224
May 1932
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Sn ¿L JEWISH WORLD . . . B y J. A. V aus
The Passover T he P assover season is again at hand. In spite o f the lapse of 3,000 years and more since the Passover was first in stituted, it is still generally observed by the Jews, the world over. With some, it is just another holiday with opportunity for rest or recreation; with others, and particularly those o f the older and more orthodox generation, it is a holyday fraught with many happy associations and sacred memories and, in their eyes, appropriately observed by the Passover Seder, or Ceremony. Once again, in the orthodox Jew ish home, the family, together with relatives and fiaeads, will gather for the Passover Supper. The table, draped in snowy white linen and as twilight approaches lighted by candlesticks, will be provided with the matsos (unleavened bread), the shank bone (feeble reminder and substitute for the paschal lamb), the parsley and water (representing the hyssop and the blood as required in Exodus 12:22), and the bitter herbs and salt water (reminiscent o f the tears and the bitterness of the slavery in Egypt). Once more, the youngest child present will ask the meaning of this ceremony, and again will follow a recital o f Israel’s miraculous de liverance from bondage in Egypt. Once more, an empty chair placed on the right o f the master o f cérémonies will await its long-expected guest. Once more, the youngest child will ceremoniously open the door to admit Elijah the prophet, who is expected to come and announce the good tidings of the coming o f Messiah; and though the hearts o f the Jewish children present may flutter in anticipation o f Elijah’s coming, as usual, he will fail to appear. After sing ing the Hallel (Psalms 113 to 118), which tradition says was chanted in the temple during the slaughter o f the paschal lamb, and which is also thought to have been the hymn which the disciples sang at the Last Supper, the company will shake hands all around and say, “ This year we celebrate here—next year in Jerusalem.” Though the Hebrews will, in the Pass- over Seder, again celebrate the deliverance from Egyptian bondage, yet the nation is today in bondage' far worse than that of Egypt. Israel is in bondage to an antiquated and rapidly disintegrating man-made system of religion that has in it no power to meet and satisfy the demands of conscience and reason and the deepest longing o f Jewish hearts. The Jewish attitude toward one o f their own number -who has embraced Christ and Christianity is so well known as to have a restraining influence upon members o f their race who give any indication o f in terest in Christianity, and this attitude tends to promote a bondage of conscience,
shackling the mind, stifling the convictions, and paralyzing the will o f the seeker a f ter truth. Israel is in bondage to the traditions of the elders, to racial prejudices, to family ties, and to Jewish public opinion and fear o f man—all o f which effectually work to gether to delay the progress of the gospel among the Jews, and the acceptance o f the Messianic claims o f Christ. Israel is in spiritual bondage to the cruel taskmaker, Satan, who like Pharaoh of old, will not release his Jewish captives until divine interference compels him to loosen his malignant grasp.
and it is also true in a figurative sense of the Lord’s Table. Scrupulous care is exercised by the or thodox Jewish housewife to insure the re moval o f all leaven from the house. Days before the Passover, she will wash, polish, sweep, dust, scrub, and clean with un wonted vigor, inspect all cooking utensils, purchase new dishes, overhaul drawers arid closets, and even turn pockets inside out, to insure the removal o f all leaven. Before partaking o f the Lord’s Supper, the believer is instructed to “examine him self, and so let him eat o f that bread, and drink o f that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” Judaism up to Date with one stroke with the more mod ern loud-speaker days o f the present was printed by the Associated Press, showing the Chief Rabbi o f the British Empire reading a memorial prayer at a patriotic service for the Jewish dead of the World War. In the foreground, members of His Majesty’s band of the Scots Guards can be seen giving an impres sive rendering o f “Adon Olam.” Rabbi Harty and Dayan Gollop are shown in their rabbinical robes and caps, standing before the radio micro phone. What a far cry from the days of the voice that thundered from Mount Sinai, to the loud-speaker of the present timel If Judaism has survived the many kaliede- scopic changes of the centuries past, then in spite o f the multitudinous signs o f dis integration in the present, it may be ex pected to continue for years to come. Hebrew Goes on the Air ow comes the Hebrew broadcasting station. “ The Scribe” is responsible for the statement that Tel Aviv, the 100 per cent Jewish City of Palestine, now has a radio station, in which the Hebrew tongue is to be the one and only language used in broadcasting. Hebraists the world over are celebrat ing this event and insisting that the slogan “ Only Hebrew” should be strictly en forced without any exceptions. Critics ob ject to the plan, argue that a better policy would be to give the Arabic a place along side the Hebrew, and suggest that receiv ing sets be installed in the Arab villages and loud-speakers on the public squares* and a campaign o f enlightenment be thus carried on in Arabic with a view to amelio rating the Arab-Jewish question. It is claimed that the broadcasting of Hebrew programs will merely provide a platform for eloquent Hebrew orators who will reach only the 100 per cent Jewish ci ties o f Palestine, and that such do not par ticularly need the Hebrew. picture in which the colorful, religious Jewish past was linked
THE PASSOVER SUPPER The Passover ceremony without a Pass- over lamb is nothing more nor less than a feast of unleavened bread; and the sub stitution of the shank bone for the paschal lamb and the parsley, and water for the hyssop and blood, but serve to emphasize the poverty and barrenness o f Judaism. Oh, that Israel might realize that God Himself has provided a Paschal Lamb in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, their own Messiah, and that simple faith in the blood o f this Paschal Lamb will insure a passing over o f divine judgment 1 “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider” (Isa. 1:3). “ I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention o f the Lord, keep not silence. And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth” (Isa. 62:6,7). The Passover and the Lord’s Supper T he J ew ish P assover and the Lord’s Supper have a number o f things in common. Both are memorials o f deliver ance from bondage to a cruel oppressor. Both magnify the blood of the Paschal Lamb which shelters from divine judg ment. _ Both use unleavened bread and wine in the ceremonial. Both anticipate the coming o f Messiah. Both are distinctly Jewish in their origin. Both should be preceded by a search for and removal o f leaven. This is true, in a literal sense, o f the Jewish Passover;
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