Jewish Life Sept-Oct 1968

BLACK AND

JE W :

H E AYEN H E L P AGE THE

OF

THE

THE

E M E R G IN G

R E B B E T Z IN

IR R E S P O N S IB IL IT Y

TELSHER

RAY AND

ID E N T IF IC A T IO N T O R A H IM D E R E C H

OR

•

R E L A T IO N S H IP •

RENEW AL

R E B E L S ---- B E C A U S E , . .

ROSH

H A Y E S H IY A H

C O M M IT M E N T ?

ERETZ

•

M E D IT A T IO N S

TISHRI-CHESHVAN 5729 WB B E B fjs SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1968

Announcement

70th A nniversary N a tio n a l B ien n ial Convention OF T H E

Union o f Orthodox Jewish Congregations o f A m erica w ill be held at the W A SH ING TO N H ILTO N in W A S H IN G T O N , D.C. W ednesday, N ovem ber 2 7-S u n d ay, December 1, 1968 Kislev 6 to Kislev 10, 5729

PLEASE RESERVE THESE DATES

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

nNi?m

r " i k n 't ii

fiD u a ’ iiM

i n

n g tJ T j

DAVID M. L OUVESIONf Vol. XXXVI, No. l/S ep t.-O ct. 1968/Tishri-Chesvan 5729 iT"3

THE EDITOR’S VIEW S aul B er n 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 . S harfm an

Editorial Associates E lkanah S chwartz

Assistant Editor JEWISH LIFE is published bi-monthly. Subscription two years $5.00, three years $6.50, four years $8.00. Foreign: Add 40 cents per year.

Editorial and Publication Office: 84 Fifth Avenue New York 10011, N. Y. (212) ALgonquin 5-4100

THE JEWISH DIMENSION IN THE NEW A G E .............

2

THE NEW STYLE OF TOTALITARIAN TE R R O R .............

4

ARTICLES BLACK AND JEW: RE APPRAISING THE EMERGING RELATIONSHIP/Jerry Hochbaum ................................

6

IDENTIFICATION OR COMMITMENT?/ Elkanah Schwartz .............................................................

14

HEAVEN HELP THE REBBETZIN/ Libby K la p e rm a n ...............................................................

21

REBELS-BECAUSE . . ./R a lp h P elc o v itz....................

24

RENEWAL/Samson R. W e is s ............................................

40

TORAH IM DERECH ERETZ/Gershon K ra n zle r.............

43

THE TELSHER RAV AND ROSH HAYESHIVAH/ Aaron Rothkoff ...................................

47

OUR AGE OF IRRESPONSIBlLITY/Samuel A. Turk ...

53

POETRY Published by U n io n of O rthodox J e w 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.

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

Sepfem ber-October 1968

MEDITATIONS/Boruch Yitzchak Hyman .......................

32

BOOK REVIEWS VOICE FROM THE IN Q U ISITIO N /M aurice L a m m ......

67

LOOKING BACK/David M ir s k y ..........................................

71

FACTORS IN ISRAEL’S SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT/ Nathan Z e lik o w ...........................

75

DEPARTMENTS FROM HERE AND T H E R E ...................................................

63

AMONG OUR CONTRIBUTORS................Inside back cover

Cover and drawings by Naama Kitov © Copyright 1968 by UNION OF ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA

1

the EDITOR'S VIEW The Jewish Dimension in the New Age N Jewish reckoning, the year 5728 culminated one of the great turning-points of history. It was a year in which the mean­ ing of awesome Nes, of Divine intercession in the process of human events, penetrated the recesses of Jewish consciousness.

Israel had faced cataclysmic doom, yet within six incredible days all was reversed: the ring of death shattered, the Holy Land borders freed, Jerusalem, the Holy City, united. For the second time within a generation, and with a yet deeper outpouring than came before, the Jewish people had risen as one, propelled by a force surging from the depths of Jewish being. There had been Call and response. Through the ensuing months the imprint of Eternal Purpose became visible in daily reality.

Now comes the year 5729 and we Jews address ourselves to its tasks, its challenges and fears and promise. They are of over­ whelming dimension. Mankind, in its entirety, has moved on to a new age and all that was before stands severed from what is now, that which is of now is a tangled confusion, and what lies ahead is beyond imagining. Men stand agape before an un­ familiar universe.

To the collective human dimension, add the special Jewish dimension. If the disintegration of human landmarks amid the birthpains of a new epoch has devastating impact on the general social heritage, how much more crushing is the pressure upon The the Jewish heritage. Under any circumstances, the Jew, as bearer Challenge of Torah, pursues a lone path among the families and faiths of Compounded mankind. Under even the best of circumstances, he must project his unique spiritual vista, the way of life deriving from it, and in fact his very Jewish existence, against contrary currents. How great, then, the challenge when the entire human environment is poured into a new crucible. How can he withstand so conclu­ sive a change of man and man’s world?

I

T IS of the essence of the Jewish story that every dilemma facing the Jew—be it one peculiar to him as a Jew or one which he shares with his fellow men—bears within if the means of its own solution. The very circumstances that challenge Jewish life generate capacity to overcome the challenge.

I

2

JEWISH LIFE

Viewing matters in this light, we see Jewry schooled by unique experience to surmount not only frontal attacks but also the vicissitudes of historical change. All of Jewish history has given such schooling, not least of all that of the past two cen­ turies of exposure to accelerating revolution. True, the changes History’s now shaking world society and the human environment are more Schooling all-encompassing than those of any previous period of known history. True also that the corresponding challenge to Jewish being is total as perhaps never before and has exacted an un­ precedented toll, moral and physical both. For this very reason, we are the more compelled to grasp its dimension, we are, per­ force, made readier to confront the larger reality. For Jewry, unlike the majority faith communities rooted in the social order, the challenge early became visible as one of life or death.

In being compelled to deal with the onrush of the New Age on the level of ultimates, we Jews have had to learn that there can be no facile accommodation to its demands. Long be­ fore the revolution reached its present peak, the philosophy of accommodation emerged on the Jewish scene. At grim cost, Jewry has since learned that no “reform,” no “adjustment,” no “assimilation,” no “renewal” will purchase lease on life. We have had to rediscover the eternal force of Torah truth, to learn again that to the extent, and only to the extent, that we hold fast to Torah and order our lives by its commands can we achieve the transition from era to era, from age to age.

Not for a moment, though, may we rest upon the supposi­ tion that simply by proclaiming fealty to Torah will the Torah Matching life make a secure transition through the gateways of a new age.

New To the contrary, all Jewish experience tells that it is imperative Realities that the character of surrounding change be thoroughly assessed and that the Jewish program be projected in terms matching the force of new realities. For the Torah life to endure, the will to live must be armored with the tools of living.

IVTO gift of prophecy is needed to prevision the coming year as 1 1 one of continued world change. Will it be only more of change for change’s sake, without direction, without charts, with­ out compass? For the Jewish people,- at least, it need not be and must not be. Ours is a timeless Direction, the true way amid all change. On every side, we see our fellow men—and many of our fellow Jews among them—hurrying along trails that beckon with the allure of the new, but lead from nowhere to nowhere. Let us not be enticed to join them but rather, going forward with steadfast purpose and applied experience on our path of Torah truth, show the way for the broad ranks of a perplexed mankind.

Septem ber-October 1968

3

The New Style of Totalitarian Terror l^ k N C E again, totalitarian terror has turned back the clock v J to Munich. Communist Russia’s invasion and subjugation of Czechoslovakia duplicates its prior rape of Hungary, both actions reproducing the processes of totalitarianism’s earlier era.

As before, thè ruthless crime has met with no challenge other than verbal hard-wringing. And as before, the chancelleries of leading powers comfort themselves and the public with the thought that, deplorable though the agression is, it met a need that had to be recognized and having now been satisfied, peace will ensue. In short, we see that though the jackbooted stormtrooper and party-line robot of yore are gone, soul-crushing de­ spotism is with us still and the world still backs away from its terrible import.

With all the fidelity to the basic pattern, authoritarians have taken pains to refashion their style to current mode. The process has entailed a synthesis of the once rival components of Naziism and Bolshevism, with the resultant compound re-distilled in a two-compartment vessel. In the one compartment appears Estab­ lishment Communism, now bearing management-class rather than proletarian aura, attuned to organization-man respectability in a setting of automation, space travel, and abundance. In the other compartment—New Left, offering the excitement-packed allure of communofaseism to youth bereft of purpose and chaf­ ing from the inner meaninglessness of the same setting of auto­ mation, space travel, and abundance—plus pot. In both com­ partments—a carefully measured admixture of that timetried wonder ingredient, Jew-hate.

The new style has proven potent. Within the Soviet Union and its subject domains, Kremlin autocrats rule with defter touch, so secure as to permit an unorthodox voice to be heard on oc­ casion. Should the voice feel itself emboldened, the clamp is applied, to be released at the judicious moment. Beyond the Iron Curtain, the two-compartment equipment of today’s totalitarianThe Double ism lends itself well to the double play. From one direction, the Play atom-bomb-backed doctrine of coexistence impels governing forces and public opinion toward accommodation with Soviet imperialism on whatever terms offer promise of security. From another direction, communofaseism stokes the fires of social unrest in city after city and campus after campus across the Western world. While Establishment Communism engages Free World attention with the complexities of coexistence negotiations, New Leftists wreak havoc in key quarters, whipping up students into frenzied mobs, howling down other voices, entrapping liberalminded adults in a maze of falsified situations, turning friend against friend and brother against brother.

4

JEWISH LIFE

HE coincidence of the invasion of Czechoslovakia with the events surrounding the Democrat party convention in Chi­ cago was surely not fortuitous. The double play technique was used with notable dexterity in this case, with “the whole world watching” the battle between invading New Left storm troops and city police in Chicago streets while a country reaching for freedom was reenslaved overnight by the forces of Establishment Communism.

A striking facet of this episode was the tacit assist given the totalitarian cause by major segments of America’s mass media establishment. Subsequent fervent denials by leading dailies and TV chains cannot erase what their readers read and their view­ ers saw and heard. What they were told and shown was grossly slanted reportage and commentation, obviously responsive to the powerful interests which together with political groups and New Left mobs called for a U.S. surrender in Viet Nam, under the circumlocution of “stop the bombing.” How curious it is that for all their natural avidity for the colorful story, these media found no room in their columns and broadcasts for scenes of thousands of hippies and assorted New Left followers conOmission verging from near and far upon Chicago, with the proclaimed and intent to compel the convention and its host city alike to bow Commission to their dictates or suffer catastrophic disruption. Of rare news interest too, and likewise strangely bypassed or played down, were the scenes of the massed mobs “occupying” key Chicago locations, goading and stoning the police, shrieking foulmouthed abuse and hurling manure. But the media did give all-out cover­ age of the scenes which took place when, after withstanding mob violence for days and nights, police patience gave way and they “overreacted.”

S

A LL aspects of the complex of totalitarian thrust and Free jlj L world ensnarement are of grave concern to Jews. Ours is an

unqualifiable stake in peace and freedom, in democracy and a lawful society. Even were not every manifestation of totalitar­ ianism, whether old style or new style, whether behind the Iron Dallying Curtain or in the Western world, impregnated with antisemitism, with its menace to us would be scarcely a whit less. Knowing that it Despotism inevitably bears this poison, we are bound to be alert to its devices and to resist its encroachments with utmost determina­ tion.

The time is long past for even the most gullible to realize the facts of totalitarian life. Autocracy is not to be dallied with, not to be compromised with, not to be allied with. It is armed against the free man and the free man, if he is to remain such, must stand his ground.

S. B. Septem ber-October 1968

5

Black and Jew: Re-Appraising the Emerging Relationship

By JERRY HOCHBAUM

HE accelerating crisis in our cities the black community in the past. As has rapidly and sharply exacerbat­ local groups become more attuned to ed Negro-Jewish relationships, and the the voices of the black masses in the problem is now a high-priority item ghetto, Negro antisemitism will be on the agenda of concerns of the likely to find more ideological shelter American Jewish community. The and support among extreme groups Jewish reaction to the increasingly and increasingly develop its collective overt black antisemitism has been a character. In a growing number of in­ blend of acute anxiety and bitter disap­ stances, it has already graduated into pointment and has threatened to over­ an instrument of demagoguery among shadow the larger underlying issues of the more militant black organizations in the classic antisemitic tradition. poverty and civil rights.

Yet hostility to Jews among Negroes ECONDLY, black Jew-hate has is not a new phenomenon. It was de­ spilled over from the ghetto to the scribed and analyzed in detail by Ken­ neth Clark as early as 1946. However, aspirants to, and members of, the Ne­ there are significant differences in its gro middle class. For the more mobile expression today. Firstly, two decades Negro, antisemitism springs not from ago it was almost wholly a lower-class the exploitation and deprivation of the phenomenon confined to the ghetto. ghetto. To him the Jew, eminently suc­ Black antisemitism is still largely cen­ cessful in acquiring status and social tered there, but it has surfaced and has position, amassing possessions, and become more visible and strident, as achieving prominence, prestige, and has anti-white hostility, which it in power, is the prototype of the Ameri­ large part undoubtedly reflects. Fur­ can middle class, and he eyes with notthermore, it is now more than an ex­ so-hidden envy the ecologically and pression of the individual Negro’s socially proximate world of the mid­ frustration and anger. The growing dle-class Jew, a world he has not yet fragmentation Qf the national civil achieved. Increasingly too, he must rights movement into a host of smaller compete with the Jew for educational and increasingly localized bodies has opportunity, particularly on the uni­ concomitantly weakened the hold and versity level, jobs, and housing.

The explosive outbursts of black an­ role of the established national Negro leadership, who have strongly con­ tisemitism in which Jews, of course, demned anti-Jewish expressions within are victimized, must be met straight-

T

S

6

JEWISH LIFE

forwardly by the Jewish community and unhesitatingly combatted. Simply condemning antisemitism never elim­ inated it, and the Jewish community therefore also has the responsibility of establishing policies and creating and participating in programs that can hopefully minimize Negro-Jewish ten­ sions. Even proceding these steps, it appears almost imperative that we un­ derstand the thing we call Negro anti­ semitism, and this writer believes it is futile, if not impossible, to examine this phenomenon apart from the total socio-cultural context in which it oc­ curs and with which it is intimately bound.

ERHAPS the issues in point can P be set within an analytical frame­ work, however crude and unrefined, even if they are also empirically diffi­ cult to distinguish. The question—not novel—being posed is: To what degree is Negro anti-semitism being directed at the Jew because he is Jewish and to what degree because he is white?

Furthermore, to what degree is Negro anti-Jewishness Christian and to what degree peculiarly Negro? This is not to deny uniquely Jewish and Negro com­ ponents in the Negro-Jewish problem, to which we will return later. We are now raising the question—not always posed before— of dimension, of the contributing powers of the multiple causative factors and sources of Negro antisemitism.

Theologically, Negro anti-Jewishness is undoubtedly connected with the long historical tradition of Christian anti-Jewishness, not unlike that of white America, which Negroes have assimilated as part of their religious traditions. As a Christian, like his white counterparts with whom he identifies himself paradoxically in at Sepfem ber-October 1968

least this respect, the Negro is imbued with the feeling that the Jew has earned retribution because of the role attributed to him in Christian scripture and tradition. Yet Negro antisemitism, like white antisemitism before it, has torn itself loose from, and become functionally independent of, its reli­ gious origins.

The religio-historical use of the Jew as a scapegoat is compounded socio­ logically by the Negro’s position in American society. Living in a state of severe socio-economic deprivation cre­ ates, of course, a psychological cli­ mate of frustration and hopelessness, ripe for the inevitable expression of hatred and naturally conducive to an­ tisemitism. The same conditions can generate—as they have in the p a s t similar manifestations of antisemitism 'in white America.

In terms of population inter-rela­ tions, the Jew has, for a complex of socio-historical reasons, been geograph­ ically close to the Negro. Because of the Jew’s rapid socio-economic mobil­ ity—more rapid than most other im­ migrant groups—large numbers of Jews were able to quickly leave their areas of initial and subsequent resi­ dence in this country, creating a vac­ uum in these localities that often was rapidly filled by Negroes. Unlike other ethnic groups, Jews were less likely to resist overtly Negro inroads in these —and their later middle-class—neigh­ borhoods, thus creating mixed NegroJewish neighborhoods, however imper­ manent, and the residual Jewish presence when the neighborhoods turned, as was likely, into black ghettos. The Negro experience in the ghettos with the remaining Jewish mer­ chants and landlords has long been held forth as the basis for justifying 7

hostility to Jews. Unquestionably, ex­ ploitation occurs and is committed by Jews, but it is not Jewish exploitation.

It is the marginal status, high-risk character of the ghetto economy that is responsible. The poor pay more, wherever they shop, be it at the chain supermarket in the ghetto or at any in­ dividual entrepreneur: Jewish, Negro, Irish, or Greek. Jews are “overrepre­ sented” in the ghetto economy, as a recent study by Rossi* has shown, largely because of their earlier resi­ dence and investment there and possi­ bly because of the marginal status of some types of Jews in parts of the American economy due to their own minority group status.

UT it is more than their alleged exploitation that makes the Jews a target of Negro resentment. The Northern ghettoes have always been rife with exploitation of Negroes by blacks as well as whites, and the Ne­ gro has a long memory of exploitation which even predates the ghetto. Trag­ ically the Jew, for the race-conscious Negro today, is most conveniently available as the white target for the long-accumulated rage and generalized hostility that the black man has for “whitey,” “Goldberg,” in the North­ ern ghettos, socially vulnerable in white Christian America and phys­ ically within rioting distance, becomes the functional equivalent of the voo­ doo doll for “Mr. Charley.”

The black-white, Christian-Jewish compound in Negro-Jewish relation­ ships unquestionably generates the basic tensions existing between the groups, and must therefore be a major focus of consideration in any program

B

* Peter Rossi, “Supplemental Studie for the National Advisory Commission on Disorders,” p. 126.

8

of action the Jewish community con­ templates. However, we must not dis­ count the uniquely Jewish and Negro components which sharpen and exac­ erbate these tensions. The essential problem is that both groups perceive themselves to be, and of course actual­ ly are, minority groups, with certain parallels in their respective historical group experiences and social situa­ tions, while simultaneously possessing equally relevant and significant dis­ similarities, and being located in dif­ ferent parts of the American social structure. Too frequently, both groups, or significant sectors of each, converge perceptually on the similarities, when the dissimilarities are equally relevant, and vice versa. Jews, of course, are often prone, as are other ethnic groups, to demand that the Negro pull himself up by his bootstraps as they did. And yet, needless to say, the Jew­ ish experience in America and the Jewish historical and socio-cultural experience is vastly different from that of the Negro, a fact which needs no elaboration here. Convergence on the similarity rather than the relevant dis­ similarity is a grave sociological error.

Similarly, the Negro expects and de­ mands greater morality from the Jew because he too is a member of a mi­ nority group and was also once “a slave unto Pharaoh in Egypt,” failing to take into account that the Jew has achieved a middle-class standing in American society, and incorporates for better or worse many of the traits of American middle-class mentality. Even Jewish attempts to call Jewish con­ science and morality to bear on the racial crisis have largely floundered because of the elementary sociological fact that commitment to a group’s moral norms become attenuated as a JEWISH LIFE

result of that group’s socio-economic position, interests, and experiences.

NDEED, a large part of the NegroJewish dilemma grows out of the exceedingly high and unrealistic expec­ tations we have of each other and ourselves, because of our common minority group status. Paradoxically, both Negroes and Jews, victims as minority groups, utilize the same cul­ tural devices applied to them by the dominant groups in our society—mak­ ing demands of each other that we do not make of the rest of the population and holding the group responsible for the behavior of its individual mem­ bers. The result, of course, is that Ne­ groes hold Jews to a higher standard of behavior because they are Jews.

When the anticipated response is not forthcoming, they are angry and disil­ lusioned. Even when reasonable re­ sponses are forthcoming they are unlikely to satisfy Negro demands en­ tirely because emotionally saturated and unrealistically high expectations are generically not capable of fulfill­ ment. In addition, the Negro, long a victim of stereotyping by the white community, resorts to similar types of generalizations about Jews.

Jews, similarly, are prone to hold all Negroes responsible for the anti­ semitism and demagoguery of a small minority of Negro extremists. Jews, of course, also expect more from the Negro than a kick in the teeth in light of the Jew’s long commitment and staunch support for the Negro’s strug­ gle for equality. In sum, the syndrome in Jewish-Negro relationships, more so than in each group’s relationship with the rest of the population, is: higher expectations, inevitable disillusionment and disappointment, leading to antiJewish and anti-Negro feeling. Thus,

I

Septem ber-October 1968

the dissymmetry of the status of the Negro and Jew as minority groups, and the unrealistic expectations and ambivalence this generates, add new fuels to the already dangerous con­ flagration.

OW should the Jewish community H respond to the growing crisis of Jewish-Negro relationships? Indiffer­ ence to, and withdrawal from, the struggle for equality and the larger war on poverty, however we justify it because of ingratitude and violence, certainly does nothing to resolve the core issue—minimizing Negro-Jewish tensions. On the other hand, the in­ voluntary or forced removal of Jew­ ish merchants and landlords (and even teachers and social workers) from black neighborhoods not only violates the elementary principles of free choice in a democracy; it is also an unwarranted and unwise accommoda­ tion to the demands of Black Power advocates, as we will soon point out.

Further, given the magnitude of the Negro’s economic problems, such measures can hardly solve them.

