'EW Is H ELUL 5733 I SEPTEMBER 1973 VOLUME IX, NUMBER 5 Fhe SIXTY FIVE CENTS BSERVER
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'EW Is H ELUL 5733 I SEPTEMBER 1973 VOLUME IX, NUMBER 5 fHE SIXTY FIVE CENTS BSERVER THE GOLDS-RIDDEN JEW • WHY ARE WE DESTINED TO WANDER? • THE HOLOCAUST: QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS ••• FAITH WITHOUT QUESTIONS • TWO TALES OF HEROISM • THE JEW'S LOVE FOR ERETZ YISROEL Books: • SACRED LITERATURE IN THE VERNACULAR • JEWISH LANDMARKS IN EUROPE a l.ro: THE YESHIVOS' DAY IN THE COURT THE JEWISH OBSERVER in this issue ... THE "VICTORS" AND THE "VANQUISHED," Moshe Sherer......... 3 THE HOLOCAUST; QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS ... FAITH WITHOUT QUESTIONS, Y oseif Avraham Wolf, trans- lated and adapted by Nosson Scherman .............................. 8 GoLus: WHY ARE WE DESTINED TO WANDER? from Horav Meir Simcha HaCohain's "Meshech Chochma," translated and adapted by Gershon Dubin ........................... 11 Two BY MosHE PRAGER: EYEBALL TO EYEBALL ........................ 13 THE SONG OF SHLOMO, translated by N. Scherman 15 To BRETZ Y1sROEL-W!TH A LOVE THAT DoEs NoT FADE, Nissan Wolpin 18 BOOKS IN REVIEW: RAMBAN, COMMENTARY ON TORAH (GENESIS) ............ 23 THE TRAVELER'S GUIDE TO JEWISH LANDMARKS THE JEWISH OBSERVER is published OF EUROPE .............................................................. 26 monthly, except July and August, by the Agudath Israel of Amercia, GEMS FROM THE FOUNTAIN ........................ 27 5 Beekman St., New York, N. Y. 10038. Second class postage paid THE INESCAPABLE TRUTH ......................................................... 30 at New York, N. Y. Subscription: $6.50 per year; Two years, $11.00; Three years $15.00; outside of the LETTERS TO THE EDITOR .................................................................................... 30 United States $7 .50 per year. Sing1e copy sixty~five cents. Printed in the U.S.A. PICTURE CREDITS: cover, sketch by TULLY f'ILMUS; page 7, courtesy of YESHIVA AND MESIVTA OHR YJSROEL (Forest Hills, N. Y.); page 8, from RABBI NISSON WOLPIN wood-cut hy SIEGMUND FORST; page 13, a drawing by BEN SHAWN, Editor Editorial Board DR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER In the forthcoming issues we shall ;i"'N publish articles Chainnan RABBI NATHAN BULMAN regarding three outstanding Torah personalities who passed RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS away during recent months (in order of their passing): JOSEPH FRJEDENSON HORAV BINYOMIN ZE'EV JACOBSON i1::ri:i? i'"1'S .,:n RABBI YAAKOV JACOBS RABBI MOSHE SHERER who was a creative force in askonus for over half a century; HORAV ELIYOHU MOSHE SHISGAL i1!).,:l'1 i'"1':i: i:JT THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not an American Rosh Yeshiva of singular achievement in assume responsibility for the lomdus and tzidkus; Kashrus of any product or service HORAV YOSEIF ELIYOHU HENKIN ;i::ii::i'i i)'1l i:lT advertised in its pages. the dean of European Rabbis in America, outstanding au thority in halacha, head of Ezras Torah. SEPT. 1973 VoL. IX, No. 5 :i":i'iln ...@ Moshe Sherer The "Victors" and the "Vanquished" Reflections on the Non-Public Schools' Day in the Court In June 197]. the U.S. Supreme Court voted 8-1 against the constitutionality of Pennsylvania's purchase of services program and Rhode Island's program of supplements to the salaries of non-public school teachers. This vote (Lemon-DiCenso decisions) was a forerunner to a more severe blow dealt to the efforts to obtain government relief for non-public education, including the yeshivas, which was dealt by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 25th of this year. In a landmark decision (Pearl v. Nyquist), the Court struck down four basic types of aid to non-public education: 1) small grants to parents paying tuition at non-public schools; 2) income tax reductions for tuition-paying parents; 3) payments to inner-city non-public schools to help maintain health and safety facilities; 4) payments to non-public schools as reim bursement for the costs of maintaining certain records mandated by the State and of administering tests to students (lVlandated Services Act). THE JEWISH OBSERVER presents an analysis of the meaning of this decision, written by RABBI MOSHE SHERER, executive presi dent of Agudath Israel of America, who for more than a decade has pioneered and spearheaded Jewish efforts to obtain govern ment aid for yeshivas. A founder of COLPA and the national president of C.R.ED.l.T. (a coalition representing five million non-public school students), Rabbi Sherer has been a key strate gist on the State and national scenes in this effort. The condolence calls began on Monday, June 25th. deprived of these dollars.-Over the chilul Hashem And they didn't stop for many days. From every of Jewish organizations causing a drainaJ?e of funds walk of life and every part of the world, friends from the pockets of yeshiva parents.