Jewish Life December 1958

Tevet h 5719 December 1958

i n t h i s i s s it e Assimilation by Government Fiat Religious Programs in the Public Schools What Do Our Children Really Think?

Israel’s Cultural Cold War Orthodoxy on the Campus American in Israel— 5719 Torah town Is on Its Way

SAUL SIGELSCHIFFER is the principal of Herman Ridder Junior High School in the Bronx, N. Y. A faculty member of the School of Education of Yeshiva University, he also serves as chair­ man of the Board of Directors of the Yonkers Hebrew Academy.

DR. MEYER WAXMAN, the eminent author of noted works, continues in this issue his series on great Jewish thinkers through the ages. Dr. Waxman’s newest work is the recently published “Judaism: Religion and Ethics/’ MICHAEL ROSENAK is a graduate of Yeshiva University. He received his Master’s Degree in the Department of History of Columbia University, and studied at the Jewish Agency’s Teach­ ers Institute in Jerusalem in 1954. Mr. Rosenak has recently returned to Israel, where he teaches English and History at the Midrashiya (religious high school) in Pardes Chanah.

among our contributors

RABBI ESRIEL MAGNUS OPPENHEIM makes his first appearance in J ewish L ife in this issue. He received Semichah from Mesivta Torah Vodaath, and is studying for his Doctorate in Finance and Economics at Columbia University, As the founder and first president of The Yeshurun Society at Columbia, Rabbi Oppenheim has played an active role in the life of the orthodox Jewish student body on that campus.

JULES COHEN is the National Coordinator of the National Community Relations Advisory Council, the coordinating agency for several national Jewish organizations as well as forty-three local, state and regional Jewish community councils. A lawyer by profession, Mr. Cohen is an ekpert in the fields of civil rights, civil liberties and intergroup relations.

BERNARD MERLING is a musmacji of Mesivta Torah Vodaath and a graduate of the City College of New York. Now in the advertising field, he was formerly Publications Director for Torah Umesorah. He has contributed articles to various publications.

ARYEH NEWMAN is the assistant 'editor of the Torah Educa­ tion Department of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem. He is a frequent contributor to J ewisiI L if e ,; his last offering being “The Devout Jew and His Literature,” (Ay/August 1958).

Cover: The menorah in repetition design was created by Jean-Jacques Duval of New YorÈ; artist, designer and crafts­ man of stained glass and furnishings for the synagogue.

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December, 1958 Vol. XXVI, No. 2

Saul Bernstein , Editor M. Morton rubenstein Reuben E. Gross Rabbi S. J. Sharfm an Libby Klaperman Editorial Associates THEA ODEM , Editorial Assistant

JEWISH LIFE is published bi­ monthly. Subscription two years $3.0 0 , three years $ 4.00, four years $5.00, Supporter $10.00, Patron $25.00.

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Moses I. Feuerstein President Benjamin Koenigsberg, Nathan K. Gross, Samuel L. Brennglass, M. Morton Rubenstein, Vice Presidents; Edward A. Teplow, Treasurer; Herbert Berman, Secretary.

Dr. Samson R. Weiss Executive Vice President

Application for second class mail privileges is pending at N ew York, N . Y.

December, 1958

Teveth, 5719

9 EDITORIALS • ARTICLES

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IS ISRAEL'S CULTURAL COLD WAR BECOMING HOTTER ............................... 9 I. Halevy-Levin SOME NON-LEGAL ARGUMENTS AGAINST CHANUKAH PROGRAMS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ....................... 15 Jules Cohen AMERICAN IN ISRAEL-5719 ................ 19 Michael Rosenak WHAT DO OUR CHILDREN REALLY THINK? ........................................ 25 Bernard Merling TORAHTOWN IS ON ITS W A Y .............. 29 Saul Sigelschiffer THEY FOUNDED THE STATE OF ISRAEL.. 39 Aryeh Newman ORTHODOXY ON THE CAM PUS............ 46 Esriel Magnus Oppenheim YAACOV BEN MEIR—RABBENU TAM 52 Meyer Waxman

• BOOK REVIEWS VESTIBULE TO JEWISH UNDERSTANDING .................................... 59 Solomon J. Sharfman EYEWITNESS TO HORROR .................... 61 Chaim U. Lipschitz ON MARITAL GUIDANCE ....................... 65 Mosheh Max A RABBI CONVERSES ............................ 67 Gilbert Klaperman

• DEPARTMENTS AMONG OUR CONTRIBUTORS .Inside Cover HASHKOFAH: Creation and Nature ..... 36 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ......................... 69 EXCERPTS selected and translated by David M. Hausdorff ILLUSTRATIONS by Hovav Kruvi

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Assimilation by Government Fiat AVID BEN GURION, Israel’s Prime Minister, has resorted to a strange maneuver in the attempt to extricate himself and the Mapai party from the “identity card” quicksands. He has decreed that the Israel Government shall proceed with the granting of identification as Jews to all adults declaring them­ selves as such, regardless of birth or religious status, and that the question of registration as Jews of children whose nonJewish mothers do not wish conversion to Judaism be submitted to forty-five assorted personalities of Israel, the United States, and other countries. Among those to receive the “shaalah” are a number of Reform and Conservative clergymen and some prominent non-clerical figures known to be dissociated from the traditional Jewish religion, as well as some distinguished orthodox Rabbinic leaders.

Jewish Throughout the ages, to this day, the determination of Jewish Foundations ^entity has been in accordance with inviolable tenets of the Attacked religion. However many have fallen away from Jewish belief, or may have adopted heterodox belief, none, outside of the Communist world, have disputed the fundamentally re­ ligious character of Jewish existence, or the religious qualifica­ tion for admission by birth or conversion to the Jewish people. Ben Gurion’s present action decrees the secularization and assimilation of Jewry. It spells the suppression, by govern­ mental fiat, of fundamental laws of Judaism.

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HHHE procedure of overriding the established Israeli religious jL authorities on this issue, and of referring the question of children born of non-Jewish mothers to non-Israelis* is indicative of the contradictions in which Ben Gurion and his associates have become enmeshed. If, as they assert, the question of “who is a Jew” lies within the province of Israel civil authority, Net of ^ en as a PurelY internal and civil question it cannot lie within the domain of the Jewish world at large and of the Jewish Contra- religlon. Whence, then, does Ben Gurion—otherwise so prone dictions to denounce as intrusion any Diaspora intervention in Israel affairs—solicit the adjudication of outsiders? By virtue of what legal or moral premise is this undertaken, upon what principle and by whose right of selection are the “poskim” chosen?

What qualifications do such figures as United States Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter have for passing on either a Jewish or an Israeli question? And if the Israel Government 2

JEWISH LIFE

decrees that Israel’s religious authorities are not competent to decide who in Israel is a Jew, then by what right or logic can non-Israeli Reform and Conservative clergymen be deemed competent?

What a compound of malignant absurdities is this entire procedure!

If there is madness in Ben Gurion’s method, there is also method in his madness. Faced by the prospect of waxing religious influence in Israel, the forces of materialist ideology feel impelled to crush Judaism as a factor in Israeli affairs while power still remains in their hands. The identity card issue has become a key measure towards this purpose. Seeing the core of religious strength in the Chief Rabbinate, Ben Gurion is moving to evict religious authority from its domain.

Finding the religious parties, likewise a pillar of religious purpose, resistant to his will, he simultaneously mounts a world­ wide barrage of propaganda against these, the Rabbinate, and the concept of Israel as a Torah sanctuary. “Keep religion out of politics!* is the cry, to be translated: “Keep Judaism out of Israel!’’

The astute politician seeks allies, and Ben Gurion, not lacking in astuteness, turns for alliance to non-religious and non-orthodox sources in the Diaspora. Directing his query to persons hostile to any concept of the spiritual destiny of Jewry, he offers them the enticing chance of ejecting such concepts from the Israel scheme of things. As for the non-orthodox religious Bait groups to whom Ben Gurion reaches out, he offers them fo tempting bait. Lacking status in Israel, the spiritual heart of Jewry, their position must remain beclouded everywhere. To , them then, thirsting for a toe-hold in Israel, he implicitly urtnoaox 0ffers> vja query, the hope of recognition as Jewish religion, potential support in the recruitment of a following in Israel, a place in the Israeli sun. Prudence dictating that his stratagem be made not too obvious, Ben Gurion makes it a point to direct his “shaalah” also to orthodox rabbis of high stature as Halachic authorities.

There is reason to hope that Mr. Ben Gurion’s strategy will founder in its own labored cunning. Whatever the responses of so bizarre an assortment of personalities, their collective conclusions can enjoy no standing whatsoever in Israel or the Diaspora. However dissembled, the preposterous character of such an undertaking cannot be concealed. Too, it need not be taken for granted that the non-orthodox clergymen will rise to Ben Gurion’s bait. The prospect of partnership in the vile task of ravaging Israel’s spiritual life cannot but be repugnant to any Jew of conscience. Further, with their own movements struggling against the inroads of intermarriage, the policy of voiding the religious distinction between Jew and non-Jew December, 1958

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could spell early disaster. They can hardly afford to trade selfrespect and the security of their movements for the quid pro quo which Ben Gurion holds forth.

HE Jewish world as a whole must make itself decisively felt in this grave problem. From the first, Jews of all shades of opinion have reacted sharply against the Israel government’s arbitrary promulgation of new criteria for Jewish identity. Ben Gurion and his colleagues seem determined to defy almost universal opposition. Evidently they feel that the profound concern of Jews everywhere for Israel’s military and economic security will effectively shield them from dire consequences.

Let it be proven that they have miscalculated. Let every Jew, by every means at his command, make known his demand that Ben Gurion’s foray upon Judaism be terminated forthwith.

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Public Schools: Three R’s Plus Religion?

HE “Religion in the Public Schools” issue, simmering through the years, has been brought to a sharp boil by a recent development in New Hyde Park, a fast-growing suburb of New York in Long Island. On November 25th, the Board of Education of that community issued a policy statement requiring that Chanukah “should not be celebrated during the Christmas season in the public schools.” The statement further declared: “This is not to say, however, that the beautiful story and significance of the festival of lights should not be discussed in the classrooms at a time when it would not interfere with the Christmas season.” According to a local newspaper, the Board’s president interpreted the statement as signifying that Chanukah observance in the community’s schools shall be limited to classroom discussion and that “classroom discussions of Chanukah would be barred two weeks prior to Christmas.”

Not surprisingly, the policy directive evoked a storm of resentment .A statement issued by a group of leaders of New Hyde Park Jewish institutions and organizations denounced the ruling as containing “overtones of uncalled-for hostility to the Jewish residents of New Hyde Park”, contrary to “the American concept of religious freedom by preferring one religion over Perplexing others”, and as “the latest in a series of decisions which have Problem created community divisiveness and dissension”. The situation has borne repercussions far beyond the local area. Jewish and general organizations concerned with civil liberties, and Christian and other groups seeking to foster religious influence in the public schools, alike—but for opposing reasons-—view the matter with seriousness. In both cases, the concern is mingled with perplexity.

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The organizations focussing on defense of civil liberties oppose all forms of sectarian influence on, and religious ob­ servance in, the public schools, as contrary to “separation of Church and State”. Those favoring the fostering of religiosity in the public schools hold that this objective can be attained without violence to Church-State separation and to religious freedom. To the former, however, the New Hyde Park develop­ ment presents the complication that it is scarcely possible to denounce the blatant discrimination of the Board’s policy with­ out affirming the right to observance of Chanukah in the public schools— an impossible contradiction of their own prin­ ciples. The religion-in-public-education forces, on the other hand, are embarrassed by a classic demonstration that imple­ mentation of their objective leads to sectarianism in the public schools, to the favoring of one religion at the expense of others, and to delimitation of religious freedom. They cannot dispute the New Hyde Park action without implicity condemning their own rationale; equally, they cannot defend the Board’s position without discrediting their own.

Whether or not these opposing groups find momentary answers to their respective riddles is of minor significance. Far more important is the exposure, more clear than ever before, of the basic elements and scope of this national issue. We see that primary American ideals, once inseparably linked/ have become parted and now stand locked in battle.

MERICAN life stands rooted in religious commitment no less than in freedom and equality. At the birth of the American nation these characteristics were complementary. The America of the time was a land of many denominations and sects, but the great majority stemmed from parallel Protestant spiritual sources and shared a common cultural climate. Sep­ Primary aration of the State from all of the denominations was the Factors necessary condition for common freedom and equality. This seemed to insure the continued predominance of the prevailing Protestant way of life. Among the fruits of this circumstance was the rise of the public school system. Its non-sectarianism was premised on its compatibility with the Protestant climate of the land.

In the course of generations, the public school was the prin­ cipal means by which many millions of immigrants were, despite their very different backgrounds, largely assimilated to the Protestant cultural climate. Eventually, however, a massive Roman Catholic force took shape, powerfully organized, in­ creasingly influential on the public scene, and having an im­ pregnable base in its own school system. Together with this threat to Protestant ascendancy there went another—the spread of indifference to religion among the populace at large, affecting

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the Protestant sphere with particular severity. Faced by a weakening of their collective position on the broad American scene, the Protestant churches found their systems of religious education totally inadequate. They were impelled to increasingly insist upon religious orientation in the public schools.

Towards this end, there have sprung up over the past several years a variety of expedients through which religious teaching “Nonmarkedly Christian character has been introduced into the c * • *f public schools. In most cases, the religious indoctrination is Sectarian^ iabepe(j non-sectarian and non-doctrinal—even when it takes Indoctriform of daily classroom or assembly reading of the nation principal Christian prayer, the required reciting of passages from the Protestant bible and of the Protestant grace at meals, and the celebration, with traditional observances, of the major Christian holy seasons. In areas of sizable Jewish population, the tactic used to disarm Jewish opposition has been to en­ courage the token observance in the schools of Pesach, which falls at more or less the same time as Easter, and more especially Chanukah, the dates of which are generally close to that of Christmas.

An article elsewhere in this issue of J e w i s h L i f e offers an informative discussion of the “Chanukah in the Public Schools” problem, bringing compelling logic to bear. Without necessarily differing with the conclusions drawn there, the New Hyde Park issue reminds us that while Chanukah observance in the public schools is a dangerous snare, facilitating as it does the Christianization of these schools, Jewish disapproval of such Growing observance will not of itself serve to check, perhaps not even p to deter, the process of Christianization. Crediting Protestant ro es ant jea(|ersj1jp with every sincerity in their belief that religiosity Pressure can fostered in the public schools without sectarian intru­ sions, and while fully sharing their views that religious orienta­ tion of school children is an imperative of modern life, the fact must be faced that the need and will of Protestantism for a secure grip on the public schools as a nurturing ground for their faith grows daily more intense and daily marks further gains.

What happened in New Hyde Park is symptomatic of the rising pressure, of the resistance even to the use of the tactical “Christmas-Chanukah’’ expedient, of the urge to conduct the public schools as openly and unqualifiedly Christian institu­ tions operated at public expense.

E Jews too are caught on the horns of a dilemma. We cannot, under any circumstances, countenance such dis­ crimination as is marked by the policy of the New Hyde Park Board of Education, for if we do we accept the status of second class citizens— and also we leave the way open for the

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sole recognition of Christianity in public education. But if we insist upon the observance of Chanukah in the schools, we in this way also lend ourselves to the Christianizing of the schools.

Within the terms of the public school principle as it has^ hitherto been conceived, there appears little likelihood of any Facing solution of the problem. We Jews have no alternative but to Realities continue to espouse the view that the public schools must be made free of all sectarian intrusions; to hopefully maintain the premise that attitudes favorable to the appreciation of religion can be cultivated by the public schools without such intrusions; to demand that “purely informative, ^objective classroom discussion” of religions as a basic phase of education treat of all faiths equally; and to insist that religious education is the responsibility and the prerogative of the home and the religious institution. But with all this we must reckon realistic­ ally with the inexorable pressures upon the public school system.

We Jews will be well advised to focus utmost energies on the upbuilding, on a larger scale than ever before, of our Jewish day schools.

60th

Anniversary,and Beyond OR the delegates and visitors from all over the United States and Canada, and from several overseas countries, who at­ B tended the 60th Anniversary National Biennial Convention of

the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, held November in Atlantic City, the event was a deeply felt personal experience. Surpassing any previous assemblage of American traditional Jewry in the character and scope of its program, the Convention illumined the broad vistas open to Torah endeavor, and brought an inspiring sense of strength through community of purpose. The impact of the Convention, carrying far beyond individual experiences, is being felt in manifold channels of reli­ gious life throughout the land.

Occurring at a crucial juncture of history, and under the inspiration of the Union’s six decades of endeavor, the Conven­ tion has marked a new phase in American Jewish development.

These days, some are wont to yield to pessimism in viewing Perspective the spiritual, as well as physical, losses of the past decades. Yet, on seen in the perspective of the 60th Anniversary, the status of Proaress American Orthodoxy appears notably advanced in some respects since the birth of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations.

Then, heterodoxy and the assimilationist spirit seemed unchal­ lenged, orthodox synagogues struggled for existence, only rudi­ mentary means of religious education were available, and OrthoDecember, 1958

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doxy as such was totally disorganized, devoid of voice and of means of articulate expression. Today, in contrast, Orthodoxy’s 3,000 synagogues are firmly rooted in the American scene, a great university thrives and another is newly established, a score of major yeshivoth and a rapidly growing network of Day Schools daily win new strength, the Rabbinate has risen in stat­ ure, and cultural, communal, and ideological agencies contribute to the advancement of traditional life. And serving this broad constituency is the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, bringing effective representation and spokesmanship, propagating the Torah message, and, together with the Women’s Branch of the Union, reaching out far and wide with manifold forms of aid and guidance. Thanks to this work, American Orthodoxy is being welded into à potent force.

HE delegates at the 60th Anniversary Convention addressed themselves with forthright purpose to their tasks: the assays ing of the experiences of the past, of the problems of the present, and of the needs of the future; the re-definition of goals; and the mobilization of traditional Jewry for the achievement of these goals. The varied workshops, panel discussions, symposia, and plenary sessions were imbued with an embracive aim: to create step by step, out of the fabric of American Jewish life, a viable program for Torah-true living, addressed to the broad ranks of American Jewry.

The program for the coming period adopted by the 60th Anni­ versary Convention includes challenging projects in community­ Realism building, education, youth work, literature, synagogue develop­ and ment, and community relations. It was the merit of the Conven­ tion to have conceived of these projects in relation to, and to Confidence have kindled confidence in the capacity to achieve, the para­ mount aim. Realism and confidence are alike necessary. The times demand undertakings of large dimensions, which require appropriate funds as well as moral commitment. The spirit of the 60th Anniversary Convention gives assurance that the con­ gregations of Torah Judaism and the orthodox Jewish commu­ nity at large, aware of their responsibility and opportunity, will enable the Union, as their common instrument, to fulfill its greater, historically destined tasks.

The role of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America can be summarized in a single word: leadership. The administration headed by Moses I. Feuerstein, re-elected for his third term as president, has shown deep perception of this role, and the dedication and capacity to implement it. May the Al­ mighty give strength to the efforts of the Union’s administration and His Divine blessing to the Union’s cause in the fateful years to come.

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JEWISH LIFE

Is Israel’s Cultural Cold War Becoming Hotter?

By I. HALEVY-LEVIN Jerusalem: r r i H E kulturkampf, which has been A a permanent feature of life in this country for three generations, has been shaken out of its groove and there are ominous signs of a bitter struggle ahead threatening to divide the Jewish people—in Israel and in the Diaspora. Up to now both sides, conscious of the dangers of open cul­ tural warfare and with the havoc wrought by similar controversies in the past not forgotten, have sought to keep the present trial of strength within the bounds of cold war. The formula has been “maintenance of the status quo” yet it has all along been quite obvious that in a society so dynamic as that of Israel, with a largely amorphous and still uncom­ mitted mass of newcomers to be won, and the stake—the future character of the State of Israel, preservation of the status quo was completely out of the question. The term, indeed, was no more than a euphemism for certain conventions both sides tacitly undertook to observe, the most im­ portant of which was a respect for the other side’s recognized basic and irreducible interests. The non-religi­ ous section of the Yishuv, for exam­ ple, conceded—very unwillingly—a considerable degree of public Sabbath

observance and a recognition of rab­ binical authority in severely circum­ scribed spheres. The religious ele­ ment undertook not to encroach upon the private domain of the citizen. The resulting compromise was not very logical but it constituted a modus vivendi. Thus, while trains and pub­ lic bus-services do not run on the Sabbath (excepting in Haifa, where they continue uninterrupted), taxis and chartered buses operate. And while the Government imports only kosher meat, treyfah butchers and pig-breeding farms are licensed and protected by law.

