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Friday, April 13, 1984

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Happy Passover

Mack Pitt

and his

Orchestra •

plus

Hersch's Lawn Spray

557-8888

.

Disco

Music just for you!

358-3642

Wishing you
a Passover
bright with promise,
fared with hope,
blessed with
peace and joy.

Tel-Twelve Mall

Telegraph at 12 Mile Rd.. Southfield/ Daily 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. / Sunday Noon - 5 p.m.

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THE DAY OF THE PROGRAM

.

Human side to Moses legend

Jerusalem — Each year,
at Passover, we teach our
children the story of the
Exodus from Egypt, ex-
plaining how Moses, our
great leader, pleaded with
Pharaoh and — with God's
help— led the children of
Israel from slavery to free-
dom.
But who was this great
prophet and leader? Moses
was a mere man, from the
most humble beginnings.
The first mention of his par-
entage in the Bible simply
states that a man from the
house of Levi took a woman
from the house of Levi.
Later we learn that his
father was Amram, grand-
son of Levi who married his
aunt, Yocheved, Levi's
daughter.
When we read the list of
prohibited marriages laid
down in Leviticus, this re-
nders Moses an illegitimate
child — that of a forbidden
union. It is an unpleasant
revelation, but it helps
validate those who believe
in the divine origin of the
Torah because if Moses or
any Other human had writ-
ten it, this fact would surely
have remained hidden.
Most people know the
story of Moses' childhood.
He was born in Egypt at a
time when the cruel
Pharaoh ruled that all new-
born male Hebrew children
must be slain. Left adrift on
the waters of the Nile, he
was found by Pharaoh's
daughter who took him to
the palace, raising him as
her son. Grown up, he de-
fended the Hebrew slaves,
and killed an Egyptian
task-master who was abus-
ing a Jew . . . an act which
forced him to flee to Midian.

Moses became a shepherd
to the flocks of the pagan
priest, Jethro, and married
his daughter. We are taught
that God never gives an
exalted office to a man un-
less he has first been tested
in small things. Moses, ac-
cording to the Midrash, saw
a lamb escape from the flock
to a stream where it
quenched its thirst. He said:
"Had I known that thou
wast thirsty, I would have
taken thee in my arms and
carried thee thither." A
Heavenly voice resounded:
"As thou livest, thou art fit
to shepherd Israel."
In the episode of the burn-
ing bush, he was also nomi-
nated as God's agent to lib-
erate his people. When
Moses Was told by God to
plead with Pharaoh to let
his people go, he felt com-
pletely unfit for such a task.
Already 80 years old, God
rebuked him for he had
God's assurance that He
would be with him. Moses
was also hesitant because
he was not eloquent, having
spent years in the great si-
lent spaces of the desert,
and he could only stammer
forth the message of free-
dom.
However, he was com-
manded to return to Egypt
to ask Pharaoh to set the
slaves free, with his brother
Aaron as spokesman. The
Midrash tells us it took God
seven days to convince him.

Leaving the calm of the des-
ert he plunged into the
whirlpool of history.

Seven weeks later, came
the unique event when God
spoke directly to Moses at
Mt. Sinai and revealed His
Law. He spoke not of theol-
ogy or the wonders of the
universe He had. created,
but of man's relationship to
man, of one's duties towards
others. When Moses re-
turned to his people with
the Ten Commandments
and found them worship-
ping the Golden Calf, he
was so angry he was ready
to kill . . . he never knew
what to expect from this
"stiff-necked people" he was
leading. They had seen God
at work and learned noth-
ing from it. Perhaps sharing
something with assimilated
Jews today, they still
yearned for the fleshpots of
Egypt!

