The Jewish outlook., 1907-12-27
day. Very good. Well said, thou
noble servant of the Lord


And then people argue that this is
not Christian country, when Jews
are not able to observe the Sabbath,
and are forced to observe the Sunday
whether they want to or not There
is no question whether it be Sunday
OR Saturday, the question is simply
whether it should be Sunday AND
Saturday, or just Sunday alone. And
with most Jews in this free country it
is Sunday, no matter what they say,
think or do.
The question now is one of Honor.
When the Jew observed the Sabbath,
he did so believing absolutely the day
to be one of sanctifcation and holi-
ness, while now knowing the Sabbath
to be an unlucky day, and Sunday to
be only a day of imitation (of course,
it is much less than this even), how
can the EDUCATED and intelligent
jew, the self respecting and honOra-
BILE Jew accept Sunday as a day of
rest and holy character, when it is
only IL substituted dies nefastes?
Wouldn t it be a good joke on the
Jews, if, after having accepted the
Sunday as day of rest and sanctifi-
cation, the Christians. or at least the
more progressive ones, continuing as
they are doing. to divest themselves
of all heathenish influences, would be-
gin, as is by no means unlikely, to eel
ebrate the original Sabbath? To me
the question presents itself in diff
ferent form, not Saturday or Sunday.
but following the kind suggestions of
our grand scholar, DR.. Singer. must
ask either Sabbath or else No Sabbath
and No Sunday.
If we do not need a Sabbath. we
certainly do not need Sunday. which
is after all only substituted Sabbath
The Sunday Sabbath i'm Judaism is
not an institution for the people, but
wholly and altogether for the rabbis.
and as rabbis we should not be SO sell
fish as to introduce day of rest for
the purpose of hearing ourselves
preach. for one have the courage
of my conviction. and the spirit of
true advance, and if | have to give
up the Sabbath. | shall give up the
Sunday. too. If the one is a super
stition. the other is worse. it is n
makeshift, and a sham. Why do we
need Sabbath at all? The world
is too busy to stop one day. God
himself does not rest, and we do not
have to be any better than God. This
is just as logical an argument as is
DR.. Singers, not to observe The Sat
urday because of certain origin.
Let us stop using the word Knight in
the sense in which we do, because thL
origin of it as we still see in German
''Knecht" means slave. Now we can t
respect any slavish Knights.
DR.. Singer may be great scholar,
but he belongs to the old school of
psychology, for he imagines that life
is all reason, whereas feeling is the
greatest factor in human life; if i.
were not, many a boy and girl might
divorce himself from parents when
they found out that it was mere acci-
dent that brought their parents to-
gether. The origin of an institution
has the same relation to the meaning
of the institution as the seed has to
the flower. The fact that Christmas
has it's origin in immoral heather
practices does NOT explain the pres
ent meaning of the day. The meaning
of the Sabbath is not found in its
Babylonian or Pre- -Adamic origin. 1t
must be looked for in the development
and Importance it assumed through
the centuries of Jewish life.
JACOB II. KAPLAN.
Selma, Alabama.