Vayakhel. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Vayakhel. 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 9, Folder 17
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3n873k1n/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3n873k1n
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx9FF17_1.xml
- content
-
On Vayakel
Shaped and molded
From one of Solis Della Torre
[Hebrew]
Brethren! Israelites have been charged with want of love for the aesthetic, with unfitness for the liberal arts. Our coreligionists of modern times have disproved the charge. They have made palpable facts stand forth, confront and shame the imputation accusers. But even the history of antiquity shows the accusation imputation to be false groundless, or, at least, too sweeping. Let us before proceeding further, premise a just remark. All nations have not been widowed with received from nature the same aptitudes, any more than all individuals with the same disposition and tendency. All could not manifest an equal fondness for arts and sciences, or the capacity to cultivate these with equal success, and contribute in an equal manner to the developping of civilization. Providence intended all peoples of the earth, to participate in the great under--taking; but each was assigned a special task, so that by the combination of separate efforts the social edifice might be raised high.
The ancients also had their shares in the admirable work. Some were apportioned the fine arts, as the Greeks; some the formation of civil governments, as the Romans, and others, the experimental solution of political problems, as the Italian
Republics of old. Israel was given from the outset that part which joins all into one, and crowns the (complete) labor. Israel was given Religion for its task; religion--which, as the name denotes, is, or rather ought to be, a common bond of union among the children of the Universal Creator. All other parts in the work, became of secondary importance, not to be set aside entirely, for they are powerful agencies in promoting civili- human pro-zation gress, but to be exercised only so far as they do not interfere with the main task, to be performed in up--holding the Unity, and which must be kept steadily in view.
But another remark will be appropriate on this sub--ject. Fine arts, in order to flourish must have op--portunities and facilities. Our ancestors were seldom afforded the state of tranquillity necessary for an assi--duous application to them. The infancy of our people was spent in slavery, and in wandering through deserts, then to be trained in a crucible the way of trials for its future destiny. The opening of its political life was almost anar--chical, without Union and Unity, as in the days of the Judges, each doing what what pleased in his eyes,
and hence exposing the nation to the aggression of strangers. When the consolidation of the tribes took place, it lasted only during the reigns of three kings; the first of which was of short continuance; the second stormy through frequent wars, so that David the leading spirit was not allowed to build a structure in honor of God, because his hands had shed too much blood. The third may solely be [?] called a quiete quiet period; the golden age of Jewish history, when all sat under their vines and fig-trees, with none to make them afraid. But soon the un--fortunate division occurred, to be followed by intestine quarrels, and finally by the Babylonian exile. At the restoration, the political condition had not improved very materially. Tributary to Persia, to Macedonia, to the Egypt of the Ptolemies, to Rome; struggling against the latter for independence, the stay of our people in Palestine was not amidst the enjoy--ment of peace. Then came the long and wide spread dispersion, and the horrors of the middle-ages, when with rare exceptions, the existence of Israel hung upon a thread. with rare exceptions,
And yet note the remarkable fact, notwithstand--ing so many the untold vicissitudes, so the many obstacles, an--cient Hebrews far from being strangers to a sense of the beautiful in the arts, showed considerable fondness for it, and no mean knowledge thereof. The tabernacle erected in the wilderness; Solomon's temple, and that of Herod, said to have surpassed the former in architectural grandeur, bear testimony to artistic capacities of not little value. And who does not know the skill displayed by our pro--genitors in music and poetry specially in the lyric, as evinced in the sublime poems David's outpourings, rehearsed in the Church and the Mosque not less than in the synagogue, and as proved from by the name of numerous instruments recorded throughout Holy Writ? We might venture further, and assert that the Cherubim hovering above the ark of the covenant, and several figures in the sanctuary at Jerusalem, as the twelve brazen oxen bearing the molten sea, would justify the supposition that our ancestors could also handle the chisel and the pencil; but candour forces us to confess that we have no positive proofs evidence of their
