ELUL 5726 / SEPTEMBER 1966 Volume 3, Number 7 THE EWISH FIFTY CENTS BSERVEF

The Autopsy Crisis in Israel

The Day Schools / A Balance Sheet

A Voice From Beyond

So Great is Teshuva ...

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The Tablets and The Golden Calf A Yom Kippar Derosho by The Lutzker Rav THE JEWISH OBSERVER

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THE JEWISH OBSERVER is published OBSERVING THE JEWISH SCENE, Yaakov Jacobs...... 3 monthly, except July and August, by the Agudath Israel of America, 5 Beekman Street, New York, THE AUTOPSY CRISIS IN ISRAEL, Menachem M. Greenberg 5 N. Y. 10038. Second class postage paid at New York, N. Y. Subscription: $5.00 per year; THE DAY SCHOOLS/ A BALANCE SHEET, Joseph Kaminetsky 9 single copy: 50¢. Printed in the U.S.A. A VOICE FROM BEYOND, Ahron Jeruchem ...... 13

THE LUTZKER RAV, RABBI ZALMAN SOROTZKIN, '"lT ...... 18 Editorial Board DR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER Chainnan THE TABLETS AND THE GOLDEN CALF, Adapted from a Yorn RABBI NATHAN BULMAN Kippur derosho by Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin, 'J"lT ...... 19 RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS JOSEPH FRIEDENSON So GREAT 1s TEsHUVA .. ., An adaptation from the writings RABBI MORRIS SHERER of the Maharal MiPrague ...... 21 Advertising Manager RABBI SYSHE HESCHEL

Managing Editor RABBI YAAKOV JACOBS features

THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not assume responsibility for the RABBI SAMSON RAPHAEL HIRSCH ON THE PsHMS, A Review 23 Kashrus of any product or service advertised in its pages. SECOND LOOKS AT THE JEWISH SCENE 25 ''Creative" Judaism SEPT. 1966 VOL. III, No. 7 .... "The Bible" Yaakov Jacobs Observing the Jewish Scene We Look at Ourselves in the Light of Elul And the Shazar Visit in the Light of Truth

IN THIS OUR ELUL ISSUE, THERE ARE A NUMBER OF in journalism, having been used by many famous Eu­ articles which call for Cheshbon Hanefesh, for intro­ ropean journals which chose to pull aside the curtain spection and self-analysis as individuals and as part of which covered corruption and abuse, so that the public a collective. While this attempt to overcome sub­ might better know what was happening to them, and jectivity must be part of the daily regimen of the Jew, who is responsible; so that each citizen might judge the month of Elul brings with it a special blessing of servants of the public on the basis of the facts. Such cloesness to G-d. This closeness increases the chal­ journals succeeded in toppling kings and czars, despots lenge of Cheshbon Hanefesh at the same time that it and corrupt politicians. In turn they have often been affords greater opportunities for removing the facade stifled by the forces who preferred to function in the which each of us builds around our selves, so that we shacfows and found the glare of the spotlight destructive can see at close range our weaknesses and failures. of their purposes. Every Jew, having stood at Sinai, yearns to be close In this country the press has a noble tradition of to the Almighty. And yet, this very yearning carries exposing vice and corruption. It was Jefferson who said with it the germ of self-justification: We each of us that given the choice between democratic governn1ent like to feel that we have arrived with utmost precision and a free press, he would choose a free press, From at the proper degree of religiosity; that those who are the birth of our nation as a tiny state to the present not quite up to our standards of observance are suspect; day when the United States is a massive power ruled that those whose standards are higher than ours are by a massive government, the freedom of the press "fanatics." What a glorious opportunity Elul offers to has been zealously guarded because it serves as an us, with the nearness of G-d, to re-evaluate our own effective check on the actions of public officials. It standards and to re-examine our relationships and was recently revealed that The New York Times s11p­ attitudes to our fellow Jews. presscd a story concerning the planned invasion of We who have chosen to be "observers" of the Jewish Cuba-which would have forced its cancellation­ scene, to comment on Jewish affairs-at times to pass at the request of the late President Kennedy. After the judgment-feel especially in need of such Cheshbon failure of the invasion, the President himself said that Hanefesh. Whatever our critics may think, we are fully 1'he Tbnes would better have served our nation had aware of the burden we have assumed, and we number the story been published as planned. ourselves among our harshest critics. Each issue is Jn the first decade of the twentieth century a group sent to the press with the prayer for Divine guidance, of writers and journalists initiated the "literature of pen ekoshel bidvar halacha, "lest we stumble in a exposure," and they were dubbed "muckrakers" by the matter of halacha"; each issue is evaluated afterwards victims of their exposures. In a recent study of this in the same light. The smell of printers ink is a heady period the authors write: one, and we are aware of its power to dull the senses The muckrake touched prnctically every phase and sensitivity. of American life; nothing was immune from it The flaws were photographed, analyzed, pinpoint­ A recurring criticism of THE JEWISH OBSERVER is ed. The men engaged in muckraking were bold. its allegedly negative approach to Jewish affairs gen­ Their accusations were specific, direct. Names erally, and more specifically to the State of Israel. We were named. They pointed to sore spots in busi­ have commented on this criticism, which has come ness, in politics. They found food adulteration, from friend and foe, in past years, yet we feel the need unscrupulous practices in finance and insurance to return to the subject because it goes to the heart of companies, fraudulent claims for and injurious our purposes and goals. ingredients in patent medicines, rape of natural The name "Observer" is revealing of what we have resources, bureaucracy, prostitution, a link be­ set out to do. It is a name which has a rich tradition tween government and vice. Prison conditions

The Jewish Observer I September. 1966 3 were exposed, as were newspapers and their Jewry. He walks to schul on Shabbos morning-an domination by advertisers. . . . Orthodox schul-he asks the photographers not to take [A] social historian, summed up the muckraking pictures on Shabbos. He is called to the Torah and era "as a time of brisk housecleaning that searched reads the haftora for Shabbos Nachamu. A Jewish out old cobwebs and disturbed the dust that lay president comes to comfort American Jewry after the thick on the antiquated furniture." The Muck­ dread days of mourning for the Bais Hamikdosh. At rakers / New York, 1961. the close of Shabbos he goes to a Melava Malka. What American Jewish life today has many flaws; there else do you want, that he should wear Rabbeinu Tam is a good deal of adulteration of Judaism, and many tephilin? How crude, how ungrateful can you be. This "fraudulent claims for ... patent medicines." Every too you must find fault with?" major Jewish organization has one or more publica­ tions, which extoll its virtues and accomplishments. In Painful , , , But True addition, there is a never-ending stream of statements, Yes-we wish it were not so-we do find fault, releases-every day, literally pounds of paper arrive at serious fault, and while it is painful, it is no less neces­ our office (we don't get them all) and at the offices sary that we point out, not ideological differences which of hundreds, perhaps thousands of newspapers and should be obvious, but facts which the Zionist estab­ magazines, painting a rosy picture of organized Jewish lishment chose to brush under the carpet. And even life in America. While at times they speak of the dark more painfully we note that organized religious Jewry side in terms of assimilation and inter-marriage~ there (with the exception of Agudath Israel) also saw fit to is an obvious refusal to face up to their causes. And ignore these facts. yet, in the face of all this apparatus, there is no • Zalman Shazar is an old-line Zionist who for dec­ responsible organ which, in the traditions of the Amer­ ades fought and denigrated Torah and Torah Jewry. ican press, is willing to look behind the curtain and to focus the spotlight on the wasteful duplication which • Zalman Shazar, as Minister of Education, presided costs American Jewry millions of dollars each year; over the liquidation of thousands of Yiddishe neshomos, the failures of so-called Jewish education; the inade­ children who were brought to Israel and robbed of quacy of a controlled Jewish press, and the control their hard-won Yiddishkeit by the cruelty of officials of even the daily press and mass media by entrenched of Youth Aliyah. forces in Jewish life. In a word, there is no spotlight • Zalman Shazar added to the existing confusion in to focus on Jewish leadership; no press to seek out the minds of American Jews, by speaking out "vigor­ corruption and to expose it. ously against ideological differences that have long "But," the question is often put to us, "isn't there divided Judaism in this country," and not a single something positive in Jewish life, in the State of Israel, voice of protest was heard in the land. for THE JEWISH OBSERVER to write about?" We re­ "President Shazar specifically spoke of the need for cently prepared an index of articles which have ap­ a common prayer book for Orthodox, Conservative peared in our publication since its inception which and Reform Jews, for the conciliation of conflicting will be published in a future issue, and which will views on Jewish cultural and communal life and for bear out our contention that we have not closed our overcoming the uneasiness of some Jews over the role eyes to the positive. Yet, we insist that the failure of of Israel in world Judaism." (The New York Times, the Jewish press in America-not to mention its jour­ Aug. 1, 1966). The Times, incidentally, did not nalistic mediocrtty-\vith its chorus of yay-sayers. more assign the Shazar story to its "Jewish desk" but chose than justifies the existence of at least a single nay­ instead one of their top reporters. Yet the impact of sayer. the campaign to present Shazar as a pious Jew was not lost on that reporter. He wrote: "It appeared from A RECENT CASE IN POINT: The visit of Zalman Shazar, the tone and substance of his [Shazar's] remarks President of the State of Israel, to this country, brought [concerning Jewish unity] as well as from the response forth a cloud-burst of enthusiasm on the part of the of his visitors, that the 76-year old President, whose press-the story was front-page for days. ofjice as chief of state is primarily ceremonial, lVas "What kind of Jews arc these," we can almost hear speaking more as a Jewish spiritual leader than a some cry out in disgust. political one." "A Jewish president of a Jewish State comes to the In the same story, The Times writes: United States. He is greeted royally, wined and dined On the question of conciliating religious ritual, from New York's City Hall to the White House, where President Shazar recalled that although Israel's he is greeted by the President of the United States at population comes from widely different backf!rounds, a dinner where kosher food is served. Newspapers the armed forces seem to have coped with the prob­ throughout the nation hail his visit. He is a ta/mid lem by elaborating a com1non prayer book that ap­ chochom and he is sensitive to the feelings of Orthodox parently has satisfied all groups.

4 The Jen•ish Observer I Septen1ber, 1966 This is a demagogic trick that is unbecoming for shmaltzy emotionalism; or a readiness to look at the the head of any state. We have no doubt that had a facts of Jewish life? statement of a similar nature been made by the Presi­ Let us put the question another way. What serves dent of the United States, it would have been met by the cause of American democracy best?-covering up an outcry from the press that would have forced, if the corruption of public servants who make the public not a retraction, then at least a revision of the state­ their servants; or bringing such corruption into the ment. Yet Shazar's statement was greeted by silence. light of day? We feel certain that our critics would We have seen the "common prayer book" used in opt for an exposure of corruption in civil government; Israel's armed forces, which "apparently has satisfied we claim the right, the responsibility to do no less in all groups." It is no more than an offset-copy of a our observation of the Jewish scene. standard siddur (Nusach Sfard) that one can buy in Whether we have met this challenge adequately is any Hebrew book store. Although it is imbellished yet another matter. We think we have not; we have with the shields of Israel's various military branches, only touched on the most blatant aspects of adulteration and contains te(llos of special use to men in combat, in American Jewish life; so much yet remains hidden it represents no "conciliation"; no give~and·take to from the public eye. We make no claim to have speak of; it could be used by any Jew with little diffi­ always met our responsibilities in the most proper and culty, which is true of any other standard siddur pub­ most effective manner. We Jook to our own capacity lished anywhere in the world. To suggest that the for Cheshbon Hanefesh to help us to grow in every Union Prayer Book of the Reform (which omits the dimension; and we Jook to our readers for the stimula­ bulk of the traditional tefi/os and references to Zion), tion of criticism \vhich we solicit and invite. and the United Syna{(ogue Prayer Book (which com­ On the eve of Rosh Hashonoh. we pledge ourselves promises traditional belief in the return to the Bais to greater efforts to keep our readers informed of the Hamikdosh) can be mated with the siddur as we know positive aspects of Torah life in America, in Bretz it, without creating a monstrosity, is to be guilty of Yisroel and throughout the world. And, so long as total ignorance or wilful distortion. Even the National anti-Torah forces threaten our hard-won day schools Jewish Welfare which allegedly represents the "three (page 9), violate our dead (below), plot to destroy branches of Judaism" to the American Armed Forces, the positions of Orthodoxy in this country (page 25), had to abandon an effort to create a unified prayer and make massive efforts to create a Torah-less Jewish book for Jewish servicemen. society, populated by G-dless Jews, we will continue Let the reader of these lines judge: What serves to speak out clearly and to defend the positions of American Orthodoxy, American Jewry, better?-clos­ Torah, to the end that all Jews will one day soon ing our eyes to deliberate distortion and attempts to "band together as one, to do the will of G-d with a hoodwink the Jewish public with flag-waving and complete heart."' D

Menachem M Greenberg The Autopsy Crisis 1n• Israel

IF A JEW DIES JN AN JSRAELI HOSPITAL, SHOULD HIS right to object to an autopsy but also empowered a body be subject to autopsy or dissection against hi~ wi11? panel of three doctors to order an autopsy on their own This question has become the crux of one of the authority. Taking advantage of this ambiguity, hospital most serious and bitter crises in religion-state relation­ officials and physicians followed a policy of dissecting ships since the State of Israel was established. But as many corpses as they could, with total disregard the issues go beyond the sphere of religion-and-state. for the religious beliefs and wishes of the deceased or Human rights which are considered fundamental in his family. every other nation of the civilized world are being The traditional Jewish concern with korod hames, constantly compromised. the dignity which is due to the human body after death, In 1953, the Knesset passed the Anatomy and Path­ is a basic aspect of Torah life. It de1nands in1mediate ology Law, which is still in effect today. Soon after burial and forbids any tampering with the body; it passage, it was recognized that the Jaw was unclear requires that any portion of the body removed, even as to who had the final word over whether an autopsy before death, be interred in the earth, and forbids any should be performed or not-the doctors, or the de­ post-mortem incisions or removal of organs from the ceased and his family. The law gave the family the body.

