1`
Detroit Jewish Chronicle
and The Legal Chronicle
SECTION TWO
1 '4' NO 37 k A i racles or fl t h e e S ea on Day of Atonement
Mi
10e Single Copy; $3.00 Per Yee!
DETROIT, MICHIGAN, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1944
here and there, between the breath of the sea was hardly asunder. The play will become
roofs . . . How different it was audible and its roar indistinct, serious soon; the quiet murmur
From
dawn
to
sunset,
the
fam-
In Holland, in a half buried
on the sea—what an expanse . . . when indolently and dreamily it will rise into a roar and a deaf-
hovel on the seashore, there ily .emained in the Lord's Holy There, there was breadth in- was stretching itself aright, and ening tumult; the ripples will be
Temple, listening to the singing
dwelt a mute soul—a Jewish fish- of the choir, the tones of the deed . . . drawing itself up .. . when here transformed into giant waves
"Why, but that is your foe . . . and there in the azure, the flut- and will devour boats both great
erman called Satie, probably in organ, and the chanting of the your nemesis!" they would argue tering of white wings was seen and small, even as the little
memory of a great grandfather chorister . . . They understood with him. and the shrill cry of birds . . . fishes are devoured by the Levia-
Sadiah. But of that he knew not a single word but gazed
"Yes, but it is a good foe!" and where farther still . . . a than.
nothing. He knew, in general, steadily at the Holy Ark, and at He wanted the end of his life to silent glow hovered over the
"Don't go!"
but little of the Jewish faith, the preacher with the gilt skull- be even as the ends of his father ocean, and flecks of gold glided
An old man, barefoot and with
being the descendant of fishet- cap. Whenever the gilt skull-cap and grandfather had been—to be over the yellow sand—the little a gray, uncovered head and hair
folk and having spent all his life rose high, they too would rise; swallowed up by the sea, when huts of the fisher-boats being all flutterinz, comes out. His face
on the sea. A single Jewish fam- whenever the gilt skull-cap fell, in perfect health, without ailing, closed still—the creaking of but is furrowed at the sea, but there
ily among gentiles—what could they would return to their seats. or a slow languishing on a bed a single door was heard—it was is no trace of its sweet, deceit-
he know? Satie goes fishing, his Out of weariness, Satie would . . . without having to listen to Satie coming out.
ful smile. He steps out of his
wife weaves the nets and man- sometimes fall a-napping, but the whimperings of others . . .
The day before Atonement. but and places his hand on Satie's
ages the house, while the chil- then his neighbor would poke him and then to be buried . . . in His countenance is devout and shoulder.
dren roll in the sand and pry with his elbow and wake him.
grave; a quiet glow is in his
the hard earth . . . Brr!
"Behold!"
about for amber. And when
That was all that the Day of
He grows chill, on thinking eyes. He is to perform a good
And he points out to him a
Satie goes sailing on the sea, Atonement meant to them. Satie of such a burial . . . as they deed today—to catch a fish for tiny black speck near the hori-
and a squall that threatens his knew not that it was a Day of wend their way, homeward, to the Day of Atonement.
zon, a speck scarcely visible to
very life arises, neither he on Judgment, when the very fishes the sea. And as they wander He goes up to his fishing- any eye but a fisherman's.
the sea, nor any of his folks at of the sea trembled and were through the night, and see the smack and loosens the chain that
"Out of that, a giant cloud
home, know how to pray to the afraid, nor what was then going grey morning arise, and the gold- fastens it to the shore. There is will rise" . . .
God of Israel. Satie gazes mute- on in Heaven. He only knew en gleam of their sandy shores, a clank of iron, and on the left
"I'll be home before that,"
ly at the heaven, his wife beats the custom of abstaining from and the glimmer of the sea, and right, voices are heard call- Satie replies. "I want to catch
her head or darts a menacing food that day, of listening to they are filled with joy and clap ing:
but one fish."
look at the gloomy, wrathful sky the chair and the organ. When their hands . . .
