--- title: Times and Seasons description: Issues of 1841 to 1842. authors: - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints editors: - Ebenezer Robinson - Don Carlos Smith - Smith, Joseph, Jr. - Taylor, John collections: - periodicals tags: - newspaper - times-and-seasons - nauvoo - nineteenth-century periodical: Times and Seasons volume: 3 number: 10 published: 1842-03-15 publisher: E. Robinson and D. C. Smith; later John Taylor publisher_place: Commerce and Nauvoo, Illinois language: en type: article reference: "“Rabbi Hersch's Essays on Israel's Duties in Dispersion. The Head Rabbi of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg,” *Times and Seasons* 3, no. 10 (March 15, 1842): 725–726." printed_title: RABBI HERSCH'S ESSAYS ON ISRAEL'S DUTIES IN DISPERSION. THE HEAD RABBI OF THE GRAND DUCHY OF OLDENBURG. source: url: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-03-15_3_10 transcription: Text from the Centerplace.org transcription (https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v3n10.htm), with its page breaks; this Internet Archive scan is the reference copy (its OCR was used only as a witness for OCR repair) identifier: per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-03-15_3_10 start_page: 725 end_page: 726 curator_note: A Mormon newspaper published by the church in Nauvoo; included for historical study. Inclusion does not imply endorsement. rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1842 (Nauvoo, Illinois); published before 1931, so public domain in the United States source: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-03-15_3_10 publication_year: 1842 --- # Rabbi Hersch's Essays on Israel's Duties in Dispersion. The Head Rabbi of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg Commandments. The commandment of God is duty for Israel, the will of God the only ground of obligation for all our duties; can there be any other ground for obligation for any duty, which any one is bound to perform? Is it possible to imagine that any thing should be a duty, without thinking it to be at the same time the will of God? Duty signifies rule of action; but every thing necessary for action; we ourselves, with all our faculties and powers, and the world that surrounds us belong to God: who has then to dispose of us but God? If this be true for all men, how much more for Israel, who have a double bond of union with the Creator; who not only made them as men, but has also fixed the bounds of their habitation among men. The command of God is therefore duty, and the will of God the obligation to duty. . . . . If, therefore, each command of God was an enigma; and if a thousand unanswered and unanswerable questions obtruded themselves on us, concerning each, still the obligation to obedience would be in no degree lessened. If any one ask why should I do this, why avoid that? we have only one answer to give-because it is the will of God; and we are to serve God with every capability, every faculty, every breath.. . . . We should be bound to obey, not on this account, or the other, but because God requires it, if we do it not for this reason, how can we be the servants of God? how can we be said to obey God? The Jew who faithfully observes and keeps the law of God, as he gave them to the congregation of Jacob, is, in the full and unlimited sense of the word, a Jew-as he does this in order to fulfil [fulfill] the will of God-he is a servant of God, although he may never have understood the connexion [connection], or import of even one of all the divine commands, and has obtained great, yea, the greatest happiness on earth: for the pure in heart know no higher bliss than the fulfilling the divine will. He makes the following remarks on alms giving, founded on Deut. vii: 2.-Thou shalt open thine hand wide to thy brother, to thy poor. With these words God calls thee to thy most lovely, thy most holy employment; to that in which thou art most like himself: he calls thee to be a blessing, with all that he has given thee, to be a blessing to all about thee. Look around in the great household of thy Father, every thing is appointed to thy blessing. Every thing helps, and is helped; every thing takes and gives, and receives a thousand fold in giving, for it receives life instead of existence. What? wouldest thou be the only one that takes but gives not? Shall the great stream of blessing end in thee? Wouldest thou have this stream of blessing lost in thy dry sand, and not restore to the ocean what it receives from it? Oh, hast thou duly considered that thou art nothing, if thou art only for thyself? Thou art something when thou art something for another; thou hast nothing as long as thou hast it only for thyself; thou possessest it only as thou hast it for another. The penny that thou hoardest is not thine; it is thine only when thou spendest it in blessing; and then, when thou hast once tasted the bliss of giving; the bliss of feeding the hungry, of clothing the naked, of comforting the sick, of rejoicing the miserable, of caring for the destitute; then canst thou rejoice in the high calling with which God has called thee; to be a blessing with all thou hast, then wilt thou readily give all thou hast to purchase a moment of such bliss. Why should God give thee more than is absolutely necessary for thee, but that he may make thee a distributor of his blessings to others, and wilt thou grasp with thine hand that which is not thine own? Our wise men have, therefore named this active benevolence in giving with the lovely name of [Hebrew characters] (i.e. righteousness,) for tsaadekau is essential righteousness, which gives to every thing that which God requires of it; and as tsaadekau, when applied to God, denotes his charitable righteousness, which gives to man, not that which he deserves, but that which he can bear; so, when applied to man it denotes that charitable righteousness which makes the love of God, rather than the right of another, the ground of assisting him." On alms giving he says, "there are eight degrees in alms giving: 1st The highest and first is, to assist the impoverished by gifts, loans, or providing them with employment so that they may become able to take care of themselves and have no need to beg. 2d. It is a less degree to give to the poor in such a way that the giver knows who receives his bounty, and the receiver does not know from whom the bounty comes. Giving to public charities when it is known that those charities are mamagod [managed] with wisdom and honesty comes very near this degree of alms giving. 3d. It is still less when the giver knows to whom he gives, and the receiver, from whom the bounty comes. 4th. It is still less when the poor knows who gives, but the giver knows not who receives. 5th. It is still less to give to the poor without being asked. 6th. Still less when asked to give what is necessary. 7th. Still less to give what is necessary in a kind manner. 8th. The least of all is to give in an unkind manner. Charity that sheweth [shows] itself in action, is more, incomparably more than giving money. Money is an external thing, but in this thou layest out that which is most noble, that which is the best thou hast. Thy understanding, thy word, thy deed, thy ability, all that thou art as an offering on the altar of God, for the welfare of the brethren. In almsgiving we give that from which blessings may spring; but in this we make the plant of blessing to grow and blossom; we create the health, the joy, the peace, the prosperity, the welfare of our neighbor. If we would see a man who is like our heavenly Father, so let us behold one, who full of love, full of the divine will, himself prepares bread for the hungry, becomes a father to the orphans, for whom he cares, whom he educates; visits the sick, clothes the naked, comforts the suffering, buries the dead, advises the inexperienced, reconciles the contending, and every where labours [labors] in word and deed, to relieve every pain, to heal every sorrow, and dry every tear. And when such an example has excited us, and we feel that we are called to such blessedness, so step forward, let us devote ourselves, in the presence of God, with every nobel faculty he has given us, to such acts of love, for the welfare of his children.-[Jewish Intelligencer. In the last number I gave a brief history of the rise and progress of the Church, I now enter more particularly into that history, and extract from my journal. JOSEPH SMITH.