BY 
 
 Ralph Bernard Hershon 
 
 RABBI 
 OF 
 
 Temple (sreal 
 
 Uniontown. Pa. - 1920

 
 CHOSEN THOUGHTS 
 
 A Series of Lectures 
 Delivered A// 
 
 Ralph B. Hershon, A. B. 
 
 RABBI 
 
 TEMPLE (SREAL 
 
 Uniontown, Pennsylvania 
 
 Copyright 
 
 March, 1920
 
 Stack 
 Annex 
 
 To the 
 
 Memory of My Father 
 
 My Teacher and Guide 
 
 Ben Zion Hershon
 
 IN DEX 
 
 Page 
 
 Preface 
 
 1. And After All, What Are We? 1 
 
 2. Before Whom Standest Thou? 5 
 
 3. Yom Kippur Day 9 
 
 4. Be Not Afraid 13 
 
 5. Castles in the Air 16 
 
 6. Come Thee, An Echo of Go Thee 19 
 
 7. Forward, Do Not Turn Back . 22 
 
 8. I Seek My Brethren 25 
 
 9. Get Together 29 
 
 10. Three Promises 33 
 
 11. A Mother's Heart 37 
 
 12. Israel Speaks to the Nation 42 
 
 14. A Cry for Zion 49 
 
 15. A Great Lesson 63
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The beautiful and remarkable "thought" expressed in the 
 words of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley stands as an advocate for my 
 efforts set forth in this book. 
 
 "Up and be doing, is the word that comes from God for 
 each one of us. Leave some 'good work' behind you that shall 
 not be wholly lost when you have passed away. Do something 
 worth living for, worth dying for. Is there no want, no suffer- 
 ing, no sorrow that you can relieve? Is there no act of tardy 
 justice, no deed of cheerful kindness, no long-forgotten duty 
 that you can perform? If there be any such deed, in God's 
 name, go and do it." 
 
 These "Chosen Thoughts" echo my soul's yearning, and 
 open my heartfelt cravings. I delivered these lectures in my 
 pulpit, with a burning desire of earnestly wishing to do some- 
 thing "worth while." 
 
 In attempting to choose my thoughts, I believe that some 
 one may benefit by reading same, with an open mind and soul. 
 
 The author therefore prays that such may be the result of 
 his labor. Yet, hoping that the reader will understand that this 
 is not an exhaustive work, but merely that of "Chosen 
 Thoughts." 
 
 R. B. HERSHON, 
 March, 1920.
 
 AND AFTER ALL. WHAT ARE WE? 
 
 "Vayhee achar hadvorim hoaileh, v, hoelohieem Neeso as 
 Avrohom, vayomer Avrohom Henainee." (and it. came to pass 
 after all these things, and the Lord proved nay tried 
 Abraham.") 
 
 Brethren, in the silence of this great and holy hour, in 
 the twilight of the year burdened with so many problems and 
 wonders which is now fading away in the mysterious un- 
 known portals of the ages, in the presence of a New Year fly- 
 ing to meet us from the unknown future, our hearts beat in 
 one accord, our souls are mystified, our lips move in one 
 prayer, our eyes are turned toward God in the heavens above. 
 
 We are congregated to meet with the past and the future. 
 We feel that God is here, and we are ready to listen to the 
 words of our holy Torah. 
 
 "And it came to pass." Yes, it is well that our Rabbis 
 have apportioned unto us the reading of this most wonderful 
 lesson in the trying of the human staunchness and firmness 
 of conviction. 
 
 "And it came to pass." Ye, Abraham has forsaken his 
 birthplace, his home,, Ms people, and offered himself to the 
 service of his One God.. Abraham endured the suffering of 
 the wandered, Abraham rescued him friends from the hand of 
 his enemies, Abraham sat at the door and looked for the 
 stranger, the weary, the tired, the needy. Abraham preached 
 the greatness of God. Abraham, the pious, the just, the right- 
 ous. the faithful, the philanthropist, Abraham the teacher, 
 and yet, we are told that it came to pass that after all these 
 things, God tried Abraham, God did prove Abraham. 
 
 Why should Go dhave done so? Why are we given 
 this reading on the Rosh Hashonah? What important lesson 
 can we draw out of the Torah? 
 
 Hear ye, my brethren! Life with its dazzling circum-
 
 And After All What Are We? 
 
 stances often misleads us that, in our endeavor to do the right 
 and best we know how, we allow ourselves to be convinced 
 thjat we are just and righteous. We say, "When the poor 
 stretch out their hands we gladly respond, when the widow 
 sheds her tears we are eagerly trying to wipe them off, when 
 the orphan is hungry we are anxiously rendering him relief, 
 when our brothers are in distress we are hurriedly coming to 
 their relief, when the world is suffering we are devotedly send- 
 ing our share, so thinks the poor and the rich, so thinks the 
 young and the old, so thinks the pious and the sinner, and so 
 did Abraham think. 
 
 In the sands of the great vast desert sat the old Abra- 
 ham and waited for the wanderer. He sat alone, for old 
 Abraham was denied the privilege and the blessing of a child. 
 In his mind questions about the greatness of God were an- 
 swered and in his heart his faith grew stronger and stronger. 
 And Abraham prayed and his prayer was surely answered. 
 Abraham was blessed with a son. All was peace within the 
 heart of Abraham. He did his duties and remembered God, 
 nay even taught the wonders of God. Yes, like many of us, 
 having acquired a certain amount of health and financial 
 strength, having obtained a certain amount of happiness be- 
 come indifferent to great questions facing us. 
 
 We are satisfied and we rest on our false conviction that 
 we have done or do the best we know how. 
 
 Oh, but has it often occurred to you, some time when 
 all is sunshine and beauty, when all is hope and gladness, 
 when all is gay and joyfulness, a cloud envelopes the radiant 
 sun and everything vanishes under the mist of the cloud, leav- 
 ing one behind it wondering in amazement why has this taken 
 place? Why has God robbed me fiom my beloved? Why has 
 (iod taken away my dear and sweet ones? Why has God cast 
 this great misfortune upon us? Why has God turned his face 
 away from us? You wonder and from your eyes there drips 
 a tear. Oh that tear is full of woe, of protest sometimes, 
 and then it is where the reading of the portion comes. 
 
 "And it came to pass," when after we struggle and hope.
 
 And After All What Are \\V? 
 
 when after we love and sacrifice, when in our battle for exist- 
 ence we stumble and fall and rise, when after the day of 
 worry and grief we sit down to contemplate, when the vigor of 
 youth is vanishing away and the old age is stealing on, when 
 our lives begin to feel the pressure of time, and we know 
 that we have tried to do, to give, to serve, to do the best, 
 and when after all that, God comes in His infinite wisdom and 
 says: Halt, you must be tried, you must prove yourself. It is 
 then that we are to face God in His great and wonderful mercy. 
 
 So it is tonight. After all these days of yearning and 
 waiting, after all these things, we are now to be tried and we 
 must prove ourselves of the severe and awful test. 
 
 AVhat is it? It is the most vital, it is the essence of Re- 
 ligion Faith and Readiness to execute the will of God. 
 
 But some of you will say: Faith, why question this? 
 Are we not here assembled to give voice to our Faith? Are we 
 not ever ready to assist our Faith? 
 
 Therefore, I say unto thee: Children of Israel hear ye 
 the voice of God. When all these things have come to pass 
 and I call upon you to offer proof, you must not say I am will- 
 ing, I am anxious, I am glad to do it, but you must come and 
 say in accordance with every fibre of your body and in ac- 
 cordance with every spark of your soul, "Hinainee," "Here 
 I am." 
 
 "Here I am." That is what Israel needs today. That is 
 the great proof of every one of us tonight. "Here I am." Even 
 though I may have come here, not with a clean hand and 
 heart, not with a full understanding of thy great power, not 
 with the full sympathy of my belief, and not with strong con- 
 victions that in thy hand lies my life and my passing out of 
 life, that even though it be that you are angry with me, and 
 the shadows of death are circling about me, yet, "here I am." 
 I place myself in thy hand and I trust that in thy gi-eat and 
 wonderful mercy you will hear to my supplications and grant 
 me thy favors. 
 
 Come let us bow our heads and acknowledge to the Al- 
 mighty that here \ve are. Here \ve are, ready to worship on
 
 And After All What Are We? 
 
 this groat day of preparation, Here we are willing to submit 
 our lives in thy hand and ready to receive thy judgment. 
 
 And so as the sun glides away under the mountains and 
 leaves behind it its shadows, and as we lilt our eyes and bo- 
 hold the stars and the moon softly beaming upon the Universe, 
 we feel that God will bless us all with a happy New Year and 
 that He will give us all strength and courage to carry on His 
 great mission unto the universe that there is but one God 
 who is supreme and that we are all His children. And like 
 the stars in the heaven, like the moon in the firmament, and 
 like the angels we lift our souls with them, and travel into 
 the unknown, trusting everything in God, since we are always 
 ready to say, like Abraham our father, "Here I am." Amen.
 
 Before Whom Standest Thou.' 
 
 BEFORE WHOM STANDEST THOU? 
 
 "Ye stand this day all of you that thou shouldst enter 
 into the covenant of the Lord thy God, and unto his oath, 
 which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day." 
 
 This is a most striking sentence and one that definitely 
 arrests one's attention. "Ye stand all of you" for whom "be- 
 fore God" and for what purpose? "to enter into a covenant 
 with God." 
 
 "Ye stand all of you." The evening of Yom Kippur 
 brings you all here. There is a mysterious sentiment which 
 sways your hearts and turns your eyes toward worship in the 
 house of God. The twinkling lights which mother lit on the 
 evening of Yom Kippur still nickers in the hearts of you Who 
 are gathered here. The tears which father shed on the evening 
 of Yom Kippur as he left for the synagogue are still floating 
 before your eyes. The blessing of the parents 011 the evening 
 of Yom Kippur still rings in your ears. The friendly grasping 
 of the hand by one of your dear ones on the evening of Yom 
 Kippur is still warm within your palm. Oh, the spirit of our 
 father is still waving over our heads, touching our hearts and 
 making us realize our short existence. So here we stand all 
 of us, with our heads bowed and hearts contrite, with ftrm be- 
 lief that the Almighty will hear our supplications. 
 
 Children of Israel, this sentence marks the very life and 
 struggle of Israel. This sentence pictures before you the 
 thousands of years in which Israel suffered. This sentence is 
 the light by which Isntel was guided through his miseries and 
 dark days. 
 
 "Ye stand all of you." When the world pointed its finger 
 against Israeli and convicted ham as the convict of the uni- 
 verse, Israel stood for it. When the Inquisition burned and 
 killed, maltreated and defiled Israeldom in Spain, Israel stood 
 for it. When the Russians drank the blood of Jewish peoplo
 
 6 Before Whota Standest Thou? 
 
 and washed their hands in their bleeding tears, Israel stood 
 for it. When the Poles broke loose, massacring and laying 
 waste the homes of the Jews, Israel stood for it. Oh, and 
 when some bigoted, narrow-minded man rises here and there, 
 in his vain attempt to gain glory, he tries to besmirch and be- 
 smear, to scorn and to discolor the Jewish life and its prin- 
 ciple, we stand for it. "Ye stand all of you." When you are 
 scorned, laughed at, and ridiculed unjustly and unwisely, ye 
 stand for it. 
 
 Even though, the light which illuminates their world has 
 only been kindled from a fire that our fathers have blown 
 up. Even though the songs they sing and marvel at, has been 
 played upon the harp of our wonderful musicians thousands 
 of years ago. Even though the ideals they preach have been 
 long heard upon the mountains of /ion and in the wilderness 
 of Asia by our great pieachers. Even. though the philosophy 
 they teach in the Universities have been long ago expounded 
 and founded by tin* genius brains of our men, men of Israel. 
 Yes, even though we are the founders of the'.r very hope and 
 existence . . . yet, we have to stand for all the contempt and 
 derision of the entire world. 
 
 Nevertheless, here we are, gathered into one solemn 
 group, and ye, even more than that, when the world is enjoy- 
 ing the gayeties of life and our neighbors are at liberty to con- 
 tinue their battle for gain we, the Jew, is bidden to stand apart 
 from al lof the pleasures and gains of life, but to assemble 
 in the house of God. Thus here we have come in full obeil- 
 'ience to the word of God, with our souls uplifted, we stand in 
 this house of worship. 
 
 But, I think I hear the whispering doubts, hidden -in tiie 
 'innermost cells of the hearts of those who. prone to accept 
 the unresisting method of life, whisperingly question them- 
 selves whether they can stand all of the tragedies of Israel, 
 and why they should stand for them? I say then unto you: 
 You who are weak at heart and ill in spirit, you who are 
 skeptic and failing in their father's strength of belief, you 
 who are questioning, hear ye.
 
 Before Whom Standest Thou? 
 
