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* Sponsored by This Day in Jewish History and Mitchell Levin JABOTINSKYZionist in exile Contents Issue 38

14 Lonely Man of Honor Was it the poet’s soul, the journalist’s independent mind, or the soldier’s uniform that made Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky an outsider among Zionist leaders? The man who created the Jewish Legion led his Revisionists constantly upstream, against the Labor Zionists, the British, and the establishment in general // Yemima Hovav

40 Witness for the Defense Rabbi Zadoc Kahn’s very name meant justice – for Jewish refugees seeking shelter in France; for his friend Alfred Dreyfus, falsely accused of selling secrets to Germany; and, as a Zionist, for the Jewish people. Though his elders sometimes frowned on his activism, France’s youngest-ever chief rabbi was a credit to his country as well as his community //Tamar Hayardeni At a Glance Why were these twigs 48 Balsam Wars worth their weight Herod, Cleopatra, and Mark Antony vied for it, in gold? Answer on p. 51 enormous sums were paid for it, and its curative properties and heady scent made it sought-after all over the ancient world. Second Temple Judea’s secret treasure was nothing more than a desert shrub, but throughout the Roman Empire, balsam oil was all the rage // Geoffrey Curer Columns Critics 6 Snapshots 60 Elka Weber discovers the darker side of 11 History Repeats growing up on a kibbutz. Henry Goldblum 12 wonders why Christians are more interested than This Month in History Jews in the Babatha archive 64 History Live 69 Tale of a Trail Cover: Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky, poet, soldier, and statesman 74 Photo: Israel Government Press Office Portrait of a People 75 What’s Next

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Jabotinsky 14 Russia, Italy, France, Mandate Palestine

40 Rabbi Zadoc Kahn Balsam France Judea 48

74 Critics 60 Portrait Israel of a People France Tale of a Trail 69 Israel

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30BCE 0CE 1800 1900 2000

Death Damascus WWI WWII Six-Day of Herod Affair War

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Struggling for Mutual Respect Rachel Levmore’s belief in the fairness and flexibility of Jewish tradition permeates her efforts to promote solutions for women whose husbands refuse to grant them a divorce // Tal Noiman

Q What are your family’s my grandfather had sent to the roots? community he was to lead in We’re descended from several America. He told them he would rabbinic figures, including be their rabbi only for a few years, the great Bible and Talmud as he was planning to move to the commentator Rashi (Rabbi Holy Land. That letter resolved my Solomon Itzhaki) and emotional conflict. Rachel Levmore Maharam Padua (Rabbi Meir My grandmother Yehudis and Rabbinical court advocate, member of Katzenellenbogen of Italy, 1482– her bar-mitzva-age son, Aryeh Israel’s governmental Rabbinic Judicial 1565). The latter authored a well- Leib, were also killed in the Appointments Committee known volume of responsa and Holocaust. 1954 Born in New York was the first to insist that child My mother, Mina Rosen, ran welfare be the deciding factor in away with one of her sisters and 1975 BSc. in chemistry from Brooklyn awarding custody. Other famous managed to survive. They fled College, New York ancestors of mine are Rabbi Judah from place to place, crossing Loew of Prague (Maharal) and borders in conditions we can’t 1976 Immigrated to Israel with her Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller, begin to imagine. From Vienna, family who wrote the Tosfot Yom Tov they got to Belgium, then to commentary on the Mishna. France, Portugal, Jamaica, and 1995 Graduated from Ohr Torah– My maternal grandfather was Cuba before finally arriving in Stone’s School for Women Rabbinical Court Advocates Rabbi Mordechai Rosen, head America. Two other sisters were of the rabbinic court in Vienna saved, ending up in Tel Aviv, and 1995–2000 Doctorate from Bar-Ilan and descended from a dynasty in 1949 my mother came to visit University of rabbinic judges. As a leading them, meeting my father, Chaim rabbinic judge within Agudath Simcha Picker, at a Viennese // Activist on behalf of women trapped Israel and rabbi of the Emes Ve- immigrants’ event. in marriages by Jewish law shalom Synagogue, he was one of My father immigrated from the first Viennese Jews murdered Vienna to Mandate Palestine // Co-authored the prenuptial by the Nazis. He’d planned to in 1934. Most of his siblings Agreement for Mutual Respect emigrate to the United States and survived the Holocaust, apart already had visas and ship tickets from his youngest sister, a medical 2000–2010 Worked in the Israeli rabbinic courts’ “chained wives” for his family. Given the danger of student. She was on her way to (agunot) unit remaining in Vienna, he allowed Palestine when her Youth Aliya others to embark on the Sabbath, ship was captured by the Nazis in // Directs Young Israel and Jewish yet he himself didn’t. Yugoslavia. That’s where she was Agency project to prevent agunot and I never understood why he murdered. Her name was Rachel, get (bill of divorce) refusal didn’t come to Palestine, until and I’m named after her. just a few years ago when my Life was very difficult in Israel // Mother of seven and grandmother uncle gave me a copy of a letter when my parents got married. of nine

