Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

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Tn-cntV-Eisht MASMID understand their fundamental attitudes and per- plexities. Hence the Jew can again, will again, be The Ambassador of Goodwill, The Interpreter, The Apostle of Harmonization. In some cases he will even lose contact with his own people in search of a wider humanity. He is then one of the seeds of Israel that goes to bear fruit in far off lands Israel sending its bread upon the wide waters. The dreamer par excellence, the in- terpreter par excellence, the Jew, like Joseph, does not bow to his fate, but forces it to yield to him grace, strength, breadth of view, infinite strength of heart. One more experience does the historical Jew share with Joseph. When that youthful prisoner had interpreted the chief butler ' s dream, he asked but one reward: Put a good word in for me with Pharaoh. I suffer without guilt. The Chief Butler was happy with the interpretation, which would bring him promotion from prison again to the Pharaoh ' s grace. But when the in- terpretation had come true, The Chief Butler did not remember Joseph, he forgot him. Joseph had served Pharaoh, building up for him un- dreamt of riches and power. But there arose soon a Pharaoh, who did not know Joseph. Throughout antiquity and the middle ages, into our very years the Jew has gone dreaming for others, interpreting their dark urges. Maturer than the non-Jew by reason of his cosmopolitan faith, his cosmopolitan urge, his cosmopolitan suf- fering, he has been able to explain their uncon- scious problems, as expressed in their group dreams, in the phenomenon of their poets, thinkers, musicians. Son of antiquity, dynamic in medieval times, alert today — the Jew has been ever eager to reconcile groups that hated each other, to preach harmony and work peace among cultures, races, schools of thought. Like Joseph so did he fare. When the chief butlers and kings of history had been liberated, they promptly did not remember the Jews and forgot Joseph. They went to their joys and left the Jew in the peril of the dungeon. Joseph was not discouraged. This disappointment did not dull the edge of his intellect. He went on dreaming and interpreting. The Pharaoh needed him and Joseph was here to save his land. Infinite his dream, but efficient his service. One of the great bearers of the seed of harmony has been the Jew. The great Understander, Harmonizer, In- terpreter. He has helped — and been forgotten. He has harmonized — and been left in disharmon- ious exclusion. But with Joseph, he realizes that the gift of interpretation comes from God and thus is unaffected by ingratitude. He will go on, sympathetic to all oppressed, deeply appreciative of the danger of smug, self-destructive power and the blandishments of majorities; he will go march- ing on — his historic dream in his heart, peace and justice as the song of his lyre, as the victorious vitality of his life, as his offering on the altar of humanity. Note creeds; world. — Heine as mediator between France and Germany; Jehudah Halevi between different Zamenhoff between different tongues; Fried and Levinson between the nations of the

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A S M I I ; i dating foreign nations, wliic.h seemed miraculous and which did work wondri -,. I lir-sr uir-dirv.il monarchs were nol actuated t y ovr-i nun li love of the Jew. They rather understood his value to them. It was not accident thai made tlir- Jews translators and transmitters of the classic and Arabic culture at the end of the middle ages. It was thus, they became apostles ol 1 1 1 - renaissance, planters of Greek and Hebrew lore and thought in emergent Europe. It was not accident thai Jews pioneered with Columbus in tho Age of Dis- covery, pioneered with movable type in the great days of early printing — and since. For these were concrete ways in which the Jew assisted in living beyond the day, in tying the strands of yesterday to today so that the morrow might be just a bit closer to the universal harmony all peoples have hoped for. As in the Middle Ages, so today. Discrimina- tion, persecution numerus clausus, pogroms, No Jews need apply, golf club indecencies, Harvard I om Kipur exams, etc., etc., ad infinitum, force the Jew to overlook today ' s misery for tomorrow ' s hope, force the Jew to span the horizon, to look for the blessed land beyond, force the Jew to im- bibe, compare and weigh the various cultures and nations of the world in order to discover a more tolerable citizenship, a less excruciating social life — and thereby develop in the Jew a wider out- look, a deeper comprehension. It is this compre- hension that fosters Harmonkation. It is because of this harmonizing comprehension that we find the Jewish mind eager to assist, to take a place in the rank of pacifists and social re- formers and in that increasingly larger group of persons who realize that only through international settlements can come the local, regional and na- tional settlements so necessary today. Because the Jew is never completely enwrapped by the local problems of victorious majorities, he, there- fore, has a normal appetite for cosmopolitan fare and a ready sympathy for e ery minority. India had no viceroy to advance her claim to freedom, more sympathetic, more intelligently benevolent than Rufus Isaacs, whose forebears had been mem- bers of a persecuted minority for two thousand years; nor a more progressive Secretary for India than young Edwin Montague, whose fathei had emigrated from Ru ia and had scaled die ladder ol temporal success from steerage to pet i I od.iy tlii ' li.irmoni ing |ii.ilily ol the [( more vital .ui ' l nece lary than world is sick with nationalism, .1 m.ilignanl dj 1 deadly elephantiasis, a venomous hatred ol thing that is unlike. Each group think in il terms and has the universe cribbed within its own stair-. Each clan sees salvation for itself only in the reduction, or annihilation of the rest of man. Even where efforts arc being made for international harmony, they seem often dictated by political mo- tives, by opportunism, by maudlin sentimentality rather than by constructive goodwill. Upon the conscience and intelligence of contemporary man rests all hope for No war and All peace for the future. But meantime fundamentally every nation un- derstands one language only — its own, — sees but through its own spectacles, conveniently colored, and views but its own vista. How can matters be remedied? The Jew, however, is as motherless and brother- less today as Joseph had been almost 4,000 years ago. He is more than eager to enrich the lands in which he lives and to give of blood and brain and brawn the best that is in him. But he is still not completely at home, not as utterly at rest as the Indiana farmer, or the French vinegrower or the Czechoslovakian beetroot peasant. He is still discriminated against, still Englishman plus some- thing else, German plus something else. And this ' something else ' precisely is the international, cosmopolitan, in him, rooted in no soil but in humanity, fully at home nowhere except in the unrestricted empire of ideas. The Jew hence, if a Frenchman, can find gocd in Germany in spite of Hitler and Ludendorff: or, if a Dutch- man, can get inspiration from America in spite of Hollywood; or, if an American, can feel :he attraction of Austria in spite of her political in- eptitudes. This citizen Jew, because he is the historical minority, has heart and mind attuned to the prob- lems of minorities and because he has been the victim, for millennia, of majorities, has learned to