 It is given to the human heart a soul. Those two must 
 live in accord. A beast differs from man, in that, that a man 
 possesses the soul and beast does not. The soul is the divine 
 spark of God, which illuminates the ways of the man in his 
 darkness. Xo suffering is compared with the grief and loss 
 of one's soul. A man can endure ever so much trouble, ever 
 so much pain, ever so much disappointment, as long as the 
 soul lives with him. As long as his conscience is clean, or, in 
 other words, as long as he is near unto God, for that is the 
 soul of the man. 
 
 Now Israel stood for all of the great suffering. Why? 
 Because Israel stood before God. Israel had his soul with 
 him ! 
 
 Therefore I say unto you, If you want to keep your 
 soul alive, if you want to keep the fires of your fathers burn- 
 ing, if that spark still flickers within you somewhere, then 
 remember that our purpose is everlasting life. For after we 
 have gone through the test, after we stand before God, Ye, 
 you all, we are entering into a covenant with God. Let the 
 world shout with contempt, let the gainers ace urn late their 
 wealth, let the frivolous dance their dance of death, bu we, 
 nay! we have come hither to "stand before Gccl," so that we 
 can keep the covenant which our fathers have made with God 
 and which we are making with Him now. 
 
 Brethren, the night has come, the day is passing away, 
 and we are coming ever nearer unto God. Wake up your 
 souls and call them to thee. For it seems to me when God 
 wanted to light the soul He shook the universe from one end 
 to another, seeking for a spark to kindle the soul of mankind. 
 He sent forth His angels and they hovered over the thousand 
 globes and millions of stars. He shouted and the earth trem- 
 bled with fear. He stretched forth His hands and gathered all 
 the golden dust and sparkling silver, but not suiting Himself 
 He cast them deep into the mountains and spread them over 
 the waters. He then beckoned unto the glories of the globes 
 to gather. From all the worlds they brought their lights. 
 The singer sang his songs but the heart of God stood still.
 
 8 Before Whom Standest Thou? 
 
 Tho poet read his lines but God was unmoved. The musician 
 tuned his harp but the Almighty was only pleased. Suddenly 
 God heard a prayer, spoken tenderly, and in grelat haste He 
 bade the singers, the poets, the musicians and the glories of 
 the world to hush. Hark! the prayer of Abraham was rising 
 and swinging its way heavenward; a Jewish heart was beg- 
 ging and praying to God. Then God said in his mightiest 
 voice and in His thundering sounds, "I HAVE THE LIGHT 
 FOB THE SOUL! AND THAT SPARK SHALL BE ISRAEL, 
 THE SPARK OP THE SOUL OP HUMANITY." 
 
 Brothers and sisters of Israel, tonight we have come to 
 stand, to listen, to be before God, so that we can keep the 
 pledge which we have made of yore and which we are making 
 now. Let us keep that spark of the soul which brings us 
 nearer unto God. Tonight we are apart from our bodies and 
 desires of the body. Let us cherish that light which our fath- 
 ers lit, let us then dry the tears which our fathers shed, let us 
 then heed the blessing which our parents gave us, let us come 
 nearer unto God, to "Stand Before Him." Amen.
 
 Yom Kippur Day 9 
 
 YOM KIPPUR DAY 
 
 "And the prophet shall say, 'Make a path, make a path, 
 clear the way; remove all obstructions from the road of my 
 people. For thus said the Lord, who inhabiteth eternity and 
 whose name is holy; yon high and holy place I inhabit, and 
 I am also with the contrite and humble of spirit. Proclaim 
 aloud, spare not, like the sound of a trumpet, lift up your 
 voice and declare unto my people their transgressions and to 
 the house of Jacob their sins.' " 
 
 The voice of the prophet rings out today in its fullest 
 application. Today we are awed and overwhelmed with a 
 feeling of Godliness, spellbound by the sweet memories that 
 group around our hearts, when in the days not so long ago, 
 the great evening of Yom Kippur ushered in with it blessings 
 and forgiveness, kindness and charity, holiness and penitence. 
 
 Oh, you all well, and perhaps too well, recall the meal 
 which the good old mother prepared on the day preceding 
 Yom Kippur. The entire family gathered around the table 
 in perfect solemnity, eating with a true feeling that it was 
 because tomorrow shall be a fast day to serve God. There 
 was a spiritual spell cast on the group, all waited in trembling 
 silence when the father commenced to pronounce the after 
 meal blessings. As he reached the reading of "Shecheyonoo," 
 thanking God for the life reached up to the present, there 
 were tears. Yes, tears of true piousness, tears of true thank* 
 fulness, tears of true devotion, tears of complete recogni- 
 tion, tears of utter submission, tears that came from the faith- 
 ful and undoubting heart. Those tears were, as I said, on 
 every one's cheeks. Then the father in his soft voice and 
 crying tone rose and gathered his children and his wife near 
 unto him as though he wanted to protect them from all evil 
 and worshippingly blessed them. Silently they walked unto 
 the synagogue. Silently they entered the synagogue. Silently
 
 10 Yom Kippiir Day 
 
 they opened the prayer book. It was Yom Kippur. 
 
 And so today every one here brings some kind of memory, 
 some kind of holy feeling, some kind of reverence, for we 
 all feel the sacredness of this great White Fast. The shadows 
 of the past are descending over us. The day is gone, night 
 has come and we look to a new day, a new year, realizing now 
 on this day that it is the hand of God. 
 
 Come then, my brethren, hear ye to the voice of the old 
 prophet. "Make a way, make a way, clear the path. Remove 
 all obstructions from the road of my people. Lift up you voice. 
 Spare not, tell the people, my people, their transgressions." 
 ; I say unto you, my people, where shall I begin? Too 
 many are the paths that ye have taken, where shall I seek 
 you? Too many places do you frequent, where shall I go 
 after thee? Too many strange gods have you chosen, which 
 one shall I break? Too many evil habits have you adopted, 
 which one shall I condemn? Nay, I go not after thee, but 
 like the prophet, I shout unto you today, "Clear the path." 
 
 You who have chosen the ease and lust of life, forget- 
 ting that in the ftmil you will pay for it, you who have chosen 
 other gods to suit your convenience, forgetting that your an- 
 cestors have sacrificed their lives to teach to this world the 
 existence of one God only. You who have left us to visit 
 other places, forgetting the tenderness and the love of your 
 own people; you who have adopted other modes of living, 
 forgetting that the life of your people, the Jew, is everlasting, 
 perpetual, GO THEE, CLEAR THE WAY. Stand not in our 
 path. We, the Jew, whose heart still beats for his people; the 
 Jew, whose feelings still linger with his people of yore; the 
 Jew, whose God is still the ever Jewish God, the god of truth, 
 of righteousness, of mercy, yes, we liave only one goal, one 
 ideal, one craving, one longing, and that is to remain STEAD- 
 FAST and to walk in THE WAY OF OUR FATHERS. It may 
 be slower, it may be faster, but it shall be oil our father's 
 path. 
 
 The Midrash relates a legend which can be well applied 
 here. At the foot of the Lebanon mountain there lived a Jew-
 
 Yoin Kippur Day H 
 
 ish family in peace and plenty. God blessed the father and 
 mother with a son and daughter. The son, a sturdy man he 
 was, and a good tiller of the soil. Often as he sat in the 
 field he would dream of the big world, and a desire entered 
 his heart to go out from the quiet place and enter the turbu- 
 lent city. One day he broke the news to his father, who was 
 very grieved, knowing the evils and horrors of the world. 
 But the son was resolute and so the father bade him wait, so 
 that he could give him something that might be of protection 
 to him in time of trouble and want. As he said goodby, the 
 father gave him a rare flower, saying thus: "Son, if thou will 
 be thirsty and cannot obtain water on your way, smell this 
 flower; if you are hungry and cannot obtain food, smell this 
 flower; if you are tired and cannot get rest, smell this flower." 
 They then parted. 
 
 On the son went in many strange lands and over many 
 strange places. But in going from one place into another he 
 met with a great desert. His throat became dry, his tongue 
 stiff; he grew weary and ill. Water, water did he want. Then 
 he thought of the flower Iris father gave to him and he placed 
 his hand in his bosom to smell it; but then from a little dis- 
 tance, behold, there was a little creek. "Well," thought he, 
 "that foolish thing to smell a flower when I am thirsty," and 
 he ran to that creek and quenched his thirst. It did not taste 
 as sweet as usual in his own land, but it was water, thought 
 he. On he went, and became hungry: "Oh!" thought he, 
 "Well now I am going to smell the flower," but just then trav- 
 elers passed by and he begged them for some food, thinking 
 that it is foolish to smell the flower when he can get the real 
 food. It is true it was not so pleasant to eat that strange 
 bread, but, thought he, it is better to eat real bread than 
 smell a mere flower. 
 
 On he went, and grew very, very sore of foot and weak in 
 body. Oh, for a place of rest! The sand was all over, the 
 sun was hot. "Well," thought he, "I shall now smell the 
 flower," but then, lo and behold, there was a tree. He hastily 
 ran to the tree and lay down to rest under it. But as he was
 
 12 Yom Kippur Day 
 
 resting his head ached, his eyes grew dimmer and dimmer. 
 He was getting seriously sick. Yes, he was dying. 
 
 Suddenly his father, who from great love followed his son 
 to watch him without letting him know, rushed to him at his 
 dying side, took him up in his arms and made him smell that 
 flower, "Yare dying," said his father, "BECAUSE WOU HAVE 
 BEEN DRINKING FROM STRANGE WATERS AND HAVE 
 EATEN PROM STRANGE BREAD AND HAVE RESTED UN- 
 DER STRANGE SHADOWS. COME BACK HOME." Back 
 they went, and the son was never anxious to wander over the 
 world again. 
 
 Did not our Father in heaven give us the correct flower so 
 that we can seek aid from it any time? Does not our Torah 
 offer these wonderful healings? But we in our wanderings 
 have drunken from strange waters. We have eaten strange 
 bread, we have rested under strange shadows, all the time 
 forgetting that we have the Torah as our aid, and now we are 
 dying. Yes, our national feeling, our inspiring traditions are 
 dying, rotting away, and we have forgotten the great medicine. 
 "Oh," saith God, "I have not forgotten you. I am here at your 
 side. I have watched you all the time in your wanderings, 
 and now that you need me I am here to help you. Take my 
 Torah; study it, drink of it, the best mankind ever conceived, 
 the truest man ever spoke, the noblest man ever beheld, and 
 you shall live on and on." 
 
 Come, my friends, let us wake to that lesson today. 
 Let our hearts beat again with a love to our Torah that is to 
 give us strength as we go on in life. Let us come a step near- 
 er unto God. Let us forgive and be ready to forget, as God 
 does now. Let us come back to the old home, where love, 
 fidelity and blessing was perfect and true. Oh, come, gather 
 under my hand and let me bless you on this sacred evening 
 in the name of God and His teachings. 
 
 May God, who looks upon us from our going in to out- 
 going out, may He see that our sins be blotted out and on con- 
 tributions be acceptable before Him. May He in His great 
 mercy forgive the sinners of our present- conflict and bring our 
 sons back unto our homes. Amen.
 
 Be Not Afraid 13 
 
 BE NOT AFRAID 
 
 "Be not afraid, my servant Jacob, be not afraid, for I 
 will gather thee from the AVest and bring thee from the East" 
 and from all corners of the world." 
 
 This queer sentence, because of its tenderness and pathos, 
 and because of its protective mood and promising significance, 
 strikes deeply into the heart of the modern Jew and demands 
 the attention of the thinking Hebrew. Through the mouth of 
 the prophet God speaks to the child of His Bible. Ye, saith 
 God, although you have sinned and I have fully punished you, 
 chastised and scattered you all over the globe, yet, be not dis- 
 mayed, do not be afraid for I will gather thee and will call 
 thee to Me. 
 
 Upon my heart there group and pound feelings which re- 
 flect on my thoughts and cause my voice to be heard. My tears 
 are rushing forward and my senses cry with emotion. 
 
 There ai<e so many things which spring before my vision 
 and theie are so many aches which cause my cries that, now, 
 as I open the begining of our Torah to read, to learn, to 
 teach, I hesitate to dwell into its depths. 
 
 Hear ye, my brethren, out of the old ages appears the 
 shadow of the wandering Jew, out of the grey misty past there 
 looms up the suffering Hebrew. Out of the great histories of 
 the world's greatest achievements there comes the son of 
 Jacob. Out of the greatest joys given to the world there 
 shines forth the child of Abraham. Out of the lofty ocean of 
 ideals and hopes there radiates the loved ones of Isaac. And 
 oh, in all their appearances I always see the end tail leaving a 
 question mark. 
 
 Here, in the opening of our Bible, we have the greatest 
 gift to mankind. Only but yesterday the Jews celebrated the 
 Shimechath Torah the feasting and happiness of the Torah. 
 And tonight wo are reading the beginning of the Torah. Think, 
 that Torah which gave to the world the greatest hopes, that
 
 14 Be Not Afraid 
 
 Torah which regulated the civilized world and opened the eyes 
 of the blind and the ears of the deaf, that Torah which pro- 
 claims all men equal in the eyes of God and knows 110 hatred, 
 110 distinction of mankind, and yet, we, the bearer of this 
 gift, we the messenger of these hopes, today as well as yes- 
 terday, and perhaps tomorrow, must relate a story to the 
 child of Israel, that is full of woe and sorrow, and we must 
 always seek the reason for it. 
 