In education, settlement on the land, Youth Aliyah, and religious serv­ ices, the struggle continued, some­ times fiercely, unabated, but under the surface and in keeping with un­ written rules. One of these rules was that the struggle should not de­ liberately and openly be carried out­ side Israel’s borders. The religious parties in Israel were never held re­ sponsible for the recurrent campaigns of Neturei Karta in America and England, in much the same spirit as the Left-wing parties were not asso­ ciated with the treacherous activities of the Communists (despite their mutual relations).

Anti-Religious Campaign

HE Jewish identity issue, ranging about the crucial definition of “Who is a Jew?”, has highlighted the

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December, 1958

precarious nature of the conventions which have kept the cultural struggle under control. Significantly, in the 9

Government and cannot last for long.

Mr. Ben Gurion’s decision to call in the Reform and Conservative clergy as umpires, compels the religious par­ ties to do immediately what in apy case they would have to do in the long run, namely involve the Jews of the Diaspora, for Jewish identity is an issue in which their interest is involved no less than that of the Jews of Israel.

But there are also signs of a de­ liberate campaign to undermine re­ ligious influence in the Yishuv. The forces of anti-religion are concerned not only with the living but no less with the dead. By a tradition going back to antiquity burial of the dead Israel Bar Yehudah, Israel's Minister of has been undertaken by Chevroth Interior, whose directive touched off the Kadisha. In Israel the situation in "Who is a lew?" issue. this respect has admittedly not been satisfactory, the antiquated procedure course of this controversy, two of the of the multitude of the Chevroth basic rules of the cultural cold war Kadisha, representing diverse com­ have been violated—it strikes at a munities and religious groups, giving fundamental tenet of Judaism, and it rise to criticism and resentment. Con­ drags the Diaspora into an Israeli dis­ sultations for a general re-organiza­ pute. It seems sensible to assume that tion were instituted some years ago the formulation by the Ministry of In­ by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, terior of the new instruction regarding under whose control these Chevroth the registration of children of mixed have hitherto come. In the absence parentage was not a calculated and de­ of the religious party from the Cab­ liberate act of war. Far more probably inet, the Minister of Interior, Achduth it was the result of inept and clumsy Ha’avoda’s Israel Bar Yehudah, has handling exacerbated, at a critical junc­ been quick to seize the opportunity ture when compromise seemed in sight, to prepare legislation transferring this by the Prime Minister’s impulsive inter­ service to the municipal authorities, vention and his determination to thereby bringing it under the control teach the National Religious Party of his own Ministry. In the brief a lesson for resigning from the Coali­ Knesseth debate on the subject held tion. This, of course, in no way re­ during the summer recess, Mr. Ben duces the danger of a major con­ Gurion having recourse to Halochah flagration. More wars have been in apparent support of Bar Yehudah, caused by bad diplomacy than by stressed that there was no religious injunction making mandatory burial calculated aggression.

The present lull is more the result of the dead by a Chevra Kadisha. Ben of the restraint of the religious cir­ Gurion and Bar Yehudah are both cles than of wiser counsels in the obviously aware of how deeply re10

JEWISH LIFE

ligious Jews feel on this issue. Clear­ ly the latter will not recognize any secular municipal burial department and in deference to tradition will establish private Chevroth Kadisha, which under the existing law may be done. (Current practice recognizes the burial committees of the non-religious settlements.)

As it is hardly conceivable that the Knesseth would countenance any act of religious coercion so extreme as the prohibition of private religious burial societies, the net result of Mr. Ben Yehudah’s meddling will be to make confusion more confounded.

UT THERE are persistent ru­ mors that these recurrent at­ tempts to trim the authority of the Ministry of Religious Affairs are part of a more ambitious plan to reduce it to insignificance, or, that being im­ possible in view of the religious in­ terests of the Moslem and Christian communities, to replace it by some department of the Ministry of In­ terior or the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Bar Yehudah’s policies on the is­ sues of Jewish identity and the Chev-

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roth Kadisha derive less from per­ sonal animus than from the efforts of his party, Achduth Ha-avoda, to steal some of Mapai’s and Mapam’s thunder in the forthcoming general elections.

Significant, in this connection, was the fiat issued by the Secretariat of Hakibbutz Hameuchad (affiliated to Achduth Ha’avoda) forbidding its constituent kibbutzim to invite the Rishon Letzion, Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Nissim, to visit them. The acrimoni­ ous, even insulting, tone of the letters of Mr. Ben Aharon, Member of the Knesseth and Secretary of the party, in his correspondence with the Chief Rabbi on this subject, taken in con­ junction with other public statements made by this party’s representatives in the Knesseth and elsewhere, in­ dicates Achdut Ha’avoda’s ambition to constitute the spearhead of the forces of anti-religion. Chief Rabbi Nissim’s visits, incidentally, were wel­ comed by the kibbutzim of Mapai and Map am. He was even invited to visit the Achduth Ha’avoda settle­ ments of Regavim, Sova, and Beeri, which, however, withdrew the invita­ tion under pressure.

Cheshbon Hanefesh

T MAY at first sight appear para­ doxical that precisely in a period of accentuation of the cultural strug­ gle, a more thoughtful assessment of the importance of religion and tradi­ tional values should be in evidence, and that a sincere attempt should be made to repair a little of the damage wrought by previous hostility and estrangement. The Ministry of Edu­ cation’s program for introducting “Jewish Identification” as a subject of study in Israel’s non-religious

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schools has been criticized as a half­ hearted measure. Covering not only the Mishnah and Aggada—which even previously received somewhat desultory attention—but also the Siddur and Machzor and religious cus­ toms, this program has been ad­ judged, in view of the hostility, or at best apathy, in the home and the youth movement, as impossible of success. Many feel that such courses, if taught by teachers who are not themselves religious, will be rejected 11

as so much humbug by the young pressure and intimidation be imposed students. But viewed in its proper to induce parents—who in the main context and against a background of are religious—to register their chil­ three generations of opposition to re­ dren for non-religious schools. The ligious Judaism, the “Jewish Identi­ religious bodies, on the other hand, fication” program seems to be the seek to filtrate their representatives first symptom of a change of heart, into these villages, to apprise the new­ a tacit avowal that the wholesale jet­ comers of their legal right under the tisoning of religious values has left State Education Act to choose either a dangerous void in the hearts and a State School or a State Religious School for their children. Often the minds of the youth.

Another manifestation of a new annual registration of school children interest in religion—of which in iso­ takes on the character of an elec­ lation too much should not be made, toral contest (with the difference that but which in this atmosphere of in Israel ordinary elections are clean­ cheshbon hanefesh assumes some sig­ ly fought), since in View of the small nificance—is the steady rise in syna­ number of inhabitants in most areas, gogue attendance and the growing only one school can be established.

Complaints by settlers to the Min­ number of minyonim at Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur in non- istry of Education as to the intimida­ religious kibbutzim. These minyonim, tion by the non-religious elements be it noted, are organized—for the have not been accorded adequate at­ settlers and the young people rather tention, though the response of the than for the aged parents—in the face Auditor General has been more help­ of strong opposition and on condi­ ful. The latter, indeed, in his Report tion that they be held in non-central on the registration arrangements to private rooms and that no propaganda the Ministry of Education, has drawn be conducted to persuade anyone to attention to infringement of the pre­ attend. (Incidentally, a curious com­ scribed rules and irregularities in mentary on the much-vaunted li­ many districts, although inspection berty and equality in the kibbutzim.) was conducted in no more than ten percent of the local government areas.

N THE sphere of education the It is already clear, however, that the struggle continues to be waged Auditor General’s Office can serve under the rules of “cold war”. In the as an important factor in ensuring new immigrants’ settlements under the rights of the new immigrants in the tutelage of Mapai and the Pro­ the choice of schooling for their gressive Party it is customary that children.

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Advance of Torah Education

NE OF the most encouraging factors in this struggle is the progress of the religious schools and particularly of the Yeshivoth. In the State Religious Schools excellent work has been done by the Torah Educa-

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tion Board in providing lessons in Gemora and other religious subjects, in addition to the ordinary curric­ ulum authorized by the Ministry of Education. These lessons, given pri­ vately immediately after the day’s JEWISH LIFE

program is concluded, have by sound organization been successfully inte­ grated into the syllabus. Despite the fact that attendance is voluntary (be­ cause of their extra-curricular char­ acter), all children participate. Inter­ estingly enough, the Ministry of Edu­ cation is strongly opposed to these lessons on the ground that they are being organized by a political body (the Torah Education Board is spon­ sored by the National Religious Party) and therefore lay the schools open to political influences.

Most notable, however, has been the expansion of all varieties of Yeshiva education. The various Chassidic houses have established new Yeshivoth, many of them in specially constructed buildings, where condi­ tions of study and accommodation are in full harmony with modern edu­ cational demands. Outstanding among these is the growing network of the Rabbi of Lubavitch, with a steadily increasing influence, which is not con­ fined to religious circles.

One of the most promising innova­ tions in this sphere is the yeshivah tichonithM-the secondary yeshivah. By including the necessary secular sub­ jects of study in its curriculum, this type of yeshivah enables its students to matriculate and even, in certain cases, to qualify as teachers, specializ­ ing in Torah subjects.

The secondary yeshivah is frankly designed for an intellectual elite, and its curriculum is beyond the capacity of the rm^of-the-mill student. Here the day’s program begins at 6:45 in the morning with a brief study period prior to Shacharith, and continues well into the night. No more than four hours daily are devoted to nor­ mal secondary subjects (as against December, 1958

six or seven in the high schools), but the students regularly register marks equal to or even higher than those of the high school students in their matriculation examinations. This re­ sult has been achieved by cutting down time devoted to extra-curricular activities, by streamlining the daily program and by the concentrated preparation of homework under the guidance of a qualified instructor.

The burden imposed upon the stu­ dents, who in addition to their sec­ ondary studies devote as much time to Talmud as is customary in an old-style yeshivah, has been criticized, but the sponsors of these yeshivoth claim that the high calibre of the student body and the special condi­ tions obtaining make such an effort possible. Principally the larger num­ ber of hours of study is made possi­ ble by three factors: 1. Maximum concentration and utilization of avail­ able time. The secondary yeshivoth, situated mainly in the country dis­ tricts and small town, are boarding schools. The close proximity of the dormitories, dining hall, library and classrooms reduces time wasted to a minimum. 2. The social atmosphere, internal discipline, and serious appli­ cation to study. 3. The sense of dedi­ cation of the ben torah, who, like the chalutz of a previous generation, is capable of undertaking a more than normal burden, because of his con­ sciousness of his mission and the role he must play in moulding the character of the State of Israel. Es­ pecially gratifying is the enthusiasm these yeshivoth have aroused not only among educators but among parents and children. Indeed hundreds of prospective students have had to be turned away owing to lack of ac­ commodation; 13

Bridging the Abyss

N THE religious schools and in J the religious youth movements higher religious study has become an ideal to be striven for. The cynicism, careerism, and that pagan aberration called Kenaaniuth -r- Canaanitism — which have spread like a cancer among the youth are giving rise to widespread concern in Israel. But re­ ligious educators can look with pride and hope, at this new type of Israeli, for whom the kippa is a badge of distinction.

Undoubtedly the strengthening of the religious consciousness of religious youth is an indispensable precondition for victory in the cultural struggle.

But neither the Agudist nor the Mizrachi wings of orthodox Jewry seeks to shut itself into; a ghetto where religious Jews can live out their lives in peace, uncontaminated by the inreligion surrounding them. The Leftwing parties, indeed, would regard the creation of such a ghetto as a small price to pay for the freedom it would give them to mould the State to their heart’s desire. Thus a major task facing religious Jewry is to bridge the abyss separating the two sections of the community, to create channels of influence, thereby to en­ sure that the State of Israel be a truly Jewish State. “One religious settlement,” Chief Rabbi Herzog once said, “has more influence than a thou­ sand sermons!” But obviously exam­

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ple is not enough. Religious Jewry has been for so long on the defensive that it has completely neglected the strategy of winning other sections of the community over to the religious way of life. Curiously enough such a channel, with immense potentialities, has been provided by the non-religious sector, namely, the Jewish Identi­ fication program. Many school prin­ cipals, keenly interested in implement­ ing the program, are eager to secure the services of qualified religious teachers. To cite one example: The Beth Hakerem High School, one of the country’s leading secondary in­ stitutions, has engaged a young rabbi to teach what the school curriculum calls Olamam shel Chachamim-—the World of the Sages—really a lesson in Talmud.

Far too much attention has been focussed in the past on the political aspects of this struggle; mainly be­ cause of their piquancy and drama.

Obviously, as both sides appreciate, this aspect is highly important—wit­ ness the attempts, already referred to, of the Left-wing parties to abol­ ish, or i | | least to limit the influence of,, the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

But a revival of religious faith can­ not be secured by legislation.

Jewish national survival Is supreme­ ly a triumph of education. Israel’s cultural war will be won or lost in the schools and the yeshivoth.

UNQUENCHABLE A transgression extinguishes a commandment, but it can never extinguish the Torah, as it is said, "Many waters are unable to quench love." (Song of Songs VIII, 7) Talmud, Sotah 21-a 14

" JEWISH LIFE

Some Non-Legal Arguments Against Chanukah Programs in the Public Schools

By JULES COHEN

UBLIC SCHOOL Chanukah pro­ Y V 7ITH an unusual display of ungrams are wrong on religious W animitÿ, Jewish organizations, rabbinic and congregational bodies as grounds: 1.

Chanukah is a religious occasion. well as national and local community relations agencies, are opposed to reli­ It should be observed as such. Its cul­ gion's holiday observances in the public tural Or historical importance cannot school. This means Chanukah as wéll be detached from its religious signifi­ as Christmas observances. Jewish op­ cance. Our rabbis and the lay religious position is rooted in the freedom of Jewish community do not want the holi­ religion clause of the First Amend­ day watered down by attempts to single ment: “Congress shall make no law out the so-called cultural and histor­ respecting an establishment of religion ical aspects of Chanukah, disregarding nor prohibiting the free exercise there­ in the process the religious meaning of . | H which the* U. S. Supreme of the commemoration.

2: The public schools do not plan Court has interpreted as having erected a “wall of separation between programs in observance of other Jew­ ish holidays. This is as it should be. church and state.”

This basic reason for thé position However, when the public school sys­ of Jewish organizations should be un­ tem commemorates Chanukah only, derscored in community discussions of Judaism rs‘vdistorted.

Chanukah is an important religious Christmas-Chanukah programs in the public schools. And it is. Howevér, festival to Jews but it is nevertheless reports of recent community situations a secondary holiday as compared with on this subject rëveal that some boards the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh of< education arid school administrat­ Hoshanah and Yom Kippur or the Fes­ ors may not b e persuaded to drop tivals of Pesach, Shovuoth, and Suksectarian programs by legal and con­ koth. For school children to be exposed stitutional-arguments only. In such in­ only to the Chanukah program is to stances, it is Well - to remember that give them a misleading impression of religious programs* in the public Judaism. Isolated, Chanukah cannot schools n o t only violate the principle convey the full meaning and beauty of of séparation of church and s ta te s the" Jewish faith. Moreover, school they also do violence to religious com­ Chanukah programs carry with them mitments and educational principles, the authority, prestige, and influence of 15 -December, 1958

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the school system. When Chanukah is observed under the beneficence of this authority, it may lead Jewish children to believe that only Chanukah is im­ portant and that other Jewish religious holidays are relatively insignificant.

Certainly Christian children are given a decidedly incorrect picture of Juda­ ism, thus defeating the usually an­ nounced purpose of the Chanukah programs which is to acquaint Chris­ tian students with a religion other than their own.

3. Chanukah programs compel Christian teachers and students to par­ ticipate in a religious observance which is not of their faith. An editor­ ial on the subject of Christmas and Chanukah programs in the public schools, first published in th q Newark Advocate, Catholic diocesan news­ paper, in December 1954, contains the following interesting sentence: “If, because of the many non-Christian children present, a non-Christian cele­ bration like that of Chanukah is ar­ ranged* Christian children must be ac­ corded the right to absent them­ selves.” This editorial was reprinted in a number of other diocesan weeklies so it would seem to represent a posi­ tion fairly widely held in Catholic circles. The public schools should not impose upon students, parents, or teachers an obligation either to ask for the right of non-participation or to participate in any program which may be in contravention of their reli­ gious convictions.

4. Christian teachers cannot, by reason of their commitment to Chris­ tianity, do justice to Chanukah which is a Jewish religious celebration. It is unfair to Christian teachers to ask them to beçome familiar enough with Judaism so they can present the Cha­ nukah holiday properly. Moreover, with the fullest information, Chris16

tians cannot be expected to present Jewish observances with conviction.

On the other hand, it is equally un­ fair to Jews and Judaism for Chanu­ kah to be celebrated in the *schools with any diminution of its full reli­ gious significance.

5. With the best of intentions and no matter how well the Chanukah program is presented, it is bound to suffer in the public schools by com­ parison with Christmas. At best, the Chanukah program is but a miniscule part of the atmosphere and activities of the public schools between Thanks­ giving and the Christmas recess. This, too, places Judaism in an unfavorable light. The impression must be con­ veyed that Judaism requires only the minimum and relatively insignificant attention which it receives in the schools, while Christianity must be more important, as evidenced by the long and intensive period of prepara­ tion and the prominence given to the Christmas programs as compared with the Chanukah observance.

6. Except for the accident of chron­ ology, there is no connection between Christmas and Chanukah. Yet, when Chanukah is observed in the Christ­ mas climate which prevails in the schools in December, impressionable school children may be led to believe that Chanukah is a “Jewish Christ­ mas”. This is an injustice to Judaism and Christianity alike.

7. Chanukah observances in the public schools may deter some Jewish families from observing the holiday as fully as they should. Parents too are influenced by the prestige enjoyed by the school system and some may con­ sider the school program an adequate substitute for observance of the holi­ day at home and in the synagogue.

This places an additional obstacle in the way of our rabbis and congregaJEWISH LIFE

tions which have the same problems as Christian churches in prevailing upon congregants to observe all reli­ gious occasions in the proper religious manner and otherwise to adhere to the faith.

the case of assembly Chanukah pro­ grams, to have the same educational program for an entire school body without regard for age differences.

3. Chanukah programs in the schools do not allow for questions or HANUKAH programs in the pub­ discussion nor can the teacher suggest lic schools also are wrong on research on the subject. Thus, such educational grounds: programs as educational devices run 1. Most Chanukah programs would counter to what are commonly ac­ not be planned if there were no Christ­ cepted educational practices. New mas celebrations in the schools. Cha-^ York State Commissioner of Educa­ nukah programs are obviously de­ tion Allen held in the case involving signed to make the Christmas school the placement of the Ten Command­ commemoration more acceptable to ments in the Schools of New Hyde Jews. At the same time the commend­ Park that this is a sufficient reason for able motivation of many school people excluding such programs or activities in scheduling Chanukah programs is from the schools. to inform the Christian student body 4. It is clear that the subject of reli­ about the Jewish people. Unfortunate­ gious holiday observances in the ly, the Chanukah program does not schools, in this case Chanukah, is con­ meet this objective, as has already troversial and brings about interrelibeen stated. Studies about the many gious friction, The educational value races, cultures, and nationalities which of an activity which divides a com­ have contributed so much to the great­ munity along religious lines must be ness of our country are much better seriously questioned. educational procedures to achieve this 5. The argument has been advanced worthy objective. The public schools that it would be an interference with should, and many do, teach about the the academic freedom of teachers for contributions of all groups to the arts, Boards of Education and the school the sciences, to business, labor, gov­ administration to suggest that Chanu­ ernment, and other human endeavors. kah programs may not be scheduled.

Intergroup amity and understanding This is pure rationalization. Teachers can best be learned by the inclusion are bound by prescribed hours, in public school courses appropriate courses, lesson plans, and texts, to to the particular age level, study of name but a few of the rules under the immigration to the United States which school personnel must teach. of various peoples, the history of racial These, too, are limitations upon aca­ and religious bigotry and prejudice in demic freedom but no one would sug­ the United States, and the remarkable gest they are not necessary and prop­ progress we have made under our er. The Board of Education and the Constitution and Bill of Rights toward School Administration have the same the achievement of equality for all. responsibility with respect to Chanu­ 2.

