and this again is diguised under the barb of the other former; which fact can be compared to a high way, but branching out into two different roads. One appears the most agreeable and the easiest whereby to reach our destination, the other unpleasant and difficult to walk upon. But at the spot where those two roads separate, a watchman stands, and thus he addresses each passer by. Neibour! You see this road so smooth and so well laid out; if you follow it, you will shortly find yourself entangled among thorns, which will prick your sides. The other, on the contrary, which has some obstructions at the entrance will, no sooner you have overcome them, conduct you to the end of your journey through a wide and strait path. My Brethren! The application is obvious. We often, deceived by ap--pearances often consider that that that to heed our own what our neighbor possesses is inclinations is to forward our happiness. We think for instance that riches--for that seems to be with all the great goal to be attained--we think that riches
can but be accumulated by following our a course which lies under no restrictions, and we forsake God to we voluntarily rush into a way that ends in suffering and truth it, looking not to any farther than only no as far as our own shortsightedness can reach. Another way presents itsf itself before us, but we avoid it. To go through it, we must struggle against our passions, and impose on ourselves some restriction a cl check on our cravings; but cannot we do not perceive that what we put aside as a temporary evil is precisely that which will be the means conducive to our real happiness wellbeing, whereas what we perceive prefer, ends in suffering and [?] gnawing remorse. For, if we believe that a just God cannot leave those unpu-nished those who rebel against His will to follow their own, nor let men go unrewarded, who suppress their wishes for the sake of His sacred word, we will not be beguiled by the seeming felicity of the wicked. For For as the preacher says "Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days chastisement be prolonged deferred put off, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God [Hebrew] [Hebrew], but it shall not be well with the wicked [Hebrew]. Imbued with these comforting ideas we will not then call that happiness which is gained by trampling upon the ordinances of the Lord, but we will call that felicity which proceeds form a conscience of having shaped not deliberately
disobeyed our Creator, for this will be a lasting felicity. It will outlive be our sweet spiritual companion & comforter while the body exists, and it will follow us beyond the grave when our flesh & bones moulder in the graves. The other b is but transient, and should it even continue in this world, it will be converted into a corroding warm, where bodily enjoyments can no more be felt. Let us then be aware careful, my friends, of that lest our hearts become not tainted with the skeptical notions so pre-vailing in this degenerate age; for once that we have embraced them, it will be difficult to have cast them rooted out away. When man has early been taught to looks upon this nether world, as a ship without a pilot, or on its inha- dwellers bitants as mere jugglers striving to supplant and overreach one another, when the mind either puffed up with worldly knowledge, or void of all intelligence, attributes to chance what is the emanation of supreme wisdom, then neither the gentle admonitions of friends, nor the paternal corrections of heaven will effect a change.
But we should remember that we have been al forcibly cautioned against hearkening to the insinuations of a false prophet
to him who seeks to turn us away from the Lord our God, we should remember that we are bid close our ears against a teaching subversive of what the Almighty Himself has vouchsafed to impart to us for our own happiness here and hereafter. We should remember that as a preventative against the seductions of the wicked, God has given us the following prescription [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "Ye shall [?] after the Lord your God" that is, you shall endeavour to copy his attributes, and being thus be engaged in doing charity and acts of beneficence. You will [?] evil-doing. [Hebrew] "Ye shall fear Him" ye shall entertain a continual apprehension of doing aught that may displease the Guardian of your existence [Hebrew] "Ye shall keep his command" Ye shall cavil neither about the relative importance of his various precepts, nor about the object they have in view, but ye shall simply obey his voice [Hebrew], as that of a father who can only wish the welfare of his children. [Hebrew] Ye shall serve him" ye shall worship Him at home in the ideation of your children; [?] in dealing with your fellow-men in his sanctuary; Bringing thither an offering of pure lips and of a clean heart. [Hebrew] "And cleave unto Him." Ye shall cling to the Dweller of heaven in joy, as the spring of all enjoyments,
Ye shall cling to Him in sorrow adversity, as to the only anchor of salvation. My Brethren! This divine prescription I now lay before you open for your acceptance. This day On this Sabbath, which is the opening of a month, which they devoted by those who follow our ritual devote to propitiatory prayers; I suggest that you will thus early examine your conduct towards God & man. If you discover that your religious habits are not free form reproach, if you perceive that you have not always been actuated by religious motives, but also by selfishness, and animosity & hatred and avarice; of your [?] that you cast the Law of God aside, to follow your own propensities; if in searching your inward selves you obscure black stains of sin committed against your own children, the wife of your bosom, and or your confiding friend. If you, in short detect anything antagonistic to the dictates of Holy Writ, speedily amend blot it your courses out, that you may on the day of judgment uplift your hands hearts on high cleansed from all pollutions that you may & say "O Lord! I have returned unto Thee with sincerity; I have mended my ways I will henceforth obey Thy com- precepts -mandments, do those from heaven command Thy blessing to rest upon me; and be laid upon the head of my offspring, and of those I love upon earth." - Identifier
- p3b27qb2k
- identifier
- SMBx9FF27_1
Part of Re'eh. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
Morais, Sabato, “Re'eh. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed September 19, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/91153