In our technological, managerial, and computerized society, the Jewish “mama and papa” stores that dot the ghetto are passé as viable economic units. Certainly those Jewish mer­ chants who wish to leave should be assisted in all ways by the Jewish com­ munity in effecting the sale, finding a new location, or obtaining paid em­ ployment. Most critically, the Jewish community must create programs in­ volving the merchants and landlords that are directed at minimizing the al­ leged abuses in which they are en­ gaged, mediating conflict between them and residents of the ghetto, and hopefully helping ghetto merchants to relate to the ghetto community—in9

volving them in programs and projects to improve the quality of ghetto life.

The long-range solution, if there is any, is related primarily to the larger issues raised early in this paper. The underlying causes of Negro frustration —the social, economic, and psycholog­ ical forces which have stunted and warped the Negro personality and community—these are the conditions responsible for the violence, upheaval, and social dislocation in the wider so­ ciety and underlie as well the growth of virulent Negro antisemitism. Both are manifestations of the same social and psychological pathology and can only be ameliorated by enlarging and expanding Negro access to equal op­ portunity and achievement.

The institutional leadership of the organized Jewish community has long recognized this, and has therefore stood steadfast in its commitment to the struggle for civil rights and equal opportunity, even in the face of grow­ ing tensions. It is the rank and file that have reacted with anxiety, fear, and disillusionment, and have pressed for disengagement of the Jewish com­ munity. Furthermore, anti-Negro sen­ timent among Jews can be expected to persist and probably even grow as part of the larger and increasingly intense white backlash. But the Jewish com­ ponent of the relationship—our re­ ligious heritage, sympathy for other minorities, social and political liberal­ ism, abhorrence of violence—is likely to dilute the intensity of our negative responses in comparison with the rest of white America. By and large, the Jewish reaction has not yet taken, nor is it likely to take, the form, overtly, if not attitudinally, of resist­ ance and hostility.

Thus, the Jewish community con­ 10

tinues to have a substantial and impres­ sive potential, even if presently some­ what torpid, to respond to the racial and urban crisis. The organized Jewish community must make every effort to interpret to its consistuency the pro­ found plight of the Negro and the poor and to move it toward individual and collective action with minority and other groups to refashion our so­ cial institutions and our cities so that a truly just and democratic society can be achieved for all. / T N another level it is equally essenV / tial that Negro and Jewish groups continue, through dialogue and discus­ sion and exposure to each other, to de-escalate their exceedingly high and unrealistic expectations. Negro and Jewish groups must learn to truly be­ come cognizant of what each are as minority groups and in relationship to one another, what they share in com­ mon as well as their relevant differ­ ences. Programs directed to these spe­ cific Negro and Jewish components in the tensions between the groups, while less global in scope, may be as difficult to achieve as some of the broader so­ cial engineering outlined earlier.

The Negro community, and partic­ ularly its militant leadership, must es­ pecially be impressed by our refusal to tolerate the expression of black Jewhate, wherever and however it comes about. Antisemitism is not only im­ moral but also is inconsistent with the democratic objectives for which they are ostensibly working and must there­ fore be unconditionally condemned.

Furthermore, it is counterproductive to the real goals and targets of change of the Negro revolution. Acceptance of antisemitism as a safety valve for Negro frustration diverts attention from the real task of social reconJEWISH LIFE

struction. Equally, the introduction of racial and religious divisiveness in so­ ciety by any minority group weakens the fabric of democracy and ultimate­ ly undermines its own security.

Yet, were we even to uproot suc­ cessfully the racial stereotypes and antisemitic beliefs of the Negro and Jewish communities, Negro-Jewish re­ lationships would still not be fully stabilized. Moynihan has distinguished between “racism”—the bigoted, preju­ diced assumptions underlying hostile relationships between groups—and ra­ cialism, the legitimate differences be­ tween groups growing out of their ide­ ologies and interests.* During the ef­ forts of the black community in the next decades to grow in strength and gain stature in American life, we can hope for declining racism but can surely expect an emergent racialism.

Part of this racialism will be mani­ fested in a continuing divergence be­ tween Jews and blacks in some sig­ nificant spheres, motivated by their different ideological postures and group interests.

HE Jewish vision of America, one toward which the Jewish commu­ nity has expended enormous effort, is that of a pluralist society in which all groups—religious, ethnic, national, etc.

—can participate equally and fully, at the same time maintaining their dis­ tinctive values and styles of life. This ideological conception, so strongly supported by Jews, has very special relevance for the programs now being advocated by the Negro militants.

There is no group in American society that can appreciate so deeply as the Jews the growing emphasis among Ne­ groes on their own culture, history,

T

* Daniel Moynihan, Atlantic, Aug. 1968.

“The

New Racialism,”

Sepfem ber-October 1968

and communal institutions, black iden­ tity and pride, and the new interest in Negro “peoplehood.” Jewish historical development has been molded by com­ parable concepts. Several pertinent questions might be raised, however, to ascertain the scrength of these impulses and the possibility for actualizing them among Negroes, relative to other groups, without in any way denigrating these aspirations among Negroes: To what extent can these concepts be revived, restored, or created by Ne­ groes? To what extent and in what areas of their communal life have they already been extinguished by the Ne­ gro experience as slaves and the depri­ vations suffered in this country? More significantly, to what extent are these ideals generically designed as ends, and to what extent are they a reaction to the subordination of the Negro by our society, particularly the failure to achieve full integration? Or, is all this talk of establishing a self-contained Negro community only a means to an end, a strategy to amass the necessary political and economic power to achieve integration?

Let us assume that the Negro gener­ ically desires these ends and has the capacity in time to achieve them. It is reasonable to argue that we as Jews can support them, that within the pluralist framework the Negro com­ munity can take its place alongside the Protestant, Jewish, and Catholic socio­ religious communities, that Jews and other Americans can be educated to encourage the development of a more positive Negro self-image and support the establishment of Negro institutions controlled by them. A communal for­ mat incorporating integrally Negro welfare, cultural, social, and familial (and perhaps religious) institutions

II

would be a legitimate expression of the Negro’s aspirations and havb a right­ ful place and a significant role to play in our society and Negro life. But from the perspective of a pluralistic America, this could be legitimate only if it be an ethnic, not a racial, commu­ nity. Pluralism has made room for so­ cio-religious communities and can accomodate socio-cultural communi­ ties, but not groups organized solely around racist criteria.

F

u r t h e r m o r e , 1 full collectivi­

ty of Negro communal institutions cannot be maintained as a separate sub­ society within the pluralist perspective that Jews support. Certainly a sepa­ rate Negro state— aside from the prob­ lem of its possibility and feasibility as a real alternative—is unquestionably unacceptable. The separate institution­ al structure which Jews can consider valid and desirable and can thus sup­ port for Negroes refers essentially to ethnically constituted cultural, social, welfare, and religious institutions, with full integration occurring within all the other institutional spheres of national life. Thus, advocacy of “black capital­ ism,” aside from the questions of whether it can indeed solve the massive economic problems confronting the Negro, and of black political parties, must be rejected by Jews. The basic objective of the pluralist society is complete political and economic inte­ gration of all groups within the main­ stream of American life. The argu­ ment that some groups have not fully achieved this is no rationale for creat­ ing separate racial or ethnic economic or political entities. Neither is it valid to argue that only the creation of a fully segregated set of Negro institu­ tions will help create the black con­ sciousness and Negro-ness, the new 12

self-image that is required to repair the Negro psyche. Firstly, this may prop­ erly be achieved around the more cir­ cumscribed ethnic institutions. But more significantly, the restructuring of the whole institutional network and social structure of the society to achieve these ends undermines the ide­ ological foundations that protect the security and legitimate self-interest of other groups.

There is the additional problem that Jews and most other ethnic groups which have benefited from the estab­ lishment of these ethnic institutions have created them as private, sectar­ ian institutions to serve essentially their groups in accordance with their own philosophy of purpose. Excluding the institutions of higher education and the churches, when Negroes speak to­ day of black institutions they are re­ ferring to their control of public in­ stitutions, e.g., public education and public welfare. This distinction be­ tween the Negro ideologue’s concep­ tion of his emerging community from that of the older-organized ethnic com­ munities generates serious reservations among whites sympathetic to the Ne­ gro aspirations for community. Thus, we Jews may accept and sympathetic­ ally support some of the legitimate concepts enunciated here that inhere in “black power.” However, an accom­ modation to it outside of this frametween the Negro ideologue’s comcepof America, to our best self interest, and to all we Jews have invested in American society for its—and our own —security and advancement.

HE same reservations can be raised about preferential quotas that some Negro circles have been advocating in recent years. Let us as­ sume that Negro demands for pref-

T

JEWISH LIFE

erential quotas to compensate for the the past, Negro-Jewish associations social, cultural, and educational depri­ have always occurred across class vation that has been inflicted upon lines, that is, Jewish merchants, teach­ them and which has hampered them ers, and social workers with Negroes in the competitive race in our society of a different social class background. may be justified. Let us even assume Numerous studies have shown that for argument’s sake that the crucial such associations are not conducive, questions about thé eclipse of merit in for obvious reasons, to developing the democratic process that preferen­ meaningful and enduring social rela­ tial discrimination inevitably produces tionships. To the contrary, they often can also be resolved (an assumption generate resentment and hostility. which Jews are unlikely to accept be­ Hopefully, the emergence of a Negro cause they have so greatly a stake, middle class may enlarge opportuni­ ideologically and practically, in merit ties for social intercourse with Jews, procedures and have enthusiastically with a concomitant decrease in Negro supported their implementation in all antisemitism. spheres of American life). The prob­ lem still remains, as Moynihan has N sum, it is well within the Jewish self-interest to continue in the longpointed out, that the introduction of quotas for blacks ultimately means, range struggle to eliminate the urban however indirectly, quotas against ghettos and those social and economic other groups. In the professions and conditions that create the anger and the field of higher education, Jews frustration generating Negro anti-white have achieved prominence meritorious­ hostility with its anti-Jewish by-pro­ ly, and are represented in dispropor­ duct. Yet, the Jewish sympathy and sup­ tion to their numbers in the American port for social reform throughout his­ populace. Preferential quotas, if estab­ tory, growing out of our commitment lished, would run counter to the self- to social justice and hope for achiev­ interests of Jews and perhaps all so­ ing security and advancement for our ciety, considering Jewish contributions people, is being increasingly counter­ balanced by a growing sense of threat in these fields of endeavor.

Lastly, the Negro ascent from the many perceive to be confronting Jews, ghetto and the gradual emergence of not only individually but collectively. a Negro middle-class may diminish the We must recognize too that with the more violent forms of Negro anti­ Negro’s gradual ascent from the ghet­ semitism. It can be expected, however, to, Jewish-Negro frictions will probab­ to exacerbate the none-too-subtle anti- ly not diminish. The heat is likely to Jewish feelings that will result from continue with new tensions growing out of ideological differences and group the Negro’s growing competition with interests. Our only hope is that they the Jew. If the emergence of a Negro can be resolved, as group differences middle-class leads to growing social have been in the past in our society, relationships with middle-class Jews, not through defamation, but within these associations might counterbal­ the framework of democratic pro­ ance this development somewhat. In cedures.

I

Septem ber-October 1968

13

Identification or Commitment?

By ELKANAH SCHWARTZ

EWS are different, because Juda­ ism is different. Because they are different, they do things differently; the reflection of Judaism’s difference makes its practitioners different. Even Bilaam took notice: “. . . It is a peo­ ple that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.”

(Bamidbar 23,9) Initially, his observa­ tion is not too clear: since the de­ struction of the Temple, Jews cannot dwell alone, by Divine edict, nor does any population study exclude statis­ tics on Jews. Bilaam’s observation must instead be understood in qualita­ tive terms: they “dwell alone” in their ways and patterns of living, and in their approaches to everything exist­ ent; they “shall not be reckoned among” the methods and definitions employed by the nations. A Jew is known not only by what he does, but more so by how he does it.

Jews look upon themselves differ­ ently from the way others look upon themselves, and make different de­ mands of themselves. They use the same words as others, but give them different meaning. The very frame­ work of life is broader, deeper, of greater scope and substance because

J

the map of life, Torah, is all-inclusive.

No group of people, anywhere on earth, at any time in history, ever de­ manded more of themselves, or re­ ceived as much, than the Torah peo­ ple.

Different in concept of life, in def­ inition of responsibilities, in approach­ es to the pettiest of details, in every­ thing, Torah demands not simply identification, but total committment.

The obligations of the Torah are not superimposed upon the personality of the believer, but are the personality.

The very roots of the Jewish being are not simply nurtured by Torah, but are themselves Torah. There are not sim­ ply rules and by-laws to live by, but the essence of existence, which not only gives life but is life. It is not suf­ ficient to be a Torah follower or even a Torah doer. The requirement is to be a Torah being.

Perhaps it is too much to grasp. But that depends upon how one relates him­ self to Torah. Is it something to know about, even to practice, or is it some­ thing to be? Is it something to be judged and analyzed, observed objec­ tively, or is it totally subjective, as blood and veins are not just part of

14

JEWISH LIFE

the being, but the being itself? Is it simply a motivating force, or the heart that beats? As long as Torah is viewed as something apart from the being, it can never be fully absorbed and di­ gested for constructive means. As long as an individual does not say: “I am but a letter or a line in the Torah, and whatever it is that I am, in totality, is by definition part of the Torah,” then true wisdom is denied him. When Torah is viewed from without, it be­ comes a culture, a guide, studied and even followed, but never grasped.

Somewhere in the process of absorp­ tion, the spiritual pollution in the air gets in the way. The one who views Torah from within begins to breathe the pureness of truth that every word exhales.

A question is asked on the Mishnah in Pirkey Ovoth (3,12) which states: “He (Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa) used to say: Anyone whose deeds exceed his wisdom, his wisdom shall endure; anyone whose wisdom exceeds his deeds, his wisdom shall not endure.” The question is: how can one’s deeds exceed his wisdom? A per­ son can act only within and according to the scope of his knowledge. Even were he to act according to all his knowledge, he could still not exceed it. How, then, can deeds exceed wis­ dom?

Rabbeynu Yonah explains that when Mosheh “took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people,” and they replied: “All that the Lord has spoken, will we do and obey,” (Sh’moth 24,7) they in­ ferred they were making of them­ selves a carte blanche, removing their right of selection and discretion, so that their unqualified preparedness to do even what they do not yet know is Sepfem ber-October 1968

tantamount to doing even beyond their knowledge. Hence, their deeds, in the form of their readiness, exceed their wisdom. And this choosing to be so prepared is the highest form of b’chirah chofshith—free will. This is view­ ing Torah from within.

ORAH people live a Torah way of life, with its total system of val­ ues and priorities, because that is the only way of life for the Torah man.

There are also those who like to be identified with Torah people and with the Torah way of life, but this doesn’t make them Torah people. They are to be commended for their choice, but they are not to be equated with the others. Torah people are committed in total to a Torah way of life. The oth­ ers are only identified with it. The dif­ ference betwen the two is very pro­ nounced.

“Shun evil and do good” (Tehillim 34, 15). This is an axiom of Torah life. It appears redundant unto itself.

Would not one who shuns evil not be left with only good to do? Would not one bent on doing good shun evil? Yet both are mentioned. And why in this order? Should one not direct himself to the doing of good, and be advised that even in the process of doing good, he should avoid evil? Yet it is not re­ dundant, nor is the order accidental.

Good has value only when it ap­ pears by itself, not when mixed with other elements. Torah is a positive way of life. There is nothing negative. The fulfillment of the individual is through deed and action, yet he must avoid being contaminated. Prohibitions are barriers against such damaging impres­ sions, to allow for the unblemished purity of good. The concern in Te­ hillim is with the “do good,” while

T

15

aware of the foibles of human »nature that tolerate integration of opposing elements. Night and day were distinct­ ly separated, but the “beyn hashmoshoth” became symbolic of the confu­ sion of man. The only way one can really “do good” in its pure sense is if he is first clean of anything evil. “Shun evil,” not because shunning is fulfill­ ment, but because it is a prerequisite to the fulfillment of “do good.”

The Chazon Ish (Emunah U’Bitachon 1,13) states that the “do good” would by itself pose no problem for most people. It is the “shun evil” that makes Torah life difficult.

The point is that without this “shun evil,” the “do good” would have less value. Identification with good things has value only if it is the way of life.

One who does good things while doing other things is not living the Torah way of life, but performing it. This identification with good things remains by itself only that: an identification.

When it comes of one clean of evil, this identification becomes committ­ ment. Torah demands the latter, not the former. fTH HE mark of the Torah man, then, -i. is both what is done and what is not done. Without the doing of good, life has no value. Without the shun­ ning of evil, good has no value. To­ rah demands the good that is pure of evil.

It is no wonder that the identifica­ tion process is more popular than the committment process. Obviously, it is easier. How, for example, is a person identified? “Is he orthodox?” “Of course. He keeps Shabboth, observes Kashruth, attends an orthodox syna­ gogue, sends his children to a yeshivah, etc.” Normally, nothing is men­ 16

tioned of how much the evil is shunned.

In the introduction to his classic “T’nuath Hamussar” (“The Mussar Movement”), Rabbi Dov Katz bewails the distortions of definitions: . . . . All religious problems which are belabored, and all reactions and complaints, are directed only against known prohibitions and command­ ments, such as observing the Sabbath, keeping dietary laws, synagogues, etc., as if on these few points was based the whole Torah and the entire salva­ tion of Judaism. There is no voice raised against warped opinions and deviant views, which are common, in oral and written forms, in public places and in schools, among children and adults, with no attempt to refute or clarify them. There is no complaint against the crumbling of all founda­ tions of chastity and purity, of the Jewish street and home, or the pro­ fanation of the sanctity of Jewish family life, and all the licentiousness that rules in this area, that crosses all boundaries. There is no complaint against weights and measures, false­ hood, fraud, deceit, and forgery that have become the rule in dealings among people, or violence and wrong, interest and usury, extortion and ex­ ploitation that fill all the corners of the earth. There is no complaint against social enmity and perverted behavior that have spread in the fold, or stupidity and ignorance and all emptiness and licentiousness that have come to dominate the pattern of liv­ ing. There is no complaint against the removal of the Divine Image from man—as if in all this there is not perceived the function of religiosity, as if this does not enter into the dis­ cussion of Judaism. . . . It does not even enter the mind that these are the very essentials of Torah and founda­ tions of Judaism, that these are com­ mandments of greater import and JEWISH LIFE

transgressions of greater stringency, and that the whole Torah was given only for this, for the purpose of healthy and solid perception, for the purpose of sublime ethical living, for the purpose of pure and clean living, for the purpose of mutual respect and social justice and for the purpose of Divine spiritual perfection, for this is the whole man. r a d i t i o n a l l y , conceptions of Judaism are referred to as “Hash­ kofah.” The proper definition of the term is “outlook.” Essentially it refers to the outlook and perspective a To­ rah being develops in application to all affairs of life, including the mundane no less than the ritual. A Torah being must have proper Hashkofah on how to pray, and must have proper Hash­ kofah on how to walk in the street.

Nor are these two Hashkofoth, but one and the same. A Hashkofah that cannot understand how a Torah be­ ing addresses himself to walking in the street cannot understand how a Torah being addresses himself to prayer in shool. Yet Hashkofah for synagogue worship, though wrapped in ritual pro­ cedures, is much simpler to develop, precisely because it is so enwrapped: the seat is ready, the siddur is printed and uniform, the Baal Tefillah leads as everyone follows, the atmosphere is designed, the program is patterned, etc. But walking in the street is stripped of all paraphernalia. There is no order, there is no leader, there is no print to read, there are neither spe­ cial garments nor uniform behavior, there is, in short, nothing from which a stranger can draw perspective. A Torah being walks in the street in a manner directed by the same Hashko­ fah that directs him as he prays in the synagogue, yet the lack of the trap-

T

Septem ber-October 1968

pings of a specified procedure make it difficult to picture this walking in the street as an identifying mark of a To­ rah being.

Popular notion finds it easier to look for the Mitzvoth Ma’asiyoth im­ pressions. “Is he orthodox?” “Of course. He does things identified in the public mind as manifestations of Orthodoxy.” This is to his credit, but is this all that it takes to be truly an orthodox Jew? The popular notion criticized here is prevalent not only among many non-orthodox Jews (“Is he orthodox?”

“He must be. He’s a member in the orthodox synagogue, not in the Con­ servative center down the street nor in the Reform temple around the cor­ ner”), but among too many orthodox Jews themselves. This is truly unfor­ tunate, as this notion, in its slippery and subtle fashion, is as false and ab­ surd as the notion that the Mitzvoth of ritual observance are outdated and should not “bog down the advance of Judaism.” Whereas, on the one hand, the neglect of ritual is the neglect of orthodox Judaism, on the other hand ritual alone is not orthodox Judaism.

Certainly, the person who has not yet committed his entire self to becoming a Torah being, while practicing the dictates of the Torah, will not be called un-orthodox. There is no question that a follower of Torah practices has spir­ itually elevated himself immeasurably through the deeds of fulfilling Torah commands. The issue under concern here is one of quality, going from the “yesh me’ayin” (something from noth­ ing) to the “yesh mi’yesh” (something from something). The former is more apparent and more dramatic. The lat­ ter, being less apparent, is less dra­ matic. Yet in some degree it too is a 17

“yesh me’ayin,” for it calls for in­ creasing the scope and degree of To­ rah service.

“Antigonus of Socho . . . used to say: Be not like servants who serve the master for the sake of receiving a re­ ward, but be like servants who serve the master without the expectation of receiving a reward; and let the fear of Heaven be upon you” (Ovoth 1,3).

What is the difference to the master how he is served? As long as he gets what he desires, he should be satisfied, no matter the frame of mind of the servant. However, “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (I Shmuel 16,7) Not only is the “what” important, but the “how” and the “why” even more so. Not all people who give charity give with the same intention, and their Divine reward is commensurate with the “how” and “why,” not only with the “what.”

