With our 11no-points, no-application-fee"• Home Equity Line of Credit.
You pay no points and no application fee, with a Greater Home ~ ;~: Equity account and the interest rate is adjusted each month at ~__,_) .,\.:.2), 1.75% above the Prime Rate as published in The Wall Street Journal. C:;::> ~ "''" Or if you prefer, your interest rate can be lower-just 1.5% above ~ the prime rate adjusted monthly, if you agree to pay a 1-point [1 %) origination fee. Still no application fee! Either of these Greater"Open Door" Home Equity Accounts lets you borrow up to 75% of the equity in your house or condominium. You get a low-cost line of credit, secured by a mortgage on your home, to use whenever you want, just by writing checks. And you only pay interest on the amount you actually borrow. For complete details, including tax advantages, visit any Greater branch, send the coupon, or call our Consumer Loan Department at 718-859-8884. r------The Greater New York Savings Bank 1 Consumer Loan Department 1550 Flotbush Ave. Brooklyn. NY 11210 I Please send me full information and an application for your "Open Door" Home Equity I line-of-credit. I NAME ADDRESS
I CITY STATE '" I TELEPHONE I EQUAL HOUS!NG I @ LENDER I THEG1EATE1 .. I licensed Mortgage B,1nker-NYS Boink1n9 Depdrtment ./ Q-7 j 8 7 _J
L------The Greater New York Savings Bank MEMBER FDIC Consumer Loan Department: 718·859-8884. In Brooklyn: Fifth Avenue. 9th and 10th Streets, 718·965-7500 •Church and McDonald Avenues. 718·435·4300 • 18th Avenue and East 2nd Street. 718-435-4100 •Seventh Avenue and President Street. 718-789-4100 •Boy Parkway and 67th Street. 718·837-8400 • 13th Avenue and 53rd Street. 718·436-9505 • Neptune Avenue and West 5th Street. 718-996-4100 • 1045 Flotbush Avenue at Duryea Place. 718-282-7500 • 1550 Flotbush Avenue at Nostrand Avenue. 718-859·5300. In Manhattan: Broadway and West ?9th Street. 212·873-3730. In Queens: Hillside Avenue at 179th Street. 718·291·3100. In Nassau: 222 Station Plaza North and 3rd Avenue, Mineola. 516-747-6100. Customer Service: 718-965-7526. © we11HtGREATERNEwYORKSAv1NGssANK THEOBSERVER
ON THE COVER: Opening of the trial of John Demjanjuk (seated in box on left) in Jerusalem, February 16, 1987. Demjanjuk was charged with torturing and gassing 850,000 Jews in Treblinka during World War 11. {Courtesy Associated Press)
5 Judgment In The Spotlight ... A Lesson in Midas Hadin THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) based on a lecture by Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe 0021-6615 is published monthly except July and August, by theAgu dath Israel of America, 84 William 11 Bungalow Judaism Street, New York, N.Y. !0038. Second based on a lecture by Rabbi Hillel David class postage paid at New York. N.Y. Subscription $18.00 per year: two 17 Israel's Yeshivos and The Zionist Loyalty Oath years, $30.00: three years. $40.00. Ezriel Toshavi Outside of the United States (US funds only) $10 surcharge per year. Single copy: $2.50: foreign: $3.00. 21 To Distinguish Between Light and Darkness Send address changes to The Jew Rabbi Simon Schwab ish Observer. 84 William St., N.Y., N.Y. 10038. Tel.: (2!2) 797-9000. Printed in the U.SA. 25 A Nation of Devourers David Schaps RABBI N!SSON WOLPIN. Edaoc 29 Tisha B'av, A Moed of Redemption Editorial Board Yissochor Dov Loriner DR. ERNST BODENHEIMER Clla1nnan 33 Books in Review: For Our Children RABB! JOSEPH ELIAS JOSEPH FRIEDENSON The ArtScroll Youth Hagaddah/The Ten Tests of Abraham/The RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN Mentchkins Make Shabbos/AHanukkiyah For Dina/My Special RABBI MOSHE SHERER Friend/The Gift That Grew/Huny, Friday is a Short Day/ Management Board Jerusalem Gems/Olomeinu Gems/The Fateful Mission/The NAFTOLI HIRSCH Parnas/The Story of Reb Yisrael Salanter/Search My Heart/ ISAAC KIRZNER Target 613 RABBI SHLOMO LESIN NACHUM STEIN 37 Siyum of the Mishna Yomis RABBI YOSEF C. GOLDING Michoel Robinson Business Mwwger
THE JEWISH 0BSER\1ER does not as 39 P.S. Brotherly Love and Shmittah sutne responsibility !Or the KashnJs of any product or service advertised in its pages. 40 "With and Without Comment" ©Copy.Tight 1987 41 But WhyTehillim Devora Kramer JUNE'87 VOL. XX, NO. 5 43 Letters to the Editor Write Your "L'Shana Tova" Message in the Box of Your Choosing. HELP...
••• TH~ISH BSERVER continue to bringjewish news & views from a Torah perspective to tens ofthou (A) $100 sands ofreaders each month.
Just write your ''L'Shana Tova" greeting in the box of your choosing (price indi (B) $50 cated in lower left-hand corner), detach form across dotted line, and mail the form with your tax deductible check today.
(C) $36 Your friends will see your Please enclose payment with your insertion, and mail to: greeting in our next issue, The Jewish Observer I 84 William Street New York, New York 10038 our Rosh Hashonah edition lam pleased to learn that my "Shana Tova" wishes in your ... and you will derive satis columns will help The Jewish Observer greet 5478 with a reduced deficit. faction that you helped us in Name ______Address ______our effort to bring the Torah Ciry, State, ZiP------ message to the English Payment E""losed D $100 D $50 D $36 D $25 speaking public.. . 0 Charge my credit card: 0 MasterCard 0 Visa Account No. DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Expiration date 00 (month) OD (year) and ... Thanks! Signature ______We are sorry, but due to high bank charges, all payments must be made in US dollars, drawn on a US bank. JUDGMENT IN THE SPOTLIGHT: A Lesson in Midas Had.in
he world may prefer to forget the suffering and torture inflicted on the Jews by the Nazis during World War II but at this writing, the daily newspaper headlines do not permit it to happen. While Klaus Barbie is being tried as the Butcher of Lyon, John Demjanjuk, the Beast of Treblinka, is standing trial in Jerusalem's Binyanei Hauma. The trial in Jerusalem, especially, has exerted a strong magnetic pull, drawing in spectators of all ages and backgrounds to relive the terror of the Treblinka experience, from which so few emerged alive; and a young generation is brought into stark confrontation with events it never witnessed, yet must never forget. As these trials prompt us to focus on that crucial era of unparalleled suffering, terror and death, we ask: what lessons should we derive from this direction of attention on events of almost half a century ago? Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe N""''~' one of the foremost Mussar figures of our time, author of several classic seforim, including Alei Shur, expresses his thoughts on this topic.
orty years after the event, we are again being them over, and G-d had delivered them!" This is literally forced to visualize all the dreadful experiences of what took place: Small numbers of members of the Third F the Nazi death camps and ghettos. We must Reich brought millions ofJews to the gas chambers, and understand that this is but a means for Divine Provi this could only have been possible because, " ... their dence to remind us that Midas HaDin-uncompromis Protector had given them over and G-d had delivered ingjustice-is an active force in the world. them"-Midas HaDin in its strongest form. Just exactly what is this attribute of Din? In Devmim At the Eichmann trial, a generation ago, witnesses (32:29 and 30 ), the Torah describes it: "If they were wise, were asked why no one resisted the Nazi murderers-a they would understand this, they would discern their ridiculous question that could only have been posed by destiny. How can one chase a thousand, and two put ten people who were not there. The diabolic inventiveness thousand to flight, if not that their Protector had given and obsessive devotion with which the Nazis virtually stripped their victims of their defenses is without paral This essay is based on a transcription in the Israel newspaper Yated Ne'eman of a Mussardiscourse delivered by Rabbi Wolbe in Yeshivas Mir in Jerusalem. lel in histozy. How were the murderers able to muster up Rabbi Wolbe had studied in the Mir Yeshiva in Europe until the outbreak of such reservoirs ofefficiency and cruelty? There can be no World War 11, when he escaped to Stockholm. Here he worked tirelessly to save explanation other than G-d's attribute of unyielding din. lives and to help survivors who found refuge in Sweden during and after the war. He decreed it thus, or they could never have so succeeded.
The Jewish Observer, Summer 1987 5 THE APPROACH CALLED "DIN" bid, he does not prove himself, no concessions are made. He must receive his punishment in this world or in the he Amara Rav describes how when Moshe as World-to-Come, since after all, the primary thought was cended to file Heavens to receive the Torah. he to establish the world on the basis of justice, and ulti T found G-d sitting and connecting crowns to the mately this remains a condition of creation. letters. Moshe said: "Master of the Universe, for whom do You do this?" Replied G-d, "There is one man that is destined to live THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND "DIN" many generations from now-Akiva, the son ofJoseph who will expound mounds of halachos on each point (of he Jewish Nation's special relationship with G-d the crowns)." is of such closeness that it demands of them a Said Moshe, "Show him to me." T higher awareness of Divine involvement in the Said G-d, "Step back." affairs of man. This should result in a more perfect level Moshe retreated and sat at the back of eight rows [of of conduct, much more in line with G-d's demands. Fail disciples listening to RabbiAkivaJ. He did not grasp what ure to maintain such perfection would result in swift and they were saying, and he lost his composure.At a specific exacting punishment. as is inherent to a relationship of point, his students asked Rabbi Aklva: "Rebbe, how do Midas HaDin. This is expressed by the Prophet: "Only you know this?" you have I known [an expression oflove-Rashil from all He responded: "It was passed on as a halacha to Moshe the families of the earth. therefore will I visit upon you all from Sinai." And Moshe was relieved. He returned before your sins" (Amos 3,2). That is. because I loved only you, G-d and asked, 'You have shown me his Torah, please and because I have chosen only youfrom amongst all show me his reward." the nations, I must respond to the dictates Qf justice, Said G-d: "Step back." which require that I visit all your sins upon you. Just as He retreated again and this time saw Ithe Romans I a mortal master is more demanding of the servants who selling Rabbi Aklva's flesh in the meat market. are constantly in his presence than he is of those who are Said Moshe to G-d: "Master of the Universe. this Is distant from him, so too does G-d deal more strictly with Torah and such is its reward?" His people, the Jewish Nation, employing Midas HaDin, Replied G-d: "Be still! This has risen in thought before demanding an almost faultless perfection from them. Me." (Menachos 29b) Thus do the People of Israel suffer more than all other G-d's final response to Moshe needs explanation. nations. Which "thought" is G-d referring to that can explain And yet, with all the pain one endures, there is a vast such suffering? benefit in beingdealt with in keeping with Midas HaDin. Sacred literature records that when G-d created the The result for the Jewish People has been that the nation world, He originally "thought" to govern it with Midas of Israel is eternal, for G-d exacts punishment on the HaDin-under a regime of strict justice. But He recog people of Israel as they sin, in a piecemeal fashion nized that the world would not be able to exist under so which is to their benefit. If He would wait for an appreci unyielding a governance, so G-d tempered justice with able amount of time before punishing Kial Yisroel, the mercy-rachamim G-d's response to Moshe, then, was impact of the accumulated weight of their evil would be that Rabbi Akiva was of so lofty a station that he would so devastating that they would suffer total annihilation not need the measure of mercy. He could be expected to l"n. The short-term approach means frequent, intense conform to G-d's original plan. suffering; but each occasion of chastising punishment is When governed by Midas HaDin, Man is constantly meant to goad JeWI}' to repentance, and serves to spare evaluated as to his merit. If found worthy. he will receive them total destruction. whatever G-d chooses to provide him with. But if found By contrast, other nations build empires of evil and unworthy. he must forfeit whatever would be in the appear to thrive and even achieve dominance, without offing; he may even be found unworthy of life itself. By suffering even minor setbacks. But eventually, after their contrast, a world governed by mercy always makes al quota of evil has been filled, so to speak, G-d removes allowances for man's failings. them from the world scene, without so much as a trace of This is not to say that now. in the post-Midas HaDin their once overwhelming glory. When is that point mode, G-d simply overlooks man's misdeeds. Rather, G-d reached? We can perhaps find an indication of this from governs the world with both justice and mercy. Initially, the Sefomo 's commen ts on the verse, "He visits th!' sin of man is granted life, its amenities and its joys, and con the fathers on their children" (Shemos 34,7): "[This tinues to enjoy them without deserving them. But such takes place I when a person Is so depraved that there is no allowances are granted with the expectation that ulti chance that he will change for the better-a stage that mately, through personal repentance or by virtue of usually is reached when patterns of wickedness have bringing righteous children into the world. he will even been maintained over a number ofgenerations, and have tually demonstrate that G-d's seemingly indiscriminate become ingrained in the people's character-when evil generosity was not misplaced. He will prove himself a has become second nature, and repentance is no longer worthy investment of G-d's largesse. And if, Heaven for- feasible.''
6 The Jewish Observer, Summer 1987 We are being forced to visualize all the dreadful experiences of the Nazi death camps and ghettos. ... This is but a means for Divine Providence to remind us that Midas HaDin is an active force in the world.
Because of His constant judgment of the People of TESTS AND TRIALS Israel. G-d does not wait until their wicked practices FROM mE TIME OF JOSHUA become entrenched in their national character. Thus Kial Yisroel remains eternal, in contrast to so many amban explains that whenever an individual or nations that, over the ages, have disappeared from the our nation as a whole undergoes a trial, it is face of the earth. R designed for his benefit, so that ultimately he will be rewarded. Throughout history. the Jewish people have THE ROOTS OF EVIL been tested with temptations to embrace the customs and rites of various nations. These trials have prevailed ring the year 5604 ( 1844), the leaders of Reform from the time that Yehoshualed the Jews into the Land ewry convened in Braunschweig. Germany, and of Israel until this very day. These trials challenge every D decided to permit all that the Torah had res faction of our people, and require great strength to with tricted, to forego all that the Torah had required: kash- stand them. 1115, circumcision. restrictions against intermarriage all TheChassid Yaavetz was among those banishedfrom went by the wayside. The Malbim describes this gather Spain during the expulsion in 1492. 1t was during this ing in his introduction to his commentary on Vayikra, era that Spanish culture had peaked. The Chassid Yaa and writes that their radical abandonment of all that is sacred had prompted him to write his commentary on vetz writes that at the time of the expulsion, Jews were faced with a choiceQf either leaving their homes penni Tanach (Scriptures). less and destitute, or converting to Christianity. Those Rabbi Yisroel Salanter also took note of this conven who were pure in their convictions succeeded in over tion and remarked: "They created a new ShulchanAruch and permitted mixed marriages. There will come a time coming this terrible challenge and left their homeland Qf centuries. But the "intelligentsia" had great d![ficulty when the Gentiles will also draft a new Code of Laws; how bitter and woeful it will be for Jews when that time infacing this choice and many of them succumbed to the pressure and converted. arrives!" And so it was. Ninety years after that convention, the It would seem, then, that greater Involvement in non infamous Nuremberg Laws were enacted, where among Jewish culture can intensify the test. Indeed, throughout other things, the death penalty was inflicted upon any Jewish history, whenever Jews enjoyed cultural or intel Jew who married a non-Jewess or vice versa. ushering lectual ascendency, the period ended in catastrophe. So it In the era of heightened Nazi persecution. How apparent was in "the Golden Age" of Spain, again in Renaissance it is that G-d employs Midas HaDin in His dealings with Italy, and finally in Modem Germany. For one hundred Israel! and fifty years, the Jews of Germany enjoyed unob Midas HaDin involves a constant testing of Klal Yis structed access to full participation in German culture. roel. This is indicated in a comment in Yalkut Shimoni These years also witnessed a dramatic-almost total IShQftim, 41 ): "Let us compare t\J.e early generations with estrangement from Torah amongst German Jewry. And the later ones. The early ones were tested directly by G-d, who knows how complete it would have been, had it not as the Torah says, 'And G-d tested Avraham.' and in been for Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Rabbi Ezriel regard to the Generation of the Wilderness, 'In order that Hildesheimer, and Rabbi Seligmann Baer Halevi Bam I test them,' 'And in order to test you.' But the later berger ofWuerizburg. They managed to save but a rela generations were tested at the hands of the nations. as tively small handful of Jews. and even amongst these Scripture states, 'And these are the nations that G-d left loyal few, Torah was in some measure forgotten .... [in the Landi to test the Jews.'" And so it has been in each Enthrallment with Haskalla and other departures from generation-tests of one sari or another. as part ofMidas Torah thought and tradition, followed by estrangement HaDin. from Torah and mitzvos, prevailed in other lands as well.
