Rabbis of our Time - Authorities of Judaism in the Religious and Political Ferment of Modern Times 2015016784, 9781138813168, 9781315748320

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Rabbis of our Time

The term ‘rabbi’ predominantly denotes Jewish men qualified to interpret the Torah and apply Halacha, or those entrusted with the religious leadership of a Jewish community. However, the role of the rabbi has been understood differently across the Jewish world. While in Israel they control legally powerful rabbinical courts and major religious political parties, in the Jewish communities of the Diaspora this role is often limited by legal regulations of individual countries. However, the significance of past and present rabbis and their religious and political influence endures across the world. Rabbis of our Time provides a comprehensive overview of the most influential rabbinical authorities of Judaism in the 20th and 21st Century. Through focussing on the most theologically influential rabbis of the contemporary era and examining their political impact, it opens a broader discussion of the relationship between Judaism and politics. It looks at the various centres of current Judaism and Jewish thinking, especially the State of Israel and the USA, as well as locating rabbis in various time periods. Through interviews and extracts from religious texts and books authored by rabbis, readers will discover more about a range of rabbis, from those before the formation of Israel to the most famous Chief Rabbis of Israel, as well as those who did not reach the highest state religious functions, but influenced the relation between Judaism and Israel by other means. The rabbis selected represent all major contemporary streams of Judaism, from ultra-­Orthodox/Haredi to Reform and Liberal currents, and together create a broader picture of the scope of contemporary Jewish thinking in a theological and political context. An extensive and detailed source of information on the varieties of Jewish thinking influencing contemporary Judaism and the modern State of Israel, this book is of interest to students and scholars of Jewish Studies, as well as Religion and Politics. Marek Čejka is a research scholar at the Institute of International Relations in Prague and Military History Institute in Brno, focusing on the Middle East, the relationship between religion and politics, international law, religious radicalism and terrorism. Roman Kořan has extensive experience researching issues in Judaism, in particular Jewish Mysticism where he focuses primarily on the work of Rabbi Isaac Luria, as well as translating Hebrew texts.

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Routledge Jewish studies series Series Editor: Oliver Leaman University of Kentucky

Studies, which are interpreted to cover the disciplines of history, sociology, anthropology, culture, politics, philosophy, theology, religion, as they relate to Jewish affairs. The remit includes texts which have as their primary focus issues, ideas, personalities and events of relevance to Jews, Jewish life and the concepts which have characterised Jewish culture both in the past and today. The series is interested in receiving appropriate scripts or proposals. Medieval Jewish Philosophy An introduction Dan Cohn-­Sherbok Facing the Other The ethics of Emmanuel Levinas Edited by Seán Hand Moses Maimonides Oliver Leaman A User’s Guide to Franz Rosenzweig’s Star of Redemption Norbert M. Samuelson On Liberty Jewish philosophical perspectives Edited by Daniel H. Frank Referring to God Jewish and Christian philosophical and theological perspectives Edited by Paul Helm Judaism, Philosophy, Culture Selected studies by E.I.J. Rosenthal Erwin Rosenthal

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Philosophy of the Talmud Hyam Maccoby From Synagogue to Church: The Traditional Design Its beginning, its definition, its end John Wilkinson Hidden Philosophy of Hannah Arendt Margaret Betz Hull Deconstructing the Bible Abraham ibn Ezra’s introduction to the Torah Irene Lancaster Jewish Mysticism and Magic An anthropological perspective Maureen Bloom Maimonides’ Guide To The Perplexed Silence and salvation Donald McCallum

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Muscular Judaism The Jewish body and the politics of regeneration Todd Samuel Presner Jewish Cultural Nationalism David Aberbach The Jewish–Chinese Nexus A meeting of civilizations Edited by M. Avrum Ehrlich German-­Jewish Popular Culture before the Holocaust Kafka’s kitsch David Brenner The Jews as a Chosen People Tradition and transformation S. Leyla Gürkan Philosophy and Rabbinic Culture Jewish interpretation and controversy in medieval Languedoc Gregg Stern Jewish Blood Reality and metaphor in history, religion and culture Edited by Mitchell B. Hart Jewish Education and History Continuity, crisis and change Moshe Aberbach, edited and translated by David Aberbach Jews and Judaism in Modern China M. Avrum Ehrlich Political Theologies in the Holy Land Israeli Messianism and its critics David Ohana Image of the Black in Jewish Culture A history of the other Abraham Melamed

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From Falashas to Ethiopian Jews Daniel Summerfield Philosophy in a Time of Crisis Don Isaac Abravanel: Defender of the Faith Seymour Feldman Jews, Muslims and Mass Media Mediating the ‘Other’ Edited by Tudor Parfitt with Yulia Egorova Jews of Ethiopia The birth of an elite Edited by Emanuela Trevisan Semi and Tudor Parfitt Art in Zion The genesis of national art in Jewish Palestine Dalia Manor Hebrew Language and Jewish Thought David Patterson Contemporary Jewish Philosophy An introduction Irene Kajon Antisemitism and Modernity Innovation and continuity Hyam Maccoby Jews and India History, image, perceptions Yulia Egorova Collaboration with the Nazis The Holocaust and after Edited by Roni Stauber The Global Impact of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion A century-­old myth Edited by Esther Webman

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The Holocaust and Representations of the Jews History and identity in the museum K. Hannah Holtschneider

Emmanuel Levinas and the Limits to Ethics A critique and a re-­appropriation Aryeh Botwinick

War and Peace in Jewish Tradition From the biblical world to the present Edited by Yigal Levin and Amnon Shapira

Judaism in Contemporary Thought Traces and influence Agata Bielik-­Robson and Adam Lipszyc

Jesus among the Jews Representation and thought Edited by Neta Stahl God, Jews and the Media Religion and Israel’s media Yoel Cohen Rabbinic Theology and Jewish Intellectual History The Great Rabbi Loew of Prague Meir Seidler

Jewish Cryptotheologies of Late Modernity Philosophical marranos Agata Bielik-­Robson The Ugliness of Moses Mendelssohn Aesthetics, religion and morality in the eighteenth century Leah Hochman A History of Czechs and Jews A Slavic Jerusalem Martin Wein

Israeli Holocaust Research Birth and evolution Boaz Cohen

Boundaries, Identity and Belonging in Modern Judaism Maria Diemling and Larry Ray

Modern Gnosis and Zionism The crisis of culture, life philosophy and Jewish national thought Yotam Hotam

The Name of God in Jewish Thought A philosophical analysis of mystical traditions from apocalyptic to Kabbalah Michael T. Miller

The European Jews, Patriotism and the Liberal State 1789–1939 A study of literature and social psychology David Aberbach Jewish Women’s Torah Study Orthodox religious education and modernity Ilan Fuchs

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Rabbis of our Time Authorities of Judaism in the religious and political ferment of modern times Marek Čejka and Roman Kořan Rabbinic Judaism Space and place David Kraemer

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Rabbis of our Time

Authorities of Judaism in the religious and political ferment of modern times

Edited by Marek Čejka and Roman Kořan

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First published 2016 by Routledge Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 selection and editorial matter, Marek Čejka and Roman Kořan; individual chapters, the contributors The right of the editors Marek Čejka and Roman Kořan to be identified as the author of the editorial matter, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-­in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-­in-Publication Data Rabbis of our time: authorities of Judaism in the religious and political ferment of modern times/edited by Marek Cejka and Roman Koran. pages cm 1. Rabbis–Biography. 2. Rabbis–Office–History–20th century. 3. Jewish law–Interpretation and construction. 4. Jewish law–Decision making. I. Cejka, Marek, 1975– editor. II. Koran, Roman, editor. BM750.R145 2016 296.092′2–dc23 2015016784 ISBN: 978-1-138-81316-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-74832-0 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear

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In memory of Roman, Odeh and Michael, three good people who should have been here for a much longer time.

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Contents



About the authors

1

Introduction

1

2

Who are rabbis?

5

3

Profiles of rabbinical authorities

9



The miraculous father from Morocco

xiii

10

Y israel A b u hat z eira an d B ar u ch A b u hat z eira



Heaven’s will from Ger

15

A v raham M or d echai A lter



The rabbi with an Iron Cross

23

L eo B aeck



With body and soul against Zionism

28

A mram B la u an d R u th B la u



The ‘dead’ Hasids

33

T he B rasla v H asi d s an d their rabbis



The Sephardi mentor of the settlers

38

M or d echai T z emach E liyah u



The successor of Rabbi Shach

43

Y ose f S halom E lyashi v



The Jewish settler as the peacekeeper

47

M enachem Froman

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x   Contents

A rabbi serving as a general

53

S hlomo G oren



The rabbi who convinced the pope

58

A braham Y ehosh u a ( Y osh u a ) H eschel



The Palestinian rabbis

66

M oshe H irsch an d Y israel M eir H irsch



The rabbi who predicted the coming of the Messiah

76

Y it z hak K a d u ri



The rabbi for everyday

82

I srael M eir H a - ­K ohen / K agan



Never again

87

M eir Da v i d K ahane an d B enjamin Ze ’ e v K ahane



The vision of a man

94

A v rohom Y eshaya K arelit z – C ha z on I sh



Redeemers of the land

99

A v raham Y it z chak H a - ­K ohen K ook an d T z v i Y eh u d a K ook



A friend of John Paul II

111

Y israel M eir L a u



The settler from Hebron

116

M oshe L e v inger



The Messiah from Brooklyn?

123

M enachem M en d el S chneersohn



The Lithuanian giant

132

E la z ar M enachem M an S hach



In the name of the Torah and science

137

J oseph Do v ( B er ) H a - ­L e v i S olo v eitchik



The guardian of Jerusalem

144

Y ose f C haim S onnen f el d ( Zonnen f el d )

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Contents   xi 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45



Guardian of the Jewish traditions from Satmar

149

Y oel T eitelba u m



The righteous man who bribed the Devil

160

C haim M ichael Do v W eissman d l



The king of rabbinical politics

167

O v a d ia Y ose f

4

A collection of shorter profiles of several rabbis

179



Arik W. Ascherman

180



Yehuda Leib Ha-­Levi Ashlag

181



Ezra Attiya

182



Shlomo Zalman Auerbach

183



Meir Bar-­Ilan (Berlin)

184



Yehuda Berg

186



Elmer Berger

187



Joseph Samuel Bloch

188



Shmuel (Shmuley) Boteach

189



Moshe Feinstein

190



Yihyah Kafih and Yosef Kafih

191



Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky

192



Harold Kushner

193



Berl Lazar

194



Michael Lerner

195



Dov Lior

196

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xii   Contents

Michael Melchior

197



Chaim Nahum

198



Yitzhak Nisim

200



Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto

201



Aharon Roth

202



Jonathan Henry Sacks

203



Yedidia Shofet

204



Adin Steinsaltz

205



Menachem Mendel Taub

206



Ben Zion Meir Chai Uziel (Ouziel)

207



Elchonon Wasserman

209



Yisroel Dovid Weiss

210



Shalom Dovber Halevi Wolpo

211

5

Some final thoughts instead of a conclusion

212



Glossary of terms Index

214 218

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About the authors

Marek Čejka is a Czech political scientist who focuses on the region of the Middle East and on the relation between religion and politics. He has published various books on the latter topics, and currently lectures at various Czech universities and works at the Institute of International Relations, Prague and Military History Institute, Brno. In 2001–2002 he was awarded a scholarship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and in 2013–2014 he was a Fulbright Scholar at Hartford Seminary in the United States. He also provides a blog about the Middle East (http://blizky-­vychod.blogspot.com). Roman Kořan is a Czech researcher in the field of Judaism and Jewish mysticism, where he focuses on the work of Rabbi Isaac Luria. He also translates Hebrew texts into Czech; among others, he has translated Sefer ha-­Bahir and Sefer Chaiei ha-­Olam ha-­Ba by Rabbi Abraham Abulafia, and Explanation of the Ten Sefirot by Rabbi Azriel of Gerona.

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1 Introduction

Rabbis of our Time is a biographical book which contains several dozen portraits of rabbinical authorities of modern and recent times, from both the contemporary generation of rabbis and earlier generations of rabbis who lived in the twentieth century. The book is also focused on centres of current Judaism and Jewish thinking – particularly the State of Israel (and the British Mandate of Palestine before 1948) and the United States, but it also partly covers other important centres of Judaism, such as Europe (especially Eastern Europe) before the Second World War. The main objective of this book is not just to give an overview of the lives of various rabbis, but to open a broader discussion of the relationship between Judaism and politics through an analysis of their religious and political thinking. This book can also serve as a comprehensive overview of and a source of information on the varieties of Jewish thinking which are influencing con‑ temporary Judaism and the modern State of Israel. This book – for the sake of universality and objectivity – follows a different approach than most of the existing literature on the subject. The books thus far published on rabbis usually choose one of the following approaches: the larger group consists of books written by religious Jews which represent their specific points of view and knowledge, but lack a scientific perspective and do not aim for an independent view. They are usually non‑critical biographies of particular rabbis. On the other hand, we can find some scientific books with a limited focus on particular rabbis, particular Jewish communities or particular ideologies con‑ nected with Judaism (e.g. religious Zionism or anti‑Zionism). However, there is only a very limited number of books presenting a larger number of rabbis in a theologically political context and in a comparative perspective. This book aspires to fill that gap. In our view, there are two distinctive features of this book: •

It combines the approach of religious knowledge and that of political science, and it helps to clarify the political theology of many important rabbis. In the case of Israeli rabbis, for example, the book helps the reader to explore the roles they play or played in Israeli politics – for example, which

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2   Introduction

•

parties they influenced or directly founded, how a particular rabbi dealt with Zionism and/or what the given rabbi’s opinions on the State of Israel or par‑ ticular aspects of Israeli politics were. The first point is closely connected to the specific selection of rabbinical personalities; the aim of the book is not just to produce a list of modern significant rabbis, but to use their lives in order to illustrate the wide scope of contemporary Jewish thinking in a theological and political context. Although we originally intended to write a study about rabbis in Israeli pol‑ itics, the concept of the whole book was enlarged, since it was obvious that some phenomena of the relations of contemporary Israel and Judaism could not be grasped without a knowledge of the political theology of some rabbis who did not live to see the formation of Israel (e.g. Rabbi Avraham Kook, Rabbi Sonnenfeld or Rabbi Chafetz Chaim).

Also, in our examinations of many aspects of our subjects, we go deeper than some well‑known encyclopaedias (with all respect to them) or other easily accessible sources. Sometimes we use authentic interviews with rabbis, rabbini‑ cal quotes, citations from religious texts such as the Talmud and books written by the rabbis. We also try to maintain a perspective that is independent, critical and not influenced by our ethnicity, religion or one‑sided sympathies. The rabbis selected for our book represent all the major contemporary streams of Judaism – from ultra-­Orthodox/Haredi (Ashkenazi and Sephardic) and Modern Orthodox to Reform and Liberal currents (we thus also present to the readers the plurality of views in contemporary Judaism) – but here they are often discussed in the light of their influence in politics. That is what the book aims for, and thus it does not aspire to be an adequate portrait of all important streams of Judaism. The higher number of Orthodox or ultra‑Orthodox/Haredi rabbis in the book is related to the fact that variants of Orthodox Judaism significantly prevail over the non‑Orthodox streams in the State of Israel. Non-­Orthodox Jews, in contrast, are very numerous in the United States; however, their role in American politics is incomparably smaller than that of Orthodox streams in Israel. If we take a more detailed look at the content of the book, we can see that the rabbinical authorities selected for the book include the most famous Chief Rabbis of Israel (e.g. Ovadia Yosef, Shlomo Goren, Mordechai Eliyahu and Yisrael Meir Lau) and also some other rabbis who did not reach the highest reli‑ gious and administrative functions, but influenced the relation between Judaism and Israel by other means (e.g. Elazar Shach, Chazon Ish, Amram Blau, Moshe Hirsch, Menachem Froman and Yitzhak Kaduri). The book also mentions rabbis who approached political radicalism in their interpretations of Jewish doctrines (e.g. Meir Kahane and Moshe Levinger). As was briefly mentioned above, the book additionally includes some of the rabbis from the period before the creation of Israel who significantly influenced the Jewish religious communities and their views on Israeli policies of the last seven decades (e.g. Avraham Yitzhak Ha‑Kohen Kook and Chafetz Chaim).

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Introduction   3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

The book also mentions some rabbis of diaspora communities (mainly from the United States) who expressed their views on the political understanding of the concept of human rights, on Zionism or even on the Israeli–Arab conflict. In this context, some rabbis of non‑Orthodox branches of Judaism are mentioned as well (e.g. Leo Baeck, Michael Lerner, Harold Kushner and Elmer Berger). We are well aware of the fact that the selection of rabbis for this publication was subjective to a certain extent since it was not always possible to define entirely stable criteria that would be used to assess the rabbis’ impact or to posi‑ tion them on the same level of importance. The criteria for the selection of rabbis can be different from the perspectives of Jews and non‑Jews, and whether an adherent of Zionism or its critic chooses the rabbis can also make a difference in this respect. The rabbis’ importance can be theological or political, or it can even be both theological and political in various ways. Some rabbis were notable due to their publications, erudition and overall theological impact on Judaism (e.g. Rabbi Chafetz Chaim), others owe their significance mainly to politics (Rabbi Lau and Rabbi Melchior), and some are well known for both their politics and their religious/scholarly work (Rabbi Kook, Rabbi Shach and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ). Others are known for their extremist attitudes (Rabbi Kahane) or non‑conformism (Rabbi Froman), or they owe their popularity to the media’s superficial treatment of some of the aspects of Judaism – for example, the Kab‑ balah (Rabbi Berg). But generally speaking, the ‘significance’ of rabbis can hardly be evaluated in such a way that all would agree on the evaluation, and this is especially true for Westerners who do not have much contact or personal experience with an authentic Jewish environment. At the outset of this book, it is necessary to express gratitude to all who helped this book come to fruition. The chapters about Rabbis Chafetz Chaim, Kaduri, Alter, Teitelbaum and Sonnenfeld and the Braslav Hasids would hardly have their current forms without the excellent comments by Chaim Kočí. Similar acknowledgement goes to Martin Šmok for his help on the chapter about Rabbi Weissmandl. We would also like to thank Markéta Kaburková and Jaroslav Fiala for their comments on other parts of the book. Last but not least, our thanks for a range of comments, updates and support go to Jaroslava Rybová, Dáša Nedor‑ ostková, Pavla Začalová, Klára Kořanová, Vladimír Vaďura, Nataša Dudinská, Elchonan Esterovič, Karel Cudlín, Jan Hrubín, Romana Ambrožová, Šárka Svo‑ bodová and Pavla Jazairiová. And now we should only add a couple of technical remarks: we inserted the Hebrew versions of the rabbis’ names into the text as well as their dates of birth and death (where applicable) according to both the civil and the Jewish calendar. However, we did not manage to obtain these data in the cases of some of the rabbis. We are also aware that various Hebrew terms are commonly transcribed in different ways in English (e.g. the term halacha can also be transcribed as halakha, halakah or halachah, and the name Chaim can also be transcribed as Haim or Chayyim, etc.), but we tried to consistently use just one spelling for each Hebrew term.

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4   Introduction Furthermore, some rabbis are known by several variants of their names (e.g. Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum or Reb Yolish), and some are referred to by the name of their most notable book (e.g. Chazon Ish or Chafetz Chaim). We always tried to list these different variants in the headings of the chapters. Finally, after the main part of the book, which consists of longer chapters on the rabbis that we felt were the most important for this project, we placed a col‑ lection of shorter portraits of some other remarkable rabbinical authorities. It was not possible to treat them in greater detail because of the limited extent of this publication, but for the sake of complexity, they deserve to be mentioned at least briefly.

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2 Who are rabbis?

People living in secular Western countries often cherish a prejudice against great religions and their authorities. This goes hand in hand with their not-­too-great knowledge of the functions of individual religious representatives. Although most secularized Europeans have at least some basic knowledge of religious titles and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church headed by the pope, they often view other religions through the prism of what they know best. However, the roles of religious authorities in Judaism are considerably different and also hardly comparable to the roles of religious authorities in Catholicism in many aspects. For example, in some of its interpretations, Judaism does not recognize a hierarchy in the sense of how the Catholic Church understands it, and thus, in Judaism, there is usually no hierarchical ranking of rabbis according to their religious titles. From the theological point of view, the personal contact of man and God is of key importance in Judaism, and thus there is no need for an intermediary in the form of a church in Judaism. On the other hand, the role of a rabbi has been understood differently in various periods and various places of the Jewish world. In other words, all rabbis are not the same, and they do not have the same status and position. In certain environments, their function can be seen as a blend of the religious and administrative roles in the Jewish community. For instance, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Germany there evolved various ‘meticulously bureaucratic’ administrative posts and institutions (e.g. Landrab‑ biner, Provinzialrabbiner, Verband der Rabbiner Deutschlands) (see Carlebach, 2007); but in contrast, in the British and American context, rabbis are often understood as something like reverends and preachers. The situation in Israel in regard to the roles of rabbis is very specific. In the times of the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate, there evolved an administrative system headed by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. In Israel there also exists a hierarchical system of religious rabbinical courts that have the right to lawfully decide on various issues (such as family law or one’s personal status), and their decisions are legally binding for all Jewish Israelis (i.e. not only for faithful Jews), as defined by the law.1 It is therefore possible to generalize that while the authority of rabbis and the Jewish religious law (Halacha) in the Jewish communities of the Diaspora is to a certain extent limited by the dominance of the legal regulations of the individual countries in which the Diaspora communities reside, Halacha is

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6   Who are rabbis? binding for all Israelis of Jewish origin in some legal areas of contemporary Israel. This, of course, influences the way rabbis as such are viewed among Israelis. From the legal point of view, the rabbinical authority in Israel – or, more exactly, the authority of some Orthodox rabbis – is often much greater than the rabbinical authority in any other country in the world where Jewish communities with rabbis exist. On the other hand, a range of Orthodox Jews in Israel paradoxically do not acknowledge state institutions (including the state rabbinical institutions), and so they have built their own alternative administrative institutions independent of the State of Israel (e.g. the Eda Haredit). The term ‘rabbi’ (rabi in Hebrew) predominantly denotes Jewish men who are qualified to interpret the Torah and apply Halacha, or those Jewish men who were trained at universities and entrusted with the religious leadership of a Jewish community. However, leading a Jewish community is not a condition for being a rabbi. An absolute majority of the personalities covered in this book are men, which is mainly due to the division of religious tasks in Judaism. Despite the fact that in some reformist streams of Judaism there exists the post of a female rabbi, traditional Judaism does not have women in rabbinical roles. However, in connection with the male rabbis examined here, this book also mentions a number of women, predominantly wives of rabbis (rabbanit in Hebrew, rebbetzin in Yiddish), who often provided great support for the rabbis, without which they would probably have never reached their high levels of renown. There are different types of rabbinical ordination (the so‑called smicha2) that correspond to the different streams of Judaism. For the sake of easier orientation, a brief overview of the basic requirements for the reception of the title of a rabbi in the four main streams is presented below: 1

2

3

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Ultra‑Orthodox Judaism (Haredi in Hebrew). To become a rabbi, one studies mainly at Haredi religious academies – yeshivas (yeshivot in Hebrew). The subjects of the studies are exclusively religious and religious-­ legal topics. The student has to master the knowledge of the Talmud, earlier and later commentators of it (the Rishonim and the Acharonim) and other basic sources, and also commentaries regarding the application of laws in practice. In Haredi yeshivas, the reception of the title of Rabbi often does not play a significant role. The related studies themselves are more important, and the Haredim (ultra‑Orthodox Jews) not infrequently devote their lives to their studies. Orthodox Judaism (Dati in Hebrew). The requirements for studying in order to receive smicha at Orthodox yeshivas are similar to those at ultra‑Orthodox yeshivas. In addition, Modern Orthodoxy combines religious studies with secular ones. Yeshiva University in New York can be mentioned as a representative of Modern Orthodoxy. Conservative Judaism (Masorti in Hebrew). Here students receive the title of Rabbi after completing a programme of thorough studies of Jewish codes of law and responsa. Furthermore, in this case, emphasis is laid on knowledge of the Bible, the Talmud and their interpretation. However, the

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4

emphasis placed on the study of these subjects is smaller here than in the Orthodox streams. The study of psychology, the history of Judaism, academic biblical criticism and other more or less secular fields of study also forms a part of the curriculum. Another specific feature of rabbinical studies in Conservative Judaism which distinguishes it from the two streams above is that the title of Rabbi can be received by a woman. An example of a Conservative Jewish educational institution is the American Jewish Theological Seminary. Progressive Judaism (Liberal or Reform). In this stream, the study of traditional religious texts is less demanding than in the three above‑mentioned streams. Here emphasis is laid especially on the mastering of pastoral skills, and the study of psychology, the history of Judaism and academic biblical criticism. Women can obtain the title of Rabbi within this school too. A Progressive Jewish education is provided, for instance, by the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in the United States.

It is evident from the overview above that of the four main types of yeshivas, Haredi/ultra-­Orthodox religious academies have the most thorough emphasis on traditional Jewish education (at the expense of a secular education). The understanding of the role of a rabbi in a stream of Judaism also depends on its interpretation of Judaism – on whether it holds to a Sephardic or an Ashkenazi rite (nosach in Hebrew), which depends especially on historical development. Over the course of the centuries, a system for thoroughly studying halachic texts and their interpretations and applications (e.g. in the form of the so‑called responsa) developed in the Ashkenazi stream. For a long time, it was the case that notable authorities of the Ashkenazi world (especially the Gaon of Vilna, known as Gra) secured leading positions for Ashkenazi Jews in the intellectual world of Jewry to the detriment of Sephardic Jews. Although this is not the case any more, tension between Ashkenazi and Sephardic rabbis still persists to a certain extent (more information about this phenomenon is provided, e.g., in the chapter on Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ). Great Jewish scholars in the Jewish communities spread around the world are addressed in different ways: rav, gaon, tzadik, chacham, marbitz Torah, etc. Exceptionally significant rabbis are sometimes referred to by the title ha‑rav ha‑gaon. Hasidic rabbis, the so‑called tzadiks, are called rebbe or admor (pl. admorim) by their followers, the latter being a shortened form of the phrase ado‑ neynu moreynu ve-­rabeynu – ‘our Lord, Teacher, and Rabbi’ (see, e.g., Newman and Sivan, 1980). Finally, it should be mentioned as a point of interest here that many of the contemporary rabbis and the rabbinical authorities who have died recently hailed from the traditional centres of Jewish thinking from the turn of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries: i.e. Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, Belarus, Lithuania and Hungary) and Jewish communities of the Arab/Muslim world. One of the reasons for this is the fact that a number of them lived to a very old age, not infrequently exceeding 100 years, so rabbis born in Lithuania, Poland,

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8   Who are rabbis? Morocco or Iraq before 1948 sometimes still stand – or until recently stood – at the head of some Jewish communities. Our book also touches upon the interesting phenomenon of the transfer of the centres of Judaism to a different cultural‑political environment that began with the birth of Zionism and came to a climax especially with the events connected with the Second World War, when the traditional centres of Jewish learning gradually transferred to Palestine (and later to Israel), the United States and other locations. A range of contemporary rabbinical authorities were already born into these new centres of Judaism. However, a more detailed analysis of this phenomenon is too complex from the historical point of view for this book, and would significantly exceed its scope.

Notes 1 The law of the structure of rabbinical courts (beit din) was enacted in 1955 (Dayanim [Jewish Religious Judges] Law, 1955) along with the law of the structure of regular courts (Judges Law, 1953). There are 20 rabbinical local courts in the State of Israel (eight of them are in Tel Aviv, and three in Jerusalem), and there is also the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Appeals in Jerusalem. These courts have exclusive jurisdiction in some areas of family law (such as marriages and divorces) and the personal status of all Jewish inhabitants of Israel. Rabbinical courts, which contain three judges (dayanim), are officially named by the President with the consent of both of the Chief Rabbis. The posts of the judges in rabbinical courts are very prestigious. A great difference between regular judges and rabbinical judges lies in the fact that regular judges swear loyalty to the state and its laws, while religious judges swear loyalty only to the state. Rabbinical courts as a whole are largely dependent on the Chief Rabbinate, which has to approve all religious judges before their appointment. The Chief Rabbis also preside over the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Appeals. However, religious courts are not utterly independent of the secular courts, because the Israeli Supreme Court still has the important right to judge if a specific case falls under the jurisdiction of a rabbinical court, and it can also decide by precedent whether a rabbinical court has violated the principles of natural law. The Supreme Court thus often assumes the role of a protector of secular citizens’ rights in the face of religious institutions (see Berkovits, 2010; Glenn, 2010; Weiss and Gross-­Horowitz, 2012). 2 Smicha – a formal conferment of the title of Rabbi. The term’s original meaning is ‘a resting of the hands [on the head]’.

References Berkovits, Eliezer (2010) Not in Heaven: The Nature and Function of Jewish Law. Jerusalem: Shalem Press. Carlebach, Alexander (2007) ‘Rabbi, Rabbinate’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 17. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Glenn, Patrick (2010) Legal Traditions of the World: Sustainable Diversity in Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Newman, Yacov; Sivan, Gavriel (1980) Judaism A–Z: Illustrated Lexicon of Terms & Concepts. Jerusalem: World Zionist Organisation. Weiss, Susan M.; Gross-­Horowitz, Netty C. (2012) Marriage and Divorce in the Jewish State: Israel’s Civil War. Lebanon: Brandeis University.

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3 Profiles of rabbinical authorities

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The miraculous father from Morocco Yisrael Abuhatzeira Also known as: ‘Baba Sali’ in Arabic, ‘Baba Sale’ in Hebrew 1890–8 January 1984 5650–4 Shevat 5744

Baruch Abuhatzeira ‘Baba Baruch’ Born 1930 Moroccan Jewry represents a very active and distinct part of present-­day Israeli society, and a range of personalities in Israeli public life actively point to their roots in this tradition.1 Moroccan Jews are also the second largest Jewish group in Israel after the Russian Jews (Central Bureau of Statistics). In addition, a valued characteristic of the Moroccan Jews is the fact that, unlike some other groups of Jews from the Arab world, they did not break off their ties with their previous homeland and traditions. A relatively large Jewish community2 lives in Morocco, and relations between Moroccan Muslims and Jews historically have been quite good. These good relations have been partly transferred into politics as well, so Israeli– Moroccan relations are relatively calm even within the sustained tension between Israel and the Arab countries (see Simon et al., 2003: 502–503). The Moroccan Jewish community (like a range of other Sephardic groups) has in many respects maintained its distinctiveness and various traditions3 which we would search for in vain among Ashkenazi Jews, since the two groups underwent different cultural‑religious developments. Ties to charismatic rabbinical authorities and ‘miraculous tzadiks’ are very noticeable among Moroccan Jews (which in many ways is reminiscent of the relation of Hasids to their tzadiks). One of the most distinctive rabbinical personalities in Morocco in the twentieth century was Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira, who was known mainly by his Arab nickname, Baba Sali (‘Praying Father’).

In the oasis Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira spent a considerable part of his life in Morocco (see Alfasi and Togerman, 2011; Landau, 1993: 93). He was born in 1890 on the Rosh Hashanah holiday to his parents Rabbi Mas’ud and Aisha Abuhatzeira in the Tafilalt Oasis in Morocco. His parents as well as his more distant ancestors were very devout and reputable Jewish scholars, and even miraculous capabilities4 were attributed to them. Rabbi Shmuel Elbaz Abuhatzeira was the patriarch of the

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Abuhatzeira dynasty; he was born in the sixteenth century in Palestine and excelled not only in terms of his erudition and religiousness, but also as a holy man and thaumaturge.5 He was also well known because he studied with one of the most famous kabbalists, Rabbi Hayim Vital.6 Shmuel Abuhatzeira is buried in Damascus, but his descendants moved from the heart of the Middle East to Morocco and became the linchpin of the local Jewish community. The outlying Tafilalt Oasis in Morocco came to be the traditional residence of the Abuhatzeira dynasty. The son of Rabbi Shmuel, Rabbi Mas’ud (Moshe) Abuhatzeira, became the local rabbi there (see Obadia, 2007). The rabbinate of the Tafilalt was then taken up by his son Rabbi Yaakov,7 also known as Abir Yaakov, who gained fame partially thanks to his reputed miraculous capabilities. The name Mas’ud was handed down in the family and was also carried by Yisrael’s father (who was also Abir’s son), Rabbi Mas’ud Abuhatzeira. Yisrael grew up in a deeply devout environment. He spent almost all of his time studying, which led to him becoming a distinguished Torah scholar. Yisrael’s parents decided that he should get married relatively early, and thus he married his wife Freha Amsalem at the age of 16. She gave birth to three children: Meir Abuhatzeira, Mahtshi and Sarah. When Yisrael was 18 his father Rabbi Mas’ud died. Less than a year later, young Yisrael became a rosh yeshiva in place of his father. At the yeshiva, Yisrael mastered the Talmud and the teachings of Kabbalah and became known as Baba Sali (Praying Father) because of his alleged miraculous powers. During the First World War and shortly afterwards, there was an uprising against the French in the Tafilalt Oasis region led by Moulai Mohammed. He began to accuse the local Jews of collaboration with France, and a number of them fell victim to the anti-­Jewish violence triggered by Moulai Mohammed’s fighters. One of the victims was the rabbi of Tafilalt, Yisrael’s brother David Abuhatzeira (1866–1920), who was condemned to death after his arrest and brutally executed by being tied to a cannon. After these events, the remaining Jews, including Yisrael, fled from Tafilalt – first to Erfoud and later to Boudnib (Yated Ne’eman, n.d.).

Into the Holy Land Yisrael Abuhatzeira himself decided to leave Morocco, and thus he set off through Egypt (where he visited the grave of his grandfather, Abir Yaakov, in Damanhur) and travelled to British Palestine in 1922. He spent a year in Jerusalem where he studied at the kabbalistic yeshiva Beit El (Meizlish, 1995: 31). In collaboration with Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Shloush (Chelouche, 1890–1960), he published some texts written by his late brother David. Then he returned to Morocco, where he accepted a rabbinical post in Boudnib and made this seat the centre of Jewish scholarship. In 1933 he travelled again through Egypt and then to Palestine, and revisited the grave of his grandfather. At this time, he entrusted the leadership of the Boudnib community to his son, Rav Meir Shalom. In Jerusalem he spent most of his time in the Porat Yosef Yeshiva, where he frequently met with Rabbis Ezra Attiya (1887–1970) and Yaakov Ades (1898–1963).

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12   The miraculous father from Morocco When he returned to Boudnib, his fame grew even more. At about this time, Rabbi Yisrael married his second wife Miriam. She gave him a son named Baruch in 1941 and three daughters, Abigail, Peninah and Eliza. During this time, he was asked to become the chief rabbi of Morocco, and he eventually accepted the position. He and his family then moved to Erfoud, where he spent the period of the Second World War.

The tzadik from Netivot In 1951 the rabbi and his family arrived in Israel and settled down in the Baka neighbourhood in southern Jerusalem. Unfortunately, however, Baba Sali was not satisfied with the spiritual atmosphere of southern Jerusalem, and in 1954 he decided to return to Morocco. Here it should also be mentioned that his second wife died during their years in Jerusalem, and afterwards he married a woman named Simi (b. 1938) around 1954; the couple later had a daughter named Ester. In 1964 the rabbi decided to leave Morocco permanently and migrate to Israel (Alfasi and Togerman, 2011: 63). By doing so, he inspired many Moroccan Jews to follow in his footsteps and migrate to Israel as well. Consequently, from the original Moroccan Jewish community of more than 200,000 people, only a fraction still lives in Morocco today.8 In Israel, the rabbi settled in the city Ashkelon. Later on, in 1970 he accepted the invitation of his Moroccan fellow believers to move to the developing city of Netivot on the outskirts of the Negev desert (the city apparently reminded him of the remote places in the Moroccan desert where he lived before). As a consequence, what was otherwise a quite uninteresting and unattractive city became famous thanks to the rabbi’s presence and started to be sought out, especially by pilgrims – and not only by the Sephardic ones (Harel, 1991: 300). Thousands of people came to Netivot for the rabbi’s blessing, and the ill sought to be cured by him. Furthermore, Baba Sali, as Rabbi Abuhatzeira was more frequently called in Israel, was greatly respected and had very good relations with a number of other rabbinical authorities, both Sephardic (e.g. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, who was close to Baba Sali) and Ashkenazi. For instance, Baba Sali maintained a friendship with the Hasidic Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum, who highly esteemed him. Baba Sali also respected the critical opinions of Rabbi Teitelbaum on Zionism (Rabkin, 2006: 159).9 Meanwhile, another key Ashkenazi authority, Rabbi Chazon Ish, called Baba Sali Oved Ha-­Shem Gadol (Heb., ‘The Great Servant of God’). During the last years of his life, Baba Sali suffered much pain. He died at the age of 94 in Netivot. His funeral was attended by over 100,000 people, and his grave became a popular place of pilgrimage; for some it even became a cultic site.

Baba Baruch Baba Sali’s role was partly taken up by his son Baruch Abuhatzeira (known as Baba Baruch, born 1941). At first, he became a local politician in the city of

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Ashkelon. However, he had major problems later on because of media coverage of his adulterous affair, and also because of his involvement in a corruption scandal, for which he was imprisoned. He spent four years in prison altogether (from 1980 to 1984). After his release he tried to overcome his past and claimed that he greatly repented of his actions. Some of his father’s adherents accepted him as the successor of Baba Sali, despite his failings. After Baba Sali’s death, Baruch further developed the controversial cult that centred on his father (Hopgood, 2005: 26–32). Another member of the Abuhatzeira family who is also well known in Israeli politics is Baba Sali’s nephew, Aharon Abuhatzeira (born 1938).10 At first he operated within the National Religious Party (1977–1981). When an accusation of corruption was made against him as well, he founded the Sephardic Tami party in 1981 and subsequently became a Minister of Labor and Social Welfare in the Israeli government (1981–1982). However, he was deprived of immunity, found guilty and given a suspended sentence. Despite these events, however, he entered Parliament again. The Tami Party later (in 1988) merged with the Likud Party (Hattis Rolef, 1993: 9).

Notes   1 Many Israeli personalities, such as a number of politicians from the Shas Party (e.g. Aryeh Deri, Eli Suissa), the trade unionist and politician Amir Peretz, and the pop singers Eyal Golan and Ninet Tayeb, are aware of their Moroccan origins.   2 It is large compared to the number of Jews in the contemporary Arab world. In present-­day Morocco live approximately 2,000–5,000 Jews, and an especially large number of them live in Dar al-­Bayda (Casablanca).   3 For example, the Mimouna holiday (celebrating the end of Passover), which is traditionally celebrated by Moroccan and North African Jews, is very popular in present-­ day Israel. It includes parties and get-­togethers where people eat products that are forbidden during Passover (chametz). It also celebrates the coming of spring.   4 They were literally called ‘thaumaturges’ – baaley mophtim in Hebrew.   5 Rabbi Haim Yosef David Azulai, also known as Hida (1724–1806), wrote about him in his famous work Shem Ha-­Gedolim: Rabbi Shmuel (Abu Hatziri) – the holy man of God who spent all of his time in the Jobar Synagogue in the city known as Jobar in those days [i.e. the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Damascus]. Because of his great effort to separate himself from worldly affairs he was named Rav Shmuel Abu Hatziri. I heard from an elder about the wonders which he did and how he protected Israel from many disasters. (Azulai, 1958: part I, 186)   6 Rabbi Chaim Vital (1543–1620) is famous predominantly for being a disciple and codifier of the teachings of the renowned kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (1534–1572).   7 Yaakov Abuhatzeira, also known as Abir Yaakov (1805–1880), was the grandfather of Baba Sali. He was one of the most important Moroccan rabbis of the nineteenth century. He also wrote poetry. When he was travelling through North Africa to the Holy Land, he fell ill and died in the Egyptian city of Damanhur, where he was buried. Every year on 19 Tevet (in the Jewish calendar), hundreds of Jewish pilgrims gather at his grave, many of them coming from Israel (Obadia, 2007: 256).

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14   The miraculous father from Morocco   8 In the years 1948–1970, approximately 230,000 Moroccan Jews migrated to Israel.   9 Baba Sali thought highly of Teitelbaum’s book Vayoel Moshe, as well as of the Hasidic Tzadik himself, and he said: ‘This book is a great and important tractate for our generation, and Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum is a pillar of light whose radiance should lead us all to the arrival of the Messiah.’ Baba Sali studied the book for several days, and after he finished studying it, he organized a feast, as is usually done after the completion of one’s study of a Talmudic tract. During the feast, the rabbi quoted extracts from Vayoel Moshe several times, and claimed that this book answered all of his questions about Zionism, ‘truthfully, without compromise’. After Teitelbaum’s death, Baba Sali said, ‘The world has become empty’ (Rabkin, 2006: 159). 10 Aharon Abuhatzeira is a son of Rabbi Yitzhak Abuhatzeira (1895–1970), the younger brother of Baba Sali.

References Alfasi, Eliyahu; Togerman, Yechiel (2011) Baba Sali Our Holy Teacher: His Life, Piety, Teachings and Miracles – Rav Yisrael Abuchatzeira. New York: Judaica Press. Azulai, Haim Yosef David (1958) Shem Ha-­Gedolim Ha-­Shalem. New York: Grossman. Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Abstract of Israel. Online: www.cbs.gov.il/reader/ shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st02_24x&CYear=2009. Harel, A.Y. (1991) Rabbenu Yisrael Abuchatzira: The Story of His Life and His Wonders. New York: Saba-­Fujie Publication. Hattis Rolef, Susan (ed.) (1993) Political Dictionary of the State of Israel. Jerusalem: Jerusalem Publishing House. Heilman, Samuel (1999) Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-­Orthodox Jewry. Berkeley: University of California Press. Hopgood, James F. (ed.) (2005) The Making of Saints: Contesting Sacred Ground. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. Landau, David (1993) Piety and Power: The World of Jewish Fundamentalism. London: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Meizlish, Shaul (1995) Baba Sali: Chaim U-­Moftim. Israel: Dani Sefarim. Obadia, David (2007) ‘Abi-­Hasira’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Rabinowicz, Harry (1982) Hasidism and the State of Israel. East Brunswick, NJ: Associated University Press. Rabkin, Yaakov (2006) A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Sephardic Legacy (2009) Hacham Yisrael Abuhassera z.t.l. Baba Sali. Online: www. sephardiclegacy.com/wp-­content/uploads/2012/08/Baba-­Sali-February-­20091.pdf. Silber, Dovid (2004) Noble Lives Noble Deeds, Book 3: Captivating Stories and Biographical Profiles of Spiritual Giants. New York: Mesorah Publications. Simon, Reeva Spector; Laskier, Michael Menachem; Reguer, Sara (2003) The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times. New York: Columbia University Press. Yated Ne’eman (n.d.) ‘The Baba Sali, Rav Yisrael Abuhatzeira, zt”l’. Online: https://web. archive.org/web/20080207132438/www.famousrabbis.com/babasali.htm. www.torahcenter.com/bios/babasali.htm.

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Heaven’s will from Ger Avraham Mordechai Alter Also known as: ‘Imrei Emet’, ‘Imrei Emes’ 25 December 1865–13 June 1948 7 Tevet 5626–6 Sivan 5708

Until the Second World War, a significant part of European Jewry lived in Eastern Europe. However, the so-­called ‘Eastern Jews’ (Ostjuden) differed in many respects from the Jews of Central and Western Europe. They were often much less assimilated and, by contrast, a lot more religious and prone to venerate the Jewish tradition, while being much more resistant to the various political trends in the European intellectual environment since the period of the Enlightenment. Despite this, the Eastern Jews did not resign themselves to their fate and reacted to the social and political turmoil around them. One of their attempts to protect the Jewish tradition and interests was the establishment of the Agudat Yisrael movement. The key Eastern European rabbi that witnessed its formation was the Hasidic Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter, who was, at that time, also one of the most important Eastern European Jewish authorities. For more than half a century (1905–1948), he was the third tzadik that stood at the head of the community of Ger Hasids. This community today bears the name of the Polish town Góra Kalwaria, which is located near Warsaw. The Jews, when speaking Yiddish, called the town Ger or Gur. In Alter’s time, the community was huge – the number of Ger Hasids in inter-­war Poland is estimated to have been at least 200,000 (see Goldrat, 2007; Krakowski, 2007; Węgrzynek, n.d.).1 Although a number of its members fell victim to the Holocaust, today’s Ger Hasidism is still very much alive and Agudat Yisrael plays an important role in Israeli politics. Avraham Mordechai Alter was born in Ger. His mother was Rebbetzin Jocheved Rivka Kaminer, and his father was the famous Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847–1905), also known as Sefat Emet (‘Truthful Lips’),2 who was a renowned authority on the Talmud and the Kabbalah, and his rabbinical colleagues therefore nicknamed him ‘the King of Israel’ (Rabinowicz, 1982: 108). Avraham received a traditional education in a Ger yeshiva, and as he stood alongside his father, he was perceived as his father’s successor by the Ger Hasids. In 1905, when he was aged 39, he officially became his successor when Sefat Emet died. It is said that at that time he was still rather sheepish and perhaps a bit too prudent. However, in the spirit of the Hasids’ respect for significant tzadiks, his statements and decisions became de facto indisputable for hundreds of thousands of Ger Jews. Thanks to the fact that the rebbe loved order and precision, he transformed the Ger Hasids into an organized movement. The

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16   Heaven’s will from Ger rabbi’s influence was not, however, restricted to the community of Ger Hasids, but overlapped with and affected other Orthodox communities as well. As Alter famously wrote in 1922: ‘My will is the will of Heaven’ (Heilman, 1999: 25).

Agudat Yisrael The fact that Alter was one of the main founders of the international ultra-­ Orthodox Agudat Yisrael (Israel’s Unity3) movement greatly strengthened his influence in the Orthodox Jewish world. In its early stages, the movement was preparing for a conference in the German spa town of Bad Homburg (1909), but it definitely formed on 27 May 1912 at a conference in the then-­German town of Kattowitz (later Katowice, Poland). One of the main reasons for the formation of the movement was the reaction of Haredi – especially Hasidic – Jews to Zionist activities and congresses.4 ‘Aguda’ (the nickname of the movement), as the political wing of the traditional Orthodoxy, began to represent a whole range of anti-­modernist branches of Judaism that did not want to accept the greater cultural openness of the ever more popular non-­Orthodoxy and opposed anything ‘new and not of the Torah’ (Hattis Rolef, 1993: 13). The main adherents of Agudat Yisrael were predominantly various Hasidic groups and their rabbis, students of some non-­Hasidic Ashkenazi yeshivas and even a small portion of the followers of the Jewish Left. Within Agudat Yisrael, Rabbi Alter played an important role in – among other things – creating a network of independent religious educational and social institutions in the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe at that time. Aguda also began to publish its own newspapers, books and various printed materials (often written in Yiddish).5 During the First World War, the centre of the movement was transferred from the Russia of that period to Frankfurt, Germany, and after the war it returned to Poland. In the inter-­war period, the movement had substantial political power there as it also sent representatives to the Polish Seim (parliament).6 In the years 1922–1934, Aguda was represented in the Lithuanian Parliament and was also very active in the Haredim community in Great Britain, where its interests were represented by the Adath Yisrael synagogue and the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. Agudat Yisrael also began to develop activities in the Jewish community in the United States (Agudath Israel of America) and was concurrently active in inter-­war British Palestine. At the beginning of its activities in the United States, however, it did not cooperate with the local Zionists and called for the formation of some strictly religious farmsteads outside the scope of the Palestinian Zionist movement. Besides Rabbi Alter, Aguda was connected with rabbis such as Meir Shapiro, Yosef Nehemya Kornitzer from Krakow, Aharon Lewin from Reishe and Chaim Michael Weissmandl, as well as with Admor Mordechai Yosef Eliezer Leiner of the Izhbitza–Radzin dynasty and Rabbi Chafetz Chaim in the pre-­war period (see Bacon, 1996).

