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A
Discourse Delivered at the Spanish and Portuguese
Jews’ Synagogue Bevis Marks, London, on the
Penitential Sabbath, 6th Tishri, 5610.
By
the Rev. Dr. David Meldola, Chief Rabbi.
מחצתי ואני ארפא ואין מידי
מציל׃
When we meet together in the presence of the
Almighty, and assemble in the courts of his house to
ask assistance in the hour <<7>>of need, or
deliverance from danger, it is very proper for us
narrowly to examine the state of our minds, to
inquire whether our veneration of God is a ruling
principle within us, inducing those dispositions of
adoration and praise which are due from the creature
to the Creator, and that obedience to His laws which
He has enjoined, and in the keeping of which there
is great reward. We ought to look with a
scrutinizing and jealous eye into our own bosoms,
and strive to detect and put away from us those
opinions of our own worth and merit, which we are
too apt to indulge, and which hide from us our real
weakness and wants, and disqualify us from being
true and humble worshippers and suppliants of the
divine mercy. We should inquire of ourselves how far
we have discharged the obligations of brotherly
kindness towards our fellow-creatures, as it
respects the temper of our minds, and our entire
conduct towards them.
These and similar inquiries are well adapted to
produce that seriousness which prepares the mind for
engaging in the solemnities of public worship, and
fits it to listen with becoming reverence to the
word of God. Let us then so listen to it as it is
written. “See now, that I, I am he, and no god is
with me; I slay and I make alive, I wound and I
heal, and no one can deliver from my hand.”—Deut.
xxxii. 39.
These words are in the song which Moses spoke in the
ears of all the congregation of Israel, shortly
before his departure. It is a song of God’s mercy
and judgment; and was composed and delivered that it
might be committed to memory, and form the subject
of frequent thought and serious consideration. It
recounts and commemorates the wonderful works of
God, and specially his love and favour towards his
chosen people. It predicts many particulars of their
future history, and especially of their departure
from their allegiance by idolatry, and forgetfulness
of the Rock of their salvation; the consequent
hiding of his face from them, and the mischief by
the sword and the scattering of their tribes which
should befall them; and it promises deliverance at
last, their restoration to the divine favour, and
the re-establishment in all their ancient
privileges, and it concludes by summoning all people
to an observation of, and participation in, the
joyous event.
<<8>>
“Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people, for he will
avenge the blood of his servants, and will render
vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful
unto his land and to his people.”— Deut. xxxii. 43.
In
the words which I have quoted, the Almighty is
represented as himself speaking—that great Being who
alone can say—“I lift up my hand to heaven, and say,
I live for ever.” Let each one of us then bow
himself before the Divine Majesty, and reverently
say, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.”
When we are particularly called, as we are by this
passage of holy Scripture and at this time, to a
consideration of the sovereignty of God, becomes us
to humble ourselves before Him, and to acknowledge
his justice and our demerits; for verily we are all
guilty before Him, and are all as an unclean thing
in his sight.
We
are hereby in the first place called to an
acknowledgment of the hand of the Almighty in our
afflictions. “I wound”— and what do we gather for
our hope and encouragement from this? Yea there is
hope and encouragement in it. Did our afflictions
arise from mankind, we might fear, that as far as
their evil intentions could be carried out, they
would never relent. But there is mercy with God in
the midst of judgment; and there is a merciful
design in all his announcements of threatened wrath.
Even the ordinary cases of adversity and bodily
affliction to which mankind are liable, are so many
instructive lessons which divine Providence intends
for the amendment of our conduct, and the more
careful observance of our duties. Would that men did
but learn and know how to benefit by them! for truly
they are judgments sent as punishments on the world
that the inhabitants of the earth may therefrom
learn righteousness.
But of all the grievous afflictions which the
Almighty in his infinite wisdom may deem it needful
to visit us with for our common warning, none is
scarcely more alarming than a pestilence, which,
like an avenging scourge, sweeps off numbers for
successive days and weeks. Few calamities are more
influential in arresting our serious thought, all of
us being alike exposed to the same jeopardy; and we
envy not the feelings of those who under such a
<<9>>visitation of a people are so hardy as to wish
to blind themselves to the common danger, and to
stifle in their hearts those emotions which are
purposed by the Almighty in sending the visitation.
It is sent as a punishment for our ingratitude, our
unbelief, and our multiplied offences. And shall we
disregard the rod, and Him that hath appointed it?
It is sent as a warning to survivors; and shall we
obdurately close our eyes and stop our ears that we
may not observe it? O! what may not be dreaded for
such wilful infidelity! Whatever others do, let us
not be guilty of such wickedness—we whose entire
history has been marked by the divine governance of
us in the way of judgments and mercies, the record
of many of which has been made by holy prophets, for
our continual warning and encouragement. Let us, as
we ought, be excited to serious considerations as to
our frail condition as erring mortals, and be moved
to sentiments of penitence and humble resignation to
the decrees of that just God whom we have offended
and provoked to wrath by our transgressions.
Let us be confident in this—that this visitation is
needful, or it would not be sent; that God doth not
willingly afflict us, but intends hereby our profit;
and let us humble ourselves before Him as towards a
just, wise, and most merciful Father,
whose hand is stretched out still to pity, to
pardon, and to save us.
