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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 11th day of Elul, 5743,
the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19.
Prophetical portion, Isaiah 54:1-10.
Candlelighting, Friday, Aug. 19, 8:07 p.m.
VOL. LXXXIII, No. 25
Page Four
Friday, August 19, 1983
BIGOTRY ON TRIAL
None other than a revered Israeli spiritual
leader, Rabbi Zevi Judah ben Abraham Isaac
Kook, the son of the late Chief Rabbi Abraham
Isaac Kook who was Chief Rabbi of Eretz Israel,
from 1921 to 1935, had this to say about bigotry
in his "Commentary," written in 1954:
"Sometimes I think that what we need in
Israel is more belief for the 'believers' and more
freedom for the 'free thinkers' and above all,
love, a bit more love."
This is repeatedly applicable to the
present-day experiences in Israel. Tolerance is
practiced in the Jewish state for all religions,
but prejudice is heaped upon Conservative and
Reform Jews.
Furthermore, there have been abuses so
intolerable that they placed all Jews who have
an historic association with the Land of Israel in
a state of embarrassment bordering on shame.
Typical in that regard is a most recent news
story in the New York Times described the re-
curring violence that greets archeologists who
are searching for historic data about the earliest
periods in Jewish history. In an account of some
of the incidents relating to the archeological
disputes, Richard Bernstein commenced his ca-
bled story from Jerusalem with the following:
"Every morning on a brown and sunbaked
hill just outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old
City, teams of volunteers, bearing pickaxes and
whisk brooms, labor in the dust and stone of the
millenia.
"Nearby are a few soldiers armed with
automatic weapons whose job is to protect the
diggers from possible violence. The soldiers'
presence is made necessary by a continuing and
sometimes violent conflict, now two years old,
that the dig into Israel's past has stirred in this
city of history.
"On one side in the conflict are Israel's
modern, secular scientists, aided by an interna-
tional corps of volunteers. They dress in shorts,
sandals and T-shirts as they examine the de-
bris, the ancient shards of pottery, the inscrip-
tions and the remains of floors and walls that
date back to the period 3,000 years ago when
King David conquered Jerusalem and made it
the capital of the Israelites.
"On the other side are several groups of
deeply religious Jews, many of them wearing
the long black coats, the felt hats and the long,
curly sidelocks of the Orthodox. These Jews say
they are not against archeology itself, but they
say the archeologists are disturbing the bones of
Israel's ancestors, a violation of Jewish law.
"To stop them, the Orthodox groups have
been demonstrating, holding vigils, formally
cursing the archeologists, trying to enact new
laws and even throwing stones and cinder
blocks. And while a conflict over archeology in a
country that has some 35 major excavations
going on this summer is not new, the violence
that the issue has aroused has resulted in about
as many local headlines and made it as much a
topic of discussion as the more normal Israeli
crises, like wars and West Bank demonstra-
tions."
The dispute, the • debatable arguments on
this issue, become insignificant in the context of
the problem itself. The experiences of abusive
tactics resorted to by the extreme elements in
Israel, the permissiveness with which the inde-
cencies are resorted to, is what matters. When
people lose the ability to reason, to negotiate, to
arrive at truth, they lose the right to judge.
Unfortunately, these very abusers also assume
the right to be the judges in most serious Israel
situations.
No one in the Diaspora has a right to dictate
policy to Israel. it is only that government's
business. But in matters involving religious
treatments, the entire Jewish people has the
right to opinion.
It is indisputable that the most revered in
Jewry are often antagonized, spiritually hurt by
the prejudices rampant in Israel. The archeolog-
ical experience is only one of them. Because
world Jewry has a stake in Israel, a partnership
that is undeniable, the relationship must be on
the highest level. The treatments must be
courteous. This has been lacking. It did not
create respect in non-Jewish ranks, it caused
deep hurt among Jews everywhere.
Therefore, if there is power in the govern-
ment of Israel, such abuses must be corrected.
Freedom to violate the security of fellow Jews
by the regrettable violence must be curtailed. It
is on this score that world Jewry must exercise
the right to express opinions and ask for action
from Israel's governmental administrators.
