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
- 10 pages on 4 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/p31n7z675/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p31n7z675
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx10FF4_8.xml
- content
-
For the Sabbath before Passover
on education [Hebrew]
[Hebrew]
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, ye who believe in the word of God, for as He ordained, so has even come to pass [Hebrew] "Thou shalt keep this statute at its season, from year to year". Aye, we will ever proclaim that season holy, wherein the stretched-out arm of the Omnipotent took a nation from amidst another nation by memorable deeds. We will call that day blessed, whereon the Creator announced to the world, that He would be our protecting God, and we His people and the flock of His pasture. Thrice blessed that day which saw our fathers advance, under the banner of freedom, towards that mountain whence a life eternal was to be granted unto man. Long centuries have rolled away since that matchless day dawned upon redeemed Israel, but the hand of time has not obliterated its memory. As in the days of yore, the statute is kept at its season from year to year. Wheresoever be our sojourn, whether breathing the exhilarating air of liberty, or enduring ruthless persecution. In whatever condition of life we be
whether in affluence or in want, the fifteenth day of Nissan is hailed with devotional delight. Alike in the palatial mansion and in the humble dwelling, the cup of salvation is raised brimful to sing praises to the God of truth, who has performed His covenant with Abraham, and shown mercy to a thousand generations. So also we, my beloved hearers! we, a clustering branch of that vine, which God brought out of Egypt and transplanted in this genial soil, we believing Hebrews will uplift our voice around the family board hearth with hymns and psalmody. We will again assemble in this house dedicated to our living Saviour, and celebrate together the festival He has appointed as an everlasting ordinance. But need I say to you that those acts, however meritorious, do not constitute the main duties con--nected with and flowing from the institution of the Passover?...Behold! the heavenly volumes are open to all for our instruction. From thence you must draw divine knowledge.
But as I examined the passage, from which I quoted a sentence, my attention was directed to the circumstance,
that two commands of a different character follow each other immediately. One is negative [Hebrew] and to our praise be it said, scrupulously observed in Israel, the other is positive [Hebrew] but I have reason to believe [inserted above: few], not so rigidly fulfilled. In compliance with the first, we cleanse our habitations from all leaven, and provide ourselves with the bread emblematic of our deliverance from bondage; un in obedience to the second, we should tell our children the origin and object of our precepts, keep them fresh into their minds by tangible signs, and bear them constantly on our lips, that our offspring may, as it were, inhale from our breath piety and virtue [Hebrew].
Now, that we bestow exceeding care upon the preservation of our children's bodily health, no one will deny, for Hebrew men are proverbially attached to their domestic fire-side, and the comfort of home and its inmates is their constant solicitude. That to render our children accom--plished we spare no effort, that to open for them the avenues to opulence, we labor unremittingly, admits of no question
but that we experience the same anxiety touching their spiritual health that we strive with all might that they may grow learned in the obligations to God, and rich in virtues, cannot as well be asserted. The chilling apathy of our youths regarding religion, and the rampant changes introduced in it to gra--tify the senses, are to my judgment, the legitimate offspring of parental heedlessness. I will prove it. Some will exact from their children, while under their control, the exercise of numerous religious practices, yet they will utterly fail to invest the same with a halo of sanctity, for they will neglect the point most essential. They will not disclose their purport, the noble object they are intended to subserve. They will not, as our heavenly Legislator has recommended, explain at large that the behests of our God aim at securing our happiness here and hereafter, for it is written [Hebrew] "The Lord hath commanded us to do all these statutes, for our own good always, to keep us alive as at this day. And it will moreover be counted to our righteousness before the Lord our God, when we observe to do all this commandment."
