Two lectures on the Authenticity of the Pentateuch. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Two lectures on the Authenticity of the Pentateuch. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated

Author

Morais, Sabato

Location(s)

United States -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

United States -- Pennsylvania

Format

16 pages on 6 sheets

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?

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/p31g0jf0k/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p31g0jf0k

Provenance

Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx12FF1_2.xml

content

28

A sequel to the lecture on
the authenticity of the Pentateuch

Brethren! The solemn festival, which Israel commemorates at this season, forcibly illustrates the assertion, once made by the meekest of men, to the skeptics of his age. [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "Hereby ye shall know, that the Lord hath sent me to perform all these actions; that they are th not (the inventions) of my mind". I may then confidently refer my querist, who seeks for proof of the divine legation of Moses, to the principal events that gave origin to the institution of the Passover.
They are historical fals facts, familiarly known and universally admitted. A distinct race of men, were held in bondage by a nation most powerful among the ancients. For entire centuries they submissively bore the chains that tyranny had rivetted. Crushed to the earth by a long servitude, they neither possessed the means, nor the moral courage to strike for their freedom. At length, a certain individual arose and vindicated their cause.

With no stronger weapon than a shepherd's staff, he le coped with a dreaded kingdom, till l it lay prostrate at his feet. He forced it to yeild its victims; and in the sight of their relentless task-masters, led forth the slaves to light and liberty. And in order that the memory of an occurrence so important and glorious, might be perpetrated, he instituted various rites, to be yearly observed by the enfranchised and their descendants. Now, my friends! upon these facts, I base my argument. The sojourn of Abraham's posterity and their captivity in the land of the Pharaohs, and historical realities. They are confessedly so by the admission of believing and unbelieving writers. They are attested by monuments, which have defied the mutations of time. But the question then arises: how did the bondmen break loose from the fetters of Mizraim? Did their oppressors yeild at the instance of him who pleaded their cause?

Did the potent king, who derived priceless treasures from the toil of six hundred thousand Hebrews, voluntarily relinquish his tyrannyic hold? Was he, at whose nod people trembled, terrified into compliance by the threats of a powerless individual?....Ah! it is at such queries, that human reason staggers; for, all its efforts to solve them naturally, prove but futile. When it conceives to have seized the clue that will un--ravel the mystery, it discovers that its threads are inex--tricably entangled. Aye, my Brethren! Natural means in the hand of finite man, could never have wrought so stupendous a result, but the will of God could and did accomplish it. The despotic ruler of our fore--fathers, was humbled to the dust, not by the rod of Moses, but by the Almighty Power which rested thereon. Thus did the righteous messenger, oftentimes address the refractory King [Hebrew] "The Lord God of the

Hebrews, hath sent me unto thee." He claimed no respect for himself, but he demanded the obedience to the Supreme Monarch, who had commissioned him. Hence, the Hebrew does not deify the man Moses, but yearly observes the Passover as instituted; and when he sits at the family board, he repeats in the very language of the son of Amram [Hebrew] "Hath God essayed to go and [Hebrew] take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terrors" as he did for our sake? He acknow--ledges that his deliverance from Egyptian thraldom is due to no human power, but to Him who framed nature, and bends it to his will. And he recognizes in Moses the agent of that will, and the faithful interpreter of a celestial mandate. Let it not then be surprising, my beloved hearers! if the Sacred Scriptures and

the writings of our Sages, allude with more frequency to the exodus than to any other event in the annals of Israel. For, it is assuredly, the groundwork and pillars of the Mosaic revela--tion. Once admitted--what we have proved to be indispu--table, namely--that to rescue our ancestors from bondage, the Deity vouchsafed to delegate his power to a man of his choice, our belief in the divinity of the code, which the latter has promulgated, follows as a clear and direct inference. For, not simply to liberate the enslaved, but to instruct the free, was the avowed mission of Moses. To bathe into an ocean of ethereal light, the minds sunk into the mire of Egyptian falsities. He was vested with a sp superhuman spirit, that he might bind his brethren to the allegiance they owed their Everlasting King; that he might lead the progeny of Abraham to worship the God of Truth at the foot of his hallowed mountain [Hebrew]; Or, as the sweet psalmist of Israel expresses it. "He brought forth his people with joy; his chosen with gladness [Hebrew]" that they might keep

His statutes and observe His laws." It would then, my friends! be folly and impiety to pursue the course of such, who survey all the dominions of ancient literature, with the view to find among historians--who wrote but fables-- the trace of some directions prescribed in the Pentateuch. But as we have proved the veracity of the missionary of liberty, by his acts in the land of Ham, we will put implicit faith in this solemn declaration of his lips [Hebrew] "See, I have taught you statutes and judgments, as the Lord my God hath commanded me." Not alone our knowledge of the corruptive polytheism prevailing everywhere in his time, contrasted with his pure Theism; not alone our acquaintance with the cruel and licentious practices of his age, when compared with the humane and moral ordinances he enacted, must for ever exclude the irreligious thought that he represented to his contemporaries as a divine emanation, what he had borrowed from heathen sources, but his own inge--nious and unvarnished words, must convince us of the sincerity of the speaker. When towards the end of his career,

Moses exhorted Israel to plant the standard of their faith in the land of their future possession, he expressed himself as follows [Hebrew] "Ye shall observe and perform (these precepts) for, it is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of all nations, who, when they shall hear of these statutes, will say: Surely this great nation, is a wise and understanding people." Now, my friends! Could he have so asserted, whose theology was at best, according to our theologists, an improvement on the existing systems of gentilism? Would he not have thereby rendered his tuition [?], and exposed himself, to say the least, to the charges of plagiarism and dissimulation?... But, no, for, a minister of heaven was he, upright and fai truthful in all his ways. It was because he had dived into the recondite learning of antiquity, that he proclaimed that only excellent, which proceeded from the fountain of perfection. All the knowledge that had rendered Egypt famous, had doubtless been unfolded to him, for his education was supervised by the King's own daughter.

