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©Copyright 2003

MO)l2003 VOlUMEXXXVl/rjO. 5

Sivan 5763 • May 2003 U.S.A.$3.50/Foreign $4.50 ·VOL XXXVI/NO. 5

We join Kial Yisroel in mourning the loss of two Gedoli1n on Sunday, May 18/16 Iyar.

Hagaon Rabbi Michel Feinstein 'r:n Rosh Hayeshiva Yeshivas Beis Yehuda, was niftarin Bnei Brak, at age 96. A gaon and tzaddik of stature associated with earlier generations, he had been an exemplary talmid ofSlutsk, Kletzk, Mir and Brisk. He taught Torah on an advanced level in America and then, from 1952 until the present, in Eretz Yisroel. Reb Michel, as of late, delivered some eighteen shiurim weekly to differ­ent groups of kollel fellows. His legacy includes over 40 volumes of chid­dushim on Churnash and an about-to-be published Sefer Chai Davar on Seder Taharos. He leaves behind a bereaved family and an impov­erished generation.

Haga on Rabbi Tuvia Goldstein '::>":n, Rosh Hayeshiva of Emek Halacha in Baro Park, Brooklyn, was niftar at age 86. A talmid of Baranovitch, Kan1enitz and Mir, he absorbed the derech (outlook and methodolo­gy) of their Roshei Yeshiva, especially the Gaonin1, Rabbi Boru ch Ber Lei­bowitz and Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman. After spending the war years in Siberia, he came to America where he developed a close relationship \Vith Hagaon Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. He said shiurim in Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yaakov Yosef for many years, and then, eventually founded his own yeshiva.

Classic poseik, respected lamdan, teacher to generations of talmidim, he leaves a void that cannot be filled.

FAClNG THE CURRENT CHALLENGES IN ISRAEL

4 6

10

IS 17

A Spiritual Perspective, Rabbi Nissan Wolpin

Economic Assault on the Torah Superstructure, Rabbi Moshe Schapiro

Teaching Churban Europa to our Children, Rabbi Yaakov Feitman

Survivors, Debby Friedman

Shavuos and the Megi/la of Chessed, Rabbi Ahron Rapps

Focus ON TEFILLA

2 I Chazoras HaShatz - When the Chazan Repeats the Shemoneh Esrei:An Invaluable Opportunity,

Rabbi Moshe Hafberstadt

26 Torah in Germany? Rabbi Moshe M. Eisemann

28 Something to Think About, Rabbi Yisroef Rutman

READER'S FORUM

3 2 Terrorism, Sugar Cubes ..• and Sharing the Pain

BOOKS-lN-REVlEW

3 8 A Torah Perspective for Our Challenging Times, by Rabbi Moshe Meir Weiss, reviewed by Rabbi Labish Becker

40 Letters-to-the-Editor

FACING IHE CURRENT CHALLENGES IN ISRAEL

It is almost a cliche, but it must be said anyway: We are living through extraordinary times. On

just about every front, the Jews in Eretz Yisroel are beset with crises: In the area of diplomacy- yes, one does endeavor to make peace with adver­saries, but after Oslo and Camp David, followed by vicious attacks of terror and suicide bombings, is there any basis to trusting Arab declara­tions, agreements and assurances, or political roadmaps proposed by "dis­interested" world powers?

Yes, the workforce in Israel is intelligent, sophisticated, and reliable . . . but tourism is moribund, the economy is ailing, unemployment is at an all-time high, and the shekel is near its all-time low.

As for security, the army is well­equipped, vigilantly on the guard, quick to retaliate with precision. But it is made up primarily of reservists - their stamina is not limitless.

What can keep us going? According to Prime Minister

Sharon, in a speech he delivered on Martyrs' Memorial Day, one of the les­sons of Holocaust is that "security and peace can only be achieved for the

Jews through strength."

The Holocaust as a point of reference for this admonition is, of course, ridiculous. Was Jewish military strength, or lack thereof, a factor in

• We have an

overriding obligation to avoid the pitfall of taking credit for our successes ...

• the annihilation of six million Jews?

Germany was defeated by the com­bined strength of the Allied powers -America, the USSR and Great Britain - after some five years of desperate, relentless struggle, painfully costly in lives, exorbitantly expensive in dollars. Could any degree of strength had made a difference to the Jews of Europe, reducing their loss of lives at the hands of the Germans?

Apply this meaningless message to our current situation, and one won­ders how we are to find guidance in Sharon's words. We certainly owe a boundless debt of gratitude to the members of Tzahal for risking life and limb to protect us over the decades. But is it anything less than a miracle

Nisson Wolpin

that the yishuv in Eretz Yisroel con­tinues to survive, surrounded as it is by a hundred million hostile, hate­filled enemies? Shouldn't we focus on the source of this miracle and rein­force it, if feasible, instead of glory­ing in our military strength?

THE RUCHNIYUS FACTOR

Thirty years ago, after the outbreak of the Yorn Kippur War (Sep­tember '73), Rabbi Moshe Fein­

steiu ?"lit addressed the national con­vention of Agudath Israel of America. He emphasized:

"Especially in this era of Ikvasa diMoshicha, when we are on the very threshold ofMoshiach 's arriva~ we have an overriding obligation to avoid the pitfall of taking credit for our success­es, attributing them to 'kochi ve'otzem yadi - my might and my power.' The final Mishna in Sota describes this era as a time when the honor of Torah will suffer, many economic and material problems will beset us, the young will not respect elders, and there will be no one to rely upon except our Father in Heaven. That is, after suffering mate­rial and spiritual deprivation, we will come to realize that all the underpin­nings that appear to support our many endeavors- ranging from basic human decency and the reliability of govern­ments, to general sobriety and the sol­vency of the national currency - these will prove to be totally unreliable, simply worthless.

"So, then, on wlwm can we depend? We can only rely onAvinu she'ba'Shamayim-

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

our heavenly Fa/her. "All the suffering we endure is

designed to bring us to this ultimate realization, and the sooner we fathom it, the sooner will we be spared further suffering. On the other hand, if we do not grasp this concept, Hashem may well find it necessary to repeat the mes­sage with increased severity, stressing the futility of relying on diplomacy, on the basic decency of other nations, or on our military might. And then, per­haps we will recognize the import of the events. After all, [Reb Moshe pointed out,] during the War of '67, we were exposed to the Hand of G-d. Had we all been fully aware of what we had wit­nessed and the impact of all the stories we had heard, we would not have need­ed this more recent war to awaken us.'' Once again, we are being called

upon to study our current situation .... Must the futility of relying on the decen­cy of others and on our own military prowess be exposed further? "We have no one to rely on but our Father in Heaven:' Isn't it obvious?

INVOKING HASHEMS INVOLVEMENT

The primary protection from the suffering of Ikvesa deMashica, we have been told, is through engag­

ing in chessed and Torah study. While this can be seen as a mandate for each of us to enhance the spiritual content of our lives on an individual basis, it is also the formula for intensifying our nation­al security in Bretz Yisroel.

Time and again, Ghazal have under­scored how our ability to prevail in bat­tle depends on those who are involved in Torah study. (See Makkos !Oa.)'

The Talmud relates: Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai taught, 'If

you have seen cities uprooted in Eretz Yisroel, you should know that [this occurred!* because they did not main­tain the salaries of the teachers of Scrip­ture and Mishna [to the children]. What is the source? "Why did the land perish and become parched like the desert, without a passerby? Hashem has said, 'Because of their forsaking My Torah that I put before them."' (Yir-

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

miyahu 9, 11-12) Rabbi Yehuda the Nasi sent Rav

Chiya, Rav Assi, and Rav Ami to trav­el through the cities of the Land of lsr<ud [to establish teachers of Scripture and Mishna for the children there]. They entered a particular city and found no teachers at alL

They said {to the leaders of the city]: "Bring before us the guardians of the city." They brought the centurions (armed guards).

Said the rabbis: "These are the guardians of the city? They are noth­ing but the destroyers of the city!"

The leaders asked, "Then who are the guardians of the city?

They replied, "The teachers of

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this 9.c:>nCept, · .Hqsh~f1'1 rnav W$11 fi~dif··~~ces~dry

··to repeotthe rn~ssage

• Scripture and Mishna, as is written (in Tehillim 127,1): 'If Hashem will not build the house, in vain do its builders labor on it; if Hashem will not guard the city, in vain is the watchman vigilant ... " (Yerushalmi, Chagiga ch. 1, hal. 7). The message of the rabbinical dele­

gation's response is clear: If the people of a city invest their trust in the military guards, and ignore the Torah needs of the populace, that misplaced trust will be the cause of the city's destruction.

In the article that follows, we will focus on how we have experienced a phenomenal growth in Torah study and scholarship in Bretz Yisroel in the past few decades, and how this is now being threatened. As will be pointed out, this

growth is the product of many factors - among them, financial support from the Israeli government. The fact that this support is going to be radically reduced may at first be shocking. Con­sidering, however, that the Chareidi community is but a minority, and tak­ing into account the virulently hostile attitude toward Torah and mitzva observance harbored by the secular parties in control of the government, this shock may simply be a jolt that wakes us up to a long-standing reality {as has been discussed at length in recent issues of)O). The government's long-term support of Torah over the years may have had its political moti­vations, but their largesse cannot be guaranteed forever.

Our purpose in spelling this out once again, then, is to sound an alarm, and - at the same time - to wake us up to a deeper reality. The details in the article that follows will make it apparent that both the neshama and the body of Kial Yisroel- its spiritual status and its phys­ical security - are under enormous threat.

We are truly helpless without Hashem's divine intervention - all the pride and confidence broadcast by Israel's military and political leadership notwithstanding. And investing our hope in the "Centurions" instead of in the "Torah Guardians of the City" is not only folly, it can be catastrophic.

We can only depend on Avinu she'ba'Shamayim. And He in turn is looking to us to continue to engage in Torah study and to promote its spread. How do we increase our own awareness of this deeper reality? And how do we spread this awareness among the mul­titudes of Israeli citizens - many of them open to our message?

Bear these thoughts in mind, as you read the pages that follow. •

* Rabbi Yeho~hu~~ Levi said, "What is the meaning of: 'Our feet were standing in your gates, Jerusalem'? (Tehillim 122,2) Who caused us to prevail in battle? The gates of Jerusalem -wher­ever they were engaged in the study of Torah." Makkos lOa.

** Bracketed explanations are from the com­mentary Korban Ha'eida.

5

FACING THE CURRENT CHALLENGES IN ISRAEL

I. OF GROWTH AND THREAT

In the last twenty-five years, Torah study has flourished in Bretz Yisroel to an unprecedented degree. As a

result, we now are living in a golden age of Torah erudition and widespread religious observance. Never since the times of the Second Beis Hamikdash have so many Jews in so many different parts of the country lived their lives in accordance with the precepts of Torah and halacha. Never have so many ded­icated so much of their time to full-time Torah study. Never have so many reli­giously alienated Jews returned to a Torah way of life.

Twenty years from now, if all turns out well, we will realize that that which we have been witnessing is actually his­tory in the making. But at this particu­lar moment, the future looks bleak, since there is a strong danger that everything that has been achieved in the past two decades will be destroyed.

I am referring to a set of drastic eco­nomic measures being legislated at this very moment by the Israeli government, which will make it impossible for many of the people who are to a large extent responsible for this religious revolution to continue their work. The direct result will be rnthe end of the flower­ing of Torah in Bretz Yisroel.

Are members of the Torah commu­nity the only residents of this country who will be negatively affected by the current economic measures? No, that is not the case. But whether by design or coincidence, the plan happens to severe­ly and disproportionately incapacitate every single important pillar upon which the Torah community stands. And every member of the family unit will feel the effects.

Kolle! families lead a precarious existence as it is, but most manage to get by. The wives usually work, and togeth-

Moshe Schapiro is a journalist who lives in Jerusalem. His byline appears in a number of English~language publications around the globe including the English language Yated Ne'eman, where he is a regular columnist. A frequent con~ tributor to these pages, he was last represented by "Our Generation's TzaddikofJerusalem: Rabbi Refoel Binyan1in Levine, ':r::it" (May '02).

6

Economif Assault

on the Torah Superstructtri'e er with the husbands' kollel stipend and after-hours odd jobs, plus the monthly child allowance payments from Bituach Leumi, they make ends meet.

Housing is still a problem for young couples, but until now, most young cou­ples could take out a heavily subsidized government mortgage and buy a decent apartment in a new development area.

Sometimes the refrigerator is not

Moshe Schapiro

bursting with surplus food, but all in all, if they live intelligently and prudently, a young couple can remain part of the kollel scene for many years.

The Dynamo Behind the Revolution

This institution called "the kollel way oflife" is the dynamo that is running Israel's religious revolu­

tion. Kollel-men-volunteers are the life­force of such kiruv organizations as Lev I:Achim and Arachim. They are the teachers, the tutors, the big brothers.

The young kollel wives are the fac­ulty members who staff Chinuch Atz­mai schools across the country side and who teach the secular children enrolled by Lev r: Achim how to say Krias Shema. If these kollel wives didn't exist, some­one would have to invent them, because they and their husbands are the prime resources for strength, determination, and sheer Yiras Hashem needed to educate tough secular children and turn them into mentschen.

Without those teachers, there would not be any Chinuch Atzmai kiruv schools, and without those kiruv schools, there would not be any enroll­ment drives, and without the enrollment drives, there would not be the many fresh baalei teshuva coming into the Torah world.

The New Economic Strangulation

It is undeniable that the State of Israel is in economic crisis and that the country's bloated budget must be

slashed. The Chareidi community accepts that reality. But when one sees where the cuts are directed and how cruel they are, one must question the motives of the slashers.

As a result of the government's dras­tic economic measures, Chinuch Atz­mai's allotment of teaching hours has been cut by ten percent - an over­whelming total of $I 0 million. The Torah school network will have no choice but to lay off 700 teachers.

The ripple effect of this one economic

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

sanction alone is staggering. For one, it means that at a time when the Chinuch Atzmai network is in a growth pattern, it must ask: "Where will all those new thousands of secular children be enrolled? What will secular parents who are seriously considering enrolling their kids into Chinuch Atzmai schools think when they discover that in order to contend with the cut in teachers, dif­ferent grades will have to be combined into one class, and on some days chil­dren will be dismissed from school at 11 :00 in the morning? And what will happen to the teshuva movement when secular parents stop enrolling their children into Torah schools?"

Exactly. It will sputter and die.

Attacking the Kolle! System

Other serious economic sanc­tions are severely affecting the Torah community. The pro­

posed budget would have a dispropor­tionately negative impact on yeshivas and seminaries, as compared with other educational institutions. University stu­dents' tuition stipends were increased by 17% last year and will remain the same under the new economic plan. But reli­gious institutions' grants, which were cut by 10% last year, will be cut an additional I 0% this year- as part of an across-the­board downsizing of ministries, includ­ing the Religious Affairs Ministry- if the plan is enacted. What is more, the budg­et proposal includes a further I 0% cut in all allotments provided in the form of the grants that go toward the salaries of religious institutions.

The budget proposal would also cancel all government support for yeshivas and religious high schools with fewer than 100 students - eliminating nearly one third of Israel's yeshivas from the assistance rolls. So-called "senior" yeshiva students (those above the age of 23) would see their monthly stipends cut in half; stipends to those over 27 would be eliminated entirely. In other words, the scholars with the potential for Torah greatness will be cut off, period.

Another new edict cancels funding for

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

yeshiva and kollel students with foreign citizenship. There are currently 16,000 foreign students studying in yeshivas and seminaries. It's not difficult to imagine how this will affect yeshivas such as Mir­Yerushalayim, whose enrollment includes some six hundred young men answering to this criterion. (Don't the designers of this edict realize - or care - that foreign students and their visit­ing relatives are responsible for a steady flow of foreign currencies to Israel, in a measure that compensates for the expense of subsidizing their education? Future economic studies will doubtless list this as a classic case of cutting off the nose to spite the face. Is there a better way to explain this shortsightedness than to say that the secularists are ready to make this sacrifice in order to win the battle against the growth of the Torah yishuv?)

In the short-term, many kollelim could be forced to shut down. And unless a solution can be found for the continuing expansion of Chinuch Atz­mai's kiruv schools, the teshuva move­ment could go into a state of suspend­ed animation - or sharp decline.

If this worst-case scenario material­izes, it could well change the face of Bretz Yisroel for the worse in a very significant way. Learning full-time could cease to be a viable choice for young couples, and could come to be regarded as something reserved for yechidei segula (the chosen few) who have rich parents willing to support them, or the exclusive domain of those with an other-worldly dedica­tion that has roots in I 9'h century East­ern Europe, but is not common in this time and place.

This could rn be the beginning of the end for the golden era of Torah study in Bretz YisroeL Unless, that is, the world Torah community - but primarily the American community, whose generos­ity dwarfs that of all the other Torah communities in the world - undertakes to do something about it right now. But even these resources would be inade­quate for the scores of millions of dol­lars needed.At the very least, this could prove to be the way for a broad cross sec­tion of Torah Jews in America - and Europe too - to acquire a significant

Facts anti Figures 1'ot}ll govet11~ fonds budgeted

for all'Torah mosdos as of Jan. 2002: NIS l ,2 !31llion. Wrtlltuts, govet'nment supl>O(tw.ill go down to NIS250 mil.­lion, Cut of app, 00%.

Tot~I . pu mber of re~ognized rorah/'!IOSCfoS~oftoday:2,0CJ\'l.After 100.S~~ijent mlniltlum requirement tor f!lpding, only 500 will remain.

