The Falashas · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

The Falashas

Author

Morais, Sabato

Date Created

1 April 1880

Location(s)

United States -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

United States -- Pennsylvania

Format

35 pages on 35 sheets

Rights

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

Language(s)

English

Source

Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

Sabato Morais Collection, Box 13, Folder 7

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p36w96v79/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p36w96v79

Provenance

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

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx13FF7.xml

content

The Falashas
Delivered before the Y. M. H. A.

It was altered for
the Penn Monthly
of the month of April
1880

Ladies and Gentlemen
It is written somewhere--the exact placement I cannot now recall--that he who causes a single blade of grass to grow may claim the title of benefactor. I do not aspire to that appellation--most certainly not as a laborer of the soil--but I do wish that my work--ing on another ground--equally the creation of God--may be rewarded. Should I succeed in awakening one thought in the minds of Jewish youths, and that thought prove of advantage to my religion and people, I shall have earned the name of "useful servant." So believing, I accepted the invitation to lecture also this year before the Young Men's Hebrew Association, and I chose a subject capable, I fancy, of producing a measurably good results.

In a far off land, where the sun tans the skin, and enervates the body, a vast population dwelling apart ply the tools of the artisans. Their looks and their address clearly tell that to confound those individuals with the inhabitants of the country at large would be an error. Whence came then the hardy mountaineers so distinct in appearance and habits?

The question was asked by many a traveller, but it still remains yet an unsolved problem open debatable. Not so with that distant population. To express a doubt concerning what has been transmitted from ancient days, would be accounted deemed a grievous offence. The veriest dullard will glibly rehears his story in the full assurance that it is beyond dispute. Let me relate it.
A queen, curious to know a youthful Ruler, whose fame had spread throughout the East, visited the capital of his kingdoms. She was witty, brilliant, generous; but her discernment beheld sagacity discerned those qualities more strongly developped in the king, whose acquaintance she had eagerly sought. His wise answers to incisive reasonings; the splendour of his court, and the reciprocity of feelings evinced by muni--ficent gifts, made the royal guest leave Jerusalem in wonderment. This part of the narrative has scriptural and Rabbinical authority for support. All are aware that the queen of Arabia Felix was ma--gnificently entertained by King Solomon, and that the two crowned personages profusely exchanged marks of esteem. But no one versed in either Biblical or Talmudical writings has learnt from them the weird tale tacked to the incident, which our prophets and Sages chronicled and commented upon.

According to that strange account an intimacy, which culminated into an alliance and the birth of a son, grew out of the visit paid by the queen of Sheba. Her dominion lay South East of Egypt. On her return she destined the child whom Solomon could claim as his own, to have a to be a champion of his father's belief. And in order that the lad might quaff at the fountain of Divine wisdom, she sent him to Palestine and had him taught in the spirit of Mosaic institutions, and in all the tenets of the five revealed books. Minglik--so the youth was called--had become very popular. Going back to sit on the throne which his mother had voluntarily vacated, an immense numberless multitude of Israelites followed in the train, carrying along the ark of the covenant. But his piety had not kept equal pace with his temporal success. Having arrived at the banks of a certain river upon the Sab--bath, he Minglik dared cross it regardless of the sanctity of the day. Some of his retinue however refused thus to sin. From those stanch ones Palestinians sprung the Falashas, who at no time ever since could lured be enticed into a relinquishing of Judaism. They alone are able to approach the spot, where the ark was enshrined.

When a learned and holy man among their number repairs to Axum--the ancient capital of Abyssinia-- the walls of the fane in which the written word of the Lord still remains abides open miraculously and receive him that he may devoutly worship.
I will not offend the intelligence of my hearers and stop to show the absurdities of the story handed down, in the main, as I have reported it; but I will ask that I may present to view some interesting points relative to a body of our coreligionists, who are entitled to an affection--ate consideration. And I simply discharge a debt of gratitude when I tell at the outset the source whence I mostly derived the knowledge I can am enabled to impart on the subject. Philoxene Luzzatto, the intellectual hero marvel hero who had mastered the language of the Falashas, in the hope of hastening to their religious redemption; who journeyed away from home and to ransacked foreign libraries, and read all which could be read regarding that population, who corresponded with savants in the interest thereof, and finally with a dis--tinguished member of those forgotten fellow-believers, that ever to be lamented Italian youth, left a legacy bequeathed an instrument of utility which would alone suffice to render his name immortal che to curve for him a niche in the temple of fame.