Rather than win them to religion by describing the loveliness of a godly existence, by pointing out the actions that most ennoble human nature, by speaking of the satisfaction we derive from the fulfilment of our duties, though unrequited and misapprehended by man, they will insist upon the execution of ceremonial ordinances, only as [Hebrew] as "an habitual task". Others again imagine that to procure their children--during a certain period at least--a religious instructor, is all that can be required of them at their hands; for upon the man of their choice they have will cast their burthen of their obligations. He must shape the hearts of their young offspring. He must leach them to distinguish between the holy and the unholy, He must fit them to solve all queries when catechised about the ancestral religion. The parents need not devote a time which may yeild them great many advantages in their various callings, to impart religious knowledge. Grievous errors are these, my friends! pregnant with laf baleful results. I do not, by any means, hold it as necessary or judicious to discuss with our children the nature of every command
we desire to enforce, nor do I deprecate the system of employing a tutor to aid us in training our children, provided we know that his moral standing and piety, keep pace with his learning; but I contend that upon the parents most especially has the Almighty imposed the duty of giving exercising their best abilities to give the mind and heart of their offspring a right tendency [Hebrew] "Thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children, and speak of them," exclaims Holy Writ; and our Rabbins [Hebrew]. "It is the bounden duty of every man to teach his son religion". Those whom we have voluntarily given existence, we must show, under our own guidance, the way of salvation. This is a law stamped by nature upon our breast, and to which nature's God demands our implicit obedience. None dares with impunity refuse it, or transfer it unto others.
The Great Master who fashioned our being, has designedly infused into our tender offspring a feeling which prompts them to regard their parents, as the best interpreters of the word of God, as the wisest and most virtuous among
all mortal creatures. It behooves us therefore to improve that great divine boon, by inculcating such lessons as calculated to inspire love for God, and reverence for His revealed word. It is not sufficient that we say to our children, this is right and that is wrong, we must cast around their path a flood of religious light. We must by precept and example endear to them the faith in which they were born, and the people with whom they have community of history and hopes. Vain will indeed be the imparting of their preceptors, if not preceded, accompanied, and followed by our own tuition. Besides, we are not always able or willing to ascertain what principles govern the life of him who is to influence hereafter the character of our progeny, that we may fully entrust them to his charge. It is a remark, my friends! often times repeated, that the children of apparently pious parents, are in general among the foremost to disregard religion. But if the early history of such could, in all cases, be unfolded, it would reveal, in the majority of instance, the working of one of the two radical errors
I have described above. Either was parental instruction devoid of spirituality, or it was entirely committed to unqualified and incompetent teachers. But when religious imparting is so given that it illumines the intellect, and appeals to our finer feelings, it will, it must fructify and produce an exuberant harvest of goodness and righteousness. Were it not even so, the education of the heart so emphatically recommended in the volumes of inspiration, would be an unmeaning word, a shadow without reality, a phantom without substance. Forbid it God!...That wickedness will grow where righteous--ness had been sown, is not never to be ascribed to the inefficacy of home-culture; but to the mildew which a corrupt association will raise on our tender plants. Against it, must we industriously guard; we must never abandon our offspring to themselves, until we are confident that the light they have received, enables them to proceed alone. We should remember that [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "He that goeth with wise men, will grow wise;
but he who goeth in company with the reckless will do ev be destroyed." To avert this fatal issue, our Almighty Deliverer has conjointly established the Passover and the duty of parental education. It does not become the free-man to grope in darkness. He must know his obligations, and follow them with moral courage. Freedom and duty are inseperably connected. Such is our motto; and upon this broad principle stands the memorable me festival now fast approaching. Let us solemnize it in accordance with its spirit; O my beloved hearers! Let us by precept and example draw our children nearer to their protecting God, who is the fountain of human salvation. We know not how long we shall be permitted to labor in His holy cause, let us then not tarry be slothful, and if we have sinned of neglect permitted ourselves to suffered ourselves to be found slumbering over our task, let us re--double our efforts, and never grow weary in teaching our children what they owe to their Creator, to them--selves and to their fellow-mortals; then will we have performed what is demanded of us, and have rightly kept this statute at its season from year to year, as it written [Hebrew]. - Identifier
- p31n7z675
- identifier
- SMBx10FF4_8
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/91163