Yithro. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
- Title
- Yithro. 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 13
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3h990005/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3h990005
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx9FF13_1.xml
- content
-
For Sabbath Ytró
It was altered & lengthened & corrected
in 1892 for [Hebrew]
40
It is a wonder of God, that communities do not break loose of all restraints, and run riot. The Christian Church nourishes cormorants, who after having been richly fed, bite the hand which afforded gave [?]. The Jewish church gives birth to brings up ravagers, who sally forth with ham--mer and axe to tear down the fortress which Moses has built. Say, friends. From whom shall the people learn the way leading to righteousness, since men appointed to teach it, are fast falling back? For my part, I entertain decided opinions. Paradoxical as it may seem, I honestly think that to relieve the simple-hearted from a state of per--plexity, when in search of religion, the voice of the pulpit ought to be stiffled. The young not hearing the sound of heresies with audacious constancy, might be less apt to grow skeptic. The germs seeds of harassing doubts, might not then be implanted, where piety should drop sweet nectar refreshing the soul. But how can our children be now supported in a belief essential to society at large, and to their individual happiness, when preachers of the new and of the old creed, combine forces to batter down the bulwark of morality?
The Decalogue, whose very first sentence introductory of the all-important subject, a renowned French statesman lately declared to surpass in majesty of diction all that Demostenes or Cicero ever wrote, the De--calogue hitherto recognized as the prime factor in civiliza--tion, is now decried as antiquated and barabarous. The Christ--ian levels at it his sharp arrows, because "the ten com--mandments are but a string of negatives". I quote the words of the pampered divine. The Jew bespatters it with mire because the God of Sinai pronounces Judgment a--gainst the offspring of sinners. We have arrived at this unfortunate pass. To defend the dearest interests of mankind, we must keep ever awake, and guard against external and internal assaults. Reasonings direct and forcible, we must oppose to seductive arguments. Well then: What else than negatives could freed slaves, who had seen learned priests, and mighty kings bow to all created nature--save before the Creator of nature--, have been imparted taught? The celestial Deliverer did not ask that those He had elevated should accept dogmas, not even that of His eternal existence, but He demanded that they should not lower the manhood, to which His outstretched arm had raised them, at the shrine of material objects.
An open, a solemn condemnation of heathenism, and of the atrocious practices it encouraged, was absolutely needed, and the address which thundered out of Sinai, denounced perjury and bloodthirstiness, incest licentiousness and theft, defamation of characters and lust of gain. For, the land of pyramids and hyrogliphics whence Israel issued, and the country of commercial merchant princes in whose neighborhood, they were about to live, reeked with the burning of incense to infamous vices. Israel should not be overpowered by the fumes of profane libations.
But is the Decalogue in its every aspect, only "a string of negatives"? Did the God who formed a new nation to clothe it in holiness, have but warnings to give, as the sacerdotal robe? Verily: The Christian divine, would, in the ardor of his fiery eloquence, have consumed two commandments enun--ciated at Horeb. They stand side by side. They look at each other with a positive understanding. "Remember the Sabbath-day" "Honor thy father and thy mother". The recognition of a prime Mover in all that sustains and gladdens the world, and of the necessity of devoting a time exclusively to His worship, is not a mere check, as flippantly
said of negative precepts, upon brutal propensities. It is spirituality, which Hebrews alone could grasp even that early. The acknowledgment that the same great Mover of all things, set the angels to watch over our infant frames, and to work out in beautiful harmony, instincts which distinguish the higher from the lower animals; that those vigilant guardians custodians and laborers have an imprescriptible claim to our reverence, can--not be styled as sentiment suiting a barbaric state. It is nobility, nobly represented. But I go further and assert, that each of the negative eight, has in some other page of the heavenly legislation an equivalent positive. A single sentence in Deuteronomy contains three "The Lord thy God thou shalt fear, Him thou shalt serve....by His name thou shalt swear" And is not the injunction "Thou shalt love the stranger," in juxta--position to the prohibition "thou shalt not kill," since foreign enemies prisoners were slaughtered by pagans without compunctions? And the rigor with which female chastity was guarded, and the obligation of daily paying the operatives daily their wages, and that of subjecting a false witness to the punishment his malice wished aimed to have inflicted,
and the duty to bless the Lord for benefits obtained, are all these not statutes of a positive character, agree--ing with negatives in the Decalogue?
