Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

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M A S M I D Days sped . . . she paled, but her blushes Still painted her cheeks as with rose . . . He saw that his darling was fading. Wanly approaching her close . . . Each evening the shade of her bower Hid the great fear in his breast: He kissed the white brow of his birdling Leaving her bowery nest . . . Forever, beloved. . . . she murmured. I ' ll love you, he whispered, for aye . Ah nothing — no, nothing must part us, — With love we will bravely assay! The summery breeze of the evening Played with the gold of her hair. She smiled to the stars all aglimmer — She smiled to the Bull and the Bear . Her lover had whispered his secret, Adam had whispered of love — The flowering chestnut had listened, Bending his branches above- — So Lilith heard nought of the mutter, Saw not death ' s shadowy form ; She heard but his passionate murmurs, Catching her up in their storm . . . V AS on net Shall I proclaim like sonneteers of old A love that even heaven can not bound, — That, unrequited, makes the world resound With plaintive cry that will not be consoled? Shall I relate how often I enfold The distant star where you, in dreams, were crowned. Soon to discover it is fiction, found By eyes of one who wishes to behold? The ears of time are ringing with lament Of lovers ever ready to complain And dreamers telling how their days were spent In searching for their peerless one in vain. I, then, shall hide my love within my breast And only hope that vou can b; pojsessed. Bl ' RNARD DOV MiLIANS Tuenly-luo

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M ASM I D Uuh by IJlUNAKI) l)ii Mil lANS Tlic summcTy breeze of tlic cvcniiiL; PlaycJ vvitli tlic i old ol her li.iir. She smiled to tlie stars all ai;limmer — Smiled to the Bull and the Bear . . . Her lover had whispered a secret, Adam had whispered of love; The flowering chestnut had listened, Bending his branches above, — So Lilith heard nought of the mutter. Of a darkly lurking form, She heard but the passionate murmurs Catching her up in their storm. 2 Beloved, beloved, — he whispered, Many the times you have passed. Fading away in the darkness, But I have caught you at last. Escape is shut off from the arbor, Useless to dream of escape — For now I have found you, my darling. Angel in womankind shape . . . Sweet creature you never shall leave me. Love will us ever combine. Encircling with soul-girdling branches. Tangling with clambering vine . . . 3 Madly I rushed where you led me. Slipping untouched from my grasp. Luring me on with your laughter — Too distant removed from iny clasp. Love, never — I never shall leave you. Pure one who lie by my side. Dream only of gentle surrender, Serenely engarbed as my bride . . . She laughed, and in whispers she told him Of yearnings she dared not confess — She laughingly whispered . . . and Adam Embraced her with loving caress . . . The delicate meshes that Cupid Spins like a silken cocoon Ensnared me with myriads of fibres, Me and my handsome dragoon. How gently the fibres were tightened! Love tightened his net round my soul . . . I struggled ... he drew the strands firmly, Thrilling, caressing my whole . . . A sweet serenade in the twilight. C learly the nightingale sings Accompanied there by my lover, Plucking at love ' s dainty strings. 5 Thy footsteps I often have followed, Listed each footfall at night — And, hidden I followed your glances Shielded by throngs from your sight . . . Each movement of passionate fer -or Stealthily viewing, each turn, Coquettishly fading, appearing. Causing your ardor to burn. And now, gentle night, I am taken, . drift in a billow-crest sea, I yield unreserved to your kisses, Joining myself unto thee. 6 Forever, beloved, she murmured, Forever, he whispered, for aye — Though earth should be crusted beneath us With love we shall ever essay . . . Each eve in the calm of the arbor They met in a passioned embrace. Oft uttering pledges eternal. Laughing at time ' s hoary face . . . Ah never, I never without you Shall inhabit the reaches of earth, Our souls are as one, for in loving We give life its minikin worth. Ttveniyone

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M A S M I D The JLhilosopliical Significance of Jyiaiinonides hy I)i(. A I I XANrn r I.iiman To understand Moses Maimonidcs ' position in the history of thou lit it is necessary to hince .u the conceptions of nature and man prevalent in the centuries that intervened between Aristotle and Maimonides. With the nianh nl ' (imr iIk view of nature as an ordered wiiole yielded radu ally but steadily to the conception of nature as a conglomerate of evil forces, and the conception of man as a part of nature gave way to the conception of man as a stranger in a desert. Never was man more disillusioned or more disheartened, never was there greater failure of nerve or less faith in man ' s abilities to understand the world and his place in it than in the fifteen hundred years that separate Maimonides from Aristotle. But though this loss of heart was bolstered slightly by the Romans in their glorification of political activities, this regained confidence was of short duration. With the substitution of Caesar ' s dictatorship for the republic the decline continued and the despair became accentuated. The conteinpt for the body as the seat of lusts and follies, proclaimed by the dying Socrates and reemphasized in the Gospel, became the program for man ' s way of living and the pre-requisite for his salvation. Only by freeing the soul from the tyranny and shackles of the body could man aspire to sit at the right hand of Glory and enjoy eternal blessedness. Aristotle ' s delight in the proud high- mindedness of the Greek gentleman and Cicero ' s exaltation of the lir Ro matins gave way to the conception of man as a fallen angel in a hopeless pilgrimage through a valley of tears. And, as the reconnoitering dove in her aimless flight over the lashing waves of the flood longed for the gentle hand of the righteous Noah to return her to the warmth of the ark, so did the soul encased in the prison of the body pine for her return to the bosom of God. Asjainst such tendencies in the dirttiion of other-worliiliness Maimonides dticr- niincd to emphasize the superiority of ihc Jewish- Aristotelian naturalism. It was his purpose to show that nature was on ilie whole an orderly M ' iini, that man was a part of nature, and that human blessedness can not be achieved through the transformation or transfiguration of man ' s be- ing but in completing and perfecting it. Not ■ there hut here, not in walking on his head but in walking on his feet can man find his happiness. Man ' s earthly happiness constitutes Maimonides ' all-embracing interest and the extent to which Maimonides aspired to a knowledge of nature was controlled and guided by the search for this happiness for man. To clarify and further this aim he .sought materials in the world at large, in the works of Arabic thinkers, and in biblical and rabbinical dicta. Allegorical interpretations of terms, half-concealed statements of facts, hidden allusions, ambiguous references, and explained- away difficulties could not mar his conviction that the perfection of the human microcosm is a primarv aim. Armed with the belief that the realization of the nature of man ' s make-up is paramount he turned to man as a natural being, an organic whole of matter and form, the founda- tion and nucleus of all moral values. By insisting that matter is never found without form nor form without matter and by defining form or soul as function, he indicated once and for all the de- pendence of soul upon the body and the impos- sibility of their separation except for purposes of discourse. As function soul can no more be dis- sociated from the organ of which it is a function than vision can be separated from the eye that sees or sharpness from the knife that cuts. He thus dispensed with the Platonic views of soul as a substance forced upon the bodv .ind adventi- Twenty-shree