The Jewish Obseroer. Summer 1987 7 The pattern is uncontestable. Wherever there was high on that day and I will forsake them and I will conceal My level of cultural development, wherever Haskalla (both face from them and they will be consumed and many evils In the broad sense and in the specific) gained a foothold, and troubles will befall them: so that they will say on that Jews failed to stand up to the tests-up to and including day: 'ls it not because our G-d is not among us that these the Holocaust, which sealed the coffin on that entire era evils have come upon us?' And I (G-d), I will certainly And each day that brings us new tales of horror from that conceal Myface." frightful era, reveals more starkly for us how severe The question arises: After they have come to recognize Midas HaDin can be with the Jewish people in times of their sin, realizing that all of their suffering is an out Divine wrath v1n.. growth of their estrangement from G-d, why is there need for further punishment, of ''.And I, I will certainly con ceal My face"? The Ramban takes note of this, and UNDER THE CONTINUING CWUD OF JUDGMENT explains that there are two types of "concealment of the Divine face.'' At the outset, when Israel first sinned, they ore on Midas HaDin: G-d tells His People, "Ifyou experienced a complete concealment of the Divine face. are faithful to your vows, fine: and if not, I will Following this, however, when they already denied idola M make your flesh permissible" (Kesubos 11 la). try but had not as yet returned completely In repentance, Rashi explains this to mean that the Jewish body there still remained a hiding of the face of redemption, becomes hefker-that is, of no value, as though owner although not to the same degree as originally. less. This is preciselywhat transpired during the Holocaust FOOLS' PARADISE OF PEACE AND PLENTY years-the Jews were deemed hefker. Concentration camp survivors who came to Sweden after e are currently seeking ways of assuring peace the war had In their possession a poem that they shared with In the Land oflsrael between the Jews and their us. Written by a young girl, it described the horrors of life in W neighbors. One faction suggests this approach, the ghetto. She writes to an artist in search of a scene to paint: another suggests that: this one supports an interna "Come, I will show you what to draw," she says.And she brings tional conference, and that one opposes the idea "He who him to a dwelling where a mother lies in bed, havingjust given dwells in heaven laughs, G-d scoffs at them." birth to a child The father and brothers of the child had been In one of his last talks, the Mashgiach of Mir (Rabbi taken to their deaths, and soon the mot.her also dies. Asurviv~ Yeruchem Levovitz '"") said that it is impossible for Ing daughter looks on, watching her last relative dying, leav violaters of Torah to build the Land of Israel. That is, ing her completely bereft of family.... Following this, the transgressors can establish settlements, construct pro young poetess brings the artist to other places, each depicting jects and build cities in the Holy Land, but these accomp a scene more tragic than the one before. ... lishments are without the zechus necessary to merit Such were the conditions in the ghettos and camps. To continued existence. This is not only true In the concrete young people, these stories must sound as if they come sense, it is also true in political realms: Until this very day, from a distant planet. Born after the war, they are incap our enemies want to push us into the sea: in their eyes, able of envisioning either the suffering of those who died, the state still has no right of existence. or the agony of the survivors. Yes, we are still under the shadow of "the concealment Today, as we review these events, we gain insight into of the face of redemption." Midas HaDinextends yet over the meaning of Midas HaDin. This is described in the us. All the disunity and internal strife that plagues us Torah as "the concealment of the Divine Face." "And I even within the Torah society-are offshoots of the Holo (G-d), !will certainly conceal My face on that day" (Deva caust. The nation of Israel-including the Torah com rim 31.18). On the one hand, closeness to G-d and good munity-has by far not succeeded In raising itself to the fortune are associated with exposure to the Divine coun spiritual level it had enjoyed before the Holocaust. No tenance. For Instance, in Shmoneh Esrei we plead, "Bless yeshiva today approaches the stature of the pre-War us, our Father, all of us as one, with the light qfYourface, yeshivas-not in great personalities, not in Torah knowl for with the light ofYour face You gave us ... the Torah of edge, not in Mussar.A humble beginning has been made, life and a love of kindness, righteousness, blessing. com but Midas HaDin continues to prevail. A day does not passion, life and peace" (Sim Shalom). Similarly, in the pass without some tragic occurrence, some terrible loss priestly blessings of the Kohanim, we find: "May G-d taking place. We must open our eyes and recognize that illuminate His face for you and be gracious to you ... these are all manifestations of Midas HaDin. an ap MayG-d tum His face to you and establish peace for you." proach that still governs our condition. By contrast, concealment of the Divine face means that We may choose to ignore these difficulties, but then we G-d deals with us as if He does not see us, so to speak. The would be living in a fools' paradise. Our day-to-day exist people of Israel are then left for hefker, ownerless, and ence is peaceful enough. Thank G-d, the extreme poverty they are subject to all sorts of troubles and persecutions. that had plagued us before World War II is gone. Life is To better understand the implications of "concealed relatively pleasant, so we can manage to ignore the Midas countenance," let us return to the passages that describe HaDin. After all, who wants to dwell on the fact that the this phenomenon: "And My wrath will bum against them same Divine approach that was responsible for the Ho lo-
8 The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 To young people, stories of Holocaust experiences must sound as if they come from a distant planet. Bom after the war, they are incapable of envisioning either the suffering of those who died, or the agony of the survivors.
caust still prevails! But the trials in Jerusalem and Lyons generalized, undefined fear is inadequate. We must be are here to remind us how the terrible destruction of the keenly aware that Midas HaDin is currently hovering Holocaust actually came to pass. Yes, the Nazis were over the nation oflsrael and the Land oflsrael-now. And obsessed, deranged, but that is irrelevant. The lesson to we must recognize that if there is any merit to our peo learn from that epoch is that it was due to Divine Midas ple's continued existence in the Land of Israel, it is the HaDin that these awful happenings took place, and that zechus of Torah and teshuva-retum to Torah values. the same Midas HaDin is with us to this very day! Once we recognize this, we are faced with a different kind of responsibility. Secularists accept Torah study begrudgingly, as a concession, a heedless luxury: 'We UNDER THE CLOUD OF A PROPHECY THE STRANDS OF HOPE need colleges, not more yeshivas for 'the black hats'!" We for our part must not view Torah study as mere profes abbi Yisroel Salanter. the great 19th Century sional training, or another academic career. To whatever Mussarpersonality, penned several lines, printed extent we enjoy a safe existence in our land, it is only R in Ohr Yisroel, that have the ring of prophecy. In because of Torah. A place of Torah study is a "factory" his famous letter regarding the month ofElul (Letter 14 ). that produces kedusha (sanctity)-anyone who is in a he wrote: 'With this has ended the era of great men House of Study knows what kedusha is! We must con tinue to grow-to endeavor to master (the complete distinguished by their fear of G-d, men whose fear was so Shas awe-inspiring, that judgment was visible on their faces, Talmud), to acquire Yiras Shomayim (fear of Heaven). to making an indelible impression on the hearts of those achieve perfection in Torah and mitzvos; only then will who follow them.... And so if for the moment we remove Israel be safe and secure. from ourselves our soiled clothing and instead wrap our selves in pure garments, we can see clearly that we have A STARTLINGLY NEW AWAKENING cause for fear." And now, each of us according to his own worih, should fear many times more, as compared to the '~ nd they will say on that day, 'Is it not because past. After all, when Reb Yisroel wrote this letter some our G-d is not among us that have these evils one-hundred-and-thiriy years ago, was there reason to have come upon us?' " These words signal be more afraid of G-d's judgment than another genera recognition of the folly of a life estranged from G-d and tion or two earlier-two hundred years ago? The answer His Torah. And we are hearing the echo of these words is that transgression increased in his lifetime, compared today in the steadily expanding Teshuva Movement, to seventy years earlier. which is surely among the wonders of the world. How else We have no concept of what Jewish life was like two can we describe the sudden awakening of masses of hu,ndred years ago. people to question their lifestyles, and then to apply themselves to Torah study with such devotion and com I can never forget how an old Jew, close to ninety mitment? Anyone who sees these people must envy years of age, once approached me as a young man, them: It is truly a miracle, without rational explanation! pressed my hand wannly and asked me my name. When I answered him, he told me that he remembers A Russian Jew who has been in Israel for several from his youth, when one would meet a person that he years described how he recently welcomed new arrt had never seen before, how he would offer praise to G-d valsfrom Russia at the airport in Lod.. When he offered that there is one more Jew whom it is possible to love. the travelers some cake and fruit theirfirst questions Such was their Ahavas Yisroel-the love and endear were: "Is there a prohibition of sefichim. Shmittah ment they had toward another Jew. Today, when two growth, on thisfood?" And. "Does the food carry the people meet, each one says his name, the other res hechsher of the Beis Din in Jerusalem?" ponds, "Nice to meet you," and they casually continue How did they know of these things? How is it even along their separate ways. ... fathomable that in Moscow there are two hundredfam Do we have any concept of the purity and sincerity of ilies who keep Torah and mitzvos, and their children their fear of Heaven? Because of the dramatic drop in walk the streets with payos curling down their cheeks? Yiras Shomayimin his day, Reb Yisroel called for a mani Is it less than a miracle? fold increase in vigilance and awareness of the approach Especially now, when MidasHaDin is being played out ing Days of Judgment. Now, too, recent events are before us. and we are witness to tragic occurrences that reminding us of the prevalence of Midas HaDin, but a strike both the nation as a whole and individuals. we
The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 9 must recognize that the Land can only survive in the Yiras Shomayim is not something left to one's discre merit of Torah and Teshuva. All political theories for tion, an option that one can choose to pursue or drop. safety, security. and economic plenty are mere specula When Midas HaDin Is so undeniably brought to the fore, tion, hollow and worthless. In Heaven, where our destiny as in recent times, then Yiras Shomayim is especially Is determined. only Torah and teshuva are taken Into imperative. an Insistent fact of life that one dare not account. Ignore. We are impelled to serve G-d. to labor in Torah, I have found that since I began contemplating the trial and to pursue fear ofG-d, for we see empirically that there and all the horrors that have been recounted there, l can Is Divine judgment In the world. And only In the merit of discern in these events Midas HaDin, putting to rest a the lomdei Torah and baalei teshuva, who strive for number of conflicts that I had been experiencing In my perfection in thought and action, can we survive safely Divine service. and hope for the swift advent of MoshiacfLo
HALICHOS BAS YISROEL: The Long-Awaited Second Volume Has Finally Arrived!
Halichos Bas Yisroel • An in-depth, easy-to-use, by Rav Yitzchak Yaacov Fuchs guide to practical halocho • All the original Hebrew English translation now complete footnotes have been trans in two volumes lated and expanded upon Hardcover: Vol. I $11.95 • Excellent for teachers, Vol. II $12.95 students, mothers, and Slipcased Set: $26.95 daughters alike • Slipcased set makes an ideal Bas Mitzvah gift
Available at Jewish bookstores or order from: Send for a FREE Copy of our Catalogue. FBLDHEIN PUBLISHERS When in Jerusalem visit 200 Airport Executive Park. Spring Valley, NY 10977 our Bookstore at: 914-356-2282 • Out-of-State Call Toll Free 800-237-7149 20 Strauss St, Tel. (02) 23:>-554 Visa & Master Card accepted
IO The Jewish Observer, Summer 1987 BUNGALOW JUDAISM A Guide to Safe and Kosher Weekends
In what has become something of a rite of Summer for many in the Orthodox community, when skies brighten and temperatures soar. large numbers of families pack up house hold and children. Some head for the lakefront, the seashore, or the farm, while people in the New York area head for the hills-specifically. the Catskill mountains, with its plethora of bungalow colonies, camps and hotels. The sudden change of environment and way of life ' brought about by this "bungalow colony Judaism," no matter where, brings with it many halachic questions and ramifica tions. In order to better examine the she'eilos that summer sojourners might encounter, Rabbi Hillel David, N"t>'?l!I of the Flatbush area of Brooklyn, traces the path of a "bungalow bachelor" and his family over a typical Shabbos. What follows is a sampling of the issues that are raised by summer travel, the pitfalls that must be avoided, the questions that need answering, if one truly desires a productive, spiritually re warding summer. First, however, he asks us to define our selves as to who and what we are.
A MATTER OF SELF-DEFINITION values or goals. An incident involv Someone close to the Chazon !sh ing the Chazon !sh J"~I can help us questioned this favoritism: "Rebbe. l nyone who guides his life by in formulating these goals. know that you dislike the type of the wisdom and directives of The Chazon lsh's house in Bnei person that treats religious matters A Torah, and endeavors to grow Brakwasliterallyopendayandnight lightly. This visitor. whom you are in his Torah knowledge. recognizes to visitors and people seeking gui being mekarev. frequents the same that summer is a time of changed dance. While he accepted all callers places of entertainment as do the circumstances. but not changed of all kinds of backgrounds with others. and has the same lax reli warmth and concern. he seemed to gious practices. Why do you favor This article is based upon an oral presentation by give special attention to a young this person?" Rabbi H. David at a community-wide conference on issues in Torah life, held in Brooklyn during man who was obviously not of ye Replied the Chazon !sh. 'You are May, '87. shiva background or orientation. failing to take note of a basic differ-
The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 11 ence. Kial Yisroel has always con dress are not honored, and the pool possibility of Shabbos desecration; sisted of three types of people-tzad has mixed swimming.... By institu rather, it is rooted in the concept of dikim (righteous men). beinonim (of tionalizing their collective weaknes love and concern for one's fellows. By intermediate status), and reshaim ses they are defining themselves as arriving at one's destination late in (wicked people). The many beino clinging to a low level of religious the day, one makes it difficult for nim amongst us study Torah and performance.... Choosing a vaca one's host and hostess, forcing them. keep all mitzvos, as a rule, but they tion place can often be an exercise in to rush and trouble themselves to have weaknesses and occasionally self-identification. accommodate an unexpected guest. slip and yield to temptation. But bas However, says the Shulchan Aruch, ically they admire the tzaddik and EREV SHABBOS: THE TRIP if one is expected late, as is the case endeavor to emulate him. The young so often today, it is permissible to man I accept so readily is of this type. e start our examination of travel after this cut-off time. Further, "On the other hand, we have today she'eilosunlquetosummer the Bach adds that travel in a wagon people who make a shita (an ideol W:living with the trip to the is permitted after chatzos (midday) ogy) ofspiritual mediocrity. They are resort area. This journey Itself raises on Frtday. happy as beinonim, and have no three questions: When ?With whom? Though not halachically manda intention of upgrading their status. and How? ted, it is most certainly wise to avoid This is unprecedented in Kial Yis When to Travel? late travel. There are traffic jams, roel, and totally unacceptable." People are generally aware that the there are flat tires, there is inclement When we are planning our sum Shulchan Aruch forbids travel of weather to take into account. 'Who mer. the search for an acceptable greater than three parsaos on Erev is wise, he who anticipates the fu bungalow or hotel often involves go Shabbos. Since a man is typically ture." Thus, virtually all poskim do ing through newspaper advertise capable of walking ten parsaos a warn against travelling late on Fri ments. These often carry clues as to day, this would be less than one days. Not onlycan such travel lead to the clientele that usually come to third of a day's travel. Thus, we may a most unpleasant Shabbos, stuck each specific place-"heimische infer that one should not travel after somewhere away from family. be crowd," "yeshiva type," "Chassidish." slightly less than one-third of the tween city and counhy, but too often, If the description does not fit you, day has passed. unfortunately, in the frantic rush don't botherapplying.And then there Actually, though, this halacha is and panic oflast minute driving, one are those that identify themselves by not applicable to our general situa may actually come to Shabbos dese specific organizational affiliation, as tion. The basis of the law is not, as cration, G-d forbid. an indicator that laws of modesty of one may expect, to guard against the And then there is the matter of Kavod Shabbos-honoring the Sabbath. The Rambam describes it as follows: "The sages say that it is a THE YITIY LEIBEL HELP-LINE mitzva for a person to bathe in warm water on Erev Shabbos be A Free Service of the cause of the honor of the Sabbath, Yi.tty Leibel Chesed Fund wrap himself in his Tallis, and sit with gravity, anticipating to receive • Marital problems? • Fear ofbreak-down? the Shabbos as he would await to •Overpowering stress? •Parent-child friction? greet the King" (Hilchos Shabbos 30,2). This certainly is inconsistent Do you have problems like these and are afraid or ashamed to talk to with late afternoon driving, climaxed anyone? ... Do you want a trained, wise, warm professional who will bya shower-and-shave to the strains talk to you on the phone? of "Lee ha Dodi" wafting in from the Some ofthe Torah community's highly skilled psychologists, social shul down the road. workers, and therapists are ready to help. Your consultation will be With Whom to Travel? The question of yichud, of a man treated with the utmost discretion. You may remain anonymous if and woman (married or single) in you prefer. They understand. They're trained. They have Ahavas isolation under certain specific cir Yisrael. cumstances. involves an 1 Issur Hours: D'Oraysa-a prohibition of Torah Monday through Friday 8:00-12:00 a.m. origin, in contradistinction to a rab Sunday through Thursday 9:00-11:00 p.m. binic ordinance-and should not be Sunday morning 9:00-12:00 noon taken lightly. Though most people are aware of the issues of yichud In a Dial (718) HELP-NOW(435-7669) house, many fail to realize that an This project has been approved by leading Torah authorities. for infonnation only call (718) ~7706. automobile can pose problems as well.
12 The Jewish Observer, Summer 1987 Tefillas Haderech includes a plea for protection against "all ambushes." This is not a subtle reference to the speedster's prayer that he successfully evade state troopers.
