iii-i-FHThi- Contents The Stemberg Centre for Judaism, The Manor House, 80 East End Road, London N3 2SY Telephone: 01-346 2288

2 Eugene Heimler My Memories Are Alive But My Hate MANNA is the Journal of the Sternberg Has Gone Centre for Judaism at the Manor House and of the Manor House Society.

4 David Bellamy We Can Create A Garden Of Eden On MANNA is published quarterly. Planet Earth

Editoi: Rabbi Tony Bayfield Deputy Editor: Rabbi William Wolff 7 Andrew Goldstein The Message Of Torah - Replenish Art Editor: Charles Front The Earth

Editorial Board: Rabbi Colin Eimer, Rabbi Dr. Albert Friedlander, Rabbi 8 Lionel Blue lnklings David Goldberg, Dr. Wendy Green- gross, Rev. Dr. Isaac Levy, Rabbi Dr. .Jonathan Magonet, Rabbi Dow 8 Gerald Priestland Are We Eating Lionel Alive? Marmur, Rabbi Dr. John Rayner, Professor J. 8. Segal, Dr. Alan Unter- man, Isca Wittenberg. 10 Dow Marmur How Israel Has-Transformed Judaism

Views expressed in articles in A41annar do not necessarily reflect the view of the 12 Rosemary Friedma.n Back ]n Jerusalem Editorial Board.

rate: £4.50 p.a. (four 15 John Levi Orange Trees ln The Garden And A Strategy issues) inclu ng postage anywhere in For Survival the U.K. Ab oad: Europe - £8.00; Israel, Asia, Americas, Australasia - £12.cO. 16 Ben segal The secret of The Bible

17 Marcus Braybrobke Last Exit From Gateshead Into Church

18 Norman solomon.Whywe Thank God Even when Times Are Bad

19 Letters

21 Mary seaton's Last word The cover picture is a de.sign by Roman Halter for the Ark doors in a room of prayer proposed for the Leo Baeck College at the Sternberg Centre for Judaism. EDITORIAL One might add that for a Jewry desperately needs a brief moment they both tolerant , liberally-minded , taught the same (Leo Baeck compassionate orthodox rab- College) students but such is binate deeply rooted in the lamentable state of inter- modern skills and study as TRAINING community relations today well as traditional learning. that it will be a major surprise Will Rabbi Sacks be permitted if either is seen entering the to produce such men at Jews RABBIS other's establishment, let College and will he find suffi- alone pooling ideas, sharing cient recruits? COSTS experiences and swapping Jonath.an Magonet faces a classrooms. different problem. That of A recent Church of scarcity of material resources. MOIVEY England report on the state of The Leo Baeck College has` rural clergy complains of lack been run on a shoe string for of excitement and content in years but is now in the midst AIVD MORE parish work, the boredom of of an extreme financial crisis. many sermons, an inability to Magonet takes over the helm relate to the needs of con- at a time not when the survival gregants and of the danger of of the College is at stake but IT dence IS A that NICE the COINCI-future of spreading clerical services too rather at a time when its rabbinic training in Britain thinly across parishes. Ana- breadth and independence now rests substantially in the logies between the clergy and hang in the balance. The Col- hands of two Jonathans. the rabbinate have been con- lege's lamentable failures at Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks has siderably unhelpful, spreading fund raising mean that other been Principal of Jews Col- an expectation of rabbis as organisations will have to bail lege for a year now. He is to sick visitors and kaddish it out. It would be disastrous be joined by Rabbi Dr. sayers. But in this regard the if financial stringencies were Jonathan Magonet who has similarities are alarmingly ap- then to cloud the original vi- been elected Principal of Leo parent. The need for highly sion of its Reform (and later Baeck College. intelligent, articulate and sti- Liberal) founders of a College The similarities go deeper mulating rabbis able to relate devoted to scholarship and than name. Both were born in to people and communicate a serving the whole of Europe London. Both are English love of God and Torah is and beyond. The range and University educated and little acute. That both Jonathans depth of the Leo Baeck Col- more than five years separates should succeed in increasing lege must not be emasculated. their dates of birth. Both are the supply is crucial to the The Progressive Movement no charming, urbane and highly vitality and viability of British less than the United Syna- intelligent. Both could have Jewry. gogue, needs rabbis of pursued successful secular If Jonathan Sacks is to suc- scholarship, insight and careers - Sacks as an aca- ceed, he will have to overcome maturity. It takes time and demic philosopher, Magonet the resistance to the produc- space to train such people. as a psychiatrist - and both tion of a rabbinate actually Both Jonathans are highly care deeply about the future suited to the needs of contem- talented, deeply religious indi- of Anglo-Jewry. In one sense porary orthodox congrega- viduals. Both are quite it is true that Anglo-Jewry tions. His disastrous review of capable of providing the rab- cannot be so impoverished if Louis Jacobs' Tree o/ Lj/e bis Anglo-Jewry needs. it is capable of producing two betrayed a need to underline Anglo-Jewry must now such men. On the other hand, his orthodox credentials and allow them to get on with the that both should have achiev- revealed the deep conflict bet- job, and give them both the ed positions of such respon- ween his natural liberal ortho- resources and the elbow room sibility so young and with dox inclinations and the inces- to do what is needed.I relatively little relevant ex- sant, political demands for a perience is a testimony to a more right-wing, uncom- certain lack of competition. promising approach. Anglo-

Manna Summer 1985 and the Holocaust burn the fingers end of the war, about the same of those who survived and the SOMEtime YEARSthat Elie Wiesel AFTER published THE I'ORTY fingers of their descendants as an his book Night a.nd I Night Of the imperative. We can only find our Mj.sf, we had a discussion on BBC YE:JLRS 0M own fulfillment as Jews in a just and radio. We both received good re- sane world. Therefore we must do views and were launched as writers. whatever we can through the pen, What the debate was about can be through our science, our brains and put in a nut-shell. Elie felt he had a `My our wealth to help to create a world mission to put the Holocaust once of justice. If we fail now, forty years and for all in the centre of his life, on, to take the opportunity, fail to whilst I felt that I ought to move on, soak into us the words of the ror¢fe towards the future and mankind. and its vision of society, then it will We both had the same experiences. not be the Auschwitz experience We were both in the same camps, that will have destroyed us but the both of us came from very obser- MEM0qEi fact that we have not been able to vant orthodox backgrounds. And overcome our pain and have aban- yet we went very different ways. doned humanity. I have always felt, since that sun- This was more or less the argu- soaked day on the 8th May 1945 ment between me and Elie Wiesel when my freedom began, that our 4F€ABVE and it is still. What we need is not a Jewish tragedy is not limited to us symbol of the Holocaust, a prophet but that it was and still is a who speaks to no-one else except to catastrophe of and for Mankind. If the past. We do not need symbols. we, those of us who survived the The reality of our six million dead camps, limit ourselves to grieving BvifMY speaks louder than any man can or only over our tragedy, harbouring a will. continuous depression or anger then Should the President of the United we will not do justice to the States visit Nazi war graves? •magnitude of the tragedy and will No, he should not! But there is a fail even to try to turn it into a heal- more important issue that emerges ing experience. That the past must ttmE from this episode. Chancellor Kohl, be recorded, taught, spoken about the democratically elected represen- and never be forgotten goes without tative of the Federal Republic of saying. This is and has been our Germany i.#s/.s/ed that President heritage both before and since Hk; ¢ONI Reagan should. He insisted in the Auschwitz. We have survived two name of reconciliation. How can thousand years of persecution not anyone insist? What kind of men- simply because we remembered the tality is it that demands reconcilia- rise and fall or our persecutors but Eugene Heimler tion with a bunch of sadistic because subsequently we frjed to murderers? make sense of what happened to us Reconciliation `forty years after' and turn the negatives into plicable to us as Jews but to all cannot come about by force. It can something positive. The many Mankind. Whether we like it or not, only come about as a result of proof outstanding intellects of our faith whether we recognise it or not, for that the new Germany moves in a and people used the past as a reser- good or evil, we are part of the totally different orbit from the old voir of great wealth and what was a human race. While we have suffered Germany. Maintaining contact: yes. poisoned well yesterday became a particularly from two thousand Allowing the debate to evolve: yes. magical elixir for today and for years of living within Christian Friendship with a new generation: tomorrow. society, we now have experiences to yes. But reconciliation: no. We have now reached the offer the Christian world by I have had to make a long journey historical threshhold where we have demonstrating the lessons of the to reconcile myself to the truth that to speak not only of the pain of Holocaust. all Germans are not my enemy. In yesterday but of the lessons for We who survived must certainly ray book A Link in the Chain 1 tomorrow. Any sensible look after our own because we still described a journey from Paris to psychologist knows that to remain live in a hostile world. But beyond Milan in a night-sleeper which I had beyond a reasonable time in a state the hostility of the world there is a to share with a young German. Ac- of depression and anger is sick and crisis of faith and religion. A world tually I was going to talk to the self-destructive. Many individuals in which there is still persecution of youth section of the Reform Syna- start new lives after such reactive our people in the Soviet Union, a gogues of Great Britain and many depressions. Forty years is a world in which there is still genocide of its present leaders were members reasonable time to elapse before in Cambodia and death by neglect in of the youth section then. When we beginning to evaluate what positive Ethiopia, the Sudan and many parts arrived in Milan the German boy messages emerge from the of the Third World is a massive in- asked me whether he could join me Holocaust, lessons not only ap- dictment! The lessons of Auschwitz for breakfast and I agreed. The

