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My Dear Father:—My first duty, as it is my highest
pleasure, is to comply with your command to write
you as soon as I arrived at Jerusalem; and this letter,
while it conveys to you intelligence of my arrival, will
confirm to you my filial obedience.

I will not fail to write you by every caravan that leaves
here monthly for Cairo; and if there are more frequent
opportunities, my love for you, dear father, and sympathy
for you in your separation from me, will prompt me to
avail myself of them.

My journey hither occupied many days, Rabbi Ben
Israel says seventeen, but although I kept the number up
to ten, I soon became too weary to keep the account.
When we travelled in sight of the sea, which we did for
three days, I enjoyed the majesty of the prospect, it seemed
so like the sky stretched out upon the earth. I also had
the good fortune to see several barges, which the Rabbi,
who was always ready to gratify my thirst for information,
informed me were Roman galleys, bound some to
Sidon and others into the Nile; and after one of these

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latter, as it was going to you, I sent a prayer and a wish.
Just as we were leaving the sea-shore to turn off into the
desert, I saw a wrecked vessel. It looked so helpless and
bulky, with its huge black body all out of the water, that
it seemed to me like a great sea-monster, the Behemoth,
stranded and dying; and I felt like pitying it. The Rabbi
gave me to understand that it had come from Alexandria,
laden with wheat, bound for Italia, and been cast ashore
in a storm. How terrible a tempest must be upon the sea!
I was in hopes to have seen a Leviathan, but was not
gratified in the wish. The good Rabbi, who seemed to
know all things, told me that they seldom appear now in
the Middle Sea, but are seen beyond the pillar of Hercules
at the world's end.

At Gaza we stopped two days. We entered the gate-way
of which Samson carried away the gates, and I was
shown the hill two miles to the south-east where he left
them. Many other places of interest were shown me,
especially the field, which our path led across, where he
put to flight the Philistine hosts with much slaughter. A
lion's cave was also pointed out to me, out of which came
the lion which Samson slew, and upon which he made his
famous riddles.

The dry well into which the ten Patriarchs lowered the
Prince Joseph their brother, was also shown me by our
Arab guide, and the rock on which the Ishmaelites told
down the pieces of silver. I fancied the old Arab related
the occurrence with more elation than was needful, as if
he took pride in perpetuating the fact that our noble
ancestor had once been the purchased slave of theirs. I
noticed, several times during the journey, that the

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Ishmaelites of Edom in our caravan took every occasion to
elevate their own race to the disparagement of the sons of
Israel; indeed, Aben Hussuff, our white-bearded chief of
the caravan, in a wordy discussion with Rabbi Ben Israel
at Isaac's well where we encamped, would have it that
Isaac was the son of the bond-woman, and Ishmael the
true heir, but disinherited and cast out through the wiles
of the bond-woman, who would have her own son the
inheritor. But of course I was too well instructed in the
history of my fathers to give heed to such a fable; though
the Arabs all took part with their chief, and contended for
the truth of what he asserted as warmly and zealously as
the learned Rabbi did for the truth of his own side.

The morning of the last day of our journey we caught
sight of the Sea of Sodom and Gomorrah, at a great distance
to the east. How my pulse quickened at beholding
that fearful spot so marked by the wrath of Jehovah! I
seemed to see in imagination the heavens on fire above it,
and the flames and smoke ascending as from a great furnace,
as on that fearful day when they were destroyed,
with all that beautiful surrounding plain, which we are
told was one vast garden of beauty. How calm and still
lay now that sluggish sea beneath a cloudless sky! We
held it in sight many hours, and once caught a glimpse of
the Jordan north of it, looking like a silver thread; yet
near as it appeared to be, I was told it was a good day's
journey for a camel to reach its shores.

After losing sight of this melancholy lake, the glassy
sepulchre of cities and their countless dwellers, our way
lay along a narrow valley for some time, when all at once,
on reaching an eminence, Jerusalem appeared, like a city

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risen out of the earth, it stood before us so unexpectedly;
for we were still, as it were, in the desert; yet so near on
the side of our approach does the desert advance to its
walls, that it was not two miles off when we beheld it.

