Jewish Life July-Aug 1968 by Jewish Action

Announcement

70th Anniversary N ational Biennial Convention OF T H E

Unton of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America will be held at the W ASHINGTON H IL TO N in W A SH IN G T O N , D.C. W ednesday, N ovem ber 27-S unday, December 1, 1968 Kislev 6 to Kislev 10, 5729 • PLEASE RESERVE THESE DATES

Thanksgiving Week . . . in the Nation’s Capital

Vol. XXXV, No. 6/July-August 1968/Av-Elul 5728 <T'3

THE EDITOR’S VIEW Saul B e rn ste in , Editor P aul H. B aris L ibby K laperman D r . M arvin S chick R abbi So lo m o n J. Sharfman

Editorial Associates E lkanah S chwartz

Assistant Editor 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. (212) ALgonquin 5-4100 Published by U n io n of O rthodox J ew ish C ongregations of A merica J oseph K arasick

President H arold M . J acobs

Chairman of the Board B e n ja m in K o e n ig s b e r 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,

VISITOR FROM TH E D E P T H S ..........................................................

T H E MESSAGE O F FRANCE’S NEW JEWISH E R A .........................................................................................

ARTICLES T H E SIX-DAY WAR AN D A F T E R / J. Goldschmidt i i . .

M IDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD ORTHODOXY/Jerry Hochbaum

N ATU R E, M AN, AND TH E JEW/Berel W e in ........................

A SABBATH TO REM EM BER/David B. Hollander..........

IN T H E LAN D O F T H E INCAS/Jacob B e lle r......................

BOOK REVIEWS TRADITION IN M ODERN GARB/lsaac L . S w ift................

A M AN O F EXAM PLE/Sholom M orrow ..................................

A “ NEW " WAY O F TEACHING/Louis Ginsburg.................

DEPARTMENTS CASES FROM T H E RESP0NSA LIT ER A TU R E/ David S. Shapiro.................................................................................

AM ONG OUR C O N TR IB U TO R S ...................... Inside back cover LETTER S TO T H E E D IT O R ....................................................................

Cover and drawings on pages 26 and 29 by Naama Kitov

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

July-August 1968

L e tte r s to th e E d ito r "CAMPUS AND JEWISH EDUCATION" Brooklyn, New York I have just read, with some dismay, the article in the March-April issue by Shnayer Leiman, suggesting remedies for the prevalence of disbelief and non-re ligiosity among Jewish college students. The author’s premise seems to be that the yeshivoth are not preparing their highschool graduates to cope with the chal lenges to orthodox Judaism posed by the complexities of modern life; with this diagnosis, I agree. But the solution sug gested by the author would, in my opin ion, be worse than the malady he seeks to cure. Mr. Leiman would streamline the yeshivah high-school curriculum, prune away the extraneous, “non-pme tical” matter, and prepare the graduate to cope with his college studies by giving him a firm and thorough foundation in the basics of Jewish theology and philos ophy. At first blush, this may seem whol ly feasible, but I think the author’s rea soiling is superficial and fallacious. I can scarcely believe that Mr. Leiman would wish to solve the current doctor shortage by similar stratagems, i.e., elim inate the theoretical and non-practical courses required in the pre-med curric ulum and let the high-school graduate proceed directly to the pragmatic study

of medicine and surgery. What need to le^m the mysterious chemical and physi cal properties of matter, or the history of the biological sciences? Although these studies undoubtedly have their value in a theoretical, “mind-sharpening” sense, let the medical school administrators bet ter ask themselves, “Which courses will enable Us to instill a maximum of medi cine in a minimum of time?” Can anyone seriously suggest that such a curriculum change would improve the quality of medical care? Is it not evident that certain disciplines simply do not lend themselves to condensation and su perficiality? To put on the roof of a house before establishing a ground floor is a foolish waste of time and effort. Would the yeshivoth adopt Mr. Leiman’s modifications, they might well fail even with the minority to whom they are pres ently giving adequate training. May I suggest that Mr. Leiman’s fal lacy is in thinking that if we will only hit upon the proper combination of halachic and philosophic subjects to be instilled in our youth, we can prepare a 17-year-old to face the apparent dichot omy between his Jewish and secular spheres of thought. But this teen-ager is simply not equipped to appreciate the complexity, beauty, mystery, and truth inherent in Judaism. Moreover, and this I must strenuously insist, without proJEW ISH LIFE

longed, sustained immersion in those studies the author classifies as the “the oretical, nan-practical, purely mindsharpening tractates of the Talmud,” the student will never arrive at an apprecia tion of what it means to be a Jew. Do not reject these tomes as dry mental gym nastics—they are the vital foundation upon which Jewish philosophy and the ology are built. Many generations oi Jewish scholars have realized that Bova Kamma is not primarily the saga of two outdated oxen goring each other, but rather the blueprint for a fair and just social order; they have seen how Chazal appraised the individual’s responsibilities to society and to another person’s prop erty. The problem is that the student does not stay in yeshivah long enough to be aware of the major moral lessons inher ent in the Gemorah. Mr. Leiman further complains that in many yeshivoth, Aggodah, the “mirror reflecting the most sublime truths of our heritage,” is glossed over. But he fails to realize that precisely because of its sub limity, Aggodah cannot be properly un derstood by the intellectual novice. If my memory serves me correctly, Maimonides himself intended to publish an Aggadic guide, indicating which are alle gorical and which may be taken literally. In the absence of such a guide, Aggodah remains an obscure element in the Tal mud. And no less a teacher than Rashi was puzzled at times by Aggodah (see, for example, Chulin 90b). Yet it is this most profound and abstruse subject mat ter which Mr. Leiman would employ as a primary textbook for the inculcation of practical Jewish values. The very attendance at college indi cates that the youth realizes his knowl edge of the world is incomplete; highschool was merely an introductory, a foundation upon which he must build in

July-August 1968

the university. Shouldn’t this yardstick, at the very least, be applied to the Torah, that most profound system of knowledge? How can one be so presumptuous as to assume that we can efficiently pack all the necessary, “practical” Jewish knowl edge into a few review books, cram them willy-nilly into empty minds, and pro duce young men firm in their faith, clear in their outlook, well-grounded in the philosophy and theology of the most sub lime faith in the world! Teaching Maimonides’ “Guide to the Perplexed” to a young mind unfamiliar with the subtle ties of Gemorah would, I am afraid, perplex more than guide. A proper un derstanding of Judaism can only be the result of a lifetime of study and thought. If this generation “occupies itself with Torah like the blind,” it comes at least partially from those people whose an swer to the problem of waning Jewish identification is in less study. We have a great problem with our youth, true. But rather than try to instill all Jewish knowledge in them within their four short years in high-school, we should be racking our brains to find a way of in spiring them with the desire to continue, in breadth and depth, their Jewish edu cation. Instead of rejecting Bova Bathra as too remote to be of interest, let us strive to illuminate it for the student, awaken him to the excitement of true intellectual research, stimulate him to delve ever deeper into its mysteries, implant in him not only the necessity but also the desire for more understanding, and then we will have started him on the only path which can lead him to be truly well-versed in the principles of Judaism. Let’s not fool ourselves, or him, into thinking that at seventeen he has learned all he need know. Rabbi Alfred Cohen Young Israel of Canarsie

MR. LEIMAN REPLIES: It was most encouraging to learn that a distinguished rabbi has agreed with my diagnosis of the problem. It is no small matter when Jews are in agreement in rec ognizing and delineating a specific prob lem, especially when it concerns Jewish education. Apparently, we differ consid erably concerning its solution. I say “ap parently,” for while Rabbi Cohen crit icizes some of my suggestions, he does not offer an alternate solution, except for the very general remarks contained in the last two paragraphs of his letter. In them, he calls for an intensification of Jewish study which would inspire stu dents to continue their Jewish education beyond the high-school level. Now such an intensification must either be quanti tative or qualitative. With regard to hours spent in the classroom, the yeshivah high-school student is already over-burdened, so that no quantitative modifications of any significance can be expected. Qualitatively speaking, we may strive for better qualified and more in spiring teachers by providing for teachers seminaries, and by creating better teach ing conditions. Higher salaries and fewer hours might induce more qualified per sonnel to enter and remain in the teach ing profession. In general, the social status of teachers in the Jewish com munity needs to be raised to the high level our Sages so long ago established for them. Too often, those who devote themselves to teaching Torah are looked down upon rather than looked up to. Perhaps if Yeshivoth Gedoloth were bet ter financed, an atmosphere more condu cive to Torah study might be engendered whereby better qualified and more in spired teachers could be produced. Only inspired teachers produce inspired stu dents. If Rabbi Cohen had these thoughts in mind, we are in full agreement on

these matters. But they alone will not solve the problem. For while we must certainly strive to inculcate students with a love for Torah study beyond the highschool level, we must also recognize that despite our efforts, thousands upon thou sands will not continue their Jewish edu cation in a Yeshivah Gedolah. They are easily the vast majority of students in the observant Jewish community. And so long as they exist, they cannot be written off. The current financial plight of so many yeshivoth serves as a constant re minder of the importance of preventing the alienation of these students, if only so that they could one day assume the role of active baale batim who will sup port Torah institutions. Their very chil dren might then study Torah at those institutions. It is an established fact that numerous yeshivah high-school graduates, upon en tering college, elect to no longer remain observant Jews. I speak not of a few iso lated cases, but rather of an alarming trend which is due mostly to a variety of personal, social, and intellectual prob lems, or combinations thereof. Many of these students spent twelve years in a yeshivah day- and high-school. One hardly expects an eighteen-year-old to “appreciate the complexity, beauty, mys tery, and truth inherent in Judaism”; but if after twelve years of intensive Jewish study so many cannot withstand one year on a college campus, something is grave ly wrong with the Jewish educational system. I shudder to think of the results of a comprehensive examination in To rah studies, a Jewish “college boards” ad ministered to yeshivah high-school sen iors throughout the United States. I wonder what percentage of Jewish stu dents could list the names of the Twelve Minor Prophets? How many could list in order the parshioth ha-shovuah, much JEW ISH LIFE

less summarize their contents? How courses, but many extremely practical many would know which massechtoth and formerly required courses as well. belong to which seder? How many could They have elected to do so precisely be list and define the thirty-nine ovoth me- cause of the doctor shortage and the lochoth? How insignificant (some will ar need to produce a maximum of special gue, for one can always look it up,) but ists in a minimum of time. Thus, at many how indicative! medical schools, students will now earn My suggestions were intended to pro their medical degrees without ever hav vide for an intensive Jewish education ing taken a course in dermatology, ob during the high-school years. Would that stetrics, or gynecology. On other grounds, students would continue their Torah stud Rabbi Cohen’s comparison is totally fal ies after the high-school years! Whether lacious. The yeshivah high-school gradu or not a student chooses to continue his ate on campus must be prepared Jewishly Torah education after high-school, he at eighteen, if he is to spiritually survive. must not be short-changed while in high- The medical student will not practice school. Surely, “a proper understanding medicine independently until he com of Judaism can only be the result of a pletes four years of medical school, one lifetime of study and thought,” and even year of internship, and three years of then, one is never certain. But there is residency followed by military service. If also a level of understanding Judaism for he had to practice medicine at eighteen, five-year-olds, and for ten-year-olds, and medical school administrators would by even for eighteen-year-olds. My point is all means have to ask themselves “which simply this: I suspect that the present courses will enable us to instill a maxi standard of understanding Judaism for mum of medicine in a minimum of eighteen-year-olds barely approaches the time?” ideal level for ten-year-olds, set by our 2. Rabbi Cohen’s statement that I have Sages almost 2,000 years ago. I sin classified some tractates as “theoretical, cerely believe that the curriculum sug non-practical, purely mind-sharpening gested in my article, when implemented tractates of the Talmud” (the quotation and taught properly, would not only bet marks are his) is his own invention. 1 ter prepare students to cope with the never used those words to classify any secular world, but would go much further Talmudic tractate. I clearly stated that in inspiring students to continue their the underlying principles of Bova KamTorah studies after high-school, either ma, Bova Metziah, and Bova Bathra are in a Yeshivah Gedolah or through inde just as relevant today as they were in pendent study. With these prefatory re Talmudic times. Nor did I state or im marks in mind, I wish to address myself ply that Bova Kamma is primarily the to the following specific points: saga of two outdated oxen goring each 1. Concerning the pre-med curriculum,other. What I did say was that the con I am not sufficiently aware of all the temporary student evinces little interest facts to voice an opinion one way or an in civil law and in the legal circumstances other. I am informed that many medical that were current two thousand years ago schools, including those at Harvard Uni in an agricultural society. In order to versity and at the University of Penn enhance student interest in Talmudic sylvania, have indeed opted to eliminate study, such study ought to be confined to not only “theoretical and non-practical” those tractates which best serve to de-

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velop the student’s identity with current many who lived after Maimonides, such Jewish practice, e.g., Berachoth, Shab- as Rabbis Abraham Benveniste and Ja cob Chagiz. Aggodah formed an integral both, Megillah, and the like. 3. Rabbi Cohen would have us bepart of the curriculum and was taught to lieve that because Maimonides did not Jewish youngsters at Castile (1432), Sapublish an intended guide to Aggodah it * fed (1632), Jerusalem (1657)* Verona remains an obscure element, and cannot (1688), and Padua (1715), just to list a be taught in high-schools. I wonder, first, few communities, whose yeshivah cur if Aggodah was studied before Maimoni ricula have been preserved. The famed des was bom? Secondly, apparently Ma- Rabbi Eliezer ben Nathan of Mayence harshah (1555-1631) and Maharal (ca. goes so far as to suggest that students 1520-1609) felt no compunctions about who have not succeeded with their Tal studying Aggodah, and issued lengthy mudic studies should be taught Tonach, commentaries on it, far more compre Midrosh, and Aggodah instead of Tal hensive than we might ever have expect mud! (Cf. Assaf, Mekoroth Vetoldoth ed from Maimonides. Surely Rabbi Hachinuch Beyisroel, IV, 40.) 4. I nowhere stated or implied that Cohen could consider Maharshah and Maimonides’ “Guide” ought to be studied Maharal to be trustworthy guides through in yeshivah high-schools. Much of it is the sublime passageways of Aggodah. Rabbi Cohen asserts that Rashi was puz predicated upon an alien philosophy zled at times by Aggodah. He would which is no longer a topic of serious have done better to cite Maimonides, study among Jews (see Malbim’s intro who, guide and all, admitted his occa duction to Yecheskel) and need not con sional puzzlement with Aggodah (Moreh cern even the more mature minds among II, 26). Rashi was also puzzled at times them. Other sections, such as those treat with Tonach (cf. commentary to Bere- ing prophecy, suffer from neglect. In the shith 28,5) and Halochah (cf. Megillah area of Jewish Thought, a comprehensive 32a and Teshuvoth Rashi, ed. Elfenbein, study of Maimonides’ Thirteen Ikkarim Responsum 121); shall we then omit To would be most appropriate for highnach and Halochah from the high-school school students. Useful for the study of curriculum? Indeed, I fear we may no the Ikkarim are Maimonides’ full state longer be able to teach much of the Tal ment of them in his “Commentary on the mud either, for it too abounds with “ob Mishnah,” Sanhedrin 10; Rabbi Joseph scure elements.” Rabbi Cohen adds: “Yet Albo’s “Sefer Ha-Ikkarim”; and especial it is this most profound and abstruse sub ly Don Isaac Abarbanel’s “Rosh Amaject matter which Mr. Leiman would em nah” (reissued Tel-Aviv, 1958; cf. the ploy as a primary textbook for the incul laudatory remarks of Radbaz, Responsa, cation of practical Jewish values.” I know 344). The former is best used as a class of nothing more profound than the Torah room text, while the latter two will serve and nothing more abstruse than the Ha the teacher well in preparing his lectures. lochah. Finally, it is not I who would employ the Aggodah for the inculcation of Jewish values, but our Sages of old (as in the Sifre passage cited in my arti cle) and a host of Jewish authorities throughout the generations, including

'NELLY SA CH S' Waltham, Mass. Sharon Baris is in error when she says, in her perceptive review of “O the Chim(continued on page 64) JEW ISH LIFE

the EDITOR'S VIEW Visitor From the Depths H P H E full meaning of the visit to the United States of Rabbi A Yehudah Leib Levin of Moscow is likely to remain hidden for long to come. The character of the Soviet Union’s rulers leaves no room for doubt that it was a carefully calculated move on their part. But it is also apparent that the pressure of world public opinion, awakened to the reality of Soviet Jewry’s plight, impelled the move. Universal condemnation of the Soviet regime’s Jewish policy has penetrated the walls of the Kremlin. In this there lies ground for hope. Whether designed to conciliate public opinion with real pros pect of easing Soviet Jewry’s travail, or whether a diversionary trick, the dispatching of Moscow’s Chief Rabbi on his unprece dented American mission is a sign that the Soviet rulers, in this instance, were propelled by, rather than being masters of, the force of events. For the Jewish world, the lesson is clear. We must see to it, with every means at our command, that the des perate situation of Soviet Jewry remains before the eyes of all men, and that those eyes be not blinded to the terrible truth. Chief Rabbi Levin himself was of course placed in an ex tremely exposed position by his Free World journey. He was a pris oner on brief parole. To an extent which none might measure, the P risoner destiny of the Soviet Union’s tortured Jewish populace, and ceron tainly their lives as Jews, hung upon the manner in which he P arole conducted his obligatory mission. The auspices under which he came could not negate the fact that, for Jews and for free men everywhere, he personified the three million Jews of the U.S.S.R. in their mortal struggle for Jewish existence. In that capacity, no matter to what other purpose his visit might be exploited, the reverent honor and brotherly love of American Jewry was his due. S it possible that the masters of the Soviet Union, in choosing the misnamed American Council for Judaism as the initial hosts of Chief Rabbi Levin, were unaware of the gross incom patibility between host and guest? Although the super-Machia vellian is apt to have his moment of stupidity, it would be un wise to bank on the supposition that such was the case here. But whatever its intent, this obscure piece of chochmah served to point the total contrast between what each represents. Nothing

July-August 1968

A S tu d y could have better illuminated the indestructible will to Jewish in C ontrast life of those spiritual-heroes in the Soviet Union who stand fast

to Torah against the terror apparatus of the world’s most power ful autocracy than the supine assimilationism of a group to whom Jewishness in the freedom of history’s greatest democracy is a burden to be shunned and shedded. If, in his enforced association with so negative and unrepre sentative a group, Rabbi Levin gained a glimpse of the most unattractive fringe of American Jewry, his eagerly sought contact with the orthodox Jewish community here surely gave him a stirring and eye-opening view of the pulsating core of American Jewish life. It was apparent that he was overwhelmed by what he saw of some of America’s great yeshivoth with their thousands of junior and senior students, by the scope and vibrancy of syna gogue development, by views of the caliber of the organized forces of the Torah community gleaned at such occasions as his attendance at a meeting of the national Board of Directors of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America and, certainly not least of all, by the electric vista of American Torah youth disclosed in his visit to the National Convention of the Orthodox Union’s National Conference of Synagogue Youth. These experiences, without doubt, brought Moscow’s visiting Chief Rabbi an insight into the realities of American Jewish life which will give new strength to the battle to save Jewish life in the Soviet Union. In every Jewish heart, on every Jewish tongue, there is the hope and prayer that Chief Rabbi Levin’s visit presages the dawn of freedom for the Jews of the Soviet Union. Be the purppse of the authors of the visit what it may, Rabbi Levin’s presence here has touched countless hearts and has served to strengthen the de termination to wrest the death noose from the throat of Soviet Jewry. And in bringing home to American Jews the epic hero ism of our brethren, his visit has brought us the inspiration of the sublime Jewish spirit.

