=sc_B15 Retype Input of: R, Shlomo Carlebach, Typescript B15, Witt Collection Topic -- Pesach -- Date/Time -- January 27, 1972 , PM (ie, Afternoon) No further Provenance Info on Manuscript. ------------------------------------------------------------------- -- OK: It turns out that I have previously input this typescript. It is Input as =shjw18.ein , in EinsteinWriter (W.EXE) format That doc I find in =wittturf.zip I put it there because I surreptitiously copied it from the Witt Collection. I have just now put it into *.txt format, and include it below. I had started to retype that typescript, and have done 2 pages, which I will include below, but I won't retype the rest of it. Archival info follows. Some may wish to print it out, but only to feed to a goat. This applies primarily to residents of Moshav Mevo Modi'in, "the land that time forgot". 30 years ago it was at the end of a dirt road, an easy artillery-shell away from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, from which one may view the sun setting over the Mediterranean. Now it is practically a traffic island, but not much else has changed. Whenver there is a Red Alert they toss the seeds over the Rabbi's fence. Darned good thing he don't keep a goat. The rest of you may put on your Wellingtons and slog quickly through that swamp until you get to =shjw18.txt ------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- ================================================================= ==== START ARCHIVAL SWAMP: Wellingtons Required. (Them's rubber boots, buddy ) Feeding the Alligators is Politically Incorrect. ---------------- This typescript is listed in my inventory of the Witt collection. That inventory is included on my Website, www.geocities.com/sa73122a It is (=inv0494a + =inv0494b ) , in =inv9496R.zip --------------------------------------------- So OK, what I find from that is: From =inv0494a: SERIES B. XEROX TYPESCRIPTS from the good old days 6/90: All but B22 returned from ZF to HS, both Meor Modi'in DUPLICATE COLLECTION J. WITT BOX #5 4/94 With the following exceptions: B7!, B14, B15, B18, B21, B25, B27 B15 7 1/27/72 PM = JW18 = HH21 Excerpts in sh_topic JW18 = B15 pp7 #5 1/27/72 INPUT= SHJW18.EIN And what I find from =inv0494b is: SH-TOPIC 50111 05-13-94 3:23p Topical list, with extensive excerpts, of various documents not input elsewhere. B15 (=JW18=HH21) -- Some excerpts (& topical outline) Now what that boils down to is: I maybe hitherto inputted B15 as =shjw18.ein or maybe =shjw18. or =shjw18.* Yes, and I've found it as =shjw18.ein It looks ok, except that I'll probably lose the Hewbrew because I don't have a Hebrew chip on this machine. So I'll do a T.EXE to knock it into *.txt , and then paste it in right here, and stop this retype at the end of page 2. Did it. It follows: ------------------------------------------------------------------- --- END ARCHIVAL SWAMP ================================================================= ===== ================================================================= == OK, HERE I WILL GET =shjw18.txt GOT IT: HERE IT IS: ---------------------------------------------------------- R. SHLOMO CARLEBACH TEACHING ON PARSHAT B'SHALLACH INPUT TRANSCRIPT TEACHING BY R. SHLOMO CARLEBACH doc=HAON021493:shjw18.ein Input of xerox typescrpt JW18=B15=HH21 Title=`1/27/72 PM' No further info on transcript nor on talk Input by S. Amdur, Kibbutz HaOn, 2/15/94, MS-DOS, EinsteinWriter Inputter has made no edits, but has taken liberties with paragraphing & punctuation; and added headings Inputter has added a few Chumash references, but failed to add refernences from Midrash. All copy-rights held by R. Shlomo Carlebach For further info on same, ask R. Joshua Witt, Jerusalem ================================================================= R. SHLOMO TEACHING ON PARSHAT B'SHALLACH (Exodus 13:7--17:16) Teaching given 1/27/72 PM. Place & date not specified. Transcript=JW18(=B18=HH21). Transcriber not specified. This input=HAON021493:shjw18.ein Vishnitz Hasidim -- Psalm 23 Some Chassidim say Mizmor l'David, the 23rd Psalm, `The LORD is my Shepherd, once. Lubavitchers say it once. In Bobov and Sans they say it 3 times, but in Vishnitz they say the passage `Though I walk through the shadow of death I shall fear no evil' maybe a hundred times. Each time from the 3 times they say the Psalm they say this one passage maybe 100 times. Endless. I don't know, maybe not 100, maybe 50. I stopped counting after a while when I was there. The Rebbe says it and the Chassidim answer back, mamash {Heb. intensative} endlessly. After you hear it a hundred times you are really getting so strong on it. PARSHAT B'SHALLACH Remember last week we read that the first born died, and Pharoah, who was also a first born was afraid he would die, so he ran down to Moishe, and he says, please leave, in the middle of the