“The reward of humility is the fear of the Lord”- (Mishley 22,4). How is humility manifested? Humility is the mark of a Jew, showing awareness of the Above, when he demonstrates a realization that his powers, being but human, are limited. When he sees a mezuzah, he is reminded of the Deity above. When he wraps the tefillin around his arm, he feels the power of an Almighty Hand. When he stands in the synagogue equal to all others, and reads from the same siddur as all others do, the aura of a Supreme Deity reigns. Under such and similar condi­ tions, the humility that is the basic in­ gredient of fear of the Lord is some­ what easily reflected. Does one who shows such humility earn the label “orthodox”? Certainly. But qualita­ tively speaking, the one who carries the very same features of humility into 18

circumstances where symbolic remind­ ers are non-existent, is earning his la­ bel “orthodox” much more faithfully.

NE of the stronger weapons re­ cently developed by the Yetzer Hora is the cult of culture as opposed to religion. Jewish culture is “in”; re­ ligion, in the opinion of the emanci­ pated ones, is “out.” What this means is that the devoted troops of the Yetzer Hora, who once refused to see or speak of anything that is part of Jew­ ish religion, though still unready to know the Torah life, now trip over each other to know more about it.

The more information one acquires “about” Judaism, the more he is “in.”

Apparently this should be welcomed.

After all, it seems, whereas until now there was a categorical denial of To­ rah, there now appears to be a smil­ ing reception.

The problem is that these people are de-Judaizing the religion. They are removing the holiest pigment con­ tained in Judaism: Fear of the Lord, Awe of the Almighty. They are taking all Sifrey Kodesh, and putting them through a wringer, squeezing them dry of their inspirational tones, and calling the limp results: “Jewish culture.”

It happens to look good. There are books, magazines, learned societies and papers, discussions, conferences, and greater concern for the material that has been stimulating millions of Jews for thousands of years in their service to the Almighty. But where these servants of history found inspira­ tion, their contemporaries find only literature.

What is lacking is the committment.

The material is not looked upon as directive, but as a menu to choose de­ sirable “good things” from. From all

O

JEWISH LIFE

this propagation of literature, a num­ ber of readers will sporadically pick up items of interest. Certain vestiges of the Sabbath, for example, may ap­ pear in homes otherwise void of any reminder of the day. It is definitely good news that the Sabbath Queen will find more doors open. But the tone of hospitality is very different. It is not one of “we’ve been waiting all week for you, and will be sorry when you’ll leave,” but one of “come in for a few minutes so we’ll get some im­ pression of you.” Countless Jewish homes find Friday’s sun setting on prominently displayed Sabbath can­ dles. Some of these candles shine on a father taking his sons to synagogue, and shine yet on their return to sing “Sholom Aleichem” and recite Kiddush. Other candles shine on a poker or mah-jongg game, or on “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” Are the candles different? Physically, no; Judaically, yes. Would that more unlit homes be graced with the glow of Sabbath can­ dles, yet candles alone do not a Sab­ bath make. Candles in a non-Sabbath atmosphere are vestiges of culture.

Candles in a Sabbath atmosphere are the light of the Almighty and His Hosts. The first candles will illuminate the pages of Torah as cultural litera­ ture. The second candles will illumi­ nate the same pages as living inspira­ tion. The first use the Torah for identification, the other for committ­ ment. When the first avoid committ­ ment, they avoid the living of Juda­ ism, they lose their “different-ness,” the Jewish talent of doing things Jewishly. It is unfortunately no surprise then that within these ranks, assimila­ tion is more than an occasional visitor.

Septem ber-Ocfober 1968

ffO A N C T IF Y yourselves and be ^ holy, for I am holy” (Vayikra 11,44). Committment includes identifi­ cation, identifying oneself with the Almighty. It is one thing for a person to say of another: “We are friends,” and another thing to say: “We know each other.” To adopt measures of sanctification and holiness is to per­ sonally relate oneself to the Almighty, to live in His standards. The fulfillment of “Be as holy as I” is to sublimate one’s own self to become a mirror of a higher image. For a man to say: “I am I, only as a reflection of another form,” is the identification with that form that becomes total committment.

Holiness is not something to have. It is something to be.

The very definitions of “sanctity” and “holiness” imply a twofold proc­ ess: first, a separation from every­ thing else; second, a spiritual elevation.

It is not a reverse process, nor even a single one, where the elevation auto­ matically creates a separation. With­ out separation, elevation cannot take place. The separation is a prerequisite, to loosen the bonds and free the mat­ ter to be elevated. Only when that which must be so elevated is free from other obligations, can it be allowed to rise to heights. “Shun evil” is separa­ tion; “do good” is elevation.

A wedding ceremony is a two-step process: “Kedushin” (betrothal) and “Nesu’in” (marriage). In Talmudic times, there was a twelve-month wait­ ing period between the two. Today, we combine them in one ceremony.

Yet the demarkation is apparent. Two cups of wine are used, with a separate blessing for each: the first for Ke­ dushin, the second for Nesu’in. To create an intermission, the marriage contract is read aloud. There is Hala19

chically no need for the reading, only for the physical transmittal oh it by the groom to the bride in the presence of two witnesses. The reading was in­ serted so that the Kedushin and Nesu’in can each retain its original char­ acter.

The first step is called “Kedushin,” in the light of the Talmudic explana­ tion (Kedushin 2b) that the groom “makes her out-of-bounds to all others, as something consecrated.” Tosefoth explains that the groom’s declaration “I have separated you from all others” implies: “Until now other men were permitted to approach you, and as you were unattached, you were approach­ able. At this moment, you are separat­ ed from all, and committed to me, and none may approach you.” Yet this is not the marriage. That distinct status of unique creation and creativity can come only after this first separation has taken effect, and it can take effect only when, as the Rabbis explain, he asserts his clear-cut personal intention to consecrate her. With separation realized, elevation has its opportunity.

T ¥ 7 H E N the Almighty commands W “Sanctify yourselves and be holy,” the “sanctify” means “sepa­ rate” : as long as the individual is at­ tached to something else, the very ex­ istence of that something else remains a hindrance to the fulfillment of “be holy.” This “be holy” therefore calls not for an identification but for a com­ mittment. The Almighty chose us from

20

among the nations, and sanctified us with His commandments, that through the total fulfillment of these com­ mands, both the positive and the pro­ hibitory, we achieve our destiny. Our chosenness is based upon the fulfill­ ment of these commandments. It is this which sanctifies us, and separates us from all others. When we are weak in fulfillment, our “different-ness” is weakened. When we satisfy ourselves in choosing specific identifiable charac­ teristics as criteria, we are slackening our defenses. Orthodoxy in Judaism is not just behavior, nor a matter of a label. It is an attitude that is manifest­ ed through behavior. It is the entire persona.

What it all boils down to is the def­ inition of the primary function of man: “What am I, and what am I to do?” Or, in the classic words of the opening phrase of the Mesilath Yeshorim: “The foundations of piety and the root of whole-hearted service is that it should be clear and truthful to man what is his obligation in his world and to what is it necessary that he apply his views and direction in all that he labors all the days of his life.”

The answer is provided by Kohelleth: “The end of the matter, all hav­ ing been heard: fear G-d, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole man.” (12,13) From keeping all His commandments, the ethical no less than the ritual, he becomes the whole man. This is the man, not of identifi­ cation, but of committment.

JEWISH LIFE

Heaven Help the Rebbetzin

By LIBBY M. KLAPERMAN

VERNIGHT, the literary char­ acter of the Rabbi has become public domain, a popular stock figure to chuckle at familiarly. Side by side with the images of the Benevolent Old Catholic Minister and the Earn­ est Sacrificing Protestant Minister, the image of the Independent Intellectual Rabbi is taking its place in the Nor­ man Rockwell painting of the reli­ gious American landscape.

There’s no doubt that it’s very ex­ citing to be catapulted so lovingly into fame. The other day I was in Sears’ Department Store when a young man buying a refrigerator gave his name as Rabbi So-and-So. Instant­ ly the salesman leaned to him more kindly, a warm, anticipatory smile hovering in the corners of his lips and his eyes engagingly friendly.

“Rabbi, huh?” the salesman com­ mented admiringly. “Did you read On Saturday the Rabbi Slept Late? Great book. One of the greatest. You guys sure are on the ball.”

The Rabbi customer blanched and looked about him worriedly. If a mur­ dered body were dumped in his shool, he’d be just the type to call the po-

O

Septem ber-October 1968

lice and leave it all to them. You could see it in the way he paid for the refrigerator and hurried out with­ out making one single witticism.

OW everybody knows that the N average American Rabbi is age 42.7, married, has 3.1 children, wears glasses, has 2.6 degrees, has been to Israel 1.8 times, has decided to leave the Rabbinate 7.6 times and suffers with 1.9 of the following ailments: insomnia, ulcers, colitis, feelings of inadequacy, incipient paranoia, fallen arches, laryngitis, pharyngitis, delu­ sions of grandeur, chest pains, and deafness.

Today’s novelist ignores these per­ tinent statistics to draw an engaging, neutral kind of hero who does all these cute things like making bless­ ings and wearing a beanie, and who is so normal that he is soon going to join Father Brown in solving mys­ teries. To prove just how terribly nor­ mal our literary Rabbi is, he even marries a “shiksa” so that they can to­ gether struggle with a congregation of knaves, fools, and philistines.

It’s not the fictional Rabbi, how21

ever, who merits Heaven’s aid. He seems to be doing all right, busy as he is with solving mysteries and dip­ ping now and then (not too much) into esoteric books and spouting pithy aphorisms. It’s the fictional Rebbetzin that has become lost in the shuffle, overshadowed by her charismatic hus­ band.

HAT kind of a Rebbetzin does the public associate with our Rabbi-Hero? It’s true, it’s not very easy to find a helpmeet for such a man. The detective-Rabbi has a lulu of a wife. She’s “there” when he needs her, like as not dressed in her freshly ironed little cotton, darning socks with one hand and mixing cake batter with the other, and of course being solidly pregnant all the while.

She is a blintze-frying, latke-making pillar of strength, a marvelous non­ entity easily merged with the Rabbi’s book-lined study walls. The Rabbi who chose her is a smart one.

Not so smart is the Rabbi who had to go looking for trouble. There aren’t enough Jewish girls to choose from; he has to find himself a “shiksa.” Not only that. She has to go and have a nervous breakdown. Let’s face it, a Jewish girl finds it hard being married to a Rabbi, let alone a “shiksa.” But that’s the stuff the best-sellers are made of.

This year’s fictional Rabbi has re­ jected both the little homemaker and the forbidden “shiksa,” for the bless­ ings of bachelorhood. The advantages of fictional Rabbinic bachelorhood are tremendous. All you have to do is to be the moving finger and the story writes itself. What with members who are widows and divorcees, and mem­ bers with ugly spinster daughters, and

W

22

members who are do-good shadchanim, the possibilities are endless. More­ over, there is great plot potential, for when the Rabbi finally picks a girl, she has no Jewish background and is blessed with a sharp-tongued, antiJewish, Socialist mother. Boy, you can just see that mother-in-law give the President the business in Book II, Chapter I. UT we’re getting off the track.

What I’m suggesting is that the American novelist reappraise the Reb­ betzin and give her her rightful place in the sun. If anyone has to deal with philistines, it’s the poor Rebbetzin.

She who is required to be the best dressed, most frugal, best cook, most slender, best speaker, most glamorous, and most articulate, charming, tal­ ented, relaxed, pleasant, well adjusted, happy partner for her husband cer­ tainly deserves more than she’s been getting in our literature. When you think that a Rebbetzin usually has to be able also to teach in the Hebrew School and/or lead discussions and youth groups, and then of course, all those philistines . .! Can you blame a “shiksa” for having a nervous break­ down?

Just to help the novelist I offer the following information. The average American Rebbetzin is age 41.7, has 3.1 children, wears glasses, has 1.6 degrees, has been to Israel 1.8 times, has suggested that her spouse leave the Rabbinate 14.3 times, and suffers with 2.9 of the following ailments: insomnia, ulcers, colitis, feelings of inadequacy, incipient paranoia, fallen arches, laryngitis, pharyngitis, phonitis (Note: applicable to suburban Rebbetzins primarily), delusions of gran­ deur (Note: applicable to urban Reb-

B

JEWISH LIFE

betzins primarily), chest pains, and deafness.

As further background material a few of us have volunteered these pri­ vate documents for the use of the en­ terprising novelist. Please note that the names are omitted to protect the in­ nocent.

Dear Rebbetzin, You should have an Open House like the other Rabbis’ wives do.

Dear Rebbetzin, This is a well wisher who thinks you should know the truth. Do not wear your fur coat to shool. There are plenty people who don’t have fur coats and they pay your hus­ band’s salary.

Dear Rebbetzin, A group of us got together and think you should tell the Rabbi to discuss more contemporary subjects in his sermons. After all, we al­ ready know all about Abraham and Isaac and all that.

Dear Rebbetzin, It is a shock that in this modern day and age a woman of your back­ ground and caliber should wear her hair covered. You are doing the community a grave disservice by your old fashioned approach which alienates our intellectuals and our youth. I beg you in the name of tolerance and understand­ ing to change this terrible practice.

Dear Rebbetzin, A group of your very dear friends think you should influence the Rabbi not to speak so much on politics. We have mixed affiliations in the congregation and it isn’t fair to have only one side aired.

Dear Rebbetzin, It is a shock that a woman of your background and caliber doesn’t wear her hair covered. You are doing the community a grave dis­ service by your flaunting behavior.

I beg you in the name of our Holy Martyrs to change your evil ways.

Dear Rebbetzin, It is not nice that you don’t come to shool early every Shabbos.

Dear Rebbetzin, You don’t have to be holier-thanthou and be the first one in shool.

Septem ber-October 1968

Dear Rebbetzin, How do you do so much enter­ taining on the Rabbi’s salary?

SN’T there anybody who sees lit­ erary possibilities in so long suf­ fering a public figure? Doesn’t a girl who gets even one of these letters de­ serve a little recognition in the litera­ ture of our times?

I must say that I’ve been toying around with a little idea of my own.

I’m thinking of writing about a Reb­ betzin who is a spy for the C.I.A. and who uncovers a vast plot against America that is transmitted in secret codes hidden in frozen kreplach. Her quick thinking wins her a free trip to Washington and an annuity for life.

Immediately her husband leaves the Rabbinate and— Oh well.

I

23

Rebels—Because...

Comments on the “ Now Generation“

By RALPH PELCOVITZ ISTORIANS often give a name to a period of history which captures in succinct fashion the true temper of that time, reflecting the au­ thentic image of an era. Contempo­ raries are too close to rapidly changing events to properly evaluate the true character of the current scene. Not so today, however, for we know that future historians will call our present period-—“The Age of the Youth Re­ bellion.”

The rebellion of youth has been developing at a fast pace since the end of World War II but its accelera­ tion is now. We see it above all on the campus, although the spirit mani­ fests itself on many fronts, as varied as the streets of Paris and Berlin and in the family circle. It intrudes into many areas: fashion, the lively arts, literature and language, mores and morals. It exploded not long ago on the Columbia campus, erupted in the Sorbonne, and wrested the headlines from the Vietnam peace talks and presidential primaries.

The slogans on the banners under which rebellious youth marches vary.

Anti-war, anti-establishment, and anti­ age (which includes all those over thirty). Pro-freedom, liberty, and equ­

H

24

ality as defined by their hero of the moment, be he Mao, Che Guevera, or Malcolm X. Above all the cry is for change-tear down the old, the sick, the decadent, and build anew. To some even this is not sufficient and the red flag of revolution is torn down, replaced by the black flag of anarchy.

The frightening thing is that there are some who respond by hoisting the white flag of surrender. The majority, however, react with the plaintive cry, “What do they want?” The more thoughtful attempt to analyse the causes of this restlessness and disrup­ tion offering remedies and panaceas.

HIS much is certain: all are con­ cerned, for none can reasonably be detached and apathetic. To ignore the rebellious spirit would be folly, to dismiss it as a passing trend would be tragic, to panic would be disastrous.

Certainly we Jews, as part of society at large, must attempt to answer the question “What do they want?” and seek the basic causes while exploring the possible way out, but we must do so from our unique, particular Torah point of view. Freedom and liberty are concepts which flow from our tradition and teachings. Alienation is

T

JEWISH LIFE

a feeling we know too well. Fear and frustration have been our companions for centuries and the pages of our history are filled with dissent. Change is part of our fabric and the revolutionary spirit was kindled in Canaan before it glowed in the United States and France— certainly in Russia and Asia, We do have something of importance and value to say from the perspective of Torah, in a broader sense than the prophetic teachings of social justice and the rights of all mankind.

We will address ourselves in this ar-

tide to three basic issues involved in recent events and to some of the areas of conflict which concern us all, with special emphasis upon the campus community. We will attempt to examine some of those concepts and ideas which confront society in a most profound way for they are ideas which go to the very heart of the issues with which we must come to grip. They are the questions of (1)Freedom and liberty versus discipline and authority; (2) The role of education; and (3) Youth versus Age.

Q U ALITIES O F DISSENSION OUTHFUL rebellion is no new phenomenon. The generation gap is quite natural. Our Rabbis recognize this division and separation of interest, depicting it in the famous story of Choni, the Jewish Rip Van Winkle, who upon his return after a lengthy slumber found his generation gone and cried out: “Give me comradeship or grant me death.” Realistically, the older and younger generation cannot be equals and they certainly cannot be pals. They can, however, be co^ operative, thereby insuring continuity.

The key to their relationship is the recognized authority of parents, teach­ ers, and elders with “derech eretz” the guarantor of meaningful respect and a sense of responsibility the fruits of this relationship. This does not mean that for centuries we lived in an au­ thoritarian society. It does mean that the classic Jewish home is one where parents listen to their children but don’t submit while children speak to their parents but don’t talk back. The lines of communication are open be­ cause there is a common language, a common sense of values, and a com­ mon code by which they all live.

a

Septem ber-October 1968

The moral and social order of the Jewish home and family, as well as that of society and community, was ever regulated by Torah law, guided by teachings which were accepted be­ cause they were revered, insuring the stability of family and community. As long as parents adhere to a code of law, honest in their convictions and fair in their dealings with their chil­ dren, discipline is present in the house­ hold, not through coercion but in an atmosphere of liberty. What a noted Italian educator has pointed out is very true of our concept of freedom and discipline—two elements which are not in conflict but complement one another: “Discipline to be mean­ ingful must come through liberty. It does not mean that one becomes silent and docile, accepting without question, obeying without doubt. When disci­ pline is founded upon liberty, it itself is active, not passive.”

The Jewish home and the ideal Torah society is certainly not passive and quiet. It is alive, vibrant, and at times unruly. There is, however, an underlying acceptance of authority, a readiness to act responsibly without 25

the need for repressive action. Above all there is a sense of respect and re­ verence which gives a special flavor and grace to the discipline under which men live. This ingredient is all important to an understanding of our hashkofah, our attitude and point of view. The three R’s of education— reading, ’riting, and ’rithmatic—have given way, unfortunately, in some ed­ ucational institutions to riots, rampage, and revolt. The reason for this may well be the eclipsing of what educa­ tion is supposed to implant and teach as the corollary three R’s; respect, responsibility, and reverence.

T IS admittedly difficult to revere the elementary three R’s. It is most natural for a Jew committed to the Convenant to revere Torah. It is also quite natural to cry out for change; it is difficult to deny it unless there are rules and regulations, values and standards, ideas and ideals that are unchanging. The demand for change is legitimate if change is necessary and will improve the condition and conduct of p man and society. The danger lies in a demand for indiscrim­ inate change including the casting oft of valued and tested truths that are the foundation of order and stability in the moral and social realm. Change is not the panacea to problems any more than dissent in itself is sacred.

The right to dissent is sacred and the machinery for change is vital but mature judgment and wise evaluation are pre-requisites for both dissent and change. There is a tendency at times to equate change and progress, where­ as the two are not synonymous. There is also the erroneous inclination to look upon all innovations as acts of creativity. True creativity has been de­ fined as taking a fresh clean look at

I

26

old truths. This is an exercise which we have abandoned in recent years and one which we would do well to revise. Creativity is never dulled by age, only by disuse.

Understandably it is youth that champions change. This is logical and reasonable, resulting from their en­ thusiastic temperament. True, youth is enthusiastic and age is at times lethar­ gic. Youth is dissatisfied and age overly complacent. “The errors of en­ thusiasm may even be preferable to the indifference of wisdom,” as Anatole France said, but there is also the prudence of wisdom and the insanity of anarchy to be considered. The lat­ ter is certainly the fruit of unbridled enthusiasm. Recent events at Columbia University and other colleges point up the perils of permissiveness which are nigh impossible to control as they erupt into violence. Muscle soon do­ minates over mind and the spectacle of collegiate storm troopers is a: chil­ ling one. Power is the prize sought and if power corrupts it would seem that the smell of power perverts. Pro­ test too easily can spill over into in­ surrection and anarchy. It is an ugly sight to observe students intimidating and blackmailing university adminis­ trations, and cowing fellow students.

It is difficult to determine the exact motivation of those students who par­ ticipated in recent demonstrations.

Perhaps it is one part exasperation, one part exuberance, and one part ex­ hibitionism. This breakdown of respect for authority and dissipation of dis­ cipline on campus, however, is not an isolated image of rebellious youth.

