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 ROSH HASHONAH GREETINGS KEYSTONE OIL REFINING CO. Refiners and Marketers of Petroleum Products Vlnewood 2-1660 - 4,/t..-x....,ze•_e <4t< 10/6-ZwAltelilfrAlwatedst, A Joyous Holiday to Our Patrons OAK Cleaners & Dyers 114 CATALPA CENTRAL FELT, Ine. and TEXTILE MONTREAL --(World News Services)—Thirty Canadian Cha- lutzim—the largest group assem- bled for one sailing—have left for Israel to join the established Kibutzim of Habonirn, Hashomer Hatzair, and other youth settle- ments. 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