WHO ARE THE PERSONALITIES AT
TEMPLE UNIVERSAL?
MOSES
Prophet Leader and Law Giver
Rabbi Gottheil of New York
Speaking at the Parliament of Religions
Chicago - 1893
OPENNESS OF SPIRIT
Friends, I'm not speaking in the narrow spirit
of rivalry; far be that my theme.
Veneration for Moses hasn't stopped me from admiring, and learning from other masters
- the sun has lost nothing of his glory since we
know that he's not the center of the universe, and
in other fields of infinite space there are similar suns. What could stop me from
learning from the masters you honor? I
can honor that man that said: "All must decrease
that Christ may increase." But no true Christ
ever said: "All must decrease that I may increase."
And I remember the fine saying ascribed to Buddha:
"I forbid you," said he, to his disciples;
"I forbid you to believe anything simply because
I said it."
THE GREATNESS OF MOSES
Where will we find one that combines in his personality
so many great qualities as Moses, if I may say so?
He was the liberator of his people, but he spurned
crowns and scepters, and didn't, as many
after him did, put a new yolk on the neck from which
he had taken the old. To every lover of the
American Constitution that man must be a political
saint. And his republic was not of short duration.
It lasted through all the storms of wars
and revolutions - hundreds of years, down to Samuel, that all-stout-hearted republican,
who could endure no kings. That man saw
clearly what royal work would do; that man who is
so wrongly judged by our Sunday-school moralities,
fought with his last breath for the independence
of his people. And when the king they'd chosen showed
that he wasn't the right man he looked for one
that should be worthy to rule his people.
THE REPUBLIC HE FOUNDED
But the republic he founded stands unique in the
history of the world, for it was based altogether
on an idea - the idea of the unity of God and the
righteousness of His will.
Think of it! Among a nation escaped from bondage,
too degraded even to be led to war, that needed
the education, hammering a people
for forty years, to be among them with the sublimest
truth that the human mind ever can conceive and
to say to them; "Though you're now benighted
and enslaved, any truth I know is not too good for
you nor any child of God." Where did the man
derive that inspiration? If from the Almighty, then
may we not say there arose not another like him?
And can we wonder that when he came down from the
mountain the light that shown from his face was
too much for the eyes of the people and he had to
cover it.
A TEACHER OF MORALITY AND STATE-CRAFT
And not a name has come down to us that was born
by one who labored for mankind.
As a teacher of morality why need I praise him?
As a teacher of state-craft, in the highest and
best sense, who surpassed him? The great wonder
is that that man speaks the language of today. The
problems which we have not yet succeeded in solving
were already present to his mind, and he founded
a nation in which the difference between the poor
and the rich was almost abolished. The laborer was
not only worthy but sure of his hire. No aristocrat
could rule over his subjects and no priesthood could
ever assume the government which alas, according
to history; means the oppression of the nation.
HIS HUMILITY
How did that man of that vast mind combine all these great talents?
And yet how tender his heart was! Why,
friends, it's a thousand pities that you can not
hear the deep sorrow, the sadness that's to be
heard in his original words. When an overzealous
disciple came and told him they were prophesying
in his name, and they said: "Hinder them, master,
hinder them. Why, if they are professing what will
become of thine own authority." I fancy I see
his venerable head sink upon his breast and he saying:
"Indeed art thou zealous for me? Would that
all the people of God were prophets and that God
gave His spirit to them."
