Newspaper Page Text
Friday, June 3, 1949
THE SOUTHERN
ISRAELITE
f
Page Three.
I
PANORAMA by David Schwartz
SHABUOTH REFLECTIONS
Shabuoth is a major holiday
and yet as I look back to
' younger years when holidays
make a greater imprint, it
seems to me that the impres
sion left by Shabuoth is very
minor.
There was so much ado about
Passover, when you ate Mat-
zoth; on Purim, you ate hamen-
tashen; on Chanukah you got
special latkes; on Yom Kippur,
you didn’t eat at all ... I don’t
recall that we ate anything
special on Shabuoth or not.
Perhaps there is something
unique in the Shabuoth diet
also, but the fact that it is lost
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in my memory is significant.
Nevertheless, Shabuoth is an
important holiday. It commem
orates the giving of the Law.
What could be more important
than that.
Mr. Sinai is a very small
mountain as mountains go.
Anyway, such mountains as the
Alps or our own Rocky Moun
tains would consider Sinai very
small fry. Why didn’t God
speak His word from same
higher peak? Why didn’t He
send His thunderous word from
the Alps or Himalayas?
The answer, said the Jewish
sages, was that God chose Sinai
just because it was a small
mountain. The Lord loveth the
humble. But the Lord also
seems to love those not so
humble. The Talmud has it that
"chutzpah” is effective even
against God. Somehow we have
to reconcile both of these ex
treme poles. There is a beauty
about true humbleness but
there is also a great deal to be
said for “chutzhah” sometimes.
I suspect that deep down,
there imay not be as wide a
chasm between these two qual
ities as first appears. Perhaps
the person who has the real
quality of humility—not the
phony quality—is able to ap
praise all things in truer per
spective, and when audacity is
required the modest man turns
daring. The lamb, as it were, is
transformed into a lion. Any
way, things like that happen in
those movie cartoons. You eat
a little spinach and lo and be
hold, you are a different per
son. I suspect that this type of
movie cartoon is popular be
cause we vaguely suspect that
we, too, have this power of
self-transformation.
Was not the basic thought in
the giving of the law which we
commemorate on Shabuoth this
very idea that npn can mould
himself anew? Science shows
us that the world can be made
anew, that almost any kind of
transformation in the physical
world is possible. Yet it is
commonly thought that men
tally and spiritually we are im
mobile, unalterable. That which
is the livest thing in us—our
psyche—is regarded actually as
the deadest, for only the dead
cannot change.
The Torah given on Mt.
Sinai was a challenge to this
idea. It said, not only may we,
but we must change. That is the
essence of all good religion.
Shabuoth not only marks the
giving of the Law but it is also
an agricultural festival, a har
vest festival. Do read the Book
of Ruth on this holiday, because
this book of the Bible seems to
mirror the ancient Jewish
husbandry as no other. Ruth
gleaning the ears of wheat and
barley—that was possible in
ancient Israel, It wouldn’t be
possible in any of the modern
countries, which are supposedly
more civilized.
Suppose you were hungry
and, seeing somebody’s apple
trees or wheat field, went in to
do a little plucking for your
self. Suppose you even try to
go to some big stretch of un
used woods, you will see signs:
No Tresspassing. And if you
tried to pick some apples or to
matoes from a worked piece of
grouid, you would find yourself
in the caboose. But Ruth took
no chances in doing so, for the
Torah given on Sinai command
ed the Jew to leave corners of
his field unharvested, so that
anyone in need might come and
help himself.
The Book of Ruth is also a
kind of treatise in intro-cultural
or interracial relations. Ruth
herself was not a Jewess, but
wap welcomed nonetheless.
Ruth is just a fine girl, and fine
people do not find dogmas or
race any obstacles to friendship.
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LAmar 1371
Press Attacks Greek Foreign Office
For Naming Jew as Agent to Israel
ATHENS, (JTA)—The Greek
Foreign Office said this week that
it had requested acceptance by the
Israeli Foreign Office of Joseph
Mallah as Greek “diplomatic
agent,” and not as ambassador. A
spokesman for the Foreign Office
told the Jewish Telegraphic
Agency correspondent here that
as soon as normal diplomatic rela
tions between Greece and Israel
are established, an ambassador of
Greek origin would be designated.
Mallah is Jewish.
The Foreign Office statement
came after the press of all political
parties, particularly the Conser
vative newspaper Estia, expressed
opposition to Mallah’s appoint
ment. Estia assailed Foreign Min
ister Constantin Tsaldaris for hav
ing appointed a Jewish merchant,
“who does not even have a Greek-
sounding name,” to protect Greek
Orthodox interests in Israel. It
described this appointment as an
“international scandal.”
“It is absurd that Greece, the
only free Orthodox Christian
country, should be represented by
a Jew of non-Greek origin,” the
paper asserted. It also stated that
the Israeli Government had ob
jected to the appointment of a
Jew as Greek representative in
order to avoid misunderstandings.
The paper appealed to the Holy
Synod of Greece to intervene and
“put an end to this degradation
of our faith.”
The Green Foreign Affairs Min
istry said that Mallah’s name had
been proposed to prove that the
Greek Government made no dis
crimination of “nationalities.”
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