RELIEF has the haskama & guidance ofleading Rabbonim NEW YORK lder adults have specific physical, emotional, and social needs 5904 13m Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11219 that require specialized care. Through our extensive research, 718.431.9501 RELIEF has developed a comprehensive database of geriatric mental PAX O 718.431.9504 health professionals specially trained to treat the elderly. If you or someone NI:W JERSEY you know is suffering from depression, anxiety, dementia, or any other mental 110 Hillside Boulevard health disorder, RELIEF can guide you to the most qualified provider. Lakewood, NJ 08701 732.905.1605 Call RELIEF to get the help and support you need. CAKADA 3101 Bathurst Street Toronto, ON M6A 2A6 Our services are free of 416.789.1600 charge and completely E L I E F confidential. IS RAEL Nadvorna 23/3 Beitar Illit, Israel 90500 n Ell EF is a non~profit organization which provides medical referrals, support and other vital services 02.580.8008 ~ to persons suffering from a variety of mental disorders including Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, Eating EMAIL: [email protected] Disorders, Depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and many others. These services are geared to v1s1r: www.reliefhelp.org the frum community with a special sensitivity to their unique needs and challenges. THE JEWISH OBSERVER ' 4 NOTED JN SORROW: RABB! NOACH WEINBERG, 7 ~1' THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) OOU-6615 IS PUBLISHED MONTHLY, EXCEPT JULY & AUGUST LESSONS FROM THE GAZA WAR AND A COMBINED ISSUE FOR JANVARYlfEBRUARY, BY THE 5 AN AGE OF MIRACLES, AN EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION, AGUDATH IS RAEL OF AMERICA. 42 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY 10004. Rabbi Nissan Wo!pin PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID JN NEW YORK, NY. SUBSCRIPTION S25.00/YEAR: THE CALL OF THE HouR: To DEVELOP STRENGTH 2 YEARS, 548.00: 3 YEARS, $69.00. 8 OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES (US IN TORAH AND £MUNA, BASED ON AN ADDRESS BY FUNDS DRAWN ON A US BANK ONLY) 515.00 SURCHARGE PER YEAR. SINGLE RABBI AHARON LE!B STEINMAN, N'"\J~?'v, COPY SJ.SO: OUTSIDE NY AREA $3,95; TRANSLATED BY Pnuel Perry FOREIGN S4.50. POSTMASTER: 11 WHAT WE HAVE SEEN, WHAT WE MusT Do: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO: WAKE UP Now!, BY RABBI YAAKOV BEAR, BASED ON TEL 212·797·9000, FAX 646-254·1600 DISCUSSIONS WITH RABB! MOSHE 5TERNBUCH, N"'\J~7V PRINTED IN THE USA 15 AN UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE AT THE KOSEL, RABBI N1ssoN WOLPIN, Editor Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz Editorial Board RABBI ABBA BRUONY 16 WAR IN GAZA - SUMMING UP, Yonoson Rosenblum RABBI JOSEPH El.I AS JOSEPH fRIEOENSON MAN OF WAR, A POEM BY Yossi Hutt/er RABBI YISROEL MEIR K!RZNER 20 RABBI NossoN SCHERMAN PROF. AARON TWERSKI 21 AGAINST ALL Ooos, Mrs. Sarah Cohen fbunders OR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER Z"L RABBI MOSHE SHERER Z"l. 26 A UNIQUE GENERATION IN UNIQUE TtMES, Management Board BASED ON AN ADDRESS BY RABBI MOSHE WOLFSON, NAFTOLI HJRSCH. ISAAC KIRZNER, RABBI SHI.OMO LESIN, N'"D~7V, PREPARED FOR PUBLICATION BY DAVID SINGER, NACHUM STEIN Rabbi Shirnon Finkelman MRS. LEAH ZAGELBAUM, 1 Advertising Manager 31 RABBI 5. R. H1RSCH S REVOLUTIONARY YET TRADITIONAL COMMENTARY ON CHUMASH AN APPRECIATION, PUBLISHED BY AGUDATH IS RAEL OF AMERICA BASED ON A SH!UR BY Rabbi Yissachar Frand U.S. TRADE DISTRIBUTOR 37 SHMITTA 5768 - A SHMITTA LIKE No Ornrns' fELDHEIM PUBLISHERS 208 Airport Executive Rirh Rabbi Dov Lederman Nanuet. NY 10954 42 REMEMBERING THE PONOVEZHER RAV)":<!, BRITISH REPRESENTATIVE M.T. Bl BELMAN Frorn the Memoirs of Rabbi Sh!omo Lorincz, Grosvenor Works Mount Pleasant Hill translated by Mrs. 0. Breines London Es 9Nt: 1:.i'VGlAND 45 OF PUBLIC RECORD FRENCH REPRESENTATIVE RABBI BAMBERGER 46 READERS' foRUM 21 Boulevard Paixhans 57000 Metz. FRANCE 48 INDEX TO ARTICLES, VoLUME XLI, No. 1-9 ISRAELI REPRESENTATIVE INTNL. MEDIA PLACEMENT !'OB 7195 I .97 Jq/fa Road COVER PHOTO: APJH'ide Warld Phatos Jerusalem 94340. /SRAEL BELGIAN REPRESENTATIVE MR. E. APTER STATEMENT OF POLICY Lange Kievitstr. 29 2018 Antwerp. BELGIUM THE JEWISH OBSERVER HAS DEVOTED A GREAT DEAL OF SPACE TO THE PERILS OF THE INTERNET AND TO THE NEED FOR EVERYONE TO SOUTH AFRICAN REPRESENTATIVE BE EXTREMELY VIGILANT IN ITS USE. WE HAVE ECHOED THE Pl.EAS MR. V. TABACK THE JEWISH OBSERVER DOES NOT ASSUME OF OUR GEDOLIM THAT IT SHOULD NOT BE IN USE, UNLESS IT JS AN PO Box 51552. UNAVOIDABLE NECESSITY, AND THEN ONLY WITH ALL SUITABLE Kaedene, Johannesburg RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE KASHRUS OF ANY PRODUCT, SAFEGUARDS. WHILE ITS DANGERS MUST BE RECOGNIZED AND CON· 2124 SOUTH Af'IUCA PUBLICATION, OR SERVICE ADVERTISED IN ITS PAGES TROLLED TO EVERY POSSIBLE DEGREE, OUR GEOOLIM RECOGNIZE THAT AUSTRALIAN REPRESENTATIVE MANY PEOPLE ANO BUSINESSES REQUIRE ITS USE, AND THEREFORE IT DR. A. DINNEN © COPYRIGHT 2009 HAS NOT BEEN BANNED. THIS IS WHY WE ACCEPT ADVERTISEMENTS 77 Birriga Road LISTING WEBSITE ADDRESSES, BUT IN NO WAY DOES THIS IMPLY THAT Bellevue Hill, NS\V 2023, AUSTRALl4 JAMUARY/FEBRUARY 2009 l'HE GEDOLIM OR TUE JEWISH OBSERVER CONDONE CASUAL USE OF VOLUME XLII I NO. 1 THE INTERNET. ~~hutz (1690-1764 > .urvival of the Jewis 'orehruiraculous than the .S~' 3I700 y~ars agcii'Each era in our millenni a distinct kind of<;f!9Uenge, with its own.