Jewish Life Summer 1980

Tamuz 5740/Summer 1980

Comments: The Talmud and the Gentile Problem/Jerusalem and the Gentile Problem/"It's Off the Record...PLEASE"/ Ho Hum...Another Day Synagogue Architecture and Five Hundred Years of Jewish History/A pictorial essay on Jewish houses of worship. z ** V* ** UL

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They're Talking About Us—An Excursion and a Proposal/A close look at some recent essays on Orthodox Judaism.

Our New Literary Section/The Pomegranate: A Truly Jewish Symbol/ Down the Chimney/Poetry.

Reflections of the Rav—Lessons in Jewish Thought / A review of the first in a series of popularizations of the lectures of Rav Yoseph Dov Soloveitchik.

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A publication of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America / Orthodox Union

Volume IV, Number 2

Tamuz 5740/Summer 1980

Editor Yaakov Jacobs Managing Editor David Merzel Associate Editor Yaakov Kornreich Editor Emeritus Saul Bernstein Editorial Board Julius Berman J. David Bleich Judith Bleich David Cohen Samuel Cohen Lawrence A. Kobrin David Kranzler George Rohr Sheldon Rudoff Pinchas Stolper Simon Wincelberg Production Assistants Fayge Silverman Janet Levin

Mrs. Linore Ward and Family have established the Jess Ward Memorial Jewish Life Fund to help assure the continued publication o f Jewish Life and to continue the dissemination o f Torah ideology to English-speaking Jewry A tribute to the sacred memory of Jess Ward who in his lifetime gave of his talents and his means to his fellow Jews.

We pray that these pages shall be a worthy memorial to his committed life.

A publication of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America Sheldon Rudoff, Chairman, Publications Commmission

Volume IV, Number 2

Contents

_________ _____________

2

Comments: The Talmud and the Gentile Problem/Jerusalem and the Gentile Problem I"It's Off the Record...PLEASE"/Ho Hum...Another Day

9

New York's Lower East Side: Nostalgia or Reality/Jack Simcha Cohen

15

Synagogue Architecture and Five Hundred Years of Jewish History/Michael Kaniel

30

They're Talking About Us—An Excursion and a Proposal

39

The Pomegranate: A Truly Jewish Symbol/D. Bernard Hoenig

45

Down the Chimney/A story by Cronchi Englander

54

Lag B'Omer, 5740

57

Books in Review Reflections of the Rav—Lessons in Jewish Thought/reviewed

by Shubert Spero

Because of the small staff producing Jewish Life, contributors are asked to send an inquiry before submitting m anuscripts, and to be patient in waiting for a response. We regret any inconvenience we may have caused in this regard, and we tru st we will be able to increase our efficiency in the future. ©Copyright 1980 by the Union of O rthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

M aterial from JEWISH LIFE, including illustrations, m ay not be reproduced except by w ritten permission from this magazine following w ritten request.

JEWISH LIFE (ISSN # 0 0 -2 1 6 5 -7 7 ) is published quarterly. Subscription: 1 year— $ 1 0 .0 0 , 2 years— $ 1 8 .0 0 , 3 years— $ 2 5 .0 0 . Foreign: Add $ .5 0 per year. Single copy $ 2 .5 0 , Editorial and Publication Office: 11 6 East 27th S treet, N ew York, N .Y. 1 0 0 1 6 . Second Class Postage Paid New York, N .Y.

The Talmud and the Gentile Problem While the W estern world has clutched to its bosom w hat it chooses to call the "O ld T e s ta m e n t/' it has been less kindly disposed toward the Talmud. This is perhaps understandable, since the Talmud—which embodies our oral tradition—itself records the reluctance of the Jewish People to accept the Oral Law. We are told that the Al-mighty suspended M ount Sinai over the heads of our people to force them to accept the Torah.

Yet the w ritten text records the oft-quoted willingness of the B'nai Yisrael to accept the Torah: na'ase v’nishma, "w e will observe what we shall hear." The seeming contradiction is resolved by distinguishing between the W ritten and the Oral Law. T he W ritten Law, with its seeming generalities, is easier to deal with. T he O ral Law, which pins down the Jew to specific obligations, is more difficult to swallow. The non-Jew ish world perhaps took its clue from our reluctant fathers. O ur fiery history records all too many episodes of Talmud-burnings; and the Nazi propagandists spoke disparagingly of the "Talm udJude." Even the early Jew ish maskilim—the "enlightened ones"— directed their arrows at the Talmud which they saw as an obstacle in the path of the entry of Jews to W estern society.

To this day, the words "Talm ud" and "Talm udic" are used by otherwise liberal w riters to connote a tortured sort of "h air­ splitting." It was refreshing, therefore, w hen David J. M artin, in a letter dated M arch 6 ,1 9 8 0 to the editor of T he New York Tim es, nailed the editorial w riters of that newspaper for their improper use of the word "Talm udic." M r. M artin's letter, an eloquent defense of both the Talmud and Jew ish dignity, follows in its entirety.

To the Editor: Your Feb. 10 editorial on gasoline rationing was seriously marred by a disparaging and incorrect use of the term Talmudic.

The editorial uses the word Talmudic to describe a World War II gas rationing program that was beset by problems. Essentially, the editorial says that when the rationing program split hairs without any substantive basis it was being Talmudic. This usage was both unbecoming and erroneous.

The Talmud is without doubt one of the foundations on which our system of jurisprudence is built. For example, the Fifth Amendment has its origins in the Talmud; the Talmud's legislation of the right to privacy was cited by the Supreme Court in its decision (2,000 years after completion of the Talmud) to accord the same right in this country; following the Talmud's lead, our society passed from the brutal exactment of justice on the basis of "an eye for an eye" to the notion of compensation for lost wages, medical expense, pain and suffering. Equal protection, tenants' rights, antitrust, due p rocessall of these and many more "modern" laws are incorporated in the

Talmud, and there is evidence that the Talmudic statutes are the linear historical antecedents of current U S. laws on this subject. If you disparage the Talmud, you simultaneously disparage our system of government and law from the Constitution to today.

Further, your reference to the Talmud is simply wrong. The Talmud does, to be sure, make distinctions, sometimes very fine distinctions. That is because it is a set of laws and legal opinions. The function of law is to make distinctions—between right and wrong, between enforceable and unenforceable. * In a world where man must have rules and limits, Talmudic analysis is not only appropriate but crucial. Our whole common-law system is based on the notion of distinctions and limits. We follow precedents unless they can be distinguished, and let me assure you that some of the distinctions are very fine indeed. Ask any first-year law student trying to understand what it means to "distinguish a case" or to "confine a case to its facts."

I recognize that many untutored individuals use the term Talmudic disparagingly and erroneously, as you have. I simply thought The Times should have known better.

David J. M artin W ashington Representative, O rthodox Union Silver Spring, Md., M arch 6„ 1980 We take exception to only one point made by Mr. M artin: T he Tim es has long dem onstrated that it indeed does not know better.

Jerusalem and the Gentile Problem Everyone who has ever studied Talmud is familiar with the acronym "T ai-k u !" W h en 'it becomes impossible to resolve a dispute concerning a point of law, the Talmud concludes: Taiku— Tishbi ye'taretz kuskyos v'abayos, "Eliahu (the forerunner of the M oshiach who will proclaim the 'end of days') will answer all unresolved problem s."

Both the Christian and the Arab worlds continue to be frustrated by Jewish rule of Jerusalem —Yerushalayim , as we prefer to call it. It is hardly necessary to repeat the litany of Arab abuses of Jewish holy places when they occupied the Holy City and denied access to Jew s, and the failure of "w orld opinion" to speak out. And it has become boring to contrast their silence with their newly-discovered power of speech.

T he State of Israel and the Jewish People will never countenance a return to the city's status which was a blight on the countenance of the international community as much as it was to our people.

The dispute is unresolvable.

So be it.

Tai-ku!

3

"It's Off the Record.. i PLEASE" I had heard that the W hite House had sent some of their big Jewish "'gu ns" down to New York to m eet w ith Jew ish community leaders at the Harmonie Club, to explain President C arter's switch on the UN vote censuring Israel. I hadn't been at one of these m eetings for a while, and managed to get m yself invited. Hours before the meeting I received a call at home.

"Sorry , the meeting is closed to the press. We didn't know you're a journalist." I called back to explain. Yes, I am a journalist, but my last issue had just gone to press, and my next one was not to appear for several m onths. I was not about to scoop my com petitors, nor, for that m atter, was I accustomed to betraying confidences. W ith obvious reluctance I was re ­ invited.

I left my City office early, taking care to file a leave slip for the hours I would be away. I sat quietly as the meeting got underway, listening and watching as ambassadors walked in and patted the backs of Jews whom their President had assaulted days before. T he presentations were forced.

Explanations of w hat the W hite House had done reminded me of the post-Civil War story told by Southerners, explaining that G eneral Lee had never intended to surrender to G eneral G rant; that he handed his sword to G rant at Appomatox because he thought G rant was the butler. Few of the people present were ready to accept the "m istake" explanation— except those who had been primed by the W hite House. People present raised their hands wildly, vying for the eye of the ambassador to be recognized so they could speak. It was clear that the impossible mission had failed.

As the meeting closed, the chairman rose to say in solemn tones, "Ladies and gentlem en, please rem em ber, this m eeting was o ff the record."

As I walked out of the meeting room, I was greeted by the harsh glare of T V lights. M eeting participants were already telling reporters w hat had been said inside. You could hardly walk a few feet w ithout having a microphone stuck in your face, or a reporter's notebook pointed at your nose. W ithin minutes every word said at the meeting was on pieces of tape or in notebooks. I walked out of the Harmonie Club dejected.

M y Jewish leaders had not done me proud. T here was no voice, no words I could remem ber. I am hard put at this time to recall the names of a half-dozen of the hundred leaders present.

W hat stands out most in my mind is the warning, "th is is off the record." I wished I had someplace to go w here I could tilt my hat back on my head, sit down at a typew riter, bang out a

story, pull some sheets out of my typew riter, and shout "C O P Y " for someone to pick them up to take to the composing room so people could read all about it at their breakfast tables.

All I could do was walk to the subway, board the downtown "L ex " train to South Ferry, and retu rn to the w arm th and sanity of my home.

Maybe that was more than the ambassadors could do.

It is one of the canons of journalism that if an off-the-record story is "broken" by one paper, the others are no longer bound to silence. N evertheless, I pushed through the crowd of reporters and T V crews toward the elevator, not w anting to be interviewed. Seeing a crowd at the elevator, I hurried down the staircase only to walk into the lights of a T V camera crew interviewing an ambassador. I tried to duck away, but I wasn't fast enough. T he next day people I know greeted me: "Saw you on television last night." I was an instant celebrity.

I guess if I print this I'll never be invited to any of those o ffthe-record m eetings. But it doesn't really m atter: I can read about them in the papers the next day.

Ho Hum... Another Day Americans are unhappy. T here is a general malaise abroad in the land. It's not ju st that our pockets are being picked every day by inflation; it's not ju st the hostages in Iran—we pray they will be home by the time you read this; it's not strikes; it s not anything in particular. But we all have a sense that w hoever is doing it, we are being pushed around—and we are angry. And as if that isn't bad enough, we are bored.

Now we would think that Jews, especially those of us who believe in life and its cosmic implications, would not easily be caught up in this anger-ennui syndrome. A fter all, the sun never gets bored rising each morning, nor can we imagine anyone being bored in watching the sun come up— again.

Yet the fact is we do get caught up in it. You ask a friend, "W hat's new ?" and unless he's making a or a Bar M itzvah, he's likely to say, "N ot a darn thing." We thought of an antidote to this syndrome, or, we should better say, the people who put together our Siddur did. A fter shacharis each morning we add a psalm prior to which we say, for example: Hayom yom shaini ba'Shabbos, "Today is the second day toward the Shabbos." Not ju st another Monday, or another Tuesday which we greet w ith a big yawn, but a step toward the holiness of Shabbos. And not ju st the Shabbos th at comes at the end of each week— not to be put down for its frequency—but the "Yom Shabbos*, the time when every day will be Shabbos.

So: no more just 5

another day for us. Hayom Yom—today is a new day to come closer to the Al-mighty; to come closer to those we love; to start to love those we don't love; to stop hating those we should not hate.