It is axiomatic that students kah programs. That this responsibility should be taught in keeping with their is recognized is evidenced by the at­ respective ages and levels of ,under­ tempts of school systems to write standing. It is not good practice, as in statements of policy regarding reli-

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December, 1958

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gious holiday observances in the schools.

This writer is convinced that Cha­ nukah is inseparable from its religious basis. As a religious occasion it should not be commemorated in the public schools. However, where school people feel constrained to treat with the Cha­ nukah story of man’s willingness B63 resist tyranny and to fight for free­ dom, this could be done at other times

in the year when such a theme is ap­ propriate to a particular class. It is recognized that the anniversary of an event is the best time tp take.note of it. However, when the anniversary is that of a religious occasion, as in thC: case of Chanukah or Christmas, its religious significance cannot be by­ passed. Of necessity, such programs are sectarian and have no place in the public schools.

STUDY PRECEDES PRACTICE Every Israelite is obliged to study Torah, whether he be poor or rich, healthy or in bad health, young or extreme­ ly old and feeble — even if he be so poor as to be sup­ ported by charity and begs from door to door; even if he be married and has children, he is obliged to set a jim ê for Torah study by day and by night, as it is kaid: "And thou shalt meditate therein day and niÿht." Among the great Sages of Israel were hewers of wood, drawers of water, and some even blind; yet they devoted themselves to Torah study by day and by night; and they belonged to the group who handed down the tradition from man to man, direct from the mouth of Moses our teacher. There is no commandment among all the commandments which is equal to that of Torah study; for Torah study is equal in importance to all the commandments combined, as study leads to practice. Therefore, study precedes practice in every instance.

Maimonides, Yad Ha-Chazokah, Hilchoth Talmud Torah

CONTINUING PATH If a man hearkens to one commandment, he is given the opportunity to hearken to many commandments; as it is said, "If you begin to listen, you will continue to listen;" if a man forgets one commandment, he will be led to forget many commandments, as it is said. If you begin to forget, you will continue to forget."

Mechilta 18

JEWISH LIFE

American in I s r a e l 5719

By MICHAEL ROSENAK

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OU’VE BEEN in Israel for a X year, you are going back there in a few weeks to teach there. Why not jot down a few thoughts about being an American in Israel and what it’s like?”

Not a bad i dea. . . in 1958. In 1948? An absurdity. Then an “Amer­ ican in Israel” was either a curious non-Jew, or, at best, a non-committed Jewish tourist. Certainly no Zionist, raised on the doctrines and nursed on the formulas of the Zionist youth movements, would have conceded that an American Jew could be an “Amer­ ican in Israel.” One went to settle in Israel, thus becoming—depending on one’s ideological orientation, either a “full” or a* “normal” Jew. Today, for a variety of reasons, all but the most enthusiastic go to Israel, if at all, to ‘live’’ there, perhaps to “take up residence.” The new oleh no longer casts off his passport and his connections with the same aban­ don as the earlier “settlers” and some* how he continues to cultivate, if only unconsciously, his Americanism.

We do not need the recent survey o f American Jewish clergy in which, most o f:the non-orthodox among them repudiated, to a greater o r;lesser ex­ tent, the weight of psychological exile, to discover that the Jewish State has lost some of its messianic character for American Jews.’ The heavenly city of the’ “Day of the Lord”, to which we tufn in prayer thrice daily, has also become the political capital of a this-wOrldly political unit. In December, 1958

1947, new immigrants were received on the dark beaches of Palestine with quick embraces; today they wait in the hot Haifa sun for immigration procedures which even the most idealistic state can ill afford to dis­ pense with. Ten years ago, an Amer­ ican Jewish visitor was asked when he was coming; today, if he takes his Zionism seriously, he is asked why he came.

IFE in Israel is not easy. Salar­ ies áre small, idealism is wear­ ing thin, if * only because the daily tasks leave little time for nourishing the idea behind the imperfect reality.

Many a. young man who has been “thinking” of teaching in a kibbutz for half a decade, is still a rather contented suburban Hebrew teacher.

The Jerusalem university student, whose older brother had been a shaliach in England or the United States, won­ ders why he too cannot spend some time in chutz la’aretz and perhaps earn enough to pay for the apart­ ment he has in mind; the day-laborer in Natanya speaks glowingly of his cousin in New Jersey who is a farmer and has a car. ’ In other words, there is a change in atmosphere. But second thoughts, whether in New York or in Natanya, are not necessarily inferior thoughts, nor are they to be equated with dis­ illusion or failure. Perhaps, on the contrary, they signify an attempt to posit realistic ideals. Certainly no one can maintain that the growth of

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the Jewish commonwealth has slack­ ened or that its promise as a Jewish homeland has been dimmed by the suspicion that the Prophets had some­ thing else in mind when they spoke of “the ends of days.”

Nor, to return to our subject, has the number of present-day “American resident” olim fallen below the num­ ber of “settlers” of the last decade.

If anything, the contrary is true. And though it is still too early to say, the chances are that the new oleh, per­ haps a complete stranger to chalutz movements, will succeed to a greater

extent than his more determined, more admirable, predecessors. The former, who decides to “live” in Israel, is no less hopeful than his older brother who “settled” (and perhaps returned to America) that his children will be rooted in the land. For him, though, it is enough to feel at home there.

Roots, one begins to realize, are or­ ganic; even the most persuasive ideology cannot grow them. The at­ tempt of the “American in Israel” is to build a life in Israel on Jewish and general human values which cir­ cumvent ideological formulations.

Ideology and Facts

Y THE time he must decide on the course of his future life, the American settler in Israel will prob­ ably have already acknowledged that the rationales for aliyah which he has learned and accepted in his youth movement days are, despite their eminent reasonableness, not reasons.

It is true, as he has been taught and has repeated to others, that living in Israel is a Mitzvah, but performance of Mitzvoth demands more than aca­ demic recognition, much as being “against sin” is no guarantee of sin­ lessness. Israel may indeed be a pre­ ventive of persecution or a remedy for self-hate, but he is not likely to have suffered much from the former or to be conscious of the latter. The call to “live a full Jewish life” with which his movement manual ringsj is answered by the demand of con­ science for definitions. He cannot readily accept that his parents and mentors, who live outside of Israel and teach there, lead scantier Jewish lives than the non-religious (and nonZionist!) Israeli. If his roots lie with­ in the Jewish tradition, he considers

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the plant of ‘‘normality’*:, thorny at best. As for building utopian so­ cieties, he and his generation don’t really believe in them.

The American oleh knows, more­ over (or he will realize soon after his arrival in Israel) that his men­ tality is not attuned to all mores and aspirations of the Israeli sabra. Com­ ing from a limitless, beautiful, and wealthy land, he is amused by (and sometimes contemptuous of) the Is­ raeli who cannot conceive of either beauty or worth beyond the narrow limits of his strip of earth and sand.

(But would we have that previous strip without his mentality?) The ten­ dency toward totalitarian solutions of problems more difficult than any his society faces dismays him. (The enor­ mity of the problems themselves is often more than he can grasp.) The native desire for “normality? is dis­ concerting, especially if he has given up his “home” to become a more in­ tegral part of that abnormality which is the crown of Jewish existence.

Never having had malicious foreign neighbors, he cannot understand how JEWISH LIFE

a border becomes a frontier, and is repelled by the militarism that a frontier generates, as well as by the arrogance which miraculous military achievements produce in the young, the immature, and the unbelieving. If he is an aware Jew, steeped in Jew­ ish ideas, he is amazed at the profuse growth of assimilationist philosophies, camouflaged by a revived Hebrew and a resurrected commonwealth. If he is, furthermore, an observant Jew, for

sons not to ride on the one day of rest or which present the Tanach in its own terms in the language of modern man.)

whom “Israel exists only by virtue of the Torah,” he is pained by the Sab­ bath traffic in the “all-Jewish” Tel Aviv and unimpressed by Biblical quotations enlisted in the service of secularism or paganism. (He has yet to discover how few persuasive voices are heard which offer plausible rea-

in 1954, I traveled to Israel for five months with a group of graduating Hebrew teachers, most of us, trained on such traditional ideologies, ex­ pected to be whipped into fervent allegiance. The fact that not a single one of our number is presently set­ tled in Israel (though several are

December, 1958

THINK that it may safely be claimed that few Americans who come to Israel for aliyah or to pre­ pare for aliyah can fail to note the tension between an anachronistic ideological orientation towards Israel and the facts which they find. When,

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“planning” to go) indicates that our romanticized notions did not fit the facts we discovered there. Despite what we had learned, most Israelis were not concerned with solving new and stimulating halochic problems, people did not sing on their way to work or dance at the conclusion of the day’s labors, most of them were not kibbutzniks and a good number of us sympathized with those who were not. But, taken up as we were with the management of our emo­ tions in the face of these disillusion­ ing realities, almost none of us had the peace of soul to discover the one emotion which is the real sine qua non for living in Israel, namely that it was the place where a Jew can live a good life by Jewish lights.

Some of us have since returned for longer stays in the country; of these, a few individuals have made this dis­ covery. “I like it here,” or “I want my children to grow up here,” is strangely simple; most of us cannot say it without a guilty glance at those “reasons” which are supposed to make olim out of us.

Some thirty months after the re­ turn of our group from Israel, I at­

tended the wedding of one of our number. On this, one of the social occasions which brought us together periodically, I realized for the first time how, despite our professions to the contrary, we were being inte­ grated into the comfortable commu­ nities in which we lived. Several were already ordained rabbis, taking grad­ uate courses on the evenings when their New Jersey pulpits permitted; one planned to go into professional Zionist or organizational work upon receiving his semichah; most of the girls were already married, one of them to an Israeli who had been studying here and appeared to be doing so indefinitely. As for me—I had applied for an assistantship in History at a Midwestern university to prepare, so I told myself, for teach­ ing in Israel.

It was only after I had received a letter of rejection from the university in question that I recalled an offer which had been made to me: name­ ly, to lead a group of young Ameri­ can Zionists who were to spend a year in Israel to study and work. I filed the letter of rejection and packed for Israel.

Return . . . to Zion

T F r E arrived in Lod. Customs and tv sundry technicalities took a bare ten minutes—it was Erev Succoth, and in anticipation of the fes­ tival, the airport officials seemed to assume a greater degree of honesty in the newly arrived than I remem­ bered from my last trip. On the way to Jerusalem, I marveled at the many new trees and the new solidity of the old ones; in 1954, the “forests” had looked so staged. We stopped at a gasoline station and were sent on our 22

way with a Chag Sameach. Fifteen kilometers to Jerusalem. Was that a new village on the hill at our left?

Was Yosi (whom I had met on my previous stay) still working in the Negev? I anticipated the slovenly but lovely Jaffa Road in Jerusalem. I leaned back and felt at home. For a Zionist, that is the beginning of wisdom.

During the first months of my work in Jerusalem, I often thought how much more “like a country” and less JEWISH LIFE

like a project Israel had become . . . and how much more I liked it. The friends and relatives who served mud­ dy coffee out of plastic cups (having apparently never heard of “cofRer coffee”), the peaceful Shabbathoth spent amidst the stone silhouettes of the Holy City, the blue sky envelop­ ing austere hills—these and other fea­ tures of daily living become the fabric of a life from which it is increasingly difficult to untangle oneself.

It is only after one feels at home there, when one can shmooz and com­ plain in some facsimile of comprehen­ sible Ivrith, when one has found a congenial minyon for Friday nights, when standing at a kiosk with a glass of gazoz no longer evokes a dread of disease, when one has endured the un­ pleasant upset which is sloppily lab­ eled “clinical dysentery” and when hills and valleys recall something in the personal past or the names of friends who live there, that one re­ turns to Zionism. But, curiously enough, it has outgrown ideology; it shapes itself into a quest and an orien­ tation; a way of thinking, rather than a group of thoughts.

HAVE said that the only sine qua non is that one likes Israel, but it would be more correct to say that one must like it as a Jew. To like a place or a way of life does not suffice to make one a Zionist. The individual who chooses Israel because he is at­ tracted to a pioneer society where he can feel comfortable in informal dress and where human relationships are more direct and perhaps more honest than those he has been used to, could as well have settled in a dozen other “under-developed” countries.

What is it that one actually feels on

1

December, 1958

the streets and fields of Israel that dif­ fers from the thoughts that play upon the mind elsewhere? It is doing the Land of Promise an injustice to de­ mand or even to seek a standard an­ swer. It is enough for us, who ask questions, to know that there we can hope for Jewish answers. Who, with a sympathy for the past, can fail to see shadows of prophets or to hear the whispers of kabbalistic dreamers? And what Jew is completely devoid of sym­ pathy with the past . . . and remains a Jew? The mountains and the narrow plain rushing into the sea recall Dovid Hamelech who took it all in at one glance and noted that the earth is the L o r d s . . .the sea and the fullness thereof.

And through this past, which lies within sight on the road to our present, every achievement, every problem, and every failure belongs to all of us who place ourselves squarely along the road, which has again, despite many winding turns, reached into the soil of Israel. A new factory in Haifa Bay, whose product I may never buy and whose workers I have never met, is a delight to the forty Jews who pass by it on an Egged bus; every maabara is an eyesore and a reproach. Once, while I was riding past such a squalid immigrant village, my bare-headed companion remarked: “It is not Jewish that people should live this way,” and all who heard him knew exactly what he meant. And if it is more offensive to see an automobile on Shabboth in Haifa than in New York, it is only be­ cause Haifa is one of our cities and the offender is one of us. But Haifa is also more accessible to the prophet; the people might, here at least, recog­ nize him and respond to his plea for consistency. If not on Mt. Carmel, where then?

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At Home . . .

OMEHOW, a religious settlement in Israel on Shabboth differs great­ ly from a “religious neighborhood” in the Diaspora on that day. A yeshivah in the Sharon, a hospital in the Emek, a kibbutz in the Negev, sanctify not only students, healers, farmers, but the land, for they dwell in the midst of their people. And the smallness of the land magnifies the significance of hu­ man deeds.

None of these things, it may be ar­ gued, form the complex of daily living which is difficult and uncertain, but they are the background against which daily life is staged and subtly exert their influence upon the players. Dur­ ing a recent international crisis, a friend of mine conceded that “we need a few miracles badly”. He, a professed skeptic, expects these miracles to ma­ terialize and he will probably not be disappointed.

The various problems which Israel faces need not be elaborated upon here. The ramifications of the Arab refugees’ misery and hate, the “ingath­ ering of the exiles” and the social con­

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fusion and dislocation which results from it, the threat of foreign aggres­ sion, the unfavorable balance of trade, the claustrophobia of the enlightened and the provincialism of the ignorant, the “famine for the Word of the Lord” which programs of “Jewish Conscious­ ness” cannot allay; these and many others hang over the country like rain­ bearing clouds which threaten to flood and destroy those who live in their shadow. One who “lives” in Israel and hopes to bring up children there can­ not expect either safety or excessive comfort. But one can hope that, by cultivating the human values which are so elusive in our over-industrialized society, and by deepening Jewish un­ derstanding, one will feel at home and like it there. Gradually, the oleh from America will even begin to hope that the Jewish people, in the land where —G-d willing—the bulk of its future history will be written, can create a righteous society based, not on ethical platitudes, but on Jewish deeds. Pro­ vided, of course, that we get a few miracles.

BE NOT CONFUSED When you find a deep verse and an obscure passage in the Torah, the Prophets, or in the books of the Sages which you do not understand and whose hidden meaning you cannot perceive, and it appears as if it contradicted the fundamental doctrines of the Torah or is apparently non­ sense, be not moved from your faith and let not your mind be confused. Remain firm in your conviction, and ascribe the deficiency to yourself. Set it aside, and do not con­ taminate your whole faith for lack of understanding of some profound subject.

Rambam (Maimonides), Ethical Will

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JEWISH LIFE

What Do Our Children Really Think?

By BERNARD MERLING The intriguing— and enlightening— reactions of

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Jewish youngsters to major problems of today.

U i y Y FATHER says that the earth If J. satellite of today is like the Tower of Babel of yesteryear. He ought to know because he has many books from all over the world on the Tower of Babel and he has been help­ ing to build parts for the satellites for many years. He wondered about this question for a long time and two years ago he spoke at a bagel and lox break­ fast at our Temple — on this very sub­ ject to many members present. My name is — and I am eight and one-half years old and did not know very much about this subject before this prize con­ test, but now I feel that I am going to learn about a very interesting and im­ portant couple of subjects that every­ body is calling scientific achievement.”

This is the opening paragraph of an entry submitted to an essay contest several months ago by a little girl from New Jersey. What she had learned about “a very interesting and import­ ant couple of subjects” forms the con­ tent of the remainder of her essay-“ and quite good it was too. (She was one of the three prize winners!) But even more interesting and important is what we can learn from her, and thousands others like her. What do they think about, these young Amer­ ican children? What are their ideas, Jewishly speaking, their concepts?

What’s more, does there exist a tool December, 1958

for surveying the thoughts of our Jew­ ish youth today?

Surveys, pools, group samplings, and the like are all the rage today. More decisions are made, more policies are set, more money is made and lost on the basis of surveys than ever before.

Some executives wouldn’t move from here to there without first consulting a public-opinion pollster. All this des­ pite the fact that violent storms of con­ troversy still rage around the question of these surveys’ accuracy and effi­ ciency.

Nevertheless, everyone concerned admits that there is something to these methods of testing public opinion.

While perhaps not completely authen­ tic and reliable, they do give us some inkling of what people feel and think, certainly more than we would know without them.

ITH this guarded disclaimer of absolute certitude, I would like to describe the results of a recent sur­ vey I was able to make on the Jewish thinking of our children here in Amer­ ica. The opportunity arose through study of the close to 200 final entries in the latest (1958) annual Passover Creative Writing Contest conducted by Barton’s Candy Corporation. This con­ test was open to all children who at­ tend Jewish schools throughout this

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country and Canada, from the ages of eight to sixteen. Since the rules re­ quired that the principal of each school select only one final entry to be sent for judging, it is safe to assume that at least 20,000-25,000 children originally participated in the contest.

It is also reasonably certain that the 200 final entries represented a fair sampling of the Jewish community, since entries were actually submitted from obviously orthodox, Conserva­ tive, and Reform institutions, from Yeshivas, Talmud-Torahs and Sunday Schools, from cities ranging from Bos­ ton to Los Angeles and from Canada to Florida.

Each contestant was allowed to choose from among four topics “Israel Looks to the Next Ten Years,” “Earth Satellites— Scientific Triumph or Tower of Babel,” “Moses’ Message of Freedom Today,” and “Torah Edu­ cation, Kashruth, Sabbath Observance —Foundations of an Enduring Juda­ ism.” The children were free to write an essay, story, or poem of 800 words or less on any one topic, in English or in Hebrew. Thus, the range of themes prompted thought on the Jewish past, present, and future and allowed for a freedom of expression rarely encoun­ tered in such contests. \17TH A T did the entries show?

W First, some indisputable conclu­ sions. The largest percentage (38.5% ) chose, with a freedom of will usual in any choice, to write about Israel. This would connote in general a great deal of interest in the State of Israel, and specifically, as the entries themselves prove, a high degree of factual knowl­ edge of its current history, society and economy. Detailed figures and statis­ tics stud these essays with amazing fre­ quency, and also show a competent grasp of their significance. The writers 26

showed an invincible optimism con­ cerning Israel’s future.

Incidentally, and understandably, despite this interest in Israel, the use of the Hebrew language as a means of expression is still quite limited, though not perhaps as much as one would guess. Some 12.5% of the contestants wrote in Hebrew, though not all of these chose to discuss Israel. Despite the ivrith b’ivrith method used in some schools, despite the intensity of Heb­ rew studies in some Day Schools and Talmud Torahs, writing a Hebrew composition seemed too difficult a task for most of the contestants, though they probably would be inclined to think that the judges would give them extra consideration for having done so.

The theme that drew the next high­ est number of entries was that on “Torah Education, Kashruth, and Sab­ bath Observance” (24.2% ). Naturally, those that wrote about it were “all for it,” and yet the differences between orthodox, Conservative, and Reform were apparent in their approach. For example, one thirteen-year-old girl from the Midwest looks at Kashruth this way: “Through the observance of the laws of Kashruth we are constantly reminded of our obligation to G-d. Every time we deny ourselves a piece of treyfah meat we feel closer to G-d and our fellqw Jews. I believe Kashruth, along with many other laws of the Torah, was made to keep us in constant contact with the Lord, all day every day.”

