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RABBI NISSON WOLPIN, EDITOR 4 Israel on the Brink, Yonason Rosenblum
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November 2000 VOLUME XXXl!l/NO. 9 Yonason Rosenblum
I. THE DEEPENING CRISIS The Scales Have Dropped the Green Line. Residents of Upper Nazareth were unable to leave the city for ((Israel's position today is worse t wonld be hard to overstate the almost the entire period; the Wadi Ara than in 1973, when it was degree to which Israel's Jews, espe highway, one of the major thoroughfares attacked by concerted Arab I cially ardent supporters of the Oslo traversing the Lower Galilee was closed armies, worse than when Egypt mobi process, have been traumatized by the for days by Israeli Arabs rioting in lized in 1967, worse than in 1948, when sustained eruption of violence since Erev Umm-al-Fahm; and a motorist was Arabs rejected the U.N. partition of Rosh Hashana. Janet Aviad, a leader of killed by a boulder dropped on his car Palestine... and sent arinies to kill Peace Now, describes the peace process as he drove on the main coastal highway Israel;' writes George Will, perhaps she and her colleagues advocated as between Tel Aviv and Haifa. The Tunnel America's most respected political corr1- "ended" and the peace camp as "not real Highway from the Gush Etzion bloc, mentator. Then, at least, Israel was con ly relevant." which according to the most far-reach fident of the legitimacy of its positions. Consider the psychological distance ing Israeli offers to date would still remain That confidence has been squandered that believers in the ''peace process" tra within Israel, was also closed on an almost over the seven plus years of the Oslo versed in a n1atter of days. I-1irsch Good daily basis due to stone-throwing and process, which, according to Will, has man's lead column for the October 10 shooting. The situation of Jews living in succeeded in "delegitimizing all previ issue of the JerusalC'rn Report, confident Judea and Samaria and near the Gaza ous positions... and destroying the ly prononnced that peace has already strip was even worse.2 absolute prerequisite for successful been achieved, with only a fevv lechnical Nor were Tel Aviv and Jernsalem negotiations-the insistence that some details left to be worked out. The com spared: Shots were heard in Jaffa and the thing is nonnegotiable." plex web of interpersonal relationships Jernsalem neighborhood of Gilo came Will correctly identifies the greatest developed over the past seven years nnder heavy and constant fire. 3 By open crisis in Israel today as one of the spir ensured, in his opinion, that another ing his jail doors to Hamas and Islam it. The question still to be answered is intifada was no longer a possibility.' ic Jihad terrorists, Arafat gave the green whether the renewal of the intifada on By that October 10 cover date, Israelis light for renewed terrorist actions Erev Rosh Hashana will provide the nec had already endured 12 days of ongoing 2 The ability of the Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, essary shock therapy or only deepen the violence, in which they found themselves in some cases using firearms stockpiled over the crisis. unable to travel freely within or without past seven years and supplied by Israel, to com -----···-----· pletely disrupt transportation throughout Israel Yonason Rosenblum who lives in Jerusalem is a l T\vo issues later, CoodnMn bid adieu to that gave a chilling taste of what they could do to pre contributing editor to The Jewish Observer. He web of relationships and concluded, "\Vhat is vent rapid Israeli mobilization in the event of a is also director of the Israeli division of Am Echad, needed is separation between then1 and us. lsrad full-.srale war \Vith neighboring Arab states. That the Agudath Israel-inspired educational outreach on one side of the border and Palestine on the rapid mobilization has always been at the heart effort and 111edia resource. other." of Israeli defense doctrine.
4 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 throughout Israel, and effectively in sight. At last, it dawned on Israeli Jews "Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter declared every Jew an open target. that the problem in Palestinian eyes is where they are, in any country. Wherev During that same 12-day period, the not, as George Will put it, "that Israel is er you are, kill those Jews and those IDF stood by helpless while a soldier being provocative, but that Israel's Americans who are like them - and those bled to death over a period of five hours being is provocative." who stand behind them:" Israelis were at Yosef's Tomb from a bullet wound. Seventy percent of Israelis, admitted aghast, but as Jerusalem Mayor Ehud A week later the IDF evacuated the that they were apprehensive about the Olmert commented dryly the only Tomb, which was promptly destroyed, very future of the State. A Ma'ariv car shocking thing about the "sermon" was along with sifrei kodesh, by Palestinian toon caught the national mood. Next to our shock. Palestinian Media Watch, mobs. That same mob killed Rabbi Hil a tombstone over Yosef's Tomb, were MEMRI (Middle East Media Research lel Lieberman, who had rushed towards Yosef's Tomb to save the sifrei kodesh, and dumped his body in a nearby cave. • The savagery with which the mobs eilin explains his commitment to Oslo, "I can't live in a attacked Yosef's Tomb ominously fore shadowed the scene less than a week Bworld in which peace is impossible." That is a statement later when another Palestinian mob killed two IDF reservists, who inadver of faith not realpolitik. Messianic movements are rooted in tently entered Ramallah, and continued despair and the Israeli peace movement is no exception. to tear at them and stomp on them long after they were dead. On the Northern border, Hezbollah kidnapped three Israeli soldiers, in the several other dug graves marked •Institute), and Israel Media Resources type of daring action for which the IDF Rachel's Tomb, the 10mb of the Patri (monitoring Palestinian radio broadcasts) was once famed. Despite Prime Minis archs, the Temple Mount, and finally, the have been supplying reams of compara ter's promise after Israel's May with State of Israel. ble material, much of it from official drawal from Lebanon that Israel would Suddenly left-wing columnists, like Palestinian Authority organs, for years.5 respond disproportionately to any bor Dan Margalit and Ben-Dror Yemini, Within months of signing the orig der incursions, the IDF found itself with sounded indistinguishable from their inal Oslo Accords, Yasir Arafat called for its hands tied and no response was forth right-wing counterparts. They referred a "jihad" for Jerusalem before an Ara coming. to the Israel Arab population as a sus bic-speaking audience in South Africa; Israeli Arabs also rioted. Thirteen pected "fifth column" and warned dark he eulogized Yihye Ayyash, the man Israeli Arabs were killed in violent ly of the possible necessity of transfer responsible for the deaths of nearly a clashes with police. In recognition of the ring the residents of Umm-al-Fahm hundred Israelis in suicide bombings, as threat posed by Israeli Arabs, the IDF outside of Israel's borders. a "holy martyr"; he repeatedly remind began fortifying Jewish settlements in ed Arab audiences that Mohammed too the North against attack by their Israeli Evidence Ignored had entered into treaties with infidels Arab neighbors. only to abrogate those treaties when he Israel Jews across the political spec vidence of the deep-seated emni was capable of defeating them militar trum were shocked by the fury direct ty that boiled to the surface had ily. For years the Palestinian Authority ed at them by both Israeli Arabs and the Elong been available. At the height has run summer camps for thousands Palestinians. Just weeks before the gov of the crisis, Israel TV broadcast a ser of youngsters, some as young as eight ernment had told the IDF that it would mon by the former rector of the Islam years old, in which they receive training have to make due with a second straight University of Gaza in which he railed, in terror activities against Jews.6 year of budget cuts. Now Israel was in 4 The New York Times reported the speech, but c{)lumnist and not so111eone suspected of right an ongoing shooting war with no end reporter William Orne Jr. quoted only a relatively wing leanings, accused some of the prominent innocuous statement by the iman that Jews are reporters on Palestinian matters of showing 3 As this is written, nearly a inonth later, buses all alike, whether they belong to Labor or "absolute support for the Palestinians." He cited are still driving through Gilo at night with their Likud. their failure to report Palestinian inciten1ent, their lights off, and the streets are empty by 6:00 p.nl. downplaying of shooting and fire-bon1bings by because of the nightly sniper fire from nearby Beit 5 Mayor Olmert caustically noted that the Israeli Fatah militia, and even their credulity with respect Jala. After a four hour gun battle between Il)F n1edia recently spent a week on Rabbi Ovadiah to the Palestinian version of the Ramallah troops and attack helicopters and snipers in Beit Yosef's views on transn1igration of souls, a sub lynching. Jala on Novcn1ber l, Culture Minister Matan Vil ject of no in1n1ediate impact on the daily lives nai, a fonner deputy chief of staff, urged Israelis of Israel's citizens, and yet had shown hardly any 6 The PA advertisen1ent for the sun1mer camps, to "keep things in perspective." The Palestinians interest in the continuing incite1nent against Je\VS broadcast on official television, show paran1ili are only shooting at the Southern border of Gilo, and Israel by the official Palestinian Authority tary training to d1ants of"My children, n1y chil not all of it, he pointed out. media. Nachu1n Barnea, one of Israel's leading dren are in the suicide squad.
The Jewish Observer, November 2000 5 Seven years after Oslo!, not one offi ley rift, and the right of return for pur [Arab J countries give us weapons, and cial map of the Palestinian Authority or poses of family reunification of tens of we, on our own, will ... kill them, mur in the Palestinian textbooks even men thousands of Palestinians -Arafat could der them, slaughter them, all of tions Israel. PA television continues to not even pretend to agree to an end of them .... [W]ewon't spare a single Jew:' educate Palestinian children that all of the conflict. Eighty-three percent of Evidence of the irredentism of Israeli Israel - Acre, Jaffa, Tiberias, Jerusalem Palestinians supported his rejection of Arabs has also been long available. Every - belongs to them. that offer. recent survey of the Israeli Arab popu Four years ago, Nabil Sha'ath, one of Arafat has not done anything to edu lation shows a remarkable shift in iden Arafat's leading advisors, predicted the cate the Palestinian population towards tity over the past decade: From seeing end of the peace process in a speech in acceptance of Israel's right to exist. Far themselves as Israeli Arabs, they today Nahl us: At some point, the Israelis will say from encouraging a spirit of peaceful overwhelmingly identify themselves that they have given all they can. Then we coexistence, the official Palestinian media first and foremost as Palestinians. return to war. And indeed twice before, encourages the Palestinian population in Tens of thousand of dunams of have Palestinian "policemen" and Arafat's pri their maximalist demands. The con been destroyed in fires set by Israeli vate militias have shot at and killed Israeli stantly reinforced message of the official Arabs in recent years. And last spring soldiers and civilians: after the opening Palestinian media is that Palestinians have Arab students rioted at Haifa Universi of the Temple Mount Tunnel in fall 1996 gained nothing from the Oslo process, ty, chanting "Slaughter the Jews." and in the spring of this year. even though 99% of the Palestinian pop The 10 Knesset members from the Even after Prime Minister Barak ulation is now under the jurisdiction of Arab parties compete with ooe anoth offered Arafat at Camp David far more the Palestinian Authority. er in hurling invective at Israel and in than any Palestinian could have ever Worse, that same media legitimates openly identifying themselves with the dreamed of receiving from Israel one violence as a means of realizing those Palestinian cause and against Israel. At year ago, not to mention seven years ago goals. Palestinian TV broadcast on a November 4 conference at Ber Zeit - a Palestinian state, with its capital in October 22 a series of interviews with University, MK Mohammed Barakeh Jerusalem, over 90% of the West Bank, women calling for weapons. "All we ask;' urged Israeli Arabs to "participate" in the including the militarily vital Jordan Val- said one of these women, " is that the armed intifada of the preceding month. Two other Arab MK's are under inves tigation for incitement, and yet anoth er recommended Hezbollah's Sheik Nasrallah for a Nobel Peace Prize.
II. THE SOURCE OF THE MALAISE
I • FuD Day, Half Day, Or Part Time Programs I Secular Messianism • Includes Intensive Limudei Kodesh I • Endorsed By Leading Gedolei Yisrael And Educators I f Israelis, especially the elite opin • Choice of Regular or Lishma Program I • Dynamic Shiurim By Renowned Mechanchim I ionmakers, professed to have had • Hundreds Of Successful, Maalot Graduates Worldwide I their eyes opened by the renewed I • A Warm Bais Yaakov Atmosphere· Select Group Of Students I intifada, it is only because they have been • Option of Eight Week Summer Program In Yeruishalayim I so resolutely closed until oow. As I • The Exciting Altemalive To A Full Year In Eretz Yisroel Ha'aretz's Ari Shavit put it, "Arafat did Our Mechanchim Include: Rabbi Mafis Blum, Rabbi Avraham Blumenkrantz, I not mislead us, we misled ourselves." I Rabbi Yehuda Cahan, Rabbi Dov Eichenstein, Rabbi Dovid Gibber, Rabbi Yoel Kramer, Rabbi Noson Dovid Rabinowich, Rabbi Mechel Spitzer, Rabbi Yisroel Dov Webster, I The peace camp, writes Ha' aretz I Rebbetzin Yehudis Davidawitz, Rebbetzin Chaya Ginzberg, Rebbetzin Devora Kitevib, military correspondent Aluf Benn, was Rebbetzin Naoma Lerman, Rebbetzin Rivka Oratz, Rebbetzin Esther Twersky, swept up by a "messianic belief in the I Summer In Eretz Ylsrael: Rabbi Dovid Raison - Dean, Rabbi David Kass· Director, I peace process!' 7 From its inception, Oslo Rabbi Nosson Geisler, Rabbi Leib Keleman, RabbiY. Monat,, Rabbi MeirTreibitz, Rebbetzin Tzi rah Heller, Rebbetzin Zehava Kass, Rebbetzin Rena Tarshish. 7 To be sure, as Douglas feith shows in the Septermber 11, New Republic, some Israeli pol icymakers viewed Oslo from the beginning as unilateral withdrawal, designed to relieve Israel from involvement in the daily lives of more than a million Palestinians. But they disguised it and RABBI SHOLOM G. GtNZBERG, DEAN sold it to the Israeli population as a process lead 931 Coney Island Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11230 ing to peace. Both the public and the authors of I For More Information Phone Or Fax:17181377..0222 I the policy soon found the1nselves swept up in unfulfillabe expectations. ------~---- 6 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 has been less about realistic analysis of Of course, even after Shabbatei Tzvi will ... Israel has high capabilities and our negotiating partner than about our became an apostate to Islam, there were low morale; the Arabs have low capa· own illusions. Shimon Peres and Yossi those who could not live without belief bilities and high morale. Again and Beilin, the chief architects of the Oslo in his messianic mission and developed again, the record of history shows, vic process, have both said that they had no elaborate theological doctrines to jus tory goes not to the side with the greater idea where the process was headed at the tify his apostasy. And the architects of fire power, but to the side with greater time the first Oslo Accords were signed. the Oslo process appear to have been determination." And Bellin explains his com1nitment to unfazed by the events of the past two Yitzchak Rabin did not belong to the Oslo, "I can't live in a world in which months. In his book The New Middle messianic wing of the "peace camp:' He peace is impossible:' That is a statement East, Shimon Peres presented a vision had to be practically pushed to take of faith not realpolitik. breathtaking in its looniness of a Mid Arafat's hand on the White House Messianic movcn1ents arc rooted in dle East in which hotels are more vital lawn. Neither did Ehud Barak initially despair and the Israeli peace movement to national defense than troops and bor belong to that camp. As chief of staff, he is no exception.s Sabbatean fervor swept ders. On the worst day of recent fight· was horrified when he first read the Oslo the Jewish world not long after the ing, in which three Israeli soldiers were Accords, which had been concluded Chmelnitzki n1assacres, and the decision killed, he offered increased business without consultation with the IDF. If to rescue a bankrupt Arafat from the investment in the Palestinian econo1ny these two military 1nen have gone along dustbin of history came against the as the means to end the violence. At a with the Oslo process of land for time, backdrop of an ongoing intifada pitting memorial rally for Yitzchak Rabin, he it is primarily because they believed that young Israeli troops against stone opined that "stone-throwing" must not Israel is no longer capable of mustering throwing Palestinians for years. The be allowed to stop the peace process. 10 the strength for a costly war. Barak has major argument advanced for the Oslo Yossi Beilin too has yet to utter a single made this point explicitly several times, process has always been, "What's the word suggesting that he was wrong most recently in a ceremony con1- alternative?" about anything. memorating the fallen in the Yorn Kip· Messianists proclaim a post-history in pur War where he unfavorably com· which all previous laws and rules of A Failure of National Will and its Causes pared the national spirit today to that human nature are suspended. (That was of 1973. one of the ways that supporters of Shab ut even many who profess to be Nowhere was this national demoral batei Tzvi justified his many halachic vio no longer be deceived about the ization more evident than in the 1nan lations.) Israelis convinced themselves Btrue nature of Arafat, nevertheless ner in which Israel withdrew from that the mastermind of the Ma' a lot and see no alternative to ongoing negotia Lebanon. The Israeli public was willing Coastal Highway massacres had changed tions. l'hus an overwheln1ing majority to pay any price to leave Lebanon, his spots and was now prepared to live of Israelis today tell pollsters that Arafat including the return of the entire Golan, in peaceful coexistence with Israel. is not a trust\vorthy partner for peace so fixated had it become on the casual· Any information that calls into ques while at the same time expressing their ties in Lebanon. That fixation allowed no tion the arrival of blissful n1essianic era hope in the speedy resumption of rational cost-benefit analysis of long· is suppressed. That is why Israelis have negotiations. They cannot come to range consequences of withdrawal, espe· shown so little interest in what Arafat grips with the question: If the other side cially one so precipitous that it was and the Palestinians have been saying is not interested in peace, what are we reported around the world as a rout. over the past seven years or in the con going to negotiate about? Foremost among those costs was the dan stant violations of the Oslo Accords. The reason is simple: the same des ger of emboldening our enemies with Though it may take a long time,9 even peration that gave rise to Oslo in the first proof that the Israel can be spooked. Just tually the evidence exploding messianic place can only increase in face of pre as Deputy Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon illusions becomes too overwhelming for dictions by the IDF of a second intifa warned would happen, the Palestinians most people to sustain their hopes any da extending into the foreseeable future, have repeatedly cited Lebanon as a longer. When Shabbetai Tzvi became an and this time against an enen1y armed model for their own struggle against us. apostate to Islam, most Jews who had with thousands of rifles and submachine There are many causes of that loss of been swept up in messianic expectations guns, not just stones and Molotov national will. One of the most impor realized they had been wrong.And most cocktails. tant, however, is the loss of Jewish iden Israelis have been similarly disabused In short, the sense of desperation tity and with it of any particular mis about Palestinian ambitions today. reflects a profound crisis of will in Israel sion for the Jewish people. today. Daniel Pipes succinctly describes Twenty years ago, I heard Rabbi 8 The co1nparisons between today's peace n1ovc the situation and the danger in the Feb Aharon Feldman describe the belief that ment and the Sabbatean outbreak arc meant only to be sugge::.tive. Needless to say, 1nany different ruary Commentary: "Israel today has "we stole the Land from the Arabs" as factors led to each of the two 1novements. weapons and money; the Arabs have the worm eating away at Israel from the
The Jewish Observer, November 2000 7 core. At the time, the statement seemed dents. we can be sure that there is a message extreme. One never heard such opinions In the eyes of our intellectual elites, directed specifically at those of us expressed Today they are commonplace. Judaism itself is the enemy, because attuned to seeing Hashem's guiding One can pick up Ha'aretz, the newspa Jewish history and the age-old Jewish Hand in the events of history.And when per of the secular elites, any day of the sense of peoplehood gave legitimacy to the tension only increases throughout week, and read Amira Golan describe the idea of a Jewish state. And that state the Asseres Yemei Teshuva to the point Israelis "as a people dwelling on anoth is a colonial enterprise, conceived in sin, that Israelis are being advised to leave er people's land ... who have not yet founded upon outdated concepts of their radios tuned to a silent station on learned to live in peace with their national character and mission. Yorn Kippur in case of the outbreak of neighbors;' or similar statements. To counteract that sense of nation war, we know that something is being Respected Israeli academics portray hood, the new history texts emphasize demanded from us, and not just from Zionism as just another form of Euro Jewish communities as distinct from the non-religious Jews, even if we can pean colonialism. The old ninth-grade one another and heavily influenced by not say with assurance what it is. Israeli history text had twenty pictures the surrounding gentile society. The It was with that in mind that the of Jewish heroism and suffering dur bonds of language and law that joined Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of America ing the 1948 War of Independence. The Jews across the globe to one another are issued a heartfelt cry urging all Jews to recently introduced ninth grade text downplayed. The first time that the do everything within their power "to book, by contrast, has none. The only Jews are introduced in the new world arouse Divine mercy;' in all the ways that picture connected to the War of Inde history text is as a Greek vassal state. have always marked our people: pendence shows Palestine refugee chil No wonder that a recent World increased Torah study, prayer, and deeds dren learning math in Jordan in 1949. Health Organization study found that of lovingkindness. Once maps of the War of Independence Israeli teenagers were the least happy The significance of the timing is obvi showed seven invading Arab armies, in the developed world. They have been ous for another reason as well. One today they show the paths of fleeing stripped of any sense of themselves as month before the outbreak of the new Arahs. part of the chain of Jewish history, as intifada, Prime Minister Barak Reviewing the new Israeli history part of a nation with a historic mission. announced a "secular revolution." texts, Hillel Halkin lamented, "There 1'he loss of any sense of ourselves as Among the items promised were pub are many words missing here, the a people has left us unable to compre lic transportation and El Al flights on smallest of which is 'we.' Nowhere is the hend our enemies. Having lost our love Shabbos, civil marriage and burial, a sec ninth-grader reminded that he belongs of the Land, we cannot conceive that ular constitution, and removal of the line to the people he is reading about; ... another people has not. Having lost our for nationhood from the national iden nowhere that their story is his story." sense of ourselves as a people, we can tity card. Shulamith Aloni, former Minister of not comprehend that another people has Barak's secular revolution was a Education, opposed trips to Auschwitz not. Cries of "slaughter the Jews" thus reversion to his election strategy of run precisely on the grounds that such trips come as complete shocks. ning against the haredim. If, as Dr. John might foster a national identity in stu- Desiring only to be left alone to enjoy son said, patriotism is the last refuge of our new material wealth, we convince scoundrels in most democracies, attack ourselves that the Arabs want only the ing the haredim plays the same role in same, and that if we only keep the Israeli democracy. Barak was appealing Digest of Meforshim atmospherics favorable and provide to Israel's "best and brightest" who, ')"1v7 in:i ')"1v7 enough presents, they will be satisfied. according to the media, were rapidly concluding that Israel was no longer a 7"llT ,vv':>N 'mlo\!l l "TlT.!O Ill.THE WAY OUT: tolerable place to live because of the .Available at SOME HUMBLING LESSONS haredim. LEKUTE I The secular revolution was one of the t!o Yitzchok Rosenberg What is Hashem Telling Us? first victims of the new intifada." Sud JO West 47th Street, Room 503 New York, NY 10036 denly it did not appear to be quite so rel- (212) 719-1717 one of us - and certainly not the 20 Volumes on Torah, Perek, Medrash, author of these words - can 9 Western intellectuals - Lenin's "useful idiots" ~for instance, retained their belief in the Sovi Megilos, Talmud, and Tehilim. N state with confidence the sig et Union as mankind's best hope despite the star Proceeds of sales distributed a1nong nificance of the events currently taking vation of n1illions of kulaks during the Soviet Yeshivos and used for reprinting of place in Eretz Yisrael. But when a fate Union's forced collectivization in the '20s. (Here volon1es out-of-print ful sequence of events begins on Erev too much of the evidence was suppressed.) Many PRICE: $8.00 PER VOLUME continued to hold on to their faith through the Rosh Hashanah, with attacks on wor Moscow Show Trials and even the Molotov shippers at Judaism's most sacred site, Ribbentrop Pact.
