out of the same house with bread in his mouth, one may conclude that
this is one and the self-same mouse, and it is not necessary to search.
But if the former that entered was black, and the latter that went out
white, a search is necessary. If a mouse went in with bread in his
mouth, and a weasel come out with bread in her mouth, it is necessary to
search. If a mouse and a weasel both go out, and bread in the weasel’s
mouth, there is no search required, for this is the identical bread that
had been before in the mouse’s mouth.” (Hilchoth Chometz, c. ii.) We do
not mean to say that this sort of wisdom was never found in Christians.
We are well aware that the scholastic divines display much of the same
perverse ingenuity, and the achievements of mice have figured in Gentile
theology too, but we have renounced that whole system as contrary to the
Word of God. You still adhere to the theology of the Scribes, and are
now about to keep a solemn festival according to their ordinances. And
yet you see how poor their view of true piety, and how perverse the
application of their time and their ingenuity. The most unlearned
Israelite who has read the law of Moses in its simple dignity, will know
very well that when God commanded the Israelites to remove leaven from
their houses, he did not mean that they should go and rummage out the
mouse-holes, or spend their time looking after mice and weasels. If,
instead of the oral law, you had read this in the New Testament, would
you not have taken it as complete evidence against the claims of that
book? and if St. Paul or St. Peter had given such commands to the
Gentile converts, would you not have said, these men were either fools
or knaves? But in the New Testament nothing like it is to be found. The
precepts there given, and the instruction there conveyed, is all of a
noble and dignified character, whilst the trifling and the folly still
exist in the oral law handed down by those who rejected Jesus of
Nazareth. If the testimony of men at all depends upon the wisdom of him
who gives it, the testimony of the Scribes is not worth much. But the
trifling is exceeded by the presumption. These men have said, as we have
quoted above from your prayer-book, “that when the time for the search
draws near, it is unlawful to do any work, or to eat, or to study;” so
that the poor man is to give up his lawful business, the hungry man to
abstain from his lawful food, and all to neglect even the reading of
God’s holy Word, in order to go and search into holes and corners, for
that which they know is not to be found, or to find that which was laid
in their way intentionally and for that very purpose. We ask you can
this be from God, or, are the men who make the reading of God’s Word
give way to this ceremony, to be depended upon as teachers of the true
religion?
But the oral law not only adds human inventions, but lays down
principles which involve considerable difficulties, the solution of
which requires no small share of ingenuity. For instance—
חמץ שעבר עליו הפסח אסיר בהנאה לעולם ׃
“It is for ever unlawful to have any profit from leaven, that has
existed during the season of the Passover.” This is understood of leaven
belonging to Israelites, and according to this all Israelites are
obliged to sell, or give away, or lose all the leaven which they may
have at the commencement of Passover, and of course, if they have much,
the loss would be very serious. But the Rabbies who have made the
difficulty, have also found various ways of evading it. One is by
pledging the leaven with a certain form of words—
ישראל שהרהין חמצו אצל הגוי אם אםר לו אם לא הבאתי לך מעות מכאן ועד יום
פלוני קנה חמץ זה מעכשיו הרי זה ברשות הגוי ואותו החמץ מותר לאחר הפסח ׃
“An Israelite who has pawned his leaven to a Gentile, if he says to him,
in case I do not bring thee the money from this time to a certain day,
you have purchased this leaven from the present time; then this leaven
is considered as in the possession of the Gentile, and it is lawful
after the Passover.” (Hilchoth Chometz, c. iv.) If, therefore, an
Israelite, who has a large quantity of leaven, wishes to keep the
commandment of removing all leaven from his possession, and at the time
to be able to resume the possession after the Passover; and to have the
worldly gain too, as well the spiritual profit, he has nothing to do but
to pawn it with this form of words. Now we ask every Jew of common
sense, whether this be not a mere trick, an attempt to cheat one’s own
conscience, an unworthy artifice to serve God, and yet to avoid the loss
which would result from a simple observance of the command? It is plain
that a man who acts thus has no real intention of renouncing the
possession of the leaven. And this is not a single case; the oral law is
rich in such cases, as it allows a mock pawning, so it allows a mock
sale or gift.
