Jewish Life August 1959

Av, 5719 — August, 1959

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th isissue

Euthanasia in Jewish Law

Shall Israel Sell Arms to Germany?

Lesson of the Churbon

The Sabra as Sabrá

Careers in Social Work

The Mögen Dovid

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Vol. XXVI, No. 6/August, 1959/Av, 5719/;

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

THE WEAPONS D E A L.................................................................

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THE MASSACHUSETTS SUNDAY LAW DECISION........

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WORLD REFUGEE Y E A R ...........................................................

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“ PERSPECTIVE” .......................

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ARTICLES EUTHANASIA IN JEWISH LAW/lmmanuel Jakobovits

JEWISH LIFE is published bi­ monthly. Subscription two years 13.00, three years $4.00, four years $5.00, Supporter $10.00, Patron $25.00.

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SHALL ISRAEL SELL ARMS TO GERMANY?/ I. Halevy-Levin........................................................................ 12 CAREERS IN SOCIAL WORK/Walter D u cka t............. 19

All rights reserved

THE LESSON OF THE CHURBON/Aryeh Newman..... 26 Editorial and Publication Office: 305 Broadway New York 7, N. Y. BEekman 3-2220

JH E SYMBOL OF THE MOGEN DOVID/ *

Samuel I. C o hen .......................................................

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THE SABRA AS SABRA/Michael Rosenak.................. 41 THE TORAH GUIDE TO ACTIVE LIFE/J. Litvin ............ 45

Published by U n io n of O rthodox J ewish Congregations of A merica

BOOK REVIEW

Moses I. Feuerstein President

DEPARTMENTS

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

FROM AN ISRAEL COURTROOM/Reuben E. Gross ... 59

AMONG OUR CONTRIBUTORS..............................................

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HASHKOFAH: Messianic H o p e ............................................. 24 ON THE JEWISH RECORD .......................................

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LETTERS TO THE ED ITO R........................................................ 63 EXCERPTS selected and translated by David M. Hausdorff ILLUSTRATIONS by Hovav Kruvi

Second class postage paid at New York, N. Y.

August, 1959

Copyright © 1959 by Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

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RABBI DR. IMMANUEL JAKOBOVITS, Rabbi of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, New York’s newest and most modern ortho­ dox synagogue, served until recently as Chief Rabbi of Ireland.

A graduate of Yeshivah Etz Chaim, Jews’ College, and the Uni­ versity of London, Rabbi Jakobovits has written extensively for popular and scholarly journals on both sides of the Atlantic, mainly in his specialized field of Jewish medical ethics, on which he is an acknowledged expert. His first book on this subject will be published shortly by the Philosophical Library.

ARYEH NEWMAN, a frequent contributor to these pages, lives in Jerusalem. He is assistant editor of the Torah Education Department of the Jewish Agency.

WALTER DUCKAT is supervisor of the Vocational Guidance

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Division of the Federation Employment and Guidance Service, and a lecturer at the Graduate School of Education of Yeshiva University. His articles appear frequently in professional journals and Anglo-Jewish publications.

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RABBI SAMUEL I. COHEN is a musmach of Mesivta Rabbi

contributors

Chaim Berlin, and is presently preparing for his Doctorate in education at Yeshiva University. He is the executive director of the Long, Island Zionist Youth Commission. This is Rabbi Cohen’s second appearance in the pages of J ewish L if e .

MICHAEL ROSENAK is a graduate of Yeshiva University and received his Master’s degree in history at Columbia University.

He now lives in Israel, where he teaches English and history at the Midrashiya (religious high school) in Pardes Chanah.

RABBI DR. J. LITVIN, of London, England is the editor of

“The Gates of Zion,’’ a quarterly review of Judaism and Zionism, and is also the editor of “The Zionist Year Book.” He is the author of several books on economics and history, both general and Jewish. Rabbi Litvin’s first contribution to J ewish L ife appears in this issue.

Cover: “SABRA (Arab, “prickly pear” cactus; in Heb.

tzabbar): Native of Israel. The term refers metaphorically to their alleged characteristic of a prickly exterior with a tender interior.” (The Standard Jewish Encyclopedia.)

Photo courtesy Israel Office of Information.

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The Weapons Deal N THE political sphere, momentary expediency is apt to be rationalized as hard-rock realism, and moral principle bent to the shape of a given situation. It is hardly to be expected that Israeli political life could be immune to such tendencies, which characterize political life the world over. Heretofore, however, none other than inveterate opponents of the Jewish State would have conceived that the cult of “normalcy” would affect its politi­ cal life to the point that an Israel government would sell arms to Germany. Yet this incredible action was undertaken by the Ben Gurion government, with — as is noted in I. Halevy-Levin’s re­ vealing article in this issue — the agreement of all parties in the governing coalition at the time the commitment was made.

Every possible rationalization and explanation has been offered to justify the action. But no matter in what terms explained, no Trade matter what dialectic is brought to bear, the fact remains that or the sale of arms by Jews to the land of evil memory is inexcusably R everence? shameful.

Under no circumstances can the sale of arms by the Jewish State to the nation which but yesterday wallowed in Jewish blood be viewed in calculated terms. Under no circumstances can such a transaction be placed on the level of any other possible trans­ action, or related to a sequence deriving from acceptance of material claims compensation, or incorporated within the com­ pulsions of world power groupings. Arms, weapons of death and destruction, stand in a class by themselves. The matter touches upon sensibilities, profound and delicate, not to be trampled upon by any mundane consideration whatsoever.

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EWS in the Golah no less than in the Yishuv look to the state of Israel to uphold, indeed to be the custodian, of that spirit Politics which is the legacy of Jewish martyrdom and Jewish striving. Th anc/ sale of arms to Germany by the Israel government is a callous P .. spurning of that spirit. From this action no good can arise. ea ism ^ has been so often reiterated these days, West Germany of today is not the Nazi Germany of yesterday, and is loyal to the democratic camp. Possibly a case could be made out for the

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maintenance of diplomatic relations between Israel and Germany, and perhaps a case could be made for the sale of civilian goods

by Israel to Germany. But weapons of death . . . !

Israel’s political leaders view themselves as master realists. Let real realism give them to understand that trade in weapons of death with the successors to the Hitler regime must inevitably cut Israel off from the sources of Jewish loyalty throughout the world.

The Massachusetts Sunday Law Decision A LONG-SOUGHT breakthrough in the struggle against discriminatory Sunday closing laws has been achieved by the recent decision of a Massachusetts Federal Statutory Court hold­ ing that state’s Sunday law in violation of the United States Constitution. Similar laws, a legacy from Colonial days in force in many states, penalize religiously observant Jews by requiring business establishments closed on the Jewish Sabbath to close also on Sunday. The Massachusetts decision gives high legal confirma­ tion to what has long been apparent to many: laws which dis­ criminate against those observing a day other than Sunday as their Sabbath are contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Con­ stitution, to the American way of life, and to justice. Equally, D etrim ent B must be observed, such laws are detrimental to the religious To A ll ^nteres^s il! Americans. Religious life as a whole must in. evitably suffer when particular religions are subject to legal R elig io n s discrimination.

Great credit is due to those who fought this case to victory.

The group of plaintiffs, whose determination to pursue justice made the victory possible, included a Springfield, Mass. shomer shabboth supermarket specializing in Kosher foods, representa­ tives of its customers, and a representative of the Massachusetts orthodox Rabbinate. The array of legal talent for the plaintiffs was headed by Herbert B. Ehrmann, newly-elected president of the American Jewish Committee, while amicus curiae briefs in support of the plaintiffs were submitted for the International Religious Liberty Association by Dr. Leo Pfeffer of the American Jewish Congress and for the Seventh Day Adventists by Howard S. Whiteside. With the religious and civil fundamentals of the situation so well personified in the plaintiff group and so well presented by the legal task force, an impregnable case was set forth.

The Massachusetts court decision spells out in plain words the real import of that state’s Sunday law: “What Massachusetts has done is to furnish special protection 4

JEWISH LIFE

to the dominant Christian sects which celebrate Sunday [as their Sabbath], without furnishing such protection, in their religious observances, to those Christian sects and to orthodox and Conservative Jews who observe Saturday as their Sabbath, and to the prejudice of the latter group. It is clear that by denying to the plaintiffs the liberty to work, shop, or pursue other ‘secular’ conduct on Sunday, the law puts an economic penalty upon a person observing as his Sabbath some other day than Sunday by depriving him of the productive use of one further day of the week.”

HE religiously observant customer as well as the Sabbathobserving storekeeper is penalized by the present laws, the court further noted, since the former is deprived of an additional shopping day. Therefore the decision concludes that: . in furtherance of no legitimate interest which Massachu­ setts is entitled to safeguard [the Massachusetts Sunday Closing Law causes] corporate plaintiff to lose potential sales and to be denied the right to use its property on Sunday, with the Affirmation result of depriving the corporate plaintiff of liberty and propof erty and the other plaintiffs of liberty, without due process of Liberty law, contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment [to the Federal Constitution].”

The decision is a notable step forward in the continuing Americanization of America. An appeal from a decision of a Federal Statutory Court can be made only to the United States Supreme Court. If such an appeal will be heard by the supreme bench, it is hoped and prayed that the unassailable logic and jus­ tice of the lower court, be affirmed.

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World Refugee Year N furtherance of a United Nations resolution, fifty-nine nations, including the United States, have joined in proclaim­ ing “World Refugee Year,” which began in June. With such sup­ port, a real solution should be found for one of the sorest prob­ lems of our time. 1,500,900 refugees in European and North African lands, and 600,000 or more Arab refugees, despairingly await permanent resettlement.

The Arab refugees remain victims of the unconscionable policies of the leaders of the Arab nations. Hitherto the latter have refused to entertain any plan for their resettlement in Arab lands, preferring to exploit the sad plight of the refugees for political ends and spurning repeated efforts by Israel to reach a reasonable and realistic solution to the problem. Humanitarian people everywhere, and certainly all Jews, must hope that under

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the impetus of the World Refugee Year program, impediments to Arab refugee settlement will finally be removed.

The United States too should be expected to contribute to resettlement of other refugees, but the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 forms a barrier to the admission of would-be immigrants of many national origins. The discriminatory, restrictive provisions of present immigration laws have been challenged by many res­ ponsible groups and public figures, including President Eisen­ hower himself. The National Origins Quota System is incom­ patible with American democracy.

Many Americans will be in accord with a recent resolution of the National Community Relations Advisory Council, urging amendment of the McCarran-Walter Act to provide an “equit­ able, non-discriminatory formula” for immigrant admission and a legislative approach to the refugee problem “sufficiently flexible to take care of emergency refugee situations”. World Refugee Year should provide incentive to remedy an American, as well as a world refugee, problem.

“Perspective” E offer a cordial Boruch Haba to “Perspective,” semi­ annual “Magazine of Torah Hashkofoh” newly introduced under the auspices of the Rabbinical Alliance of America. With this publication an important element of the American orthodox Rabbinate finds an appropriate channel for literary expression of its distinctive message.

The articles in Volume I, No. 1 of “Perspective” sustain the intent of its sponsors, expressed in the “President’s Preface” of Rabbi Samuel A. Turk, to “deal with some of the real issues in Jewish life today in a popular but Torah-hashkofoh-rooted way, which will help give both rabbi and layman a proper perspective in meeting these problems.” The issue as a whole reflects credit upon its distinguished editor, Rabbi Ralph Pelcovitz, revealing as it does painstaking, carefully considered effort and able talent in shaping the character and contents of the magazine.

The appearance of “Perspective” follows by a few months that of “Tradition,” semi-annual journal of orthodox Jewish thought published by the Rabbinical Council of America. The two, it is hoped, will complement rather than be in any negative sense competitive with each other. The Torah realm is boundless in its spiritual and intellectual expanse; within it lies ample room, and indeed practical need, for a variety of media for the expression of ideas and the evaluation of experience.

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JEWISH LIFE

N viewing the presence of two rabbinically-sponsored Englishlanguage journals where but yesterday there was none, the orthodox Jewish community will consider itself enriched. Yet the development will remind many of the need for more broadly embracing unity in the orthodox Rabbinate. Practical circum­ stances may continue to dictate the continuance of three separate rabbinic national bodies. But organizational apartheid must be counterbalanced by moral unity in meeting the fundamental needs of our time. The two newly-launched publications provide added opportunity to demonstrate that within its diverse channels of expression, the Torah voice is indivisible in Jewish funda­ mentals.

In his aforementioned “President’s Preface,” Rabbi Turk pro­ tests that the “two kinds of magazines” addressed to the ortho­ dox Jewish layman and rabbi leave much to be desired, one being “too academic” while the other “deals with subjects that touch only at the periphery of Jewish thought and contributes little towards fostering greater Jewish conscientiousness.” With this gracious opening tribute duly paid, “Perspective” will now go forward, we are confident, to successful achievement of its major goal as defined by its editor: “To stimulate serious cogita­ tion and a re-examination of the reader’s thinking . . . to present writings in depth, profound and thought provoking— from the perspective of Torah.”

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Euthanasia in Jewish Law

By IMMANUEL JAKOBOVITS

HE TERM “euthanasia”* to de­ note the “action of inducing gentle and easy death” was first used by Lecky *(History of European Morals) in 1869,. But the advocacy of this measure is by no means an innovation of mod­ ern times. Already in the 4th century B.C.E. Plato held that invalids ought not to be kept alive, though he may well have been less concerned with their sufferings than with the social and economic burden on their sup­ porters. The Alexandrian pioneer in anatomy, Erasistratos of the 3rd cen­ tury B.C.E., is recorded to have taken poison— to end his sufferings from an incurable cancer— with the words: “It is well that I should remember my country”— a sentiment which may in­ dicate that the practice was not un­ common. In the Middle Ages, too, voices vindicating euthanasia were heard occasionally, and Sir Thomas More approved of it, at least theoret­ ically, in his Utopia.

But public agitation to introduce euthanasia as a legitimate operation in medical practice by legislation only dates from the present century. In many countries there are now “euthansia societies” actively canvassing support for a relaxation of the laws of homicide which, as they stand at pres-

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*The Greek origin of this word literally means “good death,” almost the exact equivalent for the Hebrew mitha yafa used for the “pleasant death” to be chosen for capital convicts (San­ hedrin 45 a).

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ent, usually still regard “mercy killing” as an act of “murder or other homi­ cide,” according to the circumstances.

Indeed, quite a few doctors are not even waiting for a reformation of the law; by their own testimony medical euthanasia is already being practiced in one form or another on quite an appreciable scale. After guiding the medical profession for over two thou­ sand years, the Hippocratic Oath ap­ pears to be no longer the physiciansimmutable bible; for it contained the explicit clause: “Never will I give a deadly drug, not even if I am asked for one, nor will I give any advice tending in that direction.”

HETHER, and under what con­ ditions, to permit the deliberate termination of human life is, of course, a purely moral or religious problem, entirely outside the competence of medical experts to resolve. Life is not of our making that we can arbitrarily unmake it, unless indeed we can dis­ cover some sanction for doing so by the Giver of all life. Judaism insists, therefore, that the attitude toward euthanasia cannot be governed by sen­ timental or utilitarian considerations; it must be guided solely by the will of G-d as revealed in His law and by the rights of man it confers and defines.

To Judaism the problem of patients in interminable agony is a particularly painful one. Jewish law is replete with

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JEWISH LIFE

regulations to prevent or mitigate human suffering. It brands the infliction of any pain, even on brute creatures, as a Biblical offense (Shulchon Oruch, Choshen Mishpot), and it often sets aside its own religious requirements if these will involve physical distress or discomfort.* The solicitude of Jewish law extends even to the capital crim­ inal walking to his execution. He had to be drugged into insensibility before the final ordeal so as to spare his feel­ ings. This is one of several regulations to assure what the Talmud calls “an easy death” for such convicts.

If Jewish law is sometimes never­ theless impervious to the cries of the afflicted, it is certainly not for lack of sympathy with human anguish or for the encouragement of suffering as a means to moral purification. On the other hand, Jewish law rates the su­ preme value of human life so high that it may be prepared to seek the preser­ vation of life at the expense of pain no less’than of the violation of religious precepts given “that man shall live by them and not die by them,” (Yoma, 85b).