 We stand tonight face to face with facts which, however 
 indifferent one of the house of Israel may be, however apart 
 nt the household of Jacob one may be, however estranged and 
 unknown to the home of Isaac one may be, yet tonight every- 
 thing concerning that one's welfare, everything concerning 
 that one's principles, must necessarily arrest his thought and 
 bid him sit down, and listen! lest, it may bring him shame and 
 xorrow. 
 
 , I hear a voice. It seems faint and old, yet 1 hear it dis- 
 tinctly. "The Jew, the stumbling block of the world, how I 
 should love to see him exterminated," to which an answer 
 shouts, "let's do it." Then on the waters of Babel I hear 
 the lamenting songs of Israel and the wailing voices of the 
 mothers of Israel. But no sooner does the echo of these 
 sounds fade, I hear the stampeding hoot's of the crusaders, and 
 the bitter cry of the Jewish sufferers, and as the cry is still 
 lingering in the air, oh, I see the Inquisition and hear the ter- 
 rible cries of those dying on the rack or burned to death. 
 
 But now I hear a strong voice, nay it is not faint, nay it 
 is not strange, nay it is not old, I hear it and I know you hear 
 it too. The world today with broken codes and shattered 
 hopes, the world today with loose governments, dipped in a 
 river of blood of innocent victims, has suddenly drooped and 
 sunken back into the darkness of the cave ages and maddened 
 witli blood thirst passions, found the Jew its first and best 
 target. From all over the globe come to us reports of the 
 awful slaughter and ill treatment of the unfortunate brethren, 
 and with great fear- and deep sorrow 1 hear sometimes, here 
 and theie a voice, daring to accuse the Jew "of America. 
 
 WE WHO LOVE EV 7 ERY INCH OF THIS GREAT COUN-
 
 I!.- Not AlYuiil 
 
 TRY, WE WHO SHARE WITH THIS COUNTRY ITS RE- 
 VERSES AND JOYS, WE WHOSE SONS GLADLY DIED FOR 
 THE GLORY OF AMERICA, WE WHO AT THE VERY FIRST 
 CALL ARE NOW AND EVER READY TO DIE FOR THE BE- 
 LOVED COUNTRY OF OUR ADOPTION, yet there are some 
 fools and Jewbaiters who dare because THEY are not acting in 
 the glorious way and principles of America, that they want to 
 protect America from us! 
 
 Oh, when the songs of the birds are chirping, it scorns 
 to me they sing no other thing but of the glories of Amer- 
 ica. Oh, it seems to me when I hear the whispering winds 
 over the mountains and the valleys I hear no greater secret 
 than that of love for America. And when my heart and my 
 soul are leaping with joy it is only of our great country, 
 America. Ye, it is not only I but every one of you, I know it. 
 
 But the thunders are growing, the lightnings are flashing, 
 the rain of slander is beating down heavier and with it our 
 hearts grow perturbed and we lift our hands to God in heaven 
 asking Him for His mercy. 
 
 What is the answer? Oh, hear, my brothers; hear, my 
 friends. "BE NOT AFAID," no, no, "be not afraid, I will bring 
 thee to Me from the East and the scattered from the West." 
 No, I will not keep thee only in Zion, no I will not let thee 
 only in the countries of the West, but I w r ill gather thee to me. 
 
 What does it mean? Thus, there will come a time when all 
 the world shall perceive and know that there is only but one 
 God, one humanity, one love, one race, one creed, to mankind, 
 and then thou, oh Israel, my child shall be loved and shall be 
 respected, for the world will come to thee to seek the model 
 banner and the threads which will sew the golden symbols on 
 the flag of Humanity, the cloth which has been woven by thee 
 from age to age and colored and then recolored, ay! with 
 thy blood. 
 
 Therefore, I say unto thee, my friends, come let us open 
 our Torah with a joyful heart for after all God smiles to us 
 and His promises never fail. Be ye then of good cheer and let 
 us attempt to study the word of God, so that we can fully 
 realize its significance and understand its joys. Amen.
 
 16 Castles In Ihe Air 
 
 CASTLES IN THE AIR 
 
 And they said, "Let Us Make Ourselves a Name." 
 
 The skies have cleared away, the water has receded, the 
 tops of the mountains seemed to have climbed out of the 
 water like great giants. The sun once more paced across the 
 great expansion of the heavens, while the birds merrily flew 
 from top to top, chirping their aerial melodies. 
 
 God has made peace with Mankind and entered into a 
 covenant that He shall never again destroy the living beings 
 from the face of the earth, giving His signs in the rainbow on 
 the clouds. And so the people multiplied and lived happily 
 after the deluge. 
 
 But in the course of events, then like now and now like 
 then, the mind of the human being searched restlessly and tho 
 heart of the living longed for the unknown. So as they grew 
 and became stronger and wiser, they began to seek counsel as 
 to their stability and protection. And so remembering the 
 great and terrible catastrophe their first and most anxious de- 
 sire was to avert another one like it. "Hovoh," said they, "let 
 us get together and see if we can not build a tower which top 
 shall reach into the heaven, lest another flood comes, and 
 then "let us make ourselves a name." 
 
 What a beautiful mirror to reflect our lives in and what 
 a severe lesson to learn! 
 
 How often do we hold council with ourselves for the ulti- 
 mate desire of every living being protection. How often do 
 we labor and toil for safety. How often do we waste our 
 lives in attempts to avert the suffering of a downfall. Yes, 
 how often do we strive to reach the top, to over-do everybody, 
 to outshine everyone, to be called the elite, to peep into the 
 heavens. Yes, we want to make a tower and gain a name 
 for ourselves, and in all these .-it tempts we- forget to consider 
 God.
 
 Castles In the Air 1 
 
 Ye, we build castles, we build towers, we want to become 
 famous, and we want to fight off God's decrees. 
 
 Hear ye, my brethren. There are families who build 
 castles in the ah-. They want to establish themselves at the 
 top. "Oh," saith the mother, "my son, he shall be the leading 
 man of the community; "oh," saith the mother, "my daughter 
 shall unite with the most splendid in the city." "Oh," saith 
 the father bent upon the books, while his mind is perturbed 
 and perspiration of weakness drip down on the wide books, 
 over-worked and feeling the yoke getting heavier and heavier, 
 yet, "oh," saith he, "I shall establish myself a castle, I shall 
 win myself a name." They build and labor, they hope and 
 toil, they strive and struggle. But through all of these days 
 they forget one thing, the consideration of God's will. 
 
 And then, like the story of our Bible, when the least re- 
 sistance comes, or when illness arrives, when God had per- 
 ceived that in their gain, their hearts grew proud, their minds 
 stiff, for they have grown selfish and boasted all their gain as 
 due to their own struggle and labor, He turns the wheel. Oh, 
 it is then when they, like the story, go to pieces, become sep- 
 arated. The children know not their parent and the parent 
 can not know their children. For as their castles crumble, 
 the tower breaking down, they find the children speaking a 
 different language, the language of the spoiled, while they 
 speak the language of the suffering struggler. 
 
 But oh, I have seen people who build towers in their 
 minds. They want to reach into heaven and peep into the 
 workings of God. People who, thinking themselves capable 
 thinkers, have attempted to find the ways of God. Think, my 
 friends, to find the way of God. Answer ye, how do the stars 
 t \\iiikle, how do the winds gather, where does the sun come 
 from, whither does she go? Why does the dog bark and the 
 horse neigh? Why does the bird chirp and the hen crow? 
 Why are some rich and others poor? Why do some die and 
 some live too long? Where is God's dwelling and who are His 
 angels? These people who build their towers to reach into the 
 heavens so that they may look into the workings of God have
 
 18 Castles In the Air 
 
 so far been confused. No one as yet has properly established 
 one real practical theory. It is all confusion, in the end. 
 
 Today we have the same attempts of reaching into the 
 heavens. Vain desires to get a name. Capital built its castles 
 and strove for a name, and today it is all confusion. Labor 
 endeavors now to get a name and build castles in the air and 
 it is all confusion. The world at large was building castles 
 in the air and it is all confusion. Why? Because capital 
 forgot the ways of God, consideration, love and service. Labor 
 is neglecting the ways of God, Duty and Kindness. The world 
 has attempted to avert catastrophes in establishing and stag- 
 ing the fiercest battle the world ever saw, not taking God's 
 plans into consideration, and now it is all confusion. 
 
 Therefore I come to you tonight pressing the lesson upon 
 your hearts and printing it on your mind that, while one must 
 plan, while one must work, while one must have ambition, 
 while one must think, yet in all of the above let us always take 
 God into consideration. Let us always remember that boast- 
 ing one's gain is a miserable sin against God and mankind. 
 I^et us remember that to dwell too much into the depths of 
 God's ways will only confuse us. We must accept a good deal 
 for we know not better. Let us above all not build too great 
 castles in the air. Let us develop the sense of satisfaction, for 
 in the desire of reaching out too high we very often invite 
 great misery, because then one can never be happy or satis- 
 fied, for there is always some one higher, better, richer, 
 happier. Our happiness, our consolation, our satisfaction, we 
 find with ourselves, therefore while it is well to make one's 
 name, yet it is well to make same without forgetting the ever- 
 lasting fatherly eye of God. Hold this mirror against you, 
 look into it once in a while as you go out into the streets of 
 Mankind. Amen.
 
 19 
 
 COME THEE. AN ECHO OF GO THEE 
 
 And God said unto Abraham, "Go thee, from thy land, 
 from thy birth place, and from thy father's house, into the 
 land which I will show thee." 
 
 There are certain things which remain in the circle of 
 human events and follow humanity throughout ages. For in- 
 stance, the desire to understand and grasp the power of the 
 unknown. Mankind always saught to worship a power. Bach 
 according to its mode of living and in a measure with its 
 intellect. 
 
 Thus, let us take for example. Love, that tender 
 and sacred feeling, which in its ripe and holy state, spurs one 
 to the noblest and bravest deeds in life. This Ltove has whirled 
 along with ages. But with Israel, aside from all these things 
 something of a different nature, not in thought, not in feel- 
 ing, not in abstract form, but in reality, and in its very life 
 lias clung to its existence throughout ages. 
 
 Our history as a Jewish nation commences with Abraham. 
 Our pride of a conception of God begins with Abraham. We 
 are the children of Abraham. And that cry which rang out in 
 the land of Mesopotamia, that cry which Abraham gladly 
 heeded to, has swept along with the ages and it still here. 
 
 What is is? Hark, the ever resounding cry, the painful 
 message, the martyr's crown of glory, Israel inheritance of 
 Abraham, "GO THEE." And that voice, that finger, which 
 spoke and pointed to father Abraham, has ever been the cry 
 of ages, to Israel "Go Thee." 
 
 Brethren, the words "Go thee' bring a deep sigh out of 
 the breasts of millions of Jews. The word "Go thee" is writ- 
 ten with the blood of Israel on its thick volumnous books of 
 history. 
 
 God said to Abraham, "Go the<> out of thy birth place, out 
 of thy home," and Abraham wanders away. Only but one
 
 20 Come Thee, An Echo of Go Thee 
 
 generation later, and Abimelech speaks to Isaac, "Laich 
 Maieemoiioo," "Go thee from among us." One generation 
 later and Kebecca speaks to her own son Jacob, "Go thee, nay 
 run away, thy life is in danger." A few generations later the 
 Egyptians say "Go thee." OH, GO THEE, ISRAEL. Every 
 land, every nation, every age, every generation remembers that 
 "Go thee." 
 
 Upon the portals of ages, upon the sands of the deserts, 
 upon the high seas, upon the frozen snow covered fields, there 
 are posts and signs, "Go Thee." . Go thee, Israel . . . Here you 
 are too mighty. Hei-e you are too learned. Here you are too 
 mercenary. Here you are too obnoxious. Constantly ever- 
 lastingly, eternally, there is that "Go thee." 
 
 Thy feet are sore, but "go thee," thy hands are swollen 
 but "Go thee," thou art faint but "Go thee." You are a loyal 
 citizen but "Go thee." . You create industries but "Go thee." 
 You are rendering your life for your adopted country, but 
 "Go thee." 
 
 It cries from one corner of the globe into another. It swims 
 across the sky and it floats with the passing clouds. It rises 
 with the sun and looms up with the moon. Everlastingly, 
 that "Go thee." 
 
 Oh, Israel, like a forlorn and frightened child, 
 stands in the middle of the Universe floor, bewildered. He 
 makes step after step fearingly. He steps and falls, he falls 
 and steps, for there is that cry, "Go thee." "Go thee " "Go 
 thee, my child," saith God; "Go thee. learn to walk, to run, 
 never mind the difficulties, for yonder awaits you open arms 
 of the loving Father, ready to receive you, as you walk across. 
 Go, go go!" 
 