Manna Summer 1985 train was racing across Northern sider one of my most important Italy. The sun was shining and the achievements, apart from my books sky was cloudless. Everything seem- and professional work, was.helping ed unreal and perfectly beautiful. to establish a Jewish community in How could I sit there with a Ger- Harlow New Town. The Jewish man? How could I speak as if there communities in Europe had been was not a world between us? destroyed. My own community, `You don't say very much. Did too. Eight years after the end of the they hurt you a lot?' war I went to Harlow regularly I nodded. every week to lead services, to teach `1 can see, it is even difficult for the children and to conduct the you to speak to me. But this insanity High Holy Day Services. To put must stop somewhere'. down new roots in place of the old, At last I found words to reply. torn ones and to start all over again `1 know, it is insane and I am tru- emotionally was a very healing ex- ly sorry. But you must realise that in perience. you I see reflected everything that When I was very young I wanted happened to me, although I know to be a rabbi like the soft spoken that you are not responsible. I Rabbi Maier-Benedict. He appealed would like to forgive you, but how to my childish sensibilities because can I? How can I forget what hap- he was a good man and my mother pened to my father, my sister, my called him a saint. `Saint Maier- aunts, uncles, nephews, and cousins Benedict' was so good that when he and my six million comrades who was around none of us children were destroyed? I want to forgive dared to be naughty. We just sat you, yet something stops me. And there literally at his feet and I sup- yet I believe that you and I ar`e both pose it helped a great deal that we victims of some terrible mistake'. often did not understand a single It was this hate that I had to over- word of what he said. Yet the come. Some years later, when I had teacher I had become in Harlow did been able to deal with my hate, I not command the total respect of might have been able to reach out to the children, no mother would have this young German. told her child that `Rabbi Heimler is Today my riemorie-s---are very a saint'. The only thing I had in much alive still but my hate has common with our revered rz¢dz.k gone. I have been to West Germany was that because of my newly ac- and taught there. I made a few quired English accent many could friends there but none of my own not understand me either ... generation. With them I remained Forty years after, when I take sceptical, doubtful and suspicious. I stock, I see clearly how much the - tried to convey in my teaching the cJoj.#g has been part of my life and truth that all those who are in pain how little I had actually talked are closed into an invisible concen- about what I was doing. And if I tration camp, that there is more reflect: talking about the past o#/y than enough pain in our world, out belongs to the past whilst doing there, where we are living, to give us something about the present belongs a deep sense of our own personal to the future. Elie Wiesel may be Auschwitz. Our own minds, because needed to remind us of the past and we are human, can be both the I may be needed to remind us of the persecutor and the persecuted. future. Forty years hence when we I tried to teach them what both will be a memory, in two thou- Judaism has meant to me and that sand and twenty five, what is now what I am teaching, in scientific` past and what is now future will form as social functioning, today have merged into one. . has its roots in our sacred literature. Others coin from the Greek or the Latin. My coinage comes from Professor Eugene Heimler ttJas Z)or# ;.H Hebrew and I was moved to hear my Hungary in 1922. In his early twenties he was students speaking about the jzwcrfe deported to Auschwitz where his first wife - spirit - or about yezer fJ¢rt7fe - died. After the war John Heimler came to England and studied psychiatric social work the evil inclination - or yezer roy before establishing his own unique method - - the good inclination. Social Functioning. A chair was created for I have felt the absolute necessity him at the University Of Calgary and he has his own Heimler Foundation in Britain. His not simply to talk about the books !`Hc/z/de Night of the Mist o#d A Link Holocaust but rather to do. I con- In The Chain.

Manna Summer 1985 the opportunity of speaking at a A Million Living Things IWASmeeting HONOURED of the Manor TO HAVE House Centre for Judaism and to have the opportunity of listening to `A Jewish View of Ecology'. Are Doomed, But. . . This is the essence of what I said and what I learned. We live in a fantastic world. Nobody on earth #eec7 go cold or hungry. Nobody on earth #ced die in pain. We can fly twice as fast as the sound of music. We are healthier and living longer. We can climb to the top of the highest mountain. We can plumb the depths of the deepest sea. We put a man on the moon, and our machines have flown close to other planets. Everybody on earth can through the medium of televi- sion, radio and the printed word, employ the best of literature, music, drama, art and custom. At the flick of a switch, nation can speak peace unto nation. FANTASTIC! -BUT:- 1) One third of the world's human population lives under the constant threat of malnutrition. 2) 28 children under the age of 5 die from conditions relating to mal- nutrition and environmental pollu- tion every minute of the day. 3) One third of the world's arable land surface is at risk of becoming a desert because of human misuse. 4) The world is losing 70 hectares of natural and semi-natural vegeta- tion every minute of every day, and is only replanting 7, and most of that replanting is with exotic soft- wood and Eucalyptus monoculture. By the year 2025, good hardwood timber will be a very rare and hence a very valuable commodity. 5) On average, every acre of the world is losing 8 tonnes of living soil a day, the maximum natural rate of replenishment (soil formation) is estimated at no more than 5 tonnes per acre per year. 6) World fisheries have declined WE: CJLN ORE:JLTE since they peaked in 1970. 7) WORLD AGRICULTURE IS IN A MESS. We depend on only 8 JL CJLRDE:N 0E[ I:DE:N megacrops, BARLEY, MAIZE, MILLET, OATS, RICE, RYE, SORGHUM AND WHEAT, all of 0N PIIJLNE:I I:JLRTH which are now so genetically uniform that catastrophe in the form of disease could strike at any David Be[lamy season wiping out a vast proportion

Manna Summer 1985 of the annual crop. The same ap- more precious energy will be re- larger cake for all members of the plies to the grasses of the improved quired to develop their potential. community of humankind. leys which now feed our cattle and Furthermore, atomic power has The civilizing influence with its sheep, natural diversity is all the not proved to be the safe source of religions, schools, hospitals, welfare time giving way to planned unifor- cheap, unlimited energy it was once states, treaties, conventions, pacts mity. thought to be. Already there is and figures has played a key role in 8) The cost of raising and distri- growing public concern over its the story of human success. Civiliza- buting those crops in terms of future. tion does however now have a new energy used (which costs money) in- 12) Acid rain, which is at least in role to play in this time of global vestments required (which costs part a result of using those fossil crisis. money) set against energy (saleable fuels is corroding our ancient We can take the non-civilized way food) produced (which makes monuments and buildings and out and continue to turn the world money for the farmer) increases speeding the tendencies towards into the drab, dull, viscious place it year by year as does the cost of the acidification which is a natural is rapidly becoming in which the energy (fossil fuel) on which farm- background process of the matura- vast majority of people have no ing success has depended since horse tion of any well watered landscape. hope for a visible civilized future, sweat gave way to horse power. Are these signs of success? No, whilst a few greedily hold on to the 9) Despite collectivization, har- they are the signals of abject failure MEGABUCKS they make from vests in both Russia and China and just around the corner. what they still regard as positive many other countries have been If it is any consolation, we have development and progress. Or we poor in recent years. The shortfall in done nothing which, given the same can start to create a garden of Eden, production has been made up main- attributes and opportunities, any a truly civilized world of great beau- ly by purchases from America and other organism would have done. ty with a population properly plann- Canada. We have been DRAMATICALLY ed, a population of all colours, 10) The North American Food successful in OBEYING THE creeds and kinds, well fed and well Machine, the ultimate (so far) in LAWS OF NATURE, in exploiting cared for both in physical and men- productivity is now becoming less the resources of the earth, we have tal and spiritual terms, a place in and less ecomomic in real terms. So annexed more territory, used more which the human mind and body much so, that many farmers are tur- mineral nutrients and degraded relieved of the necessity of harsh ming away from food production to more energy than any other single repetitive work has time to strive cash in on crops like rape-seed and species. If we continue, we will go towards new perfection, new heights sunflower for `healthful' un- out in a blaze of self inflicted glory. of understanding, reaching for the saturated oil production. To meet However, there is one paramount moon and far beyond. People the the fluctuating world demands other difference, we are not like the other masters, not the slaves of their cereal farmers are opening up new organisms, we are set aside from all machines, now the architects of hectares and farming their older the other products of creative evolu- their own future. acreages with greater intensity. The tion by the power of conscious The main constraint against this end result, in 1977 the Soil Conser- thought. We alone can strive to ever happening is that it can only be vation Service reported the loss of 2 understand the laws of nature, we accomplished by wise use of all BILLION tonnes of all American alone can record, review and resources and that includes the soil to Sheet and Rill erosion, 450 understand history both natural and genetic diversity of this earth. For million tonnes to gully erosion and man-made, and we alone can plan once we have squandered all the even more yet unestimated to for a long term future. fossil fuels as a source of energy streamside and roadside erosion. Civilization was made possible rather than as a resource for making With record losses measured at bet- only through the advances of the c`hemicals and plastics on which our ween 50 and 100 tonnes per acre in agricultural and industrial revolu- lifestyle now depends, our only the Palouse area of Washington, tions. With more time at their alternative and thus hope for the Oregon and Idaho (some of the disposal people began to understand future lies in biological and genetic richest agricultural soils in the that the laws of nature make the engineering and tissue culture. Yes, world) and most extensive losses in world a lousy place in which to live in the not too distant future there the critically important corn belt, and that to improve the lot of the will be no need to subject animals to with average losses in Iowa of 9.9, average person laws of ethical con- the inhumanities of factory farming Illinois of 6.7 and Missouri 10.7 duct (thou shalt not kill, covert, and slaughter. Much of our needs tonnes per acre per annum, the bear false witness etc. etc.) were re- both for a variety of foods and more future does not look too good either quired and what is more had to be importantly organic chemicals will for the farmers or for a hungry seen to be enforced. come from mass tissue and cell world. It has been the existence of these culture. This could well take place in 11) The coal, oil and natural gas laws which have become the cor- the hotter drier areas of the world, which has fuelled the past 250 years nerstones of this thing called making full use of the energy of the of people success, were laid down civilization. sun in areas which are now con- over a period of no less than 300 Civilization alone has striven to sidered to be man made deserts. million years. It is estimated that we make the world a less lousy place in Thus vast tracts of the better have already consumed more than a which people can enjoy life. watered, more temperate regions of half of the total reserves and that Civilization, agriculture and in- the earth could go back from inten- which remains is in the less accessi- dustry together in a perfect world sive agriculture to other `softer' ble areas and therefore more and providing a fair slice of an ever uses.

