Biblical Authenticity Affirmed in Dr. Ginsberg's Research
ca
(Continued from Page 1)
ary concepts of Darwin attempt- phrases characteristic of Isaiah,
agreed. According to Prof. ed to fractionalize the Book of some of them in fact found only
Ginsberg, however, just this part the First Isaiah, claiming that in Isaiah, and the outlook is pure
of the Book of Job is very im- the most universalistic of his Isaiah. Who else would have
perfectly understood. The charac- prophecies could not have been stressed that the tyrant's fate was
ters seem to be "talking past" each written in the 8th Century, but earned by his cruelty to 'cities,'
other's arguments and sometimes must be the work of a later hand. 'nations,' the world,' the earth'—
Dr. Ginsberg has meticulously never a solitary specific mention
even seeming to say the same
things as their opponents when equated recent archaeological finds of 'Judah' or 'Israel' or 'Jerusalem'
they are supposed to be refuting with events described in the text. or 'Zion'? And who else would
them. Ultimately our understand- To this analysis, he has added the again have noted that it was an
ing of those parts of the Book of same careful internal study which occasion for joy and augury for a
Job which Dr. Ginsberg has des- helped him to interpret Job. And happier future for 'cities,' nations,'
cribed as Job the Impatient de- his answer, "We have gradually 'the world,' the earth'—never a
pends largely on ascribing each become convinced that, apart from solitary specific mention of 'Judah'
verse to the correct speaker, and a few brief legend-tinged narra- or 'Israel' or 'Jerusalem' or 'Zion'?
It is by such meticulous study
on discovering, from careful scru- tives which do not purport to be
tiny of the text itself, the tenor, by Isaiah himself (since they of texts that Dr. Ginsberg has been
force, and structure of each argu- speak of him in the third person), led to his conclusions on the au-
ment. This ascription and analysis nearly every word in 'First Isaiah' thenticity of the Isaian text. In-
has been Professor Ginsberg's con- actually stems from the famous terestingly enough, as if to refute
those early scholars who believed
tribution to our understanding of seer of the 8th Century."
There is, for example, the king that the book was too universal
this important biblical book.
referred to in Isaiah 14:4b-21, the
its reputed time, it is in one
"And to think," says Prof. Gins- ode on the death of a tyrant, In for
of
the
most universalistic portions
berg, "that Tur-Sinai- pointed out the text, the tyrant is identified as that Dr.
Ginsberg has
all of 45 years ago that the Eliphaz "the king of Babylon"—a descrip- one of the most specific identified
contem-
of Job 15 and its author, cease to tion that was somewhat confusing porary references.
sound like addlepates the moment until scholars realized that the
There is, in the book of Isaiah,
one places a colon after verse 13 king referred to is Sargon of As- a time-bound variant of the Isaian
and encloses vss. 14-16 in quota- syria, one of whose titles—and one vision—and the time it is bound
tion marks! Not Eliphaz himself of which he was particularly proud to is the time of Isaiah. The sec-
purports to know about God's fas- —was "King of Babylon."
ond half of chapter 19 first des-
tidiousness, something that he can
"Besides," says Dr. Ginsberg, cribes the process by which Egypt
only have learned from one of the "the poem is full of words and will be converted to the worship
beings in God's entourage but, as
we should have expected from
Eliphaz's opening remarks, Job. Detroit
And again not Eliphaz infers there
from that God surely judges no
By CHARLOTTE HYAMS
mortal favorably but again, as we
should have expected from chapter
It is June 20. Thirty students in cap and gown march
14, Job." Thus Prof. Ginsberg has down the aisle.
reinterpreted and retranslated the
If they follow through on their intentions, 15 of them
Book of Job the Impatient and will enter lIdidrasha next fallA
discovered that, contrary to the
dents who will graduate in June
prevalent opinion, it is as coher- Of these, perhaps three or gathered around a conference
four
will
graduate
by
1970.
ent—and as astonishingly sophis-
table to answer some queries on
ticated in its literary artistry—as Perhaps one will choose He- their plans for the future. "Be
brew
education
as
a
career.
it is profound.
honest," they were told. "Your
none.
names need not be used." They
In the Book of Isaiah, the Perhaps
One who has observed the growth were honest,
problems of the scholar are
of
the
United
Hebrew
Schools
in
somewhat different. As part of the past decade marvels at the
All good students, the five
the covenant literature, the book number of students taking up
said there was interest at home,
abounds in references to histori- Jewish studies. But if current that they were concerned with
cal or quasi historical events. At
continue, there will be no Jewish life, that they would like
one point, scholars enamored of trends
to continue their studies. (Four
one
to
teach
them.
an approach which they believed
plan to attend Midrasha; the
Alarmist? Maybe. Maybe not.
to be inspired by the evolution-
fifth will go away to college).
