2 Friday, April 18, 1986
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
PURELY COMMENTARY
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Passover's Glorious Lessons
Proclaim liberty throughout the
land unto all the inhabitants
thereof.
Leviticus 25:10
From the earliest times of the
libertarian and ideological develop-
ments of the American Republic, the
proclamation from Leviticus has been
the guideline for this nation. This is
the year for added emphasis on its sig-
nificance. This is the year of re-
dedication of the Statue of Liberty and
the measage is akin to the chief inter-
ests in the great events that are to ac-
company world attention already being
drawn to the celebrations of the great
events marking the Statue's messages
of freedom to mankind.
Because the Passover of 5746
commences the inauguration of historic
events for the Detroit Jewish commu-
nity, the holiday has special connota-
tions with historic implications. This is
the period when preparation are being
made for the 60th anniversary of the
Jewish Welfare Federation. The Israel
Symphony Orchestra will salute the
community in an event co-sponsored by
Meadowbrook. Many recollections will
be aroused by such an event and the
encouragement this community had
given to the cultural and musical ac-
complishments of the State of Israel. It
is the tracing of local history, the re-
membering of the great events that
marked Detroit Jewry's 59 years of or-
ganized life, the honors to be accorded
its pioneers, the rededication to the
And The Recurring Inspirations
great purposes that mark this kehil-
lah's life, that have special significance.
The local interests emerging in the
limelight with Passover are multiple.
Soon the Jewish Community Council
will mark its fiftieth year. Once again
it will be occasion to reconstruct the
historic, the controversial, the per-
sonalities and casts of characters in
community building.
A great festival gains importance
on the Jewish calendar when it be-
come• an culturally-inspiring, literary-
creative event. This Passover gains
from such qualities. So much of im-
mense literary value, with emphasis on
the spiritual, is making its appearance
this month that attention to them must
not be reduced.
Former Detroiter Daniel B. Syme
and Rifat Soncino have a new book
called Finding God: Ten Jewish Re-
sponses, just published by Union of
American Hebrew Congregations. What
is God, how can adherents relate to
Him, how can He be known in relation
to the world? These and psychological
perspectives are covered in Finding
God,, with messages to Jews and to
mankind. The perspectives have a
summary in their titles: God in the Bi-
ble, God in Rabbinic Literature, Philo's
Spiritual Monotheism, Neo-
Aristotelianism of Maimoninides, Mys-
ticism of Luria, Pantheism of Spinoza,
Philosophy of Dialogue of Martin
Buber, Limited Theism of Milton
Steinberg, Religious Naturalism of
Mordecai Kaplan, Humanism of Erich
Fromm.
Thought-provoking themes are re-
sorted to here and the knowledgeability
provided grants the Syme-Soncino book
special importance at this time, when
the religious challenges predominate.
Greatest significance is drawn at
this time to one of the most creative
books produced in many decades on the
Passover theme. Exploring Exodus: The
Heritage of Biblical Israel (Schocken
Books) by Nahum M. Sarna, is without
challenge one of the very great works
produced on the Passover and related
subjects. The studies incorporated here
by the great scholar are recognized
immediately as unmatched, with
enriching historical contents. This is
not a book review. Evaluation of Sar-
na's deep studies would require several
feature articles and nearly as many es-
says as could match•the contents of the
volume.
It is the timeliness of his treatment
of Exodus and therefore the Passover
themes that Dr. Sarna, who is
Emeritus Professor of Biblical Studies
at Brandeis University and editor
translator of the Jewish Publication
Society's New Bible translation, ele-
vates his latest scholarly studies to
great heights.
There is currently a growing
movement to place on the Michigan
ballot the death penalty, a punishment
traditionally barred in this state. Prof.
Sarna deals extensively with the sub-
Rabbi Daniel Syme
ject. If his tackling of the issue of les
talionis, the law of retribution and jus-
tice, were a limitation in his new work,
it would at once merit recognition for
deeprooted scholarship based on the
Jewish legacies and the manner in
which the death penalty is confronted
in Jewish traditions.
