Prospects. of Peace Series Starts'With Patai Discussing Islam

"The Rise of Islam" will be dis-
cussed by Dr. Raphael Patai, di-
rector of research for the Theodor
Herzl Institute, at the introductory
session of the Midrasha Institute,
8:15 p.m. Thursday, in the Esther
Berman Building, United Hebrew
Schools.
Theme of the 12th annual insti-
tute, called the Mina and Theo-
dore Bargman Memorial Lectures.
is "Prospects of Peace in the Mid-
dle East: What Can We Learn
From the Past?"
Patai, anthropologist, folklorist,
biblical scholar and editor of a

number of important serial and He is author of more than two
periodic publications, lived for 15 dozen books, among them "Sex
a
Family in the Bible and the
years in Jerusalem where he was and
Middle East"; "Israel Between
director of the Palestine Institute East and West"; "The Kingdom of
of Folklore and Ethnology and Jordan"; "Golden River to Golden
taught at the Hebrew University. Road"; "Society, Culture and
Since 1948, Dr. Patai has served Change in the Middle East"; "He-
as visiting professor of anthro- brew Myths" (with Robert
pology at Princeton University, Graves); and "Women in the Mod-
Columbia, the University of Penn- ern World."
sylvania, Ohio State, New York Succeeding lectures in the four-
University and Dropsie College. part series will take place on
At present he is visiting professor Wednesday evenings. A social hour
of anthropology at Fairleigh Dick- with refreshments will follow the
inson University. talk and discussion period.

, The forestry and landscaping
[division of the Detroit Department
I of Parks and Recreation each year
repairs and paints more than 30,-
000 pieces of park and playground
equipment.
Detroit has 54 parks compris-
ing 3,775 acres under the juris-
diction of the Detroit Department
of Parks and Recreation,

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, March 15, 1968-33

ROMANTIC AFFAIRS
BEGIN WITH

JOCELYN

AND HER GYPSIES

Weddings,Parties, Dances

Raphael Patai's 'Hebrew Goddess' Maintains
Polytheistic, Feminine Ideas Existed in Jewry