The Jewish Observer I Se!'tember. 1966 5 The Halachic Background who has devoted his professionbl life to post-mortem operations, it is difficult to ad it that this activity is As early as 5507 ( 1753) Rabbi Yaakov Emdin, in no longer as vital as it once li-'as but that is the fact;" response to a question put by a Jewish medical student, In the face of these facts, lsra Ji doctors maintain a cited the many halachic prohibitions against the dis­ pretense of high standards of professionalism, while section of a human body. Some sixty years later the trampling basic Jewish law an violating concepts of Noda Beyehuda was asked by some London rabbis if human dignity which are wide] accepted in Western it was permitted to dissect a corpse in order to learn society-a society which they ormally desire to be more about the disease to which the deceased suc­ a part of, and to outdo. 1 cumbed. The Noda Beyehuda answered that autopsy The nature of the prcdica ent faced by Israeli is permitted on1y in a case of pikuach nejesh, which Jewry is best illustrated by seve al specific occurrences he defined as a case in which a person suffering from reported by religious and non- eligious Israeli news­ the same disease is immediately at hand and can he papers. saved by performing an autopsy. For any more distant goal, such as research which may lead to discovery A Tragic Case of a cure, the abuse of the dead is prohibited. The 5 Chasam Sofer2 concurred in this opinion. Recently, the wife of a pro inent member of the The issue arose again in 5682 (1922). when the Agudas Harabonim (who had oved with his family directors of the universities of Warsaw. Wilna, and to Israel) became ill and was t eated in a well-known Lwow threatened not to accept any Jewish medical hospital located in a suburb o Jerusalem. The reb­ students unless Jewish corpses were provided for their betzen passed away early one habbos morning. For anatomy classes. After Jewish students had been physi­ over seventeen hours no effort w s made by the hospital cally attacked by non-Jewish students at these universi­ to inform the family in Jerusale of her death. A guard ties, three communal leaders wrote to several Gedolei at the door to the morgue had r fused entry to a mem­ Torah asking for a psak halochoh. The unanimous ber of the Chevra K adisha who wished to see that the decision was that dissection of Jewish bodies is ab­ body was not tampered with. espite repeated assur­ solutely prohibited." ances by hospital officials that othing had been done, HaRav Shlomo Dovid Kahane, one of the leading it was discovered at the tahar that an autopsy had rabbis of Warsaw, wrote that threats and actual rc­ been performed by the pathol gy staff on Shabbos, risals by the students, including the breaking of win­ and that organs had been rem vcd and not replaced. dows, furniture, and book closets, did not change the OnJy through the prominent fa ily's influence were the rabbis' views. organs returned for proper buri 1. The rabbi, disgusted and disillusioned, has since le t Israel and returned Medical Opinion to the United States, determined to tell American Jewry how religious Jews are treated y their brothers in the Israeli physicians maintain that they need a steady state which was to have remove( all obstacles to Jewish supply of corpses for teaching and for research, and religious observance. that autopsies are necessary to determine the cause of Direct reports from Chevr s Kadisha-and even death. But the bead of the Jerusalem medical school from the non-religious press paint a still bleaker has said that the school needs no more than thirty picture of callous disregard of h man dignity by Israeli 4 bodies a year. physicians. . . . As far as medical research is concerned, the need Reliable sources have md1ca ed that the bodies of for corpses is n1inimal, since most experimentation is 70 to 80 per cent" of all pers ns who die in Israeli done on live animals and human volunteers. hospitals are dissected. This s one of the highest Moreover) a group of fifteen religious Israeli doctors autopsy-rates in the world. Had ssah Hospital' in Jeru­ stated last month that internationally-renowned med­ salem admits to 40 per cent; T .l Aviv hospitals admit ical authorities are now questioning the value of au­ 23 per cent. 8 topsies. Many articles in medical journals have asserted One J sraeli newspaper repo ts that most hospitals that recent advances in patho-physio1ogical science keep on hand copies of autop, y authorization forms:, have made possible the determination of cause of death presigned by three physicians. As soon as a patient without an autopsy; in some cases, the new 1nethods dies. a clerk fills in the name o the deceased, and an have succeeded in deter1nining the cause of death where autopsy is performed, long be ore the family is in­ autopsies had failed to do so. formed of the death. In 1965 the editor of the Jounrnl of the American Medical Association wrote that but for exceptional JT JS ACTUALLY MISLEADING T Ci\l"L TlIESE DISSEC­ cases~ post-mortem operations were no 1onger con­ tions "'autopsies," for the so]e urpose of an autopsy sidered vital. A famous pathologist wrote. "}"or a man is to determine the cause of de th. According to com­ 1. Foot-notes apppcar at the end of article. petent medical authorities. an utopsy does not ordi-

6 The Jewish 0 server I September, 1966 narily require the removal of organs from the body, for four years and finally presented the following and when it is necessary, there is no reason why such proposals: organs should not be replaced." ( 1) that no autopsy be performed to establish the Yet, Israeli Chevros Kadisha claim that in the pro­ cause of death unless such information will save a life. cess of preparing bodies for burial they discover that (2) that no dissection be made to remove organs organs are missing and that devious means arc em­ for transplanting to save the life of a sick person, unless ployed to conceal the removals from the family and such a person is actually at hand. the Chevra Kadisha. Eyes are removed10 and glass eyes ( 3) that no autopsy be performed if the deceased are placed in the sockets; brains are removed and the opposed it, or if his relatives objected within five hours skulls are filled with sand to restore the head to its of the time of death. normal weight; internal organs are removed and bo

The Jewish Observer I September. 1966 7 attended a Y om Tefilah in Jerusalem. On Rosh Cho­ is truly concerned with human rights and freedom, desh Av tempers flared as Knesset-member Rabbi rather than with promoting a kulturkampf in the Holy Menachem Porush (Agudath Israel) was rebuked for Land, why does it uot speak out against compulsory his emotional outburst on the Knesset floor, which was dissections, a clear violation of the religious freedom prominently reported in the Israeli press. The Moetzes of observant Jews? Gedolei Hatorah called world Jewry to protest and • When Orthodox Jews complained some years ago to prayer. In New York City, an emergency meeting of that Jewish children were being spirited away into eleven Orthodox organizations, including nine national Christiau mission schools, the Synagogue Council of groups, was convened on 24-hours' notice, and sent America and six other secular American groups wired joint cables to Israeli political leaders expressing "deep Premier Eshkol that the Orthodox were interfering with distress'' over the "practice of mass autopsies in Israel the religious freedom of Christians in Israel. lf these contrary to basic Jewish law and to universally accepted seven organizations are so interested in religious free­ concepts of human dignity." Representatives of the dom rather than the destruction of Orthodox Judaism. organizations later conveyed their indignation to Israel's why did they not hasten to wire Eshkol that dissecting Consul General in New York City, Michael Arnon. the body of a religious Jew is tantamount to forcing All the while Mizrachi resisted the pressure and was him to eat treifa meat or to work on Shabbos? determined to see its proposals pass the Knesset. • The position of the Israeli Government is equally But the one source of pressure which Mizrachi lead­ incomprehensible. In turning to the Western countries ers could not ignore then issued a psak din which in -particularly the United States-as the next great effect was an attack on the Mizrachi position. On source of aliyah, the Israeli leaders have acknow !edged August 4, the Chief Rabbinate, as well as fifty com­ that religious Jews comprise the great majority of munal rabbis and avos botei din issued a statement American olim and are the greatest potential for aliyah. whose language came close to that of Agudath Israel's No other country in the world. Israeli leaders say, can pronouncements on the issue. The rabbis, many of equal Israel in providing an atmosphere conducive to whom arc identified with Mizrachi, declared, "Post­ the flowering of religious observance and the flourish­ mortem operations of all types are prohibited according ing of Orthodox community life. The return to Zion to Torah law, and there is no roo1n for exceptions with all its spiritual boons can be realized today, they except in cases of immediate saving-of-life-and there insist. Y ct, while for centuries, Jews always dreamed only by permission granted in each case by an au­ of returning to Zion, at least to die and be buried thorized rabbi." there, today Jews in Israel are giving serious thought The embarrassed Mizrachi leaders had no alternative to leaving the country to die elsewhere, lest their bodies but to reverse their position. At the very last minute be desecrated by over zealous doctors. The Israeli they requested of the Government-and were granted government, so eager for Western aliyah, appears to -a delay in the consideration of the amendments until be oblivious to the damage to their own cause, which after the summer months, while claiming that the Chief is inherent in this anti-religious policy. Rabbis "were misled by incorrect information . . . • At the slightest violation of doctors' rights, they Therefore, the party will utilize the summer months strike back violently. When residents of the religious for the clarification of this problem among the members settlement of Revacha protested the unathorized dis­ of the movement and religious Jewry," including the section of the body of one of their neighbors by the Chief Rabbinate. They added that "The National Re­ doctors of the Kaplan Hospital at Rechovot, the hos­ ligious Party is of the opinion that we have to struggle pital announced that it would refuse to treat any for partial amendments as long as we cannot, under Revacha resident uutil the settlement made a public the prevailing circumstances, obtain complete solu­ apology to the hospital. tions." When the Government tried to induce physicians to move to Negev settlements where a severe shortage Some lnconsistences of doctors exists, the physicians vigorously protested • When religious groups attempt to further the cause that the right of every individual to live where he of Torah observance in Israel, secularist groups in pleased was being violated. Israel and the United States are quick to raise the cry When a youth struck a doctor in a hospital. physi­ of "religious coercion." The League Against Religious cians across the country went on a iive-hour strike, Coercion wastes no time in declaring that the individ­ penalizing the entire nation for one disturbed person's ual's universal rights must be respected and that his act. freedom of conscience must not be violated. Religious With a concern for individual rights so extreme that Jewry has argued all along that these pleas are mere it has resulted in the neglect of public health, one camouflage for hard-core hatred of religion and reli­ would think the doctors would be in the forefront of gious Jews. If the League Against Religious Coercion defenders of the right of religious Jews to have their

8 The Jewish Observer I Septen1ber, 1966 last wishes respected after death. Instead, they have mass protest meetings in cemeteries and shuls through­ precipitated what promises to become one of the most out the country. All over the world an incensed Ortho­ severe crises the country has ever confronted. doxy has been sending streams of cables and letters to The critical autopsy situation is far from over. The the Israeli government asking for a halt to the abuses. postponement of consideration of the proposed amend­ Religious Kiryot in Israel have informed the Govern­ ments until the fall Knesset session has delayed passage ment that many prospective settlers have canceled their of a new gezerah, but the present intolerable situation plans beacuse of the fears aroused by the autopsy remains in full force. The number of indiscriminate crisis. 1::: autopsies is on the rise, and the religious population is Forced post-mortem operations violate Halochoh and aroused. On Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul thousands of violate basic human rights. Religious Jewry must face Jews in Israel fasted half a day and participated in this challenge squarely. "" ___ _ ,,,,, i'!'O ,nyi ;r,,, .Nl'lri N"liin~ ,;ni:·r::i >'iil .1 8. Figure supplied by Mr. Aharon Becker. Administrator of .i"'?TC l~'O ,:iyi '1,,, ,"lD10 t:111M ,ni:nioni 1'li7N'O .2 Tel Aviv Chevra Kadisha, quoted in Yediot Acharonot, op. c;t. 3. Incident related in a Jetter by Meir Friedriech. dated 9. Statement made on August 11, 1966 by Seymour Glick, M"~in ,'l'~!V 'D .'l 01'. The teshuva was from several East M.D., European rabbonim. See:'' ni::iin .'N p7n ,011Dn. President of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists. 4. Statement made by School's Director, Dr. Halperin, quoted 10. Statement with photographs issued by Chevra Kadisha in Yediot Acharonot, 19 Av 5726, p. 7. Kovod Haines of Jerusalem. 5. Incident described in Pani1n~El·Panim, 8 Sivon 5726, p. 4. 11. Ibid. 6. Figures appeared in J>ost·Morten1 Operations, a booklet 12. Reported by Aharon Becker, Administrator of Te1 Aviv published by the Jerusalem Chevra Kadisha Kovod Han1es, Chevra Kadisha, quoted in Ycdiot Acharonot, op. cit. p. 2; Also, from Israeli press reports quoted in a speech 13. In a telegran1 sent to Premier Eshkol on 18 Av 5726, the on the Knesset floor by Rabbi Menachem Porush, MK, managers of Kiryat Mattersdorf, Kiryat Yismach f\1oshe, 17 Tamuz 5726. and Kiryat Bobov asserted that the "accelerated practice 7. Figure supplied by the Director of the Hadasah Hospital, of autopsies . . will seriously impede aliyah. Already Dr. Kalman Yaakov Mann, quoted in Yediot Achnronot, many potential ollm have withdrawn agreements, fright­ op. cit. ened by ultimate fate in hospitals."

Joseph Kaminetsky The Day Schools / A Balance Sheet

DR. JOSEPH KAJ\1INETSKY is a pioneer in the Day School movement, and National Director of Torah Umesorah, the National Society For Hebrew Day Schools. We asked him, to prepare for our readers a state1nent of the condition of the Day School movement on the eve of a new year; examining its assets and its liabilities.

