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Friday, April 1*. UM
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Talmudic Treasures
OOLUORD UR SMUBD n
JACOB L. FBOCND
jflMd Antisemites, under the cover of
preventing cruelty to animals, have constant
ly made attempts in the past to prohibit the
Shechita in a number of countries in Europe,
and were even successful in certain cases.
Of these people, the prophet Hosea (XIII, 2)
sarcastically observed: “They that sacrifices
men and Mss calvesr” . . . Many of these so-
called humanitarians, in order to save an
old cat will cause many people's death or
indiscrible miseries otherwise.
It takes three years for the following to
pive birth: The wolf, the lion, the bear, the
leopard, the hyena, the elephant, the ape,
ana the long tailed ape.
There are certain individuals who became
prematurely aged: those who live on an up
per floor, a poultry raiser, and a man whose
commands are not carried out.
During the first three months of preg
nancy, the child lies in the lower part of
the womb; during the next three months it
occupies the middle part; and during the last
three months it is in the upper part. Before
childbirth, it turns over and this causes birth-
pains. Those caused by a female child are
more severe than those caused by a male.
There are three partners in evry child:
The Almighty, the father and the mother.
The father’s share consist of all that is white,
which includes the bones, veins, nails, brain
and the white of the eye. The mother’s share
consists of all that is red: the skin, flesh,
hair, and the black part of the eye. The Al
mighty’s share consists of the breath, the
soul, the physiognomy, sight, hearing, speech,
motive power, understanding, wisdom. When
man departs from the world, the Lord re
moves his share, leaving only those of the
father and mother.
R. Simlai delivered the following dis
course. What does an embryo resemble when
it is in the bowels of its mother? Folding
writing tablets. Its hands rest on its two
temples respectively, its two elbows on its
two legs, and its two heels against its two
buttocks. Its head lies between its knees,
its mouth is closed and its navel is open, and
it eat* what its mother drinks, but produces
no excrements, because otherwise it might
kill its mother. As soon, however, as it sees
the light, i.e. comes out of its mother’s body,
the closed organ opens and the open one
closes, for if that had not happened the em
bryo could not live even one single hour.
The above discourse goes to prove to what
an extent the Rabbis of the Talmud along
side with studying the Torah in its widest
form and implications were great embryolo
gists and skilled in every branch of medicine
and various sciences available in those days.
They took great pain and Job’s patience and
endurance in their minutest studies of the
laws of nature and human character.
Rabbi Judah said: “Investigate before you
give a garment to a poor man, but do not
investigate before giving him food.”
Said R. Eleazar: He who gives charity in
secret is as great as Moses the Lawgiver. .
One cup of wine is good for a woman;
two makes her disgraceful; three are de
moralizing; and four cups are brutalizing.
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
and THE BUNCO AST JEWISH NEWS
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weakly kj
Iu4 St, NX, Atlanta S,
•laaa paatai* paid at dtlimta, Os. Yearly
The Heathen Israelite la?Mee literary eeadrlbattene aai nrrsepead-
nee to la net te be indlail as torto the rtewa winnil by
Witten DEADLINE la ( rx, VBTOAT, to material received earlier
will have a much better ehanee ef publication.
Adolph Rosenberg, Editor and Publisher
Kathleen Nease, Jeanne Loeb, Joseph Redlich
Georgia Preae Aaaociatlon
EOlTOtlAL
Telegraphic
Agency
7 Arts Feateee
World
Cardinal Gibbons opposed
Bible reading in
James Cardinal Gibbons, Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Baltimore
from 1877 until his death in 1921,
would have applauded the United
States Supreme Coirt’s June, 1963,
decision, in the Schempp-Murray
case, that Bible reading in the pub
lic schools is “unconstitutional under
the establishment clause (of the
First Amencknent), as applied to
the states through the 14th Amend
ment.”
The great American churchman’s
agreement with the principle es
poused by the Court in March, 1915,
to Dr. William Rosenau, rabbi of
Baltimore’s Eutaw Place Temple
and soon to be President of the
Central Conference of American
Rabbis. The letter is among the
Rosenau Papers at the American
Jewish Archives on the Cincinnati
campus of the Hebrew Union Col-
lege-Jewish Institute of Religion.
Cardinal Gibbons, in his day the
outstanding Roman Catholic leader
in America, had been asked by a
Protestant clergyman. Dr. Wflbw
Fisk Crafts, to comment an Crafts’s
“Bible in School Plans of Many
Lands,” published in 1914 as pari of
Crafts’s Bible Stories and Poems.
The Cardinal was quoted by Dr.
Crafts as declaring that “the men
and women of our day who are edu
cated in our public schools will, I
am sure, be much better themselves
and will also be able to transmit to
their chilcken an inheritance of true
virtue and deep morality if at school
they are brought to the knowledge
of Biblical facts and teachings.”