EITHER the Talmud nor the codes of Jewish law make any direct reference to euthanasia. The nearest indication of the Talmudic at­ titude to “mercy-killing” is the story related of the martyred sage Chanina ben Tradyon who, whilst the Romans burnt him at the stake, spurned his disciples’ advice to open his mouth to the flames (in order to speed his death) with the defiant cry: “It is better that my soul shall be taken by Him Who gave it than that I should do any harm to it on my own.”* * In legal terms the Jewish viewpoint is reflected by the general ruling that anyone who kills a dying person is liable to the death pen­ alty as a common murderer.*** From this ruling it would appear that the killing of a patient who is not yet ac-

tually approaching his end but merely in immitigable agony is certainly guilty of an act of capital homicide, whether carried out by a physician or the pa­ tient himself.

Indeed the law insists on the exercise of particular caution to prevent any hastening of death when the final de­ mise draws near. Even in that state the patient is still to be treated as a living person in every respect, and nothing may be done to expedite the end. Thus it is forbidden to move the patient or to close his eyes before he breathes out his last; “for whoever closes the eyes with the onset of death is deemed as shedding blood,” (Shul­ chon Oruch, Yoreh De’ah, 334.1) . As the Talmud has it, “the matter can be compared with a flickering flame; as soon as one touches it, the light is ex­ tinguished.-For this reason the dying body must not be handled in any way, even for the purpose of returning a shifted limb to bed or of relieving pain.

But there are two important qual­ ifications in this attitude. While the teachers of Jewish law uncompromis-

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*Many Sabbath laws and other regulations are modified in the face of sickness or pain; see for example Shulchon Oruch, Orach Chayim, 328. **Avodah Zarah 18a. Yet the sage abjured his executioner to add to the fire and to remove the tufts of wool from his heart so that he would die more quickly. ***Sanhedrin 78a; and Maimonides, Hijchoth Rotze’ach, ii.7. The qualification mentioned in these sources' are of a purely technical nature and do not affect the broad definition of murder here given.

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ingly rejected any active form of eu­ thanasia, they did sanction certain other methods to seek death as a re­ lease from suffering. For instance, they saw no objection to resort to prayer (Rabbenu Nissim, Nedarim 40a) or to occult devices in the quest for relief from misery by death. Thus, an old woman seeking relief by death was ad­ vised her wish would be granted if she would not absent herself from the syn­ agogue for three days (Yalkut, Prov., No. 943). These concessions are not without significance if one considers the often unfailing efficacy commonly attributed to the power of prayer and mystic prescriptions.

ORE important still, the law ex­ pressly permits the elimination of M any impediment to death. To quote the actual clause in the Shulchon Oruch, “It is lawful to remove any­ thing causing a hindrance to the de­ parture of the soul, such as clattering

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noise near the patient’s home (pro­ duced, for example, by the chopping of wood) or salt on his tongue . . ., since such action involves no active hastening of death, but only the re­ moval of the impediment,” In other words, while we may not do anything to speed death, we are not required to maintain any artificial obstacle to a natural demise.

It may be argued that this modifica­ tion implies the right to expedite the death of an incurable patient in con­ stant agony by withholding from him medicaments which prevent his death by unnatural means. The following case may serve as an illustration. A person suffers from diabetes and re­ quires regular doses of insulin to sus­ tain his life. He then contracts an in­ operable cancer, adding interminable pain to his diabetic condition. May one now withdraw the insulin and thus cause him to be relieved of his suffer­ ings? On the strength of the above

JEWISH LIFE

clause and other considerations too complex to be detailed here,* Jewish law may conceivably raise no objec­ tion to such passive form of euthanasia.

But this permission would obviously apply only to the withdrawal of arti­ ficial means to maintain life in these circumstances, not to the denial of natural necessities like food and drink.** It would be interesting to speculate whether essential bloodtransfusions in such cases would fall within the category of natural or arti­ ficial means to sustain life.

In sum, then, it is clear that, with the very limited exceptions we have mentioned, Judaism condemns ordi­ nary euthanasia as sheer murder. This verdict has its roots in the supreme and above all infinite value attached to human life. We may illustrate the ram­ ifications of this attitude by two strik­ ing examples: Someone pushes a child over the edge of a skyscraper roof. As it hurtles to certain death, another per­ son beheads the child in its fall just * H P h E LEGALIZATION of euthana**■ sia would imply that human lives are unequal in value; that some are worth more than others, and that none are therefore infinite in value. They could then all be graded on a finite scale of values. This would deal a death-blow to the stature of man in health no less than in misery, for man’s life would cease to be absolute and become relative in value. There is only a difference of degree, not of prin­ ciple, between the killing of irremedi­ able patients and the extermination of *For a detailed study of these considerations in rabbinic law, see I. Jakobovits in Hapardes, New York, vol. xxxi, no. 1 (Oct. 1956), and no. 3 (Dec. 1956). ** Although a person who starves another to death may be free from capital guilt for technical reasons (Sanhedrin 77a), such a person still commits a mortal offense and is deemed a mur­ derer (Maimonides, Hilchoth Rotzeach, iii. 10).

August, 1959

as it was about to crash on the ground.

In Jewish law this second person would then be fully guilty of murder, though he has robbed his victim of merely the tiniest fraction of life. For once the value of life is infinite and beyond measure, it makes no difference wheth­ er life is shortened by a hundred years or the smallest part of a second; in­ finity divided by any number still re­ mains infinity.* Similarly, the dese­ cration of the Sabbath is permitted, nay imperative, for the saving of life, however limited. Hence, even if some­ one is buried under a collapsed build­ ing and his head is found crushed in such a manner that relief operations can extend his life only for seconds, the Sabbath law is completely set aside by such operations to gain a few more seconds of human life. Once again the infinite value of life eliminates all dis­ tinctions between seconds and years; they are literally equally precious be­ cause they are infinitely precious. * defectives, the aged, or other “useless” members of society.

If Judaism therefore emphatically rejects euthanasia it does so to protect the inalienable immunities of mankind.

Jewish law is not unconcerned with the plight of stricken individuals. But the rights of the society are even more precious, once they affect all members of it. In order to preserve the society and its supreme ideals, the individual may have to suffer, or even die, or even live in anguish. That i§ the sacrifice the survival and dignity of man occa­ sionally demands, in war no less than in the sick-room. *See J. M. Tucatzinsky, “The Death Penalty Ac­ cording to the Torah in the Past and Present”, in Hatorah Vehamedìnah, ed. S. Israeli, 4th series, 1952. The verdict is based on Baba Kama, 26b and 27a.

Shall Israel Sell Arms . . _ B to Germany? .

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By I. HALEVY-LEVIN

Je r u sa l e m

HE resignation of David Ben Gurion from the Premiership ipso facto involves the resignation of the administration he headed, which from that date became a memsheleth ma’avar a caretaker cabinet — un­ bound by the statutory rules of col­ lective responsibility and holding of­ fice only until some other government is voted the confidence of the Knesseth. The present crisis is complicated by the fact that this is the tail-end of the Third Knesseth’s final sessions, which in any case ends in August, and that Knesseth elections were scheduled to be held three months hence. The prospect of helping Mr. Ben Gurion out of the political mess created by the rivalry of the Histadruth parties is not one to attract any section of the opposition, especially when the prize is no more than three months in office.

Nor is any party likely to help Mapai form a minority government— which even the Progressives would be loath to join— by promising to abstain on any vote of no confidence.

More than three months of long and hard bargaining preceded the forma­ tion of the original coalition adminis­ tration of Mapai, the National Re­ ligious Party, Achduth Ha’avodah, Mapam, and the Progressives. In the course of that period Mr. Ben Gurion

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staged a marathon political symposi­ um, in which the differences between the parties participating in the Coali­ tion were exhaustively discussed down to the very detail. The government program that resulted was the best compromise each party felt it could secure under the circumstances. To this the political stability which marked the Government’s first two years of office must be attributed. Hardly three months after the Government was formed, it is true, Pinchas Rosen, Pro­ gressive Minister of Justice, resigned over the issue of higher salaries for civil servants, but this was hardly mure than a demonstration, and the breach, such as it was, was healed within three weeks.

In certain important features the Government upset of December, 1957 was a preview of the more recent crisis.

Then as now, Mr. Ben Gurion resigned after Achduth Ha’avodah had violated the principle of collective responsibil­ ity of the cabinet by abstaining oil a Cheruth-sponsored motion of no con­ fidence, over the proposed mission of “a high-ranking personality” to West Germany in connection with the pur­ chase of military equipment. This rift too was soon patched up but it shook whatever confidence Ben Gurion had in the reliability of his Achduth JEWISH LIFE

Ha’avodah partners. In an attempt to insure himself against similar surprises in the future, Ben Gurion proposed, and the cabinet approved, six prin­ ciples of collective responsibility of the Government.

Last June thé National Religious Party resigned from the Government in protest against the Minister of In­ terior’s directives on the registration of persons of mixed parentage as Jews. n P H E PRESENT crisis broke towards 1 the end of June when Der Spiegel, a sensational German weekly, primed by a disappointed intermediary, pub­ lished a report to the effect that West Germany had ordered a quarter of a million mortar bombs from an arms factory in Haifa owned by Solel Boneh.

Che ruth and Lamerchav, the dailies of the Cheruth and Achduth Ha’avo­ dah parties respectively, violently at­ tacked the Government for authorizing the deal, which Achduth Ha’avodah claimed came as a complete surprise.

It is difficult to understand what Ach­ duth Ha’avodah hoped to gain by pro­ fessing ignorance of the transaction.

The most plausible explanation, in view of the impending elections, seems to be that it hoped that the Israeli voters would believe them. Another possibility is that both of the Achduth Ha’avodah members of the cabinet, Israel Bar Yehuda, Minister of Interior, and Moshe Carmel, Minister of Trans­ port, genuinely “could not remember” (their own phrase) the cabinet dis­ cussions and approval of the deal. Both explanations reflect sadly upon the in­ telligence of the people involved. Be that as it may, Prime Minister Ben Gurion’s reaction was swift and char­ acteristic. After some brief skirmish­ ing in the press, he secured cabinet approval (Mapai has eight ministers in the cabinet to the other parties’ six) August, 1959

for the publication of the relevant pas­ sages from the minutes of the various cabinet meetings at which arms ex­ ports were either discussed or men­ tioned. The excerpts made public un­ doubtedly reflect the fact that Ben Gurion brought the matter to the cab­ inet only because he was required to do so under the Firearms Act of 1949, and that he was obviously eager to get the matter off the agenda with a min­ imum of fuss and bother. That is all.

There was no question of bad faith.

The matter of arms exports was first broached by Prime Minister Ben Gu­ rion at the cabinet meeting of De­ cember 14th. He was patently unwill­ ing to go into more detail than was ab­ solutely necessary to secure formal Government approval and tried to parry Mr. Bentov’s (Mapam, Minister of Development) question, “From whom is the order?” by a vague, “From various countries in Europe!” However the record is clear that when the Min­ ister of Justice insisted, the Prime Minister replied, “To a number of countries. Holland, Germany and per­ haps also . . .” (the name of this coun­ try is deleted in the published ex­ cerpts) . The cabinet thereupon re­ solved to authorize the Ministry of Defense to sell arms to foreign coun­ tries in all cases in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no objection.

Five weeks later, on January 18th, the matter returned to the cabinet. Bar Ye­ huda and Bentov were absent from this meeting. It had transpired that Gov­ ernment approval was necessary not only for the sale but also for the manu­ facture of such arms. The necessary approval was given without debate.

A RMS EXPORTS to Germany 1m . came up for a third time on March 29th during a cabinet discus­ sion of the foreign currency budget.

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DAVID BEN GURION

The following exchange took place: Prime Minister: This year the Min­ istry of Defense will bring in ** mil­ lion dollars. An agreement has been signed with West Germany!

Eshkol: I know that you are making me rich!

I. Barzilai (Mapam) : I have a ques­ tion on this matter.

Prime Minister: In which Shulchan Aruch is it written that it is forbidden to sell arms to Germany?

Barzilai: It is not written in any Shulchan Aruch, but I think we should not sell arms to Germany.

Prime Minister: I do not think so.

Barzilai: I ask for a discussion on this.

Prime Minister: Good, next week! Is it only to West Germany that it is for­ bidden or to East Germany as well?

Barzilai: To East Germany as well.

On the same day, however, the Sec­ retary to the Government reminded the Prime Minister that the cabinet had already approved the export of arms to Germany. Mr. Barzilai did not raise the matter again and the Prime Minister allowed it to lapse.

Two weeks later, on April 14th, the Achduth Ha’avodah ministers wrote to 14

the Prime Minister asking for a cabinet discussion of the sale of arms, to Ger­ many, and for deliveries to be sus­ pended until the matter had been con­ sidered. The correspondence ended on May 10th when the Prime Minister in­ formed the Achduth Ha’avodah minis­ ters that the Government had already decided to sell arms to Germany. No further exchange of letters is recorded.

Finally, Pinchas Sapir, Mapai Minister of Trade and Industry, has stated cate­ gorically. that Mapam and Achduth Ha’avodah ministers of the Histadruth Executive and of the Koor Company (the holding company of Sulatam Ltd., the arms factory involved) as well as other leaders of both parties knew of the deal many months before the Der Spiegel revelations.

How in the face of this overwhelm­ ing documentary and other evidence, leaders of Achduth Ha’avodah can in­ sist upon ignorance of the deal is a mys­ tery that may perhaps be explained by political semantics.

ISRAEL BARZILAI

UT the devious maneuvers of the left-wing parties are one thing, the moral and emotional implications of

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JEWISH LIFE

Israeli arms supplies to Germany are entirely another. The unpalatable fact of the matter is that the attitude of Is­ rael and of the average Israeli towards Germany has changed, mainly because of the new international situation and partly because of developments in Is­ rael’s immediate neighborhood, and partly because of the Reparations and Personal Compensation Payments.

Many leading Israelis insist on the need for political realism in determin­ ing Israel’s official policy towards Ger­ many, though it is impossible to extract that policy from its emotional context.

But that is what David Ben Gurion, for what he regards as the highest reasons of state, is trying to do. The Prime Min­ ister would have it that Germany of to­ day is not Germany of yesterday. That may be partly true. Germany in 1959 is not the world power it was in 1939, not* does it seem likely that it will regain its former position in the foreseeable fu­ ture. Its political leaders of both the leading Christian Democrat and Social Democrat parties have clean records.

But there is no doubt that the German government service and particularly the Wehrmacht is honeycombed with for­ mer Nazis, big and small. Finally, there can be no question of the collective guilt of the German people for the European Jewish tragedy, that is, the active or passive guilt of most adult Germans over thirty-five or forty years of age. Tacitly, the payment of Repara­ tions to the State of Israel constitutes recognition of that guilt. By the world at large, it must be borne in mind also, it is regarded to some extent at least, as expiation of that guilt. (A major reason for the Austrian refusal to pay repara­ tions to Israel is the desire of the Aus­ trians to evade responsibility for aiding and abetting the Germans.)

Those who favor closer relations with Germany— Ben Gurion himself is August, 1959

an outspoken exponent of full diplo­ matic relations— argue from considera­ tions of pikuach nefesh (the key phrase throughout Knesseth debates during the crisis) though certain circles are ready even to credit the Germans with a change of heart.

In his speech in the Knesseth on his motion to approve the sale of arms to Germany, Mr. Ben Gurion stressed that today, once again, Jews are threatened with mass slaughter, this time in Israel.

The prediction of Azzem Pasha, one­ time Secretary General of the Arab League, in 1948, about a war of exter­ mination of the Jews of Eretz Israel that would exceed Ghengis Khan’s massacres, was not just a turn of Arab rhetoric. It represented an abiding bloodthirsty Arab design, thwarted only by the people of Israel themselves.

SRAEL’S international situation, though considerably improved since the Sinai Campaign, remains preca­ rious, and Ben Gurion insists that the next five or ten years may be decisive for the security of the state. Russia has decided to back the Arabs against Is­ rael. And even the mild degree of sup­ port this country has merited from the West is rendered ambiguous by a con­ stant desire to mollify the Arabs— as witness the tacit acceptance by the western world of the Arab boycott.

France— with whom of course Israel has no formal alliance— remains the only country upon which Israel can rely, because of their community of interests. France has urged Israel to improve her relations with Germany, and even to place them on a formal diplomatic basis, both because of her own policy of close Franco-German cooperation, and because she feels un­ comfortable as the only great power giving Israel active political and milit­ ary support.