And each day is another day for learning the Daf Yomi, the Mishnah Yomis, or w hatever daily regimen of Torah study you maintain.

"W hat is new ?"

Today is n e w ... and tom orrow will be new, too.

In This Issue The Lower East Side Jew ish community recently prevailed upon New York City's Board of Estim ate to utilize a large vacant area for commercial development and housing for the elderly. This victory gives fu rth er credence to Rabbi Jack Simcha Cohen's argum ent—in New York's Lower East Side: Nostalgia or Reality?—that this pioneer Jewish community is still very much alive.

Readers of Jewish Life when Editor Em eritus Saul Bernstein was putting it out, will recall Michael Kaniel as Michael Kaufman. Kaufm an made aliyah rhany years ago and from a kaufman, a buyer or a m erchant, became "K an iel," literally, "I have been acquired by the Lord." He is now one of Israel's outstanding experts in the field of Jewish antiquities and Jewish art, and when he is not writing and editing he runs the Collector Shop in the Jerusalem Hilton Hotel. His Synagogue Architecture and Five Hundred Years of Jewish History is a slightly different version of a chapter from his most recent book.

In They're Talking About Us, Yaakov Jacobs reviews some recent studies of O rthodox Judaism.

W ith this issue, we are pleased to introduce our new literary section which opens with an interesting study of the pom egranate and its symbolism in Jew ish life and literature. D. Bernard Hoenig's The Pomegranate: A Truly Jewish Symbol, is his first contribution to Jewish Life.

O ne of the deficiencies of Jew ish Life's new series, which has been pointed out to us by many readers, has been a lack of creative writing. Part of the problem has been the lack of w riters with a strong enough background in Jew ish learning to be able to produce the special kind of creative writing which we feel Jew ish Life owes its readers. We cannot, after all, com pete with The New Yorker, or other such media for creative w riting— nor would we care to if we could. We are pleased

therefore to introduce to our readers in this issue a young w riter who we feel offers w hat we have been looking for.

W hatever side of the argum ent one is on in evaluating w hat has been called variously "th e Holocaust industry," or— perhaps crudely but insightfully—the "Sh oa Business," most people agree that fiction can be an effective approach to dealing with the unthinkable. Is not m ost fiction perhaps that which is unthinkable to m ost people except creative artists?

Cronchi Englander's Down the Chimney is, in our opinion, an example of this process.

Shim on W incelberg, who serves on our Editorial Board, and has w ritten several plays and a novel soon to be published, has been conducting a workshop in creative writing in Hollywood, California. Several of his students have submitted their work for publication and we hope to be able to offer some in future issues.

Rav Yoseph Dov Soloveitchik is the m aster of thousands of American rabbinical students, and the sole Rosh Yeshiva who has published m asterful works in the English language. We look forward to One day meriting the inclusion of some of his w ork in Jewish Life. Until then, we are pleased to offer in this issue a review of a recent book, Rof the Rav, by Rabbi Abraham Besdin, reviewed for us by Rabbi Shubert Spero, a distinguished scholar and author.

In forthcoming issues □ □ □ □ □

T he Ethics of A esthetics in Worship, by Dr. Leo Jung T he American Jew ish Press and the Holocaust Teshuva in a Soviet Labor Camp A Study of the Jewish Publishing Scene Reviews and listings of current Jewish Books

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Photograph hy William Aron

Jack Simcha Cohen

New York's Lower East Side: Nostalgia—Or Reality?

Manhattan's Lower East Side was the major center for mass settlement of Jewish immigrants, and still stands as a reminder of that era. Walking through the neighborhood still conjures up nostalgic images of religious vitality, ethnic tradition and— to some—Jewish gastronomic delights.

Y et nostalgia at best offers a blurred image. We tend to see the positive aspects of the past, not the negative, and to make comparisons which make the present look bad. T he present Jewish community of the'Low er East Side is seen as a decaying relic of a vigorous Jewish past. Such, for example, was the tone of "A Disappearing Community: Jewish Life on New York's Lower East Side" (Jewish Life— Fall 1976).

The Jewish community is very much alive on the Lower East Side. This does not mean that it does not have problems: Which inner-city neighborhood doesn't? W hat it does mean is that the local leadership has diagnosed its problems as not being terminal. Despite dire predictions of doom from some, the Jewish community has learned to adjust to its new reality and m anifests a dynamism of ethnic pride and communal activity that is a model of Jewish activism, social service and cohesion for similar communities in New York City. Sure, the Lower East Side is not w hat it used to be. Who is? W hat is? Which neighborhood has remained stable during the past decade or century? How many Jewish neighborhoods have withstood the shift of population, and the deterioration of housing and public services?

Despite dire predictions of doom from some, the Jewish community has learned to adjust to its new reality and manifests a dynamism of ethnic pride and communal activity that is a model of Jewish activism...

The greatest test of Jewish vitality is not in running away from challenges, but remaining to fight for the restructuring of Jewish life. This vitality is manifest in the residents of the Lower East Side and is the key to its Jewish communal survival.

In 1972 Jewish leaders of the Lower East Side realistically assessed the deteriorating plight of their neighborhood. They rejected the judgem ent of the media and other soothsayers who proclaimed that Jewish life in the area was m erely a symbol of past glory. T heir concern was not to re-live the past but to revitalize the present. Like the Chassidic followers of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Crow n Heights, they followed the mandate of Rav M oshe Feinstein not to abandon their homes in panic at the first signs of encroachm ent by m inority groups.

T he residents established a local Jewish community council to champion its needs, advocate positive programs, and dispel the sense of community despair. No longer would self-appointed

Rabbi Cohen, past Executive Director of the Metropolitan New York Coordinating Council on Jewish Povertyf currently serves as spiritual leader of Congregation Shaarei Tefila of Los Angeles, and is past chairman of the editorial hoard of Jewish Life.

leaders or non-resident scholars determine the fate of the Lower East Side. No longer could one or two agencies serve as the sole spokesmen in community affairs. Each Jewish organization has a stake in the neighborhood and should, therefore, have a voice in the determination of its future.

On January 26, 1972 the United Jewish Council of the East Side was formally incorporated with the following primary purpose: Many of the apartments had no heat, no electricity, and were infested with vermin. The plight of these Jews became a challenge to the Council. These people had to be saved.

"To promote and improve the common welfare of the residents, including the poor and disadvantaged of the Lower East Side of M anhattan.";

With the establishment of this agency, the community had a coordinated voice—a voice that won the praise and support of government funding agencies and private philanthropy.

W ith an initial grant from the Human Resources Administration of the City of New York in 1973 the Jewish Com m unity Council initiated an energetic revitalization program.

Re-locating the Elderly

The Lower East'Side is still a vibrant community of approx­ imately 3 5 ,000 Jews. Within the center of its area fifty synagogues function. Its largest, the Bialystoker Shul, still attracts about 500 worshippers each shabbos.

10

The Jewish Lower East Side has a dense center of Jewish population: from Delancey Street to the East River, to Essex Street and back to Delancey, with pockets of aged Jews living in out-lying areas. These Jews were living in primitive apartments under intolerable conditions. Many of the apartments had no heat, no electricity, and were infested with vermin. The plight of these Jews became a challenge to the Council. These people had to be saved. As a result of political astuteness, co-operation with other ethnic and minority groups, and an effective outreach program, the Council has been able to relocate over 2,000 Jews to more adequate facilities within the center of the neighborhood. Had the Council done no more, that alone would have justified its existence.

But that was only the beginning. The leaders of the community refused to sit back and permit others to determine their fate. The Council took the initiative to bring its plight to the attention of the general New York City community. Its demands were sometimes strident—but always altruistic.

A Voice in Communal Bodies

The community took an interest in all matters pertaining to the neighborhood. It sought a voice in all local governmental, quasi-governmental and elected and appointed bodies serving the area. It soon began to export its expertise in advocacy to other neighborhoods. It made demands upon government and

established liaison with service agencies. Its goal: to better the standard of living for its Jewish citizens.

To achieve this aim, the Council opened four luncheon-clubs providing 300 meals per day for impoverished senior citizens.

Its three multi-service centers handle approximately 9,000 requests for help each year in such areas as Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, SSI, Reduced Fare Cards, and referral to governmental and private social welfare agencies. It established and encouraged programs to curb crime, provide legal aid and escort service for older citizens; and to provide a broad range of social services for Russian immigrants who came to the area. "Project Ezra," a project of the Jewish Association of College Youth, developed a volunteer corps of college students to visit the poor and lonely, and to provide them with moral support and help in basic chores.

Despite the proliferation of such activities, a negative attitude toward the community was still manifest. Local leaders were credited with community activism but labeled as living "under siege." The continuing crimes against Jews and the bombings of local synagogues still received inordinate coverage in the media. Leaders were generally acclaimed for their efforts but their activities were still seen as a rear-guard action.

The Lower East Side is still a vibrant community of approximately 35,000 Jews. Within the center of its area fifty synagogues function. Its largest, the Bialystoker Shul, still attracts about 500 worshippers each Shabbos. There are four day schools and many parents send their children to the day schools and yeshivos in adjacent Manhattan neighborhoods. It is the center for religious wares in America and, prior to Sukkos, it houses the major distributors of and for the entire continent. Its inexpensive rentals continue to attract middle-class families who could well afford to reside in more affluent areas of New York.

The Spirit of the East Side

Of still greater importance: The Lower East Side has an ambiance and character that is unique. A style of Jewish conviviality and esprit de corps exists that cannot be transplanted to any other neighborhood. It is this character that cements the community's relationships and mitigates against its dissolution. Thus, the Lower East Side will never become a Brownsville or a South Bronx devoid of Jewish activity and activism. It has problems: More poor perhaps than other neighborhoods; more crime than others; but it also has more Jewish life than others.

To live on the Lower East Side today one must be a realist. If

It has problems: More poor perhaps than other neighbor­ hoods; more crime than others; but it also has more Jewish life than others.

. . . should one dream of a total Jewish community with all its accouterments together with a mission to serve the Jewish people, then the Lower East Side can give meaning to Jewish existence.

poverty and deterioration disturb one's sensitivity then it is not the place to be. But, should one dream of a total Jewish community with all its accouterments together with a mission to serve the Jewish people, then the Lower East Side can give meaning to Jewish existence.

The Jewish soul manifests itself on the Lower East Side in so many ways: the refurbished synagogues; the throngs examining and buying esrogim in the streets before Sukkos; the daily classes and yar t; he prominent rabbis and scholars in m simply passing by each day on the streets; and the crowning glory: The residence and yeshiva of HaGaon Rav Moshe Feinstein, the world-renowned Torah authority.

Where else can these be found? How many neighborhoods can so excite one with an all-pervasive Jewishness? Yes, other neighborhoods are safer. Other neighborhoods isolate one from the problems of humanity and racial unrest. But sometimes, safety is not the whole answer.

The Torah, in describing the beauties of the Holy Land, refers to Eretz Yisrael as "a land flowing with milk and honey."

Commenting upon this verse, Eric Fromm, the writer and psychoanalyst, maintains that milk and honey symbolize the two basic ingredients man needs to function in society. Milk represents basic sustenance, while honey symbolizes the joy and sweetness that provide the added dimension of meaning to life. And so it is with the Lower East Side. More than a mere relic of the ancient past, it is alive and vibrant, and throbs with the eternal pulse beat of Yiddishkeit that gives meaning and direction to the lives of its inhabitants.

Lower East Side, circa 1912

12

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The Altneuschul of Prague

Michael Kaniel

Synagogue Architecture And Five Hundred Years of Jewish History "W orship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!" proclaims the Psalmist, and he continues: "T h e voice of the Lord is in beauty." (Psalms XIX: 2,3) Accordingly, many synagogues have been built and decorated to assure th at G-d could truly be worshipped in "th e beauty of holiness." But for a variety of reasons the Biblical quotation had to be interpreted more or less metaphorically through much of Jewish history.

Thus, when Rabbi Chama ben Chanina, a third century Talmudic sage, pointed with pride to a beautiful synagogue built by his ancestors in Lydda, he was rebuked by Rabbi Hosea, who said: "Were there no needy scholars whom that treasure would have enabled to devote themselves to the study of Torah?" The point is clear. Although Judaism does make hiddur mitzvah,the beautification of the Torah command, a significant adjunct to the command itself, one should never lose sight of the order of priorities whereby ethical concerns always take priority over beauty in Judaism.