A car's windows are considered as recite the tefilla while standing-or To risk one's life by speeding or a door open to the public; anyone at least having stopped from travel unsafe driving. relying on G-d's who so desires can see in. Thus, ing. (The Mishna Berura does add Providence to keep one out of trou unless the windows are curtained or that if there will be a loss of kavana ble. goes against both halacha and heavily tinted, the problem of yichud if one stands. one may sit; this may common sense. The mitzva of"run in a car does not arise when one be why today the custom is to say it nlng" on Erev Shabbos does not drives during the day on well-trav while sitting in the car.) include such reckless endangerment. elled roads. 1tis In the evening, when Often. one person will recite the One should take pains to avoid such outsiders cannot see in, that the tefilla on behalf of evezyone In the behavior. q uestlon of yichud arises. car. This is problematic, as many A Rosh Hayeshiva who had been In his Igros Moshe. Rabbi Moshe poskim (codifiers) hold that Tefil!as traveling In a car with Rabbi Aaron Feinstein J">i strongly urges cau Haderech is a tefilla (prayer), as tion against such night driving. In opposed to a bracha (blessing). One Kotler '"" told me how Reh Aaron requested that the driver, who was extreme circumstances (sh'as ha is allowed to say a tefilla for others if exceeding the speed limit. slow down. dechak). he permits a man and the prayer is recited with a minyan. He did for several minutes. then woman to drive together at night. or if the others are illiterate and resuming his previous speed. After but only on roads where other cars cannot pray themselves. There is this happened several times. Reh are likely to pass; driving on a coun rarely a minyan traveling in a car, Aaron asked the driver to pull over, tzy road would be forbidden. even only in a bus or van. and generally got out of the car. and told him to under extreme circumstances. The evezyone is capable of saying the continue on his way-without him. Chazon !sh forbade a woman to tefilla by himself. To avoid all ques Whether Rab Aaron did this out of travel alone with a driver by day from tions. It is preferable for each to halachic concern (which includes Bnel Brak to Jerusalem. Since this reel te it himself. (One may say the safety) or for Mussar reasons is im was over 35 years ago when the road tefilla for the driver, however.) material. In either case. he did it was not heavily traveled. as It Is Tefillas Haderech includes a plea with his usual wisdom. which we today. it is unclear whether the Cha for protection against "all ambush may well use as a model for our own zon lsh's stance was based on con es." Too often, unfortunately. the conduct. siderations of halacha or of Mus driver's fears center not upon thieves sar. (Cited in Sefer Dvar Halacha lying In wait. but upon the state Finally, just as one asks for G-d's on Yichud by Rabbi Avraham Horo trooper strategically placed behind protection at the onset of a journey. witz of Bnei Brak.) any handy billboard, radar poised in so one should say a quiet prayer of When offering someone else's wife search of speeding cars. thanks at its safe conclusion. or husband a ride. care should be taken that this question of yichud not come up. How to Travel? PINCHAS MANDEL As Jews have always done-with Over 35 Years Experience in Kvura in Eretz Yisrael prayers on our lips: In this case. Tefillas Haderech (Prayer for Trav •Dedicated to Kavod Haniftar with personal elers). This prayer should be said responsibility throughout service when one is on the road. This is usu •Highly recommended by Gedolai Hador ally taken to mean out of the city, -Here and in Eretz Yisrael- having crossed a major bridge or 1569 • 47th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11219 tunnel. which is considered "on the road." The preferable time to say the Day & Night Phone (718) 855-5121 tefilla is within the first three miles Honesty - Integrity - Reliability of travel out of town. Though today It CHESED SHEL EMES .. as understood and practiced by one active in the industry more than hali a century. is not customazy. the Shulchan Taharas Haniftar Should Never Be Commercialized Aruch states that it is preferable to
The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 13 EREV SHABBOS: When queried as to the reason for The hours before Shabbos can be IN THE MOUNTAINS leaving a spacious. air-conditioned. filled with worthwhile activity. Learn nd so our mythic young man comfortable home (as well as a hus ing Torah. by oneself or with one's has a joyful reunion with his band!) for a two-bedroom. wooden children. is a marvelous way to pre A family-and proceeds to em bungalow. fully equipped with mos pare for Shabbos. And there is al bark on a Catskill ritual of"visiting." quitoes and miniature refrigerator. ways the great standby-an "eruv Too often. impatient to be on his mothers will invariably reply: We do check." way. he will take his children away itfor the kids. Indeed. the children's from their daily learning schedule. well-being-their spiritual well-be ERUVISSUES The unspoken. but clearly felt. im ing. their chinuch-should be our plication: the rebbe Is no more than summer's greatest accomplishment. he eruv Is an Important part a babysitter and the Chumash class If curtailing Friday's jaunts some of the bungalow-colony Shab simply a "keep 'em busy" activity what contributes to their growth. we T bos, and merits special care. useful while needed. easily ignored surely should not hesitate to ac The eruv should be checked each when Inconvenient. commodate them. week. for It is almost unheard of that a bungalow colony. hotel or summer camp experience no breakage of its eruv during the summer season. \Vhat would you do If one notices that the eruv Is down on Shabbos. then in the best ifyou could not work of all worlds one would immediately for one full year? consult the colony's Rav. (The un fortunate situation of few colonies How would you pay for food, clothing having a Rav on premises is one that and lodging for the entire year? ought to be remedied. Since the Gemora exhorts that "a person his n1av sound ridiculous tovou HO\v, hut to several thousand fiun:ilirs in Eretz should always live where his Rebbe Yisroef \\'ho \.vill not \vork tl~is vear because ofShrnitah, it is a realitv. 11ere, in is"-one surely should not move away Anlerica, \Ve have an opportunity to share in this a\veson1e Niitzvah that conies T from his Rav. even for a summer. along only once in seven years and to help those coun:igeous fiirrners survive a very' difficult vear. The only recourse is for evety sum The faffied Merk<:tz 1\rtzi leShornrei Sh 'vi.is, fOunded by the \.Vorld ren
14 The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 "Ma Tovu Ohalecha" said in praise of the Jewish families in their separate dwellings in the midbar applies equally to the sense of privacy to be maintained in the communal bungalow colonies.
necessary to examine the enw for midbar (wilderness), applies equally damage before carrying on the to the sense of privacy to be main grounds. tained in bungalow colonies. It is at this time that one leaves the realm of THE SHABBOS TISH carefully delineated halacha for something much less definable though no less important. Tznius, habbos has arrived at last: modesty, takes in much more than rich red wine, soft challah, lilt merely a mode of dress; it encom Sing Zemiros and conversation. passes a complete way of life. In the Husband and wife see each other for SPECIAL SHABBOS SHE'EIWS relaxed atmosphere and convivial the first time in a week. They may closeness ofa bungalow colony, extra share the week's experiences and Shabbos she'eila that is caution must be exercised to ensure speak of business deals and laundry unique to colony life is that that the behavior of both men and problems and the baby's new trick A of the gas tank that fuels the women is appropriate and in line and car repairs. Kedushas Shabbos, stove's burners running out of fuel with traditional tznius. Camaraderie divrei Torah, and the children them on Shabbos. What of the chulent? between the "boys" has no place selves may, unfortunately, be neg The halacha says that bisha'as ha among the couples. Severe problems lected, as the parents linger over the dechak (extreme circumstances), if in Sholom Bayis can be avoided if routine stuff that life is made of. the chulent and other food on the an atmosphere of respect and dig And yet. it is just in the summer, blech are still hot. they can be moved nity are maintained. when children are away from the to a neighbor's blech, Another consideration related to routine and discipline of school, that the Shabbos shpatzir is-how jar they need that feeling of Kedushas "SHPATZJR" ETIQUETTE can we walk? Determining the te Shabbos most! Without the Rebbe chum Shabbos requires careful behind them, the zemiros, the divrei ith the meal over, Shabbos measuring, determined by halachic Torah, the review of the week's stu afternoon becomes a time guidelines. Here your local Rav can dies (in mention, at least) take on an W for the shpatzir (stroll), be of help. If someone goes beyond even greater importance than dur when families meet and mingle. "Ma the limits of techum-even inad ing the school year. It is incumbent Tovu Ohalecha, .. said in praise of vertently-one may not go further or upon us to take great care that the the integrity of the Jewish families return! Avoiding this kind of bind spirit of Shabbos is carefully nur in their separate dwellings in the surely warrants caution in advance. tured in the colony. Talking about the children, it is worth mentioning that the weekday calls from the city should not be scheduled at the most-economical, after-bedtime hour, so as to include the children. "How's your learning coming along? You've finished the TORAH. "A 'nlste of Torah" is a Torah learning radio program Sidra already? Marvelous!" Such exploring the Jewish perspective on AIDS, MONEY, ~ calls from a distance of a hundred WOMEN'S RIGHTS, NUCLEAR WAR and other miles or more can add a tremendous critical issues. amount of importance to the child ren's summertime studies, which "A 'laste of Torah" Every Tuesday 10:30 PM 98 FM usually need any reinforcement they Call (718) 376-6325 for FREE schedule and tape listing can get.
The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 15 The danger of Chillul HaShem must not be overlooked. After all, we are a large noticeable bloc of people, and our behavior is carefully scrutinized.
MOTZAEI SHABBOS FEVER: tunity to meet each other, can take BEYOND THE WEEKEND A TRUE SICKNESS place on the first Saturday night, hile the relaxed atmosphere instead of waiting for the last one. he problems ofsummer living of the countiy may pose Achdus-a sense of unity-within are not limited to weekends. W some problems on Shab the colony and amongst colonies can T When the husbands have re bos itself, when the stars come out, it be achieved through Mishnayos or turned to the city.and the women are can become positively dangerous. mitzva competition amongst the left in charge of the families, there The list of precepts ignored and children. Inter-bungalow athletic are a number of caution areas where broken eveiy Motzaei Shabbos is leagues can bring an emphasis to they should be on alert. To mention long and frightening: trespassing sports activities that far exceeds two: onto hotel grounds (itself an issur consideration of health. •Sitting in the shade and sharing d'Oraysa) ... in order to see a show Finally, one last danger: that of opinions in the spirit of conviviality that may include kol isha (a wom chillul HaShem. As part of a large should not be an opening for Lashon an's live singing), immodesty, gross noticeable bloc of people descending hara. Slander is evil. destructive, vulgarity and a host of other sins. upon town after town, our behavior halachically prohibited, and to be "G-d is in the countiy, too," our is carefully scrutinized and com· avoided at all costs. teachers used to warn us each year; mented upon. By pushing ahead in a • Mothers and big sisters tend to too often, the caveat goes unheeded. supermarket checkout line, cutting take little boys swimming with them. There are pleasant, productive.and off another automobile, being rude Once the boys have reached an age of inspiring ways that people can spend to a local merchant-we are making awareness, they should not be taken time together on Motzaei Shabbos a name for ourselves. We must be into the pool area. According to the that can perpetuate the Shabbos certain that we do not disgrace our Chazon !sh, a woman may only take atmosphere. The bungalow Melave selves, and the Name of G-d, by our a boy with her to the pool or the Malka, which gives people an oppor- behavior. beach if he will not cariy specific images of the scene with him into adulthood. One is advised to consult Everything for your floor ... At your door. her Rav for more definite guidelines. The man alone in the city has his S}llM()N'S, IN(:. own set of problems, not the least of which is loneliness.• Halacha simp CARPET• TILE • l.INOLEUM ly does not permit a person to sleep Bedrooms, Kitc~ens, Dining alone in his room-and surely not roams, Stairs, Living rooms, etc. alone in the house. Besides that, the OVER 38 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE long evening hours alone can be Reslderttit!I 'Cbmmercia/ depressing and demoralizing. Agu dath Israel is sponsoring a pilot What a PLloASURE! "Sup-and-Learn" program in Brook Stay at home and enj?Y quality by professionals, al Sl!, 16 The Jewish Observer, Summer 1987 Ezriel Toshavi Israel's Yeshivos and the Jewish Agency's Zionist Loyalty Oath HOW TO PROVE ONE'S WVE OF ZION flag on campus poles, and promoting the interruption of yeshiva studies for service in Zahal, the Israeli Army for t Is a year since last summer's Jewish Agency Assem men and conscription of women in Chen, the women's bly, which adopted a resolution to discontinue allo army, or in Sherut Leum~ national service.... How ironic I cating Jewish philanthropic funds to "non-Zionist" that criteria for the Zionist loyalty of children of Kfar institutions. (For details, see "Escalating Tensions in Chassidim, Beer Sheva, and Kiryat Gat, are formulated Israel." JO Sept. '86.) For a while it seemed that the reso by Jews who live in San Francisco, Dallas and Phila lution would be shelved and forgotten But before Pesach, delphia! social institutions, yeshivas, and girls' schools In Israel While the demand for Zionist loyalty is a prerequisite for were Informed that they were required to demonstrate receiving charity proved offensive to many who heard it, that they propagate Zionist ideology in order to continue this obviously does not apply to the Reform elements that to qualify for Jewish Agency Funds that they had been masterminded the new Jewish Agency policy, from con receiving until then-primarily for social welfare cases ception to passage to attempted enforcement, as a ploy to and new olim under the Aliyat Hanoar (Youth Aliya) disenfranchise the Torah community. To them it is but programs. one strike in the broader struggle for official recognition How, according to the Jewish Agency missive, does one of the tiny Reform rabbinical presence In Israel. demonstrate one's Jove for Zion? One would think that being a member ofa community that includes second- or WHOISWYAL? seventh-generation Yerushalmis, that has an overriding, come-what-may devotion to the ideal of living in Eretz nfact, fair-minded Americans should find the loyalty Yisroel, that boasts the lowest proportion of yordim of all condition an unsavory, illegitimate attempt at using Israelis, would in itself be convincing evidence of love of I WA charity funds-raised without a word about Zion. Add to that the daily recitation of an entire litany of Zionism, and earmarked for child welfare-to force fervent prayers for the restoration of Zion and Jerusalem schools into an ideological straight-jacket, a goal simply to their former glory. Evidence enough, one would think outside the mandate of the Jewish Agency. Moreover, But these count not one iota, to the Jewish Agency. All these are charity funds; which civilized society asks that does count, as far as the Jewish Agency is con ideological questions before awarding Its philanthropy? cerned, is celebrating Yorn HaAtzmaut, flying the Israeli The said criteria are especially offensive to those brought up in a democracy where funds are regularly awarded to Ezriel Toshavi observes the Jewish scene for readers of JO. universities for scholarships and research, without any The Jewish Obseroer. Summer 1987 17 such demands for loyalty oaths. During the height of It is noteworthy that the first group to repudiate the America's involvement In the Vietnam War, for example, demand for the Zionist Loyalty Oath was the Roshei university students who defied federal law by refusing to Yeshiva of the Hesder Yeshivas, whose students put in register for the draft were nonetheless awarded govern several months of army service every year. Though their ment grants for their education, by decision of the U.S. Religious Zionist ideology directs their students to divide courts. Should tighter controls, then, be placed on Jew their year between the beis midrash and the army bar· ish Agency funds disbursed to children enrolled in yeshi racks, they recognize the legitimacy of uninterrupted vas and other religious Jewish institutions, where loyalty Torah study as a form of national service that deserves to to fellow Jews and Judaism Is uncontestable? For that be respected, not to be tampered with. Thus, the Hesder matter, why Is no objection voiced against the flow of Yeshivas could have signed the pledge, but saw through Jewish Agency monies that are being allocated, without the demand as a cover-up for Reform designs, and the bat of an eyelash, to Israeli universities, which host instead chose to speak as "an inseparable part of the Communist, Arabs-even pro-PLO-and other radical Torah world," and refused to sign. The Hesder statement student groups? concluded: Using army service as a litmus test for loyalty flies in "There is no doubt that the origin ofthis grievous decision the face of a long-standing agreement granting exemp (oftheJewishAgency)comesfromelementswhoseentireaim tion to divinity students, an agreement drafted by Ben and goal is to weaken and destroy Orthodox Jewish education, Gurlon with the World Agudath Israel in the early days of Reform circles who seek to deceive the public and wage their the State, for reasons that are especially germane to war against Orthodox Judaism under the mask of Zionlstic Israel. But army exemptions for divinity students exist in talkandloyaltytotheState oflsrael. The leaders ofthe Jewish absolutely every other civilized Western country, without Agency are well aware that the greatest loyalty and concern challenge. How ironic, then, that the People of the Bible for the people oflsrael and their land, expressed among other should be the first to deny the same respect to rabbinical thlngsthrougb.AliyaandthestrengthenlngoftheJewishpeo· students for their Involvement in the study of Torah! pie in their homeland, accrue to the credit of the Yahadut Hacharedit (religiously observant Jewry)." A number of non-Hesder Torah institutions that had been receivingAliyat Hanoar allocations (including such notable institutions as Ponevezh, Kol Torah, and Ohr YESHIVA TORAS CHAIM Hachaim) issued their own response, in a letter to Aklva The Originar Mokom Torah of the West Levinsky, treasurer of the Jewish Agency, in which they outlined why they found the request for evidence of Reis Medrash and Mesivta loyalty untenable. After all. they state, they are trustees of Where the YeshiVa Piovides-:- Wheri:.i the _Yeshiva:Bochur finds- a 3,000 year heritage that cannot be changed, and they have faithfully fulfilled their responsibility as custodians • 'A bouya;nt;yitaf _system of • _lns'piraticfrtfrorrt' dedicated and learning- gifted Mechanchim of the children in their care with fidelity and effectiveness. • A _Gemorah_ program which •Jhdividuafi:lttentfon'in the blends lyun and Beldyus coffipany of Peers: •:A- ctirrkufum wf:iJch _Includes • ArfenVtronineht geared to ALIYAT HANOAR: A DISTURBING TREND Mfshnayos,, Hafac_ha, excellence aryd'mOtivatlon for Chumash and Mussar stJctess:: n that same letter the non-Hesder schools pointed •:A state' acC-redited Seculcir • A fOcus on ,de1,1efopinent_ of stodie_s Prograrn cha_racter, sense'of responsit?Hiiy out a most disturbing trend: The Jewish Agency's ~ 'conlpfefu_--program Qf Eri'gfiSh~ and' accomp!iShtnent I Aliyat Hanoar department, which assigns dlsadvan· Math~ Social -~ttidl8S,> Sdence, • cUid_ante to heip: meet future taged children to educational and welfare institutions, Language,_ p!