Page 6-The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, October 12, 1989
M-T
DAVID BIRKAN
The Sukkot period, begining the evening before Oct. 14 this year, culminates in communal prayers celebrating the advent of the hopedrfor rainy season in,Isjrael. Central to these is a poem by 8th-or 9th-century Holy Land paytan (religious poet) Eleazer Ben Kalir, which associates water with pivotal events in the formation of the people of Israel. ^ . '
^ Cd\kA/ZechorAv (Remember bur Father Abraham), the poem is chanted in synagogues both in Israel and in the Diaspora during the latter part of the Sherhini Atzeret morning services. It and an introductory shorter poem, Af Bri (the name of God's immediate dispenser of rain) are among some 200 of Ben Kalir's surviving piyuttim, many adopted in Tisha B'Av and festive liturgy. Based on midrashie and talmudic legends, they are rich tapestries of complex language and imagery woven together by rhyme. Ben Kalir, about whom little is known personally, is said to have pioneered the use of rhyme in Hebrew religious poetry-
The prayer for rain is said at the conclusion of Sukkot and not at the beginning, according to tradition, in order Jo allow pilgrims, celebrating the feistival in Jerusalem's Temple the chance to makie their way home unimpeded by downpours. Recalling YomKippur, the prayer is recited with a special plaintive melody, and the shaliach tzibbur (chazzan or other congregational reader) wears a kitiel. The latter is a sober white garment reminiscent of burial shrouds.
While Af Bri may be "th? prince of rain, who gathers the clouds and maJces them drain," it is to God directly that prayers are directed. "Revive those who praise Thy powers of rain," the introductory poem concludes. It is "Thy" and not AfBri's powers that are stressed.
Abraham's test
Zechbr Av recalls that Abraham, "was drawn after Thee "like water," and blessed ;Mikea tree planted hear streams of water." One of the tests of Judaism's founding patriarch's faith involved a severe drought — the withholding of water — thai temporarily forced'him out of the Holy Land.
Ben kalir continues' "Remember Isaac.'' His birth was foretold "over ai little water," offered by Abraham to the three visiting angels. "Thou-didst tell his father to offer his blood like water," for apparent sacrifice. "Remember Jacob, who, staff in hand, crossed the Jordan's water" in flight from Esau, on his way to found the Jewish dynasty. "When he wrestled with the angel of fire and water'* on his return, -'Thou didst promise to be with him through fire and water."
^ "Remember Moses in an ark of reeds drawn out of the water. . . Hfc provided the flcick with water. When Thy chosen people thirsted for Water" in their desert trekto\yards the Promised Land, "he struck the rock and there gushed out water." Also, "remember the High Priest who bathed five times in water" during the course of the Temple Yom kippur service, "and sprinkled purifying water.''
,The piyyut continues; "Remember the 12 tribes Thou didst bring across the water" in the miracles of the Reed Sea. "Thoudldst sweeten for them the bitterness of water," at Marah4CMlrink^"For Thy sake their, descendants split their blood Tike water." By Ben Kalir's time, the litany of communal and individual sacrifices involved: the wars, against the Ganaanites and the Philistines, includ-: ing Samson's destruction of the Philistine temple; the fall of the First and Second Teihples; the Maca-bees' battle against the Grecp-Syrians; the Bar .'Kochba and other revolts, la;rge and small, against the Rom^s, and.the many martyrs associated with ; them; niassiye anti-Jewish.rioting and slaughter in Cyrenaica and Alexandria; and rising persecution by Christianity and already by Judaism's other newly risen daughter, Islam. And much was yet to come.
Separating each verse is the plea: "For their (orchis) righteousness's sake, grant abundant .water." ,
The prayei' recognizes that 'Thou art God who causes the wind to blow and the rain to fail." Rain is sought-l' for a blessing, and not for a curse; for life and not for death; for plenty, and not for scarcity;" Out of season or-too much rain brings on disaster.—■ .r\-\-"
A distinct spiritual dimension is also seen in the prayer for rain. The cyclical readingjof the Torah, which is called the Jews' water of life, is concluded and immediately begun again at this time in Israel; one day later ih the. Diaspora.
