temporal standards we so arrogantly establish — listened to. For this inner suffering goes beyond the arrogantly, because we think that what we feel is vulgar Nixomanic type of "it's good for the Jews" wrong and right is ipso facto wrong and right. We now afflicting us. It is perhaps a reflection of an apply few standards, tests, measuring rods to our intuition, an echo of an echo, a hint that we who live ethics, save the spirit or ethos of the times in which in a land of freedom are nevertheless ingalut (exile), we happen to live, or certain nice sentiments or temporary sojourners who must pause before singing instincts of our own. But ethics have halakhic norms the song of God in a strange land. They know, as and framework, and this is what the gedolim know. Wyschogrod says, more than they say. They may know that we are in galut, while their critics may A Gadol is not simply one who has studied much and think that we live in freedom. become expert in Torah and Talmud and . A Gadol is not elected to leadership; no one speaks Because of all this it might be circumspect to give for his candidacy; he has no P.R. apparatus to enhance their public silence a hearing before using pejoratives his image. He is acknowledged by a sure and subtle like "insensitive" and "indifferent." They are, after process which knows its leaders and places them in all, more than any of us the dim echoes of our the forefront of a generation, often against the will of ancient tradition, the faint hint of our eternity. the Gadol himself. The genius of k 'lal Yisroel has And they have been so often right. They have always been able to distinguish between a true Gadol implanted, against all logic, Torah in North America. and an ordinary scholar. The Gadol not only knows Before castigating the bearers of halakhah for their Torah; his life is Torah, his every word is Torah, and lack of compassion, let us wait, each in his own way, in a very real sense he is the repository of Torah on for all the precincts to be heard from — lest history earth. And what sets a Gadol apart is not merely his refer to some of us as cruel, indifferent and insensitive piety, saintliness, integrity, and scholarship. Rather, to our present condition. it is his perception, his ability to penetrate beneath the surface, his capacity for the intuitive flash which discovers reality not as it appears to be but as it is: reality in the light of Torah. The Gadol pierces the An argument from silence is no argument veil which obliterates reality and thus makes manifest Henry Siegman to us the way of Torah and halakhah and, ultimately, the way of God. The several writers who take issue with me (Sh'ma That such men are mortal and subject to human 2/36, 2/40, 3/41) base their objections on essentially error no one denies: they do not claim infallibility; three grounds: but that such men can be indifferent to suffering 1) Jews have no responsibility for what happens in or desensitized to the pain of others is preposterous history. Their responsibility is to study Torah and because of the highly tuned instruments which are their mind and heart. Do Siegman and Golub really to raise new generations of Jews. think that only they feel the pain of napalm? Or do 2) Communism is the arch foe of . It must be they equate compassion with ringing peace pro- opposed and destroyed wherever it rears its head. nouncements in The N.Y. Times? They tend to overlook the compassion of saba yisroel (grandfather 3) The historic memory of Orthodox Jewish leaders ) to which the gedolim more than others are prevents them from challenging political authority. attuned — and which knows compassion and suffering They know that we still live in galut. from millenia of familiarity with these twins. Jewish activism is not the issue An intuitive knowledge not to be questioned To begin with the last point, Norman Frimer and And perhaps they know that there is a compassion others argue that the problem is not one of ethical which supersedes all compassion: the compassion insensitivity but of a historically conditioned mistrust towards the Jewish people, through whose life man- of the nations. Similarly, Abraham Besdin writes kind lives — in whose merit mankind exists — through (Sh'ma 3/41): "Our gedolim may be more sensitive to whose being mankind is able to perceive God as the basic insecurity which has always characterized through a glass darkly. And if this compassion for Jewish life in the galut." their own people causes them to resist the temptation I have not doubt that this is an accurate description of to flay the government under whose dominion they how Orthodox leaders generally view chesed leumim live, then perhaps this silent suffering should be (kindness of the nations) — even in the freest of