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It is significant that French official also cited as an example Israel, might circles made known their chagrin at the follow. holding of a Cheruth-organized meet­ ing in Paris to protest against the arms FT1 HAT, however, is the theory of the deal — attended, incidentally, by no A matter. In practice, relations with more than eighty persons. Jacques Germany are far more cordial than re­ Soustelle and General Koenig, both quired by national interest or diplo­ active members of the Committee for a matic etiquette. Yordim— re-emigrants Franco-Israel Alliance, were demon­ from Israel who have settled in Ger­ stratively absent. West Germany is al­ many—-are ostracized to some exteqt ready the economic power of Western by the quasi-diplomatic Israel Purchas­ Europe and the central pillar of the ing Mission in Cologne. The yordim European Common Market, while it is were not invited to the Mission’s Inde­ playing a role of increasing importance pendence Day celebrations. Zionist‘ac­ in NATO. Any attempt to keep Ger­ tivity among Jews in Germany, how­ many at a distance, assert the political ever, is expanding, Development Bonds realists, must inevitably have dire con­ are being sold, and Dr. Nahum Gold­ sequences for this country’s economy mann has defended the right of the and security.

Jews of Germany to buy the Shekel and Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of to representation in Zionist institutions. the World Jewish Congress and the Vacation trips of Israelis to Germany World Zionist Organization, who, of are on the increase, some of them os­ course, negotiated the Reparations Ag­ tensibly to settle personal compehsareement, like Mr. Ben Gurion— despite tion claims, but many undoubtedly for their sharp differences over many as­ the purpose of spending compensation pects of Israel’s foreign policy— is an already received. German tourists, who avowed supporter of closer diplomatic for the duration of their stay in Israel prefer to call themselves Hollanders, relations with Germany.

These relations, the exponents of this Austrians, and Swedes, are already policy insist, need subsist only on the common. German investments are be­ formal level, though it is difficult to ing sought, while the number of Ger­ draw a line of demarcation where for­ man films— the accepted fiction is that mal relations between states end and they are of Austrian and French pro­ cordial relations between citizens begin. duction —- shown in Israel’s movie Russia, they point out, maintains nor­ houses is second only tQ American. mal diplomatic and economic relations Finally the immense volume of invest­ with West Germany, which it is trying ment goods imported under the Repa­ to improve, notwithstanding the mas­ rations Agreement, and of household appliances brought to Israel by reci­ sacre of millions of Russians, civilians pients of personal compensation from and soldiers, during the Second World Germany, ensures the extent of eco­ War. (East Germany, Russia’s satellite, nomic relations between the two coun­ refuses not only to make any reparation tries — through the supply of spare for the Nazi crimes, but even to pay parts, replacements, and technical personal compensation to the victims of know-how— for many years to come.

Nazism.) The frigid reception given by No political party in this country, Englishmen to the German president with the exception of Cheruth, which during a recent state visit to England is has had the advantage of consistently 16

JEWISH LIFE

being in the opposition, can claim a clean recorcTon relations with Ger­ many, least of all the two left-wing parties* immediately responsible for the dissolution of the Government. All have shared in one way or another from the benefits of Reparations. Ach­ duth Ha’avodah’s shocked surprise at Der Spiegel*s revelations is not merely a piece of unabashed hypocrisy, with­ out parallel in Israel’s political life; it is a cynical and shameless attempt to trade in the memory of the European martyrs for election purposes. Neither Achduth Ha’avodah nor Mapam has opposed closer relations with Germany in principle— as distinct from the guilt complex, from which even the most candid advocates of full diplomatic re­ lations suffer. Needless to say, such op­ position would compel them to take the honorable course and resign from the Government. This, however, they are not prepared to da, even today, after the Knesseth has voted its confidence in the Government and specifically ap­ proved the arms deal, and notwith­ standing the fact that they have been

called upon to resign from the cabinet by their Coalition partners.

Leaders of both Achduth Ha’avodah and Mapam maintain contacts with politicians in Germany, and neither party raised any protest against the dis­ patch of a large (excessively large) mayoral delegation to the International Municipal Congress held in West Ber­ lin. Mapam has fostered very cordial contacts with East Germany, and it was after an official visit to that country that Mordecai Oren, a top-ranking Ma­ pam leader, was arrested and jailed in Czechoslovakia. Neither Achduth Ha’­ avodah nor Mapam has ever raised any protest about the activities of former Nazi generals and scientists in Soviet Russia. Seven years ago these parties stigmatized the Reparations Agreement as an immoral act. In the course of the years that have passed they have in­ sisted upon every bit of their share of the proceeds of that act of “immoral­ ity”. Their kibbutzim and factories have been re-equipped with German machinery supplied under the Repara­ tions Agreement.

APAI is making a desperate effort tinue to deal with current affairs of the to persuade the other political Prime Minister’s Office and the De­ M parties to move the date of the Knes­ fense Ministry as usual. He refuses, seth elections forward to late in Sep­ tember instead of November 17th, as scheduled. The latter, however, not dis­ pleased at Mapai’s predicament, for the time being at any rate, refuse to agree.

The most they are prepared to concede is to set the election a fortnight earlier.

Meantime the present administration remains in office. Mr. Ben Gurion has announced his intention of taking a vacation — during which he will conAugust, 1959

however, to sit together with the Ma­ pam and Achduth Ha’avodah ministers, so cabinet meetings are held regularly under the chairmanship of Levi Eshkol, Minister of Finance. There has been some muttering in Achduth Ha’avodah ranks about setting up a government without Mapai, which is theoretically possible. The election of Dr. Nachum Nir of Achduth Ha’avodah as Speaker of the Knesseth at the beginning of the 17

year when all parties, of both the Coali­ tion and the Opposition, ganged-up to prevent the election of the Mapai can­ didate, Mr. Berl Locker, is still fresh in everybody’s mind. Yigal Allon, leader of Achduth Ha’avodah, made a pro­ posal in this spirit to the National Reli­ gious Party, whom he told that he had secured the passive support of Cheruth for an administration excluding Mapai.

But when the National Religious Party rejected the oifer and Achduth Ha’avo­

dah realized its disastrous propaganda possibilities, General Allon hastened to disown the project, made, he said, as “a joke”. Achduth Ha’avodah has had some modest political success over the past four years at the expense of Mapai, which it seems has gone to its head. The party is prepared to stop at nothing to follow up this advantage. That, per­ haps, explains its tactics over the past two years.

ANALOGY Commenting on the statement at the beginning of the Book of Lamentations—"Woe unto the City . . . she has becom e like a w idow . . ."—Rabbi Yehudah in the nam e of Rav points out that the Prophet inspiringly sa y s "like a widow", and not an actual widow. For this is like a woman w hose husband has departed for a distant land, but it is his intention to return to her—an an alogy to the situation which the Almighty created betw een Him and Israel.

Taanith, Sanhedrin

A SINGLE TEAR Although by command of Nebuchadnezzar he w as per­ mitted to go and come as he pleased, w hen Jeremiah saw captives he voluntarily caused himself to be chained or bound to them. When the captives reached the Euphrates, he decided to return to the Land of Israel to counsel and comfort the survivors. When the exiles saw him about to depart, they cried bitterly: "O father Jeremiah, you too are abandoning us!" But he replied: ”1 call H eaven and earth to w itness that had you shed even a single tear at Jeru­ salem for your sins, you would not now be in exile."

Pesikta Rabbah

18

JEWISH LIFE

Careers in Social Work

By WALTER DUCKAT

EW vocations offer as much op­ portunity for rewarding service to others as social work. Whether the practitioner deals with individuals or with groups, he often experiences an exhilirating sense of achievement.

While the profession is only about sixty years old, the practice of social services was known in Biblical times.

The Torah expresses frequent and ten­ der solicitude for the poor, the wid­ owed, and the orphaned. Even in early Biblical times, the harvest gleanings, corners of the field, the forgotten sheaf, and the harvest of the Sabbatical year were set aside for the needy.

Until modern times, Jewish social work was voluntary. Every community had its network of such activities, which usually revolved about the synagogue.

Acts of loving kindness, known as G’miluth Chasodim, included provision of food and clothing to the needy, vis­ iting the sick, burying the dead, com­ forting the bereaved, aiding the needy, providing interest-free loans, supplying dowries to poor girls, and educating orphans.

Jews have made significant contri­ butions to the theory and practice of social work. Maimonides’ concept that the highest form of charity is to aid the needy so that he may become selfreliant may be described as the aim of all modern social work and psycho­ therapy.

In modern times too, Jews .were among the pioneers in establishing central fund raising and distribution

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designed to eliminate the duplication of organizations and waste. Jews have also led the way in the treatment of the tu­ berculous and cardiacs, in establishing sheltered workshops for the retarded, and in providing adequate facilities to speed the adjustment of immigrants.

Lillian Wald of the Henry Street Settlement in New York was respons­ ible for the introduction of school nurses when many parents could not afford to provide their children with medical care. Miss Wald also helped to establish the Visiting Nurses Asso­ ciation which spread throughout the United States and other countries. The creation of the Juvenile Court system was achieved by the efforts of Judge Julian Mack. The provision of Mother’s or Widow’s Pension was originally ad­ vocated by Jacob Billikopf. Dr. I. M. Rubinow was among the leaders in the movement for social security ând Abra­ ham Epstein is considered the architect of old age pensions in the United States. .¿dé HILE some Jewish social services such as case work agencies and hospitals are conducted in a secular manner, all Jewish social work derives from Jewish tradition. An increasing number of Jewish social workers are attempting to blend our traditions with the findings of the behavioral sciences.

Along with many other professions, social work suffers from a severe short­ age of qualified practitioners. There are now about 10,000 unfilled positions.

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Many jobs in small outlying areas have been filled with inadequately trained persons.

There are a number of reasons for the shortage. The expansion of the American social security program ne­ cessitated huge staffs. Our rising birth rate and the increasing number of older persons required special services for youth and the aged. Beside govern­ mental services, many private agencies, labor unions, and businesses have pro­ vided a variety of social services which required trained personnel. Moreover, normal withdrawals due to deaths, ill­ ness, retirement, and other reasons un­ matched by an adequate number of re­ placements aggravated the shortage.

Some believe that the two-year post­ graduate training required and the rel­ atively modest income of most social workers may be additional reasons.

Because of these factors, salaries and working conditions have steadily im­ proved although much more wili have to be done to attract significantly more candidates.

OCIAL WORK is predominantly a female profession-—75 per cent of the workers are women. About forty per cent of the full-time students now attending the approximately sixty ac­ credited schools in the United States and Canada are men. Men constitute a majority in community organization and in group work. And, they also win most of the top administrative posts in the entire field.

Those who are interested in this vo­ cation may select from a wide choice of jobs and employers. They may work for the city, state or federal government who employ about 65 per cent of all social workers, Or, they may work for private Jewish and other agencies throughout the country.

The salary, standards, and personnel

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practices of most Jewish social agencies compare favorably with those,of gov­ ernmental and other agencies. Top ad­ ministrative posts in large Jewish agen­ cies pay more than governmental agen­ cies— salaries of $15,000 a year and even more are not uncommon.

The Torah-true Jew may prefer to work for a Jewish agency because it is usually easier to observe Shabboth and the holydays. Frequently, there is also more opportunity for professional growth and stimulation. Some are also able to foster a positive attitude towards Jewish life among their clients.

Assuming that one is interested in social work as a career, what qualifica­ tions are desirable? Candidates should possess above-average intelligence in order to complete successfully a four year college program and a two year post-graduate course. They should be of stable personality in order to under­ stand and effectively serve their clients, Essential are resourcefulness, flexibility, a capacity to take criticism, and a broad outlook on life. Basic too are a warm interest and faith in people, and the belief that others should enjoy the right to work out their own destinies.

OW can one best prepare for a career in social work? Most schools suggest that applicants pursue a liberal arts program with a combina­ tion of social and biological sciences such as sociology, psychology, eco­ nomics, anthropology, biology, etc., as well as courses in composition and public speaking. It is also helpful to participate in extra-curricular activi­ ties, especially of a group nature, since they may provide a testing ground for one’s capacity to get along with others.

Additional valuable experience may be' gained by working in summer camps, “Y ’s” or in settlement houses.

Those who pass these preliminary

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steps may apply to one of the approved schools of social work which are lo­ cated in most of the principal cities of the U. S. and Canada. (Yeshiva Uni­ versity offers professional training in social group work.)

The cost of tuition and other expens­ es varies from school to school. In pri­ vately endowed schools costs usually run from about $2,000 to $2,500.

Many scholarships are available. So­ cial work is said to lead all other pro­ fessions in the extent to which scholar­ ships are provided to its graduate students.

Jewish group work agencies such as “Y ’s” offer the most generous scholar­ ship arrangements. In many instances the student may earn a living wage while attending school in return for his pledge to continue to work for the agency for a minimum number of years following his graduation. The federal and state governments also offer low interest loans payable within ten years after graduation. The curriculum in the schools of social work usually in­ cludes courses in social welfare ad­ ministration, casework, social research, group work, medical information, psy­ chology, community organization, and public welfare. An essential part of the curriculum is the field work program, which constitutes from forty to fifty per cent of the student’s time in school.

During this period he interns with one or more social agencies, and, working under supervision, performs the duties of a trained social worker. While under this program, the student usually se­ lects the phase of social work in which he will later practice.

NE of the largest branches of so­ cial work is family case work.

Over 5,000 such workers, Jewish and non-Jewish, work for Jewish, public, and other agencies. Their role is to

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counsel troubled persons towards achieving more effective personal and family adjustment. They may deal with such problems as how to keep children in school or the family together when one or both of the parents is missing, dead, or ill. They may aid the family to meet its budget and to cope with its problems more adequately. About sixty per cent of all women social workers are engaged in this vocation.

About one hundred Jewish agencies in the U.S. provide family counseling and related services.

The next largest section of social work deals primarily with children.

The social worker’s duties in this field may include placing neglected or mis­ treated children in foster homes, pro­ viding a temporary housekeeper in a home where the mother is ill or ab­ sent, counseling young offenders who have been brought before juvenile courts, helping unmarried mothers and their children to find a suitable place, and providing children with prosthetic devices when needed.

Psychiatric social workers serve cli­ ents who have emotional problems.

Many persons suffer from disabling anxieties, fears, and feelings of guilt.

This professional may work in a social agency or mental hygiene clinic, and works in close cooperation with psy­ chologists and psychiatrists. He also works with the patient’s family, advis­ ing them how to deal with the patient when he returns home.

The medical social worker aids the patient and his family to solve the so­ cial problems related to his illness and medical cure, generally working under the auspices of a hospital and in co­ operation with the other professional members of the staff. There are about seventy Jewish hospitals in the United States.

Other social workers are engaged in 21

probation and parole work and strive to enable penal offenders to return to their communities as useful citizens.

There are also social workers employed in the schools systems of a number of cities.

While the above account does not exhaust the variety of social workers, it describes the major categories of this profession.

LL caseworkers, regardless of their specialty, the age or the nature of their clients’ problems, engage in basic­ ally similar activities. These generally include a study of the physical and social environment of their client, his family or surroundings, in order to de­ termine the best method to correct un­ desirable conditions. He interviews the client and diagnoses his problem and plans the most effective treatment. De­ pending on the agency and the need of his client, he may make necessary con­ tacts to establish his client’s eligibility for financial, medical, or other aid. In many private agencies emotional sup­ port rather than financial aid is ren­ dered. The latter is usually assumed by public agencies.

The caseworker encourages his cli­ ent to express himself freely so that eventually through this “talking out” process he begins to understand the reasons for his unwholesome attitudes and behavior and begins to take steps to modify them.

When desirable, the caseworker may refer his client to such community re­ sources as hospitals, clinics, recreation­ al facilities, and schools as adjuncts in correcting his maladjustments. The major goal of the caseworker is to promote self-direction in his client so that the latter may eventually be able to cope with his problems. While serv­ ing his client or “case”, the caseworker keeps careful records of the contents

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of his interviews and often turns for counsel to his supervisor or staff psy­ chiatrist.

HE largest single segment of Jewish social work is composed of the ap­ proximately 1,300 group workers em­ ployed at Jewish community centers and YMHA’s and YWHA’s. The work in this area usually revolves about rec­ reational or educational programs de­ signed to aid the participants to achieve greater fulfillment as members of the community, as Jews, and to enhance Jewish life generally.