JERUSALEM (JTA) -
Rabbi Moshe Ze'ev Feldman. leader of the Agudat Yisrael party's Knesset faction, resigned last week as deputy minister of labor and social affairs.
He said he was quitting because of the government's failure to carry out pledges on religion-rejated issues. ,
But political observers do not expect the five-member Agudah faction to desert the coalition government.
Although Feldman ran the Labor and Social Af-
fairs Ministry, its titular head is Prime Miriistej/ Yitzhak Shamir.
The ultra-Orthodox Agudat Yisrael has belonged to Likud-ied cisali-tion governments since 11917, but has always declined full cabinet responsibility, for ideological reasons. That may be changing, and some observers believe Agudah will demand a full cabine^_replacement for Feldman:
The * speculation has.
been linked to the name of industrialist Avraham Shapira, who headed the Agudah Knesset faction until 1988, when he stepped aside for Feldman. Both men represent the Gur Chasidic movement, which is the largest single bloc in the party.
Shapiro can be appointed a cabinet minister, but not a deputy minister, without being a Knesset member.
Feldman, a yeshiva dean from Bnei Brak, is expect-
Rabbi Avraham Shapira
' ed to stay oil' in the Knesset. But he has b^en visibly unhappy during his brief political career.
In his letter of resigna-tim, Feldman dwelt on "spiritual reasons." He accused Likud of failure to keep promises on matters such as "immodest" advertising and the inclusion of some religion in the curricula of the secular school system.
Hedismissed speculation that Agudah might accept a cabinet seat. "Our sages will not allow it," he said!
U.S.
grants to
JERUSALEM (JPFS)-
TheU.S: Agency for International Development (AID) has cancelled its grants to two Israeli reli-
Tokyo
concerns
JERUSALEM (JPFS) -
The Foreign Ministry has expressed ''regret and disappointment" over Yasser Arafat's official visit to Tokyo and his meetings with Japanese heads of state.
But ministry officials maintained that the visit does not indicate any shift in Tokyo's long-held Middle East policy. Japan has long recognized the PLO and the Palestinian demand for an independent state, but it has not recognized the self-declared state of Palestine.
Foreign Minister Moshe Arens is scheduled to visit Japan next month, and some Japanese media reports have alluded to a link between his visit and that of Arafat. The Japanese Foreign Ministry, however, has assured Israel that such a connection does not exist.
Regrettable and ointing
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yosef Amihud said Monday that" 'the Japanese government's statements of its wish to fill a positive role and contribute to peace in the Middle East are always, welcome in Israel..Therefore, Arafat's invitation to Japan and his meetings with the heads of state are regrettable and disappointing.. . ''His visit cannot contribute to the peace process, Rather, it strengthens an organization which,, in contrast with Japan's stated policies and its goals, believes in terror and violence, including, in the not top distant past, terror . against Japan itself, and in the present, against Palestinians who express themselves in .support of a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict."
gious institutions amid claims that the funding infringed the U.S. constitutional separation of state and religion.
The action, at the insistence of two U.S. congressmen, evidently scotched hopes for a $1.5 million grant which had been approved for the Sha'alavim Teachers* College and a half-million dollar grant for the American College of Belz;
Rabbi Ma'le Galinsky, director of the Sha'alavim college, located on a kib-
butz identified with Poalei Agudat Yisrael, said his institution received $400,000 from AID in 1987. He had read press reports of the objections after the grant had been approved, but he had not received formal notification of a definite cancellation and could make no comment, he said.
But Rabbi MkhaelHal-berstam, a spokesman for , Belz, insisted that the chassidic group had never received any money because it could not comply with AID criteria,
although the allocation had been approved for a building a few years ago.
Halberstam said AID had insisted that Belz itself invest $2 million, not including the cost of land, and that the bulk of the teachers be Americans. The building had never beenerected and Belz had not received a penny, he said.
Earlier this year the two colleges were among 20 Roman Catholic and Jewish institutions Uiimed in a lawsuit by the American .. Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) regarding what - was described as a " foreign affairs porkbarrel." The ACLU claimed that the rules regarding allocations for American schools and hospitals abroad had been routinely bent in order to include the pet projects of particular senators and congressmen.
The ACLU also insisted that the allocations to Jew-, ish and other religious in^ Stitutions were contrary to the American principle of separation of church and state.
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