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/p3xp6vp58/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3xp6vp58
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx13FF10_6.xml
- content
-
S. MORAIS,
546 N. FIFTH STREET.
PHILADELPHIA, 189
Prophetism not opposed to ceremonialism.
What is my duty, as a representative of the religionist that who acknowledges that ceremonialism as to have has had an origin equally Divine as the laws of morality? It is, I think, to prove that I stand on upon firm, not upon shifting, ground. If according to the evolu--tionary theory, applied now a days to Judaism as to the development of sciences, much all the ritualism that the five books of Moses ordained, the hand of time has rolled away and buried, from out of sight; if men of Israel whom a heavenly genius inspired to speak teach Israel, declared ceremonialism the Pentateuchal statutes obsolete and unbinding and obsolete, then I have misled my people and robbed them of their substance. No sy--nagogue worship, no scroll of the Torah in yonder ark, no fasts, no fes--tivals, no outward observances whatever needs be kept up. The ethic culture system is right, practical Judaism is wrong. If the prophets who arose in the days of the Hebrew monarchy, when luxury begot voluptuousness, the love of power despotism, a cringing spirit of imitation, gave birth to de--basing idolatry; if our Isaiah, our Amos and Micah and all that galaxy of luminaries that
shone brightly in our sky, displayed to our vision a belief which had repudiated all external practices rites as enjoined in the Pentateuch five books, then I must unequivocally confess that I have asked obedience to what my superiors pronounced utter vanity of vanities.
But I have indeed tried to read the my Bible without bias and have discovered found that none of those celestially gifted seers of our nation, railed against rites and practices of the institution of ordinancy as in the Jewish faith. There stands the son of Amoz, foremost not in chronological order but by virtue of the po--wers which stirred within his soul. What is the burden of his complaints? That his contempora--ries observed celebrated Sabbaths and new moons, that they offered prayer sand sacrifices? Never, He calls unholy the Sabbath kept outwardly, while in--wardly profanity wickedness is being nurtured. [Hebrew] He proclaimed the oblation on the copper altar and the incense burnt on the golden one an abomination, when the hands which made the presentation were stained with the blood of iniquities. [Hebrew] I read further the orations of that impassioned.
preacher and discover in the thirtieth chapter division of his magnificent writings a clear allusion to our national festivals, not disparagingly but encouragingly. Predicting the defeat fall of Assyria on Jewish soil, he says to affrighted Judah: "ye shall have raise a song as on the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart as one who goeth walketh at the sound of drums to go to the mount--ain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel."
I shall not enter the lists against those critics who deny to Isaiah the authorship of a vast portion of the sublime effusions which go by his name. I let that question set at rest, but I find notice that the ancient author of today's Haftarah, recognized Abraham as the founder of the Hebrew people and his descendants as the chosen race--a fact now described considered a sheer illusion; an illiberal boast. A person must determinedly turn away turn away from truth not to behold what is luminously clear; How the fifty sixth chapter of Isaiah--
call it deutero, if you so prefer--how it dwells on the performance of the Berith, God's covenant with Israel and on the blessings vouchsafed to those who hold fast thereon [Hebrew] and does not that grandest of Isaiah's orations which fittingly resounds in every sy--nagogue in the morning of the day of atone--ment, does it not demonstrate that only a hypocritical fast is hateful in the sight of the perfect God, not the fast of repentance and contrition? I love the plebean shepherd, who disclaimed any a high extraction and per--sonal distinction. Amos is fearless in his denun--ciations of sin. Hear his oratory. God abhors the burnt offerings you give presented; He will have none of the fat beasts whose blood is reeking on the sides of the altar. In Justice He delights in. Let that justice flow like water; let righteousness stream forth continually. Forty years ye wandered in wildernesses. You did not possess then the abundant sheep and oxen with which you now conceive to purchase pardon; and to appease God's anger against wilful transgressions. Hate wrong, love right make probity your Ruler.
