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The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, May 22. |986-Page 7
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DAVID BIRKAN
The yahr/.eit of Rabbi Meir the Baal HaNess — miracle worker — is observed annually at his Tiberias lakeside tomb on lyar 15 (May 24 this year); The; briHiant and bold co-compiler of the Mishna is revered by Sephardim and Ashkenazim ■ alike. ' ,■;. ..\\
The Roman emperor Tiberius biiilt the Galilee city in his name about the,year 15 CE on the site, of an ancient biblical town.' Its iianie. predominantly pagan population, hot baths spa reputation, and apparent foundation on ancient graves did not btxie Well for Tiberias becoming one of Jiidaism's four hoi): cities. Yet Jews. except for cohanim. began' to settle there from the start. Reservations were swept away a century later when scholar-mystic Shimon Bar Ypchai ritually purified Tiberias. The Sanhedrin. Jewish supreme court, exiled from Jerusalem by the Romans, made its headquarters there, for the next 500 years. Tiberias's sages compiled the Mishna and Palestinian Talmud and established the cantillatiori and vow-el pqint.s used in chanting and pronouncing biblical text.
Merr. whose career spanned the second half of the 2nd century, was said.to have been a descendant of proselytes., He was tht formbst student of the generation's leading sages. Akiya. Ishmael and Elisha ben Abuyah.
The Mishna is the first/majorhalachic compilation, regulating in its six orders public and personal duties of Jewish life according to the Oral Law. Each order is divided into tractates on specific topics, into cliapters, and finally into paragraphs called mishnayot — aphorisms and comments by various authorities, oftien contradictory, thrown together for verbal resolution, The Palestinian Talnuid is based on the Mishna, and the Babylonian Talniud on both.
Where statements in the Mishna are not attributed, says the Talniii'd. they "represent the view oj" Meir followingAkiva,"' His anonymity was the result of suppression by Shimeon ben Gamliel. the official Sanhedrin head who resented Meir-s popularity and sometimes arrogant brilliance. Meir's Mishna formed the basis for its final version, compiled by Judah HaNasi. The name Meir means illuminator./
Meir was outsjxikcn in his emphasis oh .study. , as the following .suggest:. • A mam/.er(bastard). who is a scholar takes precedence over a cohen gadol (high priest) who is.ignoraiu: • to marry one's daughter off.io an ignoramus i.s like: laying .her bound in front of a lion: Whoever forgets . one word of the Torah is accounted by Scripture a.s .if he had forfeited his life.:
. When Elisha benAbuyah suffered a crisis of faith and renounced Judaism. Meir was the only sage, who persisted in seeing him. His attempts.to per-suade.his former teacher to repent served as more grist for the mills of Meir's opponents. Meir did not giye up. The Talmud says that in the end Meir's prayers saved Abuyah from the fires of hell.
Meir's wife Beruriah was herself a paragon of scholarship and wisdom, and quoted in Talmud discussions. Their twin sons died one Shabbat afternoon when Meir was in shul. She laid them out on their beds and wailed for his return. She confronted Meir with an halachic query: what to do with jev^'els that a neighbor deposited wiih.her and now wanted back. "Give them back, of course," was his immediate response. She then led him to; the boys. Together they recited the vindication of, God's justice that has accompanied Jews ever since: "The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed: be the name of the Lord forever more." . Meir earned the name miracle Worker when he rescued his calptured sister from a Roman brothel. He bribed its keeper and assured him of safety from Roman retribution by calling out."Oh God of Meir, answer me.!" The man cried this out on the .gallows: the Roman magistrate slopped the execution for an explanation. He was released, and Meir sought for arrest.
.. Meir had to flee the Holy Land, and was returned only after the end of his life for burial.
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Ottawa VIPs give Caravan
By
DAVID LAZARUS
OTTAWA -
Jewish Students' Network's cross-country "Freedom Caravan" will reach Vancouver in four days (May .26), clima.xmg a 6,000-kilometre, :16-City . coasl-lo-coast jouj-ney for .Soviet Jewry:
American Network coun-lerpiartsare also expected to come to the \yest. Coast to join the Caravan contingent of some 50 participants at Expo 86's Soviet pavilion. There they hope to present officials with a petition signed by an anticipated 2.000 . t izcns, including politicians, from. across; Canada ■ protesting the treatment of.Sbviet Jews.
Since the Ciaravaii bus left Halifax on Mother's Day —May IL— the students are also distributing a "Mother's Day Card" with the inscription "Mother Russia — let my children go."
The students arrived in Ottawa last.\yeek on Israel Independence Day — coin-cidentally; Soviet Union Day at Expb 86. They were met on Parliament Hill by members of Parliament and city officials; The sluderits. ^numbered 1.5 at this point in their journey.
John Oostrom (PC-WiW lowdale) relayed a message froni Prime Minister Brian . Mulrdney praising N'et-w'ork for its "unbending commiiment" to the cause of Soviet Jewry, and pledging, support for • :the Caravan's objectives..
He also stated that the government would continue its polity to "^speak out frankly about what we perceive to be pervasive abuse of basic civil, cultural and religious rights."
Another Conservative. M P DaVid .Ki 1 gour. head of the 283-member.Canadian Parliamentary Group for Soviet Jewry, told the students that the situation of .Soviet Jews has worsened since Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet leader.
