Jewish Life July-Aug 1964

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TH E G A T E S O F IN T E R FA IT H • TH E TEXT O F TH E T A N A (TFT TH E CO M M ANDM ENT O F SH A A T N E Z NORILSK

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S P A IN T O D A Y

TH E D IA S P O R A A N D I S R A E L -A LITERARY LINK TH E W IN D O W

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AV-ELUL 5724 JULY-AUGUST 1964

TH EY F O U G H T A L O N E

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66th Anniversary B iennial N ational Convention OF THE

Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America will be held n'^N AT THE Shoreham Hotel in WASHINGTON, D C. on Wednesday, November 25—Sunday, November 29, 1964 Kislev 24 to Kislev 28, 5725 PLEASE RESERVE THESE DATES

Thanksgiving Week . . . in the Nation*s Capital.

Vol. XXXI, No. 6/July-August 1964/Av-E!ul 5724

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le u ñ d i EDITORIALS IMPLICATIONS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS REVOLUTION ........................................................

S aul B ernstein , Editor R euben E. G ross R abbi S. J. S harfman L ibby K laperman P aul H. B aris

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ARTICLES THE GATES OF INTERFAITH / Bernard R osensw eig..........................................................

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Editorial Associates G abrielle R iback

SPAIN TODAY / Jacob B e lle r ...........

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Editorial Assistant JEWISH LIFE is published bi-monthly. Subscription two years $4.00, three years $5.50, four years $7.00. Foreign: Add 25 cents per year.

Editorial and Publication Office: 84 Fifth Avenue New York 10011, N. Y. ALgonquin 5-4100 Published by U nio n of O rthodox Jewish C ongregations of A merica M oses I. F euerstein

President Benjamin Koenigsberg, Nath­ an K. Gross, Samuel L. Brenn glass, Harold M. Ja­ cobs, Herbert Berman, Vice Presidents; Rabbi Joseph Karasick, Treasurer; Harold H. Boxer, Secretary; David Politi, Financial^Secretary.

Dr. Samson R. Weiss Executive Vice President Saul Bernstein, Administrator Second Class Postage paid at New York, N. Y.

THE DIASPORA AND ISRAEL— A LITERARY LINK / Isaac L. Swift ........................ .............................................. 24 NORILSK / Murray Grauer ................................................... 30 THE COMMANDMENT OF SHAATNEZ / Jay B raverm an ........................................................................ 40 THE TEXT OF THE TANACH / J. E. Ehrentreu ........... 48

FICTION THE WINDOW / E. V. S ie g e l.....................................

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BOOK REVIEWS THEY FOUGHT ALONE / Shimon Wincelberg . . . . . .

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A NEW ISAIAH STUDY / Israel D. L e rn e r................... 61

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

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ...............

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Cover by Moshe L. Zwang

¡© Copyright 1964 by UNION OF ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA

July-August, 1964

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RABBI J. E. EHRENTREU has served congregations in Baden, Munich, and Melbourne, and is now Rav of Lon­ don’s Adath Yeshurun Synagogue. His articles and essays on subjects ranging from Semitic studies to pedagogics have been* published in the journals of four countries, and he is the author of a book on the Mesorah, “Untersuchungen iiber die Massora.” Dr. Ehrentreu helped or­ ganize the first Beth Jacob Teachers Training Course in Robow, Poland, in 1925.

A recipient of a grant from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, RABBI JAY BRA VERM AN is presently working for a doctorate in Rabbinic and Patristic Litera­ ture at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University. He is also a Regents College Teaching Fellow; he has taught Mathematics in high school; and he spends his summers in Camp Winsoki where he is the Educational Director.

among our contributors

JACOB SELLER, the peripatetic journalist whose articles on Jews in various Latin countries are well-remembered by our readers, has recently returned from Spain where he gathered enough material on the Jewish communities there “to write at least one book,” he states. In this issue Mr. Beller provides a timely, colorful, and candid view of the Spanish scene in 400 years-after-the-Inquisition perspective.

RABBI ISAAC L. SWIFT is well-known as both speaker and writer. His articles and reviews have appeared in J e w i s h L i f e and other periodicals, and his lecture tours have brought him to audiences in all parts of the U.S. and Canada. Born and educated in England, he served as Rav in Sydney, Australia before coming to this country in 1954.

A suburban housewife and mother of two, ELAINE SIEGEL turned to writing four years uago and has already achieved considerable acclaim for her work. She won the Golden Pen Play writing Contest sponsored by the Jew­ ish Theatre for Children, for her entry, “A Well in the Desert,” which will be produced later this year. In this issue Mrs. Siegel draws from her own youth in Germany during World War II, to create the sensitive portrait of a young woman, in “The Window.”

The tragic story of the Jews exiled in Siberian slave labor camps becomes better known to the world through RABBI MURRAY GRAUER'S article, “Norilsk.” The author of “The Social Role of the Orthodox Priest in Greece, Ro­ mania, and Bulgaria,” his White Plains congregants have established a scholarship fund in his honor at Yeshiva University, the school from which Rabbi Grauer received his B.A. degree and ordination, and where he is presently a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Hebrew Literature.

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Implications of the Civil Rights Revolution ASSAGE of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 marks legislative recognition of a great change in American life. This farreaching measure gives full legal force to a revolutionary devel­ opment—the rejection by the American Negro of vassal status in American society. The founding premise of the American community, the inherent equality of all men, was long subject to the tacit qualification: “except the Negro.” The qualification could stand only so long as the Negro would yield to it. Now he will no longer yield. And having learned that the will for equality of rights, duly mobilized, bears force for its attainment, he has moved accordingly. He rejects, together with secondclass citizenship, a status subordinate to or in any wise differen­ tiated from that of the white man in the country’s economy, education, and over-all living standard. The “social contract” of old between white and black Americans has run its course. The Civil Rights Act, rising out of ferment, implements the transi­ tion from the social reality of yesterday to that of today.

The continuing eruption of racial strife, both North and South, gives grim warning of the dangers which the Civil Rights Act Anarchy was designed to avert. Resort to extremes of terror ranging to or cold-blooded murder by fanatic white racists in Mississippi opens Progress? up, on the one side, vistas of stop-at-nothing savagery. Violent riots by mobs of frenzied Negro youths in Northern cities reveal, on the other side, an exploding volcano. Are these sanguinary developments preludes to anarchy or passing phases in the con­ tinuing road to progress? Only the degree of thoroughness and determination brought to bear in dealing with them will provide the answer.

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A S IN ALL cases of social upheaval, Jews have a special con± \ cern with the present pattern of events. With the inherent Jewish commitment to social justice and the primary Jewish stake in the excision of racial discrimination, the movement for civil rights was bound to command wide Jewish support. This is as it should be, and certainly Jews at large can be counted on to do their full share towards implementation of the Civil Rights Act. At the same time, there is need to reckon with the impact of the racial upheaval on our own position within the general community.

It is held axiomatic that progress in the exercise of human July-August, 1964

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rights is beneficial to collective Jewish wellbeing within surLong-term, rounding society, and that the reverse likewise holds true.

Short-term Basically, therefore, the social emancipation of any disadvantaged Impact minority or class contributes to Jewish welfare. On the other

hand, in the painful process of social realignment, necessarily accompanied by a sharpening of group consciousness and of inter-group tensions, the Jew is apt to be viewed with rancor on each side. In a “We” versus “They” climate, the Jew, though he be not of the “They,” is not identified with the “We.” In the eyes of those in the grip of inflamed passions, he is suspect.

This appears to be the case now, as manifestations of newly charged hostility towards Jews among some elements of both white and black gentiles indicate. It would be unwise to regard these manifestations as of but momentary import.

We Jews must gear ourselves to an era of conflicting social horizons. Moods are hardening as epochal advances in civil rights simultaneously whet competing drives—for a swifter pace and broadened gamut of racial climb; for defense of status and reversal of the whole tide of social change. Leaders are hardpressed to control aroused masses and to curb the reckless; extremist voices, attuned to unleashed desires, increasingly set the pace in the social arena. Nationalisms black and white, each with its chant of self-supremacy, find new acceptance and new influence. Neither is ready as yet for all-out attack; but in the meanwhile . . . there is the Jew. VVTHILE impromptu approaches to this situation are not to ▼V be encouraged, the problem will not just “stay put” pend­ ing a supposedly definitive sociological analysis and mode of treatment. It may very well be, as the current vogue in Jewish Our Own community relations circles has it, that hostility towards Jews Course among white Christians derives from prejudicial religious teach­ ing, and that similar animus among black Christians rises from the fact that the Negro encounters the Jew as landlord, employer, or neighborhood merchant. But whatever the adequacy of these other diagnoses, it is obvious that Jews have but limited means, at best, of changing the causatory factors. We do, however, have —if we so will—the power to determine our own course in relation to them. This must derive from Jewish principle, ap­ plied with forthrightness and courage.

At the core of the race-relations problem is the issue of human dignity. And human dignity—the dignity of every man, all men, of whatever stock and color, being created in the Divine image —is, of course, a cardinal tenet of the Jewish faith. It is a sacred religious obligation to uphold this tenet within the bounds of Jewish life and it is our duty to strive for its full application in 4

JEWISH LIFE

the society of which we are a part. Nothing—not the threats of racist fanatics, nor the depradations of rampaging hooligans— must permit the slightest desistence therefrom.

But, while bespeaking the human dignity of our fellowmen, let us not fail to impel the recognition of our own. This we must do in ways that all can understand.

N THIS connection, it may be well to ponder the lesson of Crown Heights. In that predominantly orthodox Jewish sec­ tion of Brooklyn, determined action in the form of volunteer, unarmed safety patrols soon not only curbed the invasion of criminals from which the locality had been suffering but led to Firm Basis: a salutary improvement in race relations. Negro and white ChrisRespeet tian people of nearby areas promptly joined with their Jewish near-neighbors in manning the patrols, to combat what all realized was a common menace. A spirit of community of pur­ pose was engendered on a firmer, more decisive basis than inter­ faith or inter-racial dialogues—namely, that of mutual respect.

It is important that the country’s various ethnic and religious communities understand each other. It is more important yet that they respect each other. Respect, that is, not merely in the sense of recognition of the moral right to exist, but in the sense also of recognition of strength and determination. Especially does this apply to the Jewish situation. Dialogues, get-to-know: r’ us-better programs, anti-defamation processes, even legal pro­ cedures can go just so far towards securing healthy relationships.

Manifestation of the capacity and readiness to stand one’s ground, in whatsoever form circumstances may require, is a message that penetrates convincingly to the well-disposed and the ill-disposed alike. It gets across. It is heard and heeded.

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HE IDEAL of human dignity is not exhausted, however, by the concept of civil equality. I t embraces, among other things, the right of each, consistent with the like right of the rest, to be different, to live in accordance with his own faith or tenets, Self - to seek fulfillment of his own distinctive mission in life. In this Affirmation regard the Jew, among all the components in the American* mosaic, is put to the greatest test. Here the challenge is not to social weal but to spiritual purpose. And here, too, the factor of respect comes into play.

If we, like our fathers before us, affirm our will to fulfill our Jewish character and heritage, to carry forward that which was entrusted to us, we shall have the strength of self-respect— an impregnable strength which compels the respect of all. In shaping the course of Jewish action in the difficult period now confront­ ing this country, let this objective be given first priority.

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July-August, 1964

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The Gates of Interfaith

By BERNARD ROSENSWEIG

r p H E R E are certain “sacred cows” There is no doubt in my mind, nor JL in the Jewish community today can there be a doubt in the mind of which one—particularly the local rabbi any objective observer of the Jewish — criticizes at the risk of courting per­ scene, that we are confronted today sonal unpopularity. Such is the case by a clear danger to the whole struc­ now with the matter of the Interfaith ture of Jewish life on the American movement and the Jewish reaction to continent. The future of Jewish life it. In some places, the situation is such for the next hundred years, and for that he who dares to raise his voice in great masses of Jews, will be deter­ protest or has the temerity to chal­ mined by our approach to basic prob­ lenge the validity of certain assump­ lems that now threaten the very exist­ tions and manifestations in this area, ence as a viable community; and at and the dangerous ramifications that the top of the list is the question of stem from a current approach, exposes our attitude towards thè “open door” himself to public condemnation. He policy which is now being featured becomes a target of a campaign of and practiced by certain groups in villification and abuse at the hands of relationship to the Church. The time the well-oiled propaganda machines has come for a frank evaluation of our of certain groups and organizations position and a painful assessment of who have made a sacred cult of its dangers.

“Brotherhood” and “Interfaith.”

But the rabbi, if he is to be true T ET it be stated, first of all, that to his calling, must speak the truth -Li we Jews need not take a back seat that is in his heart. No other concern to any other religious group or formu­ can motivate his actions at any time— lation in our uncompromising espousal and surely when the future of Jews of human brotherhood. Long before and Judaism is in jeopardy — than the words “religious tolerance” graced that the„jwill of G-d be done, i f " ? sany dictionary, our Torah and our bigot is to be defined as a man whose Rabbis had already emphasized that love for his people is so great and so Human dignity was the G-d-given right intense that he is willing to fight for of every man. On every page of the its living perpetuation at all costs, then /lew’s Bible there appears before him we should all be glad to be branded the injunction to respect his fellowBigots. man. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 6

JEWISH LIFE

thyself,” he is commanded; “Thou shalt . achieve this goal. We do not have the love the stranger,” “Thou shalt not right, in the name of this quest, to vex nor oppress the stranger, because obliterate our own essentials, those you were strangers in the land of differences which separate us from Egypt.” These tenets, these mitzvoth, Christianity and all other faiths, and are indelibly imprinted in the Jew’s without which we cease to be a unique mind. people for G-d’s special work.

Is there a more all-embracing state­ URELY our gratitude for the new ment of man’s ultimate hopes than the dimension in our relationship to stirring words of Malachi: “Have we the Christian majority should not take not one Father; hath not one G-d the form of abject surrender of our created us all?” Is there a finer formu­ Jewish self-respect.

Only recently we lation of the dignity of human beings than the words enunciated by our saw such a manifestation. The ink was Rabbis of old, who told us that if one not even dry on the d rift document of saves but one life it is imputed to him the section on the Je^s which was to as if he had saved the entire world? be presented at the Ecumenical Coun­ cil, when the president of the Union We Jews welcome, as we should, of Reform congregations demanded every effort which is aimed at promot­ that now we Jews would have to re­ ing a better understanding between evaluate our position vis-a-vis Jesus Christian and Jew. The continuing and give him his “proper place in drive to achieve social harmony and Judaism”— as if our; attitude until now friendly relations amongst groups is to has been a false one. be acclaimed. In the world in which Surrender of Jewish self-respect is we live there is no room for religious exactly what is hapfoeuing in some cirintolerance; and the amelioration of cJesr^TiT a recent^new^etter which a friction between Jews and their Chris­ /lo cal Conservative congregation sent tian neighbors is greatly to be encour­ \o u t to its menjJaefsT there appeared in aged. Today, all religions must work bfrld typcTtSecaption: “Interfaith Re­ together against the common enemy lations are Important.” Under this that threatens us all alike— G-dless heading the members, young and old, Communism and materialistic secular­ were called upon to attend en masse*** ism. Every honest step in this direc­ as “observers”'-*»an Anglican evening tion should be welcomed by every service, to hear their spiritual leader man of G-d. deliver an address at the church, and But—this kind of relationship must to be feted with “kosher” refreshments. not be bought at the expense of What an amazing activity! How edify­ Judaism or Jewish values. Shall we be ing a program for Brotherhood when so grateful that we are permitted to a congregation of Jews initiates a live, that we then turn around and project which the Halochah has con­ commit suicide? Certainly we want demned and which the historic sense harmony and good will with our non- of Israel has rejected.

Jewish friends—but not at any price.

For almost two thousand years we We are not, nor should we be, pre­ Jews resisted, even at the sacrifice of pared to lower the barriers or the life itself, every attempt to be drag­ standards ) of Judaism in order to ged into the Church. Today, we are

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July-August, 1964

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witness to the incredible spectacle of Conservative and Reform ministers literally marching their people into the Church to witness and in some cases to participate in Christian services.

What Jewish purpose is served by such ventures? Are their sponsors, in fervent pursuit of the Brotherhood quest, endeavoring to learn more about the majority religions among whose followers we dwell—all in one evening service? Or are they driven by the urge to convince non-Jews that Jews do not have horns, are human too and really no different from themselves?

W / HO, in fact, are the Jews who W attend these services? They are certainly not those so thoroughly grounded in their Judaism that they are ready to experience the worship of other religions. The American Jew­ ish community at large is surely not so firmly rooted in its Judaism that it can afford the luxury of contravening the imperatives of the Halochah. The recent proliferation of magazine arti­ cles and discussions about the “disap­ pearing American Jew” — notwith­ standing their flimsy statistical base— provide indicators of burning dangers.

The rate of total assimilation and shocking increase in intermarriage among the non-orthodox elements of the community, the apparent apathy about things Jewish which the college youth manifest, should be more than enough to shake the complacency of any committed Jew, and to propel him into a re-assessment of all the accept­ ed attitudes, and particularly our re­ lationship to the Interfaith movement in its present form. In the light of all this, and in the light of the concern belatedly shown even by non-orthodox agencies over the distressing rise of intermarriage, do w j have the right 8

to gamble with the souls of Jewish men, women and ¡children even for the sake of brotherhood and good-will?