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They opened a laundromat, but course. Upon receiving the parcel, a tremendous achievement the it was ahead of its time and the camp commander looked all Rabbinical Council of America’s failed. When my mother became over for a child named Shalom prenuptial agreement was. Every pregnant with me, she was afraid Picker, until the package was couple married by the RCA must to stay here, preferring America’s claimed by a bearded old man – sign a prenuptial agreement in more advanced medical system. my grandfather. From then on, he order to prevent get refusal. So they left before I was born. became the camp shohet. I thought to myself: why is On my mother’s side, my there no such standard procedure Q An interesting family story? grandfather’s mother, Henya here in Israel? Prof. Ariel Zvi My paternal grandparents, Shalom Yuta Hindeh, was apparently Rosen had in fact produced such and Feige Picker, were held in an exceptional woman. After a contract, commissioned by the Atlit, having arrived in Palestine her husband, a rabbi and dayan NA’AMAT women’s movement, on an illegal immigration ship. (rabbinic judge), died, people but its validity in Jewish law They were caught and deported brought their halakhic questions is questionable. I saw the need to a British detention camp in to her. for an agreement that would be Mauritius. My grandfather, who Twenty years ago, my cousin recognized, like the American was about sixty, wouldn’t eat Mordechai Rosen moved to prenup, by both rabbinic and there, because the food wasn’t Israel. When he introduced secular courts. I already had an kosher. He ate only what my himself in synagogue, a very outline in my head, but I knew grandmother cooked. Though old man immediately asked if it would never be accepted by men and women were separated he was descended from Rabbi rabbis – that would be much too in the camp, the British let my Mordechai Rosen of Vienna. On revolutionary. grandmother cook for him on the hearing he was a grandson, the The idea took shape over the men’s side. elderly Jew told him: “Your great- years, and slowly I began putting My grandfather was a shohet, grandmother, Henya Yuta Hindeh, the document together. People but there was no way of ritually once came into one of the rabbi’s heard about it, and couples who slaughtering animals there, so he classes. He immediately ordered us wanted to start their marriage on and my grandmother didn’t eat to stand in her honor.” a more equitable footing began meat. His father, Yehuda Aryeh approaching me. Leib Picker, was in America Q What made you write the To be legally binding, the but somehow found out his son prenuptial Agreement for agreement had to be signed in and daughter-in-law were in Mutual Respect? the presence of either a family a detention camp with almost I’d always known there was a court, a rabbinic one, a notary, nothing to eat. So he bought problem with women being refused or a marriage registrar. To get shehita knives and mailed them divorces by their husbands, but I the rabbinic courts’ approval, to the camp. The package was didn’t understand all the ins and I realized I’d have to step into addressed, in not terribly good outs until I studied at the School the lion’s den and force them English, to his “baby,” Shalom for Women Rabbinical Court to wrestle with the halakhic Picker. He meant his son, of Advocates. Then I realized what implications themselves. If any