12 societies. Moreover, I believe they are far more right take strong exception to the classical Weltanschauung than they are wrong in their assessment, although I of the £oZws-minded regarding the gentile world . . . would insist that there are times when risks must be but that has little to do with primary ethical sensiti- j taken. But this misses the central point, since in my vity," writes Frimer. But my point is exactly the article (Sh'ma 2/36) I did not argue for Orthodox reverse. My argument is not with the classical activism. Indeed, I did not even maintain that there skepticism of the Orthodox when it comes to the is only one moral position regarding Vietnam. I presumed humanitarianism of even the most liberal stated explicitly that "I do not for a moment assume movements. After Auschwitz, only a fool would • that someone who supports President Nixon in South challenge that skepticism. My argument has every- Vietnam is less moral than one who opposes him . . . thing to do with "primary moral sensitivity." there are morally sensitive people who are convinced Are we merciful or not? that U.S. actions in Southeast Asia are preventing a The strangest position of all is that of Michael far greater evil and far greater suffering." Wyschogrod, who argues that the Jewish people I indicated that the problem with Orthodox leader- are the most compassionate of all people, for Torah ship is that it has given no evidence of working preeminently makes for the development of through the moral issues involved, and that for most ethical sensitivities (Sh'ma 2/36). The only reason of them, "their support of President Nixon's policy is one does not in fact see evidence of this, says ' based solely on the calculation of the advantages of Wyschogrod, is because this same Torah also forbids . this support for Jewish interests; what happens to the us from expressing this compassion, because ulti- Vietnamese never even enters into the moral mately it is only Jewish survival that redeems man- i equation." kind.

To invoke the dangers of Jewish activism is to avoid It seems to me that it is patently absurd to suggest the issue. I do not know of a single in which that a discipline which obliges its followers to Tehilim (Psalms) were recited for the victims of suppress their natural rachamanut (mercy) — a American bombings. I do not know of one rosh proposition which I do not for a moment accept) yeshiva who told his students that although one may — has nevertheless produced a people who are the not demonstrate publicly, one is obliged to cry for world's greatest rachamanim (merciful ones). If these tragic victims in the privacy of one's room. The the hallmark of J ewishness is rachamanut, it is surely sad fact is that these victims simply do not exist in so because throughout Jewish history Jews practised the consciousness of our roshei yeshiva. Their compassion, and not because they suppressed it. suffering does not seem to matter, and that is the More importantly, 1 reject Wyschogrod's conception heart of the dilemma. of Judaism as historically neutral — "the time of unredeemed history is simply not the time of Frimer writes that he welcomes the public debate Israel." I agree with Berkovits (Sh'ma 3/41) that this generated by my article as long overdue. "Let one is an accurate description of a certain stage of Christian development, but hardly of Judaism. NIPXT -ro you the y Roshei yeshiva: a respectful realism call A TZATMttl Wyschogrod informs us that "it is not permitted \ to love suffering humanity more than Moshe Feinstein does, or Rabbi Kaminetsky, or the Lubavitcher Rebbe." These Orthodox leaders, according to Wyschogrod,"know more than they say.

