Theological lectures. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Theological lectures. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Author
- Morais, Sabato
- Format
- 9 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/p3sx64w1h/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3sx64w1h
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx13FF10_4.xml
- content
-
About prophecy proven from
the unchanged existence of the
descendants of Ishmael.
About twenty three years ago, referring to a passage, which a brother, as a lad, had then recited for his Bar Mitzva portion, I summoned history to testify to the truth of revelation. The words with which the section of this Sabbath concludes, reminded me of that circumstance, and suggested the propriety of presenting to a new ge--neration ideas wherewith which they may never have met. Reducing into a narrow compass what I said in another occasion at considerable length; repeating, knowingly, none of its phraseology, I shall proceed to show how a promise made to Abraham was fulfilled to the very letter. You all remember the vision in which the patriarch was told that he would become the father of a child, with whose descendants the Deity designed to enter into an everlasting covenant. He appeared incredulous about the consummation of that event. Happy in the possession of a son by Sarah's hand-maid, he asked for no higher favor from his Maker; and prayed that Ishmael might live before the Lord; meaning, that though Providence should not choose that child as the
means of perpetuating the belief in the Unity, his descendants might nevertheless be a nation indestruct--ible. That prayer, which the purest lips breathed, stands yet before the throne of God. It has lost none of its efficacy. In like manner, as we, the seed of Isaac, have existed for upwards of thirty five centuries to prove the stability of the ancient covenant, so has the seed of Ishmael existed as a Divine fulfilment of the petition made by a righteous parent. Verily: this historical fact is one of the brightest illustrations of the sentence enunciated in the Decalogue, that God will keep His kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Him and observe His commandments. The sacred inspired annalist, penetrating the future, registered in our Parasha these memorable words "In the face of all his brethren he dwelt." Aye: Gifted with an imperishable life, the progeny of Abraham's first son, saw face to face families and nationalities that have played a noisy part on the stage of the world, but who have been hushed in a grave from which there is no resurrection. The so called authorized version misapprehending the important text, translated [Hebrew] "He died before all his
brethren", forgetting that though the Hebrew term "Nafal" means to fall, it signifies also to spread oneself, to expand one's strength. To whom does this Biblical allusion apply? To whom, but to the unconquered and unconquerable tribe that rove at large in Arabia? The Bedouins owe their independent existence from a remote age even unto this hour, to the declaration of him "who is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent." Before their founder had been born, an angel had typi--fied their character and history by the following graphic description. "He will be a wild man, his hand will be against all, and the hand of all against him; but he shall dwell in the face of all his brethren." And when the godly parent added his entreaty for his child's eternity of name upon earth, the Lord answered "As for Ishmael I have heard thee, behold I have blessed him, and I will make him fruitful, and multiply him exceedingly....... I will make of him a great nation."
Tremendous have been the engines of destruction levelled against at the posterity of Hagar, but the hand which
directed them was palsied. Nattions considered the pioneers of civilization; others looked upon as bar--barians, spent their energies in the vain effort of tying to the yoke the freedom-loving sons of the desert. Egypt in her palmy days dragged many a potentate behind her triumphal chariot; but the people shielded by Abraham's prayer could not be so trailed through the dust. She who, by her inventive genius, raised pyra--mids, which have defied time and its sweeping stream, could not lower down from their heights the rovers of steep mountains. From thence they saw her power decay and perish. Assyria, the boastful, who said that with the sole of her feet she could dry up all rivers, and batter down beseiged cities; the once famous country of Semiranus, which we Hebrews have had cause so much to dread, [?] did not lift up the iron rod to scourge into submission the progeny of Ishmael. That thunder-bolt of war, Nebu--cadnezar, at whose nod empires bowed obediently, was foiled in his attempt to reduce the vigour of the semi-savage but spirited Bedouins. To Cyrus, who placed upon his head the double crown he wrested from his wicked grand sire, exceeding power was given in the name of the Lord.
