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by Isaac Leeser
Our
readers will remember our strictures, in the November
number of the Occident of last year, on the resolutions, as
reported, of the small portion of German Rabbis assembled last June at
Brunswick. Imperfect as was the report which had then reached us (and we
regret that our information has not yet been more perfected), we thought
that we could not let even that little pass without the severest censure
which we were able to bestow. We do not claim any extensive learning;
our talmudical knowledge is very little indeed—much less than we ought
to possess; but it required but little learning to distinguish the
mischievous tendency of the proceedings of our learned contemporaries,
who, in legislating for Judaism, substituted their own notions for what
we have always considered the true meaning and intent of our laws.
It
is not yet in our power to give our readers a complete analysis of what
was said and done; the severe cold of last winter has prevented hitherto
the receipt of direct intelligence from Germany; but we trust before
long to have the details furnished from other sources than the two
conversion organs in London, the editors of which have given us merely
the abstracts which we at first communicated, and their additions have
not thrown a great deal of light upon the subject. This much by way of
explanation.
In the mean time, the Occident was the first and for some
time the only public voice raised against the destruction which was
attempted. We do not say that we have rendered any service, farther than
as an individual Israelite to protest in our own person against being
bound by the opinions of the wisdom assembled at Brunswick, great as
this no doubt is. But we have not lived so much in ignorance of mankind
as not to know that wise men have often their follies, and that teachers
of religion frequently destroy what they were appointed to preserve. We
were however surprised that nothing, that we could learn, was said or
done in England or Germany to counteract the pernicious movements of the
assembled reformers. But a few days back, we were gladdened to see that
at length the faithful servants of the Lord and the true shepherds of
Israel moved in the matter, and that they had issued a declaration,
subscribed by seventyseven good men and true. Up to this time,
however, we have only a part of this document, which has reached us in
No. 100 of The Voice of Jacob. We hope in our next to give the
remainder; and when we have obtained a connected account of the
proceedings in question, we very probably shall give an abstract of our
own, with such comments as the case may demand. It is to be deplored
that the schemes attempted of late should produce a disunion so evident
as here disclosed; but to our view, much as we love peace, we would
sooner meet the danger at once, than to have the disease festering in
our vitals, and it never to show the seat of the corruption. Let our
enemies not rejoice: we have survived severer trials; and the Guardian
of Israel will snatch us from this peril, as He has ever protected us.
Faithful
believers in Israel!
“But
if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned: if the sword come and take any person
from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I
require at the watchman’s hand. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee
a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore then shalt hear the word
at my mouth, and warn them from me.”—Ezekiel 33:6, 7.
A
tumultuous voice has reached our ears, that in the month of Tamuz last
year, twenty-three gentlemen assembled at Brunswick, some of them
Rabbins, the others deficient even of that title; but all of them wise
in their own eyes, and learned in their own estimation: and they came
unanimously to the resolution of attacking the citadel of our holy
religion, of removing its bulwarks, and of destroying its
fortifications, so as to expose it to easy demolition.
Every
thinking and rational man must have felt surprised how a knot of
individuals, so small in number, and so inefficient in attainments, (it
being evident from their arguments and reasonings that they had never
entered deeply into Talmudical study,) could have the presumption of
inquiring into, and judging of, things so remote from the sphere of
their comprehension, of assuming a title of pre-eminence, constituting
themselves the oracle of the religious tenets of all the Jews, and of
ostentatiously styling themselves “The Rabbinical, Assembly of
Germany.” Although, from the knowledge we have of those who are at the
head of that assembly, (with whose perverted religious thoughts and
actions we are acquainted,) we could not entertain a hope that they
would offer any thing wholesome and refreshing to those who faithfully
and piously follow our holy religion, we nevertheless only wept in
secret over their dreams and follies; we kept our peace, and refrained
from making any public demonstration, until we should be able to see
what steps they would actually take, and how far their presumption would
lead them.
