in this issue ... "Peace"- The Anatomy of a Dramatic Change, Ezriel Toshavi .................. 3 Combatting the Intermarriage Crisis ... and Some of the Solutions, Nissan Wolpin . 6 When the Sun Set at Midday: An Appreciation of Rabbi Raphoel Boruch Sorotzkin 7"~T, Rabbi Chaim Dov Keller . 11 THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN The Omer - Some Reflections, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan .17 0021-6615) is published monthly, except July and August, by the Addenda - Books in Review .20 Agudath Israel of America, 5 Mitzvos Beekman Street, New York, N. Y. Children's Literature 10038. Second class postage paid Books on Jerusalem at New York, N.Y. Subscription $9.00 per year; two years, $17.50; Postscripts: three years, $25.00; outside of the Last of the Leningrad Trial . 25 United States, $10.00 per year. Single copy, $1.25 Second Looks at the Jewish scene Printed in the U.S.A. Of Death and Life, Rabbi Shlomo Kahn .27 RABBI NissoN WolPJN Letters to the Editor . 29 Editor Subscribe ------ Clip.andsa1.'e------- Editorial Board The Jewish Observer I DR ERNST L BODENHEIMER Chairman Renew 5 Beekman Street/ New York. N.Y. 10038 I RABBI NATHAN BULMAN O One year $9.00 O Two years $17.501 RABBI JOSEPH ELJAS or Give 0 Three years $25.00 I }OSEPH FR!EDENSON RABBI MOSHE SHERER Now Send Magazine to I Name .... ·····I THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not and Address ..... ···· 1 assume responsibility for the City .. ............................•State/Zip .. .... , Kashrus of any product or ser~ SAVE From: vice advertised in its pages. I Name .. Address,. .. .•.• ! City......... ................ State/Zip Copyright 1979 O gift 0 0 APRIL, 1979 VOL XIII, NO. 10 1 Enclose card Bill me: $.......... Enclosed: $ .......... I ~---------------· Ezriel Toshavi ''Peace''- Anatomy of a Dramatic Change The events of the past few months have ushered in a celebrate a total cessation of warfare. Erstwhile welcome relaxation from the unrelenting tension that moderates, such as Hussein, have gravitated into the has gripped Israel virtually since the founding of the camp of rabid belligerents; Ayatollah Khoumeini is State thirty-one years ago. After a continuous state of now calling the shots in once friendly Iran, which has war with all her neighbors, the one confrontational now turned over the Israeli embassy building to the enemy that had been most responsible for this bel­ PLO; the PLO, and the Palestinians in general, are ligerency and proved the most threatening adversary on basking in new respectability; and even the Egyptian­ the battle field has sat down with Israeli representatives Israeli friendship may yet go the way of the Syrian­ and signed a peace treaty. Egyptian union of the short-lived United Arab True enough, few people are deluding themselves Republic of a decade ago. Furthermore, Israeli military into believing that we have finally achieved the peace might, security and economy are tied to American for which we have been praying for millennia. Banners foreign policy, fiscal stability, oil dependency, public decorated with doves and tri-lingual peace slogans generosity and political mood as never before. Can notwithstanding, we know that we have yet to realize these be depended upon?-and for how long? the fulfillment of the concluding request of our every But all of these clouds do not mitigate the tremendous prayer, our every Kaddish: "May He who makes peace relief, that we have reached a point-in whatever form, in the upper spheres bring peace to us and all Israel"! for whatever duration-where an ominous threat does Moreover, it is obvious that it is even premature to not lurk at Israel's border to the south. And the steadily mounting loss of lives in war, totaling in the tens of thousands since 1948, has finally come to a stop. This, EZRIEL TOSHAVI observes the Israeli scene for JO readers. above all, cheers Jewish hearts the world over. The Jewish Observer/ April, 1979 3 PEACE Of Flaws and Effects entire land has a different meaning-those whose dream is based on the Divine promise to Abraham: "To your Some go beyond the tenuousness of the peace, and seed shall I give this land." They view our millennia­ say it is no peace, but a ruse, and deserves mourning long historical experience and our destiny as a people as not celebration, for Israel is conceding territory that is intrinsically bound with inhabiting all of the Holy irreplaceable as a defense buffer, gaining nothing of Land, not merely isolated parts. As G-d promised substance in return. While their arguments are not easy Abraham: "And I will give to you and your children to refute, others are quick to point out that Israel could after you ... ALL of the land of Canaan as an everlasting not conceivably