Stern, Hermann

Hermann Stern – personal testimony

Taken from “Jewish Witnesses that Jesus is the Christ” with this introduction by the editor:
The following narrative of Mr. Stern is abridged from his ” Glaubensgruende fuerr meinen Uebertritt zum Christentumn.” All that portion has been omitted, which brings proofs from the Jewish prayer-book, and Rabbinical authors, that the more ancient Jews believed in a plurality of subsistences in the Godhead; this line of argument, though useful to a certain extent, is not such as to satisfy a mind really in earnest. “What say the Rabbis? is a question of very inferior moment to the inquiry: What saith the revealed word of God?

SKETCHES OF MY HISTORY
My father was Rabbi and Teacher of the Talmud at Prague, at Strakenitz, and somewhat later at Bamberg. I had the happiness to be instructed by him in the Bible and in the Talmud, from my tenth to my twenty-first year, and during this period of eleven years, I also frequented some Christian schools. At the decease of my father, who died in his seventy-sixth year, duty no longer demanded my residence at Bamberg, and having applied to the then “Court Commission,” [Hofcommission] at Wurtzburg, for the situation of Israelitish teacher at Hochburg, which was at that time vacant, I obtained it. The Jewish inhabitants of Hochburg were “pious” and previous to my coming there the children of the rich had been instructed by private tutors. But as the former had been unwilling, that the children of the less fortunate Jewish parents should share this instruction, these felt themselves obliged to petition the authorities for the appointment of a public teacher, which was answered, quite unexpected by the rich, by my installation. It was, therefore, to be expected that the wealthier Jews would not be pleased with the new school; and when at last the authorities would no longer suffer the private tutors to remain at Hochburg, obliging the rich Jews to send their children to the public school, the latter became to them an object of hatred. This hatred to the school was now transferred to me, and I was persecuted in every possible way. The wealthier Jews complained of me, because I permitted the boys to sit bare-headed ; because I kept no wash-basin in the school -room, and what gave me most trouble, though it was not raised into a point of accusation, because I had often inculcated the duty of love to Christians, whom the Shulchan Aruch denominated idolaters.
I endeavoured to conform in my religious instruction to the letter and spirit of the Holy Scriptures, and could not avoid alluding to the defectiveness and emptiness of the synagogue ceremonial, as taught in the Talmud and the Jewish code Shulchan Aruch.
This course was complained of before the Chief Rabbi of the district; and for my own security, I requested government that the Rabbi be instructed to superintend the religious instruction of my school, and to subject it to one or two examinations annually. Mr. Ring, the Chief Rabbi, however, begged to be excused from doing so, stating, that my religious instruction did not please him. The government then demanded of the Rabbi either to propose one of the existing religious compendiums as a text-book for schools, or else to write one himself.
The Rabbi offered to do the latter. In the third year of my public services, the government sent me to the town of Heidingsfeld, and before leaving Hochburg, I received a testimonial from the royal school-inspection of the district, expressing the satisfaction my labours had given to the government.
I had been nearly two years in my school at Hochburg, when the government sent me, and all other Israelitish teachers of the kingdom, the new text-book of the Mosaic religion which the Rabbinical candidate. Dr. Alexander Behr, had written, under the surveillance and direction of the Chief Rabbi, Mr. Abraham Bing, and which the Rabbi at Fuerth, and many other influential Jewish ecclesiastics had adopted; government signifying at the same time that it was the desire of his Majesty the King to have this book introduced in all Israelitish schools. I received joyfully this book, which promised to meet the urgent necessities of the schools. But I was doomed to severe disappointment ; the 160 octavo pai^es which this volume contains, are almost entirely filled with ceremonial laws, treating of philacteries, inscriptions, fringes, circumcisions, meats, the prohibition of shaving, the creed, &c. &c. Not a word, and much less an exposition of morality, of conscience, of virtue, of holiness, of the condition and destiny of man.
In that portion of the book which treats of God, there is an entire omission of his power, his wisdom, his goodness, mercy and holiness, and of all the lessons derived from these attributes and perfections. Not even the Decalogue has found a place in this work.
The Messiah, (as well as many other similar predictions) it explains to signify a period of time when all men shall know God and serve him.
I directed the attention of the government to this dead skeleton, showing that I could not receive this book as my guide in religious instruction. I prayed for permission to follow my own course of instruction, and pledged myself to have my lessons printed and submitted to the Chief Rabbi.