It has well been said that youth does not create an image, rather it reflects it. Doubtless this disruption of insti­ tutions of higher learning reflects the temper of the times. But we must JEWISH LIFE

recognize it as symptomatic of weak­ nesses and shortcomings of modern education in general. n P H E shortcomings in the field of A higher education today are three­ fold: the lost art of teaching, the lack of an established ethic, and the ab­ dication of authority. To paraphrase a quip attributed to Ghandi, who when asked what he thought of western civilization answered, “I think it is a good idea,” we would answer like­ wise if asked what we thought of higher education today. There is a disquieting reluctance to engage in the actual act of teaching in our un­ iversities. It seems to be the ambition of almost every instructor and assistant professor to reduce his teaching load and engage in research and writing.

When he does teach he does not necessarily instruct, inspire, or influ­ ence—for that would be contrary to the cherished principle of allowing every student to make up his own mind and reach his own decision and conclusion. He rather explores togeth­ er with his class the subject at hand, carefully avoiding the pitfall of im­ posing ideas. He assiduously presents all points of view and alternatives lest he be guilty of indoctrination and dog­ matism. This does not mean that there are no professors who impose their ideology upon their students. There are, and they are in most cases ad­ herents of the radical-liberal-activist school. As such they are in no small measure responsible for the recent riots by contributing to and even fos­ tering the antagonistic attitudes of those who occupy university buildings, destroy private papers, and defy law and authority. The ridiculous extremes Sepfem ber-October 1968

to which non-instruction has been car­ ried, for fear of being dogmatic, is apparently waived if power is con­ trolled by students and intimidation exercised by youth.

The reluctance to instruct lest it be indoctrination, to guide and direct lest it be dubbed doctrinaire, may also be due to the fact that there is no real ethic, no set of moral principles, no system of values or rules of conduct to which the academician adheres.

Hence, what discipline, what code shall he teach as the embodiment of truth? Again, this is so with the ex­ ception of negative dogmatism and one’s own prejudiced principles. For example, the Jewish counsellor at Columbia, (an appointee of the uni­ versity, not representing the Jewish community) challenged the right to pass judgment on the scandalously immoral behaviour of students at the university (even to the extent of in­ tervening on behalf of a student guil­ ty of flagrant defiance of university rules) yet vigorously castigated the administration for refusing amnesty to those students who rioted and des­ troyed university property. For such as he the refusal was to be condemned while the immorality practiced in the disruption and near destruction of a university and the moral cowardice of refusal to accept one’s punishment as consequence of one’s deliberate acts were to be condoned. That these actions were supposedly motivated by high ideals serves but to heighten the immorality in asking for amnesty since what was done was purportedly mo­ tivated by the passion of conscience.

A sad commentary indeed on the moral fiber of modern martyrs!

27

FOR W A N T O F T E A C H IN G UILTY as educators may be in their non-instruction and in their lack of ethic to guide them, college administrators are no less guilty in their abdication of authority. The Leclaire Case, alluded to before in jconjunction with Columbia’s Jewish chaplain, is a case in point. The pres­ ident of Barnard College assures us all that no action will be taken against this girl for breaking house rules by cohabiting with a young man off campus. That college presidents are reluctant to become guardians of moral codes, sanctioned by all religi­ ous faiths and concurred in by civil­ ized society for many centuries, is per­ haps understandable. What is incom­ prehensible is the fear manifested by college authorities in enforcing their own rules! The refusal of college ad­ ministrators to exercise their authority and enforce university rules and re­ gulations cannot fail but to impress upon students that one can violate them with impunity, thereby encou­ raging the extension of violation to violence and of defiance to disruption and destruction.

The dissipation of respect, the con­ tempt for the establishment, uncivil disobedience, disdain and ridicule of moral codes and standards of behaviour are the result of a failure to properly educate our young people and to give them direction to cultivate a sense of adherence to authority. Youth, how­ ever, desparately needs both direction and authority. Above all they need some code which they can respect and cling to. To fill the vacuum created by the failure of universities to fill this need, energies and loyalties are perforce rechanneled. Alien ideolo­ gies, often dangerous and self-defeat­

G

28

ing, are sought out and enthusiastical­ ly embraced.

The pictures adorning the ivy-cov­ ered buildings of Columbia University during the recent siezures were those of Mao, Che Guevera, and Malcolm X. These are their heroes. Not So­ crates or Plato, not even Darwin and Freud, but the apostles of revolution and violence. To us this is even more tragic if we accept the figure given

by Time magazine that fifty percent of those involved in campus activism are Jews. To be so estranged from the fundamentals, not only of Judaism but of responsible humanism and the classical liberal spirit, is appalling. To cast one’s lot with forces which have displayed their contempt of and en­ mity to the Jewish people is grotesque.

There is a special Jewish stake in­ volved in the rebellious spirit of our time, for this spirit rejects many of the basic fundamental laws of de­ cency, fair play, and tolerance which create a climate necessary to the growth and progress of Jewish com­ munities. Antisemitism grows and flourishes in the soil of extremism and is nurtured in an atmosphere of recklessness and anarchy. Stability and order, respect for authority and law have ever been the ingredients necessary for our security and our rights as Jews in the Diaspora. Ra­ cism, white or black, turmoil on the campuses, and the “New Left” have a common denominator for us—they are not “Good For The Jews” nor do they contribute to the wellbeing of society at large. Mature responsible Jewish leadership appreciates this full well. Adult Jews, to whatever degree perceptive and sharp politically, sense it, while much of youth, unfortunateJEWISH LIFE

ly, has yet to learn this lesson which our history has taught us time and time again.

UT BEYOND the direct con­ sequences to our Jewish commu­ B nity, we must also consider the spe­ cial stake we have in the moral fibre and health of the society in which we live. We are influenced by our en­ vironment, our children are deeply af­ fected by the general atmosphere around them, and we in turn have a special responsibility to help fashion the community in which we live. We have never been absolved from our mission to be a “holy nation and a kingdom of priests,” even in exile.

When we observe the real sickness of modem society, not only its violence and vulgarity which are but symptons of the illness but the erosion of ethics and the methodical destruction of moral codes by which civilized man has always lived, then we realize this unique obligation we have as Torah Jews to combat this sickness. We cer­ tainly should not be partners to those who foster this illness and above all we must do all we can to dissuade our own young people from lending their talents and energies to these ele­ ments. On the contrary, we must do all in our power to strengthen those forces which represent responsible ad-

herance to law, order, and decency in our communities. These are the forces that enabled the establishment of communities in which Jewish institu­ tions have flourished, whereas that which is represented by the other forces will destroy all that we have built over the years.

The spirit of rebellion, the dissent and questioning displayed by youth, need not be stifled—on the contrary, it should be encouraged, for it con­ tains the seeds of hope and change for the future. It has but to be properly channeled and utilized. We as Torah Jews have no reason to fear this spirit for it may well be the beginning of a renewed progress toward the sources of our traditions. If materialism is being challenged, if the values of our generation are being questioned, then the ideals and principles of our gen­ eration are also being rejected and therein lies the hope for our commu­ nity and for society in general. Cer­ tainly the past generation did not give much allegiance to the principles and teachings of Torah. It was precisely their preoccupation with the Golden Calf that caused such massive aliena­ tion from Torah discipline on the part of today’s parents. Ironically, it is this same debased sense of values which is causing the alienation of their chil­ dren from the “establishment.”

A PORT O F INTELLECTUAL EM BA RKA TIO N OUNG PEOPLE desperately need JL someone and something they can believe in and trust. They seek out that which they can admire and even re­ vere. Unfortunately they do not al­ ways find the way which will lead them to their proper heroes and ideals.

Yet, there are an appreciable number who have rebelled against the mores Septem ber-October 1968

and standards of their parents and found themselves not in Greenwich Village but in the halls of Yeshivoth and eventually in the mainstream of the Torah community. Admittedly they represent a minor percentage of the totality but what interests us is that they exist at all! The spirit of rebel­ lion must not be destroyed but cap29

tured, not tamed but properly utilized.

In the concluding Mishnah of Mesechta Soteh we read: “In the foot­ steps of the Messiah, insolence will increase and honor dwindle. Youths will put old men to shame, the old will stand up in the presence of the young; a son will revile his father, a daughter will rise up against her mother, and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.” Many will agree that we are within hearing distance of the footsteps of the Messiah, if this be the indication of his coming.

We must not, however, be misled in­ to thinking that we will abet the com­ ing of the Messiah by encouraging the fulfillment of this Mishnah. Our responsibility is still that of rearing children who have respect for their elders and realize that the period of youth is one of preparation for adult­ hood when fulfillment will be theirs.

Unfortunately we are the heirs of a lengthy period of permissiveness in the raising of children. A wit put it well when he said that the accent may be on youth but the stress is on the adult. Judaism does not, however, look upon age as automatically possessing all the answers, just as it does not have great regard for the wisdom of youth. We have ever attempted to strike a proper balance wherein we appreciate the maturing of wisdom with the passage of time while ad­ miring the exuberance and enthusiasm of youth. The Talmud (Mesechtah Shabboth) states, perhaps with tongue in cheek: “There is no reason in old men and no counsel in children.” Ex­ perience is no substitute for wisdom, which explains the first part of their aphorism but by the same token youth does not have all the answers, which is the interpretation of the latter part of our Sages’ remark.

30

NOWING, then, that the answer to the problems which vex us to­ day can be found in the teachings of our Torah and Sages, we can realize that the application of the answer is in the climate of a society fashioned by men, women, and children who conduct themselves in accordance with the code of Torah. As a people we developed a fine sense of freedom and liberty which was always intense but which somehow never interfered with our acceptance of the most ex­ acting regulations and disciplines.

This blending of liberty and discipline carried over from the religious realm to the temporal. The Jew, trained to obey and accept authority in his own private life established a habit pat­ tern which then was applied to his relationship, in various countries, to a variety of governments and regimes.

This does not mean that he ever ac­ cepted tyranny. History shows that Jews never ceased to believe in, and fight for, equality and liberty. The ability to strike this delicate balance between a liberty and license was ser­ iously impeded as Jews cast off the religious disciplines in the private realm. Only by a process of educa­ tion and training in the discipline of Mitzvoth can we teach our young peo­ ple to intelligently evaluate their re­ sponsibility to government on the one hand and the needs of a free society on the other.

The best resistance to irresponsible and dangerous ideologies is still in­ telligence. Our young people are cer­ tainly blessed with this gift. Some, however, have unhappily squandered it as they have been denied the rich treasure of heritage which is theirs.

Although they would proclaim their independence, nonetheless they march so often to the beat of another man’s

K

JEWISH LIFE

drum. All of us must march to some beat. Fortunately we Jews have been given a rhythm and a destination.

Unfortunately, many have developed a tin ear and a faulty sense of direc­ tion.

proper home environment, excellent schooling, and a healthy, forwardlooking community. It is this alone that can build a better future for all of us.

One hears on many sides the call for “law and order.” Candidates for HE major need of the moment is high office base their campaign upon not only to educate, train, and this platform. What we must realize, teach but to inspire, guide, and direct however, is that law represents a pub­ our young people, to convince them lic expression of what society con­ that our times can be attuned to the siders right and necessary but this 'pirit of Torah, that change must be does not guarantee compliance with neasured by virtues and constants and obedience to the law. Only if which are unchanging and that free­ private persuasion is coupled with this dom and discipline are not in conflict. public expression can law be meaning­ There is much talk today of power ful. As for order, Burke put it very but not enough consideration given to well at the close of the eighteenth cen­ influence. The former can be corrupt tury: “Society cannot exist unless a and corrupting, whether it be the es­ controlling power upon will and ap­ tablishment or the anti-establishment petite be placed somewhere, and the who exercise it. The latter is the key less of it there is within, the more to all intelligent progress and decent there must be without.” We must bend human relationship. Power in itself de-humanizes, whereas an appreciation every effort to establish law based of the power of influence ennobles. upon private persuasion, and order by To gain the power of influence one reconstituting man within, rather than must however learn, grow, develop, without. This has ever been the Derech and mature. For all this, one needs Ha-Torah.

T

Septem ber-October 1968

31

Meditations

By BORUCH YITSCHOK HYMAN

Sail between the leaves and higher, turning, rising into silence Tiny bells sprinkle towns of light Falling, bobbing past the shadows, green, deep green How How can I, half in wonder, half in fear . . .

Arise why sleepest Thou The ponds are deep, so deep against the shallowness wandering Who knows, who knows One knows . . .

Our fathers have declared unto us Perfect is the Law Our soul is bowed down to the dust We have heard With our ears O G-d Awake In the beauties of holiness riseth for thee The dew of thy youth from the womb of the morning 32

JEWISH LIFE

I have known the old and pious women mild women meek and harmless women I am a whisp of steam held gaily by the sun I am a wind sent screaming up the shore lashing Who will go for us Who will go for us before the High G-d L-rd of the Change Leaden shadows pompously suspended in the sky shoot pellets at the dim and furtive sea Brittle breakers motion toward the shore and find I can hardly knowing that the sea is near near and calling near and falling hardly ever hardly ever Bound is the sea Dumb is the sea Voided is the sea Who will stand Who will stand when He will stand poor and timid ever rising

Sepiem ber-Ociober 1968

33

We praise the Name of G-d The One Who filled the tombs of Egypt with the proud And gave a Law Radiant in splendor Pure and noble High and awful All who follow follow to life All who fall these are the losers lost in dimness are they nothing is known to them nothing is felt by them The waves have covered, O L-rd, the strong waves, the strong waters have covered my sold O how I love Thy Law It is my meditation all the day The face of thé city is scrawled in black find me, find me disintegrating weed-long tracers tracing, breaking asphalt, crusting over times and crusting over the child of the face of times Not to us, O G-d, not to us, but to Thy Name give glory.

Here lies the city of losersweepers at the gates of dusk images of images and images of chimeras crying to the winds and crying to the echoes of the winds

34

Man that is in honour and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish.

JEWISH LIFE

G-d Name of honor The One Emblazoned on the suns and sealed in the stones of the glorious Law is the Name Who would have thought and who would have known Who would have found this Spring up well Sing ye to it Hidden in the glens and cooled by the fragrance of the languid dew the child of dawn sits tender-eyed mid distant musings full of wonder G-d will see and G-d will know G-d will send an answer Spring up Sing ye to it Come and praise the Giver G-d of lights He will send and gather from the midst of the lands of darkness from the midst of the empty people who laugh and laugh and cannot warm themselves who hide and run and know no peace a nation children of the High G-d and heirs of the ages Septem ber-October 1968

35

The blending of the patterns of life in the city of sorrows is like the reeling and the swirling of the haze of summer on the stoops and the gutters of the slums Wind come Wind burning through the stars and churning through the dust in the desert of the wind Come and tell us Life is the great seclusion Say ye Life is the chattering void Never known Call them Call them son of ages Never known How will you having said this how and when son of ages will you stand counting Speak the words of meaning Tell them This is the end Tell them This is the time of the end Glory be to Him the L-rd of endings

36

JEWISH LIFE

Blessed be the Name of G-d The One All come from Him All turn to Him Binder of the worlds L-rd of the Change is He And before Him stands a Law Ashes will cover the face of pride and dust will cover filmy and dim the stain of the worlds He will send a change when the Day is come the Day is near the Day is come the Day is here and after a Day and a Day and a Day only the Law and those who hold the Law Slowly the ages misty and thin level by level fold back and fall crumbling fading

>

Septem ber-October 1968

37

Rise from the East angels of light rise from the worlds and the time of the worlds rise from the camps and the click and the smoke of the death and the click and the smoke of the death of the camps of burning come tell the words say that we said we are Jews We are witnesses Thus and thus was our death and this is the man and this is the man

1H We have known the bright and twisted fear crouching down and limping on the plains of Poland open and burning shrill and ghastly missing nothing How much for a button a shiny button how much for a button that turned an age to ashes

Fine as crystal lightning are the Statutes of my L-rd star engendered never fading 0 my people 1 remember I remember 38

JEWISH LIFE

Tell it to the East and tell it to the rulers of the East that we believe in G-d Who comes Master of the gleaming sword We are believers who hold the radiant Law we are believers the sons of believers and we have seen the Message of the Sender etched in boldness on the face of worlds None efface and none confuse None deny the meaning calling Fire are the Letters of my Master’s Law All else is shadow Find us gentle brothers find us Go behind the mists that seem so happy and profound and sense the scorn with which they scorn us

Sepfem ber-October 1968

39

Renewal

By SAMSON R. WEISS Today is the birth of the world.

Today, He places before His tribunal all creatures of the earth.

(From the Rosh Hashonah Machzor) HE impact of any experience tends to become weakened by repetition.

The first wonder and astonishment lose their intensity and are soon re­ placed by a callousness of acceptance often bordering on disdain. This ob­ tains not only in the sphere of sensory perception. The heart and mind, too, quickly become jaded. The repeated exposure, for instance, to scenes of mis­ fortune and sickness tragically turns the initial heart-wrenching pity into in­ difference and even annoyance. The exhilarating pure joy of a new insight, of a sudden intellectual discovery is usually limited to the first lifting of the curtain, to the first breakthrough into the new area of thought.

It seems that man’s pulse quickens only at the first encounter.

Obviously, such calcification of emotion and intellect presents dangers to man’s moral stature. A truth bereft of its evocative, stimulating power not only loses its effectiveness, but soon becomes a festering charge. The denial of the response called for by the moral postulate must in the end warp man’s char­ acter. Indifference and cruelty are only quantitatively distinct from each other.

In the realm of man’s moral choice, there is no neutral ground.

The great challenge, then, is to remain astonished, to take no experience ever for granted and to respond to continuous goodness and grace with the fervor of the first spontaneity. This is, in fact, what Torah demands of us.

We are bidden to accept the gifts of life and the bounty of every new day with the pristine freshness of the new awakening. Each day anew, we pronounce the blessings which express our gratitude for the soul restored to us, quick­ ened and rested, when we arise from our sleep. Each day anew, we praise Him as the Creator of light and darkness and of the cosmic harmony. We thank the Almighty “Who renews in His goodness constantly the works of creation.” In return, we, too, are to renew constantly our response to the mar­ vels of existence and cognition. Each day we cite in the “Sh’ma” the sacred

T

40

JEWISH LIFE

words commanding us to act not by usage but motivated by the constantly renewed insight and to perform the Mitzvoth as if we ourselves were receiving them from G-d on Sinai “today.”

Merely repeating our yesterdays would be a waste of the life granted us today.

HE acknowledgement of an obligation is obviously but the first step to­ wards its accomplishment. How can man rise to the level of an inner freshness which knows no spoilage? How can he possibly retain forever the spiritual beauty of the first bloom which knows no wilting? How can he trans­ form all his yesterdays to rungs on a ladder leading to a higher today?

Clearly it is man himself who must change, who must grow, who must awaken each day a different being and thus experience all that is in the new light, in the new radiance of his own change and growth.

Just as one cannot enlarge a circle on any point, if it is indeed to remain a circle, without enlarging and changing its entire circumference, so man can­ not add to the volume of his wisdom and goodness without emerging changed in his totality. The complexity of man’s spiritual structure defies analysis and definition, and yet there is in man an essential oneness which overrides all his contradictions. Thus, when man grows, he grows in every aspect. The famous statement of our Sages, “Whosoever is greater than his fellow man, his evil impulse is also greater,” was spoken in sublime praise of total man, for true greatness calls for victory over the greater adversary, for surmounting the greater odds, and for emerging ever stronger from the ever harder test.

“Chodoshim La-bekorim”—new every morning stretch out before man the widened horizons of his own potential. Unknown to his yesterdays, they were discovered by his yesterday’s climb to greater heights. Within the new, enlarged, and therefore completely changed circumference of his own existence, man experiences the world and all its knowledge in awesome, unfaded beauty, for there still clings to it the dew of Creation. And so, in his own very self, he finds correspondence to the prayer in which he asks the Creator of the luminaries to let “new light” shine in Zion. Yesterday’s lamps cannot il­ lumine his today’s world and do not suffice to penetrate its shadows.

T

T is in Torah and by Torah that the Almighty has vouchsafed man the ability for his constant renewal. It is Torah which opens for him the road to never ending ascent. It is in the study of the Divine Word that a man ex­ periences true “Chiddush”—the new thought, the new understanding, the new concept, the new value. Such “Chiddush” in the study of Torah is both a test of its proper understanding and a test of the proper fruits which Torah bears in man’s mind and heart. This is why preceding the “Sh’ma” we recite, after the blessing and the prayer for the “new light,” another blessing of thanks for the Torah which G-d has given us in infinite love, that Torah by which we are linked forever to the source of Creation, that Torah which shall bear in us, so we pray, the fruit of understanding and deed. Then, after this second blessing, we are ready to recite the “Sh’ma” and to accept anew upon us the

I

Septem ber-October 1968

41

duty of Jewish life in the total service and in the total acknowledgment of our Maker.

Not every day does the average Jew succeed in restoring this in­ timacy of relationship to himself and to his G-d. The heavy burden of fruit­ less yesterdays all too often weigh down the wings of his soul, and what was to be the soaring flight to new horizons becomes a tortuous crawl through the mud of futility. Fatigued and well nigh hopeless, he may utter the words, but they remain bereft of life, bereft of the sap of emotion and understanding.

Yet, there is one day in the Jewish year when the Jew has to find his way back to creation, when he must undertake the vast journey to his source, so that he himself may gain freshness and renewal. On this day, he is promised a special nearness, a special grace, if he but sets out on this journey. “Seek Him when He can be found, call Him when He is close”—it is the day of Rosh Hashonah, the birth hour of the world, in which we are bidden to shed all usage and to begin the return, the Teshuvah, to the unspoiled freshness of a new beginning.

ESHUVAH is not mere repentance, though repentance is one of its inte­ gral factors. Teshuvah is the renouncing of our yesterdays and all their flaws.

It is saying “no” to all the dross man accumulates covering the gold of his essential goodness. It is the breaking of the chains and the shackles of the past and its errors. It is the rising from the dust and folly of smallness and sin to the glory of unbroken purpose and service. It is the exercise of man’s highest creativity by which he transforms himself and his entire world, renews them and makes them translucent with the new light.