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Besides attending the founding conferences, Rabbi Alter himself attended the World Aguda Conferences (Knesiya gedola) in the years 1923, 1929 (both in Vienna) and 1937 (in Mariánské Lázně/Marienbad, Czechoslovakia). One of the topics of the third conference was the first suggestion of the partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state (specifically, it had been proposed in the plan of the British commission led by Lord Peel). Rabbi Alter was strictly against this proposal, and when arguing against it, he cited the prophet Joel (3: 2): I will gather all nations, and will bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgement with them there for My people and My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and divided My land. (Rabinowicz, 1982: 110) At the beginning, Agudat Yisrael was very hostile towards the Zionist movement on the basis of the argument that Jews should found a religious community according to commands from the Torah, not on the basis of world ideologies. In the course of time, however, the politicians of Aguda became more conciliatory towards the Zionists, which was a process that had begun before the Second World War and which intensified after the Holocaust. It was for this reason that the strictly anti-­Zionist Jews left Aguda as early as 1936 and founded an independent rabbinical organ in Palestine, Eda Haredit, and an organization called Neturei Karta (Rabkin, 2006: 141).7 The pragmatic attitudes of Aguda towards Zionism were later confirmed by its cooperation with Zionist political parties, as this cooperation was caused by the Agudat Yisrael movement becoming an important religious political party not long after the formation of Israel (Hattis Rolef, 1993: 13). After a certain pragmatic reconciliation with the Zionist state, however, Agudat Yisrael often distanced itself from various secular political issues and institutions, even after 1948. Examples of such issues include Israeli Independence Day and service in the Israeli army; the party furthermore opposed using the national flag and national symbols and, last but not least, the acceptance of a secular constitution.

Agudat Yisrael and inter-­war Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia was quite an important country for Agudat Yisrael because of the World Aguda Conferences which took place there (in 1937 and 1947). Also, in the 1930s Czechoslovakia was an island of democracy in the heart of Europe when most of the Central European states had started to have authoritarian regimes, and in the second half of the 1930s Czechoslovakia was still a safe country for Jews. In Czechoslovakia Agudat Yisrael operated mainly in Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia, where there existed – in comparison with the Czech lands – large traditional Jewish communities (as opposed to the more or less assimilated

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18   Heaven’s will from Ger Jews in the Czech lands). We would like to mention in this regard a recollection of a meeting of a Czech-­Jewish journalist from Brno named Fritz Beer8 with the supporters of Agudat Yisrael in Germany in the 1920s: As part of our trip we visited Jewish youth groups and debated with them about their life attitudes. We felt that we were Germans of Jewish religion (if we felt that we were Jews, it could rather be compared to some people stating that they felt themselves to be stamp collectors or gliders) who were menaced not by anti-­Semitism, but by the end of the economic boom. . . . Our hosts mostly opposed us because we knew everything better. We felt insuperable. However, we felt like illiterates in the Agudat Yisrael youth group. They told us there was no point in debating with us since only the Messiah could lead the Jews back into their homeland. The secular development of Palestine we strive for does not lead to God’s Jewish state. And it is only such a state that is worthy of our pursuit. If we are really looking for the truth, we should not traipse around the world, but study the Torah at home. (Beer, 2008: 64–65) As was mentioned, the Third World Congress of Agudat Yisrael (IIIrd Knesyo gdolo shel Agudat Yisrael) took place on 18–24 August 1937 in Marienbad. The choice of the location was not accidental – it was a counterbalance to the World Zionist Congresses which took place in the nearby town of Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad) in the years 1921 and 1923, and Marienbad, as a famous spa town, was also a very popular place for foreign visitors, including religious Jews. The congress was organized by the European branch of Agudat Yisrael, which was based in London. The congress was attended by, among others, the Rabbi of Jerusalem Jonathan Horowitz, Rav Meir Schenkolewski from New York, Rav Akiva Schreiber from Bratislava (Pressburg) and a number of admorim – from Alexandrov, Sohachev and Spinka. Altogether 750 delegates (of whom 150 were women) and a further 1,700 official participants were assembled at the congress. The town was temporarily provided with an eruv and equipped for the needs of the participants in every possible way. Also, special vehicles were dispatched at reduced prices to provide transportation for the congress. The events of the congress were commented on by both the world and local press every day, and the local post office issued occasional stamps for it in Czech and Yiddish. In addition, a message of greeting by the Czechoslovakian presidents T.G. Masaryk (the then former president) and Edvard Beneš (the then current president) was delivered at the opening of the congress. Later, the Agudat Yisrael congress returned to Marienbad in a much more modest spirit for the period of 19–26 August 1947. During this congress, occasional stamps were issued again, and an attempt was made to found a yeshiva in the location, which was to maintain the continuity of Jewish scholarship there. Agudat Yisrael’s efforts were, however, brought to a standstill by the events of the communist coup d’état of February 1948 (see Švandrlík, 2005).

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Heaven’s will from Ger   19 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

The relation of Rabbi Alter towards Jewish immigration to the Holy Land and Zionism Unlike a number of Orthodox rabbis of his time, Rabbi Alter visited Palestine. His first visit to it was in 1921. When he arrived in Jerusalem, first he went to the Western Wall, where he slightly tore the collar of his coat to express his sadness over the ruined Temple. It should also be mentioned that later on in this journey, he met the highest British official in Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel.9 And this is how Alter commented on his first journey to Palestine: ‘Just as a Hasid must visit his Rabbi from time to time, so must I visit the land of Israel periodically’ (Rabinowicz, 1982: 110). Although Rabbi Alter had never been a Zionist, he – like his rabbinical ancestors – had always encouraged his Hasidic followers to settle in the Holy Land because of the indisputable holiness of the country; that is, not because of political reasons. This was by no means a view that a number of other Hasidic rabbis would hold (Reich and Goldberg, 2008: 304). So although Rabbi Alter was an advocate of immigration to Palestine for religious reasons, but not for Zionist reasons, Zionists were often the target of his criticism – mainly for their desecrating of the Sabbath. Rav Alter was also a friend of Rabbi Avraham Kook, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of British Palestine, and although he did not agree with his stance, he used to say the following about him: ‘His love towards the people of Yisrael disturbs the natural order.’10 Furthermore, he called Rabbi Kook by the nickname Ish ha-­ Eshkolot.11 In Palestine, Rabbi Alter also met Rabbi Kook’s friend and opponent Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (see the chapter about him) and Rabbi Yitzhak Yeroham Diskin. He tried to reconcile these avowed anti-­Zionists with the Rabbinate of Jerusalem; however, his efforts were in vain (Rabinowicz, 1982: 110–111).

Settling activities in Palestine When he was returning from his first journey to Palestine and heading to Ger, he was very satisfied. However, he thought it necessary to make larger financial contributions to help Jews in Palestine so that they would be able to live in accordance with the principles of the Torah (and so that the Jews who did not live in Palestine yet would be able to settle there). The rabbi also had a good feeling about his encounters with Palestinian Arabs: ‘I noticed that Arabs, riding their camels, cleared the way for our entourage. If only our neighbours in Europe showed a little of this respect! It is my opinion that we can live together with the Arabs in brotherhood’ (Rabinowicz, 1982: 111). In 1922, the rabbi’s first wife, Chaya Ruda Yehudit Czarna, died. He had had eight children with her, of whom four were daughters. The seventh child was Yisrael Alter, who went on to become his successor. The rabbi later remarried, taking his niece Feige Mintche as his wife, and she gave birth to one more son, Pinhas Menachem Alter. In 1924 the rav paid another visit to Palestine. He was accompanied by a number of his family members as well as many of his followers. After his

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20   Heaven’s will from Ger six-­day stay he said the following (among other things): ‘If five hundred wealthy Hasidim would emigrate to the Holy Land, they could take over the country economically and spiritually’ (Rabinowicz, 1982: 111). In 1925 a group of Ger Hasids indeed bought 400 dunams of land in Hadar Ramatayim. In the same year, the Sefat Emet yeshiva, named after Alter’s father, was also founded in the Old City of Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Rav Alter continuously invested nearly all his money into the development of the Hasidic community in Palestine. When Hitler12 came to power in Germany in 1933, Rabbi Alter declared For hundred and fifty years our German brethren have not known the meaning of the word exile. Now they will probably find refuge in the Holy Land. I’m afraid of one thing: they will take with them their assimilated customs and will adversely influence the vitality of the religious life. (Rabinowicz, 1982: 112–113) Alter’s fifth and longest pilgrimage, lasting eight months, to the Middle East was accomplished in 1935. During this trip, Alter did not even want to return to Europe, but several rabbis who were accompanying him eventually persuaded him to go back, telling him that he still had lots of work to do in Europe (Landau, 1993: 133; Rabinowicz, 1982: 113).

Rabbi Alter settles in Jerusalem Finally, in 1940, he managed to move to the Holy Land for good (his wife and several of their children moved with him). After the war broke out, while he was in hiding in Poland some of his friends managed to procure a visa for him to enter Palestine. In order to get permission from the Nazis for him to leave, the rabbi’s followers paid a bribe. He was then able to leave through Austria and travel to Italy and subsequently to Palestine. During the war he tried to help the Jews in Europe and prayed for them. He provided material as well as spiritual help to the refugees coming to Israel. Although he was relatively safe, the rabbi experienced many tough personal moments during the war. Besides learning about the deaths of a number of his students, he also found out that his eldest son, Rabbi Meir Alter, who had not managed to flee from Poland, had been murdered in the annihilation camp of Treblinka (Rabinowicz, 1982: 114).13 Rabbi Alter lived to see the end of the war as well as the beginning of another one – the one which accompanied the formation of the State of Israel. He died during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, aged almost 92, when the Jordanian army was besieging the Old City of Jerusalem (Goldrat, 2007). He was buried on the premises of the Sefat Emet yeshiva.14 Rabbi Alter’s main work is called Imrei Emet (‘Words of Truth’), which offers the author’s interpretations of individual weekly passages from the Torah.

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Heaven’s will from Ger   21 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Three of Rabbi Alter’s sons, who eventually became the heads of the Ger dynasty, built on their father’s activities. At present, its head is Rabbi Alter’s grandson (and the son of Simcha Bunim Alter), Yaakov Aryeh Alter. Ger Hasids nowadays live predominantly in Israel (the cities of Jerusalem, Ashdod, Rishon Lezion, Bnei Brak and Tel Aviv), but also in the United States (New York, Los Angeles), Canada (Toronto), Great Britain (London), Belgium (Antwerp) and Switzerland (Zurich).

The main rabbis of the Ger dynasty 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Yitzhak Meir Rothenburg/Alter, ‘Hidushe ha-­Rim’ – the author of New Interpretations of Rav Yitzhak Meir15 (1798–1866) Hanoch Heynech HaKohen Levin, ‘Rebbe Heynech’ (1866–1870) Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, ‘Sefat Emet’ – ‘Truthful Lips’ (1847–1905) Avraham Mordechai Alter, ‘Imrei Emet’ – ‘Words of Truth’ (1866–1948) Yisrael Alter, ‘Beis Yisroel’ (1895–1977) Simcha Bunim Alter, ‘Lev Simcha’ (1898–1992) Pinhas Menachem Alter, ‘Pnei Menachem’ (1926–1996) Yaakov Aryeh Alter (born 1939)16

Notes   1 In the town of Góra Kalwaria, which the Hasids sometimes called the New Jerusalem, there lived 2,691 Jews in 1921, which represented nearly half of the local population. Before the Second World War, approximately 3,500 Jews lived there. Only a few Jews lived to see the end of the war (it is reported that roughly 300 Jews from Ger and its surroundings survived the war). The community in Góra Kalwaria was not renewed after the war (see Krakowski, 2007; Węgrzynek, n.d.).   2 According to Proverbs 12: 19, ‘Truthful lips [sefat emet] endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.’   3 In this case, the term ‘Israel’ is supposed to convey not the political sense of the word but the theological. The whole name of the movement is Agudat Shlumei Emunei Yisrael – ‘The Unity of Faithful to the Faith of Israel’.   4 The official formation of Agudat Yisrael was predominantly a reaction to the Tenth Zionist Congress, which took place in 1911 in Basel. During the Congress, a dispute arose about the financing of Jewish religious education.   5 One of the goals of Agudat Yisrael was to prevent the use of the sacred Hebrew language as an everyday colloquial language of the Jews.   6 For instance, one of the representatives of Agudat Yisrael in the Polish Seim was A.Z. Friedman.   7 For more details about these organizations, see the chapters on Rabbis Blau, Hirsch, Sonnenfeld and Teitelbaum.   8 Fritz Beer himself was a typical example of an assimilated Czech Jew whose mother tongue was German but who also spoke Czech. He was an atheist; in his youth he became a Zionist and later a communist. During the Second World War, he joined the Western resistance movement and left the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.   9 Sir Herbert Samuel (1870–1963) was the first High Commissioner of the British Mandate of Palestine. Although a Zionist Jew himself, he – for understandable reasons – primarily advocated British interests in Palestine.

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22   Heaven’s will from Ger 10 A paraphrase of Midrash Rabba, Bereshit 55: 8. 11 Literally, ‘the man of grape clusters’. The word eshkol, which in Hebrew means a grape, is a fixed allegory of a man ‘in whom everything is included’ – in Hebrew, Ish she-­ha-Kol Bo, abbreviated as eshkol. 12 Rabbi Alter held the view (supported by some other rabbis such as Rabbi Sonnenfeld) that Germans were the descendants of the Amalekites. 13 Besides the death of his first wife, his previous personal tragedies also included the death of his second-­born son in 1934. 14 The present-­day Sefat Emet Yeshiva lies in the vicinity of the Mahane Yehuda marketplace in Jerusalem. 15 A significant work which brought new interpretations of some of the tracts of the Talmud and the Shulkhan Arukh. This work is still topical and has been studied in yeshivas up to the present. 16 In line with his predecessors, Yaakov Alter, the current Admor of Ger, spent a week having spa treatments in Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary) and Marienbad (Mariánské Lázně) in 2004. Unlike the spa visits of his predecessors in past times, his stays in the towns were kept strictly secret.

References Bacon, Gershon C. (1996) The Politics of Tradition: Agudat Israel in Poland, 1916–1939. Jerusalem: The Magnes Press. Beer, Fritz (2008) . . . a tys na Němce střílel, dědo? [. . . and You Shot at the Germans, Grandpa?]. Prague: Paseka [In Czech]. Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Goldrat, Juda Abram (2007) ‘Gur Dynasty’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 7. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Hattis Rolef, Susan (ed.) (1993) Political Dictionary of the State of Israel. Jerusalem: Jerusalem Publishing House. Heilman, Samuel (1999) Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-­Orthodox Jewry. Berkeley: University of California Press. Krakowski, Stefan (2007) ‘Gora Kalwaria’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 7. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Landau, David (1993) Piety and Power: The World of Jewish Fundamentalism. London: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Rabinowicz, Harry (1982) Hasidism and the State of Israel. East Brunswick, NJ: Associated University Press. Rabkin, Yaakov (2006) A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Rand, Asher Zelka (1950) Toledot anshei shem, Vol 1. New York. Reich, Bernard; Goldberg, David H. (2008) Historical Dictionary of Israel. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. Švandrlík, Richard (2005) Juden in Marienbad [Jews in Marienbad]. Mariánské Lázně [In German]. Węgrzynek, Hanna (n.d.) Chasidim of Ger, Virtual Shtetl. Online: www.sztetl.org.pl/en/ term/29,chasidim-­of-ger-­gora-kalwaria-. www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/sfasemes.html.

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The rabbi with an Iron Cross Leo Baeck 23 May 1873–2 November 1956 26 Iyar 5633–28 Cheshvan 5717

Although it is Orthodox rabbis who prevail in the realm of the most influential rabbinical authorities, there has been a wide range of interesting personalities in the un-­Orthodox Jewish environment who have contributed to the development of Jewish thinking in the twentieth century and the present. Non-­Orthodox streams represent relatively new concepts within Judaism. Their origins lie in the period of the Jewish Enlightenment (haskalah), and nowadays most of their supporters are in the Anglo-­Saxon Jewish world, mainly in the so-­called Reform Judaism and the so-­called Conservative Judaism. Reform (liberal, progressive) Judaism may be characterized as a stream of Judaism that springs from enlightened rationalism. It originated in Europe in the nineteenth century, but it became more established in the United States in connection with the massive immigration of German Jews after 1840. According to the reformist interpretation, Judaism is a kind of faith that is continuously developing and changing. Although the reformist streams respect the historical identity of Judaism, they do not insist on its unbounded observance and continuity. For the reformists, the Talmud is solely religious literature, but not Jewish law, and stress is laid on the simplification of the conception of Judaism and its complicated liturgy. In contrast, Conservative Judaism is a stream that springs from historical romanticism. It is the result of the tension between traditionalist and modernist conceptions of Judaism. It originated in 1845 when it split from the reformist movement. It acknowledges the need for reforms within Judaism but denies the ‘extremism’ of the reformist movement. In Conservative Judaism, Hebrew is an irreplaceable liturgical language, and the movement acknowledges the observance of the Shabbath, kashrut and the Jewish national identity (as opposed to assimilation, which the reformists accept). However, Conservative Judaism is Zionist and refuses some of the ritual aspects of Halacha.1 One of the key personalities of the non-­Orthodox Jewish world in the twentieth century was the German rabbi and religious thinker Leo Baeck, who was born in the Prussian town of Lissa (today’s Leszno, Poland). His father was Rabbi Samuel Baeck, the author of several books on the history of Judaism. In his youth, Leo Baeck studied at the conservative Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau (today’s Wrocław, Poland) and from 1894 he attended the

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24   The rabbi with an Iron Cross Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums2 in Berlin, where he later also lectured (there, he taught rabbi Yehoshua Heschel, among others). At the same time, he studied theology, philosophy and history at the Universities of Breslau and Berlin. He was only 24 years old when he received a rabbinical (Reform) ordination and became the rabbi of the town of Oppeln (today’s Opole, Poland), where he stayed until 1907, when he accepted a rabbinical post in Düsseldorf. Finally, he moved to Berlin in 1912 (Homolka and Füllenbach, 2006).

Jews in their struggle for Germany When the First World War broke out, Rabbi Baeck – like a number of other German Jews – joined the German army. Although today we look at the situation of Jews and Germany mainly through the prism of the Second World War, the situation was utterly different during the First World War. At the time of the First World War, a number of German Jews were conscious German patriots, and thousands of them joined the army wholly voluntarily. During the entire war, around 100,000 German Jews fought on many fronts in the imperial army, most of them directly taking part in combat operations. Some 12,000 lost their lives during the war, 19,000 were promoted in the course of the war and more than 30,000 Jews received military decorations for their performances in the war (Aberbach, 2012: 56). Baeck himself carried out the duties of an army rabbi during the war. There were approximately 30 Jewish clergymen in the German army. During the war, Baeck created a prayer book for the Jewish soldiers (Feldgebetbuchs für die jüdische Mannschaft des Heeres) and published a Field Bible (Feldbibel) for their use in 1916. He was later decorated with the Order of the Iron Cross (1st Class) for his service to his native land (Sieg, n.d.). It may seem an odd paradox from today’s perspective that during the First World War, Jews fought in practically all of the main armies (including the Turkish and Bulgarian armies), so they oftentimes fought against each other in the trenches. However, there were hardly any specifically Jewish units in the armies, such as the Jewish legion (with the official name Zion Mule Corps) within the British army. The Jewish soldiers were mainly scattered among various units. The heroism of Jewish soldiers in the First World War did not mean anything to the Nazis, however; Hitler, who also fought in the First World War, even blamed the Jews for the German failure in it. Later, a number of them were even forced into concentration camps, where they died during the Second World War (Berger, 2006: 7).

The journey to Theresienstadt In the inter-­war period, Leo Baeck held various important posts. He was a member of the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith

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(Central-­Verein Deutscher Staatsbuerger Jüdischen Glaubens, abbreviated as C.V.),3 an organization that tried to protect the equal rights of Jewish citizens in Germany. He published a great number of his articles in their newspaper, C.V. Zeitung, and the periodical, Der Morgen. He also published irregularly in the Zionist magazine, Jüdische Rundschau; however, despite his liking for Zionism, he maintained a certain amount of distance from it (Homolka and Füllenbach, 2006). In the inter-­war period, he was the head of the German General Rabbinical Association (Allgemeinen Rabbinerverbandes in Deutschland) and presided over the German branch of the B’nai B’rith organization. Baeck experienced the liberal Weimar Republic’s transformation into the Nazi regime. From 1933, when Hitler became the Chancellor of the German Reich, Baeck occupied the post of president of the Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden (the Reich’s Deputation of the German Jews), which promoted the interests of the German Jews; he remained in the post up until the closure of the deputation by the Gestapo. In the increasingly difficult situation, Baeck tried hard to protect at least those rights of German Jews that had remained in Nazi Germany. Many of his friends from Germany had fled the country, and he, as a highly respected personality, was offered a number of rabbinical and professorial posts abroad. However, he kept refusing them. In January 1943, he was deported to the concentration camp in Theresienstadt. There, he worked to overcome the horrors of the Shoah by helping others, and teaching and lecturing on philosophy and great philosophers, the history of Jewry, Jewish mysticism and many other topics. Since he had a prominent position among the prisoners, he received information about the extermination of Jews in the death camps in Eastern Europe during his imprisonment. Purportedly so as not to disrupt the discipline and diminish the hopes of his fellow prisoners, he decided not to spread this information, for which he was later criticized, for example by Hannah Arendt (Arendt, 1995: 160). Baeck eventually lived to see May 1945, when the camp in Theresienstadt was liberated by the Red Army. However, a number of his relatives, including his four sisters, were not so lucky. Although Baeck witnessed one of the worst crimes against humanity, he preserved his faith and philosophical stances. Immediately after the war had ended, he moved to London, where he became the chairman of the Council of Jews from Germany and later the chairman of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. From 1948 until his death, he continued to visit the United States and lecture on history and religion at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. In 1955, the Leo Baeck Institute for the Study of the History and Culture of German‑Speaking Jewry (mostly abbreviated as the Leo Baeck Institute) was founded and Baeck became its first president. Today, the institute’s centers are located in London, New York and Jerusalem. After Rabbi Baeck’s death, various other educational and cultural institutions were named after him.4 Leo Baeck died in London in 1956 and is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Golders Green.

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26   The rabbi with an Iron Cross

A selection of Leo Baeck’s works Wesen des Judentums (‘The Essence of Judaism’, 1904) – Baeck’s key work, constituting his reaction to the work of the Protestant theologian Adolf von Harnack’s Wesen des Christentums (‘The Essence of Christianity’), which was published in 1901 and towards which Baeck took a critical stance. Dieses Volk: jüdische Existenz (‘This People Israel: The Meaning of Jewish Existence’, 1955). Romantische Religion (‘Romantic Religion’, 1922). Die Pharisäer (‘The Pharisees’, 1937). Chaim Nachman Bialik: Eine Einführung in sein Leben und sein Werk (‘Chaim Nachman Bialik: Introduction to His Life and Work’, 1935). Das Evangelium als Urkunde der jüdischen Glaubensgeschichte (‘The Gospel as a Document of the History of the Jewish Faith’, 1938). Der Sinn der Geschichte (‘The Meaning of History’, 1946). Maimonides, der Mann, sein Werk und seine Wirkung (‘Maimonides: The Man, His Work, and His Impact’, 1954). Some of Baeck’s works were published posthumously: Aus drei Jahrtausenden: Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen und Abhandlungen zur Geschichte des jüdischen Glaubens (‘After Three Thousand Years: Scientific Essays and Treatises on the History of Jewish Thought’, 1958). Von Moses Mendelssohn zu Franz Rosenzweig: Typen jüdischen Selbstverständnisses in den letzten beiden Jahrhunderten (‘From Moses Mendelssohn to Franz Rosenzweig: Types of Jewish Self-­Understanding in the Last Two Centuries’, 1958). Paulus, die Pharisäer und das Neue Testament (‘Paul, the Pharisees and the New Testament’, 1961). Geschichte der Juden (‘The History of the Jews’, 3 volumes, 1954–1959, 1965).

Notes 1 For further reading on Reform and Conservative Judaism see, e.g., Borowitz and Patz (1985), Eisen (2014), Washofsky (2010). 2 An important German Reform rabbinical seminary. 3 This organization was founded in 1893 in Berlin. The first Chairman was Maximilian Horowitz, who held the post from 1893 to 1917. 4 See Leo Baeck Institute – New York/Berlin: www.lbi.org; Leo Baeck Institute – London: www.leobaeck.co.uk.

References Aberbach, David (2012) The European Jews, Patriotism and the Liberal State, 1789– 1939. Abingdon: Routledge. Arendt, Hannah (1995) Eichmann v Jeruzalémě: Zpráva o banalitě zla [The Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil]. Prague: Mladá fronta [In Czech].

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Barnavi, Eli (n.d.) How the Great War Affected a Great Number of Jews around the World, My Jewish Learning. Online: www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Modern_ History/1914-1948/WWI_and_the_Jews.shtml. Berger, Michael (2006, 8 October) Iron Cross and Star of David: Jewish Soldiers in German Armies. Online: www.trafoberlin.de/pdf-­dateien/Iron_Cross_and_Star_of_ David.pdf. Borowitz, Eugene; Patz, Naomi (1985) Explaining Reform Judaism. Springfield, NJ: Behrman House. Eisen, Arnold M. (2014) Conservative Judaism Today and Tomorrow. New York: JTS Kazis Family Publications. Homolka, Walter; Füllenbach, Elias H. (2006) Leo Baeck: Eine Skizze seines Lebens [Leo Baeck: A Sketch of his Life]. Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus [In German]. Sieg, Ulrich (n.d.) Jüdische Intellektuelle im Ersten Weltkrieg [Jewish Intellectuals in World War One]. Philipps-­Universität Marburg [In German]. Online: www.uni-­ marburg.de/aktuelles/unijournal/9/Judentum. Simon, Akiba Ernst; Amir, Yehoyada (2007) ‘Baeck, Leo’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 3. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Washofsky, Mark (2010) Jewish Living: A Guide to Contemporary Reform Practice. New York: UAHC Press.

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With body and soul against Zionism Amram Blau ‫עמרם בלוי‬

1894–5 July 1974 (15 Tammuz 5734)

Ruth Blau ‫רות בלוי‬

20 June 1920 (4 Tammuz 5680)–2000

Today’s Israeli Haredi (ultra-­Orthodox) community is far from being a monolith. Although it encompasses many common features such as a sincere belief in one God, a consistent adherence to all the mitzvot in the most traditional way, similar ways of dressing for the entire community and a state of being more or less separate from the rest of the society in which they live – and at first sight the Haredi community even appears to be homogeneous – we could also find many differences within it.1 One of the most important differences is in the community members’ attitudes to the reality of the current existence of the State of Israel and the political ideology of Zionism. The sceptical or even markedly negative attitude of the Haredim to these phenomena is explained in the chapter on Rabbi Teitelbaum as well as in several other chapters in this book (see the chapters on Rabbi Sonnenfeld, Moshe and Yisrael Meir Hirsch). Most of the Haredim in Israel today, however, have adopted a pragmatic point of view in regard to the issues – at least at the level of appearances – and the result is that they display a more favourable attitude towards Zionism. However, this was not the case with Rabbi Amram Blau, who became the epitome of the negative Haredi attitude towards Zionism and also practically became an archetype of Jewish anti-­Zionist activism. He was also one of the representatives of the so-­called ‘Old Yishuv’ (a non-­Zionist Jewish settlement of Palestine from the years before 1948). He grew up in Jerusalem’s ultra-­ Orthodox neighbourhood Meah Shearim and was brought up in a very traditional way. He became a deeply religious man who clung to a strict compliance with the laws of the Torah. At the time of the British Mandate he was also active in the organization Agudat Yisrael, which was led by his brother Moshe Blau (Zimmer, 1960). But when Agudat Yisrael started to collaborate with the Zionists he left, and in 1937 he founded, together with Rabbi Aaron Katzenellenbogen, the organization Neturei Karta (Aramaic: ‘Guardians of the City’), which rejected any compromise with the Zionists (Odenheimer, 2006).2 With the emergence of the State of Israel, Blau’s anti-­Zionism even strengthened. During the Israeli War of Independence in 1948 he was injured by Jordanians, yet a few years later he proposed to move the Jewish anti-­Zionist

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community to the Old City of Jerusalem (which was at that time under Jordanian control), which was hermetically separated from the Jewish West Jerusalem (Jewish Daily Forward, 2006). In the Old City, in his view, the Haredim would be safer than in Israel and would not be too exposed to the influences of secular Israeli life. From that time comes the anthem of Neturei Karta, which Amram Blau composed, allegedly while in detention in an Israeli prison after one of his many protests (Neturei Karta USA, n.d.):3 G-­d is our King, We are his servants The holy Torah is our Law We are loyal to it. We do not recognize the Heretic Zionist Regime Its laws do not apply to us We walk in the ways of the Torah In fire and water We walk in the ways of the Torah To Sanctify the Name of Heaven. The Czech scholar Miloš Mendel quotes Rabbi Blau’s attitudes towards Zionism in one of his works: God has forbidden the people of Israel to return with violence to the land from which they were evicted as a punishment. Jews should rely on God, and they should expect salvation from His hands and from the redemption after the coming of the true Messiah, because only then will come the true state of peace (shalom), the state of the harmonious co-­existence of Israel, as it has been preached by the prophets . . . But Zionists came to the land to build a Judenstaat, a national homeland, in it, to bring shalom their own way, of their own will and only for themselves. But they destroyed the religion and uprooted the noble Torah and our faith in true salvation and the true Messiah. Their leaders raised the flag of revolt against the Kingdom of Heaven . . . They forced the people of Israel to once again violate their oath to God, and thus caused terrible bloodshed in Israel. (Mendel, 2000: 111) To separate the community of his supporters from the community of the Zionist state of Israel as much as possible, Rabbi Blau even initiated a special ‘currency’ (more specifically, it was made up of vouchers based on the principles of exchange of goods and charity) so that Israeli money depicting Israeli secular leaders would not be used by them (Sprinzak, 1999: 91). However, Rabbi Blau and Neturei Karta did not come to be seen as significant only because of their sharp anti-­Zionism, but also in connection with their protests against various aspects of Israeli secularism. In these aspects, many of the Haredim (not all of whose adherents were members or supporters of Neturei Karta or

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30   With body and soul against Zionism supporters of Rabbi Blau – far from it) saw a significant heresy against the ideals of Judaism. In the first decades of Israel’s existence and under the leadership of Rabbi Blau, Neturei Karta became highly visible in connection with its protests against Israel’s refusal to stop public transport during the Sabbath (which they view as a desecration of the Sabbath), mixed schools and public swimming pools where both sexes can bathe together (Sprinzak, 1999: 90). Rabbi Blau and his followers have achieved some great successes in their protest activities, especially in terms of pushing through limitations of public transportation during the Sabbath. However, before the city ordinance could be changed, Rabbi Blau was arrested 153 times (!) by Israeli police during his attempts to interrupt traffic on the Jewish holy day (Rabinowicz, 1982: 241). Rabbi Blau died in Jerusalem in 1974. In the most well-­known Haredi religious neighbourhood Meah Shearim is the yeshiva Mesivasa ​​ DeRav Amrom, which was named in his honour.

Rebbetzin Ruth Blau One very interesting personality was Rabbi Blau’s second wife, Rebecca Ruth. His first wife Hinda died in 1963, and after her death the rabbi remarried. However, in 1948, in the Israeli War of Independence, Rabbi Blau was injured, in such a way as to make him infertile. According to the Halacha, in such a case, if he remarried, his second wife could only be a woman who was not of Jewish blood (Shulchan Aruch, Even Ha-­Ezer 5, based on Deut. 23: 2). So in 1965 he married a French convert to Judaism, Madeleine Ferraille, who, after her conversion, took the name Ruth Ben-­David. She was more than a quarter-­of-a-­century younger than the rabbi and came from a French Catholic family. In France she originally worked as an actress. During the Second World War she was a member of the French resistance movement and helped Jews. In 1951, she converted to Judaism and became a Zionist. Later, however, she began to be sceptical of Zionism and began to grow closer to the views of the anti-­Zionist Jewish community in Israel.4 She became a known personality even before she married Rabbi Amram Blau, mainly in connection with the ‘Where is Yossele?’ affair (see below) (Odenheimer, 2006). Although Rabbi Blau adhered to the halachic principles by marrying her, his decision to marry ‘the French actress’ triggered the disgust of his sons Uri and Yeshayahu and the whole Eda Haredit community. Rabbi Blau was even forced to leave the Meah Shearim neighbourhood and move to Bnei Brak, near Tel-­ Aviv, as a result. After a year, however, the antipathy of his sons and the God-­ fearing community abated and he returned to Meah Shearim (Ettinger, 2010). Because of the age difference between them, Ruth Blau survived her husband by many years and remained a very prominent personality even after his death in 1974. She also continued his work. After 1979, for example, she maintained contacts with Iran’s supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. Ruth Blau’s contacts in the Muslim world then helped ease the plight of a number of Jews who got into trouble in Muslim countries (Odenheimer, 2006).

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Where is Yossele? Ruth Blau (then Ruth Ben-­David) became well known even before her marriage to Rabbi Blau because of her connection with one of the biggest scandals in Israel’s history. The scandal was the kidnapping of a young ultra-­Orthodox boy named Yossele Schumacher, which Ruth Ben-­David was actively involved in (Shiff and Dor, 1997). In accordance with an agreement between his parents and his grandfather, little Yossele was raised in Israel by his grandfather in the traditions of the ultra-­Orthodox community. However, Yossele’s secular parents, who came from the Soviet Union and had serious financial problems, eventually decided to return to the Soviet Union and wanted to take their son back with them. However, the grandfather disagreed because there was a risk that the boy would be brought up in a secular and communist spirit, even though his parents had promised that the boy would receive a religious education. As a result, in 1960 the grandfather hid the boy (Yeshiva World, 2007). After an intensive search for Yossele by the Israeli police, several rabbis of Jerusalem’s Haredi community decided that they would take him abroad disguised as a girl. It was this taking of the boy to Europe that was carried out with the help of Ruth Ben-­David, who then cared for Yossele in Switzerland and France for two years. After Mossad’s search for the boy in Europe was intensified, Yossele was transferred to the United States and kept in Brooklyn under a false identity. Subsequently, Ruth Ben-­David was tracked down in Europe by the head of Mossad, Isser Harel, and, having been subjected to psychological pressure by Mossad, finally disclosed where Yossele was concealed. Eventually, Yossele was taken from his ‘guardians’ in the United States and handed over to his mother (Shiff and Dor, 1997). In Israel, the affair attracted a lot of attention among both secular and religious Jews, and Mossad came under fire because people thought it had spent too much of its energy on finding Yossele, rather than concentrating on the search for Nazi war criminals (Black and Morris, 1991: 193).

Notes 1 In a nutshell, in regard to the theological disputes within the Jewish community, we could cite the splitting away of various different sects from ‘mainstream’ Judaism – such sects included the Samaritans, the Nazarenes (early Christians), the Karaites, the Shabbatians and the Frankists. In more recent times, there have been very important cleavages between the Hasidim and their anti-­Hasidic opponents (especially the Mitnagdim), between the partially assimilated and secularized Jews in Western Europe and the Haredi communities in Eastern Europe (Ostjuden – Eastern Jews) and also between orthodox and heterodox streams of Judaism. 2 For the theological rejection of Zionism by some religious Jews, see the chapter on Yoel Teitelbaum. 3 Available online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7APAwCUMRw. 4 See the case of the Dutch Jew Jacob Israël De Haan in the chapter on Rabbi Sonnenfeld. A similar disenchantment with the Zionist policies has affected many other Jews

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32   With body and soul against Zionism who were originally adherents of Zionism. But what happened in such cases was not always a transition to religious anti-­Zionism or a complete abandonment of Zionism and emigration from Israel. Also very interesting is the case of the young radical revisionist Zionist Uri Avnery, who was a supporter of the Zionist terrorist group Lehi but later came over to the camp of the Israeli radical left and became one of the harshest critics of Israeli Zionism from within.

References Black, Ian; Morris, Benny (1991) Israel’s Secret Wars: A History of Israel’s Intelligence Services. New York: Grove Press. Blau, Ruth (1978) Les Gardiens de la Cité: Histoire d’une Guerre Sainte. Paris: Flammarion. Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Ettinger, Yair (2010, 23 July) ‘Notes on a Scandal’, Haaretz. Ginsberg, Rachel (2009, 27 May) ‘Guardian of the City: The Secret Life of Ruth Blau’, Mishpacha. Online: www.mishpacha.com/getPdf/1/260/56/0. Jewish Daily Forward (2006, 22 September) [No article title]. Online: www.forward. com/articles/4684/www.forward.com/articles/4684. Mendel, Miloš (2000) Náboženství v boji o Palestinu: Judaismus, islám a křesťanství jako ideologie etnického konfliktu [Religion in the Contest for Palestine: Judaism, Islam and Christianity as Ideologies of Ethnic Conflict]. Brno: Atlantis [In Czech]. Neturei Karta USA (n.d.) Neturei Karta Anthem. Online: www.nkusa.org/aboutus/ anthem.cfm. Odenheimer, Micha (2006) ‘We Do Not Believe. We Will Not Follow’, Guilt and Pleasure, 2 (Spring). Online: www.guiltandpleasure.com/index.php?site=rebootgp& page=gp_article&id=17. Rabinowicz, Harry (1982) Hasidism and the State of Israel. East Brunswick, NJ: Associated University Press. Rabkin, Yaakov (2006) A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Shiff, Yehuda; Dor, Danny (1997) Israel: Fifty Years. Tel Aviv: Alfa Communication. Sprinzak, Ehud (1999) Brother against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics. New York: The Free Press. Vos iz Neias (2009, 12 July) ‘Jerusalem: Rav Amram Blau’s Interview Before His Death’. Online: www.vosizneias.com/34907/2009/07/12/jerusalem-­rav-amram-­blaus-interview­before-his-­death. Yeshiva World (2007, 6 June) ‘Eifoh Yossele? Where Is Yossele Schumacher?’. Online: www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/general/7394/eifoh-­y ossele-where-­i s-yossele-­ schumacher.html. Zimmer, Uriel (1960) The Guardians of the City. Neturei Karta International. Online: www.nkusa.org/Books/Publications/guardians.cfm.

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The ‘Dead’ Hasids The Braslav Hasids and their rabbis

When you visit Israel you cannot miss the sight of delivery cars driven by young Hasids with white, crested yarmulkes, with megaphones on the roofs of the cars blasting booming techno. And if you have grasped the rudiments of Hebrew, the hundreds of sprayed graffiti signs and stickers that you can find all over Israel will not escape your attention either. They often contain the words Na-­NachNachma-­Nachman-me-­Uman. It is always a manifestation of the followers of Braslav (sometimes written as Bratslav or Breslov) Hasidism. The ‘Braslavs’ (or ‘Breslovers’), as they are called, form a structured group with a number of offshoots – from the strict Haredim living in the Jerusalem quarter of Meah Shearim to the more or less pubescent youngsters who have let their sideburns grow, wear yarmulkes and tallits and frequent wild Israeli techno parties in such clothes. There is a multitude of different approaches among the Braslavs, but they are nonetheless strongly interconnected since the Braslavs all consider themselves the adherents of Nachman ben Simhah of Braslav (1772–1810),1 the grandson of Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism. Although he died at a relatively young age, he was a wholly exceptional and very influential Jewish personality of his time. It was not only his deep knowledge of the Torah and the Kabbalah, but also his all‑embracing humanity that brought him renown. This feature of his personality is perceptible in his deepest and most personal prayers, in which he prays to God as if he were talking to his best friend about common problems of daily life. Nachman himself said that ‘if you pray for what you need, there is nothing so trivial that you would not be able to ask God for it’ (Mykoff and Mizrahi, 2007: 59).2 Nachman’s prayers have fascinated not only Jews, but also the non-­Jewish world. The element of hope and subsequent happiness in them surely contributed to the popularity of Rabbi Nachman’s teachings. According to Rabbi Nachman, no human misdemeanour is so big that a person would not able to repent of it (Nachman of Braslav, 2009: 1027–1033). The feeling of blame often prevents one from turning to God, and therefore Nachman lays emphasis on happiness, which can serve as one of the tools for atonement. However, the Great Rabbi did not leave any direct successor, so the Braslavs are sometimes symbolically referred to as the ‘dead’ Hasids (in Yiddish: di toyte chasidim) (Rabinowicz, 1982: 53). Nachman’s grave lies in the present-­day Ukrainian town of Uman, and is visited by tens of thousands of Braslav Hasids every year,

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34   The ‘Dead’ Hasids especially when they gather in Uman to celebrate the Jewish New Year together (Rosh Hashanah, 1 and 2 Tishri), staying near his grave until his death anniversary on 18 Tishri.3 Although Rabbi Nachman’s main work is Likutei Moharan (the second element of the title is an abbreviation of the phrase Morenu ve-­harav Rabi Nachman), which summarizes his teachings and was already published during his lifetime (in 1807), a much more famous work by him is the collection of stories, Sipurei Maasiyot, which was published as early as 1816 and contains 13 of his stories that clearly evidence his vast knowledge of the Torah and its hidden meanings. The joyful devoutness connected with dancing and singing that goes in line with the Hasidic credo, ‘Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs’ (Psalm 100: 2), is very characteristic of the Braslavs. This characteristic is even more visible than in the case of other Hasidic groups thanks to the Braslavs public activities. The Braslavs, of course, have their rabbis today as well, but none of them can claim the post of an Admor, as in Rabbi Nachman’s case. You can find more information about them below. Today’s Braslav Hasids can be divided into four main subgroups (Pfeffer, 2002): •

•

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Va’ad ha-­Olami Chasedai Breslov (‘World Committee of Braslav Hasids’) is the oldest Braslav group, with a yeshiva and a synagogue in the Meah Shearim quarter in Jerusalem. It is a very closed and strictly anti-­Zionist group. The throne of Rabbi Nachman, which was saved by his adherents in the Second World War and transported to Jerusalem, is kept in the Braslav synagogue in Meah Shearim. The head of the community is the famous kabbalist Rabbi, Yaakov Meir Shechter (1932), the son of the significant leader of the Braslav Hasids, Rabbi Dovid Schechter, and a student of the major Braslav Rabbi, Abraham Sternhartz (1862–1955), who left Uman for Palestine in 1936. Rabbi Shmuel Moshe Kramer also plays an important role in the community. He is the spiritual father of the gematric interpretation of the word Braslav.4 Shuvu Bonim (Hebrew: ‘Sons, return’) is a Braslav group with its headquarters in the Shuvu Bonim yeshiva, also known as Yeshivat Nechamat Tzion. It was established by Rabbi Eliezer Berland (1937)5 in the Muslim quarter of Old Jerusalem City. Berland was its head until recently, but he is currently being investigated in connection with a sexual scandal, and thus he fled from Israel to various countries, including Morocco and Zimbabwe, from which he was expelled. The latest state to which he absconded is the Netherlands, where he is currently awaiting extradition (Dutch News, 2014). Another important rabbi in the community is his student, Rabbi Shalom Arush (1952),6 who is originally from Morocco. The yeshiva’s aspirations include bringing secular Jews closer to faith (baal teshuva). Because of the location of the yeshiva, the Braslav Hasids from Shuvu Bonim have come into conflict with Jerusalem’s Muslims many times.

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The ‘Dead’ Hasids   35 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

•

•

The group around Rabbi Schick. Eliezer Shlomo Schick (born 1940, known as ‘Mohorosh’7) is a Braslav rabbi with followers in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and in the moshav of Yavane’el (sometimes called ‘Braslav City’) in Galilee, North Israel. The Na-­Nachim is the smallest but also the most famous Braslav group in Israel. This is mainly because of its public activities (involving concerts, promotional stands, cars with megaphones, and the fact that many of the group’s followers take part in concerts, techno parties, etc.). Rabbi Yisroel Dov Ber Odesser (1888–1994, also known as Reb Odesser or Saba – ‘Grandfather’) saw the birth of the mantra Na-­Nach-Nachma-­Nachman-me-­ Uman (literally: ‘Na-­Nach-Nachma-­Nachman from Uman’), which is typical of the Na-­Nachim. In 1922, he reportedly received a ‘letter from Heaven’ from the late Nachman of Braslav. It contained the words Na-­ Nach-Nachma-­Nachman-me-­Uman, which became Odesser’s personal mantra and song. In his opinion, the mantra and song are supposed to contribute to the transformation and rectification of the world (tikkun olam). The mantra became very popular in the circle of Odesser’s adherents (see also Odenheimer, 2006).

Notes 1 Rabbi Nachman ben Simcha of Braslav (4 April 1772–16 October 1810) was born in Mezhybozhe (Medzhybizh) in today’s Ukraine. His father was Rabbi Nachman of Horodenka, a follower of Baal Shem Tov; his mother was Faige Nachman, whose mother Udel was Baal Shem Tov’s daughter. Rabbi Nachman (the younger) also had two brothers and a sister. He got married soon after his bar mitzvah (at the age of 13) to Sashia Efrayim, the daughter of Rav Efrayim of Ossatini. The couple had six daughters and two sons; however, only four of their daughters lived to adulthood: Adil, Sara, Miriam and Chaya. Tradition has it that Nachman gained his first successor – Shimon – at his own wedding. Not long afterwards the family moved to Medvedevka near Kiev, where they lived in more or less voluntary seclusion and fasted often. Despite this, a small circle of followers that soon grew started to form around Rabbi Nachman. In the years 1798–1799, Rabbi Nachman and his family stayed in the Holy Land, especially in Haifa, Tiberias and Safed. After their return in 1800, Nachman’s family moved to Zlatopol just before Rosh Hashana. However, they did not stay long, as the Braslavs came into conflict with the local Hasidic Rabbi Aryeh Laib of Shpole. In 1802, Reb Nachman settled for good in Braslav. Another significant event in his life is that on the eve of Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks, when the acceptance of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai is celebrated) in 1807 Nachman’s wife died of tuberculosis. Later, after a period of mourning, Reb Nachman remarried. In May 1810 a fire broke out in Braslav, and Rav Nachman’s house was destroyed. Although his adherents took care of him, the Rabbi’s health, also affected by tuberculosis, significantly worsened. Eventually, he succumbed to the illness like his first wife. He died on the second day of chol ha-­moed Sukkot (meaning ‘weekdays of the festival’, the intermediate days of the autumn Feast of Booths), when he was only 38. He was buried by request at the cemetery in the town of Uman, where he lies among approximately 20,000 victims of the massacre carried out by the haidamaks (a paramilitary Ukrainian rebel group) that took place in 1768 (see Rabinowicz, 1982: 45–53; Hallamish, 2007; Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d.).