8 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 evant. In the face of Palestinian bullets, the creation of a nation fro1n a "non over 3,000 years ago:' hareditn no longer seemed so "intolera nation." During 19 years of Jordanian Until then, Tamari had concluded ble:' After years of preoccupation with the rule of the West Bank, no calls for an that Israel was too powerful and that the high chareidi birthrate, Israelis sudden independent Palestinian state were Palestinians would never realize any of ly began worrying about the even high heard because there was no Palestinian their territorial dreams. But that night er Israeli Arab birthrate, and the impli people- no unique language, no unique he could not sleep. All night he thought cations of having one-fifth of our citizens) culture. During that period, Jerusalem to himself, "A nation whose members whose votes can determine all but the continued to be what it has always been have no connection to their past, and are most one-sided election, openly identi in Islam - a relatively minor site. No capable of so openly transgressing their fying \vitJ1 our enemies. At least chareidi Arab leaders made pilgrimages to the Al most important laws - that nation has children don't yell, "Death to the Jews:' Aksa mosque. cut off all its roots to the Land:' After a month of debating whether Today all that has changed. At Camp From then on, he determined "to a few buses would run to the beach on David, it was Arafat who lectured Barak fight for everything- not a percentage, Shab/Jos, Israelis suddenly found them on the significance of Jerusalem. A Pales not such crumbs as the Israelis might selves thinking twice every time they tinian national identity and mythology, throw us - but for everything. Because conte1nplatcd taking a bus, due to embracing Israeli Arabs as well, has been opposing us is a nation that has no con repeated "\Varnings about likely terror forged from appropriated parts of our nection to its roots." ist attacks. own discarded history. A Midrash hints at another aspect of It is natural for religious Jews to sec The Arabs have no trouble compre our struggle with the descendants of in the close proximity of the renewed hending the relationship between Jews' Yishmael. Yishmael boasted to Yitzchak intifada to the announcen1ent of the declining connections to their roots and Avinu that his bris was more praise secular revolution as a clear expression the flowering of their own national aspi worthy than Yitzchak's because he was of Divine wrath over the secular rev rations. Palestinian national fervor has thirteen years old at the time, not a mere olution. Catastrophes have struck been fueled hy the loss of our own eight days. Yitzchak replied that he Israel before in the wake of attacks on national identity. Sallah Tamari, a Pales would be willing to give up his life if the religious fabric of the State. The tinian parlian1entarian, related to Israeli Hashem de1nanded it. 'fhat was the pre Yo1n Kippur War is one such example. journalist Aharon Barnea a dramatic lude for Akeidas Yitzchak. But there was more to the ti1ning of transfonnation in his thinking that took The /Jris is the sign of Hashem's events than that. Hashem seemed to be place when he was an Israeli security covenant with the descendants of Avra pointing directly at the loss of our prisoner. ham A vi nu. The argument between Yish national identity as Jews as the source While in jail, he noticed his Jewish mael and Yitzchak was thus over which of our trials. Destroying that identity warder eating pita during Pesach. When one of them was the true heir of the was precisely the goal of the secular he asked him how he could do such a Divine promises to Avraham, including revolution. thing, the Jewish guard replied,"] feel the promise of the Land. And both "fhere is an inverse relationship no obligation to events that took place understood that the answer would turn between our attachn1ent to our roots as a nation and the Palestinians sense Why did the Chafetz Chaim & R'Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky start Ezras Torah? of themselves as a nation - as our TO SAVE attachment wanes, theirs waxes. On Shabbos Shuva, the day Yosef's Tomb TALMIDEI CHOCHOMIM was destroyed, we read in parashas ft FROM THE PAIN AND SHAME OF POVERTY. R"thaim "' ro
The Jewish Observer, November 2000 9 on rnesiras nefesh, on the intensity of The Bright Side of Adversity power progresses and none is saved or their desire to be Avrahani Avinu's true assisted" (Devarim 32, 37): Moshiach will heir. f nothing else, the renewal of the only come when the Jewish people have For three thousand years, Jews have intifada has been a prolonged exer abandoned all hope of Redemption been the exemplars of mesiras nefesh in I cise in humility for Israel's leaders (Sanhedrin 97a). the world. No people has willingly suf indeed for all Israelis. At the end of the Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky ?""lit fered more for their belief in G-d. Yet day, no one knows how to put a stop to addresses the obvious problem: How can today it is the Palestinians who have the violence. 1"he Palestinians have an loss of faith in the Redemption bring the become the symbol of religious devo almost unlimited supply of eager mar Redemption? He answers that the loss tion. We may not understand how tyrs, and can therefore keep sporadic of faith in redemption refers to belief Palestinian parents, descendants of confrontations going indefinitely. The that the Redemption will come through Yishmael, can eagerly send their chil level of intensity of the conflict may rise natural means - e.g., that the world will dren to risk their lives shielding Pales and fall, but one day this major traffic take pity on us and provide us with a tinian gunmen. But they do. And we artery will be threatened and the next place to build a homeland. In other must acknowledge the intensity of day another. words, until we know that there is no belief in an afterlife that causes them Even those calling for Israel to show source of Redemption other than to so blithely court martyrdom. a stronger hand are not unmindful that Hashem, it will not come. We are get If we are to combat them, our own Arafat may seek to provoke just such a ting closer to that recognition every day. emuna must burn with the same response. A large number of Palestinian Certainly the past month has been an intensity that it once did - not as words casualties might inflame the Moslem extended lesson in humility. Confidence learned by rote, but as something street in Egypt and Jordan to such an in our power and the strength of our reflected in everything we do. When we extent that their governments would hands has been badly punctured. The lose our connection to Hashem's have to choose between military con first intifada showed us the limits of mil covenant with Avraham Avinu, our frontation with Israel or rebellion at itary power, as children with stones faced safety in the Land promised to Avra home. down one of the world's most power ham is endangered. That covenant was Perhaps it is towards just such a ful armies. And the second intifada has based on Avraham's co1nmitment that recognition that we have no solutions only reinforced the lesson. The IDF his descendants would follow in his and nowhere to turn except to Heaven could not, or would not, rescue a path of Divine service. If we do follow - the Sea in front of us, the Egyptians wounded soldier from Joseph's Tomb that path, we are Avraham's rightful behind - that Hashem is bringing us. before he bled to death. Nadav Shragai heirs. And when we don't we are a liv The Talmud comments on the verse in in Ha' aretz described this as the first war ing embodiment of the rule: A nation IJa'azinu, "He shall relent regarding His in which Israel has refrained from sav that has no past has no future. servants when I-Ie sees that enemy ing the lives of its citizens only in order to avoid hurting Arabs. The IDF was forced to abandon Joseph's Tomb and has been unable to L.S. • secure Rachel's Tomb so that Jews can pray there. Repeated threats and ulti 1111;.P~Eli~o!!::~:~:~:~~~o~~Rli~!~~·;.:··lA·R·•211;1·~m~11~~~·.·~·2g·~·g111 £~114«11211 matums have been ignored without cost. ''Even ultimatums are penultimate," c·' PEUGEOT 306 -~-82 __ ... 8 writes George Will. After the Ramallah _§_: -MJ:f§_U_BISHI CARISMA 224 ! ~ NT MINIBUS 7 §EATS 455 _. ~ lynching, IDF attack helicopters hit MT MINIBUS 10 SEATS S 'I 8 t ; selected PA sites, but only after giving AUTOMATIC CARS three hours advance warning. And that D OPEL COR~~-- '18_~_ =>"" E DAEWOO LANOS 217 "'2' Ill pattern has continued. F StJZU.~1 BA!,~~_Q 1.6 -~4'~"' By repeatedly boasting of our mili G TOYOTA COROLLA 1.6 273 x CHEVROLET CAVALIER 322 a§ tary strength and then not employing it, XL PEUGEOT 406 2.0 357 :J ·"' Israel has only emboldened the Pales sx CHEVROLET MALIBU 658 "'u vx VOLVOS-70 770 :r: a tinians. For that reason, army comman EX M~B_~~_QES E240 ,,910 ders have been sharply critical of using KX MAZDA MPV 693 ~~ KT GMCSAVANA 763 Toll Free: (1) 800-938-5000 attack helicopters in symbolic forays to assuage public opinion but in a way gnar FREE' one d~car rental for each nl spent at Tel in NY: 212-629-6090 anteed to inflict mini1nal damage. ELDAN HOTE JERUSALEM It is not only our confidence in our 'Valid: I ~mber Z000-15 lh:cember 2000 www.eldan.co.il Group B c.ar / bd. Ins. vaunted military power that has been
10 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 shattered. Our leaders' equally great entire Jordan Valley Rift. Both had been world's eyes whatever Palestinian vio belief in their high intelligence and ultra widely considered indispensable military lence followed. The weeks of security sophisticated strategies should also have assets. Had Barak managed to give away warnings that Arafat was planning just been dealt a fatal blow. For seven years, all the Arab villages adjacent to the kind of uprising that took place and Israel's foreign policy been based on a Jerusalem that he had wanted to, the killing by roadside bomb of an Israeli view of diplomacy as a form of psy Ramot, Pisgat Zev, and Jewish funeral soldier the day before Sharon's walk are chotherapy. Ily making the Palestinians processions on Har Hazeisim would ignored. feel good enough through an endless now be under live fire, just like Gilo. For Christendom has remained mute to series of concessions, Israeli policy having endangered Israel's very exis Arafat's claim that the Temple never makers assu1ned, we could create a New tence, George Will dubbed Barak "the stood on Har HaBayis, even though, as Middle East not so different from the most calamitous leader any democracy Cynthia Ozick wryly notes, his claim European Common Market. We sized has ever had:' contradicts Christianity's own sacred up our enemies as if looking in a mir The one significant accomplishment texts. The New York Times, CNN and ror. Knowing that Bashar Assad shares of our "sophisticated" foreign policy was BBC have downgraded the Temple our love of the Internet was enough to the temporary boost to Israel's inter Mount to the "claimed site" of the first convince us that peace with Syria could national standing achieved by breaking and second Temples, or simply "the not be far a\vay. every previous Israeli taboo at Camp Moslem compound." Gilo is no longer Now belatedly we are awakening to David and making Yasir Arafat an offer part of Jerusalem, but a "settlement;' the the realization that the Arabs are not yet reckless in its audacity. After three better to justify Arabs' shooting at it. our mirror image, interested only in a weeks of preening about our new inter CNN, the major news source for higher GNP and improved lifestyle. national prestige, it took only one film much of the world, maintains a running We had sophisticated answers for clip of I2-year-old Mohammed al body count of Palestinian's killed, mak everything. When the Palestinian Dura being killed in crossfire between ing the PA's offer of $2,000 to the fam "police;' originally slated to number no Israeli and Palestinian soldiers for ily of any "martyr" worth every penny more than several thousand, grew to a Israel's international standing to plum- invested. Once again the "shanda;' in the 40,000 man army, and the number of 1net once again. One week, the Prime world's eyes, is that not enough Jews are firearms in the Palestinian Authority Minister was confident enough of being killed to prove our righteousness. dwarfed those allowed under the Oslo Israel's international standing to offer In The New York Times and the Los Accords, we had a clever answer: Guns the U.N. Security Council control over Angeles 1'imes, Jews are ahvays "ram do not constitute an existential threat to the Temple Mount, and the next week paging" while Arabs are inevitably the State oflsrael. Perhaps not. But they that same Council was condemning "protesting," even if doing so with have proven in ore than just a threat to Israel for war crin1es. Molotov cocktails and submachine guns. the lives of too many Jews. Israel finds itself once again "a nation So much for the good opinion of When the PA continued to incite that dwells alone." Ariel Sharon's walk the world that we purchased at such against Israel and Jews in its n1edia and ing on the Temple Mount justifies in the great risk. textbooks, Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak had another clever answer: It does not n1atter what Palestinians say, Prim• P11l11ce only what is in the signed agreements. ~_....,,.~ That was like saying, "I don't care that ON.,X9 i11J"l9 0 .. '7 !&1 l 1 • Hotel the seller has been convicted of mail PRIMA PALACE JERUSALEM (Formerly "MERKAZ") fraud five times as long as the contract price is good." Not surprisingly, what ~Glatt Kosher the Palestinians said, especially in Ara ~Luxuriously Refurbished bic, turned out to be far more proba ~Close to Admorim, Yeshivot tive of their intentions and willingness & Kotel. to accept Israel's right to exist than did a series of agrce1ncnts, which were ~ Shul &Mikva on Premises never enforced. For Further Information & Reservation Prin1e Minister Barak has twice Please Call: risked Israel's security on the basis of Prima Palace Hotel theories that were not only untested but 2A Pines St. Jerusalem could never be tested until it was too Tel: 972-2-5311811 :Fax:972-2-5381480 late. He offered Syria the return of the Prima Hotels Israel LTD 105 Hayarkon St., Tel Aviv entire Golan and the Palestinians the Tel: 972-3-5275660 Fax:972-3-5275665
The Jewish Observer, November 2000 II A Window of Opportunity
ost Israelis have learned the lesson that we are not so M strong or as wise as we thought, though it is not yet clear if our prime minister is among them. In that newfound humility lies an opportuni ty for the religious community. Spousal Responsibilities: Believers in the Oslo process have Hakichos and Hashkafas al the witnessed their intellectual universe Husband/Wile Re/affanship collapse like a house of cards. That (2 tapes) experience raises other questions: If I • The Right and Privileges of could be so wrong about where Oslo the Husband ond ofthe Wife was leading, could I also be wrong •Specific Holochic Obligations about other things - including • Procticol Solutions to Judaism? Everyday Issues They will, of course, not ask the Ambassadors of Torah (2 lopes) question in precisely that way, but it Parents: Presenting the Halachas & Hashkafas lurks beneath the surface. Severe dis Responsibilities & Obligations of Yiddishkeit to the Outside World: ruptions in one's normal routine - of (2 !opes) • Kiddush Hashem I Chillul Hashem which we have had plenty of late - are • Responding to Sensitive Inquiries • Moving Awoy from Parents conducive to reexamining one's life in •Teaching Torah to on Akum fundamental ways. That is why the • Issues with In-lows Rambam lists changing one's resi • Morrioge ond Kibbud dence as one of the means of inspir • Doing Whot They Wont vs. ing teshuva. What They Need The real flowering of the Israeli teshuva movement did not take place IP"'""'!'... "!"l'I From Galus to Geulah: after the Six Day War, when Israel was Concepts and Misconceptions drunk with power, but rather in the (2 tapes) wake of the Yorn Kippur War, which forced a complete reexamination of the •The Dynamics of NtrVD1 :xn:ip:v reigning assumptions. • i1tJ)i!:l during Israel's Jews are going through the era of rr~'D another such traumatic period today. In • Understanding the Change such a situation, people find themselves in our Doily lives looking for answers to questions they • Democracy vs. Monarchy did not know they had. There is evi dence - albeit as yet anecdotal in nature - of Jews beginning to pray and take on certain mitzvos. They are testing the J Enclosed is my check for ___ payable to To order by credit card please call: Agudath Israel KerenYad Avrohom waters. A neighbor recently told me how 718-438-3904 J Please charge my crei.Jit card- :.J Visa J MasterCard an acquaintance active in "Palestinian rights" organizations just started light Signature ____ TAPE SERIES Ql'l TOTAL ing Shabbos candles. Spousol Responsibilitie> ($14} ------~--- -1 Carel~ ____ . _,_ __ Exp.--·-- The times demand large gestures Pments ($14) fron1 the religious com1nunity. We from Golus toGeulah (Sl 4) Name must be extra scrupulous about seeking Ambossodors of Torah (S 14) opportunities for kiddush Hashem, ------+· Address Cnntempomry Hoshkofo Seiies ($34) extend our hands across the secular-reli Oty Stale Zip gious divide, and most importantly, Mgil to: Ton:ih Tapes, 1814 SOth SI., Brooklyn, NY 11204 show our fellow Jews that we are with them and not just observers of a situa tion that does not really involve us. II
