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(Translated from the German, in "Sinai," Vol. VI, p. 2-22,
Baltimore, 1861, by Mrs. Kaufmann Kohler)
We have before this had occasion to admire Dr. Raphall's originality, but never would
we have credited him with such originality as is displayed in the carefully prepared
address delivered on the 4th of January (1861) and published in the New York,
"Herald," in which he positively claims that slavery is sanctioned in the Bible.
The sermons we read that were delivered by Christian clergymen, even in the Southern
states on this Day of Penitence and Prayer, disapproved of and apologized for slavery. In
his address* the venerable chaplain of Congress had the pious courage to say: "What
do they, the Southern States, want? Slavery in their states? Let them have it, not because
we approve of it, but because it is there through the providential sanction of the Divine
Being, and they alone are responsible for it." No matter what we may think of the
above allusion to the free will of man in its relation to moral evils, sanctioned by God,
there is much to be said in favor of the North not being called upon to meddle in matters
of conscience concerning the South. Rev. Dr. Cummin of our city (the chief city of a
slave-state) confines himself to excusing the deplorable inheritance because of its being
an inheritance. In such statements we perceive the ethical sense to be lord and master,
even though the master must in deep sorrow submit to the force of conditions. The question
around which everything revolves is not whether the South ought or may possibly have its
slaves taken away, as every truly moral being would consider such an exercise of force a
crime in view of its horrible consequences. Nor is it a question whether the slave-holder
as such, is or is not a moral monster with whom all association must be avoided. No
thoughtful person would dare to doubt that men of highly honorable character can be
slaveholders, having been raised under the influence of such an institution, and finding
relief in the humane treatment of their slaves. In spite of its absolute force, the moral
sense is doubtless subject to all sorts of modifications in accordance with locality,
customs, youthful impressions and the times. Abraham was a slave-owner and possessed
Hagar, his bondswoman; though even today we deem him a model of morality because we look
upon him from the standpoint of his time. We do not call the Turk who today practises the
immoral custom of polygamy, an immoral being, as this immorality has become a traditional
custom to him; whereas, if not traditional, only a degenerate would be addicted to this
immoral practice. The question simply is: Is Slavery a moral evil or not? And it took Dr.
Raphall, a Jewish preacher, to concoct the deplorable farce in the name of divine
authority, to proclaim the justification, the moral blamelessness of servitude, and to lay
down the law to Christian preachers of opposite convictions. The Jew, a descendant of the
race that offers daily praises to God for deliverance out of the house of bondage in
Egypt, and even today suffers under the yoke of slavery in most places of the old world,
crying out to God, undertook to designate slavery as a perfectly sinless institution,
sanctioned by God I And the impudent persons who will not believe this, are met with
fanatical zeal, with a sort of moral indignation (!!!). It is difficult to picture a
phenomenon more worthy of admiration! In this lecture, he was himself astonished at his
glorious endeavor, and in the mildness of his heart, exclaimed: "I grieve to find
myself saying a good word for slavery, but God and the truth must prevail!" How the
crown of martyrdom would have glittered on his head if the black cap (cowl) had not
already been placed there!
But to come to the point; let us consider his arguments. To allow his beloved slavery
to appear in the full glory of holiness, the revered speaker surrounds it with the
prestige of remotest antiquity to prove that it existed already before the deluge; and it
must be confessed that this evidence as given is presented in a very ingenious manner and
in its skill exceeds the capacity already admired by our ancients to drive a camel through
a needle's eye. In his (own) impulse to create, the pious speaker does not take the least
notice of the story of the creation. Although it tells us: "and God created man in
His image, man and woman He created them, and God blessed them and said to them: be
fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the
fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth
upon the earth" (Genesis 1, 28). Here no mention is made of dominion over the negro,
who perhaps, according to the Raphall theory, was included with the animals that crawl and
creep upon the earth,—though the antediluvian existence of slaves is clearly
recognized in the words of Noah: "cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be
unto his brethren." (Genesis IX 25.)
How happened Noah to know anything about
slavery, our clear-sighted theologian asks? How could such a thought strike him, being
alone on earth with his family, without a single slave? Whence his acquaintance with the
word "slave" (Ebed) and the nature of slavery? Evidently, owing to his
remembrance of conditions prior to the deluge—ergo, negro slavery must have been
dominant before the great catastrophe! We are vividly reminded of Jewish clowns who
delighted wedding guests with all sorts of leaps in the domain of the Deraschah.