How much of ja step is it from group “observation]’ to individual par­ ticipation? An eakier step, beyond question, than it wajs before these same people stepped across the threshold of the Church ab visiting Temple groups. In the spiritual and moral climate of today, réligious leaders who open wide the gates which lead to even more assimilation betray their trust. If there is sudh a small difference between the Temple and the Church that Jews and Cpristians can legiti­ mately worship together at each other’s services, that ministers of each can preach from the ipulpit of the other, why should not apathetic and indiffer­ ent Jews, with ai minimum of back­ ground, make thé decisions that since there is no real difference why bother to suffer as part of a minority?

In an equal ¿ompetition with the majority faith, We Jews would have nothing to fear. But this is just the point; we are npt dealing from a po­ sition of strength. At no time do we have the right tô lower the standards or to remove the barriers or to com­ promise the religious values of eternal Judaism; but least of all do we have that right in such a situation as that which now prevails.

HERE are those who will say that since understanding between Jews and Christians is so important to our democratic society, each must freely expose himself to the other. But is “interfaith” in fact th e ^ g h t solution to the problem of prejudice and intol­ erance? Dr. Dan Hager, a specialist in the field of community relations, once callecNhjs apprqach^dne of the most misleading and mischievous theories of

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JEWISH LIFE

intergroup conflict.” It is based upon the false premise that conflict springs primarily from misunderstanding of the beliefs or practices of others, and therefore peace and tranquility are best produced by promoting better knowledge. True understanding, how­ ever, is not to be facilely achieved by interchange of data, and such inter­ change does not necessarily bring about peace and reconciliation. This approach reflects a certain social im­ maturity because it assumes that dif­ ferences between religious groups are not real and are therefore without sig­ nificance. In fact it undermines the whole concept of collective individual­ ity which is the principal tenet of cul­ tural pluralism.

Exchange of creedaE knowledge is not always necessary in order to achieve many desirable community goals. Jews and Christians, for in­ stance, ^ need not understand each other’s beliefs in order for both groups to subscribe to the principle of equal rights and liberties for all. It is entirely possible for members of different groups to meet on equal-status terms in the pursuit of common objectives without necessarily becoming involved in a program of mutual theological understanding.

But even if all our other fears were unjustified, the Interfaith program as it is being pushed by certain Jewish groups would still deserve to be con­ demned. We may not forget the mis­ sionary character of Christianity.

Judaism has never looked upon itself as the sole repository of salvation.

Never did authentic Judaism demand “aoge intrare”— “Compel them to enter.” Never was it held by our Rab­ bis that Gentiles are excluded from salvation unless they accept the Torah.

July-August, 1964

J o the contrary, in regard to the nonJew, our Sages declared that “The righteous of all nations have a portion in the world to come.” We have never believed that formal conversion to Judaism, by those not born as Jews, is at all necessary for them to share in Heaven’s rewards.

Christianity! on the other hand, has always lookedlupon the Church as the sole possessor ^>f salvation. Those who do not join thb Church are, accord­ ing to Christian theology, “damned and doomed.” The Church proclaims that there is no\ salvation outside of its fold; hence, ¿yery effort must be made to save as many souls as possi­ ble. Missionary wo^k, then, is an in­ tegral part of the Christian endeavor.

The Christian minister sincerely and necessarily feels it is his duty to per­ suade as many non-believers as pos­ sible to accept Christianity. I recall vividly an example of this in personal experience. A number of years ago, when I taught /at Teacher’s College’ a United Church minister exchanged classes with me. Dqring the course of a one-hour lecture he made a deter­ mined attempt to bring “the light of Christianity” to my “unenlightened” Jewish students.

AN anyone seriously believe that C Christian theologians have really abandoned the concept of the over­ riding need of the “mission to the Jews,” as Paul described it in the Epistle to the Romans? Have they abandoned the belief that the evangeli­ zation of the Jews is more fraught with salvational consequence than is the evangelization of any other group of people? Certainly there is a Niebuhr here and a Tillich there who are pre­ pared to make an accommodation with the existence of Judaism. But 9

honesty dictates the realization that these men do not represent even a significant minority in Christian the­ ological circles. The majority opinion in Christian thinking remains, that the Jew belongs in a special theological category and that without the conver­ sion of Jews the final establishment of G-d’s kingdom on earth cannot come about.

The position of George Sweazy, as it was delineated in the Christian Century, is much more indicative of the prevailing and the dominant thought of Christianity. In an article that appeared in 1959, he developed the thought that co-existence between Judaism and Christianity would repre­ sent a theological revolution. Boldly and clearly, Sweazy jasserted that since the time of early Christianity, the Jew has always been a, if not the, prime target of Christian proselytism. Is such an attitude, which stands within the classic framework of Christianity, des­ tined to be altered in the foreseeable future?

We are all caught up in the power­ ful emotions that have been generated by the Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. Jews, partic­ ularly, have over-reacted to the pro­ posed point on the question of “Jew­ ish guilt” which was included in the Schema on Christian Unity, and which was not voted on at the last session of the Council. It is interesting to note that Father Gregory Baum, one of the leading proponents of this sec­ tion, in explaining the reasons for in­ cluding the problem of the Jews in the Schema on Christian Unity, said quite clearly that such inclusion in­ dicated that Christians have not given up their eschatological hope of the final conversion of Jews to Christianity.

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OME Christian leaders today ap­ S parently feel that the field has never been as ripe for the conversion of Jews. The problem is merely one of method and approach. They are convinced, and not without good rea­ son, that many Jews scarcely have a religious attachment and that some who do are motivated by an emotion­ alism and nostalgia without really be­ ing aware of the G-d or the religious teachings of their faith. In such an atmosphere some Church circles are prepared to utilize any method that will insure their purpose. They are more than willing to utilize the impact which the “spirit of Ecumenism” has made upon certain Jewish circles; they are more than willing to shift from “mission to the Jews” to “dialogues”; to carry forth the suggestions of a United Church Synod many years ago to “kill the Jews with kindness.’^ Enlightened Christians are thorough­ ly aware that Jews cannot be whipped into Christianity, but in the present atmosphere of freedom on the one hand and prevalent Jewish neglect and ignorance on the other, they feel that they might just be able to induce Jews over the threshold of the Church. No effort is spared in this direction. As thd^ minister of a local church once, with remarkable candor, told me: he had opened his church door wide to a local Reform congregation, so that in the process he would be able to make the acquaintance of Jews, gain entrance to their homes, and “bring the light of Christianity to these unfor­ tunate people.”

O JEWS have the right to be a party to such activities? “Be­ ware! Beware!” we say to our deviationist brethren, “in your hands lie the fate and future of Jewish generations!”

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JEWISH LIFE

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A SPECIAL tourist bus takes us A from Madrid to Toledo, one of the traveller’s main attractions in Spain; whoever has not seen Toledo, the Spaniards say, has not seen Spain.

Outside it is a mild, easy summer’s day. Our bus cuts through a highway surrounded by blossoming fields and gardens, and on both sides of the road stretch villages and towns with odd-looking white houses dominated by the shining domes of old churches.

My companions in the bus are a group of Japanese tourists. They seem to be enjoying the sights and the pan­ orama and listen intently to the guide who from time to time points out and explains a historical sight. I am the only passenger indifferent to the immediate sights and the routine an­ nouncements of the guide. I sit in a corner of the bus, lost in thought^ overcome by a feeling of depression; here I am on the way to Toledo to look up a tragic chapter in the story of our experience on Spanish soil.

These very fields, now so abloom, four hundred years ago were red with Jewish blood.

Here we are in Toledo. The city leaves an extraordinary impression.

July-August, 1964

By JACOB BELLER

You feel as though you have stepped into a fortress surrounded by seven mountains and the river Tago. One building after another is a combina­ tion of Moorish and Roman styles; serrated turrets surround medieval churches. Facing the massive cathe­ dral are modern coffee houses in the Paris fashion. The streets are packed with tourists, the bazaars are chockfull of bargains for the enquiring tourists. But none of this alters or brightens my oppressed mood.

Our bus has turned into an old neglected section in the center of the city. The streets are narrow and keep getting narrower. Oür guide an­ nounces in a loud voice that we are in the Judería. This is the old Barrio de los Judios (Jewish quarter). Here are two world-famous one-time syna­ gogues—Santa Maria de la Blanca and Nuestra Señora del Transito.

Both buildings have recently been re­ stored and declared to be national monuments. For many years efforts have been made to preserve their internal structure and external ap­ pearance. They are today among the world’s finest synagogal buildings, and the Spanish are very proud of them.

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Toledo of old had twelve syna­ gogues in addition to study houses, and in the time of its greatest glory —-the Golden Age—possessed a great yeshivah. What has remained are these two which have undergone vari­ ous experiences and have survived because of their massive construction.

Both are not far from the cathedral in the Jewish district which was once known by the name Elkanah. At the entrance of Del Transito you read the Hebrew quotation: Zeh hashaar laShem ... .— ‘This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous may enter it.”

Over the door is also a painting of a wall guarded by two lions, the sym­ bol of Judah. Attached to this is in­ scribed, in Hebrew, a characteristic remark: “The bird has his nest, the swallow somewhere to raise his young . . .”— a hint at how Jews felt their homelessness.

One is fascinated by the beauty of the building. The walls and ceilings are painted with bold and vigorous colours and covered with illustrations in the Moorish style. The walls are covered with quotations from the Psalms, which are difficult to make out. I was finally able to decipher the words of the 145th Psalm, Ashrey yosh’vey veythecha. . . . “Happy are they who dwell in Thy House . . . ,” and an inscription reading, “The synagogue of Samuel Halevi, prince in Israel.” As treasurer of King Pedro I, he had received permission to erect the synagogue. If you look long enough and examine the archives closely enough you can decipher a Mi Sheberach prayer for the health and safety of Don Pedro, with songs of praise for his noble deed, as well as a prayer for the builder, the royal treasurer, Samuel Halevi, which reads: 12

K*ipa t o snpfc m -

nan i m rv>nm nmnn m Knpa1? w jR bm n1? v>rvntayv dRS&i t k h 1? l ’ pnr^i n&van m 'i p w 1? T w nsn

y'K J?sn'nwr>

ntm& rvai ’

nr B p m en v m *’ tay&nv htfrxi mpy i m nwy& m&n i

Tin w m k S

mP

hm mnn T'K rnn Kim T 'k itn m A temple which is hallowed The house which Samuel hath built A fortress bright to study G-d’s Word.

His Torah scrolls and crowns Are fountains and lamps to be lit • An aid to those who are diligent in the study of the eternal Law. A house of study for those who sit in the shadow of the Lord Those who see it say That it resembles the Sanctuary Fashioned by Bezalel Come, ye nations!

Come in his gates, And seek out G-d; This is His house!

Next to the synagogue is the home of the famous painter, El Greco. It was also the home of Samuel Halevi.

The separate entrance to the women’s section of the synagogue was off the garden. Here can be seen El Greco’s household furnishings and household silver of the finest metal, and the missive* table on which he worked— truly a princely dwelling. The syna­ gogue was erected on the model of the Temple of Solomon by the Jewish architect Meir Abadalli of Granada.

Some passages on the walls are in part obliterated; many scholars, Jew­ ish and Gentile, have given pains­ taking study to the passages inscribed on the walls of both synagogues and JEWISH LIFE

Hebrew Inscription on the Walls of the Synagogue Del Transito, Toledo.

Interior—Santa Maria La Blanca, Toledo.

July-August, 1964

13

to the missing words. 'Some were in­ correctly worded in the course of being re-painted and others simply eroded through age and wear. The dates of the reconstruction are like­ wise lacking. There is a theory that there were Jews in Toledo as early as 90 B.C.E., that these were de­ scendants of King David, and that they named the city Toledoth, whence the name Toledo.

It was long before the final Ex­ pulsion that these synagogues were transformed into churches. On the fifth of August 1391—it fell on the fast day of the 17th of Tammuz— there occurred an anti-Jewish assault in Toledo. Rioters penetrated the Jewish quarter, slaughtered Jews right and left, burned some synagogues and made others into Christian churches. The poet Al-Bneh composed a series of lamentations to mourn the destruction of the synagogues and the Torah scrolls, a lamentation for each synagogue. What took place in Spain that day was a kind of “Kristallnacht” (such as was perpetrated in Germany in our day). Hundreds of synagogues throughout the country were dese­ crated and “Christianized.” To this day one can see vestiges of their former state in Catholic churches in all parts of Spain.

SPENT three days and three nights in Toledo examining all nooks and corners, seeking the traces of that blood-stained period, going beyond the routine, official information guides. I stopped at museums which contain archives piled high with doc­ uments bearing Hebrew writing. I was able to decipher and unravel halflegible and obscure inscriptions among the dozens of citations and chapters of Psalms on the walls of

I

14

the former synagogues. The Jewish visitor’s heart trembles when he comes to a former synagogue, now Santa Maria de la Blanca, and sees a cruci­ fix on the very front. This structure, too, was built on the model of the Holy Temple, its thick massive walls with broad pillars a mingling of vari­ ous styles. At the very entrance the viewer is struck by its extraordinary beauty, the heavy candelabras, the walls decorated with flowers and ar­ tistic design in which can clearly be seen half-readable Hebrew lettering.

This was known as “the Great Syna­ gogue” (Beth Hak’nesseth Hag’dolah) and was turned into a church after an armed mob led by a fanatic named Vincente Ferrer entered it and mas­ sacred the Jews inside. Since then it underwent various vicissitudes. It was twice restored in order to keep its original form and in 1851 was de­ clared a national museum. However, the crucifix still remains at the en­ trance.

It was my last day in Toledo: I had chosen the early evening to bid farewell to “my synagogue.” I was in the Juderia, the old Jewish quarter.

I wandered restlessly about the nar­ row alleys, took in with my sight and breath every shading and gesture of the atmosphere: strange faces peered at me quizzically; a row of small oldfashioned houses were strung along the ^street, huddling close to one an­ other, often linked by common walls as if they feared some enemy. Here and there were scattered ruins consist­ ing of stones, merely traces of build­ ings. There is a story that when thé Jews were banished they took with them the keys to the houses.

It is time for the Minchah prayer.

The sun is low over the distant moun­ tains, a soft breeze cools my agitated JEWISH LIFE

emotions. More and more small flames shone out from the windows, reminiscent as it were of the flames of the Inquisition that once burned here. I suddenly imagine I can see Ibn Ezra walking by accompanied by Yehuda Halevi—on their way to the Great Synagogue for Minchah and here following them are Yehudah ben Moshe Hacohen, Isaac Zacuta, the Shem-Tov of Polenzi, Jacob Ashur, Abraham Abulafia (who, aspiring to convert Pope Nicholas to Judaism, in­ sisted on going to Rome).

E My heart suddenly begins to throb and the blood pounds in my veins.

It is the time of twilight, the sister and protectress of those who are soli­ tary and alone. I stand wrapped in your shadows, a lone Jew who has strayed far from his home in a filial visit to the graves of his murdered forebears. The pealing bells of the cathedral suddenly interrupt my fantasies. I walk over to a corner of the building, face the east wall and softly recite “ Kol Moleh Rachamim.”

C O R D O V A , SEVILLE, AND G R A N A D A

URING the Golden age of Spain front of Number 18. Nearby is the Calle De Los Judios (Street of the D Cordova was its second center.

In this city was born one of Jewry’s Jews) and the former synagogue. This most important figures— Maimonides —known to Jews as the Rambam.

Like a pillar of fire he illumined science and philosophy and his fame is known to Jew and Gentile alike.

In 1935 the 800th anniversary of his birth was marked in Spain and the street where he lived was named after him. It was there that he lived and created until 1148 when he had to flee for his life to another city and eventually to Morocco.

The street is located in the old Barrio de los Judios and was formerly known as Plazuela De Los Bulos. On Number 18 you can find a small plaque which reads Plazuela Maimpnides but no passer-by, however friendly he may wish to be to an enquiring American tourist, will know where to find the Plazuela Maimon­ ides. You have no choice but to search for it yourself. Here I am in July-August, 1964

too was converted to a church in the thirteenth century and has now been declared a national monument. On’ its walls are still clearly imprinted various Hebrew inscriptions such as:

S s3§? rmyn rmi oyo trrpa DnsK Tnan p nn& pmr nyw p m m

MR nm man1? tznm p fc i

A Fine Sanctuary-in-miniature Completed by Isaac Mahab, son .of Ephraim In the seventy-fifth year; in that hour May G-d rebuild Jerusalem speedily.

There are various fragments of prayers and Psalms of which partial phrases and sentences are visible. At the entrance one can barely make out the words from the 118th Psalm: 15

who have achieved fame in the bullring. They stand decked out in their finest ceremonial costumes orna­ mented in gold and silver. Their clothing and shoes are sprinkled with and a second inscription with some the blood of the vanquished bulls. misplaced letters and erroneous spell­ Even their lances and knives are dis­ ings. The errors arose when the played with the records of their heroic synagogue was restored and used as a victories.

Christian church. In some cases entire How does a museum dedicated to passages and lines were omitted. The the bull-fight come to be on the building is entered from the side. street of the Rambam? I asked my­ Inside there are still visible some self. The street used to be known as traces of its former grandeur; it was the Plazuela de los Bulos and it was once the most stately house of wor­ not until the 800th anniversary of ship in Cordova, handsomer by far the great Jewish scholar that it was than any of the churches, which in­ re-named after him. deed provoked envy among some of Stepping out of the Calie Primo de the more fanatical Catholics. I went Rivera in the center of the city and up the stairs to what was the women’s walking a few steps further, I saw' gallery and from there was able to a street bearing the name Calle del look at the whole interior. In the Nino Perdido (Street of the Lost spot which once held the oron ha- Child). It was Sunday and women kodesh (holy ark) is an empty space: were walking to the cathedral, their it is quite noticeable that something heads modestly draped in silken has been removed. shawls. A priest went by. “Padre,” I excused myself, “I am a tourist; can ORDOVA was once a center of you tell me what this sign means?”

