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Gedolei Torah at the · ,, · NATURE WALk'.) BY HOTEL PREMl)E) REDUCED RATE) FOR, YOS"EMITE ACTl\JITIES" & TOUR) S"UCH A), HORS"EBACk'. RIDING FLYFl)HING GOLF & TENNIS" S"UGAR PINE RAILROAD MOUNTAIN Blk'.ING BASS LAk'.E WATER )PORTS" S"EPARATE )WIMMING HOURS- IN THE INDOOR POOL WOMEN') Mlk'.\JEH BY POPULAR DEMAND, ON PREMIS"ES- AFTER OUR SUCCESSFUL 3 GLATT MEHADRIN MEALS­ ROSH HASHANA, SHAVUOS A DAY PLUS- TEA ROOM & PESACH PAST RETREATS ... S"PACIOUS" GUES"TROOM) WITH FRIDGE & S"AFE JOIN THE: ARACHIM )TAFF FOR S"PECIAL ACTl\JITIE'i FOR CHOL HAMOED A PE:<>ACH OF A LIFETIME:! HEBREW & ENGLIS"H APRIL 10-19, 1998 LECTURE PROGRAM'> 10 DAY) AND 9 NIGHT) COST: AT THE: FOUR DIAMOND Rf)ORT ADULT: 11750 ( 12 and up, based on TE:NAYA LODGE: double occupancy) Y0)€MIT€ PARK. 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AMEQIC· · NEW YoRK HILTON ~ Avenue ofthe Americas and 54th Street ·.. Aguaath Israel is the .:movement tlzat brings tog~ther lhe broqdest spectrum of Orthodox Jewry/or ~(fective .. aetion addressingthe ne<:1ds of Kial Yisroel in cyour rl,~ighbqrhoqd and qip11nd t~e ,u;orld. ·: ·. ·Your pttrt;icipation ·.in this demonstration .of unity enhaf)<;e.S. out ability to serve your community, ' --- -- -- - - - - ,, ,_ "i' Shevat 5758 • February 1998 U.S.A.$3.50/Foreign $4.50 •VOL XXXI/NO. 2 THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021-6615 is published monthly except July and August by the Agudath Israel of America, 84 William Street, New York, N.Y. 10038. Periodicals postage paid in New York, N.Y. Subscription $24.00 per year; two years, $44.00; three years, $60.00. Outside of the United States (US funds drawn on a US bank only) $12.00 surcharge per year. Single copy $3.50; foreign $4.50. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Observer, 84 William Street, N.Y'., N.Y'. 10038. Tel: 212-797-9000, Fax: 6 212-269-2843. The Gaon of Vilna-Two Hundred Years Since His Passing Printed in the U.S.A. Robbi Yookov Feitmon RABBI NISSON WOLPIN, EOlTOR 20 Their Outside and Their Inside EDITORIAL BOARD DR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER Robbi Shlomo M. Breslauer Chairman 21 RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS JOSEPH FRIEOENSON Less Than a Minyan, But Still a Community RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN Jeffrey B. Schreck MANAGEMENT BOARD 18 AVI FISHOF NAFTOLI HIRSCH Remembering Reb Yisroel Meir ISAAC KIRZNER Robbi Yech1el Perr RABBI SHLOMO LESIN NACHUM STEIN 30 RABBI YOSEF C. GOLDING Parents Getting Down About Their Children Not Getting Up Business Manager MeirWikler Published by 34 Agudath Israel of America The Hunt For Buried Treasures in the Ukraine RABBI MOSHE SHERER PRESIDENT Sarah Shapiro U.S. TRAOE DISffilBUTOR ISRAELI DISTRIBUTOR 37 Feldheim Publishers Nechemia Rosenberg SECONO LOOKS 200 Airport Executive Park Kiryat Telshe Stone. 108A Spring Valley. N.Y. 10917 D.N. Harei Yehuda. ISRAEL The New York Board of Rabbis - Role Models For Religious Cooperation in Israel? EUROPEAN REPRESENTATIVE AUSTRAUAH DISTRIBUTOR 38 M.T. Bibelman Gold's Book & Gitt Co. Grosvenor Works 36 William Street Keeping Jerusalem Jewish Mount Pleasant Hill Balaclava 3183, Vic .. London ES 9NE, ENGLAND AUSTRALIA 39 Books in Review THE MALBIM ESTHER/TORAH FROM THE INTERNET/AFTER THE RETURN THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not Yonoson Rosenblum assume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product, publication, or service 43 advertised in its pages LETTERS TO THE EDITOR © Copyright 1998 44 DATELINE: 84 WILLIAM STREET: THE AM £CHAD DELEGATION FEBRUARY 1998 VOLUME XXXl/NO. 2 Rabbi Yaakov Feitman ,; ' ~ A Bicentennial Appreciation ~ uch has been written about the Gaon:" On the other hand, it seems as interpretations - on all four levels of Gaon of Vilna during these if every story has been told, every acco­ Torah study, including the mystical. At M past two centuries. Even more lade conferred. The answer, it would this time he also had mastered the entire has been published and is in prepara­ seem, is to study the legacy of the Gaon Zoharand, in the description of his