Page Two
JEWISH WESTERN BULLETIN
Friday, September 13, 1968
£diioJi!L Okw
A talk in
the Negev
The father of the Jewish religion was Moshe; the Torah doesn't begin with Moshe. The first Hebrew was Abraham; the Torah doesn't begin with Abraham. The Torah begins, in the first chapter, with how the world was created and then how M^n and Woman were created.
PARTH.
(INTERVIEW WITH DAVID BEN-GURION)
SDEH BOKER, Israel—If the State of Israel has already started to become "A light unto the nations," there is little doubt that two of the contributory factors providing the energy for that light are the idealism and wisdom of men such as this settlement's best-known member, David Ben-Gurion. Seated before him in his Kibbutz home, one cannot but admire this octogenarian as he quotes chapter and verse from the Bible, constantly using the ancient text as a history book and as a modem guide to future life..
Kaplan: I have asked a number of Israelis if they would contribute to a fund to build a new Bet Hamikdash (Holy Temple), and every one has given an affirmative response. They all have said: "Of course we would!"
Ben-Gurion: A Bet Hamikdash? (He louses momentarily to think about the question and then replies):
"Wait a minute. What was the Bet Hamikdash? It was a place where Jews sacrificed, every Saturday and on all holidays. I don't think we need it now." (He pauses again, stands up, picks up a copy of the Old Testament and asks us to read aloud Isaiah Chapter 58).
Kaplan: "Cry aloud, spare not, Lift up thy voice like a trumpet. And declare unto My people their
transgression, And to the House of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways; As a nation that did righteousness, And forsook not the ordinance of their God . .
Ben-Gurion: All right, go on. I want to listen.
Kaplan: (Obntinuing to read more of chapter . . .):
"Then shall thy light break forth as the morning,
And thine health shall spring forth speedily; And thy righteousness shall go before thee. The glory of the Lord shall be thy reward."
Ben-Gurion: That is what the P!rophet said. And now, it is even stated more clearly, and very briefly, in Chapter I, sentence 11.
B[aplan: "To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto Me? Saith the Lord;
I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, And the fat of fed beasts; And I delight not in the blood Of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats, When you come to appear before Me, Who hath required this at your hand. To trample My courts? Bring no more vain oblations; It is an offering of abomination unto Me; The new moons and sabbaths, the holding
of assemblies I cannot awasr with.
It is iniquily, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth. They are a trouble unto Me."
Ben-Gurion: Would you believe that? That it was a Jewish Prophet that said that ? Go on ...
Kaplan: "I am weary to hear them. And when you spread forth your hands I will hide Mine eyes from you. Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; Your hands are full of blocfd. Wash you, make you clean . .
Ben-Gurion: Now comes what He wants our Jews to do.
Kaplan: "Put away the evil of your doings From before Mine eyes. Cease to do evil."
Ben-Gurion: The next sentence, and that is the end . . .
Kaplan: "Learn to do well. Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, Judge the fatherless, plead for the widow."
Ben-Gurion: That's it! Kaplan: So we don't need a Bet Hamikdash?
Ben-Gurion: No.
"We are now g'oing to build something" it! Jerusalem which, in our time, is more
suitable. We are going to build a House of the Bible in which we will collect all translations of the Bible. You know there are more than a thousand translations of the Hebrew Bible. We shall also collect all the commentaries to the Bible, in Hebrew and European languages and in other languages. And we will plant in the garden around the building all the plants which are mentioned in the Bible. And this will be a national and a world centre for all those who take an interest in the Bible.
Kaplan: Do you foresee a new Sanhe-drin?
Ben-Gurion: (Pausing once again) "San-hedrin. First of all, I don't like the word. It's a Greek word, it isn't Hebrew. Well, the Sanhedrin was a kind of parliament. At that time there were not yet elections to parliament and the leaders were appointed. In our time we are living in a democracy and it's better. Of course there was also a Knesseth which was before the Sanhedrin, the Knesseth Ha'Gdolah. So today we have the Knesseth.
"We will not go back. You see there are things which the Bible left to us and which we have not yet done. When I say "we", '.'. mean not only we Jews, because the Bible did not speak only to our people. It spoke to the whole world. For instance Isaiah said: "People will not make war against
people and they will not raise swords against each other."
