2 Friday, January 8, 1982
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Creation and Evolution Find Parallel Roads in Views of Charles Dar-
win, Albert Einstein and David Ben-Gurion . . . The Hazan and
Hazanut in History and as an Art Form in Need of Perpetuation
Acceptance of Almighty
Allegiance Shared by Darwin,
Einstein and Ben-Gurion
Evolution-Creation debates at the Little Rock, Ark.,
court house were accompanied by a most interesting dis-
covery.
Charles Darwin, whose views on the Theory of Evolu-
tion were under scrutiny, did not reject the God-view.
A great-grandson of Charles Darwin, Austin Keynes,
recently acquired at auction a letter written by Darwin
which said a person could believe in his Evolution theory
and still believe in God. On May 7, 1879, Darwin wrote:
It seems to me absurd to doubt that a man may
be an ardent theist and an evolutionist . . . What
my own views may be is a question of no consequ-
ence to anyone except myself. But as you ask I
may state that my judgment often fluctuates.
Moreover whether a man deserves to be called a
theist depends on the definition of the term, which
is much too large a subject for a note.
In my most extreme fluctuations I have never
been an atheist in the sense of denying the exis-
tence of a God. I think that generally (and more
and more so as I grow older) but not always that
an agnostic would be the most correct description
of my state of mind.
A Dec. 27 article in the New York Times explaining the
background of this letter, which Darwin wrote to John
Fordyce, an author who was collecting comments for his
book on "Aspects of Skepticism," is additionally interest-
ing:
CHARLES DARWIN
Darwin wrote: "You are right about Kingsley.
Asa Gray'the eminent botanist is another case in
point."
Charles Kingsley, the clergyman and novelist,
was one of the first clerics to welcome Darwin's
theory. He came to its defense after the biologist
Thomas Henry Huxley debated the subject with
the anatomist Richard Owen. The latter had ar-
gued that man could not be related to the apes
because of a basic difference in that part of their
brains known as the hippocampus.
This was later shown to be untrue and Kingsley
satirized the debate with his discussion of the
"hippopotamus" in his children's classic, "The
Water-Babies."
Nevertheless, whereas Darwin believed evolu-
tion to be purely mechanistic, both Kingsley and
Gray regarded it as divinely guided into progres-
sive paths. Darwin, in his theory, had leaned
heavily on the botanical research of Asa Gray at
Harvard.
There is a specifically Jewish angle to Darwin and
Darwinism. It was revealed in a letter to the New York
Times on Jan. 3 by Ralph Colp Jr. of New York:
I should like to add the following point of infor-
mation to your Dec. 27 news article "Belief in God
and in Evolution Possible, Darwin Letter Says."
In the spring of 1876, Nephtali Lewy, rabbi and
humanistic writer of Radom, Russian Poland,
sent Darwin his recently published Hebrew pam-
phlet "Toledoth Adam" ("The Descent of Man").
Lewy argued that the theory of evolution was
consonant with the Old Testament account of
creation; his pamphlet was the first attempt to
introduce Darwin's ideas into rabbinical litera-
ture.
Darwin had Lewy's pamphlet translated,
closely studied it, and wrote its author an ap-
preciative letter. He then told a friend that Lewy's
work had "given him more pleasure than he had
ALBERT EINSTEIN
DAVID BEN - GURION
felt for a long time" and that "it is the best piece of
praise I ever received."
He went on to say how religious people found
fault with his theory, "but I tell them I only state
scientific truths as I have discovered them, and I
leave it to the theologians to reconcile them with
the Scriptures; that is their province, not mine."
There is much more to the interest thus aroused. It
draws attention to secularists. Many of the most dedicated
to secularism nevertheless have a belief in the Almighty.
Exemplary is the viewpoint that was expressed to this
editor by the late David Ben-Gurion. Israel's eminent
leader and first prime minister was definitely a secularist.
Nevertheless, he had a belief that could not be ignored. His
letter to this editor was featured on the first page of The
Detroit Jewish News, April 2, 1971, under the streamer
headline "God Exists .. Free From All Accidents of Matter
. . . An Affirmation From David Ben-Gurion":
Dear Mr. Philip Slomovitz:
What the Israel evening paper published at my
84th birthday is true: "I have not the slightest
shadow of doubt that God exists. He is not a body
and He is free from all the accidents of matter. We
can neither see Him nor hear Him. He has no
likeness but He exists and without Him nothing
can exist in the universe. This is a profound and
correct belief and no science can speak a greater
truth than it."
This is conviction.
Yours,
D. Ben-Gurion
Albert Einstein presents another noteworthy example
of the secularist who has a view on the Almighty power. He
often expressed himself freely and among his most impor-
tant proclamations on the subject was this view:
My religion consists of a humble admiration of
the illimitably superior spirit who reveals himself
in the slight details we are able to perceive with
our frail and feeble mind. Ethics are a more im-
portant matter for us, not God. That deeply emo-
tional conviction of the presence of a superior
reasoning power, which is revealed in the incom-
prehensible universe, forms my idea of God; in the
conventional manner of expression it could there-
fore be designated as "pantheistic." -
Secularists, therefore, can breathe more freely under
challenge. They have guides in the Darwin - Einstein -
Ben-Gurion interpretations.