Writhing in the agonies of an acute and fatal disease, when he had not yet reached the twenty forth year of his age, he turned a loving thought to the Falashas, and completed the relation of his profound and exhaustive researches respecting them a few days before his eyes closed in death. That very learned scholar holds that the Jews of Abyssinia are descendants of a mixed race. Not in the palmy days of Solomon, did a colony of Israelites prefer African regions to the "Zion-hill....and Siloa's brook that flowed fast by the ark of God"; but five centuries after, the fate of battles brought about the change. ¶ The fierce struggle among the generals of Alexander the great to share the richest spoil left by the Macedonian conqueror, exposed Judea to hardships. Ptolemy son of Lagus,--misnamed Soter, the Saviour--, in his greed for power had violently taken seized Syria. The Hebrews, who, since their return from the Babylonian captivity, paid an annual impost to some foreign potentates, recognized at the time Laomedon as the legitimate Ruler to whom their tribute was due. Faithful to their promise, they refused yeilding to the de--mands of the usurper, and prepared to contest his pretensions.

Ptolemy cut to the quick, resolved to make the people of Palestine pay very dearly for what he deemed considered the height of insolence. On a Sabbath day his soldiery stormed and pillaged Jerusalem. Its inhabitants were unsuspectedly enjoying the prescribed rest. The attack was sudden and brutal stunned them; so sudden it was and so brutal. Thousands fell victims to the barbarous sword which spared neither age nor sex. But the victor was too keenly alive to his advantage not to understand that men who had would have braved his redoutable army rather than become guilty of perjury, were worthy bringing being lured over to his side. He put the sword back into the scabbard, and offered con--ciliatory terms. The shrewd Prince wished to win the goodwill of the youngest and strongest among the Hebrews. Egypt was the objective point of his plans. And Egypt--unaccountably as it may seem--had always possessed some attraction for the descendants of the tribes once slaves in the country of the Pharaohs. Alexander had already drawn many of them Judeans to the famous city he had built to perpetuate his name, and Ptolemy Soter made willing captives of over one hundred thousand Judeans of that people, who peopled thronged the towns watered by the Nile. They were joined soon after by a still larger number, which, in the somewhat hyperbolical language of the Talmud, amounted to several millions.

In the opinion of the elder Luzzatto, and I infer that his son coincides therewith, our ancestors having settled in the land of the pyramids, and especially along the borders of Nubia, where they had been assigned the custody of the city Cyrene or Cyrenaïca, obeyed a natural prompt--ing for gaining light on matters lying yet unknown in obscurity. Some passed over Senaar, and explored the interior of Africa. The wild tribes dwelling there welcomed the strangers, who excelled as mechanics and men of letters, and either by compulsion or by choice, the Jewish foreigners strangers remained in the midst of the native negros, and in the course of time unavoidably intermarried. The effect produced by which this circumstance produced was the acceptance of Judaism by a mongrel race, which at a period impossible to ascertain founded a kingdom, called Abyssinia,--in Arabic Habashun. I my--self cannot tell the origin of this name, nor do I possess the linguistic capacity to ascertain, whether its sound is retained in the great variety of African languages and dialects, but I venture the idea--and let it be taken for what is worth--that the derivation of the term may be traced to the Hebrew Chabosh, meaning "to rule," or

Cabosh "to conquer;" signifying that the territory acquired belonged to the tribes who established there a distinct dominion--a Jewish dominion--. Historians agree that till the fourth century of the vulgar era the Abyssinians professed the Mosaic religion--and they may have limitedly cultivated the sacred tongue. Even after having embraced Christianity, Jewish customs to which we cling, had a powerful hold of there on them them. Some Scriptural practices are indeed retained to this day, but from the moment that the majority bowed to the Cross, a chasm deep and impassable opened between them and their countrymen and fellow-believers, the Falashas-- [insert lines from page 8a] But what course did those the unwavering adorers of one incor--poreal God follow? How did they succeed in forming a separate government? By what means did they long maintain their independence on the steep mount--ains of Simen where many they still dwell, in and how did they finally lose that great boon? These queries have been variously answered solved, but with so much which savors of the legendary, that an impartial reader cannot trust the speculative or credulous writer. Nevertheless, the account I have undertaken to give would be too incomplete, without alluding to the probable mutations undergone by the stout-hearted Monottheists, during the ages that have rolled away.

