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THE JEWISH NEWS
(USES 275.520)
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Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor .
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 15th day of Tishri, 5743, is Sukkot,
and the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Leviticus 22:26-23:44, Numbers 29:12-16.
Prophetical portion, Zechariah 14:1-21.
Sunday, second day of Sukkot
Pentateuchal portion, Leviticus 22:26-23:44, Numbers 29:12-16.
Prophetical portion, I Kings 8:2-21.
Hol Hamoed Sukkot
Monday, Numbers 29:17-25; Tuesday, Numbers 29:20-28;
Wednesday, Numbers 29:23-31; Thursday, Numbers 29:26-34.
Candlelighting, Friday, Oct. 1, 6:55 p.m.
VOL. LXXXII, No. 5
X
Page Four
Friday, Oct. 1, 1982
THE FRAIL SUKKA
A few boards triangularly arranged next to
a building, covered with branches, forms a but
which serves as a temporary shelter for obser-
vers of an old tradition. It is occupied temporar-
ily for meals and prayers. It could be blown '
away by the slightest breeze. Yet, it has perma-
nence.
The Sukka is frail. Its survival is con-
stantly tested. Its endurance may ever been in
question. Yet, it endures.
That's the Jewish booth with a purpose . —
as a symbol of continuity of Jewish identifica-
tion with an historic past, as a mark of con-
tinuity with an ever-challenging present.
Symbolically, the Sukka is a lesson for this
generation, and for the contemporary experi-
ence which has shaken the Sukkot observers to
their very roots.
Wherever the Jew turn's, there is again the
uncertainty that is linked with the rising tides.
of hatreds. A more powerful Sukka has emerged
in the glory of redeemed statehood called Israel,
yet even that structure has the aspect of a
Sukka always in danger of being blown into the
. sea and always facing the threat of destruction.
Like the frail Sukka, the largest structure
resists danger and survives. The indestructibil-
ity has proof in the present crisis.
It is not to be denied: it is a crisis. Peoples of
two other religions were murdering each
other, and Israel, inseparable from the Jewish
people, is ever available as the scapegoat. Mus-
lims were murdered, Christians were accused,
yet Jews are held responsible.
It was all the result of a serious blunder,
perhaps an inexcusable one.
What has occurred, the ensuing controver-
sie§, have created agonies. They will not be
healed too soon. The evil that has emerged is not
easily erasable.
There is, nevertheless, a sense of comfort
that stems from the age-old experience repre-
sented by the Sukka: it is the indestructibility
that renews faith and confidence in a better
future, in a return to a spiritual normalcy with
its effect on the sovereignty of the statehood
that has been challenged and which must battle
for an unquestioned existence.
Out of the turmoil that was the experience
of Lebanon has come forth a new Jewish unity.
The Jewish people remains firm in its deter-
mined dedication to the security of Israel and
also to the continuity of the highest goals in
Jewish life. Out of the self-criticism and the
self-judgment forced by the Beirut tragedy
comes forth again a unified Jewish people.
Out of it all will surely come a continuing
American-Israel friendship and a better under-
standing by Jews with their non-Jewish
neighbors.-
-
All these aspirations, the anticipations for
a future emphasized by ethical normalcy, is
rooted in historic experience. The Sukka sym-
bolizes it. The Sukka is representative of the
Jewish people and of Israel. Thus, despite
frailty there is strength. That's the Sukka out of
which once again will come forth sounds of con-
fidence, of faith, that the human values repre-
sented by the symbolic in Jewish life will over-
come difficulties.
QUA S I-T RIBUNAIAS
They spring up everywhere, as courts of law.
They still are in evidence, on street corners, in
public squares, shouting vengeance that spells
venom.
They have a cause — that scapegoat called
Jew, now representative in Israel and visible
wherever there are Jews as defenders of Israel.
They could not possibly be tribunals of justice
because they are motivated by passions, shout-
ing accusations and hatreds.
As in the public square of a great city like
Detroit, they are representatives of two reli-
gions whose oppressed adherents suffered from
bloodshed. But self-flagellation is bitter, there-
fore the target must be from another religion.
Therefore, when demonstrating as a protest to
carnage one does not denigrate self but finds an
available victim. The Jew is available.
