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H·A·S·C A TIME FOR MUSIC XIII

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December 1999 VOLUME XXXI I/NO. 10

Teves 5760 • December 1999 U.S.A.$3.50/Foreign $4.50 ·VOL XXXII/NO. 10

6 The Arrogance of Israel's Elites, Yonason Rosenblum

ESSAY

16 The Unsmooth Blend -And Worse, Yud Pnini

11 Lord Jakobovits ';>"'! of Regent Park, Robbi Nasson Scherman

l 3 Chanuka and Snow, Robbi Baruch Leff

MUSINGS

28 Walking Home, Yisroel M. Muller

THE WORLD OF THE BA'AL TESHUVA

l 9 Enemy Lines, Pnuel Peri

PEOPLE WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE

3 I Portrait of an /sh Hachessed: Reb Luzer Brodt, 'n,

Chaim Kuperwasser

SECOND LOOKS

'00, Robbi Shlomo M. Breslauer

Common Jewish Language, o"h, Rabbi Avi Shafran

BOOKS IN REVIEW

40 Reb Elyah, Rabbi Hillel Goldberg

READERS' FORUM

42 Priorities and Choices: Women in the Torah Society

4S Letters to the Editor

Little remains in modern 1srael of the old Zionist ideology. The communitarian ideals of the

founding fathers have been replaced by individualistic ones. But in one respect there is continuity between Israel's founding generation and certain present day elites: a cast of mind that can best be described as Bolshevik. As Rabbi Eliezer Menachem Schach 1<""""1 has often said, "The only real Bolsheviks in the world today are in Israel."

That Bolshevik mindset is characterized by absolute conviction in the rightness of one's views, which are presumed to be those of all enlightened, progressive people: a contempt for those groups in society who have failed to grasp the Truth as seeu by the elites, a belief iu one's right - nay, duty to use all the means at one's disposal to reeducate those who still dwell in the dark, and a hostility to some of the basic values of democratic society, including representative government and the free flow of information to the public.

Ironically, these attitudes are most frequently found in Israel today among those who view themselves as the avatars of freedom, tolerance, and the

Yonason Rosenblum who lives in Jerusalem is a contributing editor to The Jewish Observer. He is also director of the Israeli division of Am Echad, the Agudath lsrael~inspired educational outreach effort and media resource.

6

ftt'ac~: eii!ze theisraeli media and judicial sys

tem. Though most of the examples that

follow are not drawn from the arena of religious/secular conflict in modern Israeli society, it is the religious/chareidi community that finds itself most threatened by our new Bolsheviks in yuppie guise. For the elites that dominate the media and judicial system correctly recognize the values of the religious community as the greatest challenge to their own, and religious Jews as the group least capable of being assimilated into the uniform society for which they yearn.1

Five Centers of Power

Israeli society can be described in terms of five centers of power: the Knesset, the economy, the judicial

system, the media, and the army. Until 1977, each of these five was dominated by the left-wing parties. The Right never came close to winning control of the Knesset, the army officer corps was largely filled with products of the kibbutzim, and the Labor-controlled Histadrut held sway over vast segments of

I We have in the past dealt at length with the attacks on the religious community by the Israeli media and courts. See "The Israeli Supreme Court Against Democracy" (JO Mar. '99), and "He Who Judges Too Much Judges Not At All" (JO Nov. '96).

the econo!Jly. +11~ Labor party often treated the coffers of the party, the Histadrut, and the government as interchangeable pockets on the same garment.

With the election of Menachem Begin as Prime Minister in 1977, however, that scenario changed radically. Likud-led governments have been in power the majority of the time since then. The junior officer corps of the army today includes far more young men wearing kippot srugot than kibbutzniks, though the upper echelons of the officer corps still remain largely impervious to religious soldiers. The once powerful Histadrut as but a shadow of its former self, and its share of national economic activity has declined rapidly.

The only areas, then, where the once dominant Ashkenazi elites continue to hold sway are the print and broadcast media, and in the judicial system. Indeed, as the other sectors of Israeli society have opened up, the media and legal establishment have become ever more homogenous and have succeeded in concentrating ever greater power in their hands.

It is not coincidental that the gradual ascendancy of the Israeli Supreme Court coincides with Menachem Begin's election as Prime Minister. Ruth Gavison, Professor of Law at the Hebrew University and current president of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel,

The Jewish Observer, December 1999

described in a November 12 interview in Ha'Aretz's Weekend Magazine how the Israeli judicial system "serves as the last refuge for elements of the old elites who feel the only institution that is still under their control and represents their values is the Court:' As a consequence, those old elites "have a natural tendency to aggrandize the power of the Court, and in fact to use it in order to curb or restrain the process of democratization [of Israeli society J ." The interview sent shock waves through the Israeli legal world.

Though she herself is sympathetic to most of the substantive outcomes of Supreme Court decisions under Chief Justice Aharon Barak, she views Barak's "constitutional revolution" as "an attempt by the veteran elite to work through a constitution and through the Court -which will rule on every constitutional issue - in order to create a conceptually homogeneous constitutional framework for a population that is far from homogeneous."

That process, opined Professor Gavison, ignores the beliefs of more than half of Israel's citizens - the Arabs, the religious population, Sephardim, and traditionalists - and "can only be seen as an act of coercion, ... an atten1pt to curb [Israel's] heterogeneous and nonWestern and not necessarily secular elected political system by subordinating it to a ho1nogeneous judicial system that is Western and secular."

Professor Gavison's focus is on the Israeli legal system. Only tangentially did she deal with the other great bastion of elite power: the media. Yet the two centers of power- the legal system and the media - cannot be separated from one another. They, by and large, reflect the same values, and reinforce one another's power. Ari Shavit (who incidentally interviewed Professor Gavison) charged last year:

In present day Israel, there exists an almost absolute identity between those persons dedicated to the idea of peace in its most radical-dovish version, and those journalists, lawyers, and academics who are charged with setting the civil and legal norms and


• Ha'Aretz's Weekend Magazine, Ruth Gavison,

Professor of Law at the Hebrew University,

described how the Israeli judicial system "serves

as the last refuge for elements of the old elites who

feel the only institution that is still under their control

and represents their values is the Court." As a

consequence, those old elites "have a natural

tendency to aggrandize the power of the Court,

and in fact to use it in order to curb or restrain the

process of democratization [of Israeli society]. /1

the flow of information .... A certain camp, very well defined, fulfills three or four functions: they are the players, the judge, they report and they explain the process on the various media outlets. Above all, what joins these two over

lapping elites is their arrogance: their contempt for, and suspicion of, the general Israeli populace and their willingness to use whatever power they possess to advance their goals without respect for accepted democratic norms.

II. THE MEDIA'

•

Prominent figures in the Israeli media do not deny what is obvious to all: the media is not repre

sentative of Israeli society. Moshe Kirschenbaum, the former directorgeneral of the Israel Broadcast Authority, cheerfully admits that most journalists are "very liberal, avant-garde, and open-minded." Ha'Aretz editor Chanoch Marmori characterizes his fellow print and electronic journalists as members of a "small, elitist, well-off,

2 Most of the examples in this section are drawn from "Israel's Electronic Broadcasting: Reporting or Managing the News?" by Yisrael Med.ad and Eli Pollak.

urban and secular group." The left-wing leanings of the Israeli

media hardly make it unique. What is unique to Israel is the comfort those in the media feel with advancing their own political agenda. Scoffing at the notion of objectivity or fairness, even those working in public broadcasting view their positions as private fiefdoms to use as they wisb. Every time their professional ethics are challenged, they raise the bogie man of"political interference" in the broadcast media as a defense against all constraints.

A June 1996 Gallup poll found that 70% of Israelis feel that news reporters interject their own opinions into their work. In another survey in late 1996, a whopping 77% felt that the media lacked objectivity when reporting about then Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Nor did the journalists themselves deny the charge. Maariv's Ron Meiberg, writing of that same period, confessed, "as journalists and as opinionated people, we were never so mobilized to bring down the Prime Minister and to hold up for ridicule his idiotic behavior:' Ha'Aretz's political reporter Orit Galili characterized the press in the 1996 campaign as "completely mobilized on behalf of Peres:' (At least she saw this as

7

a professional failure.) Aharon Goldfinger, the producer of

Popolitika, then Israel TV's most popular current affairs program, declared after a broadcast two days after the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin," I will pursue them, the Likud, and you may even quote me on that:' He railed at the night's panelists for not have been sufficiently aggressive in attacking the Likud, and declared that as long as he was producer right-wing opinions would never again be allowed to prevail on the show. Though these remarks were widely reported at the time, Goldfinger remained in his post.

The Many Forms of Media Mobilization

The media mobilization takes many forms. One is suppressing unfavorable stories about those

whose careers the media wishes to advance. Thus when Chief)ustice Barak told a group of reporters that the Supreme Court could not add more Sephardi justices without diluting its professional quality, the slur was virtually ignored by the mainstream media. On the eve of the 1996 elections, Shimon Peres responded to Israeli Arab criticism of the Grapes of Wrath bombing in Southern Lebanon, "Those stupid Arabs." The remark bordered on political suicide, given Peres' dependence on a large Arab vote. Realizing this, the large cohort of journalists present decided among themselves to kill the story, and it went largely unreported.

Not only does the media suppress information that it fears will have adverse political consequences, it shows precious little interest in investigating stories that do not suit its political purposes. In April 1996, for instance, Prime Minister Shimon Peres reported that the Palestinian National Council had revoked the PLO Covenant calling for the destruction of Israel. Likud's Benny Begin insisted that nothing of the kind had occurred and that the Prime Minister was an active party to a ruse. The press either ignored or ridiculed Begin. Two years later, however, Joel Singer, the Israeli legal advisor on the Oslo Accords,

8

revealed that Peres and Arafat had knowingly misled the Israeli public.

The media showed a similar lack of interest in Arafat's Arabic speeches, after the signing of the Oslo Accords, calling for jihad against Israel. Only because Shimon Peres accused Benny Begin of using doctored clips of those speeches did their existence become widely known.

Even worse, Israel's public broadcasting falsifies the information that it presents to the public. Shortly before the Rabin assassination, the IBA broadcast an initiation ceremony of the extreme right-wing Eyal organization, in which the new initiates threatened menacingly to murder their opponents.

The broadcast created a furor in Israel, and played a major role in delegitimizing the entire settler community. A few days after it was aired, an Arab was found murdered near Hebron, and the Eyal organization claimed responsibility. Prime Minister Rabin and Police Minister Shahal were quick to blame right-wing settlers for the murder and for weakening Israel's bargaining position over Hebron.3

Only one little problem. Eyal was a creation from whole-doth of the General Security Services ( GSS) and its operative Avishai Raviv, and this was known by the Prime Minister. The Shamgar Commission on the Rabin assassination concluded that the Eyal swearing-in ceremony was entirely staged "and that anyone who was there had to be aware that it was staged."' Nevertheless the journalist responsible for filming the fake ceremony continues to be employed by IBA. The clip itself continues to be aired - as recently as last month on a popular news show - as an example of the incitement preceding the Rabin assassination.

Another classic example of IBA disinformation was the clip of then Prime Minister Netanyahu at a Betar Jerusalem rally at which some fans shouted "Death to the Arabs:' Nearly a minute was spliced out of the tape to make it appear that Netanyahu was waving and smiling in response to the shouts, which were picked up by a mike far away from where

he was speaking. IBA makes no effort at balance in its

commentary. Even after the IBA was ordered by the Supreme Court to provide a cross-section of commentators on its end of the week Yoman program, leftwing commentator Aharon Avramovitz continued to offer 85% of the commentaries (down from 100%). On two popular interview programs the ratio of left-wing to right-wing guests runs between 7:3 to 8:2.

Professor Rina Shapiro, former IBA Chairperson, admitted that the IBA does "not maintain an adequate dialogue with various communities and therefore, a religious network, and a Russian network, and a Shas network will inevitably arise. The television [broadcasts] do not even attempt to reach a common denominator:' Yet despite the obvious imbalance in IBA broadcasting and the irrelevance of much of its programming to large segments of the population, leftwing and secular forces have fought non-stop to preserve their monopoly over the sources of information.

No sooner were the last election results in, with the shocking news that Shas had won 17 seats, than a concerted effort began to close down the entire network of Shas pirate stations. The police suddenly discovered that their broadcasts were interfering with traffic controllers at Ben Gurion airport. No such efforts were invested, however, in closing down similar Arab stations, which are at least as numerous and many of which are broadcast from much closer to the airport.'

Though Israel has one of the most underutilized radio bands in the Western world, Meretz leader Yossi Sarid has declared himself firmly opposed to an

-·-----··---3 The real murderers were subsequently caught. All were Arabs. 4 The IBA responded, on November 2, 1995, two days before the Rabin assassination, to questions raised about the authenticity of the clip that the segment was "authentic and worthy of journalistic coverage." 5 In fact, a leading engineering firm tested the broadcasting equipment of the major Shas stations and certified that they could not possibly cause interference on the bands used by the airport.


official religious station. "I'm opposed to sectorial stations;' he says. Perhaps Sarid has not noticed that at present government broadcasting is sectorial -only the sector represented is Meretz supporters; or perhaps he noticed very well. The Left's sustained efforts to close down Arutz-7, the settler radio station - despite a law passed by the Knesset legalizing it - derive from a similar desire to limit the sources of news, lest the lower orders he confused by too much information or by being required to evaluate more than one version of events.

Even though the public is well aware of the biases of the Israeli media, it would be a grave mistake to think that it does not wield great influence. The constant exposure to views representing one side of the political or religious spectrum has a cumulative effect. Veteran IBA news anchorman Chaim Yavin was not far off when he boasted: "Without the Israeli press, there would have been no peace process. Without the Israeli press, the Intifada would not have led to Oslo:'

Ill. THE LEGAL SYSTEM

Professor Gavison provides an analysis of Israel's legal system that in many respects parallels the

analysis of the media provided above. Much of what she said in her Ha'Aretz interview has been said before by others. But because of her prestige and because her criticisms cut to the very fundamentals of the legal system, Professor Gavison's impact was a hundredfold that of other critics of the Court. She has now made the Court and Israel's legal system a legitimate subject of criticism.

