• 2 Friday, May 4, 1919 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS . Purely Commentary Hayyim Bialik's 'al Ha-Shehita' as a Sense of Outrage Over Murder of Children and Repudiation of Murderers Bialik's Lamentation Putting Murderers to Shame Let it be shared with President Sadat and with the How memorable that on the eve of Holocaust Remem- Arab world, in the hope that the influence of people with a brance Day, which was highlighted by declarations of faith in the U.S. Congress, attended by President Jimmy Carter, sense of human obligations will help prevent the repetition the words of Hayyim Nahman Bialik should have been of outrages. The pogroms recur, but people with a sense of decency recalled when he called to judgment poetically the Russian murderers who engineered a pogrom! do not condone! The words of Bialik keep putting the murderers to In his challenge to the murderers who attacked an innocent people and murdered children in Nahariya, Is- shame! rael's chief of state Menahem Begin drew upon the poetic words of Bialik. What's on Your Mind, Reporter? Hebrew scholars, like Begin, have had these words What's on Your Mind, Judge? engraved in their memories. When Dr. Jay Stern, the superintendent of the United Hebrew Schools, whose im- Future Supreme Court rulings involving the press pending departure will be a great loss to this community, may have serious complications. was called for the text, he recited it as an indication that Now the High Court's majority wishes to delve into the people in the class of Begin have had the Bialik words minds of reporters. Unless they keep complete records of all engraved in their minds. their activities, with voluminous notes, they may be in In the Encyclopedia Judaica there is this explanation trouble. And if they set down their thinking they may have of how the Bialik poem came to be: to become self-analytical, their own psychiatric testers. The Kishinev pogroms in 1903 deeply shocked The latest U.S. Supreme Court decision on press and the whole civilized world. Bialik on behalf of the libel helps recall a story about a judge and a man on the Jewish Historical Commission in Odessa went to witness stand. Kishinev to interview survivors and to prepare a The judge had become irritable, and so had the witness. report on the atrocity. Before leaving he wrote Al The following dialogue ensued: Ha-Shehita ("On the Slaughter," 1903) in which Judge: You annoy me. You act like a bum. he calls on heaven either to exercise immediate Witness: You're calling me names. justice and, if not, to destroy the world, spurning Judge: You earn it. mere vengeance with the famous lines "Cursed is Witness: Do I have recourse to it in your courtroom? he who says (Revenge'/Vengeance for the blood of Judge: For example? a small child/Satan has not yet created." Witness: What would you do if I called you a bastard The famous poem, with the English translation by the and an SOB? eminent Hebraist and poet, Israel Efros, is reproduced on Judge:I'd hold you for contempt of court and would this page. fine you. This poem was the expression of the sense of outrage Witness: And what if I was just thinking it about over what had happened in 1903. The repetition of the you? inhumane act of murdering children called for reiteration Judge: I can't do anything to you for thinking. of the sense of horror. Witness: Oh, judge, oh, oh, Judge, am I thinking! Bialik uttered it, Begin remembered it. Now there is a new deal. What one thinks becomes a Egypt's President Anwar Sadat could not have known about Bialik when he joined in expressing regret over the .cause for court decisions. For even thinking about the just recorded court inci- brutalities in Nahariya. He had no knowledge of a past that dent would this reporter, under the new ruling, be subject called for condemnation like Begin's and Bialik's poetic to judicial contempt? lamentation. ON THE SLAUGHTER • AL HASHITA • H EAVENLY spheres, beg mercy for me ! If truly God dwells in your orbit and round, And in your space is His pathway that I have not found, — Then you pray for me! For my own heart is dead; no prayer on my tongue; And strength has failed, and hope has passed: 0 until when? For how much more? How long? Ho, headsman, bared the neck — come, cleave it through! Nape me this cur's nape ! Yours is the axe unbaffled! The whole wide world — my scaffold! And rest you easy: we are weak and few. My blood is outlaw. Strike, then; the skull dissever! Let blood of babe and graybeard stain your garb — Stain to endure forever! If Right there be, — why, Jet