Dr. de Sola’s mastery of Semitic languages and literature early attracted the notice of our learned bodies, and, after first acting as lecturer, he was, in 1853, appointed professor of Hebrew and Oriental literature at McGill University. The high abilities which he displayed as occupant of this chair proved the wisdom of the appointment, and he continued to hold the position during the rest of his life.
For some time Dr. de Sola had been engaged in the preparation of one of his most important productions, “The Sanatory Institutions of the Hebrews.” The work was published in two parts and was an exhaustive exposition of the hygienic laws of the Hebrews, as exhibited in both Scriptural and rabbinical writings, critically examined in the light of modern scientific knowledge. It was a production which evinced how deeply the author had penetrated into scientific as well as rabbinical paths of learning. Shortly afterwards he published a supplemental work to it, entitled “Behemoth Hatemeoth.”
The prominence to which Dr. de Sola had now reached among men of letters led McGill University to confer upon him the degree of LL. D. in 1858.
In 1860, Dr. Hall, the editor of The British American Journal, devoted to physical and medical science, induced Dr. de Sola to assist that publication with his pen, and, among other contributions, his series of articles “Upon the Employment of Anaesthetics in Cases of Labor, in Connection with Jewish Law,” call for particular mention.
Dr. de Sola’s wide range of studies had made him very popular both as a public lecturer and as a contributor to various literary papers. The themes of some of these were afterwards much amplified by him and republished in their elaborated and completed form. At comparatively short intervals he gave to the public his works on “Scripture Botany,” “Sinaitic Inscriptions,” “Hebrew Numismatics,” “The Ancient Hebrews as Promoters of the Arts and Sciences,” “The Rise and Progress of the Great Hebrew Colleges,” and “Philological Studies in Hebrew and the Aramaic Languages.” Turning his attention again to Jewish history, he, in 1869, wrote his interesting “Life of Shabethai Tsevi, the False Messiah.” The following year he completed his “History of the Jews of Poland,” and in 1871 he published his “History of the Jews of France.”
Dr. de Sola closely identified himself with many of our literary and scientific associations, notably with the Natural History Society, in which he was an active colaborer of Sir William Dawson and Sir William Logan. He was for many years president of the society and received H. R. H. Prince Arthur (afterwards Duke of Connaught) when that prince visited the society in 1870. His address upon “The Study of Natural Science,” delivered upon that occasion, called forth a letter of approbation from Queen Victoria.
During all his intense literary activity Dr. de Sola was taking a very prominent part in all matters affecting the Jewish people. His mastery of Jewish theology, in all its branches, had earned him wide renown among his own race and had gained him a high place among the very foremost rabbis of the day. Convinced that the fences which orthodoxy placed around the citadel of his ancestral faith were the best safeguards against disintegrating forces, the upholders of historical Judaism found in him an able and powerful champion. Equally noticeable were his bold attacks upon the weak points of the skeptical school of modern biblical criticism. His intimate knowledge of all those branches of learning which bear upon this subject made him particularly formidable in this respect. The Jewish press and pulpit and the lecture platform were the vehicles by which he usually reached the public on these subjects. He had, indeed, since his first arrival in Canada been a particularly active contributor to Jewish journals, more especially to the Occident of Philadelphia, with which he was for years identified, being in intimate literary relations with its editor, the gifted Isaac Leeser.
Dr. de Sola’s ability in the pulpit led to his frequently being invited to lecture in the United States, where he had acquired much prominence and popularity. On the 9th of January, 1872, he was invited by General Grant’s government to perform the ceremony of opening the United States congress with prayer, and for the first time was witnessed the unique spectacle of one who was not a citizen of the United States nor of the dominant belief officiating at the opening ceremonies at the assembling of congress at Washington. The broad liberality of this act, upon the part of the United States government, was fraught with particular significance at that time, owing to the fact that diplomatic relations between Britain and the United States had then but lately been strained to dangerous tension by the “Alabama Claims,” and this high compliment to a British subject was the first evidence of the growth of a better feeling between the two countries. Sir Edward Thornton, the British ambassador at Washington, formally extended to Dr. de Sola the thanks of the British government, and Mr. Gladstone—then prime minister, also personally communicated his satisfaction.
Upon the death of Isaac Leeser, Dr. de Sola purchased the stereotyped plates of his works and issued a new edition of that author’s translation of the Bible according to Jewish authorities. He also brought out a revised translation of the Jewish Forms of Prayer, in six volumes, based upon the editions of D. A. de Sola (his father) and of Leeser. He was invited to become the successor of Mr. Leeser in his ministerial office but declined. He had previously refused several similar offers.
Dr. de Sola’s onerous duties were at this time further increased by his being offered the chair of Hebrew at the Montreal Presbyterian College, and later on he accepted the appointment of lecturer in Spanish literature at McGill University, a literature and language with which he was specially familiar and to which he was particularly attached.