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at your local Judaic """'"~ or direct from Davka at ~ 1-800-621-8227 Davka 7074 N. Western Ave., Chicago, IL 60645, Phone: (773) 465-4070 CORPORATION www.davka.com First In Judaic Software Visit the Uavka booth at the Agudah co11ve11tio11, November ZS-16th! Avrohom Birnbaum I Talmud relates that after the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died, the task of passing on Torah knowledge to the next generation was left to the five remaining stu In the dents ivho, through super-hu111an effort and Divine assistance, succeeded in accon1- plishing a job that would normally have Pathways taken all of their generation. Si1nilarly, in our generation, after the great destruction of the Holocaust, when of Brisk hundreds of Torah scholars who would have been the transmitters of Torah to the new generation -iv ere murdered, the task ofpass ing on Torah knowledge from the great A Tribute to Torah centers of Eastern Europe was left in the hands of the few great survivors. Hagaon Rav Binya1nin Paler, 7"Yr was one Rabbi Binyamin Paler J"~t of those few who nu111bered a1nong the primary Soloveitchik, for its Torah scholars. Reb Yitzchak trans1nitters of 7··on. His dedica devoted his days and nights to Torah that legacy to tion to that study while his wife ran a small business three generations Mesorah was to support the family. He was held in of post-wat further such esteem that when the Rav of A1nerican stu enhanced by the Brisk was not available to be sandek at dents. His pctira hasmada (dili a local bris, Reb Yitzchak was often asked on the Fifth of gence) of Mir as to serve in his stead. Av, 5760, marked he experienced it From childhood, Rabbi Binyamin the passing of a in Shanghai. Paler displayed a seriousness that belied Torah giant ofthe Despite his his age, devoting most of his day to Torah stature of a being anchored study. As a young bachur, he learned in bygone era, as to the milieu of the Yeshiva Ketana of Brisk under its well as a peda that great gener Rosh Yeshiva Reb Moshe Sokolovski, 7""1 gogue and ation, Rabbi author of the Sefer Imrei Moshe. He then builder of stu Paler developed became one of the prime students of the dents who forged his unique peda Brisker Rav, Reb Yitzchak Zev an unusually gogic talents to Soloveitchik, under whom he spent close rebbe- reach Anierican many years as a close talmid. Undoubt talmid bond with born yeshiva edly the Brisker Rav exerted the strongest his students. students. He influence on young Binyamin Paler, for His greatness made demands Rabbi Paler lived with the image of the was one associat froni thern, Rav constantly before his eyes, influ ed with the giants while instilling encing his way of learning, his world of the generation in them a loyal view and his yiras Sha1nayim. Just a win in which he was ty, love and fer dow into the depth of their relationship raised, for he received first-hand, absorbed vo1· for Torah, which few other European could be discerned from the following: and transferred the unique Mesorah (tra born, or even A1nerican-born, Roshei Soon after the Rav's passing, the first dition) of Brisk as he had learned it from Yeshiva did. sefer containing his Torah thoughts was the revered Brisker Rav, Rabbi Yitzchak Zev published. A student brought Rabbi Paler GROWING UP IN BRISK a still unbound copy of the sefer. He was Avrohom Birnbaum is an educator in Lakewood, already familiar with most of the contents, NJ. This article is based on extensive intervievvs bbi Binyamin Paler was born having personally heard the divrei Torah which the author conducted with talmidim of inety years ago in the city of during his years in Brisk. Nevertheless, Rabbi Paler ?"Y'r. He wrote two other articles risk, Poland. His father, Reb the excitement of the usually reserved based on these interviews that were published in lli the ·weekly English-language Haniodia, to which Yitzchak, was one of the distinguished Rabbi Paler was palpable, as he joyously he is a regular contributor. talmidei chachamim in a town renown exclaimed, "Today we should light can-
14 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 dies, it is akin to a Yotn 10v!" ed Rabbi Paler and Rabbi Leib Malin, (the mitzvos)." Sefarim explain these For the next week, he constantly quot 7""1, to thoroughly research the problem words beyond their literal translation: ed the se{er, unable to part from it for even and issue a halachic decision. Rabbi Paler not only should one live by the mitzvos, a short titne. recounted that he toiled for three suc his actual sustenance, his life and The Brisker Rav) in turn, recognized cessive nights delving into the problem strength should be derived from them. the unusual talents of his student. before issuing a ruling that it was per Indeed, that Rabbi Paler's primary life expressing enorn1ous respect for his mitted, The respect that he command force was drawn fro1n 'lbrah was clear scholarship, deep understanding and ed was such that not one person con to all who knew him. powers of explanation. At tin1es, when tested the ruling in spite of the fact that A number of years before his petira, the Rav's students would request clarifi Rabbi Paler was a bachur at the time. Rabbi Paler was struck with a serious ill cation of a "faln1udic argument, he \vould ness. To the utter astonishnzent ofhis doc ask his student Binyamin Paler to eluci TOILING IN TORAH - LEARNING AND tors, a short titne later, he returned to his date it, saying, "He explains it better than TEACHING ACCORDINGLY life's work of developing novel Torah I do:' Upon Rabbi Paler's engagement, the thoughts and teaching his many students, Rav sent a letter to his future father-in ot just learning Torah but actu The Rosh Yeshiva matter-of-factly stated, law, the Matersdorfer Rav, Rabbi Shmuel ally toiling in Torah, expending "Tf Hashem presented me with a gift - Eherenfeld '7'"1, wherein he wrote, "I want N tremendous effort in trying to additional years of life - I must at least you to know that you are getting a chas understand the Torah in all its depth, use it to be mechadesh Torah," san who is an expert in the inajority of was his very essence. the volumes of Rambam:' Once, Rabbi Paler, looking unusual THE REBBI-TALMTD RELATIONSHIP At the outbreak of World War II, ly weak and pale, was approached by a Rabbi Paler fled Brisk, eventually join close talmid who asked, "Is the Rosh n 1946, Rabbi Paler immigrated to ing the Mir Yeshiva in Vilna, making his Yeshiva feeling all right?" Rabbi Paler the United States where he joined the way together with the Yeshiva across responded, "Baruch Hashem) halevei I Mirrer KolleL The following year, he Russia, to Japan, finally reaching Shang veitcr- if only this \vould continue." joined the staff of Yeshiva Chasan Sofer, hai, where they spent most of the war Taken by surprise, the ta/mid asked whose Rosh Yeshiva, the Matersdorfer years. He would later describe the for an explanation, "Does the Rosh Yeshi Rav, Rabbi Shmuel Ehrenfeld, ?·"1, had Shanghai years, where he toiled in va wish to continue feeling weak?n taken hi1n as a son Torah with unusual diligence, as the Rabbi Paler responded, "I have nei in-law, He later most productive period of his life. ther eaten nor slept norn1ally for the past assumed the posi fn Shanghai, the European-born three days, while trying to figure out the tion of Rosh Yeshi yeshiva students experienced great diffi explanation of a difficult Tosafos, va there. Thus culty in acclimating themselves to the Ha/evei I should be able to continue to began his lifelong intense tropical heat, lvhich rose well toil in Torah in this 1nanner." career as an educa above 100 degrees in the summer. Rabbi His ko'ach hachidush (creative insight) tor who left an Paler's fellow students recount that dur was extraordinary. His yesodos (basic indelible imprint ing his learning seder he lvore a to1vel principle of Talmudic reasoning) and on his talmidim. In around his neck to absorb the perspira novel interpretations in tractates normally dealing with his tion caused both by the intense heat and studied in depth in yeshivas, were quot talmidim, Rabbi the enorn1ous a1nount of 1nental energy ed by numerous other Roshei Yeshiva. Paler adhered to that he expended while learning, By the The Rosh Yeshiva's life was a person the educational The Briskt'r Ral'':>"::ii end of the seder, the towel was dripping ification of the words of the Torah, philosophy of Brisk, fostering an atmos from both sides. "Va' chai bahem -you shall live by them phere of awe for the rebbi. Thus, despite Among the many halachic questions that faced the students and faculty of the Mir Yeshiva throughout the course of the war, was the question of obeying the local governn1ent's requirement that every individual carry his identification pass at all times: Would one be permitted to "wear" the pass on Shabbos by pinning it to one's clothes before nightfall? Rabbi Yechezkiel Levenstein, 7""1, Mash giach of the Mir, who presided over the Yeshiva during the war years, appoint-
The Jewish Observer, November 2000 15 the extremely intimate bond between ing warmth and love. The student found had to witness the war1nth and love en1a Rabbi Paler and his students, his love and it hard to comprehend that this warm, nating from him when he participated in affection for them were often hard to dis friendly individual was his Rosh Yeshiva. the simcha of a student. It truly looked cern, hidden as they were by the yiras Despite the general perception that as though he was participating in a fam hakavod that he wished to instill in them. sternness can turn students away, he ily simcha. Even during his last months, Those who studied under Rabbi Paler for somehow managed to draw his students when each step was difficult, Rabbi an extended period of time learned to close. At the chanukas habayis (dedi Paler, despite many attempts to dissuade understand and recognize the deep feel cation) of his own yeshiva, Mekor him, tried his utmost to attend the wed ings oflove, cloaked as they were by awe. Chaim, his father-in-law, the Maters dings of talmidim and their children. Once, a talmid was invited to join the dorfer Rav, commented, "I have never He so prided himself on being a rebbe Rosh Yeshiva in his home for a Shabbos seen a rebbe whose talmidim are so to his talmidim that he would often say, meal. Upon his arrival, Rabbi Paler, in attached to him as to Rabbi Paler:' "I am a melamed." He did not choose contrast to his usually stern "Rosh Yeshi Indeed, the Rosh Yeshiva saw himself to identify himself with the more pres va mask," greeted him as a guest, exud- as the spiritual father of his students. One tigious title of Rosh Yeshiva because to his mind, there was no more distin . - guished assignment than to be a melamed - a teacher of Torah. Along the same lines, Rabbi Paler was ,,,,,, very particular to conceal his personal halachic stringencies (many of which ,,,,17~ were adopted in Brisk) from his stu dents. He felt that his students should :li'll' ,,,:l first and foremost learn fron1 him how •MASOlll IAl1 YAAKOY HIGH SCHOOL to study Torah and properly analyze Tal mudic topics; copying his stringencies might sidetrack them from their pri mary goal. In addition, he took pride in encouraging his students not to Entering our third year ...... committed to the abandon their own family minhagim in their zeal to emulate him. He succeeded in knowing each of his highest standard ef acellence taln1idim, assessing with uncanny abil ity and accuracy each of their individ t Mrs. s. Pinter, Principa!1 Genera! Studies Mrs. T. Yanofsky, Asst. Principal as a result, had lost a considerable amount of weight. Every week the Rosh Yeshiva insisted that the student call him ...... on the phone to update him on how much -·------16 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 ished his iron control so1ne found. After thinking for a few seconds, what and he davened a bit Rabbi Paler, responded that there was no louder - could one hear him such source. Ultimately this co1nment was enunciate the words and wit confirmed with the new printing of the ness this servant of Hashem Frankel edition of the Rambam, where ~ pouring out his heart and soul in it was acknowledged that there had (L. to R.) Mr. Pomerantz, current Matersdorfcr Rav, Rabbi Paler, late MatersdorfCr Rav'J"!H. R' Akiva Ehrenjdd, R' Mosl1e Cohen {son-in-law) to his Maker. been a printing mistake in earlier editions There were, however, times of the Kessef Mishna regarding this weight he had gained back. when Rabbi Paler did give a mussardis alleged source. Another case in point: Many years ago course. It was not in the conventional His awesome memory was such that one of Rabbi Paler's talmidim lost his n1anner normally prevalent in yeshivas. he seemed to have never forgotten father at a young age. A short while after Rather, it bore the stamp of his unique anything he had learned. the shiva, Rabbi Paler returned to the personality. Each of his discourses dis Once, two students, on their way to home of the widow, where he spent close played profound depth. Many of his talks visit their rebbe on Chol Hamoed Succos, to an hour talking with her, encouraging were based on the teachings of the began a discussion of an interesting her to carry on. Only later did she dis Maharal. (Rabbi Paler once related that, question concerning the kashrus of an close how after the shiva, she had been as a young bachur, he had come across esrog, which one of them had seen in the feeling completely alone and forlorn ... the Maharal's sefer Nesivos Olam in his sefer, Hameir La'olam. They decided that until the visit of Rabbi Paler, which lift father's library. After learning it from during their visit they would pose the ed her spirits, giving her the boast that she cover to cover, he became especially question to the Rosh Yeshiva. Rabbi so desperately needed to continue n1an attached to the sefarim of the Maharal.) Paler, upon hearing the question, closed aging her family, alone. "His shmuessen were so multi his eyes in concentration: "1Vhen I was a faceted," said one student from a Chas bachur about sixty years ago, I took ill and HIS VARIOUS VEHICLES FOR sidic background, "that they appealed to had to see a doctor in a certain town. Since IMPARTING LESSONS all of the bachurim, whether their paths no train went directly from Brisk to that in Avodas Hashe1n revolved around town, however, I had to stop over and bbi Paler's main educational Chassidus or Mussar. His shntuessen spend the night in another city. The pre ehicle for transmitting his encompassed both." vious Rav of the city had written a clas K1ethodology of learning, and Rabbi Paler had instant recall of all sic sefer, Hameir La' olam. While in shul actually molding and sharpening the of Shas and Rambam at his fingertips. that night betlveen Mincha and Maariv, minds of his students, was through his His rnemory of the entire 10rah vvas put I discovered a copy of the sefer, and leafed shiurim. That was how he taught 1orah. ta the test when a student approached him through its pages." His teaching of yiras Shanzayint, on the asking where a source in the Mechilta, The talmidim sat there dumbfound other hand, vvas done n1ore infonnally quoted by the Kessef Mishna, the prime ed as Rabbi Paler recited verbatim the - more through personal example than commentary on the Ran1ban1, could be question they had just been discussing - lessons. In general, he did not give mus sar in the conventional manner. Rather than fiery mussardiscourses, he preferred that his students try to emulate him. There was no mistaking the trembling and fear of sin that permeated his entire being at the mere thought of inadver tently stun1bling or transgressing. In fact, Historic The Only Kosher his iron resolve not to stumble 1nade Landmark Bed & Breakfast n1ore of an in1pact on his students than in Town any n1ussar shniuess could have. An even stronger lesson was derived Enjoy a refreshing getaway in historical Newport. RI, with private parking/ walk from just observing his daily tefi/los. To to Touro Synagogue (The oldest Synagogue in North America). cliff walk, parks, the casual onlooker, Rabbi Paler looked mansion and harbor. Relax in blight, spacious rooms with ptivate bath, AC. refrig like a soldier, standing ramrod straight, erator as needed and a generous full breakfast under the strict supervision of completely in control, with barely a Rabbi Eskovitz. movement during the course of his 28 Weaver Avenue, Newport, RI 02840 •Tel: (401) 849-0051 •Fax: (401) 847-5902 prayers. Only when one came closer - http//admiralweaverinn.tripod.com particularly in his later years, when his weakened physical condition dimin- For reservations call: 1-888-465-0051 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 17 related, "Once in the middle of the shiur, shiur were learning alongside others who I posed a question. The Rosh Yeshiva were baalebattim, engaged in earning a looked me sternly in the eye, 'You asked livelihood. In Mekor Chaim there the same question 25 years ago in Yeshiv simply was no such thing as a "former as Chasan Sofer!'" student." A student of Rabbi Paler remained a student for the rest of his life, and which he had seen 60 years earlier, MEKOR CHAIM: always retaining a place in the yeshiva, between Mincha and Maariv at an FOUNTAINHEAD OF LIFE even decades after having left. overnight stop! In 1976, Rabbi Paler opened an Nor did he forget his talmidim. n 1965, Rabbi Paler opened his own affiliated Mesivta for high-school-aged Even after his talmidim had left Yeshi yeshiva in Baro Park. On the advice students, Mesivta Mekor Chaim. va, many of them continued attending I of some of the gedolei hador he shiurim that he gave to his alumni. One named the yeshiva "Mekor Chaim," for ** * talmid, a regular at the "alumni shiur," it was to serve as a source for those seek Throughout the year, the talmidim of ing to master the derech of Rabbi Rabbi Paler looked forward to certain Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk. The yeshi high points, all of which were perma va bore the indelible stamp of his per nently etched in the minds and hearts sonality and the Mesorah that he wished of his students. to impart to his students. Thousands To observe the serious demeanor of of students passed through Mekor Rabbi Paler on Rosh Hashana and Yorn Chaim and to this day, bear his unmis Kippur as he davened, supplicating his takable imprint. Creator like a servant before his King, 1537 50th Street, Another unique aspect to his yeshi to hear him clearly and meticulously Brooklyn, NY 11219 va was that former students attended a enunciating each and every word, was (718) 854-2911 shiur or davening in the yeshiva on a reg enough to encourage anyone to con ular basis. Roshei Yeshiva and maggidei template the gravity of these days of awe, propelling them to do teshuva and improve their conduct. One student, a prominent educator today, recalled how Rabbi Paler's yiras Shamayim was prac tically palpable. During the period between Kol Nidrei and Maariv on Yorn Kippur, the Rosh Yeshiva would learn Chovos Halevavos. The Name You Trust / One had to but watch how he became • Incoming calls from anywhere completely oblivious to his surroundings -J ~ ] ~ -,I in the world (Where Available) as he immersed himself in the mussar 9 l J -j =j • VOice mail • Call waiting • Caller ID sefer. At that moment, he was a picture I··--•--11111--·--11111•- .. •Itemized bill • Spare battery & more! of dedication. "It was one of those • Lowest Rates Guaranteed! • Fax & Text Message Service moments when the sublime servant of • Same-Day I Next-Day delivery nationwide • Student Specials Hashem shone through the mask oflam Travel Agents & Corporate Accounts Contact Josh Mehlman, President danus usually worn by the Rosh Yeshiva." Unquestionably, Simchas Torah with Discount Student Rates! Rabbi Paler was the most joyous peri od of spiritual elevation. Even as he grew older and his health deteriorated, the intense joy displayed by Rabbi Paler as he danced and clapped together with his talmidim throughout most of the night and day, was a sight to be seen and absorbed. At night, the spirited danc ing would go on and on until the wee hours of the morning. Often his talmidim would tire, and wish to end, but not Rabbi Paler, who urged that the 18 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 hakafos continue despite the late hour, learning session and Shacharis were fol ing future generations with a sense of that even in his later years, despite his poor lowed by spirited and joyful dancing, in greatness, and provided them - and us - health. The following day, the dancing an uninhibited display of pure rejoicing with a vision of that elusive goal, and with would again continue until Yam Tov with the Torah. The spiritual energy and the means for striving to achieve it. ended. To paraphrase the Talmud, who simcha emanating from Rabbi Paler on the Although the Rosh Yeshiva's passing has ever had the fortune to witness the sim day of Kabbalas Ha Torah was contagious. left a great void, his many students have cha of Harav Paler and his talmidim on taken comfort in the fact that the Yeshi Simchas Torah, knew what real rejoic his re1narkable tabnid chacham not va, now under the leadership of his sons, ing with the Torah is. only served as a bridge to a bygone led by his oldest son Rabbi Yitzchak Paler Shavuos morning also resembled a T era of greatness in Torah and N"VV7v, continues to function along the Simchas Torah of sorts. The all-night Avodas Hashem, but succeeded in imbu- path that he forged. • Websit~DHVi11g.Y6ur 8~-si~'ess on the Information Superhighway? When your bottom line demands an effective web presence, turn to an experienced marketing source ... Bottom Line Design. 