Sabbath before Passover (Shabat ha-gadol). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Sabbath before Passover (Shabat ha-gadol). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Author
- Morais, Sabato
- Format
- 9 pages on 3 sheets
- Language(s)
- English
- Source
- Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
- Sabato Morais Collection, Box 10, Folder 4
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3jm2421z/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3jm2421z
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx10FF4_11.xml
- content
-
S. MORAIS,
546 N. FIFTH STREET.
PHILADELPHIA,_____189
63
For the Sabbath before Passover [Hebrew]
O Matzah, Matzah, thou hast in very deed been unto Israel "a bread of affliction", yet, we love thee because sooner could our right hand forget her cunning, than we cease to recall the countless memories that cluster around thee. Always will we raise thee high in the sight of our progeny; always shalt thou hold preeminence, at this epochal season, in the home of the Jew. Brethren. You that are free will not counsel the est enslaved to cast off the memento reached down to us all, by thousand gener--ations. I heard it once and righteous indigna--tion seized my spirit. A teacher of falsehood, whose sayings are oracularly listened to by many, spoke the iniquitous impious word. "If the Matzah ex--oses you to sufferings, cease to partake of it. Life must not be imperilled because of a ceremonial law". But is it only the atrocious calumny invented against the Matzah, that has made Israel the target of poisonous darts? Hearken to the cry of tender mothers brought to the slaughter.
Why are ye, women of my people, slain by the sword killed and burned? "Because we would that our male children be admitted into the covenant of Abraham." Say my brethren, were the zealous Sages, who taught the law of Moses despite prohibition spared by the inveterate foes, who had sworn to force that Law into eter--nal oblivion? If the theory that we shall crouch and bend and sacrifice cherished beliefs, to ward off persecution, is to be carried to its logical end, sequence then we must even now exchange the synagogue for the Mosque and accept baptism, at the hand of the Patriarch of Constantinople. For, is the shah of Persia kindly considerate towards his Hebrew subjects who deny the claims of the founder of Islam? and is the Czar of Russia gently tolerant towards those who reject the cross? No: with bleeding hearts and eyes swelling with tears this message will we send to brethren, who in very deed eat the bread of affliction. "Sad is your lot, severe in the extreme are your trials, but we look upon you as our heroes. Yield not to the direful pressure. Be firm, be constant, and through your constancy the religion of Moses, which we share, will finally be vindicated."
Brethren. Could you have imagined it possible, that we be obliged to send that message to our fel--low believers in a country, for whose liberating from the hated Turk, Byron and political like enthusiasts of only six decades ago, staked their lives? While I speak, our coreligionists at Corfu may tremble, lest the brutality perpetrated against their young and their old, be reenacted! Greece of George I, has ensured our people unto the Hebrews citizenship and and its attending immunities, but what power can roll back the surging of a wild populace, maddened by fanaticism? "The Jew thirsts for Christian blood. He is enjoying it now in the bread eaten on his Passover. Tear down his house, demolish his place of worship, let him feel the keen edge of an avenging sword." Irrepressibly, the a horrible scene turned the festival of the Lord last year into mourning. A peaceful community that had long settled in the most flourishing city of the Ionian isles, was assaulted and plundered and murdered.
Many left behind substance and dear asso--ciations to escape from cruel death. Heart rending was the sight of entire families separating, some fleeing in one direction, others elsewhere. Italy we offered the nearest har--bor of safety, and many not a few hastened thither, but I have read of an incident most touching concerning about the unfortunate refugees. A centennarian was Nina Aboab. Her ancestors had sought in Corfu deliverance from the thumb screw and seething cauldron of the Spanish inquisition. Now the venerable mo--ther in Israel, laden with years, saw ruin all around, yet in the midst of a universal consternation, she appeared resigned to the sad fate, almost serene, the hoary-headed matron she looked, under a compulsory exile. Did she recall at that sorrowful hour, the trials of her race? she did personify then Israel's endless trials tribulations--Israel, old and beaten by all the winds of pitiless adversity, still uncrushed, still trusting in Providence for the final victory of truth. Nina Aboab in the bitterness of an inevitable banishment from a sweet home and loved surroundings, carried to a foreign land the sustaining hope which never abandon--ed her martyred people. She died soon after,
in Alexandria of Egypt, the country frought with reminiscences to dealthless[?]. Israel will she died, breath--ing words of forgiveness to the persecutors of Abraham's progeny. Her action is the my counsel and tuition; that I follow, not the unrighteous advice and instruction of the time serving. For, by heeding the latter and submitting to adverse circumstances adverse to the retention of our the Mosaic precepts, all that our fathers pre--served, at such odds as made our continuance upon earth possible, will gradually disappear and gentilism will have engulphed Judaism. Are you prepared for that issue, Thy brethren? Are the re--ligious antagonistic to our creed so broad in their liberal spirits, so reasonably pure in their dogmas; are--I say--the votaries thereof so surpassingly moral, so ennobled by the humanitarian preaching of their clergy, that in order to improve our own doctrines, to better our our conduct socially, relations, to render us domestically more attached to our fire sides, we ought to abjure Moses and swear by Jesus or Mohammed? What has happened in Corfu; what occurs every year in one spot or in another of the globe or in another, thunderingly answers: "No." Jews have faults many and glaring, but bloodthirstiness
is not a vice of the adorers of the One God, who taught us all to believe that He made the earth, and created man to dwell thereupon. [Hebrew] [Hebrew] and again, that He formed it not to make become a waste, but to be inhabit-ed by creatures, who should acknowledge His universal Fatherhood [Hebrew] [Hebrew]. Jews would shrink with horror at the bare idea of maligning a whole people, by giving credence to infamous accusations. Jews would not defy law and government, to set up arm a throne to calumny, that it may tear away from God's earth, and destroy the innocent. We are approach--ing the close of the nineteenth century of Grace, yet, more than two hundred Rabbis in Germany, have felt morally compelled to make a solemn de--claration that the rules which intended for the guidance of Jews every--where, are founded on rectitude and supported by mercifulness. In spite of that, Rector Ahlwardt spits his venom against Jews, as the offscouring of society.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, a defender of his brethren, an advocate of their rehabilitation in England, swore that the charge of ritual mur--der in connection with the Matzah, is a lie and a libel against every writing in possession of the Jews. He hoped prayed that if he prevaricated to screen offenders, curses innumerable and unending might blight his existence here and hereafter, but a pretentious antisemitic Hebraist, declared asserted, a short time since, that to have found the imputation which brought terror and desolation upon our Corfu fellow-believers, sub--stantiated in the Zohar. A falsehood as black as night. But let me not sadden with sombre reflections the arrival of the season, commemorative of our freedom from a spiritual, not less than a physical, thraldom. Let us make ready to greet it joyously in the midst of our families. Let us pray that like our-selves in this God-favored America, so all the outcasts of Judea may raise the typical cups of salvation un-molested unshaken by fear. May a voice be heard then on high promising in the language of the prophet "As in the days that ye went out of Egypt, I will show you wonders." Amen. [Hebrew] - Identifier
- p3jm2421z
- identifier
- SMBx10FF4_11
Part of Sabbath before Passover (Shabat ha-gadol). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
Morais, Sabato, “Sabbath before Passover (Shabat ha-gadol). Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed September 19, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/91159