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36   The ‘Dead’ Hasids 2 The prayer ‘New Beginning’ may serve as a representative example: ‘Teach me, dear God, to make a fresh start; to break yesterday’s habits; to stop telling myself that I can’t – when I can, that I’m not – when I am, that I’m stuck – when I’m eminently free’ (Mykoff and Mizrahi, 2007: 119). 3 They did this even in the Soviet era, although their efforts were made more difficult (see also Kaiser, 2010). It should be also mentioned that some important rabbis (e.g. Ovadia Yosef ) have criticized the custom of pilgrimage to Uman from various halachic aspects (concerning the visiting of graves, leaving family on an important Jewish holiday, etc.). 4 Every letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a corresponding numerical value. The numerical value of the word Braslav is 294 (B-­2, r-­200, s-­60, l-­30, v/b-­2), which is the same sum as that of the expression Nachman ben Faiga (‘Nachman, the son of Faiga’). 5 He studied with the distinguished Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky. After Berland joined the Braslav Hasids, he was strongly connected with another Braslav leader, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Bender (1897–1989). 6 When he was 13, his family emigrated to Israel, where he graduated from high school and then served as a medical officer with the air force. Later he also obtained a degree in economics. At that time, five of his friends died in a military helicopter crash. This event triggered his teshuva (his return to practising the rules of the Torah). He then began to study at many yeshivas, only to get into one in Braslav, where he initially studied under Rabbi Eliezer Berland and then became his personal assistant. He settled in Jerusalem and founded a charitable society called Chut Shel Chesed in 1985. Later he became the leader of the followers of Braslav Hasidism from among Sephardic Jews who also underwent a teshuva. 7 The abbreviation for Moreinu Ha-­Rav Shlomo – ‘Our teacher, our rabbi, Shlomo’. He came across a promotional brochure about Braslav Hasidism at the age of 15, and he has been its proponent since then. In 1964, he founded an organization focused on spreading the teachings of Rebbe Nachman and distributing, among other things, brochures about his legacy.

References Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Dutch News (2014, 1 December) ‘Israeli Sex Case Rabbi Extradition Delayed by “New Evidence” ’. Online: www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2014/12/israeli-­sex-case-­rabbiextradition-­delayed-by-­new-evidence.php. Encyclopaedia Britannica (n.d.) ‘Nah.  man ben Simh.  ah of Bratslav’. Online: www.britan nica.com/EBchecked/topic/401774/Nahman-­ben-Simhah-­of-Bratslav. Finkel, Avraham Yaakov (1996) The Great Torah Commentators. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, Inc. Hallamish, Moshe (2007) ‘Naḥman of Bratslav’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 14. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Kaiser, Menachem (2010, 13 September) ‘How Do You Say Shofar in Ukrainian? The Strange and Wonderful Hasidic Pilgrimage to Uman, Ukraine’. Slate. Online: www. slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/dispatches/2010/09/how_do_you_say_shofar_in_ ukrainian.html. Mahler, Raphael (1984) Hasidism and the Jewish Enlightenment: Their Confrontation in Galicia and Poland in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society. Meijers, Daniël (1992) Ascetic Hasidism in Jerusalem. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

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Mykoff, Moshe; Mizrahi, S.C. (2007) Vlídná zbraň [The Gentle Weapon]. Prague: Volvox Globator [In Czech]. Nachman of Braslav (2009) Likutei Moharan. Jerusalem: Machon Nachalat Tzvi. Odenheimer, Micha (2006) ‘Everybody Dance Now’, Guilt and Pleasure, 3 (Summer). Online: www.guiltandpleasure.com/index.php?site=rebootgp&page=gp_article&id=99. Pfeffer, Anshel (2002, 12 August) ‘Who Are the Bratslavers?’, Haaretz. Online: www. haaretz.com/who-­are-the-­bratslavers-1.39990. Rabinowicz, Harry (1982) Hasidism and the State of Israel. East Brunswick, NJ: Associated University Press.

See also www.breslov.org www.breslev-­midot.com www.nanach.net www.shuvubonim.org

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The Sephardi mentor of the settlers Mordechai Tzemach Eliyahu 12 March 1928–7 June 2010 20 Adar 5688–25 Sivan 5770

Sephardi Jews started to play an important role in Israeli politics and society later than Ashkenazi Jews, since the positions of Sephardis and Ashkenazis were not balanced in the initial period of modern Israeli history. The Israeli establishment was built predominantly on Ashkenazi Jews, which caused dissatisfaction among the Sephardis, and even triggered violent actions by them (the main activity of this sort was the movement of the Israeli ‘Black Panthers’ at the beginning of the 1970s). However, the situation was different in the religious sphere since the equal rights of both groups were maintained by the Chief Rabbinate, which contained both Ashkenazi and Sephardi rabbis and had had both a Sephardi and an Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi at its head since the time of the British Mandate. Sephardi rabbis generally played an important role for the Jews coming from Middle Eastern (especially Arab) countries. They were the guardians of their intra‑ethnic pride and tradition. Younger rabbis like Ovadia Yosef and Mordechai Eliyahu thus stood side by side with the older generation of Sephardi rabbis, which included Kaduri and Baba Sali. Since the 1970s, the situation of Sephardi Jewry in Israel has slowly started to improve, and today we can – with only minor exceptions – talk about Sephardi–Ashkenazi equality. This is to be ascribed to the rabbis mentioned above, including Rabbi Eliyahu, among other factors. In contemporary politics, the fate of Sephardi Jews has been connected mainly with the Sephardi religious party, Shas. However, Eliyahu’s political opinions were closer to those of other parties, chiefly the religious Zionist ones. Rabbi Eliyahu was often associated with the community of religious Jewish settlers, not excepting their radicals (Pfeffer, 2010). Mordechai Eliyahu’s parents came from an Iraqi-­Jewish community, but he was born after their immigration to Jerusalem. His father Salman Eliyahu was one of the upholders of the tradition of Iraqi kabbalists. The young Eliyahu studied at the Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem under significant authorities such as Chazon Ish, Ezra Attiya and Baba Sali, with whom he became very close. Later he studied under Rabbi Yitzchak Nissim (1896–1981) at the Institute for the Preparation of Rabbis and Religious Judges (Jewish Agency for Israel, n.d.). He also established contact with the Chabad Movement and the Lubavitcher Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, whom he visited in the

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United States several times (YouTube, 2010). During his last years, Rabbi Eliyahu suffered from grave health problems, which caused his death in 2010 (Israel National News, 2008).

A religious radical becoming the Chief Rabbi At the time of the Israeli War of Independence of 1948, the young Eliyahu did not take part in the combat directly (like a number of other devout Jews), but he helped during the fortification work. However, he later adopted a radicalized stance as he became a member of the underground organization of religious Jews that carried the name Brit Ha-­Kanaim (‘Alliance of Zealots’), which promoted an increase in Israel’s religious character (Sprinzak, 1999: 263). However, the organization suffered a hard blow in May 1951, when Israeli security forces managed to thwart its attack on the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament). Its members planned to interrupt the power supply to the Parliament and throw a smoke grenade into the plenary sitting room. The purpose of the attack was to protest against women’s conscription, which the organization as well as a range of religious Jews opposed. Eliyahu himself was sentenced to ten months’ imprisonment for his involvement in the planned operation (Ben-­Yehuda, 2010: 87). However, his youthful radicalism did not harm the development of his career in any serious way. In 1960, he became the youngest person ever to have been appointed to the post of dayan (a religious judge) in Israel. He was also active as the Chief Rabbi in Beer Sheva, and later became a member of the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Appeals in Jerusalem, where he remained until his death. He had four children; his son Shmuel became the Chief Rabbi of Safed (Hasson, 2014). In 1983, Eliyahu was elected to the prestigious post of the Chief Sephardi Rabbi (Rishon le‑Zion) of the State of Israel, and he fulfilled this office until 1993. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef held the same post before him; nevertheless, Eliyahu did not agree with his conception. While Yosef tried to create a considerably uniform Israeli Sephardi Judaism, Eliyahu laid emphasis on maintaining a greater variability within it; though in his case, he chiefly emphasized the ‘Iraqi’ conception represented by the teachings of the famous Rabbi Ben Ish Chai (see also the chapter on Ovadia Yosef ). During the period when he held the post of Rishon le‑Zion, one of his main efforts was to appeal to secular Jews and draw the tradition of his people nearer to them. He emphasized Jewish education, the observation of the Sabbath and the fight against assimilationist tendencies, and he supported the immigration of Jews to Israel (aliyah). His efforts also included working towards a rapprochement of secular and religious Jews. Eliyahu was regarded as one of the most significant halachic authorities of his time (he was a posek), and his halachic opinions were considered decisive. His famous interpretations of Aggadic and halachic topics were broadcast by satellite every Monday evening and could be watched by Jewish households all around the world (Derovan, 2007). He also spread his lectures with the help of bulletins called Kol tzofecha (‘The Voice of Thy Seer’). Rabbi Eliyahu also became famous thanks to his deep knowledge of the Kabbalah. Many people even regarded him as a thaumaturge.

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40   The Sephardi mentor of the settlers

The mentor of the settlers Despite the above‑mentioned positive efforts of Rabbi Eliyahu, his portrait would not be complete if his subsequent radicalism was not mentioned. While in his youth he was connected with a radicalism that opposed Israeli Zionism and secularism, Eliyahu later started to be associated with religious Zionists. Although he thereby addressed the secular Israelis more and tried to remove obstacles to the mutual understanding between the secular and the religious Jewish world, his speeches, nevertheless, started to be politicized and he was associated mainly with the National Religious Party, Mafdal, which gradually profiled itself as a party of religious Jewish settlers (Much and Pfeifer, 2000: 56). He even began to promote various Messianic plans. For example, in 1986 he aspired to build a synagogue on the Temple Mountain (Sprinzak, 1999: 264). This step would have strengthened the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but another argument against it is that similar activities were also rejected by a number of Orthodox rabbis living in Israel (see Rabbi Goren and the status of the Temple Mount). Eliyahu also started to support the ultra‑radical Jewish settlers in Hebron and became friends with the most extreme representative of Israeli politics, Rabbi Kahane, and his family. For instance, Eliyahu gave Kahane’s son Binyamin in marriage and later delivered a passionate eulogy in messianic terms at the funeral of Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was killed in the United States in 1990 (Pfeffer, 2010). Eliyahu was also known for being a fervent advocate of the release of Jonathan Pollard, who was imprisoned in the United States for conducting espionage for Israel in 1985 and is currently serving a life sentence (Israel National News, 2008). When Israeli politicians led by Ariel Sharon enabled the evacuation of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu was one of the most significant religious authorities who spoke against this move. He also issued several proclamations that were interpreted to mean that he called on soldiers not to obey their commanders’ orders and not to participate in the evacuation. Such appeals were assessed as very dangerous by many Israelis, so Rabbi Eliyahu was forced to explain them. He specified that he did not call for a direct protest against the evacuation, but passive opposition in the sense that a soldier could refuse to take part in the evacuation, say ‘I can’t’ and start to mourn together with the Jewish settlers (Katz and Wagner, 2005). Furthermore, Eliyahu interpreted the destructive tsunami of December 2004 as ‘God’s punishment’ for Asian governments’ support for Sharon’s plan for the evacuation of the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip (Haaretz Service, 2005). And in regard to Palestinians, Eliyahu always took a very harsh stance (which was completely in accordance with the rhetoric of the settlers’ religious authorities). Rabbi Eliyahu was an example of the fact that there could be very significant differences in political approaches even within Sephardi Judaism. While the notable Sephardi rabbis Rav Kaduri and Ovadia Yosef frequently held very tolerant views and supported peace efforts, Rabbi Eliyahu’s radical opinions sometimes stood in stark opposition to their views.

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A selection of Mordechai Eliyahu’s works Imrei Eliyahu (‘Eliyahu’s Statements’) – Rabbi Eliyahu’s collected statements about the Jewish months of Elul and Tishri. Imrei Mordechai (‘Mordechai’s Statements’) – interpretations of the Shulchan Aruch. Divrei Mordechai al Ha‑Torah (‘Mordechai’s Commentaries on the Torah’) – interpretations of, statements about, and halachic deductions from the Torah. Divrei Mordechai – Yerach Ha‑Eitanim (‘Mordechai’s Commentaries – Tishri’) – interpretations of the festivals of the month of Tishri. Darchei Tahara (‘Methods of Purification’) – halachic interpretations of menstruation and maintaining the purity of a Jewish family. Darchei Torah (‘Paths of the Torah’) – halachic interpretations of Passover. The cycle called Ma’amar Mordechai (‘Mordechai’s Command’) – a thematically wide work that deals with various halachic issues. Sefer Ha‑Halacha (‘The Book of Halacha’) – a book designed to serve Oriental Jews in a similar way as the code of the Shulchan Aruch. Kol Eliyahu – a prayer book (siddur). Rabbi Eliyahu was also the author of several responsa (Shu”T – questions and answers).

References Beilin, Yossi (1992) Israel: A Concise Political History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Ben-­Yehuda, Nachman (2010) Theocratic Democracy: The Social Construction of Religious and Secular Extremism. New York: Oxford University Press. Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Derovan, David (2007) ‘Eliyahu, Mordechai’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 6. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Haaretz Service (2005, 31 January) ‘Eliyahu: Tsunami Was God’s Punishment for Disengagement’, Haaretz. Hasson, Nir (2014, 29 January) ‘Jerusalem to Get Racist Chief Rabbi?’, Haaretz. Israel National News (2008, 20 May) ‘Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu in Critical Condition’. Online: www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126231#.VOsCEtiPVAg. Jewish Agency for Israel (n.d.) Biography of Mordechai Eliyahu. Online: http://web. archive.org/web/20080905071851/www.harav.org/koreng.html. Katz, Yaakov; Wagner, Matthew (2005, 23 September) ‘Rabbi Eliyahu Changes Mind on Refusal’, Jerusalem Post. Online: www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-­news/1489742/posts. Landau, David (1993) Piety and Power: The World of Jewish Fundamentalism. London: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Mendel, Miloš (2000) Náboženství v boji o Palestinu: Judaismus, islám a křesťanství jako ideologie etnického konfliktu [Religion in the Contest for Palestine: Judaism, Islam and Christianity as Ideologies of Ethnic Conflict]. Brno: Atlantis [In Czech]. Much, Theodor; Pfeifer, Karl (2000) Svár bratří v domě izraelském [Clash of the Brothers in the House of Israel]. Prague: Themis [In Czech].

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42   The Sephardi mentor of the settlers Pfeffer, Anshel (2010, 11 June). ‘Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu: An Eloquent Racist’, Haaretz. Rabkin, Yaakov (2006) A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Sprinzak, Ehud (1999) Brother against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics. New York: The Free Press. YouTube (2010) ‘Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu with the Lubavitcher Rebbe’. Online: www. youtube.com/watch?v=gmlrRf25WYY.

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The successor of Rabbi Shach Yosef Shalom Elyashiv 10 April 1910–18 July 2012 1 Nisan 5670–28 Tammuz 5772

After the death of a great religious authority, it is usually almost impossible to find a similarly charismatic leader. In the case of Christianity, this can be evidenced by Pope Benedict XVI. After the death of John Paul II, the new pope was frequently compared to his extremely successful predecessor and could hardly transcend him. Although rabbinical succession does not technically have much in common with the power of the pope, the deaths of great rabbis, such as Elazar Menachem Shach, represent in the minds of faithful Jews a loss of ‘a spiritual father’ that is similar to the loss of an outstanding spiritual leader for Christians or members of any other religious community. While in Jewish Hasidic communities there often exist rabbinical dynasties in which the sons of notable Hasidic rabbis are expected eventually to become rabbis themselves and prepare for their future leadership roles for a very long time, there are no such dynastical principles among the Litvak Jews (Mitnagdim – the opponents of Hasidism). In the Litvak interpretation of Orthodox Judaism, a rabbi does not have such an indisputable position as one from among the Hasids. Among the Litvaks, a rabbi is, first and foremost, a significant master and teacher but not an ‘infallible king’, as a range of Hasidic tzadiks are understood to be by the Hasids. That is why it is even more precious when a rabbi attains such a position in the Litvak environment, which is what the late Rabbi Shach accomplished. Despite the fact that there was no rabbi in Israel after his death who could rank alongside Shach, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv started to be perceived as his successor to a certain extent. In 2010, this man reached the age of 100. He also had great charisma and, like his predecessor, he formed a bridge between the present and the extinct Jewish world from the era before the Second World War. Rabbi Elyashiv was a native of the Lithuanian city of Shiauliai1 (in Yiddish: Shavel) and came from a famous rabbinical family (but not from a dynasty in the Hasidic sense). His maternal grandfather was the famous kabbalist Shlomo Elyashiv (1841–1925, also referred to by the title of his principal kabbalistic work, Le-­Shem), who, among other things, initiated Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, the subsequent father of religious Zionism, into the Kabbalah (Weinreb, 2013). The father of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv was

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44   The successor of Rabbi Shach also a very respected Lithuanian rabbi, and Yosef Shalom himself was regarded as one of the most reputable kabbalists by a number of his rabbinical colleagues. He was also considered a posek ha‑dor, which means he was a ‘decisive authority in the issues of Halacha’ (Pfeffer, 2012). Like Rabbi Shach, Elyashiv managed to escape the Holocaust by emigrating to Palestine. There he married a daughter of the famous Jerusalem Rabbi Arye Levin (1885–1969), with whom he had 11 children. However, one of his daughters was killed in 1948 during the shelling of Jerusalem by Jordan’s Arab Legion (Berger, 2012).

His approach to Zionism and politics Elyashiv’s attitude to Zionism was similar to Rabbi Shach’s: although he rejected Zionism, he, in fact, had an ambivalent relation to it – despite his theological refusal of it, he de facto participated in it (politically), and he did not resist the option of making use of the consequent advantages of Zionism (e.g. state support for yeshivas). Rabbi Shach founded the political party of Ashkenazi non‑Hasidic Jews called Degel ha-­Torah (‘Banner of the Torah’), and at the end of the 1980s he acceded to the request of Rabbi Shach and participated in the meetings of the Degel ha-­Torah party’s Council of the Torah Sages,2 but from that time until his death he never accepted any official position in the party’s spiritual leadership (Ettinger, 2012). In the Israeli Parliament, the party became a member of the United Torah Judaism coalition (Yahadut ha-­Torah), which usually has around five seats in the 120‑member Knesset. As for Rabbi Elyashiv’s political activities, he negotiated with Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s government on the question of the conscription of religious yeshiva students. He opposed service in the Israeli military for yeshiva students, which he called a ‘plot to uproot the Torah from Israel’. He was also deeply conservative in regard to many other issues: he disapproved of professional studies for women, and in medicine he insisted that when it comes to organ donation, death occurs when the dying patient’s heartbeat and breathing stop, but not when only brain activity ceases (Berger, 2012). Rabbi Elyashiv performed the function of a judge (dayan) at the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Appeals, which is included under the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. However, he stopped exercising the function after his conflicts with Rabbi Shlomo Goren and Rabbi Shach’s calls for him not to continue in such a collaboration with Israeli institutions (Finkelman, 2012). Some authoritative halachic decisions of Rabbi Elyashiv were contradicted or at least attracted attention. The most surprising of his attitudes was probably that in regard to homosexuality, which is generally viewed very critically by Orthodox Judaism (and this applies even more so to the Haredim community and their authorities). When the American Rabbi Steven Greenberg met Elyashiv, he confided in him about his bisexuality:

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‘Master, I am attracted to both men and women. What shall I do?’ The Rabbi responded, ‘My dear one, my friend, you have the twice power of love. Use it carefully.’ Greenberg was left surprise-­stricken as he rather expected the Rabbi’s condemnation and resentment, and there was a moment of silence. Finally he asked the Rabbi: ‘Is that all?’ The Rabbi just smiled and said: ‘That is all. There is nothing more to say.’ (O’Reilly, 2011) Elyashiv’s attitude in this illustrative example shows that it was not possible to categorize him as simply ‘intolerant’. However, there is no doubt that he did not have a theological acceptance of homosexuality in mind. It was more of an effort to understand problems that could take place inside every person – even within a context of religious thinking, though at a superficial and secular glance, it could seem that his attitude to such phenomena was ‘fundamentalist’. Rabbi Elyashiv lived to be 101 years old. Up to a quarter of a million people attended his funeral in Jerusalem (Sharon and Siegel, 2012). Despite this, however, he was not the oldest among his peers. His mentor Rabbi Shach was 103 when he died and the Sephardi Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri, according to some sources, lived to be 118 years old. It is noteworthy how the spiritual activity of the religious authorities of Judaism often manifests itself in the high ages they reach.

A selection of Rabbi Elyashiv’s works Kovetz Teshuvot (‘A Collection of Answers’) – consists of three volumes of Elyashiv’s rabbinical responsa. Divrei Aggadah (‘Haggadic Statements’) – Eliyashiv’s commentaries on the Torah. Passover Haggadah – with Elyashiv’s halachic commentaries. Yashiv Moshe – this book comprises a part of his work, but since the book was edited not by him, but by his students, there have emerged certain speculations about the possibility that some of his thoughts might have been misinterpreted in it.

Notes 1 Today, Shiauliai is known especially for its connection to Christianity – it contains the famous Hill of Crosses. 2 Another distinctive rabbi in this body who is regarded as Shach’s successor is Aharon Leib Steineman from Bnei Brak.

References Berger, Joseph (2012, 18 August) ‘Rabbi Y. S. Elyashiv, Master of Talmudic Law, Dies at 102’, International New York Times. Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Elyashiv, Yosef Shalom (2002, 2 June) ‘Letter from HaRav Eliashiv’, Dei’ah veDibur.

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46   The successor of Rabbi Shach Ettinger, Yair (2012, 18 July) ‘Rabbi Elyashiv, Venerated Leader in Ultra-­Orthodox Community, Dies at 102’, Haaretz. Finkelman, Yoel (2012, 24 August) ‘Rav Elyashiv’s Mixed Legacy’, Jewish Ideas Daily. Online: www.jidaily.com/4a6fb. Goldberg, Mattis (2006) Gedolei Yisroel: Portraits of Greatness. Jerusalem: Feldheim Publishers. Greenberg, Steven (2004) Wrestling With God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. O’Reilly, David (2011, 27 January) ‘Orthodox Rabbi Teaches What It’s Like to be Gay’. Online: http://articles.philly.com/2011-01-27/news/27051578_1_orthodox-­synagoguesorthodox-­rabbi-pulpit-­rabbis. Pfeffer, Anshel (2012, 21 August) ‘What Rabbi Elyashiv’s Eulogies Didn’t Say’, Haaretz. Sharon, Jeremy; Siegel, Judy (2012, 19 August) ‘250,000 Mourn Rabbi Elyashiv at Jerusalem Funeral’, Jerusalem Post. Weinreb, Tzvi Hersh (2013, 23 May) ‘Rav Kook & Rav Elyashiv’, Jewish Actions. Online: www.ou.org/jewish_action/05/2013/rav-­kook-rav-­elyashiv. Weiss, Nosson (2007, 23 May) ‘House of Nobility, Humble Abode: Rav Elyashiv and His Torah Dynasty’, Mishpacha Magazine, 159.

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The Jewish settler as the peacekeeper Menachem Froman 7 February 1945–4 March 2014 24 Shevat 5705–2 Adar II 5774

The Gush Emunim (‘The Block of the Faithful’) movement and religious Jewish settlers in Israel are often associated with religious and political radicalism (see Sprinzak, 1991, 1999). Although they consider themselves as religious Zionists, they do not consider the current State of Israel as sufficiently religious and based on Jewish values. One of the revolutionary events that have strengthened their radicalism and resistance against the Israeli establishment was the evacuation of Jewish settlements in Gaza in 2005. The radicalization of this community is a long-­term process which began to escalate in the early 1990s, when the Israeli– Palestinian peace process started (and this process partially survived for one decade). Many rabbis from the community of Jewish settlers then clearly opposed the peace negotiations and were against any possibility of passing the territories that they considered promised to Jews by God as their biblical heritage to ‘Amalekites’, which according to them means ‘Palestinians’ (Masalha and Isherwood, 2014: 60). A typical example of such an uncompromising and very aggressive stance is that of Rabbi Moshe Levinger of Hebron (see the chapter about him), but there are also many other rabbinical authorities with such a stance – such as Rabbis Mordechai Eliyahu (see the chapter about him), Shlomo Aviner and Dov Lior. However, even in the religious settler community there are also diametrically opposed opinions. But they are just exceptions to the general rule. One rabbi with such opposing views was Rabbi Menachem Froman. While most of the religious settlers seek to ensure that the West Bank/Judea and Samaria will be devoid of Palestinians (and if they remained there, then they would only be in a very subordinate position), Rabbi Froman promoted ‘religious peace’ and the coexistence of Jews and Palestinians in the same land (Brumberg and Shehata, 2009: 64). Rabbi Froman’s roots were in a religious settler community. In the community, he was certainly not some dovish exception from how the other religious settlers thought and lived. On the contrary, his declared affiliation to the religious Zionist stream, his many years of service in the elite Israeli commando units, the fact that he was a co-­founder of the fundamentalist Gush Emunim settler movement and that he lived until his passing in a religious settlement in the West Bank should suggest that his opinions were not too

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48   The Jewish settler as the peacekeeper different from those of others in the hard core of the settlers. The opinions of the settlers are primarily represented by his fellow settler, Rabbi Moshe Levinger (see the chapter about him), who lives in Hebron, about 20 miles from Froman’s settlement, Tekoa. In 1967, during the Six-­Day War, Froman was in the unit of Israeli paratroopers which was the first to stand at the Wailing Wall. As for his early history, he graduated from Yeshiva Merkaz Ha-­Rav (founded by the ‘father’ of religious Zionism, Rabbi Avraham Kook) and received smicha from Rabbi Shlomo Goren (see the chapter about him) and Rabbi Avraham Shapira. Then he became rabbi of the Migdal Oz settlement in the West Bank (The Times of Israel, 2014). He also taught in the radical Yeshiva Ateret Kohanim, which deals with the buying of Arab houses in the Muslim parts of Jerusalem’s Old City and sends Jewish settlers to live in them. Froman’s views were once much closer to the views of most of the settler community. But events such as Goldstein’s massacre in Hebron in 1994 and assassination of Israeli prime minister Rabin in 1995 greatly affected his view of Jewish–Arab relations (Little, 2007: 354).1

In the footsteps of Rabbi Hillel Rabbi Froman refutes all the common prejudiced views that claim that a settler with his past should have aggressive, Islamophobic and anti-­Palestinian attitudes. He belonged to the ranks of the most visible Israeli peace activists and was a member of ‘The Jerusalem Peacemakers’.2 However, in this respect he is a peculiar ‘maverick’. Most Israeli peace activists (who are mainly associated with organizations such as Shalom Achshav and Gush Shalom) do not belong to some specific stream of Judaism (although there are exceptions, such as the Rabbis for Human Rights), and some of the peace activists are even quite anti-­ religious. Some of the Israeli peace activists regarded Rabbi Froman with suspicion, and for Palestinians who never heard about his activities his attitude was even more unbelievable.3 One of the reasons for these views could be that Rabbi Froman occasionally went much further in his activities than did secular peace organizations. Not only was he willing to meet with Palestinian activists and intellectuals holding pro-­peace views (which is also done by the majority of the Israeli pro-­peace organizations), but he was also willing to talk to those whom the vast majority of Israelis (including the Israeli Left and the Israeli peace camp) consider as their arch-­enemies. So during his efforts Rabbi Froman did not just meet with politicians like Mahmoud Abbas and Yasser Arafat and with other politicians of the ‘good’ Fatah and the PLO, but he was also able to talk with Sheikh Ahmad Yassin from the ‘evil’ Hamas (Ettinger, 2006). Moreover, he was not just able to speak with them but was also able to find a common language with them in regard to certain matters – such as both parties’ shared love for the same land. Rabbi Froman explained his hardly believable attitudes by saying that they are based on a 2,000-year-­old dictum of Rabbi Hillel, one of the most important authorities of ancient Judaism:

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Once Rabbi Hillel was asked how he would describe in one sentence the essence of Judaism. Hillel answered: ‘What you yourself hate, do not do it to your neighbor.’4 Every Jewish child learns that in school. And that is exactly what I am trying to do. (Newman, 2009) For Froman, faith and the concept of the sanctity of the Holy Land were simply the most important connection between all religious believers who live in it, regardless of their respective religions. Until his death Rabbi Froman lived in the settlement of Tekoa, which lies in the shadow of the ancient fortress Herodion between Bethlehem and Hebron in the Palestinian West Bank. His wife Hadassah and some of their ten children still live there. This Jewish settlement is inhabited by his supporters, as well as by those who disagree with his views. Froman also taught at a local yeshiva and a yeshiva in the Otniel settlement in the southern West Bank (The Times of Israel, 2014). He often met with his Arab neighbours from the Palestinian villages in the area and tried to cooperate with them. During the rule of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, however, he was a strong opponent of the evacuation of the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and, before its implementation, he moved to the settlement of Ganei Tal (part of the settlement bloc Gush Katif ) in the Gaza Strip to demonstrate his position and to support the evacuated settlers (Stern, 2005). But on the other hand, he was willing to stay in the Jewish settlement even if it fell under the jurisdiction of the future Palestinian state. For him the holiness of the land was more valuable than living in an Israeli state at any price (De Quetteville, 2006). In 2010, after an arson attack on a mosque in the Palestinian village of Beit Fajjar by radical settlers, Rabbi Froman arrived in the village to apologize for the behaviour of his co-­religionists and also brought with him new copies of the Quran (BBC, 2010). Such attitudes and actions gave great legitimacy to Froman’s theological views, his relationship to the Holy Land and his enormous respect for Palestinians. It is true that his attitudes were and still are very rare – even though there are some followers of his who are continuing his work. But the majority of the religious Zionist settlers do not share his open-­minded approaches. Despite this, the personality of Rabbi Froman goes against the assumption that every religious Jewish settler must automatically hate the Palestinians and Arabs and that he must also be an aggressive Islamophobe. And views like those of Froman need not be a denial of the ‘Love of the Land of Israel’ (Ahavat Eretz Yisrael) at all. In 2008, Rabbi Froman, together with Khalid Amayreh, a Palestininan journalist with ties to Hamas, concluded an agreement which was to put an end to all Palestinian attacks against Israel, facilitate the release of the abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and end the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip. Senior Hamas officials supported the agreement but the Israeli government never responded to it (Baskin, 2008).

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50   The Jewish settler as the peacekeeper During her visit to Israel and Palestine in 1999, the Czech traveller and filmmaker Pavla Jazairiová met with Rabbi Froman and his wife Hadassah and conducted an interview with them. Here are some selected parts of it (Jazairiová, 1999: 99–104): You live among the Palestinians and in a settlement which resembles a fortress. How does it feel? ‘We live among the Palestinians in the Holy Land of Israel. And at the same time we live in the heart of the Arab world. This leads to troubles, bloodshed and many terrible, humiliating problems, but it may be also the beginning of the birth of a new hope, something that is even much better than what we can only imagine,’ said Hadassa Froman. ‘If Palestinians did not live in the Holy Land . . .,’ continued Rabbi Menachem Froman, ‘. . . we would be obliged to invite them here. It’s like comparing a married and a single man. Logically, it is much easier to live alone, to do everything our own way, but I am not logical; I’m a realist. In fact, it is better to be married.’ If you are a realist, do you believe in peace? ‘In Hebrew shalom means peace, and in Arabic it is salaam, and both words refer to God, who is one and the same for all. [. . .] One of my sons is named Tzuri Shalom,5 which can be translated as “I believe in God” or “I believe in peace.” If you ask me whether I believe in peace, you actually ask me whether I believe in God. I believe in God, and therefore I believe in peace.’ But how can we achieve peace? ‘First, people need to understand each other. Perhaps this may seem strange, but I have spent many years learning the Quran. I lived with the Arabs and tried to understand them, to have respect to them. I did not do it only for political or existential reasons. It was interesting for me as a rabbi and a pious Jew. I wanted to see how God reveals himself in Islam. I am what I am – a Jew, but when I understand the other, I find that I am closer to myself. A man who marries does not lose his manhood – on the contrary, he gains it. And similarly a married woman is even more of a woman. When I sum up all the years that I spent with my Muslim friends, I see that it was primarily a spiritual experience. But it has also brought political fruit. We build our settlements on their land, but I would also like to settle in their hearts.’ Do you think that Islam leads to violence? ‘Some famous Jewish scholars said that Judaism could become either a medicine of life or a deadly poison.6 The same will be true for Islam.’ The world has a fear of Islam. What do you think about this? ‘Some people think that the Soviet Union fell after losing the war in Afghanistan, where it was defeated by the Muslims. And if Islam was able

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to defeat the Soviet Union, it will easily conquer Europe and the United States . . . I personally do not believe this. On the other hand, it is true that Islamic extremists can bring many problems to the Western world.’ What do you think is the solution? ‘Consider our land as a laboratory in which we could examine how to make peace with the Islamic world. I suggest we should try it through religion. We, the religious Jews, have in our memory the Golden Age of Islam,7 and we want those times to come back, because Islam can significantly contribute to the spiritual enrichment of mankind.’ Rabbi Froman passed away in March 2012 after a fight with cancer. His funeral in the Tekoa settlement was attended by several thousand people, including some Palestinians (Ettinger, 2013).

Notes 1 The massacre took place on 25 February 1994. The Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein entered the shrine above the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and murdered 29 Muslims with an automatic rifle during the Ramadan prayers, and then he was killed by some of the surviving Muslims. This event dramatically complicated the Israeli–Palestinian peace process and gave Hamas a pretext to launch a series of suicide attacks on the Israelis. 2 See: jerusalempeacemakers.org. 3 The authors discussed this topic with several Palestinian activists. 4 Talmud, Shabbat 31a: On another occasion it happened that a certain non-­Jew came before Shammai and said to him, ‘I will convert to Judaism, on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.’ Shammai chased him away with the builder’s tool that was in his hand. He came before Hillel and said to him, ‘Convert me.’ Hillel said to him, ‘What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary; go and learn it.’ 5 Tzuri Shalom literally means ‘My Rock Is Peace’. 6 Talmud, Joma 72b: Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said: ‘What is the meaning of the Scriptural verse “And this is the law which Moses set [before the children of Israel]: If he is meritorious it becomes for him a medicine of life, if not, a deadly poison.”?’ This is what Raba said: ‘If he uses it the right way it is a medicine of life unto him; for him who does not use it the right way, it is a deadly poison.’ 7 Rabbi Froman was referring to the period approximately between the eighth and the thirteenth centuries, which was marked by a tolerant coexistence of Muslims and Jews in many places.

References Baskin, Gershon (2008, 25 February) A Hamas–Israel Agreed Ceasefire Now. Miftah. Online: www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=16276&CategoryId=5. BBC News (2010, 5 October) ‘Rabbis Condemn Attack on West Bank Mosque’. Online: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-­middle-east-­11477037.

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52   The Jewish settler as the peacekeeper Brumberg, Daniel; Shehata, Dina (eds) (2009) Conflict, Identity, and Reform in the Muslim World: Challenges for U.S. Engagement. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace. Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Ettinger, Yair (2006, 26 February) ‘Let Me Talk to Hamas’, Haaretz. Ettinger, Yair (2013, 5 March) ‘Memorializing Rabbi Froman – Not with a Funeral, but a Cultural-­Spiritual Happening’, Haaretz. Jazairiová, Pavla (1999) Izrael a Palestina, Palestina a Izrael. Prague: Radioservis. Little, David (ed.) (2007) Peacemakers in Action: Profiles of Religion in Conflict Resolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lustick, Ian (1988) For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel. New York: Council on Foreign Relations. Masalha, Nur; Isherwood, Lisa (eds) (2014) Theologies of Liberation in Palestine-­Israel: Indigenous, Contextual, and Postcolonial Perspectives. Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications. Newman, Dina (2009, 12 June). ‘Holy Land Hopes for Dogged Peacemakers’, BBC News. Online: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8089951.stm. Quetteville, Harry de (2006, 8 March) ‘Rabbi Froman Will Not Be Moving an Inch’, Daily Telegraph. Sprinzak, Ehud (1991) The Ascendance of Israel’s Radical Right. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sprinzak, Ehud (1999) Brother against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics. New York: The Free Press. Stern, Yoav (2005, 15 September) ‘Ganei Tal/For Rabbi Froman, God Was “in the Computer.” But Is He in Ganei Tal?’, Haaretz. The Times of Israel (2014, 4 April) ‘Rabbi Menachem Froman, a Settlement Head Who Led Peace Efforts, Dies at 68’, The Times of Israel. Online: www.timesofisrael.com/ rabbi-­menachem-froman-­a-settlement-­head-who-­led-peace-­efforts-dies-­at-68.

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A rabbi serving as a general Shlomo Goren 3 February 1918–29 October 1994 21 Shevat 5678–24 Cheshvan 5755

The Jewish religion, the Israeli army and Israeli politics are three phenomena that are very characteristic of the contemporary State of Israel. And if they become mutually interconnected, we get a highly specific problem that can hardly be compared to any similar problem elsewhere in the world. One of the major Israeli figures who embodied a blend of these phenomena was Rabbi Shlomo Goren. During his life he served in several important functions which combined all of the phenomena – he became the Chief Rabbi of the Israeli army, the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel and a major-­general in the Israeli army. He also became a symbol of how far the interconnections between these components can go – both in a positive and in a negative sense.

From the Haganah to the Israeli army Goren was born in the Polish town of Zambrów (which at the time of his birth was still in the territory of the Russian Empire), but his parents followed the Zionist ideals of the mid-­1920s and thus they moved the family from Poland to Palestine, where he began to study at a yeshiva (Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d.). As a teen, he admired the ideas of the religious Zionism of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Ha-­Kohen Kook (see the chapter about him) and became his enthusiastic supporter. He clearly demonstrated his views on secular Zionism in 1936 when he joined the Haganah – the Labour Zionist militia in British Palestine. He was also close to the violent ultra-­nationalist group Lehi (Gorenberg, 2000: 100). Within the Haganah he took part in the War for Independence in 1948 and was subsequently incorporated into the newly formed Israeli army. In the army he not only performed religious tasks, but also underwent training as a paratrooper. By 1948 he was the chief religious authority of the Israeli army and soon afterwards he was nominated for the then newly created position of Chief Rabbi of the Israeli army, which he subsequently received. In this rank he remained until 1968, while at the same time, in the army, he reached the rank of a major-­general. During the Sinai conflict in 1956 he risked his life several times when he carried away the bodies of dead soldiers, which had to be properly buried according to Halacha (Freedman, 2006).

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54   A rabbi serving as a general Goren was also responsible for building the structure of the military rabbinate and strengthening the religious aspects of the army (providing kosher meals for soldiers, soldiers’ participation in prayers, the creation of yeshivas combining Torah study with military service). During his life Goren also became a strict vegetarian (for ethical reasons), which was not contrary to the principles of a kosher diet (Schwartz, n.d.). In 1967, during the Six-­Day War, Shlomo Goren was among the first soldiers by the newly reacquired Wailing Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City and he blew a shofar here. A day later he came to Hebron, and even before the Israeli military operations began there, the Hebron Palestinians surrendered just after Goren’s arrival in the city. In Hebron, he opened the gates to the Abrahamic shrine Machpelah with the use of his submachine gun, and then blew a shofar again (Orthodox Union, 2006). In 1968 he was elected the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Tel Aviv. Four years later, in 1972, he left the army and in the same year was elected to the position of Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, in which he remained until 1983. However, due to his uncompromising attitudes, he often came into conflict with the Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (see the chapter about him), who was his colleague (Landau, 1993: 228). He also had disputes with other prominent religious authorities, as he often tried to bring various modernizing elements into Orthodox Judaism. One of Rabbi Goren’s rather bizarre modernization efforts was his attempt to amend the traditional Jewish blessing Kiddush Levanah (‘The sanctification of the Moon’). In one part of the blessing is the sentence ‘So I dance before you but can not touch you [Moon] . . .’. After the Americans landed the Apollo 11 mission on the moon in July 1969, Goren suggested that this passage be modified so that it would take into consideration the ability of a person to touch the moon (JTA, 1969). After the expiry of his term as Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi, Goren founded a yeshiva in Jerusalem. In politics he often held very controversial and uncompromising attitudes, which not only caused tensions between Jews and Arabs, but were also negatively received in Israeli Jewish society. Despite his many efforts to further obliterate the gap between religious and secular Jews through his approach to religious Zionism, he also contributed significantly to the radicalization of religious Zionism after 1967. His most visible and most contentious activity was his activism concerning the Temple Mount (in Hebrew: Har ha-­Bayit) in Jerusalem. This is one of the most sensitive points in the Israeli–Arab conflict.

The questions over the Temple Mount The Temple Mount is a large open space situated on the eastern side of Jerusalem’s Old City. Not only is it the holiest site of Judaism, but in the spirit of the Abrahamic tradition it is the third holiest site for Muslims and a place of special importance for some Christian groups. Religious Jews and some Christians (especially Evangelicals) believe that the Temple Mount will be the place where the last Day

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of Judgement will come. For Muslims, the Temple Mount is the place where Mohammad ascended to heaven during the Isra and Mi’raj miracle. Jews believe that when the long-­awaited Messiah comes and becomes the king of Israel, he will build the Third Temple on the Temple Mount. The Israeli army’s capture of places like the Temple Mount during military operations triggered a wave of religious messianism which was accompanied by intolerance and aggressiveness on the part of the religious Zionists. Rabbi Goren stood at their head. For example, immediately after the occupation of the Temple Mount, the rabbi proposed the destruction of the two mosques which are located on it (the Al-­Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock). However, his proposal was not only rejected, but the Israeli leadership even ordered the army to remove the Israeli flag that had been put there by the Israeli paratroopers who captured the Temple Mount during one of the Israeli Six-­ Day War operations (Sprinzak, 1991: 279). The status quo and the management of the Temple Mount by Waqf (a Muslim foundation) were at least partially maintained after 1967. Nevertheless, the events associated with the Six-­Day War ensured that the Palestinians and the Muslim world were even more opposed to Israel. In particular, the conquest of the Temple Mount by Israel had a strong symbolic meaning, and many Muslims around the world perceived it as a great disgrace to Islam. As for the Israelis, the results of the Six-­Day War contributed to the polarization between radicalized messianist fundamentalists and moderate religious and secular Jews. The capturing of the Temple Mount also created a number of political and theological questions, conflicts and controversies within the Jewish religious community. In these conflicts, Rabbi Goren again played an important role. The issues concerning the Temple Mount which were dealt with after the Six-­Day War included whether the centuries-­old status quo of the Temple Mount should be changed, and whether the building (or at least the preparation for the building) of the Third Temple should be started. Rabbi Goren was clearly on the side of the radical messianists in this dispute. His attitude was deeply criticized by traditional rabbis, who conditioned the building of the Third Temple on the will of God and the related coming of the Messiah, not on the military activities of the Israeli army (Mendel, 2000: 130). Another important question that arose in connection with the Temple Mount after 1967 was whether the Jews should have access to it: religious Jews believe that on the site of the Temple dwells God’s presence – the Shekhinah – and therefore not all Jews, but only ritually cleansed high priests should have access to the space of the former Temple. Consequently, a number of rabbis (including the Chief Rabbinate) banned Israeli Jews from entering the Temple Mount. Rabbi Goren, however, belonged to the opposite camp of rabbis who allowed Jews to enter the Temple Mount for Jewish prayers (Landau, 1993: 163). In this, Goren once again helped to legitimize provocateurs, especially those from the society of the Jewish settlers, who continued to visit the Temple Mount until today and who usually come into conflict with Muslims there. It is highly probable that Goren’s idea to destroy the mosques on the Temple Mount inspired the radical settler group ‘The Jewish Underground’, which, in 1984, tried

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56   A rabbi serving as a general unsuccessfully to blow up the two mosques. Paradoxically, though, Goren harshly criticized some Jewish terrorist activities on the Temple Mount (e.g. the gun attack by Alan Goodman on some Muslims in 19821). Rabbi Goren often commented on political and religious affairs even when he had grown old and no longer held any important public function. In the 1990s he rejected the Oslo peace process and any possible evacuation of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. He even began to recommend to Israeli soldiers that they should disobey the related ‘anti-­religious’ military orders should the evacuation finally happen. Given the above, it is not surprising that his attitudes towards the occupied Palestinians and their leadership were so negative. He saw in them an enemy of almost theological dimensions. In the case of Yasser Arafat, he even argued that Halacha ‘commands Jews to have him killed’ (JTA, 1994). The radicalism of Rabbi Goren was, in a way, more dangerous than the far more radical attitudes of Rabbis Kahane and Levinger (see the individual chapters on them). While they were always considered to be extremists in Israel and never attained high state or military positions, Rabbi Goren was, for a long time, part of the official Israeli establishment and contributed to the radicalization of religious Jews from the position of a high government official.

Selected works of Rabbi Goren At the age of 17 (in 1935) he published the commentary Nezer ha-­Kodesh (‘Crown of Holiness’) for the book Mishneh Torah by Rabbi Maimonides (Rambam). Shaarey Taharah (‘The Gates of Purity’, 1938) – on ritual baths in a mikvah. Ha-­Yerushalmi ha-­Meforash (‘The Interpreted Jerusalem Talmud’, 1961) – a commentary on the Talmud (for which he won the Israeli Prize). A prayer book for soldiers which combines various styles of prayer from Jewish communities from different parts of the world. Meshiv Milhama (‘The Renewed War’) – a three-­part halachic commentary on issues related to war. Har Ha-­Bayt (‘The Temple Mount’) – Goren’s view of halachic matters relating to the Temple Mount. Kovetz Piskei Hilkhot Tzava (‘Collection of Revenues for Laws Related to the Army’) Torat Ha-­Moadim (‘The Doctrine of the Jewish Holidays’) – a work on Jewish holidays. Moadei Israel (‘Holidays of the Israelites’). Torat Ha-­Filosofia (‘The Doctrine of Philosophy’) – a work on philosophy and Judaism. Torat Ha-­Refua (‘The Doctrine of Medicine’) – a work on Halacha and medicine. Ha-­Yerushalmi Ve-­Ha-Gra (‘The Jerusalem Talmud and Rabbi Gra’) – a work about the comments of Gaon of Vilna (Gra) to the Jerusalem Talmud.

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Note 1 On 11 April 1982, on the Temple Mount, the US-­born Israeli soldier Alan Goodman shot two Palestinians, wounded 60 others and tried to blow up the Dome of the Rock. However, Palestinians prevented him from doing so. Subsequently, Goodman was detained by Israelis and later sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1997, however, he was taken back to the United States on the condition that he would serve a further eight years in a US prison.

References Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Cohen, Yoel (1999) ‘The Political Role of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate in the Temple Mount Question’, Jewish Political Studies Review, 11: 1–2. Online: www.jcpa.org/jpsr/ s99-yc.htm. Edrei, Arye (2006) ‘Divine Spirit and Physical Power: Rabbi Shlomo Goren and the Military Ethic of the Israel Defense Forces’, Theoretical Inquiries in Law, 7(1). Online: www7.tau.ac.il/ojs/index.php/til/article/view/589. Encyclopaedia Britannica (n.d.) ‘Shlomo Goren’. Online: www.britannica.com/ EBchecked/topic/239212/Shlomo-­Goren. Freedman, Shalom (2006) Rabbi Shlomo Goren: Torah Sage and General. Jerusalem, New York: Urim Publications. Fuchs, Ilan; Hollander, Aviad Yehiel (2014) ‘National Movements and International Law: Rabbi Shlomo Goren’s Understanding of International Law’, Journal of Law and Religion, 29(2). Gorenberg, Gershom (2000) End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount. New York: Free Press. JTA (1969, 22 July) ‘Prayer on Advent of New Moon Is Altered to Take into Account Apollo 11 Achievement’. Online: www.jta.org/1969/07/22/archive/prayer-­on-advent-­ of-new-­moon-is-­altered-to-­take-into-­account-apollo-­11-achievement. JTA (1994, 31 October) ‘Rabbi Shlomo Goren Dead at 77; Was a Colorful, Controversial Figure’. Online: www.jta.org/1994/10/31/archive/rabbi-­shlomo-goren-­dead-at-­77-was-­ a-colorful-­controversial-figure. Landau, David (1993) Piety and Power: The World of Jewish Fundamentalism. London: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Mendel, Miloš (2000) Náboženství v boji o Palestinu: Judaismus, islám a křesťanství jako ideologie etnického konfliktu [Religion in the Contest for Palestine: Judaism, Islam and Christianity as Ideologies of Ethnic Conflict]. Brno: Atlantis [In Czech]. Orthodox Union (2006, 14 June) ‘Goren, Rabbi Shlomo’. Online: www.ou.org/judaism­101/bios/leaders-­in-the-­diaspora/rabbi-­shlomo-goren. Piron, Mordechai (2007) ‘Goren, Shlomo’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 7. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Schwartz, Richard (n.d.) ‘Jewish Dietary Laws (Kashrut): Rabbinic Teachings on Vegetarianism’. Online: www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/rabbinicveg.html. Sprinzak, Ehud (1991) The Ascendance of Israel’s Radical Right. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. www.ou.org/about/judaism/rabbis/goren.htm.