When we are visited after this way, we ought to
consider ourselves in a peculiar manner called to
scrutinize our hearts, and with careful attention
read our inward selves, with the view to form a
correct and impartial self-judgment of what we
really are. By this alone can we arrive at a true
conviction of our inward guilt, and of our
unworthiness to claim, on account of our own
righteousness, any participation in the divine
favour and protection. And by this self-scrutiny and
self-conviction alone, can that disposition to
repentance, resignation, and amendment, which are
intended to be wrought in us by the divine
chastisements, be effectually promoted in us. In
support of which, and illustrative of the vitality
of inward examination of ourselves, there is no more
ample and forcible elucidation than in the sound
reason and unerring doctrine of the Talmudic
(Treatise Berachoth, fol. 5), which is thus set
forth:—“If a man sees that chas<<10>>tisements come
upon him, he should search and seek for their cause
in his actions and deeds.”
Divine warnings and calls to repentance always
precede divine inflictions. But how has the mercy of
God been usually met? The more He has menaced men,
the more have they offended, shielding themselves in
the perfidious sentiment—“If I do not see, I do not
believe.” And what, my brethren, has been the result
of this incredulity? The truth and faithfulness of
God have obliged Him at length to bring down those
punishments which He only menaced. Such have been
the fruits of unbelief —“They have belied the Lord,
and said, It is not he, neither shall evil come upon
us,—neither shall we see sword or famine.” (Jeremiah
v.12.)
And hath not God in our time made it evident that
his menaces are not fallacious as some would think,
but infallible, which they would not wish? Had we
not warning of coming evils? Did we not hear it
said, “If thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of
the Lord thy God, the Lord shall make the pestilence
cleave unto thee until he have consumed thee from
off the land?” And what were the blight on food and
partial famine in a neighbouring country,—what the
disturbances and wars which have raged in
Europe—what the diseases which have been prevalent,
but the fulfilment of the threatened punishment for
infidelity? Let others, we repeat, think and speak
as they will, but let us bear the testimony with
which we have been entrusted, as to the divine
sovereignty.
Observe in the second place—it is added, “I heal.”
And how and when may we hope for this to be done?
Healing hath two parts, the one curative, the other
preventive. The former draws off the infirmity
suffered; the latter prevents future affliction. The
first is more difficult to obtain,—the curative may
be doubtful in respect to human agency. To cure is
the province of the physician—prevention, of all. So
in like manner, as it respects the soul that is
diseased, there are required both remedy and
prevention. The remedy of God’s appointment is
repentance,—the preventive, the avoidance of the
contagion of sin. And as in diseases affecting the
body, there are usually premonitory sins indicating
an approaching crisis of peril, so also there are
such <<11>>in respect to spiritual maladies. By the
mercy of God these are always preceded by warnings.
The case of the leper is a very apt illustration
hereof. It is said by our divines that the disease
of leprosy first appeared in the walls, afterwards
in the garments, and finally in the body. These
three steps in the progress of the disease indicated
the necessity of using precautions upon its first
appearance. But our fathers of old were often so
negligent of the warnings afforded, that omitting to
notice the first step, it was said concerning their
false confidence—“Her filthiness is in her skirts;
she remembered not her last end, therefore she came
down wonderfully—she had no comforter.”—(Lament. i.
9.) In other words, they shut their eyes to the
first indication of threatened infection, the second
was experienced on the garments, and the last would
by and by ensue,—the leper of the body being the
departing of Israel from the holy temple and from
God. This was the end, and such happens to all who
carelessly and heedlessly allow themselves to be
overcome by evil, adding sin to sin, until sudden
destruction come upon them, and this without remedy.
It
cannot be said to have happened without due warning,
but through neglect and false confidence: human
policy was preferred to divine, and step by step
advance was made toward ruin. Many such instances
are on record in holy history—“Thou shalt speak all
these words unto them, but they will not hearken
unto thee: thou shalt also call unto them, but they
will not answer thee.” (Jer. vii. 27.)
No
application will be made to a physician, until we
are sensible of our sickness, nor will God heal us
either of temporal or spiritual plagues until we are
led to acknowledge his righteous judgments. “They
will not hearken unto thee,” implies their obdurate
unbelief, that faith is perished, and is cut off
from their mouth; that they have no fear of God
before their eyes. In this condition we may exclaim
with the prophet—“Cut off thy crown, O Jerusalem,
and cast it away,” (Ibid. 29) for this faith
in God and in his holy word is the chief and
crowning possession of Israel; and so it was thought
by Jehoshophat, who, when surrounded by the three
powerful nations Ammon, Moab, and Edom, addressed
his people in the hope of divine succour, saying
<<12>>unto them,—“Believe in the Lord your God, so
shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so
shall ye prosper.”