ignore the Sadat peace offensive, and estate ... " (Bereishis 17, 8). Permitting sacred acreage still maintain any sort of image in the international to slip from our hands has a special stabbing effect to community as a seeker of peace. More important, Israel this Jew. In its way, it can represent a distancing from simply cannot afford to by-pass any opportunity for our dream of fully inhabiting the land, and is an peace, no matter how slim, when the alternative is con­ extremely high price to pay for promises of peace. tinued bloodshed. But considerations of pikuach nefesh - the preserva­ While everyone must find some relief in the gestures tion of life - are of overriding concern; and as of peace-making, critics and defenders alike must also numerous Gedolei Torah have said time and again, the accept that it is inevitable that both options facing us mitzva of "Lo Se'chaneim (Do not grant others posses­ were unattractive. This dilemma is typical of political sion of the Land)"-the halachic prohibition against choices that are forced upon us in this less-than-perfect selling any lands in Eretz Yisroel to a non-Jew-does world of ours, especially in regard to Eretz Yisroel. No not prevail in a life-and-death situation. Rabbi Eliezer doubt, those who believe that the creation of the Menachem Schach X"o•?w the venerable Ponovezher Medina is part and parcel of the flowering of the ge'ula Rosh Yeshiva, wrote the Agudath Israel Knesset repre­ cannot come to grips with the quandary we face, find­ sentatives: ing no fully gratifying resolution to the "peace" "With reference to the question you asked me problem, when the Medina should usher in an era of on how to vote - for or against- the peace treaty unequivocal normalcy and peace. But to the rest of us, between Israel and Egypt which will be discussed who did not see the creation of the state as As'chalta in the Knesset: deGeula, it should not be surprising that both sides of "My brief reply to you is that there is no the coin are direct products of a situation that means shadow of a doubt that we are obligated to agree that there is an abundance of work for Moshiach to with every step towards peace in any form. We accomplish ... And, the choices being what they are, are obligated to accept any compromise that can we gladly opt for cessation of bloodshed. bring peace closer since much bloodshed will be prevented as a result of peace. "And all discussions about the prohibition Relinquishing Lands: Too High a Price? regarding 'lo sechaneim' and the issue of G-d's The immediate terms of the peace agreement call for promise that all of the land was given to us in its evacuating Sinai. This means relinquishing a heavy entirety - according to our situation in our era, investment of money, energy and military installations, there can be no basis for such views since this which is being weighed against the obvious gains­ does not depend upon us. Our obligation is making it a difficult price to pay for peace, but certainly strictly to better our ways in the observance of worth the expense. The future of the administered Torah and Mitzvos, and then surely we will be lands on the West Bank -Yehuda and Shomron-is a worthy of the fulfillment of G-d's promise. We different matter. True, most secular Israelis make no must pray that G-d will bless His nation with secret that they would not object to losing control of peace. " these lands, preferring to settle for less of the Holy Land True, we dream of inhabiting "all of the land of under full Israeli control. After all, incorporating the Canaan," as G-d promised. But the means for achieving West Bank and Gaza Strip into Israel and keeping its this is not by military might, but by directing our Arab population under military control is an extremely actions so they reassure the true Master of the Land that tenuous plan-especially in view of the high Arab birth we pursue the goal He described to Abraham in the rate, contrasted with the low Israeli rate, and the closing words of His promise: "I will give you ... all mounting Arab restlessness. the land ... so I may be your G-d" - much as Rabbi But there are others, for whom full possession of the Schach delineated in the closing lines of his letter. 4 The Jewish Observer I April, 1979 While everyone must find relief in the gestures of peace-making, critics and defenders alike must accept that all choices available must be unattractive in this less-than-perfect world of ours ... leaving over much for Moshiach. A Time to Reflect but jubilation. Yet, the accompanying result was expo­ So we have finally reached the point where there can sure to debilitating influences that proved to be a threat be serious talk about opening Israeli-Egyptian borders to Kial Yisroel' s spiritual integrity.