HISTORY

OF

THE JEWS AND THEIR RELIGION.

BY THE REV. ISAAC LEESER,

PASTOR OF THE HEBREW PORTUGUESE CONGREGATION, PHILADELPHIA.

In

WHEN we endeavour to trace the number of their household, there arose origin of the civilization which rules a simple and unostentatious shepherd. with its benignant sway the mightiest He was called Abraham; and lived in nations of modern times, we discover that fruitful country once known as that it must be ascribed to a great Chaldæa. Around him every one moral influence which had its birth in seemed to have forgotten the existence the ages of antiquity; and we at of ONE Creator; for gross idolatry was length arrive at the conclusion, that the prevailing vice of mankind. Abrathe sources whence the modern rules of ham was chosen by God to preserve the moral government are in the main doctrine of the Divine Unity among drawn, is the ONE Supreme, who the idolatrous nations of the earth. created all, and sustains in his mercy fulfilment of his sublime mission, he all that his power has called into being. left his native land, and wandered to -This source of light is divine revela- the country of the South, where horrition, and it is contained for us, who ble superstition had established itself in live at this day, in the pages of that the shape of human sacrifices to the priceless book which we call the BIBLE. devouring Moloch. It was here he The Jews, and their predecessors the proclaimed the "God who is the living Israelites, have been always regarded God and everlasting King," and exwith suspicion, and not rarely with hibited in his conduct that neighbourly aversion, by those who hold opinions love, that regard for justice and rightdifferent from them; but if an inquirer eousness, which compelled even the were to look with the eye of truth into followers of a degrading idolatry to the source of this suspicion and of this look upon him who had come among aversion, he would be disappointed, for them a stranger, as 66 a prince of God the honour of mankind, to find that in the midst of them." both are without sufficient ground to warrant their being indulged in by any person who can lay the least claim to intelligence. The following brief sketch of the Jewish religion will prove the groundlessness of these prejudices.

In the days when the wealth of nations was not estimated by the gold and silver in their houses, and by the ships bearing their products on the ocean, but by the multitude of their herds and flocks, and of "the ships of the desert," the laborious and patient camels, and the toilsome asses, and the

That Abraham was viewed with prejudice by those who profited by the superstition of the times, is but too probable; that the priests who kept the people in ignorance of the true nature of the Deity should hate a man who cast their idols to the ground, is as certain as that the doers of evil hate those whose conduct is a perpetual rebuke to their iniquity. We do not wonder, therefore, that the new civilization, as we will term it, did not advance very rapidly in the then state of the world; it contradicted every

thing which was assumed as true by they had been given of the truth which so many interested persons, and offered they had inherited from their fathers. to no one individual any prominence How beautifully also did the Lord among those who submitted to its rule. provide for the remembrance of the Nevertheless it is not to be doubted, great acts which he did for Abraham's that the entire system of modern civil-sons when they went forth from Egypt. ization is based upon the early dawning He bound the recollection of these hereof in the person of Abraham. mighty deeds to the observance of many Although the constitutions of the various ceremonials and festive institutions, countries, where an enlightened liberty which by their constant recurrence prevails, do not in all cases recite a should as constantly remind the people belief in the existence of one God and of the causes why they were ordained. a subjection to his laws: they in the Let us instance the Passover. The main acknowledge these ideas in legis-household of every believing Israelite is lation and jurisprudence no less than in purified from all leaven; new utensils, domestic life. Under many appellations different from those in general use, are the God of Abraham is invoked; climes procured; bread of a different nature the farthest asunder send forth praises than that used during the other parts to the Ever-living; and prayers ascend of the year is introduced; and with the to Him from Ethiopia's sons and from first evening of the festivals peculiar the children of the Andes, no less than ceremonies are observed, which from from the fair Circassian race; and the their striking nature will always arrest mighty Name is indeed glorious among the attention. Imagine now an inthe Gentiles. quisitive child following with eager eye When Moses appeared on earth to his parents in their various acts of accomplish what Abraham had com-purifying and arranging the household, menced, it was not a new theory which in their observance of the ceremonies was proclaimed, but a confirmation of relating to the feast, and he will natuthe ancient covenant. Moses' mission rally ask: "What is this service unto was the establishment of a consistent you?" And then, what a noble code of laws in consonance with the theme has the intelligent and pious acknowledged universality of the Al- father for dwelling on the goodness of mighty. The Lord, in the code of the Lord, how He in his might broke Moses, became the Sovereign of a civil the chain of captive forefathers-how state, in which the people were citizens He humbled the idols and their worand equals under a Theocracy. Who- shippers-how He proved his almighty ever was raised to dignity among his power before the eyes of unbelieving people, held a power delegated from on men-how He demonstrated that he high with the concurrence and suffer- alone is the Creator and Ruler of the ance of the governed; and when the universe-and how He ordained a law ruler ceased to shape his course by the of duties and observances, inasmuch as statutes which had been prescribed for "He commanded us to do all these the government of the whole people, he things, that it may be well with us all at once lost the authority which he had the days, and to keep us alive, as we abused, at times by direct divine inter-see this day." In brief, the ceremonies, ference, at times by the simple action as Mendelssohn observes in his " Jerusaof the people. But in connection with lem," are the constant topics of living the civil code based on religion, there instruction, which by exciting the was another object in the legislation of attention of the inquirer, afford a Moses; and this was the uniting of the constant theme and an ever-recurring belief in the unity of the divine Essence occasion to expatiate upon the noble with outward, tangible rites, which truths of revealed religion, to prevent should ever remind the people to whom their being misunderstood by the fixed