Moses castigated his
people often and severely.
But he also defended them
against their enemies, and
at times against God. He
was both God's emissary to
Israel and Israel's to God.
Yet he remained a human
being, with many flaws —
he had no supernatural
powers. He had a temper,
and he was punished for it.
He lived according to the
Biblical count to 120, and
spent his last hour blessing
the tribes of Israel.
Moses was the most solit-
ary and most powerful hero
in Biblical history. Among
comparisons made by histo-
rians, one of the most in-
teresting is with Muham-
mad because of the many
roles both undertook. Moses
had an immense task and he
changed the course of his-
tory — after him, nothing
was ever the same again.

World Zionist Press Service.

New TV show for Asner

BY HERBERT LUFT
Hollywood — Edward
Asner appeared with Eileen
Brennan_ at a press confer-
ence held at ABC studios
and sponsored by Warner
Bros. television to introdoce
himself, between produc-
tion, as Sam Waltman in
the new series, Off the Rack,
in which he portrays a gar-
ment manufacturer in
Manhattan. His partner has
died and he inherited, much
against his will, the widow
who now shares the busi-
ness with him.
Asner told us that he is
comfortable with the char-
acter in the story and hopes
that the viewers will be
comfortable with him as
they were when he was seen
as Lou Grant in The Mary
Tyler Moore Show and Lou
Grant. Asner has won seven
Emmys and four Golden
Globe Awards. Though his
forte on the TV screen is
comedy, he has portrayed
serious roles on the stage
and in dramatic motion pic-
tures.
As president of the Screen
Actors Guild, he maintains
that it is the right and duty
of every member to be a re-
sponsible citizen. By depict- .
ing different people of every
walk of life, the performer
cannot shun his responsibil-
ity when being himself in
his private life. He is
pleased, that Off the Rack
gives the producers a
chance to present represen-
tatives of many ethnic
backgrounds on the screen;
the gari-nent industry is not
necessarily only peopled by
Jewish types, though the
character he represents ob-
viously is a Jew.
The performer has the
face of a gruff but kindly
neighborhood truck driver,
one people like and seem to
trust. He has been an actor
since his high school days in
Kansas City, Kan. Born
Nov. 15, 1929, the youngest
of five children, he alter-
nated between All-City
tackle and a dramatic
membership at Wyandotte
High School.
Firmly hooked on acting,

he kept up with it at the
University of Chicago and
recalls his first stage role
there as Thomas Beckett in
Murder in the Cathedral. As
a member of a campus
group, he appeared in
Shaw's Man of Destiny and
Yeats' Purgatory directed
by Mike Nichols. After a
two-year Army hitch, Asner
returned to Chicago to join
the Playwrights Theater
Club, headed by David
Shepard and Paul Sills. He
went with them into the im-
provisational Compass
Theater and made his
Broadway debut with Jack
Lemmon in Face of a Hero.

* * *

Aharon Ipale, the Israeli
actor who became an inter-
national performer, is in
London, where he is com-
pleting his role as Sir Re-
uben Hergesheimer in the
motion picture, The Shoot-
ing Party, with locations in
the countryside of Hertfor-
shire, appearing opposite
such stars as James Mason,
Edward Fox, Sir John Giel-
gud and Dorothy Tutin
under the direction of Alan
Bridges.
* * *
Pia Zadora, wife of Israeli
business tycoon Meshulam
Riklis (who financed. the
production of The Chosen),
will be seen in the "space-
rock" comedy, Voyage of the
Rock Aliens, a spoof featur-
ing banks, dancers and sin-
gers on a journey into the
unknown, with Tom Nolan,
Craig Sheffer and the ever-
so-young Ruth Gordon.
Zadora was last on the sc-
reen in The Lonely Lady,
frdm the best seller by
Harold Robbins, an expose
of drug dealers and
gangsters in the movie capi-
tal.

Copyright 1984, JTA Inc.

Plea for Hess

Bonn (JTA) — West Ger-
many appealed last week to
the Soviet Union to allow
Hitler's former deputy
Rudolf Hess to be released
from Spandau jail where he
has spent the last 38 years.

