SHEVAT, 5734 /JANUARY, 1974 VOLUME IX, NUMBER 8 THE SIXTY FIVE CENTS

The Crisis of Liberalisnt ERROR AND ARROGANCE

A Profile THE "OHEIV YISROEL"

After the Cease-Fire OF DISILLUSION AND REVELATION G-D IS NOT A CANNON THE DESPERATION FACTOR IN TEFILLAH

Fifty Years Ago THE CHOFETZ CHAIM IN VIENNA

A New Feature " ... " (with and without comment) THE JEWISH OBSERVER

in this issue ...

ERROR AND ARROGANCE, Yisroel Mayer Kirzner ·-·········· 3 THE "OHEIV YISROEL": A PROFILE, Zelig P/iskin . 6

AFTER THE CEASE-FIRE OF DISILLUSION AND REVELATION, Nissan Wolpin .... 10

G-D ls NOT A CANNON, Stephen Oren ...... 14

THE DESPERATION FACTOR IN "TEFlLLAlI," Zech aria F endel 15

THE CHOFETZ CHAIM IN VIENNA, Nasson Scherman 18

MECHEL THE PROVIDER, a story by Aaron l;lisch 23

" (WITH AND WITHOUT COMMENT) JEP SHABBOS ...... 25

" ... As THYSELF" 25

AMERICAN JEWISH CONGRESS; "FRIEND OF THE COURT" OR FRIEND OF YESHIVOS? ...... 26

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I to choose, and for the gifts of initiative and determina­ tion, as we11 as for the material resources, which per­ The Individual in Success and Failure mitted him to design and carry through his plan. When, A 1\1AN HAS CAREFULLY LAID OUT a plan of action, again, his plans fail, he perceives this as the hand of based on the most extensively researched information hashgacha restraining, with a wisdom his own frail available. He has proceeded, with all deliberation and human mind has so far been unable to fathom, action diligence, to implement his plan through the precise which he should not in fact have undertaken (and from series of actions prescribed by his calculation. And which, had he known that they were doomed to frustra­ then, despite all his foresight and care, it turns out tion, he would, in any event, have obviously refrained). that he fails entirely to achieve his goal. Or the achieve­ ment of his goal is accompanied by consequences that The Cloud of Failure are as desperately undesired as they were unforeseen. To those not possessing the Jew's faith and insight Here we have classic material for the canstic and illu­ into the ways of hashgacha, the phenomenon of unsuc­ minating comments of the moralist. Man proposes, the cessful plans is a profoundly disturbing one. Unsuccess­ proverb tells us in so many languages, but G-d disposes. ful plans remind man that he is less than omniscient. The failure of plans underscores man's total Jack of The potential for error revealed by the failure of past control over his worldly fate, reminding him of his utter plans, casts a shadow over what today seems a confi­ dependency upon Divine mercy and hashgacha. dent prediction of the future. Risk and uncertainty It is, at the same tin1e, undeniable that man's pro­ cloud man's actions, generating in turn the fortifying pensity to formulate plans of action and to endeavor, experiences of doubt, hesitation, worry, regret, shock through perseverance and deter1nination, to achieve and disappointment. planned results, is an inherent feature of man's being. To imagine a human being incapable of seeking to All these deeply ingrained features of the human pursue plans, is to imagine a contradiction in terms. condition are familiar enough from times in1mcmorial. What invites fresh attention in our own age, is the The Torah Jew's Response extension of these typical aspects of human frailty from the level of the individual to that of society. This ex­ The tension between man's sense of control over tension is accompanied by circumstances which seen1 his destiny through his action, and the awareness to justify our vigilant concern. of his utter helplessness and dependency upon Divine hashgacha, represents one of those profound cosmic II paradoxes which characterize the enigmatic relation­ ship between man and his Maker. To the Torah-Jew When Society Fails this tension generates an increased sense of apprecia­ WE HAVE HEARD MUCH JN RECENT YEARS about a tion and wonder at the co1nplexity, wisdotn, and mercy "crisjs of liberalis1n." Massive plans for social improve­ to be discerned in the hashgacha. When his plans are ment have, one after another, gone dismayingly awry. successfully consumated, his purposes achieved as an­ Projects promulgated with supreme confidence have ticipated, his reaction is one of intense gratitude for produced perverse, even disastrous, resu1ts. Experience the Divine guidance which led him to assess correctly with problems of education, welfare and poverty, urban the alternatives from among which he had been forced blight and congestion, race relations, environmental ---"------"--"""____ " ____ "_ pollution, manpower, energy, and others, has revealed DR. KIRZNER is a professor of eco11on1ics in 1Vew York Univer­ again and again that social planning has been abysmally si1y. He is a musmach of Nfesi1:fa Chain1 1Jer!i11 and is a frequent contributor to the JO. defective, quite erroneous1y anticipating future condi-

The Jewish Obserper /January, 1974 3 tions, and failing utterly to assess correctly the con­ ena relevant to his course of action: he may believe sequences of alternative courses of action.• that effects will be forthcoming from causes which are The shock of these failures has been paralleled dur­ in fact incapable of generating them, or he may be ing the same period of time by a series of highly un­ unaware that the conditions with which he is working settling discoveries indicating that items consumed for must generate effects inconsistent with his planned years by unsuspecting millions, from cigarettes to course of action. Most importantly, in any social con­ cyclamates, possess potential for serious harm. Clearly text, a plan may go awry as a result of the unexpected it is possible not only for individuals to err and to actions and plans of other members of society. In gen­ pursue flawed plans; vast multitudes can suffer enor­ eral it is a commonplace that control over the future mous damage as a result of widespread gaps in com­ through planning, on any scale, calls for control (in the mon information; and those assigned to plan on their sense of accurate predictive knowledge) over the course behalf can initiate courses of massive social action of future events to be expected from each of the avail­ resulting in resounding and spectacular failures, with able courses of action. It follows that attempts to avoid disastrous large-scale consequences. These develop­ the repetition of earlier failures in plans, must neces­ ments have been most disconcerting, not only to the sarily take the form of obtaining better knowledge of politicians, officials, and scientists responsible for the and control over the background of facts against which unsuccessful social experiments, but also to the masses, plans are to be constructed. In particular such attempts, whether more or less educated, whose confidence in where undertaken in the social context, must take the themselves, their institutions, and their experts, has form of obtaining more powerful knowledge of and been so profoundly shaken. control over the actions of the individual members of society itself. Error Escalation: From the Modest to the Gargantuan To Retreat or Expand? This contemporary phenomenon of widespread and repeated failure in ambitious social planning is a re­ AS THE HIGH HOPES PINNED to large scale planning for markable one in its own right. Our concern here, how­ society collapse again and again into puzzled disillu­ ever, is not with this phenomenon itself, but rather with sionment, revealing unsuspected gaps in knowledge what can only be described as the ominous reactions to concerning the physical and human environment sur­ it which have come to be widely encountered. Briefly rounding the plan, the possible reactions range across stated, realization of the crisis of social planning in a wide spectrum. At one extreme of the array we might recent history seems, on balance, to be generating a expect to find a salutary wisdom born out of newly-won tendency towards massive escalation of such planning, humility, while at the other end of the array we might accompanied by desperate efforts to avoid repetitions discover a newly obstinate and desperate determination, of earlier failures, efforts proceeding in a direction which stemming from challenged and unrepentant arrogance. can only excite the concern of the Torah-Jew intent The discovery of one's susceptibility to error, of the on living a religious life undisturbed by the distractions potential for disconcerting surprises, of the enormous and constraints which beset him on all sides. range of variables which lie beyond the planner's con­ trol, can either, that is, generate a tendency towards III greater modesty in planning, towards a reduction in the scope of plans, towards a greater degree of tenta­ Social Planning: Programming the Unknown tiveness, or exploration, of flexibility, in the plans that A CAREFULLY CONSTRUCTED PROJECT, scrupulously ex­ come to be put forward,-or a precisely opposite ecuted as planned, can fail to achieve its goals only as tendency may be generated. Instead of a greater mod­ a result of the incompleteness of knowledge. Any plan esty in planning, there may emerge a greater boldness, is made against the background of assumed facts. ambitiousness, and comprehensiveness in planning. The Knowledge can thus be incomplete as regards this failure of earlier plans may be ascribed precisely to background of facts, both present and future, against their failure to secure control over a sufficient number which the plan or action is being mapped. (For exam­ of the relevant variables. Instead of modest plans for ple a plan to swim across a body of water may fail limited geographical areas, vast regional, national, and because the strength of the current has been under­ even international planning may be embarked upon. estimated; or because the swim1ner overestimated his Instead of accepting given arrays of uncertain natural stamina; or because unexpected bad weather or other and human facts as background for their projects, unanticipated interference has been encountered.) Sim­ planners may expand the comprehensiveness of their ilarly a planner may be ignorant of scientific phenom- blueprints to bring more and more of these facts under control. 'i As one writer in the New York Ti111es put it recently: "Why is it that ... efforts to end poverty, provide jobs, im· No Signs of Humility prove education . . . often fail ignominiously, despite the As one scans the horizon for signs of developing spending of many millions of dollars and the hard work of numerous devoted civil servants?" trends, it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that

4 The Jewish Observer I January, .1974 the aftermath of the crisis of liheralism is characterized to religious liberty as compulsory public schooling, by a predominant tendency, not towards greater hu­ shechita legislation, and calendar reform, must be seen mility in social planning, but to its reverse. So, modern as forerunners of more far-reaching dangers looming scientists seem to be far from deriving moral enlighten­ ahead. The most obvious threat presently visible on the ment concerning the frailty of human endeavors from horizon is, of course, that of systematic population their recent failures. They do not seem even to be control. learning from these failures the mundane benefits of reining in their planning ambitions. On the contrary, IV the signs seem to point to social engineering on an Disquiet: Not of the Moralist Nor of the Pragmatist ... ever increasing scale. The massive problems of modern nations and cities-some of them spawned by social TO AVOID POSSIBLE MISUNDERSTANDINGS, the observa­ planning itself-are leading to more and more ambiti­ tions of the preceding pages can perhaps be brought ous projects. more clearly into focus. One might challenge the wis­ Thus a recent Environmental Protection Agency dom of greater ambition in planning, by referring to report, concerned with land use policy, dismissed states the recent lessons revealing man's propensities for and localities as incapable of formulating appropriate failure. Such a challenge might rest not only on the plans. But even a national land use policy was by no caustic comments of the moralist (alluded to at the means dec1ned sufficient. The report insisted on the outset of the article), it might derive with no less force need for simultaneous, national policies for growth, from a wholly pragmatic assessment of the viability of energy and population as well as land use. such planning. (At least some social scientists have profited from the "crisis of liberalism" to the extent of "Never Mind the Risks" recognizing anew the possibility of benign results de­ Jn describing a recent new book advocating an enor­ riving precisely from the replacement of the one mas­ mous expansion of social planning, one writer explains sive plan by the many freely interacting individual -to those "who shudder at the implications of such plans. But the tendency towards more ambitious plan­ vast projects"-that the underlying attitude can be ning which we have noticed cannot, without considerM expressed as saying: "Never mind the dangers: we able further detailed demonstration, be dismissed out have to experiment. It is more dangerous to stand of hand as illogical or technically flawed.) The primary still. Never mind the risks of democratic public power; purpose of this article has not been to offer such a .... Never Jnind the dangers of centralized planning." challenge-neither as comment of the moralist nor as the pragmatic conclusion of the social scientist. The Smothering of Independence The discovery of the inadequacies of earlier plans, ... But of the Torah Jew son1c of which ste111mcd fron1 the unanticipated inter­ Instead our purpose has been to appraise the ap­ actions of separately conceived plans, is generating parent tendency towards 1norc and more massive social planning on a scale designed to avoid such interactions planning from the point of view of the individual Jew by sheer comprehensiveness, leaving no room for in­ concerned with carving out for himself a space within dependence. The rosy language of cooperation and which he can serve his Maker lvithout interference. partnership is being used to reflect atte1npts to elimin­ The contemporary crisis of liberalism (which might ate aH possib1e sources of surprise stemming from have taught modesty in planning) seems responsible individuality of action. The direction in which this for a trend which the individual Jew can, both for tendency ultimately leads, greater and greater inter­ himself and his children, view only with profound national agrecn1ent and cooperation, even wor1d gov­ disquiet. As he observes regional and national plans ernment, portends dangers to individual freedom of of greater and greater comprehensiveness, as he ob­ religious action, of a seriousness that should be ap­ serves the expansion of the public sector in nation parent to all. after nation, as he observes one international confer­ The survival of the Torah Jew in golus has always ence of experts after another, as he observes the trend been founded on his ability to retain for himself a toward greater international cooperation and control significant scope for freedom of action within which with respect to the environ1nent, to population growth, he is at liberty to pursue the dictates of his conscience to neighborhood balance and stability, to definition of without interference. The more highly organized a life and death, and even to ideology, the Jew sees his society bcco1ncs (in the sense of its n1e1nbers being golus growing correspondingly in con1prehensiveness 1norc tightly constrained by detailed central govern­ and in gloom. As the scope for unhampered individ­ ment-like controls) the more likely the Jew is to find uality of action becomes steadily constricted, his yearn­ the pursuit of his religious life thwarted and threatened ing for the world order fulfilling the true Master Plan by detailed regulations formulated with extraneous pur­ becomes ever stronger, ever fiercer, and ever more poses in mind. Such well-know present or past perils poignant. D

The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 5 Z:lig Pliskin The Oheiv Yisroel: A Profile Loving one's fellow Jew is a central Torah command, having its own body of halachic guidelines and ethical ramifications

"A havas Yisroel" and the Mandate to Rebuke This incident and its implications inspired me to search out the sources of Ahavas Yisroel, its impera­ tives and its limitations; in short, to sketch a profile FROM MY PLACE at the back of the line in a Jerusalem hardware store, l could clearly hear the of the Oheiv Yisroel. fellow boomingly extol the virtues of Ahavas Yisroel while denouncing those who admonish through shouting. The Torah·s Source Another bystander asked him why he was so emphatic. "LovE YOUR NEIGHBOR as yourself"-the Torah He told the following: "For many years I was far from source for Ahavas Yisroel-is but one of 613 mitzvos, being an ob8ervant Jew. I once inadvertently attempted but as Hillel said, it is an all-inclusive ruling. It must to drive my car through Me'ah She'arim on Shabbos thus be a factor in all other mitzvos. Love begins with and found myself stopped by a roadblock. This consideration of others, and the main criterion for such infuriated me and I started a weekly practice of driving consideration is one's own feelings: Hillel advised, through religious neighborhoods to anta.gonize the "What is hateful to you do not do to others." ... The people there. One Shabbos, as I was attemptmg to move Rambam exhorted us to prevent Joss to others in the aside a roadblock, a passerby stopped me and with san1e \Vay that we would safeguard our own dignity a smile asked me for my name and address. After and property.... And as the Chafetz Chaim said, "If Shabbos, I was startled when this new acquaintance we indeed did love others as much as ourselves, we paid a visit to my home. For two full hours I heard would never gossip about their misdeeds or slander about the wonderful benefits of Torah observance, told them. And just as we each draw upon an endless supply to me with obvious consideration and Jove. Those of rationalizations to excuse our own misconduct, so hours were a high point in my life and really changed should we utilize this stockpile for the vindication of me." others." After the story-teller left the store, the proprietor vouched for the veracity of the tale, adding that before Emunah as a Base for Love be became observant, this man had earned his living delivering non-kosher meat. Now his sons have payos AHAVAS YISROEL devoid of emunah is doomed to and are learning in one of the foremost yesh1vos m failure-for without belief, on what should Jove be Eretz Y isroel. based? Man's stature in relationship to the universe is The fellow who changed the defiant driver's life was so puny as to be non-existent. After all, what is man, a true Oheiv Yisroel-a person who does not avert his but one of several billion inhabitants on a planet, which gaze when confronted with wrong-doing. He sees a is but one speck of matter circling another speck in blaze that threatens to devour his fellow man, and is a vastness of space that extends out beyond for billions impelled to act out of compassion. This gives rise to of light-years (a light-year is approximately six trillion the only meaningful rebuke-one that stems from a miles)-leaving the individual Jost in an immensity heart over-flowing with kindness. And the person on that is beyond all imagination. the receiving end can sense the source of the words .... From the same secular viewopint, one man is merely It has been said that a pat on the back, though only a a bundle of bones, nerves, muscles, and blood that few vertebrae removed from a kick in the pants, is happens to function in an orderly fashion. Does this miles ahead in results. mass deserve more attention and sympathies than similar commodities in the form of a cow or horse? RABBI PLISKIN, a musmach of the Telshe Yeshiva of JYicklif]e, Ohio learns in the Brisker Kolle[ in Jerusaleni. Hrs gr~ntf.~ But taking into account that man is fashioned in fathe~ Rabbi Yaakov Yisroel Berger zt"l, (whose yahrzelt 1s the image of the Almighty, he is transformed from an 4 She~at) was Rav in Cleveland for many years anq authored inconsequential being into one that is without parallel. three seforim on the topic of this article: Ahavas Ytsroel, Kol Yisroel Chaverim, and She'aris Yaakov. Although small in stature, he is the end-purpose of all