These chose then an appellation significative of their sense of wrong profoundly felt. "The Exiles," who, for principles' sake left their homes and went in quest of another spot where they might worship the living Saviour according to the dictates of their conscience.

To such vicissitudes will I have special particular reference. After the schism, a spirit of mutual hatred mani-fested itself in open hostilities. At one time the Falashas brought grew mighty, and subjected brought the Abyssinians under to under the heavy yoke. Led again and again to victory by their own gallant Rulers, they displayed martial valor and deep devotion to the cause of Mosaism. The exploits of their heroic queen Judith, the beautiful who defied the Salic law and sat herself upon a throne; and who weilded her sceptre with who wore on her royal sceptre manly vigor and swore thereupon to unfurl the ensign of the Unity on every hill, and tread upon down the symbol of the Trinity, might he supply a fertile mind with a fit subject for a romance. Evidently, the Falashas did not always prevail, and when the Church came off triumphant, they were made to swallow to the very dregs the bitter cup of persecution.
In the beginning of the 14th century galled by the vexations of the Abyssinians Emperor, they struck for freedom. The hour seemed opportune. Hordes of Mohammedants knocked at the gates of Axum. And the neo swarthy Christians were compelled to rise and buckle on the armor in self-defence. The Falashas believeding that the independence they dearly loved could now be purchased by a prodigious effort.

Like an avalanche they rushed down from their moutnains to overwhelm the foes harassed already by a foreign invader, but the blood of profusely shed by the undaunted warriors profusely shed, reddened the battle-field. A woful defeat harried the fugitives back to their impregnable rocks.
A century later the same attempt met with results equally disastrous. To add to the chagrin of the conquered, a Nazarene church was built on the spot in which they had been completely routed. Then the demoniac device which gave Spain an infamous immortality, was concocted in Abyssinia. A catholic priest whose name should be handed down to execration--Amda Sion--stirred up the government to publish an edict worthy of a Torquemada. In accordance with it all were demanded, under penalty of confiscation and flagellation, to wear an amulet on the right hand. It bore the following inscription. "I renounce the devil through Jesus Christ our lord." The hapless Falashas horror-struck at the Pharotic a pitiless ordinance, which aimed at their apostacy or extermination, thought the great day of judgment had drawn nigh. Not unlike some of the ascetic Essenes in the unfortunate soul-harrowing days of the Roman dominion in Judea, a member withdrew from the busy world, and, choosing a state of celibacy, gave themselves to prayer and penance.

disqualifying her f to reign

But the spirit of the multitude though oppressed was not crushed. In 1537, the daring mountaneers of Simen, marshalled by Gideon their a fearless chieftain, faced the enemy in a pitched battle, and exacted honorable terms. The Abyssinians who, notwithstanding the assist--ance but by the Portuguese Christopper of Gama--the son of the celebrated Vasco De Gama--, had suffered severely from the incursions of Mohammedan tribes, gladly made peace with their neighbors. To mildly restrain them became a imperative necessity measure of self-preservation. But what policy and an outward pressure had suggested, could not be of long duration. "A new king arose who knew not" or rather heeded not the pledge his predecessor had given. Of a fierce temperament, he indulged in cruelties which out--raged nature. They maddened the Falashas into a rash act. Imprudent it was to leave in accessible rocks and descend to fight on the plain that prototype second of Atilla. Outwitted by a superior military skill, the Jews found themselves surrounded on all sides. They beheld with unspeakable dismay every chance of retreat cut off. Those whom the bereaving sword did not consume, submitted to shocking indignities.