Great masters were among the guests, capable of doing astounding things along these lines,
but no one was able to climb such dizzy heights. Dr. Raphall will concede, though, that
God did not accord a creature under the title of slave to Adam and Eve in the very
beginning, as the Bible relates nothing about it, and the Mischnah does not count such a
miracle among the ten things created in the dusk of the sixth day. Some one must therefore
necessarily of his own volition—whether before or after the deluge—have started
to use someone else as his slave.
Whence then, we inquire with Dr. Raphall, does this
gigantic thought emanate? Recollection of it could not have aided him any more than it did
the fratricide Cain who without having a precedent, committed something even more heinous.
The answer to this question we will leave for our intellectual speaker and will merely
state that his argument is no better nor worse than the well-known query: "Why are
geese bare-footed? Because their ancestors were"! The question asked by our ancients;
how the first pair of tongs were made, is more difficult to solve than how the first slave
could be made, and that Noah had been the first winegrower required greater power of
invention than the notion, independent of any reminiscence, that Canaan should become the
Ebed (servant) of his brethren. Moreover, Dr. Raphall made an awkward blunder, at least in
the estimation of the intelligent portion of his auditors, in his attempt to carry slavery
back to the deluge, thereby proving the very contrary of what he aimed at. Does it not
appear as a very doubtful compliment to the God-sanctioned institution of slavery to
attribute it—as related in Holy Scriptures—to a world filled with robbery, and
which owing to its viciousness was swallowed up by the deluge?
But with this demonstration
Dr. Raphall committed an even worse blunder. With it he has involuntarily betrayed that he
does not believe that Noah with the fatal utterance that Canaan was to be the slave of his
brethren, had been inspired by divine revelation, although he points to this utterance
most positively, calling it a prophecy, and attacking the unbelieving rationalists who do
not attribute such gift of prophecy to Noah. For if Noah, as a prophet, had foretold the
slavery of Canaan—would it not be ridiculous, even blasphemous, to inquire: what gave
Noah the idea of slavery, unless he knew of it through his own perception of it? Who is it
that speaks through the prophet? God! And should God not be able to proclaim
something—whether good or evil—that had not existed before? Yes, the speaker
forgets himself to the extent of expressing his regret that Noah in his anger allowed
himself to inflict this curse of slavery. Dr. Raphall deplores a prophecy which originated
in anger! Can the worst rationalist deal worse with an instance of prophecy? And
immediately after such terribly rationalistic effusions, presumptuous rationalism is
reproved in the most comical fashion for not believing in the possibility of prophecy. A
queer prophet who gives way to his formidable predictions in anger, and at whose
utterances one is tempted to ask: whose school did you attend, to have acquired such words
and conceptions!
It is most interesting, though, that the great theologian Raphall
seriously believed that in Noah's utterance about Canaan, the lot of the negroes has been
announced, without having a foreboding even of the confusion of ideas involved in such
acceptance of this theory, and it gives evidence of his great deficiency in the knowledge
of the Bible. Let us herewith merely quote Bunsen in his famous work on the Bible in
connection with this passage: "What appears in this and the following verse as a
preliminary, short account of the generation of Noah is the preface to an old
family—tradition about the lack of reverence and the exorbitant want of it on the
part of the descendants of Ham with reference to Canaan. Those who on the strength of this
extenuate the traffic of slavery betray gross ignorance as well as an unbiblical
conception. For if we consider the inhabitants of Canaan according to their descent,
nationally they would be classed as Semites closely related to the other Semites,
especially to the immigrant Hebrews from Aram. Canaan signifies son of Ham i.e., Egypt:
for he is looked upon as having emigrated from lower Egypt to Palestine. The negroes
however are descended neither from Canaan nor Ham, but in accordance with the language in
the torrid zone are scattered, original Semites or Turanians (East-Japhetites). Ham
(Hebrew Cham) signifies the Egyptians, their country in 'Egyptian language is called
Chami, the black (dark, black, sod) land." In the utterance of Noah, concerning
Canaan, Phillipson sees no announcement of slavery, but reference to material interests of
Canaan and all the nations belonging to Cham.