6 The Je1-vish Observer/ January, 1974 The Shabbos road-block in Israel:

streets are closed but hearts must

remam open.

creation, and as such is awe-inspiring. Add to this the The Tools of Love: Speech awareness that all neshamos share the same source, as part of Hashem Himself-and one can advance from THE SAINTLY CHOFETZ CHAIM '"ll was celebrated awe to love. for his caution in speech. Yet, he exhorted us in Chovos Hashmirah to be as expansive in speech as necessary Of People and Stones to cheer up a fellow in despair. For a cheerful word has healing powers for both those in mental and THE SPECIAL ST ATVS of man is expanded upon in a physical distress. • Moreover, Reb Yochanan ben well-known Midrash quoted by Rashi in Shemos: "The Zachai, who was singular in his restraint from idle stones of the mizbe'ach are inanimate objects lacking chatter, was always first to greet whomever he would feeling. Y ct, the approach to the mizbe'ach was so meet. To emulate him with a free and easy "Good constructed as to avoid mounting it in any way that Morning" takes minimal effort, but can have boundless would imply disrespect. How much more considerate results. • The six Divine blessings bestowed upon must we be in our dealings with a human being who whoever gives charity are increased to eleven when one is created in the image of our Maker and experiences adds a kind word to the act. suffering when he is abused ...." (The practical im­ plications are obvious to anyone who has witnessed Our everyday contacts with numerous people are all people jostling to get on a crowded bus to the Kosel.) fruitful opportunities for word-charity. for in this This argument speaks volumes on the Torah attitude respect who is not needy? towards man. The Best of All Tongues Another Prerequisite: Trust AsmE FROM AVOIDING invectives and insults, an IN ADDITION to a strong feeling of emunah (faith), Oheiv Yisroel must exercise extreme discretion in his true A havas Yisroel also requires bitachon (trust). This choice of words. attitude comes into play when one feels that others have The Midrash relates that Rabbeinu Hakadosh served unjustly taken advantage of him. Reacting with bi­ tongue at a feast he hosted for his disciples. He noticed tachon, one is fully aware that others cannot success­ how each one selected a tender slice, leaving over the fully cause him harm unless by Divine decree. Then, tougher pieces. He used the opportunity to point out even when he takes proper action, he will be free from to his disciples that one must always choose a soft animosity and rancor, for he understands that he suffers word, leaving over those that are harsh. only because G-d has willed it. But emunah and bitachon as requisites for A havas Horav Yoseif Dov Soloveitchik ll"O''lll of Brisk, Yisroel go beyond this. When beset by misfortunes, (now in Ycrushalayim) added that all the tongues even slight ones, one is easily vexed and irritable. To that were served were surely palatable; nonetheless, as be able to deal decently with others at all times calls Jong as there was a varjation in tenderness, one favors for an imperturbability that is rare. the more delectable one. This is the Midrash's point: A vraham Avinu exemplified this trait when, after Not only are outright derogatory words proscribed, Sarah's passing, he engaged in a prolonged transaction but as long as there is a discernable difference between to acquire a fitting burial site for her. The task called two expressions, one must se]ect the more pleasant one. for delicate diplomacy, and A vraham was able to People are sensitive, and comments meant as light handle it in spite of the fresh loss of his irrcplacable banter can cause untold anguish. An Oheiv Yisroel partner, only because he had the equanimity supplied realizes the consequences of every statement and is by emunah and betachon. continuously on guard.

The Jewish Obsen·er I January, 1974 7 REB YISROEL SALANTER: man was created with two eyes -­ one for microscopic introspection; the other myopic, for viewing [ others. Only, too often we switch their functions.

Chessed-For Whose Sake? task because they do not equate an attack on the Torah with a threat to their person. THE CHAZON !SH 'i"l! wrote about a truly pious man But kana'us (vindictiveness) is a highly potent toxin who one Friday joyfully announced to his family that that must be applied with maximum care. Properly they would entertain a guest that Shabbos. The entire used, it can eradicate cancerous growths and elevate family treasured the opportunity to be helpful to a the dispenser.-Pinchas serves as the prime example, fellow Jew. After the tefillos, through some misunder­ of the kanai in action (Bamidbar 25). But not every­ standing the stranger went to another home. The one is co1npetent to perform such an operation. would-be host came home with his usual Shabbos Horav Chaim Shmuelevitz M"ll''i11l, the Mirrer Rosh radiance, but without a guest. He noticed that his family HaYeshiva, constantly stresses that the Torah traces was deeply disappointed, so he explained: "Our con­ Pinchas's lineage to Aharon Haeohen, the prototype cern must be that all should have a meal, but it Oheiv Yisroel, to impress upon us that only one who shouldn't matter if we are the Almighty's agent or if is a true Oheiv Yisroel is fit to be a kanai. Only he can someone else is." be entirely free from any personal motivation. "Similarly~" the Chazon lsh said, "a true Oheiv Yisroel performs acts of kindness for the benefit of A Tale of Two Eyes others, not simply to indulge in his personal pleasure of doing charitable deeds." ANOTHER FACET OF Ahavas Yisroel, the Chazon Ish wrote, involves control over a seeming paradox: Love, Tolerance . .. one must be hypersensitive to one's own minor foibles, but overlook even the most obvious faults of others. F ussEs. FEUDS AND FIGHTS-all are breaches of As Reh Yisrocl Salanter 'i"l! put it, we were given peace, and all are anathema to an Oheiv Yisroe/. These two eyes: one for microscopic introspection ... the usually begin as differences of opinion and a lack of other myopic, for viewing others. Only, too often we tolerance for the other fellow's views. Reh Mendel switch their functions. Kotzker offered guidance in avoiEliezer Silver 'i"l! visited the considers atheism a graver offense than idol worship, D.P. camps on behalf of the Vaad Hatzala. He ar­ one can assume that in both cases the Torah would ranged tefillos and addressed words of encouragement expect us not to sho\v tolerance. to the survivors. After noticing that Wiesenthal did not To be sure, there are those who preach: "We must come to the shul, Horav Silver decided to visit him. be tolerant of everybody." As an old saw has it, As Mr. Wiesenthal recorded it: professional tolerance-teachers harbor foxes in their That night Rabbi Silver came to see me. He bosoms that devour anyone who disagrees with them. was a small man who wore an American army Tolerance without the foundation of a Divine command uniform without insignia. He had a small white is an edifice that will topple at the first entry of beard, and his bright eyes shone with great kind­ personal interests, no matter how petty. And by the ness. He must have been at least 75, but his mind same token, those who tolerate atheism find it a simple was sharp and his voice was youthful.

8 The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 He put his hand on my shoulder. "So they teli his only motivation. He is tolerant of the views of me you are angry with G-d," he said in Yiddish others, but within the limits specified by the Torah. and he smiled at me. While he never seeks out the faults of others, he I said, "Not with G-d, but with one of his will not shirk his duty to rectify that which can servants," and told him what had happened. be rectified. He kept smiling, "And that's all you have to Recall: We lost the second Rais Hamikdosh tell me?" because of sinas china1n-groundless hatred. By "Isn't that enough, Rabbi?" I asked. strengthening Ahavas Yisroel, we can be worthy of "Du dummer (you siJJy man)," he said. ''So redemption and the rebuilding of the !Jais Han1ikdosh you look only at the bad man who took something in our days. D from the good one. Why don't you look instead at the good man \vho gave something to the bad one?" He touched me \vith his outstretched palm The Jewish and left. Education Program I went to the services the next day. Ever since proudly announces I have tried to remember that there arc two sides the release of its to every problem. nfi!W record album from TI-IE MURDERERS AMONG us, s. Wiesenthal, J.E.P. SINGS lieinemann Pub., London 1967, pp. 249~250 REACHOUT Reb 'Lcizer Silver did not focus his attention on the featumg a stor cast improper act. He only took note of the valor of starving of soloists people who gave away vitnJ food for the opportunity accompanied by to feel closer to the Almighty. NEGINAH ORCHESTRA arrangements by The Portrait is Co1nplete Yisroel Lamm 0 UR PORTRAIT of an Oheiv Yisroel is now complete. He possesses a cheerful disposition fortified by emunah and betachon, and his company is always a pleasure. Never heard to utter an unkind word, his friendly greetings are a source of encouragement to all. He goes out of his way to save others from any possib]e loss, financial or emotional, and praise for others is always on his lips. He finds joy in doing a chessed, and enhancing his beneficiary's welfare is 12 BEAUTIFUL SONGS Cincludin9 YANKY HAS NO PLACE TO GO! * Nikolai * Reach Out! . Jic's nine years old and his n1on1my just died. * Six Million TearsJ His daddy will need sonic tin1e-n1ayhe a few • Hearttugging Jewish Melodies weeks, 1naybe a few inonths-to pick up the • Inspiring English-language Lyrics pieces of his life so the fa1nily can get together again and stay that way. • Superb Adult & Children Choir )~ anky has a hrother and siF.ter. • Ten Outstonding Soloists ~fhcy need a p1acc to go~ too. All proceds fo JEP Can you help? I Zeirei Agudath Israel Reach-Out Program) Ohel needs ORTHODOX FOSTER PARENTS desperately for dozens of Jewish children like them. ()BOER Ji"ORJ\'I A happy, warm, secure home now can deter­ Send $4.00 to: J E P RECORDS mine what kind of Jews, parents, people they 425 ·East 9th Street will be. Brooklyn, N. Y. 11218 Do you have that kind of home for a while? Enclosed please find $ ...... for...... records. If so, call or write: Nan1e...... OHEL FOSTER CARE 4907 16th Avenue Brooklyn, N, Y, Address ...... , ...... Telephone £2121 851-6300 City...... Stat«...... Zip......

The Jewish (Jbscn·cr /January, 1974 9 The fighting war is over and reappraisals are now in order: -- Why have the People of Israel, so aware of G-d's direction of events in the past, been denied a similar awareness in this past war .. . or have they? -- To what extent can future strategies build on Divine intervention in human affairs? -- How can this be invoked? -- The three articles that follow deal with these steps of reappraisal.

AFTER THE CEASE-FIRE I. Of Disillusion and Revelation - Nissan Wolpin

THE YOM KlPPUR WAR began with disbelief and ended in any chain of events may be shrouded from our with depression. The Israelis did prove their military vision .... No occurrence should be exempt from this superiority over the Arabs, but the heady sense of search for awareness, and most assuredly such cataclys­ triumph that had pervaded the atmosphere in June, mic events as those surrounding the recent ·v om Kippur 1967 was totally lacking. Then the air was full of talk War should be included. of miracles: We had been witness to countless acts Such an examination is seldom easy. It can be of Divine mercy, and there \Vere going to be more. facilitated, however, if we first study how one generally The deflating mood prevailing at this writing surely develops an awareness of G-d's involvement in human results in part fro1n the devastation suffered at the war's affairs - both individnal and global - and how this outbreak, the tragic toll in human Jives, the indecisive­ special insight is realized in a \vide range of cla1ity. ness of the Israeli initial counterattack, and the lack of How on occasion we are treated to a revelation-a full definition in the tern1s of the war's ending. For what­ view of G-d's role in our affairs. How a variety of ever reason, many who had seen so much evidence of obstacles so often prevent us from understanding what Heavenly intervention in events six years ago now we see. And how, at times, these very obstacles simply retreat in confusion and despair for lack of any sitnilar re1novc themselves from the scene, providing us with revelations today. And yet, they arc mistaken. yet another type of revelation experience. l~his discussion is not an atten1pt at evaluating claiins The Elusive Presence of Divinity in Nature of individual or mass-scale miracles of salvation that IN HIS MANY VENTURES, a person will contemplate a were so pronounced in '67. Rather, it is a search for desired goal and the various paths open to its pursuit. ways to enlarge our a\vareness that whatever occurs He considers his options and weighs those factors that is a result of Divine determination. That there are no may contribute to his success against those that may "natural" occurrences following accepted laws of cause interfere, and then makes his choice. Afterwards, he and effect-not in econon1y, in politics, nor in military pauses: If he has achieved his goal, the successful affairs-only events decreed by G-d. That the entire person reflects to pinpoint the right moves that brought universe is in a constant state of re-creation ("He him there; and should he have failed, he attempts to renews in His kindness the act of Creation every day, identify his false steps, to better guide himself for the constantly, as it says: He 1nakes 1nighty luminaries ... " future. -that is, He is forever engaged in creation), and there Tn either case, his evaluations are usually wrong. is thus no difTerence to G-d as He creates, whether He Human endeavor is invariably too complex and causes the expected to occur or the miraculous; the crowded with too many unknown factors to permit a only difference between the ordinary and the miraculous person to accurately assess why one goal is reaHzed and is in our reaction-either equanimity or astonishment. another is missed. Other forces of which he is usually It is our task to learn to overcome our equanimity, by oblivious were most likely crucial in the course of constantly sharpening our awareness of G-d's "involve­ events. The more certain a person is in his assessment, ment" in our affairs, even though the ultimate purpose the more likely he is to be wrong.

10 The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 This clouded state of affairs-allowing each man to catching sight of a pen inscribing notations on a pad. delude himself into accepting his subjective (and He realizes that this pen is not an independent force inaccurate) interpretation of events, is a veil of illusion but must be a tool gripped in a hand that is outside of essential to the Divine plan of Creation, purposely the observer's range of vision-a tool being wielded by designed to prevent man from seeing the hand of G-d an intelligent being, expressing his thoughts. Such is in human affairs. To be sure, man has the capacity to the course of human events in the invisible hand of penetrate the veil of human determinism to recognize G-d. Divine involvement and direction; but he also has the This approach, too, falls short of a clear perception choice to ignore it and to believe that man alone deter­ of the full degree of G-d's involvement in worldly mines the course of his collective and individual fate. events, for it gives credence to the tools-that is: laws In addition, man will tend to ignore or misinterpret of nature, ru]es of economics, the apparent efficacies even 1nore obvious spiritual phenomena, for the mere of strategies and planning-even though it relegates fact that he is a physical being serves to limit his them to G-d's firm control. capacity to completely comprehend anything that is • Beyond this is the realization that there are no totally spiritual. His understanding is always clouded tools in G-d's hands, possessing an independent exist­ by whatever physical representation of things might be ence. Whatever appears to exist on its own, whatever necessary for him to grasp them, and this inevitably see1ns to occur by happenstance, can only be an gives way to a fragmented view of phenomena and expression of His will, and cannot be separated from occurrences. Him. The life-of-its-own independence that seems to This freedom of choice is the keystone of the entire be invested into objects and events are only illusions structure of Creation and the basis for the concept of created to allow man the luxury of free choice, its reward and punish1nent, for the n1ore one recognizes rewarding realizations and devastating pitfalls. G-d's presence, the greater is his compulsion to act in So, man is capable of many levels of recognition of keeping with His demands; the less certain one is of the hand of G-d, beyond the illusion of autonomy and His presence, all the more does he feel free to defy causality. He can achieve this recognition through a his Creator. number of ways: through faith, through reason, or as The clarity of perception of divinity in mundane the result of Divine revelation. And even revelation can events can vary drastically from person to person, and follow various scenarios. from event to event. There is much to gain from tracing these different levels, for this can help one determine TJ1e Definitive Revelation where he stands, and what he has yet to attain. UNDOUBTEDLY, THE DEFINITIVE REVELATION of Divine direction of human events took place at the Splitting Knowing What One Sees of the Sea during the Exodus from Egypt, when a SEVERAL LEVELS OF RECOGNITION of Divinity are de­ humble handmaiden had a greater clarity of vision of scribed by Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler 't'lT, in his G-dliness than did subsequent prophets, and children Michtav MeEliyahu (Vol. l): could point with a finger of recognition: "Zeh Keili­ • Some people are quite convinced of man's ability This is my G-d!" to control his destiny: He can succeed in business This was not a mere awareness of momentary impli­ ventures and personal undertakings, if he plans wisely. cation, sudden recognition that a divinity exists that But, G-d willing, no outside factors should interfere intervenes in human events when He deems it worth­ with his plans, and for this non-interference he will while. The understanding achieved then was seen to pray with sincerity and humility. In success, this person apply to all times and places; the Az Yashir song of will attribute his good fortunes to "me and G-d"--0r if triumph that followed the crossing of the sea ended with he is of the o1d school, to "G-d and 1ne"-in a partner­ the procla1nation "G-d reigns forever!" ship of sorts, even expressing gratitude to G-d for His One could assmne that such a keen awareness of help. His failures: to poor planning or to lack of G-dliness did not require subsequent reinforcement, protection from Above. This type of thinking has all and surely left no room for the kind of doubts that the verbal ornamentation of devout belief (Please G-d, would need negation and resolution in the future. Yet, With G-d's help, Thank G-d), but in truth, it reflects the Midrash implies that the imprint of revelation is duality not far fro1n paganisn1, for in this view, another not a lasting one: Less than six weeks after the splitting force-1nan-shares doininion \Vi th G-d. of the sea, when G-d pronounced the first of the A sseres • Above this level stands the man who views Hadibros declaring the existence of the Deity, He "nature," as well as all phcno1nena involving causality, found it necessary to introduce it with "Anochi": the as a tool wielded by the Divine power; nothing happens singular pronoun "I," because the Voice of G-d seemed on its own, because of its apparent cause .... His view to e1nanate fro1n all direction. The Jews present at the is like that of a person peering through a key-hole epic revelation of Sinai could have attributed that Voice