It is not to be assumed that all tribunals are
irresponsible and prejudicial. Neither are all
politicized. There were demonstrations in Is-
rael, and they were against their own spokes-
people, in protest against their government.
The estimate was that 10 percent of Israel's
population gathered in protest against their
own democratically-elected government, de-
manding facts about the involvement in Beirut.
Elsewhere, a similar event would have spelled
non-rule. In Israel it is the voice of the people,
the vox populi, which is expected to bring order
out of chaos, which must serve as a Tribunal of
Justice in repudiation of the shocking fashion in
which the media of a great nation encouraged
the mob-inspired tribunals. The world organ-
ization, that was formed as a United Nations to
strive for world peace, also gave credence to
mobcracy. The votes in the UN, in which the
so-called civilized powers participated, sup-
ported the bigotries and mob-inspired.
Because Israel was maligned this widely,
with media and governments encouraging the
hatreds, Israel will surely solve her own prob-
lems. As in past experience, this dependable
democracy will oust the guilty, will reject every
threat to turn the country into an arsenal state,
will choose its leaders as Israelis see fit, without
pressures from those who presently organize
tribunals of hate. Israel's Shalom will surely
continue to spell out not only peace but also
justice — all democratically fashioned.
%TM
Sukkot, Its Joys, Laws,
Role as Pilgrim Festival
Sukkot is the festival of joy, it is one of the three Pilgrim Festi-
vals, with Passover and Shavuot. It is also the one festival whose
traditions are recited joyfully.
A new Mesorah volume, "Succos" (Sukkot) contains all the ac-
cumulated factors about the festival, a volume collaborated in by four
scholars, Rabbi Hersh Goldwurm, Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz, Rabbi Avie
Gold and Rabbi Nisson Scherman.
Noteworthy about this volume, which contains many of the holi-
day prayers in Hebrew, is that it opens as a Hebrew book, from right to
lfet. Such is the approach aimed at respect for tradition in a book filled
with the explanatory factors of all the Sukkot traditions.
The role of the Sukka, the laws regulating its construction, are
accompanied by the legacies relating to synagogue observances, the
prayers, the historic experiences.
Therefore the volume also deals with the Etrog and Lulav, and
the explanatory facts about the four species.
The approach to the festival, the tradition of the pious making the
Sukka their home for the festival and numerous other factors are
incorporated in this volume.
It is valuable to reproduce the traditional which begins with this
explanatory note:
"The cycle of the three pilgrimage festivals, Passover, Shavuos
and Succos, have two Scripturally assigned roles, roles that are not
only different but seem almost contradictory.
"On the one hand, they recall the formative miraculous events of
Jewish history and are constant reminders of the reasons for Israel's
being and its continued existence.
"In this sense, the festivals are cosmic, lofty, intensely spiritual
phenomena that bind the Jewish calendar with the Creator and
Moving Force of the universe."
Mesorah's implications emphasize the tradition in Jewish life,
and the Sukkot book enriches its creative bookshelf.
Toni' as a UAHC Medium
Teaching Youth Hebrew
"Yoni" is an educational medium to encourage the study of He-
brew.
It is part of the series of educational booklets published by the
Union of American Hebrew Congregations for young readers. It is
part of the commendable children's books and brochures produced and
edited for the UAHC by former Detroiter Rabbi Daniel Syme.
Would that this one, at least, were also made part of the adult
studies courses. It is a brief compendium containing scores of Hebrew
terms which may be little known to the average synagogue member.
It was not so long ago when Hebrew was at a minimum in Reform
services. Now it begins to predominate. Teaching it to the youth
revolutionizes the Reform services.
"Yoni" is a brief booklet of only 28 pages. Its author is Howard U.
Bogot. It has the added merit of illustrations by Heidi Steinberger. In
spite of its brevity, it is packed full of information. It is both a limited
dictionary and an encyclopedic definition of religious terms. It com-
mences with "yad," the hand, and it acquires the distinction of glorify-
ing religious devotion.
Especially impressive is the concluding highlight in this booklet,
a definitive portion which explains Ivrit, as the very old language of
the Torah, and now "the language of Israel which is very new." Then
the narrator turns to the Aron Hakodesh, the Holy Ark, and there is
an invitation to the reader to keep returning to the synagogue.