!()talnumb~t ofavreichit.n (kol­lel feH\)WS) toclay:; 43,()Q().4Si~·. ()f th~;~.()()().,26,00\l vvill !oseaH fuhc!­Jngbecause they are over 21 years Of age, An additi9rial 15,!>00"17,000 ~n the ages23-27wlUl6sehalf of their fundlnJi. Only some 6,000 avr~ii.bim, undetthll!l!!}eof 23, will r~ll!i.ve full funtlipg.

Total. number()fforeign students in l<wle/s, ye51Ji\ll)s <ind se1t1inaries: .16,00.0.~undlng.foral.1.o~th~ltlhas alre'l!lY Ileen G<1nce!ed alto!il~her.

Ftjf!ding for.120,000 istlJdents e.111°(/1~ in yesh[ltbfketanos.yeshiv· os tftllpni1m, ~~and S()i\'\e sem­inaries: ~riceflel:laltogether. Not a sin!lk\ penny ll!malos. Out of 30 sem­inar~ !)f!IY S.wil(.cQ!'rtioue to.~;ve fundln!i/• ·. . •.. < .· .·•·.··.·· .. •• ·.. . ••..

~emlo~ries 1Jf!dutp<1not: 66, 118 ~t~!~f6~~:~~jlyfun~ed.~m go

.To.fa I studen~s ln aU m9~dos of Tora!),. lpdudlri~ l<mlelif.n, runded before the cuts: :!16;000; After cuts, 79,687.

portion of Taras Bretz Yisroel. Or unless some serious, protracted

negotiations take place between spokesmen for the Torah community and government leaders.

II. THE HUMAN DIMENSION

We recognize Torah study as central to our national iden­tity and crucial to our people's

security. While we might expect the chiloni leadership to respect our involve­ment and dedication to Torah as being a national treasure, or as a precious lega­cy from the past, we cannot rely on them to extend themselves financially to keep Torah afloat. The bias against

7

Torah scholars as compared to univer­sity students (noted above) is obvious, but it is not unexpected. There is, how­ever, a human dimension to this situ­ation that we must make note of, and which should shake up the chiloni'im as well, no matter what their ideological orientation.

The fact that Chinuch Atzmai will be forced to lay off 700 teachers means that 700 households have now been plunged into an ea:momically impossible situation, because the main wage earner has sud­denly found out that he or she has joined the ranks oflsrael's 300,000 unemployed in an economy where there are virtually no jobs to be had.

The drastic reduction of kollelim, the proposed ceiling of age 27 for recognized kollel members, the disqualification of kol­lelim ofless than 100 members, and other such arbitrary cuts boil down to thou­sands of kollel students in their late 20s, whose wives may very well be among the 700 teachers laid off by Chinuch Atzmai, suddenly discovering that they are no

longer eligible to receive kollel stipends. That makes two strikes in very rapid suc­cession.

To this, add the 75 percent reduction in Bituach Leumt's Kitzvat Yeladim pay­ment to needy families with more than four children. For a family with six chil­dren', for example, that would amount to losing approximately $1,000 from their monthly income. Bear in mind that this is all happening simultaneously. At this point the readers are invited to put them­selves in their shoes: Yesterday you were managing, today you're facing financial ruin. And your friends, relatives, and neighbors are no better off

For young couples who married recently, the government has another sur­prise in store: the cancellation of subsi­dized mortgages for young couples. Sud­denly housing is a whole new consideration. Even if the yeshiva boy and Bais Yaakov girl who just got married somehow raise enough money for the down payment on their apartment in a development area, how can they possibly

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pay the mortgage when there are no job opportunities for her, and his days in kol­lel are numbered?

When they have children, how will they feed and clothe them without Bitu­ach Leumi? How will they send them to school, now that the government has can­celled transportation subsidies for stu­dents commuting to schools outside of their immediate neighborhood? (This is another hardship, not mentioned earli­er.)

What is paralyzing about these eco­nomic sanctions is that they are being leg­islated simultaneously. Each one alone is serious in its own right, but the effect of getting hit by all of them together is sim­ply overwhelming, certainly a complete­ly new reality.

The immediate result will be thou­sands ofkollel families being plunged into a state of abject poverty - this means hunger and homelessness, not just an overdraft in the bank- even if both spous­es start immediately looking for jobs -which don't exist, anyway.

It is inconceivable that any other seg­ment of the population would be so sum­marily, drastically and precipitously dis­enfranchised, with neither warning, gradualism, nor some kind of cushion or safety net to soften the blow. It stretches credibility to say that the designers of these cuts were unaware of their far-reaching implications. They knew! Such indiffer­ence spells callousness and cruelty, which are simply alien to the Jewish psyche.

Yet, in keeping with the Ghazal, "Hatred distorts one's line of reasoning;' their often articulated hostility to Torah has apparently blinded them to the human dimension of these targeted financial cutbacks, which are totally out of line when compared to finan­cial reductions in any other areas of the State's budget.

*There are currently 1.16 million Israeli citizens living below the poverty line, and government researchers estimate that the budget cuts under consideration will add an additional 20,000 peo­ple - leaving 661,000 children destitute. A fam­ily with four children will receive nearly 9,000 shekels less per year than in the past; and larger families - which more often than not are already facing serious financial pressures -stand to lose much more: a family with eight chil­dren, more than 37,000shekels annually; one with ten children, nearly 60,000 shekels.

The Jewish observer, May 2003

Other Ramifications

One wonders how the designers of these draconian cuts could be unaware of other ramifications of

their projected cuts targeted against the Chareidim. Do they truly want to force the exile of Torah study from Eretz Yis­roel, and to compel serious students of Torah to transfer their pursuit of Torah knowledge to other countries?

Do they really wish to formalize the split between the Torah community and the secularists, and to put the State of Israel firmly on one side of the divide? Is an all-out, no-holds-barred fight against Torah their real agenda?

Are they ready to surrender to the Israeli-Arab population explosion, and permit Bnei Yishmael to determine the demographic character of the State in the next generation? (Or do they expect to maintain a "Jewish" majori­ty through non-Jewish Russian immi­gration, as) indeed, Prime Minister Sharon implied in a recent ferusalen1 Post interview?)

Torah concerns are of top priority to us. Even if one or another crisis area will be ameliorated, the total picture of threat to Torah viability in Israel looms large. Hopefully, these issues should be recog­nized as legitimate, and be met by those in control of current government - if not for sharing com1non cause with us, then at least on the basis of enlightened self­interest. B

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9

Why it must be done now

In two years, the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz will be commemorated. It will be a bitter­

sweet occasion. The pain is still fresh, the wound unhealed and gaping. But we have more than survived as a nation. We are, thank G-d, flourishing and the Nazis are gone. And yet, we must now grap­ple with the question: who will be left to commemorate it at all?

Let's do the math. If someone was, let us say, ten years old at liberation -arguably the youngest to have mean­ingful memories - they will be seventy in time for the anniversary. Most of the survivors, however, are much older. Or gone. My parents 7·-,n are no longer here, nor are most of their generation. To be sure, others can - and very soon will have to-tell the story. But there is noth­ing like the tale of a survivor. Nothing can match the passion, the pathos, the horror, the immediacy, and - most importantly - the credibility of a sur­vivor.

They are perhaps the most endan-Rabbi Feitman, Rav of Kehillas Bais Yehuda in Cedarhurst, N. Y., a well-known lecturer and author, is a frequent contributor to these pages. He teaches, among other courses, "Churban Europa - the Holocaust" at Reenas Bais Yaakov High School in Hewlitt, N.Y.

10

gered species on the face of the earth. And there is tragically nothing we can do about it. We can treasure them, nur­ture them, and pray for them. But above all, strange though it sounds, we must use them. We have but one more short generation when we can teach Churban Europa with the great moral authority of people with numbers on their arms. Yes, many of them have been recorded on videotape, but tapes cannot answers questions and they cannot refute deniers.

I. WHAT HAS TAKEN SO WNG?

For nearly a generation, very little was written or spoken about this Churban in Kial Yisroel. And then

the floodgates opened. Why the silence then, why the torrent of words now? Our Gedolim have given a number of answers. Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe, N"1""1!1 has taught us that the manhigei hador (leaders of the generation) immediately after the Churban felt that explanations, hashkafa and interpretations of the Churban were a part of the rule of "Hanistaros LaHashem Elokeinu. The secrets of G-d must remain with Him:' (Devarim 29.28) These answers will in truth not be known until Moshiach arrives. There-

Rabbi Yaakov Feitman

fore, the mandate of that generation was to concentrate on the things that fall under the rubric of"Haniglos lanu ule'­vaneinu- That which has been revealed and given to man." 1

It was a time to rebuild, to start fam­ilies, to engage in LIFE. And so, the zekeinim did not engage in theology or explication. They simply allowed the present to become the future without dwelling upon the painful past. In their wisdom, the Gedolim knew that too much preoccupation with death and the past would paralyze the colossal task which had to be undertaken - literally the recreation of the Jewish world. Ghaz­al tell us that "there is a Heavenly decree that one forgets about the tragedy of a death so that life can go on:'2 It is clear from our sages that without a special divine edict, man could be emotional­ly crippled by the catastrophe of a death

1 See "Te.achi~g Churban E~rop~ Our Chil­dren," edited by Rabbi Joseph Elias, page 5. This important booklet published by Torah Umeso­rah, includes the entire next of the Novominsker Rebbe's address on Rosh Chodesh Av 5760, set­ting forth the philosophy of a curriculum for teaching Churban Europa. All of the quotes from the Rebbe in this article are taken from that speech but this presentation incorporates other approaches as well. 2 See Bereishis Rabba 84, 19 and Rash~ Bereishis 37,35.

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

in the family. Multiply this by the cat­aclysmic results of Churban Europa, and one must indeed marvel at the miracle of rebirth and revival.

This triumph over death is actually a dual one. In the late 1940's, my Rebbe, Rabbi Hutner ?··~r, once greeted a recently arrived survivor by standing up and declaring, "If you lived through the war and the camps and you still cover your head, you are truly a great tzaddik:' The miracle of Jewish renewal after the Holocaust reflects the fact that we sur­vived physically, but also the amazing spiritual resilience of the Jewish people. Our faith also survived, and that is both a tribute to the Jewish people and some­thing for which to be grateful to G-d. Rabbi Dessler teaches that when the Tochacha ends with the words "Despite all this ... , I will not find you abominable to destroy you," this refers to our spir­itual state as well. G-d has always made sure to preserve our spiritual status as well as guarding the actual existence of Israel. 3

At the most recent convention of Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Chaim Dov Keller, Rosh HaYeshiva of Telshe Chicago, recounted eloquently the herculean labors of Rabbi Aharon Kotler, Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch, Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz and the other great builders of Torah, who miracu­lously did spiritual CPR upon a gasp­ing nation. This could not have been done while wearing shrouds in a grave­yard, with but Kaddish on their lips. The events of the Ch urban had to be set aside - temporarily, but decisively - so the Jewish world could be rebuilt. This is one explanation for the silence of the post­Churban generation.

The Silencing Factor of Pain

!believe that another answer is based upon an insight taught to us by Rabbi Mordechai Gifter ?"Oil, the

Telzer Rosh Ha Yeshiva. The Midrash4

records that Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi

3See Mid~-t;v M'EliYa-hu, Voi~I·: p. 233; II, p. ioO: 148; III, p. 47; lV, p. 26 4 Eicha Rabba, Ch. III, section 4 (Wagshall ed., p. 117).

explained a certain verse in Eicha twen­ty-four different ways. Just one gener­ation later, Rabbi Yochanan was able to explain the same verse in sixty ways. Why the discrepancy? Our sages explain that Rebbe, who was one generation clos­er to the Churban, was only able to dis­cuss the tragedy intellectually until he had derived twenty-four interpreta­tions. He would then break down and weep. Rabbi Yochanan, just a generation 5-R~bbi Mo~-d.~chai Gift~~r, "A Path~ Through .. the Ashes," in A Pash Through the Ashes, edited by Rabbi Nisson Wolpin, ArtScroll, 1986, p. 57

later, was that much more removed from the sensations of the event and was able to discuss and analyze the same verse without such emotional upheaval.

Rabbi Gifter used this Midrash to criticize the "emotional bankruptcy" that permits us to speak so casually about the Churban Europa.5 This Midrash, how­ever, may also help us understand the relative silence of our Gedolim during the two decades or so after the Holo­caust. Their quiescence resulted from a profound state of aveilus for a lost world and the spiritual grandeur that disap-

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peared with it. Aharon's response to the tragic death of his sons was silence ( Vayikra J 0,3), and Yechezkel (24,17) was con1manded to "be silent fro1n groan­ing" upon the sorrowful passing of his wife. Sometimes silence is the most elo­quent of elegies.

Time to Rebuild: An Overriding Priority

We may conclude that the silence of a generation, far from a precedent, was a life­

affirming imperative. That silence was both therapeutic and psychologically

12

indispensable. I remember attending annnal hazkaros (memorial gatherings) with my parent in the 1950s for their decimated cities of Chust, Czechoslo­vakia, and Strzemiashitz, Poland. There were a few of us~ the Second Genera­tion - because families were small. Most of us didn't know it at the time, but we were the New Children, the Substitute Children, the Children on Earth. Our parents- older than that typical Amer­ican parents - reminisced about der heim, recalled the world that was, and invariably returned rapidly to the pres­ent. To dwell on the past was painful, but

more i1nportantly, no one could remain sane, smile, laugh, and be a normal par­ent with images of smokestacks and cre­matoria in front of their eyes. The mitz­va was to rebuild, to grow families, to triumph over death and the icy hand of Amalek that threatened to destroy them even now fro1n the grave. Therefore, there was no Holocaust talk on the way home. There was no follow-up on the hazkara except to lament that Reb Yos­sel had passed away, or how well Mrs. Goldberg looked today. Then back to life.

That heroic and gallant generation has done its job. They rebuilt upon the still smoldering ashes, and produced children who today are attending their own grandchildren's simchos. But the time has finally come to confront the issues and educate future generations about what happened and - of course, here is the challenge - why it happened, to the extent that we are capable of extracting this terrifying secret of Chur­ban Europa.

I recall one Torah Umesorah con­vention at the annual session when we were privileged to ask Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetzky 7"'.lll our hashkafa questions. One principal rose and inquired, "Rebbe, how do we explain the Holocaust to our children?" Reb Yaakov responded sharply with a query of his own: "Und ihr farshteit yeh? (And you yourself do understand?)" Reb Yaakov, in his wis­dom, picked up on a psychological crutch upon which we often lean. When something is beyond our comprehen­sion but unco1nfortable to explore) we make it a "Chinuch question:' Let's put it on the children. In truth, that princi­pal merely reflected the reality that twen­ty" five years ago, this was a subject rarely explored or properly elucidated.

II. THE MANDATE TO TEACH - NOW

Dealing with Anti-Semitism

0 ne of the most crucial reasons to teach about Churban Europa at the present time relates to the

dangerous new trend in world anti-

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

Semitism. Organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League ofB'nai Brith and the Wiesenthal Center have been marshalling alarming statistics indicat­ing the rapid proliferation of anti-Jew­ish incidents around the globe. Radical Islam has proven itself to be the source of deadly attacks against the Jews in gen­eral, not just the State of Israel. Anti­Semitic tracts such as Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion have become best sellers and beguiled a new generation of compliant readers. Our children need to understand these phe­no1nena in the ancient context of "Halacha b'yadua sheEisav sonei l'Yaakov - It is the Law that Eisav hates Yaakov."6

And Yishmael is an eager partner. They adopt new guises from gener­

ation to generation and fron1 setting to setting. They may call it Pan-Arab ism or anti-colonialism. They 1nay be campus liberals or Bible-belt reactionaries. Their target, under whatever banner, is Jews, and we must learn to accept it as part of our destiny as the children ofYaakov. Most importantly, the metastasizing of anti-Semitism should be an impetus to teshuva, if we have the wisdom and courage to recognize vvhat is happening before our eyes.

But there are other reasons to begin teaching Churban Europa now. The Holocaust deniers are growing in strength and numbers7 and those who 1nisinterpret, distort and pervert its meaning and message are publishing and publicizing their dangerous fabri­cations at every opportunity.

Sharing the Pain

Another reason to study the Chur­ban is to teach children to be n1itzta'er b'tzarasan1 she! Yisroel­

to share the pain and suffering of Kial Yisroel. The Rambam (Hilchos Teshuva 3,11) writes severely of those who 6 sij~i:iie1ia'a1o;·c11~9:i.o; Rasf;·;-;;~;i;his-33,4~ 7 See Deborah Lipstadt, [)enying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Men101y (N. Y.: Plun1e Publishing); Ted Gottfried, Deniers of the Jfolocaust: Who they are, what they do, why ther do it (Connecticut: Brookfield); Werner Cohn, Partners in Hate: Noa111 Chon1sky and the J-folo­caust Deniers?

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

"abandon the ways of the congregation of Israel;' including in this category those who do not feel the anguish of the community. Our children have become disconnected from this catastrophic event and we must help them become aware of the scope of the tragedy, which befell us so recently, yet seems so distant to a generation largely unmoved by what is now known as the Holocaust. I have seen young people complete a Holocaust Museum tour without a tear or even a shudder. A Torah curriculum on this matter would include the man­date to share, at least retrospectively, the profound pain of those who were there.

Refuting the Falsehoods

One must add at this point a somewhat parenthetical note, which carries an urgency of its

own. It is well known that a virtual Holocaust Industry has been created by this latest Churban. Thousands of books, nu1nerous films, museums, lec­tures and experts vie for the attention of those who do express interest in this subject.