For, so wrote of him Isaiah, a hundred and fifty years before his birth "Thus saith the Lord of His anointed to Cyrus, whose right-hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him, and loosen the loins of kings; to open before him doors, and gates shall not be shut. I will go before them him, and make crooked ways straight, I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron." But the Lord who raised that Persian monarch for the sake of the seed of Isaac, whom he restored to liberty, did not suffer him to humiliate the seed of Ishmael. Alexander mis-called the great, who studied with Aristotle a philosophy which could not check his brutal passions, and learnt by from the art of strategy to hold in the hollow of his hand a vast empire, which he left to be broken up, had devised extensive plans against Arabia, and determined to exterminate the Bedouins. But death cut short all his resolutions. The Roman eagle that tore our flesh, and carried us bleeding to distant regions, did not flap her terrific wings over the mountains, in the clefts of which the descendants of Ishmael can make their habitations. Nor did the Asiatic princes who in turn ruled the East, completely subject these warlike and hardy sons of the desert.
The elasticity of their nature is such, that chained down to day, they break the fetters rebound to morrow, and forge the fetters into swords and spears against to strike therewith their conquerors. In habits, in dress & in manners thirty generations have wrought among that nomadic tribe scarcely a change. And if the Sultan claims to have amalgamated them fused into the Ottoman empire, his mastery over them is but nominal. It is constantly defied, or totally ignored. Never will the posterity of Abraham's first child be blotted out. He who declared us deathless, promised also that our half-brother,--because he is our father's son--shall remain indestructible. To the child of Sarah was given an eternity of spirituality, to be maintained at the cost of unequalled hardships, & suf--ferings and martyrdom; to the child of Sarah's hand-maid, was given an eternity of temporality, despite a worlds opposition. "He shall dwell in the face of all his brethren" an angel had said, and to the entreaty of the pattern of believers, the Divinity had replied "As for Ishmael I have heard thee, behold, I have blessed him, and I will make him fruitful, and multiply him exceedingly....
I will make of him a great nation. Moses recorded these incidents, and peering into the future wrote in our Parasha [Hebrew] "Before all his brethren he spread himself." Here stands his--tory. Loudly and emphatically it proclaims the truth of inspiration. The proof it advances is not of yesterday. It is backed by the testimony of ages. It is brought immedia--tely under our immediate vision. They who refuse to believe must close their eyes tight to a meridian sun, and swear it does not shine. But to you, Brethren, who have been called [Hebrew] faithful children of faithful parents, I will ask say. Brethren! Is the volume which contains that patent truth, worthy of our meditation? Or is it too antiquated for us moderns? Shall we cast it into a new mould, and remodel it to suit the squeamish taste of some would-be moralist, or shall we retain it as our unsophisticated predecessors, the Massorites, endeavoured with the minutest accuracy to pre--serve it? I am none of those who hold in reverence the bare wording of ancient writings. but in the I know that the spirit and not the letter giveth life, but in the book of books nothing should ought to be slurred as of little significance. The Kabbalists assert that the whole of the Pentateuch should
be regarded with extreme sanctity because it comprises numerically or by anagrams names of the Deity, I affirm that it comprises the wisdom and not the mere names of the Lord, and as such it behooves us, especially O Israelites, to study it. I stated it last Sabbath, and as long as the gift of speech is granted me, I will not grow weary of repeating the lesson. To oppose rampant changes in Judaism, we must be panoplied with knowledge. Wilful ignorance is worse than sin. It is a surrendering of our rights into the hands of a scheming few, who may enslave us at their pleasure. All are priests in the church of our Lord. All will find therein the laver to cleanse their impurities. In our hearts we have our confessionals. In our intellect the means of salvation. Let us not yeild these precious privileges. We shall attend to instruction wherever it is imparted; but if it conflicts clashes with an authority universally acknowledged,--the Bible--, we shall let our enlightened judgment war against it. In short, my dear hearers! Let us study that we may confound the unbeliever, let us study that we may understandingly serve our God. Let us study that we may effect the will of the Supreme, in giving us a spiritual existence, which commenced with Abraham in [?] of the Chaldeans and will end when time shall be no more. - Identifier
- p3sx64w1h
- identifier
- SMBx13FF10_4
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/91269