56 Friday, February 11, 1977 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Some Thoughts on the Passing of Prof. Solomon Zeitlin One does not erect monuments for the righteous ones. Their words, they keep their memory alive. Gen. Rab. 82 By ESRA SHERESHEVSKY (Editor's note: Dr. Shereshevsky is professor of Hebrew and Hebrew Literature at Temple Uni- versity in Philadelphia.) With the passing of Prof. Solomon Zeitlin it seems that one of the last — perhaps the last — rep- resentative of an era in Jewish history has van-- ished. His greatness was his vast knowledge of the Talmud, the Babylonian and Palestinian alike, Halakha and Aggada, which aroused the admi- ration and envy of those who had the privilege of knowing him. The Talmud — so he used to assert repeatedly — is an ocean ruled by tricky storms and waves and only a discriminating captain can lead his ship onto safe shores. Indeed, such a reliable captain was Prof. Sol- omon Zeitlin. He acquired this deep mastery of the Talmudim in his younger years which he could de- vote — thanks to his un- derstanding father — to the exclusive study of the Talmud. His teacher, whom he mentioned with deep affection those close to him, was the great Rogatchover Gaon, ,Josel)h Rosin, whose mind and illustrious greatness was compared by his contemporary tal- mudic authorities to those of the Akhronim (talmudic coryphaei of the post-Medieval period). I had the rare privilege of having met this Rogatchover Gaon one year before his death, in Dubbeln at the Riga sea shore. The similarity in talmudic approach, em- phasis and personal bear- _ cop=1107 7 , 122137 7 , x .0.311T ing of the two was an as- touding phenomenon. Just as his master, Prof. Zeitlin's strength lay in the ability of verbatimly quoting by heart any pas- sage of the Talmud, as if bestowed with a "photo- graphic memory". This strength of mem- ory, however, had also its negative consequences which we, his disciples and close friends, have now to bear. Prof. Zeitlin never wrote down any- thing nor did he use notes. He dictated his many articles and books directly to his typing sec- retary and thus many of his ideas and thoughts which he could not bring to paper are lost to us by his passing. And if at times he could not remember immedi- ately a reference in the Talmudim, he reached into his memory and Searched deeper and de- eper until his efforts suc- ceeded. • He then complained bitterly to have wasted almost a full day perusing in his mind one talmudic tractate after another to find that reference, an operation which would take weeks if not months for an ordinary mortal. His greatness was indis- putably his unusual ex- pertise and virtuosity in the,field of talmudic liter- ature. This great mind, al- though deeply rooted in the talmudic world, did not limit himself to that world. The uniqueness of Prof. Zeitlin was his , equally close acquain- tance with the classical literatures of Greece and Rome and their civiliza- tions. He used these disci- plines for the elucidation and illumination of many an obscure passage in our talmudic sources. Just as. in all ancient literatures, the hands of copyists and inter- polators corrupted the original text. By means of internal evidence and a fine feeling for the an- cient culture and style, Prof. Zeitlin restored many obscure quotations to their true meaning. He thus carried both "the crown of Torah and the crown of scholarship". There are many ih the rabbinic world whose knowledge of the Talmud may be exceptional but having limited them- selves exclusively to-the "four cubits of Halakha", their heart is not open to scholarship and secular methodology. On the other hand,' there are some who may have attained laurels in scholarship but severed themselves from their roots. Not so with Prof. Zeitlin. His integrating and intertwining of his vast knowledge of Tal- mud and classical scholarship made him an authority and acknowl- 771 7;1 77'"121 edged teacher of both. His main emphasis, however, remained al- ways the return to the talmudic source. Thus he placed "the beauty of Japhet into the tents of Shem". Seeing in his latter years — in particular as a consequence of the Holocaust which, as he put it, plucked •off the floWer of our people — that talmudic knowledge in the institutions of higher learning and uni- versities was steadily waning, he deplored with regret: "Jewish scholarship is dead". And in line with the statement: "Beware of their (our sages) glowing coal lest thou be scorched: for their bite is the bite of a jackal, and their sting the sting of a scorpion and their hiss the hiss of a serpent — moreover all their words are like coals of fire" he scored at many professors of the -Jewish field who were not famil- iar with the original sources and whose knowledge of Hebrew was inadequate to read, an unvocalized text. Adhering to the princi- ple: "Let the Law pierce the mountain" he did not refrain from criticizing the Jewish academic world and from fighting for his principles and the truth. "The truth cannot be drowned nor outvoted by counting noses" were his words. Thus, he instilled into his disciples the need to defend unflinchingly the truth even if it may turn out to be most unprofita- ble. The truth must come to light. Only a very flew had the privilege of knowing him closely. There were rare occasions when he talked about his life. It hap- pened during car drives or in the course of some meals