THE JEWISH OBSERVER in this issue ... THE JEWISH OBSERVER is published monthly, except July and August, by the Agudath Israel of Amercia, 5 Beekman St., New York, N. Y. 10038. Second class postage paid at New York, N. Y. Subscription: LETTERS AND RESPONSES................................................ 3 $6.50 per year; Two years, $11.00; Three years $15.00; outside of the United States $7.50 per year. Single THE LONELY JEW IN A WORLD IN UPHEAVAL, copy sixty-five cents. Chaim Dov Keller.............................................................. 7 Printed in the U.S.A. RABBI NISSON WOLPIN A RESPONSE TO THE YOM KIPPUR WAR- Editor IN RETROSPECT, Ralph Pelcovits ................................... 11 Editorial Board DR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER FROM GERMANY TO BALTIMORE, Shmuel Singer...... 16 Chairman RABBI NATHAN BULMAN RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS CHASSIDISM ON THE MODERN SCENE, JOSEPH FRIEDENSON RABBI YAAKOV JACOBS a review article by Joseph Elias........................................... 20 RABBI MOSHE SHERER OZAR HATORAH AND SEPHARDIC JEWRY'S THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not SURVIVAL, Aryeh Kaplan................................................. 24 assume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product or service <idvertised in its pages. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, continued.............................. 28 JANUARY, 1975 VOL. X, No. 7 Typography by Compu-Scribe at ArtScroll Studios ime!T~•®_.. Letters & Responses ?7 Last month's issue, devoted to "The Jewish Woman in a Torah Society," generated a great deal of comment and an unusual number of letters. Some of these letters, with response where warranted, are printed below. As comments continue to arrive in the editorial office, some letters are being reserved for publication in future issues. men. (I fear you are a male Though she works outside the Simplistic Treatment of Women chauvinist lamb.) Possession of a home, she carries the hinai Sarah master's degree does not mean that b' ohel concept around with her as a a woman cannot found a viable portable tent, surrounding herself To the Editor: Jewish home, just as shuffling with an aura of tzenius wherever she Most men consider themselves ex­ between stove and sink all day does goes. The Torah-committed woman perts on women. In the case of not automatically guarantee that she inspires the respect of all she meets religious men, this knowledge is will be a good mother. It all depends and makes a true Kiddush Hashem in generally based on their obser­ upon her hashkofos, capabilities and the world. vations of one woman, namely their determination. I do believe, BASYISROEL respective wives. Thus, one man will however, that it is generally wiser state that "women" cry a lot, others for her to postpone outside com­ that Hwomen" are amazingly stoic . mitments until her children are all in . The article "Jewish Women in a school, if possible . Intellectual Stimulation Torali Society" does not take into - Unfortunate? Traditionally, women have been account individual differences in competing in the marketplace for women, but is as simplistic as would some time, and have thus enabled To the Editor: be a comparable letter written by a generations of men to reach great woman whose husband learns all heights in Torah. I believe the key to Although I began reading Rabbi day, chiding all men for not doing Wolpin's article "Jewish Women in success in synthesizing homemaking the same. a Torah Society, for Fulfillment or with outside pursuits is the motiva­ for Frustration" (Teves 5735) very It suffices that men look upon a tion involved. If she is working to eagerly, hoping to find, finally, an life spent withing the Bais Medrash evade domestic responsibilities or to intelligent, reasoned discussion of as an ideal, and women view a life attain luxuries, she may find her the difficulties a Jewish woman may spent within the home as an ideal, dual role difficult. If, however, she is have in finding fulfillment within a with both realistically aware that pressed by economic necessity, Torah life, I completed the article this ideal state may not be feasible because of absence or incapacity of feeling a great deal more frustration for everybody. Just as men are not a breadwinner, or if her husband is made to feel guilty for closing their engaged in Torah study and she than would have met with Rabbi Wolpin's approval. After all, the ar­ Gemoros to make a living, women does not want to passively bow to should not be made to feel guilty for the ensuing poverty, then I believe ticle made me react intellectually, made me assess his arguments in the working outside their homes for she will be helped from Above to light of logic, as well as in the light similar reasons of necessity. achieve her goals. of personal experience and the