Newspaper Page Text
Pag* Two
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, July 26, 1968
I
OFF THE RECORD by Nathan Ziprin
Hassidim and Hippies
(A Seven Arts Feature)
IN MY OPINION . . .
A recent feature story in the
New York Times depicts a Luba-
vitcher hassid standing sur
rounded by hippies in Washing
ton Square Park in the heart of
Greenwich Village land offering
them redemption from their
troubles through the expedient
of putting on tfillin. Furthering
the mitzvah campaign was a
placard bearing the motto “Tfil
lin on the spot for people on
1±W 8°-” l
And one of the leaders of the
Iyybavitcher movement, a rabbi,
■yyent ; even further with his
blandishment?. He was reported
to haye told the young men who
“are searching for mystic ex-
S eriences” in LSD and pot that
ie Lubavitcher offered them
ipysticism instead.
| I am reluctant to copiment on
the propriety and dignity of pro-
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LADIES’ and MEN’S HATS
moting tfillin in the way of the
hawkers, but I cannot resist re
acting to the Rabbis formula
tion.
No one can accuse this writer
of being hostile to hassidism. His
record on that score is an open
book. Not only is he a devotee
of one of the leading hassidic
rabbis in the country, but his
elder son in a way is one of the
Lubavitcher hassidim, having
made a number of nocturnal pil
grimages to the Lubavitcher’s
abode and having cultivated
mari^ tit the young bearded as
his ctose friends.
That is why this writer was
shocked at the attempt to seem
ingly equate the effectiveness of
hassidism, Jewish mysticism,
with such external stimuli as
LSD and pot as elements in the
quest for mystic experiences.
Hippies who were in Wash
ington Square Park told me if
the Jewish mysticism they
were being offered was a sub
stitute for the mystic experience
they were seeking in drugs, it
only confirmed the sameness of
purpose in both media. However,
one confided he was prepared to
accept the rabbi’s offer only be
cause “it seems to presuppose
that religion is a happening—
and we hippies proliferate in
happenings.’
Another hippie told me what
the rabbi said was only witness
By DAVID SCHWARTZ
Copyright 1968, Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, Inc.
The sit-ins at the colleges seem
to be something new. The old
time idea under which previous
generations labored was that one
went to college to get an educa
tion, but today we are begin
ning to learn that it is the college
presidents and faculty who need
tbe education, not the students.
The students proceed to occupy
the president’s quarters, refusing
to be moved and after a few
weeks, the president is educated.
The hible shows some premo
nitions of the idea. It is written,
“Out of the mouths of babes
cometh wisdom.” The old has
sidic rabbis seemed to understand
that it is often the teachers and
not the pupils who get the edu
cation. There is the story of a
man who asked a Hassidic rabbi
whether he should become a car
penter or a teacher. “Better,” said
the rabbi, “to be a teacher, be
cause then you may have a bright
pupil and you will learn many
things from him.”
Even the sit-in is mentioned in
the Talmud. Well, if not the sit-in,
then the stand-in. The basic idea
is the same. It is ,told in the Tal
mud in connection with Choni
Hamagel, the great rainmaker of
Talmudic times.
Recently we read same reports
of Israeli scientists experimenting
in rainmaking — using the new
method of seeding the clouds with
chemicals. The reports showed a
degree of suocess. It was said that
an increase of ten to twenty per-
to the hippy thesis that the use
of drugs was a religious experi
ence. “What happens,” he asked,
“if a hassidic cat fails to reach
in and out in a moment of re
ligious ecstacy Should he then
take pot?” A third one told me
that hippies basically were re
ligiously motivated and if he
thought the rabbi’s offer of mys
ticism held the key to his reach
ing out he would try it. A fourth
one fell into the atheistic chant
that religion was an opiate, but
that he preferred the real thing
for that substitute.
It is obvious of course that is
not what the Lubavitcher
spokesman meant when he of
fered one form of mysticism for
another. In fact, hassidism
equates more properly with pi
etism than with mysticism. But
since words must be used cau
tiously, especially by the sage,
the dangerous equation project
ed at the Washington Square
fair, for that is what it was,
could do more harm than good.
I would never have believed
it that a student of hassidism
could present so simplistic a
view of that radiant movement
in Jewish religious life.
After having said all this, I
am willing to concede that the
effort to reach out religiously
toward the long-haired children
of space, as the new generation
of beatniks is now known, has
cent in the rainfall was obtained,
by this process.
In Talmudic days, there was
not this scientific research. When
there was a drought, the people
resorted to prayers. Some people
had the reputation of being able
to obtain more rain by their pray
ers than others. The man who was
deemed the most successful was
the saintly Choni Hamagel.
Any time there was a shortage
of rain, the people would come
to Choni Hamagel and ask him
to pray for rain. Ghoni was so
successful that Simon ben Shet-
tach, his Talmudic colleague, crit
icized him. He told Choni that if
he were not so good a man, he
would excommunicate him. Choni,
he said, acted like a pampered
child, who says, “Give me nuts,
give me sweets, give me fruit.”
And God, like a good Father, al
ways gave him what he wanted,
but it was not respectful to God.
Choni Hamagel was conscious
of these criticisms, and he became
reluctant to use his intervening
influence. But one time after a
long drought, Jews came to him
saying he must pray for rain or
there would be no wheat or bar
ley to eat and no grapes for wine.
Choni acceded. He prayed to
God for rain, but there was no
rain. Choni realized that he must
make a firm stand. “God,” he ex
claimed, “I will not move from
this spot until rain comes.”
Little drops of water then began
to fall.
Choni raised his voice again.
“Sovereign of the Universe, let
the rain fall in quantities that
may make the crops grow and
there be no famine in the land.”
The rain then began to descend
in buckets. There was a veri
table flood which could be as
devastating as drought. The peo
ple came rushing to Choni to ask
him to pray to God to stop the
rain.
Choni disliked doing that. He
thought it was not right to pray
for the end of a good thing, but
finally, he prayed that the rains
might cease and the waters
stopped.
The moral is—that it was
Chroni’s “stand-in,” his refusal
to move from the spot that pre
vailed on Heaven.
But there is one difference. In
the case of Choni Hamagel, God
knew what he wanted, but in the
case of some of the college sit-
ins, we sometimes wonder if even
God knows what they want.
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its merits, if only as an attempt
to offer them another choice in
their striving to uncover con
cealment. The goal of these chil
dren, if you listen to them, is
God. The only trouble is of
course that they go the way of
all children, and the way of
children is often not the most
apt or true way of reaching God.
But its better than no way.
How do we know that is so?
All we have to do in order to
know is to talk to them. Their
one concern, they tell you, is to
expand their minds, via drugs
and sedation, so as to ascertain
if not the presence of God, then
at least the presence of his con
cealed structures.
It would seem then that offer
ing them mysticism as a pan
acea for their world of confusion
is a mystifying remedy. What
these children need is a path
to reality, not a diversion from
the substance of life. Their ma
laise is eternal dreaming. What
they need is reawakening.
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