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Yitzchok Saft/as, President/Art Director www.bottomlinedesign.com Brochures & catalogs / Advertising / Corporate identity Direct mail / Book design & layout / Printing Web design & development / Flash animation / e-commerce solutions The Jewish Observer, November 2000 19 Rabbi Moshe Einstadter DEFINING THE tial attitude that Maseches Kiddushin, the Rosh Yeshiva INFLUENCE OF BRISK the fact that a delivered a shiur on ?:Jii:i1 ciw:i ci'l:iv problem begs for a riNi:si based on his interpretation of a prominent solution cannot in Yerushalmi. The analysis was so original, Rosh Yeshiva itself force a solu the terminology so different, that I knew ecently tion when there is even then that only he could have given expressed his opin" ' none to be had. this shiur, and I recorded it almost in its ion to me that today · The problem entirety along the margin of my Gemo there is no such thing would have to ra. as a Rebbi Muvhak (a continue begging In spite of the uncompromising prime teacher who for a while - per emphasis on the acquisition of the not only imparts his haps even a con derech halimud of Brisk, the Rosh Yeshi knowledge and siderable while - va was not pleased when our pace of insights to his student, but who imbues until the true solution is discovered .... learning was too slow. I recall his look him with his metl1odology of thinking), But it is that second hallmark of ing over the shoulder of one on my If so, I consider myself doubly favored. For Brisk, the profound sensitivity to nuance classmates, and noting the daf we were one, I was indeed zocheh - I did merit - and the awesome ko'ach hachiddush - on and the relatively small amount we to have a Rebbi Muvhak; and two, my Rebbi capacity for innovative thinking - that had covered, he exclaimed, "Ir meint dos Muvhakwas Hagaon Rav Binyamin Paler irresistibly drew the best of the Rosh iz Brisk? - Dos iz nisht Brisk! (Do you 7"lll, Ta/mid Muvhak of the Brisker Rav .... Yeshiva's talmidim to him. It electrified think that this represents Brisk? - This The quality of thought known as them, it inspired them, it imbued them is not Brisk!)" Brisk means two things. First, it desig with an ovcr- nates a clarity of perception that does whehning sense DEPTH AND SCOPE: not satisfy itself with ideas of possible of depth and NOT APARADOX or even reasonable validity, but grandeur that AT ALL demands incontestable validity.' Second, touched and in its highest form it indicates an ultra ennobled the uring sensitivity to even the 1nost subtle innern1ost fiber those nuances of diction, formulation, and of their being. Dyears, categorization, and cultivates the con Clear like a bell, froin time to time cept of chiddush (an original comment l?i!JN "n:J iren N? the Rosh Yeshiva or explanation) to profound and orig ci~!Jn ?:ir cinv would appear in inal insights.' There were (and there still ,~!Jn rang and the beis midrash are) a number of the Brisker Rav's reverberated in during the second talmidim who exemplify the first crite their conscious seder (afternoon rion. There are far fewer who exempli ness with each session), and sit at fy the second. And of the latter, there was layer uncovered, with each yesod (basic his shtender at the head of the hall. For none who equalled the Rosh Yeshiva. principle) propounded. Whereas others the most part, he re1nained undis I recall how he trained us in the first asked questions and gave answers, the turbed, and he would study the Gemo of these principles, the clarity of per Rosh Yeshiva elicited and formulated ra we were studying at the time. Every ception, knowing peshat from pshetl. yesodos. Here from a diyuk (inference) so often I observed that he turned a page, How often did he pose a basic and dis from the Rambam's choice of expres and then soon another, and then again turbing difficulty in the understanding sion,3 there from the particular context another, all in rapid succession. I could of a Gemora or a Rishon, but did not of a given halacha,4 and not infrequently not figure out just what he was doing. provide us with an answer. He refuted from an indisputable inference which he 1'hen one summer, during a brief stay our attempts at a resolution and left us cast in the fonn of a yesod. 5 Once in at a hotel in the Catskills, I met Rav hanging with unanswered questions. "nm:nN W}.17 n:nn 'ml" t"V 'N ~':iv i1l'l' n::t11'"J)t Intellectually, it was very unsatisfying to ·uftri i!!J rnuu 'Virl7 o:;n 7-> 7Y m:m ?::tN" :1"!! '/lTW:im m1r.1Nn r:in11»v2 us; but pedagogically, it was masterful. ·.w 7-i::t ?NW" nN D"Jil=> ri::t? il''JV.il?!ln::t 01' m ·n nN 1'1:w'7 nrn .mw rn:m 'TrlV ]?'7-1::t 'l""':i1?!ln 7i1 o'l'r.rti-' It developed in our thinking the essen- .n'?!ln 'l'>1r.l D'lT'l:J n:n:n m:nr.i, "i1Y>JV" rnif.:> Jro ?:iN .nmron rJr.i::t mi::i "'::t n1:m .·N il'CllJ" D"::tr.rm :irn N7v Tl':l1 .i1'7::in 100 tll' 7.>J i1Jl'TT1 Rabbi Einstadter is Rav of Congregation Torah Utefillah in Cleveland. The above article was n1:l7il::t i1lJ?i1 n::iu. n1::>7.i llJlp-nvn ?JN :nTfli11 r.:i1V rn::>u.1N1!l Oll n1J1J rro7il '11P::t illJ?it rou rn:J'm m D"::tr.!1i1' 1!JNl 'i!lTO mn nJ'1!J':l 11'l:l?n 'n''i'I\? '))Jt::t u:n .,, 1')i1 nt 'Vrmi .1 .. ::>n ''P l!l'1 n"7em ':iv 1>r')r.!i1 n'1!l'lp nninr.i m:i1 ,vm 1!JN1 adapted by JO fron1 a longer tribute to Rabbi .m 7Y ::tTI tJ':.JPi11 .?":st T"'1:1i1 i::t1 w:b orom ll':ii1 ptr'UJ m::t rm.1J1!J ,, Paler ':r~r, which was published in the Yeshiva Mekor Chaim's dinner Journal several years ago. n?'lo nN'1j?J1'1i10"1!!10 nJtir.i ... Dl':l nnnp? n?'lr.i:i :l'~ 1=> .Cl'J l'r'JJJ W!Jr.11n11n1'11i71!J o~r :'V"' ·?;i ,.., '!l' .1"P!llJ 01'!' 1!J' tll':l 20 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 __,a former talmid of the Brisker Rav, from throughout Nezikin. Where be consid who happened to be staying at the same Tosafos offered one answer, he quoted ered a Master hotel. Upon discovering that I was a the one answer; when Tosafos offered and the talmid of Rabbi Paler, he related the fol two answers, he quoted two answers." talmid his lowing incident. 6 disciple. And One year in Brisk, he and the Rosh Yeshi At the end of the summer I returned the Rav, as Elozor Weiss va studiedbechavrusa (in partnership) for to the Yeshiva and went in to the Rosh the Rosh Yeshiva himself pointed out to the first seder. The Rosh Yeshiva declined Yeshiva to greet hi1n. We were alone ~n me in the Rema in Yoreh De' ah when I to study with him for the second seder, how his office, and he inquired how I had was just beginning to develop into his ever, saying that: he wished to move at a spent my summer. I mentioned that I talmid, is the one who instills in him the quicker pace. Rav __ objected to his inten had met Rav in the mountains. perception of truth and intellectual tion with the argument, "VVhat good can With a look of mild interest he asked, integrity. He teaches him how to think, result from that?" but to no avail. The Rosh "What did he have to say?" I, with sup he makes him sensitive to what is great Yeshiva would not be dissuaded. He then pressed mirth, related to him everything and beautiful,and he shows him how to began studying Babba Basra, and a few days Rav __ had told me; I did not omit a distinguish between what is truly great later was well into the Mescchta. Once again single detail. At first the Rosh Yeshiva said and what is only apparently so; between Rav __ voiced his objection, and again the nothing, only arching his eyebrows, then what is eternally beautiful and that whid1 Rosh Yeshiva refused to be deterred. Now lowering his gaze to the desk, and final wilts and fades. He enlightens and ele Rav __ concluded, and I quote hhn prac ly focusing back on me again. He then vates him, and instills in hin1 a burning tically verbatim: confided to me, "I also studied all rele desire to know "His great Name:' And "A few days later, he completed vant parts of Rambam, Rif, Baal once the bond between Rav and talmid Babba Basra and started Babba Ha ma'or, and Rosh. I was mechadesli is forged, it endures forever. ... Kamma .... I don't recall whether or not Torah (developed novel insights) on the Thus, when at the very end of the it was a leap year [with an additional subject n1atter throughout, and, as a seventh perek of Hilchos Temidin month}, but between the end ofSuccos matter of fact, I still draw on those Umusafin, Rambam inserts a halacha and Pesach, he went through Babba insights in my shiurim to this very day!' relating to Hilchos Berachos, which Kamma, Babba Metzia, Babba Basra, After that I was no longer troubled seems out of place, it disturbs me and Avoda Zara, Sanhedrin - the entire by his turning pages during the after leaves me no rest. And were I to ask Order ofNezikin! The others ridiculed noon seder .... myself why I agonize over it- why I can't him /i.e. How can one succeed in formulate a "good enough" answer, or absorbing so much information in so A SWEET BURDEN else shrug my shoulders and just let it short a period of time?], to which he go, as many others do - I do not have responded with the challenge to test him he Mis/ma relates, "Rabbi far to search for an answer .... And when on anyTosafos in all ofNezikin. So they Yochanan ben Zakai had five dis in Hilchos Mamrim, in reference to Ben asked him questions posed by Tosafos Tciples" (Avos II, 10). Countless Sorer Umoreh, Rambam quotes a pasuk, more studied under him, yet he had but but quotes three words too many, and five talmidim whom he could call his dis I see in these three words a new yesod ciples.' A talmid is one who in his per in Rambam's definition of the chiyuv son, in his niode of thinking, reflects his malkos of the Ben Sorer Umoreh, then I teacher. "From all of my teachers did I know where my indebtedness lies. gain insight" ( Tehillim 119, 99) was true I carry a burden of gratitude of which of David Hamelech as it is true of every I can never divest 1nyself. But it is a sweet wise man. But that confers neither the burden, and I carry it willingly and lov title of Rav upon the one, nor that of ingly without ever feeling its weight. And ta/mid upon the other. One must first I will carry it for as long as the blood fashion himself into a ta/mid - submit flows through my veins and I draw the to his teacher as an eved (slave) before breath oflife. And in the World to Come, Rabbi Paler with his father-in-law his adon (master)- before the Rav can I shall carry it there as well.... 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U'1 n'.:n i111J u1:i1 i1VJ:J n-n;t, £i"V:J'\!J n1111 il:ITTJJ N7v J:i"llN" :n"Tln nwo7 O":!iYm nnijm:i 'P'l' 7 ..... l)l:J.1 ji\!)r.17v i11J::J7n Nln'\!J vW111"7J .ji\!)nn 17:iv mv'n.i )iV'lil'l oru:n irv'mi 718-253"'9535 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 21 D'SIGn & lA':IOUT 111 PLAYSTRUCTURES Ill SWINGS II STEEL II PLASTIC 1111 SITE FURNISHINGS 1111 SCHOOL & CAMP EQUIPMENT II BASKETBALL & VOLLEYBALL SYSTEMS 11111 RUBBER RESILIENT FLOORING II ETC. • Equipment meets or exceeds all ASTM and CPSC safety guidelines • Sile planning and design services with state·of·the·art Auto CAD • Stainless .steel fabrication for ultimate rust resistance GESHER YEHUDA • Brooklyn, NY. MAGEN DAVID YESHIVA • Bensonhurst CONCERNED CITIZENS DAYCARE • Bay Ridge CARIDE GARDENS • Brooklyn, NY. FIVE STAR DAV CARE • Bronx .. NY. . ft better 5302 New Utrecht Avenue . I ·h · ·.: h. 'Bro!)klyn, NY 11Zl9 · eQ1 t .· Ptfonl: 718-436-4801 . , ?kU<>J From Sinai. .. to You Translated and adapted from a shmuess (discourse) by Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon N"V>71!1, Mashgiach Ruchani of Beth Medrash Govoha of Lakewood, New jersey I. PUTTING AWAY THE PLOW: THE famine for all of its inhab ROAD TO INNER GROWTH itants; they could scarcely rely on neighboring countries such as Amon and Moav to share their pro 1. A Mitzva of Divine Source duce, for they were sworn enemies, bent on the destruction of the Jews. face of an he 1orah introduces the topic of Nevertheless, Hashc1n commands overwhelming difficulty that it Shmitta - the Sabbatical year, them to let the fields lie fallow. What will would impose on us. On the contrary, the Twhen all fields lie fallow - with prevent them from starving? The Toral1 consequence of the mitzva is" V'tzivisi es "And Hashem spoke to Moshe on Mount tells us that Hashcn1 pro1nises: "V'tzivisi birchasi" - Hashem will bestow His Sinai saying ... " (Vayikra, 25, 6). Rashi es birchasi- I will command My blessing beracha upon us, thereby dcn1onstrating asks, "What is the significance of 'on on them. In the sixth year, I will make such to us and to the world at large that He is Mount Sinai' in relation to Shmitta?" He an abundant crop that there will be a suf in total control of nature and that our sus answers: "Just as the laws of Shmitta - its ficient supply for three years:'Who but the tenance is con1pletely dependent on general rules, details and fine points - Almighty could risk making such a claim, Him at all times. Ifhe chooses to provide were all revealed at Sinai, so too were all which would be put to a public, objective us with three years of food in a single year, the other commandments - with their test? That is precisely why Chazal chose He has the power and resources to do so. general rules and fine points - revealed this mitzva to be the prime lesson for Torah Just as it is by decree from Hashem that at Sinai." min haShamayim: Just as Shmitta was we must work for six years to earn a liv Why did Hashem choose the mitzva of revealed at Sinai, with the mitzva itself ing, so too is it by Divine decree that we Shmitta to be the prime example for attesting that it is min haShamayim, so too allow the land to lie fallow for the seventh Mount Sinai serving as the source of all were all the other mitzvo~ with their spe year, leaving provision of our livelihood mitzvos? Isn't the san1e true of all other cific rules, revealed at Sinai. completely to Hashem's blessing. Torah laws? The Ksav Sofer, Rabbi Avraham 2. In Control of Nature ... 3. ...And Proprietor of the Fields Shmuel Binyomin Schreiber (1815-1871 ), Rav of Pressburg, answers that the mitz he discussion continues: "V'chi he Sefer HaChinuch (Mitzva 84) va of Shmitta is unique in that it serves somar ma nochal- if you will ask, underscores a similar point when as an active declaration of belief in T'What will we eat in the seventh Texplaining why the 1orah obligates Torah min haShamayim (the Divine year if we cannot plant or harvest fruit?"' a person to declare his fields ownerless, source of Torah). Even if there would have In response, Hashem promises to invoke in addition to refraining from cultivating been no revelation at Har Sinai, the very a special beracha whereby the field will them. A person should bear in mind that observance of the mitzva of Sh1nitta is produce threefold the usual harvest, the land does not produce its yield year dramatic proof that Hashem gave the providing enough produce for the sixth, after year, as a matter of course. He who Torah. The Jewish people in Eretz Yisrod seventh and eighth years in the Shmitta controls the natural forces that result in had always been an agrarian society. cycle. the annual harvest is also Owner of the Refraining from working the land for a The message inherent in these pesukim land. And as such, He commands each full year would have resulted in a massive is clear. Hashem is not asking us to prove Jewish farmerto pronounce his field hejk our loyalty to Him through the misery of er- renouncing his claims to ownership This article was translated and prepared for pub lication by Rabbi Avrohon1 Birnbau1n, of Lake hunger, nor to express our love for Him -when He so chooses. Clearly, the com wood, NJ. by refraining from working the fields in mandment of Shmitta is meant to show --·---·------·--·------·------·--·------···--···------·------The Jewish Observer, November 2000 23 It's amazing what can happen in one year. Just twelve months ago, you volunteered to befriend a troubled young person. He was frustrated, angry and sometimes out of control ... ... But over time, attitudes softened. You gained and deadly substances, where they're easier to trust by viewing the world through his eyes: find and harder to resist. It's a world where A world where expectations can seem impossibly setting proper limits is a necessity, though high. Where the future is often uncertain. And harder and harder to do. where life is confusing for a young Jewish teen Indeed, raising children is not easy; and those who would like to listen to his parents, but still who fail are far from alone. 