12 Friday, October 26, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS BOOKS The • •:• SPOT 50%-70% OFF- ALL NAME BRANDS • Vertical Blinds • Levolor Blinds • Pleated Shades • Wood Blinds • Free Professional Measure at No Obligation Free in Home Design Consulting THE BLIND SPOT The Congress Building 30555 Southfield Rd. Suite 255 Southfield, Michigan 48076 Showroom by Appointment 6444001 Student pays tribute to teacher Works of scholars and teachers attain recognition and continuity in the admiration of disciples. This is especially in evidence in the anthology of the writings and teachings of Abraham Joshua Heschel. The student and admirer who edited this work is Rabbi Samuel H. Dresner. I Ask for Wonder (Crossroad Publishing Co.) is the anthology in which Rabbi Dresner has Hes- chel's definitive essays on God, Prayer, Sabbath, Religion, Man, Bible, Holy Deeds, the People and the Land. The basics of Jewish teachings and a panorama of Jewish experi- ence are combined in the excerp- ted works by the late Dr. Heschel. Rabbi Dresner's introductory essay is especially worthy of appreciation by the admirers of the late philosopher. It is both a tribute to. Dr. Heschel and an evaluation of his life's work. Rabbi Dresner recalls a visit with his teacher shortly before his death when Heschel spoke in faith, as the Dresner introduction indicates: " 'Sam,' he said, 'when I re- gained consciousness, my first feelings were not of despair or anger. I felt only gratitude to God for my life, for every moment I had lived. I was ready to depart. `Take me, 0 Lord,' I thought, have seen so many miracles in my lifetime.' "Exhausted by the effort, he paused for a moment, then added: `That is what I meant when I wrote (in the preface to his book of Yiddish poems): I did not ask for success; I asked for wonder. And you gave it to me.' "-`Khob gebetn vunder anshtot glik, un du host zey mir gegebn.' " Thereupon Rabbi Dresner re- calls the title of one of Heshel's first works, Man Is Not Aline, and his emphasis is on the piety and inspired vision of the great teacher. Rabbi Dresner's introductory essay calls attention to .Heschel's agonies in the years of the Holocaust, the loss of his family, Rabbi Samuel Dresner the despair that encircled man- kind, and he pays honor to Hes- chel in this fashion: "He knew he was the descen- dent of a people who ever since Sinai was destined to 'dwell apart' and whose vocation was to be a witness to the living God amidst all the idolatries of history. Be- cause he was spared from the flames which devoured his family, his community, and that whole ir- replaceable world of learning and piety in eastern Europe which alone could have produced him, he felt a special 'burden' had been placed upon his shoulders. It was to remind men, with a testimony all the more convincing since it came from one who had experi- enced the fullness of evil, that de- spite the absurd and the apathy, the world is filled with mystery, meaning, and mercy, with won- der, joy, and fulfillment; that men have the power to do God's will, and that the divine image in which we are made, though dis- torted, cannot be obliterated. In the end, the likeness of God will triumph over the mark of Cain." Thus, the philosophy and piety of Heschel is perpetuated and con- tinued by a devoted student. Rabbo Dresner properly acknowl- edges the teachings of Dr. Hes- chel, as devoted student to a sanctified teacher. — P.S. Jewish culture foundation plans aid projects for European Jewry CASH REFUNDS MON.-SAT. THURSDAYS 10:00-845 10:00-5:45 New York (JTA) — Philip Klutznick, who was elected to his first full term as president of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture at the recent 20th annual meeting of the organization in Jerusalem, announced that the foundation has allocated more than $4.5 million for 1984-1986. Dispersed Jewish communities in Scandinavia were selected as the target for a pilot program. A second program for training per- sonnel will be implemented in France, "because of the great need there. France has 14 communities with from 500 to 2,500 people and more than 100 communities with fewer than 500 people who have no educational, religious or cul- tural services. The need is ur- gent." A third program will be under- taken in Hungary "to help stimu- late this kind of activity in East- ern Europe." Klutznick said that a condition for the program's success is for communities participating in the pilot project to "actively support the project and to assume respon- sibility for it once it is tested and launched." Eban enumerates goals for Israel New York (JTA).— Abba Eban, Israel's former foreign minister, told guests at a dinner celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Weizmann Institute of Science that the Jewish state's new na- tional unity government has the possibility of attaining three goals within the next two years: recovery of the economy, "extrica- tion" from Lebanon, and reform of the electoral system to "prevent future deadlocks."