But the measure cup of misfortune, which our distant brethren endured was filled drunk, overrun in the seventeenth century under The reign of Socinios with of terror, whose annals are [?] with a pen dipped in [?] the annals of which heave forth the sighs and groans, begin with of the butchered, began with Socinios, the s usurper of the Abyssinian throne. This monarch in whose veins coursed some Falashan blood, illustrated the fact so degrading to human nature, but which we Iraelites have too often experienced. These people from whose national rela- kinship -tionship we had a right to expect a considerate, if not an affectionate treatment, proved most unrelenting in giving vent to their hatred. Socinios determined to either drag the Falashas under the sign of the cross, or to root them out; and he very nearly succeeded. Con--summate generals were placed set at the head of troops well trained to war, with the fight. The peremptory command was, not to reappear into the presence of their ferocious master, until they could bring the tidings could be brought that his diabolical inexorable will had been fulfilled. The struggle for civil and religious liberty grew ardent. It arose to sublimity, but a Mattathias was not there to hue down Empiety Iniquity with his holy hand. The unequal contest had not been destined by the Aribiter of wars-- the Lord of hosts, to end in a Maccabean success triumph.

A man who verily did not indeed shame the Biblical champ hero whose name he bore, grappled with the ruthless antagonist, but he fell slain among his heroic brave countrymen who fought for the noblest idea. Gideon, the last general and Ruler of the Falashas, deserved to have lived for the defence of Right against Might, yet he was mercifully spared the disgrace awaiting his survivors. For Socinios butchered massacred the combattants; sold their children to slavery, and gave the Jews of the conquered provinces this a fearful alternative: baptism or the grave. Many feigned conversion to avoid the a slaughter of all they held dear. Similarly to the Marranos of Spain and Portugal, they hoped and silently watched for the opponunity when they might ear off the destested mask. The occasion presented itself earlier than anticipated. For the Nemesis of an infallible retributive vengeance quickened her steps. The tyrant who never Their tyrant weary of the bowed bowed to man's dictates fixed up at the arrogant demands of the Jesuits, rendered too bold by the victories of the church. chased He bid, the papal hirelings from cross the boundaries of his kingdom realm; relented from in his former wonted fanaticism, and favored toleration. in matters of fault But if, as some historians narrate, the Falashas recovered even their independence, it must have been a mere shadow of the past, which soon vanished never to return.

For at the beginning of the present century, a trust-worthy traveller observed that they recognized the crowned head at Abyssinia as their absolute Sovereign. And who can have forgotten the touching episode during the reign of Theodorus? must be still fresh in the memory The nobly spoken words of our hapless brethren of Israelites. They can recall the words of our unfortunate must have created in every Jewish heart an indelible impression. brethren. Like Socinios of the seventeenth century, the late monarch stirred up by the execrable propagandists, attempted their a conversion. He assembled summoned the Falashan chiefs to his presence, and demanded the apostacy of the population that dwell in the rocky mountains of Simen. The spokesmen represented the feelings of every Falasha all their countrymen when baring their breasts they cried "Slay us Strike O our King, but ask us not to forswear our father's religion." Aye: the glory wherewith that Falashas veritable heros had clothed themselves at during a period of their a checkered history has altogether vanished, but the brightest abides yet with them. The belief in the All-per--vading Spirit of the Universe is their hope and stay. Admirable constancy! None tried more severely, and none more sincere. To In the presence of Monsieur D'Abbadie, charged by Philoxene Luzzatto to put a number of questions in his name to some of the intelligent among those unyeilding upholders of the Unity, a certain Abba-Isahac, evencing a joyful surprise,

exclaimed "God of Abraham, I give Thee thanks." The outburst of pleasure was elicited by the information assurance that Jews lived in other lands, and that one of them was solicitous concerning the welfare of the poor Falashas.
Abba Isahac broke relieved of the reticence natural to a people made suspicious by religious persecution, and thus valuable imparted information was derived valuable information. Could all which the enthusiastic youth of Padua wrote on the subject, and which appeared as a posthumous work, be condensed in an hours a single lecture, I would gladly cheerfully present it now to my hearers. But in order not unduly to tax their attention, I will offer present bring to view merely what may be of general interest. The Falashas hold fast to the Creed of the patriarchs, and for its dissemination they would spill their life-blood for its dissemination. But a belief in angels not partly obscures it that creed. A belief in itself not at all discordant with reasons, which can readily admit an intermediate stage between creatures in whom the physical and spiritual blend, and the Eternal uncreated spirit--, I mean, a belief in the ex--istence of beings above man and below God, which the Bible also sanctions, plays a part entirely too prominent in the theology of those African brethren of ours.

