SHALOM BAYlS Building a Jewish Home Under the strict Rabbinical supervision of K'hal Adas Jeshurun, New York. ttaolam, the quality you'll keep enjoying. Kosher for Passover Cholov Yisroel THURM BROS. WORLD CHEESE CO.. !NC. NEW YORK, N.Y. The most trusted name in Cholov Yisroel Cheese. The Thurm Families wish Klal Yisroel a nn'l'1 1'l':> )n Thousands of needy Americans in Israel are depending upon Kole! America for Maos Chittim Pesach funds: Kole! families, the elderly, the ill, widows and orphans. High prices and difficult conditions have forced hundreds who never dreamt of it, to apply for aid for the first time. Our offices are swamped with desperate appeals for holiday assistance. Only With Your Help... can we answer David's heartbreaking request and hundreds more like it. I Here is my Maos Chittim donation to help little David and other I I I I Americans in Israel this Pesach (as checked): I 0$500 0$180 0$100 0$72 0$36 0$18 0$ ____ ~!I I I I City ________________ I State Zip ____ I I Donations to Kolel America are tax deductible. 'Il'IEAMERICAN R.-\BBIMEIR I HAAI,HANJ:SSOiARITYINJSRAEL KOLEL AMERICA I______________________________________________ 132 Nassau Street• New York, N.Y. 10038 • (212) 732-1064 J Translated and edited by Rabbi Aviel Orenstein Regular edition 6"x9": $16.95 Deluxe edition 8"x!OYc": $20.95 The Mishnah Berurah - the definitive guide to halacha - is now accessible to all. The response of the English-reading public to the four­ volume Laws of Shabbath has been overwhelming and the demand increases each year. Now Laws Pertaining to Meals (Washing the Hands, Breaking the Bread, the Meal and the Blessing for the Meal) is available, in clear, easily readable type, with Hebrew and English texts on facing pages. Wherever the length of the translation exceeds that of the original text, the Hebrew is reproduced on successive pages and a special printing technique is employed to highlight the corresponding parts of the text. This vital work will be a welcome addition to everyone's Torah library. Order yours today! Laws of Shabbath Regular edition: $57.95 Deluxe editon: $69.95 FELDHEIM PUBLISHERS 200 Airport Executive Park, Spring Valley, NY 10977 (914) 356- 2282 Send for your free copy of our new 48-page illustrated catalog. CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY VS. THE JEWISH FAMILY WITHSTANDING THE ASSAULT A s y M p 0 s I u M 8 Halacha: The Structure For "Sholom Bayis" Rabbi Reuven Feinstein 13 "Sholom Bayis"-Keeping It Together Rabbi Yissocher Frand 19 THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) When Crisis Looms 0021-6615 is published monthly ex­ ceptJulyand August, by the Agudath Dr. Aaron Twerski Israel of America. 84 William Street, New York. NY 10038. Second class 25 postage paid at New York. NY Subscrip­ tion $18.00 per year: two years, $30.00: The Quintessence of Karpas three years, $40.00. Outside of the AviShafran United States (US funds only) $10 sur­ charge per year. Single copy: $2.50; 31 foreign: $3.00. Send address changes to The Jewish Observer, 84 William St., Preventing a "Chol Hamoed" Fiasco NY. N.Y. !0038. 'leL (212) 797-9000. Dr. Meir Wikler Printed in the U.S.A. 37 RABBI NISSON WOLPIN, Editor Post Script Editorial Board The Heroic Women of Ramot Gimme! DR ERNST BODENHEIMER Yisroel Spiegel C/iairman 41 RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS JOSEPH FRIEDENSON Second Looks on the Jewish Scene RABBINOSSONSCHERMAN Answering the Fifth Question RABBI MOSHE SHERER Emmy Stark Zitter Management Board NAFTOLI HIRSCH 45 ISAAC KIRZNER Books in Review RABBI SHLOMO LESIN Sfomo/Divrey Hayamim I /Koheleth. Life and Its Meaning NACHUMSTEIN Artscroll Youth Megillah RABBI YOSEF C. GOLDING Business Manager 49 " ..." (With and Without Comment) THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not Of Yarmulkes and a Rabbi at the House of Lords assume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product or service advertised in its pages. Poetry ©Copyright 1988 2 4 Friday Night Kiddush, Joanne Jackson Yelenik 3 9 Candles, Chaim Feinberg 44 And Bread Alone is Not Enough, Mrs. Bruria Schwab ADAR 5 7 48/MARCH 1988 VOL. XX!. NO. 2 50 Letters to the Editor SOME PEOPLE THINK IT WILL TAKE A MIRACLE TO SAVE TIIB NEXT GENERATI or ISRAEL. We hear a lot about the problems of Israel today-terrorist incidents, anti·religious strife, Arab population explosion, Chinuch Atzmai today has 300 economy, the list seems endless. institutions serving over 40,000 children. To absorb the thou· Dimona-a town sands of additional children, we need dozens of new schools in transition , and kindergartens. and hire ~hundreds of new staff. And Let's visit Israel for a closer look. '~,?all this is possible if only we We'll take a ride to Dimona, a town had the