_us-eJectives challenges: has been assigning a steadily diminishing number of •-_-Frilfy eQulpped,5-de_nce-!ab, •'An- enduting_Com:m_itment to_ children in recent years to Torah institutions. "If this library_and computer facillty bec:ome a true Ben Torah situation continues," their statement says, ··we can •S_u~rvised dorinitory cO_mpfex expect that within two or three years, the entire Aliyat Applications ar<:! beir1g accepted Hanoar program will not include a single religious school. We must clarify that the above 'cuts' are in addi· for the Elul Z'man, September, 1987. tion to the general reduction in the amount of children Appointments for interviews can be made by calling: that will be accepted (by Aliyat Hanoar) for the new school 1-718.-846-6903/ 1,303-629,8200 year: from 4,000 to a mere 2,800. Tables attached (to the letter) clearly show how a sampling of five of the institu Yeshiva Joras Chaim tions have been effected by unproportional reductions." Tafmudical Seminary/Denver The word has recently come out that The Jewish 1400 quitrnan Street, P.O. So~.4067 Agency has now come to recognize the legitimacy of the Denver, Colorado 80204 yeshivas' stand and, after second thoughts, will not 303-629-8200 buckle under to the pressure of the American Reform Congregational leaders' threats to the United Jewish 18 The Jewish Obseroer. Summer 1987 Appeal, which is behind this "Oath" proposal. It seems that the Reform effort to strike out against Orthodox institutions, on a totally unrelated political agenda of its own, is beginning to fade away. Levinsky and other Agency leaders are expected to pay token visits to several Torah institutions, to ascertain their basic effectiveness, leaving the matter at that. Hopefully. the legitimacy of these institutions' point of view. their proven track record in Inculcating their changes with positive values. and the Americans' celebrated sense of fairness will all combine to cause this unfortunate demand to fall by the wayside.• Nevertheless, even if the grants will be continued. one •Analyzes. •Reports. must be alert that some YouthAliya leaders will continue to attempt to accomplish the same "Reform revenge" •Evaluates •Reviews. through a different, less obvious approach: the process of attrition, by not referring any children to Orthodox •Comments. •Reflects. institutions on the level of previous years. This effort •Inspires. •Projects. must be fought no less zealously than the "loyalty oath" device. The UJA and Jewish Agency leaders will have to understand that the religious Jewish community will THE not permit any discrimination against Torah institu tions, regardless of the method used.a JEWISH •Aswego to press, we learned that.at its June meeting, the Agency reduced its requirement to "indications of support of the Jewish State." -N.W. OBSERVER Wedo more COMPARISON TABLES thanjust observe. TORAH ORGANIZATIONS ANO TOTAL ALIYAT HANOAR ····························································· 1. ALIYAT HANOAR STUDENTS ASSIGNED TO FIVE TORAH SCHOOLS AND TOTAL NUMBER OF ALIYAT Subscribe, Renew or Give HANOAR STUDENTS The Jewish Observer BET TOTAL now and save. OR BATIE OR NEVE DAVID ALIYAT YEAR HACHAIM AVOT CHA DASH ERETZ V'ESTER HANOAR 83/84 325 262 137 78 41 18,000 D One Year/$18.00 (for ten issues) 84/85 330 246 138 74 45 18,000 D Two Years/$30.00 (a $50 value) 85/86 284 174 109 54 44 19,600 D Three Years/$40.00 (a $75 value) 86187 236 144 92 36 32 18,000 D Outside the U.S.A. add $10 a year for each yearordered. 87188 170 105 82 26 24 16,800 (PROJECTED) U.S. FUNDS-DRAWN ON A U.S. BANK ONLY REDUCTION 48°/o 60°/o 40°/o 66°/o 42°/o 6.6°/o Suite 1200, 84 William Street, New York, NY 10038 Send magazine to: 2. NEWLY-ASSIGNED ALIYAT HANOAR STUDENTS Name ______ENROLLED IN ABOVE SCHOOLS, AND TOTAL NUMBER OF NEW ALIYAT HANOAR STUDENTS. Address ------ BET TOTAL City------State ___ Zip ___ OR BATIE OR NEVE DAVID ALIYAT YEAR HACHA!M AVOT CHADASH ERETZ V'ESTER HANOAR D Enclose gift card D Mastercard D Visa 83/84 90 89 75 30 18 6,000 Account No. DDDDDDDDDDDDDD 84/85 80 58 41 20 18 6,000 85/86 25 29 20 10 10 6,000 Expiration date DD (month) DD (year) 86187 28 19 22 6 5 4,000 87/88 15 15 10 0 0 2,800 Signature (PROJECTED) REDUCTION 83°/o 83°/o 87°/o 100'/o 100'/o 53°/o The Jewish Obseroer, Summer 1987 19 ll over Baro Park When the institutions the institutions, need a bank, yeshivas, syn A agogues and they look to a social services are growing rapidly. They play a major neighborhood bank. role in the community. As a neighborhood bank we know how important this develop ment is to Baro Park. J.fi? are right there, help ing the institutions grow. It's laying the groundwork for the future. Come in to CNB and let us help you plan today for tomorrow. John J. Amodio, President of CNB JohnJ.Amodio, President ofCNB with Rabbi David Greenzweig ofBobov. Located in the heart ofBaro Park at 5005 13th Avenue, (718) 436-6900. Rabbi Simon Schwab TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN LIGHT AND DARKNESS he editorial board of The Jewish Observer previously This is a citation from an author itative source and typical for that announced that it expected to publish letters on the article, generation. In the 19th Century it "The Enigma of Moses Mendelssohn," by Rabbi Avi Shafran, was generally supposed that Men and indeed a large volume of mail expressing strong opinions delssohn made the first successful and citing a wealth of historical data flooded the office. Since attempt to achieve a just synthesis then, we have been apprised of an article on the subject by Rabbi between the two cultures and at the Simon Schwab, Mora d'.Asro of Khal Adas Jeshurun of Wash same time to remain a devout Jew. ington Heights, New York City. Rabbi Schwab quotes some of Yet the greatest Talmudic masters of his day-Rav Yechezkel Landau in Mendelssohn's letters, which were previously unknown to us. Prague, Rav Rafael Cohen in Ham We believe that they put the matter in an unequivocal perspec burg and Rav Pinchas Horowitz in tive that makes further comment and speculative assessments Frankfurt-fought him. and they unnecessary. We are presenting below excerpts from Rabbi turned out to be right. They clearly Schwab's article. foresaw that before long the trickle of assimilation introduced by Men delssohn would swell into a raging In the past, Moses Mendelssohn Judaism were taken seriously. The torrent, spill over its banks and un has been considered an enigma, following appeared in an Orthodox dermine the very foundations of Kial praised by some of the Gedolim of newspaper Juedische Presse in Yisroel. These sages realized that his time and condemned by most of 1886, p.15: "Moses Dessau's" thirst for culture the others. Generally speaking, one "Therefore, this day should be to and non-Jewish learning was more cannot fight the impression that us a renewed admonition to emulate than a mere pardonable fancy. It this man Mendelssohn has been the example of Moses Mendelssohn implied a life-threatening separation treated with kid gloves too long and in our thinking. We should not only of doctrine from law, a presumptu maybe the time has come to take off engrave his great teachings in our ous demand for freedom of philoso the gloves and put him in his place hearts and make them our guide phical thought in relation to Torah once and for all. lines for everyday life, but also im ideas. combined with complete in While he was alive he appeared to plant and nurture this same atti tegration in the intellectual sphere many as a learned man, a practicing tude in our children and our chil of man-culture. Torah Jew and his writings about dren's children." To Mendelssohn. only the com- The Jewish Obseroer, Summer 1987 21 Mendelssohn aimed to adapt "Judaism" to nineteenth century Humanism, while Hirsch's goal was to submit all Derech Eretz to the eternal sovereignty Qf the Torah. mandments were inviolable. For the rest, all traditional Jewish convic not know the events that inspired their Eternal reveals to the Israelites in the same manner as He does to all other tions had to yield to subjective spec composition, because the author, the time and circumstances of their origin men-by nature and fact, never by word ulation influenced by the cultural are not known, or because some of the or letter.'' trends which happened to be in passages in the text have been corrupted, -Mendelssohn's Collected Writings, Ill, 164 vogue at the time. etc. I could cite for you two psalms which Thus, "Judaism" became to him a commentators of both nations Interpret " ... notwithstanding his speculative rational religion of ceremonials, the as Messianic prophecies. I, for my part, doctrine, Spinoza could have remained Five Books of the Torah a textbook of have subjected them to more thorough an Orthodox Jew if he had not . . . re high German and the Book of Psalms study and have arrived at the conclusion moved himself from the Law." an anthology for literary connois that the one is a satire on avarice and the -Mendelssohn's Collected Writings, Ill, 5 other (I.e., Ps. 1101) is a piece of flattery seurs. The keen-sighted princes of " ... I cannot deny, however, that I have composed by a court poet in honor of discovered certain wholly human addi the Torah were able to see through King David when the king's armies laid this assimilationist orthopraxy too tions and abuses which, alas, badly tar· siege to Rabbah. So much for that." nish the original luster of my religion." well to refrain from cautioning -Moses Mendelssohn, Ungedrucktes und Un -Letter to Lavater against it In the most impressive bekanntes van ihm, ed. M. Kayser!ing. Leipzig, Mendelssohn's Collected Writings Ill, 41 terms. Alas, their warnings went 1883, p.11. Letter to Joh. Zimmerman, court physi unheeded. cian. Hanover. "For this reason, all our endeavors Only later and much too late, the Here is an earlier passage from the should have only one goal: to do away record sadly bore out their suspi above-cited letter: with misuses that have crept into these cions of "R. Moshe Dessau." ceremonies and to infuse them with a "But as regards a great many of the genuine and authentic meaning. In this We are shocked, we can hardly psalms, I must admit that I simply do not way the original script, blurred beyond believe our own eyes as we read from understand them. The ones I find easiest recognition by hypocrisy and clerical Mendelssohn's own writings and we to understand include many which I must ruse, might become legible and intelligi note how any pious Jewish children class as very mediocre pieces of poetry, ble once again." could have put the philospher from incoherent verses, repetitions of the same -Mendelssohn's Collected Writings V, 669 Idea ad nauseam, and abrupt transitions Berlin to shame in matters of reli We see, then, that even the incipient and modulations which no amount of gious belief. infiltration of culture as a value perse into inspiration could justify.... " This disillusionment may be pain genuinely Torah·true circles was a mis· " ... If you but knew that we have just ful to some but Instructive, and we fortune of no small dimensions, for it had eight holidays during which, as you bow before the clear vision of the caused the generation reared by Men know, one does not feel inclined to do delssohn to become utterly lost to Juda Gedo lei Yisroel of a past generation. anything except to be depressed .•.•" And now let the documents speak ism. Knowing this, we are able to under· -Letter to Lessing, Bertin, April 29, 1757. stand the opposition from the Guardians for themselves and be a warning to Mendelssohn's Collected Writings us all. Vol. V, P. 89, Leipzig, 1844 of Israel. The attempt to enthrone man culture in the ranks of Torah met with ". . . I am sure that you will treat the " ... I recognize no eternal verities but shock and resistance on their part. Al Psalms as poetry and not pay attention to those that can be grasped by the human tona: "The Provincial Chief Rabbi here the prophetic and mystical elements reason and demonstrated as well as vali· has proclaimed a ban on anyone who will which Christian as well as Jewish inter dated by the human intellect. ..." read the translation of the Books of Moses preters have found in them only because Further: composed by Mr. Moses Mendelssohn of Berlin." they searched for these elements, having "In Judaism there is no conflict be searched for these elements only because -Hamburger Korrespondent, July 17, 1779 tween religion and reason, no revolt of they were neither philosophers nor liter natural cognition against supression by Rav S.R. Hirsch, J"~l. has been put ary critics." faith. Judaism has no revealed religion In -Mendelssohn to Hofrat Michaelis, Goettingen. the Christian interpretation of the term. It by some uninformed historians In Mendelssohn's Collected Writings Vol. V, p.505. has Divine laws, commandments, pre· juxtaposition to Mendelssohn. After "The character of some difficult psalms cepts, maxims, instructions about the will all, Hirsch translated the Chumash is such that you can read into them what of G-d, but ii has no dogmas, no doc into German; so did Mendelssohn. ever you like, presumably because we do trines, no universal truths. These the Hirsch, like Mendelssohn, advocated 22 The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 acquaintance with mundane culture by the Torah Jew. But here we should clearly say a veiyloud ?>1Jn7, a thou sand times so! Rav Hirsch translated HELP WANTED the Chumash into German to teach Ex~(ltive secretarial pqsition available at JheJewish Qbsenrer. Must be his fellow Jews Torah. Mendelssohn did the same to teach his contem excellent. typist, ·word. processing· experience preferred. Excellent poraries the use of the German opportunity for post high school The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 23 Home Attendants needed for housekeeping and personal care for the disabled and homebound good pay and benefits Bora Park, Bensonhurst and flatbush Area full-time live in positions only Project OHR Inc. (Office for Homecare Referral) 1308-40th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11218 (718) 853-2700 David Schaps A NATION OF DEVOURERS ''Devourers" is not the term There are reasons why consump the nation be plentifully supplied usually used; we usually tion is so respectable in America. All with consumers. And so to be a call ourselves "consum of us, today, live by selling something. consumer is no longer a term of ers." Somehow we have gotten in Some sell their own products and opprobrium. We wear the label with ured to that expression, comfortable are called manufacturers; some sell pride. with the idea of defining ourselves other people's products and are as people who consume. We consume called wholesalers or retailers; some wheat. milk, meat. potatoes. We con sell their services and are called WHO IS RICH? sume oil, gas, electricity. We consume either workers or professionals, de wool, cotton, silk, bulls, cows, calves, pending on the services they sell. tis not a pride our rabbis would and who knows what else. That is, Even the farmer no longer lives off share. 