My petition was granted; this was the beginning of trouble ; and my book on the ” Confirmation of Israelites” followed in 1829, It was the more gladly received by the public, since I confirmed all my positions by quotations from the Talmud, which I translated literally. The second volume, which I published in 1835, under the title of the ” Tree of Life,” was as kindly received. Both these books continue as standards in many schools of various countries, and prove that even the Talmudists of the third, fourth, and fifth centuries have drunk from the evangelical source of life. In like manner also, the Confession of Faith of the Israelites, as delineated in my works the “Confirmation,” page 140 — 146, and the “Tree of Life,” page 226 — 243, remain in full credit among the Jews to this day, nor have the Rabbis ventured to say ought against it, although it refers to the New Covenant both in the text itself and in the notes.
Five-and-twenty years have I been openly inculcating these principles in my schools and in the synagogues, and never have either the Israelitish deputies delegated by government to attend my public examinations, nor the great number of Israelites who assisted on such occasions, uttered an objection; ii proof this, that my religious principles were not a baseless fabric, or, as is too often the case in the statements of our Rabbis, the result of mere whim or conjecture.
The kindly, but often misconstrued feelings of his Majesty, Ludovic I. towards the Israelites of his realm, which had been manifested by his establishment of national schools for them, by the appointment of regularly educated Rabbis, the free admission of the Jews to all the existing Christian scholastic institutions, and the manifold favours enjoyed by Jewish mechanics, &c., were again shown in the year 1836, by his convoking of Jewish committees.
These consisted of Rabbis, Israelite teachers, and delegates of communities. They met in all the provincial capitals of the kingdom in the public edifices, where they held regular sessions, under the presidency of a royal commissary, to solve such questions in theological, scholastic, and social matters, as had arisen during the then contemplated Jewish emancipation ; and to give government their advice.
One of the questions before the Committee at Wurzburg was — Whether the Jewish doctrines acknowledge or reject the belief in the Trinity, as contained in the Old Testament. The Rabbis consulted on this weighty point in private sessions, which I attended, having been chosen by a majority of votes as one of the referees ; and they thereupon declared in the public session briefly that the doctrine of the Trinity is not contained in the Old Testament, on which account also the Jews did not acknowledge this doctrine.
The president then demanded that every one agreeing with the declaration of the Rabbis should rise. All the Rabbis, all the teachers, and all the delegates (116 individuals) arose. I only, remained sitting, and then handed to the president a written notice, stating that I should beg the Rabbis, in a circular which should be printed, to give me an explanation of various difficulties that I entertained on this point, before I could accede to the declaration made by them.
My circular, entitled ” Israelitism in its Excellency and its Burden” {Israeli tenthuni in seiner Wurde und Burde) was printed during these sessions (which lasted six weeks), and produced a universal sensation. The Rabbis took it very ill that I had ventured this step, notwithstanding – I had been shown, as in a camera obscura, in glaring colours, my prospective misery; but they did not answer my circular. Only Dr. Roraann, Chief Rabbi, (Land Rabbiner) at Cassel, and Mr. J. Heidegger, teacher of the Talmud, at Furth, wrote each one a sheet against me. Both of them, however, scarcely touched upon the point, and were contented with abuse, cursing, and persecution.
My school at Heidingsfeld was advised to institute a complaint against me, as having, through my circular, shaken the basis of my religion, and to found thereon a request for my removal. The government, however, declined entertaining the complaint ; since, by issuing my circular, I had adopted the very course which the Rabbis themselves had pointed out when asked how a Jew should proceed in case that religions doubts should arise; since there was no supreme religious tribunal in existence to whom the case might be referred ; the Rabbis having declared that in such an event a circular letter stating the question should be addressed by the inquirer to all (Jewish) theologians.
These reasons were too weighty to encourage an appeal to the royal “Ministerium,” although my opponents anticipated a favourable decision from this event for themselves, notwithstanding their unholy aim.
They, however, preferred to accuse me anew as having transgressed my religion, namely, by having taught in my schools that in case of necessity the Jews were permitted to break the laws relating to the Sabbath in order to relieve a fellow-man.
I was cited and heard, and having confessed the truth of the charge, the royal ‘Ministerium’ resolved on my penal removal to the school at Main-Stockkeim.