The legal system she describes is a closed, insular society of like-minded people, much like the media world. The manner of appointment of Israel's Supreme Court justices is both a symptom and a cause of this insularity. Justices are selected by a committee of nine members: three sitting justices, including the Court president, two representatives of the Bar, two members of the


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Knesset Law Committee from different parties, the Minister of Justice, and one other Knesset member. Thus a majority of the committee is composed of nonelected members.

President end there. He controls all judicial appointments to lower courts as well. As a consequence, ambitious lower court judges, academics, State Attorneys, or Attorney-Generals, who aspire to reach the pinnacle of the Israeli legal world, know that their advancement depends on finding favor in the eyes of the Court president. Thus his influence extends throughout the legal system.

In practice, the process is completely controlled by the Court President, who selects the other two justices. No candidate has ever been approved without the unanimous approval of the three sitting justices, and it is the Court President who initiates virtually every candidacy for the Court.

The appointment power vested in the Court President has led to a situation in which the justices of the Supreme Court bear an uncanny resemblance to

10

Nor does the power of the Court's

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one another both ideologically and sociologically. Israel's Supreme Court is effectively a Court of one: the Court President and fourteen clones.

That uniformity is continuous over time. With no input from the elected branches of government, there is no possibility of the shifts in judicial approach that regularly occur on the United States Supreme Court6.

The result, as Professor Gavison puts it, is a legal system that becomes "a kind closed of sect - a sect which is too uniform and which effectively perpetuates itself." That self-perpetuation undermines one of the bases of a democratic society: the perception by various groups that even if their views do not prevail today, they may do so tomorrow

Like most cults, never exposed to opposing ideas, the Court is marked by a singular lack of humility. The justices show no doubts about their own infinite wisdom or their right to impose their values on the broader society. judicial restraint - the view that in a democratic society some decisions are properly for other branches of government, even if its members are less wise - does not exist, as the Court marches on under the slogan "everything is justiciable:'

A judge, posits Court President Barak, should be guided in the exercise of his discretion by the "values of the enlightened society in whose midst he dwells." For him, those values are not those reflecting a widespread societal consensus, but those held by a particular segment of society - the progressive, forward-looking elements.

It is precisely Barak's willingness to give preference to the values of one segment of society over another that so troubles Professor Gavison:

I do not think it is right for the Court to make use of its power to give priority to the values of one group in society at the expense of the values held by other groups. I do not think it is right for the court to decide in favor of Westernism and against tra~ ditionalism; in favor of modernity and individualism and against communitarianism ....


Precisely when the Court purports to be a supreme moral authority, it undercuts its legitimacy as a supreme judicial authority .... As a supreme moral authority it is far from clear that the Court is better than Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. .. There are many people in this country for whom Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is the supreme moral authority and for whom the halacha is a supra-legal authority. The Court should not ignore them. The Court should not compete with Rabbi Yosef for their hearts .... It should make clear that it functions in a different space .... But that is precisely what the Court

has not been doing, in Gavison's opinion: "[The Court's] methods sometimes recall the period of the philosopher-king, who informs the citizens from on high what their values are supposed to be:'

The Secret of the Court's Efficacy: Secrecy

Because the constitutional process in Israel under Justice Barak involves the imposition of the set

of values held by one segment of society on other seg1nents of society, it must be carried out surreptitiously, without its "beneficiaries" knowing fully what is happening. Professor Gavison candidly describes the argument of her colleagues in the upper echelons of the legal world that a "hush-hush" policy must be followed if Israel is to achieve a "enlightened, liberal constitutional format."

And that is precisely what has occurred. Israel is undoubtedly the first country in the world whose constitution was declared by the Supreme Court.To the extent that Israel today has a constitution, it is only because Justice Barak declared in the United Mizrachi Bank case that the two Basic Laws passed in 1992 conferred on the Court the right to strike down Knesset legislation. Neither the Knesset members who allegedly formulated the constitution nor their constituents had the slightest idea that they were enacting a constitution.

Thus two laws, passed in the middle of the night, with less than half the members of the Knesset voting, were elevated by Justice Barak to constitution-


al status. In a rare show of disagreement on the Court, justice Cheshin ridiculed the idea that Basic Laws passed in a manner no different than any piece of humdrum Knesset legislation should be granted such exalted status:

The day a constitution is granted is a festive day, a holiday. All know: "Here the constitution is about to be given; there the constitution has been given.

We have never heard of a dispute as to whether a certain body had acquired legal authority to grant a constitution. We have certainly never heard of such a question being posed as a legal question to be resolved by a court .... The very existence of such a disagreement demonstrates how untenable is the conclusion that the present day Knesset was exercising constituent power. The idea that a nation can acquire a

constitution without anyone knowing about it except the President of the Supre1ne Court leads Gavison to warn:

We are liable to wake up one morning to find that we have a rigid constitution without having known or seen or read or been asked for our opinion about it. Without a proper public debate taking place and with-

out broad agreement being reached as to the values that we want standing at the center of our constitutional and political arrangements, ... large segments of the population will again be left with the feeling that something has been forced upon them. That is both wrong and dangerous.

IV. THE MEDIA-COURTS CONSPIRACY

Because the constitutional process pushed by Court President Barak depends on secrecy, or, at the very

least, a lack of public understanding for its success, the media has a crucial role in its furtherance. It does this in two ways: by withholding crucial information from the public and by delegitimizing all criticism of the Court. The media is then a full partner in what Gavison terms the "enlightened paternalism" of those pushing the constitutional process. Crucial proposals, such as the recommendations of the Orr Commission' on Court Reorganization, receive little attention and the public has no awareness of their significance, Gavison charges.

The Orr Co1nmission recommenda-

7 The conunission was headed by Theodore Orr, a sitting justice on the Supre1ne Court, who was appointed by the Court President.

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lions are designed to free the Supreme Court to concentrate exclusively on the types of cases that are the source of its vast power - suits challenging the decisions of the executive branch as "unreasonable:' Another recent proposal put forward by Justice Barak would allow Court President to extend the terms of judges past the mandatory retirement age at his discretion. By giving him another bonus to hand out to favored parties, it would give Barak even more control over the entire judicial system than at present. Such naked power grabs, however, are never exposed as such.

Nor is the Israeli public aware of precisely how controversial much of the Court's agenda is even within the legal community itself. According to Gavison, "There are deep disputes today [within the legal community] over all the questions on the public agenda: over a constitution, the basic laws, the status of the Court, the Orr Commission reforms."

She herself provides the best example of the type of criticism that is rarely heard outside of law school classrooms. She describes the current constitutional regime as "one court, which effectively appoints itself, creating the constitution by means of interpreting the Basic Laws, ... and without any of the control mechanisms that exist in the United States .... From the point of view of democracy and the democratic decisionmaking process, this poses a not inconsiderable problem:'

But the media shields the public from hearing this type of criticism by spreading a cloak of"secrecy over the judicial system and the judges in particular:' Anyone who does criticize the judicial system, Gavison admits, pays a price. And when those critics are not distinguished professors, but outsiders, they are stigmatized completely as enemies of the rule oflaw and threats to democracy. Gavison notes with irony that "a system which is wholly tolerant and forgiving of extremely sharp statements made about ... the prime minister and cabinet ministers is hyper-sensitive about every critical statement directed at the judicial system." The claimed

12

immunity to criticism - e.g., the repeated threats to charge critics of Justice Barak with incitement- undermines, in Gavison's opinion, the very legitimacy of the judicial system: "A system that protects itself is a system that is suspect in the eyes of the public."

Other Players in the Judiciary Power Game

It is common for discussion of the Israeli legal system to focus exclusively on the Supreme Court

because of the dominant role played by Court President in the entire legal sys-

• Israel's Supreme Court

is effectively a Court

of one: the Court

President and fourteen

clones. And that

uniformity is continuous

over time.

• tern. Yet there are many other crucial players in the system, including the Attorney-General and the State Attorney. Each of these wield great power in their own right.s

The State Attorney's office, headed by the Attorney-General, forms its own tightly knit guild. Virtually all of whose members share the worldview of the old elite described above by Professor Gavison. Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court and State Attorney's office often act in ways designed to reinforce one another's powers. (The offices of Attorney-General or State Attorney are considered the best path to a seat on the Court.) For instance, the vast powers wielded by the Attorney-General today

B His office works well with the civil servants in the different ministries, all drawn from the old elite - and it can count on the eager cooperation of the politicized police (topic for another article),

are almost entirely of judicial creation and not anchored in Knesset legislation.

The Supreme Court has bestowed on the Attorney General the authority to declare virtually any government action illegal, and those determinations are generally both binding and unreviewable. Thus, while any Israeli citizen can obtain immediate Supreme Court review of his complaint against actions of the executive branch, the government itself cannot obtain such review when its legal position differs from that adopted by the Attorney-General. The Attorney-General has, in effect, become the Supreme Court's emissary, sitting within the executive branch and telling it what it can and cannot do.

The extent to which the State Attorney's office forms its own private fiefdom was brought dramatically to the fore last week when Justice Minister Yossi Beilin decided to fire the directorgeneral of the Justice Ministry and replace her with his own choice. The discretion of a minister to choose his own director-general has never before been questioned. Yet every ranking member of the State Attorney's office, including the Attorney-General, signed a letter to the Justice Minister demanding that he rescind the firing. In justification of their position, they described the work of the Justice Ministry as purely professional and not political, and thus presumably beyond the reach of mere politicians such as the Justice Minister. As of this writing, Beilin is still defending himself against a suit in the Supreme Court to force him to rescind.

In the past, the State Attorney's office has gone even further to stifle those who threaten its prerogatives or those of the judicial system. Yaakov Neeman was the first Justice Minister in the Netanyahu government. One of Israel's top lawyers, Neeman well understood the extent to which the Supreme Court has appropriated powers to itself greater than any other high court in the world. As such, he represented a threat to the Court's hegemony.

Shortly after his appointment, Neeman was charged with filing an incorrectly dated affidavit in a court case, and

The Jewish Observer, December 7 999

on that basis forced to resign as Justice Minister.' Though the case was thrown out, and the State Attorney's office was censured for bringing such a flimsy case, the damage had been done.

Neeman did not return as Justice Minister, and was replaced by Tzachi Hanegbi. Hanegbi himself was under ongoing criminal investigation, and thus eager to curry favor with the Court President, who might one day have to rule on an appea1 fro1n criminal proceedings against him. He proved to be a rubber stamp for everything that Justice Barak sought.

Less-Than-Pure Motives

One of Professor Gavison's most shocking charges in Ha'Aretz was that the State Attorney's

office is suspect of being motivated by other that purely professional considerations in determining who to prosecute and how (i.e., with great or little fanfare). Referring to the prosecution of Aryeh Deri and the current investigation of former Prime Minister Netanyahu, she said:

What is bothersome is the feeling that an element of persecution is present in the system. The system denies this, but the denial is no longer convincing because the accumulation of cases has become too great. It arouses suspicion ....

We are constantly being told that everything is fine and that the work is carried out substantively and professionally. That response is no longer enough. Too many people think it is simply incorrect .... When the impression is formed that the rotten apples

9 Uri Elitzur, a former director-general of Prime Minister's office, charged in the November 12 Yediot Acharonot that Neeman was deliberately fran1ed by then-Attorney-General Michael BenYair, According to Elitzur, Ben-Yair called a meeting of top prosecutors shortly after Neeman's appointment and told them, "When a dog is brought into the house, it leaves scratches on the furniture, but I will ensure that the scratches not be too deep." The "dog" in question, according to Elitzur, was understood by those present to be Necman. And in case, anyone doubted whom he meant, Ben-Yair proceeded to read a satiric article about religious Jews and their customs. Neeman is observant.


have become so much a part of the system that even the heads of the system no longer see them, then the feeling grows that the system is deeply flawed at its roots .... In the disproportionate emphasis that

the State Attorney's office gives to certain investigations at the expense of others, it mirrors the way the media focuses on certain cases of alleged wrongdoing and ignores others. While the press has been on a feeding frenzy for months over allegations that the Netanyahus did not pay a Jerusalem

• "If the government's policy will be to make decisions on vital issues through the courts, the population will lose its ability to rule over itself because it will be giving up its authority to the judges."

- President Abraham Lincoln in his inaugural address, 1861.

• contractor for services rendered and that they did not return presents given them in their official capacity, it has almost ignored other major scandals or buried far from the front pages.

The trial of Shimon Sheves, who as director-general of the prime minister's office under Yitzchak Rabin was one of the most powerful men in the country, on charges of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from foreign countries, opened last week without fanfare or much coverage. As left-wing journalist Ron Meiberg admitted, by reporting on the Sheves case "as if it was referring to a medical bulletin or a survey about a cure for diabetes, [the media] is doing the Labor Party a great favor." Allegations of widespread illegal fundraising by the Barak campaign in the last elec-

tions, though covered sporadically on the inside pages, has still not found its Woodward and Bernstein.

The impression of many is that the accused's position on the political map determines the degree of coverage. Professor Gavison noted this disparity of coverage: "In some cases there is a superfluity of coverage at the very early stages, in a way that infringes on the privacy of those in question, while in other cases there is repression and a ban on publication .... It creates the impression that there is a technique at work for giving prominence to certain issues and not others."

Safeguarding Public Security or Private Privilege?

Indeed, the Gavison interview opened with a discussion of one such ban on publication. On

November 2, Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein prohibited publication of a summary of a meeting in the office of his predecessor Michael Ben-Yair. The summary, he claimed, would "endanger public security:' Eleven days later, long after the document had been placed on the Internet, the Israeli Supreme Court removed its own gag order, issued at Rubinstein's request, and sharply reprimanded the Attorney-General for attempting to suppress a document that had no connection to public security.

A brief examination of Rubinstein's actions and the way the Israeli press covered the issue provides a good case study of the many of the themes we have been developing.

The document in question dealt with a complaint filed by Israel's Media Watch demanding that the Attorney-General bring criminal proceedings against Eitan Oren) the reporter who filmed the staged swearing-in ceremony of the Eyal organization (see p.8 above). According to the summary, the Attorney-General saw no alternative to prosecuting Oren. He is quoted as saying:

The episode shocked television viewers and caused enormous damage, a virtual public storm. I just don't see

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how we can avoid beginning [criminal J proceedings . ... I don,t see a problem with the evidence. I don't see any problems in terms of his criminal intent. It is impossible to close the case without public exposure. Everyone else in the room - State

Attorney Edna Arbel, senior prosecutors, and representatives of the GSS -expressed concern that Oren would call Avishai Raviv to the stand, and that the latter would reveal everything connected to his actions as an agent provocateur on behalf of the GSS.

