DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE
Page 52
Writer Finds
Self-Analysis
a Wise Move
By ALFRED SEGAL
THIS MR. SEGAL thought it
.1 ! was about time to look into
himself and discover what's the
matter with him. This is the
season for self-appraising, for
confession and judgment.
!Mr. Segal was asking, just
what have been my sins the past
year? What confessions shall my
heart lay down at the holy altar?
Not that Mr. Segal was afraid.
He had faith in nr.
the Judge whose e
compassion cer-
tainly will con- t
sider that Mr.
Segal wasn't cre-
ated to be a saint
but is just a
weakly human. ,:
•
Doubtless t h e
Judge would re-
gard
merci-
fully as He does
Segal
the lilac bush. Does the Judge
condemn the lilac bush that did-
n't produce flowers as fragrant as
in the years before? The Judge
lets the lilac hush grow unto an-
other year.
Mr. Segal's consideration of his
delinquencies was entirely phil-
osophical. Yes, he said, it is
good for a man to look into him-
self once a year and discover
what's wrong with him. The
wort)iy owner of a house looks
over the place once in a while
and learns what repairs it needs
to keep it good. Why shouldn't
a man also survey himself at least
one a year to find what repairs
he needs?
• • •
GRATEFUL FOR IDEA
THANK GOODNESS for Rosh
Hashonah and Yom Kippur which
by ritual, cause a Jew to look
into every corner of himself ev-
ery September or maybe October
in some years.
Mr. Segal's investigation of
himself was fairly honest, you
might say. He was broadminded
enough to weigh his virtues as
well as his sins. As a journalist,
he had learned from long ex-
perience that no man is all bad.
He could give himself credit for
following the ways of the Lord
in a few things.
He had cared about Negroes
in his town. The way police some-
time handled Negroes (just be-
cauie they were Negroes) hadn't
suited him at all.
In the daily press for which he
works he had tried to tell po-
licemen that the rights of man
are indivisable. These rights are
the same for a black man as for
a white one, and why should a
police man push a black culprit
around especially?
• • •
PROTESTED SLUMS
MR. SEGAL HAD ben wor-
ried much about slums in his
towns, and had been trying to
bring them to the conscience of
the community. The skim rats
were biting children in their cribs
and to Mr. Segal's mind carnivor-
ous animals at large in the slums
were just about the limit in the
matter of slums.
Well God, he said in his phil-
osophical way, that's something
You and I can agree on. I know
You - and I are agreed on this
from what I've read of the ethical
teaching in our testament. Dear
God, please credit me at least for
knowing what is right from what
is wrong.
Mr. Segal recalled using his
daily newspaper column to gath-
er money for Mrs. Leah Weiss.
She is. the one who keeps a free
kitchen for kids in the slums.
Their mothers have to go out
working each day and when they
come out of school at 3:30, Mrs.,
Weiss is in her kitchen to feed
them in their mothers stead.'
Mr. Segal recalled using his
isn't a Jew among the kids she
feeds every day. Mr. Segal
thought that maybe he could be
illuminated before the Lord by
the reflection of Mrs. Weiss whom
he had helped.
Mr. Segal the power of the kind-
lier way by cutting the bill in
half.
• •
BIGGEST SIN OF ALL
MR. SEGAL remembered all
the evil thinking he had done
gainst people, all the injustices
11a had meditated, all the SOB's
h-, in his heart, had called men
moments of feeling superiorly
virtuous. To top it all off, he
hadn't been In the Synagogue
much in the past year.
He came finally to his big-
est sin . . . "Which," he asked,
"is the biggest• of all?"
He weighted every sin he could
think of and at last arrived at
the biggest . . . "Your biggest
sin,". he saill to himself, "is in the
arrogant pride with which you
have judged other Jews whom
you regard as somewhat less than
you."
Yes, Mr. Segal could remember
all t' e tir..as when in self-right-
eousness he looked -down on oth-
er Jews whom he set aside as
people not as worthy as he. Jews
of all sorts who Mr. Segal said
reflected on his own virtue as a
Jew.
He said: "If it weren't for peo-
ple like them it would be better
for all of us." In his arrogance he
• • *
considered himself a keeper of
NONE TOO PROUD
virtue for the Jews. Now if all
YET HE WASN'T feeling any Jews were like him . . .
too vainglorious about this. He
His biggest sin was this stiff-
was mentioning it only by way necked pride . . . "Thank God,
of making an accurate judgement who has made me so much bet-
of himself at this season.
ter than others." . . . His as-
I know this fellow, Segal, and sumption of superior merit this
can say that he is humble hypocrisy!
0, good God, please give this
enough. His wife keeps on tell-
big him that in his humility he Segal a break anyway in this
practically a Shlemiel who sea it. He is so much like most
c'oesn't take enough credit that others.
is due him.
Having compiled his few vir-
PARENT'S BLESSING
tues, Mr. Segal went on to his
Here is the abbreviated form-
many sins. He remembered the ula for the parent's blessing on
occasi ins he had spoken sharply Yom Kippur Eve. "May God
, his wife. This wasn't the way make thee as Ephriam and Ma-
at a patient man who should nesseh May you be inscribed
know that patience is one of the and willed for a good life and
more divine adornments.
long in the midst of all righteous
He had written a vicious letter in Israel. Amen."
to doctor on account of a bill
and had caused the doctor to
stiffer deep spiritual anguish. The
doctot asked, couldn't Mr. Se-
gal have protested the bill in a
more kindly way?
The doctor told him how he
could have written it without
giving offense. As a writer, Se-
gal was made humble by the
doctar's prescription for writing
such letters in all kindness, in
the way of a civilized man.
Then the doctor impressed on
Rosh Hashanah
Greetings to All
Happy New Year
Bert Baker
HO 5815
TY. 4-9825
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•
Thursday, September 22, 190
Rosh Hashonah Greetings to All
•