Jewish Life March-April 1966 by Jewish Action

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Vol. XXXIII, No. 4

March-April 1966

Nisan-lyar 5726

rra

THE EDITOR’S VIEW THROUGH THE BARRIERS..............................................

S aul B ernstein , Editor

PUBLIC MORALS AND PUBLIC LAW .........................

R abbi S. J. S harfman L ibby K laperman P aul H. B aris

ARTICLES

Editorial Associates D vora M inder

FROM THE HAND OF OUR REDEEMER / David S. Shapiro..........................................................

Editorial Assistant

G-D IS ALIVE / Norman Lamm....................... ............. 16

JEWISH LIFE is published bi-monthly. Subscription two years $4.50, three years $6.00, four years $7.50. Foreign: Add 25 cents per year.

PURIM IN GHANA/Ursula Lehmann......................... 24

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

President B e n ja m in K o e n ig s b e r g , Nathan K. Gross, Harold M. Jacobs, Joseph Karasick, Harold H. Boxer, Vice Presidents; J o e l S c h n e ie r s o n , Treasurer, Herzl Rosenson, Secretary; David Politi, Fi nancial Secretary. Dr. Samson R. Weiss Executive Vice President

FROM YEMEN TO BORO PARK / Israel Grama . . . . 30 BEI LEITEN / Betty S. W iner....................................... 39 MY CLASS / Elkanah Schwartz................................... 43 MEASURING THE SYNAGOGUE WITH A JEWISH YARDSTICK / Raphael S. Weinberg....................... 54

POETRY SHABBOTH / Karl D. Darmstadter

BOOK REVIEWS S. D. LUZZATTO IN PHILOSOPHIC GARB / Reuben E. Gross ...........................

OF YESTERDAY AND TODAY / Libby M. Klaperman. 67

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

Saul Bernstein, Administrator

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.............................................. 73 Second d a ss Postage paid at *Iew Y o rk , N . Y .

March-April 1966

RABBI NORMAN LAMM is well known as a lecturer on contemporary Jewish topics and has just published “A Hedge of Roses.” He was also the founder and first Editor of “Tradition,” the journal of Jewish thought, sponsored by the Rabbinical Council of America. Rabbi Lamm is the Associate Rabbi of The Jewish Center in New York City. Although she is the mother of three children, URSULA LEHMANN finds time to travel and pursue her literary interests. She is a former associate editor of the children’s magazine “Olomeynu” and now edits “Chai,” published by the Women’s Division of Chinuch Azmai. RABBI DAVID SHAPIRO is the spiritual leader of Con gregation Anshe Sfard in Milwaukee and founder of the Jewish day school in that city. He has served on the fac ulty of the Hebrew Theological College where he received semichah.

among our contributors

DR. RAPHAEL S. WEINBERG has published works in both Hebrew and Anglo-Jewish publications. He received a Ph.D. degree in Jewish History from Yeshiva Univer sity and semichah from that institution’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Dr. Weinberg currently teaches Bible Literature and Jewish History at Stern Col lege. MRS. BETTY WINER was born in Manchester, England and now resides in Memphis, Tenn. Before coming to the U.S., Mrs. Winer lived in Israel and has four Israeli-born children. She holds a B.Sc. degree in Chemistry and Phar maceutics from Manchester University and is nearing com pletion of her M.A. degree at Memphis State University. RABBI ISRAEL GRAMA marks his first appearance in J e w i s h L i f e with his article on the Yemenite Jews. Cur rently the principal of the new Moriah School in Englewood, N.J., Rabbi Grama previously served the Newport News, Va. community in a similar capacity. He is a musmach of the Beth Joseph Rabbinical Seminary and holds degrees from Brooklyn College and the College of Wil liam and Mary. RABBI ELKANAH SCHWARTZ is on the staff of the Religious Zionists of America where he serves as Field Director of the Greater New York Council. He is pur suing his doctoral studies at New York University and received his B.A. from Brooklyn College in Public Ad ministration.

JEWISH LIFE

THE EDITOR'S VIEW

Through the Barriers BUDDING revolutionary by name of Avrahmele, age 10, is reported to be stirring things up a bit in Eyn Harod. A One of Israel’s pioneer kibbutzim, of dyed-in-the-wool leftwing brand, Eyn Harod has nurtured three generations on a diet of dialectical materialism. But now a movement for religious re birth has sprouted in this citadel of doctrinaire secularism, and young Avrahmele is its sparkplug. Traditional religious observ ances have begun to appear and, with Avrahmele as “self-ap pointed shairimosh,” congregational services are regularly held, attended by increasing numbers. “In three years I shall become Bar Mitzvah,” Avrahmele is quoted assaying, “then I shall re cite Maftir, lay Tefillin, and be a religious Jew. Other young sters of the kibbutz are inclining the same way-—and propelled by them, so are some of their elders. The spirit has penetrated to the ranks of veteran settlers. A group of forty of these—with the official permission of the kib butz administration—has applied to the Israel Ministry of Re ligious Affairs for assistance in the erection of a synagogue. It is well known that this phenomenon of spiritual rediscov ery is by no means unique to Eyn Harod. Similar stirrings are and have been for several years past visible in numerous other secularist and socialist kibbutzim and in their ideological counSpiritual terparts in other facets of the Israel scene. Little by little, eleRediseovery ments of Jewish religious observance have been introduced where all that bespoke Torah tenets was once scorned. Hesi tantly, efforts are made to fill an inner void that is sensed with growing rather than lessened perplexity. There is a manifest groping towards the fount of Jewish being. But, in most cases this is accompanied by an ingrained reluctance to recognize and embrace the essential Jewish self. The inner clash manifests it self in sharpened contradiction. At the very time when hunger for Torah becomes more urgently felt, hostility to the vista of Torah sovereignty becomes more intense. Of potential Avrahmeles there are many, but among few of these, as yet, can the potential overcome the barriers of training and environment. March-April 1966

S it is in Eyn Harod and the places like it, as it is in so wide a segment of Israeli society, so it is in the entire Jew ish world. On every side there are the proto-Avrahmeles, grop ing, confused, now facing toward Torah, now turning away. They are impelled by the call to depart from Egypt, but stand ing at the shores of the Red'Sea, they flinch and fear to cross. But cross we Jews must, all of us and together. None are to be left behind; we are all part of each other. Then it behooves Mission of the one who is strong to help his brother who is weak, those Brotherhood who have courage to aid those who fear, those who know to do and hear to enable others to do and hear. Today, there are basically just two kinds of Jews: those who know what being Jewish really means, and those who do not. The orthodox Jew has no duty more immediate and more com pelling than to reach out to his brother and bring him under standing of the eternal, sublime reality of his own Divinelyordained self. The barriers are high, the obstacles are great and the lines of communication all but blocked, but the mission must be fulfilled. Let’s not leave it to Avrahmele alone.

Public Morals and Public Law HOSE who see in censorship the greatest of all social evils are much perturbed by the decisions in two of three ob scenity cases recently pronounced by the United States Supreme Court. These two decisions, by 5-4 and 6-3 votes respectively, upheld convictions for obscenity of two publishers of “erotic” matter. This marks the first time in which the high tribunal has held given publications to be obscene. Perhaps, too, it marks a turning point in the moral premises of American civilization. As in the case of another vexed problem, Federal aid to re ligion-controlled schools, the questions entailed in this issue touch the very plasm of the country. In both cases, ultimate resolution one way or another is bound to determine the future character of American society. And in both cases, circumstances are inexorably comnelling decision. Constitutional philosophies are strained to furthest capacity in the effort to fit legal doc trine to social need. Actually, the evolving realities of Amer ican life are imposing factual decision, pressing through the process of constitutional interpretation as through a sieve. When constitutional safeguards to freedom of expression are Right of deliberately exploited for mass distribution of pornographic and Moral Rule? masochistic matter, when industrialized obscenity is poured into the bloodstream of an entire nation, then the question: Do Ralph Ginzburg, Edward Mishkin, and their ilk have the con stitutional right to “express their views”? is superseded bv the question: Do the Ralph Ginzburgs and the Edward Mishkins hâve the constitutional—or any other—right to determine the morals of the country? This is the hard reality of thè situation.

JEWISH LIFE

T T NDER the conditions of life known to or envisaged by U this country’s Founding Fathers, the answer to the first question, in theory, may be in the affirmative. But those condi tions no longer exist; and the change is not simply one of degree, of magnitude, but of kind. Modern communications, modern techniques of verbal and graphic presentation, of promotion and distribution, of exploiting natural urges and ensnaring minds— these have brought about an entirely new dimension of expres sion and influence. The horse and the jet airplane are both means of transport, but logistic principles or rules of locomo tion pertaining to the one are simply not applicable to the other. In the absence of public protection, the target of delib erate onslaught on the mind and impulses stands helpless be fore the exploiter of modern instruments. The problem is serious enough, grimly serious, in respect to the commercialized mass media channels in general; as regards the purveyor of raw depravity, he has the power, if unrestrained, to debase limitless millions, young people not least of all. Does he then nevertheless have the “constitutional right,” via free dom of expression, to impose his moral standards, or rather his base immorality, upon the rest? Unless the answer is an un equivocal “NO” then the future of American society is dark indeed. It is interesting to note that those who bespeak the right of freedom of expression for the dispenser of written or graphic Polluters' filth do not claim like rights for the dispenser of material filth. "Rights" They do not similarly proclaim anyone’s “right” to pollute the nation’s streams with industrial or household waste and sewage, or to poison the air of its towns and cities with smoke and soot. Is man’s moral environment less needing of public safe guard than his physical environment? Nor does one see the allout defender of freedom of expression offer a constitutional challenge to curbs on the promotion and distribution of dan gerous edibles and potables. Is something that poisons the mind, via the printed word or graphic portrayal, necessarily less re quiring the restraints of public law than things that poison the body, via the bottle or the can? HERE arises, of course the question as to what is obscene or salacious, and how and by whom that is to be deter mined. Seemingly, the parallel with physical sewage and pack aged poisons would end here. But only seemingly. The unmis takable reaction of the senses and the bloodstream to offensive physical matter has its parallel, less tangible but not less real, in the instinctive reaction of the mind to morally offensive mat ter. And just as the body can develop a certain degree of toler ance to a degraded physical environment, so too can the mind adjust itself, superficially, to a degraded moral environment, but in both cases at ultimately fatal cost. It is often said that standards of decency vary at different places and in different times, and this is no doubt true enough.

March-April 1966

Confronted by this tenet, courts have tended to adopt the phi losophy that illegal pornography begins at whatever point lies Law beyond the bounuary ot puonc taste at any given moment; there and is no fundamental code of morals which the law is bound to Moral uphold, those arising trom religious tenets having no force in Code public law. With the bottom,thus knocked out ot moral stand ards, organized society and moral lite are left with ^only the most tenuous relationship with each other. Hence the “anything goes” attitude that now prevails, sedulously fostered and catered to by the publishing and entertainment industries in all their various forms. Bach entrepreneur strains to outdo the other in pandering to the whetted craving for sexual excitement, for de piction or lust and violence, for the exposed body and the ut tered word. Each strives to outpace the other in technical adroit ness and professional expertise. So adept have become the var ious practitioners that art and eroticism become co-extensive with each other. The Sex Explosion carries all before it, open ing up a foul abyss from which crawl perversion, bestiality, sodomy. If “anything goes” be indeed the code, then inevitably must there emerge those who fasten upon the very essence of it and carry it to its logical conclusion. And at tnat point society is shocked to the realization that if anything goes, everything will go—everything. There comes the realization that if the Ralph Guinsburgs are the final arbiters of what is moral and what is law, something is terribly wrong. The Supreme Court, loath as it has been to enter into this area, has been forced to conclude that what is moral and what is law is not a matter for the Ralph Guinsburgs to determine. We come back again to the question: How shall determina tion be made, and by whom?

U S T as the Supreme Court found it unavoidable to go be

yond the scope of previous rulings— such as that in the 1957 Roth case— so is it unavoidable to set forth a fundamental, as distinguished from a relative, code as to what is or is not ob scene. And just as the Supreme Court was obliged to reach out beyond conventional constitutional norms to overriding constitutional considerations, so is it necessary to ground the moral code in overriding moral principles. These principles cannot be produced by synthesis. They must be sifted from the spiritual soil on which all that is true and good in civilization rests. And that is our Bible. A resolution passed at the last National Biennial Conven tion of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of Amer ica called upon the President of the United States to “convene The . . . a White House Conference on Public Morals for the purValid pose of considering the best ways and means of strengthening Approach and elevating moral standards of American society.” Out of such a conference can come “ . . . a voluntary Council com6

JEWISH LIFE

posed of representatives of several religious communities, the arts, the sciences, appropriate civic bodies, and the publishing, motion picture, television, and radio industries . . . to serve as a medium for the interchange of ideas and views with respect to these media of public expression and to establish self-policing procedures binding by common and voluntary consent upon all members of these industries.” It was, obviously, the intent of this resolution to surmount the problem of censorship by the establishment of voluntary procedures. The proposal has a great deal to commend it and, if implemented in the spirit in which it was conceived, can go far towards checking a raging blight. It is, in fact, one of just three alternatives open to American society, the others being “everything goes” or arbitrary censor ship. The right choice must be made, with utmost dispatch.

March-April 1966

From the Hand of Our Redeemer A re man's rights and powers unlimited? Is man "sole master of the world" and of his own destiny? Pesach, "birthday of the people of G-df" poses a startling challenge to some prevalent concepts of today .

By DAVID S. SHAPIRO

MONG the basic institutions of to daily prayer and the daily affirma A Judaism, the festival of Pesach tions of G-d’s sovereignty. The sec exceeds all in the number of positive ond and third tractates, “Shabboth” and negative commandments associ ated with it. Not even the Sabbath, though of course it supersedes Passover in sanctity, has so many. In fact, Y’tziath Mitzrayim, the Exodus from Egypt, constitutes the major theme of the entire Bible. G-d introduces Himself not as the Creator of heaven and earth, but as the Redeemer from Egypt, from the house of bondage (Sh’moth [Exodus] 20:2). What is the meaning of Pesach in the system of Jewish thought? What is the role played by the Exodus in the Jewish faith? The importance of the Exodus and Pesach is illustrated by the place they occupy in Talmudic literature. There are three Talmudic tractates that pre cede the one dealing with Passover. The first is the tractate “B’rochoth,” which deals with the laws pertaining 8

and “Eruvin,” deal with the laws of Shabboth. The fourth, “Pesachim,” deals with Passover. The place of Pesach is thus made clear by its rela tionship to the other tractates. B’roch oth deals with our individual and personal relationship with G-d: Man vis-a-vis G-d. The Sabbath is the day in which we affirm G-d’s relationship to the cosmos. The theme of the tractates Shabboth and Eruvin is: G-d as the Creator of the Universe. The theme of Pesachim is the relationship of G-d to the Jewish people. Pesach marks the birth of the people of Israel. But it is not the birthday of an ordinary people that this holiday celebrates. It is the birth day of the people of G-d. It is also the anniversary of the first emanci pation of slaves en masse in the his tory of mankind. The birth of the JEWISH LIFE

Jewish jpeople is thus coincidental with the birth of freedom in the world. “And it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It was a night of marching unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt; this same night is the night of watch ing unto the Lord for all the children of Israel throughout their genera tions.” (Sh’moth 12:41-42) E ARE enjoined at no time to forget this world-shaking episode. W We must speak of it every day of the year, twice a day. (B’rochoth 1,5) We must remember the Exodus on our Sabbaths (D’vorim [Deuter onomy] 5:15) and our festivals {ibid. 16:11-12), when we send the slave free {ibid. 15:15), when we leave the sheaf for ttie poor {ibid. 24:22) or refuse to take a pledge from the widow {ibid. 24:18). Y’tziath. Mitzrayim is an event of such tremendous significance that we are never per mitted to lose sight of it The Exodus marks the birth of Israel and the birth of freedom. But beyond all that it marks the patent manifestation of G-d in human affairs. The Exodus from Egypt is not to be regarded as the product of human effort. It did not result from Israel’s decision to be free and break the yoke of its bondage. It was not the fruit of Moses’ great oratorical powers: “for I am a man of slow speech and slow tongue” (compare S. R. Hirsch in his commentary to Sh’moth 4:13). Moses

was not a great orator. Israel had made no decision to break the shackles of its masters: “And Moses spoke so unto the Children of Israel; but they hearkened not unto Moses for impa tience of spirit, and for cruel bond age.” (Sh’moth 6:9) All attempts at negotiation with Pharoah likewise had completely failed. The G-d Who had created the world decided to create Israel. “Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel.” (Isaiah 43:1) Israel is a unique creation of G-d like heaven and earth (see Pirkey Ovoth 6,11). Everything that took place in Egypt attendant upon Israel’s birth is evi dence that the birth as well as the entire history of the Jewish people is not a natural phenomenon. The Exodus, simultaneously, revealed G-d as the Judge of all the earth and the Lord of history. It need not then be a source of wonder to us that Pesach is cele brated in a unique way, so that there by we perpetuate the true meaning of this supreme event in the annals of man. “Or hath G-d assayed to go and take Him a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your G-d did for you in Egypt before thine eyes? Unto thee it was shown, that thou mightest know that the Lord, He is G-d; there is none else besides Him.” (D ’vorim 4:34-35)

RELIVED EXPERIENCE

HE purpose of the Passover festival is to make real for us the great events of our past, and to im-

March-April 1966

bue us with a feeling for the great ideas that this event stands for. How is this to be accomplished? There are, 9

of course, different levels on which the Pesach event can be dramatized. This is the meaning of the well-known passage of the “four sons,” each of whom approaches Pesach from a dif ferent point of view; and to each one of these sons an answer must be given to fit his stage of development. The manner in which Passover is celebrated is the same for all people. What it will mean to us depends on our own spiritual insights. The Torah speaks to all people, the simpleton and the sage. It declares that the observance of the Pesach festival with all the activities it en tails will arouse the curiosity of the children of the household. (Sh’moth 12:26) To them the answer will be given that we are doing all these things in order to recall that G-d took us out of Egypt with a strong hand. (D ’vorim 6:21) But at the same time the activities and prohibi tions of Pesach are not presented merely as ceremonies which are pleas ing, entertaining, or question-provok ing. They are presented as Divine imperatives on the same level as other commandments with sanctions at tached to them which are more severe than those attendant upon other in fractions. The Divine commands are all based on the principle that unto the Lord is the earth and all that it contains. Man was put upon earth and granted rights and privileges as well as duties. The world and all that is in it was given to man for a certain purpose. Man may use this universe, but only up to certain limits. “Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping 10

thing that creepeth upon the earth.” (B’reshith [Genesis] 1:27-28) The rights of main over the universe are severely curtailed. Man is not the sole master of the world. He must limit his rights and appetites in order to fulfill the purposes which G-d has set before him. Man’s limitations can be determined only by the Creator Himself. r | THESE curtailments which are set X upon man’s activities in the field of his relations with the non-personal world (the world of animals, plants, and minerals) are in the area of labor through which man operates on the world about him for his purposes, and in the area of nutrition and enjoy ment that he directly derives from this non-personal world (including raiment, and so forth). The Sabbath and the festivals are the periods in which labor is curtailed. On Shabboth and Yom Kippur com pletely. On the other festivals partially. The reason for prohibition of labor on these days is rather apparent, since these days are dedicated to religious purposes. However, there is more to these prohibitions than merely to pro vide occasions for freeing man for religious tasks. These are the periods of time in which Divine activity made itself manifest on the highest level. On these holy days we relive not merely symbolically, but actually, the events which transpired in their ori ginals. The Sabbath is not merely a reminder of the seventh day of Cre ation. On this day the world is actu ally restored to that state in which it found itself at the time of Creation. The world at such time is completely in the hands of G-d and is therefore removed from the sphere of man’s dominion. Man must cease all his JEWISH LIFE

creative activities on this day when the world is restored to its Maker. The Yomim Tovim are likewise days ip which we are transported not merely symbolically but actually to the days which these festivals repre sent. On Pesach we not merely cele brate an event which took place thirtyfive hundred years ago. On this day we acquire our liberty new. We again return to that state when the hand of G-d directed us and His spirit guided us. On Passover we not only commemorate our going forth from Egypt. We actually go out from Egypt then, with G-d alone guiding us. “Man is obligated to regard himself as though he has gone out of Egypt; not only our ancestors did G-d redeem from Egypt, but us also; as it is written: ‘And us did He bring forth

from there.’ ” (Pesachim 10,5) This was spoken to the second generation of the children of Israel in the wild erness. (D ’vorim 6:23) What is meant when we say that we are to regard ourselves as having come out of Egypt? After all, we know that we have not physically come out of Egypt. The true mean ing of this statement is that the effects of that event are as real in our own lives as they were in the lives of our ancestors, perhaps even more so. Our lives stand under the direct influence of these great events that transpired so many years ago. On the night of Pesach, the past once more enters into the present, and we receive our freedom once more from the hand of G-d our Redeemer Who has made us a people unto Himself.

