Fridry, Mr/ 19, 19711

BE BERM JEWISH IEWS

Practical Proposals from a Scholar 'Lest We Forget'

deposited in this cup every folk poet of Polish Jewry,
becomes so monstrous, so fixed to every Jewish door- everywhere.
inconceivable, that a new post, books on the
The "memory of the time an attack is madeupon who will gather all the
term had to be coined, Holocaust should be given a Exodus from Egypt" is re- Jews. When the cup is full, tragedy in our lives and
"genocide." How is one to place on the bookshelves of peated thrice daily in our then and only then will the perpetuate and guard it in
convey this unprecedented every home. Such volumes prayers. It is referred to in Messiah come. Adding six the repository of his tears?
tragedy to children? should be on view in every the kidush and in numerous drops to a "Cup of the Poet of the people, where art
Jewish youths, like all Jewish public building and other contexts. Should not Holocaust" or a "Cup of thou?"
Each one of us must be-
— young people, thrill to institution; they should be the Holocaust also be ac- Life" may help speed the
PHILADELPHIA
triumphs
of courage. "How studied in every Jewish corded unflagging repeti- Redemption which must be come "a repository" of
There is a connection be-
preceded
by
a
"change
of
memories
and of commem-
tween the tragedy of our Six come they died without re- school; sections of them tion in our worship?
oration.
On the second day of heart."
Million murdered by the
belling?" Jewish children
"We are left naked,"
Rosh Hashana it would Ani Ma'amin, the hymn
Germans and the rise of Is-
ask about the victims of the
be appropriate to add to of Jewish belief which Kaplan wrote, "but as
Holocaust. They do not
rael.
the maftir (Jeremiah, many of the victims into- long as this secret power
There is a vast literature know that the Nazis con-
Chapter 31) a chapter of ned as they walked to is still within ms we do not
on the Holocaust, but many cealed their nefarious ac-
Lamentations (Chapter 3 their deaths, should be give up hope." And the
persons shy away from tivities, that they isolated
t
would be most suitable), chanted, and a chapter strength of this power
reading about the horror the Jews, inciting the non-
and
the recitation of Yiz- describing how the Jews lies in the indigenous na-
and the agony. They avoid Jewish populations against
Sedorim ture of Jewry, which is
kor to commemorate the conducted
being troubled and upset., them and making it im-
martyrs
of Hitler's dark under the Nazi domina- rooted in our eternal tra-
This indifference wrongs possible to help them.
blight.
In
addition,
every
tion
might
be
read.
The dition that commands us
the martyrs of the death
rabbi should speak on ceremony might fittingly to live. Polish Jewry says,
So we must teach our
camps and the ghettos —
the
theme
of
the
be
concluded
with
the
together with our poet
young
and
stress
the
and history as well.
laureate Malik:
Holocaust at this service. singing of "Hatikva."
Such an engineered heroism of the victims, es-
pecially
their-affirmation
of
Certainly
at
the
Ne'ila
On
Purim,
the
story
o
"One spark is hidden in
forgetfulness aids the
i/
life
in
the
ghettos
and
the
service
of
Yom
Kippur,
pre-
heroic
event
of
the
Resis-
the stronghold of my heart,
enemies of decency and is a
i
ferably before the final tance might be added to the
One little spark, but it is all
boon to the criminals who death camps.
DR. ABRAHAM KATSH
sounding of the shofar, it reading of the Megilla. And
mine;
unleashed the Holocaust
This approach will en-
tting for every why not a special Megillat
I borrowed it from no one,
and would like the world to