The Jewish Community Center at­ tempts to aid its members to make cre­ ative use of their leisure time. The Center provides a wide variety of serv­ ices to youth and adults. Membership programs, supervision of staff, group recording, and other elements consti­ tute the major activities for the pro­ fessional in this field.

A considerable number of persons are employed in community relations work. They serve such national organi­ zations as the American Jewish Com­ mittee, the American Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, the Jewish Labor Committee, fand the major religious groups, etc.

Their work includes combatting dis­ crimination in employment, education, and housing, and educational activities countering the evil of prejudice and discrimination. The community rela­ tions agencies likewise conduct pro­ grams of civil liberties def ense and deal with such problems as religion in the public schools, fair immigration laws, and other factors relating to civic inter­ est and the position of the Jewish com­ munity on the general scene. Some engage in research on the nature of Antisemitism and the best methods to promote better inter-group relations.

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JEWISH LIFE

NOTHER vital sector of Jewish social work is our Jewish Voca­ tional Service agencies which are lo­ cated in most of the major cities of the United States and Canada. These agen­ cies utilize vocational counselors, psy­ chologists, group guidance consultants, sheltered workshop specialists, and other related skills. Through the use of interviews, psychological and apti­ tude tests, vocational literature, and other techniques, they attempt to aid their clients to select careers in har­ mony with their interest, abilities, and opportunities.

A

The vocational agencies have done valuable work counseling young people and adult suffering from emotional and physical problems. A notable service has been rendered in finding jobs for the hard-to-place, and in establishing workshops for the aged, the physically and emotionally handicapped, the emo­ tionally retarded, and others.

An area of major importance also is that of the Jewish community fed­ erations and welfare funds. The func­ tions of these organizations include planning needed communal activities, raising funds, budgeting, and allocating funds for domestic and overseas pur­ poses. In general, they seek to enable the fiscal aspects of Jewish community life to function in a more effective manner. Salaries in this field are the highest in the entire Jewish social work realm; top executives in large cities earn $15,000-25,000 and more a year.

T IS pertinent to indicate a number of changes which have occurred in Jewish social work. Rather than serving only the poor, Jewish agencies today are providing important recreational,

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August, 1959

cultural, mental hygiene, and other services to the entire Jewish community.

New developments also include the increasing use of foster homes for adults as well as dependent children, half-way homes and foster homes for the mentally ill, home care programs operated by hospitals, sheltered work­ shops for the emotionally disturbed and mentally retarded, and apartment and small group residences and many rec­ reational services for the aged.

In summing up this study it must be acknowledged that there are both ad­ vantages and disadvantages in Jewish social work. Many will find the work ever challenging. Whether they are working with a troubled child or adult or attempting to cope with broad social problems, there is wide scope and stim­ ulating personal contact in every phase of social work.

The effective functioning of our Jewish communal structure hinges in large measure on the competence and dedication of Jewish social workers.

They have not yet won the recognition among the laity which their efforts merit. This as well as the fact that the income of the rank and file social work­ ers, which averages between" $4,5006,500 a year, trails behind that of teachers in large cities. Directors of agencies earn from about $7,500 to $15,000 and more.

Clearly, no one grows affluent in this profession. The work may be tax­ ing and many social workers labor under considerable pressure. Neverthe­ less, when the entire field is appraised those who have a strong urge to serve others and to contribute to a strength­ ening of Jewish communal life will find that its appealing aspects outweigh its disadvantages.

23

Mashkofah Messianic Hope

By SAMSON R. WEISS

Our longing and our hope for the days of the Moshiach is not for the sake of gaining plenty and riches, nor in order to ride on horses, nor for the luxuries of wine and music, as those of confused opinions think. The Prophets and the men of true piety yearned for the days of Moshiach with such exceedingly strong longing because in his days will occur the joining of the righteous and because then good conduct and wisdom will prevail. They longed for these days because of the justice of the king and because of the abundance of his integrity, the depth of his wisdom and his closeness to the Almighty, and because then will be possible the fulfillment of all the precepts of the Torah o f Moshe our Teacher, may he rest in peace, without lassitude and indolence and without forcible prevention of our observance, as it is written: “N o longer will they teach, a man his neighbor and a man his brother, saying ‘Know the Lord’, for all will know Him, from the smallest unto the greatest of them.” (Jeremiah 3U 33) (Rambam, Commentary to Mishnah Sanhedrin, 10, 1)

HERE IS no precedent in human history for a people to observe year after year, for almost two millenia, days and periods of mourning.

Yet, the destruction of the Temple and the loss of national sovereignty and independence mark the Jewish calendar; the “three weeks” and espe­ cially the Ninth of Av are in all lands of our dispersion days of sorrow for every Jew who still maintains his link with Torah. Neither economic security nor civic equality and freedom have dried the Jewish tear. It is not glory lost nor hardship suffered nor national pride and dignity violated which can explain the depth and the permanence of this sorrow which still awaits its solace. The Jew mourns on Tisha B’Av much more than the outer wrapipngs of his former loftiness and elevation.

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In spite of our sins and failings, we are a people whose vision and whose hope have remained undimmed by exile and persecution. From Sinai on, we wanted to be a nation distinguished by its closeness to, and constant com­ munion with, the Almighty. We under­ stood that the highest joy of existence can be found only in the striving for moral perfection. We saw in all things material only the instruments to attain wisdom and goodness. We understood life as the glorious challenge to mani­ fest the dominion of the spirit by which all limitation of matter can be overcome. We perceived of history as the development of humanity toward a G-d-nearness in which all evil would be conquered and all dross burned off by the pure flame of man’s perception of the true values. We wanted to walk through history a living testimony to JEWISH LIFE

the Almighty and his Torah, a testi­ mony of goodness and purity and saintliness. To teach and to bespeak by our mere existence the all-presence of the Lord, was our national ambition.

Our Prophets spoke to us of a world united in the recognition of the Al­ mighty, reflecting in its unity His One­ ness. Never parochial, our hope and vision always embraced the entirety of mankind.

We never were willing to settle for less. We refused to exchange striving after such ends for any ephemeral ac­ commodations. Each Jewish genera­ tion, endowed with the knowledge of the Jewish past, accepted upon itself the Jewish future as its obligation. We never wanted to live temporary exist­ ences. Each Jewish life was to be a tri­ butary to the great stream of eternity.

Success was not to be measured on the scales of the present, but rather by its productiveness for, and transmitability to, future generations. Temporary at­ tainments or setbacks, material success or failure were thus accepted with an equanimity unintelligible to those whose lives and interests are circum­ scribed by external considerations.

While mortal, we were marked by im­ mortality; while passing through time, we bespoke eternities.

HE DESTRUCTION of the Beth Hamikdosh and our dispersion have removed us from the early at­ tainment of our vision and have sub­ jected us to the bitter test of maintain­ ing the Jewish ideal amidst strange surroundings. We are bereft of the completeness of Jewish life, for the fullness of observance is no longer granted to us in the absence of the Temple and in the absence of a land of our own in which Torah is the law.

N o longer are our leaders graced by

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the direct communion with G-d, by Prophecy, which ceased with the de­ struction of the Temple. Wisdom and goodness, learning and piety, have di­ minished. The true measure of human greatness has long escaped our ken.

Since the Churbon, we have steadily diminished in stature. Today, there is great danger that we might soon make peace with our national and individual imperfection and that redemption may become meaningless for us because we may no longer be aware of the shame and the oppression of human failure.

S LONG as we still mourn the loss of the sublimeness which once was ours, as long as Tisha B’Av links us with the Jewish vision, the Jewish hope is still alive. On the day of destruction, on Tisha B’Av, Moshiach will be born, so our Sages tell us. He will come, they teach us, in either event, whether we will merit him by the fulfillment of the Divine laws and by our moral attainment, or whether we will be “all guilty”. The Almighty in His mercy will not permit mankind to be doomed and to sink to even greater depth of materialistic depravity.

There will arise a man so great and wise and pure that he will merit Prophecy and become by the sheer power of his personality the Teacher, first of Israel and then of the entire world. His word will bring refresh­ ment to the parched and shrunken soul of humanity like a freshet in the desert. “The righteous will join, good conduct and wisdom will prevail.” No longer will brother lift a sword against his brother, for in the presence of such greatness G-d will become undeniable.

The Temple will be rebuilt and all nations will stream to it and bow in reverence before the Creator. Then will we find solace.

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The Lesson of the Churbon

By ARYEH NEWMAN

T this season falls the traditional mourning period commemorat­ ing the destruction of the Temple, re­ calling the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians 2,500 years ago and half a millenia later by the Romans, cul­ minating, in the climax of the mid­ summer heat and drought, in the burning of that sacred edifice, twice in Jewish history, on the same date.

It is impossible for us today to rea­ lize the catastrophic implications of the burning of the Temple of “Titus the Wicked”, followed by the extinc­ tion of Jewish national life in Eretz Israel,* after the abortive uprising and heroic last stand at Betar seventy-five years later. Jewish life changed not only quantitatively, with the slaughter of millions, but also qualitatively. The Beth Hamikdosh had centralized and unified the people’s spiritual aspira­ tions, drawing them together as one gigantic family at the thrice yearly pilgrimages to make sacrifice, resetting its seal of consecration on the most intimate threads of their daily exist­ ence. Sin and Atonement were inex­ tricably associated with its altar, reso­ lution and reformation made their debut within its precincts.

From the Holiest of Holies where the Divine Presence rested, through its courts thronged by the people of G-d, sanctity permeated outwards and

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downwards to all classes and all cor­ ners of the Land. Its disappearance left a void in the structure of Judaism, which was irreplaceable and yet had not to be irreparable. Life had to go on. It was this paradox that faced the leaders of our people at the time, how to preserve the void and never forget the Temple and yet how to fill it so that Jewish life could continue to bring forth, in G-d’s good time, the rebuilding of His House.

When the Second Temple was de­ stroyed, states the Talmud, the asce­ tics increased in Israel who would not eat meat or drink wine. Rabbi Ye­ hoshua took them to task. He asked them: “Why do you not eat meat or drink wine?” They replied: “Shall we drink wine which is poured out oil the altar and now is abrogated? Shall we eat meat that is sacrified on the altar and is now no more?” In that case, proposed Rabbi Yehoshua: “We should not eat bread, since the meal offering is no more.” They answered: “One can live on fruit.” Rabbi Ye­ hoshua continued: “Fruit also used to be brought to the Temple as ‘First Fruits’.” “We can use other fruits not brought to the Temple,” they retorted.

“We should not drink water then,” clinched Rabbi Yehoshua, “since that was also used in the Temple ritual.”

After this reductio ad absurdum, the JEWISH LIFE

ascetics were silenced. Rabbi Yehoshua then said to them: “My children, come and let me tell you what to do.

Not to mourn at all is impossible since the decree has gone forth, but to mourn overmuch is likewise impos­ sible, since one cannot ordain mea­ sures that the majority of the public find it impossible to observe. But, our Sages stated, ‘One plasters his house and leaves a small portion unplastered in symbolic reminder of the destruc­ tion’.” Accordingly, with their won­ derful sense of proportion, the Rabbis of the Talmud maintained the correct balance on all occasions, and the thread of the destruction coupled with the hope of future restoration runs through all our festive dates and our liturgy. It reaches its most poignant moment in the Yom Kippur Musaf service when we recall the solemn ceremonial of the Atonement ritual, which was an unforgettable and irre­ placeable religious experience for our people.

HE whys and wherefores of the national tragedy preoccupied the attention of our Sages in the Talmud.

They were not afraid to probe into the past, however deeply it hurt and they laid the blame fairly and squarely not on historic circumstance, but at their own door. On Tisha B’Av, the day reserved exclusively for express­ ing national grief over the destruction, Torah study is not permitted since in the words of the Psalmist: The pre­ cepts of the Lord rejoice the heart.

Passages in Scripture and Talmud dealing with the theme of lamentation, suffering, and consolation only may be read. Among them is a famous ex­ cerpt from the Talmud in Gittin de­ voted to placing the moral responsi­ bility for the Churbon.

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Jerusalem was destroyed because of sinath chinam— causeless hatred and factionalism. Here is one of a num­ ber of stories told to illustrate this. A certain man had a friend called Kamtza and an enemy Bar Kamtza. By mistake his servant invited his enemy Bar Kamtza to a banquet he had ar­ ranged instead of the friend. Seeing his mortal enemy in the banquet hall, the host came up to him and told him to leave at once. Bar Kamtza pleaded with the host not to shame him in public, but let him stay and he would pay for the food he consumed. But his host was adamant and refused.

Bar Kamtza offered to pay the cost of half the banquet and even the whole, if only he would let him remain. But the host would hear none of it and had him ejected. “Since the Sages of Israel who were present at the banquet raised no protest, presumably they acquiesced in the treatment meted out to me,” reasoned Bar Kamtza and he forthwith repaired to the Roman authorities to stir up trouble against his own countrymen. This was then but one of the seemingly trivial inci­ dents immortalized in the Talmud, that led up to the Destruction. “Come and see how great is the power of shame,” states Rabbi Eliezer, “since the Holy One blessed be He assisted Bar Kamtza and destroyed His own House and Temple!”

We have not been able,, today, with all our modern techniques of research and the millions of dollars devoted to it, to put our finger with such unerr­ ing insight on the incidents that led to the destruction of our own day, the slaughter of six million of our brothers and sisters in the European holocaust. Because, of course, this in­ sight does not depend on scientific re­ search or money but on spiritual in­ spiration. The sinath chinam which, 28

to our sorrow, preceded our Destruc­ tion still persists in our evaluation and commemoration of its significance.

Each faction of our divided people produces from its ashes the relics it wishes to sanctify. The research of the Holocaust proceeds on party lines, each one of which claims that the heroism of that period was the mo­ nopoly of its adherents.

ROM the literature and articles published on the ghetto uprisings and the last days of East European Jewry, and, with all due respect, the publicity over the diaries of Anne Frank, magnificent record that they are, one might imagine that religious Jews, the towering rabbinic scholars and their no less worthy flock who revered and admired them, scarcely existed and displayed no heroism. The recently published diary of the youth­ ful Mosheh,* who, like Anne Frank, recorded his deepest feelings and questioning till the moment he was taken away to the jaws of death, de­ serves to be published in all the lan­ guages that Jews can read. It is the last testament of the Wise Son who asks what are these testimonies and judgments, who is versed in Torah and though born and bred in the Di­ aspora writes in the language of his people, a student of French, English, German, Greek, and Latin and even

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*Hana’ar Mosheh, “The Lad Moses,” The Diary of Moses Flinker, a sixteen year old Dutch born Jewish boy, first published in Israel by Yad Vashem in the summer of 1958, from three exercise books found by survivors of his family in the cellar of their last home in Brussels, after they returned from Auschwitz* On the eve of Pesach 1944, a notorious informer accompanied by two members of the Gestapo had entered their home and, seeing the tell-tale matzoth and poultry salting, promptly deported the whole family to Auschwitz from which Moses never returned. The exercise books even­ tually reached the hands of the famous Hebrew writer S. J. Agnon who was so deeply im­ pressed with them that he did not rest till he had arranged for their publication.

JEWISH LIFE

Arabic, but wholly devoted to the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, believ­ ing in His Redemption to the very end. But perhaps one of the most im­ pressive documents of Jewish religious faith, steadfast in the furnace itself are the sh’eyloth asked by the faithful of their rabbis. A book of these has been published by a Lituanian rabbi, Rabbi Ephraim Ashrey who survived the holocaust, under the title “Re-

“On Marcheshvan 6, 5702, two days before the terrible destruction of the Kovno ghetto, at a time when we wit­ nessed the sending of some ten thou­ sand men, women, and children to the slaughter, when every member of the ghetto expected the hand of wicked­ ness to strike at him at any moment, at this demented hour, there came to me one of the prominent members of the community who, between his tears, asked that his life be given at his petition, for how can he endure and see the evil that has befallen his family

sponsa From the Depth” (Sh’eyloth Vt’shuvoth Mima’amakim) . They are recommended Tisha B’Av reading for those who find not sufficiently up to date the dirges and laments on the slaughter of Jewish communities in medieval times incorporated in our Kinoth, and who look for more re­ cent evidence of Jewish heroism and unquenchable faith in Torah. Here are some citations.

