Shemot. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Shemot. 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 9, Folder 10
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3bv7bf7q/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3bv7bf7q
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx9FF10_2.xml
- content
-
on Parashat Shemot [Hebrew]
This lecture was recast, enlarged and
improved upon considerably in [?] 96
Brethren. A friend sent me lately a short time ago a touching story to read. Written originally in Sanskrit--a language no longer spoken, but still used among peoples of India in their public worship--it had been translated into faultless English. The story purported to show how exquisitely tender, even towards even dumb animals, are the feelings of nations, whom we consider uncivilized. I gladly admit, to the honor of all my fellow mor--tals, that sentiments of humanity are not the peculiar passion of any sect or denomination. I hold that they are untrue to nature, 's imparting, who cruelly treat lower creatures. A forcible reminder of the instinct of compassion implanted by the beneficent Creator in our breasts, is the sentence of the pslamist so which observant Israelites often repeat in their prayers: [Hebrew] "The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works." Not less forcible is the Rabbinical illustration of that Scriptural passage. I will present it. Many among my audience have heard of the compiler of the Mishnah. When we search through Talmudical literature, we shall find that none stands higher than Judah the Prince, Chief of the colleges which flourished in Tiberias about the 3rd century of the vulgar era.
In his life time he that sage was extolled for the exercise of rare virtues, and succeeding generations have encircled his memory with a halo of sanctity. They have called him Rabbenu Hakkadosh, "our Rabbin the holy," because by his influence piety and activity the Mishnah or the oral Laws was were collected and formulated. Never--theless, with an impartiality deserving of all respect, the Talmudists tell us that the bodily ailments to which Judah the Prince became subject, were a punishment for an act of his harshness towards a poor beast. On one occasion a calf about to be led to the slaughter house, once hid its head under the folds of the Rabbi's gar--ments, and piteously gave a pitiful cry as if to beg for life, but the Sage roughly chased it away, saying [Hebrew] "Go to, thou wast born to be killed". I shall not cite the legend of the lamb, which, having strayed from the flock in quest of water to look for a stream where to quench its thirst, Moses gently car--ried it back in his arms to the fold, and heard on the way a Divine assurance that his compassionate soul fitted him as shepherd of God's chosen flock. All are familiar with that sweet parable from the Medrash; while the aphorism "A righteous man
knows the soul of his animals" and the other in the Tal--mud "To trouble beasts, is prohibited by the law," are household words among Jews. Yet, notwithstanding that kindness towards the brute crea--tion, ought to be a criterion to judge of one's refined nature, still it is very Yet it is possible to meet instances of deep an extravagant at--tachment to irrational beings and of brutality towards reasoning creatures. The very peoples from whose classical writings the touching story sent to me for perusal was taking proves my assertion. There exists among the Hindoos a class distinction, such impassable barriers between men and men, such fiery walls separating keep holding far apart the children of One God from each so far apart, other, as to reduce many to a pitiable condition; to a state inferior to that of beasts. Witness, the Pariahs and the Sudras. Nations that who cannot rise to the Biblical conception of a sole an God created man and woman omnipotent whose plastic hands created the first parents power that breathed into existence the first parents from whom all intel- sentient -ligent beings have sprung; nations who believe that that different portions of the human race have issued from different parts of the body of their false deities, will bye the force of a fatal logic declare some as superior by through an irre--vocable law of nature, and will shun others as doomed by an inexorable fate to drudge in constant degrada-tion. Now I ask you to turn away from that scene offensive to religion, and contemplate the sight which your faith opens before your vision this morning, O coheirs of the Torah.
Observe it well that you may judge of value prize its resplendent beauties. A lad reared among an excep--tionally privileged class caste, is surrounded by the object of ro--yalty solicitude. Wealth, power uninhibited can reach him streams for him, a princely crown lies within his reach. The love of pleasure, inherent in youth, whispers acceptance, the fond caresses of a foster-mother bid it, but compassion has transformed that lad's nature. A voice within his soul which he cannot silence, urges him on to deeds of heroic self-denial. He tears himself from Palatial splendour to seek the hovels of misery has no charm for him. Where the groans of slavery cry for help, there he hastens. He leaves behind an aristocracy of egotistical learning, that he may to go with outstretched arms to the lowly and that he may lift them to a moral elevation. You have recognized your generous deliverer, the hater of castes, the lover of equality, the champion of liberty--your Moses who, to shield the defenseless, threw aside a sceptre and seized a shepherd's staff. [Hebrew] I was reading this week the life of our inspired liberator and legislator written by a Jew of Alexandria nineteen hundred years ago. The perfect close similarity between his thoughts and those of our Sages struck me forcibly.
