THE JEWISH NEWS
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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 fourth day of Kislev, 5743, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 25:19-28:9.
Prophetical portion, Malachi 1:1-2:7.
Candlelighting, Friday, Nov. 19, 4:49 p.m. -
VOL. LXXXII, No. 12
Page Four
Friday, Nov. 19, 1982
HISTORY-9 S FICKLE WAYS
Time as the possible healer is once again of-
fering comfort that solutions may eventually
arise to resolve the menacing situation in the
Middle East. Palestinians have begunto appear
in new garb. They seek ways of conferring with
Israelis, something that has hitherto been em-
phasized as an Arab avoidance of face-to-face
negotiations with*Israelis, Jews and supporters
of Israel. Even from the terrorist elements come
requests for an alliance.
Is such a time propitious? Can the previous
threats to Israel's existence be altered and an
acceptable basis be found for direct talks, and
can peoples who have been enemies adopt a
friendship?
History has the lessons that could indicate a
genuine approach to peace in that war-torn area
of the world. It may well be that the numerous
appeals directed to Jordan's King Hussein to
follow the Egyptian move toward peace and
dedication to a policy of no more war may mate-
rialize. How can it be achieved?
Chaim Herzog, Israel's former chief delegate
to the United Nations and an Israel Foreign
Ministry official of long standing, now recog-
nized among the most brilliant of Israel's histo-
-,Tians, presents an analysis of the new ap-
proaches to peace which offer some comfort even
to the most agonized of Israel's friends and sup-
porters. Discussing "The Palestinian Search for
New Ideas" in an article in the Wall Street
Journal, he concedes that "the Middle East has
reached another - turning point," and "the ques-
tion is whether, as in 1977, when Anwar Sadat
came forward, the necessary leadership and im-
agination will come forth to take advantage of
it." He bases his hope on a resume of the existing
conditions and the factors and personalities in-
volved in the newly-emerging discussions of
proposals for a rapprochement. He sees ir-
relevancies in the PLO and violently anti-Israel
ranks.
Yet, -as he 'states:
"In the meantime, new voices are being heard
in the Palestinian camp. Articles written by
West Bank journalists are appearing in which a
new approach- can be detected.
"Many still hesitate to express themselves for
fear of the sort of assassination by PLO gunmen
that plagued Palestinians of the West Bank and
Gaza in the past. Nonetheless, one senses a
growing readiness to express opinions other
than conventional PLO statements.
"Paradoxically, the impetus for this develop-
ment comes from the inhabitants of Arafat's
PLO mini-state in Lebanon. This has come to be
known as the "New Palestinian Movement,"
and was established in the refugee camps of
southern Lebanon, an area now controlled by
Israeli forces. Led by professionals and intellec-
tuals among the some 350,000 Palestinians in
Lebanon, this group is openly urging a post-
ponement of the withdrawal of Israeli troops
from Lebanon. They make it clear that of all the
forces in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Force is
the one they trust most. They do not conceal
their fear of what might follow the withdrawal
of the Israelis.
"These new leaders are giving formal expres-
sion to what Palestinians in Lebanon have been
saying for some time in interviews on Israeli
television. They do not want to be sent to the
West Bank in any resettlement program, be-
cause they do not belong to the West Bank and
the West Bankers do not want them.
"The refugees in Lebanon, constituting - the
bulk of the Palestinian refugee population
whose status has not been resolved, originated
in 1948 from what is now northern Israel. They
see themselves as Lebanese of Palestinian ex-
traction and that they want to be given
Lebanese citizenship and become part of
mainstream Lebanese life. Their second choice
is to be accepted in Israel under Israeli condi-
tions.
"This emerging leadership makes no bones
about the fact that it mistrusts the Arab states
and is unwilling to continue as a pawn in the
inter-Arab game of fighting Israel. They make
clear that their experience under the dictatorial
and terrorist regime of the PLO in Lebanon has
weaned them from any enthusiasm for an inde-
pendent Palestinian state under the PLO. To
quote one of their leaders in a recent interview
with an Israeli journalist: -
" 'I have no illusions. Ask . . . in the camps,
and they will all tell you that they want to settle
as citizens with equal rights in Lebanon. They
will tell you that they would rather commit
suicide than live in the West Bank and Gaza in a
Palestinian state, or in any other part of the
Arab world where they are not considered to be
human beings, and where a dog's life is prefera-
ble to that of a Palestinian.
" 'We lived together with the 'heroes' of the
Palestinian Covenant for 12 miserable years.