From the Torah standpoint, a great deal of this media onslaught is based upon ignorance, heresy and often driv­en by various agendas, which lead to misunderstanding of one of the most seminal events of Jewish history and cer-

tainly of our time. Now that Gedolei Yis­roe/ have indeed granted us insights into the Churban, a vehicle must be created to allow this generation to study and absorb their \vords.

To Bear Witness, and Let Others Explain

And here we come to one of the 1nore sensitive issues regarding this curriculu1n. On the one

hand, as we have seen, the survivors are the key to establishing the credibility and emotional impact of the Churban. Yet, paradoxically, they are often not the best ones to determine the guidelines, approaches and hashkafos we must teach to our children. The very author­ity and impact that survivors alone can offer is often their disqualifying factor, as well.

It is well known - certainly to speak­ers who have had the misfortune of say­ing the wrong thing to the wrong audi­ence - that survivors abhor any exposition of the Holocaust even remotely using the terminology of reward and punishment, certainly con­sidered cornerstones of Torah philoso­phy. The reason for this abhorrence is that, of course, such talk hurts. We are not talking of someone who was killed in 1096, 1492 or 1648. We seem to be indicting someone's mother, husband or child.

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13

The Individual and the Greater Nation

In truth, we are doing no such thing, for even the approaches to the Churban that speak of retribution,

or Hashem>s rescuing us from spiritual extinction, do not indict any individual. On the contrary, all Torah perspectives recognize that "when the Angel of Death is given free reign, he makes no distinction between the righteous and the wicked" (Bava Kamma 60a). Under­standably, however, to a survivor, this is often not enough. Such talk feels like an attack, which requires a response. The discussion deteriorates into recrimina­tions and misunderstandings, and sadly all dialogue becomes impossible

Nevertheless, such approaches and issues must be discussed; otherwise we rob the Churban of all meaning and cheat the kedoshim of one of the most significant and meaningful aspects of their martyrdom - our ability to learn from this event. As Rabbi Dessler has taught us, "The ways of G-d's Providence

are beyond our understanding, and only this we know- that the ways of G-d are just. On the other hand, they require study to know our duties that the ways of His governance come to teach us."8

Our Gedolim have taught us that Kial Yisroel"was meant to go through world history and keep alive the teachings of Hakadosh Baruch Hu .... When we fall short. .. the middas hadin of Hakadosh Baruch Hu enters the scene to recall us to our noble task and make us rectify our failings:' They have referred to the "indisputable decline" in Kial YisroeI's spiritual stature since the advent of the Haskala movement, and the prediction of its consequences in writings such as the Meshech Chachma and the Ramchal. The details of this analysis of)ewish his­tory are certainly beyond the scope of this limited article. Suffice it to say that our Gedolim have taught us that accept­ing some sense of responsibility for our fate in major events is unavoidable for the believing Jew. A more thorough

SSee Michtav Af'Eliyai1u, Vol. III, P. 133.

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exploration of this accountability actu­ally forms the most essential part of the hashkafa portion of the Holocaust cur­riculum itself.

A Context for Fundamental Teachings

Studying Churban Europa in depth with a teacher properly trained in this sensitive subject provides

many opportunities to disseminate fun­damental teachings of Judaism in a con­text that can be replicated in many areas of Torah hashkafa. In this article, we can only touch upon tbese essentials, for indeed their detailed analysis is reserved for the curriculum itself.

Tzidduk Hadin - teaching children the elemental lesson of accepting the will of G-d. This applies both to personal events and to a decree upon Kial Yisroel. Stressing this topic inculcates in children the paramount instruction that what­ever Hashem does is purposeful and for the best. Understanding and incorpo­rating this teaching alone would justi­fy such a curriculum.

The interconnection of all of Jewish history - Learning that what had hap­pened during World War II was not an isolated phenomenon or singular event, but part of the pattern of Jewish histo­ry is one of the most important lessons of Torah hashkafa.

Appreciating the loss -A Torah-true Holocaust curriculum details the hor -rific tragedy of losing a thousand-year tradition of yeshivas, kehillos, minhagim and family structure. Only intensive study of this lost world can help us appreciate the incredible parameters of the tragedy.

Spiritual heroism - While no one denigrates those who resisted the Nazis with whatever methods available, the world has until recently totally ignored the astonishing courage demonstrated by those who blew shofar in Auschwitz, lit Chanuka candles in Bergen-Belsen, and all those who maintained their faith in that purgatory. There are lessons here in Kiddush Hashem for a lifetime.

Disappointment in the gentiles -Rabbi Hutner ':>":n taught us that one of the prime lessons of Jewish history is

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

learning not to be enamored of the gen­tiles and their ways by recognizing their unreliability throughout the ages. The Churban is certainly an eloquent tem­plate to discover and study the failure of western civilization to contain or even resist the Nazi genocide.

The difference Torah makes - The sad saga of traditional American Jew­ish organizations and their apathy compared with the heroic story of the Vaad Hahatzolah and Agudas Yisroel teaches that Torah study does not merely create scholars but, when nec­essary, cultivates the most successful activism the world has even known.

Ashreichem - Rabbi Pam 7"on insist­ed that study of the Holocaust end on the positive note of the greatness of Kial Yisroel. The astounding rebirth of Torah after the Churban, the miraculous and heartening resurgence of the She' eiris Hapeleita (the community of Survivors), the heroism of Rabbi Aharon Kotler and others in rebuilding is a story worthy of inspiring all future generation, but must be told in the context of the Churban.

It is to accomplish these goals and many more that Torah Umesorah cre­ated the Zechor Yemos Olam Program. Under the leadership of Rabbi Joseph Elias, the historic work of training teach­ers to present Churban Europa has begun. As Rabbi Elias, the Education­al Director, has written, "There is a great deal of caution needed in proceeding with these studies," but on the other hand, "studying Churban Europa can be a potential source of beracha and revival of Torah:' As one who is privi­leged to have presented some of the pio­neering lectures in this new era of teacher training, I can attest to the tremendous interest in this curriculum and the thirst for guidance in present­ing the hashkafa of this Churban.

The Gedolim have spoken and given their enthusiastic endorsement to this important

new Torah endeavor. It is now up to yeshivos, Day Schools and parents to implement a program that Rabbi Pam promised can bring great blessing to all of Kial Yisroel. •

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

SURVIVORS Debby Friedman

There I was, a little girl of five, sitting on my mother's lap. The Shabbos candles had been lit.

Mommy's tears, still shimmering on her gentle face, framed her smile to me.

"Come, Bruchele," she said. "Let me tell you about my Mamma and sisters and brother, and also about Bobb.a Esther and Zaida Elya and .... " The list would continue. A long list of beloved relatives gassed in Auschwitz. A list of people I knew only by name. People who would have loved me so much and whom I would have loved had they survived as my mother did. A sole survivor from a family in Auschwitz.

And then I was eight and I was very skinny and we learned about rickets and my .class­

mates started to point at me and tease me. "You have r1cketsl You have rickets!" I cried and I ran home to Mommy and I told her, "I have rick­ets!" She laughed and sa1d, "You're skinny, bu.t you don't have rickets." And then she hugged me and gave me chocolate milk arid smoothed my hair and as she laughed and hugged me and comforted me.

I wondered who laughed with and hugged and comforted her when she was scared - this sole survivor from a famlly in Auschwitz.

And then I was ten and a new girl came to our class and everyone made fun of her

because she had a fUnny name and she wore funny clothes and they said

that no one should be her friend. So she sat .all alone and played all alone and walked all alone. Then I saw that

she was nice so I sat with her and played With her and walked with her,

too. And then my classmates said no one should play with me and I cried and I ran home and told myMommy what had happened and Mommy soothed me and said she was proud

of me and that I made Hashem happy.

As she caressed me and hugged me and comforted me, I wondered who caressed and hugged and com­

forted my Mommy when she was hurt - this sole survivor from a fam­ily in Auschwitz.

And then I was 16 and I was watching a film about the Holocaust and I saw pictures

of stal'ving Jews and pictures of dying

Jews. and I saw children crying and mothers crying and I saw piles of clothes and piles of shoes and piles

of bones and so many trains, so many tracks and barbed wire fences and barking dogs and barking Nazis. And I saw eyes that were dead and then,

for a split second, I saw myself there in Auschwitz.

Then I knew I was there and I ran to my Mommy an.d I hugged her and I caressed her and I comforted her­me, a soul survivor from a family in Auschwitz.

Mrs. _Friedman teaches _in the Bais Yaakov_ Tiferes Rivka High Sch6ol) located in Neve Yaakov, Jerus:ilem. Her most recent article, "Breaking Down the Walls," appeared in JO Jan, '03. The author is named after one of herwould~be_aunts_who was killed in Auschwitz at the age of 16.

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The Jewish Observer, May 2003

On Shavuos, Kial Yisroel reads Megil1"s Rus. This Megilla, which records how a young Moavite

princess adopts Judaism and eventually marries Boaz, who - known as Ivtzan -is one of the Shoftim who led the Jews in the pre-1nonarchial era. Boaz and Rus were progenitors of David Hamelech.

Shavuos celebrates Z'man Mattan Torah, the day the Jewish Nation received the Torah from Hashem at Sinai. What aspect of Megillas Rus would warrant its reading on this Yam Tov of Kabollas Ha Torah!

The Rama at the end of Hilchos Pesach writes that there is a minhag (custom) to eat dairy foods on Shavuos. It would seem that in keeping with the festive aura of the Yam Tov, lavish meals featuring meat would be more appropriate. What characteristic of dairy meals could explain this unique practice?

Of the many themes present in Megillas Rus, the midda of chessed is most prominent. We are told of the phenomenal chessed that Rus bestowed upon Naomi, as well as the chessed extend­ed by Boaz to Rus. To better appreciate the awesome chessed of these great people, we would do well to delve into the source of the midda of chessed as it finds expression m human society-Avraham Avinu.

AVRAHAM AVINU -PARADIGM OF CHESSED

Everyone is aware of the magnitude of Avrahan1 Avinu's chessed. One could only marvel at the Chazal

that teaches us that Hashem sent Ma/achim (angels) to visit Avraham after his bris milla, because - even while bandaging his wound - he was lament­ing his lack of guests. Later, after the

Rabbi Ahron Rapps, a talinid of Yeshiva Rabbi Chain1 Berlin, writes a \veekly column on the Par­sha in the Yated Ne'eman. He is a Rebbe in the Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island as well as a lec­turer in Maalot Neve Yerushalayim Seminary in New York. His article, "Pesach and the Jewish Mandate," appeared in /(), March '02.

The Jewish Observer, Moy 2003

destruction of Sodom, he decided to move to a different region because with­out that great metropolis) there was a lack of travelers who would need his hospitality.

One might be tempted to simply say that Avraham was a kind, soft-hearted person who enjoyed doing chessed for others in need, but that would fall woe­fully short as a description of the man who was the very personification of the midda of chessed. The Vilna Gaon (Berachos 33b) explains that Avraham was far more than a nice, generous per-

son. At the Akeida (the Binding of Yitzchak), Hashem told Avraham, "Atta yadati ki yerei Elokim atta, Now I know that you truly fear Hashem:' An indi­vidual's personality is only discernible through his actions in situations of con­flict. When the person of chessed was ready to sacrifice his beloved son to ful­fill Hashenis will, we gain an invaluable insight. Had he been merely a nice per­son, how could he have been willing to offer Yitzchak as a korban? Obviously, there was a profound and sublime dimension to Avraham's personality that informed whatever he did, including his many seemingly simple acts. What then was the source of his actions?

While our patriarch Avraham was perfor1ning his extraordinary acts of

Rabbi Ahron Rapps

chessed, there was an entire society near­by that embodied the polar opposite of the principles that guided Avraham. Sodom represented the antithesis of Avraham, and with the very fire of their souls, they attempted to eradicate the midda of chessed from at least their pri­vate little world. Chazal place the ulti­mate cause of their destruction upon the tragic cries of a tortured young girl who had performed acts of chessed to someone in need. \!\That warped sense drove the Sodomites to punish her and murder her for chesseiP. We could sim­ply say that they were self-indulgent, ego-centric people, but obviously such

actions go beyond a pleasure-driven agenda. Why were they so extreme

in their rejection of kindness?

CHESSED-INSTINCTIVE, ALMOST,,.

The Maharal in Nesivos Olam explains the human drive to

attempt to act with chessed. In our superficial apprecia­

tion of the world, chessed see1ns almost instinctive.

Everyone feels an urge to extend kindness to others ... and

they do. But the Maharal points out that a human being's ability to

perform chessed is paradoxical. The capacity for doing absolute goodness to others is not a natural human trait. To give of oneself or one's possessions to others is a matter of establishing one­self in the role of a" Nosein" - a giver -while the receivers are the «Mekablim." "fhe Mekablim resort to receiving, for they are truly needy. But therein lies the paradox. Can a mere mortal proclaim, "I don't need and do not anticipate any needs in the foreseeable future, and therefore I can give"? As humans, we are always in need - now, or in the future - and thus the role of dedicated Nosein is beyond us. True, today l might have enough to meet my current needs, but what about tomorrow? Ultimately, that which I give to another in need because of my momentary state of excess, will eventually come to haunt me. How,

17

then, could I ever be considered per­manently not needy so as to be truly able to give?

Thus the question: How did Avraham Avinu achieve such chessed?

REFLECTING DMNE CHESSED

The Maharal answers that Avra­ham was emulating Hashem. Hashem created the world with

chessed, as it says "Olam chessed yiboneh - [Your] kindness will be built forev­er" (Tehillim 89,3). Hashem has the

absolute capacity to give because not only is He the source of all existence, He has no needs and thus can be - and is - the true Nosein. The ability to do chessed, then, is Divine. When Avraham was involved in chessed, it was as a reflection of the Divine chessed that per­meates the world, and as a result, he was instilling in the people of his generation the ability to experience and to fathom the existence of true chessed in this material world of ours. It was through these acts that Avraham established Hashem as the" Elokei Ha' aretz;' as well

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as the "Elokei Hashamayim" - L-rd of the Earth, as well as the L-rd of the Heavens. He was able to transcend his personal need of being a Mekabel, and represent the only true Nosein. This was the core of Avraham's fostering of chessed in Hashem's world.

In a sense, the depraved people of Sodom were right. Man cannot per­form chessed on his own. They had felt that one's acts of kindness today will make it incumbent upon that individ­ual to turn to the rest of the society to take care of him in his inevitable, even­tual time of need. But Avraham's chessed was not anthropogenic; it was not of his own making. It reflected Hashem's infinite power of giving. Thus, the more others were exposed to acts of chessed, the more they became aware that there must be an absolute Nosein: Hashem. And it is to Him that one should relate. Avraham was the conduit for the chessed of Hashem to be revealed in the world.

The Midrash records the procedure Avraham employed to teach people of Hashem. He would serve them, and when they would have expected to pay for the meal, he would tell them to thank the true source of their food. Everyone assumed it was Avraham to whom they owed their thanks. At this point he would tell them, "Don't thank me. Thank the true Giver, Hashem."

Avraham could not be the consum­mate Nosein, for he was mortal. Rather, he represented the True Giver- Hashem. Avraham did not do chessed for any pos­sible personal benefit, but rather as a vehicle of Hashem's Shefa- His Divine influence that He lavishes on the world.

AND THEN THERE WAS RUS

We marvel at the chessed of Rus, as conveyed in the Megilla. This, too, was not ordinary

chessed. It was the ultimate chessed that Avraham Avinu had projected. Rus, too, was totally selfless. When Orpa left Naomi, Rus was described as "Davka bah" - she clung to Naomi. To be attached to someone at the level of deveikus (" davka") implies a negation of

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

self. When relating to Naomi, Rus ceased to exist as an independent being, with needs of her own. She cared for her widowed mother-in-law and supplied her with food, focusing exclusively on the needs of the recipient. Her chessed to Naomi was purely as a Nosein, as a vehicle for Hashem's chessed, passing through her to Naomi.

At the end of the Megilla, the passuk states, "The neighborhood women gave him a name saying, 'A son is born to Naomi:" While Rus experienced the pangs of childbirth, the child was said to be Naomi's. Again, Rus's role res­onated with self-negation. The pure chessed of Rus was clear for all to see. Boaz appreciated what she had done, and he too extended himself to insure that Naomi and Rus would be provid­ed for in the most honorable way.

This Megilla is a story of absolute goodness and infinite kindness, where the giver receives nothing, but rather serves as the conduit for Hashem's chessed.

A TORAH OF CHESSED

Chazal tell us that the Torah begins with chessed and ends with chessed. We thus are given

to understand that chessed flows through the entire Torah: the middle is also chessed. At the outset we learn that Adam Harishon and Chava were with­out clothing, and Hashem fulfilled their need. At the end of Sefer Devarim, Moshe Rabbeinu is niftar (dies). He must be buried, and here too Hashem fulfills his need accordingly. The middle of the Torah - Torah and mitzvos- conveys the obligations that Kial Yisroel is required to perform.

As humans, we might tend to con­sider our Creator's mitzvos as abstract obligations. In our stressed-out world, perhaps such a mistaken assessment could lead someone to reject the bur­den of more obligations, and even rebel. We are therefore told that Torah and mitzvos were not designed for Hashem's benefit, but rather are a func­tion of His absolute and complete chessed. Hashem takes care of the needs

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

derstood and unappreciated. There is a need for us to learn to comprehend this chessed, but the question is how?

of His people, His creations. Just as the chessed of Hashem is evident in the beginning and end of Torah, so too are the middle - all Torah and mitzvos -pure chessed. Hashem wishes to bestow the ultimate reward of "Lehisaneg al Hashem" - to rejoice and find pleasure in our union with Hashem.