The Jewish Ohsen·er /January, 1974 II to several co-existent powers-in opposition to the This apparent contradiction in the formula for doctrine of One-ness. reciting Shma only reflects an ever-changing require­ Catching sight of the Divine is hardly an everyday n1ent of this mitzvah. To truly declare G-O's Oneness, occurrence. Yet even when it does take p1ace, the one must first identify the particular challenges to such inspiration it brings is not permanent. Seeing ... under­ an acceptance that are most prevclant during any standing ... recalling ... all are experiences that in­ specific era. After that he must concentrate on negating volve a struggle-the battle for the supremacy of truth them. Then he will be capable of recognizing G-d's over illusion. complete Oneness, without experiencing challenge or doubt. "Emunah"-Eliminating the Negative The Changing Face of G-d-Denial MA N's TENDENCY TO REDUCE THE world to less than spiritual dimensions is always with us. Differing times AS IMPLIED BY THE ZOHAR QUOTED BEFORE. the threat and situations, variations in the zeitgeist, will account to this most basic of our beliefs can assume many for varying distortions in the human view of things, guises (as Rabbi Dessler continued in his exposition) : and will result in varying misinterpretations of spiritual­ • The Rambam records that during the time of ity by different people, offering each his own obstacle Enosh, people were so overwhelmed with awe before to surmount for attainment of greater clarity of the Deity that tbey deemed it unseemly to direct all enzunah. their entreaties directly to Him. They felt it more The Zohar a11udes to this in its de1ineation of the proper to direct their attention and honors toward His threats to existence that Jewish people are forced to emissaries. Thus did beJief in lesser deities arise-first face from time to time: "Amaleik, Goliath. Sarnael, and being worshipped as subsidiary forces 1 then as inde­ the Angel of Death-all are one and the same, only pendent powers-eventua11y giving way to paganism. changing its guise for each, in its customary inanner:·' ... 5ihnia in that time meant accepting G-d's im1nedi­ The prime life-threat to Jewry is the temptation to ate involve1nent with an His creaturesJ without need or stray from belief in G-d, and this threat can present allowance for intermediaries. itself as a wide range of forces-some of them internal. • Other eras found people taken with an over­ others external. K~eping one's e1nunah in tact, then, whelming thirst for spirituaJity, seeking transcendent is not a static sort of challenge, and the Jew n1ust thus experiences under the most available and accessible be ever-cognizant of which force is challenging his auspices. This too yielded to forms of idolatry. . . . concept of the Divinity, so he can best come to grips Thus, Shma in those eras entailed rejecting the possi­ with it, and so he can negate it. bilities of any autonomous spirituality in any of G-d's It is along such lines that Rabbi Dessler ""l! ex­ creatures. plained the shifting nature of a mitzvah that one might • During the Golden Age of Philosophy, man's expect to be constant through all circumstances: The inte11ectual grasp of things became the nieasure of command to believe in the Oneness of G-d, as authenticity. "I think, therefore I am" expanded to expressed in the opening passage of Shn1a: "Hear 0 include "It can be comprehended, therefore it is," Israel, the L-rd Our G-d The L-rd is One." relegating the incomprehensible to the unacceptable­ This fluidity is inferred from what seems to be an resulting in the necessity for a Shma like that of the inconsistency between two different sources that discuss Rambam, reinforcing emunah with philosophical Shma: The Gemora in Brachos (13b) implies one very proofs. specific approach, emphasizing brevity. It seems that • Ages of dominance of sensuality, "relevance," Reb Chiya bar Abba observed his disciple Reb Yirmiya financial security, and political reality arise and chal­ devoting a great an1ount of time to reciting Sh1na. Reh lenge our acceptance and understanding of a central Chiya took exception to this expansiveness in thought Deity responsible for the continued existence of the and reprimanded him: "You have already declared His world and all that takes place within it, promoting sovereignty above, below, and over the four directions; differing "needs" in terms of security and e1notional no more is needed!" Conciseness seen1ed to be the equilibrium during each era. We, in turn, in S'hnia order of the day. 1nust recognize the all-pervasiveness of G-d as Creator, By contrast, the Rambam declares that proper per­ Director, and Judge of the world. formance of the 1nitzvah of Sl11na requires a mental Thus, to be able to declare unequivocally "The L-rd review of philosophical proofs that G-d is of never­ our G-d the L-rd is One" does not simply require a changing Oneness, not subject to any alteration, non­ declaration of positive faith. It must entail a negation corporeal, beyond our concept of numbering. and 1nuch of the threats that cast shadows of doubt over our more-hardly in keeping with Reb Chiya bar Abba's acceptance of G-d in each era, and zeroing in on the demands for brevity.... How could one be faithful to "Amaleik-Goliath-Samael-Angel of Death" that both the Rambam and Reb Chiya bar Abba? challenges our belief. And just as the spectre of doubt

12 The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 varies, so must the conviction that refutes it vary. The idols: the power of human reasoning, the efficacy of momentary awareness of G-d's omnipotence and His human planning, the potency of human might, direction ubiquity that was sufficient for the Shma of Reb Yirmi­ of one's destiny by virtue of human-controlled ya's Babylon was insufficient for the era of rationality conditions. that marked the Rambam's world. How can one be cured of such misplaced faith? The declaration of "Emes Malkeinu-Our King is THERE ARE TIMES when the extended reaches of Divine Truth" bespeaks an eternal verity. Yet, this is not activity are revealed. To the eye treated to omnipotence, enough. It must also entail a recognition of "Efes zulaso human endeavor by comparison simply shrinks to -nothing else exists." And this requires a never­ insignificance-to oblivion. flagging vigilance, on the look-out for an infinity of ... Other times, such as our current era of crisis and substance-assuming nothings, resulting in an ever­ upheaval, all facets of human endeavor and accomplish­ changing series of refutations. ment are exposed to be hollow messiahs and nonentities. Once one successfully proves the non-existence of They simply disprove themselves. all other powers and forces, the undeniability of Emes Malkeinu emerges ever stronger. THERE ARE TIMES when we can point with the finger of recognition to "This is my G-d, and I shall praise Him." Seeing the Divine in Recent Events ... Other times, we are confronted with Efes zulaso IN OUR STRUGGLE TO SEE G-D's HAND in human events, -the stark realization that there simply is nothing we must combat a host of tactical crutches, which in else, only He. And we perceive Emes Malkeinu in truth are conceptual idols to which we tend to cling. stark singularity. Of course, we consider ourselves People of the Torah. Perhaps it can be suggested that the post Y om Time and again we have read and heard how our Kippur trauma, the vacuous shrunken feeling where personal and national destiny is one with our adherence once pride and confidence puffed out our psyches, is to Torah, and we nod in agreement. Nonetheless, there the Efes zulaso requisite to a realization that E1nes are scenes that make our hearts swell with pride, that Malkeinu. Perhaps it can be suggested that the revela­ let our shoulder blades stretch back in confidence. that tions of '73 are more dazzling than those of '67. D bespeak other loyalties and testify to other beliefs. Let the vignettes parade before the mind's eyes for a moment: The Israeli arn1y marching in glorious for­ mation ... trucks bearing n1issles cocked at 45° ... Tekoa/l's salty denouncements at the U.N. . .. the NOW Churchillian calls to conscience rolling off Abba Eban's tongue . . . the ingenious James Bondian espionaf?e coups ... the clever El-Al travel ads ... postage more stan1ps and diplon1atic n1aneuvers that prove us the san1e as everyone else, only better. than All of these items and activities have their place in ever ... the over-all scheme of things-as the hishtadlus aspect of any faithful Jew's bitachon, the element of activity that must accompany any believing Jew's faith. Let Agudath Israel Travel show you Eretz Yisroel! But we have allowed them to become the objects of • Group and individual departure available almost our misplaced loyalty. We have come to believe in any every day. and all of the concepts that they represent. fn spite of • Hotel reservations and all land arrangements protestations to the contrary, we do build a sense of to suit your specifications. personal and national identity on secular nationalism. • Special Agudah all inclusive package tours. We do find security in a highly-skilled, well-equipped • European stopovers available. militia guarding our borders. We do find comfort in for all your travel needs weJl-nurtured internationa1 al1iances. We do bank U.S.A., Europe, Israel emotionally on a thriving economy fed by human en­ the world over ... deavor, directed by human intelligence. We do trust the judgment of well-meaning but short-sighted mortals Write or phone: to dictate the terms and conditions of war and peace. AGUDATH ISRAEL TRAVEL Once we have so invested our confidence in these as 5 BEEKMAN STREET NEW YORK CITY 10038 (212) 964-2097 o• 258-0709 forces unto themselves, we are not viewing them as Ask for ALIZA tools in the hands of the Almighty, but as conceptual

The Jewish Obserrer I January, 1974 13 AFTER THE CEASE-FIRE • II. G-d lS Not a Cannon - Stephen Oren

How Many Types of Avodah Zorah? Yisborach and belief in an idol-even if the latter be AVODAH ZORAH-idol worship-is not a sin against given all the names of Hashem-is that G-d is not which observant Jews are much warned these days. man's creation. He is man's creator, with purposes and Perhaps they should be, for avodah zarah comes in intentions beyond man's imagining. When He interferes many guises. On the most literal level, the rabbis of in the normal historical process, He does so for His the Talmud had wondered how anyone could be so reasons which are not ours, and which, from our foolish as to form a statue with his own hands and perspective, may well be impossible to understand. then worship it as a god. Yet the recent agitation (as Certainly Am Yisroel, as well as every individual Jew, reported in The New York Times) over the return of must have bitachon in G-d's goodness and in the the Afro-a-Kom idol to Cameroun reminds us that reality of His covenant with us. But if a Jew goes up millions of human beings still cling to "classical" avodah on a high-wire, he had better not assume that Hashem, zorah. as his obedient servant, has spread out a net beneath A second level, one to which Jews abandoning Yid­ him. dishkeit are prone, is to seize upon some idea such as Not Without Precedent "Science," Progress," "Marxism," or "Yiddish Lan­ guage" and make of it the standard by which all other THIS SITUATION is not unprecedented in Jewish history. thoughts are judged, and the monster in whose name After all, it is nice to have an army which has X number countless Jives-or souls-may be sacrificed. of tanks (or chariots), Y number of airplanes (or But there is a third level of avodah zorah, one in horses) and kaveyachol, one Hashem. It does not work which the Ribono Shel Olam, Himself kaveyachol, be­ that way. The army of Israel in the days of the Judges comes an idol. This idol worship is prominent among could carry the Aron Hakodesh to battle with them­ many who consider themselves religious Jews. and be defeated. How much of Jeremiah's pleadings were directed against false prophets (who told the Jews Talk to them about the Middle East. This evil or that as Hashem saved Jerusalem from the Assyrians that misfortune cannot befall the Yishuv, they say, of Sanherev, so must He save it from the Chaldeans because the Almighty will never permit it. More---they of Nebuchadnezzer)? The constant ''nationalistic'' insist that Israeli policies should reflect this alleged revolts against the Chaldeans, from that of Joachim fact. Not an inch of the liberated territories may be to that of Ismael, achieved only the destruction of given up! In war, let the army attack without ceasing! the Bais Hamikdosh and the scattering of the Yishuv. When the possible dangers are pointed out to them­ In the time of the Romans, as well, there were those that Israel's weapons are supplied by the U.S., which has its own Middle East policy, that an Israeli Army who argued against political compromise, for "as rejecting the U.N. cease-fire would shortly have been Hashem had performed miracles in the days of the a defenseless Israeli Army-the reply is astonishing: Hasmoneans-so must he also in our day." ... Yet All the better, for in such a case, G-d would be forced the second Bais Hamikdosh was destroyed, in their day. to come to the aid of the Israelis. The same spirit leads We certainly would not care to draw parallels to demands that American Jews go to Israel. for the between the bleak era of the Destruction and today's U.S. is about to go radical right, radical 1eft, or perhaps situation; yet for all the hopes we have invested in radical center-Israel, of course, will not suffer because the Yishuv, Hashem has written us no unconditional of the loss of its chief patron from these shores. And, guarantees. In the eyes of some, this may be ischalta one might classify editorial proclamations: "The G-d dege'ula, the "dawn of the Redemption," but, without of Israel has triumphed over the god of the Arabs!" straying from the astronomical metaphor, there is a as also being in this spirit. phenomenon known as "false dawn."-If the Israeli The crucial difference between belief in Hashem Army was surprised and forced to retreat on Y om Kippur, it does not show that, chalila, "the god of the DR. OREN, a professor of Political Science in Touro College, Arabs is stronger than the G-d of Israel." Under the New York City, is a frequent contributor to leading Anglo­ Jewish periodicals. His "Storm Clouds Over Hebron" appeared worst of circumstances-no less than under the best­ in the April '72 JO. G-d rules over the entire universe. The obligation of

14 The Jewish Observer I January, 1974 every Jew to G-d, our Creator and Protector, is the nothing for the troubles of His creatures. He chose to same under· either condition. enter a covenant with the A vos-not that our armies We Cannot Read His Mind .. would always be victorious, not that all the land liberated in 1967 would remain Jewish-but that He sucH AN ANALYSIS leads to two conclusions. First, we would dwell among us, that His Shechinah would go must stop trying to read Hashem's mind. Greater than into golus with us, that in His time (not ours), He us have tried and failed.-Did not Rabbi Akiva declare would send Moshiach. Bar Kochva to be Moshiach? Yet, during the generation And He prescribed ways for us to communicate that followed, surviving scholars hid in caves, while with Him.-Not to force Him, for then how do we Eretz Yisroel lost its Jewish majority. And there were differ from Bilaam with his endless machinations in Rabbis - men of profound wisdom - who praised attempt to compel Hashem to curse those He did not Shabbetai Zvi at first-but the only result was shmad, wish to curse? both open and hidden, leading to the bizarre practices Today's task is to use that communication system. of Yaakov Frank. . . . Chazal have forbidden us to Even if it is pointed out that this year, like the years calculate or force the end, for good reason. in which the first and second Bais Hamikdosh were Instead, our analysis of the Middle East situation­ destroyed, is a Motza'ai Shmittah year in which Tisha of the future prospects of American Jewry-or of B'Av falls on Motza'ai Shabbos. As ever, teshuvah, any other problem, must deal with the world as it tefillah, and tzedakah (repentance, prayer, and charity) unhappily is. Once we have ceased listing the Deity fully possess the power to abolish any decree. The task among the cannon that we fire at will, it becomes easier of religious Jews is to convince themselves. and other to determine what can be accomplished-and at what Jews as well, that our relations with Hashem will be risk-with the military, political and economic resources well only when our deeds accord with His will. To be the Yishuv and Am Yisroel, as a whole, have at their sure, as we have repeatedly seen in history, there are command. Jewish leaders are often faced with grim periods when our ranks can include even the most choices, but if Kial Yisroel understands the reality of righteous, and G-d chooses to be silent. Yet, our the grimness, the chances for satisfactory solutions, righteousness and G-d's course of action are Jinked. whether "hawkish" or "dovish," are better. The last of the prophets, in his last message, explained ... But He Can Read Our Hearts the division of labors and the linkage of strategies very WHILE THE FIRST CONCLUSION seems to omit the Deity clearly: "Remember the Torah of Moshe, My servant, from our arsenal, the second one is based completely that I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel, on our relationship with Him. For as Hashem is not statutes and ordinances. Behold, I send to you, Eliyahu an idol, doing our bidding at our command, so is He the prophet before the great and awesome day of the not the unmoved mover of Greek philosophy, caring L-rd comes" (Malachi 3:22-23). D

AFTER THE CEASE-FIRE III. The Desperation Factor in Tefillah - Zecharia Fendel

THE RECENT DRAMATIC EVENTS in the Middle East reinforce our awareness that our fate is completely and elicited a magnificent display of Ahavas Yisroel and exclusively in G-d's contro1; for a person can be so solidarity from the entire American Jewish community. preoccupied with his fears and anxieties that he loses Nevertheless, as we become ever more acutely aware sight of the greater scope of what is taking place. of the magnitude of the problems still confronting Israel, we can hardly escape the frustrating feeling that there is The Egyptian Precedent something more that we can-and must-do to help. AT THE TIME OF THE EXODUS, when the Israelites were Is there, indeed, something we have overlooked, we trapped on the shores of the Red Sea, with the have left undone? Egyptians' military machine bearing down upon them, Before we can plan intelligently, however, we must Moshe said to his people: "Fear not; stand still and see the salvation of the RABBI FENDEL, active in chinuch for many years, currently L-rd which He shall perform for you this day" teaches Gemora in Mesivta Ohr Hameier, New Rochelle, N. Y. (Shmos 14: 13).