W H Y W E ARE FREE

E REFRAIN from servile labor our diet. The prohibition to eat chomon this most sacred day when etZy “leaven,” or “leavened bread,” W we are reborn to freedom through is the characterizing religious prohibi G-d’s Providence and lovingkindness. This is the day in which G-d wonders are still working for us. How can we desecrate it by interposing our own secular activities and week-day labor when the everlasting miracle of the Exodus is in actual operation? “Thou didst cause sentence to be heard from heaven; the earth feared and was still.!’ (Psalms 6:9) But not merely by cessation from labor is the festival made real to u§. Cessation from labor is not unique for Passover. Pesach has its own unique regimen that differentiates from all other days of the year this season of our freedom. This unique regimen is the restriction placed upon March-April 1966

tion placed upon the celebration of the Pesach festival. We are forbidden on the Passover to eat leaven or leavened bread from the middle of the fourteenth day of Nisan, the time when the Children of Israel brought the paschal lamb as a mark of their readiness to make their departure from Egyptian slavery and dedicate themselves to the service of G-d. This prohibition of Chometz lasts for the entire duration of Pesach. During this period (seven days in the Holy Land, eight days elsewhere) we are not to eat anything that has an admixture of or has had contact with “leavened” material. Leavened food may not even be seen by us nor may 11

ing feature in the diet of the slaves. On Pesach when we are reborn as the freed people of G-d, we are for bidden to eat the bread of the masters. We have been freed not to become masters and dominate others. On this day of our freedom we assert not so much our liberation from Pharoah’s yoke as our entrance into the service of G-d. “For they are My servants whom I have brought out of the land of Egypt.” (Vayikra [Leviticus] 25:55) We are free men and women, but our freedom emanates not from our own power, not from the physical means at our disposal, not because we are strong and intelligent, but because G-d has freed us so that we may dedicate ourselves to the tasks that He has placed before us. The merest fraction of this self assertiveness is forbidden to us. We are entirely and completely the bene ficiaries of G-d’s decision to create Israel and make it a free people. We remove from our possession every vestige of leavened bread. It was not our possession of the instruments of sovereignty that made us a free and independent people. The leaven has to be removed from our possession before the hour of liberation. We had to give up the distinctive marks of self-assertiveness, independence, and self-sufficiency before we were en titled to the liberation by G-d’s mighty hand and outstretched arm. He who refuses to abstain from the leavened bread on Passover has thus asserted that our independence came not from G-d but through our own efforts, that the birth of the House of Israel is a natural phenomenon and that the re deeming Providence of G-d is an illu sion. We affirm, however, that not an iota of our freedom came from our own efforts. The hand of G-d

JEWISH LIFE

it be found in our possession during this season. The prohibition to eat leavened foods includes also the pro hibition not to derive any enjoyment therefrom. Corresponding to these negative commandments we have posi tive commandments to eliminate Chometz from our possession on the fourteenth day of Nisan, the com mandment to partake of Matzah, un leavened bread, on the first night of Pesach, and the commandment to re count the story of Passover. The change in diet is, of course, a very obvious mark of differentiation. But besides the mere change, what else does this new diet signify? Why the severity of the rulings in regard to Pesach, to the extent that the pun ishment of the violator is to be cut off from his people? OOD is not merely a means of sustenance and subsistence. It is the determining factor as to how the individual is going to live. Whether a child will grow up strong or weak, tall or short, intelligent or foolish, is determined, in some ways completely, in some ways partially, by the foods he will receive. Certain types of food thus have become representatives of the quality of life that attached to those who were nourished by these foods. The leavened bread was the food upon which the rich and power ful sustained themselves in health and strength. Matzah, the unleavened bread, provided the poor and taste less fare to which the slaves of Egypt had to accustom themselves. This was the food that one had to prepare for himself when he was in great haste, without much time reserved either for preparing or consuming it. (D’vorim 16:3) This food was the distinguish

wrought this and the Holy One of Israel has created it. /L LTHOUGH we may not eat bread on Pesach, we may, however, refrain from un leavened bread, except on the eve of our freedom. Then we must eat the unleavened bread. “In the evening ye shall eat unleavened bread.” (Sh’moth 12:18) We acquire our free dom by reliving the life of our ances tors and the occasion of their freedom. We identify ourselves in the moment of our freedom with those who re ceived their freedom at the hand of G-d and not at the hand of man. We also achieve our freedom, in spite of our mere unleavened bread, the “kazayith” (the olive-size morsel) of Matzah, eaten with bitter-herbs, be cause G-d wills us to be free. The commandments of Passover thus become for us real media of experience whereby the past is moved up into the present, whereby we re live our birth and the birth of our freedom at the hand of G-d. In re living these episodes we must neces sarily tell ourselves and our children what transpired in those momentous days, momentous for our own people, momentous for all humanity. x j L leavened

The specific laws of Pesach, which have their origin in a profound desire to make this event real for all gener ations of Israel, have been surrounded throughout these generations with a strong, protective wall. Compare the manner in which the Jewish people celebrates the birth of its freedom with the manner in which other peoples celebrate their days of inde pendence. The contrast becomes star tling. Lives there a Jew with soul so dead that he is not thrilled and in spired at every Seder? Perhaps this festival has been unsurpassed among festivals in the entire history of the human race. For this reason so many rules and prescriptions have arisen, some of rabbinic origin, some origi nating in custom, others in popular usage. All are the product of the deep love and the sense of rebirth that the Jewish people has experienced throughout the ages with the advent of the great festival of Passover. If our people has played a unique role in history, if our people has made such enormous contributions to the total welfare of humanity, let us not forget the part that Pesach has played to enable us to be what we have been and now are.

THE SA N CTIO N FO R FREEDOM

HE EMPHASIS that Pesach puts on the Divine origin of our free dom seems to run counter to the temper of modern man, who places so much trust in his own power to do things, and who believes that he can achieve all ends, including his free dom and dignity in the fullest measure, by sheer will-power and exertion of

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effort. The Bible and Rabbinic tra dition by no means deprecate the value of activity and the assertion of will-power: “The Lord will bless you in all that you will do,” this means, the ancient Rabbis affirm in quoting the verse from Deuteronomy, that by doing nothing yourself, G-d will do nothing for you. Nevertheless, what 13

is true in everyday living need not have been true in the crucial and de cisive moments of world-history where G-d made the decision and not man. The creation of Israel by G-d sig nifies the supreme historic task which the Lord of History has placed upon this people from which there can be no escape; just as the creation of man by G-d imposes upon man his human obligations whether he wants to accept them or not. The corporate life of the Jewish people as well as the lives of its constituent members must be guided by the supreme Law which embodies the will of the Author of Israel and the Determiner of its historic destiny. I am the Lord thy G-d that brought thee out of the land of Egypt, Thou shalt and Thou shalt not . . . Israel’s creation by G-d and not by its own efforts must serve as the source of the humility of Israel in the presence of G-d. The Bible con stantly warns against the sin of pride Which leads to an abandonment of man’s dedication to his truly human goal. As we read in D’vorim 8:7-17: “For the Lord thy G-d bringeth thee into a goodly land . . . and thou shalt eat and be satisfied, and bless the Lord thy G-d . . . beware lest thou forget the Lord thy G-d in not keep ing His commandments . . . lest when thou hast eaten and art satisfied, and has built goodly houses and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flock multiply, and thy silver and gold is multiplied"fiand all that thou hast is multiplied; that thou be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy G-d who brought thee out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage . . . and thou say in thy heart: ‘My power and the strength of my hand have gotten me

this wealth#” There can be no greater danger to humanity than the individ ual or nation who attribute their wealth and prosperity to their owh efforts. The sense of responsibility that should accompany affluence and wellbeing is the product of the realization that all of man’s blessings are not the fruit of his Own Wisdom and strength, just as the wisdom and strength them selves are not the result of man’s creative ability. “Let not thé wise man take pride in his wisdom, let not the mighty man take pride in his might, and let not the wealthy man take pride in his riches, but in this shall one take pride, that hé understandeth and knoweth Me, that I the Lord execute lovingkindness, right eousness, and justice in the midst of the earth, for in these things do I take delight, saith the Lord.” (Jere miah 9:22) The creation of the people of Israël at the hand of G-d means that thé Spirit that guides the universe is vitally concerned with the welfare of thé human race. The intervention of G-d in the midst of human history thus becomes a sanction and an inspiration for man to seek his freedom and aspire for liberation from the forces of enslavement. G-d Himself, instead of being the sanction for the statusquo* thus becomes the prototype of revolution to break the shackles of man and release the bands of the prisoners. G-d reveals Himself as the free, creative force in the universe Who has endowed man with a neW aspiration for freedom (which may not have existed heretofore). Man’s strivings for liberty thus are accepted as an emanation of the divine spirit which man has been blessed. G-d Who has brought the Children of JiWI$H U K

Israel out of Egypt has thus shown the way for the future development of human history. The G-d of Crea

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tion becomes the G-d of Liberation and the G-d of Ultimate Redemption, the G-d of the End of the Days.

G-d Is A live A Jewish Reaction to a Recent Theological Controversy

By NORMAN LAMM

RTHODOX JEWS have generally sationalism. These theologians have O taken a detached and unalarmed made so much noise with their smart view towards the successive fads and slogan that nowadays one expects to fashions in contemporary apikorsuth. But when such movements are spon sored by theologians, and are widely discussed in the daily press and in weekly news magazines, it is import ant to understand them and evaluate them in the light of the sacred sources of the Jewish tradition. A number of Christian theologians, climaxing a development that has been some years in the making in their circles, have put forth their ideas in a manner as shocking as it is honest, and as scandalous as it is forthright. Instead of clothing their atheism in artificial, long-winded, technical term inology, they have accepted the slogan first coined by a German philosopher of the last century: “G-d is dead.” The very blasphemousness of this im pression explains why it makes such good copy for the pseudo-sophisti cated weeklies, and tempts young pro fessors of theology to break out of the stifling atmosphere of the ivory towers and into a breathtaking sen 16

look for news of theology not in the Religion section of the press, but in the Obituary columns. Their criticism of the “old-fashioned religion”—especially if we seek to apply it to Judaism—is crude cari cature, almost vulgar in its insinua tions. They have set up a straw man and now knock it down. No intelli gent Jew ever thought of G-d as a man with a long white beard who lives in a castle beyond the sun. No half-sophisticated human being who believed in G-d ever imagined Him as orbiting the globe in a space ship, somewhere out there. Any imputation of such primitive concepts to religious folk of ages past is merely a species of intellectual dishonesty. HAT do these theologians mean by their intemperate slogan? I W believe they are saying three things. First, they are preaching atheism, pure and simple. Second, they are JEWISH UFE

asserting a form of deism. That is, they reject the idea of divine person ality. They believe in a deity, but one who has no relations with man; he is conceived as an immanent principle, an impersonal power. A deity of this kind cannot reveal himself to man, nor can man pray to him. He is caught up within the natural world. He is not supernatural. Of course, contrary to what we are being told about its novelty, this slogan is really old-hat. Atheism and deism have long histories, as long as monotheism itself. Both are equally inimical to and obnoxious in the eyes of Judaism, for they deny everything in Torah from “In the beginning G-d created” to the end of the Chumosh, that G-d revealed Himself “in the eyes of all Israel.” Neither Creation nor Revelation make sense to an ath eist or to a deist. For whatever such information is worth, and for whatever perverse con solation it may offer, let it be known that this intellectual dishonesty of preaching a “religion” which no

longer accepts a personal G-d was already advocated several decades ago by a group of Jews in New York; and that far from signifying the “death of G-d,” kaveyochol, it com menced for them their own slow spiritual strangulation. If the new breed of Christian theologians believe that they are original innovators when they speak of a “religionless Chris tianity,” they are in error; they have been anticipated in the Jewish com munity by the Reconstructionists when the latter proposed “Judaism as a Civilization” and “naturalistic reli gion” in which it was taught that one can be “Jewish” even though he clearly denies the existence of G-d as Judaism has taught it throughout the centuries. The consequences of this kind of belief, now exposed for all the world to see, are exempli fied by a Reform clergyman who openly preaches agnosticism or athe ism, deletes every mention of G-d from his service, even from the Shema —and yet is accepted as a bona fide member of a non-orthodox ministerial association!

THE REAL QUESTION

OWEVER, there is a third mean The question is a real one, and it ing of interpretation of the “G-d will not do for us merely to dismiss H is dead” slogan that does deserve to it with contempt. For some reason, be taken seriously by believing Jews. Here there is no denial of theism, the belief in the existence of a per sonal G-d. However, it seeks to under stand the profound sense of loss, by man, of the experience of G-d in modern life. Why, this interpretation asks, does man no longer encounter G-d as personally and as intimately as he once used to? March-April 1966

modern society and modern life are such that we usually fail to establish dialogue with G-d, we fail to feel Him as deeply, for instance, as our grand parents did. Our inferior Jewish edu cation is no answer to or explanation of the problem. A familiar phenom enon of former days was the un lettered old lady who could barely read her prayers and certainly could 17

not understand them, but neverthe less was moved by them to a profound religious experience with her Maker. Prayer was a moving experience, and it was not out of the ordinary to see a tear shed even by one who was intellectually underdeveloped. Today even some of our children are more literate in Judaism than were some of our forebears. Yet seldom does one notice a tear in our synagogues, except on the occasion, Heaver, for bid, of personal disaster. What has happened to our lives? Why has G^d, who is alive forever, seemingly aban doned so many of us? The problem, then, is not G-d, but man. What does Judaism have to say to this very real challenge? I suggest three answers. IRSTpwe should not expect to F have a sustained, intimate rela tionship with G-d, constantly and un interruptedly. Such expectations are too high if we demand of ourselves that this personal experience, this in timate relationship with G-d, be con stant and continuous. Man, finite and mortal, cannot maintain uninter ruptedly such a relationship with G-d, infinite and eternal. Our great mystics spoke of the phenomenon of rotzo ve-shov: a principle of alternation; the deep and profound communion with G-d exists for a short while, and then suddenly man’s spirit recoils and he is possessed by a feeling of empti ness and distance and remoteness, only to reestablish contact once again. This is revealed in the very structure of our benedictions. We address G-d inti mately, in the second person: “Blessed are Thou . . and then, suddenly, we revert to speaking not to but about G-d, in the third person: “who has sanctified us with His command 18

ments . . asher kidshonu and not asher kidashtonu. What we are «aught, therefore, is that we ought to strain ourselves to experience the presence of G-d, especially in prayer, but that we cannot expect to remain on that lofty level in a sustained fashion. In evitably we must revert to what the teachers of Chasidism called “ the periods of Katnuth,” of diminished spirituality. The establishment of contact with G-d does not come to us naturally; it demands constant effort and ini tiative of us, even if we know that we often fail. The failure, in fact, is part of the experience. Secondly, this estrangement from G-d is a part of G-d’s own plan, the inevitable consequence of breach of faith with Him. Man is endowed by his Maker with the freedom to turn to Him or away from Him. The cli max of the Tochachah, that kst of dire Biblical punishments we read twice a year, is: “And I shall hide My face from thee,” The Torah enu merates the many disasters to which Israel will be subject, the worst of which is: that G-d will hide His face from us, He will abandon us to the impersonal and inexorable forces of nature and history. Hester Ponim, “the Hiding of the Face,” is the in accessibility of G-d to man who searches for Him. It means that man will find it much more difficult to contact his Creator. The punishment of Hester Ponim is national-historical in nature; it may last for a period of centuries. Of course, individuals, with but one life to lead, are often impa tient and interpret this inaccessibility as the “absence” of G-d. But one must take the long view. The difficulty experienced in achieving the genuine inner religious life is in large measure JEWISH LIFE

the consequence of abandonment of G-d when it was much easier to be religious. Individual people, born, raised, and dying in this long and tragic period of alienation from G-d, this era of Hester Ponim, are apt to conclude that G-d was never access ible, perhaps that He never was. They fail to appreciate that G-d is conceal ing his Presence. The Besht, founder of Chasidism, taught: the Biblical ex pression is, V ’onochi haster astir ponay —a repetition of the word “hiding” in the expression “and I will hide My face from thee.” Even the very act of “hiding” will be hidden from man! Not only will man find G-d unavail able, but he will even find the concept of G-d’s inaccessibility to be inscrut able. HE third explanation is that the alienation from G-d need not nec essarily be the result of Sin, as a sub sequent punishment of “the hiding of the face,” but may simply be a reflec tion of the quality of the times in which we live. There are ages when it is easier to be religious, and ages when it is more difficult. Naturally, greater virtue accrues to one born in the Twentieth Century and who is devout, than to one born in the Tenth

Century who remains religious. Ours is an age of great complexity. We live in a society of science and technology in which man has been granted vast new powers. Most of the civilized world is, in effect, one large urban sprawl. In a large city, it is difficult to recapture the primitive sense of immediacy which is so important for a true religious experience. It is diffi cult not only to be religious, but to be truly religious in the sense of a deep, personal awareness of the presence of G-d. There are times when the Divine Presence is withheld because of sin, and then we call it Hester Ponim. But there are times when the absence of the experience of G-d’s imme diacy is a result of the nature of the times. Some periods of history are such that the reason for the ab sence of G-d is economic—-too much affluence—or political or social or, as in our own times, a combination of all these and the cultural-scientific element. Whether our age is the one or the other is a matter of conjecture. But the fact remains that the loss of the awareness of G-d’s presence is neither unprecedented nor unantici pated. Certainly, then, the problem is: How can man keep alive, and not, Heaven forbid: Is G-d alive?

