THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Parent-Child Responsibilities Outlined According to Judaism

`Sunshine' Play Due in Oak Park

The Ridgedale Players
will present "Little Mary
Sunshine," by Rick Be-
soyan, March 19-21, 26-28
and April 2-4 at the Ridge-
dale Playhouse, 8501 W. 10
Mile, Oak Park. Curtain

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times are 8:30 p.m. Fridays
and Saturdays, and 7:30
p.m. Sundays.
Refreshments will be
served following the per-
formance. For tickets, call
Fran Jenkins, 542-0029.

Sunday,

Monday,

March 7

March 8,

6:30 pm

8pm

ROYAL
TAHITIAN
DANCERS

By ALLEN A. WARSEN

"Honor Thy Father and
Mother" subtitled "Filial
Responsibility in Jewish
Law and Ethics" by Gerald
Blidstein (Ktav Publishing

Thursday, March 11

8:30 pm

HAL HOLBROOK

In "Mark Twain Tonight"

The
KEITH
JARRETT
QUARTET

r'

House) is a conceptual and
not an historical study of
filial piety.
The author explains: "I
have considered the histori-
cal milieu of my sources,
but have not analyzed them
as a means of learning
about the actual practice of
filial piety in various areas
and places. I am quite sure
that the very sources here
isolated for a conceptual
treatment could be put to
excellent use by the histori-
an-sociologist."
The study's sources are
the Bible, the Apocrypha,

MOVIE
GUIDE

Americana Complex
1, 2,3,4

$4.50--

Greenfield N. of 9 Mile
559-2730
4 THEATERS IN ONE BUILDING

$7.50

Fri. & Sat.

Wed. MATINEES ALL
THEATERS-1 Show only
at 1:00—$1

liAL Sunday, March 14

March 12 &13

6:30 pm

Eves 8:30

Sat. Mat. 2pm

PRESERVATION
HALL
DIXIELAND
BAND
of New Orleans

LOUIS
FALCO
DANCE
Company

$4.50--$7.50

$3.50--$6.50

"THE ADVENTURE OF
SHERLOCK HOLMES"
SMARTER BROTHER" (PG)
"SPYS" (PG)
"BARRY LYNDON" (PG)
"HESTER STREET"(PG)

"TAXI DRIVER" (R)

BERKLEY 12 Tlei!- Zloldge

"BLAZING SADDLES" (R)

7:30 & 9:20

Sat. Open at 7:15

B.S. at 7:40 & 9:30

Sun. Open at 1:45

B.S. at 2:15-4:05-5:55-7:40 & 9:30

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'vou should
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Plenty of Lighted
Attended Parking

see us now! • • • •
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TUESDAY, MARCH 9 thru TUESDAY, MARCH 16

4 Easy Ways To Buy Your Tickets

1. By Mail—send check, money order or Master Charge number to Ice Capades, Olympia, 5920
Grand River, Detroit, 48208. Enclose stamped self addressed envelope for return.
2. By Phone—with Master Charge, call 895 - 7000.
3. In Person with Master Charge or cash at all Metro Grinnell stores or Olympia Travel (Maple at
Lahser) in Birmingham. No day of show sales at these locations.
4. At Olympia — now thru showtime with Master Charge or cash.

—

TIMES

Weeknights-7:30 PM
Sat. 11 neon, 4 1 f PM
Sun. 1:30 5 5:30 PM

PRICES
$4.50, 5.50, $4.50

CHILDREN 14 AND UNDER AND SR. CITIZENS GROUPS & INFORMATION

1/2 Price all shows except Sat.