Manna Summer 1985 However, it is true to say that ing and simply regard them as a of the junk heaps of urban sprawl both the genetic and bio-engineer valuable resource, we should surely and third world concern. Now it is a need genetic diversity on which to realise that they should be conserv- global movement of informed peo- act, and that genetic resource is ed. Yet Japan and Russia and a few ple, the latest recommendations of there, within the diversity of our lesser whaling nations continue to which are embodied in a series of in- flora and fauna. Unique informa- demand more and more, hastening ternationally agreed and sponsored tion, a genetic heritage of impor- their extinction. recommendations, called THE tance to all our pasts and now to all This is not only inhumanity, but WORLD CONSERVATION our futures. total insanity. Resourcicide with STRATEGY. All the time new living organisms malice aforethought. The ethics of which:- are being discovered which have im- If the thinking world cannot - maintenance of essential portant properties which are being make cultured educated people care ecological processes and life support put to use in our industries. for such a resource, especially when Systems Say the ecosystems which had there are such vital questions of - preservation of genetic diversity supported them had been destroyed ethics at stake, how can we hope - sustainable utilization of species before science had investigated their that they will listen to similar must be put into immediate effect. presence and potential value. The arguments to protect genetic It was indeed a sobering thing to really frightening thing is that the resources, the existence of which we learn that the early writings of the vast bulk of the ecosystems we are have no proof. Jewish people encompass all the destroying including those 70 hec- The answer is that we must for the basic recommendations of the tares of natural and semi-natural future o.f civilization now depends World Conservation Strategy. vegetation every minute have not on the success of those arguments If only the world's religious been studied in any depth at all. which will conserve the genetic leaders would come together in this Much of the wood goes into the resources now lodged in the areas of new faith, and translate the real chipp er or pulp machine wilderness that are still left. These meaning of dominion into positive unclassified, so what about all the and these alone, hold our only hope action for the good of the whole of unknown plants and animals whose .for a sustainable future, the natural God's creation. . very existence depended on the resources of our future, hope for forest, we will never know what we health and wealth for everyone. have lost, let alone what potential Yet we know that mainly because David Bellamy Br/.Ja/.H'st besf *How# we could have developed in the ecologist, is 52, married and has five of habitat destruction, the world is children. He was trained as a botanist, and future. losing one species of plant or animal taught botany at the University of Durham I am often asked what is the rarest a day. Diverse populations are being until 1980. The best known among the nine plant on earth. My answer is always wiped out at an ever increasing rate, TV series he has made so far was Botanic the same. The one we haven't Man, among the most recent was Bellamy's by the end of the century one will be New World. Among his publications are The discovered yet and which is about to disappearing every hour, and we Mouse Book ai#d The Queen's Hidden become extinct. It is no good either will be able to ring the year 20cO in Garden. just thinking that all we need to do unsafe in the knowledge that the is keep one or two alive museum success of .`HUMANKIND' has to pieces in zoos and botanic gardens. this auspicious date doomed one The only hope for the future lies in million sorts of living things to ex- the genetic diversity of large popula- tinction. A quarter of the earth's liv- tions. ing diversity will be gone, and we Take as a prime example the cur- will soon find that it is too heavy a rent plight of the Whales of the price to pay. World. Much scientific evidence in- HOMO SAPIENS our p;ror[eer dicates that they are extremely in- days are over, the piteous scraps of telligent organisms. They make wilderness which do remain, are no love, enjoy family life and social longer a threat to our well-being, organisation, they communicate, they are the only hope we have, our teach their children, some even sing investment for a future. long and complex songs. They also Unless we begin to legislate for, live complex lives much in the same administer and engineer the new way as we do and along with many sustainable future of a green grow- others I believe that they share. with ing world right now, ideology will us humans some of the powers of fight ideology for the meagre non- conscious thought. Despite this new renewable resources that do remain found knowledge, they are regarded and the world will edge closer to the by some as a mere resource to be holocaust we all fear. harvested in the most efficient way The exciting thing is that out of possible, with no compassion, to this realisation has come a new force their intelligence or the pain and in society called conservation, the anguish they and their families suf- only movement in the social evolu- fer. Yet human greed and stupidity tion of people which can gain them sinks even further for even if we can future survival. At first it was a forget the ethics of what we are do- series of disparate voices calling out

Manna Summer 1985 So God created a perfect world: that it says `in a destructive manner' `And God saw everything that He for the Talmud had clearly recorded had made and it was very good' that `if a fruit bearing tree causes (Gen 1:31). Humankind were given damage to the other trees, or the their place in this system: `And God value of the wood for fuel is greater The blessed them and said to them: be than the value of the fruit it pro- fruitful and multiply. And rep/en/.sfe duces, it may be cut down' /BczZ}¢ Zfee c¢rffe and subdue it; and have jrarmcr 91b-92a). So one had to be Message dominion over the fish of the sea reasonable. The time comes when and over ...' (Gen 1:28). Our glory some trees grow old and it would is to have dominion over all other make far more sense to replace them living things on earth: our challenge than to leave them gradually to Of is `to replenish it'. What clearer call wither. could there be to conservation. A So far an insight into a Jewish Midrash portrays God taking Adam view on the destruction of nature. Torah: around the Garden of Eden showing What about direct conservation of him its great beauty and saying `See the environment. Here, too, it is how lovely and how worthy of possible to quote many passages Replenish praise are My works. They have from rabbinic literature to show been created for your sake: take that the individuals who made them, care not to spoil or destroy My at least had a sense of the practical world'. (Midrash Eccl. Rabbah steps needed to conserve natural The 7: 13) resources. My favourite is: `You From the Acz/¢chz.c point of view, should not burn a naphtha lamp too the vital verses are Deuteronomy 20: quickly, as it wastes a valuable com- Earth 19-20:- modity' /SA¢bz)c7f 68b). And there is `When you besiege a city the law forbidding needlessly to many days ... you shall waste animal life. Hence there is a not destroy the trees thereof prohibition on hunting where one by swinging an axe kills for sport, not for eating /Hz///j.# against them, for from them 7b). Andrew Goldsl:ein you may eat but not One could also quote many texts destroy them ...' that show an appreciation of the From this passage which prohibits problems an urban society imposes the chopping down of fruit trees us- in the field of waste disposal. The ing an axe in the extreme condition key here is Deuteronomy 23:13-15 is relatively modern, coming of war all sorts of conclusions were CONCERN FOR ECOLOGY •drawn by the rabbis of old. First of which talks about the siting of out of a realisation of the latrines outside a military camp. As great damage done to nature by the all it was argued that if God forbade with the bal tashchit verse above, Industrial Age. As such it seems the chopping down of fruit trees in this one is also extended in the unlikely that we can find texts from the emergency of war, how much Talmud. Thus we learn that the bible and rabbinic literature to more so in peaceful times. Then, dungheaps or garbage piles were not give foundation to `a Jewish view of that destructive agencies other than allowed within the city limits ecology'. an axe were likewise prohibited, e.g. because of vermin /B¢ba Karmcr 82b) And yet, if we accept a definition by diverting a water source from the and a threshing floor was prohibited of ecology as `a branch of science trees. within 50 cubits of the city limits lest concerned with the inter- The Hebrew for `shall not chaff carried by the wind affects the relationship of organisms and their destroy' in the Deuteronomy verse is health of the city dwellers /B¢bo environment', then a number of Bal Tashchit, aLnd the conce;pt o£ Bal Jf¢mcz 24b-25a). We hear that no texts come readily to mind. rcrs.fechjt was applied to `all things' furnaces were allowed in Jerusalem The magnificent Psalm 104 is bas- (Baba Kama 916b), `food' (Shabbat because of the fumes /B¢bcJ Kamcr ed on the notion of the planned 140b), `clothing' (Kiddushin 32a), 82b) - though I reckon that the inter-relationship between the en- `furniture' (Shabbat 129a), `water' Temple sacrifices must have caused vironment and animals, all proof of (Yevamot llb) -viz `A man should quite a bit of polution. And I like the Creator's ingenuity: `You make springs gush forth not pour the water out of his cistern the recollection that pious men bury (presumably to clean it) while others broken glassware deep in their own in the valleys might require it.' fields and prohibit its scattering They give drink to every Maimonides summarised the rab- over public places /Baz)a Kc7mcr 30a). beast of the field binic view: `It is not only forbidden One could go on quoting in- to destroy fruit bearing trees but teresting snippets from rabbinic The trees of the land are whoever breaks vessels, tears literature that all could be said to watered abundantly clothes, demolishes a building, stops have striking modern equivalents. The cedars of Lebanon which up a fountain, or wastes food in a As I said at the beginning, it is a bit He planted destructive manner o££ends a.ga.inst anachronistic to claim that the bible In them the birds build their I:ha low of bal tashchit' . (Hilchot or rabbinic literature had a view on nests ...' A4e/crchj.in 8:10) It should be noted ecology, but it is clear to me that continued on next page

Manna Summer 1985 7 it. One is legitimate. Using this way, we try to grow towards God, become bigger ourselves, more God- size. We try to be kinder, to have more patience, to do more than strict duty or even commonsense re- quires. In other words we make ourselves more generous and more ARE WE loving. There is another way, the cheat's way with religion. Using this way, we do not make ourselves bigger to bridge the gap, EATING but try to make God smaller in- stead. We do not try to change choose a religious virtue. The ourselves, because that is too IWASone IRECENTLY plumped for wasASKED not piety TO demanding. We try to change the but generosity, because without nature of religion, to distort it for generosity of spirit I don't believe in LIONEL our own purposes. Then God just any of the rest. If you go through all becomes the extension of our own the right motions, alternatively but- tering up or bribing the Almighty, prejudices. We deify our own limitations, and make our meanness the result can seem very much like cosmic. ALIVE? religion, but the test is generosity. It doesn't matter what formula This is a common device in all religious fanaticism, when nobody you use in prayer, liberal, orthodox is willing to listen, but everyone is or reform. The question is, do your willing to pronounce. It is easy on prayers make you big or small, religious committees to get so ab- Gerald Priestland generous or mean. If they make you sorbed by the small print, that the smaller or meaner, I suggest you look again at your brand of religion great print of `generosity' is lost. - perhaps you should trade it in for The small print, however clever it is, then only becomes the funeral rite Brz.gAZ B/z/c - Rabbi Lione] Blue's another, for its doing you no good. Thoughts for the Day. There are many ways to pervert of a real religion. I have met many `religious' peo- BBC, £2.50, 1985, 94pp. religion and the perversion of religion is a speciality of the affluent pie in the course of my life. A very few were genuine, quite a few were HOUGHT FOR THE West. But it is worthwhile also to `T Day' is a perennial problem examine our own ways of neutralis- phony, and most, including me, were a mixture of both. for the BBC. Tradition still ing the religious message. The How did I distinguish the true and demands that some morally uplift- methods are so simple and innocent the false? Ideology isn't much use ing sentiment be affixed to the door- looking, that sometimes vile do not for such a basic question. The only post of the day, if only as a gesture see how deadly they are. touchstone was their generosity. I to anxious members of the Central One trick goes like this. There is Religious Advisory Committee. But always a difficulty in speaking to Ral}bi Lionel Blue 7.s coHve#or o/ fAe Be/ Din when you are competing for atten- God, because He, or She, is infinite of the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain. He is undoubtedly better known to the tion with Roland Rat and Page and we are finite. Therefore the Three Girls you can no longer get distance between us is so enormous general public as a writer and broadcaster. His renowned `Thoughts for the Day' have away with the explicit sermonette of that it seems impossible to bridge recently appeared in a book `Brlghi Bhae' cur- yesteryear. Most of your listeners the gap. There are two ways round rently in the Best Sellers list. just do not speak the religious language, and those who do tend to be fluent in only one particular dialect and resentful of any other. continued from previous page So piety is confined to the early morning, `Prayer for the Day' - there is more than sufficient there was only one pair. If the when scarcely anybody is listening. evidence to show that there was power of the sun or the power of the But `77zo2/gAf ' at a quarter to eight often a keen awareness of the cold had been too much for me, is expected to behave like one of biblical charge to us that we must would not the world have been miss- those modern parsons who dress in rep/e#r.sA the earth, not just use our ing a species?' /SaiHAedrj.# 108b).I tweed jacket, cord trousers, collar dominion over it for our own selfish and tie, and pop into the pub to chat Rabbi Andrew Goldstein was born J.H War- pleasure. wick in 1943 and brought up in Birmingham. about football, slipping in the occa- Let the Midrash have the. last A graduate in botany, he wrote his rabbinic sional crafty one about God show- word - where it pictures the raven thesis on the subject of the four species ing us the yellow card. rebuking Noah: `You hate me, for associated with Succot. A brilliant educa- Even then, it's an awkward art- you did not choose to send a scout tionalist, Rabbi Goldstein has served North- form. Amongst the pessimism of the wood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue since from the kinds of which there were 7 receiving semicha from Leo Baeck College in bad news and worse weather pairs, but from a species of which 1970. forecasts, `7lfeo2tgfe/' stands out like