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The rabbi who convinced the pope Abraham Yehoshua (Yoshua) Heschel 11 January 1907–23 December 1972 25 Tevet 5667–18 Tevet 5733

Rabbi Heschel, like his teacher Rabbi Baeck (see the chapter about him), was one of the main representatives of non‑Orthodox streams of Judaism in the twentieth century. The basic characteristics of these streams and the differences between them are described above in Rabbi Baeck’s chapter. Let us therefore focus directly on the personality of Rabbi Heschel. He came from an Orthodox Jewish environment and gained a traditional education in a yeshiva. He was a descendant of several famous rabbis. On his father’s side was Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritch (c.1704–1772), who was also called ‘the Great Magid’ and was a direct student of the founder of Hasidism, Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760). Heschel’s namesake, Rabbi Abraham Yehoshua Heschel of Apt (1748–1825), also known as Ohev Yisrael (‘Friend of Yisrael’), was also on the paternal side of his family and from the Hasidic dynasty of Apta. On his mother’s side was Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (c.1740–1809), the Great Magid’s favourite student (Krajewsky and Lipszy, 2009: 11). Heschel’s subsequent deflection from Orthodoxy was, above all, a consequence of a shift in his theological thinking.

In Poland, in Germany and then back in Poland Heschel was born in Warsaw as the youngest child of Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Heschel (the ‘Peltzoviner Rebbe’) (1873–1916) and Reizel (Rebecca) Perlow Heschel (1874–1942). Heschel’s childhood was spent in his native Warsaw (which at that time constituted a part of the Russian Empire). When he was nine, his father died during an influenza epidemic. Abraham’s uncle Alter Israel Shimon Perlow of Novominsk (the ‘Novominsker Rebbe’) then took over his education and introduced him to the Hasidic manner of Kotzk. Before that, he had been influenced by the optimistic traditions of Medzhybizh.1 The tension between ‘the joy of Medzhybizh and the anxiety of Kotzk’ allowed Heschel’s mature personality and his modern temperament to appear (Kaplan, 2007: 36). After his bar mitzvah Heschel was advised to deepen his knowledge of the Talmud. His new mentor then was Rabbi Menahem Zemba (1883–1943), a member of the Warsaw Rabbinical Council and a follower of the Gerer rebbe.2 Afterwards, Abraham graduated from the Mesivta yeshiva, and though he was only about 16 years old at the time, he received a traditional Orthodox

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rabbinical ordination (smicha) from Rabbi Zemba (Kaplan, 2007: 47). But the young Heschel craved a freer atmosphere. Abraham’s mother understood his individuality, and finally she allowed him to go to Vilna to study at a gymnasium. After finishing his studies at the gymnasium in June 1927, he left Poland and went to study in Berlin. There he started studying at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, which was a famous reform rabbinical seminary in Berlin, and at the Friedrich Wilhelm Universitat, today’s Humboldt University (Heschel, 1996: x). One of his teachers at this time was Leo Baeck (see the chapter about him). Heschel eventually began working on his doctoral dissertation on prophecy, and defended it successfully at the University of Berlin in 1933. He was also granted his second rabbinical ordination – a reform one this time – by the Hochschule in 1934 (Heschel, 1996: xi–xii). The young Heschel was also active in the field of literature and published his literary work within the Yiddish poetry group Jung Vilna. His first and technically only collection of poems in Yiddish was called Der Shem Hameforash: Mentsch [The Ineffable Name of God: Man], which he dedicated to the memory of his father. In the inter-­war period, he also dealt with relations between Jews and Christians, and witnessed the rise of Nazism in Germany. This was accompanied by a decline of German Christian thinking as, for example, some pro‑Nazi Christians wanted to completely delete the Old Testament from Christian sources (see Heschel, 2008; Chinn, 2009). At the turn of 1936 and 1937, Heschel moved to Frankfurt am Main, where his friend Martin Buber (1878–1965) appointed him his successor in leading the Mittelstelle für Jüdische Erwachsenen Bildung (the Jewish Center for Adult Education; Rothschild, 2007). Heschel stayed in Frankfurt am Main until 1938, when he was arrested by the Gestapo and deported back to Poland. He then returned to Warsaw and taught for a short time at the Institute of Jewish Studies. Meanwhile, he had long been preparing his escape to a safer place, and finally managed to emigrate to London shortly before the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. Although he did not stay long in London (he lived there for around a year), it was a sufficiently long period for him to be able to found the Institute for Jewish Learning there. In 1940, he continued on his way to the United States with the help of his friends (in the war years, it was not at all easy to obtain an entry visa or the status of a refugee in the countries of the free world). In the United States, he tried to help other friends and relatives of his in Europe who were not as lucky as he was during the war. However, he often encountered indifference on the part of authorities as well as the American Jewish community, which was not able to realize to what extent occupied Europe was dangerous for Jews. Thus, a large part of his family, including several of his siblings, died in concentration camps. The Holocaust became Heschel’s lifelong trauma, just as it was for hundreds of thousands of other Jews who managed to flee to safety but lost all or part of their families at the same time. This was probably one reason why Heschel never returned to Germany or Poland (see Kaplan and Dresner, 2007).

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The American period Rabbi Heschel spent the second – and better-­known – part of his life in the United States. The American period saw him being recognized as one of the most significant Jewish thinkers and philosophers of the twentieth century. As mentioned above, Heschel arrived in the United States in 1940. There he started his career at the reform Hebrew Union College (HUC) in Cincinnati, where he worked for five years. However, he did not like the approach of not observing the commandments (mitzvot) at this reform college. What Heschel looked for was a modern academic approach to the study of the Torah, but not a disregard for its commandments. In 1945, he managed to gain the post of professor of Jewish ethics and the Kabbalah at the prestigious conservative Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) in New York, which basically fulfilled his expectations (Kaplan and Dresner, 2007: 269). Rabbi Heschel stayed there until the end of his life. In 1946, he married the pianist Sylvia Strauss. They had one daughter, Susannah (Shoshana) Heschel, who later also became a respected expert on Jewish studies. In the 1950s, he wrote his most famous works (see below) and dealt with issues of Jewish ethics and mysticism. Apart from the Kabbalah, his other subjects of interest were medieval Jewish philosophy (for example, he wrote about Saadya Gaon, Ibn Gabirol and Maimonides) and Hasidism, which he valued highly, especially because of its connections to the tradition of his predecessors (Rothschild, 2007). This topic is reflected upon in his two‑volume work about the famous Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotsk (1787–1859). Rabbi Heschel also became one of the most influential modern philosophers of religion in the United States, and his work was esteemed in both Jewish and Christian circles. In his philosophical work, Heschel tried to penetrate to the very foundations of the Jewish faith (and faith in general), which, for him, were represented by a living and dynamic relationship between God and man. Although he used all the tools of modern philosophy in his research, he stressed repeatedly that no rational analysis could exhaust the richness and deepness of the source from which faith springs. He understood the human intellect as a cognitive tool of limited power into which divinity could not be squeezed. Nevertheless, for him, this did not mean that God was an extraneous, unrecognizable power with no relation to people. In his own words, ‘the Bible does not talk only about a man looking for God but also about God looking for a man’. The question ‘Where are you?’, which God asked Adam after he and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, is still relevant for each person. He said, ‘The faith in God is a human response to God’s question.’ Rabbi Heschel’s work can be divided into two basic groups of texts that complement each other. 1 The undertaking to study and interpret the classical sources of Judaism. 2 The endeavor to offer to his contemporaries a theology which results from the application of the insights of the traditional sources to the problems and questions which the modern Jew faces. (Rothschild, 2007)

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On the basis of the above, it is not surprising that one of the topics Heschel dealt with during a substantial part of his life was prophecy and prophets.

Anti-­racist Heschel did not separate the sufferings of Jews in history from the suffering that was inflicted on other nations – quite the opposite: as a Jew he had a deeper understanding for the injustices that were committed against other nations. Thus Heschel became famous as an advocate of the fight against racism, and the following quotation by him also became well known: ‘Racism is man’s greatest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason’ (Kundtz, 2009: 112). Anti-­black racism was a very visible and serious problem in the United States at the time, and it was especially noticeable during the time of the end of racial segregation in the country. One of Heschel’s most famous photos comes from a protest march against racism in Alabama, where he walked side by side with Martin Luther King and other anti‑racists. The two men were also connected by a bond of personal friendship. King even planned to visit Heschel’s family in 1968 on the occasion of the Jewish festival of Passover, but shortly before then, this notable activist was murdered (Amir, 2011). Rabbi Heschel was also very active in his resistance to war and violence; he especially opposed the war in Vietnam (Ellis, 2011: 99).

For the reconciliation of Jews and Christians One of Rabbi Heschel’s biggest roles came in the sunset of his life. He was invited by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) to represent American Jewry at the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) convened by Pope John XXIII.3 The Council was a breakthrough in the history of Catholic theology. Its main topic was the mutual relationships between the Catholic Church and other religions. In this respect, it was vitally important from the perspective of the reinterpretation of the relationship between the Church and Jews. However, it was by no means clear if the Church would diverge from its attitude towards the Jews, as it saw them as ‘God killers’4 even despite the constructive attitudes of Pope John XXIII towards the Jews. Nevertheless, the AJC received an invitation from the Vatican to participate in a mutual dialogue in May 1962. It was sent by the German Cardinal Augustin Bea (1881–1968), who stood at the head of the Papal Council for Christian Unity and whose task was to provide the Council with a proposal for the further development of Christian– Jewish relations. In his reply to the invitation to take part in the dialogue, Rabbi Heschel listed four recommendations for a meaningful reciprocal relationship between the Church and the Jewish community: 1 That the Council brand anti-­Semitism as a sin and condemn all false teachings, such as that which holds the Jewish people responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus and sees in every Jew a murderer of Christ.

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62   The rabbi who convinced the pope 2 That Jews be recognized as Jews . . . and that the Council recognize the integrity and the continuing value of Jews and Judaism. 3 That Christians be made familiar with Judaism and Jews. 4 That a high-­level commission be set up at the Vatican, with the task of erasing prejudice and keeping a watch on Christian–Jewish relations everywhere. (Kimelman, 2004: 5) In summer 1962, Heschel was in contact with Abbot Leo Rudloff, who was an active member of an unofficial group for Catholic–Jewish relations led by Cardinal Bea. Rudloff subsequently convinced Heschel that it was important for him to stay at his disposal during the spring ecumenical council, where a discussion of the resolution against anti‑Semitism was supposed to take place. Although Rabbi Heschel expressed his concerns regarding his representativeness, his former student from the JTS, Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, also started negotiating a meeting between Rabbi Heschel and Rabbi Soloveitchik, who was supposed to represent the Orthodox community, and a meeting with Rabbi Freehof from the reform community. In March 1963, Cardinal Bea visited New York. During this visit, Rabbi Heschel led a delegation of Jewish representatives who met the Cardinal in person.5 Cardinal Bea assured all the participating representatives of the Jewish community that the Catholic Church was interested in reinterpreting its then existing attitudes towards the Jews. Everything seemed to be going the right way. However, doubts about and dangers to the mutual dialogue appeared soon. On 3 June 1963, Pope John XXIII died during the course of the Council. Although his follower Paul VI showed himself to be a resolute proponent of his predecessor’s efforts to reconcile Catholics with the Jews, other problems emerged. The proposal for the Council’s declaration called Nostra Aetate (‘In Our Time’) from the second session of 1964 did not turn out to be particularly successful from the Jewish point of view. Although in this session the disputable reference to ‘God killers’ (deicide) was left out, and the collective blame of the Jews for Jesus’s crucifixion was rejected, an eschatological expectation of the unification of the Jews and the Church was added. Precisely in this statement many Jews saw a confirmation of the Christian missionary campaign against the Jews and an effort to convert them to Christianity. Rabbi Heschel called this proposition ‘a spiritual fratricide’, and he proclaimed very emotionally that if he were ‘[f]aced with the choice of conversion or death in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, he would choose Auschwitz’ (Kimelman, 2004: 7). Rabbi Soloveitchik also harshly criticized this claim and suggested that the Jewish–Christian discussion should be limited solely to a non‑religious dialogue that would only require the Council to condemn anti‑Semitism. This is the point where the opinions of Rabbi Soloveitchik and Rabbi Heschel started to differ, however. Heschel held the view that it was necessary to find a common ground and establish mutual respect between the two religions. Although he reproached

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Christianity for its ‘de-­Jewification’ (especially of the Bible) and the dogmatism of its theology, he strived for a mutual coalition of Jews and Christians against modern nihilism, the Bible’s desecration and its exclusion from public discussions. He also called for a mutual respect of both religions: A Christian ought to realize that a world without [the nation of] Israel will be a world without the God of Israel. A Jew, on the other hand, ought to acknowledge the eminent role and part of Christianity in God’s design for the redemption of all men. (Talmage, 1975: 351) On 14 September 1964, Heschel was invited to an audience with Pope Paul VI, where he attempted to convince the pope to accept Cardinal Bea’s proposition that opposed the conversion of Jews to Christianity and false accusations of deicide (Tanenbaum, 1983: 17). Rabbi Heschel succeeded in this endeavour, to the surprise of many. This step has also been evaluated as a breakthrough in the mutual relations between Jews and Christians. It is obvious that without the unceasing efforts from Rabbi Heschel’s side, the Nostra Aetate declaration of the Second Council would look very different. In spite of the fact that the final version of the declaration from October 1965 does not eliminate the claim for the Jews’ conversion completely, it does not call for it, nor does it demand a prospective amalgamation of the Jews with the Church in the future. As evidence of the fact that Rabbi Heschel’s efforts have borne fruit, let us list the ten points from the declaration by the Christian Scholars Group of 2003 called ‘A Sacred Obligation: Rethinking Christian Faith in Relation to Judaism and the Jewish People’:   1 God’s covenant with the Jewish people endures forever.   2 Jesus of Nazareth lived and died as a faithful Jew.   3 Ancient rivalries must not define Christian–Jewish relations today.   4 Judaism is a living faith, enriched by many centuries of development.   5 The Bible both connects and separates Jews and Christians.   6 Affirming God’s enduring covenant with the Jewish people has consequences for Christian understandings of salvation.   7 Christians should not target Jews for conversion.   8 Christian worship that teaches contempt for Judaism dishonors God.   9 We affirm the importance of the land of Israel for the life of the Jewish people. 10 Christians should work with Jews for the healing of the world. (Saint Joseph’s University, 2002) In 1971, Rabbi Heschel was with his wife in Italy on a lecture tour. Since he was in Italy a private audience for him with Pope Paul VI was arranged, and was held in Rome on 17 March. Rabbi Heschel described the visit as follows:

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64   The rabbi who convinced the pope When the Pope saw me he smiled joyously, with a radiant face, shook my hand cordially with both his hands. He did so several times during the audience. He opened the conversation by telling me that he is reading my books, that my books are very spiritual and very beautiful, and that Catholics should read my books. He expressed his blessing that I may continue to write more books. He then added that he knows of the great impact my books are having upon young people, which he particularly appreciates. (Heschel, 1996: xxviii) Rabbi Heschel died in his sleep on a Shabbat morning in December 1972. A number of educational institutions have continued his legacy after his death, and many of them (mainly in the United States) currently carry his name.

Rabbi Heschel’s most famous works Der Shem Hameforash: Mentsch (‘The Ineffable Name of God: Man’, 1933) – a collection of poems in Yiddish. Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion (1951). God in Search of Man (1956). In the two preceding volumes, Rabbi Heschel develops his philosophical reflections on the relation of man and God. The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (1951) – a book that deals with the search for sacred time. The Prophets (1962). Torah from Heaven in the Light of the Generations (1962, 1995). Israel: An Echo of Eternity (1969). A Passion for Truth (1973).

Notes 1 The home of Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760), the founder of the Hasidic movement. 2 He was also active in the Agudat Yisrael political party. 3 Members of the AJC at the time included the following rabbis: Elio Toaff from Rome, Jacob Kaplan from France, and Louis Finkelstein, Salo Baron, Yosef Ber Soloveitchik and Abraham Heschel from the United States. 4 Since the Middle Ages, a favourite argument of Christian anti‑Judaism (which modern anti‑Semitism gradually built on) has been the Christians’ accusation that Jews had a collective liability for Jesus’s crucifixion. A number of other accusations against Jews accumulated in the course of centuries – they were accused of desecrating hosts, murdering Christian virgins and boys for the purposes of Jewish religious rituals, poisoning wells and other crimes, although the charges were usually fabrications. Anti‑Judaism was also supported by some key Christian authorities, including John Chrysostom, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther and a range of popes. For further information about the relations between Christians and Jews, see the chapters on Rabbi Lau and Rabbi Soloveitchik. 5 Rabbi Soloveitchik was also supposed to attend the meeting, but could not due to his wife’s serious illness.

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References Amir, Nina (2011, 17 January) ‘Two Prophets: Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King’, Examiner. Online: www.examiner.com/article/two-­prophets-abraham-­ joshua-heschel-­and-martin-­luther-king. Chinn, Benzion (2009) ‘Review: The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany by Susannah Heschel’, Origins, April. Online: http://origins.osu.edu/ review/god-­nazis. Ellis, Marc H. (2011) Encountering the Jewish Future: With Wiesel, Buber, Heschel, Arendt, and Levinas. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. Heschel, Abraham (2009) Šabat: Jeho význam pro současného člověka [The Shabbat: Its Meaning for Modern Man]. Prague: Academia [In Czech]. Heschel, Abraham Joshua; Heschel, Susannah (ed.) (1996) Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Heschel, Susannah (2008) The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Kaplan, Edward K.; Dresner, Samuel H. (2007) Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness. New Have, CT: Yale University Press. Kimelman, Reuven (2004) ‘Rabbis Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Abraham Joshua Heschel on Jewish–Christian Relations’, The Edah Journal, 4(2). Online: www.edah.org/ backend/journalarticle/4_2_kimelman.pdf. Krajewsky, Stanisław; Lipszy, Adam (eds) (2009) Abraham Joshua Heschel Philosophy, Theology and Interreligious Dialogue. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. Kundtz, David (2009) Awakened Mind: One-­Minute Wake up Calls to a Bold and Mindful Life. San Francisco, CA: Conari Press. Rothschild, F.A. (2007) ‘Heschel, Abraham Joshua’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 9. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Saint Joseph’s University (2002, 1 September) Ecumenical Christian Documents & Statements. Online: www.ccjr.us/dialogika-­resources/documents-­and-statements/ecumenical-­ christian/568-csg-­02sep1. Talmage, Frank (1975) Disputation and Dialogue: Readings in the Jewish–Christian Encounter. New York: KTAV Publishing House. Tanenbaum, Marc (1983) Heschel and Vatican II, Jewish–Christian Relations. New York: JTS.

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The Palestinian rabbis Moshe Hirsch 1923–2 May 2010 (18 Iyar 5770)

Yisrael Meir Hirsch Born 1955 It is no surprise that after the long‑running conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, many Israelis do not regard the Palestinians as their favourite neighbours – and vice versa. When we look at various prejudices and social phobias directly within Israeli Jewish society, we find that there is great animosity between secular Israelis and the ultra‑Orthodox Haredim as well (see Ben-­Yehuda, 2010). Then imagine what kinds of reactions are triggered by people who belong among the most traditional Haredim and concurrently profess themselves to be Palestinians. It is precisely the Israeli – or, actually, the Palestinian – faction of the international anti‑Zionist Jewish platform Neturei Karta that falls into this category.1 In Jerusalem it was headed by Rabbi Moshe Hirsch until his death in 2010; its leader today is his son Yisrael Meir Hirsch. Rabbi Moshe Hirsch’s religious influence was never particularly significant, which can also be said about his impact and influence on Israeli politics. Despite this, the rabbi markedly imprinted himself on the memory of contemporary Israelis. Hirsch drew attention to himself in a restless way by expressing very radical anti‑Zionist attitudes that went hand in hand with his stalwart belief that the Jewish state that originated before the coming of the Messiah was heretic and delayed his arrival (see the treatise on the Three Oaths in the chapter on Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum). Opinions like these made most Israelis consider him a fool, an absolute eccentric or the personification of the worst aspects a secular Israeli could find in a Haredi Jew.2 The very fact that, out of religious reasons, he kept company with Yasser Arafat – the one person that many Israelis regarded as the ‘arch enemy’ – pushed him into the category of ‘traitors’. Similar views were also frequently proclaimed by those who regarded themselves as pacifists or leftists. Hirsch was in the best case viewed as being part of the tradition of Jewish ‘folklore’, or a lunatic and a ‘clownish figure who comes from the marginal periphery of Jerusalem’s anti-­ Zionist ultra-­orthodox rabbinical circles’ (Rubinstein, 1995: 3). Moshe Hirsch came from a Jewish community in New York. He was born in the Lower East Side, Manhattan, in a Litvak (non‑Hasidic) family with the Perushim tradition. He graduated from the prestigious Lakewood Yeshiva in

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New Jersey, where he studied theology, and became close friends with its founder Rabbi Aharon Kotler.3 The young Hirsch stood out thanks to his immense interest in studying his subjects very thoroughly, a quality that he maintained for the whole of his life and that was not weakened by his subsequent political activities. After his studies at Lakewood, he decided to move to Israel and continue to expand his education there. However, he never gained Israeli citizenship and lived in Israel only with a US passport until his death. He proceeded in his studies at the Slobodka Yeshiva in Bnei Brak and later at the Hebron Yeshiva in Jerusalem (see Hoffman, 2010). His marriage also had a great impact on the formation of his anti‑Zionist attitudes. Despite being a Litvak, he married the daughter of the famous Hasidic Rabbi Aharon Katzenellenbogen. Together with Rabbi Amram Blau (see the chapter about him), Katzenellenbogen established the anti‑Zionist Jewish group Neturei Karta (Aramaic: ‘Guardians of the City’) in the 1930s.4 Hirsch and his wife moved to the Meah Shearim quarter of Jerusalem in order to be close to the two rabbis. After Blau’s death, Hirsch became one of the most prominent personalities of Neturei Karta in Jerusalem. In the meantime, Hirsch continued in his studies, received a smicha (a rabbinical ordination) from Rabbi Eliezer Yehudah Finkel and became a rosh yeshiva in the city of Ashkelon, where he commuted from Jerusalem to teach. Hirsch was not in any way just an activist with simplified views, rather his beliefs were based on deep studies in the Lithuanian style and on teaching. He was also an expert on the halachic laws for the use of etrogs, and sold them before Sukkot in Meah Shearim (Hoffman, 2010).

Friendly relations with Arabs for the sake of saving Jewish lives Like Blau, Rabbi Hirsch had zero tolerance for the Zionist establishment. He was, nevertheless, much more militant and radical than his mentors, and also directed more attention to cooperation with Arabs. He also expressed his stance towards Arabs by starting to label himself a ‘Jewish Palestinian’, and always claimed his nationality to be Palestinian – and this was definitely not a mere symbolic gesture. He was always very consistent in this proposition. One of the main reasons for Hirsch’s positive relationship with Arabs was his effort to save human lives5 and prevent bloodshed in the spirit of his conviction that ‘Israel increases the tension between Jews and Arabs and we alleviate it’. In practice, this effort was manifested not only by Neturei Karta’s demonstrations and propaganda but also by the rabbi’s effort to save the kidnapped Israeli soldier, Nachshon Waxmann, in 1994. The soldier had been kidnapped by Hamas, and the rabbi tried to use his Arabic connections to rescue him. He even obtained permission from Rabbi Simcha Bonim Waldenberg to disobey one of the Sabbath prohibitions and make phone calls on the Sabbath since a human life was in danger. However, the Israeli army had in the meantime launched a rescue operation during which the kidnapped soldier was killed. Rabbi Hirsch claimed that considering the fact that his negotiations concerning the soldier’s release were going well, the Israelis launched the operation so that Hirsch’s prospective

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68   The Palestinian rabbis success would not reinforce the anti‑Zionists (Artzi, 2010). In any case, the main purposes of the Rabbi’s opinions and efforts – despite their seeming naivety – were supposed to be the prevention of bloodshed between Jews and Arabs and to provide proof of the fact that Zionists and Jews were not one and the same.

Arafat’s rabbi In February 1984, Rabbi Hirsch even contemplated the possibility that the Jewish quarter of Meah Shearim could be annexed to the future Palestinian state.6 In the 1980s, he established contact with Yasser Arafat (who then still lived in exile in Tunisia), which he further developed such that they gradually became real friends. It was certainly also in Arafat’s interest not to give the impression that he was an anti‑Semite, as he claimed merely to be an anti‑Zionist. Arafat also frequently reminded others that the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis was not a conflict between Palestinians and Jews, but a conflict between Palestinians and Zionists. Arafat made the following claim in connection with this issue: These expressions are priceless examples of the long-­standing and abiding relationship between Jews and Arabs reaching back hundreds of years, and enable the entire world to see the stark contrast between the eternal and beautiful values of Judaism and those embodied in aggressive Zionism. . . . This is vital in emphasizing that there is no conflict between Jew and Arab. (Rabkin, 2006: 219) Arafat never kept secret his friendship with a man who, in many Palestinians’ eyes, looked exactly like the ‘evil Jew’ from the anti‑Semitic cartoons in the Arab press. At the time of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process in the 1990s, Arafat and Hirsch met many times. Arafat even appointed him his adviser and ‘Minister for Jewish Affairs’ (see Rubinstein, 1995: 115–116). Although this political position almost never had any practical consequence, Hirsch remained in it from 1994 until Arafat’s death in 2004. Hirsch visited Arafat directly in Palestine even after 2002, when he was surrounded by Israeli armed forces in his residence in Ramallah (Rubinstein, 2003). When Arafat travelled to France in 2004 to receive medical treatment and later died there, Hirsch led a delegation of anti‑Zionist Haredim who prayed for Arafat in Paris. After Arafat’s death, it was a ‘sensation’ when information about Arafat’s reported contributions to Neturei Karta, amounting to tens of thousands of dollars, leaked out (Vos Iz Neias, 2006). Neturei Karta’s representatives, unlike most Haredim, refuse to accept all state contributions from Israel for theological reasons, so its members live mainly on the income from their adherents’ foundations from abroad, predominantly from the United States and the United Kingdom (Mendel, 2000: 106). It is true that Hirsch’s attitudes towards Israel sometimes even surprised Palestinians. In fact, many Palestinians pragmatically accept Israel, at least within its

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pre-­1967 borders, as Arafat and the PLO took this approach in the 1990s. In the West Bank Palestinians are often confronted with expansionist Jewish settlers who do not accept Palestinian statehood or sometimes even Palestinian autonomy. Thus, for many of them, expansionist Israeli settlers are examples of the ‘real Israelis’. In this case is quite natural that many Palestinians may feel surprised when they find out that in the heart of Jewish Jerusalem there exists a group of faithful Jews which is totally opposed to the existence of Israel. They may also see that their view of Israel is not only much more critical than Arafat’s (in whose government Rabbi Hirsch formally officiated), but in some aspects it is (theoretically) more radical than the approaches of Hamas, which, in some respects, also became at least partly pragmatic. Once Rabbi Hirsch even said, ‘Why should Israelis draft us into their Army if they do not draft Arabs for security reasons? We are greater anti-­Zionists than the Arabs!’ (Mendel, 2000: 106). But it is also very probable that many Palestinians do not understand the complex reason for the radical stance of Neturei Karta. It lies in the most traditional Haredi political theology, which is deeply opposed to Jewish calls for a modern secular state called ‘Israel’ in the Biblical territory of the original Israel.7 This is the ‘original/primal sin’ for radical anti-­Zionist Haredim, and it existed long before the Palestinian problem, which emerged in full force after 1948. The current pro-­Palestinian actions of Neturei Karta are thus caused not primarily by the suffering of Palestinians, but by the existence of the Zionist ideology itself. It is, according to them, the main transgression against God’s will, and also causes God’s punishment for this sin, which takes the form of modern anti-­Semitism and the bloodshed in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The empathy of Neturei Karta with Palestinians is just a product of their radical political theology. But it is important to keep in mind that there are also other Haredi groups which are theologically very anti-­Zionist – mainly Satmar Hasidic groups around the world (especially in the United States) and the group called ‘True Torah Jews’ – but they do not accept support for Palestinian or other Arab or Muslim causes. The reason is that they fear Arab/Muslim terrorism and they see that many Arabs/Muslims do not make the distinction between Jews and Zionists.8 In this context it is understandable that Hirsch’s opinions were not just unacceptable for the mainstream Haredim, but also for the majority of more moderate anti-­Zionists – sometimes because of theological reasons that were perhaps interpreted too strictly, and sometimes also because of a certain laxness that is exemplified by the statement ‘Why should we antagonize a country – even if it is theologically unacceptable – that can be taken advantage of and formed in our image?’, which is highly characteristic of the majority of Israeli Haredim. On the other hand, no one can blame Hirsch for the lack of frankness in his steps, as well as for the fact that it is definitely not easy to live in Israel with the kinds of views he expressed. A Jewish radical once attacked Rabbi Hirsch and threw acid in his face (Baram, 2010). The rabbi lost his eye during the assault, and appreciable scars remained on his face afterwards. When Moshe Hirsch died

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70   The Palestinian rabbis in 2010, his funeral procession was attacked by fundamentalist Jewish settlers, including members of the Kach terrorist movement, which was outlawed by Israel. At the time they denounced him as an enemy of Israel (Hevesi, 2010). It is a strange paradox that although Hirsch and his adherents presented their views completely peacefully almost every time, they often received a much greater condemnation than some radical rabbis from the community of religious Zionists and their followers from among the Jewish settlers, who were responsible for various acts of violence and, in some cases, murders. Towards the end of his life, Rabbi Hirsch developed Alzheimer’s disease, which increasingly manifested itself over time. The leadership of Neturei Karta’s Jerusalem faction was thus gradually taken over by his son Yisrael Meir Hirsch.9 After the elder Rabbi Hirsch’s death in 2010, the adviser of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stated that Palestinians acknowledge Rabbi Hirsch as a member of the Palestinian people. He was one of the Palestinian Jews whom we respect greatly, and this is also a confirmation of the fact that we do not have any problems with Jews as such, but with Zionists.

An interview with Rabbi Yisrael Meir Hirsch, 9 February 2009, Meah Shearim, Jerusalem [At the time of the interview, the head of the Jerusalem faction of Neturei Karta was formally still his father, Moshe Hirsch; however, because of the fact that he was already seriously ill, the organization was de facto led by his son.] The interview was conducted by Marek Čejka. Rabbi, who can be a member of Neturei Karta? Any Jew can be a member of this organization, regardless of his or her intra‑Jewish affiliation. It makes no difference whether he or she is an Ashkenazi, a Sephardi, a Hasid, a Litvak, a Perushim . . . A big part of the Haredim do not hold such radical views against Zionism, or at least they do not let it be known so much. What do these Haredim think of Neturei Karta? Yes, a number of Haredim behave more pragmatically with respect to Zionism – for example, they attend elections, receive state aid, etc. However, there are a number of people among them who respect us. They know we are genuine Jews and that we are serious about what we are doing. As a faithful Jew, you can, of course, have other opinions too. Do you get any money from Israel? No! None of our contributions come from the Zionists. They mostly come from abroad – mainly from our supporters from the United States and Europe. Some of our people work in our community and they also earn some money, but not from Zionists.

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Do you have an Israeli passport? No, I personally have an American passport. But it is true that some of our members have to have – even in cases of extreme self‑denial – Israeli passports because otherwise they would not be able to travel at all. But if they had the opportunity to obtain another passport, they would certainly exchange the Israeli one for it. For example, one of our followers in London has recently burnt his Israeli passport in public. What relations do you have with Palestinians and Palestinian politicians, such as Mahmoud Abbas [the current Palestinian president]? I know your father was very close to Arafat. Do you still have such good contacts with the Palestinian politicians as him? Was your father’s position in Arafat’s cabinet only formal or did it have a practical meaning? In any case, I can imagine that your father’s activities in Israel were not particularly popular . . . Yes, we still have contacts in Palestine. My father’s position in Arafat’s cabinet was not merely symbolic. My father and Arafat met very often and they negotiated together about a range of things in the Palestinian cabinet. However, this, of course, did not appeal to the Zionists. One Zionist even wanted to blind my father once. When he was going to a morning prayer [shacharit] at dawn, somebody threw acid in his face. The person – it is supposedly someone from the extreme right – has never been punished. What these people would like more than anything else is to kill us. And what about the Israeli police? We have great problems with them. Really great problems . . . [He gives a sad laugh.] Do you also have any contacts with the Hamas? We have certain contacts with them, but organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah or the Islamic Jihad are very closed off. They also believe in the idea that one of the authentic parts of their religion is the command to lead a holy war. It is true that they showed respect to us in the sense that they accept us as Palestinian Jews, but on the other hand, they believe they can take possession of Palestine from the Zionists only by force. And this is definitely not our way. You surely know about some anti‑Semitic provisions in the Hamas Charter . . . Yes. But we do not think anti‑Semitism is truly rooted in them. It is a by‑product of their conflict with the Zionists. Moreover, even Arabs are Semites like Jews, so they can hardly be anti‑Semites. . . . And when we look more closely at anti‑Semitism, we see that Zionists could hardly build a ‘Jewish State’ without it. So they, in fact, have a stake in it. And they even create anti‑Semitism in the moments when it does not exist. For instance, it happens frequently that when somebody criticizes Israel in the West, they immediately say, ‘He is an anti‑Semite!’ Zionists actually do not care about Jews as such; they care only about their interests.

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72   The Palestinian rabbis Do you know Rabbi Froman [see the chapter about him], a Jewish settler and religious Zionist who became a peace activist? If yes, what do you think about him? Do you mean Froman from the Tekoa settlement? Yes, we know him. This is a very specific case. He has a great respect for the Palestinians, and he knows they need their state. We appreciate this very much. On the other hand, he is also a big Zionist. And in this case, such a person cannot represent authentic Judaism from our point of view. Do you think that most faithful Jews in Eastern Europe were anti‑Zionist before World War II? Yes, such Jews were even in some parts of pre‑war Czechoslovakia. You have definitely heard about the Hasidic groups like Satmar, Bobov, Vizhnitz, Munkács and others. All these were led by very anti‑Zionist rabbis. When you look at today’s Zionist politicians and personalities in Israel, is there any personality among them who you think highly of? It is difficult to think highly of them. Zionism is a big disaster in the first place. All the violence you see around you is connected to Zionism and the existence of the ‘Jewish State’. Do you also really view the Holocaust as God’s punishment for Zionism? Yes. The Holocaust played into the Zionists’ hands a bit – they did not care about the Jews’ fates during the war. Even when there were certain opportunities for saving Jews in those times, they did not do it. Do you think Arabs stopped differentiating between Jews and Zionists? No. We have much evidence for the fact that Arabs do not have problems with Jews as such, but with Zionists. And this applies also to Hezbollah and Hamas. The current conflict between Jews and Arabs is political and national, not religious. In the past, when there was no Zionism, Arabs and Jews did not have any problems with each other. And the Koran is not anti‑Jewish. But some of its provisions can, after all, be interpreted in ways that can lead to animosity against Jews . . . But the Koran does not say anywhere that Jews should be killed. They, in contrast, have guaranteed protection under the Muslims’ rule. After all, Jews have, for centuries, lived on the territory of today’s Arab world – in Morocco, Syria, Lebanon. . . . And some of them have even lived in Arab countries until now. I repeat once again that true Muslims do not have any problem with Jews because Islam itself is not anti‑Jewish. Today, you can even travel to some Arab countries with a Zionist passport – to Qatar, for example. I have heard that some anti‑Zionist Jews do not even go to the Western Wall even though they have spent their whole lives in Jerusalem. Is it true? Yes. They are inspired to avoid going there by the teachings of the Rabbi of Satmar. I have never been there either.

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Really? You have not even seen it from a distance? No. We will go to see it when it will be on the territory of Palestine. When do you assume the Messiah could come? We, of course, do not know this. And how will you recognize him? The followers of Chabad say that Rabbi Schneersohn is the Messiah . . . No. And not all Chabad followers hold this view, only a part of them. Of course it is very hard to say how we will recognize him – nobody knows for sure. We will wait. Which rabbis do you value the most today? Rabbi Moshe Chaim Sonnenfeld, Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum and many others. Rabbi Blau was also important to us. He is buried at the Givat Shaul cemetery, which is near the place where the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin was located. It was destroyed by the Zionists during the Nakba.10 What do you think of rabbis like Ovadia Yosef? [Before conducting this interview, its author saw some adherents of Neturei Karta tearing down Rabbi Yosef ’s election posters.] Ovadia Yosef was born in Iraq, and his story is very sad. He joined the Zionists mainly for acquisitive reasons. It was mainly the Zionist rabbinate, Israeli politics, and the Shas Party that made him a ‘Great Rabbi’. Do you spend your time mainly in the Jerusalem quarter of Meah Shearim or do you travel to other quarters and cities inhabited by the Haredim like Bnei Brak [near Tel Aviv]? Yes, we also travel abroad. Neturei Karta is active in Bnei Brak too. Do Neturei Karta members meet in a special synagogue? We have a synagogue, but we go to other synagogues as well. There is a great deal of them in Meah Shearim. I can see the numerous religious books you have here. Can you tell me more about the sources of your anti‑Zionism? Yes, I have the Talmud in my library, of course. There are two Talmuds – the Jerusalem [Yerushalmi] and the Babylonian [Bavli] Talmud. For us, the much more important one is the Babylonian Talmud. There are many passages concerning anti‑Zionism, but the parts of the Ketubot tractate that deal with this issue are the most important.11 There we can learn that Jews should not arrive in the Holy Land in large groups, but only individually. Jews should not be rebellious against other nations either, and they should not pray for the coming of the Messiah too much. Since the times of the Talmud, Jews have traditionally had respect for the rulers of the different countries under which they have lived, be they the Ancient Romans, the present‑day English Queen or the Palestinian government.

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74   The Palestinian rabbis And finally I have one more question that is not connected to what we have talked about here. You do not have any problems with taking photos, but I have noticed that a number of Haredim do not like it when somebody takes a picture of them. Does it have any specific religious reason? Not at all. They just do not know what you will do with the photo, so they do not find it pleasant. There is no religious reason for it. [He laughs.]

Notes   1 According to the author’s interview with the head of the US branch of Neturei Karta, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss (24 June 2014, Monsey), Neturei Karta is merely an anti-­ Zionist platform rather than a solid organization with a membership, etc.   2 The opinions of secular Israelis on religious Jews are often marked by ignorance and prejudice. On the other side, the religious Jews’ view of secular Israelis is marked rather by indifference or isolationism.   3 The Lakewood Yeshiva, which is also often called Beit Midrash Govoha, was founded in 1943 by Rabbi Aharon Kotler. With its approximately 6,000 students, it is one of the largest Orthodox yeshivas in the world.   4 The name ‘Neturei Karta’ – Guardians of the City – was derived from the Jerusalem Talmud. The Chagigah tract (6a–6b) states that devout scholars are ‘the guardians and protectors of the city’ (in Aramaic: neturei karta).   5 The so‑called pikuach nefesh. See the glossary for further information.   6 He later also negotiated with Arafat about the proposed transfer of the community of anti‑Zionist Jews to the Arab East Jerusalem. Arafat promised to support the project financially; however, Israeli authorities did not approve the transfer.   7 The Palestinians will most likely not be well informed about Jewish theology either.   8 This finding is based on Marek Čejka’s interviews with members of the Satmar Hasidic community in Williamsburg and the spokesman of ‘True Torah Jews’, Yaakov Shapiro (summer 2014).   9 Yisrael Meir Hirsch is famous not only for his activism, but also for being the author of a prayer book called Siddur Vilna. 10 Nakba (literally ‘disaster, catastrophe’ in Arabic). Yaum an-­Nakba – the day of the disaster (15 May 1948). The concept is associated with the declaration of independence of the State of Israel, which here symbolizes Palestinians’ exodus and expulsion from Palestine. According to the Jewish calendar, the Israeli independence day falls on 5 Iyar 5708 (in 1948, it fell on 14 May). Palestinians remember this event every year as well, but according to their civil calendar they remember it a day later, i.e. on 15 May. 11 It is a passage from the Talmud (the Ketubot tractate 110b–111a). For detailed information on this, see the chapter on Rabbi Teitelbaum.

References Artzi, A. (2010, 5 May) ‘Embracing Arabs to Protect Jews?’, Shaah Tovah. Online: www. vosizneias.com/wp-­content/uploads/2010/05/NK-­Interview.pdf. Baram, Daphna (2010, 7 May) ‘Rabbi Moshe Hirsch: Ultra-­Orthodox Jewish Leader Who Became an Adviser to Yasser Arafat’, Independent. Online: www.independent.co.uk/ news/obituaries/rabbi-­moshe-hirsch-­ultraorthodox-jewish-­leader-who-­became-an-­ adviser-to-­yasser-arafat-­1965588.html. Ben-­Yehuda, Nachman (2010) Theocratic Democracy: The Social Construction of Religious and Secular Extremism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Hevesi, Dennis (2010, 5 May) ‘Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, Israel Opponent, Dies at 86’, International Herald Tribune. Hoffman, Y. (2010, 2 May) ‘Rabbi Moshe Hirsch of Neturei Karta Passes Away’, Vos Iz Neias. Online: www.vosizneias.com/54507/2010/05/02/jerusalem-­rabbi-moshe-­hirschof-­neturei-karta-­passes-away. Mendel, Miloš (2000) Náboženství v boji o Palestinu: Judaismus, islám a křesťanství jako ideologie etnického konfliktu [Religion in the Contest for Palestine: Judaism, Islam and Christianity as Ideologies of Ethnic Conflict]. Brno: Atlantis [In Czech]. Odenheimer, Micha (2006) ‘We Do Not Believe. We Will Not Follow’, Guilt and Pleasure, 2 (Spring). Online: www.guiltandpleasure.com/index.php?site=rebootgp&page=gp_ article&id=17. Rabkin, Yaakov (2006) A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Rubinstein, Danny (1995) The Mystery of Arafat. South Royalton, VT: Steeforth Press. Rubinstein, Danny (2003, 23 February) ‘What on Earth Does Arafat Do All Day?’, Haaretz. Online: www.haaretz.com/print-­edition/features/what-­on-earth-­does-arafat-­ do-all-­day-1.18214. Shaah Tovah Magazine (2010, 24 May) ‘Embracing Arabs to Protect Jews: Interview With R’ Yisrael Meir, Son of Late Rabbi Moshe Hirsch’, Vos Iz Neias. Online: www. vosizneias.com/56145/2010/05/24/jerusalem-­e mbracing-arabs-­t o-protect-­j ewsinterview-­with-r’-yisrael-­meir-son-­of-late-­rabbi-moshe-­hirsch. Vos Iz Neias (2006, 13 December) ‘New Discovery: Arafat Paid Off Neturei Karta Leader’. Online: www.vosizneias.com/6478/2006/12/13/israel-­new-discovery-­arafatpaid-­off.

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The rabbi who predicted the coming of the Messiah Yitzhak Kaduri 2 October 1898–28 January 20061 16 Tishri 5659–29 Tevet 5766

If you ask an Orthodox Jew about Rabbi Kaduri, he will probably talk about him with great respect and hope for an early arrival of the Messiah, which the rabbi predicted. However, Rabbi Kaduri was famous not only because of this prophecy, but also because he was an important scholar and mystic, and at the end of his long life he also connected himself with the religious party Shas and thus with Israeli politics. Among religious Jews of all rites there are still many people who claim that they were witnesses of the rabbi’s wondrous and sometimes almost borderline miraculous deeds (Schneider, 2013). But on the other hand, some important rabbis such as his Sephardic colleague Ovadia Yosef belittled his alleged miraculous abilities (Wagner, 2006). He is also known for his political activities, which sometimes turned out to be quite controversial. Yitzhak Kaduri was born in Baghdad, the capital of today’s Iraq, and he was thus one of a number of famous rabbis from this centre of the Arab world (see also the rabbis mentioned in the chapter on Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ), which was then in the territory of the Ottoman Empire. His father was Rabbi Kaduri Diba (Zev) ben Aziz, and his mother was named Rabanit Tufaha. His father was a merchant in spices and the family breadwinner. When Yitzhak grew older, his father sent him to study at the Beit Zilka Yeshiva, which in those days was a centre of education for scholars in Baghdad. Here he met the famous Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, who was also called Ben Ish Chai (1834–1909), and who was then nearing the end of his life. Also, here Rabbi Kaduri studied under the guidance of many Baghdad sages,2 especially under Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer (1870–1939). Rav Kaduri was a remarkable student. From his youth he excelled in humility, kindness and enthusiasm for learning. He also managed to study the entire Talmud by the age of 17. At the same age he gave a lecture about some kabbalistic topics before some sages of Baghdad. They were impressed by his erudition and wisdom. They advised him not to reveal his brilliant mind in public lest he bring envy (Ayin Ha-­Ra) upon himself. Since then he practised restraint in his speech (Kaduri, 2007: 26). The religious Jews’ relationship to and respect for books, especially sacred books, are immense. Rav Kaduri was no exception to this tendency. His library in Baghdad contained many rare books, and some of them were the only copies of certain books in Iraq. One of these books was Shaar Maamrei Rashbi (‘The

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Gateway of Statements of Rabbi Shimeon bar Yochai’).3 When the renowned kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Petaya (1859–1942) found out that this book was in the library of the young Yitzhak Kaduri, he visited him and asked him to loan it to him. Yitzhak lent him the book willingly, and Rabbi Petaya returned it after a few months. When Yitzhak opened the book, he found, to his amazement, that it was full of important explanatory notes written by Rabbi Petaya himself. The book full of comments from the famous rabbi was, for him, the highest possible reward for the loan (Kaduri, 2007: 29). Love for books also brought Rav Kaduri to the bookbinding craft, which he later used when transcribing rare writings in the library of the Porat Yosef Yeshiva. On the advice of the scholars of Baghdad, Rabbi Kaduri went to study in the British Mandate of Palestine. Here he continued his studies at the Shoshanim Le-­David Yeshiva, which was the centre of learning for scholars from Iraq. There he lived an ascetic life, and almost all of his strength was devoted to his studies under the leading kabbalists of that time, such as the above-­mentioned Rabbi Petaya or Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer. Meanwhile, his mother languished in his absence, and since Rav Kaduri honoured her very much, he returned to her home in Iraq as soon as it was possible. He then stayed with her for the next three years. Then he permanently moved to Palestine, but this time with his mother (Kaduri, 2007: 27). After coming to the Holy Land he adopted the first name of his father as his surname, and thus his surname was changed from Diba (Zev) to Kaduri.4 He then began to study at the prominent Sephardic Porat Yosef Yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem,5 where he deepened his already considerable knowledge of the Talmud, Halacha and Kabbalah. Among his teachers there were scholars such as Rosh Yeshiva Rav Ezra Attiya (1887–1970), Rav Salman Eliyahu (1878–1940) and Rav Efraim Ha-­Kohen (1885–1955). Rabbi Kaduri then married his first wife Rabbanit Sarah, and they had two children, David and Rachel. The young couple moved outside the Old City to Jerusalem’s Bukhari Quarter (named after the Jews of the Central Asian city Bukhara). During this period, Kaduri usually spent the whole week in the yeshiva and returned home only for the Shabbat. The Porat Yosef Yeshiva then offered the family more favourable housing in 1934, which the Rav and his family accepted and moved back to Jerusalem’s Old City near the yeshiva. The yeshiva also employed the Rav as a binder and transcriber of books and rare manuscripts.6 In such cases, the originals remained in the yeshiva’s library, while copies were deposited at Rabbi Kaduri’s house. Before he bound a book, he studied it in detail. Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim once brought him a difficult kabbalistic book to bind.7 Time passed, but Rabbi Kaduri still did not bring the bound book to him. When they met one day, Rabbi Nissim asked him, ‘Where is the book I brought you?’ Rabbi Kaduri replied, ‘The book you brought me is very inspiring. I’m not finished studying it yet.’ There were other people who had a similar experience with Rav Kaduri, among them even the rosh yeshiva himself, Rav Ezra Attiya (Kaduri, 2007: 30). Rav Kaduri also astounded other sages with his brilliant intellect and especially with his immense memory. He was able to quote probably any obscure statement in the writings of Rabbi Yitzhak Luria by heart (Azoulay, 2008: 276).

