THE. DETROIT JEWISH NEWS .Friday, August 10, 1904 (,.11 INSIGHT ASK ME HOW Taking Moses personally natural product with herbs 100% guaranteed Call HILDA RASKIN - 569-5288 BY MERLE FELD Special to The Jewish News I've always had a hard time idenfifying with Moses. He was raised as a person of privilege; I was not. He accepts and then wields power as leader of his people: I have chosen to be (been acculturated to be?) a private person. He com- munes with the God Up There, Out There, Above; I am a seeker of the holy in- side of things — especially small things — a child's fin- gers, a piece of bread. And now he's dying..And he's very angry, lashing out, laying blame, making dire predictions for the future. Suddenly, finally, my heart goes out to him, the heart of a still-young woman moved by the pain of an old man pleading — "Let me come too. I've dreamed of this for so long . . . through all the years If wandering, clearer and clearer, a vision of the destination, solidifying in my head: the Land of Prom- ise, the future . ." But God says No. I'll let you see a little into the fu- ture (like I let you see my back, remember?) but you may not enter into the fu- ture, there is no place for you to dwell there. Merle Feld is a New Jersey playwright and poet. So, at the very end, the epiphany — is that what it's all been about? I was to bring them from there to here? I, even I, I am just a teacher-father-link in the chain? And it will all go on without me? As Moses absorbs the shock of his own mortality, his own finitude, he begins to reiterate the precious le- Vaetchanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11 Isaiah 40:1-26 And how does that make me feel, I who always see myself as not-Moses, as one-of-the-people? It makes me feel small and angry and rebellious and hopeless. Now, especially now, so near the end, couldn't you give me a blessing? No. You demand from me my sym- pathy, my homage, Old Man, Great Leader, but even in your dying, you beg- rudge me a blessing, you begrudge-me my future. All right. I'll find within myself a blessing, I'll find it and pass it on, to child, to student, to friend, to all the beloved folk who travel the path with me. My blessing: here are the jewels. hold them in your hands. own them. touch them. get to know every lustre and flaw. work with them and make them your own, wrestle from them a blessing. and then pass them on. pass them on. for you are teacher' parent' conduit/ link. • and the great secret irony of the jewels is this: they improve with time and with touching. gacy of Sinai. And again I feel a distance, a widening gulf between us. In his dying as in his liv- ing, Moses as teacher is more attentive to the lesson than the pupil: "Now listen, word for word, and don't embellish or edit or impro- vise — although I embellish and improvise — for em- phasis, for clarity." And al- ways his judgment of the people, sandwiched in be- tween the holy words: you're unworthy, you're im- perfect, you fall short of the mark, you've sinned before and you'll sin again, you're Copyright 11 3. 84, National hopelessly inadequate. Havurah Committee. NEWS University official defends position on Saudi grant New York (JTA) — The spondence with foreign president of the State Uni- businesses or countries re- versity of Stony Brook, garding endowments or Long Island, has defended chairs of learning. To that his institution's actions in request the university re- seeking Saudi Arabian plied that a check of its files funding for the establish- revealed that there were no ment of an $11 million Is- such documents. lamic Studies Center, it was The failure to provide the reported in the 'current Jewish World with the sa- issue of the Long Island lient documents stemmed from what Marburger Jewish World. In separate interviews called a "misunderstand- with editors of the indepen- ing." He termed one of the dent Jewish weekly and subsequently published Long Island Jewish com- documents "an internal munal leaders, Stony Brook memo" and questioned president John Marburger whether a proposal to the said the university "did King Faisal Foundation nothing wrong" in quietly met the Jewish weekly's re- asking the Saudi Arabians quest for "correspondence for financial help. He af- with foreign government." Copies of the documents firmed that the university would not rule out Saudi have been turned over to the office of Nassau County Dis- grants in the future. Documents detailing trict Attorney Dennis Di- Stony Brook's solicitation of llon, Where investigators financial support from the are seeking to determine if private foundation of King the university violated any Fttisal of Saudi Arabia to fi- laws by failing to disclose nance the Islamic Center the documents. Reaction of Jewish com- were published last month munal leaders who had met in the Village Voice. Earlier, under the Free- with Marburger the day be- dom of Information Act, the fore his interview with the Jewish World had re- Long Island Jewish World quested eopie's 'of 'all Cdrre- was mixed: Tobie• Newman, executive director of the Conference of Jewish Organizations of Nassau County, said she believed Marburger was being truth- ful when he said the univer- sity "goofed" on the Jewish World's request simply be- cause it couldn't find the papers. But Myron Conovitz, president of the Long Island regional board of the Anti- Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, said he believed the university officials were "less than truthful" in their statements. "It's not credi- ble that a person would forget about correspondence involving that amount of money coming from that source." .1215461 A.14014116' outstanding . business opportunities available training . . . sales . . . management [ LOSEWEIGHT NOW MICHIGAN'S ONLY MOBILE BLIND CLEANING SERVICE! Are your blinds ready for company? 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