. . . Since therefore he cannot with­ stand the sight of the sufferings of his nearest and dearest, his petition is whether it is permissible for him to take his own life and thus also be granted Jewish burial in the ghetto cemetery.”

SURVIVOR of another aktzia, as the extermination campaigns of the Nazi monsters were termed, asked whether he was obliged to bentsh gomel or, perhaps, since the

August, 1959

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danger had not subsided, the surviv­ ors were deemed like those who were still undelivered in prison.

Pious of the Kovno ghetto asked whether it was permissible to light Sabbath lights with electric bulbs since no other means of kindling was avail­ able. But much more incredible were the qualms voiced by what must have been an extraordinarily saintly per­ sonage who did forced labor in a place where wool was obtainable. Amidst all pain and terror, he gave concern as to whether it was permissible to steal some of this wool, even though it might cost him his life, in order to secretly bring it to the ghetto to make tzitzith for the members of the Tifereth Bachurim youth group. Would the tzitzith manufactured from this ma­ terial be kosher and not be disquali­ fied because they were made from stolen material? He further asked, since it was impossible to procure material from which to make the tallith koton, would it be permissible to cut up a large tallith— all so that his beloved charges of the Tifereth Bachurim could fulfill the mitzvah of wearing tzitzith.

It was, of course, impossible to pro­ cure mezuzoth in the ghetto and some suggested that perhaps all the inmates of the ghetto were in the category of prisoners. Were prisoners released from the duty of affixing a mezuzah?

The only shofor in the ghetto was slightly cracked — could it be used?

And what about the meager bread ration distributed to the ghetto every fortiiight including Pesach as well?

Because of the danger to life involved it had not been possible to sell the chometz to a non-Jew. Had the bread to be destroyed as chometz she’ovor olov hapesach— chometz that had re­ mained in Jewish possession over Pesach?

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Others who were sent to forced labor every morning before' dawn were concerned about the duty of putting on tefillin. One such unfortunate pris­ oner had been cruelly beaten when he was spotted by a Nazi guard wearing tefillin on his way to work as dawn broke. A cross was cut into his skin on the place of the tefillin and he wished to know whether it was per­ missible to cover it with plaster. What was the status of wives prostituted by force as regards their husbands? What was the rule applicable to the clothes of those who were massacred— were they forbidden or could the half-naked relics of humanity who remained use them? Was it permissible for a Jew to save himself by buying the docu­ ments of a Christian?

OW OFTEN do we invoke the consideration of danger to life when we wish to violate one of the precepts of Judaism from the vantage point of our security and complacen­ cy? How often, during World War II, did I hear Jews permit themselves all sorts of liberties in the realm of diet and Sabbath observance on grounds of “emergency”, when their brothers in the ghettos who were living with death still had moral scruples whether to violate even a minor ruling of Judaism! We have a lot to learn in emunah, in faith, not just from Rabbi Akiva and the Talmud scholars of a distant past but from the ordinary Jew in the street of our own day who perished in the furnace of Nazidom.

And if we are skeptical of the stories told in the Talmud about the dealings of Vespasian and Titus and other Roman tyrants with the Sages and Scholars of Israel, how they con­ sulted them and tortured them, argued with them over the interpretation of

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Biblical texts and had them done to death, what have we to say of the emissaries sent by that monstrous Jew-hater Alfred Rosenberg to the

Kovno ghetto to ask the rabbis to teach them (irony of ironies) the Tal­ mudic tractate of Zevachim, the trac­ tate dealing with sacrifices!

. . . and so on and so forth did the sons of iniquity persist in their orgy of persecution— Stoning, ’cinerating, asphyxiation and just plain execution (The mind reels to think of it) . . .

O Lord; grant relief and make an end of correction, Strengthen knees that falter, Cham­ pion of Jacob and Savior in tribula­ tion; For in righteousness the King shall He reign, The days of thy mourning are over, shall He proclaim,

By His light shall we journey and set our aim.

(From the Tisha B’Av kina, Artzey Levanon, Cedars of Lebanon.)

August, 1959

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The Symbol of the

j

Mögen Dovid

By SAMUEL I. COHEN

HE “Mögen Dovid” represents a unique historic dilemma. Its or­ igins and meaning are beclouded by a myriad of differing and conflicting opinions. Even the most authoritative commentators on this symbol resort at best to speculative formulations. The astonishing fact, however, is that de­ spite this vague knowledge as to its actual origins, the Mögen Dovid has nevertheless emerged as the popularly and universally accepted symbol of Jews and Judaism.

Any effort to trace the origins, and subsequently the significances, of this symbol must deal with three rather ob­ vious questions.

1. Is this hexagram (formed by two intertwined equilateral triangles)*

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a “Jewish” symbol, and if so what are its “Jewish” origins?

2. Why is this symbol called “Mö­ gen Dovid” — “The Shield of David”?

3. What historic factors, or intrinsic characteristics, of the Mögen Dovid have led towards its mod­ ern popularity?

The many, varied, and conflicting answers offered by recent writers to these questions illustrate the complex­ ity and confusion that are so much a part of the history of the Mögen Dovid.

Added to this confusion is the fact that the phrase “Mögen Dovid” is not mentioned in the literature of the Tal­ mud, nor even in the Psalms of King David himself.

One might readily assume that since factual information is scarce on the actual historical development of the Mögen Dovid, the various theories pre­ sented are not conclusive. The intent of this article, however, is to show how these theories contribute to an under­ standing of both the historic role and the religious significance of this symbol. *There are even conflicting opinions as to the exact structure of the Mogen Dovid. Grota con­ siders the hexagram two adjacent triangles; Michaels, one triangle superimposed upon an­ other; Winkler, two non-connected triangles; Grunwald, two equal triangles that are inter­ twined and create six equal triangles. M. Nusblatt, Der Magen David Upshtam, Yalkot HaMoadim (Buenos Aires; Saadiâ Publishers) .

JEWISH LIFE

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it occurs as the symbol of Isis in Egypt, as an amulet in Iraq and India.

Among the Celts it was used as a pentacle of the Druids; among the Etrus­ cans it was considered as a symbol of the deity of fortune; and the Greeks placed it on the shield of Athene. Both the hexagram and the pentagram came to the Near East through Asia Minor and from there found their way into Europe.”

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HE QUESTION as to whether the Mögen Dovid symbol is indeed a Jewish symbol, and has Jewish mean­ ing, is a vexing one. Views on this ques­ tion range from the extreme Kabalists to the extreme of the secularists.

One view states that “it is probable that it was the Kabalah that derived the symbol from the Templars” (Jewish Encyclopedia). But whatever the pos­ sible specific origin of the Mögen Dovid, the general secular view is that this symbol is not specially Jewish in origin and in character. In fact even the Otzar Yisroel Encyclopedia goes In essence then, the argument so far as to conclude that, “It appears against the “Jewish antiquity” of the that the sign of the Mögen Dovid does Mögen Dovid is based upon the fact not stem from a Jewish source; because that many ancient peoples have used according to law it is forbidden to the hexagram as symbols or itiagical make a cross or any symbol as a sign amulets, and on the absence of refer­ of faith.” ence to the Mögen Dovid in our re­ Certain scholars refer to this six- ligious literature until recently in the pointed star as the “Seal of Solomon”, 19th century, and even then only spo­ as it is known among non-Jews in the radically in the writings of the Ka­ Islam world, especially Morocco, where balists. it is not only the insignia of the Sul­ Although these arguments may ap­ tan’s army, but also that of the Spanish pear valid, they can easily be refuted soldiers.* by reference to logic, experience, and In his attempt to “prove” that the authority.

Mögen Dovid is not necessarily of Jewish origin, Max Grunwald states: OW do these secularists prove “It is worn by the Freemasons in their contention? In the first in­ Abyssinia and elsewhere. In antiquity stance, they present an international usage of the hexagram and conclude *Max Grunwald, “The Magen David,” Historia that if the Abyssinians, Etruscans, and Judaic a (New York, October 1947).

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Professor Gershom Scholem, in a magazine article, supports this view, and in sharp denunciation of those who would give the Mögen Dovid a Jewish character, concludes that: “Actually the six-pointed star is not a Jewish symbol; a fortiori it could not be ‘the symbol of Judaism’. It does not remind us of anything in Biblical or in Rabbinic Judaism. Indeed, until the middle of the 19th century, it did not occur to any scholar or Kabalist to in­ quire into the secret of its Jewish meaning, and it is not mentioned in the books of the devout or in all of the Hasidic literature. If it was once re­ lated to the emotions of the devout Jew, that relation was entirely founded on a sentiment of fear.”

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Greeks used this symbol then it couldn’t have been Jewish in origin.

What is purported to represent evi­ dence and logical argumentation in reality suffers in both respects.

But there are facts, as well as logic, that can challenge the secular view of the Mögen Dovid— and establish its validity as a Jewish symbol.

The Mögen Dovid is first mentioned in the 12th century Sefer Eshkol Hakofer by the Karaite Yehudah Hadassi.

Describing the text to be inscribed in a Mezuzah, Hadassi states that the sign (hanikrah magen david) called Mög­ en Dovid, is to be placed beside each of the angels’ names listed at the be­ ginning and end of the text. And he adds that this procedure should be as follows, k’shetiknu roecha, roughly translated “as prescribed by your mentors.”

Hadassi’s reference to the Mögen Dovid, both in terms of his context and manner, clearly establishes the fact that some 800 years ago, the Mögen Dovid was considered as hav­ ing deep religious significance, as evi­ denced by its inclusion in the text of the Mezuzah together with the names of the angels, and was also part of the Jewish tradition, as reflected in the author’s final phrase, “k’shetiknu ro­ echa’’ The actual illustration of the struc­ ture of the Mögen Dovid did not ap­ pear in religious literature however until the appearance of the Kabalistic Sefer Raziel Hamalach. In the final section, called Sefer Mazoloth, the author prescribes certain prayers (for success in business, for protection against injuries, “ayin hara”, and “kishuf”) that require the usage of the sign of the Mögen Dovid, He includes simple drawings of the symbol as well as a more elaborately designed en­ circled symbol.

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HE USAGE of the term “Mogen Dovid” in the daily Amidah prayers and other places in the liturgy attaches deep religious significance to the sym­ bol so designated.

That the Mogen Dovid also has a history of regular usage in connection with religious events, ceremonials, and institutions is further testimony to the premise that its origins are not essen­ tially non-Jewish.

Archeological findings of hexagramed ornaments of the Tel Chom (K ’far Nachum) synagogue dated some 2,500 years ago and a more re­ cent discovery of a 3rd century Jewish tombstone in Taranto, Italy with a Mogen Dovid inscription are but two of the many random recordings that are available as further testimony.

The Bezalel Museum in Jerusalem displays a hexagram on the ancient Hebrew picture of a ship found in Sheikh Abrak, Palestine. This symbol also served as flag-emblem on the pic­ ture of a ship in a manuscript of Se­ phardic folklore of the 16th and 17th centuries.

The symbol was also used practic­ ally. States Grunwald: “According to Lampronti (‘Paehad-Yitzchak’), and others, the Magen David is drawn on the skin of a sick person, so in Se­ phardic popular medicine, in Belgrade and other places, the ‘Haham’, called in for a cure against a sore throat called ‘Paperas’, draws several Magen Davids, with his finger on the ‘throat of the sick person at saying the prayers’.”

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UCH of the information offered in an effort to underscore the re­ ligious significance of this symbol is however based upon difficult Kabalistic ideology, stressing such items as the fact that in Hebrew, the words Mogen Dovid contain six letters representing

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the six points of this hexagram; or that the seven sections of the hexagram represent the seven Kabalistic seals.

On such theory, cited in Ycdkut Hamoadim, explains that by encircling the hexagram (forming a circle by connecting all its outer points) an ef­ fect of thirteen sections will result. The author of this theory sees a significance in these thirteen sections of a circle, and correlates the division of the Mö­ gen Dovid with the thirteen sections into which were divided the people of Israel as they traveled from Egypt.

He claims that the thirteenth and cen­ ter section was for the Ohel Moed, and that the twelve tribes were formed into an actual Mögen Dovid.

Even Franz Rosenzweig attempted to view the Mögen Dovid with a re­ ligious perspective. His book, “The Star of Redemption,” (taking his title from his concept of the significance of the Mögen Dovid) offers a meaning to the triangled structure of this symbol.

He sees the triangle as being represen­ tative of the three concepts, G-d, Man, and the World.

Admitting that factually speaking there is but limited evidence available to establish the view that the Mögen Dovid is definitely Jewish in origin and character, there are nevertheless valid bases from which one might suc­ cessfully argue that: 1) It has not been proven that the Mögen Dovid is nonJewish in origin and character; 2) be­ cause of the significant usage of the Mögen Dovid in the Kabalistic writ­ ings (and because of the profound re­ ligious significance they attach to the Mögen D ovid), it is probable that this synjbol has authentic Jewish origins; 3) the grand role that recent history has given the Mögen Dovid is no “ac­ cident of history,” but rather an ap­ propriate climax, and that the Mögen Dovid is playing its rightful role.

August, 1959

III TTEMPTS to answer the second question, “Why is this symbol called ‘Mogen Dovid’?” meet with the same alternative perspectives.

Answers within the secular frame­ work deny those given from the van­ tages of religious thought, and vice versa.

Grunwald, for example, refers to the Karaite work of the Middle Ages, Eshkol Hakofer, where the Mogen Dovid is first mentioned, and states very simply that, “The founder of Karaism, Anan ben David, belonged to the family of Exilarchs, and this fact explains the name ‘Magen David’ given to the hexagram.”

Another theory is based upon leg­ ends about King David’s shield and its magical powers. One of the earliest sources for this legend is the “Book of Desire,” which is an interpretation of the seventy magical names of Metatron, Prince of the Divine Presence.

The book was composed in Germany in the 13th century, in the circle of the German Chasidim, by Eleazar of Worms or one of his disciples. Gershom Scholem writes: “[In this book] we read how King David had a golden shield, upon which was engraved the Great Name of seventy-two names (a combination of holy names by whose virtue, the Mid­ rash tells us, Israel was redeemed from Egypt): and beneath was engraved the ‘name’ of TAPHTERPHAJAH one of

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the names of the Prince of the Pres­ ence. ‘And when a man is at war and his enemies attack him, let him re­ member it and he will be saved,’ for the same book tells us that the numer­ ical value of the Hebrew letters of TAPHTERPHAJAH is the same as that of the letters of ‘upon the shield’.”

One of the bases for the general as­ sumption that the hexagram’s name, “Mogen Dovid,” does indeed stem from a legend about King David such as the one mentioned is a manuscript preserved from the 14th century. Writ­ ten in Spain by David ben Yehudah the Pious, a grandson of Nachmanides, the “Book of the Boundary” twice pre­ sents the design of the two crossed triangles, “both times called the Shield of David, once the ‘Macrocosmic Shield of David’ and once the ‘Microcosmic Shield of David’. Beneath the pictures of the Shield is written the ‘name’ TAPHTERPHAJAH, which proves its intimate connection with the tradition concerning King David’s Shield in the ‘Book of Desire’,” (Scholem).

This would apparently satisfy the primary question of why an emblem should be called “Shield of David” despite the fact that in the Psalms King David does not refer to any shields.

We know now that there was a shield.

We know also that there is apparent connection between the hexagram of his shield with the later Kabalistie symbols. However, we do not know whether David’s shield included or constituted a Mogen Dovid.

HE noted Spanish preacher R. Isaac Arama mentions in his “The Sacrifice of Isaac” that the emblem on King David’s shield was not the image that we know by this name, but Psalm 67* in the shape of the menorah, the seven-branched candelabrum.

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Thus it might have been shaped in the pointed form of a hexagram with a menorah inscription, or it might (as implied from Arama’s view) have been menorah-shaped but with a hexagram inscription.

In either case, the symbol has great meaning. Reflecting the person of King David, the hexagram represents such concepts as Messianic redemption (the Messiah will come from the family of David), glorious victory (David’s bat­ tles), providential protection (the in­ vocation of the 67th Psalm and the mystical inscriptions), and certainly the hope of foresight and the piety of insight (the Psalms themselves). Quite obviously many of the deeper meanings of this connection with David are be­ yond our vision.

But the Mögen Dovid had also spe­ cific meaning for the Babylonian Exilarchs who in turn influenced the later usage of the phrase “Mögen Dovid”.