Much of the discussion concerned what grounds could be given for closing the file: "lack of public interest" or "lack of evidence:' The Jerusalem District Attorney argued that the latter ground would be easier to defend if the closure of the file reached the Supreme Court. The meeting ended with Attorney-General Ben-Yair washing his hands of the matter and leaving it up to the State Attorney.

The reason that the Israeli Right was so intent on revealing the document is clear. Since the Rabin assassination, the Right has continuously claimed that the GSS orchestrated a systematic campaign to delegitimize the opposition to Oslo by planting agent provocateurs in their 1nidst to create the impression that the entire Right is composed of violent extremists. It was, for instance, GSS agent Avishai Raviv who held up the famous photomontage of Rabin in an SS uniform at an anti-Oslo rally, and who was Yigal Amir's closest confidant in the months leading up to the Rabin assassination. For the Right, then, the document seemed to show that the State Attorney's office was intent on avoiding public discussion of Raviv's activities and their implications.

Many leading lights in the legal system had their own reasons for not wanting the document released. According to one GSS official present, Dorit Beinisch, former State Attorney and today a justice on the Supreme Court, gave approval for Raviv to engage in activities which would incriminate someone else who would then be arrested.

Even Attorney-General Rubinstein


had his reasons for not wanting the document public, though be was not present at the meeting in question. For three and a half years, the State Attorney's office pushed off inquiries from Israel's Media Watch as to why no complaint bad been filed against Oren with the response that the matter was under investigation. The document showed that response to be a lie: The decision not to prosecute on the grounds of"lack of evidence"' was made already nearly four years ago, for reasons having nothing to do with a lack of evidence.

Anyone old enough to remember the Pentagon Papers might have expected the Israeli media to raise a hue and a cry for release of the suppressed document. Far from it. If anything, the media followed the lead of A1nnon Avramovits, who attempted to pooh-pooh the document as revealing nothing new. Though the document was easily available on Internet and had surely been read by the vast majority of print and broadcast journalists, few showed any

curiosity as to why the Attorney-General was so determined to prevent its publications or what made it so important.

The media completely failed to accurately report the reason for the meeting described in the banned document: the complaint of Israel's Media Watch to the Attorney-General over the role of IBA reporter Eitan Oren in the staged Eyal induction ceremony. A conspiracy of silence seemed to surround the activities of one of the brotherhood. No one asked why a reporter who played an integral role in the staged Eyal induction ceremony is still on the air.

Even after the Supreme Court allowed publication of the summary of the meeting, the media confined itself to score-keeping of winners and losers in the affair. The underlying issue of the government's use of agent provocateurs as a means of delegitimizing opposition groups, however, still remained largely undiscussed.

The media showed a studied indifference to a docun1ent containing

infonnation sure to raise uncomfortable issues. When Israel's Media Watch called a press conference prior to release of the meeting minutes, not one national paper or TV station sent a reporter, despite the presence at the press conference of Likud's rising star MK Dr. Yuval Steinitz and one of Israel's best known attorneys and the bombshell nature of the issue.

Steinitz was plainly stunned by the total boycott, and commented that the press conference reminded him of one called by Jewish refuseniks for the Soviet press under the Communists.

After it was over, I remarked to him that I was encouraged by the fact that no Israeli 1nedia ca1ne. "Until now,'' I said, "J thought that only cbareidim were considered non-persons, now I see that fifty percent of the population falls into that category."

But the truth is that there was no consolation in that fact, for it only shows how ruthless the media is in denying any legitimacy or humanity to those who fail to see the world as they do. II

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-----·------------------The Jewish Observer, December 1999 15

ESSAY Yud Pnini

THE UNSMOOTH BLEND -AND WORSE

I.

Arecent piece in The New York Times set me thinking. The subject was the quest among young

Orthodox Jews in the Five Towns on Long Island to "blend word and world." Amidst rising affluence and social making-it, these Yuppies, enjoying the "best of both worlds;' seem to be meeting the "complicated and interesting challenge ... to be a good Jew in the business world or on the ball field."

After reading all the examples and the entire description of Modern Orthodox ethnicity, I am left with an uneasy feeling. There are lingering, unanswered questions in assessing this new phenomenon. Yet one must first salute these men and women, struggling to keep their commitments to kashrus, to Shabbos, to halachic parameters, in a milieu hardly conducive to any of the above.

The troubling questions to me - a black-hatter, and then some - concern the level of conscience prevailing on this accommodation. For one must surely admit that all is not perfect in modernity's process of adjusting word and world. Only self-deception can claim that corners are not cut, that concessions are not made, which cause word to yield to the pressures of world. The concern - -·~~~~~.

Yud Pnini is the nom de plume of a Rabbi in the Northeast corridor of the United States whose essay," 1939-Sixty Years Ago, When Civilization Exploded," was featured in JO (Oct. '99).

16

• These words are not

written with disdain,

nor looking to find fault,

but with sorrow, with a

plea, a hope that

spiritual leadership in

the modern world sets

higher, principled sights, and rejects low,

common denominators.

• with mitzva detail, the spirituality of tefilla, the strictures of tzenius on dress, speech, and social conduct, can often be brushed aside in the sweep of modernity.

Does this not at least instill some sense of guilt in those attempting the easy blend? How sensitive are they to the idea that the classical norms of Yiddishkeit fit not too comfortably with the current lifestyle of modern America? Put differently, I suspect that, given the pitfalls and lurking problems, a self-satisfying rationale of" lechat'chila, this is really the way it was meant to be;' has all too often been substituted for what should possibly pass as a bedi' eved, making the best of a difficult situation.

One would hope for some public expression of warning ftom the spiritual leadership of Modern Orthodoxy, for

some public call to raise the standards of kedusha in the lives of their constituents, to change minimalist attitudes, and awaken people to the challenge and test of maintaining high Torah values in a society dominated by secularism and pleasure-seeking. Yes, the narrow bridge can be navigated, but only with inspired Yiras Shamayim and ongoing Siyata Dishmaya. The carefree notion of the smooth hlend, of happily enjoying the "best of both worlds;' is an insidious delusion remiss in truth and serious meaning. The Rabbi who, according to the article, preaches against the "sin of shallowness" and, at the same time, permits co-ed dancing and immodest attire at synagogue affairs, has surprisingly yet to understand the Torah dimensions of shallowness.

These words are not written with disdain, nor looking to find fault, but with sorrow, with a plea, a hope that spiritual leadership in the modern world sets higher, principled sights, and rejects low, common denominators. Leadership requires making demands upon people's consciences. Only then can the "blend" manage to traverse the difficult terrain.

II.

Which brings me to an even more troubling piece of penmanship, this time appearing

not in a newspaper for the man in the street, but in a scholarly periodical that


strives to be a journal of Orthodox Jewish thought. Here again the attempt is to bridge Word and World; not in lifestyle, however, but in biblical interpretation - as befits the fusion of Torah Umadda.

The modern era, as well as the medieval one, has seen many examples of introducing scientific and philosophical nonns into the understanding of Scripture. In 1nost cases, our composite Mesorah, emanating from the early Sages, and continued by later classical commentators, while stressing the teaching that the Torah has many "faces" and can be understood on various levels - Peshat, Remez, Derush, and Sod- has mainly eschewed other disciplines from serving as expositors of Torah meaning. The reason being that the sanctity of the Written Word could easily be undermined by external criteria that are not rooted in Torah itself. Above all, Chazal sought to preserve for all believing Jews, raised both by Peshat and Midrash (halachic or homiletical interpretations), an allegiance to the hallowed word and message of Torah Shebiksav.

This being so - and aside from the above - how shocking it is to read in a journal that purports to present Orthodox thought, that the account in Chumash of Adam in Gan Eden is nothing more than a metaphorical description of philosophical discourse about the nature of man and the origin of evil; the story of the Flood in the days of Noach, just a record of atmospheric changes of conditions on Earth, informing us metaphorically about the evolutionary patterns of destruction and extinction in the pre-historic past. Without any rationale or foundation, other than the secular-Haskala bias against the supernatural and mystical, we are treated to a sweeping denial of peshuto sh el Mikra in the first chapters of Bereishis, a notion fashioned by modernity that, after all, all this is just too strange to be true; that the account as literally taken "mystifies and obfuscates .... A tree whose fruit bestows knowledge of good and evil cannot be a real tree in the sense in which we know it. A garden in which the snake has an


agenda and speaks physically cannot be our kind of garden." Thus if it is not "our" kind of tree in "our" kind of garden, there was no tree or garden at all, only metaphoric symbolism.

As to the Flood, "the presence of unrealistic elements in the story ... the logistics of fitting all the animals into the Ark, the task of caring for them, and then converging on their own and marching into the Ark in the desired numbers, seem to invoke the miraculous." But the miraculous here is to be resisted. The spelled-out account in

Chumash of retribution brought by Hashem on a degenerate humanity, and the rescue of Noach Ish Tzaddik, destined to rebuild a better world - all this is completely ignored. The Deluge tale, we are asked to believe) is a "metaphor to give the Torah's view of all the destruction and mass extinction which took place on the planet from the very beginning... that it has been Divine Guidance that has ensured the evolution and survival over vast stretches of time of just those plants, marine life and animals that do not block the appearance

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of man, those that are useful, and that strain in man in whom a moral spark had taken hold:' In other words, the Deluge represents G-d's watching over the survival of the fittest. Evolution with a moral touch.

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"Orthodox Jewish Thought." It is beyond the pale of discussion to engage in refutation or debunking. But it does serve as an example and warning signal, for all Torah Jews to see how far down the paths ofMadda and Modernity have slid: a blend of Word and World at its worst. Even within the parameters of academic freedom and scholarly discourse - hallmarks of worldly intellectualism - the sanctity of Word certainly must impose certain not-to-be-tamperedwith concepts, such as the inviolability of the hallowed understandings of the events recorded in the Chumash. It is inconceivable how a journal dedicated to traditional Judaism could print such an article.

III.

The entire discussion above leaves us with a single inescapable conclusion: The struggle of the com

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• That he was a "Lord" was never really as important to him as that he was a

rav. He visited the House of Lords, but his home was the beis midrash, the

synagogue, the pulpit.

• Lord Jakobovits,'J"t of Regents Park

That would seem to be the wrong title for a tribute to Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits ., .. r, the

late Emeritus Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth. That he was a "Lord" was never really as important to him as that he was a rav. He visited the House of Lords, but his home was the beis midrash, the synagogue, the pulpit.

But it was as Lord Jakobovits that he was the instrument of Kiddush Hashem as were few others in our time. Rabbi Jakobovits was knighted as were other British chief rabbis; that was a tribute to his position and to the influence of the Great Britain's organized Jewish community. But he was elevated to the peerage for one reason only-because he spoke and wrote fearlessly, honestly, and uncompromisingly on 1norality and values, as set forth by the Torah and Chazal The British press spoke of him as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's rabbi. And she was quoted as having complained privately that the Archbishop of Canterbury was less a moral voice than Rabbi Jakobovits.

Rabbi Nosson Scherman, a 1ncmber of the Editorial Board of The Jewish Observer, is a General Editor of Mesorah/ ArtScroll Publications.

When be was elevated to the House of Lords not for accomplishment in state

craft, in boardrooms or on the stage, but for speaking as a rav in Kial Yisroel, the major secular media around the world took notice, and he was featured in all the newsweeklies; his praises were sung everywhere. Rarely had a Jew been so honored for being a Jew- not an assimilationist or compromiser, but an authentic Jew. And a few years later, when he was awarded the Templeton Prize For Religion, widely called the religious counterpart to the Nobel Prize - the first Jew to be so honored - it was for the same reason.

His speeches in the House of Lords always focused on questions of morality and education. His mastery of English was Churchillian, and when he was scheduled to speak, the lobbies and drawing rooms would empty as the peers came to listen and enjoy. His views were not popular in agnostic England, but he was respected as a thinker, admired as an orator, and well-liked as a good and decent person.

Recently he spoke on a proposed bill that would abolish Sunday's status as a day of rest. It was yet another chip at the ever-thinning status of religion in a country whose spiritual values, like those of the rest of Western Europe, are declining precipitously. In his speech, he warned, "The loss of the Sabbath would deprive Britain of the last vestige of national spirituality and sanctification.» Thereupon there was a shout from the gallery, "And it took a Jew to tell you that!"

Indeed. It took the Jew from Koenigsberg (then East Prussia, and now Kaliningrad, Russia), the "Torah im

Derech Ereti' son of a German Rav and dayan, to tell many things to Jewish and gentile Britain that it preferred not to hear.

Rabbi Immanuel Jakabovits was eulogized by his successor, Rabbi Jonathon Sacks, as the greatest rabbi of his generation, a great hero in Israel, a prince of G-d. Those of us who live in the yeshiva or Chassidic worlds, in sheltered Torah communities, find it difficult to understand the import of


such words, because we do not know the challenges and dilemmas of the rabbinate. When Rabbi Jakobovits assumed his position in England, the Jewish community was riven with dissension over the heretical positions of another, nominally Orthodox rabbi who was eloquent, scholarly, popular, and charismatic. The new Chief Rabbi had to assert the primacy of his position, and the authority of Torah, even for those who did not heed its commandments. He had to assert anew that even one who was not personally observant had no right to distort the content of Judaism. He embarked on a whirlwind of activity, traveling the length and breadth of the country, speaking in synagogues large and

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small, and meeting with virtually every community.

At the end of his first year, he collapsed from exhaustion, but his success was breathtaking. He outflanked the apostles of heresy. Universally, he was regarded as reasonable and friendly, as well as wise and eloquent - yet his hashkafa positions were unyielding. To him, halacha was granite, beautifully polished - and impregnable. As he put it in his induction speech, "I cannot compromise Judaism because Judaism is not mine to compromise." Indeed, he gave Judaism to countless people who had considered it irrelevant and moribund - but his was an uncompromised Judaism.

When he surveyed his new charge, he saw a magnificent wasteland: noble and magnificent synagogues, but a woefully inadequate and underfunded chinuch system. He threw himself into the fray and established an educational trust that was funded mainly through his tireless efforts. Within a few years, he had doubled the number of seats in Jewish day schools. He said, "Education is an act of faith. Support for education is a test of faith:' To say that the United Synagogue, which he headed, did not have a Lakewood or a Gateshead is short-sighted. Under Rabbi Jakobovits's leadership, it stemmed decline and turned the tide in England.