This severe penalty could not have been inflicted, if the Rabbis had not represented that Jews were not permitted to violate the Sabbatical laws in order to relieve a fellow-man.
I was therefore obliged to leave a town where so many persons and objects were dear to me, and where I had enjoyed that rare happiness of teachers, to instruct the children of my former pupils. I was forced to leave two pretty little gardens which I had gradually raised on desert spots, and the trees which I had planted at the birth of each of my children.
I departed; my wife and children followed me weeping, and the tears of many others comforted me.
In November, 1837, I arrived in the village of Mainstockheira, the place of destination, as the appointed Israelitish teacher of religion. The Jewish community belonged to the orthodox or pious class. I was shown to three small rooms as my residence, and their gloomy appearance was little calculated to cheer my mind.
I observed that this dwelling could not accommodate myself and family ; and begged the Jewish School-Community (Schulgemeinde) to grant me other rooms, or else to enlarge these; but it was in vain. I was obliged to convert the lobby into a dormitory for my children. The little rooms, owing to their disproportionate loftiness, were cold and un- comfortable, and so damp that we had thick ice within, near the windows. My wife and some of my children fell sick ; and I felt myself obliged, and in duty bound, to petition the royal land-tribunal for enlargement of my dwelling, and my petition was shortly granted.
But the Jewish Warden appealed to a higher tribunal (the royal government) ; and when the former decision was confirmed, they appealed to the Ministerium. Much time was thus lost, and I obtained at last an additional room and a cellar.
My salary was so small that I had to live partly on my own means; and yet the Jewish School-Community withheld from me part of the amount of firewood granted me by law. Out of love of peace, I offered to relinquish part of the withheld quantity of wood, if they would but give the rest, so as to obviate the necessity of complaining to government; but I was forced to complain.
The suit passed again all the various counts as before, and was decided in my favour; the lawful quantity of wood was to be given me, and for that which had been unjustly withheld I was to be indemnified. Although I had declined to accept the indemnification granted me by law — a refusal very cheerfully accepted by my rich community — yet did they not neglect to avenge themselves upon me in the way of piety; being aware that this was the likeliest way to compass their end. I was accused of the following sins, which I had actually committed.

1. That I had not only permitted my female scholars to come to the synagogue on Saturdays, but had commanded them to do so, in order to attend to the religious instructions which I there imparted.
2. That I had cut my beard in Omer.*
3. That, on one occasion, being called up to the reading of the Thora, I had appeared with gloves on.
4. That I kept a Christian servant.
5. That on the anniversaries of my parents death, I did not lead the Synagogue service: and,
6. That, although I would not allow my wife to use the “dipping bath” (Tauchbad), I would persist in giving her my arm.

They stated that they could no longer suffer a man among them who is so immoral, so irreligious, and who excited so much scandal; and since no Christian court could decide on these Jewish sins, it was requested that the Chief Rabbi should be heard, and that I should be discharged. I replied : and respecting the last two points on which most stress seemed to be laid, I observed first, that it had been my father’s dying request that I should neither fast nor lead the synagogue service on the anniversaries of my parents’ death, as the custom had originated in a superstition ; and, secondly, that according to a medical testimonial which I laid before the court, my sick wife had been prohibited from using the “dipping bath”; but the decision of the Chief Rabbi was, that as I had confessed my wife neglected the bath, while, at the time, it was proved that she had taken my arm in walking, I was worthy of death according to Levit. XX. 18, and must be discharged from my office forthwith. I protested against this barbarous decision, and prayed to submit it to another Rabbinat. My petition was granted, but the Rabbi of the district, Mr. L. B. Bamberger, of Wurtzburg, declared that he fully agreed with the Chief Rabbi, and added that my wife also was worthy of death.
In consequence, I was discharged, lost the salary yet due to me, though government had approved of my official labours, and adjudged as having forfeited even my claim upon the States Institution for the relief of Orphans and Widows of German School Teachers, as well as my right to the 133 florins which I had already paid into that institution. With this bitter experience, and provided with most satisfactory testimonials from my immediate superiors, I left my native country, and went with my wife and children to the free town of Frankfort, where I enjoy perfect peace in the capacity of private tutor. From this brief sketch it will sufficiently appear that the Rabbinical Jewish religion leads to and justifies the most revolting injustice and cruelty, a reproach this which cannot be brought against Christianity. It will be vain to reply: “Christians have also committed many unjust things, and the Jews of Bavaria have remained too far behind the spirit of the day, and are, therefore, capable of many things, of which the better educated Jew would feel ashamed.” I admit that many Christians have acted unjustly, but they never did so in conformity with the principles and doctrines of Christianity. Christianity does not justify evil, but Rabbinical Judaism does.