 Oh, but it is that very cry, it is that very step which 
 brings to us the reward and great consolation. Have you ever 
 watched, you fathers and mothers the learning of a baby's 
 walk. "Go, go," speaks encouragingly the mother, leaving 
 the little tot to walk across the floor tremblingly into his 
 father's arms. "Oh," thinks that little one. "What a dis- 
 tance, how merciless my mother is." Go thee, go thee, and it
 
 Come Thee. An Echo of Go Thee 1 J 1 
 
 is so far and so difficult. But on the other side the arms of the 
 loving father are stretched out to embrace and receive the 
 child. 
 
 Ye, it is so with us. We, the children of God, the child 
 of the world; yes, the plaything of the ignorant and the in- 
 tellectual. While it seems so long, so hard, so ruthless to 
 leave us alone, and the cry is so bitter and so loud, "Go thee, 
 Go thee," yet I say unto thee, Go, Go, for the Father on the 
 other side is holding out His arms to receive thee in His great 
 Fatherly love. 
 
 Ye, we too must, like our father Abraham be the bearers 
 of the Truth and Oneness of God. We must say to one an- 
 other, "Go thee." Carry on your mission, for thus saith God. 
 "Go thee from thy land, from thy home, until I show thee thy 
 place, thy land. And then you shall rest lovingly in the 
 mercies of God's arms." 
 
 And from the hill tops of Zion, in the courts of the Tem- 
 ple, in the forest of Lebanon, vibrates the singing melodies of 
 Israel, the priests and the shepherd. Ye, AN ECHO OF "GO 
 THEE." WHICH SOUNDS "COME THEE," "COME THEE." 
 For every gras and blade, every ray and spark of the earth 
 and sun shall smile to thee, saying, "Come thee, Come thee; 
 this is the place God has chosen for thee." Ye, whereer the 
 sun shines and wherever the grass grows, thou shalt be wel- 
 come. Am on.
 
 22 Forward, Do Not Turn Back 
 
 And the angels said unto the family of Lot, "Do not turn 
 back. In thy escape from evil and unrighteousness you must 
 go ahead, ever forward; do not turn back." 
 
 Under the horizon of the sky there are millions of stars. 
 Each star has its past. Each star tells a different tale. Each 
 star travels its own destiny. Each star is a guiding post to 
 the voyagers on sea and to the wanderers on land. Each 
 star sparkled with radiancy of joy and each star faded under 
 the heavy thick clouds. But all these stars are making their 
 headway into the great and deep depth of the future. Often 
 when a. star hastily, in running its course turns backward to 
 glance over the vast space left behind, it misses its route and 
 then it plunges millions of miles earthward. FORWARD, OX- 
 WARD, FUTUREWARD, that is the LAW OF THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 On! eternal race of the stars and moons, the sun and the 
 planets. On! eternal race of time and space. On! eternal race 
 of life and death. On! eternal race of youth and age. On! eter- 
 nal race of spirit and body. No one of these dare to halt, all 
 must speed headway. Turning back spells ruin and complete 
 loss. Thus is the course of things everlastingly, and thus is 
 the lesson individually. Yes, even more so nationally, nay 
 exceedingly more important religiously. 
 
 The inhabitants of the earthly globe the people who 
 master this soil, are much like the stars above. Each man, 
 each woman, like a star is placed into this world. Each one of 
 them glides on and on, toward the inevitable course. Each 
 one of them has, like the stars above, been placed as a guid- 
 ing post to the future generation. Each one of them has some 
 time trembled like the stars above with radiancy of joy and 
 happiness. Each one of them must like the stars above roll 
 on and on, pacing the globe. Never for a moment can one of 
 them stop to look back, for the universe has its set course,
 
 Forward, Do Not Turn Duck 
 
 like the stars above, when daring to look 011 the space left be-, 
 hind, are doomed to fall away from the regular route. For 
 other stars come on and other people take their place. 
 
 Thus we read, that when the angels of God came to the 
 rescue of lot and his family, the only law revealed to them of 
 God's plan was, "DO NOT TURN BACK." 
 
 Angels! What are they? Ye, the messengers of God. 
 Our own clean conscience, our own pure deeds, our own clean 
 imagination, and the accepted symbol of the world we lie in, 
 the little child. Oh, the little child with wings on its back. 
 The child, the future generation, the coming thing into our 
 lives, into our actions, into our great happiness. 
 
 Mark ye, then, Sodom was despised by God, doomed to 
 destruction. Why? And what were its main sins? The 
 Bible points out to us. 
 
 Selfishness, Inhospitality, Greed. So God sent down his 
 angels, what does it mean? The child of the future came into 
 action. Behold, he has come to save the forlorn Sodomites. 
 What does the child say? I will destroy thee, I will do away 
 with your old habits and your old customs, ye, I will utterly 
 wipe out your past lives, that is the way you were living, and 
 will rescue those who are willing to go onward, to leave be- 
 hind the things which caused the destruction of Sodom and 
 Gemorah. 
 
 Look ye, Selfishness has now opened its own ugly mouth 
 and is devouring the people who fed it. Selfishness, that evil 
 habit which besets one's heart and in due time like a 
 leech draws the very vitality of its existence leaving it an 
 empty shell burning under its own beastly desires, and in- 
 evitably brings one to lie hated, despised and forgotten. 
 Come, leave these things behind, go on forward, never turn 
 back, to those things, else you shall be turned into a pillar of 
 salt, thus saith the child of the future. 
 
 While I am as human as you are, while I am no angel, 
 yet I come to you, in the sertse of a messenger, thus saying to 
 you. Brethren, those of you who are dwelling in the cities 
 of Sodom and Amorah, practicing their modes of living Look
 
 24 Forward, Do Not Turn Back 
 
 ye, not in ages forgotten, not in the beginning of mankind, not 
 in the biblical writings, but in our own present, in our own 
 daily life these things are taking place. The present world of 
 Sodom and Amorah is bending under its own sins; the 
 world of Sodom and Amorah is burning under its own fire. 
 SELFISHNESS HAS STARTED IT; INHOSPITALITY HAS 
 HELPED THE CONFLAGRATION, and GREED HAS EATEN 
 THEM UP. 
 
 Israel, I grasp your hand and say unto thee: Come out 
 of it. Do not turn back to those things. Come, saith God, 
 unto thee. Another life, another love, another glory, another 
 joy is awaiting thee. Do not turn back. We rannot afford to 
 remain pillars of salt; we must accept the call, to flee out 
 of these habits and in doing so we must go onward and for- 
 ward. Never mind the past; we all have a past. Never mind 
 the has been, we all of us the world at large only but yes- 
 terday became a has been. Run away from these things. Let 
 your eye rest on the future. The child, the angel is calling 
 out unto thee, What of the Future? 
 
 Come let us as we flee away from the past meet the future 
 with our eyes fixed on the goal, like the stars ever gliding 
 onward to meet God. Therefore, may I not then ask you, to 
 strengthen yourselves and do your utmost for the future of 
 the Temple, the city, the country. Never mind the past. 
 What of the future? Hear ye not the angels, DO NOT TURN 
 BACK; will you heed to that cry? Amen.
 
 I Seek My Brethren 25 
 
 I SEEK MY BRETHERN 
 
 "Oth Achai onochee m, vakesh." 
 
 Whom seekest thou? 
 
 Upon the strings of the human heart many chords are 
 being intuned. The heart as a soft and tender instrument in 
 the hand of fate, readily responds to the ever so many inter* 
 ludes of the master hand. Sometimes the strings of the heart 
 are so sympathetically moved that the melodies which come 
 out of it are full with emotion, and when the strings of the 
 heart are in progress, there is no need for an artist or the 
 developed ear to understand the motif. Who has not been 
 touched by the cry of a child when it is hungry and cold. 
 AVho has stood unmoved when the body of the one we love 
 most is slowly descending into the grave? Who did not feel 
 a quiver at the very fibres of one's existence when your friend 
 instructs you the last message? Who was not responsive 
 when your child whom you held in your arms burnt with fever 
 and called to you in tones of pain, "Daddy, daddy!"? Oh, 
 those melodies played upon, by nature, on the strings of the 
 human heart, are sad, mysterious, pleading and inspiring. 
 
 The heart is the instrument upon which the thoughts and 
 the feelings of the man are being touched by the master artist 
 in this case the experiences of life. 
 
 Yet, like the violin, so the heart. While it is necessary 
 to vary the key of the instrument in order to produce certain 
 melodies, still the perfect violin has the strings so arranged 
 that when the bow glides over its surface there will always 
 be the basic harmonious chord. So is it with the human 
 heart. While our hearts are moved intensely, passionately, 
 eagerly, lovingly, worshipiiigly, oirfy when in touch with 
 love, with passion, with curiosity, with religion, yet the 
 basis of all humanity, the everlasting chord which is found 
 in the ordinary man and woman is the feeling, the desire, the
 
 26 I Seek My Brethren 
 
 wish to cultivate a friend, ye, a friend whom one can call 
 "BROTHER!" 
 
 The word BROTHER seems to interpret a word of feel- 
 ings. When one enters a secret organization, the first token 
 of friendship he receives it, that he shall be called "brother." 
 
 "How good and how sweet it is for brethren, to dwell to- 
 gether," saith our great singer. We are styled as children 
 of one God, so that we can call ourselves the brothers of one 
 family. Ever since ages past there always seemed to be a 
 desire that one can call another brother. Brother, that word 
 which holds the heart of humanity captivated. 
 
 Thus we come in touch with the very basis of the story 
 read in this week's portion. Alone, with a longing heart for 
 his good wife Rachel, old and unable to tend to his sheep, 
 he fondled and caressed the child of the woman he so loved 
 and because of his youthfulness, kept him by his side. But 
 Jacob the Patriarch, was afraid that little Joseph will forget 
 his brethren, nay that we will not fully understand the value 
 of a brother, so he speaks unto him, to go down to the fields 
 and visit his brethren. 
 
 And we are told Joseph wandered aimlessly, lost in the 
 distance of the fields. Why was he lost and what does it re- 
 late as a lesson? Oh, hear ye, Israel! 
 
 Joseph, a spoiled child, estranged from his brothers, stood 
 alone in the wide fields. Ye, like many of those who think 
 that all we need in this world is to take care of one's self and 
 the rest, well, let them worry. 
 
 There are Josephs who rush madly after worldly gain 
 and in their race for wealth stop at nothing. The widows cry, 
 the orphan's tear, the hungry babies, the sick, the weary, the 
 forlorn, the unfortunate, all these are nothing to them. All 
 they see is get and get and get, more and more and then more. 
 There are Josephs who while devoted and loving to their Own 
 immediate family are hard and unsympathetic to everyone 
 else. All they want is more and more for themselves. More 
 luxuries, more comforts, more machines; ye, -they forget the 
 other fellow has a family too, and loves them just as well.
 
 I Seek My Brethren 
 
 Alone, alone to themselves they live, forgetting, estranging 
 themselves from the other brothers. There are Josephs in the 
 Jewish world today who stand alone. They wish not to be 
 known to their own brethren. They care not to know their 
 own brethren. And while my heart tears asunder and from 
 my soul a cry of anguish cries out, yet it is a fact that some 
 are ashamed t have those brethren. Thus, parceled up and 
 broken in pieces, the son of Israel stands in the midst of this 
 wide world, estranged, forlorn, with his eye searching cast 
 and his feet planted in the west, with his soul rising in the 
 skies, and physic degenerated, because his heart has lost the 
 BASIC CHORD OF BROTHERHOOD, he stands alone. From 
 all sides, voices are heard of singing. From everywhere waves 
 of joy are being wafted, all is merry, but the son of Israel 
 stands there lost. Whither shall he turn? whither shall he go? 
 where shall he set his goal; where shall he find what he seeks? 
 
 And a man found him and asked him, "what seekest 
 thee?" Joseph was startled. "I? You ask me what I seek? 
 I seek not love. I seek not hatred. I seek not quarrel or mis- 
 understanding. I seek not wealth or power. I seek not pos- 
 session or gain. Oh! but I SEEK THE CHORD OF MY HEART. 
 I seek my brethren. ETH ACHI AM MVAKESH. 'My brothers 
 do I seek.' The children of my father. My brethren do I seek 
 who feel my pain and my woe. My brethren do I seek who 
 understand my sigh and my cry. My brethren do I seek who 
 will embrace and love me in spite of my faults. My brethren 
 do I seek, who will come to me and say, 'Together we suffer, 
 together we are misunderstood; therefore let us in love help 
 one another." 
 
 Oh, my brothers, do I seek who know no differ- 
 ence of Reform and Orthodoxy, but who feel the throbbing 
 heart of his brother. Brother, brother, where art thou? I 
 have a regard to you from our Father. Our Fathers in their 
 graves speak unto us. Each one to his own. Go seek thy 
 bethren. Xay, wait not until he come to you. Go find him, 
 wheiever he may be. Tell him my pains are your pains, thy 
 sorro\vs are my sorrows. Thy hunger is my hunger, thy tear
 
 28 I Seek My Brethren 
 
 is my tear. Tell him Father has sent me to you. 
 