Rashi (on Talmud Bavli, Shabboth 58a) says of the Roshey Galuthah (who it seems were descendants of David), that their coat of arms was fastened even to the garments of the rabbis to whom they paid salaries. That this emblem was called Mögen Dovid may be derived from an Agadah.

In his “Seder Avodath Yisroel,” Seligman Baer quotes a Midrash Sh’muel that tells how King David prayed to G-d to be allowed to end one of the blessings in the Sh’moneh Esrey with the words “Mogen Dovid” in the same way as the first of these blessings ends with “Mögen Avrohom”. In answer, David was told that Abraham had been given, and had triumphantly passed, ten tests. David then asked to be tested as well. But after he failed in the case of Bathsheba, he prayed that he at *“G-d be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us.”

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way in current vernacular to the “Shield of David,” and it was clearly under­ stood (by Jews particularly) that it was more a symbol of “Jews” than of “Judaism”.

Without presenting the many pop­ ularly known records of the accelerat­ ing popularity of the Mögen Dovid during the past 300 years, mention can be made of the appeal of this symbol during this period.

When in 1627 Emperor Ferdinand II approved again the old seal of the Prague community, with the Hebrew equivalents of the letters M-G-N D-V-D spelled out on the six sides of the star, he launched a system wherein governments (both friendly and hos­ tile) identified their Jewish subjects with the symbol of the star. Thus every­ one (whether religious or not) was labeled as belonging to the people of IV the star. Whether or not they accepted T THE Second Zionist Congress the profound religious implications of in 1897, when Theodore Herzl the Mögen Dovid, or its Kabalistic designated the “Shield of David” as ramifications, it became their symbol. the emblem for the Zionist flag and as And quite naturally they read into this the symbol of the Zionist movement, symbol what they wanted to.

Psychologically, Jews accepted the the symbol possessed two great vir­ tues. Itk wide diffusion during the pre­ symbol at this time more readily than vious century— its appearance on every ever before. A Jewish author guaran­ new synagogue, on the stationery of teed that his work was “Jewish” by the many Jewish charitable organizations, inscription of a star on the cover or etc.— had made it known to everybody. on its pages; tombstones all boasted of Its other virtue for the Zionist move­ “Jewish” deceased beneath; synagogues ment was that the symbol was not ex­ became more “Jewish” with decorative plicitly identified with a “religious” and ornamental Mögen Dovids. And association in the consciousness of in this process, it took on new (and lost old) meanings. their contemporaries.

Gone from most people was the re­ The two-phased character of the Mögen Dovid, which is evident even ligious concept of this symbol. De­ today, was the resultant of a unique veloped in its place was a “national­ historic process. As the symbol grew istic” concept. Thus when Herzl pro­ more and more popular two and three posed an official emblem for the Zion­ hundred years ago, its religious sig­ ist movement*, he was but ratifying nificance grew less and less in terms legally what had already become in­ of usage, personal meaning, and un­ formally the de facto symbol of Jewish derstanding. The “Mögen Dovid” gave nationalism.

least be able to end one of the blessings of the Haftorah with “Mögen Do vid.”

The Exilarchs were not satisfied with the way the blessings over Je­ rusalem and David were originally pronounced in the Tefilah, according to Ismar Elbogen (Der Jüdische Got­ tesdienst) . They insisted that the blessing for David be separate and that it should not end with the words “G-d of David” but with the words “Shield of David” expressly. Their motive, ac­ cording to this historian, was that the term “Mögen Dovid” represented the emblem of their family as indicated by the hexagram.

Thus whichever version is accepted, or acceptable, it seems there is valid reason and explanation for why the hexagram is called the “Shield of David”.

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ODAY, the Mogen Dovid serves as the symbol of Jewry, the par­ ticular emblem of Zionism, and the special flag of the State of Israel.

As the symbol of Jewry, it represents a source of unity, kinship, and inspi­ ration which binds Jews (of all religious intensities) into the fraternity of K’lal Yisroel. For the Zionist movement it connotes the special aspiration of a united people, a secure and proud in­ dependent Jewish State, and the bright destiny of our people. To the State of Israel, the emblem on its flag arouses

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pride and spiritual ties with a land and country that has shown such brilliant progress.

But underlying this great attraction to the Mögen Dovid, and its almost inexplicable appeal to Jews through­ out the world, there seems to be some magic-like quality that has survived history. Any analysis of the early uses and meanings of this symbol points to but one conclusion: that the Mogen Dovid is inherently a Jewish symbol, and its qualities and effects have their sources steeped in religious concepts.

JEWISH LIFE

The Sabra as Sabra n,

AN THE contemporary Jewish so­ ciologist, in his search for cultur­ ally significant Jewish statistics, find a specimen Jew with soul so dead that never to his neighbor said: “A sabra is a cactus plant, harsh on the outside but soft on the inside?” Hardly. For a smattering of knowledge about the sabra, as plant and as animal, has be­ come an indispensable plank of Jewish consciousness, of Zionist identification, of national pride. A speaking familiar­ ity with the sabra, as a concept, is sec­ ond only to chalil lessons in the presentday code of Zionist mitzvoth. Should Betsy go to Hebrew school or take chalil lessons? It’s becoming hard to de­ cide; both are so Jewish and dynamic.

And if the decision, with an assist from a resident grandfather, is made for the Hebrew school, Betsy can count on be­ ing told, sometime during her intensive pre-bath-mitzvah course of studies: “Define the sabra.” (This topic, since it deals with Palestinian plants, finds its logical place in the study unit on Father Abraham, who, as is well known, planted a&Eshel in Beersheba.)

But what do they really know, these Betsys and their daddies, about the human cactus of which they are so proud? And why are they so proud?

A quick survey of sabra stereotypes shows us that their knowledge is dis­ torted and their pride perverted. The sabra, in their mind’s eye, is young, fearless, bareheaded and blond. He dis-

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August, 1959

By MICHAEL ROSENAK

dains formality on every level, scorn­ ing the necktie and the “Thank you very much” alike. He is fresh but lov­ able. He is a bittersweet blend of the tough and the tender.

The picture, sketched above in the same vague and ambivalent lines in which it is etched in the popular imag­ ination, is largely mythical and indi­ cates a sub-conscious adoration of Ho­ meric heroes on the part of American Jews. That the picture is largely fic­ titious is fortunate, because, for some as-yet-fully-uninvestigated psychologic­ al reason, its main motif is “just like the goyim.” True enough, there are many Israelis who idealize this motif too, but they never called it Zionism.

O BEGIN WITH, not all sabras are young, many Israeli natives being the contemporaries of our great-grand­ parents, nor, judging from the booming psychoanalytic trade on Mount Carmel, can all live or love without fear. Betsy’s father or her Hebrew school teacher will not tell her much of either of these two types; the father because he doesn’t know of them, the teacher because he is a sabra “studying” at Columbia Uni­ versity who does know of them and is as wary of exhibiting interest in the one type as in the other. The young teacher, in fostering Jewish pride and self-respect, will want to stress that which is healthfully Hellenic in presentday Israel.

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And though it is true that most of the younger generation in Israel dis­ likes head-covering (just like the younger generation in Middletown, U.S.A.) there are some who wear caps or hats or small round blotches of doth all the time for religious reasons (un­ like all but two boys I know in Middletown, U .S.A .). Yes, Virginia, some sabras believe in G-d. As for the color of his hair, that special source of Jewish pride (just like the goyim) what about the sabra with the brown hair, or with some other stubborn Jewish character­ istic like a long nose, intelligent eyes, etc.? Are these to be excluded from the congregation of Jacob until, per­ haps, in the tenth generation, the ghetto-genes succumb?

Now it is true, though I don’t know whether this fact should be deserving of the same reverence Betsy is asked to accord to Bible stories, that sabras usually dislike formality and frown on convention. Or let us say that they don’t wear neckties. But woe to the brave soul who rolls his sleeves differently than is deemed acceptable among the chevra (English: peer group) or whose chalutzic (English: first generation dominant value system) beard lacks the luster that the beard of a red-blooded Negev-loving patriot should possess.

And it is also true that many sabras have bad manners, though how this sad fact raises funds at Zionist banquets cannot but confound the casual ob­ server. Lest we generalize, let it be stated forthrightly that not all sabras wear beards, for the same reason they don’t wear neckties— it’s too hot. Very reasonable, albeit not more than slightly heroic.

And last in the Articles of Admiration— their ability to be both fresh (if Betsy acted that way they’d call it ob­ noxious) and lovable. This amazing combination (or is it a complex) is 42

indeed admirable. I cannot think of a single acquaintance who would con­ sider it lovable, or even tolerable, if symptoms of freshness outside the lim­ its he arbitrarily imposes, manifested themselves in their own Betsys. And that goes for Israeli acquaintances as well. It may well be that the sabra is freer and less inhibited than the “chil­ dren of the ghetto” in New York or London, but if they are lovable (and there are such) they have good man­ ners and were apparently quite spankable in their early youth. If they were not, they are not. Just like everywhere else. Nothing, furthermore, is more de­ ceptive than the analogy with the plant that is soft on the inside and hard on the outside. Many sabras who are hard on the outside are positively granite­ like on the inside. (Appearances are deceiving.) And one sabra I know is soft on the outside and hard on the inside. (A leading Israeli psychologist is presently turning him inside-out.)

One local statesman is convinced that the sabra is becoming completely soft because of the preference he sometimes shows to drinking espresso in sidewalk cafes to settling the Negev.

DESN’T the sabra differ, then, from other Jewish children? The sabra is different. He differs by being rather normal for a boy of his age. A blond sabra is nothing more exciting than a blond boy can ever be; he’s not a “blond Jew”. His friends never say to each other: “Look at Shmulik Blond and a Jew. Have you ever . . .!” They may, however, call him “Goldilocks.”

Is the sabra a specimen of muscle and physique? Probably he tries to act like a big-shot. A good soccer player, but not too popular with the chevra : (see glossary). Likely as not, his par­ ents have already discussed the problem with the principal of his school and

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have decided to “wait and see; maybe he’ll snap out of it.” Is the sabra a Weak bookworm? H e’s just weak; not a weak Jew. It may be hard on him, but at least the long-suffering Jewish people is spared. Indicated treatment: vitamins, not apologetics.

The sabra, furthermore, doesn’t care very much about being unique, and if he’s come a long way towards believing that he is, it’s only because his parents keep telling him so. (A very question­ able procedure, educationally speak­ ing.) He disconcertingly prefers the “Lindy” to the hora, seemingly forget­ ful that the latter is his cultural me­ dium. He likes to travel, and for every boy who wishes to see no further than the horizon of his own hills, there are two who wish that their parents had received restitution payments from Germany, just like the parents of a boy they know, who was able to take a trip to Italy and see Rome.

That is not to say that the young Israeli isn’t intensely patriotic. Some­ times he is so much so that he forgets that there is a Jewish people. And sometimes he’s idealistic. So much so that he wants to bring all the Jews to Israel by airlift and find room for them (I suppose) in hastily constructed sky­ scrapers. And if he’s materialistic, he wants to be his country’s ambassador in Washington. Then there are the real­ ists, spiritualists, pacifists, and vege­ tarians. The complex relationship be­ tween all these types of the Jewish problem will be dealt with in a separate paper.

F I H A D N ’T already mentioned that some sabras believe in Judaism, it might justifiably be asked what will happen to the Jews in this new genera­ tion which is the pride and joy of Jewry.

As it happens, the problem is a serious one, though, peculiarly enough, those

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who exhibit the most interest in the sabra are usually those who worry the least. Very many sabras have the idea, originating most often with their European-educated and “emancipated” parents, that normal, healthy, and well adjusted young people, especially in modern, sun-burned, and secular Israel, don’t need religion.

But not all sabras are the products of such upbringing. The stereotype of the bareheaded boy brazenly steering the ship of his soul towards the secular abyss is oversimplified. Unfortunately it is so well-ingrained that many Jews in the lands of their dispersion such as the United States of America are afraid to come to Israel and rear sabras, con­ vinced that only atheists can spring up on the soil of the Prophets and Sages.

They prefer to keep their children within the walls of the Diaspora syna­ gogue, where the “Succoth Social” and the “Purim Prance” will keep them securely anchored to the faith of their fathers.

It’s not true. Not all sabras are athe­ ists, although it must be said to the credit of those who are, that they don’t, while on air force maneuvers, discover that G-d is their co-pilot. And there are, according to a recent survey, a good number of non-believers in Israeli foxholes. On the other hand, it speaks well for the religious sabra, that he doesn’t consider G-d as his co-pilot either. He considers Him as his G-d.

And there is something to be said for that.

The religious sabra, no less suscept­ ible to blond hair, lovability or, alas, unbearability, than others, shares with his fellows a predilection to honesty.

He goes to the synagogue to pray — not to dance the hoola-hop, or to find a sense of identification with his people.

The hoola-hop is not danced there, and other Jews to identify with can be 43

found as readily and in greater num­ bers in Tel Aviv’s new supermarket.

If he does not want to davven, because Sabbath football plays a greater role in his life, or for sundry other reasons, he doesn’t go to the synagogue. If he does, he believes it incumbent upon him. Quite an agreeable approach, and since honesty is basically sound as a method, it appears that Judaism is in Israel to stay, which should come as no surprise to Yehudah Halevi.

HERE does all this leave Betsy?

What is she to make of it all?

And how can the sabra, as concept, as cactus, and as Jew, be fitted into the pattern of American Jewish life, and into the Hebrew school curriculum in particular, in the most meaningful manner? Leave it to the sabra to handle

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that problem. After all, he’s the main­ stay of the Hebrew School staff, devot­ ing himself untiringly to Betsy’s Jewish education during the afternoon hours when he’s not working on his degree at the University. He’ll teach her about the sabra the best he can, stopping short only at instruction in chalil play­ ing. (His mother, back in Haifa, had insisted that he learn the violin.)

And Betsy had better not draw any conclusions from her Israeli teacher . . . they’re not all like that. Perhaps she’d better grow up as fast as she can, sign up for a summer-in-Israel plan with the organization of her choice, stay a little longer, and see for herself. Perhaps she’ll really like it there. And what better way for her to really understand the sabra than as wife and mother?

WHEN TROUBLES MOUNT "The Lord will answ er you in the day of trouble/' This is analogous to a father and son on a long journey. The child becam e impatient and asked his father where the town of their destination w as. His father answered: "My son, keep this sign in mind—w hen you se e a cemetery you will know that the city is close by," Likewise, the Almighty said to Israel: "when you se e that the troubles are piling up overwhelm ingly, then you w ill know that redemption is near", as it is said: "The Lord will answer you in the d ay of trouble."

Midrash

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JEWISH LIFE

The Torah Guide to Active Life

By J. LITVIN

UCH is being written in our times about the essence and principles of Judaism. These writings often reveal complete misunderstanding of the very foundations of our Torah and even oc­ casionally denigrate and mock at the very foundations of our creed.

The object of this article is to dwell upon one important though frequently overlooked or misinterpreted principle of Judaism, viz. active life as the ideal for a Jew. It is easy to prove that no other creed insists so much on the re­ sponsibility of man for his actions and even for his thoughts as does our Torah. It is incumbent upon every Jew to have bitachon, that is to trust in the Almighty, yet this commandment to trust in the Almighty is in no way con­ nected with passive fatalism or resigna­ tion. In the same phrase enjoining bita­ chon there follow the operative words ve’asey tov — “do good”. The very foundation of our Torah is trust in the Almighty and doing good actions. The Jew has the choice of being a good man or an evil doer, that is, it depends entirely upon his free will whether he will be virtuous or wicked. Even in cases where, according to our Torah, the intervention of the Almighty is most decisive, even in such cases the actual behavior of the Jew is important.

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For example, an observant Jew prays to the Almighty for sustenance. Ac­ cording to the Torah, the livelihood of a person depends on the Almighty: in the language of the solemn prayer Unethoneh Thokef of the High Holy Days, “It is decided in Heaven who shall become rich and who shall be­ come poor.” Yet the same Torah de­ clares that every Jew is in duty bound to use all legal and permissible means to provide for his wife and children.

Similarly, the health and the very life of the Jew also depend on a Heavenly decision. Every observant Jew prays three times a day for his own health and for the health of members of his people. And yet every Jew is, accord­ ing to our Torah, bound to care for his health and not to commit a grave sin by neglecting his physical well-being.

