64 Friday, February 20, 1981 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Art, Scriptures, Combined in Impressive 'Images From the Bible' Art and Scriptures, paint- ings that have gained widest acceptance and literary. classics merged in interpretive studies, com- bine to lend marked signifi- cance to a volume devoted to the fields of creative achievements. "Images From the Bible" (Overlook Press, a Viking Press subsidiary) merges the two skills — the words of Elie Wiesel and the paint:. ings of Shalom of Safed. Elie Wiesel's eminence is- a matter of record. His many books related his ex- periences with fellow vic- tims of Nazism, his reli- : gious tracts and his Hasidic tales have made his works in great demand on a world scale. Equally prominent but in a differing way is the artist whose devotion is to Bible themes. "Images From the Bible" is a posthumous work as far as Shalom is involved. The artist died in January of 1980 at the age of 85. He was known to his neighbors in the Galilee hills as Shalom the Watch- maker. Then he turned to art. For 20 years before his death he attained a reputa- tion internationally and his- works were on display in leading galleries and museums and are now part of many collections. SHALOM of SAFED ELIE WIESEL Shalom's portrayals are of the topics from the Crea- tion of the World to Adam and Eve, the stories of Ab- raham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses and the Israelites. These are the paintings that will fascinate the readers of all faiths and will be especially inspirational for Jews who will thus have an exotic renewal of devo- tion to the Bible texts. The Wiesel essay is like a Bible commentary, a dedi- cation to the faith inspired by the Bible. Entitled "Images and Legends From the Bible," the Wiesel test is deeply- rooted in Scriptural devo- tion. Excerpts from the 46- page Wiesel text will pro- vide the linkage to the Shalom' art. Taken at ran- dom are these excerpts: "In the beginning God created heaven and earth. But even before that, He had created seven things — including the name of the Messiah, the celestial voice calling for the repentance and the Torah, written with black fire on white fire. "At first God was uncer- tain whether a world inha- bited and ruled by man should exist at all. He turned to the Torah for ad- vice and the Torah urged him to go ahead with His project; for a king alone is hardly that: he needs others, so that he may stress his powers over them. "Still the Torah had some reservations. What if man should sin and ,-disobey God's commandments? You need not worry, said God. Both repentance and rede- mption will have preceded creation. "So would justice and mercy. For a while God's first impulse had been to let the world be ruled by justice alone, he later understood that this would not be possi- ble; man would be doomed by his first mistake. So God paired justice with compas- sion. The combination of the two made creation possible. And worthwhile." Then there is a conclud- ing spirituality, a legend turned into realism, a typi- cally Wiesel theme which affirms a faith that relates to Moses, Wiesel declaring: "Then came the turn for Moses himself to leave this world. He knew it but op- posed it. Wearing sackcloth and covered with ashes, he wish: To remember His Law and transmit it, and sing it from generation to genera- tion as a message of life and beauty and a call for hope. "And God told Moses to climb the mountain. To iso- late himself. To lie down. To stretch out his legs, his arms. To close his eyes. And listen. "Moses left this world, cl- inging to the voice of God. "Down below the people cried, as did all creatio "Nevertheless, he asked And sometimes at night or God not to let him die at the can hear them still." hands of the Angel of Death. Thus, Shalom and Wiesel Thus it was God himself are linked, spiritually, ar- who took the soul of Moses tistically, with paintings with a kiss. and literature on the high- "Earlier Moses had est level, making "Images blessed the tribes of Israel From the Bible" a magnifi- and told them of his last cent literary creation. traced a circle around him- self and implored God to let him live. Even if he was not to enter the Promised Land, even if he was to live like a beast or a bird. To convince him otherwise, God permit- ted him to live one day as disciple of his disciple and successor, Joshua. And when Moses felt jealousy distorting and dominating him, he cried out: 'Rather a thousand deaths than a single moment of jealousy.' ' Dedicated Jewish Authors Define Identifications Nine Jewish authors, who have gained recognition for their positive Jewish ap- proaches, defined their dedicated attitudes in in- terviews with Harold Ribalow. The result is a ver- itable anthology of views by writers of note. The collec- tive title is Ribalow's "The Tie That Binds" (A.S. Barnes). Ribalow pursues an envi- able career as author, trans- ANGOFF