IN SEA R C H O F NEARNESS

HE question, is: what can we do about it? How can man, in this 20th Century, once again be come alive to his Creator? How can we rediscover our relationship with G-d and experience His nearness? How may we overcome this cosmic estrangement? It must first of all be clear that,

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important as subjective feelings are, Judaism does not stand or fall by how deeply we think we experience religious stirrings. Neither theology nor emotions will, in the long run, determine the quality of our lives; our conduct and behavior will. Judaism has always valued objec tive observance over subjective experi19

ence. It is more important to act lovingly to our neighbor than to feel warmth and tenderness for him in our hearts. It is more important to feed the poor man and alleviate his suffering than to melt in compassion and commiseration—and do nothing. In a statement of surprising boldness* the Rabbis of the Talmud put into the mouth of G-d the following words: Halevay othi ozovu Veth torathi shomoru, “Would that they abandon Me so long as they observe My Torah!” G-d is willing that He Him self be forgotten provided that His will, His Torah, be carried out. It is more important to be G-dly, than to believe in G-d. Yet, having said this, it would be a mistake to assume that the matter ends here, that inner religious experi ence is of no concern to us. The Jewish heart and soul still crave the loving attention of “Gottenyu.” How, then, can we achieve in our times the reconciliation between G-d and man, when the two have moved ever farther apart? How can we make Judaism and G-d personally meaningful in our lives? Some have suggested that we search for the answer in Chasidism, which emphasizes the element of personality and relationship. Some two hundred years ago, Chasidism too faced a prob lem of the distance between G-d and Man, and, in response, emphasized the great principle of G-d’s immanence. “The whole world is filled with His glory”; “There is no place in which G-d is not.” In other words, we may look for G-d any place and every place. We therefore might just as well direct our attention to Nature and Man, and we will find G-d there too. Now, that is a valid answer—but not for most people today. Of course G-d 20

reveals Himself in Nature; but most of us cannot find Him there, precisely because we know too much about the minor details of Nature. The moon can no longer inspire us to poetry as it did before we saw television closeups of the surface, when a space-ship crashed into it, or when the Russian camera sent back pictures of its ter rain. As we tighten our control over Nature, we are less prone to find G-d in it. Our vision of the heavens has become befuddled by formulae and equations. Our primal reaction to the wonders of the world has been blunted by slide-rule and spectroscope and computer. What we have gained in analytic knowledge we have lost in the responsiveness of the whole man. In the contemporary scientific age, we cannot see the forest because of the trees; we are so enamored of the wonders of G-d’s work, that we forget that G-d is there. Perhaps, too that is why we recite only on the Sab bath the Psalm that begins Ha-shomayim mesaprim kevod kel—’“the heavens declare the glory of G-d.” Only on the day of rest, when we withdraw from our involvement in Nature, when we attain the proper perspective towards man and world, do we suddenly realize that these heavens that we have examined so minutely and that we have probed so powerfully, that they themselves declare the glory of G-d! HE MOST significant contribu tion to our problem, telling us how to attain a personal encounter with G-d in this terribly impersonal world, is offered by Rabbi Chayyim of Volozhin. In viewing his approach, it is impor tant to know how Jewish tradition formulates its faith in G-d. Briefly,

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this holds that there are two aspects of man’s understanding of the Creator. The first is known to us from the Bible and Jewish history. It is the belief in a personal G-d, One who reacts to man, who seeks man out, and who wants man to seek Him out. When we are happy, we experi ence His love and compassion and call Him “Father”; when He punishes us, we detect the qualities of severity and justice and call Him our “Judge.” This belief in G-d as possessing per sonality is a fundamental of Judaism. At the same time, the great sages of Judaism, in both the Kabbalistic and philosophic traditions, have taught that G-d is also more than personal. It is true that G-d relates to us per sonally; but G-d’s existence is not exhausted by His relationship with man. In fact it is not exhausted by “relationship” at all! G-d is also be yond man, beyond all the universe. In His Essence, His infinity, G-d is totally unknowable, even nameless. In His absoluteness, the Kabbalists taught, the world does not even exist for Him. In this respect G-d is the “great mys tery,” and man must forever despair of being able to understand Him.

G-d, then, is both personal and trans-personal, both related to man and totally unconcerned with him. Granting that all analogies are at best faulty, the best simile is that of the relation of a good but limited stu dent to a brilliant, world-renowned teacher. The teacher pays attention to the student, answers his questions, offers him instruction, and relates to him in many ways. But the teacher’s interests are far beyond the student: intellectual, personal, cultural, social. The student cannot even begin to imagine how far and wide the mind and the intellect of the teacher range. He is unaware even of the areas of interest in which the teacher dis tinguishes himself. For the student, this teacher is both personal and trans personal, both related and utterly separate. Multiply that analogy a million fold, and we may have some idea of this dual nature of the relationship between G-d and man. G-d is infi nitely personal, closer to man than his own mother and father—and yet infinitely absolute, terribly distant and incomprehensible. G-d is related and withdrawn, involved and aloof, ex ceedingly close and immensely remote.

W H A T C A N W E DO ABOUT IT?

HAT does this mean for man? If he succeeds in feeling G-d’s closeness, in—as it were—getting G-d to be close to him, to be personal with him, then his life is fulfilled, it has purpose, and man achieves happiness. But if man lives to that his G-d is distant, impersonal and aloof, then man despairs, he shrivels in cos mic loneliness and universal solitude.

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Man cannot survive the terror of G-d’s remoteness. If G-d is not alive for man, then man must die. The stakes, then, are monumental. Life or death, meaningfulness or aim lessness, fulfillment or frustration, all depend on whether G-d is personal or impersonal, related or absolute. What can we do about it? Can we, indeed, do anything about it? 21

The answer of Rabbi Chayyim of Volozhin is: Yes, we certainly, can. Whether G-d is personal or impersonal to us— depends upon us! If we are personal to Him, He will be personal to us. Whether G-d concerns Himself with us or ignores us depends on whether we concern ourselves with Him or ignore Him. But how can ihan become personal with G-d? All of Judaism, all of Torah and Mitzvoth is the answer to this question. Judaism, in its totality, is the way in which man makes the great gesture of turning his own personality and humanity to G-d. The purpose of nil Judaism is to make G-d per sonal by making of man a human, a person, a “mentsh.” If we are just machines, who devour the raw prod ucts of experience and disgorge jobs and profits and pleasures and waste, then G-d has nothing to do with us; He turns us over to the giant, cold, ruthless machine called Nature and its impersonal laws. If we are men—human, warm, concerned with G-d—then He emerges from His infinitely mysterious depths and turns to us. The degree to which G-d emerges from His absoluteness into warm, life-giving personality, depends squarely upon man and his exercise of his spiritual personality. The greatest blessing is: yisa ha-Shem ponov elecha— “May the Lord turn His face unto thee,” may G-d turn to you and merge into a personal re lationship with you. It is this n’siath ponim, ‘‘the turning of the face,” which is the direct opposite of hester ponim, "the hiding of the face.” It is this richness of Divine personality that is implied in the Yiddish “Gottenyu,” a word that is untranslatable because 22

of the wealth of its spiritual and psy chological implications. A

TRULY OBSERVANT JEW knows that his G-d is Elokim Chayyim, “a living G-d.” In the Psalms David tells us: Ha-shem tzilcha al yad yeminecha, “The Lord is thy shadow on thy right hand.” A sage of two centuries ago com ments: As a shadow follows the body when the hand is raised, so does the shadow rise, and when the hand is lowered, so does the shadow descend. So is the relation of G-d with man: the way man acts to G-d, is the way G-d acts to man—just like his shadow! G-d lives for man, only as man lives for G-d. If G-d is to be alive for us, we must get personal with, and be alive and alert to Him. Man cannot simply sit back, and challenge G-d and Judaism, the Rabbi and the synagogue, to make G-d real for him. G-d will not be brought out of His mysterious aloofness by argu ments or logic, by science or phi losophy, even by sermons or lectures or articles. There is only one way out of the dilemma for the modern Jew: he must make the first gesture to G-d. He must make this gesture of personality by Torah, for by study ing Torah he shows that he takes the words of G-d seriously. He must do so through prayer—addressing G-d feelingly, directly, imploring Him to descend out of His mysterious depths to a relationship with man. He must do so through the Mitzvoth, by per forming the will of G-d, for actions speak louder than words. The “aliveness” of G-d is reciprocal to that of man. < This view of the Divine-human en counter is symbolized, I believe in the first revelation by G-d to Moses. Moses JEWISH LIFE

is attracted by the strange phenom his theological curiosity: leading his enon of the desert bush which is people out of Egypt. Performing the aflame and yet not consumed. This Divine will takes priority over prob burning bush is a symbol of G-d’s ing the Divine nature. Moses is satis paradoxical relationship with man. On fied—yet disturbed. What, he asks, if the one hand the flame is attached to my people will ask the same question: the bush— “the bush is burning in Mah Shemo “what is His Name?” fire.” On the other hand, the flame is They will want to know something separated from the bush—“and the about You. The Divine response is, bush is not consumed.” What a strange Eh’yeh asher Eh'yeh^ “I am what I relationship— attached, yet separate; am,” or “I will be what I shall be.” close, yet far. It is indeed a symbol The Midrosh explains this as: “What of the mystery of G-d’s relation with you will be with me, I will be with the world and with man. Moses is, you”—As you act toward Me, I will of course, fascinated by this marvelous act towards you! sight. Yet the Divine command stops him from approaching the bush. Even HIS is the answer of Judaism: Moses is mortal, and hence may not If we want G-d to be close to pursue his fascination with this mys us, we must first get ourselves close tery beyond his human limits. to Him. If we want G-d to be per Moses acknowledges the superior sonal with us, we must get personal wisdom of his Creator: “and Moses with Him. hid his face for he was afraid to That indeed is the over-arching pur look at G-d.” He recognized that he may not and cannot probe too deeply pose of Judaism—its prayer, its laws, into this marvelous mystery of G-d’s its way of life, its study of Torah. G-d is not dead for us unless we dual relationship with the world. If G-d does not “hide His face,” are first dead to Him. He is very much Moses must soon hide his! Fur alive to those who are alive to Him. thermore, there is a more compel As we will be to Him, so will he be ling task before him than satisfying to us.

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Purim in Ghana By URSULA LEHMANN O, IT wasn’t a Purim joke, though two days before all pandemonium N it certainly had all the ingredi broke loose. It was a revolution, on ents for being one! There I was on the fourth day of Adar, February Purim in Accra, capital city of Ghana, that part of Black Africa formerly known as the Gold Coast. Surround ing me was a virtual Purim parade of men dressed as washer-women, drum mers, dancers, merrymakers — com plete with “greggers,” placards por traying a Haman-like figure hanging, and singers—some of them even in the “ad-sheloyodah” stage. Were they Jewish? No, they were Africans, and therein lies at least part of my tale. . . . They were, of course, not cele brating Purim, but a “simchah” of their own—but at least I could see at first hand how a really deep-felt cele bration can turn an uninhibited people into the kind of merrymakers we try to emulate, in memory of that first Purim in Shushan so long ago. In a way, here was a living exam ple, an actual occurrence, that dem onstrated to me how it could be pos sible that veritable idol-worship, deifi cation of a mortal, can be overthrown and completely ‘‘turned to the con trary” ( . . . nehepach miyogon lesimchah— Megillath Esther 9:22) in al most a matter of moments. I could not help but note how, by seemingly natural means, G-d can reverse the world when He so wishes. Now I at least have an idea what Shushan must have been like on that day. . . . Of course, it was not for this that I was spending Purim in Accra. I had come to join my husband who was on a business trip, and I had arrived 24

24th, It was a relatively nice, quiet revolution to be sure, but it was still a lot more lively than anything I had seen in the States, where coup d’etats are not in fashion. No sooner was the outcome fairly certain to be success ful, than that aforementioned happy Purim-Shpiel started, and it had not yet abated three weeks later when I left. HILE their leader Nkrumah, who was known asM ;“Osagyefo” (the redeemer) was on a State visit to Peking accompanied by an “en tourage of seventy and £45,000 of Ghana’s much needed foreign ex change, the people at home had re volted. It was a most efficient coup, staged by Ghana’s British-trained offi cers, and there was little bloodshed. Ghanaians are a peace-loving people, which might explain how they were able so long to live under their policestate. Perhaps the most telling indi cation of the enthusiasm with which the Army’s action was received was the fact that although a curfew had been planned for the first night after the coup, it was never announced because the Army was so obviously and wholeheartedly suported by the people that there was simply no oppo sition and no curfew was necessary. The Ghanaians were “molley-simchah”; from the highest to the most humble, they were full of exuberant joy. Repeated constantly by civil serv-

JEWISH LIFE

ants and taxi drivers alike was one must have been sold out. No longer comment on the whole regime: “We are there Nkrumah Circle, Nkrumah couldn’t talk.” Had Nkrumah realized Avenue, or statues of Osagyefo all that this was the last straw of his over the city. For all these reasons many iniquities, and allowed the peo and more, no sooner was the outcome ple more personal freedom, they of the coup fairly certain to be suc might have been patient with him still. cessful than the aforementioned happy But this is an old, proud land and a Purim-shpiel started and it had not rich one (at least before the regime yet abated three weeks later when I emptied coffers), and its people well left. remembered a more contented time (as far as civil liberties were con T WAS against this background cerned) when they were under British that I discovered that even in West rule. Africa a real Purim can be found. It Needless to say, their happiness seems that in this time of the Disper knew no bounds and it was exhilarat sion there really are always Jews ing just to be in a place where so everywhere in the world. In particular, much joy, friendly good-will, and ex of course, wherever there is an Israeli uberance permeated the air. It was embassy, there are bound to be Is infectious. Of course, less overjoyed raelis. This unfortunately is not al were the truckloads of Russians and ways a guarantee of a Minyon on Chinese who were shipped out. As Shabboth or even a Megillah reading one official explained, it was fool on Purim. Israeli embassies are apt to hardy to try to turn into Communists find themselves in a strange position. a people so imbued with the spirit of In the U.S. it is much in fashion private enterprise that every child on among certain Jewish periodicals to the streets is already a little “capital arise the question of double allegiance ist.” A favorite saying of these days, on the part of American Jews. With gleefully repeated, was “Go West, out wishing to delve into the question Young Man.’* or even to dwell upon the point here, No longer now would Ghanaian it seems that all over the world Israeli children have to recite each day in embassies which are located in places school, “Nkrumah is the Messiah. that do not have established Jewish Nkrumah never dies.” No longer communities, are faced with the other wauld Ghanaian cocoa be exchanged side of the coin. Officially they are the for Czechoslovakian potatoes which representatives of a government, the was a little like sending coals to New Government of Israel. Certainly not castle. No longer did the hated C. every Jew who arrives in Accra, for P. P. flag replace the old Ghanaian example, is an Israeli. Nevertheless, one. In fact it was amazing to see every religious Jewish traveler who how quickly Ghana’s colors were over stays a while, sooner or later does painted, wherever they appeared on seem to contact the embassy. Why? buildings from red, white, and green Perhaps to ask “Is there a Minyon, a to red, yellow, and green in the space Shochet, or even a Chumosh I can of twenty-four hours. The old flags borrow?” And why ask the embassy? miraculously reappeared everywhere Well, obviously, who would know the and the manufacturers of yellow paint answers to these questions but another

March-April 1966

Jew? And where is the one place one can at least be sure of finding a few Jews? Ergo, the Israel Embassy*. Sometimes this quest has a bitter sweet ending. Some years ago my hus band’s brother, in a Purim-time fix similar to ours, specially flew to a city with an Israeli embassy in order to be able to read the Megillah with a Minyon. Unfortunately at this em bassy he could not even interest ten of the Jews who were staying in the same room with him while he read the Megillah. Happily, our experience was other wise. Israel’s Ghana legation is head ed by Ambassador Shalev, who is a Shomer Shabboth. Megillah was to be read at his home, upon conclusion of the Sabbath. HERE was quite a turnout. The Ambassador himself recited the Megillah. For me, his excellent ren dition was enhanced by its being the first time I’d ever heard the Megillah read in S’fardith. Afterwards, the at mosphere was decidedly Purim-like, helped along not a little by Mrs. Shalev’s Homon-taschen. Altogether, the spirit of the gathering was due in large measure to the warm hachnosath orchim of Ambassador and Mrs. Shalev. Their seemingly effortless hospitality made everyone feel at him. Their charming children added spice and verve to the evening. Present were Jews from all over the world. Some of them were temporary residents of Accra, others were tran sients, but tonight Megillah united us all. My husband and Mr. Gross, the British Trade Commissioner, com pared their handwritten Megillahs. In cidentally, Mr. Gross occasioned much amused conversation by his sudden appointment on Purim to the

office of High Commissioner for the United Kingdom. With the sudden re versal of Ghana’s outlook from East to West, Britain was once more rec ognized and diplomatic relations re sumed. Mr. Gross, who was the high est British government official avail able, promptly became heir to the title. Of course, much of the conversa tion centered around recent political happenings in Ghana. Many of the guests were embassy people and this was their life. There were the obvious comparisons to the Purim story. A tyrant overthrown. Popular rejoicing. Hanging in effigy. And, surprisingly, an outlook of better things to come for the Jews. Though no one from the embassy would like to be quoted on the subject, the opinion was evident that the new regime augurs well for Israelis and for Jews in general. The Israelis had recently been suf fering from a kind of existence-in limbo or sufferance as far as their political position in Ghana was con cerned. Ever since Nkrumah’s figura tive embrace of Nasser at the Casa blanca conference in 1961, the Israelis had been politically a bit uneasy, though trade still flourished. Now, un der the new regime, this is probably slated to change for the better. Jews in general can find promise in the changed situation. A glance at his tory shows that where commerce thrives, Jewish communities wax, Now that Ghanaian commerce seems des tined to take a turn toward greater incentive from private enterprise, chances are that the Jewish commu nity in Accra will tend to grow. At this time Accra has only about seventy Jewish families, most of them Israelis, who are so far from religious observ ance that there is not even a Minyon on Shabboth. JEWISH LIFE

T WAS not always thus. Before the ite from the many kinds of Israel economy became state-controlled, wines on display in the supermarket. when Ghana was still the Gold Coast, under British rule, there was a thriv ODAY another turn in the history ing Belgian, Dutch, and English “dia of Ghana-Gold Coast seems to mond community” in Africa. There have been taken. Says Ambassador are still some merchants who come Shalev: “Because Ghana was the first in occasionally for the government country in Africa in which Israel was auctions and speak of “old times.” active in the field of technical cooper Services then were held in the home ation, we, Israel as such, have a spe of a local Jewish stalwart, a Mr. cial spot in our hearts for Ghana. Barchfeld, who later donated the Sefer Many Ghanaians of all walks of life Torah, now in use in Ambassador have been in Israel and many individ Shalev’s home. However, with the ad ual friendships have sprung up which vent of independence this seed of a continue to this day. I think this spe flourishing Jewish community with cial relationship which Israel has for ered. Ghana is also in some measure re At this point, however, as the pre ciprocated by the Ghanaians, and the vious Jewish community faded out, knowledge of Israel and Israel’s pop the Israelis steped in. Since Ghana ularity is out of all proportion to its was the first African colony to attain size or influence.” independence, it was the pilot project When, in the future, Jewish people for all the later technical aid given to arrive in greater numbers in Accra, African countries by Israel. It was in as they undoubtedly will, the religious Ghana that Israelis first learned, by among them will surely, as in the past, trial and error, how best to render contact the Israel Embassy. What re such aid. Since then they have been ligious needs does the Embassy now active in the fields of navigation, ship supply? The Embassy can bring in ping, construction and others. Jn each matzoth for them. It will certainly case, Ghanaians were trained to soon supply a Mohel for its official resi take over the projects on their own. dents, even to the point of having one In the past few years, however, be flown in from the outside as was re cause of the sharp turn Nkrumah took cently the case when Rabbi Heilpern to the left and because of Pan-African was flown in from Paris. However, missions, which, as far as Nkrumah with all that is rosy on the horizon, was concerned, stipulated intimate there is, in my opinion, more to be contact with Egypt, Ghana was in desired. Would it not be a wonderful creasingly reluctant to appear as hav and fitting thing if all over the world, ing close relations with Israel. Never wherever Jews arrive, each Israel Em theless, this never reached the point bassy would be not only capable of of disassociation. In fact, Ghana still meeting their religious needs, but also interested to do so? After all, Israelis took comparatively more Israeli goods are Jews, and Jews have a long history than any other African country. One of helping with the religious needs of of our Erev Shabboth pleasures \vhile the traveller as they did so well in our we were there was selecting our favor case on Purim in Accra.