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A S M I I ) THK PSALMS losi.l ' ll Kaminetsky Many inspired men of the past fell thai tliry Understood lllis complex universe. I liey pill down their thoughts in writing and bequeathed lei the world the great epics that il now possesses. There were others, however, who felt that il was too difficult to interpret all of this complicated cosmos. It was easier to depict a momentary attitude to- wards life. And so they contented themselves with merely portraying a fragment of the universe, and handed down to posterity their beautiful lyrics. These lyricists fall into two categories: the ancicnts and the moderns . The ancients restricted their writings to the lyric per se, to the lyric in its original connotation. They did not bother to interpret the world. They did not delve into the mysteries of nature an d the universe. They sang only of the joy of life, of love, of war and of death. Such lyricists were Pindar, Anacreon, Horace, and the other early lyricists. The moderns , however, are lyricists only in- sofar as form and music are concerned. They have surpassed the real purpose of the lyric. Car- ried away by their enthusiasm, they have striven to interpret the entire universe in their songs, Shelley, Burns, and Wordsworth, the English lyricists, are not content with expressing a mo- mentary mood. They sweep on and write of hu- manity itself. Their lyrics, hence, do not restrict themselves merely to the island of Lesbos, or to Rome, but are concerned with the entire universe, with all of mankind. These lyrics are, in a word, universal. They are, truly, the great lyrics of the world. It may seem, from this discussion, that the ancient and modern lyrics differ in the eras of their composition as they do in their content : that the early lyrics are ancient and the later ones, modern. And on the whole this is true. One outstanding deviation from this rule, however, is the Book of Psalms. The Psalms are modern lyrics according to our standards, foi they, • . trive to portray uni- versal hum, in experiences, rhey do not present merely transient moods or momentary attitu ' l ward ' - life; but expre r.itliei the feelings and emo- tions of every human in every age — sur.li en as the moan of his penitence, the pathot f bit sorrow, the agony of his despair, and the rapture of his assured hope. They do not sing merely of the physical needs, joys, and fears of man, but go on to satisfy his spiritual cravings and yearn- ings — the yearnings of his thoughtful heart and mind that crave to understand, know, and be at one with an all-knowing, all-loving, unchanging God. Verily the Psalms are great lyrics, for, as stated in the light of a well-known definition, they strive to look God in the face. It is due to this moderness or universality that the Psalms appeal to us even today, that the heart of the world, Jewish and non-Jewish, still responds to their vibrant tones, and that they still hold us under their holy spell. Indeed, though written centuries ago they still satisfy our needs, human and divine, and still have a message for all hu- manity — rich or poor, sad or gay, young or old. It is no wonder that they still speak with a voice of power to the hearts of all men. But if the Psalms speak with a voice of power to the hearts of all men. they speak even more so to the Jew. In the days of Israel ' s glory, the Levites sang the Psalms during the offering of the sacrifices ; and all through the ages, to the present day, the Psalms have been the ever-ready friend of the Jew in joy and sorrow. He quotes them in his prayers — week-day. Sabbath, and Holiday. He recites them after partaking of his meals and before retiring for the night. He declaims them when his land is not blessed with rain. He chants them when in dire need of Heavenly mercy, at the bed-side of his sick and dead. He recites diem all through the night preceding the Day of Atone- ment. His unlearned brethren, who are unable to