SEPTEMBER 2005 • ELUL 5765 VOL. XXXVIII NO. 7 USA $3.50 (Outside NY area $3.95) Foreign $4.50 SUBSCRIBE TO THE JEWISH OBSERVER! CLICK HERE CLICK HERE FOR TABLE OF CONTENTS This is the full Table of Contents of the print edition of the Jewish Observer. The web edition contains only a selection of articles (indicated in COLOR). Click on the title to go to the beginning of that article. Navigate using your browser’s menu and other options. THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021-6615 is published monthly except July & August by IN THIS ISSUE… the Agudath Israel of America 42 Broadway, New York, NY 10004. 6 Periodicals postage paid in New York, NY. Subscription $25.00/year; THE GAZA WITHDRAWAL 2 years, $48.00; 3 years, $$69.00. Outside of the United States 6 TAKING LEAVE OF GAZA; THE TRAUMA OF (US funds drawn on a US bank only) $15.00 surcharge per year. WITHDRAWAL, Yonoson Rosenblum Single copy $$3.50; Outside NY area $3.95; foreign $4.50. POSTMASTER: 11 ABANDONING GAZA: LOSING A PART OF OURSELVES Send address changes to: The Jewish Observer Boruch Leff 42 Broadway, NY, NY 10004 Tel 212-797-9000, Fax 646-254-1600 Printed in the USA Rabbi Nisson Wolpin, Editor RABBI SHLOMO WOLBE k’’z, THE ALEI SHUR Editorial Board 18 THE INNER DIMENSION, Rabbi Yehuda Mendelson Rabbi Joseph Elias, Chairman Rabbi Abba Brudny Joseph Friedenson 23 NOT A TALMID, BUT A MISLAMEID Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kirzner 18 Rabbi Nosson Scherman Menachem Shreibman Prof. Aaron Twerski Founders 26 MY GRANDFATHER, THE MASHGIACH k’’z Dr. Ernst L. Bodenheimer Z”L Rabbi Moshe Sherer Z”L Eliezer Wolbe Management Board Avi Fishof, Naftoli Hirsch Isaac Kirzner, Rabbi Shlomo Lesin, Nachum Stein Managing Editor 28 GRANDPARENTS AT RISK, Barbara Olevitch Rabbi Yosef C. 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SEPTEMBER 2 0 0 5 Yonoson Rosenblum silent on the Gaza withdrawal. The cars and apartments belonging to Chareidim and the Gaza most that can be said with confidence those who identify with the national Withdrawal about their views is that they do not religious world. view the withdrawal from Gaza, or Rarely in history has a democratic he chareidi community in Eretz other parts of Eretz Yisroel, to be hala- government willfully inflicted such Yisroel has assumed the role of chically forbidden. If they did, UTJ could deep harm on a certain segment of Tonlookers to the unfolding drama never have joined the government. In the population as that befalling the surrounding the Gaza withdrawal. addition, the Torah leaders do not feel Jewish residents of the Gaza Strip. The Though United Torah Judaism has that the security/diplomatic calculus is vast majority of residents of the tight- been part of the governing coalition so clear-cut as to render the withdrawal knit Gaza communities will not be in recent months, the party’s par- halachically forbidden on grounds of able to relocate together. Neighbors ticipation was by no means crucial to pikuach nefesh. and extended families, some of whom the process. Once he brought Labor have lived together for three decades, into his coalition, a determined Prime will be separated. Minister Sharon had numerous options The Chareidim: By No It is almost impossible to imagine to secure Knesset approval for the Gaza Means Indifferent that the lush, verdant Gaza communi- withdrawal without UTJ’s presence in ties were wrested from sand dunes the government. hough the chareidi community since 1967. It is even harder to imagine United Torah Judaism’s decision not has played only a minor role in them being rebuilt elsewhere. to join the anti-disengagement forces Tthe political process, it would be Those residing in 400-square-meter reflects the strong preference of the wrong to describe the community as homes, surrounded by yards and gar- Torah leadership to avoid casting the indifferent to what is taking place in dens, will find themselves living in decisive vote on matters of national Gaza. Most of the chareidi press has trailer homes one-quarter that size security, and especially not against the been replete with coverage of the after the withdrawal, if they are lucky will of the majority of Israeli citizens. disengagement, including photo fea- enough to have a temporary home The great Torah leaders of Eretz tures about the plight of those about at all. Meanwhile, their possessions Yisroel have been almost completely to be evicted from their homes and will be stored in a maximum of two Rabbi Rosenblum, who lives in Jerusalem, news items raising questions about containers on Negev IDF bases where is a contributing editor to The Jewish the security threats posed by the the heat inside the containers will rise Observer. He is also director of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. In my own Har to nearly 200 degrees Fahrenheit. division of Am Echad, the Agudath Israel- inspired educational outreach effort and Nof neighborhood, orange ribbons The Gaza growers, who presently media resource. (symbol of the anti-disengagement produce 12% of Israel’s agricultural forces) proliferate, and not just on output, will lose two growing seasons, 6 The Jewish Observer and many of the farmers say that they Upon consultation with its rabbinic leadership, Agudath Israel of America has issued the following state- no longer have the strength to rebuild ment: what they did twenty or thirty years A CALL TO SHARE THE PAIN OF ACHEINU BAIS YISROEL ago. Equally troubling to the chareidi community is the specter of 26 shuls These are terribly trying times for Klal Yisroel in Eretz Yisroel. And it behooves us all, no matter our opinions on the wisdom of the imminent Israeli withdrawal from and yeshivos slated for destruction. parts of our Holy Land, to pause and share in the pain and anguish of our Jewish A recent statement of Agudath brethren in Gaza. Israel of America, published after con- Those residents are, overwhelmingly, idealistic, dedicated Jews. They are being forced sultation with its Moetzes Gedolei by circumstances entirely beyond their control to give up their homes, their yeshi- HaTorah, calls on all Jews “to pause and vos, their shuls and their cemeteries, to be relocated abruptly to new surroundings. share in the pain of our Jewish breth- Whether or not the decision necessitating that relocation is politically or militarily ren in Gaza.” The statement goes on correct, its effects are, unarguably, a deep personal tragedy for many thousands. to describe the vast majority of Gaza And so, during these days of Jewish mourning over the destruction of the Batei settlers as “idealistic, dedicated Jews, Mikdash, it is only proper that we include in our hearts and in our tefillos all those [who] are being forced by circum- precious Jewish souls who are scheduled to be uprooted from the land to which they stances entirely beyond their control have been attached for many years. May Hakadosh Baruch Hu see fit to return His to give up their homes, their yeshivos, their shuls and their cemeteries, to be remain in galus, and that the world is ceeded in robbing the community of relocated abruptly to new surround- still a very dangerous place, filled with all remaining shreds of public sym- ings.” That statement pretty much many sworn enemies. The great Torah pathy. sums up the feelings of most of the leaders always feared that the contin- But neither can the national reli- Israeli chareidi community as well. ual emphasis of the national religious gious community completely wash world on Jewish military strength, and its hands of them. Shehzak Tanweer, the glorification of military service as one of the July 7 suicide bombers in Not Universally Neutral the highest calling, could veer dan- London, may have been until recently gerously close to an attitude of kochi a cricket-playing young Englishman. t the same time, the Agudah ve’otzem yadi. But he blew himself up as an Islamic statement maintains a studied The swagger of settlers, with a fanatic.