New Year's Day

God Is King

An Extract from "Childhood in Exile"

By DR. SHMARYA LEVIN

From the Holyday Prayerbook
The Lord was King.

The world about us did not

ress them, and tell them not to
spring
be frightened. And we would From forces uncontrolled and
give them some of our toys and
free,
teach them our games.
And man is not caprice or whim
And so New Year would have Created without thought or form,
been a very jolly holiday if they Before the mountains were
had not told us about the Day
brought forth,
of Judgment. This was the Day Before the sun and moon and
of Judgment. God sat enthron-
stars,
ed in the midst of the cohorts Before the waters in the deep,
of angels, and one after an- Before wild beasts or birds on
other the tremendous account-
wing,
books were laid before Him, The Lord was King.
with their debit and credit col-
umns of evil deeds and good The Lord is King.
deeds. Every Jew, the children His spirit ever hovering
as well as the grown-ups, had Above His world, above mankind,-
his special account there, and To guide the destiny of man
every account was examined, Against a blind and helpless fate.
the balance drawn, the sentence Not will o' wisp nor beast to
delivered accordingly. With the
prey,
account-books before Him, God Not slave to passion, greed, or
decided who should live out the
power,
next year and who should die, Endowed with reason, man obeys
who among the living should A higher law of governing.
be sick and who should remain The Lord is King.
well; and the prayers went to
such detail that my soul trem- The Lord forever will be King.
bled. Young as we were, our His moral rule awakening
elders already breathed into Man's conscience 'gainst de-
basing vice
us the terror of death, and
broke up the pure peace that That breeds disease and blinds
the eye,
had been in our minds. We
were spiritually careworn in And keeps 777,67/ bowed in servi-
tude.
days which should have been
utterly carefree: and the Days When man will take his broth•
er's hand,
of Awe, as they are called, be-
came. for us Days of Terror. When hate will cease and peace
. hold sway,
Our parents seem to have been
afraid that they could not instill When nations join to walk His...
,
.
way
the feeling of fear into us early
enough. We were too young for And all to righteous precepts
DR. SHMARYA LEVIN
cling,
such emotions, and I was scarce-
There was only God enthroned Jew. Only on the High Holidays ly.more than a baby when I lay The Lord forever will be King,
above the stars,. and toward they leave their occupations, awake the Night of New Year
Negev Core-Drilling
Him our prayers streamed. And and flock to the nearest Jewish and implored God for mercy on
all that was mystic in me woke centre.
my father and my mother.
in response to the midnight
On such Occasions the Yishuv-
Taschlich Ceremony
prayers. •
nik, returning to the family or
The first Taschlich ceremony,
The "Yishuvnik"
friends from which the search when we went down to the river
On Rosh Hashanah, the New for bread has driven him, was to shake off our sins, is clear
Year's Day, the Yishuvniks received in our town with gen- in my memory. The place we
came to town. There is no word uine hospitality. There were fa- chose was the spot behind the
for Yishuvnik in English, for miliar faces among these visi- Castle Hill, where the Swisla
the type is unknown to the lan- tors from the remote villages, falls into the Beresnia. It seem-
guage. They are Jews who live but many of them were new. ed to me a first-class idea—
abandoned in the - midst of We did our best to make them this of being able to shake
some village or settlement, alien feel at home, gave up to them skirts of our garments over the
figures in a world not their our nicest rooms, and in the water. Put one's sins into the
own. Months may pass before Synagogue assigned them to the water, and get rid of them for
they see the face of another places of honor by the eastern ever. The usual ceremony was
Core-drilling operations in
wall. It was not so easy to find to flap the coat-tails but in an
room for all of them. Sometimes excess of piety many of us turn- the Negev, where Hebrew Uni-
Feature for Rosh Hashanah
they had to sit by threes in the ed our pockets inside out and versity geologists are cooperat-
chairs of honor by the eastern shook them over the water too. ing with Israel government rep-
resentatives in a search for cop-
wall, but the glory was theirs.
I do not know what my sins per ore. This drill brings up
We children too received the
youngsters from the backwoods were then, and how many Of small specimens of rock and
with all friendliness. Some of them I had, but I shook my mineral formations at various
them were wild creatures, ter- coat-tails and my pockets depths in order to enable geolo-
A Famous Story App licable to Our Time
rified by the vast crowds, and mightily. And when I left the gists to determine the advisabil-
By Y. L. PERETZ
unable to utter a word. But the river brink with my father, I ity of sinking mine-shafts.
The mother, gazing tenderly Does he build castles or palaces elders took special pains with did feel _ considerably lighter. I
at her sleeping child, kissed him or towers reaching into the them. My father would take had been relieved of a great 88 DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
softly and sat down at the side heavens? Does he dig in moun- some of them on his knee, ea- weight.
Friday, September 11, 1953
of his cradle. Gradually she, too, tains, make railways, or cure
fell asleep. Suddenly she awak- people?"
ened with a start, opened her
A tear rolled down the angel's
eyes and Saw an angel of the cheek as he answered: "The
Lord standing at the upper end prophet destroys and builds--he
of the child's bed. The mother destroys on earth and builds
sobbed silently, thinking : "Be • steps into the heavens. . . . lie
hold he has come to take my lays out the roads, too, but they
son!" She was dumb with fear. do not embrace the bosom of
The angel, however, knew the earth; he opens up paths
what she was thinking and in a for the spirit, for people pos-
,13r)1:1 ryt, ;170
voice like a flute said: "I have sessed of imagination . . The
not come to deprive you of your prophet also digs, but not in the
son . . . the angel of sleep is mountains, nor does he use an
Slowly, with mafesty
greater than I . . ."
axe; he digs into hearts • .
The
prophet
also
wounds,
he
The woman, however, contin-
ued sobbing and said: "My son wounds hearts and souls, but he
you! L'stta-
to
will be an orphan, an orphan also heals , sick and broken
deprived of his mother, for I hearts."
have seen the living Lord and
"I am an unfortunate mother!
must surely die."
Here you are speaking about my
The angel guessed again what son's future and I simply can-
the woman was thinking and n o t understand you!" S h e
comforted her, saying: "I ani paused, then asked: "What will
an angel entrusted with a mes- my son's wages be? Perhaps I
sage. I have been commanded can understand that."
"Stones," replied the angel.
concerning your son."
The mother's eyes sparkled
The woman gazed down at
her son's face and, behold it with joy. "My son will be great,
shone, reflecting the splendour he will not work for gold and
of the angel's face and the light silver as doctors and architects
do, but for stones, for dia-
of his pure eyes .• .
The angel delivered his mes- monds!"
The angel answered sorrow-
sage, saying: "Your son will
fully: "No, not for diamonds,
grow up to be a prophet!"
The woman did not under- not for precious stones, but for
stand. She took heart, knelt be- stones, stones of the field!"
"You are mocking at your
fore the angel and said: "For-
give a foolish woman, but I do handmaid, angel! Have mercy
not know what path a prophet upon me and tell me what you
mean."
follows . ."
"The prophet shall surely be
The angel replied: "The pro-
"A Happy New Year" is one of 24 songs appearing in "Songs to Share" by Rose B. Gold-
phet follows no path. He de- stoned, for he is a prophet!"
by
The woman rent the air with
mands justice!"
stein, piano settings by Reuven Kosakoff and illustrations by E. Schloss, published
"Your words are riddles to a loud and bitter cry .. .
United Synagogue of America. These songs are serialized and syndicated by American
When her spirits revived the
me," said the woman sadly.
Jewish Press, the feature service of the American Association of English-Jewish News-
"Tell your foolish handmaid—• angel had disappeared, but her
with the United Synagogue.