And yet—"It's a good part-time
Literally forced against the
wall of reality, UHS Superin- job, I suppose—you know, to earn
money while you're in school,"
tendent Albert Elazar is initia-
ting a "crash program" — ac- said one girl.
quiring public school teachers
What about a full-time career?
to take over the non-Hebrew
"Oh, no," she replied.
subjects, like current events and
A boy added, "Why I never
customs and ceremonies.
considered it could be a full-time
MEXICO CITY (JTA)—A de-
It is a carefully thought-out plan. job. Where do you teach full time?
mand that the Catholic Church
restore the Inquisition to suppress The instructors have been selected There's no place to go from there."
"I'd lose my sanity teaching any-
"progressives" in the church who in accordance with their past ex-
would have the Ecumenical Coun- perience and knowledge of the thing," said another, "but espe-
cil repudiate the deicide charge Jewish community. They will en- cially so here. There's no respect.
concerning Jews, and who advo- gage in an intensive summer pro- Kids take advantage because
cate a schema endorsing the prin- gram to bone up on the require- parents don't consider it as im-
as public school and be-
ciple of freedom of religion for ments for teaching in a Hebrew portant
cause they think people teach He-
next fall.
all peoples, was made here by a school
It may turn out to be an effec- brew just because, well, you
priest, the Rev. Dr. Joaquin tive program, but it is, after all, know, they need the money."
Saenz y Arriaga.
ISRAELI TEACHERS
a stopgap, and Elazar is the first
What about teachers from Is-
Issuing a brochure interpreting to admit it. "We have a serious
his version of the moves taken teacher shortage: standing back rael? (Supt. Elazar makes almost
at the last session of the Ecumeni- and folding our arms will not annual pilgrimages to Israel to re-
dal Council regarding Jews and solve it. We are losing our bright cruit exchange teachers).
"They don't always understand
religious freedom in general, Dr. young people — not only from
Saenz y Arriaga attacked Jews Hebrew teaching, but from all our problems," said one student.
Jewish professions."
"We need teachers who know
and Catholic liberals.
COMMUNAL
PIRACY
about us. About being an Ameri-
He insisted that the Catholic
One of the bright young people can Jew. We need American
Church will never lift the deicide Elazar
refers to is Jay Masserman, teachers."
charge against Jews and stated 18, a student
at Wayne State Uni-
Teachers from Israel "are at
openly that Catholics will contin- versity, a leader in his class at best a connecting link between us
ue "hating Jews until they ac- the Midrasha, College of Jewish and Israel," Elazar points out.
cept Christ as the true Messiah." Studies, and a part-time Hebrew "They know modern methods of
teacher.
teaching Hebrew, the new vocabu-
."I've enjoyed Hebrew school," lary of everyday speech in Israel.
Dr. Israel T. Efros
he said. "I'm interested in all They have studied Hebrew litera-
Wins Award for Book aspects of Judaism, and I've ture and philosophy as their own
thought about Jewish education. native culture. But they're not go-
Published by Wayne
But I'm not going to teach He- ing to solve our problems."
The problems are legion. And
The 1964 Frank and Ethel S. brew."
Another is Sheilah Goldberg, a someone is to blame. Elazar
Cohen Award for the best book on
Jewish thought in 1964 has been public school teacher who plans places it squarely on the shoul-
presented to Dr. Israel I. Efros for soon to graduate from Midrasha. ders of the community at large.
his book "Ancient Jewish Philoso- She, too, is interested, but she will "If learning were emphasized,
we wouldn't have this problem.
phy" published by Wayne State not teach Hebrew.
There are others — others who Bright students are not encour-
University Press.
already have taught and shown aged to go into education. They
This 8250 award is one of four great promise in the field of Jew- are not offered the salary and
book awards sponsored annually ish education. They, too, have left, the
prestige of other fields.
by the Jewish Book Council of a few pirated away by other com-
Money goes to the top people,
America, part of the National munities, some joining staffs of and not enough filters down to
Jewish Welfare Board.
universities and public school sys- the little people. It's time we
tems.
came back to our senses and
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Why?
gave education priority."
40—Friday, May 28, 1965
Five Hebrew High School stu-
David Safran, president of the
of the Lord. Then, at the end, we
read (19:23-24):
"In that day there shall be a
highway from Egypt to Assyria,
so that the Assyrians shall join
the Egyptians and the Egyptians
the Assyrians, and the Egyptians
shall worship together with the
Assyrians. In that day Israel
shall be third to Egypt and As-
syria as a household word for
blessedness throughout the
world; for the Lord of. Hosts will
have blessed them, saying,
'Blessed by my people Egypt, my
handiwork Assyria, and my very
own Israel'."
"Imagine, the Israelite prophet
has the Lord say 'my people
Egypt' and has him bless Assyria!