There were, of course, other compelling reasons for building modest synagogues, such as the relatively small number of Jews in many areas in which they lived, or the low profile which the Jew was obliged to assume for his security and physical existence. And while halacha prescribed that the synagogue be built in a high place, there were usually very stringent regulations governing the size, nature and decoration of synagogue structures imposed by the ecclesiastical authorities on those occasions when they did Michael Kaniel, an inter­ permit a synagogue to be built. national authority on Jewish art, More often than not, permission was denied by the Church served as consultant on Jewish altogether to build a synagogue or to enlarge an inadequate art to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, one. Municipal strictures requiring that synagogues not ex­ and has published numerous ceed certain heights meant that builders often had to dig down studies on the subject, including "Judaism and Art" (Jewish deep to gain adequate interior height, thus inadvertently Life/May-June 1968). His conforming to the Psalm which begins "Out of the depths have latest books are The Art of Judaism and The Illumin­ I called to you O Lord." (Psalms CXXX: 1) The insecurity of Jewish life, the constant fear of the ated Ketubah. He lives in the Jewish Quarter in the Old City surrounding environment, borne out by the frequent of Jerusalem in a house facing persecutions, pogroms, massacres, wanton destruction of the Western W all and the synagogues, physical expulsions from communities and forced Temple Mount.

15

Builders often had to dig down deep to gain adequate interior height, thus inadvertently conforming to the Psalm which begins "Out of the depths have I called to you O Lord."

migrations, combined to take away the incentive for lavishing money on beautiful synagogues which might well be put to the torch, or end up being confiscated by the Church. Synagogues of modest dimension and exterior unpretentiousness did sometimes give way to edifices of imposing size and architectural significance in certain areas, but these were built during periods of relative tranquility and respite for the Jews, which were accompanied by the temporary relaxation of synagogue building restrictions.

There were certain intrinsic factors which affected the design and structure of the synagogue. While the Torah Ark was invariably at the front of the synagogue on the Jerusalemoriented wall, the bimah, or Torah-reading platform-podium, would usually be placed at the center, sometimes at the rear, and, in recent times, also in the front. The bimah, which also served as a teaching podium, was the single most characteristically Jewish design element in the synagogue. A prominent focal point of the synagogue when situated at the center or rear, the bimah distinguished the Jewish house of prayer.

Another factor affecting the design of the synagogue was the women's section, sometimes located at the same level of the main prayer hall, and at others, in a gallery.

Earliest Examples

The oldest existing synagogue in Europe is that of Worms, in the German Rhineland, a double-naved structure built in 1034 and rebuilt in 1175. Destroyed by the Nazis in 1938 and 1942, it was accurately reconstructed after the war. A surviving etching by Albert Altdorfer (1480— 1538) depicts the doublenaved synagogue at Regensburg (Ratisbov) built in 1227 and destroyed in 1519.

The Altneuschul (literally "Old-New Synagogue" or, AlT'nai, "On Condition") of Prague dating back to the fourteenth century, is one of the oldest medieval synagogues. Surrounded by later annexes, it is double-naved, with high vaulted ceilings and two tall central columns. It was completely renovated in the 1960's.

Many medieval European synagogues were confiscated by the Church and traces of the synagogue origins of these structures are, by and large, no longer visible. In Spain and Italy, however, a number of churches which were originally medieval synagogues have been identified. While nine of Toledo's medieval synagogues were destroyed in anti-Jew ish rampages in 1391, four synagogues were confiscated by the Church and survive as churches or chapels. O ne, the 16

synagogue of Yoseph ibn Shushan of the second half of the thirteenth century, is of Moorish design, and typically modest on the outside but splendid within. Four long colonnades divide the building into five bays. The many columns and the oval arches give a feeling of spaciousness. It was turned into a convent and renamed Santa Maria La Blanca.

Synagogue of Yoseph ihn Shushan , Toledo

17

A second Toledo synagogue is that of Shmuel Halevi Abulafia, built in 1357. It features Biblical inscriptions in large, decorative Hebrew lettering executed in exquisite calligraphic style on the walls, along with geometric ornamental Moorish patterns, somewhat reminiscent of Seljuk motifs. It is now known as the El Transito Church. Another Toledo synagogue containing a beautifully decorated ceiling is a chapel in the Franciscan convent of Madre de Dios.

Synagogue of Shmuel Halevi Abulafia , Toledo

In Avila, the Church of Todos los Santos was originally a synagogue. One can also see medieval synagogues in Segovia (the Church of Corpus Christi—until 1410 the Sinaloga Major—is one) and in Ciudad Real (the Church of San Juan Buatista). Medieval Seville's Jewish quarter had many beautiful synagogues—in 1388, Ferrant Martinez, the Archdeacon of Ecija, listed 23 that he had destroyed—but the only one surviving today is the Church of Santa Maria La Blanca.

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An idea of the beauty of some of the medieval Spanish synagogues can be gleaned from a court case, in which the parish priest of Bembibre justified his confiscation of the synagogue on the grounds that it was rich and sumptuous.

One surviving synagogue which was deconsecrated by the Church in 1887, and restored in 1900, is in Cordoba. The synagogue features richly decorated Mudejar stucco panels, many of which have deteriorated, and ornamental bands of Hebrew lettering. History has taken its toll, however, and in the 118 Spanish cities and towns in which at least one synagogue was known to have existed, very few can now be traced.

Cordoba Synagogue (Synagogue in Calle de Maimonides)

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Italian Synagogues

Of four synagogues in Trani, Italy converted into churches in 1290 by Dominican friars, one, the Church of St. Ann, bore a tablet with a Hebrew inscription testifying to its construction as a synagogue in 1247. A number of Sicilian synagogues also became churches in Palermo, Messina and Marsala. Few of the more than one hundred Italian synagogues brought inta the Church's possession in 1569 by the Papal Bull of Pious IV decreeing the expulsion of the Jews from the Papal States except for Rome and Ancona and the elimination of fifty Jewish communities, have been identified.

In Rome, the proximity of the Jewish community to the Vatican was the key factor to their welfare. The Papal Bull of Paul IV in 1555 which herded the Jews into the over-crowded Rome ghetto, limited them to a single synagogue. By 1581, however, there were apparently five synagogues for five separate rites, for Pope Gregory XIII ordered them to squeeze together under a single roof, thus forming the Cinque Scuola complex. This combined synagogue lasted for some three centuries, until destroyed by fire and replaced on the same site in 1900-1904 by the imposing neo-Classical Great Synagogue at the banks of the Tiber, which, with its large square dome and lavish decoration, gave the synagogue a sense of grandeur.

In Italian synagogues the bimah was usually placed at the narrow western wall at the rear, opposite the Torah Ark which stood at the narrow eastern wall at the front of the synagogue.

This interior polar balance between the major design elements thus formed a latitudinal plane which left the entire long central portion open for seating. Usually the orientation was towards the center, with rows of benches along the north and south walls facing each other. There was a women's gallery upstairs. By and large Italian synagogues were undistinguish­ ed externally, so as to appear as unobtrusive as possible, but the interiors were usually richly furnished and adorned.

During the Renaissance and into the eighteenth century, many beautiful synagogues were built or reconstructed in scores of towns throughout central and northern Italy, from Livorno to Trieste, and they provided examples of some of the finest baroque work of the period. Exceptional are the beautiful carved and ornately gilded Torah Arks and raised bimah platforms. The bimah platform was often elevated considerably, and sometimes reached via twin elegantly curved decorative staircases. Many of these synagogues no longer exist, and few of those remaining are still in use because of the very small number of Jews still living in Italy.

Bimah of Padua, Italy synagogue

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Venice, long a commercial and cultural center, had an active Jewish community concentrated in its ghetto. Five synagogues, some dating back four centuries, are preserved in the old ghetto, each a lavish expression of the high cultural and economic level of the Jews during the heyday of the Venetian Republic, and their desire to worship the Lord in the "beauty of holiness." While typically plain on the outside, the interiors and furnishings of the Italian, Levantine, Spanish, German and Canton synagogues are opulent and sumptuous.

The outstanding example of a rich synagogue interior in Italy is that of the synagogue in the Piedmont town of Casale Monferrato, which was built in 1595 and extended in 1664. On the outside the barn-like structure appears as intentionally mediocre and undistinguished as its drab neighbors. The dramatic contrast of the dazzling Renaissance splendor and sumptuousness of the baroque-rococo synagogue interior is a breathtaking surprise. Its lavish opulence is unparalleled in synagogues anywhere. The magnificent baroque Torah Ark, constructed in 1787, is imposing even by the standards of beautiful Italian arks. Enclosed by wrought iron grill work, the ark occupies a large area. Its doors open to reveal a small room in which the Torah scrolls are kept. The ornate gilding and painting characteristic of Italian Torah Arks of the period is

Great Synagogue of Florence

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lavishly extended in Casale throughout the synagogue interior—the walls, the graceful arches, the magnificent frescoed ceiling, the elevated rabbinic balcony-pulpit, are all richly decorated in a lush, florid manner. Two bas-reliefs, one of which depicts the Jerusalem Temple, face each other across two walls. Decorating the synagogue throughout are many Biblical quotations, each framed in ornate gilded cartouches.

Quite appropriately, one of these reads: "Greater shall be the glory of this latter house than that of the former/7(Chagai II: 9,3.5)

In the second half of the 19th century there was a revival in the design of synagogues in the M oorish style. Probably the best of these was the Florence Synagogue, completed in 1878.

T he elaborate, relentlessly repetitive decorative detail of the ornate interior— in the walls, the domed ceiling, the himah, the vestibule—successfully evokes a distinctive oriental grace and elegance. A large M oorish revival synagogue completed in Turin in 1 8 8 5 —to replace a m onumental "w hite elephant" synagogue, the construction of which had drained the Jewish com m unity and had to be sold uncompleted—was less successful.

Polish, Sephardi, and North African Trends

Polish architects integrated the himah into the very structure of the synagogue and made it an organic part of the building, and by thus accentuating the bimah structurally, created an architectural motif unique to their synagogues.

In Poland, in the early 17th century, a unique synagogue built of stone evolved to accommodate the placement of the bimah in the center. Polish architects integrated the bimah into the very structure of the synagogue and made it an organic part of the building, and by thus accentuating the bimah structurally, created an architectural m otif unique to their synagogues. Four columns rose from the corners of an elevated bimah at the very center of the synagogue to support a vaulted ceiling, thus forming a m onumental concentricity and an imposing interior w ithout recourse to a high dome—a feature which would have violated synagogue building restrictions. The bimah itself was usually surmounted with a low canopy covering and, when artificially lighted, resembled a chapel within the synagogue, and had an emotional effect upon the congregation. Notable examples of such synagogues were to be found in Lublin, Zolkiev, Lancut, Vilna, Pinsk, Luck, Lvov, O strog and Novogrodov. Polish Jews settling in Eretz Yisrael transm itted this unique synagogue design concept to architects designing synagogues in Yerushalayim, Safed and Hebron.

Characteristic of Poland during this period and earlier was a type of wooden synagogue, sometimes necessitated as much by the availability and low cost of the building material as by local building restrictions. A peculiar characteristic of some of

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these was a facade of a medieval fortress, a design feature made obligatory by local authorities in order to protect the towns in the event of attack. In some cases, troops w ere garrisoned in the synagogue at the expense of the Jewish community. Some of the wooden synagogues w ere somewhat pyramid-like structures which stood atop square bases, while there were others which vaguely resembled Chinese pagodas.

