4—THE BULLETIN—Friday, September 13, 1974
Guest Editorial
By Rabbi Wilfred Solomon
Will Yom Kippur ever be the same?
SOMEHOW WE ALL sense the fundamental change which has come over Israel and the Jewish People everywhere since the infamous sneak-attack of Yom Kippur 5734.
Was Israel closer to the brink of destruction than we dare to imagine? Was the October War, on the other hand, the strongest proof ever of Israel's need to stay alive, her determination to live and her ultimate ability to defy destruction?
Whatever the answers to these questions, we are left with a quandary when it comes to knowing how to affect or express these feelings as a community.
It is indeed frustrating in an era which has accustomed us to instant foods, instant communication, instant calculation, instant war and instant everything, to try to find an instant response to the Yom Kippur War.
If we ask, for example, how should we re-shape our High Holiday services? — we are reminded that religion's wisdom is still a very slow process.
Will we or our descendants some day celebrate the "miracle of Yom Kippur 5734"? After all, the story of Mordecai and Esther did not mark the end of Jewish exile nor did the victory of the Maccabees end the slaughter or oppression of Jews in Eretz Israel; yet no one will question our right or our need to celebrate Purim or Chanuka, and to thank God for saving our people.
IF THE YOM KIPPUR WAR will have brought us to a new realistic, if painful, appraisal of how willing the world still is to watch the slow or abrupt dismantling of Israel with hardly more excuse needed than the tightening of an oil spigot; and if at the same time, it has become clearer than ever that the Jewish people, as far flung as they are, can react as one body, refusing to be dismembered or disintegrated; then, perhaps, despite the tragic sacrifices of Israel's worst war, "The War of the Sons" we will someday call not only for a Yizkor, but also in fact, will summon up a Halle! of thanksgiving.
It is too early to say, but this should not be beyond our thinking. The dark depression of this past year has elicited painful but precious self-evaluation. I believe we shall emerge from this year
of mourning to a new era of strength.
Even those who accept my optimism may question the suggestion of an eventual celebration, especially in view of how close we really came to total disaster.
Perhaps I can best explain my view by re-telling a story I was privileged to hear from Pinchas Peli, former editor of Panim El Panim, the pictorial monthly (Israel's "Life Magazine"). He now heads the new Abraham Joshua Heschel Foundation.
Peli held up the issue of "Panim El Panim" published after the war. In it were two large pictures printed without comment on (^posite pages.
The first picture showed two soldiers standing under the barrel of their tank cannon, wrapped in Talit and Tefilin, taking a "prayer break" and looking intensely strong and proud.
The second photo, one of those captured from the Nazis, showed an old Jew bent over in Talit and Tefilin, being beaten and spat upon by uniformed guards. He, too, was standing under the muzzle of a gun — an S.S. machine gun.
THEN PELI READ to us a letter to the editor. It was from a soldier in Tel Hashomer hospital who wrote:
"... I was one of those soldiers in the picture you printed. I was wounded in a fierce tank battle which took place after that snapshot was taken ... but that's not the reason I'm writing. I must write to you because when I saw those two pictures, face to face, it occurred to me that the old Jew in Talit and Tefilin being tortured was my'father!
"No, the picture was anonymous and 1 still don't know the name of that old man, but he was my father, and the father of the whole generation now fighting to keep Israel alive. 1 now realize that because he stood there in Talit and Tefilin under the Nazi guns, I must stand in Talit and Tefilin by the gun of my tank.
"But, above all, I thank God that I was privileged to fight for Israel and that I was not wounded the way my "father" was wounded. For me those two pictures tell the whole story of why Israel must live and why Israel will live."
And I whispered under my breath "For me tool"
A USEFUL VOCABULARY LIST
By Arthur A. Chief Rabbi of Congregation B'nai Jacob, Woodbridge, Conn.
AT A campaign committee meeting someone humorously proposed that a vocabulary list ought to be given each solicitor to be left with any individual who failed to respond to this most worthy enterprise of Jewry. Then began the game of recalling words that ought to be included on such a list which connoted — lack of generosity. We've "researched" the subject for tbem and we hereby share with them the following.
Karg is the most common word for stingy. Kumtzen, from the Hebrew, means tight-fisted. Geltgeitzig is money-grubbing. Egelhazahavnik is a golden-calf worshipper. Mammonism means one given to idolizing money.
Chazir, need we tell you? Only that the feminine thereof is chazirteh. (If we're going to have "equality" let's have it all the way!) There is an alternative to the Hebrew Chazir in a Slavic-Yiddish equivalent — svinyak.