March-April 1966

n 2 id By KARL D. DARMSTADTER

THE flight from weekdays’ toils and worries is like an airlift to a lofty mountain peak. We have to escalate ourselves from many depths. Did you then never want to throw away burdens bending the shoulders of your mind when they accelerate your heartbeat’s normalcy? * TODAY I try to change such crushing weight to soothing weightlessness when working days are ending, like passengers on their endangered and clouded journey, praying and longing for smooth landing-strips of calm serenity-----*

WE clean the cluttered desks of daily chores and store away the files of restless thoughts and, if we can, disturbing dreams of tired nights. Do we not know the desperate fights against the vicious hurricanes racing from oceans, those from without, within, towards your helplessness?-----*

PREPARE to leave behind classroom, store, office, shop. Look for new images. They will emerge like those discovered by the floating men in calculated orbits, silenced, awed when constellations beam from G-d’s eternities.. . . * SLOWLY I was extinguishing (if I succeed------) a turmoiled world’s senseless incendiaries. Sunset is near unfolding hues and streaks, and orange flames splash over western hills. * GATES have been opened. Rainbow-streams of light sweep darkness from the steps of holiness, though screeching cars or yelling sirens or a frightened victim’s shriek destroys the peace, flashing reminders that the Shabboth’s soul still trembles since blackouts darken the times.. . . 28

JEWISH LIFE

* NEW voices, melodies and my ancestral songs are heard. Past decades call. Yes, once I held an old man’s tired arm, gave him the leatherbound, the tear-stained prayer-book, the yellowed pages.. . . * THE voices rise. We turn, symbolic, solemn gesture, towards the gate, the world, the sky, the strange Beyond. And even those who only whisper words bow towards Him, towards His mystery------r~~., * LATE twilight sprinkles dots, like fire-flies, into the sacred stillness of the hour. March-April 1966

From Yemen to Boro Park American Jewry's most "exotic" community• within-a~community seen in the light of the past and the present

By ISRAEL GRAMA

ORO PARK Jft the heart of or in need of an early morning minyon? B thodox Jewish communal life in Or perhaps a late one or maybe even Brooklyn, New York, is among the a late late minyon? With which miny most diversified of Jewish communi ties in terms of national and cultural backgrounds. Where else can you find an equal concentration of Litvaks and Galitzianers, Chasidim and Mithnagdim, Agudists and Mizrachists, Yiddishists and Hebraists, Zionists and Galuthnicks living literally side by side, homogeneously, each tolerating the other’s religious, cultural, and so cial differences? It would not be a misnomer to acclaim this locale as a “Jewish melting pot.” Yet, Boro Park’s claim to fame is not only the coexistence or infusion of its hete rogeneous groups into a situation of “Sheveth Achim Gam Yochad.” Nor is it only, as has oft been expressed by its contented inhabitants, their ability to live totally as Jews within the environs of a democratic society in which the problems of synthesis between the secular and religious world need not be reconciled. Are you 30

on would you care to affiliate? With the Agudah, Mizrachi, Young Israel, a Yeshivah or a Chasidic one? Per haps you would prefer a typical con gregational synagogue or would you rather something more exotic such as a Yemenite minyon? That is correct— a Yemenite synagogue. Boro Park, with all of its advantages, has the distinction of housing the only or ganized Yemenite Jewish community in America. Who are the Yemenite Jews? What are their origins? How and why did they migrate from their far-off home at the southern tip of Arabia to these shores? Today, with the larger Jewish world become more aware of this dis tinctive, long-isolated branch of our people, it will be of interest to ex plore these questions. In doing so, we may view some of their social, cul tural, and religious customs and ex amine the communal life of the Yeme nite colony in Boro Park. JEWISH LIFE

NE account of Yemenite Jewish origins notes that the name Ezra, according to legend, is anathema to Yemenite Jews. Consequently, the au thor continues, it is traditional among Yemenite families not to name their sons Ezra. Further investigation of this legend will offer much insight into the origins of Yemenite Jews. After the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem in the year 586 B.C.E., although the main body of the Jewish people was deported to Baby lon, many Jews migrated to Egypt and to points further south. It is be lieved that a substantial number of families eventually reached as far south as Yemen, at the southern most point of the Arabian Peninsula. There is a theory that some Jews migrated to Yemen even prior to the destruction of the first Temple. Ac cording to folk tradition, the Jewish migrants to Yemen were well re ceived. They began to prosper and exerted increasing political influence upon the ruling class. It is believed that a ruling Imam,’ namely Dhu Nowas, was a Jewish convert. Yemenite Jewish tradition relates that Ezra the Scribe, in his zeal to rekindle the spark of hope and devo tion to Torah among the Jews of the

Holy Land, embarked upon the am bitious project of the ingathering of the exiles. He made numerous jour neys to various Jewish communities, preaching their return to the Land of Israel. As legend has it, he tried to persuade the Jews of Yemen to do the same but was met with rebuke and scorn from the leaders of the com munity. Ezra thereupon pronounced a curse upon them in which poverty and misfortune were to be their lot for having forsaken national unity for material gains. His pronouncement was deemed unnecessarily harsh and he was therefore deprived, by Divine decree, of burial in the Holy Land. The veracity of the above legend is difficult to ascertain, but, interest ingly enough, its consequences have been borne out. Ezra died and was buried in Babylon. The economic status of the Jewish community in Yemen eventually deteriorated to that of abject poverty. Their social posi tion was reduced to one lower than that of a mule. (The Jew in Yemen, according to Moslem law, was not permitted to walk on the same side of the street with a mule.) And, the writer, who is of Yemenite extraction, has never heard of a Yemenite child with the name Ezra.

H ISTO R ICA L BA CKG RO U N D

HE HISTORY of the Jews in Yemen from the time of the Babylonian Exile to “Operation Magic Carpet” in 1950—in which the en tire Jewish community of Yemen, save a few wealthy families living in the capital city of Sanaa, were trans ported by plane for resettlement in Israel—4s obscure. The only incident of major importance which focused

March-April 1966

the attention of leading Jewish schol ars of the Orient and the Occident upon Yemen’s Jews was Maimonides’ famous “Iggereth L’Teman” — “Epis tle to Yemen.” A false Messianic movement had swept through Yemen like a tidal wave. The Yemenite Jews were easy prey to the pseudo-prophe cies of mentally deranged and vocifer ous “saviors,” Despondent and down31

trodden, they yearned for a Messianic return to Zion. The Yemenite Jews preserved a feeling of guilt for having refused Ezra’s redemption for a more comfortable exile. They wanted par don. Thousands of them flocked to a pseudo-Messiah who promised to lead them out of their bitter Golah. Maimonides, in response to a plea from Jacob Ben Nathanel El Fayumi, the leading scholar of Yemen, to stem the tide, wrote a brilliant essay to the Yemenite Jewish community exhort ing and beckoning them to return to the study of Torah and to take no heed of this false Messiah. This letter proved successful, and out of gratitude to him, Yemenite Jews included the name of Maimonides in their Kaddish. HE characteristic Yemenite Jew is a man of simple, pure-hearted T faith. He is conscious of his role as a member of what he believes to be the oldest Jewish community in the world. He has preserved his religious character till as recently as Operation Magic Carpet—partly because inter nal Jewish migrations were non existent, but primarily due to the strict theocratic system to which he adhered. Although the Yemenite Jew was not educated in the sciences and arts of Western civilization, he was deeply learned in the study of Torah, Talmud, Kabbalah, and Midrosh. He seldom transgressed the strict Jewish religious disciplines. It was not at all uncom mon to find a Yemenite child who could recite by heart entire sections from the Talmud and from books of Halachah, particularly Rambam’s Mishneh Torah. I recall once meeting a Jewish boy, a recent arrival in Israel from Yemen via Operation Magic Carpet, who was capable of reciting 32

by heart large sections from the Laws of Shechitah written in the Yoreh Deah section of the Shulchon Oruch. Surprising as it seems* the Jew of Yemen not only had to contend with his conscience when he weakened in Jewish observance, but with his Arab neighbors as well. In reminiscing about life in Yemen* my father once mentioned an old Arabic proverb which, translated freely, says; “If you are a Jew, be a Jew, and don’t make sport of the Torah.” If a Jew were to desecrate the Sabbath and be caught so doing by an Arab, he was, as re quired by the Muslim Code, hauled into court, fined and punished for his transgressions. The Yemenite Jews are born crafts men. In Yemen, they enjoyed a virtual monopoly in handicrafts; They were of high repute in smithing, weaving, and embroidery. Be it noted that some Yemenite Jews in America have attained great financial success in silversmithing and in jewelry creations. Despite the fact that the spoken language of the Yemenite Jews is Arabic, they have an excellent knowl edge of the Hebrew language, the re sult of their early training in the pre cise text of the Torah. Parenthetically, let me observe that this has always led me to believe that Hebrew as a spoken and living language can be taught through the proper use of the Chumosh text.

A LTHOUGH the Jews of Yemen iV . were strictly forbidden by Imam rule to emigrate, a caravan of Jews, under great danger and at personal sacrifice, decided to risk a journey to Eretz Yisroel during the past century. This first successful immigration to Palestine from Yemen took place in 1882. Thereafter, numerous other JEWISH LIFE

Yemenite Jews were encouraged to follow suit. The curse was broken. The beginning of the return to Zion had taken place. Consequently, a large number of Yemenite Jewish families began to arrive in Palestine during the early part of the 20th century, a trend which continued until the out break of World War II. Many fami lies settled in Jerusalem and formed into tightly knit colonies there. Other Yemenite settlements were established in Petach Tikvah, Zichron Yaakov, and Rishon L’Zion. Although they did not suffer from political or religious March-April 1966

persecution, they experienced severe economic hardships. The Yemenites lived in extremely close quarters and were constantly plagued by the dread ed aftermaths of disease and malnu trition. They continued to work as expert craftsmen and artisans and were liked by the local population because of their moral and profes sional standards. The reason for their continued poverty, however, despite their excellent training in desirable trades, was their inability to cope with or adapt to an agrarian economy. The new Yishuv needed farmers— 33

men who could and would break the resistance of an arid and desolate land and reap the harvest of arduous labor. The Yemenite Jew, while being adept at handicraft, was inept at farming. Thus, despite their fervent attach ment to the Holy Land, some of the Yemenites who had settled there were prompt to avail themselves of the op

portunity to go to America when, after the first World War the ITS. Government opened its doors to im migrants of Yemenite extraction. Thus began their second journey into Galuth. This, time, as they were told by their European co-religionists, to a country whose kartuffelen (potatoes) were made of gold.

M IGRATIO N TO A M ER IC A

Yemenite Jews were industrious by nature and worked extremely hard to support their large families. They learned new trades when necessary, and gradually accepted and adjusted to the demands and responsibilities of their new environs. It is difficult to ascertain the exact date of their move to Boro Park. Yemenite families began to relocate there toward the end of the World War II years. The choice of Boro Park as their new home was an ex pedient one. The Jewish character of the Lower East Side neighborhood was rapidly changing. The Yemenite Jews began to feel uncomfortable in this quasi-new environment. They were beginning to enjoy the affluence of a society in which private enterprise and personal gain were encouraged. A few Yemenite families who had by passed the crowded and substandard living conditions of the Lower East Side had already established a syna gogue in Boro Park, which was to be come the nucleus of the present Yemenite community. The advance to “suburbia” was on. Gradually, fami lies began to purchase homes within the locale of the synagogue (which was then located in a small room on the top floor of the old Machzike build ing, corner of 43rd St. and 13th Ave.)

JEWISH UFE

N contradistinction to their exodus from Yemen, the Yemenite Jews did not emigrate from Palestine to America as an organized group. Each family’s decision to resettle was un related and depended, of course, on its ability to finance the trip. As was the case with the first Jewish European immigrants, most Yemenites settled in the lower East Side. Their first communal act was the establishment, in 1920, of a modest synagogue in a rented room on the second floor of a building on the corner of Norfolk and Essex. The synagogue was the focal point of all religious, social, and cul tural activities. They were a unique community set apart from the larger Jewish community, and adhered rigor ously to their own customs and tradi tions. At home, they spoke only Arabic, even though their children at tended a yeshivah, (Rabbi Jacob Joseph School on Henry Street) whose language of instruction was Yiddish |—a tongue totally foreign to their Oriental ears. Life on the Lower East Side was no less difficult for them than for their European brethren. In addition, they had to cope with many prejudices on the part of their fellow-Jews as well as non-Jews because of their darker skin and “foreign” customs. The

and by the mid 1950’s, the old syna gogue in the Lower East Side was defunct.

There are a number of families who have solved the problem by re maining “neutral.” The trend is to be neither Yemenite nor Ashkenazic ONGREGATION OHEL SHA Jews but American Jews. This, of LOM, Boro Park’s Yemenite syn course, leads us to a problem of a agogue, which is presently located in more serious nature—one of Haloa completely renovated and redeco chah; in a “mixed marriage,” whose rated store on 15th Ave. and 43rd tradition is accepted as the core for Street, has an approximate member religious observance within the home? ship of 125 families. The total num This problem is manifest in laws con ber of Yemenite families in this coun cerned with Kashruth, Shechitah, try has been estimated by some of its marriage (Kethubah), divorce (G et), folk to be between 175 and 200. This Nussach Tefillah, and numerous is difficult to verify since it is hard to other Halachic areas in which there determine what constitutes a Yemenite are differences between Ashkenazic, family today. When the Yemenites Sephardic, and Yemenite usage. The first immigrated to this country, inter problem becomes acute when we con family relations were bound by mu sider the offspring. Should a child tual interests and problems. Many of wait six hours between meat and dairy the young men and women of the as does his Yemenite mother or should present generation were bom in Pales he enforce the custom of his Germantine and it was therefore natural for oriented father and wait three hours? them to marry each other. Today, Should the child be placed in a Se however, especially among the younger phardic Yeshiva, where available, or generation, of whom most, if not all, Talmud Torah whose curriculum is were born in this country, such inter- permeated with Sephardic ritual and familial ties are non-existent. The traditions and whose language of in average Yemenite will marry an “out struction is different from that of its sider.” Ashkenazic counterpart in pronuncia There are two basic reasons for tion? Synagogue affiliation is another this existing condition. Firstly, the salient problem. Yemenite family does not possess, as Perhaps much of this discussion is do some other distinctive ethnic academic among some Yemenite fami groups, an unwritten code or tradition lies in Boro Park today. Nevertheless which limits it to inter-familial mar the need for recognition of such enig riages. Secondly, and perhaps the mas is indispensable. Many of these more fundamental and practical rea problems have been solved in homes son, there are not enough young men like mine by accepting the stricter in and women among the Yemenites to terpretation of a law when it can be promulgate such marriages. Thus, back interpreted with leniency. to our original problem. How do we define the family’s nationality if one HE organizational structure of the spouse is Yemenite and the other Ash Yemenite synagogue is no dif kenazi or Sephardi? To be sure, each ferent from that of the average syna will number its family among his or gogue in this country. It boasts of its her national background, indefatigable Executive Board, mul-

March-April 1966

tiple committees, general membership, active young men’s club, and vibrant ladies’ auxiliary. Its religious person nel consists of a Chazon and Gabai. There are two factors, however, which make it atypical. Congregation Ohel Shalom has never maintained salaried personnel (the Chazonuth is a volun tary office) and it has never employed a Mori (Rabbi) as its spiritual leader. The latter default has had exceedingly serious implications for Yemenite life and prestige during the last two de cades. Their lack of a Mori, they con tend, is because they are unable to afford the salary. At first this seems preposterous, but considering the small size of the congregational membership, one can sympathize with this pathetic—but distressing— situation. Another institution of vital impor tance which is lacking among Yeme nite Jews is a Yeshivah or Talmud Torah in which the propagation of their unique customs and traditions would be encouraged. As it is, in terested parents send their children to local institutions of Jewish learning.

The preservation of authentic Ye menite rituals and customs has been maintained within the sphere of the synagogue proper. Yemenite minhogim during services are beautiful in that they represent a tradition which dates back to pre-Talmudic times. A de scription of a few customs would be apropos at this point. A LL prayers, save the Amidah J \ (Eighteen Benedictions) are re cited aloud by the Chazon for all wor shippers to follow in rhythm. There is no such thing as Chazonuth in the Yemenite liturgy. All prayers are re cited in a mono-tonal chant which is reminiscent of the chants sung by the priests in the Beth Hamikdosh. When an individual is honored by reciting the blessings over the Torah, he is expected to read his own portion from the Scroll. To do otherwise, that is, to have the Baal Koreh read for him, would only reflect on him as ignorant of Torah. A son is expected to stand when his father is called to recite the Torah blessing. He is to remain stand-

JEWISH LIFE

ing throughout the entire reading. Upon completion of the recitation, it is customary for the son to ascend the Bimah and kiss his father’s hand with a graceful bow. This courtesy is also extended to older brothers and revered relatives. Among the holidays of the Jewish year, Pesach emerges as a convivial festival complete with usages of an cient Yemenite lore. The Four Ques tions are recited in Arabic. The father walks to and from the door with Matzoth wrapped in a sack hanging from his shoulder, symbolic of the Exodus from Egypt. Beautiful poems describing the advent of Passover, written by the greatest of all Yemenite poets, Mori Salem Shabbaz, are sung by young and old to melodies which raise the soul to ethereal heights. The most authentic and ancient of Yemenite traditions is the pronuncia tion of Hebrew. No two letters have

the same sound. The “vov” is pro nounced as a “w ” One can readily distinguish between the sounds of a “cheth” and a “chof” or an “aleph” and an “ayin.” The “cheth” and the “ayin’’ are pharyngeal sounds. There are recognizable sound distinctions between the “samech,” the “sof,” and the “sin” while the “gimmel” has three forms of pronunciation and the “daleth” two. A number of Hebrew linguists have asserted that the Yemenite pronuncia tion of the Hebrew consonants is the closest to the original sounds of the ancient Hebrew alphabet. As for the vowels, the komatz is pronounced by Yemenites with the “o” sound as in “hot,” in this case being similar to the standard Ashkenazi pronunciation rather than that of the Sephardim, while the pronunciation of the cholem is somewhat similar to that of the Polish Jews.