taken in a restau- rant. He spoke then about his odyssey prior to his corn- ing to this country, his years-as a student in the Academy of Baron Guenzberg in Leningrad where he became a friend of the late Zalman Shazar and where he met a large number of _illustrious Jewish leaders and scholars, all of whom are no more. He mentioned warmly renowned scholars, his contemporaries, known to us only by their writ- ings which became standard works at uni- versities and institutions of higher learning. He never had the time to write down all these re- miniscences, important DR. SOLOMON ZEITLIN for Jewish history, and wanted to do it only after the completion of his magnun opus, the "Rise and Fall of the Judaean State." This desire made him also postpone from day to day and from week to week the proper treat- ment of his illness. He wanted first to finish his history and then attend to himself for fear there might not be time left if the order would be reversed. His in- tuition was unfortu- nately right. He accepted his suffer- ings in his last weeks with equanimity. He was al- ways grateful that at least his mind was perfect even if his body was al:- _ready weakened. He was rather lonely in his last • months or weeks and felt this loneliness badly. The telephone, though being a fine means of communication, can be the most cruel implement of separation for the one who wants and needs the human touch and con- tact. He used to say, "People call but I cannot see any- body". This loneliness in his last days was ex- pressed in his desire in his passing from us. He explicitly requested only the bare essentials and - only the bare minimum required quorum at his funeral. No eulogies, no memorials: One does not erect monu- ments for the righteous ones. Their words, they keep their memory alive. Unsettled State of French-Israel Relations Reflects Two Decades of Wooing the Arabs BY EDWIN EYTAN (Copyright 1977, JTA, Inc.) PARIS — Diplomatic ties between France and Israel are near the break- ing point over the release by a Paris court of Pales- tinian terrorist Abu Daoud. But the Abu Daoud episode was only the latest convulsion in the tortured history of Franco-Israeli relations going back more than two decades. It is a relationship that has gyrated between GISCARD D'ESTAING peaks - of friendship and good will and the depths of mutual suspicion and anger. France regarded itself as the traditional champ- ion of Arab emancipation from colonialism until the Algerian revolt against French rule broke out in 1954. After that, France and Israel became the best of friends and began a long period of cooperation in all fields. France was Is- rael's main supplier of modern arms and partner in scientific research. French technicians built Israel's first nuclear power plant at Dimona; it was an open secret that the French and Israeli in- telligence • services worked in close coordina- tion. In 1956, France joined Britain and Israel in the Suez campaign, an effort to topple Egyptian Presi- dent Gamal Abdel Nasser and, from the point of view of French interests, to weaken the Algerian revolt which Nasser abet- ted. But when the Algerian - war ended in 1962 with Algerian independence, France, under Gen. Charles DeGaulle, cooled perceptibly toward Is- rael. The strong-willed DeGaulle was irritated when Israel refused to support certain of his policies and, especially, when it rejected his ad- vice. Matters came to a head on the eve of the 1967 Six-Day War when De- Gaulle warned the then Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban that France would consider as the ag- gressor "whoever shoots first." Three months after the Six-Day War DeGaulle added what some called "insult to injury" when, at a Paris press confer- ence, he -described Jews as "an elite pegple, domineering and sure of themselves.' Relations were further exacerbated as France tried to regain its former position of influence in the Arab world. DeGaul- le's successor, President Georges Pompidou, elected in the summer of 1969, continued that pol- icy. -Throughout the Pom- pidou presidency, France and Israel eyed each other with suspicion. France ac- cused Israel of inspiring "anti-French propaganda." Israel saw every French diplomatic initia- tive as guided by anti- Israel sentiments. When non-Gaullist Val- ery Giscard D'Estaing was elected to the Presi- dency in the summer of 1974, chances seemed to improve for a normaliza- tion of relations with Is- rael. But Israeli anger and suspicions were aroused again when Giscard spoke at- a press conference of the Palestinians' right to "a national homeland of their own" and when French Foreign Minister Jean Sauvagnargues shook hands with PLO chieftain Yasir Arafat in Beirut. Nevertheless, Franco- Israeli relations improved during the past year. Sauvagnargues visited Is- rael, the first French Foreign Minister to do so, and Israeli Foreign Minis- ter Yigal Allon made a re- turn visit to France. More interchanges on the ministerial level fol- lowed and these were ac- companied by concrete gestures of good Will by France such as its sup- port of Israel's associa- tion with the European Common Market. But the Abu Daoud af- fair suddenly reversed this trend. Overnight, France reverted to the role of "an enemy which cannot be trusted." Even optimists concede that it will take years be- fore Franco-Israeli rela- tions are restored to where they were before Daoud was freed. CHARLES DeGAULLE