Purely Commentar y • --

Need for Revival of Sanhedrin to Deal With
Major Religious Issues Affecting -World Jewry

IContinued from Page 2,

and (onclusions and a
defense the lialakha is God•given, one
went and is concerned rather
‘'ti- on the basis of it. But in all must be as scrupulous "with a
deeply with the relation of Juda-
he in small commandment as with a ism to the llalakha. We have come
likelihood there will not
piety an.1 cunt emence. Western theoretical nit plultr.opthe defense, large one." flow, then, can people
to a new interest in these monu-
orthodoxy is quite osaw are of but a halakhic'one as in the first xOno have abandoned the entire
ments of the Jewish past. We have
itset a, a um, (Anent It is still
stage
business
of the Reform movement
law of the Shulhan come to the realization that while
oil, a , )r)))
a choice and a This 0111 be difficult, since the Arukh, mist of its laws of person- it was of supreme importance that
Put it ithoth,enti, it power- nliweinent considers itself Ort:9 , - al hygiene, half of its Sabbath we had emphasized the Bible and
lid tendim)
found in even mod dox
if course it may be that the -- laws—how. can they call themselves thus came close to the basic con-
ern t: . and seen i need people call themsely ev "Ortho-
't irthodox - ? Therefore this will
science of Judaism, we are nosy
to (aid ; i rationale, though its dox - sinildy out of convenience
some day tired to be answered. A
trying to rediscover our relation-
ratianale will nescr be strictly There are 11,/, tw o strongly. esiab-
ship to those great works which
new understanding of the Tal-
rataina!istic Perhatht since the fished types of Judaism. the Re-
represent the intellectuality and
mud. the fic,ponsa and the Codes
inn it of our time is social and forni and the Conservative, and
wilt base to be developed.
the self-discipline of Judaism. We
ps chologi) al instead
of
theory- the modern Orthodox by calling
"To those who deal with this
ourselves have not yet achieved
tical and philosophic. the oheno• themselves "Orthodox" and their
problem, it will not be without
a clarification of our attitude to
merlon of Western orthodoky union The Union of American
interest that the Reform move-
the Talmud and the ('odes, but
should he studied or defended Orthodox
ment has to - some extent today we are studying them now with
Congregations, -
may
tram thi s modern ;third of view
arrived at the place occupied by
mean to indicate that they do not
affection. with admiration, and
There should he a listing and then h•long to the Reform or to the
the first .defenders of the move- with deepening interest. We are
an analysis of those mdivot which Conservative movement.
are held to .unclesiatingly They
"This convenient self-description
Dr. Freehof does not say so: it is our (mu addendum that most
are a Kashrot in the home; hi as "Orthodox'' may satisfy the
could and should he solved by a Sanhedrin.
Radish in the synagogue the average synagogue member, bat
Can it be attained in our time?
whole sear after a parent's death: it cannot continue long to satisfy

careless cmnpronuse bet 0 Ccn

■

By Philip
Slomovitz

trying to find a way in which this
great literature can guide us with-
out governing us to the extent of
limiting precious liberty and mod-
ern conscience.

- How modern Orthodoxy Will
someday solve the problem of its
relationship to Talmud and Codes
cannot at present even be guessed
at. But perhaps these new ex-
plorations on the part of the Re.
form movement may someday he
of help. It may be that sonic of
the conclusions or some of the
methods which Reform is usin
in its restudy of the Rabbinic lit
erature, may ultimately be of wid-
er usefulness tlfan It may now he
for the special group for whom
this present bock is written."

of the problems that confront its

ci 1 iikor. d) Bar Mitzva. Then the thinkers and the leaders of
Will a courageous man like Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, who is slated to become chief
there should he a listing and ex. their group in Judaism. They have
rabbi of Isfael, take the lean to overcome Orthodox opposition to the idea of a Sanhedrin that should
planation of which mitzvot are to face .the attacks of the extreme discuss the issues that confront us in modernity and which should be resolved modernly?
generally neglected. This social right-wing Orthodoxy who will
Are there enough responsible Jews, lay and rabbinic, in all quarters of Jewish life, to press for the
analysis will someday he made, understandably argue that since convening oi. • such a rabbinic assembly to iron out differences?