He had moreover explored foreign regions, and communed with their Sages. He had grown familiar with the principles which governed Median and Ethiopia, Moab and Edom; yet, when he commended his teaching to the guardianship of Israel, he confidently exclaimed [Hebrew] "What great nation hath statutes and judgments so righteous as this law, which I place before you?" He did not fear to provoke a contrast, for, he knew and felt, that his instruc--tion was a direct imparting of the Infinite Intelligence; while the philosophic wisdom of the most enlightened people of his days, was but the offspring of unaided and fallacious reason. My Brethren! Upon the foregoing strictures, I rest my argument for the divinity of the Mosaic legislation; and I deem it unnecessary, when addressing an assembly of Israelites, to urge the point any further. Will my querist require that I shall offer internal evidences of the heavenly origin of the Pentateuch? I will refer him to an humble

production of mine, where they are discussed at length. Twelve years ago, I delivered a discourse, which was sub--sequently published. In it, I produced, not all, but a few cogent proofs, touching the truth of revelation. Since then, I have frequently descanted upon the same vitally important subject, but what I advanced on that occa--sion, wll will suffice, I trust, to elicit from the heart of a Hebrew man, the confession of his blessed Creed [Hebrew] [Hebrew] "God hath given a true law to his people, by the las hand of his prophet, who was faith--ful in his house". Nevertheless, in order not to dismiss, with the above brief remarks, a question submitted to me, probably with the design that I might enter fully into it, I will further elucidate it by expounding an idea, which the festival, we are about to celebrate, sug--gested to my mind. I would then observe: that in searching with a critical eye through the pages of the Pentateuch, we will often meet with expressions,

which bear testimony to its supernal origin. Thus by way of illustration we have been enjoined in Holy Writ, to keep the Passover in the month of Abib, which literally means, at the season, when vegetation shoots forth; that is, at the Spring-time. But we learn also from the same source, that the commemo--rative unleavened bread must be eaten in the evening of the fourteenth of the first month of the year. Now, my Brethren! history and a well-founded tra--dition show that the Hebrew year was lunar, and consequently fall eleven days shorter than the solar year. It thence follows very obviously, that unless this deficiency was provided for, Passover would in process of time have fallen in the winter or autumnal season, instead of the Spring. It became then impe--ratively necessary so to equalize the two varying years, that, to the end of time, Israel might solemnize

their deliverance from bondage, at the period in which it occurred. But, what human mind could accomplish an undertaking so insurmountably difficult? All their scientific efforts could not enable ancient astronomers to establish with unerring precision the calculation of the solar or lunar year. And they who are renowned among the greatest, only approached but did not reach the desired goal. Yet since the memorable time that "the law which Moses commanded, became the inheritance of the Congregation of Jacob" even to this, Passover has been everywhere observed in the month of Abib at the Spring-time--and in the evening of the fourteenth day of Nissan. Once only it was deferred by order of King Ezekiah, but though his action, was prompted by pure motives, it has been animadverted on by the Sages of the Mishná, as unwarranted by Scrip--tural authority.

Whence was then a knowledge so valuable but so profound drawn? Who imparted it to our preceptors of yore?....My Brethren! Ponder thereon, and you will firmly believe, as I do, that it was originally derived taught from the fountain of wisdom; that it was originally taught by him who had quaffed thereat. The heavenly Spirit that directed the son of Amram to appoint the Convocations of the Lord in their proper seasons, communicated to him, what the compass and depth of all researches could not have attained. It disclosed to his prophetic vision the course of the two great luminaries in their orbits, and qualified him to adjust the lunar with the solar revolutions with such exactitude, as to prevent error in the celebration of the Passover to all futurity. To this fact may the Rabbins have figuratively alluded, when they said [Hebrew], that Moses could not rightly understand how to reckon by the changes

of this moon until it was shown him by the finger of God; that is, until it was confided to him orally. And as he received it, so he himself instructed in that sublime knowledge, as well as in the application of some of its his precepts, the priests and levites--the custodians of the Law. From thence, my friends! was formed that chain of tra--dition, which for upwards of thirty two centuries has remained unbroken and unsevered.
My beloved hearers! The Israelite that holds fast on that chain, is he that will save himself afloat, when torrents of lethean waters swell up all around him. Such a one will not cast off as valueless the vestment donned at Horeb, to rush headlong after the stream of a skeptic philosophy. He will not forget his religion and his God, while mentally absorbed in biblical researches. But arguing from the innumerable lesson of practical goodness which he can comprehend in Holy Writ,

to the questions he cannot satisfactorily solve therein, he will pray for divine light, and righteously live in his faith [Hebrew]. For that supernal irradiation, did the Shepherd-bard crave, when he exclaimed [Hebrew] "Make thy face to shine upon thy servant, and teach me thy statutes," and to obtain it, we must2 also1, dear Brethren! humbly petition our heavenly Legislator. Oh! may He illumine our understanding, and strengthen our belief in the words of his inspired messenger, even in those of Moses of his servant. And may He shower down his blessing upon all his children who, obedient to his will, commemorate at this season their wondrous deliverance from Egyptian thraldom. May He open to them his fatherly hand, which satisfieth the desire of all living. May they be gladdened by the dew, which irrigates the earth, and by the grain that yields at its genial touch.

May the exhilarating Spring breathe upon them vigorous health. May it bring peace to their mind, and national joy to their heart now and henceforth for evermore. Amen.

Identifier

p31g0jf0k

identifier

SMBx12FF1_2