 Oh, those tears of the son of Israel, those words of the 
 child of Jacob, those tears of the symbolic Joseph, are here 
 in profound vision and language. 
 
 Thus I plead to you, children of Israel. In these times 
 of great misunderstanding, let us go to seek our brethren. Let 
 us say one to another, Brother, thou art grieved, I grieve with 
 thee, but the Lord loves and He will not forsake us. Let us 
 find our hearts and listen to the melodies played upon it by 
 the Jewish masterhand. JEWISH FEELINGS, and JEWISH 
 ASPIRATIONS W T HICH IS NOTHING MORE THAN THE 
 HOPE AND DREAM OF AGES THAT THE WHOLE W 7 ORLD 
 SHALL REALLY AND TRULY CALL ONE ANOTHER 
 BROTHER. Brother in every sense of the word, so that preju- 
 dice, hatred, class Aght, race distinction, will forever vanish 
 into the archives of the ages which shall be looked back to as 
 the ages of the modern barbarian. Because the sun shall pour 
 its sweet rays to all, and the moon shall smile to all. Under 
 the wide skies the whole human race shall be gathered sing- 
 ing praise to God for his FATHERHOOD and our BROTHER- 
 HOOD. Amen.
 
 Get Together 
 
 GET TOGETHER 
 
 (Friday After Christmas) 
 
 And Jacob called unto his sons and said, "Gather your- 
 selves together that I may tell you that which shall befall you 
 in the end of the days." 
 
 Happy days and pleasant, sweet hours have been enjoyed 
 by a large proportion of the peoples of the earth. The clam* 
 orous sounds of the bells are still vibrating somewhere in the 
 distance. The world sang wonderful songs and offered pro- 
 found worship to its Lord. Everywhere, on the top of a hill 
 in a very humble mountain log cabin and in the most luxurious 
 homes or great public places, smiles and blessings were in 
 plenty. The heart of the world has grown warm for that time 
 and the soul of humanity has brightened up. The great world 
 family gathered around the fireside. Fathers, mothers, sis- 
 ters and brothers danced a merry dance within their own 
 homes. 
 
 While these songs and prayers, smiles and merriment 
 were being showered, someone, they call him the STEP CHILD 
 of the world, stood outside looking into the windows of the 
 world. Burning with a passion to smile, yearning with a flre 
 in his heart to sing, craving with love to worship, he, the 
 step child Israel stood outside the window peeping in. 
 
 Oh, he hears his father's name spoken in song and prayer. 
 He hears his people's melodies chanted. He hears his fam- 
 ilies' noble doctrine preached, ye, he recognizes everything of 
 his own, yet this step child stands outside, just looking 
 into the window, while in his heart there is a wound of great 
 pain. 
 
 Gather yourselves together, so that I may tell you, 
 speaks Jacob. Ye, with your hearts rent apart, with your 
 aims different, with your goals widely separated, with your
 
 30 Get Together 
 
 memories blighted and your family traditions forgotten, I can- 
 not reveal to you any thing. For when my soul reaches out 
 into the great future beholding the full glories in sight, those 
 of you who are so different and apart, will not be able to con- 
 ceive the same idea and the same fact. 
 
 For, saith Jacob, you must be together to grasp my mean- 
 ing. So long as what one believes to be right is wrong with 
 ,the other, and so long as one feels that his conception of things 
 is more sound and better judged, so long as one worships love, 
 /another worships power, so long as one desires pleasure and 
 aiiot her wisdom, so long as one wants wealth and another 
 f*une 7 well then, you ,.will fail to penetrate int ( o the great end. 
 .i For ; in stance, if I shall reveal to you that the end will 
 
 be. one God and one people, some of will, sa^v "but the Je\ys 
 they .have not accepted,, (Jod's son," therefore, "we who do not 
 agree with them can not apply your prpphecy of., the end," 
 
 Some will say, "wq who worship only one gre,at God cannot 
 
 'desecrate i_our belief in joining with the worshipers of , other 
 parts of God." Some will say, "we cannot join with either one 
 
 'of- those, because they have not accepted our great teacher 
 the Mohammed and have not read our Corean." Some will 
 sa y "but we canno^ at all conceive the idea of God, there is no 
 
 , God and we are atheists." 
 
 ; Or if I shall reveal to you that there, will be .a time .when 
 the. mad rush of nion,ey will cease, then some will say, "it is 
 
 not possible. For without the desire for money industries will 
 cease, rthe world .will become languid and there will be no 
 progress." Or if I ( should tell you that everybody will labor 
 
 and there, will be more capital, some will say that this is 
 
 ' j ' . - i , ; > ,. jij,.,- , .', , 
 
 absurd, .since there must be a brain to industry and the pro- 
 
 .. moter, developer, thinker, should and must get what "he is 
 entitled to. Jf I should, tell you that the time will come when 
 there shall be no separated governments but the whole world 
 will be one country, some of you will grow angry and exclaim 
 this is impossible. \Vest ard Erst never meet and white and 
 yellow never greet. If I shall tell you that sometime the 
 planets will all meet and the woids 'swimming in the space
 
 Get Together 31 
 
 now will unite into .one huge world, some of you wiTl scien- 
 tifically declare that I am not correct, since there are elemen- 
 tary impossibilities. How then can I speak to you? Get then 
 together so that I may reveal to you the end. 
 
 First, let us see, is there an end? They tell us the sun 
 goes down, but does it not shine elsewhere? They tell us the 
 -stars fade, but do they not glitter elsewhere? They tell us the 
 winds subside, . , but do they not rage elsewhere? They tell us 
 the storm has abated, but does it not toss its waves else- 
 >where the waves which wash one shore come and go, and 
 then disappear, only to brush up against an island hidden from 
 ;our sight, vpr to touch some far shore of another land? 
 i Everything In this world of purs turns back to a certain 
 
 function. We fatten the earth, with the waste of the earth, we 
 feed our flesh with the flesh of flesh. ; One thing supports an- 
 other. It is only the invisible chain ..we cannot behold. The end 
 is sometimes the beginning. Who wants to believe that the eyes 
 .which now behold the loved ones and the dear ones will, cease 
 to see them when the body grows cold? Who wants to be- 
 . lieve that the heart, which is now warm with love will cease 
 to love because the heart ,wil)l stop? Is not our will power 
 greater? ..Who is .master after all? Is it not the 1? And if 
 we stop to exist in our present form, does it mean that our 
 I will stop? There is no end. Oftentimes when we speak, 
 our voices, seemingly become ; hushed after we close pur lips. 
 But is it so? Our sounds are taken up by the air and carried 
 away, and it travels somewhere, where it is picked up to be- 
 come language again. 
 
 What then does Jacob mean when he speaks to his chil- 
 dren of the end? Oh, that is what I have pictured to you in 
 the beginning. The children of Jacob standing on the out- 
 side, while the world is aglow with joy, ask one another witli 
 tears in their eyes, "when will come the end to all that?" 
 "WHEN AVILL THE WORLD OPEN ITS DOOUS TO MAKE 
 THE ACQUAINTANCE OP HIS BROTHER?" When will the 
 world remember that it is feasting on our tables and that our 
 father is the provider?" When will the world sing the songs of
 
 32 Get Together 
 
 our family without a feeling of bitter hatred? "Oh," cries 
 Israel, the step child, "when will be the end?" 
 
 Thus saitli Jacob, "come here, I will tell you when. GET 
 TOGETHER, and when you do get together you will see the 
 end." 
 
 Get together, Israel, and shake off the dust which you 
 have accumulated in thy long travels over the lands of the 
 world. Get together Israel and wash your hands clean from 
 the degenerate of your own. Get together Israel, and light 
 the homes of your own with worship and love, with song and 
 tradition, with the love and happiness of your own people. 
 Get together Israel; bring your children to your fireside and 
 tell them the tales of your great. Get together Israel and 
 once for all realize that you are on the outside when the 
 world is feasting. Get together Israel and once for all un- 
 derstand that you aie brethren, of one father, of one family, 
 of one fate, of one liking, of one judgment, or rather you are 
 all of one, being misjudged. Get together and tear your mask 
 off, for you are recognized under any pretense. 
 
 Israel, if you want to know your end, it is only in getting 
 together. Then it shall be that the words of the prophet will 
 come shiningly upon the surface of the skies, pouring its words 
 into eery heart and every home. "V, hoioh baiom hahee v, 
 shochanti b, sochom." "And it shall be that on that day I 
 shall dwell with them and and among them, when they shall 
 get together." Amen.
 
 Three Promises 33 
 
 THREE PROMISES 
 
 'Friday Eve.. New Year of 1920) 
 
 "In the future shall Jacob yet take root. Israel shall 
 bud and blossom, and shall fill the place of the world with 
 fruit." 
 
 It is very befitting to meet with a sentence in our reading 
 of the weekly portion the Haphtorah, which speaks of the 
 future of Jacob and Israel, as the New Year of 1020 is ushered 
 in. The future always speaks from the present and the pres- 
 ent must have a past. Thus the prophet comes tonight and 
 like a shining light points out to us at the beginning of our 
 calendar year the future. In the future shall Jacob yet take 
 root, is one promise. Israel shall bud and blossom, is another 
 promise, and shall fill the place of the world with fruit, is an- 
 other promise. Thus we have three distinct promises, Root, 
 Bloosom, Fruit. 
 
 With a quivering heart do we touch the note which .strikes 
 the sounds of our prophets. Sometimes it rings out in all its 
 beauty and loveliness, and at times it speaks in angry and even 
 in disappointed expressions. How queer it is when the world 
 at large whistles forth its joys and delights, when the peo- 
 ples are lifting their goblets, wishing one another, "Happy 
 New Year," we too hear the words of the prophet speaking to 
 us of a future. Yes, of future years. And what about the 
 past? 
 
 People sing of the future because their past has given 
 them the thrill of happiness and glories. People rejoice in the 
 future because they have a very pleasant present, but Israel 
 and Jacob, what hast thou to feast and sing? Where are thy 
 joys of the past and where art thou in the present? 
 
 "Ring out the old, ring in the New," we hear in every 
 home and at every assembly of merrymakers on the New 
 Year, but Israel what year can you ring out, what year is old
 
 34 Three Promises 
 
 to you? and what may you ring in? Each year hrings a sigh 
 and leaves a woe which is traceahle on every corridor of time. 
 Each year hrings pain and leaves a wound to he treated in 
 the next year. Israel, ' : trembling with -much pain, looks hack 
 into the years that have sped away, and fearfully heholds the 
 years which are coming on. 
 
 Somehow the heart of Israel, I mean the Israel who feels 
 keenly the disturbance of his own people. Israel whose heart 
 palpitates with a pulsating love for his own brother. Israel 
 who understands his religion, Israel, who conceives the great 
 misfortunes that have befallen him from time to time. Ye, 
 that Israel's heart is gnawing and biting with questions, and 
 tearing away the very life of his being as an individual. 
 
 Who wants the prophet to come and speak to us of the 
 future? "Why promises of the future? "My eyes are sore from 
 crying, speak not to me of the future," saith the exiled Jew 
 Who is brutally driven from one place of danger into another. 
 "My heart is broken from the great misfortunes which have 
 visited me in my exile and I cannot hear of thy future," ye, 
 
 "I've see the smiling 
 Of fortunes beguiling; 
 I've felt it favors, and found its decay; 
 Sweet was its blessing, 
 Kind it's caressing; 
 But now it is fled fled far away. 
 
 "Oh^ fickle fortune, 
 Why this cruel sporting? 
 Oh, why still perplex us, poor sons of a day? 
 No more your frowns can fear me, 
 For the promises of the past are faded away.." 
 
 / " ' . ' . ' ' ; 
 
 But hark! while these speak and others lament, while 
 these sing and others feast, the voice of our great and sacred 
 prophet flashes across the sky which seems so dark and stormy 
 looking, like a bright lightning under a heavy dark cloud.
 
 Three Promises 35 
 
 His voice vibrates like the thunder which follows the light- 
 ning, pounding its meaning into our hearts. 
 
 "Jacob, thou art dismayed and grieved, you are forlorn, 
 and you are not inclined to hear my words," nay, "thou must 
 hear and thou shalt be happy." 
 
 "My first promise to you is that thou shalt take root. 
 Thy thoughts were sublime, thy feelings tender, thy heart 
 soft and kind, thy voice consoling and cheering, but thy feet 
 wandered from one place unto another, you were here and 
 there. Thy children, they have not agreed with you. Thy 
 parents they did not understand you, thy neighbors they did 
 not listen to you and so you changed from day to day seeking 
 adaptation to the soil upon which you were accidentally 
 blown upon by the whims of the winds. But now, I have 
 come to plant thee, not in every clime and every age, not in 
 every state and eery country, but I have come to plant thee 
 so that you can take root. 
 