able our young to identify should be read on every would be fitting
Jewish
congregation to rise Hashoa (A scoll of the
Jewish
festival.
nor did I steal it
forget it. The extent to with the martyrs who, in
and say Kadish for the Six Holocaust)? On Hanuka, an
Our young must read
For it is of me, and within
which they have succeeded the very moment of
Million.
additional candle should be
is attested by a University death, affirmed their be- such books as Yossel
At
the
Seder,
we
spill
a
lit
on
the
first
evening
sym-
of California Research Cen- lief in the eternity of the Rakover's "Dialogue
It is ours only if we re-
drop of wine from our brim- bolizing the light of Jewish
with God," Chaim Kap-
ter study showing that the Jewish people.
member not to forget!
full cups for each plague valor under Hitler. On
Ian's "Scroll of Agony,"
dramatic and complete re-
it
is
ours only if they did not
that was visited upon the Tisha b'Av a yahrzeit light
The rise of the state of Is- and Moshe Flinker's "Di-
porting of the Eichmann
die in vain!"
rael is a collective achieve- ary." They tell of the
Egyptians, so as to recall should burn in every Jewish
trial failed to "deepen
We are faced with di-
the sufferings of our home and in every
ment — a passage into free- highest courage in the
understanding of the hor-
enemies. Would it not be synagogue to commemorate lemma — precision and
dom in which the Six Mil- face of the most extreme
rors of the Nazi era."
appropriate to spill six the Six Million. And on exactness and reaching the
lion, too, played a part by adversity. They prove
Jews the world over challenging the conscience that even under the tor-
drops of wine into a special Sukkot the word Zakhor — moon and indecision, confu-
observe an annual of the world to right the ture of the German
half-filled cup on the Seder Remember — should be sion and total failure in the
Holocaust Remembrance wrong done to them.
table, called the "Cup of the hung on the wall of every realization that we are our
sadists, an overpowering
Day. But the Holocaust
brother's keeper and that
Holocaust" or the "Cup of sukka.
and indomitable will to
The Exodus from Egypt is live pulsated in the hearts
must be part of our daily
Life," to honor the memory
The leitmotif of Jewish each one's happiness de-
awareness and that of a theme of all our festivals of the Jewish people.
of those Jews who died in living must be to remember pends on the happiness of
and prayers — and not only
our children, who, fortu-
The heroic literature of the ghettos and in the death and to remind so that never his fellow citizen.
Humanity failed to react
nately, knew it not.
of Passover. In the same the Holocaust should be camps of Hitler's terror again will there be a recurr-
to a voice and thus the voice
way,
reference
to
the
Six
widely
disseminated and without leaving any trace? ence of a Holocaust.
Death is always tragic.
Million and to the rise of studied. There should be an
Chaim Kaplan wondered of humanity became a voice
A legend has it that the
But when death by murder
Israel should be integrated organization for the purpose cup of the High Priest as- in the "Scroll of Agony": in the wilderness.
is multiplied to the dimen-
But we must remember, it
in all Jewish observances of keeping the heroic story tended to heaven at the "Who will write of our trou-
sion of six million in five
and prayers.
of the Holocaust alive in the time of the destruction of bles and who will immor- could have been the reverse
years, counting only the
Just as a mezzuza is af- hearts and minds of Jews the Temple. A single tear is talize them? Where is the — they here and we there.
Jewish victims, the deed