In like manner their theories on reward and punishment hereafter, and on the restoration of the outcasts of Judea to Palestine, are not free from notions which other well-taught Israelites would be loth to accept. Noteworthy is the circumstance that the expected Messiah is called in advance "Theodorus". This name, which is answers the name exactly to Nethanel or "God's gift" in Hebrew, suggests a proof that the Falashas are descendants of Hellenistic Jews, who at or after the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus gradually commenced to set aside the sacred language and adopted the Greek even in Synagogue worship. But what indicates it more obviously is the practice of offering animal sacrifices. Thus To explaintion of my meaning, requires idea, I must, however, of beg to digression. All are aware know that provisions were made in the book of the Law for a central spot in which oblations should be laid on a national altar. Whether the intention of the legislator was, as Maimonides asserts, to narrow within a small compass an observance in universal use among heathens, or whether he aimed to prevent any division among the tribes by the erection of separate temples in separate localities, I will not determine.

But every reader of one conversant with Holy Writ must have noticed the remonstrances of our chroniclers and prophets against the violation of the Mosaic injunction. We read, "The people sacrificed and burn incense on high-places." "I will destroy your high-places." And so the sin continued till destruction arrived. After the overthrow of the Jerusalem Sanctuary by the army of the Chaldeans, history remains silent as to the outward aids by which Jewish communities manifested their adoration of to the Deity. I, on seeing that Daniel simply prayed, with the face directed towards the place spot where the Divinity had hovered above the Cherubim; and I, considering likewise that sub--sequently to that period Esther ordered fasts and not burnt-offerings to avert an impending calamity, am led to argue that at no time the people fidelity was kept; that at no period of the Babylonian captivity the people per--mitted themselves to raise an altar beyond the precincts assigned by the inspired lawgiver. When the national worship was firmly reestablished by the vigorous efforts of Ezra and Nehemiah, obedience became the badge of all the Judeans. Not till loose lewd Grecianism stealthily invaded the hearts of the unwary did that token of nobility lose its value. Corruption among the high lofty ones flowed down fast and demoralized the all humbler classes. And The sacerdotal robe specially reeked with pollution.

Onias ought to have succeeded his pious but ill-fated father to the priesthood. Deprived of his rights by the unnatural quarrels of his two wicked uncles, he sought out the means to gratify ambition. He hastened to Egypt, and persuaded king Ptolemy Philometer to grant him a tract of land whereon he might rear a temple for the multitude of his the Hebrew subjects residing in Heliopolis. The facile King acceded, and Onias built a place for an altar structure on the pattern of that in the capital of Judea. By a perversion of a prophetic Biblical sentence, the crafty priest induced a vast number of followers to believe that Isaiah had predicted what Onias had performed. The Talmud admits the event and makes frequent allusions to the Egyptian sanctuary which it stigmatizes as a vio--lation of the Mosaic prescription, but critics have discover--ed an anachronism in the Rabbinical account. And candor draws the confession that in matters of post-biblical history, when the Sages are at variance with Josephus, the latter may be more confidently relied on. For they did not he dived into the subject with the keen eye of a critic, and they received the information not from re--ligiously preserved traditions as in the Halacha, but from popular accounts, floating reports apt to be shaped by the in the mould of popular imagination.

At all any events, the fact I have stated, supports the idea that the Falashas are an emanation of the Hellenistic element. Only at Heliopolis they could they have learnt to rear an altar outside of the Holy Land. Too Their faithfulness they have shown has been too severely tested that we should impute to them to the Abyssinian Jews the improper motives which prompted incited the schismatic Samaritans to set up a Temple at Shechem. In all likelihood, at the time that our African coreligionists settled in the regions they explored, a wish seized their hearts to transplant into their midst new dominion a service similar to that which distance would hinder their people from attending. Hence they adhere yet to the practice, proportionately to the scanty means within reach. Reduced to almost penury by endless reverses, the number of offerings, and the days of their presentation had inevitably to be limited. But the Sabbath finds the ministering priest and the worshippers in the devoted spot. With looks so countenances demure, at the side of which genuine Puritans would seem to bear a facitious radiant smile, they enter immolate and pray. To speak above a whisper is prohibited; to visit a friend, or to warm one's shivering limbs would be reckoned a mortal heinous sin. More than the Caraites, proverbially unreasonable in their Sabbath keeping of the Sabbath, the Falashas are sincerely severe stern in its observance.

