A Guide for the Religious Instruction of Jewish Youth

A Guide for the Religious Instruction of?by Isaac Samuele Reggio, Translated by M. H. Picciotto

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Jewish Youth, by Isaac Samuele Reggio, Translated by M. H. Picciotto
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Title: A Guide for the Religious Instruction of Jewish Youth
Author: Isaac Samuele Reggio

Release Date: June 22, 2007 [eBook #21905]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GUIDE FOR THE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF JEWISH YOUTH***
E-text prepared by Chuck Greif

A GUIDE FOR THE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF JEWISH YOUTH.
Proposed to Teachers by
ISAAC REGGIO,
Rabbi and Professor, Member of the Oriental and Leipsic, Halle, etc., etc., etc.
Translated from the Italian by M. H. Picciotto.

London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., Stationers'--Hall Court. MDCCCLV.
London: Printed by J. Wertheimer and Co.

SYNOPSIS.
Notice by the Translator.
Author's Preface.
CHAPTER I.
GOD.
1. His existence. Cosmological argument.
2. First Cause, necessary, eternal.
3. Omnipotent, free, provident, omniscient, infallible.
4. All-wise, good, pure, immutable.
5. God.
6. Psychological argument.
7. Moral argument.
CHAPTER II.
MAN.
8. His faculties.
9. His destination.
10. Intellect.
11. Reason.
12. Free will.
13. Immortal soul.
14. Double tendency.
15. Contrast.
16. Choice.
17. Conscience.
18. Feeling.
CHAPTER III.
NATURAL RELIGION.
19. Idea of religion.
20. Necessity for man.
21. Faith.
CHAPTER IV.
INSUFFICIENCY OF NATURAL RELIGION.
22. Obstacles.
23. Tardy development of reason.
24. Ascendancy of sensuality.
25. Want of opportunity.
26. Social life.
27. Internal anarchy.
28. Limitation of human understanding.
29. Uncertainty of human knowledge.
30. Experience.
31. Necessity of a revelation.
CHAPTER V.
REVEALED RELIGION.
32. Its actuality.
33. Its truth.
34. Its fundamental principle.
35. Relation between God and man.
36. Divine plan.
37. Essence of revelation.
38. Lofty aspiration of man.
39. Prophecy.
40. Prediction of the future.
CHAPTER VI.
OBJECTION AND ANSWER.
41. Rationalism antagonistic to faith.
42. Self-love in the physical world.
43. Self-love in man.
44. Heroism of man.
45. Proceeding from love.
46. Is the cause of faith.
47. Is not the offspring of imagination
48. Depends on the subjection of the sensual appetites.
49. Furnishes evidence to faith.
CHAPTER VII.
PRELIMINARY DISPOSITIONS OF REVELATION.
50. Contingency in revelation.
51. Its removal.
52. Choice of a portion of mankind.
53. Beginning from an individual.
54. Election of that individual.
CHAPTER VIII.
PATRIARCHAL EPOCH.
55. Abraham.
56. His virtues.
57. Aim of his vocation.
58. Covenant established with him.
59. Circumcision.
60. Abraham's progeny.
61. Providential measures.
CHAPTER IX.
SINAITIC REVELATION.
62. Egyptian bondage. Moses.
63. Preamble of the revelation.
64. Modality of the revelation
65. Decalogue.
CHAPTER X.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
66. First Commandment,
67. Second,
68. Third,
69. Fourth,
70. Fifth,
71. Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth,
72. Ninth.
73. Tenth.
CHAPTER XI.
SUCCESSIVE REVELATIONS.
74. Their character.
76. Their twofold direction.
75. Their sanction.
CHAPTER XII.
REVEALED NOTIONS RESPECTING GOD.
77. Knowledge of God.
78. Opportunity of such a knowledge.
79. Immediate relation between God and man.
80. Love of God.
81. Fear of God.
82. Other duties towards God.
CHAPTER XIII.
DUTIES TOWARDS FELLOW-MEN.
83. Justice.
84. Negative duties.
85. Positive duties.
86. Other duties.
87. Charity and benevolence.
88. Duties toward the animate and inanimate nature.
CHAPTER XIV.
DUTIES TOWARDS ONE'S-SELF.
89. Fundamental rule.
91. Sanctification.
90. Duties towards the body.
92. Other special obligations.
CHAPTER XV.
JUDAISM.
93. Religious idea.
94. Its vicissitudes among the Jews.
95. Mosaism.
96. Prophetism.
CHAPTER XVI.
CONCLUSION.
97. Action, creed, hopes.

NOTICE.
THE name of Isaac Reggio of Goritz, is now a celebrity in the Hebrew literary world. A man of vast mind, a profound scholar, a philosopher, and an elegant writer, his numerous works on Theology, Hermeneutics, Philology, History, and Literature, written in Hebrew, in Italian, and in German, have tended much to revive the taste for Hebrew literature, and to reconcile modern education to the study of Jewish antiquities.
The present little book is one of his latest productions in the Italian language. In a style at once concise and perspicuous, and with a form of reasoning suited to the scientific requirements of the times, he introduces the student to an enlarged view of Religion, ascends with him to the heavenly source from which it emanated, and leads him, through the paths of virtue and love, to the comprehension and admiration of the objects contemplated by it. In short, he teaches--if I am permitted the expression--the philosophy of religion.
I humbly, but firmly believe that, in the hands of able Jewish teachers, this work will considerably assist them to infuse into religious instruction a little more spirituality, and to impart a more comprehensive view of religion, than the routine of former days deemed necessary, and that, by so doing, they will be better able to enlarge and satisfy the minds, improve the hearts, and generally advance the moral education of youth.
Notwithstanding the well-intentioned and beneficial efforts of many friends of education among the British Jews, and the praiseworthy exertions of some excellent teachers, the education of the mass is, we must confess, still in a condition, in which the attainment of those objects has not ceased to be a desideratum. We may or may not be on a level with our neighbours, but we have very urgent and special calls of our own for self-improvement, we have a particular mission to fulfil, with its concomitant duties. Such self-improvement and such duties are demanded by the spirit--not of the age,