Torah and knowledge. It was the “An American who speaks Span­ home of, besides Maimonides, Ye- ish?’’ he wondered, and began to ex­ hudah Halevi, of Isaac Alfasi, and plain to me in a patient, fatherly others. The city was founded in 200 manner how the street got its name.

B.C.E. The Jewish settlement dates “And what about the Plazuela back to the beginning of the Moorish Maimonides?” I asked. period when it was the capital. In “A great Bible scholar of Spain,” the thirteenth century, when the he answered^ “But we have a beau­ Spaniards took the city, they found tiful cathedral,” and he invited me to a thriving Jewish community. To this attend mass. day the Moorish traces are to be “Padre, I do not go to mass,” I seen—the mosque, now a cathedral said “I am a Judio.” with its massive domes topped by He looked at me curiously and left spires, is now one of Spain’s most immediately. beautiful churches.

A few doors away you come across N Seville 1 came across two streets an odd sign: Museo Municipal which reminded me of the Jew­ Taurino. Here you can see wax fig­ ures of the greatest Spanish matadors ish past in Spain. One of these streets Open to me the gates of right­ eousness I will enter them to give thanks to the Lord.

e

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16

JEWISH LIFE

July-August, 1964

contains a synagogue transformed into myself a Judio he opened his mouth a church. It is named Calle de los and ears wide and began to examine Levies. The district is known as Lib- me from head to foot and in some reros, and is one of the most aristo­ embarrassment confessed to me that cratic sections of the city. The syna­ this was the first time in his life he gogue (now a church, of course) had ever seen a Jew. was built on the pattern of the El N Granada the Jewish community Transito of Toledo, and was planned lasted longer than in any other part by the same Samuel Halevy. Some of the houses in the neighborhood are of Spain, for the Moors ruled there also in the same style. The church in the longest. In 1494, two years after Lorco was erected on a similar mod­ Jhe Expulsion, the forcible conver­ sion of tens of thousands of Jews and el. the destruction and “conversion” of At the time of the beginning of the campaign of violence and forced con­ -synagogues, the German traveller Gerversion against the Jews there were onimo Munzer visited -Granada. He three prominent Jewish houses of tells of 20,000 Jews being in Granada worship in Seville that were forcibly at that time. When the city was cap­ made into churches. They are known tured by the Spanish, the Caliph de­ today as Santa Maria de la Blanca, manded a guarantee that under the San Bartolomeo, and Santa Cruz de new regime all would be free to prac­ Hierusalem. Only in the San Bartolo­ tice their religion. King Ferdinand, meo church is there any remnant of however, issued a decree that Gra­ its Jewish past—the Hebrew name of nada’s synagogues be transformed into G-d is inscribed over the portal. It churches and hospitals. Unlike other is likely that there were other syna­ centers, Granada has not retained any gogues similarly transformed. In 1915, vestigial signs of its Jewish past. The when repairs were being made on memory has remained, however, of the San Marcos church, several semi- the main figures who executed the legible Hebrew inscriptions were Jewish tragedy. In the cellar of the cathedral are the twin coffins of Fer­ found. dinand and his queen Isabella the The last center I visited in Spain Catholic—an attraction not only for was Granada, where I spent a day, tourists but for all devout Catholics. on my way from Spain to Morocco How small and petty these two cas­ via the border town of Argeciras. kets looked in contrast to the glorious Priests and nuns are, of course, no history of a people they hoped to rare sight in Spain but here I saw destroy. swarms of ecclesiastics and religious In Granada too I found a kind of sisters wearing the costumes of many museum which represents the “last different Catholic orders.

While in the train from Seville I road of Pontius Pilate.” This, I was struck up a conversation with a young told, is where the matadors come to priest who on hearing I was going pray before the bullfights. There are to Morocco warned me: “Be careful, figures of Roman legionaries dressed there are lots of Judios there.” When in full armoured array but who never­ I informed my companion that I was theless, as represented in this group,

I

18

JEWISH LIFE

look like innocent sheep . . . whereas the Jewish high priest sits on his judgment bench with a stern and angry countenance and his clerk hand­ ing him the verdict for his signature looks even more stern and blood­ thirsty.

It was market day when I was in Granada. There were scores of tiny shops and booths extending in a long line. All kinds of wares were spread out on tables and benches. The ven­ dors bawled their wares at the top of their voices. It was very reminis­ cent of Orchard Street in New York’s East Side as it was. Even the voices sounded the same though the language was different.

At a table spread with cloth and textiles my eyes wandered to those of the vendor. His warm glance met mine and he smiled. I walked over to his stand. “Fine English goods”— he addressed me in broken English.

“Are you an American?” he asked di­ rectly. He looked once more, sharply and then said softly and with some uncertainty “Yehudi?” How does a Jew come here?, I wondered. He told me he is two years out of Tangiers and that he lives in Madrid. He travels to various cities on the market days, taking English cloth. In Seville and Valencia, he said, "there are several families of Moroccan Jews. They ob­ tain kosher meat from the Madrid

kehillah. He himself takes along canned kosher meat on his travels.

N Madrid and in Barcelona there exist communities that possess the necessary structure for communal life. Both have synagogues which I attended on Friday evening and on Sabbath morning. In Madrid the syn­ agogue is located in a private house hardly identifiable from the street as a synagogue. From Calle Pizzaro you can see a small sign on the wall read­ ing Beth Zion. In Barcelona the syna­ gogue is almost hidden by the sur­ rounding buildings. I am told that in Madrid a new and proper synagogue will be built which will stand out in front and be recognizable as such.

This is due to the rise of the Jewish population, now estimated in Spain at 5,000. The most recent arrivals are Moroccan Jews, who are Sephardim have little or no difficulty in being admitted. ; What future is there for Jews in Spain? Is there any possibility of a permanent, viable community? In re­ cent years there have appeared re­ ports in the world Jewish press about an ameliorated and reformed policy towards Jews on the part of Spain, reports that Spain has expressed re­ morse for the historic wrong done to its Jews more than four centuries ago and is now ready to make amends.

I

IS THERE A FUTURE FO R JEW S IN SPAIN?

n p H E trend had its beginning in 1903 A when Dr. Angel Pudillo, a sen­ ator, appealed in the Senate for Spain to “recall” its Jews from those lands who knew better how to make use of their talents, and that it was time July-August, 1964

to effect a reconciliation between the two estranged elements— Spain and Jewry. Some Spanish intellectuals listened to him and advocated this as a policy. In 1932, a year after the republican revolution, the Spanish 19

National Academy named to its mem­ bership the Hebrew poet, Hayim Nachman Bialik, for his translation of Cervantes’ classic work Don Quixote.

In 1935 Spain marked the 800th an­ niversary of Maimonides and invited Jewish representatives from various parts of the world.

In 1959, a Sephardic book exhibi­ tion was held at the National Library of Spain in Madrid, opened by the Minister of Education in the presence of senior government officials and dig­ nitaries of the Church. In June of last year Madrid was the locale of a Congress of Spanish institutions in which there was participation from Sephardic communities of various lands. A special commission which had been assigned the duty of plan­ ning rapprochement with the Sepharic Jews adopted a number of resolu­ tions such as: urging descendants of the Spanish Jews to come closer to the atmosphere and environment of Spain; sending Spanish teachers to Sephardic communities, especially these with institutions that train rab­ bis for Spanish- or Ladino-speaking centers; awarding scholarships to Sephardic Jewish students to enable them to study at Spanish universities.

MENTION these conferences and the resolutions to indicate that the movement bears in the main a senti­ mental and patriotic character in the attitude of some present-day Span­ iards to those Jews who after four hundred years have preserved the language of the land from which their forefathers were banished and have carried these to various parts of the world. It is a kind of romantic interest in these Españoles Sin Patria (“Spaniards without a Fatherland”), as Angel Pudillo entitles his book about

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the Sephardim and their dispersion.

In my conversation with various in­ tellectuals there was no doubt at all in my mind that they were quite seri­ ous and sincere about a reconciliation and about wiping out the anti-Jewish blot on their history. In recent years dozens of books about this move­ ment have appeared. In every corner of Spain searches have been con­ ducted of the country’s Jewish history and past. Since 1941 institutes named Arias Montano exist in Madrid and Barcelona which have a special Jew­ ish section for this purpose. These contain collections of Judaica fac­ similes of old manuscripts and publi­ cations, explanations of inscriptions on the walls of old synagogues (since transformed into churches), even old Torah scrolls. Francisco Cantero Bur­ gos is the director of the institute and is professor of the chair of He­ brew at the University of Madrid. His book “Synagogas Españolas” lists 350 such houses of worship, most of them now Catholic churches. The institute publishes a periodical called Sepharad to which a number of Spanish schol­ ars and historians contribute. Their articles and papers deal with the de­ tails of the Golden Age of the Jews in Spain and its contribution to Span­ ish language, culture, and literature.

It is not surprising that Spanish scholars, historians and intellectuals in general have acknowledged the historical wrong done to the Jews in Spain and wish to make good this injury. The question that remains is whether the Spanish people as a whole have any interest in this and is there a future for the Jews in Spain? No one doubts the sincerity and serious­ ness of the intellectual elements in their attitude to the Jewish people.

However, on the practical side very JEWISH LIFE

little account is taken of these ro­ mantic sentiments.

I spent more than a month ill Spain, talked with people at all levels and made a special study of the at­ titude toward Jews in present-day Spain. The number of Jews in Spain today may be estimated at 5,000. In recent years a substantial number

have entered from Morocco, Algeria, and Egypt—all Sephardim—and for this reason given free entry as “re­ patriates.” There are also Ashkenazic Jews in Spain who are refugees from both World Wars who have stayed on, rebuilt their lives;!; have borne children there and have integrated themselves into the Spanish economy.

W H A T IS THE TRUTH?

OU cannot help noticing before general burial-grounds. Their tomb­ S long that the Jews in Spain feel stones are covered to prevent the they are merely being tolerated. Hebrew inscription from offending Neither of the two major communi­ ties, those of Madrid and Barcelona, is officially recognized by the govern­ ment. Their representatives are receiv­ ed in government agencies as represen­ tatives of Jews residing in Spain. De­ spite their requests of long standing that they be legally recognized, the an­ swer is neither yes nor no. Neither synagogue has any sign or symbol on the front or exterior indicating that it is a Jewish house of prayer.

The Madrid synagogue has a small plaque with the words Beth Zion in Latin letters. In Barcelona ten years ago the Jews erected a synagogue and community center. They were per­ mitted to do so on condition that nothing appear in Hebrew on the front of the building, nor any sym­ bol such as the Shield of David or menorah. The synagogue is situated back from the street, away from the other buildings and is enriched in front by a garden. At the time of the Eichmann trial, despite the absence of any overt Jewish symbol, it was vandalized by swastika smears.

Jews have their own space in the July-August, 1964

the eye of the public. If a Jew dies it is not even possible to publish an obituary notice, for all such notices in the press must be accompanied by a crucifix. The youth find condi­ tions extremely difficult. Many find they must go abroad to study; there they marry and never return. Others marry non-Jews and are lost to the community. Spain has no civil mar­ riage; the church gives its blessing only to those who profess or adopt Catholicism. Recently the church ac­ quired a number of fresh souls by this means. In general young Jews are rarely seen in Spain.

Jews from Poland who have lived in Spain as long as forty years have not obtained naturalization despite their repeated efforts. In one case a long-time resident applied directly to General Franco on two occasions and each time received a polite but totally non-committal answer. Even the Sephardic Jews, who are permit­ ted to enter Spain as persons return­ ing to their motherland, have the same difficulties in acquiring citizen­ ship status. Some Jews from Eastern 21

Europe complained to me «that they are afraid to leave the country for fear they will not be allowed re­ entry.

EW-HATRED can be found with­ out tob much difficulty, despite the small number of Jews. In the very center of Barcelona, in the Plaza Cataluna, I saw the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” prominently dis­ played in a bookstore. While I was in Spain a writer named Luis Valery contributed a Jew-baiting article in the newspaper L ’Vanguardia in con­ nection with the Eichmann verdict.

The press, radio, and television are ill-disposed to Jews. This is particu­ larly true of religious programs. The attitude to Israel is hostile even in government circles. During the Cairo conference Spanish correspondents were unfriendly to Israel; television broadcasts and interviews openly fav­ ored the Arab side. Spanish diplo­ mats make no secret of their view that in case of war their country would favor the Arabs.

In a series of dialogues on history intended for the schools and called “I Am a Spaniard” the author, Augustin Serrano, a pedagogue, devoted two articles to incitement against the Jews. The series was authorized by the Minister of Education. The elev­ enth chapter, “Moors and Christians,” tells that Jews who hated Spain be­ trayed the country and helped the Moors conquer the country. The chil­ dren are required to reply (the series is written in a question and answer fo rm ): “The Moors conquered the country because they were helped by Jews and traitors.” The eighteenth chapter of the “catechism” is com­ pletely given up to the Jews: “Jews hate Christians and are angry that

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children love the Virgin and God.” “This,” the catechism states, “is why they killed Comingo de Valle just as they crucified Jesus.” This is accom­ panied by three pictures that illustrate the text quite clearly. In Spanish dic­ tionaries the word Judio is translated as swindler and cheat. In 1960 a conference of philologists from the Spanish-speaking countries took place in Bogota, the capital of Colombia.

Dr. Moisés Goldman, representative of the World Jewish Congress, ap­ peared at the conference asking that this shameful symptom be removed.

All the delegates agreed except Gar­ cia Gomez, the delegate from Spain, who was incidentally Spanish Ambas­ sador to Damascus. Only recently a World Jewish Congress spokesman made an approach to the head of the Royal Academy in Madrid and prom­ ise was given to remove the definition.

T is a fact that to this day Spain has not rescinded the decree of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella the Catholic expelling the Jews from Spain. Of course, the Inquisitorial tribunal no longer functions but there is a functionary of the Church who officially holds this post. He has possession of the Inquisitorial instru­ ments and its Great Seal. It is char­ acteristic of Spain that throughout the country, in various museums, remains of the Jewish past are much in evi­ dence but nothing of the Inquisition is to be seen. These were displayed in the period of the* Republic but when it went the doors swung shut once more.

It should also be borne in mind that Spain is a haven for Nazi figures such as Skorzeny and the Belgian Nazi leader, Leon Degrelle, who re-

I

JEWISH LIFE

cently presided at the lavish wedding of his daughter arrayed in his Nazi general’s uniform and bedecked with Nazi insignia and medals.

It must be noted that some time ago there wasj a report that a “back to Judaism” /movement had started among the CÍiuetos of the island of Majorca. For generations Chuetos lived in Majorca, conscious in a vague way of their Jewish descent.

Wlfen^ an aristocratic lady among them, Isabella Manius went to Israel a few years ago, she converted to Judaism and acquired the new name of Elisheva Yemi Oz. Shortly after­ wards two other descendants of the Marranos came to Israel from Ma­ jorca, Daniel Belshazzar Crispi and his son Rafael. They also returned to Judaism and enrolled in Yeshivath Hadarom in Rehovoth. When I was in Israel and spoke to Rabbi Landau, the director of the Yeshivah, he told me about the two converts who then had returned to Majorca. Nothing, by the way, has come of the movement.

The reason for this is that after her return Elisheva Yemi Oz had sub­ mitted a petition to General Franco for the erection of a synagogue on the island, signed by the leading Chuetos. She sent three petitions and all three were rejected. When I re­ ported these facts to a priest he de­ nied there was a movement among the Chuetos to return to the Jewish fold. “We have a list,” he said “of all those descended from the Mar­ ranos.” Later I read in the Jewish press that there were arrests on the island and the Catholic Church had taken a hand in preventing the mass return of the Chuetos to Judaism.

July-August, 1964

npHERE is a reason for the protJL estations of friendship to Jews which are heard today in Spain—a purely practical and expedient one.

Spain is an important tourist attrac­ tion and tourism brings millions of dollars into Spain’s economy. Jews are well represented among the tourists ^and what can be more attractive to a Jewish tourist than the relics and antiquities of a rich Jewish history and liberal declarations of regret from official quarters deploring the great and historic wrong done to the Jewish people?

Thus it is that Tarragona has in its museum a Torah scroll that was pur­ chased in Jerusalem. There is no city in Spain without its relics and rem­ nants of the Jewish past. In Toledo, in the neighborhood of the old Jew­ ish quarter, I found many Jewish antiques—menorahs, kiddush cups, from the sixteenth century with He­ brew inscriptions such as borchenu le’shalom, menorahs with the b’rochah in Hebrew. To my astonishment the salesman bore a Mögen Dovid on a necklace. When I asked if he were a Jew, he replied that he was descended from Jews and that there were many like him in Toledo, but all were Catholics. In Spain you can see the Shield of David in many churches, even on the head of the Madonna.

Certainly- this has no relationship to the sincere convictions of many Spanish true liberals and intellectuals who quite earnestly wish to erase the historic wrong their country perpe­ trated on the Jewish people and who seek ,a true rapprochement. But this does not alter the need to treat the whole matter with care and reserva­ tion.