"Orwell's 1984 is more alive than ever,'' Kilgour. said. Improved Canadian-USSR relations depends on the undoing of the terribje damage. There can be no easing of pressure. Your cause is right and your timing: is:excellenti"
Kilgour, who is from Edmonton, also brought Network's petition into Parliament where it was signed by 49 hiembers prior to question period.
Messages of support were also delivered by New Democratic Party House leader Ian Deans and Liberal MP Robert Kaplan on behalf of their respective party leaders,
Ed Broadbent and John Turner. ,•
"All parties^areunilTcd." said Kaplan, "irijhe wish for the USSR to live up \o inter4iational ]igrecments. Human rights, is not a domestic, matter."
At the Caravan's next stop at city hall; Deputy Mayor Mike McSweency proclaimed Soviet Jewry . Day in Ottawa on behalf of Mayor Jim Durrell. The Israeli. flag was flown on the flagpole outside the city
.hall...,
CityVcouricilors Mark Maloney. George Brown. Jacque!ine Holzman and Nancy Siinith all signed the; petition and offered messages of supfxirt and encouragement. They also presented the students with a flag of the city and pins.
The official agenda Concluded with a vigil at the Soviet embassy. About 50 protesters carrieii out a mock funeral at the site, which swarmed with RCMP and Ottawa police, on the occasion of "the death of the Soviet constitution."
Network's Steve Shul-man said that he hoped that the constitution would not rest in peace, but become "the living document it is supposed to ■.be."- ■^,
Kilgour joined Caravan co-chairman Elj Cohen and Leora Silver in attempting ; to deliver the petition at the embassy gate biit there was no response when they rang the doorbell. ■
Also joining the vigil was Ra.bbi Reuven Bulka of Congregation Machzikei Hadas in Ottawa.who .sug-gested that, the Vancouver ;Expo be renamed Expose 86. in light of Soviet viola-, tions of human rights.
Later in the evening, the Caravan contingent was hosted by Ottawa's Jewish Community Centre at a Yom Ha'atzmaut dinner! with Israeli AmbaS.sador
Eliashiv Ben-Horih' Caravan members left.the next day for Kingston. ■
The freedom Caravan began its trck^across Canada following thOarrival of participants, flying in from Toronto.
The Caravan left Halifax with 15 students, imst from Toronto.Before leaving on theirjoumey. they tix)k part in a rally with 1()Q studenisV At the second .stop. Monc-ton, they look part in a cbm-munity prograiti and pre-.scnted a video on Soviet Jewry; In Quebec. City, meetings were held; with members of the small Jew-
ish Community and a pro-gi^ani oii Soviet.Jewry was^ organized.
They arrived in Montreal., the same day. and participated in a baseball game tor Soviet Jewry and a demoristratiori in front of the Soviet con,sulate. Canadian Jewish Congress hosted the students at a dinner and Ghabad House accommodated them overnight before their departure for Ottawa. ■ ■
At the ba.seball gaiiicheid in Hampstead Park, home plate was.dubbed Israel r-^ the nnal destiristion dreamed of by Soviet Jews. • ; At overnight stops, stu--
dents have been eithei^bill-cted with Jewish farnjiies or " put up in Jewish community centres.
Some participants have joined for the entire route and some for only an intci"-city stretch, but organizers ai'e corifident the bus will be full when it reaches Vancouver. .
vSilver told The CJN that reaching comriiunitics less aware of the.plight of Spvict Jewry was.one of the niain motives.in organizing the Freedom Caravan tour; .
"We can reach put and touch communities who don't normally have the access." he said;
. By MARK DODICK
TORONTO -
As The CJN goes to press, the Network Freedom Caravan For Soviet Jewry has just pulled into tht city bringing it.s message pfhope and protest for Jews caught behind the Iron Curtain.
■ Coming from a" fantastic reception biy the Kingston Jewish community," the students assembled under pvercast skies and in a c.oolevening breeze on the front steps of the Ontario legislature: :
Between large pictures of Ida Nudel and Anatoly Scharansky .they spread a banner reading:. "" 1 Free 3.000.000 to go."" ■ "This is not a partisan issue," said cabinet minister MPP Elinor Caplan; "We speak with one voice saying freedom, justice and when will thev be freed ?"^
V One. two, t h ree. fou r, open up the iron door. Five. six. seven, eight, let our people emigrate."' the demonstrators chanted.
The posters they carried bore m.essages like: If not now- when ? and Soviet Policies equal. Cultural Genocide.
Caravan participant. Lev Mittelman. a Mo.scow-born Israeli now studying at Rverson Polytechnical Institute told The CJN: "It's very important to convince the West to be aware of the situation in the Soviet Union. Hopefully it will open the gates again as in the 76s.'■. ^; ..
Students Wearing all black of-stfiped prison p\j-amas' and wearing name lags of Prisoners of Conscience carried out a mock funeral for the Soviet constitution.
"The spirit of the constitution has died," said Caravan participant
Steve Shulman. Its articles guaranteeing freedoin do not apply to Jews, he . said, r
■ '^Canadian.s are not going to rest until we.finish this freedom niarch." said MP Bill Attewell. He promised to press the issue of Soviet Jewry later this year when he visits the United Nations.
. Caravan co-chairmen Leora Silver and Eli Cohen
. are plea.sed with the trip ,so far. but want community support to grow as they move across the country. .
"We have a group of future leaders of the Jewish community. We've become an efficient group." says Silver. After spending the Sab-
. bath in Toronto, the students were scheduled to head out for Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay and Winnipeg where The CJN picks them up again: Complete coverage is to follow in future issues.
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