The Jewish Observer I January, 1974 15 Commenting upon this verse in Ohel Yaakov, the tefillos have lacked the all-pervasive sincerity and Duhner Maggid observes that Moshe realized that the absolute reliance upon the help of the Almighty. Israelites, frozen with fear, could fail to recognize the The individual who knows that he has absolutely no miracles which were about to take place before their other recourse for salvation other than the Almighty, eyes. He therefore instructed them to shake themselves will offer tefillos of a dimension entirely different from free of their thought-paralyzing fright. the tefillos of the individual who feels he has other lf Moshe had found it necessary to becalm the alternatives. Israelites so that they might not be insensitive to the Chazal observe that the Matriarchs were all barren miracles of the crossing of the Red Sea, how much because "the Almighty is anxious to hear the supplica­ more profoundly must we be jarred so tbat we might tions of tzaddikim" ( Y evamos 64a). become fully aware of the elusive hand of G-d in While the A vos would certainly have prayed regard· events taking place about us! less of their personal blessings, their tefillos could never Daily Events in the Light of Miracles have approached that peak of sincerity that they did reach when they were grievously troubled by their THIS THOUGHT Is ALSO IMPLICIT in our commemoration inability to bear children. This touched them to their of the events surrounding Chanukah. For, while the souls, for in their posterity they saw the perpetuation central mitzvah of Chanukah, kindling the Chanukah of their loftiest ideals. They responded, therefore, with lights, focuses on the miracle of the ftask of oil, a caliber of tefillah that was unique; these tefillos Al Hanissim, the commemorative paragraph added to attained infinitely higher spiritual spheres than the the Shemoneh Esrei, deals only with the remarkable A vos could ever have attained had they not been beset mi1itary victories the Maccabees achieved over their by their painful burden. enemies: You have given over the mighty into the hands Esther and tl1e Haman Presence of the frail; the many into the hands of the few. It has been pointed out that the overt miracle of the THJS THOUGHT IS AGAIN BORNE OUT by an inc1s1ve oil, which was in absolute defiance of natural law, was comment of the Sages regarding Queen Esther in the meant to dispel any notion that the military victory of Purim narrative, when she invited Haman to the the fiasmoneans was a result of natural factors that banquets she prepared for King Ahashveirash. As had no relationship to G-d's direction. By focusing on Rabbi Nechemiah explained, Esther was concerned the military victory in our tefillos, we express our lest the Jews should say "We have a sister in the recognition that the "natural" event is indeed the king's court"-consequently, neglecting to entreat the greatest miracle. Almighty for mercy. She therefore invited Haman to In a 1arger sense, this is one of the major lessons of the banquets, making it appear that she was a traitor the entire Jewish historical experience: The Ramban to her own people (Megill a I Sb). observes that with the Divine Name Kel-Shakkai all With the decree of Haman hanging over the head "hidden 1niracles'' are performed, "for it is not a natural of every man, woman and child in the Jewish com­ law that the rains should come in their due season when munity, it was hardly likely that they would place we worship G-d, or that the skies should be like iron their reliance so completely upon Esther that they if we violate the laws of Shemittah. Rather, they are would not bother to pray to the Almighty. They knew all miracles by which the disposition of natural law that there was no guarantee that Esther would gain is overpowered. except that no change from the entry into the king's inner chambers, much less be natural order of the world is noticeable" (Bereishis successful in her mission. 1 7: I ) . This thought recurs frequently throughout the Nevertheless, Esther was perceptive to the far­ Ra1nban's commentary and, at the end of J>arshas Bo, reaching qualitative difference that distinguishes prayer he emphasizes that this is a fundamental pillar of Torah from prayer. She understood that there is a vast gulf faith: separating the usual sincere prayer, from one which Franz the 1nagnificent overt miracles one learns emanates from the heart of an individual who sees to recognize the hidden 1niracles, which are the himself poised upon the brink of annihilation. Esther foundation of the entire Torah. was aware that the supplications of the Jews would be infinitely more heart-rending if they recognized the The Equation Between Insight and Tefillah Almighty as their only possible source of deliverance, TO WHATEVER EXTENT we have failed to grasp this and if they discounted, even as a most remote possi­ message in regard to the events which are unfolding bility, the hope that she might prevail upon the king before our eyes, so, precisely, have we also failed our to rescind Haman's decree. It was to generate this brethren in Israel in this great crisis. For it is precisely desperation within the Jewish community that Esther to this extent that our bitachon and our trust in the was prepared to be regarded as a traitor in the eyes Almighty have been shallow and inadequate, that our of her brethren, and she invited Haman to her banquet.

16 Tiu' Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 Desperation in the Middle East sibilities, and that we did not rise to the occasion when WE MUST INTRODUCE THIS ELEMENT of desperation it fell upon us to do so. Let it not be said of us that into our tefillos, by becoming more keenly aware of we allowed this magnificent opportunity to participate Israel's critical plight today and of our subsequent need in the hatzalah of Kial Yisroel slip ignominiously from to place our total reliance upon the Almighty. Is it our grasp. at all conceivable that, according to "natural" law and We must realize that the danger confronting Eretz without Divine intervention, there is even a remote Yisroel and all of Kial Yisroel is truly an imminent one, possibility for Israel to survive the onslaughts of the and we must recognize, in a total and absolute sense, enemies that surround her? It is obvious that Israel that there is virtunlly no one to whom we can turn, must contend not only with the Arab nations but with other than to the Ribono she/ Olam. We must believe the awesome might of the Soviet Union, as well. And sincerely and wholeheartedly, that our tefillos can and with the Arabs brandishing their oil weapon with ever­ will be effective in turning the tide of battle on both greater sophistication with each passing day, all the the military and diplomatic fronts. Let us make no nations of the world, one by one, are likewise turning mistake about it. This, and this alone, is the ultimate against Israel. weapon of the Jewish people. Where shall Israel turn in her critical hour of need? If We Were Truly Aware Shall she turn to the pernicious council of the United Nations which looks on apathetically whenever Israel ON THE VERSE, Fear not, O' worm of Jacob (Isaiah stands to suffer military setbacks, but springs to action 41:14), Chazal observe: "Just as the power of the with incredible alacrity and condemnation, when the worm ls contained only in its mouth, so too is Israel's tide of battle turns in Israel's favor, so that even Israel's strength contained only in his power of tefil/ah" (Mid­ military success might be turned against her? Shall we rash Shochar Tov 22:20). place our reliance upon the United States and its You may say that this thought is an elementary one. "even-handed" policy (which grows less even-handed And y~t, I beg to differ. If we were truly aware of this, with every passing day), and whose oil interests are why did we not mobilize our forces from the very first prevailing upon the ad1ninistration to pressure Israel moment when news of the Yorn Kippur attack reached into concessions that \vork clcar1y against its own our .shores? Why did we not go from shul to shul, survival? Shall we rely upon Dr. Kissinger - our alerting our brethren to the critical situation in Israel, "brother in the courts of the mighty"-when he appears so that each Jew might pray for deliverance with all to be more concerned with the success of his policy his heart and soul before the Ne'ilas She'arhn on Yon1 of dctentc and with his image of impeccable neutrality, Kippur? than with the plight of his fellow Jews? Ye~, it is not too late for us to regain the opportunity. Israel n1ust, of course, do its utn1ost to maintain Both 1n shut as wcJl as in the privacy of our ho1ncs we its armed forces at the peak of combat efficiency, and ~ust set aside time to render sincere, heartfelt supp1ica­ to 111ake every effort to secure diplomatic support and t10n to the Almighty in behalf of our brethren in Israel. aid from friendly nations. Like Yaakov Avinu, who We must learn that lesson \Vhich so manv Israeli prepared for his confrontation with Eisav \:Vith oifts soldiers have learned during the bitter tighti1;g of the and military preparedness, we too must make diplombatic pa.st few weeks-that sincere tefillah h'is the power to overtures and do our utn1ost to secure a favorable foil SAM mtssles and to cause Sagger anti-tank missles inilitary posture and strong economic stability for to misfire. We must have a profound awareness that f srael. We must, nevertheless, take heed to plac'e our our tefillos are a shield which will protect Israel's reliance upon none of these. soldiers against the most devastating weapons in the arsenal of the enemy. Neither by ar1nies, nor by power [will Israel e1nerge victorious] but only by My spirit, saith And when we achieve this awareness, then will our the L-rd of Hosts (Zechariah 4:6). tefillos en1anate fro1n the inncrn1ost recesses of our hearts, and our supplications will pierce the very heavens. We will have made effective use of the A Unique Responsibility ultimate weapon of the Jew-the all-encompassing IN THESE MOMENTOUS TIMES, people must realize that power of true tefillah, before which all of Israel's a unique responsibility, as well as a unique opportunity, cnen1ics wither and crun1ble. have been thrust upon every member of the Jewish For which nation is so great that it has G-d so community. We must regard ourselves as standing in nigh unto it, as the L-rd, our G-d, ~vhenever we the forefront of the battle for the survival of Israel. call out to Him (Devarim 4:7). Our weapons are Torah and tefillah; our battlegrounds Then, all the nations of the world will learn to are the shul and the Bais HaMidrash. Let it not be said recognize that the na1ne of G-d is called upon you, of our generation that we were unaware of our respon- so that they might fear you (Devarim 28:10).

The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 17 Nosson Scherman The Chofetz Chaim Comes to Vienna

40 Years since the passing

of the Chofetz Chaim )"~T

50 Years since the first Knessia Gedo/a of Agudath

lsrae4 in Vienna

The Grand Assembly: Postponed strategem in the battle for Torah life; the emergence of the new Leninist regime would merely shift Agudah's THE CHOFETZ CHAIM was 75 years old in 1913, no center of gravity from Russia to Poland. youngster by any standard. But in that year he joined most of the Torah luminaries of his period in launching a new organization, issuing a proclamation ca11ing for - Until 1923 the First Knessia Gedola of the new-born Agudath IT WAS NOT UNTIL 1923 that post-war Jewry had Israel to be held the following summer in Kattowitz. stabilized to the point where the first Knessia Gedola, But the conference never took place, for the world was nine years postponed, could finally be called. It was to otherwise involved-World War I broke out bringing be held in Vienna. By then, the Chafetz Chaim was 85, four years of strife, slaughter, and exile. but he resolved to demonstrate his own continuing Even during his difficult war years, while leading allegiance to the Agudath Israel concept by making the he remnants of the Radin Yeshiva from town to town long, uncomfortable trip from Radin to Vienna. in Russia, the Chafetz Chaim never lost sight of his goal of unifying traditional Jewry under the banner of The Knessia Gedola had all the markings of being a an international Torah organization. In 1917 he great event. Its five hundred delegates included nearly issued a public proclamation urging Russian Jews to all of the great rabbis, admorim, and roshei yeshiva of join Agudath Israel. But with the success of the the day; thousands of spectators would attend to hear Bolshevik Revolution, this country became closed to and see the greatest single assemblage of Torah leader­ all public religious activity. Nonetheless, the Chafetz ship in many centuries; and millions of Jews would Chaim continued to view Agudath Israel as an urgent follow the proceedings with interest and allegiance, or dread and disdain, depending upon their political and RABBI SCHERMAN, principal of the Yeshiva Karlin-Stob'n of religious orientation. No matter what part of the Jewish Brooklyn, serves as editor of Olomeinu, Torah Un1esorah's spectrum one occupied, the Knessia Gedola was an magazine for children. He is a frequent contributor IO these pages. important event.

18 The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 As the most beloved and universally respected Jewish Glory is a risky undertaking. Rabbi Yehuda Chassid figure, the Chafetz Chaim's position toward Agudath said that a person's share in the World-to-Come is not Israel was the object of intense speculation. True, he diminished by material rewards in this world. But honor had been one of its original and warmest supporters, is different; it is a spiritual thing and wben it is granted but he was also "above politics." Perhaps, said many, in this world, it is subtracted from his share of the he merely favored Agudath Israel in the abstract, as World-to-Come." an expression of organized Jewish unity under the Rabbi Plotzki replied, "First of all, I think it is banner of Torah; but he probably would not join in worthwhile to give up a bit of Olam Habo to satisfy the practical workings of an organization that would the request of so many Jews. Secondly, I doubt that descend from the ascetic ivory tower and become this type of honor can cost you a portion of the next involved in the sometimes unpleasant battle for souls. world.-" The Chafetz Chaim, after all, was one of those rare The Chafetz Chaim interrupted, "Enough. Your men who, in his lifetime, had won the adulation of all first argument is sufficient." And the Chafetz Chaim circles and was claimed by all. The non-religious Jewish rose and walked over to the coach window. When the press, therefore, attempted to portray him as being crowd saw him, it began pushing and shoving to shake less tlum enthusiastic about the goals and methods of his hand. For the aged and frail sage, this represented the Agudah's more vocal partisans. But that was merely considerable physical danger. He raised his hand, subject matter for editorial speculation. waving to them, motioning to them to stop: "Sholom Aleichem, fellow Jews. The pasuk says, 'Shalom, Sha­ "The Chafetz Chaim Local" lom-Peace, peace to far and near.' The verse seems to say that one can give Shalom from afar. It isn't TENS OF THOUSANDS of Jews aJong the rail necessary to shake hands." route through Lithuania and Poland, the center of When the train pulled into Chenstochav, he was interest was a train schedule. The train carrying many exhausted and he decided that he would not greet the of the greatest Torah figures of the day would be crowds. He asked that the door and windows be closed passing through, and every railroad station was mobbed so that he could rest. Suddenly, the conductor rushed with Jews seeking to shake the hand or catch a glimpse in and ordered that the coach be evacuated; an axle of their revered leaders. was on fire. To which the Chafetz Chaim characteris­ On the same train rode the Chafetz Chaim, the tically remarked, "Such is the power of a tzibbur Gerrcr Rebbc, the Sokolover Rcbbe, Rabbi Meir Dan (multitude). Try as we might avoid it, we have no Plotzki of Sokolov, and many others, with their en­ choice but to come out." tourages. The Chafetz Chaim followed his usual practice of traveling third class. As an unusual token of deference to the venerable sage, Rabbi Plotzki accom­ Vienna: "The Chafetz Chaim is Coming!" panied the Chafetz Chaim on the journey. F !NALLY THEY ARRIVED at Vienna and, despite the presence of many other foremost Torah personalities of the day, the tiny, frail, old man from Radin was the center of attraction. Why? Self-deprecatingly he found Horav Meir Dan Plotzki, his own answer when he reluctantly acceded to the request that he be the first speaker at the Knessia '"lT-he rode third class Gedo!a-hc was chosen not for his Torah or good deeds, he insisted; he had precious little of those. He with the Chofetz Chaim. was chosen because he was the oldest delegate and a K ohain. Priesthood and seniority are gifts of G-d, and by their virtue it would not be presumptuous of him to bless the assemblage. That was his version. It is doubtful that anyone else At one of the stations in Poland, a large crowd stood agreed. The public pulse, both within and without the and clamored for an appearance by the Chafetz Chaim, Knessia hall, was better tapped by Gedalia Bublik­ to no avail. A committee of local rabbis and lay leaders distinguished editor of Tageblatt. a leading Yiddish boarded the train to plead that he show himself. Still, daily in New York-who wrote that Agudath Israel's he refused. Reh Meir Dan, his traveling companion, greatest triumph in arranging the Knessia Gedola was asked why he was so adamant. in achieving the presence of the Chafetz Chaim. The Chafetz Chaim explained, "All my life I fled "There is no person now living who has so hallowed from honor. How can you ask me to seek it now? himself and is so universally acknowledged as a holy

