KISLEV, 5734 / NOVEMBER, 197S VOLUME IX, NUMBER 7 rHE EWISH SIXTY FIVE CENTS BS ERV ER THE YoM KIPPUR WAR ... AND US a series of searching articles based on addresses by leading Roshei Yeshiva • The Faces of War a photo-anecdote feature • also Chassidus and the Lonely Jew a critique of Elie Wiesel's "Souls on Fire" THE JEWISH OBSERVER in this issue ... THE YoM KrPPUR WAR: (Prinled in order of their presentation) WHAT rs DEMANDED FRoM Us?, Yaakov Weinberg... 3 MORTAL MIGHT IN WAR AND PEACE, Hagaon Horav Moshe Feinstein ................................................ 6 WHAT ARE OUR WEAPONS?, H agaon Hor av Y aakov Yitzchok Ruderman ..................... 8 THE FACES OF WAR .................................................... ,......................... 9 CHASSIDUS AND THE LONELY JEW (a review article of Elie Wiesel's "Souls on Fire"), Alter Ben Zion Metzger... 12 UP FROM INSANITY, Yaakov Feldman ................................................... 20 BOOK REVIEW: UNIVERSAL JEWISH HISTORY: THE PATRIARCHAL AGE (part II conclusion) ........................................................................ 24 SECOND LOOKS AT Kmuv RECHOKIM: SAVING TEXAS, Nachum Zvi Josephy ................................. 26 ONE SouL, Chaya D. Rosenzweig .......................................... 28 WHo's QUALIFIED?, Elkanah Schwartz .............................. 29 LISA AND ME/THEM AND Us, Nechama Krupenia ......... 30 THE JEWISH OBSERVER is published monthly, except July and August, WHo's NOT QUALIFIED?, R. D. Adlin .............................. 31 by the Agudath Israel of Amercia, 5 Beekman St., New York, N. Y. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ................................................................................. 32 10038. Second class postage paid at New York, N. Y. Subsctiption: $6.50 per year; Two years, $11.00; PICTURE CREDITS: Cover, UPI; Page 9, Sha'arei Zedek Hospital, Jerusalem; Three years $15.00; outside of the Pages 13, 14, 17, A PEOPLE APART: HASIDISM IN AMERICA, Photographs by United States $7 .50 per year. Single Philip Garvin, E. P. J)utton & Co., Inc. Ne1v York 1970; Page 19, THE copy sixty-five cents. FACE OF FAITH by Gershon Kranzler, Photographs by Irving I. Herzberg, Printed in the U.S.A. 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Zip............ ., D Enclose gift card D Enclosed: $ ....................... Nov. VOL. No. 1973 IX, 7 0 Bill me: $ ....................... ..... @ THE YOM KIPPUR WAR • What lS Demanded From Us? The following is based on an address delivered by RABBI YAAKOV WEINBERG, Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Israel-Baltimore, at a meeting of Torah Umesorah's National Conference of Yeshiva Principals. The Question Somewhere in the fabric of the legal structure of WE ARE EXPERIENCING a time of great significance. the Torah there must lie the din covering a Jew's re­ Not only in the sense of the dawning awareness of how sponse to such a time. If we do search through the the Yad Hashem is becoming undeniably visible in entire Talmud and the codes and responsa to answer what appeared to be random meanderings in the flow a question in hilchos tarfos (dietary laws); if we cannot of history, but in the reality of a time of adversity. accept simply an educated guess, a reasonable opinion, A time in which all Jews-wittingly or not-so-wittingly or an inner conviction when it comes to hilchos -are involved. A time in which lie portents of pro­ Shabbos; then infinitely more so must we be wary of found changes in the status of Jew among Gentile, of anything less than the dvar Hashem (word of G-d) Jew and his relationship to Eretz Yisroel, and of when approaching the question of our response to a Yisroel's relationship to Hashem Yisborach. situation which threatens the entire Kial Yisroel. We relieve our sense of helplessness and frustration One need not search very far to discover that there by sending money, writing congressmen, and perhaps is indeed an entire body of dinim concerned exclusively attending rallies. And we certainly say some Tehillim. with detailing this response-the Hilchos Ta'anis (Laws Yet when we approach the "Why"-which is, of of Fast Days) : course, the only realistic basis for determining our I. "It is a positive commandment in the Torah to cry response-we tend to sink to the imprecise romantic out and sound trumpets on any infliction which notion of the Jew's fate in hostile history, some mystical befalls the community.... cosmic tension, as if to put the