Manna Summer 1985 a healthy thumb in a sore hand. There is absolutely no doubt who view of that, it is amazing how well Some rocJ¢); programme editors the presenters' current favourite is: most of them read in print, though hate it, regarding it as an your own, your very own RABBI it helps if you can `hear' Lionel's unwelcome distraction from their LIONEL BLUE! Let's hear a big voice as you read. But it does mean parade of disasters. In the days hand for him, for there is no doubt that a few pieces, like the one with when it was played in from a tape he is the listeners' darling, too. bird-noises about the Holy Spirit, recording, you could almost hear Goodness knows if he has a separate are a bit mystifying on the page. the studio presenter switching off effect on Jewish members of the au- But we cannot have Blue mentally and reaching for his coffee dience - for all I know, they cringe Thoughts for ever - even Blue cup. It is not an easy item to in- at the sound of him. But the rest of can't have them, for they are an ex- tegrate into the flow of rock);. us sigh and think `Only a rabbi tremely demanding form of expres- To some degree this has been could combine story-telling and sion. Just think of having to sit overcome by ' insisting that the spiritual uplift like that ...' down, day after day, and command `thinkers' come into the studio and Of course it is not so simple; your imagination to come up with a do it live. Myself, I am not at my though I could name a squad of Significant Thought! This is one of best before about ten o'clock; but four or five rabbis whom I would be the perils of really good broad- coming in live does give you the glad to see taking over the entire casting: not only does it show up the chance to work in a topical allusion. religious output of the BBC and run-of-the-mill stuff as mediocre, It also enables the presenters to probably producing a religious but unless carefully husbanded it greet you and toss in a bit of chat or revival as the result. Lionel Blue is burns up its own reserves. One can- a question or two -I/the producer one of them, but he is also not give out three or four minutes of hasn't bungled his arithmetic and is something special. For one thing, he wisdom unless one has taken in a not shoving the thing along to catch is acutely sensitive to his Christian, lifetime of experience and relived its the news in time. Thinkers-for-the- or semi-Christian listeners, though most painful moments over and day are often distracted by without any strain showing. For over again. I only hope this has mysterious exchanges of waves and another, he is appealingly frank done Lionel Blue good. It would be shrugs through the control-room about himself and his weaknesses - terrible if we had just eaten him window. Still, it is nice to be treated the addiction to food, the nervous alive for our pleasure.I like one of the family. Brian breakdowns, the attempted suicide Redhead is particularly good at this, and the rest of it. Vulnerable is the and it does make for a much better word, I suppose. Gerald Priestland I.s oHc a/ r¢di.o's mosf transition. You can always tell when Of course he is convulsingly fun- familiar and distinguished voices. Formerly the `thinker' is making a hit with. ny. Among other things, Brz.gfef BBC Religious Affairs correspondent, he now devotes himself to writing and freelance Redhead, and the chances are that if B/we is an anthology of Jewish broadcasting. Priestland has done perhaps the presenter can show he is really jokes. And not least, he is a superb more than anyone to raise the level and image listening, the audience will too. performer of his own scripts. In of religious broadcasting in Britain.

Manna Summer 1985 the role which Zionism in the West are tainted by a touch of Jewish self- convention of the Zionist can play in determining this direc- hatred - they give their support to SPEAKING AT THE 1983 Federation of Great Britain and tion?' To answer this question is to the opponents of Zionism. To them, Ireland, Professor Anita Shapira of formulate Zionist ideology today. alas, Zionism spells more often op- Tel Aviv University made the point To start with, let us bear in mind pression than revolution. that Zionism was born out of the that Zionist ideology today is being Those who today see themselves. Jews' simultaneous encounter with formulated in conditions quite dif- as Zionists do so not because they modernity and anti-semitism. ferent from those that characterised want to assimilate but can't, and not `The vaguely articulated notions its emergence. For Jews today can, because they want to change the of Jewish nationalism', she said especially in the West, assimilate world - for assimilation is easier `became significant and potent without too many obstacles. The without Zionism and revolution when the integration of the Jews in- anti-semitism that inhibited earlier more accepted when expressed in to the modern world clashed head- generations of `emancipated' Jews anti-Zionist terms - but because on with the spectre of anti- from integrating into Western socie- they are committed to Jwc7crz.sin. semitism.' She also said that for the ty is much less potent today. The And Judaism today is not really Jew at the turn of the century, `a principal manifestation of what re- possible without Zionism. Out of secular Jewish nationalism could be mains is anti-Zionism, which sug- the despair to which Western civili- his answer to the secular na- gests to some Jews that distancing zation has brought many of us, and tionalism which refused him en- oneself from Zionism improves because of our disappointment with trance.' And she quoted with ap- one's chances to assimilate. revolution, some of us have turned proval Yehezkel Kaufmann's dic- All this means that we cannot per- to our religious roots and found tum that `Zionism was not born out suade our contemporaries to em- Zionism in them. When we wanted of the fear of assimilation but out of brace Zionism in order to express more of Judaism than we were the recognition that assimilation themselves as modern, emanci- given, we turned to Zionism and was impossible. ' pated, secular men and women. found our people through it. A second characteristic of the ear- They can do so in other ways. Affir- Zionist affiliation comes to us ly stages of modern Zionism, accor- mation of Zionism is today a firm nowadays, literally, with our ding to Professor Shapira, was its statement against assimilation. Synagogue subscription. Whereas revolutionary nature. Speaking of Similarly, we are not in a position membership of Diaspora Zionist the men and women of the Second to fuse our children's revolutionary political parties is on the decline - Aliyah, she said that `their road to zeal, such as it is, with commitment they have to forge their membership the modern world led through a to Zionism. Even if revolution records to retain their representa- belief in revolution, in socialism, in means to them what it meant to the tion at congress - membership of the remaking of society, the cia/z/ZzJ.J# of the Second Aliyah, it religious Zionist bodies is on the in- brotherhood of man, interna- can no longer express itself in crease. tionalism and utopian schemes.' Zionism. For today, Zionism is Zionism for most of us ceased to Reviewing the history of Zionism, perceived as particularist, eliti,st, be a secular-revolutionary force and Professor Shapira concluded with bourgeois, even imperialist. Many has become a religious-bourgeois this question: `In which direction is of our children want nothing to do manifestation, no longer necessarily Zionism moving today and what is with it and - possibly because they negating our diaspora existence. We

10 Manna Summer 1985 New Directions For Zionism

'`1`.I_=` --Ill-FX

I ---,-- i :---i

Dow Marmur

must acknowledge this reality and secularists has disappeared, despite symbol. Rosenzweig's interconnect- actively pursue a policy of education the institutions that suggest the con- ing triangles are grounded in philo- and information in an updated vcr- trary. sophy; those that Zionism created sion of the Zionist vision of an The completion of the triad Israel have their roots in history; both Achad Ha'am and a Martin Buber. as Faith, People ¢#d Land gave rise have profound theological implica- The political response that led to the to a new triad. The existence of the tions. creation of the State of Israel in the Land brought a new dimension of The emergence of Zionism and Land of Israel has now made it Hope in the perception of the Peo- the establishment of the State of possible to offer a spiritual-cultural ple of Israel in relation to the Faith Israel have transformed Judaism in framework for the renewal of the of Israel. Similarly, the new situa- all its aspects. Therefore, it is no People of Israel and the Faith of tion made the People relate to the longer enough to speak of the ce#- Israel. What follows is an attempt to Land in terms of a new category: /rcz/jt}J of Israel. If there were such a formulate this old-new Zionism. Power. And, finally, the relation- term, we should rather speak of the The achievement of Zionism, i.e. ship of the Faith to the Land - `Israelness' of Judaism, epitomized the establishment of the Jewish bearing in mind both the Hope and in this illustration which tries to State, completed the triangle that is the Power - expresses itself in a make the Magen David into a meta- Israel. Until that time, and for most new struggle for Justice. Therefore, phor for contemporary Judaism and of its history, Israel has been Faith if Faith-People-Land form one Jewishness. and Israel has been People. Israel a.s triangle, Hope-Power-Justice form The triumph of Zionism made Land was a dream which permeated the other. Judaism whole, yet our task is by no both Faith and People, but it was Since Hope is the outcome of the means completed. For the establish- only a dream. The reality of the encounter of Faith and People, ment of the State of Israel may have Land completed the triad and Power of People and Land and completed the task of Zionism as far changed the nature of all three; it Justice of Faith and Land, this se- as the first triad is concerned - by made Israel whole, and it made it cond triangle forms, together with adding the Land, it has given life to different. Jewish thought is wrestl- the first, the Magen David. the Faith and the People - but it ing with the implications of the has not yet tackled the second triad. change: how the Faith of Israel and FAITH PEOPLH LAND Therefore, we now have to ask the People of Israel have been ourselves: how does the existence of transformed by the possession of HOPE JUSTICE POWER Israel as Faith, People ai#c7 Land af- the Land of Israel. Judaism has fect our understanding of Hope, entered a new phase. It is no longer As Gershom Scholem has shown Power and Justice? I only suspended from Heaven but in his writings it was Zionism that also rooted in the soil. As a result, gave the Magen David new vitality To be concluded in the next issue every conscious Jew has become and new meaning. It may, there- o£ Manna. something of a Zionist, and every fore, be appropriate to plagiarize Zionist and supporter of the Land Franz Rosenzweig's `Star of RahhEDow Mimmur is the senior rabbi Of the of Israel has become involved with Redemption' and describe the pro- Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto. He was the People and the Faith. The dis- formerly rabbi Of the North Western Reform spect of deliverance in our time that Synagogue, N.W. London. He is author of tinction between religionists and Zionism constitutes with the same `Beyond Survival'.

