THE THE Elul 5763 • September 2003 JJewishewish U.S.A. $3.50/Foreign $4.50 • VOL XXXVI/NO. 7 OOBSERBSERVERVER Anti-Semitism Yesterday, Today… CLICK HERE FOR TABLE OF CONTENTS THEJJewishewish Elul 5763 • September 2003 OOBSERBSERVERVER U.S.A.$3.50/Foreign $4.50 • VOL XXXVI/NO. 7 THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021-6615 is published monthly except July and August by the Agudath Israel This is the full Table of Contents of the print edition of the of America, 42 Broadway, New York, NY10004. Periodicals postage paid in New Jewish Observer. The web edition contains only a selection of Yo r k, NY.Subscription $24.00 per year; articles (indicated in color). Click on the title to go to the two years, $44.00; three years, $60.00. Outside of the United States (US funds beginning of that article. Navigate using your browser’s menu drawn on a US bank only) $12.00 sur- charge per year. Single copy $3.50; for- and other options. eign $4.50. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Observer, 42 Broadway, NY., NY. 10004. Tel: 212-797-9000, Fax: 646-254-1600.Printed in the U.S.A. ANTI-SEMITISM:YESTERDAY,TODAY… AND TOMORROW? RABBI NISSON WOLPIN, EDITOR 11 A Blow to the Heart of Jerusalem EDITORIAL BOARD RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS 12 Yes,We Are Different, Rabbi Aaron Brafman Chairman RABBI ABBA BRUDNY 15 The Truman Diaries in Retrospect, Yonoson Rosenblum JOSEPH FRIEDENSON RABBI YISROEL MEIR KIRZNER RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN PROF. AARON TWERSKI 20 Reflections on the Passing of Moreinu Hagaon Rabbi DR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER Z”L Yechiel Michel Feinstein l”xz, Rabbi Rephael Moshe Gettinger RABBI MOSHE SHERER Z”L Founders MANAGEMENT BOARD AVI FISHOF, NAFTOLI HIRSCH ANTICIPATING THE NEW YEAR ISAAC KIRZNER, RABBI SHLOMO LESIN NACHUM STEIN 26 The King and i, Rabbi Yosef Levinson RABBI YOSEF C. GOLDING Managing Editor 30 Great Expectations, Rabbi Avi Shafran Published by Agudath Israel of America 34 Guilt:A Positive Factor in Teshuva, Mrs. Shira Frank U.S. TRADE DISTRIBUTOR ISRAELI REPRESENTATIVE 38 “I’m Sorry”: Teshuva Begins at Home, Dr. Meir Wikler Feldheim Publishers Intnl. Media Placement 200 Airport Executive Park POB 7195 / 97 Jaffa Road Nanuet, NY 10954 Jerusalem 94340, ISRAEL BRITISH REPRESENTATIVE BELGIAN REPRESENTATIVE 44 Rabbi Nachman Bulman l”xz: M.T. Bibelman Mr. E. Apter Grosvenor Works Lange Kievitstr. 29 A Page From the Book of His Life, Rabbi Yechiel Perr Mount Pleasant Hill 2018 Antwerp London E5 9NE, ENGLAND BELGIUM FRENCH REPRESENTATIVE SOUTH AFRICAN Rabbi Bamberger REPRESENTATIVE SECOND LOOKS 21 Boulevard Paixhans Mr. V. Taback 57000 Metz PO Box 51552, FRANCE Raedene, Johannesburg 2124 SOUTH AFRICA 47 Alternative Closings, Rabbi Nachman Lapa SWISS REPRESENTATIVE Mr. S. Feldinger Leimanstrasse 36 49 A Tale of Two Students, Rabbi Avi Shafran 4051 Basel, SWITZERLAND 51 The Day the Lights Went Out THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not assume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product, publication, or service advertised in its pages 53 Letters-to-the-Editor © Copyright 2003 55 Leshana Tova Greetings September 2003 VOLUME XXXVI/NO. 7 SUBSCRIBE TO THE JEWISH OBSERVER. CLICK HERE. THE TERROR CONTINUES, k’’r ... ?rntb vn ?rcsb vn WHAT CAN WE SAY? WHATMUST WE DO? Just when we were hoping…. just when things seemed to brighten up… just when we started to dream “maybe, just maybe”…. BUT IT WAS NOT TO BE. lives have been torn apart by the evil that plagues Eretz The barbaric bus bombing in Jerusalem has shattered Yisroel. And now, there are many more victims — bringing these dreams, and has shattered the lives of over 100 the total to over 1000 killed and thousands wounded — many of wonderful families. whose families need immediate assistance. THE AIA TERROR VICTIMS EMERGENCY FUND, We beg you to open your hearts, today, to help the founded by Agudath Israel of America a year ago, has orphans, the widows, and those maimed or crippled for life. already distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to We beg you to help alleviate the unbearable pain and suf- families devastated by injury or death; families whose fering our brothers and sisters are enduring in Eretz HaKodesh. “Ribono Shel Olam, please bring this terror to an end!” vrhzdv gur ,t ihrhcgn ’vesmu’ vkp,u vcua,u PLEASE RESPOND GENEROUSLY! Clip here and respond, today! J YES! I want to assist Acheinu Beis Yisroel in Eretz Yisroel who are suffering as a result of terror. NAME ADDRESS Please send your generous tax-deductible donation to: CITY STATE ZIP AIA VICTIMS EMERGENCY FUND TEL (DAY) (EVE.) Agudath Israel of America Enclosed is my contribution of_______________ 42 Broadway, 14th