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78   The rabbi who predicted the coming of the Messiah During the Israeli–Arab conflict, which resulted in open warfare in 1948, the Porat Yosef Yeshiva became a refuge for scholars. But when Jordanian legionaries invaded the Old City of Jerusalem they set fire to the yeshiva8 and nearby houses. While others were trying to save their possessions, Rabbi Kaduri risked his life to save his books and manuscripts. However, most of his library was destroyed in the fire. Although the books he lost meant a great deal to him, he did not succumb to despair. With renewed energy he started to copy, bind and collect more books (Kaduri, 2007: 32). The Porat Yosef Yeshiva then moved to the Geula quarter of Jerusalem, where Rav Kaduri continued to study. He also started to study in Jerusalem’s Beit El Yeshiva. His son Rabbi David Kaduri and his grandson Yossi Kaduri then founded the Nahalat Yitzhak Yeshiva, and Rav Kaduri served as its rosh yeshiva. Although Rav Kaduri was a highly esteemed authority in Kabbalah, he was very critical of organizations that used the teachings of Kabbalah for mercantile purposes. Probably due to the growing popularity of these organizations and their unfortunate impact on traditional Jewish teachings, Rav Kaduri emphasized that Kabbalah should not be studied by people who do not know the revealed meaning of the Torah (Torat ha-­nigle) and rabbinical teachings, and who do not observe Torah commandments. He said that people unfamiliar with these things should avoid the kabbalistic teachings, especially the so-­called practical Kabbalah (making amulets, invocations, etc.).

Rav Kaduri in Israeli politics The political party Shas, representing the interests of religious and traditionalist Sephardic Jews, tried to use Kaduri’s fame and esteem to its own benefit in 1996. Rav Kaduri, together with Rav Ovadia Yosef, participated in the Shas pre-­election meetings at the time (Greenberg, 1996). Kaduri, who was transported to the meetings by helicopter, gave out amulets with blessings at the meetings. This aroused negative feedback from secular and right-­wing political groups, which ultimately led to a banning of the use of amulets in election campaigns (Joffe, 2006). Nevertheless, Kaduri’s role in the 1996 elections was very important because of his public endorsement of Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu then won the prime ministerial elections by almost the smallest possible margin (Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d.). Here we can also mention an event from October 1997: at a public meeting between Kaduri and Prime Minister Netanyahu, the latter whispered into the ear of Rabbi Kaduri: ‘The left has forgotten what it is to be a Jew.’ Since the microphone was switched on, the statement was recorded and caused a big scandal on the political scene at the time (Rosenblum, 2011). Later there arose a dispute between Rav Ovadia Yosef and Rav Kaduri in 2003, which resulted in Kaduri’s decision to stop supporting the Shas party (Lehmann and Siebzehner, 2006: 156). His grandson Yossi Kaduri then founded a new party, Ahavat Yisrael. The party ran for the Knesset, but did not receive enough votes to enter parliament. Here

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it should also be mentioned that shortly before his death, Rav Kaduri began to support the Shas party again (before the elections to the 17th Knesset, which took place on 28 March 2006).

The last moments of his life Though Rav Kaduri lived a modest life, he lived to a very old age – approximately 108 years (the age is uncertain because different sources of information disagree about the year of his birth). His first wife, rabbanit Sarah, died in 1989. Rabbi Kaduri then remarried in 1993, and his new wife was a much younger woman – rabbanit Dorit9 – who was also a ba’alat teshuva. In January 2006, Kaduri was hospitalized with pneumonia in the Jerusalem hospital Bikur Cholim. He then died at about ten o’clock in the evening on 28 January 2006. He reportedly still had a very sharp mind until the very last moment of his life. His funeral procession, which took place the following day, was attended by nearly a quarter of a million people. The procession began at the Nahalat Yitzhak Yeshiva and continued through the streets of Jerusalem to the Har ha-­Menuchot10 cemetery in the Givat Shaul neighbourhood. The Israeli President Moshe Katzav then spoke a eulogy at the funeral, which drew a crowd of some 200,000 mourners (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). Rav Kaduri also aroused public attention a year after his passing. At that time, in Israel Today Magazine, there appeared a note whose author was supposedly Rav Kaduri and which supposedly revealed the name of the Messiah. Here is the translation of the note as it was published by Israel Today: Concerning the letter abbreviation of the Messiah’s name, He will lift the people and prove that his word and law are valid. This I have signed in the month of mercy, Yitzhak Kaduri The Hebrew sentence (translated above in bold) with the hidden name of the Messiah reads: Yarim Ha’Am Veyokhiakh Shedvaro Vetorato Omdim The initials spell the Hebrew name of Jesus, Yehoshua . (Schneider, 2013) The note unleashed a wave of controversy. Some scholars from the Nahalat Yitzhak Yeshiva questioned the authenticity of the writings11 or their deciphering. On the other hand, there are many Christians who believed that Rav Kaduri testified that Jesus12 is the real Messiah in the note. Whatever the case, the fact is that Rav Kaduri remained faithful to Judaism until his death, so it is unlikely that he would point to Jesus being the Messiah.

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80   The rabbi who predicted the coming of the Messiah

Notes   1 The exact date of his birth is not known. According to various sources, Rabbi Kaduri’s age when he died was between 106 and 112 years.   2 Among others, these included Rabbi Salman Eliyahu, the author of Kerem Shelomo (1878–1940), Rabbi Yehuda Petaya, the author of Bet Lechem Yehuda (1859–1942), and Yaakov Chaim Sofer, the author of Kaf Ha-­Chaim (1870–1939) (Azoulay, 2008: 275).   3 Shaar Maamrei Rashbi is one of the eight books of the lurianic corpus Shmone Shearim (Eight Gates). The book interprets and comments on certain passages of the Zohar.   4 There is a tradition among Iraqi Jews that sons, out of respect to their fathers, take the father’s first name as their last name, so that the son’s entire family would then bear the name of the father (Kaduri: 27).   5 The graduates of the Porat Josef Yeshiva included, for example, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (1920–2013), Rabbi Ben Zion Abba Shaul (1924–1998), Rabbi Yehuda Tzadka (1910–1991), Rabbi Zion Levy (1925–2008), Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu (1929–2010) and the rabbi and politician Aryeh Deri (1959).   6 He was also known by the title ‘Yizhak Korech’, which means ‘Yizhak the Bookbinder’ (Azoulay, 2008: 276; Kaduri, 2007: 30).   7 Rav Yitzhak Nissim (1896–1981), Rav Ovadia Yosef ’s predecessor in the office of the Chief Sephardic Rabbi.   8 After the end of the Israeli–Arab war in 1949 a new building for the Porat Josef Yeshiva was constructed in the adjacent Jerusalem neighbourhood Geula. After the Six-­Day War of 1967 the Porat Josef Yeshiva was restored (and rebuilt) in its original location. Therefore at the present time there is a Porat Josef Yeshiva in the Old City and also its branch in the Geula neighbourhood.   9 She was 42 years old, while Rav Kaduri was already over 90. 10 Har ha-­Menuchot – ‘The Mount of Rest’. It is the largest cemetery in Jerusalem, and lies on the western outskirts of the city. 11 The choice or interpretation of some of the letters in the text is doubtful. 12 The Hebrew name Yehoshua is equivalent to the name Jesus.

References Azoulay, Yehuda (2008) A Legacy of Leaders: Inspiring Stories and Biographies of Sephardi Hachamim. Lakewood, NJ: Israel Bookshop. Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Encyclopaedia Britannica (n.d.) ‘Yitzhak Kaduri’. Online: www.britannica.com/ EBchecked/topic/1239307/Yitzhak-­Kaduri. Gallups, Carl (2013) The Rabbi Who Found Messiah: The Story of Yitzhak Kaduri and His Prophecies of the Endtime. Washington, DC: WND Books. Goldberg, Mattis (2006) Gedolei Yisroel: Portraits of Greatness. Jerusalem: Feldheim Publishers. Gordon, Baruch (2005, 21 September) ‘Kabbalist Urges Jews to Israel Ahead of Upcoming Disasters’, Israel National News. Online: www.israelnationalnews.com/News/ News.aspx/89850. Greenberg, Joel (1996, 26 May) ‘In Israeli Election, Orthodox Rabbis Are Key Brokers’, International New York Times. Online: www.nytimes.com/1996/05/26/world/in-­israelielection-­orthodox-rabbis-­are-key-­brokers.html. Joffe, Lawrence (2006, 31 January) ‘Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri’, Guardian. Online: www. theguardian.com/news/2006/jan/31/guardianobituaries.israel.

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Kaduri, Yitzhak (2007) She’elot U’Teshuvot, Divrei Yitzchak: Harav Yitzchak Kaduri. Lehmann, David; Siebzehner, Batia (2006) Remaking Israeli Judaism: The Challenge of Shas. New York: Oxford University Press. Rosenblum, Doron (2011, 29 August) ‘Netanyahu Has Forgotten What It Means to Be Israeli’, Haaretz. Schneider, Aviel (2013, 30 May) ‘The Rabbi, the Note and the Messiah’, Israel Today. Online: www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23877. Sofer, Eliezer (2007) HaRav Yitzhak Kaduri. Hotzaat Yefe Noff. Wagner, Matthew (2006, 25 January) ‘Kaduri Obituary’, Jerusalem Post.

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The rabbi for everyday Israel Meir Ha-­Kohen/Kagan Also known as: ‘Chafetz Chaim’, ‘Hafetz Haim’ 6 February 1838–15 September 1933 11 Shevat 5598–24 Elul 5693

Some rabbis are mainly known by the name of their most important book. This is the case of Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, who was among the most important Eastern European rabbis from the generations before the Second World War. In Jewish Orthodox communities he is still one of the most respected halachic authorities, and his interpretations are highly valued and followed. Many of his books essentially became manuals for the daily life and duties of religious Jews and can be found in many Jewish households. He is one of the most influential rabbis when it comes to the everyday life and thinking of contemporary Haredi Jews, including their opinions on modernity, secularism and politics.

The head of the Radun Yeshiva Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, also known as the Chafetz Chaim, was born in poor conditions in the village of Zhetel (the present-­day village of Dzjatlava in Belarus), which was then in the territory of the Russian Empire. When he was ten years old, his father Rabbi Arye Zev died. His mother, Dobrusha, thus had to take care of the family. He eventually started attending the yeshivas of Grodno and Slonim. Shortly after his mother remarried, to a prominent citizen of Radun (in present-­day Belarus), Rabbi Shimon, he went to study in Vilna. There he began studying under the famous Rabbi Jacob Barit (‘Yankele Kovner’, 1797–1883). After his studies he came back to his family in Radun, and there he married his stepsister, Frida,1 in 1855. He then spent a significant part of his life in Radun. The young couple opened a small grocery store, and through it, they made their living. The shop was run by his wife, and the Chafetz Chaim Meir took care of the accounting. In addition, he kept ‘accounts’ of his life. He wrote his deeds down in order to avoid offences or wasting time. He spent all his free time studying the Torah or disseminating its teachings, especially among the common people, for whom he was also a source of support in their studies, in their keeping of commandments and in their faith. During the years 1864–1869 he taught the Talmud at yeshivot in Minsk and Vasilishki while his wife kept the house (see Yoshor, 1937). The Chafetz Chaim at first did not intend to establish a yeshiva. However, many disciples gathered around him, and they initially met with him in his own

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house. In 1869, his house was already known as the Radun yeshiva or the Chafetz Chaim yeshiva, and it gradually became world-­famous (Hacohen and Derovan, 2007). Besides the Chafetz Chaim, the yeshiva was also associated with important rabbinical authorities such as Rabbi Naphtali Trop (1871–1928), who was its rosh yeshiva in its so-­called ‘golden period’ – from 1904 to the First World War, when it became one of the largest yeshivas in Europe (Zariz, 1956). Other important rabbis associated with the yeshiva were Yeruchom Levovitz (1873–1936), Mendel Zaks (1898–1974, the son-­in-law of the Chafetz Chaim), Elchanan Wasserman (1874–1941),2 Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman (1886–1969) and Samuel Belkin (1911–1976). The yeshiva existed until the Second World War; when the war broke out, the students moved to Vilna. Many of them later became victims of the Shoah. After the war, however, the Radun Yeshiva was re-­established in the United States and in Netanya, Israel (Yeshiva Radin, n.d.).

His book, Chafetz Chaim, and his positions towards Zionism When Rabbi Israel Meir was 35 years old (in 1873), he anonymously published his first book, entitled Chafetz Chaim, in Vilna. Out of modesty, he wanted to remain anonymous. Also, because the author of the book was unknown to the public, it enabled Meir to disseminate the book himself as a meshulach (an emissary of the rabbi). The book’s title comes from Psalm 34: 12: ‘What man is there who desires life [HeChafetz Chaim] and loves many days, that he may see good?’ The following verses (Psalm 34: 13–14), which answer the question, then describe the theme of the book itself: ‘Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.’ The book deals with issues of Lashon ha-­Ra (literally ‘the evil tongue’ in the sense of slander, insults, etc.; Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2007).3 The Chafetz Chaim considered this topic to be extremely important in terms of interpersonal relationships. The book is also a vital component of the Judaic critique of Zionism. In this context the Chafetz Chaim was also very critical not only towards the state-­ building attempts of Zionists, but also towards their efforts to create a modern Hebrew language. He sarcastically condemned the activities of Zionist philologist Eliezer Ben-­Yehuda, who was the founder of the modern Hebrew language, and who was actually inspired by Bulgaria’s gaining of political independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1908: ‘If we do not preserve the Torah, neither the State nor the language will save us . . . Has our blood been shed for eighteen centuries in order to catch up with Bulgaria?’ (Rabkin, 2006: 87–88). Even though the Chafetz Chaim died 15 years before the establishment of the State of Israel, he influenced later rabbinical anti-­Zionism in Israel very significantly. For example, when Rabbi Elazar Shach – the most respected religious authority of Lithuanian Jewry in the twentieth century (see the chapter about him) – was asked about his non-­Zionist stance, he explained it as follows:

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84   The rabbi for everyday When I am asked by the heavenly court why I did not identify with the Zionist idea, I will unhesitatingly place the blame for this on the Chafetz Chaim and the other leading scholars who preceded me, and they will already know what answer to give. (Ravitzky, 1996: 176)

Other books The issue of ‘the evil tongue’ is addressed in detail in some of the Chafetz Chaim’s other books: Shemirat Ha-­Lashon (‘Guarding of the Tongue’), Zechor Li-­Miriam (‘Remember Miriam’)4 and Sefat Tamim (‘Sincere Lips’). His best-­ known and most studied work is probably the Mishnah Berura (‘Clarified Teaching’), which is an extensive and highly respected six-­part commentary on the first section of the book Shulchan Aruch, which is called Orach Chaim (‘The Way of Life’). It deals, among other things, with the laws of prayer, the Shabbat and holidays. This seminal work was quickly spread among pious Jews, and was continuously in print in the period 1894–1907. Subsequently the Chafetz Chaim published a series of books that were related to the Mishnah Berura: Sha’ar Ha-­Tziyyun (‘Gate of Distinction’) – documentary sources for the laws quoted in the Mishnah Berura. Tiferet Adam (‘Beauty of Man’) – on the importance of beards and side curls for Jewish men. Geder Olam (‘Fence of the World’, 1890) – on the importance of hair covers for Jewish married women. Likutei Halachot (‘Proceedings of Halachic Laws‘) – a five-­section halachic work which was gradually published in shorter instalments during the period 1900–1925. He also published a number of other works dealing with, among other things, kashrut, family laws and other practical matters. The following is a selection of some of these: Machaneh Yisrael (‘The Camp of Israel’, 1881) – a code of practical laws for Jewish soldiers. Ahavat Chesed (‘Gentle Love’, 1888) – a treatise on the various types of charity. Chomat Ha-­Dat (‘The Wall of Faith’, 1905) – a work that encourages all Jews to study the Torah and observe the commandments.

Positions towards modernity and secularism The Chafetz Chaim did not publish his books because of academic reasons. Rather, the main purpose of his books was to reinforce some of the weaker aspects of the religious life of the Jews, and anchor them firmly in the Torah5 (Hacohen and Derovan, 2007). Chafetz Chaim was convinced of human

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society’s moral decline. He said, ‘It is known to all that this generation is continuing to collapse morally each day’ (Heilman, 1999: 170). In addition to this danger and Lashon ha-­Ra, he also feared the consequences of the emigration of Jews to America and the secular dangers of the new continent. The new Jewish immigrants in America were not well organized and were also faced with a yet unknown environment. Because the Chafetz Chaim feared that these Jews might be subjected to an impairment in their religious continuity in such conditions, he wrote a book for them titled Nidchei Yisrael – ‘Dispersal of Israel’ (1894). In this book, he examined in detail specific laws that arose in this new environment and encouraged the emigrants to overcome the difficulties by maintaining a religious life. But there could be found many more such examples of attempts by the famous rabbi to help his co-­religionists. Furthermore, the Chafetz Chaim firmly believed that the Messiah would come soon, and therefore he emphasized the study of laws of sacrifices and temple worship. The rabbi himself tried to keep in good physical condition until his old age because, as a candidate for the post of the high priest of the temple, he wanted to be competent to perform various rituals in the event of the rebuilding of the Temple (Landau, 1993: 162). The Chafetz Chaim also taught at yeshivot in Minsk, and for his deep knowledge of the Halacha he was considered as one of the poseks. He also became one of the leaders of the Agudat Yisrael movement in Europe. His lifestyle was very modest and honest. Throughout his life he often helped yeshivas which were in financial trouble. Va’ad ha-­Yeshivot – the ‘Committee for Yeshivas’ – was founded under his patronage; it organized monetary funds for educational institutions faced with financial problems, especially in the inter-­war period (Hacohen and Derovan, 2007). The Chafetz Chaim died in Radun on 15 September 1933, a week before the beginning of the Jewish New Year. Many Jewish educational institutions (mainly in the United States) and a kibbutz in Israel were later named after him. An example is the Chofetz Chaim Yeshiva (or the Rabbinical Seminary of America), which was established in New York in 1933 by the Chafetz Chaim’s grand-­ nephew, Rabbi Dovid Leibowitz (1889–1941) (Helmreich, 2000). Once the American-­Jewish journalist, Ephraim Kaplan, came to the Chafetz Chaim to conduct an interview with him. He asked him, among other things, what one must do in order to be a good Jew. The Chafetz Chaim replied: ‘Observe the Shulchan Aruch, and that means all the mitzvot expounded therein.’ The journalist was surprised by this answer, and said, ‘If so, you exclude ninety percent of the people from that privilege.’ The rabbi answered, True, but if you buy a bottle of pure alcohol and reduce its strength and adulterate it, the shopkeeper who sold it to you is not to be blamed for the change in its strength. You asked me to define pure, unadulterated Jewishness. (Heilman, 1999: 28)

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86   The rabbi for everyday

Notes 1 Frida was a daughter of Rabbi Shimon from his first marriage. 2 Rabbi Wasserman sought to ensure the safety of his students in Europe at the beginning of the Second World War by coming to the United States and trying to arrange stays for them there. When he was unsuccessful in this, he preferred to return to them (even though he knew about the dangers that threatened him at home) in order to support them until the last moment. He was murdered by the Nazis in Lithuania in 1941. 3 In Judaism, Lashon ha-­Ra (slander) is compared with sins such as idolatry, incest and murder. It was said that it kills three times: ‘The talk about third [persons] kills three persons: him who says [the slanderous words], him who accepts it, and him about whom it is told’ (Talmud, Arachin 15b). 4 The book’s title is derived from Deut. 24: 9: ‘Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt.’ Miriam, Moses’ sister, slandered him and was tainted by metzora (a skin disease similar to leprosy) as a result. 5 He wrote over 20 books in total.

References Encyclopaedia Judaica (2007) ‘Lashon Ha-­Ra’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 12. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Hacohen, Mordechai; Derovan, David (2007) ‘Israel Meir Ha-­Kohen’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 10. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Heilman, Samuel (1999) Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-­Orthodox Jewry. Berkeley: University of California Press. Helmreich, W.B. (2000) The World of the Yeshiva: An Intimate Portrait of Orthodox Jewry. New York: KTAV Publishing House. Landau, David (1993) Piety and Power: The World of Jewish Fundamentalism. London: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Rabkin, Yaakov (2006) A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Ravitzky, Aviezer (1996) Messianism, Zionism, and Jewish Religious Radicalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Yeshiva Radin (n.d.) Online: www.daat.ac.il/daat/chinuch/mosdot/radin-­2.htm. Yoshor, Moshe (1937) Saint and Sage (Hafetz Hayim). New York: Bloch. Zariz, David (1956) Hafetz Hayyim de-­Radin. New York: Mosdot Torah be-­Eiropah.

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Never again Meir David Kahane 1 August 1932–5 November 1990 30 Av 5692–17 Cheshvan 5751

Benjamin Ze’ev Kahane 3 October 1966–31 December 2000 19 Tishri 5727–5 Tevet 5761 The vulnerability of Jews to the most brutal forms of anti-­Semitism together with the Haredi Jews’ passivity and submissiveness while waiting for the Messiah began to worry a number of rabbinical authorities and secular Jews, especially during and after the experiences of the Holocaust. At this time, one of the main answers to this aspect of Jewish tradition was religious Zionism in the spirit of the teachings of Rabbi Kook the Elder and, later, Rabbi Kook the Younger (see the chapter about them). For some religious Jews, however, this response was inadequate. They thus began to work on their own extreme interpretation (or rather misinterpretation) of Judaism. Their considerably distorted concept of Judaism eventually got their organizations on lists of banned terrorist organizations, just as a similar blacklisting happened to a number of radical Islamist movements in the second half of the twentieth century.

Revisionist roots One rabbi could be described as the spiritual father of the most violent Jewish radicals – the New York rabbi Meir Kahane.1 At the end of the twentieth century he became the leader of the most radical segment of the Jewish religious right in the United States and Israel. In order to understand Kahane’s attitudes it is necessary to know something about the environment from which he originated. Meir Kahane was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in New York and his father, Rabbi Yehezkel (Charles) Shraga Kahane, was an official of the Revisionist Zionist movement and also of the Irgun. He was a personal friend of the spiritual father of Revisionist Zionism, Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880–1940),2 and the other major revisionist, Hillel Kook (1915–2001), who was a nephew of Rabbi Avraham Kook (see the chapter about him). Between the two world wars the revisionists positioned themselves within the Zionist movement as the most militant critics of liberal and left-­wing forms of Zionism. They also adopted an ideologically negative attitude towards Arabs.

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88   Never again In Arab nationalism they saw the main adversary of Zionist efforts (Wuthnow, 1998: 805). To position themselves even more strongly against the Zionist left, the revisionists also utilized various methods that they ‘borrowed’ from European authoritarian and fascist movements in their rhetoric and practice (Smith, 2001: 119).3 Meir Kahane recalled Jabotinsky’s visit to his family’s home as one of the most significant moments of his childhood (Abramovitch and Galvin, 2001: 287). When he was a young boy, his parents signed him up for the revisionist youth movement Beitar (Betar), which was founded by Jabotinsky. It combined, among other things, a warlike enthusiasm for Zionism, elements of militarism and an active fight against anti-­Semitism. The movement became very popular among certain segments of the world’s Jewish population. But the majority of Jews rejected it for its militancy. For example, Albert Einstein described Beitar as ‘similarly dangerous for Jewish youth as Hitlerism is for German children’ (Rabkin, 2006: 107). Beitar’s activities corresponded with Kahane’s fascination with physical strength and also with Jabotinsky’s vision of Barzel Yisrael (the Iron of Israel).4 During his youth Kahane himself participated in various delinquent acts, and in 1947 was involved in damaging the car of British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, who was then on a visit to New York (Kahane took part in this act of vandalism in response to the pro-­Arab turnaround in British foreign policy immediately after the Second World War). In connection with this incident he was arrested by the police for the first time (Kifner, 1990).

A rabbi, an agent and a marriage swindler Meir Kahane received both a religious and a secular education. He gained the former at the Brooklyn Talmudic Academy, and received his rabbinic ordination (smicha) at the Mirrer Yeshiva in Brooklyn (Rakeffet-­Rothkof, 2013). He also studied international law at New York University. Later he served as a rabbi, but from the early 1960s, he also worked as an FBI informant and could thus use a secret identity (Friedman, 1990). In 1957 he married Libby Blum. However, he began to lead a double life: on the one hand, he was an Orthodox rabbi and the father of a family, and on the other hand, he was an FBI agent who infiltrated radical groups. In the context of the latter line of work, he sought out prostitutes and was often seen at wild parties in New York. Once, in a bar, he met a young fashion model named Gloria Jean D’Argenio, with whom he reportedly fell in love, and promised to marry her under his false identity. Understandably, he did not tell her that he was already married and had four children. But the unsuspecting model, who eventually became pregnant – probably by Kahane – finally learned the truth, and in 1966, in desperation, she committed suicide by jumping off a Queensboro bridge in New York. Kahane also had illicit relationships with a number of other women, and his attitude towards the opposite sex was later described by those who knew him as often very vulgar (Hewitt et al., 1990).

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The founding of the JDL and Kach Kahane later searched among American Jews for sympathizers for the US involvement in the Vietnam War and began working as an editor of the influential newspaper The Jewish Press (Rakeffet-­Rothkof, 2013). It became the mouthpiece of his radical views, and through it the more radical segments of American Jews became aware of him. This helped him to gain supporters. In 1968, he was able to establish in the United States an organization called the ‘Jewish Defense League’ (JDL), a name strikingly similar to that of Jabotinsky’s ‘Jewish Self-­ Defense Organization’ of the early twentieth century. The JDL established itself as an extremely radical organization that not just focused on defending Jews against anti-­Semitism in the spirit of Kahane’s slogan ‘Never again!’, but also became an organization focused on activism and aggression (Sprinzak, 1999: 183–191). In July 1971 Kahane migrated to Israel, where he established a JDL branch called ‘JDL-­Israel’, which he renamed ‘Kach’ (Hebrew: ‘Thus’) in 1983. The name was inspired by the slogan of Jabotinsky’s Irgun movement: ‘Rak kach’ (‘Only thus’) (Mitchell, 2000: 172). Already in 1974, Kahane had become well known as a proponent of the theory called ‘TNT’ – Teror Neged Teror (Hebrew: ‘Terror against Terror’; in other words, ‘Jewish terror as a response to Arab terror’ – see Sprinzak, 1999: 209; Pedahzur and Perliger, 2009: 89). Then in 1980, Kahane was imprisoned for six months for his provocations on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount (Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1994). JDL-­Israel drew attention to itself a short time after its founding – not only by its resistance to the Arabs, but also by its numerous racist attacks against black Jews of African origin. The party became a supporter of ‘transfers’ of Arabs from the Palestinian territories and Israel and began to promote the idea of a Jewish theocracy. Kahane was also involved in the issue of Soviet ‘refuseniks’ – the Jews imprisoned in the Soviet Union. In this context, Kahane and his followers attacked various objects associated with the Russian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem (ADL, n.d.).

‘Kahanism’ as an ideology The Kach party started to differ significantly from the other Israeli radical right-­ wing parties and movements, especially in its negativism in regard to the Israeli establishment and its undisguised emphasis on Jewish violence and racism (Sprinzak, 1991: 234–240). During his life, Kahane himself published several books and essays (see below), in which he not only called for the expulsion of Arabs and a complete Judaization and theocratization of Israel, but also warned against various catastrophic scenarios (according to Kahane, the Arabs were allegedly preparing ‘the new holocaust’) that would be realized if the Jews did not obey his violent interpretation of Judaism. This political ideology has been dubbed ‘Kahanism’. Kahanism was (and still is) not a mere abstract philosophy contained in Kahane’s books, but also became a way of life associated with militancy and

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90   Never again aggression/belligerence, which makes it similar to ultra-­right-wing movements in the West. Kahane’s political behaviour was unprecedented in Israel’s history and, according to the Israeli political scientist Ehud Sprinzak, was a combination of ‘Jewish Darwinism’, a strong inclination towards violence, and what Sprinzak called ‘quasi-­fascism’. He characterized Kahane’s ideology as a combination of the following features: • • • •

deterministic fundamentalism; the theory of the uniqueness of the Jewish people, as they were chosen by God; the theory of revenge (and attempts to cause a great war conflict); calls for Jewish isolationism. (Sprinzak, 1991: 215–220)

The Kach party had proposed that Kahane be its candidate for the elections in 1984, but the Israeli Central Election Commission refused to register his candidacy due to suspicions that he held racist attitudes. However, Kahane appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court, which found that Israeli law cannot ban a party with a racist background from participating in elections. Kahane subsequently succeeded in the election and became a member of the Knesset (though he was the only representative of Kach in the parliament) (Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1994). As a member of parliament he supported all anti-­Arab positions. After the electoral success of Kach, though, a change of the electoral law was initiated and passed, and this change meant that racist parties would be excluded from the electoral process. During the next elections in 1988, the Kach party attempted to participate in the elections again, but this time it was rejected on the basis of the so-­called ‘Lex-­Kahane’. The Kach party again appealed to the Supreme Court, which finally declared on the basis of the new law that the party was racist and thus ineligible for the elections (Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1994). This move led radical right-­wing Israeli politicians towards a higher level of ‘diplomacy’ (in the sense of greater tact). Since that time there have been no openly Kahanist parties in the Knesset, but many Kahanists created their own parties or joined other already existing parties (see below). Kahane often returned to the United States, where he lobbied among American Jews, who were the pillars of his supporters. But because of his lifelong attitudes Kahane made many enemies not only in the Middle East, but also in the United States, and he feared for his life. This concern proved to be justified. In November 1991, when he was on one of his agitation tours in New Jersey, Meir Kahane was murdered. The murderer was a radical Islamist of Egyptian origin named Sayyid Nosair.5

Kahane lives! After the death of Meir Kahane, a disagreement split the Kach party into two factions: a faction which retained the original name Kach, and Kahane Chai!,

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which was led by Kahane’s son, Benjamin Kahane. The ideologies of both parties remained very similar, though. After Goldstein’s massacre in Hebron in 1994, the two parties were banned, but they continued to operate illegally. Kach and Kahane Chai! were also later added to the lists of terrorist organizations of the European Union and the United States (Sprinzak, 1999: 234–235). Benjamin Kahane was the successor of his father’s legacy in theory and practice, but due to his age, he lacked the charisma and experience of his father. He also became a subject of interest to Israeli security authorities for his violent rhetoric and activities. The fate of Benjamin Kahane was very similar to that of his father. He was a resident of the Jewish settlement of Kfar Tapuach, and on 31 December 2000, when he was driving in a car with his wife Talya through the West Bank, they were both assassinated by members of the Palestinian radical group Force 17 (BBC, 2000). A quarter of a century after Meir Kahane’s death, his philosophy is far from being marginal or forgotten in contemporary Israel. Certainly, democracies often have ‘ailments’ associated with various kinds of radical groups, such as neo-­ Nazis, xenophobes, radical Islamists, ultra-­leftists, etc. Usually these radicals become subjected to strict security control and often stay at the fringes of the society and its politics. However, in today’s Israel there is another dimension of that problem: former Kahanists are attaining high posts in the Israeli government. Of course, since the original Kahanist parties are banned, however, they behave more tactfully than their Kahanist predecessors and do not make overtly Kahanist statements in public. Perhaps the most notable heirs of the Kahanist ideas in the Knesset were some members of parliament from the Moledet (Homeland) party, which was formed at the end of the 1980s and later merged with other radical factions. Some notable Kahanists in the Knesset are Michael Ben Ari (in the Knesset from 2009 to 2013, representing the parties National Union and Otzma le-­Yisrael) and Moshe Feiglin (in the Knesset since 2013, representing Likud). Also, it is suspected that the Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Liberman (in the Knesset since 1999, representing the Yisrael Beiteinu party), was a member of Kach for a short period of time, which he presently denies (Galili, 2009). The authors of this book investigated the prevalence of Kahanist ideas in present-­day Israel during visits to the country. Even if we ignore the freely available Internet propaganda of radicals from all over the world (including Kahanists – see, e.g., the propaganda videos on YouTube), it is relatively easy to purchase publications glorifying Kahane or even books written by him in today’s Israel. Especially in bookstores in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, which is the home of a prominent American religious Zionist community, some booksellers make no secret of their Kahanist sympathies and put Kahane’s books in their store window displays or on the same shelves as bestsellers. In Jerusalem, it is not difficult to find various posters and stickers with pictures of the Kahanes, invitations to various events to commemorate them, graffiti with Kahanist slogans and symbols, etc. Right-­wing protesters often call out the popular slogan ‘Kahane was right!’ (‘Kahane tzedek!’ in Hebrew). In contrast, though, in Tel

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92   Never again Aviv and other parts of Israel where there is a smaller number of religious Zionists, it is more difficult to find reflections of Kahane and Kahanism, and the related Kahanist literature and propaganda, than in Jerusalem or near the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Books written by Rabbi Meir Kahane Never Again: A Program for Jewish Survival (1972). The Jewish Idea (1974). Listen World, Listen Jew (1975). The Story of the Jewish Defense League (1975). Forty Years (1983). Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews (1987).

Notes 1 Sometimes transcribed as Meir Kahana. Kahane’s original first name was Martin, but he later changed it to the Jewish name Meir. 2 Jabotinsky was a major Zionist leader and political ideologue who was originally from a secular Jewish family from Odessa. After the pogroms in Ukraine in the early twentieth century, he founded the Jewish Self-­Defense Organization. He also became a central theorist of the so-­called ‘Revisionist Zionism’, which called for a ‘revision’ of liberal and leftist currents of Zionism. He also became the spiritual leader of several radical Zionist organizations: the New Zionist Organization founded in 1935, the youth movement Beitar and the militia movement Irgun. Jabotinsky’s main aim was the fastest possible creation of the Jewish state, preferably with the help of Great Britain. He hatefully opposed any leftist doctrines. He viewed the Labour Zionists and their political representatives as ‘a cancer on the body of Zionism’. He also worked avidly to create a model of a fervent Jewish young person who would be ready to fight the Arabs and later possibly also the British and die for the cause of the Zionist Jewish state. He died in 1940 in New York after a heart attack. 3 The revisionists placed emphasis on, among other things, strength, national coherence and superiority, a paramilitary way of organizing the groups which Jabotinsky ideologically led, as well as uniforms, marches and hateful rhetoric towards the Left, etc. This was obviously inspired by the Italian type of fascism rather than German Nazism of which an integral part is anti-­Semitism. 4 According to Jabotinsky, the Jews in Diaspora or under foreign rule were no longer to bow to their oppressors but were called upon to respond to them in kind and with physical force, if necessary (Sprinzak, 1999: 207). 5 Later it was proved that Nossair had become involved with the Al-­Farooq mosque in Brooklyn and was also involved with the Maktab al-­Khidamat foundation, which was established in 1984 by Sheikh Abdullah Azzam and the Saudi billionaire and then anti-­ Soviet mujahideen Osama bin Laden (Smith, 2001).

References Abramovitch, Ilana; Galvin, Seán (2001) Jews of Brooklyn. New York: Brandeis University Press. Anti Defamation League (ADL) (n.d.) Backgrounder: The Jewish Defense League. Online: http://archive.adl.org/extremism/jdl_chron.html.

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BBC News (2000, 31 December) ‘The Kahanes: Like Father, Like Son’. Online: http:// news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1095078.stm. Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [in Czech]. Friedman, Robert I. (1990) The False Prophet: Rabbi Meir Kahane – From FBI Informant to Knesset Member. Brooklyn, NY: Lawrence Hill Books. Galili, Lily (2009, 4 February) ‘Lieberman Was Involved in Radical Right Kach Movement’, Haaretz. Gorenberg, Gershom (2000) End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount. New York: Free Press. Hewitt, Bill; Podolsky, J.D.; Avrech, Mira (1990, 19 November) ‘After a Career of Preaching Hatred for Arabs, Rabbi Meir Kahane Is Cut Down by an Assassin’s Bullet’, People. Online: www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20113657,00.html. Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1994, 3 March) The Kach Movement Background. Kifner, John (1990, 6 November) ‘Meir Kahane, 58, Israeli Militant and Founder of the Jewish Defense League’, International New York Times. Mergui, Raphael; Simonnot, Philippe (2001) Israel’s Ayatollahs: The Far Right in Israel. London: Saqi Books. Mitchell, Thomas G. (2000) Native vs. Settler: Ethnic Conflict in Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, and South Africa. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Pedahzur, Ami; Perliger, Arie (2009) Jewish Terrorism in Israel. New York: Columbia University Press. Rabkin, Yaakov (2006) A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Rabkin, Yakov (n.d.) ‘The Use of Force in Jewish Tradition and in Zionist Practice’. Online: www.ihrc.org.uk/060702/papers/yakov_rabkin.pdf. Rakeffet-­Rothkof, Aaron (2013, 2 April) ‘Rabbi Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought’, Jewish Action – The Magazine of the Orthodox Union. Online: www.ou.org/jewish_ action/04/2013/rabbi_meir_kahane_his_life_and_thought. Smith, Charles D. (2001) Palestine and the Arab–Israeli Conflict: A History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. Smith, Greg B. (2002, 9 October) ‘Bin Laden Bankrolled Kahane Killer Defense’, New York Daily News. Sprinzak, Ehud (1991) The Ascendance of Israel’s Radical Right. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sprinzak, Ehud (1999) Brother against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics. New York: The Free Press. Wuthnow, Robert (ed.) (1998) The Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion. New York: Routledge.

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The vision of a man Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz – Chazon Ish 7 November 1878–24 October 1953 11 Cheshvan 5639–15 Cheshvan 5714

Not all significant rabbis of our time had dramatic life stories full of political activities, conflicts with other rabbinical authorities and dramas connected with the Second World War. Indeed, the lives of many rabbis stand out precisely because of their simplicity, modesty and original thinking. The fate of Rabbi Karelitz, who is far more commonly known by the name of his major work, Chazon Ish,1 is an example of the latter tendency. Although he never held any important public or religious office, he became one of the most respected authorities of Orthodox Jews in the twentieth century. He was raised in an Orthodox non-­Hasidic family in the small town of Kosava (Kossovo/Kossów), which lies in today’s Belarus, but which formed a part of Imperial Russia at the time of Karelitz’s birth. His father held the post of the Chairman of the Jewish Court in Kosava. Karelitz received his religious education mainly through his father, although in Brisk he was, for some time, a student of Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik (1853–1918), the grandfather of Rabbi Yosef Ber Soloveitchik. However, the rather cold analytical-­conceptual Brisk method for studying the Talmud (Brisker derech) at the yeshiva in Brisk did not appeal to the young Karelitz, so he returned to Kosava and his father’s more traditional approach to studying the Talmud. When he was aged 33, he anonymously published his principal work, Chazon Ish (‘The Vision of a Man’). The book comments on the first part of the Shulchan Aruch, titled Orach Chaim (‘Path of Life’). With its extent and depth, the work left a noticeable impact on the rabbinical world. It was not until after the First World War that Karelitz moved to Vilnius, which, at that time, lay in the sphere of interest of both Poland and Lithuania, and became a close friend of an important Lithuanian rabbi of that period, Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky (1863–1940), one of the co-­founders of the Agudat Yisrael movement. He also acquainted himself with the teachings of Rabbi Avraham Kook; however, he took a critical stance towards some of his philosophical opinions (Hacohen and Derovan, 2007). In 1933 he moved to the British Mandate of Palestine and settled in the city of Bnei Brak, which was an Orthodox community developing near the Zionist capital Tel Aviv (the cities became joined later on). Although he did not found his own yeshiva or have a clearly delimited group of followers, he became a

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sought-­after authority on the Halacha and had a strong influence among the Haredim. Chazon Ish died of cardiac arrest at the age of almost 75 in Bnei Brak, where he was also buried. He left behind a number of works and halachic commentaries (Rossoff, 2001: 491). Chazon Ish was one of the most significant modern experts on the Torah. His views, actions, halachic orders and texts have had a strong impact on Jewish scholars all around the world.

Teachings Rabbi Karelitz wrote and published dozens of volumes of his commentaries on Talmudic tracts, the Shulchan Aruch, Maimonides’s Mishneh Tora and various halachic topics. He was also a well-­known expert on Kabbalah. His complete works consist of 40 volumes, which are distinguished by their clear, comprehensible language, as Chazon Ish laid emphasis on the practical application of theoretical conclusions. Chazon Ish also differed from many of his rabbinical contemporaries in the fact that his approaches were highly complex. Not only was he an expert on Halacha, but he also possessed a deep knowledge of various non-­religious disciplines such as astronomy, anatomy, botany and mathematics. For him, being knowledgeable in such subjects was key for understanding many aspects of Jewish laws and their practical application. In this respect he also devoted his time to the application of the agricultural technique of hydropony in the course of the Shmita year (which is the time, occurring every seven years, when soil should be left fallow, according to the Torah). With hydropony it is possible to grow farm crops without them being in contact with the soil, and so through this practice, Jews would be able to grow crops during the Shmita year and still observe the law (Hacohen and Derovan, 2007). Rabbi Karelitz also spread his teachings by setting an example through his life. According to his own words, he never indulged in worldly pleasures: ‘My only pleasure is executing the commands of my Lord’ (Kovetz Igrot: 1: 153). In his view, man’s viability springs predominantly from self-­restraint. The fair‑minded (tzadikim) are not tossed around by their desires – they control them: ‘Isn’t it the sweetest joy and pleasure to control our animal instinct? This is a permanent pleasure and refreshment’ (Kovetz Igrot: 2: 13).

Chazon Ish as a teacher Chazon Ish greatly revered education and emphasized the importance of traditional Jewish learning. He regarded every child who did not receive a traditional Jewish education as an orphan. He claimed that in the Torah it is commanded that a man must have mercy upon an orphan, and it is therefore necessary to provide such an orphan with education. However, he did not force his students to learn but strove to get them to find their motivation for and love of learning themselves. Rabbi Karelitz did not approve of devoting attention to more gifted

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96   The vision of a man students at the expense of the less able ones. He claimed that every student – regardless of what his or her intellectual abilities seem to be like at a particular moment – may well become a great scholar one day. The hope for this to happen should not be taken away from them. When the rabbi was once asked how a yeshiva should handle problematic students, he responded: It is good to accept such students and bring oneself as close as possible to them. A yeshiva’s task is to provide weaker students with wisdom and to show understanding to those who lost their way. A man should not blame insubordinate students since defiance is inherent in a child’s character. We have to make all possible efforts; sometimes the right hand has to push aside, sometimes the left hand has to pull up,2 sometimes we have to pull up using both our hands. (Kovetz Igrot: 1: 81) The rabbi encouraged people to approach students sensitively. When asked how a yeshiva should cope with a student whose parents did not observe the Shabbat, he replied that one should never dishonour a child’s parents in front of him or her (Yavrov, 1998–2007: vol. 1, 72). Chazon Ish was known for loving and supporting Jewish youth and young students. Once he told his nephew, Rabbi Shlomo Berman, that heads of yeshivas were mostly interested in the common good, in what was good for their yeshiva or the community of yeshivas in general. However, he claimed that what was good for a yeshiva was not necessarily good for individual students. ‘I view it differently’, he said. ‘Each individual is a complete community for me’ (Yavrov, 1998–2007: vol. 1, 63).

His approach to Zionism and Israeli politics Chazon Ish always differed from other rabbis in his maverick approach – he did not regard himself as a clearly delimited follower of the Litvaks or the Hasids, but he built on many positive aspects of both of these movements (Hacohen and Derovan, 2007). His approach to Zionism was essentially a disapproving approach. Although he loved the Israeli land, by no means did he view himself as a Zionist. On the contrary, he criticized religious Zionist movements (e.g. Rabbi Kook’s adherents) for having, in his opinion, excessively politicized Judaism: ‘The halacha has not changed just because of the Zionist state. How long will such a state last anyway – fifty years?’ (Yavrov, 1998–2007: vol. 1, 63). Despite his critical stance on Zionism, his door was open to thousands of Jews of various opinions and standpoints. He even accepted visits from several politicians; the most famous ones included the first Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion and the third Israeli President Yitzchak Ben Zvi. Concerning the relationship between non-­Zionist Haredi Jews and Israeli-­Zionist secular politics, Chazon Ish and Rabbi Shach could be considered the two main proponents of the pragmatic approach of the Haredim to Israeli politics – in this approach,

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the participation of Haredim in Israeli politics is acceptable because it defends the survival and interests of the Haredi Jews – but at the same moment Chazon Ish also denied the legitimacy of the Zionist Israeli regime. In this context Chazon Ish used the following comparison: If a highwayman falls upon me in a forest and threatens me with arms, and I begin a discussion with him, so that he spare my life, does that mean that I recognize his legitimacy? No; for me, he remains a highwayman. (Rabkin, 2006: 155) This pragmatic approach to Israeli politics is partially understandable from the point of view of the Haredi Jews, who wanted to survive in the unfriendly Zionist environment. But from the perspective of the secular Israelis it is not surprising that this approach caused tensions between them and the Haredim over the growing political influence and demands of the Haredim in combination with their negative approach to the Zionist culture (e.g. the Haredi rejection of conscription, the pressure from the Haredi side in relation to Shabbat regulations and other Haredi religious demands). The Haredi approach is one of the crucial points of the so-­called ‘conflict between secular and religious Israelis’.

The discussion between Chazon Ish and Ben Gurion As was already mentioned, Chazon Ish gave consultations even to politicians, and one of the most famous politicians to seek his advice was the Israeli Prime Minister Ben Gurion. Their discussion in 1952 took place in connection with the introduction of army conscription for women in Israel and also concerned the relation of religious and secular women. During the meeting Chazon Ish neither shook Ben Gurion’s hand, nor looked him in the eye. It was apparent that he was acting out of respect for the Talmudic prescription that forbids looking upon the face of an unbeliever (Rabkin, 2006: 157). In the discussion, Chazon Ish compared Israeli religious and secular communities in this respect and used a metaphor from one of the discussions in the Talmud (specifically Sanhedrin 32b) in doing so: if two camels met each other while on the ascent to Beth-­Horon – if they both ascend at the same time, both may tumble down into the valley. But if they ascend after each other, both can go up safely. How then should they act? If one is laden and the other unladen, the latter should give way to the former. If one is nearer to its destination than the other, the former should give way to the latter. (Handelzalts, 2010) Chazon Ish metaphorically stated that faithful (religious) Jews are like a camel ‘laden with tradition’ and that secular Jews are like an ‘unladen’ camel. In other words, his opinion was that secular Jews should give way to religious Jews in deciding on the issue of women’s conscription (which was found unacceptable by a number of rabbinical authorities) (Yavrov, 1998–2007: vol. 1, 234–236).