Without intending to be cither polemical or dis- respectful, I must say that we have no reason to assume that the roshei yeshiva know more than they say. 1 am a product of the vt'shivot, and it has been my experience that many roshei yeshiva tend to be naive and uninformed, not only about worldly matters, but even about Jewish concerns. It does no service to truth or to faith to pretend otherwise. utl> the yeshiva I attended, both secular and religious x vitve*. c° Zionist leaders were regularly referred to with the epithet yimach shemam vezichram (may their name ha ME! and memory be blotted out). Their struggle for the i establishment of the State of Israel was seen by many roshei yeshiva as the work of the devil.) That Wyschogrod dares to love general culture more than the roshei yeshiva do; that he chose to acquire a university education, and to teach what the roshei yeshiva consider to be the most dangerous kind of apikursus (heresy) to other Jewish students indicates that even he does not believe that the roshei yeshiva know more than they say. Indeed, he apparently believes that even when they say it, they can be wrong. Silence: an inadequate ethical standard Emanuel Feldman echoes Wyschogrod's conviction Is communism "jewish business?" that the gedolim know more than they say. He In one and the same article, Wyschogrod manages to dismisses other people's anguish over the death and argue (falling back on Rosenzweig) that the affairs destruction in Vietnam as "arrogant." "There is an of the world are not "Jewish business," because ethic and a morality which supercedes the temporal "the time of unredeemed history is not the time of standards we so arrogantly establish," writes Israel," and that the war in Vietnam is Jewish Feldman," — arrogantly, because we think that what business with a vengence, for "Orthodox Jews believe we feel is wrong and right is ipso facto wrong and Communism destructive of the Jewish people." Others right." My dear Rabbi Feldman, if to "feel" that the (Besdin, Gold, Klass, etc.) put it even more strongly. systematic devastation of hundreds of thousands of They describe Communism as Amalek, and the men, women and children is arrogance, then God struggle against it, whether in Vietnam or anywhere save us from humility. else in the world, a milchemet (a war "commanded" by God). More important, if "feelings" are an inadequate ethical standard, then surely silence — even the If, as they say, this is the great truth that the gedolim silence of gedolim — will hardly do. By all means, let know and their critics are so sadly ignorant of, then I us apply "standards, tests, measuring rods to our think one has a right to ask a far more serious ethics," and let the gedolim tell us by what standards, question. To put it generously, the roshei yeshiva tests and measuring rods they justify the carnage in are not known for encouraging young Jews to join Vietnam. That was the whole point of my article. the U.S. Armed Forces to engage in this milchemet All you finally end up with are not standards and mitzvah against Amalek in Vietnam. Can it be that tests, but silence, and the dark hint that the gedolim they are satisfied to let goyim and blacks die in this know more than they say. battle with the arch foe of the Jewish people? Is this Torah ethics? A plea for halakhic enlightenment You argue for a circumspection that gives the "public More importantly, I find this mindless opposition to silence (of the gedolim) a hearing: Let us wait, each Communism — "we must fight it at every front and in his own way, for all the precincts to be heard with whatever weapons we possess" — to be both from." We have waited, Rabbi Feldman. The war in uninformed and dangerous. Let me quickly assure Vietnam has been raging at least since 1964. I finally my colleagues that I am opposed to Communism — dared open my mouth eight long years and several sufficiently so to have volunteered to join the U.S. hundred thousand lives later. We have waited, Rabbi Armed Forces during the Korean war where I served Feldman; may God forgive us for how long we have on the battle lines. But even America's political waited. Neanderthals have come to distinguish between a Communism that threatens our survival and those In conclusion, the issue is not whether my own view that do not. Even they understand that a failure to of the immorality of the war in Vietnam is right or make such distinctions can lead to a nuclear holo- wrong. As I stated clearly in my article, the issue is caust. whether in real life — not in sermons and journal

14 articles — the halakhic discipline makes for ethical Jewish past represents a goal. We wholeheartedly sensitivities. I believe that it should, and my article agree. Many students have chosen to strive towards , was a plea to halakhic authorities that they free the this goal in both creative and not-so-creative | halakha from the confines to which they have fashions. They do so in the firm belief that the i restricted it and release the depths of enlightenment synthesis of their efforts will form the future of and compassion contained within it for all who are Judaism. created in the Tzelem Elokim (image of God). The Bayit The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, N.C. ... but others say about free universities

The free university as catalyst The dangers of the free university We would like to thank Richard Levy for his eloquent My vested interest is in the education and employ- reply to Dr. Meyers article. It captured many of our ment of young scholars in the field of Jewish thoughts and showed a profound understanding for studies. My fear is that "Free Universities" will , the lives we and other Jewish college students are cost them jobs. They will compete with curricular • trying to lead. Eric Meyers' article (Sh'ma 2/38) courses by duplicating their subjects. Since they expresses what we feel to be sincere concern for the demand much less effort, "Free Universities" quality of Jewish life today and in the future. While satisfy the modest interest of the students on the ' we too share in this concern, we contend that his cheap. i perspective of Jewish life at Duke and Chapel Hill is ! narrow and that some of his assertions are illegi- Rabbi Polak (Sh'ma 3/41) refers to a course of timately based. thirteen one and one-half hour meetings. But a university course will have forty-two hours of We must question Dr. Meyers' capability to analyze sessions and also require papers, extensive reading, 1 the Duke-Chapel Hill situation. If Dr. Meyers' or and examinations, so that perhaps a hundred hours anyone else wishes to speak about "The Bayit" will be devoted to the same subject. (U.N.C. — Chapel Hill) or to refer to us in an article, we would expect that person to have some personal I wonder whether the sponsors of "free universities" knowledge of our community. It is an unfortunate have taken account of the threat they pose to the ; truth that none of the Bayit members have ever met academic study of Judaism and other aspects of Jewish learning. Granted, Hillel have not only , with Dr. Meyers; a cordial relationship can be to do a job, but to create one. But is there no , beneficial to us both. Yet he questions The Bayit's other educational role for Hillel and related pro- reliability on the basis of non attendance at two grams? programs at Duke (not at U.N.C), only one of which was a Hillel program. And before anyone makes the decision that we are or are not a chavurah, we would At Brown our Hillel rabbi, Richard Marker, fulfills think that person would find it urgent to visit us an absolutely unique educational role. My "Intro- in our home. duction to Judaism," has about 120 students. It is not appropriate to raise, in lectures and discussions The North Carolina Free Jewish University is not questions of interest primarily within the Jewish merely a superficial adventure. The courses, while situation. Rabbi Marker attends the lccturcs and by necessity of time and resources, are not of the conducts voluntary discussion groups, for Jewish tame depth as those within the University, are students to relate what they arc learning to their nevertheless academically substantial. We agree with sclf-undcrstanding as Jews. These groups are Dr. Meyers that the interest in these classes is a well-attended and an important aspect of the educa- significant signpost. The FJU does serve as a catalyst tional experience. To be sure, Rabbi Marker does to further study and does reflect an increasing need not call his discussion-groups a "tree university." for Jewish studies within the curriculum. The Bayit, and the students do not know the groups represent as well as other students, has worked hard in the something not commonplace in the academic study past and has met with some succcss in this endeavor. of Judaism. We have not told them Rabbi Marker's We shall continue in our efforts. work is "revolutionary."