Manna Summer 198F. il by Graham Greene, V. S. Naipaul meone for whom the printed word is to getting sick in Israel. Every- THERE'S ONE ADVANTAGE and Sir Isaiah Berlin, to the both a modest livelihood and a one's a doctor. They're just charismatic Milan Kundera at the magnificent obsession. For me its too busy being chambermaids, or Khan Theatre - seemed like a good indulgence on this occasion could be taxi drivers, or literary agents to idea. Not that I am a publisher for temptingly combined with both a qualify. whom the Fair is intended, but vacation in a Holyland bedizined by The 12th Jerusalem International some profligate springtime god with Book Fair - its caucus at the im- a multicoloured carpet of flowers, posirnB Binyanei Ha'ooma Conven- and visits to lifelong friends. /i.o# CeHfre overlooking the city and The official opening of the Fair next to the Central Bus Station on by Prime Minister Peres was preced- the Jaffa Road where from midday ed by registration and the distribu- on Erev Sfeabbaf the single deckers tion of the yellow and white `tags' return like so many well schooled which both sorted the Agents and bees to the hive, its tentacles exten- Publishers from the Management, ding to a reception at the Presiden- Personnel, and Sales Staff, and pro- tial Residence and the award of the vided identification for the constant Jerusalem Prize, previously received :if8;ri# comings and goings through the "JEnu Rosemary Friedman

12 Manna Summer 1985 special side door of the Centre con- to take advantage `of the quiet at- he wore pale blue shorts and mat- veniently adjacent to the fleshpots mosphere provided in the centre ching kibbutz hat - wondered of the Jerusalem Hilton with its 40 during trade hours'. where, in this fabled city with its suites, including 3 Royal Suites with A red suited Dorjt at the Informa- Western Wall, its Mount from private sauna. This colour coding, tion Desk directed me to the second which the dead would in the fullness none denoting author - surely the floor where all the room numbers, I of time be resurrected, its museums, a;.#e gwo #o# of the publishing world was not surprised to find, began its holy sites, was TWA - - presented problems. I settled, with the numeral 2. Her colleague, American Express they knew - and somewhat fraudulently for `Exhi- one D¢/I.cr, after a conference of , since they were going `shupping' bitor'. Having no stand I was,like such length I suspected they were asked to be appraised when the bus the ubiquitous minister, without resolving the problem of the West reached Ben Yehuda Street. portfolio. Bank, apologised for the misinfor- There was an agent in room 103 in Armed with ticket - Admit One mation and assured me that the the afternoon but not in)J agent. Zz.v - I presented myself at the ap- Agent's Room, 103, was certainly was expected the following day and pointed time for the opening cere- located on the third floor. My scep- a message was left that I had called. mony to find that the pasteboard ticism was assuaged by both Dorzt A symposium in English by the slip, despite its promise, admitted and Dai/I.c7 - each more beautiful Jewish Publications Society was nobody. Five hundred people angri- and perplexed than the other - followed by the dispersing of par- ly brandishing similar t;¢c7e-mccwms from behind the barricades of the ticipants back to the arduous mann- seethed on the steps of the Con- Information Desk. Once again I ing of their stalls until 23.00, or to ference Centre suitably and elegant- climbed the concrete stairs to find wine and dine in Jerusalem /Pcr/cia, ly attired for the occasion. Time on the 3rd floor - how gullible can Kishka, Tcholent a.rid Kneidlach tiike passed. The relayed words of the you get? - each number beginning Mama used to make at Feferberg's Prime Minister declared open the with the numeral 3 . Dorj.I and Da/f.cJ or fresh fish served in a Homy (sic) exhibition, the doors of which were were now joined by Ga/I.¢ who, ask- atmosphere a,i Elat Haya). unequivocally and patently still clos- ed me, dark eyes liquid, to be good The following day brought a ed. After a suitable interval allowing enough to wait. A second con- message from ZJ.v sellotaped to the Prime Minister Peres and the local ference proclaimed the Agent's notice-board in a transformed room paparazzi to get a head start in the Room to be situated, not surprising- 103, `quiet atmosphere etc', `Why three kilometre Book National, the ly, on the ground floor, behind their don't we meet tomorrow at 5.0? doors opened and into the valley of very Information Desk in fact, Look forward to seeing you, ZJ.1;. ' books surged the five hundred. Two along the corridor. Room 103 turn- Alas, 5 o'clock Wednesday was the hours later those who had survived ed out, on further inspection, to be Literary Reception at the the course - Abbeville Press Inc. to the Registration Room which had, Montefiore Windmill followed im- Zechner and Huthig Verlag, taking not 24 hours previously dispensed mediately by that of the British the Simon and Shuster and Steimat- the `tags' . IVz/rj.I who still had a large Council, after which was the zky hurdles on the way - presented supply of them in front of her, knew highspot of the week, the presenta- themselves in the bowels of the nothing about agents but offered to tion of the Jerusalem Prize to Milan Hilton for welcoming cheese in its ask SJ.mar, who was in charge of Kundera whose themes expressed every variety and wines from Riesl- room 103 but had gone for coffee. the Freedom of the Individual in ing to Sauvignon, at a gathering On her return Sj.rna, whose smile Society. Meanwhile there was still presided over by the ebullient was dazzling, gave her full attention Tuesday to get through. An impor- Mayor Teddy Kollek. to the problem, confirmed the room tant address by Lord Weidenfeld Warmed by the kfearmsz.#, which number, 103, the legend in the on: `The Future of Literary Ex- blew relentlessly from the desert, catalogue, `quiet atmosphere etc.' change: the Decline and Resurrec- and the jtosg glow of Granache and assured me that if I would wait tion of International Publishing in from the Carmel cellars, which for five minutes the mystery of the the Humanities', session one of washed down the seemingly endless disappearing agents would be solv- `Editorial Vision in Today's offerings of sizzling Z)o#rek¢ and ed. At the end of five minutes - Marketplace: Exploring for New mingled with Moroccan cigars, the give or take half-an-hour - Sr.m¢ Books', followed by the presenta- week, with its receptions, prizegiv- arrived with the news that room 103 tion of the Friends of Jerusalem ings, lectures and symposia, pro- was indeed to be the Agent's Room, award to an impressive list of reci- `quiet atmosphere etc' , but not until ceeded. pients at the Town Hall in the Jaffa Having enjoyed the peripheral the afternoon when registration Road by - you guessed it - Teddy delights of the Book Fair, old prints would be completed. She assured Kollek. I pinned a note to the board of the works of Maimonides, fac- me that Zj.v, my particular agent, asking Zz.v to meet me on Thursday similes of illuminated handwriting would be there and watched by a morning. This was getting manuscripts from the Vatican swiling Dorit, Dalia and Galia 1 left ridiculous. library, the Kennicott Bible and the for the hotel shuttle and the Israel A punishing day, Wednesday: letters of Martin Luther, my first Museum where the 7th International Session 2 of the symposium `Bring- task was to set up a meeting with my Art Book Prize was to be presented ing New Books to Market', a Israeli agent who as we had esta- by Mayor Kollek. magical tea in the garden of the blished in previously exchanged let- On the bus a well-preserved Montefiore Windmill - address by ters was to be found in the Agent's American couple - she, if melted Lord Egremont who had travelled Room - 103 according to my down, would have been worth her all the way from Petworth - the catalogue - where one was invited not inconsiderable weight in gold, British Council `do', and the high

Manna Summer 1985 13 spot of the week, Milan Kundera from my back and stars of pain family and seemed to have a poor who won the audience with his state- before my eyes. opinion of her husband who `had a ment that `Israel was the true heart The hotel was superb. A bed- few sheep'. The Jews, she said, hav- of Europe - a heart strangely board was produced in minutes and ing established that I was one, were located outside the body'. He ex- installed. Determined to make the `good people'. I drifted through plained why great novels are always Presidential Reception I rang a pain and drugs. Zz'v, on the a little more intelligent than their chiropractor recommended by telephone, suggested traction which authors - because the novelist was friends, one Dr. Offenbach, who had helped his auntie. My trip to always listening to another, supra- did not make house calls but would Tiberias following the Book Fair personal voice than that of his per- see me if I came to him. He silenced looked unlikely. I doubted I was go- sonal moral conviction - confessed my mocking laughter - I could ing to get home. I missed the Israel a prediliction for Tristam Shandy scarcely move - with the suggestion Museum and President's Reception. and declared that `the spirit of an that icepacks on the offending part I doubt if he missed me. age cannot be judged exclusively by would cut off the blood supply, The evening chambermaid , its ideas, its theoretical concepts, thereby deadening the pain, and in ycAz/dj.f, said I could go to Tiberias: without considering its art, par- two hours I would be able to get into `Is good. Hot springs'. It was as ticularly the novel'. With his a taxi. Room Service brought a much as I could do to go to the filmstar looks and accented French, bucket of ice, together with two bathroom. Kundera captivated the house with elegant glasses and some lemon. The The kfearmsz.# came to an end as his homage to Flaubert's discovery housekeep?r brought a plastic laun- did the Book Fair. The participants of stupidity, his condemnation of dry bag. The laundry bag leaked. I departed for Egypt and Eilat, Tel kitsch, and his description of the was not only in pain but soaking Aviv and Tiberias, while I lay on my conflict between the novelist and wet. 4mos, the doorman, recom- board listening to the distant wail of Rabelais' crge/c}sfe - the man who mended hot baths which had cured well-used ambulances provided by does not laugh. To great acclaim he his sister of a similar condition, and generous donors in Milwaukee and received his prize from - Teddy instructed the taxi driver, yorarm, to Hampstead Garden Suburb. Kollek. drive `easy'. In his concern for my By the day of my flight I could suffering yorcrm forgot to put the just hobble. I did not relish being `There was a loud crack meter on. With gritted teeth, cursing strapped into my upright seat like a every bump, we made Talpit. Dr. battery hen. Offenbach, like the torturer's ap- 4mor on the door greeted me like fiproa#n#eyfobraeckmayn:ysets:r„f prentice was waiting on the steps. a long lost friend. He bounced on my head, impaled `Was good the baths?' me on his table, treated me to a lec- `Was good.' ture - illustrated by his wallchart `Boker roy,' yor¢m the driver Thursday morning started off - on how I had mistreated my spine said, `You wan't go the doctor?' `Airport. You wan't put the meter well enough. I met ZJ.v. It had taken with all that unaccustomed swimm- four days. No, he hadn't sold my ing, lifting, climbing round the ram- on?, `B'Seder'. `Jewish' novels in Israel. There were parts. My pleas for mercy curtailed two subjects anathema to Hebrew the manipulation - `don't worry if We understood each other. Three publishers : Jews , and the you hear your joints popping! ' A se- bombs had exploded that morning, Holocaust! I offered him `A Loving cond bed was wet, this time with my in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh. The Mistress' and `A Second Wife' and tears. I thanked Dr. Offenbach. pain in my back, as we bounced he got quite excited. yoram wanted to take me to the over potholes, seemed less impor- It was the day for the opening of Dead Sea - `30 minutes, easy, tant. the new wing of the Israel Museum, easy,' -to sample the `bleck mud'. yorczm helped me with my case. Traditions and Heritage, followed I declined the offer faint with pain `May you soon be `leaping upon by the reception at their official and in no state to argue over the the mountains, skipping upon the residence given by The President of chz/fzpc7cJz.ck 15 dollars he demanded hills ...' I doubted if I would ever Israel and Mrs Herzog. There was for our outing. walk again. time for a quick tour of the Old Ci- He told me how much was on the ty. On the shuttle, which I took to meter. Jaffa Gate, the well-preserved `You come next year Jerusalem?' American couple of earlier in the I allowed myself a small pun. `Oh yes,' I said, looking forward week, still `shupping' were just as £armz#%tocnu,r- mystified as to the whereabouts of to the next Book Fair, `1'11 be Ben Yehuda Street. I wondered if back ! ' I after forty years in the wilderness The chambermaid, Susannah, they would have recognised the Pro- who came from Bethlehem and had mised Land. six children was better than any When I got back to the hotel the State Registered Nurse. She swimming pool - we were still in demonstrated, with calisthenics, her the grip of the kfec7ms;.7z - looked own aches and pains, and offered Rosemary Frieamim was born in London in inviting. In the bedroom I bent `Moscovon' tablets, by which she 1929. A prolific novelist, her earlier work ap- peared under the name Robert Tibber. Books down to get my bikini from the swore, for the pain. She told me that !.Hc/#de `Rose of Jericho', `Proofs of Af.fec- drawer and there was a loud crack she was the breadwinner of the tion' crHd `Practice makes Perfect'.