.
CAN UN TERMINATE BIAS?
So vile is the record of anti-Israelism at the
United Nations that it always bordered on
anti-Semitism.
-
It reached a new low with the latest exhibi-
tion of anti-Semitic material and was -so pa-
tently filled with hatred not only for Israel but
for the entire Jewish people.
It is no wonder, therefore, that UN Secre-
tary General Javier Perez de Cuellar promptly
dismantled the hate-filled exhibit of material
aimed at fomenting the hatred that has been the
policy of the combined Soviet and PLO-inspired
Arab nations.
The formal protest by Israel UN Ambas-
sador Yehuda Blum at last secured the proper
response in the form of the UN Secretary Gen-
eral's order for an end to the current display of
hatred in the world organizations's headquar-
ters.
Does the current action mean that future
attempts at spreading hatred will be negated?
Again it is a test for time as a possible element
to end the insanities practiced in the name of
the UN.
41• ■ ••••Mo
Traditions of Rosh Hashana
Talmudically Anthologized
With the New Year approaching, Mesorah Publications couldn't
have been timelier in releasing an anthological work on Rosh
Hashana.
"Rosh Hashana," dealing with "its significance, laws and
prayers," is an anthologized work, using the Talmud as one of its
sources, the wisdom of the Rabbis emphasized.
Under the general editorship of Rabbis Nosson Scherman and
Meir Zlotowitz who supervised production of this work as part of the
Mesorah Artscroll Series, a group of rabbinic scholars dealt with
these aspects of the Rosh Hashana volume: Laws, insights and
prayers. The rabbis who gathered the commentaries and definitions
on these subjects are Hersh Goldwurrn and Avi Gold.
The Rosh Hashana message is complete in this collective effort. It
not only contains definitions of the traditional practices, they are
supplemented by the Hebrew prayers that have significance in the
study of the subject relating to the Jewish New Year.
They also include explanations of the culinary, emphasizing the
traditional practice of dipping bread in honey, thus giving credence to
the prayer that what is being welcomed is a sweet year. The Hebrew
prayer is also appended to this explanatory factor in a massive collec-
tion of traditional observances.
In the analyses of significant Holy Day omens, with extensive
emphasis on the blowing of the Shofar, the reader is provided with an
understanding of the traditions relating to the Shofar and the special
occasions for its use in addition to that of Rosh Hashana.
Explanatory in every detail, in the treatment of the traditions
thus defined, it is the halakhic that is the guide to these studies, and
also the historic with the Talmud and discussants in their unique
roles.
Thus there is special interest in the explanation of the debate of
which is the Jewish New Year date, is it Nisan or Tishri, is it the even
of Passover or of Rosh HaShana.
Here is the impressive definitive explanation in the Mesorah
volume:
"According to R' Eliezer, the universe was created in Tishri while
according to R' Yehoshua it was created in Nisan (Rosh Hashana
10b-12a). This disagreement extends to many other events
as well and each of these Sages offers numerous proofs from Sciprture
to support his view. The Talmud's conclusion is in favor of R'
Yehoshua's view that the world was created in Nisan and it is for this
reason that halakhic astronomical calculations assume that the
heavenly bodies came into existence in Nisan.
"If so — the Talmud asks — how can our Rosh Hashana prayers
include the declaration: 'This day was the beginning of your work,' a
statement that seems to say clearly that creation took place in Tishri
rather than Nisan? In explaining that passage, Rabbeinu Tam sets
down two fundamental theses regarding the question of Nisan versus
Tishrei:
"The Halakha indeed assumes that the Creation took place in
Nisan. The reference to Rosh Hashana as the 'beginning of (God's)
work' refers to His work of judging the world and deciding upon its
continuing survival.
"In the case of disputes between the Sages of the Talmud, the rule
is often stated that "these and those are the words of the Living God,"
meaning that every opinion of people of such lofty stature is solidly
based on well-founded principles of Torah exegesis and principle."
This and much more provides emphasis for the notable value, in
the halakhic and historic aspects, of the Mesorah's impressive "Rosh
Hashana" volume.