Vayiggash. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Vayiggash. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Author
- Morais, Sabato
- Format
- 14 pages on 4 sheets
- Language(s)
- English
- Source
- Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
- Sabato Morais Collection, Box 9, Folder 8
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3610wb9s/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3610wb9s
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx9FF8_1.xml
- content
-
On the character of Joseph For Parashat Vayeggash [Hebrew]
Brethren! To form a correct opinion of our neighbor's character, we must attentively mark the thoughts and wishes to which he unguardedly gives expression. For, what our minds mostly dwell upon, will instinctively force itself out, whether in private our domestic or social intercourse. Thus, for instance, the egotist whom an overweening love of self, prompts to thrust quote his own [?] forward authority, on all occasions, will be easily discovered. So the votary to sensuality, will be readily detected; and so the envious, the avaricious, the proud will betray their ruling passions. And what is true of men's vices, can be applied to their virtues. These will be reflected as in a mirror, in utterances unstu--died and ingenious. Now, such a standard by which we may be safely guided in forming a conception of the characters of the living, may serve likewise as a criterion to judge thereby of those who have long since, ceased to exist here below. The distance of time, which separates us from Our olden predecessors, may prevent our thoroughly understanding the motives of their actions. Causes now unfathomable to the minds of our generations, or unto which, we of the present age,
cannot appreciate, may have given rise to certain deeds startling and perplexing. But we will be competent now as always rightly to estimate the moral worth of the ancients, using as a test their words unpremeditately spoken. For, nature does not follow the course of earthly events. It remains unchanged. The principles which the Almighty Creator has implanted into within our breasts, have exorcised the same power in the primeval days of the world as they would in our own days. Revealed religion has added sanctity to those principles by affixing thereunto a divine seal, but a noble sentiment nobly spoken, will ever thrill the heart, independent of the stage of civilization, or of religious culture attained by him that gave it utterance.
Dear hearers! The lesson we have just read, gives us an insight into the character of an individual, with whose history we have become acquainted through the records left in the oldest of all books; yet, his loveliness and genuine greatness admit of no superior, among the illu--strious personages who have since trod the path of life. Neeed I say, who amidst the glorious dead so charms and still interests posterity?
You know, the exemplary son, the forgiving brother, the honest and high-minded statesman of yore, Joseph the son of our sainted patriarch, Jacob. I will He had not repeat myself by portraying fully what I was privileged on two former occasions to present to your un--derstanding, but I will simply point out some salient traits which the section of this sabbath sets conspicuously forth. The viceroy of Egypt had recognized his brothers, but he carefully avoided being recognized by them, ere his object had been compassed. Therefore he spoke in the Egyptian language, and not in the Hebrew tongue, and through an interpreter he addressed them in terms harsh and threatening. But under the guise of austerity, the heart still beat high with generous emotions. It yearned throbbed with fraternal love. He that wore the insignia of power, had not forgotten that they who stood in his pre before him sence self-condemned, intensely distressed at the thought of meeting again their disconsolate parent with the tidings of Simeon's imprisonment, and of the stern necessity of parting with Benjamin, were the natural companions
of his childhood, creatures equally dear to that father, at whose table all had been fed, and by whose fond care all had grown to manhood. Not a spout of nurtured malevolence, not a desire for revenge, which the ungodly alone call sweet, had suggested the severity of manners assumed, but a resolve to probe the heart, to learn with certainty that time and reflection had erased every vestige of a passion which had goaded on to crime; that none of the lurking jealousy harbored against the first child of the beloved Rachel was en--tertained towards the surviving and younger brother; hence the imperative demand for having the latter brought away from home; hence the stratagem of the silver-cup and the accusation that followed. But now all misgivings had vanished. Judah himself a husband and a father entreated that he might put on the shackles of servitude, that H he might be allowed to relinquish man's dearest right-freedom--, to rescue his father's darling, Benjamin, from bondage. What could more strongly prove the happy change which twenty years of repentance had wrought? And then that soul-stirring picture of Jacob's terrible suspense, drawn
with colours, which nature alone can lend; that of his an--guish at the detention of the lad with whose fate his own seemed interwoven; the narrative of the woful res--ponsibility resting on the suppliant, of the description of the horror felt at the bare idea of plunging an already bereaved parent into a state of utter misery, of the dread of calling down a curse for having failed to perform a solemn promise, all that pathetic address, with which our section opens, brought home to the gentle heart of Joseph the conviction that the past had been lamented and atoned for. Their pent up feelings could no longer be stifled. Nature yeilded, and kisses and tears became witnesses of a scene sublime and thrilling and sublime. But, Oh human greatness! None was suffered to look upon that scene, at which angels must have wept for joy. None saw it on earth, because if it supremely elevated the forgiver, it awakened a sense of unconcealable humiliation in the forgiven. "Joseph could no more refrain himself before all who stood by him, and he cried "Let every man go out from before me." It should not be known that the