The Lord God of hosts may then have compassion on the remnant of Joseph, or, the doomed ten tribes. Does that upbraiding involve a denial of ceremo--nial Judaism, or the selection of Israel as God's people? Listen [Hebrew] "You only have I known (namely distinctly separated) from among all families of the earth, therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities." And to accentuate the importance of abiding by Mosaic regulations, Amos reproaches a deviation from ritual observances. [Hebrew] You have sa offered a sacrifice of thanks--giving of that which is leavened, (against an ordinance recorded in Leviticus). Micah struck a respon--sive chord, vibrating on every mind that thinks aright, when he said that neither the blood of thousands of rams, nor of then thousands of rivers of consecrated oil can wash away transgressions wanton intentional trespasses; that justice, mercy and a humble demeanour will draw us near to God, but Micah said also that though all peoples should walk after their own deities ,we, the Lord's people must in walk always after our God, mean--ing, that our conduct shall be characteristically Jewish.
And how so, if not through by a consistent adherence to the statutes of Mosaism? It is far from my thoughts to engage in polemics. They help nothing, if they do not rather give room to misconstructions; if they be not interpreted as an unwarrantable disposition to set oneself up as a public mentor, and add ir--ritation--which I wish to avoid--rather than bring about a instead of effecting the desired remedy. A dis--tasteful experience warns me; but when youths who have not studied their religion, hear with a positiveness which sounds like a verity decisive proof, that Nebüsm[?] or prophetism, is inimical to ceremonialism, that from the heights which inspiration has reached, it thun--ders out a protest against external forms and rites, I am impelled to show the contrary, lest also some also under my guidance be also led astray. The great Seers of Israel did rebuke our forefathers for having made ceremonialism the end, not the object be all and end all of religion, the all in all in the life of the Jew, but they learned to administer the rebuke from their greatest Master [Hebrew] the Archprophet, who had who originally taught ceremonialism. All Every one remembers his exhortation as in the 10th chapter of Deuteronomy.
He asks what the Lord, who is Omnipotent and to whom all belongs, demands of us, and he answers that to love and fear Him and serve Him with all our hearts and soul, and copy His ways is to do His request. Then fol--lows a delineation of the attributes of God, whom we must imitate [Hebrew]. He pleads for the orphan and widow; He cares for the stranger, giving him bread and raiment.
Jeremiah with the irony of offended right--eousness tells his the Israelites of his age that the flesh of animals laid an on the altar may be eaten by those who offer it, because the heart is hollow, while the Temple abounds with gifts. But how emphatic is the inspired priest of Anathoth about the sanctity of the seventh day, [Hebrew] nor does he deprecate outward forms, since we read in the thirty sixth chapter of his book, that he would have worshipped in the house of the Lord [?] upon ad a day of public fasting, had he not been then shut up in a prison.
And who does not know that Ezekiel expressed it as a source of self satisfaction his not having all any never partaken of prohibited food? [Hebrew] All are familiarly acquainted are all with the history
Daniel and his three fellow exiles, who determinedly refused to feed w upon what the Mosaic code for-bids. I cite them, although not numbered among prophets, to because like Ezekiel their contemporary, trans--ported to Babylon, they carried out in Chaldea what all the Seers in the Holy Land regarded as obligatory. Malachi has been cited noted, as among the liberals who did not care for attach importance to external practices, but the last of our prophets, while pleading for conjugal fidelity and purity of conduct, is he that insist upon [?] of--ferings and tithes. Let us then recognize this irrefutable truth. Morality is the ground work of our religion--so proclaims the Hebrew Bible throughout-- Never has even remotely has the Pentateuch intimated that to attend to ceremonies is to be exp exempt from the discharge of sacred obligations which we owe, our fellow creatures. Never; but our own sense, history and the combined wisdom of centuries proclaim that forms are essential and indispensable for the maintenance of a race devoted to an idea, which has not yet taken root, and which must be held fast upon
even by tangible signs, as reminders to the house of Israel of their origin and destiny to accomplish the highest purpose, as the magnificent orator of whose effusions we have read says it [Hebrew] [Hebrew]. "I have set thee as a light to nations, to be My salvation unto the end of the earth." - Identifier
- p3xp6vp58
- identifier
- SMBx13FF10_6
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/91268