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98   The vision of a man Ben Gurion, however, responded that a secular (or Zionist) camel is actually not unladen – according to him, it fulfils the commandment of settling the Land of Israel, cultivating the land and protecting lives and borders. Afterwards, Ben Gurion turned to the rabbi with the question of how the secular and religious communities of women in the State of Israel would get on with each other. Chazon Ish replied that there was no chance of rapprochement from the religious side. The faithful could not cease to obey the commandments. However, the secular side was not bound by anything that would force it to act conversely to the religious side. Therefore it had the capacity to behave flexibly and limit its negative attitude towards the religious.

A selection from the works by Chazon Ish Chazon Ish (‘The Vision of a Man’), 23 volumes; commentaries on the Shulchan Aruch, the Talmud and the Rambam. Emunah U’Bitachon (‘Faith and Trust’). Kovetz Igrot Chazon Ish (‘The Collected Letters of Chazon Ish’).

Notes 1 Chazon Ish – ‘the vision of a man’. The Hebrew ‘ish’ (man), when written as ‘AYSH’, represents an abbreviation of his name: Avrohom Yeshayah. The ‘Chazon’ (vision) comes from Isaiah 1: 1: ‘The vision [chazon] of Isaiah.’ 2 In Judaism, the right hand is the side of mercy, and the left hand the side of strictness. Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 17, ‘Right and Left’, p. 302.

References Brafman, Aaron (2011, 11 November) ‘The Chazon Ish zt”l, on His Yahrtzeit, Tomorrow, 15 Cheshvan’. Online: http://matzav.com/the-­chazon-ish-­zt%E2%80%9Dl-on-­hisyahrtzeit-­tomorrow-15-cheshvan. Brown, Benjamin (2011) The Hazon Ish: Halakhist, Believer and Leader of the Haredi Revolution [Hebrew edition]. Jerusalem: Magnes Press. Finkelman, Shimon (1989) Chazon Ish and the Life and Ideals of Rabbi Avraham Yeshayah Karelitz. New York: Mesorah Publications Ltd. Greinieman, H. (ed.) (1956) Kovetz Igrot: Maran HaChazon Ish. Bnei Brak. Hacohen, Mordechai; Derovan, David (2007) ‘Karelitz, Avraham Yeshayahu’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 11. Detroit: Keter Publishing House. Handelzalts, Michael (2010, 2 November) ‘Pen Ultimate/Better on a Camel’, Haaretz. Online: www.ha.aretz.com/weekend/week-­s-end/pen-­ultimate-better-­on-a-­camel-1.263172. Rabkin, Yaakov (2006) A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Rossoff, Dovid (2001) Where Heaven Touches Earth: Jewish Life in Jerusalem from Medieval Times to the Present. Nanuet, NY: Feldheim Publishers. Weiss, Nosson (2007, 23 May) ‘House of Nobility, Humble Abode: Rav Elyashiv and His Torah Dynasty’, Mishpacha Magazine, 159. Yavrov, Zevi (1998–2007) Sefer Maaseh Ish, Vols 1–7. Bene Berak.  .

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Redeemers of the land Avraham Yitzchak Ha-­Kohen Kook ‫אברהם יצחק הכהן קוק‬

7 September 1865–1 September 1935 16 Elul 5625–3 Elul 5695

Tzvi Yehuda Kook ‫צבי יהודה קוק‬

2 April 1891–9 March 1982 23 Adar II 5651–14 Adar 5742 If we were to look for a rabbi whose theological thinking most influenced Jews regarding which attitudes to the existence of the Jewish state they should adopt, there is no doubt that Rabbi Avraham Kook1 would be in first place. And this is the case even in spite of the fact that he died in 1935, i.e. more than a decade before the formation of Israel. Rabbi Kook, known as the Ha-­Raayah,2 Ha-­Rav Ashkenazi Ha-­Rishon (‘The First Ashkenazi Rabbi’) or often just Ha-­Rav (‘Rabbi’), is the spiritual father of the synthesis between Orthodox Judaism and modern secular Jewish nationalism (Zionism) or – in simpler terms – ‘religious Zionism’ (Avineri, 2001: 188). Rabbi Kook fused these two things in his teachings, which was an inconceivable combination in the Jewish world before then. An absolute majority of Orthodox rabbis of his time rejected Zionism as a heresy against God’s will and did not support it. However, during his lifetime Rabbi Kook adopted theological views that were in many respects very different from those of his rabbinical contemporaries. In spite of this, however, he never stopped considering himself an Orthodox rabbi. Furthermore, he came from a completely Orthodox family, though it contained both Hasidic (on his mother’s side) and non-­Hasidic streams (his father studied at the famous Volozhin Yeshiva – ‘the mother of all Lithuanian yeshivas’).

The journey to religious Zionism Avraham Kook was born in Griva (Grieva), part of the city of Daugavpils in today’s East Lithuania that lay in the Russian Empire at that time. A huge Jewish community with a number of significant rabbis lived there. His father was the exceptional Jewish scholar Rabbi Shlomo Zalman, and his mother was named Pearl Zlata. Thanks to his learning capabilities, Avraham was regarded as ‘a prodigy’ already in his early childhood. He had a passionate relationship with the Holy Land, which was at that time under Turkish administration, and the region became the target of the first Zionist activities.

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100   Redeemers of the land Like his father, he studied at the Volozhin Yeshiva (though only briefly) under the eminent Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin (1816–1893), popularly known as the ‘Netziv’ (a term which denotes a Hebrew ‘Pillar’, but is also a Hebrew abbreviation of his name). After his rabbinical ordination at the age of 23, Kook received his first rabbinical post in the town of Zaumel in the border area between Lithuania and Latvia. The young Kook made use of the kindness of the local community, as it enabled him to leave his post for a whole month in order to visit the famous kabbalist Shlomo Elyashiv.3 It was also thanks to him that Rav Kook mastered a vast area of knowledge of the Kabbalah. Later, in 1895, Kook became the rabbi of the nearby town of Bauska, which is situated in the area of contemporary Latvia.4 Avraham Kook’s first wife, Batsheva, died very soon after their wedding. He took her cousin Raize‑Rivka as his second wife, and she gave birth to his son Tzvi Yehuda, who later became the most famous successor of Avraham Kook, and to whom the second part of this chapter is dedicated. Kook then moved to Palestine in 1904. He was nominated as a candidate for the post of a rabbi in Jaffa, which he accepted and held until the outbreak of the First World War. After the half-­hearted beginning of the Zionist movement, he witnessed the Second Aliyah there.5 Thanks to this, the rav came into contact with many people of various opinions and attitudes (Avneri, 2006). He also came into closer contact with the ideas of Zionism that he later more or less identified himself with. In 1914, the rabbi travelled to Europe to take part in a conference of the Agudat Yisrael movement in Berlin, where he tried (more or less unsuccessfully) to call on traditionalist Jews to fulfil the ideas of Zionism. However, the First World War broke out and the rav was forced to stay in Europe. He spent two years in Switzerland and then moved to Great Britain. In London he accepted a temporary rabbinical post. He was nevertheless well informed about the situation in the Middle East. He saw how Palestine was annexed from the Ottoman Empire during the British–Arab military collaboration, even though the Ottomans had controlled it for four centuries. Kook viewed the following events, such as Britain’s Balfour Declaration (1917), the conference in San Remo (1920),6 Britain’s foreign policy that supported Zionism and the generally increasing popularity of the Zionist movement, as irrefutable evidence of the fact that the Messianic Age was approaching. He claimed that ‘There is no doubt that this huge [Zionist] movement is atchalta di-­geula – “the beginning of the Redemption” – that is to come soon, already in our lifetime. And we have to be strong for our people and our divine cities’ (Sprinzak, 1991: 45). However, Kook by no means tolerated everything that secular Zionism stood for. He was surely impressed by the deeds of secular Zionists, but never endorsed secular Zionism (Sprinzak, 1991: 115). He was an opponent of secular Zionists’ failures to observe Jewish festivals and the Sabbath, and claimed that if the Zionist movement did not also acquire a spiritual dimension, it would never be successful. With the increasing influx of Zionist immigrants, the secularization of Palestine’s Jewish population grew considerably. Rabbi Kook was very

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critical of such a development of Jewish society, which did not, however, contradict the fact that he shared the newly arriving secular Zionists’ enthusiasm. Rabbi Kook wrote on this topic: If we abandon the opportunity to begin the development of the Yishuv; if physical and spiritual weakness and a lack of tools of war reach their peak among the faithful believers of Eretz Yisrael; if the raised hand, armed with lawlessness and Gentile ways, without a trace of the real sanctity of Israel, coating its shards with the dross of false nationalism, with specks of history and love of the language, clothing life with a Jewish exterior and an empty interior, about to be converted to a destructive monster, ultimately leading to hatred of Israel and of Eretz Yisrael, as we have already experienced – if this impure hand prevails, there are no words to express the magnitude of the calamity. (Avneri, 2006) Already in 1878, Naftali Herz Imber had written the lyrics to the Zionist anthem Ha-­Tikvah (‘Hope’), which later became the national anthem of Israel. However, Rabbi Kook reproached Imber for insufficient emphasis on the Jewish faith and suggested his own song that bore the name Ha-­Emunah (‘Faith’). Faith – Ha-­Emunah Eternally lives in our hearts, the loyal faith [HaEmunah] to return to our holy land, the city where David settled. There we shall stand [to receive] our destiny, [which the] father of many [nations] acquired, there we shall live our life the life of the innumerable community. There we shall serve our God with joy, happiness and song there we shall pilgrimage three times a year. Torah of life is our desire, given from heavenly mouth forever it is our heritage from the desert it was given.7 Kook was therefore primarily an idealist, and assumed that a spiritually Zionist Jewish state would certainly be more than an ‘ordinary country’ that provides for the physical needs of its citizens. This is noticeable also in his statement ‘The State of Israel – the foundation of God’s throne in this world’. Kook returned to Palestine after the war and saw the birth of the religious Zionist movement of Degel Yerushalayim (‘The Banner of Jerusalem’), which was supposed to be an

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102   Redeemers of the land alternative to secular Zionist movements; it was not meant to be their opponent, but rather their supplement or inspiration (unlike the anti-­Zionist formations established by Haredi rabbis – Agudat Yisrael, Eda Haredit, Neturei Karta, etc.). A much bigger paradox, however, is that Degel Yerushalayim supposedly contributed to the collapse of another religious Zionist movement – Mizrahi – which Kook regarded as his competitor from the very beginning in 1902 (Sprinzak, 1991: 327). In 1920, Kook became the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Jerusalem, and a year later was appointed to the newly created post of Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Palestine. In 1924 he founded the Merkaz Ha-­Rav Yeshiva, which became the main centre of his thinking and which has been one of the leading yeshivas of religious Zionism up to the present. Rabbi Kook remained in the post of Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Palestine until his death in 1935.8

Kook’s interpretation of religious Zionism Shlomo Avineri characterizes Kook as a revolutionary rabbi who radically reinterpreted the whole Jewish Orthodox tradition in such a way that he transformed the passive religious messianic hope into a basis for cooperation with activists of a political secular movement (Avineri, 2001: 188–189). One of the key points of Kook’s teachings was a new interpretation of the Jews’ relation with the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael). This relation, of course, also played an important role in traditional Orthodox Judaism; however, there, a physical understanding of the relation was not central to the idea of it – it was the spiritual interpretation that was central (the notion of the city of Jerusalem was understood in a similar way: there was an ‘earthly’ Jerusalem and a ‘heavenly’ Jerusalem). A prominent aspect of traditional Orthodox Judaism was the Jews’ (appreciably passive, when seen from the outside) waiting for the Messiah in the Diaspora and their acceptance of an inferior status among other nations. Kook rejected this passivity and foregrounded the bond to the real, physical Israeli land. Settling there was viewed by him as one of the greatest mitzvot as well as a vital pre‑requisite for the arrival of the Messiah (mashiach) and the Messianic Age. The activities of secular Zionists were therefore important because it was they who (even despite their godlessness) carried out the essential mitzvah of the re‑settlement of the Israeli land and made it possible for other Jews too (Avineri, 2001: 191). At this point it should be stressed that even traditional Orthodox Jews sometimes moved to the Israeli land, but they did so not out of political or ideological reasons, but on religious grounds (see the chapter on Rabbi Sonnenfeld). They did not see the Jewish presence in Eretz Yisrael as a process of subjugating the region at the expense of its non-­Jewish residents. On the contrary, in their view, the presence of non‑Jews and their control over Jews was an expression of the continuing Diaspora. They thought that the arrival of the Messiah and the Redemption (geula) primarily depend on God’s will, not on human volition

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(political, nationalist). They believed that everything that resisted the traditional interpretation of these fundamental issues amounted to blasphemy.9 Because Kook reinterpreted some foundations of traditional Orthodox Judaism in his own – very modernist – way (de facto accepting Jewish secularism), he considerably shifted away from his traditionalist rabbinical colleagues at the same time. In their eyes, Kook’s attitudes theologically stood somewhere on the border between nonconformity and apostasy. But even traditional rabbis were aware of Kook’s erudition, origin and meticulously traditionalist behaviour, appearance10 and so on, and therefore they could not simply label him a heretic, or show no respect towards him. After all, one of his friends – and concurrently one of his critics – was the greatest authority of Yishuv Jews of that time, Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, a convinced opponent of Zionism. He and other rabbis had harsh theological disputations with Kook (Landerer, 2010). Kook certainly opened the traditional Jewish world and brought it closer to the less religious, secularized or completely atheist Jews, thus contributing to the moderation of many intra-­Jewish conflicts. On the other hand, he opened the ‘scissors of thought’ directly inside Orthodox Judaism and shifted it in his interpretation to a position it had never occupied before. It is very hard to evaluate if such a procedure was correct (even should we acknowledge that it is possible to think this way at all). It is true that the Judaism of the twentieth century underwent a great transformation, and that Rabbi Kook was one of those who caused it. Most Orthodox Jews took a more pragmatic and conciliatory stands towards modernity, Zionism, etc. in the twentieth century (partly under Kook’s influence but also through their consideration of events such as the Holocaust and the formation of Israel). Kook also contributed to the politicization of Judaism, and the politicization of religion is a process that not only happened in Judaism, but also materialized in other religions, mainly in Islam and partly in Christianity.

A selection from Rabbi Kook’s works The series of Orot (‘Lights’) books •

• • • •

Orot (‘Lights’) – one of the most important of Kook’s books. It deals with the role of the Israeli nation during the redemption of the world and the role that is assumed by the Land of Israel in it. Rabbi Kook explains that a correct understanding of the Israeli nation can take place only if we recognize the central role of the Land of Israel for the Israeli nation. Rabbi Kook often supports his propositions with kabbalistic reflections on the spiritual meaning of the Land of Israel. Orot Ha-­Teshuva (‘The Lights of Penitence’). Orot Ha-­Emuna (‘The Lights of Faith’). Orot Ha-­Kodesh I, II and III (‘The Lights of Holiness’). Orot Ha-­Tora (‘The Lights of the Torah’).

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104   Redeemers of the land Jewish thought • • • • • •

Ain Aiyah (‘The Spring of Avraham Yitzchak Ha-­Kohen’) – a commentary on Ain Yaakov (‘Yaakov’s Spring’) by Rabbi Yaakov ibn Chaviv (1460–1516), which summarizes all the Aggadic sections of the Talmud. Rosh Milin (‘The Beginning of Words’) – a book about Hebrew letters, vowels (nekudot), decorative crowns (tagin) and canticle musical notes (taamim). Ma’amarei Ha-­Raayah I and II (‘Statements of Ha-­Rav Avraham Yitzchak Ha-­Kohen’) – essays and lectures. Midbar Shur (‘Desert, Settlement’, or ‘The Shur Desert’) – Rav Kook’s lectures given outside the Land of Israel. Chavosh Pe’er (‘Tying the Diadem’) – about the importance of wearing prayer straps (tefillin). Eder Ha-­Yekar and Ikvei Ha-­Tzon (‘A Precious Beauty’ and ‘The Tracks of the Sheep’) – one of his early works, dealing with the redemption of God’s nation.

Halacha •

• • •

Be’er Eliyahu (‘Elijah’s Well’) – an interpretation of the commentaries of Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu (Ha-­Gra) on the Hoshen Mishpat (‘The Breastplate of Judgement’), which is included in the halachic code Arba’ah turim (‘Four Rows’) by Rabbi Yaakov ben Asher (c.1269–1343), which deals with the law of finances, property, losses, etc. Orach Mishpat (‘The Journey of the Law’) – responsa on the Talmudic tract Orach Chaim. Ezrat Kohen (‘The Help of a Kohen’) – responsa on the section Even Ha-­ Ezer (‘The Stone of Help’) of the halachic code Arba’ah turim, which deals with the laws of marriage and divorce. Zivchei Raayah (‘Sacrifices of Rav Avraham Yitzchak Ha-­Kohen’) – responsa on and new interpretations of sacrifice and animal slaughter.

Other texts • •

• •

Shmoneh Kvatzim (‘Eight Collections’) – a collection of statements by Rav Kook. Olat Raayah (‘The Sacrifice of Rav Avraham Yitzchak Ha-­Kohen’) – a siddur according to the Ashkenazi rites (nosach ashkenaz) with a commentary by Rav Kook. The commentaries were selected and organized by the rav’s son Tzvi Yehuda Kook. Igrot Ha-­Raayah (‘Letters of Rav Avraham Yitzchak Ha-­Kohen’) – selected letters by Kook. Many other manuscripts, diaries and notes by Kook remained after his death, which were then gradually edited by his son and his students.

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Tzvi Yehuda Kook The younger Rabbi Kook is mentioned in this book not because he would be comparable with his father in terms of his theological thinking, but mainly because he is often labelled as his successor. However, this statement is disputable. Being a son of a famous father does not mean that one has the ability to continue the father’s work in a high‑quality way. An author’s successor in terms of ideas is somebody who develops the ideas in a similar spirit as the original author. The younger Kook fulfils this definition only to a limited extent. He is seen as the elder Kook’s successor mainly because some contemporary religious Zionists regard him as a follower of the elder Kook and consider the connection of the two rabbis as functional. The elder Rabbi Kook was definitely not a fundamentalist or a political radical in today’s sense of the word. However, his son was; furthermore, the younger Kook has provided theological support to the biggest religious-­political extremists in Israel. Tzvi Yehuda Kook was born in Zaumel, Lithuania (see introductory part of this chapter), to the second wife of Avraham Kook, Raize-­Rivka Kook. When he was 13, he left for Palestine with his parents. In 1906 he started studying at the prestigious Toras Chayim Yeshiva (the Ateret Kohanim Yeshiva11 was established in its place later on), and afterwards he studied at the Porat Yosef Yeshiva. In Ottoman Palestine, Tzvi Yehuda helped his father with the publication of his books. Just before the outbreak of the First World War, he rather imprudently left for Halberstadt, Germany to visit the local yeshiva. However, when war broke out, he was interned in Germany as a citizen of the enemy Russian Empire. Although he managed to get to Switzerland, where he met his father, during the war, he was allowed to return to Palestine only in 1920 (Samson and Fishman, 1991: xxi–xxiii). There he started teaching, but soon afterwards he went back to Europe, where he promoted his father’s project Degel Yerushalayim (see above). At the beginning of the 1920s, in Warsaw, he married Chava Lea Hutner, whom he outlived by 40 years. He never remarried after her death and did not leave any descendants. When he returned to Palestine in 1923, he started working in the administrative department of his father’s yeshiva of Merkaz Ha-­ Rav. Much later he took over its leadership after his father’s death (1952). Nevertheless, before 1967 he was not a particularly significant religious authority. Some experts even directly talk about his ‘vulgarization of his father’s work’ and the following issue: in rabbinical circles it was generally understood that his principal thoughts were partly copied from his father. The Israeli and Diaspora societies became aware of Kook only at the beginning of the 1970s, when his bland theoretical work became the programme framework of Jewish fundamentalism. In his attempts to develop Jewish thought, Kook chose some of his father’s ethical, theological and legal motives, which he contextualized within contemporary politics. The related speeches were then published by

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106   Redeemers of the land his students in the Diaspora and Israeli religious press or in the form of brochures, in which the text was usually enriched by new commentaries and notes of Kook’s adherents. (Mendel, 2000: 77)

1967 It is likely that without the stunning Israeli victory during the Six-­Day War in June 1967, the younger Kook would indeed have stayed in the shadow of his father. But the new geopolitical position of Israel, which now had a number of conquered territories, made the country a regional superpower. In addition, this situation also considerably influenced Israeli internal politics, provoked a religious euphoria and encouraged religious radicalism as well as excessive self‑confidence on the part of some Israelis. Rabbi Kook himself began to explain this victory as another indication of the approaching Redemption (Sprinzak, 1991: 44–45). Already before the Six-­Day War, Kook had become the spiritual authority of the religious Zionist youth movement Bnei Akiva (‘Sons of Akiva’), and his students were among the first people to arrive at the Wailing Wall after the conquest of the Old City of Jerusalem. The teachings of the younger Kook also laid the foundations for the militant settlement movement Gush Emunim (‘Bloc of the Faithful’), whose founders came from within Merkaz Ha-­Rav Yeshiva circles. Religious Jewish settlers were convinced that God called them to fulfil his intentions by establishing settlements in the whole ‘Great Israel’ – i.e. Israel when it is understood as including ‘Judea, Samaria and Gaza’ (the so‑called Yesha),12 as well as other areas located in the neighbouring Arab states. In the spirit of the younger Kook’s teachings, the settlers learned to use the theological notion of Eretz Yisrael – the Land of Israel – in their own favour. This is, from the political point of view, a much broader and far less clear notion than that behind the official name of today’s political State of Israel (Medinat Yisrael in Hebrew). The Great Israel stretches beyond the contemporary Israeli borders to varying degrees, which is connected to the sizes of ancient Israel in several Biblical eras. In all of the conceptions, the ‘Greater Israel’ subsumes today’s occupied Palestinian territories and sometimes parts of the land of the neighbouring Arab states. The largest area of ancient Israel included the territory ‘from the Nile to the Euphrates’.13 On the basis of concepts like ‘a special relation between God and the chosen people’, Rabbi Kook legitimized the presence of Jewish settlers on the Palestinian territories, which were declared ‘holy and indivisible’. In the spirit of this interpretation, their Arab citizens were labelled as ‘infidels’ who were delaying the arrival of the Messiah. Furthermore, the younger Kook defined the State of Israel as a ‘Halachic kingdom of Israel’, that is, the ‘kingdom of Heaven on Earth’, as a result of which every Jew living in Israel was holy, including the secular Jews (Sprinzak, 1999: 153). According to his philosophy, building Jewish settlements on territories conquered during the war was an important step towards the continuously approaching Redemption.

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As the most significant religious authority of the Gush Emunim movement (see also the chapter on Moshe Levinger), he also influenced a range of very radical rabbis who started to be connected with Gush Emunim; these included rabbis such as Moshe Levinger, Tzvi Tau, Shlomo Aviner, Dov Lior, Chaim Drukmann and Yaakov Ariel. The religious authority of the younger Rabbi Kook is to a certain extent analogous to the influence of some authorities of radical Islamism. Often in such cases, religious intellectuals (e.g. Sayyid Qutb or Ayatollah Khomeini) leave behind various politicized and often very radical and purposeful texts, not seldom in the form of pamphlets. These become very useful for their adherents (who are often much less religiously knowledgeable than the authors of the texts), who are able to follow their (mis)interpretations and regard them as ‘authoritative’ and ‘right’. Those simple or even simplifying texts are very easy to use expediently as a theological defence of their actions – and they do not have to ponder over other, often more authoritative interpretations of sacred texts. However, the radical texts often represent concepts and interpretations that are very distant from the mainstream of their religion. Although the younger Kook was relatively erudite, practically he did not write any significant work. Books published under his name are mostly collections of his lectures, articles and letters. However, he did devote great efforts to editing and publishing his father’s manuscripts, among which are the following: Selected articles: Mitoch Ha-­Tora Ha-­Goelet (‘From the Teachings on the Redemption’), Or Le-­Netivati (‘The Light of My Journey’), Le-­Netivot Yisrael (‘On the Roads of Israel’) Selected letters: Tzemach Tzvi (‘Tzvi’s Sprig’), Dodi Li-­Tzvi (‘My Dear Tzvi’), some letters in the book Igrot Ha-­ReAYaH (‘Letters of Rav Avraham Yitzchak Ha-­Kohen’) Sichot Ha-­Rav Tzvi Yehuda (‘Speeches of Rav Tzvi Yehuda’) – a five‑volume anthology of lectures.

The Kooks and ‘today’s Israeli Judaism’ The politicization of religion does not always have to be a negative phenomenon. Religion can be intertwined with politics in a constructive way (e.g. it can bring positive religious values into politics14), but very often there exists a danger that this relation might transform into a negative (e.g. efforts to theocratize the society, which usually leads to social conflicts) or even a downright destructive relation (religious fundamentalism and terrorism). It would definitely be possible to place the elder Rabbi Kook’s contribution to the development of Judaism into the category of more positive relations. However, the way Tzvi Yehuda Kook ‘developed’ his father’s work dangerously straddled the border between both conceptions and inspired a number of religious radicals. More information about this is provided below. The elder Kook’s conception of Judaism became a supplement of ‘modern Orthodoxy’ (see also the chapter on

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108   Redeemers of the land Rabbi Soloveitchik) and one of the fundamentals of what we could call ‘Israeli Judaism’. This brought about, apart from the politicization of religion, a distinct interconnection of Judaism with the Israeli–Arab conflict. It is nonetheless necessary to emphasize that the elder Rabbi Kook was never a follower of politics bound together with religious fundamentalism, and he did not use any contradictory notions such as ‘operative messianism’ either. Although the elder Rabbi Kook supported secular Zionists, he did not found any political movement, nor did he hold any theocratic political views. All these phenomena are related to the teachings of his son. It would definitely be interesting to compare in which aspects the contemporary Orthodoxy in Israel differs from the traditional Orthodoxy from the period before the Second World War, and in what ways they are similar to each other. Currently, though, it is not easy to make such a comparison because, even if the traditional Eastern European Orthodox communities were not destroyed during the Shoah, a certain transformation after the Holocaust affected practically all the remaining Jewish communities. Some of the differences are apparent practically ‘at first sight’: a big difference can be seen on encountering traditionalist Orthodox Jews in the Meah Shearim quarter of Jerusalem or Golders Green in London, and then meet the very self‑confident religious Zionists from the settlements on the West Bank. Sometimes we can understand this difference as that between ‘sensibility and logic’ – after all, the inferior status of traditional Jews (who tried to maintain good relationships with the mainstream society and consequently – at least in some cases – were left defencelessness when it came to anti-­Semitism) was replaced by religious self‑esteem and the capacity for self‑defence. However, you may suspect that traditional Judaism could have been about something different than an unbridled desire to physically settle the Land of Israel and consider one’s nation superior to other nations. An obvious fact is that many important aspects of traditional Judaism have taken a backseat in the modern interpretations of some religious Zionists.

Notes   1 The original meaning of the name Kook is ‘look’ in Yiddish.   2 RaAYaH – the abbreviation of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen.   3 Shlomo Elyashiv (1841–1925), whose name was derived from his major work Le-­ Shem, was the grandfather of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv (see the chapter about him).   4 See http://ravkooktorah.org/timeline.htm.   5 In the Second Aliyah (1904–1914), around 40,000 people from Eastern Europe came to Palestine, mainly in reaction to anti‑Semitism in Russia. The city of Tel Aviv and the first kibbutz (Deganyia) were founded during this wave, and the Hebrew language was revived in the context of it as well. Many of the incoming Jews combined Zionism with socialism.   6 The Balfour Declaration confirmed the British support for the Zionist movement, and the conference in San Remo institutionalized this support in the form of the establishment of the British Mandate of Palestine. Sir Herbert Samuel, a British Zionist Jew, was placed at its head.

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  7 See e.g. www.zemirotdatabase.org/view_song.php?id=152.   8 See http://ravkooktorah.org/timeline.htm.   9 This is not supposed to mean that traditional Orthodox Judaism was completely anachronistic and absolutely inflexible. Even ultra-­Orthodox Judaism is developing continuously thanks to the opinions of rabbinical authorities, among other factors. It is possible to observe that modern technologies, such as cars, mobile phones, the Internet, etc., are used even by the most Orthodox and most anti‑Zionist Jews. 10 Apart from the traditional caftan, Rabbi Kook also liked wearing the heavy rabbinical fur hat, the spodik. 11 Ateret Kohanim (‘Crown of the Cohens’ or ‘Crown of the Priests’) is a radically religious Jewish Zionist movement formed around the eponymous yeshiva in the Muslim quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It occupies or buys land in the Arab parts of the Old City of Jerusalem and establishes yeshivas on it with the help of financial contributions from some American Jewish and Evangelical (Christian Zionist) groups. 12 Yesha is an Israeli abbreviation for the Hebrew words Yehuda, Shomron and Azza, which are the biblical names of the contemporary West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and the Gaza Strip. 13 See Gen. 15: 18–21: ‘On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said: “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates.”’ 14 Example are Christian-­Democratic or liberal Islamist parties.

References Avineri, Shlomo (2001) Zrození moderního sionismu [The Making of Modern Zionism]. Prague: Sefer [In Czech]. Avneri, Yosi (2006) ‘On Rav Kook’s 70th Yahrtzeit – Rav Kook’s Vision: Timely or Premature?’, Jewish Action (Spring). Online: www.ou.org/pdf/ja/5766/spring66/ RavKook.pdf. Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Dowty, Alan (1998) The Jewish State: A Century Later. Berkeley: University of California Press. Elkins, Dov Peretz (2005) Shepherd of Jerusalem: A Biography of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse. Firestone, Reuven (2012) Holy War in Judaism: The Fall and Rise of a Controversial Idea. New York: Oxford University Press. Ish-­Shalom, Benjamin (1993) Rav Avraham Itzhak HaCohen Kook: Between Rationalism and Mysticism. New York: State University of New York Press. Landerer, Chaim (2010) ‘Two Controversies Involving R’ Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook’, Ḥakirah, the Flatbush Journal of Jewish Law and Thought, 10, 243–256. Online: www.hakirah.org/Vol%2010%20Landerer.pdf. Liebman, Charles S.; Don-­Yehiya, Eliezer (1984) Religion and Politics in Israel. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Mendel, Miloš (2000) Náboženství v boji o Palestinu: Judaismus, islám a křesťanství jako ideologie etnického konfliktu [Religion in the Contest for Palestine: Judaism, Islam and Christianity as Ideologies of Ethnic Conflict]. Brno: Atlantis [In Czech]. Rabkin, Yaakov (2006) A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Samson, David; Fishman, Tzvi (1991) Torat Eretz Yisrael. Jerusalem: Torat Eretz Yisrael Publications.

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110   Redeemers of the land Schwartz, Dov (2007, 15 February) ‘A “Unity of Opposites” ’, Haaretz. Sprinzak, Ehud (1991) The Ascendance of Israel’s Radical Right. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sprinzak, Ehud (1999) Brother against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics. New York: The Free Press. Zinger, Zvi; Ish-­Shalom, Benjamin (2007) ‘Kook, Abraham Isaac’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 12. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House.

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A friend of John Paul II Yisrael Meir Lau Born 1 June 1937 (22 Sivan 5697)

Rabbi Lau is one of the best‑known contemporary Israeli rabbis in terms of media coverage of his activities, both in Israel and other countries. Lau is famous not so much for his theological knowledge or rabbinical commentaries, but mainly thanks to his public appearances in the positions he has attained during his life. The one activity that especially rendered him famous was his work as the Chief Israeli Ashkenazi Rabbi during the years 1993–2003. In this high post, he advocated inter-­religious dialogue and established friendly relations with his elder fellow countryman, John Paul II (1920–2005), being the first Chief Israeli Rabbi ever to visit the pope. It perhaps goes without saying that, historically, relations between Jews and Christians (mainly the Catholic Church) were complicated and not seldom very tragic.1

The youngest prisoner in Buchenwald Apart from being the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi, Yisrael M. Lau also became famous owing to his activities in maintaining the memory of the Holocaust. His fate during the war was very dramatic, like the destinies of almost all Jews who survived the Second World War in Europe. Lau comes from a Polish Jewish community that was practically destroyed by the Holocaust. Rabbi Lau’s birthplace is the Polish city of Piotrków Trybunalski (Petrikev in Yiddish). At the time of his birth, in this city there lived a large Jewish community that made up nearly half the city’s population, and the total population of the city numbered 50,000. However, only a fraction of the community remained after the war. During the war, he lost all his family except for his older brother, stepbrother and uncle. His father, who was the last Rabbi of Piotrków, was sent together with more than 20,000 Piotrków Jews to Treblinka, where the rabbi and most of the prisoners were murdered. Nevertheless, beforehand he had managed to hide little Yisrael and his mother in the loft of their house in the city ghetto. The young boy then worked for almost two years in a glass factory, where he distributed water for the workers. However, the Germans later destroyed the ghetto and sent the remaining local Jews into concentration camps. Yisrael and his brother were separated from their mother, who was tortured to death in Ravensbrück, and they were sent to

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112   A friend of John Paul II Buchenwald, where they remained until the end of the war. When the concentration camp was liberated by the Americans in April 1945, the then seven‑ year-­old Yisrael became the youngest rescued prisoner from Buchenwald (Lau, 2011; Netanel, 2006). Decades later, in December 2008, Lau was appointed the Chairman of the Jerusalem Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem. His very positive relations with Pope John Paul II was connected with, among other things, the pope’s activities during the Second World War, when the young Karol Wojtyla had tried to help his Jewish compatriots (Filteau, 2005; Cowell, 1993).

In Israel Lau migrated to Palestine with his older brother almost immediately after the end of the war (in 1946) and a photo of the two brothers from this time became a near icon. In Israel he was brought up by his uncle, who enrolled him in the state religious school in Kiryat Shmuel. The young Meir subsequently graduated from three yeshivas: Kol Torah in Jerusalem, Knesset Hizkiya in Zichron Yaakov and the famous Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. In 1960 he received his rabbinical ordination. At 24, he married the daughter of the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Yitzchak Yedidya Frankel. In 1971 he accepted the post of Rabbi of North Tel Aviv and the Chairman of the Tel Aviv Congregation Or Torah (‘The Light of the Torah’). His book, Yahadut: Halacha Le-­maase (‘Judaism: A Practical Guide’; 1975), comes from this period. Lau later acted as the Chief Rabbi of the city of Netanya (1978–1988), and in 1983 he was appointed a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council, where he dealt with issues of medical ethics. This activity is reflected in another of his books, Yachel Yisrael (‘Israel, Hope’; 1993),2 which deals with, among other things, medical ethics and the Jewish tradition. In the years 1988–1993 he held the post of Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv-­Jaffa (since 2005, he has held this office for a second time), and in 1993–2003 he finally became the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel. After the expiry of his mandate for the position of Chief Rabbi he even contemplated running for the Israeli presidency (it was Shimon Peres who was finally elected president in 2006). The post of the Israeli Chief Rabbi is a dual office, and is divided between the office of the Chief Sephardi Rabbi and that of the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi. However, the Ashkenazi Lau gained recognition even from many Sephardis, and his colleague, the Sephardi Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-­Doron, has even claimed that in the future, it will not be necessary for the interests of Sephardi Jews to be represented by a special Sephardi rabbi (Itim, 2003). At this point it is necessary to remind the reader that all of Lau’s positions, discussed above, are tied to Israeli local politics and management of religious issues rather than to Judaism as such. After all, Judaism does not approve of any rabbinical hierarchy, and the aforesaid offices were created by the Zionist or Israeli administrations after 1948 (or, more precisely, they were built on

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the existence of certain bodies from the times of the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate of Palestine). Consequently, the bodies have been accepted differently by different groups of Jews in Israel. Although Rabbi Lau at first sight gives the impression (e.g. by his style of clothing) that he is an adherent of the traditional line of ultra-­Orthodox Judaism, many Haredim have regarded him as ‘too Zionist’. This is connected with the general view of the Haredim in Israel on the institution of the Chief Rabbinate and rabbinical administrative bodies. It is particularly the most traditional Haredim who do not respect these bodies and do not accept their halachic interpretations either (Rosenblatt, 2012). However, Rabbi Lau gained the recognition of a large proportion of Israelis, including many secular Israelis, who otherwise view their devout fellow citizens with great contempt. Lau has always strived for a rapprochement between the secular and religious streams, and thanks to his friendship with John Paul II he also rendered outstanding service in alleviating the tension between Jews and the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, Lau was much more critical of the subsequent pope, Benedict XVI, than of his predecessor (Fendel, 2009). Although Rabbi Lau is generally considered a consensual figure and a participant in the religious dialogue, his attitudes towards the non‑Orthodox streams of Judaism, homosexuality and some other problems between secular and religious Israelis have provoked criticism. This criticism did not wane even after 2005, when Lau received the Israeli Prize for his lifetime achievements and special contribution to the society and the State of Israel (Haaretz, 2007). It was in the very same period that Rabbi Lau’s presidential nomination appeared (Somfalvi, 2006).

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is nominally the highest institution in matters of Halacha. Its function overlaps with that of the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Appeals in Jerusalem, over which both of the chief rabbis preside, as well as with the function of the hierarchy of rabbinical religious courts. The electoral college of the two chief rabbis is composed of 80 rabbis and 70 laymen, and is evenly divided between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews. During an election, an important role is also played by the mayors and members of local religious councils. In the history of Israel, the Chief Rabbinate has traditionally been most strongly influenced by the religious Zionist National Religious Party (Mafdal), but nowadays the party is very weak and fragmented. The selection of chief rabbis is always accompanied by intense negotiations between political parties. Although the elections of rabbis are secret, their results show that the parties have a very strong influence on the elections.3 In 2013, Yisrael Meir Lau’s son David Lau was elected the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel.

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114   A friend of John Paul II Chief Rabbis of the State of Israel and the British Mandate of Palestine Name of the Chief Rabbi and his intra-ethnic affiliation

Term of office

Jacob Meir (1856–1939) Seph. Avraham Yitzchak Ha-Kohen Kook (1865–1935) Ashk. Ben-Zion Meir Chai Uziel (1880–1953) Seph. Yitzchak Ha-Levi Herzog (1889–1959) Ashk. Yitzchak Nissim (1896–1981) Seph. Isser Yehuda Untermann (1886–1976) Ashk. Ovadia Yosef (1920) Seph. Shlomo Goren (1917–1996) Ashk. Mordechai Eliyahu (1929) Seph. Avraham Shapira (1935) Ashk. Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron (1941) Seph. Yisrael Meir Lau (1937) Ashk. Shlomo Amar (1948) Seph. Yona Metzger (1953) Ashk. Yitzchak Yosef (1952) Seph. David Lau (1966) Ashk.

1906–1939 1921–1935 1939–1953 1936–1959 1955–1972 1964–1973 1973–1983 1973–1983 1983–1993 1983–1993 1993–2003 1993–2003 2003–2013 2003–2013 Since 2013 Since 2013

Note Compiled by the authors according to various sources.

Notes 1 For more information about the relationship between Jews and Christians, and especially about Christian anti‑Semitism and anti‑Judaism, see the chapters about Rabbi Heschel and Rabbi Soloveitchik. 2 The name of the book was derived from Psalm 130: 7–8: ‘O Israel, hope (Yachel Yisrael) in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.’ 3 For more information see Čejka (2009).

References Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Cowell, Alan (1993, 22 September) ‘Pope Meets a Chief Rabbi, Feeding Talk of Israeli Ties’, International New York Times. Fendel, Hillel (2009, 5 August) ‘Rabbi Lau: No Need to Flatter the Pope or to Rebuff Him’, Israel National News. Online: www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News. aspx/131260#.VL0M7oeHuLk. Filteau, Jerry (2005) ‘Reconciliation with Jews a Hallmark of John Paul’s Papacy’, Catholic News Service. Online: www.catholicnews.com/jpii/stories/story03.htm. Haaretz (2007, 29 April) ‘Rabbi Lau Is Unworthy’. Online: www.haaretz.com/print-­ edition/opinion/rabbi-­lau-is-­unworthy-1.219228. Itim (2003, 23 January) ‘Katsav, Bakshi-­Doron Call for Only One Chief Rabbi’, Haaretz. Lau, Israel Meir (2011) Out of the Depths: The Story of a Child of Buchenwald Who Returned Home at Last. New York: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. Netanel, A. (2006) ‘Lulek: Child of Buchenwald’, Holocaust Studies. Online: www.aish. com/ho/p/48956731.html.

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Rosenblatt, Gary (2012, 12 November) ‘Calls for Change to Chief Rabbinate’, The Jewish Week. Online: www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-­opinion/gary-­rosenblatt/calls-­changechief-­rabbinate. Somfalvi, Attila (2006, 16 May) ‘Officials: PM Wants Rabbi Lau as President’, YNet News. Online: www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-­3251399,00.html.

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The settler from Hebron Moshe Levinger 1935–16 May 2015

One can show love for the Land of Israel in various ways. A number of rabbis and their adherents did so in a humble way, some of them even so fearfully that they refused to set foot in the land of Eretz Yisrael before the arrival of the Messiah. Other Jews were not reluctant to travel to the promised homeland and settle there; despite this, they were aware that there were other nations and faiths living on the same territory that had also nurtured a warm relationship with the same land during the centuries when the Jews were absent, and that all of them were under the protection of God, who would eventually decide how things would further develop in Eretz Yisrael. However, then arrived the Jews whose love for the land grew into selfishness and hatred towards the majority of the other people living there. Their present leader, among others, is Moshe Levinger – one of the most controversial rabbinical figures of contemporary Israel. He is regarded as a spiritual authority of the Jewish settlers from Hebron, who make up one of the most radical parts of the whole Israeli society. Levinger’s parents fled to Palestine from Germany to escape Nazi persecution; Moshe Levinger was born in Jerusalem. Following the example of his parents, he became a staunch religious Zionist, a student of the religious Zionist B’nai Akiva yeshiva, and later a student of Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook (see the chapter about him and his father) in the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva. After the completion of his rabbinical studies, he became a pastor in a religious kibbutz near the Golan Heights (Atkins, 2004: 179). However, he gained fame only after the Six‑Day War in 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights during combat operations. Not long after the war, in which Israel conquered a territory three times larger than its previous area, the Israeli government began the planned settlement policy in some parts of the occupied territories (chiefly in the Jordan Valley, the Gush Etzion region and the hills in the vicinity of the city of Hebron). The political argument used in support of the settlement policy in that period (which also came into conflict with international law1) was that settling parts of the occupied territories would strengthen the defensibility of Israeli borders and thus increase Israel’s security. Initially, however, it was expected that at least part of the land could be returned to the Arab countries that lost them by exchanging areas of land for security guarantees.2 However, religious Zionists, such as Levinger and adherents of the

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subsequent Gush Emunim movement, had a different conception about the occupied territories and different plans for them than the left‑wing government ministers who initiated the settlement policy. In the spirit of the theology of religious Zionism (and the younger Rabbi Kook’s teachings in particular), Levinger and other religious Zionists thought that the Six‑Day War returned to them the territories of the biblical Land of Israel that had been promised to the Jews by God and which the Jews had once lost. In their view, thanks to God’s will the territories fell into the hands of Jews, and were never to be handed back to the enemy. The main point of interest of the religious Zionists was now the West Bank, which is an area whose territory corresponds to the biblical regions of Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip (Hattis Rolef, 1993: 134). Levinger himself claimed the following: It is a responsibility [mitzvah] of every Jew to return to Eretz Yisrael and rebuild the kingdom. This responsibility springs from the Torah, from the Covenant with God. Judea and Samaria belonged to the Jewish people already before 1967. We knew they had belonged to us during our whole history. No Jew has prayed in exile three times a day for being able to get back to Tel Aviv or Haifa; Jews have prayed for centuries for their return to Jerusalem, Hebron, and Shechem (Nablus). The tombs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are there, not in Tel Aviv. Hebron was the city of David. Before Arabs slaughtered the community of the local scholars of the Torah in 1929, they had been living in Hebron for the whole period of the Galut [Diaspora]. (Mendel, 2000: 120) After the Six‑Day War, Levinger became an avid supporter of building Jewish settlements in all parts of the occupied territories, i.e. not only in the areas demarcated by the state. However, such efforts were not particularly widespread among religious Zionists at that time, nor were they coordinated. Despite this, Levinger became the leader of a group of settlers who tried to settle directly in the centre of the city of Hebron in the southern part of the West Bank as early as in April 1968. At that time, Levinger and several Jewish settlers, who were disguised as tourists, occupied a hotel in the centre of the city (Levinger, 2013). Levinger subsequently claimed that he intended to revive the Jewish community in Hebron. The city was, nonetheless, populated entirely by Palestinian Arabs, and the presence of the radical settlers in the city provoked great tension and clashes. Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol finally decided to move the group of settlers away from the city centre and into a military base in the suburbs. They then remained there and chose the biblical name Kiryat Arba for the settlement (Atkins, 2004: 179). The city of Hebron has a special meaning for Jews (as well as for Muslims and Christians). Not only is it one of the oldest cities in the Middle East, but it is also one of the longest-­populated human settlements. The most important aspect from a theological point of view, however, is that the relics of the forefather of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Abraham (Avraham in Hebrew, Ibrahim

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118   The settler from Hebron in Arabic), his sons Isaac (Yitzchak in Hebrew, Ishak in Arabic) and Jacob (Yaakov in Hebrew, Yaqub in Arabic) and their wives Sarah (Sara in Hebrew and Arabic), Rebecca (Rivka in Hebrew, Ribqa in Arabic) and Leah (Leah in Hebrew, Lia in Arabic),3 lie in the Cave of Machpelah, which is located in the city. Hebron is one of the four holiest cities of Judaism (along with Jerusalem, Safed and Tiberias). Unlike the majority of the Jewish settlements that were built on the West Bank after 1967, the Jewish presence in Hebron was continuous – with the exception of the period of the Crusades – from ancient times to the first half of the twentieth century. A small Jewish community had thus lived for many centuries in the vicinity of Islam and did not come into any remarkable conflicts with the Muslim majority. However, in the twentieth century, in the period of the emerging conflict between the Zionists and Palestinian Arabs, Arab–Jewish relations worsened markedly. In 1929, huge riots between the Zionists and Arabs broke out, and one of their consequences was a pogrom on the Jews in April 1929. During this pogrom, a fanaticized mob of Arab rioters massacred 69 members of the original Jewish community in Hebron. A British commander together with a small police squad tried to stop the carnage, but they were not powerful enough to get the rioters under control. However, hundreds of Hebron Jews found refuge with their Arab neighbours who had refused to get involved in the killing (Segev, 2000: 325–327). Despite this, all Hebron Jews had to be evacuated shortly after the massacre, and thus, from the beginning of the 1930s until 1968, there was no Jewish community in Hebron. After the Six‑Day War, though, they returned to Hebron once again. However, the new Jewish settlers did not have much in common with the original, peaceable Jewish inhabitants. They were fundamentalists, wih committed heart and soul to their mission, and their view of Arabs was both vigilant and extremely hostile – and it was Rabbi Moshe Levinger who stood at their head. Although Israeli soldiers curbed the activities of his callous settlers at the beginning, they became less and less successful, and the settlers were beyond their control (Sprinzak, 1999: 170–171). Besides the area of Hebron, Levinger also stood at the head of the settling efforts in another West Bank territory – the bloc of Etzion (Gush Etzion in Hebrew, which is the area between Bethlehem and Hebron). In this territory, similarly to Hebron in this respect, there had lived no Jews since the bloodshed in 1948. However, Gush Etzion formed part of the ‘official’ settlement plan of the Israeli government, so here there were fewer conflicts than in Hebron.

