Jewish Life July-Aug 1967

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AY-ELUL 5727 JULY-AUGUST 1967

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Vol. XXXIV, No. 6/July-August 1967/Av-Elul 5727

?rn THE EDITOR’S VIEW

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S aul B ernstein , Editor

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

Editorial Associates D vora M inder

Editorial Assistant JEWISH LIFE is published bi-monthly. Subscription two years $4.50, three years $6.00, four years $7.50, Foreign: Add 40 cents per year.

Editorial and Publication Office: 84 Fifth Avenue New York 10011, N. Y. ALgonquin 5-4100

THE MIRACLE OF ISRAELI REALISM/ Michael R osenak.. . . . . . ..........................................

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DAYS OF TRIAL, TRIUMPH, AND AWE/ Ralph P elp o vitz.. . . . . ................................................. 14 ORTHODOXY’S FORGOTTEN SOLDIERS/ Yehuda Sorscher.............................................

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“CLASH OF LIFE-STYLES” /Joseph G ru n b la tt.. . . . 26 THREADING THE NEEDLE OF JEWISH LAW/ Berel W ein ...................................................

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THE GAP AND THE REVOLUTION/Elkanah Schwartz 40

Published by U nio n of Orthodox J ewish C ongregations of A merica

BOOK REVIEWS IN SEARCH OF SELF/Esther Offenbacher............. 53

J oseph K arasick

President

A TASTE FROM THE BARREL/Maurice L a m m .... 57

H arold M. J acobs

Chairman of the Board B e n ja m in K o e n ig s b e f g , Nathan K. Gross, David Politi, Dr. Bernard Lander, Harold H. Boxer, Vice Presi­ d e n t s ; M o r r is L. G reen , Treasurer; Dr. A. Abba Walker, Secretary; Michael Kaufman, Financial Secretary.

Dr. Samson R. Weiss Executive Vice President

DEPARTMENTS AMONG OUR C O N T R I B U T O R S - ¿ ¿ V ................

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

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Saul Bernstein, Administrator Second Class Postage paid at New York, N. Y.

July-A ugust 1967

Cover and Inside Drawings by David Adler © Copyright 1967 by UNION OF ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA

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MICHAEL ROSENAK experienced at first hand the mili­ tary build-up and finally the short-lived war in Israel in early June. Mr. Rosenak, who received a B.A. degree from Yeshiva College and a Masters degree in history from Columbia University, settled in Israel several years ago.

He has been teaching at the Midrashiya (religious high school) in Pardes Chanah and at the Machon L’madrichey Chutz L’Aretz—a leadership-study program for Diaspora youth.

RABBI RALPH PELCOVITZ looks in retrospect to American Jewry’s response to the world-shaking events of the Middle East crisis in early June in his “Days of Trial, Triumph and Awe. . . . ” A frequent contributor to J e w i s h L i f e , Rabbi Pelcovitz- is Rav of Congregation Knesseth Israel in Far Rockaway, New York, and past president o f ’the Rabbinical Alliance of America.

DR. YEHUDA SORSCHER, who recently served two years as captain in the U.S. Dental Corps, observed at first hand the religious needs of servicemen and how they are being met by Jewish army chaplains. A graduate of Yeshiva Col­ lege and the New York University College of Dentistry, Dr. Sorscher now has his own practice in New York City!

contributors our among The newly appointed spiritual leader of the Queens Jewish

Center in Forest Hills, N.Y., RABBI JOSEPH GRUNBLATT previously served as rabbi of a Montreal congre­ gation. He was ordained at Mesifta Torah Vodaath and received a B.A. degree (magna cum laude) from City Col­ lege. He has also done graduate work at the New School for Social Research and McGill University.

Having served as an attorney for ten years prior to enter­ ing the practicing rabbinate, RABBI BEREL WEIN is well equipped to treat of his topic in this issue—the key difference between the essentials of Jewish law, rooted in Divine faith, and those of other legal systems. Rabbi Wein received Semichah at the Hebrew Theological College, Chicago, and is now the Rav of Beth Israel Congregation in Miami Beach. Our readers will recall his previous article “Ecumenicism and Dialogue— 1263 C.E.” (J e w i s h L i f e , Mar./Apr. ’67).

ELK AN AH SCHWARTZ rejoins our list of contributors.

His first book pf short stories, “American Life: Shtetl Style,’’¿is ta be published in the fall.

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JEWISH LIFE

THE EDITOR'S VIEW

We Heard The Voice k FTER having experienced those six wondrous days of 26 Iyyar-2 Sivan, no conscious Jew of this generation will ever be quite the same again.

The unbelievable happened, and as the days and weeks pass, we learn to live with the reality of it. Life assumes its accus­ tomed hue and pattern, our inner selves return to their prior dimensions. Yet there remains, imprinted on our very souls, a transcendence that will be part of us always.

A Voice addressed us. The message came not in words but in events—events which swept aside human might and power.

In an instant, what had been, ceased to be, what had not been, now was. We, and all the world, beheld this. We, but not all the world, heard the Voice that thus spoke.

Why we, why not all the world? Why, in that flashing mo­ ment of triumph as in yesteryear’s long-drawn agony of travail, are we thus reminded of our Am Segulah vocation? The why, W hy W e? insofar as mortal beings are privileged to know it, was revealed ages ago: “And in you shall all the families of mankind be blessed.” ' From each of us, when the starkness of Israel’s danger emerged, there sprang a response, such a one as our genera­ tion might have been deemed incapable of rendering. And from the hearts of each and all, when the great wonder was vouch­ safed to us, there came forth a further response, one which, for that moment, at least, shook us free from the bonds of a sick era. For that moment, at least, the Jew found himself.

T HAS been said that Jewry of this generation must be en­ dowed with special Zechuth to have been found worthy to witness the miracle of Divine intercession which was vouch-

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safed to us. It were better that we recognize in what has trans­ pired not a merit we have earned but a merit we have inherited, that of Zechuth Ovoth. And best of all would it be for us to perceive, with humbled heart and illumined mind, that because of the merits of our,.Fathers we have been granted the oppor­ tunity to become worthy of Divine aid and blessing.

In the world of political affairs and international power con­ test, great trials face Medinath Israel and the whole Jewish Twofold people. For long to come, those whose evil designs have been Test so crashingly thwarted will strive unceasingly, with every means at their disposal, to nullify their defeat. In meeting these trials, Jewry in Israel and throughout the world will be under most rigorous strain. But at the same time we face another test. The Jewish soul is at stake.

The moment of rediscovery of the Jewish self was also the moment of rediscovery of Jewish brotherhood. We found each other in finding our G-d. Habituated attitudes evaporated. Bar­ riers between Jew and Jew melted away. Let them not, in re­ turn to supposed normalcy, be re-erected.

To the Jew who knows that all that is truly Jewish is encom­ passed in fealty to Torah and Mitzvoth, there can be no mis­ taking the mission of today. As never before for generations past, his is the opportunity and the duty to reach out to his brethren with a love and an understanding—and with a fresh­ ened imagination—that will penetrate questing minds and un­ certain hearts. This is, in every sense, a new day for the Jew. In it lie wide vistas of both Israeli security and Jewish rebirth.

May the Ribbono shel Olom inspire in all of us the strength to meet the twofold test and fulfill it.

-----S. B.

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JEWISH LIFE

The Miracle of Israeli Realism; Notes on the Six-Day-W ar

By MICHAEL ROSENAK

JERUSALEM INCE the war of Iyyar 5727/June S 1967 ended, each of us has been asking himself when he became cer­ tain that the war would be won. When exactly was that moment of truth, of shattering relief, when we first were prepared to state with the detachment of absolute confidence that the shrill threats to throw us all into the sea were nothing but the same familiar Arab hyperbole after all?

Now it all seems so obvious, so self-understood that everything would turn out all right, just as it has, more or less, for nineteen years—muddled, problematic, but all right. Now it ap­ pears to be the most natural thing in the world to daven Minchah at the Western Wall, under the watchful eyes of our soldiers, in our capital city, the City of David; to discuss the exotic beauties of Jericho or the ad­ ministrative headaches of Gaza—or to smile, though quite without con­ descension, at predictions concerning the rebuilding of the Temple and calJuly-A ugust 1967

culations on the advent of the Mes­ sianic era. But, we now ask ourselves, when was the exact moment in this war when we really knew it would be this way?

Actually, even at the very worst moments, when the roads to the south were clogged with military vehicles taking up their positions at the Sinai frontier in hostile heat, when young men (and those not so young) dis­ appeared mysteriously from the streets and sandbags piled up grotes­ quely at the entrances of homes and schools, even then we didn’t believe for an instant that Israel would be wiped off the map.

RUE, there were some bad hours.

When U Thant withdrew his T forces without so much as consulting with Israel, we tasted the bitter pill that lurks behind the sugar-coating of professed ideals among the nations of the world. When we noticed that firstaid teachers, in their hastily assembled classes, were veering carefully away from the poison gas that was on every5

one’s mind, we were hard put to avoid an uneasiness of mind. When groups of Jews between Minchah and Maariv whispered rumored casualty estimates (the number of fifteen thou­ sand cropped up with alarming fre­ quency) we were sad, worried, angry.

But of terror there was none. We sat in our homes or leaned across the counters of kiosks to devour every news broadcast, hoping that Johnson would really do something to open the Straits of Tiran for us (without ever really believing he would!); hop­ ing that Abba Eban was elegantly prying open the hardened heart of De Gaulle (though we couldn’t under­ stand how his heart had become so hard). But, expecting the worst, we never conceived the worst to be our extinction. Or, to be more exact, we knew that the destruction of Israel was eminently possible, that the Arabs were many while we were few, that they had the ungrudging support of a Great Power while we did not; that the hate surrounding us loomed like some ominous Wall of China and that our geo-political position was absurd.

And, so, quite absurdly, we drew the conclusion that we would have to win.

And most of the time, most of us be­ lieved that!

This Kierkegaardian paradox (or is it Maccabean?) is part and parcel of a thought pattern at which Israelis are experts, indeed, the world champions.

It is just one thread on the multi­ colored loom of paradoxical certain­ ties set on a background of a hardly perceived harmony. By thinking in the way that he does, every Israeli knows that war is something to be somewhat ashamed of, even while the army is an institution to be supremely proud of. By the same token, we are in­ ordinately enchanted by military 6

heroes and naively enthusiastic about the likes of Abie Nathan who flew to Egypt not long ago “to make peace with Nasser.” Among us, too, pacifists fight like lions and militarists share their drinking water with Egyptian prisoners of war. Perhaps it also ex­ plains why we know the schism be­ tween religious and non-religious Jews to be of ultimate significance, even while we realize that, in certain crit­ ical hours, that difference means noth­ ing at all.

But the faith in victory and survival (for us, the two are synonymous) is a subjective stance. The moment when we could be certain, objectively, dif­ fered for each one of us.

HERE were some, alas, who per­ haps never completed the journey from faith to the accomplished fact, though their faith gave birth to the fact. Those, that is, who fell during the first hours of the campaign, the men who constituted the first units of death’s grim statistic. Seven hundred young men seems a modest price for the life of our state. But only until one recalls that it was for the sake of each of them that the world was created. Perhaps a people that has lost six million of its sons in the Holo­ caust might even be expected to cele­ brate such modest losses—but our people is not like that. Dr. Ezriel Carlebach, writing in Maariv at the outset of the War of Independence in 1948, stated bluntly that, in the forth­ coming struggle, awesome sacrifices were to be expected. But, (he wrote) there was comfort in the fact that, at worst, as many Jews might die as on one day in Auschwitz! Carlebach’s words were eagerly read and repeated —then, almost twenty years ago. But they were powerless to comfort par-

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JEWISH LIFE

ents and friends then, and they give scant solace now. How natural for the Jewish people, for whom every death diminishes the Divine image in the world, to officially mourn its fallen sons two days after the cessation of hostilities. How in character that, in the wake of this most tremendous of victories, no serious thought has been given yet to “victory celebrations.”

For those who lived, the sigh of relief (concealed, almost embarrassed, since, after all, we had “known” all the time) came no later than Monday afternoon. Then, the unbelievable ex­ ploits of our air force were becoming common knowledge. The K’nesseth was in session then, heroic amidst the tumult of bursting shells, serene in the knowledge that the outcome was fairly certain. In every shelter, indeed, in every tank, transistors were tuned to the hourly news and to the out­ standing commentary of Aluf Chaim Herzog, who analyzed the events with precision and humour. Civil Defense workers, dashing from house to house in the early evening hours, as the beautiful violet sunset of the city of peace was violated by the red flares of violence and unbridled hate, grinned broadly as they reported what they had heard here and there. “It’s going very well,” one helmeted milk­ man of greyish visage said to those in one of “his” shelters, “We’re moving into Sinai. Not a single bomb in Tel Aviv. The radio hasn’t said anything yet. The U.N., you know.” By late evening, variations on this theme were being repeated in every shelter, every home, and on every front. “You’ve heard? The news is good. Very good.

Better progress in the south than dur­ ing the Sinai campaign. But they’re not saying it yet. The U.N. isn’t sup­ posed to hear about it.” This in a July-A ugust 1967

bitterly humorous vein, contemptuous, only mildly tolerant. Israel has had much experience with the United Na­ tions, whose obsession with peace in the Middle East grows apace with Jewish victories. Shades of Rome!

UT ACTUALLY, one could have known how it would end long be­ B fore that Monday evening, long be­ fore that Tuesday noon when we knew that our forces were approaching the gates of the old sector of the Holy City with, as Commentator Chaim Herzog dramatically expressed it, “the Lord of the hosts of Israel leading them.” Many of the newspaper cor­ respondents who began to arrive en masse two weeks before the outbreak of hostilities, men of little faith and much cynicism, sensed soon after they set foot in Jewish Jerusalem that Is­ rael would win this war. The city was too quiet to suggest impending catas­ trophe. The business life was too or­ derly, the concerts too well attended, the radio programs too routine. “You people don’t scare easily,” one corre­ spondent said over Kol Yisroel. Vexa­ tion vied with admiration in his words. There were no bread riots to report, no panic squads. The war writers found that there wasn’t really enough “interesting” material to write about while they waited for the vio­ lence which is the main fare of their ghoulish trade.

True, they could interview pilots and infantry officers at their posts, but it was all somehow too cool to satiate their readers’ appetites, too business­ like, too touchingly tame. “Where is the bar around here? Where do you fellows drink?” one reporter asked at an air force base. He was given a glass of orange juice. “Don’t you think the Eygptians will use non-conven7

tional weapons?” another asked Moshe Dayan at a press conference. “They can try,” Dayan answered dryly, leav­ ing the reporter to wonder how to build a story out of that. They could (and did) go down to the Negev to see the Israeli army preparing for its engagement, but the army they found there had few of the dustily cussing qualities that they had come to cover.

What they found in the southern de­ serts and on the northern borders were self-confident boys who seldom bragged and middle-aged accountants too bourgeois for headline-making bravado. The men polished their weapons, went on maneuvers, played football. In the evenings, there were kumsitzin with guest entertainers from Tel Aviv or Jerusalem who sang hit songs—or played classical selections.

The impression was one of a great number of men who would rather be elsewhere; of citizens performing some civic duty, unpleasant, dreary, neces­ sary, but only remotely fatal. After two weeks of that, most of the news­ papermen knew. Some of them even went back home. Prematurely, of course.

There were also many others who knew for certain, before a shot was fired. Mr. K., the reception official at the Jerusalem draft board, for ex­ ample. Throughout the weeks before June 5th, that gentleman was in high spirits. Hundreds of seventeen-yearolds and foreign volunteers streamed into his office day after day. They all wanted to be called up without de­ lay. They had already given blood, volunteered at hospitals, offered to de­ liver the mail. The volunteer market was glutted. They demanded to be in­ ducted. “Nasser should see what’s go­ ing on here these days,” he said hap­ pily. “Kids who aren’t scheduled to go 8

in for half a year are pestering me to process them into the army. As though we had time to put them through basic training now.” He chuckled. Someone mentioned to Mr. K. that, according to the London papers, Egyptian re­ servists had been pulled out of their homes by armed police, while many Israeli reservists had reported to their units long before the call reached them. “I know, I’ve heard about that,” Mr. K. grinned. He bit with gusto into a Danish. “That’s why we’re go­ ing to win and they áre going to lose.

Right?”

There was no one on hand inclined to argue with him. *

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H PH E FAITH that precedes and A creates the fact, the entire Kierkegaardian certainty with regard to the absurd, is a function of living in the land of Israel.* Diaspora Jews rarely have it, unless they have ab­ sorbed it during years of sojourn in the country. This is not said in criti­ cism of our Jewish brethren abroad, who came through magnificently dur­ ing the crisis, thereby demolishing many oft-repeated claims that the Jew­ ish people has already entered upon the last throes of spiritual extinction.

But the fact remains. For those born and bred in Goluth, Israel is usually a marvelous experiment, an exhilarating Jewish experience—but experiments, in the very nature of things, may fail and experiences are fleeting. Only sabras and the genuine old-timers (those who came to Israel decades ago, from Russia, from Po­ land, from lands of no return) are endowed with the ability to view Is­ rael as the Frenchman views France; only they truly see it as a fact of life, JEWISH LIFE

as natural as the Mediterranean Sea. The latter characteristic was evident in the calm of General Rabin’s voice as he chatted with reserve units day after nerve-wracking day, in the in­ sistence of ordinary soldiers that “this time we won’t retreat without getting peace out of it.” All this while Time magazine was calculating who would win. As for the former, I saw it at Lod airport a week before June 5th.

“Tourists rush to leave Israel,” the in­ ternational edition of the Herald Tri­ bune captioned it. A few of those at Lod, lining up to leave the country, were not tourists; but many of them were survivors of the Holocaust. They cannot be blamed for fleeing the spectre of massacre. Nevertheless, they will find it difficult to return.

