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Second class postage paid in New York, N.Y. 8 Subscription $22.00 per year; two years, $36.00; three years, $48.00. Outside of the United States Rabbi Yisroel Zev Gustman i1:J1:J7 i''~ i:it-a Tribute (US funds drawn on a US bank only) $10.00 Yonason Rosenblum surcharge per year. Single copy $3.00; foreign I $4.00. Send address changes to The Jewish Two on Teji.lla Observer, 84 William Street, N.Y., N.Y. 10038. 15 Tel: (212) 797-9000. Alone Among the Multitudes-in Jerusalem Printed in the U.S.A. I Hillel Goldberg RABBI NISSON WOLPIN, EDITOR 17 EDITORIAL BOARD The Insomniac's Minyan DR. ERNST BODENHEIMER Yaakov Lavon Chairman RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS I 20 JOSEPH FRIEDENSON Readers Respond to RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN "YESHNOS--0NLY FOR THE CHOSEN OF OUR PEOPLE?" MANAGEMENT BOARD NAFTOLI HIRSCH ISAAC KIRZNER I 31 RABBI SHLOMO LESIN Illness, Denial, and Acceptance NACHUM STEIN I ! Rabbi Myer Schecter RABBI YOSEF C. GOLDING Business Manager I ' 37 Poetry Published by A Private Waterloo Libby Lazewnik Agudath Israel of America 1 I RABBI MOSHE SHERER 38 PRESIDENT I I THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not ",,."(with and without comment) assume responsibility for the Kashrus I i of any product, publication, or service 39 Books in Review advertised in its pages PATHWAYS ro TusHUVAH/T!m NEW ROSH HASHANAH ANrnoLOGY/ © Copyright 1991 I [ ...AND NOTHING Bur TifE TRUTH/A TOUCH OF WISDOM, A TOUCH OF WIT/ SEPTEMBER 1991 GOLDEN APPLES/THE YoM KlPPUR AVODAH/AN ILLUSTRATED GumE... ro VOLUME XXIV I NO. 6 KoRBoNos AND MENOCHos/THE ABARBANEL ON nm YoM KlPPUR SERVICE I, I ' LC 41 Letters to the Editor A.Sheinman The Remembrance of Rosh Hashana I. are generally not considered days of judgment, why is "remembrance" a n our tefillos, we refer to Rosh key element of G-d's Providence on Hashana as "Yom Hazi­ Yom Tov and Rosh Chodesh? We I karon, the Day of Remem­ must delve into the meaning of brance." This phrase is un­ time to better appreciate the derstood as a synonym for significance of zikamn. Judgment Day; that is, it is the day when, in the process of II. judgment, G-d recalls all of our past deeds so as to anive at a henwespeakofthe proper verdict. This seems odd, \w ultimate unity repre­ for if so, we should refer in our sented by G-d, it is gen- prayers to the day as Yom erally vis-a-vis the dispar- Hadin, for the main ele­ 111111.111111 ate elements in creation. ment is the judgment, Thus, we say "Hashem with the act of recollec­ echod-G-d is one," after tion merely a means to­ observing in one of the ward aniving at that end. berachos prior to "Shema": Yet the essence of the day is de­ "How manifold are Your deeds, O' scribed as Yom Hazikaron. Memory G-d." We marvel at the rich variety of must somehow be central to the day. creation, and note how plants are That "memory" is a dynamic unto distinct from animals and animals itself strikes home even more sharply from man, and how each person pos­ with the request in our prayers to G-d sesses a unique and distinct that He "remember us with a good re­ deeds, then let us ask that G-d grant neshoma; and G-d is the unity that membrance," and similar petitions us life, or bestow blessings on us. Why encompasses all. throughout the day. But this, in tum, this strange formulation of requesting Similarly, we look at the various arouses further questions: Is G-d's that He remember us for life? means (midas/ attributes) that G-d memory selective? Isn't memory sim­ If we analyze the special Yom Tov reveals in His guiding of the world ply an undiscriminating accumula­ prayers, we are struck by a similar toward its destiny, and we are struck tion of impressions of events that have point. In every Yom Tov Shemone by the diametric variances. There is occurred? If, on the other hand, we Esre~ as well as on Rosh Chodesh, we an attribute ofjustice competing with are simply requesting that G-d be say "Ya'aleh