23

Ç K/bùcUy

La

The Diaspora and Isra ë l^ ^ ja J A Literary Link É iîL ^ n

By ISAAC L. SWIFT

N the middle of the eighth century, left Pumpeditha, the center of grav­ Idisconsolate probably in the year 755 C.E., a ity of the Jewish world of his day, and embittered man ar­ but the scene, as he* felt it, of his hu­ rived in the Holy Land from Pumpe­ ditha in Babylon, bearing with him a well-stocked mind and little else, apart perhaps from a manuscript of what was to be his magnum opus. The migrant was Rabbi Achai of Shabha, and we must not blame him too se­ verely for his dejection and bitterness.

The Gaon of Pumpeditha, Mar Sh’muel, had recently died, and Rabbi Achai was universally acknowledged to be the fittest to succeed him. In scholarship, in intellectual attain­ ments, and in the authority which his grasp of Jewish law gave him, he was regarded as the man best equipped to occupy the most highly prized office in the religious life of the Jewish peo­ ple of the time—Head of the Acade­ my of Pumpeditha. But the Exilarch, Sh’lomo bar Chasdai, entertained some personal grudge against Rabbi Achai, and passed him over in favor of Natronai, a man considerably Achai’s in­ ferior in learning and in general ac­ complishments- and actually Rabbi Achai’s secretary or assistant.

So, in a mood of frustration and bitterness, the disappointed candidate 24

miliation and hurt. And so he made the dusty, weary journey towards what was in those days the relative intel­ lectual and spiritual sterility of Pales­ tine. There his downcast mood did not long endure, for he had much to do —he had to commit some of his en­ cyclopedic knowledge to writing, or, if he had indeed brought his manu­ script with him from Babylon, to give it its finishing touches.

That manuscript became the first post-Talmudic work in Jewish litera­ ture, and exercised a profound influ­ ence on the formulation of the Halochah by the great codifiers of later years. It was known to the illustrious Talmudic commentators, Rashi, the Tosaphists, and others, though mis­ takenly ascribed by some of them to an earlier bearer of the same name as Rabbi Achai. Considering all the vicissitudes of our history, and all the hazards to which our turbulent ex­ perience of wandering has subjected our literary heritage, Rabbi Achai’s work has come down through the ages remarkably well preserved. True, there are some lacunae where certain eleJEWISH LIFE

ments of it have been lost, there is some later material that has been added by medieval ¡editors and others, and there are some| corruptions of the original text committed by copyists in remote days befor<| the invention of printing, but in all essentials it is subStantially intact: the^ things that Rabbi

Achai wrote, the language in which he wrote, the very \^ords that he wrote, have been preserved with a fidelity which can only/be called extra­ ordinary when we c/onsider the upheavals which Jewish life has undergone during the twelve centuries since they were written. /

THE NEW EDITION

HE work which Rabbi Achai com­ mitted to writing received the title “Sh’eltoth,” for it comprised a series of disquisitions, of questions, asked and answered and problerhsposed and investigated, each sh’elta dealing with a particular Halochah and some of its ramifications as well as some of its Aggadic embellishments.

A critical edition of the work is now being published by Rabbi Samuel K. Mirsky, amid the grateful plaudits of the world of Talmudic scholarship, the third volume, covering the Book of Sh’moth, having just appeared.* / Earlier editions of varying degrees of accuracy had been published down the centuries from time to time, one within the past hundred years being especially notable, for it was the work and included the commentary of one of the eminent Talmudic giants of modern times— Rabbi Naphtali Zevi Yehudah Berlin, the Netziv as he is known from the initial letters of his name. Rabbi Mirsky’s edition, how­ ever, will certainly rank as the most important and the most valuable, for

S

* Sheeitot de Rab Ahai Gaon, Vol. I ll—Exodus, edited by Samuel K. Mirsky, Sura Foundation, Yeshiva 'University and Mosad Harav Kook, Jerusalem, 5724. 278 pp. $7.00.

July-August, 1964

it takes all The earlier versions and commentaries into account, is based upon- all Ten available manuscripts, furnished th^ critical texts of two com­ mentaries hitherto unedited, and is equipped with a commentary by Rabbi Mirsky himself, which in scope, in comprehensiveness, and in attention to detail is one of the most luminous pieces of writing that even Rabbi Mir­ sky has yet executed.

If Thomas Carlyle be right in de­ fining genius as “an infinite capacity for taking trouble,” then we may un­ hesitatingly describe Rabbi Mirsky’s edition of the Sh’eltoth as a work of genius, for here is massive evidence of a vast wealth of painstaking labor and research that have been lavished by him without stint. The text is de­ finitive and clear, the elements conu prising each Sh’elta being unmistak­ ably separated from each other and articulated each to its, fellow—an es­ sential operation without which, as Rabbi Mirsky picturesquely puts it, “the student cannot find his hands or feet!” The innumerable references to sources in the Talmudim and Midrashim are accurate, the textual variants are listed, the indices are exhaustive and complete, and, above all, the commentary is distinguished by a 25

clarity of diction that is but too rare­ ly found in the exegetical writings of our time. In it we meet Rabbi Mirsky sometimes as philologist, at other times as historian, at yet others as Halachist, and at all times as the mas­ ter of an immaculate and lucid He­ brew that moves one’s envy.

What a Zuckermandel in his day and an Abramsky in ours have done

for the Tosephta, what Hoifman and Fisch have done for Midrosh Hagodol, what Friedman did for the Pesikta, and what Solomon Buber did for the Tanchuma, Rabbi Mirsky has now done for the Sh’eltoth:—indeed, he has in a sense outdone Buber, for he challenges some of the latter’s opin­ ions and reaches more convincing con­ clusions.

THE NATURE O F THE SH'ELTOTH

■'TOTE cannot treat the present volWr ume in isolation from the ear­ lier two that had already appeared.

In particular, we must take into ac­ count the magnificent General Intro­ duction of the Sh’eltoth with which the first volume opens. The nature of the work and its place in Rabbinic literature, the historical and social background against which it was com­ posed, its relationship to the Talmudim and Midrashim and to the later Gaonic writings, its influence on Jew­ ish life and thought, and, perhaps most important, the audience to whom its contents were addressed—these are among the subjects dealt with in an introductory essay which gives to Rabbi Mirsky a place among the out­ standing critical editors of our literary treasures.

Rabbi Mirsky’s view, well docu­ mented and persuasively presented, is that the sh’eltoth represent what we would now call the sermons delivered to the general public at the Sabbath and Festival Services in ancient times.

With abundant evidence culled from all the available sources, Rabbi Mir­ sky shows that, for the scholars, To­ rah study was conducted daily in 26

gatherings termed Mesiboth, the ma­ terial considered and the mode of presentation and discussion being ap­ propriate to the caliber of the men and the nature of their assembly; while for the masses, to whom the Mesiboth of the learned were closed, and whose preoccupations throughout the week made consistent study and participation difficult, the main occa­ sion of the week for Torah instruc­ tion and exposition was on Sabbath morning after the Reading of the Torah. This occasion was termed the Pirka, and it was then, asserts Rabbi Mirsky, that the material comprising the Sh’eltoth was expounded to the general public.

The typical Sh’elta, then, occupied the place that the sermon occupies to­ day, both being delivered on Sabbath and Festival mornings, both following the Reading of the Torah. There all similarity between them ends—or very nearly ends. There was a further ap­ parent similarity: the preacher today, looking down from his pulpit on his dozing congregants, may take comfort from the knowledge that an occasion­ al sleeper was not altogether unknown in the Pirka of the ancient world! So, JEWISH LIFE

at least, it would appear from the con­ fession of Rabbi Yoseph (Sabbath 56b) that he “was once sitting at the Pirka and dozed.f’ I am not at all sure though that we are to take Rabbi Yoseph’s words too literally, for he goes on to tell of the splendors of a vision that he dreamed; the hint of a hidden meaning in his words is too strong to be ignored. Then there were those who appeared to have slept dur­ ing one of Rabbi Akiva’s discourses

a century earlier (B’reshith Rabba 58:3). Here too, I wonder whether there is some concealed meaning in the report. For not only is it difficult to persuade oneself that Rabbi Akiva —of all people!—could “put them to sleep”; it is as difficult to understand how the numerical equation touching the Jives of Mother Sarah and Queen ¿Esther that he offered, could\ have .awakened them.

SERM ONS THEN AND TO D A Y

TILL, even if we do accept the justifies the inclusion of a discussion S accounts at their face value that of Rabbi Mirsky’s work in these col­ there actually were occasional sleep­ umns. That contrast between the pul­ ers during the Pirka to match ours of today who “enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber” during the sermon, the similarity between the discourse then and the sermon of our own time definitely ends there. What a differ­ ence between the two! And how vast­ ly different the scene was then at the Pirka from what we experience at the typical Sabbath morning Service in the typical Synagogue today! Instead of today’s dilute attendances, the Pir­ ka was marked by an eager concen­ tration of the people. Instead of to­ day’s tendency to idle chatter or even irreverence, we have the testimony of Rabbi Nathan Hababli as to the scene then: “ V, . When he discoursed, he did so with awe, his eyes closed, his Tallith covering him; nor was there in the congregation one who, during the discourse, opened his mouth, or whispered, or uttered a wo r d . . . ” And what a world of difference there was between the material de­ livered then and what is heard today!

It is this aspect of the Sh’eltoth which July-August, 1964

pit of our own times— even in a large proportion of our orthodox synago­ gues-—and its counterpart of ancient times, should be a matter of the deep­ est concern to those who cherish tra­ dition, who reverence the Torah and its teachings, who so value Jewish knowledge that they prize the learned layman as the ultimate guardian of our heritage and the noblest product of our culture. I hope that I shall be forgiven by colleagues and laymen alike for deploring the visible decline that the pulpit has undergone in all too many quarters in our day. The ancient Rabbis and their dicta have been banished from it; Halochah is rarely heard; the Aggadah is neglected, the glories of its homilies all but for­ gotten, the sparkle of its parables dimned by disuse, the marvels of its exegesis abandoned. All manner of shallow substitutes are offered in their stead: the latest film or play has re­ placed the Midrosh as the pulpit stim­ ulant; a review of the latest secular book takes the place of the Talmud.

27

I beg to be forgiven for sounding so gloomy and censorious a note, but the synagogue discourse has for long cen­ turies been an index to Jewish cul­ tural standards, and the evidence of its decline is but too painfully ap­ parent. r I^H E new edition of the Sh’eltoth -l gives us a standard against which to measure the decline. Contrast the average sermon delivered today with the material heard by Rabbi Achai’s contemporaries and by the multitudes who attended the Pirkey in the long generations that preceded him, first in Palestine then in Babylon. From the very earliest times the exposition of the Torah on Sabbaths and Festivals had been a distinguishing and enrich­ ing feature of Jewish life. The Rabbis even preserved a tradition that such

public instruction had been instituted

by Moses under Divine direction: “Said the Holy One, blessed be He— assemble great gatherings, and teach them publicly the Sabbath laws in or­ der that later generations may learn from thee to assemble gatherings each Sabbath, so that there may be taught to Israel the words of Torah, and the permitted and forbidden things.” (Yalkut Shimoni on Sh’moth 35:1).

“To teach to Israel the words of Torah and the permitted and forbid­ den things”—such were the goals of the men licensed by the Exilareh to “preach the sermon.” Their aim was to expound the law. To this end they would take the Torah-reading of the day, and discuss and expound a Halocha mentioned in it or connected with its narrative. Their discourse would be crystallised into a Sh’elta.

SOM E ILLUSTRATIONS

OES the Sidra Sh’moth contain a reference to the circumcision of Moses’ sons on the road back to Egypt? Let that narrative prompt a Sh’elta expounding the rite of circum­ cision: a question concerning the law is asked and answered, a Halachic problem is posed and probed, a moral and ethical teaching is deduced.

Does the Sidra Bo give us the in­ stitution of Rosh Chodesh? Grounds enough there for question and answer concerning the mode of determining whether or not the New Moon has made its appearance; for defining the authorities who are to declare the days on which the forthcoming feasts and fasts will occur; for debating the

D

28

maintenance of the Second Day Yom Tov. Is there a Sabbath restriction laid down in connection with the collec­ tion of manna in the Sidra B’shallach?

Let it serve as the occasion for a Sh’elta on the laws of Muktza, with a stimulating disquisition on their ram­ ifications.

Do we read in the Sidra Yithro the Ten Commandments, with the Fifth y -th at of filial duty—central to them?

A noble Sh’elta ensues: father and mother and Maker are partners in the procreative process; the honor due to parents, Rabbi Achai’s fellow-congre­ gants are told, is equal to the honor due to the Creator; duty to father and JEWISH LIFE

mother, obedience to mother and fa­ ther—-to whom belongs the prece­ dence in Judaism’s scales of priority?

Where and when do the son’s mate­ rial obligations toward his parents’ maintenance begin and end? Sh’elta 63 asks the questions and submits the answers.

What a sermon with which to up­ lift and inform! What a series of ser­ mons with which to instruct and ex­ hort! And what a difference from the superficialities that afflict so many of today’s congregations! Small wonder that the Talmud (B’rochoth 6b)

speaks of the eager alacrity with which the people rushed to the Pirkey.

These are but a few of the nearly two hundred Sh’eltoth that make up the whole of Rabbi Achai’s work, sev­ enty-nine of them already collected, edited, annotated, and indexed in the three volumes already produced by Rabbi Mirsky. The remaining volumes^ are impatiently awaited by the world of Jewish scholarship, for the whole work is indispensable to any library of Rabbinica, and indeed will be an ornament in every library of merit and worth.

A LITERARY LINK

UBLISHED under the imprima­ could be more fitting than Rabbi P turs of Yeshiva University and Mirsky’s happy resolve to use the Mosad Harav Kook—the hall-mark Sh’eltoth as a literary link joining the of literary and scholarly excellence— this edition of the Sh’eltoth is a link between the Diaspora and Eretz Is­ rael, even as Rabbi Achai’s original Work was. For as he compiled his Sh’eltoth in the greatest Jewry of the Golah in his time—Babylon—and is­ sued the work in the Holy Land, so has Rabbi Mirsky, with a fine sense of history, compiled his superb edi­ tion here, in the greatest Jewry of the Golah of our time, and published and issued it in the Holy Land. Con­ sidering these circumstances, by the way, and the vast geographical dis­ tance between the editor and his printer, there are remarkably few er­ rors and misprints to disfigure or mar this splendid production. Nothing

July-August, 1964

Diaspora to Israel, and no one is bet­ ter fitted to forge that link than Rabbi Mirsky himself with his extraordinary cultural dualism.

The Sh’eltoth can be a link, too, be­ tween our present and our past. For if/ithe book will achieve the full im­ pact which its contents and their new presentation merit, it may stir our preachers to restore the glory to the pulpit, and to make it once again the place of instruction that it was in the days when Talmud and Midrosh were taking shape, and on through the times when Rabbi Achai of Shabha suppressed the pangs of his own dis­ appointment by contemplating in the Sh’eltoth the source of his people’s highest hope.

29

Norilsk

'kCr*—

By M U R R A Y G R A U 2 R

TVTORILSK is not found on many I t maps. This city, situated in the northern part of Siberia, beyond the Arctic Circle and above a latitude of 70, was established in 1937. The frozen wasteland in which it is situated is as large as the populated portion of Eu­ rope. In the 1920’s a geological sur­ vey was made of this remote area by a group of scientists. They reported that it contains a volume and quality of natural resources that cannot be duplicated in any portion of the earth.

At that time, the area was completely uninhabited except for some Eskimolike tribes who were few in number and basically nomadic.

The Soviet government decided to exploit the wealth of this wasteland and also to establish an industrial cen­ ter there. This decision was reached despite the fact that at the time of the beginnings of Norilsk it was doubtful if a European could survive under those climatic conditions. Yet the So­ viet Union invested billions of rubles and the lives of untold numbers of people to create this industrial com­ plex. It is important that the Jewish world be made aware of the Norilsk story, which has aspects of special concern to us, and we are indebted to Izzi Barzilai, a former Communist now living in Israel, for an insight into a very dark chapter of history.

30

Barzilai (originally Berger) was born in Cracow, Poland. He settled in Israel some time after World War I as the leader of a Hashomer Hatzair (radical workers) group. After a time he became one of the founders and leaders of the Communist Party in the then Mandatory Palestine. In 1931 he was called to Moscow by the Comin­ tern. In the mid-1930’s Barzilai was arrested by the N.K.V.D. and spent more than two decades in the prisons and slave labor camps of the Soviet Union. Most of his detention was spent in a camp in Norilsk. After Stalin’s death his dossier was re-eval­ uated and he was officially rehabil­ itated. In fact, he was granted per­ mission to emigrate. Since 1958 he has been residing in Israel. I met Mr. Bar­ zilai a few months ago during his recent visit to the United States and gleaned, at first hand, an account of his experiences. His book, “Zohar Bachatzoth ” written in Hebrew and published in that language some months ago in Israel, provides grim revelations of the Nprilsk story.

Barzilai’s experiences mark the rise and fall of a Jewish Communist. It is apparent that Barzilai is an idealist who voluntarily devoted his life to the cause and teachings of Communism.

It is clear, too, that Barzilai is a cul­ tured man, of intellectual capacity and JEWISH LIFE

achievement. Despite his decades of estrangement from Jewish cultural ex­ periences, his mastery of the Hebrew language is impressive. Barzilai tells about varying types of Jews with whom he suffered in the penal camps.

Among them were a simple Jewish laborer, a distinguished scientist, a young boy who .had run away from home to cross the border into the Soviet Union in search of a better life and future, two young men who committed the sin of being known as Zionists, and a ‘‘demented” old Jew who wouldn’t give in and preached everywhere about a return to Judaism.