THE NEW G EN ERA TIO N

À S HAS been mentioned earlier, Yemen Jews are adept as artisans and craftsmen. Most Yemenites in Boro Park have continued in the tradi tions of their forefathers and have pursued occupations as silversmiths, goldsmiths, custom jewelers, masons and builders, printers, and painters. The younger generation is veering away from such manual occupations and pursuing professions which af ford them much prestige and remune rative advantages. The professions of greatest pursuit are engineering, edu cation, and music. The lack of rabbinic leadership has contributed heavily to the compro mising situation in which Yemenite Jews found themselves during the last March-April 1966

two decades. Their failure to secure for themselves a competent Mori whose followers would seek to emu late him has done immeasurable harm to the present and future generations. The Mori could have played an inval uable role in encouraging his congre gants toward greater participation in synagogue activities. An educational branch of the synagogue may have been established in which Yemenite children would receive religious train ing which would complement, rather than negate, their cherished and price less traditions. More and more families may have been encouraged to settle within geographic proximity of the synagogue rather than to reside in distant communities. 37

The religion^ character of Yemenite Jews has w e a n e d throughout the years. Many qf them have accepted a less stringent attitude towards re ligious ohseyy|nce. This is painfully true among those Yemenite boys and girls who were born in this country. Ffw have remained loyal to the re ligious tenets of their parents and grandparents. Most American-born Yemenites are not remotely aware of specific Yemenite practices and cus toms. It is not uncommon to find a Yemenite teenager unable to read Hebrew with the Yemenite pronun ciation or to read from the Torah. The greatest fi^gedy of all is that only a handful of parents have realized the value of giving their children a yeshivah education. Among the young married couples, very few have con fined their yeshivah education past elementary school. It can be said with certainty that the major cause for the estrangement from orthodox Jewish life by the

younger Yemenite generation is a direct result of parental apathy towards the religious needs of their children. In many families, parents were unable to cope with these basic needs. However, there has been a recent influx of Yemenite families from Israel into Boro Park. They have brought with them that original zeal for adherence to Yemenite tradi tion which was once deeply felt and experienced by American Yemenites. These recent immigrants to Boro Park are religiously observant and are pro viding for their children a yeshivah education which extends beyond the elementary level. These children are thoroughly trained at home in Yeme nite Minhogim. Their presence in the synagogue on a Sabbath morning has inspired some of the older folk to re evaluate their own attitudes toward the synagogue youth. As a result, Yemenite youngsters are encouraged to participate in synagogue activities. A number of them are being trained for future leadership.

The future pf the Yemenite Jewish community is pot easy to project. On the one hand there seems to be a gradual disintegration °f Yemenite traditions wbisfr may very well spell their total absorption into the general fabric of American Jewish life. On

the other hand, however, there is evidence of a recurrence of spirit and dedication towards the ideals and usages which gave the Yemenite cornmunity its uniqueness among Boro Park Jewry. Let us hope that this is the trend which will prevail.

JEWISH LIFE

Bei Leiten By BETTY S. WINER

HEN I was a little girl in our the unspoken statement of the heart. modest home in Manchester, We, the children, always felt the mag England, one phrase always arose nitude of the problem, the terrific from my mother’s lips, “Bei Leiten.” “trachtung,” the intense thought that It bespoke a standard, a criterion, but went on. The question, not openly one that eluded the grasp, and so my stated in respect to the Almighty’s mother’s “Bei Leiten” always had the will, was buried in her heart. effect of a question. In those deep subterranean cham Father, a rabbi, was deeply con bers of her mind, it echoed, and re cerned with the wants of his congre echoed with insistence. It welled out gation. Mother was always busy tend of her heart, till we heard the baffled ing to the needs of her insistent, ever- words, “Bei Leiten.” hungry brood. She was always plan Much of my childhood was spent ning ways and means how to manage, marvelling at the extreme wisdom of how to keep her head above water those experts, “The Leiten.” Mother with the poor stipend the congrega would have the trickiest situation, and tion afforded her good husband. those people, The Leiten, would solve Mother wondered deeply, very deep it with a mere flick of the finger. ly, how others did it. I was way down in that list of AKE the problem of the earning children, too small, too unimportant of daily bread. What wonderful to ask even what “Bei Leiten” really ideas those Leiten folk had. It was meant, although I could feel it with fantastic, the way anything they did my heart. Now that I have studied bore the Midas touch, and turned be Sociology in a state university in the fore their very eyes into gold. They U.S. I realize at last the true sense of bought and sold things. Anything— my late pious mother’s simple exhor the range always Kosher—from onion tation, “Bei Leiten, Bei Leiten.” This skins to velvets, pearls, and diamonds. surely means, in modern language, For The Leiten, the market always “how other, adept people handled was way up. matters, how they behaved when set The Leiten were always honest, under a similar situation.” simple folk who observed the Holy Mother was always deeply perplex Torah. It’s true they were simple folk, ed at the very many problems that but somehow they were always “Movibeset her. They had chiefly to do with nim.” Now, I know that a “M’vin” “parnosah,” daily sustenance. This is a person with fine, expert under statement was never made openly in standing of the problem. The heart of such black and white terms: it was the word “Kavonnah,” goes to the

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very heart of understanding. These simple folk, The Leiten, with their knowledge of Torah and no academic training, managed to look into the heart of the problem and come up with the right solution. They were not dazzled by any' trimmings—appear ances they always distrusted. They saw the whole situation, and felt in stinctively the highs and lows. The Leiten had always a very plentiful supply of “Emunah,” simple faith. This Emunah never turned back on them. It was as constant as the gen tle dew of Heaven. It was steadfast, pure, and cleansing. Emunah also gave you what is now called “perspective.” Do you see the artist in action before he starts a pic ture? He stands a little apart and sees the whole situation. My own mother of sacred memory, as a Jewish homemaker, always tried so hard to get the right perspective. Mother was always baffled. She never did get it. With all her Emunah, the magic oil, she, like the true artist, was never satisfied with her work. But The Leiten, on the contrary, always had the magic formula. When The Leiten bought cloth—: at one time Mother had a fabrics shop to help out with Parnossah— their brand of Botany suitings made the suits for the best people in the con gregation. “Look,” Mother would say, ‘‘here is the stamp on every yard of our material. What is there on their magic stamp that makes their material sell like hot cakes?” UR neighbors opposite us were doing extremely good business. O They got so big that they moved to bigger and better premises. I was secretly very much relieved at this turn of events. 40

“Bashie, go and have a look how many customers they have in their shop. Make it a casual look. Saunter, but catch every detail.” What could I tell my Mother? Should I tell what I saw: “Mutter, the store is full. All are buying Botany wool. All the bales are out. Each cus tomers so baalebatish— halevai aff unz ” How could I thus break her al ready almost broken heart? ^ ‘Hardly anybody there, Mutter,- I would report, “just a few gossipy per sons, no ‘Botany serge’ customers, nobody important.” Then the problems of education, making doctors out of the boys. Win ning scholarships, studying, that was simple stuff. Feed them, clothe them, pay bills. So little help, and such big eternal problems. The children of these “Leiten” folk themselves did much to alleviate the situation. They gave lessons, sold can dles for Shabboth, on Sukkoth “benched Esrog” with congregants who could not manage to come to shool. They sold Matzah for Pesach and all the remunerative extras that go with this munificent festival. Yes, on every Shabboth and every festival The Leiten had almost cornered the market. HE LEITEN had girls of a very special brand. Their virtues to T this day ring in my ears. They were indeed of a very superior quality. They were different from me entirely. After many attempts at recognized business ventures, I longed to get back to my books, the redeeming wells of knowledge. . Suddenly a demand: “Git a shprung arunter un breyng mir . . . ober shnell, gich, ich vart ” JEWISH LIFE

Reluctantly, study, homework, and “cheyn,” that queenly grace and higher learning left behind me, I charm of the “emesser Yiddisher would depart. With hardly the speed meidel.” Wherever they went, and of light my mother demanded: I would whatever they did, they carried with “Jump down” to the grocery, bring them that secret elixir. It was not a matter 6f clothes. What back those necessary articles, that they wore was very unpretentious. critical ingredient in the cooking. Those girls at The Leiten were al Just a simple dress—worn by an ways better. They were quicker, angel with grace, charm, and serenity, smarter, and distinctly of a superior and perfect “emunah.” This quality brand of graciousness. Those girls of “emunah,” simple trust, was indeed never had to be told “Git a shprung a quality of poise and self-confidence. arunter. . . ” at a most crucial mo Like the gentle rain from Heaven, it ment. Those Leiten girls sensed the always accompanied the true daughter need even before the demand was so of Israel. The setting could be the very simvital. When the demand was made in actual words-^-they tqok to their hqels plest-^the time any. By The Leiten with the grace and speed of angels** girls their home was always “zugerAnd what they brought back vtas ramt,” everything was in place. “Ye-> full of golden radiance—“Geshmak, der zach hot a beshtimate p!atz'si— a mechaya, a meiz/a”|t#tasteful, de everything had its own place. “In der finster alles gefunnenh—~in the dark lightful, and a rare bargain. Indeed those Leiten girls could ness of Sabbath eve, after the candles sense a bargain a mile away. They had burnt low,- they could put their were so divinely attuned that in the hands on anything. They were masters very darkness, with no previous of the trickiest situations and always knowledge, they intuitively knew the found things at first hand, and always in perfect condition. No confusion real from the false. How many times did my sisters and anywhere. Perfect order reigned in I do some shopping with what we* The Leiten household, and The Leiten considered rare taste and discrimina^E; -girls had the torch serenely aloft in tion and then be treated with this en their hands and hearts to pass on. couraging rejoinder! $3 “Oy vei, a shmatte, a richtigiT UCH water has passed under emesse shmatte!” many bridges, and with three Somehow, what we purchased so daughters of my own I have deeply carefully qualified as no other than a felt the burden of my Mother’s prob “rag, a real, sure-enough rag.” But lems. Wherever I go, and it has been The Leiten managed always with the my lot to travel far, I hear distinctly same small amount of money to get her criterion: “Bei Leiten.” Now, my husband and I live in the the real thing. South, U.S. We both enjoy the real A ND THEN, that burning question, spirit of Shabboth and Yom Tov. always present: How to marry When Sukkoth comes around, my off three daughters of modest charms, husband builds a lovely sukkah, and was a question on her mind and heart. I decorate it tastefully. We have Everything The Leiten girls did had friends over and serve them home-

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baked honey cake and the like in traditional style. Among our visiting friends, last Sukkoth, «was a European-reared cou ple. They knew what Yiddishkeit was all about. Still, they did not have a sukkah, the pressure of business and outside interests prevented this. My woman friend tasted some honey cake, gazed around the sukkah with its thatch of leafy branches and I heard her mutter to herself in the softest of whispers— “Bei Leiten, Bei Leiten.” Yes, life has its own strange turns. At my daughter’s wedding in New York, there were some guests from England. Very familiar, they reminded me of someone I had known at home. This was the daughter of my neigh bor who had done such big business

in Botany serge, the one who lived opposite us. How happy she was to see me. “Mazol Tov, Mazol Tov!” “Fancy meeting you again!” “All these years I have thought of your father and mother. How they brought you all up, such lichtikeit of Torah in your home. My mother, of blessed memory, always told us how Torah and mentschlichkeit were al ways the best wares of real Leiten.” The echo of those words raced and reverberated in the chambers of memo ry. At last the answer came to my mother’s question. I realize that she was a wonderful teacher trying to teach us all the real tested and true ways of the best folk, The Leiten.

JEWISH LIFE

My Class By ELKANAH SCHWARTZ

N 1949, I graduated from Yeshivath Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brownsville, which is in Brooklyn, New York. That is, I was being passed from the eighth grade of the elementary school to the first grade of the high school, and this was offi cially dubbed graduating. The ele mentary school took me with all my classmates, told us we’re finished, there’s no need to come back, they’re proud of us and all that, and they made us get all dressed up and go to some photographer’s hot studio so he could take our picture, all of us together. There were twenty-four of us in that picture. I still have my copy, although I can hardly recognize myself. Most of us continued on into the Mesivta, which was a few blocks away where Brownsville meets East New York. Some of us went to other yeshivah high schools. Some of us didn’t. That was seventeen years ago, and it startles me to look back. Brownsville no longer exists for us except in our minds and books. The streets are there, with the same names they had in my days, but it isn’t my Brownsville. We were concentrated in a relatively small area. Nobody lived

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on the other side of Fulton Street, although before my time (so they tell me) it was pretty Jewish. But Atlantic Avenue was the border for us, as far as we were concerned. The only time anybody ever crossed it by foot was when bound at Highland Park for Tashlich. On another side Buffalo Avenue was already out-ofbounds, although every year some new boy would come to the yeshivah from that side, and we would look at him as at someone who didn’t belong. Go ing over this way, there was East New York, but any boy who lived there went to Yeshivah Toras Chaim and didn’t come to us unless they threw him out, and then we knew him for what he was. Going down the fourth way were the far reaches of Eastern Parkway which took you to Lincoln Terrace Park on Friday afternoons or on Shabboth when the older boys and girls grouped together. Past it was Crown Heights which belonged to the rich people. We didn’t know anybody there. To us the world con sisted of Prospect Place, Saratoga Avenue, a little bit of Park Place and Hopkinson Avenue, and, for far-away people like myself, there was Bergen Street and Howard Avenue. Some 43

boys used to come from Herzl and Chester Streets, the other side of Pit kin Avenue, and we associated them with the Amboy Dukes from a book by the same name. E USUALLY got along well with each other, because we came basically from the same environment. Our fathers were pressers, shopmen, over-the-counter salesmen who maybe had every fourth Sunday off. The bigshot families had their own stores, either candy stores or groceries which they tended seven days a week (closed on Shabboth, open Saturday night), working sixteen hours a day. The real fancy big-shots opened stores in the Prospect Place market where they competed with the pushcarts. Our fathers davened in the big shools, because to a working-man his Beth Hamikdosh was his hard wooden seat in the synagogue. A visit from a wellknown cantor was a sign of the Mes siah. Some fathers honored hallowed tradition by attending the one and only shtibel. Although there were a few other small places of worship, only the one on Prospect Place earned the name of “shtibel.” Friday evening it was open for everybody to come and learn, gossip, share a bottle of soda pop or beer, or nap. My own custom was to join my friends there for a shmooz, then a friend of the family would give me some soda, tell ing his cronies at his table that my mother was his lantsfrau, after which I would bundle up in my coat and join some of the older fellows stand ing outside the bar across the street, through whose window we could watch the Friday night fights from Madison Square Garden on the TV. If we were lucky, we saw a real one at the bar.

Another place where one might at tend services was the klois on St. Marks Avenue, but nobody I knew went there, although they had a large following. The post-war affluence had not yet set in to make it worthwhile for enterprenurial sthibelach, and by the time it did set in the moneyed ones were living in Crown Heights, so the rebbes followed them there. There was a congregation in the yeshivah but the one had nothing to do with the other as far as I knew. THE BIG INTERESTS

IFE in the yeshivah was fairly standard. We never expected a “Jewish teacher” to be American born or an “English teacher” to be reli gious. We were never disappointed. An active crew, we thrived on two pastimes: heels, or packs, as foreign ers called them, and punchball. Get ting into the heels business was rela tively easy. You dropped in on any shoemaker and asked him for old heels he had ripped off shoes. He threw the heels at you, and you picked the one that looked the best. Then you had to get tickets, any kind, although baseball tickets were the most popular. A Yankee ticket was worth two. Louie, the Italian candystore owner next door, sold you eightfor-a-penny. I got a bargain my first time out from a classmate: ten-for-apenny. Another friend told me I got hooked but never told me what I should have done. It was a skill to file the heels to get the most out of them, but I was never given the secret formula. To play the game, you joined two or three other fellows on a line that forms a paved sidewalk box. The

JEWISH LIFE

wisest one yelled “last’ and the next one “next to last.” I was always last to yell “last,” so I was always first. Being last is desirable because it’s like shuffleboard, which is only an advanced form of heels: the first one tossed his heel to get onto the marked line, usually three lines away. If he got onto it or too close, the next one tried to push him away, by getting down on his knee (corduroy pants were in style; I used to wear knickers) and sliding his own heel. If not, he would drop his own next to his feet and “dare” the other fellow to come and get him. The winner collected a ticket from each victim. But that was basically for small fry. The big game was punchball. One ball was enough for ten boys, but where to play? There were five courts^ each one more dangerous than the other, but that’s how we sep arated the men from the boys. There was the real big court on Prospect Place, from Hopkinson Avenue head ing into Eastern Parkway. Center stood near the big traffic light, and the batter had to wait for a red light. Sometimes he didn’t. Too bad. After a while “Blackie,” the principal, (whom some of us came to know years later as a lamed-vovnick, a real saint) cut this out. They moved over to the second court, Prospect Place on the other side of Hopkinson Ave nue, near Flamenbaum’s luncheonette (no one had money to eat there, but once a week I had a malted.) The next most important court was the big yard, then the small yard. Some small fry like me played on the side walk next to the cleaners on the Ave nue. We didn’t always finish the game, as for example when the ball got on the roof. We had our own shulchon March-April 1966

oruch to decide who pays for the ball and when. But punchball was the big thing. A boy was rated according to how far he could punch a ball. The standard was a sewer, that is, to stand on one manhole cover on Prospect Place and punch the ball on a fly to the next

manhole cover. If he did, he was in a special class. If he reached it on a bounce, he wasn’t even rated. Our idol was a bowlegged fellow from the Prospect Place team (not yeshivah boys). He hit two sewers. Classes were, so to speak, fill-ins between ballgames, to give time to catch our breaths, compare notes, choose up sides, and catch up on the Brooklyn Dodgers. On afternoons dur ing Dodger games, one fellow after another would find excuse to leave the classrooms, dashing over to Louie’s to get the score. (There were no trans istors then.) The grapevine carried the news. One English teacher used to send special messengers to get the score, warning the student not to get caught by the principal, and if he should, to take the rap himself. What heroism. (That teacher used to pun ish misbehaving students by hitting them over the palm of the hand with their rulers. One who was particu larly troublesome had to collect all the rulers from the class to be hit with. If he was real bad, he had to go into the next class to get their rulers too. Today this teacher would no doubt be arrested.) But as far as baseball was concerned, we were all Dodger fans. Was there anything else? There were some Yankee fans, but we didn’t even talk to them. If there was a Giant fan he was afraid to tell anyone, or else he would have gotten a “mishkanta.” (Punishment for snitch ing was a mishkanta d’oraythah.) OUR VARIETY