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A Matter of Focus: The Spiritual of"V'chi somru ma nochal-If you will ask, etor over everything, despite the fact that Dimension Over Material Bounty '\!Vhat will we eat?"' is answered (says we often attribute economic success to our Sforno) with "Vetsivisi es birchasi - I will own efforts and acumen. n the Torah's discourse on Shmitta, the command My blessing ... .'' The latter The Chinuch continues: ''.Another pasuk begins, "The land will give its pesukim are addressed to someone whose purpose [of keeping Shmitta] is to I fruit and you will eat to satisfaction and spiritual level falls short of rl1e tzaddik's. For acquire the character trait of vatranus - you dwell securely on it" ( Vayikra 25, 19- him, to eat just a bit and rely on Hashem tolerance (foregoing one's proper share) 23 ). Rashi explains this to mean that"one to make him feel fully sated will not suc - for there is no greater level of giving rl1an will feel satisfied even after eating only a ceed. He does not feel secure unless he doing so without thought of remunera small quantity [of food]:' The pasuk con actually sees the food in the quantities that tion." l"his conveys a profound lesson: tinues, "If you will ask 'What are we to eat he normally needs to sustain himsel£ Only foregoing one's rights is 1nuch more dif in the seventh year? We have not planted after he sees the bountiful harvest before ficult than being generous with one's own nor harvested our produce.'" To this, the the seventh year can he refrain from agri money by giving it away as a donation. Torah answers:" Vetzivisi es birchasi- I \Vill cultural activity with confidence. A person may give away thousands - command My special blessing so that the When such a person asks, "What will even millions - of dollars to tzeddaka, but field will produce threefold." I eat?" Hashem responds, "I will give you if he feels that someone is unfairly tak The question then arises: If Hashem will a beracha [that the field will produce so ing advantage of him, he will fight him make one satisfied after eating small quan much] that the eye will be satisfied until the bitter end, even if the lawyer's tities, what need is iliere for the beracha con because of the enormous an1ount of pro fees exceed the su1n of money in dispute. tained in the pesukim that follow, which duce, and you will not have to worry He can be a generous donor, but not a state "Hashern will con11nand a special about where your food will come from." foregoer. During Shmitta, despite the fact blessing"? What need is there for a special Hashem is teaching us that the main that the fields remain in a person's pos blessing to provide the enormous amount blessing for a tzaddik is that he should not session, everything in the field must be of food required for satisfying three years' have to actively concern himself with considered ownerless - that is, one must needs, if a person will be satisfied by eat mundane aspects of his existence, neces permit anybody to take the produce with ing only a n1inutc an1ount? sary for his survival, such as stock-piling out so much as a thank you! In our con The Sforno explains that the pesukim are food. To him, Hashem says, "Eat a little temporary society, people insist on their speaking to Jews at different levels.A tzad and you will be satisfied, thus allowing you "rights," constantly insisting, "I have a dik - the fully righteous individual who to channel all your energies toward spir rig. ht... ""Don ' t tramp l eon iny r1'gh ts ...." trusts in Hashem without need to see proof itual pursuits.'' However, He also says, "If The Chinuch tells us that the Torah wants and does not require the beracha of the you are not on such a high spiritual level, to teach us how to relinquish even that sixth year - will only need a small quan I will supply you with enough gashmius which we own and is "rightfully" ours. tity of food, which will suffice for his own (material bounty) that you will be satis Even those of us who are not farmers needs. He can sell the surplus of this pro fied, even though you refrain from farm can benefit from this Shmitta lesson. duce and become wealthy. The next pasuk ing on Shmitta.'' We put the 11 organize 11 into Organizations. You work tirelessly for Klal Yisroel. You're involved requirements - completely integrated with the in raising thousands of dollars each year. Do you fundraising features! 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INSPIRATION AND INSTRUCTION years, they can also imn1erse then1selvcs Shabbos (which is part of" Vayechulu" FOR THE NON-FARMER in the service of Hashern. of the Friday night Kiddush) concludes with" Vayevorech Elokiln es yorn hashvii 2. Shabbos and Shmitta vayekadesh oso - And Hashem blessed I. Making Time for Spiritual Pursuits - Times for Faith and Trust the seventh day and sanctified it ... ," on which the Rabbis commented: "He hose of us who arc not farn1ers, wareness of the kedusha (sancti blessed it with the manna by bestowing and are not engaged in agriculture, ty) of the weekly Shabbos day a double portion of manna on Friday [to Talso have n1uch to learn fron1 the A serves as the n1odel for experi provide for Shabbos'sneeds], and sanc Sh1nitta experience ... lessons to guide us encing the Shmitta year. It would thus tified it with the manna [by abstaining in our budgeting of resources and time. be in place to appreciate the ernuna from delivering manna on Shabbos]" The 01umash states: "The seventh year (faith) and bitachon (trust) in Hashem (Bcreishis 2,3 see Rashi). will be a year of rest for the land and a that are integral to keeping Shabbos, 'fhe co1nmentaries express \vonder Shabbos !'Hashem:' Rashi explains" Shab The Torah's description of the first ment that the Divine Shabbos blessing at bos /'Hashem" to mean "Lesheim Hashem - for the sake of Hashem;' similar to the Torah's statement about the weekly Shab bos, which is also described as "Shabbos !'Hashem." The Sforno goes further and This says that just as on every Shabbos the mundane must be set aside so the day be Chanukah utilized exclusively for avodas Hashen1, so too must the entire seventh year be set send your aside for serving Hashem. 'rhat, then, is why they both share the description of fellow Jew "Shabbos !'Hashem Elokecha .. .. "With this explanation, we are given to understand that Shmitta is not simply a year in which a great we 1nust passively refrain fron1 working the fields. Rather, abstaining from farm kiruv book or tape for just $5. ing provides an opportunity to spend the year actively seeking Hashen1, to emerge It just might ( V. as better Servants of Hashe1n. It is in this vein that Sforno co1n1nents, two pesukifn change their an IOU later (v. 4), on the words: "Shabbos Shab boson yihiyeh ha'aretz, Shabbos I'Hashem lives. - the agricultural workers of the field, ,(a d when they rest during the Shmitta year, And yours. flllOf will also be roused to seek out Hashem in some way." The agricultural calendar is demand ing and unrelenting. When the growing Not To? season ends, the planting season begins, followed by fertilizing, pruning and har To order call vesting. This leaves the workers of the land little opportunity to enter the beis AisH HATORAH hamidrash and contemplate spiritual DISCOVERY matters. The Torah therefore saw fit to at: give the far1ners a year of rest from their 11s..J16-2ns regular, grueling work schedule to allow them the time and opportunity to come closer to Hashem. The Shmitta agenda, then, is to grant discretionary time, even to those who normally lack it, so that, at least once in every seven The Jewish Observer, November 2000 27 Creation should focus exclusively on a Rashi explains that we can infer from the ing the mundane aspect of Shmitta by forty-year period of Israel's existence - pasukthat in retribution for the aveira of passively refraining from working the the years of Bnei Yisroel's wanderings in not observing Shmitta, Jews are banished fields, and is ignoring the 1nain, inner the wilderness. The Sifsei Chachamim (ad into Caius. Indeed, the Torah in Parshas reason for Shmitta. In this sense, he has Zoe) replies that, in fact, Hashem always Bechukosai details the terrible curses of the not kept the mitzva of Shmitta. provides in advance for the Shabbos Tochacha, which came about "because you The two causes for the Tochacha, then, needs of those who honor the sanctity did not keep the Shmitta." Thus, the go hand in hand. The Bnei Yisroel are and the restrictions of the Sabbath. In Tochacha concludes: "Then, after you are deserving of the Tochacha for failing to effect, Hashem promises: "Borrow on My driven out of Eretz Yisroe~ the land will keep the Shmitta. In what way did their account to keep the Shabbos, and I will rest:' Rashi explains that the seventy years observance fall short? By not studying pay your debt." He continues to bless and of the Babylonian exile were in retribu Torah in the free time provided as a result sanctify all Shabbosos, to the end of time. tion for the seventy Shmittayears that the of not working the land during Shmitta As a matter of fact, Hashem always Jews failed to keep. Yet, Rashi at the begin - the end purpose for which the com assumes the burden of the expenses ning of Parshas Bechukosai implies that mandment of Shmitta was created. Only incurred in fulfilling mitzvos; His rec the curses in the Tochacha were due to the when the Shmitta year is properly used ompense is obvious to all, however, in lack of ameilus b'Torah, diligence in - for diligent Torah study - is one con regard to both Shabbos and Sltmitta. This studying Torah, quite independent of fail sidered to have properly kept Shmitta. is alluded to in the Shabbos-day Zemiros ure in Shmitta observance. This lesson is equally applicable to ("Ki Eshmera Shabbos''): "Hinei- Behold those who are not actually included in our sacred Source bestowed a miracle on II observing Shmitta. We all have periods that initial generation, by giving a dou of time that are not structured for pur ble portion on the sixth day; so does He o the contrary, the suing our livelihoods. They actually can double my food on every sixth [day]." Psalmist insists, serve as opportunities to pursue personal David Hameleclt reinforces this mes T agendas for growth in Torah and avodas sage in Tehillim (37,3):"Trustin Hashem "Rejoice with Hashem, Hashem- as islands of Shmitta-like calm and do good." The message is: do not say, and disengagement from material pur "If I refrain from stealing or cheating, and He will fulfill your suits. For example, the non-Jewish day of or if I offer charity to the poor, how will rest in Western society is Sunday, when I sustain myself?" To the contrary, the heart's requests." we are not occupied with routine respon Psalmist insists1 "Rejoice with Hashem, sibilities of earning a livelihood. Instead and He will fulfill your heart's requests." II of trying to find new ways to utilize Sun Draw on the model provided for us by Reh Yaakov poses a second question: days (and other legal holidays) for busi the Shabbos. Apply your faith and trust Rashi states that the Jews never kept ness, perhaps we could better use them to the full range of mitzvos, and Hashem Shmitta. Is it possible that nobody ever as an adjunct to Shabbos /'Hashem, car will provide your needs. kept Shmitta? Consider the amount of rying over the inspiration of Shabbos to Shmitta observance that the Chazon !sh, inform the week that follows. Certainly, 3. Keeping Shmitta - in the Fields, one man alone in our times, was respon we are subject to the curse of "bezayas in the Study Halls sible for! Is it at all possible that none of apecha tochal lechem - by the sweat of the great people of that earlier period your brow, you must earn your bread." uring an earlier Shmitta cycle, a kept Shmitta?! 'rhe expression "free time;' however, does "novel and innovative" idea was In explanation, Reb Yaakov points to not refer, as many assume, to time that Dintroduced - the founding of a single factor. To be sure, he says, they is free; it describes time that was made special kollelim for Shomrei Shvi'is to kept Shmitta in the years before the Caius available, that was rendered free, to learn during Shmitta. In actuality, how in Babylonia. They did not, however, uti devote to 1natters of greater importance. ever, this idea is not new, for according lize the extra time that observance of In light of what we have said above, our to the Sforno, it is the underlying pur Shmitta afforded them for the purpose assignment is clear. Time is 1nade free for pose of Shmitta. for which it was intended. Our focal learning Torah and for avodas Hashem. Rabbi Yaakov KamenetzJ..)'7""1, makes point must ah,vays be diligence - learn Let us learn and internalize this innate les an interesting point with regard to Shmit ing and toiling in Torah - and every free son of Shmitta. If Hashem gives us time ta that has relevance to us. He points to moment must be used for that purpose. - be it Sunday, or any other time when a seeming contradiction: In J>arshas As a 1natter of course, during the seventh we do not have to be occupied with our Behar where the Torah discusses Shmit year, a Shmitta observer should be daily struggle for parnassa - let us seize ta, the pasuk states, "If you will keep found in the beis midrash. If he is not the mo1nents and utilize them for Hisser Shmitta, v'yeshavtem al ha'aretz lavetach there, then he is not observing Shmitta vice. In this way, we too can be counted - you will live peacefully on your land." as a "Shabbos I'Hashem"; he is only obey- among the Shomrei Shmitta. II 28 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 EARLY INTERVENTION A Division of Women's League Community Residences, Inc. Ser~ ~ed UtjMtt-s & toddler~ ifV ~ Brookfy~ / NYC area,. 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[ 'f of this I result of t~is chi at stake . firstly, the /!:Ure treatments Rabbi" Malk"elI Kotler' Two things a~:ed surgery and other ~o bring her body Rabbi Avrohom Pam, girl. T~~J:~~es. She needs th~rn i.n ~:~:~dently and live a are no h re she can function in · ther and mother- Rabbi Binyomin Rabinowitz, to the ~tft" Se;ondly, the lives of herd;1 which they ha;e norma i.e. . the degree of stress. un b arable, and 1t Rabbi Matishyohu Salomon, you can imagine kl the pressure is un e been nving ~ra~0if'0n their health. f the situation. Rabbi Yaakov Meir Shechter, has taken 1 s formed to take care o oblem is R bb" Ch . p· h Acommittee.ha~~~e~elp "our" little girl. Th~J:d we can a I a1m lnC OS ~~{'IvEJVJ}?:~~~~d~g::ii~~~f!t~~t~~~: i'o?~:ip. Scheinberg, help. Please re~pon Rabbi Simcha Schustal, Don't wait, do 1t now.· 1 we say thank you. Rabbi Binyomin Silber On behalf of this httle gir , _1~:~~~~~=-----::1.J)~~ ~~~/~ r- "1/_L c.Le ~ ~ a, ~~. _u,,,,, Please help by sending a "- ~ ~, CvnJ Name ~----·--· .. ·-·---... __Address ~·"'-----·-----... ----·· ------~-.---~--- _Zlp ____ ,, o: v~ · ofi]ll·i'. ~ ~ card# ~,'I, _____ }~ I authorize you to charge my card the amount Of$ Signature ---·-.. ------··------.... -- Eytan Kobre J£W V'b. J£W: CRACKS IN THE AMERICAN MOSAIC Earlier this fall, a new book on the topic of intra-Jewish conflict in America received a great deal of media coverage, due, in part, to its fortuitous release just as the Lieberman nomination was sparking a heightened focus of attention on the Jewish, and in particular Orthodox, community. Reviews of the book and its provocative themes in The New York Times, The Wall Street journal, The Economist, Commentary and various Jewish publications provided commentators of diverse Jewish stripes with an opportunity to advance their views on the causes of strife and prospects for communal peace within American Jewry. The very real issues raised by the book and the author's treatment of them merit the attention of the JO readership as well. ver since the advent of the Eman zoth century American Jewish experi cipation and the societal sea ence as the once-thriving Yiddishist and Echanges it wrought, factionalism Labor Zionist milieu and the emer along religious and political lines has gence of a nascent Orthodoxy in the been a fixture of Jewish commu decades following the Second nal life. And, although the sec World War. ond half of the zot century saw the sunset of many of the. SAMUEL FREEDMAN MEETS Jewish movements that had RAV SAADYA GAON sprung to life in the preced ing 100 years, and the twi ew vs. Jew's central the light of others, unity within sis, developed subtly the ranks of our people throughout the book remains as elusive as ever. andJ argued squarely in its In Israel, where Jewish epilogue, is that "except for ness inheres in the national religion, none of the pillars of \Varp and woof, it does not sur Jewish identity in America can prise that intra-Jewish dissension bear its weight any longer." abounds, pitting the secular against Although he is reluctant to the religious, the Sephardic underclass acknowledge that "the Orthodox against the Ashkenazic elites, and the themselves have prevailed;' the author post-Zionists against everyone else. In is very clear about what he believes is the America, however, the acceleration of by upshot of his book: "the Orthodox Jewish assi1nilation and intermarriage religious and model"--that is to say, that only reli and the shedding of all Jewish identity political schisms and, ultimately, by gion defines Jewish identity- "has tri by ever greater numbers of Jews might irreconcilably divergent conceptions of umphed:' have been expected to lessen the frac what it means to be Jewish. 'fhis conclusion, so politically incor tiousness. In fact, it has exacerbated it. Freedman, who now teaches jour rect in the current"I'm OK) you're OK" It is this conflict-ridden state of nalism at Colu1nbia University, knows Jewish climate, is predictably unsettling American Jewry that is the focus of Jew how to tell a tale, and makes full use of to people like the book reviewer at the vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul ofAmer his narrative talents to weave a tapestry Forward who found Freedman's epi ican Jewry, a new book by former New of eight vignettes, each highlighting a logue "infuriating," but, in refutation, York Tin1es reporter Samuel Freedman. particular tinderbox of A1nerican Jew could muster only the retort rloat "it pre He skillfully crafts a moving portrait of ish co1n1nunal strife. With an uncom sents a single 1noment in Jewish time ... a conte1nporary American Jewry riven mon ability to make an abundance of as ... a predictor of the future that will detail engrossing rather than mind follow it." That, of course, is precisely Eytan Kobre, is the director of Agudath Israel's nun1bing, Freedman excels at fashion what sociologists (and some journalists) Project Equal Educational Access and an occa sional contributor to various Anglo-Jewish pub ing such details into period pieces that do for a living--predict the future from lications. vividly recreate such elements of the trends of the present. The Jewish Observer, November 2000 31 Interestingly, that same reviewer, in ish creativity and re-invention, from prominent neo-conservative thinker a column some months ago, assailed the Sinai until today:' The list includes Jew Elliot Abrams' Faith or Fear, which gen writer David Klinghoffer's assertion ish gastronomy, genealogy and comedy, erated similar "buzz" to that now being that "the defining Jewish criterion must creative kippot, adult study classes on stirred up by Jew vs. Jew. And, of not be blood, or culture ... or any of the Bible, kabbala, history or Jewish cook course, as Abrams himself observed in innumerable substitutes for Judaism that ing (which study constitutes "Torah lish his book's concluding section, the have been proposed by factions among ma"), the federation system, the sub notion that Judaism is the essential our people ... but Truth alone" --essen urban synagogue (unfairly "maligned determinant of Jewish identity is mere tially, a 1nore traditionalist version of Jew [as] ... bourgeois and soulless"), bar ly a rephrasing, in the contemporary vs. Jew's basic pre1nise. What distressed niitzva candle-lighting ceremonies, the idiom, of Rav Saadya Gaon's famed the reviewer about that contention was Marx Brothers and ... "pick-and-choose aphorism, "Our nation is a nation only its perceived <(dismissal of the various Judaism:' So there we have it - not mere by dint of its Torah." Implicitly, then, ways some 83 percent of North Amer ly the glorification of the utterly vapid these writers confirm a basic fact of Jew ican Jews live their Jewish lives," as well trappings of American Jewish ersatz ish history: that the inexorable march of as, apparently, what struck him as "Judaism," but their equation with events has its own way of settling long Klinghoffer's insufferable temerity in what our nation received at Sinai. This, running ideological debates and con capitalizing the word "truth"--an in capsule form, is what Samuel Freed signing to obscurity, and at times, unpardonable no-no for enlightened man and others earnestly concerned ignominy, even the most temporally vig moderns who quite absolutely detest about the future of American Jews and orous of"Jewish" movements- and that those who profess a belief in absolutes. Judaism are up against. the American Jewish experience of the The reviewer proceeds--by all indi Freedman is not the