The Message of France's New Jewish Era GENERATIONS-LONG era of Jewish misadventure, grop A ing, searching and re-discovery is synopsized in a current development in France. By decision of the Paris Jewish Consistoire, the organ and mixed choir which have been standard fea tures of the French capital’s Rue de la Victoire Synagogue for over ninety years are now to be abolished. A fossilized relic of the past, the curious deviation from the otherwise orthodox practice of French Jewry’s premiere synagogue had previously characterized the climate of French Jewish religious life. Its elimi8

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nation is a definitive mark of the spiritual upsurge now revolu tionizing the direction of that community. In both immediate effect and wider implications, the devel opment also indicates what Orthodoxy can achieve by a philoso phy and policy of reaching out to others. The phenomenon of French Jewish metamorphosis has been manifestly spurred by a program of trans-Atlantic cooperation and by the impact of the First World Conference of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Synagogues held last January in Jerusalem. These positive associations have served to strengthen the hands of French Jewry’s illustrious spirTrans-Atlantic itual leadership and to guide and inspire its dedicated lay leadB onds ership. Minds and hearts searching for true Jewish foundations have been embraced by Torah brotherhood and have been helped on the path towards Halachic fulfillment. A drastically opposite process might well have transpired had the French community been abandoned to the enticements of the heterodox movements which have been so avidly wooing it. The historical background of French Jewish life and the mas sive problems now confronting the community make its present virility all the more striking. And, these factors emphasize the more strongly the caliber of its key personalities, under whose leadership full-hearted commitment to Torah and Halochah is penetrating the ranks of France’s Jews. ROM the time of the French Revolution, the French Jewish scene was dominated by absorption into the surrounding ep? vironment and by religious indifference. Through this span of years the Consistoire Central has rendered comprehensive service as the recognized national Kehillah, with local consistories per forming corresponding functions in Paris and the provincial cen ters. While officially orthodox, there was embedded within this established pattern an ideological ambivalence inherited from the “Sanhedrin” once convened by order of Napoleon. The ambivaP rice o f lence, delimiting the area of religious commitment though affirm“ E m anci- ing Torah authority, was the price exacted for civil emancipation. p a tio n ” Its result was to drain religious life of vigor and content. Soon reduced to a perfunctory formalism, French Judaism underwent a spasm of imitativeness whose classic symbol was the organ in the Rue de la Victoire Synagogue. The mood was cut short when the Dreyfus Case shook French Jewish foundations, but thereafter the community re mained frozen, religiously and otherwise, in the existing mold. World W ar I brought new stirrings and in the succeeding years diminishing numbers were augmented by an immigration from eastern Europe, soon to be followed by refugees fleeing from Nazi Germany. The rise of Hitlerism brought a harsh new awak ening. With World W ar II, French Jewry was to suffer a full

July-August 1968

measure of Holocaust horror. The end of the nightmare found the community decimated in number and stricken in soul. Among the survivors, few could grasp the meaning of Jewish martyrdom and Jewish being. But these few have counted for very much. They, have led the way to the eventual spiritual rebirth of French Jewry. 1 ITH the shattered fabric of communal life but newly reVv paired, the Jews of France became faced with the care and settlement of hundreds of thousands of refugees from North African lands where they were no longer sheltered by French rule. Fleeing destitute and demoralized from the hostile Arab popu lace, uprooted from their ancient communities in Tunisia, Mo rocco, and Algiers, the vast new influx posed a staggering prob lem to the established French community. Within five years, the newcomers more than doubled the Jewish population of France, Im pact o f now the third largest of the Free World. To economic and social N orth A frican problems of settlement were joined critical religious needs. These In flu x w ere intensified by the gap between the Sephardic-Oriental tradi tion and Arab-world life-pattern of the refugee influx and the Ashkenazic tradition and Occidental culture of the established Jewish populace. It is to the imperishable distinction of the latter that so much has been achieved toward the absorption and in tegration of the newcomers and in helping them re-establish the foundations of religious life. In meeting this historic test, the pace of French Jewry’s re discovery quickened markedly. The younger generation especially became stirred by a new-found sense of Jewish identity and a seeking for Jewish purpose. Inner searchings were now enriched by the impact upon the community of great numbers whose in tense, deeply traditional Jewishness had been but little exposed to the vitiating influences at play in modem Western society. But Q uest and if the situation bore spiritual promise, it also was fraught with R e-discovery grave spiritual danger. Ideologically as well as institutionally, the channels of development were unformed and the guidelines of development unmarked. Surely, then, it was the hand of Divine Providence which brought together, at a critical moment^ the spiritual and lay leaders of the French community with the head of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. From this coming together has stemmed a clarified pattern of religious development firmly rooted in Torah and Halochah. R O FFER IN G to Chief Rabbi Jacob Kaplan, Baron Alain de Rothschild, President of the Consistoire Central, and Jean Paul Elkan, President of the Paris Consistoire, the Orthodox Union’s cooperation in addressing their tasks, UOJCA President Joseph Karasick received a ready response which was immediate-

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ly translated into practical action. Regular communication and a series of trans-Atlantic visits by key leaders and administrators have brought an exchange of experience and technical informa tion, development of youth programs, post-graduate study at Yeshiva University and other major yeshivoth and field training for graduates of the vibrant French seminary, and beyond this, a broad re-visioning of the approach of the French religious com munity. Identifying itself categorically with the ideology as well as the tenets of orthodox Judaism, the community has moved steadily forward in implementing its Halachic stand. At the World Conference of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Synagogues, the role of the participating French representatives was strongly felt. We see then the rise of a vibrant new force, bringing an access of strength to the Torah world of which it is an integral part even as it generates Torah nurture within its constituency. R eciprocal The gains are reciprocal, and more can be looked for. If the Gains dynamism of the North American community can help French Jewry free itself from a static mold, so can the example of the French community’s ecclesiastical integrity help rid the Ameri can scene of its own history-bom blights. HOSE who found in the Paris synagogue’s organ excuse for indifference to the quest of French Jewry might more fitting ly have called for emulation of that community’s rabbinic dis cipline. It is on the American and not the French side of the At lantic that flagrant transgressions of Halochah, especially in such fields as marriage, divorce, and conversion, are not peculiar only to the realms of Reform and Conservatism. It is here, and not there, that marketers of the orthodox rabbinic title who perpe trate these evils are countenanced on the rolls of a senior rabbinic body and it is here, and not there, that Yeshivah mentorship has as yet taken no action in this cancerous problem. American or thodox Jewry, and particularly, perhaps, certain segments of the rabbinic and Yeshivah spheres, can well look to France for tute lage in the implementation of Halochah. If the message of a community’s burgeoning renascence is well pondered on all sides, American Jewry is likely to be the greater beneficiary of the inter-communal cooperation that con tributed to it. Here as everywhere, Jews o f all backgrounds are Call and stirred by a call to the truly Jewish life. It is the historic responR esponse sibility of the Torah community to be the fitting channel of re sponse. The central force of American orthodox Jewry has shown, through its creative, out-reaching program, that it is attuned to the responsibility. Others have each their necessary part to play. The coming pages of history will record the contributions of all. — S. B.

July-August 1968

The Six-Day W ar and After by J. GOLDSCHMIDT

k S the first anniversary o f Israel’s great victory and the twentieth Independence i X Day come into sight, religious Jewry asks whether the great physical and political changes in Israel’s position have been accompanied by any probing into the spiritual state o f the community which makes up the State. With rejoicing over the salvation from imminent danger and over the spectacular achievements slowly receding into the deeper recesses of consciousness, is there any message for this generation that goes forth from those tangible events? Is it enough for us from time to time to re-live those great hours in wonder and gratitude, or to nurse our joy and pride over the redemption o f Jerusalem and much of our his toric homeland by treading their hallowed ground? Or could it be that in addi tion to these sentiments we should realize that such experiences have implica tions for our image o f the world in which we live and for our practical conduct? A nd if the last question were answered in the affirmative— what might those implications be? It may be considered an encouraging sign for the mental climate o f Israel that those questions have been asked and various answers attempted, and not only in the religious camp, but practically in the whole o f the Yishuv right over to the left wing sections. Everybody’s heart and soul had been touched in the upheaval o f emotions, and some fundamental issues that had long been covered by the overgrowth o f the daily routine have come to life again. We shall try to show the thinking that was devoted mainly to two themes: the nature of Israel’s redemption, and the fundaments o f political Zionism.

JEW ISH LIFE

1 THE NATURE OF ISRAEL’S REDEMPTION H E question before us turns oui thoughts back at least several tens of years, to the time between the First and the Second World Wars, when the Zionist movement made its first deci sive step forward by obtaining the Bal four Declaration. The momentum gathered after that event expressed it self in increased immigration and the founding of new quarters in the towns and of new agricultural settlements. Predominant among those who took up the challenge were secular followers of the Zionist movement, people driv en by the wish to escape from some thing— from persecution and the inse curity of life, from the bonds of tradition and religion, which a shallow rationalism then in vogue had taught them to deride and discard, or from a life devoid of challenge and meaning. The religious masses in eastern, cen tral, and western Europe proved much less responsive to the call of those de velopments. Naturally, they looked to their spiritual leaders for a word of guidance, as they were wont to do in all their personal and their communal affairs. Without their approval they would not move. It must be borne in mind, too, that the general mood of the religious Jew is less rebellious against his suffering. He finds satisfac tion and content in a life devoted to the observance of G-d’s commands, the fixed patterns of which exert a moder ating and restraining influence on him. The spiritual leadership of religious Jewry was largely averse to encourag ing a course of action that was sure to break up much of the existing struc ture of Jewish life in the Diaspora without any certainty that a better world could be re-built in Eretz Israel. Nay, it was even by no means sure that a mere equivalent of the great Jew

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ish communities in Europe with their institutions and resources, the famed centers of Torah learning, could be cre ated in Eretz Israel. This position was further aggravated by the fact that many Zionist leaders openly disavowed allegiance to Jewish law and custom. If the Zionists proclaimed that they would establish a Jewish state or com monwealth in Eretz Israel, and these were the people who were to bring this alleged redemption, Torah leadership would have none of it. This attitude was defended without great difficulty by reference to generally accepted Jew ish religious sources. If those were reasons of expediency, though of a high order, there soon ap peared a more basic argument: the Jewish people were not supposed, thus it was claimed by some, to cast off the bonds of Golah subjection and the fet ters of an inferior political status. They had been a sovereign state in their homeland, but had lost that status some 1,800 years ago by Divine decree as a punishment for their failures and short comings. The aspirations of the Zion ist movement were therefore a revolt against the will of G-d, and this was not to be tolerated. The ultimate re demption of our people, their reassem bly in the Holy Land, the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the com ing of the Messiah would come to pass in G-d’s own time, by His open and miraculous action. Nothing human be ings could do by way of political en deavours and practical preparations would achieve those goals. These were pious and plausible ar guments, and since they allowed those who accepted them to refrain from a risky and painful course of action, it is by no means surprising that the mul titude fell in line with these directives.

central and eastern Europe. Moreover, the saving of Jewish lives, surely a su preme value in our scale of values, is not the only merit of that group that we now identify with the ideological vanguard of religious Zionism of our own day. To them also goes the credit for establishing or making possible the establishment of nearly every religious institution in Israel and every religious feature of life in the Jewish State. And apparently, many hold, this was accom plished “without miracles.” Now, let us stop here for a moment. Is that really so that this eventuated “without miracles”? And what do we mean by a miracle, anyway? Certainly we are on safe ground if we say that the passage of Israel through the Red Sea was a miracle, and that the daily coming of the Manna for forty years was a miracle, and that the blooming of Aharon’s staff was a miracle, and so on. But what of the works of Divine Providence in later times? Did not our Sages say that the very existence of the Jewish people among the “seventy wolves” of the other nations was a miracle of the first order, for which G-d was to be recognized and praised by the attributes “great, heroic, and awe-inspiring”? The salvation of the Jews living in the 127 provinces of King Achasverosh and the downfall of Homon was brought about in a seem ingly natural way, and G-d’s name is not mentioned in the Book of Esther. Yet the Jewish people has for thou sands of years demonstrated its firm be lief that this apparently secular event was nothing but an act of G-d, mani fest in what to the naive eye of the uninitiated is simply an intrigue at the court of an oriental ruler. And, similarly, the Chanukah story. It happened much later than the Purim story, when there were no more Proph 16

ets, and nothing could be added any more to the Holy Bible. We know the concise description of the events in our daily prayer: “Thou hast delivered the powerful into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the unclean into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, and the arrogant into the hands of those who study your Torah . . .” It is gen erally agreed that these features were the essence of the Chanukah story, and it is not easy to assert that a small na tion driven to desperation could not have achieved those feats out of its own resources. Where, then, does the miracle of the oil come in? According to Maharal, its function was to assert and demonstrate that those apparently secular events, unusual though they were, were indeed acts of Divine Prov idence. It is not so easy, then, to identify, in our times, remote from the time of Mosheh and Aharon, when we experi ence a miracle, because it will mostly be concealed in what appears outward ly as a course of events that lends it self to a rational explanation, and it takes the pure belief of the really re ligious to penetrate the shell of the “natural order” in which it is clothed and to arrive at the inner truth of G-d’s acting for us—the miracle. Lest we be bewildered by this con flict between what appears to the ordi nary human eye as reality and what the believer conceives as the true essence of things, let us once more turn to Ramban and accept his guidance when he states: Now this verse tells us that G-d ap peared to our fathers in this name, by which He controls the laws of the universe and worked for them great miracles without thereby abolishing JEW ISH LIFE

the laws of nature: \in famine He saved them from death, in war from the sword, and He gave them wealth, honor and everything that is good. And thus the case with all the prom ises of the Torah, the blessings and the curses: for never will a benefit come to man as reward for good deeds or punishment for evil deeds, except by way of a miracle. Arid if

man were left to the natural order his actions would not affect his fate one way or another. But all the rewards of the Torah and all the punishments in this world are all miracles, but they are concealed, so that the observer thinks they merely follow the laws of nature, while in reality they come to man as reward or punishment. (Com mentary to Shemoth 6,2)

ISRAELIS BOW TO THE M IRACLE H EN the Six-Day W ar was over, the key-word of every conversa tion was— miracle. Everything was a miracle, from the last-minute alliance between Hussein and Nasser, which turned out to be Hussein’s undoing, to the lightning success of the Israel Air Force; from the bullet that merely grazed a m an’s skin to the whole over whelming success which created a situ ation that no one had thought possible of realization. And this was no mere manner of speaking : if the word “mira cle’’-- rightly implies the divine power that brought it about, the majority of those who felt the miraculous nature of the events admitted implicitly that be lief in G-d had touched their hearts. It may not be uncommon that men who were very far from observance of any Jewish religious law and custom in ordinary life sought the house of prayer before battle or attended Torah lessons and lectures in the days of stress before the fighting. But it is a unique fact that the stones of the West ern Wall saw scenes of devotion and of wordless prayer, of religious emo tions from “non-religious” as well as from religiously observant battle-worn soldiers such as they probably had nev er witnessed in all their history. The thousands of officers and men, the hun-

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dreds of thousands of Israeli citizens of all walks of life, of all communities, middle-aged and elderly, who returned to the Kothel M a’aravi, and the young, who had never seen it— they all were shaken to their innermost depths, real izing that they were privileged to par ticipate in events whose meaning reached out beyond the stars. “Reshith Tzemichath Geulothenu”— the begin ning of the unfolding of our redemp tion, as the late Chief Rabbi Herzog, of blessed memory, had called our era, had taken on meaning for them all, had become a reality for everyone. Characteristically, a discussion de veloped between Israel’s then Chief of Staff, General I. Rabin, and someone from the religious camp. Rabin was asked: Did he admit that a true Divine miracle had been worked to give Is rael the victory? And his answer was, that he thought the victory was due to the perfect state of preparation of the Israel Defence Forces. Only later it was made clear that there was no con tradiction at all between the two: the belief in Divine Providence in no way excluded, indeed in no way relieved us, from our duty to be prepared; and pav ing the way for further steps towards “Geulah Shlemah,” the complete re demption, required two things— sincere