Whilst their want of this faith it was said—“Cut off
thy crown, O Jerusalem, for the Lord hat rejected
thee and forsaken the generation of his wrath. Take
up a lamentation in high places.” We profess to
believe of the Almighty, that “he is the Lord our
God;” yet, “when his judgments are in all the
earth,” not to see and believe, is indeed the
highest excess of incredulity. It is written in
Jeremiah, “Thou hast consumed them, but they have
refused to receive correction.” Instead of taking
example by the faith of the patriarchs, the
unbeliever follows that of Pharaoh, who,
notwithstanding the clear manifestations of the
divine indignation in the numerous plagues by which
he was visited, still hardened his heart;—and so do
sinners in all ages. So great is their repugnance to
acknowledge the only true God as the author of their
calamities, that they will attribute them to chance,
to misfortune, to accident, to anything but to Him
who hat wrought this. How, then, can they hope ever
to be healed?
And this brings us to a third observation, viz.,
that there is no salvation but in God himself,
“neither is there any that can deliver out of my
hand.” Let sinners think as they will, and say what
they will, there is infinite truth in this
declaration of the Almighty—“The fool may say in his
heart there is no God,” no Elohim,
אלקים,—or, as the
word signifies, no almighty Observer, Judge, and
Punisher; but the thoughtful and the prudent will
tremble at the very mention of such profanity and
desperate wickedness. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. He can punish now,
and He will punish hereafter, and who can deliver
out of his hands? is a question none that lived or
ever shall live, can answer.
Would we avert his anger, we must turn away from our
sins. This is the only way by which we can hope to
obtain deliverance from the effects of the divine
judgment. Penitence is the only antidote. It is said
in the Talmud, Jom. 86—“So great is the virtue of
penitence, that it brings cure to the world.” Let it
not be supposed that this consists in a mere frame
and exercise of the mind, unac<<13>>companied by
suitable conduct. It rather implies an entire change
in the bent of the will and the course of our
thoughts and actions; nor will pardon and
deliverance be granted until our penitence amounts
to this; as it is written, “let the wicked forsake
his way, and the man of iniquity his thoughts; let
him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy
upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon.” Nor let us suppose that penitence is to be
limited to any sin committed by outward action, but
be assured that it must extend to evil thoughts, the
iniquity of which must be abandoned.
Thus taught Maimonides, the great luminary of our
literature, in his treatise on Penitence, “Do not
suppose that penitence is to be performed only on
such transgressions as are perpetrated in action, as
incontinence, theft, &c., but ye are bound to turn
from evil thoughts. The Lord searcheth all hearts
and understandeth the imaginations of the thoughts;”
and why? because thoughts may not only be sinful,
but they are the very fountain-spring of all evil
actions. The heart must be circumcised before we can
be a holy people, that is, by casting away pride and
all that is sinful. The evil of our thoughts must be
repented of before we can be said to be truly
penitent. When these are repented of; when our
thoughts of God and of his providence are
reverential; and when, as it is expressed, Zech.
vii. 10, “we no longer imagine evil against our
brother in our heart then may we look for
reformation in our outward conduct; and then only,
may we expect a merciful answer to our prayers for
deliverance from the effects of the divine
indignation. Then will there remain no fear of
pardon of our offence, nor of our obtaining an
immediate alleviation; and however proper it may be
to humble ourselves outwardly,
yet it is not sackcloth and fasting which in
themselves appease the wrath of the Almighty, but
the turning from the evil of our thoughts and of our
ways.
The Searcher of hearts regards not these, but as in
the case of King Hezekiah, “I have heard thy prayer,
I have seen thy tears,
דמעתך, I will heal
thee” (2 Kings xx. 5),—that is, the humbling of the
heart; and as one tearful contrite prayer sufficed
for his recovery, even so will it be with us.
<<14>>
It is not the outward manifestations of repentance,
but the sincere expressions thereof which God will
discern, and the resolves of our hearts to amend,
which will attract his attention, will cause “him
that wounds to heal,”
מחצתי ואני ארפא Humble yourselves then,
brethren, under the mighty hand of God, and unite
with me in the language of prayer—
O
God of Israel, behold thy unworthy supplicants!
Humbly we approach thy holy throne, and beseech Thee
regard not the extreme of our demerits. We
acknowledge the justice of thy ways, and that our
sufferings are less than our deserts; for verily we
are all guilty before Thee. Thou only, O God, art
holy, just, and righteous. Merciful Father, behold
thy children, they look to Thee! they supplicate thy
grace, thy pardon, and thy healing. Listen, we
implore Thee, to our prayer, and show us mercy;
enable us to put away the evil of our thoughts and
of our doings; and do Thou, O holy Father, remove
thy chastisements from us; command thy angel to put
up the sword of thy anger into his sheath, and cause
thy face again to shine upon thy people האר פניך ונושעה.
Remember, O Lord, the covenant which Thou didst make
with our fathers, and the promises which Thou hast
given to their children. In wrath remember mercy,
and forsake us not utterly, ungrateful and sinful as
hath been our conduct towards Thee! “Thou, who art
the keeper of Israel,” behold the returning sinner,
and teach us to look to Thee alone for preservation,
and to thy holy word for comfort. Let not thy truth
be corrupted by wicked minds; let such who oppose it
be as chaff before the wind, and let the angel of
the Lord chase them. But let them that fear Thee be
shown thy salvation. Amen. |