ness and obscurity of outward symbols, divine, (certainly we do not claim to and of being lost by want of requisite have invented them ;) still, who posmemorials. sessed them before all other nations?

In consequence of this union of Do we then boast unjustly, when we doctrine and duties, the Israelitish aver that our law is the fountain of people became contradistinguished from modern civilization? that whatever all other portions of mankind. They was good in heathen ideas had to be were men who believed not in the gods; purified by the legislation of Moses? they had no images to represent what Surely we are correct in this assertion; they worshipped, and they refused to and sure we are that the enlightened mingle, by marriage and social enjoy- Christian and philosopher will gladly ment, with the neighbouring nations. admit the truth of a position which Hence there sprang up a repugnance scarcely admits of a doubt. of the heathen towards the Israelites; It is not surprising that heathen they accused them of atheism, because communities should have looked upon they rejected a plurality of gods; they the Israelites with contempt; but were shocked, because they honoured how can Christians continue to enternot images of the divinities of the tain the same unmeaning prejudice? world; and they charged them with Is it because we reject their Christ unsociality, because they could not, and mediator? We do indeed toconsistently with their faith, mingle tally reject the idea of a mediator, with their Gentile neighbours. But either past or to come; we reject the worship of one God is surely no him whom the Christians call their atheism; the absence of images is no Messiah; and we assert that for our impiety; and the ceremonial restrictions part the law is of the same binding upon the Israelites have been long force as it was in the beginning of its since justly regarded as the main props institution. But what has that to do for the upholding of the monotheistic with the prejudice of the world against doctrines of Abraham and Moses; they us? Are our views so monstrous as to preserved entire a people to whom the excite the wrath of the world against truth had been confided by the Creator us? Let us see: we assert that the himself; and nation after nation has Deity is one and alone; that hence no more or less taken up the same belief, mediator, or an emanation from the and received as divine the precepts Creator, is conceivable. But why which the code of Israel contains. It should this be a cause of prejudice is not to be denied, that the Jews against us, since the evident words of themselves have not duly honoured their the Bible teach this doctrine, as we divine law; they have often been understand the Scriptures? For thus rebellious; they have frequently thrown it says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our off the yoke; they have again and God the Lord is ONE. (Deut. vi. 4.) again walked in the ways of the hea-"Know therefore this day, and conthen; still, will any one deny that they sider it in thine heart, that the Lord he were the first, and, for a long time, the is God, in heaven above, and upon the only nation who believed truly in the earth beneath; there is none else." Creator alone? who possessed and have|(Ibid. iv. 39.) "Wherefore, thou art transmitted to the world at large a code great, O Lord God: for there is none of laws which is the best safeguard of like thee, neither is there any God liberty-the only true standard of beside thee, according to all that we justice? Look at the decalogue; it is have heard with our ears." (2 Samuel called the moral constitution of the vii. 22.) "That all the people of the world; and where do you find precepts earth may know that the Lord is God, so just, so simple, so cogent, embraced and that there is none else." (1 Kings in so few words? Admit they are viii. 60.) "For thou art the glory of

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our strength and in thy favour our divine wisdom, to counteract the frighthorn shall be exalted. For the Lord is ful follies of polytheism, which had our defence and the HOLY ONE of overspread the world. We then say, if Israel is our king." (Psalm lxxxix. God be absolutely ONE, if He is not 17, 18.) "Ye are my witnesses, saith conceivable to be divided into parts, if the Lord, and my servant whom I have there is no Saviour beside Him: it chosen that ye may know and believe follows that there can be no personage me, and understand that I am HE; who could by any possibility be called before me there was no God formed, "Son of God," or the mediator between neither shall there be after me. I, God and man. An independent deity even I, am the LORD, and beside me he cannot be, neither can he be an there is no Saviour." (Isaiah xliii. 10, associate; and if he be neither, how 11.) "Look unto me, and be ye can he be more a mediator than any saved, all the ends of the earth; for I other creature? since one man cannot am God, and there is none else." atone for the sins of another; as we (Ibid. xlv. 22.) "In the Lord shall are informed in Exodus xxxii. 33: all the seed of Israel be justified, and" And the Lord said unto Moses, Whoshall glory." (Ibid. 25.) We contend soever hath sinned against me, him from these and many other texts that will I blot out of my book," which the Scriptures teach an absolute, not a evidently teaches that every sinner has relative unity in the Godhead; that the to make atonement for himself, and same Being who existed from the can obtain pardon only through the beginning, and who called forth all undeserved mercy of the Lord. If now that exists, the LORD God of Hosts, is the mediator is not the Creator himthe sole Legislator and Redeemer of all self, he cannot offer an atonement, nay his creatures. We contend that a not even himself; and if he could, he divided unity, or a homogeneous divin- would be equal to the One from whom ity composed of parts, is nowhere all has sprung, and such a being is spoken of in the Old Testament, our impossible, in accordance with the testionly rule of faith, and that nothing, mony of the Bible.