BELIEVERS IN A C T IO N HESE, however, were not the only voices in the camp of the ad herents to tradition. A number of emi nent Torah sages and saintly persons voiced opinions that differed from the line taken by the majority of their col leagues. Let us hear a few of them:

a) Some hundred and twenty years ago Rabbi Yehudah Alkalay wrote: The redemption of Israel will be at the hands of the kings of this earth. For G-d alone is the source of our help, and he will bring this about through men, just as he caused the salvation from the Babylonian exile to come from King Cyrus. Thus in the future, too, G-d will bring about the redemption of Israel through the kings of this earth by arousing their souls to let them go, and when the Jewish people will ask the temporal powers (i.e., the kings) to do this, G-d will guide their hearts to fulfill this wish. b ) Rabbi Yehudah Alkalay was not the first one to hold the opinion that the future salvation which had been prom ised by our Prophets was to be realized with the active help of the political powers o f this earth. For thus writes Rabbi Dovid Kimchi (13th century) in his commentary to Psalms 146,3: And just as he caused the salvation from the Babylonian exile to come from King Cyrus, thus will he in the future cause the redemption of Israel to come through kings of the na tions. . . . c) In these two quotations the under tone is the problem of human en deavour and efforts as against the mir acle-approach, but the issue is not as ex pressly formulated as in the following quotation from “In Search of Zion”

(Drishath Tziyon) by: Rabbi Tzvi H. Kalisher of Thom, who wrote about ninety years ago: Now, as to the redemption of Israel for which we pine—let no one think that suddenly G-d Almighty will de scend from Heaven above to the earth below and say to His people—Go. Or that He will suddenly send His Mes siah from Heaven to blow on a great shofor to assemble all the Diaspora in Jerusalem and build a wall of fire around the city, and the Temple of G-d will descend from All-High as He has promised through His Prophets. . . . No, my dear reader! Surely all the promises of the Prophets will come true at the end of all time, but not in haste shall we go, and not all of a sudden shall this happen, for step by step will the redemption of Israel come, and slowly, slowly will our salvation unfold. Until such time that Israel will bloom and become very strong in the end—when all the vi sions and promises of the holy Proph ets will be realized. And now, why are we silent? How long shall we fail to comfort Jeru salem? Until when shall we not hug her stones and her very soil? How much longer shall we neglect our longing for the house of our Father in Heaven, and how long shall we neglect doing something real for our own house? Until when shall we love strangers, embrace foreign lands, and think that by our heart’s longing alone shall we ascend the Holy Mountain? No, no my brothers—for it is said ‘with your mouth and your heart, for you to carry it out.’ d) And with even more cutting sar casm Rabbi Kalisher says elsewhere: For our many sins many believe, er roneously, that while they may be sit ting in their houses, entertaining themJEW ISH LIFE

selves by plays and games, everyone according to his taste, suddenly the gates of compassion will be thrown open, signs and miracles will be worked on earth and in Heaven, the words of the prophets will be realized, and they will be called up, everyone from his private residence. But this is not at all true. What more do we ex pect now than at the time of the Baby lonian Exile, when from the outset it was known: seventy years and no more. And yet, how much did Daniel exert himself, how realistic was Nehemiah in all his measures, and those two, at any rate, did not say like those sophisticated people: Just sit back, and the redemption will come all by itself. HIS very limited review shows the religious camp divided into two groups: the one, which counted the majority of adherents, virtually resigned to the Jewish fate of life in the Golah, until such time as we be transported into the Messianic era by supernatural powers; the other group believed no less in the coming of the Messianic era, but its members conceived it as their religious duty to work towards the real ization of the words of our Prophets. H ad not the great Ramban insisted that settling the land of Israel was one of the 613 commandments of the To rah, when “settling” meant: “We are commanded to conquer the land which

G-d has given to our fathers Avrohom, Yitzchok, and Y a’akov, and not to leave it in the hands of any (other) na tion or let it lie waste . . , And do not mistakenly think that this command ment refers to the seven nations we were ordered to destroy, for this is not correct. We were ordered to destroy them if they were to wage war on us, but if they wanted to make peace with us, we were to leave them alone under certain conditions. But we must never leave the Land (of Israel) in their hands or in the hands of any other na tion at any time, in all generations.” Certainly this most determined view of one of the greatest post-Talmudic authorities could not be interpreted to be restricted to the case of a miracu lous redemption of a passive nation. It obviously demanded every effort up to the supreme sacrifice of life in battle in order that Israel should again be master in its own land, and all this without any reference to the coming of Moshiach or the restoration of the Temple. If, then, at any time waging war was not feasible, were we not at least obliged to exhaust every other means at our disposal, to approach the goal that the Torah had put before us, albeit by purchasing the land, by build ing houses and settlements, by plough ing the earth, and bringing its waste lands to blossom again?

BEYOND THE "N ATU RAL ORDER” T IS not for us today to sit in judg ment over the attitudes of each of those groups, all of whose leaders are certainly worthy of our reverence, act ing as they did out of their deepest and purest convictions. But if we view the question in the light of subsequent de velopments, it would appear that the

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second group took the right path, smaller though it was in numbers of leaders. For theirs is the merit of sav ing tens and perhaps hundreds of thou sands of Jewish lives, while many whose loss we lament today amongst the millions of Hitler’s victims had re mained in the great Jewish centers of 15

belief in G-d, and working with all our its deserts to bloom, and to cultivate might and to the best of our under its fields, to develop its natural re sources, to establish its industry, and to standing towards that goal. Here we meet the same formula for a specific objective in the whole proc ess, as we recognized as correct when applied to the general movement which Ramban called “the commandment of settling Eretz Israel.” We could not have hoped to save our lives and our country had we not built up the army, equipped it, and trained it; and we could not have hoped to regain our own Promised Land, had we not come to live in it, to dry its swamps, make

build up its religious life and institu tions. And again we are beset by doubts: have we not seen other nations rebuild their homeland? If all our present day miracles are hidden, who tells us that we really are on the path of our re demption, guided by and approved by Divine Providence? Here we have to review the course of events that led to the present day and then, perhaps, our doubts will be scattered.

HISTO RICAL STAGES N Sivan 5727/June 1967, the Direc tor of Religious State Education in the Ministry of Education and Cul ture of Israel sent a guidance letter to all educators in Religious State Schools, in which he attemped a first summing up of the situation after the Six-Day War. There we find the following:

. . . Let us all strengthen our faith in G-d’s providence for our people, For G-d will never abandon his peo ple, and his heritage he will not leave, We should all recognize that in these few days we have stepped forward towards our redemption and have added a new stage to the previous ones; For— After the great ‘announcers’ of the re demption in the last century there came the first and the second Aliyah, After these and the following waves of immigrants and the growth of the Yishuv without any legal or po 18

litical status—the Balfour Declara tion, which gave us an internation ally recognised title to our land, and the thirty years of the British Mandate; After the period of the Mandate— the founding of the State of Israel, though only on part of our land; After the founding of the State of Is rael—the Ingathering of Exiles, their integration in the society, the economy, and the life of Israel; After all this our boundaries have now expanded and the heart of Eretz Israel, the Temple Mount, and the Kothel Ma’aravi are in our hands . . . This short and concise series could and should be expanded, but here we can offer only a few remarks. \ f [ T E have cited in this paper a few W lines of two of the early “an nouncers of the redemption,” Rabbi Yehudah Alkalay and Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalisher. But there were more, like Rabbi Sh’muel Mohilever and Rabbi JEW ISH LIFE

Eliyahu Gutmacher, and supporting them with their enormous prestige in the Torah world were Rabbi Akiva Eiger, Hatham Sofer, the “Netziv,” Rabbi Y a’akov Ettlinger, and others. Yet It is difficult to estimate correctly today how remarkable it was that the call for such a daring new course could arise out of the ranks of Torah leaders. There were many others who were as learned as these and as devout as these, but they believed that continuation of the Jewish life within its traditional coniines was the manda tory duty. They were the rule, and theirs was the general approval. How much originality of thinking and of ap proach was necessary for the few we mentioned to get up and say that what may have been sufficient until now, was no longer so, and the hour de manded more of everything and new things. And yet— it happened; the ar mor of routine thinking was pierced in a few places, and a whole new territory of religious duties was opened up, of course well anchored in the authorita tive sources. Would these new voices, deviating from the trodden paths, get a hearing? Here we enter the second stage of the series— indeed, a trickle of immigra tion set in. For quite some time those were single persons, sometimes groups of a few friends, then some tens of families, many of them on their own initiative and responsibility, without any supporting organization. But they did come, and the Jewish population of Eretz Israel dared to appear and to settle in areas where for hundreds of years no Jews had been known to live. Land was bought, then it was worked, and settlements were founded, all the time as an enterprise of those who dared, in a country that was notorious for its neglected state and for the cor-

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ruption of its administration. But those pioneers were not deterred, and the work of settling the land and building was continued. How far could one ad vance on this shaky basis, when wpuld a sudden halt be called to this devel opment? ERE comes the next stage— the Balfour Declaration and the Brit ish Mandate. For one thing, what a splendid vindication of the views of Ramban and Radak, who had said 700 years ago that the third redemption would come by the consent of the other nations. But, from a practical point of view—what a startling change! True, the text of the Balfour Declara tion left much to be desired, and the execution of that charter at the hands of the Palestine administration even more so. But this can in no way ob scure the greatness of this achievement and of the stride forward. Much was suffered during those thirty years, but much was learned, too. The Jewish people, and certainly that part of it willing to live in Eretz Israel, was in no way ready and trained to undertake the administration of such a new po litical creation. The service of thou sands o f Jews within a government ma chinery of experienced people acting on well established principles, the ex periment in self-government that the Jewish community was carrying out during that period, and the experience gained for civil life as well as for the services of an army— they all were a training that we were lucky to have gotten before we succeeded to be all on our own. And here we come to the next stage: Statehood and national independence. Here again, battling for existence, we were allowed to proceed by small steps and not by leaps and bounds: the ter-

ritory we were masters of at first was of limited confine but the non-Jewish population in the State, with its many particular problems, too, was small; again we had some time to learn. And when another war was forced upon us in 1956, the Sinai campaign, we were forced to go with other nations, and this, after brilliant victory, compelled us to bow to their demands and give up nearly all we had won, but for one thing: the world and our Arab ad versaries had learnt that the Israelis know to run an army and they know to fight to victory. Meanwhile, another of the messianic objectives had come into sight: the in gathering of the exiles. From some 650,000 Jewish citizens in 1948, the country has long passed the two million mark, mostly through the transport of whole communities in the Middle East to the Israel homeland, and there be gan the difficult processes of integra tion into a society which differed so much from what everyone was used to. But this assembly in Israel, the mingling and adjusting, the giving up of all bonds with lands in the Diaspora— these in themselves were objectives that our Prophets envisaged as essentials of Israel’s redemption, and here they were happening* at least to a part of our people. And after all those preparations the time was apparently ripe for yet an other step forward.

H ER E is one phenomenon in the era under review which we have not mentioned so far, but it has a definite place in our present day think ing on the whole complex. We refer to the appearance of Rabbi A. I. Hakohen Kook, Chief Rabbi of Israel. In contrast to the early forerunners of the Return to Israel, whom we mentioned above, Rabbi Kook identified himself and his religiosity with Eretz Israel: from early childhood he longed to go there, and indeed, he lived there most of his adult life. H e penetrated into every aspect of the great developments that unfolded under his eyes, he re thought many aspects of the Jewish life under the aspects of the role accorded to Eretz Israel in the Torah, he took a most active part in the life of the new and growing community, and he ex erted an enormous influence on many circles both through his personality and through his writings. His scholarship places him with the greatest of many generations before him, and his ideo logical leadership firmly anchored the new Eretz Israel in Halochah and Aggodah, Jewish law and Jewish thought. It is hard to imagine modem religious Israel of today without him, and the coming of such a leader at that partic ular moment is felt by many as one of the many providential happenings of our times.

RESHITH TZEMICHATH GE'ULOTHENU H E series we have reviewed does not claim to refer to the whole of the Jewish people in those 100-120 years. F ar from it, it does not take into account, and much less gives ac count of, such major events as the de

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struction of most great Jewish centers in Europe, or the great stream of Jew ish migration to America. What we do claim, however, is that all the events in this chain are oriented towards Eretz Israel, and they all point, without exJEW ISH LIFE

ception, in the same direction— towards that reality that is pictured in our Prophets and in the later literature as the Redemption of Israel. We have ex plained above that we shall not be able, in most cases, to lay our finger on the exact spot, on the specific link in the chain of events, where ordinary causal analysis will fail us, and where, therefore, we should insert “miracle.” But we are equally insistent that we must hold on to the belief in Divine Providence, as one of the cornerstones of our faith. It is claimed, then, that the contemplation of events over a pro longed period must guide us to the rec ognition of our condition today: Reshith Tzemichath Ge’ulothenu. Seen in this light, a word may be in place regarding the evaluation of the victory of Iyar-Sivan 5727. It has been said that its only meaning is the rescue

of the Yishuv from the danger of an nihilation, threatened by the Arabs. Surely nobody in Israel makes light of this aspect, for we felt near enough to this terrible threat. But all the same the view that this is the whole story strikes the orthodox Jew of Israel to whom the creation of Israel has a religious meaning as typically “galuthi,” i.e., as a view that only someone who lives in the Golah and cannot bring himself to consider Israel a compelling reli gious reality could have uttered. Con sidering the nature of Israel’s redemp tion as a religious responsibility of every Jew alive today, the passing of the H ar Habayith into the hands of Is rael cannot be considered a chance event. Along with everything else that is happening to us and to Israel, this event certainly has claim to a higher meaning.

II: POLITICAL ZIO N ISM RE-EXAMINED ONG before the last shot had been fired in the Six-Day War, all Israel felt that we were confronted with an entirely novel situation. This does not refer to the relief from dan ger, but to a political condition we had so far not known. N o longer was most of Jewish Jerusalem within rifle range of the • Jordanian Arab Legion. No longer were we separated from the Kothel M a’aravi, to which Israelis had always felt and preserved through twenty long years a deeply emotional relationship that the casual tourist can not share. No longer were our settle ments on the northern border threat ened day and night by cannon fire . . . And all this had been achieved by Is rael alone, after the warnings, promises, negotiations of other nations had availed nothing. The magnitude of the

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achievement and the fact that this time (as compared with the Sinai Campaign of 1956) no other power had a right to interfere and to dictate our course of action after the victory aroused great hopes that this might have been “the war to end all wars,” at least in our area, opening the way for peaceful co-existence and cooperation with our Arab neighbors. If the territorial gains of the war played an important part in those po litical speculations, they soon appeared also in a different light. The story goes that a schoolgirl who listened to the radio on the Tuesday and the Wednes day of the Six Days (June 6th and 7th), on hearing that Jericho, Bethle hem, Hebron, and Shechem had been taken, exclaimed in wonder: “Why, we have conquered the whole of the To21

nach!” This innocent remark points up a different aspect of the conquests: most of the lands taken by Israel were essential parts of the historic home land, mentioned over and over in the Tonach: Hebron was the residence of our forefathers; from there Jacob sent Joseph on his fateful journey; there the three couples lie buried. In Jericho, Eliyahu and his disciple Elisha had their last walk together, and Eliyahu went up to heaven in the storm from there. Similarly Bethlehem, Shechem, the Golan. And even the Sinai Penin sula is claimed by some experts always to have been on the horizon of the widest boundaries promised to Abra ham. This went far beyond the Medinath Israel with which we had come to identify ourselves and our territorial

concepts. This was ‘‘Eretz Israel,” the homeland of old, hallowed by history and tradition, every inch of it. We may indeed have sinned against our visions by acquiescing in a state of affairs that was imposed upon us by extraneous factors, while falling short, drastically, of what we were entitled to hope and under obligation to strive for. Now that the \yhole of Eretz Israel had been de livered into our hands, had been given back to us by an act that m ost\ ac claimed as an act of Divine Provi dence, what were we expected, what were we allowed to do? Could any part of “Eretz Israel” be an object of po litical barter, could we undo for polit ical expediency what G-d himself had done for us?