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other authority approved the studying the Talmudic tractate immense knowledge of Torah, and agreement first, the rabbinic of Ketubbot together, and from the tools they’ve been given, to court would automatically oppose their theoretical discussions solve problems. If that makes them it. I was also aware that Dayan they’d concluded that a prenuptial nervous, they should remember Zalman Nehemia Goldberg of agreement should be composed to the biblical dictum “fear no one” the Supreme Rabbinic Court prevent spouses from withholding (Deuteronomy 1:17), which was had already approved the RCA’s a divorce. It was a Friday, so directed specifically at judges. prenup. I was cooking for Shabbat. Though they have ways and means I wrote a very limited prenup, Right there in my kitchen, they of dealing with the issue within then took the first couple through showed me the agreement they’d halakha, too many women have the whole process: we opened a file formulated. Tears welled up in been suffering for too long. at the rabbinic court, requesting my eyes. It was too strange to be approval for the agreement, and coincidence: their prenup was Q What’s the most profound I made sure it landed in Dayan incredibly similar to the one I’d change that can be made Goldberg’s courtroom. Over a developed over the years. We’ve through the religious courts to few years I did that nine times, been working as a team ever solve the problems of women making slight changes and since. We consulted lawyers, imprisoned by Jewish law in improvements in the wording to judges, dayanim, academics, and unhappy marriages? expand the document’s scope. psychologists, and by 2000 we The makeup of the committee The idea was that the samedayan had a final version. Rather than responsible for selecting rabbinic would encounter the request again requesting the rabbinic judges’ judges has to change. Today a and again, showing that there was approval, we presented it to the politically agreed-upon formula grass-roots pressure behind it and public, and this strategy worked. determines the composition of that the time had come to make the committee, resulting in judges halakhic prenups available in Q Is the problem of being chosen on the basis of Israel. exploitation in divorce their political loyalties or which The agreement continued to proceedings a product of religious sector they represent. develop, and when I felt it was Jewish law or of the Israeli That’s appalling. Whichever ready, I met with Dayan Shlomo rabbinic courts? Are there committee member has the most Fischer of Jerusalem, a good- untapped, halakhic ways of clout can veto – usually without hearted ultra-Orthodox rabbi who solving it? justification – capable, qualified knows how to apply the Torah to The root of the problem is Jewish judges who could change things making people’s lives easier. He law’s requirement that divorce can significantly for the better. The proclaimed the prenup perfectly be granted only by a husband. But whole process of appointing acceptable from a halakhic point when God gave us the Torah, He rabbinic judges has been of view. It involved no coercion, also gave us the tools to work with politicized, and no one who’s been which makes a divorce invalid. it. Torah is compared to water, so vetoed can get in. But when I requested his seal of religious leaders must make sure approval, he replied, “Me? No. it remains vital and refreshing. Q Have you ever felt part of an Go to Rabbi Zalman Nehemia They have to innovate within important historical process? Goldberg!” Jewish law, solving problems as Always. In my community, Two weeks later, Rabbis Elyashiv they arise. To me, that’s the job I’ve been among the first to do Knohl and David Ben Zazzon of the rabbinic judges and the things previously unacceptable came to see me. They were religious court system – to use their for women, such as holding a

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Couples sign on post nuptial agreements to prevent get refusal at an event sponsored by the Women’s Beit Midrash in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, 2016 Photo: Sigal Krimolovski

