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Home , Jewish peoplehood

RICHARD G. HIRSCH

Jewish Peoplehood Implications for Reform

In his introduction to the book The after the publication of the Protestrab• , Theodor Herzl declared: biner, an article in Maariu (July 16, "We are a people — one people." That 1968), recorded the amazing discovery definition became the premise on which that almost all the living descendants of the Zionist movement was founded, just the five protest were living in the as the rejection of Jewish peoplehood Jewish State. became the leitmotif of 19th century The protest is no more. No more do Reform Judaism. But not only Reform we hear the question: What are the Judaism. The 1897 Declaration by the — nation, people, religion, race? We Protestrabbiner, the Executive Commit• have found a definition which fits us. tee of the German Rabbinical Associa• History and destiny have reinforced the tion, was signed by two Orthodox as well conviction: The Jews "are a people — as three Liberal rabbis. Stating that one people." "Judaism obligates its adherents to We have by now overwhelmingly serve with all devotion the Fatherland to agreed that throughout the world there which they belong, and to further its is a Jewish People, who in the land of national interests with all their heart Israel are organized into a Jewish State. and with all their strength," they op• Am Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael, Medinat posed the convening of the First Zionist Yisrael are three related, but clearly dis• Congress. Their protest was responsible tinct, separate and definable terms. for the transfer of the Congress, However, it is my contention that originally scheduled for Munich, to though we have agreed on the ter• Basle, Switzerland. Nearly seventy years minology, we have not yet come to terms with the full implications of peoplehood. I believe that most of the controversies within our movement, as well as within Richard G. Hirsch, who came on in 1973, American Jewry in general, are at root is Head of the World Union for Progressive only contemporary reflections, adapted Judaism and is a Member of the Executive of the World Zionist Organization. to the changed conditions of Jewish life,

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FORUM-37: SPRING 1980 124 FORUM-37: WORLD JEWRY of the old controversy over definition. Judaized, de-Torahized, de-nationalized Though we use other words than the universalism. previous generations, the religion versus Though subsequently our movement peoplehood conflict is still an activating has presumably rejected classical force. However, whereas in the past the Reform and restored the particularist debate was between opposite poles, in dimension, we still find ourselves tied to this generation it is between degrees of the linguistic and conceptual premises of emphasis. It is accordingly more subtle, classical Reform. Many if not most of complex and muted. Yet, if we are to our statements still bespeak a theology refine alternative courses of belief and which perceives of universalism and par­ action, we need a continuing machloket ticularism as two forces in constant ten­ leshem shamahyim ("controversy for the sion. This view is reflected in some of sake of Heaven"), which will bring the the papers delivered at the symposium issues to the fore rather than submerge sponsored by the Central Conference of them. American Rabbis in 1976 on the themes I have selected three areas of conflict of universalism and particularism. One within our movement — theology, of our colleagues defined universalism as Halakhic practice and — "that category of thought which tends to wherein the debate between the religion subordinate the distinctiveness of the versus peoplehood emphases continues. I Jewish people to the greater good of the shall make no effort to be comprehen­ general society, to minimize the distinc­ sive, but will deal with one issue in each tiveness of the Jewish people, to max­ area, presenting in each instance a imize that which it shares with other perspective which stresses the groups in society, or to put the survival peoplehood dimension. of the Jewish people second to the sur­ vival of the general society." (CCAR Journal, Summer 1977, page 39). In Toward a Theology of Peoplehood the Centenary Perspective adopted at the Conference in 1976, universalism is Classical Reform persistently distorted identified as a "concern for humanity" the relative weights of the component and the "messianic hope (is) that parts of the triad God, and Israel. humanity will be redeemed" — without While it elevated the elements of faith reference at that point to the traditional and theology, it also minimized messianic hope, *the precondition of and tried to expunge the significance of which is that the Jewish people will be the land, language and people of Israel. redeemed. The document also states, Messianism was de-nationalized and the "The State of Israel and the Diaspora, mission denuded of particularism. The in fruitful dialogue, can show how a peo­ prophets were ejected from the earth of ple transcends nationalism even as it their historical milieu and projected into affirms it." (my italics). In these and universal space, like a science fiction other expressions, universalism is time capsule. The very phrase Prophetic translated as concern for humanity, -at־Judaism became synonymous with a de- ethics