The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 19 HORAV CHAIM SOLOVEITCHIK ?"::n of Brisk regarding the Chafetz

Chaim: "His greatness as a tzaddik obscures his even greater stature as a Torah genius."

person as the Chafetz Chaim. The public considers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-and they honored Him. him the leading tzaddik of the generation, even more They revealed His glory to the whole world. Then, than it considers hhn a Torah genius . ... He revealed Himself for the prophets and they an­ "When the call is heard, 'The Chafetz Chaim is nounced His glory and greatness to humanity. Then coming!'-a panic breaks out in the hall. Everyone came the Tannaim, the Amoraim; later the Gaonim, jumps from his seat and cranes his neck to see him ...." the Rishonim, and tzaddikim of succeeding generations. (The general public may have considered the Chafetz Each in turn fulfilled the obligation of safeguarding and Chaim, as Bublik reported, more tzaddik than gaon. proclaiming His greatness and glory. We, in our One of the greatest Torah figures of the previous generation, are like the simple constable compared to generation disagreed. When the Chafetz Chaim's classic the great men of generations ago. Our obligation to halacha masterpiece, lV!ishna B'rurah, was published, safeguard the Heavenly Glory, however, is no smaller Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk said of its author, than that of earlier, greater generations." "His greatness as a tzaddik obscures his even greater Not many people like being lectured to; most resent stature as a 1'orah genius.") it. But, these words were spoken by the Chafetz Chaim, and they were natural, telling, irrefutable, and well­ Speeches: Frequent and Deceptively Simple reccived. A Secularist's-Eye-View HE SPOKE OFTEN at the Knessia in his deceptively simple manner. Like so many of his works, his brief IT WOULD BE INFORMATIVE to see how journalists of speeches could be understood on many levels; the the period described the Chafetz Chaim's impact on the sin1p1est laynJan and n1ost learned scholar could feel Vienna Knessia. Religious journalists might well have that the delicate, indominatable saint from Radin was had a prior point of view, so it \Vill best serve our talking to him-talking not up, not down, but directly purpose to look to a secular correspondent. F'ollowing to him. And what is more, there was a total lack of is a dispatch filed by H. Mauskopf in the September 23, affectation about him, a sincerity that 1nade it possible l 923 edition of the New York Forward, a Yiddish daily for him to inake de1nands upon the conscience of his noted for its Socialist policies and its rabid anti-religious listeners that would have been infuriating had they attitudes. It was the Daily Forward, in fact, that come from a lesser man. Thus, he could call upon the achieved notoriety early in the century as the sponsor efforts of the leaders insisting that they dedicate them­ of the infamous Yorn Kippur Balls on the Lower East selves to spreading Torah, and not content then1selves Side. Here is Mr. Mauskopf's report; with personal achievement: "Havu laHashem kavod va'oz-Ascribe to G-d glory The Sokolover Rebbe, who is in the midst of and might. Give to the Master of the Universe the speaking, is suddenly silent, his hand remaininR glory that is his due. When a mortal king visits a outsiretched as though frozen. The audience, the province, the custom is that the governor and all his presidium, the journalists, and the guests in the retinue greet and honor the king. When he enters a galleries all stand up. Rabbis, tzaddikim, and town, the mayor greets him and assun1es responsibility religious Jews arise from their places. There is a for his honor and safety. Wherever he goes, the leader silent, restrained niove1nent, a rustle of awe and of the district is ready to do his duty toward the respect, stern outcries are heard from the ushers monarch. The constable of the sn1a1lcst si,de street is -Make room! Make an aisle! The crol'vd makes as responsible in his little realm as is the mighty 1.vay. People push atop one another, 1vith bated governor in his. breath, with a shudder in their hearts. Thev ster> "So it is with the King of Kings. the Holy One, back tnomentarily and form t1vo rows of Peopie Blessed be He. He first appeared to our ancestors in the center of the hall: two rows of rabbinical

20 The Jewish Observer I January, 1974 delegates in shining satin coats with long tvhite Out of the hall he goes between rows of stand­ beards and, bet1veen the two rows, several rabbis ing rabbis. He walks quickly, energetically, with escort-why do I say escort?-they virtually carry the white head bent toward the ground . ... a tiny, frail, old man; a venerable, hunched little And when he is lifted and helped into the car, 1nan 1vith a sn1all white beard and a simple, poor the whole street is black with people. They push black coat, a plain black scarf around his neck. ... "head upon head" to see the Chofetz Chaim. When you first see the little ninety-year old Christians remove their hats out of respect. Jews man, he 1nakes a strange impression on you-· clamber onto the automobile, on the wheels, on the hood. Everyone wants to see the Chafetz Chaim, to touch the hem of his poor long coat. Those closest extend trembling hands into the car. The Chafetz Chaim gives "Shalom," his frail, thin fingers ... touching the thick, trembling hand: Shalom. It is chaotic ... the police are powerless. They can't bring order. They, too, push and look captivated and respectfully at the strange, small old man tvith the satin cap on the white head. ... 1'he Viennese German newspapers, too, have ivritten many enraptured articles about the Chafetz Chaim.

House Guest: One Man and a Continent

DuRJNG HIS STAY JN VIENNA, the Chofctz Chai111 was the guest of Rabbi Akiva Schreiber, a grandson of the Chasam Sofer. The honor did not come to Mr. Schreiber easily, however. Before his distinguished guest accepted the invitation, Mr. Schreiber had to agree to allow him to either eat his own food or pay for his meals and other expenses. As would be expected, the Schreiber home became public property during the stay of its distinguished guest. It seemetl as though everyone in town wanted to visit, consult, or just feast his eves on the tzaddik from the once unheard of little town' that he had turned into a household word. One of those who came to the Schreiber home failed to achieve his goal ... and yet he succeeded. He was Abraham Pinchas Landau of London and he needed you feel a shudder of awe and love, an enor1nous the Chafetz Chaim's advice on a pressing personal respect and regard which is boundless. When you problem. Mr. Landau was a business1nan who was one look more closely you see the face of an angel; of the most community-minded Orthodox Jews of of a servant of G-d. ~The Divine Presence rests on London. He was gabbai of Maclzzikei Hadas, leader of that face and you n111st close your eyes because a 7'abnud 1'orah and other institutions. His business, of the brilliance that shines fro1n the stnall, gray, however. had suffered as of late and he had been lvise eyes. When he stands at the rostrun1 and hearing 'about it from his fan1ily. What right had he speaks, two rabbis /lank him and support him by to spend so much tilne and energy on his conununity the arms. The entire asse1nblage listens standing. lvork at the expense of his business? How dare he His voice is weak, but clear. He calls Jews to allott' privation to overtake his fa1nily in a quixotic unity, to peace, to goodness, to piety_, to love, attempt to save the world? Mr. Landau sought the and to action. !!is small, bent fra1ne shakes as he guidance of Torah greats in Vienna and one of those speaks. His s1nall white beard glows fro111 the he attempted to consult was the Chafetz Chaim. Push­ distance like freshly fallen snOlV. Franz the eyes, ing his way into the Schreiber home, Landau looked gloivs an entire world of wisdom and goodness . ... around and gave up on any hopes of a private audience; This is holv I i1nagine Hillel the Elder rnust the house was mobbed. Still, it was a rare privilege to have appeared. spend son1e time in the same room as the Chofetz

The Jewish Ohseri·er /January, 1974 21 Chaim, in close enough proximity to hear him talk. It His meal over, the Chafetz Chaim began talking, was an opportunity afforded few spectators at the making the apparently random remarks and comments Knessia Gedola in the pre-microphone era when the that always brought people flocking to him. He always old sage's remarks could never be heard beyond the concluded his meal with a Torah thought before first few rows. So Landau stood and waited. Birchas Ilamazon. "A ch tov vochessed yirdefuni kol yemei chayai­ Only goodness and kindness shall pursue me all the days of my life. A remarkable thing! People sometimes suffer for performing deeds of goodness and kindness. The truth is that every human being suffers some sort of tribulations in life. And if he must suffer, it is far better to suffer for good deeds than for evil ones. That is what King David meant: if I must be 'pursued' in my lifetime, then please, G-d, let it be for deeds of good­ ness and kindness!" Abraham Pinchas Landau trembled. "How could he know what I wanted to ask him? He was talking to me!" Did the Chofetz Chaim know? Perhaps not. But he was talking to Abraham Pinchas Landau. And to hundreds of thousands of others. As he always did. "· .• how Hillel the Elder must have appeared." As the whole world learned in Vienna. D

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22 The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 postures seem to provide endless delight to school Aaron Hish children waiting at their bus-stops. When he gleefully raises one of the tots, places him astride the mountain of bags and "blasts off" down the block, a spontaneous chorus of song peals forth from the other children: "Yismechu hashamayim vesagail hdaretz," and the Mechel crescendo reverberates off the brownstones of my island sanctuary. * * * * * MECHEL HAS his own language-a collection of notes The of varying pitches-yet everybody seems to under­ stand him. When he distributes candy to the children he knows from grocery visits, the loving glint in his eye needs no words for amplification. When he bends Provider down so that the children may feel his bulging arm muscles (with the tatooed concentration camp number prominently showing), and he ughs and ahs to them, they fully understand. And when they ask him THE CREAKING of the wheels makes ruin of my pleadingly-"Gib mir a ride" and he delivers, the sleep every morning. Try as I might to slip back smiles on their faces need no expressive words. into my twilight zone, the sandpaper rasping of the His delivery knock on the door strains the hinges, delivery cart thrusts rne into the real world. and echoes fusillade-like throughout the house. Yet, As reliable as clockwork, the annoying squeaks housewives don't cringe in fear, but rush to open never fail to reach me in the stillness of the dawn. for the door to the overladen courrier and offer him a Mechel, the delivery boy, has set out on his appointed fresh kichel or a piece of haimishe challah. The beat rounds with bags of groceries for the sleepy natives on the door is totally his own and no balleboste of my island paradise-Williamsburgh. (Yes, it is an hesitates to answer. island of calm and cordiality in a harsh and turbulent city.) Stumbling to the window, I catch sight of the MECHEL TS A MUTE. He has not said a word for the delive1y cart, really an oversized tricycle supporting last thirty years- since that day in the concentration an odd tin-enclosed wooden box. The wagon lists to camp when the Gauleiter ordered him to speak up one side, while Mechel is supporting the overloaded and tell who had "stolen" a bit of food to give life end with grunts and muscle strain .... Axle squeals, paroxysms, and labored muscle wheezing are a poor ISRAEL accompaniment to my half-lidded recitation of Burials and American Disinterments "modeh ani." But all is forgiven, because "Mechel P'!l!!':o'!l!W the provider" is the source of the cacophony. M~':ow is privileged to announce that RIVERSIDE is the only Mechel gnards his covered wagon jealously. licensed funeral director in the U.S. able to effect Rain or shine, he inspects the silver-hued exterior for Transfer to Israel within 24 hours hairline fissures, as if it were his orbital capsule; the RIVERSIDE also is available as the Sole agent for Sanhadrea Cemetery thoroughness of this daily ceremony shames the HAR HAZEITIM • HAR HAMENUCHOT count-down procedures of space program engineers. AND ALL CEMETERIES IN ISRAEL After completing his inspection, he drops bags of RIVERSIDE only can offer this service: groceries into its interiors as if it were a safe deposit Enroute to Israel within 24 hours vault needing no further safeguards. He then climbs • Strict adherence to Halacha and Minhagim. • Arranµ:ements made during lifetime with no obligation. aboard, his egg-shaped figure perched on the seat of Chapel secured in any community. the tricycle; to watch him pedal his overloaded pyramid away is to marvel at the miracle of the wheel. RIVERSIDE As the morning continues, Mechel becomes the Memorial Chapel, Inc. • Funeral Directors star in a scene borrowed from the Pied-Piper. MANHATTAN: 76th St at Amsterdam Ave. - EN 2-6600. Children are attracted to the unnatural sounds BROOKLYN: Ocean P'way at Prospect Parle - UL 4-2000 emanating from his barrel-chest and are transfixed BRONX: Grand Councourse at 179th Street - LU 3-6300 WESTCHESTER: 21 West Broad Street, Mt. Vernon by his balancing act. His gestures and Atlas-like [914) MO 4·6800 FAR ROCKAWAY: 1250 Central Avenue · FA 7-7100 Ch•pel• ;, MIAMI ood MIAMI BEACH - JE 1-1151 AARON I:l1sH delighted Jo readers with his "Bus Lines" in SOLOMON SHOULSON ANDREW FIER the Feb. '71 JO.

The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 23 to the starving. Mechel chose not to speak, and he has none ... people who now enjoy economic after the beatings he sustained, he could not had he success and security, while he has his delivery cart. wanted to. The adults who knew him from that epoch * * * * * speak about him in hushed tones of reverence and THE TURNING wheels grate away with the dawn, listen today to his every grunt as if it were wisdom and my .initial annoyance never fails to turn into eternal. The new generation, unknowing of the past, solace: Mechel is still providing for his people, when intuitively accepts him, admires him, and hails his some others have forgotten too quickly. [] present feats as if reflecting some pa.st heroism. And Mechel continues bringing food-food for his people ... people who now have new families where 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

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From the Chanukah issue of HA­ It has been astutely observed that York Public Library, Fifth SULAM, student publication of Rika the meaningful passages in the New Avenue and 42nd Street ... Breuer Teachers Seminary. Testament were retained from the Entitled "Thy Neighbor As Torah; not the least notable, "Love Thyself." "What do you do Friday Thy Neighbor as Thyself" ( V ayikra The title of the exhibition 19:18). night?" is based on a quotation "We sit together, eyes shine, When uncertain of the true from the Bible's book of sources of an interesting quotation, Leviticus, "Thou shalt love faces are bright, zemiros whom should one consult? thy neighbor as thyself' resound through the house. (Lev. 19:18) which stands -a Jewish University? -What do you do Friday at the center of the Bible's night?" The Tel Aviv University ethical teaching. Quarterly Review (Summer "Watch T.V. - I wouldn't Now, if Tel Aviv only knew what '73) recently featured - New York knows. . . . D miss 'The Brady Bunch' for "A Spiritual Awakening," anything." an interview with Astronaut James Irwin, in which the And so begins a Shabbos - a Have you seen the exciting following question was new book? warm supper, a warmer reception. posed to him: Shu] Shabbos morning, a Kiddush, If you were to fly to a V'SHEE-NON-TOM singing - slightly choppy, Shabbos by RABBI ELIAS SCHWARTZ heavenly body 1-vhere crea­ For each Sedra, V'SHEE-NON-TOM group, sholosh scudos, singing - tures resembling earthmen brings you: a story (with a moral) I two Torah thoughts / together. full, warmer, - benching live but are in a primitive explains one mitzvah. -havdalah-a light shining through state, would you try to Ideal for Clranulcalr, Bar Mitzvalr. teach them the Ten Com- Graduation, or New Home the dark, the darkness of golus, of Tune the times into Torah ideals - 1nandments and the "Love emptiness, sports hour together, a "The variety and impressiveness of ma~ thy neighbor as thyself te,;a/ ••. make it most valuable in com~ 1nelava dcn1alka-dancing, singing municafing basic Torah ideas and ideals." doctrine of Jesus"? -Jewish Observer -together-one voice - l"~N~ '.lN -a N. Y. Public Library? "A wonderful source of material for all c~7tv cl1~NJ-a last breakfast. occasions. Perfect Bar Mitzvah ••• hosM pifa/ify gift." -Torah Umesorah The New York Public Principals Newsletter "Well, we hope you had a Library NEWS (Nov. 9, Discuss Y'SHEE-NON-TOM at the nice tbne.-What are you 1973) - Major Exhibit Shabbos table and raise the Kedusha of your Shabbos. going to do next Friday Opens at The New York Public Library: Mail your check for $6.95 to: night?" RABBI ELIAS SCHWARTZ " ... cry . . ?" D Rare books and manu­ 2109 S3rd Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 11214 scripts in Hebrew dating Send V'SHEE-NON·TOM to, from the thirteenth century Name .... J.E.P.-Jewish Education Program to the present are featured * Address ... the Kiruv Rechokini Reach-Our Program in the new Jetvish Division sponsored by Zeirei Agudath Israel. exhibition at The New ...... Zip....

