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AUSTRALIA 41 SECOND LoOKS THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not Schindler's List-Unvisited assume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product, publication, or service advertised in its pages 42 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ©Copyright 1993 FEBRUARY 1994 44 INDEX TO VOLUME XXVI: SUBJECTS AND AUTHORS VOLUME XXVll /NO. 1 Cover photo courtesy Leibel Karmel YonasonRosenblum RABBI YEHUDA EV EGAL, ;c-o7;7>~~= A CHOFETZ CHAIM FOR OUR TIMES Marking the First Yahrzeit of the Late Manchester Rosh Yeshiva-22 Shevat AN APPARENT PARADOX dox. Few in our generation were as He never read a newspaper. He sim­ scrupulous as he in their absolute ply assumed that if he needed to ny appreciation of the late devotion to Torah learning and the know something, someone would tell Manchester Rosh Yeshiva, solitary, painstaking task of self-per­ him. Yet if events were relevant to A Rabbi Yehuda z.ev Segal, ?"YT, fection. As a bachurin Mirrer Yeshiva, Jews anywhere in the world, he fol­ must begin with an apparent para- he was famed for never speaking in lowed them closely. Asked whether he matters unrelated to learning durtng had relatives in Eretz Yisroelby some­ Yonason Rosenblum, a regular contributor to JO, seder(learning sessions), and during one struck by the intensity of his is tile author of Reb Yaakov, a biography of Rabbi Kamenetsky, ?":::rt, and co-author ofthe recently re­ the last decade of his life one of his dnvening during the Gulf War, he re­ leased Lieutenant Birnbaum, both published by YomimNora'imresolutions was not to plied in amazement, "Klal Y'1Sroel is Art ScroIL He is currently at work on a biography of spend a moment without thinking in there." He had an oncologist's ency­ the legendary Reb Elimelch ("Mike") Tress. Anyone Torah and mussar. Yet in the last fif­ clopedic knowledge of cancer treat­ Wishing to be interviewed in connection with the book may contact him via The Jewish Observer. teen years of his life, he frequently ments gained over years of consulta­ The author would like to thank the following people learned with a telephone on his tion with those suffering from the dis­ for their assistance in the preparation of this ar­ shtender so that he could answer tm­ ease. Because it was relevant to a ticle: The Rosh Yeshiva's children and their mediately the calls that came from Jew, no detail ofa course of treatment spouses; his grandsons Binyomin and Ahron around the world. Ehrentreu; Yair Kruskal, Mordechai and was ever forgotten. Shimshon Moses, Michael Rothschild, Osher The Rosh Yeshiva had no interest The paradox, of course, is only ap­ Stemlicht. and Menachem Weiss. per se in anything other than Torah. parent. For even the greatest milzva 4 The Jewish Observer, February 1994 of all-the learning of Torah-must be put aside for a mitzva that cannot be done by another. Because those who came or called felt that no one else could offer the same consolation in times of tragedy, the same hope and beracha in difficult times, the same love to those alone and tn need, the Manchester Rosh Yeshiva spent hours each day involved with the problems of individual Jews the world over. One's aspirations must be to Heaven, he used to say, just as the wings of the cherubim on the Aron HaK.odesh were spread upwards. But at the sam.e time, one must remem­ ber to keep his face turned towards his brothers, just as the faces of the cherubim were turned "each towards his brother... I. THE MAKING OF A TZADDlK­ A LIFE-LONG PURSUIT adiog of the Chofetz Chaim oday, sixty years after his asslng, it is almost Impos­ sible to believe that such a Jew ever lived. Harder still is it to imagine that in our generation we should see an­ other capable of expressing the Chofetz Chaim's devotion to the pu­ rity of speech and his overflowing love for his fellow Jew. And hardest of all Reading of the Chafetz Chaim today, sixty years after Is it to comprehend how that reflec­ tion of the Chofetz Chaim in our gen­ I his passing, it is almost impossible to believe that such a eration could have grown up, not in Eastern Europe, but attending the ' Jew ever lived.