and social justice in society JEWISH PEOPLEHOOD: IMPLICATIONS FOR REFORM JUDAISM 125 large. Particularism is rendered as con• our actions on the status and well-being cern for the Jewish people and the of Jews. I never offered testimony before Jewish community, cultural distinc• Congress or gave a speech which was not tiveness, ritual, Zionism, and the Jewish rooted in Jewish •tradition. I considered State. Whereas both are deemed essen• it my task not only to speak for Jews, tial, somehow the universal is in• but to speak for Judaism as the 4000 terpreted as being on a higher plane, year old' heritage of commitment to the more selfless, ultimate and transcen• pursuit of justice and the advancement dent, whilst the particular tends to be of the human condition. regarded as parochial, nationalistic, And now that I have been working in penultimate, a necessity for survival, but the State of Israel, supposedly the arena of lesser value in the scales of eternity. of Jewish particularism, I find manifold This continuing effort to separate the opportunities for the expression of the inseparable is a corrosive vestige of clas• universal impulse. In serving on the sical Reform. It has been my privilege to board of an international center for serve our movement on the cutting edge youth which sponsors community centers of both dimensions. When I was Director for Jewish, and Arab children, or in of the Religious Action Center in working on behalf of civil liberties causes Washington D.C., I functioned osten• or of new olim, we respond to the divine sibly in the arena of universalism, ar• imperative of Tikun Olam (perfecting ticulating Jewish concerns and positions society). In fact, if I were to be asked on issues of civil rights, civil liberties, where in our entire world Progressive social welfare, and war and peace. In movement is the interdependence of the many if not most of our efforts, no universal and particular impulses most Jewish vested interests were involved. I manifest and relevant, I would say that remember once having received a call it is in our new small community in the from a group that was convening a Arava called Kibbutz Yahel. For there public hearing on the problems of young Jews from Israel and the migrant workers. The man in charge told Diaspora are putting down roots literally me that they wanted testimony from a in the soil of Eretz Yisrael, building an Protestant, a Catholic and a Jewish outpost for the defense of the Jewish migrant worker. He asked me to find a people, planting the seeds of a new Jewish migrant for the hearing. We Jewish society, seeking creative forms of scoured the country — to no avail. Jewish religious observance, Finally, I called him back and asked if I implementing in their own lives, not could testify, on grounds that with all once a weekend or once a month, but my peregrinations around the country, I twenty-four hours every day the Jewish was the closest thing we could find to a values of communal responsibility, Jewish migrant. Throughout all the economic and social justice. I challenge years in Washington, laboring on behalf anyone .to point to any group or con• of universal causes, I was always gregation within our movement which is motivated by my Jewish particularism either more universalistic or more par• and always cognizant of the impact of ticularistic. 126 FORUM-37: WORLD JEWRY

How misguided and unfounded is the lema'an tich'yu "Seek good and not evil trepidation being expressed, in some that ye may live." (Amos 5:14). That is quarters that too intensive a Zionism in a command which Jews can and should Reform Judaism is upsetting the classic fulfill in every society, Jewish as well as balance between universalism and par• non-Jewish, and for the benefit of ticularism. The genius of the is to humankind, which includes fellow Jews be found not in the balance but in the as well as fellow human beings. Leo blend between universalism and par• Baeck summarized what should be our ticularism. Zionism is not only Jewish position when he wrote "This people.... particularism; it is also the epitome of has life. ...only when it holds to itself Jewish universalism. The Jew instinc• for the sake of humanity and to tively understands that the ethical humanity for the sake of itself." (This imperatives of religion cannot be applied People Israel, p. 387). or tested in the abstract. The striving for a just society must be undertaken in a specific place and a specific time. Our Toward an Halakhic Orientation tradition holds that the return to Zion of Peoplehood will provide the framework, the testing The refusal to acknowledge the grounds within which the Jewish people peoplehood of Israel molded early as a collective, fulfilling Jewish values, Reform Judaism's ritual character and will create the good society and that its relation to Halakha.To be sure, other society in turn will light the way for factors, such as the demands of reason humankind. Or chadash al Ziyon ta'ar and aesthetics, were at work. But, to use vezaka kuhlanu m'hayra leoroh ("Cause Kaufman Kohler's phrase, to "transform a new light to shine on Zion, and may we the national Jew into a religious Jew" all benefit speedily from its brightness"). was a prime motivation. The secular Zionist may not phrase his Geiger, foremost liturgist of early aspirations in the same way, but we as Reform, boldly proclaimed the rationale religious Jews should be committed