However, even those Western Jews who did not leave, and they are the vast majority, had a faith subtly dif­ ferent from that of the sabras. “It will just have to work out,” they would say. “And if it doesn’t, well, we’re better off dead without Israel.”

It is a beautiful sentiment, but the sabra would have left out the last sentence. The idea that it might not “work out” never occurred to him. His only qualm was whether he would conduct himself honorably in helping to achieve the inevitable. In Israel, as has often been said, the realists are those who believe in miracles. *

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A week before the war, Mrs. R. of Jerusalem received a letter from a relative in England. He was not, he wrote, a man of means, but he con­ sidered it his duty to “take in” at least one child from Israel. Would Mrs. R. please let him know “which agency is handling refugee children” so that he July-A ugust 1967

could make the necessary arrange­ ments? Mrs. R., a recent arrival in Israel, made inquiries, but, of course, there was no such agency. And most of the people with whom Mrs. R. con­ sulted were indignant at the offer. The indignation was unfair, for the En­ glish Jew was motivated by compas­ sion. But the indignation was healthy and the compassion seemed somehow heretical. Such is the nature of Goluth and such the redemptive quality of the Land over which “the Lord thy G-d guards .. . from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.” *

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EING an “Anglo-Saxon” Jew, too long in Israel to think of leaving, B too atypical to consider extermination unthinkable, the moment when I knew came relatively late. To be exact, at noon on June 5th.

I had arrived at Kibbutz Y. in the Emek Yizre’el that morning, to visit with a group of foreign students who were working there, standing in for members who had been called up. The students and I had spent most of the morning comfortably crowded in one of the rooms where, between consul­ tations about how to “handle” this mother’s telegram and that father’s phone call (none of them wanted to go home), we listened to the radio.

Or more correctly, we sat absorbing the weird signals, the code names of reserve units, and the military band music.

Later, after having eaten lunch in the small kosher dining-room of the kibbutz (the so-called “parents’ kitch­ en”) I strolled back to the lawns in front of the main Chadar Ochel to take my leave of the students. And there I ran across M., the principal 9

of the kibbutz school. I had known M. years before, in Jerusalem, when we had shared a table at a Jewish Agency hostel. He had been taking a leadership course for sh’lichim and I was a newcomer.

M. is an unusual man, a personality rare enough to constitute an event, but common enough in Israel to make the Kibbutz movement more than an eco­ nomic or social experiment. Though not an observant Jew, he persists in the spiritual stance of his forefathers, viewing the ceaseless quest for what G-d demands of a man as the only purpose of an authentically lived life.

A serenity shines from his face that has nothing in common with com­ placency; his eyes manage to be both certain and questioning.

I was pleased to meet him again, and in our greeting, the war receded.

We had often, in our Jerusalem days together, discussed diverse matters, especially religion and education, and I had found him to be open to ideas to an extraordinary degree; he was charged with moral excitement. M. is a man who, as Martin Buber might have expressed it, is genuinely at home in the life of dialogue.

We talked for a while, simply ex­ changing pleasantries, and then he said: “If you have half an hour free before you go home, perhaps you’ll come up to my school, up there on the hill, and we’ll have a cup of coffee.”

The hill on which his school stood dominated the entire area, and he looked up at it fondly, filled with the pride of possession. “The defense of that hill happens to be my respon­ sibility, you know.” He looked - as though he meant to defend it. At that moment, 12:15 on June 5, 1967, there was no immediate danger to the hill.

At 1:15, the situation might have 10

changed, but right now he could drink coffee and discuss the things that ex­ cited him. At that moment I realized that there had never really been any question about that hill’s safety. Or Israel’s. Men like that don’t waste theif lives, providers like that don’t leave their families to starve, defend­ ers like that don’t lose. There were many men like M. in Israel. Most of them, incidentally, were officers. Some of them, alas, were going to die. But I was certain, absolutely certain now, that they were going to win. *

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O SAY that we have witnessed T great miracles in these past weeks is already cliched, but cliches are often the tribute paid to an over­ whelming truth by those who insist on articulating the inexpressible. Now, while Israel deliberates its \ new poten­ tialities and problems, it is clear even to the uncommitted and the openly hostile that something unheard of has happened here. Even those who make much ado about their disdain for “clericalism” grudgingly admit that the Israeli Rabbinate came closer to prophecy than polemics when it as­ sured us, in its public messages before the war, that “we shall see miracles here as great as in the days of our deliverance from Egypt.” The wonders we have experienced bring to life the words of psalm and prayer that we recite daily, and seem to have been written in our time and for our time.

Their overpowering relevance almost deprives us of the capacity to speak the words which we had often recited by rote; their immediacy, since these nights of whistling shells, leaves one with a choking sensation that invites tears but inhibits speech. “Who shall JEWISH LIFE

relate the wonders of the Lord?”

Hardly those who have seen His mighty deeds. For them, every state­ ment is an understatement or, post facto, an embarrassment.

Franz Rosenzweig once observed that every miracle can be explained naturally after the event—not because the miracle is no miracle, but because the explanation is an explanation. In the perspective of time and leisurely thought, one can readily discover causal relationships that lend them­ selves to analysis. Being thus prone to analysis, we continually expand our information and diminish our wonder. But, as long as we remain under the immediate influence of G-d’s wonders, we can take a two­ fold risk in describing the inspired deeds of men. On the one hand, we invite the scorn of those who have developed a healthy disrespect for high-flown phrases; on the other, we call down upon us the censure of those who cherish miracles for their ineffability. I prefer not to take those risks and to leave the analysis to those political and military writers whose legitimate business it is to analyze, those for whom the word ‘‘miracle” is either journalese or “poetic.” ❖

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"jVTEVERTHELESS, it requires an 1 1 extraordinary dogmatism to deny that a miracle has indeed occurred.

Perhaps it might be said that mere chance made Nasser bow to Syrian pressure and move his troops into Sinai, though he knew that he was far from ready for a war with Israel.

But was it also accidental that U Thant inexplicibly complied with Nasser’s patently insincere demand to withdraw the United Nations force, July-A ugust 1967

the force that had supplied him with an alibi for leaving the Straits of Tiran open to Israeli shipping? Perhaps it will be adequately explained in stillto-be-written diplomatic histories why the United States failed to honor its solemn obligations to Israel ener­ getically. It may be that the Israeli Government was simply “muddling through,” timidly, when it resolved to delay military measures in order to give diplomacy a chance, thus this, of course, convinced King Hussein that Israel was too weak to challenge Egypt, leading him to con­ clude a defense treaty with Nasser that, in a very few days, brought us to Yerusholayim, to the old city and the Temple Mount. Perhaps it was a stroke of luck that there was a gap in the Egyptian radar defenses, and yet another fortunate accident that Is­ raeli intelligence discovered it, so that the air force could exploit it so dazzingly. i t may be argued that the procrastination of the Russians in demanding a cease-fire at the U.N. (at the insistence of misinformed Arab diplomats) was a simple diplomatic blunder, that later forced them to agree to a cease-fire resolution that was fantastically favorable to Israel.

And some might consider it plausible to say that the Jordanians left cer­ tain nigh-impregnable positions, as did the Egyptians in Sinai, because of a predictable psychological quirk. It may be so, of course. It is remotely conceivable that this chain of events just happened. Those with reasonably open minds, however, would prefer another explanation and sing “Dayenu.”

A Bible teacher in one of Jerusa­ lem’s Teacher Seminaries was dis­ cussing the war with some colleagues during a coffee break a few days after II

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Jews from what appeared to be fatal indifference, led them through the crucible of trepidation, and brought them into the sure harbor of their people’s pride and triumph.

To the State of Israel, He has given Hretz Yisroel, and to its weeping sanc­ tuaries, His sons. Whoever has not seen the hundreds of thousands streaming to the Kothel Ma’arovi, the Western Wall, on the morning of Shovuoth, mere days after the nations were set to erect fresh monuments to our suffering, has never seen true joy in all his days.

“The salvation of the Lord comes in the twinkling of an eye.” How else to describe the successes of our de­ fense forces and the new perspectives they have given us? For the stunning victory on the battlefields has not only enlarged our territories and enhanced our security, but it has given us, with startling suddenness, new eyes with which to look at ourselves, at our abilities and at our tasks.

There is scarcely an ideology in post-war Israel that has been unaf­ fected by these last weeks; there are many that face critical challenges, and there are some that have simply be­ come irrelevant. It is surely sympto­ matic of revolutionary changes to come that, on the Friday after the conclusion of hostilities, Israel’s Rab­ binate was requested to immediately supply two thousand pairs of tephillin to soldiers in the field. It is certainly worth mentioning that, on the follow­ ing Shabboth, Hallel was recited in almost every synagogue without be­ ing blemished by the eternal argument (that has always plagued reciters of the Hallel on Yom Ha-Atzmauth) whether the Hallel should be intro­ duced by a berochah with Shem u’malchuth.

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JEWISH LIFE

the war ended. He made a moving confession. “These past days,” he said, “I have been having terrible pangs of conscience. Though I afn a traditional Jew and teach Tanach accordingly, I have often found myself innerly apol­ ogetic about the Biblical stories. You all know what I mean—the deliver­ ances, the signs, the miraculous events.

Too pat, too flashing, it seemed to me.

Things don’t happen that way—not even under G-d’s heaven. Now I re­ alize that the Bible is a magnificent understatement. Had I read the story of this campaign in the Bible . . . I am ashamed . . . ” His listeners nodded in empathy and agreement. They looked into their coffee cups, sharing a moment of collective guilt. *

*

*

F we leave the miracle shrouded in awe for the moment, realizing that detailed description will distort it and may destroy it, we may still mention some of the obvious con­ sequences of the miracle. These results are open to public scrutiny, and they will appear in the same objective light to believers and skeptics alike. The question, What is G-d doing?” is a silent and intimate one, ringing true in the heart of the believer, but emerg­ ing as a triviality when spoken by the agnostic. On the other hand, “What hath G-d wrought?” is a less elusive matter. It may be legitimately applied to the invention of the telephone as to the Exodus from Egypt, simply bespeaking man’s amazement at great events.

What, then, hath G-d wrought? He has brought the broad ranks of the Jewish people from deep anxiety to heartfelt thanksgiving and joy. He has redeemed a substantial minority of

UT these are merely symptoms, extreme right, there are tremendous and the real revolution is still opportunities, provided we can divest B ahead, its platforms just beginning to ourselves of conventional ideological congeal. For example, which member of Hashomer Hatzair today, if he is intelligent and sensitive (as many members of this movement are) can maintain his atheistic doctrines fully intact? Which of them can refrain from second thought about the alleged idealism and virtue of the Soviet Union? On the other hand, can a member of Neturey Karta maintain his dogma of hastorath ponim and Zionist inquity without wavering?

What must it mean for such a man that the sacred places of Judaism have been liberated by “free-thinking” com­ mandos and that their “G-dless Gov­ ernment” has brought to life the vi­ sions of Prophets and Sages?

For religious Jews to the left of the

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strictureslifThere must be something very meritorious about our generation if G-d has given us the z’chuth to liberate Eretz Yisroel,” someone said to me on Shovuoth morning in the Old City. The question is whether we can locate the source of that merit, name it as it deserves to be named (despite the possible political embar­ rassment involved) and build on it. We desperately need another Rav Kook who can lead us in this; to teach us the unbounded love of Israel that must inevitably lead to the love of G-d and to the lights of total redemption. Per­ haps there will be such a man. After all, it would not be a very great mira­ cle. So we may as well be realistic.

[13

Days of Trial, Triumph, and Awe R e fle c tio n s on th e M id e a s t C ris is

By RALPH PELCOVITZ

NE finds it most difficult to re­ plot unfolded with a degree of exact O call a period of Jewish history- precision—all pieces falling into place in-the-making which has so moved —only the pace changing from the and aroused the passions and prayers, the feelings and emotions of our peo­ ple as has the recent drama of the Israeli-Arab confrontation and con­ flict; a drama still unfolding, with the last act still to be written and played out on the international stage. Rarely, if ever, have Jews of every religious and political persuasion throughout the world been so intensely involved in the destiny of Eretz Yisroel and her people, so deeply and painfully con­ cerned for her welfare and security, so profoundly identified with her hours of trial and triumph. For a brief period World Jewry experienced anguish and apprehension followed by exhilaration and joy, tempered with a sense of awe and thanksgiving, in the aftermath of victory.

Events developed so rapidly* yet in retrospect, we perceive a preordained pattern of inexorable sequence. The 14

ponderous rhythm of the diplomatic field to the acceleration and lightning crescendo of the battlefield. Through the flashes of lightning, one could perceive the interposition of a Divine plan and pattern—seen not only by the faithful but even by the secularoriented sophisticates and cynics. The Israeli press is replete—as are private communications from Israel—with the realization that a veritable miracle was occurring, one which, if not as open and obvious as those in the deliver­ ance from Egypt—was as permeating and subtle—and as real—as the “nes” of Purim.

A LTHOUGH we accept without question every aphorism of our Sages there is one that, happily, was momentarily abrogated: “The recipi­ ent of the miracle does not recognize the miracle.” This may have held true JEWISH LIFE

often in our days—including at the founding of the State of Israel—but in Sivan 5727 we redeemed ourselves; we recognized, reacted, and rejoiced in the miracle of Jewish victory and valor. The Se’fath Emeth points out the similarity in the Hebrew language of the word “miracle” {nes) to the one signifying “trial” or “test” (nisayon). The greatest test is usually the appreciation and awareness that a miracle is occurring—a test rarely passed. Perhaps one of the greatest wonders is that we were equal even to this trial and recognized the “nes”— as it was happening! Why? One major reason may be that we were prepared — and preparation is all-important in creating an atmosphere wherein the ear is sensitive, the eye perceptive, and the heart wise enough to see and understand with clarity what is un­ folding. We know how much import­ ance our Sages attached to Hachonah — preparation — in connection with mitzvoth. We now can appreciate how wise and insightful they were, for “From my own flesh I perceive”— as Job so well phrased it—from one’s own “flesh,” one’s own experience, one sees the profound truth and wis­ dom of G-d’s ways and teachings. We were prepared in the sense that we were so intensely aware of the march of events, which seemed to proceed like chessmen moving on a board, manipulated by unseen players—each move part of a pattern, fitting method­ ically into the overall picture, each playing out its predestined role. The threatening Arab world, the indecision of the Western powers, the impotence of the U.N., the cynical Communist world— all was enacted before our eyes—seen, recorded, and communiJuly-A ugust 1967

cated to us instantly. The newspaper articles of analysis, the commentaries, interviews, and predictions all helped fill in the background for the climac­ tic, explosive events yet to come. We were prepared—as Jews—emotionally and psychologically more so than in ’48 and ’56— and that is why we re­ acted with such fervor and passion—why we were so united and generous.

A "DIFFERENT" W A R T ^H E R E were other factors differ-1 entiating the War of Independ­ ence in ’48 and the Sinai Campaign of ’56 from the electrifying events of June ’67.

The termination of the British Man­ date, the partition plan of the U.N., and the proclamation of the inde­ pendent State of Israel, followed by the attack of the Arabs upon the fledgling Jewish State, came in the aftermath of the European destruction and holocaust. World Jewry was still mentally and emotionally overwhelm­ ed by this traumatic experience of evil.

Lacerated in every fibre, reeling be­ fore the stupefying enormity of the horror that had transpired before, there now came upon us the epochal, stormy birth of the Jewish State in the Land of Israel. From our farthest depths there was evoked an intensity and passion that took new toll of strained minds and exhausted emo­ tions. So shaken and beset, we were ill prepared to rally our forces with the same instant responsiveness and self-command that has marked this most recent threat to Israel’s existence.

The sheer incredibility of a Jewish state as a fact in itself made it more difficult to react with a full measure 15

of maturity and responsibility. 0$e found it difficult to grasp the very idea of the existence of a Jewish State; indeed we were gripped by a sense of unreality.

In ’56 the suddenness of the Sinai campaign caught us unaware. Coupled with this lack of emotional prepared­ ness was the confusion experienced by American Jews due to the implacable opposition of the United States and in general a sense of disquiet result­ ing from the awkward coincidence of Israel’s move into Sinai with the Anglo-French campaign to recover the Suez Canal. The difficulty of identi­ fication with a preventive war was an­ other factor, as was a certain coolness to the idea of battling Nasser over the nationalization of the Suez Canal. The fruits of that victory— access to the Straits of Tiran, U.N. patroling of the Gaza Strip and the defusing of the explosive borders—were not appre­ ciated until later.

was a vital measure of Divine comfort for the destruction pf six million, to whom its inhabitants represented the remnant of European Jewry—all this served to create a climate of emo­ tional involvement building up to a pressure point almost too painful to bear.

Even before the fighting—which after its initial shock served as a re­ lease valve to the unbearable pressure -^-Jews were at one in the determina­ tion not to remain silent or inactive.

The evasion of responsibility on the part of the Western Powers evoked among Jewry a unanimous outpouring of the will to do, a will that became the more passionate as the erosion of the U.N. became the more evident, a will that moved every Jew to offer of himself to the security of Israel.

The duplicity of diplomacy served but to awaken a determination not to al­ low Jewish blood to become “hefker” again. . . .

HE events of 5727/1967, how­ T ever, had all the elements lacking in 5708/1948 and 5717/1956. There

W IT H O N E HEART

was the anguish of apprehension and anticipation, the sense of fear and frustration, and above all the pro­ found feeling of an Israel—alone! The world was standing by, seemingly helpless and mute in the face of bomb­ astic pronouncements and threats of a new Hitler. The great Powers were demonstrating how nuclear giants could be ethical infants; the U.N. was exercising more duplicity than diplom­ acy with an inadequacy bordering on insolvency, and the menacing spirit of Munich was in the air. To Jews in whose souls were seared the scars of Nazidom, to whom the State of Israel 16

VEN during this early period of E world paralysis and Arab aggres­ sion through the blockade of Akaba, Jews were beginning to experience the stirrings of Teshuvah—in the sense of an awareness that Israel was alone— except for G-d—Who had never de­ clared His neutrality. The T’hillim be­ came the constant companion of the shool Jew and the words of David became more meaningful, current, and significant with each passing day.