While another ten-year-old girl, also from the Midwest, finds the meaning of the Sabbath in the following: “In the U.S.A., Sabbath stands for rest, love of fellow men, learning of G-d, and cleanliness.”

Who cannot guess the background of this ten-year-old boy from the East, who probably scarcely heard of Mishnayoth or Talmud: JEWISH LIFE

“In our Hebrew school we are also taught customs and ceremonies, the Bible and Hebrew. All of these things together are called Torah Education.”

LTHOUGH it was thus apparent that some children in each “camp” wrote about these fundamen­ tals of Judaism, most who did so were obviously from orthodox schools. And even among these, the hashkofah as­ pect was quite weak. Far too many contented themselves with mere des­ criptions of various practices involved.

Those who attempted to draw signifi­ cant meanings from the Sabbath, Kashruth, and Torah Education were more often than not erroneous or dis­ tressingly shallow in their interpreta­ tion. Thus, Sabbath was mostly a day for candle lighting and z’miroth; Kash­ ruth was a health precaution; Torah education was no more than “learning about our people.” True, there were exceptions—but not enough to indicate a growing generation of really “solid” Torah-observant, G-d-fearing Jews.

And even some of the children them­ selves felt this. A good number of them deplored the tact that their

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friends did not “get a Torah educa­ tion” or “eat kosher” or “keep the Sabbath holy.” There seemed to be an air of “if only the world would do this, everything would be fine—but they won’t!” It’s that last bit of im­ plied pessimism that does not augur well for our Jewish future in America.

Quite a number of the contestants (22.3%) were intrigued by the space satellite theme. Some, scientifically in­ clined, attempted explanations of how and why they worked! A few others saw in the satellites a new era for man’s progress, ignoring the “reli­ gious” or “moral” question altogether.

But most felt that man was going a bit too far in probing G-d’s heavens.

They felt that there was much more yet to be accomplished down here on earth, to better man’s lot in terms of health, economic opportunity, peace and brotherly love. Commendable opinions all around.

The smallest number of entrants (12.4% )* chose to write about Moses’ *For those who May have been totalling the per­ centages, a few points got lost, due to some contestants, rugged individualists, not writing on any one of the accepted themes at all.

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message of freedom today, perhaps because this topic required the great­ est degree of independent thought. It also evoked the greatest degree of con­ fusion. Hardly any two of the entrants could agree on what Moses’ message was in the past or for us today. Some said Moses preached the essentials of our present-day American democracy.

Others felt his foremost idea was a homeland for the Jewish people— making Moses the first Zionist. Still others cited his teachings about the supremacy of the Torah, and its 613 Commandments, in the life of the Jew. But this diversity of the opinion as to what Moses represented is not very revealing, except perhaps of disap­ pointingly vague teaching in our schools of what Moses really was and stood for.

ROM an overall point of view, one F finds that these “creative writings” differ substantially from the general quality of young America’s “literary” ability. Except for the younger essay­ ists, among whom errors in spelling and sentence structure are to be ex­ pected, the writers show a marked tal­ ent in expressing themselves clearly and for the most part correctly. This would be in line with the high degree of scholastic achievement recorded by Jewish students in America.

As for individual styles of expres­ sion, some of these essays are . . . “de­ licious’'— for want of a better word.

Everyone knows how cute and charm­ ing children can be, especially when they are dealing with serious matters.

The entries to this contest, both “poetic” and “prosaic,” are chock-full of unique expressions, naive thoughts, fantastic concepts, child-like enthusi­ asms, sincere “welt-schmerz”. If only that these words shall not have been written in vain, I feel that I must quote 28

a few lines exactly as written— and as spelled—by one twelve-year-old boy: “We know that in many temples there is a junior congregation they know these prayers almost by heart and ob­ serve the Sabbath and obey their ten codmaments and yet their parents don’t even or what the ten comandments mean or even obey them. Most parents sent their kids to hebrew school to learn hebrew and and the prayers so when they grow up they will someday be on the bima some Saturday and proudly say the prayers and their parents say thats my son . . . Most every Saturday the Rabbi gives a sermon about how to observe the sabbath but do the people listen? . . . in fact the Rabbi is wasting most of his breath . . . Most Jews always obey the holidays but when it comes around to sabbath we don’t observe it and yet its a holiday that comes every week . . . G-d gave us everything we own and yet all he asks us for is to obey a few laws . . . When our children are young we teach them a prayer before going to bed and yet we don’t practice what we preach. It would be a good practice if we practice what we preach.

G-d appreciates little things such as, when mother says the prayer over the candels and go to schol friday night and have a good sabbath meal and observe little laws such as, don’t drive, don’t write, don’t put on lights but do go to schol on the sabbath all these things take only a few min. And yet can do so much for us . . . ”

O PLEADS a little lost Yiddishe n’shomele, somewhere in these great United States. If any one major over-all conclusion is to be drawn from these contest entries, it is that the children are angels, until we, by not educating or miseducating them, clip their wings. Their desire to do what is right is pure and unblemished. Their optimism is boundless, their belief in what they can do is limitless. With proper guidance they could be our sal­ vation— as they were meant to be.

Let us gird ourselves to tfie task.

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JEWISH LIFE

Torahtown is on its Way

By SAUL SIGELSCHIFFER

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Two “ out-of-the-city” developments point the way to a self-contained Jewish community.

HIRTY-FIVE MILES from the heart of New York City two suburban Jewish communities, which have particular significance for Torah living, exist side by side. One is the Chasidic community of the Squarer Rebbe, popularly known as “Squaretown,” situated in. the village of Spring Valley. Not more than two miles away in the hamlet of Monsey is the second community—a rapidly growing population of American orth­ odox Jews.

Both communities represent a flight from the city. In my article “Torah­ town” published in J e w i s h L i f e last year, I pointed out how the current desire for suburban or semi-rural liv­ ing has affected orthodox Jewry and how this urge could be channeled into a direction which would have a bene­ ficial and powerful impact on Torah living.

The reasons for wanting to get away from the city are obvious. The increasing overcrowdedness of popu­ lation, the acceleration of traffic and noise, the discomforts of air pollu­ tion, the rise of juvenile delinquency and crime, and the general tensions of city life, are but a few. More im­ portant are the religious reasons.

There is no area in the city where

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the everyday routine of life does not continue uninterruptedly on Shab­ both and Yom Tov. Where business and traffic go on as usual, it is virtu­ ally impossible to distinguish the sacred from the secular. There is no such thing as Shabboth or Shabboth Menuchah except perhaps for the in­ dividual home or the synagogue, and even into those realms the blare of the radio and television intrudes from without. While the orthodox Jew has always been able to ignore these out­ side forces and has managed fairly successfully to insulate himself and his family against their distractions, dangers, and temptations, he would like to escape them entirely if he can. He would like to have his chil­ dren grow up in purer air, where Jewish influence can operate unim­ peded twenty-four hours a day through­ out the entire year.

HIS attitudes explains the raison d'etre of the Spring Valley and Monsey communities. The general exodus to the suburbs which has been a feature of American life over the past twenty years has hitherto affected Torah-observant Jews to a lesser extent than the non-observant.

Traditional Jews have tended to cling

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to the cities to be near the vital cen­ ters of Jewish life—the synagogues and the Yeshivoth—which exist only where observant Jews live together.

They have feared to venture into areas where their pattern of religious life would be disrupted and the Torah education of their children would be hampered, if not rendered entirely impossible. Thus, while a large num­ ber of Jews have joined the movement to the suburbs, definitely orthodox

Jews have been a minority among them. The religiously observant Jew will not chance the watering-down of his traditions. He must be sure that the roots of Torah living are established before he removes from the city.

It is pertinent then to know how the two communities mentioned above have developed. Let us consider Squaretown first, even though it is the more recent of the two.

Squaretown

The impetus for the Squaretown development came from Spring Val­ ley. The lovely rolling hills in close proximity to New York City made this village an attractive summer re­ sort which offered the advantage of easy commuting. Heads of families could attend to their daily business in the city and at the same time en­ joy the benefits of the country. An orthodox Jewish community was at­ tracted, the needs of which were sup­ plied by Kosher butcher shops and resort hotels. The attractions proved to be so pronounced that many fam­ ilies began to live there all year round. By the 1940’s Spring Valley’s suburban character began to take definite shape, the predominant ele­ ment being religiously orthodox.

It was not accidental, therefore, that Squaretown should be founded in this vicinity. The Chasidim from the town of Skvare in the Ukraine who escaped from the Nazis and the Russians, first settled in New York City. Their community flourished in the Williamsburgh section of Brook­ lyn, the stronghold of Chasidism in America. About ten years ago they succeeded in bringing over their Reb30

be who, after many vicissitudes and adventures, had managed to find refuge in the Balkans.

The Rebbe, Rabbi Jacob Joseph Twersky, a “Tzaddik” in the best tradi­ tion, is a man of ideas and imagination.

Even in the security of his Williams­ burgh citadel, surrounded by other Chasidic sects, he saw the corroding influences operating against the Cha­ sidic way of life. He therefore con­ ceived the idea of transporting the community to the country.

This was a bold and courageous scheme. How Rabbi Twersky accom-/ plished it is a mighty story in itself.

Getting the necessary financial aid, finding and purchasing a suitable tract of land, laying out the plans, and finally settling families on their little plots— all against innumerable difficulties encountered by legal ob­ stacles and prejudice — present the elements of an epic which cannot be described here. Today, after five years, eighty families are settled in New Square, as the community is officially called, each owning a mod­ ern home, modest but adequate, on a one-half acre plot.

JEWISH LIFE

HERE is something different and distinctive about Squaretown.

One senses it as soon as he turns into the wide, macadamized road marked by a large sign which reads “New Square.” There is an atmosphere of peace and repose. You know you are in the country. But an extra ingre­ dient is added. It is probably the same ingredient that, according to le­ gend, the Roman emperor could not reproduce in the wonderful “Shabboth fish” which he had enjoyed at the Rabbi’s table and which his cook had carefully prepared from the recipe given to him by the Rabbi.

It is the ingredient of Torah. You seem to feel that the Shulchon Orach has come alive and hovers in the atmosphere.

As you travel down the road it is evident that the process of building has not been completed. There are few trees, where the houses stand, and the vegetation and the patches of garden which surround them bear the look of having been recently planted.

It is probably very likely, also, that landscape planning was not part of the building project. As you take a turn to the left you see a new struc­ ture going up. It is a house for the Rebbe, who has been living in tem­ porary quarters. Everything about the landscape, however, looks new, sim­ ple, and clean.

The people you meet are very hos­ pitable. “Certainly the Rebbe will see you,” come the answers in Eng­ lish or Yiddish as you prefer. When our party entered the Rebbe’s house, we were greeted first by the enticing aroma of old-fashioned Jewish cook­ ing and then by the gabbai, a young, bearded rabbi who was very alert, friendly, and soft-spoken. We stated our business and said we would like to speak to the Rebbe. The Rebbe

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does not like publicity, we were told, but he would probably grant us an informal interview. The gabbai went in to consult the Rebbe, and then re­ turned to usher us in.

DO NOT wish to appear maudlin or sentimental, but as we were in­ troduced to the Squarer Rebbe I felt I truly understood why faith could move mountains and how our people were able to sustain themselves through the dark moments of history.

It was leaders like him who imbued the people with the beauty and truth of our Torah and our traditions. The Rebbe is gentle and unassuming, but the spiritual force which emanates from him cannot fail to touch anyone who meets him.

We spoke briefly on a number of topics, including the founding of New Square. As illustrative of his motiva­ tions in removing from Brooklyn, he pointed to the fact that television sets are prohibited in Squaretown. He was well aware of the destructive influ­ ence of this medium on the minds and activities of the young. In this community, also, the schooling of children is not suspended during the summer, but goes on throughout the year. This was the month of August and classes were in session, but they were being held outdoors in the wooded areas back of the homes.

When I expressed a desire to see them, he requested the young gabbai to escort us there.

On the way to the classes I ques­ tioned the gabbai as to some of the phases of living at New Square. The community is well organized. It has its own bus which drives the Chasi­ dim into the city to their jobs in the morning, and brings them back at night. It has its own shochet and general food store, but non-food items

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are purchased in town. In other words, Squaretown is a self-contained community which meets its own needs with comparatively little difficulty.

We passed the Beth Medrosh and went in. This, too, was not com­ pleted, but it was in use even though the process of building was still go­ ing on. I asked whether cars passed through New Square on Shabboth.

No, was the answer. The road was not a connecting highway and even though, as a town thoroughfare, it could not be blocked off, it was used only by those who had business in Squaretown. It was rarely that some­ one blundered into it by accident.

E CAME next to the woods. In a little clearing seated on rough wooden benches was a class of boys about seven or eight years of age, with closely-clipped heads and long peyoth. Their teacher was a fine-looking young American man

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about twenty-five years of age, who had a long beard. He, too, reflected the friendliness of the place, and we exchanged greetings and chatted briefly in English. The children, not to be outdone, came forward of their own accord and solemnly shook hands with each one in our party, greeting us in Yiddish. The teacher explained that the children had just had a recess break and, after romp­ ing and playing in the woods, had returned to resume their lessons. They were studying the Sidrah of the week.

To gratify my wish, each child read a “posuk” and gave the Yiddish trans­ lation. It was a rote affair, sometimes unintelligible, but the children were very proud to display what they knew.

As we turned back to the road where our car was parked, I remarked to the gabbai that New Square was one place where I should like to “daven” for Rosh Hashonah. He said JEWISH LIFE

that the community would be strained to bursting by the influx of Chasidim from the city. The Chasidim who lived in New Square were only a small proportion of the total number of the Rebbe’s followers, and these would have to provide accommoda­ tions for the visitors. It would be some years before all the Chasidim who wished to would be able to settle in Squaretown.

A few days before Yom Kippur I made another quick tour through

New Square. The Chasidim were busy putting up their sukkoth. There they were in their yarmulkas and shirt sleeves, with their tzitzith and peyoth flying in the breeze, busily fitting boards into place and hammer­ ing away. It was a thought-provok­ ing, as well as an inspiring, sight. On this, as on my previous visit, I came away refreshed as though I had drunk deeply from the pure waters of a spiritual well.

Monsey

A COMMUNITY forming a difx jL

ferent pattern is Monsey. A hamlet adjoining Spring Valley, it re­ ceived its original impetus from the large orthodox community there, just as did Squaretown. .Unlike Squaretown, however, the Jewish commu­ nity of Monsey is neither Chasidic nor self-contained and set apart. It is composed of American Jews who live in close proximity with Gentiles in mushrooming middle-class smallhome developments.

Over the last five years growth has been at a phenomenal rate. In the new small home developments spring­ ing up throughout the area the Jew­ ish element forms ninety to ninetyfive per cent of the purchasers, of whom a substantial proportion is orthodox. This swift growth has raised the Jewish population from a small fraction ten years ago to one-half the total population.

The strength of Monsey and its appeal for orthodox Jews lie in its yeshivoth. There are two day schools* Both are conveniently situated to serve the Rockland County community. The older of the two, the Yeshivah of Spring Valley, was organized about December, 1958

fifteen years ago and is housed in a converted hotel. Its Hebrew curric­ ulum is Ivrith b’Yiddish. The other, the recently organized Hebrew Insti­ tute of Rockland County, is housed in a handsome, new, brick one-story structure. Its Hebrew curriculum is Ivrith bTvrith. Both yeshivoth are located in rustic settings on spacious grounds.

HERE are also a Mesivta and a Beth Medrosh Elyon, both of recent origin. The Mesivta Beth Shraga, which is three years old, is Chasidic in character and draws pu­ pils from various sections of this coun­ try and South America. Students study and board in two roomy frame houses situated on a sizable plot of ground on which are beautiful trees.

The Beth Medrosh Elyon is lo­ cated close by. It was founded ten years ago by Rabbi Faivel Mendlowitz, late organizer and Rosh Yeshivah of Mesivta Torah Vodaath. It, too, is situ­ ated on a beautiful, but more extensive plot of land. It has two large buildings and several bungalows, which house more than a hundred students pursuing higher Torah studies. Most of them

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have received Semichah. A large num­ ber are married and live with their fam­ ilies “on the campus.” Though most of the students come from New York, many hail from various other parts of the United States and from abroad.

The presence of these institutions gives Monsey its character. They are the strong roots of vibrant Torahliving. Though there are a number of orthodox synagogues and Talmud

Torahs, and also a Conversative and a Reform temple in the combined Spring Valley-Monsey area, the im­ press of the orthodox community is most pronounced because of the yeshivoth. Beards and peyoth, black felt hats and black coats are an accepted sight. It is not uncommon to see students, obviously from the Mesivta or the Beth Medrosh Elyon, thumbing a ride to town.

Ideals in Action

W T H A T have the two communities of Squaretown and Monsey gained by their flight from the city?

That the Chasidic community of New Square is accomplishing its goal of unhindered self-development and selffulfillment is quite clear. It is un­ concerned about being isolated from the general American scene. It does not seek, nor does it desire, integra­ tion into general American life. In the process of safeguarding funda­ mental Jewish values and traditions it wishes to be left strictly alone, con­ tent to let the stream of modern life, with its dangerous currents, pass it by. Is it a ghetto? In the sense of complete separation from the life, culture, and activities around it, per­ haps it is. But in the fact that on the soil and in the climate of Amer­ ica, it enjoys complete freedom of movement, and can live unhampered by authoritarian and malicious re­ strictions, it is not. It is similar to other sects which successfully survive on the American scene, such as the Mennonites. The secret of their sur­ vival is control of community living in accordance with their ideals and goals.

What have the orthodox Jews of Monsey gained? From the very fact 34

of living in suburban or near-rural surroundings they have, of course, gained a great deal. They have es­ caped the smoke, grime, noise, traf­ fic, crowds, bars, advertisements, and the other disadvantages of city life.

But they have not escaped the prob­ lems which come from living in proximity with Gentiles and with Jews who have broken away from tradition. One rabbi whom I ques­ tioned stated, “This is a wonderful place to bring up children. There is everything here for a full Jewish life.”

But he was only partially correct. As he spoke, I was thinking of what one of the builders of a large development nearby, himself an orthodox Jew, had said: “Sure, orthodox Jews settle here.

They’ve got the Yeshivos and the synagogues. But they can’t pick whom they will live next to. While a Jew is observing Shabbos, his neighbor may be cutting the grass on his lawn or washing his car.” This situation points up the difference between New Square and Monsey.

W 7 H A T significance have both communities for orthodox Jew­ ish life? In the first place, both have illustrated that it is possible for Torahdevoted Jews to live away from the JEWISH LIFE

large cities. And since such living cannot be other than community liv­ ing for orthodox Jews, both Squaretown and Monsey have proved its practicability. Provide the necessary educational facilities for a community and orthodox Jews will stream to it in large numbers. Second, and most important, both Squaretown and Mon­ sey proclaim the need for commu­ nity planning and control. Squaretown has proved their efficacy, while Monsey has illustrated the weaknesses that result when they are missing.

The question which naturally arises is: Why cannot a controlled modern orthodox Jewish suburban or semirural community be created? Why cannot the good points of both Squaretown and Monsey be incor­ porated and the weaknesses elim­ inated? The good points, of course, involve the planning of a self-con­ tained community composed of tradi­ tional Jews, who believe and have demonstrated in their daily lives that integration into the American scene need not imply compromise with Torah-living. In such a community there would not be complete separa­ tion from the stimulating contacts and opportunities offered in this wonderful land of freedom, but they would be chosen with greater selectivity and would be carefully directed. At the same time, undesirable intrusions upon the observance and practices of tradi­ tional Judaism would be rendered im­ possible.

Here is a great challenge to reli­ gious leadership. In my article “Torahtown,” I described such a com­ munity, setting forth how it could be created and how it would operate. Its creation would have a profound im­

December, 1958

pact on Jewish life throughout the country. It would be a new form of living, which would release the crea­ tive genius of Orthodoxy to an ex­ tent hitherto unparalleled. Not only would it strengthen and give fresh impetus to Torah Judaism, but it would render shallow the pretensions of those who would tamper with our traditions.

