I THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, July 7, 1972-29
aware of us individually and unaware that Abdul is seeking es-
other ideal that someone hap-
responsive to our pleas for help? cape from justice—into the desert.
pened to think up."
gaining new respect for the Rabbi-
Or one who is so far above us He is suspected of having aided
In addition to reviewing the Hero — the unique Rabbi David
that He can have no interest in the enemy. He is cleared but he synagogue-rabbi problem, Kernel- Small.
us? Or any one of the other leaves Israel with his father.
man also addresses himself to is-
conceptions that men have had
This is part of the plot that was sues of the day.
over the ages? But speaking solved by the pilpul of Rabbi
There is much honor in this nar-
more generally. I suppose I Small. Meanwhile, another Dia- rative, and some synagogue off'.
/EWE IRV
base the feeling of belief and spora-Israel issue is touched up- coals may smart from the form
certainty some times and lack on.
in which they are portrayed as con-
SUITE 364 ADVANCE BLDG
it at others, just as you do, or
The young American student gregational balebatirn. But the ay
23077 Greenfield at 9 Mile
the Chief Rabbi, or the Pope
who became insulted in an Is-
313. 557-1860
for that matter?
cacti incident that nearly cost ()rage reader will enjoy it while
So once again, in the new Rabbi
him his freedom debated ideal
Small experience, we have sin-
istically with the rabbi while
plicity in theological philosophy
visiting hint with his father for a
and a sort of independence that
Sabbath meal. Rabbi Small gave
makes Kemelman's hero unique. one of his typical pilpulistic de-
finitions: Idealism, he said, is
The new Kemelman novel also
"the worship of an idea, and the
introduces the issue of American
idea comes to count for more
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youth attitudes towards Israel's.
than people. Sometimes people
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An American writer comes to Is•
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are cruel because—well, because
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rael to write a book. His son is
they're people . . . Right now
at the Hebrew University, but he
some of your fellow students in
can't fraternize with Jews. All his
America are perpetrating all
friends are Arabs. lie gets into
kinds of wickedness in the name
Our 30th Year
trouble, his passport is withheld.
of peace or social equality or
he follows an Arab friend—he is
academic responsibility or any
Kemelman's Rabbi David Small in New Garb as Crime-Solver in Israel
Harry Kemelman set a precedent
for his new novel, "Monday the
Rabbi Took Off," (G. P. Putnam's
Sons), with his earlier works about
the same hero, Rabbi David Small.
It is interesting that his earlier
works about this interesting rabbi
with a detective's sense should
have been designated day-wise, in
this order: "Friday the Rabbi Slept
Late." ''Saturday the Rabbi Went
Hungry" and "Sunday the Rabbi
Stayed Home." Now we have an
account of his dispute with his
synagogue, which caused him to
leave for a vacation without pay
in Israel. What's coming for 'furs-
day? Judging by the success of
the series. there will he another
day in the Rabbi Small series on
Kemelman's schedule.
Rabbi Small felt slighted and
was debating with himself whether
to resign the pulpit he had already
held—at age 35—for six years in
the Massachusetts town of Barn-
ard's Crossing. lie settled for an
insistence upon leaving his con-
gregation, whether the balehatim
consented or not, for a three-
month leave: he would not accept
pay, he was cordial to the elderly
successor who was already on
pension from another congrega-
tion.
In Israel, he had his dramatic
experiences. he became involved
in a criminal case he helped
solve—that's a Kemelman tradi-
tion in pilpulism which Rabbi
Small manipulates with skill and
analytically—and soon thereafter
he decides, as suddenly as he
had left IRarnard's Crossing, to
return to it without notice.
It all ends well.. there is another
lesson in friendship for Rabbi
Small with Police Chief Lanigan
sv ho emerges his best friend in ,
the town of his ministry, and the
congregational leaders who had
plotted to retain his successor
become reconciled. The successor
is the gentleman who decides to
remain a pensioner and to accept
only an occasional assignment as
rabbi in whatever pulpit the semi-
nary will assign. Meanwhile the
Kemelman analysis exposes the
crudeness of the balebairm that's
among the major points of inter-
est in a revealing story of rabbi-
comtregants differences.
Kemelman has several roles in
this volume, in addition to being
the novelist who perpetuates the
David Small saga. He also is the
master of the travelogue — he
knows Israel and he describes the
land as his hero sees it. Also—he
is the interpreter of Middle East
new s: he provides insight into the
roles of Arab terrorists with his
tale of the dramatic incident that
enables the American rabbi to as-
sist in solving a murder mystery.
He delves into the religious is-
sue in Israel, and when Rabbi
Small --who gains the title of a
visiting rabbi who does not ob-
serve the Sabbath—is asked by a
suspicious Israel official to ex- ,
plain his view of the Almighty.
Kemelman's hero gives this view:
"Do you mean in the same
way that I believe that two and
two make four? Or the way that
I believe that light travels a
certain number of miles per sec-
ond, which I myself have never
seen demonstrated but which has
been demonstrated by people
whose competence and integrity
I have been taught to trust? Or
do you mean in the sense that
I 'believe that there was a man
named Washington who won in-
dependence for the American
colonies from Britain, or in the
sense that I believe there was a
man named Moses who did the
same thing for the Jews from
Egypt. If you think about it,
you'll see that there are many
more forms of belief, and all of
them a little different from each
other. And finally, the third
variable—tiod. Do you mean a
humanlike figure? Or an inef-
fable essence? (Inc who is
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