Friday, May 10, 1968-15 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Ahad Ha-Am's Essay on Moses Printed; Marks 40th Year of Philosopher's 'Death The 40th yahrzeit of Ahad Ha'am has rekindled the memory of this great thinker and outstand- ing writer of the Hebrew Renais- sance. And it is no mere coinci- dence that the Tarbuth Foundation has just published "Selected Essays of Ahad Ha'am" in a study edi- tion of the Hebrew original, with an introduction. notes and vocabu- lary, prepared by Dr. Joshua H. Neumann, professor emeritus of English. at Brooklyn College, and a distinguished Hebraist in his own right. The Ahad Ha'am volume marks the first part in the Tarbuth Foun- dation's "Modern Hebrew Classics" anthology, which will include also works of Ag71011, Barash, Berkovitz, Hazaz and Shenhar. Following are the closing pass- ages from Ahad Ha'am's famous essay on "Moses," which is incor- porated in the Tarbuth edition. The excerpt is reprinted with permis- sion of the Jewish Publication So- ciety of America, from "Selected Essays of Ahad Ha'am," translated from the Hebrew by Leon Simon. language, in which the Jewish spirit expresses itself, has no pres- ent tense, but only a past and a future. Whether the Jew is funda- mentally an optimist or a pessimist is a much-debated question; but it is pointless. The Jew is both opti- mist and pessimist; but his pes- simism relates to the present, and his optimism to the future. That was true of the Prophets, and it is equally true of the people of the Prophets. Modern Jewish history provides one exception, and one only, to the general rule. There was a short period during which the Jewish people, worn down by the intoler- able burden of suffering, began to crave for immediate satisfactions. They would seize the passing hour, like the rest of the world; they would give up demanding more of life than life can offer. It was a new desire, and became a new ideal; and for all its fundamentally anti-Prophetic character, it was pursued with all the Prophet's singleness of purpose and dis- regard of obstacles. Its attainment seeming to demand the abandon- ment of the age-long dream of a great future, the sacrifice was made without a struggle. The fu- ture having been thrown on the scrap-heap, the past naturally went with it, having no meaning except as a mirror of the future. But we all know the end of the story. The prize of immediate satisfaction was not attained; and all the labor ex- pended in the effort to destroy one world and build another left noth- ing behind except desolation and a bitter sense of wasted effort. This, however, was only a pass- ing phase, a sort of fainting-fit with temporary loss of consciousness. The Prophetic spirit does not re- main in abeyance for long; it soon re-asserts its hold on the recalic- trant Prophet. So the Prophetic people was brought to heel and restored to self-consciousness. And once again we sense in faint outline the re-incarnation of Moses, and the same Spirit that summoned him thousands of years ago, and sent him all unwilling on his mis- sion, repeats its imperious sum- mons to our generation at this mo- ment: "And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all; in that ye say: We will be as the nations.. . . As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand ... will I be king over you." Bazak --- Big Guide to Small Israel AHAD HA-AM The creator, as I have said, creates in his own image; and in this portrait of Moses the Jewish people has expressed itself at its highest. The Cabbalists have well said that Moses is re-incarnated in every age; and there is in fact no period of our sombre history in which a Mosaic spark cannot be detected. The point needs no elabo- ration: we need go no further than the Hebrew prayer-book, almost every page of which bears witness to the longing of the Jewish people for the realization of the universal. istic ideals of the Prophets. Throughout the darkest periods of our history, when our very exist- ence was threatened and persecu- tion drove us from one country to another, that longing remained unquenchable. The Jewish people has never lived in the present. Al- way unhappy, always in bitter re- volt against the wickedness of the world as it is, we have none the less retained undying hope and faith in the triumph of the good and the right in the world that is to be; and that hope and that faith have been fortified by brooding on the past idealizing it into a kind of mirror of the future. The Hebrew Produced by Avraham Levi, pub- lished as a "Bazak Israel Guide" by Israel Guidebook Publishers (16 Mamaroneck, Tel