Indeed, through Torah and mitzvos, we are creating in ourselves the ability to relate to our spiritual destiny, and to find joy in its fulfillment. The chessed of Torah and mitzvos is much more sub­tle, and unfortunately, it can be misun-

This Megilla reveals the true intent of the Torah. Our ability to clearly appre­ciate the unadulterated chessed of Rus and Boaz through the reading of this Megilla, endows us with the capacity to truly perceive the ultimate chessed of Torah. Reading Megillas Rus on the day celebrating Kabbolas HaTorah focuses on the chessed conveyed by Rus, and appre­ciating its fullest expression in the Torah. We begin to perceive how all that

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Hashem has commanded us is for the sole purpose of providing us with the taanug ha'amiti- infinite, sublime pleas­ure, for all eternity. We are the designated recipients of pure, absolute chessed, and Hashem is the ultimate Nosein.

THE MILKY WHITE PURITY OF ABSOLUTE SERVICE

Per haps we can relate the above concept of appreciating the chessed inherent to Torah to the

minhag of eating dairy products on this holy day. Among the many laws relating to the avoda - a kohein's service in the Beis Hamikdash - is the need to wear special garments while engaged in the Divine service. Included in the garments that the Torah mentions are the pure white

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begadim (raiments) of the kohein hedyat. The Maharal explains why the garments were white:

In absolute darkness, nothing can be seen. When we do see an object, we are absorbing the light that is reflected by that specific object. If we see that an object is of a certain color, it is because it contains a dye that reflects that specific color, while it absorbs all the rest of the light. Gen­erally, clear light, which is composed of the seven colors of the spectrum, is perceived as white. Black objects absorb the full spectrum of the light, while - for example -yellow objects absorb all the light except for the color yellow, which is reflected; the object is thus perceived as yellow. White objects reflect all the light of the spectrum and do not absorb any­thing within themselves. What you are seeing, then, is all the light that is being reflected. In a sense, when you see something that is totally black, you are really seeing the object purely in relation to its surroundings, because the object itself absorbs all the energy and does not reflect.

The Maharal explains that it is for this reason that the bigdei kohein are white. For a person to absolutely and completely represent another, he must totally negate himself. The function of a kohein is to be a shali­ach - a messenger - for Kial Yisroel. The only way that his physical actions could relate so profoundly to another is if he becomes a vehicle for that person. He is serving the other

person totally, and receiving nothing for himself. It is for this reason that he wears white garments during the avoda. just as white objects absorb nothing and reflect all light, so too during the avoda does the kohein dedicate all his actions for another; in a sense, he absorbs nothing. Thus, his white begadim portray the process that is occurring.

ABUNDANCE AT SINAI

There is no chessed in all cre­ation comparable to the chessed that Hashem bestowed

on the world with the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai. The Bnei Yisas­'char writes that milk is white, for it personifies a sense of absolute chessed. When a mother nurses her child, she receives nothing - she rep­resents a vehicle of giving life and sustenance to her helpless child. Milk, then, is white, for it is the embodiment of chessed. Therefore, similar to the garments of the kohein, its identity is portrayed by its color. Thus, the minhag to eat dairy prod­ucts on the Yorn Tov of Kabbolas haTorah: The megilla of chessed teaches us that all that is contained in the Torah scroll is a function of pure chessed. When we partake of the foods of chessed, we again are being taught that on this day, we are for­tunate to be the ultimate receivers of chessed.

Kial Yisroel always depends on the chessed of Hashem. But in the remarkable times through which we are living, we beseech Hashem to bestow upon us a shefa - an abun­dance - that the world has never seen. Through it, the world will reach the level that Hashem had intended for it in its initial creation. Perhaps if we were to appreciate the enormous chessed that is contained in Torah, we would be zocheh to new gifts of chessed, which will put Hashem and, thereby, Kial Yisroel upon their proper pedestals. Endowed with such an appreciation, perhaps we can truly advance to be mekabel Hashem's Torah on the Yorn Tov of Shavuos. •

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

Focus ON TEFILLA

A SECOND CHANCE - PLUS

These are tin1es when the critical importance of tefil/a is obvious, so we make an honest attempt to

daven with greater kavana (concentra­tion): "Some with chariots, some with horses, but we call out in the Name of Hashem our G-d" ( Tehillim 20,8 ). After all, our key to survival always has been, and today is, clearly, our power of tefil/a.

The essence of our tefilla is the She­moneh Esrei, in which Chazal have included thirteen prayers for specific personal and communal needs. More than an obligation, reciting Shemoneh Esrei is an opportunity to beseech Hakadosh Baruch Hu to fulfill all our requests; a chance to stand before Hashem and entrust ourselves to His will; a time to strengthen our en1una and bitachon - our faith and trust in Him.

Who would squander such an opportunity in such times as these? No one should. Yet, as creatures of habit, we often mu1nble our Shemoneh Esrei,

Rabbi Moshe Halberstadt is the Mcnahel of the Yeshiva Gedo la of Passaic, NJ. His book The Gift for Life, on the mitzva of hachzokas Ha Torah, was reviewed in these pages.

The Jewish Observer, Moy 2003

as our thoughts stray during the tefilla, and as a result we fail to daven with proper kavana . ... A lost opportunity. But not irretrievably so. Many of us are simply unaware that the same oppor­tunity repeats itself during Chazoras HaShatz - the Shemonch Esrei of the shaliach tzibbur, who represents us at the amud (podium) - if we but listen, concentrate and answer Arnein to his words. Rabbeinu Yona1 says: "One who answers An1ein after every beracha is considered as if he davened a second time!' Moreover, Chazal teach us: "One who has davened Shemoneh Esrei and did not have kavana, and then repeats the Tefilla, is assured that his prayers will be heard." All is not lost, for listening to the chazan and answering Amein dur­ing his repetition is in effect a second chance to daven Shemoneh Esrei prop­erly. In addition, it also provides an assurance that his tefillos will be heard!

THE SPECIAL STATUS OF THE REPETITION

Chazoras HaShatz, besides afford­ing an opportunity to repeat and reinforce our own Shemoneh

Rabbi Moshe Halberstadt

Esrei, also provides a forum for the tzib­burto daven in unison. The Ariza/writes that Chazoras HaShatz has far more strengths and a higher status than the silent Shemoneh Esrei recited privately - \Vith an immeasurable difference between them! Chazal hinted to this when stating"Jf one has davened and not had his prayers answered, he should repeat his tefilla." (Berachos 32) The Vilna Gaon understands this as a refer­ence to the repetition of Tejilla through Chazoras HaShatz.

Why does Chazoras HaShatz have the power to assure that our prayers are answered? The passuk states, "Behold, Hashem, the mighty He does not despise" (Iyov 36,5), which the Gemora (Berachos Sb) explains to mean that Hashem never despises - and always accepts - the tefilla of the mighty tzib­bur. Chazoras HaShatz is in essence a powerful joint tefilla of the tzibbur. For this reason, Rabbi Shimshon Dovid Pinkus i,":::,:r in the introduction to his She'arim Be'Tefilla, suggests why Cha­zoras Ha Shatz is recited out loud while the private Shemoneh Esrei must be recited quietly: The quiet Shemoneh Esrei, due to its importance and great

21

value, must be hidden and protected from any forces that would harm it or compromise its effectiveness. Chazoras HaShatz, however, because of its strength and lofty level of attachment to Hashem, is protected from being destroyed or disrupted by such powers, and may therefore be recited publicly.

It is because Chazoras HaShatz pro­vides these immense dimensions of tefilla that those who talk during Cha­zoras HaShatz are described by the Shulchan Aruch2 as "a sinner whose transgression is too great to bear3 •••• He should be reprimanded:' To this, the Kol Bo' adds: "Woe to those who speak dur­ing the recitation of Shemoneh Esrei, for we have seen numerous shuls destroyed because of this transgression."

A bayis - a home - provides protec­tion from the outside. Similarly, a Beis Haknesses, as a House of Prayer, is meant to be used specifically for serving Hashem, sheltering its holiness from out­side forces. Bringing gossip into the Beis Haknesses during the services of tefilla is contrary to its essence and - as the Kol Bo states - can even cause its destruction.

Unfortunately, even those who avoid gossip and other inappropriate talk may miss out on the opportunities inherent to Chazoras HaShatz. Sadly, many peo­ple view the time when the shaliach tzib­bur repeats Shemoneh Esrei as an inter­mission of sorts, during which they might recite Tehillim, catch up or daven ahead, put on Rabbeinu Tam-Tefillin, collect or give tzeddaka, or peruse a sefer. During any or all of these activities,

"Amein" might be recited absentmind­edly, informed by a faint awareness of the words of the shaliach tzibbur. [Of course, he will abandon his seferor other preoccupations long enough to join the tzibbur for Kedusha and Modim De'rab­banan.] The shaliach tzibbur himself is charged by the congregation to avoid

• A bayis - a home

- provides protection from the outside. Similarly, a Beis Haknesses, as a House of Prayer, is meant to be used specifically for serving Hashem, sheltering its holiness from outside forces.

• "further delay" and rush through the Tefilla. As a result, the intent of the Cha­zoras HaShatz-to provide a joint, uni­fied tefilla - is lost. Even worse, those present may be responsible for making the Chazan's recitation berachos levata-

la; if there are not nine people listening attentively to the berachos, the Chazan's rendering of them is almost considered to have been in vain.5 Everyone present is therefore obligated to listen, assum­ing that without him, a quorum of peo­ple may be lacking.6

THE ULTIMATE BENEFITS

The Shela writes that those who are chareidim li'dvar Hashem- stead­fast in their devotion to Hashem

- should place a Siddur before them­selves during the Chazoras HaShatz and focus their eyes and hearts therein, in order to have full kavana on every word 19• Although we may have difficulty concentrating while listening through­out the entire Shemoneh Esrei, the ben­efit from this avoda is enormous. According to the opinion of some poskim, it is considered as if we recited another two Shemoneh Esrei's: one, in keeping with shome'a ke'oneh- hearing the pronouncement of the berachos is the equivalent of saying them - and another for answering "Amein." The ultimate result is that we have now earned the equivalent of reciting three times 19 berachos2°, 57 berachos of Tefilla in all!

For this reason, one should avoid reciting other prayers or studying Torah during Chazoras Ha5hatz11• Putting on Tefillin of Rabbeinu Tam is also disrup­tive, for answering Amein between the Tefillin shel Yad and shel Rosh is con­sidered a hefseik'2 (interruption) - even

Some Halacha Background Chazal originally instituted Chazoras HaShatz for the benefit of individuals who did not know how to daven on their own 7, yet could follow - and understand - the Teti/la being said by the shaliach tzibbur.' All minyanim, however, are required to have the Chazan repeat the Shemoneh Esrei, regardless of whether anyone present is incapable of davening himself'. Everyone must quietly listen and con­centrate with kavana to the words of

22

Shemoneh Esrei being recited10• It is proper to stand during the Chazoras HaShatz11 • The shaliach tzibburshould pause after "Baruch Atta Hashem" long enough for the tzibbur to say "Baruch Hu u'Varuch Shemo. " 12 After the Chazan has fully completed the beracha13, one must say "Ainein" slowly and clearly1'. before the Chaz­an begins the next beracha. 15 The Chaz­an must, therefore, pause patiently while the tzibbur says Amein1'. While

answering Amein, one must think:

"This beracha is true and I believe in

it." 17 In addition, during the middle

berachos, wherein we request our needs

[from Atta Chonein until Shome'a

Teti/la], one must bear in mind: "This

beracha is true, and I also pray that it

be Hashem's will that it be fulfilled.""

Obviously, all this cannot be done with­

out full attention and concentration.

The Jewish observer, May 2003

though they are put on without a beracha. Even removing tefillin during the Chazoras HaShatz is only permissi­ble if one is careful to continue con­centrating on the repetition while doing so23 • It is certainly not advisable to col­lect tzeddaka during the Chazoras HaShatz, if it interferes with the indi­vidual mispalleI's ability to concentrate on the Tefilla.

It is worth bearing in mind that the rewards that Chazal attribute to say­ing Amein properly are astounding. For example: "One who lengthens his Amein (and says it slowly) merits long life:' - "He who answers Amein with his full concentration, merits entry into Gan Eden." In sum, by answering Amein, one can gain rewards in both worlds!

It is an uplifting experience to daven in a minyan where all the mispalle­lim stand quietly, concentrating on

the words of the Shemoneh Esrei, answering Amein in unison. One sens­es being involved in a true tefilla b'tzib-

bur - a unified effort to beseech Hashem24 : Listening to and reviewing the Shemoneh Esrei one has just recit­ed, reinforces the Tefilla. For this reason, Chaza/ could assure us that, through the Chazara, our tefillos will be heard and answered.

Consider how we can bring great merit upon Acheinu Bnei Yisroe~ and

1 Quoted in Beis YosefOrach Chaim 11:4 2 Drach Chai1n 124:7 3 Rabbi Shimon Schwab, 7"Yl once observed: With regard to speaking between netillas yadayin1 and the beracha of Hamotzi, the Shulchan Aruch (siman 166) states: "Tov lehiza'her ... : It is good to refrain .... " Speaking during ChazorasHaShatz,, however, is characterized as "a great sin:'Yet peo­ple are more cautious about speaking after netil­las yadayim than during Chazoras HaShatz. 4 Ibid 124:7, quoted in Mishna Berurah 27 5 Shulchan Aruch Orach Chai1n 124:4 6 Ibid 7 Rosh Hashana 34b 8 Bais Yoseifl24 9 Rad, quotes Ramban1

lD Shulchan Aruch ibid,4 11 RMA on ibid

ourselves, by rallying minyanim to properly experience Chazoras HaShatz! This calls for maintaining proper deco­rum, with cooperative mispa//elim, led by a patient baa/ tefilla. It is surely worth the effort, for as a result, we will be gain­ing an invaluable opportunity to achieve a whole array of Divine blessings that we all so desperately need. •

12 Shulchan Aruch 124:5 see Mishna Berurah 13 Shulchan Aruch 124:8 14 ibid 15 Mishna Berurah ibid: 37 16 ibid 17 Shulchan Aruch 124:6 18 Bach quoted in Mishna Berurah ibid: 24

19 See Mishna Berurah 20 R'da; see Beis Yoseif124 21 Mishna Berurah ibid: 17 22 Mishna Berurah 25:36 23 M.B. 31'7 24 Rabbi Tarfon, quoted in the Mishna, main­tains that the Shemoneh Esrei said quietly is only preparation for the main tefillos of Chazoras HaShatz. The halacha is like Rabbi Tarfon only on Rosh Hashana and Yorn Kippur.

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The Jewish Observer, Moy 2003 23

AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL BAIS "Bais Yaakov lcchu ve'nelcha b'or Hashem" is our

credo. We follow Hashem's mitzvos through the prism of Chazal and our Torah leaders who show us the Ohr Hashem. The Ohr Hashem instructs us to follow the Torah command of "Kedoshim tihehyu ki kadosh Ani Hashem. As I am holy so should you be holy." lt is clear that our lives must be conducted with kedusha, and we all know that kedusha cannot exist without the separation of the genders. lt is for this reason that we maintain separate schools for boys and girls, and allow for no social contact between them until time for marriage.

The concept of kedusha, however, and the consistency in all parts of one's life that is needed to achieve it, extend beyond the issue of separate schooling. There are elements in our daily lives and the world around us that need to be carefully examined for the dangers they pose to our striving for kedusha.

For the past few years, we have all been reading articles and scientific studies about the influence of the media (television, movies, internet) on our society and about the general deterioration of moral values all over the world. Unfortunately, these effects have begun to spill over into our own Torah society to the extent that we must now strengthen our resolve to ensure that we do not rn weaken or falter. It is also incumbent on us, the administration and staff of Bais Yaakov schools and other mosdos haTorah, to draw your attention to some of these influences which may, unnoticed by you, have begun to filter into your own homes. By

becoming aware of the dangers and being on guard against their infiltration, we will be able to preserve our very special Torah heritage.

We teach: "Ve'lo sasuru acharei le'vavchem ve'acharay eineichem asher attem zonim acharcihem. And you shall not follow after your hearts and after your eyes which cause you to go astray." Parents who allow their children to watch television are really saying "Sasuru acharei le'vavchcm ve'acharei cineichem - Do go astray after your hearts and after your eyes."

We, the teachers of your children, have long deplored the watching of television and movies, as they project anti­Torah activities, which undermine the ideals and principles that we try to impart to your children. What happens to a child who is enticed by the availability of a television set at home or at a friend's home, with its nearly insurmountable yeitzer hora ? Inevitably, they grow weaker in their values and outlook .... Pray tell, where is the harmony between home and school? Where is the cooperation between teach­ers and parents?