IN HIS MUSSAR TALKS TO HIS ta/Tnidhn, AT ROSH HA­ just past. The Day School movement is the only hope shono time, Reb Leib Chassn1an would stress the for genuine Jewish survival and we n1ust warn1 our­ following thought: When you are in the Beis Medrash, selves by the fires of those areas of activity which pouring out your heart before the Almighty, you can indicate true progress. The late Reh Zalman Sorotzkin consider yourself humble, k" afrah d' arah, as dust. He ;"31 once told a group of visitors just before Pesach: is the mighty King of the Universe before whom you Mitzvah /e-saper-it is a mitzvah to tell of the miracles must pay homage. But when you go out into the mar­ of the Exodus, for in the process of telling others we ket-place, you must remember that you, as students of ourselves become inspired. Torah, are the true emissaries of the great King and Yet we n1ust delineate, too, those areas in which we you must carry yourselves with pride and dignity. have fallen short, where we have failed to achieve the At the year's end-and at the start of a new year­ desired objectives, and where much has yet to be done it behooves us to follow this sage advice in respect to to reaJize our great potential. ,Even in those areas where the Day Schoo] movement, in a genuine Cheshbon progress has been-made, there are some who will ques­ HaNefesh. For "the world" at large, we must give an tion our standard, our measuring rod, and perhaps accounting of the great things which have happened sharply differ with it. Some of us have greater ideals in this dynamic area of chinuch-and much that is than others. Some of us are super-salesmen and get inspiring and encouraging has occurred in the year carried away by our enthusiasm. Some of us are wont

The Jewish Observer I Sevten1ber. 1966 9 to evaluate the Day Schools in communities outside of its own, in the short space of a year. Throwing New York City by the standards which prevail in our caution to the winds, they dared to start with a Kinder­ own back-yards. Few things are all white or all black; garten and a few of the grades-and these not even it is the grays which predominate in this world. in succession (there is a grade missing here and there) Yet, the Chassidic impulse which all Jews share, -and today boys who could barely read Hebrew in motivates us to see the lights and the shadows in sharp­ September last, arc already learning Geniorah! It is er, deeper hues. How did the Kotzker Rebbe put it? no fantasy-I saw and heard it myself. "Every man must carry in his pocket two pieces of This is undoubtedly an unusual experience. Yet it is parchment. On one should be written Onochi ofor at least one clear indication to the skeptics, to the tired ve'efer-I AM BUT DUST AND ASH; on the other: Be'­ and disheartened .. that there can be no halt to growth; shevili nh 1rah ha'o/0111--FOR ME ALO'!'iE WAS THE that there are many more deserts like this one to WORLD CREATED! conquer; that nothing can deter the caravan of 'forah With this pungent, metaphorical aphorism in mind, from rolling on! I shall try to delineate the two sides of the ledger­ thc "dust and the ashes" on one side, the problems High Schools Increase which face us, and the "creativity and distinctiveness' In surveying the field, trying desperately to ascertain on the other-of a vital movement on which the fate the statistical picture, without benefit of social scientists of our future hinges. In the process, I shall try, too, (at least on a fuH-time basis) and IBM machines, we to suggest some strategic steps to take in order to in Torah Umcsorah discovered-after last Fall-that achieve our great potential. there are now more Yeshiva High Schools outside of New York City than in the City proper. Our figures I FIND PEOPLE TREMENDOUSLY CONCERNED ABOUT THE show 41 High Schools in New York and 49 outside Day School movement. They are most eager to know of the City. These statistics speak volumes for the ~'where are we really at?" Are we really raising a gen­ staying power of Yeshiva education-how much it has eration of Torah Jews? captured the imagination and n1erited the commitment Their questions generally end up with the burning of Jews in the cities and towns of America. It is most query as to whether we ought not to concentrate more encouraging to us, these Septembers, when we count -0n those schools which are already in existence rather up the ne\v schools, to sec that High School~ arc in than spread ourselves thin and attcn1pt to build more preponderance. This is a light that shines with unusual :schooJs. Why increase the agony-even if some ecstasy force. does come with it? And there are inspiring corro1aries to these wonder­ These people take due pride with us in Torah ful statistics. Umesorah that there are now 323 Hebrew Day Schools For one, more High School students means 1nore in 33 states in 120 communities in the United States talmidim in the higher Yeshivos and more talmidos -with 36 more in Canada. "fhcy know, to some ex­ in the Beth Jacob and other girls' seminaries. In our tent, what Day Schools have accomplished. But they visits to various communities, we sec the ·y eshivos know. too, that the task is back breaking and they Gedolos too. They are in our orbit only peripherally, wonder whether we have not reached a plateau-and yet we take pride, and a little credit, too, in seeing so they urge consolidation instead of more schools. them grow and prosper, with our Yeshiva Ketanah In my opinion these people-even though they are youngsters filling them up. The building of Mesivtos in truth avid protagonists of the Day School-talk out is one of the great stars on the horizon of the Yeshiva of a sense of provincialism. They know the picture movement in this country today. only as they see it in the large nletropo1itan areas. They do not know the vast, unexplored, challenging JN YET ANOTHER SENSE, THE BRIDGE BETWEEN Yeshiva hinterland of America. They are unaware of the latent Ketana and Yeshiva Gedo/a is being built with inspir­ dynamism of spirit of the fighting, pioneering Jews of ing permanence. More and more of our higher Yeshi­ the smaller cities, the shtetlach of America. They see vos are providing the teachers for our Day Schools. only the shadows and not the light. The past year, for instance. has been a successful one To me. the most encouraging and inspiring experi­ for the Machonim or teacher-training programs of ence of the past year has been my visit to Phoenix, Torah Umesorah, generously endowed by the family of Arizona-which has gone down in my book as "the the late Joseph Shapiro. miracle of the desert." In this community of 12,000 In Telshe, sixteen young men and in Ner Israel, Jews, the world has been turned on its end. Two or fifteen young men pursued intensive courses in teacher~ three individuals-under the inspiration of the profes­ training and participated in effective student-teaching sional team, a young Morrocan JC\V and his French programs in cooperation with the local Day Schools. wife-have revolutionized a sleeping Jewish community In New York City, both Mesivta Torah Vodaath and and built a Day School with 50 pupils and a building Mesivta Tifereth Jerusalem also conducted such courses

10 The Jewish Observer I September, 1966 which are geared to producing teachers for the future. to the degree that we should like to see. Yet, the fact These are supplementary programs, in addition to the tliat there is a will to do more and a clear-cut recogni­ regular Sedorim and Shiurim which these young men tion of what that more constitutes is most encouraging. pursue. And it is most encouraging that they have Going out to the public domain, we note the tremen­ added these Machon courses to their crowded sched­ dous prestige enjoyed by the Day School movement ules, with great enthusiasm. More and more of our during the past year. Everyone, but everyone, talked Yeshiva bachur;m are expressing a wi11ingness and Day School-within and without the Jewish commu­ readiness to go out into the hinterland to teach Torah nity. The Conservatives proclaimed a grandiose move­ to Jewish children. We were almost beginning to lose ment for the founding of Day Schools; the Reform hope for a Torah Pabnach·-a Plugat Mechanchim, as began to talk more earnestly about actually building one educator picturesquely put it. some at long last; the newly-constituted World Council Of course the rate of production is slow.-yet sure. for Jewish Education at its international meeting held We are far from relieving the critical shortage of teach­ this past summer proclaimed a program for building ers. Yet, it is most encouraging to note that our Yeshi­ 1,000 Day Schools around the world. More and more, va men and their Roshei Yeshiva are beginning to general Jewish periodicals featured a1ticles on the Day realize that they have a genuine stake in Yeshiva­ School; a full-fledged book appeared on it; and debates Ketana chinuch, as they do for limmud ha'Torah. On on its efficacy were held on many platforms. all levels, our Roshei Yeshiva are inspiring their stu­ In government and public education offices, too, the dents to learn more and more so that they can teach Day School came in for much study and discussion. more and more. The acceptance of the "Machon con­ In Washington, Albany and New York City, especially, cept" --even in its limited sense as a supplementary legislators, politicians and public officials struggled to program-is one of the most encouraging trends in all understand its program and make-up, as Day Schools of Yeshiva chinnch. began to receive benefits under Title I of the Elemen­ tary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA); began to Inner Development institute Head Start programs under the Economic Op­ PASSING ON FROM OUTER GROWTJI TO INNER DEVELOP­ portunity Act, and became involved in similar pro­ ment, the facts are harder to discern. They arc in­ grams. tangibles and thus more difficult to see and to describe. (It would take me too far afield to comment on the Yet, anyone attending the last Convention of the experiences of our Day Schools with "Federal Aid." National Conference of Yeshiva Principals, an affiliate Just as there is unusual confusion vis-a-vis interpreta­ of Torah Umesorah, could see that our chinuch is be­ tion and implementation of ESEA-even by public coming more intensive. The educational leadership of officials-so there is pitiful ignorance on the part of our Day Schools is in the hands of s·nei Torah, who the general Jewish community regarding the programs are concerned with Yiras Shernaitn, with intensity in instituted in our Day Schools. 'fhere are unfounded, learning and commitment. The principals showed a exaggerated rumors as to what the schools are actually genuine eagerness to listen to the words of the Ro;hei getting-and even veiled innuendoes as to how rich Yeshiva and to follow their lead for higher sights. Torah Umesorah is becoming as a result of directing In the orbit of commitment, we had a most dramatic these programs. In fact, the involvement of Torah incident, too, this past year. In a community long Umesorah in Federal Aid has brought with it unusual dedicated to a pareve, be-all-things-to-all-people chi­ expenditures of time, energy and money, without com­ nuch, the principal decided to take a strong stand. He mensurate compensation. threatened to leave his post-in fact he tendered his All in all, at the present time, ESEA has brouuht resignation and refused to stay on-unless the lay with it more hope than cash, more frustration tl;an leadership accepted his proposal to conduct the Day implementation. The yeshuah for our Day Schools School program al pi Torah and nothing else. There will hardly come from Federal Aid. That much is a was a storm; there was bickering up and back-but certainty.) Torah won the battle in inspiring fashion. Again, only * one dramatic instance-but one that definitely indicates IT IS WHEN \VE FOCUS MORE CLOSELY ON TI-IE ACHIEVE­ a trend towards a more genuine Torah chinuch in our ments of the Day School in the public domain that we Day Schools. begin to hit the shadows and come upon the gnawing frustrations and heart-breaks in Yeshiva work. Much More to be Desired The greatest shadow was cast by the burgeoning of To be sure, there is much more to be desired in the Kulturkampf in the Day School field which many learning and religious commitment in a good number of us foresaw years ago. We were too successful in of our Day Schools. Some of our schools are still showing the other groups within the Jewish community "glorified Talmud Torahs." Some teach only subjects the values of Day School education, and while some and do not encourage mitzvos nia' asios (observance) of these other groups still cleave to the "community

The Je1vish Observer I Septen1ber, 1966 11 concept" in Day School education, working to achieve build Torah with money alone" (when he commented intensive education "even under Orthodox auspices" as to why Reb Yose ben Kismah-who was offered (as they frankly put it), mauy of them are succumbing money to live in a town without a yeshivah-did not to the urge-to be genteel-to go off on their own and take the golden dinars and build himself a Yeshiva), build their own schools. While this may redound to we also know that we cannot live on mesiras nefesh the benefit of Jewish learning in a way, it is calculated alone. to wreck genuine havoc with commitment to the Jewish way of life as we understand it. A United Yeshiva Fund One of the great assets of our Day Schools (and more Once again, perhaps more out of desperation than than 93% of all Day Schools in the country are still anything else, calls are being sounded to build a under Orthodox auspices, at least nominally speaking) United Yeshiva Fund. What this means, positively. has been the fact that we were able to attract many most of us know-and it is not necessary to speil out of the non-committed to our schools. In point of fact, the details. The idea is a good one and has been long one of the greatest contributions of the Day School has in coming. Yet, realistically, no-one has as yet come been its success in making Jews out of the non-co1n­ up with a practical, carefully-worked out plan, or an mitted or non-observant. Now these people will have effective strategy to implement it. Many abortive at­ a watered-down school to choose instead of ours-a tempts have been proclaimed over the years, yet there process lvhich will do no one any good. is not as yet, unfortunately, the kind of unity in our Orthodox ranks that will make such a united fund Threat of Piracy possible. Further, in a Kulturkampf people are apt to forget Further, those camps which are not in sympathy principles and attempt to infiltrate into the other camp. with Orthodoxy seem to be able to get the ear of the This is infinitely more dangerous to our schools than leadership of the major funds available for education, their building schools on their own. and threaten to overwhelm us. While some are ready to "negotiate" with these leaders, others are adamant What hurts even more is the fact that the Orthodox in their separatist philosophy. There seems to be no­ community itself is so splintered that no unified course one ready to call the Orthodox leaders to work out of action or strategy has as yet been defined to cope some strategy in regard to these funds. All of this with this enormous problem. Here and there heroic makes for greater frustration and greater aprehension efforts are being made--but we are far from meeting for the welfare of our Day Schools. We are "in a stew," the threat head-on. to put it simply. These matters become even more complicated when we enter the most complex arena of the financial status THERE ARE MANY OTHER SHADOWS WHICH BLOCK OUR .of our Day Schools. horizons as we dream of the potentials still inherent No one has to belabor the point that our Day Schools in the dynamic Day School movement. have a weak financial structure. There is hardly a Personnel for our schools is still hard to come by. Day School which does not have a staggering deficit. Many of our Yeshiva-trained people are going into There are hundreds of Day School teachers in this other fields of endeavor. Our lay leaders are getting conntry who are still hoping to collect salaries due them tired---0r are already worn out. They have lost their from years gone by. On the whole, Day School build­ initial pioneering spirit; they are suffering from battle­ ings are still far from adequate, etc . ... etc . ... The fatigue. Enrollment in many Day School cities is still facts in this area are too well-known and too painful on the wane. Our educational leaders are busy raising to bear repetition. Is there any Yeshiva leader who is funds and putting out deficit-fires and have little time not overworked and worried about his school's future? for educational research and growth. We had hoped that with the unprecedented growth The picture becomes blacker and blacker as we pur­ and popularity of the movement, things would get sue our cheshbon hanefesh. The parchment reading: easier. Instead, they are harder-much harder: Our Onochi ofor ve'efer-WE ARE BUT DUST AND ASH, keeps non-Orthodox supporters are going in for schools of coming up over and over again. The shadows press their own; some of our philanthropists are already be­ down on us and sadden us. ginning to crow that the government is taking over What can we offer at this time of the year-when support of our Day Schools; and Federations and Wel­ the moment of truth comes-as consolation and en­ fare Funds are still hedging about larger allocations­ couragement to those manning the battlements of Torah and still debating the "philosophy" of the Day School. all over the country? There loom before us dark prospects-.G-d forbid­ Only this. We must endeavor with all our hearts as to the future existence of our schools. and souls to make more direct contact with the other While we console ourselves with the famous maxim parchment: Be'shevili nivrah ha'olam-FOR ME ALONE of the Chofetz Chaim who said that "one does not WAS THE WORLD CREATED! \Ve must tell ourselves over

12 The Jewish Observer I Septe1nber, 1966 and over again that there is no other answer for the when the things whieh divide us must be sublimated survival of Torah in America but the Day School. We and when we must give precedence to those things must do all in our power to dispel the shadows. We about which we agree. The House of Torah is on fire must work harder and pray harder for siyata d'shmaiah, -and there is no time to indulge in examining one the help of the Almighty, to bless our efforts. another's piety and in allowing one's self the luxury And more! We must find a corps of honest men who of insisting that his point-of-view is the only correct are not suffering from "i1lusions of grandeur" or who one. New strategies, new energies, new approaches are not prone to indulge in the "tyranny of leadership," must be found to preserve the apple of American Jew­ who, though they differ in the means, are ready to ry's eye, the Day School movement. work together for the end and-to the end. May the New Year bring about such a fresh turn of The time has come for true grandeur of the spirit, evcntst

