A Soulful Journey

A Polish-American expert on Eastern Europe at the library of Congress came to my Senate office to brief me on a trip to Poland.  He told me that in 1946 he had been a graduate at Harvard teaching Polish.  He had joined the local Polish-American Citizens Club, and the members had been invited to a memorial service in Cambridge, Mass., honoring a Polish-American solider killed in World War II.  Endless speeches by local officials paid tribute to the historical ties between Poland and the United States.  But again and again, the speakers stumbled over the names of Polish heroes, and the audience began to groan at each mistake. Then Jack was introduced as a young Navy veteran who hoped to be the congressman for the district. He spoke with feeling of Poland and America, of Pulaski, Kisciusko, Pederewski and others.  And each time mentioned a Polish name the pronunciation was flawless -- so much so that the crowd stirred, and voices in the audience began to joke in P...

A Yiddish writer reports that in 1945 the Maggid of Chelm, a venerable sage, arrived at the port of Haifa.   He approached the custom’s office holding a broken suitcase and a large cage filled with birds. Never having been confronted by a fleeting emigrant bringing in such merchandise, the astonished customs official asked, “ My good man, why in heaven's name have you bothered to bring this” -he pointed to the cage - “all the way from Europe? ” The Maggid lifted his sad eyes to the impatient clerk. “ I had to bring them,” he said.   “ There are no more Jewish children in Poland. So who will feed them?”

A Rabbi in a small Polish village who was visiting the Hafetz Hayim, the spiritual leader of the non-Hasidic Orthodox element of Polish Jewry at the beginning of this century, complained that although he spoke almost every Shabbat before Mincha admonishing his congregants, he has not noticed any improvement in their behavior. “Tell me,” asked the Hafetz Haym, “Do you get an ‘olam’ (literally a ‘world’ but here it means audience)?” “I don’t want to brag,” answered the Rabbi, “but everyone tells me that I am good speaker.   If the weather is not good at least 100 people come to hear me.” “And,” the Hafetz Hayim continued, “are the people attentive?” “Oh yes,” replied the Rabbi, “one can hear a pin drop.   But what does it matter if what I told them falls on deaf ears?   What am I accomplishing with all my preaching?” “You have achieved much and the Lord will undoubtedly reward you handsomely at the proper time. Just think of it.  You h...

“Excuse me, we’re conducting a poll on the shortage of meat in your country,” the pollster said to four interviewees. “What’s a shortage?” the American asked. “What’s excuse me’?” the Israeli asked. “What’s meat?” the Pole asked. “What’s a poll?” asked the Soviet. -David Harris Freedom and bounty are two great gifts we should never take for granted.