By ABRAHAM KATSH

(Editor's note: Dr.
Katsh is president
emeritus and distin-
guished research profes-
sor at Dropsie Univer-
sity.)

..r

Notable Greenberg Ethics Volume on Jewish, American Heritage

author attributes this reluctant, to give his wife
ethical principles.
Illuminating is the strength to America's a "get."
"The Ethical in the give what would be gener-
Jewish and American Heri- ally recognized as true author's analysis of the avoiding "the error of im-
It is well to remember
tage" by Simon Greenberg, value to his customer is "American sacred texts:" posing upon her citizens a that originally only the man
published by the Jewish therefore no less ethical be- the Declaration of Indepen- monolithic,
dogmatic could initiate divorce pro-
Theological Seminary of cause the merchant intends deuce and the Constitution. philosophical or theological ceedings. Now, the woman
America, consists of four thereby to advance not only He explores their content system which is presumed has the same prerogative.
chapters, a "foreword" by his customer's welfare but and presents in proper to meet all their spiritual, Thesejudicious regulations,
Gerson D. Cohen, rhanrel - also his own." Conversely, perspective their historic intellectual and aesthetic Prof. Greenberg affirms,
for of the seminary, and an "an intention is moral when importance. In addition, he
needs. She has bestowed helped equalize "the status
"introduction" by the it intends to impair, or seri- notes that "there has never upon them the precious of the woman with that of
author. It includes an ex- ously risk impairing, the been a time when there was freedom to seek wherever the man in many areas of
tensive bibliography and is welfare of the agent in order unanimous agreement they will the answers which life."
best satisfy them . . . This
to benefit the object." Such among Americans on their
Nevertheless, the rabbis
fully annotated.
Prof. Greenberg corn- an intention is often called literal or implied meaning." freedom is available to the failed to ameliorate the
For
instance,
the
concepts
Jew
as
to
every
other
marital
status of the
mences his philosophical "altruism."
Some of the other prob- "We the people" in the American citizen."
"aguna," the wife whose
study with an inquiry into
Preamble
to
the
Constitu-
Instructive
is
the
husband disappeared. '
the meaning of "intention lems the author ex-
author's discussion of the
The Halakha prohibits
and its rationale." Signific- plores are the ethics of tion and "all men" in the
ethics of the Jewish di- the aguna to remarry!
antly, he distinguishes be- secularism, "might is Declaration were variously
interpreted
at
various
vorce
laws
and
the
prob-
in-
right,"
and
the
ethical
Many religionists re-
tween ethical and moral
lems of the " aguna." He gard this prohibition as
tentions. He states, "An in- ramifications of a state- periods. Neither has there
been
unanimity
regarding
reminds
us
that
until
unjust
and is unaccept-
ment,
such
as
"Apres
moi
tention is ethical when it in-
c.1000 CE Jews in able to those who
tends by means of an act to le deluge" (After me the the meaning of terms, such
advance the welfare of the deluge) attributed to as sovereignty and the gen- Ashkenazic countries endeavor to make the
were permitted to marry Halakha "the embodi-
object without anticipated King Louis XV of France. eral welfare.
Notwithstanding these
more than one wife. The ment of the moral and
injury, or even with antici- The author, moreover,
disagreements,
America
year
1000, therefore, ethical teachings of the
pated benefit, to the agent." lends profound insights
marked a turningpointin Torah."
He explains it as follows: into biblical-rabbinic has remained strong. The
Jewish history. Rabbenu
Ingenious are the
Gershom, Me'or Hagolah author's comparisons be-
"tekkanah" (regulation) tween the Jewish and
then
prohibited American ethical and his-
polygamy; and estab- torical experiences. He be-
fished the practice that a lieves that the Ten Com-
woman cannot be di- mandments and the Dec-
vorced against her will laration of Independence
Rabbis, moreover, have were divine communica-
the authority to annul tions granted to Israel and
marriages and compel a the American people early
husband, who might be in their history.

By ALLEN A. WARSEN "A merchant's intention to

He is convinced that just
as the ethically impre-
gnated Halakha eclipsed
the Aggada, so did the Con-
stitution supersede the Dec-
laration. He asserts that
just as "Lincoln was right
when he saw the America of
his day was 'the last great
hope of mankind,' so was
the Almighty wise to choose
"Israel to be an or lagoyim,"
a "light unto the nations."
Prof. Greenberg's work is
a worthy addition to the
growing library of the
Moreshet (Heritage) Series
of The Jewish Theological
Seminary of America "in
the dissemination of Jewish
scholarship and thought."

Soviet Arms
for the PLO

LONDON — The Soviet
Union is replacing weapons
losses sustained by the
Palestine Liberation
Organization during Is-
rael's invasion of southern
Lebanon.
The crash of a Russiar
transport near Damascus
revealed that the Soviets
have been flying five flights
of weapons into Syria per
day since mid-March for the
PLO, according to the Lon-
don Jewish Chronicle.