The acknowledged principles of the latter scorn the Spirit of the age ; nor can it be suffered to affect them so long as Judaism is to remain Judaism; a fact this which the great association of orthodox Rabbis, opposed to the more enlightened Rabbis, ever have endeavoured to prove, and are still continuing to do. The enlightened Israelites cannot prove that the Talmudian Rabbinical Judaism (the Judaism of the Bible has ceased since the destruction of the second temple), is anything else than what it really is ; but by their verbal and real opposition to it prove that it is good for nothing, and that one is obliged to abandon it in order to be a rational and upright man. It is only a pity that these men are generally wanting in reverence for divine religion in general, and in courage to profess Christianity, which I am deeply persuaded, and will maintain before God, is true Judaism.
Whoever is not able to enter into the connection of divinely arranged relations of things, must needs contradict it and break it up. To such a mind is the revelation of the old as well as the new covenant, a subject vastly too much modified ; as may be proved from universal history, and as has been amply proved by the memorable progress of Jewish history since the crucifixion of Christ, and the degeneracy of the Jewish religion into the chaos of Talmudical Rabbinism.
One may declaim, after one’s own ideas or knowledge — on the one invisible and incorporeal Deity ; on the precepts of universal morality ; but such abstractions are neither revelation nor religion, and are at best merely views and scholastic opinions of religion.
To palm this off as the index and the essence of the Jewish religion, is to misrepresent it as far as it did possess historical meaning and significance.
The first volume of my periodical, “Die Auferstehung,”* proves sufficiently, without at all exhausting the subject, that the doctrine of the Trinity is not new in Judaism, however positively this is denied. And it may be proved, that it is precisely the groundless rejection of this dogma, which appears in all the writings of the Old Testament, that constitutes our greatest guilt, and brought about the denial and crucifixion of the Messiah.
This terrible blood-guiltiness which our ancestors have brought on themselves, and entailed on their descendants, the murder of the most righteous and most exalted Israelite whom the earth ever bore, the only sinless Son of God, is still resting upon us ; and must disturb every reflecting Israelite the more, since he cannot find peace within any other pale than that of Christianity, the true religion of Judaism.
But the credibility and truth of the fundamental dogmas of Christianity, in their identity with biblical Judaism will be seen in the following grounds of faith.
I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER
Although I, who am a creature of the earth, endowed with limited powers of mind, am incapable of comprehending God, the only One, the Eternal, the Almighty, the Invisible, the omnipresent Creator, the Governor and Ruler of the Universe ; still millions of proofs convince me that He is the God and living Father of mankind, and, therefore, I believe it. He is the Father in a much loftier sense than I am able to comprehend ; for my conceptions are imperfect and insufficient, when contemplating the inferior creation; how much more when judging of an order of beings higher than myself, or of the Most High, while the angels reply to the inquiry, ” Where is the place of his glory?” only by “blessing Him,” My ideas are borrowed from a human father, who, as I know by myself, is fallible, subject to passion, in every way limited and liable to sin. My confession of the Father is the amen from the depths of my heart. From this amen gushes forth my amunah (my faith); (Isa.lxv. 16.) a stream of sweet water, which satisfies my thirst, and waters the whole of the blessed inheritance which I have acquired according to the direction of my Lord for ever. I believe in God the Father, the first and only source of created beings, which He preserves, which He suffers to die, and to re-appear in new forms and for new purposes. I believe in God, the Father of His only begotten Son, the Messiah, whom He has begotten from His own essence from all eternity.