No matter how this may be—the negroes
must decline the honor of having been destined by Noah, who planted a vine-yard but no
cotton, to be slaves! In the courtyard of his wisdom Dr. Raphall has been decidedly
unfortunate, we perceive. What will he offer us in the palace itself? After having
convinced us in so eminent a way of the pre-deluge existence of slavery in the first part
of his address, how will he answer the question brought up in the second part of it,
whether holding slaves is a sin according to Biblical law? He begins by assuring his
hearers "That the origin of a question like this in the soul of a human being who has
the benefit of religious instruction and is familiar with Biblical history, must be an
inexplicable phenomenon, of which no one would have dreamt fifty years ago." After
these words one ought to expect an opinion against slavery, the more so as Dr. Raphall, if
we are not mistaken, has written a book on the history of the Jews, and should therefore
know that not fifty, but already thousands of years ago, many Jews, the Essenes,
rejected slavery as being contrary to the natural equality of human beings. (compare Phil.
opp. II, 458a). But we are sadly disappointed in this expectation. Dr. Raphall cannot
comprehend that a person who had the privilege of a religious education, could but for a
moment consider slavery, an injustice.
Such words as these have perhaps never before been
heard from a Jewish pulpit. Already here our good humor ceases. But if we must listen
furthermore: Even on that most solemn and most sacred occasion of the revelation on Sinai,
the holding of slaves is not only recognized and sanctioned as an integral part of the
social structure when it is commanded
עבדך
ואמתך that both male and female
servants should rest on the Sabbath (Exod. XX, 10, Deuter. V 14;)—the possession of slaves is even put under the same protection as any
other sort of lawful property, as it says: thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, his
field, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, his ox nor his ass nor anything that is
thy neighbor's (Ibid. XX, 14, V, 18, p. 8).
If a Jewish theologian distorts truth in such a way, and drags slavery into our
innermost sanctuary and seals this with the eternal world—enlightening "ten
flaming Commandments of Sinai," then the pen threatens to drop from our hands, as we
exclaim: !אוי לאזנים
שכך שומעות Above all, let us notice the wretched foolery enacted with
the expression "property" in regard to the manservant and maid-servant of the
Bible—or more correctly with the Bible itself! In order not to lessen this conception
of property, only one half of the Biblical verse, Ex. 20, 14, and Deut. 5, 18, is given
and the preceding sentence: "thou shalt not covet the wife of thy
neighbor" is omitted; for by no means is the wife considered the mere property of the
husband, like the ox and the ass, and thus the man-servant and maid-servant would in spite
of the companionship with asses still have been able to pass as a tolerable person.
The noble, sweet wife "would then have protected the Ebed" against the ox and
ass! Yes, though Dr. Raphall in parenthesis refers to both these places, he merely cites
the succeeding verse from Deut. 5, 18, omitting the preceding verse, Ex. 20,
14, which reads: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, his maid-servant, nor his ox nor his ass, nor
anything which is thy neighbor's." For in this citation, unless the verse is
falsified, the wife must be mentioned and in the immediate proximity of the man-servant
and the maid-servant, whereas the citation from Deuteronomy allows a division of
the verse and even places house and field to the right, ox and ass
to the left of the man-servant and maid-servant, and the latter could not have been found
in more desirable company by those gentlemen, who clasped the speaker's hands as warmly as
Balak would have liked to press those of the less obstinate Balaam.
On the same day and
perhaps at the same hour that the words honoring Judaism were pronounced from Christian
pulpits: "Hebrew slavery perceives even in the slave the human-being, whereas
the Roman institution—merely an object, property!," a Jewish preacher speaks
with a voice that was to resound through the whole land for the glorification of God's
precepts, and in the name of the Ten Commandments about slave-property, that like all
other lawful property is put under the protection of the most holy God! And how does Dr.