He even thinks nothing of saying
'Israel shall be third to Egypt and
Assyria!' But why does he pick
just Egypt and Assyria, and go out
of his way to stress the construc-
tion of a highway from Assyria to
Egypt and intensified intercourse
between these two peoples? These-
details of the future age were sug-
gested to him by something that
was happening under his very
eyes, so to speak. Just in his time
trade relations were established
between the two countries; and
traffic along the existing road
from Assyria to Egypt, whose
southern end passed through Phi-
listia, only some fifteen miles to
the west of Judah's border be-
came heavier. For in a fragment
of a prism inscription which was
only published in 1954, Sargon,
whose empire extended to the
frontier of Egypt, tells us how he
played Commodore Perry to
Egypt's Japan. Says he: 'I opened
the sealed port of Egypt, and I
mixed the people of Assyria and
Egypt together and made them
trade with each other.' "
Some additional evidence of the
importance of this route in the
days of Sargon (and Isaiah) turn-
ed up in Ashdod, during the ar-
chaeological excavations carried
out there in the summer of 1963,f--
in the shape of fragments of
stela bearing cuneiform (i.e. M-
syrian) writing: script, spelling,
and phraseology are familiar from
other inscriptions of Sargon.
"The foregoing," concluded Dr.
ti
Ginsberg, "are not by any means
the only passages in Isaiah that
come to life in the bright light of
history. But .I have selected these
examples because the prophecies
in question are not merely of his-
torical interest but are living mes-
sages to our own age."
Jewry Faces Crisis in Hebrew Education
Mexican Priest
Asks 'Inquisition'
Against Liberals
▪
UHS school board, agrees. "We've of Hebrew Teachers, he speaks
got to have public support. Per- for 50 to 60 part-time and full-
haps publicity will help here. But, time teachers. What they want, he
whatever we do, we must make said, is "recognition, not prom-
teaching colorful, interesting. We ises."
must start with parents and the
"The first thing the community
public. If the average parent must do is improve the conditions
wants the teacher to be a baby of teachers. If we want young peo-
sitter, he can't expect his son to ple to go into teaching, we must
become a rabbi."
attract them now."
Jay Masserman put it a different
`REALISTIC' PAY SCALE
way: "If the children lack respect
Glaser feels that the benefits
it's only a reflection of the parents enjoyed by public school teachers
we must deal with. They see He- should be granted to Hebrew edu-
brew education as a means to an cators: tenure, seniority, a "realist-
end: Bar Mitzvah."
ic" pay scale, academic freedom,
cumulative sick leave, time for
WHITHER THE LAMDAN?
Obviously, then, a change has personal business, collective bar-
come over the "People of the gaining. Above all, collective bar-
Book," that unique nation that gaining.
"Must the Hebrew teacher de-
paid the greatest honor to its
pend on others' generosity? We
"lamdan," or teacher.
Is this the price of "Americani- have earned these things. Not only
must we attract the young; we
zation"?
"You ask what happened to the must keep those who have already
dedicated teachers like Joseph given. If they were to leave, who
Haggai and Max Gordon and Sol would take their place?"
Kasdan? That generation is dis-
* * *
appearing," said Elazer. "They
were of another world. You won't The 'Crash Program
find them in public school today
Six public school teachers will
either. A Hebrew teacher mirrors launch a "crash program" this
the environment; he is an Ameri- summer to help alleviate the se-
can and he wants the good things vere teacher shortage faced by the
for his children like all Americans United Hebrew Schools.
have. Why shouldn't a young per-
Crash programs are not new to
son want a career that offers these some communities; in too many
things? It is not enough to expect cases, they have been "rash" pro-
him to be an idealist; we must grams, turning out teachers on
think of his economic needs and mass-production scale with little
give him the opportunities for in- concern for standards.
tellectual and professional growth
UHS Superintendent Albert Ela-
— the time to publish, to join in
curriculum building. We must zar wants to make sure this will
show them the vast variety in not happen here. Those who have
Hebrew education, the many op- been selected, all men, are Sunday
school teachers and/or familiar
portunities."
Elazar hopes to nurture a change with the Jewish community.
Courses to be taught by them inc.__
in parents' attitudes, developing
the "echo" by counseling parents English will include history, cus-
of pre-schoolers. "It must start toms and ceremonies and current
that early. Yes, the cost of such events. Teaching these courses in
counseling will be great. If the English, Elazar feels, will free He-
community wants it, though, the brew teachers for Hebrew subjects,
and may be able to assist in coun-
funds will come."
But the results of that plan seling, byproducts of the pilot
would be seen many years from program.
now. The "now" is what con-
The six will receive a stipend
cerns today's teachers and grad-
to study this summer, and courses
uating seniors. Jay Masserman in Jewish philosophy, history, He-
speaks of security now, status
brew basics and customs and cere-
now. If he cannot get these monies will be included in the in-
things in Hebrew education, he
tensive, six-week program. Among
will seek them elsewhere.
the instructors will be Prof. Abra-
Menachem Glaser, too, speaks of ham Kaplan of the University of
the now.
Michigan's philosophy department;
Glaser is what might be termed Rabbi Alvin Kass, instructor in
a "young veteran" Hebrew school Jewish history at the Teachers
teacher, with students at Hillel Institute of the Jewish Theological
Day School and at the United He- Seminary; Elazar, who will dis-
brew Schools. He is in Hebrew cuss the philosophy of Jewish edu-
teaching because it is the field he cation in America; and Prof. Shlo-
knows and loves. But he grows im- mo Marenoff, Dr. Naphtali Wies-
patient with what he sees.
ner and Morris Noble, all of the
As president of the Association UHS educational staff.