Two lectures on the Authenticity of the Pentateuch. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Two lectures on the Authenticity of the Pentateuch. 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 12, Folder 1
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p35718756/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p35718756
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx12FF1_1.xml
- content
-
About the authenticity of the Pentateuch
proved by the book of Leviticus.
Brethren!
The volume of the Pentateuch which we have begun this Sabbath is the shortest among the five books of Moses. To ordinary readers, that feature may be rather agreeable. For, with a single exception, Leviticus is merely perceptive, that is, it contains an almost unbroken series of rules and ordinances. Nothing intervenes to vary the sameness of its character, save the case of a blasphemer, the son of an Israelitish women, whom she bore to an idolatrous Egyptian. The history of patriarchal times full of episodes, so touching in their simple narrative, as Genesis presents; the stirring incidents recorded in Exodus from the birth of the greatest lawgiver, to the construction of the first place of Hebrew place, worship, whose magnificence contrasted with the plain altar of stone of former ages; the description of the twelve tribes moving onward under their banners towards the promised land, their [?]-march, their fears, their seditions, their derelictions, all that which in the book of Numbers enchains the attention; the recapitulation of the past as in Deuteronomy, together with the fatherly admonitions and parting benedictions of the man of God, the perusal of which wins at once the heart, the edifies;
all of that has no parallel passages in the volumes we shall weekly recite in the house of our Lord form this Sab--bath to that which precedes the b week of in which Pentecost falls. Directions about sacrificial rites, prescriptions to remove diseases prevalent in the East, regulations concerning agriult agri--culture and rural economy, then, dietary restrictions, the appointing of seasons of solemnity and festivity, the enact--ment of moral behests to ensure fair dealings with all persons, is what Leviticus mainly comprises. And yet, inde--pendent of the importance which that volume mus always have in the estimation of consistent Israelites, because of may of its commands still in force, through the various countries of our dispersion, it should elicit deep interest as a document sent from on high to certify a truth which we hold. There can be no advantage in disguising a fact, which, distastefull though it be, stares us in the face. The criticism of the present age aims to strip the Bible of its sanctity, and specially to prove that what we obey as the emanation of the inspired wisdom of one man, was put together centuries after his death by some unknown hands. That heresy must be fought against by all lovers of Judaism. For, once that our youths have imbibed the subversive idea that Moses wrote nothing, or that
what he traced might be engraven on twelve stones, the believef which has proved a comfort to us amidst the sorest trials, and on which our hopes and the hopes of millions besides ourselves are built, will be swept away; our offspring will look on it with abhorrence as an unmitigated lie. That heresy must be fought against. In olden times, a son of our race who should have pronounced it would have been considered the disturber of the public peace, and as such excommunicated. Denied the association of his people, he would either recant and be received again into the Synagogue, or he would cease holding communion with us altogether, and remain of his own accord, outside of our pale. Just two hundred years ago, a philosopher of Jewish parentage, chose the latter course, when put under ban for the heterodox views he entertained. But the arms he employed to hurt the cause of religion, were sharper than those used by his Rabbi Saul Levy Morteira, who sought to save it. For he reasoned, while the other cursed. We may well be thankful that anathemas have lost their power; at any rate among American and European communities; for they oppose the spirit of tolerance
inherent in our faith, and they are a lamentable abuse of authority. I do not mean to cast reproaches upon the Amsterdam ecclesiastical Board that declared Benedict Spinoza an individual deserving to be shunned by all observant Israelites. It was the only measure which times and circumstances then offered to rid a Jewish Congregation of a member whose teachings and example, inculcated Atheisim in the shape of Theism, social disorganization under the guise of reformation. To defend verities with the weapons supplied by by the intellect--sound arguments--was an art very little known in those days, and the least practised. But now it is, on the contrary, as it should be the exclusive means to which we must resort, in order to repel the attacks made on our sacred citadel.
Well: My hearers! Leviticus standing in the middle of the Pentateuch, may be compared to an iron bar fastening tightly together as an indivisible unity the two preceding and the two succeeding books of Moses. You must have observed noticed that the bulk of it is devoted to directions relative to animal sacrifices. I shall not discuss at present whether that manner of worship was a concession to the time, as Maimonides intimates, or whether it was an institution designed to to honor the Lord, as much as public fasts, and holy convocations.