'Who is rich?" asked ben perhaps, the nature of the body. But his own land: he farms acres and I Zoma, and we are taught the it is the peculiar nature of the twen acres of one or two crops, sells them, answer at the earliest age: "He who is tieth-centmy American to call him and buys what he needs with the happy with his own lot" (Aoos IV. 1). self a consumer: to define himself as proceeds. We ti:y to teach this lesson to our a hundred-and-fifty-pound machine own children, but deep and powerful In a society so organized, con voices are telling them the opposite. whose purpose is to destroy what sumption is essential. Each of us is others have produced. Once con dependent upon there being others ''Ifyoucouldhaveanythinginthe sumption was the name of a disease; who need what we are selling. It world, what would you wish for?" now we have a Consumers' Union, matters little, indeed, whether the How many times is a child asked this and in some places even a Consum society is capitalist, socialist, com question? Each time he is taught ers' Party.and nobody seems to blush munist, or what you will: modern that the world is full of things he at all. economic battles center on the ques should want-if he only had the· tion of how to divide up the products, imagination to think of them. David Schaps ls an American-born member of a Kolle! in Bnei Brak. His "The Tzaddikim vs. The not whether or not we need them. It "What would you like for your Good Guys" was featured in May '85 JO. is vital to all of our well-being that birthday?" The youngest children The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 25 "'"KJ: thing to the taxi driver, but it has not Y¥ ho is rich? He who is happy with his own made him happy. It cannot make try him happy. lot." We to teach this lesson to our own "My father,'' a Moroccan acquain children, but deep and powerful voices are tance told me, "was a fuller-what telling them the opposite. would nowadays be called a dry cleaner. He had no modem chemi cals, none of the new machinery that are often stumped by this one, but everything-and Indeed, such a man cleans a whole pile of suits in an they soon catch on. They moon In would probably be insulted not to be hour. At best. he could clean about store windows, looking at things given anything. two suits a day. And yet whenever a friend walked in, he always had time that they can ask for for their birth The situation Is, perhaps. more day, for the Afikoman, for Purim to offer him a cup of coffee and talk obvious to one living in Israel. where with him. Today the dry cleaners can for anything. the Old World is no more than a The rabbis explain that when we do In an hour more than my father generation or two away. I ride in could do In a week. Have you ever speak of Hashem "wanting" some taxis on occasion and listen to the thing, we are speaking only meta seen one with the time to offer you a driver expostulate on how terrible cup of coffee?" phorically: "we want something" Im the situation is, how hard It is to live plies a lack, and Hashem, of course. on what he makes. I wonder whether lacks nothing. When I heard this to be amused, angry, or just sad. I do CREATING THE NEED argument. I could follow it, but it was not mean to cast aspersions on the a new idea to me. For the first twenty relative justice of cabdrivers' sala ''Before the coming of the years of my life, I had become used to ries: but I know that his grandfather, Messiah,'' says the Tal the idea that a person wanted things in Europe, North Africa, or the Mid mud, "arrogancewillgrow even ifhe lacked nothing. When, as a dle East, lived In a place where he mighty . . . and the truth will be child, I was told that President traveled by donkey or by wagon. per absent." The need to advertise one's Roosevelt had called for "freedom formed hard physical labor, lived in wares was recognized many genera from want." I could not Imagine the shadow ofstarvation-and would tions ago, but it was left for the twen what that might mean. never have contaminated his lips tieth century to fix the matter as a "What can you give the man who with the kind oflanguage his grand principle: the seller does not really has everything?" I have never heard son uses to vent his rage at not being have to produce anything for which I it suggested that there is no need to able to afford an air-conditioner. The have any need: all he needs is for me give anything to a man who has consumer society has given every- to think that I need his product. He may do this in various ways: he may pretend to be selling something that he is not ("Buy Krlspy Krinkles and win an all-expenses-paid tour to AN URGENT REMINDER Bulgaria"), he may claim for his pro FROM ducts qualities that It does not have ("New, Improved"), he may pretend that your own property has lost its CHEVRA DOR YESHORIM value ("Trade In your old 1986 model"), or-most insidious of all YOUNG PEOPLE OF MARRIAGEABLE AGE MUST BE TESTED he may try to arouse In you wants in order to prevent the scourge of Tay-Sachs disease from striking the next that you did not have ("Don't you generation, in accordance with the directives of the Gedolei Hadar. wish you were a blonde?"), The dan SCHOOLS and YESHIVOS: gerous factor In all of these Is not the Please call 718-384-2332 if you are direct message; go ahead-buy Krlspy Krlnkles, if they're kosher interested in having testing done for students. (and if they are not, wait a few Genetic counseling is also available. months and somebodywill be selling Call for an appointment: Kosher Krinkles). The dangerous (718) 384-6060, (914) 783-1370, (914) 425-4466 factor is the Implication that the No fee. Confidentiality assured. need that they can fulfill is a need that you have. !tis not stated directly, it is just assumed; and there is no CHEVRA DOR YESHORIM, INC. surer way to bypass a person's criti 33 Spencer Street, Brooklyn, NY 11205 cal facilities and put foreign values into his mind. 26 The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 l'tiv~t~~nSl•~Uon,.p·· The biggest danger of consumerism is not >). . ~~fil 'fl!.t 1\;VJ\f (JTA) .. J'rjvakcon epicureanism, but apikorsus. ~~pliol)j11 ls.rael ro~byU ~~nt .eer 911pit11in 1986 ~!houghprivat~ tional Pork Institute, funded by pork member a Jetter I read some years ljll:OJ!I~ ~!In¢ bythf~.~r~nt farmers, searches day by day for new ago in an English newspaper. The · ll,f\d pul!li\l J;(lll8111l1J1tion. 'ras.. dllW!l uses for its product, inventing un writer-I have no reason to believe l!Y,/l~~~1lt, ~rding to !11e(;en- dreamt-of ways to sell us what we she was Jewish-began by saying . t9\l· The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 27 perform acts of chessed. He can The consumer society has given everything pray. He can bring up a family of G-d-fearing Jews. He can do impor to my complaining companion, but it has not tant and even earth-shaking (per made him happy. It cannot. haps more correctly, earth-holding) things, ifhe can only keep his mind free of the idea that he is here to the party, be attractive, be a new you. slogan that I remember from my consume. Decency does not allow me to des youth. I don't know how many L&M's The Jew eats food, indeed, but he cribe in detail-as the poor girl's it sold; but what a crime that it con does not consume; he is never al mother did-how daring led to de vinced millions of young men and lowed to consume. To consume baucheiy, alcohol to drugs, until the women that "living" meant smoking means to devour the item and leave girl, only twenty-four at the time of a cigarette-or, If you were too smart nothing behind. The Jew chooses a the letter, was so thoroughly des for that. at least something similar. kosher animal; slaughters it accord troyed physically and mentally that IN THE CONSUMER SOCIETY ing to the Torah; blesses Hashem there was no hope of her ever being over the slaughtering, before he eats able to work at a job, much less get onsumerism is not some it, and after he eats It. The Jews does married. I do not necessarily share thing from which we can run not consume; he is metakken the the values of a mlddleclass English C away. Our economy, our so item, raising It to a higher plane. woman, but I was distressed to see a ciety, runs on it, and none of us have What was a mindless animal has young girl turned into a vegetable the resources to live without it become a praise for Hashem; what while her parents looked on power Indeed, there would be no special was a silicon chip has become a lessly. I was Infuriated to consider merit for a Jew to become a subsist device to ensure that he prays on that the people who had sold her the ence farmer. As his grandfather told time; what was a salaiy check has chintzy values that ruined her life my brother-in-law when the latter become a source for tzedakka; what had done so in order to sell her a few toyed with the idea of taking over was an hour off has become an hour pennies' worth of perfume and grandpa's farm, "I worked most of of Torah. We are not here to con makeup. my life to pay off the mortgage to the sume, we are here to raise the physi There Is no limit to the distortion bank. I think you can do something cal world to a higher plane. We con of values that the consumer society better with your time.'' The Jew can sume the physical item in the pro can create. "Live, live, live modern! certainly do something better with cess. But we must never let ourselves Smoke an L&M!"-to give just one his time. He can learn Torah. He can become a nation of devourers.D A little Yerushalayim Grows in Brooklyn When Yeshivas Mir ofYerushalayim Yeshiva and Roshei Yeshiva. opened an office in Brooklyn, something From Maine to California, Mir unexpected happened. Not only did the Yerushalayim alumni began to surface, to office immediately help to support the volunteer support and to renew old ties. Yeshiva financially, but a new kesher was If you once learned in The Mir in created, bridging Eretz Yisroel and America, Yerushalayim,please don't be a stranger. and Talmidim of years gone by with their Contact our new office in Brooklyn. Yeshivas Mir Yerushalayim KEEP IN TOUCH. 1441 52nd Street, Brooklyn, New York 11219 (718) 435-3297 28 The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 Rabbi Yissochar Dov Loriner TISIIAB)\V A ''Moed" of Redemption AWESOMELY HONEST therefore are permitted to employ these attributes in our tefillos. They were thus incorporated into the opening n Eicha, the Book of Lamentations, Tisha B'Av is paragraph of the Amida, the silent prayer we say three described as a "Moed," a term that literally means times daily.At the time of the destruction of the first Beis I "appointed time." usually connoting a festival. In Hamikdash, however, Yirmiyahu HaNavi saw that the fact, because of its standing as a Moed, we do not say nations were behaving in a frivolous manner in the "Tachanun "on that day (ShulchanAruch, Orach Chaim Makom Hamikdash (the Temple grounds). so he felt 559:4). At first glance this is rather difficult to compre compelled to delete the word "nora"-where was the hend. Our mourning for the destruction of the Beis awe? ... Daniellaterperceived the pains ofgalusand the Hamikdash reaches its peak on TishaB'Av, and it seems fact that Kial Yisroel was subjugated to the control of a out of place to call this day a "Moed" celebrated by not foreign power. G-d's might was not readily apparent, and reciting Tachanun. Perhaps we can gain an insight into consequently he left out the word "gibor-mighty." In this paradox by taking note of other instances of hala time, the Anshei Knesses Hagadola reinstituted the chic expressions of emotions. original expression (nusach)because they reasoned that The Mishna (Brachos 54a) states that one is obliged to the 'gevura "of G-d is manifest by the fact that He grants say a blessing for the seemingly evil occurrences we expe erech apayim-He is slow to anger-in dealing with evil rience just as we bless G-d for good tidings. For happy men. while they are subjugating His children and issuing events, we say "Hatov v'hameitiv-He is good and does evil decrees against them; His control of His wrath is good," while for the other type of occasions we recite supreme, and the term is in place. Similarly. the attribute "Dayan haemes-the true judge." of "nora" is perceived by the fact that Kial Yisroel Every word spoken in our blessings and prayers was survived the onslaught of the numerous nations that selected with precision. The Gemora (Yoma 69b) relates attempted to annihilate us at the time of the Churban that Moshe Rabbeinu described G-d as "Hagadol Hagi (Yoma 69b and Rasht, ibid). What stopped them. if not bor v'hanora-great. mighty and awesome" and we fear of G-d ! "Nora," too, was restored to our tefillos. The Gemoraconcludes that Yirmiyahu and Daniel had deleted these two words from the original text because RabbiLorlner, amemberoftheAhaba VachvaKollel in Brooklyn, isa regular columnist for the Ohr HaKollel, a Torah periodical published seasonally by they knew that since G-d is the epitome of truth, one can Zelrei Agudath Israel. only pray before Him in a manner in which one's words The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 29 do not contradict one's feelings. Tefilla is communica tion for the geula to come. Because we have been suffer tion between man and G-d, and it Is well-known that "the ing through such a horrendous gal us, we will appreciate seal of Hakadosh Barach Hu is Emes." It therefore the glory and magnificence of the impending geula all behooves a person that the words he utters when he the more, for the more bitter the galus, the greater the communicates directly with G-d not be contradicted by magnitude of the geula that follows. his feelings and thoughts. For this reason, Yirmiyahu The interconnection of gal us and geula is indicated in and Daniel had felt compelled to leave out these attrib MidrashRabbah (Parshas Vayeishev. 85:1 ): "Before the utes in their tefillos. They realized that the anguish they birth of the first oppressers of the Jewish people, the final felt could not be in harmony with these particular words redeemer was born." G-d was preparing the progenitor of If they were used in tefilla. Onlywhen the words could be the final geula In the initial stage of the first gal us. Yoseif understood In a manner consistent with our emotions, was being sold as a slave to be transported to Egypt, could they be restored. ushering in the first phase of that first galus. At that By the same token, even though we are aware of the time, G-d was planting the seeds of the first geula by principle "All that G-d does is for the best"-implying arranging the union ofYehuda and Tamar. The sefartm that never is justice harsh-we cannot, in our present tell us that the galus of Mitzrayim is the root of all state, recite "Hatov v'hameitiv" on the seeming misfor subsequent exiles, and the Geula Ha'asida-the ulti tunes that we encounter. Our feelings would not be In mate redemption-is the culmination of all the subjuga harmony withour words, and we are therefore obliged to tions of creation, spanning the entire continuum from recite the Bracha of "Dayan haemes" in those instan Adam Harishon until the eve of that final redemption. ces, praising G-d as a true Judge. Therefore, the Midrash emphasizes that the seeds of geula were already being sown at the initial stages of the SEEING LIGHT THROUGH DARKNESS first galus, to indicate that galus and geula are one continuously interlinking chain of events, following a hlomo Hamelech says in Koheles (2:13), "I have definite sequence. seen the advantage of wisdom over folly like the Sadvantage oflight over darkness."Wisdom is prop INSIGHT THROUGH RETROSPECT erly discerned when it is contrasted with foolishness (see Metzudas David ibid). Similarly, light is truly appre famous case in point illustrating this principle ciated because we also experience its absence, in dark can be found in a commentary by the Chasam ness. This holds true in the abstract sense, as well. A Sofer (in his Sefer Taras Moshe on Parshas Ki The Maharal of Prague opens his Sefer Netzach Yis Siso). When Moshe Rabbeinu pleaded with G-d to reveal roel with a description of galus serving as a prepara- His "face" to him, G-d replied: "You will see My back, but The next time you go into a Jewish book & record store, ask for THE BEST OF JEP No Jewish home A beautiful cassette tape with 11 of the best should be without it. songs from the original 4 JEP Records Available in Hebrew bookstores, including selected variety stores and Someday, Nikolai, Reach Out, supermarkets in Brooklyn, Queens, Ani Ma'amin and Benjy. Far Rockaway, etc. You'll be glad you did, and you'll be helping If you wish to sell it in your store the Jewish Education Program at no risk to you-call at the same time. Mr. Markowitz (718) 387-0164 30 The Jewish Observer, Summer 1987 not My face." The Chasam Sofer explains this dialogue as a request by Moshe that G-d reveal the plan by which SINGLE & DOUBLE BREASTED He governs the events of history. for there are numerous MENS' SUITS phenomena that we experience that are inexplicable to * * us when they occur. In G-d's reply (says the Chasam SQfer), He indicated that only after much time has SILBIGER'S elapsed will people understand in retrospect how all the details fit together to bring about the desired result • Slacks * Rainwear perceiving Him through His back, so to speak. Megillas ' All Wool Coats ' Sports Jackets Esther is the book of Scripture that serves as a classic illustration of this principle. All the events recounted in Unbelievable Prices the Megillah-the killing of Vashti, the letters sent by 1769 51 St., Brooklyn, NY (718) 854-1196 Achashveirosh, the selection of Esther, and the plot of Daily 4:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.; Sunday All Day Bigsan and Teresh-all seem to be isolated details when Silbiger Suits You Best viewed narrowly. As the events of the Megillah reach their conclusion years later, however, we see that through the Hashgacha (Providence) all of these unrelated minor details served in key roles in bringing about the ultimate yeshua. BNor6ii~v,~}~~M,~~¥~~~w6t.Y~~ And so will itbewith the presentgalus.At the present, inl;fA)'lTVJ!Q~. it is impossible to understand all the various happenings and how they are leading to the ultimate tikkun. When ·. JERU~~;JSRt\it.' the final destination is reached, however, we will perceive Offei-$: . • how all these tribulations and misfortunes will have con •• 1ntl!ll~\~l!