night. {Exodus:12:31 } Ok, they are leaving. See, it was like this. The first-born died exactly at twelve sharp. Exactly at twelve noon the next day, the middle of the day they left. Remember the strangest thing. It says: **HEBREW SCRIPT Ha_'aM B'oINI MiTzRaYIM V_HI NNChN ATChN ?? Ha'am b'oni mitzraim v'hi atahen The Egyptians despised the Jews to the utmost. It was so much pumped into them. Jews were their slaves for a few hundred years; and the kids who grew up, that's the first thing they learn in school. To be free form Egypt you have to be free first of all physical, just not to be a slave; but you also have to be free spiritually. As long as you think that Egyptian culture has any meaning, then you are not free yet. Last Shabbos we read that we left Egypt. So that night Pharoah came down and he said, OK Moishe, let's go. The Egyptians despised the Jews so much, they were taught that the Jews were second-rate citizens. The greatest miracle happened that that night suddenly something happened to the Egyptians, and they looked at the Yiddelech {Yiddish diminutive., Jews}, and they realized that they were really free people all the time. What {Start Typscript p2} happens in the slums today? Killing, stealing, drugs, and everybody understands it. Ok imagine. After 210 years being slaves the Yiddelach are becoming free, and the Egytians are in their hands, because Pharoah wants them to go. What should they do? A little bit stealing, a little bit killing, beating up the Egyptians. But the Jews were like real kings. It says: **HEBREW V' B'bni yisrael yvtza batza (Exodus 13:18: "and armed went up the children of Israel" [ So this is: "And the chilren of Israel left with a high hand." So this is Exodus 14:8 (B_SheLaCH) V_BNeI YiSRAeL Y_TyAIM B_YaD RaMaH ] They walked out with great pride, with holy pride. You know what they did? They walked over to their Egyptian neighbor next door and they said, I want to say good-bye. I am leaving. Like a king. They should walk in and say, You dirty Egyptian you, you hit me yesterday, I got to knock you off! Not one word. Not one Jew uttered one bad word. Forget it. So it was tremendous. This is real people. So this was very good on one hand. On the other hand, it was very bad for the Jews. **What is so holy about the children of Abraham Issac, and Jacob? That we want the world so much to be good, that we realy forget so fast how bad the world is.** So we walked out of Egypt and what did we remember. We didn't forget how they beat us up for 210 years. We just remembered maybe they are not such bad people, you know we said good-bye to them, they are waving at us. And even Pharoah walked with us, and he was crying and he said, `Please pray for me.' {Exodus 12:32 } [ Exodus 12:32 , BAo , V_BeRaKh_TeM GaM AoTI , "and bless me also" ] Maybe he isn't so bad. On one hand it was good, on one hand it was a little bit bad, because deep deep down the Jews weren't free yet. They were not ready for Mt. Sinai this way. As long as you think maybe the Egyptains are not so bad. So what happened? This was the great thing. Three days later all the Egyptians who thought the Jews wer so great, and little Pharoah who walks with the Jews and says 'pray for me', three days later he regrets already that he sent them out, and he wants to get them back. {Exodus: 14:5 }. Three days, everything forgotten. Everything was forgotten in 3 days, the 10 plagues, the waving at them, saying Goodbye, pray for me, I think you are the gretest people in the world. In three days the whole country forgot the hole thing. You know why? {Typs. p3) Because the Egyptian Economy was based on slaves. I don't know if you know, but as Moses walked out he didn't take out only the Jews. He took out all the slaves of Egypt. {Cf. Exodus 12:38 }. He took out all the slaves of Egypt. Moishe brought freedom to all the slaves. Adn those slaves who wanted to remain slaves stayed. It was very few, and the slaves who had enough walked out with him. Egypt, the whole economy was based on slaves. Every little woman whad a slave whom she could kill or do anything she wanted to. Suddenly, imagine, there is no domstic help. The whole country, all the women cry Gevalt! Where are my slaves? So after 3 days the whole thing was forgotten. The whole things was forgotten and they are running after the Jews again. This was the most important things which we are reading this portion. That the Jews had to see Pharoah once more. The real Pharoah. They had to become free emotionally, and divinely, and mentally; just to look again, this si[ck?] civilization. How long do they remember? You can't get thorugh to them. You see Pharoah was claiming to Moses the whole time I never heard of G_d. He was saying, I would gladly believe in G_d, I would gladly believe in peace, I would glady believe in freedom, I would glady believe all your teaching but just give me a sign, show it to me. So Moishe shows it to him. It doesn't help. Pharoah doesn't believe in G_d because he neees proof? He doesn't want to. That's all there is to it. But this has to come very clear to us. Otherwise we can never go to Mt. Sinai. As long as we still think maybe Pharoah wasn't so bad, maybe civilization isn't so bad, little pagans, maybe they are not so good, but they are not so bad. You can't go to Mount Sinai. You have to see once more. [ellipsis typrescript?] Why did G_d take us to Mount Sinai? **If you think that the world can exist without Mt. Sinai, Mt. Sinai has no meaning. Because G_d only does what is necessary.