Page 4 - The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, February 16,1984
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RABBI MOSES J. BURAK
QUESTION: What is the significance of bar and bat mitzvah?
The chassidic masters woiild state that bar mitzvah means son:of the mitzvah. So, when you become a bar mitzvah, you become a son of the mitzvah. And when you become bat mitzvah, you become a daughter of the mitzvah. You enter into a special relation^ ship with all the mitz-vahs.
On the other hand, when one becomes a sinner, one is called a ba'al averah, the husband of sin. A Rabbi Bonds husband may divorce his wife; and a sinner may get a divorce, or at least a separation, from sin. But a Child can never be divorced from his parents.
None of these interpretations are known to Mrs. Suzanne Brandau of Brentwood, Pa. The MiamiHeralddfFeb. 3 reports that this lady is preparing to have anopulent4-day bat mitzvah celebration for her 13-year-old English Springer spaniel, ShanaRaquel. Mrs: Brandau and Shana Raquel will be wearing matching white peaude sole, with lace and pearls. A leading Pittsburgh rabbi has stated that all this is "an affront to every single charitable and humanitarian cause."
Sir: it is an affront to our holy faith. :
The fact that the lady is wasting money is not all that terrible. The very wealthy people, if all they ate was bread and herring washed down by a glass of water, would give very little to charity. If they drove only the smallest cars, they would give no more than a five dollar bill to our charities and feel generous. It's when they live opulently that they usually give abundantly. When they drive a Cadillac or a Rolls Royce, they can drive your institution to great heights.
Besides this, the masters of the Kabbalah tell us that not everyone is given a chance to support the great causes. Just as not everyone is given the opportunity to compete in the Olympics, so is it with regards to the great charities. The Beth Din She! Ma'alah, the i Court on High, when it has some great \ mitzvah, some marvelous cause that needs i assistance, some luminous soul whose situation is critical, meets to decide if there is spmeone on earth who is worthy enough to be given this golden opportunity to do a good deed. Rare, special souls are voted the privilege of supporting Torah and humanitarian causes. Others are given the chance to support dogs and cats in a life of Opulence. That's all they can be allowed to do in this world.;
But a dog cannot become a bar mitzvah or a bat mitzvah even if he eats nothing but kosher food. In the Talmud, the donkey of Rabbi Pinehas ben Ya'ir was justly famous. The Yerushalmi, Demai, Chapter 1:3, 3B-4A, tells us that when this donkey was stolen it ate nothing for three days because the barley had not been tithed. This animal, which, was superior to many l/umans, was still an animal.
Mrs Brandauj doesn't know why her neighbors are so upset."It!s going to be such a beautiful party!" she says.
JERUSALEM [JTA] —
The state has pressed charges against Yona Avrushmi, 28, as the suspect in the murder of Emil Gruzweis a year ago.
According to the charge sheet, Avrushmi had thrown the hand grenade at the Peace Now demonstrators, with the intention—^f causing fatalities.
Avrushmi, a resident of the Neve Yaacov neighborhood of Jerusalem, was detained in the middle of January, fol-
an intensive interrogation which lasted 340 days, and ended only a few days before the first anniversary of Grunzweig's murder.
Police held another person, a soldier by the name of David Shem-Tov, suspected of having sold the fatal grenade to Avrushmi. Grunzweig was murdered at a Peace Now demonstration which demanded the full implementation of the Kahen commission report on the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
JOSEPH POLAKOFF
WASHINGTON —
A battle has developed in America's greiat centres of cultural display over the Archeology of Israel exhibit.
The Smithsonian Institute here refused to show the exhibit —-which was to have a 2-year run starting in May — because 12 of the 320 objects were in "dispute- ' even though its own curator participated in the selection.
Israel asked to withdraw the exhibit, (see CJN, Feb. 9), to which the Smithsonian agreed and the exhibit was cancelled. But not for long.
New Yorit's Metropolitan Mosenm of Art is now worldng to present
it, with President William Macofaler saying, **The oriteria is curatorial importance/*
The 12 objects in question are from the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem and the U.S. state department considers East Jerusalem
"territory occupied by Israel." More than-half the Smithsonian's budget is funded by the U.S. Treasury. _ But two years ago, the Metropolitan cancelled its own show of archebl-ogical objects at the Museum of Israel, say-
ing that it would be inappropriate to display items from the West Bank.
Macobeir says the size and dates of the exhibit are not yet set, but it is expected to open in the fall.
Pldlip Hughes, onder-secretary of the Smithsonian, aclinowledged that the Arab League, Egypt, UNESCO and James Alionrezlc, the former U.S. senator firom South Daltota, urged the Smithsonian to reject the exhibit. 1
MONTREAL-
Leaders of Canadian Jewish Congress met with NDP party leader Ed Broadbent recently to discuss some of the concerns with which CJC is vyorking on.
Milton Harris, who was accompanied by Congress executive vice-president Alan Rose and Louis LenldnskI, a mem-
ber of the CJC national executive, says the group discussed the brief which Congress had presented to Parliament concerning visible minorities, ^^particu-lariy changes we would like to see in the Criminal Code which would make it easier to prosecute people disseminating hate literature and prbr
pounding racism."
The CJC has requested that the word "wilfully" be dropped from section 281B.2 (2) of the Criminal Code, which says that an individual has to * 'wilfully promote ' hatred" before he can be brought to the courts.
Harris said that Broadbent was interested in Congress' posi-
tion concerning suspected Nazi mass murderers resident in Canada.
Congress would like to see the federal legislation to denaturalize such persons. "We spent a
great deal of time discussing this and the NDP members who were present gave our position a great deal of support."
ROLE
Too often, the role of the Government of Canada in post secondary education is overlooked. Here are several examples of Its involvement:
Student Lx>ans
Grants
The Educational Institution Financing Program
The financial cbntribution the Government of Canada makes, directly and through transfer payments to the provinces, amounts to more than 50% of the cost of post secondary education. In Quebec, for 1983-1984, the Government of Canada increased its payments to over $ 1 billion. ;
In 1982-1983, the Government of Canada guaranteed loans amounting to $300 million to 184.000 students. In March 1983, the Government of Canada added $60 million to this assistance program, raised the ceiling on loans to full-time students, offered loan guarantees to part-time-students for the first time and introduced an interest exemption plan for borrowers who are disabled or are oh Unemployment Insurance. Quebec, which administers its own program, has received $187 million in compensation since 1964-1965.
Each year, the Government of Canada awards nearly 10,000 grants totalling well over $150 million.
/-] The Official Languages /A L in Education Program (OLEP)
. The Government of Canada, through agreements with the pro-. vinceis and terTitories, provides financial assistance for minority official language teaching (English in Quebec and French elsewhere) and for teaching and practice of both official languages as second languages.
This assistance is available to all levels of the education system. Since 1970-1971. spending on this program has amounted to over $1.8 billion.
Training
In 1983-1984, the Government of Canada has allocated nearly $75 million through the Skills Growth Fund administered by Employment and Immigration Canada for the construction of new training centres and the purchase of new equipment. To leamrtiore about the participation of the Government of Canada in post secondary education, complete and mail the coupon below.
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