אעפ׳׳י שהישראל מכירו לעכו׳׳ם ויודע בו שלא יגע בו כלל , אלא ישמרנו לו עד
לאחר הפסח ויחזור ויתננו לו מותר ׃
“Although the Israelite knows that the Gentile will not touch the leaven
at all, but keep it for him until after the Passover, and will then
return it to him, it is lawful.” Of course a learned Israelite,
acquainted with this provision of the oral law, will select a Gentile of
this description to whom to sell or give his leaven, fully aware that
after Passover it will be his again, and he may enjoy the profit. But
suppose a Jew had lent money to a Gentile, and received the interest
every week in bread, what is he to do? It is evident that at Passover he
cannot make use of the bread on account of the leaven, neither after the
Passover can he receive that bread nor money for it, as according to the
oral law he must have no profit from leaven which has witnessed the
Paschal week. This is a difficult case, but it is not of our making. The
oral law which has proposed the difficulty, has also provided a
solution.
ישראל שמקבל מגוי ככרות ברבית בכל שבוע כתב אבי העזרי שיאמר לו קודם הפסח
שיתן לו בשבוע של פסח קמח או מעות ואז אפילו אם באו אחר כך לחשבון מותר
לקבל ממנו מה שלא קבל בתוך הפסח ׃
“An Israelite who receives bread from a Gentile every week as interest,
is, according to Avi Haezri, to tell him before the Passover, that in
the Passover week he must give him flour or money, and then when they
come to make up their accounts, he may receive from him that which he
did not receive during the Passover.” (Arbah. Turim. Orach Chaiim, sec.
450.) According to this simple device, merely by saying a few words, he
can make that lawful, which before would have been a great sin. It is
not needful even to intend to have money or flour, he may intend to have
the leaven after the Passover; the words have the transforming efficacy.
The same book gives Rashi’s solution of another similar difficulty.
שאלה לרש׳׳י , ישראל וגוי שיש להם תנור בשותפות מהו לומר לגוי טול אתה של
פסח ואני אטול אחר כך והשיב שיתנה קודם הפסח ויטול דמים מאות שבוע ׃
“A question proposed to Rashi—Suppose that an Israelite and a Gentile
had an oven in partnership, shall he say to the Gentile, Take thou the
profit during the Passover, and I will take afterwards? He replied, Let
him make a bargain before the Passover, and take the price of that
week.” (Ibid.) A man of common sense will see that here, as in the other
cases, the Jew does really receive the profit from leaven in existence
during the Passover, and that whether he receive the money or the profit
before or afterwards, there is no real difference in the circumstances
of the transaction; one principle pervades all these decisions, and that
is, evasion of what is considered a Divine command. The man who gives
away the leaven with the full intention of resuming possession after the
Passover, and the man who sells only for the week, in full persuasion
that his right and interest remain, does in reality neither give nor
sell. There may be an outward appearance of the thing, but God does not
judge according to the appearance; he looks on the intention of the
heart. He is not satisfied with the form of giving or selling, but
looking at the inmost thoughts of the soul, He sees that the man does
not wish nor intend to do either one or the other, and marks him as a
deliberate, and wilful transgressor. But we appeal to every
unsophisticated mind in Israel, would such a system of evasion be
considered as honourable, even according to the maxims of this world? Or
can that conduct, which men would call dishonourable, be considered as
an acceptable service before God? But, above all, can it be the law
given to Moses by the God of truth? This it is which gives this
discussion all its importance. If the Talmud and all its decisions were
retained merely as a curious remnant of antiquity, as the effusions of a
perverse ingenuity, or the waking dreams of scholastics, we might both
pass it by with a smile. But it is proposed as the law of God. It is the
religion of the great majority of the Jewish people, and no doubt at
this very time, many an Israelite in Poland and elsewhere, if not in
England, is preparing a mock sale, or drawing up a contract for the
imaginary disposal of the leaven in his possession, in obedience to the
above directions. They do it in simplicity, with a mistaken devotion.