14 Manna Summer 1985 Australian ]euiry migrants from Asian countries to Evrage assures me that our MY FRIEND DAME EDNA Australia outnumbered newcomers native city is, in fact, the from Europe. As Hong Kong's ham- apotheosis of the United Kingdom. dover date comes closer no one If they laugh at a joke about some doubts that this process will con- local Australian mz.#feag in ORANOE tinue. Within the Jewish community Melbourne they will do so in Bir- we have successfully integrated mingham, Portsmouth and Pic- TREES significant waves of migration from cadilly. Whilst I know this to be an South Africa and the Soviet Union. empirically true observation neither IN"E It is estimated that there are now I nor Dame Edna can really explain 80,un Jews in Australia. There are why this should be so. Has humour CAROEN 6,OcO Australian Jews who live in replaced hubris as the imperial Israel and who therefore represent a dream fades? ANOA considerable proportion of our own Some years ago I foolishly travell- young people. It is possible at the ed to the Old Country to speak to present, that only Melbourne and the students at the Leo Baeck Col- stunEev Sydney have Jewish communities lege about four pulpit vacancies that large enough to constitute the were begging for candidates. The FOR critical mass needed for group sur- students dutifully sat in their rather vival. For example faced with a cramped and dingy classroom while SURVIVAl dwindling Jewish population, there I described rabbinic congregational is no rabbi now serving either an or- conditions in a land where the sun thodox or a progressive congrega- actually does shine and where tion in New Zealand. orange trees blossom in my back JOHN LEVI The pride and joy of Australian garden. The students listened polite- Jewry is undoubtedly our Day 1y enough but in their eyes I read an still subject to `pastoral tours' by School system. With parsimonious unspoken question `Why should I your own very charming and very aid from the State and thanks to in- go to Australia' I haven't done shrewd `Chief Rabbi'. Like Haley's credible communal fund raising ef- anything wrong! ' Comet his circuits are greeted with forts, we believe that 70ayo of all It is therefore not surprising to wide public interest. They also primary age Jewish children in find that of the eight progressive create the valuable impression that Melbourne attend a Jewish Day rabbis now serving in Australia six there is more to Jewish religious life School. In both Melbourne and were trained in the United States than can be detected in our local or- Sydney the progressive synagogues and only one is from England. thodox rabbinate. have built schools and it is not There is more than a touch of irony An even more disconcerting unreasonable to foresee that by 1990 in this fact. From. her home in hangover from our colonial past is there will be a total enrolment of Bayswater the Hon. Lily Montagu provided by delegates at the Board 1,000 pupils in our two Day literally founded Australia's first of Deputies of British Jews who Schools. Our other, not so secret, non-orthodox synagogue. She sup- claim to represent some antipodean weapon in the battle for Jewish sur- plied us with our first prayer books, congregations. I have no doubt that vival is `Netzer' our Youth Move- despatched our first four rabbis these ghostly Australian consti- ment. We send €verj; child who and, even though these were the tuents are grateful for the wisdom shows leadership potential in the bleakest years of the depression, that is sent to them from London. Youth Movement to spend a year in somehow found the money to sup- But why your local delegates to the Israel after matriculation. After ten plement their salaries. The sun has British Board put up with their years experience the cumulative ef- set on that admirable sense of Em- anachronistic presence escapes me. feet of this programme upon our pire. It snapped when Singapore And whilst we consider the congregations and its leadership has was captured by the Japanese. It democratic management of the been profound. sank when the American Fleet Jewish community, it may be worth After 55 years, Progressive rescued Australia from a Japanese mentioning that in Australia our Judaism in Australia and New invasion. local Boards manage to function on Zealand is now more than middle Now .our children are no longer the agreed principle that Progressive aged. During this time we have taught the words of `God Save the and Orthodox Judaism must be managed to grow into a Union of 12 Queen' and hardly know the tune. treated on the basis of absolute synagogues, a Youth Movement and Within the Jewish community this equality. Only if both sides agree two day schools. We have about sense of remoteness from our can our Board of Deputies issue any 8,000 adult members without split- British origins is accentuated by the statement or initiate any debate on ting into two or three non-orthodox fact that according to the Australian religious matters. movements. We kept our hats on Commonwealth Census of 1981 less The Pacific Basin is said to be the and, from the beginning, remained than 10% of Australian Jewry was most rapidly developing sect.or of staunchly Zionist. Perhaps because born in the United Kingdom. the globe and there are certainly of our isolation, or through simple Has everything gone overboafd, radical changes occurring in this Aussie pragmatism, we seem to have apart from our tendency to laugh at region. In 1984 the tide in the pat- been spared some of the agonising the same jokes? Well, not quite. tern of migration shifted significant- ideological debates that our English Unbelievably Australian Jewry is ly when, for the first time, im-. cousins appear to enjoy. continued on next page

Manna Summer 1985 15 Back to the Sources. Reading the sions that deepen our understanding a/assj.c Jew.sfe rc*ts edited by Barry of the Bible text - land and W. Holtz. Summit Books, New BOOI{S language, those rare gifts that are York, 1984. the special inheritance of Israeli Jews. I have been fortunate to share them in a modest degree. I recall THE how, as a boy on my first visit to gests one of the contributors to Palestine, I watched from the train JEWISHthis fine LITERATURE, volume, should be SUG- seen that wound around the hillsides on as a vast inverted pyraniid. The the way to Jerusalem. Here, pointed Bible is at the base, `but the edifice SECRET my father, Samson strode across the expands outward enormously - valley to court the Philistine midrashic literature, the Talmuds, maiden, there the young David the commentaries, the legal codes, OF THE defied the giant in front of the battle the mystical tradition, the array. philosophical books'. Throughout We visited Rachel's tomb `on the all this huge body of writing, one BIBLE way to Ephrath'. We sat outside returns again and again to the small Hebron and ate figs and drank corpus of the Bible, all to the water in Arab beakers beside the BEN SEGAL Cfewmasrfe. It is there that resides the gnarled `oaks of Mamre' where source of Jewish experience, the Abraham had dwelt. Nor is it ac- source of Jewish teaching. `Turn it', cidental that two of the architects of said the Rabbi, `and turn it again the revived Jewish State, Orde for everything is in it; and con- Wingate and Yigael Yadin, carried template it and grow grey and old pocket editions of the Bible on their over it and stir not from it'. expeditions. What is the secret of the seminal To the dimension of land I was influence of Holy writ? The vivid lucky to add also the dimension of immediacy and freshness of its language. For one cannot relish the speech that enables us to clothe its full savour of the Bible, its subtle spare frame in the ever-changing nuances and assonances, in any thought of the present? We find the language but the original. Hebrew same directness in Homer and the writers have always been conscious Ugaritic epics. But the world of the of the underlying meaning of their Greek heroes and the nature deities words. Examples are as numerous of the Mediterranean seaboard pro- as the entries in the dictionary. That vide no moral pattern for later familiar word s¢cr/om denotes generations. The secret, of course, wholeness rather than peace. By its lies elsewhere. The Bible is a tale of translation as `twilight', #esfec/ has personal revelation, of faith that lost its primary significance; it has derives from an inspired sense of also lost the onomatopoeic quality justice and integrity. of the breeze that blows at sunset There are two ancillary dimen- and sunrise. The cognate term

I confess that I hold the eccentric perience, distant and limited as it choose to live in Israel or in the view that Jews have played a far may be, indicates that if a communi- Diaspora, the Jewish life of our more significant role in the history ty is to survive it is helpful to live in whole community is renewed by of both Australia and New Zealand a society in which Jews are allowed their strong sense of identity and than has been seen anywhere else in to be themselves and where Jews are Jewish loyalty. the Diaspora. We have neither an therefore free to educate their We have an urgent need to create established Church nor a national children in Jewish Day Schools. We training centres for full time pro- elitist model of behaviour that in- have learned that our children don't gressive Jewish teachers. We must corporates visions of dreaming take their heritage seriously if it is create an Israeli network of pro- `part time' and our congregants spires or pious pilgrim fathers. In- grammes for our youngsters. Other- deed, in 1930, when the Australian understand that we are not serious wise I believe we will face Jewish ex- Labour Prime Minister Scullin about Jewish education when we tinction. And if this is true for decided that it was time to install an send our children off to be taught by Melbourne I have every reason to Australian born Governor General strangers from Monday to Friday think it is true for Hampstead, Man- as the King's representative in and then, at the weekend, steal from chester and Cardiff . I Canberra's Government House he their their precious spare time. We pointedly chose the eminent jurist have also learned that our diaspora Sir Isaac Isaacs. Whitehall was community depends for its future Rabbi John Levi /.s Se»i.or Jzabbz. o/ Temp,'. shaken and Buckingham Palace was Beth Israel in Melbourne. He is the author of good health upon the number of our two books on Australian Jewish history. He shocked but the symbolic meaning youngsters who have had a sustain- is a member of the Order of Australia and a was clear. ed experience of modern Israeli Vice President of the World Union for Pro- The Australian Jewish ex- society. Whether they ultimately gressive Judaism. continued from page 15