M EDINATH ISRAEL A N D ERETZ ISRAEL OON this question came to the fore and aroused a most animated public discussion, in which the lead taken by a movement “for the Whole Eretz Israel” composed of politicians, educators, scientists, and writers of all parties, while the opposition to this at titude was slow in coming to the fore. Let us hear what some of the speakers had to say. After the Movement for the Whole Eretz Israel had organized a number of public meetings to propagate its ideas, and had petitioned Government to stand firm on the question of non withdrawal from the occupied areas, Yizhar Smilansky, foremost of the writ ers of the younger generation, came forward with a scathing attack on “The Poets of Annexation” :

There is a lot of talk now about “the areas” and what is to be done with them, while everybody knows that

there are not really “areas,” but there are people. However, it is so much easier to speak of annexation of areas than of the annexation of people. The “areas” are by no means empty. No, they are densely settled. Whoever pro poses solutions for the “areas” should not evade the issue: let him speak of those men and women and what he proposes to do with them. That is the question! If this were not so, there would be no problem at all. . . . The moment we agree not to run away from discussing the fate of the people, the real discussion begins. This is a fateful discussion, not only for those who lost the war, but also for us who won it. For victory is no less a test for the victor than defeat is for the vanquished. . . . Being a refugee is a state that every Jew is involved in, and similarly being dis possessed or exiled. And if there is a “Jewish consciousness” it will stop here and look us square in the face. JEW ISH LIFE

Or, could it be that all those ages that we did not take anything from others we just hid our feelings, and now the time has come? Did we not hold a long time that there is another way? Was this not the beauty of our Zion ism that there is another way? And so he goes on to argue for the right of the Arabs (estimated at around a million people) to self-determination, what claims and conditions they have, it being clearly implied that the sooner (and the more of our own free will) we shall return to the boundaries of June 4th, the better it will be, placing a moral stigma on all who disagree with this line of action. HIS drew a no less spirited reply of N athan Altermann, senior to Smilansky, prominent poet and play wright, and active supporter of the “movement.” Here is the opening para graph of his counter-charge:

We should say in favour of Smilansky’s article in last week’s Haaretz that the tone and the enthusiasm with which he declares that the districts of “Yehudah” and “Shomron” are not empty and that people live there, sug gests that he has just forgotten that the “previous” Eretz Israel was not empty of people either, when we came to occupy and settle it. Only thus can one explain that throughout his arti cle he asks again and again whether we have the right to impose our pres ence upon the population of those areas and to organize for them a new (social, political) structure with out asking them, as if they were non existent. Only thus can he ask “can we indeed occupy those areas and re; tain our honest look and human up rightness?” Only then can he argue that we must remember “that always we were treated with exile, confiscation, chicane, and embittering our lives,”

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and therefore we may not measure out the same treatment to others. Against these principles we should perhaps recall that the banner-bear ers of our moral heritage, and Smilan sky amongst them, did not in the least oppose the establishment of the State of Israel, in which a large Arab popu lation remained that was never con sulted as to their agreement that the Galilee or the Wadi Arra (i.e., almost purely Arab settled areas) would or would not be included. Therefore, when Smilansky asks with emotion “what kind of an answer do my dear colleagues imagine they could give to those people who live in the areas they crave?” I should simply reply that since the people in those areas that I “crave” will remain in their places, the answer to them is easier to find than what we, together with Smilan sky, can say to the hundreds of thou sands of refugees who fled the State then (in 1948 ) willingly or unwilling ly. Now Smilansky, though a member of the Knesseth, has in fact never asked the State to take those hundreds of thousands of refugees back, al though they, too, “have deep roots” in their former areas of residence. And, after all, there is this difference that in the present discussion it is assumed that the population will stay with us! We have quoted here in particular those arguments which go right to the bottom of the concepts of political Zionism, leaving room for others that deal with problems of security from at tack and the like, since these are of a less fundamental character. Now both Smilansky and Altermann are in the secular camp. What have religious Is raelis to say? ER E too we find a variety of ap proaches. Many religious Israelis enthusiastically joined the “Movement.” Thus Rabbi M. Z. Neriya, head of the

Yeshivoth Beney Akiva, took an active part in its rallies, expounding the view that we must not return what has been given to us, inasmuch as this comprises territories which are part of Eretz Is rael according to the Halochah. There were a few others who joined those who protested, like Smilansky, mainly for moral reasons. A thoughtful middle road was taken by Knesseth member Moshe Unna of the religious kibbutz S’dey Eliyahu, who advocated cautious weighing of all the implications before taking a decision. In his typical, thor ough way he enumerates a number of problems that we shall have to face: a) if the new frontiers appear to be ideal for our security from attack from outside, the existence of an Arab pop ulation of IV4 million in our midst may easily be a constant threat to our security from within; b) and who will guarantee us that the numerical rela tionship between Jews and non-Jews in Israel will remain even at that danger ously high level? It is a fact that the rate of natural increase of the Arab population in Israel is one of the high est in the world, owing to the medical and social care the State bestows on the minority groups. The Jewish popu lation falls far behind in this respect. You can calculate, then, in how many years there will be as many Arabs in the country as Jews, and then they will

become a majority; c) this must in crease dangers which religious Jews in particular cannot neglect: the social mingling at all age levels and in all walks of life will be intensive. With the large proportion of non-religious Israelis, who will halt inter-marriage? Moreover, since that large group of non-Jews must be allowed to develop their own culture, Israel will lose its distinctly Jewish character, which now still prevails in every aspect of the pub lic life. Is this the “Medinath Isralel” for which we worked?; d) and suppose we were ready to accept all these risks because we protect a policy of Aliyah and of increasing the Jewish birth-rate: have we indeed sufficient basis to make these hopes and plans main factors in our political decision about the liber ated areas? Unna’s views and warnings, though very different in temperament and ten or, did not fare much better than those of Smilansky. Many of the younger generation especially rejected them, not with the force of logic, but with the strength of their convictions that times and events were so extraordinary in all respects that you could not do them justice with the ordinary tools of cold and detached analysis. It was a time for action, not for contemplation, for trusting faith, not for doubting hesita tion.

VIEWS OF THE TO RAH AUTHORITIES H ER E do the religious authori ties stand in this vital dispute? This very question implies a basic attitude, which not everyone shares, namely, that the problem falls within the realm of the Torah, and that the answer must be found there. Some au thorities claimed that this was first and

foremost a question of security and po litical expediency, which must be an swered solely by those who have the factual knowledge in these fields, and no specific knowledge of Halochah is required for that decision. These same authorities maintained, however, that since the security of the Jewish comJEW ISH LIFE

munity in Israel is of supreme impor tance in the eyes of the Torah, the expert decision by the Israel Govern ment was eo ipso the correct Torah course of action to be taken. The com parison with a doctor’s decision on a treatment that involved a collision with the standard Halochah was offered as a well established model for this meth od of solving the problem. It is interesting to note that this at titude was taken by authorities outside Israel, but, with all respect* was re jected in Israel. Instead, in Israel, a body of four hundred rabbis affirmed that it is not permissible for the Gov ernment to negotiate the return to nonJewish powers of any part of Jerusa lem, Judea, Samaria, and generally any part that belonged to Eretz Israel according to Halochah. Prominent amongst supporters of this stand is Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, son of the revered late Chief Rabbi of Eretz Is rael. He could quote, too, the late Rab bi Y. M. Charlop, greatest of Rabbi Kook’s disciples, who wrote in 1937 at the time of the British Peel Commis sion that should any renouncement of however small a part of Eretz Israel be required of those who negotiated a settlement with the Mandatory power, they should rather cut off their fingers than sign such a treaty. Then the Rishon Le-Zion, Chief Rabbi I. Nissim, issued a response, in which he stated: You have asked me to pronounce “Daath Torah” on a matter in which many consult me these days, namely on those parts of Eretz Israel that were liberated in the Six-Day War— if we may return them all or part of them to any other nation. To this I reply, and thus has decid ed Ramban in Sefer Hamitzvoth, Mitzvah 4: “We have been ordered to

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occupy the land that G-d has given to our fathers, to Avrohom, to Yitzchok, and to Yaakov, and not to leave it in the hands of any other nation or to lie waste. This is His command: ‘You shall occupy the land and set tle down in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it. And you shall hold the land as your property as I have sworn to your fathers.’ And, following this commandment He has specified the boundaries of the land and its limits . . . and we shall not leave the land in their hands or in the hands of any other nation in all gen erations.” Eretz Israel is the heritage of every single one of Israel, as is well known and as Rashbah has explained in his commentary (Nedarim 58) and re sponse 637, and thus wrote others of the same time. No individual, or group of persons, including the Israel Gov ernment, is entitled to give up even a foot of its land. This is the Halochah which we cannot leave, and no Halachic authority can decide other wise. Yerusholayim and the whole of Eretz Israel are holy to us, and every day we mention them in our prayers. They have been promised to us by G-d, all the Prophets prophesied that the Land would be returned to us, and will remain with us for ever after. Therefore, no Jew may even consider the possibility of returning any part of the land of our fathers. And we who have seen how a vision that to many appeared distant has be come reality, and the miracle that is beyond all comparison has been worked before our eyes . . . we be lieve and trust G-d that He means it all for our good, and the whole of the Land will remain in our hands, that very soon the ingathering of our exiles will take place, and Jerusalem will be firmly built again. Everyone must feel that this voice

from Zion expresses a depth of feeling and a bond to the land of Israel that will never accept or be satisfied with the method that deals with the ques tion of our entire history and our na tional fate in one and the same cate gory with the question of giving a nonkosher medicine to a patient. There is

a world of fundamental Jewishness be tween these two attitudes. Israel may accept the voice that goes out from here; it will never take its guide from those who in actual fact prefer living in the Golah to living in Israel. And in our ears ring those last words of the Tonach:

Whoever there be amongst you from all His people— Be G-d, his G-d, with him and let him go up— to Israel.

JEW ISH LIFE

Middle-of-the-Road Orthodoxy An Alternative to Left and Right Radicalism

by JERRY HOCHBAUM

ONTEM PORARY American Jew to, American society, the two dimen ish Orthodoxy has been increas sions against which “right” and “left” C ingly characterized as a two-headed should be plotted. phenomenon, consisting of right and left modalities. Although specific cri teria of what constitutes the “right” and the “left” have never been enun ciated, the general tenor of the dis tinction is that within the framework of American societyf the right are “separationists” and the left “integrationists,” Both these sets of terms are, of course, imprecise but the categori zation of individuals and institutions into right and left is growing in use, probably because it is a convenient scorecard by which the players and teams in orthodox Jewish life can be identified. This writer believes such classification distorts the social reality of American orthodox Jewry and mis represents its ideological foundations^ There is certainly polarization and much flak between the extreme right and left ideological camps. However, the traditional Jewish community in America is a long continuum of an almost infinite range of subtle shades and nuances in the quality and charater of commitment to Torah and the acceptance of, and accommodation

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Those classified as the right are usually viewed as possessing an in tense, “fundamentalist”-type commit ment to Yahaduth and also holding to the position that American Jewry can survive and prosper only in the extent to which they establish and maintain a separate socio-religious community, excluding or neutralizing the deleteri ous influences of the American en vironment. The left, with an equally binding but more “liberal” interpreta tion of their commitment to Torah, aspire to a measure of social and cul tural accommodation within general society, all the while preserving the distinctive ethic and identity of the Torah Jew. Paradoxically, in both the right and left camps there is a con siderable gap between their ideological pronouncements and their actual social and cultural functioning. The right preach separation but are not, nor can they be, as segregated as they wish. Similarly, the left is hardly as integrated as their ideology calls for, nor can they be and maintain tradi tional Jewish practices.

N reality, underneath their ideolog ical vestments, right and left have begun to converge in where they ac tually stand sociologically in our society. This is the result of the power ful social and cultural forces oper ating in our society which are restruc turing American-Jewish communal life, albeit with differential impact on the numerous orthodox sub-groups and sub-cultures, depending on their internal structure, historical anteced ents, ideological postures, and the na ture of their entry and exposure to American society. The critical fact is not so much that the ideological stance of most orthodox Jewish bodies is rarely absolute, but is relative to the position of other groups, and as often inspired by political calculation as ideological commitment. W hat is more significant is that orthodox Jews are not responding to American life in the fashion or m anner they are exhorted to by the extremists. This development in the ideological configuration of communal lifb has had minimal impact on the institu tional forces of orthodox Jewry. The “silent center,” the large and ever-in creasing number of orthodox Jews, adherents neither of the left nor right, that has emerged has struck its own delicate balance between integration in American life and maintaining their Orthodoxy. This precarious balance— being in, but not entirely of, Amer ican society—was difficult to achieve several decades ago but is now be coming the statistial norm for ortho dox Jews. In essence, middle-of-the-road Or thodoxy entails the qualified accept ance by individual orthodox Jews of much of America’s extrinsic culture— what it demands in external demeanor and conformity and a very judicious

choice of its intrinsic culture— se lected values, n o rm s/a n d mores that are compatible and even congruent with Judaism’s generic values. It also consists of a very sophisticated dis cernment between involvement in primary and secondary social relation ships with non-Jews-the former re ferring to intimate personal ties and the latter to engagement in profes sional, civic, and related undertakings. The lines separating these levels of involvement in American social and cultural life is understandably hard to draw and is, of course, subject to wide interpretation, drift, and some times, miscalculation. However, American pluralism allows for such experimentation and a growing body of individual experiences in American life is beginning to create not a mono lithic norm but the legitimate para meters of acceptable orthodox Jewish behavior. T present, these kets of solutions resulting from the intense strug gle of orthodox Jews to function as such in American society have not yet been formulated into an ideology sup porting, justifying, and legitimating this middle-of-the-road approach, nor has its H alachic basis been articu lated, such as it may be. Institution ally, there are also few organizations on the national level that give ade quate representation to this moderate orientation. This undoubtedly reflects the fact that middle-of-the-road Orth odoxy is still an individual adjustment, not yet an institutional or collective phenomenon. These tasks now must become the responsibility of those in the “silent middle” who possess the leadership capacity and religious stature and

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scholarship to achieve these objectives. The establishment of a dialogue amongst those espousing the “sh’veel ha-zahav”— the centrist position— would assess their efforts in light of Halochah and Torah outlook and hopefully fashion a new ideological thrust in our religious and communal life. Centrist Orthodoxy is unques tionably most in keeping with the at titudes and aspirations of orthodox Jews and the accommodations they are, and will be, making in American society. F or this reason and at this time, when Orthodoxy is growing in stature and influence, it would be maximally beneficial to bring this al ready emergent religious ideology to bear on the reality of orthodox Jewish experience in America. Furthermore, the articulation and dissemination of this ideology could bridge the institutional chasm that we described earlier between the extreme right and left camps. Unfortunately, the leadership of traditional organiza tions and institutions have often taken positions— right and left— more ex treme than their constituencies, to the

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extent they have them and democra tically represent them. The develop ment of a center movement might give a stronger voice to moderates in the rabbinic and lay councils of Ortho doxy where they are not always heard and perhaps at the very least, create local institutions or constituencies sympathetic with their point of view. The extreme camps, left and right, do not speak for Orthodoxy, despite their growing skill in publicizing their positions. They should not be allowed to supplant the masses of American orthodox Jews in the councils of na tional and local Jewish life, and cer tainly not “k’lapey chutz,” before the American public. Now is the time to make the voice of middle-of-the-road Orthodoxy heard, and to demonstrate that a real and viable alternative to extreme right and left radicalism ex ists and is growing. Traveling the middle road, exposed to both the right and left flanks and their brickbats and deprecations, is always difficult. But orthodox Jewry in this country is slowly but surely moving in that di rection.

Nature, Man, and the Jew by BEREL WE1N ROM earliest times, man has sought to discover the secrets of his en vironment. The recorded history of man is the epic of his attempt to un derstand and ultimately to subdue his surroundings—nature itself. Our cen tury has seen great strides towards the long-sought victory over natural forces and phenomena. Many of the secrets of the physical world have been pried loose and man stands on the threshold of even further discoveries and pro gress. However, our times have also been frought with unbelievable misery and human suffering. As is often re marked, more people have been killed in the wars of the Twentieth Century than in all the previous wars of man kind till 1900. Disease, pestilence, plague, and horror still stalk man’s path on earth. This paradox of progress and regression has baffled the minds of the great thinkers of our age. One of the foremost men of con temporary American thought, Eric Hoffer, summarizes succinctly the battle between man and nature. “Man became what he is, not with the aid of, but in spite of nature. Humaniza tion m eant breaking away from na ture, getting out from underneath the

iron necessities which dominate na ture. By the same token, dehumaniza tion means the reclamation of man by nature. It means the return of nature. —If history is to have meaning, it must be the history of humanization, of m an’s tortuous ascent through the ages, of his ceaseless effort to break away from the rest of creation and be come an order apart.” * H E Torah, in recording for us the origin of man so that we may bet ter perceive his future, points out m an’s task vis-a-vis his natural environ ment. It is to subdue the natural world and rule over its inhabitants—even over the inexorable laws of nature and instinct themselves. That is the simple import of “And G-d said unto them: Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have do minion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living being that creeps upon the earth.” (Bereshith 1, 28). Man is to conquer all of nature, to subdue it, to refashion it if necessary, but never to give into it nor to be himself a pris-

* Saturday Review, February 5, 1966, Eric Hoffer, “What I Have Learned.”

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oner of its laws or whims. Thus, we learn from the Midrosh (Bereshith Rabbah 8, 9) man when he was created was so amply endowed with the divine power of being above nature—of be ing its master—that the angels of Heaven themselves thought man to be Divine: “They desired to recite the celestial sanctification before him.” It was the fact that man then so obvi ously dominated nature that caused the angels to compare him with Divinity itself.* Realistically, m an’s dominance of nature was then so complete that G-d found it necessary to “put man to sleep” so that all would realize that man is still a creature of G-d, and as such, is yet bound to the confines of his natural world which was symbolized by the concept of sleep. Another ex ample of the dominance, control, and understanding of the natural world by man was his ability to name every liv ing creature. This was a triumph not of language but of spirit and a sign of man’s sovereignty. (See the commen tary of the Ralbag to the Torah on this verse for a further development of this thought.) Our Rabbis, however, noted that G-d, while giving man dominion over nature, placed a limitation to the ex ercise of that dominion. “And rule over the fish of the sea— Rabbi Chanina said: ‘I f man be meritorious then he will rule; if not, he will himself be come subservient.’ ” Thus our Rabbis perceived that the reason for m an’s do minion over nature is his spiritual no bility rather than any intrinsic physical ability that he may possess. In the words of the Rabbis again: “He who is in the image and form of His Creat or shall rule, and he who is not in that image and form, he shall be subserv* See Tifereth Zion to Midrosh Bereshith Rabbah, Chapter 8, Section 9.