Another point: The internet may function as a valuable and useful tool for business and other financial rnncerns. lt can be allowed no place in the home, however, because its influence is pervasive, far-reaching and insidious - thus even more detrimental than that of television. With the click of a mouse, one is able to download onto the home computer -free of charge - movies, music, TV shows and videos, which

(List in formation) Rabbi Raphael Ge/IC)' Bais Yaakov Bnos Chayil - Lakewood, N.J. Rabbi Shneur Aisenstark Bais Yaakov D'Rav Hirschprung - Montreal, Canada Mrs. Pearl Altschuler Bais Yaakov D'Gur H.S. · Bklyn. N.Y. Rebbetzin Chaya Ausband Yavnc Seminary - Cleveland, Ohio Rebbetzin Ruty Assaf Machon Yaakov l'Banot ·Manhattan, New York Rabbi Yehoshua Ba/kany Bais Yaakov of Bklyn, N.Y. Rabbi Eliezer Ben Porat Machon Sarah - Ottawa. Canada Mrs. Shaindel Bluming Bais Brocha Stolin-Karlin H.S. · Bklyn, N.Y. Rebbetain Zahava Braunstein Bais Yaakov Ateret Torah · Bk~'I1, N.Y. Rebbetzin Sora Bu/ka Seille Bais Yaakov H.S. · Bklyn, N.Y. Rabbi Yoe/ Bursztyn Bais Yaakov - Los Angeles, California Mrs. Yael Bussu Yeshiva Shaarai Torah · Girl's Elem. School -

fl..1rs. Batsheva Deren Rabbi Isaac Dwek Rabbi Oscar Ehrenreich Mrs. Esther Elefant Rabbi Joseph Elias

Robbi Yitzchak Feigenbaum Rebbetzin Miriam Feldman Rabbi Chaim Finkel Rebbetzin Brina Fried

Bkl\'I1. N.Y. Yeshiva Schools - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Deal Yeshiva - Deal, N.J. Bais Yaakov of Boro Park - Bklyn. N.Y. Bais Yaakov of Scranton Pennsylvania Yeshiva Rabbi Shimshon R. Hirsch · Washington Heights. N.Y. Tiferes Bais Yaakov- Toronto, Canada Temima H.S. - Atlanta, Georgia Bnos Bais Yaakov - Toronto, Canada Mosdos Ohr Hatorah · H.S. -Cleveland, Ohio

Rabbi Yosef Gelman Masores Bais Yaakov - Bklyn, N.Y. Rabbi Mordechai Gt'lvirtz Yeshiva Eitz Chaim - Girls -Toronto, Canada Rabbi Shalam G. Ginzberg Maalot N.Y./Seminary · Bklyn. N.Y. Rebbetzin Shoshana Glustein Bais Yaakov Seminary - i\ttontreal, Canada i\-frs. Chanie Gordon Deal Yeshiva - Bais Yaakov H.S. -

Deal, N.H. Mrs. Hena Gottesman Bais Yaakov D'Chassidei Gur Elemen. School -

Bklyn, N.Y. Rabbi Sh/omo Greenbaum Yeshiva of Spring Valley/Bais Sarah -

Spring Valley, N.Y. Rabbi Avrohom Greenberg Bais Yaakov Academy (B.Y.A.) - Bklyn, N.Y. AJrs. Tova Greenblatt Bais Yaakov H.S. of St. Louis - Missouri Rebbetzin Nechama D. GronerBnos Yisroel - Bklyn, N.Y. Rabbi Herschel Grossman Rabbi Hillel Haber Mrs. Chaya Harnik

Rabbi Shmuel Hiller Mrs. Ziporoh Hollander Rebbetzin Rochel Kahn i\Jrs. Sara AJ. Kahn

Hanna Sachs - Chicago, Illinois Yeshiva Shaarai Torah· Girl's H.S. - Bklyn, N.Y. Bais Brocha Stolin Karlin Elemen. School · Bklyn. N.Y. Bnos Bais Yaakov- Far Rockaway, N.Y. Be'er Hagolah Institute· Bklyn, N.Y. Bais Yaakov Lower East Side - New York. N.Y. Yeshiva Darchei Torah Girls School . Detroit, !\1ichigan

i"PJ

YMKOV PARENTS AND FRIENDS are available from lists of hundreds of thousands of pirated programs. With easy internet access, one is able to find, on demand, the greatest depravities, lewdness and lawlessness humanly imaginable.

Aside from this dangerous effect, e-mail, chat rooms, instant messages, etc. have provided a means of communica­tion between boys and girls, even those from "the best" and the most protected of homes. Given this serious threat, we, the teachers of your children, strongly reject the use of the internet in the home. Those who do accept the use of internet in their homes are promoting a clash between the values of the school and the values of the home, a conflict that is difficult for a child to understand. to navigate, and to resolve.

As is well known, the hallmark of a bas Yisroel is tzenius. We instruct our students to wear modest clothing, with elbows and knees completely covered. We teach our students that a slit in a skirt is like a blinking light that calls out, "Look at me'" Our rabbinical mentors strongly object to fashions that send such messages. Similarly, we impart to our students that tightly fitting clothing is just as unacceptable as short clothing, or even worse. They learn from us about their added responsibility of covering their hair after marriage, and that saying dimi Torah and berachos is prohibited when facing any erva. One would expect that a student would see these values reinforced in the home rather than ignored or challenged.

And yes, we teach our students that limud haTorah, the

Rabbi Shlomo C. Kanerek Bnos lsrael/tlais Shaindel - Lakewood, N.J. Dr. Ruth Katz Shulamit H.S. · Bklyn, N.Y. Rebbctzin Shulamis Keller Bais Yaakov H.S.- Chicago. Illinois Rabbi Leib Kelman Bnos Leah Prospect Park Yeshiva· Bklyn. N.Y. Rabbi Ncchemia Kibel R.l.T.S.S. ·Cincinnati, Ohio

study of Torah, is the most important mitzvah of all Tmyag Mitzvos. that where there is no /imud haTorah, Yiddishkeit cannot flourish. If a girl can see that limud haTorah prevails both in and out of school, the combined message and its impact on her are profound and far-reaching.

We ask you to seriously reflect and to judge if your own family life is consistent with the atmosphere and ideals taught by a "Bais Yaakov School." We hope and pray that your answer is positive, and that these goals are those for which you too are striving - both for the future of Kial Yisroel in general and your daughter's in particular.

"Ki heim chaycinu va'orech yameinu - because they are our very life." Failing to value and to respect the derech ha Torah as conveyed to us by our sages, while sending your child to a llais Yaakov School, will only cause her great con­fusion and may ultimately compromise the Torah content of her future life. If you have questions or suggestions on the topic, feel free to come to your daughter's school to discuss the matter with her teacher or the principal. You are her home - we, her school. Together we can fulfill the ideal of "Ve'asu Ii mikdash ve'shachanti bcsocham." If we make our homes into a Mikdash, the Shcchinah will rest within us. Join with us to create the harmonious life so essential to your daughter's well-being and that of Kial Yisroe/. For her sake, let us work together.

We are signing as a group of 75 concerned Principals:

Mrs. Etty Rosenbaum Rabbi Shimon Rosengarten Rabbi Yonason D. Schick Rabbi Myer Schrvab A1rs. At Simon

Maalot-Baltimore. Maiyland Bais J\1ikroh - J\·1onsey, N.Y Mesora H.S. - Dallas. Texas Bais Yaakov of Denver. Colorado

Rebbetzin Fruma Kirzner Beth Jacob H.S. and Seminary- Boro Park - Bk!yn. N.Y. Rebbetzin Chana S/anger Mrs. K. Sorotzkin

Bais Yaakov E!emen. School - Toronto, Canada rvlachon Bina - Baltimore, i\1myland

Rabbi Nachman Kramer Bals Yaakov Ramapo - New York Rabbi Yael Kramer Iv1erkaz Teacher Training Program - Bklyn, N.Y. Rabbi Nesanef Lauer Bais Yaakov H.S. of Detroit. f..1ichigan Rabbi Ephraim Leizerson Bais Yaakov H.S. - /\1iami, Florida Rabbi Michael Levi Bais Yaakov D'Rav Meir - Bklyn, N.Y. Rabbi Tsvi Le1rin Bais Yaakov H.S. - Boston, i\:Jass. Rabbi Joshua Levy Torah Academy Elemcn. School · Phila. PA Rabbi Baruch Lichtenstein Torah Academy H.S. - Ph'i!a. P.A. A1rs. Rena J\Ja/inowitz Dea! Yeshiva - Bais Yaakov Elemen. School - Deal. N.J. Rabbi Meiwchem M. Mandel Yeshiva of Bklyn. N.Y. Rabbi Shmuel Mayer Bais Kaila - Lakewood, N.J. Rabbi Michael Meisels Mrs. Neche Moerman Mrs. Sara Afurik

Rabbi Moshe J\Tewman Mrs. Sora Rauch

Sara Schenirer Seminary and Associates - Bklyn, N.Y. Yavne H.S. ·Cleveland. Ohio Joan Dach's Bais Yaakov Elcmen. Schoo! -Chicago, Illinois Bais Yaakov of Queens - New York Torah Academy of i\.1ilwaukee, \Visconsin

Rabbi Akiva Stefansky Rabbi Eliezer Stern Mrs. Sheindel Teichtel Rabbi Shlomo Teichman Rabbi i\Joshe Weitman Rabbi Yitzchok Young Rebbetzin Sora Ziemba Rabbi Yechezkel Zweig

Mosdos Ohr Hatorah · Elemen. School -Cleveland, Ohio Bais Yaakov H.S. ·Toronto, Canada Bnos Leah Prospect Park Yeshiva H.S .. Bklyn, N.Y. Bais Rivka H.S. · Bklvn, N.Y. B.Y.A Seminaiy · Bklyn. N.Y TAG. The Bais Yaakov of Long Island, N.Y. Machon Academy - Lawrence, N.Y. Bais Yaakov of 18th Ave. - Brooklyn. N.Y. Bais Yaakov H.S.- Baltimore. Maiyland

At our request, Rabbi Joshua Fishman, Executive Vice President of Torah

Umesorah, showed this document to the Vaad Roshei Ha Yeshiva of Torah U1nesorah and reports to us that it received the unequivocal endorsement of the Roshci Ha Yeshiva.

For further information, please call Rabbi S. Aisenstark at Bais Yaakov D'Rav Hirschprung. Montreal • 514-739-3614 or fax at 514· 739· 7430

l· .

•

..

·£•.·.· ....•..•. ' .. \ '

Divine Love: A Force that Defies Limitation

Can the Ribbono Shel Olam ever declare a principle, and then con­travene it for the love of His chil­

dren? We would never suggest such a scenario, put it seems that the Malachim did think so.

The Gemora reports that the Malachim came to G-d with a prob­lem: He had described Himself as a judge who would never show any favoritism - "He does not show favor" (Devarim 10,17.) Nevertheless, He appears to have no such scruples when it comes to His beloved Jews -"May G-d show you favor;' He includ­ed in the Kohein's Blessings of the Jews (Bamidbar 6,26). The explanation that He offers the Malachim is breath­taking in the sweep of its implications: "And shall I not show favoritism to them?" They go beyond the letter of the law in saying Grace when it is not

Rabbi Moshe Eisemann, a Rebbe in Yeshiva Ner Israel of Baltimore, is author of the translation and commentary of the ArtScroll/Mesorah Yechezkel, Divrei Haya1nim, and lyov, as well as other books under private label, including The Machzor Companion and Lighting up the Night. He is a frequent contributor to these pages.

26

required by halacha. "How could I pos­sibly not show favoritism to Israel?" (See Berachos 20b.)

Note that He did not say that the nesi'as panim, the favoritism that He shows to Israel is somehow different from the favoritism that He is bound to eschew. He admits that what He is doing is precisely what He said He would not do. But ... My hands are, as it were, tied.

AB Bereishis Rabba (55:8) teaches: "Ahava mekalkelles es hashura - Love will not allow itself to be contained by formal rules.', I once read that the Rogotchover

Illuy's love for Torah was so great that even as an aveil, in a state of mourning, he continued to learn, in spite of the fact that this is prohibited. He claimed that he simply could not help himself. I thought that this story must be apoc­ryphal. How could it be true? We learn Torah because that is what the Ribbono Shel Olam wants us to do. What sense would it make to defy the Ribbono Shel Olam)s wish?

In the wake of my recent experiences, which I spent visiting the Beil Midrash of Berlin, I reconsidered my skepticism. Let me explain.

Rabbi Moshe M. Eisemann

We are forbidden to learn Torah in what the Gemora calls, mevu,os hame­tunafos - places through which open sewage flows. The filth and stench make these streets an inappropriate set­ting for Torah thoughts. In Berachos 24b, the Gemora rules that a talmid chacham may not even stand in such a street. It is simply impossible for him to control his thoughts. He will think in learning.

It is hard to accept. Are we not expected to discipline ourselves? There are a lot of drives that we are expected to control. Why is the urge to learn Torah different? It seems to me that we are back to the Ribbono shel Olam expressing favoritism to Kial Yisroel. The talmid chacham who cannot control his love for Torah is walking in the footsteps of the Ribbono shel Olam, Who "cannot" do otherwise than be biased toward His beloved people.

Indeed, love defies the rules.

Overcoming the Hurdles of Objectionable Settings

lean think of no area that is as defiled and odoriferous as are the pleasant, newly gentrified streets of East

Berlin where the Yeshiva is located. The

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

stench of rotten, rotting evil, the lega­cy left by the Nazis and the Communists, is everywhere. It envelops the passers­by whose polite Gut Morgen barely hides the snarl beneath the smile. Did I say smile? Do those leering death-masks that hover just beneath the surface that has been glued over them, have anything in common with the warmth of a friendly look? Welcome to lovely, newly renovated East Berlin! Can there really be a yeshiva here?

"Yes!" says Rabbi Joshua Spinner of the Lauder Foundation. Not only can there be, but it is unthinkable that there should not be one. There are one hun­dred thousand Jews in the German Fed­eral Republic. Can any of us face the Rib­bono Shel Olam if we were to leave them hejker (abandoned) ... ?

The strangled cry of history screams out, "You cannot!" The Ribbono Shel Olam, filled with sorrow at what His children have done to themselves, answers, "How can I not?"

It was an unforgettable week. You just would not believe what is going on there. This is not a place where they are try­ing to make the best of a sorry situation. In anybody's book, this is a" le' chat' chi­/a," a first choice. It is a yeshiva that need not take a backseat to any other. Not, of course, as far as measurable knowledge is concerned; the boys come in various ages and sizes, mostly without being able to read the Siddur. But in effort expend­ed, in dreams dreamed, in futures mapped, and in life lived, they are an inspired and inspiring lot.

And they grow. 0 how they grow! With one of them who has been there a scant two years, I learned Maseches Makkos, bechavrusa. By the time I left, we were both struggling to understand a difficult Rambam. He has a little note­book in which he stores his questions in the hope that someday he will be able to find someone who can help. My visit did not turn out to be his lucky one. He stumped me when he asked for an explanation of why '>::>rn:m, to observe closely, is related to ?:ro, a fool. (If any of you out there have an answer, why not visit the Beis Midrash of Berlin and dis­cuss the point?)

And Then There Are the Books

And then there are the books. On my last day there, when I was alone in the Beis HaMidrash for

a few moments, I took a tour of the tables to see what was being studied. From the Chovos HaLevovos to Reb Tzaddok HaKohein to the Michtav MeEliyahu to the latest publications of (lehavdil bein chaim le'chaim) Rav Wolbe, there was nothing missing. I would not bet that all the subtleties contained in these profound texts were fully understood, but if yagatti (I expended effort) ends in matzasi (I succeeded), they are going to get there pretty soon.

Beit Midrash d'Berlin does not limit itself to the boys who are enrolled as full-time students. It runs programs for students who cannot devote themselves fully to learning, and are kove'a ittim (set specific times to study), for ba'alei battim who come from all over Germany for weekends of learning, practicing bnei yeshiva, study groups for ladies and girls, and many others, which are mentioned in their brochure, but which I had no chance to observe while I was there.

Rabbi Joshua Spinner, who runs the organization, is no spinner of idle dreams. He is a hard-headed (and soft­hearted), stubborn realist who refus-

es to live with a situation in which hundreds of thousands of Yidden in Germany and central Europe are left to wither on the vine. The Yeshiva has set its sights on countries outside Ger­many whom it would wish to service. Already there are two boys from Hun­gary. Soon there is to be a seminar in which Serbia, Romania and Slovakai are to be represented. We may loose some of these hundreds of thou­sands, but if, G-d forbid, we do, it will not be because the Beil Midrash of Berlin did not stretch out its hands to help or open its arms to embrace them.

The Yeshiva receives a generous grant from the Lauder Foundation, but otherwise has to do what we all do: rely on friends who can ferret out a good investment when they see (or read about) one.

To end off, here is a little story. When my good friend Rabbi Spinner asked me to write this article, I began wondering about a suitable title. I decided on the one you see here, "Torah in Germany?" Later, when I got to see the Yeshiva's brochure, I saw that they had chosen that exact line ( ques­tion mark and all) to head their pres­entation. As they say: Az men geit oif a glatten derech, treft men feine Men­shen. Embark on a straight road, and you will encounter upright people.•

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t

ome Ill Wherever there is a basic human

need, one can be certain that it is available in generous supply.

AS BOUNTIFUL AS THE AIR WE BREATHE

The greater the need, the more plentiful the supply. This is the law of supply and demand enun­

ciated by the Chovas HaLevavos. The Creator has surrounded the world with air because breatheable air is a constant need for myriad life forn1s ~ human beings, above all. Nor is it is any acci­dent that water, the next greatest phys­ical necessity, covers seven-tenths of the earth's surface.

The Alter of Kelm (Rabbi Simcha Zis­sel Brau de ?··:;r) extended this funda­mental insight into the design of Hashem's chessed to the element of emuna - faith in the Creator. "Tzaddik be' emunaso yich'yeh - The righteous live by their faith," said the Prophet Chabakuk. Faith is also a vital need. Without it, man descends into corrup­tion and despair. Life becomes death. Therefore, Hashem has made His pres­ence known to us in innumerable ways. Not only through Torah and prophecy and the miracles He has performed for us in history, but in creation itself. The designing Intelligence is omnipresent; from the miraculous workings of the human body ("mib'sari echezeh Elokah - From my flesh I perceive my G-d)" -to the incredible vastness of the cosmos

Rabbi Rutman teaches Gen1ora to beginners in Yeshivas Ohr Yaakov, which is located in Zichron Yaakov in Bretz Yisroel. This is his first appear­ance in these pages.