it shine forth now! For if when I have perished from the earth' The Right shine forth, Then let its Throne be shattered, and laid low! Then let the heavens, wrong-racked, be no more! — While you, 0 murderers, on your murder thrive, Live on your- blood, regurgitate this gore! Who cries Revenge! Revenge! — accursed be he! Fit vengeance for the spilt blood of a child . The devil has not yet compiled . . No, let that blood pierce world's profundity, Through the great deep pursue its mordications, There eat its way in darkness, there undo, Undo the rotted earth's foundations! rarritp '.217 By Philip Slomovitz Sam Levenson 'the Humorist' Applies His Art Pragmatically Among the many appeals for good causes with the human message, the one by Sam Levenson in behalf of the Jewish Braille Institute of America is among the most impressive. Levenson is the acknowledged, eminent American humorist who deals philosophically with peoples' interests. He utilized it in his Braille message in which he asserte I ask you, on behalf of the Jewish Braille Insti- tutg, to visualize a child without books in his life. Can you visualize our ancient tradition of reli- gious education blurred, even completely blotted out of a child's life because he cannot see the sacred word? Can you visualize a Bar Mitzva or Bat Mitzva by-passed for those who cannot see the holy words which publicly proclaim their crossing over into adulthood? Can you visualize the agony of parents of visu- ally handicapped children who must grope their own way through their problem without profes- sional help? In his new book, already reviewed in these columns, Levenson demonstrates his realistic philosophy on life and his knowledge of people, their attitudes, the world's conflicts and the confusions which need clarification. It is his "You Don't Have to Be in Who's Who to Know What's What" (Simon and Schuster) that he makes the comment that when a youngster is given an inch he begins to believe he is a ruler. It is here that he de- votes a chapter to religious aspects which commend at- SAM LEVENSON tention, as in these brief selections: The agony of the atheist comes from the fact that he can never be sure whether God knows he doesn't believe in Him. He has to accept it on faith. * * * a,nrn hers Int ann tti , -tort — rritip at7 !" 1717 ontt 1 1 7'7DrIn 3 rt -riv Fro Tin . a; t? 1!1 7Itt /1 / rkz-riz3 171 — "117 ri?s,5. rrIn--ry ,7121.t - v !"17 — nnla DDZ — • T • : T T : • T T T T T toll — nr”s tz7.7 ri:L771 , m 4r1R -13 ;' ,non an pr) 17 '1 ! 9 t? , :'.?;z nt71 y-.1. z-FTT-L7?, !tn7nn 12natt — nrtarti TR 7:1311 - nnn '7?1, =1U. 1 pp, rrr ,r1S1t 7 rrn inrt! mkt, 3.771 rinnr; ,Intun P7.Ft r71.7'.7 ittn; rte-Han' ,opr 07ntp: n?nnni ,to'Zt ,177 anti fix - rr! E3 ???1; 1 Pity the atheist mother. She can never yell at her kid: "What on earth are you doing for Heaven's sake?" * * * An atheist can't find God for the same reason that a hookey player can't find a truant officer. * * * A temporary atheist is a woman who hasn't won at bingo in three weeks. * * "In' my lifetime," proclaims the atheist, "God will become obsolete," and God replies with a knowing: "In your lifetime, maybe, but not in Mine." (Like they say: "Man thinks and God winks.") * -* * On his deathbed the atheist panicked, looked up to Heaven, and pleaded: "Oh, God, if there is a God, save my soul, if I have one." Or take his acclaim for the reverence of work and the respect for creative labor: One of the key values that has suffered serious deterioration in our recent civilization is the work ethic. It started out as a punitive act of God ("By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread"), but hard work became a virtue with its own reward: ". . but when thou eatest the labor of thy hands, happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee." Honest labor was honorable, even pious: "Laborare est orare" (To work is to pray). It kept a man morally and physically fit. _ The reverence for work even worked its way into humorous propaganda on behalf of the work ethic: In your work as in your food — no leftovers. * * * !top; :-Inittr,1 -111rp He who chops the wood warms himself twice. 1?p, 1 1 . r. an nnp; ,ntit? rp.,; ** * ttl?-146 -riy Don't watch the clock; do what it does. thirirm - rits Errn nfri Keep going. -T nvi =p, It is in this spirit that Levenson offers sound advice Vnz L7nrin while entertaining, while telling wholesome jokes, while torn adding realism to life. For it he deserves the acclaim he has .07nri mitt ni-rnin-"7? gained from appreciative audiences throughout the land.