The Jewish advance. (Chicago, Ill.) 1878-1881, 1881-09-16

Thorah? Is 1t not his living source, the
! tree Of his existence?
Fishele received instructions in Ger
man and in Hebrew from a teacher who
lived in the ghetto. They took little
notice of him in the house; for years
Julius Arnstejner, this was the teacher s
name, was coming and going without
leaving perceptible trace of his fire.
quent presence With the grandmother
he was not in high favor; it will sound
strange to many of our readers if we in
form them that the high German Ian
guage Of the teacher was the cause of
this antipathy. She could not talk to
him to her hearts content, and she felt
vexed every time when the teacher Sc
verely reprimanded the boy for every
Jewish" word that during the lesson
might slip from his lips. She often com
planned that soon the child would not
understand her any longer A far
stronger reason induced Joseph to keep
aloof from the teacher: he was too EN-
lightened" for him: it seemed to him as
if julius Arnsteiner sometimes took it
easy with God; in certain things he ap-
peared to him as downright fool. Arm
steiner would always speak in high-fown
German of the reforms which ought to
be introducedinto Judaism; would mock
at the orthodox Jews, and long before
the storms Of the past had laid the foun-
dations for new order of things, Joseph
heard from the mouth of the teacher
such words as emancipation and re
ligious liberty words of which
Joseph had but an obscure idea. Els
peclally the sense Of the latter term he
could not penetrate, Notwithstanding
Arnsteiners high German explanations.
Have we Jews, then, not free reli=
glon?' he once said to the teacher from
the ghetto; who hinders me from being
jew? Isanybody standing at my door
with loaded gun to shoot me down
when | put on Tephilim, or when I want
to say my prayer, orgo to the synagogue
three times day?"
The State, the STATED" julius Arm
steiner answered, with a sorrowful face.
Can you obtain but the smallest clerk
ship at court? Can you become pro-
fessor? In what high position would I
be to-day if the Jew were not in my
way"
Since that memorable Sabbath even
ing when he had met Magdalena before
his house, Joseph sought to get more
intimate with the teacher; he more fire.
quently entered into religious discus
sions with him, and no longer found so
much fault with his explanations as in
former days. He seemed to feel the
necessity of listening to another man S
thoughts, of searching out whether a
word dropped by chance, vague loose
remark, would come to his aid; whether
a pearl would fall to the ground, which
he might pick up and use in triumph as
an ornament for his just cause.
Joseph was always present when Ju-
Illus Arnsteiner instructed his child in
the Thorah These were his most JOY
full, and at the same time, his most
dreadful hours. Curse and blessing, con-
fusion and enlightenment, consolation
and anxiety streamed for him, as it
were, from the living sources of the holy
book. How could it be otherwise?
In this week the teacher had reached
the close of the fifth book of Moses.
Already in the synagogue Joseph had
heard this last weekly section, which
makes grand and powerful impression,
and sounds like proud triumphal song;
secret impulse urged him to hear it
once more, to be filled again with awe
by the divine word
The boy was learning the passage
THAT there may not be among you a
man or woman, or a family, or tribe
whose heart turneth away this day from
the Lord our God, to go to serve the
gods of these nations, and may perhaps