It is hard for Americans to appreciate the enormity of his achievement, because we have no compa

rable office here and because the state of religion is so different here than in Europe. American Jewry has no official, governmentally sanctioned body like the United Synagogue, so there is no designated religious spokesman for American Jews. And, despite the walls of separation between Church and State in the United States, and despite the general contempt for religion in most of academia and among the liberal press and liberal judges, religion has a powerful position in this country. In England, as in the rest of Europe, even politicians feel no need to pay lip service to religion. It is truly considered to be the opiate of the people - not

many people and hardly any educated or influential people. In such a setting, Rabbi Jakobovits achieved such prestige and influence that he was a national hero, even to people who opposed his viewing. His passing brought statements of tribute from the Prime Minister and the leaders of both opposition parties and extensive obituaries in the major newspapers. Every one of them stressed his absolute adherence to Torah and halacha.

The Times of London said, "While employing a more liberal vocabulary than his predecessors or the Orthodox rabbinate generally, he never departed from the strict attachment to traditional beliefs and observances and opposed all efforts directed at change:' The Telegraph said, "He was scholarly, articulate, a natural leader of men, with the tall, distinguished bearing of a wellkempt prophet, but there were fears that he might be too strictly Orthodox for the tastes of Anglo-Jewry... he never sought popularity at the expense of principle."

Is this not Kiddush Hashem of a very high order?

If a man can be measured by the way he raises his children, Rabbi Jakobovits belongs on a pedestal. His sons and sons-in-law, his daughters and daughters-in-law are bnei Torah and bnos Torah - recognized talmidei chachamim. They are proof of his values, as is his valiant Rebbetzin, herself a distinguished builder of Yiddishkeit in many different kinds of circles.

Speaking at a wedding, he once said, "It is a fallacy for chassan and kalla to think that this is the happiest day of their lives. It is rather the beginning of happiness, which must be nurtured for the rest of their lives." He had many happy days, and many sad and challenging days when he was buffeted by criticism for being the spokesman of Torah Judaism. But to him, every breath of life was the beginning of a new opportunity to serve Hashem and Kial Yisroel - he nurtured those opportunities and of them he made a mountain of achievement. •


I remember sitting in shiur, "Trust me, guys," my Rebbe was saying. "Everything is in the Torah. You name a subject and I guarantee that the Torah has something to say about it. And not just something ordinary to say either, but something really deep and profound."

I raised my hand. "Rebbe, we all see that it's snowing outside," I said. "Does the Torah relate any message concerning the snow falling in the winter?"

Rebbe was taken aback. "I am positive that it does- but 1ny knowledge is limited," he said. "Since you are most interested in this subject, I challenge you to be the one to research it and tell us of your findings." At the time I was too young to take my Rebbe's offer seriously but now, years later and with Hashem's help, I have indeed found Torah sources that discuss snow and its profundity. In fact, the ideas even relate to a Chanuka theme.

There are few experiences in life that compare with waking up in the morning after a snowfall and

looking outside. The sight is stunning, the landscape glorious and beautiful, and the feeling one has is nothing less than the suhlime1• Only after moder· nity, with its high· powered engines that tamper with winter's wonder, does the snow become filthy and unpleasant. Where does this feeling come from? Just why does it snow in the winter? The answer lies in an understanding of Chanuka's unique role in the Jewish cal· endar year.

THE COMPLETE TORAHl

The Torah given at Sinai included all components necessary to live a full life in the service of

Hashem, and is lacking nothing. What, then, are we to make of the holiday of Chanuka, which is a Rabbinic obliga· tion? Why would the Rabbis add new laws to a perfect Code given by G·d Himself?

The only possible solution' to this difficulty is to realize that every Rab· binic law that we encounter within the framework of "forah does not exist as -·-·-·---Rabbi Boruch Leff is a Rebbe in the RITSS High School for Girls in Cincinnati. He was represented in these pages with "Shavuos Odyssey" (Apr. '99).


an ideal. Rather, the existence of Rab· binic laws reflects a failing of the Jewish People within particular areas, which forced the Rabbis to respond and correct these failings. As the first Mishna in Pirkei Avos (Ethics of the Fathers) teaches (loose translation): "Assu syag la Torah - Make a fence around the Torah." When you deem it necessary, add precepts and rituals to the Torah to enhance the perfor· mance of each of the 613 commandments. But ideally, the original Torah given directly by G-d was designed to be "self-sufficient" in terms of spiritual growth. Chanuka, therefore, could only have been added to our cal· endar if there was a strong need for an additional chag that the Rabbanan deemed absolutely essential. What might this need have been?

THE BIBLICAL HOLIDAY SEASON

The holiday season begins with Pesach in the spring, continues with Shavuos 50 days later, and

ends with Rosh Hashana, Yorn Kippur, and Succos at summer's end. All of these holidays take place during the spring and summer. There are no holidays desig· nated for the fall and winter. Without the Rabbinic additions of Chanukah and Purim, six months out of the year, which

would include the entire winter, would be bereft of holidays. Why are all the Biblical holidays crowded into the spring and summer? Wouldn't it have made more sense to space the holidays more evenly throughout the calendar year?

The Maharal3 makes some remarkable comments about the Jewish calendar, which shed light on the issue. The calendar, according to Maharal, can be divided into two sections. Half of the year, from Pesach through Succos (spring-summer), has the force of spiritual Ohr-Light as its primary power, while Choshech-Darkness rules the fall-winter months. The implications are clear. The season for spiritual light is the spring-summer, and it is only then that one can actualize the greatest amount of spiritual energy4. Fall-winter is a time for spiritual darkness and is not ideal for appreciable spiritual growth. In fact, else· where5 Maharal actually describes winter as being" outside of the realm of time." This is because winter does not offer growth, neither agriculturally nor spiritually. Maharal continues to explain that in a certain sense the winter cannot be acknowledged as being part of any "real existence" due to its lack of spiritual developmental potential.

We now understand the uneven

23

arrangement of the Biblical calendar. The holidays mentioned in the Torah all take place during the spring-summer months because it is then that the potential for a real, profound, spiritual growth exists due to the power of Ohr- Light. The 1brah's ideal approach would not allow for profound growth during the winter because it is the season of darkness. An attempt at profound growth during that time would 1nost likely be unsuccessful. G-d wanted us to experience growth during the summer, and then to maintain and hold on to that growth during the win-

ter. This is why all the Festivals - times for spiritual growth - are in the summer.

But how were we to hold on to that growth? Did G-d's design leave us completely without assistance? The answer leads us full circle to our most fascinating subject - snow.

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earth made? From the snow that is under the Kisei Hakavod (G-d's Throne of Glory). G-d took it and cast it upon the water; the water then froze, and the dust of the earth was formed. As the verse states (in Iyov 37) "To snow, G-d said: Become land!" The Midrash implies that snow at

its very essence is closely related to Gd's Throne of Glory, and thereby, to Gd Himself. There are a variety of other sources that support this concept, as well.

The Zohar7 tells us a remarkable insight. It states that G-d' wears tefillin! And in the same manner in which our tefillin must be perfectly black in color, so too G-d's tefillin must be perfectly white in color! A possible explanation is based on some basic facts we know about the colors black and white. Black absorbs all other colors that are within light rays, while white encompasses all other colors. We must wear tefillin that are completely black because we must absorb all of G-d's wisdom and direction. G-d "wears" tefillin that are white because He encompasses all wisdom and guidance.

We sense from the Zoharthe meaning and symbolism of the color white. Snow, possessing the purest' form of white that exists, also represents the idea that G-d, who is dispatching the snow from the heavens, radiates all existing wisdom. White snow is the object that descends from the fact that G-d "wears white tefillin" to remind us that G-d created and maintains the world, and we must serve Him wholeheartedly.

Maharaiw describes snow as an illuminating force that is tantamount to spiritual light. Thus G-d made the earth from snow (as mentioned in the Midrash earlier) to remind people on earth of G-d's involvement in man's affairs. By creating the earth from snow, G-d has placed a spiritual force that is present at all times in the earth, enabling us to encounter spirituality, as it were. And by making the snow fall at specific times, G-d sends us a reminder to realize this spirituality".


Perhaps we now have a glimpse into why G-d makes it snow in the winter. Winter is when we experience our lowest point of spiritual inspiration. We have no holidays in the winter, and it is difficult to grow closer to G-d. He therefore sends us snow, and if we contemplate snow's profound meaning, we can feel connected to Him once again. As snow descends and covers the ground, it seems to shout, "Remember that it is G-d Who is constantly 'covering' the ground and is providing everything that is in your life. Serve Him and draw closer to Him!"

CHANUKA: WINTER'S INITIATION

With the benefit of some insight in the 1orah's ideal calendar system and how winter was to

be lived without the inspiration of Biblical holidays (through a spiritual understanding of snow), we can now better appreciate Chanuka's role and its significance.

It seems that the inspiration to establish Chanuka may have come from the timing of the events. Sfas Emes" (Rebbe of Ger) mentions that the spiritual inspiration of Succos lasts until Chanuka13• "The renewal of the OhrLight of the year continues until Chanuka;' he says. A possible explanation for this phenomenon is that Chanuka's month, Kislev, is described in KabbalaI4 as "the month of sleep." A month that has a powerful force of spiritual sleep will inevitably fail to maintain the inspiration of Succos.

Kislev is also the month in which winterJ 5 begins. Winter, as we have learned, is not an auspicious time for inspiration and spiritual growth. G-d's sending of snow in the winter was to be an aid for us to maintain our growth, as we pass through the "sleepy" season. But snow alone proved not to be sufficient for us. We could not survive winter without a spiritually inspiring holiday. So when the miracle of the oil of the Menora took place, the Rabbis saw in it a message from G-d1° that the winter needed to "wake up" and obtain spiritual

-----------·--- ----The Jewish Observer, December 1999

light. The Menora symbolizes spiritual light, and a miracle involving the Menora would indeed convey an illuminating message concerning spiritual growth. G-d aroused us with the miracle of Chanuka to establish a Chag to enable us to spiritually survive the winter. We proved incapable of living only according to the Biblical holiday season, and needed Chanuka as an addition.

Another approach may be that Chanuka is an initiation and dedication of the winter season. Its task is to endow the winter with a powerful spirituality. It enhances the role that snow plays in connecting us to G-d

We can see this from Chanuka's very name, which comes from the root word chinuch17 meaning rededication or initiation. There are many explanations as to the significance of that theme. For example, Sfas Emes18

understands that the rededication and initiation refers to providing strength of survival for the long exile, since Chanuka was to be the last manifest miracle until the Redemption. Shlah19 maintains that Chanuka rededicated the world to its purpose, allowing a focus once again upon spirituality.

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during the cold, sleepy, uninspiring season. Sfas Emes20 states that we light 36 candles on Chanuka because Chanuka's Spiritual Light lasts for 36 days, throughout the month of Teves. This, together with snow, gives the winter a "jumpstart," which will hopefully help us experience the winter without any spiritual casualties. Hence, the name Chanuka.

And so, my dear Rebbe, I do see now what you meant. Everything really is in the Torah. We can search and find very profound ideas and messages for every single detail of life on this planet. We need only daven for the chochma to be able to find

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1 This may be the 1neaning of the pasuk in Tehillim 147,16: "I-le makes snow (fall) like a fleece of wool." 2 I heard this explanation from Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg, 7"~t, Rosh Ha Yeshiva of Ner Yisroel in Baltimore. 3 See his Sefer Ner Mitzva, pgs. 23~24. 4 The physical \vorld reflects the spiritual realm and this is why it is hottest in the summer. Energy, both physical and spiritual, is at its strongest point. (The evil forces of the world seem to be innately aware of this and unleash some of the greatest spiritual challenges in the summer.) Winter is cold, dark, and gloomy, and reflects the lack of spiritual opportunity. s Cur Aryeh-Bamidbar pg. 122

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6 See Pirkei D'R'Eliezer Ch. 3. 7 I heard the Zohar and its explanation from Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl, Rav of the Old City, Jcrusalc1n. 8 A similar statement appears in the Talmud Brachos 6a. This statement (like many Midrashim) cannot be taken literally, as G~d has no physical form. It is not within the scope of this essay to discuss the meaning of this Midrash at length. 9 Some suggest that the n1eaning of the verse in Yeshayahu l,18 is based upon this fact. "If your sins are like scarlet, they will become as white as snow; if they are red as crimson, they will become (white) as wool." If you repent completely, your sins can be removed, leaving you cleansed to the purest form of white -snow. If not, you can still become white, but only like wool. IO Be' er Hagola, pg.85 11 Other sources that discuss snow and its spiritual symbolism include Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler's Michtav Me'eliyahu Vol I, pg. 300. He cites a Midrash that describes snow as being the menucha - the rest that the wicked enjoy on Shabbos, when punishments of Gehinnom (Purgatory) are not carried out. He interprets this to mean that the wicked delight in Shabbos's holiness, which is represented by snow. Snow - SheLeG in Hebrew - has the gematria (numerical value) of 333. Maharal, in Sefer Tiferes Yisroel, Ch l l, maintains that the number 3 always signifies complete perfection. Snow then is complete perfection three times over. Rav Tzaddok HaKohein (of Lublin) in Divrei Sofrin1, pg. 42, also understands snow as a symbol of ultimate goodness, but discusses the interesting notion that sometilnes a symbol of goodness can symbolize a diametrically opposing idea. Snow, at times, is used to symbolize coldness and lack of inspiration. See there for further study. 12 Chanuka, p.218 I3 Sefer Taamei Haminhagim, p.363, states that although we usually identify Yo1n Kippur as the final day for repentance in the new year, Chassidic sources indicate that one actually has until Chanuka to repent. 14 See Rav Tzaddok HaKohein of Lublin, Pri Tzaddik, Vol I, p.72 who cites the Sefer Yetzira. 15 See Rashi, Parshas Noach 9:22. Rashi says that Kislev is actually the coldest part of winter. 16 See Rav Tzaddok, ibid. p.77. Rav Tzaddok cites an Ariza! that describes the six summer months as months of a man-directed inspiration and the six winter months as months of a G-d-led inspiration. 17 Sfas Emes Chanuka p. 223 18 See Rashi, Lech Lecha 15,14. 19 Shlah to Parshas Vayeishev. This would fit well with a Midrash P'sikta Rabbasi 2:27, which lists seven "Chanukas;' beginning with the Chanuka of Creation, and continuing with the Chanuka of the Tabernacle, First Temple, Second Temple, Jerusalem's Wall, Miracle of the oil, and the World-to-Come. Whenever the world needed a surge of renewal, a "Chanuka" occurs. 20 Sfas Emes, ibid. p.228

-·---------·-·--------------26 The Jewish Observer, December 1999

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A man steps up to me, "Ihr redt Yiddish?"

