THE JEWISH NEWS Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20. 1951 Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 98075. Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription • $10 a year. PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Editor and Publisher , CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ • Business Manager 'DREW LIEBERWITZ Advertising Manager . Alan Hitsky, News Editor . . . Heidi Press, Assistant News Editor Sabbath Scriptural Selections • This Sabbath, the 10th day of Nisa'n, 5735, - the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:.. • . Pentateuchal portion, Lev. 6:1-8:36. Prophetical portion, Malachi 3.4-24. Passover Scriptural Selections Pentateuchal portions: First - Day Passover, Thursday, ExodAs 12:21 - 51, Numbers 28:16-25; Second Day Passover, Leviticus 22:26-23:44. Numbers 28:16-25. . . . Prophetical portioni: Thursday, Jeremiah 7:21-8:3, 9:22-23; Friday, II Kings 23:1-9: 21-25. . • Candle lighting, Friday, March 21, 6:27 p.m. V OL. LXVII, No. 2 Page Four Fiiday, March 21, 1975 Challenges to Libertarians Passover's libertarian aspects, as the first festival on record to have marked the attainment of freedom by a people emerging from enslavement, 'emphasizes the responsibilities of civilized people to maintain the basic ideals that keep mankind above barbarism. If men are to remain free they must assure similar rights to their neighbors. • A nation, in the Lincolnian interpretation, can not survive if it is half free and half slave. Abraham Lincoln undoubtedly meant his definition to ap- ply to the entire world, to all mankind. Tragically for the last quarter of the twentieth century, this ideal has not been attained. • A world that competes for domination of munitions trading can not possibly reach the high goals of humanitarian equalities. Availability of military hardware encourages its use, and when the little ones become the targets of the giant gun-toters the values of life and security are menaced. In the course of the contemporary experiences; in the proc- ess of exposure of the horrors that accompany the concern over the. priority given to munitions=making, little Israel is an exam- ple of the danger of suffering by the minute nations when they are stacked against the all-mighty. Almost without exception, in all-of the commentaries on the spreading munitions sales, Israel is selected as a pawn. It is the small Jewish state that is chosen for either warning or rebuke 'or both. When this is done, the protesters fail to -take into account the immensity of sales to Israel's enemies. Without the security acquired by whatever amount of defensive weapons Israel secures, where would that , little nation be? What is needed is a single standard of judging' world affairs and responsibilities and applying them honorably. Israel has done more pleading for disarmament than any other nation. A total disarmament would solve the problem. But business' is business and the merchants of death are not abandoning their manufacturing of deadly weapons. ' In a free society there might some day come an end to the competitiveness in munitions-making. In a civilized world there would be hope for equality based on the right to life and liberty for all, regardless of race, creed, sex, color of skin or language spoken The attainment of such an ideal would end the strife that makes men brutal and drags them back into the jungle. Is it too much to hope for such an ideal society at Passover time? At least, it is an aspiration and it provides a sense - of dignity and moral encouragement to hope for it as Jews sit at the Seder table to take heart in the high principles of the Festival of Freedom. S Historic Passover. Tradjtion: Sustenance for All In an era of continuing struggles for freedoms in many lands, at a time -when poverty men- aces the very existence of millions of unfortunates in many lands, at a time when bigotry still raises its hoary head, Passover's message assumes greater significance than ever. The Festival of Freedom denotes not only the striving for human liberties. It is a time to think of the needy. It is an occasion to reaffirm the basic principle that justice is not for the few who are affluent and territorically dominant but for all mankind. It would be useless to speak of freedom without considering the human needs in libertarian- ism. That is why the first principles introduced in the Haggada are for the elimination of want and for granting food to the needy. That is why the initial declaration in the Haggada is con- tainecl in the Ho Lakhma — let all who are hungry come and eat, as stated at the outset in commencing the Seder festivities: "This is the bread of affliction that our forefathers ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungered, come and eat! Whoever is in need, come and celebrate the Passover. Now here, next year in the land of Israel. Now enslaved, next year sons of freedom." How appropriate also that the Ho Lakhma should be followed by the answers to the que about freedom in the deliberations of the Seder discussants who commence with the Avadim Hayinu, there was enslavement under Pharaoh, proceeding with analyses of the values of human liberties. No wonder that the festival's basic ideals should have been tackled so delicately by the rabbinic scholars for whom freedom- was not a right for the few but a legacy for all mankind. These are the ideals glorified by a community that seeks protection not for itself alone but for all. Embodied is the recognition, eloquently defined by all libertarians, that no one is free unless all of society is free. Passover is dedicated to the fulfillment of these ideals. It is to the fullfillment of these ideals that this Passover is rededicated anew, and in that spirit the celebrants exchange the spirited good wishes for a -Happy Passover.