Plage 6 - the CanadianJewish News, Friday, October 3^ 1969
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] HEBREW CALENDAR
FRIDAYi OCTOBER 3. 1969. The 21st day of Tishrei, 5730. Hoshana Rabba (Eve of Shmini Atzeret and Simhat Torah). Candlelighting: To^ronto 6:38;Montreal 6rl4
AmTUERAnBi
*'I'd like • second opinion by a good Jewish dot tor'
Q. At a recent wedding in Toronto the readei^ at the ceremony used Adoshem for Adorti^ (the Lord) in the introductory and concluding parts of the service. Is this correct?
A. Some pious Jews use Adoshem in order to avoid the unnecessary use of the divine name. Although the word Adoshem ha5 three syllables like the divine name it is an ugly hybrid. The authorities advise instead the use of Ha-Shem (the Name) as a substitute. But this certainly does not apply in a service where the proper name must be used - and not a substitute. Your reader in Toronto was quite definitely in the wrong.
Haggards Obsession
BOOKS or THE WEEK
by Dr. Arnold Ageis
PERSECUTION
Professor George Haggar, a political science teacher, who became notorious a few years ago when he had attacked the then Prime Minister Pearson as a "Zionist", has'succeeded in arousing public opinion against imaginary persecution. His persecution complex includes profound diis-like for The Canadian Jewish News as noted in a letter to editor he published last Saturday in the Toronto Star.
Dr. Haggar also ^nt a communication to The Canadian Jewish News which is printed in this week's issue.
When Dr. Haggar launched his tirade against the "Zionists" who allegedly (together with The Canadian Jewish News) deprived him of a teaching position, this newspaper made it very clear that it does not consider such a biased professor qualified to transmit to impressionable young students h|s ideas. At that time we had had no opportunity of reading the kind of prose which Dr. Haggar now pro-duces,-$uch as the protest printed in this issue and the communication to the Toronto Star. Also, tht^^^ who heard the professor attack The Canadian Jewish News on the CTV network perhaps will agree with us that teaching political science is not a subject one would entrust lightly to a man with his obsession.
Dr. Hiaggar states that "the Jews have become the persecutors of the Arabs in the Middle East" - when and where? Did thd Jews execute the Arab Opposition leaders on the market square of Baghdad? Did they liquidate the former Iraqi gov-ernments? Do they f i g h t the Kurds? Do they create the internal problems in Lebanon and in Jordan? Did they ever execute an Arab leader? Are they behind the Al Fatah terror Which kills 'many A-rabs?
It is absolutely useless to analyze Dr. Haggar's statements or to psy-
choanalyze him. However the point ' made by us is still valid: in a democratic country universities would not ask von Thadden to teach modern German history nor can they allow a man like Haggar to interpret the Middle East. Dr. Haggar says he is a Marxist; would he be able to expound correctly the recent ukase of the M o s c o w - imposed new Czechoslovak Communist leadership? According to the new gospel from Prague, last year's invasion.of Czechoslovakia was the answer to the demand of "the Czech people". From now on "Marxist-Leninist" teachers will base their "historic facts" upon this resolution. Otherwise why does Russia need such a resolution? She did not wait for the purgeof the Czech Communist Party in order to enter Czechoslovakia and occupy her.
Knowing Dr. Haggar's political views, its probable he would accept the last resolution by the Czechoslovak Communist Party Which declared that Dubcek betrayed his people, endangered Socialism and . that i^ejovirt army last year entered CziBcHoslovakia upon the request of the Czechbslovak people, this is not ridiculous: we are living in a world where this kind of history is being taught to the young behind . the Iron Curtain and where such "facts" are repeated by all those who support the Soviet version of interpreting history.
Dr. Haggar's letters, we regret to say, confirm our position that he cannot, even if he wanted to, objectively teach contemporary history. We hope the Toronto Daily Star will now analyze the professor's record, his writing^ and then, perhaps, revise its original opinion.
Of course. Professor Haggar has every right to compare himself to Karl Marx and to Bertrand Russel. But the University presidents also have some rights-^and some obligations-towards their students.
THE PROMISE
By Chaim Potok. Alfred A. Knopf.
I can't remember a book that has occasioned such diverse critical opinion. Hugh Nissenson in the New York Times was ecstatic about Potok's sequel to The Chosen. Time magazine's anonymous book reviewer was cruel, vicious ajid sarcastic.
In reading the first 120 pages of the book I was inclined toward Time's apr praisal in that I-found the material dry and uninspired. From that point on, however, Potok's story came to life. The moral: don't put the book away because the first part appears tedious.