474-7638

DR. RAPHAEL PATAI

PHOTOGRAPHY

CARSON ZELTZER

Dr. Raphael Patai, noted scholar ulation was left to local religious, Shekhina-Matronit .. ." He con-
cludes with the assertion: "In
and editor of Herzl Press, contends leadership."
547-4805
strictly human terms, all the
WEDDINGS — BAR MITZVAS
in his newest work, "The Hebrew
At this point Dr. Patai asserts,
SPECIAL OCCASIONS
changing forms of the deity, the
Goddess," that "the Biblical God- interestingly, that while there
attribution to him of sexual qual-
concept ... the patriarchal society
were sharp divisions between
ities and functions, the early ven-
gave rise to a religion centered Hasidim and Mitnagdim —their
FOR COLOR CANDIDS
eration
of goddesses, their trans-
around a single, universal deity opponents—"at no point during
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
formation into female divine at-
AND MOVIES
whose will was 'embodied in the the great struggle did any Ha-
to
The
Jewish
News)
tributes and manifestations, and
Law" but that "among the simple sidic or Mitnagdic leader go so
LONDON—Three Soviet Jewish
their resuscitation at a time
people, old popular religious tra- far as to cast a doubt upon the
mathematicians are among the
when they seemed dead and
ditions were too strong to be easily
PHOTOGRAPHY
Judaism of the opposing group.
seven holders of the Lenin Prize
buried for over a millenium—all
overcome."
Similar furcations have occurred
358-3199
who joined 92 of their collegues in
this
served
the
one
primal
.
and
repeatedly
in
Judaism
.
.
.
but
Thus, in his present thesis, pub-
signing a protest to the government
permanent purpose, succinctly
without ever splitting Jews into
lished by Ktav Publishing House
against the confinement of a fellow
expressed first in the Bible and
rival, discrete groups."
(120 E. Broadway, NY2), Dr. Patai
mathematician of Jewish descent
then repeated in numerous elab-
HOWARD TRIEST
states that in a general sense
A linguistic factor is emphasized
to a mental institution, it was
orations
down
to
the
present
"there can be no doubt that down by Patai. Biblical names of God,
COLOR MOVIES
learned here Wednesday.
day:
to
safeguard
human
survi-
through the very end of the He- Yahweh and Elohim, are mascu-
BRIDES — BAR MITZVAS
The man committed by Soviet
brew monarchy the worship of old line, and no efforts have been val through any and every re-
ligious law, concept, idea and.' autl. orities is Aleksandr Yesenin-
TreasurecT
ai l lios; 47onmtA. Forever
Canaanite gods was an integral made in biblical and Talmudic
part of the religion of the He- times "to counteract the popular endeavor." Volpin, who was active in the pro-
To illustrate his thesis, Dr. Pa- test movement of Soviet intellec -
brews" and that "the worship of image of a masculine God." Yet
goddesses played a much more im- he draws upon comparative reli- tai's book is devoted to study of tuals. Although of a Jewish family.
portant role in this popular re- pion which teaches "need for yet worship of the Goddess Asherah, he is not generally known as a
ligion than that of gods." His con- another symbol: that of the divine Astarte-Anath. the Cherubim, the Jew.
The Jews who joined in denounc-
elusion is that "goddesses are woman who appears in many Shekhina, Lilith, the Kabalistic
end his orchestra
ubiquitous." different forms throughout the Tetrad. Matronit—the goddess of ing Yesenin-Volpin's confinement
R .
Plus
Drawing upon the Freudian world." The question is posed Kabala, and the Sabbath—Virgin. "without preliminary examination
and
without
consent
of
his
rela-
whether
Astarte,
Asherah
and
Bride, Queen and Goddess. Thus,
The
High
Tide
theory that the goddess "repro-
other goddesses were Hebrew god- the symbolic and the feminine are tives' . are Israel M. Gelfrand Var.
sorts that stage in the early de-
Adult and Teen Music
desses or foreign abominations as researched to indicate the influ- dim Arnold and Yuli Manin.
velopment of the human indi-
For All Occasions
they were labeled by the proph- ence of goddesses in various
vidual in which the mother ap-
"If you are afraid of loneliness,
KE 7-4755
pears to the child as the all- ets. Dr. Patai states that "the He- trends of thoughts and in certain don't marry." —Anton
Chekhov
brew goddess succeeded in sur- eras. The Sabbath aspect, for ex-
powerful source of both gratifi-
cation and deprivation," Dr. viving" even after the death of ample, indicates that "for the Jew
the "spirit of idolatry" in the reared in the great mystical tradi-
Patai states: "The goddess is a
mother figure whose qualities days of Nehemiah, that while her tion of his faith, the Sabbath was
role was "minor and restricted" a day whose pleasures, both physi-
are universal because they stem
it is to be surmised that in the cal and spiritual, amply compen-
from unconscious fantasies corn-
mon to all peoples from time 13th Century "Kabbalism invested sated him for the drabness, nar-
immemorial, and which have Judaism with a new vitality" and rowness and frequent sorrowful.
their primary source in the in- the goddess emerged "as a dis- ness of the weekdays. With the
exclusive Kosher Caterers at Cong. B'nai David
