12 Friday, March 14, 1980
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
A New Volume by SBS Publishers
`Dictionary of the Jewish Religion': A Remarkable Anthology
"Dictionary of the Jewish
Religion" (SBS Publishers)
is an anthology of definitive
terms. It is as complete a
compilation of definitions as
could possibly be hoped for
in their conciseness and
their explanatory values.
It was compiled by an
author and an editor who
are highly qualified to pro-
vide the knowledge entailed
in this 195-page book.
Dr. Ben Isaacson, the
author, served as a rabbi in
South Africa, has a record of
notable achievements as a
Zionist, author, educator
and musician.
The book's editor,
David Gross, served as
executive vice president
of the Jewish Publication
Society, vice president of
Ketar and Encyclopedia
Judaica and is the author
of several highly cont-
mendable works.
Add to their efforts the in-
; spired preface by Rabbi
Saul Teplitz and the reader
has a brief compilation but
one filled with impressive-
ness.
For an understanding of
the value of this work it is
well to introduce some sam-
ples of its contents. Here
they are, taken at random:
Moses, the first High Priest,
and the progenitor of all
priests (Kohanim). He died
in the wilderness, on Mount
Hor, at age 123, after of-
ficiating in the holy of holies
for four decades. Rabbinic
tradition emphasizes his
love of peace and exemplary
life of piety.
AARON BEN JOSEPH
THE PHYSICIAN.
Karaite scholar who lived in
Constantinople where he
wrote an early Hebrew
grammar and commen-
taries on the Bible. He in-
troduce\d poems by Hebrew
poets of Spain into the
Karaite liturgy.
DAVID GROSS
up of three Hebrew words:
hokhma ("wisdom"), Bina
("understanding"), and daat
GUILDS. In the Middle ("knowledge"). A popular
Ages, craftsmen's guilds segment of the Hasidic
were organized on a reli- movement is known as
gious basis, with all Jews Habad, also known as the
automatically excluded. Lubavich Hasidim. The phi-
Jews nevertheless had their losophy of the movement
own guild counterparts, stresses constant commun-
some of which had a long ion with God . and intense
history (there is a biblical feeling and concentration
mention of groups of during prayer services. The
goldsmiths and merchants). Habad movement is an ac-
In the east European shtetl, tivist group, i.e., they are
Jews who were tailors, dedicated to winning new
cobblers, porters, etc., some- adherents among Jews,
times maintained special especially the young, who
synagogues whgre the de- have not been exposed to in-
gree of learning was often tensive religious instruc-
markedly lower than at tion.
synagogues of the non-,
SABBATICAL YEAR.
craftsmen, who presumably
(Shemita in Hebrew.) Ac-
* * *
had more time to study.
cording to the Bible, every
HABAD. Acronym made seventh year the land must
AARON. Brother of
Hinz's Art in the Third Reich'
Has Historic, Not Artistic Value
By MAX SHAYE
"Art in the Third Reich"
by Berthold Hinz (Panth-
eon) is interesting because
it illustrates through a
number of photographic
plates an art form that
today is mainly kept in
closed archives and private
collections. The significance
of Nazi art lies not in its ar-
tistic qualities but in its
potential to justify
authoritarian relation-
ships.
One is struck by the simi-
larity of this art to Soviet
art. Change the helmets
and paint the hammer and
sickle into a swastika — and
you've got only one dif-
ference. The Nazis had an
inordinate predeliction for
4It painting the nude
The "battle for art" was
made by the National
Socialists a focal point of
political conflict to define an
individual's position as to
his approval or rejection of
its goals and principle. It
was the touchstone for de-
termining who were the
friends and foes of the Third
Reich.
Naumberg wrote: "The
'
battle for art has to be
fought with the same seri-
ousness and determination
as the battle for political
power."
Sounds absurd? It had
both a pragmatic and de-
vastating effect. As to the
former, they collected all
the "degenerate" work
by Braque, Derain,
Picasso, Chagall, Modig-
liani, Guaguin, Van Gogh
and many others and sold
them on the Swiss market
(through non-aryan
dealers) gaining substan-
tial foreign exchange. As
to some 5,000 paintings
by lesser known modern
artists — but considered
also degenerate — they
burned these in the
courtyard of the Berlin
Fire Department in
March 1939.