Raphall prove that such property in human-beings or even slavery is sanctioned by God's
law? Above all, because God commands us to grant Sabbath rest to the manservant or the
maid-servant! Were it not that we are exclusively concerned about the truth, we would
reply: it deals with the manservant and maid-servant of Hebraic race who, as
conceded, were not in the actual sense of the word considered as persons employed merely
for a certain period to do work. At least the objection in the third part of the address
that the "Hebrew slave like every other Israelite, in avoidance of the death-penalty,
is obliged to observe the Sabbath rest," it is self-understood, may neither be forced
by his master to labor nor of his own volition to work, and that, as specially enjoined,
the rest on the Sabbath necessarily applies only to the heathen slave, must not intimidate
us. For Dr. Raphall, the adherent to tradition, has merely forgotten the trifle here, that
the heathen slave also had to be circumcised, was according to traditional law and his own
responsibility as well, obliged to observe the Sabbath, and in the Ten Words this rest of
the slave is therefore commanded on the part of the master in order to hold him also
responsible for this transgression of the law on the part of his subordinates.*
העבדים
שמלו שחייבין
בכל דיני שבת
ישראל כמו
שאמר במשנה
תורה למען
ינוח עבדך
כמותך ואלו
חייבין בכל
המצות כנשים
כמו שמפורש
בדברי
רבותינו
וראוי היה
שיזהיר להם
בעצמם כי הם
עצמם מצווים
בשבת אבל דבר
הכתוב עמנו
מפני שהעבדים
ברשותינו
לומר ששביתתם
עלינו ואם לא
עלינו ואם לא
נמנעו אנחנו
נענשים עליהם
Could therefore the Ebed and the Amah not have been of the Hebraic race as well? But
no! In fact Scripture here speaks preferably of the heathen slave. But if Mr. Raphall
wants to persuade us that even a trace of evidence in favor of slavery is herein seen, it
is merely a nonsensical attempt to forcibly remove the actual point of view concerning the
question, and to make a farce of it, as of the pre-deluge existence of slavery, to be
maintained as an outlet of heavenly wisdom. Whom would it ever strike to assert that the
Bible does not consider slavery in the judicial sense legal, and is thus referred to in
the legislation? The question exclusively to be decided, is whether Scripture merely tolerates
this institution as an evil not to be disregarded, and therefore infuses in its
legislation a mild spirit gradually to lead to its dissolution, or whether it favors,
approves of and justifies and sanctions it in its moral aspect?
Hah!—we hear Mr. Raphall exclaim—there you have the rationalists! Not our own
ideas but the word of God must rule, and I am too pious to attempt to interpret these
words. Whatever the Bible concedes, is morally good, and I dare not consider it a sin with
my sophistry!—Very well! Then we beg Mr. Raphall to instruct us about the following:
According to Deuter. 21, 15-17, it is directed: A man possessing two wives, and loving the
one and hating the other, both bearing him sons, the first-born belonging to the hated
wife, dares not transfer the right of the first-born in regard to double inheritance to
the son of the beloved one.
Can we conceive of a more decided recognition of polygamy or
at least of bigamy? Does it make any difference whether the hated one, whose son was
granted the rights of the first-born, had been wedded before or after the loved one? Is
the justification of an institution, the immorality of which Dr. Raphall will
scarcely deny, and whose propagation Rabbenu Gershom sought to check through a ban, not
here affirmed in the most positive manner? With all the hollow clamor about the
rationalism of our day, it must be conceded that the Mosaic law, as in the case of
blood-vengeance and the marriage of a war-prisoner* here merely tolerated the institution
in view of once existing deeply-rooted social conditions, or—more
correctly—evils, and recognized it in reference to civil rights even (compare Exod.
21, 10, Levit, 18, 18), but never approved of or considered it pleasing in the
sight of God, as polygamy is in direct contradiction to the Mosaic principleוהיו לבשר אחד
concerning marriage.
Nevertheless does Rev.
Raphall dare in the name of the Decalogue to declare slavery holy in spite of all the
irrefutable evidence, because it is commanded that the slave also shall rest on the
Sabbath, and one is not to covet the neighbor's man-servant and maidservant? The humanity
which demands that a human being working during the whole week and living under the yoke
of servitude should rest and have recreation on the Sabbath is viewed by our speaker as a
moral authorization of servitude, and out of the divine flame of love our pious Rabbi
merely forges chains! And besides this, even to imprint a holy seal upon the stigma of
being a slave by the prohibition of coveting the neighbor's slave! What would Dr.
