62 Friday, May 6, 1977
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
`A Poet's Bible' Series
Gaining Deserved Acclaim
"A Poet's Bible" is
emerging as the title of a
series of literary gems in
which a former Detroiter
plays the great role both of
interpreter and scriptural
glorifier.
David Rosenberg already
earned wide recognition
with his "Blues of the
Sky," his versions in trans-
lation of the Book of
Psalms (reviewed in The
Jewish News Dec. 10, 1976).
His "Job Speaks" (Harper
and Row), the second in the
series "A Poet's Bible,"
continues a dedication to a
great devotion that marks
Rosenberg's devotional ac-
tivity that elevates him to
authoritative ranks in Bible
studies and interpretations.
Both as student and as
critic, Rosenberg adds to
the spiritual forcefulness of
the Bible subjects he tack-
les with- skill, with devotion
and love. He goes to the
original for inspiration and
then produces his inter-
pretative work that gains
much in translative power.
How do the hitherto ac-
cepted translations match
those of David Rosenberg?
The poet's 'own comments
are in "A Word on Trans-
lating Job." The chapter
that concludes this notable
poetic work states:
"Rather than try to recon-
struct the awesome mu-
seum of a literal line-by-
line translation, I wanted to
make the poem flow and
renew itself. The "Book of
Job" is not a narrative
poem, but what modern
poets would call a 'serial'
poem. Instead of a narra-
tive climax, there's a cli-
wctic intensity that builds
up in the movement of ex-
panding repetition, deep-
ening intensity of feeling,
and the drama of Job's
sheer persistence.
"Here is an example of a
passage with the problem
of dynamic imagery diluted
by weird English corre-
spondences. Stanzas 3-6 of
Chapter 29 read, in the
King James Version: .
-
When his candle shined
upon my head, and when by
his light I walked through
darkness;
As I was in the days of my
youth, when the secret of
,God was upon my taber-
nacle;
When the Almighty was
yet with me, when my chil-
dren were about me;
When I washed my steps
with butter, and the rock
poured me out riches of oil;
DAVID ROSENBERG
inside me
like inner light
ushering me past the night-
mare
on the screen of giddy youth
my life was in focus
around me it was autumn
my wife and children grow-
ing
my walks were bathed in
light
in cream
the heaviest rocks in my way
smoothed out
like oil
I was as if transported
wherever I went
on a stream of affection...
"To accept Job on its
own terms means seeing
beyond the conscious narra-
tive or drama of its 'plot' to
realize its author's transcen-
dence over his self-centered
mind. The imagination be-
hind Job's words takes us
away from his (and our)
nightmare into the daylight
of dialogue, where we can
humanize the visionary
totality—conscious and un-
conscious—of what we can't
control.
"Where Job fails, in his
inability to transcend van-
ity, the Joban poet
succeeds: his poem is still
open to an answer, beyond
his words, in our own
struggle with language and
the boundaries of self."
Rosenberg enchants his
readers with his own en-
chantment with his subject.
Thus, in his preface, he as-
serts:
"Job's speeches carry the
essence of the whole book:
feeling based in experience.
They ebb and flow in in-
tensity as the book does in
its entirety. Just as the his-
tory of Israel has provided
a testament to the expe-
rienced joys and despairs of
community, we can expe-
rience unspeakable
suffering and faith through
the Joban poet's transmis-
sion of a deep, fierce love
of individual conscience
that is Job in his speeches.
"So I have decided just to
translate Job's speeches.
Like many scholars have
suggested, I feel they are
the original heart of the
book. I feel as though the
original JOhan poet re-
turned to other parts of the
poem at different 'stages of
his life, that the complete
'Book of Job' was his life's
work as 'Leaves of Grass'
was Whitman's."
An Israeli Hebrew Teacher Has Become
the New Financial Wizard of Wall Street
BY DAVID SCHWARTZ
(Copyright 1977, JTA, Inc.)
In Yiddish when they
wish to speak of a person
as having no practical
sense or sense of money,
they say, Er iz a melamed.
(He is a Hebrew teacher.)
The expression may have
to be dropped. The New
York Post the other day
ran a story about a former
Hebrew teacher—Mesh-
ulam Riklis—and it spoke
of him as a **fabulous fig-
ure of Wall Street"
Riklis, the paper said is
the Israeli who taught Hebr-
ew in the United States and
is now chairman of the
Rapid American Corp. with
a salary of $915,000. His ca-
reer is one of the most
spectacular on Wall
Street."
Riklis taught Hebrew in
Minneapolis and perhaps
that has something to do
with his story. The Min-
neapolis Hebrew school at
the time was, I think,- also
something unique. It was in
a way a kind of duper-Hebr-
ew school. The principal
Board Issues Teachers' Guide
NEW YORK—"Kavim
La'Moreh for Shavuot" by
Netanel Cohen and Raphael
Yarchi, published by the
Board of Jewish Education
of Greater New York, is
now available.
"Kavim La'Moreh"
(Guidelines for the Teach-
er) focuses attention not
only on the grading of mate-
rials, but offers new ideas
for each level in grades one
through eight, thus avoiding
repetition of the same mate-
Rise in Religious Belief Parley Topic
NEW YORK—The prac-
tice of religious belief
among Jews and Christians
in the western world contin-
ues to grow, according to
the conveners of a four-day
convocation Sunday through
Wednesday bringing togeth-
er 38 of the world's leading
Christian and Jewish theolo-
gians and sociologists. The
conference will take place
at the University of Chi-
cago Divinity School.