But,
however impressed we were with the tendency of their erroneous
principles, we were not prepared to see such pernicious doctrines as
those promulgated in a printed protocol which they issued;—doctrines,
which had only for their object the leading of the house of Israel
astray, and the removal of it from our holy law; doctrines calculated to
excite contempt against the law of the Almighty, to destroy our holy
inheritance, to break down its fences, to tear asunder its cords, and to
overstep the landmarks which our pious ancestors (amongst whom were
the great Synod, אנשי
כ״הג) had established;—they arrogantly
speak with pride and contempt against the holy statutes and the sages,
they lift up their hand against the law of God, they enter the holy
garden to destroy it and to uproot its plants, they shake off all
precepts to lighten the burden from their shoulders.—In short, all the
resolutions and doctrines which they have agreed upon in their assembly,
(except those which to the strict observance of political and civic
statutes, established by the state, and the injunction not to violate an
oath taken by the Creator of heaven and earth, precepts which, in fact,
were taught and practised by the Jews from times immemorial,) are false
and founded on error, only intended to abolish the holy law, to shake
its foundation, to enlarge the breach of the house of Israel, to add new
wounds to the old ones as yet unhealed, to widen the chasm which already
separates brother from brother, friend from friend, parents from
children; to carry the torch of hatred and revenge into the tents of
those who are faithful and upright.
All
this is done under the mask of piety and religion; they assume the cloak
of justice and righteousness, to facilitate their deception; they
pretend to strengthen the law, to fortify its bases; but, in reality,
they only aim at the annihilation and destruction of the law of God, to
trouble the source whence the refreshing waters flow;—like the
Caraites, who deny the Oral Law. No! it shall not be: they shall not be
successful, they shall not accomplish their wishes, they shall not carry
confusion into the house of Israel, and allow every one to shape the
religion to his own imagination, desire, and judgment. No! Israel is not
yet forsaken; there are still faithful leaders, who are at all hazards
ready to protect and guard the holy charge; who will valiantly defend
the breach when destruction threatens Israel. Scarcely was the war-sound
of the enemy’s trumpet heard in the camp of Israel; scarcely were the necessary preparations made for attacking our religious
sanctuary and its fortifications, for shaking its pillars, and casting
down its foundations, when faithful guardians mounted the fortified
towers to see who led on the battle, and towards what point the attack
was directed, so as to to enabled. to strengthen the wall, and repair
the breach which the enemy should
make; and now; after having seen the sword approaching,
they girded themselves with strength, ready for war; they sounded the
trumpet to wake those that slumber deeply, to rouse those that sleep,
and to warn them to be on their guard, and not allow themselves to be
caught in the snares the enemy has prepared for them.
Therefore
hear ye, brethren, house of Israel, that we, the undersigned, having
weighed the resolutions of the above-mentioned assembly, in the balance
of wisdom, with weights of justice; having searchingly and maturely
considered every point, have come to the resolution of boldly and
publicly declaring to those who fear the word of God, and in whose heart
the commandments of the holy law are firmly fixed, that all the
resolutions which that assembly have published, and those which they
have already prepared for promulgation at this congress, which is fixed
for next summer, are all contrary to the statutes of our holy law,
conceived in a perverted spirit, and based on a rotten foundation. Do
not, therefore, brethren, hearken to, nor have any regard for, the voice
of those who diverge from the path of truth; stand apart, and keep your
children afar from them and their devices, by which they wish to ensnare
you; and embrace all means in your power, consistent with reason and
justice, to defeat their counsels and frustrate their designs. And you,
our friends and colleagues, who are firm in righteousness and religion,
who agree with us in our views and think as we do, although you had not
the opportunity of uniting with us when we determined on the issuing of
this manifesto, we are confident that, like ourselves, whenever you may
be called upon to assist in the pious work of entering the field of
battle against the enemies of our holy religion, you will fearlessly
kindle the flame of zeal to defeat the adversaries of our holy law.
(To
be Continued.) |