** If the world can be good without G_d talking to us, then G_d doesn't have to talk to us. But we have to see that until we hear from G_d `Himself', Don't Kill, we can kill. Until I hear from G_d `Himself', I {Typs. p4} `I AM THE LORD YOUR G_d' {10 Commandments}, I don't believe in G_d. And until I hear from G_d `Himself', `Keep the Shabbos Holy'{10 Commandments}, I don't know what Shabbos is. So we have to go back once more. This is the most ridiculous thing in the world, but this is so true. You know what was the name of Pharoah's favorite idol? Freedom. That was he his idol, he was worshipping Freedom. This little idol Freedom was right next to the Red Sea, right at the border of Egypt. You have to realize one more thing, that Joseph collected billions, because everybody bought food from Egypt. So this was billions of pieces of gold. Joseph divided in in three parts. One part belong to Pharoah, to Egypt, and the other two parts, Joseph hid. One part was found by Korach, therefore he was so rich. One part we never round yet, we don't know where it is, but the third part was also billions of pieces of gold. This was by this idol. Soldiers were there guarding this great treasure, and the idol there was Freedom. That night when G_d destroyed all the idols, the night when G_d killed the first-born `He' also destroyed all the idols, literally, physically destroyed, ahses[sic]. The only idol which G_d did not destory was this idol of Freedom. G_d always leaves a little bit of free choice, even to Pharoah. So Pharoah said, Aha, G_d is pretty strong, but my little idol Freedom he can not touch. It is still the strongest. So G_d says to the Yiddelach as they were walking out of Egypt, Let's go back. You have to realize how much koach {strength} that takes. They were going back. So Moishe Rabbneu says to the Yiddelach, G_d says we are going back. We are going back, we have to meet Pharoah once more. They are going back, and the meeting takes place by the idol Freedom. Right by the Red Sea. Here the Egyptians are coming, the Jews have no weapons. Pharoah comes with a tremendous army. One one side was the desert. I don't know if you know, but that night all the wild animals of the desert came and they wwere standing there so we couldn't go through there. So we were surrounded on three sides. Pharoah is coming here, {typs. p5} here is the desert with wild animals, and here is the Red Sea. So we have no place we can go, the only place we can go is into the Red Sea. Got to go there. You know we never crossed the Red Sea completely -- we came out on the same side. We didn't have to got to the other side of the Red Sea. We kept on walking on this side. But there were twelve little tunnels. {Midrash: } It was not that the Red Sea suddenly split wide open. There were little tunnels. We were complete covered with water also. We walked througg the Red Sea, the water, in a little tunnel. Twelve little tunnels, for every tribe. We came out on the same side. The Egyptians were after us. And how blind can you be? The greatest miracle in the world. Don't you see G_d is with them? So the moment Pharoah sees there are twelve tunnels, and the Jews ware walking through the Red Sea, he should say, How can I fight them? G_d is with them. No. Pharoah will never learn. This is the whole thing of the portion of this week. The non-Mt.-Siai people will never learn. I am sorry to say. The people who don't want to hear from G_d, even if you show them G_d in black-&-white, you show them all the miracles, it doesn't go. The only way, the way is you have to to to Mt. Sinai and hear it from G_d 'Himself'. And the holiness of crossing the Red Sea was, first of all, it was like a mikele {mikveh, diminutive}, because before Mt. Sinai we have to go to the mikve, so we were completely surround by water. **That night we didn't walk thrugh the Red Sea, we danced through the Red Sea.