money. in the South of Israel, near Be'er Sheva. As we cross the street, oops!, a dozen children just Shlomo Chama, the energetic bumped into us. As they apolo­ young principal of the Shilo gize politely, you notice school says, "Anyone wanting 'kipahs' on the boys' heads. to see the real Hatzolas Nefashos In a playground, hopping, are work, should visit Dimona." girls dressed modestly in a There is a new ever powerful spirit style reminding you of Bais of Torah in Eretz Yisroel. Every­ Yaakov. If we stay for Shabbos, where you go. even in the most we would meet hundreds of irreligious areas, one can find the people going to shul. Five years seeds of Torah growing. This is truly a ago. these sights would be un· miracle. It is up to us to keep the miracle heard of. Dimona. created in the 1950's to going. house the Jewish immigration from North The Baal Teshuva's Africa, was a spiritual wasteland. The rich Torah heritage of the prior generation was Children lost between efforts to eke out a Jiving and the secular education of the children in The Baal Teshuva movement we hear so Government schools. much about, is bearing fruits. All across Israel, thousands of parents are trying to Today, Shilo, the Chinuch Atzmai school give their children the Torah education has grown from 100 children, to over 470 they themselves didn't receive. They come and is bursting at the seams with new knocking at the doors of Chinuch Atzmai. children trying to get in. the new school of their choice. And these children are affecting their parents. In the words of Harav Yitzchok Elefant Rav of Dimona. "The growth of the school is hav­ ing a tremendous itnpact on Dimon a. parents are in many cases being influ­ enced to return to a life of Torah and 'kiyum hamitzvos." THE MIRACLE IS HAPPENING r -: ;:;,,:,;:-,:,;------:roK"AusciiooLs "FoR"1sRiii- -i 1 fmoYrn $7SOOO CHINUCH ATZMAI I I • Sponsor Prefab 167 Madison Avenue. New York. NY 100!6 • 2 I 2·889·0606 I I Classrooms $10,SOO I • Playground facilities $3.600 0 Enclosed find my contribution of$ I I $!.BOO 0 Pkase accept my pledge of$--·-·---·-----------· I : ~::~~i;;aque $1.000 Name ______ ----------------- I I • Child Sponsorship $360 Address I : • Annual Membership $200 City . I • Summer Camp $54 Statc ... ,_, ___ ,__________________ ..... ___________ z,p .. ________ I 1--------TORAH FOR ONE DOLLAR A DAY--------J Contemporary Society Versus the Jewish Home: Withstanding the Assault e Book of Redemption, She mos, begins: And these are the names of the sons flsrael which came to Egypt, every man and his household came with Yaakov." Out of the individual characteristics of the twelve names that follow-Reuvain, Shimon, Levi ... -the Jewish Nation developed; one nation, because they all had in common the bond of "each one with his household came with Yaakov." By every indication, Pharaoh seemed to have dismembered the national body of Israel, through his cruel edicts of oppression, but "'---_, ultimately he could not succeed, as long as the basic unit of the bayis-the Jewish household-remained intact. Indeed, the actual Geula-the redemptive process-began with G-d's command to His children to rebuild themselves as a nation on the rock-like foundation of their "homes"-the Paschal lamb consecrated for each bayis, each family unit. Each one was an independent unit. and yet, together, reconstructed the single, united nation, as an integral whole. (Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch on Shemos 1. 1) Today, hopefully in the final throes of our Golus-and on the eve of our Seder, which celebrates the Geula from Egypt, 3300 years ago-we take stock of the health and stability of the basic unit of our People-the Jewish Home. We can marvel at the ability of our forefathers to have preserved the integrity of their homes throughout 210 years of oppression, subjugation and slavery in Egypt. .. and by contrast, find that in the freedom of Western society, the Jewish home is not doing as well as it might. The symposium on Shalom Bayis (literally, the Peace and Integrity of the Home) that follows examines the halachic structures of the Jewish Home, the ingredients of care and sensitivity that go into its preservation, and the steps one should take when crisis threatens. The articles that follow are based on presentations made at the recent National Convention of Agudath Israel <!America. I: THE INVASION OF comforting and encouraging them. CONTEMPORARY VALUES The father is expected to be a bit on the stem side, while the mother The Internal Assault makes the discipline of Torah study more palatable to the children­ arriage is under constant encouraging each to reach his ul­ threat from the prevailing timate potential, while maintaining mores of contemporary so-· M emotional stability.