 "Ye, I know thy woes and I feel thy sorrows, I have cried 
 with thee and hoped with hee, but do you know why you have 
 gone through all these trials? Because thy root was not 
 planted. When a wind came which swept across a country, 
 you were the fiist one to be torn away with it. The least 
 unrest moved you from one place to another because your 
 root was not planted. You were not on your own feet, you 
 were weak, you were changeable, but now I have come to 
 plant thee so that you take root. 
 
 "Let the winds be ever so strong, let the storms be ever 
 so fierce, let the peoples be ever so brutal and bloodthirsty, 
 fear not! for you have come to take root, and thy branches 
 shall go deeper and ever becoming stronger and stronger, 
 you will become unmovable. 
 
 "But you shall not merely become fast in the earth and 
 remain desolate and old and forsake and ugly, nay, nay, you 
 shall bear buds and blossoms, j Thy blossoms shall be the 
 beauty of the world. And when the world will want to find u 
 sign of beauty and love, it shall come to thy garden to find the 
 blossom which shall send forth its fragrance wide over the
 
 36 Three Promises 
 
 world and its peoples. Ye, it shall not even then he a blossom 
 only which fades away, for sweet as the rose may be it with- 
 ers on its stem, but you shall bear fruit.] Thy lofty and noble 
 principles shall be the fruit of the world which shall feed on 
 it. Thy fruit shall fill the world and shall bring blessings 
 upon Humanity!" 
 
 Fear ye not then. Oh ye Israel. Ring out the old and ring 
 in the new. Sing with the world at large, for thy root is tak- 
 ing and thy blossom is wonderful and thy fruit exquisite and 
 delicious. 
 
 The voice of the prophet dies away in the stillness of 
 the hour, leaving a peculiar feeling of consolation with us all. 
 Silently do we take the lesson and silently are we placing our 
 trust that the root, the blossom, the fruit, will come to us in 
 the new year of 1920. So time speeds on and we sit here in 
 the wake of the prophet's words, waiting hopefully for our 
 future, watching its advance with eyes of hope and hearts at 
 peace, for the prophet hath spoken. Amen.
 
 A Mother's Heart 37 
 
 A MOTHER'S HEART 
 
 "And when she could no longer hide him, she took for 
 him a box of bulrushes and daubed it with slime and with 
 pitch; and she put the child therein, and laid it amidst the 
 flags by the river. 
 
 "And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash her- 
 self at the river, and her maidens walked along by the side 
 of the river, and when she saw the box among the flags she 
 sent her maidens and fetched it. 
 
 "And she opened it, and saw the child and behold, it was 
 a weeping boy; and she hath compassion on him. and said, 
 'This is one of the Hebrew children.' " 
 
 In these sentences we have the following characters: 
 First a mother, heartbroken, hiding her child, then w y hen it 
 is impossible for sake of the rest of the family trying to shel- 
 ter it, hiding it and watching it; Second a woman's heart, as 
 the princess shows. Pity, Understanding, Love. 
 
 (a) Pity She hath compassion. 
 
 (b) Understanding She understood the situation as 
 she declares him to be one of the Hebrews. 
 
 (c) Love She brings him up. 
 
 Through these things a people were eventually redeemed 
 from slavery. Why? If you and I were to search the earth 
 for the most precious thing, what do you think we should 
 be looking for? If you and I were to set out hunting for the 
 dearest thing in the world what do you think we should 
 value most? If you and I were to compare our wants with 
 the desiies of the everyday man or woman, we should dis- 
 cover the very identical wish. THE WHOLE BEING OP THE 
 AVORIJD IS YEARNING FOR LOVE, from childhood unto ripe 
 age. It is love which spurs us to act, to labor, to hope, to sing, 
 to pray and admire. But there are many shades of that word 
 Love. Passions, imagination and love for money, power, fame.
 
 38 A Mother's Heart 
 
 Let us search which one is acceptable to all and which one is 
 loved hy all. 
 
 Who will deny that the love of a mother is the dearest, 
 the most precious, the most yearned for hy every heart? It 
 is pure, it is sacred, it is self-sacrificing, it is endless, it is for- 
 giving, it is holy, it is never doubting and ever trusting. 
 
 The mother's eyes are softly and lovingly watching the 
 growth and rise of her dear ones. The mother's heart is al- 
 ways open and warm for her dear ones. Which mother would 
 not shelter her son, even though the entire world condemn 
 and despise him? Ye, it is then that she would shelter him un- 
 der her motherly wings still more. The veiy word MOTHER 
 rings to the ear in such a pathos of deep feeling that it shakes 
 off the dust of the common thought. It leaves one kind and 
 thoughtful. 
 
 Considering the love of the mother we cannot help but 
 dwell upon the incident which tells of a mother hiding her 
 child from an enemy and then at the end feeling helpless, 
 bundles him up and with her own hands casts him upon the 
 water. 
 
 I have seen a picture like this with my own eyes some 
 time ago. During my student life, in New York, I roomed 
 in the midst of the so-called Jewish Ghetto, in a large tene- 
 ment house. Midnight, a great turmoil arose in the cor- 
 ridors and I heard cries and loud footsteps. Hastily I rushed 
 out to see what was taking place only to find that the entire 
 building was wrapped in a thick smoke, out of which great 
 tongues of flames lashed here and there. By some act, I do 
 not remember now how, but I found myself down stairs. The 
 smoke was pouring and the flames weie hot, the noise was 
 terrible, while the flow of the water from the firemen's pipes 
 were terriffic. On the top of this great noise a cry, a terrible 
 moan was heard. It pierced through every one's heart. A 
 mother was holding her hands stretched out, tearing her hair, 
 and throwing herself towards the flames, with a hoarse cry, 
 "Oh, my child! my child, my child!" Her eyes were search- 
 ing the windows. She had forgotten one child in the rush.
 
 A Mother's Heart 39 
 
 Everybody cried with her, for it was the lot of this mother to 
 see her own child being burned in the blaze and not being al- 
 lowed to come to its rescue. A mother's heart was rent and 
 the world cried with her. Jochebed stood there too with her 
 heart gone from pain, watching her own child being taken 
 up by the waves of the river Nile. 
 
 While the river Nile carried on its bosom the child, 
 rocking it hither and thither, a Princess of the house of 
 Pharoah came down to enjoy its refreshing water. A prin- 
 cess, with roses upon her path, and music in her ears, with 
 dreams of fancy and mighty servants. With a heart at ease 
 and rest, she came leisurely walking down on the banks of 
 the river Nile. 
 
 "And she saw the box on the water. She sent her maid- 
 ens to fetch it. And she opened it and saw a child. Behold, 
 it was a weeping boy, and she hath compassion 011 him, pity 
 on him, and said, 'this is one of the Hebrew children.' " 
 
 It would seem that one who is reared in a palace of hatred 
 and bigotry, one who has never felt the pang of Avant and dis- 
 appointment, that naturally such one's heart would he hard 
 and proud. BUT SHE WAS A WOMA.X WITH A MOTHER'S 
 HEART. Yes, deep in her breast there was the foundation of 
 Gcd's seed, the love for the child, the fondness for the small, the 
 pity for the baby's cry. She stood there, holding the crying 
 child in her princely arms, while upon her shone the hot sun 
 of Egypt, giving a scene which we may call the HEART OP 
 THE WORLD. 
 
 The heart of the world beats for the helpless. The heart 
 of the world loves the dear ones. The heart of the world 
 heeds to the cry of a child. Who among you would pass 
 calmly without aid, upon beholding a helpless being? Who 
 among you would neglect your own dear ones? Who among 
 you would not stop to wipe the tear of a crying child? Who 
 among you does not possess the feeling of pity, of love, of 
 understanding? Who can not claim the owner of such a 
 heart ? 
 
 Woe unto the man or woman whose heait is so cold, as
 
 40 A Mother's Heart 
 
 not to have pity. Pity unto the one whose heart can not heed 
 to the cry of a child. Shame unto the one whose heart does 
 not beat for his own dear ones. 
 
 It is only the brute who will not aid the helpless. It is 
 only the tyrant who has not pity for the child. It is only 
 the degenerate who forsakes and forgets his own dear ones. 
 
 Without pity for one another what is life? What worth 
 would our life be? Without understanding we would be like 
 the world without the rays of the sun. Without love we 
 would be as if without the sun entirely, groping in cold and 
 darkness, a life empty of everything which is sweet and holy, 
 of everything which is sacred and everlasting. Man would 
 hate man. Woman would despise woman. Child would kill 
 his own parents, and mother would forsake her own children. 
 The tree would cease to yield fruit, the earth would stop pro- 
 ducing, the clouds would not gather, the sun would hide 
 under the mountains, the world would be cold and bare. 
 
 Let us then search our hearts for pity, for love, for un- 
 derstanding. Pity is akin to love, love is a brother of under- 
 standing. Let us search for them. How much pity have you 
 in your heart for your fellow being? Pity does not only mean 
 in time of hunger or distress, but when you set' your neigh- 
 bor, closing his ear, shutting his heart to the noble things of 
 this world, don't you have pity with him or her? When you 
 see one wasting time 011 foolishness where one could use that 
 bit of precious time for the betterment of his family's wel- 
 fare, for the uplifting of his own morals, for the improvement 
 of his civic life, don't you have pity with him or her? When 
 you see one willfully neglecting his or her Religion, the only 
 thing in life which offers hope in time to come, don't you 
 have pity with him or her? 
 
 Or, when you see one doing his or her best to help a 
 good cause, don't you love him or her for it? When you see 
 one giving up time to collect, to assemble for a church, for a 
 noble thing, for a worthy cause, don't you love him or her? 
 
 How much pity have you in your heart for yourself? 
 Do you sometime pity yourself why so much time is fleeting
 
 A Mother's Heart 41 
 
 away and nothing of importance has taken place in your life? 
 Do j'ou sometime pity yourself when you read of the great and 
 successful why you are not in their class? Do you not some- 
 time pity yourself why you are not in their class? Do you not 
 sometime pity yourself why you have failed to realize things 
 too late? 
 
 And do you not sometime love yourself when you have 
 done a worthy, a noble act in your daily routine. Have you 
 ever given charity or acted for it and felt its reward, I mean 
 you loved yourself for it? 
 
 Oh, those feelings of love, of pity, how precious they are 
 in our short and brief existence! Let us search our hearts 
 for these qualities. Let us develop that wonderful virtue of 
 pity, understanding, love. 
 
 Ye, like the daughter of Pharoah, being touched by the 
 spark of God's divine self, brought about the redemption of a 
 people in the years after. So it is with us, having possession 
 of these virtues, we shall love our fellow men, we shall un- 
 derstand our neighbors, we shall have pity with the fallen 
 ones. 
 
 Thus in doing so we shall strengthen our own lives and 
 making same worth the while. In doing so we shall render 
 excellent citizens to our great country, nay, help it, to be- 
 come the flag of the world with all its wonderful and elevat- 
 ing principles, and in the final, bring about the redemption of 
 a people who are ignorant, who are hungry, who are being 
 misunderstood and who misunderstand, for they lack pity, 
 understanding, love. 
 
 For after all, my friends, if we are to reason with our- 
 selves truly and earnestly, we shall see that it is not because 
 we are worth all what we have and possess, only it is because, 
 the Heavenly Father in His great mercy exercises toward us 
 pity, understanding, and love. 
 
 Come, have pity; rise, have understanding, lift up your 
 soul, have love. We shall enjoy a better world then. Amen.
 
 Israel Speaks to the Nation 
 
 ISRAEL SPEAKS TO THE NATION 
 
 (During the World War 1917 
 
 Standing as we do now on the threshold of a new and 
 better era, but feeling the change and the demand made upon 
 us very keenly I think that my subject is timely and more so 
 necessary. There are times when the truth must be told, but 
 there are times when the truth must be forced to the front 
 and make itself heard. There ar times whii we should speak 
 and there are times when we are to keep quiet. The word 
 spoken in time is like a golden apple in a silver basket, and 
 when applied in place is like a diamond vase on a marble 
 table. There are times when your heart cries out with pro- 
 test and bitterness, and there are times when the heart is 
 willing to harden, in order to drink the sweet wine of the good 
 results from a pain that leads to invigoration and invites 
 new life. 
 
 What are the fitting things to be spoken of in these 
 days? What are the cries that may reach our ears? What 
 are the vital disturbances which cause us to be aroused and 
 stand on watch? Hearken, ye, thus speaks God unto you in 
 tonight's reading of the portion. . ( 1 ) "If the widow cry unto 
 me and ye will not hear her voice, then I shall hear her surely, 
 but unto you I shall cause the same affliction.". Behold! again 
 comes the voice of God. (2) "Thou shalt not be swayed to 
 judge with the majority for evil." (3) Listen fearfully for 
 the voice of God is still being spoke, "The judges thou shalt 
 not revile and a ruler among thy people thou shalt not curse." 
 