The Cardinal’s friend, Rabbi Ro
senau, must have wondered whether
the Cardinal had meant his state
ment as an endorsement of Bible
reading in the priblic schools. When
Rosenau wrote to the Cardinal about
this. Cardinal Gibbons lost no time
in replying that he had most cer
tainly had no such intention, in his
letter, dated March 27, 1915, the
Cardinal told Rabbi Rosenau:
“In answer to your letter of the
26th inst. I would say that last
September, Mr. Wilbur F. Crafts
public schools
wrote me concerning a book ‘Bible
Stories,' asking for a friendly letter
relative to the same. I replied in a
spirit of friendship, approving as I
have always done, of the reading of
the Holy Scripture, but no mention
was made, nor was anything said
to give the impression, that I intend
ed this letter to be an endorsement
of the reacting of the Bible in pub
lic schools. As things stand 1 am
opposed to this as it gives a teacher
the opportunity to make such selec
tions and comments as may offend
the religious beliefs of the scholars
(pupils). It is an altering wedge
that might lead to great abuse.”
Cardinal Gibbons’ letter to Rabbi
Rosenau is among the extensive col
lection of material about Church-
State issues to be found at the
American Jewish Archives.
BRIEFLY . . .
NEW YORK (JTA)-Dr. L I. Rabi,
the noted American Jewish physicist
who won the Nobel Prize in 1944,
was named the winner of the 1964
Priestley Memorial Award. The
award consists of $1,000 and a por
trait medallion of the 18th century
British scientist after whom it was
named.
ISELEN, N. J. (JTA)-The second
vandalism in two weeks at the Mount
Lebanon Cemetery was reported
Sunday. Emil Miele, the superinten
dent, said eight tombstones were
overturned Thursday night. He es
timated damages at $800. In the
vandalism last week, four tomb
stones were toppled.
JEWISH CALENDAR
•8HAVUOT
Sunday, May 17, 1964
(first day)
Monday, May 18, 1964
(second day)
Comment...
Scrolls Cast Shadow on Uniqueness
of Christianity
If we now look at Jesus in the perspective aipplied
by the scrolls, we can trace a new cootinrity and, at
last, get some sense of the drama that culminated in
Christinaity. We can see how the movement repre
sented by the Essenes stood up for perhaps two cen
turies to the coercion of the Greeks and Romans, and
how it resisted not only the methods of Rone but also
the Roman ideals . . . New Testament scholars, it
seems, have almost without exception boycotted the
whole subject of the scrolls. Hie situation in this field
is peculair. It is precisely the more “liberal” scholars
in Britain and the United 9tates who have been mot*
reluctant to deal with the scrolls, for the reason that
these liberals tend to assume that the doctrines known
as Christian were not really formulated till several
generations after Jesus’ death . . . On almost any
aspect of the scrolls that demands special learning
and special research you may find, by one of these
churchmen, an acute and exhaustive study; and yet
one feels a certain nervousness, a reluctance to take
hold of the subject and to place it in historical per
spective ... On the Christian side, it is, of course,
as Dr. Brownlee says, the fear that “the uniqueness
of (hirst is at stake,” as well as a reciprocal resist
ance to admitting that the morality and mysticism of
the Gospels may perfectly well be explained as the
creation of several generations of Jews working by
and for themselves, in their own religious tradition,
and that one need not assume the miracle of a special
magnanimous act of God to allow the salvation of the
human race . . .
Edwin Wilson, from “The Scrolls
from the Dead Sea”
Auschwitz Trial—“Like an
Intractable Headache”
For the first three months of 1964, no public event
has received fuller coverage by die news media of
West Germany than the murder trial of 21-middle-
aged men. The prosecution of these former Ausch
witz concentration camp officials, now in its 16th
week, lacks most of the elements of courtroom drama
The testimony of a seemingly endless line of witnesses
adds only grim detail to a twice-told tale. There are
no major personalities in the dock in the makeshift
Frankfurt caatmoor. There is little suspense over the
verdict. Yet the proceedings in Frankfurt imperiously
command the attention of the West German nation.
Like an intractable headache, the Auschwitz trial and
other prosecutions of Nazi criminals now in progress
in other courtrooms are impossible to ignore. These
trials are a painful reminder of Germany’s "un-
mastered past,” a psychological burden that weighs
heavily upon the nation. Despite the elaborate cover
age and the packed courtrooms, the trials are not
popular. They were initiated not by a political decision
in Bonn nor by the presure of public opinion, but by
local law enforcement agencies. The Auschwitz de
fendants are being prosecuted under statutes that were
old when Hitler was bom . . . The burden on West
Germany is apparent nearly every day in Communirt
propaganda exploiting the revived memory of the past
in an attempt to estrange Bonn from its allies. The
damage at home is subtler—an increase in tension be
tween the generation that participated in the Third
Reich and their children, who are moved to demand
explanations from their fathers . . The Auschwitz
trial, by bringing the past vividly to life, tends to
increase the burden of enmity and reserve laid upon
young West Germans by their contemporaries. Yet,
paradoxically, it is these young Germans who jam
the Frankfurt courtroom and are most vocal in in
sisting that the accounts of the Nazi era be settled
down to the last eminently obedient gunman.