Then there are folk-expressions which describe this dread malaise of tight-fisted-ness: Er farginnt zich nit, un nit yenem. . . He begrudges himself and others. Er lebt
vee a hund. . . He lives like a dog. (This was an East European canine in the misery years, not a U.S. dog.) Tzutzeylen dee groipen in tup. . . One who counts every groat-grain in the pot. Er iz foonNemerov; a nemmer ober nit kein geber . . . He's from Takerville, ever willing to take, never willing to give. Eyder areyntzulegen in der Pishkeh leygt er areyn in der Kishkeh . . . Rather than deposit it in the charity-box, he stuffs it into his derma. Er voUt zich far ah groschen gelozt beydey oygen oisshtechen. . . For a c(H>per he'd allow his two eyes to be gouged. . . Or, Far ah groschen vollt er zich shmadden. . . He'd convert for a farthing. Vill m.en zein ah gevir, zoll men zich farschreiben oif tzvantzig yohr far ah chazir. . . If it's a rich man you want to become, then enroll as a pig for twenty years.
Definition of a "philanthropist" Er redt pheel un toot a trop. . . He is big-talk but little-do. And, finally, the famous East Side designation — Voss iz do tzu reyden, er iz — ah piker!. . . What's. to talk about, he's a no-good piker.
BY HENRY LEONARD
^40
'No, Sidney, what I fold you to bring me for the Rosh Hashanoh service was the S-H-O-F-A-R."
N.Y. LAW AIDS JEWISH STUDENTS
NEW YORK — A day school expert said that the new school aid law signed by Gov. Brendan Byrne of New Jersey will benefit an estimated 3,600 Jewish day school pupils in the state through increased state benefits for tran-
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR .. . poge 5
TAoughf for fire Week
from the TALMUD
The Evil Impulse is sweet in the beginning and bitter in the end.
Y. Shabbat, 14,3.
sportation and textbook allowances.
The new law replaces one rejected last June as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court which provided reimbursement to parents of children in non-public schools for money spent for secular "non-ideological textbooks, instructional materials and supplies," as well as state funds to non-public schools to buy "secular supplies, equipment and auxiliary services."
COLONEL CHARGED
TEL AVIV — An unnamed Israeli officer of colonel rank has been charged by a military tribunal with negligence contributing to the death of three officers under his command in a snow storm in Santa Katerina M{Miastery region, southern Sinai last Jan. 18.
Endorsed Appeals
state of Israel Bond Drive..........Sept. 1-Nov. 30
High Holiday Appeal Bonds......_______________Sept. 17
High Holy Day Appeal Bonds---------------------Sept. 25
Hiirb Holy Day Appeal JNF ........................Sept. 26
Chai
Campaign ..Sept. 15-Oct. 15
Social Calendar
Man of Year Dinner Sept. 15 UJA Board Meeting Sept. 23 L. Freiman Hadassah
Yiskor Tea..............Sept. 23
C.J.C. Board of
Delegates Mtg. ......Sept. 26
Peretz School Membership
Banquet ____........... Sept. 29
Gordonla Pioneer Women
Yiskor Tea __________Sept. 29
Endonations art publbhtd as a Ballttin community Mrvict. Emn or omiftioni can bt cerroctod only by Jawith Community Fund A Coun* cil. Ph. 261-8101.—THE PUBLISHER.
Refflember Tfte Sobbofh
Sabbath begins, Light candles Friday, Sept. 13, 7:10
Sedre Nitzavim, Deuteronomy Sabbath ends, Havdalah Sept. 14, 8:10 Friday, Sept. 20, 6:S5 Sedre Vayelech,
Deuteronomy Shabbat Shuvah Sabbath ends, Havdalah Sept. 21, 7:55
JEWISH CALENDAR (LUACH) 1974
Rosh Hashona__________Sept. 17
Yom Kippur_______________Sept. 26
Snccot _____________________Oct, 1
Shemini Atzereth________Oct. 8
Simchat Torah____________Oct. 9
Chanuka__________________Dec. 9
All holidays bogin tha procttding ova at sundown.
m JEWISH WmRH BUlliTIH
Since 1930 tha only waakly publication serving tha Jawry of tha Pacific Northwest
Friday, Sept. 13,1974
Published weekly every Friday at 3285 Heather Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V5Z 3K4
SAM KAPUN Editor end Publisher
ROK FREEDJMAN Advertising Manager
BOB MARKIN Assistant Editor
DEADLINE: FRIDAY at 4KM) pjn.
LEADING JEWISH WEEKLY IN WESTERN CANADA
Bulletin Office: 879-6575
Bulletin Copy Depot beside Jewish Community Centre front door cleared at deadline.
Subscriptions: $12.00 per year; $14.50 per year in U.S. and other countries. Business hours: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except Saturdays, Jewish and Legal Holidays. Second Class Mail registration number 1384.
In the event of o typographical error advertising goods at less than Ihe proper price, the Jewish Western Bulletin will furnish letters to the od-. vertiser stating the correct price, but goods may not be sold at the price printed and the difference charged to the newspaper.