Philo, who knew nothing of post-biblical litera--ture, and probably knew the Bible Holy Writ only through the medium of the sp Septuagint Greek translation, remarks substantially that if we we examine matters solely to find out truth, and not to learn what opinions this or that per--sons entertains, we will discover that a well skilled shepherd can become a perfect leader of men. For, though some may laugh at the idea, still noble splendid undertakings things can ripen into perfection by means of small agencies. The Talmudists in their turn, commenting on a sen--tence of the psalms which runs thus [Hebrew] "the Lord tries the righteous", remark that as the life of a shepherd had schooled David for the throne, and Amos for a prophetic errand, so did it prepare Moses for the grandest of human missions, for the creation lead of a priestly people created not to rule, but to teach world-redeeming truths verities. Face to face with God's nature; in the vast fields which proclaim the goodness of a Providential Father, in the soli- silent -tude of a the wilderness which inspires reverential awe for the Creator, the son of Amram, wrapt in meditation, saw justice, humanity and justice mercy stand before his soul.
Then the eyes that could not bear to look upon iniquity, read as in the pages of a an open volume, unfolded before his vision, the history of ages past and the events of the future. He read the patriarchal creed, the and under forthcoming salvation -stood its full grandeur he read the vicissitudes of the people he yearned for, their eternity upon earth. Always small like a thorn bush amidst a forest of trees, always exposed to the fire of gentile opposition, but always unconsumed. Confronted with an inexplicable phenomenon--a bush which melting flames did not devour--the shepherd would learn the cause of that wonder, but he comprehended was made to grasped the secret of a more stupendous marvel, the phenomenal existence of Israel, through their belief in that God whom the pilgrim of Ur Chasdim discovered and his descendants worshipped, through their acceptance of a heavenly Torah revelation. For the voice at the sound of which the countenance of the greatest of men mortals fill in deep humiliation spoke of Abraham the faithful, of Isaac and Jacob the tried adorers of the author of the universe. It spoke of the mountain at the foot of which
the redeemed of from a crushing bondage would receive be lifted heavenward by an im--parting unparalleled, in the books of antiquity--a the model after which the most famous among modern nations would shape their legislation. [Hebrew] But now Moses who was wont to form the cen--tral figure in the annals of civilization, Moses after whom the Law was called [Hebrew], because he suffered ere he could muster the armies of the Lord; he suffered to keep the standard bearers of the Torah at their posts, now Moses has caused to commands no more no longer the reverence of his beneficiaries. These are taught a novel religion: pro--phetism it is called termed--the doctrine that the prophets after Moses were the pronounced enemies of Mosaism; that they knew not of or cared nothing for incidents and tenets which assigned to Israel a religious preeminence; that the lat--ter prophets abhorred the sacrificial rules and ceremonial percepts enforced in the five books; that those pro- seers -phets entertained moved midst larger views, entertained broader aspirations. This doctrine has, in late years, were immense popularity, not because it is clothed in the majesty of Truth,
for it is illusory, shadowy, but because it is fathered by writers of renown, and because it pleases the worldly in our ranks, to whom Sabbath, festivals, dietary laws and restrictive matrimonial rules, are have become irksome. Hence the clamor for a the necessity of denationalising Judaism, and effecting a fusion with some Christian denomination. Let Jeremiah, one of the latter prophets give the novel new fangled doctrine the lie. So he speaks in the concluding sentences of the Haftorah of this morning. "Thus says the Lord. I remember for thy sake the kind--ness of thy youth, the love of thy espousals, thy going after me in the wilderness into through a land which was not sown. Israel is hallowed unto the Lord, he is the first fruit of His produce." What can such enun--ciations mean, if they are not an emphatic avowal of our Divine selection, and an inferential recognition of re--gulations concerning [?] ceremonialism? What logic can explain them otherwise than as an unbroken covenant between the Lord who sent the son of Amram to make as free that we might be enlightened in the wilderness of Sinai, and between ourselves, to the end of time?
Do we even need the other passage of Jeremiah which says that if the ordinances of the sun, moon and stars shall be removed, then the seed of Israel shall cease to be a nation for ever? [Hebrew] [Hebrew] No: study, o youths of my people, study that you may be not lured away from the faith which the noblest of God's creatures imparted to your ancestors. You owe Moses gratitude for his abnegation, for his devotion to your cause, for his sublime example. Evince your thankfulness by your adherence to his behests, proceeding form deep knowledge, from the conviction that the descendants of the patriarchs must be merciful towards irrational beings, loving to all sentient beings, social and progressive in the com-munities among whose in whose midst they live, but always reli--giously, always Israelites eternally known and acknow--ledged as believing Israelites. - Identifier
- p3bv7bf7q
- identifier
- SMBx9FF10_2
Part of Shemot. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
Morais, Sabato, “Shemot. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed September 19, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/91216