We have nothing in common with them, with
their ambitions and their methods. They used
us, they took advantage of us and they hated us
"Great possibilities can be seen, provided two
main elements take advantage of them. The
first is King Hussein, who more than anybody
is now capable of influencing Israeli opinion on
this issue. If he comes forward, Sadat-style, and
announces that he is prepared to negotiate
openly with Israel on the basis of compromise,
then the effect of such a move on Israeli opinion
— and on Palestinian opinion — would be
dramatic and far=reaching. If the king fails to do
so, a major opportunity will have been forgone.
"The other party that can contribute is the
government of Israel, provided it can correct-
ly read the new situation that has been
created among the Palestinian population and
is willing to take advantage of it."
There is a pragmatism in this declaration
that raises hopes for the desired soul-searching.
There is already a vast measure for it. The truth
about the guilt in massacres in Lebanon is
creeping out. Israel will not always be judged as
the chiefly guilty; the achievements toward re-
establishment of a liberated Lebanon may be
fully admitted.
There may soon be full admission of the jus-
tice of Israel's position, and negotiations could
assume the realism suggested by Chaim Her-
zog.
Jewish Mysticism Defined,
Hasidic Aspects Emphasized
Interest in Jewish mysticism receives a vastly increasing appli-
cation in new studies which embrace the historical, the mythical, as
well as the emphasis on the Hasidic.
An unusually effective emphasis on the subject is inspired in a
highly scholarly work, "Understanding Jewish Mysticism" (Ktav), in
which Dr. David Blumenthal, professor of Judaic studies at Emory
University, Atlanta, also provides detailed elaborations on the teach-
ings provided in the works of Moses Maimonides.
Prof. Blumenthal makes an interesting observation in a defini-
tive comment in which he states:
"Perhaps Freud and Maix are correct: Man's interest in the
transcendent is nothing but a distraction from rather unpleasant
social and psychological worlds. Perhaps, however, man's concern
with the transcendent is a function of a capacity for spirituality, a
sense for the holy in its manifold forms, present in each human
person."
Dr. Blumenthal's new work is the second volume in a'series that
touches on many aspects of mysticism.
In addition to the mystical sources touched upon in this volume
there is a wealth of material dealing with personalities involved in
mystic teachings: There is, for example, the story of the detailed
account of the role of Abraham Abulafia who was born in Spain in
1240 and whose backgrOund was based in studies of Maimonides'
works. He had visionary experiences which he called prophetic. He
went to see Pope Nicholas III. He regarded that visit as having
Messianic import. He was sentenced to death before the Pope died.
When he was freed, in 1290, until his death in 1291, he wrote the
mystical manuals for which he became famous.
There are other similar personality references in the history of
mysticism.
Then there are the Hasidic stories. One deals with students who
clandestinely, on a Sabbath morning, were distracted by a discussion
of football. The rabbi went to see a game. It's a fascinating story and
here is how the rabbi, after seeing the football game signaled for
attention and said:
"It is written in the reading of the last Sabbath, These- are the
generations of Adam,' and it is taught in this connection that the true
meaning of the verse is, 'This is the story of Adam.' What we have just
witnessed is truly the story of Adam, the story of every man. Blessed
be God, the glory of Whose work can be seen everywhere!
"This 'football" you prize so highly teaches three lessons about
God, about man and about Torah. It teaches that, in the arena of life,
man must assert command over all his forces; that he must use them
to strike down the enemy; and that he must seize firmly that which is
essential and advance it, each time, as far -as he can.
"Furthermore, there is no light matter. Indeed, it is very difficult,
for the enemies of Torah are legion: insecurity, fear of ridicule, lazi-
ness, love of distraction, the burdens of daily living, the difficulty of a
life dedicated to the Master of the Universe, and the pressures of time.
Who commands these farces? They are commanded by the Yetser
ha-ra.' Who is the Yetser ha-ra'? He is our mirror image; he stands
opposite, over and against us. He is the impulse in us to resist God, to
resist Torah. But the forces of Torah, too, are legion: the love of God,
the love of Torah, the love of Israel, and the fear of_God's punishment.
"And who commands them? The Yester ha-tov, the impulse to
seek God, the impulse to serve Him ancLHis Torah. Whatever direc-
tion a man may take, whatever his path of life may be, let him assert
command with his Yetser ha-tov, let him strike down his Yester
ha-ra' with all its forces, and let him seize firmly that which is
essential and advance it ever nearer to the goal of the Messiah-time,
may he come speedily to our day. Amen."