The heart of such a community would be the Yeshivah, from which would radiate a higher learning, both religious and secular. Religious and educational life would continue day and night throughout the entire year, with no suspension during the sum­ mer. These activities would be made self-supporting as part of the normal routine of the community, and would not be extraordinary undertakings, re­ quiring special financing periodically.

With proper site selection, including a lake, every advantage of country, as well as suburban, living would be available to the members of the com­ munity.

The feasibility of the project is seen in the fact that it would require an estimated capital of only $200,000 for land purchase, surveys and promo­ tion—the construction itself to be financed by mortgage loans.

O QUARETOWN and Monsey have O proved that such an enterprise is not an idle dream. They are the forerunners of Torahtown. They il­ lustrate a definite trend, which under proper leadership, can be channelled into a desirable direction. What is required is initiative and alertness on the part of the leaders of orthodox Jewry to see the possibilities and to do the job.

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Hashhofah Creation and Nature

By SAMSON R. WEISS

Man himself, endowed with the faculty of intellectual perception and awareness and crowned with the abil­ ity of free choice, stands out among all beings as his Maker’s image, to whom He has revealed Himself in His creation. If Creation is the revelation of the Almighty, man is the addressee of this sublime disclosure. It is to him that the world speaks. To him is di­ rected its universal utterance of G-d.

“The heavens tell the glory of the Master and the firmament relates the work of His hands. Day unto day HE acknowledgement of the fact flows over with saying and night unto that this world is the product of night reveals knowledge. Without Divine Creation and not the accidental speech, without words; in silence their outcome of a blind mechanistic pro­ voice is heard” (Psalms 19:2-4).

The forces of nature do not frighten cess, makes for the profoundest dif­ ference in man’s attitude to life and the believer as wildly unleashed and nature around him. It determines his wantonly destructive. Thunder and relation to his fellow man and is deci­ lightning and the enchanting beauty sive in his acceptance of a moral code. of the first blossoms in spring, the The believer sees in the universe the grandeur of the great waters and the majestic revelation of Divine power, mysterious transformation of nourish­ wisdom, and goodness. He stands in ment into energy and thought, evoke awe before the omnipotence of the in him in an immediacy of recogni­ Almighty Who, by His will and word, tion, gratitude, and blessing. He “who called into existence all that is, out of makes winds His messengers and flam­ the unimaginable nothingness. All be­ ing fire His servants” (Psalms 104:4), ings and things are for him continu­ has not left His Creation and will not ous evidence of the Divine presence. abandon it. In a created world, man is All existence is thus miraculous. Its never lonely nor ever lost. As long as constancy, far from robbing the mir­ there is another man, he will have a acle of its splendour, bespeaks the brother. As long as he is alive, he will be sheltered in the Divine presence; eternity of its source.

“There are four beginnings of the year—; On the first day, of Tishri is Rosh Hashonah for the years, for the count of the Sh’mittah and the Yovel, for the plantings and vegeta­ tion. On the first day of Sh’vot is Rosh Hashonah for the trees, ac­ cording to the teaching of Beth Shammai. The Beth Hillel say, on the fifteenth of this month.”

(Mishnah Rosh Hashonah, 1:1)

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JEWISH LIFE

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OW desolate, on the other hand, is the world for the one whose concepts are confined in the straightjacket of mechanical and physical for­ mulas. How insignificant is man if he is but part of an inexorable process which is bereft of meaning and pur­ pose. Among the many species, he is at best a frail mutation whose intellect is a puzzle without solution and whose awareness the cause of bleak and hopeless vexation. His added endow­ ments may give him greater elasticity of adaptation to outer circumstance, yet he remains the playground of forces and reflexes beyond his control and judgment. Immutable in their progress and impervious to his will and deter­ mination, they make his thinking and planning an illusion. His very exist­ ence is of no import. Nothing will change by his absence as nothing has changed by his occurrence. He will be ground under the wheels of the blind­ ly evolving mechanism which has no need of him as it has indeed no need of itself.

he tends to forget in the multitude of blessings their dependence on the Creator. This is why the Jew brought the Bikkurim, the first fruits of his land and orchard, to the Temple, gave T’rumah and Maaser, shared his pro­ duce with the Kohen, the Levite, and the poor, affirming that the bounty is bestowed upon him by his Maker and is not the result of his own prowess, forming the pattern of his life on the basis of this acknowledgement that he lives amidst Creation and is part of it.

This is why once every week, on the Shabboth, the Jew refrains from all creative work and dedicates himself to worship and study and spiritual joy, in testimony of the fact that in six days the Almighty created heaven and earth and all their hosts and rested on the seventh day. This is why the rhythm of nature is marked, just as is his own ex­ istence, by beginnings, by the Rosh Hashonah of the field and the Rosh Hashonah of the tree, relating them and him to the Eternity whence all exist­ ence flpws.

How untenable then is any moral postulate if addressed to a being which ultimately must define itself as a cipher and all existence as incapable of change and betterment. Man’s appe­ tites become by cold necessity his rul­ ing maxims and personal advantage the sole principle of conduct. All be­ ings and things are either his servants or his mortal enemies. Truly, Without the acknowledgement of Creation there can be no law and no love; the beginning of Torah is B’reshith Bora Elokim.

HUS, the Jew is also bidden to leave the soil fallow every seventh year, the year of the SKmittah, lest he forget that this earth is G-d’s and its fruit a grant to be deserved. This “Shabbath Ha-aretz” applies even now to the Holy Land and to those who have possession of it. By its sale, a Jew may free himself from the duty of Sh’mittah. Yet, how proud must all of us be of the few kibbutzim whose in­ habitants observe the Sh’mittah and do not sell their land but rejoice in the performance of this Mitzvah on holy soil, manifesting their faith in the Creator and their faith in “Kedushath Ha-aretz.” During this year 5719, which is a year of Sh’mittah, they will neither plow nor plant nor harvest, returning their portion of nature to

Many are the Mitzvoth of the Torah which remind man that nature is a curtain behind which he must discover the constancy of Creation. Confronted by the steady cycle of the seasons, by seed and harvest, by blossom and fruit, December, 1958

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creation and sanctifying the name of G-d in doing so.

On the fifteenth of Sh’vot, when the sap has risen in the trees of Eretz Israel, Jews all over the world will re­ joice. They will eat of the fruits of trees, to pronounce over them the Divine name in blessing. This, we are taught, is a merit for the trees on their Rosh Hashonah. In Israel, children will leave the cities, go out into the fields and orchards, dance around the trees, and sing out to the Lord. This

year, though, they will not plant new trees as they are wont to do every year on Tu Bish’vot. They will cele­ brate not only Tu Bish’vot but also Sh’mittah. They will feel their oneness with G-d’s nature and rejoice in its beauty. And all of us will again be­ come mindful that nature is but the perpetuation of Creation and that we, too, are branches of His plantings, the work of His hands wherein He may glory.

From the E ditor

“ T radition ” T IS a pleasure to extend a welcome to orthodox Jewry’s new­ est literary organ, “Tradition”, published by the Rabbinical Council of America. The appearance of this semi-annual journal of orthodox Jewish thought is a tribute to the vision and under­ standing of its sponsoring body, and marks the growing ability of traditional Jewish leadership to communicate Torah thought and ideas to the English-speaking world of today.

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The first number of “Tradition”, which appeared this Fall, richly justifies the hopes attached to this project during the long period of its planning and preparation. Addressed to the serious reader, both rabbinic and lay, the journal is marked by high scholarship united with creditable literary style. The issue offers a rewarding diversity of important articles and reviews, each reflecting careful research and a clear grasp of the application of ageless Torah concepts to present-day life. The excellent format and typography of “Tradition” warrant special praise.

The editorship of “Tradition”, headed by Rabbi Norman Lamm, deserves every appreciation for the manner in which “Tradition” has been brought to successful birth. A foreword by Rabbi Solomon J. Sharfman, under whose administration as pre­ sident of the Rabbinical Council of America this publication came into being, aptly summarized its aim: “to kindle the mod­ ern mind with the torch of the Torah.” May “Tradition” long live and flourish in fulfillment of this lofty aim.

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JEWISH LIFE

They Founded the State of Israel

By ARYEH NEWMAN T’S IMPOSSIBLE! Those bearded, behatted, long-cloaked Talmudic scholars from Mea Shearim and Old Jerusalem eighty years ago set in motion by their daring ideals, the proc­ ess that was inevitably consummated in the proclamation of the Jewish State in May 1948! They were the first mem­ bers of that select band of real Zionists who exchanged the comforting rou­ tine of the life they and their fathers had led for centuries, for the rigors and terrors of pioneering, amid the swamps and unworked soil of the Holy Land. No pogroms, no catastrophe had driven them to this drastic break with their past. They were impelled by no other necessity, save the love of the land of their forefathers and the urge to act as the emissaries of Providence in restoring their people, land* and faith to its ancient glory, as foretold in the volumes of sacred law and lore in which they meditated day and night.

But it’s true! The return to the soil, Hebrew speech, manual labor, redemption of the land by personal effort and proxy, on both a coopera­ tive and world-wide Jewish scale— all these ideals were anticipated by the pious founders of the first Jewish colony in what was then Palestine, Petach Tikvah, in 1878. Only now are Jewish historians and statesmen beginning to correct the distorted view of Zionist history, which explained the rebuilding of the homeland in terms of the flight of the Bilu stu-

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December, 1958

dents from the Russian pogroms to found the colonies of Rishon Letzion, Rechovoth, etc., the Basle Congress and the emergence of the labor and collective movement. Only “emanci­ pated”, “enlightened” Jews who had freed themselves from the lethargic and obscurantic trammels of tradi­ tion were capable of writing such a glorious and refreshing chapter in Jewish history! At least so it was asserted.

UT the Jewish historian, G. Cressel, the recorder of the an­ nals of Petach Tikvah, as well as no less a person than Mr. Ben Gurion, Israel’s Prime Minister, have restored the perspective. The former has dis­ posed of the legend of the Old Yishuv of bearded and fanatical “para­ sites,” the latter has called the found­ ing of Petach Tikvah by Jerusalem pietists the “most momentous revolu­ tionary and creative innovation that took place in the Holy Land, since its conquest by the Arabs in the sev­ enth century. It marks the beginning of the epoch of Jewish independence.

Far away as these builders of the Old Yishuv may have been from us in their way of life and thought, they have a never to be forgotten and not inconsiderable share in the proclama­ tion of the Jewish State in our day.”* Fitting public recognition of this fact has been given this autumn, when

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*David Ben G u rion -T h e Book of Petach Tikvah.

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the sixty thousand inhabitants of Petach Tikvah celebrated the eightieth anniversary of their town in special public festivities organized within the framework of Israel’s Tenth Anniver­ sary celebrations. But the story of the

gradual but inevitable process of spiritual and physical regeneration that culminated in the founding of Petach Tikvah is sufficiently unfami­ liar to warrant retelling, if only with­ in the scope of a feature article.

Roots of Petach Tikvah

HE founders of Petach Tikvah hailed from circles associated with two of the greatest Jewish person­ alities of the last two centuries—the Gaon of Vilna and Chotham Sofer.

The former failed in his attempts to settle in the Holy Land. Half way there, he had to turn back, but he sent his most gifted disciples, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, to found an Ashkenazi community in Jerusalem. This involved, in those days, joining the bands of pious scholars who prayed and studied Torah in the Holy City, supported by the contributions of Goluth Jews, liv­ ing in the particular regions from which these “Guardians of the Walls” (of the Holy City) had originally come. It had involved, too, the max­ imum self-effacement, for fear of of­ fending the hostile Arabs and Turkish authorities, and living at minimum subsistence level. The appearance of the Vilna Gaon’s disciples in Jerusa­ lem raised problems of accommoda­ tion and support which aroused the misgivings and fears of the existing Kollelim, communities of religious scholars, as well as divisions of opin­ ion between the new immigrants themselves. It was this rift between “activism” and self-effacement, be­ tween religious initiative and religious quietism, between waiting for the Messiah and meeting him, which exists to this very day.

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HERE was a derelict courtyard of old Jerusalem known as the Churva or “ruin” of Rabbi Judah Hechosid, a grim monument to the heroism and love of the Holy Land displayed by Jewish immigrants of a century earlier, Fifteen hundred of them, under the leadership of the aforenamed Rabbi, had trekked through Europe, 500 perishing on the way, in order to make their homes in Jerusalem. They bought a plot of land in Jerusalem; built houses and a courtyard. However, disease, desti­ tution, and oppression decimated the survivors, and the place was aban­ doned, the surrounding Arabs driving out those who had the temerity to stay. It was to this courtyard the immigrants looked for salvation. One of their number, Avrohom Shelomoh Zalman (Salomon) undertook the dangerous and arduous task of re­ deeming the Churva, calling in the aid of the Russian and Austrian con­ suls, and eventually obtaining a fir­ man, a license to rebuild the site, from Mohammed Ali, ruler of Egypt.

Flourishing the firman, he ascended the heap of rubble that was the Churva, urged his countrymen to clean away the refuse, and began to read out the contents of the precious writ he had wrung from the Egyptian potentate to the threatening and ugly crowd that had assembled. It was not long before a synagogue arose

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JEWISH LIFE

Zionist Archives and Library

The main street of Petach Tikvah as it looked in 1925.

on the new site, dedicated with great pomp and festivity on Rosh Chodesh Shevat 1837.

Salomon’s activism met with bit­ ter opposition, and was looked upon as a dangerous departure from the contemplative, self-effacing existence of sacred study. It was asking for trouble. Sure enough we find Salo­ mon’s son, Mordecai, presenting to Sir Moses Montefiore a year later a plan for turning the country into a land flowing with milk and honey, worked by Jewish labor. Mordecai wrote: “It has always been my dear­ est aspiration to eat of the labor of my hands.” He was as good as his word and started farming in one of the villages around Jerusalem. He stoutly maintained that Jews were capable of doing every kind of work December, 1958

and that this was the basis of re­ generating the community. It was his son, Yoel Mosheh, who, forty years later, was one of the founders of Petach Tikvah.

N THE meantime, the Jerusalem community grew by leaps and bounds, after the successful acquisi­ tion of the Churva, with its dem­ onstration of Jewish courage and selfreliance. The community was cramp­ ed within the old walls and houses built outside, with the legacy of an American millionaire, stood empty, rent-free, waiting for the first Jews hardy enough to venture outside.

Those who dared were unmolested, and soon others followed. Houses were also built within the city, with contributions raised by emissaries sent to the Diaspora.

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But again it was the AshkenazimPerushim who had redeemed the Churva who scorned the well-worn path of charity. Some of them, in­ cluding Yoel Mosheh Salomon, pro­ claimed their desire to build their own quarter, on a cooperative basis, without outside help. Seven pious Talmudic scholars, in all, they were, and they built Nachlath Shiva, “the Inheritance of the Seven”. They ap­ pealed to their coreligionists to fol­ low suit, to buy land while it was still cheap, instead of being at the mercy of non-Jewish landlords, and at least do for their own people and faith what the Christian sects did for their own adherents. These same disciples of the Vilna Gaon organ­

ized a building society of one hun­ dred members, erecting the quarter of Mea Shearim, in defiance of the “conservative” elements of the Yishuv.

The latter denounced them for their “new” approach to life in the Holy Land, and mocked them for their foolhardy, crackpot schemes- which could only result in general disaster.

Mea Shearim and Nachlath Shiva were followed by steps to buy land, not for a housing quarter but an agricultural settlement or “colony” as it was then called. These efforts were headed by Yoel Mosheh Salomon, who established a journal, Judah and Jer­ usalem, to propagate this idea. But of that further.

Torah and Avodah

I

and emancipation. “We had become free from physical slavery, but were still enslaved mentally, the impurity of the land holding us in subjection.”

The many pupils of the Chotham Sofer who began to arrive in the Holy Land in the eighteen-forties and on­ ward made common cause with those Perushim or disciples of the Vilna Gaon who wished to ensure a selfrespecting, rational, economic basis for the Yishuv. Among them was Joshua Stampfer, who ran away from his parents in Hungary, and ultimately arrived at the Hungarian Kollel in Jerusalem; Eliezer Raab and his fam­ ily, who had already pursued agri­ culture in Hungary; and David Gut­ man, a wealthy Hungarian Jewish magnate who had devoted his life hitherto to fighting Reformism in his native country.

In those days two companies made their appearance, one after the other,

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JEWISH LIFE

F THE Vilna Gaon’s wish to estab­ lish an Ashkenazi, mithnagged (non-Hasidic) community in Jerusa­ lem had indirectly led to this upsurge of practical plans to rebuild the Jew­ ish community in Eretz Yisroel on a more realistic, rational, “earthly” basis, the teachings of the Chotham Sofer directly called for manual labor and the tilling of the soil, as the only way to bring about a physical and spiritual regeneration of the Jewish people in the Holy Land. Torah must go together with Avodah—labor, and the Yishuv must not set its aim to live solely by charity. Just as it was forbidden for a Jew to increase his worldly goods in the Golah, so it was a Mitzvah for him to increase his worldly possessions in Eretz Israel.

He regarded the return to Zion as the antidote to the inroads of Reform and assimilation in Hungary, brought about by the granting of equal rights

in Jerusalem: “The Company of the Restorers of the Crown to its Former Glory” and “the Company of the Till­ ing of the Soil and the Redemption of the Land.” Both were founded by pious and learned Torah scholars and both were denounced as new-fangled and dangerous by others who thought they were being even more pious. The first company, however, succeeded in acquiring a tract of land in the vi­ cinity of Jericho, but the Turkish authorities annulled the sale. The en­ thusiasm with which Jerusalem Jews rushed to invest their savings in the company knew no bounds and the disappointment, after the authorities had wilfully deprived them of the land, was expressed by applying the text: And Jericho was straitly shut up (Joshua 6:1).

But let us catch a little of their fervour in the description of the land by one of the founders of the com­ pany, Rabbi Akiva Shlesinger: “We saw what we had not expected to see in Eretz Yisroel. Twenty-six fruit­ ful hills, covered with trees, with a flourishing plain in between. I davenned Shacharith, Minchah, and Maariv on the site, and never have I prayed with such Kavonah, not even on Yom Kippur. Tears ran down from my eyes, when I recalled what we had lost. Then all of the trees of field did sing. It is impossible for me to describe at all, these places, which have been forsaken of their sons for millenia, just how they vest themselves in joy at the return of the Jewish people to them.”

r p H E SECOND company took over JL where the first one left off and continued the search for suitable land, at the same time drafting a detailed constitution which later served the

Zionist Archives and Library

Present-day view of Rechov Stampfer,one of Petach Tikvah's principal thoroughfares.

December, 1958

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settlers of Petach Tikvah. It began: “The beginning of things is the fear of the Lord,” laying down the com­ plete devotion to the Torah and its laws as a sine qua non of membership.

Then followed regulations obliging members to work their own land and live on it with their families. In spite, however, of the official support the group received from Rabbi Meir Auerbach, the leading rabbi of Jer­ usalem, this company too was dis­ banded, owing to the pressure of die­ hard elements, to whom a “colony” spelt incipient heresy and a challenge to their customary way of life.

But the would-be-colonists headed

by Yoel Mosheh Salomon were not to be deterred. The search for land continued, and the call to the soil more insistent, spread abroad by the journal Judah and Jerusalem which Salomon edited. Eventually a Greek Christian was found who had land for sale near the Yarkon river—the Arab village of Um Labbas. The ad­ vice of experts, Christian, Arab, and Jewish, was against it. The land was malarial, the colonists inexperienced.

But what did that matter to them?

They were not inspired by utilitarian sentiments, nor by a nineteenth cen­ tury rationalism or nationalism. They were descendants of the Children of Israel who were once more, like un­ der Joshua and Ezra, going to occupy the land promised their forefathers,

sow and till it and surrender- them­ selves to the ecstasy of fulfilling the Divine precepts connected with the Hol^ land.

They called the land Petach Tik­ vah, recalling the prophesy of Hosea that God would turn the valley of gloom into a door of hope. Here is the description of one of the first set­ tlers of the memorable August after­ noon, in 1878 when they set forth to view the site chosen for their colony: “The very moment we caught sight, from a distance, of the eminence we had chosen as the site of our village, I raced forward on my horse and fell to the ground, kissed the earth and watered it with tears of joy. The rest of my companions did likewise and all of us pronounced the S h eh e c h e y o n u blessing with deep fervor. I felt then as if I had been born anew, and that I had been conceived and brought into the world in this place.”