-Over the and strangers vhoned to console me on the loss spectacle of Jewish "spokesmen" publicly combatting of the U.S. Supreme Court case on non-public school religious education. aid. But they all 1nissed the point. And I grieved for those Jews-by-birth who were If I was mourning that day, it was not only over elated over their "victory" because they lack the the loss of a court case. Courts change, Justices are capacity to think Jewishly. Their propaganda mills replaced, and decisions can be reversed. Nor did I declared in triunzph: "A1nerican lel-vish Con{?ress Hails mourn simply because of the loss of dollars; it Supreme Court Decision Voiding New York Law>," was over the Jewish children whom. lve would lose "Jewish Groups Hail Ban on School Aid," and so on. from the Jewish fold because the yeshivas were Jewish history will undoubtedly cast a longer look 'The Jewish Observer I Septen1her, 1973 3 on matters, when it passes judgment on the court battle over government funding for yeshivas and the survival of these hard-pressed institutions. It will 1wt be the traditional yeshivas that will ultimately be defeated, because they will continue to hitch the destiny of Jewish children to the star of eternity. Lack of outside funding will be one more difficulty to hurdle, but parents con11nitted to the perpetuation of Yiddishkeit will not flinch in the face of new obstacles. It is those secularist elements who now exult as they drink their heady cup of victorv who are really the vanquished, because the reach-out potential of yeshivas has become diminished, and as a result these elements may have lost the only hope for their own grandchildren to remain Jews-should the current pace of spiritual erosion continur unabated. Instead of ecstatic paeans of joy from the "victors" and condolence calls to the "vanquished" the hour calls for a sober reappraisal-an analysis of the ourt Decision To Cost court's decision and its ra1nifications, an examination of the stance of dilferent segnients of the Jewish Day Schools Millions community, and a few more notes on the prospectus ~f"\\ \"'Jilk "'I\ 11><· l' .0 !'"'"•· .-ff,,rt, '" .,i,,,,,., '"'" ,,,,1 '""'h·"'"' •!""'"' .,,i,., l"' .u """' ''""" ,,. hldn ""h' ,."'"""1"'"· ·'"" "' -."'"'"'hr.:"" b,., .., "..--"''" for these segments' continued existence. The Court Decision 2, "PRIMARY" NO LONGER MEANS PRIMARY 1. What the Court Did Not Do THE MAIN EYE-OPENER of the current decision (Pearl WHILE IT IS TRUE that the Supreme Court put a freeze v. Nyquist), which is devastating in its far-reaching on any new programs substantially aiding elementary application, is its interpretation of the phrase "primary and secondary non-public schools, it is itnportant to effect." While all recent Court decisions have agreed bear in mind what it did not do. For example, it did that the various legislative proposals to help non-public not tamper with such existing forms of help as text schools passed the basic "secular purpose'' test of their books (Allen decision of 1968), lunches, bus transpor constitutionality, two other tests have emerged: that tation (Everson decision of 1947), health and related the legislation 1) should not have a "primary effect" services, the varied tax exemptions enjoyed by the that helps or hinders religion, and 2) should not en religious schools, and deductions for charitable contri gender "excessive entanglement" of the government butions (Walz decision of 1970) or the Elementary with religious affairs. While in the Lemon-DiCenso and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Also, the decisions of 1971 the Court's main objection was the government assistance programs enjoyed by the re inability of the laws in question to pass the "excessive ligious-related higher educational institutions, includ entanglement" hurdle, the current decision is based ing numerous yeshivos gedolos and kollelim, remain mainly on the "primary effect" test. in effect. And for that we should be grateful. Sound logic would seem to dictate that the "primary The Supreme Court did offer us its self-portrait-a effect" test should mean that the Court weighs the com clear picture in living color: As Jong as Justices Bren parative effects of the school-aid bill, and determines nan, Blackmun, Douglas, Marshall, Powell and Stewart which is primary: the religious or secular effect. Using sit on the Supreme Court, there will always be a this simple yardstick in the manner in which it was majority of six who will thwart any worthwhile new always applied, the laws should have been upheld, program to effectively help non-public education or because their primary thrust is relief for the expenses non-public school parents. Clearly, the rationale used of parents and schools for secular matters. Instead, the hy these six justices to invalidate the four programs Court now declared that "primary effect" means "the struck down on June 25th is applicable to any of direct and immediate effect of advancing religion" or a the other vehicles of meaningful school aid which "direct and substantial advancement of religion"-re have been on the drawing board these past years. gardless of whether it is primary or not.