They are misled; but does not a fearful load of responsibility rest upon
those Israelites who know better, and yet leave their brethren in this
grievous error, yea, and confirm them in it by joining in all the
ceremonies which that system prescribes? Because of this system, the
nation is still exiled from the land of Israel. Because of this system,
the anger of the Lord is not turned away, but His arm is stretched out
still. If then you love your people—if you desire their national
exaltation, and their eternal welfare, lift up your voice and protest
against the oral law. Condemn the Scribes and Pharisees as the inventors
of the system, and the first authors of that moral captivity in which
the people has been held for so many centuries. Now when you remember
the mercies of the Lord in delivering you from the house of bondage,
make an effort to deliver your brethren from the more degrading chains
of error and superstition. At the same time we would ask you to consider
the case of so many of your nation, who, when these chains were
rivetting, gloriously maintained their freedom, and have left us a
collection of writings, entirely free from every trace of this mistaken
ingenuity. We mean the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. They, too, were
Jews, children of Abraham, and of the stock of Israel. How is it then,
that they who were condemned by the Talmudists as heretics, and
propagators of a false religion, have left us the principles of a
healthy, manly, and rational piety, whilst their judges and accusers
have fallen headlong into error and even absurdity? If Jesus and his
disciples were deceivers or fanatics, how is it that they were preserved
from inculcating such false doctrines: and if the Scribes and Pharisees
were right in condemning and persecuting them—were actually serving God
in resisting false pretensions, how is it that they were given over to
such delusions, and to such a system of trifling? That they were not
infallible, the above extracts from the oral law prove beyond all
controversy. They have altogether erred in the first element of
acceptable worship, simplicity of intention and uprightness of heart.
They have confounded the form with the reality of obedience to God’s
commands. And in all these things where they have erred, Jesus and his
disciples have asserted and maintained the truth. Account for this fact.
The Talmud tells you to light a taper and search for leaven in a
mousehole, and to get rid of all in your possession by a fictitious
contract. The New Testament says, “Purge out the old leaven, that ye may
be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is
sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven,
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Cor. v. 7, 8.)
No. XII.
THE PASSOVER A TYPE OF FUTURE DELIVERANCE.
This year, the Jewish and the Christian times for celebrating the Feast
of the Passover nearly coincide; and the coincidence ought to remind us
both of that happy period, when all the children of man, so long
divided, shall again be united into one great, holy, and happy family;
all rejoicing in the mercy and favour of their Heavenly Father, and all
loving each other in sincerity and truth. To that period we look
forward, and even now we use our humble endeavours to accelerate its
approach. Yea, one of the reasons, why we endeavour to lead Israel to a
rejection of the oral law, is because we firmly believe that it is one
of the main hindrances in the way of their happiness and that of the
nations of the world. We have no wish to rob you of any one blessing
promised in the Word of God. We would not deprive you of one hope
founded upon God’s promises. On the contrary, we rejoice to think that
notwithstanding all the vain traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees, it
has pleased God to keep alive in your hearts the memory of his past
mercy, and the hope of his future goodness. To the consideration of
these two points, the law of Moses and your appointed prayers lead you
at this season, and through the mercy of God, and the love of some of
your brethren, we of the Gentiles have been brought to rejoice in
similar considerations. Let us then endeavour to anticipate the future,
and rejoice together even now, omitting on this solemn occasion a
special discussion of the oral law. If God’s mercy were all past, and
only a matter of history, we might and ought to feel grateful for the
benefits bestowed upon our fathers: our joy would, however, suffer a
considerable diminution. But this is not the case. In the midst of your
grateful acknowledgment for the wonders in Egypt, you can mingle a
prayer for the future, and say,
לשנה הבאה בירושלים ׃
“Next year in Jerusalem.”
רחם נא י׳׳י אלהינו על ישראל עמך ועל ירישלים עירך ועל מזבחך ועל היכלך ,
ובנה ירושלים עיר הקודש במהרה בימינו והעלנו לתוכה ושמחנו בה ׃
“O Lord our God, have mercy, we beseech thee, upon Israel thy people,
and upon Jerusalem thy city, and upon thine altar, and upon thy temple;
and build Jerusalem, the holy city, speedily, in our days, and bring us
up into the midst of it, and make us glad therein.” (Haggadah Shel
Pesach.) And to this prayer we can say, “Amen” with all our hearts. The
future restoration and blessedness of Israel is one of our fondest
expectations; and whilst we contemplate the circumstances and the glory
of the first Exodus, the Word of the living God leads us to look forward
to that which is to come.
כימי צאתך מארץ מצרים אראנו נפלאות ׃
“According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I
show unto him marvellous things,” is the promise by the mouth of Micah
the prophet (c. vii. 10).
והחרים יהוה את לשון ים מצרים והניף ידו על הנהר בעים רוחו והכהו לשבעה
נחלים והדריך בנעלים , והיתה מסלה לשאר עמו אשר ישאר מאשור כאשר היתה
לישראל ביום עלותו מארץ מצרים ׃
“And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and
with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall
smite it in the seven streams, and shall make men go over dry shod. And
there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be
left from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up
out of the land of Egypt,” is the declaration of the Prophet Isaiah (xi.