E HAD our variety of students. Some came from rabbinic homes and were privileged characters. A couple were shoplifters, but only we

knew about it. One fellow had his coterie who would follow him in stantly and unquestioningly. When he finished lunch they followed at once though their lunch was but half-eaten. They played hide-and-go-seek in a hidden piece of Eastern Parkway to wards Rockaway Avenue opposite the Beth Yaakov School. (Ever make a shimah-lechel?) Some specialized in selling pocket books we weren’t al lowed to read. One group was of a higher order: they banded together to form a punchball team. They got together and made an elaborate con stitution for meetings, dues, fines, all for one purpose: to buy team jackets and put their name across them: “In vaders.” They met twice a week in the synagogue after classes. They made committees to find out prices. Finally, they accomplished their pur pose. One bright Friday morning we were treated to a feast for our eyes: ten boys standing in bright yellow sweaters. As it turned out, jackets were too expensive. And across the fronts it said “Aces” because “In vaders” was too long a word for a sweater. Their athletic competition was one particular boy plus whomever he picked up. He always won. Today he’s on the staff of a major Jewish organization. We had our variety of teachers too. One had a war with the Pirchei Agudath Israel boys: he wanted them to take Jewish National Fund boxes to collect donations, and the boys said “no.” They wanted to go with Keren Hayishuv boxes. He said “no.” He compromised: “If you don’t want to t^ke a JNF box,” he announced one morning, “don’t. But don’t let me catch you with a Keren Hayishuv box or I’ll break your head.” We knew he meant it. One of our English JEWISH LIFE

sated for with the glow of the human spirit. A dollar had a meaning and we learned to respect it. It wasn’t our reason for living, just something that helped along if you knew what to do with it. Somebody in that yeshivah must have meant well because a lot of good people came out from there, including some from my class. At the time my class photo was taken, life seemed interminable and existence indestructible. To speak then of looking back seventeen years later was a silly joke. There was neither time nor need to think of it. We were alive and the world was ours for the asking. We were the ones who would grow up and tell everyone what was right and what they should do. True, our environ ments were not entirely alike. We came from different types of homes. Earlier I mentioned different places our father prayed in. But what about those boys whose fathers didn’t pray? Or those who unfortunately had no fathers? Some had uncles who carved out trades for them. Others had no such uncles. Some had clear intentions of remaining religious. Some of these disappointed themselves. Others had no such intentions in the first place. In the class picture we look like any other class picture: simple-looking boys with cherubic faces, carrying the hopes of their parents and waiting for the photographer to get it over with. But today? They are now past high school, past college if they went, in volved in or past graduate work, past the army, of marriageable age, defin T ’s only seventeen years and yet itely at that point where the crutches in some respects it seems ages. We of preparatory activities such as school were not a rough crew, just living in fall away. They are now loose in the homes where the economic going was world, free to choose, free to pursue rough but was more than compen- a million-and-one different things their

teachers specialized in Physical Train ing. Another teacher ran his class like the Russian military school he came from. I was afraid of him. So was the principal. There was an interesting difference between the two departments: in the morning, during “Jewish,” if the office needed an errand boy, they would send for the bad boy. “After all, he’s not learning anyway.” In the afternoon, during “English,” if the office need a boy they sent for the good one. After all, he knew his work anyway. I never found out which was right. Thank heavens, there was no TV or transistor radios. If we didn’t study, we at least talked to each other. On Shabboth some of us went to the Pirchei. We had our own store-front quarters on Park Place, and at night we made packages to send to Eretz Yisroel. Some boys went to the Young Israel at the Hebrew Educational So ciety. The big-time operators went to Kitzel Park. Those with a keen eye for sports went to Betsy Head Park to watch hardball. To take the chance of going there you had to be a quali fied sheigetz-walloper. We had a few and the local Irish were careful whom to pick on. My sister belonged to the Hapoel Hamizrachi on Herzl Street and Saturday nights I used to help her collect money on Pitkin Avenue to send to Eretz Yisroel: in those years you couldn’t walk on Pitkin Avenue on Saturday night and pass a corner with no one with a pushka. Today you can’t walk there at all.

March-April 1966

fathers were never privileged to dream about. Could I, or you, or anyone else have guessed then how they would be standing today? FROM LEFT TO RIGHT . . .

HE first in the upper left-hand corner has a pleasant smile, I don’t know if he ever finished high school. He has the most wonderful parents but few lacked ambition the way he did. He was harmless and lazy, asked for nothing and gave the same. He sat and Watched time pass. The army got him. Today he has a wife, a child, a job, and a place in society. Recently I saw in the papers that he was chairman of his congregation’s dinner. Next to him is a handsome boy whose life’s undying ambition was to play third base for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Today he works for New York State as a Kosher Law Enforce ment Bureau inspector and is a parttime mohel. Going farther right is a late-coming out-of-towner. Quiet fellow. He’s out o l town now, raising an orthodox family; the next one went straight to Thomas Jefferson High School. As far as we’re concerned he disappeared; the tall one in the middle I bump into on the subway now and then. He goes to graduate school and walks around bareheaded. His friend kept in the background and studied while we played; he graduated at the top of our class in mesivta and now teaches public high school where he does not use his semichah. The quiet one next to him manages real estate today and keeps his learning sched ules in the Beth Hamedrosh; the broadshouldered one to his left received

Semichah at Yeshiva University and works there now; the last one in this top row, had we had elections in 1949, would have been unanimous choice as “The One Most Likely to Wind Up In Jail.” I doubt that we would have been disappointed: The first one on the left in the middle row was the class comic. He disappeared; next to him is his neigh bor, an interesting case. I was at his Bar Mitzvah celebration (as indeed I attended the Bar Mitzvah oddasions of most of them, as afterwards their weddings too) and another friend from a higher class also was a cele brant then in the same synagogue. My classmate was from a simple work man’s home. In shool he wore a white yarmulka and a beautiful silken tallith, the perfect picture of an Amer ican Bar Mitzvah boy. The other friend was from Chassidically-oriented home, and wore a hat, a gartel, and a, borrowed woolen tallith, a picture pf tradition. My classmate left us in the middle of mesivta to go to Eretz Yisroel to study at the Ponivezer Yeshiva long before it became fash ionable to do so. Today I see him as a bearded diamond-merchant, mar ried to a Chassidic girl. The other friend, the garteled one, is floating around somewhere, probably attend ing synagogue regularly, though I don’t know much else of him. The next one, looking wide-awake, was an amateur boxer in the P.A.L. and once tried out for the Golden Gloves. Don’t ask me where he is now; the next one is a set of twins from a Chassidic home. They are the only ones in the picture with their jackets buttoned right-over left. One is now a computer programmer who wears a kappota on Shabboth; the other a fund raiser for one of our JEWISH LIFE

better institutions; next is myself (I still had some hair on my head then); my neighbor was the first in the whole class to have a TV set. He used to take me home for lunch so I could watch it. Where he or his TV set is now beats me; the last one in the row is now married and very fat, al though he was a top athlete then. He teaches in public school and in a mesivta. The bottom row completes the pic ture. First on the left is another latearriving out-of-towner. In high school he did anything for a laugh. He was the only one not to go to college. Today he is studying in Eretz Yisroel, and, if all goes well, as we hope it will, he should become a great scholar, one of the Gedoley Hador for our children. His neighbor is a good boy who came with his mother from way out of town. She slaved for him and fortunately not in vain. He is still a good boy, one of the most sincere and capable people I know of in Jew ish Education. The chubby boy next to him perhaps didn’t finish high school or perhaps he did. In either case, it’s irrelevant* He’s from a rab binic home. After having studied in yeshivah for many years, he is now in real estate. The boy in the middle was my buddy and the Mr. Mischief of the class. Not top studious, he was the unanimous choice for busi ness manager of our high school year book. He didn’t want to go to college, but I personally talked him into it. He wound up getting a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, now does classified work for the Of fice of Naval Research, and is a gabbai in the shtibel where he davens. The dull-looking one next to him went to a different mesivta. I hear he’s doing well and still uses the ShulMarch-April 1966

chon Oruch properly. Next to last is a fellow who, I thought, went to yeshivah only to play punchbai!. Last I heard he was educational director of a Western Jewish community. Last but not least is the brain of the class, part-time athlete and now full-time Talmid Chochom, a scholar we take pride in. OUT O F A SHARED ENVIRONMENT

HEIR FACES stare into space and I now look back at them. Seven T teen years? Not long at all. The old est among us is not more than thirty. Most of us are married and the greater proportion are fathers. We are not that far advanced that we are in the rut of life. There is still choice, for careers are young yet. We are at a most interesting point: out of the pat terned world of school but not yet embedded in the rituals of adult life. We were not equal then and are more unequal now. What I ask is: What made things develop the way they did? Not included in this picture are the ones who didn’t make it. At cas ual meetings, some of us think back with a belly-laugh to some of our former classmates. The ones who quit when they were left back so the next yeshivah would pass them on . . . the hefty Physical Training major who wound up his school career playing football for Erasmus High School. . . the circular nit-wit who hit a homer every time at bat at Friday afternoon softball games in Lincoln Terrace Park because he was too fat to run out a plain single or double; today he is a married and thriving businessman . . . the talkative self-styled ballplayer who always challenged the Aces to 49

a ballgame, picked his own team and on banana growing because it was always lost, and had to pay for the shown during Sefirah . . . pf passing ball as a consequence; the last time the time during the rain by having I met him he was still chasing his “chicken fights” in the subterranean fantasies. Another punchball player basement—two boys riding piggyback wound up in the army, which in due would wrestle to throw the other off course sent him to prison; he used . . . annual forced checkups on our to hang around the poolroom on St. teeth that some boys were so afraid Johns Place near Jackson’s book store. of they quit school . . . coming to Another fellow, an astounding char school in the winter on a sled that acter who always looked as if he were your mother pulled; during recess, asleep, made a living playing hand snowball fights that stopped traffic on ball. His father used to give a Talmud Hopkinson Avenue. class in a local synagogue. Another The worst punishment, worse in fellow used to walk into sheigetz ter fact than having a note sent home, ritory whenever he wanted some ex was to be kept in the office during ercise. After a while he stopped be recess. It took two weeks to live that cause they ran away from him. His one down; the smart boys got recog brother and his friends played host nition occasionally, such as at report one day for a punchball game with card times or during spelling bees. At the Park Place team. They ganged up those occasions, the dumb athletes on this fellow and tried to pull his took pride in sitting next to the smart nose off his face. They couldn’t, and boys. The next day;*'the smart boy lost the game too. “got a game,’r courtesy of the ath There was a dramatic scene once lete, The following day the scholar as a rebbe was taken to the hospital had to shift for himself once again. on a stretcher from the yeshivah Once a year, the boys with best attenbecause he fell and pieces of his ance records got certificates; the others broken eyeglasses splintered into his called them sissies. To us, Joe, the eyes. His students then sat down in Negro janitor, was the most enlight the school to recite Tehillim before ened person in the world. running out to play punchball. And When we came home in the eve there was the annual occasion a month ning we listened to Tom Mix, and ate before Pesach, when the Mothers Wel supper with the Green Hornet. When fare Club took the poorer boys out of the Lone Ranger told us to send in class to get them each a suit, shoes, a boxtop with fifteen cents for a se and a hat at the women’s expense. cret Indian map, we did so faithfully. There were the classroom artists, who This is what we shared, from nine drew on the blackboards before the in the morning till five-thirty in the teachers came in. And, after class, evening, six days a week, ten months there was the mad dash down the a year. We went home to the different back fire escape to “get the court” ; environments that were ours in the whoever got there first had to be evening, on Shabboth, and during the chosen in. It was the only way I could summer. But with the bulk of our play. individual and collective waking hours I think of the frum ones among spent in one common environment, us who didn’t want to watch a film this, then, became our breeding 50

JEWISH LIFE

grounds. From here we were spawned into the waters of society. OW did we come out different, especially along unpredictable H lines? Among the meaningless inci dents that remain in my mind from early childhood (everybody has his) are two that resemble each other. In each instance, I was knocked to the ground and brought to tears by being run over, not by a car, but by an older student involved in punchball. In one, I was released from class before recess, and stood near Louie’s candy store. When the bell rang, the upperclassmen came charging down the sidewalk racing to the court in the gutter across Hopkinson Avenue. It was my good fortune to be stand ing in their way. The other case involved my being a spectator at a punchball game in the “big” court in front of the build ing, the action stretching into Eastern Parkway. I chose a terrific place to stand: right next to first base, so that the next player who had to “beat out” a weak hit came up to meet me, and proved to be bigger than I was. The one who knocked me down in the first incident now writes for the Encyclopedia Talmudith. The other one doesn’t even put on Tefillin. Why? How is it that two boys sat next to each other in the same room on the same bench (there were double desks) and shared the same instruc tion and environment, and now one is a Rosh Hakollel, dean of a post graduate Talmudic seminary, and the other doesn’t know there is such a thing as a kollel? Or did times change? Recently I met Lefty — the best firstbaseman any punchball team ever had. He married early and is now in JewMarch-April 1966

ish Education. “When I was a kid/’ he told me, “I used to run to yeshivah early to get a punchball game before class. Now my son runs early, too— to be appointed cantor at the minyon.” POST-BROWNSVILLE

EVENTEEN YEARS is not a clas sic period for retrospection. It is not twenty-five nor even eighteen. It just came to me, after casually meet ing some old friends, that one is forced to back up and look. Did we know it would be this way? Did any one? Can we surmise even now how things will turn out? Perhaps the one who “disappeared” will reappear in full force, or even, Heaven forbid, one now on the right track will devi ate. A few weeks ago, walking through Greenwich Village, I spotted a local fellow who once took advantage of all the seforim sales in the Beth Hamedrosh. Or even for those who left the fold: what about their children? Will the parents, my classmates, realize their own folly, and, in the pattern of their parents who wanted to give their chil dren the economic opportunity they were denied, will they now, as parents, seek to give their children the spiritual opportunity they really had but denied themselves? What about today’s children? My mother came to the yeshivah, a dis tance of ten blocks, five times a day; to bring me there at nine o’clock, bring me milk at eleven, lunch at one, milk at four, and take me home at five-thirty. She didn’t drive over. To day I saw a mother in a yeshivah. My impression was that her main worry is as to which expensive camp to send her child next summer^ and whether 51

she should go to Israel then or to the Carribbean in the winter, or both. Her son and his classmates will grad uate into another world, a world other than mine, with different values. Who can say today what influences will play upon her child and his classmates in the years to come, as there were unpredictable influences that played upon me and my classmates over the past seventeen years?

hard as what our fathers faced. But our children are facing something far more difficult: affluence. Our fathers taught us how to live happily with poverty. Can we teach our children to live happily with wealth? We came up in a school of life that managed to implant a smattering of toughness into us. Our children are growing up soft. For our fathers, America was a strange land. Not all were at fault for the way their children grow up. ODAY there is no more Browns For us, affluence is also a strange ville, as far as we are concerned. land. Will we know how to bring up The yeshivah building stands forlorn, the generation we will be charged gutted by a fire two years ago, just with? when there was no insurance. The I look back at my class, not only synagogues I refuse to check up on. to see them, but to see myself, if pos I am frankly afraid of what I may sible. The span of time and the learn. My classmates will not be changes it brought only make me pressers or factory men, unless as think of the variances of the decades. owners or at least managers. Our I see also the graduates before me fathers worked six-day weeks. We and those after me. I see the gradu work five. Our children will work ating class of Yeshivah Torah Vofour day weeks. Our daughters will not daath and the environment that was go to public schools the way our older Williamsburg. I see Yeshiva Rabbi sisters did. Few of our younger sisters Jacob Joseph and the environment now work in offices. Seventeen years that was the East Side. I see the vast ago, if you would have told someone stretches of the Bronx, mostly for the your sister teaches public school or “alrightnikkes” of yesteryear, and the works a computer and she’s religious, variances of neighborhoods, neighbors, you’d be considered crazy. For us it economic conditions, and the univer was a big deal to go on a Pirchei sal security of Jewish family life. I hike to Staten Island. It was another no longer see my kids today playing world. There was no Thruway and no heels, and a punchball game is a rare summer camps. Friday afternoon in sight. Some kids today have problems the spring was the only time I played of how to spend their parent^’ money with my neighbors. During the sum a little faster. I don’t envy them. mer we took a shack in the mountains, ❖ H* * just to get away. My father could come up only once. There was no such thing as a Shomer Shabboth colony. EVENTEEN YEARS AGO when Today one doesn’t go to anything but. I heard adults speak of their child At home I slept in the living room. hood friends of thirty years before, Visitors had to go home early so I to me that didn’t exist. Today I use could go to sleep. the span of time and notes of com What we faced was nowhere as parison as a mirror. I cannot look

JEWISH LIFE

back upon people I was in “der lager” with, for fortunately this privilege was denied me, as I sincerely hope it will continue to be denied to me and my loved ones and all of us. I do not look back upon anything so trau matic as a world upheaval and a trans fer of homelands, as my parents were forced to do. I walk the streets only two miles from Brownsville and meet many of the old bunch. This is my mirror of time and history. I try to use it to judge myself in the light

March-April 1966

of time and relative experiences. My glass mirror will forever show me only what I put into it at the time of looking. My graduation picture of seventeen years ago will forever ma ture in its lessons. My classmates and I will never change the optimistic, wistful looks shining in our youthful and hopeful eyes in the photograph. Time passes and wreaks its changes upon the people who stood there then. We’ll never, perhaps, have another chance.

Measuring the Synagogue with A Jewish Yardstick From its very beginnings in ancient, pre-Talmudic times, the synagogue has been a house of worship "plus."

By RAPHAEL S. WEINBERG

HE ORIGIN of the synagogue is a problem which has fascinated scholars for quite some time. Many plausible theories have been suggested and although no unequivocal solutions have been presented as to which primitive institution begot the refined synagogue, much can be learned from the composite hypothesis. Some find reference to the synagogue in the lamenting reports of Jeremiah (39:8) : “And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the house of the people (beth ho-am) with fire, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem.” The “house of the people,” according to them, was the center in which the nation would gather to discuss com munal affairs, to hear out the Prophets and to pray; the Beth Am evolved into Beth K’nesseth, the synagogue. Others note the expression r’chov ir —town square—mentioned in Tannaitic and Amoraic material as a place of prayer and assume this was the original setting for communal supplication e.g. Mishnah Taanith 2,

1: “What is the order of service for fast days? The ark is taken out to the open space of the city (r’chov shel-ir), wood ashes are placed on the ark, etc.” The most popular theory is that the Babylonian Exile gave rise to as semblies in the homes of prophets where the people would meet to hear the word of G-d and to pray. For ex ample: “I sat in my house, and the elders of Yehudah sat before me” (Ezekiel 8:1). All these theories de note that the primal synagogue was not a place exclusively for prayer, it was a meeting place, a cotpmunal house, apd not simply a sanctuary. This is quite an important point, for many find fault with the synagogue because they compare it with the nonJewish house of worship. The com parison usually accentuates the lack of reverence in and toward the Tewish edifice. However, if we admit that the synagogue does not rest purely on a religious worship foundation then comparisons of it with the church are JEWISH LIFE

unreasonable. Even the common usage bears this out, “Church” is derived from the Greek kyrakon meaning “lord’s house” while “synagogue” is the Greek synagogue, an “assembly.” OR the period of the Second Commonwealth and the subse quent Talmudic era, our knowledge of the synagogue undergoes a pleasant metamorphosis from the theoretical into the factual. The Talmud, Philo, Josephus, even the Roman writer Juvenal give us insight into the char acter of the synagogue in these peri ods and one of the first things we no tice is individuality, distinctness, non conformity between one synagogue and another and at times within the wall of the one building. Let us begin with a Talmudic description of a famous synagogue: *Rabbi Judah stated: He who has not seen the double colon nade (basilica synagogue) of Alexan dria in Egypt has never seen the glory of Israel. It was said that it was like a huge basilica, one colonnade within the other, and it sometimes held twice the number of people that went forth from Egypt. There were in it seventy-one cathedras of gold corresponding to the seventy-one members of the Great Sanhedrin . . . And a wooden platform in the middle upon which the attendant of the Synagogue stood with a scarf in his hand. When the time came to answer Amen, he waved his scarf and all the congregation duly responded. They moreover did not occupy their seats promiscuously, but goldsmiths sat separately, silversmiths separately, blacksmiths separately, metalworkers separately, and weavers separately, so that when a poor man entered the place he recognized the members of his craft and on applying to that

Sukkah Sib.

