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We welcome our friend and colleague, the Rev.
Samuel M. Isaacs, of New York, as an able ally and correspondent to the
pages of the Occident. We hail it as an auspicious sign of better times,
when the ministers of our religion step forward to aid in the god cause
of Israel's regeneration. Yet the exigencies of the day demand
imperiously for every son of Jacob to do his duty, and we cannot doubt
that when all who can, do aid in the holy work, that it will progress
well to a happy consummation. What is it that we labour for? Is it for
worldly glory? No; we seek not as a nation any distinction above our
fellow-citizens of other creeds. Is it power? No; we would scorn to
establish our religious system, even to render it triumphant, upon the
ruins of public liberty. We seek only the triumphant rule of our faith
over the hearts of our own fellow-believers, those who with us believe
in the eternal Unity; who like us dwell in captivity; who like us
are descendants from the imperishable stock of Abraham. We battle for
the permanence of the law, for the truth of divine things as revealed
through Moses and confirmed by the prophets; for that faith for which
our armed men fought to the last, and for which our martyrs suffered in
almost every land. It is the happiness of mankind for which we labour,
by maintaining, so far as our feeble powers go, the cause of
unimpeachable truth, of undying justice; and to this holy warfare we
Israelites invite our brothers in faith, in hope, and sorrows; for this
we fling our banner to the breeze, and call upon all to hasten forward
to stand forth in defence of what is pure and holy. Long indeed has the
cause languished; diminished has become the band of its defenders;—but
shall it perish? Forbid it Heaven! the thought even would be treason,
for it would be to doubt of the truth of the Most High! But it cannot
be; the dark clouds of unbelief and indifference may for a while
intercept the luminous rays of the sun of righteousness; but they will
burst forth again, and dispel the mists which now lower upon the glory
of our race, and great will be the renown of those who remained firm and
true when others wavered.
With these few words of hearty welcome we give
place to our reverend friend, and trust that his words will, under
divine blessing, sink deeply into the hearts of our readers, and attune
their souls to those high resolves and prompt actions which the times
demand.
To the Editor of the Occident.
An article in No. 9 of the Occident, headed
"Jewish Children under Gentile Teachers," is of too important
a character to be permitted to pass as mere reading matter; it is a
subject in which the immortal state of thousands of our co-religionists
is concerned, and as such should be brought before the Jewish public in
its various ramifications; it is not whether Jewish children shall be
taught by gentiles, but whether Jewish souls shall be lost through the
criminal neglect of parents, and the apathetic slumber of Hebrew
ministers. As a parent and pastor, I for one lay aside my multifarious
duties, and take up my pen, not to write an article of flowing diction,
or elevated language; not to please the fancy, or captivate the
feelings; but a dissertation on the subject propounded. Shall our system
of teaching our offspring continue as it has hitherto been unfortunately
the case, in having them taught by Christians, with an accidental Hebrew
lesson by some Rabbi, or shall we use all the means our God has given us
in this land of freedom, to prepare our children for earth, and qualify
them for heaven?
Led
by profession and inclination to guide youth and inexperience, I direct
my attention to fathers of families;—would you not defend from danger,
bestow every good thing, and implore Heaven's choicest blessing on your
tender offspring? do you not rear and cherish their infant state;
correct and educate their childhood; reprove and admonish the fault of
manhood; would you not exert yourselves to the utmost to shelter and
defend them from danger and harm; leaving no means untried to afford
them ease and relief in anguish and sickness? Listen then to me, ye
parents (and let me hear it myself,) if this is all we, do, if this
bounds our parental love, then are we but monsters of cruelty. What!
would we pluck our children from fire and water, and permit them to be
in danger of a quenchless fire, "which burns to the nethermost
pit?" would we deprive them of all dangerous weapons, and allow
them to wound the soul with sin? would we chastise their
disobedience to us, and tacitly allow or wink at the offence they commit
against Heaven? would we teach the infant tongue to lisp father,
totally regardless of our Father above? Would we do all this? then with
truth might the fierce declaration of Jeremiah again be applied to us:
"Verily,
the sea monster draws out her breast to rear her young, but the daughter
of my people has become cruel even as the wild ostrich."