Called "Worship and
Transcendence" the confer-
ence has been sponsored by
the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations, the
Central Conference of Amer-
ican Rabbis and the Univer-
sity of Chicago Divinity
School. This will be the
first time that Christian
scholars are utilizing the
Jewish worship experience
throghout history as the
basis for such deliberations.
Agriculture Developing in Galilee
114,01Nriz,_
, t•
vow
•
k ?:„1•503:4-
2`'"
-
"It does not seem hard to
sense through this trans-
lation that the original im-
agery is too profound to be
either washed over or con-
gealed into impenetrable
English. I've translated it
this way:
rial year after year. Special-
ly prepared summary
tables and an index give
the teacher instant access
to all resource material for
the teaching of Shavuot,
and values clarification for
year round use.
"Kavim La'Moreh for
Shavuot" is part of a series
of holiday teaching man-
uals, which also includes
"Kavim La'Moreh for Pe-
sach'' and "Kavim
La'Moreh for Sukkot." The
books are available for pur-
chase either individually or
as a set.
For information about the
Kavim La'Moreh" Series,
or other BJE publications,
write Frada Harel, Market-
ing Services Dept., Board
of Jewish Education, 426 W.
58th St., New York, N.Y.
10019.
-
Motivated Youth
NEW . YORK—More than
500 youngsters from yeshi-
vot and Talmud Torahs
from coast to coast studied
10,000 extra curricular
hours of Torah in the
seventh semi-annual Nation-
al Hasmodah Contest this
past Pesah in a program
sponsored by Pirchei Agu-
dath Israel of America.
The project of the Agud-
ist youth movement is held
twice a year, on the holi-
days of Sukkot and Pesah,
to encourage youngsters to
spend their vacation time
in Torah study as a means
of preparing them to as-
sume self-responsibility in
Torah without supervision.
Policy Questioned
God watching over me
the sun shining
inside me
like inner light
ushering me past the night-
mare
°God watching over me
the sun shining
was a successful Minnesota
physician who had given up
his profession to become its
principal.
It isn't often that one
gives up a profession like
medicine to become a Hebr-
ew teacher.
The principal -was once
asked why he had dont it.
His answer was to smile
and say, "How can I tell
you? You can't speak to a
eunuch' about the joys of
love." He was just in love
with teaching Hebrew.
Maybe learning Hebrew
has some mysterious affi-
nity for high finance. After
all, it is the language of the
Prophets.
The man responsible for
the creation of Wall Street
was Alexander Hamilton.
He was not a Hebrew teach-
er, but there is a legend
that he could recite the Ten
Commandments, in Hebrew.
Hamilton was not Jewish
but he had a half Jewish
brother—Peter Levin of
South Carolina with whom
he corresponded. Ham-
ilton's mother had been
This aerial view ola portion of the Galilee-depicts the diversity of crops that can he
planted in the area.
NEW YORK—"If the Car-
ter Administration hopes to
follow through on the cam-
paign promise to develop a
'coherent national family
policy,' it will have to be re-.
sponsive to ethnic factors
and to the wide variety of
family life styles and cultur-
al traditions that comprise
the American social
scene "
married to a Mr. Levin, but
they separated and his
mother later live with a
Scotchrnan, Hamilton, and
Alexander was the off-
spring of this later alliance.
The big figures of finance
were not of too much help
to Zionism in earlier days.
Samuel Adams in the fight
for American independence
had more suecess. He
brought in the rich mer-
chant, John Hancock, but
Theodor Herzl was turned
down when he tried to win
over the Baron de Hirsch.
When later Ben-Gurion
called in the bankers about
floating an Israel bond
issue, they told him it cor -
not be done, but B.G. w
ahead anyway and U
worked.
It is to the great credit of
Riklis that he takes a keen
and active interest in pro-
moting his native land. Who
would have thought that Is-
rael would produce a great
finance wizard? Not the
least of the contributions of
Israel is that it has en-
hanced the prestige of the
poor Hebrew teacher. Per-
haps after we have learned
to appreciate him more, we
shall also value more the
product with which he is
concerned.
Israel Re-Buries
Spies on Mt. Herzl
JERUSALEM (JTA)—
The remains of two Egyp-
tian-born Jews who were
hanged in Cairo in 1955 for
spying for Israel were re-
buried on Mt. Herzl with
full military honors.
Moshe Marzouk, who was
a dentist and Shmuel Azar,
a teacher. were post-
humously commissioned
Majors in Israel's. Army.
Premier Yitzhak Rabin, De-
fense Minister Shimon
Peres and former Premier
Golda Meir, were among
the dignitaries attending
the ceremonies.
Marzouk and Azar were
acknowledged to have been
Israeli agents who were
trained in an Israeli in-
telligence school in the
early 1950s.
They were arrested in
1954 after an abortive at-
tempt to bomb American in-
stallations in Cairo which
was supposed to create a
rift between the U.S. and
Egypt. The mission. led to
bitter recriminations in Is
rael.
Herman H. Prady
Herman H. Prady, a re-
tired accountant, died April
27 at age 75.
Born in Latvia, Mr.
Prady lived 68 years in, r
troit. He was an account,
for 27 years with the Van
Furniture Co. He was a
charter member of Temple
Emanu-El, Bnai Brith and
the Oak Park Lodge of the
Masons.
He leaves his wife. Syl-
via; a daughter, Mrs. Je-
rome (JoAnne) Finck; a
brother. Jack; two sisters.
Mrs. Benjamin (Mildred)
Williams and Mrs. Albert
(Annette) Landy: and two
grandsons.