Lincoln "When Lincoln Died on Passover"

KansasFreestater

1st Lieutenant
In 1865, news of Lee's surrender at Appomattox on April 9 broke all over the United States on April 10, which, in that year, happened to be the day on which the eight-day festival of Passover was to begin at sunset. Meir Y. Soloveichik has written about the remarkable intersections of the Jewish calendar with the momentous events of that week.

"We can imagine the elegant symmetry that those Jews sympathetic to the Union cause saw in the advent of their Festival of Freedom, commemorating the Isaraelite exodus from slavery, coinciding with the Confederacy's defeat."
Only four days after that, as Jews were midway through their celebration of the eight days of Passover, and as all of Washington was celebrating the victory of the Army of the Potomac, Lincoln was shot. His death early the next morning was quickly conveyed by telegraph all over the North. It happened to be Saturday, the Jewish sabbath.

"Bertram Korn, in his American Jewry and the Civil War, describes the scene:

Jews were on their way to synagogue or already worshipping when tidings of the assassination reached them.... Jews who had not planned on attending services hastened to join their brethren in the sanctuaries where they could find comfort in the hour of grief. The Rabbis put their sermon notes aside and spoke extemporaneously, haltingly, reaching out for the words to express their deepest sorrow.... Samuel Adler of Temple Emmanuel in New York began to deliver a sermon but he was so overcome that he could not continue.​

"Because the president died on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, the first utterances from the pulpit in response to the assassination were heard in synagogues, as Isaac Marken explains in Abraham Lincoln and the Jews. One of the most striking -- and controversial -- moments took place in Congregation Shearith Israel, in New York, the oldest Jewish congregation in America. There, Marken recounts, 'the rabbi recited the Hashkabah (prayer for the dead) for Lincoln. This, according to the Jewish Messenger, was the first time that this prayer had been said in a Jewish house of worship for any other than those professing the Jewish religion.' This seeming deviation from tradition in Shearith Israel -- known to this day for its fierce devotion to preserving religious and liturgical tradition -- was noted by many..."​
 
In 1865, news of Lee's surrender at Appomattox on April 9 broke all over the United States on April 10, which, in that year, happened to be the day on which the eight-day festival of Passover was to begin at sunset. Meir Y. Soloveichik has written about the remarkable intersections of the Jewish calendar with the momentous events of that week.

"We can imagine the elegant symmetry that those Jews sympathetic to the Union cause saw in the advent of their Festival of Freedom, commemorating the Isaraelite exodus from slavery, coinciding with the Confederacy's defeat."
Only four days after that, as Jews were midway through their celebration of the eight days of Passover, and as all of Washington was celebrating the victory of the Army of the Potomac, Lincoln was shot. His death early the next morning was quickly conveyed by telegraph all over the North. It happened to be Saturday, the Jewish sabbath.

"Bertram Korn, in his American Jewry and the Civil War, describes the scene:

Jews were on their way to synagogue or already worshipping when tidings of the assassination reached them.... Jews who had not planned on attending services hastened to join their brethren in the sanctuaries where they could find comfort in the hour of grief. The Rabbis put their sermon notes aside and spoke extemporaneously, haltingly, reaching out for the words to express their deepest sorrow.... Samuel Adler of Temple Emmanuel in New York began to deliver a sermon but he was so overcome that he could not continue.​
"Because the president died on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, the first utterances from the pulpit in response to the assassination were heard in synagogues, as Isaac Marken explains in Abraham Lincoln and the Jews. One of the most striking -- and controversial -- moments took place in Congregation Shearith Israel, in New York, the oldest Jewish congregation in America. There, Marken recounts, 'the rabbi recited the Hashkabah (prayer for the dead) for Lincoln. This, according to the Jewish Messenger, was the first time that this prayer had been said in a Jewish house of worship for any other than those professing the Jewish religion.' This seeming deviation from tradition in Shearith Israel -- known to this day for its fierce devotion to preserving religious and liturgical tradition -- was noted by many..."​
Such an event as the assassination brings such a unfathomable sense of shock and deep sorrow that it elicits responses that transcend normal "rules". How profoundly this tragedy must have affected the Rabbi on that day is seen in his response to it. Thank you for posting this very insightful article.
 
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