Potok's story Is simple. Reuven Malter is a youngish student at "Hirsch" Yeshi-vah, a modern institution where students pursue traditional talmudic lore while studying for secular degrees as well. Matter's father teaches in a Brooklyn Yesh-ivah High School and in his spare time applies the principles of scientific textual criticism to the Talmud.
Malter Senior has passed on this technique to his son, now in the final year of his smlcha (rabbinical ordination) class. Reuven is torn t>etween the dogmatic demands of traditional Talmud study (memorization and uncritical respect for the test) and his father's analytical approach.
Rav Kalman, the European born teacher of Talmud at Hirsch is the caiaiyst who precipitates a crisis inReur ven's life. A fiercely Orthodox Jew, Rav Kalman hates everything which smacks of modernism in the si<idy of Torah. During aparticularly touching scene he tongue-lashes an unprepared student because the latter had chosen to concentrate on a mathematics examination. "You must choose," demands Rav Kalman, "between Torah and mathematics!".
Ray Kalman makes it clear to Reuven Malter that he does not confer smicha merely on the tiasis of an examination.
Chalrf) (Hitbk. author The Pronilse. -
of
The candidate must also display piety and loyalty to Yiddlshkeit - which Rav Kalman defines, of course, as absolute commitment to Torah Judaism in the strictest Orthodox sense.
When young Malter is spotted one day in the library of the Zechariah Frankel Seminary (where he was checking footnotes for his father's latest treatise on the Talmud), he js summoned to appear before Rav kalman
Kalman asks Reuven to stay after class on^ several occasions to discuss the treatise and he does so eager 1 v. Malter Senior's approach was based on linguistic, grammatical and logical principles.
Reuven is chagrined to learn that Rav Kalman had used his discussions to assemble material for a review of his fathei;'s book in an ultra-Orthodox periodical. There he scores Malter senior for his heresies and tries to show that his scientific system constitutes a 'threat to Jewish survival.
Reuven's reactions are predictable. He thinks seriously about giving up his Yeshivah ordination and going on for a doctorate in philosophy. His classmates are aware of the conflict between Rav Kalman and the Malter family and are evenly divided in their opinions. Reuven can sense the tension.
smicha or how The Promise ends but I will say that there, are some surprises in store. for the reader.
In short The Promise is an enormously absorbing look into a world which most of us know little about. Reading Potok's book will be a rewarding experience for everyone.
Q. Christians, to support their doctrine of the"plur-ality" of God^ point to the Biblical use of Elohim (which is a plural form) as a term for the divinity. What is the Jewish answer?
A. Histbrically considered the plural of Elohim is to 1)0 explainedasthe sum-total of all the powers and attributes associated with, divinity. It is as if the ancient Hebrews were affirming that God alone, not the gods, possessed these. From the days of the rabbis onwards Jews have pointed out that when the Bible uses the word in reference to God (it is also •used of "other gods" - elohim aherim) the verbal and adjectival forms used with it are always in the singular. For instance, "In the beginning God (Elohitn) created (bara - singular) the heaven and the earth." The verse "Let us make man in our image" (Genesis 1, 26) is an exception (but see verse 27: "And God created man in His image").
It is generally explained either as the royal "we" or, more probably, as God consulting, as it were, with the angels. The rabbis com--ment:ihat Scripture takes the risk that "sectarians" might misrepresent the verse, because it wishes to teach men good behaviour (derech eretz), namely, that a great man should not disdain to take counsel with lesser folk. V, The questioner refers to
"Christians," but apait from the fundamentalists, serious Christian Bible scholars would not, nowadays, claim that the word represents the doctrine of the Trinity. It is now acknowledged that this arid other alleged "anticipations" of the Christian doctrines in the Hebrew Bible are grossly anachronistic
KEEP SMILING
Letters to the ?;ditor
Freedom of fhe press
lEfPROF msULT US
Despite the problems caused by the appearance of his father's book and Reuven's consorting with a known "heretic" Dr. A. Gordon from the Frankel SemuMury, (the latter's son was a friend of Reuven arid is suffering from acute anorexia) —Reuven Malter is permitted: to
"after class. TRSTatterscoldS"" schedule his smicha examin-Malter for being in such an ations.
heretical place and goes into one of his tirades against all deviations from Orthodoxy.
During the Talmudic shiur (lesson) RaV Kalman calls upon Malter frequently to explicate the text. The latter does so brilliantly and with an originality which is disturbing — because the explanations are based on scholarly observations of .the text.