The accusatory Eye-for-an-Eye im-
plication often attributed negatively to
Jews, the Lex Talionis subject, the tra-
Continued on Page 16
Elie Wiesel Has A Din Torah With God
Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel has a Din Torah with
God. He challenges the Almighty's non-
interference with the mass murderers of
our people. He expresses it in a Purim
play, a drama in three acts, The Trial of
God (Schocken Books).
It is a Purim play involving
minstrels who arrive at an inn, offering
to play, and because of the evolved —
and evolving tragedies — the proposal is
that God be placed on trial in the
minstrels' performance.
The Wiesel drama deals with the
Tragedy of Shamgorod of 1649 when the
entire Jewish population was massacred.
Only the innkeeper Berish and his
daughter, who was tortured during the
pogrom, survive. They are in the cast of
the play challenging God. It is all in-
spired by the three itinerant actors who
showed up for a Purim play.
The horror of Shamgorod is revealed
in the process of lining up the cast for
the play, the choosing of a prosecutor
and a defense attorney.
The dialogues are interesting in this
respect and they are enlivened by the
appearance of a priest who is described
as fl iendly to Jews, bfit who would de-
rive satisfaction from proselytizing them.
The priest comes with a warning that
the mob is gathering for another pogrom.
The survivor warns: "I'll kill." It is a
declaration that he will not be submis-
sive to the murderers. The play con-
cludes with cast of characters barricad-
ing themselves, gathering 'weapons for
self-protection and resistance.
There is an explanatory publishers'
note that Wiesel was inspired to write
the play by a similar theme in the con-
centration camp. The publisher's expla-
nation:
' The idea for this play came
from a strange trial that Wiesel
actually witnessed in a concen-
tration camp. He writes: "Three
rabbis — all erudite and pious
men — decided one winter eve-
ning to indict God for allowing
His children to be massacred. I
remember: I was there, and I felt
like crying. But there nobody
cried."
The entire theme, the accusation
and the defense in The Trial of God can
be summed up in the prosecution and de-
fense statements.
Prosecuting Attorney Berish, the
Innkeeper: "I lived as a Jew, and it is as
a Jew that I shall die — and it is as a
Jew. that, with my last breath, I shall
shout my protest to God! And because
the end is near I shall shout louder! Be-
cause the end is near, I'll tell Him that
He's more guilty than ever."
Defense Attorney Sam (who reached
the inn as a stranger and volunteered to
defend God): "God is just and his ways
are just ... Even now and forever ... I
am His servant. He's created the world
and me without asking for my opinion;
He may do with both whatever He
wishes. Our task is to glorify Him, to
praise Him, to love Him — in spite of
ourselves — Faith in God must be as
boundless as God Himself. If it exists at
the expense of man, too bad. God is eter-
nal, man is not."
Then comes the •preparation for the
defense against the gathered pogromists
outside.
Elie Wiesel's indictment of the Al-
mighty may not convince some readers
as being emphatic enough. His theme,
however, serves another important pur-
pose. It call& attention to one of the most
appealing protestations by one of the
most distinguished Chassidic scholars of
the 17th-18th centuries. •
As a reminder and under considera-
tion is the Kaddish of Rabbi Levi Yit-
zhak. That Kaddish has been quoteCre-
peatedly recited through the generatlions
since Levi Yitzhak sang it at a Rosh
Hashanah service in his synagogue.
Much has been written about Levi
Yitzhak of Berditchev. He is listed in a
most extensive biographical sketch in
Encyclopedia Judaica under the, title
Levi Isaac ben Meir of Berditchev. This
essay is highly recommended to readers
who desire to know the details of the life
of a Chassid who was recognized as a
great scholar. A sketch about Levi Yit-
zhak is included in Souls on Fire by Elie
Wiesel.
Most instructive is the volume de-
voted to Levi Yitzhak by Rabbi Samuel
H. Dressner, the 1974 Hartmore House
publication Levi Yitzhak of Berditpev:
Portrait of a Chassidic Master.
Rabbi Dressner assembled many
deeply-moving stories about the pi of
Levi Yitzhak and the influen he
exerted not only on his own tim d
generation but on the Jewish his 'cal
experiences that followed. He intro ced
the text of the Kaddish of Rabb vi
Yitzhak with the following:
The document which tes
best to Levi Yitzhak's love of
rael is not a story or a saying
a song, an event that becam
poem.
Continued on Page 16