More than that, every one of the com­ mandments of the Torah (except three) must be set aside to save a life. We are in duty bound to do everything possible for a dangerously ill person even on the Sabbath and on Yom Kippur. Going even further, if a Jew refuses to cook on the Sabbath for a dangerously ill person (the cooking having been or­ dered by a doctor) he is guilty of a very grave sin. A Jew who denies that the 45

Torah enjoins the principle of desecra­ tion of the Sabbath to save life puts himself, according to Rabbinic law, outside the Jewish community as much as a person who denies the existence of the Almighty. Maimonides explains this injunction as follows: A person

who denies that the Torah authorizes the desecration of the Sabbath in order to save Jewish life is denigrating our Holy Torah and denying the merciful character of Judaism. He is an Apikoros (one who denies the existence of the Almighty).

Logical Difficulty

HERE is here a logical difficulty.

If everything depends on the will of G-d, why should man be asked to desecrate the Sabbath in order to save a life? Whether the sick man will live or die surely depends on the will of the Almighty rather than on the action or inaction of man.

A solution of this apparent logical contradiction becomes visible as a re­ sult of deeper understanding of the Torah’s conception of the responsibility of man and his relation to the Almighty.

Maimonides puts the matter clearly (Code, Laws of Repentance, Ch. Ill based on the Bible and the Talmud, Kiddushin 39, 40). According to Mai­ monides every person should act as though he and the whole universe are in a balance in which sins and virtues are suspended in complete equilibrium.

A single good action can weigh down the scales and save both him and the whole universe. This, according to Mai­ monides, is the true meaning of the verse (Proverbs 10:25). The righteous man is the fountain of the universe.

(The usual non-Jewish translation, “The righteous is established forever,” is incorrect*) Similarly, a single wicked act can weigh down the other scale and wreck him and the whole world.

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HIS idea that the macrocosm de­ pends on the microcosm brings out the immense responsibility resting on man and every act resulting from his freedom o f choice. The Torah covers every phase of a man’s life — Judaism knows no distinction between secular and religious — so that every deed involves a definite act of choosing by the individual to do good or evil. Since the preservation of life and health (one’s own and other people’s) is one of the most important commandments of the Torah, hence all acts to preserve health and life are within the realm of man’s free choice. The Talmudic say­ ing (Berochoth 33b), “Everything is in Heaven’s hands except fear of Heaven,” implies man’s responsibility for his actions. This saying is supple­ mented by another, “Everything is in Heaven’s hands except colds and fevers,” (Kethuboth 30a). This refers to diseases due to negligence, which diseases it is man’s duty to prevent.

The science of preventive medicine and public health is based on acceptance of this ancient Rabbinic dictum, ancient yet strikingly modern and progressive.

In the darkest period of the Middle Ages the Christian churches opposed and even abhorred the study and prac-

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tice of medicine by Christians as con­ tradicting the will of G-d. The Jews, however, were commanded by the Torah to study and to practice the art of healing and many Rabbis were also famous physicians enjoying the title Chochom V’rofe (Rabbi and Physi­ cian) . German encyclopedias (prior to Hitler) contain the statement that pres­ ervation of medicine in the Middle Ages was due to Arabs and Jews.

Hence the Popes in Rome, the Czars in Moscow and Queen Elizabeth (the first) in London were attended by Jewish physicians.

Another cardinal principle of the

Torah which leads to action by the Jew is implied by the Rabbinic saying (Berachoth 10a), “Do not try to pene­ trate the secrets of the Almighty. What you are commanded you should do, leaving the results to the Almighty.”

This injunction, according to the Tal­ mud, was addressed to the pious King Chizkiyahu by the prophet Isaiah when the former tried to explain his refusal to marry on the ground that he had been given a prophetic sight of his son, Menasheh, placing an idol in G-d’s Temple and causing strife to fill Jeru­ salem with innocent blood.

Jewish Bravery

HIS emphasis on action by the Torah, practiced by Jews through­ out many thousands of years, has great­ ly influenced the fate of the Jewish people in general and the fate of the individual Jew in particular. We Jews are regarded by other nations as possessing more than the usual amount of energy, indeed as a “restless people”.

They do not understand the principles of Judaism and the great responsibility which our Torah puts on every person for his behavior and his fate. More­ over, because we Jews, under the in­ fluence of our Torah, are so careful of our health and do not delay in con­ sulting a doctor, we have been regarded by many non-Jews as always in fear of death. Yet in fact whenever the Jew had to risk or sacrifice his life for his ideals, he was the bravest of the brave.

Jewish heroism was displayed in all periods* in the days of David and in the days of the Maccabees, in the days of Bar Kochba and in the days of the

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Crusades, in the dungeons of the Span­ ish Inquisition, in the Warsaw Ghetto, on the Mountains of Judea and last but not least, in the glorious Sinai Cam­ paign. It is not cowardice which impels the Jew to care for his health and to obey the doctor (the famous Russian Professor Pirogov stated: “No nation honors and obeys the doctor more than the Jews.”); it is the common sense and reasonableness of the Jew, his ra­ tional civilized attitude to life and to health as dictated by our Torah.

According to the Torah the active life of the Jew must never be para­ lyzed by reliance on the Almighty. On the contrary, a Jew must be encouraged and inspired in his activity and not weakened by bitochon.

Even if it seems that actions com­ manded by the Torah may not lead to the desired results he has still in cer­ tain cases the duty to act and not to refrain from action. The above-men47

tioned story of Chizkiyahu and Isaiah provides an excellent illustration of this. Dramatic emphasis is given by the mention in the Talmud that Isaiah actually offered his own daughter in

marriage to Chizkiyahu, thereby showing his readiness to share - the risk of having Menasheh as his offspring, thereby easing the conscience of Chizkiyahu.

Disbelief and Pride

HIS emphasis on action and re­ fusal to be fatalistic is a funda­ mental principle of Judaism. It is beau­ tifully brought out in the following story. A famous Rabbi was asked to name the most harmful human failings, and replied, “Pride and disbelief.”

“Why then,” his questioner went on, “did the Almighty create those fail­ ings?” To this the Sage replied, “Both are essential when a Jew is in need of your help. Do not remain passive, say­ ing, the Almighty will help him. You must act as though you were quite oblivious of the existence of the Al­ mighty. Do not remain passive, saying, ‘Who and what am I? There are so many more important, influential and responsible people to help him.’ You must put aside your humility and act as if you were the most important per­ son in the whole community. Pride and disbelief are sometimes essential and that is why the Almighty created them.”

Another aspect of the same stress­ ing of activity rather than fatalism is to be found in the Tannaic Sifri on D ’vorim, 26:15. The words are mysti­ cal and daring and yet in full harmony with the spirit o f the Torah. When the farmer brought his tithe to the Temple he was commanded to recite the verse, . . . I have done according to all that Thou has commanded me. Look down from Thy holy habitation from Heaven

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and bless Thy people *Israel and the ground which Thou has given us. The Sifri comments on this verse, “We have done our duty, now it is for You to do Yours.” This conception that man’s handiwork must evoke a response from the Almighty is based by the Midrosh on the verse of Psalm 121:5, “The Almighty is your shadow and your right hand. Just as the movements of a shadow correspond to the movements of man, so does the Almighty respond to human behavior.

The notion is carried further in the Midrashic commentary Yalkut Shimoni on the crossing of the Red Sea. The miracle did not begin to operate, says the Midrash, until Nachshon ben Aminadab, the head of the Tribe of Judah, flung himself into the waters up to his neck. The same notion plays a major part in the doctrine of the Kabbala — which states, “There is no awakening in Heaven unless there is awakening on earth.”

HE SAME apparent logical con­ tradiction has also a deep philo­ sophical and mystical meaning. If we wish to understand why one should care for his health and sustenance al­ though they are in Heaven’s hand, we must comprehend the attributes of the Almighty as given in our Torah and Kabbalah. The Almighty is referred to as K el Nistater, the Hidden Divinity.

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Jg Ye the concept Gilui Shechinth, the Revealed Presence, is equally deeply rooied in Judaism. When events hap­ pen which 'seem to indicate /that only the laws of nature rule the world and that no supernatural force is there to intervene, when, for example at Ausch­ witz, the sun was shining and the birds singing while evil ruled sjUpreme and nature remained completely indifferent to all the wickedness which was being enacted, in such cases the Jewish view is that the Divinity is hidden and can­ not be grasped by mortal understand­ ing. In Baba Kama 60a we find this commentary on the Hidden Divinity, “When the Destroyer is given power he does not, differentiate between the righteous and the evil-doer.” In Psalms (44:25) we hear the cry: Wherefore hidest Thou Thy ¡face . . .? The prac­ tical consequence of this doctrine is that a Jew should act as though the laws of nature only prevailed in every day life. Our Rabbis prohibited us from relying on miracles (Pesachim 64b).

That is why we are bound to desecrate the Sabbath to $ave a life; that is why a sick person^mhst\not fast on Yom Kippur; that/is whiaisick Jew must im­ mediately cohsult and obey the doctor.

There are,Nhowever, periods when the intervention of Jhe..Almighty is direct and this canf find findi /ts ex­ pression in two ways^Jhi.Jh6 events recorded in the Book of Esther, the laws of nature are observed;/ there is no direct interference with them but the sequence of events is sdch as to indicate clearly a supernatural influ­ ence. All that has happened can be explained as an ordinary |tory. The King first favoured Hamah and then suspected him. Mordecai f saved the King’s life in a natural w^y. But the order of events is undoubtedly quite exceptional, a hidden directing hand can be discerned.

There is, however, in the Torah an­ other class of events such as the exodus from Egypt when the laws of nature are definitely set aside, when what are called in Hebrew “nissim”, i.e. super­ natural phenomena, take place. In both caegories (Esther and the Exodus) we have Giluy Shechinah (the Revelation of the Divine Presence). The Creator reveals Himself in setting aside natural laws, in imposing His will openly and directly upon the course of events. This is the central feature of the miracle of Exodus. Such events are rare! At such times (according to the Talmud Mechilta B’shalach 2) a simple servant saw at the Red Sea more than the great Prophet Ezekiel in his visions. We are in the realms of metaphysics when we endeavour to reconcile the doctrines of the Hidden Divinity and the Re­ vealed Presence, when we show the identity of the Deliverer of Israel and the Almighty who “sleeps.”

A Jew should never despair but con­ tinue to hope for the best, even if (as our Rabbis say) the sharp sword of the Executioner is touching his neck (Berachoth 10a). Yet the laws of na­ ture have to be taken into considera­ tion at every step. A Jew is responsible for his every act, not only in observing the Sabbath and in praying, but equally when looking after his health and working for his livelihood.

STRIKING example of the lengths to which our Sages went in this direction is the action of Rabbi Yehudah the Prince in putting the Oral Torah into writing, in the form of the Mishnah. According to the Torah the Almighty gave a solemn oath that it (the written and oral Law) will never be forgotten by the Jews. Another com­ mandment strictly forbids putting To­ rah She B’al Peh, the Oral Law, into writing (Gittin 60b). Yet when Rabbi'

■

49

August, 1959

i

Yehudah, after the suppression of the Bar Kochba rebellion, was afraid that the dispersion o f the Jews in many countries might bring about the for­ getting of the Oral Torah, he, the Prince, with the consent of all Tannaim of his time disregarded the oath of the Almighty and decided to put the Mishnayot into writing, thus abolishing the prohibition. He based his action on the verse in Psalms 119:126 which the Rabbis interpret as follows: It is time to act for the Almighty even by break­ ing the law.

Let us apply a similar test to the promise of the Almighty to redeem the people of Israel and the land of Israel.

Those who say this means waiting pas­ sively for the supernatural redemption

can hardly claim to have grasped the deep doctrine of our Torah. The solemn oath of the Almighty does not free us from the duty of actively assisting and participating in the redemption of the land and people of Israel.

VERY true scholar is humble and realizes that he can never fully understand the mysteries of creation.

Maimonides has expressed this impos­ sibility in the simple words “N o mouth can recite, no ear can receive so pro­ found a mystery.”

Modern physics says the same about the electron. Regarded as a system of waves, it fills the universe. Regarded as a material unit, untold billions can rest on a pin point. Here again, “No mouth can recite . . . ”

E

ENDURING COVENANT We were taught: "And yet even so (with all of these troubles) w hen they are in the land of their enem ies, I w ill not reject them . . ." (Vayikra 26:44) [. . . in the d ays of the C haldees, for I raised up Daniel, Chananiah, M ichael, and Azaryah] . . . "nor will I abhor them", [. . . in the days of Haman, for I raised up Mordecai and Esther] . . . "to put an end to them", [. . . in the days of the Greeks, for I raised up Simeon the Just, Mattathias ben Yochanan, the H asm onean High Priest and his sons] . . . "to abrogate My aovenant with them", [■ . . in the days of the Romans, for I raised up the House of Rabbi and the Sages] . . . "for I am The Lord their G-d". [. . . in the time to come, for no nation w ill be able to have dominion over them].

M egillah

50

JEWISH LIFE

M EMO TO: ALL TRADITIONAL JEWS FROM: Moses I. Feuerstein, National President, DOJCA SUBJECT: ORTHODOX UNION ASSOCIATION 1. The goal of the Orthodox Union Associa­ tion, the individual memhership arm of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, is to assist the Union in spreading the ideals of orthodox Judaism.

2. We call upon every loyal Jew to .participate in this national, vibrant, traditional Jewish movement. OUA membership identifies you personally with our great program of religious resurgence.

3. As an O.U.A. member you will receive: a. JEWISH LIFE - the distinguished bi-monthly magazine that brings a wealth of good Jewish reading. b. Holiday Pamphlet Service - bringing into your home informative booklets and pam­ phlets on Jewish holidays, beliefs and practices. c. JEWISH ACTION - a publication of news and events in the traditional Jewish world. d. (u) Kosher Products Directory; © News Reporter - keeping you posted on Kashruth developments. e. Special memos giving inside data on current Jewish issues.

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5. I urge you to join now by filling out and mailing the application below.

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JEWISH LIFE

On

theJewish

Interview With A Jewish M instrel

By ERIC OFFENBACHER

The unusual interest recently displayed in a new Jewish record called Han’shomah Loch has prompted this department— in addition to its customary review— to seek for JEWISH LIFE readers an interview with the colorful personality who is the disc’s com­ poser and performer, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.

OME call me a balladeer, some call me a revivalist — maybe Fm both.” Thus declared a very person­ able young orthodox rabbi the other morning as the writer tried to probe into the magic that had catapulted him within two years to musical fame and passionate adoration among America’s Jewish youth. A household name to ardent devotees of religious folk music, Shlomo Carlebach com­ pares somewhat with the wandering minstrel of old (and it may not be accidental that the word derives from “minister”) . Like the troubadours of the Middle Ages, a stringed instru­ ment to accompany him, he sings of love, a different kind of love to be sure, but an equally intense one, springing from the stirrings of a Jew­ ish soul and the pouring out of a Jew­ ish heart. The love of G-d and the compassion for his fellow men are

S

DR. ERIC OFFENBACHER, a dentist by pro­ fession, has been a devotee of Jewish music for many years. He regularly conducts this department.

August, 1959

Rabbi Carlebach’s prime concerns. He like to call his concerts “revival meet­ ings^, showing no fear of any gentile connotations the expression may evoke. To him, the term signifies re­ vival of the Biblical command: And thou shalt love the Lord thy G-d with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

His tasks lie in the realms of music as well as the religious spirit. As com­ bined missions they are as unique as they are meritorious.

As he sat opposite me he recounted the instances when the magnetic spell of his music instilled new religious faith into certain members of his audiences who subsequently became i(haaley t’shuvah” (he sings to ninety per cent non-orthodox groups). His fiery eyes sparkled as they seemed to protrude eagerly from a pale-skinned face almost completely enveloped by a circular, jet-black, bushy beard. His hasty mode of speaking reveals an im­ patient man, anxious to go places fast.

And indeed, after traversing the coun53

try many times from coast to coast, his imediate commitments will take him to Eretz Israel for a two-month concert tour. To what particular cir­ cumstances does he ascribe this phen­ omenal success? Rabbi Carlebach tells his life story.

ORN in Berlin, Germany, into a family of rabbis of world re­ nown, Shlomo’s parents moved to Vienna when he was three years old.