The spirit of unity was on the upsurge as all Jews had but one concern— Israel—the land and its people. The phrase “as one man with one heart” became a reality—and Israel became JEWISH LIFE

—to all—a symbol of the indomitable Jewish spirit and its will to live.

The inevitable conflagration which followed the confrontation resulted in an amazing release of Jewish emotion, which though partially repressed had been as ready for explosion as the powder-keg of the Middle East itself.

None who lived through the Six Days, June 5-10, will ever forget the continuing hours of awesome fear, cautious optimism, exultant relief, pride, and joy—emotions which fol­ lowed in electric succession. Many compared the victory of little Israel, against seemingly insurmountable odds, to that of David and Goliath. To the more sensitive, Torah—oriented Jew it was comparable rather to the story of Purim—for had we not witnessed the recurrence of “v’nehafoch hu”— all was turned about! Nasser, so proud and haughty one day, suddenly ground to the dust; the massed might of the Arab forces shattered; the indecision of the Western Powers countered by the bold, decisive action of the Israelis; the U.N. so reluctant to commit itself, suddenly galvanized into frantic ac­ tion; the swiftness of Jewish triumph firing the imagination and admiration of men everywhere— elevating and ennobling their spirits. Vulnerable, tiny Israel alone and isolated was swiftly catapulted into a position of the strongest, most potent force in the Middle East. The similarity to Haman and Mordecai was so startling that one had to appreciate that here was a “nes nistar,” G-d manifesting His rule and will through the instrument of a revived, resolute, courageous and committed Israel!

This was not simply a military vic­ tory but a moral one. Practically July-A ugust 1967

speaking, it should never have hap­ pened, and thousands of words were written attempting to explain why it did happen. To the Jew, however, it was quite clear that G-d had not for­ saken us and had once again demon­ strated that the “guardian of Israel does not slumber or sleep.” Even those who would not mar their analy­ sis with the word “miracle” sensed that the world had witnessed a glori­ ous chapter in the history of Israel when men were at their finest—rising to a moment of greatness.

UCCESS, however, cannot proper­ ly be grasped in the measurable S terms of how many tanks and air­ planes destroyed, so much territory conquered, or the number of casual­ ties and prisoners of war. The subtle aspect of success is what counts. What effect did these events have upon us— the Jewish people? We know of the repercussions which still reverberate throughout the society of nations; the political upheavals, the revised mili­ tary balance of power, the radical changes in the geography and demo­ graphy of Israel and her neighbors— but what has all this meant to us— the Jewish people?

Let us attempt to place some of our reactions into proper perspective, based upon personal observation and the evaluation of intelligent and sen­ sitive individuals.

First, the challenge and response, the trial and triumph of the Israelis evoked a profound sense of pride nmong all Jews. Understandably the degree and kind of pride varied with the values and sophistication of in­ dividual Jews, but every Jew felt a sense of “ga’avah”—of “shtoltz,” of 17

glorious pride. The depth of our feel­ ing was doubtless intensified because for the past many decades we had had so little cause for self-esteem. Who but a Jew had felt for so many years frustration and fear, the bitter taste of anguish and abject despair, the con­ stant humiliating role of victim*and vanquished? The glorious victory of the Israelis, with whom we so closely identified ourselves, .restored our selfrespect, our sense of glory and grandeur which had so long been stripped from us and robbed from our children, as we were reduced to objects of ridicule and contempt.

To the Jew of the Siddur the words “who girdest Israel with might” be­ came meaningful, and the phrase “who crownest Israel with glory” fraught with significance. He felt that his pleading question “Wherefore should the nations say, where now is their G-d?” had been answered!

A REUNITED PEOPLE ’p ' URTHER, the dramatic occuri rences in Israel awakened within the hearts and souls of many the “pintele yid”—the dormant sense of belonging to and believing in the K’lal Yisroel and the G-d of Israel. There are rare moments that are so deeply moving, that they uncover this inner, concealed reservoir of faith in the heart of every Jew. The S’fath Emeth explains that the reason the month of Ellul has as its “mazol”—its Zodiac sign—a young maiden is to express the thought that in every Jew there is a part of his soul that is virginal— pure, untouched, unsullied by the mundane material world— and as one approaches, during Ellul, the Days of 18

Awe this chaste, incorrupt “pintele” is uncovered and draws him back to his G-d and people. The crisis confront­ ing Israel and the deliverance of our brethren from the forces that en­ veloped them had this same effect— it uncovered and awakened this inner pure “point” of Jewish identity and loyalty within many Jews who had removed themselves, or just drifted away from the mainstream of Judaism and had become estranged from the people of Israel.

Again, this experience welded to­ gether the Jewish people at a time when the need for unity was impera­ tive. Many divisive forces and factors —religious and ideological—were at play for so many years that we had almost forgotten we were one people!

The threat to Israel’s existence served to remind us that we are “one people on this earth.” In addition to the wel­ come spirit of unity there also was manifested a dazzling display of gen­ erosity which had rarely before, if ever, been demonstrated by any peo­ ple. Jews who had never participated in matters of tzedokah involved them­ selves whole-heartedly and many who had established a. modest level of giv­ ing elevated their sights and extended themselves in a manner which aroused the wonder and admiration of the nonJewish world. The thousands of young volunteers from many countries who flocked to Israel to help her in her hour of need demonstrated that the enthusiasm of idealism and desire for service was still very much alive in the hearts of our young people.

INALLY, the impact made by the capture of the old city of Jerusalem, and to a lesser degree

F

JEWISH LIFE

Bethlehem and Hebron, was so great that it defies description and will doubtless be impossible to really re­ capture in future years. Although the Western Wall (Kothel Ma’arovi) had always possessed a magnetism and mystique for Jews over the centuries, the inability to touch its stones for nineteen years had intensified its hold and holiness to us. The spiritual awak­ ening accompanying the return to the Wall was an amazing revelation of how profound is the inherent, the in­ visible attachment of Jews to their heritage. The fervor, fever, and frantic exhilaration which the retaking of the old city of Jerusalem evoked among the Israelis and Jews throughout the world overshadowed even the startling accomplishments and achievements in Sinai, Syria, and Sharm El Sheikh.

This was an unexpected prize, an un­ anticipated gift, the realization of a dream, the fulfillment of prophetic promise—-and to many the advent of the Messianic era. The stirrings of Teshuvah took on more substance and sincerity—for who could fail to recog­ nize here the answer to the age-old prayer “and to Jerusalem Thy city, in mercy return”—an answer which brought a positive response by many who had been estranged for so long, and yet hastened to make a pilgrimage to this holiest of places and pay hom­ age to the place whence the Shechinah, the Divine Presence, had never de­ parted.

“To be privileged once again to visit the Tomb of Rachel, and the Cave of Machpelah—what a ‘zechus’ to be granted all this— and how we must learn to appreciate this great ‘merit’—which has been given to our generation!”—this is the sentiment exJuly-A ugust 1967

pressed by so many. A heartening, inspiring aspect is that so many young people both in Israel and here feel so strongly about the holy places now in our hands—accessible once again to K’lal Yisroel—relics awaiting the return of their children!

HE fervor of the Jews is of course equaled by the furor of the nations. Jerusalem has ever-fired the imagination and passions of man.

The bitter fighting followed by angry debate is further enflamed by Israeli unification of Old with New Jeru­ salem. We are not concerned here with the political wisdom or diplom­ atic good judgment of Israel’s states­ men. We do submit, however, that only those who sat on the ground Tisha B’av for so many years; who recited the prayers of “O rebuild Jerusalem the Holy City.” “And may our eyes be granted to witness thy return to Zion” and “To Jerusalem, thy city, in mercy return” for so many centuries, can truly understand what Jerusalem means to Jews. To misread this fervent attachment or misunder­ stand its implications would be a tragic miscalculation on the part of the nations.

As these lines are being written the political situation is still in a state of flux and the diplomatic battles rage unabated. What the future holds in store regarding borders, peace treaties, and Israel’s relationship to the family of nations is obscure and disquieting.

Perhaps we Jews have suffered too much to allow ourselves the luxury of fully enjoying our moment of sweet victory. Be that as it may, we are apprehensive as we await to see

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whether we can win the peace as de­ cisively as the war. *5*

H*

HIS MUCH however is clear: The glorious events of the .first weeks of Sivan 5727 moved, awak­ ened, and aroused us as a people, in a manner rarely experienced by any people. It may well be the magical key that opens the box which contains the keys to other problems of Israel —the land and the people. Just as military and political analysts recog­ nize that Israel and her position in the Middle East can never be the same again, that the past is obsolete, so must we realize that our relation­ ship to Eretz Yisroel and to the K’lal

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Yisroel can never be the same as it was a few weeks ago. However, in our case, the historic past is not ob­ solete, for we were strangely and won­ derfully thrust back into the past as we were catapulted into the challeng­ ing future. Holmes once said: “Man’s mind stretched to a^ new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.”

All that transpired has stretched not only the borders but our minds as well, hopefully never to return to the narrow dimensions of the past.

The Divine plan begins to emerge.

How vividly and dramatically have we of this era been reminded that only by drawing our inspiration from the Wall, the Tomb, and the Cave can we find the strength and vision to build for the future.

JEWISH LIFE

Orthodoxy's Forgotten Soldiers M ilit a r y co n d itio n s pose a c r itic a l c h a lle n g e to re/igious life f o r th e J ew is h s e rv ic e m a n and th e J ew is h c h a p la in a lik e . W h a t m ust th e T o ra h c o m m u n ity do to m e e t th e need?

By YEHUDA SORSCHER

A MERICAN orthodox Jewry is ■£\ largely ignoring an ever-growing segment of its constituency—Jewish personnel in the Armed Forces. Since World War II, the agencies of the traditional community have been aware of the crucial need to foster the religious life and facilitate the re­ ligious observance of the Jewish ser­ viceman. Through this time they have known that the existing agency acting in behalf of the entire American Jew­ ish community in this field has failed to serve the need in a manner con­ formable to the requirements of the Torah Jew. Year in and year out the problem has been on Orthodoxy’s agenda and various attempts have been made to solve it. Yet Jewish soldiers, sailors, and airmen are still deprived of the requisite religious aid and guidance at a most critical point in their lives. Whether through apathy or for other reasons, Torah Jewry is not fulfilling its duty to meet the re­ ligious needs of Jews—very many of July-A ugust 1967

them from observant homes—in mili­ tary service.

The problems prevalent throughout the military pose a major challenge to American Jewish life. In searching for a solution, it is necessary first of all that the impact of these problems be perceived and felt. There is one area above all where the impact is centered —that of the Jewish chaplaincy ^ The crux of the situation can be found in its nature and structure.

N existence for a full century, the Jewish chaplaincy appeared in or­ ganized form and in substantial num­ bers only with World War II. At that time, the National Jewish Welfare Board established a commission on Jewish chaplains. This agency re­ cruited and endorsed over 300 chap­ lains for service in the war. Later, at the advent of the Korean War, three ministerial bodies, constituted respec­ tively of orthodox, Conservative, and Reform spiritual leaders, jointly un­ dertook a “self-imposed draft” to meet

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the quota decided upon by the mili­ HE channels for meeting religious tary. needs seem to be simple, practi­ Jewish chaplains enter the service cal, and efficient. The challenge to with junior officer rank, and normally Torah Judaism lies in the total de­ serve two years. Some decide to re­ pendence of this entire structure on main as career chaplains, but most one individual—the Jewish chaplain. leave after their initial tour of fluty. If a Jewish chaplain is present in any As cited in a recent article (Aryeh given situation (the 75 present Jewish Lev, “The Jewish Military Chaplain­ chaplains service the four corners of cy,” American Jewish Year Book, the earth), he may be orthodox, Con­ 1965) the reasons for leaving included servative, or Reform in training. His inadequate pay and poor opportuni­ level of observance may be even more ties to educate their children Jew- diversified, and he could be below par ishly. in both personal strength and techni­ In servicing the chaplains, the Com­ cal competence. This system is bound mission on Jewish Chaplaincy pro­ to produce failures in great numbers. vides them with religious publications, In civilian life it is difficult to imag­ periodic shipments of kosher canned ine a world where authority, even on goods, holiday articles, program the lowest levels, cannot be questioned, guides, and suggestions of various and any deviations may earn one a kinds. Books for the chapel, N.J.W.B. jail sentence. For eight weeks, the prayer books, curricula for Jewish newly inducted trainee is virtually con­ schools, and regalia for the High Holy fined to a small area in a large instal­ Days and Pesach are given in gener­ lation. Conformity is the rule of the ous proportions. day, and fear of failing to make the The military, helping chaplains of grade almost the sole motivating force. all faiths, does its share as well. One’s mind and body are brought up Chapels are provided for, and time is to rigorous military standards. set aside so that soldiers may attend Away from home, perhaps for the services. The chaplain may collect first time, the religious soldier is often funds to support the chapel, and there lonely, bewildered, and overwhelmed. are regular sources of income for He is now prone to break down un­ large projects. This enables the chap­ der pressure. He may inwardly look lain to beautify the chapel, send out for rationalizations that will enable publications, and run activities and him to discard religious obligations classes. The military provides the “for the time being.” Religious de­ chaplain with office personnel, and he mands are sometimes met with strong is given time to prepare classes and resistance from his superiors. The sermons. Doors are open to him when soldier may not be able to reach a particular problems arise. chaplain until the crisis has long since A third source of help is often a passed. The chaplain, even when nearby civilian community. Through reachable, may not be able to help, funds and personal help, they can build and support a Jewish program owing to his own personal inad­ at the military post. The local affiliate equacies. of the N.J.W.B. is often the leader in These problems have countless overall community support. shadings, and few religiously observ-

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JEWISH LIFE

ant Jewish soldiers have emerged from basic training unscathed.

FTER basic training, the recruits A are generally sent to schools for advanced training, and then to per­ manent duty stations. As a soldier progresses, the problems become easier to deal with, but where is he after the initial trauma has taken its toll?

The young religious Jewish draftee is a particular victim of the situation.

A product of intense yeshivah and home education can be expected to persevere, but only after going through extreme and unnecessary hardships.

But barring ideal circumstances, the one less well schooled may forfeit his Torah ideals before the end of basic training. Contacts with experienced personnel or organizations prior to en­ tering service, or access to a strong, competent orthodox chaplain, will make it somewhat easier to survive.

So much for the soldier of orthodox upbringing. For the “semi-orthodox” and less, the situation is considerably worse. He probably attends Sabbath services—to which he rides. They will be conducted with or without a minyon, and occasionally there will be a Torah reading (sometimes on Friday nights). This soldier may visit a Jew­ ish family, on a holiday* but as often as not will be served t’refah food.

(All of this will be countenanced by the Jewish chaplain. He is running as Jewish a program as he feels is pos­ sible in the military.) As the level of the soldier’s pre-military observance decreases, identification with a Jewish program is correspondingly reduced.

A Sunday morning abridged service complete with bagel and lox becomes a major Jewish experience.

This tragedy is compounded be­ cause the young soldiers, particularly July-A ugust 1967

in wartime, are in many, perhaps most, cases searching for more Juda­ ism, stronger identification, and con­ crete values.

HE orthodox Jewish community at large has a responsibility which stretches beyond the percentage of boys from observant families in mili­ tary service. Moreover, if Orthodoxy is effectively represented at the top level of this “unified structure,” it should be able to give every Jewish soldier an opportunity to adhere or return to the true tenets of our faith.

To the contrary, the present system subjects the orthodox Jewish chaplain to a severe Halachic crisis with which he is unable to cope. Civilian com­ munities, while helping chaplains, in­ crease their Halachic dilemma. Their homes are open to soldiers for meals which will involve transgressions of Shabboth and Kashruth. A chaplain who resists will jeapordize his program and be forced to explain to the Na­ tional Jewish Welfare Board and mili­ tary superiors why he imposes “his” religious obligations on others, not of his “denomination.”

This stems directly from N.J.W.B. policy, which in reality asks the or­ thodox chaplain to be “orthodox for himself.” He must pray alone at the proper time for Kabbolath Shabboth, so that he can lead a “late Friday service” that meets the specifications of the non-orthodox but violates Jew­ ish law and the principles that he stands for. If a number of Jewish of­ ficers ask that the Yom Kippur service be Conservative or Reform (with mixed seating as but one characteris­ tic feature), it is almost impossible to refuse.

The military unwittingly demands as well that the chaplain’s religious or-

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chodoxy be confined to himself. Ac­ cording to military regulations, all Jews, except those certified as or­ thodox, must transgress our holy com­ mandments continually. Even the “cer­ tified orthodox” must be helped con­ stantly by the chaplain to insure their persistent observance. These boys move from unit to unit, meeting new superiors and situations that absorb much of the chaplain’s time. He ex­ plains and explains to hundreds of officers and non-coms what these par­ ticular individuals can and cannot do.

Food, Yomim Tovim (particularly Sukkoth and Pesach), tzitzith, and davening present perpetual headaches.

Other problems that face the or­ thodox Jewish chaplain are the pres­ ence in the community of supposed converts whose conversion is Halachically invalid, B’rith Milah in out­ lying areas, marital requests from per­ sons of dubious parentage, tri-faith observances, and the whole gamut of war-time religious confusion.

Many chaplains share chapel facili­ ties with Christian denominations. In fact, the trend is away from specifical­ ly Jewish chapels and towards tri-faith chapels with changing paraphernalia.

This often upsets the Jewish chaplain and soldiers to a point of rendering the whole program ineffective.