Creator on trial, as 2. "And such action is of the paths of teshuvah (repent­ others have done in the past. And there are those who ance). For at such time as trouble comes and there are quick to point to the irreligious elements in Eretz is crying out and trumpeting, then all will come to Yisroel, and how "they had it coming to them.'' But understand that the source of such misfortune is there is rarely an honest attempt to discover the answer their own misdeeds ... and this will bring about the to the truly basic question: What does G-d want of us? withdrawal of the affliction. The Source of Guidance 3. "However, if there is no crying, no trumpeting, but rather will they say that what has befallen is an THE NATION THAT ACCEPTED on Sinai for all time the aspect of life, a pure coincidence that all this has Torah as its only source of axioms cannot afford to happened-this is a cruel reaction and causes one ignore the basic terms of that treaty with G-d. We to continue in those same misdeeds. And so over cannot look elsewhere for judgments, either moral or and above this misfortune will still more be added, practical. Torah must be our guide, or "Na'aseh as it says in the Torah, 'If you will act with me V'nishma-We shall do and we shall harken" is nothing keri (with happenstance) then I, too, will act with more than a memory of what was once a relationship. you in furious keri.' That is to say, if when I bring The Jewish Observer/ Noven1ber, 1973 3 upon you affliction in order that you do teshuvah, In the Rambam's halacha, then, "cruelty" is the ex­ you will say it is keri-coincidence-I will bring pression of choice. What deeper manifestation of total upon you the fury which such keri-reaction insensitivity is there than not caring enough to cry warrants." out at murder, brutality and hardships affecting millions (Halachos 1-3 of Hilchos Ta'anios of Kial Yisroe/. in Rambam, first chapter) Still, one protests, one must retain a sense of what is practical. There doesn:t seem to be much gain The Rambam's Emphasis in raising alarms and crying out. Millions have done so AT FIRST GLANCE, there is nothing new here, only the before; teshuvah was rarely forthcoming, and the age-old lesson that teshuvah will cure our ills. And as crisis itself see1ns to pass only when it has run its for the element of coincidence-who among the G-d course. At this point, reference to the Rambam's second fearing can believe that all is coincidence? It is certainly halacha is in order. well-known that the Ramban (Nachmanides) writes Read closely.... The Rambam proclaims that there in his commentary on Parshas Bo that whoever attri­ is no requisite to do teshuvah in order to secure the butes events of historical impact to coincidence has no relief of the crisis. Only that we recognize that our part in our Torah. misdeeds have created the infliction. At that point (says It would seem, then, that our type of low-keyed the Rambam) the misfortune will be withdrawn! reaction is simply not covered by what the Rambam Simply stated, if we consider crying out in tefillah­ has written. For the overwhelming majority of religious not as a petition to a despot who, if beseeched suf­ Jewry seems to be in some middle stratum, not really ficiently, will take to heart our needs-but rather as covered by this halacha. We do not believe in coinci­ an admittance of fault, as a self-indictment, as a dence, so we do not go in keri; but neither are we conviction that things 1nust change within us and in about to cry out or blow trumpets. For whatever reason our actions, we will avert the crisis. If we understand -be it habit, laziness, fear of public opinion, or not that crying out and sounding the trumpets serve the fully caring enough-we find ourselves in a nether same purpose-the awakening of the Kial, not of world seemingly not covered by dinei Torah. Hashem Yisboruch, then there will be no crisis upon Look again. crisis, no more suffering for the stubbornness of our For the Rambam seems to make a puzzling choice keri attitude. of words when he says, "This is a cruel reaction." The Onus of Responsibility Improper, evil, ignorant-these would seem to be adjectives more suited to the context of the halacha. THERE JS YET ANOTHER subtlety which remains to he And it is odd, too, that the halacha should concern uncovered in these few illuminating halachos, and the web which is to entangle us in electrifying responsibility itself here with those who do not accept hashgacha­ Divine control of events.