Monsieur D'Abbadi writes to Philoxene Luzzatto. "An old man came to dispose of a copy of the Penta--teuch in the Ethiopian language, that he might stay avert hunger I mentioned to him that Jews everywhere hold the five books of Moses in great respect. 'Do they respect the Sabbath'? "inquired he with an anxious look." 'Of course, said I, they regard it to a degree that they do not prepare their food upon that day'. 'Then--interrupted the old man Falashan,--then all is not lost', and rising he uttered poured forth a thanksgiving and bending low his body before the Pentateuch." Like the Sabbath, the Scriptu--ral holidays receive an honorable observance among our distant brethren of Abyssinia. They sacrifice the paschal lamb, and hold the feast of unleavened bread seven days, according agreeably to the Mosaic direction. But they follow a peculiar system with regard to the time of celebrating Pentecost. While the Rabbinists begin to count fifty days from the second day of Passover the festival, and the Caraites and Samaritans from the Sunday during which the festival is kept, the Falashas wait till the expiration of the Passover and then commence to reckon the seven full weeks. Tabernacles they do not solemnize altogether in a Biblical manner, for the lack of some of the products prescribed ordained to be used on the occasion.

But the festival of blowing the cornet, which the Rabbinists term "New Year," and the great day of atonement, are held as traditionally required, and with intense fervor. The Falashas do not commemorate the victories of the Asmoneans,--a circumstance which may arise from the possibility of their ancestors having left quitted Judea prior to the stirring oc incidents that gave origin to the feast of Dedication. But it is strange and unaccountable it is that they should remember the fast but and not the feast of Esther. In truth, those distant coreligionists differ from us by their setting apart as sacred, days and season of which we have no knowledge, and as well as by their too frequent and severe rigorous penance. I have alluded in the course of this lecture to a caste of ascetics that troublous times created among the mountaineers of Simen. Doubtless to from that sect is due first ema--nated the origin of ceremonies and usages foreign to Judaism, and jarring with the social humanising tendencies of the law of Sinai. One cannot for instance read but with painful feelings, that the Fala--shas believe the touch of a Christian pollution; that to eat out of his hands necessitates an antidote purgative, as if poison had been administered; that to admit him into a house is to render the dwel- premises -ling an accursed object.

But I assign another potent cause to many errors, both religious and social into which wherein our poor benighted brethren fall--It is their complete extreme ignorance of the language in which Prophets and Sages bequeathed as legacy left a matchless bequest; the matchless instruction mind-elevating and soul-restoring refreshing literature of the Hebrews. If Philo the brightest and most sagacious literator literator among Hellenistic Jews, transfigured completely metamorphesed the word of God, miscontrued and misrepresented its spirit by reason of his unacquaintance with the original and its oral interpretation, what can be expected of men simply devoted to handicraft, and naturally contracted in their views through proscription and hardships? The standard authority of the Falashas is a Bible in f Geetz or Ethiopian. It embodies teems with the faults detected embodied in the Septuagint, of which it seems to be a translation, and it adds others of its own creation. To that all invention. To that imperfect reflection of the holy volumes, all have recourse as to an oracle, and, whatever may have been asserted to the contrary, their Tabernacles has that writing alone enshrined therein. and not Our scroll of the Law will in vain be sought for sought for after. Monsieur D'Abbadie assures us that he had in his pos--session a Hebrew copy of the Scriptures, which he showed to a Falasha, but who appeared to have never seen any written traced in such characters. Besides, in But I advance a pertinent observation. In the intercourse that which the French savant had with the principal men of that Jewish population,