It now becomes apparent that the reality faced by the orthodox Jewish chaplain is situations so complex that he is never fully aware of all ramifica­ tions at any given time. By the time he has solved even some of the prob­ lems, his time in service is over.

OW has it been possible for the orthodox Jewish community to H send chaplains into military service without the background, knowledge, 24

and Halachic guidelines necessary to cope with situations that are peculiar to the military?

There are small departments of some national orthodox organizations struggling with specific phases of Jew­ ish life in the military, but these ef­ forts are painfully inadequate in light of the magnitude of the problems.

At Yeshiva University, the only or­ thodox seminary with a chaplaincy draft, there are perennial conflicts be­ tween student and administration on the pros and cons of the chaplaincy.

The students feel that students of other major yeshivoth should be drafted, and are strongly opposed to being forced into service. The ad­ ministration, on its part, expects the student to live up to all obligations of the S’michah program, which in­ cludes the chaplaincy.

The conclusions are obvious. More orthodox chaplains are desperately needed. The chaplaincy must be viewed as a pioneering effort to reach estranged individuals and communi­ ties. Students at all yeshivoth who aspire to a career in the Rabbinate need the valuable experience and per­ sonal satisfaction of serving the entire Jewish community.

The orthodox Jewish community must stop ignoring its chaplains. Pre­ induction seminars must be instituted to appraise chaplains-to-be of their rights and responsibilities. They must be given both general and specific in­ struction by past chaplains, and must be enlightened as to the fact that, de­ spite all difficulties, their power to help is almost limitless, and their mis­ sion sacred and crucial. They must feel the weight of Gedoley Yisroel guiding them at every turn of the way.

JEWISH LIFE

ONE of this can take place with­ claim and implement orthodox inde­ out a strong, reasoned response pendence within the status quo. This N from the Torah community. The re­ would require acknowledgement by sponse seemingly must follow one of two paths.

One road would be along the lines of an independent orthodox chaplain­ cy. The financial burden of this en­ terprise would be vast. Functions paralleling, and going beyond, all those presently conducted by the Chaplaincy Commission and Armed Services Division of the National Jewish Welfare Board would have to be carried by a community where unity is rarely reached. To receive the assent of all Roshey Yeshivoth and national organizations, raise funds, establish the administrative and or­ ganizational machinery, would require nothing less than a miracle on high.

The other path would be to pro­

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the “other branches” of the unique­ ness of the orthodox Jewish position, something not hitherto apparent. It would also go a long way toward shattering the myth of “equal branches” of Judaism. Orthodox pres­ sure at high N.J.W.B. levels would free the orthodox chaplain from pres­ ent hindrances, enabling him to fully accomplish his mission without the isolation and compromise of the past.

Torah Judaism, faithfully inter­ preted from Sinai to the present, must always grapple with the problems set in motion by the times. How many more lost souls can we afford to lose before the resources to solve these problems are finally brought to the surface?

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The c o rre la tio n o f J ew is h uniqueness w ith A m e ric a n p lu ra lis m — s trip p e d o f m yth and illu s io n .

E3H81 N the discussions regarding the fu­ ture of Judaism on this continent one hears of different conflicts that face the Jew. We are made aware of an intellectual confrontation between the scientific humanistic ideas pro­ jected by our educational system and the religious and traditional aspects of Judaism. We hear arguments re­ garding the relative difficulty or ease with which some Mitzvoth may or may not be observed in a Christian society whose Sabbath is on Sunday and whose highway restaurants ob­ viously serve t’refah food. While these considerations are undoubtedly valid they fail to take into account a very vital dimension of the dilemma which stems from the fact that we, to bor­ row a favorite theme from Mordechai Kaplan, “live in two civilizations.”

The conflict I am referring to cannot be simply defined as Mitzvah versus Averah; it is a conflict that emerges out of a deeper strata of cultural

By JOSEPH GRUNBLATT

I

orientation. After all the Jew who chooses to spend Shabboth morning on the golf course rather than in the synagogue is not intending an act of apostasy. His quest for the hole-inone is not a denial of The One any­ more than his occasional attendance in the synagogue is a true religious commitment. Neither is it a problem of relative ease or difficulty. For all we know a morning with the golf clubs to many of our middle-class (and middle-aged) sportsmen may be much more exhausting and exasper­ ating than a morning spent with Siddur and Chumosh. The crucial point here is “the call.” Two civilizations are calling our friend; Jewish civiliza­ tion summons him to the Synagogue; American civilization to the golf course — and he must respond. This is what I choose to call the “Clash of Life-styles.”

Several myths tend to obscure these civilizational conflicts. The most re-

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JEWISH LIFE

cent and most popular one is that America is a perfectly pluralistic so­ ciety. This attempt to picture America as a kind of cultural suspension or chemical base-fluid in which different civilizations can float about unob­ structed is as absurd as the earlier myth of the “melting pot” which was thought to have boiled one big uni­ form stew out of America’s multitude of cultural ingredients. Undeniably, a profoundly democratic society permits varieties of expression. Yet, there are what I would call “core areas” of civilizational conformity that become indigenous to any society and tend to grind down many of the distinct and unique peculiarities of its constituent cultural components. Another myth (this one is specifically Jewish), is to be found in the abundance of apolo­ getic material that can satisfy only the very young and the very unin­ formed. It is the “we are really the same” myth. Strip Judaism of its ex­ ternals which are of secondary nature anyway and you will discover that Judaism and Americanism are really the same. In fact it goes one step further, “Americanism and Judaism are the same; Judaism came histori­ cally first; ergo we invented it all.”

In this vein the Sunday School text­ books were written that announced to the world that it was the Jews who invented democracy — just as the Russians invented baseball!

PEAKING of differences, we may S begin right here. The democratic tradition implies absolute autonomy of the individual. Democratic society is structured by consent and governed by consent. This is why democratic thought has always had to struggle witty the idea of government which by definition is coercive. Locke offered July-A ugust 1967

the practical solution of minimal gov­ ernment; Rousseau offered the fiction of the “general will”; practical demo­ cracy seeks cover behind “representa­ tive government.” Even today, with the complex network of government controls at various levels, and the im­ posing power of expert and bureau­ cratic authority, democratic man still thinks of himself as an individualist.

Mind you, he realizes that he is much less “rugged” than his ancestor in the covered wagon. “Old Frontiers” were moved by brawny and courageous set­ tlers; “New Frontiers” are pushed ahead by administrative machinery.

Nevertheless, democratic man still likes to think that “nobody is going to tell him what to do.”

This pose is remote from the ethos of Jewish civilization and its central­ ity of Mitzvah. We readily admit that we were indeed told what to do — six hundred and thirteen times over; our laws were not promulgated by a “general will,” nor legislated by our “representatives,” It was a transcen­ dental Being who commanded us and who precariously balanced a mountain over our heads to assure our com­ pliance. In the context of the demo­ cratic tradition the following Talmudic dictum is unthinkable; “Greater is he who is commanded and does then he who is not commanded and does.”

(Talmud Bavli, Kiddushin 31a). Of course Judaism values the individual — in this respect we are the progeni­ tors of the democratic tradition. “Be­ loved is man who was created in the Image.” (Pirkey Ovoth 3:14) “He who saves one soul is like one who saves a world.” (Yalkut, B’reshith 15) Innumerable quotes could be garnered from every source of our tradition to substantiate the Jewish concern for the individual. But, there is a differ27

ence between being an individual and being an individualist. Man’s great­ ness is not his ability to make his own rules but that he can stand, up to G-d and either accept or reject the “word.”

The very essence of law in Judaism is unique. Jewish‘law does not merely give expression to our social and cul­ tural patterns; it does not merely regulate the behavior of the group.

Jewish law is the very mechanics of our civilization. It is no wonder then that Paul, who wanted to wean away Christianity from Jewishness, in­ veighed with such fury against the “law.” The “New Theologians” of Christianity who preach the “New Morality” lament the burdening of Christianity with too many concrete norms of behavior. What they are say­ ing in essence is that over the cen­ turies Christianity has become too Jewish again. Even the Reform move­ ment, particularly its intellectually perceptive element, is beginning to come to terms with nomothetic Juda­ ism, even though it still has great difficulty with G-d as the source of heteronomous legislation. The Ameri­ can-trained mind finds all this diffi­ cult to accept. That is the reason why we have so many books and booklets and sermons attempting to explain the reasonableness, the beauty, the beneficial effects etc. of this or the other Mitzvah.

The difference between the old ap­ proach (“this is the way we were com­ manded”) and the modern rationaliza­ tions is more then the difference be­ tween obscurantism and enlighten­ ment. The Jew of Torah experiences religion in the very command of the Mitzvah. The democratic modern is attempting through rationalization to appropriate the Mitzvah and make it

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a self-legislating norm. The unpopu­ larity of the Shulchon Oruch is not caused by its quantity of do’s and don’ts. It is due to the fact that the “good American” has simply refused to be told what to do all the time.

To my mind this presents a very real civilizational clash.

NOTHER area of radical diverg­ A ence is in the search of life’s desideratum. One can hardly escape the observation that the western world is an utterly hedonistic society. Life is a constant quest for happiness, and a happiness that can be roughly de­ fined in terms of the Utilitarian phi­ losophers— a maximum of pleasure and a minimum of pain. It is in the light of this cultural trait that we can understand the fanatical devotion to moneymaking which has gripped con­ temporary man. Money can buy those objects that give us pleasure and the conveniences that help us avoid pain, strain, and stresses. The fact that one may make oneself utterly miserable in the process of acquiring the means to pleasure is often overlooked. Com­ mercial exploitation, advertisements competing with each other as to which product produces greater pleasure, merely accentuate, or rather respond to, this cultural trait. Admittedly, this pleasure orientation challenges all re­ ligion; in fact, it is even a greater em­ barrassment to Christianity which has cautioned, for centuries, against the evils of the flesh and the sin of indulg­ ing in earthly goods. Nevertheless, Judaism somehow seems to be more affected because it is a behavioral re­ ligion.

In this connection we must take to task once again the shallowness of some modern apologetics. One reads quite often the argument that Judaism JEWISH LIFE

is much more in consonance with the aspirations of modern man because Judaism is a “this-world, earth-cen­ tered religion,” and not as “other worldly” as Christianity. This interpre­ tation is untenable. Judaism does not hesitate to point out where the “summum bonum” is to be found. Says Rabbi Yaakov in Pirkey Ovoth, “This world is like a vestibule; prepare thy­ self in the vestibule so that you may enter the palace.” (4:16) The “thisworld centeredness” of Judaism is the humanistic dimension of the Jewish faith. Man is master of his own sal­ vation and the field of this achieve­ ment is this world. Again to quote Pirkey Ovoth, “One hour of penitence and good deeds in this world is bet­ ter than all the World to Come .

Creativity, achievement, the building of the spiritual self takes place amidst the tasks, trials, and tribulations of life on this earth. But, continues the very same Mishnah, . . one hour of satisfaction in the World to Come is greater than all the life in this world” (4:17). The ultimate in being, in ex­ periencing reality and G-d is in the World to Come. Judaism does not concur that the flesh is intrinsically evil nor that every innocent pleasure is sinful. But to claim that it licenses anything coming close to contem­ porary hedonism is being intellectually dishonest.

HIS hedonism has seriously in­ vaded the life of the observant Jew. To me the classical examples are the occasional advertisements we re­ ceive from hotels which read some­ thing like this, “Only Glatt Kosher meat and Cholov Yisroel is served . . .” Then comes the punch line, “Broadway entertainment every night.” The “voice of glatt” and “the

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voice of Broadway” produce a cacophony of sounds which must make a sensitive person feel quite uncom­ fortable. It is wonderful to have Glatt Kosher available on luxury cruises and on Caribbean tours but somehow it is difficult to construe the beaches of Puerto Rico as being the vestibule to the World to Come.

The quest for pleasure is at least one of the roots of the enormous en­ tertainment industry which absorbs an exorbitant portion of our national wealth. Even synagogues have been forced to enter the entertainment “game.” The lavish shows produced by synagogue auxiliaries and the pro­ grams with “fun for all” which are offered to congregational memberships are very real concessions to the hedon­ istic society with which we find it in­ creasingly difficult to compete. The religious services themselves have fallen prey to the pleasure principle.

Some rabbis may be thrilled when told by congregants, “Rabbi, we have en­ joyed the service so much.” Others of us are somewhat embarrassed by this remark. For one thing, it makes the rabbi feel like an entertainer—and that is certainly not his vocation. It also makes him wonder whether he has failed. Is not the purpose of wor­ ship to make people think, to disturb them a little, to make them angry at some wrong in this world? Maybe some people do not really mean, “we were entertained,” when they use the phrase; maybe they mean moved, in­ spired, stimulated. But, the very coin­ ing of the phrase indicates in what so­ ciety we live. The greatest compliment we can bestow upon someone is to say, “you are giving me pleasure.”

One could go on demonstrating with real examples the incongruous, almost schizophrenic, responses resulting from 29

the civilizational clash like—the Shabboth clock opening up the TV set for the “Oneg Shabboth” of a football game; or the young lady with shaitel and mini-skirt. Regarding the clash in our respective sex mores I refer the reader to my article in J e w i s h L i f e of August, I960.* I do not wish to make Judaism sound austere and morbid. Judaism has its humor, its humanity, its joy; there is no greater joy than Simchah shel mitzvah, the joy that is effused from Jewish living. “The Holy Spirit only rests on one of joyous heart’ (Talmud Yerushalmi, Sukkah 5:1); “Israel is associated with ten different expressions of joy” (Midrash Shir Hashirim 1:30); “Serve the Lord with joy,” King David tells us in Tehillim.

Chassidism warns us that the greatest threat to the service of G-d is depres­ sion and despair. Which civilization has demonstrated more optimism and more zest for life and survival than Judaism? To quote Pirkey Ovoth again, “Who is rich?—he who is happy with his lot” (5:1). Happiness, yes —but a happiness which flows natural­ ly from the totality of one’s meaning­ ful life; not an end-in-itself happiness which is nothing more than the sum total of a number of pleasurable mo­ ments.

HERE IS one other area of con­ flict I would like to touch upon briefly. Sociologists are deeply con­ cerned with the growing problem of leisure. As the working week shrinks, what will man do with his spare time?

“Leisure” is a definite and meaningful concept in its own right. It is not “time out” from work, nor “time out” for fun, nor “time out” for rest or ex­ ercise or recreation. It is that part of time not occupied by necessary func­

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tions. When leisure was non-existent or at best available in very small dos­ ages it raised no serious issue. As more of our conscious hours become “lei­ sure hours” we must find^leisure ac­ tivities” to occupy that time—or to use a popular phrase, “to kill time.”

Much of this leisure time is presently utilized for entertainment.

Judaism in contrast to Christianity was always a “study-religion.” “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (D’vorim 6:7). The idea of study and learning came to the west through Humanism, and today is geared almost exclusively to the achievement of greater competence in the practical fields of economic or pro­ fessional endeavors. With Torah study as a form of religious devotion and ex­ perience, in itself, Judaism developed the concepts of “bittul z’man” (waste of time) and “bittul Torah” (neglect of Torah study). We never had a “leisure concept.” Yes, we have all the “times out” we need. Man must take time out to make a living, to stay healthy in mind and body, for a vaca­ tion to refresh oneself; but otherwise there is a standing, constant requisition of our time to be occupied with the study and performance of Torah. We often speak of Torah observance. We rarely make mention of “bittul Torah,” the neglect of continued study and the quest for understanding more and more Torah even amongst the ob­ servant. Shiurim, adult education classes and lectures are the least pop­ ular programs in many synagogues.

The instinctive reach for the Sepher during one’s “spare time” which was so much a part of the old, traditional JEWISH LIFE

life is a rarity today. Our hard work­ ing and poverty-stricken grandfathers would have gladly welcomed more leisure which would enable them to study more Torah. American civiliza­ tion worries, what to do with this gain in free time!

best in western civilization without conceding the unique civilizational val­ ues of our faith. The greatness of the “Torah Im Derech Eretz Movement” of Samson Raphael Hirsch was not only the fact that it taught its follow­ ers how to reconcile western knowl­ edge with knowledge of the Torah. It O BE an authentic, traditional Jew also taught the members of its com­ amidst western civilization re­ munity how to be contemporary, how quires more than knowledge and even to live as citizens of their society with­ more than the technical observance of out sacrificing the essentials of the the Mitzvoth. It requires a certain Jewish life-style. I am quite confident civilizational orientation. To help us that with the help of the Almighty cultivate the inner soul of Jewish liv­ and through the religious genius of ing we must add a vital dimension to our people we will develop the edu­ our Jewish education. A contemporary cational tools and methods with which form of “mussar” and character build­ to mold our young generation into viable, contemporary Jews, uncom­ ing must be part of the task of our promised by western civilization and educational institutions so that we uncompromising in their authentic may be able to utilize freely what is Jewishness.

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Threading the Needle

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of Jewish Law A n e x a m in a tio n o f th e g o v e rn in g p rem is e unique to J e w ­ ish la w an d ju ris p ru d e n c e : th e rig h ts o f th e O n e w ho is " th ir d p a r t y " to a ll tra n s a c tio n s .

By BEREL WEIN

A LL LAW, in order to be enforceable, must be pragmatic. Most current statute law is formulated and enacted to correct current evils or to enhance the good and welfare of so­ ciety, as good and welfare be current­ ly defined. Thus law is in constant flux, attempting to adapt itself to the exigencies of time and mores. This must ever be the case as far as man­ made law is concerned, and thus one is hard-pressed to find any continuous policy of law that can bind together all of the myriad legal procedures,/ statutes, and ordinances of our so­ ciety. Except for the basic premise that laws are necessary for an ordered society, the philosophy of law in our time and society has little cohesive­ ness and its main trait is its almost chaotic ability to be practical about all problems, even if that practicality leads to a crazy-quilt patchwork of contradictory premises and policies.