Sefira and the Counting of the Omer

The monumental 16-volume En- he complete" and "You must count

cyclopedia Judaica, contains this . . fifty days." the counting must

definition of t he OMER ( Lit . mention both the number of days
"Sheaf" an offering brought to and the nittnher of weeks (Men.
C313-66a
Hence the standard for-
the Tc•nple on the 16th of Nisan
ant thus the name of the period mula runs as follows! on the first
day. "Today is the first day of the
between Passover and Shavuot
Omer", on the eighth day. "Today
The Bible (Lev. 23 9ff) pre- is the eighth day, makinl, one week
scriSes that "when you enter the and one day of the Omer." and
land which I am giving to you and so on. The time for the counting,
reap its harYest, you shall bring which is to be done standing, is
the first sheaf of Your harvest to after the evening service, that is.
the priest . the priest shall when the new'day begins (Sh. Ar..
wave it on the day after the sab- Ott 4E9:1). One who forgets to
bath " After the waving, a burnt count in the evening may' count
offering together with a meal offer- during the following day, without
ing and a libation were made at however, reciting the blessing. lie
the altar an I after that had been may then count again the same
done it 55 as permissible to eat of evening, using the blessing. But if
the new harvest: "L'ntil that very he fails to count for one complete
day. until you have brought the day, he is not permitted to resume
offering of y Jur God, you shall eat the utterance of the blessing for
no bread or parched grain or fresh the whole duration of the Omer
ears " The exact meaning of the (Sh. Ar.. 011 489:7-8).
dav after the sai)bath" in the bibli-
And since the sole stipulation of
cal passage was a ma< point of
the commandment is that the num-
c ontroersy
l.
between th rabbis and
her of the particular dav of the
the Boethusians (Men
a-h) and.
Omer is to be spoken aloud, one
later the Karaites.__jhe latter
should avoid uttering it inadver-
argaes that the ceremony was to
tently once the tune for counting
be ri•rfermed on the dav after the
has
arrived; for example, if one
SabMith Ile' nediately following the
has not yet counted and is asked
first day of Passover whereas the
what the number of the day is•
rabbis argued that in this context
the word "sahbath - was to he un- one should reply by giving the
number
of the previous day.
derstood not as the weekly Sabbath

but as a "holy dav" and meant
the first day of Passover itself
Since the passage Quoted continues
WWI the law."And from the day
on which you bring the sheaf of
wave offering—the day after the
said nth
01.1
shall count seven
weeks - and the fiftieth day is
Shan u it follows that according
to thesectarian, the festival of
Shut uo , ala:os fell on a Sun•av
It has . :men sag •sted i I.
Finkel-
ste'n The Pharisees (1962 ,
2.641 ff.. that this w as a major
fact.m i' the dissident.' view. as
has in_ the f•stp.al always on a
Sunicy As far more convenient
for Ito' t•thple cult

( . ousting the Omer: The injure -
tem to count the 49 days froth the
Itith of \tsan until Shavuot is con
solercd to to) of Pentateuchal au-
lloariat :, Ion
as the Omer itself
as ot t, red
t /ill: at present time
it is thou, authority only The
49 dais. theinsa
are corrthord ,
knoan a, the se firs.

■

The ri. mom; is preceded by a
s peen) I benelrction concern
mg the counting of the Omer. Since
the Both' dates that "You shall
count cli • ct en weeks They must

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
52—Friday, April 7, 1972

Time of Mourn:ng: From an

unknown date during the talmudic
period, the days of the Omer began
to take on a character of semi-
mourning. the solemnization of
marriages
Was
prohibited, then
haircutting : 41nd later still, the use
cf musical instruments was ban-
ned. The mourning is normally as-
sociated with a plague said lib have
decimated •the disciples of Rabbi
.V:iva. who died "because they did
not treat each other with respect. -

But this reason for the, mourning
is among the many uncertainties
connected with' the Omer period
and with Lag ha-Omer, the minor
festival celebrated on its.33rd day.
The Talmud. alludes to the plague,
but makes no mention of any com-
memorative mourning. This is first
recorded in the eighth century.
when Natrona'. "G. on issued a
responsum confirming both the
practice of mourning and the ac-
cepted reason for it (Levin, Ozar •
Yevamot, 1411..

Subsequent codes and compila-
tions of custom up to and including
the Shulhan Arukh cite this refer-
ence; and most. although not all,
presume that the custom did in
fact originate with the death of
Akiva's disciples. On the other
hand, Maimonides' Mishne Torah
and the Ashkenazi Mahzor Vitry
appear unwar e- of its very
existence.

Now It's Time's Turn

Artide Zeroes In on Jews

NEW YORK (JTA)—.) Time mad-
azine this week explored the ques-
tion, "What It Means to Be Jew-
ish" and like the competng publica-
tion. Newsweek, which did a simi-
lar treatment about a year ago, dis-
covered that it means different
things to different Jews.

The Time cover story. appear-
ing during Passover week, traced
the many paths followed by Ameri-
ca's approximately 6.000,030 Jews
in their quest to find or to re-
affirm their Jewish identity — a
movement which, according to
Time, though stemming from the
Holocaust, was given new impetus
by the Six-Day War.

