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The Southern Israelite Page 17 occasionally to share the greatest m- . t . re st they had in common—the ex tirpation of the parent that had brought them into the world. Such was the destiny of the suffer- j ‘ herald whom God had selected to chrry the light of His truth into the heart of humanity. What a sad para- ,] uN ' He who had been entrusted with the manual of the divine pedogogy f ( ia t would teach all nations how to live was himself reduced to the pre carious position of struggling desper ately for self-preservation. He who had been designated as the “servant ,,f the Lord.” was branded by ec clesiastical legislation as being un worthy even as the servant of man. Therefore, during the long night of excruciating agony and woe, when the light of the sun seemed a smiting rod by day, and its setting rays seemed to presage the coming of Israel’s last twilight, he would take up the elegaic words of the Psalmist and cry out to his Master above: “Thou hast given us like sheep to be eaten, Thou makest us a taunt to our neigh bors, \ scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten Thee, Neither have we been false to Thine covenant. Nay. but for Thy sake are we killed all the day, We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. \wake, why sleepest Thou, 0 Lord? Arouse Thyself, cast not off forever. Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face, And forgetest our affliction and op pression ? Arise for our help, And redeem us for Thy mercy's sake. Hut never could the obsession of sorrow dim the broader vison that '•ame with the contemplation of his mission. The words of the great Pro phet of the Exile never failed to bring comfort: “I will give thee for a light the nations, that My salvation may be unto the end of the earth. Thus 'ayeth the Lord, the Redeemer of Is rael, his Holy One, to him who is de spised of men, to him who is abhorred •>f nations, to a servant of rulers: kings shall see and arise, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves be- fauae °f the Lord that is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who hath ehosen thee.” In this light, the epic of Israel’s 1 fig suffering becomes comprehensi ve It was not the accident of blind ate. hut the travail precedent to the h,rth of the new order that is yet to c " me - The ‘Malkut Shamayim’ can be leached only through successive steps privation and struggle and suffer- ln g, and Israel, charged with the re sponsibility of paving the way, had >ear the brunt of it. He who would stand guard over the citadel of re- fgmn, he who would become the di- ;’ ,ne echo on earth of the Voice that f Un< e< ) from above, must be willing 1 >a 5‘ r ^Tice all, even to bear unheard misery. This is the law that gov- rn.s the battle of the Lord, this is e process which Providence inter- ti °'? ln ^° great Design. Chris- aintj and Islam were sent by Him JuH? rt ° f the Desi S n > both to aid •a.i^m, as Jehudah ha-Levi, Mai- ni es > and Nahmanides have point ed out, in the great spiritual task that is yet to be achieved. It is true that the sensuality of Mohammedonism is still a deterrent to its complete spiritualization; it is equally true that the trinitarian dogma of Christianity clashes violently with the Jewish doc trine of pure monotheism. But in their own sphere, both have made a valu able contribution of the spirit; both have added a rung to the ladder which Judaism has constructed for the as cent of man from earth to heaven, from dust to Divinity. But why was Israel required to pay such a dire penalty? It does not seem consonant with justice for the divine Design to subject the “servant of the Lord” to misery and grief, to shame and woe and sorrow. . . In the Talmud (Men. 53b) we find the solution: as the olive must be pressed before it will bear its precious oil, so with Israel before it would dif fuse its spiritual light. “He shall not fail nor be crushed, till he have set the right in the earth; and the isles shall wait for his teaching.” In the darkest hour of his woe, he knew that his deathless mission elevated him to a loftier realm transcending the bounds of mortality. With the recurrence of Passover, let us reflect on our responsibility in the modern world. The life-task that Israel accepted on that first fateful Passover is also the life-task of mod ern Israel. We have become an inte gral part of the material, intellectual and social life of the world, but our primary contribution must still be in the realm of the spirit. We shall not be discharged from our mission until the whole of mankind will behold a deeper vision of life’s spiritual re quirements; until justice, liberty, truth, love and morality—the scepter of the ‘Malkut Shamayim—shall be universally enthroned on earth. Our responsibility will not be terminated until a magnificent cathedral of hu manity, with its foundation on earth but its spires embracing the heaven of heavens, will be erected as a testi mony that all the ends of the earth have come together to worship the one true, living God. Com pliments of E. E. Pomeroy Fulton Superior Court Mv Sincere Good Wishes ISAAC IN. RAGSDALE MAYOR Bes! Wishes to The Southern Israelite and My Jewish Friends Q *■ * * w ■* JOHN A. BOYKIN SOLICITOR GENERAL Atlanta Judicial Circuit Wishing all our many Friends Passover Greetings Atlanta's Greatest Entertainment! Loewis Theatres of Atlanta on These Holy Days In Memoriam of a Great Jew Marcus Loew Presenting VITAPHONE and MOVIETONE TALKING and SINGING ATTRACTIONS For Your Entertainment The Theatre movietone VITAPHONE -