** That night what we saw, the vision of G_d we had was more than Isaiah, Jeremiah, all the prophets of th world. {Talmud: } That night we mamash knew there really is One G_d. Unless you know there is one G_d, nothing will change you. Nothing. You can't get through. Nothing will ever happen. Strange: **The world can kill 6 million Jews, the 6-Day War, G_d can show them the greatest miracles, it just doesn't go. Doesn't touch them a bit. After the 6-Day-War G_d is showing that 'He' is giving the holy land back to the Yidden. So OK. Can G_d show it more {Types. p6} open than this way? `He' gave us back the Holy Land. The prophets told us 2000 years. So. Give n? No. Got to fight again. Got to make war again. Can't stop. They were waiting for a sign from G_d? G_d gives them signs all the time. They don't want them. STORY OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV, A MITNAGED, AND A PEASANT Remember the story? Someone came to the holy Baal Shem Tov, and the Baal Shem Tov told him that Divine Providence is so strong, when a wind is blowing Divine Providence knows exactly where every leaf has to fall. Divine Providence is on every leaf, knows exactly whrre this little leaf has to fall. And this leaf has to fall there. So someone says to him, I can't believe that! Divine Probidence? G_d in Heaven has plans for every little leaf? After a hurricane, where every leaf shold fall? I can't believe that. The Baal Shem Tov says, You can't believe it? You don't want to believe it. So he keeps on saying, No I can't believe it. The Baal Shem Tov says, You can't? You don't want to. That was it. So he walked away. Naturally he was a bit `Anti-'. A big `Anti- the Baal Shem, a straight character. He walks on the highway , and there is a little peasant sitting on top of the hay on his wagon. There he has to make a little U- turn, he doesn't make it so good, the whole wagon tips over, the hay falls down, the horse falls over the wagon, and he is all alone on the highway. So he sees this man walking. So he asks him, will you please help me to turn my wagon over and help my horse up? This great rabbi thinks, I can't stoop that low, to help a little peasant. He says, No, I can't. So the peasant got very angry; he had a whip in his hand. He gave him a strong whip over his face, and he said, You can't? You don't want to! (DIRECT COMMENTARY ON PARSHA VAYECHI RESUMES) You see, the parsha begins {Exodus 13:17}: *HEBREW Vayehi b'shelah Paroh "And it was ['came to pass'] when Pharoah..." Vayehi is always lashon {Heb: language} of sadness. What is so sad about it? The sadness was that we were not free from Egypt yet. Since Pharoah walked with us, and said good-bye to us, and the whole geshetft {Yiddish, shmegigas}, deep down we weren't free yet. We thought maybe he really isn't so bad We should {xerox unclear; `give him'?} {typs. p6} another chance. Just one more chance. Maybe he isn't so bad. So therefore G_d had to do the whole thing of the Red Sea. Because it was really not necesary on our way to Israel the crossing of the Red Sea, becaue we kept on walking on the same side. It was only because we were not free from Egypt yet. It is so real today. Sometimes you talk to Yiddelach who were in concentration amps, and they go back to Germany to live there. And they are still not free. They are still not free from `civilization'. They still think you send children to school, you still teach them the same things they taught Eichman in school. He went to Sunday school, and he was a murderer. The world should say, do we need a stronger sign that education is a complete failure? So let's change. No, they are not free yet. I'm sorry to say we are also not so free yet. So in order to be free, you know where you walk? Not on dry land. You got to walk on the sea. The Sfas Emes {Hasidic writer known by the name of his book of that title} says: in order to be free G_d has to turn over the earth, the 10 plagues. On the way he turns over the oceans. You came to Mt. Sinai, G_d turns over the heavens. Only after you see the turning over of the three, then you are ready to hear G_d's voice. You see it's like this. Everybody has a little bit of earth, where I walk. We have a little bit of ocean where I can't stand, I'm sinking in. Then I even have a little bit of Heaven, of holy things. But evenHeaven has to be turned over. My heaven isn't good enough yet. I think a certain part of me is spiritual, this is also not good. You think that is good enough for Mt. Sinai? Also nothing. Got to turn over heaven, got to turn over the ocean, then you have to turn over your heaven, then you go to Mt. Sinai. END TRANSCRIPT JW18(=B15=HH21). END INPUT=SHJW18.ein, input by sa, 2/14/94. ================================================================= Input proofed against transcript by ______ date ________ Hebrew checked by: ================================================================= == END GET OF =shjw18.txt ================================================================= == ================================================================= = What follows now , you can disregard. It is the start of my now-abandoned Retype of