In a 1937 speech Hitler
made at the opening of an
art show, he spoke of the
"foundations for a new and
genuine German Art." This
required the turning away
from "degenerate art" —
especially those by Jewish
artists — and the creation of
a banal art form which had
the sole purpose of support-
ing the concept of a
Thousand-Year Reich. The
conglomeration of country
scenes and nondescript
nudes were given pompous
and absurd captions to
endow them with blood, soil,
heritage profundities.
Another function of Nazi
art was the glorification of
`war. It was given an idyllic
quality. In an essay describ-
ing the work of an artist
who did war scenes, "His
heart is joyfully caught up
in the fullness of the experi-
ence of the soldier's life."
Painting of German fascism
did not reflect the reality of
war but presented it in such
a way that it paralyzed con-
sciousness.
A closing footnote. The
jacket painting on the front
of the book shows Hoeck's
"Young Germany," a nude
warrior esconced in front of
a rampant white stallion,
several Nazi flags and a
marching column of Brown
Shirts. It was originally
executed for the
Braunschweig train sta-
tion. It was completely de-
stroyed by Allied bombers.
keep Sabbath unto the
Lord." Land must lie fallow
in the Shemita year; if any-
thing should grow on it, it
may be taken by passersby.
The point of this law, rab-
binic authorities say, was to
indicate to the Jewish
people that the ownership of
the Holy Land was condi-
tional — they had to con-
tinue to obey God's Law.
Some Orthodox Jews in Is-
rael observe the law by
transferring ownership to a
non-Jew during the Sabbat-
ical year; others permit the
land to remain fallow and
produce income from other .
sources. Modern ecologists
maintain that the concept of
the land being given a rest
every seventh year is sound
agronomy.
SANHEDRIN. Supreme
religious and judicial body
of the Jews during the Tem-
ple period. Criminal and
capital offenses came before
the Sanhedrin (Great As-
sembly), but its chief task
was to adjudicate matters of
religious competence. The
Sanhedrin remained , in
existence until the Seventh
Century CE. A group of
Jewish notables convened
by Napoleon in 1807 to con-
firm the Jews' loyalty to the
Napoleonic code was called
the Sanhedrin. From time
to time religious leaders
have voiced the hope that a
new Sanhedrin would be re-
constituted so that religious
questions could be reviewed
and decided on.
YOM KIPPUR. Most
solemn day of the Jewish
religious year, culminating
the 10 days of awe that
began with Rosh Hashana.
Jews spend the entire day in
fasting and prayer, soul-
searching and repenting for
past transgressions, and
vowing to lead better lives
in the year ahead. Some
Jews wear a white kittel at
services, and some refrain
from wearing leather shoes.
It is a day when even the
most irreligious Jews make
every effort to pass the day
according to its rules: in
prayer, in repentance, and
in pledging charity. On
Yom Kippur there is a spe-
cial closing service, neila
("locking of the gates"), that
is recited on no other day. It
refers to the tradition that
God writes a person's fate
for the New Year on Rosh
Hashana and seals it on
Yom Kippur; thus after the
neila service, which con-
cludes the fast day, a man's
fate is sealed and set. Not
only are food and drink
abstained from on Yom
Kippur, but sexual inter-
course is proscribed. In ef-
fect Yom Kippur becomes a
full day devoted to prayer
and contemplation, trans-
forming the worshiper's day
into a period of sanctity that
contrasts sharply with the
workaday world he is accus-
tomed to. It is interesting
that all confessions of sin
and transgression recited at
services are in the plural,
with the congregation pray-
ing as a unit, and with vir-
tually all the prayers con-
centrating on moral and
ethical behavior, as opposed
to ritual observance.
ZEMIROT. Hymns sung
at the Sabbath table, the
melodies having been
handed down from genera-
tion to generation. Many of
the hymns were composed
by kabalists.
