2 November 28, 1975 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Purely Commentary By Philip Slomovitz Confidence and Courage, Faith as a Vital Instrument for Survival . . . Significance of Spiritual Emphases in Maccabean Story The Maccabean Spirit — For Faith in Defiance of Defamations Hanuka has come early on the Jewish calendar, because of its lunar character. The characteristics and challenges are the same, except that in time of crisis the ideological factor is more emphatic. For children it is a happy festival of gift-giving and receiving and of jollity marked by recollections of heroism by a revered ancestry. The courage of victors is heartening for all ages and especially for those who live in a time of menacing threats to the security of the land of the Maccabees which is the soveriegn state for their descendants. For the historian there is much more of spiritual significance in the great festival whose observ- ance is more in the home than in the synagogue. Yet the house of worship has an aspect of marked historicity. The conquerors of Judaea had a destructive aim. Antiochus had in view not merely to occupy the land of the Jews but also to deal a death blow to the spirit of the conquered people. Through the ages, this has been the way of the enemy who was bent upon Jewry's destruction. It is the invincibility of the Jewish spirit and the people's indestructibility that inevitably emerges, and the precedent for it is in the Hanuka story. While the term Maccabees is rightfully interpreted as a synonym for Jewish heroism, the spiritual values find credence in the Book of the Maccabees. While Jewish history is replete with evidences of martyrdom, the Book of Maccabees deals with a people's cour- age, with a determination to keep the spirit of the people, the faith of the nation, alive and undefeated, even when confronted by the cruelest of enemies. Thus, the story of that conflict, of the determined will to live, is related in Maccabees 1:41-2:48 in this descriptive page of Jewish history: Eleazar, Jonathan. And he saw the blasphemies that were committed in Judah and in Jerusalem, and Mattathias and his sons rent their clothes, and put on sack-cloth and mourned exceedingly. "And the king's officers, that were enforcing the apostasy, came into the city Modin. And many of Israel came unto them, and Mattathias and his sons were gath- ered together. And the king's officers spoke to Mattathias saying, 'Thou art a ruler and an honorable and great man in this city, and strengthened with sons and brethren; now, therefore, come thou first and do the commandment of the king, as all nations have done, and the men of Judah, and they that remain in Jerusalem; so shalt thou and thy house be in the number of the - king's friends, and thou and thy children shall be honored with silver and gold, and many rewards.' And Mattathias answered and said with a loud .voice, 'Though all the nations that are under the king's dominion obey him, and fall away every one from the religion of their fathers, yet will I and my sons and my brethren walk in the covenant of our fathers.' And Mattathias cried out in the city with a loud voice, saying 'Whosoever is zealous the Law, and maintaineth the Covenant, let him follow me.' " While glorying in the triumphs that ensued, the initial steps of the heroes of old in rejecting threats to the basic factors in Jewish existence must not be overlooked. It is the spirit as much as the sword that played a role and continues to be a vital element in Jewish defensive existence. The Maccabees began with a defiance of paganism_and then . resorted to the weapons of defense to preserve Jewish integrity and national existence. that Isn't this true of all anti-Semites, who have not learned the lesson of history Jewish right to live, the demand for recognition of such a right, the firmness with which that will to survive, predominate in times of crisis? How unfortunate that when enemies, as in the instance of an Egyptian visitor to the shores of this country, speaks from both sides of the mouth and fails to admit a neighbor's right to life, could not learn from history! Isn't this true of ,all anti-Semites, who have not learned the lesson of history — that anti-Semitism always dies in its own tracks and Jewry remains indestructible? While reading about the military triumphs of the Maccabees and enjoying both the traditional foods and the exchanges of gifts, Jews themselves must be fully aware of these basic lessons of Hanuka. The triumph of faith, of confidence in the continuity of the will to live, will live. The high goals of the Hanuka spirit remain supreme in the celebration of a great festival. It gives assurance of joy for the coming eight days marked 'on the Jewish calendar as the Festival of Light and the Maccabees. — "And King Antiochus wrote to his whole kingdom, that all should be one people, and that each should forsake his own laws. And he sent letters unto Jerusalem and the cities of Judah that they sho—uld profaiiiihe Sabbaths and Feasts, pollute the sanctuary and build altars and tempres and shrines for idols; and whosoever shall not do according to the word of the king, he shall die. And he appointed overseers over all the people, and he commended the cities of Judah to sacrifice, city by city. ngs in the land; and they made Israel to hide themselves in every And they did evil thi place of refuge which they had. And they rent in pieces the Books of the Law which they found, and set them on fire. And whosoever was found with any Book of the Covenant, and if any consented to the Law, the