Today, on Rosh Hashonah, man is called upon to give birth to a new self and to a new world. He will be judged by his response to this call.

T

42

JEWISH LIFE

Torah Im Derech Eretz An Operational Approach

By GERSHON KRANZLER

T is not the intention of this arti­ cle to add to the frustration of the theoretical debate about Rabbi Sam­ son Raphael Hirsch’s brilliant formu­ lation of an operational Goluth ide­ ology: “Torah im Derech Eretz”— the fusion of modem culture with the Torah concept and way of life* Enough has been written and, unfortunately, too much invective has been inject­ ed into the question: was this ide­ ology of Hirsch merely a “Horo’ath Sho’ah” contingent upon historical conditions that required a temporary dam to the flood of assimilation which threatened German and Central Euro­ pean Jewry; or did he mean it to be a permanent basic Torah Hashkofah, a modus vivendi for the Goluth Jew any­ where and everywhere?

There are those who have relegated Torah im Derech Eretz to the memo­ ries of the elders of Frankfurt-on-theHudson as part of their “yeckishe” burden difficult to discard. Yet, it is remarkable that developments on the broader American Jewish scene have made Torah im Derech Eretz an op­ erationally functioning and highly suc-

I

Septem ber-October 1968

cessful formula in the mainstream of orthodox Jewish life. De facto it has become a significant factor of opti­ mism, counter to the gloomy predic­ tions of the prophets of doom for or­ thodox Jewry and Torah-true life in the culture shock of the nuclear age.

In this role it complements the vital work of the yeshivoth and of the vi­ brant forces of contemporary Chassiduth on the forefronts of the Jewish community.

The proper frame of reference for this operational approach to Torah im Derech Eretz in action may be set by a few observations which seem to lift it out of the theoretical discussions and beyond the distortions of personal bias.

N a Chassidishe Minyon which this writer visited recently for the first time he found that more than half of the men dawening there—each with his Tallith over his head—combined modern cultural attainment with Po­ lish Chassidic background. Among them were professionals, scientists, university teachers, chairmen of col­ lege departments, researchers of inter-

I

43

national note, and lawyers, as well as businessmen. Each one of them had learned in ye.shivoth, some on the highest level, or in a kollel. All of their children are attending yeshivoth.

A few blocks away, in a large Nusach Ashkenaz shool of the same ma­ jor Jewish community, eleven of the thirteen who dawened with the Tallith over their head were Ph.D.’s, profes­ sionals, college teachers, and scientists.

Each one of them was the type that any contemporary non-Jewish organi­ zation or association would be proud to count among its members. Enquiry disclosed that the time which these eleven people devote to Torah learning easily matches that of the rest of the congregation—noted for limmud To­ rah—in quantity as well as in quality because they have attended yeshivoth and carry the spirit of the Yeshivah with them into their daily lives, their homes, their families, and into the milieu they have created around them.

Similarly, this writer has noted that, for example, in the Williamsburg branch of an orthodox Jewish organi­ zation, more than 75 percent of the ¿members’ sons, sons-in-law, or grand­ children are young scientists and high level professionals. Yet few of the members themselves had any higher education and not too many could match the lomduth of their second generation, many of them with rab­ binic Semichah, and with years in a higher beth medrosh or even kollel.

The homes of their children are ortho­ dox^ intelligent, stimulating—and im­ bued with the spirit of Torah im Derech Eretz.

On a recent visit td Upper Monsey this writer saw entire streets of beau­ tiful homes owned by young graduates of yeshivoth, many with Semichah, 44

who are eminent professionals. In an orthodox synagogue in a New England city, twenty-three young men were pointed out during the Sabbath morn­ ing services who teach at various col­ leges and universities, or work as reseachers in laboratories. Similarly, one may travel the width and the length of the country and come upon congrega­ tions either newly founded or revital­ ized by this new generation of Ameri­ can Yeshivah products who are asso­ ciated with the academic world, with governmental or industrial research centers, with the giants of the auto­ mation world of tomorrow. Or they are physicians, psychiatrists, and other high level professionals in New York, in Washington, Chicago, Baltimore, Berkeley, Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleve­ land, Denver, or Detroit. Possessing more and deeper knowledge of Torah than their parents, these men—and some women—represent Torah im Derech Eretz in the best possible sense, on a higher level than many of those who, for example, made the V.J.A., the association of orthodox Jewish academicians in Germany, the finest products of this ideology.

In fact, they have formed the flour­ ishing Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, whose more than 1,000 members have dedicated themselves to the research of specific problems of Halochah and of the wider Jewish community life in the light of the rad­ ically changing technology, from the point of vantage of their Halachic, as well as scientific, training. This signifi­ cant organization, and other groups such as the group of Jewish academi­ cians affilliated with the Chabad move­ ment, devote themselves to discussion, teaching, and guidance of the search­ ing Jewish college student on the JEWISH LIFE

of the academic world; whether their Chassiduth is genuine or a pseudo­ mysticism; or whether their orthodoxy is orthopraxy only or the display of a mild form of schizophrenia, as some of their detractors claim; or whether they are an example of the finest ele­ ments lost to the Torah world who should have used their intellectual qualities to be creative in lomduth, as some maintain. Too much has already been written to further pursue this favorite target of extremists from all sides.

Important is the fact that, wherever these young representatives of Torah im Derech Eretz at its best have set­ tled, they have become a potent force for the creation, the support, and maintenance of the highest standards of day schools for boys and girls, and of yeshivoth gedoloth. They, by their very existence and eminence in both the religious and secular realms, have been the best arguments in favor of day school education. They have been the most eloquent and most persua­ sive in convincing the unwilling be­ cause they can match intellectually and professionally any other element in the community, including those of the older generation who have pushed their Talmud Torahs, despite the obvi­ ous bankruptcy of the majority of the congregational or private Talmud To­ rah education. Beyond the dressing on institutional letterheads, they have be­ come the activists and leaders of much of the renaissance of orthodox Jew­ ish communal life, together with, and HIS operational approach is not sometimes ahead of, the pioneers of concerned with whether dawen- Torah Chinuch who have revolution­ ing with the Tallith over the head is ized American Jewry in the past twen­ essential; whether the learning of these young professionals and scientists is on ty-five to thirty years.

On the outside, too, they have be­ a level that is comparable to those who have not tempted the apikursuth come spokesmen of Torah Judaism

seething college campus. Thus, in ever widening circles, Torah - committed scientists, academicians, professional men, and technologists are beginning to make their influence felt on ever broader areas of the intellectual Jew­ ish scene.

They are also more effective because conditions of life in America permit a stronger accent on individual free­ dom of religious conduct in public, so that American Jewish academicians are not in the least embarrassed about their yarmulkas, or about beard and peyoth. Nor are they apologetic or concerned seriously with the effect of their SKmirath Mitzvoth and their dedication of time and effort to limmud Torah and to propagation of To­ rah far beyond anything known in the U.S. in previous decades.

The credit for this remarkable phe­ nomenon goes largely to the yeshivoth, to orthodox Jewish organizations, to the Chassidic movements, and to the organized Kehilloth, who inspired and inspire their products with this spirit of Torah and of mesirath nefesh, and, to perhaps a less satisfactory extent, with concern with the welfare of the wider Jewish community. Above all, they have built the positive attitude that denies the once popular version of the “treifeneh America” where the very streets are hostile to Yiddishkeit, and where one has to “battel Chometz” with SKmirath Mitzvoth to get ahead in life.

T

Septem ber-Ocfober 1968

45

who speak with authority; who have done away with the old awe and rever­ ence for those who “speak English”; who have debunked the American myth of the “Oisher,” the one-time Orchard Street hucksters or operators who by virtue of their business acu­ men and economic success have ac­ quired the aura of infallibility. Much as the Jewish community is indebted to these old-time leaders for their sac­ rifice of time, effort, and money, too many of them have hurt the growth and stunted the development of insti­ tutions by their pettiness, ignorance, and insatiable kovod-hunt. Their trans­ plant of thë typical capitalist secularist values into the Jewish communal world has been largely responsible for the fact that rabbis and educators have in increasing measure been forced to give up their idealism and turn else­ where to escape the “ulcer-trade,” as one of the most prominent rabbinical leaders has recently said. For the first time these older leaders have found their match among the young profes­ sionals, including successful young businessmen who, like the scientists and academicians, combine a high-lev­ el Jewish and secular education with a thoroughly integrated total Torah Weltanschauung. It remains to be seen, however/ to what degree those who compose the new force have com­ mitted themselves in communal re­ sponsibility and to what degree they have become accepted and absorbed into the fabric of American Jewish communal leadership. For many of them have concentrated in the small shtibelech and Chassidic Minyonim, or in the Yeshivah centers from which

46

they continue to draw spiritual nur­ ture, rather than to be drawn into the larger, established institutions and con­ gregations. Varying explanations are given for this situation and no doubt not any one but a combination of fac­ tors has led to the reluctance of an un­ due proportion of our young exem­ plars of the Hirschian synthesis to take their places in major institutions of the orthodox Jewish enterprise. The reali­ zation of their potential will be con­ tingent upon the extent to which this hitherto unfulfilled promise is resolved.

Yet, aside from this limitation, the new leadership elements have made themselves felt in orthodox Jewish adult and youth movements. They have introduced the observance of Kashruth, Taharath Hamishpochah, and similar vital areas of Jewish prac­ tice where they had never existed or where they had died with the last Zaide and Bobbe, to the dirges of the Jewish assimilationists. They have helped create a viable new Jewish community with a future beyond the pale of the old guilt or gilt ghettos, or the faltering Jewish suburbias and exurbias that are suffering the conse­ quences of their affluent permissive­ ness.

Operationally, these strong, new forces of Torah im Derech Eretz, whether we or even they themselves agree with this formulation of a func­ tional Torah Hashkofah or not, have proven and are continuing to prove themselves to be among the most pos­ itive factors of Jewish continuity and regeneration in this country and far beyond it.

JEWISH LIFE

The Telsher Rav and Rosh Hayeshivah

by AARO N

rjlE L S H E is today a byword within JL the Yeshivah world. It represents more than just a yeshivah and a unique method of Talmudical study, for it al­ so connotes a singular outlook and fashion of life. One of the people most responsible for creating the image and institution of Telshe was Rabbi Yoseph Leib Bloch. Bom in 1860 in Russyein, Lithuania, his father was away at business in Leipzig the night of his birth. It is related that his fath­ er dreamt that a Sefer Torah was be­ ing placed in his hands that night. The local rabbi explained that he would be blessed with a son who would be likened to a Torah. Indeed, Rav Yoseph Leib became a living Sefer Torah during his lifetime.

Showing signs of his ability at an early age, the youngster left his home at the age of eleven to study at the yeshivah of his uncle, Rabbi Moshe Charif. At fifteen, he entered the re­ cently established yeshivah of Rabbi Eliezer Gordon at Chelm. Rabbi Gor­ don was renowned for his pedagogical ability and he fully developed the youngster's capabilities. During this Septem ber-October 1968

ROTHKOFF

period the young Bloch also developed an abiding interest in the Jewish philo­ sophical and theological classics. Rab­ bi Nothon Tzvi Finkel, later the founder of the Slobodka Yeshivah, re­ sided in Chelm at this time, maintain­ ing a close relationship with many of the students. When Rabbi Finkel per­ ceived Yoseph Leib’s abilities, he in­ fluenced the youth to attend the Mussar (ethics) lectures of Rabbi Simchah Zissel Ziff in his Chelm Beth Ha-Talmud. To Rabbi Finkel’s disappoint­ ment, Yoseph Leib Bloch did not be­ come a devotee of Reb Simchah Zissel at this time. In a statement which characterized his independent thinking, the young Bloch declared to his class­ mates that he was no longer attending lectures at the Beth Ha-Talmud since he did not agree with its method of education.

When he turned nineteen, Bloch spent* a year in the company of the il­ lustrious scholars and students of the Volozhiner Yeshivah. Upon his return to Chelm, he married the eldest daugh­ ter of Rabbi Eliezer Gordon. Continu­ ing his studies in Chelm, the young 47

Rabbi Bloch gained fame for his eru­ dition and independent thinking. At this time he sought out Reb Simcha Zissel, and he was deeply influenced by aspects of his teachings.

N 1883, Rabbi Gordon was elected as Rav of Telshe, and his son-inlaw also moved there. When Rabbi Gordon enlarged the small yeshivah which had previously been established in Telshe, Rabbi Bloch officially be­ came a Rosh Yeshivah in that acad­ emy. Rabbi Shimon Shkop also joined the faculty, and at Rabbi Bloch’s sug­ gestion, the yeshivah was divided into five classes. This was a drastic inno­ vation in advanced yeshivah educa­ tion, as all other yeshivoth maintained a unitary level of lectures. Rabbi Gor­ don now taught the eldest class, while Rabbis Bloch and Shkop taught the four lower classes. Under the tutelage of these three sages, the Telshe Ye­ shivah grew rapidly as its reputation spread throughout the Jewish world.

Great stress was placed by the three Roshey Yeshivah on logical thinking and deductive reasoning. Seforim such as the Netivoth Ha-Mishpot, K ’tzoth Ha-Choshen, and Shev Sh’maitsah which specialized in this type of analy­ sis and commentary became standard texts in Telshe. Rabbi Bloch also aided his father-in-law in introducing the study oif Mussar. Later, Rabbi Bloch brought a leading disciple of Reb Sim­ cha Zissel, Rabbi Leib Chasman, to serve as the Yeshivah’s Mashgiach (spiritual supervisor). Rabbi Bloch also acted as the Yeshivah’s administrator, and he introduced system and order in­ to the method of accepting students.

These innovations, in striking contrast to the practices at other yeshivoth, re­ quired students to request permission

I

48

in writing to enter the school before they left their homes. Only after re­ ceiving an affirmative answer from the Yeshivah were they officially accept­ ed.

With numerous applicants clamor­ ing for admission, it became necessary to limit the size of the student body.

Only one student was accepted from each smaller community, while the quota was somewhat larger for bigger cities. Rabbi Joseph Kahaneman of Ponevezh-Bnei Brak has related that when he applied for admission to Telshe he enclosed a letter of recom­ mendation from the lay leader of a small German community since his city’s Telshe quota was filled. When Rabbi Bloch enquired why the letter did not bear a rabbi’s signature, the young Kahaneman replied that the city didn’t have a rabbi. Thereupon, Rabbi Bloch concluded that such a city was not worthy of sending a student to Telshe. Only after a long wait did Rabbi Kahaneman finally succeed in gaining admission.

URING this period the spirit of revolution swept through the countries under Qzarist Russian do­ minion. The rays of this revolutionary thought even penetrated within the walls of Telshe Yeshivah. Coupled with some students’ lingering resent­ ment against the introduction of Mus­ sar discources in the Yeshivah, there were many acrimonious situations in Telshe. Much of the discontent was directed against Rabbi Bloch since he was the institution’s administrator and daily enforced its policies. Finally, in late 1901, Rabbi Bloch left Telshe Yeshivah to become the rabbi of Werne. Some of his former talmidim followed him to Werne and he began

D

JEWISH LIFE

a yeshivah for them. Three years later, when Rabbi Bloch moved to Shaduvah, the students studying under his guidance numbered over one hundred.

In 1910, upon the death of Rabbi Eliezer Gordon, Rabbi Bloch returned to Telshe to succeed his father-in-law as the city’s Rav and Rosh Hayeshivah. He began to shape the total im­ age of Telshe, delivering Mussar dis­ courses in addition to teaching the highest shiur of the Yeshivah.

During World War I, the Yeshivah became the only advanced Torah insti­ tution to remain open in its own loca­ tion for the entire duration of the con­ flict. Being close to the border, Telshe was soon overrun by the German army. Although not officially recog­ nized by the occupational government, the Yeshivah succeeded in continuing to function with undiminished vi­ brancy. Rabbi Bloch also organized a preparatory division for the Yeshivah during these trying times. In order to combat the influences of the secular schools opened by the Germans in conquered territory, he introduced some secular study in the Telshe pre­ paratory school curriculum. After­ wards, an elementary yeshivah was organized which also included an ex­ cellent elementary secular curriculum.

By 1920, the preparatory division was expanded into a four-and-one-half year program of study which included a parallel program of “gymnasium” (higher level) studies.

The introduction of secular study under the auspice of an East European yeshivah was a startling innovation.

Caustic critics of the Telshe policy ap­ proached Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzenski for an opinion regarding its program of study. Rabbi Grodzenski refused to rule in this matter and he advised that Septem ber-Ocfober 1968

Rav Yisroel Meir Hakohen, the famed “Chofetz Chaim,” be consulted. The Chofetz Chaim stated that if “Rav Yoseph Leib has decided upon a cer­ tain course of action, he knows what he is doing, and critics should not has­ ten to castigate him.”

ITH the close of World War I, and the incorporation of Telshe into an independent Lithuania, the Telshe Yeshivah continued to thrive and grow. In addition to his shiurim and Mussar discourses for the students in the Yeshivah proper, Rabbi Bloch also delivered special talks which he called “shiurey daath” (discourses on understanding) for the most advanced students. These discourses were later published in three volumes after World War II. The first volume ap­ peared in New York in 1949, while the other two were printed in Tel Aviv in 1953 and 1956.

With the expansion of the Telshe institutions, Rav Yoseph Leib was aid­ ed by his family. His second son and ultimate successor, Rav Avrohom Yitzchok, was appointed a Rosh Ye­ shivah in the senior Yeshivah in 1922.

In 1926, his eldest son, Rav Zalman, was appointed the Yeshivah’s Menahel Ruchni (spiritual advisor). In 1927, his third son, Rav Eliyohu Meir, was also appointed a Rosh Yeshivah. His son-in-law, Rav Chaim Mordechai Katz, served as the principal of the preparatory division. Afterwards, his second son-in-law, Rabbi Avner Oakliansky, headed the mechinah, as Rab­ bi Katz became the head of the Kollel for married graduates of the Telshe Yeshivah which was opened by Rabbi Bloch in 1928.

Rav Yoseph Leib also was active in the Lithuanian Jewish community. He

W

49

“Beth Ha-Rav” that was forged by Rav Yoseph Leib that made it so.

While most other leading Roshey Hayeshivah during this period did not serve simultaneously as the rabbis of their communities, Rav Yoseph Leib served as both the Rav and the Rosh Hayeshivah of Telshe. Being in touch with the daily mundane problems that face a community kept Rabbi Bloch alert to the trends of his times. He conducted his home in high dignity, and his family life was not character­ ized by the poverty and need which depressed most rabbinical homes. This was possible because his children en­ tered into marriages with extremely wealthy families. He also insisted that the Telshe Yeshivah pay its Roshey Yeshivah decent salaries; the depress­ ing air of poverty which pervaded so many other yeshivoth was not part of the Telshe scene.

Because of his financial independ­ ence, Rav Yoseph Leib was able to conduct himself in a princely, digni­ fied fashion which added to the at­ mosphere of self-respect which char­ acterized Telshe. He also was an ex­ tremely well-organized person, and punctilious in his deportment. When a student appeared at his home three minutes before their appointment, Rabbi Bloch did not receive him until the designated moment. He exercised complete control over his emotions, and even at times of joy or sorrow fol­ lowed his scheduled routine. The day ELSHE was different and the en­ he celebrated the wedding of his tire Torah world intuitively knew daughter, he still took his daily nap it. It was not only Rav Yoseph Leib’s at 3:15 p.m. Once when his eldest greatness in Torah that made it so. daughter was gravely ill, he still man­ Nor was it only the erudite shiurim of aged to follow his regular study sched­ Rabbi Chaim Rabinowitz—who had ule, although his immediate family succeeded Rabbi Shkop in 1904— that was completely distraught. Rav Elimade it unique. It was rather the yohu Meir could not help but ask his

aided in the organization of its rab­ binic body, the Agudath Horabanim, and served as a member of its presi­ dium. The Lithuanian community rec­ ognized Rabbi Bloch’s unique abilities and in 1925 the Agudath Horabanim requested that he become the patron of the floundering Yavneh school for the training of orthodox teachers. Yav­ neh, which had been organized in Kovno in 1918 by the Zeirei Agudath Israel, was not succeeding due to the lack of capable leadership. The insti­ tution was now transferred to Telshe and there it flourished. Rabbi Avrohom Mordechai Wesler, Rav Yoseph Leib’s third son-in-law, served as its spiritual director for some years. Rab­ bi Bloch urged some of the Yeshivah’s students to enroll in Yavneh since he felt their abilities would enable them to achieve greater success in this school rather than in the Yeshivah it­ self.

In 1930, a teachers training school for young women was also organized in Telshe under the direction of Yav­ neh. Previously, in 1927, Rav Yoseph Leib organized a high school for girls in Telshe. A special committee head­ ed by Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz was formed to guide the female school. Although this particular insti­ tution evoked much criticism from some orthodox circles, it thrived un­ der the aegis of the network of Telshe Torah institutions.

T

50

JEWISH LIFE

father how he could continue his stud­ ies at such a serious moment. Rav Yoseph Leib replied that indescribably pained and distressed though he was, nevertheless, G-d had given him the ability to sublimate his anxieties in the study of Torah. If he could not ac­ complish this, he would be consumed by the fears and stresses of the mo­ ment.

ABBI Yoseph Leib always ap­ peared publicly in full dress, either wearing the rabbinical fur hat or a high silk hat. He once commented that although he knew that some people laughed at him for always wearing a formal hat, he could not help himself.

He was so accustomed to this form of behavior that it would disturb him if he changed his habits. After his death, a student eulogizing him related that upon entering the late Rabbi Bloch’s home and finding a quill on top of the deceased’s hat, he then realized that the Rosh Hayeshivah was no longer alive since during his lifetime no ob­ ject was out of place in his home.