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(DM) and call 095-7000 41,

Sunday and in $4.50 reserved mezzanine
all performances.

the Talmud, the Midrash,
Philo, Josephus Flavius, and
102 post-talmudic authori-
ties and "Responsa."
They include Rabbi Isaac-
al Fasi (1013-1103) and
Rabbi Yehiel Weinberg
(1884-1967).
Blidstein opens his mon-
ograph with the state-
ment: "The responsibility
of children to parents has
ever been central to the
Jewish ethos: its very in-
clusion in the Revelation
at Sinai testifies to its sig-
nificance." The fifth com-
mandment, moreover, oc-
cupies a strategic position
in the decalogue: it follows
the commandments deal-
ing with the relationship
between God and men, and
is the first of the social
commandments.
Profound is the Ramban's
(Nachmanides) interpreta-
tion of the centrality of the
fifth commandment in the
Decalogue: "(With the
fourth commandment) God
has completed the descrip-
tion of our obligation to the
Creator Himself . . . He
now continued by com-
manding us concerning the
created things; and he be-
gins with the father, be-
cause the father is like a
creator to his progeny, a
participant (as it were) in
the making, for God is our
first father, while our natu-
ral father is our last father

THIS IS A ROAD SHOW SPECIAL

Weekdays Open at 7
A Mel Brooks Gene Wilder Comedy

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Friday, March 5, 1976 31

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It is noteworthy that the
Bible considers both parents
as equals, although the
father precedes the mother
in the fifth commandment.

Court Turns Down
Ex-Nazi's Appeal

NEW YORK (JTA) — The
United States Supreme
Court's decision to hear a
case of a Christian who re-
fused to work on Saturday
because of religious convic-
tions will affect Orthodox
Jews, said Dennis Rapps,
executive director of the
National Jewish Commis,-
sion on Law and Public Af-
fairs (COLPA).
Rapps said COLPA will
file a brief with the Su-
preme Court in behalf of
Paul Cummins, a member
of the World Wide Church
of God which has a ban on
Saturday work. Cummins
was fired in 1971 as supervi-
sor of the Parker Seal Com-
pany's plant in Berea, Ky.
because of his refusal to
work on Saturday.
COLPA worked with
Cummins in his appeal to
the Sixth U.S. Court of Ap-
peals which reinstated
Cummins on the grounds
that the company failed to
show that accommodation
to his needs would work
"undue hardship" on the
firm. The Parker company
has appealed the decision to
the Supreme Court.
A 1972 amendment to the
Civil Rights Act prohibits
employers from discrimi-
nating against anyone on
the basis of religious prac-
tices, including the observ-
ance of Sabbath on Satur-
days, unless it would create
undue hardship for the
firm.

Nevertheless, the parental
order is reversed in the com-
mand "You shall each revere
his mother and his father,
and keep my sabbaths: I the
Lord am your God" (Levi-
ticus 19:3).
The biblical affirmation
of parental equality in filial
piety was instrumental in
weakening the Roman law
of "patria potestas" (the
father's supreme authority
over his children), and influ-
enced Christian ethics.
R. Abraham Danzig in'
his halakhic digest,
"Khaye Adam", states:
obviously, a man
ought to love his parents
as himself, for they are
included in 'You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.'
But the love of parent is
compared to the love of
God, as we read in Zohar:
`A man ought to do all for
his mother and father and
love them more than him-
self, and his soul and all he
possesses ought to be held
as nought in his zeal to do
their will."
Nonetheless, filial piety
has its limitations: children
are forbidden to obey par-
ents who order them to com-
mit antinominian acts (of
the Christian Gospel), or
break the laws of the Torah.
Furthermore, children are
not obligated to obey paren-
tal arbitrary requests. Nei-
the• are they obligated to
comply with parental objec-
tions to "mitzvot" they de-
sire to perform.
It should be pointed out
that Rabbinic law requires =-
that children's responsibili-
ties toward their parents be
balanced by parential duties
toward their children. Par-
ents are bound to provide
not only for the primary
needs of their children, but
must be participants in
their children's maturing.
Gerald Blidstein's "Honor
Thy Father and Mother" is a
well written and carefully
researched monograph on
filial responsibility in Jew-
ish tradition.
The author is professor of
Jewish thought at Ben-Gur-
ion University of the Negev,- --
Beersheba.

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Fannie Haber
Visiting China

FANNIE HABER

Fannie Haber, wife of
William Haber, advisor to
the executive officers at the
University of Michigan and
president of the World ORT
Union, was among a group
of 25 in the University of
Michigan Regents' group
which is visiting the Peo-
ple's Republic of China.