1807. | Acts of the G 
Efebrew to lend his brother money, grain, 
or any thing, at interest. He permitted, 
but did not command, it towards stran- 
gers. ‘The rabbies even prohibit the Jew 
to take interest from the Gentiles, lest he 
should in time so accustom himself to the 
profit, that he might be induced to take 
it from his brethren. The Jews in Rome 
declared, on their oath, that usury was 
not permitted to be practised either with 
their brethren, or with strangers. And 
this declaration wascertainly conformable 
toreligion and to truth, understanding the 
term usury in its popular signification. 
“ If there are Jews who practise USUrY, 
they are abject beings, unfaithful to thie 
Law of Moses, disavowed by God and 
man, and who only prophane the name of 
Jew. There can be no usurers among 
the Hebrew nation. Usurers are neither 
Jews, Mahometans, nor Christians; they 
belong to no religion, and are disavowed 
by all. . Doctors of the Law, and No- 
tables, you well kuew, that if we were 
at this moment living dnder the civil and 
political institutions of our patriarchal 
manners, and thai there existed some 
anti-social usurer among the people of 
Israel, he would be igi 1omimiously ex- 
pelled from its bosom.” 
In the sittimgs of the 2d of March, 
1807, when- they adopted these two de- 
cisions, the clef of the Sanhedrim de- 
livered an animated discourse. Fle says, 
that the vice of usury, which has so long 
served as a source of calumny to the 
Jews, but which originated only in the 
corruption of the human heart, and the 
ignorance and intolerance of ages of fa- 
naticism, was always prohibited by the 
law. That many of their brethren have 
practised it, is a melancholy truth; but 
the Valmudists declare that all who aban- 
don themselves to such monstrous ex- 
cesses, will not at the day of judgment 
participate in the resurrection. The con- 
duct of these vile bloodsuckers of the 
people, which the verse which proscribes 
usury designates, is compared to the ve- 
nomous bite of a serpent; the wound is 
at first imperceptible ; but the venom 
glides insensibly into the veins, and at 
length produces convulsion and rapid 
death. Such are the terrible progresses 
of usury! 
He then attributes the cause of these 
usurious practices among Jews to their 
having been deprived of all civil and po- 
- litical rights; they must long have strug- 
gled with their consciences; but their 
abandonment, and the severe necessity 
of unhappy times, made the practice 
seem legitimate to those lost mene 
2 
Great Sanhedrim at Parts. 
245 
The President Furtado then addressed 
the Sanhedrun in an elaborate and final 
oration, 
“ You have at length closed your im- 
portant mission, confided to you by a 
prince, whose kindness has changed the 
destiny of Israel, and annulled the civil 
and political anathema under which you 
have groaned so many ayes.’ 
Hie declares that in their frequent cone 
ferences betore the Sanhedrim was forme- 
ed. their study had been to unite redigzous 
duties with what ‘ the cercumslances.in 
which they were now placed required. 
These circumstances exacted no sacrifices 
from real piety, nor did their Religion re- 
quire that the” civil advantages which 
these circumstances offered to them, 
should be refused. Thus (he continued), 
all that the pious man owes his God, the 
citizen his country, the subject his sove- 
reign, you have performed; and your 
decisions constitute a pact * of alliance 
between our religion and our country /” 
Above all, it was necessary that, this 
accusation of Usury, with which ithe He- 
brews are so frequently reproached, as an 
effect of their religion, should be branded 
with an idelible mark by an Israelitisla 
assembly. 
He then developes and defends the 
great principle on whicn the present San 
hedrim has formed its decisions. “Some 
pious men conceived that the jegislation 
of Moses, coutainig iaws on. spiritual 
duties and remporal interests, opposed 
by this union, an invincible obstacle to an 
entire and social ineerporation with the 
people whose countries we inhabit. To 
dissipate this doubt, it was necessary to 
form a basis for our decisions; aud this 
principle is contained in the preamble 
you have adopted. (See Monthly Magae 
zine, No, 160, p. 36, at bottom.) There 
we establish the distinction which exists 
between religious laws and political laws ; 
the former are inaiterable, whatever-the 
eventual situation of the Hebrew people 
may be; but the latter are. subordinate 
in their execution to the human vicissie 
tudes, of their state, their climate, their 
manners, and the laws of nations. 
from ail this we might infer that though 
the orthodox Israelite nay belveve that hy. 
those orders or commands which compose 
the Mosaic cade have been equally reveal- 
ed, hers not held to believe that all are 
equally obiigatory. Some of these de- 
fine the connection between man and his 
Creator; others between man and man, 
as members of a political society; anda 
third between subjects and their sovereign, 
The first appeal to our conscience, and 
are 
Aud | 