Thr Jewish Obseri'er /January, 1974 25 AMERICAN JEWISH CONGRESS: ''Friend of the Court" or Friend of Yeshivos?

I. News from American Jewish II. News from American Jewish III. COMMENT Congress-Sunday, Dec. 9 Congress-Sunday, Dec. 23 Some people may wonder why US SUPREME COURT IS ASKED An historic "first" was achieved the AJC seems to be patting the TO BAR TEACHERS PAID in the American Jewish community non-public school child on the back WITH FEDERAL FUNDS FROM last week when some 50 leading with one hand while apparently WORKING IN PAROCHIAL Jewish educators representing Or­ stabbing him in the back with the SCHOOLS thodox, Conservative, Reform and other. Some may call it transparent Seven national Jewish organiza­ secular Jewish studies sat down at a duplicity. Others will defend it as tions have filed a brief in the U.S. common table and agreed to work two aspects of one unified policy: Supreme Court argning that teach­ together toward the goal of giving AJC has always maintained that ers paid with Federal funds may every Jewish child in the United its court battles against government not be sent into parochial schools, States a Jewish education - and support to yeshivos are based on its even to teach non-sectarian subjects. finding the funds to do it with. concern over the Constitution's The group asserted in an amicus protective barriers between State The occasion was a conference curiae brief in Wheeler v. Barrera and religion-in effect protecting -a Missouri case-that school aid on "The Future of Jewish Educa­ tion in America," sponsored by the both government from the stamp of programs under Title I of the Fed­ an official religion, and religious American Jewish Congress. eral Elementary and Secondary schools from excessive government Education Act of 1965 violate the Taking part in the conference entanglement. The yeshivos and Constitution if they are conducted were spokesmen representing the their spokesmen have been crying on the premises of sectarian schools. broad spectrum of Jewish education out that the AJC is in effect killing The brief was filed by the Ameri­ in the U .S.-including Torah Ume­ the yeshiva movement with its pro­ can Jewish Congress, Anti-Defama­ sorah, the Jewish day school move­ tective concern, cutting off millions tion League of B'nai B'rith, Jewish ment that has increased its student of dollars of government funding; Labor Committee, Jewish War enrollment from 7,000 to 81,000 and the AJ C has responded with a Veterans, National Council of since the end of World War II, and reassurance that all avenues of com­ Jewish Women, Union of American the American Association for munity support would, of course, be Hebrew Congregations and United Jewish Education, a nationa1 coor­ intensified, after the court battles Synagogue of America. dinating body that provides services are over. The case concerns implementa­ and materials for all forms of Jewish Through the years, the AJC has tion of a portion of Title I of the education through local boards of been travelling a super-highway to Federal Elementary and Secondary Jewish education across the country. courts all over the country (the Education Act of 1965 which aids landmark June 25 PEARL v. NY­ "educationally deprived children." When the conference was over, the participants had agreed to form QUIST decision cutting off millions The Jewish organizations asserted of dollars from yeshivos and yeshiva that the program under review is a working committee to explore and recommend measures to: parents was of N.Y. genesis; the available to the [non-public school] current WHEELER v. BARRERA children in the public schools. ( 1) Adequately finance all is a Missouri case), unhesitatingly forms of Jewish education, and expending appreciable sums of ( 2) Increase enrollment in all money on its efforts (of the five forms of Jewish education through lawyers associated with the a1nicus brief, three are AJC men). The end persuasion and-where necessary­ simply does not seem to be in direct tuition subsidies. sight-at least as long as yeshivos When such specific proposals are accrue some kind of dollar benefit readied and budgetary requirements from government. And in the mean­ estimated, they will be hrought to time, except for an occasional flurry the funding arms of the Jewish com­ of gestures of concern, the AJC has munity in a concerted effort to not even cut a path to help Torah obtain the necessary 1nonies. institutions in their financial crises.

26 The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 This time, it seems that the AJC make-up more closely approximates was not willing to rely on its post­ Federation's. il"!l script of "To be sure, the commun­ As long as AJ Congress continues GRAND OPENING ity must intensify its support ..."; to make the major item on its MOSES GLATT KOSHER it has even convened a conference agenda the initiation of court cases SELF-SERVICE MEAT & to discuss finances and subsidies. aimed at depriving yeshiva children POULTRY CENTER Corp. The representatives of the educa­ of most elementary needs-remedial Under Strict Rabbinical Supervision of tion community, ranging as they did reading teachers, in this case-and Rabbi Ch·aim Koenig of Yoka from Torah Umesorah to a Reform docs absolutely nothing substantial SHOP US FOR: delegation, could agree on very, to replace the subsequent loss of Finest Quality of Meats very little; but they did find com­ funds, it can fool no one with its Pou/try & Provisions pious pronouncements and pom­ Best Service • Reasonable Prices mon voice on this point: monies are High Standard of Kashrufh desperately needed! pous gestures of concern. And our sense of outrage and 4602 • 18th AVE. cor. 46th ST. If this conference was indeed our cry of "betrayal" can in no way more than distracting window­ )1~ nmtv;i i~; i~1'l1M be muted. 0 dressing for intensified AJC anti­ ~"'111' '"'t;e'" C"'"'M ,.,M yeshiva activity, what kind of action N"S't 'S7i'1'9' i'"i.'1 ~,,,, 1v!lN will grow from its press-released Weddings· Bar· Mitzvahs i)i~)i?)i'.l: 11N iN~t;)NO i~J resolutions? Does AJC really expect US.A./ lsraei t;)'.l:'J)i ~ li)i11 ii1t;)'Mt!I to turn Federations around? It is MOSES !formerly of 13 Ave.I common knowledge that the AJ Congress has little standing and no Vie accept phone orders imput with the Federation Estab­ Te/. 633-0493 - Free Delivery lishment. The latter is composed of Special Attention to Freezer Orders old-time, monied families who view PHOT::;1;~1 111111111 the AJ Congress-a lawyer domi­ ZELMAN STUDIOS nated group-with suspicion and 623 CORTELYOU ROAD i1 '1 !:l i1 (Off OCEAl\I PKWY) perhaps a bit of distrust. The Con­ BROOKLYN. N.Y. 11218 call gress knows well that the Federation EV. 7-1750 is guided more by the advice and )i"i!l i~El prejudices of Bnai Brith and the AJ Committee, whose membership (212) 941-5500 l)it!lli'Oi'~ '0J)it!llii'1~)i

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The Jewish Observer/ January. 1974 27 most abstract ideas and the need to Why Study Jewish History? put them into practice. In Judaism, as in the kibbutz, there is no idea The following essay is written by Y ARIV BEN-AHARON, without deeds, just as in both of member of Kibbutz Givat Haim (Me'uhad), teacher in the them there is no motivation to im­ Maagan Michael Regional School, novelist ("Hakrav"), and son plement and fulfill without the idea, of former Histadrut Secretary-General Yitzhak Ben-Aharon. without faith. THE SEVERANCE of the kibbutz from LEARNING JEWISH HISTORY is for will remain here, will be left stand­ the classical Jewish sources turns us a journey into self-understanding, ing in the now, will not add a single the kibbutz into a petit bourgeois, into crystallization of our own iden­ stone to the structure of our life conservative, materialistic, shallow­ tity. It is very difficult for a Jew to and will remain stranded in empti­ rooted society steeped in alien fads. confront other cultures without ness. Our entire spiritual edifice, It is precisely the kibbutz that needs having a point of departure of his our spiritual components are the the Jewish soul and the authentic own: his cultural identity and his residue of the creativity of earlier values latent in it of human dignity national and spiritual uniqueness. generations. We are the continua­ and equality; of faith in the redemp­ Confronting what other nations tion, but we are also a beginning for tion of the individual, the Jewish have created without one's Jewish things to come. people and all humanity; of a festival infrastructure is apt to lead to self­ THERE IS NO HUMAN LIFE without culture; of the values of labor and dismissal. faith. The kibbutz came into being fulfillment; of readiness to sacrifice One n1ay ask what the hnportance out of faith. When there is no link something for one's faith-not only is of self-understanding, why one to the sources, something irreplace­ in war but in every-day life as well. ought to give preference to the study able is lost. To be cut off from the sources is of Judaism over Buddhism or Islam Life without faith is an illness. to be without roots. A tree without or over ancient Canaanite culture. Faith is the way Man links himself roots cannot stand-this is the kib­ The answer is that to understand to what is beyond the here-and­ butz today, especially of the young­ ourselves means to know the truth now, beyond the immediate, beyond er kibbutz generations that have not about our identity and to under­ himself-to the eternal. Especially, been given this foundation of the stand the meaning of our existence. in our case, as the problems of our classical Jewish sources. And the The truth of our Jewishness is a existence stem from our Jewishness, prob1em is not a matter of changing historical truth involving our affinity from the fact that we live in this the school curriculum. It concerns to this land, our spiritual roots, and land. the whole spiritual world of every our affinity to the generations that We cannot explain and under­ kibbutz member-pupil, graduate, preceded us in the chain of Jewish stand the kibbutz by means of some and adult. It is not a matter of add­ history. imported theory or socio-economic ing a chapter to a textbook; it is a There is a danger that those concept. An important aspect of matter of a whole spiritual world; it beginning with the here-and-now Judaism is the affinity between the is the essence of life. It is the content of our lives. There is no need, and it isn't sce1nly, to evade the issue. I DON'T THINK THERE is any need to "bring near to Judaism." Judaism is inside us, in the real problematic of our life; otherwise, our life is taken over by the here-and-now, by "I feel like" or "I'm not in the

The newly remodeled ond mood," by the golden and silver refurbiUted i'-.PERION offen the calves, by the cult of the machine lu11:uriovs Glott Kosher focilities and the cult of the entertainment with such ete<;iant new tou<:he. "''' PRUZANSKY BROTHERS SEPA•A-Tf announce a policy of and sports stars and the more primi­ SMOltGASIOltD ROOMS tive forms of idolatry, by every wind bPeN CHUPAH ROOIW!. of imitation and every passing •ith Bridal Silouhelt. SPECIAL CATERIN6 RATES Dome Canopy throughout the year . .. fashion. Just com,,r.tff' ... with part/cu/arty modtr1tt package deals. The matter of our confrontation the aff new Lnpt,.. IMm with the modern world is a serious problem. We have to come to this

28 The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 One must cope with the creativity of millennia. It is one thing to i11lVi1l T1Vi1 be 18 years old, quite another to be 4,000. (THE STRENGTH AND THE HUMILITY) confrontation as Jews; the confron­ made him." The Midrash has it that tation is a fruitful one. Judaism has all disasters have come on people Stiff as a pillar of stone had many confrontations with other when they became fat and sated, soft as a fold of silk philosophies, religious faiths and and "kicked," and then neglected to cultures without them destroying, stop and think where they were When do I bend assimilating or swallowing her. heading, forgot to Jive by their con­ Where should I sway These were fruitful confrontations, science. For myself-I was pushed which took place when the Jewish to stop and clarify things by the When don't I budge nucleus of our being was full of personal quandary I found myself in or stray vitality. as a result of the Six Day War and or 1nove WHAT ARE THE OBLlGATIONS that the War of Attrition. How do I balance this Also by the wateland that kibbutz arise from the deep awareness that see-saw of the soul possesses a person when he grasps life had become, and the collapse that he is a Jew? Maybe our flight of a world of socialism that had that these two opposites from the classical Jewish sources been built without any Jewish should not oppose stems partly from the fear of cop­ foundation. The One Today, after having delved deep ing with criteria which will be who made softness and stiffness Uifficult for us to withstand because. into the classical Jewish sources, I in a nun1bcr of matters, we have find it possible to be a better, pro­ of the pillar of stone sunk below the human and cultural founder socialist. Jn Judaism there and a piece of silk achievements of the Jewish people is a more radical dealing with social in certain bygone periods. Perhaps problems, the problem of equality, For the One interpersonal relations. AH of Jew­ we are afraid to n1easure ourselves who made both ish culture and faith is a titanic by any criteria at all. ... Perhaps wants both we find it more convenient to live in effort to strive for the redemption the here-and-now so as not to have of the world by perfecting and to be beautifully blended to 1neasure ourselves by any deepening the relations between into criterion. people on the basis of the belief that a pillar of silk all people are created in the image Coping n1eans coping with the -YosEF LEIB SOLOMON creativity of 1nillennia, with a des­ of G-d. D tiny. with a burden. It means cop­ From THE .JERUSALEM POST WEEKLY. YOSF.IF LEIB SOLOMON'S poetry has ap­ December 25. Translated and abridged ing with a legacy, facing up to it. peared in previous issues of the JO under It is one thing to be 18 years old, by MOSHE KOHN. the nom de plun1e Leib hen l\.fordechai. and quite another to be 4,000 years o1d. A young person becoming a THERE'S AN ENERGY CRISIS IN JEWISH LIFE! member of a kibbutz-is that all he is: J 8 years old? Is his personal We need your input fo increase our output in representing the needs of Torah Yiddishkeit. biography all that he possesses? Or is there some legacy summoning Latch on to the pipeline of responsible activism by paying your him, speaking to him, able to give national membership dues of $15 for the current year 5734. him a push and also some joy? It It is only $15 in money, but this symbol of your direct kinship with the may be that he ought to rebel ideals of Agudath Israel is priceless. It is your way of saying: "Yes, I'm against it, or it 1nay be that he with Gedolei Torah in this battle for Torah!" ought to carry it on, but one thing is certain: he has to relate to it, AGUDATH ISRAEL OF AMERICA establish contact with it. 5 Beekman Street, New York, N. Y. 10038 I wunt to become a partner in Agudath Israel's activities. Enclosed please It may be that we are so well off find my check of $!5 for national membership for 5734. 1nateriaHy and so complacent spirit­ NAME ually that we are not bothered at all, as we read in Deuteronomy 32: 15: ADDRESS ... "And Yeshurun waxed fat and CITY ..STATE .. ZIP kicked, and forsook the G-d Who --- - l

