Joseph Smith’s Jewish connection

Joseph Smith

When it comes to commemorating birthdays, this is a red-letter week for Latter-day Saints. Along with the rest of the Christian world we’ll celebrate Christmas this weekend, but today (Dec. 23) marks the birth date of another major religious figure: Joseph Smith

It was 205 years ago today that Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a man we regard as a prophet akin to Moses and Abraham, was born in a small town in Vermont. His life took quite the journey, from heavenly visitations while a teen in upstate New York to his death at the hands of an angry mob in Illinois. I’ll save the details of Joseph’s biography for another day – if you’re interested in hearing more, email me – but for now, I wanted to highlight how even in his lifetime two centuries ago, Joseph Smith had a great love and appreciation for the Jewish people, a kinship that continues with Latter-day Saints today.

•    Joseph Smith was a strong believer in the gathering of Jewish people in Israel, a belief that is core among Mormon teachings today. Among the tenets spelled out in “What Do Mormons Believe?” in 1834 was the belief that “God has set His hand to recover the remnant of His people, Israel, and that the time is near when He will bring them from the four winds and reinstate them upon their own lands which He gave their fathers by covenant.”

This was echoed in the dedicatory prayer of the first LDS temple in Kirtland, Ohio, in 1836: "But thou knowest that thou hast a great love for the children of Jacob, who have been scattered upon the mountains for a long time, in a cloudy and dark day. We therefore ask thee to have mercy upon the children of Jacob, that Jerusalem from this hour, may begin to be redeemed; and the yoke of bondage may begin to be broken off from the house of David; and the children of Judah may begin to return to the lands which thou didst give to Abraham, their father."

•    The belief in the return of the Jews to Israel turned into action when Joseph Smith sent Orson Hyde, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (the LDS Church’s governing body) to Israel in 1841. While there, Hyde offered a prayer on the Mount of Olives to dedicate the land of Israel to the gathering of the Jews. Hyde wasn’t the only apostle to do so, either; twelve more LDS apostles left their blessings on the Land of Israel before the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.

•    Joseph Smith learned to speak and read Hebrew, beginning on his own in the winter of 1835. The following January, he brought Joshua Seixas, son of Rabbi Gershom Mendes Seixas, minister of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York from 1768 to 1776, to teach in the “School of the Prophets” he’d established to provide spiritual and secular instruction to Church leaders and members. Seixas had taught Hebrew at Princeton Theological Seminary, among other places, and authored a book on Hebrew grammar. During the six-week course, Seixas led the class through the entire book of Genesis in Hebrew.

Smith said, “My soul delights in reading the word of the Lord in the original, and I am determined to pursue the study of languages, until I shall become master of them, if I am permitted to live long enough.” He kept to his word and continued to study Hebrew throughout his life – in fact, the last town in which the Latter-day Saints settled in Joseph’s lifetime was named “Nauvoo,” the pilel form of the verb na’ah (or na’wu) in the Sephardic transliteration Smith had learned from Seixas.

•    In the hours before his murder, Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum, and others who were with him took turns reading aloud from the writings of Jewish historian Josephus.

Joseph Smith was a great man who made personal sacrifices to stand by his beliefs, and that dedication is something for which I’m grateful every day. It takes great courage and integrity to remain true to what you know to be right despite what outside voices say – while studying the Maccabees during Chanukah, I was touched by how they did so as well, against all odds – and I will forever be appreciative of those of all faiths who have the fortitude to fight for their faith.

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