Not so is Jewish law, for the origin and basis of the philosophy of Jewish 32

law in all its aspects is that it is Di­ vinely originated, and therefore, even though retaining the qualities of elas­ ticity and pragmatism, it is rooted in certain unchanging precepts of belief and outlook. It is to the examination of the most fundamental of these be­ liefs that this article is dedicated.

When G-d revealed Himself to Is­ rael at Sinai, He stated the basic credo that would govern all of Jewish life and law—“I am the Lord, your G-d.”

(Sh’moth 20:2). In this deceivingly simple-sounding pronouncement, is found the thread that binds the corpus of all detailed Jewish law into a har­ monious unity. For all of Jewish law —civil, criminal, family, and ritual -—finds its raison d’etre in the fact that “I am the Lord your G-d.”

HE TALMUD (Shabboth 31a) T records for us in most human terms the thrust of Jewish civil law.

This passage so often cited tells that a Gentile, desiring to be converted JEWISH LIFE

to Judaism, approached the great sage Hillel and asked him if he would con­ vert him while he taught him the whole Torah “standing on one foot.”

Hillel accepted the challenge, con­ verted the heathen, and told him— “What is hateful unto you, do not do unto your friend*—that is the whole Torah—now go and study the rest of the details.” At first glance, it appears

obvious that Hillel was guilty of a gross over-simplification. For the “de­ tails” that the proselyte was now to “go and study” do not apparently stem or always relate to the rule of “what is hateful unto you, do not do unto your friend.” Yet, upon closer examination, it will appear that Hillel stated the axiom of Jewish life com­ pletely, albeit succinctly.

C IV IL L A W TEWISH civil law rests upon a neb-

J ulous concept—“And you shall do what is right and good in the eyes of G-d” (Devorim 6:18)—the con­ cept that one must act— “Lifney m’shurath hadin”—in a manner above and beyond the legal require­ ments of the law.** Why must one behave in such a manner? Because of the fact that if, for example, one con­ tracts to sell a product for a specified price and then realizes that he cannot deliver at that price, for his cost alone is in excess of the agreed-upon price, he would certainly wish and ask to be released from his bargain, even though he is legally bound to the con* Many a thesis has been propounded as to why Hiller framed this rule in a negative man­ ner rather than in the positive manner that the Torah itself propounds it in Leviticus— “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

The simple explanation is that it is much more difficult to control one’s emotions than one’s actions. Therefore, if one cannot bripg himself to love another, Judaism is satisfied with a level of Controlled behavior on his part which will not allow him to treat one differently than he himself would wish to be treated. Given such behavior, his emotions will eventually overtake his behavior and positive love will also follow. ** See the Talmud on Bova Metzia 16b and 24b for some practical illustrations of this concept.

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tract; so too should he wish to release another from such a contract when that person is the seller and he is. the one who has underpriced the item.

“What is hatefpl unto you, do not do unto your friend.” Thus Hillel stated that the entire Torah teaches us only this one lesson—“do what is right and good in the eyes of G-d”—which is synonymous with the concept that just as you wish to be treated with righte­ ousness and goodness yourself, so should you be right and good with others,* for in the eyes of G-d all men are to be treated equally, and of course this naturally presupposes the concept that “I am the Lord, your G-d.” Thus, in essence, Hillel’s logic to the proselyte was that there is a G-d who governs all facets of our lives and that if the proselyte would accept that tenet then the rest of the Torah is indeed merely “details” as to the application of that axiom. * See the comment of Rabbi Boruch Epstein in his commentary to the Bible, To^ah T'mimah, in Devorim 6:18, wherein he states that “accommodating one’s fellow man (be­ cause of what is rigjit. and good in the eyes of G-d) is the fundamental principle of the entire Torah, and the Torah; itself is named (the Book of Righteousness) after this prin­ ciple.”

33

N every business and commercial relationship, Jewish law therefore envisages three parties to the transac­ tion: the two protagonists themselves and G-d. For their behavior in the transaction must be governed by what is right, not only in their eyes, but in the eyes of G-d as well. And there­ fore, to have a .satisfactory transac­ tion in Jewish civil law means that not only the buyer and seller are to be satisfied, but G-d’s standards of “right and good” are also to be met.

We can therefore understand the com­ ment of the Rabbis that “The city of Jerusalem was destroyed only because Jews insisted that their legal rights be enforced.” * It was not that Jews cheated each other or took illegal ad­ vantage of one another. They merely neglected to satisfy the Third Party to their transactions. They did not do “what was right or good,” they let no one “off the hook,” they were good business men but poor Jews— and the Lord did not suffer such behavior.

The primary law of Jewish civil law — “I am the Lord, your G-d,”—was violated. Thus, was the sin of insisting upon one’s legal rights punished in a comparable manner to the sin of idol­ atry for they both were a breach of that touchstone of Jewish civic and communal life—“I am the Lord, your G-d.”

It should be noted that this concept of partnership between man and G-d, in everyday life and business affairs, extends also to the judges who were ultimately to decide the rights of litigants. The Talmud notes that the judges’ responsibilities for fairness in

I

* Bova Metzia 30b. The language of the Tal­ mud there is “and they did not do—‘lifnim m’shurath hadin’—what was above and beyond the legal requirements of the law.”

34

their decisions were not limited to the litigants themselves, but extended to G-d as well. “Said Rabbi Chama the son of Rabbi Chaninah—So says G-d: It is not enough that wicked judges unlawfully transfer property from one party to another, but by so doing they trouble Me to rectify the matter and return the property to its rightful owner.” (Sanhedrin 8a) Thus their sin is not only one of unfairness to man, but more importantly, one of unfairness to G-d. They “trouble” Him, so to speak, to correct their evil design. For the Lord will not suffer false gain and sooner or later the property will be restored to its right­ ful possessor. Thus the evil that judges did in wrongly deciding among the litigants was not only a violation of the civil laws of Jewish society; it was a breach of the commandment of “I am the Lord, your G-d,” and G-d, so to speak, would now enter the pic­ ture to uphold His interests.

Thus how true are the comments of our Rabbis that “Every judge who judges truthfully and correctly be­ comes a partner to G-d in the works of creation,” (Shabboth 10a) because a correct judgment is an affirmation of “I am the Lord your G-d,” or that: “Every judge who judges truth­ fully and correctly causes the Spirit of G-d to dwell among Israel,” (San­ hedrin 8a) because truthful judgment shows that the third partner to any dispute—G-d Himself—is present and that due notice is taken of His Pres­ ence. And on the other hand “An improper judge who is appointed is as though an idol was planted,” (San­ hedrin 7b) once again showing that violations of Jewish civil law are akin to idolatry for the basic premise of “l am the Lord, your G-d” is violated, JEWISH LIFE

Therefore, when the Talmud tells us (Sanhedrin 7a) that after a civil judgment has been entered by a Jewish court, both litigants are to rejoice, one over the enforcement of his legal rights and the other over the fact that

property that was not lawfully his has been taken from him, it is not a face­ tious statement, but rather mirrors a mature understanding of the purpose of Jewish law which is to enforce G-d’s will in a world of men.

C R IM IN A L L A W T the risk of a gross oversimplifi­ how convincing; (Sanhedrin 37b) no cation, one could describe the at­ hearsay evidence was allowed and A titude of Jewish law towards the pun­ witnesses were actually threatened re­ ishment of criminals by the vernacu­ lar saying “They won’t get away with it!” Though man is bidden to order his society, to protect personal and community rights, and to “eradicate evil from the midst of the Jewish people,” (Devorim 17:12) the final responsibility for punishing criminal evil devolves not upon man but upon G-d. And He will not fail in His mission. “And I shall set My face against that soul” (Vayikra 20:5, 6) and “He will not acquit” (Sh’moth 34:7) those who do not repent of their evil but continue upon their destructive path. (Shovuoth 39a) Thus, do we find that even though the Torah itself is replete with in­ stances where the death penalty was applicable, as a practical matter, Jew­ ish courts were rarely able to enforce the death penalty. The restrictions placed upon the court in capital pun­ ishment cases were numerous and quite difficult to overcome. More than a simple majority was required to con­ vict a man of a capital crime; (San­ hedrin 2b and 32a) he required a precise warning of the consequences of his act before having committed it, in order to be liable for such pun­ ishment; (Makoth 6b) circumstantial evidence was prohibited, no matter July-A ugust 1967

garding false conclusions in their tes­ timony (Sanhedrin 37a); no confes­ sion of the accused was allowed into evidence (Sanhedrin 9b and K’suboth 18b); and judges who argued original­ ly for acquittal could not reverse their positions in later debate (Sanhedrin 32a) (though they were not bound to follow their own arguments when the actual vote was taken).

The Talmud is replete with num­ erous other restrictions that made the death penalty a rarity in Jewish life and law. In fact, a court that actually carried out a death decree once in seven years (or, as others say, once in seventy years), was called a “de­ structive court.” (Makoth 7a) The reason for this “leniency” in matters of such grave crimes was not a lack of social responsibility on the part of Jewish law and courts; “And you shall eradicate evil from your midst? (De­ vorim 17:7) was still the byword of the Jewish judicial system. But the Jewish court knew that eventual jus­ tice lay in the hands of the Creator of all men and that He would bring to justice any wrongdoer and therefore they abided by rules that prevented the conviction of an innocent man though they fully realized that many guilty people would slip through 35

their hands. For as the Talmud points have been followed. The Sanhedrin out so succinctly—“He Who knows should have sat longer hours, invoked the thoughts of all men will bring to the death penalty more frequently justice any man who has unlawfully and generally do more and not less killed his fellow man.” (Sanhedrin to correct the situation. But the San­ 37b) hedrin sensed that in that awful time Therefore, even though the court of the disintegration of Jewish com­ was unable to mete out proper judg­ munal and spiritual life, any efforts ment to criminals, they came to their it would have made would have been proper end nevertheless by the inter­ futile to stem the tide of blood. There­ vention of Divine Justice.* Thus, fore, in complete reliance upon G-d again does the fact that “I am the that He would punish the guilty, they Lord, your G-d” profoundly affect the retired from the scene completely, Jewish system of jurisprudence. Freed putting their trust in Him Who can from the burden of being over-zealous be trusted rather than attempting to in pursuit of the wicked and secure carry through a task which would in the conviction that G-d would ul­ prove them inadequate. timately bring the wrongdoer to jus­ It must seem amazing to some to tice, the court could devote itself fully find that this formula has remained to the defense of the innocent and successful—at least as far as Jews áre the acquittal of the one who was un­ concerned. For with all of the leniency justly accused. From this background present in Jewish criminal law, murder stems the traditional Jewish abhor­ and pillage were always rare occur­ rence of the death penalty and thus rences among Jews. Apparently, po­ the sanctity of human life is exalted.** tential Jewish criminals also shared the underlying conviction that they ROM all of this a glimmer of light would be held accountable to G-d for appears to illuminate one of the their actions, and were not willing to strangest of all historical references tamper with Him on a major scale.** in the Talmud. The Rabbis tell us The classic example of this attitude (Sanhedrin 41a) that “forty years be­ in operation is provided for us in the fore the actual destruction of the Sec­ ond Temple, the Sanhedrin left its Talmud. (Bova Metzia 83b) Rabbi courtroom in the Temple and went Elazar ben Shimon cooperated with into exile,” Why? “Because the num­ the authorities to turn over to them ber of (murders and) murderers in­ Jewish robbers and thieves. Rabbi creased sharply.”* Logically, the op­ Yehoshua ben Korcha strongly re­ posite approach to the problem should buked him saying—“How long will you be a party to destroying members

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* See Sanhedrin 37b for example of how the four types of execution allowed under Jew­ ish law were accomplished by “natural means through Divine intervention.” ** Even in the modern secular state of Israel the death penalty for capital crimes has been abolished except for Nazi criminals. See the Mishnah in Sanhedrin 37a as to the holiness and unique value of human life in Jewish thought and Halochah.

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* See Rashi on Sanhedrin 41a and Rosh Hashonah 31a. See also Sotah 47a that when murderers abounded the laws regarding the sac­ rificial beheading of a calf in order to atone for an unsolved killing were abolished. ** It is interesting to note that the Talmud never doubted that Jewish criminals, no matter how hardened, still possessed an abiding faith in G-d.

JEWISH LIFE

of G-d’s people?” Rabbi Elazar, jus­ tifying his actions, stated that he was merely engaged in “extracting thorns from the vineyard” of Israel. To which Rabbi Yehoshua retorted: “Let the

Owner of the vineyard come Himself and extract His thorns.” Thus again was the primary responsibility for law and judgment left in the hands of the Creator.

F A M IL Y L A W OWHERE does the reliance of a happy marriage but alone cannot the Jew on the ever-present near­ sustain the relationship. It is the in­ N ness of G-d manifest itself as clearly gredient of service to and cooperation as in the intimate, personal phase of human existence governed by family law. Our tradition holds G-d to be an indispensable third party to any suc­ cessful marriage. If G-d is also pres­ ent, then both the man and woman can be complete and complementary partners to the marriage; however, if He is missing from the home, then the fires of discord will consume the easily combustible relationship of hus­ band and wife.* Hence, all of the Torah laws of family purity, social, financial, and physical responsibilities, and the respect due each of the part­ ners, are based on the fact that a duty is owed not only to each of the marriage partners, but to G-d as well.

It is this higher duty alone that can enable marriage to blossom forth into the most meaningful of all interper­ sonal relationships. Long human ex­ perience has proven that any mar­ riage needs the unifying cement of morality and compassion in order to hold fast. Love, physical attraction, wealth, and/or intelligence are excel­ lent ingredients for the make-up of * The Talmud in Sotah 17a deduces this basic rule from the structure of the three Hebrew words—ish (man), ishah (woman), and Yah (G -d). By removing the name of G-d (Yah) from ish and ishah, the word esh (fire) will be all that remains.

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with G-d, the silent partner in every Jewish marriage, that preserves the dough of family life. Therefore, the Rabbis advised “that a man should, if necessary, sell everything he owns in order to marry the daughter of a scholar,” (Pesochim 49b) for by do­ ing so he could expect that the woman would bring to the marriage the necessary background and personality for G-d to also be an integral parti­ cipant in their married life.

One can therefore understand why Jewish law took it upon itself to re­ gulate even the most personal and intimate of marriage relationships, be­ cause by so doing it was merely mir­ roring the desires of the Creator of man and enforcing the wish of G-d.

Jewish law states that the formula for a successful marriage relationship is based on the precepts of Sinai, and that because “I am the Lord your G-d,” Jews are bound to follow them.

He Who created man and woman in His infinite wisdom, “and fashioned from them an eternal structure”* may also be trusted to know how marital happiness may be best achieved. * Taken from the liturgy of the marriage ceremony as quoted in Kesuboth 8a.

37

HIS concept extends to the realm of rearing children as well. Once again Jewish tradition is quick to point out that “there are three partners” in the formation of every child.# (Kiddushin 30b and Niddah 31a) The fa­ ther, the mother, and G-d are all equal­ ly involved in the child’s development.

And just as the* parents owe each other and their child the duty of giv­ ing him the finest upbringing possible, so too do the parents owe a duty to G-d to bring up their child in the light of their responsibility to this third partner in the formation of that child. Thus, the classic examples of Jewish motherhood, Sarah and Han­ nah, achieved their greatness by con­ secrating their child wholly to G-d’s service, and so has it ever been in Jewish life that only by discharging the debt to G-d do parents fully fulfill their obligations to their children.

Children’s obligations to parents are also to be judged by this standard.

Thus, a child who honors his parents is in reality honoring G-d, Who also dwells among the family unit. (Kiddushin 30b) The obligations that one owes to parents are secondary to those owed to G-d, (Kiddushin 32a) be­ cause parents’ honor is directly de­ rived from G-d and if not for G-d, man would not enforce such honors.

The problems of modern-day family life prove the fact that parental re­ spect is dependent upon respect for Divinity and morality. Where the latter is lacking, the former is also in very scarce supply. Thus, do we see that the child who abuses his parents suffers not only the displeasure of his parents, but more importantly, his behavior is deemed disgraceful enough to cause the presence of G-d to leave the family circle. (Kiddushin 31a) For the violation of the prin-

T

38

ciple of honoring one’s parents, or one’s marital partner, is essentially the same as not honoring G-d’s presence in the family; a transgression, once again, of that basic touchstone of Jewish existence— “I am the Lord, your G-d.” * It is therefore perfectly understand­ able why the portion of the Torah dealing with the laws of chastity and immorality (Vayikra 18) is prefaced by the statement “speak to the chil­ dren of Israel and say to them ‘I am the Lord, your G-d’.”** For the basis of Jewish morality in physical and sexual behavior does not lie in social or psychological reasons, albeit these are also valid and present. It stems from the belief in the One G-d Who has ordained for Israel a unique ex­ istence and a definite behavior pattern, and the Jew’s behavior must conform with the wishes of his Creator, for He is the Master of man. *

*

H #

HE entire compendium of other Jewish ritual law (Sabbath, KaT shruth, etc.) is founded on the basis of the fulfillment of G-d’s Will.*** I have attempted to show that even the “legal” laws, such as civil law, crimi­ nal law, and family law, are also * See Tana D ’bey Eliyohu, Chapter 26, that he who does riot honor and support his parents properly is as guilty as one who commits mur­ der, incest, kidnapping, perjury, and covets others’ money! This once again proves how the violation of this precept of Jewish family law is considered to be a denial of all of G-d’s law itself. ** See the comment of Rashi on Vayikra 18 as to why G-d emphasized His Divinity in the introduction to this particular set of command­ ments. *** See the Sifra on Vayikra 20:26. “Let no man say ‘I do not enjoy pig’s meat’—instead let him say ‘I would enjoy pig’s pieat but, what can I do? My Father in heaven h^s so de­

JEWISH LIFE

rooted in the same soil of faith. He who is not willing to accept the basic tenet “I am the Lord, your G-d” will not be able to fathom the reasoning of the Jewish legal system. It is the elemental belief in G-d that enables

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the complexities of Jewish law to exist and provide life-blood to the Jewish organism. He who understands this principle will have taken a giant step along the road from Sinai to Jerusalem.