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ient.” (Bereshith Rabbah 8,12) What gives man dominion over nature? Only his G-dly form, his holy spirit, his transcendent and eternal mold of in telligence and compassion. If he does not possess these qualities, if he refa shioned himself into his own form and left the spiritual mold of his Maker, then he is destined to be buffeted by a cruel fate and locked in a despairing, never-ending struggle with a harsh and unyielding natural environment. Thus, how was Adam punished when he sinned? By having his control over na ture diminished. He was now bound to the earth from which he was fa shioned and that earthly soil would now act cruelly and capriciously towards him. “Cursed shall the earth be for you — for it will now produce gnats, fleas, and flies.” (Bereshith Rabbah 20,21) “Rabbi Yehudah said: Had man been deserving then the earth would have produced for him all of the fruits of the trees of Eden; now, however, since he has not been deserving, thorns and thistles shall it grow for him.” (Bere shith Rabbah 20,24) Thus was it clear from the beginning that man was to achieve greatness and humanity by ris ing above and controlling nature. But it was also obvious that the Creator of all would allow man such rule, only if he retained the G-dly stamp upon him self. If that holiness was divested, then man would become a prisoner in his own domain.* * However, man was still not demoted to the level of the rest of creation even after sinning. “Said Rabbi Yehoshua the son of Levi: When Adam was told by G-d that thorns and thistles will grow for him, he wept and said, ‘L-rd, shall I and my donkey eat from the same feed-bag?’ However, when G-d answered him: ‘You shall eat bread according to the sweat of your brow,’ his mind was then put at ease.” (Pesachim 118a) Man, even after sin, is still man and not an animal and retains the quality of greatness en dowed in him by his Creator. But no longer would this quality work for him automatically.

A N D in fact, this is what occurred, i i . Instead of ruling nature and serv ing G-d, m an rebelled against G-d and worshipped nature. How else can man justify his millenia-old mania of deify ing the sky, the sun, the stars, animals, and even man himself, unless he is wil ling to admit that nature rules him and to that nature does he owe obesiance? It is therefore no accident that the Torah prohibits any form of nature worship for it is what lies at the root of all forms of paganism and idolatry. Maimonides in the Yad Hachazokah (Hilchoth Avodath Kochovim 1:1-3) traces the origins of pa ganism and idolatry among ancient man and supplies an analysis of this spiritual fault of man which is accu rate to our very own day.* Nature was first worshipped as an emissary or representative of the Creator, then as an intermediary between man and G-d, or even as a partner to G-d, and finally as being a deity itself, push ing G-d, so to speak, entirely out of the picture. It is to this world view that the Torah addressed itself when it proclaimed: “You shall not bow down to them (any natural phenomenon of heaven or earth), nor shall you serve them.” (Shemoth 20,5) H E uniqueness of this Jewish world view in this understanding of na ture has been recognized by the nonJewish world as well. Again, the words of Eric Holier: “In this as in other fields, the uniqueness of the ancient Hebrews is startlingly striking. They were the first to enunciate a clear-cut separation between man and nature— monotheism— and brought with it a

* See also the introduction of Rabbi Menachem Hameiri to his commentary on Pirkey Ovoth for a further exposition of this subject, based on the principles of the Rambam.

downgrading of nature. The one and only G-d created both nature and man, yet made man in His own image and appointed him His viceroy on earth.— Nature lost its divine attributes, sun, stars, sky, earth, mountains, rivers, plants, and animals were no longer the seat of mysterious powers and the ar biters of m an’s fate.” Our Rabbis tell us (Bereshith Rabbah 39, 1) that our Father Avrohom, the founder of the Jewish people, dis covered G-d by the simple means of seeing that the natural world must have a Leader or Guiding Force. “Is it pos sible that this world has no Leader?” And Abraham, himself, is the prime example of man’s ultimate triumph and conquest over nature. When Ab raham was cast into the fire of Chal dees, he, in perfect faith that there was a G-d supreme over the nature of fire, endured the flames and was saved. For a man who retains within him the god ly gifts of soul and piety— the form of G-d Himself— also has the ability to overcome and rule over the natural world that surrounds him. For such a man will G-d perform miracles and revoke natural laws. However, a man who lacks that faith in his intrinsic ability to soar over nature, who is not sure of the godly gifts within him, or for that matter who is in doubt of G-d Himself, becomes a servant of nature and will undoubtedly be burned by fire. Horon, Avrohom’s brother, stands on the sideline and waits for a result. If Abraham escapes the fire, than H o ron also is of Abraham’s belief, and if Abraham is burned and melted, then Horon is Nimrod’s man. He refuses to commit himself in the war for the humanization and perfection of man and therefore when he, only after seeing Abraham’s deliverance from the flames, JEWISH LIFE

then allows himself to be cast into the furnace, his “innards melt” and he is destroyed. (Bereshith Rabbah 38,19) Thus, because he lacked the true belief in the ability of the one who was form ed in G-d’s image to survive and con quer the natural environment, that ability was denied to him and the natural fire swallowed him.* A

FU R TH ER example of the mastery of human faith and committ ment which enables man to overcome the inhibitions of the natural world is provided for us by the Talmud (Taanith 25a) Our Rabbis relate that one Friday night, the daughter of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa was overcome with sadness upon realizing that she had placed vinegar as fuel in the Sabbath lamp instead of oil. She was immedi ately reassured by her father: “He Who has commanded the oil to burn, will now command the vinegar to bum .” And, true to his faith, the lamp burned throughout the Sabbath and was used as the source of light for the Havdolah candle. The lesson here is simple. Nature is in G-d’s hands at all times and therefore, if man merits it, because of his devotion and piety to his Creator, even vinegar will burn. But man must merit such mastery of nature and his merit can consist only in his constant attempt to perfect him self in the image of his Maker. This is the objective of Torah and the goal of the Jewish genius. He w7ho is not en gaged in this struggle for the perfection of humanity is, perforce, m led by the natural world and will become a cow ering slave instead of a lofty master. * Therefore the words of our rabbis: “He who will not commit his life except he be assured that he will be delivered miracu lously, will not so be delivered.” M ans com mittment must precede any thoughts or hopes of supernatural aid.

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On a grander national scale, the Jewish people is the prime and perhaps only example of man’s triumph over nature. Here again the words of Eric Hoffer: “It is true that the downgrad ing of nature had not prompted the ancient Hebrews to become mighty towers of nature. Still, their endurance as a weak minority through centuries of persecution constitutes a grand de fiance of nature, a putting to naught of the law of survival of the strong that rules the rest of life.” There is no doubt that all of the laws of sociology, his tory, and nature are not applicable to the eternal phenomenon of the Jewish people. Perhaps this is what our Sages meant when they stated (Shabboth 1 5 6 a): “Ayn mazal I ’Yisroel-^lsrael is not governed by natural constella tions or predetermined signs of the Zodiac.” Israel is not governed by the set rules of nature or history that gov ern the world. “For through prayer and merit its fortunes are changed for the good,” as Rashi’s Commentary puts it. Avrohom, in a moment of despair over his future seeing that he was al ready old and yet childless, was in structed by G-d to dissociate himself from the natural laws of the world and to believe that he would yet found a mighty nation from his progeny. “Leave your portended future,” he was told, for survival is not determined by the movement of stars or the rules of nature, but by the will of man per forming the desire of G-d.* Therefore, Yitzchok was born to Avrohom and Sorah contrary to the laws of nature. Rivkah, Rachel, Channah, and the woman of Shunam all proved that the Jew can insure his future and conti nuity even when survival is physically and naturally impossible. * Shabboth 156a; see also Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch commentary on Bereshith 15,5.

A N interesting and frighteningly real example of how the theory of m an’s subservience to nature and all natural law is still in vogue is “The Ter ritorial Imperative,” serialized lately in Life magazine and published in book form by Athenium. The “territorial” theory of m an’s behavior comes acropper against that reef that has wrecked the ships of other all-encompassing sociolog ical-historical theories— the people of Israel. The author of this new theory neatly predicts that we will also disap pear, or at least conform to the pattern of his “territorial” theory because we are now a “territorial” people, having carved out the State of Israel from the midst ot our adversaries. Neither his torical fact (the Jews have had in dependent states in the land of Israel

for long periods of time earlier in their history and did not then conform to any “territorial” theory of assimilation or extinction) nor traditional opti mism (netzach Yisroel lo yishakayr— the Eternity of Israel shall not prove false) allow me to accept such dire conclusions, no matter how ingenious ly correct the theory dovetails with the laws of nature. Israel, the chosen people,^surpasses all natural and inexorable laws; for by its observance of G-d’s Torah does it perfect itself and its society, and in that perfection does it achieve its ul timate fulfillment and accomplish the will of its Creator who enjoined all of humanity: “conquer the earth and rule” for the glory of man and his Creator.

JEWISH LIFE

A Sabbath to Remember A brief account of the historic Sabbath spent in the Bronx f N ew York, by Chief Rabbi Yehuda Leib Levin of M oscow and Cantor David Stiskin of Leningrad .

By DAVID B. HOLLANDER N JU N E 17 of this year, twelve years to the day I had left the USA for Russia, Moscow’s Chief Rabbi Yehuda Leib Levin, accom panied by Cantor David Stiskin of the Leningrad Choral Synagogue, arrived in the United States. During these twelve years I could not be sure that our initial visit, which soon widened the crack into a wide entrance for many tourists from the United States and other countries, had been a good thing even though in Russia, on my several subsequent vis its, I was repeatedly assured by our people that it had been good. But now that the delegation of two came here and they could only have come with the consent, if not the en couragement, of the authorities, my fears that perhaps the whole idea was not a good one were relieved. It all began several weeks before the rumored and then confirmed word of a visit to this country by represen tatives of Russian religious Jewry for

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the first time in the fifty-year history of the Soviet Union. I telephoned Rabbi Levin twice, cabled and wrote about his forthcoming visit, offered him and his delegation (at that time it appeared that more than two would come) the hospitality of my house for the duration of the visit, but in any event at least for a Shabboth. His answer on the phone was that he could not commit himself until his arrival here. When I met him in Mon treal he deferred his decision till the following day, when he did accept, and we in the Bronx who were his only hosts on a Shabboth (the second Shabboth he spent in the hotel) still cannot believe that we had the unique, historic experience that we did, a unique honor because even prior to his arrival, scores of invitations were tele phoned and cabled to him. In two days we arranged things as best as we could for this unparalleled event. We did not know how it would go. Even as we were planning feverishly, a public re-

ception rendered him by the American Council for Judaism on June 19 turned out to be a near disaster on account of a small number of misguided, wouldbe defenders of Jewish interests. We could not help but ask ourselves: what would happen in our synagogue, would there be any disturbance, any security problem? T h e re , is only one answer to this question, namely, the whole Shabboth in the synagogue, and at our house where they ate and slept, had a choot shel chesed that was as much min hashomayim as was the fact that they came to us for Shabboth. W hat a con trast to the painful experience in Hunter College! H IL E taking Rabbi Levin and Cantor Stiskin from Manhattan to the Bronx, we stopped on Grand Concourse to buy them a few personal items. No sooner did they step out of the car when immediately Jews, men and women, stopped in their hurried steps and without asking knew instinc tively it was the Rabbi from Moscow and the Cantor from Leningrad, and they gave them their warmest wel come. This was but a slight foretaste of what was to transpire at our syna gogue, the M ount Eden Center. It has 900 seats. On a June Friday night for Kabbolath Shabboth services we usual ly have about a hundred worshippers. But by the time Minchah services were over, there was not an empty seat in the shool. The Kabbolath Shabboth service was led by Cantor Stiskin, ac companied by a choir of about twenty cantors of the Bronx, including, of course, our own Cantor Avner Sobel. The eyes of all were riveted on Rabbi Levin, even as the ears sought to ab sorb every note and nuance of Cantor

Stiskin’s unforgettable melodies. Fri day night is no time for the Rabbi to speak and now that Kabbolath Shab both had taken two hours and many people would have to walk consider able distances to get home (public an nouncements inviting all to attend this historic service had stated clearly that ■‘all within walking distance are invited to attend”) I was most reluctant to add to the tirchah d’tziburah but the very atmosphere demanded that some thing be said to give expression to the thoughts and feelings that filled all present and so I offered a brief m es sage, by telling of an incident that had happened to me in Leningrad in 1956. It was on a Shabboth and I had been privileged to address the vast congre gation that filled the 3,000 seats of the Choral Synagogue, with “the holy com munities who offered their lives for Kiddush Hashem” as my theme. Fol lowing the davening, I walked down the aisle to the exit, when an elderly Jew stopped me and said startingly: “Gevalt! I hr hut doch m ’challel Shabbos geven! — You have profaned the Sabbath!” I was stunned, and he added with a wise smile: “Ihr hut ungetzunden ah feier bei unz — You have kin dled a fire within us.” So now, twelve years later, I turned to Rabbi Levin and said: *(lhr hut ungetzunden ah feier bei u n z ” Despite the late hour, hundreds of people, instead of going home upon close of the services, chose to accom pany Rabbi Levin to the door of our home. It was about ten o’clock when we finally sat down to the Friday night meal in my home. We had a number of guests, rabbonim, chazzonim, who at the last minute arranged to be with us. But who could think of food under those inspiring conditions. Soon we began the Zemiroth, first led by Rabbi JEWISH LIFE

Levin who has a fine, deep voice, and he sang Kah Ribon which stirred us all, especially the words “v’apayk yas ameych migoi goluthoh” And then Cantor Stiskin sang a few items, but the one that enchants us all even now that he is gone was the one called “Freitag oif dehr nacht, ai ah fargenigen — Friday night, oh what a pleas ure,? We were only at the beginning of the meal at this point when people began to stream into the house. N o invitations were needed. They had all eaten their meals hurriedly and now they came to feast their eyes on Rabbi Levin whose imposing hadrath panim made the house with its seforim look like a Beth Medrosh presided over by the past generation.

About 11:30 P.M., after talking divrei Torah, we decided to take a walk on the Concourse, in itself a sight to behold. Scores of Yeshivah bochurim, Rabbonim, walked in close formation around the guests and the bochurim talked to him in lernen and one of them, especially known as a lamdan, stated later that he had ac quired a new Rebbe in Rabbi Levin. It was much past midnight when we retired, but I could not sleep de spite my great fatigue— it all seemed so unreal. In the morning before going to shool, I had a talk with Rabbi Levin, one of the few intimate talks I was able to have with him.

During the visit by Chief Rabbi Levin of Moscow to the United States, he was received by a host of orthodox Jewish organizations. Here he is shown at a meeting of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, with President Joseph Karasick (I.) and Board Chairman Harold M. Jacobs (r.L

July-August 1968

aturally, i

expected a huge the spiritual achievements here and in attendance, but I did not expect Israel can be traced to Russia and its that by eight A.M. the shool should subject countries, in the days when it be filled. I was told that people had was the cradle of the Torah. The two begun to arrive at six A.M. to make Jewries of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. sure of a seat. By nine A.M. it was have now met on American soil. Amer necessary to close one side of the Ez- ican Jews have wondered whether there rath Noshim to ladies and give it to is any remnant of Judaism left in the men. Chairs were placed everywhere, Soviet Union and Russian Jews have but even the streets were filled with wondered about us whether the young people. Cantor Stiskin, accompanied Josephs in America who left their this time by the Joseph Cohen Choir, fathers and lived in affluence were de thrilled us all beyond words. When he voured spiritually. When they saw benched Rosh Chodesh and said “Hoo American rabbis and religious laymen yigal ohsonu b’korov — may He re there and, especially now, when they deem us soon,” the very walls were see the great Torah institutions here, stirred. they declare with joy: “Joseph does yet Reporters from several newspapers live.” who were present were overwhelmed As to Russian Jewry now, we can not only by the vast, unprecedented only say that though they are severely crowds but by the love and af handicapped in that they do not pos fection with which Rabbi Levin was sess a religious youth, nor rabbis and greeted when we came into the shool. teachers so essential to Jewish life, still Everyone sought to say “Sholom if the question is asked, as it is asked, Aleichem Rebbe” but those who could “whether there is therein a tree,” and not shake his hand, touched his gar our Rabbis interpret it to mean ment lovingly, as one does a Sefer To “whether there is a Tzaddik who shel rah, and in so doing they felt they ters them,” a Tzaddik who like a tree were embracing the three million Jews is deeply rooted to resist all storms, in Soviet Russia. The eagerly antici the answer is YES. And here he was pated message of Rabbi Levin pre with us in person. sented a language problem. Though by Rabbi Levin spoke clearly but brief far the vast majority understood Yid ly to a hushed and reverent attention dish, there were many who did not. I which was most eloquent. He appealed gave my message of introduction in for personal, communal, and interna Yiddish, Rabbi Levin followed, in Yid tional peace, and he said that the ay in dish, of course, and then I translated horah and loshon horah, viewing his both into English. country with the wrong view, and It is appropriate to note here, as I slandering it without facts, were a great did in introducing Rabbi Levin, the im barrier to peace and hence to the wel portance of remembering what Rus fare of the Jews. He referred to the sian Jewry had gone through during chapter of the m ’raglim (a chapter World War II, especially at the hands which I studiously omitted from my of the Nazis, to remember the great remarks, because in Montreal upon his mesirath nefesh with which they main arrival I said: “You came during the tain the fire of their faith, to remember sedra of ‘Shlach Vcha anoshim,’ ” he our indebtedness to them, for most of quickly retorted: “Mihr zenen nit kein

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m ’raglim— we are not spies” ) that be cause of their slander, disaster fol lowed for that generation of Jews. It was nearly two P.M. when we left the shool, yet hardly any had left earlier. This, despite die heat (the airconditioning was not adequate for such a huge crowd) and congestion and the fact that hundreds had to stand for many hours. Again, the house was filled in addition to the added guests. And in the afternoon, the little left of it, the people began to come again — the patience and humility of Rabbi Levin is something to remember. He was especially attentive to children with their embroidered yarmulkas and he was moved to tears by their recita tion of what they studied in Yeshivoth. For the Minchah service we had expect ed a few hundred people but certainly not the standing-room-only crowd that came. Several Rabbonim spoke, repre senting the various orthodox Rabbinic bodies of their respective communities. Following Minchah and the d’roshah and Rabbi Levin’s brief remarks to the Rabbonim and the rest of the congre gation, we had a great climax in the Seudah Shlishith arranged by the Cen ter. The ballroom was filled to capacity but most of the people who were in shool could not take part for lack of room. But it was an unforgettable ex perience with Rabbi Levin singing Z’miroth and the Chazan singing his wonderful lidelech. Once again I had occasion to give expression to Rabbi Levin’s role in Russia today by quot ing the Chothom Sofer who said that Moses needed to be in Egypt and wit ness the suffering of the Jews there to qualify him to give the Torah to the Jews, so also Rabbi Levin is alone qualified to determine what can be