Rav Kalman will have no truck with Mailer's system and tries to convince the latter that one cannot emend a text handed down from generation to generation. Malter respondsthattheVil-na Gaon did precisely that, Rav Kalman retorts that his young protege is not the Yilna Gaon.
The crisis is intensified with the pre-publication appearance of the book Reuven's father authored. Rav
The examination itself is Potok's tour de force — a gripping account of the inquisitorial session to which Reuven is subjected.
Rav Gershenson, the gentle scholar, plies Reuven with easy queries and the latter replies easily. But whfenRav Kalman begins his interrogation the tension mounts.
Reuven responds to Rav Kalman's questions by ranging far and wide over the entire Talmudical literature juxtaposing one opinion with a contradictory one. He makes observations about grammatical incongruities in one tractate and even refers to an edition of the Talmud which he had seen only in manuscript form. Throughout these remarks Rav Kalman. appears apoplectic.
I will not reveal whether Reuven Malter receives his
Last week was the 30th anniversary'of the death of the father of psychoanalysis
a
s
By
The Nazi annexation ol Austria in 1937 droVe Professor Sigmund Freud into exile in England, and here in 1938 - over 30 years ago -he published the full text of Moses And Monotheism, his last major work^
In this book Freud tried to account for the .origin isind singularity of the Jewish people. It was a work of anguish, of introspect tion and oi pride. In it he expounded four new historical propositions: - that Moses had been an Egyptian; that the religion he taught the Jews was an Egyptian one; that Moses was killed by the Jews in a riot; and that his murder gave rise to a sense of guilt, which was inherited by the Jews and accounts for many Jewish psychological characteristics.
. Not unnaturally these thes-is evoked a considerable redaction - not the least from Jews. Freud, who at first advanced these notions as a tentative speculation became, so Ernest Jones his biographer tells us, progressively more and more positive that he had unveiled the truth.
Of all Freud's works Moses And Monotheism is the most speculative and the least generally accepted. The reader notices that as the historical argument progresses the evidence gets
thinner. The first thesis -that Moses was an Egyptian - Is sui^rted with linguistic evidence and with powerful psychological deductions.
The second - that the religion he taught the Jews was an Egyptian one, the monotheistic religion of Ak-hnaton - is sustained with facts and arguments from history.
The third - that the Jews killed Moses - was originated by Ernst Sellin, a German biblical critic who based it on a verse in Hosea. Seilin's monograph, but the reference is curiously obstructive because the vital verse is not specified and Seilin's remarks are not quoted. It is doubtful whether anyone would have taken SeUin's antlsemitic textual criticism seriously, but for Freud's endorsement of it. . The fourth hypothesis -that Jews inherit a guilt complex., which drives from the hushed up murder of Moses and accounts for their distinctive psychological chiuracterlstio - seems to rest on Freud's insight alone.
In any reasoned work in which the author leans strongly on his intuition, the reader is led to speculate (especially if he has read Freud) as (q the unconscious thotlvey whch lie beneath the surface. This case is no exception. J M^es And Mo;iotheism it-
self contains one clue to Freud's possible motivation. There is a chapter entitled The Return Of The Repressed in which he explains^ with comprehension and clarity, how an idea which is rejected in youth gains mastery of the personality in maturity. He gives as one example the case of a young woman who reacts against her motheiP by being as unlike her as she possibly can, and then, once she has married and raised a family,' unconsciously models herself more and more on her moth-, , er in tastes, mannerisms and attitudes.
This cogent argument that an idea repressed in youth gains ascendancy in maturity is applied by Freud to Judaism, but, as we shall see, it also seems relevant to the theme of Moses And Monotheism itself.
Another matter which puzzled Freud in his psychoanalytic work was the intensity of the small boy^is unconscious hostility to his father, which transcends the realities of the situation. He discovered these hostile feelings both in himself and in his patients. Having expounded this component of, the Oedipus Complex, Freud went on to try to track down its origips in the early history of mankind, . ,
In Totem and faboo heatt tributed it to a primeval act
of parricide. He postulated that the social contract which marked the start of Organized society was the banding together of the young males in the primeval herd to kill and devour their father and share th^ women of the herd.
Freud thought that the customs -of totemism and exogamy which.are found in unconnected primitive societies commemorate this primeval crime. He felt that all men had unconsciously inherited feelings of guilt arising from their ancestor's supposed act of parricide.