Wooden Synagogue in Zabludow, Poland, 17th century

Many of the wooden synagogues, as well as others in the Ukraine and in Romania, were distinguished by sumptuous folk art decorations in the form of polychrome walls and ceilings and tall, elaborately Carved and colorfully painted wooden Torah Arks. Painted in water colors directly on wood, the decorations often featured examples of the four Jewish "folk animals," the lion, the stag, the leopard and the eagle, in accordance with the advice of Rabbi Yehudah Ben Temac in Pirke Avos, to "be strong as a leopard, light as an eagle, fleet as a stag and heroic as a lion to perform the will of thy Father in Heaven." A variety of other animals appeared, including even the unicorn, and birds, plants, trees, vines and flowers. There were also the signs of the zodiac, geometric ornamentation and representations of the seven-branched Menorah and other Temple implements, and occasionally depictions of various musical instruments used in the Temple. Most of such synagogues in Poland and the Ukraine were among the 1,800

destroyed in 1648 during the Cossack massacres of Zinoviev Chmielnicki, the nationalist hero of the Ukraine, which also took the lives of some 300,000 Jews. Similar wooden synagogues w ere built by East European Jews who migrated to Germ any.

In the Sephardi diaspora in which Spanish Jews settled following their deportation from Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th century, m ost synagogues were deliberately unpretentious and, at times, even camouflaged lest they attract undue attention. Significant exceptions w ere the Spanish and Portuguese synagogues built by form er Conversos or M arranos who had simulated Catholicism and secretly maintained their Jew ish beliefs and practices for generations under the dreaded Inquisition, and were able to doff their disguises and practice their Judaism openly w hen they arrived in liberal, tolerant countries in the W est.

Outstanding amongst these was the large Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, built in 1675, and designed to resemble the Jerusalem Temple as it was thought to look. It became the m other synagogue of a num ber of other fine Sephardi synagogues built by form er m embers who subsequently settled in London (Bevis M arks), G ibraltar

Congregation Shearith Israel (Spanish-?oriuguese Synagogue), New York City

(Nefusot Yehuda), Curacao (Mikve Israel), New York (Shearith Israel) and Newport (Touro Synagogue).

In North Africa and much of the Middle East, the tendency to hide synagogues was even more pronounced than in Europe. Often entrances would be unmarked, with only the initiated knowing that entry was via common courtyards or, at times, even through residences. Synagogue interiors would reflect the poverty of the Jewish communities in Arab lands. In many areas, family-owned synagogues were the rule, the product of large, extended, clan-like families. This was especially true in the mellahs of Moroccan cities such as Marrakesh, Fez, Meknes and Tetuan.

La Ghriba Synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia.

The most widely known N orth African synagogue is La G hriba of D jerba, an island off Tunisia, whose Jews trace their origins to the dispersion following the destruction of the first Temple in 586 B.C .E, La Ghriba has been recognized by the Tunisian Governm ent as a national shrine, to which thousands of Jewish, Moslem and C hristian pilgrims annually flock from afar for the one-day Spring Jewish Lag Ba-O m er festival, because of miraculous cures associated with the synagogue. Tradition dates the synagogue back about 2,500 years, but countless reconstructions, changes and additions over the years make it impossible to determ ine its age. A handsome structure, it features rows of columns supporting

arches in the synagogue and the courtyard and it is decorated with polychrome tiles. The grounds also contain a caravansary hostel for pilgrims. An architectural curiosity is a missing column under an arch suspended in mid-air, which phenomenon is attributed to the Jewish tradition to leave buildings incomplete as a memorial to the destroyed Yerushalayim Temple.

Impressive Oriental synagogiies were built in a number of Jewish centers, notably in Baghdad, Isfahan, Sofia, Istanbul and Calcutta.

The emancipation in Europe in the 19th century removed many of the debilitating restrictions on building synagogues and gave Jewish communities the opportunity to construct synagogues outside the crowded confines of the ghetto.

H e re to fo re forbidden or only grudgingly tolerated , synagogues could now be built, even in m onumental fashion, w ithout the fear of their destruction or confiscation for use by others.

In terior af Shmuel H alevi Abulafia Synagogue, Toledo

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Simultaneously, the emergence of Reform effected revolutionary changes which significantly altered the character and design of the synagogue. The women's gallery was abolished and family pews were introduced. Seating capacity was increased as the bimah was removed from the center of the synagogue and became an altar-like rostrum at the front. The Ark, the bimah and a new elevated pulpit formed a single design unit, resulting in a frontal orientation and giving the Reform synagogue a distinctly Protestant churchlike appearance. An organ was introduced for the service. To underscore its divorce from the traditional synagogue, Reform christened its house of worship a "temple," a name inspired by similarly called French Reformed Churches.

The traditional synagogue had been egalitarian. The rabbi, whose role was primarily that of spiritual leader and teacher, was just another worshipper, and all congregants participated actively in the service. Many congregants prayed and studied in the synagogue daily, making it a second home. Used for Torah reading and teaching, the central bimah helped engender an intimacy and informality in the synagogue. In contrast, Reform, seeking to draw closer to accepted Christian forms of worship, became minister-oriented, with the rabbi elevated to pulpit and preaching to an audience-like congregation. The carefully orchestrated service in the vernacular, punctuated by occasional congregational participation in selected prayers, the emotional organ music and the distance separating rabbi from congregation in a cathedral-like temple, achieved an overwhelming formality which was a sharp departure from the traditional Jewish form of worship in existence for some two thousand years.

Moorish Revival The interest by 19th century architects in older architectural styles and form s expressed itself in the design of a variety of "revival" style synagogues. Jewish communities unable to identify with the neo-G othic, neo-Romanesque, and G reekRevival styles favored by churches, found in the M oorish Revival a style with which they could identify. Perhaps it was because of pride in Jewish Middle East origins or, possibly, a new interest in the Jewish Golden Age of medieval Spain. But the M oorish Revival was adopted as a "Jew ish" style for many of the synagogues built in the second half of the 19th century in Europe and America.

O tto Sim onsohn, architect of one of the first of these, the Leipsig Synagogue completed in 1855, described the M oorish Revival style as characteristically Jewish. "Ju d aism 's... whole substance," he w rote, "is embedded in the East." O ne of the most imposing synagogues built in this style is the Dohany S treet Synagogue in Budapest. Seating 3,000, it is the largest synagogue in Europe, with internal m easurem ents of 56 m eters long and 26 m eters wide, and 44 m eters high outside at its twin onion-shaped cupolas. In a design competition in which some of Europe's leading architects participated, Ludwig Vun Forster's M oorish Revival style won, in part because it appeared more distinctly "Jew ish." W riting about Budapest in 1891, an architectural historian called it "th e m ost striking building in that city." Its success and enthusiastic reception inspired the construction of large M oorish Revival synagogues elsew h ere. F o rste r designed an o th er, the Leopoldstat Synagogue in Vienna, and one in Miskolcz, Hungary.

In 1861, an imposing Moorish Revival synagogue was built

in Cologne, the design of church architect Ernst Zwirner, who viewed Gothic architecture as an expression of the German spirit and Oriental architecture as innately Jewish. Arguably the most magnificent of all Moorish Revival synagogues was the one at Oranienburgerstrasse in Berlin, designed by Eduard Knoblauch and completed in 1866. Surmounted by a prominent bulbous cupola, the Oranienburgerstrasse Synagogue was an impressive example of monumental synagogue design in the Oriental manner. It was destroyed by the Nazis in 1938.

At the same time three American Reform congregations were building Moorish Revival synagogues. San Francisco's Temple Emanu-El, which was really a neo-Gothic structure with oriental elements, was completed in 1866 and destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Cincinnati's B'nai Jeshurun (Isaac Mayer Wise) Temple, completed in 1866, also

Oranienbu rgerstrasse Synagogue, Berlin

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has Gothic elements, including a Gothic ark. New York's old Temple Emanu-El was also not pure Moorish Revival, and contained many Gothic and Romanesque elements. In addition, New York's Central Synagogue, completed in 1872, was a Moorish style synagogue which successfully combined Gothic elements. In 1889, New York's Park East Congregation completed a Moorish Revival synagogue which contained rich decorative detail in repetitive patterns.

Synagogue of Szeged, Hungary.

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, large numbers of m onumental structures were built in Hungary, no few er than 24 of them the work of Lipot Baum horn, Hungary's outstanding synagogue architect, whose style was to significantly influence subsequent H ungarian synagogue arch itectu re. Bau m h orn's m ost im portant synagogue was that of Szeged, a house of prayer of m ajestic m onu m en tally and one of the m ost beautiful European synagogues. Completed in 1903, it is basically a neoG othic stru ctu re w ith M o o rish -B y zan tin e O vertones.

Together with its grounds it occupies a square block m easuring 106,500 square feet (9,893 square m eters). Its prom inent cupola rises 48.5 m eters from the ground. Using a m ore-or-less square central plan, it was more successful in achieving a synagogue-like character than the long and narrow cathedral-like synagogues being built elsewhere at the time.

From the inside, the lofty central blue-glass cupola with a background of the stars gave worshippers the feeling of being enclosed by heaven. T he synagogue is extensively decorated

throughout. Colorful, ornamental, stained glass windows, and many drawings of Biblical scenes and Jewish symbolism fill the interior, accompanied by appropriate Biblical quotations emphasizing Jewish ethical concerns.

In recent years a number of ritual appurtenances and furnishings of diaspora synagogues have been transferred to Israel where they are being used once again, in synagogues and yeshivos. Two complete Italian synagogues, those of the Venetian suburban communities of Vittorio Veneto (ceneda) and Conigliano Veneto have been reconstructed in Yerushalayim, in the Israel Museum and in the Italian Synagogue.

May this reconstitution of unused diaspora synagogues in the Holy Land serve as a symbolic resurrection—and may it herald the day when the Lord will "bring together our scattered ones from among the nations and gather our dispersed from the uttermost parts of the earth... and He will lead us joyously to Zion and to Yerushalayim, the home of His Temple with everlasting happiness... and we shall worship the Lord in the Holy Mountain at Yerushalayim... and His house shall be a House of prayer for all the nations."

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They're Talking About Us — An Excursion and a Proposal " Orthodoxy's current influence has a number of causes. The most important one, I believe, is the sense of many non~Orthodox Jews that Orthodoxy is the voice of Jewish authenticity..."

Two women who hadn't seen each other for many years were comparing notes on their children. "My son/7one of them said, "is so rich, every week he goes to a doctor and pays him a hundred dollars an hour—and he talks about me." They're talking about Orthodoxy out there—whether it's good or bad, they're talking about us. Just look at a few recent magazine and journal articles.

Judaism , published by the American Jewish Congress, in its Fall 1979 issue features: "Orthodoxy in America: Two Aspects."

Midstream, published by the Herzl Foundation, (as some would have it, as a Zionist alternative to Commentary), in its August/September 1979 issue has an article by Charles Liebman, called, "O rthodox Judaism Today."

Forum, a quarterly published in Yerushalayim by the World Zionist Organization, offers in its Spring/Summer 1979 issue, "Am erican Jewish Religiosity: A New Perspective," in which O rthodoxy shares billing with the "Jew ish C ounterculture."

A study of Orthodox Jews in Boro Park by Egon Mayer, which has been popping up in footnotes for a num ber of years as "an unpublished doctoral dissertation," is now between boards as From Suburb to Shtetl: The Jews of Boro Park, published by Temple University Press (Philadelphia 1979).

The American Jewish Historical Quarterly, published for many years by the American Jewish Historical Society, recently changed its name to American Jewish History; adopted a new typographical design; and changed its editorial approach, making it a livelier publication—no longer as frightening to the lay person as some academic journals are. While such titles as "A Jewish Peddler in Wisconsin, 1 8 8 4 -1 8 8 7 " might interest scholars—and the kind of people who find anything any Jew anywhere did interesting—the articles appearing in American Jewish History today are generally m ore relevant to Jewish life in our time. All this to welcome their Decem ber, 1979 issue which represents, as their editor Nathan M. Kaganoff modestly puts it in his Introduction, "a som ewhat unusual event—the first time that a major historical journal has devoted a full issue to the subject Orthodox Judaism in America ."

He goes on to explain that "th e 19th century in the United States was w ithout doubt the century of Reform Judaism. The first half of the present century saw the em ergence of Conservative Judaism, and we may now indeed be at the first stages of 'O rthodox Trium phalism .' "

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Som ew hat apologetically, Dr. Kaganoff goes on to say that his description of American Jewish history may be "overly simplistic/' though we can hardly expect more from about one half a paragraph. "S till," he continues, "it is a fact that O rthodoxy has emerged on the American scene somewhat unexpectedly with new dynamism and vigor. Its schools have experienced phenomenal grow th, its yeshivot have attracted new adherents by the thousands, and it has become very much involved both in general and Jewish communal and political activity."