"A bissele." He asks me a question. I don't real

ly understand it. It sounds like he wants to know how many candles to light tomorrow.

His wife joins the conversation. She speaks English, she helps out. They have Yahrzeit tomorrow. How many candles do you light for a Yahrzeit -one? I say yes.

And how many for Yorn Kippur? I say two.

So they should light three? One for Yahrzeit and two for Yorn Kippur? I say yes, wondering inside if maybe I got it wrong.

They thank me, I say it was a pleasure. We depart saying, "A gut Yahr:' As we walk away, I hear one of them say something about a Rabbi. I suspect that

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As we walk away, my brother asks me, "What were they saying?"

I tell him. He asks me, "They are Yidden?" I say yes. "Frum?" I tell him, ((Frum at heart." "What's frum at heart?" my little

brother wants to know. "It means that they're as frum as us,

but they don't know things. They never went to yeshiva. Maybe they lived in Russia and they weren't allowed to learn 10rah."

Under the protective mask of darkness, I cry. Night covers my tears as the words of the Midrash come to mind ....

The Midrash in Shir HaShirim says: "Ani yesheina velibbi eir - I am asleep but my heart is awake, Ani yesheina min hamitzvos velibbi eir la'asosani - I am asleep from the commandments, but my heart is awake to do them."

These Yidden went through a dark, dark galus. Their government commanded them: "Kisvu al keren hashor she'ein lachem cheilek beElokei Yisroel -Write on the horn of an ox that you have no share in the Jewish G-d."

The darkness did not vanquish all. The heart is still awake. •

--------------- ·- -------------- -----·- ---·--------- - - -28 The Jewish Observer, December 1999

.Jilin M:e'a She' arim, today is a day of mourning?' By kitzonim he meant "fanatics" who contradict the socio-political mean of secular Israeli society, which the Jews of Me' a She' arim seemingly do.

An appropriate response could have been, "Don't flatter yourself," because for them that day was a day of learning, making a living, shopping for clothes, buying for Shabbos, and waiting for buses without a single ideological tear over that for which they have neither time nor energy nor interest.

Another, more elemental response could have been, "Are they kitzonim?" Do adherence to tradition and resistance against the whimsical gales of the age parallel close-minded, self-serving, mean-spirited fanaticism? The insular Jews of Me' a She' arim are protecting something precious, but are they kitzonim?"

My years as a student in Yeshivas Ohr Somayach were in the vale of Me' a She'arim. Perched atop a hill between Beis Israel and the city's center, Me'a She'arirn was a ten-minutes' walk above us. I shopped in its stores, ate in its restaurants, and braved its crowded sidewalks and impossible traffic. One snmmer Shabbos, a friend and I even saw a Gerrer tisch.

My friend was actually my selfimposed "charge," a newcomer to the yeshiva who was given a bed in my room and whose care and guidance I assumed. An American medical student and the son of a doctor, he was touring Europe and the Middle East with a backpack,

Pnuel Peri of Jerusalem is a frequent contributor to The Jewish Observer, his most recent article, "The Poverty of the Rich" (May '99).


Western .Wall ove l arranged forroom and board. He wore a tee shirt, jeans and sandals, was tall, handsome and tanned, his gestures slow and confident, his gaze never frantic or staring. He identified with being Jewish and regarded intermarriage as a social aberration, yet his Shabbos with me was his first Shabbos; the evening meal served to us by gracious hosts was his first of kosher food.

We ate and joined a sea of strolling people in the refreshing, cloudless night.

"Wow!" he breathed, looking about him at the men and boys in black hats and black suits or long black coats, the women in decorative dresses and head coverings, and the innumerable, darting children.

We ascended to Me' a She' arim, away from the mass of people, and he asked, "What is the Torah?"

We discussed the Torah. "To whom was it given?" We discussed ourselves. "What about evolution?" We discussed ourselves some more. At Kikar Shabbat, the central square,

we turned right onto Malchei Israel Street and walked along lit storefronts of clothing, candy and Judaica shops.

Chassidim in black robes, white socks and tall, bushy streimelach rushed passed and disappeared in the darkness ahead. More chassidim ran past and disappeared. We began to run and in the distant lamplight saw men turn into a side street. We followed and stood before the enormous stone edifice of Ger. We cautiously entered a long, broad, low-ceilinged foyer with an

ehili<l , htJ~ e length of the room. The area was eerily empty. We walked to stairs in the back, edged past a barricading table, and ascended.

A small man in a tall shtreimel approached us, glancing kindly at my friend in his tee shirt and jeans. "May I help you?" he asked in English.

"We came to see the tisch," I said. "What are your names and where are

you from?" he asked. We told him. "Very nice. Are you familiar with the

tisch at all?" We shook our heads. "The Rebbewill speak once, there will

be a pause, and he will speak again;' he said simply. He gave his name and invited us for Shabbos whenever we wanted. "Just call during the week;' he said, walking away. 'Tm in the phone book."

We thanked him and entered a vast shul roaring with conversation. To the left, men on high bleachers flanked an open area below where the Rebbe was holding tisch. Through momentary breaks in the swelling crowd we could see long tables and ancient faces framed

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29

in flowing white hair. To the right, some forty meters away, books lined the walls, and men sat learning in pairs or alone.

I looked up and gasped. Hundreds of boys crammed a balcony, their beardless faces rising from the railing back into shadow like a looming wave. Another balcony held nobility, a legion of elders, closely seated, calm, dispassionate, their stone faces gazing down at the tisch. My friend was shaking his head in disbelief.

A name rang out from the tisch, and a large man standing in the far bleacher began singing, his hands slid into the sides of his garte~ his body swaying forward and back. The room quieted and filled with accompaniment. The air was changing. The myriad disparate elements, this shouting or laughing voice, that gesturing head or arm were merging.

At the edge of the crowd was a small, portable stair sectioned by banisters, and people were

- -

ascending at one side, glimpsing the Rebbe, and backing down the other, their heads respectfully bowed. Someone said to us, "Go ahead! You can see the Rebbe." I went up and came down unsure which had been the Rebbe, and as I contemplated a second pass, boys rushed the stair. One by one they leaped to the top landing, clinging to each other's shoulders. The last of them fastened a metal bar across the banisters, securing the mass of bodies, and leaped atop the bar.

I stood laughing, wanting to applaud. "Unbelievable!" my friend shouted,

shaking his head. The singing stopped. A jarring

silence fell. The men who had been studying left their books and lingered at the crowd's edge. The Rebbe spoke. Hundreds of faces above and below were frozen in rapt attention. Song filled the room. The scholars withdrew to their books.

My friend collapsed onto a bench

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next to a towering aron kodesh of gray and black marble, apparently overwhelmed. The singing stopped. The scholars returned and then withdrew. My friend sat, his head slightly bowed, his forearms resting on his knees, his white toenails gleaming like tiny reflectors across the tanned tops of his sandaled feet.

Later, as we lay in our dormitory beds, staring at the dark ceiling, he said, "When I was sitting there with all of those people, I did not feel out of place:'

I marveled at his insight. "You would think;' I suggested, ((that in such a scenario-you, an outsider, dressed as you were, in the midst of them and their experience-they would have made you feel uncomfortable, if not have driven you out. Yet you say that you did not even feel out of place:'

"Exactly;' he said, and sleep overcame us with a final waft of images, sensations, quieting sounds and fading silhouettes.

If in labeling the Jews of Me' a She'arim kitzonim, the secular establishment is expressing per

sonal distaste for their stringent religiosity, it is entitled to its opinion. The term, however, is less a tool of commentary that challenges and dialogues than a weapon of defamation that draws enemy lines. Its root meaning is "outside" or "beyond;' and it cordons the religious beyond the cultural pale or, more poignantly, outside the sociopolitical front lines - not as people turned inward to preserve and cultivate spiritual and moral greatness, but as rebel soldiers poised to invade. Hence the absurd perception ofJews in Me' a She'arim as dissidents in mourning while the established regime parades its city's streets.

All of this, however, is not for me to tell but for my friend, who will likely remain and prosper within the aristocracy of the West and become, thereby, an object of the State of Israel's charms, all the while knowing in his heart of hearts that one Friday night in Me'a She'arim, when he penetrated enemy lines, a waiting rebel army welcomed him home. •


PEOPLE WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE1 Chaim Kuperwasser

Portrait of an Ish Hachessed Reb Luzer Brodt, ?"t on His First Yahrzeit

Luzer Brodt was a very dear friend, but that alone is not why I am writing this article. Nor simply because Reh Luzer was the quintessential combination of a ben Torah, ben yeshiva and Chassidishe Yid. A talmid of several major yeshivas, including Beth Medrash Govoha, he was also a Chassid of many Rebbe'im. Indeed, he taught his family that it was possible to niix these various ingredients, and emerge a special type of "varn1e Yid."

Luzer was the chief coordinator of Flatbush Hatzola (the highly-regarded volunteer medical emergency and ambulance service) for close to a decade. He assumed the role of president of all Hatzola branches approxin1ately nine years ago. He remained at this position until his passing one year ago. Recently, one of the n1en1-bers of the Brodt family met Mr. Stuart Brezinoff, president of Maimonides Hospital, who remarked, "I have yet to meet anyone like Luzer. Although we didn't always see eye to eye, I respected his knowledge, sincerity, professionalism, and above all, the fact that everything he did was lesheim Shan1ayim - never due to any personal interests."

Indeed, what was unique about Luzer Brodt was not just the amount of chessed he did, both communally and individually, but the way he did it. Chessed became the integral part of his life - he lived it all day and took it home with hin1 every night. The way he lived chessed is instructional to us all.

I.

On a Shabbos in Lakewood ahnost eleven years ago, Luzer came with his family to cele

brate my oldest son's Bar Mitzva. Friday

Chaim Kuperwasser, who lives in Lakewood, NJ, was represented by"Shon1er Psa'im Hashem-Gd Guards Fools: Commentary or License?" in JO (Oct. '98).

l This is the first article in a projected series


night after the meal, someone rushed to tell me that my mother;rv had tripped outside and had opened up a large gash in her forehead. Hatzola was called and it was decided we would have to go to the hospital for her to have it stitched up. As we were about to get into the car, Luzer showed up and said, «I'm coming along - you can't go yourself."

Although he wasn't familiar with the local doctors or hospital, he knew we could use the comfort of his familiarity with medical jargon and procedure. He left his family and spent the night in the hospital with us, making sure everything went well. My mother ;rv who had been so tense, was calm and collected listening to Luzer's reassuring words that all was going well.

II.

Whenever my wife and I would spend Shabbos or Yorn Tov in Flatbush, we would visit the

Brodis. There was an anticipated greeting when we arrived. The children would invariably say, "Oh, no - not again[" It seemed that every time we would show up, Luzer would have a Hatzola call. The kids would say, "Why do

you always have to come in the middle of the Shabbos meal - can't you come while we're in school?"

It really did seem that way. Hatzola was his whole life, and became a part of his family's, too. Yet he always managed to maintain a high level of discreteness and professionalis1n - sometimes even to the wonderment of his own family.

Only a short few months before Luzer was niftar, weak and debilitated by his horrible sickness, he was instru1nental in putting together a proposal that netted significant government funding for Hatzola. Once again, Luzer wasn't just the instigator; he himself delved into every detail of the contract with all his strength, spending countless hours together with the ailing Rabbi Moshe Sherer 7"'11. Together, they ironed out the proposal, and with Rabbi Sherer's many contacts, were able to see it to fruition. Here were two giants of askanus- each lying in his respective sick bed, across the street from each other (Luzer was in Memorial Hospital, Rabbi Sherer in Cornell) - busily orchestrating the meeting of Kial YisroeI's needs in the short time they had left.

III.

Chessed was the milk he drank as an infant in his illustrious home. When going through some old

family portraits, Luzer would show a photo of his father, Reb Shulem 7"!, with a group of people hovering over a table with bales of cotton. In the early 1940's in Siberia, Reb Shulem was a member of a group called the Va' ad HaChessed. They distributed cotton to the people for lining their clothing to stay warm. Later, Reb Shulem became the American president of Kole! Chibas Yerushalayim - Reb Meir Baal Haness. Mrs. Bella (Brodt) Sorotzkin's name is synonymous

31

with medical referral. She was probably one of the first, if not the first, in the field. She had the power and charisma to be able to pull a top surgeon off his vacation yacht to perform a delicate emergency surgery.

Their son inherited these traits. A liver transplant was to take place in Pittsburgh, completely arranged by Luzer. But making the arrangements wouldn't suffice. He flew with the patient to Pittsburgh and stayed with the family throughout the procedure.

A very prominent and revered Chas-

sidishe Rebbe, living today, needed an extremely delicate and uncomfortable medical procedure. The Rebbewas very tense about going into a strange hospital, dealing with hospital staff, etc. The Gabbai could think of only one person who would put the Rebbe at ease, field all the questions, and monitor procedures. Luzer was summoned to be at the Rebbe's bedside.

He never publicized these stories - it was part of his professionalism and discretion. It was why everyone - including our gedolim - trusted him.

II IC

•

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IV

His chessed was not limited to Hatzola and medical referrals; he literally took it home with

him. Here, credit must also go to n-?:in his Fishes Chayil Chevy , .. nn (may the Ribbono Shel Diam continue to give her strength). Among the many delightful people at their Shabbos table, were some homeless, forlorn people who were their steady guests. One very scary, unpleasant individual had no one who would take him in - except for Luzer. Although I often begged Luzer to have rachmanus on his children, who were terrified of him, he just didn't have the heart to say no.