first, but mere century just ended is no exception. cations, in total seriousness--to enu- ly the most recent, writer to propound 1nerate «a partial list of what a tradi this conception of religion as the one A FAIR-MINDED EFFORT tionalist might regard as 'substitutes for truly indispensable element of Jewish Judaism,' but what a more generous ness. Several recent books have lthough Jew vs. Jew addresses observer would see as the glory of Jew- advanced the sa1ne view, most notably highly contentious topics like A pluralism, feminism and the Israeli peace process, it strives admirably for impartiality, and usually succeeds. The author, raised in a self-described «intensely secular» home and present ly Conservative-affiliated, makes no secret of his own religious and political I sympathies, but prefers to let his cast of •Ti e Z 1c us o Living, Brea ing an Experiencing e Ke us a o Eretz Yisrae • characters tell their own stories and his 1 •The Torah Touring Experience of a LJletimel •Daven by the Kosel Ha Maravi •Climb readers draw their own conclusions. Matsodo • Inspiring Shiurim • Shobbos in Tzfos • Meron • Amukah • Amazing Workshops • Kevrei Tzodikim •Experience Yerushalayim in Depth • Delicious Hotel Freedman does not flinch, for exam Style Meals• Swim in the Kinneret • Shabbos in Yerushalayim •See Gedolim •Kayaking ple, from showing secular Jews to be in the Yorden • Rosh Hanikra • Fully Equipped Modern Gym • Underground Caves • Eilot •Air Conditioned Dining Rooms • Banana Booting • Ein Gecli • Biblical Zoo • Hor capable of truly despicable attitudes and Hatzofim • Beautiful Campus & Dormitory • Snorlcling • Paddle Boating • Minhorot behavior towards their observant fellow Hakotel • Campfire • Tour the Galil • Mearaf Eliyohu Hanovi • Light & Sound Desert Jews. He balances his description of Experience •Golan Heights• Gamla •Coble Cars • 8e1er Shevo •Make Wonderful International Friends • Yad Vashem •Swim in Yam Hamelach • Bedouin Tents• Meoraf Orthodox rowdies hurling invective Shem ancl Ayyer in Tzlos • Climb Incredible Mountains • Achdus • Tzipori •Our Own and objects at mixed prayer services at Olympic Pool • Har Hamenuchos • Shmiras Halashon Rally • Rabbi Zev Leff • Ancient the Kosel with accounts of secular Susyo • Oceanorium Experience • Jeeping • Nachal Maj'rasa • Konyon Ho'aclom • Meo Sheorim • Rebbe's Tisch • Flower & Fruit Decoration • Camel Rides • Color War • American Jews screaming obscenities at Kever Rochel• Kever Dovid Hamelech • Simcho Dancing • Teverio • Meorof Chazon • a Luhavitcher youth or referring to Nochal Amud Nature Trail • Climb Sand Dunes • Mearat Halcemach • Degem 8eis Kiryas Yoel's Satmar populace as "the Hamilcdash • Hay Rides • Banyas • Mock Wedding • Swim in Hatzbonei River • Sunset Kumzitz by the Ocean • Cove of the Choshmonaim • Pekien • Coral Reef • most horrible people that G-d put Underwater Observatory • Breathtaking Vistas• Bnei Brok• and Much, Much More! breath in;' and of feminist-minded lib Just ask on of our Wonderful Mochone Bracha Cam ersl eral Jews labeling their more tradition al fellow congregants "Neanderthals:' In the lengthy chapter on the battle A Safe, Secure, Warm Atmosphere In Magnificent Yael Blnyamln over a proposed Orthodox campus in 1 Under the Direction of Rabbi Sholom & Mrs. Chaya Glnzberg 1 the Cleveland suburb of Beachwood, 1 1066 E. 23rd Street Brooklvn. NY 11210 (718)377-0234 1 Freedman's narrative lays bare both the 1 1 ------~------·· .. ·------... ~----~··------·~·------·------32 The Jewish Observer; November 2000 hypocrisy and deep-seated loathing of ERRORS AND OMISSIONS for Zionism and the willingness to col the area's non-Orthodox residents. laborate with non-Orthodox Jews:' Even Decades earlier, these very satne Jews iven the book's degree of detail, a passing familiarity with Hirsch's liter had overcome anti-Semitic opposition the author has succeeded in ary oeuvre and the history of German to a Reform temple's move to Beach Grendering it quite factually accu neo-Orthodoxy show such notions to be wood, couched obliquely as concern rate. Nevertheless, the alert and not only incorrect, but at diametric odds over quality-of-life and zoning require informed reader will happen upon the with the Hirschian weltanschauung. ments. This did not prevent them, occasional serious error. For example, 'fhis is a not insignificant point, in view however, from waging their own unre Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch is cast as of the past efforts of some individuals lenting, no-holds-barred battle to keep the ideological forebear of Modern to add luster to their version of Modern their town fron1 becoming a "little Orthodoxy, enamored of the Emanci Orthodoxy by portraying that ideology Jerusalem" and going the way of anoth pation, whose disciples "added [to ahistorically as a legacy of Rabbi Hirsch. er, now largely Orthodox neighborhood Hirsch's Modern Orthodox philoso Equally glaring in a work of this whose main thoroughfare they dubbed phy) two other core principles, support nature is the author's failure to discuss "Rue de la Peyes." Citing the same sort of aesthetic objections to which they had once been subjected, they blamed the Orthodox for the deterioration of Cleveland's urban Jewish neighbor hoods, a process the non-Orthodox themselves precipitated through their II "white flight" to the outlying suburbs. Freedman is also refreshingly forth I right in his treat1nent of Denver's short lived interdeno1ninational conversion project in the late '70s, pointing up the inherent lin1itations of cooperative ini tiatives in the religious realm. He doc • uments the unraveling of the project, until its eventual collapse "under the weight of its own contradictions, fun damental differences in doctrine that no amount of belief in Kial Yisrael could It hurts wish away." In typical fashion, the author lets the protagonists describe how what was envisioned as a daring experiment in pluralism turned its Orthodox participants into nothing more than, in one H..econstructionist rabbi's words, "mikvah clunkers." Not surprisingly, the Orthodox rab bis involved came to feel "theologically It feels better just to talk about it. That's why we're here. Our staff is made up of fraudulent" as they were reduced to pro caring and sensitive individuals. Together, viding an imprin1atur of legitimacy to we can help you explore your options. We Refonn conversion candidates they had can refer you to recognized professionals for counseling, legal advice or help in barely met, who bypassed kabbalas al finding a safe environment. We can also mitzvos "in favor of the Ten Co1nmit put you in touch with some very special ments, which had been hashed out at the Rabbis. But in order for us to reach out to Regency Hotel, not handed down at you, you must first reach out to us. Mount Sinai." The project's collapse Confidential Hotline 1.888.883.2323 prompted Rabbi Stanley Wagner, one of (Taff Free) its Orthodox architects, to conclude that 718.337.3700 "it's erroneous to build the idea of Jew Do it for yourself. (NYC Area) ish unity on religious or ideological Do it for your children. Shalom la>k for(f' 1s a 501(c)(3j chanlabl0 organ1zat1on compromise." The Jewish Observer, November 2000 33 in any detail the rise and growth of the more than a passing mention. Put sim di world, particularly given the author's ba'al teshuva movement. This book is, ply, would not those who have traversed own estimation of that community's after all, a treatment of the fault lines the seemingly unbridgeable Jew vs. Jew current ascendancy and assured future between Jews with widely divergent reli divide be fitting subjects for at least one prominence. Although the book devotes gious approaches, or none at all. The chapter in a book bearing that title? much space to a largely positive portrait existence, and persistence over decades, Through the vehicle of his lushly of one fervently Orthodox individual, then, of a phenon1enon in which many detailed, heavily biographical sketches, Rabbi Daniel Greer, his unusual back thousands--one infor1ned estin1ate Freedman succeeds greatly in human ground renders him a less than fully rep places the figure at upwards of izing his subjects and providing an inti resentative figure. 100,000--of secular and non-Ortho mate window into their underlying dox-affiliated Jews from all walks oflife e1notional and intellectual complexities. THE INVISIBLE JEWS have made the often wrenching transi It is thus unfortunate that none of the tion to one or another variant of the book's episodes feature as a protagonist ore troubling than the occa Orthodox lifestyle, merits significantly anyone who is a product of the charei- sional factual error or omis M sion, however, is the book's oversi1nplification - or worse - of the philosophical bases and practical real ities of chareidi life. vVhile his resolve to remain fair-minded and employ the dis passionate journalist's voice throughout is both evident and laudable, Freedman clearly lacks an intimate familiarity with the Orthodox community that figures so prominently throughout his book. Thus, in the world of Jew vs. Jew, all chareidim seem to eschew secular edu cation and are thereby forced into lowly teaching positions; are bent on H·A·S·C incorporating ever more mindless strin gencies into their religious practice; shun A TIME FOR MUSIC XIV contact with the outside world wherever possible; and view the yeshiva rather than the family as "the epicenter of Orthodox life." The overall portrait of chareidi Jewry that emerges, however FEBRUARY 4, 2001 subtly, is a decidedly unsavory, vaguely threatening one: an nndifferentiated mass of extremist, angry people preoc METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE cupied with censuring others and living in ever-present fear of various real and imagined dangers. Facile generalizations of this sort are not unfamiliar to Orthodox readers, who by now may have grown accus tomed to these literary equivalents of the funhouse mirror, in which they glimpse an image of themselves bearing only the faintest resemblance to the reality of For Tickets & Information: their lives as Orthodox Jews. 718-851-6100 Freedman, too, is a well-intentioned outsider to Orthodoxy looking in, but with few if any clear windows on that world. In the book's "Acknowledge ments" section, the author mentions scores of individuals who contributed 34 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 in some nieasure to his work, but only course, San1uel Freedn1an is not the vil Torah, and any n1anner of tampering a small minority of those so acknowl lain here; the marginalization of the with liturgical custom, and viewed the edged is Orthodox, and almost none of Orthodox, and the "fervently" so in par feminist enterprise as a whole with pro them chareidi. Orthodox-authored ticular, is a long-standing fact of Jewish found dismay. entries in the book's bibliography are, communal life. In the book's epilogue, the author puts similarly, virtually nil. forth his prognostications regarding the A writer seeking to faithfully portray MISSING THE POINT ON MODERN future of An1erican Jewry, which he sees a community that is not his own is bid ORTHODOXY fragn1enting into four distinct groupings: den to allow the com1nunity's own Chareidi, Conservadox, Reformative and thinkers to articulate its positions and owhere is Freedman's tenuous Just Jews. The Conservadox camp, Freed suppositions. Certainly, there is no grasp of the inner workings of n1an posits, will result from the n1erging dearth of highly intellectual, well-spo N Orthodoxy and its philosophi of Conservatism's right wing with a Mod ken Orthodox individuals, not merely cal predicates more evident than in his ern Orthodoxy that will experience a "cri "experts on Orthodoxy;' who could fill coverage of both intra-Orthodox divi sis of definition" over the feminisn1 issue, that role if invited to do so. sions and fc1ninism within and outside forcing it to "give up its already tenuous Even a minimally informed grasp of of Orthodoxy. partnership with the chareidifn)) and developments within Orthodoxy in He identifies Rabbi Joseph bcco1ne fully egalitarian in its religious recent decades would suffice to dispel Soloveitchik as the pre-eminent intel practices. many of the outlandish myths about lectual force within Modern Orthodoxy, \'\That this conjecture ignores, how Orthodox life. For example, the ubiq which he equates with an attitude sup ever, are recent indications that femi uitous presence of deeply observant Jews portive of cooperation with non-Ortho nism has hardly taken root within at all levels of the professional, acade dox denominations and the sanctioning Modern Orthodoxy as deeply as some n1ic and business spheres of conte1n of 'vomen's prayer groups. Yet, as is well would have us believe. A 1999 study by porary life and the extensive outreach known, Rabbi Soloveitchik was outspo feminist sociologist Sylvia Barack Fish by Orthodox organizations and indi ken in branding the modern-day Jewish man, for instance, reported that "many viduals alike to Jews from across the reli heterodoxies more sharply deviant fro1n [respondents J expressed the belief that gious spectrun1 arc easily ascertainable Jewish tradition than even the Karaites the [women's prayer] groups themselves facts that belie the trite characterizations of yore, and publicly urged Jews to forego were a transient or transitional phc of Orthodox insularity. An awareness, the mitzva of hearing shojar if the only no1ncnon," and revealed a generational as well, of the exponential growth of available venue for doing so was a non divide in which younger Modern Jewish learning and a resultant deepened Orthodox house of worship. According Orthodox women tend to reject much con1mit1nent to religious growth \vith to some of those closest to hi1n, he also of the agenda of"Orthodox feminism" in all sectors of Orthodoxy would make adamantly opposed such feminist of their mothers' era. These findings are readily comprehensible such phenom inspired innovations as won1en's prayer also confirmed by a recent survey of stu ena as the proliferation of highly ideal groups, womcn)s dancing with the sefer dents at Stern College for Women, a istic Kolle! scholars who pass up poten tially lucrative careers for a life's calling of teaching and public service, and the trend toward heightened standards in Jonah's Fashion Inc. the performance of n1itzvos born most often of a striving for spiritual excellence rather than of one-upsmanship. Yet, the failure to give authentic, elo quent Orthodox voices the opportuni •We make skirts and jumpers, solids ty to explicate the underpinnings of that and plaids, from size 5 thru community's beliefs and way-of-life junior and pre-teens effectively relegates its 1nembers to the status of"The Jews Who Weren't There" • Bais Yaacov blouses made from (not to be confused with the essay of our own custom made similar title by Rachel Adler, the femi (extra heavy} material nist scholar who appears in Jew vs. Jew's chapter on feminism, sporting a kippa crocheted with the word" apikoros" and acknowledging that she's "allergic to hav ing rabbis tell me what to do"). Of The Jewish Observer, November 2000 35 majority of whon1 reacted to women's spats, the various sectors within Ortho kind of traditionalism that would enable prayer groups with "a sense of ambiva doxy all affirm the centrality of a belief Conservatism to link arms with even the lence, confusion and rejection." Likewise, in the Divinity of both the Written and most liberal form of Orthodoxy is itself Lincoln Square Synagogue's much-bal Oral Torah, save for a handful of reli rather superficial. Thus, to support his lyhooed experimentation with a female giously radical, albeit vocal, individuals assertion that, throughout the late "rabbinic intern;' who has since depart on the movement's fringes. This foun nineties, the Conservative movement ed, was, according to the New York Jew dational tenet, among others, opens a "embraced traditionalism in a series of ish Week, " marked by bitterness and yawning ideological chasm that will not major actions," he can cite only that regret;' and "confirmed the traditional readily be bridged merely because the denomination's program of chapter-a Orthodox argument that a woman " [right wing] faction of Conservative day Bible study (which parallels, writes rabbi could be a sexual distraction." clergy and laity already follows much of Freedman, the Orthodox system of More fundamentally, Freedman's halakhah and espouses a good deal of... "reading the Talmud ... a page a day") vision of a future '(Conservadoxy" fails social conservatism." and its promulgation of policies barring to consider that for all their doctrinal Indeed, Freedman's notion of the intermarried Hebrew school teachers and summer campers who are not halachically Jewish. FLAWS ON FEMINISM a preface to his chapter on the ontroversy that roiled a liberal os Angeles congregation over whether to institute liturgical refer ences to the Imahos (the four Matri archs), the author undertakes a brief gen eral treatment of gender issues in Judaism. Although his discussion con tains several errors of fact, e.g., that women are prevented from performing mitzvos from which they are exempt, IBU1ILJDJER§ is the such as shofar and succa, that only female compelling story of the characters in the 10rah were barren, he three giants who cat commendably avoids the more egregious alyzed the Torah renais factual distortions that are standard fea sance across the world tures in much of feminist-oriented and how they impacted upon their - and sub writing in this area. sequent generations. Unfortunately, Freedman's prefatory discussion does share another tenden The details of their lives cy of women's movement polen1ics that - accurately and elo is aptly captured by the writer Hillel quently portrayed in this masterpiece by the King Halkin, certainly no Orthodox apologist of the Storytellers - is himself. Halkin decries the "heedless must-reading for every assumption that if Judaism has not tra student and every par ditionally treated women as men's ritu ent, in every school and al equals, this must be either a careless in every home. oversight on its part or simply gross sex 484 pp. I complete BUILDERS is not only ism .... That in separating the sexes ritu with pictures ally Judaism may be making a statement and rare artifacts Hanoch Teller at his finest; it is the about sexuality and sexual differentiation that is fundamental to itself,. .. indeed, that Judaism and feminism may be so opposed in their values that one must choose one or the other, does not even seem to have occurred [to many writers on the topic]." 