According to a Time cover note,
the story was compiled by three
staffers — Religious writer Mayo
Vohs, a Catholic; correspondent
Richard Ostling, a Protestant; and
reporter-researcher Clare Mead
Rosen, who, the magazine said.
"was completing six months train-
ing for her conversion from Ca-
tholicism to Judaism."

While the article paid respects
to the resurgence of interest in
Judaism by Jewish youth; the pro-
liferation of Judaica chairs at pres-
tigious American universities; the
"free universities" of Judaism:
the "havaura" movement; the

identification with the plight of
Soviet Jewry; and the pervasive
identification of American Jews
with Israel, it neglected many key
areas of basic concern to Jews.

As other publications have done
in the past, Time pointed out
that the number of Jewish high
school graduates entering college
is proportionately higher than
for the general population; and
that the median income of Jew-
ish families is substantiall
greater than that of American
families generally, But the six-
page article made no mention
of the Jewish poor and elderly
poor or their struggle to obtain
a fair share of anti-poverty funds.

The article noted briefly that
"The Black's anger overtly against
Israel, at least partly reflected
domestic friction."

Time observed that "man)
younger Jews followed !heir con-
temporaries into the New - Left
or exotic religious movement such
as Krishna Consciousness, Scien-
tology or even. the Jesus revolu-
tion."

It did not mention the revolt of
many committed young Jews
against the so-called Jewish Estab-
lishment or the burgeoning of the
student Jewish press.

Dr. Heschel Defines 'Who Is a Jew'

Editor's Note. The following is
as excerpt from the address Dr.
Abraham flu schel delivered Jan.
19 at the 25th World Zionist
Congress in Jerusalem. The bal-
ance of his address was an ex.-
planatIon of ilalakha and Agada.

Who is a Jew? A witness to the
transcendence and presence of
God; a person in whose life Abra-
ham would feel at home, a person
for whom Rabbi Akiba would feel
deep affinity, a person of whom
the Jewish martyrs of all ages
would not he ashamed.

Who is a Jew? A person whose
integrity decays when unmoved by
the knowledge of wrong done to
other people

Who is a Jew? A person in tray-
ail with God's dreams and de-
signs: a person to whom God is
a challenge not an abstraction He
is called upon to know of God's
stake in history, to be involved

in the sanctification of time and of kind!, and tyrants as well as
in building, of the Holy Land, to the contempt and hatred of neigh-
cultivate passion for justice and bors, is a fume of fancy. The Jews
the ability to experience the al .
k were often attacked in the name
rival of Friday evening as an of other attractive and powerful
event.
niyths and ideas, and still resisted

Who is a Jew? A person who
knows how to recall and to keep
alive what is holy in our people's
past_ and to cherish the promise
and the vision of redemption in
the days to come.

How to assure the survival of
the Jews? The best prophet of the
future is our past. flow' did we
meet the assaults and challenges
of change and decay, of persecu-
tion and contempt, and survived
as a people down through cen-
turies? We had no might, no al-
lies, no friends, no territory, no
visible establishment to keep us
intact, loyal. whole. The answer
Often given that we were held to-
gether by the strength of the con-
cept or idea,af One God. and that
allegiance to it overcame the power

the temptations of conversion and
assimilation. Moreover, man is
made of flesh and blood, he has a
heart as well as a mind. Could
man live by abstraction alone?

What kept'our integrity alive was
a commitment of heart and soul,
love that goes With character and
conviction.

The wisest answer to the enigma
of our survival may he found in
the famous saying God, Israel.
Torah are one. The three realities
are inseparable, interdependent,
and the commitment to those real-
ities is appreciation and love. -

A life in which one of these
commitments is missing becomes
a tripod with two legs. And yet
the three are nut .of equal stand-
ing and must he seen in the proper

order of importance. Confusion in
the order—a malady that often
occurs in history—results in dis-
torting fundamental perspectives.
vital values.

Classical Reform Judaism con-
centrated on ethical monotheism as
the essence of Judaism, disregard-
ing Torah and Israel. Secular na-
tionalism has made the people of
Israel its central concern, disre-
garding God and Torah. While
modern ultra-orthodoxy, in -its
eagerness to defend observance.
tends to stress the' supremacy of
the Torah, equating Torah with
Shulhan Arukh, in disregard of
God and Israel, frequently leading
to religious behaviorism.

Implicit in my opening state-
ments about Abraham and Rabbi
Akiba is the necessity of living
in accord with our tradition; of
living as much as possible—and
perhaps a little more than possible
—according to the discipline of
faith and Halakha.