Floor Check Enclosed K Charge my: K VISA K MasterCard (min. $50 donation for credit card charges) New York, NY 10004 ACCOUNT NUMBER Tel: 212-797-9000 Fax: 646-254-1600 EXP. DATE / SIGNATURE F3 ANTI-SEMITISM: YESTERDAY, TODAY… AND TOMORROW? A Blowto the Heart of Jerusalem piece of the Kosel was blown up mourning for them in their absence. as scores of people who frequented the by a suicide bomber a’’h at 9 p.m. • The body of Rochel Freydel Dushin- Taubenfeld home in New Square, N.Y. Aon Tuesday night, August 19 / 22 sky s’’hv was not brought to rest for two for a meal and an encouraging word. Menachem Av. At your next visit to the days, because she left no children • Reb Yosef Dov Binder s’’hv,a Gerer Kosel,you will look for the scars, and through whom her DNA could be Yungerman,was loved for his warm per- you won’t see them. But I tell you they identified. But she left thousands of bro- sonality by all who met him. He was a are there. ken hearts. She and her husband, Reb key member of the Kashrus department Earlier that evening, hundreds upon Mordechai h’’b – members of an old of the Rabbanut. hundreds of people ascended to the foot Yerushalmi family – hosted some 200 • Rabbi Yitzchok Ezrachi t’’yhka of the of the Har Habayis,the Temple Mount, guests at each of their Shabbos meals every Mirrer Yeshiva, testified that Rabbi to touch the splendor of the Shechina that week, most of them American yeshiva Eliezer Weissfish s’’hv,only forty years old, has never departed from this site, a rem- bachurim.They ate in three shifts of 30 had mastered Kol HaTorah Kulo — the nant of the Wall that surrounds the area. - 40 minutes each – Kiddush, full cours- entire Torah. They came there to daven,to beseech the es, Zemiros,a Dvar Torah, and Birchas • After Mrs. Lilach Karadi s’’hv had lost Almighty for the myriad needs of Klal Hamazon.At the funeral, Reb her father, she assumed responsibili- Yisroel and for themselves. And then they Mordechai weepingly begged his guests: ty of her ailing widowed mother and left, with the experience alive in their Don’t forget. Come this Shabbos. I’ll put her siblings. She would not entertain neshamos, taking a piece of the Kosel,as up the cholent (in accordance with his offers of shidduchim unless her two it were, with them. Rav’s directive). youngest siblings would be included. Well over a hundered of them • Wife of an admired talmid chacham, She leaves her husband, Dayan crowded aboard the Number Two bus, Mrs. Schwartz s’’hv,davened each of the Karadi t’’yhka,ofChacham Yosef’s Bet and at 9 p.m., on Rechov Shmuel Hanavi, three tefillos with a minyan, said Sefer Din,with one son, bereft of his wife a son of Yishmael detonated a bomb, Tehillim in its entirety every day. She was with their expected next child. and shattered many of these Kosel Jews. on her way home from the Kosel where The Yesod VeShoresh Avoda says that Every Jew is precious, and everyone who she had spent three hours in prayer for the last mitzva a person was engaged in is martyred by a blood-thirsty terror- the success of her son, who had been before passing away characterizes that ist is a Kadosh.We happen to know of accepted in a new yeshiva. person’s lifetime. These kedoshim, and several of these “Pieces of the Kosel”; • Mrs. Golda Taubenfeld s’’hv and her son the others with them, carried the Kosel as we weep for their loss, we invite the Shmuel s’’hv,left twelve mourning chil- with them... and we all surely share in reader to stop and savor the luminos- dren, plus the children of her late sis- mourning the loss of each and every one ity of their personalities, and join us in ter-in-law who joined her family, as well of those pure neshamos. N.W. The Jewish Observer, September 2003 11 ANTI-SEMITISM: YESTERDAY, TODAY… AND TOMORROW? Rabbi Aaron Brafman YES,D WEIF AREFERENT AS IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN the eyes of the Poles, we could argue with them over the way they treat us. But they ur every brush with anti-Semi- do not give us any standing or consider tism, our every exposure to its us a people at all. Thus there is nothing Ovirulent expression is painful. to even talk about.” (from the Brisker But it never comes as a surprise. Haggada) Whether the recent disclosure of Pres- And so it has always been. Leaf ident Harry Truman’s diary and its rev- through Chumash and Nach and note elation of his anti-Semitic attitudes, the how, for example, the Sar Hamashkim rejection of the rights of Israel [read: (Chief Cup-bearer) informed Pharaoh Jews] in the U.N., its echoes in elite col- that Yosef interprets dreams, describing lege campuses across the U.S.A., or the him dismissingly as “a Hebrew youth, obvious bias against Israel in the media, a slave of the Chief of the Butchers.”..