to for his revision of the Siddur: the national restoration as a means toward the fulfillment of the Messianic The people of Israel no longer lives It vision. In the words of the , quoted has been transformed into a community of by Martin Buber, "The world can be faith. redeemed only by the redemption of Hebrew no longeir lives If Hebrew were Israel, and Israel can be redeemed only to be represented as an essential element by reunion with its land." (Martin of Judaism, then Judaism would be pic• Buber, On Zion: The History of an Idea, tured as a national religion. A distinctive language is a characteristic of a distinctive P- 77). peoplehood." A theology for peoplehood will have to revise the facile delineations of previous The present heap of ruins, , is for us, at best, a poetic and melancholy generations. The true function of memory, but no nourishment for the prophetic Judaism was to transmit the spirit. No exaltation and no hope are as• divine command: Darshu tov v'al rah sociated with it. Jerusalem is a thought JEWISH PEOPLEHOOD: IMPLICATIONS FOR REFORM JUDAISM 127

for us, not a spatially limited place. But as the focus of Jewish peoplehood will where the literal meaning of the prayers have no less impact on future genera• could lead to the misunderstanding that tions than did modernity on previous we direct our adoration to that place, the generations. words will have to be eliminated. (Jacob J. Petuchowski, Abraham Geiger, The Given the unique character of Israel Reform Jewish Liturgist, HUC-JIR Sym• as the State of the Jewish people, given posium, 1975, p. 44,45). the coalition politics — which have » traditionally allowed the religious par• Recent generations of Reform leaders ties political influence far beyond their have rejected these premises of Geiger. numerical weight, given the reciprocal No sanctity reposes in misconceptions of influence of Dat UMedinah (religion- the past. But rejection must be followed state) issues on Israel-Diaspora rela• by affirmation. New truths demand new tions, questions of Ishut will continue to consequences. If anti-peoplehood was a be high on the agenda of Israel and motivation for radical change in liturgy world Jewry for a long time to come. It is and practice in the past, then why no coincidence that these issues come to should not peoplehood serve as a the fore during the Israel election motivation for liturgical and ritual process. They assume at such times changes in our day? Shall not significance so that an airplane landing peoplehood be our counter? with the onset of or a conver• Take the matter of Ishut (personal sion performed by a Reform can status), which is on our agenda during jeopardize the very existence of the this Conference and at rabbinic government. We cannot wish these cir• meetings convened in conjunction with cumstances away; they are a reality to the World Union conferences. I do not which we must relate if we are concerned wish to enter into the specifics of the about the unity and well-being of world debate at this time. Neither I nor anyone Jewry. can offer a ready-made formula to unite Years ago, a delegation of our World us on matters where legitimate dif• Union leadership met with the then ferences are based on divergent circum• Minister of Religious Affairs to complain stances and experiences. I do, however, about the discrimination against our register a strong plea: Let us not deny movement in Israel. He offered to give that a problem exists. Let us not avoid Reform Jews full rights in Israel, on one the debate, which is essential to the condition: that we register as a sect like process of working toward a solution, or the Karaites, who receive full govern• solutions. Whether we like it or not, the ment support and have full autonomy composition and character of world over their religious affairs. But the Jewry today will not permit us to ignore Karaites cannot intermarry with other for long the ramifications of our actions Jews, and their de facto status is that of on the Jewish people as a whole. a separate and separated religious com• Reform Judaism is a response to the munity. We told our would-be godfather Jewish confrontation with modernity. I that his offer was one we had to refuse. foresee that the confrontation with Israel We have no intention of separating 128 FORUM-37: WORLD JEWRY ourselves or of permitting others to Tvilah (ritual immersion), we sensed a separate us from membership of the retreat. The secretary of the party blunt• house of Israel. We are in Israel by right, ly told us: "Our membership is by-and- and not by privilege. We do not ask for large irreligious, some even anti- any special status, but for equal status religious. We are still in favor of rights as full participants in the upbuilding of for your movement, but it is hard for us Zion. to understand how any Jewish group But if that is so, then we cannot have would not require and it both ways. Rights entail respon• Tvilah. They put the Hekhsher (Kosher) sibilities. Either Reform rabbis are stamp on the conversion. How can you agents of a separate American sect, in expect other Jews to recognize your acts which case we establish our own rules, as authentic?" oblivious of or indifferent to their impact That is the very question that many on other Jews; or else we are the of us have begun to ask ourselves. And representatives of the Jewish people, in here I must confess that my own which case we must