72 Friday, June 18, 1982 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Tour Jewish Lexicon' Boosts Knowledge of Hebrew The dictionary, in the col- lective and cumulative sense, is always the most important instrument to as- sure accuracy in attaining language knowledge. In the study of foreign langauges the dictionary is even more valid. For an attainment of intimacy with Hebrew all the, elements of influence from the dictionary become even more important. He- brew for Jews is not a foreign language. It is the sacred tongue of the people. Yet it is all-too-often the secondary language, except in Israel. Added strength to acquis- ition of better knowledge of Hebrew is provided in "Your Jewish Lexicon" (Union of American Hebrew Congregations), the product of an expert, published posthumously. Edith Samuel, the widow of one of the most distinguished Jewish writers of this cen- tury, Maurice Samuel, died suddenly in 1980, shortly after she had completed this work. As editor of Keeping Posted for 18 years and as director of the department of adult Jewish studies of the Union of American He- brew Congregations, she at- tained a high rating as educator, author, guide to many personalities in Re- form Jewish ranks. As publicist for the American Jewish Con- gress she added signific- antly to the public rela- tions activities of a major American Jewish move- ment. For a time she was a supervisor of the Eter- nal Light radio and tele- vision program of the Jewish Theological Sem- inary of America. Her posthumous work merits being rated as a basic educational contribution. Mrs. Samuel felt there was incompleteness in the treatment of Hebrew terms in dictionaries. She believed that • "any Jewish lexicon should help Jews know more of their Jewish heri- tage by examining reli- gious, cultural, and intel- lectual ideas compacted within certain Hebrew words and phrases." She ex- plained her views in her in- troduction to her book by stating: "The principle of pikuakh nefesh, a supremely impor- tant Jewish concept, cannot be found as a pharse. Nefesh means 'soul, spirit of life, person.' Pikuakh is defined as 'supervision.' By combining the two transla- tions, you get a nonsense phrase: supervision of the soul. Actually, pikuakh nefesh means 'saving life.' The obligation to save human life is so imperative in Jewish thought that even the strict Shabat laws pro- hibiting work must be set aside to rescue endangered persons. "The popular He- brew - English dic- tionaries that I have seen also fail to give nuances of Hebrew usage. For in- this definitive page: author Edith Samuel and is produced by the Union of • stance, in Hebrew, Jews . "Your Jewish Lexicon" is a noteworthy addition tothe American Hebrew Congre- never 'immigrate' to the a posthumous tribute to library of important books gations. state of Israel; they 'rise up, ascend' to Israel. They go 'on aliya,' or they `make aliya,' mean- ing that they 'go up.' "Similarly, in Hebrew, Jews never 'leave' or 'emi- grate from Israel; they 'de- scend.' To understand this oddity, you must bear in mind the topography of Is- rael, the location of the city of Jerusalem high in the am people Judean Hills — and the et- ernal centrality and sanc- sefer book tity of the city of Jerusalem in the Jewish heart." Therefore, she divided am ha-Sefer 1Picri the people of the Book her lexicon into 72 portions, each devoted to specific sefarim books terms, including the Sidur, Am HaSefer — the People of the Book, the Tanach, Sefer ha-Sefarim trripprr the Book of Books, the Hebrew Shalom Aleichem, Mazal Bible Toy, and scores of related words and phrases. The book is sprinkled bet sefer nIn school, schoolhouse with quotations of signific- ant statements regarding Sefer Torah in . ipc? handwritten parchment scroll the terms alluded to: containing the Five Books of Moses Mrs. Samuel advised the student and reader to always have available sofer Torah scribe the Tanach, in order to apply terms in the Bible sofer (masc.) npip author, literary person to the aim of acquiring knowledge about He- soferet (fern.) rii.pio brew and to perfect the language. Thus, as alluding to all the other sections, there is a sifriyah library full page on The People of the Book — Am HaSefer, genizah i11 1 4 storage room or hiding place for and accompanying it, worn-out sacred books exemplifying the lexicon, is hi,oprT tnlz Hebrew root: 3 1-n-o ny trripp riripp Contrasting Assimilationist and Devout Jew 'Under the Canopy' Portrays Two Different Jewish Worlds By ALLEN A. WARSEN "Under the Canopy," authored by Dorothea Straus (George Braziller) is both a family record and a story of friendship. Dorothea