 When a great conflagration surrounds you, it is not then 
 to study the cause and the effect of the flre. For as the shin- 
 gles come off the roof, as the tongues of fire curl about, as 
 the windows are pouring out volumes of smoke, as the cries 
 are heard from within, and as (he building threatens to fall 
 and bury with it the victims, it is then time' to exert every
 
 Israel Speaks to the Nation 43 
 
 possible effort to extinguish the fire and rescue the unfortu- 
 nate. "When in the darkness of night the roar of the cannons 
 are being heard and the flash of the fire lightens up the deso- 
 lated fields and sends forth sparks of death, it is not time to 
 consider what sort of guns the enemy is using and how many 
 you can kill, it is then time to GO OVER THE TOP and pursue 
 the enemy, slay him or take him captive. When standing on the 
 banks of a river you behold some one drowning it is not then 
 the time to figure whether the water is cold or warm, whether 
 it is deep or shallow; go jump in and rescue! Thus it is, my 
 friends, at this hour when our glorious country's flower is 
 dug in the earth, and all that is sacred to the American citi- 
 zen is being threatened, and while some mothers or wives are 
 already wailing for their dear ones, it is not for us to con- 
 sider the cause, the effect, what has been or what will be, 
 whether it is a beginning of this world or an end of this 
 globe, which God will save us and which God curse us. No, my 
 friends, it is now to guard ourselves, to eat a dry morsel, to 
 deny ourselves all pleasures, to sleep on straw, to disrobe 
 every bit of unnecessary clothing, to give and give and give 
 and give; for it is the cry of those who are to bear the brunt 
 and endure the sufferings of war. It is the cry of those who 
 will carry, or are carrying the principles and the flag of our 
 great America over to the lands from which we have come 
 and teach them democracy, free them from tyranny. Thus 
 said the Lord, "Be not with the majority for evil." Even 
 though you will hear them all say wrong, wrong, it is for you 
 to stand by all that is right, and all that goes to make the 
 right. 
 
 Israel, who has learned this lesson through suffering and 
 to whom this law is set forth, shouts aloud to the American 
 nation, Go forth, fear not, while we do not say God is favor- 
 ing any kind of war, and while we do not believe in the power 
 of the sword and might, but this is the law of God, "Be not 
 with the evil even though they be in majority," and surely 
 to execute the law of God we arc in the right and we have 
 eveiy reason to hope that God will be with us. Foi is it right
 
 44 Israel Speaks to the Xalion 
 
 to oppress? Is it right to slave the orphan? Is it right to 
 exploit the widow? Is it right to persecute your neighbor? 
 Woe unto them! for thus said God "Behold if the widows cry 
 unto me I shall hear their voices, then your wives shall be- 
 come widows and your affliction shall even be greater than 
 their's." 
 
 It seems to me that in the stillness of the eve, one can 
 hear the wailing of the hungry and the cry of the cold. It 
 seems to me in our silent devotional prayer we hear the deep 
 sigh of the widow, it seems to me that as we retire and as we 
 close our eyes to rest, we see the weary and the agonized 
 suffering soldiers, yes, all of that do you call right? and shall 
 we go with the evil? and shall then not God prove that His 
 words come true? Ye oppressors of widows and children, 
 your time of affliction shall be a thousand fold greater than 
 what you intended to force upon the innocent and the peace- 
 ful! 
 
 There is however a tendency when it hurts to utter a 
 cry, and when the wound is fresh to give vent to passionate 
 outbursts, and so you will find that here and there some one 
 who will murmur a silent protest and say, "why all this and 
 who asked the rulers and the judges of this nation to bring- 
 on all of this misery and strife?" . Those people have forgot- 
 ten the word of God, "The judges thou shalt not revile and 
 the ruler thou shalt not curse." And above all else, it is 
 not a timely saying and it spreads evil and works inevitable 
 misery. It is not the fit hour to discuss the leaders' motives, 
 this is a time to follow and do the best one can and when the 
 air will clear from smoke, and the fragrance of the blooming 
 flowers will send forth its delicious odor, when the piping- 
 music of the shepherd will be echoing in the mountains, and 
 the men will chant their harvest songs, when women will 
 have a happy smile on their faces, and men will again laugh, 
 when children will find their papa's home and the schools will 
 tell of the Great War in the years of '16, '17, '18; THEN the 
 grumblers will have the prlvile.^r to sit down, think it over 
 and ASK TO BE FO.KGIVEX.
 
 Israel Speaks to the Nation 45 
 
 For while it is said Nations are now bleeding, the World 
 is trembling, Religion is failing, Humanity is crumbling, Civ- 
 ilization is vanishing, Society is disappearing and so it said 
 very foolishly that it is the end, and that a Redeemer is com- 
 ing. But I say unto you that as long as there is a man in 
 this country who goes to give his life and as long as there 
 is a government who stands ready to support his life, as long 
 as there are women and men filing into a line of helping such 
 as the Red Cross aiir the National Defense and all of them, 
 as long as there is love extended to the needy and a tear wiped 
 oft* the face of the widow, then the world is not to end and 
 the redeemer IS here. Love is returned as we give it. Bravery 
 is regarded by its valor, and life is sacred. For life is a mirror 
 is regarded by its valor, and life is sacred. 
 
 For life is a mirror of king and slave. 
 
 'Tis just what we are and do. 
 
 Then give to the world the best you have 
 
 And the best will come back to you. 
 
 Thus be it remembered that while it is time to help it is not 
 the time to argue, while it is time to encourage, it is no time 
 to debate, while it is the time to march onward to the goal 
 of golden roads and triumphant victory over brutality, it is 
 not time to listen to the song of the siren. Be strong and 
 courageous, follow the lead of your leaders. Do away with 
 the oppression of the widow and the orphan, and, above all, 
 when you know that you are right, then you must not let 
 the majority persuade you; go on! fight on! struggle on! 
 Truth must conquer. Nobility of character is more endurable. 
 Freedom is like a chain wrought from the rays of the sun, 
 warming you, strengthening you and upon which the whole 
 world is revolving. As long as this chain is strong the world 
 is safe; hold on, do not let one link break. Thus is the lesson 
 of tonight. Amen.
 
 46 Gratitude 
 
 GRATITUDE 
 
 (DURING THE AVORLD AVAR 1917.) 
 
 ; Strange are the feelings that gather in our hearts ami 
 minds. We are all bewildered and stunned, and unconsciously 
 there comes a sigh, often accompanied by a burning tear roll- 
 ing down our cheeks. The time, the hour, the conditions, are 
 heavy and .uncertain. We are looking with anxiety to the 
 next day and wonder what the coining hour will bring. And 
 yet, here we are congregated to offer thanks to the Almighty 
 for His kindness and His mercy to us. 
 
 Is it not contrary to the feelings of today? Is it not 
 mockery to thank when the heart bleeds and the eye is dim 
 with tears? Is it not time to protest and query instead of 
 offering submissive thanks? Why this all? Why this great 
 calamity to the world? 
 
 Nevertheless, my friends, through the many wonders 
 of nature and under the ruling hand of God; as the cannons 
 roar away, and the swords smite down; as the horses gallop 
 in their charge and the soldiers tramp over the dead, we must 
 see the prophecy of our God shining through! We hear and 
 we behold the voice and the hand of God. It is therefore, 
 my friends, that Ave have to express our gratitude. We are in 
 the presence of God. We are seeing the greatest and dearest 
 d/reams come true. And it is given to us to execute the will and 
 to help the workings of. God. AVe are His partners, and we 
 are to consider it as a privilege. Aside from the Godly factor- 
 in this great upheaval and new peoples, let us look at the 
 practical arid physical side of this issue. 
 
 AVE GLORY IN OUR HISTORY. 
 
 Let us look at this matter from two angles, as an American 
 and as a Jew. As an American, we need only turn to the pages 
 of our history and our blood 'will leap with a feeling of pride 
 and exultant feeling! Why? Because there we see how
 
 Gratitude 47 
 
 brave our American fathers were and what they have given 
 their lives for freedom and democracy! And when the hour 
 came to demand it, nay, to war for it, then, oh, then, there 
 was no wailing and the arms that clung devotedly to those we 
 love most, were taken off, and the hands that clasped fondly 
 the little ones, shook good-by, and then the great battles of 
 '76 and '61. American blood was shed for freedom and for 
 liberty. It is the very life of America. It is the very flesh 
 and the very blood of the American to hold out the banner of 
 Freedom. Today, as the ugly monster of barbarism is creep- 
 ing over our globe and threatens to put his paw here; and 
 there it is swallowing up the innocent and the young, the 
 woman and the child, can we as true Americans stand back 
 and let all this take place? Would we not write in the pages 
 of future history with shame, had we not entered into this 
 struggle to help destroy this monster? Shall we not be thank- 
 ful that to us is given the privilege to assist and create the 
 ever hoped for state of democracy throughout the world? I 
 know it is hard. I know that the price is very heavy and 
 painful, -but what of that? EVERY GREAT IDEA, EV- 
 ERY NOBLE DEED IS ACCOMPLISHED BY SAC KI- 
 FK'K, and why can we not as Americans offer it 
 gladly? Ye, and render thanks to God that it 
 is. given to us to establish the great and wonderful Messianic 
 principle of democracy and equality. C'aii you as American not 
 bow your head in prayer and be grateful? See ye not the 
 hand? Hear ye not the voice? The body of this world is ill, 
 place your hand upon its pulse and you will know that we 
 need new blood, blood of freedom, blood of equality, blood of 
 brotherhood, blood of common undeistandiiig, and that you 
 Americans must be ready to infuse this blood even though it 
 is a painful operation. Give it, and be thankful that you can 
 be of such great help. You are the ambassador that God 
 pointed to in this book. 
 
 BUGLE OF NEW .NATION HEARD 
 
 As Jews we kneel in prayer and thanks tonight more 
 than e\er in the last two thousand years. At this hour
 
 48 Gratitude 
 
 when the clouds that hung over the heaven of Isracldom and 
 the walls that kept the sun out are disappearing and the 
 bugle of a new nation and a new people is heard, shall we 
 not be thankful? Who of Jacob that feels and thinks, who of 
 Isaac that hopes and wishes, who of Abraham that loves and 
 cherishes, who of this great people that retains honor and 
 pride will not at this hour radiate with gratitude to our good 
 and great God? Who of the human race will not see that 
 the hand of God is now offered to us? We who have suffered 
 and died for what the entire world is fighting now, are to- 
 night standing together with those who, time and time again, 
 misused us, despised us, and held us out as a stubborn people. 
 
 Children of the human race, the hour is here when the 
 long hoped-for great idea of a common brotherhood will be 
 the prevailing and dominating thought. Happy are we that 
 we live in this age when the sacrifices of our ancestors are 
 bearing fruit. Happy are we to see (he prophecies come true. 
 Happy are we to behold the entire world accept the better and 
 the cleaner ideals of life, that not with the sword and not 
 with blood, not with persecution and inquisitions can nobler 
 and higher thoughts be implanted, but that freedom and 
 brotherhood will create for us a new and a better people and 
 nations. 
 
 From the graves of our American fathers this wish is 
 heard, from the shadows of our Jewish martyrs this is point- 
 ed out. Out of the battle cry in the fields this rings above, 
 namely, that we are all the children of one God and that He 
 will hold His promises to us. What are they? That all man- 
 Kind shall dwell together and there shall be no more strike. 
 Above all, let us be thankful that we can in our humble way 
 anderstand it. Amen.
 
 A Orv for Zion 4!) 
 
 A CRY FOR ZION 
 
 ( DURING THE WORLD WAR 1017-1918.) 
 
 Overwhelmed by tremendous problems of the day, and 
 disturbed, yea, even at times frightened by the shadows which 
 are grouping around us, I speak to you tonight with a trem- 
 bling heart. In taking the text which I have chosen tonight 
 from tomorrow's reading, "And when ye offer up your gifts, 
 when ye make your sons pass through the fire, ye pollute your- 
 selves, with all your idols, even unto this day, and that which 
 comes up unto your mind shall not at all come to pass (name- 
 ly, that ye say AVe will be like the nations, like the families 
 of other countries. As I live, saith the Lord, with a mighty 
 hand shall I rule over you, And ye shall know that I am the 
 Lord when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the coun- 
 try which I have chosen for your fathers to give it to them. 
 And ye shall remember all your doings and ye shall loath 
 yourselves because of all the evil deeds that ye have commit- 
 ted," I am bringing before you one of the most striking sent- 
 tences of the great prophet Ezekiel. 
 
 Before us is spread a panorama of ages in which Israel 
 suffered with the nations he had lived. Practically in every 
 war that was waged the children of the Hebrew race partici- 
 pated. Yet in no war and at no time were we so closely at- 
 tached, so dearly touched, so patriotically moved, so loyal 
 with all our hearts, as the war which our great country is go- 
 ing through now. 
 