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The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 31 THE WORLD FAMOUS Letters to the Editor DIGEST OF MEFORSHIM 'P1j;:>7 1l'1J 'P1j;:>7 1?11 St i:;ti1?N 7Ni?JiV '1 l"i11ii?J Available af LEKUTEI INC. c / o I. Rosen berg 10 West 47th Street, Room 702 New York, N. Y. 10036 20 Volumes on Torah, Perek, Medrash, Megilas and Talmud. Proceeds of sales distributed among Part11ership For Progress Questions Book Review Yeshivas and used for reprinting in Argentina of volumes out-of-print To the Editor: PRICE $5 PER VOLUME To the Editor: The book review in the September I just read "Report From Argen­ 1973 edition of The Jewish Obser­ KARKA IN ISRAEL tina" in the October JO. ver truly amazed me. It was my Take advantage of the opportunity unfortunate experience to have to purchase cemetery plots in A country that has so much po­ tential, but remains undeveloped bought and read The Inescapable Eretz Yisroel in Mifgash Shimshon Truth by Rabbi Eli J. Gottlieb in near Yerushalayim through our because of lack of funds, certainly the hope that it would answer, as newly established deserves our support as much as CHEVRAH OSEH CHESED any other country. stated in the forward to the· book, some of the regularly recurring OF AGUDATH ISRAEL Of course, now all our money is Membership in the Chevra en­ questions concerning Judaism and titles one to all benefits which going to Eretz Yisroel because of which I could assign to some of accompany the services of a the war and it would probably be my students. Instead, I found some Chevra Kadisha and interment. hard to get people to contribute to of his theories such as that of "posi­ When you purchase a plot from Jews in Argentina, but shouldn't tive doubt" to be at best nonsense the Chevra Oseh Chesed of Agu­ some effort on a national scale be and at worst heresy. dath Israel, you are supporting the n1ade? many Agudist activities especially The author writes in a high­ Thank you for printing the article handed manner, as though a present the Pirchei and Bnos activities as and drawing our attention to a well as a Free Loan Fund in Israel. day prophet who has just been For an application and information cal!: country that we do not usually think endowed from on High with all the !2121 964-1620 of as possessing so large a Jewisb wisdom of the universe. He also LEO GARTENBERG, President population. seems to feel that his audience is IRVING SCHONBRUN, Vice ?res. A READER ALEXANDER STEINBERG, Treasurer composed of five year olds who arc PESACH DOVID SCHONFELD, Seo'y Brooklyn, N. Y. eagerly waiting to soak up the pearls of wisdom which he has been gracious enough to permit us to hear. The entire book is riddled ·DISTINGUISHED WEDDING BEGINS WlTH with erroneous and inaccurate ITS INVITATION, arguments which are in the main THE SPECIAL MARRIAGE BEGINS WlTH incoherent and pointless. ITS KETHllBA ... How such a book even rated re­ view in The Jewish Observer is beyond comprehension. lf one is You are cordially invited to a private viewing Rembrandt Associates exclusive line of Wedding interested, there are far better books Invitations and Kethubahs for the discriminating-at in this field than The Inescapable very moderate costs. Truth. 'RABBI Tzv1 BERMAN Rembrandt Associates-creators designers and print· Brooklyn, New York ers of the scroll, tassle, photomontage and other fine invitations. REJOICE 0 YOUTH! by AVIGDOR MILLER Duk Engelh.irdt Shimit> Silv('r by .ippointment only (212) 532-0300 Rembrandt Associates Advertising ltd. 49 West 27 Street, N.Y.C 10001 384 PAGES • $6.50

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32 The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 LETTERS CONTINUED

RABBI JOZEF KATZ AND MARK LOVTNGER Rising Above 83 Division Avenue Brooklyn, N. Y. 11211 "Goins" Limitations OF To the Editor: A comment on Rabbi M. Fried­ man's fine article in JO:October. He says "In Jewish 1ife, the incom­ ALL LEADING HOTELS BANQUET HALLS patability of the private and social se1fs is a consequence of golus ...." AND JE\VISH CENTERS AVAILABLE Perhaps, the M eshech Chachmah (Reb Meir Simcha of Dvinsk) anti­ itu::i lH!':>~ cipated this social dilemma. The Hagaddah tells us that it is incum­ 388-4204 388-3590 863-8892 bent upon every individual Jew to Caterer for Agudath Israel Conventions and Dinners • " ... see himself as if he went out of • Egypt." On that, the Meshech Chachmah comments that man is being asked not to maintain a "go/us mentality." That is to say, that each THE LONDON Jew must be able to find an outlet for his social self within the collec­ tive unconscious of the Jewish Na­ JEWISH TRIBUNE tion and within the world that he is part of-regardless of whether or requires an energetic reporter based in New York not he lives in a go/us. to send regular articles and news reports. MOSHE SPERO Cleveland Heights, Ohio Please apply to: The Editor, JEWISH TRIBUNE 97 Stamford Hill, London N. 16. England giving full details of experience.

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The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 ]] A Comprehensive List of /udaica from BIOGRAPHIES Jewish Leaders PHILIPP FELDHEIM, INC. edited by Rabbi L. Jung. $7.50 BOOKS BY RABBI SAMSON BOOKS ON ETHICS AND Men of the Spirit RAPHAEL HIRSCH PHILOSOPHY edited by Rabbi L. Jung. $9.50 Commentary on the Torah Duties of the Heart by Rabbi l)r. J. Brelll'r. An abridged Chovoth Halevavoth HISTORICAL NOVELS version of S. R. Hirsch's commentary to by R. Bachya ibn Paquda. Hebrew Text Bereshith. 17 4 Pages $4.00 with English translation by Moses l/yam­ The Family y Aguilar The Psalms son. 2 vols. 800 Pages $17 .50 by Rabbi Dr. Marcus Lehmann. Spanish Jewry under the Inquisition. Adapted by Hebrew Text and English translation Mishne Torah by Maimonides Jacob Breuer...... 288 Pages $4.50 with the commentary by Hirsch. Two Volumes. 1,038 Pages $21.50 Sefer Madoh and Ahava Hebrew Text with English translation by The Light From the West The Hirsch Siddur Moses llyt11nson. 2 vols. by Selig Schachnowitz. The life of Rabbi '[he order of prayers for the whole year 684 Pages $17.50 Moses Sofer (Chasam Sofer). with translation and commentary. Small The Gates of Repentance 280 Pages $4.50 popular edition, complete. Akiba 760 Pages $4.50 Shaorei Teshuvah by Rabbeinu Yonah of Geronah. Trans­ by Rabbi Dr. Marcus Lehmann. The life Chapters of the Fathers lated into English by Shraga Silverstein. of Rabbi Akiba. 290 Pages $4.50 Rabbi Hirsch's translation and comn1cn­ 416 Pages $8.75 The Baal-Shem of Michelstadt tary on Pirkei Avoth. 120 Pages $3.50 The p,ath of the Just by Judeus. $4.50 Timeless Torah Messilath Yesharim Tales of Faith An anthology of the writings of Hirsch­ by R. Moshe Chairn Luzatto. Hebrew by Sofornon Alter Halpern. Twenty-six edited by Jacob Breuer. vocalized text with English translation stories. Second revised edition. 540 Pages $9.75 hy Shraga Silverstein. 352 Pages $7 .75 216 Pages $4.50 Fundamentals of Judaism To Turn the Many to A selection of Hirsch's writing and a The Golden Shoes variety of articles by representatives of Righteousness - Mezake And Other Stories the Hirschian school of thought. Edited Harabim by Gershon Kranzler. A collection of hy Jacob Breuer. 282 Pages $6.95 by Rabbi Joseph llunvitz of Nevaradok. stories for youngsters. The Nineteen Letters of Hebrew text with English translation Irv 196 Pages $4.50 Ben Uziel Shraga Silverstein. 102 Pages $2.00 Yoshko the Dumbbell New edition, edited hy Jacob Breuer. Ethics from Sinai 1\ story book by Dr. Gershon Kranzler. 152 Pages $4.50 commentary on Pirke A voth by Irving Seventeen stories of Jewish life after the "Torah-im-Derech·Eretz" M. Bunim. 3 vols. 1,034 Pages $25.00 holocaust. 136 Pages $3.95 An analysis of Hirsch's educational phi­ The Jewish Marriage losophy by Dr. Mordechai Breuer. Soft by Rabbi Dr. Joseph Breuer. BOOKS ON THE BIBLE cover. 60 Pages $1.75 68 Pages $2.50 The Golden Heritage Pentateuch BOOKS ON THE SIDDUR A 1'reasury of Jewish Thought by David M. Hausdorf. $6.95 with Rashi vocalized translated into Eng­ The World of Prayer lish with notes by Rev. M. Rosenbaum Translation and explanation by Rabbi The Jewish Adolescent and Dr. A. M. Silberman. 5 vols. Dr. Elie Munk. A Guide for Today's Girls by Uriel $25.00 Zbnn1er. $3.95 Vol. I The Daily Prayers 240 Pages $7.75 Eighteen Sidros Vol. II Sabbath, Festivals Judaism and Psychology & High Jiolidays 350 Pages $9.75 A theory of human nature within the Proverbs, Midrashim, Questions and Set of 2 Vols. $17.50 framework of traditional Judaism. bv Work Schemes, with separate Answer Rabbi Abram Anise/. $1.95 Booklet, by Rabbi I. Greenbaum. J11us~ Meditation on the Siddur trated. $2.75 !Introduction) lngathering by Rabbi B. S. Jacobson. A collection of Essays and Articles b-v Shir Hashirim - Song of Songs 185 Pages $5.50 Rabbi J. Nelrn1an. $3.75 by King Solomon The Weekly Siddur I Believe Hebrew text, English translation and Exposition and analysis of its structure, An exposition of MailnoniJes' Thirteen commentary by Rabbi Yitzchak I. Broch. contents, language and ideas by B. S. Principles of Faith, by Rabbi Moshe $4.50 Jacobson. 367 Pages $10.00 Ma.<. $4.95 Judaism, Thought and Legend Mother of Royalty I Ruth) BOOKS ON JEWISH LAW hy M. Meiseles $10.00 by Joshua Bachrach. $6.00 The Sabbath by Dayan I. Grunfeld. $3.50 Daughter of Israel PHILIPP FELDHEIM, Inc;. Taharath Bath Yisrael "The House of the Jewish Book" Hebrew text and English translation bv 96 EAST BROADWAY, NEW YORK, N. Y. 10002 Tel. WA 5-3180 Rabbi Kalman Kahane. $4.0b The Oral Law FELDHEIM PUBLISHERS, Ltd. The Rabbinic Contribution to Torah RECHOV TACHKEMONI 39, JERUSALEM, ISRAEL Tel. 56468 She'be-alpeh by Harry C. Schin1n1el. $6.00

14 The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 However unintentional, I think reason for him to change. I am snre Mr. Shapiro has slighted the kovod there would not have been a greater of these great people with his closing ideal for Reb Elehonon than to LETTERS CONTINUED sentences. become a Rabbi Akiva Eiger! Nor RABBI NAFTOLI H. BASCH do I believe that "a leading Rosh "Reh Elchonon" and Otl1ers Menahel, Mesivta Hayeshiva" would have said that Toras Emes Ka1nenitz Rabbi Akiva Eiger's way is not the To the Editor: Brooklyn, New York (right) way nor that Rabbi Akiva I am a regular reader of your Eiger's approach contrasted with mazagine and have always enjoyed Questions Authenticity of pshat. Chaim Shapiro's articles describing "Reh Elchonon" It seems unlikely that R. Meir European Life before World War II. Atlas 7"X! compared Reb Elehonon I was, however, extremely disturbed Dear Editor: to the R. Akiva Eiger. To my at the closing paragraph of his re­ Though Rabbi Chaim Shapiro's knowledge, there never has been cent article on Reb Elchonon 7"X!. article about Reb Elchonon Was­ another Reb Akiva Eiger. Mr. Shapiro states that "with his serman ?"~T was interesting, his passing, the era of great European statement regarding Reb Elehonon's It is also very unlikely that Reb Roshei Hayeshiva came to a close." method of learning and the change Elehonon changed his method in­ I do not mean to downgrade Reb are partially incorrect, missing stantly, upon hearing criticism of Elchonon's greatness, but even after common sense and logic. The defi­ a "leading Rosh-Hayeshiva" once. his passing, Kial Yisroel still had nition of pilpul: "to engage in One is rather inclined to come to Reb Isser ZaJman Meltzer, ?"lt:T, dazzling co1nparisons between far­ the following conclnsion: A unique, Reb Abron Kotler, 7"X!, the Brisker flung sources, differentiating and original way of learning is an out­ Rov, 7"X!, the Mirrer Rosh Yeshiva, then reconciling" is not exact. growth of one's personality and his ?"~r, all great "European" Roshei Neither is it true to say that this entire being. Whoever knew Reb Yeshiva through whose efforts was Rabbi Akiva Eiger's method. E!chonon's simplicity and heard the Torah was transplanted from Eu­ If Reb Meir Atlas saw a Rabbi Eiger simplicity of his Torah lectures, felt rope to Eretz Yisroel and America. in Reb Elehonon, there was no that they fit together harmoniously MESIVTA OF LONG BEACH 205 WEST BEECH STREET • LONG BEACH, N. Y. 11561 LIMITED REGISTRATION FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR 5735 <1974-75) Bechinos will be given at the Mesivta to prospective applicants, by appointment. APPLICANTS CAN ARRANGE TO SPEND A SHABBOS AT THE MESIVTA. SCHOLARSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE FOR QUALIFIED TALMIDIM. The Mesivta is recognized as one of America's leading yeshivas. It has the dual advantage of being an out-of-town yeshiva, yet being close to New York City. In addition to its High School Department, the Mesivta of long Beach includes a large, intensive full-time Bais Medrash, which has a powerful, positive influence on the r u a c h of the entire institution.

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The Jewish ()bserrer /January, 1974 35 and were in accord with each other. The "leading Rosh-Hayeshiva" must "One must report a story exactly as it took place, even if it defies have been a great educator, a close logic or co1nmon sense." and devoted teacher of Reb El­ chonon. He must have felt that Chaim Shapiro Replies: ited, arrested, and many thnes Reb Elchonon's way of study was misleading. artificial and not in accord with the In reply to Rabbi N. H. Basch: I am sure that not one reader simplicity of his personality, and Perhaps there is a contemporary believes that I personally witnessed therefore not genuine for him. counterpart to pleitas hakulmos (slip all the stories I write. How can one of the pen): pleitas hatypewriter. person be in all those places? True, The "leading Rosh-Hayeshiva" Rabbi Basch is right. I did not in must have had a tremendous and I do report many episodes from my any way intend to denigrate other vantage point as a witness, but constant influence to reform and re­ Roshei Yeshiva. Perhaps I can offer shape Reb Elchonon's way of think­ many took place before I was born. one excuse: I was speaking about (Could I have been present when ing, fitting to his personality and Europe, and Reb Elchonon was the therefore enabling him to develop Reb Elchonon was interviewed prior very last Rosh Yeshiva on the to becoming the son-in-law of the his own greatness, becoming "Reb continent. Elchonon." Gaon Reb Meir Atlas?) In general, As to Rabbi Tovia Lasdun's I write of incidents that I personally As to the story that the Rebbetzin letter, in which he states, "A writer witnessed, or that I heard or read cancelled her trip to the Chafetz of biographies can not only report from reputable sources. To be faith­ Chaim when Reb Elchonon wept, I stories, but must use his own judg­ ful to a story, one must report it strongly believe in fairness to the ment and fairness to all people in­ exactly the way it took place, based Chafetz Chaim that he never would volved," I must say, with all due on the way he heard it, without have voiced his opinion without respect, that I totally disagree. editing or polishing it, even if it discussing fully with Reb Elchonon Perhaps employing the criteria of defies his logic or common sense. all sides and listening to his feelings comn1on sense and logic is justified The very fact that a story occurred on a matter involving such a drastic when writing about secular people, in a peculiar way and not in another change in his life. but I would never dare resort to my simpler manner, gives the reader a A writer of biographies can not "Jogic" or my "common sense" candid picture of the environment only report stories, but must use \Vhcn writing about our Gedolei and personalities involved. his own judgment and fairness to Torah. I am sure that Rabbi Lasdun Since I do write mostly from all people involved. is fan1iliar with the A1ussar quip memory, I do not trust myself and TOV!A LASDlJN "Ha'adam chofshi b'dimyono, ve'as­ omit names when I am uncertain. New York, N. Y. sur bemus.kolo"-Our logic is lbn- For instance (if I remember cor- Mesivta Yeshiva Rah/Ji Chaim Berlin - Gur Aryeh Institute ANNUAL MELAVE MALKE in honor of RABBI SHMUEL HOCH at AGUDATH ISRAEL OF BORO PARK 4511 14th Avenue Brooklyn, N. Y. MOTZA'AI SHABBOS KODESH - PARSHAS ZOCHOR MARCH 2 9 P.M.