39

The Gap and the Revolution A " N e w G e n e ra tio n " p e rs p e c tiv e on th e o rie n ta tio n o f com m unal life in J e w ry 's p re s e n t-d a y w o rld c e n te rs .

By ELKANAH SCHWARTZ

IFTY years ago, there was one world center of Jewish activity.

Today there are two. This is not due to addition, but to substitution. The one is no more, and the two are new.

The European address of World Jew­ ry of a half-century ago no longer exists. The current American and Israel major addresses were then non­ existent. And although fifty years is a great period of time for an indivi­ dual, it is but a fleeting moment in the panorama of history, and but an episode in the history of mankind.

This change of addresses was a trau­ matic one.

Nor is it a black-and-white situa­ tion. This is not an instance of simple transfer, of the European Jewish popu­ lation being simply split and relocated.

It must be clearly understood that al­ though tpuch of the European spirit spilled over ipto and onto both America and Israel, each of these two

F

is basically and inherently an original and unique community: sociologically, anthropologically, historically, politic­ ally, economically, and to some ex­ tent, religiously. And the thesis of this essay is simply this: whereas the Jew­ ish communities of the United States and Israel were once dependent spiri­ tually on European Jewish support and guidance, the time has come for the European influence to retire, and permit the now-strengthened com­ munities of America and Israel to grow on their own. The fact as I see it is that in both America and Israel, the gap between the home-grown gen­ erations and the European-oriented generation is growing wider, deeper, and more divisive. And since the bear­ ers of the European orientation will not retire, there will come, from with­ in the two native generations, an ex­ plosion that will remove the European group, which will permit the native

40 x/sj

JEWISH LIFE

y& f

üma^ J

groups to suffer the growing pains of establishing institutions and organiza­ tions that will answer the needs of their own times and places.

Lest this statement be misunder­ stood, let it be explained that the reference is not to the “why” but the “how,” not to the ideology but the methodology. It is not written out of malice nor even hope, but as an ob­ servation that the American and Is­ raeli ways of doing things are differ­ ent from each other and different from the European way. Perhaps the state­ ment appears drastic. However, it is based on a reading of facts and figures against an understanding of the course of human behavior, especially on a national basis.

IFTY years ago as today, Europe, America, and Eretz Yisroel each had a Jewish populace. But the num­ bers, proportionately and absolutely, concentrate differently. Although Jews had been living in the Land of Israel for centuries, it was a twentieth cen­ tury, European-directed emigration into the then Palestine, based on a European-born movement to establish a Jewish State there, that moved towards the establishment of a major community. The first group of Jews to arrive in America came in 1654, yet the American Jewish community did not assume a role on the world scene until a massive European immi­ gration two-and-a-half centuries later.

And even today, even after Holocaust decimation, Europe is far from empty of Jews. En masse, one great Jewry was shattered and destroyed, but be­ fore its destruction was complete, the other two, through the chessed of the Almighty, had achieved their crawling stage. And the two were inherently different from the one.

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A community, local or national, re­ gional or international, is a biological organism. It grows in consonance with its environment. Halochah and tradi­ tion are protectors against assimila­ tion, but never in the history of our people has any community remained totally insulated from its surroundings.

There was always integration, or at least adaptation. Observe, for example, the liturgical melodies of contempor­ ary Occidental and Oriental cantors.

The chant of the Sephardic chazzonim resembles Arabic intonations. Hillel did not challenge Shammay in Yid­ dish, for this German-oriented lan­ guage, never adopted by our Sephardic brethren, grew among the Jews of central and eastern Europe. It is doubtful that the Rambam wore the kappota and shtreimel of the nineteenth century Chassidic rebbeyim. Jews did not live in Europe from time imme­ morial. They came in bygone cen­ turies when conditions forced their exile from Near Eastern habitats, and although the first ones undoubtedly brought with them their then-tradi­ tional orientation, their succeeding generations, up until our own day, reoriented themselves to their Euro­ pean environment. Why, then, must these European accoutrements be foisted upon two communities that seek to respond to their own unique environments? Torah is transposable through time and space, and grows in any climate, taking different shapes and forms in different climes.

The current Jewish communities of America and Israel didn’t just happen.

They developed. In their embryonic stages of growth, they needed help, and got it-td-from Europe. This is ap­ preciated. But it gives no license for perpetual domination. When a child 41

learns to be self-sustaining, the parent should wish it well and after being thanked, let the child go off on its

own. The success of the child, even after being independent, reflects credit upon the parent forever.

DIFFERENT ENVIRO N M EN TS, DIFFERING RESPONSES HY are Americans different from lished a system of recognition of in­ Europeans? Why are American dividual liberties. The well-document­ W Jews different from European Jews? ed history of three centuries of Jewish Why are American orthodox Jews participation in general American life different from European orthodox is testimony not so much to the civic Jews? And why are even American interests of the Jews as it is to the yeshivah Jews different from Euro­ tolerance of the non-Jews. The Euro­ pean Jew was also economically per­ pean yeshivah Jews?

Primarily, the American today secuted, and was often forced to re­ wakes up each morning with more sort to unwelcome expedients in order expectation for a piece of fresh bread to exist. The American Jew, thank­ and less of an expectation of political fully, has greater economic freedom, living, and social behavior than the and not only has no need for such European did. While each stands apart expedients but cannot stomach them. from his non-Jewish neighbor, the The American Jew, therefore, reacts to American Jew has a sense of belong­ his environment much differently from ing, is more familiar with that neigh­ the way the European Jew reacted to bor’s language, culture, patterns of * his. Can then the European Jew, who living, and social behavior than the developed his society and community European Jew was with his. To a in response to his environment, mold great extent, the intellectual and social the shape and form of the American behavior of the American non-Jew is Jew’s society and community? different from that of the European non-Jew. European civilization was f I THE woop and warf of the Amerihistorically built on Christian founda­ J- can orthodox Jewish community is tions, many centuries and monarchs of vertical and horizontal patterns. even foisting an official religion upon Vertically, there is service to the im­ the citizens. Even when not official, mediate area: the synagogue, the day the religious limitations against any school, the mikveh, etc. Horizontally, Jew’s participation in academic, gov­ there is service to the broader society: ernmental, or economic activity were the rabbinical seminary, the national severe. American society was built by organizations, the community agen­ refugees fleeing such behavior which cies, etc. The history of each of these had often marked various non-Jewish spheres of development was primarily groups, and therefore established in written by Europeans, or their Ameri-> America a way of life based upon can offspring who grew up with a cultural diversity. They left behind a European orientation. The American system of authoritarianism and estab- approach was subdued.

42

JEWISH LIFE

There are thousands of orthodox synagogues in America. Only a small proportion of them were built and developed by Jews who were not only born in America, but were brought up in an American atmosphere. That there are only a few “American” synagogues does not mean that there are only a few such Americans. There are many, and they grow in numbers by leaps and bounds. They are pour­ ing out each year from the day schools, yeshivoth, colleges, and youth and college organizations. They marry, establish homes, and have children.

They are a massive group, primarily professional, well-educated, better off financially than their parents were at their age, socially acclimated, and possessing a more intellectual under­ standing of their Jewishness and Juda­ ism than their older counterparts.

They demand more authenticity. They therefore, as a rule, feel out of place in the synagogues and shtiblach built by the European generation.

Even the ranks of American-born, English - speaking, college - educated orthodox rabbis are often ignored by this American generation. A rabbi is branded persona non grata if he as­ sumes the “shtick” that European lay­ men go for: appearance, show, etc.

(Americans, of course, are image­ conscious, but demand authenticity to back up the image.) Too many other­ wise sincere rabbis, directed by Euro­ pean-oriented congregants, have been drawn into play-acting an image-pro­ jecting role. These rabbis have no followings of educated Americans, ex­ cept for isolated individuals who have nowhere else to go.

These products of America, includ­ ing non-yeshivah people, will congreg­ ate around individuals such as the Bostoner Rebbe in Boston, and others July-A ugust 1967

from whom they feel they may draw something unique, or else stumble into shapeless and faceless conglomera­ tions of shtiblach and private minyonim. (After all, they must go to shool!) They are not so much afraid of contamination by the world. In essence, they are more at home with the world than is the European-type Jew. The contamination the Ameri­ cans are afraid of is by these Euro­ peans and their1 way of life. They cannot, for example, accept the popu­ lar procedures of fund raisers who have mastered the techniques of patt­ ing the egos of the affluent through testimonial dinners, newspaper adver­ tisements, and glittery plaques. At such “events,” the presence of Ameri­ can-type Jews is apt to be lacking, except for the relatives and business associates of the ones being honored.

HE Day School is the island in the T turbulent sea. True, the initial spiritual and financial injections for this movement came from Europeans.

However, the forces that moved this movement into the forefront of American orthodox Jewish life were totally American. Observe who the principals are, who the teachers are, the PTA people and the executive directors, and who in the community go to sleep with the worries of the day school on their minds. They are almost all American, veritable. Yank­ ees, so much so that it is no longer surprising to find one who cannot speak Yiddish. And too many of these people can recité bitter tales of their biggest obstacle having been the gain­ ing of support for their day school from the entrenched “European” establishment. Perhaps the reason this movement has succeeded and con43

tinues to succeed is because it pos­ sesses an American character* and can draw from American resources.

In other local affairs, “Americans” are outclassing the “Europeans.” The American Jews, for exarpple, are building their mikvaoth more expen­ sively, better equipped, and more popularly utilized than those built by the older European generation. Insist­ ing on higher standards of Kashruth than the Europeans, the American Jews place their confidence in the American ® certification much more

readily than in most endorsements by individual Europeans. Today’s fathers want mohelim who avoid new-fangled innovations. They also exercise more care and are less sparing in cost in the selection of Tefillin, Mezuzoth and other ritual requirements. They are more concerned about a proper Taharah and burial for a deceased than were, and are, some of the Euro­ peans. They buy more seforim for their homes, and do not hesitate giv­ ing them as gifts, not worrying about the recipients using them.

L A K E W O O D A N D 'PLOTSK' N the horizontal scale, the pattern is similar. The national educa­ tional institutions are paradoxes: the students are Americans, and are cyni­ cal of the opinions of their European supporters. And more and more, these yeshivoth are turning to the American crop for support, for these give in far greater proportion to their ability while being more sympathetic to the activities they are supporting.

There is sometimes a dichotomy within a yeshivah. A notable and en­ couraging example of its non-existence is in Lakewood. Rav Aharon Kotler, zatzal, did not attempt to recreate a Kletsk, Warsaw, Pressburg, or Frank­ furt. He sought to create a Lakewood, and succeeded. While personally re­ taining his kappota, beard, and Yid­ dish, he did not push his students toward these, as long as they did the one thing he wanted them to do: study Torah diligently. And this were they inspired to do: in American suits, and beardless, and in English. Perhaps that is why his students have succeed­ ed far and beyond all other yeshivoth

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combined in carrying this spirit into the hinterland, establishing Torah cen­ ters in Philadelphia, Denver, Boston, St. Louis, and Scranton. Those who did so put on beards, but, in the spirit of their Rosh Yeshivah, left Lakewood in Lakewood. When they came to “Phillie,” they established “Phillie,” and in Scranton established Scranton.

Somewhat on the other side of the coin is another great yeshivah I will call Plotsk. I had occasion to spend some intermittent mornings there and was pleased to find a large, modern Beth Hamedrosh filled with vibrant, energetic, “swinging” American boys learning Torah with great zeal and diligence. Yet hovering in the atmos­ phere was “The Spirit of the Alter Plotsk,” the nostalgic, chip-on-theshoulder attitudes of the emigres of the Plotsker nechboduth (dignity), Plotsker shtiblach, Plotsker yahrtzeiten, Plotsker eulogies (unfortunately the only time they all gather), Plots­ ker humor, and Plotsker cynicism. At one Plotsker funeral, I rode in a car with five such European Plotsker, who JEWISH LIFE

still addressed each other with the names and in the tones they were familiar with from thirty and forty years ago. I felt myself riding in a time-machine, set back half-a-century to the other side of the world.

In today’s Plotsker Yeshivah in Brooklyn, the faces of the faculty and of visiting alumni (of the European Plotsk) seem to reflect a frustration of not being able to totally relocate the atmosphere and spirit of Plotsk of Europe. However, the faces of the students seem to reflect even more strongly (and some older ones say so privately) that they want no part of it. They are more interested in Sura, Nehardea, and Pumbedetha.

TUDENTS in such yeshivoth often wind up in one of two categories, S sometimes falling from the first into the second though never the reverse.

The first category is of those who seek to perpetuate their ideals through teaching, the Rabbinate, or other ac­ tivity in the “Jewish Civil Service.”

The bitter pill is when they learn they must function in an atmosphere gen­ erated by the same type of laymen they were cynical of in their student days. This drastic personality change often serves no one any good: the yeshivah they came from, the posi­ tions they enter into, and worst of all, they themselves. Yet there is no choice. Only the son or son-in-law of the Rosh Yeshivah can look forward to an insulated yeshivah life, and even then comes in for a few surprises.

The second category is of those all-too-many individuals who leave the yeshivoth to enter the . nonyeshivah world of no community in­ fluence. They cynically exclaim: “If I had become a rabbi or a principal, I’d still be a businessman, dealing in July-A ugust 1967

unpredictable commodities. This way, at least, I make a living, and I have no silly meetings at night.” And all too often, these expatriates welcome “refugee” rabbis, principals, and teachers into their ranks. But the re­ verse never exists. The working at­ mosphere generated by congregants and board members who are not fully American-oriented serve more as a detraction for competent personnel than as an attraction for them.

ERHAPS the most fertile sphere for community observation is the P national organizations. The reason is simple: it gives an opportunity to look at many local communities at once, and reflects the patterns of communal cross-pollenization. Organizations mir­ ror the community.

For purposes of study, let us look at eight groups: five lay organizations — the Union of Orthodox Jewish Con­ gregations of America, the National Council of Young Israel, the Religi­ ous Zionists of America, Agudath Israel of America, and the Poalei Agudath Israel of America—and three rabbinic organizations—the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, the Rabbinical Council of America, and the Rabbinical Alli­ ance of America. The two first men­ tioned are congregational federations, while the other lay groups are of the open membership type. The rabbinical groups are professional associations, each applicant individually processed and approved for membership. How­ ever, their memberships are not limit­ ed to the Rabbinate, so that the agen­ cies become the communal mouth­ pieces for teachers, principals, and other non-pulpit members of the “Jewish Civil Service.”

45

Torah Umesorah, a major national agency, is not included, because it is “assigned” to a specific and limited, though vitally important, function.

Most other national organizations are hardly more than sets of stationery.

There are three observations about all eight organizations that merit con­ sideration: 1. For all their individual and col­ lective activity, they have never earn­ ed the guardianship of major trusts, foundations, or donations. Yeshiva University can list gifts and endows ments of a million dollars or more each. Other yeshivoth and institutions can point to bequests of half-a-million dollars or a quarter-pf-a-million dol­ lars each. Yet, none of these eight groups has ever been appointed to spend, or oversee the spending of, large sums of money. Does this reflect an inability to generate faith and trust among the people?

2. Although they all subscribe to the same Torah, there is no formal co­ operation. A d hoc, there usually is, but de jure there never is. There are nine Zionist groups in America that possess greater divergencies of opinion against each other, yet sustain an American Zionist Council to speak in a unified voice f o r ’the movement.

However, eight orthodox Jewish groups cannot even print stationery to represent some form of minimal formal cooperation. Does this reflect an inability to generate faith and trust among themselves?

3.

They were all born in virgin times over half-a-century ago within a fourteen-year period. In 1898, the UOJCA was established in midtown Manhattan. In 1912, the Young Israel movement was born on the Lower East Side, and Agudath Yisroel was born in Katowitz, in Europe. The others are offshoots of these or other roots, or came up in between.

The UOR was organized in 1902.

The RZA is a branch of a movement born in Vilna in 1903, as is Agudath Israel of America an offshoot of the Katowitz group. The Poalei Agudah of America is an offshoot of the Poalei Agudah organized in Warsaw in 1920, which was itself an offshoot of Agudath Yisroel. The RCA is an outgrowth of the one-time Rabbinical Council of the UOJCA, and the RAA was not born as an organization, but as a transformation of the Torah Vodaath Rabbinic Alumni.

What this reflects is that the last time a distinct effort was made to create a national American orthodox Jewish organization was over fifty years ago (NCYI) at a time when only two other such organizations (UOJCA and UOR) were in exist­ ence, when the size and scope of the American orthodox Jewish commun­ ity, as well as the general American Jewish community, was totally differ­ ent from the way they are today, and long before the aforementioned trans­ fer from Europe to America and Israel of the central address (es) and activities of World Jewry.

N E W C O N D IT IO N S , N E W NEEDS E R T A I N L Y , just as and conditions, so do the post-World C these eight groups arose in re­ War II conditions of Jewish life in sponse to the needs of their times America warrant a new approach, a 46

JEWISH LIFE

new conception, a new language, and new organizations, reflecting contem­ porary insights and social conditions.

This apparent self-perpetuation of outmoded community agencies con­ tributes heavily to the indifference of the native American youth to the overall problems of the orthodox Jew­ ish community. Nor are these interest­ ed newcomers properly informed: the senior community, for all its efforts, has not been able to supply the gen­ eral community with a vehicle of in­ formation, be it newspaper, magazine, or radio-TV, that is of integrity, in­ telligence, honesty, and non-partisan­ ship, that would be more than just a paid-off source of publicity releases.