------Abron Jeruchem A Voice From Beyond The Kedoshim Ask Some Burning Questions

RABBI ABRON JERUCHEM is a pro1ninent taln1udic (in Yiddish) and World Lost (in English), expressing scholar who came to this country in J 940 from Vienna, the deep concern of the author with the problems he Austria, where he was the Rabbi of the famed Ahavas treats in this article. This concern has been a motivating Torah Schul. The following is a section of a larger force in Rabbi Jeruchem's efforts since 1940 to stir work now being prepared by the author. Among his Jewish public opinion to action. We trust that this publications are a study on Ramban, and Lo Sichkach article will further these goals. D

HIS MESSAGE comes to you from many genera­ "gathered to one's people." To us, death has meant T tions of Jews who have lain in East European separation, isolation from our people. ground for centuries, and from the six million mas­ Did it ever enter your mind to gather together the sacred who fell in the field of history's most savage mass graves scattered over Eastern Europe? Did you slaughter. It is a collective call to all of you, living once think of transferring the remains of the holy to brethren, from aH of us. We, that is, our "dry bones," the Holy Land? turn to you; "aU our bones speak" to you. Many among Have you ever wondered what it is like to lie in us shrunk to bones even before our lives were snuffed strange lands surrounded by the people who helped the out. H'unger and horror, torture and terror reduced us German murderers to kill? to skeletons. Some of us arrived as piles of ashes, some went up in a column of smoke. The stones which marked our tombs were taken With this, our desperate outcry, we beseech you, away, the fences which enclosed our burial-sites are gone. We arc exposed to invasion and abuse, subjected to stir your hearts and minds. Pause for a moment; to desecration. Our graves are trampled by beasts of keep silent-listen to those who went "down into all sorts; cattle graze above our heads. Scavengers loot silence." Two decades have passed since we were left alone. our abodes in search of gold teeth, as if the German hyenas missed anything. We understand the anxiety of the survivors to run from the bloody soil. But we do not comprehend that We can do nothing to drive them away, and you they never return to visit us, to abate our loneliness. seem not to care. No one disturbs those who disturb Addressing ourselves to all of you, we wonder why our slumber. none of you ever appears to find how we rest, to ascer­ Like Job we thought, "if we would sleep, we would tain whether we stiH are in our resting places. he at rest." Yet we sleep, we came to rest, and find When you were children, we would come to you in no rest. the night to be sure that you were sleeping peacefully. Near and above our graves rise parks, halls of Why do you not come to see how we sleep? entertainment, of joy and laughter, blackening ever In the language of our Torah "to die" is to be more the darkness of our night.

The Jewish Observer I September, 1966 13 KIEV, U.S.S.R.-The evening rush panic-stricken Germans as they prepared used to be Babi Yar, he said, but that hour crowd -on a bus bound for the to withdraw. was a long time ago. suburbs seems the same in any city in 'fhis was in 1944. It was one of the "Yar" is the Ukrainian word for any country. most brutal massacres of World War II. ravine, and the ravine exists no more. Tired office workers, dozing on their For over a decade, builders of the sub~ feet or reading novels taken from their Writer Recalls Visit urban development have dumped waste worn briefcases, filled the No. 18 trolley­ "I went out to Babi Yar shortly after earth into the ravine, covering over a bus from downtown Kiev the other eve­ the war was over," said a prominent painful memory. ning. There were secretaries heading for Ukrainian writer, Alcksei Poltoratsky. No one knows how many bodies lie home, patting their uneasy hairdos, a "As I walked along I tripped over the deep under the earth fill. Estimates range young man out with his date. torn shoe of a litle child. I have never around 70,000. Most were Jews. Babi Connecting with the main trolJey gone back there since." Yar became a name of infamy as much route, the No. 56 bus turned into Dem­ A new generation did go back to Babl as Buchenwald or Auschwitz. yan Bedny Street. On the right were Yar, as Kiev grew out from the center Now couples who have no memories rows of five-story apartment houses with and Demyan Bedny Street beca1ne the of the war stro1l through the wooded groceries and little repair shops on the thoroughfare for a new housing develop­ fringes. Neighborhhod boys have staked ground floors. ment. Young workers moved out to the out two soccer fields. A small girl with On the left was Babi Yar. fresh air of the suburbs from their old a big red bow in her hair makes mudpies Once this broad open meadow was a crowded and dingy apartm~nts. deep ravine, where the bodies of tens of A factory worker of about 30 strolled on the sidelines . . . thousands of massacred Jews, Ukrain­ along outside his building, carrying his -From a dispatch in ians, Russians and Poles were hurled by baby son in his arms. Yes, he knew this THE NEW YoRK 'fIMEs

We realize that it is too inconvenient for you to come anything, it makes no difference what happens to us, to us. There are more pleasant places to go. But where­ or where we lie. How do you know that we do not ever you are, close your eyes for a while and project know? Have you ever been dead? Do you already yourself into our position. Imagine you are alone, know all the answers of life, that you are so sure about abandoned, cut off not only from life but also from the the facts of death? Have you ever experienced them? memory of the living. No one stops to whisper a prayer, Not having access even to all the secrets of the world to say a Kaddish, to drop a tear into your grave. Only you live in, you venture to claim knowledge about the vandals, barbarians pass your way, annoy, anger you, mysteries of after-life. Maybe your assumption in re­ step on you, crush, crumble you. You are forgotten, gard to the nature of death is one of the illusions man forlorn, deserted. "The ways of Zion are in mourning, has about so many phenomena of being and non-being. because none co1ne to the feasts, all her gates are Do you not, while sleeping, consider everything you desolate." see and think of in your dream as real? And it is not. Could it not be also that in the absence of empiric LONG TIME HAS GONE BY since the mon­ evidence your conjecture about the dead's ability to A strous blood-bath. You who survived returned sense and to know is merely a product of your imagina­ to business as usual, as if nothing had happened, as tion? Who knows? if the greatest flood of blood ever, did not take place There arc most competent sources which indicate before your very eyes. In the course of the years, some that expiration of life does not mean abrogation of of your own have departed. You interred them and the capacity of knowing or feeling.* And also that the placed stones on their graves. Often you come to ex­ dead have their preferences and are sensitive as to press your sorrow. Every now and then, someone where they are laid to rest. Did not Yaakov charge smears a swastika on a grave-stone or throws it down; his sons: "Carry me out of E!,'Ypt?" And Yoseph you become agitated and hasten to repair it. Our graves pleaded to his brothers: "Carry up my hones from have nothing left to be defaced or knocked over. Not hence." stones-bones, our very fragments arc in jeopardy. And when the time of Exodus arrived, people were This does not agitate, does not irritate you. busy accumulating wealth, as you do. Mosheh Rab­ With Yehudah Halevi each of you should ask him­ beinu alone thought of the bones of Yoseph and self: How can eating and drinking be sweet to me, his brothers, and took them with him. What remained while I see dogs rending at your young lions? Or how of all the gold and silver the others were occupied can the light of day be pleasinf to my eyes, when I see amassing? Nothing. Only Moshch's deed was of lasting corpses of your eagles in the beaks of ravens? value. Throughout their wandering in the desert the Jews carried with them the bones of Yoseph in a How ean you stand idly by, how can you build coffin resembling the ark containing the Tablets of houses, decorate homes, water your gardens, knowing the Law.** that we lie without protection, confronted with diverse elements of mutilation and abasement? * Brachos 18a-b; Baba Metsia 84b. **Concerning the difference where one lies see also Jen1s. Say not, since we are dead and do not feel or know !\1oed Katan II. 4; Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah, ch. 363.

14 The Jewish Observer I Septen1ber, 1966 "For the living know that they will die" (Koheles ... to liberate the children Jewish mothers, in their 9: 5) . But you seem not to know it. Otherwise you despair turned over to non-Jews before they were would not behave the way you do. For, in case the driven into crematories, in the hope that after the war, hour of Resurrection, when "the earth shall cast out our people would redeem them . . . the dcpartod" and "the dead will be brought to life ... to save our remnants, what was left of us. again," is still far off, you too will be summoned some­ time. Sooner or later you will be our guests. Then we Both tasks were not carried out by you. Our children shall put before you the question : What did you do were raised as Catholics, the orphans of holy martyrs in those Jong five years while we were systematically bear crosses on their breasts. They have no idea who and pitilessly exterminated? And what did you do they really are and under which circumstances they thereafter, when our bodies were the target of defile­ came to be where they arc. They were even inoculated ment, of humiliation? with the anti-Jewish poison. "Those that I had tenderly nursed and reared up, my enemy brought to their end" (Lamentations 2:22). HERE WERE YOU during our awful ordeal, And we, the dead, we are where and how we are. W and where are you now? Till we breathed our last we kept on hoping you will come to our rescue, What of the Mitzvahs of Pidyon Shvuyim and Koved you will somehow manage to free us from the clutches Hames? Is this the treatment we deserve after all the of the bloodhounds. You disappointed us terribly. You anguish we underwent; after such a dreadful end? Is did not meet the challenge. You failed the test then, this the way you compensate us for all the inexpressible and you fail the test now. You followed the course suffering and sacrifices? This is the reward you bestow of the "democratic" Western powers. They did not upon us? speak out, and you did nothing to make them act. They were deaf and dumb toward our trial, and so MOREOVER, SOME OF YOU POINT AN ACCUSING FINGER were you. They wrapped themselves in silence, and at us. Some are displeased with the manner in which so did you. we conducted ourselves in the time of our agony. We, "When the Almighty gave the Torah, no bird chirped, the starving and freezing, the tortured, the almost dead no fowl flew, no ox bellowed, the Ophanim did not prisoners, should have resisted, fought the mightiest stir their wings, the Seraphim did not say 'Holy, Holy,' armies in military history, the ferocious forces which the sea did not shake, the creatures spoke not, the had conquered nearly the whole European continent. entire world kept silent and stood still" (Shmos Rabah, With our bare, shuddering hands we should have taken ch. 29, 9). on the best-equipped horde in history with its tanks and cannons. The same condition prevailed when the people of Some forget that the enemy was not only powerful the Torah perished, when an Empire of Torah dis­ and brutal; he was also insidious in employing every appeared, vanished. The whole world stood still. All form of deceit and trickery. We were always led to the humanitarians, even the Societies for the Prevention believe that there was a spark of hope for survival. of Cruelty to Animals exercised strict indifference. And when somebody tried to do something about it, he was Those who call us to task for not having been brave silenced. Haolam Shosek, the world kept silent, Uma­ enough never faced the German sharks with the sub­ charish, it also silenced others. machine guns in their hands. As in the hour of Revelation so it was in the long And let the critics recall how cowardly the German years of devastation: "And all the people perceived superman behaved after their surrender. How submis­ the thunderings and the lightnings and the voice of the sive the imperious German soldiers were in retreat and horn and the mountain smoking, and the people saw it defeat. How meek the arrogant generals became when and trembled and STOOD AF AR OFF." captured. How all the Germans, without exception, lost any notion of national honor, of dignity and morality, You pretended not to be quite sure; you refused to how they degraded themselves, how they kneeled be­ believe that the rumors were true. So you granted fore the "decadent" Allied soldiers. How they cried, yourself graciously the benefit of the doubt, and decided bowed before the "inferior" Jewish soldiers, whose to do nothing. relatives they had tortured to death. How they kissed And when the black curtain went up, when the their boots for a cigarette. How they renounced their horrible acts of blooshed were revealed; when your national identity for a glass of beer. How they sold calls for your dear ones were met with dreadful silence; their wives for chocolate. How Goering cringed before when you learned that the bitter facts far exceeded his judges, how the Reichsministers tearfully pleaded the previous reports, you resumed your passivity, your for their lives in Nuremberg. As long as they thought inactivity. For, even then some work was left to be themselves indestructible they knew of no pity. But done ... being brought down they begged for mercy.

The Jewish Observer I September~ 1966 15 Did not countless captured Allied soldiers submit again read Nietzsche by light filtering through lamp­ to tortures and death by the German sadists without shades covered with human skin. Again the professors resistence? study the results of the abhorrent experiments practiced !numerable and beyond description are the heroic with us as guinea pigs; the autopsies on living prisoners acts performed daily, hourly, by the captives, despite without anesthesia. Again the "good" Germans take all the bewilderment and sorrow. In those nightful days pride in the goose-steps of their regiments. They have there was only one type of heroism possible, that which everything a German heart desires. The only thing Rashi ( Chagigah 12a) terms "heroism of the heart,'' they are still missing is nuclear weapons. And this, And this they performed profoundly, amazingly. too, they will soon get from the former foes whose poor memory is chronic. The epic tales of Jewish greatness in that era, the saga of our fight and fortitude will never be told, for You, too, have contributed to the rehabilitation of they sunk with us into the graves. the German economy by buying goods of those who have locked us in cattle cars, who have gassed us. The critics who sit in judgment on martyrs should You buy the Volkswagen, made in the fatcories where ask themselves whether they were capable of acting, the Powzer Kampf-Wagen with flame throwers, used purifying and preparing themselves for the "sanctifi­ in the Warsaw Ghetto were produced. Count the fatal­ cation of Heaven's Name" like the ninety-three Beth­ ities caused by Volkswagen on the roads of Eretz Israel! Jacob young women of valor. When the winds had blown away the smoke of the Oh, you oblivious brethren, how fast you forgot the crematories, some of you returned to the accursed Teutonic monsters, how soon you forgot us, their former "home"-land to live with the "former" Nazis. victims. Again German music, which was played while Jews were hanged, sounds in Jewish homes. It is a Jew who VEN IN DEFEAT the Huns were victorious. If represents the German interests in U. S. A., contributes E they had won the war, it would have been a German to both Democratic and Republican campaigns, suc­ triumph. But being finally vanquished, they disclaimed cessfully lobbying for .the return of assets and captured their role. It was not they-the Germans-who com­ military materials to Germany. mitted aH the crimes. It was some other fe1lov1s, some Soon after Germany's collapse so-called Jewish lead­ strange Nazis. The Germans are actually mild-man­ nered, good-natured people. They were as much victims ers went there to extend the hand of friendship, to accept "honors" and to ask for a fraction of the fortune of the Nazis as were the Jews. plundered from us. As if the mad villain-leader had ascended the rule This the looters call indemnity, restitution, repara­ of the Reich by a coup, by a revolution. He was elected tion. Can the life of one child burned alive be indemni­ by the German people in secret ballots, by his appeal fied? After all their payments can the German thieves to the cruel instincts of the masses. Voluntarily they repair the damage, restitute the gems, gold teeth, wed­ gave him the mandate to rob and to murder. Years ding rings pulled from the fingers of Jewish women, before the vampire came to power he acquainted them the personal possessions they stole; the art treasurers, with his gangster-program in his "Mein Kampf." The the paintings they pillaged. promise that he will build a mighty world empire on the debris and corpses of other people made him pop­ For this was not only the bloodiest slaughter in ular. The pledge that he would divide among them history, it was also the greatest theft of all centuries. what he would steal from others won the hearts of his What of the public and private libraries the Sifrei fellow-degenerates. Torah, the rare hooks, all kinds of collections. What of the priceless irreplaceable manuscripts, the precious Real Nazis were those few who could not hide their incunahlula, the realm of thought, learning, and knowl­ blood-stained hands. They 'vere named "former" Nazis edge they destroyed. A gigantic spiritual estate. built or "ex" Nazis (as though a kil1cr could become an in centuries, a world of culturaJ wealth, accumulated "ex-killer" or a "former murderer"). Now they figure during almost a millenium, the religious reservoir for as "good" Germans, and become judges before whom Kial Yisroel-they brought to ruin. other "former'' Nazis are brought for triaL And what became of the funds from the "Material Keeping with the general strategy of renaming, you, Claims?" How were they handled? How were they too, adopted the new terminology, and speak of Nazis distributed? And were we-our bones and ashes that and Germ<-1ns as two different groups of people. By this is-not entitled to some share of it? Other nations you share in the whitewashing of the cannibal nation. establish war graves commissions to honor their dead, Now our murderers enjoy an unheard of prosperity, to mark their graves, to guard them from dishonor. international prestige and military position, thanks to Could we not have expected at least the same concern? their forgetful conquerers. The German intellectuals Not a cent of this money was spent to liberate our