I cannot, my dear father, describe to you my emotions
on beholding the Holy City! They have been experienced
by millions of our people—they were similar to your own
as you related them to me. All the past, with its mighty
men who walked with Jehovah, came up to my mind,
overpowering me with the amazing weight. The whole
history of the sacred place rushed to my memory, and
compelled me to bow my head, and worship and adore at
the sight of the Temple, where God once (alas, why does
He no longer visit earth and His Holy House?) dwelt in
the flaming Shechinah, and made known the oracles of
His will. I could see the smoke of the evening sacrifice
ascending to the skies, and I inwardly prayed Jehovah to
accept it for thee and me.

As we approached the city several interesting spots
were pointed out to me, and I was bewildered with the
familiar and sacred localities which I had known hitherto
only by reverential reading of the Prophets. It seemed to
me that I was living in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah,
as places associated with their names were shown me,
rather than in the generation to which I properly belong.
Indeed, I have lived only in the past the three days I have
been in Jerusalem, constantly consulting the sacred historians
to compare places and scenes with their accounts,
and so verify each with a holy awe and inward delight
that must be felt to be understood; but, dear father, you

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have yourself experienced all this, and therefore can understand
my emotions.

We entered the city just before the sixth hour of the
evening, and were soon at the house of our relative Amos,
the Levite. I was received as if I had a daughter's claim
to their embraces; and with the luxuries with which they
surrounded me in my gorgeously furnished apartments, I
am sure they mean to tempt me to forget the joys of the
dear home I have left.

The Rabbi Amos and his family all desire to be commended
to you. As it is his course to serve in the Temple,
I do not see much of him, but he seems to be a man of
piety and benevolence, and greatly loves his children. I
have been once to the Temple. Its outer court seemed
like a vast caravanserai or market-place, being thronged
with the men who sell animals for sacrifice, which crowded
all parts. Thousands of doves in large cages were sold
on one side, and on another were stalls for lambs, sheep,
calves, and oxen, the noise and bleating of which, with
the confusion of tongues, made the place appear like any
thing else than the Temple of Jehovah. It appears like
desecration to use the Temple thus, dear father, and seems
to show a want of that holy awe of God's house that once
characterized our ancestors. I was glad to get safely
through the Bazaar, which, on the plea of selling to
sacrificers victims for the altar, allows, under color thereof,
every other sort of traffic. On reaching the women's
court I was sensible of being in the Temple, by the magnificence
which surrounded me. With what awe I bowed
my head in the direction of the Holy of Holies! I never
felt before so near to God! Clouds of incense floated

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above the heads of the multitude, and rivers of blood
flowed down the marble steps of the altar of burnt offering.
Alas! how many innocent victims bleed every morning
and evening for the sins of Israel! What a sea of blood
has been poured out in the ages that have passed! What
a strange, fearful mystery, that the blood of an innocent
lamb should atone for sins I have done! There must be
some deeper meaning in these sacrifices, dear father, yet
unrevealed to us.

As I was returning from the Temple I met many
persons walking and riding, who seemed to be crowding
out of the gate on some unusual errand. I have since
learned that there is a very extraordinary man—a true
prophet of God, it is believed by many, who dwells in the
wilderness fifteen miles eastward near Jordan, and who
preaches with power unknown in the land since the days
of Elijah and Elisha. It is to see and listen to this
prophet that so many persons are daily going out from
Jerusalem. He lives in a cave, feeds on plants or wild
honey, and drinks only water, while his clothing is the
skin of a lion; at least such is the report. I hope he is a
true prophet of Heaven, and that God is once more about
to remember Israel; but the days of the Prophets have
long passed away, and I fear this man is only an enthusiast;
but his influence over all who listen to him is so
remarkable, that it would seem, and one has almost the
courage to believe, that he is really endowed with the
Spirit of the Prophets.

Farewell, dear father, and let us ever pray for the glory
of Israel. Your affectionate

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