Dear Yad Eliezer, So much is spent to make a memorable affair, The photographer, the band, the makeup... and the hair. Sheva Brachos outfits, a bracelet and a setting, without a diamond ring can there be a wedding? The list is endless... cuffUnks and a tie The budgets overdrawn, and there's so much still to buy. You've given us opportunity to really comprehend - the value of $1000 and how much we overspend!! There's great pleasure in knowing another couple will dance too. Your work is tremendous How can we thank you? Sincerely, Mimi and Dovid This poem was received by Yad Eliezer along with a wedding sponsorship. You too can change the life of a soon to be married couple! Sponsor a Yad Eliezer wedding - Imagine how much more beautiful your own wedding will be. The Gitty Perkowski Simcha Fund ofYad Eliezer Rabbi and Mrs. Zevi Trenk Mr. and Mrs. Zolly Tropper 1586 E. 9th St. 1102 E. 26th St. Brooklyn, N.Y. 11230 Brooklyn. N.Y. 11210 Wedding sponsorships are $1000 for a whole wedding and $500 for a half of a wedding. R THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021-6615 is published monthly except July and August by theAgudath Israel of America, 84 William Street, New York, N.Y. 10038. Second class postage paid in New York, N. Y. Subscription $24.00 per year; two years, $44.00; three years, $60.00. Outside of the United States (US funds drawn 4 on a US bank only) $12.00 surcharge per year. Single copy $3.50; foreign $4.50. Builders and Destroyers POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Rabbi Aaron Brafman The Jewish Observer, 84 William Street, N.Y., N.Y. 10038. Tel: (212) 797-9000. Fax: (212) 11 269-2843. Printed in the U.S.A. Rabbi Moshe Rosenstain ?"lit, Mashgiach of the Yeshiva of Lomza RABBI NISSON WOLPIN, EDITOR Rabbi Chaim Shapiro EDITORIAL BOARD DR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER 17 Chalnnan Mezuzos, Machlokes, and Eilu va'Eilu Divrei Elokim Chaim RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS Rabbi YosefGavrielBechhofer JOSEPH FRIEDENSON RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN 25 MANAGEMENT BOARD Remembering Reb Mendel AVIFISHOF a book review by Dr. Aaron Twerski NAFTOLI HIRSCH ISAAC KIRZNER RABBI SHLOMO LESIN NACHUM STEIN SECOND LoOKS ON THE JEWISH SCENE Israelism Versus Judaism RABBI YOSEF C. GOLDING Business Ma1111ger Ek:hanan Blumenthal Published by Agudath Israel of America The International Shmittah Contest, Sorah Cohen RABBI MOSHE SHERER PRESlDENT 32 SOLE U.S. TRADE DISTRIBUTOR EUROPEAN REPRESENTATIVE More Than Meets the Eye: Signals for Help Feldhelm Publishers M. T. Bibelman June Prochko 200 Airport ExecutiVf Park Grosvenor Works Spring Valley, N.Y. 10977 Mount Pleasant Hill London ES 9NE, ENGLAND 34 ISRAELI DISTRIBUTOR AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Nechemla Rosenberg Gold's Book & Gitt Co. Kiryat Telshe Stone, 108A 36 William Street 38 D.N. Harei Yehuda, ISf\AEl Balaclava 3183, Vic .. AUSTRALIA DATELINE 84 WILLIAM ST: THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not Convention Roundup-A Photographic Review assume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product, publication, or service advertised in its pages © Copyright 1995 JANUARY 1995 VOLUME XXVI\ I NO. 10 A CONTRAST IN LEGACIES unhappiness and violence we are ex­ of the ideals of Karl Marx? ls there any periencing despite achieving personal way of estimating how many lives everal mesechtos (tractates of liberation as a result of shedding of have been shattered and families de­ the Talmud) conclude with the inhibitions, which, according to stroyed as a direct result of-as well S statement that talmidei Freud, should have ushered In an era as broad fallout from-Freud's teach­ chachamim increase peace in the of happiness and fulfillment. There is ings? Nor have we as yet seen the end world, citing the pasuk, "And all your an increasing sense that just as we of this process. children will be students of Hashem, have witnessed the demise of Marx Even if, for the moment, we put and abundant will be the peace of and Marxism, so are we seeing the aside the teachings of the philosophi­ your children" (Y'ishayahu 54, 13). Do death of Freud's understanding of the cal, political and social theoreticians, not read "banayich--your children," human personality. and consider the exact sciences, pur­ the Gemora says, but "bonayich­ How different is the legacy of sued for the sake of expanding man's your builders." Gedolei Torah which is forever trans­ understanding of the physical world; More than a clever play on words, forming people for the better. How one cannot deny that while new hort­ these lines convey a profound mes­ much concern for others, goodness, zons in knowledge were opened, at sage, which becomes more meaning­ personal and communal harmony the same time, these discoveries ex­ ful when