~J UR RECENT HISTORY, the end of World War II, is Omost instances, the threats that we faced were not ol' discrimination, persecution and annihilation, as in the past. et us go back to 70 years ago. At that time, the These were falling away and were being replaced by invitations ofthese lines was in a primary grade in a public school of acceptance and assimilation, and pressure to conform. Lin Seattle. I was no different from my older brothers After witnessing years of surrendering to an unyielding six­ or other Jewish children in Los Angeles, San Francisco, day work week and difficulties in keeping kashrus, and then, Vancouver. .. or Detroit. The closest Hebrew Day School in the 1940s and '50s, responding to new opportunities in was over 2,000 miles away, in Chicago. In fact, there were the business and professional worlds, one could well have no more than five day schools outside of New York City predicted the end of Orthodox Jewry in America. on the entire American continent. At that time, there were [ 1 Instead, there were stirrings of spiritual awakening, some three mesivtos, and no kollel for advanced study. When my 1 dedicated pioneering individuals, and the injection of ener­ oldest brother got married in 1952, and was accepted in Bais gizing, inspiring, heroic souls who survived Ch urban Europe Medrash Elyon in Monsey, NY, he was one of ten yungeleit and began to transform An1erica from a spiritual wilderness there. Add another ten in Lakewood's Bais Medrash Govoha, on the threshold of disappearance to a tentative pause in and a few more in Bais Hatalmud in the East New York sec- the melting away of Orthodoxy, and an ultimate, totally tion of Brooklyn. There were less than thirty in the entire unanticipated growth and revival. Western hemisphere. Photo: Smoke is seen billowing from Gaza following an airstrike that was part of the ID F's Operation Cast Lead (Yehuda Boltshauser) 5 JANUARY FEBRUARY 2 0 0 9 Today, there is a day school in every Living in an age whatever bones were thrown its way American community of at least 10,000 by its Zionist masters. One might families. In fact, there are over 780 day of miracles has as well have dreamed of planting schools across the continent, and over ramifications on a lush garden in the midst of a 200 yeshiva-Bais Yaakov high schools, parched desert as of sowing the seeds servicing over 250,000 students.' the battlefield. of a Chareidi community in such Bais Medrash Govoha in Lakewood It is incumbent unpromising soil. has five thousand students, including Today, the yeshiva world in Bretz several thousand married kollel fellows. on us to take Yisroel is burgeoning. Chevron, With the spread of community kollelim, Ponovezh, Mir, Brisk , , . in Yerushalayim, there are over 30 such institutions scat­ note of these Bnei Brak, Modiin, Tifrach .... Chinuch tered across the continent. Today, the miracles and to Atzmai - a network of chadarim - was American Torah community is led by founded by Rabbi Aaron Kotler, .,.. ~, rabbanim, dayanim, and roshei yeshivas respond to them just 55 years ago. Today, close to I 00,000 of high caliber who are American-born in a variety children are enrolled in these Torah and for the most part were brought up Schools, plus 45,000 in private chadarim. and educated in American yeshivos. of ways. And every town and city that has had And what was Bretz Yisroel like 75 a Chinuch Atzmai school for ten years years ago? We quote from Rabbi Shlomo can today boast a yeshiva ketana-high Lorincz's memoirs, published in JO one or two small yeshivos in which school, a yeshiva gedola-beis midrash, Jan.'06: the learning was al taharas hakodesh. and a kollel. Readers cannot imagine what a To send one's son to a yeshiva high • The declaration of Israel as a Jewish spiritual wasteland Bretz Yisroel was school, which combined secular and State in 1948, the massive immigra­ in those days. In 1933, not only was religious studies, was considered the tion that followed, and the phe­ the "well empty, lacking water," but pinnacle of Orthodoxy. nomenal build up of the religious it was filled with "snakes and scor­ Even those who remained loyal yishuv is beyond anyone's dream, pions.'' The concept of a ben Torah to Torah values did not dream of let alone anticipation.