New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-01-15

morally more binding the attendants and servants a
the patriarcbs, whom our rabbi persists in, calling
slaves were but their voluntary followers their papis
and friends enjoying all the privileges Of free persons
the advantages Of mutual projections and assistance
and the blessings Of wise rule.
/ Or does the learned Rabbi mean 10 ssy that they
were bought from pirates or slave-txades, wefs
Joseph Plato, Ceryantes and Arago, and that he who
erounces the slave-trade is also guilty Of something
little short Of blaspherpy p And does he to ssy
that the female followers Of the patabs were boua6
to In their harems THE concubines Of Abrabsm
are mentioned in Gen. g whether they agreed OF
not, and that a denunciaton Of similar relations Ia
Louisiana or Mississippi would be blaspbemyf
For, If the Rabbi proves anything, be proves srxAes
things. He proves bgamy, polygamy. concubinases
Semitic mot African Slavery, the traffic in Semisis
heshsith and many similar things to be protected
forever by the sanction Of divine law. cay Semitic
and net African, because the passage which be quotes
| az allowing the Hebrews to buy slaves from The
heatbers distinctly desguates those that were round
about, Or in the land of Israel Qev XIV A. where.
| as TIE RABBI well knows, no neg,ees dweh OF so
jorned while Of the principal next neighbses of
the Hebrews were not only Semites, as the Syriaas
lAram) of Damascus, tolwhom, also, Abrahama o6o&
Eezer belonged but Semtes Of the ssue branch vita
Y the Hebrews, as the Ammones and Moabites, AMI
even descendants of Abrsham himself as the Edositn
and Lhmaeites.
If Moses allowed the buying Of slaves he distinctly
excluded the negroes, believing, perhaps with our
Rabbi that "tbe unfortunate negro 10 the meanest of
slaves" or knowing something Of what has hsea
said respecting the nferony of bis intellectual pow
Gers" Accordingly, the people Of Hayd could nA 10
gainsayed for the importation Of Hebrew slaves from
Morocco, for instance, who might contribute to he
aneioi alton of the moral condition of their ooanty.
while the people Of the Cotton States could be D.
nounced without mourning the guilt Of blasrheHy f5s
Aficanizing their region by their unsanctoned prse-
tees and for booming their posery to the fate OF Tho
whites of St. Domingo.
Again. according TO the Rabbi, should the people Of
Utah. before OF after their admission into the Union
a sovereign State ION which occasion they would, us
doubt avail themselves Of the precedent Of the Gotten
States Immediately 10 secede ON the Unionl, estae-
sh certain peculiar domestic institutions Of an nou
Gus character, the eloquent preacher Of Brooklyn"
could not speak against it without mourning the gull
of basphemy, Jacob having married two sisters End
our Rabbi being unable TO discover the precise tina
when" an act that was permitted TO patriarch and
prohibited by Moses only TO the Hebrews, "ceased 10
abe permitted and became sinful to eli others.
But after ALL the Rabbi msy gay, "have no.
proved by numerous quotations, that Moses allowed
" Slavery to our people?7 Not at all Rabbi; firstly.
because you substitute "slave for servant" or
bondrnsn without authority; secondly, because ooe
of your quotations Deut xxi. 81 is obviously faa-
cous thirdly because two others, those from the Ten
Commandments, are ridiculous as they are sscTt-
lgeous; fourtbly because the strongest OF all LEV
XIV. A-i6) can prove no more than the so ngorouAy
limited allowance OF buying the lifelong service OF
e III. Al 10 fnf Ia
same personal service as the word ieoam which you
render forever" is admitted by yourself to mean
" for life in another passage the same subject
CExod. xxi g.; and lastly, because if there be any
thing apparently svOrDg your view in these Other
passages that would not be sufficient TO fssten "ths
" reproach of Egypt" (topath Mt=raiuIJ on the law
Of the great fugitive slave who insuguated his divine
mission as hberator Of people Of slsyes by Staying
one Of their oyereers and who to the end Of hs ca
reer, repeated and again repeated: Forget not
4" that We have been slaves in Egypt" =" An eye for
an eye" written in the plainest words in the same
avn still yon bold with all the Tslmuds.s that this 10
not to be understood literally.
For those Rabbis wisely understood tia: there are
numerous things to be explained, or explained away
in Scriptures, which, though pervaded by divine
spirit of truth, justice, and mercy they found 10
contain much that may he called contradictory unjust
and even barbarOus. And they also knew that much
Welded by the law of Moses to the stubborn pas
sions Of man. of his people of f sd slaves and Of bis
time. Iou know the Talmudcal 10 dtbJerah toraS
keneged yet-er kdra'-"the law does not ignore the
" evil instinct" There is passage to be explained
away in the very text Of your sermon, which you
preferred to that passage of Isaiah viii. g. which ia
read on the great fast day of atonemen in all tie Syn
agogues of Israel, and which was obviously most
for the occasions Is not this the fast that
Z" have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness 70
undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed 60
" free, and that ye break ery yoke Are not thoss
words in your text Jonah iii. l0) And
A" God repented of the evil" &C., -
well as those others: And the Lord
- repented that he had made Saul king over Israel"
Il Sam. 49, in fragrant contradiction with another
passage contained in the chapter with the proceed
ing he Strength Of Israel will not Lie nor repent
90 for He il not man that He should repent" And
as regards concessions in the Mosaic law, doee It na
elbow and sanction in Deuteronomy xvii 1920 what
Samuel in the name Of God repeatedly declares TO be-
the greatest Of sins Il Sam. viii. X, and Kill mean
the desire to have kirgl Rabbi, do you know tho
precise time when it had become sinful 2
But almost forgot remembered friend Job,
the noblest conception Of Hebrew poetry lat leaU
according the Talmudical IyO6 10 h0ya reo n'bro,
:" Job never exsted'' whom YOU also stigma1he ~
a STAKEHOLDER, him, who utters those noble words--
speaking of bis eJsd XXI. 15), "Did not He that
made me in the womb make him and did not One
90 fashion us in the womb 2" II your assertion needs
reutation you can find it in the concluding passages Of
the Book of job in which YOU will find how tho
Il G. oil Ma