This relatively sudden interest by w riters and scholars in Orthodox Judaism certainly testifies that we are alive— though not necessarily "w ell." We will shortly be inviting a group of rabbis and laymen to participate in a symposium on w hat ails American O rthodoxy in the midst of its "trium phalism ." But meanwhile it would be well to take a closer look at some of the outpouring listed above.

Marshall Sklare, now at Brandéis University, was the first American sociologist to take a serious look at a changing O rthodoxy—paradoxically in his Conservative Judaism, published in the early sixties, and recently revised and published in paperback by Schocken Books. In w hat was originally a doctoral thesis (were it not for academia we would know so little about ourselves), Sklare documented the w eaknesses of American O rthodoxy in the early part of this century, which created fertile ground for Conservative Judaism. His work becomes even more significant in the light of w hat had transpired in the last two decades. Yet it was Charles S. Liebman, now teaching at Bar lían University, who moved somewhat ahead of Sklare in the scope of his interest in O rthodoxy—if not in his perception. Liebman's lengthy essay, "O rthodoxy in American Jewish Life", published in the American Jewish Yearbook in 1965, was perhaps the first serious cataloguing of the several groupings and organizations which comprise American Orthodoxy. It has recently been re ­ published in a shortened version in The Jewish Community in America (Behrm an House 1974), edited by M arshall Sklare, who also edited a companion volume The American Society— tw o volumes sufficiently significant to have gone relatively unnoticed. ("Jewish books" most often gain fame in inverse proportion to their importance.)

Liebman's "O rthodox Judaism Today", in is, in effect, an up-dating of his earlier essay. Citing the 1970 National Jew ish Population Study, Liebman notes that 82% of American Jews identify them selves as either Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform Jew s, with the remaining 18% saying they are "ju st Jew ish." "O rthodox, Conservative, and Reform

an observer might be inclined to suggest that the differences really boil down to the fact that the Orthodox are the more committed to religious belief and practice, Reform the least committed, and Conservatives in the middle.

Regardless of how simplistic and even vulgar the statement sounds, it is truer than most Jews would like to believe."

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"The modern Orthodox Jew... may still he an unfamiliar, even exotic, figure on the American Jewish scene, but at least he is no longer invisible...

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Jew s," Liebman says, "can be ranged along a continuum in so consistent a m anner that an observer might be inclined to suggest that the differences really boil down to the fact that the O rthodox are the more committed to religious belief and practice, Reform the least committed, and Conservatives in the middle. Regardless of how simplistic and even vulgar the statement sounds, it is truer than most Jews would like to believe." (emphasis ours) How often, for example, do we hear Jews saying "I'm not religious— I'm R eform ." Indeed, the Population Study indicates that roughlyhalf of the Jews describing themselves as "Reform" are not m embers of a Reform congregation. At the same time, the m ajority of Jews describing themselves as "C onservative" are affiliated with a Conservative congregation. However, only a m inority of this group observe Jewish law even by Conservative standards. O ne would be hard put, for example, to find m any—if any— Conservative Jews who eat swordfish or drive to services on Shabbos, only because their "halachic authorities" have perm itted these practices. In this light, heated debates within Conservatism regarding calling women to the Torah, counting them to a minyan, or ordaining them as rabbis, are mere sophistry on the part of the professionals. This debate is virtually unrelated to the practices and wishes of their followers, who in reality do very little following: Note the growing swell of criticism by Conservative leadership of their own adherents for being oblivious to even their halacha, with its concessions to "th e changing tim es." (One would have to be of a truly saintly nature not to have felt some glee at the invoking of the word "divisiveness" during the intram ural struggle w ithin Conservatism over calling women to the Torah: "D ivisive" has always been a basic weapon in the arsenal of anti-O rthodoxy polemics. It is now being invoked in Israel: W hen— for example—the C hief Rabbis of Israel cautioned against observing the mitzvah of hearing the sounds of the shofar in a non-O rthodox congregation, leaders of Conservatism and Reform joined in condemning the rabbis for the crime of "divisiveness.")

Liebman is at his best when he speaks of Jewish authenticity—this w riter has long argued that the only valid distinction among "branches o f Judaism" is betw een authenticity and the absence thereof. "O rthodoxy's more rigid interpretation of Jewish law and increasing intolerance for those who deviate from Jewish law might lead one to suspect that it would find itself with less and less influence in the American Jew ish world. This is not at all the case, (emphasis ours) "O rthodoxy's current influence has a number of causes. The most im portant one, I believe, is the sense of many nonOrthodox Jew s th at O rthodoxy is the voice of Jew ish

authenticity. There is an analogy between the attitude of the modern Orthodox toward their right wing and of the nonOrthodox toward the O rthodox. The analogy is not perfect.

But the parallel rests in the sense of many Conservative and Reform Jews (including rabbis) and many of the leaders of secular Jew ish organ izations (Federations of Jew ish Philanthropies in particular) that although they are not Orthodox and don't w ant to be O rthodox, the Orthodox are the better Jews. T hat means they are ready to listen attentively to what the Orthodox have to say about Judaism; particularly if they are leaders of a secular Jewish organization seeking a religious point of view ."

Lawrence Kaplan, professor of Jewish Studies at M cGill University in his Judaism article, "T h e Ambiguous Modern Jew ," focuses on the individual O rthodox Jew, in contrast to Liebman's concentration on institutionalized Orthodoxy.

"T h e modern O rthodox Jew ," he w rites, "m ay still be an unfamiliar, even exotic, figure on the American Jewish scene, but at least he is no longer invisible... Already such figures as Orthodox Jewish physicists, lawyers or law professors, politicians, advertising executives, sociologists, literary critics, bio-chem ists, etc., etc., are becoming more and more frequent, and even more im portant, more and more visible on the American Jewish scene, and their collective presence is bound to break through even the strongest and most resistant of preconceptions....But the features of this new, emerging modern Orthodox American Jew are as yet not clearly defined.

T here is something elusive, deeply ambiguous, about his whole p ersonality... " Kaplan raises a perceptive semantic question, w h ich -contrary to popular folk wisdom—cannot be dismissed with the casual: "W ell, that's only sem antics." "D oes the word 'modern' in 'modern Orthodox Jew ' modify the adjective 'O rthodox' or the noun 'Jew'? Granted that the modern O rthodox Jew exists and even flourishes, is there such an entity as modern O rthodoxy?" T o paraphrase: does the word "m odern" simply connote someone living as an O rthodox Jew in modern times, or is "m odern O rthodoxy" a new entity, different from the O rthodoxy practiced in previous times?

Drawing on the work Synagogue Life by Samuel Heilman (see: "Som e Recent Jewish Books," Jewish Life, Spring 1978) Kaplan, himself a "m odern O rthodox Jew " and sociologist, paints a picture of a typical "m odern O rthodox Jew " who lives in two worlds: sharply distinguishing his life as a shul-going person from his professional life in which he appears to be very much like his non-O rthodox or even non-Jewish peers. In the refusal of such O rthodox Jews to work out a coherent ideology

... does the word " modern" simply connote someone living as an Orthodox Jew in modern times, or is "modern Orthodoxy" a new entity, different from the Orthodoxy practiced in previous times?

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" Orthodoxy's more rigid interpretation of Jewish law and increasing intolerance for those who deviate from Jewish law might lead one to suspect that it would find itself with less and less influence in the American Jewish world. This is not at all the case. . .

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to integrate their O rthodoxy with their modernity, Heilman finds "a psycho-theological explanation...for the incessant joking and gossip that constitute shul conversation [which], blocks o u t.. |the possibility of the speakers having to come to term s with the deeper antimonies inherent in their modernity and O rthodoxy...The 'small talk' of joking and gossip is infinitely safer and more m anageable." Kaplan drives home his point vigorously by quoting a more recent essay in which Heilman says that "during the three years in which I lived and studied in a modern O rthodox community, I never once heard a serious discussion about theology or ideology..."

Having drawn a devastating picture of mediocrity in Heilman's "C ongregation Kehillat Kodesh," Kaplan paints an idyllic picture of a modern O rthodox congregation where, for example, "th e English p ro fesso r... would not simply shed his secular training while studying Torah and turn into a Yenglishspeaking traditional Jew , but, drawing on his professional expertise, would attem pt to illum inate... the study of Bible by bringing to bear upon it modern techniques of literary analysis...[A nd] the m odern O rth od ox law yer, when studying Talmud, would not simply cite irrelevant Supreme C ourt decisions, but following the lead of a num ber of modern O rthodox scholars, would seek to combine traditional talmudic scholarship with modern categories of jurispru­ dence."

Kaplan is sharp in his critique, and perhaps utopian in his p rojection s, but his perceptions are stim u lating and provocative and m erit a serious response.

Egon M ayer's book on the Jews of Boro Park is in effect an objective, sociological portrait of w hat M ayer declares to be "in the 1970s, the largest and most dynamic of all O rthodox communities in A m erica." Noting the relative lack of attention given to O rthodoxy in America by social scientists, M ayer notes that "th e renaissance of Orthodox Judaism can best be understood in microcosm, at the level where people actually live out such things in the community. T herefore, it is the aim of this book to describe in rich, living detail the social history and the contem porary social profile of the O rthodox community in Boro Park." M ayer has succeeded in achieving his objective. In addition to his own experiences as a form er resident of Boro Park, M ayer's professorship at Brooklyn College for the past ten years has brought Boro Park to his classroom, since the College has become an O rthodox enclave, almost an extension of Boro Park, and itself fertile ground for sociological study of Orthodoxy. (The book deserves a complete review, and it is instructive that several potential reviewers have disqualified them selves because of varying degrees of involvement with the studies made by Professor

|

M ayer. But we nevertheless hope to offer a review in a future issue.)

T o return to American Jewish History's special issue on Orthodox Judaism in America, each of the papers makes a valuable contribution to a better understanding of its subject.

T he issue has special value in that—while the journal's circulation is small—it will be read by other scholars who rarely have access to the type of article about O rthodoxy that at least gives it a fair shake.

The lead article, "H istoric Reminiscence: A fter Fifty Years, An Optimist/" is by Rabbi O scar Z. Fasman of Chicago, a pioneer American Orthodox rabbi who is still active in the rabbinate. It is good that Rabbi Fasman has recorded the pieces of history regarding the early years of O rthodoxy's re-birth.

David Ellenson recounts the circum stances surrounding a Jewish legal decision (p'sak din)by an American, Rabbi Bernard Illowy, in the early 1860's. The decision was widely discussed

by European rahbonim,a tribute to the rabbi during a period when American rabbis were hardly taken seriously. This paper gives us a moving account of American Jewish life in the nineteenth century, a period normally thought to have been devoid of Yiddishkeit.

"T h e Jewish Sabbath M ovem ent in the Early T w entieth C entu ry" sheds light on the problems of Shabbos when the five-day week was unheard of. "If you don't come in on Saturday, don't bother to come in on M onday," was a threat often heard by Jewish w orkers— frequently from their fellow Jew s—who told their bosses they would be staying home for Shabbos. The account of the struggle for should interest young Orthodox Jews today who have relatively little difficulty in this regard and owe a debt of gratitude to their forbears who fought a noble and sacred fight.

Rabbi Louis Bernstein, himself a form er president of the organization, describes the early years of the Rabbinical Council of America in a paper which sheds light on current intra-O rthodox tensions which flare up all too frequently.

Perhaps most significant—because it covers an aspect of O rthodoxy rarely examined—is William Helmreich's "O ld Wine in New Bottles: Advanced Yeshivot in the United S tate s." Professor Helmreich combines his own research with interviews of im portant Torah personalities who observed the grow th and development of post-high school yeshivos. T o this observer there was a certain thrill in seeing the names of yeshiva,m asters, friends, and even colleagues, finally recording—albeit only in outline— recollections that have long cried out to be committed to print. Professor Helmreich concludes that "th e yeshiva community is one about which relatively little is know n." O ne can only concur. And one 35

awaits with great expectations Helmreich's larger work, The Yeshiva in America, scheduled for publication in 1981 by MacMillan's Free Press division.

