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In an Unbelieving World the Challenge of Jewish Survival Past

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In an Unbelieving World the Challenge of Jewish Survival Past CHESHVAN 5728 / NOVEMBER 1967 VOLUME 4, NUMBER 8 fHE FIFTY CENTS Believing - In an Unbelieving World 'Don Yochanan) and ~eh Leib) meet: The Challenge of Jewish Survival Past and Present in the Teaching of Jewish History Again the Rabbi: The Ultimate Illusion Who Is a Rabbi? It Is Too Soon ... Second Looks: "Editorial Tyranny)) of The Times Dialoguers Talk Out of School A l.eller lo Galesbead THE JEWISH OBSERVER In this issue ... WE EXAMINE the traditional Jewish approach to belief in G-d, from the perspective of disbelief which prevails in our society. BELIEVING-IN AN UNBELIEVING WORLD, Yaakov Jacobs 3 AN ATLA.NTA RABBI. who spent a year in Israel and was there during the fighting, shares with us his personal reflections. lT Is Too SooN, Emanuel Feldman.................................................. 6 COMBINING TORAH principles with historical insights, a histo­ rian reaches into the past to plot a path for Jewry's future. THE CHALLENGE OF JEWISH SURVIVAL, Raphael S. Weinberg 8 THE JEWISH OBSERVER is published THE Inter-relationships of the Rabbi and the Ben Torah con­ monthly, except July and August, tinue to interest our contributors (see: Letters to the Editor). by the Agudath lsrael of America, 5 Beekman Street. New York, A RABBf and educator proposes the revival of the office of N. Y. 10038 'second class dayan, as a 50lution to the threat of mediocrity. postage paid at New York, N. Y. Subscription: $5.00 per year; THE ULTIMATE ILLUSION, Meir Belsky....................... 12 Canada and overseas: $6.00; single copy: 50(·. Printed in the U.S.A. Dors THE pulpit make the Rabbi, and the shiur the Rosh Yeshiva?-thcsc questions shed light on the problem. Editorial Board WHO Is A RABBI?, Yacov Lipschutz 14 DR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER ('hairn1an A LETTER OF application to a girl's seminary in England, RABBI NATHAN BULMAN turns out to be a revealing docu1nentation of contemporary RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS history. JOSEPH FRIEDENSON A LrTTER TO GATESHEAD, Anonymous.................... 16 RABBI MOSHE SHERER Advertising Manager WRITING HISTORY is a challenge-writing Jewish history for RABBI SYSHE HESCHEL the Orthodox reader is a greater challenge. A review article Managing Editor evaluates the success of such an attempt in a 4-volumc text. RABBI YAAKOV JACOBS PAST AND PRESENT IN TEACHING JEWISH HISTORY, Joseph Elias ......................................................................................... 18 THE JEWISH ()BSERVER does not assume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product or service SECOND LOOKS AT THE JEWISH SCENE: advertised in its pages. "EDITORit\L TYRANNY'" OF THE 'fJMES 24 DIALOGUERS TALK OUT OF SCHOOL ...... 25 Nov. 1967 VoL. IV, No. 8 {_ETTERS TO THE EDITOR ...... 28 ..... @! Y aakoJJ Jacobs Believing - in an Unbelieving World How do we confront the new challenges to our belief? What is the traditional response to failure to believe? The Rambam writes that it is a mitzva to believe -- But what of those who insist that they cannot? Believing in G-d has always been a uniquely Jewish and perhaps, as some would have it-by his specific experience. The first Jew Jived in a world in which men body chemistry. worshipped idols. While it is popularly believed that Those who had postulated G-d in order to fill the the Western world has accepted the monotheism of gaps in man's ignor,1nce of himself and the world in the Jew-the belief in one G-d-philosophy and the­ which he lives, have filled these gaps with scientific ology texts still list a large variety of beliefs in a variety knowledge, some of \Vh.ich has already been attained, of deities, most of which fall short of being the G-d and the rest of which they believe must ultimately yield of Israel. itself to further research. The Jew, on the other hand, The Jew's belief in G-d, and in G-d's Torah, has who was commanded from the beginning to ''rule over always been challenged, even in the glorious days when the earth and master it," suffers no disillusion when we dwelt in our Land and were governed by kings and man achieves greater mastery of the world in which priests who \Vere servants of G-d. Whatever degree he lives. He has always experienced his G-d through of insulation separated us from alien beliefs, these the fulfillment of mitzvahs. He felt no great need to beliefs somehow managed to find adherents among our confront idolatry and disbelief on a philosophical level. own people. - He recognized disbelief as man's attempt to relieve In our age, the amazing growth of knowledge of the himself of