Raphall's reply be to an assertion of ours that in case some one in Africa marries 20
women in succession, even to this day the prohibition to covet the neighbor's wife, would
find full application in regard to the twentieth as well as to the first one wedded? Yes,
we have the courage to dare make the following assertion, that according to the religious
viewpoint, this would even hold good if a European or American Jew would according to
Jewish rite be wedded to 20 women! Does this perhaps involve the moral approval of this
kind of a twenty-fold marriage?
Oh, you infidels!—our Rabbi exclaims in his pious fervor—were Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob and Job not slaveholders?—This is certainly true, but it is just as true that
among these pious and enlightened men there were some who had more than one wife, and it
is difficult to perceive why they should serve as models to us as slaveholders more so
than in this respect. It appears remarkable and very comical to have this wretched
polygamy frustrate Dr. Raphall's plans. Moreover, Abraham, to judge from his attitude
towards Eleazer, the head of his slaves, whom he thought of making his heir, scarcely
considered him property. Neither did Job, who said: If I did despise the cause of my
man-servant, or of my maid-servant when they contended with me, what then shall I do when
God riseth up? and when He remembereth, what shall I answer Him? Did not He that made me
in the womb make him? And did not One fashion us in the womb? (Job 31, 13-15.)
We have now reached the third part of the address, in which the position of the
Biblical slave is gone into more closely, and here our attention is above all captivated
by the following sentence. After the difference between the Hebrew and the heathen slave
is mentioned, it proceeds: the commandment, "thou shalt not covet the property of thy
neighbor" does not pertain to the Hebrew slave; for he was not the property
"of his employer"! Our readers already known from the foregoing why Dr. Raphall
accentuates his point so strongly. This commandment forms the foundation of his gigantic
structure; in it he sees slavery placed under the protection of the divine law. With the
circumstance, though, that coveting the Hebrew slave, who is to be considered a hireling
only, could be exclusively alluded to, the whole structure, otherwise unassailable, would
collapse. Therefore Dr. Raphall seeks to put aside this objection with great anxiety, and
in a most cautious manner. And how? Through a falsification. The Biblical citation
"thou shalt not covet the property of thy neighbor" is an interpolation and the
more unpardonable as Dr. Raphall possesses the audacity to say that this law cannot refer
to the Hebrew slave, in order to give the impression to a person not versed in Biblical
lore that Holy Scriptures does refer to the heathen slave in this kind of an expression.
Even if the placing together of the slave with the ox and the ass would lead one to
conceive the predominance of the idea of property to be in favor of the former, this
procedure would be reprehensible. This objection is greatly augmented when we consider
that in the same verse coveting of the neighbor's wife is also forbidden. Could
therefore the Hebrew slave not as well have been mentioned as well as the wife? The most
peculiar part is still to follow. After attributing this evident untruth to the Bible, Dr.
Raphall does not refrain from resorting to all sorts of artifices to have the heathen
slave considered property in the name of God. And in conclusion we see him, so as not to
offend the other party too deeply, suddenly swing about and have the South swallow
a few bitter pills in addition to the many compliments already paid. According to the
Bible—the speaker remarks to our great astonishment—"the slave is a person
in whom human dignity must be respected; he has rights, whereas the predominating heathen
conception of slavery in Rome, which, alas, the South also adopted, merely considers the
slave a thing, and a thing has no rights." How beautiful, how admirable would these
words be, were it not that everything, everything we have thus far heard Dr. Raphall say,
is in gross contradiction to it!
What? A person who is more than a thing and in whom the dignity of human nature must be
respected, is the property*, the possession of some one else, like a field, an ox, an ass?
This is glorious dignity of human nature. We cannot even conceive that God, whilst
granting human rights to the slave, would approve of depriving him against his will and
with inflexible force of the most sacred of human rights, that of disposing of himself.
For the loss of such a human right, the mandate to treat a slave humanely, and not even
to knock out a tooth of his, is indeed a poor equivalent. It is poor humanity to rob one
of one's most cherished treasure, and to replace this by forbidding only mildly boxing
one's ears or omitting to do so. We consider it an offense against the law of
God to proclaim this kind of humanity in His Name,—as Dr. Raphall does. Had Dr.