In sum: each of the works touched upon above deserves careful reading by all Jews interested in understanding where O rthodox Judaism is at in our time. Collectively they are a m anifestation of O rthodoxy's "com ing of age." But while the authors are them selves representative of varying shades of Jewish religious com mitment, they w rite essentially from the outside looking in. Perhaps this is as it m ust be: Organizational polemics often becloud the true state of affairs. Y et it seems to this observer that there is a need for a unified effort by American Orthodoxy to produce its own studies of its past, its present, and m ost im portant, studies of ideological positions on issues of the day in the context of these apocalyptic times.

Such an effort, such an institution if we will, m ust perforce bring together scholars committed to a core belief in Torah ideology, with the freedom to explore, to think, and to write w ithout organizational restraints.

This excursion into vyhat people are saying about Orthodoxy started out as a small "C om m en t." I hope to elaborate on my proposal in a forthcom ing issue of Jewish Life.

—Yaakov Jacobs

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D. Bernard Hoenig

The Pomegranate: A Truly Jewish Symbol It looks like an apple but is actually a berry from the myrtle family. Beneath a crimson rind are hundreds of tiny seeds, each surrounded by a deep scarlet pulp which is the edible fruit Its taste is elusive: dry and bitter to some—ambrosial to others, combining the tartness of lime with the sw eetness of the grape. Its blood-red juice has been used for many things: ink, wine and medication, but it is still savored by desert dwellers as the best of the thirst-quenching drinks.

Botanists call it punica granatderived from "punie," the language of Carthage which first cultivated the fruit. It is one of the most frequently Commercially it is known as the pomegranate, meaning "m any- used symbols on the coins, seeded fru it" in Latin. But to most people it is the Chinese Apple, medals tokens and paper money of ancient and modern Israel. a popular— but erroneous—designation: it is actually native to Persia, Syria and Eretz Yisrael, and was not introduced into China until the latter part of the 2nd century, B.C .E. Today the pom egranate is raised in many parts of the M editerranean region and other tropical or semi-tropical countries. Lush groves with brilliant orange-red flowers can be seen thriving in the northern part of Israel, which produces mammoth pomegranates that grace the of Jaffa, Haifa and Yerushalayim. In the United States, the fruit is mainly grown in the San Joaquin Valley of California, and it is generally used in the m anufacture of grenadine.

To the Jewish People, the pomegranate is a m ost significant fruit. It has been praised by prophets and poets; carved into ceremonial objects; engraved in the pillars of King Solomon's Bais Ha'Mikdash;discovered in the mosaic etchings of ancient synagogues. It is one of the most frequently used symbols on the coins, medals, tokens and paper money of ancient and modern Israel.

The best known design appears on the silver Shekel and H alf-Shekel of the War of the Jews against Rome in 66-70 C.E. T he stately picture of three flowering pomegranates has captured the imagination of Israel's modern m inters, for it was reproduced on the 500 prutah silver piece dated 1949, the current one-lira coin, and on the 1976 and 1977 com mémoratives. The latter coins contain the pom egranate blossoms in a sequence of five, creating a wreath or star-like effect.

D. Bernard Hoenig, a New A split pom egranate surrounded by a double cornucopia is York City lawyer active in Jewish depicted on the rare 1964 Bank of Israel gold commemorative. co m m u n a l a c t iv it ie s , h as published several articles on This symbol was adopted from the coins of Alexander numismatics.

39

Jannaeus (103-76 B.C .E.), Hyrcanus II (67-31 B.C.E.) and the Nabatean King Aretas IV (9 B.C .E.—40 C.E.). T he very same design is also repeated on several state medals and on the 1966 Season's G reetings Token issued by the Israel G overnm ent Coins and Medals Corporation.

Israel's five-agorot coin is adorned with a design of three ripe pom egranates, taken from a cut stone found in an ancient synagogue at Capernaum near the Sea of Galilee, the Kinneret. The 1967 Season's Greetings Token, a striking 33 mm. medallion, shows open hands holding a wine glass, grapes and pom egranates. Its them e, "th e fruits of Israel," is duplicated on the Tourism Medals first awarded in 1962. The prolific pomegranate is also pictured on the outer border of Israel's 1955, fifty-lirot banknote as part of a flower and fruit m otif. In 1965, on the occasion of the opening of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem , the governm ent issued a special state medal that contains, on its reverse side, a representation of a second-century candelabrum whose branches are composed of open pomegranates. Thus, although the pomegranate may not be one of the m ost popular fresh fruits today because of the multiplicity of seeds and difficulty in eating it, it is nevertheless a delectable numismatic species that can trace its roots to the days of the Bible and the traditions of Judaism.

O ne of the earliest references to the pomegranate can be found in Exodus (28: 31-35) which describes the weaving of the outer robe for Aharon, the High Priest of Israel: .. .thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the skirts thereof; and bells of gold between them round about; a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the skirts of the robe around about. And it shall be upon Aharon to minister; and the sound thereof shall be heard when he cometh out, that he die not.

According to Rashi, there were 36 bells and 36 woven pomegranates arranged alternately on each panel of the robe.

Because of the prominence of these objects on the priestly vestm ents, the fruit became an accepted symbol that was constantly duplicated in the synagogue to remind the congregants of the glorious days when the Bais HaM ikdash stood in Yerushalayim. M any of the silver, gold, or wooden ornam ents that decorated the upper handles of the T orah Scroll were adorned with pomegranate or bell designs. To this day these traditional ceremonial decorations are known as "Rim m onim ": Hebrew for pomegranates!

Throughout the Five Books of M oshe, the Prophets, the M ishna, and the Talmud, there are frequent references to this most beautiful fruit. Shlomo Hamelech, in the Song of Songs, compares the beauty of his beloved to the pom egranate, and it is recorded in the Talmud that when the first fruits of the

harvest were offered to the Kohanim in the Bais H a’Mikdash, the pomegranate held a special place of honor and distinction.

Exactly why the pom egranate should enjoy such an im portant role in Jewish tradition has been the subject of num erous theories. Archaeological finds have indicated that the fruit was the symbol of fertility and procreation to many nations during the early stages of civilization. Some even believed the pomegranate shrub to be the "T re e of L ife." The Hebrew name rimmon is thought to have been derived from Hadadrimmon, an ancient, mythological god of fertility. Thus it was widely assumed that the Jewish People were influenced by the practices of their neighbors and similarly adopted the pomegranate as such a symbol.

This hypothesis, however, overlooks the basic fact that Torah law strictly forbids the introduction of any alien religious concept into its own faith. "W alking in the path of the nations" was one of the primary causes of the exile of the Jewish People. Furtherm ore, if fertility and procreation were to be symbolized in Judaism, then the most appropriate illustration would not have been the pom egranate, but the stars in the sky which were shown to Avraham by G-d to dem onstrate that he was to be the father of a great nation. And He brought him forth and said: ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if thou shall be able to count them'; and He said unto him: ‘So shall thy seed be'... (Genesis XV , 5).

Rather, the importance of the pomegranate appears to be nothing more than the simple fact that this decorative fruit was the perfect symbol of the beauty and abundance of the Promised Land. In D euteronom y VIII, 7-8, it is described as one of the seven species that characterized Eretz Yisrael: Lor the Lord, thy G-d, bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, springing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, and grape-vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey.

Choice samples of pomegranates and other fruit were brought back to the Israelites in Sinai by the miraglim sent to Canaan by Moshe to report on the Land (Numbers XIII), to exhibit to the people the wonderful produce of their new land T he numisma^c use of the pom egranate on the early coinage of Israel actually confirm s this simple explanation. Just as grapes, w heat and barley were depicted on num erous coins as an obvious expression of pride in the agricultural aspects of the Jewish nation, so, too, was the pom egranate, with its colorful flow ers and exotic taste, portrayed as a symbol of G-d's blessings to the People. T o fu rth er counter the assump­ tion that the "many-seeded apple" represented fertility and procreation is the Talmudic statem ent that the pomegranate

symbolized the 613 commandments prescribed by the Torah.

Legend has it that the perfectly formed and m ature fruit contains exactly 613 seeds. Interestingly, an actual count of an average-sized pomegranate by this author revealed more than 600 pulp-bearing seeds!

What may really explain the pomegranate's significance in Jewish life is its truly amazing qualities of survival. It is known to grow in droughts with little water and has been found amidst the ruins of civilizations long forgotten by the world.

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Cronchi Englander

Down the Chimney Sometimes Binyamin Katz felt as if he were a freak at a carnival. He would often see strangers among his congregation, watching him expectantly, waiting for some insane outburst. He could imagine Mr. Gold, the shul's president/standing at the doorway, advertising the show like a carnival barker.

"Hur-ry! Hur-ry! Hur-ry! See our young, handsome Rabbi Katz, the remar-kable sermonizing corpse. Fresh from an engagement in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, and still suffering. A genu-wine survivor of the concentration camps.

Hur-ry! Hur-ry! Hur-ry!"

Binyamin threw his pen to the floor in exasperation. He had been preparing a sermon. What did they want of him? Did they think he could assuage the guilt they felt because they had sat comfortably before their Southern hearths while their fellow Jews went up the chimneys of Auschwitz?

"Oh, yes," he could hear Mr. Gold saying, "we especially chose you to be our Rabbi because you're from Europe. We like to help our refugee brothers. After the war our Sisterhood raised more than a thousand dollars for the refugees."

Binyamin had wanted to laugh in Gold's fat face. He knew that he never would have gotten the job without his prestigious family name. His father, Avrohom Katz, had been a prominent Hungarian rabbi. Even though there were; offers to ransom him from the Nazis, he had insisted upon staying with his followers. He had gone to the gas chambers with his Chassidim and his ashes had led theirs along the paths of the winds. Binyamin's great-grandfather, whose name he carried, had written volumes on Jewish Law; his texts were still studied at most yeshivos. There were many other gréât names among his ancestors, names that had filled pages in books of Jewish history, names that even Mr. Gold could recognize.

Binyamin realized how little he had in common with Gold, with his saccharine Southern accent and his smug smile. His "brother?" Binyamin doubted that Gold really felt any kinship with him. To Gold, Binyamin was a curiosity, a relic of the world of his grandfathers, ancient and as far from him as the world of the Greeks and Romans. Gold respected Binyamin as a museum guard might respect *a fine sculpture, taking satisfaction in the crowds it draws, but not really understanding it.

Despite his dislike for Gold, Binyamin kept his feelings hidden. He needed the job desperately and he doubted that the

What did they want of him?

Did they think he could assuage the guilt they felt because they had sat comfortably before their Southern hearths while their fellow Jews went up the chimneys of Auschwitz?

Cronchi Englander is a free­ lance writer who lives in Baltimore, Maryland. This is her first appearance in Jewish Life.

45

No, the Jews were never really freed from Egypt... But he could never tell his congregation that.

They would never understand.

46

yeshiva could find him another post. This was his last chance for success. He had to keep himself under control.

Binyamin returned Gold's smile with the proper degree of humility. "How kind of you, Mr. Gold—I'll try my best." He had not lost his chameleon's art: his ability to become the image of people's expectations. It had saved his skin many times in the camps. Binyamin could be humble, charming or stupid at will, taking on the protective coloring of his surroundings. That was part of the art of survival and the skill helped Mr. Gold see what he had wanted to see. Gold was proud of "my refugee rabbi." | Binyamin went to his books, searching for a source for his Passover sermon, but he could find nothing in the Scriptures or the wisdom of the Sages to inspire him. He remembered the words of Mordy Weinstein, the yeshiva's star student.

"Pesach's a snap," Mordy had said. "Take a basic liberation theme, add a few matzo crumbs, and tell them they have to drink wine. That should make any congregation happy."

Mordy had a post at a posh Long Island shul and judging by his letters, he was doing quite well.

Yet, how could Binyamin speak about liberation with conviction when he really didn't believe in it himself? Were the Jews ever really liberated from Egypt, or did they remain the slaves of the Egyptians all of their lives, remembering the pain of the whip as they worked in the hot sun, or hearing the cries of their brothers for water? Did they toss with dreams during the desert nights, hearing the cries of their baby boys as they were slain by the Egyptians, or seeing again their screaming wives and daughters as the masters raped them? No, the Jews were never really freed from Egypt. They carried their slavery with them as they wandered in the desert, perpetually in bondage. But he could never tell his congregation that. They would never understand. They would stare at him with puzzlement and fear on their faces, not able to stand the truth or see the pain in his eyes. Binyamin's first two congregations had been terrified. He had not seen the faces of the people in the synagogues, only the brass tablets on the memorial plaques. The plaques had seemed to multiply, filling the walls and ceilings, testifying to another type of Jewish death.