I BELIEVE IN GOD THE SON
All men are called by their Creator to be holy, even as He is holy. The duty of complying with it. every man who will use his reason must feel. It was especially shown in Israel — Israel would not hear the Lord Him- self, and He acquiesced in this by His holy decree made known in the beginning — viz., to lead and to save mankind by Him who is sent from God ; for man cannot see God himself. (Exod. xxxiii. 20.) Moses was guided by the Messenger of God (the Malach), and all the sacred books testify of him. This Messenger of God, the Messiah, is the heart of the religious organization; every man has need of it, without it there is no life in him. All the books of the Old Testament carry the life and blood to the heart ; and all the books of the New Testament eject it from the heart through- out the body. The Messiah came at the time appointed, and in the appointed manner. God with us (Immanuel), the Prince of Peace, the An^-el, God, are the names given to him by the Bible ; and the Jews called him “Salvation” (Joshua- Jesha). It was his province to enunciate clearly the eternal rules of life, to redeem mankind from its apostacy, to trans- form it into a holy Israel, to establish a kingdom of heaven where all who have erred may be received unto liberty and pence. The Jews of antiquity hailed the Messiah, and at His entry in Jerusalem, cried to Him, Hosanna (save us); but they afterwards denied Him, notwithstanding- all the proofs of His faithfulness. The Jews of the present day, by their manner of life and their many prayers, confess the truth of the fundamental articles of the Christian faith and of the divine nature of the Messiah. And yet they deny Him without any other reason than their blind obstinacy. They even confess the resurrection of Christ, ascribing, however, this sublime phenomenon (which occurs also twice in the old covenant) to the powers of the Shem-hamephorash, which they at the same time define to be the belief in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and yet — deny. The precepts of the Tora (the five books of Moses) were considered by the Jews of all ages as divine; and they are divine, but ennobled and fulfilled by the Messiah.
But if Christ be denied, and not acknowledged as the promised Messiah, then the precepts of the Thora remain what they were — viz., a collection of symbols — which, the moral precepts excepted, are no longer of any application. Even the Mosaical moral laws would appear imperfect on this supposition ; for in them man is valued at the price of gold; the Israelite is brother only to the Israelite; vengeance is permitted, &c. &c. It is on account of the inapplicability and the imperfection of these laws that Judaism has grown poor and worthless ; Rabbis will stand opposed to Rabbis as of yore, and Judaism has degenerated into a most unreasonable and impotent Rabbinical mechanism, according to which, as has been shown, a man is sentenced to die who will not be as inhuman as Judaism would have him. But the doctrine of the new covenant — i.e. of the Messiah — which is truly Israelitish, testifies, by its divine origin, to its eternal truth by that universal love, loyal to God, and redeeming the world, which forms the focus into which all its rays are drawn. Here you behold a doctrine which rouses the mind, a moral which affects and wins the heart. Here is a just delineation of the human being in its perfection ; power and tenderness, justice and compassion, vivacity and calmness, clearness and depth, the simplicity of a child and wisdom profound, elevation and familiarity, in wonderful harmony ; no loop-hole or hiding-place for the ungodly.
Therefore I believe in God the Son ; therefore I must believe in Him. I believe in Him as the Messiah, bringing happiness and salvation to the human being, without whom the Holy Scriptures would be a compound of untruths; without whom God could not be God.
I believe in God the Son, because the Holy Scriptures of the old covenant point continually to Him ; because they command us to kiss the Son, that we may not go astray, proclaiming salvation to all those who put their trust in Him. (Ps. ii. 12.) I believe in God the Son, because His death, as well as His life, was a resurrection, and faith in Him promises a resurrection, a new birth unto God .
God the Son will build the holy temple on earth. Without faith in Him life is a sepulchre; without it man is capable of worshiping wood and stone ; capable of calling the believer a worshipper of idols, and to be cold to those whom he should meet with gratitude and devotedness. The death of the Son, David sung in his Psalms (Ps. ix. x.); therefore I rejoice in Him and shout for joy : of Him is my song in the great congregation, and I pay my vows in the presence of those that fear Him. (Ps. xxii. 26.) “Thou hast maintained my right and my cause ; thou satest in the throne judging right.” (Ps. ix. 4, etc.) Thy omnipotence, Thy doctrine, the power of Christianity, has pre- served me to eternal life, and has protected me in hours of temptation. How very easy was it not made for me to have betrayed Thee! If I had but risen from my seat I should have been a traitor. The Levites persecuted me, and have condemned me to death ; but thanks unto Thee, O my salvation. Thou hast led me through fire and through water, and hast preserved me. I will no longer remember the past, nor the old ; for Thou hast created new things. It shoots forth even now, will ye not perceive it? (Isa. xviii.) My strength and my p 2 whole life shall henceforth be devoted unto Thee, my God. My sufferings never can become so great that Thy example should not afford me comfort and relief. Be therefore still my Guide, my Beacon-light in the dangerous voyage of life.
