PURELY COMMENTARY

`Gam Zu Faithfully I'Tovah'

have boldly quoted Victor
Hugo:
L'historie.me'apparut, et je
compris la loi,
Des generations cherchant
Dieu, portant Parche,
Et montant l'escalier im-
mense marche a marche.
In historicism I found a
counterweight to religious and
philosophical dogmatism. (Later
I extended it to the limits of
philosophical relativism.) My
thinking went along these lines:
I am an agnostic in religion and
in philosophy with regard to
their attempts, each in its own
way, to discover the meaning of
the enigmas of the world, but I
can find out how mankind lived
in the course of millennia and in
what ways mankind sought
truth and justice. I myself have

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor Emeritus

p

roverbial Jewish wisdom is
rooted in faith and is there-
fore the very essence of
optimism.
Folklore leads towards such
idealism.
In time of crisis it is not unusual for
an oppressed and threatened people to
express confidence in the faithful
assurance imbedded in "Gam zu le
tova" — this too is for good.
There is another self-assurance that
is expressed in a hebraic phrase that
has become rooted in a traditional op-
timism of "Gam ze ya'avor" — This too
will pass.
The "gam zu" inspiration to faith
and abandonment of despair is related
as follows in the Universal Jewish En-
cyclopedia, which places the originator
of the phrase:
Tanna of the first generation
who lived in the latter part of
the 1st century C.E. He lived in
Gimzo, a small town near Lydda.
He was the creator of a system
of exegeis (ribbui u_mi'ut), accor-
ding to which the Hebrew par-
ticles had a significance in the
interpretation; thus the sign of
the accusative, 'eth, denoted the
inclusion of something not
specifically mentioned in the
text, and the word rak, "only,"
indicated a limitation. This
method was continued and ex-
panded by Nahum's famous
pupil, Akib a.
Nahum was reputed to be a
saint and a miracle-worker.
Toward the end of his life he suf-
fered from paralysis, which he
explained as being due to the
fact that he had once been
unkind to a poor man (Taan.
21a). This willingness to accept
fate may be the reason why the
name Gimzo was interpreted as
meaning "everything for the
best" (gam zu letobah), and that
Nahum is reported as having
said this on the occasion of
every misfortune that happened
to him.
Erev Yom Kippur is an appropriate
time for comforting in the spirit of "gam
zu . . ." and "gam ze . . ." We have just

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Vol. XCVI No. 6

2

October 6, 1989

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1989

Simon Dubnow

taken stock of saddening events that
marked a year filled with anxieties. We
need to be grateful in the knowledge
that the survivalism of the Jew always
rejects the fears of the panicked.
A major message of cheer and con-
fidence has been prepared for us as a
lasting and indestructible legacy by one
of the most illustrious Jews of modern
times. The eminent historian Simon
Dubnow wrote an essay to be treated
as a guide to confidence in Jewish com-
mitments. Entitled "Under the sign of
Historicism," Simon Dubonow em-
braced Jewish devotion confronting all
obstacles.

Simon Dubnow died as a martyr to
Nazism in Riga, at the age of 81, in
1941. When he was led to his death at
the hands of the Nazis, he left a
message to his surviving nation never
to forget what was happening and to
record the horrors for posterity's
historical data.
The documentary essay "Under the
Sign of Historicism" is part of a very im-
portant book, The Golden Tradition,
defined as "Jewish Life and Thought in
Eastern Europe,' compiled by the
distinguished scholar Lucy Dawidowicz
(Aronson Publishers). An introductory
review of this book appeared on this
page on Aug. 25. The Dubnow essay is
an erasable admonition not to abandon
faith and confidence.
Simon Dubnow, describing himself
as an "agnostic," evidenced faith and
deepest commitments to Jewish tradi-
tions in "Under the Sign of
Historicism." In this never-to-be-
ignored essay he wrote:
At the outset I want to ex-
plain the meaning of this title.
By "historicism" I mean not the
passion for the writing of
history, which grew stronger as
the scope of my works expand-
ed, but my whole world outlook,
which was then in transition
from stormy antithesis and
passive resignation. I could

lost faith in personal immortali-
ty, yet history teaches me that
there is collective immortality
and that the Jewish people can
be considered as relatively eter-
nal, for its history coincides
with the full span of world
history.
That's the personal lesson that was
left for all of us as a guide for all to live
by, that "there is collective immortali-
ty and that the Jewish people can be
considered as relatively eternal."
With this as a motto we can and
must erase fears.
The "gam zu . . ." and the "gam ze . . ."
apply here.
With such guidelines we emerge
strengthened in the eternity processed
for us and by us.
There can be no better message of
faithfulness as we get close to Yom Kip-
pur.

Irving Berlin:
Chants Of The Ages

H

ow does an admirer pay honor to
a fellow Jew whose identifica-
tions with our peoplehood were
limited?
In one basic fashion there is always
the Kaddish.
In his more than 900 songs there
was to my knowledge only the simple,
direct Jewish connotation. I believe it
was about "Yiddle" . . . I am unable to
remember the balance of the phrase.
Let it be known and remembered
that Irving Berlin was a 50-year
member of Temple Emanu-El of New
York. Emanu-El's Rabbi Daniel Wolk
participated in the private funeral ser-
vice. The Kaddish therefore was surely
recited.
I mention the Kaddish because it is
the unabandoned commitment.
Supreme Court Justice Felix

Frankfurter had asked during his final
years that the Kaddish be included in
the ritual at his funeral. He, too,
although his name is inerasable from
world Zionist history, was unidentified
Jewishly in the final decades of his life.

There is the linguistic connotation
of "Pintele Yid." There is for forgetting
or hiding from this appellation. Irving
Berlin didn't hide from this
"quintescence of Jewish identity," as the
Yiddish dictionary defines "Pintele
Yid."
His more than 900 songs included
only one Jewish tune. He wrote it in
1909 under the title, "Yiddle Play
Ragtime on Your Fiddle."
We'll always acclaim his name and
his songs with deep praise both as a
fellow Jew and fellow American.

Unique Approach To A Chronology

A

unique approach to the study of
Jewish history is introduced
under the title The Jewish Time
Line Encyclopedia — A Year-by-Year
History From Creation to the Present
(Jason Aronson). The author, Rabbi
Mattis Kantor, a native of Australia,
starts his collection of items from the
year 1 (3760 BCE) and ends with the
Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, uses
the years as marks of approach to his
many topics.
There is a uniqueness in the man-
ner compiled by Rabbi Kantor that com-
mands admiration. There is the time
element. The capsules are all based on
the yearly elements. The index listing
names and places and world events is
based on the years of their occurrence.
This needs to be understood because in
many of the references a movement will
compel the use of a name. Proof of it is
in the listing of the year 1948 as the
time of the founding of the State of

Israel. That is where Rabbi Kantor has
inserted the name of David Ben-Gurion.
If not for the historic occasion, Ben-
Gurion apparently would have been
denied a share in Jewish history by
Rabbi Kantor.
The explanation of this paradoxical
comment is in the Kantor introduction
to his Time Line Encyclopedia. That's
where Rabbi Kantor asserts at the
outset that he has omitted from his text
the name of Albert Einstein. Why? Let
the author speak for himself.
This book is a digest of the
history of biblical and talmudic
times, post-talmudic scholars
(major events in their lives), and
events that affected Jewish life
in general until this day. The ma-
jor objective of this book is to
cover over 5,700 years of Jewish
history, listing events that occur-
Continued on Page 40