be sensitive to the perspective has altered as a result of liv• traditions and practices which determine ing in the more intense peoplehood set• Jewish status. I do not refer to Jewish ting of Israel. There are certain fun• tradition in the narrow connotation of damental religious acts which are so in• Halakha as interpreted by the Orthodox grained in world Jewry, including establishment. I do refer to Jewish tradi• secular Jewry, that they assume a tion in a broad sense as interpreted by national character and function. When Jews, some of whom are classified as the High Court of Israel ruled that secular, including the vast majority of Brother Daniel, a Catholic convert from the Jews of Israel, who though Judaism, could not become a citizen un• themselves nonobservant, have some der the Law of Return, they rendered a knowledge and appreciation of tradition. decision that was contrary to Halakha. In 1974, at the time of the "Who is a According to Halakha, Brother Daniel Jew?" controversy, we met with the was still a Jew, but according to the leadership of the left-wing Mapam secular, national understanding, a party. The meeting started with a ring• person who converts to another religion ing endorsement by the secretary of the is no longer a Jew. The national under• party in defense of our position that the standing prevailed. When not one car Law of Return should not be amended to moves in all of Israel on Yom Kippur, exclude the official Israeli recognition of that is an act of national self-discipline. non-Orthodox conversions performed When we officiate at a conversion abroad. And then, after we had already ceremony, we are the agents of Klal won their support, some of their Knesset Yisrael. We assume responsibility for members began to ask questions about accepting a person not into membership the Reform Movement and its conver• of a Reform congregation, but into an sion procedures. When it became clear enduring commitment to spend the rest to them that our rabbis in America do of his life as a member of the Jewish ,not require Brit Milah (circumcision) or people. The religious act serves a JEWISH PEOPLEHOOD: IMPLICATIONS FOR REFORM JUDAISM 129 national purpose. That is an awesome the Orthodox definition ascribing divine responsibility which affects the status of origin to the Halakha will continue to converts and their progeny for genera• separate us, and that we are talking tions. We are the officials commissioned about an Halakhik orientation rather to issue the passport to travel in the than the Halakha. Jewish world. Of course, the Orthodox Let us respond to the thrust of Jewish rabbinate will not authorize us to serve peoplehood which has prevented this function. For them it is not the act abstract reason from taking precedence of conversion which counts, but who offi• over tradition, which has reinstated the ciates at the act, and in their eyes we are Kol Nidre, retained Hebrew as our es• not rabbis. However, the issue is not a sential language of prayer and refused to clear-cut conflict between autonomy and let convenience set the Jewish calendar. authority, between the right of the Let us not be ashamed of asking the Reform rabbi or movement on one side question "Mah Yomru Hayehudim," and the Orthodox interpretation of (How shall Jews React) as we are now in Halakha on the other side. The conflict retrospect ashamed of having so often is between autonomy and that very asked the question "Mah Yomru vague, indefinable, intangible, but Hagoyim." (How shall non-Jews react). nevertheless very real perception of Klal By all means let us "be ourselves," a Yisrael. reforming, progressing movement within The question is not will the Orthodox Klal Yisrael, which can respond to the rabbinate recognize us, but will the rest challenges of the changing circumstances of the Jewish world recognize us? Will and perceptions of Jewish peoplehood. the secular Jew consider us authentic? And most important of all, will we, in Toward a Zionism for Peoplehood this new era of peoplehood, consider ourselves authentic? That is the The Central Conference of American ultimate question. I take seriously the Rabbis has demonstrated ambivalent counsel of the distinguished elder feelings toward Zionism. Even though statesman who urges us "to be the Gates of Prayer has reintroduced ourselves." But what are we, and what most of the peoplehood components of do we want to be? I submit that what we the traditional Siddur, it has want to be is not what we were. The systematically excluded even a modified movement which proclaimed itself a reference to Kibbutz Galuyot (ingather• religion can with comparative ease lop ing of the exiles). The Amidah prayer off whole sections of ritual and liturgy, Tekah b'shofar gadol u'cherutenu (Blow abrogate mitzuot, promote Sunday as the great shofar for our freedom) which the Sabbath and oppose the reconstitu- reinstitutes a modified particularist ele• tion of Am Yisrael. But if we are a peo• ment in the Hebrew, translates ple, then let us "be ourselves." Let us cherutenu ("our freedom") and act as a people. Let us be willing to ex• ashukenu ("our oppressed") by petition• plore the distinctive "way" of the people ing for the "liberation of all the oppres• called Halakha, knowing full well that sed" and "liberty in the four corners of 130 FORUM-37: WORLD JEWRY the earth." This is a noble thought, but 2. I do everything possible to educate one which appears elsewhere in our myself Jewishly and to provide an liturgy and which alongside the Hebrew intensive Jewish education for my text reflects, to say the least, an intellec• children, including knowledge of tual inconsistency. The original draft of Hebrew as a second language. the Centennial Perspective contained no 3. I would be pleased if one of my mention of the word aliyah, and when, children or grandchildren made on behalf of our colleagues in Israel, I aliyah. proposed a sentence to include aliyah, the Chairman of the drafting committee The test is simple. But when put to informed me that the committee had , very few answer all the voted overwhelmingly against its in• statements affirmatively. One may not clusion. The Reason? The subject of agree on the criteria. I hope people will aliyah would inject divisiveness into a agree that it is essential to sharpen the statement whose purpose was to find the discussion in terms of placing before common denominators which bind us Jews personal obligations which go together. It was only when an amend• beyond financial and political support. I ment was presented from the floor that speak about children and grandchild- the word aliyah was finally inserted. dren because we project our highest In order to stimulate discussion on values in terms of aspirations for our the significance of Zionism, I have found progeny. it helpful to differentiate between pro- The real test which confronts Israelism and Zionism. What dis• American Jewry in general and our tinguishes the two is not formal identifi• movement in particular is whether cation with the Zionist movement. A Zionism can be incorporated into our person can be an active leader of a Weltanschauung as an essential element Zionist organization and still qualify as of our own lives. To this day, the a pro-Israeli rather than as a Zionist. I average American Jew still relates to have devised a test for determining the Israel as an object of philanthropy and intensity of an individual's Zionism. The as a refuge for homeless Jews. As if to test is not ideological as such. It does not say, "Israel is for others, not for us." enter into the debate over "centrality of Our task, therefore, is to demonstrate Israel" or Shlilat Hagalut ("negation of the interdependent relationship between the Diaspora") or the Bavel- the Jewish State, the Jewish people, Yerushalayim (Babylon-Jerusalem) con• and the individual Jew. troversy. The test relates to an in• The State of Israel is an instrument dividual's personal beliefs and actions. created by the collective will of the A Zionist should be able to say: Jewish people. But even as the people 1. I believe that the Jewish State is in• has established the State, so the State dispensable to my existence as a Jew, has re-established the people. Only Am to the survival of the Jewish people Yisrael could have redeemed Eretz and to the fulfillment of the Jewish Yisrael, and only Medinat Yisrael could vision. have reconstituted Am Yisrael. Martin JEWISH PEOPLEHOOD: IMPLICATIONS FOR REFORM JUDAISM 131

Buber wrote, "In other respects, the peo• socioeconomic-cultural gap, the inade• ple of Israel may be regarded as one of quacies of government, the exacerbation many peoples on earth, and the land of of problems relating to the Arab Israel as one among other lands, but in minority, the all-pervasive bureaucracy, their mutual relationship and in their the yeridah, the failures in aliyah and common task, they are unique and in• klitah, the intensifying militancy within comparable." (Writings of Buber, ed. a coalition of right-wing politics and Herberg, p. 303). Zionism and Jewish right-wing religionists, the politicization peoplehood are interdependent. The uni• of religion, the religionization of politics, queness of the people will be nourished and the obstacles to religious pluralism. through contact and identification with I challenge anyone to pen a list of the land, and the State will retain its shortcomings longer and more detailed incomparable character only through than mine or to feel more poignantly the contact with the people. frustrations than do I. Each of us could That is the primary ideology inherent compile a similar list on the character of in traditional Judaism which Zionism American society or of the American has made an operative principle in our Jewish community or of the institution day. In contrast to early Reform, which called the . But those who mistakenly believed that the individual presume to be leaders would betray their Jew could be preserved without the peo• trust if they permitted the frustrations ple, we have now come to realize that it to deter them from pursuing the vision is the preservation of the people which which propelled the original establish• gives the individual his raison d'etre as a ment of the society or institution, or if Jew. Therefore, the highest priority of they permitted the shortcomings to serve the Jew as an individual is to keep the as a pretext for less than full support people alive. In turn, the sine qua non and participation. for the creative survival of the Jewish Here is where we as individuals and people at this juncture in our history is as a movement have been deficient and to secure and develop the Jewish State. shortsighted. Those among us for whom This State offers the first opportunity in the peoplehood dimension is of lesser 2,000 years for the Jews as a people to significance, do not accord the status of have some control over their destiny and indispensability to the State of Israel. to create an indigenous in They are prepared to "think the un• an environment identified as Jewish. thinkable." But I would assume that There will not be another opportunity. It most of us subscribe to the definition in is this State or none, this time in his• Samuel II (7:22) Mi k'umcha k'Israel tory, or never. Our commitment to the goy achad b'aretz ("Who is like your State should, therefore, not be affected people, like Israel, a unique nation on negatively by the conditions or the earth".). If we are indeed a goy achad quality of life in the State. then the way to retain our uniqueness is I am troubled, even aggrieved, by ba'eretz, "through the ." many aspects of Israeli life: the deficient Eretz Yisrael is not just another land application of Jewish values, the and the Jews who live there not just 132 FORUM-37: WORLD JEWRY another Jewish community. Israel is the as essential to unique peoplehood as is setting where the Jewish character was cultivation of the land. An American forged and where Jewish destiny will be child struggling to articulate a Hebrew determined. A movement which is con• sentence may in that very process tent to sit idly watching the continuing develop a more intense Jewish con• battle for survival in the international sciousness than his Israeli counterpart arenas of the Jewish people, fails to as• chattering away fluently. Do we not have sume its responsibility and has no right an obligation to strengthen American to demand accountability. A movement Jewish consciousness by establishing the which is not integrated and integral in educational programs, schools and Israel can have no integrity and will camps, both in Israel and the Diaspora, neither have influence nor be influenced, which will encourage the use of Modern neither count nor be counted. Hebrew as a second language for Our unique peoplehood imposes American Jews? Do we not have the obligations on us as individuals and as a obligation to provide our adults and movement: youth with the extended learning ex• No less crucial to Jewish survival periences in Israel which will represent than the struggle to achieve peace with continuing booster injections of unique the Arabs is the struggle to define the peoplehood? Jewish character of the Jewish State. Reform Judaism has a stake and a say • • • • in that struggle. Our message is univer• sal: the revivification of tradition in We meet in Phoenix. In Greek response to modernity, the application of mythology, the Phoenix bird, the symbol tradition to social concerns, the affirma• of the sun, lives for 500 years, builds tion of the viability of the Diaspora, the itself a nest, sits on it and dies. From his equality of women. The principles we corpse a young Phoenix issues forth, and advocate and the Orach Haim (Way of when it has gained its strength, carries Life) we espouse are relevant in Israel as the nest which is its parents' sepulchre in America. to Heliopolis, deposits it in the temple of The demographic pattern and socio• the sun and flies away. economic conditions of Israel are such In Jewish tradition there is a bird cal• that the State will not remain Jewish led in Hebrew the Choi, which is unless the Jewish population is bigger translated as Phoenix, but has a com• and better; and it will not be bigger pletely different origin and fate. The unless it is better, nor better unless it (Bereshit Rabba 19) records is bigger. We have an obligation to foster that in the Garden of Eden, Eve offered aliyah, not because there is no future all the creatures to eat of the tree of for Diaspora Jewry, but precisely be• knowledge. All partook, except the bird cause the way to assure the future is to called Choi. Because of its will power, it fortify the State which is a major instru• was decreed that the Choi would live ment for the survival of Diaspora Jewry. forever. The Choi lives for a thousand Cultivation of the is years, at the end of which a fire issues JEWISH PEOPLEHOOD: IMPLICATIONS FOR REFORM JUDAISM 133 from its nest and it is all but consumed, leaves the body of its parent and flies off except for a part of the body the size of on its own independent course. Not so an egg, and from that remnant it grows the Jewish way. The prerequisite of our new limbs and lives again. survival is to preserve the body of the The Phoenix dies, as ancient Greek Jewish people and from that body to civilization has died. But the Choi lives develop new forms and inspire new life. eternally. We have seen the fires con• Ki bachar H— b'Ziyon evah lemoshav sume almost the entire*body of our peo• loh, ki Yaakou bachar loh Yah Yisrael ple, but the remnant has grown new lisgulatoh, ki loh yitash H— amoh limbs and has been restored to life. venachlatoh loh ya'azov. — "For the Lord has chosen Zion, He has desired it for his As the fate of the Choi was deter• habitation, For the Lord has chosen Jacob mined at creation, so for the Jew eter• unto Himself, Israel for His own treasure, nity begins with creation. As the root For the Lord will not cast off His people, meaning of Choi is "to bring to birth," neither will He forsake His people, neither so the secret of our survival is our will He forsake His inheritance." creativity, Lamrot Hakol v'af Al Pi Chen Yehi Kavod H— I'olam (Shacharit (despite the impossible). The Phoenix prayer, Verses from Psalms).