A JEWISH RABBI ON THE SABBATH.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2488, 11 March 1881, Page 2

A JEWISH RABBI ON THE SABBATH.

According to the ,-t Jewish World,” the Rev. Dr Hesmann Adler, son and delegate of the Venerable Chief Rabbi, in the course of a recent sermon on the Sabbath, laid before his hearers an exposition of the true principles upon which the Jews keep the Sabbath holy. The preacher took for his text Isaiah LVIII. chapter, verse 13, and proceeded to interpret this passage, both literally and by aid of of the original Hebrew, and showed that the key-note of the command was contained in the sentence, And call this Sabbath a delight.” He combatted the popular notion that the Jewish Sabbath was a day kept with acetic austerity ; the Jcws simply bore in mind the fact that the Lord had ordained the Sabbath as a day of rest, and did not necessarily mean Puritanical severity of observance. As an example of what he meant, he might explain that the Jew would not hesitate to occupy half this holy day in visiting his friends, or even to going to places of relaxation and amusement, provided that such amusement was not paid for, and that no work was entailed by the opening of those places. The preacher observed that, whenever Sunday was discussed, there was generally some objector who based his objection on the injunction given by the Lord to the Jews on the subject of keeping the Sabbath Day holy : but these arguments were baseless, since the Jew did not interpret the command in the austere and literal sense which these Sabbatarians did. The subject was illustrated by copious citations from the Torah aud the Prophets.