But I have imposed trespassed on your patience, my hearers. I might have at once quoted the golden rule, and thus have hurled a stone, which dashes to fragments the high turret from whence a christian divine sought to attack the ten utterances of Sovereign Wisdom. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor like as thyself" possesses an earn--est positiveness, unexcelled by any system of religion, since Moses was bid to write it down. The ordinance has not been embodied in the Decalogue, but it is the ideal luminary standards of Judaism splendidly evolved therefrom to its full orb and extent. False is then the assertion with which a Christian minister covers an ill-concealed skepticism, that "in the New Testament for the first time appeared the injunction "thou shalt", and that "man should therefore graduate from the condition in which the negatives ruled, and come under the influence of the positive and higher law". To presume so thus to impose on human credulity, and subtly to challenge the origin of the Sinaic proclamation, is to strike at the very foundation heart of social morality.
And thou, impious Jewish preacher, that hast entered a thy protest against that proclamation, because it threatens to fetters thy children with the chords of thy sins. Say now: Shall thy example rear scoffers, deniers of a Being-the archi--type of virtue--and not entail on thy offspring misery? How could the Lord better protect thy own from the le--prosy of the soul, than by showing thee in advance, the suffering which thy uncleanness would bring through con--tagion? How could the Lord better shield nations from ruin, than by sending an austere messenger to human households and terrify parents into an upright demeanour? For sure as besotted drunkards will beget dullards, and the debauched will engraft low passions upon their seed, so will crimes rising from a disbelief in a ubiquitous Providence occasion force down along disasters and woful calamities. The Almighty Himself cannot prevent the downfall of republics or kingdoms, when homes sink into the slough of corruption. For, communities are an ag--gregate of individuals, whose conducted is moulded at the fire-sides. When Rectitude is chased from there, the overthrow of the social edifice is inevitable.
Merciful was the caution. From the source of good--ness alone could the second commandment have proceeded. It told fathers and mothers this all essential lesson. The happiness of your posterity lies in your hands. If you stoop before images, either graven on metals or stamped upon paper, your sons and daughters will bend still lower and their moral growth will be stunted. If you live up to Truth, stand up for Truth, the image of your pure souls will beam forth in the very looks of your children, and they will in turn impress on their descendants the dignity of an honest manhood, the sublimity of a righteous existence, the felicity of virtue. But God must be the ideal, as expressed in the opening words of the Decalogue. The Deli--verer of the oppressed, the Avenger of offended justice, the Recompenser of every deed, shall have a throne shrine in your homes as in the Sanctuary. And you are the two cherubim above whom the Divinity must hover. Then you may feel at rest. For though it is written, that "a jealous God visits the inequities of parents on the children," we have also been promised that "the tender-kindness of the Lord continues everlastingly with those who fear Him, and
His goodness to their children's children; even with those that keep His covenant and remember His statues by ob-serving them." To the instruction derogatory of the Deity, and unworthy of our attention? Oh! that it were thoroughly understood, and sedulously acted upon?
I sincerely congratulate you, O brother Bill, on the significant coincidence. The first time that you were invited to bless your Maker in a solemn assembly, you have thanked Him before and after having heard a portion which narrates the most important event in the annals of mankind. You have heard from whom you have descended, and what is your mission as the child of the covenant. Abraham who walked erect at a bright light, when all else groped in darkness, foresaw that his seed would grow to be keeper of a belief destined to knit the creatures of the earth together. Moses still higher than Abraham, stretched his vision further. He foresaw that to preserve that belief in its purity, wise laws must be ordained and enforced. And the God of Abraham and of Moses deigned Himself to proclaim these laws, calling upon us to be the guardians thereof. This day, to you so memorable, you have been told that event, but you have also learn its signal attending consequence. You were made a priest of the One living Lord. You will be henceforth known as such, not by the garments you wear, but by the actions you perform. when you will resist temptations (alas! never so powerful
as now) and be an Israelite without pull[?], showing your faith in devoting your time not simply to gain wealth, but to burden the sphere of your usefulness in the social family, and specially amidst the house of Jacob. When your professions and your practices will exactly tally, you shall be the minister of the God of Sinai, a glory to your ancestry, an honor to parents and grandsires who have built upon you fond hopes, and, shall I add a consolation to me? Yes: a comfort to one of God's servants to know that his ministry has not been barren of some goodly fruits. For as often as I address your coevals, I reproach myself on the abortiveness of my labors. Oh may you grow, according to my wishes; physically vigorous, but morally gigantic, as a cedar of Lebanon, planted in the courts of our Lord, expanding its fragrant branches, to the delight of all beholders. So may it be. Amen. - Identifier
- p3h990005
- identifier
- SMBx9FF13_1
Part of Yithro. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated
Morais, Sabato, “Yithro. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed September 16, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/91389