16 The Jewish Observer I _Septen1ber, 1966 "If the Jewish people rejects German expressions of good will, nothing good can result. The Nazis murdered as many Germans as Jews!" -KONRAD ADENAUER

children or to protect our graves. Only a minute frac­ assured me that my visit will be unforgettable' ... The most touching moment of the unique event occurred when the chief tion was used for restoring our lost Torah heritage executive of the Weizmann Institute made him an Honorary while millions of dollars were spent for pursuits alien Fellow and presented him with a special scroll. As Adenauer to our way of life. accepted the honor two charming lady students brought the Institute's official robe and ribbon and placed them on him. When after years of aversion the Germans finally The audience rose again in a second round of applause. No decided (as an act of revenge for the state reception one present could fail to sense the historicity of the event." given to the head of East Gremany in Cairo) to estab­ The hysterical description of the "historical event" lish diplomatic relations with the State of Israel, the reflects the frame of mind, the mood of "leaders" who Jewish "leaders" were most happy. The joy of indignity cannot forget-the money a German procured for reached its height when, at the reception for the Ger­ them. man Ambassador (a general in Nazi-Germany) and When at the luncheon he gave in honor of tbe dis­ the chief counselor (a former Hungarian Nazi), a tinguished guest the Jewish Premier dared to say that Jewish orchestra intoned Deutsch/and, Deutsch/and Germany's reparation payments, while welcome and Uber A lies, and a German flag was hoisted in the Land needed, could not atone for the Nazi slaughter of of Israel. 6,000.000 Jews, Adenauer felt extremely offended and Oh, we wish we could turn over in our graves-such expressed his severe anger: "If the Jewish people disgrace. The Ambassador then reported home: "The rejects German expressions of good will f sic], nothing Jews treat me with cordiality and warmth. I am a good can result. The Nazis murdered as many Gern1ans welcome guest at their parties and they come to my as Jews.'" These are the words of the "good," so-re­ dinners." vered and cherished German. The "misunderstanding" was quickly patched up. New and still more exciting HE SERVILITY of the "leaders" was climaxed honors were poured on the "good German." T at the private visit of Konrad Adenauer to lsrae]. At the reception Dr. Nahum Goldmann gave for As a member of the Reichstag he raised his hand Adenauer, he toasted him as "the man whose vision, voting for the bill to give the Chief Monster unlimited courage and conscience made the restitution program power. As Chancclor he appointed an oflicial of the possible. The contribution these payments have made Nazi Interior Ministry and co-author of the Nuremberg to the development of the Israeli economy and to its racial-legislation against the Jews (Hans Globke) as industry in particular cannot be overestimated." And Secretary of State and his chief personal aide, but still Adenauer thanked him for the great role in "helping he is a "good German" and was given a royal reception. to erase the brand of shame from the German people." Never was a son of our people greeted with so much In Sde Boker, Ben Gurion lauded Adenauer as "a enthusiasm in the Land of Israel by its oflicials as was man who had the courage to rebuild his country and this German. Wherever he went, cheers, homage, his people and who had even the greater courage to courtesies; German flags displayed everywhere. I~oss repair what his people had wrought." of self-respect and tastelessness knew no limit. He The short discordance, caused by Eshkol's remark, was made to kindle a candle for us who were slain was thoroughly corrected and "clarified" at the airport, by his people. when the Premier came to see Adenauer off. They Because the Weizmann Institute gets special grants clasped hands as they walked to the plane. Acenauer from the German government and the Volkswagen on his return to Bonn could boast to the German press firm, he was invited to Rcchovot. And a Jeivish writer that the Jewish premier apologized very meekly and reports in a Jewish paper: he magnanimously forgive him, and: "We agreed on all questions." "History was made here when the 90-year old Dr. Adenauer -in the pink of health and walking erect-approached the How desperately. we need a Yirmiahu who would speakers platform amid thunderous applause by an audience give expression to the vastness of our catastrophe, a composed of distinguished Israelis from every walk of life . , . Yeshayahu to hurl his arrows of condemnation against The venerable statesman ... who had done everything in his power to rectify the wrongs the Third Reich had inflicted upon a depraved leadership in the most sorrowful epoch in Jewry (our emphasis) ... said 'your hearty welcome has Jewish history. [J

The Jewish Observer I Se~ntember, 1966 17 Tbe l.ulzker Bav R. Zalman Sorotzkin

1JT p>iY i1J11'1

ON SUNDAY, TAMMUZ 8, THE Lutzker Rav, RABBI the Vaad Hayeshivos and of the Chinuch Atzmai, and Zalman Sorotzkin, returned his neshomoh to his Maker as the Rabbon she[ Kol Bnei Hagola. at the age of 86. Minutes before his passing, he was Rav Sorotzkin, n::ri:ir, V"il i:n, was born in Zachar­ joined by a group of Gedolei Torah around his bedside ina, in White Russia, where his father served as rav who recited with him: "Shema Yisroel." for sixty years. At the age of 17, he entered the In one of his own deroshes, the Rav noted that when Yeshiva of Volozhin. A number of years later he we recite the Shema, taking upon ourselves the Yoke went to the Telshe Yeshiva, where he became the of the Kingdom of G-d, it is the custom that we cover son-in-law of the Rosh Hayeshiva, the Gaon Rabbi our eyes, blotting out the cruelty and injustice which Eliczer Gordon, ?"ll. seemingly prevails in the world. At that moment, he His first rabbonus was in Voronovo, and at the end said, we judge the world, not as it appears to our of World War I he became the Rav and Av Beis Din "eyes of .flesh," but as it truly exists, under the rule of Lutzk. His rabbonus, however, was not confined of a Just and Merciful G-d, who alone determines our to Lutzk; he took up011 himself the needs of Kial destiny. Yisroel, an attitude which increasingly projected him As the Rav, par excellence, he applied this thought into the forefront of Torah leadership. It was this very to the rabbi in Israel who is confronted with a people same drive that prompted him to take a position of who live outside the domain of Torah and Mitzvos. forceful leadership in Agudath Israel from its very Let him not be paralyzed into inactivity, said Rav inception; leadership which was evident at every session Sorotzkin; rather let him direct himself to that one of every Knessia Gedola (the World Congress of Jew whose heart is receptive to words of Tomb, for Agudath Israel), and in every effort for Torah in the in bringing one Jew to Tcshuva-in the words of golden era of Polish Jewry. Chazal-he wins foregiveness for the entire world. In 1940, he arrived in Eretz Yisroel, a refugee from It was this capacity to work for the glory of Torah Nazi tyranny. He saw there, as his prime responsibility, in th€ face of, what to lesser men were insurmountable the need to organize a Vaad Hayeshivos of the type obstacles, which made the Lutzker Rav the powerful which had been so productive in Poland. He became leader he was, as Chairman of the World Moetzes a member of the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah, and at the Gedolei H atorah (the Council of the foremost Torah passing of the Gaon Rabbi Isser Zalman Melzer, ?"ll, authorities established by Agudath Israel), as head of he ascended to the Chairmanship of the body which

18 The Jewish Observer I September, 1966 guides the destiny and the policies of Torah Jewry. In day classic in the field. The tradition of the "philos­ this capacity, he was called upon, with his colleagues, opher-king," which still is but a dream in the non­ to rule on some of the most delicate problems which Jewish world, was personified in the Lutzker Rav. have confronted Jewry since the founding of the State Rav Sorotzkin leaves five sons, each involved in of Israel. dynamic efforts for the strengthening of Torah. His The crowning glory of his forceful leadership, was son, Rabbi Baruch Sorotzkin is Rosh Hayeshiva of the the establishment of Chinuch Atzmai, over tremendous famed Telshe Yeshiva. obstacles. He guided this unprecedented network of Much will be written of the life and works of Rabbi Torah schools with such self-sacrifice, that even his Zalman Sorotzkin in time to come. While the loss illness found him still actively leading Chinuch Atzmai. which every Jew suffered at his death is still fresh in In the tradition of the manhig Yisroel, Rav Sorotzkin, our hearts, we have chosen to pay tribute to the Rav his tremendous burdens notwithstanding, produced a by making available to the English-reader an adaptation substantial contribution. to every aspect of Torah and of one of his unforgettable deroshos, which concerns rabbinic scholarship. His monumental commentary on Yorn Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which will soon Chumash, Oznayim Latorah, has become a modern- be upon us. D

The Tablets and The Golden Calf Adapted from a Yom Kippur Derosho by R. ZalmanSorotzkin

"We go to the Rais Haknesses [on which emanated from Moshe, and recalling Moshe's Yorn Kippur eve] and it is the cus­ success in prevailing upon the Almighty to undo tom that the chazan removes a His oath, so that He might forgive the people. Sefer Torah and recites Kol Nidrei." • The congregation calls out: "Forgive this people's Rosh on Yorn Kippur sin." • The chazan relies: "And G-d said, I have forgiven, as you prayed I would," symbolic of Moshe's an­ THIS IS ONE OF THE FEW REFERENCES WE FIND TO nouncement to his people. the custom of removing a Sefer Torah from the Ark All this is followed by the Shecheyonu, praising G-d before Kol Nidrei. Others are silent on the subject­ for having brought us to the Day of Atonement, and perhaps because they could find no basis for it. But, since the minhag is now so widely practiced, it would for the high level in which the people find themselves be useful for us to discover its origins. jn prayer and fasting-as compared to their normal Yorn Kippur was set by the Torah on the tenth of level.. symbolizing finally, the contrast between the Tishrei, since it was on that day that Moshe Rabbeinu status of the people when Moshe came down with the came down from Sinai with the second luchos (tahlcts) first luc/ws-dancing around the Golden Calf-and and informed his people that the Almighty had for­ the contrite manner in which he found them when he given them for the sin of the Golden Calf. Each year, brought down the second luchos. on that day, the ais rotzon, the time of grace, is re­ awakened, and for that reason the tenth of Tishrei was Some Questions fixed for all generations as a day of forgiveness. There are a number of questions which have oc­ Viewed in this light, we can see the minhag as a curred to me in regard to the breaking of the luchos recapitulation of Moshe's return to the people, bringing by Moshe. 1 . ) Moshe was told by G-d to go down with him the Torah and G-d's forgiveness. to his people because they had made a Golden Calf. • The chazan opens the Ark, symbolizing the open­ Nevertheless, he took the luclws with him, most likely, ing of the Heavens. to give them to Israel even though they had sinned. • He removes a Sefer Torah, symbolizing the second But, what he saw changed his mind. He saw the Calf luchos. -of which he already knew-but he saw also that the • He goes down from the bima to the people, sym­ people were dancing around the Calf. At that point bolic of Moshe's descent. he decided to break the luchos. But why was the • Ohr zorua latzadik (Light is sown for the right­ dancing around the Calf more disturbing to Moshe, eous) is recited, symbolic of the rays of light than the making of the Calf itself? 2.) Why did the