In the introduction to his book, Bar­ zilai states: “Many debated in the black darkness of those years. Friends asked each other, ‘How did it hap­ pen?’; ‘A Socialist Gehenom!’; ‘So­ viet Barbarism!’ Not merely I, who dedicated my life to the Communist ideal, but others with different view­ points were astonished by what was Being done in the name of Socialism.

In my eyes Communism and Barbar­ ism negate each other. Some have at­ tempted to blame the personality of Stalin, and others have placed the burden upon Beria. Yet, the whole problem awaits a solution, for the facts remain that men died from starvation, they froze, they fell in plagues, and choked from lack of hope. Perhaps the greatest killer was despair, from the realization that they suffered without being guilty of any crime. It became clear that the innocent were impris­ oned. Most of those who survived were rehabilitated after Stalin’s death.

Sadly though, there were the many blameless who did not live to be cleared. In the meantime, on this pile of shattered bones, on blood, on graves, there has arisen the rpagic city July-August, 1964

and glory of the North, the giant in­ dustrial center, Norilsk.” À LTHOUGH Barzilai never saw a ■¿A Nazi death camp, he does dis­ tinguish the Soviet slave labor estab­ lishment from the former. The Soviet establishment did care for the sick.

Medical services were available and the purpose was to restore a prisoner to good health so that he could con­ tinue to work. He tells us that to be granted the opportunity for specialized work meant survival. “Outdoor labor, in a simple definition, meant a death sentence.” The human being just couldn’t survive the working condi­ tions in the face of the elements.

All the personalities Barzilai fea­ tures in his book share two elements in common. They are Jews and they are disillusioned with the Soviet brand of Communism or Socialism.

Be it noted that Barzilai appears to have set a policy of mentioning people by name, only if they did not survive or if he had good reason to bélieve they were in the employ of the secret police. This, of course, is an additional indication of his conviction that the inhabitants of the Soviet Union still live in fear.

H P HE FIRST man whom Barzilai

-1- singles out for portrayal, among the Jewish prisoners, is Joseph Zadkin. A Bolshevik with a record of a heroic revolutionary fighter, Zadkin, was also a man of great integrity who spoke his mind. After the Revolution he returned home and married. He found himself among that group of workers who had looked forward to the Revolution and soon were disap­ pointed with the results. They had hoped for equality and especially for 31

freedom of expression. The difference tion to labor in Markman’s stead. In in standard of living between the the course of these contacts. Barzilai worker and those with “positions” Was recorded their conversations. Appar­ blatant. Voices began to be raised in ently Zadkin and Markman held con­ criticism of management and in gen­ flicting opinions. The professor held eral disappointment with the outcome on to his faith in the Revolution and of the Revolution. In the early days its ideals, placing the blame for their critical words were freely expressed. perversion upon Stalin and his coterie.

Spurning offers of comfortable admin­ This was no longer Zadkin’s view. istrative jobs, shocked and disappoint­ Barzilai quotes Zadkin as stating: ed with all that he struggled for, Zad­ “The great Jewish sin is that they left kin could not contain himself and the source of their being to care for finally his criticism got him expelled other fields. This is an unforgivable from the Party. He left Leningrad and sin.’- Zadkin would again and again settled in an obscure town to labor dwell upon Torah ideals and Judaic customs as he rememberbed and un­ and live quietly.

In 1936 the secret police sought out derstood them. He maintained that Zadkin and imprisoned him. He and Jews who had participated in the Rev­ Barzilai met in far-away Siberia in olution and adopted Marxism as their 1939. Zadkin was a powerfully built faith had only one right path before man with an infinite capacity for phys­ them: they must become baaley teshuical labor, and he now shared his vah; they must return to all the reli­ strength freely with his fellow prison­ gious values of the Jewish heritage.

After working on the construction ers. Every work detail was respon­ sible for a specific volume of heavy- of an airport, the group was taken by duty digging. Zadkin sought out the ship to Norilsk. There, Zadkin began weaker Jews in the groups and aided his labors in the coal mines, under in­ them in maintaining the quota. This credibly primitive conditions, and in activity on his part saved numerous time became ill and died.

In telling of Zadkin, Barzilai partic­ lives.

Among those who received his aid ularly wished to convey to us the ex­ was a Professor Markman, whose spe­ periences of the Jewish worker and cialty was literature. He had been his disenchantment with Soviet Com­ honored with the title “Red Profes­ munism. He stresses, above all, the sor.” Markman was adept in following yearning which arose to return to the the party line, but somehow he falter­ ethics and values of Judaism and the ed in some debates. This caused him sanctity of the human being. In addi­ to be listed in the opposition. One of tion, these memoirs present indica­ his students reported him to the au­ tions of the persisting sense of Jewish thorities and in 1937 he was impris­ identity and solidarity, and illustrate oned. Professor Markman suffered the desires of Jews to seek each other greatly from the interrogations and out in the most adverse circumstances. the imprisonment. By the time he This thread of Jewish sympathy and reached the labor battalion his health assistance is dwelt on repeatedly and at great length by Barzilai. was shattered.

In the course of these revelations Joseph Zadkin assumed the obliga­ 32

JEW ISH LIFE

we meet numerous figures who are known to us only by initials. The case of C.S. brings us into intimate rela­ tionship with the dark chambers of N.K.V.D. torture and inquisitorial practice. Barzilai obviously selected this case because it reveals the in­ credible intensity of Soviet suspicion.

Comprehension of such barbarism is scarcely within the grasp of the shel­ tered, freedom-adjusted American.

C.S. was a young man just beyond school age when he and his friend, Lipa, affiliated with the Communist movement in Latvia. Prior to this they had been members of a Zionist youth movement and had sought to go to Eretz Yisrael, but had been frustrated in attempts to get immigration certi­ ficates. Disappointed, they turned to Communism and determined to live in the Soviet Union. As soon as they crossed the Soviet border, C.S. and Lipa presented themselves to the au­ thorities as new arrivals who wished to help in building a Communist so­ ciety. Instead of receiving the welcome which had been promised them by their Communist comrades in Latvia, they were immediately imprisoned as spies.

Despite all appeals and protests and pleas that their captors check with the Latvian Communists, they were merci­ lessly interrogated. Nothing would avail them other than a signed con­ fession of the intended misdeeds im­ puted to them. Lipa finally “con­ fessed” and was executedjfcbut C.S. ,steadfastly refused and he was sent to Norilsk where Barzilai met him. r r iH E N.K.V.D. apparently were -I. great sticklers for certain formal­ ities. They wanted every convicted “criminal” to send a letter of appeal to the authorities in Moscow. NumerJuly-August, 1964

ous prisoners believed that if this ap­ peal were written in a beautiful hand­ writing it would have a greater possi­ bility of favorable attention. The N.K, V.D. utilized prisoners for writing these appeals. Because of his fine pen­ manship, C.S. was given the task of composing these pathetic requests.

During the course of his service as an appeal scribe, he was brought into contact with numerous prisoners. Thus he learned the story of a great many cruel and unjust incarcerations and be­ held the extent of the policy of sense­ less terror. C. S. had to wait until the 1950’s to be “rehabilitated.” Ap­ parently he is still in the Soviet Union; otherwise, Barzilai would mention him by name.

Coming into the prison cells to write the appeals which were dictated to him, C.S. found many Jews, both men and women, among the prisoners.

It appears that Jews formed a high percentage of the victims. We again see the brotherly feeling and intimacy which was shared by these sad, disil­ lusioned, and bewildered Jewish souls.

But an uglier aspect is to be seen too.

In the midst of all the suffering, a member of the secret police speaks to a prisoner in Yiddish, persuading him to “confess.” Jews were thus utilized to gain the confidence of, and then destroy, their own brethren. C.S. tells us, through Barzilai, how a Jewish agent of the N.K.V.D. attempted to induce him to confess to having en­ tered the Soviet Union for the objec­ tive of spying. The Jew was employed after the other N.K.V.D. interrogators failed to break his spirit. n n H E man Barzilai would especially A like to immortalize, it appears, is Dr. Abraham Charit. According to the 33

detailed account given in “Zohar Bachatzoth ” Dr. Charit was a rare and gifted human being, a great scientist?, and a devoted Jew. From him, Barzilai and countless others drew inspiration and courage, spirit, and hope to per­ severe. If Barzilai had written of his experiences only for the purpose of informing the world that there are men and Jews like Dr. Abraham Charit, we could justifiably exclaim dayenu.

Almost half of Barzilai’s book is devoted to the story of Norilsk and Dr. Charit. The figure of this noble Jew shines in the midst of all the bar­ barism and inhumanity of this Arctic horror.

Barzilai tells us: “I heard many things from Dr. Abraham Charit, and •his words became inscribed in my memory. His views and statements in general and Jewish matters are worthy of recall . . . especially because he rep­ resented a whole class of Jews. He re­ flected the group of Jews who are scientists and intellectuals—in fact, the finest assets of Russian Jewry.”

Abraham Charit had studied med­ icine at the University of Leningrad.

After serving for a brief period as a physician, he devoted himself com­ pletely to research in microbiology.

In a short time he published important papers and achieved recognition in his chosen field. He reached a position of such esteem that he represented the Soviet Union in the international bio­ logical congress which took place in Germany in 1936. The fact that he was in Germany during the Nazi pe­ riod offered him an insight into the views of Nazi German scientists. This confirmed Charit’s opinion that civil­ ized countries would not be able to compromise with this bestial force.

34

Barzilai records with deep feeling Charit’s view about the latent strength and loyalties of the Russian Jewish community. The scientist believed that despite decades of restrictions and undernourishment, the Jewish spirit and will to live and create had not ebbed. It was his conviction that Rus­ sian Jewry created such a vast capacity for Jewish thought and life that it al­ most defied comparison with other Jewish settlements of the past. Al­ though Charit had no conception of the American Jewish community, he would state that “the American Jews of today are the Russian Jews of yes­ terday.-N 1941, when Hitler invaded Rus­ sia, the authorities decided that units of the Red Army which were composed of Estonians and Latvians were “unreliable.” Consequently, Lat­ vians and Estonians began to arrive in Norilsk. The Latvian leaders and their followers attempted to make an adjustment to these impossible new physical conditions, but the Estonians were determined never to capitulate.

It therefore became evident that the Estonians would be committing sui­ cide in a passive fashion. Barzilai re­ ports that after a few weeks, less than a dozen of the nearly two hundred Estonian leaders who had come, still survived. This illustrates that the harsh conditions imposed upon the prisoners amidst the fearful climatic elements could destroy any human being in little time unless he waged a life-saving battle against them.

The capitulation of the Estonian leaders raised many questions in the hearts of the incarcerated Jews. Dr. Charit believed it was sinful for Jews to give up. He interpreted Jewish his-

I

JEW ISH LIFE

tory to mean that Jews must cleave to hope in the future, must nurture the optimistic capacity to await changes and better days. Others ar­ gued that if life was all-important, then the possibility did exist that one could submit to the idea of the “sur­ vival of the strong.” The principle to survive could achieve such paramountcy, they maintained, that it could be done at the cost of the lives of others.

This viewpoint aroused great indig­ nation in Dr. Charit. Although de­ tached and stoical by nature, he had utter contempt for one who gains life by another’s death. If a Jewish pri­ soner were guilty of surviving through causing the loss of another person’s life, Dr. Charit characterized this as a violation of Lo Tirtzoch and as a profanation of the name of Jew among nations. The behavior of one Jew, he profoundly believed, affects the status of all.

Dr. Charit did not believe in eter­ nal Antisemitism and was confident that with great educational effort Jewhate could be eliminated. Although he did not live to learn of the estab­ lishment of the State of Israel, he of­ fered the vision that if this should come to pass, then from a moral and ethical viewpoint the actions of the Jewish State would always be meas­ ured against the historic professions of the Jew. ITH his physical condition fail­ ing steadily, it was fortunate for Dr. Charit that the N.K.V.D. viewed him as a cloistered scientist who lived with and for his experi­ ments. Even before his arrival in Norilsk, his health had been broken by his initial imprisonment in Lenin­ grad in 1936. There had followed two

*

July-August, 1964

years of solitary confinement in pris­ on in the Urals, from whence, in 1939, he was sent to Norilsk. Imme­ diately upon arrival there, he had to give moral and spiritual strength to others. The attitude he had found on every side was: “There is no escape, nothing to look forward to except death; why not sooner, then—why not now?”

Dr. Charit interested himself as a physician in the psychosomatic causes of illness in this wasteland, in the hope of seeking means of overcoming the brutality of the environment which broke body and spirit, alike.

Originally, it was felt that man could not live permanently in the Arc­ tic areas because of such factors as the breathing hardships in the thin air, the inability of the heart and in­ ner organs to withstand the extreme cold, the impossibility of growing food­ stuffs and of providing railroad trans­ port, the six months of darkness each year, snow blindness, the fearful wind­ storms, and so forth. Nonetheless, Dr. Charit set himself to study the means of helping man survive under these conditions. He discovered the basic dietetic requirements for human life in places like Norilsk. His discoveries, on which he wrote a book, resulted in the establishment of a policy of examining the workers of Norilsk reg­ ularly to determine if their physical condition remained at a predetermined level, which was the survival mini­ mum. If they could not pass this standard, they were then sent back to “dry land,” meaning any place that the Siberian railroad reached.

It was Dr. Charit’s thesis that theje was no place on the globe where the human being could not survive when 35

given proper assistance. In the end, all of his prophecies came true and the Soviet, government succeeded in establishing extreme northern indus­ trial cities.

Throughout Charit’s imprisonment he worked at his specialty of biochem­ ical research and performed all the tasks of a bacteriological laboratory.

His scientific work brought him into personal contact with many physi­ cians, especially at scientific meetings which were permitted. He was aston­ ished to find a large number of Jew­ ish physicians at work in different slave labor establishments in the far North. Fully one-half of these Jew­ ish physicians were women. They were there because of the government’s pol­ icy of punishing the families of those who were imprisoned as “enemies of the Soviet People.” According to Barzilai, this was Stalin’s private method of terrorizing the people. The statute of “Enemy of the Soviet People” was utilized to give a legal basis for im­ prisoning Jews who were suspected of wanting to go to Israel in the 1940’s.

Wives of “enemies of the people” were sent away. These Jewish women were allowed no news from or contact with their husbands and children who were placed in camps. Many of them died of their sufferings or lost their sanity. Profoundly moved by thé no­ bility of character shown by the wom­ en victims, Charit asked Barzilai, in one conversation, to put into writing outstanding instances of heroism among the Jewish women of the slave labor camps. In his own contact with many imprisoned women, Dr. Charit was again amazed to find loyalty to Jewish belief despite decades of iso­ lation from communal Jewish experi­ 36

ence. He was also inspired by repeated instances of very effective Jewish sol­ idarity.

T the^end of 1940 there were many new arrivals in Norilsk.

Numerous Jews were among them— a result of the Soviet and Nazi di­ vision of Poland in that period. Dr. Charit urged the Jewish physicians to assist the newly arrived Jews in ob­ taining “survival” jobs; that is, forms of work which could be endured in that climate. In the spring of 1941 ships brought still more political pris­ oners, and again many Jews were among them. The survivors among those who had been imprisoned since the 1930’s seemed to be there to stay, with no authority interested in their lot.

When Germany attacked the Soviet Union the prisoners found it hard to envision an alliance between Great Britain and Russia. One of their naive hopes was that as a price for such an alliance Britain would demand a halt to Soviet terror and a guarantee of individual human rights. The inten­ sification of the war in Russia, how­ ever, brought only a renewed liquida­ tion of the imprisoned “enemies of the people.” Giving a detailed sum­ mary of his own continuing imprison­ ment and interrogation and the re­ newed demand at this time for a signed confession, Barzilai reports that apparently all those who confessed to anything were immediately shot. Bar­ zilai attributes his survival to a hun­ ger strike and steadfast refusal to con­ fess or to sign any document admit­ ting any form of guilt. He almost lost his life through starvation and suffer­ ing, but was not executed. Instead, he was finally sent to the hospital where

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JËW ISH LIFE

he renewed his contacts with Dr. Charit.

Bringing war and destruction, the Nazis brought also their murderous Antisemitism. This spirit of Jew-hatred did not find an infertile field in the Soviet Union. As soon as the Nazis neared communities in Russia, antiJewish excesses sprang up among the local populace. Dr. Charit was shocked by the reports of the participation of young Communists in such bloody at­ tacks upon the Jews. Appraisal of these facts caused Charit to question all the accomplishments since the Russian Revolution. Neither Charit nor Barzilai had visualized Antisem­ itism as a new Soviet policy because of its anti-socialistic character. In places like Kiev and Berditchev Jews could have been saved from the Nazis had the Soviet authorities wished to do so. When Dr. Charit was told that things would be better when the war was over, his reply was: “Not for us, I am afraid.”

Dr. Charit died of leukemia in 1943. In 1956 when he was posthu­ mously “rehabilitated,” his daughter received two months of his salary as compensation for this incarceration.

N the concluding part of “Zohar Bachatzoth,” we find an account of a number of Soviet prisoners who, af­ ter a period of incarceration, were executed for the crime of Zionist loy­ alties and devotion to Judaism. We are brought to view the emergence of Antisemitism as an instrument of So­ viet governmental policy. Barzilai cites the beginnings of this official stand against the Jewish people as a whole with the removal of Jews from cen­ tral party positions. He links the forced resignations of Lazar Kagano-

I

July-August, 1964

vich’s brother, Michael, and of Molo­ tov’s wife as examples of the com­ mencement of Party Antisemitism. A Major Flikrafov, who came to No­ rilsk as head of the N.K.V.D. in the fall of 1940, is credited by Barzilai with anticipating by a decade inten­ sive official Soviet Antisemitism. We are given a description of the Dudinka “plot,” whereby two young Jews, Zelinski and Yoffe, were accused of planning a revolt. The evidence cited was their devotion to Zionism and the Jewish people. They refused to con­ fess any crimes or to plead regret for their views. There emerges in the prosecution of this case the attitude that Jews by their basic nature and character are poor material for sub­ mission to an authoritarian regime.