At the forefront of the ‘Bloc of the Faithful’ A big impulse for the devout settlers was 1974, when Levinger and a couple of other leaders of the settlers managed to establish a religious settlement movement that was supposed to better articulate and enforce their interests. It was called Gush Emunim (the ‘Bloc of the Faithful’ in Hebrew). It posed a problem for the Israeli government, however, as it did not respect the ‘official’ plans for the settlement on the West Bank and focused on regions mostly inhabited by

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Palestinians (Hattis Rolef, 1993: 134). This, of course, increased the already heightened Israeli–Palestinian tensions in the West Bank and represented a threat to the safety of Israelis. Howver, a number of descendants of the Hebron Jews who survived the pogrom in 1929 openly distanced themselves from the ‘new’ Hebron settlers, declaring in 1996 that the contemporary Hebron settlers had nothing in common with their ancestors.4 Levinger paid particular attention to settling the central ranges in the West Bank north of Jerusalem, which is a region with large Palestinian cities such as Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin and Qalqilya. In the 1970s, Levinger and other members of Gush Emunim founded the Jewish settlement of Elon Moreh near Nablus, which they achieved after several unsuccessful attempts. Levinger’s strategy when establishing Elon Moreh then became the main strategy of Gush Emunim: they were to settle illegally in a pre‑selected place (in the case of Elon Moreh it was a former railway station near the town of Sebastia) and, contrary to the settlement policy of the left‑wing government, force the government to acknowledge the settlement as a fact (Sprinzak, 1999: 151). Between June 1974 and 1975, the members of Gush Emunim undertook several other unsuccessful attempts to found settlements near Nablus. The eighth attempt led to a compromise between the movement’s activists and Minister of Defence Shimon Peres. The settlers were allowed to stay at the military base of Kadum, west of Nablus. Two years later, the military base was officially transformed into the settlement of Kedumim (Sprinzak, 1991: 145). In other cases, the settlers from Gush Emunim managed to establish settlements by concealing or outright lying about the real reasons for their construction activities and by correspondingly getting permission to build something other than a settlement from the authorities. In one case the settlers gained their permission to build by stating that they wanted to establish workshops near the Arab village of Ein Yabrud. These ‘workshops’, however, later became the settlement of Ofra. In another case, the settlement of Shilo was founded under the pretext of archaeological research. Another success for the movement was the fact that in 1979 Levinger’s wife Miriam rendered outstanding service to the revival of the Jewish community directly in the centre of Hebron. Miriam Levinger together with a group of approximately 70 other sisters in the faith occupied a house in the Old City of Hebron (the former Beit Hadassa hospital) and refused to leave. However, Israeli authorities did not prevent the women from executing their plan and did not evict them from the centre of the city by force. On the contrary, they even received military protection during this activity (Feige, 2009: 147).5 It is not surprising that Levinger got into conflict with Israeli authorities thanks to his militant radicalism, and was imprisoned at least ten times. In 1985, he merely received a fine and a suspended sentence for breaking into the house of a Palestinian woman in Hebron and attacking her six‑year-­old son, who had reportedly thrown a stone at his son. In 1988, Levinger was even accused of murdering a Palestinian citizen. However, Levinger stated during his trial that he had only been shooting into the air. Eventually, he was sentenced for involuntary

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120   The settler from Hebron manslaughter, but served only 92 days in prison (and during this ‘punishment’ he was even allowed to visit Hebron). When he was released in 1990, he made the following claim in an interview for an Israeli radio station: ‘I will not hesitate to shoot again if I feel threatened. I hope that next time I will be more careful not to miss the target’ (JTA, 1990). Levinger perpetrated similar delicts many more times. He was always fully aware that he was violating Israeli laws, but did not take this into consideration since he and his adherents regarded his actions as ‘good for the Land of Israel’, and therefore superior to the Israeli judicial code. Furthermore, he had confidence in the stance of the Israeli judiciary, which had showed itself to be very lax in similar cases.6 Gush Emunim was not a political movement (nonetheless, they had their own political wing in the 1980s – the Tehiya party, which won seats in the Knesset three times). However, Levinger tried to enter the Knesset directly through his own political formation in 1992, when he created the political party called ‘The Land of Israel – the Torah of Israel’. It was a fiasco, however, since he attracted the support of only a smattering of his hardcore followers, which did not push him even close to the minimum number of votes needed to enter parliament. His aggressive election video from that time is available on YouTube.7 In 1987, the Israeli weekly Chadashot carried out a survey of 22 significant Israeli personalities with various political viewpoints. They were asked who, according to them, was the ‘person of the generation, the man or woman who has had the greatest effect on Israeli society in the last twenty years’. First place in the results of the survey was shared by former Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Rabbi Moshe Levinger (Lustick, 1988). In principle, Rabbi Levinger’s attitudes and his aggressive ideology were very similar not only to the attitudes of militant Islamic fundamentalists but also to those of contemporary neo-­Nazis. We could certainly find many similarities to the latter groups in his aggressive skirmishes, slogans such as ‘Arabs to the gas chambers’8 and the way in which he expressed his beliefs about the superiority of the Jews (which sometimes led to racial murders). Levinger stood at the head of the extremists who shared his views and led by personal example. However, he was not only inherently biased against Muslims and Arabs, but he also considered the present-­ day Israeli establishment and army as his enemies. Paradoxically, however, Israel continued to protect him and his followers, and was not able to take effective action against the extremists, i.e. evict the aggressive settlers from their settlements and strictly punish those who commit violence. Rabbi Levinger not only denied and deformed the humanist mission of his religion and made out of it a perilous mix of fundamentalist and intolerant attitudes combined with arrogance and aggression, but also shed a bad light on Jews in general.

Notes 1 The violation of the following prominent principles of international law is often cited in connection with the Jewish settlements: (1) A ban on the transfer of civilians from the occupying country onto the occupied territory (Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva

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Convention); (2) A ban on permanent changes that are not in favour of the local population (Articles 46 and 52 of the Hague Convention of 1907). 2 For example, the Israeli Allon Plan of 1967 can be mentioned in this respect. 3 According to Genesis 23, Abraham bought a piece of land with the Machpelah cave from Ephron the Hittite for 400 silver shekels. Genesis 23: 17–18: So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, were made over to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went in at the gate of his city. 4 They stated the following: ‘These settlers are alien to the way of life of the Hebron Jews, who created over the generations a culture of peace and understanding between peoples and faiths in the city.’ Descendants of the Families of Hebron’s Jewish Community, Statement on Jewish Settlement in Hebron. Tel Aviv, 6 December 1996. Journal of Palestine Studies 26 (3): 159–160. 1997. 5 In Hebron, the historical claim of the Jews for settling there started to come into conflict with the fact that the Hebron settlers had become the most tenacious religious fundamentalists and political extremists in Israel. The already bad relations between the Palestinians and Jews took their worst forms, and the mutual violence reached alarming proportions there. Contemporary Hebron is inhabited by approximately 120,000 Palestinians and 400 Jewish settlers. In 1997, Israel handed over its control of over 80 per cent of the city to Palestinian authorities. The remaining 20 per cent remains under the authority of the Israeli army, which protects the settlement community living inside the Old City. Apart from the above‑mentioned 400 settlers, there also live 30,000 Palestinians in the area under Israeli control. 6 If actions like those undertaken by Levinger were committed by a Palestinian, he would most probably be assessed as deserving a markedly higher punishment, and in case of a relapse he would probably be sentenced to life imprisonment. It is not out of the question either that the Israeli authorities and army would proceed to undertake their ‘favourite’ extrajudiciary measures in such cases – such as pulling down his family’s house, or carrying out his ‘extrajudicial physical liquidation’. 7 Online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=25SyBpU0Tug. 8 Online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z547wSn6ins.

References Atkins, Stephen E. (2004) Encyclopedia of Modern Worldwide Extremists and Extremist Groups. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Feige, Michael (2009) Settling in the Hearts: Jewish Fundamentalism in the Occupied Territories. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press. Hattis Rolef, Susan (ed.) (1993) Political Dictionary of the State of Israel. Jerusalem: Jerusalem Publishing House. JTA (1990, 15 September) ‘Teen-­age Boy and Young Mother Are Suspects in Arab Man’s Death’. Online: www.jta.org/1990/08/15/archive/teen-­age-boy-­and-young-­motherare-­suspects-in-­arab-mans-­death. Levinger, Moshe (2013, 26 May) Interview on YouTube. Online: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=obVeqncGnC8. Lustick, Ian S. (1988) For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel. New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press. Online: www.sas.upenn.edu/penncip/ lustick/lustick11.html.

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122   The settler from Hebron Mendel, Miloš (2000) Náboženství v boji o Palestinu: Judaismus, islám a křesťanství jako ideologie etnického konfliktu [Religion in the contest for Palestine: Judaism, Islam and Christianity as Ideologies of Ethnic Conflict]. Brno: Atlantis [In Czech]. Segev, Tom (2000) One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate. New York: Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Co. Sprinzak, Ehud (1991) The Ascendance of Israel’s Radical Right. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sprinzak, Ehud (1999) Brother against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics. New York: The Free Press.

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The Messiah from Brooklyn? Menachem Mendel Schneersohn ‫מנחם מענדל שניאורסאהן‬

18 April 1902–12 June 1994 11 Nisan 5662–3 Tammuz 5754

Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, often called ‘The Lubavitcher Rebbe’ or just ‘The Rebbe’, was the seventh and last leader of the Hasidic Chabad movement. The founder of this Hasidic dynasty was Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady,1 also known as the Alter Rebbe (1745–1813), who belonged to the representatives of the so-­called third generation of tzadiks.2 He differed from the rest of the Hasidic tzadiks predominantly by the emphasis he laid on the intellect, from which the name of the whole movement – Chabad – stems. It is an acronym of the Hebrew words chochmah (wisdom), binah (understanding) and da’at (knowledge), which represent, according to the Kabbalah, the highest capacities of a human soul that correspond to the intellect in the widest sense of the word. The teachings of Rabbi Shneur are summarized in a five-­volume work, Likutei amarim (‘A Collection of Statements’), which is also known by the title Tanya. Even though during the Alter Rebbe’s lifetime the dispute between Hasids3 and their opponents (the so-­called Mitnagdim) was culminating, this work received recognition even from some rabbis who otherwise tended to criticize the Hasids. Today the book forms the central text of the Lubavitcher movement. As has been mentioned, the Chabad movement is sometimes used as a synonym for Lubavitcher Hasids. This name is derived from the Belorussian town of Lubavitch, where Shneur’s eldest son, Rabbi Dov Ber Shneuri, moved after he assumed leadership of the Hasids (see Rubinstein and Lior, 2007: 553–555; Freeman, n.d.). Menachem Mendel Schneersohn was born in the Russian Empire in the city of Nikolayev (Mykolaiv in present-­day Ukraine) as the eldest son of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneersohn (1878–1944) and his wife Rebetsin Chana (1880–1964).4 He was named after his great‑grandfather, the third Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneersohn from Lubavitch, known as ‘Tzemach Tzedek’. In his youth, Rabbi Schneersohn was educated predominantly by his father and private teachers. He mastered the knowledge of the Talmud and rabbinical writings as well as the Hasidic interpretation of the Kabbalah. But there are some doubts about his ordination (smicha). According to some claims,5 he received his ordination from Rabbi Yosef Rosen (1858–1936), also known as the ‘Rogatchover Gaon’, who represented the ideal rabbi for Schneersohn throughout his life (Laufer, 1989: 1:167). According to other sources, however, Menachem Mendel

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124   The Messiah from Brooklyn? Schneersohn was ordained by his paternal uncle, Rabbi Shmuel Schneersohn (1886–1943), the Rav of Nikolayev, on 19 August 1924 (Miller, 2014: 36–37). After that, Menachem Schneersohn received his second ordination, which was Neo-­Orthodox, during his studies in Berlin from Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg (1884–1966) so that he could gain admission to a university (Heilman and Friedman, 2010: 87; Miller, 2014: 69). In 1926 he became engaged to Chaya Mushka (1901–1988), the daughter of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe;6 the couple married in 1928 in Warsaw. The newlyweds then moved to Berlin, where the rebbe started attending Berlin University as an ‘occasional student’. It was reportedly here that he first met Rabbi Yosef B. Soloveitchik (see the chapter about him), who was also studying there. A friendly relationship grew from this encounter, and it was later reinforced when both rabbis met again in New York (Miller, 2014: 90). When Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, the rebbe and his wife moved to Paris.7 He continued his studies at the Technical University of Paris (ESTP8), from which he graduated in 1938 and received authorization to work in the field of electrical engineering. Later on, he enrolled at the Sorbonne to study mathematics. His studies were interrupted, however, by the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. In June 1940, Paris was captured, and the rebbe and his wife fled to Vichy France, where they spent several months. Then they moved to Nice in the south of France, while the rebbe’s father-­in-law, who survived the bombing and occupation of Warsaw and subsequently emigrated to New York in 1940, made every possible effort to help the young couple emigrate to the United States. On 12 June 1941 the Schneersohns finally managed to get a passage on the Portuguese liner Serpa Pinto,9 which transferred them safely to New York on 23 June 1941 (Miller, 2014: 136).

In America In New York the Schneersohns joined Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn and settled in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.10 Thus, for the first time Menachem Schneersohn lived at the Lubavitch court on a permanent basis. Meanwhile, he obtained employment in the Brooklyn Navy Yard,11 where he supervised naval wiring systems and performed other technical tasks. In 1941, his father-­in-law appointed him the director of three organizations: Machane Israel (‘the Camp of Israel’), whose goal was to spread the observance of the Torah’s commandments among Jews; Merkos L’Inyanei Chinuch (‘the Center for Jewish Education’), which was founded to promote Jewish education among children; and Karnei Hod Torah (‘Rays of the Torah’s Glory’ – its abbreviated title was Kehot), a society dedicated to publishing the fundamental books of the Chabad movement. In 1943, in the third organization, he published his popular ‘calendar’ Hayom Yom, which contains one brief thought for each day. Another institution assigned to Menachem Mendel Schneersohn by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn in these years was Chevra Kadisha (a burial society) (Miller, 2014: 149–160).

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On 28 June 1950, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, died. He had not decided who should assume the position of the Lubavitcher Rebbe after him. There were two candidates to be considered: Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn and the deceased rebbe’s son-­in-law Shemaryahu Gurary, known as ‘Rashag’ (1898–1989).12 Although Rabbi Schneersohn had wider support from the outset, he was reluctant to accept the post. Only after a year of intensive, persistent attempts to persuade him on the part of his immediate family and friends, especially his wife, did he consent to accept the role of the Rebbe of Lubavitcher Hasids. Rabbi Gurary, who led the movement temporarily before the younger Schneersohn’s acceptance of the position, gave up the position in favour of his work as the headmaster of the Central Lubavitcher Yeshiva. On the first yartzeit (death anniversary) of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn,13 in 1951, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn delivered a maamar (traditional speech) in front of the Hasids, whereby he formally became the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe (TheRebbe.org, n.d.; Miller, 2014: 186–188). In his new position, the rebbe promoted the strengthening and continued spread of the international organization of Chabad-­Lubavitch centres. He managed hundreds of institutions all over the world from his small office in Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, where he started to be visited by scores of adherents and people who sought advice or consolation from him. The rebbe also created an organization of so‑called ‘envoys’ (shluchim in Hebrew), who were sent all over the globe to found branches and Chabad‑Lubavitch educational centres. He also encouraged his Hasids to use modern technologies to spread his teachings (Saidov, 2014). In connection with this, he used a (for that period) very sophisticated phone system, and it is still possible to see it in his headquarters in Brooklyn. When Schneersohn’s wife Chaya Mushka died in 1988, the rabbi partly withdrew from his public offices. However, he did not fail to continue in the mission he had as the rebbe. The originally small Chabad-­Lubavitch movement, which was almost destroyed by the Holocaust, thus became global under his leadership. Unlike many other rabbis, the rebbe accommodated the then current needs and trends and tried to respond to them within the parameters of Judaism, which appealed to lots of young Jews who, on the one hand, felt strongly bound to the ancient traditions of their people but, on the other hand, lived in the contemporary world and saw its rapid progress in all areas of human activity. The rebbe’s genius lay chiefly in being able to unite these two disparate worlds.

The ‘Messiah King’ or a false Messiah? The rabbi rose to fame not only due to his charisma and personality, but also thanks to his alleged miracles.14 On the basis of these, many of his adherents believed that the rabbi was the living ‘King Messiah’ (Melech ha-­Moshiah). In 1984, one Lubavitcher Hasid Rabbi, Shalom Dov Wolpo, wrote in a booklet that

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126   The Messiah from Brooklyn? Schneersohn was the Messiah. In response, the rebbe sharply rebuked him and stated that such a book should never be published. Following this, he said in one of his sermons: Let it therefore be known that anyone who continues with such activities, fights a war against Chabad Chasidut, against the Rebbe [Rayatz], against the Baal Shem Tov, and against Mashiach himself, who wants to come but is waiting for the further dissemination of Chasidut. (Miller, 2014: 405) Although this statement had a great impact on Lubavitcher Hasids, some zealous Chabadniks still persisted in their conviction that he was the Messiah. A similar scenario took place in 1991, when some Hasids chanted a song in the presence of the rebbe in which they intimated that he was the Messiah. The rebbe rebuked them and threatened to leave the meeting. He also strongly reprimanded the editors of the magazine Kfar Chabad in April 1991, when they proposed to publish an article containing speculations about the identity of the Messiah. He wrote to them, stating that: ‘If you will, G-­d forbid, do anything resembling this, it would be better to close down the magazine completely’ (Miller, 2014: 406–407). In 1991, he said in a sermon that he had done everything he could to bring the Messiah, and was handing over this mission to his followers; he declared the following in a speech addressed to his Hasids, though it could not be clearly interpreted: ‘Now do everything you can to bring the Messiah, here and now, immediately!’ (Shaffir, 2013; Miller, 2014: 406). Despite his disagreement with claims about him being the Messiah, the rebbe’s followers nevertheless encouraged him to proclaim himself as the Messiah. During his last years, especially, they kept singing the mantra Yechi Adonenu Morenu ve-­Rabenu Melech ha-­Moshiach le-­Olam vo-­Ed in front of him, which means, ‘Long live our Master, our Teacher, and our Rabbi, King Messiah, forever’ (Dein, 2011: 92–94). The rebbe suffered a stroke in 1992 while he prayed at the grave of his father-­in-law. He became paralysed on the right side of his body, and lost the ability to speak. Despite this, he continued in his activities as much as he could with help from his closest Hasids. As mentioned above, the rebbe strongly rejected any suggestion that he was the Messiah. But following the stroke that deprived the rebbe of the ability to speak, messianic tendencies began to grow in the Chabad movement. Interestingly, after his stroke, he even encouraged his Hasids to keep singing by gesturing to them with his hand (Winerip, 1993). It is the rebbe’s last years that have raised the most doubts. Some people regard his writings in this period as evidence that Rabbi Schneersohn himself actually believed that he was the Messiah. Be that as it may, it is little wonder that these doubts provoked great disputes in the Jewish Orthodox world. Many rabbis were outspoken critics of Schneersohn’s alleged status as a Messiah; the antagonism between Rabbi Schneersohn and Rabbi Shach (see the chapter about him) was the most well-­known aspect of the

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disputes. Shach, the key Israeli rabbi from a non-­Hasidic community, publicly called Schneersohn a false Messiah and sardonically defined Chabad Hasidism as the ‘religion closest to Judaism’ (Persico, 2009). Besides the disputes about Schneersohn’s alleged status as a Messiah, Shach and Schneersohn were at variance also in their opinions on the peace process in the Middle East. Chabad strictly refuses to give up any Israeli land in favour of the Palestinians; in contrast, Shach was an opponent of building Jewish settlements and discouraged the Haredim from inhabiting them (Rabkin, 2006: 145). However, Rabbi Shach was not the only opponent of Chabad. For example, Rabbi Malkiel Kotler and Rabbi Yisrael Belsky criticized the Lubavitcher Hasids for cultivating a ‘cult of personality’ (see CrownHeights.info, 2008; COLlive, 2012). Chabad’s adherents defended themselves by claiming that this so‑called ‘personality cult’ was characteristic of all Hasidic streams and was given by the role of the tzadik, who – according to the teachings of Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism – enabled closer contact between his Hasids and God. They were of the opinion that the criticism from Chabad’s opponents only fanned the almost dead flames of the feud between the Hasids and their opponents, the Lithuanian Mitnagdim. The rebbe died childless on 12 June 1994 and is buried in the vicinity of the grave of his father-­in-law, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, at Montefiore Cemetery in New York. Even after the rebbe’s death, many Lubavitcher Hasids continued to believe that he was the Messiah. In spite of the fact that currently most Chabad members distance themselves from such assertions or at least comment on them only very vaguely,15 a small group, the so‑called Mishichist (in Yiddish), still believe the Rebbe was the Messiah. Whatever opinion the Lubavitcher Hasids hold, it is clear that Chabad-­ Lubavitch is a movement with strong messianic tendencies. They try to use their efforts to spread the rebbe’s teachings and motivate Jews to observe the Torah’s commandments in order to create suitable conditions for the arrival of the Messiah.

Opinions on the Shoah (the Holocaust) Like a number of other Jews, the rebbe was personally affected by the Shoah. Shortly after the occupation of Dnepropetrovsk in 1941, his younger brother Dovber was shot in the German army’s massacre of dozens of Jews. His grandmother and some other members of his family also lost their lives to the Nazis. The rebbe’s wife lost her younger sister Sheina, who died together with her husband and adoptive son in Treblinka. Despite all these negative experiences, the rebbe rejected the theological interpretation of the Shoah which viewed the Holocaust as God’s punishment for the Jews’ abandonment of the Torah, a view held by his great rabbinical opponent Rabbi Elazar Shach (JTA, 1990). Schneersohn regarded such an attitude as extremely insensitive towards the millions of innocent victims of the Nazi persecution. Rather than finding a theological response to such evil, he was content with stating that human knowledge was limited, and the reasons for the events of the Shoah surpassed it: ‘There is no

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128   The Messiah from Brooklyn? human rationale whatsoever that can explain such indescribable suffering’ (Mintz, 1992: 51). However, the rebbe opposed those who took the Shoah as evidence for God’s non‑existence or his indifference to the fates of people by stating that the Shoah demonstrated that we cannot rely on any moral values based on a human system. He warned that it was one of the most educated nations, a nation embodying the culture and philosophical morals of that time, that perpetrated the greatest acts of cruelty known to mankind. The rebbe thus saw the right way only in a return to faith and God’s morals.

An anti-­Zionist becoming an Israeli politician Schneersohn’s attitude towards Zionism and Israel was very ambivalent. On the one hand, in a clear demonstration of his attitude to Zionism, the rabbi never set foot in the State of Israel and lived in Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, until his death. In connection with the Israeli government he also avoided use of the term memshala, which means ‘government’ in the Jewish normative sense, and instead referred to it as hanhala, which means ‘administration’ and which, in Hebrew, has an inferior connotation (Rabkin, 2006: 156). On the other hand, as early as 1967 he launched a campaign ‘against returning the land that Israel acquired in the Six-­Day War’. Schneersohn was convinced that Jewish rule over the whole land of Israel was a necessary condition for the arrival of the Messiah and the transformation of Israel from a Zionist to a halachic state. In this spirit, he entered Israeli politics ‘from a distance’ by supporting the Israeli party of Agudat Yisrael in the election to the Knesset in 1988 (see Beilin, 1992: 234–237). The approach of current rabbis from the Lubavitch movement to Israel and Zionism is very much inspired by the last Lubavitcher Rebbe: theoretically their approach to Zionism remains ambivalent, as in his case, but in fact they act and speak strongly in favour of Israel and Zionism. This is even more visible with the radicalization of the situation in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and in the whole Middle East.16

The Chabad movement today Out of deference to him, no successor was selected after the death of Rabbi Schneersohn. One might have thought that the movement would begin to decline under such circumstances. On the contrary, though, the Chabad‑Lubavitch movement distinguishes itself by its enormous amount of activities all over the world. This expansion is understandable if we contextualize it in the light of the rebbe’s call to his Hasids in 1991 (see above). In this respect it is obvious that almost all activities of the Chabad‑Lubavitch movement are eschatologically motivated. The movement maintained its position and was subsequently strengthened not only in the United States and Israel but also in many countries around the world that are inhabited by Jews. There is hardly any Jewish community in which one can overlook or fail to find ‘missionary’ Chabad activists (co-­author’s note: during my travels, perhaps the only Jewish community in

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which I have not encountered them was the Iranian Jewish community) who offer you prayers, and – if you are not a Jew – inform you about the Seven Noachide Laws. The Chabad activists are also distinguished from a number of other Hasidic groups by their distinctive support of Israel and Zionism. Currently, the movement has globally more than 3,000 educational centres, and its yeshivas have largely taken root in the post‑communist countries of Eastern Europe, with a very good position in Russia as well. However, the movement has had many disputes with the local (mostly non-­Orthodox) Jewish communities in the new localities (see e.g. Krichevsky, 2005). Chabad Hasids generally have a strong background and good resources for their activities. They also develop contacts with politicians in the individual countries where they operate, including the highest authorities such as the former Russian prime minister and current Russian president Vladimir Putin or the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy. In this context, see also the chapter on Rabbi Berl Lazar.

Chabad Rabbis – Chabad-­Lubavitch dynasty 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Shneur Zalman of Lyady (1745–1812) Dovber Schneuri (1773–1827) Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (‘Tzemach Tzedek’) (1789–1866) Shmuel Schneersohn (1834–1882) Sholom Dovber Schneersohn (1860–1920) Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (1880–1950) Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (1902–1994)

Notes   1 Lyady is a village in present-­day Belarus, near Vitebsk.   2 The third generation of tzadiks is calculated from the founder of Hasidism, Rabbi Yisrael ben Eliezer (1698–1760), known as Baal Shem Tov (‘Besht’ for short). Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritch, called The Great Magid, who was a direct student of Baal Shem Tov and the spiritual father of Hasidism, belongs to the second generation.   3 In 1772, the Alter Rebbe himself, together with Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, took part in an unsuccessful Hasidic mission to Vilnius, a stronghold of the Mitnagdim, where they were supposed to meet the Gaon of Vilna (Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo, 1720–1797) to try to establish peace between the two sides. However, in the end the meeting did not take place.   4 His younger brothers were named DovBer and Yisrael Arye Leib.   5 The sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe was Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (1880–1950).   6 In Paris he lived on Rue Boulard in the 14th district most of the time.   7 École spéciale des travaux publics, du bâtiment et de l’industrie.   8 The Serpa Pinto was one of the last ships to sail across the Atlantic before German submarines blockaded the sea route between Europe and America.   9 Specifically at the address 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York. 11 The United States Navy Yard, New York, also known as the New York Naval Shipyard (NYNSY). 12 His wife was the elder daughter of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, Chana Gurary. His younger daughter married Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn.

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130   The Messiah from Brooklyn? 13 He is called ‘Rebbe Rayatz’ or the ‘Frierdiker rebbe’, which means ‘The Previous Rebbe’ in Yiddish. 14 Tradition has it that the Lubavitcher Rabbi once cured a man of cancer by placing his hands on him and saying, ‘Si’z gornisht’ (Yiddish: ‘It’s nothing’) (Rubinstein, 1975: 105). 15 A typical example of such statements is the epilogue ‘The Rebbe as the Messiah?’ in the book Toward a Meaningful Life by Simon Jacobson. The author does not confirm the rebbe’s messianism but presents several clues as to how it is possible to see the Messiah in Schneersohn. The epilogue is finally rounded off by a call to the readers to answer this question themselves. Such vague statements do not throw a particularly trustworthy light on the issue, and they represent another source of controversy or, conversely, a strengthening of the messianic myth (see Jacobson, 2004). 16 From the author’s interviews with various Chabad rabbis in Europe, the United States and Israel.

References Beilin, Yossi (1992) Israel: A Concise Political History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. COLlive (2012, 3 May) ‘Rabbi Kotler Dismisses Lubavitch’. Online: www.collive.com/ show_news.rtx?id=19838. CrownHeights.info (2008, 5 May) ‘Mishpacha Magazine Publishes Attack on Chabad from Rosh Yeshiva of Torah Vodaath & Senior Posek for the OU’s Kashrus Division, Rav Yisroel Belsky’. Online: http://crownheights.info/general/11772/mishpacha-­ magazine-publishes-­attack-on-­chabad-from-­rosh-yeshiva-­of-torah-­vodaath-senior-­ posek-for-­the-ous-­kashrus-division-­rav-yisroel-­belsky. Dein, Simon (2011) Lubavitcher Messianism: What Really Happens When Prophecy Fails? London: Continuum. Freeman, Tzvi (n.d.) ‘What Is Chabad?’ Online: www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/ aid/1600970/jewish/What-­Is-Chabad.htm. Hacohen, Shmuel Avigdor; Mark, Jonathan (2007) ‘Schneersohn, Menachem Mendel’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 18. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Heilman, Samuel; Friedman, Menachem (2010) The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Jacobson, Simon (2004) Toward a Meaningful Life: The Wisdom of the Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson. New York: HarperCollins. JTA (1990, 31 December) ‘Lubavitcher Rebbe Rejects Assertion That Holocaust Was Divine Punishment’. Online: www.jta.org/1990/12/31/archive/lubavitcher-­rebbe-rejects­assertion-that-­holocaust-was-­divine-punishment. Kowalsky, Sholem B. (n.d.) ‘The Rebbe and the Rav’. Online: www.chabad.org/therebbe/ article_cdo/aid/529444/jewish/The-­Rebbe-and-­the-Rav.htm. Krichevsky, Lev (2005, 13 April) ‘ “Little Jerusalem” Shul Battle Heats up’, Jerusalem Post. Laufer, M.M. (1989) Yemei Melech. New York: Kehot. Miller, Chaim (2014) Turning Judaism Outward: A Biography of the Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson the Seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe. Brooklyn: Kol Menachem. Mintz, Jerome R. (1992) Hasidic People: A Place in the New World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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Persico, Tomer (2009) ‘Chabad’s Lost Messiah’, AzureOnline, 38 (Autumn). Online: http://azure.org.il/article.php?id=519. Rabkin, Yaakov (2006) A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Rubinstein, Aryeh (1975) Hasidism. Jerusalem: Keter Books. Rubinstein, Avraham; Lior, Rachel (2007) ‘Chabad’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 4. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Saidov, Yossi (2014, 3 July) ‘Twenty Years Ago, the Messiah Didn’t Come’. Haaretz. Online: www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.602824. Shaffir, William (2013) ‘When Prophecy Is Not Validated: Explaining Unexpected in a Messianic Campaign’, in Melissa M. Wilcox (ed.), Religion in Today’s World: Global Issues, Sociological Perspectives. New York: Routledge. Telushkin, Joseph (2014) Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History. New York: HarperWave. TheRebbe.org (n.d.) 10 Shevat: A Day of Two Rebbes. Online: www.chabad.org/library/ article_cdo/aid/108303/jewish/10-Shevat.htm. Winerip, Michael (1993, 3 January) ‘The Watch for Messiah in Crown Hts’, New York Times. Online: www.nytimes.com/1993/01/03/nyregion/on-­sunday-the-­watch-for-­messiahin-­crown-hts.html. Wolfson, Elliot R. (2009) Open Secret: Postmessianic Messianism and the Mystical Revision of Menahem Mendel Schneerson. New York: Columbia University Press.

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The Lithuanian giant Elazar Menachem Man Shach 22 January 1898–2 November 2001 28 Tevet 5658–16 Cheshvan 5762

If a pious Jew in Israel were asked the question, ‘Who was the most important Ashkenazi rabbi in modern Israeli history?’, it is very likely that the answer would be ‘Rabbi Shach’. This distinguished scholar was someone who linked the old and the new – he lived until the almost ‘biblical’ age of 103 years (some sources even say 106 years), and he was a Talmudic mastermind, a graduate of the most significant yeshivot and an important halachic authority (posek), all in one person. Although he was an opponent of Zionism, he was also one of the pioneers of creating Israeli religious political parties.

In Lithuania Elazar Shach was born in the town of Vabalninkas (in Yiddish: Vaboilnik) in the north of Lithuania. His parents were Rabbi Ezriel Shach and Rebecca Batsheva Shach, both of whom were deeply religious Orthodox, non-­Hasidic Jews. From his mother’s side of the family came many distinguished scholars and wise men (talmidei chachamim), some of whom held rabbinical posts in major Lithuanian communities. For example, Batsheva Shach’s brother Rabbi Nisan Levitan became an important figure in the Agudath ha-­Rabonim organization.1 Even when Elazar Shach was a child he showed a great aptitude for learning. Although there was a yeshiva in his hometown of Vabalninkas, when he was seven he urged his parents to send him to study in the famous Ponevezh Yeshiva in what today is the Lithuanian town of Panevėžys (Ilan, 2001). After his relentless insistence, his parents finally consented to send him to study there. In the Ponevezh Yeshiva his mentor was Rav Itzele Ponevezher. Even in his youth he demonstrated his outstanding talent for studying, his modesty, his moral qualities, his deep respect for others and, last but not least, the profoundly kindhearted look in his eyes – and all these qualities later made him famous throughout the whole Jewish world. When he was 13 years old, he transferred to the Lithuanian yeshiva Knesses Yisrael in Slabodka (now Vilijampolė, a suburb of what today is the city of Kaunas), which was an important centre for the study of the Talmud. Here too he was an excellent student. During the years 1913–1914 he mastered the study of the Torah and Musar (ethical teachings). His teachers at this school were

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Rabbi Alter of Slabodka, Rav Noson Tzvi Finkel (1849–1927), his son-­in-law Rav Yitzchak Eizik Shera (1875–1952) and Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein (1866–1934). For the rest of his life, Rabbi Elazar Shach considered himself a pupil of Rav Noson Tzvi Finkel and often praised the yeshiva in Slabodka. Once he even said that the entire Torah in contemporary Israel and America comes from Slabodka, the ‘mother of all yeshivas’, as the last generations of all the principal yeshiva deans (roshei yeshivot) studied there (see Bergman, 2009). In addition to Rabbi Finkel, in Slabodka, the young Elazar Shach was also noticed by the dean of the yeshiva, Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, who took a liking to him and became his lifelong friend. During the horrors and chaos of the First World War, which severely hit Eastern Europe in particular, many yeshiva students from Slabodka were scattered around Europe. Shach initially returned to his family, but then he began to travel from town to town across Lithuania. During this period he keenly continued in his studies. After the war, Elazar joined Rabbi Meltzer and his son-­in-law Rabbi Aharon Kotler in the town of Kletsk, which was then in Poland (today, it is in Belarus). Subsequently, he moved with them to the town of Slutsk. Rabbi Shach also received his rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Meltzer during this time period. From 1927 to 1932 Shach taught at the Kletsk Yeshiva. Furthermore, in Kletsk his wife Guttel gave birth to three children – Miriam, Deborah and Ephraim2 (Bergman, 2009: 262). After he became dean of the Lublin Yeshiva, he also taught the Talmud at the Yeshiva of Nowogródek in Eastern Poland (now Navahrudak in Belarus). In 1936, he became the dean of the Karlin Yeshiva in Łuniniec (now Luninets in Belarus). Shortly before the Second World War some yeshivas moved their rabbis, students and families to places where they would be safe. Thus, in 1939 Rabbi Shach came to Vilna (Vilnius), where he stayed with Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (1863–1940). In 1940 the Shach family decided to leave Poland and Lithuania for good, and as they emigrated, Rabbi Shach managed to get to British Palestine (Kofmel, 2008: 124).

Rabbi Shach and Israeli politics In Palestine and, since 1948, in Israel, Rabbi Shach was a strong opponent of all forms of Zionism (both religious and secular). On the other hand, however, his religious activities contributed to the politicization of Haredi life as well as to a greater pragmatism in the Haredi approach to Zionism. In Israel, Shach became dean of the Ponevezh Yeshiva, at which he himself had previously studied and which had since been moved to Israel. It was built in Bnei Brak (until the present this city was an independent municipality but physically it was part of Greater Tel Aviv). Currently, it is the most important Lithuanian yeshiva and generally one of the most important yeshivas worldwide. Although Rabbi Shach was a religious anti-­Zionist, he became a significant driving force in Israeli politics. But he did not consider himself to be a democrat (he once said that ‘Only the holy Torah is a true democracy’; Kofmel, 2008: 137), and his participation in Israeli politics had primarily pragmatic reasons. He

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134   The Lithuanian giant sought for the closest possible proximity of Israel to the religious values and teachings of Halacha. That provoked secular Israelis to turn against him because they then saw him as an embodiment of the opportunistic attitudes of most Israeli Haredim (which could be simply summarized as follows: ‘The Haredim are not Zionists, and they do not go into the army, but they are taking money from the state and they promote religion in Israeli politics’). Furthermore, since the 1970s Rabbi Shach was a member of the Council of Great Torah Sages (in Hebrew: Moetzes Gedolei Ha-­Torah) of the Agudat Yisrael party, a post for which he was recommended by the famous rabbi Chazon Ish. But after some protracted disagreements, he broke off with the Council. Then in 1984, together with the well-­known Sephardic Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (see the chapter about him), he co-­founded the Shas party (Joffe, 2001). This political formation became very successful on the Israeli political scene. Shach’s next political project was the creation of the political party of Lithuanian Haredim called Degel ha-­Torah (‘The Banner of the Torah’) before the 1988 elections. The purpose of this political step was to address the Ashkenazi Haredim among non-­Hasidic Lithuanian Jews and weaken the traditional (and rather Hasidic) party Agudat Yisrael. The name ‘The Banner of the Torah’ expressed, to a certain extent, Shach’s position on Zionism: not a Zionist banner, but the banner of the Torah. In summary, at the end of the 1980s there were three non-­Zionist ultra-­Orthodox parties in Israel that had representation in the Knesset – Degel ha-­Torah, Agudat Yisrael and Shas; Rabbi Shach helped found two of them. Rabbi Shach was also politically active in other ways, for example, in election campaigns. As for his general political attitudes towards the worldly political authorities of Israel, they were usually closer to the right-­wing Israeli parties, at least in some of their aspects. However, this was mainly for pragmatic reasons, and sometimes because of the (in his view) excessive secularism of the Israeli left-­wing parties and leftists. That was the reason why Rabbi Shach saw the left as Judaism’s greatest enemy.3 In both cases, however, Shach criticized the policy of building Jewish settlements and urged Haredim not to migrate to them (Rabkin, 2006: 145).

Rabbi Shach versus Chabad During his time in Israeli politics, Rabbi Shach got into a number of disputes. One of his biggest conflicts was associated with his resistance to the international Hasidic movement Chabad. He accused its leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (see the chapter about him), who lived in the United States, of false crypto-­messianism. When some supporters of Chabad identified Rabbi Schneersohn with the Messiah, Rabbi Shach started to call for a complete boycott of Chabad (Wein, 2001: 340). In 1988 he publicly called Schneersohn a false Messiah (moshiach sheker) and likened him and his Hasidic movement to the movement of the false Messiah Sabbatai Zvi, which flourished in the seventeenth century. Yet, although he was a Litvak, Rabbi Shach did not affirm that he was against Hasidism as such or personally against Rabbi Schneersohn, for whom he prayed at the time of his illness (Lorincz, 2006).4 He primarily sharply criticized Schneersohn’s

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alleged messianism. But the Lubavitcher Rebbe was not the only well-­known authority of Judaism that Rabbi Shach criticized; the modernist Orthodox Rabbi Yosef Ber Soloveitchik (see the chapter about him), for example, was also a target (Shach, 1986). In the mid-­1990s, Rabbi Shach gradually withdrew from politics and public life, which was not surprising as he had reached the age of 100. At that time Rabbi Shach was considered by many Jews as ‘the Giant of this Generation’ (Gadol ha-­ Dor) and he was also called Maran (our Lord) (Scheinbaum, n.d.).5 The two men who became his successors in the Degel ha-­Torah party, as well as his successors in the wider sense, were Lithuanian rabbis – Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliyashiv (1910–2012; see the chapter about him) and Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman (born in 1912), with the former especially fulfilling the successor role. Rabbi Shach died in the autumn of 2001 at the age of 103. His funeral was attended by 200,000 Haredim, especially those of the Lithuanian rite (Rosenblum, 2001).

Selected works of Rabbi Shach Avi Ezri (‘The Father Is My Help’) – a commentary on Rambam’s Mishne Torah Bais ha-­Midrash (‘House of Learning’6) – Rabbi Shach’s lectures from the Rashbi Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. Gilyonos Minchas Chinuch (‘Notes for the Minchas Chinuch’) – rabbinical commentaries for the Minchat Chinuch. Kovetz ha-­Dracha le-­Ben Yeshiva (‘A Textbook for Yeshiva Students’) – various recommendations for yeshiva students. Michtavim u-­Maamarim (‘Writings and Statements’) – a six-­part set of letters and articles. Me-­Rosh Emuna (‘From the Beginning of the Faith’) – comments on the parashat ha-­shavua (the weekly portions of the Torah). Ha-­Melech ha-­Mishpat (‘King of the Judgement’) – comments on the month of Elul and the high holidays.

Notes 1 Agudath ha-­Rabonim – literally ‘The Union of Rabbis’. It was founded in the United States in 1901 and is considered to be one of the oldest Orthodox Jewish organizations. 2 Miriam died of pneumonia as a young child just before the Second World War, Deborah later married Rabbi Meir Tzvi Bergmannin Israel, and Ephraim became a religious Zionist. Shach’s wife Guttel died in 1969. 3 For example, of the left-­wing Labour Party, he said that ‘it cut itself off from the Jewish tradition and is searching for a new Torah’. He also criticized the kibbutz movement. 4 Rabbi Shach said: ‘My battle is against his erroneous approach, against the movement, but not against the people in any personal way. I pray for the Rebbe’s recovery and simultaneously, also pray that he abandon his invalid way’ (Lorincz, 2006). 5 In contemporary Judaism, the title Maran is used more to refer to the rabbi Ovadia Yosef. 6 Beis ha-­midrash is the generic name for a yeshiva study hall – in this case, a study hall of the Rashbi Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. Notice the Semitic root of the word, which could also be found in the Arab word madrasa (an Islamic religious school).

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136   The Lithuanian giant

References Beilin, Yossi (1992) Israel: A Concise Political History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Bergman, Asher (2009) Path to Greatness: The Life of Maran Harav Elazar Menachem Man Shach – From Vaboilnik to Bnei Brak (1899–1953). Jerusalem, New York: Feldheim. Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Heilman, Samuel (1999) Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-­Orthodox Jewry. Berkeley: University of California Press. Ilan, Shahar (2001, 8 November) ‘Rabbi Eliezer Schach, Torah Giant, Dies at Age 103’, Canadian Jewish News, 31(46). Joffe, Lawrence (2001, 6 November) ‘Rabbi Eliezer Schach: Orthodox Jewish Leader Whose Manoeuvrings Kept the Israeli Right in Power’, Guardian. Online: www.theguardian.com/news/2001/nov/06/guardianobituaries.israel. Kamenetzky, Mordechai (2010, 24 October) ‘Maran Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach zt”l, on His Yahrtzeit, Today, 16 Cheshvan’. Online: http://matzav.com/maran-­ravelazar-­menachem-man-­shach-ztl-­on-his-­yahrtzeit-today-­16-cheshvan-­2. Kofmel, Erich (ed.) (2008) Anti-­Democratic Thought. Charlottesville, VA: Imprint Academic. Landau, David (1993) Piety and Power: The World of Jewish Fundamentalism. London: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Lorincz, Shlomo (2006, 9 August) ‘HaRav Shach’s Battle against False Messianism’, Dei’ah ve Dibur. Online: http://chareidi.org/archives5766/eikev/olubvlornczekv66.htm. Mendel, Miloš (2000) Náboženství v boji o Palestinu: Judaismus, islám a křesťanství jako ideologie etnického konfliktu [Religion in the Contest for Palestine: Judaism, Islam and Christianity as Ideologies of Ethnic Conflict]. Brno: Atlantis [In Czech]. Rabkin, Yaakov (2006) A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Rosenblum, Jonathan (2001, 16 November). ‘How to Get 200,000 People to a Funeral’, Jerusalem Post. Scheinbaum, Leib (n.d.) Parshas Achrei Mos/Kedoshim. Online: www.shemayisrael.com/ parsha/peninim/archives/achrei72.htm. Shach, Elazar Menachem Man (1986) Michtavim u-­Maamarim. Bnei Brak: Talmidei Maran. Wein, Berel (2001) Faith and Fate: The Story of the Jewish People in the 20th Century. New York: Shaar Press.

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In the name of the Torah and science Joseph Dov (Ber) Ha-­Levi Soloveitchik ‫יוסף דב הלוי סולובייצ'יק‬

11 March 1903–9 April 1993 12 Adar 5663–18 Nisan 5753

Orthodox Judaism is not a ‘rigid conception of Judaism’, although some people view it that way because of its name. It actually has multiple streams, from deeply traditionalist (Haredi) streams to those which try to respond to the modern world and scientific knowledge without diluting Judaism or making it more superficial (which is precisely what Orthodox rabbis accused reformist currents and the Jewish Enlightenment of doing). The ‘modernization’ of the traditional Orthodoxy occurred in the nineteenth century, and it was carried out by religious authorities such as Azriel Hildesheimer (1820–1899) or Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808–1888). Among the younger generations of rabbis who developed the modern Orthodoxy (although each developed it in his own way), we could certainly include Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook (1865–1935; see the chapter about him) and Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, also known simply as ‘the Rav’. The latter was a descendant of the famous Lithuanian Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty, whose founder is considered to be (his namesake) Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik (1820–1892), who is also referred to by the name of his pivotal work Beit Ha-­Levi (‘Levi’s House’). His son, Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk (1853–1918), was the founder of the so-­called Brisker Derech – the ‘Brisker method’ of studying the Talmud, which, unlike the traditional synthetic approach, is characterized by an analytical and conceptual approach.1 The later prominent Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist and philosopher Joseph Dov Soloveitchik was born on 11 March 1903 in Pruzhany (in the former Russian Empire, now part of present-­day Belarus), where his maternal grandfather, Eliyahu Feinstein, served as a rabbi. Joseph’s father was the important scholar Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik (1879–1941), and his mother was Rebbetzin Peshka Feinstein Soloveitchik. In 1910, the Soloveitchik family moved to the Belarusian town of Khaslavichy, where Moshe Soloveitchik served as a rabbi (Eisenberg, 2014: 291). Already as a small boy Joseph excelled in his intellectual pursuits. When he was eight his mother began to suspect that the little boy was neglecting his studies of the Talmudic tractate Bava Metzia in his cheder (a traditional Jewish elementary school), so his grandfather Rabbi Chaim tested him. At that point, he discovered that the boy did not know the part of the Talmud that was allegedly being taught in the cheder; however, he could recite the Tanya by heart.2 In fact, his melamed (a teacher at the cheder), Reb Baruch Reisberg, was

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138   In the name of the Torah and science a devoted Lubavitcher Hasid. This made his grandfather upset, and he insisted that Joseph’s father should teach him instead (Rakeffet-­Rothkoff, 1993).3 Rabbi Moshe taught his son by using the Brisker method, and in this way, they managed to study almost the entire Talmud together. However, his father was not the only one who was responsible for his education. Joseph’s mother, a highly educated woman, acquainted him with literature in Yiddish, Russian legends and the works of Pushkin, Lermontov and other writers (Lyčka, 2010: 13). In 1922 he graduated from a high school in the town of Dubno. After that he entered the Free Polish University in Warsaw in 1924 and spent three terms there. Afterwards, in 1926 he moved to Berlin, and as soon as he passed the examination in supplementary subjects at the German Institute for Foreign Students, he began to study at the Frederick William (later Humboldt) University (Lehmann, n.d.). It was quite a revolutionary action on his part because it was not common then for a son of a Talmudic scholar to study at a secular university. In Berlin, Joseph Soloveitchik attended lectures on philosophy, mathematics, physics and Hebrew subjects. Also, while pursuing his academic education he continued to intensively study the Talmud. In Berlin he also met Tonya Lewit (1904–1967), his future wife. They met on a trolley-­bus when Soloveitchik noticed her as she was standing reading a book of Yiddish stories, which impressed him since, in those times, hardly anyone would read in Yiddish on a trolley-­bus in Germany (Rakeffet-­Rothkoff, 1993). They got married in 1931, and she was a great source of support for him throughout his life. In choosing to marry her and by-­passing the rules of the traditional Jewish shidduch (matchmaking), Soloveitchik was modernistic in this respect as well. Meanwhile, Joseph’s father, Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik, obtained the post of a professor of the Talmud at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) of Yeshiva University (YU) in New York in 1929. This circumstance eventually played an important role in the life of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, as is described below. During his stay in Berlin, Soloveitchik grew close to Rabbi Chaim Heller (1878–1960), who founded the Beth ha-­Medrash ha-­Elyon – an institute for advanced Orthodox Jewish Studies. He met many other Jewish students in Berlin, among whom were the following: Rabbi Yitzhak Hutner (1906–1980), Rabbi Professor Alexander Altmann (1906–1987), Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg (1884–1966) and Rabbi Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903–1994). At the University of Berlin, Soloveitchik graduated with a doctorate in philosophy on 19 December 1932. He wrote his doctoral thesis on the topic of the epistemology and metaphysics of the philosopher Hermann Cohen (1842–1918) (Lyčka, 2010: 14).

