The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-07-11
JEWISH SECTS.
From n Jewish Standpoint-A Series
Of Lectures Delivered at the Tenn
pie EMANUEL, Dallas, Texas,
by Rabbi ii. M. Ricn.


by Rabbi ii. M. Bien.
IThe frst Of q series Of lectures was de-
livered Friday night at the Temple Emsnu-
El by Rabbi II. M. Bien, on "The Jewish
Sects, from Jewish Standpoint" The
house was crowded, and the large audience
listened with marked interest to the eloquent
speaker throughout. Next Saturday night
he will take up the subject again where he
left of in the following, synopsis of which
we give, as we will the remainder of the lee
ture, to the readers of the HERALD,
FIRST LECTURE DELIVERED JULY 8, 1880.
The ninteenth century isannalytica to cor
rosion in all its tendencies. Her eyes are
armored for investigation with thousand
fold increased power Of the microscope of
truth. The trammels and prejudices of pre-
conceived notions are broken and exist no
longer for honest research and the concien-
tious student. History is summoned before
the forum of the present age, stripped ofal
fiction, romance and the straight jackets of
philosophical conundYums and specuations.
Thus some of the most cherished heroes and
heroines ofour school days have to come down
from their high pedestals they must submit
to have the lustre and pomp in which former
scholastic pedantry clothed them torn into
shreds, and they have TO take their stands in
the rank and file of common humanity. And
as this has been done with persons SO must
nations, antique and modern, submit to be
measured and weighed by the scale Of justice
and What OaDl nrip tt1u 81
nation in this stern scrutiny has lost Is
gained by the cause of sacred truth.
While it may shock the sensbilities of o
great multitude who differ with us in matters
of faith and creed, we claim the right of APP
plying this great standard of our times to
the subject of
JEWISH sECTs.
the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Essences
and the Iealos which were exist
ing on or about the time Of the
founder of Christianity, an era of about
two thousand years ago. Let this be pre-
faced with the distinct declaration that it Is
not meantas dsrespect to, or ilippant, wanton
attack on honest convictions, differing essen.
TALLY perhaps in their traditions, informa-
ton and codes of belief. But we claim il rs
duty, right, a necessity, an unquestiona
BILE prerogative to dspel the mist and cloud:
which for centuries have lowered around this
subject. Nor is it claimed that the facts,
opinions, data and fluctuations in this effort
are either all new or original, but that, with
out committing plagiarism, the works and
labors of others are necessarily intertwned
in the study Of u subject of the highest i'm
portance to the thinking world.
In order to fully comprehend and realize
the subject it becomes necessary to unwind
in your mind the bobin of time making 6
clear step backward Of nigh two thousant
years. This brings us to within about one
hundred and fifty years before the destruc'
ton Of the kingdom of Judea. And to that
land and into the grand old city of Jerusa
lem with the help of our imagination and
such sources of antiquity and archaeological
studies, we must wildly and realistic PLAN
ourselves, as if we were eye witnesses, so tc
say, of what then and there transpiIes Let
ms first then unroll the panorama of the holy
city as 1t stood in those memorable days.
Next Sabbath it will be just eighteen hun
DIRE d and ten years that tragedy there wa,
enacted, the equal of which cannot be found
in the annals Of the world Rome on that
day succeeded to devour its prey. Jerusalem,
tell. The man does not live who, reading
the story of that fall, the supsrhuman hero.
ism of jews, their suffering, their woes, their
pangs Of hunger and thirst, their miseries in
all conceivable forms aud shapes, the heart
rending cries Of mothers killing and devour-
ing their own children-the man does not
live who, reading these cruel, unparalleled,
bloody events, will not shed tears OF sympa-
thy and compassion. Here is picture of
that city about one hundred and fifty years
previous 10 that terrible calamity. In the
shape of an oblong square, on top of Mount
Moriah, lay the proudest metropolis of the
earth, walled in with the strongest tortiilca-
tons the ingenuity of man could conceive.
Entering from tho north side, the grotto of
Jeremiah, with its tombs, now known ms
Golgotha, through the gates of the kings,
where civil justice was dispensed daily a
scene burst upon the eye which no ancient or
modern architecture has approached in
grandeur and sublimity, the Holy Temple of
Jerusalem. At the time we speak of there
stood the second ediice by that name, built
by the returned oaptives from Babylonia.
The outer court and court of the women
must have had capacity for holding at least
million of people. In the
area for the priests, where affairs and the OBJ
jects for daily worship had been erected,
three thousand priests and Levites congre-
gated to fulfll their sacred offices. A gate
called "The Beautiful" and said to be made
OF solid gold, gave entrance to the front OF
the temple proper, and led to the "Holy of
Holiest.h The building itself was one of the
s,rongest-walled Notifications of ancient
i!mea. The magnificent palace of King
Solomon, also strongly fortified, formed it
nearest environs. All the streets leading up
70 this promontory Of Mount Zion were mar.