Raphall searched for the spirit of the law of God, he would have given due honor to it;
instead of going back to the deluge merely in order to produce a slave, he would have
preferred to trace his way as far back as the history of creation, where the golden words
shine: God created man in His image. This blessing of God ranks higher than the curse
of Noah. A book which sets up this principle and at the same time says that all human
beings are descended from the same human parents, can never approve of slavery and have it
find favor in the sight of God. A law, which recognizes slavery, in its presentday
meaning, neither according to the conception of the institution of it, nor in its
literal sense, and prescribes that the Hebrew, who after six years will not cease from
serving as a slave, must as a sign of shame, submit to having his ear pierced, considers
no human being to be property. A religion which spares the feeling of the animal mother as
the order regarding the bird's nest proves, certainly objects to having the human mother
forcibly deprived of her child. The ten commandments, the first of which is: "I am
the Lord, thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt,—out of the house of
bondage" can by no means want to place slavery of any human-being under divine
sanction, it being furthermore true, what all our prophets have proclaimed and around
which Israel's fondest hopes center, that all human beings on the wide globe are entitled
to admittance to the service of God,
וישתחוו
לפניך כל
הברואים
ויעשו כולם
אגודה אחת that in time to come all created in the
image of God will form one congregation of God. Dr. Raphall tells his hearers: cotton
is not king nor is human thought the ruler, but !ה'
מלך ומלכותו
בכל משלה
We fully agree with him in this, but regret that here also only half of the quotation
is given and the preceding words are forgotten:
ויאמר כל אשר
נשמה באפו*
The absurdity in Dr. Raphall's remarks about
לא
תסגיר עבד אל
אדוניו which it is true refer to the foreign slave, we will
let pass, because on the whole they do not touch the main point of the present discussion
to any extent. But attention is to be called to the fact that here also the word
"property" is again smuggled in without embarrassment. Dr. Raphall proves the
obligation to extradite native heathen slaves with reference to Deut. 22, 3, and on
looking up the passage—what do we find? The decision that an ox or an ass gone
astray, or a lost garment must be returned to the owner by the finder! This precious
witticism surely did not emanate in Dr. Raphall's brain, and it appears peculiar that he
forgot to mention its source, and thus appropriates the property of others, no matter how
wretched, to himself, whilst quoting the law that even required that objects should be
returned. It seems Dr. Raphall committed this sin of omission, because the source carries
obvious signs of interpolation in it, is provided with proofs of insertion, and according
to another version is altogether missing, and besides, this gives evidence that in olden
times there were very many who wanted the law of non-extradition applied under all
circumstances, even in regard to Jewish slave-owners. For the present, we will not mention
this source and will leave the fulfillment of this sacred duty to the pious Rabbi. We
would be eager to hear whether Dr. Raphall would tolerate the man-servant and the
maid-servant, who according to Deuter. 16, 11 are participants in the rejoicing of the
feast, and appear in the same row with the son, the daughter, the Levite, the stranger,
the fatherless, and the widow, to appear as heathens in such noble company, from
which the ox and the ass are very aristocratically excluded. The Israelite Scheshan, whom
Dr. Raphall no doubt considers a terrible rationalist, even had the hardihood to give his
daughter in marriage to a heathen slave (I Chron. 11, 35), instead of merely
accommodating the property with a seat next to her at table. In conclusion, there is just
one thing to take into account: that even if Dr. Raphall's arguments concerning the
Biblical law about slavery did not vanish in mist and vapor, he certainly thwarted the
purpose of his address by his own presentation of it, and he would prove the worst kind of
an advocate for the South. Dr. Raphall concedes that the Hebrew slave is not an actual
slave and was not allowed to be looked upon as property, but by being the spokesman for
American slavery, he thinks he has clearly proven that the divine Word sanctions slavery
in reference to a heathen, and that the heathen slave is classed as the property of his
master.
We ask though, does not the Christian slave rank equally for his Christian master
with עבד עברי the Israelitish slave for the
Israelitish master*
True, according to tradition, the heathen slave also, who had to submit to
circumcision, is to be considered as an Israelite in regard to certain obligations, but
not an Israelite in the full sense of the word, for the most important laws regarding
incest do not apply to him, according to the rabbinical code
יצא
מכלל עכו"ם
ולא בא לכלל
ישראל i.e., he is half a Heathen, half an Israelite (comp. Sanhedrin
58B and Maim, Issare Biah 14, 16-19). But the Christian negro, even when in servitude, is
no less a Christian than his Christian master*.