"You see the greatest people then, not morally but in Science and Philosophy and also in Democracy, were the Greeks. I consider the greatest poet and thinker in Greece to have been Plato whom I have here (pointing to bust). And there I have Moshe, Moshe Rabbenu.
"Plato was bom during a war that had been going on between Athens and Sparta for more than 30 years. And his idea was, as expressed in the "Republic", that the Greek tribes should not make war against each other. "And you shall make war," he said, "only against barbarians." The word "barbarians" in Greek is not the same as in modem English. It means "non Greek". But he didn't go as far as Isaiah that people should not make war against people. Yet Isaiah lived 400 yeaws before Plato.
"So the Bible is the greatest. If you want to leam even History. It is not a book of Science; it was not given for leaming about Physics and other sciences. But it is the greatest book on how a man should behave and how people should behave and how humanity should behave.
(Continued Next Column)
And it says: *In the image of Cod were they created'. So you- cannot know whether Adam was a Christian or a Jew or a Moslem or a Buddhist. You don't know whether he was black or white or yellow, because according to the Torah the whole human race are descendants of Adam and Eve. They were the first two human beings.
"So all the human race, whether black or white or yel-i low, and all religions are the descendants of Adam and Eve, and they were both created in the image of Grod. This is the latest thing which one can say about people, human beings, that they were made in the image of God.
"So that means that everybody is made in the image of God. Whether you are black or white, whether you are Jewish or Christian, All of them are created in the image of God.
"And if you know what is the Jewish conception of God, you know that it is not the same as the Christian. Such concepts as the Christian view that God had a son are strange to Jewish religion.
\ "The Judaic conception of God is that God is something-which you cannot see. You cannot hear; you cannot receive; you can never hear; it is something which you cannot even understand. In prayer, a Jew says: *Ve-Lo Yesivu Mosi-gayah' (It cannot be conceived). He is the embodiment of all the great qualities: Love, Justice, Mercy and so oh.
Kaplan: I know that you probably don't like comparisons, but would you say that the Judaic contribution to the civilization of Mankind is greater than the (jreek?
Ben-Gurion: It is! I will tell you. I am a great admirer of Greece, a very great admirer, and what they have given is also a great contribution. Their literature, science, and art are incomparable, and this is a great part of human civilization. But nowadays if you want to leam about Science you are not likely to tum to Aristotle. Of course art remains art. It doesn't change. Although perhaps there were greater artists: during the Renaissance in Holland.
But what the Jews have given to all humanity, nobody has duplicated or excelled. Tlhey gave a moral idea. They expressed the greatest moral ideas. They said; "Love your fellow men like yourself." The Germans, whc> began to criticize the Bible in the 19th Century, said thai this means only that you should love a Jew like yourself. But they forgot that in the same chapter, (and this is said in Chapter 19 of VaYikra (Leviticus): If a stranger will be among you, he should be toVyou like a citizen, and you should jover him like yourself because you were str^Eihgers iii
So it means that Man should love every human being. So far, we cannot say that we have already reached such a state of morality, that there should be no wars at anytime.
"So I can not see that at any time has there been or can there be something superior to the heritage which the Bible gave to the world.
The moral ideas of the Bible remain. These are the greatest ideas of our time and if only they will come tme. Mankind will survive.
The danger of a Third World War with atomic weapons means the destruction of humanity. So Judaic morality is one of the most important factors for the survival of the whole human race^ and therefore is in(M>mparable.
COMING: BEN-GURION'S MIDRASHA IN THE NEGEV!
JEWISH CALENDAR (LUACHV
Candle lAgh^g SEPTEMBISR 13, 7:11 1968
Rosh Hashona Tom Eippnr . Snccot_____
-Sept 23 ™Oct. 2 -Oct 7
Simchat Torah Chanuka ___
-Oct. 15 -Dec. 16
All holidays begin the preceding eve at sundown.
Endorsathtts Granff^tf
Centre Installation Dance -__-_
Sept. 14 .Sept. 15
Temple Sholom Tea FasiiUHi Show____
Israel Bond Campaign _Sept 15-Oct 15
Schara Tzedeck Sisterhood BnuDidi _Sept 17
Talmud Torah Assoc. Dinner___Sept 18
L. Freiman lfada.ssah Tiskor Tea___--Sept 26
THE JEWm
wfSTERN miimm
Official Organ of the Jewish Community of British Columbia
Friday, September 13, 1968
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SAM KAPLAN
Editor and Publisher
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