Straus, wife of Roger, the grandson of Oscar Straus, traces her lineage to her great- grandfather, Samuel Goldman, the former owner of a brewery in the small town of Ludwigsburg in the former kingdom of Wurttenberg. For reasons unknown to the author, Samuel Goldman unexpectedly was forbidden- to operate the brewery by the kingdom's ruler. Deprived of his liveli- hood, he immigrated to the United States where he built a brewery in Brooklyn. Her great-grandfather, writes Dorothea Straus, "though transplanted, had remained obdurately German" and had estab- lished in the brewery building a school for his grandchildren's educa- I.B. SINGER lion and even imported from the "old country" a German teacher to in- struct them. In her fascinating por- trayal of Isaac Bashevis Singer, the author contrasts her great-grandfather, the atheistic-assimilationist, with the great Yiddish writer's grandfather, the Hasidic Rebbe of Bilgoray, the warm. and devout Jew. Characteristic of the Rebbe of Bilgoray is this anecdote: a Hasid once asked the rebbe "why it was that God, who had created the entire universe and all things in it, still needed everyone to praise Him thrice daily." "It's not that He needs our praise," the rebbe an- swered, "He is just afraid that if we stop praising Him, we will begin to praise one another!" Interesting is Mrs. Straus' account of a lec- ture Singer once deliv- ered at West Point. In- stead of talking on "free- dom" as he had been asked, he discussed liter- ature; the, cadets "knew more about freedom," he told General Goodpaster, the school's director, "than I do. They were born in a free country." "Literature," Singer ex- plained in his heavenly Yiddish accented English, "like life itself, is a risk and a hazard in its very nature," and tries "to muddle through and smuggle itself over the frontiers of all pos- sibilities." During the question period, he was asked for his thoughts about Israel. He replied, "For hundreds of years in Poland, whenever they hated Jews they told them 'go back to Palestine.' So a number of Jews decided to go to Israel, and when they got there they were told, 'go back to Poland, go back to Germany, go back to Spain.' So what is a Jew to do? He has to go some- where." The author, who has been assisting Singer translate his Yiddish stories into English, notes, "After over 40 years in his adopted country, he remains what he had always been, a prod- uct of the destroyed Polish shtetl and Warsaw ghetto, where by necessity there could be only humility, where family closeness was a substitute for national pride, and religion and the handing down of its rituals was an antidote to poverty and persecution." Mrs. Straus char- acterizes Singer as an "archetypal storyteller of old," whose narratives are frequently in- tertwined with "dyb- buks," demons, spirits and angels. Illuminating is the author's description of her own family. Like her great-grandfather, "The Goldmans took considera- ble pride in the fact" that their circle of friends was Judenrein. They regarded Jewishness "as an unfortu- nate condition, a stigma in the eyes of the rest of the world." Wealthy German Jews, like her family, shunned East European Jews; k _ ept them out of their clubs and milieu. Yet, Dorothea was aware that her family was "an isolated group, built upon a shaky ladder of snobbery." Her father died in 1960 and her mother, who died ALLEN WARSEN twenty years earlier, would often say, "To be Jewish is to have a clubfoot." Like her parents, the other family members "died disavowers, turning their backs to the specter of a Jewish heritage to the very end." Still her an c estors were buried in a Jewish cemetery on Long Is- land. Thorough is the author's account of the ceremony held in Stoc- kholm in December 1978 at which Singer received the Nobel Prize. According to established custom, Singer prior to the ceremony held a press con- ference at which he was asked a variety of questions, mostly personal. For in- stance, one reporter wanted to know whether he be- lieved in God. "More each day," came the reply. An-, other asked, "Are you a veg- etarian for religious reasons or for reasons of health?" His answer, "I am con- cerned with the health of the chicken, not my own." In the Stockholm Concert Hall where the ceremony took place, Mrs. Straus ob- serves, "Isaac Singer, on in- timate terms with magic world of the Ka was surrounded now by representatives of the won- derland of science and eco- nomics." Dorothea Straus' "Under the Canopy" is written eloquently and candidly. It would be an excellent addi- tion to any bookshelf or li- brary ofJudaica, the Jewish experience and Isaac Bashevis Singer.