king's sentence delivered him to death. "And in those days rose up Mattathias, a priest from Jerusalem; and he dwelt at Modin. And he had five sons, John, Simon, Judas (who was called Maccabaeus), Jehuda Halevi Lives On... The year 19 ri5 marks—probably—the nine hundreth anniversary of the greatest Hebrew poet of the middle ages, Jehuda Halevi. Although his exact birthplace is not known, it is generally assumed that he saw the light of the world in Castilia in 1075, during the "Golden Age" of Spanish Jewry. Jehuda Halevi was the first poet who used Hebrew in every-day life, after the classical period, and wrote not only for religious purposes: he also composed, besides prayer-poems, poems on love and friendship, nature, as well as drinking songs, and he was engaged, as was the fashion of the upper classes of Spanish Jewry of the time, in the fields of science, medicine, astronomy, and philosophy. Highly influ- enced, at first, by Arab culture and style, Jehuda Halevi predated by two to three centuries the "uomo universale" of the Renaissance. His poems have been compared to\ the psalms of the Bible, and many found their way into the prayerbook. Yet Halevi's use of the Hebrew language goes beyond the narrow cultic confines of his predecessors. He was, of course, a master of Bible and rabbinic literature, but he adopted also many forms of style and rhythm of his Arab contemporaries. He was called a "maa'yan ha'mitgaber," a wellspring that kept running ever stronger. In good times—he was a successful physician and lived the life of a Spanish court Jew—as well as . in bad times— there were occasional pogroms during his early years in Spain—his personal experi- ence of Jewish galut life never allowed him to keep himself aloof from his peo- ple. Eventually, Jehuda Halevi was to dis- card the type of life of a court Jew. Never an apologetic Jew, his most personal ex- periences, as expressed in his verses, al- ways related to the Jewish people. He could not forget that he lived in the Dias- pora. Thus, as a poet, he did not indulge in the sophisticated artificiality of "l'art pour l'art" of many of his contemporaries, but he displayed the natural beauty and strength of the Hebrew tongue, uniting Upon the 900th Anniversary of His Birth the only valuable source of truth, not ab- stract philosophy, and he stresses the ac- tion element in Judaism over abstract belief as it is to be found in Islam, Chris- tianity, and also the atheism of his time. Jehuda Halevi did something which must have looked unbelievable in his days and which most of his friends opposed: sensitivity with simplicity. This is why Jehuda Halevi was so much admired by later poets, such as Heinrich Heine. All of his poems, be they eulogies over the death of a friend, or even religious "piyu- tim," show a deep personal involvement and commitment. Most famous of his lyrical creations are his "Songs of Zion," expressing his longing for Eretz Yisrael. As a philosopher, Halevi is known for his masterwork "Kuzari"—originally writ- ten in Arabic—which left a lasting im- pression on future Jewish generations. This imaginary dialogue between the king of the Khazars who lived in the Crimea and converted to Judaism together with In his older age, he went on aliya, travel- his entire tribe in the 8th Century, and a learned rabbi who converted the king to Judaism, was actually not so much a work of Jewish philosophy as an essen- tially anti-philosophical tract. In the words of a modern Jewish thinker, Jehuda Halevi defended here not only Judaism as a religion, but above all: Jewish honor, the honor of the Jewish people. Revelation and tradition are for Halevi ' ling to the Holy Land via Egypt amid great dangers: Legend has it that he was killed, with his "Ode to Zion" on his lips, by a Saracen horseman as he knelt among the ruins of Jerusalem, a city that seemed at that time beyond hope after the con- quest by the Crusaders. Modern Hebrew owes much to Jehuda Halevi's resourcefulness. As a thinker, however, he presaged the existentialist trends in contemporary Jewish thought. No wonder that Franz Rosenzweig pub- _fished an entire volume of Halevi's poems with commentary, dedicating the work to Martin Buber, and viewing Jehuda Halevi as a forerunner of modern religious think- ing, and a forerunner of Zionism as well. TWO LOVE POEMS BY JEHUDA HALEVI THE FAIR MAIDEN The night when the fair maiden revealed the likeness of her form to me, The warmth of her cheeks, the veil of her hair, Golden like a topaz, covering A brow of smoothest crystal— She was like the sun making red in her rising The clouds of dawn with the flame of her light. A SLAVE TO LOVE By the life of our troth, my love, by thy life and the life Of love which hath shot an arrow at me, Verily have I become a slave to Love, that hath pierced Mine ear, that hath cloven my heart in twain. rinntil? 7.11 1" 111 ''11'1 n'1F_T rurriN ? miry riTim-tt •"T; 3 1. 7 .1t, t t' 447131 :'17t; 771 3 Tkt Translated by NINA SALAMAN FROM SAYINGS OF JEHUDA HALEVI "The Jewish People ilk the Diaspora is a Body Without a Head or Heart .. Indeed, it is Not Even a Body, But Scattered Bones" * * * "Is There Anywhere, East or West, a Place Where We Are Safe?" Published by TARBUTH FOUNDATION, INC.-2 Penn Plaza (Suite 1980) , New York 10001 "Israel Among the Nations is Like the Heart Amidst the Organs of the Body: it is the Sickest and Healthiest of Them" * * * "Had There Been no Jews, There Would Have Been no Torah" — (212) 947-3745 • President: Dr. Abraham Goodman; Executive Vice President: Dr. Emil Lehman; Editor: Dr. Max Rothschild