Читать книгу The Jewish Religion, Ethically Presented - Henry Pereira Mendes - Страница 15
ОглавлениеLOVE FOR GOD IN HOME, SOCIAL AND PUBLIC LIFE.
Seventh verse of the Shema’:
And thou shalt write them on the door-posts of thy house
and upon thy gates.
1. We are to write the words “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God,” etc., on the door-posts of our homes to remind us that love for God must govern our conduct to those who are therein and must direct our own private life.
2. We prove our love for God, therefore, by honoring our parents, by respecting the aged, by attention to our teachers, by kindness to brothers and sisters, by helping the poor who come to us, by consideration for our servants, in accordance with His commands, for we meet all these in our homes.
3. To write the words on our gates means that love for God must guide us in public life.
4. In ancient times many public duties were performed in the space near the gates of the city. “In the gates” means the public place.
5. The command means that in all our business as men and women, and in all our duties as citizens, we must do the right, out of love for God who so commands us.
*6. Writing these words “on the door-posts of our houses” is the origin of the custom of the Mezuzah.
7. Mezuzah is the Hebrew word for door-post. The word is used to mean the little scroll on which the first and second portions of the Shema’ are written. The scroll is enclosed in a case which is fastened to the door-post.
8. Shaddai, meaning Almighty, one of the names of God, is written on the outside, to remind us as we enter or leave the house, that God is all-mighty, and therefore we must trust in His protection.
9. Just as a flag over a house shows the loyalty of its inmates to their country, so a Mezuzah on the door-post of a house shows the loyalty of the inmates to God and to their religion.
10. The object of the Mezuzah is thus further expressed: "When we enter or leave the house, let us remember God and His love; let us be roused from the vanities of the world and realize that nought is stable save the knowledge of the Rock of the Universe. We will at once turn to that knowledge of Him and we will walk in the ways of uprightness." (Maimonides).
BIBLE QUOTATIONS.
2. Honor thy father and thy mother.—Deut. v, 16.
Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and thou shalt honor the old.—Lev. xix, 32.
Ask thy father and he will shew thee, thine elders and they will tell thee.—Deut. xxxii, 7.
Hear me now therefore, O ye children ..... Lest thou sayest, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof, and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me.—Prov. v, 7, 12, 13.
Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart.—Levit. xix, 17.
Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy in thy land.—Deut. xv, 11.
Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates.—Deut. xxiv, 14.
5. Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him.—Lev. xix, 11-13.
Righteousness, righteousness, shalt thou pursue.—Deut. xvi, 20.
Thou shalt not raise a false report.—Exod. xxiii, 1.
Help not the wicked, to be a witness of violence.—Exod. xxiii, 1.
Follow not the multitude to do evil.—Exod. xxiii, 2.
Speak not for a contest to turn after many to wrest right.—Exod. xxiii, 2.