36 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 Thus, Freedman speaks repeatedly in 150 newly observant women and her tion but immediately dropped his oppo· terms of"the tension between doctrine findings that "the most valued part of sition when a Seminary-commissioned and custom on one side and the ... belief their lives has to do with their lives as survey found that the laity supported in gender equality on the other." In so women within Jewish orthodoxy" such an innovation; that Cohen initial doing, he fails to perceive that those on would have been meaningfully revela· ly was opposed by the Seminary's entire the traditionalist side of the feminism tory for the book's readers. Talmud faculty; and that he set about issue do not reject the notion of gender The author might also have added to creating an independent commission on equality per se, but hold a radically diver· this chapter's balance had he noted cer· the issue, half of whose 14 members were gent conception of the nature and tain facts tending to show that Conser· laypeople and only one of whom was on meaning of equality as applied in a spir· vatism's ever wider embrace of the fen1- the Talmud faculty, which enabled him itual, rather than secular, context. In inist agenda sterns less fro1n a to "ram the com1nission's report down Rabbi Mayer Twersky's succinct phras· genuinely-held reinterpretation of the Faculty's throats:' Indeed, leading ing: "Unlike its mathematical counter halachic dictates than from a reflexive, Conservative Rabbi Joel Roth, who part, ontological equality is not politically correct submission to its authored the pivotal paper supporting expressed in sameness or identity. While laity's demands to defer to whatever women's ordination, notes that although the Torah, assuredly, does not discrim societal currents happen to be swirling "most of [the Seminary's] world-recog· inate against men or women, undoubt about. While the fact that, in the words nized luminaries" opposed that move, edly it does discriminate between then1:' of Conservative acade1nic Daniel "there were strong efforts to make then1 In addition, for Freedman to write Gordis, "both the halakhic agenda and kiss the papal ring and accept the deci· that in the '70s and '80s, "Who is a Jew?" the outcomes of halakhic discussions are sion as infallible." was a question that "the female half of now set by [the Conservative J laity;' is Similarly, the book admiringly the American Jewish population was ask demonstrably true in many contexts it describes how a feminist group called ing in terms of religious and social equal· is perhaps most pronounced in the Ezrat Nashim almost single-handedly ity" is to blithely ignore the thousands movement's approach to halachic issues brought about the Conservative move· of observant women, many of them involving women. ment's decision to include women in every bit as accomplished and dynam Thus, Freedman writes that "[a]fter prayer quorums and call them up to the ic as any of their liberal counterparts, four years of bruising debate among its Torah, thereby rectifying "an affront to who believe they have an altogether sat· faculty, the ... !Jewish Theological Sem· their intelligence, talent, and dignity." isfying answer to that question. This calls inary] voted in 1983 to admit women for Surely, however, the reader would have to mind a recent New York Tin1es story rabbinical training." A more accurate been edified by Rabbi Roth's observa· on the Israeli Supreme Court decision account, based on the Seminary's recent tions on how the movement's initial sup permitting the Women of the Wall to ly-published official history, would have port for egalitarianism as an alternative hold women's prayer groups at the informed the reader that then-Chan approach in the interest of pluralism, has Kosel. The story was captioned "Religion cellor of the Seminary Gerson Cohen by now reverted to being the move· Loses a Round to Women In Israel," in had initially opposed women's ordina- rnent's exclusive approach, with more cavalier dismissal of the innumerable Israeli women who not only emphati· cally reject the Women of the Wall's agenda, but hold the deep conviction that in eschewing women's prayer groups, "religion" is elevating women's status rather than denigrating it. few vs. Jew's failure, 1nentioned ear lier, to devote attention to the ba' al teshuva phenomenon, is feh particular ly keenly in this chapter. The author's FOR efforts to provide "equal time" to dif THE FINEST fering viewpoints would have profited greatly, for example, had he spoken with IN some of the ba'alos teshuva featured in PHOTOGRAPHY feminist sociologist Debra Renee Kauf AND VIDEO man's Rachel's Daughters, or others who have returned to observance more recently. Even a reference to Kaufman's above-mentioned landmark study of The Jewish Observer, November 2000 37 traditional Conservative Jews being with discord between Jews with varying advantage of the opportunity America labeled misogynystic and morally defi levels of religiosity, there appears, often affords them to live an unabashedly cient. Roth writes that "[w]hen Ramah barely noticeable among the verbal fusil observant life. camps simply ignored the Chancellor's lades and ideological posturing, at least Thus, the book's prologue opens dictate that multiple minyanim be pro one comment that reveals the visceral with a brief sketch of two neighboring vided and instead provided only egali emotional reactions churning beneath couples in Great Neck, New York, who tarian minyanim... [or] when clear inti the surface of ostensibly principled dis got along amicably until one of the cou mations are made that Conservative agreements. ples became, in the other's eyes, "fanat rabbis who oppose women in the minyan In one poignant, and unfortunate, ics ... [who entertained] five or six other no longer have a place in the Movement, scene, Si Wachsberger, later to emerge as families from their synagogue" every the commitment to pluralism is under a leader oflocal efforts to oppose a planned Shabbos. Even the religious couple's mined.» Or, as prominent Conservative campus of Orthodox institutions in erection of a succa on their front lawn scholar David Feldman summed up Beachwood, Ohio, tells of being upbraid upset their still-secular neighbors as an Conservatism's exclusionary tendencies: ed by an Orthodox shul-goer for tending act of"flaunting it... [i]n your face:' Even «convinced of, or insecure about, the his garden on Shabbos. The incident, along tually, the secular couple moved away, moral correctness of our position, we with other real or imagined slights of non after coming to feel progressively "sur declare the others to be immoral; we stig Orthodox Jews and Judaism, left Wachs rounded, encroached upon, and implic matize dissent, we solicit uniformity." berger with a sense "of being judged, itly judged." scorned, found deficient as a Jew:' In a similar vein, Freedman observes, WHEN EMOTION PREVAILS In many other contexts, though, "the hidden issue in the Yale Five case;' ranging from Long Island's Gold Coast in which Orthodox students sued to be er haps one of Jew vs. Jew's most sig to a bucolic Chassidicenclave to the pin exempted from Yale's policy mandating nificant contributions is in focus nacle oflvy League academe, the author on-campus residence in its mixed-gen Ping attention on the large role portrays non-observant Jews whose sen der dormitories, "to be found nowhere played by raw emotion in fostering and sibilities are seemingly offended by the in all the legal documents, was who perpetuating intra-Jewish tensions. In vir mere fact of Orthodox Jews going about established the definition of Jewish, and tually every chapter in the book dealing their Jewish business, as it were, taking more specifically Orthodox authentic- ~ REALIZING YOUR PARENTING POTENTIAL These ten tapes deal with general parenting issues, including spending quality tin1e with your children1 giving your children constructive criticism, doing homework, dealing with a restless child, helping an underachieving child and raising your teenager. $69 includes shipping ($55 for mechanchim and kollel families) OF HOME AND HEART ~ These four tapes help parents create a nurturing and loving environment for rasing well-adjusted, happy children. Topics include developing a tone of simcha in your home, slzalo1n bayis 1 and setting goals for your marriage. $32 includes shipping ($25 for mechanchim and kollel families) ~ WHAT MATTERS MOST 'l'his series contains two tapes by Dr. Norman Blumenthal on "Managing Anger in You Children" and "Dealing with Sibling Rivalry" and two tapes by Rabbi Horowitz on 11 "Understanding and Dealing with Your Adolescent Children • $32 includes shipping (S25 for mechanchim and kollel families) FJ\X()R EMAIL\IQURCREDIT•(ARD ORDER:.845-3S2·9S93•yhdarcbel@aot~ln MAIL YOUR PAYMENT: Yeshiva Darchei Noam • 4 Widrnat1 Ct.• SpringValley, NY 10977 Proceeds to benefit Yeshiv.'I Darchei Noam (845) 352-7100 SPECIAL! All~ sets only $120 38 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 ity." His assessn1ent receives direct con head;' while, paradoxically, fighting to as issuing not fron1 chareidi1n less firmation from the pained acknowl bar from their neighborhoods Jews engaged with the broader society, but edgment of Betty Trachtenberg, the Yale whose religiosity is far less conspicuous rather from individuals like the Yale Five dean of students who rejected the stu than that of the "Hasid." who, as the historian Jack Wertheimer dents' exen1ption request: "Here I a1n, Moreover, the ability of Orthodox notes, "represent a new phenotnenon: a person who identified as a Jew, raised Jews to thrive in a wonderfully tolerant modern-Orthodox Jews who are open my kids as Jews .... I didn't want anyone America while practicing, to varying to Western culture but ... much more to call into question who I was." degrees, a selective engagement with willing, in the name of Judaism, to adopt In truth, it is not only the Orthodox their host society, constitutes an implic a culturally critical stance." One wonders who evoke such reactions from those less it, if unintended, rebuke to the great whether the recent criticism leveled by observant. A case in point is last year's numbers of Jews who have jettisoned some Jews at Senator Joseph Lieberman acrimonious debate within the Reform parts or all of their Judaism in the belief for too much public talk of G-d and reli rnoven1ent over its proposed "Ten Prin that one could not "have it all:' In this gion does not, beyond the surface ciples" mission state1nent, which initially regard, ironically, the greatest unspoken rhetoric of concern for separation of advocated an an1bitious turn towards challenge may be sensed by secular Jewry church and state, likewise evince a tradition, only to emerge after nu1ner ous drafts as a much-eviscerated «State ment of Principles:' The proposed plat for1n elicited strong reactions, both pro and con; typical of many of the nega tive responses was a letter to Reforn1 fudaisn1 n1agazine warning that adop tion of the Principles would "limply] that those who do not practice these are FREE in some degree less Jewish." The perva siveness of that sort of reaction led the COMPUTER author of the Principles to respond: "Where do we get these feelings? The COURSE Reform n1oven1ent has never spoken this For Women Coping On Their Own language--and so we need to help each (Widowed, Divorced, Separated) other rise above the guilt it reflects:' The kinds of emotionally charged 30 Hours of Instruction - Day Cla66e6 reactions illustrated above likely have For More Information or To Register, their roots in several sources. For so1ne, encountering, or being confronted- inexcusably so--by those more obser vant than they, may evoke feelings of guilt and inadequacy regarding their lack of observance and Jewish knowledge. And for some, the very fact of their co religionists' open and unapologetic observance is a visceral embarrassment that thwarts their own detern1ined efforts to enter fully into America's assin1ilationist e1nbrace, or at the very least, to keep religion in the private domain so as to blend unremarkably into a society which looks askance at publicly practiced religiosity. Like one • KOLLEL of Freed1nan's protagonists in ]evv vs. e MIKVEH Jew, many Jews are, sadly, moved to express their deeper attachment to truly meaningful Jewishness through the living room display of a "line drawing of a davening Hasid, beaver hat on The Jewish Observer, November 2000 39 deeper discomfort with the Senator's erence to a paradoxical mix of Jews' inse Jewish study topics, intern1arriage is at apparent ease in leading an observant, curity, embarrassment and concomitant the bottom and the Holocaust is at the G-d-conscious, yet thoroughly con desire to hold the growth and visibility top, because the 1atter does not exact, as temporary, life. of openly observed, full-time Judaism to Jacob Neusner puts it, "much cost in Indeed, some of the more curious a minimu1n, on the one hand, and their meaningful everyday difference from features of the dominant American Jew inchoate spiritual longings, on the others"; and that Jews, possessed of what ish mindset seem explicable only by ref- other. How else to satisfactorily explain Freedman calls "a perverse longing ... for what Nathan Lewin has called "the anti-Semitism," persist in scouring the HAT PLUS greatest obstacle to the continuity of horizon for lurking Jew-hatred despite Judaism in America ... the slavish, all the evidence that it continues to wane? Hats • Shirts • Ties •Accessories mindless, and reflexive devotion of Whatever its sources, the emotional American Jewish leadership to the 'Wall subtext of internecine Jewish conflicts of Separation' between church and cannot be dismissed, and, as Jew vs. Jew state.... [which] is more revered ... de1nonstrates, its impact upon the out than is the Western Wall in Jerusalem?" comes of those conflicts should not be How otherwise to account for peren WE ALSO DRY CLEAN LARGEST SELECTION underestimated. So long as unan & RESHAPE HATS OF CHOSONIM TIES IN nial surveys reporting, variously, that nounced, en1otion-driven biases con (All work drme or1 premises) BROOKLYN while Jews are the least religiously obser tinue to exert their influence, con 1368 Coney Island Avenue vant Ainericans, their Jewishness means sciously or otherwise, on issues of (71 S) 377-5050 a great deal to them; that on the list of shared Jewish concern, the prospects for Major credU cards accepted • We ship UPS mutually respectful resolution of such matters appear to be dim indeed. At the same time, the book's stark depictions of non-observant Jews' sen sitivities sound a cautionary note regard ing the need for observant Jews to act - Personal responsibility throughout ser11ice - NOT JUSf "PAPERWORK" and interact--in a way that balances a ORIGINATOR OF THE PRESENT RABBINICALLY APPROVED METHOD pride in, and con1mitment to, their Highly recommended by Gedolai Hador- Here and in Eretz Yisrael beliefs with an attitude and demeanor 104.l-42ml Street, Brooklyn, i''Y 11219 that conveys an acceptance of every Jew I>ay &Night phone: (718) s..:;t-8925 and respect for his or her intrinsic worth. Perhaps it is not too daring to hope that ]))P'r.lN1~r.lNj7 ))J"j7 - 1'1~ 1Nl nm~)) 'll~ Kavod Haniftar with Mesiras Nefesh and compassion for the bereaved family. such displays of authentic Torah-based TAHARAS HANIFTAR SHOULD NEVER BE COMMERCIALIZED behavior towards fellow Jews will, of their own accord, spark an opening of new channels of communication and good You can.! 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(877) 435-7611 cemetery plots in Beth Shemesh For addiction problems call our addiction and other locations in Israel. therapist, Wednesdays 11 :30pm to I :30am 0 I 1-972-2-656-9427 40 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 1960 SCHENECTADY AVENUE TEL. 718,252-0801 BROOKLYN, NY 11234 FAX. 718,252-6787 TIFERES ACADEMY BOYS YESHIVA HIGH SCHOOL IT JS OUR MISSION TO DEDICATE OURSELVES TO ANY ''":Z WHO JS WILLING TO CONFORM TO THE TIFERES OPPORTUNITY. Tlferes Academy has an unparalleled staff that brings out the potential in every .,,,,::z. Our innovative and creative program provides the flexibility and individuality a bochur needs to reach his full potential. Your call to Tlferes Academy might be your best call yet. • One-on-One Kolle! Chavrusah Program • Mishmor Program • Daily Supervised Gym & Swim • Shabbatonim • Full Computer Lab • Many exciting extra curricular activities • Professional English Writing Clinic • Small Classes • Professional Staff & Master Teachers • Individualized Attention • Hatzalah, First Aid & CPR Courses • Warm & Dedicated Rabbeim • Computer Assisted Remediation • Programs tailored to individual needs • Six-Week Summer Camp in Israel DYNAMIC FACULTY: Rabbi Moshe Aronov Dean Rabbi Chaim Pechter Rabbi Heshy Glsslnger Principal, Hebrew Studies Menahef Ruchni Principal, General Studies Vaad Hachlnuch: Horav Shmuel Berenbaum, Horav Yitzchok Feigelstock, Horav Shmuel Kamenetzky, Horav Avrohom Pam, Horav Yakov Perlow, Horav Aharon Moshe Schechter, Horav Yaakov Schneidman Horav Elya Svel, Yoshev Rosh \ NOTICE! Parenting classes by gedolei mechanchim 1 [ now forming at the yeshiva. • Call now for details. We're available all year to help your son reach his untapped potential! !l_I_·-.. ---_____·· ·~-.~·~ .. -. ~. -~~· ~- -~.... ~.. "~····· -=~-- .~·.··.~····· ... ·~. ···~· ... ~.-~-•.~ .. ·~~~QJJ1 SECOND LoOKS Rabbi Pinchas Jung parents, teachers, or librarians to decide for themselves, in light of their own Let the Reader Beware! hashkafos and the standards they strive to achieve. That individual will have to judge whether they feel that the mul Navigating a Gray Zone their own judg tiplicity of stories about dating, ments, with replete with details of all emo he recent unprecedented increase standards they tional turmoil involved, are, or in kosher Judaica from well have then1- are not suitable reading Tknown as well as lesser-known selves chosen material for impres sources has impacted our homes and on behalf of sionable adolescents. institutions in a meaningful way. It has the young Likewise, they filled our private bookshelves as well as sters for who1n should determine those of our school and shul libraries wifh they are respou whether lengthy a broader range of titles than the previ sible? accounts of the ously familiar translations, textbooks, The reasoning ehavior of holocaust classics and other histories. behind this attitude, "turned off' youths, The current trend has also provided which does call for a momentarily disen us with an ever increasing array of excit more time-consuming chanted with all we ing hardcover novels, gripping narratives, check on the literature, is as herish, are beneficial many with a professional touch as to style follows. Having been consulted regn ar or a Torah teenager who is hap and presentation. They boldly delve into ly by the well-read and sensitive librari pily progressing along the straight and the personal lives of a wide variety of an of a highly reputable Torah school, an narrow. imaginary characters, including those essential truth relating to these novels Needless to say, if that teenager is who rejected their Yiddishkeit, albeit to emerged with singular clarity. If there ever determined to access and devour certain return to the fold some time later. was a gray area, this is it. less desirable material, he or she will Rather than discussing or analyzing Most of the passages or phrases that always be able to find a way. We are talk specific titles and supporting observa mechanchim find disturbing or dis ing of the input of the adult concerned tions with selected extracts, this writer tasteful are subtleties which, by their very as far as his or her influence is effective. has chosen an alternative approach. nature, could expose themselves to It would be proper to remind parents Would it not be appropriate to appeal to endless debate. A conversation that at this point that material their children parents and educators to devote a little one critic will condemn as totally inap read will not simply "go over their time to review books in order to pass propriate for yeshiva or Bais Yaakov stu heads;' as they may wish to imagine. The dent consumption will be considered lines read can make a profound and Rabbi Pinchos Jung serves as Mashgiach of Yeshi va Kol Yaakov, as well as Dean of Beth Rochel quite innocent and benign by another. sometimes disturbing impression, yet School for Girls, both in Monsey, NY Therefore, this writer wishes to urge the children will not discuss what they Sunday December 3 ~"1'1!1~ L JI I 1J'D.:1 ,, 9-30a.m. lo Sunday, November 19, 2000 PRESENTATION OF (URR!CULUM 12:30p.m. ~"1'Wl1 ~"::J 'ffi' -~~~r-~'~"'~,~~ , r1wn MEET FACULTY, PARENTS, STUDENTS 11 :00 a.m. (promptly) - 1:00 p.m. 