THE JEWISH NEWS isy\DIK THE WEIQH.13 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. -18075. Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and AdditiOnal Mailing Offices. Subscription $10 a year. PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Editor and Publisher CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ DREW LIEBERWITZ Business Manager Alan Advertising Manager Hitsky, News Editor . . . Heidi Press. Assistant N•i%s Editor Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, the 29th day of Iyar, 5736, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Numbers 1:1-4:20. Prophetical portion, I Samuel 20:18-42. Sunday, Rosh Hodesh Sivan, Numbers 28:9 15 Friday, June 4, first day of Shavuot - Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 19:1-20:23; Numbers 28:26 31. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 1:1 28: 3:12. - - Candle lighting, Friday, May 28, 8:40 p.m. c ol. LAM No. 12 Page Four Friday, May 28, 1976 Shavuot—Torah and the Humanities In preparation for the observance of the Festival of Shavuot, there are many many les- sons of value for the Jewish people and for mankind. — his meal is not counted as a rejoicing in a divine command but a rejoicing in his own stom- ach . . . a disgrace to those who indulge in it" (Yad. Shevithat Yom Toy 6:18). It is the Festival of the Giving of the Law, and its teachings imply much more. The human values emphasized in its teachings, the tradi- n unui tions that fortify them, the Law and the Moralities that teach man- kind, are all imbedded in this festival's tradi- tions. Shavuot is called Atzeret in the Mishna and the Talmud, in the sense that it serves as a con- cluding festival to Pesah. In the observances of Shavuot, the historical as well as the agricul- tural aspects are reflected. The Decalogue is read in the synagogue on the first day. Plants and flowers, reminiscent of the slopes of Sinai, decorate the bima and the aron ha-kodesh. The first night of the festival is spent in reading an anthology of sacred writings called Tikkun lel Shavuot, a custom not commonly observed these days. The book of Ruth is read for its descrip- tion of a summer harvest in Israel. The book of Ruth and the famous liturgical poem Akdamut are read before the reading of the Torah which is likened to milk, according to the allegorical interpretation of the Song of Songs ("Honey and milk are under your tongue'). Dr. Philip Birnbaum, in "A Book of Jewish Concepts," defined the holiday so impressively that this explanatory brief essay points to every aspect of notable inspirations provided by Sha- vuot. Rabbi Birnbaum's Shavuot essay affirms: The Shavuot festival, otherwise known as Pentecost (50th day) or Feast of Weeks, was cel- ebrated primarily as a thanksgiving for the wheat harvest; it falls seven weeks after the barley harves t, when an • omer of the new pro- duce was offered. The Torah refers to Shavuot as Hag ha-Katsir (the feast of the harvest) and Yom ha-Bikkurim (the day of first fruits), ob- served by offerings of the best ripe produce of the fields (Exodus 23:16; Numbers 28:26). Begin- ning with the second day of Passover, seven weeks or 49 days were carefully counted, and the 50th day was celebrated as the beginning of the wheat harvest or the festival of the first fruits. Hence the Sefira (counting) period ob- served to this day between the second day of Pe- sah and Shavuot. In the course of time, as a result of the transformation of the agricultural festivals into historical commemorations, the additional sig- nificance of Shavuot as the Festival of the Giv- ing of the Torah at Mount Sinai completely over- shadowed its original significance. Though the Bible does not identify Shavuot with the anni- versary of the giving of the Ten Command- ments, the tradition, undisputed in the Talmud, has been that the Torah was given on the sixth day of Sivan. The name Hag Shavuot occurs in Deuteronomy 16:10, where we are told that each pilgrim was to offer what he felt disposed to give. "You shall count seven weeks from the day when the sickle is first put to the standing grain. You shall then keep the Feast of Weeks in honor of the Lord your God, and the measure of your freewill offering shall be in proportion to the blessing that the Lord your God bestowed on you. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God with your son and daughter, your male and fe- male servants, and the Levite of your commu- nity, as well as the stranger and the fatherless and the widow among you . . ." (Deuteronomy 16:9-11). Hence, Maimonides writes: "Women should have clothes and pretty trinkets bought for them, according to one's means . . . And while one eats and drinks, it is his duty to feed the stranger, the orphan, the widow, and other poor and unfortunate people, for he who locks the doors to his courtyard and eats and drinks with his wife and family, without giving to the poor Thus, the Law is inseparable from human obligations. Too often a Jewish festival has its impact on observers merely because they are oc- casions to enjoy good food. At one of the