(One of my sons told me of an incident that happened on Shavuos at the table of the Novominsker Rebbe 1·n"7w. His out-of-town bachurim would be invited to join the Rebbe for the seuda. The Rebbetzin ;rv would also invite in several homeless people. On that particular Yam Tov, one of these people was making quite a racket which was disturbing everyone at the meal. One of the bachurim said to Rebbetzin Perlow, "Why do you allow these people at your table? How do you tolerate it?" She replied, "One day I'm going to go to Shamayim and will want to sit at the same table as all the tzidkaniyos. Someone may say that I don't belong there. I will then tell them, 'I allowed undeserving and obnoxious people at my table. You can allow me at yours!"'

(Luzer, may this be a zechus for you, as well. Aside from the countless acts of chessed you did as a Hatzola member, and your counsel and comfort for all the sick and needy who needed your guidance and assistance, whom you helped so professionally, note will be made that you couldn't turn any Jew away, no matter what.)

v

I had volunteered to take Luzer to the hospital for his daily radiation treatment. He was weak and pale, but in

great spirits. He knew the other patients waiting for their daily ordeal on a firstname basis, and they looked forward to


his contagious courage and warmth. When it was his turn, he told me to follow him into the radiation room. He wanted to show me the machine. He said to me, "Look at the size of this machine [it was mammoth]. The Ribbono Shel Olam gave man the wisdom to create this just for me:'

His emuna and bitachon were incredible.

Upon completion of his treatment, he wasn't ready to go home yet. "Follow me;' he said. "Were in the hospital anyway; let's be mevaker choleh someone."

A woman (mother of a prominent Rosh Yeshiva) had just been diagnosed with the same tumor he had. She was to undergo surgery the following day, but according to family members, had lost all desire to go on. Upon nearing her room, Luzer asked me not to enter - knowing how uncomfortable the woman was, he did not want to burden her further. I stood near the door and listened to the conversation. He spent twenty minutes showing her the incision on his scalp, and being mechazek her. He told her how routine the surgery would be, how she would be off the bed walking a day later. His enthusiasm was so exuberant, that it sounded as if he were describing going on vacation. Her son later told him how much it meant to his mother to see someone in the flesh feeling so good after such an ordeal. Luzer told me afterwards how much strength it took out of him, and

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how hard it was for him to bend the truth, considering how lousy he felt!

VI

As a newlywed in the Lakewood Kolle/, he had found out about a boy who needed medical atten

tion. It was a very delicate, secretive issue. People were not to find out, lest it stigmatize the young man for life. Luzer, although only 22 years old, took upon himself the task of seeing this young man through his ordeal. He arranged for a doctor to come every day- very discreetly - and administer tl1e needed drugs, all on his own accountability. He quietly collected the necessary funds - the doctor and medicine were paid for. No one knew.

VII

Luzer had a close friend who acted as his Gabbai Tzeddaka. He told him that he would make funds

Reb Nechemia Brodt ?"r (2nd fron1 left, back), Reh

Chaim Friedman ':n (2nd from left, front), both grandfathers of Luzer, and Reh Shulem Brodt 7"T, Luzer's

father (second from right, back)

available for the purpose of lending to needy people, but only on one condition. The Gabbai was never to ask the borrowers for the money. If they paid on their\?wn, fine; if not) they were not to be bothrred. His reasoning: if the person had it:jhe would pay back; otherwise he obviously still needed it.

This friend told me that many times the funds were not paid back, and Luzer never asked for them.

VIII

Avraham was the av hachessed,

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and you, Luzer, the ish hachessed. Your very essence was chessed. You were first and foremost an activist- a doer - looking for opportunities to help Kial Yisroel and running with them. You were never one to jump on the band wagon - you were always the initiator. But what made you so special was your style. You had charisma, sophistication, and warmth, coupled with the uncanny ability to deal with each person and each situation with respect. You had the capacity to dis-

cuss difficult medical dilemmas with the top doctors in their field - to their amazement, I may add. You had a rapport with some of the greatest Rabbanim and Roshei Yeshiva of our time - they trusted you unequivocally. But you also held the admiration of every "Reb Yisroel" who found it flattering that you would find time in your busy schedule for them too! You never boasted to your friends or to your family- very often accomplishing tremendous acts of chessed without even your

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Eishes Chayil knowing. On that note, I must share with you

a story recently uncovered by one of your children, unbeknownst to all, which involved your direct act of chessed, and the very happy ending that I'm sure you would like to hear.

Your son Nechemia, on a plane coining hon1e from Eretz Yisroel, was approached by another passenger. He had heard that his name was Brodt, and wanted to tell him a story about you. This person was the coordinator of a local Hatzola branch, and a report had come to him of a fellow member behaving in a manner unbecoming an ehrliche Yid - while wearing his Hatzola jacket, no less. Upon being reproached for his actions, he got upset with the coordinator and told him to 1nind his own business. A special meeting was called, whereupon all ten heads of Hatzola attended, with you presiding. The evidence was brought forward and there was no doubt as to its accuracy. A vote was cast to decide whether to expel this member from the organization. Five of the heads voted yes, and five voted no. Since yours was the deciding vote, you answered that there was no need to continue the meeting. You would decide the outcome on your own and let them know your decision. Case closed!

This past Assara beTeves, only weeks after you were niftar, this Hatzola member told the coordinator the whole story. In your quiet and honorable way, you had called him and met with him many times. Rather than reprimand him and expel him, you became his private therapist. With your incredible compassion, you made him feel important to the extent that he came to realize on his own that his behavior was not becoming of an ehrliche Yid. He says that you changed his entire life - Shalom Bayis, etc. He owes it all to you.

Your family and friends, upon hearing this story, were astonished at how you kept this so secretive - even from your own wife. But that is where an ish hachessed stands above everyone else.


IX

Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon K"v"ro said in the name of his Rebbe, Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian ?"~l the

meaning of the word chaim, life: Chaim is that which one cannot

get enough of. For example, when Shlomo Hamelech said, "Oheiv kesef lo yisba kesef" (Kohelles 5,9), he wasn't simply informing us that "one can never have enough money." This is obvious and simplistic, not something to require Shlomo Hamelech's wisdom. Rather, the wisest of men delved deeply into the psyche of mankind to teach us what the meaning of the word life is.

One whose whole enjoyment in life is money and nothing else, will never have enough. Take the money away from him, he becomes suicidal, with nothing to live for, because money is his entire purpose in life. Without it he is void.

When we petition the Ribbono Shel Olam during Asseres Yemei Teshuva: "Zachreinu lechaim, Melech chofetz bachaim - Remember us for life, 0 King who desires life," [said Reb Matisyahu,] it is incumbent upon ourselves to see that our understanding of the word chaim coincides with that of the Ribbono Shel Olam. He knows the true meaning of the word chaim. He knows that whatever a person "can not get enough of" is Torah, 1nitzvos, and md asim to vim (good deeds). The more Torah one has, the more he wants. Upon hearing the Mashgiach's

words, I thought: You, Reb Luzer, knew the true meaning of life. Yours was a chaim she! chessed. You were never sat-

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isfied. Chessed to you was like water to a thirsty man. Sure, it was in your genes, but even so you surpassed everyone. It was on your mind 24 hours a day, and you set an example not only for Kial Yisroel, but every per-

son who came in contact with you became infected with your zest for life - the only life important to you: the life of chessed!

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Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya, Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Akiva heard the sound of the multitudes of Rome - "Kol hamonah she! Rom£" -from the distance as they were traveling. This brought the first three to tears, and Rabbi Alciva to smile. They asked him, "Why do you smile?'' and he responded, "Why do you cryl" To which they said, "Pagans dwell in secure tranquility while our Beis Hamikdash is ravished by fire, and we shouldn't cry?'' So he said to them, "That is why I am happy. If those who disobey Him are so well off, then those who heed His will, will surely be:' (Makkos 24b) "Kol hamonah she/ Romi" - the

sound of the multitudes of Rome; the sound that reflects the wellbeing and success of Roman society and culture. This polyphony, which was heard from a distance of close to 50 miles, elicited a reaction from our chachamim. They neither sympathized nor harmonized with it. It is not for Jews to do that -"Va'avdil es' chem min ha'amim lihiyos Ii - I will separate you from all the nations to be mine.)) But it did provoke deep emotion in these formidable chachamim, and a penetrating insight.

We find ourselves in a time in which a worldwide kol hamon is escalating. A rumbling that

is building to a crescendo for an event in time that will soon be with us. We too should prepare to temper our reaction to it, either like Rabban Gamliel and his chaveirim, or like Rabbi Akiva.

Everyone seems to be busy anticipating this event, to take advantage of an opportunity to strike while the iron

Rabbi Breslauer is Rav of Congregation Beth Tefilla of Monsey, NY. This essay originally appeared in the Beth Tefilla Bulletin.


Rabbi Shlomo M. Breslauer

' is hot. Scholars are busy attempting to sum up the achievements of the millennium and evaluating mankind's progress in these last 1000 years. Some will laud the record of progress, while others will decry it. If they are honest, they will find that materialism and secularism, science and industry have overwhelmed the search for a meaningful life, and the interests of the soul.

There will be a plethora of books and publications viewing the moment from dozens of vantage points. Soothsayers will predict either blessing or curse; the beginning of a fine new era, or the end of the world. Politicians are busy writing speeches that will latch on to this frenzy and put the past with its faults behind them, and eloquently put forth platitudes about peace and tranquility, wealth and well-being for all, which lie ahead. Talk is cheap.

Preachers are busy preparing sermons that will echo the message of the politicians, but with a solemn tone and a religious flavor. There will be calls to cease hostility, substitute love for hate, share wealth, pray and inspire missionaries to double their insidious effort for the occasion.' A plea to submit to G-d's will and fear Him will be rare indeed.

Artists and actors will cue in on this theme and try to frame the event in a garb of skill and masterpiece. Travel agents and caterers have long been busy commercializing on the date that comes only once in a dozen or so lifetimes; to dine and wine celebrants on January I", and to transport them to exotic places, to observe the entry of the next 1000 years from a desert, a mountain top, or

I It is, indeed, alarming to note how a host of missionaries are already in Eretz Yisroel in strategic positions in preparation for the concentrated effort to convert Jews rn in the coming year; and more are scheduled to arrive. All this, aside from an increased world-wide effort. ~ll"IDW' 'il.

Oi

17

. Jil

of products to commemorate the year and the moment will be marketed, and the hubbub about the whole thing will make everyone want to acquire a souvenir that one can keep for a lifetime and show one's grandchildren. There will be games and garments, candy bars and perhaps even a postage stamp. Who knows what else?

It will be the noisiest "Happy New Year!" ever. An international hullabaloo. It is a typical kol hamonah shel Romi. And we must ask, ''Lama ragshu goyim, Why are the nations in commotion? Ule' umim yehegu rik, and people expressing emptiness?" Over a childish thrill as significant as when the odometer slips from 99,999.9 to 0. Nothing but a simple function of the decimal system. So aptly marked by '00.

Why do we bother to make mention of it? With what and with whom are we taking

issue? Were this a preoccupation of only the gentile world we might dismiss it as just another sport. What should the difference be between a baseball fan and a millennium fan?

But the enthusiasm and the tumult surrounding this time change has entered into Jewish circles as well. Isn't it preposterous for a Jewish school to announce that, "this will be the last graduating class of the millennium"? For one reason or another they have jumped on the bandwagon commemorating the non-Jewish year.And that is a shame. Of all days, the I" of January comes out on Shabbos, and so it is our holiest day that has to suffer the insult: "Come celebrate the new millennium with Shabbos, 2000;• tempts one circular, "where the spirited fulfillment of Shabbos combines

37

with the magic of the niillennium .... " The day that commemorates the creation of the world is summoned to take note of and promote a time slot, as if it were of inherent importance. It is to subscribe to a year count that is not ours, to say the least. Yes, we use the numbers to date checks and letters from the business and legal world to which we, in galus, are bound. But it does not represent a milestone, on our highway of time, to be proud of. It just reminds us further of our galus and the galus haShechina.

We should try to react to such a tumult about '00 as Rabban Gamliel and his chaveirim

did, and shed a tear that no big deal is made of the world's real anniversary nor the world's annual day of judgment. Our current year, after all, is 5760 computed from the creation of the world. And if we concede to creation, we acknowledge the Creator. And if we observe His wisdom in His creation, we conclude that with such wisdom, He must have had a purpose in creation,

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and that purpose is the responsibility of no one but mankind. That leads us to revelation of G-d's will, and the Torah. Furthermore, the Creator rewards men for obeying his precepts and furthering His purposes- the eventual emergence of the Maleh us Shamayim here on earth. He punishes for disrupting His plan for the world, for neglecting His commandments. The First of Tishrei, the day of creation of the first man on earth, is the day when He judges all of mankind for the coming year - what reward is due to them, and what punishment they deserve.

Shouldn't all the trumpets in the world have brought mankind's attention to this date and this year? Shouldn't all the shofros available have focused everyone's thoughts on the Creator and His purpose for us to fulfill? Isn't that the sound that should have filled the world with the urgency of its message three short months ago? It should have filled the electronic highways, the airwaves, the print media and every imaginable form of promotion. But it didn't; and we and Hashem are still in galus. Rabban Gamliel and his comrades cried. This should tweak our senses as well.

0 r perhaps we can muster a little optimism - as Rabbi Akiva was provoked to smile - and

take in the full gamut of the clamor that '00 is promoting, and say, "If this is the scope of publicity, induced over nothing, how riveting and pervasive will be the announcement of Ge'ula, the introduction of Mashiach and the reception of the Shechina."

Har Tzion ali loch mevaseres Tzion -Ascend the mountain of Zion, you who bring the tidings to Zion. Raise your voice with strength, you who bring the tidings to Yerushalayim. Raise up (your voice), do not fear, and say to the cities ofYehuda 'Behold your G-d!"'

"Teka beshofar gadol lecheiruseinu ve'sa neis lekabeitz galuyoseinu- Blow on a great Shofar (to proclaim) our freedom and raise a banner to gather our exiles ... " for all to hear and for all to see .... 1tJN 1J""f.l':::l i11i1tJ:J •


SECOND LOOKS

Rabbi Avi Shafran

Common Jewish Lan~ua~e, o''h

Jews - even those of us for whom English is our native tongue - are increasingly speaking different lan

guages. Take the word "outreach:' Used for

decades - and to this day by Orthodox Jews- to mean efforts to bring Jews closer to their Mesorah, the word has been co-opted by some contemporary Jewish leaders to describe conversion overtures to non-Jews who have married Jews. Some have even employed it to mean the active proselytization of broader nonJewish society, which they endorse. Only recently, Reform Rabbi Alexander Schindler asserted that "the time is right to beco1ne missionaries for Judaisn1" and that Judaisn1 "requires active pursuit not just to welcome strangers but to seek them out."