Impressions are drawn that the mem­ bers of the “Orthodox Establishment” are concerned more in knowing what each other is doing than in keeping in touch with the rank-and-file. Ameri­ cans want more from their agencies, but these are in the main out of touch with those they represent. The vast numbers of the home-grown young adults, in Monsey and Long Beach, in Allentown and Elizabeth, in Brookline and Silver Spring, in Skokie and Wyckliffe and Seattle, by and large have little representation or expres­ sion. They compose a qualified and gifted majority being governed by a timeworn and rusty minority. The water is pure: the pipes have to be changed.

Of course, an answer can already be heard: do the birth conditions of these eight groups necessarily delimit the scope and system of their activities today? Is it really necessary to create new agencies to serve the interests of orthodox Jews, to encourage religious observances, and present the orthodox viewpoint to non-orthodox Jews and July-A ugust 1967

non-Jews, when agencies already e^ist for just such purposes?

Rather than attempt a complicated answer, permit me some negative rea­ soning: if these eight agencies would actually be so idealistic and competent to efficiently fulfill all these require­ ments, then why are there as many as eight groups?

Why three rabbinic groups? First was the Union of Orthodox Rabbis.

It helped in the establishment of rab­ binical seminaries, then refused to ac­ cept graduates of these seminaries as members. Naturally, some Americans were forced to establish another group, the Rabbinical Council of America. Eventually, when the Torah Vodaath graduates found an existing dichotomy, they found nothing wrong in following precedence and establish­ ing yet another group, the Rabbinical Alliance of America. A few years ago. formal negotiations, encouraged from the highest sources, were made to merge the American-clienteled RAA with the European-clienteled UQR. The effort was scuttled—by the Europeans.

Why two synagogue groupings?

The UOJCA was established as an association of American orthodox synagogues of diverse origins. The Young Israel movement grew among the Eastern European clientele, con­ centrating its energies in establishing synagogues of a “new” vogue: decor­ um, youth participation, Englishlanguage sermons, community sing­ ing, and rigorous standards of mechitzah and Sabbath-observing officers. In this, they have succeeded immensely.

But what, ideologically speaking, pre­ cludes maintaining this network of synagogues as an integral network within the broader framework of the UOJCA? Was fifty-four years not 47

enough to blend correctly? Why must orthodox Jews, who have far more places of worship than all non-ortho­ dox Jews combined, maintain two synagogue organizations, whose total active synagogue membership is but a percentage of the total number of orthodox synagogues?

ND the »story of the MizrachiHapoel Hamizrachi, Agudah, A and Poalei Agudah is a far-reaching one in its own sense. They were all three born in Europe with their eyes on Eretz Yisroel, and stopped off in America for lengthy visits.

Within each of these three world movements, all born in Europe, and all having major power centers today in America, the corresponding politi­ cal party in Israel is but one in a long list of activities the world over.

Yet in each case it has become a picture of the tail wagging the dog.

Of all movement activities in all three instances, it is the political party that sits in the most sensitive joint, and which influences the conditions and extents of non-party movement activi­ ties. And, for this very reason, all orthodox Jewish leaders the world over called upon these three parties to present a Chazith Datith in the last Knesseth elections, and this Uni­ ted Religious Front did not come to be.

Each of the three groups points an accusing finger to one or both of the others as the reason why the Chazith

did not come to fruition. Be that as it may, the bitter fact remained the electoral unification did not come to be, and world orthodox Jewry was disappointed. Although the world call was for a single list on the ballot, it might have been reasonably antici­ pated that ultimately, with the bless­ ings of the Almighty, the three parties might have become one, and subse­ quently the three movements might have become one. But this did not come to pass, and the regard held for each and all of the three that might have been greatly enhanced was in­ stead dissipated almost completely.

Small wonder, then, that to much of orthodox Jewry, and to orthodox Jew­ ish youth in particular, including Agudah and Mizrachi youth, these senior groups ceased to rank as major factors in the guiding of Jewish life.

And some of this apathy generated among the younger generation of American orthodox Jews is spread on­ to the other groups: the UOJCA, NCYI, UOR, RCA, and RAA. This avoidance of unity in the face of a public call from all factions of ortho­ dox Jews the world over, makes the younger generation feel that these senior organizations are ineffectual in manifesting community demands. Not only did the three “political” groups not listen, but all the other groups couldn’t make them listen. And this issue of the Chazith was not a factor unto itself. Rather, for many it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

UNBRIDGED G A P HE feeling that a European-born side the orthodox fold. Two years ago, T organization will disappear with the World Zionist Organization con­ the passing of the Europeans became vened in Geneva a “Royal Commis­ apparent, interestingly enough, out48

sion,” composed of sympathetic ZionJEWISH LIFE

ists outside the inner political circles, and charged with bringing recom­ mendations that they felt would up­ date the WZO in the light of con­ temporary world and Jewish develop­ ments. (This alone was an intelligent admission that its machinery was getting obsolescent.) One recommend­ ation was to add to the WZO Execu­ tive a few individuals identified with, though not necessarily representative of, other major Jewish movements.

When this was done, a hue and cry arose from the old-line Zionists: “Since when is being a non-Zionist a condition of being a member of the supreme Zionist Executive?”

HE GAP between the generations is much apparent within the five lay groups themselves, vis-a-vis their own youth. In the RZA, for example, a perennial discussion at every con­ vention is: “How can we draw the graduates of our youth movements in­ to our organization?” Recently the thirty-first anniversary of formal Reli­ gious Zionist youth activity in America was marked, and the total number of former members of Hashomer Hadati, Bnei Akiva, Zeirei Hapoel Hamizrachi, Noar Mizrachi, and Mizrachi Hatzair who are in America is in the thou­ sands. Yet the percentage of these people who are members of the RZA is trifling.

The Agudah movement has created a bridge organization, the Zeirei, to help graduates of its youth arm, the Pirchei, move into the senior organi­ zation. Here, too, the gap is obvious, for the Zeirei people have more in common and more to do with the Pirchei than with the Agudah proper.

Pirchei and Zeirei graduates are float­ ing around, exchanging memories at weddings, bungalow colonies, and

T

July-A ugust 1967

other transient moments. The senior ranks are almost void of any of them.

Poalei Agudah in Israel and in parts of Europe has a vibrant youth or­ ganization, Ezra. In America it is vir­ tually non-existent. In fact, the senior organization and members are almost exclusively carry-overs from Europe, and the organization has unfortunately gained almost no American following.

The National Council of Young Israel has historically perhaps the best over-all youth record, many of the leading figures throughout the move­ ment tracing their movement origins to their own younger days. Ironically enough, many youngsters who had been drawn to Orthodoxy through Young Israel went on to call “in­ ferior” its standards of Orthodoxy, and refuse to permit themselves or their children to have anything to do with it. (Whether this reflects sadly on these people or on the organiza­ tion is a matter for discussion.) Some observers feel the program has slack­ ened through time, not keeping in touch with overall community devel­ opments, and that its influence is wan­ ing. That the senior movement has in the past kept its youth in tow is significant. Whjat is open to observa­ tion is how many current graduates of the youth and college programs will join the senior movement.

The UOJCA has recently created a dynamic youth arm* the National Conference of Synagogue Youth. It is too soon to judge the relationships its graduates will enjoy with the senior organization.

HEN the younger generation wants to do something, they W tend to do it out of the realm of the existing agencies. For example, when any such young group—an intellectual 49

X college group, a studious yeshivah such a guest in offices supplied by the group, a bustling professional group, NCYI, the three guests are sensitive or a relaxed homey group—wants to to being publicly identified with their hear a speaker worth hearing, they hosts. And COLPA went so far as to do not go through the organizations grudgingly seek a neutral Brooklyn and institutions, but seek out* person­ address after turning down offers from nel within these agencies. In fact, if two senior agencies. a list were made of all names on all In two instances, an individual in­ the stationery of these eight organiza­ stitution has branched out into com­ tions, of Yeshiva University and Luba- munity service—Yeshiva University vitch, of Torah Umesorah, and of all and the Lubavitcher movement. Each the paper organizations, there would offers a variety of services to the com­ be scarcely a dozen who would be munity at large, and many people called upon to illuminate the younger have learned to turn to one or both minds. Each and every one of these of them in certain areas of need. agencies does enjoy the participation However, they can never be recog­ and support of enlightening individu­ nized as community groups in the als, who as a rule never rise to the true sense of the term, not only be­ real policy-making level of these cause they were not created as such, groups. but even more, because they do not Another example is that in the only even attempt to function as such. YU four current collective instances I is a school, first and foremost, initially know of where Americans created and primarily. Lubavitch is a center American agencies to meet American of a particular brand and dynasty of needs, namely, the Association of Chassidism. The two never convene Orthodox Jewish Scientists, Yavneh, meetings of delegates who will, at Association of Orthodox Jewish least perfunctorily, set policy, pass Teachers and the National Jewish resolutions, and elect officers. Except Commission on Law and Public Af­ as suppliers of students and funds, the. fairs, there was, and is, a concerted community has no role to play. effort to avoid identification with any Opinions that emanate from these ad­ one of the existing agencies, although dresses reflect private rather than each s^eksra rapport or liaison^wfth- )public reaction. These opinions may them. (One other such Am erk influence the intellectual climate of X can group, the Inter-Yeshiva Studprit American Jewry, but that would be­ ( Council, has melted.) A lthougnthe long in a discussion of ideology, not ^A O JS and Yavneh use~offices provid­ methodology, which latter is the issue ed by the UOJCA, and the AOJT is under discussion here.

ISRAELI PARALLELS HIS, in turn, permits a look at the Israeli scene. Because I do not yjet live there, and am not a citizen ojf Israel, and in consideration of the

T 5Q

injunction against speaking ill of Eretz Yisroel or what goes on there, my remarks are brief.

The gap between the youngpr, naJEWISH LIFE

tive-born-and-bred Israelis* including orthodox Israeli Jews, and the senior European-born and/or European-bred Israelis, is even sharper, and obvious­ ly so. The European looks upon his senior status in Israel as his oppor­ tunity of reaping rewards for his clandestine Zionist activity in Europe forty years ago. To him, a govern­ ment appointment is such a reward.

The younger Israeli looks upon this as political heresy. To him, the runn­ ing of a state demands qualifications of competence, not of history. All party activity, especially among the three orthodox parties, appears to re­ volve around handing out rewards for pre-State party activity, and the wait­ ing lines are long ones. For the parties —the religious as well as, if to a les­ ser degree than, the non-religious— the State of Israel has become a pie won as a prize, and their constant problem is apportioning their pie to the best satisfaction of all eaters, each of whom has a hearty appetite.

The younger orthodox Israelis re­ sent this. They see a state of people who will know of the Zionist move­ ment only through the history books, and are therefore interested now in preparing for that day. Meanwhile, their seniors satisfy whatever moral compunctions they may still possess by quoting the cliches of thirty years ago, and feel the situation justified.

The younger generation is at least projecting itself into the Israeli com­ munity through solid formations of yeshivoth and youth activities. The twenty-one units of the Mercaz Yeshi­ voth B’nei Akiva, for example,^and the massive B’nei Akiva youth organi­ zation are considered by many ob­ servers as the only movements grow­ ing in proper response to the unique needs of contemporary society. Yet July-A ugust 1967

these two groups cry out about their neglect, a feeling which, right or wrong, only serves to strengthen the gap between the generations.

F COURSE, in both America and Israel, the so-called senior Euro­ O pean generation could challenge the younger American generation by say­ ing: “You want something done? Do it yourself. Who is stopping you?”

Responsive as this may sound, it isn’t honest. True, no formal restric­ tions exist. It can be done. But a child needs more than a lack of parental restriction to do something he feels should be done. He wants his parental blessing and active encouragement.

When a thoughtful young man or woman is fed publicity about certain organizations claiming to be the watchdogs of orthodox Jewish wel­ fare, and then those same groups turn a deaf ear to this young one’s rightful demands, he cannot help but feel that these groups are not all they claim to be. He feels alienated, and believes they do not understand his needs.

Were such to be the case with but one or two such younger people, the entire issue could be dismissed. How­ ever; ; the actual prevalent feeling among the demanding, intelligent, thoughtful young generation is: “There is no one to talk to.” And their sensé of alienation is intensified.

The American and Israeli genera­ tions are much appreciative of the contributions of the European genera­ tion to the moulding of the American and Israeli communities. In fact, the Americans and Israelis are aware that they have obligations not only to themselves but to all of Jewry and mankind, and recognize that the labors of their predecessors retained 51

the link of the generations through history. But just as a child wants par­ ental encouragement for his activities, so should the parent be wise enough to know when to step aside and let

the child carry on alone, while keep­ ing a sharp critical eye from the dis­ tance. And the intelligent parent knows that the success of the child reflects well upon the parent.

* T IS TIME fof those of the Euro­ pean orientation to step aside and permit their American and Israeli off­ spring to carry on on their own. The offspring have proven themselves in the field of education, and other limit­ ed areas where given the opportunity.

They are ready, willing, and able, but suppressed.

Of course, as right as this may be, no one is naive enough to expect a sudden exodus or mass resignation.

The forces of human nature are strong, but the forces of history are stronger. If correction is not made from above, it will come from below.

When the Zionist movement appeared to get nowhere through political nego­ tiations, a major faction moved towards “practical Zionism,” making their way to Eretz Yisroel and estab­ lishing settlements, and this system ultimately dominated. When the American synagogues appeared fo have failed in becoming the founts 6f

I

* spiritual revitalization, yeshivoth were created, and became the popular movement.

The generations are out of touch with each other. As each day passes, the size and strength of the European sector decreases, while the size and strength of the American sector in­ creases. Theoretically, transition could be made with time. But history and human nature don’t work that way.

Suddenly, unless steps are taken in the right direction, the gates will fall, and the dam will burst.

ET US close with a posuk that was written in reference to an­ other situation, but which serves us well even here: “Your little ones, that you said should be a prey, and your children, that this day have no knowl­ edge of good or evil, shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.” (Devorim 1:39)

S

—

52

-

w (J h I^

JEWISH LIFE

B o o k R eview s In Search of Self

By Esther Offenbacher

HOPE IS MY HOUSE. By Devorah Wigoder. New York, Prentice-Hall, 1966, 282 pp. $4.95. ? f l j OPE IS MY HOUSE” is a book X I about Jews and Judaism written by a convert from Catholicism. The reader who enjoys intimate autobio­ graphical revelations or the one whose penchant runs to amateur philosophy on the future of humanity in general and Jews in particular will discover a kindred spirit in Devorah Wigoder. Those of us who look first to see what yet an­ other author can say about orthodox Judaism will find their answer quickly.

Mrs. Wigoder is clearly antagonistic.

When reading this book, one is re­ minded of the story about the spaceship of little green men sent jto observe planet Earth. After hovering briefly over a major city and taking a quick look M rs . Offenbacher lives in Bala Cynwyd, Penn­

sylvania.

July-A ugust 1967

at suburbia, they reported back to their own planet. The earth, they concluded, is inhabited by shiny, boxlike earthlings which move about rapidly on four wheels. They are cared for by two-legged slaves who emerge from split-level or multi-storied buildings to wash them with hoses. The earthlings are driven to feeding stations by their slaves where other slaves pump a liquid food into their bodies and maintain their health.

They are injured or die suddenly by col­ liding with one another. The dead are heaped on large, unmarked mounds scattered throughout the countryside.

Mrs. Wigoder’s observations on life among the Jews seem in part to origi­ nate from the same vantage point as the spacemen’s interpretation of man’s inter­ action with his automobile. Many of her insights are highly perceptive, with an “outside-looking-in” clarity, while her oversimplifications and misinterpretations 53

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54

JEWISH LIFE

lead us to examine our own attitudes and behavior as orthodox Jews.

Born into a devout Irish-American family, her account of the yearning of a disillusioned Catholic girl for an emo­ tionally and intellectually fulfilling life, her anecdotal narrative of her conversion by a professor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, followed by marriage and set­ tlement in Israel, together with her ap­ praisal of the meaning of Jewish exist­ ence, form a saga of self-revelation.

Woven into the subjective narrative are her analyses of Israel s religious, social and political structures, the status of Jews and Judaism in parts of western Europe and the present and future of Judaism in the United States! Her pos­ tures in these areas are a blend of bright, incisive comments with superficial, obvi­ ously prejudiced judgments.

From her tours through the U.S. as an Israeli Hadassah lecturer, Devorah Wigoder probes the American Jewish scene, its leadership, its institutions, its values, its youth. Evaluating the role the American rabbi ought to play, contrasted with the role he is often “pushed into,” she says, “The attempt of many rabbis to be all things to all members of the congregation’s board often reduced them to the category of a football.” Concerned with the need for leadership, lay and rabbinic, she goes on, “Those who dare to lead, whether in matters of state or spirit, must be competent to see beyond the limited vision of mere ordinary men.” Her concern with the spiritual needs of youth here and in Israel should nudge at least some uncommitted parents towards a conscious Judaism. Repeated­ ly, she appeals for the transmission of faith, of “spiritual experience.”

But it is this very emotionalism of her own Jewishness which leads her to some basic misunderstandings of the Jewish religion. She sees social morality and

July-A ugust 1967

justice as the sum total of religious func­ tion. Her education in her new religion is essentially humanistic. No Talmidey Chachomim or orthodox intellectuals seem to have exposed her to the legalistic aspects of Judaism. Her emotional needs unmet by her church and by her mother whose rejection she felt so keenly, she grasped the Jewish religion with an al­ most Chassidic passion. Her quest is for acceptance and joy. This background, to­ gether with her role as the wife of a conservative Jew, understandably arouses her resentment towards orthodox re­ strictions on conservative participation in the religious leadership of Israel.