In 1988, as Hitler invaded Austria, the family fled to Telsh in Lithuania, and a year later found refuge in the United States where they settled per­ manently. Young Carlebach attended a number of outstanding yeshivoth, including Torah Vodaath and the Beth Medrash Govoha of Lakewood, New Jersey, receiving his S’michah in 1953 from Rav Huttner of Yeshivath Chaim Berlin. During his yeshiva-bochur years, he came into contact with Chasidic circles and became deeply imbued with the spirit of Chasidic life

B

54

and lore. Meanwhile he had taken up secular studies in philosophy and ab­ normal psychology at Columbia Uni­ versity and the New School for Social Research. While thus preparing him­ self for the teaching profession his love for music was held in check, yet from within the confines of his fertile mind .there poured forth tunes in­ spired by his contacts with the Modzitzer and Bobover Chasidim. Much as he would have liked to acquire a for­ mal musical education, the rabbis con­ sidered this a “bitul z’m a n Record­ ing a series of failures while teaching in various yeshivoth, he explains: “I could not keep discipline because I love children too much.” And after a short tenure as “week-end” rabbi in Dorothy, New Jersey during 1956-57, he finally could contain himself no longer. Carlebach decided for music.

Three events, he observes, figure as milestones which launched him on his auspicious career. Discounting an early attempt at mastery of the violin JEWISH LIFE

at the age of seven back in Vienna, it happened in 1951 that a certain woman teacher of English at Colum­ bia University (and a vice-president of the League for Arab Refugees at that!) first “discovered” Shlomo’s fine ear for sounds. Up to that time he had not spoken a word of English, and her instruction apparently was concerned with phonetic rudiments. The stymied musical talent had to lie dormant, however, for another four years, and Sholosh Seudoth zemiroth at the Rebbe’s table were about the only outlets for his frustration at the time. Then in 1955 Carlebach was called upon to act as advisor in a performance of “The Dybbuk” in New York’s Green­ wich Village. Here he watched a sing­ ing actor playing the guitar and clearly visualized himself in a similar role. From this point to buying an in­ strument was but a logical step. The Society for the Classic Guitar fur­ nished a teacher, Miss Anita Scheer, who may be credited with noting down Shlomo’s songs for the first time. She immediately recognized the inherent talent of the young composer, and her encouragement and advice guided him up to his public appearances.

Asked if he can read music now, Carlebach modesty replies: “It would take me a long time.” As he arrives at musical composition in an amateurish manner, the lack of formal technique is compensated by a seemingly inex­ haustible and effortless stream of melodies of heartfelt invention, yet little variety in character and mood.

Unlike a professionally trained com­ poser who searches for a poem or other text to be “set to music”, Carle­ bach takes his pre-fabricated tunes and opens a Tanach to “attune” them, so to speak, to a suitable phrase. It is for this reason that some of his more familiar songs owe their texts to variAiigust, 1959

ous incidental events in his life. His famous “Od Yeshoma” (which has al­ most become his them song or trade­ mark) was originally fitted to the words of Psalm 33, hi vo yismach libemi, etc. Two weeks after this des­ ignation the composer attended a friend’s Sheva B’rochoth ceremony and decided then to change the text to its present words. In view of the pop­ ularity it has achieved in the new form one can safely predict that a further change will be well-nigh im­ possible. One Tisha B’av Eve a beau­ tiful tune came to him which he could hardly wait to harmonize on his gui­ tar as the fastday drew to a close.

Appropriately enough he selected the words “hi lishuoth)cha kivinu kol hayom.” It remains one of his most in­ spired creations which displays mu­ sical merit as well.

ABBI Carlebach feels a special affinity to young people. They have been his best audiences. Since his voice is not big intimate surroundings are most effective. To introduce his nigunim he often resorts to explanatory as well as admonitory remarks, sermonettes on Mussar. The type of his music lends itself well to audience participation. Once he has established rapport with his listeners their recep­ tive frame of mind knows no limits of space or time. He carries them along, repeating a musical theme over and over again, each time faster and in a higher key. From this zenith of com­ munication he feels he has brought them not only nearer to his music but also nearer to the message he wishes the words to impart. Our teen-agers are easily fascinated. They have found an emotional outlet here that is at once electrifying and immensely satis­ fying. Carlebach states it simply but succinctly : “People like my tunes and

R

55

I like people*” It has brought him fan mail, headed “Dear Shlomo,’’ which runs to unprecedented proportions.

Meanwhile, those not yet acquainted with Carlebach’s unique music may

*

HAN’SHOMAH LOCH (SONGS OF MY SOUL). Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach sings 12 Original Hebrew Songs with Choir and Orchestra conducted by Milton Okun. One 12" Long Playing Record, available from Zimra Records, 200 West 57th Street, New York City.

Price $4.98.

A CKNOWLEDGEMENT is due here to the arranger, Milton Okun, as well as to the composer of the original music. It is quite aston­ ishing for those who know Carlebach1? nigurtim in their “naked” versions how much “dressing up” a professional musician, experienced in the business of arrangements, can accomplish through coloration and promotion of detail by means of various solo instru­ ments. Violin, -flute, clarinet, harp, percussion, in addition to the guitar, make up some of the orchestral timbres underlining a musical phrase here or introducing a certain mood there. Al­ though the orchestral and choral addi­ tions are impressive indeed, the adap­ tations mostly in good taste, there may be many listeners who would have preferred to hear “their” Shlomo alone with his guitar. Take a selection like “Ruach”, with no words other than a suggested underlying text. In spite of the employment of a harp there is not much illusion here of the lightness or breeziness of an ethereal atmosphere. On the other hand, in a 56

hear a reasonable facsimile thereof on a phonograph record just 'released and, in the vein of his philosophy, entitled “Songs of My Soul,” Han’shomah Loch*

*

H e

number like “Mimkomcha” (the only one appearing in a major key and with a “ehazonish’, introduction), the agumented accompaniment enhances the enjoyment of the piece. The same is true for the echo effects achieved in the second half of “Av Horachamim” and the percussion sounds alongside Chasidic rhythms like in “Uv’neh Otho”. But here and in other offerings frequent modulations in pitch are annoying.

Fortunately, cheap climaxes a la Hollywood have been avoided and the music runs its relaxed and resigned course, ready for the listener to “hum along”, even though the intimacy of a personal performance can never be re­ captured on a record. As mentioned above, similarities of mood are dis­ tinctly noticeable in Carlebach’s com­ positions and make for a certain lack of variety. But even if the meditative nigunim gain the upper hand (this re­ viewer finds “Esso Eynai” and “Ki Lishuoth’cha” hauntingly beautiful), a catchy tune like “Od Yeshomah” will linger on long after the disc has stopped spinning.

N ALL, the record can be highly recommended, not the least for its sincerity of purpose and for the reli­ gious spirit with which it is imbued.

I

*The Hebrew is not a translation of the English title but the heading of one of the songs on the record.

JEWISH LIFE

The sound engineers have done a fine job (though balances are sometimes uneven) and have built up Shlomo’s not very schooled but pleasing voice to a degree impossible to achieve in an auditorium. The record jacket lists the transliterated Hebrew texts as well as

the English translations for all of thé twelve selections heard on this disc.

We understand that more of this music has been taped and new tunes are on the way. The “Shlomo Carlebach Chasidim” will await the next record with unabashed eagerness.

A nnouncem ent Due to substantial increases in the cost of publication of JEWISH LIFE, it is necessary to revise subscription rates and the single copy price.

Effective with the Tishri 5720/October 1959 issue, our rates will be as follows: Single co p y .......................... $ .45 Two years (12 issu e s)..........$4.00 Three years (18 issu e s)......$5.50 Four years (24 issu e s)....... $7.00

The price change will not affect subscriptions now in force.

We feel confident that our readers will appreciate the cir­ cumstances and that they will agree that JEWISH LIFE at the new rates constitutes the best Jewish reading at the lowest possible cost.

We thank you for your devoted interest in our magazine.

m

August, 1959

m

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58

JEWISH LIFE

Book

B

From an Israel Courtroom

By REUBEN E. GROSS

TEARS AND LAUGHTER IN AN ISRAEL COURTROOM, by Shneor Cheshin; Jewish Publication Society, 1959. 320 pages, $4.00 HIS BOOK is a collection of vig­ nettes and tales by Judge Shneor Cheshin, now a member of the Su­ preme Court of Israel, made in the course of his twenty years as a judge in various courts under the present government and under the mandatory government.

In two decades, a judge in almost any court is bound to run across a substantial number of interesting cases. In Israel, however, the ingath­ ering of immigrants from diverse cor­ ners of the globe with their various customs, languages, and outlooks has created a more than usually colorful background from which such stories might be culled. Skillfully and enter­ tainingly, the reader is shown scenes involving landlords and tenants, mar­ riage brokers, juvenile delinquents, new immigrants with their language problems, beggars, heirs, and men who litigate for principle’s sake. Through-

®

REUBEN E. GROSS, a New York attorney, is an editorial associate of J ewish L ife . He is chairman of the Armed Forces Commission of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

August, 1959

out the book the author seems to em­ phasize the peculiarly Jewish or Is­ raeli aspect of the situation. The re­ sult is a series of nuggets of humor and tragedy which illuminate Israeli life today with more facility than volumes of sociological reports and studies.

Though intended by the author to be solely a series of anecdotes, one chapter unintentionally stands out as indictment of the Israeli system of jurisprudence—the chapter “On Tak­ ing an Oath”. As is well known, judi­ cial proceedings in Israeli courts are modeled on the English common law and not Talmudic law. A basic proce­ dural difference between these two systems is that in the common law every witness is sworn to tell the truth before testifying. According to Jewish law, however, witnesses testify without an oath. Oaths may be im­ posed upon the parties in special cir­ cumstances. When imposed, it is in awesome proceedings and under cir­ cumstances that give fair assurance that the truth will be forthcoming as a result of such imposition. Unless the party taking the oath is known to be G-d-fearing, he may not take an oath.

Moreover, it is imposed only as a last 59

one Mother tells another

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resort in eliciting truth. One of the sorest criticisms of the common law, on the other hand, is its abuse of the oath. The droning clerk, monotonously adjuring witnesses in a meaningless formula to tell “the whole truth and nothing but the truth” has become a half-comic stereotype on television and in the movies. The result, as is known to every member of Bench and Bar, is a prevalence of perjury and a complete disregard of the sanctity of the oath.

HAT happens when the common law system is imposed upon a people who have for thousands of years taken a different attitude to­ ward an oath? The author states: “To this day, there remains a deep-seated opposition on the part of many Jews — outspoken free­ thinkers as well as the most pious -—to taking an oath. The orthodox and the non-believer alike will use every subterfuge in order to avoid it. An argument frequently heard: ‘This is the first time in my life that I have been inside a court*. Or, T have never yet taken an oath; why should I start now?’ This argu­ ment, however, does not suffice to free the witness from the obligation of taking an oath . . . The same op­

W

position to swearing prevails among the less educated . . . The fear of taking an oath is especially strong among the Oriental Jews”.

One Bukharian Jew once told the writer, “We are Bukharians, not Ashkenazim, and with us oaths are not like potatoes.”

The observation of this Bukharian speaks louder than tomes of jurispru­ dence. A legal system that treats oaths like potatoes will fail in its most essential task—ferreting out the truth.

But sadder than that is the fact that inhibitions which have been built up in the course of almost two hundred generations may be destroyed in less than two generations, and the fear of taking the Name in vain may vanisif in Israel.

As indicated above, no criticism was intended by the author of the judicial system over which he presides, nor of the various aspects of Israeli life Which he depicts. His approach is un­ critical and affectionate. He appears to be an understanding judge and author with some appreciation for tradition and religion. He accom­ plished what he set out to do—to write an interesting and readable book.

It is good to begin every day with divine and holy employments, and after that to proceed to the necessary duties of life. That is w hy The Almighty has commanded us to take care to obey His commandments, and e s­ pecially at the first moment of the dawn, as soon as w e are risen, to pay our adoration to Him, that our offerings to Him m ay precede every human occupation, having the recollection of Him for our prompter and leader.

Philo Judaeus

August, 1959

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62

JEWISH LIFE

Letters to the Editor

FAMILY PLANNING

Hackensack, N. J. In beginning this letter, I should explain . . . While I am not Jewish, during my lifetime I have had many Jewish friends and I have always been interested in the Jewish religion as it is quite fascinating—as is my own religion, the Roman Catholic.

I occasionally read Jewish periodi­ cals and those of other religions so that I can understand at least some small part of them. So many people today talk like experts about things of which they know nothing. You so often hear “Jews do this” and “Jewish believe in that” expressed by people who have never known any Jews intimately nor have any knowledge whatsoever of the religion.

The purpose of this letter is to point out . . . something which is not quite accurate in the article on “The Jewish Attiude Toward Family Plan­ ning” which appeared in the June is­ sue of J e w ish L ife . On page 7 Dr. Tendler states what he undoubtedly understands to be the Roman Catholic attitude toward marital relations and family planning.

While every good Catholic knows that family limitation by use of arti­ ficial measure is forbidden, the Church does not teach that the sole purpose of the marital act is procreation. I was taught that in addition to this sacred purpose, the marital act is also a gift August, 1959

from G-d for the enjoyment of the couple and to bring them closer in mar­ ried love. The Church did not and does not now teach or believe that physical pleasure is basically evil. Continence is only approved when both parties agree, since marital relations are not to be deprived of either party by the other. Married love is something to be enjoyed and that is why the Church does permit rhythm so that it can be enjoyed by couples who may not wish to have another child at that time. It is true that the Church does not wish its people to become like animals, but to say that the Church believes that physical pleasure is evil is pretty far off base.

I was always taught that sex is something of beauty—until degraded (mis-use by teenagers, adulterers, etc.). . . . While I do not like to see other religions misunderstood, I like even less that mine be misunderstood.

Mrs. Nancy H. Roden From Dr. Moses Tendler: I believe that the opinion of the atti­ tude of the Roman Catholic Church towards sex cited in my article is es­ sentially in accord with that expressed in many official Roman Catholic pub­ lications. It is interesting to 'find, how­ ever, that the formal church doctrine has been interpreted in such way as to make it more aceptable to the congre­ gant of today.

63

CREDIT FOR CIVIL SERVICE

Brooklyn, N. Y. This is .in regard to the query in Letters to the Editor in the June issue concerning the person responsible for arranging for Sabbath observers to take New York City Civil Service ex­ aminations undeir satisfactory condi­ tions (“Sabbath Observance and the Civil Service,” J e w ish L ife , April/ N isan).

The late Samuel H. Galston, of blessed memory, Director of Examina­ tions from 1944-1957 of the Municipal Civil Service Commission should re­ ceive a great share of credit for this and-other measures designed to insure equality of treatment for Sabbath ob­ servers in the New York City Civil Service.

Edward Schenkman

WRITER RE WRITERS

Los Angeles, Calif.

Though “orthodoxy” and “liveliness” sound as though they ought to be mutu­ ally exclusive, many of J ew ish L ife 's contributors very nicely manage to have it both ways. I am particularly impressed by the art work of Hovav

64

Kruvi, which could be a credit to any magazine.

One comment on Ward Moore's pro­ vocative article “A Note on Jewish Writers of English'' ( April/Nisan).

Can it be that Mr. Moore has never heard of Avram Davidson, one of the finest and most prolific contemporary American short story writers, a man, not only “self-assured and relaxed” in his orthodoxy, but equally at home in the pages of such widely-assorted mag­ azines as “Playboy,” “Ellery Queen,” “Fantasy and Science Fiction,” “Com­ mentary,'' and even, I hasten to add, J e w ish L ife .

Shimon Wincelberg

APPRECIATION

New York, N. Y. I have just read “Nostalgic Echoes of Spanish Jewry” in the last issue of J e w ish L ife . I feel the urge to let you know how much I enjoyed this mas­ terpiece of saying profoundly much on the basis of leamedness and judgment —and on a few pages only . . .

Stephen S. Kayser, Curator The Jewish Museum

JEWISH LIFE

ê

lT

WAS

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P R IV IL E G E

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'MINM v e g e t a r ia n

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* * " UfACTURED IN O.S.A. BT _

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Strictly^Cosheri Mmmmmmmmeichel! Each and every bean a melting morsel of nutritious eating pleasure! A treat in more than one w ay, these Heinz Vegetarian Seans are ^pareve” as well as Kosher, so they go with any meal. Ju st h e a t . . . serve . . . and be ready with ~ 7 Second helpings. Every label carries th e © seal of ap- \ a p t ]

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