When C.S. interviewed Yoffe, prior to his execution, for the purpose of at­ tempting to have an appeal sent to Moscow, he found a Mogen Dovid tattooed on his forehead. Yoffe ex­ plained that he had had the emblem tattooed, at his own request, by an­ other prisoner, for this was his last opportunity to give expression to his views.

Another figure whom Barzilai dis­ cusses is Moshe Weisman, a Jew from Poland whom he met in 1949. Flee­ ing the Nazi invasion, Weisman had escaped from Poland to the Soviet Union in 1939. He had been a mem­ ber of the Bund and was told that his imprisonment was a result of anti­ communist activity even though it took place beyond the borders of Rus­ sia. Weisman was one of those who reported the last message of Yerachmiel Weinstein, a pioneer Bundist who became a Bolshevik. In the 1930’s Weinstein was arrested and was never 37

released. His message to his fellow imprisoned Jews wasigNext year in Jerusalem.” Weisman, throughout his incarceration, sought out his fellow Jews and yearned to find strength in Jewish solidarity.

The people Barzilai has depicted are in the main infused with a yearn­ ing for re-identification with Judaism and Jewish values. Most of these crushed individuals had attempted to barter their birthright for the mirage of Communist dreams.

FOLLOWING the appearance of “Zohar Bachatzoth,” a series of memoir articles by Barzilai’s wife was published in the Israeli journal A mot.

Her articles treat of the same period as that which Barzilai’s book covers, and thus complement the latter with glimpses of Barzilai’s wife and child in Soviet civilian society during his detention. Esther Feldman—her maid­ en name, which she uses as a penname for these articles—describes her meeting with the Communists from Palestine, at a gathering in Russia during the 1920’s. We are told of the burning idealism of Barzilai, who was dedicated to his revolutionary course above all else. They married and she went with him to Palestine, from whence they returned to Russia in the 1930’s, at the direction of the Comin­ tern.

Her description of the Israeli pio­ neers of the 1920’s-^who viewed the Jewish Communists as traitors to the cause of the Jewish people—has rare value. The Communists, of course, vehemently opposed the entire con­ cept of the re-creation of a Jewish State in Israel. To Esther Feldman, living in Palestine meant a reunion

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38

with family and nation. Apparently she was not the blind revolutionary that her husband was. Yet, as a faith­ ful wife, she abided by all his deci­ sions, even if they meant being up­ rooted ancT viewed with suspicion by friends and family.

Esther Feldman describes the com­ forts she and her husband and son shared among the Comintern circles in Moscow. Although the populace was beset by great privation, the priv­ ileged Comintern caste lived in lux­ ury and ate the finest food. Needless to say, Barzilai’s downfall and deni­ gration brought an end to this life for them. Her account of the omni­ present fear and suspicion is pene­ trating. “Upon whose head will the axe fall next? Then, suddenly, it is upon you, and yours! No one to turn to! No recourse. The world of com­ fort and ease changes to cold and hunger, without even a roof over your head. Not a soul will dare to befriend the wife of a man who has been de­ clared an ‘enemy of the Soviet Peo­ pled2’ N the concluding part of Esther Feldman’s memoirs there is a poig­ nant description of Barzilai’s reunion with her and their son Yasha. After borrowing a substantial sum of money from sympathetic friends, Esther and Yasha entrained for a journey of five days and five nights. The effort to reach the released defies description.

Barzilai still had not received permis­ sion to return to his family and “home.” Eventually Esther and her son found husband and father for a shocking and tearful reunion. They found an old man of forty-six, shat­ tered by long years of punishment.

The other residents of this small

I

JEW ISH LIFE

Siberian village were astonished. Es­ ther Feldman expressed it in these words: “They began to come to see the miracle. A family that had re­ tained its faith in itself and was now reunited. Everyone wondered what made this woman and her student son come all the way from Moscow to this ‘old man.’ ” This was a rare oc­ currence in this society of void and lost moral values. The released pris­ oners who beheld this scene were sad­ dened, for it reminded them of their destroyed family relationships.

After this joyous re-establishment of family union a new separation took place, until the eventual rehabilitation and emigration occurred. Esther and her son had to return to their Mos­ cow routines. Prior to boarding the train for Moscow they were in dire need of shelter for a few nights. They sought out one lonely Jewish family in the rural wilderness of Siberia, and were granted hospitality and part of the one room which was their hosts’ home. The room was shared with ani­ mals, too. Yet, it was the eve of Rosh Hashonah and this isolated Jew began his prayers. Esther Feldman and her son were inspired by the sight and it had a profound impact upon them.

Jews were thus united in the spirit of Rosh Hashonah.

In the course of their meeting with Barzilai, they learned of his return to

July-August, 1964

the traditions and faith of Israel. Bar­ zilai had asked them to send him a Hebrew prayerbook and a Hebrew Bible. When Esther returned she vis­ ited with her sister Penina in Omsk and sought her help in obtaining these rarities. The former rabbi of that com­ munity knew Penina and they there­ fore dared to approach him for these two items. Despite his acquaintance with Penina he viewed both of them and this request with deep suspicion.

But after hearing their story he en­ tered the synagogue and returned with the requested books. The interview ended with the rabbi’s parting words: “Go in peace and forget who gave these to you!”

NCE reunited with wife and son* O Barzilai now devoted every pos­ sible moment to telling Yasha of the past and precious heritage of the Jew­ ish people. The son imbibed the words of the father as one slaking a great thirst. Barzilai and his wife stress that this same thirst is widely prevalent among the disillusioned Soviet Jews.

They search for the road to Judaism, to extent that the paucity of Jewish knowledge permits them. We are left with the conviction that the free spir­ it of man cannot be vanquished and that the resurgence of Jewish identity and Jewish religious belief among So­ viet Jews is a relevant fact.

39

The Commandment of Shaatnez

By JAY BRAVERMAN

HE commandment of shaatnez is found twice in our Torah. This mitzvah is first set forth in Vayikra 19:19: “There shall not come upon you a garment of two kinds of ma­ terials mingled together as shaatnez” And in D’vorim 22:11 shaatnez is further identified as the mixture of wool and linen: “You shall not wear shaatnez—wool and linen together.”

The Torah does not specify any particular reason for this* command­ ment. Our Rabbis have traditionally classified it as a choky a statute, the reason for which has not been re­ vealed to man. A loyal Jew, never­ theless; willingly obeys it, because G-d has so commanded. In return, our Rabbis have stated that G-d helps us at times for “no reason,” even when we do not deserve to be helped.

It should be noted, however, that in Vayikra (Leviticus) shaatnez is list­ ed with two other negative command­ ments, the mixed breeding of ani­ mals of different species and the mix­ ing and sowing of different kinds of seeds. (These commandments are all generally called kilayim by the Torah,

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40

meaning the mixture of different kinds.) Our Rabbis, and especially the Ramban (Nachmanides in his com­ mentary to Vayikra 19:19) have explained that the prohibition of kilayim is based on the idea that G-d has made certain distinctions in the natural world which it is wrong for man to disregard. In the Talmud Yerushalmi (Kilayim 1:7) the begin­ ning of the verse forbidding kilayim, “You shall keep my statutes . . is interpreted as referring to the in­ herent laws of Nature ordained by G-d during the Six Days of Creation.

These laws were then clearly stated

by G-d in the first chapter of the Bible; the entire vegetable and animal kingdoms were to bearKfruit and re­ produce in accordance with their own species. Man must keefethese laws by not disturbing the narasgj order.

Referring again to the v ^ Q ^ Jn Vayikra, we find that the first tvnfei types of kilayim describe interbreed-^ ing within the animal and vegetable worlds, respectively. Our Rabbis long ago realized that which modern bi­ ology has confirmed: no offspring will result from the interbreeding of JEW ISH LIFE

two unrelated species, and when the two animals or plants interbred are of closely related species and do pro­ duce an offspring, it will usually be sterile, unable to reproduce its kind.

For example, a dog and cat when mated produce no offspring. However, the union of a horse and a donkey will result in a sterile mule. Nature itself thus rejects the interbreeding of

different species.* The third type of kilayim, shaatnez, represents the joining of dead organic products of the animal and vegetable worlds: wool comes from sheep, and linen from flax. In keeping with the above explanation, this command­ ment of shaatnez, the Mishnah (Ki­ layim 9:8) states, is guilty of per­ verting the ways of G-d.

THE DEFINITION AND LA W S O F SH AA TN EZ

l ^ U R Rabbis explained that the word “shaatnez” is a combination of three terms: shua, carded; tovui, spun; and nuz, twisted. These three terms refer to the making of thread.

First the raw material is carded— cleansed and disentangled—-to sep­ arate the fibers. Then the fibers are spun into a thread. Several threads are twisted together to make them strong enough for eventual weaving into cloth. The Torah forbids the weaving of threads of wool and threads of linen joined in any manner.

For example, wearing cloth woven from the two types of thread, or sewing at least two stitches of one thread into a piece of cloth of the other, or permanently joining two different threads together by any means, aré all forbidden. This, of course, includes the prohibition of wearing a garment, each thread of which contains wool and linen. The Rabbis, in order to keep man from violating this commandment, have prohibited the wearing of cloth made of linen and wool threads prepared in any way—not just carded, spun, and twisted. For example, felt, made by pressing and rolling fibers together, cannot be worn if it has linen and July-August, 1964

wool mixed. We are permitted, how­ ever, to simultaneously wear separate garments of linen and of wool as long as they are in no way fastened together, neither by a third fiber, nor a pin, nor even knotted together. A cloth belt, one end made of wool and the other of linen, may not be worn even if there is a leather strap separating the cloth, since the woolen and linen strips will be tied together when the belt is worn.

Now that we have defined the term “shaatnez,” we must explain exactly what is meant by the wearing of shaatnez. Our Rabbis have discussed this question at great length. If the Torah had only written the verse in D’vorim, “You shall not wear shaat­ nez,” it would have been a simple matter to explain that only “wearing” is forbidden, because this is the usual manner of deriving pleasure and ben­ efit from clothes. However, in Vayikra a different term is used: 4Tt [shaatnez] * See Commentary of Ramban on Vayikra 19:19; E. W. Sinnot, Lu C. Dunn, T. Dobzhansky, “Principles of Genetics/’ (New York, 1958); Kiddushin 17a; Megilah 13b; Dr. L. Lewisohn, “Die Zoology des Talmuds/* (Frank­ furt, 1858).

The Halachic sources for all opinions stated in this article can be furnished by the author upon request.

41

shall not come upon you.” The Torah does not use words indiscriminately.

The term “putting on” includes much more than the term “wearing,” but how much more? The Rabbis in the Talmud answered quite logically that “putting on” must be similar to “wear­ ing”—that is—must bring comfort or protection to the wearer, as illus­ trated by one who wraps himself in a blanket for warmth. If no comfort is intended by one who “puts on” shaatnez, he has not violated the law of shaatnez. Therefore, clothes deal­ ers selling garments containing shaat­ nez to non-Jews may “put them on” to display them or transport them, as long as they are not intended for use as comfort or protection. How­ ever, once we intend putting on a garment containing shaatnez in order to wear it, even for a short while and even if we derive negligible comfort from it, it is forbidden. The dividing line between “wearing” and “put­ ting on” is sometimes very thin. Thus, if a barber’s sheets are made as gar­ ments with openings for the head, they are subject to the laws of shaat­ nez even though they do not protect one’s body, but only one’s clothes.

Otherwise, they are not articles of wear, and are not subject to shaatnez.

Both terms, “putting on” and “wearing,” exclude sitting on shaat­ nez. Thus, the Torah permits one to sit on cloth made of linen and wool.

The Rabbis, however, restricted this for fear that threads of shaatnez might fold over and touch part of the body. Under two conditions one may sit on shaatnez: if the mattresses or cushions are stiff and firm, and can­ not curl, and if one’s flesh does not come into direct contact with the mattress or cushion. The Vilna Gaon adds another condition: one may not 42

sit on any spread that might possi­ bly be worn, if it contains shaatnez.

The Rabbis also went into great detail in explaining what constitutes the protection or benefit given by a garment. Garments are worn to pro­ tect the body from the heat as well as from cold. Therefore one cannot take a hot egg in a hand protected by a cloth of shaatnez. The garment, however, must be on the body of the wearer to be subject to the laws of shaatnez, and one is permitted to en­ ter under a tent or umbrella made of shaatnez, even though they protect the body. n p H IS mitzvah has no minimum reJL quirement. Even the most minute thread of wool in a large garment of linen, or the opposite, is subject to the laws of shaatnez. This is so even if the thread is lost in the garment and cannot be traced. The Tosefoth commentary to the Talmud ask an interesting question: If the thread cannot be found in the gar­ ment why shouldn’t it be nullified by the presence of the much larger cloth, and the garment be then per­ mitted, as we have found in other cases of Jewish law? The answer giv­ en is that neutralization (b’itul b’rov) can apply only in certain circumstances when a small amount of forbidden substance is inadvertently mixed with a large amount of permitted sub­ stance and then becomes indistin­ guishable. However, with regard to shaatnez, both wool and linen are individually permitted. It is their very mixture which is forbidden. Once the individual components are mixed, the ratio of one to the other has no importance; the entire gar­ ment has become one forbidden ob­ ject.

JEW ISH LIFE

The laws of shaatnez are distin­ guished from those concerning other types of kilayim. The latter, depend­ ing upon the particular type, have various restrictions concerning their consumption and use. We are only forbidden to wear shaatnez. One may weave cloth of linen and wool, or sell a garment of shaatnez to a non-Jew. But great care should be taken to avoid manufacturing a garment of shaatnez which might be worn by a Jew. If one is re­ sponsible for clothing his fellow Jew with shaatnez, he violates the commandment in the Torah, “You

shall not put a stumbling block be­ fore the blind” (Vayikra 19:14).

This verse has been traditionally in­ terpreted as referring to those who lead others into sin.

A Jew should be particularly care­ ful that his clothes do not contain shaatnez, for one is guilty of a trans­ gression each time he dresses in such a garment. Only a general outline of the laws pertaining to shaatnez has been given in this article; anyone who has a particular question, especially regarding a practical law, should con­ sult a competent rabbi.

THE TESTS FO R SH AA TN EZ

f I ''HE Torah defines shaatnez as a l a mixture of linen and wool. Lin­ en is thread made from the fiber of the flax plant. The Rabbis explained that wool in this case refers only to sheep’s wool, excluding camel’s hair, the fur of rabbits, and the wool of goats. The Rabbis in the Mishnah also prohibited silk (which resembles linen) and a vegetable yarn (which resembles wool) to be mixed with each other, or with wool and linen, respectively, because of their resem­ blance to the materials forbidden by the Torah. However, when silk be­ came a generally known commodity, the prohibition was lifted. Similarly, hemp fiber (resembling linen) was forbidden to be mixed with wool in those areas where it was not gen­ erally in use.

In order to test for shaatnez, one must be able to distinguish not only between linen and wool, but between these and all other fibers. The Tal­ mud (Nidah 61b) mentions a test July-August, 1964

with regard to a linen thread lost in a woolen garment, or the opposite; the garment should be dyed. The color effect of dye on wool is differ­ ent from that on linen, and one could then be separated from the other.

Another simple test to distinguish wool from linen and other non-ani­ mal fibers has been known since an­ cient times. When wool is burned it singes and gives off an unpleasant odor, like burnt hair, and leaves a hard ash residue. But it has always been a problem to differentiate be­ tween linen and other vegetable fibers —cotton, hemp, and jute. It seemed that linen burned quickly and hemp slowly. Also* when each thread was unravelled hemp had longer fibers than did linen. However, our Rabbis declared these tests to be unreliable.* Experts claimed to identify linen by * Rama, Shach, and Pischey T’shuvah on Yoreh Dea 302:2; Beth Hillel on Yoreh Dea 298:1.

43

its shiny fiber, relatively strong thread, and pattern and texture of fabric.

Yet, even they made mistakes. The Rabbis were forced to decree that hemp cloth (canvas) be purchased only from a reliable Jew. With the coming of the Industrial Revolution, better ways were in­ vented to card, spin, twist fibers, and weave them into cloth, making it even harder to identify the original raw fiber. And when man learned to synthesize textiles—rayon, nylon, and other viscose fibers—the old methods of testing became useless.

This is one area in Jewish life where science has come to the rescue and adequately serves the needs of Torah. Microscopic and chemical tests have been devised that identify, without any doubt, all natural and synthetic fibers. Shaatnez testing lab­ oratories have been established in the United States, England, and Israel to provide this service. Their work is quite complicated, involving not only the identification of fibers but also the determination of which parts of a garment need be tested in the first place. Their charges however, are quite nominal.

*

r | THE Mitzvah of Shaatnez is little A known and even less understood.

This article has attempted to clarify its sources, reasons, and Halachic basis. In keeping with the goals of all Jewish scholarship, it is our fervent hope that the knowledge gained by

44

the reader will lead to religious prac­ tice.

“He who observes the command­ ment of shaatnez will merit garments of righteousness in the world to come.”