16 Manna Summer 1985 #esAamai is divested of its meaning Hasidism, and the volume is spiritual home, others remain in in the translation `spirit', where the brought to a close with a chapter on their adopted religion, but with a secondary sense has submerged its the Prayer Book. Each chapter con- newly found appreciative sympathy Latin derivation. And how far cludes with a section entitled `Where for the religion into which they were removed is rcrcfecrmj.in in the English to Go from Here' in which born. Two English Buddhist friends word `mercy' from rechem, the guidance, including bibliographies, both say how much deeper now is organ of feeling. is given to the reader who may wish their understanding of Christianity But for many Jews in the to pursue further his investigations than when they were schooled in it Diaspora, as contributors to Back fo in that field. This is an admirable as youngsters - and one certainly is free Sowrces reluctantly concede, the concept. far more appreciative of the niceties Hebrew text of the Bible is elusive In his Introduction the editor of of Choral Evensong than I am! and remote. Happily the English- the volume modestly defines the Michele Guinness is one who has speaking world is well served by purpose of the book as `to deal with gained a new sympathy for the translations. One may choose bet- the great texts in a pbpular, religion of her birth whilst remain- ween the ringing music of the nonacademic context'. It does much ing a member of her adopted faith. Authorised Version or the greater more than that, and within no more She tells the story of her Jewish accuracy of the Revised Version or than some four hundred pages. This childhood in Gateshead. Her father, even the idiosyncratic New English book will be acclaimed by experts as a doctor, was sceptical. But her Bible. And there are the excellent well as novices as a most significant mother whose main interest seems translations of the American Jewish contribution to the furtherance of to have been making the house as Publication Society, and many adult Jewish study in the English- perfect as possible, tried to preserve o,thers. The English text may at speaking world. I hope that it will be an orthodox home. `yidd;.sfekez.f, times catch the rhythm of the widely read. . not Judaism, that was what really Hebrew, as in the superb `by reason mattered to my mother and her of the pransings, the pransings of Professor J. 8. Segal wcrs bor" i.# Ivewcasf/e friends', she writes. their strong ones'. in 1912. He visited Palestine frequently where Michele tells of her questioning his father wc[s a distinguished Hebrew We should not wait for our desert University professor. He is Emeritus Pro- and her frustration with the restric- island before we read and re-read fessor of Semitic Languages at SOAS and tions of home life. At College, she the Good Book from beginning to President of Leo Baeck College. meets some Christians, eventually end. Everyone ought to read the gets baptised, to the great sadness of complete Old Testament at least her parents and falls in love with twice. Occasionally, of course, we Peter, who wants to be ordained. are tempted to cheat. The legal LAST EXIT `Well', says her mother, `1 may yet passages deter, and there appears to be mother-in-law to the Archbishop be little inspiration in the passages FROM of Canterbury. What would our on antique hygiene or the sacrificial rabbi say to that?' rites or the measurements and fur- GATESHEAD - Michele Guinness is much con- nishings of the Sanctuary. cerned with the question of identity. Nevertheless, there is much to be INTO She wants to retain her Jewishness said for ploughing on. In the Bible and is critical of many Christians even the prosaic has deep interest, CHURCH who are ignorant of their Jewish particularly if one reads the Hebrew roots. with translation and commentaries. For her, Christ fulfils her And how often can we advance a MARCUS BRAYBROOKE Judaism. My difficulty is that whilst guess as to the crux which our com- this may be true for her, the implica- mentator will choose for his ex- Child of the Covenant tion is that it should be true for all planation? This requires as sharp an by Michele Guinness Jews - and certainly the `house- eye and alert a mind as any exercise Hodder and Stoughton,1985, £1.75 style' of the publishers encourages of skill. 157 pP-~-Pap€rback this. Yet this conflicts with the con- Then, when we are familiar with viction of a growing number of the Bible, we can turn with con- Christian theologians that God's fidence to the rest of Jewish told me that at least three of covenant with Israel is eternal and literature. Its treasures are extraor- ATIBETANthe young MONK men who HAS have that missionary activity of Chris- dinarily varied and inviting. And in spent time at his centre have even- tians towards Jews is wrong. Back to the Sources they a.re set out tually been ordained as Anglican If this book is read as one per- with consummate clarity. The clergymen. It was only by exploring son's story, it is easy reading. It only chapter on the Talmuds contains an another tradition that they were able touches on ques`tions of Jewish iden- analysis of a passage from BerakAof to discover the spiritual depths of tity and Jewish-Christian relations. which will serve as a useful guide to their own, which have been ob- My fear is that it will encourage the the uninitiated. We then have a scured by the conventional com- Christian triumphalism which I treatment of Midrash, and studies promises of their nominally Chris- believe to be theologically mistaken of medieval Bible commentaries tian homes. `Passing over and com- and which makes dialogue more dif- (notably Rashi, Rashbam and Ibn ing back', says John Dunne in 7lfee ficult. I Ezra) and medieval Jewish Wa}J o/4 // ffee Earffe `is the spiritual The Rev. Marcus Braybrooke i.s execwJ!.vc philosophy. A long discussion on adventure of our time.' director of the Council Of Christians and Kabbala leads to a chapter on Some returri to their original Jews.

Manna Summer 1985 17 NORMAN SOLOMAN

-n]¥@ R'iity '9? ,hz9PB |'B:a "B'lS¥] E'SS

:'R]R i? iT n!¥B ]SIP tt¥¥ .'RSl,? |¥!3 Rity nty? -tyiie5 7? in!¢ i.S@3 al.-7;? j¥9pDa t3Gpp BIB ts@?P

•lgB!? b3? i'l¥ Sslngiv "l`jl,¥ 7Sic |9-lB8i !ttib-|il3 !19P,|P r]!iBB-j# '.1! oil:lilli fi3ty Tbi3 i3l@B| !h3Pjl3i .'in5 .9? iS§-7i -17 WHY WE THAINK GOD EVEN WHEN TIMES ARE BAI) the heart', and derives from the spiritual. But it is those to whom second of the fourteen major RAMBAM CALLED THE verse `you shall serve the Lord your prayer is a familiar exercise who, in divisions of his great Code God with all your heart ...' -and their heightened moments, `pierce `4fe¢i;cr', love. Its subject matter is thus clearly not limited by time or the veil' between man and God. prayer - man talking to God, place. PRAISE, NEEDS, THANKS - reading His word, rorafe, showing WOMEN, SLAVES - The rab- This is the framework of our `shemone esre' praye;I. his love of God by declaring his bis held that women and non-Jewish faith, SAcmar, and adorning himself slaves were exempt from certain The first three blessings are in with the outward signs, rsi.tsj.f, Mitzvot which had to be performed praise of God, and last three are Teifillin, ciroumcis±on. at specific times; this was perhaps a thanksgiving, incorporating the The second section of `4„avcJ' is recognition of the way in which final prayer for peace. The middle, called Te/J.//¢', prayer, and deals social conventions of the time tied traditionally 13 blessings are re- specifically with the `fc/j.//¢', par ex- women, as well as slaves, to a quests for our daily needs - know- cellence, sometimes called by us domestic role in which they could ledge, forgiveness, health and the `amida' or `shemone esre'.1n some not control the allotment of time. like. On Sabbaths and Festivals the form or other this remains to this Rambam, by his present argu- middle section is replaced by a day the central statutory prayer of ment, has bypassed the other reason shorter one, appropriate to the day. all Jews, whether orthodox or the Talmud gives for women to PRAISE - Earlier in the Code reform. pray.. `Tefilla' is `rahame', an ap- Rambam claimed that intelligent Let us look closely at the text of peal for mercy - but the Aramaic meditation on nature leads to a the second paragraph of the opening term also means `love', and women sense of awe before the Creator and chapter o£ `Hilchot Teftlla', the need mercy as much as men'. this leads to love of him. Awe, and Laws of the Tefilla. ultimately love, form the basis of `Therefore women and THE ESSENCE OF THE MITZ- VA, literally: `the obligation of this praise. The `re/!.//ar' itself opens slaves are obliged to say the mitzva' - Characteristically, Ram- with the `Patriarchs', so that fc/j.//ar, for it is a positive com- bam has systematized the vast mass history, too, becomes a medium for mandment not limited in time. of talmudic rules and formulations praise. The essence of the mz.fzw of of prayer around a simple, basic NEEDS - Why pray for our prayer is this, that a man concept. In this, one sees his needs? Doesn't God know what is should entreat and pray each greatness as a codifier. good for us? Is He going to change day. He should declare the DAILY - As developed by the things anyway? praises of the Holy One, bless- rabbis, `daily' becomes `three times Rambam had special difficulty ed be He, then ask with ap- a day'. There is a. discipline o£ with this problem, for in the `Guide propriate supplication for his prayer, not only a spontaneous out- for the Perplexed' he denied that own needs, then render praise pouring of the heart. Regular prayer God's Providence extended to in- and thanks to God for the is like the regular exercise of the dividuals in the `sublunar', i.e. goodness He has poured down athlete. He does not run his fastest material, sphere. His answer is bold. to him, each according to his each day, nor is he always in the Through the exercise of free will in abilities.' (Note that `man' mood to run. Yet when the day of accordance with Torah man raises here is to be understood as himself czZ}ove the material world, `man or woman'.) the great race comes he reaps the benefit of his disciplined regime. So becoming one with the `Active ln- THEREFORE - i.e. because as it is with prayer. We are not tellect', and directly subject to Rambam explained in his opening necessarily `in the mood' three times divine providence. Let us translate paragraph, prayer is `the service of a day, nor always at our most from mediaeval to modern terms.