The Jewish Observct I Se.nten1ber. 1966 19 Almighty permit Moshe to take down the luchos, know­ society, and when these restraints are removed for a ing that the people were not in condition to receive moment, they are capab]e of the most vicious acts. them-was it His purpose that Moshe should break When Moshe was told by G-d that his people had them? 3.) By what right did Moshe break the luchos, made a molten image, he felt that they had only been which were the handiwork of G-d; and why did G-d slightly diverted from the proper path to G-d; that they Himself congratulate Moshe for breaking them? 4.) retained their belief in a higher power and their belief Moshe ruled that since a stranger could not be given that man must restrain his instincts. He felt that the a portion of the Korbon Pesach, one could certainly luchos, "written by the Finger of G-d" would quickly not give the entire Torah to those estranged from the motivate them to return to the true G-d. But as he true G-d. But, would it not have been a better course approached the camp he saw the people dancing around of action if Moshe judged only those actually guilty the Calf in a spirit of abandon, as the Torah tells us: in the affair of the Calf, convinced the others to go "And they arose and made sport," an expression which back to their G-d, and then to have given them the the Sages tell us connotes sexual immorality and a luchos-why instead did he break them? 5.) The relaxation of moral restraint, he realized that the people Torah eulogizes Moshe with these word" ''And there had gone too far for the luchos to have any effect arose no novi in Israel like Moshe whom G-d knew upon them. He expressed his re-evaluation of their face to face, by virtue of the signs and wonders . . . ~in with the words, ". . . they have made for them­ and the strong hand, and the great fear which Moshe selves a god of gold" -gold being the currency with generated before the eyes of all of Israel." The Sages which man can indulge all of his inclinations to evil, tell us that the "strong hand" is a reference to Moshe's and which opens the door to a complete rejection of breaking the luchos, and it is characterized in a similar the true G-d and the abandonment of all moral re­ vein to the wonders which Moshe performed before straint. the Egyptians. But, what was the strength which Moshe manifested in breaking the luchos? 6.) Moshe A Compromise? called out, Mi Lashem ailay, in order to filter out the While he realized that the bulk of his people was faithful; and "all the men of Levi rallied to him." But not involved in the rebellion against G-d, he saw them where did the majority of the people stand? With standing by, watching what was happening, yet failing Moshe?-why did they fail to come to his aid to root to protest the action of their brothers. He knew that out the evil which had spread in the camp? With the it was simply a matter of days perhaps before they Calf-worshippers?-why did they permit the men of would all be sucked into rebeliousness. When they say Levi to wipe them out? And how did Moshe manage that Moshe had come down from Sinai with the luchos, to prevail with one tribe against eleven others? 7.) written by G-d, they were cast into confusion and Moshe returned to G-d and said: "This people has turmoil. Perhaps, they conjectured, they could evolve committed an immense sin; they have made for them­ a middle path, a compromise between the luchos and selves a god of gold.'' From this it would appear that . . . the Golden Calf. The Golden Calf would assure before Moshe descended the Mount, he did not think them "happiness" in Olom Haze, and the luchos would that the sin of the Calf was quite so terriblc--they gain them Olom Habo. (In our own time there are had made a god of base metal. Only when he learned Jews who are rodfei shalom, pursuers of peace, who that it was formed of gold did he consider that a grave would compromise, who would reconcile "the good sin had been committed, but what difference does it life" with the demands of Torah; who go to the Beis make if people make their gods of base metal or of Medrash each day, and send their children to schools gold? where their emuna is destroyed.) Moshe saw that such compromise could only lead to ... Some Answers a complete break by the people away from the G-d Certainly, there is no difference between one false who had taken them out of Egypt. He understood god and another, but . . . there is a great difference that he could do but one thing; that he had to act between those who helieve (even in false gods) and with a "strong hand." Before the eyes of his people those who do not believe. The believers are looking he shattered the luchos. When the people saw what for a god, and while they stumble, they may one day Moshe had done-Moshe who had been their faithful be brought to serve the true G-d. But the kofrim (the leader, and had pleaded their cause before the Heaven­ non-believers) are not looking for a god; they believe ly Throne-had shattered the luchos becanse of the only in themselves and they serve . . . only them­ Golden Calf, they regained their moral sense and of­ selves. The believers, have at least a belief in a power fered no resistance when Moshe, with the men of Levi, greater than themselves; they believe that man has rooted out the evil that was among them, and destroyed some responsibility, that he must exercise some restraint the Calf. It was perhaps for this reason that the on his passions. The others have no standards of Almighty permitted Moshe to take the luchos with him, behavior other than those imposed upon them by knowing that his drastic act would save the people

20 The Jewish Observer I September. 1966 from an irreparable break with their G-d. And it was to discern the nature of the sounds he hears. If he this act of Moshe which brings the Torah to say of hears cries of, "Forgive us"; expressions of regret for l1im: "And there arose no novi in Israel like Moshe past sins and a resolve to come closer to G-d, then because of "the strong hand" which he demonstrated he knows the people are ready for the Torah, and that "before the eves of all of Israel." the Almighty will forgive their sins. Although i~ our generation, which has climbed to But if he hears the sounds of pagan festivity, the such great cultural heights, there are none among echoes of singing and dancing around the "Golden Israel who practice idolatry in a base sense, there are Calf", '·then he must muster the strength of Moshe all too many among us who dance around the "Golden Rabbeinu, he must show "the mighty hand," to shatter Calf", whose lives consist of an endless and self-defeat­ the luchos, as it were, and to make his people realize ing pursuit of physical pleasures, and who know no how dangerously close they are to breaking the last restraint. threads that tie them to their G-d. And it is only with When the rabbi comes down to his people on Yorn such forcefulness and daring that he can rescue his Kippur night, Sefer Torah in hand, he must be able congregation from "the evil decree."

O.,lV'J i1'1lNl ilN>J.tl\9 ilJ.l\911 i1'1l'Tl So Great is 'l'esbuva . ..

(The following are selections freely adapted from But there is good reason for this difference. A. l1un1an the writings of the Maharal 1l1iPrague hased on trihuna] has jurisdiction over man's evil deed@. alone; Midrashic references to Teshuva, fro1n his classic it docs not have the com11etence to jud.ge gootlness, work, !Vesivos Olom). since what appears to be a proper act may he a cloak for evil and the A1mighty alone can plumh The Teshuva Mystique man's hf'.art. This trihunal is therefore restricted to judµ;ing wl1ether or not a man was guilty of an evil '\X'h1dom '\\'-as asked: 'Wlhat is the result of sin, and act. It cannot incasure Teshuva; it is unable to eval­ replied that man's sins will forever pursue him. In uate the authenticity of what is essentially a dceply- response to the sa1nc question Prophecy replied: 1·ooted einotional experience. The H<~avcnly Tribunal 1~he soul that sins must die. When 'l'orah '\\'-as asked secs inan in his totality; it can measure evil and the rcsu]t of sin, the Torah declared: J_,ct the sinner evaluate goodness and therefore has jurisdiction over bring an offering and he will find atonement. And all of 1nan's actions, a con1pctcnce which even \\Tis­ finally, the I-Io1y One, Blessed Be He, "\\ras asked, dom and Prophecy do not possess. Wl1at of the sinner? anelicve that if man l1as not been in a Almighty alone who grants the gift of "fe~huva constant state of Tes11uva, then Teshuva before his '\vherehy the einotion of repentance alone era

The Jewish Observer I Septen1ber, 1966 21 Love and Fear sonal and tl1e collective. Man hy himself, through Teshuva, can climb up to the Heavenly Throne, hut Rabi Chomoh the son of Chaninoh saicl: So great no further. But when Rabi Yochanan tells us that is Teshuva that it hrings healing to the world. Teshuva can set aside a mitzvoh, he is speaking of (Talmud) .Kial Yisroel, of tl1e power of collective 'fe..,huva, When man repents, he returns to his original state which can bring the people of Israel directly to the G-d of Israel. of purity, and the entire world returns to its original state. This is what Rabi Chomoh n1eans when he tells us that Teshuva brings healing to the world, for T eshuva and Geula it restores the world to its pristine state. Rabi Yosi Haglili said: So great is Teshuva that 'l~hcre appears to be a contradiction het'\\reen two it hrings Geula (Rede1nption) to the world ..As it passages from the prophet Yirmiyahu on the matter it \\'Tit ten: "And a Redee1ner will come to Zion and of Tcshuva. In one instance (~:14) he decla1·es. in 10 those among Yaakov who return from sin." ·"rhy the name of G~d, ~'Return, my rehellious children ..." ,\i·ill the Redeemer come?-because of those who '\\'hich suggests that hy the very act of Teshuva they return from .sin. (Talmud) are already healed. In another passage (3:22) he cleclares, ''Return, my rebellious cl1ildren, and I 'vil] By the act of Tesl1uva man i::.eparatcs himself from heal you . . . "' indicating that after Teshuva they the Yeitzer Hora (the inclination to evil) and there~ must yet he healed. In fact, however, the two passages by becomes free. Since man is normally ruled by refer to two different types of Tcshuva. When ma11 the Yeitzer Hora, and Teshuva frees him. fron1 that returns ont of Love of G-d he is already healed, since rule, his act of self-redemption is an act of Geula his expression of J_,ove has brought him to his destina­ which brings closer the Redemption of .Klal Yisroel. tion. But, if he returns out of fear of G-d, lie 11as It is for this rea..,;;on that the Jubilee year, when not yet come all the way, and he has need of G-d's thr. bondsman is rclea10ed fro1n his obligations~ is help to bring: him to complete healing. proclai1ned on Y om Kipp11r, on t11e day 'vhen man is relf':ased from the Y eitzer fl nra and he gains f"rec~ Communal T eshuva dom for his hody as well as his soul. Rabi I .. cvi said: ''So great i.s Teshuva that it can bring man up to the Heavenly Throne. Rabi ·yocha­ Resh Laki.11 said: So great is Teshuva, that delih· nan points out that it can bring him up to the Throne, erate acts of wrong~doing are reckoned to have been but not actually to the Throne itself. But how can committed without intent.. As it is written: "Return Rabi Yochanan say this when h~ has himself pointed () Israel to the l .. ord your G-d, for yo11 have stu1nhled out that 'feshuva has the power to :o.et a~ide a ne~ative in your sin." The prophet speaks of intentional sin command of the Torah? and yet calli;; it 'stumbling.' But, is this ReRh J_.,akish's How is this so? If a man should divorce 11is "\\·ife opinion?-·--has he not said that Tesh11va transforms and she heco1nes the wife of another man, he may intentional acts to merits? There is no contradiction, never again take her back as his wife. And yet~ Israel for when Teshuva i_,;; ,<;timulated by Fear of G-d, has 'taken another wife' and the Almighty permits man's sins are deemed to 11ave heen without intent, her to return throuµ-h Te.shuva. But this no contra­ hut when his Teshuva is Jnotivated by Love of G-cl, dict.ion, for whf'n the entire peoplf~ return, the power then his sins are reckoned al3 merits. of 'l'eshuva propels them to the very Throne~ a goal It is perfectly clear why intentional acts arc con­ '"Thich one man alone is not able to achieve. .siderPd-after Teshuva-a" though they were 'vith­ (Talmud) out intent. Teshuva elcvatPs Jnan to a higher degree of spirit wherein he is no ]ongcr capable of l1is Tesl1uva returns 1nan to l1is original state, and his previous wrong-doing" "\\'hich is now looked upon soul having been hewn fro1n hencath the I-Icavenly as having hecn without intent. Throne l1e returns from whence he came. But since But~hO'\\' are wf'. to understand that Tcshuva, even we might think that it takes man directly to the if motivated hy Lovf' of G-d, can transform evil into Almig-hty Himself, Rabi Yochanan points out tl1at merit? 1'he answer lirs in tl1e fact that it wa ... man's Teshuva does not take him all the '"'ay. 'l'he Ge1nn1ora ;vrung-doing which took him far from (;.d. \Vl1cn he finds this in contradiction to Rabi Yochanan'f' own is overwheln1cd hy feelings of regret coupled with dec]aration that Tcshuva has the power to set aside .Love for G-d 0 it tl1en hecon1es evident that his very a negative con1mand of the 'forah. whicl1 ohviously acts of '\'rong-doing i'"Crved to bring him hack to his would mean that it returns ma11 to the .Almigl1ty (:;..d, and they are no'v reckoned as merits. But while Himself. The (;en1mora therefore concludes that in all this is undouhted]y r;o, one should not attempt this respect there are two levels of Teshuva, the per- to prohf' the depths of tl1cse teacl1ings. D

22 The Jewish Observer I September, 1966 A Review Samson Raphael Hirsch on the Psalms

THE APPEARANCE OF THIS VOLUME, CONTAINING BOOKS the T' hillim commentary gives the lie to this distortion three, four, and five of the Psalms, means that Rabbi of Rabbi Hirsch's ideas. Actually the demands of the S. R. Hirsch's translation and commentary to the Torah upon the Jew, as he formulated them, were truly Psalms is now available to the English reader in total, revolutionary; they called for an unshakable trust in who owes a heavy debt of gratitude to the publisher, G-d, and for every thought and action to be so mo­ and to the Samson Raphael Hirsch Publication Society tivated, which "must of necessity seem utter 'folly' to for which the work was published. In his introduction the materialist mind" ( p. 46). "The purpose of our to the Book of Psalms, Rabbi S. R. Hirsch wrote that wanderings through the desert was to train us to give "next to the Pentateuch, the Book of Psalms-among every sphere and aspect of our lives entirely to trust in G-d, to dedicate ourselves to him with the whole of our existence" (p. 57). "It is regrettable that the THE PSALMS by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, concept of Divine Service is understood to consist Volume 2 primarily of the ritual of prayer and sacrifice. This is Translated by Gertrude Herschler not in accordance with the Jewish idea.... To serve New York, 1966 I Phillip Feldheim, $8.75 G-d means to devote all one's energy, all the means and talents at one's disposal and every moment of one's life to the execution of G-d's will" (p. 195). all other books of the Holy Scriptures-has had the Such single-minded devotion to G-d, in defiance of greatest influence upon the moulding of the Jewish all the rules of practicality and selfishness, Rabbi Hirsch spirit"; it was surcJy for this reason that he poured based upon "the great truth that every piece of bread into his T' hillim commentary the fullness of his a human being earns for himself and his dear ones thoughts about the meaning of life and world, making through honest conscientious toil is to be viewed only this work a concise but all-comprehensive repository as another demonstration of all the great ways of G-d's of his philosophy of Judaism. rule .... Man owes his daily subsistence not to acci­ Many of the fundamental concepts developed at dent, nor even to an automatic interaction of natural length in other writings of the author reccur here in and social conditions" (p. 418). short; in the volume before us we find his comments The devotion to G-d expresses itself in the pursuit on G-d's revelation in nature (psalm 104) and in of the Divine Law, "the constant and permanent ob­ Jewish history (psalms 78, 105, and 106); the meaning jective of all one's thoughts and actions for all time of Israel's closeness ( 111, v. 6) and of antisemitism to come." Thus Rabbi Hirsch placed prime emphasis (129, v. I); the concept of Kedushah (99, v. 3); and on "the full and thorough understanding of this law" the significance of Temple and sacrifices (73. v. 17, (p. 323). In moving words he described the Jew's and 141, v. 2); the desirable course of Talmud study devotion to Torah study; "he knew that the suffering (119, v. 16); and the role and education of women which had come upon him had made him better and (144., v. 12). It is interesting to note the author's more noble than before. He felt that his increased observation that, in the case of the Mitzvos that can and more profound occupation with G-d's law had hen considered Edos (expressions of divine teachings). come about as a result of his troubles; indeed he re­ "the understanding of the thought which they are meant ceived a11 of his misfortunes as admonitions to 'study' to express is an essential part of their fulfillment, for the doctrine of Divine Law whose life-giving power in most instances they are described in the Torah as . . . was truly demonstrated to l1im only in the time signs ..." (p. 332); this idea has its halachic ex­ of trouble. Therefore danger and suffering did not pression in Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim, Ji.8, par. divert him from his occupation with G-d's teachings; 8 (compare also Derech Pekudecho, introduction). instead, the Torah was his refuge ..." (p. 327). Jn fact, "the good which the writer of this psalm OVER THE YEARS, EFFORTS HAVE BEEN MADE TO CHAR­ acknowledges to have received from G-d in the past acterize Rabbi Samson R. Hirsch as an exponent of a consists of such aid in the study of the Law as G-d "philosophy of convenience," justifying "accommoda­ has given him thus far. But, he asks for something tion" to the social, cultural and political forms and that is greater still . . . the higher spiritual talent to ideas of the nineteenth century. Like his other writings, be able to penetrate more deeply into the thoughts and