magnanimity of a brother had raised his kindred from self-debasement. All who issued from the loins of Jacob should stand exalted in the eyes of the stranger, all should be welcome, and respected in the land where Joseph wielded sway. Oh! that our own sons and daughters acted always so considerately, so benignantly towards one each another, screening from shame, covering up sin; listening to the voice of nature, which appeals to our best instincts, and letting it not be drowned in the din of unruly passions. Would that like the righteous Joseph they ingeniously exclaimed [Hebrew] "Do not fall out by the way". "We are the same flesh and blood; let us lay hold of one another, let the weak in virtue be sustained by the strong, let him that toils for a subsistence find a powerful support in him that commands wealth, easing the passage that leads us all to our Father." How happier would our communities be, how when our children go for the hand in hand through the journey of life?............ But behold again the loveliness of a true man's character! Joseph had repeatedly obtained assurances that his father still lived. He had inquired with solicitude concerning his health, when his brothers returned from Canaan to buy corn.
He had just heard the affecting address of Judah, which mainly tended to spare his aged parent greater sorrows. And yet no sooner did he reveal his own name, than he instinctively asked for that which he already knew. Does it surprise you, my hearers! that he should be so eager to learn t what he had been of repeatedly told? I have said it, whi that upon which our minds mostly dwell, will spontaneously force itself out, and give tone to our speech and our manners. The memory of Jacob was ever pre-sent to Joseph. It had accompanied him, through the checkered events of undergone. It had clung to his very soul. The Rabbis relate, in one of their allegories, that when the trusty steward of Poliphats house, was tempted to swerve from the fidelity due to his master and to his God, the image of his parent stood before his vision, and prevented wickedness. And now feelings long cherished, but denied expression, burst impulsively forth [Hebrew] What a volume of affection those three Hebrew words do reveal! They signify a longing to see, to embrace the father so transcendently loved, to declare the joy of a reunion. Look well on the picture, my youthful auditors! The rich, and powerful Joseph, he before whom a whole
nation bent the knee, does not only merely thinks of his aged pa-rent, and forward the means that which may sustain his life, but craving to clasp him that dear being into his arms, preceeds him on his arrival, bedews his wrinkled visage with his tears, promises to comfort, to solace, to highly honor the author of his existence. Where are they who blush if their parents cannot bow as gracefully as they have learnt to bow; who style feel scandalized if their mother cannot shine in fashionable circles, if their father lacks the high polish they profess to have acquired. Let them such contemplate the portrait Holy Writ has drawn. Jacob, an humble shepherd, ignorant of the manners and language of the Egyptians, stands before the in the courts of a dreaded monarch of who brought him there? His son, his son who prized his father's hoary-head above all greatness. Contrast now the demeanour Joselph with that of some of our gaily-attired young men and women, who not only suffer their aged parents to remain unnoticed, but who deliberately avoid that their associates may see them,
lest their peculiar habits may excite derision. But let me tell those youths in the name of our religion, that if it is base ingratitude to forsake the guardians of our early days, when they need our aid, it is not less shocking and contrary to all laws to withhold from them those the tokens of deference as implied by the Hebrew term [Hebrew] "Honor", and which they may claim by reason of as co-workers of the Almighty in the running and preserving of our lives. For it is not the simple act of sup--plying food and raiment that partly repays long trials, and greatly our greatest gratifies our real gratifies our early benefactors, but rather the demonstration of affection which accompanies the act. Justly have our Sages written, that some children feed their parents on dainties, and still g grieve them even unto death, while others make suffer them to toil, and nevertheless afford them ineffable pleasures. Look again upon Joseph. Unspeakably anxious to show Jacob tokens of filial devotion, he sends this message. "Come down to me, tarry not"...."thou shalt be near to me". Nothing of that cold manner, with which some of our world would be enlightened children, disp treat their parents is then in can be detected in those words. They are brimful of glowing love; of that love which knows no disparity of conditions,
which levels down all inequalities. "Near unto me shalt thou dwell," so must we cheer the winter of our parent's existence, if we wish to do our full duty. So must we prove ourselves the worthy recipients of that law, which places filial reverence next to Divine obedience, and which is in very deed the primary element of all human greatness. May the Almighty grant that the dwelling-places in which our sons and daughters are brought up, may be exactly what the English word "home" implies, redo--lent of the joys which a respectful demeanour towards superiors, is always evinced a harmonious consonance of feelings among equals, and a considerate and benevolent disposition shown to inferiors, secure and continually enhanced. May in each and all of us be fulfilled the sentence of the Scriptures, in which the righteous man is promised "Thou shalt know that peace is in thy tent, and when thou shalt look over thy habitation, shal thou shalt miss nothing."
