For Openers
What We Learn As We Get Older
Yiddish Limericks
NECHEMIA MEYERS
Special to the Jewish News
A Pilgrim heard Plymouth Rock vain,*
"I stand here in wind and in rain,
In bleak desolation
Forlorn isolation,
And frankly, alain vee a shtain!**
Rehovot, Israel
hough most of my friends are retired, none of them
have time for sitting on park benches. A small minority
are still part-time employees, but the great majority are
unpaid volunteers. Here in Rehovot, for example, this
group is the backbone of the city's 45 voluntary organizations.
In the health sphere, they work with schizophrenics, retarded
children, victims of cancer, survivors of the Holocaust, children
with learning difficulties, hospital patients, etc. Others devote
many hours a week to the safety and security of the community.
Another important activity, immigrant absorption, also depends
to a significant extent upon the voluntary work of pensioners.
Sometimes they help newcomers from a similar background, the
Anglos working with English-speaking families and the Latin-
Americans with immigrants from Argentina and Chile. But you'll
also find elderly old-timers teaching Hebrew to Russians or gather-
ing used — but still usable — furniture for arrivals from Ethiopia.
Particularly popular among the retirees are discussions of
prose and poetry. Last Friday morning, a series of lectures on
the gifted poet Yehuda Amichai attracted to the Tel Aviv audi-
torium about 150 people, half of them over 60.
One of Amichai's poems read at the seminar keeps echoing
in my mind. Like so many of his poems, it is about Jerusalem
— in this case, describing the period before the city was united.
Yet despite the political changes that have taken place in the
interval, Amichai's ironic description of the gulf between Jews
and Arabs still rings true. He wrote:
On a roof in the Old City
laundry hanging in the late afternoon sunlight,
the white sheet of a woman who is my enemy,
the towel of a man who is my enemy,
to wipe off the sweat of his brow
In the sky of the Old City
a kite
At the other end of the string,
a child
I can't see
because of the wall.
We have put up many flags,
they have put up many flags,
to make us think that they're happy,
to make them think that we're happy. ❑
— Poem translated by Stephen Mitchell
T
GRAPIJEWZ
cry
** (literal) alone like a stone
(idiomatic) utterly alone
— Martha Jo Fleischmann
Who Was Ezra?
le
zra played an integral role in
maintaining the continuity of
the Jewish people and the oral
tradition in the critical time of transition
between the prophets and the talmudic scholars.
After studying diligently under Baruch ben Neriah,
the great teacher and prophet in Babylonia, Ezra
returned to the land of Israel after the Babylonian
exile (during which the Purim story occurred) and
spearheaded an effort to build the Second Temple in
Jerusalem.
He was so enthusiastic and passionate about
spreading the words of the Torah that the rabbis said
that he was worthy for the Torah to have been given
through him, had Moses not preceded him. Ezra and
his beit din (court) instituted 10 practices including
reading the Torah on Monday and Thursday mornings
and Shabbat afternoon.
Ezra not only wrote the canonical work that bears his
name, but also compiled the Book of Chronicles (Divrei
Hayamim) until he reached his own genealogy — at
which point it was completed by Nechemia. Ezra served
as a member of the men of the Great Assembly (Anshe
Knesset HaGedola) and left a lasting legacy of rejuvenating
the Jewish people. Fl
— Benyamin Cohen
Sources: The Stone Chumash and Torah From Dixie
rsklar@thejewishnews.com
Check out JN Online at www.cietroitjewishnews.com and
click on Judaism 101 on the homepage.
By Mendel
soRp9, RABBI, WE LOVE
TEIJISH, BUT WE gi).7- cAtio
Re LATE To AIOTHiA.)6 TI-1A
so
TR/4PITON/11- PUP RITUALISTIC
SHIFT
INTO
"CHAI"
GEAR
Donate your
car to JARC!
1.It's Fast
2.It's Easy
3.It's Tax Deductible
4 Free Towing
5. Almost Any Condition
, RAgn
- 4
OUR AtUNUAL
TI-1AKKSGIVIAIG
TURKEY PUJIVER5
THArUK
,YOU, HOW
Motorcycles ft RVs, also
''''4'017-7RAITPUIT
A i t °15)VTiACL
OF SOU.,,
)
A Jewish Association for Residential Care
for persons with developmental disabilities
28366 Franklin Road
Southfield, MI 48034
(248) 352-5272 v/t-ty
11/26
1999
5