Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 January 1985 — Page 4

2, 1985 Jewish Post and Opi

Flashbacks In Jewish History

An Occasional Column

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Molcho Thought Messiah Was Imminent

Woman Of Substance

By RABBI A.P. BLOCH November 7, 1532 — Solomon Molcho, a Portuguese Marrano, was burned at the stake in Mantua, Italy. Molcho, a highly educated person, was royal secretary of a Portuguese high court of justice. He spent his free moments puzzling over the theological significance of the expulsion of Iberian Jewry. .Failing to find Bloch a rational answer he turned to mystic meditation. He was attracted to the talmudic tradition that the messianic era will be preceded by a period of intense suffering. Surely this description fitted the recent period of Jewish martyrdom in Spain and Portugal. Convinced of the imminent coming of the Messiah, Molcho fled to Salonika, Turkey, where he openly declared his Jewishness.

THE OCCUPATION of Rome in 1530 by Emporer Charles V heightened Molcho’s expectations. The fall of Rome is a precondition to the rise of Jerusalem. The Messiah, according to legend, is a prisoner at the gates of Rome. The gates have finally been smashed.

This legend had been referred to by the apostate Paul in his widely publicized debate with Nachmanides in

1263. Nachmanides categorically stated that such legends are metaphorical allegories which are not to be taken literally. To Molcho it was the literalness of the legend which had the strongest appeal. Molcho rushed to Rome to search for the Messiah among the poor and the lepers in whose neighborhood he was alledged to reside. He left the following description of his search: “I entered the city and left my horse and fine apparel with the innkeeper and told him that I had a lady whom I loved but her parents were hiding her where I could speak to her only in the disguise of a beggar. . .1 blackened my face and donned filthy rags. . and walked about. . like a man of sorrows. .. .1 went through the streets of the city

until I came to the bridge over the Tiber near the Pope’s fortress, where the beggars and the sick are, and I remained among them for 30 days.” THE INQUISITION discovered Molcho's presence. He escaped their clutches through the intervention of Pope Clement VII who was impressed by Molcho’s mystic visions. In 1532 he was arrested by order of Charles V and surrendered to the Inquisition of Mantua where he died a martyr. Garments, allegedly worn by Molcho, were annually exhibited in the main synagogue of Prague for Jews to view and venerate. This was an unconscious adoption of a Christian practice of venerating relics of saints. It was particularly inappropriate in the case of Molcho, a victim of Christian zeal.

Divorce Rate Low But Is On Rise

HAIFA — While the incidence of divorce in Israel is still low and is far from the 5.5 per 1000 in the U.S. and the 2 to 3 per 1000 in Western Europe, it is rising. The Israeli figure is 1.3 per 1000. A change has also been noted in that there has been a large drop in divorces in the first year of marriage, but an increased in later

divorces. Nitza Ben-Dor, of Tel Hai College, told a Haifa University symposium on divorce that men remarry more frequently than women. She said also that research had shown that children of divorced parents do not appear more frequently in statistics on juvenile delinquents.

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Gertel

By RABBI ELLIOT B.

GERTEL

The popular syndicated TV mini-series, A Woman

0/ Substance, is not without some Jewish substance. It

W seems that in i*"'* * this well-acted,

well-produced serial, which justif iably took this country by storm, and

which faithfully retells Barbara Taylor Bradford’s best-seller, the heroine, Emma Harte (beautifully played by newcomer Jennifer Seagrove) is launched on successful business ventures by friendship with a Jewish family named Kallinski. WHEN A middle-aged Jew is pelted with stones by nasty children, young Emma intercedes, throws the stones back at them, picks the man up and escorts him home, only to be invited to join him for Shabbos dinner and to get a job in his factory. From then on, it’s rags to riches — or, rather, shmates to riches — for her, so she can wreak revenge on a young blueblood who exploited her while she was the family housemaid. And all this because of a Jew!

Emma grows to respect Jews, she falls in love with one of Kallinksi's sons, even becoming a business partner with that son and gradually merging factories with the father. But she refuses to accept a marriage proposal from her Jewish business partner out of respect for his parents’ strong religious feelings and

In Reading, Pa.

out of concern for problems with future childrens’ religious identity. Later, when his marriage to a Jewish girl falters and he proposes again, hoping that Emma will change her mind if there is a divorce, Emma says that two people can’t build happiness on others’ unhappiness, and urges him to remain with his wife and children. EMMA HARTE becomes the prototype of the kind of Gentile daughter-in-law many Jewish parents are grateful to have almost had, with the emphasis on “almost." Again, we see a trend in films to preach against mixed marriage, a phenomenon that seems to have picked up in the Seventies and Eighties, from The Way We Were (1973) to the Ellis Island miniseries of about a month ago.

While some may appreciate the sermon, I still don’t like the image of a grown man with strong sons allowing a bunch of children to throw rocks at him until a young woman comes by to help him. After all, look at what one man and his sons did to antiSemitic hooligans in the Han ukkah story! Though Emma gets along well with Jews in this film, we still have the old British stereotype of Jews: cowardly, cowering, best with money, lusting for gentile women, in need of protection — or at least of exhortation or civilizing — by gentile womanhood. In the final analysis, Emma Harte has a lot more substance — and character — than the Jews in the film.

His Son's Bar Mitzvah

By RABBI ALAN WElTZMAN Recently, my older son, Ian, was Bar Mitzvahed. It was our family’s privilege to invite our entire congregation and our friends from the other synagogues to the service and the reception. We also invited a Weitzman number of clergy people, our city mayor, county commissioners, our State and Federal Congressman, etc. We had people in attendance of all races and religious creeds. Over 500 people worshipping with us and it was a beautiful experience for Ian and our family. OUR RATIONALE for inviting members of the Christian community was multipurposed. We invited them so they could feel like part of our extended family. Our congregation is very involved in the life of the city, and we wanted Christian friends to feel that not only do we work together, but we are friends

as well and we should celebrate together. My family has received voluminous correspondence from members of my congregation who were moved by the beauty of the service. We also received letters from Christians who communicated that this was their first Bar Mitzvah and what a beautiful experience it was for them. They were (Continued On Next Page)

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