15, 16). Seeing that neither of these declarations was fulfilled at the
return from Babylon, nor at any period since, we firmly believe that
they shall be fulfilled in the time to come, and that therefore the
compilers of the Haggadah were fully warranted in intermingling, with
their Passover thanksgivings, a prayer for the fulfilment of the
promised mercies; and we do not scruple to say that in this respect, the
Jewish Rabbies have been right, whilst many Christian interpreters have
been wrong; though they might have known and given a true explanation of
all similar passages, if they had only followed the plain words of their
master, Jesus of Nazareth, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law
or the prophets.” (Matt. v. 17.) We make this remark to show that we do
not condemn the Rabbies inconsiderately; but that we are willing to do
them all justice, where their opinions agree with the Word of God. Their
expectation of the future restoration of Israel is well founded, and
their faith in the promises relating to it worthy of all imitation. Oh,
that the whole nation had more of it—that their hearts were more
directed to the land of their forefathers—that their thoughts were more
full of the Divine promises. Then they would cry more earnestly to God,
and He would “hear their groaning, and remember his covenant with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” as he did at the deliverance from Egypt. The
careless and the ungodly deceive themselves with the idea, that when
God’s time comes, the deliverance will take place without any endeavour
of theirs. Let them read the law of Moses, and they will find that
though God had promised to bring their fathers out of Egypt, the
deliverance itself was preceded by a time of prayer and crying unto God.
To Abraham he had said,
ידוע תדע כי גר יהיה זרעך בארץ לא להם ועבדום וענו אותם ארבע מאות שנה ...
ודור רביעי ישובו הנה וגו׳ ׃
“Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is
not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four
hundred years.... But in the fourth generation they shall come hither
again,” &c. (Gen. xv. 13, 16.) But this promise was no warrant for their
remaining careless, and at ease; it was on the contrary a basis for
earnest prayer and supplication, and a plea for mercy. And, therefore,
when the time drew near, we read,
יואנחו בני ישראל מן העבודה ויזעקו ותעל שועתם אל האלהים מן העבודה ׃
“And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they
cried, and their cry came up unto God, by reason of the bondage.” And
God himself gives this as one reason why he came to deliver them.
ועתה הנה צעקת בני ישראל באה אלי ׃
“Now, therefore, behold the cry of the children of Israel is come unto
me.” (Exod. iii. 9.) Here, then, all Israelites, who desire the
fulfilment of God’s promises should learn that state of mind, which is a
pre-requisite to the interposition of their great deliverer. Israel can
no more be delivered now than of old, unless they earnestly desire
deliverance. To what purpose should He deliver and restore those, who
care nothing about the land of their forefathers, nor about the glory of
the nation—who say, We are very comfortable and happy here, and all we
desire is to be like the other nations (נהיה כגוים)—what good would it
do to us to return to the land of Israel? God’s promises are not to such
grovelling and unbelieving spirits. Along with his promise of mercy, he
gives a command for continual supplication,
המזכירים את יהוה אל דמי לכם , ואל תהנו דמי לו עד יכונן ועד ישים את
ירושלים תהלה בארץ ׃
“Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no
rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the
earth.” (Isaiah lxii. 6, 7.) And in Ezekiel, after the declaration,
“This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the
waste, and desolate and ruined cities, are become fenced, and are
inhabited,” &c., he adds—
כה אמר אדני יהוה עוד זאת אדרש לבית ישראל לעשות להם ׃
“Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the
house of Israel, to do it for them.” (Ezek. xxxvi. 37.) Upon which Rashi
remarks—
אתפתה להם בתפלתם בדושם אותי על זאת ׃
“I will be made favourable to them through their prayer, when they seek
me with regard to this.” Hence prayer is commanded; in Hosea we are
told, that without prayer deliverance is impossible.
אלך אשובה אל מקומי עד אשר יאשמו ובקשו פני ׃
“I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence,
and seek my face.” (Hosea v. 15.) Let the children of Israel return
then, and seek the Lord their God, and David their King, then they shall
fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days. (Hosea iii. 5.)
In the consideration of the deliverance from Egypt there is, however,
one circumstance which should teach the Israelites to rejoice with
trembling, and that is, that the majority of those, who went forth from
Egypt, never entered the land of Israel, but died in the wilderness on
account of their sin and unbelief. That which has happened, may happen
again. Israel might be delivered again from the lands of their
dispersion, and be led forth with a mighty hand, and outstretched arm,
and with great signs and wonders, and yet after all die in their sins.