J6 The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 rectly), the one who advised Reb Elcbonon against pilpul was none Ramot-Polen-a new residential community in Jerusalem other than Reb Chaim Brisker, ?"i:T. But I was not certain, so I omitted the name. (Editor's note: In his introduction to his father's Kovetz He'aros, Reb Sitncha Wasserman writes: "In (Reb Elchonon's) preface to Me'­ asef Ohel Torah, he quotes the words of his rebbi, Hagaon Reb Chaim Brisker ?"i:r that: It is not our lot to be creative in our Torah study. Only Rishonim (circa 1000- 1500) were capable of this. Our task is simply to understand that which is already written.") Did Horav Atlas really compare the young Reb Elchonon to Reb Akiva Eiger? I was not there, but I did hear the anecdote, and I be­ lieve it took place as reported. Horav Atlas did not intend to di­ minish Reb Akiva Eiger's stature, In Ramot-a hi1Itop witl1 a breath­ iilevere hardships on newly-weds, olim and did not intend to compare Reb taking view of Jerusalem-the corner­ from abroad, and growing families. Elchonon to him, but he was ap­ stone of RAMOT-POJ_,EN will li"';T):t Both government circles and religious parently impressed by the young iilOOU be laid. groups have pledged financial support A self-contained community just to the RAMOT-POLEN development, man. Perhaps he was in the midst of ten minutes from Geulah-Central Je­ hut the bulk of the burden wilJ be studying a comment of Rcb Akiva rusa)ein, RAMOT-POLEN is slated to on the shoulders of those who will Eiger and thus mentioned that house 625 dwelling units plus sep­ c-lioose to live in the community, name. He could as well have refer­ arate buildings serving all of its own The public is invited to participate red to the Chasam Sofer, or Sha' agas communal needs: a large synagogue, in financing the construction of RA­ rnikvah, school, yeshiva, business sec­ MOT-POLEN. Your contribution of­ Aryeh. But the incident gives us a tion, cemetery, clinic, motel, and so fers you two benefits: I) a rare op­ picture of the young days of Reb on. portunity to perpetuate the sacred Elchonon and Reb Meir Atlas's The names of streets and walkways, memory of a person or place very opinion regarding him. buildings and corners of RAMOT-PO­ dear to you; and 2) a means of coming to the aid of people struggJing The story about the Rebbetzin LEN will all serve to perpetuate the sacred memories of outstanding per­ to earn a living, who arc in desperate going to complain to the Chofetz sonalities, towns, cities and institu­ need of housing. Chaim can be found in the introduc­ tions that distinguished pre-War Po­ The housing will accommodate tion to the Kovetz Shiyurim, written land as a throbbing center of Jewish young and old, sabras and children by Reb Elchonon's son Rabbi Sim­ life. Individual yeshivos or libraries of she'aris hapleita families whose may have enshrined some fragm.ents head is enrolled full-time in yeshivos cha Wasserman N"~';W'. Here again, of these memories hut never in these and soldiers returning from service. even if it "defies logic"-and Rabbi past thirty years sinee the tragic de· The more generous your support, Lasdun can choose not to believe it struction of Polish Jewry has any­ the more generous will RAMOT-PO­ -it certainly gives us an inside view thing been undertaken with the com­ I~EN's terms of occupancy and pur­ of the personalities involved. I for prehensiye scope of RAMOT-POLEN. chase be for its needy residents. For RAMOT-POLEN is designated to one believe it. Reb Elchonon was commemorate the wealth of Torah, RAMOT-POl.EN is being founded great enough without this episode, Cl1assidus, education, Ahavas Yisroel and constructed by Kupath Rebbe and so was his Rebbetzin, so their and Kiddush 1-lashem that was the Meir Baal Ilaness Cole/ Polen - a son had no reason to "invent" this halln1ark of Jewry of Poland. naiuc hallowed for centuries as the story. If one has need to invent The RAJ\10T-POLEN development first and oldest charily institution stories, he would tailor his creation has been greeted with acclaim by all founded by Polish Rebbes and Tzad- Gedo](~i Torah in Israel. as well as dikim-still engaged in significant to fit logic and reason. In addition, by important govern1nent figures, for charitable work for the needy of the Reb Simcha's story was corrobora­ lst·ael's housing crisis has imposed Holy Laud. ted by Rabbi Moshe Y oshor M"ti'7lll Ne1., York Address: in his well-known biography of the KUPATH RABBI lll:EIR BAAL HANESS COLEL POLEN Chafetz Chaim. D ll23 Broadway (Suite llll), N. Y. C. 10010 • Tel. (212) 691-1330

The Jewish Observer/ January, 1974 37 BNOS LEADERS CONVENTION REGISTRATION UNDERWAY FOR BORO PARK - NEW GROUP FORMED SENIOR CITIZENS CENTER HUNDREDS OF PERSONS over the age of Close to one hundred girls from all which is funded by the City of New sixty have registered in the first days York, will also have a special desk to over lJ .S. and Canada~some fro1n as far away a'> Los Angcles--gathered in since Agudath Israel of America an­ provide information and referral services Lakewood, N. J. on Shabbos, Parshas nounced that it is sponsoring a Senior on the nlany benefits available to senior V ayetzei, at the convention of key Citizens Center in Boro Park at 4511- citizens from government agencies and leaders of Bnos Agudath Israel. 'fhe 14th A venue, Brooklyn. Registration is social welfare departments. Every after­ gathering, headed by Pessie Gross, in full swing and is going on daily from noon a nutritious, warm kosher lunch Hadassa Sochaczewsky and Fraidy 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. will be served without cost. The facility is Steinwurzel was convened to evaluate According to Rabbi Menachem Lu­ staffed with experienced professionals past achievements of Bnos activities and binsky, director of the Boro Park Senior who are helped by numerous volunteers. to map out activities for the future. Citizens Center, this facility will pro­ The Boro Park Senior Citizens Center vide during the entire morning and after­ is one of several such facilities for the "fhe atmosphere of kedushas Shabbos noon hours a broad range of services to aged which will be established this winter that prevailed was punctuated by the aged, to make their life more n1ean­ by the Commission on Senior Citizens addresses from various Torah persona1i~ ingful and interesting. Daily programs, of Agudath Israel of America as part ties regarding the aims and ideologies supervised by experienced counselors will of the expansion program upon which of Bnos Augdath Israel. A dominant be conducted, including lectures, study the movement has embarked after having theme was the role Bnos leaders must groups, library, arts and crafts and other reached its first fifty years of community assume in bringing wayward Jewish projects custom-tailored to the needs service. The national headquarters are youth to a Torah life. The featured of the elderly. located at 5 Beekn1an Street, New York speakers were Rabbi Shmuel Blech, a The Boro Park Senior Citizens Center, City, 0 forn1er 1nember of Beth Medrash Gevoha Kollel, currently Rabbi of a Congrega­ ORTHODOX JEWS COPE WITH RELIGIOUS IMPACT tion in Lakewood; Rabbi Shaul Kagan, a OF DAYLIGHT SA YING TIME member of the Kollel of Beth Medrash AN ATTEJ\1PT LAUNCHED on Jan. 7 by at 8:00 A.M., this creates an anomalous Gevoha; and Rabbi Boruch Borchardt, Agudath Israel of America to help solve situation. In Detroit, where the sunrise advisor to Bnos Agudath Israel. Rabbi a religious problem arising from year­ this week is 9:01 A.M., the problem is Borchardt stressed that in today's highly round daylight saving time, has proven even more acute. trying times for Ani Yisroel, Bnos has successful. Over sixty professionals and For years, Agudath Israel succeeded constructive work to perform and is businessmen working in the downtown in convincing legislators to withdraw able to do it. Manhattan area assembled on Monday their proposals for year·round daylight In addition, the various committees of morning at 7:35 A.M. in Agudath Is­ saving time, by pointing out the difficulty tzedaka, TAP, bikur choliln, and other rael's conference room at 5 Beekman this would create for Orthodox Jews. Bnos activities concentrated on the Street, New York City, for the first In New York State, State Senator John practical ways of intensifying their work "daylight saving time emergency conM Marchi in 1969 and State Senator Roy in these fields, which are now in full gregation," which will meet every week Goodman in 1971 withdrew their bill; in swing of operation. day. Illinois, State Senator Henry A. Katz This "ad hoc" congregation in a dropped his proposal, and in 1972 A strong need was felt for affiliating business area is Agudath Israel's response Congressman Dan Rostenkowski with~ post-high school girls with the Bnos to a religious problem which has been drew his Federal bill. movement. Having graduated high the concern of Orthodox Jews for the When the energy crisis, compounded school, these girls find themselves in a past five years. As soon as legislators by the Arab nations' embargo on oil community vacuum, not belonging nor began to advocate year-round daylight shipments to the U.S.A., caused President utilizing their capabilities for the "forah saving time, Agudath Israel brought to Nixon to introduce year-round daylight tzibbur. To this end, "SENIOR BNOS" their attention how this would com­ saving time, however, the organization was formulated. Its membership will be plicate the lives of observant Jews, who decided to halt its opposition. Instead, informed on current Agudah activities would find it almost impossible to recite Agudath Israel issued a proclamation to taking place all over the world and their morning prayers in accordance Jews to organize "ad hoc congregations" general problems on the Jewish scene with halacha. in business sections during the months through press releases, magazines, and 1'he earliest that Orthodox Jews can of January and February, when the periodic seminars. begin their daily n1orning services is one problem is most acute. In this fashion, The festive ruach of Shabbos carried hour before sunrise, and some Jewish a person could immediately after prayers over far into the night at the Melave legal authorities maintain that prayers go to his place of business. Malka session, brimming with good cannot begin until 45 minutes before The enthusiasm of the participants in spirits, singing and guitar entertainment sunrise. When daylight saving time began the first such "daylight saving time con­ by Rochel (Jrund and Ella Rappaport, this week, the sun rose at 8:20 A.M., so gregation," which began on the morning drawing the convention to a dose. The that at the very earliest morning prayers. of Jan. 7, in the conference room of delegates parted, taking home with them which last at least half an hour, could Agudath Israel's national headquarters fresh resolve and renewed vigor to do not begin before 7: 20 A.M. For men in downtown 1\-fanhattan, indicates that their utmost for Kial Yisroel. \vho have to travel to be at their offices other areas will soon follow suit. D

38 Tile Je1vish Observer/ January, 1974 AGUDATH ISRAEL SHIPS TEFILLIN NEW RELIGIOUS PROGRAMS SPECIAL • FREE OF CHARGE TO ISRAELI SOLDIERS LAUNCHED FOR RUSSIAN IMMIGRANTS IN ISRAEL for Schools • Clubs • TRANSPORTS OF TEFILLIN are being sent Educational Groups regularly by Agudath Israel of America A SERIES OF NEW PROGRA1'1S, geared to to Israel for distrihution among soldiers the special circumstances which arose A LIBRARY OF on the front lines. out of the Yorn Kippur War, have been educational, entertaining, This project, which was launched at launched by the Russian Immigrant fascinating, colorful the organization's 51 st National Con­ Rescue Fund, the 1najor Orthodox Jewish vention in Atlantic City several weeks agency coping in the field of religious Audio-Visual Presentations ago, has now taken on national propor­ aid to these olin1. According to a report (Appx. 45 min. running time I tions. From all corners of the United issued by the chairman of the Israeli Photogroph·slides, with taped States, Jews and congregations are committee of the Russian Immigrant narration and music forwarding kosher te/illin to Agudath Rescue Fund, Mr. Meier David Lewen­ stein of Tel Aviv, these new projects • 50 Years of Agudath Israel in Israel's headquarters, to be given as gifts America (150 pictures) to soldiers in Israel's Defense Forces include increased home v1s1tations who have, in the wake of the Yorn "especially to families of olin1 that feel • 60 Years of the World Agudah Kippur War, decided to observe this lost because their breadwinner is away Movement (100 pictures) mitzvah. at the front." • 60 Years of .Ai:.,'11.dath Israel in The Jerusalem office of the Agudath Since its inception two years ago TEretz Yisroel (] 50 pictures) Israel World Organization has acknowl­ at a national convention of Agudath • A Day at F.ivc Beckman St.­ edged receipt of the initial transports, Israel of America, the Russian Immigrant 'fhe Act.ion CenlPr of An1erican which will continue as long as the need Rescue Fund has spenl millions of Israeli Orthodoxy (in prepa1·ation) exists. Because of the renewed interest pounds to provide Russian immigrants To reserve a showing, call (2121 in observing the rnitzvah of tefillin, it is in Israel with educational facilities and 964-1620 or write to Agudath Israel almost impossible to obtain them in religious programs for the children. of America - 5 Beekman Street, Israel, and the help of Jews the world­ youth centers, special synagogues and New York, N. Y, 10038. -0ver is necessary. 0 other spiritual requirements. A report just received from Israel describes some of these activities: Build­ 2,000 CHILDREN AT ings to achieve these aims were pur­ CHANUKAH FESTIVALS OF chased and equipped in Dimona, Bnei PIRCHE! AGUDATH ISRAEL Brak, Nazareth Eilit, and Nahariah. ') Additional grants for expanding facilities ...... Approximately 2,000 children par­ for the religious absorption of Russian Chevra Kadisha D'chasidim ticipated in two special Chanukah Festi­ i1nmigrants were given to institutions in Har Hamnuchot • £ret% Hachaim vals sponsored by Pirchei Agudath Israel, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Kiryat Atta. the youth movement of Agudath Israel Religious Ulpanim, specia1ly geared for Founded 1856 of America. One, which was held on the olin1 from Soviet Russia were opened BURIAL IN JERUSALEM Motza'ei Shabhos Kodesh, December 22, in Be'er Shcva, Bnei .Brak, c:haderah, AND ALL CEMETERrES IN ISRAEL 1973, was organized by the Boro Park Kiryat Atta and NatanyMontreal Tel.: 273-3211 were held in the auditorium of the This week a call wMoshe Feinstein, for the rabbinic spon­ As part of Pirchei Agudath Israel's sors, and Mr. Moses Braunstein for the expanding Kiruv Rechokin1 program, lay treasurers of the Funds of the Rus­ more than 100 children from irreligious sian Immigrant Rescue Fund, to help the WANTED backgrounds were invited to attend work of this agency and not allow the Tefillin for Israeli soldiers who've these programs to enable them to witness olbn to "succumb to the shattering ex­ how Orthodox Jews observe and cele­ perience of war tensions while accli­ suddenly realized they need pairs brate Chanukah. mating to their new life," The American of their own, - Contact Agudath At these Festivals, the children present office of the Russian Immigrant Rescue Israel / 5 Beekman St / N,Y.C, were imbued through speeches and songs Fund is located at 5 Beekman Street, 10038 / 12121 964-1620, with the true meaning of Chanukah. New York City.

The Jewish Observer I January, 1974 39 SHOW THAT YOU STILL CARE ... Despite Israel's imperiled situation, thousands of Russian Jews keep coming from behind the Iron Curtain: 4200 in October, 3500 in November. THE RUSSIAN IMMIGRANT RESCUE FUND has since its inception two years ago spent millions of Israeli pounds to provide these new o I i m with educational facilities and religious programs for the children, youth centers, special synagogues and other spiritual requirements. The beleaguered government of Israel is doing all that it can to provide their physical needs. For the most part they are traditionally religious Jews, who observe Yiddishkeit under impossible circumstances.

SINCE THE TRAGIC YOM KIPPUR WAR, THE RUSSIAN IMMIGRANT RESCUE FUND ADDED NEW PROGRAMS FOR THESE NEW "OUM." HOME VISITS HAVE BEEN INCREASED, ESPECIALLY TO THE FAMILIES THAT FEEL LOST BECAUSE THEIR BREADWINNER IS AWAY AT THE FRONT.

After fifty years of living under Communist tyranny, we dare not now, by our indifference or absorption with the military situation, allow them to succumb to the shattering experience of war tensions while acclimating to a new life. Show That You Still Care •.. and send your Emergency contribution for this spiritual life saving work today. The Russian lmmi9rant Rescue Fund is the major Orthodox Jewish a9ency I in this field, and it is endorsed by the foremost Torah scholars in the world. Further detailed infarmatian is available upan request.

MAX BERG, DR. E. L. BODENHEIMER, MOSHE BRAUNSTEIN - Treasurers r------1 I RUSSIAN IMMIGRANT RESCUE FUND 1 I 5 Beekman Street, New Yark, N. Y. 10038 : Enclosed is my contribution of $...... for your important work for I our Russian brothers in Israel, especially for the new programs during these days of crisis.

NAME......

ADDRESS ......

C ITY...... ST ATE ...... ZI P...... Contributions are income.tax deductible.