Would
we escape this imputation? then should all our efforts be directed to
give our children a better religious education. There never was a louder
call than at present, when our apathetic indifference is proverbial, our
lethargic inaction our reproach. We believe there is a God, or else why do we worship in a Synagogue ? we know that
God guards us especially, or else why are we so proud of being Jews?
Shall, then, that religion for which our forefathers fought and bled, be
one of pride, and not of utility? shall the young scion of Judaism be
taught the efficacy of his faith at a Christian school, by a gentile
teacher? shall Judaism borrow from Christianity? Oh, no! you will say; we have given strict injunctions that our
children are not to be to taught any doctrinal points of religion; we
will look to that in time. Alas! You who profess to be fond parents, ye
know not the danger to which you are exposing your children: there, is
danger in every step; you teach them to disregard the prayer with which
the teacher commenced his duty, because it speaks of a Trinity,
thus paving the way for his doubting a Unity. Early lessons are
lasting; they are engrafted on the tender mind of a child; he hears his
nation reproached with cruelty to the Christian godhead, not by the
teacher only, but by the companions of his boyhood, his schoolmates; and
the consequence is, if not dangerous, at least hurtful.
But
for the moment let us be blind to all this; and take your word, that
your children are not taught the religion which is to guide them through
the rugged paths of this existence, and to prepare them for a world of
bliss; are you less culpable? Shall we teach our children how to live
for this world only, and not see the extreme necessity of preparing them
for the world to come? I say our children, including our daughters. It
is to be lamented that the weaker sex is even more neglected in
religious culture than our own, and how impolitic is such proceeding,
considering how much depends on the rectitude, and how extensive the
influence of the Hebrew females! Are we afraid that by a better
religious education they will become superior to the feminine duties of
life, when they already rise superior to us in economy and prudence? is
this the cause why they are entirely educated at Christian schools,
under the religious guidance of some worthy governess as regards
morality; but from whom is she to obtain her faith? is it hereditary? or
think you that the first fifteen years of a female's life is thrown
away, that no habits have been formed, no principles adopted, but such
as you may readily remove? why should we be so infatuated as to suffer
puerile accomplishments to supersede a better acquaintance with the
sacred word of God? (I would ask) is it fit that a favoured child of
heaven and a candidate for immortality, should alone be guided by the
world's law, seeing that earthly things have no more the power to
satisfy the cravings of the heaven-born spirit, than salt water can
allay thirst? Think also how irresistible is the judicious example of a
parent in moulding the docile minds of his children to religion and
morality; the force of his authority instructs even in silence, has due
weight in absence, and is always certain in producing that filial love,
the most powerful stimulus to obedience. If all this be true, what must
be the guilt of that parent, who not alone fails to impress his
offspring with the pure sentiments of religion, but by an utter
dereliction of duty, trusts his children to the hands of strangers, and
satisfies himself with the pithy sentence, "What harm?" Is
there no harm, to use a mild term, in leaving our offspring untaught in
that which is vital to them here and hereafter? is there no harm in
their visiting church and chapel, to hear the pulpit orator speak of the
blindness of the Jews, and his own superior light? To you and the
thorough-paced Israelite there may be no harm, but to your offspring
there is harm, there is danger; you contaminate that very heart you
should embellish and purify!
Oh,
you expect to guide them by the light of nature. How is it possible,
with inordinate affections, our of the proper course, directed to wrong
objects, through a wrong channel, a soul obscured by sin, the
understanding warped, the conscience cauterized, and amidst al these
counteracting effects, to become, as we are destined to be, "a
great nation?" It is impossible. Arouse, then, your energies as
parents, and avert the danger which must accrue to your offspring by a
continuance in a system at once pernicious to them, and hurtful to the
nation of which I am proud to be the humblest member.
S. M. I.
In
my next I propose, with your approbation, to speak of the apathy of our
ministers on this subject. |
