Terumah. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Terumah. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Author
- Morais, Sabato
- Format
- 12 pages on 4 sheets
- Language(s)
- English
- Source
- Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
- Sabato Morais Collection, Box 9, Folder 15
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3kd1r542/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3kd1r542
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx9FF15_4.xml
- content
-
S. MORAIS,
546 N. FIFTH STREET,
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
On Terumah
[Hebrew] [Hebrew] "I will meet with thee there, and I will speak with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim, which are upon over the ark of the Testimony, all that which I will command thee for the children of Israel." Presuming that I am addressing Israelies, who do not impiously scoffingly say [Hebrew] "Our fathers inherited falsehood, vanity which has no utility;" Is--raelites who are none of those who blindly subscribe to recent pulpit utterances, intimating that the scroll of the Law enshrined in yonder ark is simply a Jewish idol and many of its ordinances are relics of heathenism, fancying that my hearers still do yet reverence to the Sepher Torah and respect its precepts, I have quoted a sen--tence from our Parasha, to a purpose. Since now a days Mosaism is supplanted by prophetism, I wish to show the wide difference distinguishing the inspira--tion of Moses from that of succeeding prophets. Guided by From Under Following the tuition of Holy Writ we learn that the chief of all Seers [Hebrew] did not undergo any change in his bodily sensations, when his spirit communed with God. He entered the Sanctuary and a super-human voice, from the outstretched wings of the typical Cherubs
resounded within his ever-wakeful mind. The sages call that [Hebrew] "A transparent vision," as clear as the reflection of one's own person in a perfect mirror. Therefore the scriptures attest that "the Lord spoke to Moses face to face," as a man speaks to his neighbor". Not to encourage the subversive idea notion that the invisible, but omnipresent, God has a corporeal form, but to give us a faint notion idea of the incomparable superior faculties unexcelled spiritual height of the arch-pro--phet. For, let me say it with all emphasis; to apply to the Almighty human senses and functions, would be more than an error; it would be blasphemy. Maimonides devotes a considerable part of the first treatise of his famous Moreh Nebuchim, or "Guide to the perplexed," to the subject of the incorporeity of God, to exclude erroneous ideas thoughts which readers of the Hebrew Scriptures might form conceive. And what the Sage of Cordova writes in his philosophical work, he briefly repeats, but still more incisively in his mo--numental Mishné Torah--the codification of traditional laws, while laying down rules regarding penitence. He places in the same category with the Atheist, a person who attributes to God a bodily form. To that strong declaration, a French Rabbi antagonistic to the Spanish
school of philosophy took exception, still Maimo--nides was standing on Rabbinical ground, which he so wrote asserted. For the Talmudists, not once but repeatedly frequently caution us against harboring the most false of all beliefs, by telling us that the Bible unavoid--ably uses human language [Hebrew] How unpardonably wrong it is then to cite the anthropomorphism of the Pentateuch with a view to belittle its worth and impugn its authority! Those Sensuous expressions are not derogatory of the honor due to the Supreme; not in the least with men who reflect that lan--guage must per force adapt itself to the understanding of those who are to be instructed by it. By way of So for example, in addressing children we would not, employ in addressing children, employ terms above their compre--hension, so also by comparison, the Bible, in order to im--part Divine knowledge, was compelled to materialize, so to say, the Omnipresent, whose self-existence is so--lely and purely spiritual. Moses who stood nearer to God than any mortal being, notwithstanding his having necessarily described the Creator as hearing and an--swering, descending and ascending, reproving and praising and in various other manners, all material,
cautioned warned us strenuously solemnly nevertheless against entertaining the idea that God can be represented under any form. To our ancestors, prone to idolatry, he thus gave warning gave admonition spoke before his depar--ture from earth: "Be exceedingly heedful of for your souls sake, for you did not see any likeliness on the day that the Lord spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire," meaning, you shall take assiduous diligent care not to represent God materially. Because the son of Amram alone could rise to a full comprehension of Him, whom the hearer of heavens cannot hold, hence the figurative expression is used "there never arose a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face"; He signifying he alone communed with the Deity, while in the full possession of his sensations and faculties. Not so other prophets. The vision of the Supreme overpowered their whole being so entirely, that they lost a consciousness of their surroundings and, for a time, remained as if bereft of their senses. Thus of Ezekiel we read that he felt completely overcome and Daniel relates that for se--veral days he remained, as if sunk into a state of bewilderment. At times, it happened that the vision appeared in a dream at night, clothed in imageries, illustrating the subject to be employed as a threat, exhortation, or admonition correction. Of that, the book
of Zechariah supplies examples.