 And so before I attempt to speak on our subject let it be 
 fully understood that there must be no doubt or misunder- 
 standing as to our love and devotion to America. Whatever 
 my cry may be for Zion it is the right of a nation to hold to its
 
 50 A Cry for Zion 
 
 traditions, it is the privilege of a people to remember its past, 
 it is the duty of a race to reconstruct its battered body, it is 
 in full accord with the thought of today that each people bring 
 out the best that is in them. 
 
 If times were normal then the thing, the wonderful thing 
 of Palestine being returned unto Israel perhaps would be of 
 less importance, but now, when we live in the most grue- 
 some yet most remarkable, in the greatest chaos yet greatest 
 promises, in the remaking of Civilization, then the rebirth of 
 Israel shines forth in the most dazzling rays of hopes not only 
 to Israel but to the world at large. 
 
 Marvelous things are being spun in our brains. In the 
 darkness of the unknown future thousands of sparks are be- 
 ing flashed, in the thickness of the clouds new thoughts are 
 being created, in the shouting on the battle fields new voices 
 are being heard, in the sighs of the wounded new tender- 
 ness is being shown. No, do not think that the woes and the 
 aches and the pains and the sorrows will go in vain. The 
 earth did not tremble in vain. The foundation of civilization 
 did not tremble in vain. The blood of mankind did not fio\\ 
 in vain. No, changes will come, changes must come! 
 
 The world is pregnant with a new birth. What will it 
 be? Shall it be a lasting hatred of one class against another? 
 Shall it be that the oppressed, the broken, the shattered, the 
 downtrodden, the poor, the weak will be given a new way of 
 relief, and that such things will not be again? Will there bo 
 better, nobler, deeper and cleaner ideals of life, and the cor- 
 rupt, the shameful and besmirched order of things will as- 
 sume a better cloak? No one can tell. All we know now is 
 that the minds of nations are in high fervor, that the hearts 
 of the countries which flamed w 7 ith hate, shame, persecution, 
 exclusion, inquisition, murder and destruction, is vanishing 
 by their own evils. Eaten up by their own flames. Destroyed 
 by their own sword of murder and plunder! Hut Israel, the 
 bearer of the banner on which was and always shall be in- 
 scribed Liberty and Justice, lives today as strong as ever be-
 
 A r,rv for Ziuii 
 
 fore. Why? because not only by the will of God but also 
 because such principles strengthen and at al Itimes offer hope, 
 making one determined to hold out. 
 
 Yet, speaks our Prophet, even as we sacrifice our young, 
 even as we go through this fire, there are some of us who say 
 why all of that?, let us forget it all. We will be like the rest 
 of the nations, and they forget that it is the impossible. For 
 saith God, "even with a strong hand shall I bring they out 
 and those that are not worthy shall be cut off." How then 
 can those be called Jews? How can a child be called a child 
 when the mother is calling, begging, and the child does not 
 want to respond.. Is this a child? When the Mountains oi 
 Zion smile at us, when the songs of David are being heard once 
 more on the mountains of Karmel, Chorab, Kadesh Zaitheem, 
 and in the valley of Jericho the tunes of the shepherds of Is- 
 rael are echoing, how can one with a living soul of the Jew- 
 ish nation, with a burning heart of the Hebrew race, with the 
 hopes of Moses, with longings of Jacob, with the dreams of 
 Isa<:c, with the reverence of Abraham, and then with the mil- 
 lions of Jewish martyrs laying in the sands of all cornel's, yes 
 how can they speak in the name of Israel? Thus saith Israel. 
 It is the land where my greatest thoughts have sprung forth, 
 it is the land where my noblest people spent their blood, it is 
 the land where great traditions were bom( it is a land where 
 my soul fumes and my heart palpitates, my mouth speaks and 
 my tongue utters the word of God. It is there that I have 
 come that I have been, that I shall be the Instructor, the Re- 
 deemer of the purest, the noblest, the sublime and the holy 
 teachings of God to Mankind. 
 
 Happy are we that it is given to us to see with our own 
 <:ye< the promises of God come true. Happy are we to see that 
 (he cause for which we have fought for ages is now the battle 
 cry of the greatest countries on God's earth. Happy are we 
 that it is {;iven to us to prove that even longing for the re- 
 construction of our people on its own soil for it is only there
 
 52 A Cry for Zion 
 
 that actual greatness of Israel can be had we are a people 
 loyal to the countries that offered us protection and equal 
 rights. With all our hearts do we long for victory of our 
 armies, with all our hearts do we pray that the principles of 
 our great country may become the leading motto in every na- 
 tion on the globe, but with al lour hearts too we also long for 
 the returning of the exiles to their own land, with all our 
 hearts too we wish to behold another David, another Isaiah, 
 another great Peremiah, another Ezekiel. . Then, oh then, the 
 golden thread of fate will combine the best of every nation, 
 the purest of all groups, and all shall recognize the power 
 of ONE God; and that we are all His children, to love, to 
 help, to cherish one another, for thus speaks God: 
 
 On that day the Lord shall be one and his name O\K. 
 Amen.
 
 A Great Lesson 53 
 
 GREAT LESSON 
 
 Down through the ages lessons were expounded, taught, 
 experienced, ye, it rolled parallel with time itself, but man- 
 kind, now as of yore, mast be whipped into realization of 
 eternal truth, of perpetual facts, of his small and infinite 
 power, by visiting impedents, by strange occurences, by se- 
 vere shocks, by the cost of happiness, strength, vitality and 
 life itself. 
 
 People travel thousands of miles to behold the ever 
 silent, ever mysterious Sphynx standing in the deserts of 
 Egypt. They bite their lips in amazement, they shake their 
 heads in wonder and within their hearts a feeling of awe, 
 bordering on fear, they leave mystified. 
 
 Ages liave washed its head, sands have covered its sides, 
 the rain has lashed it, the sun has scorched it, yet there it is, 
 silent, angry, imposing, mysteriously standing alone. People 
 have come, and never come back, for they vanish. But the 
 Sphynx is always there. A GKKAT LESSON ALWAYS 
 TEACHING. 
 
 Oh, my friends, it' you would only open your eyes, if you 
 would only step a little closer to your own hearts, it' you 
 would only halt a moment in your constant moving of your 
 shadow which follows you, behold, you would see a Sphynx 
 rising before you in all its majesty, in all its mystery, in all its 
 tragedy, ai:d in all its perpetuality. 
 
 Ye. a Sphynx not made of mortar and lime and brick, a 
 Sphynx not made of a pile of stones and dirt, but a Sphynx 
 curved of the finest materials of man's noblest thoughts and 
 principles; wrought with the flesh of the Soul and the fibres 
 of Humanity's heart. A perpetual question in the life of 
 man's existence, an eternal problem in the making of the 
 world's happiness, are everlasting Sphynx in the moral and 
 religious life of our civilization. A Sphynx which does not 
 s;>eak of the life and past of our- people, but a Sphynx which in
 
 54 A Great Lesson 
 
 every age, in every clime, in all the corners of the humanity's 
 globe cries the same. 
 
 Draw nearer, I shall unfold to you the greatest majestic 
 figure, I shall introduce you to the deepest mystery of ages, 
 I shall show you one of its lessons, but they are endless. Ye, 
 deep as the Sea, wide' as the heavens, high as the Suns, teach- 
 ing us forever. 
 
 What is the Sphynx? What is that lesson? Behold, it 
 is the Bible which we read and study. It is the book of the 
 Prophets which we read. It is the sacred thoughts which 
 we at all times find in the Torah. 
 
 Yes, what a peculiar thing this book is; written by men 
 inspired by God it has been the means of stemming the anger 
 of the fool, the fountain of wisdom for wise, the comfort of 
 heart for the sorrowful, the tragedy of the Jew, the inspira- 
 tion of Christianity, the guide of the Mohammed, the whip 
 in the hands of the unscrupulous and bigoted. From age to 
 age, it speaks; and it is for us to decipher its wonderful les- 
 sons. It was given in the desert, thus signifying that it be- 
 longs to all and therefore, even if the entire human heart 
 grows cold, void and desolate of any noble thoughts yet, this 
 Sphynx, the Torah shall always be there. 
 
 Thus grant that our hearts have grown cold and indif- 
 ferent to the Bible yet, the lessons are still there. Grant 
 that our lives have become so sophisticated that we need not 
 look at a Sphynx. 
 
 \Ve have the so-called prettier things to look upon. A 
 flowered ethical oration, a painted toe-dancer, a brute 
 financier, a guerillo fighter, why then bother with than an- 
 cient Sphynx? Yet, these are only vanishing things. On the 
 screen only a shadow is fleeting; think of it, only a shadow! 
 A flowered ethical orator mere words that fade with the 
 passing winds leaving emptiness only, instead. A dance 
 only beauty and grace if they have any that dies with 
 the lythm of music. These ; re the things which we wise fel- 
 lows have chosen to follow y?. the lesson is still there. 
 
 What lesson can we draw tonight of the Sphynx? Has it 
 ever lx>e:i taught before? Do we want s;tme in our life?
 
 A Great Lesson 55 
 
 Like Pharoah many of us assume that we know it all. 
 "I! Why I am the man. I am my own God." You know the 
 truth, you who are assembled hero know well that each one 
 of you think that you whoever you may be are better, wiser, 
 nobler than the other fellow. 
 
 Why if the world would listen to your oun 
 claims each one of you tonight would be some- 
 thing else. For, according to your own theory, you are 
 THE man. Some would be leading statesmen, leading capi- 
 talists and some even better speakers than the speaker. Oh! 
 that false pride of Pharoh is in everyone's heart, in every- 
 one's soul and in everyone's pocket; ye, each one a God for 
 himself. 
 
 But that is not the worst. One must have some pride. 
 What then is the weakness of Pharoh? What is the lesson 
 i.i his life, which stands out tonight, as an ever-guiding senti- 
 nel, an age worn Sphynx? 
 
 It is HESITANCY, LACK OF CONFIDENCE in one's 
 self, LACK OF FAITH. 
 
 Like a beggar, Moses humbly knocked at the door of 
 Pharoh, to gain freedom for his own people. Convincing wore 
 the arguments of the fiery tongue of Aaron, powerful were the 
 tokens proven unto Pharoh, yet, he wavered, time and time 
 again. 
 
 Oh, 31a:i of lie-ill, <aiimal of hubi , fool at heart, how long 
 must this go on? 
 
 Wi etched and {,rief stricken they stand with their bony 
 hands begging for a morsel of food while in their eyes the 
 fire of hope and love has vanished they cry, they cry, and 
 their voices finally reach us We tremble, we give, but in our 
 hearts we say Nay, Nay, this may never happen to me. And 
 we turn forth forgetting the cries. 
 
 Oh, what a plague! Blood smirched hands, eyes mad- 
 dened with ghastly sights, hell of war spread upon a country. 
 We are moved, our hearts are rent with pity and love, but we 
 forget as we turn away from it. Oh, what a plague! Ye, we 
 feel the cold hand of our dead ones, we see the eyes full of 
 love close, we cry, our hearts break, but we forget as we turn
 
 56 A Great Lesson 
 
 away. Oh, what a plague! 
 
 Ye, like Pharoh, we behold the truth, when sickness and 
 death grips us personally when we fear the consequences on 
 our own back, then, and only then, do we admit to the mes- 
 senger of God's voice. 
 
 Is this not the greatest failure of mankind; is this not 
 a miserable failure to each one of us that the thing which is 
 most important in our existence, should only be recognized 
 either 'when it is too late, or when admittance is past its value. 
 
 Think, ye mortals of your own failure! You may boast 
 of wealth, of strength, of wisdom, but of what avail are these 
 things, when we lack faith? 
 
 Is it not a shame, people who reason and see, people who 
 understand and think, should eternally have to be reminded 
 of a Powerful Truth the Word of God ! 
 
 Behold, the Sphyiix is before us! Moses is knocking 
 humbly on our heart's door. Come, don't hesitate to listen! 
 Lift yourselves out of the daily trend of thinking get out of 
 slavery. Break those shackles. Come let us go, for a while 
 to feast with God! Let us see our failure and it is a very 
 severe one to doubt, to hesitate, to go back on your own 
 convictions. 
 
 Like the old man crossing a narrow plank over the 
 river, who made a pledge that if he will cross it safely he 
 will donate so much as $5O to charity. He ventuied forth 
 and came across as near as possible to the other side. Think- 
 ing that he was safer, he immediately thought, Oh, well, 1 
 think $5O is too much; well, 40, 30, 2O, 1O, 5; but as he was 
 figuring, the plank be^an to give way "Oh, Oh, God," said 
 the old man, "Look, look at him, can't you take a joke?" 
 
 Let us quit joking we have i.ot yet fully crossed. 
 
 Thus in joking with the lessons of the Bible w<> result 
 i;i a terrific failui-e. Shall we be failures? Neither you or I 
 wish to remain so. Come, let us draw closer to the Sphynx 
 of our lives and behold its great lesson. 
 
 Don't hesitate to accept the truth. Don't wait until I>eath 
 itself grips you to proclaim thy faith. Live with it, j;ct with 
 it, and help others to behold it. Amen.
 
 000 335 931