The Jewish Observer I September. 1966 23 motives at the basis of the laws of G-d" (pp. 344-5). and their social conditions and relationships lack a firm But this does not mean a cheap rationalization of the basis. They have no concept of an eternal order of laws: " ... attempts at inquiry into the motives behind laws which was revealed by G-d ..." (p. 489). Rabbi these laws would be a presumptious and dangerous Hirsch had harsh words for those who sought to tamper undertaking for a person who does not cleave to G-d's with this eternal order, "those who transgress Divine commandments simply because they are His but who Law knowing full well that they do so, and then attempt makes his belief in their sanctity and binding force to legalize their transgressions through a fallacious in­ subject to the results of his investigation into their terpretation of G-d's pronouncements in order to jus­ reasons and purposes. . . . The sole reason why [the tify their defections" (p. 334 ). Psalmist] seeks to inquire into the word of G-d is that, What about other areas of study than the Divine io him, the Divine Commandments are indeed the Law Law itself? They do indeed have their place in the of the Lord and hence ... he seeks to investigate the life of the Jew, but only because, and to the extent trail of Divine wisdom, even as the human mind en­ to which, they further his mL.sion in the world: "The deavors to search in the marvels of nature and history prerequisite for the true fulfillment of the laws of the for the demonstration of G-d's wisdom and almighty Lord is knowledge, as thorough as possible, of all the power" (pp. 324-5). realities of human affairs on earth .... Therefore, the \VHA'f .A.BOUT THE ADAPTIOJ\.r OF THESE LAWS TO true disciple of the wisdom of the Law can learn from changing conditions? Such a concept can only be held every man ..." (p. 354). by the nations which "believe that any concept of law As remote as all these ideas are from a "philosophy is determined by the views held at any given time and of accommodation" for the modern Jew, so far re­ place concerning the needs of society. . . . Hence, moved are Rabbi Hirsch's ideas from a "philosophy their law and order are in a constant process of change, of accommodation" for the Jewish people as a whole. At no point did he permit his reader to forget that we are in exile and that we must look for redemption. SIFREI TORAH The meaning of these terms he made very clear: "Be­ are urgently needed for fore the actual Temple of Zion can be rebuilt upon its new Y ishuvim in Eretz Y isroel ruins, and the land will blossom forth again from out • of the dust- the Temple and land of Zion must first Requests keep pouring in from Eretz Y isroel, rise again in Israel's spirit. This spiritual restoration some telling of settlements using a Chumash of Zion which is nothing else than the ultimate union for Krias Hatorah, due to the lack of a of Israel with its Law and its national destiny is the Sefer Torah. goal of an the course of training that exile is meant to afford us" (p. 206). If you know of any Sefer Torah available for The passages here quoted demonstrate the wide sucl1 a holy purpose, please write or phone: range of subjects covered in this volume, as well as • their relevance to the problems of our time. They also AGUDATH ISRAEL OF AMERICA show the combination of faithfulness to the original 5 Beekman Street New York City and excellent readability, which characterizes Miss WO 4-1620 Herschler's translation. It is sincerely to be hoped that this work will reach the widest possible public .

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24 The Je1•.:ish Observer I Septe1nber, 1966 second looks at the jewish scene

having achieved equal economic op­ "Creative" Judaism portunities, is casting off his apolo­ getic attitude in regard to his East THE ART OF PROPAGATING ke{ira IS the New World, fonnd it impossible European origin. The Yiddishe vort highly developed and insidious. It to resist this appeal to be "modern." has become an "in" thing on stage quickly adopts the most market­ He fell a willing victim to the amei and television. As moods, modes, able product. In the past gen­ ha-aretz who had taken over the and even scientific truths experience eration kefira and deviation was communal organizations, institu­ a rapid turn-over in the market sugar-coated with adjectives such tions and synagogues in the name of place of ideas, the pulling power of as: new. modern, and scientific. up-to-date, Twentieth-Century Ju­ being "modern" wanes and gives The immigrant-Jew, struggling with daism, American-style. way to a desire for authenticity. To the problem of economic survival, In this generation an appeal for combat this new trend toward or­ overwhelmed by a new language change for the sake of change, thodoxy, a new kind of Judaism is and culture, burdened with the stig­ meets with increasing resistance. being coined-Creative Judaism. ma of his Old World origin, and The Jew having finally "arrived" in Ke{ira is shedding its old, hackneyed caught in the glare and glitter of America, at least in the sense of mask of "Modernism" and is don-

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The Jev.,ish Observer I Septe1nber, 1966 25 n1ng a new mask-"Creativcness." call for assimilation-"an integrated ]em ... by greater creativity ... "Creative" is a lovely word. It American and Jewish existence'' [with] art shows, book fairs, con­ implies "change" with numerous and for "preference in the alloca­ certs, dance progratns, theater, positive connotations. Its opponents tion of community dollars'' to or­ creative writing . . . discussions, by implication, are destructivists. It ganizations "with primary concern lectures, etc." (emphasis ours) is a word with which it is difficult for this issue," i.e., Centers. Solen­ Another of his basic guidelines to argue. Its exponents, like the der points ont that the Center has for Jewish life in America is "cre­ advocates of motherhood and vir­ "infinite potential" to accomplish ative but respectful" resistance to tue, start off with a winning slogan. these ends through "the teen club, "pressures" for traditiona1 Jewish the social dance, the team, the art practices. With unusual candor Mr. WHO THEN ARE THESE EXPONENTS class, the forum, the lounge. the Solender leaves no doubt as to what of this ultra-modern kefira? The pre-school group, the golden age he means by "creative" resistance. National Jewish Welfare Board is program, the day camp, or the resi­ He states quite candidly that he is one of them. Jn a recently-pub­ dent camp." His first of seven basic referring to protests over chillul lished authoritative statement of its guide lines for implementing this shabbos at Centers, and it is his position, "The Jewish Community new Jewish position in America is firm position that the Orthodox and Center and the American Jewish "Creative" programming as a sub­ other proponents of traditional Future," Sanford Solender, the Ex­ stitute for traditional chinuch. He practices should he put in their ecutive Vice President of that or­ says: place as creatively and as respect­ ganization, gave, what is described Most Jewish material has been fully as is possible! as the third in a series of landmark taught as abstract information He expresses the dilemma of the statements on the Jewish position in ... at best of academic and im­ modern Jew thus: America. The first such statement personal value. . . . Experiences [He] is caught between two was the Janowsky study of 1948 with the Sabbath, holidays, fes­ crossfires. One insists that . . . and the second, Solender's 1955 tivals, and other observances ... the accent must be placed on study on the functions of the Jewish [are] dry, repetitive, uncompre­ Jewish customs, ceremonials and Community Center. hended rites. The Center is in rites. . . . The other contends This position paper is a naked an apt position to meet this prob- that the tradition! practices . . . There is Still Time ••• to register your son in the YESHIVAH OHR YISROEL • Kindergarten, and eight grades of intensive learning. e General Studies department fully staffed hy experienced licensed teachers. MESIVTA OHR YISROEL- Jac:k Parker High Sc:hool e Full four year Mesivta-high school program. e Roshei mesivta - talmidei chal~ho1nim teaching and closely guiding every class. e Science lahoratory - aid conditioned classrooms. NYS RPgents Exams in high school classes. e Transportation from Queens, Brooklyn, Rockaways, and Mon~ey, N. Y. Late Registration: August 29 • September 1 - 8-10 P .M. Monday - Thursday Call BO 3-6242 for appointment '1N1\?I> 1lN NnJ.>nJJl i1J.>\?I> YESHIVA &. MESIVT A OHR YISROEL 66-20 THORNTON PLACE / FOREST HILLS 74, NEW YORK / BO 3-6242 Rabbi E. Joshua Geldzahler, Deon Rabbi Nisson Wo!pin, Principal, General Studies

26 Tile Jewish Observer I September, 1966 are vestiges of tribal obsoles­ Congress, Bnai Brith, Jewish Labor mon cause to which all Jewish cence, [but] modern man (i,e,, Committee, Jewish War Veterans, community relations agencies are Center member) rejects the prim­ National Council of Jewish Women, committed. itivism of the cave-man [i.e., the Union of American Hebrew Con­ Here too, is a program for "cre­ Orthodox Jew] .... Rigid un­ gregations, United Synagogue of ativity" in accordance with "Jewish changeability simply invites aban- America and the Union of Orthodox values." The "fostering" of Jewish donment of Jewish practices ... . Jewish Congregations of America, "group values" in place of old­ Creative accommodation ... can states that its purpose is: fashioned, non-creative shemiras . . . be their conservation and To create conditions that will mitzvos, is another kefira formula. preservation." (Emphasis ours) enable the Jewish group [Note What is amazing is that it is here As an illustration of his point, the singular] to live creatively by offered as the committed policy of Mr. Solender states: fostering its distinctive group val­ "the Jewish group," and is endorsed "The recent controversy over ues while participating fully with as such by at least one Orthodox the Sabbath policies of Centers is other groups in the general life organization, without a reservation a case in point .... The Center of the society. This is the com- of any kind. REUBEN E. GROSS can introduce a new appreciation of the Sabbath through specially designed programs in an idiom appropriate to modern life." A further guideline for the future of American Jewry is "creative in­ tegration of the American and Jew­ irst ish components of our future" by an "open membership policy" in Scharf Family Hotels for Senior Citizens were Centers which will then supply a first established in Long Beach more than 10 place for "healthy social contacts years ago - pioneers in serving the unique ... through which to expand asso­ needs of retired elderly people. ciational opportunities for young Jews." Bereft of its professional double-talk. we have here an out­ right p1ea for inter-marriage, with just enough ambiguity thrown in so as to supply a narro\v escape hatch in the event of a storm of protests. class Mr. So1ender, of course, is not Experience pays. Our clientele is the finest be· averse to using governmental funds cause our service and facilities are superior, our on federal, state or local levels to rates most reasonable. Upon request, we provide aid his projects, although the use full·time companions - another Scharf "first". of such funds by day schools would probably make him recoil with horror. Let it not be thought that the Center movement has a monopoly on this new "Creative Judaism." The Introduction to the Joint Pro­ ScharFAMILY HOTELS gram Plan (1965-1966) for Jewish LONG BEACH, NEW YORK Community Relations by the Na­ tional Community Relations Ad­ visory Council, which consists of seventy-seven local community councils plus the American Jewish

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The Je1vish Observer I September, 1966 27 "The Bible" We were in Italy and per· sonally se]ected and cut the WE HAVE FREQUENTLY NOTED THE first chapters of the Old Testa­ most beautiful distortions and absurdities which ment, that brings to brilliant life C'iM)1~ C'l1iMN iY'l'lYl!'.l:' are presented to the American pub­ the stories that are part of all ti')::i1~ 'M7) 'N1i lic on matters Jewish through the our lives ... WHOLESALE - RETAIL mass media. One dares not speak Perhaps there is some consolation Out·of-town orders of the height of absurdity, for there in the rea1ization that it is not our corefully filled is no way in which we can fortell "Bible" they are talking about. Per­ • what the new day will bring. But, haps too, it is time that every think­ Chaim Leiter the following words, which ap­ ing Jew purge the word "Bible" 290 KINGSTON A VENUE peared on July 26 in a full-page from his vocabulary, as a silent I corner Eastern Parkway) advertisement in The New York protest against such absurdity. Brooklyn, New York Times, may justifiably be termed "a IN 7-9116 / PR 4-2330 ')~:.. : .. x ..: .. :.,. .. : .. :.,. .. : .. :..:+x..: .. :..: ... ,...,...... , new height in absurdity." ~ Interment In The Holy Land HOW DO YOU IMAGINE EVE? The s: ~· Possible Within 24 Hours :!: talented people who created the :i: J.. extraordinary motion p i c t u re PINCUS MANDEL MOVINC? "The Bible" asked thousands of !: J j; Cemetery Consultant -} Be sure to notify us in men and wonzen . . . and they .i. .. 1. agreed: Eve was blonde. This is ••~ J,. just one of the myriad details that x Representing Chevr1 Kadisha •l advance so that your copies were thoroughly checked before $: Haraishis \PHaklalis Pcrushim !- "The Bible" was filmed. And it .t. Ashkenazim D'Jerusalem .f. will continue to reoch you. t T i is this care, this faithful portrayal y ~ of the momentous events of the ·,· Over 35 years experience in ~· ;( all cemetery matters. Recom- 1: +.•. mende d by prominent Ortho dox ;t.f :•: Rabbis. All arrangements per- ,:; New Pirchei Record Out r 1 ;i; formed in strictly Orthodox ~: The second volume of "Pirchei Sings," Yours for +Traditions. y containing beautiful melodies sung by Y T v the choir of Pirchei Agudath Israel of ? ~ America, was released this month. The the asking °{ r :~ Pincus Mandel {: Pirchei records have been widely praised Delicious GLATT KOSHER Break­ as a welcome addition to the record 111 PENN STREETS; Jibrary in Jewish homes. Copies, at fast, Lunch, Dinner served to you :j: ;i: Brooklyn, New York 11211 ·f $4.50 per record including mailing by most Airlines at no extra cost. charges. can be obtained from the Na­ When arranging for your next air :1: Day & Nite Phones: UL 5-5121 ; tional Council of Pirchei Ag:udath Israel, trip be sure, request "Schreiber "'... :..: .. : .. :-: .. :..:-: .. :..:-: .. :..:-: .. :..:-: .. :-: ... :-:...:-:-:-.· 5 Beekman Street, New York City 10038. Kosher Air Meals." Available in over 50 cities. RIKA BREUER TEACHERS SEMINARY FOR WOMEN Prepared under Rabbinical super· vision of tile Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. U. S. Govern· annaunc:es fhe opening of fhe new school year in the ment ln~pected. DAY DIVISION ~ ...... - ....~ on Wednesday, September 7 - Ellul and in the EVENING DIVISION on Sunday morning, September 11 - Ellul Late date for Evening Division - Late Registration: September ll Qualified students, full -· or part time, accepted for preparatory, first and second year, and postgraduate couri;es • RIKA BREUER TEACHERS SEMINARY FOR WOMEN 85-93 Bennett Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10003 LO 8°6200