"Don't go! Don't go!"
And the face of his old neigh-
above, and the children flinging "Neilah"—the afternoon prayer
It is the neighbors calling, as bor grows sullen:
The groom is not so merry
themselves on the sand, cry out: was over (he knew not even its with his bride . . .
they thrust their heads from out
"You have a wife and children,
"Virgin Mary! Holy Mother!" name), he knew that they were
And so the years pass on . . . of their little windows.
Satie?"
even as the other children do.
to go to the Shochet for the eve-
Now and then comes another The sea stretches over a wide
"But also a God above!" Satie
Indeed how were they to know ning meal . . . The Shochet, fisherman—more rarely, another expanse, all calm and silent; at replies confidently. He must not
any better? It was too far to go himself, must have known but Shochet. But tradition never the horizon it blends itself with fail in his good deed. He pushes
on foot to the Jewish Congre- little more. It was Holland!
changes. the bright and glowing sky of his little boat away from the
gation, and the poor family that
And immediately after the
And his custom was but a the early morning . . . it hardly shore and leaps into it, rocks it
barely made its living could not black coffee was drunk, Satie, sum total of fasting, of choir- breathes, scarcely makes a ripple to and fro, sweetly murmuring,
afford to travel there. Moreover his wife and their little children singing and the organ, associ- at the shore. Like a good old and makes a lovely fringe about
the sea would not let them go. would rise, bid farewell to the ated with a bulky fish eaten at woman around whose lips these it, enveloping it with its most
Satie's father, grandfather and Shochet and his household, and night when the afternoon prayer glowing ripples smile, it murmurs beautiful pearls. The old fisher-
great grandfather had all per- after the good wishes were ex- was over, at the house of the some old wive's tale to the man remains standing on the
ished on the sea. Indeed, such is changed, they would take their Shochet, and with the final fare- shaggy rocks scattered about, beach, muttering: "Holy Mother!
its power, that although it is the departure and spend the night well and blessing. rocks overgrown with tall water- Virgin Mary!"
most dangerous foe at that, man traveling home to the sea. It
That was the one thread that plants; it strokes their hair, smil-
And Satie's little boat glides
still loves the sea, and is drawn was not their "home" they were bound Satie to the community of ingly and sportively. But the swiftly over the sea. He throws
to it by compelling force . . . bound for, but the "sea."
Israel. fisherman knows the sea and will his net into the water with ex-
And they would refuse to
from which he may never free
And once, before dawn, when not trust him.
pert skill and lo, the net grows
himself. On the sea he must linger in town.
"Don't go!"
the
East blushed with the first
"For Heaven's sake"—the Sho-
heavy and more heavy still. He
live, and in it, perish.
The sea stirs and will run wild.
The family knew and observed chet and his wife would plead ray of the sun, and the sea
See MIRACLES—Page 4
that one Jewish holiday—the Day with them, "why you have not awoke in serenity; when the The glowing mirror will burst
of Atonement. ,:,
even seen the town."
And Satie would grin.
On the day before the Day of
". . . "The Town!"
Atonement, early in the morning,
Satie was not much of a talk-
the family would select the big-
gest fish they had, and with it er, for the sea teaches silence.
go to town, to the house of the He hated the town, for it was
Town-Shochet, and make him a
gift of it. There, also, they fast• so cramped, without either air
or sky. There was but a streak
ed and there broke their fast.
By ISAAC L EIB PEREZ
Sam Grenadier
Rosh Hashonah
Greetings
JOINS YOU...
in greeting the spirit of Rosh Hashonah
My
Sincerest Wishes
To You and to Those
Whose Happiness Is
...
To my many friends, patrons
and to all Detroit Jewry for a
Yours, a Very Joyous
Holiday.
Joyous and Happy Holiday.
•
1
S. A. GRANADIER
Tailors of Distinction
5th FLOOR—UNITED ARTISTS BLDG.
CH. 4193
Kline's
1223 - 1225 WOODWARD AVENUE