July-August 1968

done to the Jews whose circumstances he shares. Maariv came at 9:20, but for all ot us it was much too soon. We wanted the Shabboth to go on and on, to hold on to this great experience. But life has different plans, and we had to go on with Maariv and then to the house for Havdolah. We escorted Rabbi Levin to anothei appointment. When I took them to their hotel it was almost one A.M. And this brought to an end an experience never to be forgotten. CONCLUSION: The impact and the value of the visit are hard to summarize in a few lines, but I shall attempt it here: a) As a result of the visit and the unusual reception given almost exclu sively by Jews to whom Torah is the definition of Jewishness, the Russian authorities will regard religious Jewry as the real address of the Jewish peo ple. This would apply not only in the West where future contacts will be made through religious Jewry, but in Russia too, the address will not be the Soveitische Heimland, but the Syna gogue and Rabbi Levin will be viewed with a new respect and prestige. b) The American Council for Juda ism— which did one good thing in its career, namely to serve as the instru ment for bringing Rabbi Levin to see what Torah Jewry has achieved in this country—had nothing of their own to show. They are bound to rethink their status and purpose and recognize that Torah and a land of Torah where To rah is followed are indispensable. Also the Russians have been shown that the Council is a tiny, uninfluential splinter group in U.S. Jewry. c) The Russians may rethink their

hostility to religion and hence to Juda gained here, will be more effective in ism and discover that a religious Jew demanding from the Soviet authorities can be relied upon to be a loyal citizen greater opportunities for the reopening in any country where his religious con- of the Moscow Yeshivah and in gen the Russians have ben shown that the e ra l for enhancing the facilities for world in such mortal danger from war Jewish religious life. No longer can he and anarchy needs the moral force of be told that in the U.S., Jews are as religion to stay alive. similated. Rabbi Levin said repeatedly d) The fact that Rabbi Levin did here that he never believed he would not once criticize Israel (though such find Torah here so entrenched, through criticism had been made by certain yeshivoth, synagogues, and a whole Russian Jews) is a good sign pointing, panoply of orthodox Jewish develop hopefully, to a softening of Russia’s ment in America. He left here with a position on Israel. new courage and hope for the spiritual e) Rabbi Levin, with the stature future of the Jews of the Soviet Union*

JEWISH LIFE

In the Land of the Incas A view of Jewish life in Peru today and in past eras.

by JACOB BELLER

CAM E to Lima by bus, which been travelling through a barren ex started out from the Ecuador bor panse of sandy waste-land. There are der town Tumbus, travelling along broad avenues with fine, tall build the Pan American Highway / that ings, beautiful parks, masses of flow connects the two countries. If cuts ers, statues, crowds of people, endless through the dry sandy wastes, where traffic. You go to your hotel, wash there are no hum an habitations. When and brush the dust from your clothes, you reach a town you must stop over and mingle in the streets with the night and take a different bus in the crowds. The people are a strange mix morning. F or a thousand miles Vou ture of old Spanish tradition and see nothing but empty space, sandy American modernism. Certain parts stretches parched and faint under thè' of Lima look like the Brazilian capital burning sun, longing for a little water. Ttm de Janeiro. But its movement is It is seldom you see a living person like that of one of the big bustling among the rock and sands. When the N orth American cities. The architec bus approaches a settlement, green ture is more Spanish than in any fields appear and as you go further other Latin American town. When the grass becomes richer and greener you walk along the plaza and see the till it looks like a magic garden in scores of churches with their spires the Arabian Nights. Immediately after rising to the skies you think you are you leave the town you are back in in M adrid or Barcelona. But when thè desert, with the sun blazing down you turn into the business section it like a furnace. Again you travel for appears as though you had suddenly miles along bare rocks and sandy come into Fifth Avenue in New waste. All the time you must keep York. You can hardly push your way wiping your mouth and nose and eyes. through the dense throng. The fine As you near Lima the carpet of shops are crammed full of customers green grows bigger and brighter. And who can choose from the latest Fifth when the bus enters the first streets Avenue fashions in dresses and furn of Lima you forget that you have just ishings and house equipment.

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ERU, with more than eight mil the two Indian languages, Quicha or lion inhabitants, can be divided Imara. They are illiterate and ignor into three distinct parts, each dif ant. They not only know nothing of ferent from the others in appearance, what is happening in thè outside character, and way of life. The first world, they have no idea even of is the sandy desert and the plains what is going on in their own capital, round the coast. The second is the Lima. They live in dreadful poverty. Andes, where the villages are situated You can see them in large numbers high up on mountains rising some in Arequipa. The cold, snow-covered times to thousands of feet. And the mountains among which they live and third is what is called the Montana, a the barren soil yield little sustenance completely undeveloped area, where for them. So the Indian is drawn to the people still live in primitive con the big town to still his hunger. (The Jews living in the pueblos also keep ditions. Three towns in Peru express the drifting in to the big towns). three characters of the country— EXT to Brazil, Peru has the rich Lima, the capital, proud of its status est Jewish past in South America. as the old Viceregal Residence, fav ored as such above all the other Latin Of this faraway epoch there has re American capitals during the Spanish mained today not merely historic ves rule; Cuzco, with its ancient Inca tiges but some living witnesses. past; and Inquitos, the Amazon bor Though these persons no longer are der town, rich in rubber plantations, a part of Jewry, they often seek the sugar, and minerals. occasion to meet Jews to tell of their Arequipa, the second city of Peru, common origin, some with longing boasts of its liberal spirit. All the and regret. revolutions against the various govern There are in Peru today 5,000 mental regimes started in Arequipa. Jews, most of whom live in the cap They know it in Peru as the Ciudad ital Lima. A small number live in the Blanca, the White City. The streets remote areas among primitive natives. and houses are built of white marble. Tiny Jewish communities may be It is a mixture of three civilizations: found all through the interior as far the houses belong to the Colonial as the border of Ecuador on one side style, the Indian style, and the mod and as far as Chile on the other. The ern style. There are structures built of Jewish immigration stream that came stones from ancient Inca buildings, to Peru was in the main a direct one, by the best Spanish architects of the that is, those Jews who settled in Colonial period, and there are mod Peru came there straight from their ern skyscrapers put up by leading East European homes. It was mainly N orth American architects. The dif Bessarabian Jews who discovered that ferent styles of architecture make this the land of the Incas was a source of “White City” extraordinarily pictur livelihood-Jews from the townlets of esque and colorful. It is, moreover, Novij-Selitz, Sikureni, and Yedinitsi. on the road to Cuzco, the renowned W ho the Bessarabian Columbus was, city of the Incas. who uncovered this part of America, H alf the large Indian population of has not been determined as it has been Peru know no Spanish. They speak for other Latin American lands. It is

JEWISH LIFE

possible that some Jewish immigrants who could not adjust in other South American lands tried their hand in Peru, later brought their wives, fami lies, and relatives. However it hap pened, Bessarabia became the main source of Jewish immigration and un til this day provides the majority of its Jewry. Its Jews will tell you that the “United States of Novij-Selitz” sarts at Peru and extends up through to the north as far as Nicaragua. Costa Rica, the next state, is the “ter ritory” of Polish Jews from Ostrovtze and Zelichow. F or many years Peru was a sort of America for Bessarabian Jews who came there to make a few dollars and return home to their shtetl. They would sit on their wagons and dream longingly of home. After W orld W ar I, however, it became increasingly dif ficult to live in the stifling antisemitic atmosphere of the East European countries, to say nothing of the eco nomic depression of these lands, and there was little impulse to return. New immigrants arrived and it was time to think of establishing a Jewish community and life. The economic beginning of the Jews in Peru was the common one— clientele, as ped dling is called there. Even today in dustry is not yet developed and then it certainly was not a paying affair, with the result that even skilled per sons loaded a pack on their shoulders, trudged the roads, and sold every sort of article to the primitive natives on monthly payments. 1

H EN the writer was on one of his trips down the Pan Amer ican Highway which winds its serpen tine way over the most primitive areas in Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, through the barren and arid fields and through

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clouds of' dust and sand, he would be suddenly confronted by a piece of fertile land covered with grass and with small primitive houses— evidence of a pueblo (settlement). I met a few Jews at these points. Frequently the provision store (almasen) is run by a Jew. These provision stores are often the only commercial establishments in the town and are general stores where a wide variety of products are avail able. They generally have a perma nent sign outside reading Remate (“Sale” ). At the border town of Tumbus between Ecuador and BertTthere was such a store. The owher told me there had been four other Jews in the town but three had lew for Lima. H e too was planning to leave this wasteland. So it went, all along the Pan Amer ican Way, whenever the bus would stop for a few minutes in the centre of a pueblo I w ould^ee-stofes, some small, some large, bearing familiar Jewish names and Jewish eyes which looked out at me identifying me with out much trouble among the criollos though I was covered with dust from head to foot. In one of these pueblos which consisted only of a town hall, an almasen, and a crude tavern with a squeaking gramophone, the bus drove right by without stopping. As we passed I could read on the store front the sign “Case Beserabya.” So we passed villages and hamlets over long barren roads without seeing a blade of green grass until we came to Callao, the beautiful Peruvian town famous for its panoramas and historic monuments. The city makes a good impression. In the center its parks are filled with monuments, the main streets are broad, the traffic and movement is quiet, the streets and parks are lined with miles of flowers,

a refreshing experience after many miles of desert travel. Since it is a port town, sailors from all over the world can be seen. These include both consumers and sellers of cocaine. A few turns off the center and you are offered a wide variety of cocaine assortments and are given the special features of each brand. “Americano”, I was told by one salesman, “try a little La Diosa Blanco— and you’ll enjoy it more than the best night club on Braodway.” Seeing that I was listening to him he grew bolder, “Take a bit of this pow der—it’s a free sample— I won’t charge you. Go to your hotel, take a sniff, and you’ll be in paradise. Do you have any troubles? Has your girl left you? Try some of this powder, and it all vanishes. You’re a new man altogether. . . your worries are over. It’s a new world,” he whispered to me, himself half drunk, “just a little \yhiff and later you’ll come for it yourself.” He seemed to enjoy the fact that I was listening to him and seemed to take him seriously. “Take it, Americano, take it, it’s free.” These cocaine peddlers, who to a great extent are themselves addicts, are experts in the field. They know the nuances distinguishing one variety from another. Coca itself is the name of the leaf chewed by the Indian; it has the effect of appeasing hunger; the miners who work at an altitude of a thousand metres above sea level chew it to stave off the hill-sickness. There are varieties better than picatto and some better than La Diosa Blanco (the white goddess) which are known throughout the world. Instead of be ing chewed as the Indians do, it is inhaled through the nose like snuff. Callao is known in Peru as the Coca capital; international drug smugglers 44

know it well and it is fairly easy to load and unload it. The government of Peru is quite concerned about the coca craze and its hold on the coun try. Recently, it appealed to the United Nations to send a commission to Peru to help combat this plague. When this was announced, the dealers in Callao quickly cleaned out their stocks. How ever, those dealers who themselves are consumers were much less dis tressed. EWS in Lima have chosen as their meeting place two of the city’s finest cafes. During the week it serves as a locale for business transactions and friendly chatter. Peruvians look upon the cafe as a home away from home and the Jews have adopted this Peruvian attitude. For Sunday a dif ferent cafe serves as a center and there the week’s news is told, re-told and digested—stories of the quarrel with or about the rabbi, or about the new teacher, gossip and banter told not with malice, but merely to pass the time. If a guest comes, he is brought to the cafe and served end less cups of coffee. In addition to these cafes, Jews have established social clubs, equipped with upholstered leather easy chairs, and staffed by porters in gold-braid who open the heavy, ornamental doors. There are two such clubs, the Tendler club named after the Presi dent and the “Club Sharon,” also called the “Lords Club,” in friendly derision. Lima has three Jewish communities -o n e Sephardic, one German, and the third East European. These are all united through a Central Committee and the Presidency is regularly changed among the three kehilloth. There are two rabbis, one Sephardi

JEWISH LIFE

ness. It cannot be said that the Peruv ian Jews are not concerned about their youth. Though the community is still fairly new, the second genera tion is beginning to assume a role in leadership. As in all other Latin American communities large and small, in Peru, too, I heard complaints that the young er generation knew no Yiddish, that things are not as they were, that Yid dish is disappearing, and they fear that assimilation will overtake them. Actually it is the youth who should complain of the parents, who them selves estranged the children from their folk-language by insisting on speaking to them in a broken Spanish. Moreover, it is an inevitable process which no one can halt. It is a matter of “a generation which goes and one which comes,” in the words of Koheleth— the external environment has its effect. It must be borne in mind that the environment is much more alien in its nature than in the massive com munity of the United States where great changes have taken place in the status of Yiddish which grows weaker with time. It can be stated accurately that more than 90%. of the Jewish youth does not speak Yiddish. Third ly, as we have seen from experience, Jewishness without Yiddish is capable of preserving the youth from assimila tion. Furthermore, the situation is not quite as dark as the Yiddish propo nents have painted it. The sons and daughters of the former immigrants — the men who carried the peddler’s load on their back and who struggled for their livelihood—have absorbed Peruvian culture, studied in the local universities, and now occupy a place HA T is basically lacking in these of respect in the country’s political, countries is traditional Jewish- economic, and cultural life. Here are

and the other East European. The fact that m a n y of these Jews in their business activities have regular con tact with the United States has put them in touch with Jewish communal affairs in that country and has wid ened and enriched their horizons. As a result, in Peru— and in other coun tries— they have built impressive and well-endowed community centres. I was taken to “Hebraica,” the cultural and sports center for youth which had every modern appurtenance in cluding, of course, a swimming pool, gymnasium, lounges, and rooms for many different activities. It is built on the model of the “Hebraica” of Buenos Aires, the Estada of Santiago, and the Jewish Sports Center of Mexico City as indication that the Jews of these communities have acknowledged the need to ap proach the youth in its spirit, to ac cept the Nusach America, or, as it is called in Latin America, the New York or American experiment. Proof of the yearning for a modern type of Jewishness was given in a chat I had with the director of the Hebraica Institute, quite a likeable young man. H e escorted me about the building to the various departments and complained to me: “We do not understand our local orthodox rabbi nor does he understand us . . . We need a young, modern, American rabbi who can understand our men tality and adjust the youth to his way, and at the same time find a way to reach them.” Lately a young American rabbi, Rabbi Feinstein of the Lakewood Yeshiva, was engaged as a rabbi and organized the first Junior Congregation in Peru.

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a few facts: Izzi Wolfenson, son of a Jewish immigrant from Bessarabia and a former classmate of the current President of Peru, Fernando Belaunde de Tearri, has been named dean of the School of Engineering knd was entrusted by the government to obtaina loan of a million dollars for this school. A nother son of a Bessarabian immigrant is an authority on agricul tural science and is a professor in this field at the university. He often represents Peru at international con ferences. A third son of a Jewish im migrant is one of the most im portant heart specialists at San Marcos Uni versity; a fourth, Engineer Rosenzweig, is the leading expert of the pe troleum industry. Sons and daughters of Jewish immigrants have vital roles in the country’s literature and poetry and in the plastic arts. All of these are identified with Jewish organiza tions: some with B’nai B’rith, some with Zionism, some with Wizo, some with the Hebraica. Engineer Rosenzweig is the president of the Jewish school. During my previous trip to Lima I saw a mezuzah being placed on the door by Vitaly Franco, a Se phardic Jew who had been raised there. IG H TY PERCEN T of the com munity’s children get a Jewish education. True, not much Yiddish is taught but they do get somewhat more Hebrew. We must not shut our eyes to the reality that the children in these classes in both larger and smaller centers by now constitute the second and third generation of Peru vian-born, and Yiddish is not familiar to them either in their homes or their social milieux. Mixed marriages, in cidentally, are lower in frequency in Peru than in the other Latin Amer ican countries.