public Megilla reading by and for women on Purim. Being a rabbinical court advocate is also revolutionary. Rabbi Shlomo Riskin set up the Monica Dennis Goldberg School for Women Rabbinical Court Advocates in 1990, and within just a decade – which is nothing from a historical perspective – I was the first female rabbinic advocate to work in the directorate of the rabbinic courts, in a unit dealing with agunot – “chained” women unable to obtain divorces. I keep reminding myself and my colleagues that it’s a process, and the wheels of justice, Jewish law, and history turn more slowly than we’d like. Since 1990 there’s been a quiet revolution in women’s status. How many women held doctorates in Bible or Talmud in 1990? Almost none. Now look how a personal information form the never talked about the Holocaust at many women are excelling in these Nazis forced him to fill out (along home, but I understood in my own fields, how many learned women with all other Jews) in 1938. It’s way. are also spiritual leaders! Women stamped with a swastika. are becoming true leaders even Q A Jewish figure you admire? in ultra-Orthodox circles. This a Q A headline you’ll never forget? Eli Wiesel. He didn’t just experience worthy moral, and Jewish historical The headlines after U.S. president the Holocaust, he also made it a development. John F. Kennedy was assassinated. real presence in the lives of all those I was nine, but I still remember born afterward. Before his efforts, Q Do you own anything of where I was when I heard about they knew something had happened, historic value? it – on the steps outside my school. but they didn’t know exactly what, I have only one letter written Though I was young, I knew because no one discussed it. Even by my grandfather Mordechai exactly what the murder meant. those who did couldn’t convey the Rosen. All of his responsa and An even earlier impression was horror in words, but Eli Wiesel other writings were destroyed in made on me by seeing Eichmann managed to, as much as anyone on the Holocaust. I have a copy of in the glass cage at his trial. We earth could. And he didn’t just stay a New York Yiddish newspaper had a black and white TV in our sane, he remained Jewish to the core whose front page reported that apartment in New York, and I and became a great man in his own he’d been murdered. I also have remember watching the broadcast right. He fought moral crusades in several Jewish books that belonged of the trial. I don’t remember how the name of humanity – and won. I to my paternal grandfather, and it was explained to me, because we think that’s almost superhuman.

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Q A writer who had an Q A historic figure you’d like impact on you? to meet? Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. I’d like to meet the biblical Rachel. In a Word I see myself as his student. He Since childhood I’ve identified knew how to infuse life with with and been fascinated by her, holiness in a very secular era. presumably because we share the New York u the city where I was Not to reject modernity, but same name. born to fuse Torah with science and There’s so much missing from the progress – Torah U-mada, as in description of Rachel’s personality Chemistry u building blocks of creation the motto of Yeshiva University. in the Torah, which gives us mostly His philosophy and the profound her outward characteristics, and Family u above all way he expressed his ideas in then along comes Jeremiah the

writing penetrate the soul, prophet and throws in a whole new, Bar Kokhba u easy to connect because he wrote out of genuine deeper image, of Rachel weeping with, because I live on his stomping empathy. He taught his students for her children: “A voice is heard grounds – Gush Etzion to confront reality without losing in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter either themselves or their Torah. weeping; Rachel, weeping for her Herod u delusions of grandeur As a young woman, I attended children, refusing to be comforted, a few of the public lectures he for they are gone” (ch. 31). Masada u a reminder of how gave once or twice a year. They The title of my book on the use fragile nationhood can be lasted three hours straight, there of prenups to prevent divorce Exile u I’m well out of it, physically were only a few hundred seats, extortion, Spare Your Eyes Tears, is and mentally and you needed a ticket to get in, taken from the next verse: “Spare

which was really hard to come your voice from weeping and your Talmud u a fascinating challenge by. eyes from tears, for your work shall Of all his books and articles, be rewarded, says the Lord, and Law u an imperfect, human system I’m particularly connected to The they shall return from the land of of justice Lonely Man of Faith, which talks the enemy.” about the two personalities vying I think Jeremiah’s words speak to Marital annulment u something within man – the religious being me because God promises Rachel that has to be developed, within as opposed to the man of science. reward for her actions. She acted, halakha Rabbi Soloveitchik wanted to and her actions had an effect. For Civil marriage u good question! live both of them fully, creating me, that means that everyone has a dialectic. Our lives are filled to act, to do whatever he or she can. with this movement between Perhaps it’s a bit optimistic, but two poles, and we have to know I’m an optimist. Our work will be how to navigate from one stage rewarded. to the next, from one struggle to This prophecy also mentions another. For someone like me, Rachel’s children returning to Tal Noiman A journalist, Noiman studied who’s always been drawn to both their homeland, and living in art at Emunah College and is working on a master’s degree in Torah and science, that book Israel is one of the most important Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion explained to me who I am. principles in my life.  University of the Negev

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