Or, to move to l"fft~n~akpdesh, consider the word, "k()'!lel':>o/lth its illustrious history as high-level Talmudi' Of late, however, it ated for things like program offering lectu al title) "Chicken Soup from the Rabbis: Sermons that Really Worked."

And then there is "Midrash:' Je on the mailing lists of the non-Ort <lox movements' publications wo scarcely know that the word has bee reserved, for several thousand years, for the "Oral Law" portion of the Jewish religious traditio meaning of, and laws and narrati ((redefined" to cise of imaginat holiest text, a so to play. Thus, Ru sI!y English professor and "midrashist" Alicia Ostriker, who teaches "midrash workshops" for the Institute of Contempo-

Rabbi Avi Shafran serves as Agudath Israel of America's Director of Public Affairs and as the American director of A111 Echad, the Agudath Israel-inspired educational outreach effort and media resource.

rary Midrash, can write, as she does in the current issue of Reform Judaism, that "Midrash" writing "requires no special knowledge of the Bible."

The critical word" acha" is another good example o ing has been twi For millennia demands of J painstakingly resea life situations. Today, employed to mean wha Jewish clergy (or, for t men) vote as their o of what the times,;'/< her than' Torah- require; ii:,effect, a culture-drl'5' ven system of religious praxis.

Even the most basic Jewish words have come to assume different meanings for different Jews.

"Rabbi" once meant someone learned in Jewish religious texts and law; today, in many Jewish circles, it means someone who can provide the pastoral needs ofa congregation or someone who is a !\bod public speaker (or, best of all, both) >T'~y~n if he (or she) is ignorant of (or

>: eii:,ti~~r unconcerned with) the Talmud :~s~~-_nsa literature.

j\')l;tJ'ie word "Judaism" itself, trag, ·· ·· ):>ecome multiple-meaninged.

·' · cess began when German the previous century created nt that unabashedly laid

dea of divinely revealed com'ents - the essential underpin

f the Jewish relig;ous tradition -yet insisted on retaining the name

'Judaism," albeit with a prefix. That 1novement's An1erican descen

dant came in turn to catalyze a number of even newer "Judaisn1s" - among them at least one group that goes so far as to shun the concept of a Creator. The move1nents are Jewish - in the sense that they are the products of Jewish people and have many Jewish affiliates - but calling them "Judaisms" does violence to what the word has 1neant for dozens

of centuries. "Torah," too, has come to be similarly

disfigured. One Jewish leader loudly proclai d his movement's embrace of "Tora ah, Torah!" even though the

" claims more than 3000

is movement me leader also a" -whose lit-

ly;' he wrote, " [a Jew] 1ne each mitzva and ask the

;do I feel commanded in this

Feelin~lliatsomething is right and being commanded to do it would seem to be alternatives - perhaps at times compatible, even overlapping, concepts - but certainly not a cause and its effect.

Is it any wonder that the very word "Jew", frighteningly, has likewise assumed manifold meanings? To some, it continues, as in the past, to refer to children of a Jewish mother or to a convert who has met the de1nanding conversion requirements of Jewish religious law. To others, it also means anyone born of a Jewish father, as long as some degree of self-Jewish-identification is present. Or it means Gentiles who "convert" to Judaism on nothing much more than an expression of interest in being Jewish. With this particular difference of definition, the seeds of a bifurcated Jewish people were tragically sown.

Many Jews far from Jewish belief and observance still cherish their identities as Jews, and lament the increasing fragmentation of the contemporary Jewish world. We, as Jews who embrace the Jewish Mesorah, have a responsibility to help them confront the radically different ways Jews have come to use crucial Jewish words today. And help them realize that true Jewish unity might depends, before anything else, on a return to a common Jewish language. •


s

Reb Elyah: The Life and Accomplishments of Rabbi Elyah Lopian by David J. Schlossberg

When I finished this book, I was overwhelmed by a pervasive feeling of peace. I cannot

recall a similar sense of serenity. After years and years of struggle, I had thought I understood something of prayer, but after reading this book I prayed as if for the first time. I felt an overwhelming sense of Presence, and of accompanying freedom from want. I felt the need to ask for nothing; the experience of prayer was itself the gift.

One incident in particular left me -appropriately enough, as the reader will see- speechless. After a long life in Eastern Europe and England, Rabbi Elyah Lopian ascended to the Holy Land in 1950, when he was 78. At that time one of the eminent rabbinic figures in Israel was Rabbi Yitzhak Zev Soloveitchik, who had inherited the storied rabbinate of Brisk, Lithuania, from his father, Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik. Though he had left Europe, Rabbi Y.Z. Soloveitchik retained his title, "The Brisker Rav" (communal rabbi of Brisk).

The first time that Reb Elyah visited Rabbi Soloveitchik was during the festival of Succos. Here is how the author of this biography relates the visit ofReb Elyah:

He entered the succa, after which he sat at the table opposite the Brisker Rav, and spoke only a few words. After that, Reb Elyah sat in silence for half an hour, then he rose, said, "Gut Yom Tov" again, and left. The Brisker Rav accompanied Reb Elyah down the steps and all the way to the street, which was something the Rav never

Rabbi Hillel Goldberg is executive editor of Den~ ver's Intermountain Jewish News and active in a wide variety of outreach efforts, including the mikveh team of Torah Community Project A fre~ quent contributor to these pages, he was represented by "Is Reform Jewry Coming Home?" in the June '99 JO.

40

did. When he returned to the succa, the Brisker Rav was visibly shaken. He paced back and forth, repeating again and again," Ich hob nish gevust as ess is noch doh - I had no idea that there is such a person alive today." Reb Elyah was a holy man. He did not

need to speak. His being spoke for itself. That the book conveys this is its merit. True, this book has more than its share of minor errors and inconsistencies, yet none of them detract from the book's power.

Religious life, attempting as it does to come into contact with the Infinite, is given to hyperbole. Words fail to describe those accomplished souls who attain the highest spiritual levels. But all we have is words. And so, in confronting a person who obviously has achieved a significant experience of the spiritual, words pile onto words. If one word cannot suffice to convey an embodiment of the spirit, more words, and bigger words, are summoned. This does not work, of course; yet, the attempt at finding words for the holy man must continue. We have nothing but words. In the case of Reb Elyah, the words seem not to exaggerate, not to overstate, but to understate the case. After reading this book, and then looking back at various chapter headings or subheadings, they truly convey meaning. ''A Lion Has Risen from Babylon.""The Language of Heaven:' "Fine Manners:' "'A Holy Awareness:' "Sensitivity:"'An Angel Named Eliyahu:'

0 ne point recurs throughout this book: concentration. When Reb Elyah studied, nothing dis

tracted him. If there were a sudden noise for some reason, he didn't look up. Ifhe were praying, he enunciated each word. Each word spoke to him. If he were standing at a bus stop, the bus would arrive when it would arrive. One need not look sideways or backwards. Fidgeting would accomplish nothing. All this begins, and begins only, with the word discipline. Indeed, Reb Elyah was trained in a legendary yeshiva, that of Kelm, Lithuania, that emphasized discipline; not for discipline's sake.

Discipline was but the lowest rung on a ladder. As one ascended, one learned that

Rabbi Hillel Goldbera

discipline weeded out distractions. The overwhelming presence of G-d, always potentially available, could not be accessed if one were distracted. The study of a holy text must pass through several stages before its holiness becomes apparent. If one is distracted, one must begin the climb over again; if one is distracted frequently, one never rises at all. The same for prayer: at the beginning, it is just words. For it to be more, it must be practiced; its meaning must be grasped; its language -"The Language of Heaven" - must become true and realistic to a person. All this is achieved through concentration.

Somehow, Reb Elyah intuited all this long before he could express it, long before he was taught it. At the

age of ten, in about 1882, his family departed for America. He refused to go! He did not believe he would grow into the Jew he wanted to become if he departed for the secular shores of freedom. They devoured the religious identity of virtually all Jewish arrivals. Somehow, at ten, he grasped this!

Alone in life, he fended for himself and almost starved. The poverty, the loneliness, the singular devotion, the maturity, the conviction of this child -that's all he was, a child - are beyond the grasp of children and parents of our own time, perhaps of any time. This child studied in Lomza, Poland, and found his way to Kelm just two years before the death of its legendary mentor, the Alter of Kelm, the master of concentration and of sensitivity. In Kelm, there were no paid janitors. Students did this work. To them, it was a privilege. Only senior students were allowed to compete. To be advanced educationally was to be advanced in sensitivity and service to others. This was the educational atmosphere that shaped Reb Elyah.

From here, the entries on his resume reveal the flux of the era. He founded a yeshiva in Kelm, was exiled in WWI, served in the yeshiva in Grodno after the war, was invited to the Eitz Chaim yeshiva in London in 1925, headed it until 1950, left England for Israel to retire, was quickly called out of retirement, served in the Kaminetz Yeshiva in Jerusalem, then


went to northern Israel, first to Zichron Yaakov then to Kfar Chassidim. There, in his nineties, he mentored many young men who became leaders in Jewish education and remen1ber him with awe.

Beneath the flux of the era are Reb Elyah's fixed spiritual practices: fasting frequently, using the "Lottery of the Vilna" to discern others' secret motives, regularly studying Torah at six-hour stretches without a single interruption (even to consult related books), not speaking for long periods, undertaking a rigorous, sixyear discipline in repentance.

His wife gave birth to 19 children, 13 of whom survived infancy. Rebbetzin Sarah Leah Lopian was exhausted by the time the day was three-quarters done; then, Reb Elyah took over. His wife died young, in England. All of her sons returned from the continent, where they had been studying Torah, when she took ill. All sons returned but one. He couldn't. he had torn up his passport so as to avoid the temptations of the easy life in London. Like his father, he had "exiled himself to a place of Torah:' After his mother's funeral, none of the hrothers could return to Europe because of the gathering of war clouds. However, the son in self-exile was killed when the Nazis destroyed the entire community ofTelshe, Lithuania,in 1942.His brothers were saved by their mother's illness. Fate? Bittersweet serendipity? No, nothing of"fate" or mystery animates this book. Reb Elyah's wife took ill as she prayed to G-d to take her in place of her husband, who also had taken ill. She was no longer needed in this world, she prayed; her husband was yet to make essential contributions. As he got better, she got ill. He survived. She died. When she was reburied in Jerusalem forty years after her death, in 1971, her body was found to be complete. Even her shrouds were fresh. There was no decay. This was the wife of the "Lion Risen from Babylon:'

0 f such people, most of us have no grasp. Are these mere stories? Is this made up? How many

centuries of accretions of myth and legend passed to account for this? All of the convenient, modern mechanisms of rationalization - of rationalizing away

the spiritual - fail here. There are scores of people alive who knew Reb Elyah, who saw him and witnessed all that I relate here and the much more related in the biography. Indeed, the biography is based mostly on oral history, eye-witness accounts.

There is something hard about this book. Its spirituality is not softened by layers of time or rationalization or accommodation to the fragile age of fragile egos. Spirituality, a great gift, is also a demanding opponent of distraction. What is our age, if not a conspiracy of distractions, some innocent, some evil? To which Reb Elya responded when a student asked, "What is mussar (the admonition of Gd)?" Reb Elyah turned around and screamed at him, «VVhoever leaves the learning of Torah, a fire will consume him ... " Against this, the most famous picture of Reb Elyah has him in his nineties leaning down to the floor, giving milk to the cat of Kfar Chassidim. "According to your theory, if there is a cat in the vicinity, there are no more mice. That poor cat

must be starving! Come with me; I'll show you what you must do:'

That is what this book does: it shows us what we must do. •

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"Choices and Priorities -A Symposium on Women in Torah Society," featured in the June '99 issue of The Jewish Observer, inspired a large volume of mail. A sampling of the letters follow.

NO ALTERNATIVE TO TORAH LISHMA AND FEMINISTS JOINING HANDS1

To the Editor: In the opening lines to the "Sympo

sium on Choices and Priorities for Women," you write, "[iJnstead of e1nerging from the crossfire wounded and feeling cheated, some women learn to juggle responsibilities, prioritize and make intelligent choices:' It is gratifying and inspiring to read the accounts of so many outstanding women. These women love Torah and Yiddishkeit more than they love themselves. At the same time, it seems that something very basic is missing in these accounts. Women, being biologically female, give birth to children and naturally have an affinity for nurturing and protecting their young. To this end, Hashem in His wisdom set up a system whereby women are charged with the G-dly task of raising and imbuing their own children with all that is so rich and glorious about Yiddishkeit. It seems that some of your presenters have been directed that they are not to share in this privilege.

It is striking that among all of your contributors, there is not one word written in support of the traditional and honorable Torah approach in which the husband, being duly prepared, shoulders the burden of parnassa. The vast chassidesh and Torah-im-Derech-Eretzcommunities and the numerous other loyal Yidden who do not live the Torah Um' -naso life, all function on this assumption.

42

Is there no safe refuge anymore for the frum women who do not want to be forced into the work force? Must the Torah lishma world join hands with the Orthodox feminists on this issue? Maybe our women do feel cheated in their own way. In other words, let us be honest and present a broader picture to the 1orah-true Bas Yisroel and Ben Torah of today. Let us smile also at those women who consciously choose to marry boys with a level of professional or skill training so tbat they will not have to choose, for exa1nple, between educating their children and somebody else's children. Let us add that with a little extra for household help, a woman wouldn't have to find a job to keep her sanity!

Perhaps you can conduct a longitudinal study and in fifteen years, ask the children of all these modern thinking women to submit their own thoughts about their parents' decisions

ESTHER WEIN

Lawrence, NY

EDITORIAL RESPONSE:

The symposium consisted primarily of those who were torn between conflicting goals, each responding to a lofty calling - tending one's own children or teaching others, enabling one's husband to maximize his growth in Torah or focusing on guiding or supervising the children of the family, and so on. But the decision to divide one's efforts between two was by no means universal. If the writer returns to tbe issue (June '99), she

will find that (in order of appearance) Mrs. Leba Perel Eisenberg is by choice home with her child six out of seven days every week; Mrs. Debby Miller did indeed opt for "nurturing and protecting [her] young" full-time; Mrs. Rivka Posner clearly states that although financial necessity forces her to work outside her home, "for self-fulfillment, pride, and nachas, my family takes first place; work doesn't even make a close second"; and Rebbetzins Faige Twerski and Hinda Devora Wolpin simply do not address the conflict.

