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.