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Change and Challenge
(Continued from page 6)
poverty and degradation have
hitherto prevailed. It is the Israeli
government who evidenced un
heard of altruism and self-sacri
fice which is enabling a Kibbutz
Caluyot’ to take place, the in
gathering in the Diaspora of Jews
who feel constrained to settle in
the Land of Israel. This at a time
when the economy of the country
can ill afford to absorb such an
unprecedented wave of immigra
tion.
Last but not least, it is Israel
which has revived one of man
kind’s oldest cultures. We might
bear in mind that it was only 30
odd years ago that Dr. Chain Weiz-
mann. first President of the state
of Israel and one of the founders
of Hebrew University in Jerusalem,
issued a statement about the plan
for a cultural renaissance of the
Jewish people through the medium
of such a University. This declara
tion with its penetrating prognosis
and socio-political realism, is as
pertinent and valid today as it
was on the day it was written a
generation ago. Dr. Weizmann said
then: “It seems at first sight para
doxical that in a land (i.e., Pales
tine) with so sparse a population,
in a land where everything still re
mains to be done, in a land crying
out for such simple things as plows,
roads, and harbors, we should be
creating a center of spiritual and
intellectual development. But it
is no paradox for those who know
the soul of the Jew. It is true that
great social and political problems
still face us and will demand their
solution. But we know when the
mind is given fullest play, when
we have a center for the develop
ment of Jewish consciousness, then
we shall attain the fulfillment of
our material needs.”
We Jews are enjoined to enter
upon the New Year in a contem
plative mood with a feeling of in
trospection. As a realistic people
•vhich must objectify and not de
lude itself, we must be fully aware
of the many obstacles which are
harrassing the infant state. Mass
migration, housing conditions and
the psychological adjustments of
the DP arrivals are creating many
vexing problems in Israel. The re
conversion from war to a peace
time economy, normally a Her
culean task, is being made infinitely
more complex by the indetermi
nate character of the period be
tween armistice and peace.
Yet out of the maze of our con
flicts, and out of the very malaise
which seems to grip us, we pray
to God, on the High Holy Days for
two desiderata: Life and Unity,
Continuity and Oneness of Objec
tive. In our Liturgy we recite,
“Remember us unto life and in
scribe us in the Book of Life, so
that we may live worthily for Thy
sake.” Elsewhere we also pray:
“May all Thy children unite in one
fellowship to do Thy will, with a
perfect heart.” To the Jew, life
takes precedence over everything
except life itself, and what invests
it with dignity. The emphasis on
life and not death is the leitmotif
of the High Holy Day prayer book.
We refuse to acknowledge in
superable obstacles, the word Im
possible. even death itself. We be
seech the Lord for the opportunity
to ‘“Unite” to effect God’s king
dom on this earth. There is no
death from the Jewish point of
view.
We know that those who lived
yesterday are bound up in the bond
of Eternal Life, which in a sense,
is the historic continuity and sur
vival of our people. The final rest
ing place of our Jewish Service-
ment who personified the gallant
struggle of a people which lost six
million cf its martyrs in espousing
RABBI SHAPIRO
the cause of a victorious United
Nations against Nazi tyranny, is in
‘Beth Ha Hayyim', the “House of
Life.” This ‘House of Life’ is the
post-war revival of our Jewish peo
ple through the re-establishment of
its historic homeland in Israel, un
cannily paralleling the resurrection
of Israel in Ezekial's vision of the
“Valley of the Dry Bones.”
Being a people committed to
life, we seem by our very existence
and continued survival to reflect
the philosophy of the Psalmist who
in paraphrase echoed the follow
ing: We shall not die nor suffer
extinction and go the way of all
flesh like other nations, but tee teill
live, create, sing the praises of the
Lord and outlive our persecutors.
With this philosophy so deeply
imbedded in the Jewish fiber, we
have in the past and still can today
defy death, the laws of nature
and those bent on our destruction.
With us the past is not merely a
study of archaelogical findings, fos
sils, or the dead past. To Jews our
history, our literature, our sacred
writings are the living past which
exacts its share of life in the pres-
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