sons, tion 1 since his two hundredth Yahrzeit and mine it for the pointers and direc­ "at the tender age of ten he reached the this past Succos, 18 Tishrei. For us, a gen­ tion we can use on our own journey primary point, for he knew G-d:'S At the eration of orphans, and for this writer towards being servants of Hashem. age of twelve, he had absorbed all seven in particular, the task of saying anything branches of wisdom "in their ultimate meaningful at all about the Gaon of I. GLIMPSES OF GREATNESS TO COME and most perfect form."" Vilna is more than daunting. It rouses The most succinct summation of the the spectre of having to answer for sins t is well known that the Gaon was a Gra's childhood is, appropriately, that of of omission and ignorance, intellectu­ child prodigy. But there are preco­ his major disciple, Rabbi Chaim of al inadequacy and spiritual unworthi­ I cious children and there was the Volozhin, who declared, "After much ness. And yet, two centuries have passed, Gaon. Born on the first day of Pesach analysis, I have concluded that whatev­ this is a milestone year, and note must 5480 (1720), Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, er my brother, Reb Zalman, attained be taken. known later simply as the Gaon3 or the during his lifetime, the Gra had already Herein lies the paradox. Enough can Gra (acronym for "Gaon Rabbi accomplished by the time he turned never be said, because as the Gaon's great Eliyahu"), was unique virtually from thirteen:" In addition to the famous disciple, Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin infanthood. His son-in-law, Rabbi story of how he completed the Talmu­ declared, "If my brother [the brilliant Reb Moshe of Pinsk, not known to exag­ dic tractates of Zevachim and Menachos Zalman] had lived a thousand years, he gerate, uses the phrase "from the day of on the night of Simchas Torah when he would not have reached the ankles of the his birth" to describe the moment was eleven,s there is a lesser-known when his life's mission began. From the vignette concerning the young Gra's Rabbi Feitman is the Rav of the Young Israel of age of seven, no one was capable of breadth of knowledge. Beachwood (Cleveland), Ohio. He is a frequent contributor to these pages, most recently with teaching the Gra and he studied Torah A group of the elder scholars of Vilna "And the Fourth ... Shall Return," Summer, '97. on his own.' By the age of eight he was decided to devote six months ofintense study writing chiddushim - original Torah to the topic of the Sanctification of the New 6 The Jewish Observer, February 1998 Moon. This complex subject, when analyzed there is to know at Bar Mitzva, where through the text of the Rambam 's Mishna does he go from there? Our task in this Torah, requires extensive understanding of milestone year is to obtain at least a general astrononty, the phases of the moon he Gra was primarily glimmer of that accomplishment. and its interaction with the other heaven­ Tinwa rd-di reeled, ly bodies. In order to concretize the issues II. THE POWER OF TORAH involved, these elders commissioned scien­ perfecting himself tists and artists to prepare spheres repre­ o begin, let us first focus upon a senting the solar system. Unfortunately, the spiritually, absorbing few episodes in the Gaon's life scientists and artists made a basic error in ever-increasing portions Twhich are each minor when taken their models, with the result that the rab­ out of context, yet indicate that the Gaon bis could not properly explain the laws of of the Torah, plumbing lived on a higher plane than everyone Kiddush Hachodesh with these flawed else, precisely because he was totally instruments. Nevertheless, the rabbis set a depths unattained for immersed in the Torah. In fact, when the date to share the results of their research and generations, and Gra spoke, quoting Torah, it created a study. reality all its own. The Gra, who was all of eight years old becoming the paradigm In Vilna, the Gaon had a disciple who at the time, heard the debates in the city i,~, becanze blind at an early age. Never­ about this subject.
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