The Telshe Rosh Hayeshivah had a deep understanding of human nature and utilized his keen perceptiveness in his relations with his family and stu­ dents. Once a committee of students appeared at his home on a rainy day to complain about certain conditions in the Yeshivah. After greeting them, Rabbi Bloch firmly rebuked them for their lack of proper deportment in not removing their galoshes when they en­ tered his home, insisting that only after removing these would he discuss their problems with them. After this reprimand, with which they hastened to comply, the crestfallen talmidim meekly discused their requests with Rav Yoseph Leib. On another occa-

R

Septem ber-October 1968

sion, a student delegation met with him to complain that too many young­ sters were being admitted into the Ye­ shivah proper and that this practice was lowering Telshe’s high standards.

Rabbi Bloch rebuked the students for being so haughty and arrogant that they didn’t want to be in the company of younger students. At the same time he enquired how such competent scholars could allow themselves to be so concerned with such a minor mat­ ter.

In the Mussar tradition, he utilized material objects and techniques to em­ phasize spiritual concepts. An inter­ esting example of this was his behavior during his Shiurey Daath lectures.

These were delivered in a well lit, beautifully furnished room. Participa­ tion was by invitation only, and the privileged students sat on comfortable couches. Rav Joseph Leib never desig­ nated his topics in advance but rather asked the students to present their the­ ological problems to him. He would then ask one of the talmidim present to lock the door. Thereafter he would insist that another student check to see if the door was properly locked.

Finally, he began his talk in a low, measured voice, indicative of the pro­ fundity of the matters to be dealt with in his discourse.

His insistance upon proper dress and deportment was another reflection of his indicating the importance of the Torah’s spiritual message by en­ hancing physical behavior. He insisted that his students also dress properly and conduct themselves with impecca­ ble manners and dignity. During this period, students in Russian gymnasi­ ums and universities had to dress in a prescribed fashion. Rabbi Bloch rightfully claimed that he accom51

ples gathered in Telshe to pay their final respects. Twenty-six rabbinical leaders eulogized him, including his sons-in-law.

Rav Avrohom Yitzchok was select­ ed to succeed his father-in-law as the Rosh Hayeshivah and Rav of Telshe.

URING the last five years of his Under his tutelage, the Yeshivah con­ life, Rav Yoseph Leib suffered tinued to flourish until the outbreak of from illness. Nevertheless, he contin­ World War II. Almost the entire ued to guide the Yeshivah and to de­ Bloch family fell prey to the Nazi liver his lectures. He was aided by his hordes. Rabbis Eliyohu Meir and Chaim children, and particularly by Rav Av- Mordechai Katz miraculously man­ rohom Yitzchok, in administering the aged to escape to the United States in network of Torah institutions under 1940. On October 28, 1941, together his jurisdiction. On Yom Kippur of with a nucleus of former Telshe stu­ 5690/1929, he sustained a heart-at­ dents, they opened the Telshe Ye­ tack while reciting the blessings on the Torah, and on the seventh of Chesh- shivah in Cleveland. This institution von he passed away. Deep was the flourishes today as one of America’s mourning among his students and the leading Torah centers in constant trib­ inhabitants of Telshe. For the funeral, ute to the vision and dedication of Rav thousands of his colleagues and disci­ Yoseph Leib Bloch.

plished the same thing with his stu­ dents, although uniform attire was not required of them. They acquired a sense of dignity and self-esteem through their association with the Telshe Rosh Hayeshivah.

D

52

JEWISH LIFE

Our Age of Irresponsibility

By SAMUEL A. TURK

T IS remarkable how ideas and be­ liefs initially regarded as perilous to the fabric of society are presently embraced as liberal and progressive thought. Such has been the case with the concept, propounded by Karl Marx, of the “Materialist Interpreta­ tion of History,” often termed “Eco­ nomic Determinism.” This doctrine maintains that the religious and moral concepts and practices of a society are resultants of its economic system and the social organization necessari­ ly following from it. Marx said, “Men make their own history, but they make it not of their own free will, not in conditions chosen by themselves; they make it in conditions given and transmitted.” (Selected Works, II, 315). According to him, men are not free agents to choose their actions and behavior. They are prisoners and victims of the economic and social system of their society. The moral concepts of the capitalistic society are weapons used by the dominant eco­ nomic class to oppress the working class and to enslave them. The eco­ nomic injustice of society is responsi­ ble for all its crimes—war, murder,

I

Septem ber-Ocfober 1968

sex crimes, theft, violence. Undo the injustices of society and the moral­ ity of the individual will inevitably emerge.

For several decades this fatalistic, deterministic,, and mechanistic ap­ proach toward human motivation and behavior was generally rejected. The concept of freedom of the will taught

by Judaism and accepted by Chris­ tianity—which postulated the respon­ sibility of the individual for his ac­ tions—was too strongly ingrained to be severely challenged. Yet today we live in an age in which the intellec­ tual climate favors and even encour­ ages individual irresponsibility in hu­ man behavior. The greatest and most heinous of crimes are justified as be­ ing a result of historical circum­ stances. The tremendous rise in the number of murders and homicides all over the world is attributed not to the decline in the morality of the indi­ vidual, but rather to the inequities and injustices of society. Poverty, slums, bad schools, and social con­ ditions in general are held responsi­ ble for violence, lawlessness, looting, burning, and killing. All penal codes 53

are thought to be outmoded and ana­ thetic “individual” is caught in the chronistic, since criminals are only maelstrom of forces beyond his con­ the innocent victims of circumstances! trol and he thus succumbs to the in­ How can we reduce crime? Not by exorable pressures of history and the inculcating moral values and rearing deadening hand of society. responsible men. No, that is old fash­ The weight of historical evidence ioned and naive thinking! Crime will is disregarded by the modern under­ cease to exist by the abolishment of writers of dialectical materialism. slums, fighting poverty, providing bet­ Jews have lived in ghettos under the ter schools and jobs, and by the crea­ most deplorable economic and social tion of more leisure. The evils exist­ conditions and by and large did not ing in our society are to blame for become steeped in crime and violence. all our crime. Improve the society and The American Jewish community crime will disappear. emerged from the East Side ghettos of the nation’s cities, producing illus­ HE most tragic historical events trious members in all fields of en­ of our era are rationalized in a deavor. The morality of the Jewish similar manner. For example, the family remained unscathed. As the Nazis, in this view, are not to be economic level of the Jews continued blamed for the blood-bath which they to rise, their impaction American so­ created. Conditions such as the Ver­ ciety rose out of proportion to their sailles Treaty, poverty, inflation, im­ numbers. The Jewish family setting perialism, militarism, power politics, and Jewish tradition stimulated the etc., compelled the German people to individual Jew to improve himself in­ follow their evil paths. Their inhuman tellectually, morally, and materially. crimes should be forgiven and forgot­ The will to succeed and to improve ten, for the Germans were victims of oneself in a responsible manner con­ an evil system. As individuals, they, tributed most to the emergence of the therefore, bear no responsibility. As American Jewish community as an a matter of fact, it is their victims who important factor in American life. bear much of the blame for the The field of education too has be­ crimes inflicted and perpetrated upon come saturated with such materialistic them! Such a thesis is expressed by and mechanistic philosophy. The very Hannah Arendt and her school purpose of education has changed. (“Eichmann in Jerusalem”).

Whereas formerly education was The breakdown of the family in meant to enrich the human personal­ America and the growth of illegiti­ ity, and to improve character, its pur­ macy, especially among the Negroes, pose now is to prepare one for a bet­ is said to be an economic, rather than ter livelihood. Academies of learning a moral problem. condone and encourage reckless and Abolition of slums and ghettos irresponsible behavior on the part of would obliterate these irregularities.

The increase in crime, alcoholism, and their student bodies. Freedom of the use of narcotics among the young thought is best expressed by tearing is also analyzed to be a result of ecor down and mocking every code of mo­ nomic and social conditions. The pa- rality and decency. Students are “do-

T

54

JEWISH LIFE

ing what comes naturally” without any questions of conscience or con­ cern for moral or ethical norms. The

quality of restraint and moderation is now scoffed at in our halls of learn­ ing.

THE ATTITUDE SPREADS HIS new type of thinking has cor­ tion of human behavior in the last few roded the very pillars of the generations. The “Sexual Revolution,” greatest and wonderful institution for the widespread use of drugs and nar­ human development—the home. The cotics, and much of crime can be at­ parental discipline and guidance tributed to the popular misconception which produced an ordered society is of this field of psychology. The “sex­ considered anachronistic and out­ ual revolution” is a result of a de­ moded. Rather than being taught to sire to enjoy sex irresponsibly. The in­ conduct decent lives and to develop crease in use of drugs, narcotics, and powers of self-restraint, children are alcoholism is the product of a desire encouraged to rebel and to develop to live irresponsibly. all kinds of delinquent traits. Intem­ How different is the type of man perance, arrogance, and hedonism are the Torah seeks to develop! The the idols of a large segment of pres­ Rabbis asserted that it“the slave de­ ent-day youth. sires and welcomes irresponsibility.”

The same philosophy is character­ The free man is the one who leads a istic of government and politics to­ life in accordance with the Torah. The day. The character and moral behav­ Torah maintains that man is individ­ ior of our public figures are no long­ ually free to choose his actions and er decisive considerations. Politics has that he is responsible for his conduct become identified with expediency, and behavior. The majestic liturgy of deceit, and dishonesty. Government is the High Holy Days seeks to incul­ constantly yielding to the pressures of cate in us the vital message that G-d those seeking to exploit society for will judge us for our actions and be­ personal ends and those who wish to havior and held accountable for all his be rewarded for indolence and lack deeds and thoughts. Also, that man of initiative or ambition. Instead of has the capacity to change his lot by developing responsibility in its citizens, repenting for his past wrongs and re­ government condones irresponsibility solving to do better in the future. No and lawlessness. The shame of our prayer is meaningful if it is not pre­ cities is a product of irresponsible ceded by a desire for repentance. The citizenry.

Yomim Noroim liturgy expresses this succinctly in that wonderful phrase, O field has encouraged this type “But penitence, prayer, and righteous­ of thinking more than has the ness can avert the evil decree.” And general conception of Freudian psy­ three times daily in the Amidah we choanalysis. The popular notion that pray for repentance. Any concepts of all discipline and restraint fathers fatalism regarding human nature and neuroses in the human personality has character are definitely alien to our greatly contributed to the degenera- faith. Maimonides formulates this be-

T

K

Septem ber-October 1968

55

lief in freedom of the human will as a cardinal principle of our faith when he says, “Let not pass through your mind that which Jewish and non-Jewish fools maintain, that G-d ordains for a human being at the time of birth whether he will be righteous as Moses, our teacher, or wicked as Jer­ oboam, wise or foolish, merciful or cruel, charitable or miserly, and so with all traits. No one compels, de­ crees, or pulls him to either path, only he himself is free to make the choice.” (Hilchoth Teshuvah 5,2) HILE the Torah recognizes that the evil impulse in man tempts him to sin, he is, however, under no compulsion to succumb. One must strengthen his good impulses to over­ come the evil impulse. There are ways of strengthening one’s good impulse.

The Talmud (Kiddushin 30b) asserts, “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: ‘My children, I have cre­ ated the evil impulse, and I have created the Torah as an antidote to it; if you occupy yourselves with Torah, you will not be delivered into its power.’ ” Again (in Avodah Zorah 5b), the Talmud expresses the wonder­ ful powers of Torah study in the fol­ lowing way: “Happy are the Israelites when they are engaged with Torah and beneficient acts, their evil impulse is delivered into their power and they are not delivered into the power of their impulse.” Thus the study and practice of Torah which fills the mind with sublime thoughts and the prac­ tice of good deeds are the greatest antidotes for man’s evil impulse.

Another antidote is an occupation.

Idleness leads to sin. This is expressed in Pirkey Ovoth (2,2): “Rabbi Gamliel the son of Rabbi Yehudah ha-

W

56

Nasi said, ‘It is well to combine Torah study with worldly occupation for the erifrgy taken up by both of them keeps sin put of one’s mind.*” G-d assists man once he has taken the initial step to do good. The Rabbis said, “If a man harkens to one commandment, they cause him to harken to many commandments; but if he forgets one commandment, they make him for­ getful of many (Mechilta).”

Judaism definitely affirms that man is master of his own destiny and that he has the power to overcome any conditions in which he might find himself. If he does not alter his pres­ ent status for the better, he can at­ tribute it to no one but himself.

E JEWS celebrate the New Year as the season when G-d exer­ cises His divine justice upon us. He holds us responsible for the practice of any injustice, for He, Himself, is the embodiment of justice, as the lit­ urgy says, “IH hath established His throne in justice; the foundation of His throne is righteousness and rec­ titude. He is the G-d of justice, and His hand taketh hold thereof; there­ fore be He exalted. Yea, the Lord of Hosts is exalted in judgement.”

Our father Abraham could not im­ pute injustice to the Almighty when he said, “Shall the Judge of all the earth not perform justice?” (Bereshith, 18,25) To impute injustice to Him is the greatest heresy imaginable, for this would imply that G-d acts irre­ sponsibly, capriciously, even cruelly.

In observing the principles of justice He acts righteously and kindly toward all that He has created. Even when death snatches a loved one from our midst we avow and affirm G-d’s jus­ tice by reciting the blessing: “Blessed

W

JEWISH LIFE

art Thou, King of the Universe, Thou Who art a righteous Judge.” G-d is responsible for His actions. Man, having been created in the image of G-d, is the only other being in the universe with freedom of will and ac­ tion and is, therefore, responsible for the righteousness of his actions.

The very process of human growth

and development attests to this fun­ damental truth. The period of child­ hood when we are intellectually and emotionally immature is the time of least responsibility. As we mature, we are held more and more accountable for our conduct. Coming of age means that we are free to choose and to make our own decisions.

THE JE W IS H V IE W HE tenet that man bears responsi­ bility for all his actions, regard­ less of circumstances, is also stressed in the Halochah. Murder is punish­ able by the Jewish court whether it be performed in a fit of anger, as an act of jealousy, revenge, provocation, or under any other circumstances.

Even if one kills unintentionally, he must be banished from his home to dwell in the cities of refuge. No ex­ cuse can exonerate an act of murder.

Theft is punishable regardless of the reason why it was performed or the financial condition of the thief. Li­ ability for assault or for any damage inflicted on someone’s property is even greater. The Mishnah says, “Man is always responsible, whether he acts inadvertently or wilfully, whether awake or asleep. If he blinded his neighbor’s eye or broke his articles, full compensation must, therefore, be made.” (Bova Kama 26a) The Jewish court was to mete out equal penalties for equal crimes committed no mat­ ter what the conditions or the circum­ stances of the individual. The person involved in a crime was permitted to absolve himself of his responsibility only when his acts were accidental or if he was physically coerced.

Although the Heavenly Tribunal is more lenient and more prone to lis-

T

Septem ber-Ocfober 1968

ten to conditions under which a crime was committed, even it is not ready to easily pardon crime or failure to perform a duty. This is indicated in the Talmud: “Our Rabbis taught: The poor, the rich, the sensual come before the Heavenly Court. They say to the poor: ‘Why have you not oc­ cupied yourself with the Torah?’ If he says: ‘I was poor and worried about my sustenance,’ they would say to him: ‘Were you poorer than Hillel?’ To the rich man they said: ‘Why have you not occupied yourself with the Torah?’ If he said: ‘I was rich and occupied with my possessions,’ they would say to him: ‘Were you richer than Rabbi Eleazar?* To the sensual person, they would say: ‘Why have you not occupied yourself with the Torah?’ If he said: ‘I was beau­ tiful and upset by sensual passion,’ they would say to him: ‘Were you perchance more beautiful than Jo­ seph?’ It was told of Joseph, the Vir­ tuous, that the wife of Potiphar every day endeavored to entice him with words. The garments she put on for him in the morning, she did not wear in the evening. Those she put on in the evening, she did not wear in the morning. She said to him: ‘Yield to me!’ He said: ‘No.’ She said: ‘I shall have you imprisoned*- He said: ‘The 57

Lord releases the bound [Psalm 146, 7]»’ She said: ‘I shall bend thy proud stature.’ He replied: ‘The Lord raises those who are bowed down [Psalm 146,8].’ She said: ‘I shall blind your eyes.’ He replied: ‘The Lord opens the eyes of the blind [Ibid]. She of­ fered him a thousand talents of sil­ ver to make him yield to her, but he would not listen to h e r . . . Thus the example of Hillel condemns the poor, the example of Rabbi Eleazer con­ demns the rich, and Joseph, the Vir­ tuous, condemns the sensual” (Yoma 35b).

Man is equally responsible for his speech. Slander, talebearing, and vile language are forbidden by the Torah.

Jews are bidden to sanctify their speech by words of Torah and pray­ er. They are urged to limit conver­ sation and are advised that in much talk there is sin (Pirkey Ovoth 6).

OT ONLY does the Torah hold N a man responsible for his actions and speech, but for his thoughts and emotions as well. The Tenth Com­ mandment forbids a man to covet.

One is forbidden to hate his fellow: “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart” (Vayikra 19,17). We are forbidden to pursue sensuous thoughts and lusts. “And that ye may not go astray after your own hearts and after your own eyes after which ye are wont to wander lustfully” (Bamidbor 15,39).

The Torah enjoins that by occupy­ ing our minds and hearts with Torah study and holy concerns, we can | avoid lust, temptation, and evil thought. Maimonides says that sex crimes are a result of drunkenness, reading of salacious literature, and lewdness. Thoughts of such actions 58

arise in the minds of those who are not engaged in the pursuit of knowl­ edge and wisdom. (Hilchoth Issurey Biah 22,21) Man’s responsibility goes so far that the Torah requires atonement for acts of sin performed unknowingly and inadvertently. Such atonement was made by the bringing of sacri­ fices to the Sanctuary. It was felt that even sins committed unintentionally are a result of laxity and even con­ tempt of the Torah’s commands. Ver­ bal contrition for such carelessness is not sufficient. One must act and be­ have with greater caution and aware­ ness. The Torah does not seek to pro­ vide excuses for transgressions com­ mitted, nor does it provide for loop­ holes to exonerate the transgressor.

True, there is given to the individual opportunity for repentance of sins, but this is effective only when it is accompanied by an awareness of the transgression committed and a sincere, heartfelt resolve not to repeat it. Re­ pentance means that the person real­ izes his guilt and responsibility and is determined to atone for it. In Juda­ ism, the power to forgive is not vested in any human being or institution but in G-d Himself. Confession is made to G-d alone, for only He knows whether there is a sincere resolve by the confessor not to repeat the trans­ gression. Easy forgiveness leads to a repetition of crime and to growth of Irresponsibility. Wicked deeds cannot be forgiven by pious beliefs. One must act and behave properly and conduct one’s life morally in order to be ac­ ceptable in the eyes of the Almighty.

OT ONLY is man responsible for N his own sins, but for those of his fellowman and those of society as JEWISH LIFE

well. On the Day of Atonement, we of resistance to the pagan and cor­ pronounce in the confession, “ we roding influences with which a ma­ have trespassed, we have been dis­ terialistically oriented society is sat­ honest, we have robbed . . . we have urated. Torah teaches us reverence for done violence, we have wrought un­ G-d and for the human personality. righteousness . . . ” Rather than blame It cultivates the human conscience, a society for his sins and iniquities, the greater sense of righteousness, and a individual Jew blames himself for the sense of revulsion against crime, in­ injustices existing in society. Accord­ decency, and injustice. Where such ing to the Torah, the individual is ac­ convictions are not found, there crime countable as an accomplice for any finds fertile soil to develop. Moral crime practiced in the Jewish com­ training is imperative in order to munity. Thus, there is a strong obli­ achieve a greater sense of responsi­ gation for one to rebuke a fellow Jew bility among the public. Social action or even the Jewish community. (Va- alone will not accomplish this. The yikra 19,17) Even though social con­ community will not act more respon­ ditions are often oppressive, making sibly unless we have more responsible change and improvement a most dif­ individuals. Governments and social ficult task, we cannot, nevertheless, groups can usually evade responsibil­ absolve ourselves of crimes by con­ ity. Ultimate responsibility thus rests demning the society in which we live. with the individual.

Indeed, we are bidden to overcome UDAISM seeks to elevate the Jew the inequities of society by constant­ to the degree of maximum respon­ ly improving ourselves morally and intellectually, for ultimately society is sibility. Hence the great number of the product of individual behavior. laws, statutes, and commandments So, while we should endeavor to cre­ holding us accountable for the most ate a more just and righteous com­ minute of actions. Far from consider­ munity, our primary task is the bet­ ing this a harness and a burden, the terment of our own selves. Judaism Torah holds this responsibility to be maintains that when we concentrate a privilege and, indeed, a blessing. our efforts toward producing better “Rabbi Chananyah ben Akashiah said, men, we can hope for a better world. ‘The Holy One, blessed be He, de­ The development of a greater moral sired to reward Israel; hence He gave sense and a devotion to righteous con­ them a Torah rich in rules of con­ duct.’ ” The Torah seeks to make the duct makes one a better person.

Judaism maintains that the best Jew more and more liable for his method of achieving moral conscious­ deeds and thus more G-d-like. As a ness is through the study of Torah. result, our People has produced men, Torah study implies not only the ac­ not adult-age children. Our prophets, quisition of Divinely given knowledge saints, and scholars have been the concerning life’s most important ac­ moral teachers of all humanity. They tivities, but the development of the have consistently taught that man must soul, character, and personality of the consider the justice and reasonable­ individual Jew as well. Such an edu­ ness of his acts. This has resulted in cation aids in building up the powers the morality of the Jewish person, the

J

Sepiem ber-Oetober 1968

59

Jewish home, and the Jewish' com­ munity.