he did not hear even an a single utterance evidencing familiarity with a single sentence in the sacred tongue of Israelites; not even that expressive of the Unity of God, or "Shemang Israel." All the ejaculations which escaped from burst out of the lips of Fala--shas were in the sacred tongue of Abyssinians--the Ethiopian. So it is confidently stated, and thus am I induced sor--rowfully to acknowledge the Falashas entire strangers to the language and learning which have held up high and power- fully welted together the powerfully kitted knitted together the rest of the Jewish world. But if after despite my having carefully perused what a trusty worthy traveller reported in 1848, and a conscientious critic lay down in 1854, misgivings should still be entertained, a glance at a book published in 1877 will fully bear me out. It contains strange comprises prayers which a Falashan penned, and a Turkish Jew clothed in Hebrew--and issued form the Paris press. Joseph Hallevi of Adrianople, a man person of great linguistic attainments, received in 1867 a commission from the Universal Israelitish Alliance. The golden dream of Philoxene Luzzatto was to be realized through his that man's instru--mentality. He should visit a people who have steeled their hearts and resisted the subtle reasonings of unscrupulous

conversionists, to treasure within the inmost recesses thereof the precious belief in the One God. He should convey the greetings of an association whose sympathies for all-suffering Israel are lively. And he should devise the speediest course for raising and strengthening a healthy branch of the Judaic tree, that it may not finally trail Judaism now trailing the ground and be trampled on. The Joseph Hallevi repaired to the Abyssinian regions, remained there a year, and on his return to France brought a native youth to be instructed in the arts of modern culture. and value On that occasion he presented a large sized volume in which the result of his researches and investigations was clearly set forth. Unfortunately I am unable to communicate what that production which might have cast a flood of light on a subject so interesting contained. In a preface to the collect--ion of the Falashan prayers, the Hebrew translator so laments: "To my grief most of the my book was lost by the copyst during the vicissitudes and the wars which France has lately recently undergone. Nothing of it remains, except a very small portion of the beginning now rendered into English. And since I would find it difficult to w re-write that book,

by trying to recall many things I have not long thought of, and which I have also forgotten through the lapse of time and a variety of occupations, I said: let me save at least this residue still escaped from the destruction. I will publish a few of the prayers of the Falashas written for me by the Falashan scribe Zerubabel son of Jacob of the city of Cabta in the province of Valkait. I will translate them into Hebrew, so that it may be widely known that the Falashas hold one belief with us, that no difference exists among us save in habits and customs of a later origin."
But those prayers professed to have been composed centuries ages since ago by a certain Abba-Sakvin--doubtless belonging to the caste of ascetics--are all Ethiopean in language, and I apprehend in some instance Ethiopean also in spirit. I have no reference alone to the incessant mention made of angels and their mode of worshipping, nor to the invocations addressed to Michael and Gabriel and Rapael[sic?] and other hierarchical Intelligences as mediators before the throne of Grace, but I allude to utterances like the following:

"Praise be to God. After When the al allotted time of this world shall have been fulfilled is about is to be to expire, an earth--quake will take place, to be followed by hunger, thirst and pestilence. Then The wise and the understanding will die. And then there will not be any more fasting. Neither new moons nor other solemn days. Sabbaths and festivals shall will have passed away been abolished. But afterward that Elijah will arrive and make every thing right. For fifty three consecutive years he will announce the forthcoming event: The Heaven and earth will wear off must pass away, the sun and the moon and the stars shall drop from heaven the sky, and the Lord will come down descend with His angels. He will say to Michael: 'Rise, blow the trumpet on S mount Sion Sinai, and on mount Zion, where the holy city lies. (All angels extolling meanwhile their Chief and Prince Michael, bowing whose to the Holy One from afar--garment is eyes are like doves the eyes of a dove and whose raiment are a flash of lightning, as he leads on). Then in a twinkling of an eye the dead will rise resurrect resuscitate, at the voice of Michael, in a twinkling of an eye, and bow to the Holy One form afar; so likewise the angels that are near will then prostrate themselves in terror before the Lord. in terror The everlasting God will turn up roll heaven and earth as a garment is turned rolled, and all creatures shall suddenly gather and bitterly weep. The righteous will be set apart from the wicked, and the pure from the polluted.