In Moses And Monotheism Freud attributed to the Jews, and therefore to himself, a second extra dose of inheirit-ed guilt arising from a second ancient murder, though, by making Moses an Egypt-Ian instead of a Hebrew, the crime be6ame slightly, less familial.
It is strange that in his two speculative studies of the origins of. civilization : and the origins of monotheism, Freud should have presented, In an anthropological form,, two ideas which are strikingly similar to two doctrines then taught by the Catholic Church. First, that all men are cursed because of Adam's Original Sin of disobedience. Secondly, that the Jews arb a people particularly acctirsed and set apart because they killed their Saviour and will not
admit their guilt.
Freud - like the Church-sees the Jews as distinguished from other people for all time by their coUective guilt of a symbolic Act of murder committed by their anceistors and denied by them.'But instead of the Jews killing Jesus, Freud has them kill Moses, the leader and saviour of the Jewishpeople arid the founder of Judaisni. -
In his early childhood, before he was three years old, Freud was in the care of a Catholic hurse who tried to teach him Christianity. She took him to Church and taught him about hellfhre. Young Jewish children who are simultaneously subjected to both Jewish and Christian instruction sometimes confuse the figure of Jesus with that of Moses ("baby Jesus" and "baby Moses".
Later, when he went to school, Freud encountei-ed the antisemltism of the other boys. Like all Jewish boys : in a Christian environment, he must have heard and denied a thousand times over that the Jews' had killed Christ, that they were apeo-ple set apart because of heir deiclde (parricide), that hey had killed their Saviour.
As an adult Freud; was impeded in his career by antisemitlci discrimination. He was antipathetic to Jew-
EDGAR R. SAMUEL
ish dsser Vance and belief but remained a steadfast member of the Jewish community. Some other Jewish doctors bought advancement by accepting baptism. Freud refused to do so.
Freud's writings and ideas are not particularly sympathetic to Christianity. But the theory which he advanced in his old age - at fifst with apprehension and then with increashig certainty - is very like that taught by-the Catholic Church durhig Us childhood.
Can it be that the Christian doctrines which Freud rejected in his youth could so dominate his thoughts in maturity as to affect his scientific writings? Is If possible that the theme of Moses And. Monotheism is really a distorted version of the deiclde charge and itself an example of the Return Of The Repressed? It ter-tainly seems so.
In Moses And Monotheism Freud appears to have succeeded in resolving the inner conflict between the Judaism of his home and the Christianity of his environment in a way which satisfied his personal needs.
But when he came to write ^ about the infancy of the Jewish people he seems to have projected tensions of his own Infancy, onfo the history of his people.
Dear Editor:
I have been a faithful reader of The Canadian Jewish News for the past two or three years. At first, I used to regard The Canadian Jewish News as a model of hate literature, but now, I look upon it as a. form of entertainment.
Your front page headllnle; "The Truth About Haggar,"; impeHed me to read The Canadian Jewish News before dmner, whereas I usually read it after dinner for relaxation. I truly thought that at last someone was going to reveal me to me. I was disappointed however. Here are some ficts you can give to your psych(»nalyst when you visit him next time for my evaluation:
1. Haggar was elected by the HUlel Club of Toronto as parliamentary leader of the CCF-NDP in 1960.
2. Haggar taught for five years and not a single Jewish student complained about his teaching methods or the content of his lectures.
3. When Haggar was dis-riiissed by Waterloo Lutheran University, most of the students who defended him and boycotted classes were Jewish,
4. Haggar has said publicly on several occasions that he has nothing but contempt for the Arab governments and has been labeled a'' Zionist agent."
5. Haggar, as a Marxist political analyst, who taught the history of political philosophy, modern political theory and the Honors course in Canadian government, was never accused by any university, colleague or journal of being "biased" orlackhig (ia) "certain qualities required of teachers."
6. The reason Haggar Was excluded from university teaching in Canada relates much more to his role as an effective teacher and publicist than to his anti-Zionism stance.
7. Contrary to the public position ofthe Canadian Jewish Congress, the Congress has privately whispered that Haggar has a "fake" Ph.D. and the Zionist political scientists have done their utmost to deny him employment
8. Since The Canadian Jewish News thinks that Haggar is "biased" because he is anti-Israel, and therefore must not bei allowed to teach, he wonders what it would think of the 100 political scientists who published al-
j„,most a full page ad in the V Montreal Star (June 17, ,1967) in support of Israeli expansionism.