28 The Jewish Observet I Septen1her, 1966 Orthodox Groups Meet With alter its policy requiring Yeshiva students to go to public schools for any benefits Equal Opportuity Leader Agudah Briefs provided after 3 P._M. Agudath Israel has Agudath Israel joined with other Or­ during the past few months actively thodox Jewish groups at a conference worked to focus the attention of Wash­ held on August 16 in the office of the Agudah Representative Appears ington officials on the unfair distribution Agudas Harabonim with Commissioner of Title I funds by New York City's Luther Holcomb of the Equal E1nploy­ At Board of Education Hearing Board of Education to the non-public ment Opportunity Commission. Dr. Hol­ On Wednesday, August 17th, Rabbi schools. comb, who flew from Washington to Morris Sherer appeared for Agudath Is­ meet with the leaders of the Orthodox rael before a hearing of the New York .On the Washington Front Jewish organiz:ltions, was asked to revise City Board of Educalion and appealed the guidelines issued by the Con1mission to its members "not to permit poor During August Agudath Israel partic~ on June 14 on discrimination in en1pJoy­ children to become the football of clash­ ipated in two important developments: ment because of religion. The ()rthodox ing political doctrines." The meeting was • Our representative joined educational Jewish groups presented the Commis­ called by the Board on its proposals for and communal leaders from all 50 States, sioner with a n1ernorandum prepared by the year 1966-1967 for the distribution who were invited to Washington by the the National Jewish Commission on Law of Title I funds of the f~deral education U.S. Office of Education to participate and Public Affairs, with proposed re­ aid programs. The hearing \Vitnessed the in a National Conference on Education visions which \vould protect a Sabbath usual array of spokesmen of Jev1ish of the Disadvantaged. The Conference, observer from discrin1ination in en1ploy­ organizations presenting clashing view­ which was convened from July 18 to 20 ment in absence of "bona fide,. occupa­ points. While the Orthodox groups de­ at the request of President Johnson, tional reasons to the contrary. 'fhe pro­ manded broadening the benefits for stu­ evaluated the effects of rfitle I programs pcsal seeks to define the "bona fide" dents of Yeshivos in poverty arens, the of the federal education act. The Agudist occupational exemption very nh organizations vociferously representative, the only Orthodox Jewish so that its application \vould be iimited opposed many aspects of the aid received participant, utilized the occasion to point to those rare cases where the services by religious school students, especially up the discrimination from which non~ of a particular individual are indispens­ the provision permitting public school public schools suffer in some cities. The able to the normal conduct of the em­ teachers to service children on religious federal officials expressed grave concern ployer's business. Dr. Holcomb expressed ~chool premises. A major point made over this illegal neglect of the non-public sympathy with the aspirations of the by the Orthodox Jewish spokesmen was schools in the implementation of the Orthodox groups and gave his fulJ assur­ the request rlu'!t the Board of Edncation federal education aid program, and ances that these proposals would receive promised to take strong action to correct active consideration. the situation. Office Machines Agudath Israel contacted Chairman Emanuel Celler of the House Judiciary Insurance Office machines, typewriters, calculators, Homeowners! Want to save 23°/o on your copying machines 0 Sales, rentals, and insurance expenses? Car owners! want to repairs O Office - Furniture O LEO save 15°/oon your insurance expenses? Call: FRIEDMAN 0 168 Chambers Street, New R'iRSCH WOLF, General Insurance, Mutual York City 0 AL 5-6234, RE 2-7131, Funds and life, 189 Montague Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. 11201 RI 9-2335 0 Open Sundays by Appointment

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The Jewish Obi;erver I Sevten1ber. 1966 29 Committee and other members of the precedented procedure would invite a The Albany Legislative Front Committee to urge their rejection of never-ending stream of litigation." The the Judicial Review Bill passed by the Agudah began its activities against this The following are recent developments Senate, which would permit individuals bill already last year, realizing that it in which Agudath Israel played an active to test in court the constitutionality of could open the flood gates to a torrent of role: federal grants to schools and other insti­ law suits against various forms of fed­ The Textbook Amendment was tutions. In addition to making personal eral benefits received by students attend­ passed by the New York State Senate contacts, the Agudah sent a memoran­ in non-public schools, and the resulting and Assembly and signed by Governor dum to the Judiciary Committee pointing harassment could completely break down Rockefeller. The amendn1ent to the 1965 out that the passage of "such an un- education aid programs. Te:xtbook Bill, which represents a com­ promise formula worked out between an Agudist representative and leaders of other faiths with Governor Rockefeller's aides, spreads out an increase evenly over a three-year period, by granting $15 per pupil for each of the next three last Chance, to order vears, beginning September 1966. In a Public statement, Agudath Israel pointed a prelahricatetl out that the new formula does not place a ceiling of $15 per year on the amount of texthooks that should be provided to children attending Yeshivas; it merely PACKAGED SUKKAH sets the figure of State aid to be received by school districts for textbooks. The Lifetime Easy-To-Assemble Portable Sukkah Subsequently, when on August 18 Justice T. Paul Kane of the New York designed by the Spero State Supreme Court ruled that the Text­ Foundation book Bill is unconstitutional, Agudath Israel swung into action: Contacts were WALLS: M11de of made with leading New York State of­ SIZE: iV.,' long, 5%' wide, yelluw DURA ~ HUE ficials to assure distribution of the text­ and 71,4' high. Will aecom· DUCK. Weight 10 oz. per square yard. MU· books pending the outcome of the appeal mudate up to 10 pen<.>n~. dcw-Resislant and water­ of Justice Kane's decision in higher Repcllcnt. FRAME and FITTINGS: courts, and legal steps were initiated for DECORATIONS a re Made of an alloy of silk screened on upper Agudath Israel to submit an amicus iliuminum and magne•ium, four walls in maroon curiae brief to the appeals court. color, will not fa.de. three-quarler inch diamelee • The DeSalvio Bill, which bars dis­ LIGHT: We furnish pipe which will not rm! an electric fixture com· crimination against Sabbath-observers in or C<.>rrode. No loob neee•· plele with 25 ft. waler· scheduling examinations and classes in sary wilh <.>ur patented proof wire, socket, plug and plas\il: shade. publicly supported colleges, was signed fitting• to a!,emhle or di•· ROOF: We furnisl1 into Jaw. The original bill ca11ed for mantle, 01hce than one three wooden or barn· thi<> ]a\v to apply to all types of colleges, small wrench whleh we hoo strip• across lh'-' furnbh. top to hold Fixture but it was reduced to publicly-supported and S'chach. colleges in order to obtain the Govern­ or's signature. PACKING ON1,Y ASSEMBLING • The Chananau Bill was passed and We pack and ship entire S11kkab Wilh each purchase we furnish signed, which ·will make it possible for in a heavy corrugated carlon $102. you very detailed assembly 8homrei Shabbos to take a Civil Service which fa 8 feel long by 8 inche• im.tmction sheel, which makes it F .O.B. FACTORY examination on an alternate date when ~quare and this carton is used for very simple to put the Sukkah it is scheduled on a Shabbos or Yorn Check With Order storing youT Sukkah. together in about 30 min11les. Tov. This bill is a major breakthrough in a vexing problem for Shon1rei Shab­ Write for your copy of a free booklet on S uccos, published by the Spero Foundation. bos candidates for Civil Service posi~ tions. Several months ago Agudath lio;­ S'CllACH 1 We will abo rael's attorney helped test such a, case supply you with 80 bamboo I THE JE'\l'ISII OBSERVER in a local New York court, where our stick• l" inch in djamcter ! 5 BC'ekman Street by 6 feet long to c<.>vee position \Vas rejected by the judge. New Yol°k, N. Y. 10038 entire Sukkah. • Another bill in Albany backed by $18.00 Gentlemen; ADDITIONAL Orthodox Jev1ry, the Cole1nan Bill, was • [J PleaH• sl1ip me one Packaged Snkkah designed by the SPERO vetoed hv Governor Rockefeller on tech­ COMMUNITY SIZE FOUNDATION. Chet'k for the amount of $102 is enclosed. nical gr'ounds. This bill would have 14% FT. LONG- 10 FT. WIDE- 7'* FEET HIGH TI I als<.> wanl 80 lrnmboo sticks, wllich will cover entire Sukkah, prevented State and !\.1unicipal C)vil WII,I, ACCOMMODATE and I am enclosing au additional $18.()0. Service Commissions and school Ois~ UP ·ro 24 PERSONS PRICE $212.00 tricts from discriminating against em~ F.O.B. N. Y. Name----····------ployees who cannot because of their • religion work on Shabbos or late Friday Bamboo S'chach for above. afternoon during the winter months, ADDITIONAi, $36.00 Although this bill explicitly excluded All other features a~ above. City and State------·------snch emergency workers as policemen and firemen, nevertheless the pressure of other State agencies caused this veto.

30 The Jewish Observer I September, 1966 New Eeldlaeim Publiealions THE GOLDEN HERITAGE Great Jewish Classic Completed We are proud to announce the co1npletion of An Inspirational Treasury of Jewish Thought for Young Adults of All Ages IRVING M. BUNIM'S MASTERWORK by DAVID M. HAUSDORFF ETHICS FROM SINAI An anthoogy of carefully selerted excerpts from traditional an eclectic and discursive co1nmentary on PIRKE AVOTH Jew'ish sources, from _l\.foses at Sinai to Moses hen Maimon - and beyond .•. a span of some thirty-four centuries. It also IRVING M. BUNIM gives us here the quintessence of his contains original essays on such vital topics as Circumcision, lectures on Pirke Avoth, which have delighted and inspired Mezuzah, 1'aalis, l'efillin, the Jewish calendar, Temptation and his listeners for the past forty years. Drawing on the great Conscience, and other matters of daHy concern in the tradi· store of classical commentaries, he ranges far and \vide through tion:d Jewish attitude toward life. the wisdom of Ta1mud and Midrash. '"l't has been my good .. The Golden Heritage" is written in language ·which the fortune," writes the author in his preface, "'lo learn mu.ssar in teenager can understand, yet is not "juvenile"' to the adult. its finest sense from inspired masters and luminaries." 260 pages cJothbound $5.95 beautifully printed in large size 7" x 10" with printed Hebrew text and English translation Volume One - Chapters 1~3 $6.50 Volume Two - Chapter 4 $5.50 MAIMONIDES Volume Three - Chapters 5..() $7.50 THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE THE BOOK OF ADORATION li1!l.:l'5il li1.:l1M These w·orks comprise the Introduction and first two volumes DUTIES OF THE HEART of l\'Iaimonides' monumental code the Mish.neh Torah also known as Yad Hachazakah - "The Strong Hand." by BACHYA BEN JOSEPH IBN PAQUDA In the Introduction, Mnimonides describes the transmission Translated from the Arabic into Hebrero of Torah Shebanl Peh - the Oral Law, from generation to by Judah ibn Tibbon generation; the deve]opment of the Mishnah, Talmud and English Translation by Moses llyamson other written compilations of the Oral Law· and the subsequent The Duties of the Heart consists of an elaborate lntrduc· 1\-·orks of the Geonim up to his own time. Maimonides dis· lion and ten parts. In the first treatise the author presents closes his motives for \\'riting the l\'Iishnah Torah "~in plain proofs for the wholehearted acceptance of the Unity of G·d. language, terse style and systematic form, so that thus the The second treatise discusses the evidence for the Wisdom, entire Oral Law might become known to all." Po,~·er and Goodness of G-d. These form the basis of the A complete listing of the Taryag Mitzvot,h - the 613 Divine duties dea1t with in the next parts of the hook, namely Service Commandments, according to the opinion and order of Maimo· of G-d, Trust in G-d, Who1ehearted Devotion to Him, Humili· nides precedes the main body of t11e work. ly, Repentence, Spiritual Accounting, Renunciation. The cop· The first vo]ume deals with topics which concern the in· ing stone of the entire structure is the last part, which has teUect and hence the apt title Se/er Jlamada -- Book of for its theme the Love of f'rd. Knon-Jedge. It begins with Hilchoth Y esodei Ilatorah - Fundamental principles of the Torah including an elaborate Hebrew text and English translation on facing pa.ges demonstration of the primary tenet of Jewish faith: THE 800 Patces - Cloth - Two Volumes $10.00 EXISTENCE AND THE UNITY OF G·D. The hook con· tinues with Hilchoth Deioth --- Moral Dispositions and Ethi<·al THE WORLD OF PRAYER Conduct; Hilchoth Talmud. Torah -- Study of the Torah; The Classic Conunentary On the Prayerbook Avodah Zarllh Vechukoth Hagoyim - Idolatry and Ordinances of t11e Heathens and Hi.lchoth Teshuvah - the La\\'S of by RABBI DR. ELIE MUNK (Paris) Repentance. The most thorough, devout, and homiletically effective ex· In the second volume, titled SEFER AHA'r AH - Book of poidtion of the traditional prayers. Adoration, Maimonides delves into those aspects of Halachah A volume of the highest interest to the sehoJar as \veU as the which express the Jew's constant devotion to G-d. The great average layman, and a mine of interpretation and inspiration codifier expounds the ]a\'l'S of Kriath Shem.a, Prayer, Blessings to the Rabbi. and the Synagogue. He explains those precepts which concern Vol. I, Daily Prayers, $5.50 the visible sj.;ns of Judaism: Tefi.Un, Tzitzith, Mezuzah, Se/er Vol. II, Sabbath and High Holiday, Festival Prayers, $7.50 Torah and Milah. Price for both Vols. Boxed, $12.50 Hebrew text and English translation on facing papes The Book of Adoration, 396 pp. - The Book of Knowledge, 288 pp. THE PSALMS $10.00 The Set With the translation ancl comnientary of M.:l1t!lli li1~'5M RABBI SAMSON RAPHAEL HIRSCH This classic commentary ·which Hirsch eonsidered one of THE LAWS OF REPENTENCE 11is most important works is now available for the first time by RABllENU MOSHE BEN MAIMON in English and also contains the Hebrew text fully vocalized. English translation by Moses Hyamson Volume I Books I and 2 $7.50 Paper - 50e Volume II Books 3 to 5 $8. 75 We extend to all our friends and patrons our heartiest and best t{)ishes for a iiJ.Yl'.l nn'n-m iiJ.'nj PHILIPP FELD HEIM~ INC. "The House of the Jewish Book" We Have the Largest Selection of Judaica and Hehraica 96 EAST BROADWAY Tel. WA 5-3180 NEW YORK, N. Y. 10002 Were sorry... all deals are oil!

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