Two bullocks will be brought one from the East and one from the West, one is the first will be called Mercy, and the after second Compassion. They will be slaughtered, and cut to pieces as a propitiatory offering. Then David will play on his harp and Ezra sing psalms, and slay the wicked that they may not behold the Majesty of the Lord. But the righteous will sit at to enjoy the heavenly repast, and for to the enjoyment pleasures of a life eternal."
Who cannot detect in that high-wrought but mystic description ideas ill-according with the simplicity of Mosaism, to which the Falashas claim to be wedded? Who can deny that adverse circumstances have left an uggly ugly impress upon the minds of those distant Monotheists? But grant that their creed is not free from errors--would I could say that the belief of their brethren who boast of more enlight--enment is unsullied--. Admit that superstition and illi--teracy considerably sway the hold minds of the distant exercise influence maong the mountaneers of Simen, are they not entitled the more to our affectionate con--sideration? Must we not commiserate a people, forced down from their heights by untoward occurrences? Cut off for ages from the association of their coreligionists; surrounded exclusively by tribes avowedly inimical to their faith; harassed by mission--aries, alas! often mercenary apostates who resort to every scheme in order to effect their evil purposes, we

may wonder that the unhappy Jews of Abys--sinia held so fast tenaciously even to the cardinal point of our religion. And now that we have sought and found our own; now that we broug have drawn nigh unto them, what does duty demand? What, but that we shall never forsake them until we shall have opened in their midst a laver of purification?, until, I say, until the members of our household shall be fitted for an social intercourse of with the votaries of civilization Therefore have I chosen to speak on this subject. Members of the Young Men's Hebrew Association. The institution organization that commissioned Joseph Hallevi to com--fort the Falashas with the assurance of their brethren's yearning thought, exists and labors with unabated energy. The vigor. Far reaching is the good it has already accomplished, is com-far reaching as the sentiments -prehensive as the sentiments of the leaders are broad and philanthropic. Its well directed endeavours to raise the oppressed politically, the Berlin Congress attests; to uplift them educationally Asia Minor and Morocco testifies; to elevate them morally the blessed devise to set the corner stone of a regeneration in the holy land upon the ruins of pauperism proves.

That institution ought therefore to receive secure the heartiest cooperation of every Israelite sensible of his Divine trust, aye: [Hebrew] the mighty opponents of wrong, a true progressist. But the Israelitish citizens of America who are the freest to act have been the slowest in showing that they are in sympathy with the workers of progress. Separated by an ocean on the East and another on the West they have not bent their ears heard the voice that cry "Rally around the ensign we wave to the four winds." But if the fathers have not bent their ears, their children shall must listen and do. I commend to your fraternal attention the wants of the "Universal Israelitish Alliance." It asks for larger means in order to accomplish greater ends. I feel I ought to inform tell you first that its sobject has been attended is being attained in Abyssinia; or at least that the Falashan youth who twelve years ago was made to take a seat in a school at Paris, is now a ripe scholar and and a useful preceptor, under the auspices of his benefactors, or that he only waits for instruction to learn how to proceed towards the consummation of his desire. That I cannot relate for want of knowledge for the lack of information but I know that events in the old world But events succeed each other in the w with such an uncertain doubtful operation in distant climes, in order to concentrate its energies to on the completion of an undertaking nearer home and more urgent.

spirit of reverence for all which is sacred elevating in Judaism,--

The Palestenian question, or the uprooting of a baneful system by the which the young are reared to mendicancy under the plea of studying Talmud, is now uppermost. And you can facilitate its solution. by Declareing yourselves individually affiliated to the Alliance and as a corporation, whose motto is aiming to breathe a new [inserted from page 29v: spirit of reverence for all which is sacred elevating in Judaism,] Progress be the donors of a yearly token of love Improvement let a yearly gift signify the value you set and admiration to an association the highest upon an institution worthy of great high respect and profound admiration.

Ladies and Gentlemen. When this lecture was nearly written out, of I remembered to have read once an article, having a bearing on the same topic. I searched and found it in the issue of the November issue month of the Occident of the year edited in 1868 then edited by Mr Mayer Sulzberger. It was the identical commencement of the extensive relation which Joseph Hallevi purposed to have brought to light, but the greatest major part of which was unfortunately lost. I read that sketch eagerly, and discovered in a few points some discrepancy with the report of Monsieur D'Abbadie and as embodied in Philoxene Luzzatto's posthumous work. But as they difference is not of great moment, I did not think it essential to

alter what I had already prepared. Still, I deem it necessary to state it make the statement, and to commend Joseph Hallevis very interesting writing to all who have given me this evening their patient attention.

Identifier

p36w96v79

identifier

SMBx13FF7