acquaintance with Sculpture and painting. Nor can they, by reason of that, be accused of unfitness for the aesthetic, when it is remembered that the art of making figures in marble or upon canvass, had its origin in heathen religions. The master-pieces of Grecian artificers, were inspired by pagan super--stitions. While families lived in rough cabins, they would raise superb edifices, where the images of war--riors drawn in colours, or cut in stones were paid homage to. What wonder then that the Hebrews preferred to cultivate the arts which might enhance the service of the one incorporeal God, and they cared little for those connected with polytheism? the prohi--bition of representing the Almighty under any form, banished almost entirely Sculpture and painting almost [?] from among Israel of yore. A believe uncompromisingly spir--ritual and moral, discountenanced what might have given rise to the deification of material objects, or to sensual feelings. But the fear of such a result, gradually abated, when heathenism and its debaucheries, began to lose the powerful hold it once had upon the mind of men; and when the Jewish
worship itself was greatly simplified, it being reduced to the reciting of prayers and the explaining of the Scriptures, in places of no great architectural pretentions. A perceptible change was then wrought. To a natural incentive which leads to the cultivation of all the liberal arts, as refining the taste, and imparting a high tone to the intellect, was added the approval given by Holy Writ. For, in alluding to different pursuits needed for the building of the Tabernacle, it styles the individuals capable of performing labors which demanded required ingenuity and skill, men gifted with a divinely illumined mind. Thus we read in the section of this Sabbath "Moses said to the child--ren of Israel: see, the Lord has called by name Be--zalel son of Huri, son of Hur of the tribes of Judah, and has filled him with a spirit of wisdom, with knowledge and understanding and with ability for every work, to devise new designs and execute them in gold silver, copper, and in setting precious stones, in carving wood, in doing all sorts of ingenius labor."
In this language does the book of books proclaim the arts a heavenly creation. And how could genius and industry be set on a higher plane, than by receiving God's declaration that they are inspired by Him? Nay: by in ascribing the invention of tools and of instruments; of music and of agriculture, to the remotest days even before Noah, the Bible signifies their great worth, as objects of use--fulness and refinement.
But if the religion of the Hebrews honored every art, state regulations made the exercise of many of the arts a necessity. In fact, the Constitution being based upon Agrarian laws--as each family owned a tract of land, which was inalienable--it followed that the culture of the ground must have been diligently attended to. Now, our progenitors could not have carried on their usual pursuits without the aid of many implements, to plough, to level the soil, to cut the grass, to winow the rain, to press the grapes, to crush the olives, nor could they dispense with the manufacturing of weapons of de-fence against hostile tribes surrounding them. So that of national poetry reflects the character of a people, and the figures of speech employed by the poets writers
represent give us an insight into its public and private life, the mention often made of a diversity of instruments tools, manifests a con--stant and steady application to the arts.
Let none therefore repeat the heresy, that Jewish hands were not shaped to do work of mechanical skill; to wield the square and compass; that an inventive genius in sculpture and painting has not fallen to our shares. For admitting that a vast deal produced by the chisel and by the pencil would ill-become the adorers of one God, and the adherents of a law of purity, yet much is left in which Israelites could excell, without clinging to commerce or even to a professional career. Would that my American coreligionists had loved traffic less and the aesthetics more! They might not have ammassed wealth as readily, but they would not have lost it as quickly. I could not better illustrate what I have endeavoured to prove than by citing also the portion of the prophets designated for this peculiar Sab--bath; for, there, as we as in the section of the Pentateuch, we are shown our fathers engaged in a variety of callings,
which demanded proficiency in the mechanical and in the liberal arts. May the time soon arrive, when our youths will learn the dignity of labor, will appreciate the glory of rising by natural talents devoted to the developping of the beautiful, when they will intensely feel that the acquiring of excellency in the domains of the intellectual, brings affords greater and more lasting contentment than the accumulation of gold.
And may like the righteous king Joash, who incited his subjects to employ their capacities to a noble end may those who are loftily stationed, urge others in a humbler circumstances, to exercise their abilities to the honor of their faith, and to the advancement and permanence of the worship of the One God. - Identifier
- p3n873k1n
- identifier
- SMBx9FF17_1
Part of Vayakhel. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
Morais, Sabato, “Vayakhel. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed September 19, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/91278