Theological lectures. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Theological lectures. 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 13, Folder 10
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p39z90x99/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p39z90x99
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx13FF10_2.xml
- content
-
Is faith or righteousness the way of salvation?
Brethren!
What is the mission of the pulpit? I answer: to furnish society with men and women rich in virtue, and to uphold human beings in the pursuit of virtue, by showing its identity with abiding happiness. It then follows, that to devote preaching exclusively or especially to the explaining of dogmas, is to misdirect the influence which the pulpit ought to exercise. For, the bare knowledge of doctrines will never befit men for the duties of life, which the fulfilling of which is, after all, religion vitalized, religion practically reduced to action. Yet individuals who ought to be deeply imbued with this irrefutable truth, seem to ignore it altogether. From many a house of worship, a lament issues forth. It is the voice of the officiating minister that complains. Not so much because cor--ruption in high circles shamelessly stalks abroad. Not so much because whole sections in our large cities are infected with an atmosphere of vice and crime. But because men will, forsooth, forfeit eternal salvation by refusing assent to that creed, by rejecting the other peculiar dogma. Let us trust that in the
vineyard of the Lord of Israel, many such laborers are not to be found. That the Hebrew ministry, does not number many such members. For the Jewish shepherd, who understands his calling, knows that Judaism does not make a life hereafter to depend simply upon the acceptance of doctrines, but mainly on the performance of duties. According to its teaching, not they who believed the most, but they who acted the best will share the largest reward. In fact, my Brethren! that grandest of all charts, the Decalogue, does not impose dogmas. It mereley imparts rules of conduct. It is the remark of one of our deepest thinkers, that the document emanating from the summit of Sinai, does not say "I am the only everlasting God, the creator of heaven and earth. Believe in me, and you shall be saved." But it begins thus. "I am the Lord Thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage," meaning, I am He who has proved Himself Thy benefactor, and as Thou owest me gratitude, therefore Thou shouldst worship me exclusively. Hence follows "Thou shalt not have any other god before me" viz: while I, the Eternal, am existing.
Even the acknowledgment of the Unity, which it behooves us daily to bear on our lips, contains, properly speaking, no declaration of faith. Mark its words, my brethren [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "Hear O Israel, Adonaï is our God, Adonaï is one" [Hebrew], which in the original Hebrew conveys the sense both of hearing and understanding, is the term employed in the text. Moses seeing his end approach, called upon the people, whom he had, during forty weary years in--structed, to fit their minds for the reception of the all-important truth; that the Divinity they worship--Adonaï the essence of goodness and mercy [Hebrew], is an indivisible Unity. And when after having sketched the history of their past derelictions he addressed them regarding the line of conduct they should follow, he spoke in this manner. "And now O Israel! what does the Lord Thy God ask of thee? But only to fear (reverence) the Lord Thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord Thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul; to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes, which I command thee this day, for thine own good" [Hebrew].
Again, making human happiness to result from deeds of righteousness, from practices which may create a spiritual affinity, as it were, between man and God. I scarcely need quote in your presence the beautiful description of the life of him who shall abide in the tents of the Lord, and dwell in His holy mountain: and the other equally sublime of the individual who shall ascend the hill of the Most High, and stand erect in His sacred habitation. The 15th and 24th psalms of David, have opened to your views that picture of the purest, the noblest of human characters, because shapen in the mould of virtue. Nor can you have read unreflectingvely the delineation, which Isaiah in his impassioned eloquence has left, of the inhabitant of Zion, who alone could escape the fiery chastisement impending, who would be uplifted on impregnable rocks, when all yeilded to a sweeping destruction, even of him who clings to righteousness, and speaks only uprightness, who despises the wealth gotten by fraud, who shakes his hands that they may not hold bribe, who closes his ears that they may not listen to foul speaking, who shuts his eyes that they may not behold evil doings.