28

(" Se'u einecha niarorn ure'u mi asa eileh- Raise your eyes and see who n1ade it all!"). Only the advocates of "a dog­matic make-believe" (in the words of Rabbi Avigdor Miller ?··~r) and their unquestioning followers could adhere to the notion that the wonders of creation are the product of blind evolutionary fOrces, combining to produce infinite­ly complex life fonns by a process of ran­dom interaction. The odds against it are, to put it politely, improbable.'

The Meshech Chachma writes in a similar vein in his commentary to the verse, "This mitzva [of Talmud Torah, according to Rashi, teshuva according to Ram ban J .. .is very close to you, in your rnouth and in your heart to do ... (Devarim 30,l l-15). Like water and air, he writes) G-d engraved in man)s soul an innate love of justice and truth, and a natural revulsion against evil. No high­er education, no school of philosophy is necessary. The difference between right and wrong should be as clear to any human being as the difference between a circle and a square, as indis­putable as the proposition that 2 plus 2 equals 4.

Why is it, then, that such clear moral distinctions are so often obscure to peo­ple, so often seem to be bashamayim hi (in the heavens)? The Meshech Chachma writes that "desire blinds one's intelli­gence and feeling." That is why, when a person dies, the clarity of his misdeeds emerge with stark clarity to him, because only then, when the neshama is

Yisrael Rutman

b

finally free of desire, can it see dearly. That is what is meant by"nishmaso shel adam me'ida ba leyom hadin;' after death the soul itself realizes and cries out in anguish over the wrongs done during its sojourn on earth.

And this is what the prophet Yir­miyahu meant when he said (5,25) "Avonoseiche1n hitu ... (-see Metsudas David) Your iniquities kept knowledge from you, your sins prevented you from attaining the discernment that brings good"

THINKING: AS VITAL AS AIR

We may note yet another vital element in bounteous supply, perhaps as essential as air,

water and faith - namely, thought. The human being is a breathing, drinking, believing, and thinking creature. And if

*R~g~·;·p~~-;~se,P;~f~ssor ~f M~ihematics at the University of Oxford, is considered to be one of the top five mathe1naticians in the world. In a recent book, he discusses the amazing conflu­ence of forces that early universe research indi­cates was necessary for this life-sustaining uni­verse we live in. Based on the in1possibility of the various conditions coming together by chance, Penrose begins to use the word "Creator," and he calculates the odds of all the necessary con­ditions coming together randon1ly, at one in 10-10-123. Howbigisthat? " ... Evenifwewereto write a zero on each separate proton and on each separate neutron in the entire universe - and we could throw in all the other particles as well for good measure- we should fall far short of writ­ing down the figure ... "(from Roger Penrose, The Emperor's New Mind, P. 344, Penguin Books, Oxford University Press).

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

we apply the Chovas HaLevavos's prin­ciple of supply and demand to thought, we might suggest that the constant stream of mental activity known as thought is as crucial to our functioning as the breath oflife.

Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner ';>··:1r observed that of all the requests in Shemoneh Esre~ the only one that does not begin with a request is the first one, that of daas (cited in Jewish Observer, Dec. '00). No effort on our part is required to stimu­late the flow of thought or recall of knowledge. "Atta chonen l'adam da'as­You, Hashem, grant know1edge to man;' even before he beseeches You.

Indeed, like breathing, it is virtually involuntary. Just as one inhales without thinking, one thinks without any spe­cial effort; the thoughts, be they pro­found or trivial, just come. And like breathing, its cessation is an unnatural, almost impossible state. Because a per­son who stops breathiug will die, hold­ing one's breath is an act of futility. Like­wise, it requires persistent effort and a meditative discipline to learn to hold the mind still, to master its constant flow. Even then, one must concentrate on something. It may be a word or an image, or it may be merely the intake and outflow of one's own breath, hut the mind insists on focussing on something. The stream of consciousness, it seems, may be slowed or stunted, but it cannot he stopped altogether.

The prophet Yirmiyahu rebuked the

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Jewish people for abandoning Hashem for idol worship: "They have abandoned the well of living waters for broken cis­terns" ( Yirmiyahu 2,13). But the Pelle Yoetz says here a remarkable thing. At the very beginning of his classic ntussar work, he writes: "Man cannot stand [stagnate] without thought for even a moment. And if he will think alien and evil thoughts instead of the love and fear of his Creator, this is only evil of the heart - inducing him to abandon the source of living waters, to hew broken cisterns. And instead of performing a

n1itzva and earning reward, fools trans­gress and are punished:'

The Radak on that verse in Yirmiyahu explains why the image of a well is employed. Like the ceaseless flow of water in a well, Hasheni's emmes and chessed - His truth and kindness - are constantly flowing, giving us life - and, according to the Pelle Yoetz, giving us thought.

Just as life itself affords us the oppor­tunity for endless choices - essentially either to serve Hashem, or to serve some­thing other than Him, such as idols- so,

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too, the gift of thought, the never-end­ing spring of life bubbling forth in our mind, presents us with a constant opportunity to choose between serving Hashem with our thoughts, or digging broken cisterns.

LIKE A PLOWED FIELD

In his Sha'arei Teshuva (1:27), Rabbeinu Yona explains the verse in Mishlei (21,4) that compares the sins

of the wicked to a plowed field: He says that "pride is the plowing of the wicked, because from it the sins come forth [like fruit J •.•• Just as people plow a field in order for the seeds we plant to yield fruit, and then to gather much produce, so do the wicked make their pride a plowed field in their hearts, and sow it with wicked thoughts to generate transgres­sions and cause them to flourish, as fruit of their thoughts." We are not the pas­sive victims of our wicked thoughts; rather, we make the decision to cultivate them in our minds.

The Torah enjoins us to keep our minds free of such thoughts. As it says in Devarim (23,10), "Venishmarta mikol davar ra - And you shall guard yourself from any evil:' In his commentary to Avoda Zara (20b ), Rashi teaches that this refers to forbidden thoughts. The Beraisa there quotes the verse and then informs us that from it Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair derived his famous dictum,

"Torah leads to zehirus, which leads to zerizus .. . ;'which is the basis of the Ram­chafs immortal Mesillas Yesharim. In other words, control of one's thoughts is the very platform from which a Jew may ascend to the highest levels of holi­ness: "Torah leads to watchfulness, which leads to zeal. .. which leads to sanctity .... "

Nor is this holiness merely a mat­ter of personal growth; it has impli­cations for the Jewish nation as a whole, as the verse (Devarim 23,15) indicates: "Because the L-rd your G-d walks in the midst of your camp, to save you and to place your enemies before you, your camp shall be holy ... " And if it is not holy, if the physical and mental environment of the Jewish people is defiled by a mode of behav­ior or by a flow of thought that is con­trary to Torah, or that is not in accor­dance with the ratzon Hashem, our very survival is at stake.

In the conclusion of the blessing of "Chonen HaDa' as - Hashem grants wisdom [to humankind);' we do ask Hashem for knowledge. After acknowl­edging the stream of consciousness that is one of His greatest and most abun­dant gifts to us, we ask Hirn for the wis­dom to guide and purify it, to be the worthy custodians of this infinitude of intellect. May our prayers be answered, not only for ourselves, but for Kial Yis­roel, as well. •

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The Jewish Observer, May 2003

In "Terrorism, Sugar Cubes, and Fi let Mignon" (June '02), Rabbi Aryeh Zev Ginzberg asks if we are taking to heart the crisis situations our brothers and sis­ters in Israel are enduring; and if so, how are we giving expression to this empa­thy? He suggests renouncing certain pleas­ures or self-indulgences to give expres­sion to our Mitleid. Then, in a follow-up article, "A Call to Arms" (Oct '02), he offers yet another suggestion: individual syn­agogues (or other groups) in America should adopt families of survivors who lost a member to terrorist violence.

The articles have stirred a widespread reaction. We present three letters below, followed by a response from Rabbi Ginzberg.

CRISIS, SUGAR CUBES ... AND KETCHUP

To the Editor: Rabbi Aryeh Z. Ginsberg's article

"Terrorism, Sugar Cubes and Filet Mignon;' was one of the most inspiring articles I have ever read. A kollel avreich learning in Bretz Yisroe~ I have for years been dealing with two of the issues that were discussed in the article: How do we respond to the tragedies that have been occurring here in Bretz Yisroel? Second­ly, I have been particularly challenged by achilas taanug, eating purely to enjoy the food. We are supposed to eat to live and not live to eat. The Mislina in Pirkei Avos says "Kol maasecha yiheyu le'Shem Shamayim, all we do must be for the sake of Heaven:' This is also codified in the Shulchan Aruch O.C. 231.

After reading Rabbi Ginzberg's arti­cle, I decided to try and follow in the ways of Rebbetzin Kotler who didn't take a sugar cube with her tea during the war years. I decided to start small. I would refrain from eating ketchup for the month of Elul until after Yorn Kippur.

32

This may sound silly, but for me it was a serious and somewhat challenging kabbala. I would, thereby, be lessening some of my personal benefit from this world to "feel" the pain of those suffer­ing throughout Israel. After Yorn Kip­pur, I resumed my ketchup consump­tion, and had in mind to take upon myself another kabbala, but simply forgot about it.

A short time later I read the issue in which Rabbi Ginzberg described the overwhelming response to his article. This reinspired me. A couple of weeks before this, a little boy on our block had been diagnosed with a paralyzing growth on his spine. After emergency surgery to stop the paralysis from shut­ting down his life-critical organs, he remained unconscious for weeks. His sit­uation was worsening, and soon he was on a respirator. Every time I would put a piece of cake in my mouth, I would feel so guilty. These parents are suffer­ing so terribly, how can I be eating cake?

After reading Rabbi Ginzberg's fol­low-up article I was motivated to take upon myself some level of perishus, sep­aration from pleasure, in addition to increasing the intensity of my davening and learning to help this little boy. I decided no cookies and cake. How should this kabbala be phrased? I could­n't say "No cake until the boy comes home."

G-d forbid, he may never come home. I decided to phrase my kabbala as follows: Bli neder, no cookies or cake as long as this boy is in the hospital, not even on Shabbos nor on Chanuka.

A week after my kabbala the boy was still on a respirator, and we were begin­ning to fear the worst. The doctors had no explanation and could not offer any encouragement nor medical advice. The davening for him intensified and so did my commitment to the kabbala. After another week or so, a miracle hap­pened and he started breathing on his own. The tefilla and Tehillim groups were invigorated, as was my loyalty to my kabbala. Week after week he was miraculously improving, to the amaze­ment of everyone - including the doc­tors. Slowly he became responsive,

opening his eyes and moving his fingers. After more than two months in the hos­pital, the boy was brought home for Shabbos in a wheelchair. He still has no feeling in his legs and our davening con­tinues, but we are grateful to the Ribbono Shel Olam for the miracles he has per­formed until now.

I was advised by my Rosh Kollel to share this story. Who knows who will be inspired next and whose life it may save? May our small kabbalos be viewed by Hashem as big ones, and my we merit salvation in this time of national diffi­culty with the coming of the ultimate Geula speedily in our day.

SHRAGIE JACOBS

Jerusalem

ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF SHARING THE PAIN

10 the Editor: I would like to respond to Rabbi

Ginzberg's engaging and thought-pro­voking article, which has taken the frum community by storm and has become the topic ofchoice at Shabbostable dis­cussions. I myself will encourage my teachers to share these thoughts with their students, as I believe it can be a powerful chinuch tool.

The concept of deprivation has deep roots in our history. The chachamim instituted the "Three Weeks" period between Shiva Asar BeTamuz and Tisha B'Av, with all its restrictions, to help us feel the loss of the Beis Hamikdash. Whereas not everyone can testify that the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash is felt more during these times, these restrictions have ensured that the pain and mourning have become part of our spiritual anatomy.

Despite this, I can't help wondering whether in our quest to feel the tzar (pain) of Kial Yisroe I in Bretz Yisroe l today, if deprivation is the best way to go. I read the article to my mother who enjoyed the piece about Rebbetzin Kotler's abstention from sugar cubes during the Holocaust. She then shared with me a story about my Savta Golda, during the 1948 War of Independence. My mother, as a little girl growing up in

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

Bnai Brak, rc1ne1nbers the terror of the sirens going off and everyone running to the air raid shelters. Everyone, that is, except my Savta Golda. As the bombs fell, my grandmother exclaimed with strength and einotion, "The chayalhn, our boys, are dying, and I should hide in an air raid shelter?,,

Rebbetzin Kotler, Savta Golda, and the anonymous man who pushed away his plate at the wedding, did not make these gestures because of a concrete deci­sion to feel Kial YisroeI's pain. Rather, it was a natural reaction born of a feeling of Imo anochi b'tzara (I am with you in your travail).

How does one reach this point? How can someone build up Ahavas Yisroel to such a point that sharing tzar with Kial Yisroel becomes integrated, and push­ing away your plate when one hears about a tragedy becomes a natural response?

Rabbi Ginzberg's suggests that per­haps by depriving ourselves of pleasure on son1e level, we might then train our­selves to feel Kial YisroeI's tzar. To me it seems that deprivation smacks of neg­ativity. Let me illustrate this point with an incident that happened to me at the beginning of the summer. I was invit­ed to a vort and l hitched a ride with an acquaintance of mine. As I got into the car, I inquired as to the lack of 1nusic, as there was always music playing in her car. Her reaction was startling." Klal Yts­roel is in tzar, and you want to hear music?!", she exploded at 1ne.

I was upset at being yelled at, embar­rassed because there was another per­son in the car, and insulted at the impli­cation that I was a callous person. I subsequently found out that she had just read Rabbi Ginzberg's article. What a shame. Yatza s'chara b'hejseda- the loss cancelled the gain.

In another incident, I was a guest at a Shabbos table and I noticed that the husband was refusing dessert, as this was going to be his means of deprivation. I can't help but wonder how his wife, who prepared the dessert, felt about this. I wonder if it would have been 1nore appropriate to eat the dessert, compli­ment his wife, and reinforce shcUom bayis.

I think that some people who are always looking to change and grow, are getting a little carried away. To be machmir (stringent) at other people's expense, to turn chumras into halacha, to operate with "farkrumta frumkeit" will not help Ahavas Yisroe~ and will not help us feel tzar, but will ultimately cause tzar.

I would like to propose a more pos­itive approach. Going back to the arti­cle and the bus bombing discussion at the wedding, "22 died today," "No, I heard it was 23 dead:' What if one were to make a conscious decision to take on a 1nitzva l'ilui nishmas (as a source of merit to the souls of) the 23 kedoshim? For example, to make a point of com­plimenting 23 people that day. Not an easy task, but a purposeful and mean­ingful one. Or, perhaps, to smile and greet 23 people, and not go to sleep that night until the quota is accomplished. What positive vibes would be generat­ed by undertaking such a challenge! Mitzvos abound, and there are middos to improve upon. Working on ourselves where it counts, at home and at work and with Acheinu Beis Yisroe~ each time there is a tragedy, will train us to feel the pain.

Finally, please don't push away your plate at a simcha. A sirncha is a time to focus on being n1esame'ach the baalei sim­cha. I shudder to think of the general hunger strike that might occur the next time a tragedy is announced at a wedding. As Shlomo Hamelech says in Kohelles. "Eis livchos, v'eis lis'chok. There is a time to weep and a time to rejoice." I hope Moshi­ach Tzidkeinu will come soon and it will be an eis lis' chok for all of Kial Yisroel.

MlRlAM KULJK

Brooklyn, NY

(Coordinator P'tach, Bais Yaakov D'Rav Meir)

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The Jewish Observer, May 2003 33

While I definitely share Rabbi Ginzberg's concern about the manner in which we respond to the unfortunate news, I cannot agree with his proposed solution. As a matter of fact, I find his second article ("A Call to Arms") self­contradictory. There he retells the story of Reb Naftali Tropp's illness and indi­cates that it was the Chofetz Chaim's two additional minutes of learning that brought about Reb Naftali's recovery. I fully expected that he would put forward a suggestion in a similar vein, for pro­viding more zechuyos for our embattled brethren in Eretz Yisroel. I have found his suggestion of adopting a terror­bereaved family to be highly incom­patible with the Chofetz Chaim story.

This adoption plan may work for a number of individuals, both on the giv­ing and receiving sides, but it cannot be regarded as a solution within the frame­work that was suggested. The vast majority of the victims should not be expected to participate in this project, and the same is most likely true of the majority of American Jews. Speaking about the latter, not everybody is capa­ble ofbecoming"family"with people of different background and culture. We should not forget that most Israelis do not speak English and do not under­stand the high-school Hebrew that the Americans can offer. (And an even smaller percentage know Yiddish.) Also,

most Israelis are not as religious as the shul people whom Rabbi Ginzberg wants them to meet (and I am being very "generous" with the Israelis). The visitors will not be able to eat or drink anything in their houses; they definite­ly could not attend their weddings, etc. So we are limited to only some of the victims of terror who do not wish to keep their sorrow to themselves, a small number of people, most of whom live in the "territories," with the attendant danger of visiting them there.

Victims of Other Types of "Terror"

But I wish to raise another point by calling the public's attention to anoth­er kind of victim of terror of which most of us are not aware. It is told about the Lev Simcha, the father of the present Gerrer Rebbe, that when he heard the wailing of the siren of a cardiac emer­gency ambulance, he would say, pre­sumably with a bitter smile on his face, "Mazal Tov. Another father just cele­brated the engagement of a child, and then, with the leftovers of the engage­ment party cleared off the table, the real­ization of the crushing financial burden that fell upon his shoulders caused his heart to fail."