But the distinction between the archprophet and his others among our Seers is nowhere so forcibly stated, as on the occasion, when Aaron and Miriam, for reasons not defi--nitely stated known set forth, disparaged their brother's character. They had boasted of being endowed with the same powers, without sharing, what they termed hinted at, his assumption, and they received a humiliating rebuke in the following sentence: "Hear now my words, if there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision; I will speak unto him in a dream. Not so My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house," namely, he is like the confidential friend of a King, from whom nothing possible to be granted is withheld, because implicit trust is reposed in him. So our sages comment on that passage. Every part of the royal mansion stands lies open to his inspection. Brethren. According to my mode of thinking, the above stands as a most striking proof of the profound sanctity of Mosaic tenets. It tells every Jew how binding the teachings of Moses the Torah must be deemed, and how determinedly a refusal must be given to any instruction clashing therewith. For, as to none can be accorded a clearer conception of God's will, none can claim superiority to him, who was declared the greatest. Penetrated by that verity, the Psalmist so wrote concerning the statutes:
[Hebrew] "They are established for ever and ever, they are made enacted with truth and righteousness." And such was the belief our of our illustrious deepest thinkers, fo from Saadia of the ninth century to Mendelssohn of the last century namely, that laws whose performance is not connected with a national residence in Palestine [Hebrew] are still obliga-tory upon the house of Israel.
But a few weeks ago, conversing with some Jewesses who are by no means cavillers[sic?]; women who go in search of sight on Judaism, I was met with an objection, which seems strongly founded. Those sisters in faith of mine admitted the ligation of Moses & its authority, but they could not explain satisfactorily to themselves how his instruction Pentateuchal teachings could reach the tribes. They argued: the total number of those taught instructed must by far have exceeded a million. Seeing that to settle disputes rising among the people, the archprophet was compelled to choose coworkers How could the archprophet he impart to every individual ordinances Divinely received? The question does appear weighty, yet in reality it is not so. It can easily be solved. In most instances, the teaching was conveyed by means of accredited representatives. Who they were, Holy Writ has intimated on many an oc--casion. I will cite only one for brevity sake; that will serve as a criterion. Moses was directed to prepare the people's mind to rece for the delivery of the Decalogue--
"so saying to the house of Jacob, and telling the children of Israel." "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you unto Myself. Now, therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed and keep My covenant, ye shall be unto me a peculiar fol treasure and a kingdom of priests unto the above all people, though all the earth is mine, but you shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel". But immediately after, we are informed that in descending from the mountain "Moses called the elders of the people and laid before them all the words which the Lord had commanded him." Then follows: "And all the people answered together and said: "All that the Lord hat spoken we will do". The elders were then, evidently the intermediate agency between the leader and the vast multitude. As in Egypt those noted for wisdom and learning, formed a distinct class, so did the most eminent among the Hebrews constitute the medium, through which the mission of freeing the enslaved: "Go and gather the elders of Israel." It was so, when Moses and Aaron first presented themselves to the children bondmen in the name of the God of the patriarchs..."They
went and gathered all the elders of Israel." That the elders were distinguished from all others among the tribes, is obviously informed from the fact that at the meal prepared in honor of Jethro, they sat by the side of a senate--a word derived from Senis, meaning old--who helped to disseminate the knowledge of the Torah. They formed the links of that chain [Hebrew], which, proceeding from the great legislator, reached the humblest in Israel. The elders became the subordinate teachers directed by the highest master. We meet them in every stage of Bi--blical history. From the dark days of Egyptian ser--vitude, to brighter times at the return from the Ba--bylonian captivity they [Hebrew] bore a distinctive appellation. [Hebrew] [Hebrew]. Admit; not always were they entitled to universal respect for their an unswerving fidelity to their charge, but they always formed constituted a cas class prominent for their influence. I imagine that I do not presume too much, when I assert that the Sanhedrin of the second Temple, were but a reproduction or rather a continuation of an assemblage of learned, that had ever existed among the people of God. When I consider how, notwithstanding the frequent relap--sing of Israel into idolatry, that wonderful book which is our peculiar heritage was
preserved, I see with my mind's eye the followers successors of that body of sages, who during forty years imbibed truth from the sevenfold purified lips of the archprophet; I see our elders treasuring up what others had, in their infatuation, cast aside, as valueless. They covered the holy Torah, with an invulnerable shield, that it might not be scathed. The elders of Israel, so called so not necessarily because by reason of their advanced age, but because of their staid wisdom and gravity of manners, supposed to be the characteristic of the old; the elders of Israel, aided by priests and levites, stood at the breach and prevented the inroad of false notions into the sacred ground of Judaism. Thanks and praises to them and their legitimate disciples, the Rabbis of the Mishnah and Talmud. The hedge which the lat--ter set around the Law may have been pointed and sharp, yet it proved our salvation. When the blandishment of egotism gentilism or modern liberalism would have lured us away, we found ourselves surrounded by a fence hindering our exit. "We cannot come over, brother Grecianist." We cannot leap across, brother ethic-culturist. We cannot reach your camp, brother Unitarian. Our superiors have set us to watch the garden. To desert our past, is to meet fearful dan-gers." Thus Brethren, have we been preserved during vicissitudes which
which would have swept away the mightiest nations. Little foxes, [Hebrew], to use the language of the book of Canticles, little foxes try--ing to destroy the vineyard which the Lord of hosts planted, did not and will not succeed. Moses, the prophets and the sages of Israel will sound the alarm and ward off the evil. [Hebrew] [Hebrew] Devise projects, ye opponents of the Torah they will come to naught, give forth make speeches, they will avail nothing, for God is with the defenders of His word. - Identifier
- p3kd1r542
- identifier
- SMBx9FF15_4
Part of Terumah. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
Morais, Sabato, “Terumah. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed September 19, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/91223