Rabbi Levy paraphrased Rosenzweig stating that the Rabbi Polak tells us courses in "Basic" Judaism and 15 $ t

"Basic" Bible require additional instructors. I ask: culture. We shall probably all be reduced, like him, Do their professional qualifications compare with to becoming addicts of newspapers and to not only those who, at Boston University, teach unbasic believing what they report but also to believing that i Judaism and unbasic Bible? what they don't report has no reality.

Rabbi Polak claims these courses are a beginning. My knowledge of the rhetoric at United Nations What hard data can he adduce to show the students Plaza came from a reporter who heard it first-ear, ojr proceed to curricular courses? the spot. Perhaps the New York Times was elsewhere' at that moment; the New York Post may have been He asserts the attrition rates are lower and the embarrassed (though that is concededly hard to attendance records are higher. I should like to know imagine); and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency covers ' where he gets his evidence. For the few programs only press releases. Professor Siegel really must try I with which I keep in touch, they are false. to find supplementary sources of knowledge. ' Granted, Jewish study may be chiefly, or solely, a What is characteristic of many writers on these religious act. Admittedly, in a university it is not a subjects is that, when faced with conflicting posi- religious act at all. At any rate I do not particularly tions, they assign to one a totally positive, to the care whether some rabbis implant or withhold their other a totally negative, moral valence. That hekhsher (stamp of approval) on our work in seems to me, in the context of Israel and the universities. But it is disciplined and careful, an act American Jewish community, a much more common of learning, not merely of learned mumbling. and deleterious cast of mind than the one he Rabbi Polak finally presents us with two issues. Is deplores. His analogy of contemporary political the secular university the only place for Jewish issues with Jeremiah is trite, with the Holocaust study? Of course not. Who is so ignorant as to claim sacrilegious. otherwise? Is the secular university the best place for Henry Schwarzschild Jewish study? Of course not. It has its strength and White Plains, N.Y. weaknesses, as many of us have been careful to point out. When several generations of students Shma: the ideal channuka gift have passed through university courses in Jewish studies, we shall have a clear picture of the solid Sh'ma is making available a special subscription educational results, if any, of our teaching. I should rate for those who would like to send Sh'ma as a be surprised to learn they do not compare favorably Channuka gift: $5.00 for 1 year. Please send us your with those in "free universities" in the same sub- check together with the names, addresses and zip jects and disciplines. codes of your recipients, to our business address: Sh'ma, Box 567, Port Washington, N.Y. 11050. Jacob Neusner Providence, R.I. NORMAN E. FRIMER coordinates Hillel activities in the greater New York area. ...but others say... SAUL J. BERMAN teaches Judaic Studies at Stern A reply to an oversimplification College for Women in New York City. If Seymour Siegel (Sh 'ma 2/40) wishes to make the point that the continued existence of tragic EMANUEL FELDMAN is rabbi of Congregation absurdity in the world, as expressed by Kohelet, Beth Jacob in , . ought not to be restated in the terms of any other contemporaneity, then he will be depriving us of HENRY SIEGMAN is an Orthodox rabbi who has much of the great literature of Jewish and Western long been active in Jewish community affairs.

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