ZICHRONO L'VRA-
KHA. (Hebrew for "May his
memory be for a blessing.")
Honorific phrase added
after the name of a departed
person whose memory is
held in fond remembrance.
In writing the name of the
deceased the two Hebrew
letters zayin and lamed are
added after the name, an
abbreviation for the phrase.
Dr. Teplitz, former
President of the Synagogue
Council of America,
president of the Rabbinical
Assembly, added signific-
antly to the commendation
of this anthology of Jewish
concepts.
Defining the Jewish reli-
gion as a "Tree of Life," as
emphasized in liturgy, Dr.
Teplitz indicates that this
dictionary has value for all,
non-Jews as well as Jews.
He commences his essay
with a most interesting
comment, thus:
"One of the greatest
authorities on medieval
Hebrew literature was the
late Prof. Israel Davidson,
of the Jewish Theological
Seminary. In his will, read
at his own funeral service,
he wrote: (Do not eulogize
me. To those who will study
my books a hundred years
from now, I will be as much
alive then, as I was to those
who studied them yester-
day.'
"The greatest gift one
person can give another
DR. TEPLITZ
is the gift of hOpe.
Hopelessness leads to
helplessness. We Jews,
alone among all people,
have managed to over-
come defeat and sur-
mount despair. When all
hope seemed to be gone,
Jews invented new
hopes. To be Jewish
means never to give up,
and never to yield to de-
spair. A great Jewish
moralist of a past century
taught that "Man must
criticize himself and
praise his fellow man.'
"If we want to discover
the treasure of the Jewish
faith, we must first find the
old roads and dig them. We
must examine the bequests
of our Jewish past, reve-
rently but critically. It is
never either/or — either the
past or the present but both
in behalf of the future."
Additional excerpts from
Dr. Teplitz's article prefac-
ing this book add im-
measurably to an apprecia-
tion of the subject matter.
To quote again from Dr.
Teplitz:
"Only the casual Jews can
bring about casualties. We
must live as if all Jewisl: ' • -
depended upon us. The
liest mention of the Jewisn
people in non-Jewish re-
cords is found on the monu-
ment of Menephtah, more
than 3,000 years ago. The
inscription says 'Israel is
wasted and his seed brought
to nothing' — and yet, when
Frederick the Great was
asked for the most convinc-
ing evidence of the exist-
ence of God, he declared
The survival of the Jew' .. .
'There is something
about the Jew that is be-
yond comfortable de-
lineation. We are the only
people in the world tied
to a religion, and the only
religious group tied to a
land. To live as a Jew
means to live in two di-
mensions — the spiritual
and sociological. We are
tied to God through our
religious faith and united
as a people with the land
of Israel as the focus of
our peoplehood. In other
words, to be a Jew means
to live vertically in rela-
tionship to God, and
horizontally in relation-
ship to the Jewish people.
These two aspects of
Jewish life are one and
inseparable ...
"Judaism teaches that
freedom of the body is
worthless unless it is ac-
companied by freedom of
the soul. Greece may have
taught mankind the art of
thinking; Persia may have
taught mankind the art of
dreaming; 'Rome may have
taught mankind the art of
government; Phoenicia may
have taught mankind the
art of sailing, but Judaism
has taught mankind the art
of freedom. Heine said,
`Since the Exodus, freedom
has always spoken with a
Hebrew accent.'
"Brotherhood does not
mean otherhood.
Ecumenism should not de-
mand the dilution of either
Judaism or Christianity but
rather seek to create a cli-
mate of tolerance a ,4A
understanding where eL.'wir
can thrive and develop the
best that each possesses for
the ultimate benefit 4
both."
In its totality, "Dictio-
nary of the Jewish Religion"
renders a great service. It
will be found of value in
: every home. The explana-
tory preface by Dr. Teplitz is
an inspiration. It is to the
credit of SBS Publishers
that they have, with this
book, enhanced a totally
productive and commenda-
ble publishing task.
The illustrations, most of
them from traditional and
historic manuscripts, pro-
vide a notable supplement
to the contents of this book.
—P.S.
.
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