18 Manna Summer 1985 SP0lLEI) LETTEns ROTTEIN BY SERVING KING JAMES

Sir' Sir' UP FRONT ERE IN BETH SHALOM Y HEART WENT OUT TO Cambridge, we are forced to Esther Bergner in her H do things differently. We are M lament for the traditional too small to afford a rabbi so have English translations of beloved to run our own weekly and festival Hebrew texts. services. However, until two years Perhaps the trouble is twofold: ago, I was in fact leading the ser- As native English, rather than vices on most occasions and, joking- Hebrew speakers and `thinkers' we ly of course, members even called are spoiled rotten by the divine Rambam is saying: `God does not me `Rabbi' . God has his own way of prose-poetry of the King James listen to the prayers of those who teaching us how to behave, and I fell translation of the Hebrew Bible. submerge themselves in selfish, ill and unable to take services for How skilled he was as an material pursuits. But for those five weeks. Hebraist, I know not, but Matthew who, through free choice, raise That made us all sit up and take Arnold declared: `The Hebrew themselves above that level, He can notice because although the con- language and gellius are seen in the change the world.' gregation managed, it was clear that Book of Isaiah at their perfection - THANKSGIVING - World something needed to be done. Over this has naturally had its effect on Thanksgiving Center has pointed the course of the next year, we the English translators of the Bible, out that all religions, in their most deliberately encouraged, even at whose Version nowhere rises to such orthodox as well their radical forms, times insisted that members lead ser- beauty as in this book' (quoted in stress the value of gratitude. This is vices themselves, perhaps at their the Hertz Chumash, notes to Hof= true even of Buddhism, which does own homes on Erev Shabbat. In torah Va'Ethchanan, paige ]7 6) . not recognise a personal God. So spite of protestations, and at times It is surely much more satisfying thanksgiving is an even more univer- with some assistance, the number of to drench oneself cerebrally and sal concept than that of God. Jewish service leaders increased from two spiritually in the quasi-mystical and teaching requires us to `bless God to six or seven. even mystifying language of the for bad things just as for good'. However, only two congregants Jacobean version, than to read, for Hence a blessing `Blessed be the were comfortable, or confident example, the quite accessible but True Judge' is recited even on the enough to read from the Torah. In rather pedestrian phraseology of occasion of a bereavement. It is January this year, we determined to books like the R.S.G.B. Sj.dd2/r and hard, recalling the Holocaust and change this too. A group met one - l'havdil - The New English Bi- being mindful of the suffering and hour early, just once a month, b/e. destruction in our present world, to before the Shabbat morning service Second, I think the dilemma render thanks `for your miracles and each one with his/her Tikun ranges no deeper than common which are constantly with us'. Yet Sofrim, we started practising. Now, custom and conditions. We like thanksgiving is shallow if it cannot five months later four additional what we know and loathe what encompass the knowledge of evil. congregants have successfully led a smacks of change. At a simplistic Those precious moments when one Shabbat morning service including level, small children adore to recite has the sense that the world and our the Torah portion. or to be read the same stories daily. lives are a wonderful gift, surpass- In a small congregation it is easier Woe betide the careless adult who ing our understanding and deman- perhaps, but with the talent that .inadvertently changes one word of a ding blessing, are the moments in surely exists in large congregations. favourite bedtime tale! which thanksgiving redeems evil.I If rabbis made a policy to encourage Even when like me one is totally j.#c7j.w.c7wo/s, .everyone would benefit. unqualified to discuss the merits of Rabbis would not have to stand `up a particular Hebrew-English trans- front' all the time, and individual lation, it is pleasant to think one Rabbi Dr. Norman Solomon was I)om J.# development would result. Even if may enjoy English versions of the Cardif:f in 1933. He studied in London, Cam- only a section of the service was Hebrew Bible, and prayers as much bridge and Manchester and served the Hamp- read, the listener, the reader and the for their own sake(s) as for spiritual stead Synagogue before moving to Birm- rabbi might all feel they have gain- sustenance. ingham. He is currently Director-Designate ed. Of the Centre for the Study of Judaism and Jewish/Christian Relations and Lecturer in RAMON PHILLIPS NATALIE WOOD Jewish Studies, Selly Oak Colleges. Cambridge Manchester

Manna Summer 1985 19 ACTS 0F OVER THE I)ESECHATI0N THE TOP Sir, Sir,

N ANSWER TO YOUR QUES- Sir, tion, Esther Bergner, yes, I feel IAMpond DELIGHTED to the last paragraph TO RES- of Esther Bergner's letter in the I very much like you about the Y, HOW EDGWARE RE- Spring 1985 issue No. 7. sometime laboured translations and form over-reacts! I had to M look up the previous issue of I too, feel strongly against the changing of wording in the Prayer continuous process of translations Book, especially in the Psalms. A4o##¢ to see what David Goldberg of Scriptural literature. I feel equally strongly about the had dared to say about Rabbi Leigh The message of the Bible is eter- alternative offerings to the lovely when I saw the howls of protest nal and I regard new translations to evocative and nostalgic tunes of from Stanmore and points west. accommodate language variations many of our traditional prayers. And what had he said that was so or substitutions to be an un- Whilst I do appreciate the need terri-ble? He had referred to the necessary desecration. for a certain amount of up-dating venerable Rabbi as `an ogre' and I have examined various publica- and progression, why do we so often although o/ cog/roe Rabbi Michael tions, of which there have been as go over the top by always trying to Leigh is not an ogre, he could surely many, I believe, as five since 1917, improve what so often defies im- be referred to ais such in the light Of of The Jewish Publications Society provement. his views on the merger. of America. In the same way, he could be Surely one must begin to wonder HAZEL JACOBS described as a saint for the way he how such fresh interpretations can Weybridge, Surrey. feels about a possible link-up with be really useful. Acknowledged the Conservative Movement. Surely works of great literature and poetry, it is a matter of degree? and who can deny this description to As a Reform Jew in Finchley, the Holy Bible, cannot ever need MURDER happy with Reform here, but who `directness and simplicity'. Sir, feels far more at home in the local It is even suggested that new Liberal synagogue than in Edgware variations yield a better sense of LLOW ME TO POINT OUT Reform, I would not in the least understanding - yet it is admitted an error in Ilya Kovar's very mind if Rabbi Leigh were to refer to that in certain cases `sure translation A interesting article. The sixth me as an ogre for so saying. is impossible' because of in- commandment quite clearly says superable difficulties. This makes `Thou shalt not murder'. There is a LARRY ROSS translation almost an act of world of difference between that London N3 sacrilege so far as I am concerned. and (kill,. It is comparable to the ridiculous attempts to bring Mozart up to date. ARTHUR HOLMES How appropriate and correct is London NW7 MERGER. your correspondent in quoting the Foz/r Qz/cJrfcfs of T. S. Eliot. What Sir, can possibly be wrong in achieving a DIVIDED personal interpretation and meaning Editorial, I certainly support a of various phrases which may not be Sir, IN REPLY TO LAST ISSUE'S clear at first sight? merger between RSGB and I have the mz.fzv¢fe from time to ULPS. We had a meeting to discuss that your cover picture of this at Menorah Synagogue last year time to read the synagogue Sfec7Z7Z}arz IWAS INTERESTED TO SEE service Hcr/rczrof and t,he wardens Jerusalem Jews at the Western and I think the advantages of a now know so well that I bring my Wall, taken from Martin Gilbert's merger far outweigh the difficulties. own copy of the Holy Scriptures to book Jerusalem, Rebirth of a City, Often we have cause to deplore show quite clearly my preference for shows a man and two women to- the intolerance of members of such privileged occasions. gether close to the Wall. Jewish Orthodoxy. Here is our op- The picture is dated 1896. Today portunity to show the benefit of JACK BENSON in 1985 men and women are segre- enlightened co-operation. I would Wimbledon, gated at the Wall by a fence. welcome a referendum on this sub- London SW19 Perhaps someone can explain ject. when and why this division was im- posed. IRENE KURER Menorah Synagogue MONA LESTER Cheshire Co-Editor, Sinai Chronicle Leeds

20 Manna Summer 1985 that he be dismissed. Most disturb- ago I had gone to h4larcha7!ez. ing of all, however, was a letter 4BOUTye*z/da, THREE Jerusalem's YEARS colour- which appeared recently from the ful. street-market, to pick up some Rev Michael Plaskow of the Wood- fish, when I found the place in a side Park Synagogue. state of more than usual turmoil. I quote it in full: There were police everywhere and `Not so long ago, the - loud shouts of altercation. When I Jewish Chronicle quite rightly asked the fishmonger what it was all refused to publish an article about, he said: which denigrated circumcision `We should have hanged them, for the reason that this rite is the.lot of them' . one of the basic tenets of The `them' turned out to be Judaism. The same criterion employees o£ Kol Yisroel, 1sraLel's should have been used with radio and television network. regard to "jkvch so that no The Kahan report had been rorch-thinking Jew need be put]1ished that moming and jro/ insulted by a similar letter or yz.sroe/ had rashly sent a recording article written 'by a Jew in your van into the market for some vo*- valued columns. May this populi rexports. The populi rmade equally basic doctrine of our their vox known in no uncertain faith help us to gain in manner. Were it not for the prompt spiritual strength. ' intervention of the police, they The article referred to on circum- might have lynched both the repor- cision, after being turned down by ting and recording staff, and set fire the J.C. was eventually published in to their van. Ko/ yr.sroe/, the Voice the Observer. of Israel, it would seem, was regard- If a Jew has reservations about •ed Oneas an of enemy the most of the attractive people. things any aspect of Judaism, no matter how basic, where is he to air them if about Israel is the anination, can- not in a paper like the J.C.? I think dour and independence of the the J.C. was wrong in rejecting that media. Even in the darkest moments particular article - though it might of Likud rule they offered one the reasonably have asked that it be ton- reassurance that the conscience of ed down - because it created a Israel was alive and alert. The precedent which people like the Rev religious papers, I must add, were Plaskow are anxious to enlarge. an exception. Reading them one There was nothing remotely in- kept wondering what was it about a sulting or offensive about the letter religious upbringing which deprived on the m!.kvarft to which Rev people of their basic humanity. The Plaskow refers. What he is really media determination to seek out the demanding is that no one should be truth, wherever it might lie did not, Now it would have been bad allowed to question what he and however, especially in the aftermath. enough if the writer had taken ex- people like him hold to be true. of the Lebanese invas'ion, gain them ception to something that Rabbi I think the J.C. performs an im- much in popular affection. More Blue had written in the J.C. But, portant public service in publishing than half of Israel's population stem unlike the millions who follow Rab- such letters for it highlights one of from countries without a bi Blue with pleasure, he had taken our least attractive characteristics - democratic tradition. Not all of exception to some items he had our intolerance. This is by no means them appreciate the value of a free broadcast on the BBC. Instead of limited to the Orthodox, though press. Indeed, I suspect they feel limiting himself to an expression of they have far more to be intolerant that they would be better off his own displeasure, he suggested about. without one. that because fee didn't like the I don't know if our intolerance But I wonder if this attitude is broad.casts, no one else should listen derives from our experience, or if limited to Jews of Oriental extrac- to them. our experience is, in part, a result of tion. One can see signs of it also in One sees a similar attitude in the our intolerance. the Anglo-Jewish community which correspondence generated by Chaim But we are insufficiently aware of has always prided itself - one Bermant. That some readers of the it, and disinclined to do anything doesn't know on what evidence - J.C. .should on occasion disagree about it. I on its sopbistication. with some of the things written by About a year ago there was a let- Bermant is perhaps not surprising. ter ±n the Jewish Chronicle aLsking What is disturbing is the number of `what can be done to stop Rabbi Mflry Scaton's continental birth and Scottish people who write in not only to upbringing give her writing its distinctive ac- Lionel Blue? ' argue with Bermant, but to demand cents. David Goldberg is on sabbatical.

Manna Summer 1985 21

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