This held true at all times, and it is even truer today. At least half a year before the draconian measures were

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instituted by the newly installed gov­ernment, the previous government gradually started removing housing subsidies. Whereas these steps hurt all the newlywed couples in the country, they affected the Chareidi (and to a less­er extent the other religious) public more deeply. This is because the mar­riage rate of the general public is con­stantly dropping, while ours is B"H going on undiminished. The pretext, then, (this was even before the official proclamation of hey Zhidov, spassay Rossiyu [hit the Jews and save Russia]) was that the terror with its attendant drop in tourist visits and other economic woes that it has brought in its wake depleted the State's treasury. Had the Lev Simcha been with us today, he would have had to repeat his bitter Mazal Tov many, many times.

These people are as much victims of terror as those killed by the Arabs. Their families go through the same suffering, are subject to the same deprivation, while not being beneficiaries of State support of the other victims and of the sympathy of the public at large.

The Defense System ofZechuyos

There is, however, yet another aspect of the "terror situation" that I wish to mention. The American public is acute­ly aware of all the terrorist attacks with their attendant tragedies. Much less is known of the attacks that were averted. There are some weeks during which there are B"H no attacks, not because the Arabs do not want to kill us, but because their schemes are detected by the various branches of the Israeli defense system, or, that these murder­ers suffer a '(work-related" accident and get blown up. It is up to every Jew to stop for a moment and think, why were the vast majority of terrorist attacks prevented and why did the other attacks still occur? Of course, the secular have a "ready-made" reply-you cannot have I 00% detection and pre­vention. I believe that the answer is dif­ferent. The armed forces are able to pre­vent the bulk of the planned attacks (while being "assisted" by those of our

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

cousins who get blown up during preparations) because Kial Yisroel has zechuyos. Apparently more zechuyos are needed to prevent all such attacks, and the question is how we go about getting the "missing zechuyos."

Not only that. I most sincerely believe that the families of the victims of terror have more empathy with other victims, and each such attack brings them greater suffering than to those who were fortunate not to be involved in such as situation. It hence stands to reason that their suffering would be mitigated best by not having to learn of another terrorist attack.

Before going into the zechuyos ques­tion, I would like to refer to the sug­gestions that special tejillos be composed and said. I fully agree with the statement of Rabbi Yitzchak Frankel (quoted Rabbi Shafran's article, "A Modest Pro­posal" - Jan. '03) that we have enough tejillos, but not enough kavana. I wish to point out that the great Torah lead­ers of previous generations - the Brisker Rav, in particular - were vehemently opposed to any such new tejillos.

But this is not my main objection to special tejillos. I wish to base my stand on a p'shat that I have in the famous statement that "Lo yagata umatsasa- al taamin (I succeeded without effort)." I am not claiming that it is a true p'shat, I am simply using this Chazal to express a thought. The statement is meant to deal with a situation before the fact. A person wants to achieve something without yagata, without an effort; he relies on some segula, some hocus pocus that will bring the desired result. He is being told - al taamin, it is not going to work.

Gaining any zechuyos involves an effort; and gaining zechuyos of the magnitude needed to get us out of this terrible situation, requires a major effort (something actually mentioned by all writers, including by Rabbi Ginzberg in his first article). An effort hurts, but nothing is gained without yesurim. For example, if the public will taken upon itself to spend just a little less on its per­ceived needs and to devote the money saved to prevent even one (or maybe

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

tens of hundreds) of"Mazal Tov heart attacks;' it would have gained zechuyos of the type we need. Postponing the pur­chase of a new car for a year (if the old one runs, but should be "upgraded"), adhering strictly to the Simcha Guide­lines promulgated by the Gedolim, and transferring all the money saved to a "Maza/ Tov Heart Attack Prevention Fund," is a right step in this direction.

is just used as a rather dramatic exam­ple. A letter to the editor in Jan. '03 from the Israel Family in Milwaukee about downscaling simchos is a step in the right direction.)

A Story ... And a Call to Hands

(I wish to state that I am not involved in any such project, and I can suggest many other extremely worthy causes in ?retz _Yisroel and everywhere. The above

Let me close this letter with another story about the Chafetz Chaim. Accord­ing to Rabbi Yoshor, this great sage had become aware that Radin and a large area around it did not have a hospital. So he set out to build one by calling

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upon the wealthy to contribute to this worthy cause, which they did. All those who contributed were invited to the cor­nerstone laying festivities and were seated at the dais, as befits the occasion. There was, however, another guest of honor- the Ayshishoker porush (asce­tic), who caused many a raised eyebrow among the wealthy contributors. It must be remembered that this porush came with a suitable outfit - tattered clothing, patched shoes, a hat that had seen better times several ti1nes over, and other "appurtenances." When the Chafetz Chaim sensed the other guests' bewilderment, he turned to them and told them: "Your contributions are needed to build the hospital, but we all need his zechuyos to make sure that most of its beds will remain empty."

No one expects anyone to become a porush with all that is involved. But we should know that being one required a great deal of effort and sacrifice. Remember that nothing is gained with­out effort, and the saving of countless Jewish souls is within our grasp.

It is told about Rabbi Meyer Shapiro, the Rosh Yeshiva of Chachmei Lublin, that he was once refused a donation for his yeshiva. Upon hearing the refusal, he told the man that he need not check his pockets for chometz. The explanation -"One has to check for chometz only in places within the reach of his hands, and

your hands do not reach your pockets." I thus wish to issue a novel call, a call

to hands. A call to hands that will reach deeper into the pockets and help our brethren in Eretz Yisroel to survive the final period of our galus.

RABBI Dov LEDERMAN

Bnai Brak

(The writer is author of These Chil­dren are Mine, published by Feldheim. A Holocaust survivor who was educated in American yeshivas, he has been living in Israel for close to 38 years where he is active in the World Agudah and Keren Hashviis.)

RABBI GJNZBERG RESPONDS

Rabbi Shragie Jacobs' heartwarming letter was truly inspirational. He writes that after my article he decided to make some personal changes and "kabbalos" on behalf of the snffering of Acheinu Bnei Yisroel. Where does one find a nation like Kial Yisroel!

By contrast, I found myself confused by the words of Rabbi Lederman. How does he see a contradiction between my proposal for "every shut adopting one family" and the story about the Chafetz Chaim's learning two extra minutes for Reb Naftali's recovery?

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roe[ with zechusim, whether learning an extra two 1ninutes, two hours or two days, how does that imply that we can't organize a powerful financial and social support system for these tragic terror victims? Does saying a "MiShebeirach" for a choleh (sick person) absolve ns from giving blood or from doing bikur cholim for that very choleh?

The proposal to adopt a family has struck a positive chord in many people in many communities, and where it is being pursued, it is being met with a great success. Differences in religious ideology or observance have not proven to be an obstacle.

Ms. Kulik begins her letter with her own inspiring story of her Savta Golda and describes it aptly as an expression of" Imo anochi b'tzara - I identify with your pain." And then she seems to assail this approach because of her own unfortunate episode with an insensitive person. While such behavior is clearly lacking and should be corrected, should we throw out the baby with the bath­water?

Why should making a personal kab­bala for oneself (see Rabbi Jacobs' let­ter) or for one's family be considered "farkrumta frumkeit"? Does accepting restrictions on oneself inevitably result in less shalom bayis or cause more tzar? (If a man is eschewing desserts, he should discuss this with his wife before she prepares a menu. Or perhaps Shab­bos can be an exception.)

A woman in Los Angeles responded to my original article in The Jewish Observer, thanking me profusely. She reported that her family of eight spent an entire Friday night meal discussing what they could do together as a family to express "Imo anochi betzara" - in Ms. Kulik's words. They decided together (the younger and older children) to forgo their favorite Matza' ei Shabbos pastime of rent­ing the latest video from Blockbuster, until at least the situation changes. She described the closeness that developed in her family as a result of their sharing the common "sacrifice)' on behalf of Acheinu Bnei Yisroel: "I can't thank you enough for bringing together our family in such a way that I never thought possible."

--------------------The Jewish Observer, May 2003

Chazal are filled with stories of Tan­naim and Amoraim who identified with the tzar of others by accepting limita­tions on themselves, from Rav Tzaddok who fasted 40 years for the suffering of Kial Yisroel in the days of the Ch urban Bayis, to Rav Yochanan, who painfully carried with him a bone of one of his ten children who had died in his lifetime, in order to co1nfort others.

I remember vividly how Maran Harav Shach, 7··~r shed tears when he related to me a story about the Chofetz Chaim ?·~r: When the Chafetz Chaim was well into his eighties, a woman poured out her heart to him in pain about her daughter, her only child, who had been married for several years and had no children: "Will the Chafetz Chaim please daven for her?"

The Chafetz Chaim sighed and said that he was sorry, but he really could not help her.

She, however, persisted: The Chafetz Chaim has to help her daughter as he helped her I i.e. the mother J in the past. More than a quarter of a century earlier, she too had been married for several years with no children. She then came to him and he promised to help her. One year later, her daughter was born. And now, how could the Chafetz Chaim tell her that he can't help her daughter like he had helped her so many years earlier?

"Please do the sa1ne again)" she pleaded.

The Chafetz Chaim tearfully responded, "You don't understand. \-\Then you came to n1e so 1nany years ago, I \Vas younger and stronger, and I fasted for 40 days so that you should have a child. However, now I am old and weak, and I am unable to fast at all. Unfortunately, I cannot do for your daughter what I did for you so many years before."

Rabbi Shach explained, "That sacri­fice of the Chafetz Chaim of 40 days of fasting for just one Jewish woman in pain is the level of Ahavas Yisroel that each and every one of us should strive for."

Did the Chofetz Chaim's self-sacri­fice bring tzar to the world? Did it call his shalom bayis into question? Certainly not!

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

Ms. Kulik's idea of positive rein­forcement of improving middos bein adam l'chaveiro is a wonderful thought. I just don't see the contradiction. Each and every one of us is different. Some may find it easier to feel the pain through deprivation, and others through positive reinforcement. In truth, the Orchos Tzaddikim describes both of these traits as parallel approach­es toward shlein1us1 son1ething each of us hopefully strives for.

nection between "pushing away your plate at a simchan and a general hunger strike at a wedding is a bit tenuous.

A recent dinner of a national Torah organization had placed cards on the center of each dinner table stating that "due to the situation in Eretz Yisroel this year, there will be no Viennese table:' It brought more "complimentary expres­sions" than I ever heard at an actual Viennese table.

While "letters to the editor" are sometimes written with a flair for emphasis, I truly believe that the con-

Once again, I am overwhelmed with the words of the passuk, "Mi ke'amcha Yisroel goy echad ba' aretz."

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A Torah Perspective for our Challeng­ing Times, by Rabbi Moshe Meir Weiss, (distributed by Judaica Press, Brooklyn, N.Y., 2002 $18.95 )

When Yaakov, the intrepid travel­er, set out for a trip to a faraway city, he saw on a map that the

most direct route was through the nearby "Dark Forest."

His friend Shimon tried to dissuade him from that route: "Do not go through the for­est. It is a very dangerous place filled with wild animals, highway robbers and poi­sonous snakes. There is great danger there."

"I have nothing to worry about," Yaakov rep lied, "for I have taken care to cover my eyes with a blindfold and cannot see any­thing that might harm me."

The Chafetz Chaim used this story to illustrate the mindset of those who do not wish to listen to the words of the Tochacha, the rebukes in Parashios Ki Savo and Bechukosai. They feel, he said, that by not listening to the words, they will be immune to the frightening things they describe. In truth, the Chafetz Chaim said, the entire purpose of the Tochacha is to alert us to inter­nalize a lesson and thereby avoid the

Rabbi Becker is Associate Executive Director of Agudath Israel of America.

danger. By not listening and not think­ing about the words of rebuke, we do not escape the threat but, on the contrary, we, chas veshalom, court the opposite.

The events of the past two years have challenged us to think, reflect and seek to improve ourselves, even to draw strength from the adversity of the times. Yet the reflexive reaction of many is to become spiritual ostriches, putting

heads neatly in the ground and hoping for a return to normal times. Doing so, however, squanders the great opportu­nity that Hashem has provided us to gain in ruchnius by reflecting upon the signs He has sent us to bring us to teshuva and even greater spiritual heights.

In his latest book, A Torah Perspective for our Challenging Times, Rabbi Moshe

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Meir Weiss offers a timely perspective into many of the bone-chilling events of recent years, events that are seared into the con­sciousness of every American and other civilized person around the world. The first segment of the book reflects on the destruction of the World Trade Center, where thousands lost their lives and a deep evil became apparent. Much of the self­indulgence and pleasure-seeking that characterized the previous decade quick­ly became trivial, and many people relt the need to look for new meaning in life.

In chapters entitled "A Torah Reac­tion" and ((The Power of Holiness vs. the Power of Defilement in Comfort­ing our Children;' Rabbi Weiss pro­vides insights into the lessons of these events. Now that more than a year and a half have passed, those lessons have begun to dim. Reading this analysis brought back a small feeling of that heightened level of kedusha that we all experienced the weeks after the attacks. These few chapters alone are worth the cost of the book.

The second section, entitled "The Matzav in Bretz Yisroel," which unfortunately remains timely,

also helps us provide a perspective on our responsibilities toward our belea­guered brethren in Bretz Yisroel.

Jn a subsection called "A Torah Reaction," Rabbi Weiss addresses the latest challenge of Galus to face Kial YisroeL

"As we know from biblical times, the father of the Arab nation was YishmaeL The name Yishmael is very unique for, in Yerushalmi Beracho~ the Talmud tells us that only four names were given before the person was born: Yitzchak, Yishmael, Yoshiyahu, and Shlomo. That means that the name Yishmael was in quite a rarefied group. This should be an indication that the name carries a very important message, and, in mod­em times, we really see what a prophet­ic and vital message it is.

"The Medrash in Parshas Lech Lecha tells us that the name conveys the message that in the Acharis Hayamim, toward the end of time, the Jews will be forced to call out to the

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

Almighty because of the descendants ofYishmael. This is derived from the fact that Yishmael is a composite of two words, <yishoma' and' Keil,' which means 1It will be heared' and 'the Almighty.' This is a prophetic forecast that, motivated by the persecution of Yishmael's descendants, our cries to the Almighty will be regularly heard by Hashem. What pinpoint accuracy this prophecy shows!" Other essays in the book deal with such

intriguing topics as "Giving a Spiritual Look at the Election Debacle of 2000;' "The Columbine Tragedy;' "The Wash­ington Rally," and "The DafYomi Siyum Hashas" - though the section devoted to "the Harry Potter Phenomenon;' for all its valid insights, in this reviewer's opin­ion, does not conform with the level of discussion of the rest of the material. There is also a very heartwa1111ing section, "A Look Back at Gedolei Torah;' which gives a wonderful appreciation of great Torah personalities with whom Rabbi Weiss interacted, like Rabbi Avrohom Pam, the Bobover Rebbe, and Rabbi Avig­dor Miller, zichron tzaddikim livracha.

The book's penultimate paragraph states;

«The Hebrew name for a grave, 'kever: has the same letters as the word 'boker; which means morning. It is our belief that the grave is not the end but the beginning of a new morning, the dawn of one's real life. This is the rea-

son why we bury our dead in shrouds that are not allowed to have pockets. It symbolizes that on our final journey, we cannot take any worldly possessions with us, not even our Titanium Visa or America Express card. Rather the only thing we take with us are our 'forah, the money we gave to charity, the hospi­tal visits we made, the mourners we comforted, the time we selflessly gave to our loved ones, and the good deeds we did for our relatives and friends!' What a wonderful way to end a book,

and what a wonderful way for us to frame our avoda in these challenging

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My dear brothers and sisters, To be mailed to:

My letter ln the March I Adar II issue of The Jewish Observer, asking for your help to bring my orphaned daughter and her chosson, also an orphan, to the chupa, was met with a very warm response. But it fell .short of covering their needs. Understandably Purim, then Pesach intervened, butthe chupa issched­uled for 11 Sivan, and we hope to fulfill our obligations by then .:.withyout help.

Checks in U.S.$ made out to Cong. Ohavei Torah-Kallah Fulld (tax deductible) (for checks in Br£, write: Charity B.F.0.0.B,)will put your contribution to imrnec diate use, and bring happiness and security to orphaned children in Jerusalem, and Hashem's choicest blessings to you.

With deep appreciation.

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DIGRESSING ON THE INTERNET AND BEYOND: THE BAS YISROEL

AND COLLEGE

To the Editor: An interesting article, small but

powerful in content, by Bernard Frysh­man appeared on page 40 of the Sep­tember '02 JO. I agree with Dr. Frysh­man. The dangers of the Internet are real. In fact, now that ads and other graphics suddenly appear and float across the screen, it is almost impossi­ble to escape unscathed. I don't argue with Mr. Fryshman - high tech Inter­net filters not withstanding.

There is another phenon1enon con­fronting the Orthodox home and neshama that presents a more reach­ing danger than the Internet: the bas Yisrael (and ben Torah) and college. Included in this are college courses taken while the student is still in high school, and thus under the auspices of the Bais Yaakov itself. This dialogue, as far as I know, has not gone public, but I think it should. I don't think I am alone and I think it will be impas­sioned. This, however, is the purpose of a dialogue: to open up the channels and explore the different sides of the issue. What are the communal/social pressures involved in the significant increase in Orthodox girls attending colleges and universities? Why has this taken place with, as far as I know, lit­tle or no reviev.,r of the material our children are exposed to, if there is any say at all? How is the course of study accomplished (something akin to Internet filters - home study, CLEPing, yeshiva I Bais Yaakovcredits, etc.)? How much is actually learned? And, to the

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point, what are the dangers? I recently reviewed a book being used

by Orthodox youth in a college setting and am telling you that, in the name of literature and culture, the material is absolute filth - pornography in words and blasphemy. Period. A sick mind wrote it and a sick culture promoted it and our children are exposed to it.

just as we have held open debates concerning videos, movies, elementary and high school textbook content, wed­dings, and yes, the Internet, it is time to discuss college and the bas Yisroel. I am sure there is much to say.