~1!1'1~a#\~~&~~hfrpsi~~ tributed to the advent of the geula. " ·: P11Jph11~i~,9n_.Mi\1!11>t(;._9ti'!r!!cter. ..: .. ··••····. One may say, then, that the beginning of the galus "'·· J'er~on~l&-}\'~f The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 31 ArtScroll offers a marvelous summer menu of learning and reading THY BROTHER'S BLOOD JERUSALEM GEMS You'll be proud and angry when you read this It's been a long time since you've read such book. It's the documented, carefully researched a loveable, heartwarming and inspiring book. story of Orthodox hatzalah activity against The scion of one of the great families of Establishment resistance during the Holocaust. Jerusalem tells great stories about every day A noted historian with a host of never-before people in the Jerusalem of several generations published research shows us the greatness of ago. This book is a treat for young and old. such genuine heroes as Rabbi Aharon Kotler, by Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Sonnenfeld Rabbi Avrohom Kalmanowitz, Rabbi Eliezer hardcover $10.95 paperback $7.95 Silver, Rabbi Gedaliah Schorr, Moreinu Yaakov ANATOMY OF A SEARCH Rosenheim, Elimelech Tress, the Sternbuchs and A fascinating look at the baa! teshuvah many others. And he reveals the shocking story movement through the eyes of Akiva (Kevin) of how the Roosevelt administration and Jewish Tatz, a cultured, perceptive South African "leaders" tried to block them every step of the surgeon who found his way to Torah life. These way. thoughtful, insightful stories are a revelation for by Dr. David Kranzler everyone, whatever the extent of his Torah hardcover $15.95 paperback $12.95 education. hardcover $9.95 paperback $6.95 'H t1>1J>i1 ,,:a "T I I CHRONICLES For the next generation or more, this will be THE STORY OF REB BARUCH BER THE commentary on the most perplexing sefer The story of the Kamenitzer Rosh Yeshiva, Reb in Tanach. Maran Hagaon Harav Kamenetzky Baruch Ber Lebovitz, and his son-in-law Reb ':i'':n and n"'m:in':>, Maran Hagaon Harav Reuvein Grozovsky, who was head of the Mordechai Gifter x"o•':>111 said years ago that this Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah in America. should be a priority ArtScroll project. Six years by Rabbi Tzvi Zev Arem in the making, this work does justice to their hardcover $10.95 paperback $7.95 confidence. MISHNAH SANHEDRIN by Rabbi Moshe Eisemann The newest tractate in the magnificent Overviews by Rabbi Eisemann with ArtScroll Mishnah Series, a worthy addition to Rabbi Nosson Scherman a distinguished series. edited by Rabbi Yehezkel Danziger by Rabbi Matis Roberts hardcover $24.95 paperback $21.95 hardcover $16.95 paperback $13.95 Available from your local bookseller or direct from publisher: Mtforah..Jc/!u£~ tiiJ 1969 Coney Island Ave. I Brooklyn, NY 11223 I (718) 339-1700 Direct mail: Please add $1.95 per order for postage and handling; NYS residents add appropriate sales tax. Israeli distributor: J. Grossman-Mesorah Mafitzim I Rechov Harav Uziel 117 I Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem BOOKS FOR OUR CHILDREN OLOMEINU GEMS, Stories for All Year Round, by THE FATEFUL MISSION and THE PARNAS, by Meir Rabbi Beryl Merling (Mesorah Publ.. Brooklyn, 1987, H: Baram, translated by Esther van Handel, illustrated by $10.95. S: $7.95). Tirza Peleg and Aharon Shevo respectively (Feldheim, N.Y., 1987, H: $9.95, S: $6.95). The eighth volume of exciting and inspiring stories is These two historical novels are a most valuable addi drawn from the pages of Olomein!L Compiled by Esther tion to Jewish juvenile literature. Their plots are very well Merling. illustrated by Yosef Dershowitz, and designed developed. the translation is excellent, and the themes by Sheah Brander, this volume fully lives up to the will stir the hearts of the readers (glossaries are included standards of this series and of ArtScroll work in general. for the benefit of those puzzled by Hebrew terms). The At the same time it has a poignancy all its own: the stories Pamas is set in the period of the crusades and deals with in this volume-which range across the entire Jewish the martyrdom of the Kehillos of that time. While this is, year-were all written by one of the pioneers of Jewish of course, a rather familiar theme, The Fateful Mission juvenile literature, the unforgettable Reb Beryl Merling centers on a less well-known topic-the work of the Baa J"l and most of them appeared in the early years of Olo lei Tosefos and the efforts to save treasured Torah meintL The stories included are of varied types; some manuscripts from being burned by the civil authorities. have a historic setting, some are set in the contemporary These books are of particular value as supplementary world, and still others are fantasies. designed to make an reading for youngsters in Jewish history classes. Very educational point and requiring perhaps a little more often, much more can be learned about the spirit and guidance for the young reader. All of them, however, will happenings of the past from historical novels such as keep his interest, at the same time that they will make these (and the classics of Lehman. Schachnowitz, and him (or her) think. others) than from the most elaborate lectures. The Jewish Observer, Summer 1987 33 JERUSALEM GEMS, by Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Son nenfeld. illustrated by YosefDershowitz(Mesorah Pub!., Brooklyn, 1987, H: $10.95, S: $7.95). Here is another volume in the ArtScroll Youth Series which is also devoted to Jerusalem-but its stories are for children somewhat older. The author is a master storyteller, and in the pages of his book there come alive the great and the little people of oldtime Jerusalem. Through their trials, tribulations, and triumphs, the young reader is given an inspiring insight into their lives-full of Torah, faith and trust in G-d, under the difficult conditions of Turkish rule in the Holy City. I GOT MY JOB There is no wearisome moralizing, but the message comes across very clearly even while the stories provide THROUGH lively entertainment. p10jcct COPE THE MENTCHKINS MAKE SHABBOS, by Chaya Leah Rothstein, illustrated by Ruth Perlstein (Feldhelm, New A DIVISION OF AGUDATH ISRAEL OF AMERICA York, 1986, $2.95). JOIN THE MANY YUNGELEIT WHO This is another book In the popular Rlmon series of HAVE FOUND CAREERS THROUGH storybooks for the younger set. The story of two children making Shabbos for their mother, presented in well OUR FREE PLACEMENT CENTER flowing rhymes, will impress and enthuse the young audience for which it Is meant. CALL (212) 363-5660 Offices located in BoroPark, Flatbush and Manhattan THE STORY OF REB YISRAEL SAi.ANTER, by Rabbi Shimon Finkelman, illustrated by Yosef Dershowitz and designed by Sheah Brander (Mesorah Pub!., Brooklyn, 1986, H: $10.95, S: $7.95). YESHIVA BIRKAS REUVEN This is a worthy new addition to the biographies of 1221 Ave. S, Brooklyn Gedolei Yisroel that have previously appeared In the ArtScroll Youth Series. Rabbi Israel Salanterwas not only a towering Torah personality, but was at the vortex of all POST HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAMS the currents and Issues, spiritual and material, that beset Torah Jewry during his lifetime, from within and Personal attention • Full-time Rebbeim without. In particular he played a crucial role in both the Three Sedorim • Dormitory Facilities battle to strengthen the innerfiberofreligiousJewryand 0 In the struggle with the Haskalla over the souls of those SEMICHA PROGRAM drifting away from Torah. Rabbi Finkelman has told the story in a way that will compel the attention of the reader Chulim/Yoreh Dean Shiurim and make the personality and teachings of Rabbi Israel Practical halacha truly come alive. Considering the complexity of the issues 0 dealt with, this book probably demands somewhat more TAHARAS HAMISHPACHA PROGRAM advanced readers than some of the other biographies In Hilchos Nidah Shimush in maros this series. In the beginning of the book, the author brings the list of the 13 character traits "enumerated and defined" by Harav Shamshon Brodsky, Rosh Hayeshiva Rabbi Israel for purposes of self-improvement; it has Harav Asher Zimmerman, Yoreh Deah been suggested, however, that this list was not originally compiled by Rabbi Israel but-in the devious ways of For information, call Rav Wikler: literary transmission-came to him from non- 34 The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 MY SPECIAL FRIEND, by Floreva G. Cohen. with pho THEARTSCROLL YOUTH HAGADDAH (Mesorah Pub!., tographs by George Ancona (Board of Jew. Ed., N.Y., Brooklyn, 1987, H: $13.95, S: $11.95). 1986, H: $19.95, S: $5.95). This book, which appeared just in time for this last This slim book. with its excellent photographs, deserves Pesach, is an outstanding achievement. It is the product special attention for it tackles an issue which children's of the entire ArtScroll team-the translation and com books rarely dare to touch, the handicapped child. Writ· ments are by Rabbis Nasson and Yitzchok Zev Scher ten for the younger reader-the typeface is large, the man, the full-color illustrations by Yosef Dershowitzand words simple-it tells the story of Jonathan, a Down's David Sears, the editing by Rabbis Meir Zlotowitz and Syndrome child, and his leading Adon Olam in shul on Avie Gold. and the design bears the unmistakable mas· Shabbos morning (the photographs were taken on a terful stamp of Sheah Brander-and the end result is a Sunday morning at Young Israel of Jamaica Estates, work that will warm the heart of every child, younger or whose members volunteered to reenact a Shabbos ser older, and of the adults as well. The translations and vice). The parent or teacher will find this an excellent comments are easily understood yet not overly simpli vehicle for introducing children to the problems of the fied, the illustrations are magnificent, the directions and handicapped in a sensitive and positive manner. explanations of the Seder procedure are easily followed and clearly set off from the text of the Hagaddah. With· out any doubt, this work will become a feature at Seder THE GIFT THAT GREW, by Yalfa Ganz, iilustrated by tables all over the world. Harvey Klineman (Feldheim, N.Y., 1987, $8.95). The theme of this attractive book is respect for G-d's .KATZ FAMILY HQTf!l. gifts to us-represented here by a shade-giving tree and the wrong we do when we dispoil these gifts. The message is eloquently conveyed, as the reader is shown LAKE HOOSE the thoughtless damage done to the tree which forces the We are Open P8$sover thru Succos father to cut it down (but why "early next morning, long before the sun was up", presumably before davening?). Enjoy a tradition;!! atmosphere 1;1midst over. 200. lovely Our children live in a world of plenty and, all too often, rolling acres ... with delicious glall kosher meals and treat their environment-material and man-made-with .excellent accommoda!ions. Cholov Yisroel e. Glatt meats, no consideration at all. This book will serve as a valuable .ind.oor . poohSauna-Whirlpool~separate swimming, a Kosher L'Mehadrin house, a hotel as :warm and fri!ln!lly warning. and as reliable.in Kashrutoasyourown home. Wr.iteorcall for prochure & rates. THE TEN TESTS OF ABRAHAM, by Shoshana Lepon, illustrated by Sigmund Forst (Judaica Press, 1987 . H: LAKE HOUSEcHOTEL $7.95, S: $5.95). \VC)ODRIDGE,N.V. t.2789 (914) 434-71!00 or (212) 923-6600 This is a beautifully illustrated and sensitive account, NOW BOOKING GROUP PACKAGES in rhyme, of the ten trials that our Father Abraham had to undergo. The book follows Rashi in its presentation of the ten happenings, and avoids the pitfalls that face ------, illustrated books dealing with biblical figures-thus, e.g., IBM SOFTWARE BY TZVI ' the biblical personalities are always shown from the back ' in order to avoid the presumptuousness of giving them ' specific features. All in all, a very impressive book. CALENDAR - Ideal tor fi9urin9 out Bar-Mitzva or Yahrzeit dates. Easy to use. ' Converts any date from 1-lebrew to English ' and vice versa, includes day of the week. ' A HANUKKIYAH FOR DINA, by Floreva G. Cohen, illus weekly Sidra on Shabbos. the Molad on ' trated by Daniela Rosenhouse (Board of Jewish Educa Rosh Chodesh. S20.- ' tion, N.Y., 1980, $3.25 ). ' ALEF - Prints large Hebrew or English ' This is an exchanting story of a little girl wanting to letters and numbers across the paqe. May ' be used to print siqns. $20.-· ' light Chanukah lights like all the other members of her ' family. Incidentally. it also teaches the young readers Programs run on IBM PC, x~r. AT, or ' how one can improvise a Chanukah Menorah. The name compatibles with 64K of memory. ' Hanukkiyah is not one that we would choose, and cus Hershel Edelstein (914) 425-3073 ' toms differ as concerns girls lighting chanukah lights: ' 4 Albert Drive. Monsey, New York 10952 ' but the spirit of Chanukah is well conveyed, and the ' story and iilustrations have a real charm. ------' The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 35 HURRY, FRIDAY IS A SHORT DAY, by Yeshaya Gold, with photographs by Yaakov Harlap (Mesorah Publica the beanstalt tions, Brooklyn, 1986, H: $8.95, S: $4.95). This is a delightful account of a sweet five-year old boy's Erev Shabbatin the Old City ofJerusalem where he Where every man lives. Thewayoflifeofalittle Chederboy, and the mitzvos he has learned to do, are beautifully described and illus and young man should trated in this book, which is sure to delight the children be outfitted in the for whom it is written. Parents should be ready to answer one or two questions that their more alert offspring may season's finest. ask, e.g., how there could be a picture of a Shabbos table with the chandles already lit? (Ifs simple, Ima was already mekabel Shabbos, Abba was not.) Open all summer with all new large selection. SEARCH MY HEART, by Sarah Bimhak (Maznaim Our personal attention guarantees Puhl. Co., Brooklyn, 1986, $13.00 ). · a perfect fit every time. Trenchcoats, Suits, Slacks, Shirts, and more This exciting novel centers on the fate of a child that appears to be modelled on Yosselle Schumacher, the little Loaded with values and selection boy that was kidnapped from his home years ago to save him from an irreligious upbringing. The protagonist of 1314 Avenue P, Brooklyn, NY 11229 the stoiy is fifteen year old Laura who comes from a 718-627-8724 totally irreligious family but, in the process of searching Call for summer hours. for the kidnapped child, comes to discover and adopt We UPS to camps and yeshivos. Torah. The author deeply penetrates into, and effectively portrays, the life and heartsearching of this American teen-ager. However, this veiy quality of the book also raises a problem: we may be hesitant to give children brought up in a sheltered Torab atmosphere such an insight into a world and lifestyle that is fortunately alien to them. This is a question that parents have to deter mine for themselves before giving this book to children, Famous especially younger ones. The Dairy Restaurant TARGET 613, 222 West 72nd Street (212) 595-8487 an educational board game produced by Simcha Friedman Enterprises (Brooklyn, 1984, $10.00). Cholov Yisroel • Shomer Shabbos Under the Supervision of K'hal Adath Jeshurun To be more exact. this is two games in one, geared to Open for 13reakfast, Luncheon and Dinner players ofdifferent age levels and preparation. The easier level is suitable for children as young as six years, while Catering • Parties • Meetings many of the mitzva questions, in the higher level, are quite difficult and veiy challenging. Two to four players can play at one time, and the game can be played on Shabbos, with numbers provided as substitutes for the dice. While the game ostensibly deals with space stations and secret missions, it aims to make the players think and learn about mitzvos; such concepts as Ahavas Yis roel and yetzer hora also are featured. A great deal of thought and effort has gone into the design of this game. It should not only be veiy welcome to the parents of restless and bored youngsters but prove a valuable tool to teach children of all backgrounds about Torah and mitz vos; indeed, a special glossaiy sheet is included. (At the danger of being considered nit-picking, this reviewer wondered why "marching in the Lag B'Omer parade" was included in the list of festival observances!)O 36 The Jewish Obseruer. Summer 1987 Michael Robinson CELEBRATING THE SIYUM HASHAS OF THE MISHNA YOMIS aid Abaye, 'When the great Mishna Yomis plan began as one of rabbis complete a Masechta I the many innovations that Rabbi S make a holiday for the rabbis" Aryeh Zvi Framer '""· the former (Shabbos 11 b). The Maharshanotes Rabbi of Kozhiglov, introduced to that while the great rabbis complete Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, when he the Mesechta, even those of lesser became its Rosh Yeshiva. The Mish stature share in the experience and na Yomis complemented the Oaf Ha rejoice in the siyum (completion). Yomi-the famed folio-a-day program This year on 23 Tammuz (Monday, originated by Rabbi Framer's prede July 20, 1987), thousands of Jews in cessor, Rabbi Meir Shapiro J">t. The the United States, Israel and Europe Mishna program added Sedarim are expected to participate in a Zeraim, Taharos and Meseches siyum of the Mishna Yomis. The Eduyos, tractates that contain no next day, the study of the Mishna Gemora, and had been neglected by Yomiswill commence its eighth cycle students of the Dqf Yomi. A defi of Shas with Meseches Berachos. ciency in Torah study was now effec The present Mishna Yomis pro tively remedied. gram, which celebrated its fortieth This was expanded after the des anniversary this past Shavuos truction of World War II by Rabbi (5707/1947-5747/1987), has its Yonah Stencel, who was determined roots in pre-War Poland. An earlier to rally Klal Yisroel to the Mishna Yomis as a living monument to our Micboel Robinson is a grandson of Rabbi Yonah martyred brethren. Why Mishnayos? Stencel ?":::n, founder of the present-day Mishna Mishna neshama Halacha Yomis. He learns In Mesivta Torah Because and Vodaath, in Brooklyn. Rabbi Yonah Stencel (soul) share the same Hebrew let- The Jewish Obseroer, Summer 1987 37 ters-only they are transposed. (See one·s finger-tips. Moreover, the lan gram is being maintained. the poem written by Rabbi Stencel.) guage is concise and pure, worthy of Mishna study is a learning expe The schedule of two Mishnayos a the extra effort of memorization. rience that can be enriching to tal day allows the cycle of Shas to be The international Mishna and midei chachamimand novices alike. completed in about six years. Halacha Yomis Program, head It is also a means of ushering in Of course, there are practical ad quartered in Tel Aviv, sponsors in Moshiach, for the Midrash teaches: vantages to Mishna study, whereby Israel regional and national Mish "Only in the merit of Mishna study a complete unit of thought is encap nayos b 'al peh examinations in will all the exiles be gathered." suled in each Mishna, allowing one which thousands of children take to cover a meaningful amount of part; the selection of Mishna Cham Kaddishfor yourfather you did not Mishnayos in a space of only a few pions (Chasnei HaMishnaJ; the say. minutes. But there is much more to award of the Mishna Pennant A monument on your mother's grave be gained, or else why did Rabbi (Degel HaMishna) to the educa you did not place, Moshe Feinstein, J"~t. long make it a tional institution distinguishing it TheirYahrzeits you will never know. practice to review several chapters of self in Mishna instruction; the Mishnayoseveryday, as he put away founding of evening yeshivas and You cannot prostrate yourself on his tefillin? Why did Rabbi Yaakov workplace study sessions; and pub yourfather's grave. KamenetzkyJ"~t. always encourage lication of cassette recordings. In On your mother's, you will never the study of Mishnayos, even urging Zurich and London, telephone shiu shed a tear. memorization? As Reb Yaakov rim (lectures) are available. On the No shiva did you sitfor them stressed so often, mastery of Mish American scene. the program was nayos puts the general knowledge promoted by Mr. and Mrs. Charles No Keria did you rend on which the Talmud is based on Batt, n"Y, in whose memory the pro- Millions qf yourfellow Jews were gassed or burnt to ashes How can you remember them? ITHE DRAWING BOARDI How can you honor their memory? Enter your shul! Join the congrega- Get your business on The Drawing Board and watch a great idea take shape. tion in the study qf the Mishna A logo, label, brochure, catalog, direct mail, packaging design Yomis! develops before your eyes. Commemorate the Kedoshim qf the RACHAEL KRAWIEC ASSOCIATES Holocaust Recite the Kaddish and the prayer CATSKILL LOCATION CITY OFFICE for their neshamos." 