Typescript B15 aka JW18 There are a few nice footnotes at the end of it. ------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- This is a bit more Archival Info, but nothing you need to read. At New Buffalo commune in Taos, we had a Nubian goat. They are said to be the best milkers. But that was a bit more than 7000 feet high, so I don't know if Nubians would be appropriate at Modi'in. If all that auto exhaust don't ruin it. I mean, gvalt, this is a Holy Land and you trash it with autos and asphalt. And with all the underground springs there it has, or had, some of the best air I've ever tasted. Like, "Give it back to the Inidans." Not the PLO, thsy'd be even worse; just rent a tribe of American Indians and tell them to manage it until Meshiach cones and gives it back to us. They can rent a bunch of Swiss to do the nitty_gritty ------------------------------------------------------------------- --- ARCHIVAL INFO FOLLOWS: This typescript I xeroxed from the BZ Collection, which he copied from the HH Collection, which, one day in 1986, I surreptitiously xeroxed from a folder in the Witt Collection. I think Hatzkala (one of the H's of HH) had it first, from the HLP. I am grateful to Miriam Gal-Or for recopying this xeroxes and mailing them to me at Campra, Airmail Registered. (B15-1) I wrote on the number B15 when I inventoried the Witt Collection, ca. 1988 . I have not looked the Witt Collection since. I append a few footnotes. Nothing outrageous, for a change. ------------------------------------------------------------------- --- EDITORIAL NOTES: Typescript LINE LENGTH 72 CHARACTERS (At Elite spacing, 12 char/inch, that's also a standard 6-inch line-lenght. Standard nowadays is pica, 10 characters/inch. ------------------------------------------------------------------- -- This is a xerox of a typescript with Hebrew script interpolated. I guess it was an edit, because it reads smoothly. But it is not an over-edit, not a glossy. I'll not do a Flying Edit of it. ------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Some Chasidim say Miymor l'Dovid, the 23rd >Pslam, The LORD is may shepherd, once. Lubavitchres say it once. In Bobov and Sanz they say it three times, but in Viznitz they say the psssage "though I walk through the shadow of death I fear no evil" maybe a hundred times. Each time from the three times they say the psalm they say this one passage maybe a hundred times. Endless. I don't know, maybe not a hundred, maybe fifty. I stopped counting after a while when I was there. the Rebbe says it and the chasidim answer back, mamash endlessly. After you hear it a hundred times you are really getting so song on it. Remember last week we read that the first born died, and Pharoah, who was also a first born was afraid he would die, so he ran down to Moishe, and he says plrase leabe, in the middle of the night. OK, they are leaving. See, it was like this. The firstborn died esactly at twelve sharp. Exactly at twelve hnoon the next day, the middle of the day they left. Remember the strangest thing: It says VHI NNTN ATChN Ha_'aM B_'aINI MTzR''M the Egyptians despited the Jews to the utmost. [ I don't recognize this quote ] [ I barely read Hebrew script, and may have miscopied this script ] It was so much pumped into them. Jews were their slaves for a few hundred years; and the kids who grew up, that's the first thing they learn in school. To be free from Egypt you have to be first of all physically, just not be be a slave, but you also have to be free spiritually. As long as you think that Egyptian culture has any meaning, then you are not free yet. Last Shabos we read that we left Egypt. So that night Pharoh camd down and he said, OK Moishe, Let's go. The Egyptians despised the Jews so much, they were taught that the Jews were second rate citizens. The greatest miracle happened that that night suddenly something happened to the Egyptians, and they looked at the Yidelach, and they realized that they were really free people all the time. / What / ------------------------------------------------------------------- --- START PAGE 2 OF RSC TYPESCRIPT B15 What happens in the slums today. Killing, stealing, drugs, and everybody understands it. OK imagine. After two hundred and ten years being slaves the Yiddelach are becoming free, and the Egyptians are in their hands, because Pharoah wants them to go. What should they do? A little bit stealing, a little killing, beating up the Egyptians. But the Jews were like real kings. It says V_BNeI YiSRAeL Y_NTzA B_AD RaMaH They walked out with great pride, with holy pride. [ So this is: "And the chilren of Israel left with a high hand." So this is Exodus 14:8 (B_SheLaCH) V_BNeI YiSRAeL Y_TyAIM B_YaD RaMaH ] You know what they did. The walked over to their Egyptian neighbor next door and they said, I want to say good-bye. I am leaving. Like a king! They