d Purely Commentary

from the Bible singers! Like the Voice of the Turtle, the origin of

The Psalmist's Songs for Mankind

We recall an interesting experience. A Jewish young 1)cly who
had not been a regular participant in synagogue services and whose
knowledge about Scriptures was limited, had wandered into a church

and was enchanted by its services. She returned home and described
her enthusiasm. She expressed regret that Jewish services—about
which she knew so little ' — did not contain beautiful Psalms, such as

the one about 'The Lord is my shepherd . . " Whereupon a knowl-

edgeable member of the family began to recite

"Adonai rcfee lo ekhsar . . " he explained that what she had
quoted was the 23rd Hebrew Psalm of David -

"P' .1 Psalm of David.

The Loup is my shepherd, I shall
not wan•.
'Ile niaketti me to lie down in green

77 —

l(17 -

2

lead•th ine be-id" the still
,ter-
'lie restorerh toy rseil,
li•• goeletii one II, iiraight

Hr

for Iii, tianie ,i
'Yea. though 1 walk t brooch the
valley of the shin low of death,
I will fear no evil,
For Thou art with me.
Thy rod and Thy staff, they com-
fort toe
'Thou preparest a table before me
in the presence of mine enemies,

Theo

11111111111 ,

1

111Y

be:1 , 1 witb

my cup ruhneth over.
ts:!:relv goodness and morcv shall
felt iw rue all the day-, of my life,
And I shall dwell in the house of
the hose for ever.

We were reminded of this incident by an editorial in the Ne.v

York Times, which on the occasion of Easter Sunday, gloried over the
Psalms that "transcend creeds" and stated under the title "The Voice

of the Turtle":

Anyone who knows those splendid songs we call the Psalms
will recall how often and how eloquent are the references to the
beauty and the generosity of this earth in the springtime. "Let the
hills be joyful together," one of them says; and another tells how
"The mountains skipped like rams and the little hills like lambs."
There are blossoms and birds, there is rain and dew, there are trees
and water brooks and green pastures.

This has been true ever since man has been here and aware of
the cycle of the seasons. He has known that winter passes, and when
spring comes he has felt the need to participate in the triumph of
life so obvious all around him. It was inevitable that he should find
spiritual meanings in such a profound experience. What he saw and
heard demanded participation from his soul.

"Let the hills be joyful together," sang the Psalmist. And every

year the command is obeyed. The trees are full of rising sap, the
buds fatten on the bough and the earliest blossoms spread their

petals. "For, lo," said another biblical singer, "the winter is past. The
flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come,
and the voice of the turtle (dove) is heard in our land." And we all
remember, we all share in the miracle of an Easter, a springtime.
that transcends creeds and is as certain as sunrise.

It touched us personally. One of the Psalms in the Passover Hagada
to which we always point with special enthusiasm for the songs of
David. a Psalm in which the grandson always leads at the Passover
Seder in Hebrew and calls for English responsive readings, is made
reference to in the quoted NY Times editorial. It is this 114th Psalm:

1 1 4

When Israel came forth out of
Egypt,
The house of Jacob from a people
of strange language;
'Judah became His sanctuary,
Israel His dominion.

ITremble, thou earth, at the pres-
ence of the Lord,
At the presence of the God of Jacob;
"Who turned the rock into a pool of
water,
The flint into a fountain of waters.

Few of the great songs are as inspiring, there are not many of

the world's great poems that match this one about hills like young
sheep, about mountains that skip like rams.

gains

inspiration from Scriptures,

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Is Postal Service Demolishing
the American-Jewish Press?

-

reader can expect to pay twice as
much for a year's copies, and the
already difficult-to-attain adver-
state assembly, according to a decision of the NPD National Com-
tising will cost considerably more.
mittee reached on March 19.
That's why some papers are be-
As reason for the unexpected move, NPD spokesmen cited ginning to set their own type for
photo offset process; but that's
their party's determination to sacrifice everything in order to
applicable to a small paper. A 96-
maintain a CDU majority in the Bundesrat (Federal Council— to 120-page weekly edition like the
State Governments). The NPD, however, would not instruct its Philadelphia Jewish Exponent
can't risk such procedure, whose
members to vote for the Christian Democrats, it was added.
aim is primarily to become non-
Government spokesman Conrad Ahlers said the announcement • union. An average 48- to 56 - page
indicated how far the parliamentary opposition had allowed itself Detroit Jewish News must have
to draft in its fight against the Eastern treaties. Eduard Ackermann, the hot type and well supervised
spokesman for the CDU/CSU Bundestag Group that same day plant to produce a good newspaper.
strongly emphasized that his party had never sought political aid
Postal rates, increased union
or support from the NPD. •
costs, rising salaries create diffi-
culties
for the Jewish press. Many
Baden-Wuerttemberg was the last state to count NPD mem-
bers among its deputies. After April 23, the National Democrats non-Jewish periodicals a Ire a d y
will have lost their last votes in any state parliament in the Federal have collapsed; some are about to
say finis to their existence, due in
Republic of Germany.
some measure to rising postal
Dr. Montag, who has made many friends for his government as its rates. The Yiddish press faces the
representative in Detroit, makes the comment: "You will recall the same dangers. Communities should
elections of April 28, 1968, when the NPD (National Demoeratische be readied to face the consequences
Partei Deutschlands) got 9.8 per cent of the vote." He emphasizes with because they must assure the exist-
this comment the failure of the NPD to gain successes in the past four ence of the Jewish press. Without
years. Perhaps the emphasis also should be: having checked NPD, the them they'll go bankrupt as speed-
Germans should be on the lookout to prevent it from regaining strength. ily as the press.
(Copyright 1972, JTA, Inc.)
Meanwhile NPD's loss is German democracy's gain.