'ffi' I "Toaether ~ we can bring out the best in your daughter" ;,~~~-~~c~~; ~::;:"~:~~~:~.~'.'": REBBETZ!N SORA F BULKA, n?-n)O I lJn-,..~kfyn, Queens, Far RockaKay, ,1m/ t11c Fii·e 70wns RABBI YESHAYA LEVY, 7n)O pp MRS. GnT!E NEUFELD, ASST PRINCIPAL An opportunitl} to discover SOI~~,_, I BAIS YAAKOV.... 2600 OCEAN AVENUE, BROOKLYN, NY I 1229 S: 718 769.8160 S: FAX: 718 769.8640 ------~ -·--·----- 42 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 have read. The chances are that these cerned has indeed given of his precious at his stage - Judaica stores as well as unsettling ideas will linger endlessly in time to check the book, cover to cover. publishers are in business to produce their young minds, eating away at their Failing that, there is obviously a dan and promote material that sells best. In innocence and temhnus. ger that the author of the haskama has a recent campaign, only one out of 24 merely reviewed selected chapters of the stores agreed to remove a given title from Neither Booklist nor Individual Haskama book and formed no more that a gen stock when a librarian convinced them eral impression. He may well have of the unacceptable nature contents. hort of publishing a recommend 1nissed those critical passages or even There are stores who place principles ed booklist - which, by definition, phrases that can do untold harm. And before profits, but, sadly, they are in the Swill raise the question, "and what this is damage that cannot later be put minority. about ... " - the option recommended right. Can one "fix" the after-effects of A final word must be said if we are seems to have its virtues. As already said, such reading? It has already been said to he realistic about the temptation to categorizing titles, certainly blacklisting that once unsavory ideas have pene read the book that was not approved. It some of them, could so easily generate trated the vulnerable mind of the is one thing if the selection is merely a discussions and arguments without youngster, there is little one can do to question of recommending positively conclusions. remove them. beneficial titles and dismissing the The closest analogy to the book sit A typical example is one of the lat other - and the youngster is quite pre uation would probably be the equally est, best-selling, techno-thrillers, com pared to toe the line. bewildering subject of contemporary plete with three letters of approval from The same task becomes more com Jewish music. Clearly, much of what is well-known rabbinic personalities plex, however, when the operation of offered to the consumer today, includ reproduced on the back cover. selection for home or library is intend ing albums entitled "chassidic," have The story includes numerous ed as a deterrent - to keep the child away undoubtedly borrowed their tempo, episodes of people becoming involved from the public library with all its pre rhythm and style from less than desir in all the undesirable activities that we sent day nisyonos (pitfalls). able elements within the secular world. are battling today. A Jewish man How far are we to go in order to pre One could certainly compile a list of rec becomes involved with a young woman vent these visits? May we bend any of the ommended Jewish music. One would, he believes to be non-Jewish. A Jewish rules? And if we exclude a title, can't they however, be inviting trouble if we youngster gets entangled with drug deal access it elsewhere anyway? These are would attempt to create the definitive ers and a gentile girl; there are shooting agonizing questions that can hardly be directory of "kosher" as opposed to incidents and samples of rough language addressed in an article of this type. These <(non-kosher" tapes. along the way. are issues that each parent, mentor or Interestingly, as many readers will Have the approving rabbis indeed educator will have to grapple with, have noted, tapes of heimisher nigunnim read the entire book? Do they honest weighing up their particular situation. have already been issued with a hechsh ly believe that this is ideal reading mate As with many other areas of life where er or haskama from leading Rabbanim rial for our youth? If so, we have a new guidance is required, we will, once who are dearly concerned about the problem. again, consult daas Torah. • alarming decline in the refinement and . genuinely Jewish character of modern Complicating Factors musical albums. This breakthrough is How can your teenager surely a welcome development. ust as Hebrew titles cannot "kasher'' and you both wih in A word of caution, however, would music that is boldly inappropriate be in place regarding haskan10s (letters and sacred words from pesukim do getting along? of approval) of)udaica publications. If notJ sit well with wild jungle sounds, so ~eadthenew we are dealing with a collection of shi it is with books. The fact that a text car urin1, a biography or a translation, it is ries a Jewish sounding title or has char helpful and reassuring even if the letter acters with names adjusted so as to be WIN/WIN is essentially an approval of the caliber acceptable to us, is feeble proof indeed from Targum/feldheim. of the author, his knowledge and char of its suitability for a place on our acter. shelves. Unfortunately, even if we are VVhen considering a novel or similar dealing with a Yiddish text, the uncer At bookstores, or send $10 to: work, however, we must read the haska tainty remains. We dare not forget the Yeshiva Fund ma carefully and not just recognize the days when Yiddish literature was Box82 signature or letterhead of a well-known churned out in quantity by architects of Staten Island, NY 10309 personality. We must really be quite sat a secular and actively anti-Torah culture. isfied that the Rav or Rosh Yeshiva con- A practical point would be justified The Jewish Observer, November 2000 43 ~\\R3~~..,------~"! -"~4't to investigate through knowledgeable COMMENTS ON KASHRUS-2000 ... people, and control the kashrus of the ~ED\~ products, that they certify. To the Editor: On the other side of the coin, avail Re:" Kashrus in the year 2000" - Dr. Leff THE NEED FOR EDUCATED ability of on-staff expertise does not raises some interesting points regarding CONSUMERS ... AND SUPERVISORS guarantee that it is always utilized. For Kashrus supervision during our time. As example, Mrs. Leff talks about the she points out, we have now reached a To the Editor: availability today of chemical testing for point where standards are constantly Dr. Judith Leif's thorough insider's fraud or error. It is a great idea) but, upgraded. This is so, she continues, look at kosher certification (" Kashrus in unfortunately, almost completely because of competition among the super the Year 2000;' JO Sept. 2000) provides unused by any agency, large or small. vising services, and also because of con a good portal for readers to understand One major problem, which was not sumer demands. There is yet another phe the complex world of kosher certification addressed by Mrs. Leff, is the extreme nomenon: products will carry two kashrus and the need for the kosher consumer to ly high number of companies certified symbols, one ofa better known kashrus ser be discriminating in his/her use of prod by one rav or by the individual rav in a vice, and a second symbol for the more dis ucts certified by the now 382 kosher cer large kashrus agency. When I call and criminating. It is not always easy to tifying agencies worldwide (as listed in find that the rav responsible for a given explain to a food manufacturer why yes the "200 I Kosher Supervision Guide" of company is unfamiliar with details and terday there was a lower standard Also, why Kashrus Magazine, Sept. 2000). must research what I am reporting to some consumers would not accept the In my travels and in my home city of him, I realize that he has taken on or supervision of a better known kashrus ser Brooklyn, NY, I have observed many rab been assigned more than he can handle. vice, but insist on a" heimishe" hashgacha. banim who give kosher certification, yet What is most needed is for the con Upgraded standards are, of course, lack sophistication in current food tech sumer and the local rabbanim to get laudatory and desirable. Unfortunate nology. Mrs. Leff mentions the need for more involved in learning about ly, enforcement can sometimes be a a rav to " ... keep abreast of the latest kashrus. It is only with the help of edu problem. Take the case of an individual developments in production processes:' cated consumers that we can upgrade or a company who is reluctant to abide She points out that many rabbanim and kashrus. Today, the US is superior to by the understanding and contract of the organizations " ... often lack the neces Europe in its kashrus standards, yet we supervising organization. The Kashrus sary technical knowledge to evaluate the are a long way off from the standards organization will then, patiently - kashrus of complicated ingredients:' available in Eretz Yisroel. sometimes too patiently - try to con Are we to conclude, then, that the only In Brooklyn, rabbanim have formed vince the company to "toe the line." acceptable kashrus agencies are the "big the KIC ( Kashrus Information Center), There is also often a hesitancy on the four" (OU, OK. Star-K, and Kof-K), those which has hired a monitor who checks part of certifying agencies to terminate which have on-staff food technologists daily on the standards of local estab a contract. "A chain is only as strong as or rabbanim who are technically savvy? lishments. No hashgachos, just solid its weakest link," as the cliche goes. I think not. Truly responsible heimishe information. Through such monitoring) Kashrus agencies operating in the U.S. hashgachos utilize their yiras Shamayim member rabbanim stay up-to-date on employ and contract with hundreds of much of what is going on in kashrus. mashgichim. Many of these supervisors Other communities should follow suit. are on a part-time basis who are reim RABBI YOSEF WIKLER, EDITOR bursed per visit or per job. They may be KASHRUS MAGA7:1NE living in areas far away from frum pop Brooklyn ulation centers. 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(718) 256· 7525 • Fax (718) 256-7578 ~...... 11111_:_,, .... _,-_,::._- __-_.::..- ___-, ____ .... 44 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 Help make.it aspec:ial.year for.!~ooo•sraeli ~::.s- 5 -:--7-'~~s7-'7-'~7-'7-'~~ f~llJl!:lS~~< theirfWilies! kashrus field simply because it is a finan More recently, in New York State, ing a code via telephone the ovens will cial drain on the supervising agency to kashrus laws have been found to be be activated. (For Sefardim, however, this assign a regular full-time mashgiach. It unconstitutional. Several years ago, this device does not satisfy the issur of bis/ml is conceivable that these individuals are writer was present at a meeting where akum. Generally, Sefardim should be less-than-qualified and properly heads of kashrus supervision agencies, careful as to whether to rely on Ashke trained. Yet, in today's complex world of including the "big four," were in atten nazi hasgachos.) kashrus supervision, ntashgichim should dance. The purpose of this meeting was AVRAHAM MORDECHAI KAUFMAN be subject to training. to explore areas of possible co-operation Lakewood, NJ What further complicates the between the various agencies. A sug kashrus scene is today's global econo gestion was made. Rabbi Don Yoe! Levy EDITORIAL CORRECTION: my. Manufactured foods and ingredi of the OK arose and quoted his legal ents are imported from the "four cor counsel who advised against co-opera Hollis Dorman's article, "The Market ners of the earth:' (Food companies tion in that particular instance. The rea place of the Mind" (JO, Sept. '00), featured have already begun producing their son? A possible violation of federal anti extensive citations from Rabbi Samson products in China. This presents a num trust laws! Had the agencies been able Raphael I-Iirsch's writings on education. ber of problems, beginning with pro to cooperate in this area, it would have The quotations were taken from The Col viding for on-site mashgichim. Chinese been a significant step forward in lected Writings of Rabbi Samson Raphael culture and the manner of their doing kashrus observance. Hirsch, Vol. 7, Feldheim Publishers. business adds up to unique problems Dr. Leff is to be commended for an in kashrus supervision.) excellent article in which she pointed out Today, kashrus supervision faces yet the ever-changing spectrum of food pro another formidable obstacle, litigation. cessing as it effects kashrus. What the aver There are a nu1nber of facets involved. age consumer may not realize is that vir A client is not meeting his contractual tually every processed food contains obligations regarding the kashrus of his chen1icals, which n1ay present kashrus Brooklyn NY 11218 product. The supervising agency problems, and almost every food is We make "housecalls" atte1npts to bring him in line, or in the processed. Also, 1nany "natural" foods, 718)972-4003 extreme, to terminate the contract. The including "fresh" fruits and vegetables, are food manufacturer then has his lawyer processed with chemicals that in some IP. :i-•"'I~- write to the supervising agency threat instances comprornise their kashrus. / - "'lb:::>w ening '(legal action," a costly alternative While modern day technology pre 1111 for the supervision agency. sents constant challenges for the kosher Then there is the disgruntled client consun1er, in some cases it also presents whose aim is to completely do away with opportunities. A "for instance" - to avoid SHALHEVES, INC. kashrus restrictions and legal safe bishul akun1 there is a kashrus super P.O.Box361 guards. He supposedly sees kashrus vising organization, which uses an elec MONSEY, NY 1 0952 legislation as interfering with the sepa tronic device to fire the ovens. It can be ration of church and state, so he brings costly to assign a shomer Shabbos Yid to YOU SPEND MANY DOLLARS ON suit. Unfortunately, he often wins in stop in daily - and sometimes several PURCHASES, court. This has happened in New jersey, times per day- to light the ovens. This TO SUSTAIN AND FEED YOUR BODY; where kashrus laws had to be re-written device is programmed so that by punch- HERE'S YOUR OPPURTUN11Y TO SPEND, in a greatly watered-down version. TO UPLIFT AND NOURISH YOUR SOUL! MANY BOOKS ANO UNIQUE TAPE ALBUMS AVAILABLE BY NOTED AUTHOI? AND LECTUl?EI?, /?' Ell?IEL TAUBE/? SH'LITA 1?111on1b/1 prieBt ine/utlB shipping! To order, or for more information, 0 R C H E S T R A S call anytime- 516 569 4949 84S-3S6-3StS 718 237 2988 800-998-0400 ------46 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 2 rt ~ beertasking fOr a smaller, lighter, edition ~fthe Schott Rav Schwab on PRAYER BRISK on CHUMASH The teachings of RABBI SHIMON SCHWAB ?"ll! Insights on the Parashah on the Siddur from Brisk to Jerusalem In the last years of his distinguished and productive life, In this marvelous anthology, Rabbi Asher Bergman Rabbi Shimon Schwab, the famed Rav of Khal Adath collects some of the choicest comments on Chumash Jeshurun in Washington Heights, NY taught the Siddur to from five generations of the Soloveitchik family, who flour his congregants. ished in Lithuania and went on to Israel. ln Rabbi Yaakov Thanks to the diligence and devotion of Moshe Blinder's excellent translations, these selections engage Schwab, his father's last teachings become a treasure for us all. Our daily the mind and cast a new light on Chumash, in the manner that is conversations with the Creator will be enriched beyond belief thanks to this uniquely "Brisk." If you know the genre, you'll love this book. If not - this is your book. No serious Jew should be without it. golden opportunity. IT WASN'T HOW IT SEEMED sllu1 ~ stories to 1afli18r"iltl Short about people who jumped conclusions A famous novelist tells classic ebbetzinYehudis Samet has "double vision" - and in stories with passion and spirit Rthis charming and stimulating book she shares her gift when people see a good thing, they want more. Yair with us. What kind of double vision? How often have we Weinstock gave us "Tales for the Soul," and it been sure, positive, willing to swear - that someone did some whetted our appetites, so here is the next course. thing terrible? After all, seeing is believing, isn't it? Not As a teller of classic stories, he uses all the toots of his always. It is all too easy to misinterpret facts and think the craft and flavors them with the warmth and verve of worst, instead of the best. Rebbetzin Samet teaches us how to look for the truth, his Chassfdic background and the incisiveness of his instead of the obvious. And she does it in a very enjoyable way, through a wealth Brisker Torah training. The result is a book of stories that inspire, entertain and of stores that have surprise endings. elevate. Like its predecessor, this is a book to read, read aloud, meditate upon Everyone loves surprises, especially when they are as pleasant as these. Read, and remember. enjoy and see how your perceptions change for the better! A Shaar Press book. ----·-~~-·-·~·~~--·~-·-~·--~-~-·-"'~"··--··"""'"'""'"'"''"""'·"~~1\s;;_::~-c/F:/: &GIPT Take Me to tbe·~' ~, Boly Land 1!f>.~ for TEENS A Child's Tour of Eretz Ymael Ideas and stories to keep you going when you're n this beautiful book, Mrs. Tsivia Yanofsky shares with happy and pick you up when you'ro down Ius a very special kind of travelogue. In it she visits numer Roiza Weinreich understands teenagers like few others. ous places from the Kosel Homaaravi to Maayan Elisha and She knows how to listen, guide, and counsel, Succinctly tells her children about them. Some history, some facts, and sympathetically she deals with the kinds of questions some Midrashim, some interesting tid-bits, some personal and problems that concern girls this vulnerable and forma feelings - all made unusually appealing and interesting with tive stage of life. This book contains more than a hundred personal letters and the help of striking photographs. Mrs. Yanofsky is a well observations from teenage girls, and they are lovingly blended with Mrs. know educator, whose presentations tingle with excitement Weinreich's experiences and observations. This book ls warm, wise, affectionate, and yiras Shamayim. This book is an outstanding introduction to the holiness and and so on t.arget. Need we say morel beauty of the Holy Land. (#100-MESORAH • /n.f\l'IS:(718) 921"9000 •FAX: (718) 680!/875 •www.artscroll.com