The reasons of the laws of Moses. From the More Nevochim of Maimonides / [Translated] by James Townley. With notes, dissertations, and a life of the author. By James Townley.
- Maimonides, Moses, 1135-1204. Dalālat al-ḥāʼirīn. Selections. English
- Date:
- 1827
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The reasons of the laws of Moses. From the More Nevochim of Maimonides / [Translated] by James Townley. With notes, dissertations, and a life of the author. By James Townley. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![the command was a virtual acknowledgment of the one Jehovah, in opposition to the numerous false deities of surrounding nations. The remission of their worldly employments on the seventh day, naturally called to remembrance God’s creating the world in six days, and resting on the seventh. In the constant renewal of this recollection, their minds must have been as constantly impressed with the first and fundamental truth of all religion, the unity and omnipotence of the Deity. With every returning Sabbath, their thoughts were directed to the Supreme Being, who, existing eternally, infinite in his perfections, and the Creator of the universe, was alone deserv¬ ing their praise, their reverence, and worship.”—See Holden’s Christian Sabbath, ch. iii, sect, i, pp. 133—140. London, 1825, 8vo. NOTE LXIX.—Page 255. The fifth day before the Feast of Tabernacles, viz. the tenth day of the seventh month or Tisri, [^September,]] was the day of atonement or expiation. (Levit. xvi, 1—34; Exod. xxiii, 26—30; Numb, xxix, 1—11.) It was a day of fasting, and the only one during the whole year, on which food was inter¬ dicted from evening to evening. (Levit. xxiii, 27—29 xxv, 9-)—It was called the Feast, (or sometimes the Fast) of Expia¬ tion or Propitiation, because the High Priest then made con¬ fession unto God of his own sins and of the sins of the people ; and performed certain rites and ceremonies in order to expiate them, and make an atonement unto God for them.—Upon this day, the high-priest was permitted to enter the holy of holies ; and, according to the later Jews, had the privilege, on this dav, to pronounce the word Jehovah or peculiar name of God, which was never allowed to be spoken by any one but by the high-priest, and by him only on this day. The institution of this solemn day was first occasioned by Moses, on that day, coming down from the mount, after three several fasts of forty days, having obtained the reconciliation of God to Israel, bringing with him the renewed Tables, and a full commission to build the Tabernacle, and to set up divine worship amongst them.—See Jahn’s Biblical Archaeology, chap, iii, sect. 357, p. 452; Godwyn’s Moses and Aaron, lib. 3, c. S, p. 129 ; Lewis’s Antiq. of the Heb. Rep. vol ii, c. 15, p. 571-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29338566_0406.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
