Italy & Donolo · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Italy & Donolo

Author

Morais, Sabato

Date Created

1883

Location(s)

United States -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

United States -- Pennsylvania

Format

6 pages on 3 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 8

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p30c4t50g/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p30c4t50g

Provenance

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

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx12FF8.xml

content

Italy & Donolo
Delivered before the Y. M. H. A.

This is only a preface to a lecture
on Italy and Donolo, the balance
of which was published in the
Association Bulletin for April 1883

Ladies and Gentlemen. Last year During last winter you were shown a tableau, representing, with fair consecutiveness, re--markable events and their leading actors in the his--tory of our people. ¶ To describe A delineation of the causes which invited a foreign enemy to the land of the patriarchs, and drove its inhabitants into captivity; a description of the trials of endured by the priestly Seer of Anathoth, who foretold the na--tional downfall under the all-conquering Nebuchadnez--zar, and strove, in vain, to Cessen, by his wise counsel, the attending horrors; a cheering account of the return of a few, but spi--ritually improved, Judeans to the ancient heritage; and the successful endeavours of Ezra--the resuscita--tor of pure Mosaism--, was constituted the first portion of the task assigned to him who has the honor of addressing you this evening. Then, one of my reverend col--leagues brought vividly before our vision the strug--gles of the restored exiles to maintain the inde--pendence of their laws and worship; the check put by the heroic Asmoneans to an seductive and captivating attractive but undermining apostacy seductive cultivation of the beautiful in nature and art. His two graphic delineations pictures pictured represented a canker-worm, in the shape of the perfidious

Idumean, gnawing the body politic; the virtual overthrow of the Herodian dynasty; the crushing blow which lay Judea prostrate at the feet of of Rome; and the birth of Christianity, soon to cast off its swaddling cloths to go forth and carry abroad fire and sword. ¶ The Minister who, to favor us, journeyed from another state, portrayed the rising of schools in the country to which our an--cestors--mainly the tribes of Judah and Benjamin--had once been banished, and the spread of learning in that distant clime, long after dire per--secutions compelled the closing of Palestenian Aca--demies. He edified and entertained the audience with the narrative of incidents in the lives of pro--minent Gaons, or Presidents of colleges in cities wa--tered by the Euphrates; and laid open to our con--templation the channel, through which,--in his opi--nion--, the vast literature created in Babylon, was flowed transformed down into Spain. As a sequel to that attractive sketch, I was privileged to offer a bird's eye view of the height gained by our ancestors in the Iberian peninsula, when Andalusia felt the genial influence of a chivalrous and politic race, the Moors

in the East--in Sura nad Pumbeditha--had not yet shone upon Europe. I purpose trespas--sing on your indulgence, while I try my feeble hand at filling up that void, partly at least, with a few light strokes. And, fearing that I may, reasonably, be suspected of self plagiarism, I beg to assure my hearers that I have not at all asked imposed suppressed every inclination to look at a series of articles I wrote years ago, for a Jewish periodical, on Hebrew literature in Italy. I do not at all remember their exact contents diction; scarcely can I recall any of the ideas advanced, nor will I advance set forth but a single illustration form among the several I brought forward on that occasion. For though flattered (beyond my wildest anticipations, by having been asked to dis- by having been twice accorded again the privilege of opening -cuss a theme which would appeal the ripest scholars) the course of Jewish lectures and speak at length, I may openly candidly tell that my minds warns me against attempting too much. To principally prove that the Hebrew lan--guage was [?] as a medium to treat of sciences, was first early cultivated, and first employed for treating of science, employed by Jews of Italy, is the extent of my am--bition.
The Palestinians down at hurled down by the point of the lance from the hills of Zion; denied the joy of breathing the air, which had resounded with the voice of prophets;

of the days of their immortal Abdalrahman and Alhachem. And my microscopic presentation, pre--pared the unfolding of another, wide and comprehen--sive, which the skilful pencil of a Philadelphia Divine drew. In it we beheld a mind, which, having fathomed the philosophy of the Sage of Cordova, and dived into the researches of Castilian Sages, arose with a giant's strength, to build up an era--the Mendels--sohnean era. ¶ But in that tableau, which the designers must have doubtless wished to render as com--plete, as a limited space would allow, a gap was unaccountably left. All eyes--after having wept over the tragic end of the country of our fathers--, should have been directed to the spot, where to unhallowed hands carried the hallowed vessels of the house of God. Italy, ought to2 have formed, at1 that point, the central figure. For, that is the spot to which the "tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast," were dragged to grace a bloody victory. And from thence, Providentially, sacred knowledge radiated, illumining the West, when the light still refulgent

An Italian Hebrew
Italy
An [?] Scientist

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Identifier

p30c4t50g

identifier

SMBx12FF8