But not to weary you with many quotations in order to substantiate my assertion, let me point to the triple key which will effectually unlock the portals of paradise. Micah has presented to it to each of us. It is justice, mercy, humility. Not the declaration of dogmas, can give us a free access to eternity, but our having stood up for right, our having exercised kindness, our having presumed nothing, but trusted implicitly in the Lord. The prophets of old do not set forth the monstrous theory, that honesty is useless, virtue a futile exercise, unless accompanied with the professor of a doctrinal belief. Deeds and not creeds, brotherly affection, and not a mere confession, are essentials in Judaism.
But I imagine I seem some of you, my Brethren, look with astonishment. They could not credit, that I, professing what is styled orthodoxy, would advance ideas which to them appear heretical. They ask: "Do we not possess thirteen creeds, as leading points in our religion, and a denial of which, according to our Sages, is a forfeiture of heavenly bliss? Can you then teach that goodness and rectitude are all sufficient as means of salvation?" My zealous Brethren! Be not rash in your judgment.
To deny a truth, and to consider it a bare abstraction, of no positive bef benefit, of no practical advantage, in carrying out the rules which should govern our conduct as responsible beings, are things entirely distinct. I admit without any reservation, that the thirteen creeds condensed in the hymns chaunted on the eve of the Sabbath and festivals, are evolved from the scriptures, and as such they claim our ready acceptance. I admit further that notwithstanding the opposition Maimonides met with for having dogmatized Judaism, and bound it, so to say, within narrow limits, he deserves well of all posterity; because he offered a support and a comforting hope to many incapable by themselves of drawing from Holy Writ the verities he imparted. But what I contend for is, that adhesion to doctrines alone, will not bring us a step nearer to heaven; that, if I understand my religion rightly (and may God illumine my spirit if I am in error) the maxim "believe and be saved" ought to be substituted by another, which reads so "act well, and you will be happy"; in a
word, that righteousness, charity, and not the rehearsal of articles of faith, will be the bark that shall carry us safely to the land of spirits.
These remarks, my dear Brethren! were lately suggested to my mind, by a perusal of a series of lectures, bearing on the question of the Messiahship from a Jewish stand-point, and by that of others on the same topic; directed to "the lost sc sheep, the house of Israel," whose rejection of a divine messiah, is a cause of deep concern to our Nazarene neighbors. I feel no hesitation in acknowledging that the press pulpit is misused, alike by the Israelite, and by the Gentile preacher, when specially devoted to subjects so abstruse and so profitless in their issue. If it be correct, as doubtless it is, for ministers to make those in their own fold, acquainted with the passages of Scripture which, according to the most accredited expositors, allude to the advent of a redeemer. If it be consistent with their vocations, to explain before their own flock, the doctrines of their respective denominations, it cannot in either side, promote the end of real religion, frequently to discuss subjects, the drift of which may be to awake ill-feelings
between man and man. I mean, to render the pulpit the arena of religious contests. Fortunately, we Israelites can scarce be charged with being aggressors. We generally stand on self-defense. But verily, me-thinks I perceive the cause of much of the prejudice rankling in the breasts of individuals attached to various creeds, much of the w ill-will existing to the mistaken zeal of the ministers. Were the latter thoroughly to understand their mission, they would speak less of theo--logy and more of universal charity. They would instruct their hearers in the duties of life, they would strive to extirpate vice, to check intemperance, to lower the standard of corruption raised in high places, and, while enforcing the observances of their church, they would nevertheless never lose sight of the direction drawn from the words of Malachi speaking of the duties of the priests, he says "The law of truth is in his mouth, iniquity is not found upon his lips, he walks with God peacefully and uprightly, and many he does recall from sin." Such is the charge of the good shepherd, happy they to whom he administers.
And you, my dear Brethren, let my lesson be deepened in your hearts. Learn all the dogmas, all the precepts, all the traditions of your faith; that you may be able to defend them when attacked. But avoid angry discussions. Tell every man fearlessly the belief to which you adhere, a belief, the principles of which you may not be ashamed to acknowledge, if you but under-stand their sublimity. But tell likewise all human beings, that because you believe in Judaism; you do believe that all can be saved, who "exercise justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God." - Identifier
- p39z90x99
- identifier
- SMBx13FF10_2
Part of Theological lectures. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
Morais, Sabato, “Theological lectures. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed September 19, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/91265