The National Democratic Party (NPD) will withdraw its can-

'What aileth thee, 0 thou sea, that,
thou Hoot?
Thou Jordan, that thou turnest
backward?
'Ye mountains, that ye skip like rams;
Ye hills, like young sheep?

By Philip
S ► omovitz

The Jewish Telegraphic Ag-
ency's cartoonist, Noah Bee,
in a recent cartoon entitled
•4 1:
'He hath brought me to the ban- -rizr,st
_
• ,,
"Is This Demolition Neces-
queting-house,
sary?" depicted how the U.S.
And his banner over me is love,
5 Postal Service threatens the
^ •nirn, _ tt-
"Stay ye me with dainties, refresh
, Jewish publications structure-
me with apples;
It was a timely question and
-
For I am love-sick.'
'I...et his left hand be under my
, a well-drawn cartoon, and it
head,
is no wonder that it is stimu-
, •
And his right hand embrace me.
7
lating questions regarding the
I adjure you, 0 daughters of
r7;:: c:::^ti security of the Jewish press.
Jerusalem.
At the White House brief-
in./7 - cm ri7;.n
By the gazelles, and by the hinds
„„ ing conference for the Amer-
of the field.
ican Jewish press on March
That ye awaken not, nor stir ut,
13, there was a cross-section
love,
Until it please.'
of . publications appearing in
'Hark! my beloved! behold, he
this country with direct ap-
comet
peals to Jews: Hebrew, Yid-
:1.1 '7:7- ' 771'7 77 t:). 77.7
Leaping upon the mountains, skip-
s dish, English readers. Young
ping upon the hills.
re
a w ni d
th o yla drm %,eir ke asta h n e d
'My beloved is like a gazelle or a
most those
m—
young hart;
•
nn
• -7
■ :
Behold, he standeth behind our
' •! 1 ' out, about 20 out of the 90
wall.
present asked for the kosher
He looketh in through the windows,
boxed lunches ordered by the
7!141 •-11
lie peereth through the lattice.
White House staff, the rest ate
'°My beloved spoke, and said unto
;'?"'171 7';' '7' 71'7,' '" . 1 - j7 7 the regular buffet luncheon.
me:
This may provide a conglom-
'Rise op, my love, my fair one,
erate picture of Jewry as con-
and come away.
r1;77.
stituted in America. Does it
"For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
:1 7 tr? provide a clue to the postal
"The flowers appear on the earth;
demolition process”
12 The fact is, most of the pub-
The time of singing is come,
nJ rt.i;
And the voice of the turtle is heard
lications wouldn't suffer an
nIrn * ,71
in our land;
iota from increased postal
itThe fig-tree putteth forth her green
rates. Many of them have such
,
figs,
"
small
circulations that the ef-
And the vines in blossom give forth 1 77:
r'‘'Er1;:171
their fragrance.
feet could be nil. Also many
•t".1"
-z51
Arise, my love, my fair one, and
of the publications are organi-
come away.
zational organs, and public
funds are easier to attain—
and to spend. The only surviv-
major Yiddish newspaper,
The winter is past and the Passover that inspired these thoughts ing
also is gone, but "the time of singing" never ends. Neither should The Forward, won't suffer; it
there ever be a season without appreciation of and rejoicing in the sells mostly on newsstands.
inspirations available to us in the songs of Zion and our Scriptures. The new Yiddish weekly, the
Mlgemeine Journal, won't suf-
•
•
•
fer that much either—it, too,
Urgency of U.S. Savings Bonds Campaign
must depend on New York
A Michigan TriCounty area U.S. Savings Bonds campaign has
newsstands.
just been instituted, and a serious effort is being made to retain, and if
The English-Jewish weekly
possible to exceed, Michigan's record which accounts for more than
press, perhaps the most vital
6 per cent of national bond buying.
in the field because its com-
Since our communities are directly involved in this task, it should bined circulation now a p-
be noted that present holdings by Michigan citizens is in excess of proaches half a million, can be
$3,400,000,000—yielding more than $145,000,000 in interest annually— —already is!—in real trouble.
and that this state's goal for 1972 is the sale of an additional 3324,000,-
Second-class mailing rights
000 in bonds.
gave newspapers and maga-
The need to continue thi§ work, to expand the U.S. Savings Bonds zines a real lift in years gone
programs and to express our concern in the nation's multiple duties to by, when rates were very low.
its citizens is apparent in the appeal for increased bond buying during Today, a newspaper must fig-
the current year.
ure on substantial costs to en-
•
•
•
able it to circulate mail-wise.
When a weekly newspaper's
A Triumph for Germany's Democratic Forces
West German Consul Werner Montag sends us this "Relay From mailing costs rise from, let us
say, $2,000 a year to the pres-
Bonn" item:
ent $30,000, with warnings of
NPD DROPS OUT OF BAD&N-WUERTTEMBERG STATE ELECTIONS
new increases c o m i n g, the

didates from the April 23 elections for the Baden-Wuerttemberg

'The sea saw it, and fled;
The Jordan turned backward.
'The mountains skipped like rams,
The hills like young sheep.

Indeed, there is so much that

which is in the Song of Songs second chapter

-

011;

2 — Fridiry, April 21, 1972

Scriptural Inspirations for All Faiths as a Legacy From
. Newspapers Endangered by
Jewry to Mankind .
Postal Costs . .. Defeat for Neo-Nazism in W. Germany