JEW ISH LIFE

The Window

By E. V. SIEGEL

EANING against the frame of a narrow window in the upper pas­ sage of the dormitory, one could quite clearly see the Autobahn, just a narrow stretch of it, but enough to suggest to those of us who knew of the window, a distance and a freedom of movement we had learned to think of as legendary privileges granted only to some incredibly fortunate few in the Germany of our day.

During the last few days the brutal oppressiveness of the detention camp in which victims of air raids who had lost their identity papers rubbed shoulders with hardened criminals and slave laborers from the East, seemed to have deepened. It was our guards who appeared to worry now and in their worry neglected to punish as promptly and cheerfully as usual.

The absence of this almost machine­ like discipline gathered like a storm cloud above our heads, cowering slaves, afraid of what dreadful con­ sequence this unreasonable, unheard of leniency of our masters might bring.

The window and the view drew us more than ever because here was tangible proof that there was a world beyond ours, a world where people slept in beds, ate all the food they

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July-August, 1964

wanted, and, unbelievably, spoke of whatever was in their minds.

We began to hear the deep, rumbl­ ing thunder of heavy artillery.

Suddenly, we found the strength to look at our guards openly and found that at least their shape was human.

Suddenly, too, we found the strength to hate the camp leader, a strong blond woman whose broad face never were any other expression but that of stony contempt for anything and any­ one.

Our hatred became a strong, tan­ gible thing and we began to watch her with sick intensity, hoping to see her falter.

Then, abruptly, the sound stopped.

Its absence was felt as though the air we breathed had left us.

I V r E rushed to the window, desperW ately, clutching at it, pressing against the frame as though it could comfort us.

And there, on the Autobahn, slow­ ly, steadily with a great clanking hum, we saw a row of majestic monsters approaching the intersection with the camp road. With a deep nod, the tanks turned in our direction and hurled themselves along the dirt road to the camp gate.

45

We, at the window, gave a collec­ tive sigh, too full of happiness to do anything but stand and stare. All of us felt weak and light at the same time, as after a long sickness, and quite incapable of communicating with each other. It was as though the sight of our liberators had magically res­ tored individuality to us. After exist­ ing so long as a grey mass of un­ wanted, dirty nonentities for whom only the “We” spelled survival, each one of us luxuriated in the invisible cloak of happiness that the men in the tanks had handed us.

Then, we walked down the stairs and joined our companions in the courtyard. Even the so-called hospital had been opened and the ill and the dying were carried out and sat about Waiting. No one was afraid any more, the guards had disappeared and there was that happy expectation as before the appearance of a great artist or a bridal party.

I noticed for the first time that it was spring.

I saw some woman struggling with the lock on the gate and for a moment recollected that we were still here, in this place of illness and suffering, locked away from the world outside.

Unexpectedly, the camp leader came out of the house and firmly, almost proudly, walked through the throng.

Was it habit or was it the knowledge that she could hurt us no longer that made us open a path for her? Calmly she unlocked the gate and stood there, like the mistress of some ancient manor, and said in careful English: “They’ll tell you I never touched any of them. Besides, Americans don’t shoot women . . . ” It was then that with a gigantic fury we once more and for the last time became “We”v Like a many46.

headed monster we started clawing toward her, releasing the penned-up poison of our hatred in a terrible effort to kill. The last shred of self control left us and for that one in­ stant we were, indeed, what this wom­ an had thought us to be, barely hu­ man creatures, ejecting fierce growls, and like animals, hitting, spitting, his­ sing at the last symbol of our degrada­ tion within our reach. But they had starved us too efficiently, the blinding cloud passed as suddenly as it had come upon us. We left her alone.

LOOKED up into a slowly mas­ ticating face that seemed kind and kept repeating: “Now you oughtn’t have done that, you know.” He handed me a longish object wrapped in a crisp, clean paper and commanded me to eat it. Gently he unwrapped it for me and said: “Candy. It’ll give you strength!”

Then he cried.

I looked at him in astonishment. I tried to explain that I’d never had any candy like that before and that it was nothing to cry about.

Some other man ordered all the soldiers away and asked who was the leader here? He wanted to get or­ ganized for the night until UNRAA or the Red Cross could catch up. I took an instant dislike to him. He sounded exactly like those he had vanquished.

Little groups were forming by now, talking and laughing. Only the sick and those that had been here so long that talking had become an unfamiliar painful thing hung back or walked slowly from group to group and lis­ tened.

I knew that I ought to reach out to our liberators and make them un­ derstand that it was I who had sur-

1

JEW ISH LIFE

vived, that I could perceive their pity clearly but that I didn’t need it at all.

None of us needed pity because it set us aside as “different” again, trans­ formed only from one group to an­ other, when all any of us yearned for was the dignity of being an individual, a person whose mind and heart could function independently of collective guilt and collective hunger.

Whenever I came close to any of the soldiers, they immediately fell silent and gave me something. But I didn’t want candy or gum or soap. I wanted to talk to them and tell them to be careful. But whenever I tried to speak, they regarded me with that anxious pity one reserves for the de­ serving poor or the mentally deficient.

They offered me blankets, sweaters, food, sugar, all the riches I thought had disappeared from the world, but not a one of them said: “What’s your name? I am glad you’re free now.”

I tried to tell myself that possibly they didn’t understand my English or that they were unaware that I had been an inmate.

T had become dark outside and al­ most all the people had gone in­ doors. In the mess hall, the Americans had contrived a party while most of my compatriots sat about on the hard benches and watched this amazing performance of tireless vitality.

I walked around the building to join the throng. Emotionally drained by now, I opened the kitchen door, and there, in the narrow hall leading from the kitchen to the mess hall, stood a tall American, and gazed with admiration and intensity at the camp

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July-August, 1964

leader. She was battered and bruised and for the first time I saw her blond hair undone, but she had done some­ thing I could not. She had made this American aware of herself as a per­ son.

They were completely oblivious of me. While everything in me shrieked to kill, to obliterate this woman, the American tenderly and with great care kissed that woman’s bruised face; while she, no longer contemptuous and proud, exuded warmth and feminine charm.

There are no words to describe the fury that mounted in me. I longed for some dreadful weapon to deface that American. He appeared to me more hateful than the woman, more awful in his inane ignorance than all the brainlessly brutal guards she had once commanded.

Quivering with frustration, I walked up the stairs, to the upper passage and the window. The window—it did me one last service. It was densely dark outside and in the dimly illumi­ nated hallway the window panes threw back a reflection at me. An ema­ ciated face, with cavernous eyes, un­ kempt hair, an impossibly long neck, bony arms, dirty and dressed in rags— For the first time in years I looked at myself as a girl looks at herself in the mirror. With a bitter start I understood then why the Americans could not communicate with me. In their world, women were bright, pret­ ty things; they had never seen a fe­ male scarecrow before ^ n o r listened to a nightmare image mutter hoarse warnings.

How long, Oh Lord, how long be­ fore I, too, will be human again?

47

The Text of the Tanach

By J. E. EHRENTREU

UE to a number of develop­ ments, the question of the integ­ rity of the text of the Bible is cur­ rently receiving much attention among the wider Jewish public. Bible fragments found in the Dead Sea Scrolls (showing some variants from the traditional text, but of such rela­ tively minor nature as to cause much chagrin in “Higher Critical” circles), the issues raised by the new transla­ tion of the Torah published by the Jewish Publication Society of Ameri­ ca, and the recent publication of a number of so-called critical text-edi­ tions, are among the factors which have brought an upsurge of public interest in the Scriptural text.

Together with this has come a re­ newed—or, in the case of some, a new—awareness and appreciation of the wondrous achievement represent­ ed in the preservation of the text of the Bible throughout long ages of history.

Even among the more assimilated el­ ements of the community, and even among those who had hitherto taken at face value, and as “scientific truth,” the theories of “modern Biblical schol­ arship,” there is evinced a tendency

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48

to speak of “owr Bible,” rather than “the Bible,” and to use Jewish termi­ nology in their references—“the To­ rah” rather than “the Pentateuch,” “Neviim and Kethuvim,” rather than “Prophets and Writings,” “Tanach,” rather than “Bible.”

With this development in mind, it is of timely pertinence to review the historical process whereby the text of Tanach, our Holy Scriptures, was preserved through the generations.

We shall attempt, in this essay, to de­ scribe the facts and factors which— as far as human powers are con­ cerned—worked together for the pre­ servation of the integrity of the text of the sacred Scriptures, until the Masoretes, the long line of preservers of Tradition, with their special re­ search and methods finally “fixed the Masoretic text.” The quotation marks are meant to indicate that this phrase must be used cautiously, for it is open to misunderstanding. We have only one text of Torah-Neviim-Kethuvim—that whose integrity was recog­ nized by our Sages— and they relied on the work of the Masoretes. The other “texts” of Tanach contain misJEW ISH LIFE

takes, errors, and alterations, origi­ nating in various ways and at various times. • Devorim Rabbah (11:4) Rabbi Ia NSefer Jannai mentions that Mosheh wrote Torah for each of the Tribes of Israel and, in addition, a thirteenth to be deposited in the Ohel Moed (and later the Beth Hamikdosh) for consulting if any doubts arose about the correct text.

We hear in our later traditional literature that—in full accordance with the meaning of this saying—-our Chachomim were well aware of the fact that mistakes, errors, and changes could slip into the texts which were in use, and they saw to it that it should always be possible to estab­ lish the authentic text of the Torah and Nach by consulting a correct copy. Ezra wrote such a model Sefer Torah. Rambam used the model Se­ fer Torah which was written and “examined for many years and cor­ rected many times” by one of the greatest Masoretes, Ben Asher (see Mishneh Torah, Hilchoth Sefer To­ rah VIII,4).

Since the time of Moses the best guarantee for the integrity of the Torah-text lies in the fact that the Torah was read regularly in public.

The text was therefore under con­ stant supervision, first of all by the Prophets. Consequently any copyist’s mistake or any disintegration of let­ ters by natural causes was immedi­ ately detected and corrected accord­ ing to the Halochah. Each new Sefer Torah had to be copied, letter by let­ ter, from a correct one.

Apart from the guidance of the Neviim, there was in every genera­ tion, even in the worst times of reJuly-August, 1964

ligious laxity (as we see from Rambam’s introduction to the MishnehTorah), a governing Beth Din, which felt itself as a matter of course re­ sponsible for the integrity of the To­ rah-text. We have also indications that already in the period of the First Temple there was a special group of scholars— a guild or school of experts —who made it theij calling (and per­ haps also that of the learned mem­ bers of their families) to acquire a specialized knowledge of all the mi­ nute details of the writing of the text of the Sefer Torah, and to make as many accurate copies as possible.

When we find in Tanach the repeated use of the word “Sof’rim,” it does not mean only “scholars” or “teachers”; Sof’rim is a term which in a special context refers to a particular group of scholars, the Scribes, indicated above. (See e.g. “The Families of Sof’rim” in Chronicles I, 2:55).

E have no evidence that any at­ tempt was made during the pe­ W riod of the First Temple to alter a yod or any other sign of the text.

And there is no conceivable reason, nor is there any plausible explanation, why and how this could have hap­ pened. Those who were idol-worship­ pers were not interested in the Torah text; on the contrary they preferred not to see it and certainly not to hear it read and expounded, especially with its curses for flagrant disobedience of the Torah (see e.g. Jeremiah 36:23).

Those who were faithful Jews, fol­ lowers of the Prophets and other re­ ligious leaders, did everything to pre­ serve Torah scrolls and to maintain the integrity of their text (and its tra­ ditional interpretation); they knew that this was the greatest thing they 49

could do for the future of Israel, while the unfaithful and the idolators did all they could that the Torah scrolls should disappear.

This may also have had some con­ nection with the strange, often-dis­ cussed incident of the Sefer Torah which was found in the lifetime of King Josiah in a neglected part of the Temple. This event should be mentioned here to emphasize one as­ pect—the apparent scarcity of Sifrey Torah. But this very fact, which prob­ ably prevailed at other times too is, even if it sounds paradoxical, to be regarded as an additional safeguard for the correctness of the text. If it had been the custom or if there had been the possibility that any one and every one wrote or possessed his own Sefer Torah, alterations (intended and unintended) could have slipped into the text. However, if the number of Sifrey Torah was very limited the supervision of the correctness of their writing was much easier.

There are indications in the re­ marks of our Chachomim of old that in the days of the first Temple, Torah-copies were used, of course, also for teaching purposes.* But this does not mean that there was then a large number of copies of the Torah. As the written and the oral Torah were in­ separably connected in teaching, we must assume that Torah-teaching was mainly done by memorizing. r I ^HE time of the second Temple A (with the preceding short period of the Babylonian Exile) brought new, important problems with re­ gard to the preservation of the in* See Berochoth 62a (Rashi); Gittin 60a; Kidushin 30a (and the reference to this in Responsum Ha-Geonim Nr. 3); Baba Bathra 13b.

50

tegrity of the Torah-text (and also of the other Books of Tanach, whose number was increasing). Ezekiel, Mordecai, and the other known leaders of the time, together with Jeremiah, who remained in contact with them, must undoubtedly have seen to it that errorfree Sifrey Torah were available to the Jews in the Golah (where they be­ gan establishing the nucleus of com­ munity-life as we know it today). So we read in the last sentences which a Jewish Prophet spoke to his peo­ ple in the name of G-d: “Remember the Torath Mosheh which I com­ manded him on H oreb.. .. ” This im­ pressive admonition points directly to the words of G-d written down in the Torah (Malachi 3:22).

At that time the style of the letters used in writing the Sifrey Torah took the form known as Kethav Shurith, as distinguished from the so-called OldHebrew style. Ezra is called the Sofer—the “Scribe.” We may be sure that he supervised closely the transcripiton. But more than that: as a man known for his immènse energy and organizational skill, Ezra surely established enough schools of Sof’rim whose vocation it was to write Sifrey Torah in the designated script, to supervise others in writing them, and to correct mistakes in copy­ ing. It is hardly conceivable that this difficult and arduous work of tran­ scription could have been achieved in practice without the existence of spe­ cial schools for the purpose. (A guild of professional expert scholars in the writing of the Torah-text is men­ tioned in the 'Talmud [Kethuvoth 106a], although its creation is not as­ sociated with a special time during the Second Temple).

There was a second event during JEW ISH LIFE

the time of the Second Temple that could have endangered the integrity of the Torah-text. The Samaritans wrote their own copies of the Torah. As opponents of the Oral Tra­ dition, they had no interest in the minute details of the Torah-text (which our Sages used for the interpretation of the Torah in accordance with their Oral Tradition). Furthermore, the Sa­ maritans made changes in the text to comply with their sectarian views; and they also added some paraphrases to the text, which for ordinary peo­ ple were not recognizable as such.

The fact however that our Torah was at a time made unmistakably differ­ ent from the Samaritan Torah, by adoption of the Kethav Anhurith script, prevented a confusion of the texts, for everyone could see at once whether the Torah was Samaritan or Jewish traditional (see also Sanhedrin 21 m

The activities of Ezra (and also partly of his co-workers) are known from the Biblical record. But the en­ suing long period which preceded the time of the Tannaim is often consid­ ered a blank page in Jewish history.

This is called the era of the Anshey Keneseth Hagedolah or that of the Sof’rim.

According to a Talmudic passage, Kiddushim 30a, the name “Sof’rim” means that “they counted the letters of the Torah.” (The Talmud Yerushalmi, Shekalim V says: “because they used to compile Halachic say­ ings in numerical ways.”) This state­ ment is not intended to mean that it was the main or the sole occupation of the religious leaders of the time, or of a special group of them, to count letters. Rather, it emphasizes the religious characteristic of the peJuly-August, 1964

riod—the most urgent work that had to be done at that time—the preser­ vation of the integrity of the text of the Torah and of the other Sifrey Kodesh.

T makes no difference in our con­ text whether the main meaning of “Sofer” at that time and/or at other times was “scribe” in the literal sense of the word or in the wider sense of “great teacher and authority of the Torah.” One may even say that the fact that the same term was used for these two “branches” of Jewish schol­ arship shows the paramount impor­ tance which was attached to the su­ pervision of the integrity of the To­ rah-text, and at the same time to its close connection with its traditional interpretation.

This kind of work seems to have been the main achievement of the pe­ riod of the Sof’rim. It was indeed a great one. At the outset of this pe­ riod, or shortly before, there were still Prophets living who B’ruach Hakodesh guided the work of the Sof’­ rim. And at the end of this period there lived the first of the Tannoim, who laid the foundation of that kind of learning which survived for more than two thousand years and has re­ mained basically unchanged to our time.

The question is often asked: Why are the historical records of this pe­ riod so scanty? This can be answered by the realization that the quiet work of the Sof’rim (and of their co-work­ ers) provided little material pertain­ ing to this period—-although it lasted 150-200 years—for writers and his­ torians like Flavius Josephus to write about. On the other hand, it is satis­ fying to realize that History (i.e.

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JEW ISH LIFE

Hashgochah Kelalith), so to speak, set aside this long period, following the devastation of the Babylonian con­ quest and its aftermath, for the fixa­ tion of the tradition of the text of the Bible* as well as of the first memorized collections of Halochoth and perhaps Hagodoth.

H P HE third important event relating

A to our subject—in the period of the Second Temple—was the creation of the Septuagint, the Greek trans­ lation of Sacred Scripture. Realizing the danger arising from this transla­ tion, the translators themselves, for reasons of internal and external apol­ ogetics, altered certain passages, which are indeed recorded in the Talmud (see Megillah 9a). But neither they nor the great rabbinic leaders of that generation and of the one following could prevent our Tanach, under the name Bible (“the Book”), from being misused and misinterpreted by the Hel­ lenistic world for spreading its spe­ cific world-outlook and culture.

