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NISSAN, 5744/APRIL 1984 VOLUME XVII, NUMBER~ 1 THE $2.00 4 • 1 I l 1 I Dateline, the World: Countdown to "The Day After" Dateline, New York: "Jewish Life in America" a critique Dateline, Jerusalem: Defusing "The Love Bomb" Dateline, Petach Tikvah: Battle of the Seventh Day On these days, you can transact business at any bank in Manhattan. t ExceJ!.I one. I ALL our offices are closed on all Jewish holidays. Some customers like us because of when we're closed. Others like us because of what we do for them when we're open. Member FDIC. A subsdiary of United Mizrahi Bank Ltd. 630 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10111•(212)541-8070 Branch: EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, 350 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10118 -- - .,_ - " - --- ~ -- - - ~ THE~ISH BSERVER {H ~- ~ ~- 14 ~ \\1 THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN in this issue ... 0021-6615) is published monthly, except July and August, by the Agudath Israel of America, 5 Beekman Street, New York, N.Y. Countdown to the Day After, Aaron M. Brafman .•.•.......... 4 10038. Second class postage paid at New York, N.Y. Subscription Battle of the Seventh Day, Ezriel Toshavi . ..•................•. 9 $15.00 per year; two years, $27.00: three years, $36.00; out Jewish Life in America-an Exhibit, side of the United States, US funds only. $20.00 in U.K. and reviewed by Moshe Kolodny ..................•..............12 Israel. Single copy, $2.00. Printed in the U.S.A. The Love Bomb, Nehama Consuelo Nahmoud ............•.•.•...14 RABBI NissoN WotrrN In Search of freedom and Independence, A. Scheinman ......... 22 Editor Shedding Light on Recent History (book review) .......... 29 Guardian of Jerusalem Editorial Board Heroine of Rescue DR. ERNST BODENHEIMER i Chairman Responsa from the Holocaust RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS Escape to Shanghai I JOSEPH FRIEDENSON The Yellow Star j RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN The Butcher of Lyon RABBI MOSHE SHERER Books on "Nach" (reviews) .............................. 32 Management Board Samson's Struggle j NAFTOLl H1RSCH Tz' enah Ur'enah ISAAC K!RZNER Shir Hashirim 1 NACHUM $TE!N Ruth Business Manager Koheleth PESAC:H H. KONSTAM Second Looks on the Jewish Scene .... , .................... , THE JEWISH OssERVER does not assume responsibility for the Centrists: Between the "Right-Wing'' and Whom? ...... 34 Kashrus of any product or ser And He Who Knows Not How to Ask, Shanie Perr ...... 37 vice advertised in its pages. Of Peace and Pieces, Faygie Borchardt .•..........•. , .... 39 ®Copyright 1983 Letters to the Editor ... , .... , .. , . , ............... , ........ 41 APR. 84, VOL. XVII, NO. 2 NISSAN 5744 Aaron M. Brafman ' Countdown to the Day After Does the Torah Jew Have His Own Approach to Dealing with Doomsday? Doomsday talk has its cycles. Wherever a new wea polled on the likelihood of a Soviet-American nuclear pon is unveiled, or international arms reduction talks War before the year 2000, concluded the odds to be at a falter, or a TV special on nuclear disaster is screened 1-in-20 or a 1-in-50 chance-giving mankind security of such as the widely-watched "The Day After" last sorts under an umbrella of paralysis from fear of mutual winter-the spectre of nuclear holocaust casts its sha annihilation.* The view is not surprising, for without dow across the people's consciousness. optimism, man could not survive. But history continues The reactions are varied: Some people find hope in a to serve as the most accurate guide for predicting the unilateral nuclear freeze and even demonstrate for it. future. And even a cursory perusal of world history I Some see salvation in outclassing the Soviets in mega shows a continuous pattern of war and conquest, of kill power. Some simply ignore the problem as too domination of the weak by the mighty, of internecine overwhelming to deal with-it won't go away by ignor struggles for power, and of surges of power from unex ing it, but neither will it disappear by attempting to fight pected quarters. it. And then there are those that contend that it is not a When gunpowder was invented, it was considered real issue. No national leader capable of destroying too awesome and destructive a force ever to be used in r another country is deranged or irresponsible enough to war-and so too with most increases in the power of i actually do so. weaponry. Yet, in the end they were almost always Do we Jews have a particular Tor ah-directed response used. For at the heart of the issue is not weaponry, but to this dilemma, or are we to follow personal inclination man-his desires, his weaknesses, and his goals. If and move along with one of the other