earliest World Zionist Con- gresses, Dr. Max Nordau referred to such devo- tees of the festivals, and he posed the question, in his challenge to the indifference to the great libertarian ideal offered by Zionism: "Sie sind auch Juden? Sie sind bauch-Juden!" ("Are they also Jews? They are stomach Jews!" Dr. Birnbaum provides a lesson for the unk- nowing and indifferent, for those who limit themselves to prayer without applying it to ac- tion. The less fortunate need sustenance and the basic Sacred Law demands recognition of that principle. Perhaps now, so late in the task of gathering aid for Israel and major Jewish causes through the Allied Jewish Campaign it is not yet too late to admonish the abstainers from duties that the "bauch-Juden" are detrimental to the quest for human values. In these few days before Shavuot it is pro- per to study the values of the great festival and to urge adherence to them as an inspiration to- wards the highest human values. No Room for Vandals Bomb throwing is wrong under any cir- cumstance and whatever boasting about such crimes is done in the name of the Jewish com- munity will never be tolerated. Russia's treatment of Jews is intolerable and will be fought with all means at the disposal of liberty-loving people. But the weapons will be through the media, by exposing the crime in public tribunals, as means of arousing public opinion in defense of just rights for all in the USSR. Bomb throwing at consulates and embas- sies, at the UN or anywhere else is un-Jewish and un-American and stands condemned by American Jewry. -UM Russo-Japanese War Era Recalled in New JPS Book Unusual episodes relating to a bygone age and recollections of the Russo-Japanese war era are told in a new Jewish Publication Society volume, "The Samurai of Vishogrod." The story is reconstructed from the notebooks of Jacob Marateck and is retold here by Shimon and Anita Wincelberg. The story relates, humorously, zestfully, with an ability to de- scribe the adventures and exploits of a sharp-witted man, the events of some 70 years ago. _ Jacob Marateck, the protagonist of this unusual memoir, begins his picaresque journey at the age of 12, fleeing the yeshiva and the rigors of the scholarly life. Following a series of misadventures, he returns to the poor village of Vishogrod to face the wrath of his father and , after a brief and mortifying attempt to make his fortune on his native grounds, pro- ceeds to join his brother in the "vast modern metropolis" of Warsaw. He quickly learns that the glittering opportunities of that won- drous city are not open to poor Jewish youths. "The Samurai of Vishos grod" portrays Marateck's professional development from a rebellious baker's apprentice to a teen-age labor organizer to a revolutionary "terrorist." . When he reached military age, he was "pitchforked" into the czar's army, where, amidst the bureaucratic incompetence and slap- stick horrors of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, he earned an above-average number of both medals and death sentences. The material for these intriguing recollections was drawn from the numerous nickel notebooks that Jacob Marateck filled in a Yiddish scrawl at a kitchen table in the Bronx during the Great Depression of the 1930's. The torrent of memories, images, stories, and anecdotes which form the basis of. the book reveal Jacob Marateck as a natural-born storyteller. He is a writer with a devastating eye for revealing detail whose portrayal of the Jewish experience during the colorful and vi- olent period preceding the Russian Revolution is both hilarious and deeply moving. To prepare this huge windfall of notebook material for publica- tion called not only for translation and editing, but frequently also for connective passages of imaginative reconstruction. In all these tasks the late Jacob Marateck has been uniquely well served by his youngest daughter, Anita Marateck Wincelberg, and her husband Shimon. Shimon Wincelberg is an author, playwright, and writer for screen and television. He is a three-time winner of the Writers Guild --- of America Award for year's best-written TV script. Anita is a writer and journalist. Her critical essays and transla- tions have appeared in a variety of publications. She has also collabo- rated with her husband on a novel, "Send Money and Stay Home." Dr. Marcus' Bicentennial Volume Published by Ktav Dr. Jacob R. Marcus' notable publication "Jews and the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Documentary," is now being published by Ktav Publishing House. Many of Dr. Marcus' noteworthy articles, providing scholarly re- search as well as human insights into the participation and contribu- tions of Jewish Americans in the struggle for independence and free- dom, have already appeared in The Jewish News as Bicentennial features. Originally published by the American Jewish Archives, the vol- ume includes 10 historic photographs, several long essays explaining major Jewish 'contributipris and . a series. of unabridged letters, with explanations, written 'by prdmineht jeWish patriots of the time.