This 80% of the Jewish children, therefore, though they acquire no Yid dish and little Hebrew, do have some knowledge of the Jewish past and an attachment to Israel after they have completed their Jewish schooling. In a country like Peru and in the smaller and even larger Jewish settlements under the present circumstances of inevitable change as it has come about in recent years, one means has emerged of preventing the assimila tion of the younger generation and that is to speak to them in their own language about the treasures and val ues of the Jewish people and to cre ate a close relation between them and the State of Israel. The small Jewish community of Peru is the best example of the transi tion and change now taking place in the Latin American Jewish centers where the younger generation is now beginning to take over the commun ity reins. The former community head in Lima was Michael Rodzinsky, an immigrant from the Polish town of Siemiatyeh near Bialystok, now one of the country’s foremost textile manufacturers. He handed the presi dency over to the aforementioned Izzi Wolfenson, dean of the Engineering School, one of the country’s outstand ing professional men. In doing so Rodzinsky stated: We came to this country alone, des titute, and without the language on our lips. We worked hard and built up our institutions; we felt that if we did not, the same would happen to us as did to the earlier generation of Jewish settlers a century ago. All that has survived of those Jews of 1870 are their tombstones. We are handing the community leadership over to you. Though you do not speak Yiddish and are not fully conversant with our culture and JEWISH LIFE

traditions, you possess good Jewish hearts and feelings as children of Jew ish immigrants from Poland and Bes sarabia, proud of our historic past and of the New Israel which has brought you closer to your people. The new communal president re sponded: I know that I am assuming the lead ership of a 400-year-old community. I know where the Inquisition tribunal stood, where our forefathers were burnt at the stake. To this day there are streets named Matar Judios (Slaughter of the Jews) or Quemados (the Burnings). I can show you Pilate’s House—as the Peruvians call it—in the cellar of which the Jews recited their hidden prayers declaim ing the Kol Nidrey and where they were taken by surprise along with their spiritual leader Bautista Perez. They were all burnt alive. I, Izzi Wolfenson, who can barely decipher the words in the Hebrew prayer-book, am now called upon to be the spiritual heir of these martyrs. I hope that the G-d who gave strength and sustenance to all our generations to resist and not yield, will also show me the way of leader ship and responsibility in our sacred task. The two vice presidents are Isaac Sternthal, who is also an outstanding engineer, and Pepi Ludmir, who is the most prominent radio and tele vision commentator in Peru, repre senting that country at each Oscar Award ceremony in Hollywood. This new administration has been responsi ble for arranging that pupils at the Jewish school recite the daily prayers and put on Teffilin each morning be fore classes. was shown the Jewish school named after a M arrano, Leon de Pinelo—he was called by his m other’s

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surname— and his brother Diego Lo pez de Lisboa y Leon, who used his father’s surname. They were key fig ures in Peru’s Colonial culture. Pinelo was a poet, thinker, ex plorer of the Colonial culture, and author of a history of the Indians. Lopez was Rector of the San Marcos University, the first university in America. The Inquisition discovered that already in Portugal his family was accused of practising Judaism and one of his uncles was burned at an auto-da-fe. Thanks to the protec tion of the Archbishop of Lima, Fer nando Arias de Ugarte, who was also Rector in the San Marcos University, Lopez succeeded in saving himself. He was the author of “El Faralso,” “Es El Nuevo M undo,” and a book of the laws of the Indians called “Los Leyes da los ln d io s” The Leon Pinelo school is a struc ture comparable to any in New York. Its enrollment includes a number of non-Jewish children who are taught the Hebrew part of the curriculum along with the others. Two other M arranos with an im portant role in Peruvian history should be mentioned. One is Salcedo, who discovered the famous silver mines. A great-great-grandson of his, Augusto Legua Salcedo was president of Peru from 1919 to 1930. The sec ond M arrano is Pedro Peralta Barnuevo Rochay Benavides (i.e. benA vidoth), mathematician, astrono mer, and chemist, one of Latin Amer ica’s most famed poets who served four times as Rector of San Marcos. The Pinelo brothers and Peralta were in fact the pioneers of Latin Amer ica’s science and culture. When Peral ta was an old man, sick and broken, the Inquisition recalled his Jewish ori gin and began to pursue him. He

withdrew to a tiny cell in San Marcelo Street far from the town center and ailing, alone and old, he breathed his last there. In November 1964, three hundred years after his death, scholars came from all over the world to take p a rti in celebrating his anniversary. The only missing guests at this celebra tion were the Jews— to whom the en tire m artyr chapter of this great scholar is generally unknown. H E German-Jewish community of Peru is still known as the “com munity of 1875”— after the year in which Germ an Jews first arrived. When the Germ an Jews arrived in 1870, nothing remained of their Marrano predecessors. The Inquisition had wiped out those who had clung to Judaism and their surviving de scendants had been absorbed in the population. The German Jews too, as we shall see, did not withstand the test of assimilation. After the unrest in Germany and Austria which followed the revolution of 1848, Jews from the Posen dis trict began to come to Peru. They established a rudimentary form of community structure— a free loan fund (Gemiluth Chasodim) and pro vision for the sick (Bikur Cholim) and on Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur they held services in the Ma sonic Temple It was only in 1870, when an English Jewish engineer who built the railway across the Andes contributed space for a cemetery, that they officially registered their com munity. A resident, the Zionist com munity worker Moshe Nimand, col lected the accumulated records of the community and gave them to BenZVi, the late president of Israel, to deposit in his museum. Their sons and

daughters intermarried and left the faith. Some of the German-Jewish sur names dating back to this period ap pear on the businesses in the fashion able parts of Lima and these families, now Christian, are part of Peru’s ar istocracy. From time to time when they come to the Jewish cemetery to pay their respects to the memory of their grandparents and great-grand parents they can be seen standing be fore the tombstones, their heads bared and making the sign of the cross. Among a number of figures promi nent in political and diplomatic cir cles who are descendants of intermar ried Germ an Jews is Arias Schreiber, who has held a number of diplomatic posts and in 1952 Served as Peru’s Foreign Minister. On his mother’s side he is a great-great grandson of the famous Rabbi of Pressburg, the Ghothom Sofer. His mother would light candles every Friday and fasted each Yom Kippur. She bade her Christian son be proud of his Jewish origin but the Peruvian diplomat Arias Schreiber has little to do with Jews. In the files of the Beneficencia there is a record of a dispute that arose about a Jew named Fratzell, whose grandchildren today are fullfledged antisemites. Moshe Nimand, the Zionist leader in Lima, told me that in a far-off corner of the country there is a family grave surrounded by a heavy iron wall. The story is that this was the last Jewish family in that area who, according to their will, were brought to Jewish burial by Gentile friends who later walled up their family grave. I saw a similar family grave in the Brazilian town of Belem, which also had a wall built up around it and was sealed off by mas sive iron chains. JEWISH LIFE

T ONG before this date, however,

JLi there was a prior chapter

of Peru’s Jewish history, a chapter writ ten and soaked in blood. Traces of this— living traces— are still to be seen in present-day Peru. Soon after Francisco Pizzarro conquered the country, Jews started to arrive. A theory exists that there were cryptoJews among the personnel of his ex pedition. In 1564 the mercury mines of Peru were discovered by the “Portuguese” family of the Salcedos— who con tributed in no small measure to Peru’s economy. The descendant of this fam ily Agusto Legua Salcedo, as men tioned, was president of Peru in our own century,: By 1583 a large num ber of these “Portuguese” were established there. They carried on in secret a well-or ganized Jewish life, had their own doctors, teachers, and other function aries. The building that they used as a community center still stands in Lima today, very close as it happens to the old Inquisition offices. It was constructed in such a way that those inside could look out on all four sides. In order to ward off suspicion the building included a public inn for wayfarers. The Inquisitorial officers would not be suspicious of people walking in and out of such a public place, I was told. One day on Yom Kippur a sailor who wandered in to the inn saw a group of the secret Jews with their leader M anuel Perez at prayer, wrapped in Tallitoth. M anuel Perez, who was known as El Gran Capitan, was a m an close to the Viceroy. The sailor immediately brought his tale to the Inquisition and all of the men were immediately clapped into the Inquisition’s dungeons. In addition to

July-August 1968

the offense of practising Jewish rites in secret, Perez and his men were charged with conspiracy against the state and of plotting with the Dutch who at that time had their ships on the Pacific Coast ready to invade. Proof of this was that only a few weeks before, Manuel Perez had vol unteered to assume the command of the arsenal, and to repair the artil lery at his own expense. The men were held in the Inquisi tion cells for three years. On January 23, 1639, Perez, two of his brothersin-law and ten other leaders of the secret Kehillah, were burned alive by the Inquisition in the public square of Lima. Another brother-in-law, Sebas tian Duarte, had recanted and was al lowed, before the fire was lit, to come to M anuel Perez and embrace him with an “osculus pacis”- a kiss of peace—perhaps an indirect reference to the Hebrew mithat nishika (the kiss of death). In the records of the Inquisition can still be seen the inscription which was placed on the clandestine syna gogue when Manuel Batista Perez was arrested. He and the others were led through the streets of Lima mounted on donkeys, reviled and spat on by the mob on the way to the auto-da-fe where they were burnt to death. The inscription reads as fol lows: Que en lo que digo no miento, pongo por testigo a Dios; esta cassa es la de los Judios del prendi miento. (That I am telling the truth, G-d bears witness; this is the house of the Jews (taken) in the great seizure.) W ith them were burned the Chilean M arrano Dr. Francisco Moldenado de Silva, who had been tortured by the Inquisition for fourteen years. The

other eighty-eight arrested men were sent to Spain to serve in the galleys. According to documents now avail able, Manuel Perez had sent a million-and-a-half pesos to Amster dam. It shows what an enormous sum this was that after the ar rest of a hundred of its wealthiest citizens, the Peruvian Government was bankrupt in the amount of 800,000 pesos. The suspicion of the In quisition that M anuel Perez was con spiring with the Dutch was apparently not groundless. It is true that the Crypto-Jews of the New W orld were maintaining clandestine contact with Amsterdam, and Amsterdam was making various plans to free them from the Inquisition. It is a fact that in the conquest of Curacao by the D utch West Indies Company, Jews played an important role. Twenty-five percent of the Com pany’s shares were owned by M ar ranos. In his book “The M arranos,” Cecil Roth says that M arranos took part in the Dutch capture of Bahia and Pernambuco from the Portuguese. Jewish captains commanded a fleet of eighteen ships which were to help Pernambuco in its battle with the Portuguese. Their plan included an attack on Portugal, where they would break open the Inquisition jails and free the prisoners. It is certain that the M arranos had organized an underground rescue op eration with secret cells set up in their countries of residence, with head quarters in Amsterdam. In Peru the Inquisition was abol ished on September 23, 1813. Two years later it was restored when King Ferdinand assumed the throne on January 16, 1815. It was finally abol ished by the liberator San M artin on February 8, 1822.

Moshe Nimand took me to the Plaza de la Inquisición, and the ad joining street, Calle Quemados (the Street of the Burnings), and showed me the buildings of the old M arrano secret Kehillah where the community head, M anuel Pérez, and his hundred Jews were arrested. The location, directly facing the Franciscan church, was chosen to avoid suspicion. We visited the Inquisition dungeons. The doors were thick and rusted, with tiny openings covered by wire. It was through these openings, my guide said, that the victims were questioned by the Inquisition tribun als. The walls were covered with in scriptions now difficult to decipher. So we went from place to place. Each corner had its silent, eloquent testi mony of torture and death: you could almost hear the last death-cry “Hear, O Israel!” hanging in the air. I tapped the cold, damp, stone walls of the dark cells musty with age— here the martyrs lay in agony, their bones broken and twisted by torture, praying in their last moments, in face of the torture-instruments and the death-fire. We walk round the Franciscan monastery on a bright sunny morning and it is remarkable how the sun beams are incapable of lighting up the dark grim crucifixes on the walls. I stand in the Plaza de la Inquisición. Under our feet are massive flagstones leading to the steps of the monastery. If these stones could speak! Through these massive gates, now crumbling with age, the victims were led bound and chained to confess their sins in the church. In the middle of the square there is a small space marked off with heavy chains, symbolic of the Jewish past. We enter the cloister through JEWISH LIFE

the central door. Inside there is an odor of incense and candles; women are kneeling, their heads covered with black shawls. Round us are statues of saints, the whole giving the effect of a museum. We approach the main altar and suddenly beneath my feet I feel an iron trap-door which leads to the cellars below. Though the trap door is closed with heavy locks, the staircase below is visible. Those stairs lead to the torture chambers of the old Inquisition. I go down, look at the instruments, see the dark, damp cells. The broken limbs of the victims were burned in huge bonfires not far from the Franciscan church. Now we are in the annex where the monks had their quarters. There is a heavy wooden door crumbling with age, with rust-eaten hinges and an old-fashioned lock. It leads to a large subterranean basement. This was the main entrance to the dun geons of the Inquisition. Over the door are primitive wooden crucifixes and an inscription in Latin praising Jesus, and cursing those who reject him. We come back through the street called Ancache, which is today a cen ter for leather merchants (including, of course, some Jewish dealers). I chat with some of the Jewish leather merchants, immigrants from Eastern Europe who have now opened shops on the site of the Inquisition of old. “You see,” I said to my companion, “the fires of the Inquisition were un able to extinguish the faith of our people. Their Jewish names on the shops a few doors away from the site of the terror are symbolic.” N ot long ago, Golda Meir, then Israel’s Foreign Minister, stood in this place, watch ing a military parade in her honor,

July-August 1968

and was decorated with Peru’s high est order. When she was given the key to the city, Peru’s Foreign Min ister greeted her with these words: The first victim here of the Inquisi tion hundreds of years ago was the Jewish woman Manzia de Luna. In 1736 the Jewess Maria de Castro was the last victim of the Inquisition to die here. Both died as martyrs and the first woman to receive these honors from Peru is likewise a Jewess. At the time of the creation of the State of Israel a number of aristo cratic families in Peru stated that they were descendants of Jews. It is con sidered preferable to be of Jewish descent than of Indian origin, or than to stem from the Spanish conquistadores, who to this day are hated be cause of their cruelty and greed. ERU provides the best example of the changes taking place among Jews in the small Latin American yishuvim. The first time I was there antisemitism could be felt quite tangi bly. By the time of my recent visit, there was a change for the better. The current President, Fernando Belaunde, is a sincere liberal and the country enjoys genuine democracy. He has been successful in carrying out a number of reforms for the peasants and workers. He has im proved his relations with Israel, send ing delegations there to study its co operative farming. In the latter group have been intellectuals, writers, and army officers; even Peru’s vice-presi dent has visited Israel. All these peo ple return inspired with the achieve ments of the young state and have described their impressions at some length in the press. The following incident is charac teristic of the Peruvians’ attitude:

When all the Israeli ambassadors to the Latin American states met recently in Lima, they were invited to a ban quet in their honor at the presidential palace. Care was taken that no pork be on the menu. A “coincidence” oc curred that day— the representatives of the United A rab Republic scheduled a press conference in Lima the same day and heaped abuse upon Israel. However, the U.A.R. men left in dis appointment, having failed to make an impression. W hen Hayim Yehiel, the director of Israel’s External Affairs department, convened the conference of envoys, the local newspapers re sponded warmly. One of their com mentators said that from Egypt they

could import only the third plague of Pharoah— but from Israel there was much to learn. On the recom mendation of a military delegation which had been on a study mission in Israel, the Peruvian government car ried out an experiment of frontier army colonization. As a result, Israeli irrigation experts have come to Peru to undertake experimental work in its desert area. Thus, taking the situation all-in-all, we can find grounds for hope and promise in the development of Jew ish life in Peru and in Jewry’s rela tionships with that country where once the Inquisition ruled supreme.

JEW ISH LIFE

<3464 ¿ n o t i t

IfSkfiedfaMta litenatune by DAVID S. SHAPIRO

M ay and December Nuptials (From Responsa of Rabbi Isaac bar Sheshet-Ribash, No. 15) N TUNIS, North Africa, the following bizarre occurrence took place in the fourteenth century. A young bachelor, Insamuel Aramah, a recent arrival in Tunis, made plans to marry the widow of a certain Abun-Frai, formerly of Valencia, Spain. The widow was known to be at least ninety years old. The bachelor’s decision caused great consternation in the community which in turn led to strong opposition to the marriage. It was assumed that the marriage con templated by the said Insamuel was simply for the purpose of acquiring the money of the old woman who was reputed to be rather wealthy. No marriage could take place (as it cannot until the present day anywhere in the world) unless the community through its legally constituted authorities would offer its approval. In this case the authorities refused to give their assent. Insamuel com plained bitterly and railed against the leaders of the community. He finally brought his complaint to the mayor of the city, denouncing the Jewish com munity that was preventing him from getting married, maintaining simultaneously that the action he was contemplating was in no way contrary to Jewish law, and that it was not in accordance with G-d’s will and Jewish custom to deny anyone the right to marry any person he wishes. Jewish law, he claimed, does not prevent a young man from marrying an older woman or an old man from marrying a younger woman. The representatives of the Jewish community, how ever, maintained that as long as the plaintiff had no progeny he had no right to marry a woman incapable of bearing children. After the altercations, it was decided to write for an opinion to the re nowned rabbi of Algiers, Isaac bar Sheshet Barfat (known in Rabbinic literature as the Ribash, lived 1326-1408). Both the community and the mayor agreed to rely on the decision of the greatest sage of the day.

ABBI ISAAC in his responsum cites all the sources on this subject in the Talmud and the Code of Maimonides which point out that a person should marry under conditions that make it possible for him to raise a family. The

July-August 1968

Talmud, moreover, has stringent rulings about divorcing.a wife after ten years of barrenness even if both wish to continue to live together. (Yevomoth 64a) Only after having fulfilled the obligation of procreation may one marry a barren woman. If the strict letter of the law were followed, the courts certainly would have the right to prevent the suitor from marrying a woman who could no longer bear children, since he was never married. Nevertheless, the Rabbi main tains, for many generations no court has prevented such marriages from taking place. N o childless wife is divorced and no young girl is prohibited from mar rying before the age of conception. The reason why the courts have refrained from enforcing the Talmudic law on this subject is that there is a large number of cases in which the Talmudic sages disapproved of marriages (such as the marriage of the daughter of an am ho-oretz to a chochom or the of a talmid chochom to an am ho-oretz, etc.) and if these rules were enforced together with the obligation to pay the kethubah (alim ony), there would be conflicts and dissensions without end. So the sages preferred to overlook the Talmudic ruling of enforcement in order to maintain peace in families and the community. As long as both parties are happy and there is no direct violation of the Torah laws, the courts will not interfere and certainly not enforce separa tion of childless couples. If, however, the couple are in a state of conflict then the Talmudic law might be applied. In our case, as long as the widow is happy to be married, so that she might enjoy the status of a married Woman and have the assurance that someone will be of assistance to her in her last days and supervise her burial, the courts have the prerogative of ignoring the matter so as not to prevent her from marrying if he finds a man who, because of his poverty, is willing to marry her, though he is young and childless. Rabbi Isaac maintains that since this is the practice in many large communities where there are great sages an d pious men, the leaders of T un is might well follow the same practice, especially since this couple originally came from another city. The Talmudic objection to manying a woman for her money (Kiddushin 70a) invoked by the community applies only to the case of a forbidden marriage. (He also parenthetically points out that it is possible that the ruling to divorce a wife who cannot conceive was not carried out because in the Sephardic communities polygamy had not been banned and one m igh t marry two or three wives even without the permission of the govern ment) However, if the community leaders wish to penalize the man for having spoken insolently against the leaders of the community, they may do so. The general tenor of the responsum of Rabbi Isaac is that no compulsion should be used to prevent this odd marriage. Because of his great respect and admiration for the community and its leaders, he feels that the ultimate decision must be up to them in order to carry out what they believe to be in the best interests of the people involved and the community as a whole. It is noteworthy that this responsum by Rabbi Isaac is cited by the great Polish rabbi, Moses Isserles, in the Shulchon Oruch (Even Ha-Ezer, 1, 3 and 154, 10) as the source for the prevailing custom of courts to tolerate marriages which would not lead to procreation.

