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CaII.The Jewish News
354-5959
they speak about Jews must
learn to speak to each other
with respect.
There's a lesson here for us
from Jewish history. This sea-
son between Passover and
Shavuot is known as the
Omer, a time of sadness com-
memorating the deaths of
thousands of students of Rab-
bi Akiva centuries ago. Ac-
cording to tradition, they died
because they lacked respect
for each other. And we are
also told that the Holy Tem-
ple in Jerusalem was de-
stroyed because of seenat
chinam, causeless hatred
among Jews.
It was Rabbi Avraham
Yitzchak Kook, the chief rab-
bi of Palestine in the 1920s,
who taught that the antidote
is ahvat cheenam, causeless
love.
The notion of replacing ir-
rational hatred with bound-
less love seems admirable,
and hopelessly naive, in 1993.
But Judaism is insightful in
what it tells us about the pow-
er, and potential abuse, of lan-
guage. Guarding one's tongue
from speaking evil about an-
other person, even if the in-
formation is true, is forbidden.
"The tongue's sin weighs as
much as all other sins togeth-
er," the Vilna Gaon taught.
Conversely, the Talmud in-
structs: "The highest wisdom
is kindness."
We Jews will always dis-
agree with each other, but we
must never hate each other.
There are too few of us, and
we have too much in common.
It's one thing to feel passion-
ately that our cause is right,
but once we confuse disagree-
ment with dislike, once we
lose respect and tolerance for
our fellow Jew, .we have
sinned against him — and
against ourselves. ❑
ENGLER page 4
state administration that has
chosen to try to achieve a more
balanced budget by denying
benefits to the most vulnerable
persons in our communities,
namely the mentally ill, emo-
tionally damaged, and most
limited of our citizens.
These actions have create
untold miseries of a mental,
physical and economic nature.
These actions have also cost the
Jewish community a lot of
money, trying to fill the gap
and trying to deal with the
emergency needs as well as the
long-term needs of this fragile,
albeit apparently (in the eyes
of Gov. Engler's administra-
tion) unattractive group.
The governor has a lot of
neat excuses as well as denials
of the hardships which his ac-
tions have caused. I would in-
vite him to spend two days at
the intake desk of the Jewish
Family Service.
Arlene Goldberg
Birmingham
Engler Dialogue
Goes Two Ways
It is good to hear of Gov. John
Engler's interest in greater
communication with the Jew-
ish community. However, this
is a two-way street.
I am hopeful that the gover-
nor, like all previous governors
froth 1948-1990, will be a sup-
porter of adequate levels of
funding for education as well
as social and health programs
which deeply concern our com-
munity.
Let's hope that the governor
is now going to be an advocate
of these measures.
Harvey S. Bronstein
Southfield
Rabbi's Kin
Pay Homage
Prague (JTA) — Some 300
descendants of the renowned
18th-century Prague rabbi,
Ezekiel ben Yehuda Landau,
recently gathered at his
tomb to commemorate the
200th anniversary of his
death.
The author of several vol-
umes of Jewish responsa,
most notably the work Noda
B'Yehuda, Rabbi Landau
served the Prague commun-
ity for almost 40 years.
His progeny, including a
dozen rabbis from all over
the world, were addressed by
rabbis from Prague,
Jerusalem and Strasbourg,
France, and by one of the
descendants, Jerold Weiss of
Brooklyn, N.Y.
The memorial ceremonies
were attended by a repre-
sentative of Czech President =(
Vaclav Havel, by the ambas-
sadors of the United States
and Israel and leaders of the
Prague Jewish community.