March-April 1966

quarter obtained a livelihood for him self and for the members of his family. The last statement here seems to be a rationalization of a social phenome non, a division of synagogues by oc cupations or countries of origin etc., which has remained current through the centuries. The Talmud often men tions the synagogues “of the copper artisans,” “of the Roman Jews in Machoza,” “of the Babylonians,” “of the Alexandrians,” and many more. This may correspond to our contem porary synagogues that bear names of communities of origin now extinct. Naturally not all Jews could be classified by occupation, lantsmanschaft, ritualistic customs, and what have you. In fact most Jews fell into the “unclassified” category. This led to competition among the registered members for the unclassified Jews’ allegiance. At the end of the eleventh century, for example, there were to be found two competing synagogues in Fustat, Egypt. One was called “the Jerusalem synagogue” the other “the Babylonian synagogue.” The former followed the custom of completing the Torah in a tri-annual cycle, the latter had a yearly cycle. An interest ing Geniza fragment relates: “There are people who say to them (the Babylonian members) come to us in order that your children will read the Portion every Shabboth with the con gregation, and whoever wishes to translate (targum) may translate, for the Torah Readings are short at our congregation.” * Thus we see that the first charac teristic of the synagogue, which can be traced all the way back to the * S. D. Goiten, “Jewish Education in Muslim Countries,” Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1962.

Alexandrian structure in Hellenistic times, is the trend towards homogen ous grouping. This indicates that the synagogue was not meant to be an impersonal place of awesome prayer separated from the social needs of the community, where people would gather to interact solely with their Creator and not with one another. The synagogue was indeed a fra ternizing precinct and hence the re quirement of compatibility. Conversely however, the synagogue served as an ethnic or occupation verve rather than as a unifying force to assimilate the diverse elements in Jewry. The House

of G-d therefore became part and parcel of the clannishness that plagued and divided the people. The goldsmith would not only look askance at the weaver, but also at his synagogue. Today, the lines of division are more flexible than under the guild system but often we still display chauvinistic tendencies about our synagogues The synagogue was meant to serve a social need. This created a categorizing of people which in turn gave rise to individuality. This again led the competitive spirit— something which, whatever its merits, serves best when tempered.

M AN IFOLD FU N CTIO N S

HE SYNAGOGUE today has be come the center of organized Jewish life. The more diversified the functions, the more popular the insti tution. Often we hear criticism on this score. But, a glance at history may alter our tune. The synagogue has al ways served numerous functions. It was naturally a place for prayer and also a platform for preaching—Rabbi Meir lectured on Friday evening: Rabbi Ashi at the morning service: Rabbi Joseph preached before Musaf. The children studied Torah in the synagogue. Rabbi Yochanan sat in judgment within the precincts of the synagogue; oaths were administered there; flogging was meeted out too. The synagogue served as the lost and found column and announcements were therein made. Eulogies echoed within the holy walls. Josephus in forms us that the Jewish rebellion was mapped out in the Tiberian syna gogue. As an illustration of the varied

functions at a later period, let me pass on a description of a Spanish synagogue written by Abraham Ibn Doud in his Sefer Ha-Kabbalah (12th century): Now there was in Cordova a syna gogue that was called the College Synagogue where a judge by the name of Rabbi Nathan the Pious, who was a man of distinction, used to preside. However, the people of Spain were not thoroughly versed in the words of our Rabbis of blessed memory. Nevertheless, with the little knowledge they did possess, they conducted a school and interpreted the traditions more or less accurately. Once Rabbi Nathan explained the law requiring immersion of the finger for each sprinkling, Which is found in the tractate Yoma, but he was unable to explain it correctly. Thereupon, Rabbi Moses, who was seated in the corner like an attendant, arose before Rabbi Nathan and said to him: Rabbi, this would result in an excess of immersions! When he and the stu dents heard his words, they marvelled JEWISH LIFE

to each other and asked him to ex plain the law to them. This he did quite properly. Then each of them asked him all of the difficulties which they had, and he replied to them out of the abundance of his wisdom. Outside the College there were liti gants who were not permitted to enter until the students had completed their lesson. On that day Rabbi Nathan the judge walked out, and the litigants went after him. However, he said to them: I shall no longer be judge. This man who is garbed in rags and is a stranger is my master, and I shall be his disciple from this day on. You ought to appoint him judge of the community of Cordova. And that is exactly what they did. This particular synagogue served as the school and the court for the Cor dova community. T MAY BE NOTED that in 1626 King Sigmund III of Poland al lowed the Jews of Lutzk to erect a synagogue on condition that they build fortifications on the roof with mounts for guns and that they buy a cannon. The synagogue here doubled as a fort. During the Middle Ages a new peculiarity, with roots in the past, became manifest. This was the for mal “stopping of prayer”— tefillah. To best explain this practice it will be helpful to quote from a Takkonah attributed to Rabbenu Gershom: * “If a man summons his neigh bor to court and the latter refuses to appear, the plaintiff may not stop the morning or afternoon prayers, or the reading of the Torah, unless he has first thrice stopped the evening serv ice . . . If there are more synagogues in the city, he may only stop the serv ices in the synagogue attended by the

* Salo Baron “The Jewish Community, Vol. II.

March-April 1966

defendant. Having stopped them there thrice without avail, he may stop them in all synagogues.” In the city of Cologne there occurred an incidept of ikkuv tefillah which lasted the whole day of Shabboth so that the assembled congregation had to listen to the reci tation of that Torah Reading on the following Shabboth! This last province of the synagogue accentuates the fact that the awe and reverence which our social interac tions seem to dictate for the house of worship is qualified in Jewish prac tice by the circumstances that the synagogue evolved more from the r’chov bo-ir than from the Holy of Holies. The fact that a person could actually rise and halt the service seems strange only if we assume that the synagogue served as a ceremonial junction exclusively, and this is simply not the case. Man does not only com municate with his Creator but asso ciates also with his fellow man in G-d’s House. 11 ^HIS reality may assist us in bur JL understanding of a strange atti tude of the Jew to His house, the attitude that it is his house—he liter ally owns the place! There are a number of contributing factors that explain assembly in private homes for worship. Internally we may take into account that ten men suffice for com munal prayer; that a minyon is held in the house of a mourner. Externally we must realize that the Moslems and Christians at various times and in numerous places voted restrictive ordi nances regarding the Synagogue, such as: it must be lower than the church or mosque; there may be no synagogue in a populated area because Jews pray loudly; prohibition of building of syn agogues and construction of new syn57

agogues. Of course we must also an illustration: “If one lends a house consider the acute financial problem for use as a synagogue to the com involved in erecting a large structure. munity and he has a quarrel with But all of these difficulties would another member, he may not forbid not have created “apartment syna its use to the man unless he forbids gogues” had there not been a latent it to all others.”-—such a synagogue impression in the Jewish world that was truly private property and the the synagogue performs mundane “owner” might deny an individual functions as well as heavenly ones. the right of attendance. Now the Unfortunately the “secular” functions ownership of synagogues not only ap of the synagogue as Beth Ha-k’nes- plied to small edifices but to large seth, communal center, plus private buildings as well. A man did not have ownership, caused severe encroach to buy an entire shool, there were ment upon the sanctity of the syna ownership rights of blocks of seats, gogue as Beth T’fillah, house of wor of individual seats. The value of the ship. Again let us draw frpm the “property” was determined by the Takkanoth of Rabbenu Gershom for proximity to the Ark.

S Y N A G O G U E ‘'OW NERSHIP"

HE responsa literature is replete with questions — sometimes hu morous, of times tragic—dealing with ownership rights of seats. May a per son build a partition around his pew which could block his neighbor’s view?; what happens if the synagogue seat becomes security on a loan which is subsequently confiscated by a nonJew?; can the synagogue seat be col lected by a woman as a marriage settlement? . i . Under such circum stances how could one hope for a strict Rabbinic code dealing with synagogue sanctity? The fact of the matter is that there are very few sections in the various codes which pertain to the synagogue altogether and only one statement dis cussing personal conduct. An attempt was made by some sages to differen tiate between a private building and a “sacred” synagogue and to decide that the sanctity laws only applied to buildings built as synagogues.

Some communities in Central Europe adopted the compromise of setting aside one communal synagogue as the town’s “little sanctuary,” mikdosh m ’at, subject to the rabbinic laws and of treating other places of worship on a par with secular dwellings. How ever, it must be reiterated that the attitude toward the synagogue based on its diverse functions as a com munal institution was not limited to small structures. Also the ownership aspect applied to large synagogues as well; the rabbinic compromise there fore did not help much. At this point, therefore, we are at grips with an acute problem. The synagogue was meant to perform non-“awe inspiring” functions; the synagogue had owners —this must give rise to irreverence of some degree. Let us pursue this trend further. The independent feeling factor could not be confined to synagogue landlords only, all experienced it. JEWISH LIFE

Since strong Jewish communal control throughout the ages was the pleasant exception to the chaotic rule, the synagogue had to rely upon the benev olence of its individual members for its very existence and support. The benefactors never forgot this: The practical ills that are the prod uct of this are all too well known— disregard, complacency, frivolousness, even sacrilege. And this problem is one that cannot be laid exclusively upon twentieth century shoulders. In the early 17th century a scholar named Rabbi Menachem Lanzano re sided in Jerusalem. Read his descrip tion of a synagogue problem. “In these days children are brought to the syna gogue to inflict punishment upon those who bring them. The child comes to desecrate the sanctity of the house of our Lord and to play as in the city streets. They rise to laugh one With the other. This one plays with that one; this one hits that one; one sings, one cries, one talks, one shouts, one runs hither the other thither.’' And now for a non-Jewish observation: Samuel Pepys in his diary under date of October 14, 1663 records: . . . “But Lord: to see the disorder, the laughing, sporting and no attention, but confusion in all their service. . . .” Let us note, how ever, that the celebrated diarist made his visit on, of all times, the festival of Simchath Torah, when song and dancing are in order and an atmos phere of joyous relaxation prevails. Another non-Jewish impression of a synagogue scene is to be found in the North American Review of 1826 wherein Samuel Gilman of Charleston writes: “As an instance of the little interest which is excited by the imme diate business of the place, we recol lect, that once while we were fixing March-April 1966

our attention on the intonations of ( the chanting priest, a highly respect- ; able elder of the congregation arose i and crossed the area, and taking his seat next to us, began the discussion j of a curious point of Hebrew phrase ology; after which, he entered upon j a much more general conversation, leaving on our minds at last the im- j pression of his being a polite and hospitable entertainer, rather than of ; what we know he really was, a de- j vout fellow worshiper.” Of course we must understand th a t; Samuel Gilman was measuring the synagogue with a Christian yardstick and his concept of house of worship acted as a catalyst for the “indignation suffered” upon observing a Jewish service. When the early Reform move ment began to criticize the Synagogue service the same basic mistake was made-—if it was only a mistake. The yardstick used was the Christian Church. We must not repeat that error in our quest for an improved synagogue. We must understand that in Judaism each individual is actively involved in prayer with his lips, his heart and even his body—“All my bones shall say: ‘Lord who is like You’ ” (Psalms 35:10). What Samuel Pepys saw is fine—strange to the nonJew, but Jewish. Pepys would prob ably have been more amazed at the method of study in a Yeshivah BethMedrash: There is no need for “re form” here, there is but need to educate the Jew as to what exactly prayer, in Jewish terms, should mean to him. He has an ancient heritage and does not have to copy the hushed solemnity found in non-Jewish ob servance. When dealing with our ritual services all we have to do is to insist upon compliance with the Shulchon 59

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Oruch regarding decorum. Everything else can be molded to reflect the indi vidual character of each congregation. E must realize that the syna gogue was always meant to be a religious institution plus. There is no need to criticize the varied func tions and services of the synagogue. But, naturally, we must simply insist that the “plus” be in accordance with the law and spirit of Judaism. These thumb-nail observations are relatively uncomplex. There is however one complex overhauling that must be considered. It is complex because it is psychological, attitudes are involved here. I have attempted to show how

March-April 1966

the competitive nature of congrega tions was born and how the attitude of “ownership” of the synagogue by the individual developed. It was, and is, a natural development. However we must discipline ourselves to loosen the reins. Every good father gives of himself to his child but relinquishes the rights of “ownership” when that child grows up. We may love our institution and consider it even as a family structure but we ought to limit the notions of competitiveness with regard to other, similar institutions. Let’s simply recall that beautiful senti ment found in the plural “How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your habita tions, O Israel.”

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JEWISH LIFE

B o o k R eview s S. D. Luzzatto in Philosophic Garb By REUBEN E. GROSS LUZZATtO’S ETHICO-PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF JUDAISM. Dr. Noah H. Rosenbloom. Yeshiva University Press, New York, 1965, 213 pp. $3.00.

In developing these points Luzzatto briefly alludes to reasons for the various commandments. His style has the time less “pashtuth” (simplicity) and sincerity that is charcteristic of Torah scholars in all centuries and places. There is little N 1865, Sh’muel Dovid Luzzatto of therein that could not have been said Padua, Italy, published his “Yesodey by a Chofetz Chayim, or by a Rashi, Hajtorah,” an essay which he had written or by a Saadia Gaon, or a Hillel. The more than twenty years earlier. In sub entire essay fills a mere fifty pages in stance, this essay sets forth the following a translation by Dr. Noah H. Rosen ideas: bloom, a musmoch and D.H.L. of 1. The religion of Israel was acquired Yeshiva University, M.A. (Columbia), from our Patriarchs, Avrohom, Yitzchok, Ph.D. (New York University) and Pro and Yaakov, in a manner adequate for fessor of Jewish History and Literature at Yeshiva University. It is published in a single family. 2. When Israel became a nation with a a paperback booklet which is seventh land they needed instruction, laws, edu in a series entitled “Studies in Torah cation, and proper guidance for the per Judaism” by the Department of Special fection of virtue, social welfare, and Publications of Yeshiva University. the maintenance of religion. Hence G-d Twenty-six such studies are projected, all with intriguing titles and a philo gave Moses the Torah. sophic bent. A galaxy of prominent in 3. For these objectives, three means tellects such as Dr. Samuel Belkin, Dr. were designed, which are Yesodey Ha- Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Dr. Eliezer Bertorah, (the foundations of Torah)— kovitz, and the editor of the series, Dr. compassion, reward and punishment, and Leon D. Stitskin, grace the list of au the election of Israel. thors, to name only those having more than a single assignment.

R euben E. G ross, an attorney in Staten Is land, i s . active in numerous orthodox Jewish affairs. He serves on the Executive Committee of the UOJCA.

March-April 1966

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JEWISH LIFE

American Orthodoxy the work of a nineteenth-century stalwart who stood up against the tides of “humanism” in an other era, Dr. Rosenbloom and Yeshiva University have performed a signal service. R. ROSENBLOOM has prefaced his able translation with a 150-page study and notes entitled “Luzzatto’s Ethico-Psychological Interpretation of Judaism.” This work gives evidence of painstaking scholarship together with earnest devotion to guiding motif. How ever, like Moliere’s lady who was agree ably surprised to know that she has been speaking prose all her life, Reb Sh’muel Dovid will raise his eyebrows when a copy of the Ethico-Psychological Interpretation reaches the Academy on High and he discovers how highbrow he had been. Dr. Rosenbloom’s fondness for ponderous, hyphenated terminology —such as a posteriori, physico-thelogical argument, socio-ethical and socio-historical explanations, religio-ethnic units, religio-ethnic reasons, empirico-rational do mains, racial-theurigic significance, etc., etc.—however indicative of the writertranslator’s erudition, does not serve well to inform his reader. Dr. Rosenbloom is intent upon peg ging Luzzatto upon the proper branch, stem, and twig of the tree of philos ophers when everything that Luzzatto wrote cries out against philosophy and the philosophers. This study is keyed to an intellectual realm irrelevant to that of the Yesodey Hatorah. The terminol ogy of such a source is incompetent to grasp it, and Dr. Rosenbloom’s discourse does not materially explain it. He takes a simple straightforward Jew and makes a “philosopher” of him, thereby invert ing his true picture. Dr. Rosenbloom builds upon two or three sentences in which Luzzatto point!

March-Apri! 1966

ed out that Abraham, not Moses, is the founder of the Jewish religion, to de velop a three-chapter discourse on Abrahamism versus Mosaism, correlating the former with rational religion and the latter with historic religion. Realizing perhaps that he may have substituted his own thinking for that of Luzzatto, he concludes: It is therefore to be regretted that Luzzatto, who propounded this pro found theory of Abrahamism and Mosesism, left it in its embryonic state. Neither he nor his followers ever elaborated upon it, nor did they in vestigate its possibilities or its inher ent implication. However, in spite of its embryonic nature, the ideas neces sary for reconciliation and harmoni zation of Judaism and natural reli gion are inherent in his theory and evident to everyone. This reviewer cannot find what Dr. Rosenbloom regards as “evident to everyone.” On the other hand Dr. Rosen bloom invokes weighty philosophic au thority—to belabor the obvious. He states: The need for man to excel and his desire for approbation was already discerned by Hobbes, Spinoza, Pascal, Locke, Malebranche, and others. . . . The importance of pride, esteem, and prestige was given recognition in the following century in the works of Shaftesbury, Mandeville, and Hume in England and was echoed by many leading writers of that century in France and by Kant in Germany. All this and footnotes, too! HE responsibility for such a produc tion lies more with the editor than with the author. That it did pass the editorial desk suggests that this depart-

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JEWISH LIFE

ment of YeshiVa University may not be immune to a trend that Dr. Rosenbloom aptly describes in connection with an other era—the early Nineteenth Century. “As a result of this powerful pressure (of a secular society,’1 he states, “un precedented attempts were begun to in terpret Judaism in the terms of the phi losophical categories of the age and in consonance with the demands of the Zeitgeist. . . . Noble as this endeavor was, it collapsed due to the centrifugal

forces set in motion by the impact 01 the Emancipation and the Enlighten ment. To a great extent this failure is also attributable to the negativeness in herent in the psychology of its exponents, their bourgeois aspirations, inferiority complex, and religious antinomianism which made many of them defectors from Judaism rather than its intepreters.” Well said, indeed, but would that the author and editor turned this incisive ray of criticism inward!