not contained therein, can become by From this it follows, that we Jews any possibility matter of faith and cannot admit the divinity of the Meshope for an Israelite. We know siah of Christians, nor confide in his well enough that some ingenious ac-mission upon unitarian principles, since commodations have been invented by the books containing an account of his learned men to reconcile the above life all claim for him the power of texts with the received opinions of mediatorship, if not an equality with Christianity; but we have always been the Supreme, both of which ideas we taught to receive the Scriptures liter- reject as unscriptural.

ally; we assert that the law is not We in this manner acknowledge and allegorical; that the denunciation of maintain that we do not believe in the punishment against us has been literally mediatorship, nor in the mission of the accomplished; and that, therefore, no Messiah of the Christians, nor in the verse of the Bible can in its primary abrogation of the Mosaic law of works. sense be taken otherwise than in its But we nevertheless contend that this literal and evident meaning, especially rejection of the popular religion is no if this is the most obvious, and leads cause for the entertainment of any illto no conclusion which is elsewhere will against us, nor for the efforts which contradicted by another biblical text. some over-zealous people every now Now nothing is more evident than that and then make for our conversion. the unity of God is the fundamental The belief of Abraham, enlarged by principle of the Bible Revelation; since Moses, and now acknowledged by the it was contrived, to use this word, by Jews, is one of purity and morality,

and one which presents the strongest dence of the truth of revelation; for possible support for civil society, espe- our being in existence with the possescially a government based upon prin- sion of a distinct code of laws founded ciples of equality and liberty. We upon reason and truth, in ages of darkchallenge contradiction to this position. ness and falsehood, can only be acWe therefore say, that our presence in counted for upon the supposition, that any community cannot work any injury the laws and doctrines which are so to those who differ from us in religion, wise and true must have sprung from since we are peace-loving and loyal, the only Source of wisdom, to wit, the wishing to do to others those acts of Author of all. Whilst, therefore, the benevolence which we claim from them Israelites maintain their identity, whilst in our day of need; and that our they continue steadfast to Moses and the speculative opinions cannot work any prophets, there will always be an injury to the systems which exist unanswerable argument in favour of around us, inasmuch as we do not seek revelation to the sceptical unbeliever. to aggrandize ourselves at the expense Where we are known, our characters of others, and abstain from weakening and our course of life will be always the the religious impressions of other sects, best answers to all complaints, and the unless it be in self-defence. We en- best defence against all supposed deavour to instil principles of honesty charges. But in communities even in our people; and hence but few indeed where we are most numerous, there are are ever brought to the bar of justice, many who are necessarily unacquainted or encumber the poor and workhouses with us and our opinions; and still to the disgrace of their name and the they may have an important bearing reproach of their fellows in belief. upon our happiness and welfare; we With regard to the efforts at conversion are therefore anxious that they should they are as senseless as the prejudice not hold an unworthy opinion of us or against the Jews. To the Jew his our creed. Besides this, we venerate existence is a manifestation and evident the name of Israel, we hold dear the display of the divine power. How bond which entwines our destiny with must a Christian regard it? Let us the fame of the great ones of old; and "Who had the Bible first?" therefore, even if there were no personal The Jews."Who were selected by God disadvantage connected with the prejuas the people to bear witness of His dice against ourselves, we would prize being?" The Jews. "To whom did it beyond all, could we have the happithe Lord promise love and protection?" ness of witnessing among the world at The Jews. "To whom did he say large a proper appreciation of the that they should never cease to be a services to religion, to science, to people?' The Jews. It then follows government, to order, to humanity, that Providence must have had, and which mankind owes to the patriarchs, consequently still has, some great and the prophets, the doctors, the martyrs general object in preserving the Jews of the house of Israel. We ask for no from annihilation, and this must be prerogative from the world; our faith acknowledged upon Christian grounds, is one of opinion, and can flourish as since Christians too admit the truth of well under persecution as when in comthe Scriptures. Suppose now all the mand of empires; our God can and Jews were converted, their existence does shield us, whether we are afflicted would of a certainty be at an end; for or in prosperity: but we ask to be left it requires no reasoning to prove that alone undisturbed in the profession of their religion is their only preservative those peculiar opinions which we claim in their scattered state among all to be the emanation of the Supreme nations. We, as a distinct class of Being; we ask of all, to let us pursue men, have always been the best evi- the even tenor of our way, as good

see.