The first article this week in the Reform Advocate is entitled "S'Firoh" (the counting of forty-nine days from the second day of Passover, when the crop of the first barley was offered to God, to the feast of Pentecost; it also means the ten cabalistic numerations or divine attributes); the article is by Dr. Hirsch. It is written in a fine literary style, and discusses the tradition of counting S'Firoh from various points of view in a very interesting manner. It gives the historical basis and the wisdom the cabalists have incorporated into the S'Firoh, and all the superstitions that have centered around the tradition. Many can learn something from what he says, and agree with his opinions. There is, however, one paragraph in the article with which many Jews will not be in accord. Dr. Hirsch says: "When Israel was devoted to agriculture, the sacredness of the young wheat, from day to day, until the harvest, was made manifest through the duties of the High Priest. This had its natural basis in the spirit, in the conviction and in the life of the community. But what connection has the tradition of S'Firoh, which is 2observed by several Conservative Congregations, with our life? As soon as the social basis for the tradition has been abrogated, the practice of it becomes meaningless, except perhaps for whatever meaning the preachers put into it."

If we should want to observe, of all the religious traditions, only those which have a substantial connection with our life at present, there would remain very few religious traditions. But for Jews who have some national hope, S'Firoh is not so stripped of every connection with reality as might be inferred from Dr. Hirsch's observations. Counting S'Firoh when there is no crop is a habit of the Jews like that of the mother who rocks the cradle after losing her child. It expresses loneliness, sorrow, perhaps self-pity. In the case of the Jew, it has always expressed the conviction that he will again reap the crop of his soil; he observes the tradition that he may reapply it when the time comes. Thus has Moses Maimonedes written, even though the Jews may have no King for a long time, and thus the Jew studies agricultural theories even though his land in no longer his.

This is much deeper than an empty superstition.