Shoftim. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Shoftim. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Author
- Morais, Sabato
- Format
- 7 pages on 3 sheets
- Language(s)
- English
- Source
- Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
- Sabato Morais Collection, Box 9, Folder 28
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p33f4m74f/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p33f4m74f
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx9FF28_1.xml
- content
-
12
Some remarks explanatory
of
a passage in Parashat Shophetim
[Hebrew] "Thou shall be perfect with the Lord Thy God" This sentence, my dear Brethren! is the summing up of a lesson, chronicled in the Parasha of this morning. Moses, the man of God, having warned our ancestors against following the practices of the heathens in whose country they were about to be established, pointed out in two words how every Israelite might avoid falling into the same errors. He said [Hebrew] "Thou shalt be perfect." Let me make the Hebrew expression clear to your minds. Its translation in the vernacular, scarcely conveys its meaning. It is not human perfection,--that moral excellence we should endeavour to attain in our walks of life--, that the prophet recommends in the present instance. He wishes rather to form a contrast between the religious feelings actuating the believers in One beneficent Lord, and those by which the worshippers in a multiplicity of duties are guided. They who see in nature a number of divine powers, each distinct from the other, each capable of benefifting or injuring man, will easily become wedded to superstitions. In order to win the favor of some of those imaginary
gods, they will commit acts at which sober reason revolts. So likewise to hold back the hand of some other dreaded divinity, they will yeild thereto the tenderest sentiments instincts implanted by nature. And designing persons will always be found to encourage an ignorance so mischievous in its results, because promotive of their own interest. The Bible therefore purposely given purposely to keep us sound in body and mind, and fit us for the discharge of the duties of life, inveighs sharply against any custom calculated to create a contrary effect. The opposition set by the laws of Moses to the religion of the heathens, has no other object than to shield us from the evils it brings forth. So in the seciton we have read, several of the practices of the Canaanitish tribes, are declared an abomination to the Lord, and the main cause of His having driven them away form their land. The first- mentioned and the most heinous is that which robbed parents of the innate feelings, innate in. men, and exposed their children to an untimely and cruel death. There exists an opinion, that the service offered to the Molack, did not necessitate the burning alive of innocent infants, but merely their being made
to leap over the flames, symbolic of their being a dedication to the worship of that brutal idol. When we, however, compare all the sentences in Holy Writ in which reference is made to that species of idolatry, we must arrive at the conclusion that the actual consuming by fire of one's sons and daughters was the execrable service tendered. Hence the denunciations of the scriptures, and the fearful condemnation pronounced in these terms. "Whosoever he be of the children of Israel.....that giveth any of his seed unto Molack, he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones. And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off form among his poeple; because he hath given of his seed unto Molock, to defile my sanctuary, and profane my holy name", signifying, that as the name of the Lord will be sanctified on earth only by acts of righteousness and humanity, the Hebrew who deadened his feelings to do what the law abhors, is guilty of the severest char a crime, deserving the severest chastisement.
But not only the observances which do violence to human nature are declared in our Parasha hateful in the sight of God. Those sacred pages oppose with equal
emphasis other usages having a tendency to deliver reason and render intellectual beings the sport of fancied ills and disturbing omens. To consult divinations [Hebrew] that is, to be guided in our conduct by casualties rather than by a high sense of duty; by the flight of birds, as among the ancients, or by similar irrelevant circum-stances rather than by righteous principles. To be [Hebrew] study--ing the time, the hour and the moment most propitious for the undertaking of a certain task, believing that commenced any earlier or later, I would be attended with unfortunate results; to go [Hebrew] auguring happiness or unhappiness by things puerile and accidental as the splitting of a mirror, or the spilling of some liquid. To pretend credit a [Hebrew] following that popular infatuation, that the looks or words of the envious may affect us injuriously either in our health or in our position. [Hebrew]. To gather various kinds of among the brute creation, inciting them against each other, and then determine upon a certain plan by the character of the winning animal. [Hebrew] To seek to peer into the future by inquiring the issue of events from spirits supposed to abide in
peculiar localities, and exorcise the same by means of an enchanter or an enchantress [Hebrew] To lie among the dead, until our brains are so excited that an apparition is evoked, and that which what has been wisely concealed is demanded from the departed, all these practices are set down by Moses as an offence to the One God, whose laws we Israelites have vowed to obey, and as destructive of our welfare. Therefore after having described them as detestable, he addresses himself to every Israelite Hebrew man, with these words. [Hebrew] "Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord Thy God." Other nations divide their feelings among a variety of deities, whose worship spreads terror, incites fosters licentiousness, encourages crime. Then, shalt give thy whole hear to that pure Being, whose service is humanity, goodness, the furtherance of thy own happiness and the progress of society. Thou shalt be his own entirely, discarding from thy mind any idea con--flicting with His holy attributes. In fact, my dear hearers! Can we for an instant entertain the thought that He who is Omnipotent, will part with some of His
powers, and bestow them one som celestial and terrestrial beings, in order to that they may do us harm without His sanction and approval? Or, can we harbor the idea that He who is Omniscient knows not when we are exposed to the malignity malice of the wicked, so that we suffer thereby because we unsolicited by His arm? Can it possibly be that the beneficent God who has designedly raised a thick veil between us and the events of the future, will suffice permit so trifling an occurrence as the breaking of a glass, to foretell them to us? Where is His providence, I say, of me, His creatures, are buffetted by all adverse winds, raised by which blind fate raises around us, if we can be shafts and targets at our will, and He prevents it not? Away such subversive notions. Let us dismiss the falsities and the superstitions of the heathens from our mind enlightened by the Torah. [Hebrew] "Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord Thy God". cues the inspired son of Amram. Believe that nothing will befall thee, that which the Almighty has not decreed for some ultimate good. The Psalmist well understood this truth when he wrote [Hebrew] "Thy moments are in Thy hand," namely, there is not an instant of my existence, during which God is far from me. And again "Cast thy burdens upon the Lord, and He will support thee". (The lecture was continued in the same strain, at some length, as a special lesson to a Bar Mitzvah. - Identifier
- p33f4m74f
- identifier
- SMBx9FF28_1
Part of Shoftim. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
Morais, Sabato, “Shoftim. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed September 19, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/91218