But the strong criticism of the Sep­ tuagint by the Sages had the result that the Torah text was not affected.

The Hellenists now had their “Au­ thorized text,” and the Hebrew text had no more meaning for them. It is interesting that a man with such stand­ ing in Hellenistic culture as Flavius

July-August, 1964

Josephus mentions expressly in his work “The Antiquities of the Jews” that the text of the Hebrew Torah had been preserved unaltered. It is also important that in the fierce con­ troversies between the Pharisees and the Sadducees the correctness of the text of the Torah was never a matter of discussion. On the contrary, the controversies centered around the words of exactly the same text. About a thousand years later, also, the main groups of the Karaites, who like the Sadduccees disavowed the Oral To­ rah, never doubted the correctness of the Scriptural text nor made any at­ tempt to alter it.

These facts are all evidence that the authority of the traditional text of the Torah was considered self-evident at a time when so many other aspects of Jewish religious life were under at­ tack from many sides.

The time of the Mishnah and Gemorah (or rather the time when they were finally and authoritatively com­ piled and written down) is, of course, a period of great significance for Jew­ ish tradition. What at that time was done for the preservation of the in­ tegrity of the written tradition—To­ rah, Neviim, and Kethuvim—needs a detailed description, which goes be­ yond the scope of this article.

53

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JEW ISH LIFE

B ooh B eview s They Fought Alone

By SHIMON WINCELBERG THE FIGHTING GHETTOS, trans. lated and edited by Meyer Barkai, J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia and New York, 1962. 407 pp. $6.95. riYHIS extraordinary book forcefully JL calls to mind Mao-Tse Tung’s tru­ ism that, in guerilla warfare, the rela­ tionship between a partisan army and its civilian environment must be that of fish and water. For, the Jewish guerilla fighters whose detailed, mod­ est, and shattering recollections rise from these pages, had, of course, to accept from the very first that if they were to function at all, it would have to be as fish without water.

Unlike World War II resistance in every other Nazi-occupied coun­ try, the Jewish partisans in Eastern Europe had virtually no sympathetic countryside whatever to fall back upon for shelter, camouflage, medical aid, respite, food, weapons, recruits, or intelligence. Though there were honorable exceptions, nearly every necessity of survival had to be ex­ orbitantly paid for in money or risk, or both.

Under the circumstances, it would be sheer irrelevance to judge these Mr. Wincelberg, an accomplished playwright and recipient of the “Writers Guild Award for the Best-Written One-Hour Dramatic Script of 1957-58, for the play, “Kataki,” has written many features for television. Among them are scripts for “Naked City” and “Have Gun Will Travel.”

July-August, 1964

actions in terms of military effective­ ness. Like Dr. Johnson, in his remark comparing women preachers to a dog walking on his hind legs, one is less concerned with how well it is done than “surprised to find it done at all.”

“The Fighting Ghettos,” originally published in Israel in 1954 under the slightly less assertive title “Sefer Milchamoth Hagetaoth” (“Book of Ghetto Battles”), has been effectively translated and edited by Meyer Bar­ kai, though his own introduction suf­ fers a little from the slightly over­ charged vocabulary of public rela­ tions (or tzionuth), such as “decisive spiritual victory” or “destroying their bodies to safeguard their souls,” as well as by its sympathetic but unscholarly (and, I. suspect, uncalledfor) ignoring of the context of gen­ eral non-resistance in which these iso­ lated uprisings took place.

ESPITE the naive and presump­ tuous accusations of “ghetto mentality” made in recent years by such second-hand experts as Gideon Hausner, Bruno Bettelheim, or Han­ nah Arendt, I believe that this nonresistance, if such it was, is far from cause for shame or evasion. When we read these narratives in their correct historic perspective, we must realize that the Germans, in dealing

D

55

R eprints Now Available Our readers will appreciate knowing that reprints are now available of the following articles and editorials from previous issues of JEW ISH LIFE. THE M ISSIONARY M EN A CE IN ISRAEL (Editorial) THE JEW S AND THE EC U M E N IC A L C O U N C IL

By Rabbi Norman Lamm THE EC U M E N IC A L C O U N C IL : THEIR PROBLEMS AND OURS

By Dr. Justin Hofmann THE JEW ISH ATTITUDE TOW ARD FAM ILY PLAN N IN G

By Dr. Moses Tendler C A N W E N EG LEC T THE TALMUD TO R A H ?

By Zalman Diskind W H A T DOES JEW ISH YO U TH REALLY W AN T?

By Rabbi Pinchas Stolper PRAYER IN PUBLIC S C H O O L S * ( Editorial) JEW ISH IDEN TIFICATIO N AND THE SUPREME C O U R T D ECISIO N *

By Reuben E. Gross C H U R C H — STATE: REEVALUATION O R RA TIO N A LIZA TIO N ?*

By Herbert Berman (* These are included in one pamphlet.)

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JEW ISH LIFE

with the non-Jewish populace of the occupied countries, were not engaged, as they were with the Jews, in a brilliantly-eiigineered campaign of total annihilation, but merely wanted to be left in peace to win their war.

Only thus can we fully understand that these accounts reveal a level of heroism, self-sacrifice, and moral cour­ age few civilian populations anywhere have ever been expected to attain.

The Jewish partisans, moreover, had to function with the full, and surely demoralizing knowledge that, whatever they did accomplish at such appalling cost was unlikely to save Jewish lives, or prove to be of any significant military value, and, as the foreword points out, “had to be con­ ducted without any kind of assurance that a trace of the deeds or even the existence of any particular re­ sistance group would be left on this earth.”

An even more compelling reason for non-resistance was the fact that, “as they had very little knowledge of the happenings outside their own ghettos, they feared that a prema­ ture uprising in one ghetto might precipitate a senseless massacre of Jews throughout the country.”

So the impetus for exposing to the physical and moral agony of fighting back was reduced, from the very be­ ginning, almost purely to such rela­ tive abstractions as vindicating Jew­ ish honor, getting in a few heart­ warming licks of revenge, and per­ haps having some slight educational effect on the average German soldier.

T’S all very well for us in America or Israel to say they should have put up a better resistance, but I think we would do well here to heed the Mishnah's injunction not to judge

I

July-August, 1964

another until we have stood in his place. For those young men and women who took up arms (and how simple that sounds!) it was not even a matter of simple self-preservation.

(As some of our “friends” have point­ ed out, even a ra t fights when cor­ nered). Those who were young enough and strong enough for slave labor, after all, still believed they had a better than even chance to come out of it alive.

In a letter to an American journal­ ist who, in his coverage of the Eichmanii trial, had been echoing Prose­ cutor Hausner's repeated question to witnesses, “Why didn't you do more to resist?” Abraham Krakowski, a survivor of Auschwitz, noted that or­ ganized civilian resistance normally requires at least one of two motiva­ ting forces: some chance of success, or absolutely nothing left to lose.

He continues: “it was evident that there was no hope whatsoever of outr side aid, and we certainly could not hope for help from the Poles. As re­ gards the second alternative, we still had something to lose. In the middle of '42, many of our parents, wives, and children were still living. Nor were we ready or able as yet to believe that those who had been tak­ en from us had been killed. By the time the mass deportations began, this was done with such careful plan­ ning and psychological cunning, most of us were morally and physically broken before there was any possibil­ ity of organized resistance.”

Toward the end of 1942, of course, there was no longer any reasonable question of the Germans' ultimate in­ tention. But those who had, by this time, organized and (how pitifully!) armed themselves to take on the Wehrmacht, remained handicapped by 57

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the fact that they were still part of a substantial civilian community, most of whose members were not only useless for the required skills, exertions, and terrors of guerilla combat, but remained agonizingly un­ derfoot as potential hostages, as con­ sumers of food, water, air, and med­ ical attention, and, as prone as any fighter, if not more so, to get killed, wounded, or ravaged by disease.

As Ziviah Lubetkin testifies in her harrowing description of “The Last Days of Warsaw,” which is one of the highlights of this book, the fight­ ers “did not even have the heart to kill those who were dying anyway and begged to have their agony cut short.”

Y and large, the amateur narra­ tives collected in “The Fighting Ghettos” are reporting of a high order. It is indeed, as the editor points out, “remarkable that a people, isolated in bestial squalor and marked for extermination, should have risen above humiliation and death to cap­ ture its terrible present in diaries, social and historical treatises, and poetry for the benefit of future gen­ erations.”

Though it would have been of in­ terest to know just how close to the actual events these reminiscences were set down, and how far they might have been colored, focussed, ed­ ited, or re-evaluated by hindsight in the relative tranquility of an Israeli kibbutz, there is little question that each of the contributors (a good many of whom are women) has had the details of the experience etched in his or her mind as clearly as if it had happened yesterday.

There are incidents almost unbear­ ably painful to visualize, such as

B

July-August, 1964

that of Yehuda Wengrover who, “still weak from gas poisoning, could no longer bear the thirst and drank of the sewer waters,” or Lutek Rotblat, who, in a bunker against which the Germans had likewise used poison gas, did his share toward the en­ suing wave of suicides by firing four bullets at his mother. “But she was still writhing and bleeding.”

And at least one passage, from Leizer Levine’s account of the action” in the Tobbens-Schultz sector of the Warsaw Ghetto, sounds painfully contemporary. The many poor people, who could not afford bunkers for themselves, or who were uncertain as to whether their hideouts wer suf­ ficiently safe, ran around like mad­ men and begged their neighbors for shelter in their bunkers. Many fam ­ ilies who had prepared their own bunkers (a good one cost thousands of zlotys) sneaked into their bunkers in order not to be noticed by their neighbors. But to most, the folly of preparing for survival was apparent even in those days.”

Much as our Hemingway orienta­ tion has disposed us against highflown words in the face of dead soldiers, it may be necessary to con­ sider that, perhaps this time, some of the oratory in Mr. Barkai’s intro­ duction may be to the point after all, even when dropping such hal­ lowed names as Masada, Betar, Mount Moriah.

EW of the narrators collected here were religiously oriented (though most of them were Zionists, of course), and yet there is again and again, that almost mystical feel­ ing of historical continuity which colors their occasional attempts at philosophical reflection: not What are

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we fighting for, but, What are we, and what does Jewish History expect of us ?

It seems to me that, aside from probably holding its own with any manual on street and guerilla war­ fare ever written, “The Fighting Ghettos” does something we normally expect only of great literature (which this, of course, is not). It brings us face to face with a central, and yet virtually unexplored, aspect of the human condition, enlarges our under­ standing of man and his incredible capacity for heroism as well as for evil, reminds us what vast sources of strength Jewish tradition holds avail­

able for us, and perhaps even makes its modest contribution to putting us on guard against the political proc­ ess which always begins innocently enough by dividing citizens into first and second class.

Of the two appendices, one, lacon­ ically listing several dozen thumb­ nail biographies, from “Altman, Tuvia (Captured by the Gestapo and killed)” to “Zuckerman, Izhak (Antek) (survived the w ar),” and including a disturbingly large num­ ber betrayed or murdered by the Polish underground, alone almost car­ ries as much impact as the rest of the book.

A New Isaiah Study

By ISRAEL D. LERNER THE INDIVISIBLE ISAIAH, by Rachel Margalioth, Sura Institute, Jeru­ salem and Yeshiva University, New York, 1964. 245 pp. $4.00. n p H E Book of Isaiah has been subX jected to critical evaluation by many scholars and pseudo-scholars.

One of the best of tjie former is Rachel Margalioth.

Her book sets out to prove all over again the unassailable unity of Isaiah. However, while Isaiah is one, the book, “The Indivisible Isaiah,” can be divided in two. One part is for reading, the other for reference.

Gathering from a fairly extensive bibRabbi Israel D. Lerner is principal of Yeshivath Etz Chaim of Boro Park, and a lecturer in Hebrew literature at Hunter College.

July-August, 1964

liography, the author presents the case against unity and demolishes it on the spot. In particular, the Biblecritics D. Karl Marti and Samuel Kraus, whose works are of 1900 and 1905 vintage, come in for sound but scornful scrutiny.

Take the Babylonian Exile for ex­ ample. If the Exile dates to 586 B.C.E., and Isaiah offered his proph­ ecy between the years 740 and 694 B.C.E., the critics have an era in which to err. How can the prophet speak so familiarly of the Babyloni­ an Exile, in the later chapters, unless this is a second and later Isaiah? In rebuttal, Mrs. Margalioth quotes ef­ fectively from Micah, chapter four, to show that other prophets foretold the Exile without being subjected to 61

critical dismemberment. As for the name of Cyrus, names too were fore­ told. Witness Josiah in Kings 1, chap­ ter thirteen.

In connection with Cyrus, it is in­ teresting to note that the author im­ pales Weiss (“Dor Dor Vedorshav,,) on a clever shaft of insight. Weiss argued that the kingdom of the House of David is not mentioned in latter chapters, for the “second” Isaiah wished to avoid infuriating a jealous Cyrus. The author rejoins that if the Isaiah of later chapters was indeed a contemporary of Cyrus, whose wrath he feared, why does the proph­ et state in chapter fifty-nine: “And kings shall be thy foster-fathers and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their face to the earth, and lick the dust of thy feet” ?

In attempting to prove the exist­ ence of a second or even third Isaiah, the Bible critics perforce had to show, within Isaiah, a disparity of style, content, and ideas. Here they suffer their greatest downfall. In a thorough and skillful manner, the author dem­ onstrates this by the use of parallel­ isms. She shows that similar expres­ sions, idioms, phrases, ideas, and

prophecies are strewn as a unifying garland of flowers throughout the Book of Isaiah. In chapter after chapter of her own work, Mrs. Margalioth covers every possible aspect of the Prophecy. At the end, she en­ hances all of this by an index of all quoted verses.

The author acknowledges her debt to those who preceded her. In par­ ticular does she do so in reference to Dr. Aaron Kaminka. What is miss­ ing, however, is a complete index of authors and works cited. For exam­ ple, Ben Zeev is mentioned, but his work “Movo El Mikrey ha-Kodesh” is not. His book published in 1810, is of the critical school, it is true.

Yet later works, relying on Ben Zeev, are mentioned in full.

This, however, is only a minor flaw. Mrs. Margalioth’s aim was not to give an exhaustive analysis of the whole literature on Isaiah, pro and con. What she wished to do, and did in a most devoted and scholarly fashion, was to prove afresh and anew the unity of Isaiah. With such a work, one can look any brash college stu­ dent in the eye, and for that m atter any professor as well.

Golds HORSERADISH

62

JEW ISH LIFE

L e tte r s to th e E d ito r ON "PATTERNS OF MORALITY"

EDITORIALS: "ENLIGHTENING"

New York, N.Y. I was very much impressed by Rab­ bi Pelcovitz’s article, “Patterns of Morality,” in the May-June issue of J e w i s h L i f e . Morals and ethics are an integral part of the Jewish religion, but a great majority of Jews are blind believers, and do not know what re­ ligion demands of them. Our great religious teachers condemned blind belief ; they demanded reason and con­ viction in religion.

I notice th at Rabbi Pelcovitz pro­ poses a Mussar curriculum in the yeshivoth. I would go further and Suggest a Mussar program in the synagogues, to teach members morals and ethics. We brag about the great progress made in getting children to attend yeshivoth, but we find that in the yeshivoth, as in the synagogues, little is taught about morals and ethics.

I > There is’ a question posed in the Talmud asking: who is a wise scholar; the answer is: one who sees his own shortcomings. It is high time that we see our shortcomings and try to cor­ rect them, so that we can become bet­ ter Jews and better human beings.

Letchworth, England I should like to take this opportu­ nity of mentioning that I often find the articles, and especially the opin­ ions expressed in the editorials, not only useful, but enlightening, and giv­ ing a guide to one’s thinking on many subjects o f Jewish interest and intense importance.

Dr. A braham Lebow

July-August, 1964

Rabbi S. D. Sassoon

ON "YESHIVOTH IN POLAND" Long Beach, N. Y. Dear Sir: The article by Rabbi Harry Rabinowicz in the Nisan-Iyar issue of J e w i s h L i f e “Yeshivoth in Poland in the Inter-War Years” is a wonderful piece of work.

It may interest your readers, that many of these Torah institutions are being memorialized in Israel through the work of the masterbuilder of yeshivoth in our genera­ tion, the Rabbi of Ponevez, Rabbi Kahaneman. In his epic plan, which is already being materialized in Ashdod and Tiberias, eighteen new ye­ shivoth are to be built to commemo63

rate eighteen yeshivoth destroyed by the Nazis. Among the yeshivoth and gedolim to be so honored (all men­ tioned in Rabinowicz’s article) are the Yeshiva of Baranowicze of Rabbi Wassermann; a Kolel Kodoshim of the Chofetz Chayim (where the fifth or­ der of the Mishnah will be studied) and a Kolel in the name of Rabbi Chayim Ozer Grodzenski.

I feel that this unique plan will be of interest to your readers.

Rabbi Philip Zim m erm an

"THE DIVORCE PROBLEM" Philadelphia, Pa. I read with deep interest and con­ cern the picture of the “ Divorce Prob­

64

lem” as presented by Rabbi Melech Schachter in the May-June J e w i s h L if e .

There is only one aspect to which I would take exception, namely the portrayal offered by the marriage counselor. In my own experience, as well as that of my colleagues, such counselors strain to keep the family together and aim to develop mutual understanding and cooperation be­ tween the marriage partners.

It would appear to many of those concerned with the family and its maintenance that those who are more eager to see the severance of the mar­ riage ties are found among the legal profession where divorce “pays,” un­ fortunately.

Dr. Benjam in Goodnick

JEWISH LIFE

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