the burden of responsibility which belief in physical world has, in the minds of many, removed G-d would impose upon him. The Sages embodied this the clement of mystery which in the past had inclined principle in the axiomatic declaration: n1an to seek spiritual or religious explanations for na­ Jev;s who succu1nbed to the practice of idolatry, tural phenomenon. The crash of thunder and the flash did so in order to justify their unethical and of lightening apparently no longer strike fear in man's immoral behavior. heart-he knows that lightning is "a sudden flash of light caused by the discharge of atmospheric electricity It is undisputable, tragically so, that in our time between electrified regions of cloud," and that thunder Jews in huge numbers have defected from the tradi­ is "the sound that accompanies lightning, caused by tional belief in G-d and His Torah. Nowhere is this 'udden heating and expansion of the air along the path more evident than among our youth, particularly on of the electrical discharge"*-and he isn't frightened. the college campuses where they are exposed to the Yet the believing Jew stubbornly insists on saying a highly sophisticated disbelief which the academician hrocha when he hears thunder and secs lightning, proudly proclaims. attributing these phenomena to the Master of the Many Jews, loyal to Torah, faithful to their G-d, Universe. The expansion of man's knowledge of human and firm in their belief, have become convinced that behavior, has led some to believe that even man him­ we can only meet this challenge on the level at which self is no longer a mystery-his actions in any given it is thrust upon us. They maintain that we dare not circu1nstance can be explained by psychological rules, dismiss disbelief, no matter how obnoxious we find it; that we must arm ourselves with a firm knowledge of the scholarship which leads to this belief, and dem­ * Standard ColleRe Dictionary, FUNK & WAGNALLS, New York, 1966. onstrate to the young Jewish minds, the fallacies of The Jewish Observer / Noi•ember, 1967 3 this disbelief. In their op1mon, this is the only way encounter, appearing at the end of his life before the in which we can hope to reclaim our youth-a youth Heavenly Court, and being asked, "Why did you not that has already showed signs of searching for values, believe with perfect faith?" The man will shrug his of yearning for belief, but unable to find it in the for­ shoulders and ask, "How was I expected to achieve mality of religion, even among non-Orthodoxy which this belief you demand of me?"-apparently a most has made so many concessions to win back the alienated legitimate defense. Jew. Is this really so? To answer this question we should take a closer look at the substance, the dynamics of traditional Jewish belief in G-d, and-from a more The Substance of Belief pragmatic position-examine what our contemporary experience has been in winning back those alienated To many, the Rambam appears to have been the young Jews who have found their way back to Torah. rationalist par excellence: the brilliant Torah scholar THERE IS A FASCINATING, and puzzling dispute among who confronted the philosophers witl1 a dazzling de­ traditional Torah scholars who engaged in constructing fense of Torah by meeting them on their own ground. listings of the mitzvahs of the Torah (minyan ha'mitz­ Yet, in his insistence that the Jew-in the first mitzva vohs). The Rambam declares that the very first mitzva of tl1e Torah-is commanded to believe, he reveals to of the Torah commands the Jew to believe in G-d. us the true substance of belief, Others raise what appears to be a most damaging Belief is not a function of the intellect; if it were it objection to the Rambam's listing of belief in G-d as would not have eluded Aristotle, and other men blessed a specific mitzva. The concept of mitzva, they rightly with phenomenal intellectual capacities. Belief is the declare, implies a me'tzaveh: one who commands. If natural state of Man-it is to be expected that Man one has already accepted belief in this mc'tzaveh, he created by G-d will recognize his Maker. Such belief need not be commanded to believe. If he has not­ is demanded of the youngster on his thirteenth birthday; what good does it do to command him to believe? On it is demanded of the illiterate peasant; it is demanded this basis, they reject the Rambam's listing of belief of every man created by G-d. The intellect can enhance in G-d as a mitzva. that belief; it can broaden its scope; it can elevate it R' Elchanan Wasserman, in his classic Ma'an-1ar al to higher and higher spheres-but it can also destroy it, Emunah* raises still more questions which arise from The Chovos Halevovos puts it this way: the Rambam's listing of belief in G-d as a mitzva.
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