Did Saul perchance have the police send back, extradite, Onesimus? Evidently he
returned the convert with his full consent to his master, with the following admonition:
"I admonish thee, for the sake of my son, Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds,
who formerly was useless to thee, but is now of use to thee and to me, I have sent him to
thee .... not as a servant now, but as more than a servant, a dear brother, especially to
me, how much the more though to thee, both of the flesh and in the Lord." After all
this, Dr. Raphall's demonstrations from the New Testament appear about as sound as those
from the Mosaic Books. But in this sphere we will not compete with the orthodox Rabbi. It
may be that Dr. Raphall possesses greater erudition in the Christian Scripture than he
does in the Jewish יציבה בארעה וניורא בשמי שמיא!
And thus Dr. Raphall's structure of falsehood crumbles into a thousand pieces,
according to his own presentation verifying the saying:
הרה
עמל וילד שקר!
Dr. Raphall has sown the wind and we do not wish him to reap the whirlwind; in regard
to him the word of the Preacher 1, 6:
הולך
אל דרום סובב
אל צפון סובב
סבב הולך הרוח
"Going South and turning North, always blows the wind." On the other hand,
the Rabbinical motto (Baba, Bathra 25 B.) הרוצה
שיחכים ידרים "Turn to the South, if you want to
grow 'wise' proved a disgrace in his case, and this appears the worse for him, as we are
furthermore taught here: לעולם
ידרים שמתוך
שמתחכם מתעשר
'such wisdom leads to wealth!'"
And now, a word to you, dear co-religionists, and particularly to you, members of my
Congregation! At the moment that I am writing this down, January 9th, the thunder-cloud
still hangs heavily over our head, and hides the future of our beloved land in dense mist.
Perhaps some of you in our midst may consider it unjustifiable that at such a time I have
thus unequivocally expressed my conviction in the foregoing regarding the law of Moses
about slavery. The Jew has special cause to be conservative, and he is doubly and triply
so in a country which grants him all the spiritual and material privileges he can wish
for, he wants peace at every price and trembles for the preservation of the Union like a
true son for the life of a dangerously sick mother. From the depth of my soul, I share
your patriotic sentiments, and cherish no more fervent wish than that God may soon grant
us the deeply yearned-for peace. Still—no matter which political party we may belong
to—the sanctity of our Law must never be drawn into political controversy, nor
disgraced in the interest of this or that political opinion, as it is in this instance,
and with such publicity besides, and in the holy place! The spotless morality of the
Mosaic principles is our pride and our fame, and our weapon since thousands of years. This
weapon we cannot forfeit without pressing a mighty sword into the hands of our foes. This
pride and renown, the only one which we possess, we will not and dare not allow ourselves
to be robbed of. This would be unscrupulous, prove the greatest triumph of our adversaries
and our own destruction, and would be paying too dearly for the fleeting, wavering
favor of the moment. Would it not then be justly said, as in fact it has already been
done, in consequence of the incident referred to: Such are the Jews! Where they are
oppressed, they boast of the humanity of their religion; but where they are free, their
Rabbis declare slavery to have been sanctioned by God, even mentioning the holy act of the
Revelation on Sinai in defense of it. Whereas Christian clergymen even in the Southern
States, and in presence of the nation's Representatives in part, though admonishing to
toleration—openly disapprove of it and in part apologize for it, owing to
existing conditions!
I am no politician and do not meddle in politics. But to proclaim slavery in the name
of Judaism to be a God-sanctioned institution—the Jewish-religious press must raise
objections to this, if it does not want itself and Judaism branded forever. Had a
Christian clergyman in Europe delivered the Raphall address—the Jewish-orthodox as
well as Jewish-reform press would have been set going to call the wrath of heaven and
earth upon such falsehoods, to denounce such disgrace, and
חלול השם
And are we in America to ignore this mischief done by
a Jewish preacher? Only such Jews, who prize the dollar more highly than their God
and their religion, can demand or even approve of this!
EINHORN
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