should walk in and say, You dirty Egyptian you, you hit me yesterday, I got to knock you off! Not one word. Not one Jew uttered one bad word. Forget it. So it was tremendous. This is real people. So this was very good on one hand. On the other hand it was very bad for the Jews. What is so holy about the children of Abraham, Issac and Jacob? That we want the world so much to be good, that we really forget so fast how bad the world is. (b15-2) So we walked out of Egypt and what did we remember. We didn't forget how they beat us up for two hundred ten years. We just rememberd maybe they are not such bad people, you know we said good-bye to them, they are waving at us. And even Pharoah walked with us, and he was crying and he said Please pray for me. [ Exodus 12:32 , BAo , V_BeRaKh_TeM GaM AoTI , "and bless me also" ] Maybe he isn't so bad. On one hand it was good, on one hand it was a little bit bad, because deep deep down the Jews weren't free yet. They were not ready for Mt. Sinai this way. As long as you think maybe the Egyptians are no so bad. So what happened. This was the great thing. Three dasys later all the Egyptians who thought the Jews were so great, and little Pharoah who walks with the Jews and says pray for me, three days later he regrets already that he sent them out, and he wants to get them back. Three days, everything forgotten. Everything was forgotten in three days, the ten plagues, the waving at them, saying Good-bye, pray for me, I think you are the greatest people in the world. In three days the whole country forgot the whole thing. You know why? ------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- ================================================================= === As noted above, I end my retype here, because I have found the retype I did in 1994, and it looks OK. A few footnotes follow: ------------------------------------------------------------------- -- FOOTNOTES (sa) TO MY (sa) IPUT OF RSC TYPESCRIP B15: (B15-1) Because otherwise, if someoene sent it Seamail, I would be swimming after a lovelorn sea-turtle who was on his/her way to the Gallapagos Islands for what you don't want to know about unless you are maybe also a Sea-turtle. And do you have any idea how hard it is to get the attention of a lovelorn sea-turtle on a warm current in the GulfSteam of the Atlantic when you are maybe 50 or a hundred yards behind doing the dog paddle and trying to whistle with a mouth full of sea water? And all because when you got to Cherbourg they kept you waiting with lots of dumb questions at Passport control while the sea-turtle just plopped right in and started making up for lost time -- and after you were very patient and walked all the way from Bat Yam or anyhow Piraeus trying to explain who please this was a package for you and even if its not easy please unstrap it from your carapace -- But I digress. (b15-2) { That is a complaint I have against Zenith sometimes. Especially the modern Germans, who are so afraid of doing something bad that sometimes they don't do anything against bad people. But also this is the same passivity in the face of evil that the Germans did in the Nazi era. And of course this is "He who is kind to the cruel will in the end have been cruel to the kind." Now when I grew up in the USA 1940s, my father had been raised standard religious and so he did us a great favor to not impose that upon us, and so I still barely know the Hebrew alphaet, so I knew we were Jewish, and was proud of it, and we were liberals -- my father had been a nominal radical in the 30s, but that was packed away during the War, and never taken out again, until the Witchhunters found it -- so anyhow, I knew we were Jewish, and that that meant we were always underdogs, and so now that we were free of oppression -- for I practically neer encounteered anti- Semitism, we were a quiet academic family on a quiet street in Cambridge -- practically an Anglophilic milieu -- and my mother had gone to Radcliffe, from a German-Jewish Ethical Culture background -- elite gentility, sort of honorary WASPs -- though her set, all her closest friends, were also assimilated German- Jewish -- it was our obligation to defend all oppressed peoples. So you can see why so many USA Jews joined the CP USA , especially in the 1930s when only the USSR, and not the capitalist democracies, was standing up to facism. And you see this with the USA liberal Jews today. So quick to identify with the underdog , that they side with the Palestinians against their own people. } ---------- ======================================================================= sa, Campra, 23 May '05 -- 14 AIYaR -- chesed sh'b' HOD -- 24 Rabi' al Thaanay A slow light rain all night ==================================================================== ====================================================================