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by Isaac Leeser
It
admits of no doubt, that in a well organized community the different
members composing the same have certain duties to perform towards each
other. Individual enterprise, when blessed from above, does not rarely
effect a great deal in benefiting the public; but no permanent good will
ever result from any undertaking, if the people do not take sufficient
interest in it to foster it with their countenance and support. If the
body public is sick, and is not sufficiently alive to its disease to
apply the necessary remedies, it is in vain that skilful men urge it to
guard against the baleful result of the unhealthy state under which it
labours; it imagines that all is well, and heeds not the voice of
admonition. But once convince it that there are plague-spots visible
upon its surface, make it conscious that there is a burdensome sore
which requires to be cut out: and you have already half cured the evil
which but lately was not thought to exist. For you will soon find that
every one who is desirous of life will ask you, "What he is to do
in order that he may live?" and what means he is to resort to to
roll from himself, as one, the fatal disease which afflicts him no less
than others. And when this result has been brought about, the progress
to a healthy state is very rapid; and reformations have in this manner
been produced which in their commencement were ridiculed by the common
crowd, and thought beyond the scope of probability by the intelligent
even.
Do
our readers know that we Israelites, living in England, America, and the
West India Islands, are labouring under a fatal disease which has
destroyed many a precious soul, and threatens still to carry its havoc
much farther than it has done? We allude to the great ignorance which
prevails among us with respect to the tenets of our religion, and the
language in which the Bible was communicated to our forefathers. There
is, we acknowledge, an ardent devotion among most of us to the name of
Israel; but unfortunately there is little else to designate the
character which this feeling should establish. And how can it be
otherwise? Where are our teachers? Where our schools? our colleges? They
have indeed been spoken of, and now and then projected; but they have
unfortunately never been well established, and where they do exist, they
have not been resorted to by all the classes of the community. We will
not deny that of late years some little has been done to promulgate a
knowledge of our religion; a few—but few indeed,—elementary books
have been written to be used as manuals for beginners in the sacred
study; yet all this only proves how deeply seated the disease has been and is to this day, and how much remains to
be achieved which has not yet been attempted. The indifference,
therefore, which we witness, is in many cases the legitimate result of
an ignorance of the duties and doctrines which Jews ought to perform and
believe in; and the apostasy of a few by intermarriages with the
gentiles, or the adoption of the belief of the stranger, must be charged
to the same cause, that when they sinned they knew not what they should
do that they might live, and were perhaps unconscious of the enormity of
their transgressions. It must be observed, that he who knows not what
his religion demands of him, will hardly make any sacrifices in its
favour, nor will he hesitate seeking his own pleasure and advantage,
though he may be warned by a fellow-Israelite of the sinfulness of his
contemplated course. But make him feel that religion is the life of his
soul, and its observance the path to eternal salvation, and he will not
readily fall into the snares of death, nor let his feet glide down the
path of perdition.
Do
our readers feel the force of these remarks? have they seen with sincere
regret the backsliding of some friend or beloved relative? Have they
found themselves powerless to recall to the path of religion one for
whose happiness they would have sacrificed their life to purchase his
peace? Have they themselves experienced the trials of an inward struggle
against temptation, and felt the weakness of a reliance based upon
worldly wisdom to resist the evil? If so, let them hasten to do
something for the promotion of the diffusion of the knowledge which is
to banish this deplorable ignorance from themselves and those they love;
let them, in the full confidence that the Lord will aid them, endeavour
to contribute their share to promote a general religious education among
us; for if ignorance is the disease which afflicts us, if want of a
knowledge on religious matters is a reproach to us from the gentiles, it
is evidently acting only in conformity with common sense to do all we
can to scatter this ignorance, and to prove to the world at large that
we too are fully alive to the necessity of a religious education.
Individuals
can do but very little if they act singly; but if they combine their
efforts, call each other in council, draw in the experience of the
well-informed and righteous, who love their brothers, and seek not their
own gain, the work will go bravely on, and in a little while a general
acquaintance with the details of our beautiful system of faith will
render its precepts loved and obeyed, instead of the general
indifference with which they are now regarded. The disease of Israel,
our readers may believe us, is not incurable, though it shows now many
symptoms of inveteracy; it requires only the skill of a physician
"who is yet in Gilead," and a readiness on the part of our
associates in faith and hope to act unitedly and firmly, to cause
healing to come to our wounds, and to bind up the limbs which now throb
under the pain of the disease which afflicts them.
In
this effort every Israelite has a right to look to the other for
assistance; and those who have the means would be acting but as good
neighbours to open their hand wide and scatter some of the bounty which
a kind Father has so abundantly conferred on them. But it must be
understood, that the education should not be supplied to the poor only,
but to all. The rich require a religious training equally with those in
a humble sphere of life, wealth confers no immunity from sorrows, and is
no safeguard against temptation. They, therefore, who have received
riches at the hand of God, should also hasten to drink from the waters
of salvation which He has poured out for all in the words of his law;
and only thus can they become properly
qualified to enjoy their superfluous wealth, when they know and feel
that it is of God's stores they have received it, and that its best
enjoyment is to spend it measurably in his service. Indeed, it would be
useless to think of establishing schools where the rich and the poor
should not both be taught alike; there is between them a bond of
humanity; both are liable to sorrow, to disease and death; let both,
therefore, have the same bond of joy, the same stay in happiness, the
same support in the hour of sorrow, of sickness and of death. This bond
is our heaven-born religion, the law of Sinai, the treasure of Israel.
Let all, then, be enabled to come and eat of this bread of wisdom; and
let us not rest in our efforts, till every child of Jacob be made
familiar with its duties, and be rendered firm in faith, to resist,
through the aid of a pious instruction, the temptations which on all
sides are constantly ready as lures to draw off the sons of Israel from
the path which leads to heaven. Other religions, we confess, have their
temptations to encounter; but ours in particular is beset with the
greatest dangers, as its professors are the few and the afflicted,
whilst the followers of the others are the many, and in the enjoyment of
all the worldly happiness which their situation allows them. It is,
therefore, the more incumbent on all descendants of Abraham to place
themselves around the heavenly treasure they have received as its
faithful defenders; and to show others not so firm as themselves how
they in their turn can become equally firm in the defence of the sacred
cause, when the old combatants for the law and its purity have left this
earthly life for the abode of the everlasting reward for their
righteousness.
We
will not prescribe any particular method to effect this good result, but
merely to call the attention of others who are acquainted with the wants
and the wishes of the people to speak understandingly on the subject; in
the full persuasion, that the best interests of Israel are safest in the
hands of the Jewish community, much more so, indeed, than with those who
are self-constituted leaders. But, above all things, union is requisite:
a union of heart, a union of action. No one can expect that his views
shall alone be adopted; no one can hope that his advice will alone be
taken. Therefore, let us have the united efforts of all those who wish
well to the house of Jacob; and with the full assurance that divine
blessing will not be withheld, we can then look forward to a happier
state of religion among us than we now witness. |