The week before the New
Year we were told not to be
terrified if, in the middle of the
night, we heard knocking at the
window. These were the wakers
to the night prayers which ush-
er in the beginning of the New
Year. These night prayers were
only for the elders, and we
children could sleep on, unless
we felt a special urge to come
along. I had never attended
prayers that were said so early
in the morning, before there
eras any light. And that night
I hardly closed my eyes, for fear
of sleeping through the call. I
heard it, leapt into my clothes
and went into the living-room.
The samovar already stood on
the table, and my father, my
mother, my older brother, and
myself took glasses of tea be-
fore going to the Synagogue.
The night was cool and clear,
and in the deep-blue heavens
the stars shone, countless and
bright. In my mind. as in the
mind of every other Jewish
child so brought up, there was
not the slightest doubt that
there above, behind the, stars,
God sat: our God, of course,
for there was no other god:
and from between the stars He
looked down -and watched the
Jews rising so early to go to
night prayers. And I was happy
that I was there among the
older people, passing in review
before Him.
The Slichoth, or prayers of
forgiveness, made an even deep-
er impression on me than the
lamentations of the ninth day
of Ab. There was something too
simple about the lamentations.
The Temple had been burned,
and it was clear enough even
to me that after such a fire
anybody would lament. There
was no mystic idea in it. But
here, for prayers which are re-
peated on the week before the
New Year, the prayers which
beg forgiveneSs, I saw . a Syna-
gogue packed in the dead of
night with the Jews of the town:
no Nebuchadnezzar was men-
tioned, no TAW the wicked.

A Mother's Vision

—

A Happy New Year