Of Yesterday and Today By LIBBY M. KLAPERMAN A TREASURY OF YIDDISH STORIES. Edited by Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg. Drawings by Ben Shahn. 627 pp. New York* Thé Viking Press, $2.25. MODERN JEWISH STORIES. Edited by Gerda Charles» 276 pp. New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, Inc,, $4.95. A NEW interest in Jewish literary jljl creativity in the last decade or so

has made Jewish authors into eminently marketable commodities. Both Gentile and Jew have become exposed to writers ranging from Sholom Aleichem to Isaac Bashevis Singer and Bernard Malamud; Jewish readers themselves have suddenly found it necessary to “bone up” on Jew ish stories and Jewish authors, some of L ibby M. K laperman is noted for writing many stories for Jewish children. She also serves as an Associate Editor of Jewish L ife .

March-April 1966

these heretofore unknown to them. This reviewed interest, for whatever its mo tives, has brought new status to Yiddish writers and to the Jewish story generally, and for this alone we are grateful. Both “A Treasury of Yiddish Stories” and “Modern Jewish Stories” give excel lent samplings of the output of Jewishly authored fiction, old and new. The “Yid dish” collection contains “our tremblings, our burnings, our longings, our hopes, the fantasies we wove with the golden thread from that great spool of the past.” The quotation is taken from a story by Moishe Nadir which is included in the volume, and best describes it. It is in this group of stories that the quality of pure Yiddishkeit is embodied. Many of the tales are like diamonds in the setting of Jewish life and spiritual heritage, for the intense Jewish commitment of the au67

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thors reveal the tremendous impact of tradition on the Yiddish story. There is dialogue here between author and read ing public; one has blossomed from the other and is its immediate product. The Yiddish writer could feel free to use references to Bible and Talmud, to utilize shadings and nuances with the thorough understanding that their read ers would need no footnotes or explana tions. Tevye’s mish-mash of quotations was well appreciated by the average reader of Sholom Aleichem’s day; there was total empathy and identification be tween the author’s material and the read ing public. Today, Tevye may be too recondite for the modern reader. There can only be a glimmering of the feeling that once we were “yodey sefer,” we were a people who could study, and to day’s reader can only feel an apprecia tion that our Yiddish literature is a monument to those days. “A Treasury of Yiddish Stories” con tains over sixty short stories as well as a number of folk tales and proverbs. The book is divided into five parts, each of which is introduced by a handsome draw ing by Ben Shahn. Moreover* there is an excellent monograph on Yiddish lit erature written by the editors as an in troduction to their book, followed by a brief biographical sketch of each author. The volume is appropriately and simply dedicated “To the Six Million,” to an era and a time created by millions of our people, and their way of life lost and gone forever. ANY of the stories are classics so often repeated and so well known that they are almost an integral part of our lives. The characters are old friends —Peretz’s Bontcha Schweig (here called Bontcha the Silent), Sholom Aleichem’s Tevye, the yeshivah bochurim, the gos sips, the young intellectuals, and so on.

March-April 1966

And the villages are the shtetls our songs sing about and our parents and grand parents describe—Kasrilevka, Lashtchever, Menirov, Yachnovker, Podgurna—the very names are evocative and nostalgic. Isaac Metzker starts his story “To the New World” with a description of a shtetl that could be any one of these. At the foot of a high hill in a re mote corner of eastern Galicia, not far from the Russian border, lay the village of Yanowitz. Its tiny mud huts with thatched roofs nestled among orchards and forests of great oaks, which formed a shelter from the wind and the storms. And I. Bashevis Singer in “The Little Shoemakers” describes a home in one of these shtetls: He bought himself a plot of ground on the stubby hill behind the butch er stalls, and there he built a house that remained standing until just the other day. Not that it was in such fine condition—the stone foundation settled, the small windows warped, and the shingled roof turned a moldy green and was hung with swallows’ nests. The door, moreover, sank into the ground, the bannisters became bowlegged, and instead of stepping up onto the threshold, one was obliged to step down . . . the rafters were so rotten that mushrooms grew on them, and when wood dust was needed to staunch the blood of a cir cumcision, one had only to break off a piece of the outer wall and rub it between one’s fingers. The roof, pitched so steeply that the chimney sweep was unable to climb onto it to look after the chimney, was al ways catching fire from the sparks. It was only by the grace of G-d that the house was not overtaken by di saster. 69

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JEWISH LIFE

But it isn’t only as evocative histori cal pieces that these Yiddish stories ex cel. They are, most of them, master pieces of literary technique and crafts manship. “A Page from the Song of Songs” by Sholom Aleichem is a lyrical paean to Jewish childhood; “The Little Shoemakers,” mentioned earlier, is an old favorite of mine, summing up as it does the sadness and loss of an era in Jewish life and development. Nor is the shtetl idealized in every story; there is bitterness and sadness and conflict too, between spiritual and worldly desires. For some of the authors, the small vil lage was not a cradle, but a coffin, and the stories reflect their moods. By and large, however, the collection is warm and intimate, a continuous hymn to a civilization that no longer exists. Chavol al d’avodim v’lo mishkchim—our heart grieves for what is lost but not forgotten. HE COLLECTION of “modern Jew ish” stories edited by Gerda Charles epitomizes the times we live in, just as the previous volume captures an era gone by. Here we have the alienation of the Jewish intellectual-writer from our society, the lack of dialogue and communication between the writer and the Jewish community which he sup posedly interprets, and a non-commit ment to and ignorance of Jewish values that is painful and distressing. The stories reflect the tensions in the mod ern Jewish writer that arise from his very conflict between Jewishness and non-commitment, the conflict of being a jew in a non-Jewish culture. Neverthe less, the tales themselves are significant reading eventhough they are, for the most part, coldly intellectual* rather than

March-April 1966

warmly emotional. They are like wellgroomed, well-coiffed, beautiful manni kins who lack the fire of real life. It seems that the modern Jewish author stands apart from his subject, and does not painfully arise from it; he is a de tached observer rather than an anguished or feeling participant. Gerda Charles has chosen authors that show the universality of the Jew ish writer—American, Russian, South African, Israeli, English—but the stories themselves have the clinical, antiseptic atmosphere of the dissecting room. In terestingly enough, Isaac Bashevis Singer is the only writer who bridges the gap of past and present and is included in both collections, represented in the lat ter with “Gimpel the Fool,” a story that is comic-tragic at the same time but whose social context is minimum. “The Conversion of the Jews” by Philip Roth is included as a modern Jewish story, and its re-reading bolsters my first im pression that this story is not Jewish in feeling or understanding, and while it is most antagonizing, it is still an excel lent exercise in writing. Both these collections are meaningful to have in one’s home. “A Treasury of Yiddish Stories” is a paperback while the edition of “Modern Jewish Stories” is hard-cover; both are very handsome ly composed. Together, they give an ex cellent picture of the Jews we were and the Jews some of us are, the Jewish problems of yesterday and the Jewish problems of the contemporary scene. They are worth reading and re-reading, over and over again, even if only as an opportunity to reflect upon the contrast between them, and what the contrast sig nifies.

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JEWISH LIFE

L e tte r s to th e E d ito r DIALOGUE ON DAVENING — A REJOINDER Queens, N.Y. To the Editor: I read with great interest Bernard Merling’s article “A Dialogue on Davening” in the January /February issue of Jewish Life . The subject matter is a most topical one but I must take issue with a number of items appearing in this article. May I first of all compliment Jewish Life, a magazine published by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congrega tions of America, for printing such an article which extols the virtues of the Shtibel. Would that the tolerance dem onstrated by the adherents of the Syna gogue be reciprocated by the chassidim of the Shtibelach! The title of the article is quite mis leading. Far from being a dialogue, it is a monologue with the “I” serving as a perfect straightman setting up the straw men for the Rebbe to bravely de molish and paper dragons for him gal lantly to destroy. The entire article reads like an apologia skillfully prepared by a good public relations man who was given the task of creating a favorable image for his client and his wares. The author is guilty not only of sins of commission and omission but also has cleverly damned the synagogues and their leadership through implication and innuendo. Let me cite a number of spe cific areas. The writer of the article makes the shtibel appear as the ideal place for a truly sincere Torah Jew to daven in and March-April 1966

in which to bring up his children. It is not only different and unique but all is motivated by a sense of integrity, hon esty, and idealism. The Rebbe is openhearted and concerned for each and every congregant. His piety and sincer ity are unquestioned, his influence great and all that motivates him is a desire to make an honest living while serving the needs of the community. As one who has observed both Rebbe and Shtibel at close hand, I beg to differ. The business angle is deftly waved aside by the argument that the Rabbi of the Shod also involves himself in ob taining members and concerns himself with the financial stability of his Con gregation. What is conveniently over looked is this simple fact: The Rabbi in vests his time and talent, efforts and en ergy in building up his congregation without retaining any equity whatsoever. The Rebbe does likewise—but all that he builds and nurtures is ultimately his in the fullest sense. It does not belong to the community. If and when he chooses to move he will sell his Beth Hamedrosh to the highest bidder. The fruits of the Rabbi’s labor are in the public domain and belong to the tzibbur. The professional ethics of the shtibel’s origin should also be examined. How ethical and moral can an institution be whose foundation is predicated upon raiding of the community synagogues for its initial minyon? I can attest to the fact that the first shtibel in our com munity was created by the rebbe at tending daily services of the leading or thodox synagogue and speaking to men who had davened in this shool for many 73

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decades, convincing them to come to his shtibel. To my knowledge no Jew was taken from the street or his home (i.e. a non-davener) and given a place to pray through the vehicle of the shtibel. Nor, to my knowledge, was he saved from the clutches of the Conservative and Reform and given an opportunity to daven properly in an orthodox minyon which prior to the Rebbe’s arrival was not available. The only ironic retri bution which I have observed is that when the first rebbe prospers and grows, the second and third rebbe do unto him as he has done unto others. Strangely, he does not react to this new develop ment with the same grace that he ex pected from the rabbi who gently chided him for having pirated congregants from the synagogue! The author stresses the advantages of conviviality, warmth, and an informal ,spirit of brotherhood that prevails in the Shtibel and is alas lacking in the “big Shool.” I wonder when the author last davened in a “big Shool” on a Shabboth or Yom Tov morning. In the vast majority of synagogues that I am acquainted with no “uppity ushers” sanc timoniously enforce decorum to the ex tent that the author would have us be lieve. In most synagogues ample oppor tunity is afforded to the congregants to exchange a D’var Torah during the read ing and in general the rule followed by most synagogues is one of flexible en forcement of decorum. I will grant that we are concerned to have a modicum of “derech eretz” in the Synagogue for we feel that it is as important as other aspects of the Din which the shtibel Jew extols and cherishes. We note that a lack of “derech eretz” in the House of Prayer spills over and reflects itself in an equal lack of “derech eretz” outside the shool, especially in relationship to one’s peers and even to teachers and Marcfi-April 1966

rabbis. To imply that in the Synagogue one cannot give expression to his emo tions is as false as giving the impression that all congregants in a shtibel daven with such great “hithlahavuth”! One is as incorrect as the other. To equate a dignified service with a cold, unfeeling service and to equate “derech eretz” with lack of warmth and liveli ness is to reveal one’s sad ignorance of what the contemporary orthodox Syna gogue presents in today’s world in many communities—thank G-d. It is shocking to read that a rebbe would dare speak with such contempt of certain communal functions and endeav ors which are conducted strictly in ac cordance with the Shulchon Oruch. He may have his own Shulchon Oruch, to which he is entitled, but he should not use his as the yardstick and index of correct behavior on the part of the community. Above all it is presumptuous and dangerous for any one to question the standards of a Vaad Hakashruth which is organized and administered by rabbonim and laymen who are, beyond question, completely dedicated to a To rah way of life—as is true of the com munity in which the author of the arti cle resides. The argument presented that the rai son d’etre of the Rebbe’s presence is to demonstrate how different and unique one can be is a specious one. To use him as a “living history lesson” for one’s children is a fallacious one. The great est challenge confronting us today is in deed to be different and unique in our behavior and conduct as well as in our standards and values. This ability to live our lives courageously as Torah Jews in an alien environment is not, however, expressed through our mode of garb but rather through our very being and be havior in spite of the fact that we dress as others, speak as others,, and 75

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mingle with others. To me it would seem that the test, the “nisoyon,” is far great er and more difficult when one is unique in his conduct as an orthodox Jew while not isolating himself from the world. It also should be stressed that in the To rah scale of values there are many, many mitzvoth that are far more im portant than the shtreimel and zhibitzeh. We do not for one moment look with disdain or disfavor upon those who choose to continue the attire of eastern Europe of old. What we do reject vigor ously is that one’s piety and degree of sincerity can be measured by this visi ble outer appearance. Experience has taught us that success has been ours where the basic principles and teachings of Torah have been adhered to in var ious cultures and environments in spite of adapting to the exteriors of that en vironment. It is precisely this lesson that the orthodox Rabbi and layman pre sent, indeed, as a “living history lesson.” Let us face facts. That which is called Chassidic Judaism, or that whose exter nal trappings passes for Chassidic Juda ism, is in no way superior to or frumer than the pattern of those who follow strictly the laws of Torah, utilizing pres ent-day vehicles and means. In the final analysis the vibrancy and growth of Or thodoxy in this country, including the greatest support for Torah institutions, has come from the orthodox synagogues and Rabbinate. It is they who have cre ated a climate of relevancy and respon sibility as opposed to an attitude of pompous piety which often has neither grace or quality and certainly very lit tle influence and inspiration. The author would have done well, if this were truly a dialogue, to have re vealed some of the true motivations of shtibel congregants in bypassing the com munity synagogue in favor of the shti bel. For the average person it is or iniMarch-April 1966

dally seems simply more economical. Without doubt, there are greater oppor tunities for honors— omud and aliyah— and above all a certain degree of laxity which so many of us have a yen for and a minimum of discipline for which we Jews all have an antipathy. There is no question that in a shtibel one is not in danger of being a little fish in a big pond and that the demands of leader ship there are far less taxing—in both senses of the word. Those attending their community shool are participating in an exciting adventure of strengthening Torah and the Jewish people. Those who live in communities that are not blessed with a shtibel need feel no sense of depriva tion, for, as has been said of New York, “it’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t like to live there!” (The Editor has deemed it best to with hold the writer’s name. This letter is typical of many comments received about Mr. Merling’s stimulating article.)

UNCREDITED BORROWINGS New York, N.Y. One cannot help but agree with Rabbi Zimmerman’s evaluation of “Giants of Faith” in your September/October issue. Lumping Gedoley Torah together with those who subverted Torah makes even the word lehavdil seem inadequate. We normally use this word to differentiate between two terms which have some thing in common but are otherwise poles apart. The men Goldman describes as “great American rabbis” can hardly be spoken of in the same breath. Yet your reviewer is in error when he discusses the portrait of Reb Aaron Kotler and writes “The short sketch of this great man* written with deep kovod and great understanding* would seem to 77

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JEWISH LIFE

show that while the pens of American Orthodoxy were stilled in the period of mourning for Reb Aaron—‘another has preceded us in mercy’.” In my own read ing of this chapter of the book of the passages gave off a familiar ring. It was not until I examined the bibliography that I took note that most of the maerial was borrowed from articles which appeared in Young Israel Viewpoint and Dos Yiddishe Vort. Orthodoxy suffered a horrible wound when Reb Aaron left us but “the pens of Orthodoxy” few as they are, were not stilled. Goldman, most of all, was aware of this, and might have done better than simply list ing his sources under the vague classifi cation of bibliography. Your reviewer points out “certain fac tual errors and omissions”—he neglects the most serious omission, an almost to tal lack of original scholarship. Like many of the non-books which flood the market today, “Giants of Faith” mani fests greater skill with the scissors than with the pen—or the mind. (Rabbi) Yaakov Jacobs

CORRECTION New York, N.Y. A regrettable error appeared in my article “East Side Chronicle,” which ap peared in the last issue of J e w is h L i f e . I mentioned that what seemed to be common knowledge among Jewish oldtimers, that annual Yom Kippur Balls were -held in the Forward Building. Mr. Adolph Held, manager of the Jewish Daily Forward, informs me that there is no basis in fact to that oft-heard rumor. After a personal search of newspapers of that day, I found no evidence what ever to justify the accusations. On the March«April 1966

contrary, the Forward editorial policy, even at that time, was to ridicule those who went out of their way to attack re ligious practices. According to Mr. Held, the Yom Kippur Balls and the picket ing of synagogues was the work of those who fought the Forward and the Social ists as well as religion and the religious. I sincerely regret the error. Mr. Saul Abramson, whose name ap pears in the article, informs me that he retired a few years ago from the business he had conducted at No. 19 (not 18) Orchard Street and now is associated with the National Council of Young Is rael in an executive capacity. “To err is human.” Please forgive. David Stein

BOUQUET Toronto, Ont. I “discovered” J e w is h L if e only re cently, and I want to thank you very much for the literary merits of your magazine. I found the January-February issue so interesting that I wish to order twenty more copies to be sent to friends. My special compliments on Jacob Beller’s article on the Jews of Morocco. N. Nesry

HAVE YOU MOVED? Send us your new address and your old address clipped from your Jewish L ife envelope. 79

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Promise for the Future

There are more people, more things to read, to do, to buy, more records to be kept than ever before in history. Today, scientists gather more infor mation on the atmosphere of Mars in one pass of a rocket probe than was gathered in all the preceding centuries. Oceanographers mapping the ocean floor take up to 930,000 depth soundings every week. Each day, a half-million figures on tempera ture, humidity and wind velocity pour into the Washington office of the U. S. Weather Bureau. Numbers by themselves are useless. To become meaningful, they must be analyzed and interpreted, often by mathematical equations. Solving such equations manually could take mathe maticians several years. But man has developed a machine to help him understand his discoveries. It can count and store millions of items of information. It can sort and compare data. It can solve complex mathematical equations. It is, of course, the electronic computer. People in hundreds of fields have

found new ways to apply the com puter. Municipal governments use computers for crime detection. Farm ers using computers to analyze the feed and characteristics of their dairy herds have increased milk production by 50%. In studies of the nervous system, biologists have used computers to analyze the reactions of a fly to light. Scholars studied the positions of Stonehenge’s great arches and formed a new theory about their purpose, after computing the course of the sun and moon 3,500 years ago. And the startling progress made in space exploration would hardly have been possible without computers. Today, men are at work on new ideas for using the computer in education, in medicine, literature, science, in more and more areas of business, industry and government. What is a computer ? Simply a ma chine, but a machine with infinite promise for the future, a future that will be fulfilled by the ingenuity and imagination of man.

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We make this annual statement to clear up any misunderstanding that may arise as a result of our advertising of (0) Varieties in this publication during the rest of the year. j z_

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