Walking in the light of history, I am led to think that the immolation of irrational beings upon the altar, either as a present to the Deity, or as an expiation for sin, was a natural instinct among the ancients, which our religion sanctified by surrounding the act with imposing ceremonies, and significant symbols. And being of that opinion, I could not consent to abolish every reference in our ri--tual to the Temple service and to its restoration. But what I intend to explain to day is this. Critics have asserted that the Pentateuch ha bears internal evidences of being the work of many minds and of different epochs, and that blind prejudice alone I can ascribe its composition to a single individual. Against that gratuitous assertion, I place the third book, we call, of Moses and principally our Parasha, and I wish you, my Brethren, to contrast its contents with that of the Haftarah we have just read. The author of the former attaches a high importance to sacrifices, for he minutely tells how each should be performed to render it acceptable; the author of the latter assures his contem--poraries, who did not willingly bring the prescribed oblations, that God was tired of their sins, wearied with their iniquities, that He did not care to fatigue them with the presentation of sweet perfume, and the choice of the flock, if they deemed it a trouble.
for, when He blotted out their transgressions, ti was through His own loving-kindness and not through the blood of slaughtered animals. The question rises spontaneously. Would a writer posterior to the writer of our Haftarah have given such prominence to sacrificial rites, as we see in our Parasha? And mark, my hearers! in the instance I have quoted Isaiah is not so pronounced about the inefficacy of offerings as means of atonement. In other passages he openly declares them incapable by themselves to wash away the stains of the soul. Now: the son of Amoz lived full 600 years after the son of Amram; (and though according to some who deny him the authorship of 26 chapter of his work, what I have perused to-day was penned during the Babylonian exile 200 years later); I ask common sense. Would say that had heard the opinion of Isaiah, or of Hosea living about the same century, & who cried "take with you words, and return unto the Lord."....Let us pay for steers with our lips;" or of Amos, another contemporary, who said in the name of the Lord "though you should offer me burnt-offerings....I will not accept them with favor;"
or if Micah still another coeval with Isaiah, who taught that the Almighty is not to be appeased by the immolation of thousands of rams, would any, I ask again, have deli--neated a book the main portion of which is to prove the slaughtering of animals an acceptable worship, and an expiatory agency? When then was Leviticus penned? Surely not at that period of history in which Isaiah flourished. Did it come to light earlier, when Samuel lived:, Samuel when he lived who left us this sublime aphorism "obedience is better than sacrifice"; or later in the days of Jeremiah, who adorned his people to join the burnt-offerings together with the flesh of the beasts that had killed for their own use, and eat all together? Was it perhaps concocted during the captivity, when sacrifices dared not be brought? Oh! I have cornered you O f hypocritic. Moses alone could have com--posed a book volume, necessary to his polity; essential for the conducting of the service of that Tabernacle, which was con--stantly to recall the presence of the Deity among the liberated bondmen of Egypt. Moses composed it in the name of His Divine Master that Israel must know and feel that when they voluntarily parted with some of their substance to bring it as a gift to the house of the Lord, the Bestower of all good, was honored by the sentiment which prompted the actions,
that when they sinned and repented, their contrition symbo--lized by the rites practised at the altar was accepted above. Moses whose glorious song upon the shore of the red-sea, showed that to build a Sanctuary for the Lord was, a burning wish of his heart. Moses whose words in the chapter sup--plementing the Decalogue; foreshadowed the ordinance of festive offerings. Moses the leading spirit of what is narrated before the book of Leviticus, and afterwards, wrote that and all else which bears his n venerated name. Nor is there any antagonism between his teachings and that of his disciples, the prophets, regarding the institution of animal sacrifices. It is because what he designed as a noble means was wofully misunderstood as the final end, that he Seers thundered against a worship he had established; because the hand which brought an expiatory oblation still held the gain of oppression, because the lips which made confessions lied and spoke wantonness, because hypocrisy characterized the service rendered at the Jerusalem Temple, Isaiah and all that gl galaxy of great and good men of old, that illumined the Jewish horizon, looked down
with noble righteous wrath on a presentation to the altar which Israel of old frequently made. They were reformers, not to overthrow but to rebuild upon sound foundations.
May we learn from them wisdom. May we appear into the courts of our God not to gratify our personal feelings, not to attract the worldly and win the applause of novelty seekers, but to humbly beseech the Lord of all flesh to be with us in the narrow and devious paths we have to tread in this nether life, and help us to gain the heights where repose and joy will be the lot of those that have adhered to truth, and endeavoured to perform their duty. - Identifier
- p35718756
- identifier
- SMBx12FF1_1
Part of Two lectures on the Authenticity of the Pentateuch. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
Morais, Sabato, “Two lectures on the Authenticity of the Pentateuch. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed September 19, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/91274