The surrounding Arabs threatened to dislodge them but these students of the Talmud, now wielders of the plough, showed they could stand up to them, and soon their neighbours began to treat them with a healthy respect. They were of the same met­ tle as their fathers and grandfathers who had rebuilt the Churva and not the cowed, submissive Jews the Arabs had been used to, who had been glad to sneak into a cellar and at the price of a heavy ransom be allowed to say their prayers and continue their sacred studies.

First Fruits

rrv H E IR first year was extraorJL dinarily successful and miracu­ lous were the tales spread abroad how Petach Tikvah had yielded produce and been granted rain, in contrast to the rest of the country which had suffered drought. The miracle of Go­ shen and the plague of darkness had 44

been repeated, they averred. The bringing of their first fruits to Jeru­ salem was a gala occasion: “Thirty camels laden with the produce of the land in sacks bearing the legend ‘Petach Tikvah’. We brought them in to Mea Shearim, which consisted only of twenty houses in those days, built on one side of the street, and stationed JEWISH LIFE

them at the large cistern that had just been completed. We sent messengers to call all the Kohanim and Leviim to take their portions of the produce that G-d had blessed us therewith, after two thousand years of destruction.

Three days we celebrated before the Lord in Mea Shearim with song and praise to the Lord who had been mar­ vellous in his kindness to us in grant­ ing us restoration in the chosen land.”

A year later, a second purchase of land was made in the vicinity of Petach Tikvah. The land was allo­ cated by lot. The day before was pro­ claimed a public fast day by the set­ tlers. In the morning they were to ritually immerse themselves in the river Yarkon, recite the liturgy pre­ scribed for Hoshanah Rabbah, after which they were to read the whole Book of Psalms, from beginning to end. In such a way the day was to pass in fasting and praying till the evening when a large banquet was held.

The settlers of Petach Tikvah now appealed to the Diaspora to send set­ tlers and help them expand and found new colonies, foretelling the catas­ trophe that would overtake those who preferred to remain outside the Land and ignore its call. In 1881, the

Russian pogroms broke out, refugees poured out and the question was whether? America or Eretz Yisroel?

The example of Petach Tikvah, whose existence was hardly known in the Diaspora, suddenly became topical and prominent. True, its existence was precarious, many settlers had come down with malaria and later it required financial assistance, but a Jewish colony had been established— not by professional farmers but by Talmud scholars. The way had been shown and though the next genera­ tion of pioneering immigrants pre­ sented quite a different picture, and the uncompromising colony of Petach Tikvah went through many metamor­ phoses, its original basis of piety and manual work is still to be detected in the large religious element of the populace, reinforced by those staunch representatives of Oriental orthodoxy, the Yemenites, its renowned Yeshivah, successor to the historic Lomza Ye­ shivah, religious schools, and strong religious labor organizations of both the Mizrachi and Agudah persuasion, which together with the other labor parties conduct the affairs of the town.

ALL MAY SHARE The Torah was given in public, openly, in a free, ownerless place. Because had the Torah been given in the Land of Israel they could have said to the nations of the world, "You have no share in it." But since it was given in the wilderness, in public, openly, in a free, ownerless place, everyone who wishes to accept it can come and accept it.

Mechilta

December, 1958

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• Religious students meet their problems

Orthodoxy on the Campus

By ESRIEL MAGNUS OPPENHEIM

UCH has been written and higher learning in the United States M spoken about the revival of reli­ discovers that he can integrate himself gion and of interest in religion on the into the academic life of the institution campuses of the colleges in this coun­ try. While, no doubt, there has been a change in the religious attitudes and convictions of college students today as compared to two and three decades ago, the significance of this revival has yet to be evaluated. Whatever may be the outcome of such a study, it should reveal the emergence of a group new to the religious life of the campus.

Jewish student organizations are not newcomers to the campuses of Amer­ ican colleges, as the student of reli­ gious life on the campus will find.

These organizations, which have a fairly long history of existence, repre­ sent every shade of Jewry with the ex­ ception of orthodox Judaism or are purely secular in nature. Students of persuasions other than that of ortho­ dox Judaism have long been active in these organizations and have been in­ strumental in formulating their philo­ sophies and developing their pro­ grams. The student of religious life on the campus today, however, will ob­ serve the appearance for the first time of a Jewish student organization dedi­ cated exclusively to the fostering of the observance of orthodox Judaism among college students.

This organization has arisen to meet a need. A religiously observant student who pursues his secular studies at any one of the numerous institutions of 46

to derive the maximum scholastic benefit. At the same time, however, he experiences difficulty in fully adhering to his religious convictions, since he lacks the institutions and type of so­ ciety which at home satisfy his reli­ gious needs and are conducive to lead­ ing a religiously observant life.

A RRIVING on a university campus, the observant student will usually find an existing Jewish student organization. Its function is to provide the fellowship of Jewish students and to offer a program of cultural, educa­ tional, and social activities with the aim of developing and maintaining among the Jewish students their iden­ tity as Jews. These organizations are under the aegis of a Religious Advisor, whose function is to minister to the spiritual needs of the Jewish student body. The religious student soon finds that these organizations do not fulfill his particular spiritual needs. In phil­ osophy, attitude, and practice they are not orientated towards the observance of Torah and Mitzvoth and hence the content of their programs and activi­ ties are not religious in nature. The programs reflect the religious convic­ tions of the Religious Advisor, who directs the program of the particular organization. Obviously, these campus organizations do not promote the ob­ servance of Torah and Mitzvoth and x jl

JEWISH LIFE

cannot provide for the observant stu­ dent the fellowship of students whose attitudes and inclinations are the same as his own.

Living in a collegiate environment is, therefore, a nisayon, a trying expe­ rience for the observant youth at an age when he is developing intellect­ ually. During this period of his life his religious convictions may not as yet be firmly rooted, or he may lack the sta­ mina to express himself as an observ­ ant Jew in an alien environment, or he may be experiencing doubts and con­ flicts about his religious beliefs. At this time, he must find his way unassisted as an observant Jew in a surrounding which, intellectually and socially, is not conducive to the observance of Torah and Mitzvoth and may at times even be hostile. The severity of this situation may be multiplied when the meager religious training of the aver­ age American Jewish student is considered.

URING the past year this situa­ tion was experienced by a num­ ber of undergraduates and graduate students at Columbia University. En­ grossed as they were in their heavy programs of study, they as individuals nevertheless felt that there was some­ thing lacking in their spiritual exist­ ence. They faced the problem of Kashruth. Activities such as Tefilah Betzibur and Talmud Torah, which are organized activities, were lacking.

The companionship of other religious students, which in itself is a chizuk, a source of strength for the individual, was missing. It is little wonder that some students were plagued by feel­ ings of conflict induced by this spir­ itual solitude. Should they conform to their environment and thus be fully accepted by the larger social circle of students? Or should they remain

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December, 1958

staunchly loyal to their heritage and thus be unable to fully integrate them­ selves into the social fabric of the campus? The existing Jewish campus organizations did not solve this prob­ lem for them.

A few of these students felt that they ought to do something to fulfill their spiritual needs. Some thought that the creation of an organization devoted to religiously observant stu­ dents might answer their needs. As this idea became popular among these students, a meeting was called of those interested in discussing the problem.

At this gathering, which was held in the fall of last year, the fifteen to twenty students present decided to organize an orthodox Jewish student organization at Columbia University whose purpose and program were: (1) To foster the observance of Torah and Mitzvoth among the Jewish stu­ dents on the campus (Chizuk Hay ahaduth); (2) to provide the fellowship and comradeship of orthodox Jewish students; (3) to sponsor a program of activities orthodox in content to meet the needs, interest and desires of its members, and (4) to represent its members in matters pertaining to reli­ gious observance on the campus. The Statement of Purpose in its application for University recognition read: “The purpose of this organization is to foster a deeper understanding and a fuller appreciation of traditional Juda­ ism through the medium of cultural, educational and spiritual programs as well as to bring together in a fraternal association, persons with similar per­ sonal convictions.”

“The aforementioned purpose shall be achieved by a sponsoring of lectures and discussion groups, through the ob­ servance of Jewish ceremonies and holi­ days, by conducting a daily prayer serv­ ice and by means of a program of social activities.”

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n p H E establishment of this organiJ. zation, whose appellation became the “Yeshurun Society”, was vehe­ mently opposed by the Counsellor to Jewish Students, who is Reform. His opposition was based on the argument that the existing Jewish student organ­ izations were sufficient to meet the needs of the Jewish student body; that the needs of the observant students could and should only be met within the organizational framework of the existing organizations which are under his guidance, and that the establish­ ment of another Jewish organization would not make a favorable impres­ sion upon the non-Jewish student pop­ ulation on the campus because it would appear that there is a split among the Jewish student body. It was pointed out by the orthodox students that an attempt made the previous year to have a special program of ac­ tivities for the observant students within one of the existing organiza­ tions had failed. The persistence and insistence of these orthodox students, who contended that only an organiza­ tion dedicated exclusively to such stu­ dents could properly carry on its task, resulted in University approval of the organization’s charter as a religious student organization. Permission was granted to make use of University fa­ cilities, with offices in Earl Hall, the center for all Columbia University religious organizations on the campus.

The initial activity sponsored by The Yeshurun Society was a luncheon meeting at which the students ate to­ gether, learned Mishnah Berurah (be­ fore a holiday the Halochoth of that Yom Tov were reviewed) or the Mitzvoth of the weekly Torah portion, and davened Minchah together. This daily meeting soon attracted upwards of twenty students. It became the place for orthodox students to gather, be48

come acquainted with each other and make friends, as well as creating the atmosphere which spiritually strength­ ened the members.

A S membership increased, a broadxm. er program of activities was insti­ tuted. The establishment of kosher dining facilities—either off-campus as at Cornell and Ohio State Universities or meals delivered by a local caterer in aluminum plates which need merely be heated—was a project undertaken by the Religious Affairs Committee of the Society. The lack of the availability of kosher meals was keenly felt by the campus residents and commuters alike.

Moreover, it was surmised that many Jewish students, who now eat Tarfuth, might eat kosher food were it obtain­ able on the compus at reasonable prices. Progress was made during the year in obtaining student support, in making the University administration aware of the Jewish students’ desire, and in contacting national orthodox organizations to obtain their active support. The Society did not meet with initial success in this venture due to the opposition of the University administration. However, the work of establishing kosher facilities will be continued since the groundwork has been laid in gathering support for this project among the students and alert­ ing the administration to their needs.

The fostering of observance was not limited to Kashruth. The Society suc­ ceeded in having students who had ex­ aminations scheduled on Shabboth and Yom Tov receive permission to take them at another time. Certain qualify­ ing examinations administered to en­ tering undergraduates during freshman week, which coincides with Rosh Hashonah,v\yere rescheduled due to the efforts of the Society. For students who had late classes Purim eve, a speJEWISH LIFE

cial Minyon with the reading of the Megillah was sponsored. Mourners and those who observed Yahrtzeit were invited to attend Minchah serv­ ices in order to recite Kaddish. The organization was thus able to attract students from outside their immediate circle as well as a professor at the University who had to recite Kaddish.

As interest in the activities of the organization grew, the members re­ quested that an additional shiur be held once a week. To attract as many students as possible, it was decided at the outset to study the Torah portion of the week with Rashi and other commentaries, with the study sessions to be led by one of the members. The Rabbinical Council of America gener­ ously made a gift of twenty Chumoshim for this purpose. It is tentatively planned to institute a Talmud shiur next semester.

HE FINAL activity undertaken the first year was the sponsoring of a series of addresses by outstanding personalities of the orthodox Jewish scene as part of the Society’s educa­ tional program for its members as well as for the general Jewish student body on the campus. The aim of this series was to elucidate topics basic to the understanding of Judaism and to its observance. Addresses included such themes as “The Sabbath in Judaism — Its Halachic and Philosophic Significance”, and “Eretz Yisrael and Judaism”. The latter topic was spon­ sored in conjunction with a campus­ wide “Salute to Israel Celebration” on the occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the establishment of Medinath Yis­ rael, in which the Yeshurun Society participated together with the other Jewish student organizations. The series, which proved stimulating and provocative, attracted students not af-

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December, 1958

filiated with the Society.

At the end of its first year of exist­ ence, the Yeshurun Society had a membership enrollment of approxi­ mately fifty undergraduate and gradu­ ate students. The diversity of intellec­ tual interests and professional aims of its members is evidenced by the differ­ ent divisions of the University in which they are registered, including Columbia College, Law, Business, Public Law and Government, Teach­ ers College, Pure Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics), Philoso­ phy, Classics, Economics, Internation­ al Relations, Mathematical Statistics, Sociology, and Engineering. Among the members are a number of honor students as well as fellowship, scholar­ ship, and assistantship holders. A mi­ nority of the members had never at­ tended a Yeshivah. The ones who had, had attended Mesivta Tifereth Yerushalayim, Mesivta Chaim Berlin, Me­ sivta Torah Vodaath, Yeshiva Univer­ sity, Yeshiva Rabbi Jacob Joseph, and others. Six of the members had re­ ceived Semichah ordination, while one of the undergraduates hid spent a year in a Yeshivah in Efetz Yisrael before embarking upon his secular studies.

VALUATING the Yeshurun So­ ciety’s accomplishments at the end of its first year of existence, we find that it has made significant progress in three important areas. Firstly, it has strengthened the orthodox Jewish stu­ dents at Columbia University through its program of activities designed to foster and encourage the observance of Torah and Mitzvoth, as well as creating a s’vivah, a religious environ­ ment, by bringing together students with similar religious convictions. Sec­ ond, the Society encouraged Jewish students to remain steadfast adherents

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49

in their faith and not abandon the ful­ fillment of Mitzvoth. The Jewish stu­ dent who was weak in his religious belief, or was skeptical as to the possi­ bility of observing his traditions out­ side his home environment, or feared that strict maintenance of Jewish ten­ ets might be a hindrance to success in his chosen profession, saw a group of modern American youth, whose intel­ lectual and professional interests took them out of the surrounding in which they had been reared, who did not dis­ card their beliefs. By setting an ex­ ample, the Society inspired others to remain true to their faith. Lastly, in developing an educational and cultural program not only to meet the needs of orthodox students, but to promote Or­ thodoxy through the exposition and clarification of the philosophy of To­ rah-true Judaism among the non-ob­ servant students, it made an effort to present an understanding of orthodox Judaism to the general Jewish student body.

The traditional Jewish community in the Unitfed States has concentrated its efforts ip training Jewish youth for orthodox Jewish living in day schools and centers. This writer proposes that a propagativb program also be initiated for young men and women who, studying at colleges and universities the country pver, are not in contact with the synagogues and educational institutions of their communities at an age when they urgently require such contact to remain loyal Jews. A large, fertile field for educational work re­ mains to be cultivated among collegi­ ate youth. This involves, of course, a program especially designed to educate them to five as observant Jews as well as to clarify for them orthodox Juda­ ism, its tenets, philosophy, and observ­ ances. Recognition of this was taken by the Rabbinical Council of America 50

at its last convention in Tamuz at Miami Beach, when its newly elected president, Rabbi Emanuel E. Rackman announced that “a comprehen­ sive program to promote orthodox Judaism among college youth would be introduced on campuses throughout the country”. I think it is commend­ able of this organization to take cog­ nizance of the need for the type of program they envision and to take the effort to initiate a plan to carry it into effect.

HE promotion of orthodox Juda­ ism among the general Jewish S collegiate youth is of utmost import­ ance because of the misconceptions they harbor of Orthodoxy and because they lack a knowledge of the philoso­ phy of orthodox Judaism. However, I believe that initially a greater need exists in assisting religiously observant students to maintain their observance and thereafter, to reach others beyond the fold. A dire need for a program designed to aid the observant student exists on the campuses the country over. A program of national scope styled after the one initiated at Colum­ bia University would go a long way towards filling this gap.

This writer would like to suggest a four point program which interested groups might undertake. First, aid should be given to groups o f students at any institution they might be attend­ ing, in establishing orthodox Jewish student organizations as well as in pro­ viding meeting places in the form of fraternity houses with a Beth Midrosh, library, kosher dining facilities, and meeting rooms. Second, they should obtain the aid of rabbis who reside in the vicinity of the institution to offer their time and assistance as needed by the group. I am sure that they could best be of service by leading Torah JEWISH LIFE

study groups. Third, educational ma­ terial should be prepared and a pro­ gram of activities designed, to be util­ ized and directed by the student mem­ bers themselves. Fourth, certain acti­ vities should be centralized and coor­ dinated. For instance, arrangements might be made to have rabbis, schol­ ars, and laymen who are specialists in different phases of Jewish scholarship and fields of general Jewish interest address the students on the different campuses. A central clearing house would prepare the program of speak­ ers and rotate them among the various colleges. This would greatly enrich the

organizations’ programs, as well as making it less difficult to secure the services of outstanding personalities.

I believe that this project would be of vital benefit to students who must live away from home while pursuing their professional studies. It would keep within our traditional fold many students, reared in a religious environ­ ment but with meager education and training for Torah-true Jewish living, who could remain staunchly observant Jews if in the critical years of their lives there would be an organization to guide and educate them b’derech hatorah.

RIGHT ASSOCIATIONS It is the nature of man to follow in his dispositions and in his actions the example of his friends and associates, and conduct himself according to the customs of his country­ men. A man should therefore associate with the righteous and be in the company of the wise constantly, in order to learn from their actions; and to keep far from the wicked who walk in darkness so as not to learn from their actions.

Maimonides, Yad Ha'Chazokah, Hilchoth Deyoth

WISDOM Astronomy and mathematics are merely the periphery of wisdom.

Pirkey Ovoth The Almighty gives wisdom only to him who has widsom.

Talmud, Berochoth Happy is the generation whose majority heeds its minority gzoups.

Talmud, Rosh Hashonah

December, 1958

51

Yaacov ben Meir Rabbenu Tam

By MEYER WAXMAN F THE period from the end of the 9th century C.E. to the end of the 12th is designated by scholars and his­ torians as the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry, we can similarly name the 11th and 12th centuries the Golden Period of the Franco-German Jewries. The distinction of the latter era consisted not in the variety of literary activity as did that of the Spanish Jewry, but in the intellectual acumen displayed in the study of the Torah in all its phases, in its molding the spiritual character of the other European Jewries, and above all, in the exceptional love of learning possessed by almost every Jew residing in these lands during that period.

The exceptional devotion to Torah learning of the Jews of these countries aroused the ^dmiration, and even the envy, of their neighbors. One of the students of the famous scholastic theo­ logian, Peter Abelard, wrote:

I

“The Christians who dedicate one of their sons to the priesthood do this not for the sake of the Church, but for the sake of gain. They want one of the family to be a priest, for, since a priest has no heirs, then all that he will ac­ quire will belong to the family. But not so the Jews. Because of their zeal for the honor of G-d, they send all their children to school so that they be versed in the Torah which He had given them. Even the poorest Jew, father of ten sons, will send them all to study the law of G-d, not as the Christians do for possible gain, but merely for love of the Torah. They also train their daughters in Jewish lore.”* ♦Quoted in “T he Study of the Bible in Mediaeval Ages” by B. Smally, Oxford, 1952.

52

As to what degree this love of learn­ ing attained, we have the testimony of several Jewish scholars of the period.

One of them writes, “It was the custom in France that students and scholars did not take off their shoes when they went to sleep except on Friday night.

On all other nights of the week they slept for a short time fully dressed in order not to interrupt their studies for any length of time.” (Code of Moses of Coucy—Semag Vol. II, section 65).

Another one states that Jewish scholars/ continued their studies even while travelling from one city to another, thus carrying out literally the words of the verse, Devorim 6:7: And thou shalt talk of them (the commandments of the Torah) when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou sittest up.

T yro WONDER, then, that in such a 1 l climate, charged with unbounded love of study, there arose, in the cities of northern France and Lorraine in generation after generation, numerous scholars who served either as heads of academies or as rabbis. However, these men of learning were not satisfied with merely discharging their duties, but endeavored to make an important con­ tribution to the wider and deeper un­ derstanding of the Talmud and to the decision of the laws. Since Rashi’s commentary on the Talmud had opened the gates of this great work to every student,* and it was no longer ♦See the same author’s article “Rashi” in J e w is h L if e (August, 1958).