ex­ Incidentally, there is no such There is an air of condescension periences of other Jewish women. thing as a 0 man 's world," anymore; throughout the article, particularly This is not to deny Rabbi Wolpin 's this is a people's world, and has evident when the author suggests thesis that a woman's primary been for some time. A woman can­ women make tacky aprons at home, responsibility is to her home, to her not lose her femininity by working probably netting for themselves a family, and to the activities outside the home, because it is an in­ munificent $3 for a day of toil. traditionally associated with the nate part of her. Woman is There is also a veiled implication feminine role in Jewish life. This is feminine, whether she is rolling that it is somehow tawdry for a not to put forth an argument for dough, typing her thesis or working Jewish woman to work outside the women's lib or equal rights. It is a at a machine. Yes, Virginia, there home. Rabbi Wolpin, don't for one challenge to all the Rabbi Wolpins are as many individual differences moment underestimate the flexibili­ who help to form the Torah society among women as there are among ty or gad/us of the Jewish woman. as we know it. The Jewish Observer/ January, 1975 3 Rabbi Wolpin argues that one of Furthermore, Rabbi Wolpin how much her intellectual needs and the unfortunate by-products of the takes no account of those women self-realization are de-emphasized. Bais Yaakov movement is that it who have completed their tasks as A woman's greatest and most stimulated intellectual activity on mothers, whose children have grown fascinating blessing is her children, the part of its students. Unfortunate to independence. Where should and the upkeep of a spiritually byproduct? Isn't it rather a sad com­ these women turn for fulfillment - enriched home. But as the Rebbe ment on the Torah society that the to those same cliched, tired, old out­ Reb Bunim said: " 'These are the intellectual awakening of its women lets? And still further, Rabbi Wolpin children of Noach, Noach .... is a threat to that society? Isn't it takes no account of those women Noach's development was his rather the responsibility of that who have no families from which to greatest achievement. In man's in­ society to put all its resources - derive their satisfactions and fulfill­ volvement with his children, he must and, yes, even the female mind does ment. Is there no place for such not forget to educate the child in occasionally have its strengths - to females in the Torah society? Isn't it himself." And that can take a good use rather than to suppress difficult enough for them to be lifetime. It would really be short­ those resources for lack of imagina­ already deprived without their being sighted to assume that the hashkaja tion on how to take advantage of made to feel that the Torah society (Torah philosophy) taught in high them? cannot accommodate them because, school or even in Seminary could once again, they do not fit the last forever. As a woman matures Rabbi Wolpin does offer some stereotype? and her inner and outer life ex­ periences deepen, presenting new suggestions to the frustrated female: Surely Rabbi Wolpin would do personal involvement in the three problems, it would certainly require well to come to grips with the new learnings and fresher applica­ Mitzvos that evolve upon the realities of some of these issues. I tion of the old. woman. Again, I can't fault the found the ideas presented in his es­ author in his premise - only in his say, although elegantly phrased, far Sure, it was natural for A vraham romanticizing of the actual practice too shallow to be a definitive state­ to ask Sarah to bake cakes for the of those Mitzvos. " ... allowing the ment on how a woman should find malochim since she did make the loaves to grow, slipping the pans sufficient satisfaction in a Torah kitchen her domain as much as into the oven ... serving and enriching society. Once more, perhaps the A vraham supervised the farming the staff of life with love ... " ... in­ finger should be pointed at the and commerce connected with their deed! And this spiritual uplift is to Torah society for failing its respon­ possessions. But I am positive that take place during a day filled with sibility to its women, rather than at Sarah's distinction was not totally doing laundry and scrubbing floors, the women for seeking that elusive based on her cooking skills any or while the children are calling for a fulfillment wherever it might be more than Avraham was just simply referee in their latest quarrel and the found. another wealthy land-owner. Her husband comes in growling for his ability to reach out to women was, supper because he has to go to a EVE ROTH beyond doubt, built on her unusual Sheur in ten minutes and so what if Lakewood, New Jersey intellectual and spiritual at­ the wife hasn't had ten minutes of tainments.