0 Dairyland Road 918 Avenue M Woodridge, NY Brooklyn, NY tv/lth thestartofthecurrentMishna Yomiscycle. (914 I 434-2962 1718) 376·2056/2335 free telephone shiurim by distinguished talmidei chachamim are available in New York City. in Custom Invitations vy RKA for all your occasions English {718/435~8868) and in Yiddish (718/435~ 2727). The MiShna shiur is followed by one on CALL NOW Halacha Yomls. Luchos (study calendars) are YOU WONT MISS A DEADLINE! available without charge by writing to 1880 47th Street. Brooklyn, New York 11204. Not just a cheese, a tradition ... Haolam, the most trusted name in Cholov Yisroel Kosher Cheese. A reputation earned through 25 years of scrupulous devotion to quality and kashruth. With 12 delicious varieties. Under the strict Rabbinical supervision of K'hal Adas Jeshurun, NY. I Haolam, a tradition you'll enjoy keepmg. Hao allL Cholov Yisroel 1HllRMBROS \XORLDCl-ffESECO INC NE\\ YClRK N) •111.-...... 38 The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 MAGAZINESParamount Subscr1pt.i.dqs 11159 c11nleoJe:wWJ J'.iptrs &l•la&adru$ • _J,OQO to c.~o;o,se;from ·• New s:J.Jbsc.riptions.and.t:en.~ls.at lar,ge DISCOUNTS CALL CHAVANOW {718)8$1 9698 . ASKABQUJ0UR;SlJP£R.Sf'cECIALPR.1Ct5 fOR'RECEPJJON ROOMS & BUSINESS Sf#}M~ll.Sf/!\HOS PLEASE HELP A boy of a family of 10 souls was hit by a truck. Shomer Shabbos driver was not in· Brotherly Love and Shmittah sured. Boy lost speech, is in wheel chair, mother depressed. Need is great. Kindly issue tax deductible check to Bikur There is an egalitarian undercur· Regarding the latter case the Cha· Cholim Inc. and mail to: rent in Shmi ttah. Picture the wealthy zon !sh comments: "Even though it farmer and the poor sharecropper is possible that one is enabling RABBI A VROHOM who are suddenly both equal in their another Jew to violate a Torah com· BLUMENKRANTZ access to the fruits of the field dur mand, which normally calls for a 814 Caffrey Ave. ing the Sabbatical year. The lease on more stringent approach, to do oth· Far Rockaway, N.Y. 11691 the fields have reverted to their true erwise (i.e., withhold the utensil) owner. And the true owner is the would result in a different failing Creator Himself. that of refraining from acts of kind· Brotherly love also addresses the ness, withholding the ways of peace DIAL A SHIUR laws of Shmittah in unexpected and communal living from them and General Torah Programming ways, as one can surmise from a from ourselves. At worst they are For The Entire Family halachic commentary by the Chazon merely ignorant of the law, and we !sh J"~'· [As poseik (codifier). Tai· are obligated to sustain them and to • Ein Yaakov mudic commentator and inspiring be generous to them-certainly not • Nach leader, the Chazon !sh was probably to create animosity and pariisan· • Halacha more responsible for the spread of ship between us. This would be in • Jewish History observance of mitzvos hatluyos ba· violation of You shall not hate your • Stories Aretz (Land-related mitzvos) than brother in your heart' (Vayikra • Hashkofah anyone else in contemporary Israel.] 19, 1 7) and many other Torah prohi· • Thoughts on the In Hilchos Shviis (14.10), he deals bitions, which are not less stringent Weekly Sedra with the prohibition oflending, leas· than the one that concerns us here e A Study of ing, or selling farming tools and bak· (i.e., Shmittah). The Holocaust ing utensils to people who do not "Thus did Chazal (the rabbis of • Medrash fin Yiddish) honor Shmittah restrictions. The the Talmud) weigh in their scale of e Our Teftlos lender will be facilitating in another's values how far we should go in • Tehillim violation of Torah law, which is in penalizing them, to what degree we • Mishnayos tin Yiddish) itself a violation of: "Do not put a should disengage ourselves from stumbling block before a blind man" them, while avoiding causing them OVER YOUR NEAREST PHONE (Vayikra 19,14), as the Mishna and ourselves to violate even more 24 HOURS A DAY states quite clearly (Shviis 5.6). But stringent mitzvos; and they decided All for just $6 per month and what happens if the would-be lender to forbid selling to them when they a one-time $36 registration fee does not really know how observant are certain to violate Torah prohibi· For infonnation & brochure contac~ the borrower is? To whatever extent tions, and to permit economic and Torah Communications Network one can assume that the borrower social interaction in doubtful cases. 1618·43 St., B'klyn, N.Y. 11204 will use the utensils in a permitted This is the moderate, straight ap· (718) 436·4999 fashion, one may lend them to him. proach.''O The Jewish Observer, Summer 1987 39 to the Jerusalem Mormon Center-it was done long before, when dishonest practices betrayed the questionable motives of Mor mon affinities for Jews. Let us hope the '' '' damage is not irreparable. • • • We wonder what prevents Mayor with and without comment: Kollek from insisting that the Mor mons live up to their agreement and sign the pledge referred to in Dann's ariicle. The Mayor is surely not soft idstream is a monthly mag actively engaging in missionary work in on the PLO, nor is he a closet Chris Israel, despite public assurances that no such azine, published by the tian. Is his hatred for the Charedim M Theodor Herzl Foundation, activities were carried out or contemplated. so intense that he cannot hear the For the Mormons these are pragmatic mea from 515 Park Avenue (a familiar justice of their outcry? Could the $3 address to those who know their way sures; for Israel they mean trouble. For decades the Mormon Church has Million the Mormon Church pres in the corridors of the Zionist power been trying to extend its influence and ented to Kollek's beloved Jerusalem structure). It is not a publication activities in Arab countries; it has consis Fund have blinded him to their where friends of the Jewish State or tently been rejected. Now, paradoxically, the duplicity? ... Must Brigham Young boosters of the beautification of Mormons have been given a new oppor University be a dominant presence Jerusalem are likely to be baited. Nor tunity by an unlikely ally, the State of Israel. in Jerusalem. next door to the He does one encounter fanatical right It is fair to assume the Church will use its brew University campus?O wingers amongst its contributors. vast, deluxe Brigham Young University All the more reason that an expose Study Center in Jerusalem as a base for its on ''The Mormon Church. Israel, and missionary operations throughout the entire the Arabs,'' by Moshe Dann (May region .... The time has come for straight answers '87), should make even the most and full disclosures before the Mormons are MATANA rabid secularist, who automatically allowed to occupy their Center. That may be disregards all Charedi protests the best demonstration or integrity. The against the construction of the controversy surrounding this issue has GALLERY Mormon Youth Center atop Har Ha helped to expose systematic corruption 4906 18th Ave. Tzofim, sit up and take notice. We among a number of prominent city officials, Brooklyn, N.Y. (718) 851-4448 quote here only the opening and now on trial or under indictment; the gov closing paragraphs. The detailed ernment has required the Mormon Church documentation of the Mormon anti to abandon missionary activity in Israel. To date, the Mormons have not responded to Jewish books, Judaica, Taleisim Jsrael campaign is In the ariicle, for these requests. Recently, the Mormons anyone interested in the full story. Mezuzos, personaliz,ed Ta.lis ~ moved into their new center, disregarding a Tefilinba@l,.YannulkasaildChalah formal government decision that required, coverS, rl!Cords and tapes, lucite, ehind a carefully constructed image of among other things, that the Mormons sign silver, semi'preciousstones alUlgold Bfriendship for Israel and Jews, the Mor pledges not to engage in any form of jewelry. mon Church has been covertly courting and missionary activity in Israel (emphasis the fmancing Arab propaganda organizations author's). and pro-PLO support groups, both in its The damage to Mormon-Jewish friend Utah and Israel-based teaching centers, and ship cannot be ascribed to Jewish opposition ALL .i\.T SUPER DISCOUNr. PRICES! CORRECTION REBBE'fZIN.CHANA PEREL KOTLER n"ll . . . My assertion !rt the biographicalartfcle lJ'O, May'87) that the.Rebbet zin.wrote some of the RoshYeshiva's!etters in her own handwriting.In order to save him time, should have ..-earu 1406-45th St. "TlteRebbetzlncomposed certain letters for the Rash Yeshiva accord TEFFILIN, MEZUZOS ing to his guidelines, which he subsequently signed:' SIFREI TORAH 1'he lncldentthat described the Rebbetzln crytng with her neighbors and sharing in.. their suffering, was related after her pettra. We make "house calls'' Rabbi Aryeh Schechter Mrs. Chaya Baumwolspiner 718-851-1637 40 The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 Devora Kramer BUT TEHILLIM? remember the way Bubby would beckon as I stood there pulling Momma's apron strings. "Come. Say Tehillim with me." It meant so much to her. I . . . Tehillim? ... What fills the words and thoughts of Tehillim the Book of Psalms. making it so special? ... 7-Nll'!' nwr.n O'Yl sweet singer of Israel. Why in all generations has a Jews never felt alone with Tehillim in hand? ... O'P' 'n 7-Nll'!' 170 111-David King of Israel is alive! Remember 12 year old Rochela, pariing from her beloved father inAuschwitz?What was that precious gift he gave her as he faintly. but proudly cried. "Keep it close. never let go"? It was David Hamelech 's Tehillim, which pulled Rochela through her bleakest moments. She never felt alone with Tehillim in hand; crying ... praying ... hop ing. It told her of a bright future and of a new tomorrow. There have been many brilliant ariists who have com posed songs. Yet. one remains singled as the "Sweet Sin ger oflsrael." For. when he sang. when he composed song. it was with Ruach Hakodesh, G-d's inspiration and direction; with a breadth of spirit that encompassed the spirit of all Yisroel. The feelings of all human emotions. past. present and future were being expressed. Others sang, but it was of their private feelings they sang. so they expressed themselves in the singular form. David Hamelech knew the ari of lezameir-to sing, lezameir-to prune. His songs are a means of elevation, cutting through and rising beyond the physical realm; Today Rochela is a grown woman with a family of whether it be a feeling of joy "Nl'JN n1Y11'!' mo-I will raise tomorrow. Her lips smile and her heari dances as. with the cup of salvations," or affliction "N>ON rm m>-I joy and nachas, she continues to praise, to softly. but would find trouble." To David all moments are a time for proudly. cry the words of Tehillim striving upward.And yes, David tasted a life infused with Bubby realized. Rochela realizes, that David left us bitterness, hardships and persecution. But all those Tehillim. 150 Psalms. Each song is filled- moments he used for zemer and songs were born. While he sang, he saw beyond the confines of his time. Some with an outpour of thanks, He turned his emotions and thoughts to all tribulations Others with an expression of praise. awaiting the Jew and his nation. They too may face the Some with tears of gladness. same troubles and strive to attain similar goals. There Others with tears of pain. fore he created songs, a source of inner strength to the Some with words of encouragement. Jews. Songs which encourage perseverance through the Others with feelings of hope. dark Galus night. "o't.:1~nn:i 'J"n ... 'n :n\!J:i n1,Yt.:1n ,,v-A song of ascents. When G-d returns the captivity of Zion. All ready to stand as an expression of the thoughts and we will be like dreamers."With a realization of the coming emotions which fill the heari of a Jew. redemption, the Jew discovers that today is all but a Saying Tehillim, one joins in a symphony as the passing dream. David imbued all that Into the sacred orchestra continues to play. "np 77nn nol'!Jn '.lo-Let all words of Tehillim souls praise G-d" ... and as we say the words of Tehillim, Devora Kramer, a Sais Yaakov graduate, lives in Brooklyn. Her grandmother David Hamelech too sings along, for O'P' 'n 7-Nll'!' 170 111! raised a large fam!ly in Williamsburg, with her Tehillim in hand. He lives.D The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 41 IT COSTS $54 TO TAKE ORA OUT OF THE STREETS AND INIDA TORAH-FILLED / .~~·~~ ·"""""""- SUMMER CAMP It's 8 am, Ora's parents have already Harlem ... but you couldn't tell so the street. But then comes the sum left for work, she is JO years old, from the look of the village. If you mer, and everything learned dur and alone with 3 brothers and heard the language spoken on the ing the year is soon forgotten sisters free to roam the dusty, hot street, you'd be really astonished. amidst the open lewdness that per streets of the small rural village in They're speaking Hebrew. - This vades the street. which she lives. On the corners can is Israel? That's why Chinuch Atzmai has be seen about two dozen teenaged It's an Israel rarely seen by the established a 4-week summer pro boys and girls, hanging around. millions of visitors who come here gram for these street children. A They are looking for ways to spend annually. An area as hopeless and program that now runs 175 day the day, looking for trouble. The depressed as any in the backward camps, for the tens of thousands police know the block welL They areas of the world. And it's an area of children attending our schools are here at least once each day dur where Chinuch Atzmai does its - children of our less fortunate ing the summer - breaking up hardest and most lifesaving work. brothers. gang fights, and helping passersby Ora is lucky. During the year she $54 will buy Ora a wonderful 4 unfortunate enough to walk past. attends the Chinuch Atzmai-Torah weeks of summer. It's not too late. This is where Ora and her brothers School where she learns about her Act today. Take Ora out of the and sisters spend the summer. precious Torah heritage and a way terrible streets and into a won No this isn't India, not Pakistan, of life that leads away from the derful, warm, Torah-filled camp not Biafra, not New York City's helplessness and depravity of the environment. HELP US SAY YES ID EVERY CHILD r------Our goal is to reach every Jewish child in 1 TORAHSCHOOLSFORISRAEL every community and settlement in Israel. I CHINUCH ATZMAI I 167 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 • Subsidize a School for a Year $75,000 I 212-889-0606 • Sponsor Prefab Classrooms $10,500 I D Enclosed find my contribution of $ _____ • Playground Facili!ies $3,600 0 Please accept my pledge of $ ______• Nassi Layom $1,800 I • Memorial Plaque $1,000 I Name ______1'JJ.'J l:U!HY/\ m• Child Sponsorship $360 I Address ------• Annual Membership $200 1 City ______• Summer Camp $54 I State Zip ______example for Jewish life and to streng Letters then the Jewish students intellectually and spiritually. To serve all Jewish stu ••••••••••• to the dents implies a commitment to plural ••••••••••• ism. But that very spirit taken to ex ••••••••••• tremes has led a tiny group of Hillel Editor rabbis to conduct mixed marriages ceremonies. Hillers national officials are torn be tween their sense ofJewish correctness and the organizational idealism, which THE HILLEL SCENE: These actions combined would regards Intellectual freedom as one of INTERMARRIAGES? ... certainly be more productive than to Judaism's highest expressions. So Hil PRODUCTIVE CHANGE? write disparaging columns or letters lel headquarters in Washington has to the editor. maintained official silence on the con troversy. But it does prohibit the con To the Editor: RABBI CHAIM CASPER. Director Hillel Foundation qf University ducting of such ceremonies on Hillel Qf Rhode Island, Kingston, R.I. premises. Regarding your Second Looks No problem. A small group of Hillel "B'nai Brith: Keepers of the Coven· directors across the nation-all of them ant?" (JO. Dec .. '86). my perception EDITORIAL RESPONSE: Reform rabbis-regularly use outside is that the oveiwhelming majority of facilities for the ceremonies. Hillel rabbis will not perform inter marriages. To castigate all Hillel pro· Rabbi Casper included a copy of Black then cites Hillel rabbis that fessionals on account of one or two the original article by Edwin Black currently perform intermarriages. people who perform intermarriages that prompted the JO comment. We Until Bnai Brith demonstrates that can only be considered credible if quote the opening paragraphs: even pluralism has limits by dis· you decry all such travesties. Yet in missing any Hillel rabbi that con· seven years of reading your maga Should Hillel directors in America ducts intermarriages-until that zine, I have yet to see you speak out officiate at mixed marriages? B'nai time. it is guilty of tolerating the against our Orthodox brethren who B'rith Hillel Foundations were estab in tolerable. provide gittin over the telephone lished on U.S. campuses to set an -NW (and, in the process, are marbeh mamzerim b'Yisroel), blackmail their spouses for exhorbitant sums of money before they will provide a You'reReadyto Leave HOTLINE get. or provide fraudulent hashga· New York City••• BUT ••• TO JERUSALEM chos. You want to continue to have a In lime of illness, surgery or You indicated that you are "realis· choice ofschools 'vhich offer a high crisis. special prayers will be tic enough to recognize that there quality of Orthodox and secular recited al the Western Wall and are not many Orthodox rabbis serv· education ... at our Yeshiva in Jerusalem. ing Hillel House." There are 92 full· You want your family to experience a CALL 24 HOURS time Hillel foundations and other close knit, warm community dedi· (718) 871-4111 non-Hillel organizations in the Uni· cated to Torah, Avodah and Gemillus ted States. eight area offices and Chassodim. A FREE PUBLIC SERVICE or over 300 part-time counselorships You want to be close to your job or The American Rabbi Meir throughout the country. The Ortho· business in Midtown or lo\ver Man Baal Haness Charity dox population in the field is propor· hattan .. , KOLEL AMERICA tionately greater than the percent· You want excellent hoine value \vith age of Orthodox Jews in the United the lowest real estate taxes in Bergen States. That can be increased ifyour County .. , l<.J.l.ll.lll.1.1.