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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

PURELY COMMENTARY

The Maggid

Continued from Page 2

posite the brain, so that . . . my
brain along with my other
senses . . . may all be sub-
jugated to His service . ."
The following incident
crystallizes how the meticulous
observance of a mitzvah,
specifically that of tefillin, can
have an awesome effect on a
man. Here the mitzvah had the
power to overcome a man's in-
stinctive tendencies.
When the Tshebiner Ray,
the R' Dov Berish Weidenfeld
(1879-1965), was in the later
years of his life, he was serious-
ly ill and required an operation
for which the normal procedure
was to anesthetize the patient.
However, the gaon was so frail
that the doctors feared that if
he fell asleep under anesthesia,
he might never recover. On the
other hand, to perform the
operation without anesthesia
was inconceivable. Such was
the medical dilemma the ray's
doctors faced.
When the Tshebiner Rav
heard about the problem, he
told the doctors that he had a
solution to the problem. He
could assure them that he
would not fall asleep under
anesthesia, but he would need
his tefillin. Tefillin? Neither
the baffled doctors nor the fami-
ly members could understand.
The ray explained. "It is
forbidden for one to sleep while
wearing his tefillin." He
assured them that if he was
wearing his tefillin, they could
administer the anesthetic and
the awe and concentration he
always had while wearing
tefillin would keep him awake.
He donned the tefillin, and
the operation was performed.
Despite the fact that he was
under heavy sedation, the ray
did not fall asleep for a
moment.
The Tshebiner could defy
the laws of nature and
medicine but not for a moment
the laws of the Shulchan
Aruch.
Echoes of maggidic lore
reverberated through the cen-
turies. They instructed and
comforted. They entertained
with a mixture of wisdom. They
were the many who drew
audiences.
There were many in the re-
cent generation of American
Jewish experience. Those who
heard the enthusiastic lectures
of Zvi Hirsch Masliansky will
never forget them.
The maggidim of Dibno,
and many others have left their
impressions. Der Dubner
Magid made Dubno famous.
Der Dubner is thus described in
Junior Jewish Encyclopedia:
Maggid of Dubno (Jacob
Kranz) (1740-1804). Popular
preacher. One of the best
loved personalities in East
European Jewish life, the
fables of the Maggid of Dub-
no always had a moral or
ethical message, and were
enjoyed by young and old,
scholar and layman alike.

Rabbi Sholom Schwadron:
Maggid of Jerusalem

Elijah, the Gaon of Vilna,
was very fond of his
sermons.
The Maggid and his skills
are legacies inerasable from a
thousand years of Jewish
history. The non-Yiddish
reader now has an opportunity
to read notable ones in English.
Revival of the entire subject
hopefully portends a continui-
ty of such preaching in its
moral and cultural sense. The
maggid merits emulating.

Hall Of Fame

Continued from Page 2

compliment for Boxer. Allen's
personal recollections include
this confessional:
Perhaps my own personal
early background, a
thoroughly anti-Semitic
culture, enables me to
perceive more clearly than
most certain realities of
Jewish-gentile relations in
the United States. Anti-
Semites, whether of the tru-
ly vicious or almost casual
type, perceive jews as in-
ferior. In my own case it took
nothing more than attending
a Chicago high school which
had a largely Jewish student
body to disabuse me of the
stupid notion of Jewish in-
feriority. My point is by no
means that Jews are no bet-
ter or worse than the rest of
us.
On the contrary, they are
superior.
The family life of Jews, for
example, has traditionally
been remarkably stable. It
hardly requires mentioning
that Jews, as a class, are bet-
ter educated than most of
the gentiles with whom they
come into contact. And even
though as a Christian I was
raised in a culture which
almost daily preached that
charity is the greatest of vir-
tues, I never saw the ideal
properly and fully acted
upon until I became aware
of the inspiring generosity of
American Jews.
In any event, along comes