fantile mind. The child in its tinct female deity," since "the new Sabbath, a queenly visitor entered
jealousy of the father repudiates mythology of the Kabbala . . . even the humblest abode, which,
due
to
her
presence,
was
trans-
his role in procreation, wishes to knows evil goddesses in addition
In the hall, hotel or synagogue of your choice.
formed into a royal palace, with
deny that the mother is a sexual to the good ones."
Thus. Dr. Patai reaches the the table set, the candles burning
being, preferring to think of her
24350 Southfield Road
as pure and virginal—hence the conclusion that "the feminine and the wine waiting . . ."
virginity of the goddess image. numina (divine spirits) in one
Dr. Patai draws upon the late
When the child learns 'the truth,' period or another played a Dr. Edwin Goodenough's magnum
Your Host: BOB ROSENBERG
its wish that the mother should role in the history of Hebrew opus ("Jewish Symbols in the
be a virgin is frustrated, and it and Jewish religion." He states Greco-Roman Period") but he crit-
then unconsciously regards her that "those who believed in the icizes Goodenough's conclusions.
goddesses saw no incompatibility disputing guilt of gross idolatry
as a harlot—hence the goddess is
not only a virgin but a harlot. between the sway they held over in the eminent Christian scholar's
Moreover, in very early fantasy certain areas of human life and application of the idolatry view-
life the frustrated nursling wants certain departments of nature, and point. Patai also contends that
to devour the mother's breast, the rule Yahweh exercised over Goodenough's belief that the artist
imagines that he actually is de- others: in the polytheistic view of in the Dura synagogue portrayed
stroying the mother, and, pro- the divine, gods may compete with. Moses the Redeemer as having
jecting his own hostility upon her, and occasionally conspire against, died and reborn to new life
fears that she will devour him— one another, but they never cast was far-fetched "because we have
a doubt on one another's existence. no evidence that the Dura mu-
hence the bloodthirsty character
shared by the ancient Near East- And as to those who believe in ralist was familiar with the gabled
ern virginal and wanton love Yahweh only, for them the gods sarcophaguses or that the idea of
and goddesses worshiped by others the infantile death and rebirth of
goddesses."
merely idols, devoid of any
While interpreting biblical re - - significance whatsoever except the Moses (a non-Jewish mythologem)
ligion as "universal ethical monoe• one baleful ability to lead men was known to him. A much closer
comparison would be between the
theism, cast in a ritual-legal form."
. from the path of righteous- shape of the ark of bulrushes and
Dr. Patai claims in his current astray
(Including the NEW SPRING LINE of)
ness,T
.
that of the Temple shown twice on
study that "there were among the
he religious truth of the ex-
* SUITS
* TOPCOATS
biblical Hebrews other religious istence of a once harmonizing, the same wall. In fact, the ark of
* PANTS
* RAINCOATS
trends, powerful in their attraction once discordant goddess side by bulrushes is painted unmistakably
in
the
shape
of
a
miniature
* ALL FURNISHINGS
* SPORTCOATS
for the common people and their side
- de with a one and only and
Temple."
*
TUXEDOS
S.
FORMAL
ACCESSORIES
leaders alike, in which the worship omnipotent God was triumph-
of goddesses played as important
-
More
than
30
plates
illustrate
the
antly manifested in what can be
a role as it did anywhere else on called the Kabalistic break-
text and add to the descriptive
comparable stages of religious de-
de- through," Dr. Patai asserts. He
value of this interesting work of
velopment."
maintains that "the religion of research.
Large Selection of Turtleneck Shirts
Unlike the unity of all believers the Hebrews and the Jews was
in Catholicism, Dr. Patai points never without at least a hint of
EXPERT
ALTERATIONS ON LADIES, MENS
Question: I am now deferred in
out, there was a lack of unity in the feminine in its God-concept."
AND CHILDRENS CLOTHING. REASONABLE
Class II-S as a college student. If
Judaism, except in the brief per-, He adds that in the Middle Ages
I enlist in the National Guard
PRICES.
iod "when the Great Sanhedrin ex- "there was nothing unusual in
what, if anything, will happen to
ercised central authority in Jeru- resorting to the symbolism of

Soviet Scientists
Protest Confining
of Fellow Jew

SANDY FRIEDMAN

Hy Pritz

CATERING

358-1540

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my student deferment?

salem," and therefore "to this day, coitus in its speaking of certain
Answer: When your local board
Jewish doctrine and practice, al- cosmic and divine events." He
receives evidence that you have
though derived from one ultimate does not see anything "offensive"
completed such enlistment, you will
source, the Bible, differed from or "fantastic" in "the sexual
place to place, because, lacking a I imagery . of the, union 'between be reclassified from Class 11-S to
coordinating and sanctifyirig,Apilaq,d,
cormitm .Alass 1-D (member of a Reserve
tral authority, their precise form-', God the King and his consort the I component).

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