HE secular society of the West­ ern World is endeavoring to em­ brace two contradictory concepts of the nature of man at the same time.

If we advocate more freedom and de­ mocracy for the individual man, then, indeed, he must bear more responsi­ bility for his actions. If individual man, on the other hand, is not lield able to master his own circumstances, then society must make decisions on behalf of the individual, hence cur­ tailing his freedom. Freedom without concomitant responsibility leads to ty ­ ranny. This can be illustrated by the present situation of American public education. In New York, for exam­ ple, the United Federation of Teach­ ers has called for adoption of some method of coping with obstreporous pupils who make it impossible for proper teaching to take place; the free reign granted to the undisciplined pu­ pil has enabled him to terrorize the school and to disrupt the process of education. The city’s Board of Edu­ cation has refused to go along with this demand. They wish to grant the pupil the widest latitude of freedom without pinning responsibility upon the one who practices his unsocial and illegal behavior in the classroom. It is this type of thinking which has brought our public school system to its present chaotic condition.

We see this same kind of thinking in the philosophy of the riot. Bad eco­ nomic conditions prevailing in the ghetto are held forth as exoneration and even justifying arson, looting, and bloodshed. If economic circumstances

T

60

are to justify criminal behavior, then we may surely expect crimes to still further increase beyond the present tremendous rate.

The situation is further illustrated by the steady breakdown of discipline in the home. In the growth of such movements as the Hippies, we see the consequences of the pervasive feeling of helplessness among parents in re­ gard to shaping and molding the be­ havior of children. In the climate of permissiveness, of freedom without responsibility, the whims and demands of the young reign unchecked.

Our secular society maintains that agnosticism need not result in a de­ cline of ethics. Ethics is often trans­ mitted to the young on the basis of utilitarianism. Honesty pays, we are told. Unfortunately society is filled with too many examples where dis­ honesty pays. From the standpoint of the Torah, however, one should be ethical because this means spiritual self-development, making of us more responsible individuals under G-d.

One should want to develop oneself spiritually to the fullest, for in this we achieve the maximum in life.

In Judaism, greater freedom is something to be enjoyed by those who practice equally greater responsibility.

This is aptly borne out by the Rabbis (Pirkey Ovoth 6,2): “The Torah says, ‘The tablets were the work of G-d and the writing was the writing of G-d engraved upon the tablets.’ Read not here Choruth (engraved) but Cheyruth (freedom) for none can be con­ sidered free except those who occupy themselves with the study of the Torah.”

JEWISH LIFE

T O A N A ILM E N T, A CURE OW do we go about reversing the trend towards irresponsibility which is manifesting itself in every area of society and in all aspects of our lives? To present the problem is indeed so much easier than to offer ways for its solution. Obviously, no one panacea can be found to cure thé ills mentioned. Obviously, it is much more difficult to build human charac­ ters and personalities who will respond to life’s challenges with responsibility than it is to have people live in ac­ cordance with a philosophy of per­ missiveness and irresponsibility. The reversal of a trend which absolves people of restrictions in so many as­ pects of life is not going to meet with widespread popularity.

Yet it is imperative that the think­ ing forces in our society act upon the realization that the philosophy of per­ missiveness is in a great measure re­ sponsible for the current breakdown of the family, the debilitation of our schools, the increase of crime, and the inordinate restlessness of our youth. The rejection of restraints, re­ strictions, and moral strictures as be­ ing injurious to the human personal­ ity is the cause of many abnormal­ ities of our culture. The problem must be attacked at its roots.

Responsibility is something that first and foremost must be cultivated from early childhood and nurtured through­ out the adolescent stages. This train­ ing, therefore, must begin at home.

The primary task devolves upon the parents. Parents should be taught the value of exercising firmness and au­ thority in the training and rearing of their offspring. Children and adoles­ cents grope and flounder in the years of crucial development. They inward-

H

Septem ber-October 1968

ly crave for parental guidance which they fail to receive because of ignor­ ance, apathy, and neglect. In order to implement a clear-cut set of values in daily life, parents themselves must have such values. They should strong­ ly demand that their children emulate them in important matters. But off­ spring will indeed rebel against par­ ents if they detect hypocrisy and dou­ ble-standard morality. Honesty and in­ tegrity are most crucial in bringing up children.

The practice of reward and punish­ ment in the broadest sense of the term can serve to condition children towards responsible behavior. Mis­ guided parental love can produce neu­ rotic and criminal tendencies in youngsters. The Biblical admonition of Proverbs, “He that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes,” is still valid.

For the home to be restored as a place where proper concepts of life are acquired and practiced, it must become a more stable and harmon­ ious institution. The marital partners entering into marriage should be more cognizant of their duties toward the future generations. More knowledge concerning child-rearing ought to be available to young parents. They should be urged to spend more time and energy in properly training their families. The concept that the prime purpose and meaning of a marital re­ lationship is to rear responsible off­ spring must be stressed.

OCAL to the development of con­ structive attitudes in children is the school. There the child must ac­ quire a respect for law and order.

There he must learn to adjust him-

F

61

self to his peers and to get along with them peacefully. In complying with school standards concerning conduct, work habits, dress, play activities, pub­ lic service, etc., the child can learn the value of laws in society as a whole and acquire a responsible attitude to­ ward citizenship and community life.

It can no longer be disputed that a reversal of the present permissive trend in the schools is mandatory.

Discipline must be restored and strict­ ly enforced in our schools. Children who are severe discipline problems must be given special treatment and handled in special schools by skilled and trained personnel. The school sys­ tem must again become a great vehi­ cle for transmitting responsible atti­ tudes and a training ground for fu­ ture citizens.

And certainly, a firmer attitude to­ ward crime must be taken by leaders of government and society. Nothing encourages people more to embark on the path of crime than seeing crimi­ nal behavior go unpunished. One can easily conclude that in our present day society, crime pays and pays well! For our society to endure, the wheels of justice must be made to grind faster and more efficiently.

We must take a new look at some of our laws which allow the spread of obscenity and violence literature.

Such reading has been proven to be responsible for the increase of sex crimes, bloodshed, and violence. We may well ponder the need of restrict­ ing our freedoms in order to obtain the acceptance of better values by our youth.

62

Not least of all, our mediums of communication must be harnessed to­ ward cultivating a greater respect and appreciation for responsible behavior.

If propaganda can be utilized to lead people astray, it can also serve to in­ culcate constructive tendencies in them. Media of entertainment and communication are presently fostering cynicism and ridicule of virtue and decency. We must utilize these ave­ nues to portray the great benefits to society resulting from the cultivation of responsible individuals.

E must recognize that we are in the midst of a great moral crisis. The best brains and talent in the fields of religion, science, litera­ ture, and art must be mobilized to find ways and means of developing greater stability in the life of the in­ dividual and in society. Surely, this task is far more important than reach­ ing the moon. The damage to so­ ciety caused by irresponsible behavior is so enormous that it becomes man­ datory to devote the maximum re­ sources of thought, research, expen­ diture, and definitively applied effort to the development of greater respons­ ibility of behavior in the years to come.

Responsibility is something that has to be cultivated from early childhood and must be nurtured through the adolescent stages. We spend so much in dealing with crime after it is per­ petrated. The prevention of crime deserves at least equivalent considera­ tion.

W

JEWISH LIFE

/KTo Each day's mail brings to our editorial office a varied flow of reports, books, periodicals, news releases, pamphlets, and communications of many kinds from many places. The new feature introduced here offers a modest sampling of this variosa, items of individual flavor culled “From Here and There" for our readers' interest. — Editor

T h e W all of Jewish H istory received a novel group of worshippers—a party of thirty-three Jewish prison inmates from an Israeli jail. Deeply moved, they slipped petitions into the clefts between the large H erodian stones and crowded round H abad Hassidim to don tallit and tefilin. “W e have som ething to pray for"—said one o f them and his words expressed what all the others were feeling. T h e idea came from a child's letter published in M ahaneh Gadna, the jour­ nal of the Israeli school for army cadets, and was taken up by the prison authorities. Afterwards they toured the alleys of the O ld City and assembled in the H abad Synagogue for a lantern slide lecture. Dr. Zeev Vilnai, the famous Palestinographer and guide, took them on his grand tour of the City Walls. In this way Zion continues in the tw entieth century its task of bringing com fort and solace to the outcast and sinner.

—from a Newsletter on Israel Religious and Cultural Affairs.

Septem ber-October 1968

63

T h e T em ple M ount is both in ou r hands and yet not in our hands. It is again w ithin the boundaries of Israel, and we see the M ount before us b u t cannot go u p on it. A nd it is not th at we are unable to do so, b u t we refrain ourselves and hold our feet back from this holiest of places.

Those in whose m erit we have prevailed and who themselves did no t re tu rn from battle, b u t whose blood was spilled for Jerusalem and other holy cities, may their ashes lie as a m ound raised before the Lord, as if they had been offered as a sacrifice upon the altar.

T h e T em ple is the table of our F ather in H eaven —and Zion our hom e upon this life is the banquet room. W e have entered the banquet hall, we have reached the table b u t we do not show ourselves be­ fore it. W e have done all th at is given to be done by the hands of m an. W hat is left now can be done only by the hands of Heaven. For this is the tradi­ tion we have received from our sages: T h e H oly One, blessed be He, in His own glory will b uild the T h ird Tem ple. T h ere is no greater anguish than this, th at children exiled from their F ather's table have reached it again, see it b u t do not come to it. I t is now after the days of victory th at this feeling of p ain is great, for it is m ore apparent and felt more.

M aster of the Universe! we have done all th at was incum bent upon us. Do th at which T h o u has prom ­ ised us.

Victory is not complete w ith the freeing of the land unless h er children are gathered together w ithin her and her waste places settled. W e have paved the way for our brethen in the Diaspora and now the gates are open before them. May they not p u t off the R e­ dem ption for us.

—from an address by Chief Rabbi Yitzhak JSissim of Israel, at the opening of the Rabbinical Supreme Court Chambers opposite the Temple Mount• 64

JEWISH LIFE

i

9

T H E N A T U R E OF T H E C RISIS In the last twenty years, the nation has overcome w ith reasonable success what were regarded as “crisesf* in public education. The] first was a deficit in facili­ ties and personnel, due mainly to deferred spending during W orld W ar I I and to a rise in the birth rate.

W e still hade not caught up, but the capital invest­ m ent has been truly impressive, and progress on the num ber and salaries of personnel has been almost as significant.

T h e second “crisis,” escalated to a national emer­ gency by Sputnik, was the inadequacy of training in science and mathem atics. Sputnik led to additional offerings in these fields, and large-scale curriculum ex­ perim entation resulted in more and better-prepared students in these fields.

B u t all these im provem ents in public education have left the basic system unchanged. T hey have strengthened the status quo, enabling the system to serve better those it has always served best. T h e heart of the present crisis in public education is the reali­ zation that the system has failed a major segment of the population. T his failure was the most intractable crisis all along, but it did not come to fu ll public awareness u n til the nation took official cognizance of poverty amidst affluence and u n til the nonw hite fourth of society*s economic underclass began to as­ sert its civil rights and dem and a fu ll share in po­ litical and economic opportunity.

O ur present preoccupation w ith the disadvantaged, however, has not diverted critics from concluding that the total system o f education is incapable of address­ ing the challenge of providing excellent education for a diverse student population.

—from “Alternatives for Urban School Reform9" by Mario D, Fantini, in the Harvard Educational Review• Sepfem ber-October 1968

65

T o a fully m atured m ind, there is a universe of wisdom th at lives through eternity, and w ithin that universe is his key to existence. Yet in seeking to identify th at key he may all too easily deceive him ­ self.

H e may take a piece o f truth, irrefutable truth, and assign to it the role of complete truth. H e makes the piece play the role of t t a whole, as the “be-all” and “end-all” of a social order, to pasture in the fertile fields of societal frustration. So m any systems of be­ lief and behavior were and are b u ilt on such frag­ m ents of tru th —attractive, popular, possessing all in ­ gredients of veracity, save one: history. M any even hold sway over m uch of m ankind for great lengths of time, b u t each reaches its m om ent of barrenness, infertility, inability to continue. A lthough begun on a solid note, each contains only a piece of tiu th , and therefore its life span is m arked.

So too, today, we witness various forms of Ju d a ­ ism sprouting, attracting followers in great num bers, attracting financial resources in even greater num ­ bers, establishing institutions and organizations, wellstaffed and equipped, proving themselves successful by every criterion and standard, save one: history. For anything b u ilt on only a fragm ent of tru th , no m at­ ter how large the fragm ent, will not, can not last: its life span is m arked.

Only one belief-and-behavior system alone has sur­ vived the test of time: T orah-true, authentic, uncom ­ prom ising Judaism . A nd so it shall rem ain, in spite of all logical argum ents to the contrary, as the only such belief-and-behavior system to continue to sur­ vive, for it alone is the whole truth.

—from Jewish Parent Magazine.

JEWISH LIFE

Booh Beviews Voice from the Inquisition

By MAURICE LAMM THE ENLIGHTENED: THE WRIT­ INGS OF LUIS DE CARVAJAL, EL MOZO, by Seymour B. Liebman; Miami: University of Miami Press, 1967, 157 pps., $6.95.

N OUR days when the religions in America are characterized as co­ operative, understanding, mutually re­ spectful, under the catch-all of ecumenidsm, it is truly sobering—to the un­ initiated reader it is thoroughly aston­ ishing—to read of torture chambers and flaming^ deaths, inquisitions and bestial persecutions in the name of religious “love,” especially in the new world of the American continent of 300 years ago. The publication of the memoirs and testament of a young Jew about to be consigned to the fire in Mexico is apt timing in an era of what appears to be the total cooperative embrace. In truth, a profound conviction rises from between the lines of this document—no one should preach the mutual cooperation that is so necessary before he has meas­ ured the depths of the hell of religious “love” in its classic sense; no lighthearted songs of love before listening closely to the dirges of hate.

I

RABBI LAMM is Rav of the Hebrew Institute of University Heights in the Bronx, New York.

Septem ber-O ctober 1968

This is one reason why Seymour Lieb­ man should be commended for under­ taking and successfully completing the painstaking research into the all-butoverlooked era of the crypto-Jews of Mexico in the 300 years of the Spanish colonial period of 1520—1820. (The crypto-Jews, or Marranos, fled Spain and were in the ranks of the earliest con­ quistadors in the Mexican record.)

Liebman has unearthed the only known writings of a Jew in that earliest period.

The text will undoubtedly be of vital in­ terest. The research is evident as the text is documented closely and is provided with notes, introduction, and epilogue.

As such, Liebman has opened a new chapter in the history of the Inquisition, and the testimonies of Salo Baron, Al­ lan Nevins, and Cecil Roth are adequate substantiation of the value of his work.

The second reason for my hearty commendation is that what emerges from the memoirs and letters is a genu­ ine hero who is so foreign to the modem spirit as to be all but unrecognizable, unreal, and unbelievable—a thoroughly ancient soul thrust into an era of flowerpower, pot, and pad. Luis de Carvajal, who upon making his personal commit­ ment to Judaism renamed himself Joseph Lumbroso “the enlightened” (he refers 67

THE ONLY PREFABRICATED

PACKAGED SUKKAH The Lifetime Easy-To-Assemble Portable Sukkah Designed By Spero Foundation SIZE: Seven and one quarter feet long by Five and one half feet wide by Seven and one quarter feet high. Will accom­ modate up to 10 persons

DECORATIONS: Eshpizon - Kiddush (Prayers) are silk screened on upper four walls as per photographs. Will not fade.

LIGHT: We furnish you with 30 ft. water­ proof wire—socket— plug and plastic re­ flector, wired and mounted on a wooden strip 2" x 2" which you place across the top of Sukkah.

PRO TECTIO N: Against wind and storm. We furnish you with two heavy cords 12 ft. each, slides and Hy pegs to fasten Sukkah to ground or wall.

10*

FRAME and FITTINGS: Made of an alloy of alu­ minum and magnesium, three-quarter inch diam­ eter pipe which will not rust or corrode. No tools necessary with our pat­ ented fittings to assemble or dismantle, other than one small wrench which we furnish.

WALLS: Made of yel­ low DURA-HUE DUCK. Weight 10 oz. per square yard. Mildew Resistanl and Water Repellent.

PACKING: We pack and ship entire Sukkah in heavy corru­ gated carton which is 7 and a half feet long by 8 inches square and this carton is used for stor­ ing your Sukkah.

ONLY

$102 F.O.B. Factory Check With Order

ASSEMBLING: With each pur­ chase we furnish you with a very detailed assembly instruction sheet, which makes it very simple to put the Sukkah together in about 30 minutes.

COMMUNITY SIZE SUKKAH . . . accommodating up to 24 persons, 14% ft. long — 10 ft. wide — 7% ft. high.......... $212.00 F.O.B., Factory

S’CHACH We will also supply you with 80 bamboo sticks 1 inch in diameter by 6 feet long to cover entire Sukkah.

ADDITIO NAL.. . . $18.00

COMMUNITY SIZE ALL OTHER FEATURES AS ABOVE. ADDITIONAL FOR S’CHACH, $36.00.

68

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

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

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

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

JEWISH LIFE

to his renegade uncle as “narrow-mind­ ed”) is wholly dedicated to Judaism. He has an unwavering trust in G-d which gives him the courage to withstand the scorching brutality of his fanatic per­ secutors, and the witnessing of the in­ human torture the inquisitors inflicted upon his frail mother. He draws incredi­ ble strength from the eternal wellsprings of courage—the Akedah occurrence, the binding and release of Isaac by Abraham at G-d’s command, and the freeing of Daniel and his three friends from the death which they would have accepted rather than deny the tenets of their faith. Luis’ being burned at the stake in the auto-da-fe of December 8, 1596 in Mexico City together with his mother and three sisters, after having been found guilty of observing Judaism, is “cheer­ fully” accepted by him as the will of the allwise G-d who does everything for the good. It is a glorious climax for this very devout man and, as he assures his simple but faithful sisters in letters writ­ ten in prison on banana peels, ‘There is no better journey, not even that to Castile.”

Kashruth requires enormous self-sacri­ fice, but is done as a matter of course.

At one point, when his release and par­ don depend on raising monies from con­ vents, he travels and sleeps in mona­ steries for great lengths of time, “But I never forgot the law and command­ ments of my Lord . . . Many times I left the company and table of the ex­ ecrated and went to eat my bread among the animals, preferring to eat among horses cleanly, than to eat im­ pure food at the table of my enemies.”

There are no torture beds and weighted chains and prisons and pyres for those guilty of being Jews in America today.

But there is also no book in which a comparable sentence about Kashruth can be found.

Luis’ faith and trust also evoke magni­ ficent imagery. After the horrifying sight of his mother’s torture, Luis has a dream which consoles and comforts him. He dreams that G-d has sent him a messenger who shows him a sweet potato and together they marvel at the very pleasant aroma. Then the messen­ ger divides the potato and behold it smells even better. ‘The meaning of my HE young Luis, who for his first dream was revealed to me: ‘Before your thirteen years studied Christian mother was imprisoned and broken down theology until on one Yom Kippur he with torture she was good, for she was realized the brilliance of the tradition a fragrant fruit before the Lord. But of which he had been but dimly aware, now that she is tom by torments, she was observant of mitzvoth under the exudes the aroma of fortitude before the most adverse circumstances. He circum­ Lord.” ’ cised himself after discovering the ab­ Because his knowledge comes mainly solute requirements of the law in a bor­ rowed copy of Genesis; he voraciously from the Christian version of the Bible, oopies portions of the Bible at every and the context of his thoughts and be­ opportunity; he argues compellingly, of­ liefs is Christian, he refers to Isaac as ten derisively, against Christian doctrine. “Saint Isaac” and to David as “Saint In an attempt to convince his brother, David.” He derives equal comfort from who has become a Dominican friar, of Sussanna as he does from Miriam, the the error of his ways, he evinces a prophetess. He, also, refers to no mitz­ knowledge of Judaism and manifests a voth other than to circumcision and moving steadfastness. His observance of Kashruth. A more exhaustive study

T

Septem ber-October 1968

69

O rder now r yourself — your friends

—

congregation

THE UOJCA POCKET CALENDAR-DIARY Combines a wealth of Jewish information of every day usefulness. Contains the Jewish and secular calendars, a full daily diary section, explanations of the holidays, candle-lighting times, weekly Torah and Haftorah read-i ings, Yahrtzeit date record, Tefillath Haderech, Jewish populations of the major cities of the United States and Canada, information on the program of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

HANDSOMELY BOUND IN BLUE LEATHERETTE UOJCA/84 Fifth Avenue/New York, N.Y. 10011 Please enter my order(s) for ___UOJCA Pocket Calendar-Diaries for 1968-69/5729 as follows: .............. individual name gold-stamped (one line only) at $1.00 each .............. individual uninscribed copy at $.75 each .............. inscribed congregational bulk order at $.70 each plus $3.50 per order, (Minimum order, 25 copies.)

IMPRINT TO READ AS FOLLOWS: Send to: N ame ....... ......................................... - .......................-------------------------- *•----A D D R ESS....::!<.'.m :l% /.....'C i........... -'.-J............................... 4 ? ...............-i--

City .............................. ...._____________,,_State__¿4...____ Code.

A ll orders must be prepaid.

70

JEWISH LIFE

would bave enabled Liebman to docu­ ment the extent of his Jewish observance.

What one would hope for, as well, would be a portrait, of necessity only a blurred one, of the Jewish community in which Luis de Carvajal lived. There are ample hints as to its extent, but more research on this matter is required. These omis­ sions, however, are slight in comparison with the excellence of Liebman’s re­ search on the subject proper.