I BELIEVE IN GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT
If we reflect on the essence and the working: of the Holy Spirit, as delineated in the Old Testament writings, as far as God has given us the ability to do so, and as far as it appears to be necessary for the regulation of our conduct, the conviction gains upon us afresh, that the gospel, or the glad tidings of the Messiah, contains divine oral laws, and the application of the written doctrines.
When it is said in Gen. i. 2, the Spirit of Elohim (plural) moved on the face of the water, or when he said to Moses (Num. xi. 17), ” I will take of the Spirit that is on thee and put it upon them ,” or in ver. 25, They prophesied as long as the Spirit was on them, but no longer, it must appear to every candid mind that by the Spirit of God is not meant a mere influence, but a real, active being; for to say- that an influence was moving over the water, to pass upon one person while leaving another, to rest for a time upon certain individuals, is absurd.
In Exod. xxviii. 3, we read : God has filled those who were wise (meek) in heart with the spirit of wisdom, but that this spirit (1 Sam. XV. 21 — 26), has left the king Saul, because he feared God less than the people ; which believed, as they still do, that God loved sacrifice more than mercy. (1 Sam. xvi. 14.)
But that which comes and goes pre-supposes something which does not only enlighten the spirit of man (for this might be done by study and intercourse with the learned), but something which does purify and lift up even the less enlightened beyond the boundaries of man.
The Spirit of God, when it entered the heart of man, rendered him “another man” (1 Sam, X. 6); so that the human spirit disappears when God pours out his spirit upon man. (Joel ii. 28, 29.)
The Holy Spirit is not produced by the power to prophecy, but, on the contrary, he, as a self-existing Being, produces this power. As it is said of Saul : the Spirit of the Lord will conic upon thee, and thou shalt prophecy. The Holy Spirit, therefore, and the power to prophecy, stand to each other in the relation of cause and effect.
Now, then, it is the Holy Spirit, and not mere enlightenment, which enables us to walk in the laws of the Lord, in giving us a new heart and a new spirit, differing in its aspirations from those of man at large. (See Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27.) The Spirit of the Lord, more- over, gives us the spirit of (true) wisdom and the spirit of (true) understanding ; the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of the (true) knowledge and of the (true) fear of the Lord. (Isa. xi, 2.) It is admitted that the mind of the human being is a spirit from the Lord ; but the self-existing Holy Spirit must animate and guide the mind, or else it will be led into error ; for when the Spirit of the Lord left Saul, an evil spirit troubled him.
It is only when we seek by repentance and faith, the outpouring of the spirit of grace and supplication, and when looking up to him whom we have pierced, and mourning for him as one that mourneth for an only son, and mourns in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born; that God -will take away out of tbe land the false teachers (who -would explain away the Messiah) and the impure spirit. (Zech. xii. 10; xiii. 2).
Kimchi and Rashi, the two great leaders of the Jewish mind, confess (Comment, on Num. xii. 2) that “the Spirit is speaking;” thus showing that it is not an influence which obliged the prophets to speak, but that the words of the prophet were the words of the Holy Spirit — hence of self-existing, intelligent personality — and not of a lifeless and unintelligent power. But the leaders of Israel are his destroyers, (Isa. x. 1 — 4, and many other places), by denying the self-existing Spirit in God ; thus provoking Him against themselves, and against us if we follow them. (Isa. Ixiii. 10).
My belief in God the Holy Spirit is, therefore, formed alone on the Old Testament; I believe in him, and confess that be, with the Father and the Son, is the true and only God; of like essence with them, not created, but going forth from the Father and the Son. I believe in God the Holy Spirit, as animating all the regenerate, and as purifying and sanctifying them more and more daily while walking with God ; thus enabling them to serve God with increasing righteousness and holiness. I believe in God the Holy Ghost that he will fill the hearts of the faithful with peaceful assurance and firm confidence, to transform them into children of God, and to exalt them far above the men of the world.
I believe in God the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying and governing, not only the individual members, but also the whole church united —
all the members, but one body — through Christ the atoning Saviour; the most exalted Israelite after God’s own heart.
