Education & Liberalism - 10/16/1908

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{Delivered Oct 16^th '08}

Education & Liberalism. Among the Jews

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We have This Festival marks the close of a cycle of Holidays during which the Jew religious sense & historic sentiment of the Jew has been greatly aroused awakened to an unusual degree. It has had the effect of animating the Jewish people regarding the duties they owe to themselves as a representative religious body & the people in whose midst their lot has been cast. The fertilizing & vitalizing effect of important religions occasions such as the News Years Day of Atonement cannot be exaggerated. For Every Year brings us added recruits from among the more intellectuals a fact that is extremely gratifying

Our people simply need & need back to be informed respecting their own achievements in to the contributions of the world's progress & it follows without the slightest doubt that they will no longer remain lukewarm in their attitude towards everything Jewish but will on the contrary feel a strong sense of shame unclear because of their conduct & at the same time an equally strong desire to wipe away the reproach cast upon at them by entering the arena of Jewish activity with a heartiness & a will that is always refreshing & inspiring to the Rabbis who are also ever on the watch for new material

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to strengthen the & reinforce their own efforts in great cause of Israel. There is an exceedingly true and appropriate saying of the Rabbis old Jewish tea teachers that [cursive Hebrew] that no ignoramus cannot be in the tr [ ] highest sense of the term a religious m man, so that even in the early days of our race they real the leaders & thinkers realized what we moderns are just beginning to recognize, that Education is indispensable to the proper understanding and appreciation of Religion, although it must be confessed that the Jews were am the very first to substantiate & verify the birth of this [ ] in their own lives. The Jew has always been known to drink in knowledge quickly & to place the seal of Consecration the very stamp of God upon it. [cursive Hebrew] And then shall teach they children diligently is one of the primary educational injunctions of the Bible -- a law that was sanctified by Moses & later on made one of the grandest & noblest Jewish ideals, for the Jewish father e stood ever ready to make the most heroic sacrifices in order to ensure a splendid education for his sons. To him one of the highest aims of life w has always been the not as it is maliciously and erroneously assumed

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the acqusition of wealth money but rather rather the acquistion of wisdom which is the rarest wealth in the world & not only this, wisdom without the cultivation use of the heart was not true wisdom to the God intoxicated Jew -- so he spiritualized learning & injected the moral element into it. Amongst the very conservative jews the closing chapters of the Torah on this F. are chanted with great rejoicing. The Bridegroom of the Law as the layman is called who is selected to preside at the [ ] at the right hand of the minister during the reading of this portion, held a reception in the synagogue after the mariag service, so great an honor was it deemed to be chosen as חֲתַן תּוֹרָה the Bridegroom the Law & this is a m[] custom that obtains in our own day while In the middle ages however boys with flags in hand headed the procession of the bearers of the scrolls and most of the large & wealthy Synagogues possessed as many as twelve & more. After making 7 circuits round the Almema or reading desk which was then placed in the Centre of the building, they ascended the platform & listened and with reverential awe & pious glow upon their faces to the last of words of Deuteronomy -- & moreover with hearts filled with Gratitude to God

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for having once more been permitted to witness this beautiful cermony. They now followed, these pious Jews, the reading of this great universal text book of morals week after week every Sabbath morn when they hied themselves eagerly & joyously to their houses of worship -- for the Sabbath be it rememebered -- was to the Jew second to none in importance. Doubtless they were strengthened & encouraged to renew the struggle of the coming week by the uplift they received at those services & the timely reminder that is given to us, to keep the week day holy, could not have applied to them. The task of the Jew has ever been the revelation to the a world of unbelievers of God & goodness & the task is not yet finished. When it is, the Jew will be satisfied to have the curtain rung down upon him on the world's great stage & to assimilate entirely with the rest of mankind. The last word has not yet been spoken by the Jew. When it is it wil there will be great rejoicing for the time wi[...] have come according to the great. [ ] when the knowledge of God shall fill the world as the waters cover the sea, when Justice shall flow as mighty waters & righteousness as a perennial stream. (Amos 5.²⁴)

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[cursive Hebrew]

Why did the Jew regard the Torah as The words of the LordLaw shall not depart from thy mouth is the oft repeated injunction of scrip both Biblical & postbiblical teachers, [ ] for the & there was the soundest reason that logic ever exacted from the mind of man. It was not based upon mere sentiment though we might ha many of us have the highest regard for sentiment it when it is exalted -- hit upon the solid indisputable truths of the world that come home to every man sooner or later. [cursive Hebrew] It is to be a tree of life to those who take hold of it & the harbinger of happiness. It is in other words the summum bonum of life in other words, according to Prof. William James the eminent psycholigist "it the Bible is the true record of the inner experiences of great-souled men mostly with the crisis of their faith." It is a picture the result of the eternal conflict -- the battle that is being fiercely waged in every human head soul between Provinence & Fate the good & the evil the pure & the impure the true & the false, in every mais Except those that the Bible emphazies relates the experiences of those who have lived above the ordinary routine & turmoil of the average man. Why should it not be d[ ]ed this [cursive Hebrew] Inheritance of the Congregation of Jacob as the Lord is called be deemed a priceless treasure when it is remembered