Newspaper Page Text
Friday, Apr. 3, 1970
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
PANORAMA
. .... by David Schwartz '
What Is A “Yom Tov”
We read It in a Hebrew paper.
A little Israeli girl asked the
teacher why there was a Mother's
Day but not a Father’s Day. The
teacher answered that in Israel,
father has a whole month, not
just a day. The Hebrew term Ab,
meaning father, is the name of a
month.
Israel didn’t originate Mother’s
Day, but it started many other
holidays. In fact, holidays were
among the chief exports in anci
ent days, exceeding even that of
oranges or even milk and honey.
The Sabbath, of course was Is
rael’s first holiday invention.
The world Laughed when Ful
ton invented the steamboat and
it also laugh ted when Moses in
vented the Sabbath. The great
Roman philosopher Seneca said
of the Jews, mockingly, “They
spend one-seventh of their time
in idleness.” He did not realize
that rest and leisure can be like
steam, a power enabling us to
, see beyond the little things that
narrowly engage us in our reg
ular work.
Even as late as the days of
Queen Elizabeth I when the day
of rest had become part of the
general tradition, the good queen
directed the curates to tell the
people that after the church
service on Sunday they were ex
pected to return to work. There
was the general fear that if you
gave the people a bit of a holi
day, the world might come to
an end.
Some people are bored resting,
but on the other hand, there are
people who are bored at work.
So it is even. Moses saw that you
must balance one against the
other. There is an inherent
rhythm. The world is a kind of
a poem. Work and rest must be
alternated.
The Jewish holidays are a little
harder to take than the non-Jew
ish. For instance, a good Jew on
Saturday must eat gefilte fish
and delicious ohoient. On Pass-
over, he is required to drink
four cups of wine. The Fourth
of July is a kind of American
Passover, but no one forces you
to drink four cups of wine. Jews,
however, are used to suffering.
Every holiday you change your
diet, whether you like it or not—
matzos on Passover, bamentashen
on Purim, latkes on Hanuka,
dairy food on Sbavuoth. It’s ter
rible. And among some of the
Nun’s Study Shows
Oberammergau Passion
Play Distorts Gospels
NEW YORK (JTA)—The Ob
erammergau Passion Play con*
tains so many “falsifications” and
“distortions” that “even radical
changes could not appreciably
improve the distorted Gospel
events” as they are described in
the German production, accord
ing to a Roman Catholic nun who
is the director of the Center for
Biblical and Jewish studies at
the Convent of Our Lady of
Sion in London.
Sister Louis Gabriel, writing
in the current issue of Congress
bi-Weekly magazine, published
by the American Jewish Con
gress, asserts:
“After a careful comparison of
the Oberammergau Passion Play
with the Gospels, I am convinced
that the play is in conformity
neither with the truth of the
Gospel nor with the spirit of
Christ. Any representation of
these events that haphazardly
tears incidents and sayings out
of context or falsifies the mes
sage of the Gospels as a whole
does a disservice to the Christian
faith and tends to make it seem
irrelevant, not to say ridiculous,
to the men of our time.”
Oriental Jews, even the clothing
changes on the holidays. Some of
them on Passover wear coats or
shirts with extra-long sleeves.
This is symbolic of more free
dom. And of the 15th day of
Shvat, you have to go out and
plant trees. It’s not easy to be
a Jew.
And now, I am afraid, I will
have to contradict something I
said before. Actually, the Jews
have no holidays at all. They
have yom tov. Yom is “day” and
tov is “good.” So yom tov means
a good day, not a holy day. When
the Jews escaped from Pharaoh’s
bondage, it was fun, so they had
the Passover yom tov, or good
day. When the farmer in ancient
Israel finished his harvesting, he
was happy, so he had the Shav-
uoth yom tov, or good day. Even
Yom Kippur had its fun side. In
ancient Israel, on Yom Kippur,
the young women of marriage
able age would gather and sing
and dance and the young men
would look on, choosing their
partners for life. The stomach
might be empty on account of
the fast, but the heart was filled.
And one other advantage of the
system was that most of the
young people got engaged at
about the same time, so they
could get their rings wholesale.
Jews have many holidays, but
no personal holidays like Wash
ington’s or Lincoln’s Birthday.
One non-Jewish American who
was also opposed to personal
holidays was Thomas Jefferson.
When Jefferson was President,
he refused to continue the prac
tice, initiated by his predecessor,
John Adams, of calling on the
people to observe Washington’s
Birthday. Jefferson also tried to
keep the date of his own birth
a secret to prevent its celebra
tion. Such celebrations, after all,
smack of idolatry, in opposition
to the democratic system. When
Jefferson was President, he had
a round table in the White House
for his dinners, so that no one
could be said to be sitting at the
head of the table.
Jefferson was bitterly, attacked
in his day, but Jews understood
him. It was Uriah P. Levy who
saved Jefferson’s estate, Monticel-
lo, when Jefferson died. Levy
was a fighting man. He had to
fight anti-Semitism. He fought
a duel and killed his adversary.
He was In the United States Navy
and a ship he commanded des
troyed 21 enemy ships during the
War of 1812. Levy knew Jeffer
son and when Jefferson died, he
bought Monticello and proposed
to turn it into an agricultural
training school for sons at naval
officers. It never became that,
but the purchase served to pre
vent Montloello from being cut
up into building lots. It was
Uriah P. Levy who also financed
the statue of Jefferson in Wash
ington.
Copyright, 1970—JTA
3fcmtes ^cljoul,
p. O. Box 494
^iforteila, Ofjcorgia 300150
St. Jamas Day School is now accepting registra-
tions for the 1970-7J school year, Kindergarten
through nmth grade.
Acceptance is based on character, previous
school records, achievement and ability tests.
CREDENTIALS! • Established 1960 • Ga. Accredit,
mg Commission • Mid South Association of
Independent Schools • Ga. Association of In
dependent Schools • Educational Records
Bureau
GENERAL INFORMATION: * Class six, limited to
twenty students • Twenty minutes from Buck-
hoad • Interdenominational • Located 161
t-hurcn Street, Marietta, Georgio
FURTHER INFORAMTIONs • Coll James C. Clink-
scales, Headmaster • Office: 427-2689 427-
4666 • Home: 427-8253
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