~l=I, readers call their local Hillel and Mishnayoth, Yizkor & .Yorlzeit offer to join the local boards. In ad di· '!HEN ••• observed with a minyon in our tion, they could offer Shabbos and K'hal.Adathjeshurun ofl>aramus, .Yeshiva HeichalRa.bbi Meir Yorn Tovhospitalityand offer to help under the leadership ofRabbi Yechez llaal Haness in Jerusalem. run the local kosher meal plan kel Zweig, may be a solution you (Young Israel, which supports some shou1d consider, CALL programs. does not have the resour call (201) 26.2-0797 (7Jf,J) 87174111 ces to support and/or run all of these or (201) 265-6721 programs). 132 Nassau St.• N.Y .. N.Y, 10038 The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 43 major aspect of the problem is a dis a wedding unless those paying for tortion of priorities, namely, subor the wedding agree to contribute the dinating proper support of Torah amount equal to 10% of the total cost education to improper support of of the wedding to a list of Torah exhibition ofwealth, an effort should mosdos provided by the mesader be made at equity: permitting the kiddushin, payment to be made at lavishness with proportionate sup the wedding to gabbatm appointed port of Torah education. by the mesader kiddushin, who will While there is no kehilla to pro be present to not only collect the WEDDINGS ••• TOO EXPENSIVE? vide enforcement. there is a certain money, but estimate the wedding unique feature at every wedding cost and fix the amount of the con To the Editor: which possesses inherent enforce tribution. Lavishness at weddings in the ment: the mesader kedushin, who This way, there can be a kosher Torah community has come under officiates (so to speak). While hala spoon tn a kosher pot. The wedding increasing criticism, with a simulta cha permits any grown Jewish male makers will have what they want, neous increase in frustration in ways to perform this ritual, most people while institutions that mold the next to bring it under control. Without go to greath lengths, even to resche generation of chassantmand kallos proposing a realistic and enforce dule a wedding date, to accommo will not be neglected. Ifit means that able solution, a suggestion of where date the mesader kiddushin of their a little less is spent on the wedding to start may be in order. choice. Hence, he is in a position to to make funds available for the Those who have the means, and make demands and exact a price. tzedaka, all well and good. And those those who wish to appear as though Perhaps one such personage, or who are not prepared for this Torah they have the means, and those who two or three jointly. would announce tax can avoid it by just doing what follow to avoid being called a nebech, that beginning Rosh Chodesh Elul, halacha requires. and eliminate the would be difficult to restrict. Since a hewill not be mesader kiddushin at lavishness of having a mesader kiddushin of choice. (RABBI) ELKANAH SCHWARTZ ARE YOU MOVING? Brooklyn. N.Y. EXPRESSION AND RESTRICTION IS YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS IN ART AND JUDAICA PRINTED INCORRECTLY ON THE JO MAILING LABEL? To the Edi tor: I have serious reservations regard ing "Geometry and Judaica" in your We need your help to ensure proper delivery of the JO to your home. December issue. Please attach current mailing label in the space below, or print clearly The three examples of geometric your address and computer processing numbers that are printed art you printed were neither art nor above your name on the address label. Torah expressions. There are two types of sterile activ ADDRESS CHANGE FORM ity called "modern art." One is the (affix label here) anarchy in the music of Cage, the motion pictures of Fellini, and the paintings of Miro, et al. These are destructive and decadent because only halfof the artist's "machlokes" was acknowledged. There was intui Print correct (or new) name and address below: tion without restriction, stressing the individual while disparaging so Name ciety. It was like rachamim without Address din; content without form. There was no shared style or frame of City, State, Zip------ reference. The other half of "modern art" is Date Effective ------the opposite; form without content. Please a!lo\v 6-8 weeks for all changes to be reflected on your tnailing label. VVE \VILL NITT BE "Geometric art" is an utterly soul RESPONSIBLE FOR BACK ISSUES l'v!ISSED unless you notify us 8 \veeks prior to your move. less exercise which even easy allu sions to gematria cannot (or should 44 The Jewish Obseroer. Summer 1987 not) disguise. There are no people MISSING: A TOUCH OF here, no longings of men for G-d or of "AIDELKEIT'' G-d for loyalty, no trees. Not even a bug. The living part of creation is by To the Editor: definition excluded from this crip We are very fortunate nowadays to pled art which requires no subtle have so many positive activity groups artistic technique and could be gen for our children. Yet observing the erated by a computer or a kaleido games and the prizes being distrib scope. uted, I noticed that the group leaders 4916 13th Ave., B'klyn, N.Y. 11219 Emphatically, none of the above is often throw the treats at the children. (718) 854-291 l a personal criticism of the Torah As parents, we begin teaching chil Jew producing these images. Just as dren about ""bal tash'chis" at a very there are unpleasant people malting young age. By contrast, throwing the great art, there is the opposite. Your treats teaches disrespect for food, article showed a sincere man who is and pushing and shoving for the FROM FACTORY probably "as full of mitzvos as is a treat could cause young children In pomegranate of seeds." I am confi REPRESENTATIVE the group to get physically hurt. It SAVE!!! dent (and grateful) that his life need also encourages rowdy behavior and n.:nu ir.ntu not reflect his art. rewards the bully. Let's further up One reason that some people ven grade the wonderful world of our erate art with religious zeal is that youth groups with a touch of aidel there is (ideally) a spiritual aspect In keit (sensitivity). . the work and the response. This p>7l 1>NIJ Oi11JN... TzlPPY ZAHAVI N"]Jll N";;n:i 11J011J 111J comes from a fusion of intuition and Brooklyn, Neui York objectivity, so that these two appar 0'll1JPi1 o>l>i >.n.:n >i:ii ))1101 ent opposites join to demonstrate For Practical Assistance in the unity of the cosmos. settling Financial Disputes According to Din Torah in (Our mora de"asra, Rabbi Daniel 11'T'3M '13~11 Lapin, has taught that this is analo LOST& FOUND N.Y. and Vicinify. gous, l'havdil. to quality Gemora Rabbi A.VJ'!>hom Meir Gluck leaming where fractions of truth To announce an object found (914) 356-5572 have been distilled into pure rach Please Call: (718) 436-4999 amimand pure din. The re-assembly To find out if your object was of these apparent opposites allows a found Please Call: 718 438-0592 BIG higher view of truth which is the A Public SBr11ice of Torah Communlcallons intellectual equivalent of true art. So Producers of Olal·A-Oaf APPLE truth is not "absurd" as was claimed, Dlal-A·Shlur. Mlshnah-On-The-Phone COPY & PRINTING but truth does have both rational & Sponsors or Chevra Mlshnayos Bal-Peh CENTER and supra-rational components.) For troubling you with a letter of 87 NASSAU ST artistic cliticism, I might point out NEW YORK, NY 10038 that genuine art demonstrates gad DIGEST OF MEFORSHIM (212) 962-4282 (212) 267-9478 lus ha-adam. the exalted side of man's nature and potential. But '1'1p'7 'in:i 't!1p'7 beyond this claim Is the question ':>":l.'I 1YO':>K ':>Kll:Jl!l l"l'l1l'll:J posed by Albert Einstein, "Is it not Available at PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS good that man's life is finite, so that OF at its end it may be viewed as a work LEKUTEI INC. of art?" He understood that expres c/o I. l!osenberg sion and restliction need each other. 10 West 47th Street, Room 503 GEDOLIM Ne\V York, N,Y. 1003-6 LARGEST SELECTION A foundation ofTorah life is that our (212) 719-1717 actions have value largely from the 3Vi" x 5" for your collection 5" x 7" up to 16" x 20" for display formal restrictions placed on them. 20 Volumes on Turah, Perek, Life without formality has given us ]\fedrash, l\legilos and Tulnmd. our increasingly pagan host culture. Proceeds of sales distributed Formality without life has given us arn_ongYeShivos-and used for that oxymoron, "geometric art." reprinting of volun1es out-of-print DAVID ALTSCHULER PRICll:$s.oo PllR VOLUME Venice, California The Jewish Obseroer. Summer 1987 45 Q(\) NEWS FROM LJ®c:J AGUDATH ISRAEL Attacks On Orthodoxy Presage Its Even Greater Growth, Rosh Yeshiva Tells Agudath Israel Dinner efore the 1700 guests gathered Jews to seize the present "ripe hour" to pariicularly the new bridges between May 24 at the New York Hilton for strengthen Torah life at a time when its Ashkenazic and Sephardic Torah com Bthe 65th annual dinner of Agu institutions and very essence are under munities apparent in the composition of dath Israel of America, Rabbi Avrohom increasing assault by anti-Orthodox the audience-Rabbi Pam predicted an Pam. Rosh HaYeshiva of Mesivta Torah elements, both in America and Israel. even greater flourishing of Torah life. Vodaath of Brooklyn, speaking on behalf Speaking in the context of an evening "Whenever there's an attempt to reduce of the Moetzes Gedolei Ha Torah (Coun that highlighted the unity of the broad kedusha (holiness) in the world, the cil of Torah Sages), adjured observant est spectrum of Orthodox groups-and inevitable result is the expansion of ke- RabbiAvrohom Pam.AddressesAgudathisrael Dinner: RabbiAvrohom Pam, Rosh HaYeshiva, Mesivta Torah Vodaath and member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah addresstngsome l 700 Orthodox rabbinic leaders and lay activists at the 65th annual dinner ofAgudath Israel ofAmerica this past Sunday at the New York Hilton. At center dais are seated (l. to 4.): Members of Agudath Israel's Nesius/Presidium, Rabbi YosefHarart Raful, Rosh Yeshivat Ateret Torah: and Rabbi Shmuel Faivelson, Rosh Yeshiva, Sais Medrash L'Torah of Monsey; Rabbi Meir Tzvi Bergman, Yeshivas Rashbi, (Bnei Brak); NesJus Member Rabbi Aharon Schechter, Rosh Yeshiva. Meslvta Chaim Berlin; Rabb! Dovid Steinwurtzel, Rosh Yeshiva, BoboverYeshiva: Nesius member Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, Novomlnsker Rebbe; Rabbi Elya Svei, Rosh Yeshiva, Yeshiva Gedola of Philadelphia and member ofMoetzesGedolei HaTorah; Shmuel Lefkowitz, chairman of the evening; Rabbi Pam (speaking); Rabbi Moshe Sherer, president, Agudath Israel of America; Nes!us members Rabbi Levi Yltzchok Horowitz, Bostoner Rebbe~Boston, and Rabbi Chaskel Besser; honorees Ellis Safdeye, Eliezer Schreiber with son Moshe, and Joseph N. Goldbrenner: and Rabbi Simcha Wasserman, Rosh Yeshiva Or Elchonon. Not seen: prominent roshei yeshiva and rabbontm (in alphabetical order): Rabbi Yekusiel Bittersfeld, Rabbi Simcha Bunim Ehrenfeld, Rabbi Chaim Epstein, Rabbi Yitzchak Fetgelstock, Rabbi David Feinstein, Rabbi Reuven Feinstein, Rabbi Elya Fisher. Rabbi Gavriel Ginzburg, Rabbi Moshe Ihrenstein, Rabbi Avrohom Hecht, Rabbi Avrohom Horowitz, Rabbi Shro.ga Moshe Kalmanowitz, Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky, Rabb!Aryeh Malkiel Kotler, Rabbi Dovid Lipshitz, Rabbi Naftali Neuberger, Rabbi Binyomin Paler, Rabbi Yisroel Piekarski, Rabbi Pinchas Teitz; and Agudath Israel executive heads Rabbi Baruch Borchardt. Rabbi Shmuel Bloom and Mr.Joseph Frtedenson.At two other daises were rabbonim ofAgudath Israel branches, the movement's national officers, and Avodas HaKodesh awardees. 46 The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 dusha," he declared, weaving together a ings to the Agudath Israel dinner and wealth of Aggadic and Halachic sources thanked the organization for all its help. connected with the concept of Temurah "I am convinced that the rebirth ofTorah (from the week's Sidra) to illustrate the life is largely due to your movement," he ZAVE point. said, "but please don't forget the thou Specifically, Rabbi Pam appealed to sands of Jews still caught in the Soviet SHER UN Torah-observant Jews to redouble their Union who need your help to become ORCHESTRA efforts on behalf of yeshiva education Torah Jews." and outl"{!ach. "The time is very oppor A moving, sometimes haunting audio (718) 434·3540 tune to extend the frontiers of kedu.sha visual presentation on hatzolah work in in all directions," the revered and beloved another part of the globe illustrated the Also Available As One Man Band Torah scholar declared. work of Agudath Israel's Iranian Rescue In an impassioned address, Rabbi Committee, particularly its work among Moshe Sherer, president of Agudath Is hundreds of refugee youth in Vienna and rael of America. ruefully noted how the its assurance of Torah education for HEBREW ACADEMY world and the media of today is fasci "graduates.. of this program upon their OF CLEVELAND nated with the fate of a barge-load of arrival in America. publishes over SO Educational Items 3000 tons of garbage, which was refused Major honors were awarded to three for Hebrew Day Schools entry at ports in six states and three outstanding leaders of the Torah com countries; while almost exactly 48 years munity at the occasion. A series of audio ago. the famous ship the St Louis, filled visual biographical sketches of each D'l' ;;111 with 1128 homeless and persecuted honoree again underlined the many German Jewish men, women and chil UJDlnJ diverse backgrounds of the people who 1 dren trying to escape the Holocaust, was N3'l n1, nn make up Agudath Israel. Ellis A. Saf. l';>l1"1> lin, 'JI ,~,1 turned away by six Western Hemisphere deye, the distinguished lay leader of the M'"~ ~Jt,~.~.~ _.,~)' lUQ 11''1 countries, and all the cries of despair fell Syrian Jewish community whose family on deaf ears. originally crune from Aleppo and Jerusa ,.,, ,~ Referring to the Agudath Israel com .. ... lem, received the HaGaon Rav Aharon mitment of response to the outcry of Kotler Memolial Award; Eliezer Schrel· every Jewish soul, Rabbi Sherer spoke ber, stemming from the Chasam Sofer. particularly of physical efforts for Jews Catalog sent upon request. the Cracow Rav, and a family ofAgudists Send $1.00 for handling to: in lands of oppression, and spiritual in Vienna, was honored with the Moreinu efforts for young Jews in this country HEBREW ACADEMY PUBLICATIONS DEPT. Yaakov Rosenheim Memorial Award; and 1860 South Tuylor Rd., Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118 groping for Jewish meaning. Joseph N. Goldbrenner whose antece U.S. Secretary of Education William dents were nurtured in the Chassidic J. Bennett was presented by Rabbi communities of Poland. was presented Sherer with the 1987 H umanitartan with the Reb Elimelech Tress Memorial Award of Agudath Israel of Amelica. for Award. KOSHER his role as "advocate of the light of all citizens to educate their children in ac Seven local Orthodox activists were cordance with the values they hold most also cited at the occasion with Avodas SANTA FE dear." HaKodesh Community Service Awards, Apartment by the week with Kosher kit He stated that .. of the more than presented by Rabbi Shmuel Bloom, chen in charming old adobe with court 270 organizations in Washington rep executive vice-president of Agudath Is yards and gardens. Walk to Mikvah and resenting various interests in regard to rael of Amelica: Hirsch C. Wulliger (Wil Mechitza Schul. education, there is no group more atten liam K. Friedman Memorial Award), tive, more intelligent. displaying more Rabbi Yecheskel Kaminsky, Michael COME AND ENJOY! probity in the education of our children Lamm, Esq., Moshe S. Levitin, Rabbi 505-982-2621/988-3686 Yaakov Lonner, Yehoshua Privalsky, than Agudath Israel of Amelica.. P.O. BOX 1111,SANTAFE, NM 87504 The dinner celebrated the 65th year of and Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro. achievement ofAgudath Israel on a broad The dinner. which was opened by array of fronts. among them Torah edu Chaim Dovld Zwiebel, Esq., director of cation for the masses,govermmentaid to Government Affairs of Agudath Israel of yeshivos. the civil lights of Orthodox Amelica. was chaired by Shmuel Le1ko NEW/\!l'ln Jews, outreach to the non-observant, witz, chairman of the Prime Resources youth training, social services. spokes Group, who was founding director of Now you can have complete HEBREW & manship for the Torah community and Agudath Israel's Southern Brooklyn ENGLISH WORDPROCESSING on your IBM communication of its outlook. But Ha Community Organization (SBCO). or clone. It runs on CGA, EGA, Hercules tzolah-the rescue, rehabilitation, and The evening was characterized by a Graphics Card or compatible. 1t produces a relief efforts Agudath Israel sponsors for deep sense of harmony and unity as beautiful :l·N on an HP Laserjet and almost Jews in peril or under oppression in roshei yeshiva and chassidic rebbes any other printer. This is a patch for Word.star many parts of the globe-was a plimary mingled with lay leaders from all walks of 3.30 or 3.31 and uses WS commands and WS focus at this event. life who have been the backbone of sup features in both languages even on the same Chaim Bu.rshteln, the noted former port for Torah institutions across line. $195. Call (201) 364.0756. refusenik from Leningrad, brought greet- America. The Jewish Observer. Summer 1987 47 While the gas was flowing and the ovens burning at Auschwitz - •Which Jews were working tirelessly to save lives? •Which Jews insisted that saving lives was NOT the first priority? •If not Jewish lives, then what else?! •Why was the news of the Holocaust suppressed by Jewish leaders? The shocking answers are in this major new historical work from ArtScroll- RO H 'S L D The Orthodox Jewish response during the Holocaust In this book, a leading Holocaust historian engages our hearts and minds as he follows the fierce ideological battle between the powerful secular Jewish Establishment and the heroic but outnumbered Orthodox hatzalah heroes. He brings us personal sketches of 26 Orthodox rescue fighters on 4 continents. Among them are such famous Torah leaders as Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz, Rabbi Aharon Kotler and Rabbi Eliezer Silver; and such laymen as Yaakov Rosenheim, "Mike" Tress, and Irving Bunim in America; the Sternbuchs and George Mantelo-Mandel in Switzerland; Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl in Nazi-held Slovakia; Dr. Yaakov Griffel in Turkey; Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog in Palestine, and Mrs. Eva Reichmann in Tangiers. The clock of death ticks on as we turn the exciting pages - and we learn how hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved, if only ... By Dr. David Kranzler/ Foreword by Dr. Isaac Lewin $15.95 hard cover $12.95 paperback Available from your local bookseller or direct from publisher: Mdorafu