Yeshiva University High School For Boys - Elchanite Yearbook (New York, NY)

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The Last Breath of Democracy by ravine BURsTErN The trial resumes. The judge takes his seat and the questioning of the prisoner continues. A'Louis Smith. You are charged with being the last democratic thinking person alive on Earth. How do you plead? . . . XVell, are you guilty or not? Cuilty. An ominous whisper goes through the courtroom. Everyone is astonished. The court will keep in order. Continue with your questioning. counsellor. Yes, Your Honor. I'll skip the details and get down to the most important question of all. XVho helped you escape the world-wide purges? UNO one helped me. I hid' in a caye when the purges started at the end of the war and left it only last week. XVill the counsellor please explain to the court how the prisoner was caught. 'tXVell your Honor. the accused entered a book shop one day and requested a large list of books. one of which contained one of the few remaining copies of the imperialistic, ill-worded Declaration of Independence. The shopkeeper, who worked underground during the war and who knew a lot about the capitalist sys- tem, became suspicious, and called the security police who took the prisoner into custody. The judge turns towards the prisoner. Haye you anything to say in your defense? If not, wc will have the defense counsellor sum up. Your Honor, there is nothing that I can say in defense of my client. Yet I would like to say to the court that I knew nothing of the case when I took it, and therefore I am taking this opportunity to apologize to all my colleagues. I hope they forgive me. So far as I am concerned you are beyond blame. I know that eyeryone on Earth will also accept your apology. The judge turns to the jury. HThe defendant has pleaded guilty. and therefore. there is no need for further debate. Docs the jury have any recommendations? The foreman of the jury rises. Your Honor, I am speaking in the name of the jury. YVithout retiring to the jury room, we recommend the maximum penalty. A great cheer iills the courtroom and the judge raps his gayel for silence. The prisoner will stand before the bar. The accused approaches the judge. He stands silent and tight-lipped. You are admittedly guilty of being a capitalist yyarmonger and a liberal thinker, This court sentences you. the last of your kind aliyc. to be shot by a tiring squad. Sentence is to be carried out immediately. Two armed guards march the prisoner outside. Ile is leaying without offering any resistance. A glassy stare is in his eyes as he gazes into the cloudless sky. They put the blindfold oyer his eyes. He is saying something silently to himself as the guns tire simultaneously. Finally. after ten years, the last breath of democracy has been smothered. 26

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Meditation by RONALD ROTHMAN The man was no longer young. His head was heavy, and his back bent with age, ages of bending over books. and years spent in meditation. His features were craggy and rugged, each crevice suggesting another cove. The nose was a hooked Semitic nose. the nostrils flaring. The eyes brown and gentle like a doe's. A luxurious beard, Uwhite as the driven snow, covered a firm iaw. Argentian ear- locks framed his face. He was old, yet had an intangible aura about him, an age- less quality. He was the Iewish philosopher. The philosopher had been sitting there for an eternity. pondering. . . . Throughout the ages the Jew has kept with him an innate love of learning that has served as the link holding together the scattered children of Israel. This indigenous curiosity had led to, among other pursuits, the study of philosophy, a word coming from the Creek. meaning love of wisdom. Philo was the first recorded Iewish philosopher to attempt the penetration of the inner chambers of our religion. Naturally puzzled about Gd. he endeavored to understand the Lord by describing Him as the true substance existing outside of nature. He says that it is impossible for us to describe the Almighty. Therefore, we called him MASTER Q 1'11J'm J because, hampered by the limits of our minds, we see him as the Creator and Leader. As regards the Creation, Philo is the adherent of the Creek theory Cas many philosophers arej, that the world was created from a spiritual substance that lacked shape. and the Lord, in giving this substance f LOC-OSU the desired form. created the world and its inhabitants. Regarding the understanding of C1-d. he suggests the separation of individuals and commu- nities from worldly pleasures by learning and discussing Torah. It is through this medium that one will finally begin to reach an understanding. Other philosophers, such as Saadia Caon. have disagreed with Philo. Saadia Caon seems to believe that the world was created from absolutely nothing Cdis- regarding the Aristotelian theoryp. Saadia also disposed of the Persian hypothesis. which stated that he who created light did not create darkness. by saying, 'LThere is only one Creator fGdb. and darkness is not a Creation but merely the absence of light. He also explains that our Torah will exist forever. He writes that we as a nation endure only through our Torah. C-d has promised that the nation will exist forever, therefore the Torah must subsist for all eternity. Saadia also tries to reconcile .avoir nm-is 1-in nvswn 'win Finn and the fact that the Almighty is aware of the future. tFor if C-d is aware that I shall become a non-believer. how is it possible to choose and avoid the situation?7 He writes that the knowl- edge of thc future and inan's ability to choose are two distinct powers quite apart from one another. In spite of prerecognition, the human is still left with free will. Solomon Ibn Cabirol poses an even deeper metaphysical question by asking how Cad. who is entirely purc. can create a world as sordid and impure as our own. He answers this by saying that C-cl did not actively create the world. However. a ZS