we compare the impact of and spirttual enrtchment are still be­ panded man's destructiveness expo­ Torah scholars on future generations ing generated because the Ba'al nentially. Einstein's theortes, for ex­ with that of masters of other disci­ Shem Tov, the Vilna Gaon and the ample, made possible the creation of plines. This was especially evident Chafetz Chaim once trod this earth nuclear weapons. Aside from the ac­ when I came across an article synop­ and spread their teachings! Such a tual lives lost through atomic bombs sizing the continuing spate of litera­ wealth of Torah, avodaand chessed! and radiation, how much terror was ture debunking much of Freudian How many lives have been touched, unleashed by the mere threat of psychology. For years now research­ inspired and made whole by the nuclear destruction durtng the cold ers have been questioning Sigmund legacy of any of those whom Kial war. How much danger still lurks for Freud's fundamental theortes, the re­ Y'isroel has recognized as its Gedolim, mankind with the continuous prolif­ vised neo-Freudian psychology, as In any generation! eration of atomic weaponry in devel­ well as the validity and objectivity of By contrast, the legacy of the secu­ oping nations! Freud's ortginal research. In addition, lar geniuses-many of whom were Innovations were launched in the many authors point to the increasing Jews who could have used their W­ name of objective scientific research, ents in Torah-directed endeavors­ humanistic concern, and technologi­ Rabbi Aaron Brafman is Menahel of Yeshiva was destruction, churbanl cal advancement. Visionary theories, Derech Ayson, Far Rockaway, N.Y. His "1be PuT~ suit of Happiness. Social Decay ... and the Jew, n was Is there a count of how how mil­ and the movements they spawned, featured in JO, November, '89. lions of people were killed in the name were designed to create a better 4 The Jewish Observer, January 1995 world. to mold a better human being. What a far cry from the lives of has dominated modern thinking for Yet they all turned out to be illusory Gedoliml Thousands of stories testify sometime. pursuits. to their saintliness, selflessness, con­ In an article in Commentary, Au­ How could the efforts of well· cern for others, and meticulous con­ gust 1992, entitled "The Future of intentioned trailblazers, in stark con­ cern about misusing even a penny American Jewry," Irving Kristo! de­ trast to those of Torah leaders, go so that was not theirs. Is there any won­ scribes the catastrophic effects of wrong? der about the divergence between the Secular Humanism on the moral legacies they left behind? quality oflife. Even he, a secular Jew, WHEN THE LESSON AND THE TEACHER ARE ONE Is there any way of estimating how many lives ne of the fundamental differ­ ences between Torah person­ have been shattered and families destroyed as a O alities and secular authori­ ties lies in their personal conduct. No direct result of-as well as broad fallout from­ one has ever achieved or earned the respect of Kla1 Yrsroet or has entered Freud's teachings? Nor have we as yet seen the the annals of Jewish history as a Gadot unless, in addition to his be­ end of this process. ing learned in all areas of Torah. he was also a tzaddik-a person of saintly character. In Jewish leader­ THE TEST OF TIME is appalled, as he wlites: ship, one cannot divorce intellectual What specifically were (and arn} the teachings q.f this new philosophical, accomplishment from personal righ­ very theory or movement put forth over the past several sptritualimpulse?Theycanbeswnmed teousness and moral behavior. The up in on.e phrase: Man makes himself, ... centuries has had some merit hallmark of a Gadol has always been E Merely because it incorporates the that the more one scrutinizes his pri­ and has held out some promise for word "secular" in its self-identification vate life and mundane, daily activi­ betterment, yet ultimately each col­ does not mean that it cannot be seri­ ties, the more one stands in awe of lapsed, for falsehood cannot stand. ously viewed as a competitive reli­ him. The closer one is to the Gadot The problem is that it may take sev­ gion-though tts adherents resent and enty years or more for that collapse to resist any such description. Such re­ the more one is able to see his piety, sentment and resistance are, ofcourse, his selflessness and his kindness. take place, and in· the intelim, entire a natural consequence of seeing the Secular leadership is quite a differ­ generations are destroyed. A human­ human world through "secularist" spec­ ent matter. We are not merely refer­ ity tossing about on stormy seas of tacles. Because secular humanism has, ring to political leaders, about whom ideas has no litmus test to validate an .from the very beginning, incorporated we have learned so much in recent idea.