Rubinsteins became Rubins, Cohens became Canns in a mad race for assimilation. It was the same folly Binyamin had seen in Europe. But Hitler had known. He hadn't been fooled by changed names; he found his Jews despite them.

There had been no hope, no comfort in Binyamin's words.

His sermons stank with the smell of burning bodies.

Everything became ashes within him as he breathed his fire to the congregations, consuming them. He grew to hate them

and their ignorance. His sermons became more and more venomous as he punished them for the families they had and Binyamin had lost. Vet he envied the happy laughter of their children, remembering the too-wise, too-old, little ones who had clawed at the cement walls of the gas chambers, marking them with a testimony of their effort to survive. He thought that as human beings they were entitled to know the unsweetened truth, to hear the horror of the piles of Jewish corpses. But, when they failed to understand, he became their accuser. He had frightened them with his fury, burned them with his intensity.

"You'll just have to tone yourself down, Binyamin," Rabbi Yaakov Meyers told him when Binyamin came back to the yeshiva from his second failure.

"Maybe I'm just not meant to be a rabbi," Binyamin had said.

"Nonsense! With your background? Of course you were meant to be a rabbi. Wouldn't your father, olov ha'sholom, have wanted it? After all, you're the last of a great line. All of the potential and hope of previous generations now reside within you. You must be a rabbi! For their sakes, Binyamin, for them!"

"But I have another obligation. witness. I can't tailor my feelings to suit a congregation. I must tell them what happened. Make them see what f saw."

"Give them time," Rabbi Meyers advised. "You expect too much from them. Meanwhile, you have to carry on the family tradition."

Binyamin had tried to give them time. For nearly a year, he had fed the Jews of Southhaven the truth sweetened with saccharine. His sermons and speeches had been laced with ancient proverbs and cheerful homilies. His handsome face had the female half of the congregation swooning in Southern ecstasies, while the men loved the Rabbi because he always deferred to their opinions. The Board loved him because he never tried to interfere with their decisions or suggest changes in policy. On Shabbos the seats were filled with faceless people: the men in silk shirts and ties, the women in linen suits and with chapel veils on their heads. Everyone was pleased with his rabbinic lineage, flowing all the way back to the House of David, and people flocked to see the only surviving son of the well-known rabbinic dynasty.

"Hur-ry! Hur-ry! Hur-ry! Step right up and see the Son of David. He walks through fire, snatches the ashes of the dead from the air and resurrects them by pasting them together with memories and glue. Hur-ry! Hur-ry! Hur-ry!"

Binyamin used to laugh out loud at the awful humor of it. He had been the black sheep among the snow white lambs, the only one of the rabbi's sons without the head or inclination for

His sermons became more and more venomous as he punished them for the families they had and Binyamin had lost,., He had frightened them with his fury, burned them with his intensity.

47

The true nature of the Chassidim was revealed. They were corpses, animated skeletons that fell to the ground without the support of their magic coats.

48

learning. He, who was to be apprenticed to a watchmaker, was, by virtue of being the only survivor, the spiritual leader of thousands of dead congregants in a burnt-out shul. His imagination filled the room with Chassidim, their gaunt empty faces begging for bread from a sumptuous table, cherishing the bones that his hand had touched. When the table was bare, they began to sing an old Chassidic melody, swaying to the sound of the music. Their bony hands grasped his and pulled him upwards to dance, stamping and shuffling, their long black coats flying, as if cut from a bewitched bolt of cloth. Suddenly, as the song ended, the coats flew off their wearers and danced through the air. The true nature of the Chassidim was revealed. They were corpses, animated skeletons that fell to the ground without the support of their magic coats. The coats continued to dance silently around Binyamin, pressing closer and closer, smothering him... "Go away! Go away!" he screamed, and they disappeared, obedient to the command of their rabbi.

"Rabbi Katz!" His landlady pounded on the door.

"What is it, Mrs. Klein?"

"I thought I heard some noises. Are you all right?"

"Just fine." He straightened his hair and opened the door.

Mrs. Klein looked at him anxiously.

"Are you sure you're all right? Would you like something to eat?"

"No, thank you, Mrs. Klein. I have to finish my Passover sermon."

"You've been in your room all day. Why don't you go out and get some fresh air?"

"Thank you, Mrs. Klein, maybe I will."

The afternoon was balmy, but Binyamin put on his hat and jacket. There was two hundred dollars sewn into the jacket lining—enough to get him out of town quickly. When he arrived in town, he had carefully checked for escape routes, becoming a walking timetable of train and bus schedules. He knew their routes, their destinations. He even knew when the morning milk-train arrived. Binyamin had once been trapped and caged—he was determined it would never happen again.

Five days in a cattle-car filled with seventy screaming, naked, weeping people. The tears had frozen on their faces. The bodies had swirled like a whirlpool, drawing into the center for warmth, then flowing out to the edge to freeze again while another few were warmed. In the corners were frozen corpses.

The jacket made him sweat, but it made him feel secure. The hat was a symbol of his rabbinic status. He thought that it gave him an air of dignity, but the Sisterhood took up a collection to buy him a new one.

Binyamin nodded absently to the people out to enjoy the spring weather. He walked the streets of the town aimlessly, searching for his sermon, seizing bubbles of ideas only to have them burst emptily in his mind. After an hour or so of walking, he realized that he had passed the outskirts of town. He was far out in the countryside, among farms and fields, but he didn't turn back. He kept walking down the road until he came to an apple orchard. Binyamin stood at the gate, savoring the scent and sight of the falling blossoms. He climbed the fence and sat beneath a tree, letting the gentle petals fall on his face and hair.

He pressed a handful of their softness to his face and inhaled their sweetness. Southhaven was washed away in a shower of petals.

"Binyamin, Binyamin, help me!" It was Yosef, his younger brother, chasing a big yellow butterfly. "Catch it! Catch it!"

Yosef's face was red with effort. His short legs were flying and his hand reached out, trying to grasp the insect. He watched in disappointment as it flew upwards, beyond his reach, and pounced on it joyously as it alighted on a nearby flower.

"I caught it, Binyamin!"

"Let it go. You'll hurt it."

"I just wanted to look for a second. See, how beautiful." He held it by a wing as it fluttered.

"Yes, it's wonderful. Now let it go."

"Just another minute."

"You'll hurt it."

"No, I won't. I'll keep it in a jar and feed it good."

Binyamin stood up and forced the boy's hand open. The butterfly fluttered away weakly and fell to the ground. Yosef picked it up once more. "Fly!" Yosef screamed. "Fly! Fly! You stupid butterfly." But it didn't even flutter its wings. Yosef knelt beside it, wiping the powder of its wings from his hands.

"I killed it, didn't I?" "I think so. Let me make sure."

He ground the yellow wings beneath his heel.

"Now it's dead."

Yosef began to cry.

"Hey you! Whatche all doin' here?"

Binyamin looked up at a big, blond-haired man in blue overalls, a shot-gun in his hand.

"Remembering."

"Well, y'all do your rememberin'on someone else's property.

Can't you read the sign? Says No Trespassin."

He looked at Binyamin's beard, black suit and strange hat suspiciously.

"What are you anyway?"

When he arrived in town, he had carefully checked for escape routes... Binyamin had once been trapped and caged— he was determined it would never happen again.

49

Binyamin automatically started to reach for his papers and suddenly realized that he needed none.

'Tm Rabbi Katz from the Southhaven synagogue." He put out his hand.

The man eyed Binyamin's extended hand as if it were some kind of poisonous snake.

"One of them goddam Jews/' he said. "You a Jew priest, ye ✓

?

//

Binyamin nodded.

"I suppose you come here to put a hex on my trees."

"Hex?" "You know what a hex is, boy. Maybe you call it somethin7 else? Voodoo, the Evil Eye; so the crops won't grow and you Jews will get a better price."

"But I don't even know you!"

"That d'on't matter none. I know all about you, Jew. All of you are in with the Commies, sellin' out the country that saved you scum, like them goddam Rosenbergs up North. Hangin's too good for 'em. Why, you Jews would sell your sisters if you could get a nickel for 'em."

"Binyamin! Don't watch!" Leah had screamed. "Close your eyes!" The soldiers had passed her from hand to hand, again and again. Two laughing Germans held him back, handing him over to others as they took their turns with her.

"Kill me, Binyamin," she had pleaded after the soldiers had gone. "In G-d's name, kill me." He couldn't, and while he stood paralyzed she had run into the house and cut her throat with a kitchen knife.

"I tell you, Hitler should've gotten all you Jews. Then you wouldn'a come here to spoil this country. Now get off my land!"

Binyamin stood motionless, his eyes looking toward the ground to conceal his intentions. Suddenly, he brought his fist up against the man's jaw. He felt the crunch of bone and watched with joy as the man's mouth gushed blood. He knew how Moshe must have felt when he struck the Egyptian. He knew that he was through with subservient smiles, done with blending in with the crowd, trying to fill the shadow of his father's life. He stifled an impulse to crush the blond man's face beneath his heel.

"What did you say about Hitler?" Binyamin asked.

"Help!" the man cried weakly, but no one came.

"Shut up," said the Jew. The man eyed the Jew warily, waiting for some reaction, some warning of what the crazy Jew would do next. He looked for his rifle and found that it had fallen out of his reach when Binyamin had hit him. Mentally, the man cursed him and all of his Christ-killing ancestors.

"For Chrissake," he pleaded, "let me go." * "Take back what you said."

The man hesitated, estimating whether he could take him without sacrificing his pride. From the ground, the Jew looked ’ike a giant, but he had licked bigger ones in his time. It was the look in the Jew's eyes that stopped him. They were the eyes of a crazy man, burning eyes that almost seared him with the intensity of their hatred. He held back.

"No offense meant," he mumbled.

Binyamin grinned, stretching the taut skin of his face like some grotesque jack-o-lantern. He pulled off his funny looking hat and threw it towards the man.

"Here," he said, "a gift. I don't need it anymore." He turned and began to walk away.

The man grabbed his gun and pointed it at the departing Jew's back.

"Jewboy!" he called. "Stop right there or I'll shoot you in your tracks."

Binyamin looked back at the man and started to laugh Kill me? I've lived through Hell. No one can hurt me anymore."

Still laughing, Binyamin turned and started walking towards the bus depot. He decided to take the first bus going anywhere.

The man aimed and fired a shot directly over Binyamin's head, but Binyamin didn't miss a step. He didn't even bother to look back.

"The devil," the man muttered, "goddam crazy Jewboy." He decided to go down the road and get the preacher first thing, to get the hex off his trees. He thought of going for the sheriff but decided against it. No sheriff could catch the Devil himself.

. . . He knew that he was through with subservient smiles, done with blending in with the crowd, trying to fill the shadow of his father's life.

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Lag B'Omer, 5740 Harai at m'kudeshes lee, b'tabaas zu...

...With these words a young man speaks to a young woman and extends to her a gift —a ring made of gold signifying his wish that she be his wife.

The young woman accepts the gift manifesting her wish that he be her husband.

The witnesses witness, the rabbis bless —not the chos'n and kalah at first: they bless Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they bless the Almighty who has given us life, the capacity to enter into relationships, the capacity to experience sensual joy, and has given us the Law which governs relationships between Man and Woman.

With Law there is Love and Freedom; absent Law there is dissension and anarchy.

And then we bless the bride and groom that they may merit such love as did Adam and Eve in the Garden of old, for each of whom there was no other in the world.

And soon we will shout "Mazel Tov," and soon we will rejoice, and soon we will sing, and soon we will dance.

But before we shout "Mazel Tov," and before we rejoice, and before we sing, and before we dance, we recall the Churban Bais HaMikdosh, the destruction of the Holy Temple: | the Chos'n breaks the glass to remind us that we place Yerushalayim above all our joys.

—Yaakov Jacobs on the marriage of his daughter Geula to David Zamist.