9. Although Haggar has had the best of relations with Jews in the past, he is not sure that Canadian Jewry is sufficiently sane to con'-tinue this relationship and he is beginning' to feel that
, it will be easier for him to ] obtain emjployment in Tel , Aviv than in' Toronto. 10. Haggar has in the past few years sought to establish Arab-Jewish under-
standing on the basis of Socialism not antisemltism or nationalist messlanism.
Finally, I hope The Canadian Jewish News will be kind enough to convey the above to its readeris.
Semites of all countries write, you have nothing to lose but-your Zionist shackl-
...........
George S. Haggar, Ph.D.
Toronto
COLOR SCHEME
A burly army sergeant was reading a bulletin to a group of recruits when he came to an announcement that a private had lost a field jacket the preceding day and would the finder return it to the supply room. '
An innocent voice from the ranks inquired: "What color was it, sergeant?"
ABSURD
A raw recruit was asked by his platoon leader why he wasn't patroling his post. He replied: "1 started doing it, sir, when the absurdity of marching up and down suddenly struck me."
CHALLENGE ,
A cartoon showed a young soldier and a girl riding through desert country in a jeep. There is nothing else in sight but a few cactus plants. Says the soldier to his companion: "Darling, you are the most beautiful girl around here."
KNOWS WHERE
A soldier arrived at a place of amusement a little late and after taking a ticket for a back seat, went pushing along towards the higher priced seats.
"Where are you going?" asked the usher. "Where am I going?" replied the soldier scornfully. "I'mgoingwhere every good soldier ought to go — to the front, of course."
JUST IMPATIENT
In the early days of the war, many Israeli weapons, such as grenades and explosives, were "homemade," and therefore not reliable. But 'Whenever one ^xplod^ed prematurely, Haganali men were apt to lati^h it off wifc, "They're just impatient, that's all!"
SERMON OF THE WEEK
NEW BEGINNING
Shemini Atseret Is the time for l?ave-taklng. In the days when the Temple stood, this was the day when the pilgrims that had come to Jerusalem from so many distant places would begin to make the rounds to say good-bye to each other. On the nrwr-row they would have to fold their tents and start for home again. Many of them hod mode real friendships during their few brief days of comping together. It was hard to soy good-bye. They wished each other well and sold that they hoped they would meet ogoin next year.
In the Middle Ages, Shemini Atseret became the time for a different kirid of leave-taking. This was the day when the students that hod conne home for the holidays hod to get readyto go bock to their studies in the Yeshlva ogaln. Parents knew thot the roods were dangerous. It wo$ hard for them to soy good-bye. The knowledge that their children were
3olng to leave on the morrow wos In their hearts as ley said the holiday prayers. They hoped that oil would be well.
In modern times, Shemini Atseret h<M^beconfw the time for another kind of leave-taking. The synagogue has been filled to overflowing or» Rosh Hoshana and Yom Kippur. There has been d festive spirit ollduring Succot. Now it is the lostdoy ofthe holi-doy seoson. Soon the congregotiorw w II disappear. The synagogue will return to nomnol.'Ministers find it hard to soy good-bye to their congregants.
Shemini Atseret is also the time for the recitation of the Yizkor prayer. Jews come in large numbers in. order to recapture If they con the memory of their beloved ones. They come because it is so terribly hard to say good-bye. They wont to hold on to all the precious ideals and events which they remember. i
According to the Midrosh, this is God's own mood on Shemini Atseret. During the seven days of Succot, the Jews offered seventy socrlfices in the Temple, on behalf of the seventy nations of mankind. Now God soys to them: Stoy with Me one more day. It Is hard for Me to lef you go. Let us hove just one more day together.
It is port of the good sense of Judaism that this day of multiple leove-tokings is also the day of beginning ogdin. This is the day when we recite the prayer for roin. It is the troditionol woy of telling us to think of planting-time 0$ well os of horvest-seo-• son, of turning bur thoughts to the future.
It is hard to soy good-bye. It is terribly difficult to let go of the post, but If life Is to go on, It must be done. The pilgrim must pock his tent, the istud-ent must return to his studies, the mourners must return to his duties.^ If the pilgrim has found God's glory In thejernple, then he must go home and *eek to serve Him In the fields. If the student hos en|oyed/ 0 precious visit ot his home, hetwust carry with him the spirit of his stoy. If the mourher has been blessed ^ith precious porents, then he must devote himself to becoming such 6 parent to his own children. If the book of life has been completed It Is tlitw to begin ogoin. ^ '
Shemini Atseret Is the flme for leove-toklng and for beginning ogoin. It teoches us thot post, present, and future ore united forever In the servlie of God.