JEW ISH LIFE

B ooh R eview s Tradition in M odem Garb by ISA A C L. SWIFT

A TREASURY OF TRADITION, edited by Norman Lamm and Walter S. Würz burger; New York: Hebrew Publishing Company, 1967, 462 pp., $4.95. N 1958, the Rabbinical Council of America embarked upon a new en terprise: the publication of a magazine, Tradition, “A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought,” as its producers de scribed it. With its appearance, the Rabbinical Council came of age. For here was a vehicle for the presentation to English-speaking readers of the fruits of the researches and opinions of some of the leading exponents of Orthodoxy in the English-speaking world. From its inception, it was in every way worthy, in content and scope, in original ity and seriousness, to stand alongside

RABBI DR. ISAAC L. SWIFT is Rav of Con gregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood, New Jersey. In his active career in public service, he held a pulpit in Sydney, Australia.

July-August 1968

the Rabbinical Council’s splendid He brew journal Hadarom, and altogether superior to the Council’s other publica tions, The Rabbinical Council Record and the annual Sermon Manual, both of the latter being purely professional in content and purpose, and neither, by the way, really worthy of an organization of the stature and importance of the Rab binical Council of America. From the first issue, Tradition has, thanks to talented editorship and, for the most part, learned and lucid contribu tions, lived up to and even exceeded the expectations of those who welcomed and encouraged the Rabbinical Council’s vi sion in initiating the project. That there was need for such a journal soon became manifest, for what had begun as a halfyearly magazine became, early in its ca reer, a quarterly; and that the need was being successfully met soon became man ifest, too, for in its short history, Tradi-

tion has won wide recognition and ac claim throughout this country and far beyond its borders. Now, Tradition’s first editor, Rabbi Norman Lamm, and its present editor, Rabbi Walter S. Wurzburger, have joined hands to produce the present volume, an anthology drawn from the material ap pearing in the magazine during its first six years. Their task was no easy one: to determine what to leave out among so much that was excellent was difficult enough; to arrange in reasonable and in telligible sequence so much diversified material that had been scattered through six years of the magazine’s issues made the editors’ task even more unenviable. They overcame this latter difficulty with considerable skill, arranging their material under the headings: Religious Experience and the Halakhah, Judaism Confronts the World, Theological Per spectives, Halakhah and Contemporary Society, Biblical Studies, and Criticism. As for the actual selection of articles from among their embarras de richesse, this volume is no exception to the gen eral rule that applies to any anthology: the reader cannot but feel from time to time that there is material included which he would have omitted, and material omitted which he would have included. Anyone who has read the individual is sues of Tradition as they have appeared will have this feeling as he turns the pages of the ‘Treasury,” but on the whole it may be ungrudgingly conceded that the editors have shown as fine a discrim ination. in the choice of articles as they have shown skill in their arrangement. Whatever may be said concerning the inclusion of this and the omission of that, none will challenge or question the wis dom of including in the anthology and giving pride of place to Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s contribution “Confronta tion.” This masterpiece, dealing with the

issues and problems presented by the call for dialogui in these days in which the word “Ecumenical” has entered into the vocabulary of so many Jews, sets out in profound philosophical and theological terms the principles on which interfaith relationships should be based. It will be read with profit generations hence. Its implications will be heeded to Judaism’s —and Christianity’s—advantage, and ig nored to Jewry’s peril. It will not be thought invidious to have singled out this one article for special mention, for it towers above the others in the “Treasury” as surely as its author towers above the other contributors. Aside only from this essay, it would indeed be invidious to compare and con trast with each other the remaining ar ticles in the anthology. All are thoughtprovoking and nearly all are original, and all reflect the serious study by seri ous minds of some of the grave intel lectual, religious, and social issues be setting the Jew in the contemporary world: man’s dilemma in an age of phe nomenal technological progress; Juda ism’s constants in a world of change; Orthodoxy’s attitudes to the heterodox teachings of our times—issues as numer ous as the articles in the volume, all re ceive close attention and all are a refresh ing stimulus to the serious reader. To say this is not, of course, to say that the contributions are uniform. Quite the contrary, one of the rtrerits of a mis cellany of this kind is its very diversity. No two authors have the same style, make the same approach, or hold the same view. But all have this in common, that they reflect a profound search for Judaism’s relevance to the problems of our day, and a profound study of the ultimate concerns of Torah and its pre cepts. To say this, in turn, is not to say that one agrees with all the opinions expressed JEW ISH LIFE

and all the conclusions reached by the various contributors. Far from it. There are many statements made and many views recorded with which there is abundant room for disagreement. But that is surely not the least of the pur poses of Tradition: to challenge the read er, to promote discussion, to encourage debate. ‘‘The Treasury of Tradition” is impor tant enough a volume for us to notice what is missing as well as what is pres ent. Among many subjects that one would have liked to see discussed in its pages and on which the book is silent, one is particularly conspicuous by its ab sence—the Aggodah. Apart from a pass ing reference in one of Rabbi Lamm’s own essays, an illuminating study of the late Rav Kook’s philosophy, there is no single article on this important aspect of Jewish thought. I shall be told, with justice, that the “Treasury” is not an at tempt to present all aspects of Judaism. And I shall be told, with equal justice, that the editors were confined to mate rial from the various issues of the maga zine, and since there was none on the Aggodah, none was available for inclu sion in the “Treasury.” This is perfectly true. Still it is a pity that magazine and anthology alike should say nothing of a field of Jewish literature that has had an impact on Jew ish thought not less significant than the impact of Holochah on Jewish conduct. The “Treasury” would have been im measurably enriched had it contained an article bringing to bear on the Aggodah the penetration which Rabbi Emanuel Rackman brings to bear in its pages on the Halochah, the lucidity which Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits applies to philosophy, the relevance which Dr. Isadore Twersky bestows upon the problems of the Wel fare State, or the painstaking thorough ness which Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits

July-August 1968

devotes to his own special field of study, medical ethics. I do not, of course, set Halochah and Aggodah in competition with each other for space in the columns of Tradition. Every thinking orthodox Jew will not but acknowledge the ultimate supremacy of Halochah, but that does not mean that the Aggodah, vast in volume and in fluence, is to be ignored. “For the Rabbis,” says Bialik, “both Halakhah and Aggadah were of gold: they distinguished them from one an other as bullion from minted coins. . . . Aggadah, nursling of the spheres, deals with what ought to be and what might be; to read it is to learn what have been the desires, the pre-occupations, the ideals of the Jewish people. Halakhah, fed by the actual world, deals with what exists and is established.”* Here, then, in the broad expanse of Aggadic literature, is a field which we may hope will be explored in future is sues of Tradition, and will enrich future editions of the “Treasury.” What do a volume like the “Treasury” and a magazine like Tradition mean to the readers of J e w is h L i f e ? A great deal more, perhaps, than they realize. Tradi tion is not written for or by a profession al rabbinate; it is written by Jews of many callings to whom Judaism in its orthodox and traditional expressions is co-extensive with life itself; it is ad dressed to Jews of all callings who care to inform themselves on the fundamental concerns of their Torah and their faith. “This is the function of Tradition,” writes the editor in his introductory re marks, “to interpret the Tradition, the Word of G-d, the heritage of Torah and mitzvot, in a manner and form that the * “Halakhah and Aggadah,” by Chaim Nachman Bialik; translated by Leon Simon.

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modern, educated, thinking Jew can un derstand. The modern Jew has, by and large, given up his pat, dogmatic answers of doctrinaire liberalism and meliorism, and has now turned for direction to the classical sources of Jewish life. Now that the channels of communication between him and the Tradition are open, all that remains is—to teach, to interpret, to explain.” The glory of Jewry in the past has

been its learned laity, men of diverse walks of life to whom the knowledge of Judaism and its great literary monuments, the Talmudim and Midrashim, were as vital to their intellects as their religious practices were vital to their daily lives. The goal of Tradition is surely to revive that splendor. When that goal will be achieved on the American orthodox scene, American Jewry too will have come of age.

A Man of Example by SHOLOM MORROW

THE MAGGID OF DUBNO AND HIS PARABLES, by Dr. Benno Heinemann; New York: Philipp Feldheim, Inc., 1968, 283 pp., $6.95. N THE circles of our people that have at least a minimal acquaintance with Torah lore, any story that is introduced as relating to the “Dubner Maggidf gains an eager ear. This precious volume fol lows that same path. It is neither charac terized by apology nor is it tinged with superficiality. The honest piety and love for Torah that was the essence of Rabbi Yaakov ben Z’ev Kranz, the “Dubner Maggid,” is readily felt in the pages of this pleasing anthology. The late author has brought together a broad selection of the Maggid’s para bles in eighteen varied chapters, in addi tion to a short biography and a valuable bibliography. In small measure the au-

RABBI MORROW, a graduate of the Mesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin Rabbinical Academy, is employed in the business office of Columbia University.

July-August 1968

thor devotes space to the Maggid’s rela tionship with the Vilna Gaon, some of his travels and experiences, and sundry stories. The topics which are covered range from the Sabbath to Biblical per sonalities, and from the High Holy Days to Chassidim. In most cases the reader will do well to pause at the end of each parable and to distill the essential princi ples and features that are involved. The volume presents food for thought and topics for conversation. The Maggid’s incisive method can be seen in the maimer in which he explains the obligations of women in Jewish law. The Talmud (Kiddushin 34a) states: ‘‘The observance of all the positive mitzvos that are associated with a definite time (of day or of year) is incumbent upon men, but not on women.” A certain merchant goes to the same fair each year at the same season. And every time he takes with him an assistant to carry his baggage

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and to drive his carriage. People say that he is accustomed to going to this one fair and always at this one stated time because no other place and no other time would meet his specific re quirements. What the merchant does, then, is governed by a set time, and a set place. But for the assistant, time and place have meaning only insofar as they concern his employer; his task is dependent directly only upon the wishes of his master. All he must re member is to follow his employer wherever the latter may wish to go in connection with his executive duties. Similarly, the man must bear the yoke of Torah and Mitzvoth. The woman, however, is not an independent indi vidual; instead, she is the valued assistant of her husband, accompanying him through life and making a home for him

in order to fulfill the tasks of the Al mighty. Hence her life is governed not by laws of time and place, but only the needs of the man whose cherished help meet she is. Though many readers might prefer to read the mesholim in Yiddish or Hebrew, the cogency of the Maggid’s presenta tions remains undiminished by their Eng lish garb. The reader with a modest To rah background will most assuredly appreciate the anthology, yet the depths of the Maggid’s words will be plumbed in proportion to one’s own Torah abili ties. As one might expect, the reader may dip into the book at any point and find a gem of a moshol which he may take away with him. This reviewer finds “The Maggid of Dubno and His Parables” a welcome ad dition to the growing list of Torah-true Judaica.

A “N ew ” W ay of Teaching by LOUIS GINSBURG TALES OF FAITH, by Solomon Alter Halpern; New York: Philipp Feldheim, 1968, 208 pp., $3.50. N “Tales of Faith,” Rabbi Solomon Alter Halpern has published a volume of short stories that, but for their high quality, would be eclipsed by the author’s introduction. In this introduction, Rabbi

RABBI GINSBURG, formerly Rav in Utica, New York, is Director of Special Activities of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, youth arm of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

July-August 1968

Halpern sets forth a manifesto that de serves the attention of both writers and Jewish educators. The stated purpose of the book is to present a collection of stories that are authentically Jewish. The author decries the current state of Jewish story-telling. Examples of gross anachronism are cited. Even more ob jectionable is the lack of attention given to Jewish principles and dogmas. Fre quently only the names are authentical ly Jewish. Furthermore, many of these tales are an admixture of miracles, won61

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ders, and nonsense, all mixed together into an unbelievable fantasy—to which a young reader cannot relate. The author, who serves regularly as a Rosh Yeshiva teaching advanced Talmud at Yeshivath Torah Emeth in London, strives to achieve both authenticity and creditability. An appendix at the end of the book indicates the attention to facts. He cites all of his sources, classified Jewish sources for the plot and scholarly research for detail. This appendix is to be applauded for it will serve as a peda gogic resource in the Jewish school by giving teachers the material from which they can amplify their subject matter. The introduction must be stressed be cause it explains this unique book. Rab bi Halpern’s purpose is not limited to writing superior stories. It is an attempt to regenerate interest in the Aggodah itself as a means of using it in the clas sical Jewish manner to impart the moral principles of Torah to our people in an authentic fashion. The author in his in troduction states “the only difference is that falsehoods in Aggaddah are a little harder to prove, but they are falsehoods just the same.” Though it is not clear from the text what the Aggodah is be ing differentiated from, to this reviewer, it seems that Aggodah is being distin guished from Halochah. In the current yeshiva curriculum, full attention is de voted to Halochah. When a section of Aggodah is encountered, it is at best read in a cursory manner. As a result, while we do devote to Halochah the in tellectual effort that the Rambam lauds in his lengthy comment to the Mishnah in Chelek, to discover the accurate and true meaning of the Halochah, Aggod ah has ben relegated to a facile read

July-August 1968

ing which leaves it sounding rather su perficial and frequently incomprehensible. By amplifying the Aggodah into a full fledged story, Rabbi Halpem gives the attention it so richly deserves. How ever, in trying to show others the proper derech, the author has limited himself. He has remained extremely close to the literal story of the Aggodah with the obvious intent of indicating to others that this need not restrict one’s narrative ability. One might well wish that Rabbi Halpern had seen fit to give himself more latitude in working with the Midrashic and Aggaddic sources. It is qual ified persons such as he who should as sume the task of interpreting Aggodah. Most of the stories included in “Tales of Faith” were originally written for “Haderech,” a children’s magazine pub lished in London by Keren Hatorah. They are extremely well written and couched in the kind of language which gives the subject matter a feeling of con temporary relevancy. “Tales of Faith” is primarily addressed to an audience of eighth- to tenth-year students. The vo cabulary is well suited for that age bracket, while the idea content will main tain their interest3 at the present and leave with them a store of valuable re ligious concepts for the future. Indeed, most of the stories are devoted to ideas. What did the Jewish historical figures think? What motivated them? How did they react to the problems that con fronted them? In the course of narrative ly answering the above questions, Rabbi Halpern performs what is perhaps the most important function of his book, the introduction of authentic Jewish thought to secularly oriented youth.

‘NELLY SACHS* (continued from page 6 ) neys” by Nelly Sachs in your issue of Advocate (Boston), Jewish Affairs (Jo March-April 1968, that “only few more hannesburg^, Judaism (New York), and than a dozen of her poems had at that The Jewish Quarterly (London), which time [the announcement of the Nobel took cognizance of this great GermanPrize in the latter part of 1966] been Jewish poetess in 1961, 1962, 1965, and translated into English for publication in 1966, respectively. (May I add, in all the pages of The New Yorker,} Harper’s modesty, that all the articles and most of and two other magazines [Mademoiselle the translations were the work of the un and Book Week].” The fact is that these dersigned.) Not that American Jewry de magazines published selections from “O serves much credit for its acumen and •the Chimneys” in 1967, only a few foresight. For example, the Ausubels’ months before the book itself was is “Treasury of Jewish Poetry,” issued in sued by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. It is 1957, completely ignores Nelly Sachs, al most unlikely that these magazines—or though she had started publishing her ma an American book publisher, for that ture work as early as 1943. I fear that matter—would have printed the work of once again it has taken Gentile recogni a poetess unknown to them without the tion to make Jews honor one of their accolade of a Nobel Prize. The credit for own authentic cultural voices. printing English articles on Nelly Sachs Harry Zohn as well as some translations from her Chairman, Department of Germanic poetry well before she achieved interna and Slavic Languages, tional renown should go to The Jewish Brandéis University

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Amid the continuing military and diplomatic reverberations of the

a never-to-be-forgotten Six Days of June, 1967, an essential considera in o

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tion tends to be overlooked, namely, the role this epoch played in the evolution of the Return to Zion. DR. J. GOLDSCHMIDT, Director of the Religious D epartm ent of Israel’s Ministry of Education, re views this dramatic chapter against the background of the past. . . . The shifting pattern of world events gives fresh urgency to the need to re-assess m an’s role. RABBI BEREL WEIN, Rav of Congregation Beth Israel of Miami Beach, Florida, views m an’s relation to his nat

our

ural environment, in Jewish terms. . . . With familiar and unfamiliar datelines focussing attention on places near and far, Jews in major

c 0

centers become newly— and belatedly— aware of the extent of the Diaspora, and of the existence of Jewish communities still isolated from the mainstream of Jewish life. JACOB BELLER, who has brought our readers graphic reports on numerous such communities, presents in this issue a view of the current Peruvian Jewish scene and its his

t torical background. . . . “Extremism” has become a nasty word, not r

surprisingly used sometimes in an extremist manner. DR. JEROME HOCHBAUM, Assistant Professor of Sociology in Yeshiva College,

1 considers the spectrum within Orthodoxy. . . . The whirlwind visit to the United States by the first deputation ever from Soviet Russia’s b religious Jewish community will long be remembered for a variety

of reasons. RABBI DAVID B. HOLLANDER writes of one detail of

t that visit. o

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