So may it be. Amen.
Addition
It may not have escaped your attention, dear hearers, that holy writ while impressing upon children with great fre--quency, the duty of serving and honoring their parents, it does not define the obligations which the latter must exer--cise towards their offspring. Beside the command of im--parting to them the knowledge of the Law, no ordinance has been imposed upon those who are privileged to be called fathers and mothers. Have they then none other to per--form? Nature, which is the messenger of God, invested with functions no less holy sacred than the revealed Word, emphatically answers "Yes." "Numerous are the duties devolving upon parents, and they who fail to fulfil them with exactness, offend the Deity, by doing violence to the principles He has implanted with, the human breast." Fortunately the occasions are very rare, when a Jewish father or a Jewish mother stifles in--nate sentiments, and lets egotism assume a despotic sway. Exceedingly rare are the occasions, when men and women in whose view the blood of Abra-ham courses, deny their sons and daughters food and raiment, a home and a screen from the evil of an early exposure to the world's seductions.
I know parents who extended their protecting arm beyond the limits which nature and the revealed word have set. I have heard of some who forgiving and forgetting filial ingratitude, melted with com--passion for their suffering progeny, and drew them to a throbbing breast bosom, most gently and tenderly. No: the Rabbinical denunciation against pitiless parents does not apply to Israelites [Hebrew] [Hebrew] cannot be said of any of us, my fellow-believers. But gladly admitting that a cruel father is a monstrosity in our midst, and a ruthless mother almost an impossibility, I nevertheless fear that through want of thought we, at times, sin and as our sages term it we put a stumbling block in the way of our dear ones. We are apt that to check with severity our children's buoyancy of spirits when young, & demand too much at their hands when advanced in years. We are liable to If we become partial in our conduct even perhaps inadvertently, we and thus sow the choke weeds tha in the field of domestic tranquility. A renowned author of our people, recommends exceeding consideration lest we ask of our son what is contrary to his inclination, and force out thereby a refusal, attended with ill-results.
Or we offer a provocation too great to be borne with humility. How beautiful, again, is the example which the Hebrew Scriptures set upon this score. Jacob sees death approaching. He sends for his Joseph; and entreats that he may not be suffered to lie after his demise among idolaters. The son swears that the paternal will shall be religiously carried out, despite any labor or fa--tigue connected with its performance. The father recognizing as a father favor what he might have expected claimed as an act of obedience, bows his feeble head before him who made the solemn promise. Again: The viceroy of Egypt receives the distressing tidings that his father's life is drawing to its dissolution. He hastens to Goshen. Israel hears of his coming; he makes a strong effort and sets himself in bed. as the Talmud pithily tells it to honor him who wore the insignia of power. Oh! let us O parents learn wisdom. Let our sons and daughters behold in us not their masters and mistresses but their friends, their companions, those in whose association we delight above all others. Let us be considerate as we are affectionate, and our offspring may be our stay, our joy and solace, till the sweet ties that bind us with what is mortal shall will be severed, and we shall join those who enjoy immortality in the presence of our Great Father. - Identifier
- p3610wb9s
- identifier
- SMBx9FF8_1
Part of Vayiggash. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
Morais, Sabato, “Vayiggash. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed September 18, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/91336