groups? (There's national character is merely the expression of the [ no shortage of impressive passages from Scripture, aggregate of the entire poplation's strengths and weak Talmud and Midrash ready to be quoted within- or nesses, then all the pent-up violence so close to the I out-of-context to bolster any opinion.) surface in individuals need only be magnified multi-fold 1would suggest that nuclear doomsday is a real issue. to give us an idea of the potential for violence in our It is a possibility we must deal with. Moreover, we, as peace-loving nations. Jews, can make a difference in the outcome when dealing We Jews are nurtured on the concept that only Torah, with the threat of nuclear annihilation, and this invests with its potent Mussar message and its powers to neu us with a special degree of responsibility. tralize base impulses, can help man overcome his des tructive and self-indulgent urges. But what can we The Real Issue: Man, Not Weaponry expect from the nations that do not have Torah as a The majority of a group of strategic experts recently moderating force? Rabbi Brafman is Mena he I of Yeshiva Derech Ayson, in Far Rockaway, NY. ~Leslie Gelb, "Is Nuclear Threat Manageable?", New York Times Maga His "The Crisis is Now" was featured in the December '82 JO. zine, March 4, 1984. 4 The Jewish Observer I April, 1984 - - -.,.. How Vast a Destruction? Lot alerted his sons-in-law to the fiery fate awaiting Sodom, they mocked him. As the Midrash elaborates, We may accept, then, that nationalistic pride and na they said to him, "Fool that you are! Harps and violins tural tendencies toward violence may combine to thrust are playing, people are partying in the streets, and you a nation into an aggressive posture and thus precipitate say that Sodom is to be destroyed?" Today, too, most nuclear destruction. Still one may question whether people are too caught up in pleasure seeking pursuits to ' G-d would permit such wholesale destruction to take accept the sobering possibility of a bitter end. Facts may l place. speak, but people prefer not to listen. • Again, historical precedents point the way: G-d Him Even when facing the shocking truth of their own self did destroy vast cultures, and where this did occur, mortality, people tend to look the other way. As Eisav the factors responsible for large-scale destruction are told Yaakov when he sold him his birthright, "Behold I recorded to instruct us. Foremost in human experience am going to die, what need do I have for the bechora (the is the Flood of Noach's time, which was preceeded by a duties and privileges of the first born)!" Some interpret period marked by corruption in interpersonal affairs. this as a dismissal not only of bechora, but of spiritual Worst of all, according to the Talmud, was their pursuits in general-a restatement of the classical, but chamas-robbery. decidedly non-Jewish: "Eat, drink, and be merry, for The destruction of Sodom-limited though it was, by tomorrow we shall die." comparison-can be considered another case in point, Moreover, Rabbi Dessler in Michtav Me'Eliyahu JI cites for the cities of the area were totally wiped out. The the death-bed confessional prayer that disavows in Ramban writes:" According to our Sages, [the people of advance any blasphemy a person might utter in his last Sodom] were notorious for every kind of evil, but their moments. Encountering the prospect of his soul depart fate was sealed for their persistence in not supporting ing from corporeality must trigger an extreme reaction · ~poor and the needy. They were continually guilty of in the person-either an excited rush toward re-union tr"- •in, and no other nation could be compared to with the Infinite One-ness of G-d, or an agonizing Sodom in cruelty." rejection of Him who is responsible for his final leave taking from the physical pleasures of this world, which prompts the blasphemy. Death is never confronted How Helpless is Man? with indifference. If G-d puts His seal of approval on plans to destroy a particular culture or the entire world, it may seem futile to expect man to change this. But we are not expected to view the world crumbling, simply standing at the side lines. Again we have precedents: G-d commanded Noach to devote 120 years of his life to constructing the ark-starting with planting the trees from which it was built-as an ongoing demonstration of warning to the l world of impending disaster. The people scoffed, and his warnings went unheeded. Yet the Prophet called the , deluge "The Waters of Noach," blaming him for not doing enough to save his generation. I In contrast, Avraham interceded on behalf of a cul ture diametrically opposed to everything he believed in. He was the pillar of lovingkindness, while Sodomites were the epitome of selfishness and exploitation.