54

! CDi n g i D 'e x a

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R E F L E C T I O N S OF T HE RAV Lessons in Jewish Thought adapted from Lectures of

RABBI JOSEPH B. SOLOVEITCHIK by

RABBI ABRAHAM R. BESDIN ©

The Department for Torah Education and Culture in the Diaspora of the World Zionist Organization Jerusalem Send to:

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■H B

Shubert Spero

Reflections of the Rav— Lessons in Jewish Thought Of the four qualities to be found among "those who sit before the sages," one is characterized in Pirkai Avos as "a funnel"; i.e., "that takes in at one end and lets out at the other."

The implication of the Mishnah is that this is an important and needed element of the educational process. And indeed it is.

For a funnel narrows the stream of material so that it can more effectively enter a smaller opening. One who sits before a sage and has the privelege to be exposed to a mighty stream of erudition and inspiration can perform a signal service for the general community by acting as a funnel. This quality implies the ability to shape a complex line of thought to focus on specific issues of contemporary concern that the general reader can appreciate.

Rabbi Abraham R. Besdin seems to possess just such a quality. He, together with others, has had the zechus to sit before one of the greatest Torah sages of our generation, Rav Yoseph Dov Soloveitchik. Master of both the halachic (legal and ritual) and aggadic (philosopical and historical) streams in the Jewish Tradition, Rav Soloveitchik's analytical understanding penetrates both categories to their philosophical roots, enabling him to relate them in illuminating ways. But "the Rav's" special uniqueness—and hence his importance to contemporary Orthodoxy—lies in his having mastered the Western philosophical tradition as well, in all its length and breadth. His profound grasp of the history of man's intellectual quest to understand his existence gives Rav Soloveitchik's creative Torah scholarship a universal backdrop which is unsurpassed in today's Torah world. Thus, in the course of this short book> the Rav insightfully and unapologetically refers to Plato and Aristotle in connection with the doctrine of Creation; to Schopenhauer and Bergson in connection with man's will,*'to Parmenides and Heraclitus to point up the duality of being as between the cognitive-constant and the aesthetic-flux; and to the difference between Aristotelean physics and Newtonian physics, to illustrate the consequences of a purely "common-sense" approach to reality.

It is hard to think of another commanding Torah figure in recent memory whose intellectual credentials in both the Torah and general fields are so well-grounded, authoritative and carefully integrated.

It would be unfair, however, to omit reference to another aspect of Rav Soloveitchik's uniqueness which has not received

Abraham R. Besdin

Reflections of the Rav— Lessons in Jewish Thought Adapted from lectures of Rabbi Yoseph Dov Soloveitchik

Published by the Jewish Agency, Jerusalem, 1979

Rabbi Spero is spiritual leader of the Young Israel of Cleveland.

57

adequate attention. He is the only Torah scholar of stature who is aware of the category of the aesthetic; is philosophically appreciative of it; and is himself a practitioner of the arts as poet and dramatist. For his lectures exhibit not only truth but beauty which, contrary to Keats, are not synonymous. Of course, in wielding his funnel, Rabbi Besdin could not, as he himself indicates, preserve the drama of the Rav's presentations, nor the complexity of the original thought while it was attached to its many-sided off-shoots. But that is as expected.

The very first chapter, entitled "The Three Biblical Names of G-d", is a perfect illustration of Rav Soloveitchik's special talents. Jewish thought does not lack for analysis of the different names of G-d. What characterizes the Rav's ninepage treatise is its clarity and conciseness and the philosophical precision of his language which enables him to state: "Deists believe in Elokim; Theism begins with Havaya." His point is that G-d as Havaya implies continued association with the universe and relationship with man. To address G-d as Adonai, as Abraham did, is to introduce a "proprietory or juridic" concept.

But if G-d "owns" the world, He has a right to impose conditions on its use by man. So that in a sense, "all sinning involves thievery."

With this basic insight, Rav Soloveitchik goes on to explain a certain curious usage by Maimonides, the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, and several important passages in our liturgy.

But most important of all, the Rav enables us to perceive the practical consequences of each name of G-d. Behind each name is a complete concept of G-d and flowing from each concept are specific implications of a practical nature governing man's attitude towards G-d.

Over the years, Rav Soloveitchik has devoted a good deal of attention to the subject of Prayer, its laws, its structure, its sources in the Torah. It is well that Rabbi Besdin has included in Reflections some of the Rav's key concepts on the subject.

Characteristically, prayer is placed for us against the widest possible background. There are four ways by which man can reach out to G-d: intellectually, through study; emotionally, through love of G-d; volitionally, by observance of the moral and ritual Mitzvos; and finally, Prayer, which must be understood as being in a class by itself. Although the material content of Prayer includes elements of all of the first three ways, it is unique in that while the other three are one-directional— man reaches out to G-d—Prayer is a dialogue and reciprocal.

Although G-d may not always respond to our specific prayers, we are assured that He "hears" our prayers. Hence, prayer is a real encounter with G-d who "emerges out of His 58

transcendence." Man in prayer experiences actual fellowship with G-d—which is the ultimate purpose of Prayer—enabling him to resolve his existential alienation and boredom. In a marvelous reconciliation of the opposing views of Rambam (Maimonides) and Ramban (Nachmanides), Rav Soloveitchik suggests that perhaps both start from the premise that prayer is rooted in a sense of tzara, dire straits or despair. Ramban understands tzara to refer to an experience of the group, a public crisis which sometimes takes place in the outer world.

Only in such a situation is man commanded by Torah law to pray. Rambam, however, regards daily life itself as a tzara. Man is constantly in an inner crisis, burdened with a sense of despair and alienation which arises from existence itself.

Hence, Rambam rules that man is under a Torah obligation to pray every day.

This sensitivity of Rav Soloveitchik to man's anxious and vulnerable life situation is apparent in another chapter of Reflections in which Yom Kippurim is compared to Purim in that they both involve the use of goral, throwing of lots. The lots cast reflect man's sense of being the victim of irrational forces, of blind chance which on Purim, on the one hand, should teach man humility, but at the same time could be offered on Yom Kippur as a factor justifying Divine forgiveness. The Rav's abiding appreciation of the human predicament which he sees as one of deep alienation and despair, earned him quite early the label of "existentialist" thinker. Such labels, however, mislead more than they enlighten. The existential flavor of Rav Soloveitchik's thought derives not from his having read Keirkegaard or Heidegger, nor from a desire to be "trendy", but from clear Biblical and Rabbinic sources to which a sensitive cord in the Rav's own personality responds.

Rav Soloveitchik's ability to see a simple concept in its broadest possible terms is demonstrated by his analysis (Chapter VI) of Jewish folk wisdom as embodied in an Aggadic aphorism: "Happy is he who is capable of ignoring abuse; he will escape a hundred evils." On the psychological level, the Rav points out, the ability to ignore negative reaction and abuse depends upon the strength of one's own value system, sense of identity, and self-worth. Those who are "otherdirected" and crave the approval of people around them will hardly have the ego strength or inner resources to ignore abuse. The religious Jew who so often faces a hostile and notunderstanding general society must find strength in his relationship to G-d and in His approval in order to hold fast to his own convictions. Historically, for the Jewish People as a whole, this aphorism is rich in significance. Too often as a people we have found ourselves maligned, humiliated and 59

abused. Homeless, we have had to stand up to the powerful majority religions in different parts of the world and persist in our pride and conviction that ours is the true faith. Even today, for example, to hold fast to our claim to all of Eretz Yisrael requires tremendous backbone and strength of mind in the face of a viciously-orchestrated media campaign. No wonder the Talmud saw fit to preserve a folk adage that speaks so directly and profoundly to the Jewish condition.

Included in this volume is the justly famous teaching of Rav Soloveitchik regarding the proper policy towards interfaith dialogue. Cooperation and interaction between two different faith communities can take place only in social areas of mutual concern—combating poverty, immorality, and m aterialism in which all religions have a stake. In the purely theological realm, however, each faith-community has its own "language" and unique forms to which it is committed in faith. On this level, "dialogue" is meaningless at best, and very possibly counter-productive.

In anticipation of the continuous problem that Jews face in their dual identities as Jews and as citizens of the world, the Torah tells us of the destiny-filled confrontation between Yaakov and Eisov. With astonishing prescience, Yaakov instructs the delegation he sends to greet Eisov in the following way: "When Eisov meets you he will ask: 'To whom do you belong? Where are you going? Whose [animals] are these ahead of you?' " The first two questions relate to the Jew's faith, way of life and spiritual identity. The Torah's answer, provided then and still relevant, is that these matters are the private business of Yaakov, incommensurable and not subject to "dialogue." The third question, however, is to be understood as, "Are you ready to contribute your talents and resources towards the material and social welfare of the general society?" The answer to that question is, "It is a present to my lord Eisov." As Jews we are determined to participate in civil and scientific enterprises and be constructive and useful citizens. Such is the ambivalent nature of our relationship to the outside world.

In discussing Jewish leadership and the exercise of power, Rav Soloveitchik shows that the Torah was uncomfortable with the exercise of political and judicial power by one human being over another. The student-teacher relationship, however, which also results in an exercise of authority and power, was encouraged. This is because the authority of the teacher emerging from his learning and personality is not imposed but freely embraced in affection and respect. Since the student grows and develops under the creative guidance of the teacher, his respect and love for his Rebbe as one who fashions and molds him, is truly boundless. By making available to an

avid public the seminal reflections of one who is indeed the teacher and Rebbe, in the fullest sense, of every modern Orthodox Jew, Rabbi Besdin has earned our deep gratitude.

His selections are judicious and well-balanced, the presentation of ideas straightforward and uncluttered, and the language echoes the Rav's philosophical acuity and sense of structure. All twenty chapters deal with subjects and issues which stand at the very forefront of the Jewish process of selfunderstanding. Reflections of the Rav should be read by every literate Jew.

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YOU!

T h e O rth o d o x U n io n since 1898 is y o u r re p re s e n ta tiv e to th e w o rld at larg e — s p e a k in g o u t o n th e critical issues fa c in g th e Jewish c o m m u n ity , w ith th e v o ic e o f T o ra h an d 3,000 years o f Jewish tra d itio n .

...SHO W YOUR SUPPORT BY JOINING AS AN INDIVIDUAL MEMBER OF THE ORTHODOX U N IO N — FOR ONLY $18.00 PER YEAR. As a m e m b e r, y o u 'll re c e iv e a fre e su b s c rip tio n to Jew ish Life M a g a z in e , Jew ish A c tio n , K ashruth p u b lic a tio n s , a n d m o re .

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION Please e n ro ll m e as an in d iv id u a l m e m b e r o f th e O rth o d o x U n io n . Enclosed p lease fin d m y c h e c k fo r $18.00.

N a m e ....................' . . . u j . • . . . . . ................. . . ......... ..........................

A d dress ........................................................................... ..................................... ,V C ity /S ta te /Z ip . . . . . . . . , ______ . ._________ _______ _______ __. . . . make your tax deductible check or money order payable to: Union of Ortodox Jewish Congregations of America/116 East 27th Street, New York, N.Y. 10016.

A D D Y O U R V O IC E T O O U R S ...

WE’ LL B O TH BE BETTER H EA R D !

people w ho try our brisling sardines in olive oil usually go w ild over our Norway sardines in tom ato sauce and our brisling sardines in water and our skinless and boneless sardines and our anchovies and our kipper snacks and our Colum bia River salmon and our filets o f m ackerel and our tuna in oil or water.

Season. We’re big enough to pack them aH.

Open Season...all year round.

D is trib u te d n a tio n a lly th rough S ea s o n P ro d u cts C orp., Irvington, N.J.

82nd Anniversary

O r th o d o x U n io n N a tio n a l B ie n n ia l C o n v e n tio n

S h e r a t o n B o s t o n H o te l Boston, Massachusetts

T h u rs d a y , N o v e m b e r 2 7 - S u n d a y , N o v e m b e r 3 0 , 1 9 8 0 4 Day - 3 Night all inclusive package only ^239®® per person (double occupancy)

For brochure, program & reservation information write: Orthodox Union, 116 East 21th Street, New York, NY 10016 Please send me more information about the National Convention Name ............. .............. ................ ................. .......... ...... .. ...................... E___ m Address