Year: 2020

I received the following letter from a reader:

Shalom.

I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the following observations.

I would like to mention that I, thank G-d, have the privilege of residing in the Holy Land.

The Jewish People is made up of all sorts of ethnicities and communities from around the world. My personal feeling, and I don’t think I’m alone on this, is that we are enriched by the fact that our nation includes Morrocans, German Jews, Oberlanders, British Jews, Litvaks, Polish Chassidim, etc. It would be tragic, as far as I’m concerned, if any of these groups were to “assimilate” into the rest of Klal Yisrael and lose their uniqueness.

As a Jew who grew up in the USA, I believe that I, and others like me, have a certain perspective that we can add to the mix. That doesn’t mean that my perspective is more correct than that of my Israeli neighbor. But aspects of it may be, just as aspects of his perspective might be more correct than mine. Put differently, they might just be concurrently correct alternate perspectives.

I know that by living in EY and raising my children here, I am causing them to lose much of the identity and perspective that are important to me. True, they retain some of it, but how many generations will that last?

Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. But I wonder whether it is necessarily a good thing. I do feel some sadness at it, though I am simultaneously grateful for the opportunity to raise my family in EY along with all of the maalos available here.

You, Hyehudi, are obviously an “educated” person, not only in Torah but in those branches of knowledge that can make a contribution toward being a fuller human being. I am taking the liberty of guessing that you value some of the knowledge and understanding that are available to you only because you or your ancestors made a sojourn through other lands. I wonder whether you relate to my question: How should we feel, both at the individual level as well as at the communal level, at basically erasing part of our heritage and identity? Is my/our sadness at this excision baseless at best and evil at worst? Is a will to retain that heritage and identity a valid factor in deciding where to live?]

I don’t necessarily suggest that you post this discussion, as even if you successfully rebut my questions, there will doubtless be those who seize on the questions and ignore the rebuttal.

Sincerely,

______

My answer:

Dear ______,

I agree each Jew has what to add here, for the time being.

See Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch on להט החרב המתהפכת who explains the theoretical place in Judaism for outside culture sometimes.

I once wrote:  The Torah is today partly only in English, as per “טט בכתפי שתים פת באפריקי שתים”. (I cannot imagine technical English substituted by Hebrew even in Israel, and even long after a natural Mashiach.)

Can we have unitary halacha (read:  Sanhedrin), but still preserve ineffable ethnic elements? We haven’t tried yet.

We must discriminate between our personal, present lives, and the national future.

First, the individual.

As for Aliyah, your question includes a whiff of a False Dichotomy: You say “where to live”, but the world is a global village, even considering internet filtering. And there are different communities and rabbis in Israel, too, some more Anglo than others. And I don’t need to tell you: Were this claim valid, then it always was, yet the Mitzvah stands.

Is this an intellectual query or is it “feeling sadness” (היינו דאמרי אינשי גיורא עד עשרה דרי לא תבזה ארמאי קמיה)? Because you can either change it (partly) or not; you know the Serenity Prayer…

(As for “how many generations will that last?” a person’s mercy for grandchildren is limited, per Sanhedrin 95a, בר ברך קירא ליזבון ואת לא תצטער, and certainly doesn’t extend past great-grandchildren, Rashi Bereishis 21:23, ולניני ולנכדי, עד כאן רחמי האב על הבן.)

These are the sort of questions best suited for wise old Jews who know you and your family (not I!) and can advise you whether or not to speak to young children in English only, and the like.

But as far as the nation, I imagine if the Holy Land changes us into “Sabras” (as every country alters its residents), perhaps that’s the “right” personality to have, as a nation. Perhaps with the return of genuine prophecy in its natural habitat, as Jews become a majority in the land, we can etch the Torah “in all 70 tongues”, too, without any help?

You are not “alone on this”, and I always say sunlight is the best disinfectant, so I am publishing this.

But the harshest decree was issued in 1827, when the tsar ordered that each Jewish community deliver up a quota of military recruits. Jews were to serve for twenty-five years in the military, beginning at age eighteen, but the draftable age as as low as twelve. Those under eighteen would serve in special units called Cantonist battalions until they reached eighteen, whereupon they would begin their regular quarter century of service. As if a term of army service of thirty years or more were not enough, strenuous efforts were made to convert the recruits to Russian Orthodoxy…

A double catastrophe fell on the heads of Russian Jewry: their sons would be taken away not only from their homes and families but in all likelihood also from their religion. Little wonder that all sorts of subterfuges were used in attempts to avoid military service. One can even understand the willingness of the wealthy, and of the communal officials whom they supported, to shield their own children from service by substituting others, as was allowed by law. The hapless substitutes were almost always the children of the poor and socially marginal. The decree fell upon them with especial cruelty, as they watched khapers (snatchers) employed by the community to tear their children, no less beloved though they were poor, from their arms. The oath of allegiance was taken by the recruits who were dressed in talis and tfilin… as they stood before the Holy Ark in the synagogue, and was concluded by a full range of shofar blasts. This only further embittered the recruits and their families, not only toward the tsarist regime but also toward the ‘establishment’ of the Jewish community.“

From “A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union” p. 4.

Rabbi Avi Grossman concurs on De Haan hagiography:

[R’ Sonnenfeld’s artscrollized* biography] does a superb job of rehabilitating the reputation of Jacob Israel de Haan, the secular, unrepentant, homosexual, pedophile pornographer, who, because of his anti-zionist activities, was assassinated by the Haganah, and thus became a Haredi martyr.

See the rest here…

Note: I suspect Rabbi Sonnenfeld and his collaborator were far closer to anarchists than “anti-zionists”, though this requires further research.

From Charedi wiki, Hamichlol:

Funny story: I once pointed out these sort of non-conformist facts about Rabbi Sonnenfeld to a haughtily conformist great-grandson of Rabbi Sonnenfeld, and he immediately proceeded to attempt to destroy my life. Ha, good times…

Download (PDF, 191KB)

Reprinted with permission.

הבהרה: אין למדין מן האגדות.