For a still more rounded discussion, the readers are invited to read the letters that follow. NW

FOUND HERSELF IN THE SYMPOSIUM

To the Editor: I want to let you know how much we

enjoy receiving and reading The Jewish Observer - especially the Summer '99 issue on "Women's Choices & Priorities." As a working mother, I found myself right in the articles. Each and every one was a gem.

ESTHER WERTHEIMER

Balti1nore

"THE BEST JOB OF ALL: RAISING FUTURE GENERATIONS"

To the Editor: Boruch Hashem, my husband and I

were blessed witb our first baby this past spring. Our decision was that I would stay home to raise our son. Ever since then, I have been getting comments such as, "What do you do all day?" Some women today think that staying home to raise their children is boring .... After all, isn't that a woman's job? The Torah tells us that when the Malachim asked Avraham Avinu, "Where is Sarah your wife?" (Bereishis, 18,9) he answered, "In the tent." Doesn't this imply that the proper place for a woman is her home?

Yonason Rosenblum points out in his biography of Reb Yaakov Kamenetsky 7"'1T, that although there are certain exceptions, "Reb Yaakov felt that the ideal situation was for the motber to stay


home with her young chidren." (pg. 298) Recently, a woman told me, "I'1n also

one of those weird people who stay home." Isn't it sad that women who are doing their real job are considered weird?

I understand that sometimes a mother needs to work outside of her home, but please don't look at me with pity, because I do not find my job to be boring. I am ;i··:i privileged to raise my son myself. I will 11"'N be there to watch him sit on his own for the first time. I will watch him take his first step, and teach him to say his first beracha. I will have the time to help him wash negel vasser, and teach him to say Modeh Ani. When, during the day, he needs the love and attention that only a mother can give, I will ;PN be there to provide him with just that.

I have the best job of all, and love every minute of it. I am proud to say that I am n""mv:i helping to raise the future doros of Kial Yisroel.

LEAH FRIEDMAN

Brooklyn

"ARE OUR TORAH WOMEN REALLY THAT DISPENSABLE!"

To the Editor: I read with great interest the articles

in your "Symposium on Women in Torah Society:' I was eager to finally get Torah answers to the "Woman's Question:' ...

The symposium leaves the impression that for mothers of young children to work outside tbe home is an ideal, rather than an unfortunate situation. Only two writers were full-time mothers. Indeed, Mrs. Birnbaum and Mrs. Eisenberg were both told by their poskim to leave their young children with babysitters. Other contributors made it clear that staying home with one's children is simply not feasible, emotionally or financially.

Yet consider the implications of this message. If we own something valuable, we either take care of it ourselves, or we entrust it to an expert. When we leave our children regularly with a babysitter, usually a foreigner who barely speaks


English (most of us cannot afford a Yiddishe Mamme), we imply that Maria can give our children a better chinuch than we can. Are our Torah women really that dispensable? Is it possible that the sacred and unique role of the Jewish mother is primarily to supply her husband with a paycheck?

As we leave our children with the sitter, we also convey, both to ourselves and to our children, that Imma has better things to do than to take care of them. This lesson can remain with a child for life. Yet our children are our very future. Like us, they are entrusted with

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the holy mission of being Hashem's special people on this earth. When we leave the children to go off to work, we belittle them, and the sacred mission they are ultimately to carry out.

Yes, there will always be many women who absolutely must work outside the home. They certainly need moral support, and encouragement from role 1nodels. In every community in which I have lived, however, I have met intelligent, talented women who chose to stay at home with their children. Often, they make financial sacrifices when they give up that second

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income. Certainly, they are exhausted at the end of the day. But something inside of them tells them that child rearing is an avodas hakodesh, one which they will not compromise. Could we please have an article written for them, just to reassnre them that da'as Torah believes in what they are doing?

CHANA LAKS

Passaic, NJ

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AT HOME, WITHOUT APOWGY

To the Editor: I fonnd much to admire and even some

elements to identify with in your fine symposium on Women in Torah Society. No need to explain why we are not seeking quasi-rabbinical positions or"equity"; we arc what and where we ought to be.

I did, however, feel that one facet of the issue was not sufficiently developed. When Mrs. Miller wrote how she found that "quality time" is an illusion, she put it very well: "It is vital for a child to hear that Tm always there for you."' While I agree fully, I would welcome the opportunity to offer some elaboration.

As you will notice, I asked the editor to withhold my name and city. Neither I or my husband are well-known, and I didn't expect to be invited to participate in the Symposium. But I do represent a certain woman that just about every reader knows. Boro Park, Oak Park, West Rogers Park or Park Heights - I'm the mother who's always home. Our station wagon was beat-up, but somehow seemed to hold the family and get us from here to there- till they came home from Jerusalem and got married. So now it's been replaced by a vintage van.

Yes, I too was told that my mission is to serve within the ranks of mechanchos. And there I was working loyally (and effectively) until my husband left kollel and joined the work force.

From then on, I stayed home with my kids and invested my time, my energy, my concern, my creativity, and my unspent dollars (skimped from myunpurchased goodies) to nurse, teach, guide, and counsel; to work with each child at his or her level - challenging and stretching one, encouraging and comforting another. And I proudly included their friends in various projects, games, and fun.

How did I make this decision? Part of the process was a JO article on "Jewish Women in a 1brah Society: For Frustration or Fulfillment?" (December 1974!), which included an interview with the late Rebbetzin Kaplan n"v. She was quoted as saying:

"When I used to leave my family of little children every morning, in the

early years in Williamsburgh, I would feel terribly tom. I had entrusted them with a competent sitter, but how much more would I have preferred to be feeding them myself - I telling them stories, I imbuing them with values -instead of some stranger. There is so much one can implant in a child through mealtime distractions and bed-time stories - wrapping them in kedusha instead of nonsense, telling them concept-building stories instead of 'The Three Bears: I felt defeated every time I left for work, closing the door of my house behind me. I would wish for Eliyahu JJanovi to come and relieve me of my agony." She graduated her first class from sem

inary and felt vindicated in her choice. I didn't even feel the conflict. Rebbetzin Kaplan had a mission she alone could fulfill. Even if! had been best in my line, second best wasn't far behind. So I chose to stay home.

Yes, we tightened our belts, and learned to reassess "necessities" and relegate them to the pile of unneeded luxuries and distractions. You see, a woman's mission is to be her family's "bayiS:' her children's mother: at home, mothering them. In this I am singular. Only I can do it my way.

Af, the kids entered school, my husband and I reviewed lessons with them and enriched their knowledge and their lives with a vast extra-curriculum. We did it. No surrogate person or technology. (We used loads of cassettes and books - as supplementary material, not replacements.)

There was sweat and pain and frustration in the details, but so was there fun, joy, and triumph. And most important: discharging my responsibilities and fulfilling my mission. I have no criticisms of those who pursue another path. But neither do I have envy of them, nor do I have apologies for mine.

My children and their fumilies (of those married) are ;-r:i testimony to our efforts.

You know me. Or you know another mother quite similar to me in our sense of mission and total lack of having been deprived. So, as I said on the outset, why should I bother signing?

FULLTIME MOTHER

Fullfilled, At Hon1e


EDITORIAL CLARIFICATION

The Jewish Observer has received several letters regarding a reference to Reb Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz ':>":;r in Elimelech Meisels' tribute to his late grandfather, Reb Elimelech "Mike" Tress ':>"!

(Sept. '99). (See Letters, Oct. '99.) The comment under discussion was inserted as an editorial expansion of the canvas on which Meisels had drawn his portrait of appreciation for his namesake. Regrettably, some readers interpreted the reference as a slight to Reb Shraga Feivel's stature (1"n). There was no intention to diminish either one at the expense of the other. It was simply written in the hope of reminding readers that the Hashgacha had endowed that very difficult, bleak period with the illuminating presence of several stellar personalities - each contributing extraordinary light on the otherwise dark, discouraging landscape of the time. NW

CHANGING THROUGH MUSSAR: INCREMENTALLY OR WITH

IMMEDIACY?

To the Editor: I read with great interest the excel

lent article by Rabbi Matis Roberts ("Mussar Revisited," Sept. '99) addressing the issue of limud hamussar in our generation and why it is unfortunately neglected by so many.

There is one point, however, that I would hope to get further clarification on: that the main benefit of mussar study is realized through its cumulative effect rather than as an achievement of immediate results. Every day, the article states, a person should "give some thought" to where he stands regarding his obliga-


tions, and little by little these thoughts will generate a "slow but continuous pattern of spiritual growth."

I would like to understand what the source for this position is. It would appear that at least some of the gedolei hamussar strongly disagreed with such an approach. The attitude with which one approaches limud hamussar, they held, cannot be one of non-immediacy. Rather, the correct derech is one with an intense investment of both intellect and emotion with the distinct goal of an immediate impact.

The Alter of Novaradok, Rabbi Yosef Yozel Horowitz ';ry1, maintains (Madreigas HaAdam, Ma'amar Darkei Teshuva, Fifth Perek) that in fact one cannot possibly succeed any other way. He stresses that if one does not aim for immediate change, it will not occur later, either. He compares this to a person who wants to transform his non-kosher kitchen by kashering a few utensils each day over a period of time, and then throwing them back into the drawer or cabinet. The kitchen will, of course, never become kosher in such a manner. Likewise, one cannot plan to achieve a change in middos and a refinement of character slowly over a period of time.

In a similar vein, Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler ':>":;r discusses (Michtav M'Eliyahu, Vol. 3, pp. 293-294) the need for a person to "burn the bridges behind him" and to immediately change his environment in such a manner so as to sever any possible pathways to his past. For one to resolve to elevate himself spiritually by weaning himself slowly from undesirable behavior or bad middos while more or less remaining in his current environn1ent will not succeed.

It seems clear that these Gedolim felt that the only way to achieve true spiri-

tual growth is by striving for an imn1ediate effect from the Ii mud hamussar and not by taking a go-slow approach with the expectancy of deferred results.

SHMUEL KA:rz

Brooklyn

The Author Responds:

Rabbi Katz issues a compelling challenge with admirable tact and delicacy. In truth, I did not arrive at my assun1ption through any specific sources, but rather through Torah Shebe'al peh-from the teachings of my Rebbei'im and Roshei Yeshiva, particularly Rabbi Mordechai Gifter, N"P>'n>, as well as other prominent tahnidei chacha1ninz. I cannot count the number of times I heard it emphasized that spiritual growth must take place slowly or it will not endure.

The concept, however, is clearly not their creation. On the pasuk (Hoshea 14,2), "Return, Yisroel, to Hashem your G-d;' I/m Ezra comments: Little by little. Yalkut Shimoni to the same verse offers a parable of a high rock on a crossroads, which was obstructing travelers. The king told his subjects to shave it little by little until it could be removed. Similarly, says the Midrash, Hashem tells His people, "1'he evil inclination is a great stumbling block; shave it little by little and I will remove it from the world."

Evven Shlomo (1,3) cites the Vilna Gaon's statement that to correct a character flaw one must first go to the other extreme and then find the proper balance. Parenthetically, he adds a note of caution: But he should not jump to the opposite extre1ne at one tirne. Rather, he should move slowly from level to level. Reb Yisroel Salanter, too (Ohr Yisroel, letters #10 and #30), states emphatically that the effects of 1nussar are not imn1ediate but are rather felt after an extended period of consistent endeavor. This principle is also emphasized strongly by Rahbi Shlomo Wolbe, N"'"""' (Alei Shur, Shaar II, Chap. 12).

Nevertheless, as Rabbi Wolbe himself points out elsewhere (Alei Shur, Vol. II, Sham· II, Ch. 2), this applies primarily to the pursuit of spiritual heights. When dealing with coarse and loath-

45

some character traits, we are obligated to take control of our behavior at once. The same would apply to deficiencies in our basic obligations. If we are remiss in the fulfillment of a mitzva or guilty of that which is prohibited, we do not have the luxury of time to take a step· by-step approach. Rather, we are bound by the Torah to correct our misdeeds immediately. It is these types of circumstances that the Alter of Novaradok and Rabbi Dessler are addressing. In such cases, Rabbi Katz's contention would seem to be indisputable.

And yet, the verse cited above is dis· cussing teshuva, which applies primarily to actual sins. Apparently, the con· cept of gradual development has its place even there. Theoretically, we should always be able to carry out our basic obligations, and that should certainly be the thrust of our initial efforts. But the fact is that we often fail to over· come our flaws - or even to control them - despite repeated attempts to do so. Even when we reinforce our efforts with limmud hamussar, the total improvement we seek frequently eludes

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us. In such cases, an approach of grad· ual change offers a much greater chance of lasting results.

This is particularly pertinent in contemporary society, where the sense of full responsibility for one's actions is a very rare commoclity. All too often, we succumb to the notion that the dif· ficulties we face are just too hard to overcome. Some of this is surely due to the ongoing decline of the genera· tions. Some of it may be caused by the common problem of low self-esteem, which drains a person of the determination needed to meet formidable challenges. In addition, the moral relativism that surrounds us tends to weaken our sense of absolute right and wrong - and, with it, the firm resolve that "this is out - no matter what it takes to prevail." Whatever the cause, the prevalence of this tendency is undeniable.

By breaking down our challenges into «bite-size" components, however, we make each step forward less intimidating. And by tackling them successfully) one at a time) we slowly teach ourselves that we can persevere. At the same time, our ongoing involvement in limmud hamussarcontinuously strengthens the conviction that we really do have absolute oblig· ations - obligations that may not be compromised under any circumstances.

Unfortunately, this situation creates a dangerous pitfall. It allows a person to rationalize that it is acceptable to improve slowly, even when he should really be exercising strict self-disci· pline. To the best of my knowledge, there is no general rule for when gradual improvement is called for and when it is simply a cop-out. The only solution I know of is to follow the dictum of Ghazal: "Make for yourself a Rebbe and acquire for yourself a friend." The input of a true friend, who is willing to be honest even when it hurts, can be invaluable in assessing this properly. The guidance of a trust· ed mentor who knows and understands you is critical.

Matis Roberts

--------···--- -----·----·------------------46 The Jewish Observer, December 1999

an experienced, cxPert_

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