Of her frustrations with religious ex­ perience in Israel we learn that “The problem mainly was that we had not found a synagogue in which we could find an intimate quality.” We are not told which synagogues the Wigoders visited. Perhaps her initial antagonism to Orthodoxy and the resentment at being separated from her husband and sons at services precluded her finding the spirit­ ual uplift she sought. We cannot judge from the text whether her lack of con­ tact with individual orthodox Israelis can be attributed to her own choice or—and here there is room for a bit of painful introspection—to a lack of organized concern by the orthodox community and its individual members with their grop­ ing brethren on its fringes.

Whatever the foundations of Mrs. Wigoder’s orientation, her pronounce­ ment about the religious needs of Israel comes without surprise. “What we cer­ tainly do not need is another Temple!

We can accept the miracle of Statehood . . . yet forego the ancient custom of daily sacrifice, significant in the first and second Temple periods.” In another dic­ tum, she rejects entirely the concept of Torah Min HaShomayim.

Obviously, Mrs. Wigoder knows little

55

about Torah-true Judaism despite the Jewish lore she has assimilated. She is not alone. Jewish and non-Jewish fmedia continually misrepresent the traditional Jew who is currently apt to be categor­ ized as the “fundamentalist,” certainly a derogatory term by the standards of the modern liberal citizen. For this reason, “Hope Is My House” is the embodiment of the challenge inherent in all such mis­ statements and misunderstandings ex­ pressed by Christians and many non­ orthodox Jews. We are exposed, ana­

lyzed, and categorized inaccurately once again. Why? Perhaps it is a failure pure­ ly at the public relations level.

But perhaps the wider affirmation of our adherence to halachic Judaism requires a degree of collective response to the modern environment for which not all of Orthodoxy may be ready. Per­ haps the mirror being thrust at us, cracked and distorted though it is, illu­ mines facets of our collective being which could bear our most careful and thorough scrutiny.

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56

JEWISH LIFE

A Taste from the Barrel

By Maurice Lamm THE GOLDEN HERITAGE: An Inspirational Treasury of Jewish Though! for Young Adults of All Ages. By David M. Hausdorff. New York. Philipp Feldheim, Inc. 1966, 260 pp. $5.95.

A BRAHAM LINCOLN once pithily ± \ . described a book in his characteris­ tic fashion: “People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.” “The Golden Heritage” is that sort of thing.

David Hausdorff is a sincere and in­ telligent author who has a broad knowl­ edge of Judaism and a genuine desire to fill the generation gap that is widening in alarming proportions. With this equip­ ment and motivation he has set out to do that which is impossible and, perhaps, should never be attempted. He has tried to inspire and magnetize the “Young adults of all ages” to the golden heritage of Judaism by pasting a collage of the literature, philosophy, law, lore, ethics, morals, and history of the Jewish people in two hundred and sixty pages. If the Talmud is a sea, this is a tiny maelstrom in which swirl historical glimpses, bio­ graphical vignettes, technical Biblical analyses, philosophic crumbs, ethical manifestos and literary curiosities that suck the reader under the surface. The nature of the material is good. The treatment of it is such that it makes your mind spin but leaves you, finally, intact and unaffected.

R abbi M aurice L am m , spiritual leader of the

Hebrew Institute of University Heights, Bronx, New York, is Dean of the Akiba Hebrew Academy there, and lecturer at Stern College for Women. He is the author of a forthcoming book, “The Jewish Way of Death.”

July-A ugust 1967

The author has two objects: to con­ vince and to demonstrate. His essays aimed at convincing are directed at the intelligent Bar Mitzvah lad. Under this heading are discussed the conflict of yetzer ha’ra and yetzer ha’tov, circum­ cision, Tallith, Tefillin, and the holidays.

The essays of demonstration are brief introductions to the great books of Judaism, followed by pertinent excerpts.

These selections clearly are aimed at nothing less than college seniors. With the best of the author’s intentions these two categories are on two distinct levels of diction: one is bookshelf grey, the other pastel yellow, and both serve their separate purposes if read on different planes. The subject is massive and author Hausdorff could surely have done a more admirable work in two volumes.

The essays of persuasion are decidedly the weaker portion of the book. The style is forced chummy, the organization is haphazard. Why do selections of Akdomuth and Onochi Shimata appear be­ tween chapters describing Torah and excerpts from Torah commentaries? And why does yetzer ha’ra come between holidays and symbols? It must also be noted that in the space allocated each item the subject must be treated too cryptically to be treated at all. One sim­ ply cannot do justice to a complex sym­ bol such as Tefillin in the space of two sides of a page. It is better left undone.

FTIHE excerpts from the great literaM. ture have real value. For this alone the book is worth acquiring. Here, too, there are weaknesses. There is, for ex­ ample, an omission of excerpts from the

57

Chumosh because there is no substantial translation that is “authorized” which can convey the true spirit of the original, and because all parts of Torah have equal value, and thus allow no pref­ erences. The review of the books of the Prophets in a pitifully few paragraphs, giving the number of verses and listing names of heroes, is no review at all.

There is a completely random, blind man’s buff’s selection of out-of-context Biblical commentaries. But there are many truly magnificent selections from the later literature, simply and beauti­ fully translated. For including excerpts from Mivchar Ha-Peninim, Chovoth HaLevovoth, Kuzari, Menorath Ha-Maor, and especially the Ethical Wills which the author has selected very wisely, he is

to be congratulated. This is material every Jewish youngster should own and read and reread.

“The Golden Heritage” sometimes only glitters, sometimes can truly be mined. If you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you will like.

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58

House o f the Jewish Book" T e l. W A 5-3180

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JEWISH LIFE

L e tte rs to th e E d ito r BROTHER'S KEEPER New York, N.Y. We were greatly dismayed by much of what Rabbi Samuel A. Turk includes in his dissertation on crime and morality, “Am I My Brother’s Keeper?”, in the May-June issue. While we share with him a deep concern over the rising crime rate and also believe that govern­ ment must be vigilant in apprehending and prosecuting criminals, we are un­ able to accept his apparently unlearned indictment of recent Supreme Court de­ cisions on criminal law.

Rabbi Turk marshalls Halachic au­ thority in an attempt to show that Jew­ ish criminal law would require rejection of the present American rules regarding the use of confessions, etc. However, in the final analysis, what emerges is little more than a potpourri of homilies on justice and morality which few us would question. But, as Rabbi Norman Lamm has so conclusively shown in his cele­ brated discussion of the Fifth Amend­ ment and Halochah which was cited by Chief Justice Warren in the Miranda case, the Torah view and the Supreme Court approach are harmonious.

What concerns us most is Rabbi Turk’s attitude that the Supreme Court somehow is encouraging a crime wave and contributing to moral decay. Thus he writes: “With morality and ethics at its lowest, such legal abstractions pro­ nounced by the judges add up to absur­ dity and evince a callousness to a dan­ gerous reality.” Also, “Sifspects are con­ sistently refusing to answer questions put by police. As a result, many more crimes will remain unsolved.” To sup­ port these and similar allegations, Rabbi

July-A ugust 1967

Turk relies on statements by several critics of the Supreme Court.

Permit us to make it clear that Rabbi Turk ignores the preponderance of reli­ able evidence that conclusively shows that: 1) no correlation exists between court decisions knd the incidence of crime; 2) the confession rate has re­ mained unchanged since Escobedo and Miranda; and 3) there has been no ap­ preciable change in the conviction rate as a result of these decisions.

It is nothing short of amazing that a person who could be sufficiently re­ sourceful to dig up the testimony of the exalted director of the Texas Rangers could at the same time fail to note the clearly contrary views expressed re­ peatedly before congressional commit­ tees and elsewhere by former Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, his suc­ cessor Ramsey Clark, and numerous other respected authorities.

We are also amazed that he can so placidly ignore the results of two im­ partial studies of this subject. These were made by Jqstice Nathan A. Sobel of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn and District Attorney Younger of Los Angeles County. They refute the alarms of the frenetic critics of the high court.

Rabbi Turk also cites three cases where murderers have been freed be­ cause of the Supreme Court. We are familiar with two of these: in one case, the person involved was recently con­ victed and sentenced to life imprison­ ment; in the Suarez case—a crazed man murders his common-law wife and five children—a careful analysis of the facts shows that it was the result of ill-ad­ vised procedures followed by the office

59

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60

Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 84 Fifth Avenue New York, N.Y. 10011 Gentlemen: □ Please ship me one Packaged Sukkah designed by the Spero Foundation. Check for the amount of $102 is enclosed. □ I also want 80 bamboo sticks, which will cover entire Sukkah, and I am enclosing an additional $18.00.

Nam e...................... .................................................................................

Address........................................ ........................................................

City and State...................... ..................................................................

JEWISH LIFE

of the Brooklyn District Attorney that Suarez is now free.

We earnestly believe in the promo­ tion of the moral climate that Rabbi Turk desires. But we insist that this can­ not be accomplished when law enforce­ ment officials are indifferent to the laws of the land.

The Constitution and Bill of Rights have provided basic civil liberties to all citizens and residents of the United States which have afforded the Jewish community in the United States an op­ portunity unparalleled in the Diaspora for growth and development. The achievements of the Jewish community and individual Jewish citizens and resi­ dents of the United States, in terms of their religious and secular development, have been in a large measure the product of these civil liberties. In its approach to the position of the individual, Halachic tradition has shown great concern for the position of the individual and for the protection of his basic rights and dignity.

In the light of the foregoing, it seems paradoxical to suggest, as Rabbi Turk does, that Halochah requires an emer­ gency suspension of constitutional guar­ antees. In our opinion, such a position is faithful neither to historical Halochah norms nor to the constitutional tradition of the United States, nor yet to the best interests and welfare of the Jewish com­ munity and its individual members.

H erbert Berman L awrence K obrin D r. M arvin Schick

RABBI TURK REPLIES: The best indication that the critics of my article speak from a lack of knowl­ edge is the acerbic and disdainful tone pf their letter. They very glibly cast aside the great Halachic sources which

July-A ugust 1967

I culled to support my position and accuse me of engaging in homilies. Not one solitary Halachic authority who contradicts my thesis do they mention, except to say that my revered colleague, Rabbi Norman Lamm, in his discussion of the Fifth Amendment apparently ar­ rived at a different conclusion, and that he believes that “the Torah view and the Supreme Court approach are har­ monious.”

The purpose of my article was not to criticize the Supreme Court or American Jurisprudence for not being in accord with Torah law. No great profundity is required to know that the laws of our country differ substantially and in numerous ways from the laws of Juda­ ism. What I did try to show was that though the laws of the Tprah are eternal and immutable, provision was made that judicial criminal procedures be adjusted and changed in accordance with the in­ cidence of crime in society. No right or freedom was meant to be unlimited if it jeopardized the safety and well­ being of society. My contention is that the Supreme Court could well learn proper timing from the wisdom of this Jewish tradition.

The Constitution has been known to be interpreted sometimes strictly and at other times broadly. Any student of American history knows this only too well. Is it wise for the Supreme Court to widen the constitutional rights of sus­ pected criminals and to shackle the hands of law enforcement agencies at a time when the country is plagued by organized crime and when murders, muggings, and rapes are at an all-time high?

The writers claim that crime will not be reduced by “law enforcement officials being indifferent to the laws of the land.” What laws are they referring to?

In a recent 5-4 decision, obviously four

61

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JEWISH LIFE

judges of the highest tribunal felt that such rights were not inherent in the Constitution. The Court since the found­ ing of the Republic did not feel that there was such a right until a few months ago. The writers state it as a matter of fact that there is no correla­ tion between Court decisions and in­ cidence of crime. Why then did seven members of the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement, among them three past presidents of the American Bar Association, ask for federal legislation to allow the courts greater latitude in interrogations and the use of confessions even if it necessitated a constitutional amendment?

The writers will probably hail Attor­ ney General Clark’s decision forbidding all wiretapping, bugging, and eaves­ dropping except in cases of national security, as a great advance of human rights. District Attorney Frank Hogan told the New York State Constitutional Convention on June 7th that wiretapping was his “single most valuable mid effec­ tive weapon . . . particularly against organized crime.”

My critics apparently show little knowledge of Halochah and would do well to profit from the little Halachic material I furnished them in my article.

I show there that Jewish tradition is indeed very concerned with civil liberties of suspected criminals in normal times.

Jewish tradition reveals, however, that in a society rampant with crime and bloodshed, these liberties should cer­ tainly not be expanded and if anything should be restricted. Expansion of such rights should wait until the moral status of the country improves. The exalted positions of the Supreme Court justices do not exonerate them from using a little common sense and utilizing better judicial timing.

July-A ugust 1967

The assertion of my critics that the Jewish community has prospered under guarantees of civil liberties granted by the Constitution is not at all germane to our subject. Because we as Jews enjoy the rights given by the Constitution to all United States citizens in no way obligates us to endorse every Supreme Court ruling of such rights, no matter how abstruse the judges’ interpretation may be. Justice White in the Miranda case said that the Court’s ruling “has no significant support in the history or language of the Fifth Amendment, and in some cases will return a killer, a rapist or other criminal to the streets to repeat his crime wherever it pleases him. As a consequence there will not be a gain but a loss in human dignity.”

Individual rights have certain limitations even according to the Constitution. The degree of such limitation is surely a mat­ ter of opinion. My critics have no monopoly on such opinion.

CORRECTION NEEDED Staten Island, N.Y. One of the cutest mistranslations of the Christian Bible is in the opening verse of the second Psalm: “Why do the heathen rage. . .

Let’s set the record straight. The meaning of *Lamah rogshu goyim . . .” is, “Why are the gentiles in commotion and why do the peoples vain­ ly speculate.” It was not unnoticed that Tehilah 83 took on hew meaning before the outbreak of the recent Israel-Arab war, with its recital by the nations that encircled David’s Israel, “Let us cut them off from nationhood.” Tehilah 2 now achieves a similarly fresh signif­ icance in the light of the current debate in and out of the United Nations over the status of Jerusalem. “Lamah rogshu goyim. .. ?” From President Johnson to Kosygin, from DeGaulle to the Viet 63

Cong, from the Pope to Nasser, and now the U.N. by 99-0, the unanimous de­ mand rises up, “Jew-*-quit Jerusalem!”

Jews make no claim to Mecca nor to Rome. But a thoroughly ^secularized world whose religion is less than skin deep has suddenly discovered that there are three great religions to whom Jeru­ salem is sacred. In truth, Jerusalem, as a city, is sacred only to Judaism. Chris­ tianity and Islam have shrines within Jerusalem. But the concept of Kedushah in application to a city itself is unique to Judaism—Jerusalem has always been a Jewish city. Before 1917 the Moham­ medan Turk held control. For the fol­ lowing three decades the Christian Briton ruled and then for two decades the Mos­ lem Jordanians held sway. Under British rule Jews were permitted to weep at the West Wall—an example of Christian charity—at least in contrast to Moslem intransigence which denied the Jew even the privilege of dropping a tear at the Kothel Hama’aravi. But scarcely a single voice was raised for the interna­ tionalization of the Old City when Arabs held it and Jews were excluded from it.

No protest was heard when Jewish shrines and graves were desecrated. On the other hand, during that time, the United States, the beacon of Western Democracy, assiduously avoided recogni­ tion of Israeli title even to the New City although it was built only by Jewish sweat and dearly defended by Jewish blood and sacrifice.

Does the Christian world really doubt the sincerity or ability of Israel to pro­ tect Christian shrines? Does the Pope really think that the Jew is less trust­ worthy than the Arab has been? Of course not. Then Lamah rogshu goyim-— Why are the goyim so exercised? What do they fear? The answer is not to be found in regard to the Christian holy places. They are safe and every Chris­ 64

tian knows it. The answer is in Verse 6: “V’ani nosachti malki, al Tzion har kodshi.” It is the rebuilding of “har

kodshi” jthat they fear.

Egypt is deliberately flooding its an­ cient temple sites with the building of the Aswan dam. In the United States the condemnation and bull-dozing of houses of worship and historic shrines is a regular occurrence if such buildings are unfortunate enough to be caught in the way of projected super-highways or housing developments. But the whole world is united in a resolve to prevent Israel from touching down at its ultimate territorial goal and to deny Israel the sovereign prerogative of eminent domain over physically held territory.

How accurately the Tehilim describe this: U.N. debates as “yehegu rik ”; the assemblage of heads of state and rulers as “malchey erez Vroznim ,” casting to the wind all restraint in their villification of Israel, “n’riatka eth mosrothemo.”

This Tehilah is rich in other parallelisms which need not be labored. But the final posuk contains instruction whose Christological distortion found its way into the old J.P.S. Bible. Nashku bor, mean­ ing “Gird yourself with purity,” is mis­ translated by substituting the Aramaic meaning of bor for the Hebrew meaning of “purity” and by mistranslating nashku as “kiss”!

The lesson of the recent war, even as in Israel’s War of Independence and in the Sinai Campaign, should be clear: the weaponry—the neshek—of Medinath Israel, if it is to hold the fruits of its victories, must be bor—purity. For then it will have an achuzah unto the ends of the earth, which in modern terminol­ ogy would mean to be a world power of a new kind, uniting moral and phys­ ical strength.

R euben E. G ross JEWISH LIFE

Gefilte fish like mother used to make.

Mother’s Gefilte Fish. An American Passover tradition. Only the freshest fish. Just the right amount of spices. Slow-simmered to bring out the delicate flavor.

For the holidays, for any day, serve what Mother's knows best.

Gefilte fish. (Traditional OldFashioned, Whitefish and Yellow Pike, or all Whitefish.)

In jars or cans. And remember Mother's Margarine.

And Borscht. And Schav.

And Matzo Balls. All Pareve and Kosher

Only if your mother made great gefilte fish.

For low s odium d ie ts —M o th e r's new U nsalted Gefilte Fish.

T h e c o u n try ’s m o st p o p u la r V egetarian B eans—strictly K o s h e r , strictly pareve.

lt*s newlffhe m o u à fs iz e o f H e in z K K e t fh u p ! It h a s thi (C o n t h e label!

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