VeYavo." The climax of the attribute of mercy. The hanhaga merciful towards us and grant us a life this prayer is "that (we] be considered (mode of Divine conduct) of revelation of happiness despite our past mis- and remembered ... for goodness, for clashes with the concept of the "dig­ grace .... for good life, and for peace .... " nity of G-d," which finds expression Rabbi A. Shelnman, who studies in a Kollel in Thus every Yom Tov and Rosh through hiding-"The honor of G-d Jerusalem. is a frequent contributor to these Chodesh, in some measure, is a day is through concealment," and so on. pages, most recently, with "Pesach: A Trilogy of when we are "remembered"-hope­ After perceiving this overwhelming Shira.~ which appeared in The Jewish Observer, March '91. fully for the good. Since these days 4 'The Jewish Observer. September 1991 divergence of Providence, we delve the faculty with which we were en­ die ... and all his sins will not be re­ more deeply and come to appreciate dowed to make the past a part of the membered.... " The person has done the unity that binds together and di­ present, and to ensure that the all that he can to excise that swatch rects this Providence. And again we present does not die moment by mo­ of corruption from his total "self'; G-d proclaim: "Hashem echod." ment in the rush toward the future. in turn will expunge it from His But there is one more fragmenta­ And when G-d makes use of this at- memory. from history. tion in creation that runs as deep as-if not more deeply than-those described above, and that is the frag­ mentation of time. The existence of In our prayers to G-d, we request that He the universe, and indeed every person's life, is not one constant flow, "remember us with a good remembrance." Is G-d's forming a single unit unto itself; it Is memory selective? Isn't memory simply an a series consisting of an overwhelm­ ing multitude of milli-second-long undiscriminating accumulation of impressions of episodes. Indeed, time is the means of recording change, and as each seg­ events that have occurred? ment of time ls different from its pre­ decessor, so is it fragmented-like a motion picture film that consists of thousands of frozen stills, almost tribute of zikaron, it means that He IV. identical, yet ever-so-slightly differ­ is not simply viewing man and the ent from one another... like a three­ world in terms of the "here and now," his approach to time is not dimensional organ that has been but within the continuity of time. He only limited to aveiros in the sliced into sheer two-dimensional is viewing man as a four-dimensional T context of teshuva. but It ac­ sections for microscope-examina­ being, a composite of all the Indi­ tually comprises the essential differ­ tion, so too does each person exist vidual three-dimensional men that ence between the perspective of the moment by moment...yesterday and the individual has been, through the material world and the larger spiri­ today discontinuous, today and to­ progression of time, the fourth di­ tual reality. Thus, an adam gadol morrow not bound together. When mension; but there is an extraordi­ once explained: It is inaccurate to we try to grasp the elementary mean­ nary characteristic to this midda: it translate OlamHazehas "this world"; ing of the Divine Name "Havaya," we is selective. Just as a person can ex­ rather, it is "the World of This." It is explain the appellation as referring cise unwanted growths from his the world where everything exists to: "Haya lwveh veyihiy'eh---He was, three-dimensional self, so, too, can only in the here and now. Olam He is, He will be"-for that is our ini­ he excise unwanted time segments Habba is "the World of To-Come"; it tial understanding of the Divine, in from his four-dimensional self, as we is the perspective of seeing everything Laslwn HaKodesh, our sacred lan­ will see. In this way, we can better as part of a continuum, extending on guage. Correspondingly, we say: understand how G-d employs the at­ into the future.