I believe that He, the Holy Spirit, will also enlighten and animate my poor Israelitish brethren, to embrace the immoveable and saving truths of the gospel, so that they may pray with a true heart.
Elohim Zebaoth ! return we beseech Thee; look down from heaven and behold and visit this vine ; and the vineyard which thy right hand has planted, and the ISo7i whom thou madest strong for thyself Let Thy hand be still upon the man of Thy right hand, upon the Son of man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself So will we not go back from Thee. Awaken us, O Lord, and we will call upon Thy name. Tarn us again, O Triune (Jehovah Elohim) God. Cause Thy face to shine upon us, and we shall be saved.
I BELIEVE IN THE TRIUNE GOD
The writings of the Old and New Covenant in commanding me to worship God in a Trinity, do not thereby mean to shew me what God is, for how could I, poor worm of the dust, comprehend this? But their design is, to teach me here how to worship Him: I am told to worship Him as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Our impressions respecting the unity of God are not impaired thereby, but it is propounded in the manner in which the divine doctrines would have us to receive it. God would be to us not only a Creator, but a Father. Should we refuse to be His faithful children ?
He is all men’s Father, yet He is not comprehended alike, not loved alike, not worshipped alike by all. We Israelites are especially called, commanded, and in duty bound, to love God our Elohim, with our whole soul, mind, and strength; God’s parental love to us, most undeserving, passes all conception. Above and beyond all the other blessings which flow upon us in common with other human beings, God appeared to us as Man, the Son of God, to unite Himself unto us ! The Word became flesh, and dwelt and walked among us. In the Son we behold the Father, and round us streams His glory when we unite ourselves to Him. The chasm that separated the creature from the Great Infinite has disappeared. The Son who has come forth from the Father, knows the will of the Father, and He has no oilier will than this;. He is the sublimest ]”;attcrn to us, because every man is called to enter through Him into filial relation with God.
He is the substitute, the Saviour, the benefactor, the Son of God, the Son of Man. From Father and Son proceeds the Holy Spirit, who is to make us perfect. Through the Gospel He breathes in us as the teacher, the comforter, and the helper. A few traces of Him may be found even in the Talmud, but they are dis- covered with difficulty amidst the vast rubbish of useless discussions upon the ritual.

The Holy Spirit enlightens the soul, purifying it and making it to rejoice. It is he who makes us the children of God, and comes to all who seek God with their whole heart.
We worship the one only God in the Father, Son, and Spirit; whoever desires only one of these, will not acknowledge and adore Him in the manner in which He has manifested Himself to us, in which it is our duty to receive Him. Such an one is rebellious against God and willfully opposes Him.
The rabbinical age forsook spiritual Judaism, which was yet engaged in a religious struggle for development, adhering merely to the dead and killing letter, and made that its exclusive subject of discussion. They arranged ” precept upon precept, line upon line, precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little,” without any regard to the irresistible and compelling power of history; and the religion which was to teach the redemption of the world through the Messiah, was reduced to be the handmaiden of insignificant traditions.
This terrible degeneration of true religion, effected by the guilt of man — these glaring contradictions in the lecture-room of divine truth, must excite a deep indignation in the heart of all who feel the high calling of their existence. But these circumstances make it also a holy duty in every Israelite to throw off the degrading cap and bells of rabbinical self- righteousness; and, according to the claims of morality, of life, of the family, of the country, and of society at large, to choose, instead, the diadem of faith in the Saviour, “the Holy One of Israel;” and, by embracing the truth as it is in Jesus, to remove himself from the dreary dungeon of rabbinism, into the illuminated temple of the Messiah, which alone is the safe and sufficiently spacious place of refuge for the whole human race.
The embracing of Christianity is the only condition of our salvation — the key to the proper understanding of our sacred Scriptures, of our prayers, and of the many instructions of Jewish commentators on the Holy Trinity: it is the solution of the problem, why God is so much displeased with us — why he condemns us — and why the word of God calls upon us to plead with our mother . Long before the appearance of “the Holy One of Israel,” of the only and true Messiah, have the biblical teachers of the old covenant already taught and practised divine adoration to the Saviour, and have sung hymns to the Son of God. We must do the same, if it is not to be said of us forever, that we “travail with iniquity, have conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.’

Source
Herschell, Haim (ed.) Jewish Witnesses that Jesus is the Christ. London, 1848.