Word: orthodox
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...year 1951 (by Hebrew count 5712) was the first shmita to come round after Israel gained its independence. But with a partly Socialist government and a farming population that is generally far from Orthodox in its religious views, Israel's modern Orthodox rabbinate was hard put to observe the Law. To avoid flouting it openly, the rabbis technically "sold" the entire territory of Israel to an obliging Arab named Mahmoud. Mahmoud gave the rabbis power of attorney, which enabled them to "sell"the state back to themselves, at the close of the sabbatical year...
This device satisfied some Orthodox Jews, but not the strictly observant. In a handful of Orthodox settlements, hungry farmers stoically watched their idle fields and the fruit rotting on their trees. To vary their meat diet, some Orthodox city dwellers furtively bought apples and tomatoes from Arab hawkers, determined not to purchase produce grown by Jews...
...from the Middle East, marched to the top of Mt. Zion, where they celebrated the end of the seventh year-the ceremony of Hakhel-for the first time since King Agrippa presided over the rites in 42 A.D. This year, since none of the Israeli government leaders is strictly Orthodox, the head of the state was represented by Jerusalem's chief cantor, who read the Torah from the top of a truck. As he finished, old men blew on the double ram's-horn. Pilgrims wearing rich prayer shawls cried out in jubilation, dancing and clapping their hands...
...next morning Orthodox farmers went out to the land once more to plow their weed-choked fields and prune the tangled vines. There were relatively few of them who had made the sacrifice which the Law called for. Israeli government statisticians estimated the total loss in produce at less than...
...suspicious of absolutes and friendly to change; their energies are thrown into the struggle for a better world and they like the Sermon on the Mount best when it is translated into free soup kitchens or psychiatric counseling. High on the mountain above them are their theological archenemies, the "orthodox" and the "neo-orthodox"; clustered around their patriarch, Swiss Theologian Karl Earth, they turn their faces firmly upward and preach the Word in their private language; for them the world is hopelessly evil and Christian social reformers hopelessly naive; not men's actions but belief...