lator and book reviewer in this informative collection stance, the authors com- of essays. Like his father, ment on their back- the late Menahem Ribalow ground, the legacies who was editor of the He- which inspired their brew periodical Hadoar andei, turning to Jewish topics an outstanding Hebraist,. Ribalow has devoted him-„pad experiences for their novels and essays. self to Jewish literary tasks: The introductory essay by Through the years he has 4it?alow, evaluating Jewish befriended the most promi: authors and their writings nent writers and "The Tie is especially significant in That Binds” evidences a' . view of the authoritative thorough knowledge of the- , :i;role in this field by the authors he interviewed: Included in this vole: -author of this book. • are conversations walk The Angoff interview is Charles Angoff, Chafiri an epic in Jewish experi- Grade, Meyer Levin, Susan ence. The late author told of Fromberg Schaeffer, Robert his background, his early Kollowitz, Chaim Potok, association with H.L. Hugh Nissenson, Isaac Mencken who rubbed him Bashevis Singer and Jack the wrong way and who was Ansell. considered anti-Jewish. In nearly every in- Angoffs manner of glorify- , ing the Jewish heritage, his love for Zion, his thorough dedication to Jewish learn- ing, are distinguishing marks in this essay about a greatly admired Jewish loyalist. The Meyer Levin story is similarly inspiring. Ribalow asked Levin how he sees his rule as a Jewish writer, as "a maggid," entertainer or educator. His answer is interesting. Levin replied: "Well, I'm something of all of those. As you know, I've tried even formally to be an educator with some books that I collaborated on, some I wrote, for younger people. They're used in ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades." Levin took pride in hav- ing produced a Passover Haggada and textbooks for children, believing that it is necessary to educate young and old. He also pointed to the films he made depicting rescue from Nazism and Is- rael upbuilding as vital to his work as a teacher as well as author. Dr. Potok generalized with criticism of Jewish writers, stating: t MEYER LEVIN "They are murky. They don't really understand what it is they are writing about. And if you are murky and don't understand what you are writing about, a Christian won't understand what you are writing about. "It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the English language is Chris- tian. It is not Christian. There are Christian ele- ments in it, there are Greek elements, there are German elements, there are Jewish elements, Middle English. . . . How can anyone say the English language is Chris- tian? It is not!' "Its beauty lies pre- cisely in the fact that it has absorbed the lan- guage systems of so many cultures. That is its rich- ness. And I rather sus- pect that somebody who says- that the English lan- guage is Christian is really saying that what he is writing is murky and cannot be under- 400d." just for my own sake. In every instance, Jewish idealism is tested. The Chaim Grade piece is among the shortest, yet among the most impor- tant because of the idealism of the man many consider the greatest of all living Jewish writers. Therefore, in its totality, "The Tie That Binds" is a work of great fascination. The Nissenson account is especially interesting as a commentary .of life in the kibutz. This author's ex- periences in Israel provide fascination in the study of evolutionary occurrences when writers devote them- selves to the Zionist ideal. I.B. Singer responded to questions about Yiddish, and while his works now are sensationalized in English he loves Yiddish and he ex- plained: "I once said that if I would be the only person who would speak Yiddish, I would still write in it. I'm not writing ineYiddish be- cause I want to do Yiddish a favor. I'm writing Yiddish because I want to do myself a favor. I know that in Yid- dish I will write better than in English or in Polish or in Hebrew. So because of this, I don't worry about the situa- tion of Yiddish. If they all stopped speaking Yiddish and I still speak it, I write in it and I'm happy. But since I'm not an idealist, I do it Copper Cement Shipped to Spain TEL AVIV (JTA) — The first consignment of 700 tons of copper cement from the re-opened Timna copper mine in the southern Negev was shipped from Eilat to Bilbao, Spain last week. The mine, near the site of the historic King Solomon's mine north of Eilat, was closed five years ago when copper production became uneconomic. It was re- opened last September fol- ' lowing the world-wide in- crease in copper prices. The first shipment was valued at about $700,000. Despite a recent increase in Suez Canal fees, ship- ment from Timna via nearby Eilat is still about $15 a ton cheaper than shipping the goods by road to Ashdod and then by the shorter sea route direct through the Mediterranean without Suez Canal pas- sage.