In their own ranks, so often, they can speak as atheists
and suddenly, unconsciously, will comment, "Gott vet hel-
fen" and "Gott tsu darken." Thus are the Creationists con-
soled!
Hazzanut as Art and Legacy
That Needs Encouragement
Liturgical music has a fascination that inspires not
only religious services but the audiences in social gather-
ings equally as well.
The inspired now are concerned lest there be a letdown
in the training of Hazzanim. Just as all colleges are affected
by financial problems, so too the schools established for
cantors may suffer seriously.
The Hazzan has an important place in Jewish life. In
"The Book of Jewish Concepts," the noted authority on
Jewish historical facts and terminology, Dr. Philip
Birnbaum, described the cantor as a Shaliakh Tzibbur, in
the following definitive note:
Shaliakh Tzibbur
rr%;
The term shaliakh tzibbur (messenger of the
congregation), applied to the person leading the
congregation in prayer, is often abbreviated to
aw (shatz) by combining the initial letter of the
two words. According to the Talmud, a suitable
shaliakh tzibbur is "an elderly man whose youth
has been spent decently"
(Ta'anith 16a); one who is modest
--71x1
and agreeable to the people; one who knows how
to • chant and has a sweet voice
r
(nny 11i71 rwy:
ri).
By Philip
Slomovitz
When the shaliakh tzibbur recites aloud
Amidah prayers that contain poetical insertions
(kerovot), as in the services for Rosh Hashana and
Yom Kippur, he begins by chanting an introduc-
tion known as reshut • ( nlvn) in solo, requesting
permission for the insertion of hymns between
the ancient benedictions of the Amidah. The
cmizri 110n
phrase
is the preliminary for-
mula for all such introductions. The reader's
vynn
meditation
(I am poor in
worthy deeds), recited before the Musaf service
on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, is of unknown
authorship. It contains the petition that God ac-
cept the prayers on behalf of the congregation.
The term r" m7 n-rin signifies the reader's re-
petition of the Amidah for the benefit of the entire
congregation, including those who are not able '
)
read the prayers for themselves.
Birnbaum also has a most interesting essay on the role
of the Hazzan. The lovers of Hazzanut will be especially
interested in this descriptive explanatory article:
Hazzan
171
The term hazzan orginates from Assyro-
Babylonian in which it denoted overseer. In the
Amarna tablets, it signifies a governor stationed
in Palestine by the Egyptians. In ancient Israel,
the hazzan's duties included that of a sexton, tak-
ing care of the synagogue and its contents, as well
as that of an elementary school teacher. From the
roof of the synagogue the hazzan announced the
beginning and the end of the Sabbath and the
festivals by sounding the shofar three times (Mis-
hna Sabbath 1:3; Tosefta Sukka 4:11). In modern
usage, the hazzan is primarily the shaliakh tzib-
bur, the congregational reader of prayers, re-
ferred to as cantor or precentor.
During the medieval period, the prescribed He-
brew prayers were amplified by the addition of
prayer-poems and hymns, known as piyyutim,
composed by hazzanim-payyetanim, such as
Rabbi Elazar ha-Killir of the Eighth Century,
whose numerous piyyutim are to be found in the
current editions of the sidur and the mahzor.
The hazzan in the Middle Ages was often a com-
bination of poet, composer, and singer, whose
melodies have been preserved down to our time.
In the 12th Century work "Sefer Hasidim" there is
a statement which reads: "If you cannot concen,
trate when you pray, search for melodies and
choose a tune you like. Your heart will then feel
what you say, for it is the song that makes your
heart respond."
As a rule, the hazzan of the medieval period was
a man of extensive learning and of high esteem.
Consideration of character took precedence to
consideration of voice quality. It often happened
that the hazzan was the only member of the con-
gregation who possessed a prayerbook manu-
script which included many poetic interpolations.
The congregation was therefore greatly depen-
dent on the hazzan, and actually led by him, in the
worship services.
Hazzanim, in the modern sense who are influ-
enced by the musical style of non-Jews, were
strongly disliked by Hasidic leaders. Rabbi Jacob
Joseph of Polonnoye, author of "Toledoth
Yaakov Yosef," which is the primary source for
the teachings of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov,
writes: "Our souls are sick with listening to haz-
zanim ... They sin and bring others to sin. When
they prolong their melodies without end, the
people gossip in the synagogue, interrupting the
silence of prayer ...
"Originally, the hazzan sang devoutly . . . he
was the most important person in the city, ex-
pressing the proper meaning of each word he
sang. Hence, our tradition is opposed to the
changing of melodies which fit the words of the
prayers. In the course of time, however, the haz-
zan has ceased to pray at all, stressing only the
melody ..." /-
This was written in the latter part of the if
Century, when the impact of musical progres s '
made itself felt among hazzanim who, in an earlier
period, used to carry melodies and customs from
one community to another thus contributing to
the unification of the musical tradition of the
synagogue.
Thus we have here all the aspects of the cantor and his
cantorial art, the Hazzan as a pleader for his congregation,
the liturgical singer with his blessings as well as faults.
In its entirety, dealing with this theme, the intention is
to encourage those who seek encouragement for retention
of all the facilities needed to guarantee perpetuation of
schooling facilities for cantors. It is as valuable as the
rabbinate.