Indeed, it is not merely a legitimate deduction from the past, but an
express prophecy of the future. “As I live, saith the Lord God, surely,
with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured
out, will I rule over you; and I will bring you out from the people, and
will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, and with
a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I
plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the
wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the
Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring
you into the bond of the covenant.”
וברותי מכם המורדים והפושעים בי מארץ מגוריהם אוציא אותם ואל אדמת ישראל לא
יבוא ׃
“And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that
transgress against me; I will bring them forth from the country where
they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel.” (Ezek.
xx. 33-38.) Here then we see, whether we consider the past or the
future, that a mere temporal deliverance is not sufficient—that God’s
greatest temporal blessings, and even his mighty signs and wonders, may
lead us in the more dreadful and fatal captivity of sin. Surely if a
miraculous deliverance could deliver the soul, those that saw the
miracles in Egypt, and experienced the Lord’s mercy in their
preservation from the destroying angel, and in the passage through the
Red Sea, ought to have been perfect in holiness. Yet we find, after all
that they saw and heard, that they were a disobedient and faithless
generation, and that they perished in the wilderness. The history, then,
of this great deliverance reminds us in the most forcible manner of the
bondage of sin, and the necessity of a more noble and gracious
emancipation. Israel was in bondage in Egypt, and the Lord had
compassion and delivered them. All mankind, Jews and Gentiles, are born
slaves to sin, and dreadful is the misery which they have suffered, and
hopeless the prospect for the future, unless God have provided a way of
escape. Now is it likely that that God who had compassion on the
Israelites in their temporal affliction, should look, unmoved and
unpitying, upon the temporal and spiritual wretchedness of the whole
human race? Is it conceivable that those gracious ears, which heard the
cries of Israel in Egypt, should be deaf to the groans and lamentations
of all the sons of men? Is it consistent with the Bible-character of God
to provide a remedy for temporal sorrow, and yet furnish no means of
deliverance from everlasting woe? Is it like our Heavenly Father to
stretch out his hand to save a few of his children from Egypt, and yet
leave the great majority to perish in ignorance and sin? Blessed be God,
who, in his great mercy, sent Jews to our forefathers to tell us of the
blood of another and greater passover, which can preserve Gentiles as
well as Jews from the wrath to come.
משיח פסחנו נזבח בעדנו ׃
“Messiah, our passover, is sacrificed for us;” and therefore we too keep
the feast, and join in the hymn of thanksgiving, “Blessed be the Lord
God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed his people.” You
remember the paschal lamb of Egypt. We can say—
הנה שה אלהים הנושא את חטאות כל העולם ׃
“Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.” You
remember the sprinkling of blood that delivered your fathers from
temporal death. We rejoice because,
דם ישּוע המשיח יטהרנו מכל חטא ׃
“The blood of Jesus, the Messiah, cleanseth us from all sin.” You
remember how, four days before the Passover, it was necessary to select
a lamb without spot and without blemish. We think of the true Paschal
Lamb, the Messiah, how, four days before the great sacrifice, he came up
to Jerusalem, and was examined before the tribunals, and declared to be
without sin. Pilate’s testimony was, “Ye have brought this man unto me,
as one that perverteth the people; and, behold, I, having examined him
before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things
whereof ye accuse him: no, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and lo,
nothing worthy of death is done unto him.” (Luke xxiii. 14, 15.) You
remember how the destroying angel passed over the houses where the blood
was sprinkled: we look forward to that more dreadful time, when he shall
come as the Psalmist describes:—
יבא אלהינו ואל יהרש אש לפניו תאכל וסביביו נשערה מאוד , יקרא אל השמים מעל
ואל הארץ לדין עמו . אספו לי חסידי כורתי בריתי עלי זבח ׃
“Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour
before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall
call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his
people. Gather my saints together unto me: those _that have made a
covenant with me by sacrifice_.” (Ps. l. 3-5.) And we hope to be found
amongst that number, and that the blood of the true Sacrifice will then
deliver us. It is evident that the Psalmist here is not speaking of the
sacrifices of the temple, for immediately after we read—
שמעה עמי ואדברה ישראל ואעידה בך אלהים אלהיך אנכי . לו אל זבחיך אוכיחך
ועולותיך לנגדי תמיד . לו אקח מביתך פר ממכלאותיך עתודים ׃