Arthur J. Olsen, The New York Times, from Bow
Southern Israelite’s UN Correspondent’s Office Graced by Mezuza
UNITED NATIONS (WUP)-With-
k> the entire compound of the United
Nations, In all its muMfole cham
bers, offices and halls, there’s but
one stogie spot where an Israeli Mez
uza has an honored place end where
it glares conspicuously on the wall
before all to see.
You have probably guessed. It’s
In the office of your correspondent,
Room 373, on the third floor press
section of the Secretariat Building,
an office ibared by an Indian, an
Italian and few others.
At this festive Passover season,
the period of hope when all life stirs
Itself, the Spring of the year, this
writer is moved—even here st the
UN—Into spiritual meditation over
the great event of the Exodus which
gave birth to Israel’s Feoplehood
and Faith, both of which have kv
ftmnnoi all mankind.
It to well therefore that we turn
away Ron politics and commune
on a theme impired by an unusual
gift-package the writer discovered
on his desk erev Fesacfa.
On the beantlfuHy-wrspped pack
age vas a letter from the Lube-
vitch Rebbe Menachem M. Schneer-
son, addressed to your correspond
ent. It stated, among other things:
“We are again taking the pleasure
this year of sending to you a pack
age of ‘Shmurah Matzoh' to use at
the Pesach Seder.”
Whether or not the world-famous
Rebbe was aware of the fact that
the well-guarded “shmurah-matzoh’’
was sent to the very spot within
this world headquarters where the
very symbol of our eternal faith,
the Mezuza, reigns supreme is dif
ficult to say. But the motivation and
die connection is significant The
symbolic gift held a deep meaning
for this writer.
Having thus dtedosed to you, the
render, toe matter of the Matzah
sad toe Mezuza, your recorder is
further moved to picture before you
somewhat what this little corner
from which the WUP reports go
forth regularly looks like.
First of all, behind the document-
cluttered desk, on the six-shelved
book-case, three books glare you in
the face: 1, an illustrated Polish
volume entitled “We Have Not For
gotten” depicting the Nazi butcheries
during World War II. 2. A World
Library book published by Life Mag
azine entitled “Israel” portraying
the rebirth of the Third Hebrew
Commonwealth, and 3. An Israeli-
puhlished Hebrew Bible.
Among the many other volumes
are Dr. Ben Zion Bokser’s Juda
ism—Profile of a Faith”; Rabbi Leo
Jung’s . "Jubilee Volume”; Ya’acob
Mendor's “Long Is toe Road to
Freedom,” and Rabbi Isaac Lewin's
“The Struggle Against Discrimina
tion.”
Next to the bookcase on the wall
shines forth a large poster contain
ing the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.
Among the many photographs on
the Bulletin board above the WUP
desk is one in which ymr correspon
dent is pictured talking with toe
late Raphael Lemkin, the noted Jew
ish originator of the Genocide Con
vention Your reporter is also seen
in the good company of Mrs. Golds
Meir, Ambassador Michael Camay,
the late Dag Hammarskjoki, the
late Iztcbak Ben-Zvi, Secretary-Gen
eral U Thant, Arcot Krishnaswami;
the President of the General Assem
bly Ambassador Sosa-Rodriguez and
others including Nikita Khrushchev
and Andrei Gromyko—the latter in
a rare photo taken during the 1960
shoe-pounding UN session.
Facing your correspondent directly
opposite the desk is a map of Israel
under which is a photograph of a
UN Plaza wall on which the follow
ing inscription from the book of
Isaiah is engraved: “And they shall
beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks.
Nation toall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war
any more.”
Among the newspapers readily
seen on file here are: the “B’nai
B’rith Messenger,” “The Observer,”
“The Hebrew Watchman,” “The
Jewish Standard,” “The Southern
Israelite, 1 ** “The St. Paid Jewish
News,” “The Jewish Advocate,”
"The Exponent,” “The Westers
Jewish News,” Winnipeg. Also “The
Ohio Jewish Chronicle," “The Pa
cific Jewish News,” “The Kansas
Jewish Chronicle," “The Jewish
Chronicle,” Pittsburgh; “The Amer
ican Examiner,” The “Connecticut
Jewish Ledger.”
Israel’s "Heruth daily” reaches
the WUP desk one day after pub
lication, and on hand likewise are
Rome’s “Settimenale Ebraico,”
Johannesburg’s “Jewish Herald”
among the many Jewish publications
from foreign countries.
Thus, as you see, this is a reel
Hebraic “corner” here at the UN
serving Israel’s eternal Cause, and
this, undoubtedly, is the reason
which motivated the Luhavitch
Rebbe to dispatch a package of
Matznh Shmurah to this partteulw
spot within the enormous confines
of the United Nations; Room 373,
Press Section.
Drop in and say Hello whea
you’re in New York.