YITZCHAK MSNETT, M.S. Cleveland Heights, OH

THE "ALEINU'' RESOLUTION

To the Editor: I was particularly impressed by Rabbi

Avi Shafran's "A Modest Proposal" (Jan '03), wherein he beseeches Kial Yisroel to pay more attention when saying the beautiful tefilla, "Aleinu L'Shabe'ach."

It struck a personal chord because, just a month earlier at my grandson's Bar Mitzva, I had spoken on this topic, based on what I had seen in the Sefer"Aleinu J:Shabe'ach" by Rabbi Yitzchok Zilber­stein. He is the Rav of Ramal Elchonon and son-in-law of Hagaon Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv >n:>'71'1. (A free trans­lation of the text follows.) Would that all of us, including the shaliach tzibbur, undertake to say every word from a Sid­dur carefully, Rabbi Shafran would then have no problem completing this tefilla before Kaddish, and Kial Yisroel would had added a great zechus to our "bank account" in protecting Acheinu B'nei Yis­roel b'chol makom sheheim.

(RABBI) YISROEL HIS!GER

Brooklyn, NY

[Text of Rabbi Hisiger's mention] In many shuls, the young boys col­

lect the Siddurim, right after Mussa[, and put them away. One Shabbos I noticed a youngster - he must have been 7 or 8 years old- run to the shelf just before "Aleinu" to retrieve his Sid­dur. He opened it and said this final prayer with great intensity, reading from the page. His father asked him

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

why he felt compelled to say"Aleinu" from the page; didn't he know it by heart?

The child replied, "Our whole class went to the funeral of Mrs. B. - a big tzidkanios who left behind a large orphaned family. The speakers all told us to improve our ways. I decid­ed to concentrate on saying 'Aleinu, from the Siddur. So I rushed to get my Siddur back:'

Unfortunately, people treat "Aleinu" dismissingly. It's at the very end of the davening, and people men­tally have one foot out the door. Yet our sacred literature focuses on the sig­nificance of this prayer, which begs G­d to reveal His regal Presence over the entire world. That's why we say it standing, with everyone reciting it at once, and that1s why we include it as part of the Mussaf prayer on Rosh Hashana and Yorn Kippur.

When I told one of our contempo­rary Torah giants of this child's actions, he was visibly moved, and comment­ed: "Who knows how many problems, how much suffering this young boy

averted by this small resolution!" Then he added, "Once small resolution, assumed with the determination to bring nachas to the Creator can defend us from all the evil designs our enemies might conjure up!"

A "MODEST" EXPRESSION OF CONCURRENCE

To the Editor: Rabbi Avi Shafran's insightful "Mod­

est Proposal" has struck a responsive chord with people from all walks oflife. I have taken the liberty of disseminat­ing copies of his article to the shuls in my community.

The "Aleinu" tefilla is imbedded in our normal fabric. So much so that a special effort may be required to keep it, and our other daily practices, from becoming rote - to avoid hergel na' aseh teva.

On a personal note, the daily seder I have with my son on the phone in Shulchan Aruch!Mishneh Berura brought us to Hilchos Tefilla 132:2, Siman 8, the day before 1 read Rabbi Shafran's article. It may be particularly

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The Jewish Observer, May 2003 41

helpful in the case of "Aleinu" to read the words of the Chofetz Chaim:

is the nations whose lot is such ... ": Not such a modest proposal, indeed.

"Aleinu should be recited with awe and fear, for all the heavenly hosts are lis­tening and Hakadosh Baruch Hu stands with the angelic legions (Pamalia shel ma' ala), and they all answer: 'Fortunate

LESLIE BENNETT, MD Kew Gardens Hills, NY

"ALEINU': COUNT ME JN, TOO!

To the Editor: I would like to thank Rabbi Avi

Shafran on his article "A Modest Pro­posal". I'll explain why.

Around two years ago, when I was in I O'h grade, a girl in my class poured out her heart and told me abou the terrible shalom bayis problem between her parents.

I assured her that if we would both daven, Hashem would il"'N send a yeshua. That day, I went home and I decided to concentrate intently on one tefilla as a zechus for this yeshua. Instead of rushing after Shemoneh Esrei, I davened"Aleinu," thinking that through this, there should be a com­plete yeshua.

The next day in school, this girl came over to me privately and said, "I don't know what you did, but last night there was no fighting; it was just peaceful."

She asked me if I had spoken to her parents, and I assured her that the only thing I did was daven.

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A TIMELY"WAKE-UP CALL

To the Editor: Rabbi Shafran's discussion of exter­

nal threats to the spiritual or temporal equilibrium of Jewry as emanating from inner weakness - or "ideological fuzziness;' as he termed it in his essay "Wake Up Call" (April '03) - was most timely. Yes, it is a theme that has been stated in the past. His essay, however, brought a certain clarity and immedi­acy to the topic and even inspired some related thoughts.

Indeed, the Ribbono Shel Olam has infinite means at His disposal to convey to His children an awareness of our shortcomings. We, in turn, are expect­ed to respond with some sort of agen­da for reassessment, improvement or correction, as the case may be.

This reader was reminded of an ear­lier article by Rabbi Shafran in which he proposed saying "Aleinu" with kavana - concentrating on the meaning of this declaration of faith, especially in regard to the "Al Kein Nekaveh" paragraph, which is an expression of hope and sup­plication that "all mortals call in Your Name ... and all the world's inhabi-tants ... accept the yoke of Your king-dom." What a beautiful world that would be!

Is there anything that we can do -beyond prayer - to usher in this "Al Kein Nekaveh" Era?

It seems that if we would apply the "Wake-Up Call" dynamic suggested in the April article, and de-fuzzify our ide­ology, we might just make it happen. The first step is to diagnose the prob­lem - the world's nations' total oblivion to G-d's dominion over the world, and His control over its events. The resolu­tion to this spiritual malaise that should follow would depend on us - that is, on our own recognition of His mastery over the affairs of the cosmos - from mighty super-state to puny individual to insignificant microbe.

And where can we find the details of this program for re-aligning our hashkafa? Why, in the Siddur. Open up any Jewish prayer book, and at the con­clusion of each and every tefilla, you will

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

find a stirring declaration: "It is incum­bent on us to praise the L-ord of all exis­tence, to ascribe greatness to Him who shapes the work of Creation ... Who has not made us like the peoples of the land ... not cast our lot amongst those multitudes ... for we bow to the Supreme King of Kings ... :' That's «Aleinu:'

If we straighten out our weltan­schauung and attitudes by learning to say "Aleinu ... " with kavana - understand­ing and commitment - and lead our lives accordingly, then realization of"Al Kein Nekaveh" cannot be far behind.

AV! DAVID

Brooklyn, NY

IMPROVING OUR TEFILLOS

To the Editor: I found the article by Rabbi Pinchas

Jung (JO Nov. '02) on being a better ha' al tefilla most inspiring and encour­aging for potential ba'alei tefilla. The benefits accruing to the ba'al tefilla him­self, in addition to those he can bestow upon the tzibbur, are too seldom rec­ognized and acted upon. I hope that this article will prompt many more poten­tial ba'alei tefilla to "take the plunge:'

As someone who has recently com­pleted a stint as a chiyuv - a mourner who is obligated to lead the services -V"?, however, I feel that insufficient emphasis was placed in the article on time constraints. A parenthetical note that "it's only a matter of minutes" to daven a little slower does not sufficiently address a significant problem in our batei knessios.

The shul were I davened most of my recent year of aveilus (Kahal Hisach­dus Yerei'im in Flatbush) was most accommodating of my tendency to daven somewhat slower than average, and for this I am grateful to both the hanhala and mispallelim- the admin­istration and congregants of this pl ace of worship.

The exception, however, often proves the rule. In virtually ever other shul where I davened for the amud, the pres­sure to daven as fast as possible (and then some!) was intense. When I was not

The Jewish Observer, May 2003

the shaliach tzibbur, I often found myself skipping parts of davening and abandoning all attempts at kavana (concentration) in the race for Kaddish at the finish line.

In these difficult times, we all need the positive impact of tefillos bekavana as Rabbi Jung describes them, assisted by the leadership of a good ba' al tefilla. This requires the concerted effort of both mispallelim and hanhala to give kavanas hatefilla the respect it deserves by slowing down this avoda shebalev.

GERSHON DUBIN

Brooklyn, NY

"THE RISE OF LAPID" WHO'S TO BLAME?

To the Editor: Once again, Rabbi Rosenblum has

done a service for our community by bringing to our attention a pressing issue that needs to be addressed, in his arti­cle, "The Rise of Tommy Lapid" (Feb. '03). His extremely professional style built on the formidable amount of research that goes into his articles reflects a sincere desire to help Kial Yis­roel with his utmost. The Ribbono Shel Olam should continue to bless his efforts with success.

Rabbi Rosenblum mentioned a number of times his frustration con­cerning the lack of funding needed to combat the negative image of our com­munity, which the media projects. Wel­come home, Reb Yonoson, you're in good company.

Yeshivas, kollelim, and Rebbeim are also missing funding. But don't let your frustration turn into cynicism chalilla.

Another point - Chazal say "It is a halacha that Eisav despises Yaakov;' and even more so, «The am haaretz despis­es the ta/mid chacham;' add Chazal. No amount of polishing our image will abolish that halacha. It's a waste of time, money, energy and effort. Although we definitely must be concerned with "Making shem Shamayim beloved through your actions;' and we are obli­gated to respond in certain situations to defend the honor of the Torah, by and large those an1ei ha' aretz who

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43

in Mishlei., "Do not reprove a scoffer lest he hate you:'

"Do We Bear Part of the Blame?" is the question raised in the fourth part of the article. The answer is No. Not part. Rather, all. Not because of our lack of concern over our image in the eyes of the public. Rather if there is a "Lapid" out there, it's because there is a "Lapid" in there, in our hearts and souls. We have allowed secularism to creep into our hearts and eat away at our souls. Our lifestyles have become secularized to a very unheard-of degree. We focus too much on our own honor, pleasure, comfort and image. Eventually, we find more satisfaction with material accomplishments, we deem spiritual demands as obstacles to overcome, and develop negative atti­tudes towards talmidei chachamim, tefilla and chessed. These negative atti­tudes are the hatred associated with Lapid, which needs to be uprooted from our very hearts. We have acquired attitudes and thinking pat­terns of the secularists. When we purge secularism from ourselves and

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lifestyles, then the power of the secu­larists will vanish into thin air.

CHAIM LAZERSON

Jerusalem

RABBI ROSENBLUM RESPONDS

I assure Rabbi Lazerson that I do not believe hasbara efforts to be more important than yeshivas and kollelim. The question that needs to be addressed, however, is whether hasbara failures leading up to the recent Israeli elections contributed to the draconian budget cuts, totaling over $200 million annu­ally, that Torah institutions now face under the proposed 2003 budget.

Nor is the purpose of hasbara on behalf of the Torah community limit­ed to its cost effectiveness. When Am Echad-Israel was still on the drawing boards, I had a conversation with the Rosh Agudas Yisroel, the Novominsker Rebbe i'l.'1"'nl, in which I questioned whether money should be invested in an untried effort to change the image of Torah Jews in the media when so many organizations with long track records of success in kiruv and chinuch were cry­ing for money. The Rebbe replied that beyond any cost-benefit analysis of Am Echad's efforts, there is an obligation of kavod Shamayim to set the record straight when the image of Torah and Torah Jews is distorted.

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In addition, the mitzva of" Sheyehei Shem Shamayim mis' aheiv al yadcha -to inspire love of Hashem in others" -obligates us to try in whatever way we can to show the beauty of the Torah to our fellow Jews. Hasbara is only one aspect of this. In the section of my arti­cle entitled "Do We Bear Part of the Blame?" I gave examples of certain ways in which we, as a community, have failed with respect to this obligation. Each one of these examples was heard directly from a prominent talmid chacham.

Trying to change the image of Torah Jewry is pointless, Rabbi Lazerson opines, because "an am ha'aretz hates a talmid chacham." I would suggest that this rule applies primarily to those far closer to religion than the average sec­ular Israeli, who is unexposed to Torah.

Jn point of fact, it is demonstrable that attitudes toward Torah and Torah Jews are not immutable and have varied great­ly, over time. I have just returned from a speaking tour in community kollels in America's Far West and Southwest. Jn each city I was told the same thing: Though the Jews here may have little Torah knowledge and their level of observance may be minimal, they have no antipathy to religious Jews and are open to listening to what we have to say.

While it is true that from the giving of Torah at Sinai a certain hatred of Torah also came into the world, the issues raised by secular Israelis against the chareidi community are hardly so irrational from their point of view that we must attribute everything they say or do to that irrational hatred.

Rabbi Moshe Sherer ?"lit was fond of quoting something he had heard during the period of time he was meshamesh Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman , .. ,,.,. Reb Elchonon explained the verse in Tehillim (92,12) "Bekamimalai me'rei'im ... when those who would harm me rise up, ... my ears hear their doom," to mean that when our enemies curse us we should tilt our ears attentively, for perhaps there is a trace of truth in what they say. Reb Elchonon clearly did not take the position that there is no point in listening to our enemies since they will always hate us anyway.

YONOSON ROSENBLUM

----- ---·-···------·--·-·---··--·-·----··--·----· --------44 The Jewish Observer, May 2003

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Tr,iple P·aiot?!i/ 1tfifit~;Gain!.!11' Day after day; · Night after night; A women struggles To cope with her plight.

The skies -'darker, It seems forever; The clouds - grayer Will.this end ever?

Confused, frustrated, Broken,

· My burden, who will share? Shall J surrender? The anguish I eari.'t bear.

·Daya'µ~tdaq;,~* '.~ Night after.tught; i!I / ·· .. " gir,I strl{qgles,,. • ..... ~. ·• . To t;;Qpe with her plight,

. Jf¢r ~l~~ts, sr/~idd~n · D.~perate t-0 [l-O!ll'i$h; Jter pot¢ntials, · · t']'fb'eddfl:d . > . F ·.. • U>riging to be nourished. .,

n~i tiue ~ssenee Will,sh~. eMr p6ttr11ef? '[he gualityshe poss~ ' Will it just[ade 11.1.1Jay? ·

;:~~;::.:m¢1i~JStern r}ay aft~r day~'i Nigtitcafter night; f'ichil.d.struggles·.:

)Jo i:opewith.his plight

~ef~~~f~d• abandoned,~Jori¢; Waqderlng from. place to} Pia~~}' ' . //J;i"' ' ·

,,!'Vlypain0wM;~arid'athpm? l'le;;iseglln'r hicl~y6ur face.J

Em~tional~t@,~fiJ? denied, fv!etcy, Oh ~~i!Cfl'lY fears H~ar Oh J11Y C'tie~ Oop:t be bliQg tq my tears!

Three souls Three situations Three hearts yearning For Heaven's salvatio~.

It was destined It wasrrepared For al as in one Their struggles he shared.

The master J>lan, So J>erlectly designed, Enable Chana,

Wilh you, Mother, Trotting together, "\\! c have gone a journey;

A world in Shimmyto find. That otherwise would take forever.

Trying to focus Thus helping Shimmy, On hii! specific role, T ryinglo guide him, To accomplish his goal.

Shine as a special star; Twinkling in the darkest of night Noticeable from afar!!

i(,'i.f~a~~f~i~~·~• \,:,, ·· · t l!~r pig!ft; ,;

· ... '~ ~fl~ct~· ··········•·•··· !llJgrli!hin~sight. '·--··X:·.,··."···,:·.·,,.::"'-· .. ,

· o~"(r~lieved, " ~~u !ll!are~.

~l\~~t.t; d arid .i'epajred

;.;r;~~. a1itfi~t\6.tit~e Ppem~· s~~t·ti.rtj:fc)u·tias.a .reg­. µl~J: b<ib~i~.t~fOr·arr:iutis.ti.c child:with a .help~ '.:.;1~.ss.lnoth~r~ .. _lias .deve1oped.·a strong .feeling for

})oth of thern •. ln a-sense, sh_e_feels more thap.K­ful to them -_f. - eiping her_ realjz_e an_~ expfes_s_

Day after day; Night after .. night; if girl reflects Marveling in hindsight.

~y talents - blossoming My,talents - portrayed Like a rose

· 1n its full beauty displayed.

Through all their struggle, Through all their pain, A strong bonding lorever Securing them in a close chain

Day after Day Night afler Night Three souls bonded Hearts in heaven-blessed delight!

h~r - ifinefrnost ~ochos> hiiti~fiiSh:,-. ..:.. --her:_ -Own >-potential_•-_-- Mother_ and child _ wiU definitely remain g~a~eful to th~_:_author for __ helping the child progress and _reestabHSh his_ t,rust:_and _t()n_­fi~~c~, _after:_being crushed from endufing frus-

(-'/:;

Day .affe~\'~~y;i1.t 'r. Nigh,t 41'.J:en;ii~pt; .... Achrld refleC!f < ·•·. ••. Marveling in<himlsigh,p

ti'ating :eXpede-~ces. At the-eru:f;(they:_,ait_ reeJ grateful to HasTi~.1!' for _ aU tlle,ir ha-tdshi_ps; because it was precisely_ this, __ that actually linked them together in-a stron'g chain, never to -loosen or break.

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