JEWISH LIFE

difficult to ascertain the plain meaning of its content, the scholars employed their intellectual energies in another, though allied, field. They wrote glosses and lengthy notes to Rashi’s comment­ ary as well as to various passages of the Talmud itself. These glosses be­ came designated “Tosofoth”, which literally means “additions”, while the writers were called Tosofists.

In reality, however, the Tosofoth are much more than mere additions to earlier commentaries, for the name is a generic one and includes a wide range of comments, super-commen­ taries on previous commentaries, ana­ lyses of portions of tractates dealing with various subjects (known as Sugyoth), as well as the derivations of the proper legal decisions in certain matters. The principal purpose of these hundreds of Tosofoth was to broaden and complete the Talmudic discussions contained in the Gemorah, to clarify them, and to draw out their deepest meanings.

This ramified intellectual activity, lasting for over two hundred years, had its origin in the family of Rashi.

His sons-in-law, Yehudah ben Nathan (known as Ribon) and Meir ben Shemuel, laid the foundation. Yehudah did not actually write Tosofoth, but completed Rashi’s commentary on the Talmudic tractate Makoth and also wrote commentaries on other tractates.

However, in his commentaries the be­ ginning of the method employed in the Tosofoth is already evident. Rabbi Meir had already written Tosofoth, which were collected in books and are referred to by his sons. The tendency received great vigor and impetus by the Tosofoth of Rabbi Meir’s sons, Shemuel (known as Rashbam), Yitzchok (known as Ribom), and Yaacov.

Of the three the greatest and the pos­ sessor of the keenest mind was Yaa­ cov, hence the title bestowed upon him, “Tam”, echoing that given to the Patriarch Jacob, whom the Bible calls Ish Tam (Bereyshith 25:27). It is true that the meaning of the word tam in the verse is usually translated as “quiet”* “plain”, or “simple”, but this is not the meaning of the title be­ stowed upon Yaacov ben Meir, for he was neither quiet nor simple. Tam, in Hebrew, means also complete, or per­ fect, and it is in this sense that his title is to be understood. He was the most perfect Tosofist. In fact, he represented in his personality the essence of the Tosofoth and was their very soul. The keenness of his most discerning mind and its light shine through hundreds of Tosofoth which cover the pages of the entire Talmud and were studied by generations of students through the centuries. Thus, there became prefixed to the designation “Tam” that pf “Rabbenu”-—“our Rabbi”.

Life

ABBENU YAACOV TAM was born in the city of Rameru (also Ramerput in French) in 1096 or 1098.

His teachers were his father and his older brother, Shemuel. He married Miriam, the sister of Rabbi Simson of Falaise, a famous scholar of the day.

She must have been a woman of parts, December, 1958

for she was greatly respected by his colleagues, and after his death they often inquired of her the ways Rabbi Tam followed in the performance of precepts. He had four sons, Yoseph, Mosheh, Shelomoh, and Yitzchok, whose names are referred to in the Tosofoth literature. Rabbi Tam lived 53

for a long time in Rameru where, he established an Academy, to which hun­ dreds of students from all parts of Europe cíame, including students from Carenthia, an Austrian province* Bo­ hemia, and even from Kiev, in distant Russia.

Rabbi Tam’s great “learning, keen­ ness of mind, and mastery of the en­ tire Talmudic and Rabbinic literature spread his fame throughout Europe.

Frofn Jewish scholars of almost all countries there came queries seeking decisions in-legal matters. The greatest scholars óf the time sang his praises.

One of them said euphuistically, “Ra­ meru should be called Ramah (the place where the Prophet Samuel re­ s id e d ,! Samuel, 8:4), for the Shechinah, the Divine Presence, resides there.” Even popular legend glorified him. As is known, Rabbi Tam differed with his grandfather Rashi in regard to the order of the Biblical chapters enclosed in the Tefillin. Rashi said it should follow the order in which they are placed in the Torah, namely Kadesh (Shemoth 13:1-10) first, Vehoyah Ki-Yeviachi (ibid. 11-16) second, Shema (Devorim 6:4-9) third, and Vehoyah Im Shomoa (Devorim 11: 13-21) last. Rabbi Tam changed the order of the last two, putting Vehoy-

ah Im Shomoa third and Shema in the fourth place. The legend tells that in a discussion about this matter Rabbi Tam in excitement called out, “Moses, come down and tell us whose order is right”, and it asserts that Moses res­ ponded and decided in favor of Rabbi Tam. This is the reason that some very pious Jews put on two pairs of Tefillin, one pair according to the prescription of Rashi and towards the end of the prayers, another following Rabbi Tam’s prescription.

Yaacov ben Meir, like his grand­ father Rashi, was engaged in the wine industry and also in money-lending to non-Jews. It seems that he was wealthy and conducted his house in great style, employing a large number of servants.

In the year 1146, when the Second Crusade took place, a number of Cru­ saders entered his house, tore his books, and dragged him out of the house. They wounded him five times saying, “You are the most learned Jew in France, we will therefore first re­ venge on you the suffering of Jesus, whom the Jews wounded five times, and then kill you.” Fortunately there happened to pass a knight in the field with whom he was acquainted, who saved this great man from impending death. He then left Rameru and settled in Troyes.

Contribution

fT lH E SCHOLARLY contribution of JL Rabbenu Tam possesses special distinction,, both in quantity and qual­ ity* The number of his Tosofoth, com­ mentaries, and discussions on the Tal­ mud is exceedingly, large. They were collected by him in a special work called Sefer -ha-Yoshor (literally, the Book of the Righteous). In explana­ tion of this .title, the author says 54

“. . . David says, T esteem all Thy pre­ cepts concerning all things to be right/ (Psalm 119:128) I therefore aimed in this work to solve all difficulties in the understanding of the Talmud and set straightJ contradictions in earlier commentaries as well as to determine the right readings in the Talmudic text.” ' The work contains glosses to thirty tractates of the Talmud, besides JEWISH LIFE

many refcponsa and legal decisions.

However, these were not the only To­ sofoth by Rabbenu Tam. His com­ mentaries and critical remarks on the entire Talmud were spread by word of mouth among the numerous Tal­ mudic students in the Academy. Con­ sequently, there were additional col­ lections. Close to one thousand of his Tosofoth are incorporated in those joined to the present-day text of the Talmud.

In addition* Yaacov ben Meir com­ posed several small codes, one dealing in great detail with the writing of the Scroll of the Torah, which is incorpo­ rated in the encyclopaedic . work, Machzor Vitri, by Rabbi. Simchah of Vitri, the disciple of Rashi. Another one dealing with the laws of divorce was written by him at the request of the scholars of Paris. It seems that he also wrote a larger code which is re­ ferred to by his disciples as Halachoth Gedoloth (a collection of major legal decisions).

HE GREATNESS of, Rabbenu Yaacov Tam, however, lies pri­ marily in the keenness which his To­ sofoth typify. He displays in them the method of study and, analysis which can be practically called a replica of the method of the Amoraim, the very authors of the Gemora: He pene­ trated to the depths of the Halochah, for no thread oh that intricate web escaped his mind. He explained diffi­ cult words and phrases, quoted sources for statements in the Talmud, straight­ ened out apparent contradictions be­ tween statements in the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds, and similar­ ly, between statements in the Tannaitie Midrashim, the Sifra, and the Sifrey, when they deal with the same subject.

Rabbi Tam’s method is purely ana-

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lytic: every statement is tested as to whether its difficulties could be re­ moved. And in order to make the text complete and embracive he himself invented possible difficulties and at­ tempted to remove them. In fact, rais­ ing objections and answering them was his favorite method. The words of the Rabbis, he held, must be faultless; if contradictions occurred, they must be removed. His purpose was not to dis­ play keenness of mind but to elicit by this method the real truth.

Faithful to his motto that the words of the Rabbis of the Talmud must be faultless, Rabbi Tam opposed the making of corrections in the text of the Talmud, a method frequently em­ ployed by the scholars of the period whenever they did not understand a certain passage. He strongly re­ proached the scholars who made such corrections and chided even his own brother, Samuel, the Rashbam, for such corrections, though he believed that he made them on the basis of readings in earlier works. Rabbi Tam himself refrained from making correc­ tions, but endeavored in many ways to remove the difficulties which the read­ ings in the text apparently implied.

Only when all efforts were of no avail did he make the proper corrections, and even in such a case he relied pri­ marily upon the readings in the com­ mentary of Chananel Gaon.

AKIN G in consideration all these numerous contributions, it is no wonder then that Yaacov Tam is quoted in the Tosofoth joined to the text of the Talmud almost on every page, often even several times, and that his name is inherently connected with the study of the Talmud through­ out the generations. It is also not to be wondered that this distinguished scholar who was admired by almost

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the entire Jewish world of his time, and who was given the highest praise by all leading scholars in many lands, knew his own value and considered himself a leader of his generation. We therefore note in his legal decisions much self-assertion and a daring to differ even with the great scholars who preceded him.

56

On the whole, Rabbenu Taip re­ vered even mere customs which were followed by Jews for generations, but when he felt that certain severities of the law were difficult of execution he did not hesitate to change them. There are quite a number of leniencies which he introduced. Some were accepted and some were not. He was especially lenient in his attitude towards Jews who were forced to accept Christianity and made their return to Judaism eas­ ier in many ways. He did not, though, always practice the leniences he per­ mitted others. Thus, Tam decided that a Jew who let out the building of his house to a Gentile contractor may al­ low him to continue his work even on the Sabbath. However, when his own house was built by a non-Jewish builder he stopped the work on that day. He was careful to avoid any sus­ picion that his decision in this matter was in a way influenced by himself making use of such leniency.

Though immersed in the study of the Talmud and Jewish Law, Rabbenu Tam did not entirely neglect other Jewish studies. He mastered Hebrew grammar and wrote a work in that field called Sefer ha-Hachraoth (The Book of Balancing). He also wrote, as did many other scholars of his day, religious poems (piyyutim), the num­ ber of which is given as thirty-one, Among his poems one, entitled Yetziv Pithgam (“May a Word Be Stated”), is incorporated in the Ashkenazic rit­ ual and is recited on the first day of Shovuoth before the reading of the Haftorah.

ABBI TAM was greatly influenced by the compositions of the Span­ ish Jewish poets and he tried to imit­ ate them by composing a number of poems in metric form. Abraham Ibn Ezra, the famous Bible commentator,

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JEWISH LIFE

grammarian, and poet, was surprised to see one of the greatest Talmudic scholars of the time employing meter and rhyme. He sent to him a poem in which he expressed his wonder at the attempt, but did not forget to empha­ size his own superiority in this field, saying: “Even if the song of Jacob is sweet as manna, I am the sun and its warmth will melt the manna.”* In spite of the veiled criticism, Rabbi Tam was not offended and sent Ibn Ezra a poem in which he humbled himself before him saying, “I am a slave to Abraham, I bend and bow before him”. Ibn Ezra, humbling him­ self in turn, then replied in a poem in which he pays to Rabbi Tam his due, saying, “Far be it from an angel divine to bend and bow before Balaam”. He later wrote, in honor of Rabbi Tam, a poem exceptionally artistic in its com­ position, called “The Tree”.

Like other members of his family, Yaacov Tam was interested, to a de­ gree, in Bible commentation. There are also found several of his explana­ tions of Biblical verses, but he seems to have felt his weakness in this parti­ cular field, for a statement is attributed to him which says, “A commentary on the Talmud like my grandfather’s I

can duplicate, but I cannot write a commentary on the Bible, for it is be­ yond my powers”. (Chayim David Azulai in his work, Shem Ha-Gedolim.) It is, however, certain that he wrote a commentary on the Book of Job, for two later commentators quote passages from it. rr iH E ACCLAIMED leader of his JL time, no important action was undertaken by the Jewish communities of France and Germany without the approval of Rabbi Yaacov ben Meir Tam. He took the initiative to enact a number of important ordinances which corrected defects in Jewish social and religious life and contributed to its stabilization.

Between the years 1160 and 1170, Rabbenu Tam convened several Rab­ binical conferences, or synods, to dis­ cuss the state of affairs in Jewish life and to enact the proper ordinances for its improvement. The first conference was held in the year 1160. In this gathering there participated one hun­ dred and fifty rabbis from all French provinces and also from Lorraine.

Rabbi Tam and his brother Shemuel (or Rashbam) presided. At this synod, the following ordinances were adopted:

Leadership and Ordinances

(a) No Jew should bring suit against another Jew in a non-Jewish court un­ less both litigants agree, for such ac­ tion would undermine the authority of Jewish law. (b) In case this ordinance is transgressed by one of the litigants and the one against whom the suit is brought suffered damages from such action, the one who brought the litiga­ tion is obliged to make the loss good and the amount to be paid is to be de­ termined by seven communal leaders.

He refers to Shemoth 16:2 where it is said re­ garding the manna “W hen the sun waxed hot, it melted.“

December, 1958

(c) No Jew should dare to threaten, or to exert pressure on, the communal leaders through his influence in nonJewish circles, (d) No Jew should ac­ cept a position of leadership in the community when appointed to it by the rulers of the country; such candi­ dates must be elected by the members of the community.

At another synod which was held several years later, these ordinances were strengthened by an additional resolution that the transgressors of any of them shall be excommunicated and 57

excluded from all social relations. At the same synod, excommunications of the severest degree were laid upon all informers in any manner.

THIRD synod held in Troyes or Rheims passed an ordinance sti­ pulating that anyone whose wife died within the first year of marriage be obliged to return the dowry, and such other valuables as he had received, to the parents or other relatives of the deceased wife; from this money ex­ penses for her burial, in a manner be­ fitting her social status, must be taken.

At the fourth synod, held during the days of the fair at Troyes, at which Yaacov Tam, together with his dis­ ciple, Moshe ben Avraham of Poiitoise, presided, it was ordained that no one should dare to question the legality of a bill of divorce issued by a Jewish court after it was given to the woman, and anyone transgressing the said ordinance should be excom­ municated. This ordinance aimed to prevent such acts by enemies of the wife or the husband in order to cause them grievance. The woman would especially suffer from such action, for she would remain an Agunah in case the husband left the country and could not be found.

At these synods, the ordinance of Rabbi Gershon (Light of the Exile) against marrying more than one wife was reconfirmed, but it was amended

*

to the degree that one may take an­ other wife if the former wife is'men­ tally ill and cannot be divorced. He must, however, receive permission for such marriage by one hundred rabbis.

Similarly, another ordinance of Rabbi Gershon was reaffirmed, the one which prohibits the issuing of a divorce to a woman without her consent, though the Talmud does not require it. It thus raised the status of the Jewish woman and improved the state of married life.

In the last year of Yaacov^ Tam’s life, in 1171, there first emerged in the city of Blois the grave canard against the Jews known as the blood accusation, which caused loss of life to thousands of Jews. Thirty-one Jews were'killed in Blois as a result of this accusation. Rabbi Tam then issued a decree that the twenty-seventh day of the month of Sivan,:the day the execu­ tion of the Jews took place, shall be observed every year by all French communities as a fast day. He died at the end of that year.

LOSE TO 800 years have passed since the death of this perfect Jewish scholar, yet his influence has not disappeared. The keenness of his mind still serves as an important fac­ tor in the development of the mental ability and intellectual acumen of thousands of Jewish youths, in various countries of the world, by the study of his Tosofoth.

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"REMEMBER" AND "OBSERVE" One must add to Shabboth both before it begins and at its conclusion, for the commandment ' Zochor 77 - re­ member" — teaches us to remember it before, it comes; and the commandment "Shomor" — "observe" — tèàdhes us to observe it after it has gone.

Mechilta 58

JEWISH LIFE

B o o h R e v ie w s Vestibule to Jewish Understanding

By SOLOMON J. SHARFMAN

THE PHILOSOPHY OF PURPOSE

by Dr. Samuel Belkin (first in “Studies in Torah Judaism” series), Yeshiva University, New York, 35 pp. 5719/ 1958.

and solves all problems in the spirit of the Torah. Numberless men and women today, however, do not know how to live as Jews or what to believe as Jews. They have strayed into false paths only because , they have never VERY age speaks its own. lan­ been guided on to the right road and guage and seeks the answers to the most' important signposts are in a the questions of the universe in the language that they cannot under­ light of its own knowledge. Therefore stand. Many have genuine intellectual the Torah .speaks in the language of difficulties, which they are unable to human beings and every generation resolve by themselves. The supreme must understand and explain it anew. need of our generation is an exposi­ We live in one pf the great ages of tion of »Judaism in modern terminol­ history. Phenomenal scientific pro­ ogy that .will make, intelligible the gress has opened the.. stai:s to human secrets of Divine. Revelation to the travel and habitation while at the perplexed i minds and hearts of this same time destroying the illusions age of Science. that gave man security on earth. The It is only recently that a beginning false gods lie shattered and hearts has been made to meet this need. are receptive to the. voice of G-4, Much ;of contemporary Jewish reli­ That He is not heard clearly is due to gious writing, however, is anti-intel­ tke breakdown in the media of com­ lectual, emotional, and existentialist, munication which.. all ages of £Jewish representing the views of the indivi­ history possessed to d we have not yet dual author rather than the thinking re-established. tv ; of Judaismi At best, there is too fre­ Judaism teaches- truths thaL we quently a co-mingling of Jewish ideas must know and commandments that with non-Jewish theological doctrines we have to obserye. It views the and a levelling of Judaism to the cur­ World through the eyes of its ,Creator rent, popular slogans of democratic liberalism. It. is with enthusiasm and RABBI SOLOMON. J. SHARFMAN is honorary anticipation, therefore, that we must president of the Rabbinical Council o f Amerida and is „an Editorial .Associate o f, J e w is h L i f e . For welcome the undertaking of Yeshiva the past twenty years he has served as Rabbi of University to publish a series of the Youiig Israel of Flatbush, Brooklyn, N . Y.

B

December, 1958

59

Studies in Torah Judaism that, ii the words of the Editor, Dr. Leon Stitskin, will be “grounded in our scholarly spiritual heritage and based upon Biblical, Halachic, and philosophic sources”.

HE FIRST contribution in the series, an essay on “The Philoso­ phy of Purpose,” by the distinguished scholar and President of Yeshiva University, Dr. Samuel Belkin, bril­ liantly illuminates the vestibule through which one enters upon studies in Torah Judaism. The Torah has a divine logic of its own and a singular approach to man and the universe which must first be understood, before Judaism can be appreciated in its un­ adulterated purity and splendor. F ur­ thermore, while the commandments of the Torah are enveloped in the same mystery that veils the final laws of nature from human reason, the spir­ itual purpose underlying both can and must be comprehended. This deep in­ sight into the logic of Judaism is pro­ vided in “The Philosophy of Purpose.”

Dr. Belkin distinguishes between two different approaches to man and the world. Rationalistic philosophy seeks through reason to find an ex­ planation of creation. This is a philo­ sophy of reason. A philosophy of pur­ pose is concerned primarily with the moral and spiritual meaning of Crea­ tion for man. While man can never know the essence of creation, he can uncover the purpose of Creation. Clas­ sical philosophy sought proof of the existence of the Creator. The Sages of Judaism divined the relationship between the Creator and His creation.

The heavens declare not only the ex­ istence of G-d, but His immanence in the world. Abraham asked, “Is it con­ ceivable th at the world be without an overseer?” And the Holy One Blessed

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Be He looked out and said, “I am the Overseer and the Sovereign of the universe.” At the marriage ceremony which symbolically affirms G-d’s per­ petual act of creation, we pronouncethe blessing: “Blessed art Thou 0 Lord, King of the universe, who cre­ ated all things for His glory.” It is not the origin of Creation, but rather the purpose of Creation which is im­ portant. Man was created for the pur­ pose of fulfilling the Law of G-d.

ITH this approach, Dr. Belkin clarifies the principles that guided the philosophers of Judaism like Maimonides in delineating the logic of the Torah. While we may never know the Divine reason for the laws of the Torah, we do know the Divine purpose that is fulfilled by Torah observance. This analysis re­ solves an apparent conflict in the philosophic thought of Judaism. How can Maimonides, for example give rational reasons for commandments which he himself in the Mishneh To­ rah includes among the chukim-mitzvoth that have no rational explana­ tion? He states that certain foods are prohibited by the Torah because they are injurious and unwholesome, while other foods are forbidden for hygienic reasons. At the same time, he includes in the Sh’monah P’rakim the words of the S ifra: “Wherefore do we learn that a man should not say: I do not desire to eat pork . . . but should rather say : I do desire, but what can I do, since my Father in Heaven has decreed against it?”

