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7 One for the Other by JUDY KAPPLIN See Other Sermonettee On Paces 5 and 18 There is a folk tale told of two brothers who lived on a beautiful hill many, many years ago. Both were farmers. One lived with his wife and children, farming the land on one side of the hill; the other was unmarried, living alone in a hut on the other side of the hill. One summer when the time • for gathering the harvest came, the brothers found a bountiful crop. On the east side of the hill stood the married brother looking at his sheaves of wheat. “How good is God,” he thought. “Why does He bless me with as much as my brother has? For I have a wife and children already; how many years will he have to toil? How many rich Harvests will he need to gather before he can live as I with a loving family? He needs all he can get. When my bro ther is asleep tonight I will carry some of my sheaves to his field. Tomorrow, when he wakes, he will never notice what I have done.” While the married brother was thinking this, The unmar ried brother stood looking at his fields on the west side of the hill. “God be praised.” he said. “But I wish that He had done less for me and more for my brother, for I do not need as much as my brother does. Yet God has given to me alone as much corn and grain as he gave to my brother, though my brother has a wife and many children to share his substance with him. When all are asleep, I shall place some of my sheaves on my brother’s fields. Tomorrow he will never know that he has more, or that I have less.” Thus both brothers waited. Toward midnight, each went to his own sheaves, loaded his shoulders high and turned to ward the top of the hill. And it was at midnight when, on the lone summit, the brothers met. When God saw the meeting of the brothers, he decided that upon that mountain a city shall be built to be called Jerusalem, the City of Peace, j The rabbis taught that God Himself claims as righteous the one who is good to his fel low men. Our every act affects the whole community. We can not serve ourselves alone. Eventually our family is the whole family of mankind. The emphasis of Judaism is that we must continually be thinking of others—our family, our friends, our community, and our world. If one member of a commun ity does wrong, all are affected; as a whole pile of nuts may topple if even one of them is taken. There can be no passive onlookers when injustice is be ing done. We must do every thing we can for our fellow men, even if it does mean go ing out of our way to be help ful. We are all in the same boat; all are endangered if even one takes an ax to hack a hole through which the waters will rush in, though it be only un der his own seat. Society is knit together as one, with every action of its every mem ber helping pattern the whole. Jewish teachings evoke a Keen appreciation of the result of individual action within collec tive responsibility. Everything we do separately affects our neighbors. We have an individ ual responsibility to do what is right for all concerned. Juda ism regards every action of an individual as inseparably bound up with the lot of his fellow men. Every individual is equal and equally responsible for his fal low man. Human equality as an attribute of the state means equal opportunity; human equality in religion means equal responsibility. In our world today beset by violence and uncertainties we must let our religious convic tions guide us to wisdom in our everyday relations. We must recognize that we are all chil dren of one God, in spite of our differences and that we must learn to work together and cooperate with one anoth er in the interests of peace. This country we live in was built by all the peoples of the world. Each people that set tled here made its individual contribution to American civil ization. Together our goals in life should be to practice bro therly love, and to live in peace and harmony with our fellow men. If these were the goals of all the peoples of the world, wars would be non-existent. But since the world began some men have tried to shirk their responsibility toward their fellow men. Yet today, as always, there is no escape from the fact that we are all our brother’s keepers — that all men, whatever the language they speak, whatever the shade of their skin or the slant of their eyes, whatever the path they seek to God, are depend ent on one another. Brother hood is not only a matter of principle; it is a necessity. The reality of our ever-shrinking world must prod our con sciences to be responsible one for the other. The time for rejoicing over man’s eternal quest for freedom Bailey's Supreme Coffee THE MAR-GOLD CORPORATION Extending Passover Greetings to Atlanta Jewry WERD Radio Station J. B. BLAYTON JR., Owner 330 Auburn Ave., N.E. JA. 4-0666 The Southern Israelite