Aviv) and dis- tributed in this country by Pitman Publishing, Corp. (20 E. 46th NY17), this handy book serves a valuable purpose. It is accom- panied by a map that provides an understanding of the new Israeli areas and of the neighboring cen- ters with which Israel must soon make peace. Subtitled "the big guide to the small country," it has data about all significant sections that must be visited by a tourist, shows the way around the land and within the major centers by means of lo- calized maps, advises on means for transportation in the numerous sectors. New developments become un- derstandable in the explanatory portions of this book about the cultural, industrial and .other progressive efforts. A typical ex- ample is the new Jaffa creativity and the manner in which an ar- tistic setting has been created there. The Bazak Guide provides vitally needed data about the mu- seums, the art colonies, t Ii e marts — in Jaffa, Safed, Jerusa- lem and elsewhere. The Bazak book is limitless. While providing all the necessary information about travel, sites, monetary value, climate, it also advises the tourist about fashions and the seasons' requirements. It deals with the religious com- munities and includes historical data about communities and the peoples past and present. There are suggestions for major walks—on Mount Zion, Mea Shear- im, Makhne Yehuda, Mt. Herzl- Yad Vashem, Ramat Rahel, Hadas- sah Center-Ein Kerem, Emek Ef- raim. Advantageous in many ways, handy for travel, commendable in studying Israel's present and past, the Bazak guidebook is a valuable new form or advice-giving volume for visitors in Israel and for stu- dents of Israel's status. Symposium on Yiddish Held • in South America MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (JTA) —One hundred delegates from five South American countries attend- ed the opening here of the second Latin American symposium on "Yiddish in Jewish Life," organ- ized by, the South American ex- ecutive of the World Jewish Con- gress. The. delegates, reresenting Jew- ish communities, cultural and writers groups in Argentina, Bra- zil, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay, were greeted by Victor Rosen on behalf of the Uruguayan Corn- munities Federation. Nissenson's Evaluation of Kibutz In "Notes From the Frontier," published by Dial Press (750 3rd, N.Y. 17), Hugh Nissenson de- scribes life in Israel's Kibutz en- vironment. He devotes 172 pages to a portion headed "Summer 1965." Then follow 45 more pages titled "June 1967." In the two divi- sions he has incorporated the ex- periences that fulfill proper de- scriptions of Israel's peoplehood —before the great war and immedi- ately after it. Nissenson's volume emerges es- pecially meritorious because it deals with people, with the way of life, with the attitudes of those who come from lands of oppression as well as Westerners who have linked their existence into Israel's historic aims and aspirations. The full title of Nissenson's book is "Notes From the Fron- tier: An American's Experiences on a Border Kibutz." This ex- plains a great deal—not only the locale of the .descriptions but also that it was on the border, that the dangers were studied, the people's attitudes evaluated. The numerous incidents and ex- pressions of view about the life in Israel, the Arabs, the threats from the enemies surrounding the state—these form a collective ac- count of the heroism that distin- guishes Israel in the Middle East. It was because he had seen the kibutz as it was being alerted to defend itself on the Syrian border that Nissenson was able to portray the reality of Israeli experiences. Socialist aspirations, dedication to the way of life that spells co- operativeness, the linking of Jews from Eastern Europe with those of South Africa and other lands —these are among the various fac- tors that make Nissenson's notes valuable for an additional appre- ciation and understanding of life in Israel. It( as mon say 00 * ; SLATKIN'S ; O DEXTER • a 11 CHEVROLET a 0 a * II " "TOPS a a THEM ALL" it O FOR YOUR BEST DEAL • a a SEE US : * KE 4-1400 a Between Southfield & Telegraph lli FINE and SUPERB ! FINE Tailoring and SUPERB Fitting Are The Qualities That We Offer to Every Customer Now Showing .. . ii THE NEW "NEHRU" SUIT and FORMAL DINNER COAT ! I-44Arr7 HayimNahman. Bialik CUSTOM TAILOR 13641 W. 9 MILE Just W. of Coolidge LI 5-3558 Open Mon., Thurs., Fri., to 9 p.m. Sat. to 7 p.m.; Sun. 11 to 3 Classifieds Ads Get Quick Results BOOK RAMA 13645 W. NINE MILE RD• v. • . Since first thy light broke on us, we behold. 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