There is no conflict, because the re­ ligious philosophy of purpose which Maimonides never questioned teaches that foods are forbidden not primarily for reasons of health or hygiene, but for a higher moral reason. Those who

W

JEWISH LIFE

quote MaiInonides, rationalization of the commandments as support for a secular approach to the Torah do not understand Maimonides’ philosophy.

For while he believed that it is within the power of the human intellect to learn the reason for certain laws of the Torah, these rational interpreta­ tions of revelation can in no way af­ fect man’s duty to keep the Divine law. The Torah commands the fulfill­ ment of the Mitzvoth not for the ra ­ tional reasons we discover, but for the spiritual results that flow from their observance.

It is significant that even Maimonides the rational philosopher refuses to explain through reason those com­ mandments for which the Torah ex­ plicitly gives a spiritual purpose.

Thus, the Torah commands that we wear tzitzith so that, “you may look upon it, and remember all the com­ mandments of the Lord and do them; and that you go not about after your heart and your own eyesf which you

use to go astray” This is not a ra­ tional explanation but the religious purpose for the Mitzvah of Tzitzith.

Dr. Belkin employs his enlightening exposition to highlight the tremen­ dous spiritual elevation achieved by the performance of other command­ ments which become comprehensible when their spiritual logic and pur­ pose are understood. He gives a keen formulation of the different ap­ proaches to the understanding of the Torah of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, Philo, and Maimonides. Of su­ preme value is his proven thesis: that even Maimonides never substitutes reason for revelation and his philos­ ophy of reason never abandons the philosophy of purpose, which is the eternity and divinity of Judaism. This penetrating essay makes us look for­ ward eagerly to further Studies in Judaism that will increase “man’s willingness to observe the Torah through which G-d’s will is expressed in this world.”

Eyewitness To Horror

By CHAIM U. LIPSCHITZ NOTES FROM THE WARSAW GHETTO, the Journal of Emmanuel Ringelblum. Edited and translated by Jacob Sloan. 369 pp. McGraw Hill, New York, 1958. $5.95.

YE-WITNESS accounts of chap­ ters in one of the greatest calami­ ties — the Hitler era — ever to have

S

RABBI CHAIM U. LIPSCHITZ is director of the Community Service Bureau of Mesivta Torah Vodaath, and was formerly executive director of the Rabbirical Alliance of America. He received Semichah in Israel, where he was born.

December, 1958

befallen the Jewish people, have been written by many persons, survivors and non-survivors alike. Each felt im­ pelled to'commit to writing and thus record for posterity the unimaginable brutalities so diabolically contrived by the Nazi murderers.

“Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto” is a book of this category. Its author, Emmanuel Ringelblum, was in Swit­ zerland at the time of the German in­ vasion of Poland. He voluntarily re61

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62

JEWISH LIFE

turned to Warsaw, however, nobly choosing to share the experiences of his brethren at the hands of the Nazis, and electing to act as the chronicler for Jewish Warsaw throughout this period.

Ringelblum lived through the heroic Warsaw uprising in the spring of 1943 but did not survive the liberation. On March 7th, 1944, together with his wife, child, and thirty-eight others, he was executed. In the rubble of the razed Ghetto, first in 1946, and then in 1950, Ringelblum’s notes were un­ earthed, having been hidden in cases and milk cans.

As nothing else can, these “Notes” describe the bestiality of the Nazi tor­ mentors, the degeneracy of their co­ horts the Jewish police and informers; as well as the suffering faith and cour­ age that was exhibited in a Jewish community decimated from a half­ million to practically nothing, the Nazis being most thorough in their cold-blooded massacres of total ex­ termination.

HIS is an invaluable diary; a liv­ ing document of how low the estate of man may fall and in contrast how many ordinary persons will at a moment of great crisis rise in stature to become genuine heroes and true martyrs.

Ringelblum, who was a recognized Jewish historian before the war, sur­ rounded himself with a faithful group of men who continually brought him reports of everything of interest in the ghetto — mostly its tragedy, but at times also its bitter humor. In this way he sketched an almost daily por­ trait of the life and death struggle within the Warsaw Ghetto.

Much of what Ringelblum wrote in these “Notes” is not altogether clear, since his style is often cryptic with esoteric meaning. Enough, however, is

*

December, 1958

made poignantly clear to the reader; so much so, that he feels himself at one with the suffering of his brethren at the hands of the Nazi criminals.

Following are a few excerpts which speak for them selves...

“In the prayer house of the Cha­ sidim from Braclaw on Nowolipie Street there is a large sign; Jews Never Despair! The Chasidim dance there with the same religious fer­ vor as they did before the war.

After prayers one day, a Jew danced there whose daughter had died the day before.”

“A scene: There’s an apartment in a Jewish courtyard where tradi­ tional studies are secretly going on.

The door of the apartment is opened only to the password (one knock).

When you come in, you see a large group of Talmudic students sitting over their studies”.

“Heard how the rabbi from Wengrow was killed on Yom Kippur.

He was ordered to sweep the street.

Then he was ordered to collect the refuse into his fur hat; while he was bending over, they bayoneted him three times. He continued work­ ing and died at work”.

“Small town Jews are working out­ doors clearing away snow. An elder­ ly Jew has to recite the mourner’s Kaddish prayer. When he observes that the guard has moved on, he turns his back to the work, recites the Kaddish, and a minyon of ten Jews say, “Amen”.

“There is a marked, remarkable in­ difference to death, which no longer impresses. One walks past corpses with indifference. It is rare for any­ one to visit the hospital to inquire after a relative”.

“It’s a common thing for beggar children. . . to die on the sidewalk at n ig h t. . . a six-year-old beggar boy lay gasping all night too weak to roll over to the piece of bread that had been thrown down to him from the balcony”.

Thousands of terrible tales, one more terrible than the next, fill the pages of this eternally accusing book.

Now that almost twenty years have 63

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JEWISH LIFE

gone by since the beginning of the Second World War, an older genera­ tion has been wont to forget and must be reminded, while a younger genera­

tion deserves to be told. “Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto,” should be read by all. It is a tragic testimony of a tragic age.

On M arital Guidance

by MOSHEH MAX MARRIAGE MADE IN HEAVEN

by Rabbi Nathan Drazin, Abelard Schuman, New York, 1958, 144 pp.

EWISH tradition includes “the bringing of peace between hus­ band and wife” among those good deeds that bear fruit here on earth and procure bliss in the Future Life.

From King David through Rabbi Meir and up to Rabeinu Gershon this has been one of the tasks that have oc­ cupied the mind of every spiritual leader.

Rabbi Nathan Drazin in his book “Marriage Made in Heaven” follows this tradition, although his task is a much more difficult one due to the emotional instability that has taken hold of so many people in this Atomic Age. Just as the Sages of the Talmud were frank in their discussion of sex­ ual relationship between husband and wife so does Rabbi Drazin venture boldly into the fields of sexology, psy­ chology, and psychiatry to compare their concepts with that of our tradi­ tional faith. He shows convincingly that the Jewish laws regulating the

S

RABBI MOSHEH MAX is chairman of the Com­ mittee on Family and Marriage of the Rabbinical Council of America. H e is the Rabbi of the Queens Jewish Center in Forest Hills, N.Y., and is the author of “T he Jewish Concept of Marriage.”

December, 1958

marital life of husband and wife have produced marriages that were a mu­ tual expression of love that was di­ vine and that flourished and blossomed even decades after the wedding cere­ mony.

Based on cases of men and women who came to him for advice after he had delivered a series of lectures on the Jewish view of sex life, the author discusses sexual maladjustments in marriage which can lead not only to unhappiness but also to nervous breakdowns and chronic mental ill­ ness. In some cases psychiatrists who were treating these people did not rec­ ognize that sexual maladjustment was the basis of the trouble. When these people came to the Rabbi, who made them aware of the ways to obviate these maladjustments they were re­ stored to normal living.

A MONG the subjects discussed by the Rabbi are birth control, the frequency of sexual relationship in marriage, the need of husband and wife to adjust to each other sexually, as well as socially. In a chapter en­ titled “A Time to Love” he shows the sound psychological as well as physio­ logical basis for the Jewish Law of .T I L

65

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JEWISH LIFE

separation of husband and wife at the prescribed times.

Throughout the book the Talmudic quotations cited show the insight our Sages had in this most delicate of hu­ man relationship and one finishes the 144 pages of the book with a feeling that the disciples of the Torah knew the secret of happiness in marriage long before modem psychologists be­ gan writing about the subject.

The book is a frank and forthright treatment of a vital subject by one who has combined in himself as a rabbi the benefits of the modern sci­ entific approach with the ancient wis­

dom of the Talmud stemming from the divine words of the Torah.

It is a pioneer work that orthodox rabbis and laymen should read. It is a bold attempt to bring the healthful and psychologically sound approach of our Sages to marriage to the at­ tention of the masses, who, when troubled, think only of running to the psychiatrist. This book may influence more rabbis to prepare themselves to become marriage counselors so that Jewish laymen may turn with confi­ dence to the rabbi for advice concern­ ing the most intimate phase of mar­ ried life.

A Rabbi Converses

By GILBERT KLAPERMAN

T R E A S U R Y OF H O L I D A Y THOUGHTS by Rabbi Israel Tabak, Twayne Publishers, New York, N. Y., 242 pp., $4.00.

fXlHE RENEWED interest in all X religious matters calls for a com­ mensurate increase in the flow of sat­ isfactory inspirational literature. One would expect to find a partial fulfill­ ment of this need in more and better sermon collections.

Unfortunately, almost all sermons suffer in the written word. Denuded of the flame and fire of the preacher’s RABBI GILBERT KLAPERMAN is the Rabbi of Congregation Beth Sholom in Cedarhurst, Long Island. He received his Doctorate from Yeshiva University, where he is an instructor in Sociology.

December, 1958

personal projection, they frequently show up as weak and mediocre instru­ ments for flaying an already dead horse, or as vain tilting at artificially constructed windmills. The warmth and sincerity carried in the voice, rhe­ toric, and delivery are lost and cause the sermon to suffer. When the prea­ cher tries to overcome this shortcom­ ing of his literary offering by rewrit­ ing his sermon, it often emerges as a stilted, didactic essay without inspira­ tion and without excitement. What is needed is a written form of conveying a religious sentiment that is neither a verbatim report nor the doctored-up version of a sermon.

In “A Treasury of Holiday Thoughts”, Rabbi Israel Tabak of 67

Baltimore has evolved a conversation­ al technique of transmitting meaning­ ful interpretations and homilies aris­ ing from the Holy Day and Festival lore of our people.; Each holiday has a central theme or several themes implicit in its ob­ servance. Rabbi Tabak gently leads the reader into a discussion, which never quite becomes a discourse, of these focal ideas. With a text, a Midrashic tale, an observance, or a cus­ tom as a springboard, Rabbi Tabak branches out into the sociological im­ plications of religious nationhood and the rebirth of Israel, the implications and requirements of religious sur­ vival, the personal obligations of eth­ ical and intelligent living, the beauty of family life, and the nature of many of our perplexing problems.

A N ORIGINAL thinker and fine -¿ j L scholar, Israel Tabak has devoted his lifetime of service in the rabbin­

ate to observation and analysis of the American Jewish scene. His historical perspective and keen appreciation of the challenge of survival are reflected in the excellent material that is to be found in this slim volume.

The obvious virtues of this book cry out for listing. They are: A clear and lucid presentation, an intelligent and pleasant treatment of the mean­ ing of major festivals and holidays, spiced with pertinent quotations and illustrative material; a wholesome de­ sire on the part of the author to pass on his observations in an interesting and inspiring manner; and a beauti­ ful exposition of many important reli­ gious principles. “A Treasury of Holi­ day Thoughts” will serve the rabbi and layman alike as a rich mine of source material for the holidays. Es­ pecially helpful is the appendix of complete quotations in the Hebrew or Aramaic of all references used in the book.

REMEMBER THEIR DEEDS When the time drew near for Mattathias to die, he said to his sons: "Arrogance and reproach have now grown strong — it is a time of disaster and hot anger. Now, my children, you must be zealous for the Torah, and give your lives for the covenant of our forefathers. Remember their deeds which they did in their generations, and you will win great glory and everlasting renow n. . . Observe this from generation to generation — that none who hope in Him will fail in strength. Be not afraid of the words of a sinful man, for his glory will turn to excrement and worms.

Today he will be exalted, and tomorrow he will be nowhere to be found, for he has returned to dust, and what he plotted will perish. My children, be manful and strong for the Torah, for by it will you attain glory."

First Book of Maccabees

68

JEWISH LIFE

Letters te the E d ito r THE YESHIVAH PROBLEM

Brooklyn, N. Y. I am very sympathetic to Mr, Brafman’s desire for efficiency and the streamlining of the Yeshivahs’ finan­ cial administration and in its fund raising techniques ( J e w i s h L i f e , October/Tishri). However, it appears that he leaves the cafe of the problem untouched.

Firstly: Is the financial problem really due to the administrative pro­ cedures? Mr. Brafman probably knows better than I that it is a more com­ plex problem than just adding modern machinery or skilled staff. More than this I dare not say.

Secondly: Why does he not include the Roshey Yeshivoth in his plan?

Surely they are the key persons in any planning! As in days of old, many of our Yeshivoth great and small — revolve around the personalities of their Roshey Hayeshivah. The process of planning must include the bringing together of the leading Talmidey Chachomim who I do know need to be in­ volved first. Should such men agree on an overall plan, no obstacle would withstand the enthusiasm and energy of the laymen, who revere these leaders, as they set out to refine and execute a plan.

Thirdly : I am concerned — always — when efficiency becomes the “meth­ od” or “solution.” We know that mainy Yeshivoth could be more efficient if they ceased growing, if they ceased December, 1958

experimenting and if they ceased from trying to make a Yeshivah education a universal thing. There are elements of humaneness that drain a Yeshivah’s finances, which an efficient busi­ nesslike leadership could easily de­ stroy — and with it the Yeshivoth, G-d forbid.

I do not agree that Federations “are not ready to comply with our wishes.” Rather, Federation^, I believe, never really got to know “our wishes,” because we have not been with them in their overall tasks and we have failed to support, within Federations, the Torah point of view. It is true that some institutions would not ac­ cept Federation funds because of “accountability” which some Yeshivoth hesitate to become involved with. If orthodox laymen worked in-the-community for orthodox causes, “our wishes” would find fertile minds and hearts. Don’t cross federations off our list.

Finally, perhaps it is not necessary to create so much “fact-finding” ac­ tivity. Perhaps Torah Umesorah has the vital statistics necessary. Perhaps it even has a devoted staff that can in turn appeal to its many PTA groups to discuss how Yeshivoth can best be financed in their communities.

Perhaps they can also be asked to consider how their communities could become interested in national Torah Centers: Yeshiva University, Torah Vodaath, Chaim Berlin, Lakewood Ye­ shiva, Bes Medrosh Elyon, etc.

69

National bodies, such as proposed, cannot, ought not, should not dictate to local communities how to support Yeshivoth. Then again in smaller com­ munities another “outside” fund drive would be divisive.

I propose as step number one that Mr. Brafman find a way to have each Yeshivah develop lay committees — that function — to really work for their Yeshivah and to care for its material condition* These laymen, then brought together, will be more apt to see Mr. Brafman's point, though I pray they revise his plan.

Sol Green

WANTED: FOSTER HOMES

New York, N. Y. May I bring the following grave problem to the attention of your readers?

To the doors of the Jewish Child Care Association of New York each year come hundreds of Jewish chil­ dren, neglected, troubled, lonely victims of broken homes or families shattered by tragedy. Every segment of the Jewish population is repre­ sented in their ranks, including a sub­ stantial number of children from or­ thodox homes.

There are children like Benjy and Sarah, aged six and three. They were brought to us by a distraught father when their mother was placed in a hospital for the mentally ill. He wanted them cared for until he could again make a home for them. Heart­ broken, bewildered by the disintegra­ tion of his family, he entrusted his children to JCCA care with one ur­ gent request : that they be placed in an orthodox home, where they might 70

continue to have the spiritual and cul­ tural traditions of their parents.

Thanks to a warm-hearted and gen­ erous community, JCCA is able to maintain some 600 dependent Jewish children in carefully selected foster homes where they receive the security and loving care their own families cannot give them for the time being.

They remain in these foster homes until the day when they Can return to their families under favorable circumstances.

When children of orthodox Jewish background come to us for foster home care, we have a special obligation to place them with families where they will receive a continuity of their spiri­ tual life. Despite all the efforts we have made, we have not been success­ ful in obtaining sufficient orthodox foster homes to meet our needs, with the result that we are often forced to keep orthodox children in their own broken homes too longf or to prolong their stay in temporary shelters.

In the life of a child, when a single week's delay in relieving a troubled situation can have tragic results, how can we permit children to remain on waiting lists for six months or even longer until a suitable home can be found? Where, except in the orthodox Jewish community of New York, can we look for relief from this situation.

Is it not, indeed, a paradox that this problem should exist in a segment of the Jewish population where family ties are traditionally so strong and where the welfare of children is of prime concern? Since the beginning of recorded time, the Jewish people have opened their doors and their hearts to their neighbor's children in time of trouble, and in giving them shelter and love, they have also striven to keep alive the culture and tradition of the Jewish faith.

JEWISH LIFE

None of us is immune from trouble.

The tragedies that shatter homes and leave innocent children stranded can strike any family. Certainly the or­ thodox Jewish community has as much at stake as any group in helping to maintain and strengthen our services to Jewish children. For as Jews living in a time of great community pres­ sures, do we not all have a supreme responsibility to protect our children from the many forces which threaten their emotional and spiritual security?

I am certain there must be many families in the New York orthodox Jewish community eager to have a foster child in their home, a child to whom they can give love and comfort and a continuity of spiritual values.

I am certain, also, that they will re­ spond to our appeal for foster homes in greater numbers when they come to realize how vital the need is and how undesirable is the present situa­ tion.

There was a time when this prob­ lem might have been regarded as a diminishing one. But this is no longer true. The demand for orthodox foster homes has not only continued but increased. Fulfillment of this demand must be regarded as a shared respon­ sibility between this agency and the N ew Y ork orthodox J ewish community.

In appealing to readers of J e w i s h L i f e to take an active role in helping to solve this problem, we outline some of the essential points to be borne in mind.

2. Foster parents are paid a month­ ly board rate ranging from $80 to $88, depending on the age of the child.

In addition, the Jewish Child Care Association defrays the costs of the child’s clothing, medical and dental care, religious education, and such other special services as camp vaca­ tions, etc. when indicated.

3. Homes are needed for brothers and sisters as well as for individual children.

4. JCCA places children in all five boroughs of New York and in Nassau County.

The Jewish Child Care Association, which receives a substantial part of its operating funds from the Federa­ tion of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, is the oldest Jewish philanthro­ py in the United States. Through its predecessor organizations, JCCA traces its origins back to 1822. The Association was formed in 1940 through merger of five child-caring organizations: The Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the Hebrew Sheltering Guar­ dian Society (including the Foster Home Bureau), the Home for He­ brew Infants, Fellowship House, and the Jewish Children’s Clearing Bureau.

We are all in this together if children from orthodox Jewish fami­ lies are to be given the kind of care and service to which they are en­ titled. Inquiries should be addressed to the Jewish Child Care Association, Foster Home Department, 329 East 62nd Street, New York 21, TEmpleton 1.

Foster home care is not adoption.

The children in foster home care have 8-4500. families of their own to whom they Louis L. Bennett Executive Director will return when it becomes possible.

December, 1958

71

WHAT IS A JEW?

CORRESPONDENTS WANTED

Beverly Hills, Calif.

I wish to express my sincere appre­ ciation of Dayan I. Grunfeld’s article, “What Is a Jew?” which appeared in your October/Tishri issue.

His views, his presentation and basic ideas are truly representative of the rare high caliber thinking that is so characteristic of genuine scholars.

I was so deeply impressed with this logical article that I think it would be a good idea to send out thousands of reprints all over the Englishspeaking world, plus one copy to Ben Gurion. . .

Rabbi Zalman F. Ury

Haifa, Israel We are a group of orthodox boys (20-25 years old) who want to be in touch with Jewish girls and boys (1725 years old) in the United States.

We hope that you will print this announcement in your magazine. The letters may be in English or in Hebrew.

Our address is P.O.B. 5285, Haifa, Israel.

Karny R.

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