HERE is another reason for my in­ terest in the popular dissemination of this scholarly work. That is that it shows, without saying it explicitly, the similarities that are evident in the meth­ ods of intolerant persecutors, regardless of the century or age or belief. The sanbenito, which is a penitential garment the “relapsed” and “penitant” Jew had to wear as he was released from prison,

T

is not a very distant cousin from the yellow star of David. The bad blood idea of racist Germany is clearly evi­ dent in the 1700’s in the new world, when a descendant of Luis’s could not become a priest until he showed proof that his great-great grandmother Leonor did not confess before the inquisitors that she observed Judaism. From the torture chambers to the forced confes­ sions to spying and reporting of relatives to the authorities, to the extreme punish­ ment on the basis of suspicion, all re­ semble the fanatic genocidal methods of the Nazis. Persecutors do not change whether they are in the New World or the Old, whether the year be 1590 or 1940.

The heart-splitting letters of Luis de Carvajal are unforgettable. Seymour Liebman has done history a justice by his careful research.

Looking Back

By DAVID MIRSKY MY FATHER, SHOLOM ALEICHEM,

by Marie Waife-Goldberg; New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968, 333 pps., $7.50.

X 7 ERY few writers achieved in their ▼ lifetime the kind of popularity which came to Sholom Rabinowitz, who wrote under the pen name of Sholom Aleichem. It is quite possible that dur­ ing the height of his career he was the most universally loved and respected Jew of his time. When he died in the R abbi D r . M irsky has been appointed Dean of Stem College for Women.

Septem ber-October 1968

Bronx in 1916, thousands upon thou­ sands (one newspaper estimated 200,000) paid him their last respects in what was described as the largest funeral seen in New York City. It is, therefore, a little startling to realize how few bio­ graphical studies have been published about him, and that very little systematic knowledge exists about his life and work.

There is disagreement over the signi­ ficance of biographical data in evaluating a writer’s achievement. For a time, the extreme position was taken that a work of art has to be viewed independently of the life-events of its creator and the 71

FREE! C h a is e Lo un ges M ats • P arkin g T V & Radio In A ll Room s SALT, SUGAR and FAT-FREE DIETS

is a Great Kosher Hotel O -you'll love it! v Under (§) Supervision • O n ly Glatt M eats Served S Y N A G O G U E O N PREM ISES Wrlfe Dept. B for FREE Brochure and Booklet

For Reservations Phone: (3 0 5 )5 3 1 -0 0 6 1

On the Oceanfront •

37th to 38th S t , Miami Beach, Fla.

Yours for th e a sk in g Delicious STRICTLY KOSHER Break­ fast, Lunch, Dinner served to you by most Airlines a t no extra c o s t . . .

W hen arranging fo r your next air trip be sure, request “ Schreiber Kosher Air M eals.” Available in over 50 cities.

Prepared under Rabbinical supervision of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. U. S. Govern* ment Inspected.

| I J |

for

SYNAGOGUES ALBERT WOOD & FIVE SONS,« PORT WASHINGTON L I- NEW YORK

Glat Kosh«

s& cltre& er Kosher Airline Caterers 9024 Foster Aw., Bklyn, N.Y.11236 PlioMt (212) 272-91(4

72

JEWISH LIFE

circumstances under which it was created; of late the pendulum has begun to swing ¡the other way. But regardless of the critical view of the relationship between a work of art and the artist, it certainly is of interest and value to have as much information as we can about the artist and his environment, his per­ sonal life, his history, and his develop­ ment. That so little has been done on the life of Sholom Aleichem, therefore, is surprising, and it is for ¡this reason that one looked forward with great anticipation to this biography written

by Sholom Aleichem’s youngest daugh­ ter, who is married to the well-known and respected Yiddish writer, B. Z. Gold­ berg.

The book is actually a memoir written by a daughter who looks back upon the years she spent as a child and as a young woman in the house of her father and her memories of his later life. To her he was a father, and all events are recorded in that way; all things are reported from the point of view of a devoted daughter who sees them as they affected a beloved parent. Her father’s place and position, as well as his acti­ vities, as an artist, and the rare emi­ nence he won in Jewish life, grew in her awareness only as time went on, and this is reflected in the manner in which the book is written. Accounts are given of things that happened during childhood when the place of the father in the Jewish world was not really un­ derstood or grasped, but they are writ­ ten after the perspective of years has established his great achievement and place. This makes reading the work, par­ ticularly the first half, a little difficult' since the book is ultimately composed of little anecdotes, vignettes, and descrip­ tions of life with the author. While there is a general forward movement in time, Septem ber-October 1968

with the earlier chapters dealing with earlier material and later chapters fol­ lowing the author through the years un­ til his death, the book does not give a sense of a chronologically constructed work.

HAT is surprising in this book is that when all is said and done the figure of Sholom Aleichem as a man and as an artist does not emerge. Many of the other characters are treated with subtlety and success by Mrs. Goldberg.

Members of the family, inhabitants ot the various towns, dachas, and cities to which the family moves emerge, but the figure of Sholom Aleichem himself, the kind of man that he was as a human being, is not revealed in the pages of this work. Only towards its end, when Mrs. Goldberg is reporting on events in which she actually took part, or of which she had immediate, if not first-hand, knowl­ edge, does this distancing between the reader and the subject of the biography fade.

Nevertheless, this is a book to be wel­ comed. It does give us little glimpses of what the man Sholom Rabinowitz must have been like and where the writer, Sholom Aleichem, drew his material. We are introduced to the original of Tevye der Milchiger; we are given a picture of the author and the improvised portable notebook he wore strapped to his hand and in which he jotted down ideas for his stories as he walked through the countryside of a summer; we learn of his penchant for hammering nails into walls and closets; his little superstitions; his habit of nail-biting; we are given lit­ tle vignettes as, for example, the in­ terest that Sholom Aleichem took in a young boy who showed exceptional talent for the violin, and are intrigued to learn that this young man grew up to be Mischa Elman; we are given a

W

73

THE PENTATEUCH with T argum O nkeeos, H aphtarothi and R ashi’s commentary translated into English and annotated By R ev. M. R osenbaum and D r . A. M. Silbermann The commentary of Rashi is the most popular of all Jewish commentaries on the Pentateuch.

Rashi is distinguished by his simplicity and directness. His masterly use of brev­ ity, his skill to make clear the meaning of the most difficult passages, is unrivaled.

T he present edition, designed for teach­ ers and students as well as synagogue use, consists of the five books of Moses with Targum Onkelos, an English translation of the Torah, and the entire Rashi com­ mentary vocalized and translated into English.

Five volumes $20.00 Padded Leather, gilt edge $40.00 At your bookdealer or HEBREW PUBLISHING COMPANY 79 Delancey St., New York

JUST PUBLISHED "THE WAY OF G-D" by RABBI MOSHEH MAX A textbook for the teaching of Jewish precepts and ethics.

As an orthodox Rabbi who has been at the head of congregational Talmud Torahs in the United States for forty years, Rabbi Max has wfitten this book not only to impart valuable information, but primarily to influence boys and girls to practice the Mitzvoth of G-d.

He discusses every law and custom, tracing it to its original source.

Eretz Yisroel is introduced in connection with every Jewish Holiday.

The ethics of the Torah are discussed in specific chapters.

The chapters on Yom Ha-atzmauth and on the miracles of the Six-Day War in Israel bring the book up to date.

328 pages, illustrated; deluxe leatherette binding, only $3.75 PHILIPP FELDHEIM, INC.

"THE HOUSE OF THE JEWISH BOOK" 96 East Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10002

74

JEWISH LIFE

view of him startling Whitechapel’s in­ habitants decked out in “long hair, highhat, and cape.” We learn of Sholom Aleichem’s life-long attempt to find fin­ ancial success through his activities on the bourse (which helps us to under­ stand sources on which he drew to de­ velop his famous Menachem Mendel), various ill-fated writing ventures, debili­ tating reading tours, involvement in the Yiddish theatre, and his constant dis­ appointments and failures.

OR these insights and touches we are indeed grateful to Mrs. Gold­ berg. She has presented us with materials on which future biographers will un­ doubtedly draw. The materia! pertaining to the earlier life of Sholom Aleichem was taken largely from his auto-biographical work, available in English translation

R

under the title of “At The Fair,” but she does add to this material bits of infor­ mation which help fill it out and make it more meaningful. For the later life she draws on her own memories and reports which are gathered from various family sources, and these make a very valu­ able addition to the material on Sholom Aleichem. It would have been even more helpful had Mrs. Goldberg included the sources for some of the materials she quotes and to which she refers. Never­ theless, as it stands, with the shortcom­ ings I mentioned, this is a significant addition to the sparse material we have on one of the most popular and suc­ cessful depictors of Jewish life in Europe a century ago, and will help us to un­ derstand and appreciate his work more fully and completely.

Factors in Israel’s Social Development

By NATHAN ZELI KOW A HISTORY OF THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN ISRAEL, Book I and Book H, by Harry Vitelis; London: Valentine Mitchell, 1966 SOCIAL CHANGE IN ISRAEL, by Judah Matras; Chicago: Aldine Publish­ ing Company, 1965.

NY basic understanding of the forces which have shaped the original character of the State of Israel requires an understanding of the unique developA

M r . Z e l ik o w

practices law in New York

City.

Septem ber-O ctober 1968

ment of the cooperative movement in that country.

For that purpose Harry Vitelis, who has been intimately and actively involved with cooperative movements in Israel for over thirty years, as General Manager of the Central Bank of Cooperative Institu'.tions and who occupied the Chair of CoOperatives at Hebrew University, has1be­ gun a ¡scholarly analysis of the kibbutz, cooperative settlements, as well as the labor and producers’ societies. The first two of a projected seven volume series is here reviewed.

This study is intended as a source 75

ORG. PTA, SHULS, EARN $$$

JOAMAR, IN CONCERT

AAILLER'S

YOEL DAN TRIO

Kosher (J ) Cheeses

LARRY BEST COMEDIAN Symphony Hall, Newark, N.J. Nov. 23, 8:30 P.M. Westbury Music Fair, L.I., N.Y. Dec. 7, 8:30 P.M. Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center, N.Y.C. Dec. 8, ’P.M. Westchester County Center, Whiteplains, N.Y. Dec. 21, 8:30 tickets: $3 to $6, Organizational Discounts Local Concerts Arranged

American

Gouda

Swiss

Smoked

Muenster

Di-et

Cheddar

Mellow-Gold

For the TOPS in Quality On Your Table Look for the cheese with the Miller Label

variety enterprises, dept. J 1570—52 St. B’klyn, N.Y. 11219 (212) 851-7010, (212) 494-9723

Individual Tickets Available

FOR YOURSELF AND YO UR FRIENDS A PRECIOUS GIFT two years for only $5.00 (twelve issues) JEW ISH LIFE, 84 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10011 Send gift subscription, with g ift card, to: Nam e

........................................................................ ............ 9 ............

A d d re s s ......................................

...

^.

....................... ..

...

C ity, State, Zip Code ..............................................................• • • ................. □ include my own subscription 76

□ New q Renewal

Check enclosed for $ .................................

JEWISH LIFE

book. Its appeal is mainly for the special­ ists, the historians, and sociologists. As a source book the author includes a vast array of primary sources, not readily ac­ cessible to those not fluent in Hebrew.

He produces charters, governing by-laws, minutes of meetings, debates of policy, reports by the various cooperatives, and statistical tables, to mention only a few examples of the tools of his source ma­ terial. However, he goes a step further and includes summaries, evaluations, and observations made by secondary sources in an attempt, I suspect, to either com­ plete the record or make the material more palatable to the lay reader. As an example, after the presentation of bulk material on Histadruth and Chevrath Haovdim, the author quotes at length on this subject from views of Dr. Horace Kailen in his book “Utopia At Bay.” Si­ milarly, following the detailed study of the organization, internal problems, and financial viability of the Kibbutz move­ ment, the opinions of Dr. Ben Halpern in the Jewish Frontier (June, 1949) on “The Kibbutz Comes of Age” and “The Politically Divided Communities” are add­ ed. Throughout the books, such liberal sprinklings of opinions and observations which do not strictly qualify as primary source material appear. The resulting im­ pression is a desire by the author to encompass all existing material, what­ ever its relevancy or nature, which also serves as an excuse for the author to set forth his dissenting views in copious notes contained in a separate section.

For the layman who does weather the unrefined material, a wealth of absorb­ ing information is available on the evolu­ tion and development of a cooperative movement peculiar to Israel and its so­ cial democracy. Cooperatives were less the product of ideological principle than of economic necessity. There was no venture capital and no government asSeptem ber-Ocfober 1968

sistance available to the early settlers and colonists of what the world then called Palestine. Limited funds from abroad supported group efforts, and thus cooperatives in every endeavor became a way of life. This was the special charac­ teristic of the Jewish cooperative move­ ment in Israel. Not only in settlement, Kvutzoth, and Moshavoth were coopera­ tives basic, but in housing, production, credit, transportation, building (Solel Boneh) and the all-encompassing enter­ prises of Histadruth, cooperative en­ deavor prevailed. With the advent of political independence the need for co­ operatives may have slackened, but the character of the State having been fa­ shioned in the cooperative mold, both for economic and ideological reasons, co­ operatives continue to flourish in Israel.

Since 1900 some 4,660 cooperatives have been registered in Israel. Most important, the exportability of their experience to undeveloped nations everywhere, parti­ cularly in Africa, has proved to be one of the firmest political assets the State possesses.

The early history of the movement places in proper prospect the con­ tribution of the religious community to the origin of cooperatives. The plan of Rabbi Zeev Kalischar, submitted in 1868, for the establishment of a religious kvutzah of 3,000 Jerusalem Jews who wanted to become farmers, and the ideology of the BILU (Beth Yaakov L’chu V’nelcha) movement, which established its Moshavah in Rishon Letziyon in 1878 and thereby crystallized the principal credo for all kvutzoth, are well handled.

The second volume of Mr. Viteles’ study addresses itself specifically to the evolution of the Kibbutz movement. It developes the history of the Kibbutz pat­ tern and forcefully demonstrates that al­ though commune living has existed in other parts of the world, such as the 77

R eprin ts

N ow A vailable

Our readers will appreciate knowing that reprints are now available of the following articles and editorials from previous issues of JE W IS H LIFE. WHAT DOES JEWISH YOUTH REALLY WANT?

by Rabbi Pinchas Stolper JEWS AND THE WAR ON POVERTY

by Rabbi Bernard Weinberger THE CAMPUS PROBLEM AND JtWISH EDUCATION

by Shnayer Z. Leiman VISIT TO RUSSIA

by Michael Kaufman SYMPOSIUM ON CHURCH-STATE AND SCHOOL PRAYER TO DWELL IN THE SUKKAH

by Rabbi Bernard Weinberger SEPARATE PEWS IN THE SYNAGOGUE (from TRADITION)

by Rabbi Norman Lamm These reprints may be used to much advantage by study and discussion groups, as well as for distribution for public information purposes to people in your local areas.

All reprints are 15 cents per copy; 10 cents per copy when 25 or more are ordered. Use order form below.

Prepaid orders only, please

JEWISH LIFE, 84 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011 Please send ...........

copies of ................................... .. ............................................

send ........... copies of ..................................................................................

NAME: ............................................................................................................................

ADDRESS: .......................................................................................................................

CITY:................. STATE:................. ZIP CODE:......... CHECK ENCLOSED: $. . . .

78

JEWISH LIFE

R eprin ts

N ow A vailable

Our readers will appreciate knowing that reprints are now available ot the following articles and editorials from previous issues of JEW ISH LIFE. THE JEWISH ATTITUDE TOWARD FAMILY PLANNING

By Dr. Moses Tendler THE DIVORCE PROBLEM

By Rabbi Melech Schachter THE VOICE OF TORAH IN THE BATTLE OF IDEAS

By Rabbi Norman Lamm CAN WE NEGLECT THE TALMUD TORAH?

By Rabbi Zalman Diskind JUDAISM AND FREE ENQUIRY

By Rabbi Nachum L. Rabinovitch THE PROBLEM OF CONVERSION TODAY

By Rabbi Melech Schachter NATURE—CREATION OR EVOLUTION?

By Robert Perlman JEW AND JEW, JEW AND NON-JEW

By Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik These reprints may be used to much advantage by study and discussion groups, as well as for distribution for public information purposes to people in your local areas.

All reprints are 15 cents per copy; 10 cents per copy when 25 or more are ordered. Use order form below.

Prepaid orders only, please

JEWISH LIFE, 84 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011 Please send ............ copies of ....................................................... ............................ send ............ copies of ....................................................................................

NAME: ............................................................................................................................

ADDRESS:.......................................................................................................................

CITY:........................ STATEr............. ZIP CODE:.............CHECK ENCLOSED: $......

Septem ber-October 1968

79

and political spheres, in the educational and occupational areas of the population, and in family formation patterns and organization.

The work, which was the basis of a doctoral dissertation, is obviously an in­ itial attempt in a complicated area. Not only was there a lack of basic record keeping in certain sectors before the for­ mation of the State, but the origin and dynamics ^of the forces that led to the creation of the State are both exceptional and different from those of other cul­ tures.

Such forces as the Zionist idea that governed the flow of a largely homogen­ ous group of settlers, created new and different social structures as well as com­ munal patterns. The necessity to defend the State which led to forced settlements in various sectors for political purposes, require proper description and evalua­ tion.

The role of religion as a social force is an example of another difficult area which defies exact description and with which Professor Matras struggles. Since no one criterion suffices to determine a “religious” Tew he presents data from political election results, maternity re­ cords, mikveh practice, and the attitude toward birth control as governing cri­ teria, but cross evaluation of all these statistics obviously fails to give a precise answer.

This work, in its sociological approach, HE ingathering of “Jews from many differs from “A History of the Coopera­ cultures has led many scientists to tive Movement in Israel,” in the spheres consider Israel a unique social laboratory. that it describes. Instead of dealing with Judah Matras believes that in so doing Kibbutz, Moshav, and specific social in­ they have neglected the more fundamen­ struments, this study concentrates on tal task of describing the social structure changes in social structure. It is intended and patterns of social change in Israel to put the social order into an “ecologi­ cal” perspective. which this book undertakes to do.

To scholars and technicians this vo­ The main thrust of the study deals with growth and settlement of the Jew­ lume will serve as a worthwhile study of ish population, changes in the religious a rapidly changing social order.

Brook Farm experiment of the 1840’s in the U.S., there is no evidence that the pioneers and settlers in Israel knew of their existence or’ drew upon their philosophy. This experiment in group living and sharing is particularly Jewish in its derivation and development. It traces and stresses the overriding idea of volunteerism.

Interesting topics treated in this volume ate political splits within individual Kib­ butzim, the concept and practices with respect to employment of outside labor, ¡the status of women in the kibbutz and the modifications in family living evolv­ ing in the kibbutz. Education of kibbutz young, the role of indoctrination, and the future of the kibbutz movement are also exhaustively treated.

One of the most valuable results which emerges from Mr. Víteles’ analysis is to unmask the erroneous view that the dominant politico-economic allegiance of the majority in the Jewish State is based upon conventional socialistic theory. From the vast source material presented, it becomes apparent that the dominant ideological trend is predicated upon the cooperative idea. The owner of the means of production in Israel is not the government but the multitude of cooperative groups functioning in every facet of Israeli life. This helps explain the durability of democracy in the Holy Land.

T

80

JEWISH LIFE

In timely re-assessment of problems with age-old roots and devastating

a contemporary application, three writers familiar to readers of Jewish m o

Life view three dominant issues of today: RABBI RALPH PELCOVITZ, Rav of Congregation Kneseth Israel in Far Rockaway, New York, reacts to the world-wide rebellion of youth; DR. JERRY HOCHRAUM, Community Consultant to the National Community Relations

n

Advisory Council, treats of the race relations aspect of the urban revolution; and RABBI SAMUEL A. TURK, Rav of the Kingsbridge

g

Center of Israel in the Bronx, New York, examines the condition of society’s moral fibre . . . Be life’s situation what it may at any given time, it is in the strength of classic Torah belief that the Jew surges onward. This we see as DR. SAMSON R. WEISS, Executive Vice President of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America,

our c 0

n

t r 1

penetrates the inner meaning of a passage of the High Holy Days liturgy; ELKANAH SCHWARTZ, Assistant Editor of Jewish Life and author of “American Life: Shtetl Style,” a volume of stories and sketches, discusses some definitions; and DR. GERSHON KRANZLER, Professor of Sociology in Towson State College and Johns Hop­ kins University in Baltimore, Maryland, observes the current applica­ tion of a Torah ideology . . . Literature, it is claimed, is a mirror of society; but what can be said of the fictional output supposedly re­ flecting American Jewish life today? MRS. LIBBY KLAPERMAN, an Editorial Associate of Jewish Life and author of a number of

b books for children and co-author, with her husband RABBI GILBERT u

t 0

r

1

KLAPERMAN, of works on Jewish history, uses a bit of humor to set things straight . . . The rediscovery of great figures of earlier Jewish generations is a growing source of inspiration to Jews of today. RABBI AARON ROTHKOFF, Rosh Yeshivah in Yeshiva University, has contributed to this purpose through previous articles in our pages and here he focuses his artful pen on' another Torah luminary of a gen­ eration past . . . Jewish Life is happy to introduce to our readers the poetry of BORUCH YITZCHAK HYMAN, teacher of English and history in the Belzer Yeshivah in Brooklyn, New York.

“<^May you be inscribed Jbr a good year!”

H. J. HEINZ COMPANY '\5 7 / Among the 57 Varieties of the House of Heinz are many that carry the ® seal of approval of THE UNION OF ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA.