What's a Nice Jewish Boy Like You Doing in the First
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Receiving duplicate copies? Please return BOTH labels for correction. Moving? Send us the old label along with new address. ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED WHAT'S A NICE JEWISH BOY LIKE YOU DOING IN THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH? Bob Friedman tells what happened when a nice "I1'06 a "Ilace Jewish boy was confronted with heavy words Jewish 'Boy'Likelint from Isaiah, Daniel, Micah, and even Matthew. Doing in tte Wider "Baptist A native Californian, Bob "floated from day to no,* day" through San Diego State College, Europe and Israel before his newspaper sent him to "check out the nut who's chained himself to a cross or something." Bob reports his reactions: "Those disciples, or whatever you want to call them, and all their people, depended on the Old Testament. .. As my curiosity grew, so did my fear of the Jewish God." Friedman recounts his search for life's meaning. Price $1.65 American Board of Missions to the Jews, Inc. P.O. Box 1331, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 07632 In Canada: Beth Sar Shalom Mission, Inc. 536 Concession St., Hamilton, Onatario, L8V, 1A6 Please send me copies of "WHAT'S A NICE JEWISH BOY LIKE YOU . ." I enclose $ (add 15t for postage) (NAME) (ADDRESS) (CITY/STATE/ZIP) 11-75 FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT Dear Beloved Friends: At last I am a coupon clipper! This month we will be celebrating When I was a kid in Brooklyn things our Bicentennial Thanksgiving Day. were tough in our home. My mother Somehow, I feel that it would be more THE CHASIDIM raised three scrapping youngsters by suitable to hold a Thanksgiving fast scrubbing floors. "Waste not, want instead of a Thanksgiving feast. I will Throughout the Middle Ages not" was more than a motto; it was eat my turkey (stuffed with thirty-five Judaism remained a strong religion binding the Jews to- our way of life. If a man owned a cent bread), but I expect to match its gether, but it also developed into $100,000 bond at 6% interest, every cost with a gift to an agency that a dead orthodoxy without any three months he could "clip a does relief work in needy areas. outward manifestation of joy. coupon" worth $1,500. Why work if Christians in the United States should In rebellion to this dead ortho- you can clip coupons? Coupon do their best to make sure that the doxy, a rabbi named the Baal clipping became a goal for us. Some Parable of the Rich Fool does not Shem Toy (Master of the Good of the boys succeeded; of those who become the Great American Tragedy. Name) came preaching that did, a few jumped out of windows in Judaism should manifest itself And he spake a parable unto them, the 1929 stock-market crash. Others saying, The ground of a certain rich in outward ecstatic joy. And so have continued to clip coupons. I the Chasidic movement began. It man brought forth plentifully. And combines a strict adherence to never attained the goal. he thought within himself, saying, the Law of Moses and Jewish But, at last, I am really a coupon What shall I do, because I have no Rabbinical law. This requires clipper. Every Monday my mail box is room where to bestow my fruits? many hours of study each day by stuffed with ads from competing And he said, This will I do: I will each Chasid. supermarkets. I never realized how pull down my barns, and build On the other hand, in their much I can save by spending more! greater; and there will I bestow all religious services there is out- Each ad baits the hook with pages of my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast ward expression of joy and coupons to lure me into the stores. I happiness. much goods laid up for many years; take these coupons seriously. If I can take thine ease, eat, drink and be In the cover photo, a Chasid is buy a loaf of bread for thirty cents meditating while in the back- merry. But God said unto him, Thou ground on the left the others are and a coupon, why should I pay fool, this night thy soul shall be seen dancing for joy of the Law. fifty-five cents? required of thee: then whose shall 11111111ir There have been many startling those things be, which thou hast changes in recent months. Suddenly provided? So is he that layeth up the price of a loaf of bread has treasure for himself, and is not rich become very important to countless toward God [Luke 12:16-21]. THE CHOSEN PEOPLE is published monthly, September to June, as a medium of infor Americans who until now have taken . The first point noted is that mation concerning the Jews, Israel and the work of the our standard of living for granted. I accumulated wealth breeds anxiety AMERICAN BOARD OF MISSIONS TO THE JEWS, INC. wonder how our workers with grow- rather than satisfaction. The man is 460 Sylvan Avenue • Englewood Cliffs, N. J. 07632 ing families can make both ends embarrassed by his abundance. The In Canada: BETH SAR SHALOM MISSION, INC. meet; but I also realize that tough as trouble of knowing how to keep it is as 536 Concession St., Hamilton, Ont., L8V, 1A6 things are here, there are other areas great as the labour of acquiring it, and the enjoyment of it is still in the Copyright g) 1975 by the American Board of Missions to the Jews, Inc. Not to be reproduced in any form of the world where the price of bread without permission of the publisher. Second Class postage paid at Englewood Cliffs, N.J. and at future. Many a rich man is more additional mailing offices. is not just important, it is vital. At worried about his securities than he 20 cents a copy • VOL. LXXXI NO. 3 • NOVEMBER, 1975 $2 a year least here there's plenty of bread was in making his money. There are so available. many 'bags with holes' that he is at his 1 wits' end for investments and the first and the blessed reward. There was thing he looks at in the morning's one of the company who could only TESTIMONY paper is the share list, the sight of think of one thing "speak to my which often spoils his breakfast. brother that he divide the inheritance The next point is the selfish and with me" (vs. 13). Our Lord's answer arrogant sense of possession, as OF betrayed by the repetition of 'my' - my was abrupt and pertinent, "Man, who fruits, my barns, my corn, and my made me a judge or a divider over goods. He has no thought of God, nor you?" There are many who take Jesus ARTHUR SURANOWITZ of his own stewardship. He recognizes to be foremost a "judge and divider." no claim on his wealth. If he had They see in Him mainly a social and looked a little beyond himself, he economic reformer, but they fail to would have seen many places where see His deepest work and their own he could have bestowed his fruits. greatest need. It was to one such Were there no poor at his gates? He person our Lord directed His parable. My life has consisted of seeking him but thought at the beginning that had better have poured some riches into the laps of these than have built a Let us clip our coupons carefully. love. I have travelled down the paths he needed help. He lived with me five new barn. Corn laid up would breed As we thank God for His abundant of selfishness, crime, and constant weeks and then he moved to another weevils; dispersed, it would bring supply for all of our needs, let us self-pity because of early rejection. city. I was left with a Bible and the blessings. share all of these riches with those Through the years men have told me desire to read it, and also a changing Again, this type of covetous man is a who hunger. Men hunger not only for this is a cruel world. I never wanted to attitude toward my life. fool because he reckons on 'many bread — hunger of the body; but also listen, but in time the elements have I knew I could no longer go my years.' The goods may last, but will for the Bread of God — hunger of the hardened me towards others. I still way. God was guiding me and I knew he? He can make sure that they will soul. Our Lord was born in Beth- crave for people to be honest and it was Him. Days later I visited my suffice for a long time, but he cannot lehem, the "house of bread." Shep- real, but in this world man worships brother. He and two friends prayed make sure of the long time. Again, he herds found Him "lying in a manger." money and has forsaken God. I also blunders tragically in his estimate of that I would receive Jesus and that He was one who neither knew nor cared the power of worldly goods to satisfy. A manger has one purpose: it holds would forgive me for my sins. I 'Eat, drink,' might be said to his body, food. By God's grace, let us share our about God and eventually loved believed, but it seemed not all real. but to say it to his soul, and to fancy Bread with the hungering multitudes.