In the United States Due to the increasing tension in Europe, and in anticipation of the dangerous times to come, the Soloveitchiks moved from Germany to the United States in 1932. The young couple settled in Boston, Massachusetts. Within a few months of their arrival in the United States, Joseph Soloveitchik became a rabbi of the

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Vaad Ha’ir of Boston.4 From that moment the rav also became known as ‘Soloveitchik from Boston’. He was surprised by the poor state of the observance of some religious duties in the community, especially of kashrut. The steps which Soloveitchik undertook for the improvement of the situation were not always readily accepted. He had to overcome many problems in the process. Even though he was finally successful in this pursuit, the problematic issues involved led him to the conclusion that he should continue to focus primarily on his studies rather than on practical matters (Rakeffet-­Rothkoff, 1999: 29–30). In 1935, Rabbi Soloveitchik visited Palestine under the British Mandate for the first time (and, as it turned out, the only time). He applied for the chief rabbinical post of Tel Aviv at this time, but did not get the job. The supposed reason was not his lack of erudition, but the fact that he gave an impression of being too youthful. There he had an opportunity to meet, among others, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak ha-­Kohen Kook (1865–1935), at whose Yeshivat Merkaz ha-­Rav he delivered a lecture. Students from the Volozhin Yeshiva and the Hebron Yeshiva came to his lecture. Rabbi Moshe-­Zvi Neria (1913–1995) described it as follows: The memory of Volozhin rose up and stood before us in all its splendor and glory. . . . With expansiveness, with confidence, he embarked on his questions on the Gemara, on the Rambam . . . indeed, the [scion of the] ‘Beit ha-­ Levi’ did not disappoint. (Granot, n.d.) In 1937 he founded with his wife Tonya one of the first Hebrew Day Schools in Boston – Maimonides School. The aim of the school was to provide both an Orthodox and a secular education. He introduced many innovations at the school: for example, there were classes where both boys and girls studied the Talmud together, which was criticized by the Orthodox circles. However, Rabbi Soloveitchik said to his critics: ‘Don’t bring a proof from Maimonides about mixed classes. The times were very different then. You have to understand, I had no choice: either have mixed classes, or there would have been no Maimonides’ (Rakeffet-­Rothkoff, 1993). In 1941, Joseph Soloveitchik’s father Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik died, and the younger Soloveitchik took over his post as a professor of the Talmud at the RIETS. Rabbi Soloveitchik then became the spiritual leader of the majority of American Orthodox rabbis. To become more established in the academic world, he published the longer philosophical essay Ish Ha-­Halacha (‘Halachic Man’) in 1944. This work shows a strong influence of Immanuel Kant and Hermann Cohen (Rakeffet-­Rothkoff, 1993).

His position on Zionism and Israel When the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yitzhak Ha-­Levi Herzog, died in 1959, Rabbi Soloveitchik was offered the post. After careful consideration, he

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140   In the name of the Torah and science finally decided to decline the offer. But his refusal was not due to anti-­Zionist positions. The main reason was that he considered himself mainly as a teacher of the Torah and a thinker, and he was afraid that he would not be able to continue these pursuits in the new position (Blidstein, 2008–2009: 19). Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik was originally from a non-­Zionist environment, and his paternal uncle, the famous rabbi Yitzhak Zev (Velvel) Soloveitchik (1886–1959), the Brisker Rav of Jerusalem, was a strong opponent of Zionism and the State of Israel. But Joseph Soloveitchik was a modernist also in this respect, and his outreach to Zionism was close to the ideas of religious Zionism – but he was much less mystical and transcendent in his approaches than another important religious Zionist, Rabbi Avraham Kook (see the chapter about him).5 Soloveitchik was also active in the religious Zionists’ movement, Mizrachi,6 and in the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), which is the main professional rabbinical association within Modern Orthodox Judaism in the United States and also supports Zionism from Modern Orthodox positions. Joseph Soloveitchik described his approach to Zionism in the following way: I was not born into a Zionist household. My parents’ ancestors, my father’s house, my teachers and colleagues were far from the Mizrachi religious Zionists. They too held ‘why meddle in the secrets of the Merciful one?’. . . . If I now identify with the Mizrachi, against my family tradition, it is only because, as previously clarified, I feel that Divine Providence ruled like ‘Joseph’ and against his brothers [i.e. anti-­Zionists]; that He employs secular Jews as instruments to bring to fruition His great plans regarding the land of Israel. I also believe that there would be no place for Torah in Israel today were it not for the Mizrachi. I built an altar upon which I sacrificed sleepless nights, doubts and reservations. Regardless, the years of the Hitlerian holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the accomplishments of the Mizrachi in the land of Israel, convinced me of the correctness of our movement’s path. (Saks, 1997) Concerning Christianity, Rabbi Soloveitchik initially participated in the dialogue between the Catholic Church and the American Jewish Committee (AJC) during the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). However, during the discussion he concluded that there can be no agreement or compromise between the two distinct religious communities, as each is committed to their own faith (Kimelman, 2004). Soloveitchik’s attitude was later adopted as an official position of the Orthodox Jewry (on the issue of the second Vatican Council, see the chapter about Rabbi Heschel). During his period of activity at YU Rabbi Soloveitchik further elaborated a synthesis of studies in which the Orthodox teaching of the Torah was combined with Western secular teaching. This approach later became known by the name Torah u-­Madda – ‘Torah and Science’, which is also the motto of YU. This

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approach, however, put Soloveitchik between the scissors of two opposing camps. Liberal religious Jews considered him too tied to the old world and Europe, while traditionalist Jews, on the contrary, saw him as a man who justified trivializing religious values in an effort to modernize them. Despite all such criticism, Rabbi Soloveitchik remained faithful to his convictions throughout his life. Besides his academic activities, the rav also organized public lectures that were attended by thousands of Jews from around the world. As mentioned, Soloveitchik promoted the education of Jewish women in the traditional teachings of Judaism (especially at the Stern College for Women). As a result of this endeavour, he inspired a number of women to study Jewish traditional teachings (Gurock, 2009: 288). He served at RIETS until 1986, when his health problems prevented him from teaching; despite his illness, however, he occasionally taught there as far as it was possible until his death. He died in 1993 in Boston, where he was also buried. The rabbi gained a great number of followers, who today continue in his religious as well as scientific work. Many of his students have become leaders and teachers of American Jewish communities. It is without any doubt that the rabbi left behind a very strong influence in contemporary Jewish thought, especially in Jewish communities in the United States. On the other hand, however, he also remained too Orthodox for some Jewish religious modernists and too modernistic for some Orthodox Jews.

Works Rabbi Soloveitchik wrote many texts during his life, but he published just a few of them. Many books that are published under his name (a substantial part of them published posthumously) are only transcriptions of his lectures. From the published works we choose to mention the following: •

• • •

Ish Ha-­Halacha (‘Halachic Man’) – the Rav expressed his basic theological opinions in this study. He explains that when a person lives according to Halacha, he becomes the master of himself. He controls his thoughts, desires and actions. He ceases to be a mere product of his habits. His life is sanctified, and when people live this way, God and man are in a single community together. Ish Ha-­Emuna Ha-­Boded (‘The Lonely Man of Faith’) – this work aims to resolve the tension between reason and faith, and the tension between tradition and modernity. Kol Dodi Dophek (‘The Voice of My Beloved Knocketh’) – a work about the relationship of religious Zionism and Israel. The Halachic Mind – the last philosophical work of Rabbi Soloveitchik.

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142   In the name of the Torah and science

Notes 1 Disciples of ‘Brisker method’ are also known as the analytic movement. Rabbi Yehuda Leib Don-­Yichye (1869–1942), a disciple of Rabbi Chaim of Brisk, described the shiurim of Rabbi Chaim as follows: He would approach every Talmudic theme as a surgeon. He would first search out the logical elements of every sugya, showing the strengths of one side and then the other. After the logical basis was clear to all listeners, he would then focus on the dispute in the Talmud or between Maimonides and Rabad, and explain it in accordance with two (divergent) logical approaches. (Shapiro, 1999: 81) 2 A fundamental work of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady (1745–1812), the founder of the Hasidic Lubavitch movement Chabad. See the chapter on Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn. 3 Rabbi Soloveitchik, in his speech to the students of Yeshiva University in 1955, admitted that, for him, the Tanya had opened the door to the study of philosophy, theology, eschatology, etc. (Rakeffet-­Rothkoff, 1993). 4 The Vaad Ha’ir united many of the Orthodox Boston synagogues. Its main goal was to support Torah study and observance of commandments in Jewish communities. 5 Marek Čejka’s interview with Rabbi Ezra Schwartz, Rosh Yeshiva at RIETS, New York (7 August 2014). 6 He became its honorary president in 1946.

References Blidstein, Gerald J. (2008–2009) ‘Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s Letters on Public Affairs’, The Torah u-­Madda Journal, 15. Eisenberg, Ronald L. (2014) Essential Figures in Jewish Scholarship. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Granot, Tamir (n.d.) ‘Faith and the Holocaust, Lecture #22a Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik on the Holocaust (Part 1)’. Online: http://vbm-­torah.org/archive/shoah/22a-shoah.htm. Gurock, Jeffrey S. (2009) Orthodox Jews in America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Kimelman, Reuven (2004) ‘Rabbis Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Abraham Joshua Heschel on Jewish–Christian Relations’, The Edah Journal, 4(2). Lehmann, Manfred R. (n.d.) ‘Re-­writing the Biography of Rav Soloveitchik’, Manfred and Anne Lehmann Foundation 1997–2010. Online: www.manfredlehmann.com/news/ news_detail.cgi/110/0. Lyčka, Milan (2010) Filosofie náboženství Josefa Solovějčika [The Philosophy of Religion of Josef Soloveitchik]. Prague: Academia [In Czech]. Rakeffet-­Rothkoff, Aaron (1993) The Teachings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, 6 Lectures Delivered by Rabbi Aaron Rothkoff-­Rakeffet at Lincoln Square Synagogue from 7 June to 12 July 1993. Online: www.panix.com/~jjbaker/teachrav.html. Rakeffet-­Rothkoff, Aaron; Epstein, Joseph (1999) The Rav: The World of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. New York: Ktav Pub. Inc. Saks, Jeffrey (1997) ‘Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik on the Brisker Method’, Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, 33(3). Saks, Jeffrey (2006, 1 September) ‘Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and the Israeli Chief Rabbinate: Biographical Notes (1959–60)’, The ATID Journal. Online: www.atid.org/ journal/bdd17.pdf.

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Shapiro, Marc B. (1999) ‘The Brisker Method Reconsidered’, Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, 31(2). Sherman, Moshe D.; Raphael, Marc (1996) Orthodox Judaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook (Jewish Denominations in America). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Solomon, Norman (1993) The Analytic Movement: Hayyim Soloveitchik and His Circle. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press. Soloveitchik, Joseph B. (1998) Halakhic Mind. New York: Free Press. Soloveitchik, Joseph B. (2012) Osamělý člověk víry [The Lonely Man of Faith]. Prague: P3K [In Czech]. Soloveitchik, Joseph B. (2012) Halachický člověk [The Halachic Man]. Prague: Academia [In Czech]. Soloveitchik, Joseph B.; Sacks, Jonathan (2010) The Koren Mesorat HaRav Siddur: A Hebrew/English Prayer Book with Commentary. Jerusalem: Koren Publishers. Wigoder, G.; Seckbach, F. (2007) ‘Soloveitchik, Joseph Baer’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 18. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House.

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The guardian of Jerusalem Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (Zonnenfeld) 1 December 1848–27 March 1932 6 Kislev 5609–19 Adar II 5692

Rabbi Sonnenfeld1 was one of the most important figures of Orthodox Jewish life in Palestine in the first half of the twentieth century. He was born in the area of today’s Slovakia in the village of Vrbové (at that time it was a hamlet in Hungary with the Hungarian name Verbó). Yosef Chaim’s father was Rabbi Avraham Shlomo Sonnenfeld, who died in 1853. The younger Rabbi Sonnenfeld himself came from the school of one of the most famous rabbis of that period – he studied in the Pressburg Yeshiva of Rabbi Chatam Sofer in the capital of present-­day Slovakia, Bratislava,2 which was a notable educational institution of traditional Judaism.3 Chatam Sofer (1762–1839), or Moshe Schreiber (which was his original name), was a very significant and influential Jewish scholar of the turn of the nineteenth century. Many prominent European (chiefly Hungarian) rabbis of that time came from his yeshiva. Sofer lived in an era of great social and political turmoil, which was also a time when many people started to digress from their religious faith, and the Jews were no exception to this trend. He sharply objected to all the emerging reform streams in Judaism and contributed to maintaining the Jewish traditions of his predecessors. Chatam Sofer’s son, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Benjamin Sofer (Ktav Sofer, 1815–1871), was Sonnenfeld’s direct teacher. Sonnenfeld then later studied in Kabold (the town of Kobersdorf in the present‑day Austrian federal state of Burgenland) under Rabbi Avraham Shaag (1801–1876), who was also Chatam Sofer’s student (see Danziger and Sonnenfeld, 1983). In 1870, Rabbi Sonnenfeld married the daughter of a local moneyed Jewish citizen in Kabold. Soon afterwards, in 1873, at the age of 72, Rav Shaag decided to move to the Holy Land. Since Rav Sonnenfelďs family was mourning the death of a child at that time, Shaag did not attempt to persuade the Sonnenfelds to follow him. Moreover, Rav Sonnenfeld realized that moving to the Holy Land brought hardship and sacrifices, and he did not feel sufficiently spiritually prepared for accepting this challenge either. However, Sonnenfeld’s need to stay with his teacher eventually prevailed. After reaching a consensus with his wife on the matter, both the Shaags and the Sonnenfelds set off on the journey in May 1873 (Sofer, n.d.). Their decision was of a purely religious character and was not by any means connected to the activities of the first Zionist groups that had begun to be active in Palestine, which was then controlled by the Ottoman Empire, in the

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The guardian of Jerusalem   145 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

1870s.4 Rabbi Shaag soon died, however. On the day before his passing, which was a Friday, Shaag finished studying with Rabbi Sonnenfeld with the words ‘We shall interrupt it here’. This upset the student a lot, as his teacher had never used this phrase before. The following day, Rav Shaag did not arrive for the morning prayer, and so his son and students went to find out what happened. They found him in a critical condition; he was barely breathing and could not speak. Rav Sonnenfeld ran to the house of the nearest doctor, who was still asleep and the courtyard was closed. The loyal student managed to access the courtyard via the roof of the adjacent house and wake the doctor up. However, before he returned with the doctor, Rav Shaag had died. Another misfortune was that Rav Sonnenfeld had broken his leg when he fell off the roof, and consequently suffered throughout the rest of his life because of the injury (Sofer, n.d.). In Jerusalem, Sonnenfeld became the right‑hand man of Rabbi Yehoshua Yehuda Laib Diskin (known as ‘Maharil Diskin’, 1817–1898), who was one of the most significant rabbis of the Haredim community in the Old Yishuv and concurrently a strong opponent of the secularization of Jewish life and Zionist activities.5 Although the Turks controlled Palestine until 1917, Zionist activities became much more intensive with the passing years (particularly after the publication of Herzl’s Jewish State in 1896 and the first World Zionist Congresses). Following the example of Rabbi Diskin, Sonnenfeld became one of the chief opponents of Zionism in both its secular and religious forms. However, his anti‑Zionism was not hateful, unlike that of several later anti‑Zionist rabbis. After all, Sonnenfeld was on friendly terms with the central protagonist of religious Zionism, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Ha-­Kohen Kook (1865–1935), whose views were poles apart from the attitudes of traditional rabbis (see the chapter on Rabbi Kook). Sonnenfeld had frequent theological disputations with Kook, as their interpretations of some passages of the sacred texts diverged significantly in many respects (Wein, 1990).6 After the death of Rabbi Diskin in 1898, the charismatic Sonnenfeld was accepted by the ultra‑Orthodox Jews of the Old Yishuv as his successor and as one of the central halachic authorities. In this position, and also with the coming of Zionism, it was not possible for him to stay completely separated from politics. Even though Sonnenfeld opposed the politicization of Judaism, he met many statesmen of the time who were active in Palestine or visited it, i.e. Turkish and, later, British dignitaries, Zionists, Arab officials and notable visitors from abroad, such as the first Czechoslovak President Thomas G. Masaryk (Meller, 2006: 66). However, in 1898, Sonnenfeld – unlike Theodor Herzl – refused to meet the German Emperor Wilhelm II, who then visited Jerusalem, since the rabbi considered him a successor of Amalek (Golinkin, 2006).7 After the Balfour Declaration of 1917,8 Sonnenfeld was even more uncompromising and active in his criticism of Zionism. At the beginning of the 1920s, he entrusted the Dutch diplomat and lawyer Jacob Israël de Haan (1881–1924) with representing the interests of the Haredim in the British Mandate of Palestine. The influential de Haan was originally an avid Zionist (he advocated, for example, the radical Zionist Vladimir Jabotinsky, who was accused of inciting violence against Arabs); nevertheless, the experience of his stay in Palestine

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146   The guardian of Jerusalem markedly weakened his Zionist enthusiasm (Liven, 2014).9 Soon he became a promoter of Haredi Judaism and religious anti‑Zionism. He even started preparing the ground for the emergence of a broad coalition that could become an effective opponent of the Zionist movement in Palestine. This coalition should have included the religious Jews united in the Agudat Yisrael movement as well as the Palestinian Christians and Muslims who were critical of Zionism. Such a coalition would certainly have been able to effectively confront the Zionists, who still represented a not very numerous minority. On Sonnenfeld’s instruction, de Haan left for Transjordan (later Jordan) to negotiate with King Abdullah I of the Hashemite dynasty (Rabkin, 2006: 138). The Palestinian Zionists, who were above all pursuing their own interests and were not very particular about maintaining good relations with other communities, started to be so worried about de Haan’s organizational activities that they concocted a plan for his liquidation. After de Haan returned to Europe from one of his journeys, he was murdered at the instruction of the leaders of the Zionist militia Hagana on 30 June 1924. This happened as he was walking out of one of Jerusalem’s synagogues after prayer. His murderer was Avraham Tehomi, a Hagana member who later became the first commander of the still more radical Zionist organization, Irgun (Green, 2006). Of this event, Rabbi Sonnenfeld commented that This murder, perpetrated by the descendants of Jacob employing the tactics of Esau in order to still the voice of Yisrael and Yaakov [the two first names of the victim], must strengthen us in our struggle to guard our camp against influences alien to our spirit and our Torah. This pure blood which has been spilled cries out from the stained talis kattan [ritual garment]: ‘You shall see it and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and you shall not be led astray after your heart’ on which the Sages comment: ‘This refers to heresy’ [Berakhot 12b]. See the abysmal depths to which the Zionist leadership has fallen and call out in a strong voice: ‘Separate yourself from this evil community’ [Num. 16: 21]. (Rabkin, 2006: 131–132) Sonnenfeld also participated in the establishment of the rabbinical body Eda Haredit,10 which was intended to be independent of Zionist institutions (Rabkin, 2006: 141). He was at its head until his death in 1932.

Chief Rabbis of the Eda Haredit • • • • • • • •

Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (1919/21–1932) Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky (1932–1948) Zelig Reuven Bengis (1948–1953) Joel Teitelbaum of Satmar (1953–1979) Yitzhok Yaakov Weiss (1979–1989) Moshe Aryeh Freund (1989–1996) Yisroel Moshe Dushinsky (1996–2002) Yitzhok Tuvia Weiss (2002–present)

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Presidents of the Eda Haredit • • •

Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar (?–1979) Moshe Teitelbaum of Satmar (1979–2006) Dovid Soloveitchik (2006–present)

Rabbi Sonnenfeld was a very charismatic and consistent personality. He was widely respected not only by the Jewish Haredi community, but also by some Arabs and Zionists. The rabbi strove for maintaining the authenticity of Judaism throughout his life. He was concurrently a humanist and a strong opponent of inciting conflict between Jews and Arabs, regardless of which side started the conflict. During his life, Sonnenfeld wrote a range of commentaries on the Torah, the Talmud and the Shulchan Aruch. The collection of his rabbinical responsa carries the name Salmas Chaim. His son Shlomo Zalman Sonnenfeld became the rabbi’s successor.

Notes   1 He was originally called Chaim, but after an illness he was given the name Yosef. In Judaism it is customary to give someone a new name during a severe illness, according to the rule which states that if ‘you change the name, you change the fate’. This strategy is supposed to ‘outwit’ the illness.   2 The Pressburger Yeshiva was one of the largest and most influential yeshivas in Central Europe, founded by Chatam Sofer in 1831. After the Second World War, the yeshiva was renewed in Jerusalem thanks to the great-­grandson of its founder, Rabbi Akiva Sofer (Daas Sofer).   3 Chatam Sofer himself was not a Hasid, which does not necessarily mean that many Hasids would not declare their support for his legacy. For instance, his teachings can almost be regarded as the linchpin of the Erlau Hasidic dynasty.   4 In 1870, the agricultural colony of Mikveh Yisrael was founded in Palestine, and in 1878, the first truly Zionist settlement – Petah Tikva – was established.   5 The Old Yishuv (Yishuv Ha-­Yashan in Hebrew) was the original pre‑Zionist Jewish settlement of Palestine.   6 A rare film scene including both Rabbi Sonnenfeld and Rabbi Kook can be found online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PNMR0TlfLU.   7 The Amalekites were the biblical arch‑enemies of the Jews. The term is sometimes used controversially by the religious Jews for making comparisons between the Amalekites and other groups of people, and such comparisons are sometimes made without any links to specific individual Amalekites. Rabbi Sonnenfeld made such a comparison in connection with the Germans and Emperor Wilhelm II (1859–1941). Later on, a comparison of Hitler and the Amalekites appeared in the Jewish environment, and afterwards several radically right‑wing rabbis in Israel (mainly from among the Jewish settlers) compared the Palestinians to the Amalekites.   8 The Balfour Declaration was the most important milestone in British relations with the Zionists during the First World War. It was a letter written by the British Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arthur James Balfour, addressed to Lord Rothschild, the leading representative of British Zionists, who declared the British support for the creation of the ‘Jewish homeland’ in Palestine.   9 De Haan was a ‘returnee to faith’ (Baal Teshuva), i.e. despite his lukewarm Jewish upbringing he later returned to observing the prescribed rules of Judaism.

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148   The guardian of Jerusalem 10 The Eda Haredit (‘a pious community’) is sometimes referred to by the acronym BaDaC since it exercises the function of the rabbinical court (Beit Din Tzedek) by keeping an eye on kashrut, the mikveh and other ritual issues of ultra‑Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews. It is also regarded as the opposition of the official Chief Rabbinate of Israel. The rabbis in the Eda Haredit have thus always advocated markedly anti‑Zionist attitudes. The leading figure of those with these attitudes was Rav Yoel Teitelbaum (1887–1979) from the Satmar Hasidic dynasty. His book, Vayoel Moshe (1961), contains explanations of all these attitudes, including the ban on voting in elections to the Knesset, accepting financial support from the Israeli government and/ or accepting Israeli citizenship through the ‘right of return’. The book also declares an ‘ideological war against the Zionist government’. The Eda Haredit has cooperated with the anti-­Zionist organization Neturei Karta, among others.

References Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Danziger, Hillel; Sonnenfeld, Shlomo Zalman (1983) Guardian of Jerusalem: Ha-­Ish Al Ha-­Homah – The Life and Times of Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications. Golinkin, David (2006, 3 September) ‘The First Word: Are Jews Still Commanded to Blot Out Amalek?’, Jerusalem Post. Online: www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/The-­ First-Word-­Are-Jews-­still-commanded-­to-blot-­out-Amalek. Green, David B. (2006, 30 June) ‘This Day in Jewish History/Zionism’s First Political Assassination’, Haaretz. Online: www.haaretz.com/news/features/this-­day-in-­jewishhistory.premium-­1.532770. Horowitz, Elliott (2008) Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Kaplan, Zvi (2007) ‘Sonnenfeld, Joseph Hayyim ben Abraham Solomon’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 19. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Liven, Ido (2014, 30 June) ‘The First Political Murder in Jewish Palestine: Lessons of Intolerance’. Online: http://972mag.com/the-­first-political-­murder-in-­jewish-palestine-­ lessons-of-­intolerance/92686. Meller, Shimon Yosef (2006) Prince of the Torah Kingdom: Excerpts from the Glorious Life of Rabbi Simchah Zissel Broida. Jerusalem: Feldheim Publishers. Rabinowicz, Harry (1982) Hasidism and the State of Israel. East Brunswick, NJ: Associated University Press. Rabkin, Yaakov (2006) A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Sofer, D. (n.d.) Rav Avraham Shaag ZT”L – A Lion Roars. Yated Ne’eman. Online: http://tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/ravshaag.html. Sonnenfeld, Shlomo Zalman (ed.) (2002) Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld on the Parashah. New York: Mesorah Publications. Sprinzak, Ehud (1999) Brother against Brother – Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics. New York: The Free Press. Wein, Berel (1990) Triumph of Survival: The Story of the Jews in the Modern Era, 1650–1990. Brooklyn: Shaar Press.

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Guardian of the Jewish traditions from Satmar Yoel Teitelbaum ‫יואל טייטלבוים‬

Also called ‘Satmar Rebbe’, ‘Admor of Satmar’, ‘Reb Yolish’, ‘Vayoel Moshe’ 1 January 1887–19 August 1979 5 Tevet 5647–26 Av 5739 The most important traditionalist communities of Eastern Jews before the First World War lived not only on the territory of the former Russian Empire (today, a part of Poland, the Baltic states, etc.), but also in other parts of Europe. A large pre-­First World War community of Orthodox Jews could be found in the Austro­Hungarian Empire, especially in Hungary.1 As in the case of the former Tsarist Russia, many regions of the former Hungary are now parts of other states. Thus tens of thousands of Jews changed their citizenship after the war. For ethnic Hungarians and for many Hungarian Jews, one of the most painful losses was that of Transylvania, which became part of Romania after the Treaty of Trianon (1920). In Transylvania were the significant centres of Hungarian (in Yiddish: Ungarish) Orthodox Jewry – regions such as Szatmár and Máramaros and cities like Cluj (Klausenburg/Kolozsvár). Let us now focus directly on the town of Szatmár (today the Romanian town of Satu Mare),2 where a number of prominent rabbis lived. One of the most important rabbinic families there was the Satmar Hasidic dynasty, of which one of the most prominent members in the twentieth century was Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum. He was born in in 1887 in Sighet (the present-­day Romanian town of Sighetu Marmaţiei (in Hungarian, Máramarossziget)). His father was the famous Rabbi Chananya Yom Tov Lipa Teitelbaum (1836–1904). Yoel Teitelbaum, even as a child, showed a keen intellect and talent. He studied classical Halacha and the Talmud, which later opened to him the path to becoming the Satmar rabbi. He began his Hasidic ‘journey’ under the influence of Admor Ezekiel Shraga Halberstam (1813–1898), who was the eldest son of Rabbi Chaim Halberstam of the Sanz Hasidic Court. In the 1870s he was appointed rabbi in Musza, and later he worked in Orsova, the present-­day Romanian city of Orşova (Rabinowicz, 1982: 230–231). He married when he was still young, to Chaia Horowitz, the daughter of the Polish Rabbi Abraham Chaim Horowitz, who came from the same family as the famous Shmuel Shmelke Horowitz of Nikolsburg (1726–1778). After the First World War, Rabbi Teitelbaum served in Karali (in Romanian: Carei, in Hungarian: Nagykaroly) near Satmar (Rabinowicz, 1982: 231). In 1929 the serving Satmar rabbi died, and the community looked for a strong leader who would be his successor. Being a community that was developing in a modern way, they

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150   Guardian of the Jewish traditions from Satmar did not want a Hasidic rabbi. Yet Rabbi Teitelbaum was invited to the Sabbath there. He greatly surprised the community with his excellent knowledge of classical rabbinic literature, which was not expected from a Hasid. He visited the community repeatedly; the people appreciated his gentle approach to the so-­ called ‘enlightened Jews’ and finally he gained enough supporters to be appointed as the town rabbi in 1935 (Shneider, 2001). His connection with that community was evident when he refused to leave it when the deportation of Jews to concentration camps began. Shortly after he became the Satmar Rebbe in 1936, his wife Chaia died. With her he had had three daughters: Esther, Rachel and Roysele; however, none of them survived their father, two of them dying before the Second World War. Concerning his personal tragedies, the rabbi only laconically remarked, ‘It happens only to sinners.’ The rabbi later remarried. His second wife was Alte Faiga of Czenstochowa, but this second marriage remained childless (Rabinowicz, 1982: 233).

Rebbetzin Alte Faiga The second wife of Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, Alte Faiga (1912–2001), was the daughter of Rabbi Avigdor Shapira, who was the great-­grandson of the founder of the Sanz Hasidic dynasty. Her mother, Gitl, was a granddaughter of the ‘miraculous Zaddik’. It is therefore evident that Alte Faiga was chosen to be the rabbi’s wife not only because of her modesty, but also due to her ancestry. Alte Faiga had been orphaned at an early age, and so her childhood had been a struggle, but even so, she was known for helping her neighbours (gmilut chasadim). She was originally worried by the arranged marriage proposal (shidduch) because she knew that the rabbi was an older widower. But when she learned who he was, she enthusiastically agreed to it. She insisted, however, that her husband must not prevent her charity work. The couple became engaged in the winter, and in the summer of 1937 they had their wedding in the Polish town of Trzebinia (see e.g. Weinfeld, n.d.). It was very simple and modest. It took place on a Friday afternoon so that the wedding food would also serve to honour the Sabbath. The wedding ceremony was performed by one of the dayans (rabbinical judges) because the famous Rabbi Dov Berish Wiedenfeld of Trzebinia was sick at the time. After the Sabbath the couple travelled to Krakow to see the bride’s uncle, who arranged their Sheva Brachot, and then they returned to the disciples and Hasidim at Satmar. The couple lived together for 42 years, and the rebbetzin survived the rabbi’s death by another 22 years. After she died in 2001, she was buried by his side. Until the present day, on the anniversary of her death (2 June 2001/11 Sivan 5761) Hasidim gather in large crowds near her grave (Martin, 2001).

In the Kastner train During the Second World War the rabbi almost met the same cruel fate as a large part of European Jewry. A part of Transylvania (including Satmar) was connected back to Hungary, where, under the Horthy regime, Jews were safer

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than in the neighbouring countries, but following the German occupation of Hungary in 1944, the mass deportations of Jews began. The rav himself was soon arrested and imprisoned in the Bergen-­Belsen concentration camp. He managed to survive mainly due to the fact that he got into the Kastner train (see the chapter on Rabbi Weissmandl). The arrangement through which some Jews were to be transported to Switzerland via this train had been negotiated between the Hungarian Zionist Rudolf Kastner and Adolf Eichmann. The train was originally intended mainly to save Zionist Jews, but places in it were eventually reserved for several dozen rabbis from the Hungarian Haredi community, including Rabbi Teitelbaum. This was the doing of Rabbi Weissmandl, who got these people onto the train because he realized that the nation could not survive (on a spiritual level) without their spiritual leaders. Some Satmar Hasidim believe that this happened also because of a dream by Kastner’s father-­in-law. In the dream, he was allegedly told that if Rabbi Teitelbaum were not on the train, none of its more than 1,600 passengers would survive (Green, 2012). The train’s dangerous journey included a detour to the Bergen-­Belsen concentration camp. There, Rabbi Teitelbaum was among those who embarked. The train stalled in Bergen-­ Belsen for four months, and the passengers waited in fear, for they did not know whether the train would be permitted to enter the safe and neutral Switzerland, or whether they would be sent to Auschwitz instead. However, the train finally crossed the Swiss border on 8 December 1944 (Shneider, 2001). After the war, Satmar Hasids started to celebrate this date as a holiday. It should be mentioned, however, that the Rabbi of Satmar was eventually criticized for being a strong opponent of Zionism when his life had been saved by the Zionist Kastner.

From Brooklyn to Kiryas Yoel After the Second World War, Teitelbaum briefly lived in Jerusalem with his son­in-law. After a short stay there, he went to the United States to raise money for his project of creating a Haredi community in Israel. In the United States he came under a lot of pressure to remain, and, finally, he did decide to stay. In 1947, he formed the first community of Satmar Hasidim in the United States – the Yetev Lev. Initially, it did not even have its own synagogue. The community attracted major attention in 1948, when it strongly opposed the establishment of the State of Israel (Shneider, 2001). Among Teitelbaum’s pupils and followers were many Jews who survived the Holocaust. With his own experience and faith, the rabbi became a source of great spiritual and moral support, a comforter, a counsellor and a teacher for these people. His followers correspondingly often referred to him with the diminutive ‘Reb Yolish’. Rabbi Teitelbaum was very capable when it came to organization (e.g. with regard to the distribution of funds for social activities); he also had firm opinions and a good sense of humour, and was tolerant and liberal when it came to his responses to transgressions. His charisma and renowned knowledge attracted thousands of new Hasidim like a magnet (Wolpin, 1979). The Satmar community,

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152   Guardian of the Jewish traditions from Satmar which had been devastated by the Holocaust, began gradually to recover and flourish under his leadership. The rabbi himself was involved in the establishment of yeshivas, charitable institutions, ritual baths (mikveh) and girls’ schools, not only in America but also in Israel. He was also in contact with many other rabbinical authorities of his time, including Rabbi Baba Sali (see the chapter about him), Rabbi Weissmandl and Rabbi Feivel Shraga Mendelowitz. On the other hand, unsurprisingly, some religious Zionist rabbis (not to mention secular Zionists) did not like him for his strong anti-­Zionism. In 1968, Rabbi Teitelbaum survived a heart attack, though his health gradually deteriorated. His health was certainly made worse by his very emotional speech uttered during a Seudah Shlishit (the third Shabbat dinner, held on Saturday evening) in the same year, in which he expressed strong words against celebrating the Israeli victory in the Six Day War (which occurred in June 1967, and as a result of it, Israel occupied the Sinai, the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan) (Shneider, 2001). The rabbi called Israel ‘the kingdom of Satan controlled by the demon Samael’ (Collins, 2014: 399) and also said, ‘I kindly ask everyone who thinks that the State of Israel is causing the redemption of the Jews to draw nearer to leave . . . even if it means that I’ll be left here by myself to calmly pray alone.’ This attitude surprised even many members of his own community, who felt joyful because of the Israeli victory. After this speech, however, none of his preaching was as stormy. Since the late 1960s, the rabbi tried to live a more private life, because he felt exhausted by his public role. But even in later life he remained very active. With his followers, he embarked on a large project: the creation of a new town for Satmar Hasidim, intended to better meet the needs of many Satmar Hasidim than crowded Brooklyn. The rabbi was personally involved in the selection of a suitable area of land for the town; the area which was eventually chosen was near New York City in Orange County. The town was named Kiryas Yoel (‘Yoel City’) in his honour. The first 14 Hasidic families moved there in 1977. Today there are around 20,000 inhabitants, mostly Satmar Hasidim.3 In ‘his’ city the rabbi was also the first person to be buried in the local cemetery. His funeral was attended by over 100,000 people (Orthodox Union, 2006). After his death, however, disputes over who would succeed him as community leader erupted, as the rabbi had left no direct heir (Landau, 1993: 153). Finally, the leadership of the Satmar community was passed to his nephew, Moshe Teitelbaum (1914–2006), who was the son of his brother, Atzei Chaim. Part of the Hasidim, however, disagreed with this choice and recognized his wife Rebetzin Alte Faiga as his representative, as she enjoyed high esteem among the whole community. This was especially so when she was supported by many important rabbinical authorities.4 When on 24 April 2006 Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum died, a struggle broke out over who would succeed him. Finally, the leadership of the Satmar Hasidic community was divided between his two sons, Rabbi Zalman Leib (Yekusiel Yehuda) Teitelbaum (b. 1952), who became the Satmar Admor for Williamsburg, and Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum (b. 1947), who became the Admor for Kiryas Yoel.

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Attitudes towards Zionism and Israel Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum saw himself as a faithful guardian of the Jewish traditions and way of life according to the teachings of the Torah. He strongly opposed any move away from traditional Jewish teachings and any innovations made to them. For this reason Rabbi Teitelbaum was one of the sharpest critics of religious Zionism and of the State of Israel (Landau, 1993 132; Armstrong, 2011: 203). He said that he ‘prayed many times for a termination of the existence of the State of Israel, but without causing any suffering to the Jews’ (Rabkin, 2006: 126). He described the State of Israel as ‘heinous’ and compared it to the Kingdom of Bar Kochba (Ben Koziba):5 ‘Ben Koziba’s Kingdom scrupulously abided by the principles of our faith, but it was destroyed. Its main sin was that it tried to hasten the Redemption’ (Granot, n.d.). Rabbi Teitelbaum summarized his anti-­Zionist attitudes in his best-­known book, Va-­Yoel Moshe (1961). The book’s title comes from Exod. 2: 21: ‘Va-­ Yoel Moshe [Moses agreed]’. It also references the rabbi’s name (Yoel) and that of the founder of the Teitelbaum dynasty (1759–1841), who was also named Yoel. The book is divided into three parts: • • •

First – Maamar Shalosh Shevuot (‘Treatise on the Three Oaths’) Second – Maamar Yishuv Eretz Yisrael (‘Treatise on the Settlement of the Land of Israel’) Third – Lashon Maamar Ha-­Kodesh (‘Treatise on the Holy Language’) (Teitelbaum, 2006)

The book explains all of Teitelbaum’s practical attitudes; for example, he prohibits Jews from voting people into the Knesset, receiving financial support from the Israeli government and receiving Israeli citizenship through the ‘right of return’. There is also a declaration of an ‘ideological war against the Zionist government’ in the book. The book deals with halachic and philosophical questions, with key attention being paid to the relationship between Judaism and Zionism. The book declares that these concepts stand in stark contrast to each other (Granot, n.d.). Teitelbaum also interprets the three oaths, which are part of the Talmudic tractate Ketubot 111a. They are valid in the days before the advent of the Messiah, that is, even today. Two are designated for Jews, and one for Gentiles: First – Jews should not come to the Holy Land together and by force. Second – Jews should not rebel against the nations of the world. Third – The nations of the world should not oppress Jews too much. Talmud, Ketubot 13: 111 (verbatim): Why/What are these Three Oaths? One, that Israel should not storm the wall [RaShI interprets: forcefully]. Two, the Holy One adjured Israel not to rebel against the nations of the world. Three, the Holy One adjured the nations that they would not oppress Israel too much.

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154   Guardian of the Jewish traditions from Satmar Talmud, Ketubot 110b–111a (verbatim): Rabbi Zera was evading Rab Judah because he desired to go up to the Land of Israel while Rab Judah had expressed [the following view:] Whoever goes up from Babylon to the Land of Israel transgresses a positive commandment,6 for it is said in Scripture, ‘They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be, until the day that I remember them’, saith the Lord.7 And Rabbi Zera? – That text refers to the vessels of ministry. And Rab Judah? – Another text also is available: ‘I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles, and by the hinds of the field, [that ye awaken not, nor stir up love, until it please]’. And Rabbi Zera? – That implies that Israel shall not go up [all together as if surrounded] by a wall.8 And Rabbi Judah? – Another ‘I adjure you’9 is written in Scripture. And Rabbi Zera? – That text is required for [an exposition] like that of Rabbi Jose son of Rabbi Hanina who said: ‘What was the purpose of those three adjurations? – One, that Israel shall not go up [all together as if surrounded] by a wall; the second, that whereby the Holy One, blessed be He, adjured Israel that they shall not rebel against the nations of the world; and the third is that whereby the Holy One, blessed be He, adjured the worshipers of stars10 that they shall not oppress Israel too much’. It should be noted that the quoted passage is variously interpreted, and there were differences in interpretation even among the first commentators (rishonim). Some were inclined to believe that this provision is only a parable, not a halachically binding provision. This is also the approach of contemporary religious Zionists. In contrast, though, many Haredi Jews (both Hasidim and non-­Hasidim), including Rabbi Teitelbaum, interpreted this passage as halachically binding. Teitelbaum’s rejection of Zionism followed the teachings of his father. He recommended that Jews oppose Zionism in all possible ways and, in any case, not cooperate with the State of Israel (e.g. they should not receive any money or any form of compensation from the state; they should not vote in Israeli elections, and they certainly should not at all stand in its institutions, its parliament, etc.); he also recommended for them to build communities as independent of the state as possible. The Jews in the time before the advent of the Messiah should ensure the observance of mitzvot, and in any case they should not alienate other nations of the world. Zionism and Israel’s existence, which are embodied by only slightly pious or impious Jews, are, according Teitelbaum, nothing but a blasphemy which is ultimately delaying or even preventing the arrival of the Messiah (Rubinstein, 2007). The Zionist state is the result of the impatience of Zionist Jews. This impatience is, according to him, exposing Jews to a greater risk, as he interprets it on the basis of Song of Songs 2: 7: ‘I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles, and by the hinds of the field, that ye awaken not, nor stir up love, until it please.’ The permanent conflict between Israel and the Arabs and the various wars are not, according to Teitelbaum, anything other than the fulfilment of a gloomy

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prophecy. Opposition to Zionism, according to Teitelbaum, mainly contributes to the protection of Jewish lives and prevents bloodshed (Rabkin, 2006: 117). A part of the traditional Jewish Orthodoxy (Haredi ultra-­Orthodoxy) has a similar view on the interpretation of this provision in the Talmud and rejects Zionism on this basis. This is so despite the fact that their anti-­Zionism is not so clearly apparent as that of Rabbi Teitelbaum and his followers. Modernist Orthodox currents are often not so openly anti-­Zionist, and concerning the Three Oaths, they interpret them differently; moreover they often do not consider them halachically (legally) binding. The fact is that most of today’s Haredim in Israel or in the world are not (at least virtually) so strongly anti-­Zionistic as Rav Teitelbaum. The majority of the Haredim behave much more pragmatically, and by their participation in and exploitation of Zionism, they want to achieve the greatest possible establishment of Jewish principles in Israel. For this reason, Satmar Hasidim refuse to cooperate with the more pragmatic Haredi political formations, especially with the Hasidic movement Agudat Yisrael (which exists as a political party in Israel). In their view, only the arrival of the Messiah and his government can bring the government of the Jews to the Holy Land. Any Jewish government before his arrival (even a religious/theocratic government) is completely illegitimate. Such views on Zionism do not prevent Satmar Hasidim from living in Israel, though. They live there but from non-­Zionist motives, like members of Neturei Karta. Rabbi Teitelbaum himself lived in Jerusalem after the Second World War for a shorter period of time. And even after his move to the United States, he visited Israel several times (in 1952, 1956 and 1965). During one of his visits to Jerusalem, supporters of Neturei Karta ordered a special train from Haifa to Jerusalem for him, for which tickets without Israeli state symbols were sold (although the locomotive, the carriages and the driver belonged to the Israeli railways). It is interesting to recall here the attitude of the famous Sephardic Rabbi Baba Sali towards Va-­Yoel Moshe: ‘This book is a great and important treatise for our generation and Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum is a pillar of light whose radiance will lead us to the coming of the Messiah’ (Rabkin, 2006: 159). Rabbi Baba Sali studied the book itself over the course of a few days, and after he was finished, he organized a celebratory feast, as is customary when one finishes reading and studying a Talmudic tract. During the feast the rabbi quoted from Va-­Yoel Moshe several times and said that this book answered all his questions about Zionism ‘truly and uncompromisingly’. After Rabbi Teitelbaum’s death in 1971, Baba Sali said, ‘The world has become empty’ (Rabkin, 2006: 159). Yoel Teitelbaum wrote several other books, including: • • •

Divrei Yoel (‘Yoel’s Statements’) – an interpretation for the Torah, for the Jewish holidays, etc. Kuntres al ha-­Geula ve-­al ha-­Temura (‘Treatise on the Salvation and Transformation’) – The book deals with the so-­called Six-­Day War and salvation. ShuT Divrei Yoel (‘Questions and Answers of Yoel’s Statements’).

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156   Guardian of the Jewish traditions from Satmar

On the roots of the Teitelbaum dynasty The founder of the Satmar dynasty was Rebe Moshe Teitelbaum of Ihel (1795–1841).11 The famous Czech writer, Jiří Mordechai Langer (who was himself a Hasid), wrote a chapter about him in his best-­known book, The Nine Gates, from which we will quote a few lines: We call our scholars Eshle Ravreve, which means ‘huge tamarisks’. So firmly are they rooted in Faith and Wisdom and in their holy deeds! They are like the tamarisks in the Palestinian land. But holy Yismach Moishe was not a tamarisk! He was a sweet date palm. His name was actually Moishe Teitelbaum, and ‘teitelbaum’ means ‘a date palm’. But if we are talking about such a famous author, we usually do not call him by his own name but by the name of his most outstanding book, or possibly by the name of the place where he lived and worked. Rabbi Moishe Teitelbaum of Ihel wrote a book called Yismach Moishe (‘Let Moses Rejoice’). We do not therefore say, ‘Reb Moishe Teitelbaum did this or did that’, or ‘Reb Moishe Teitelbaum said this or that’, but instead we say, ‘Holy Yismach Moishe did so’, or ‘Holy Yismach said that’. The author and his book are one and the same. The name of the work or the place replaces the name of the saint. Think about it, and you will see that it is so. (Langer, 1996: 191) Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar is – like many other prominent rabbis – often referred to by the name of his pivotal work, in this case, Vayoel Moshe. Similarly it is so with the other tzadikim of the Satmar dynasty, and we mention them here for the sake of completeness: • • • • • • • • • • •

Rebe Yisrael Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760), ‘Besht’, the founder of Hasidism;12 His disciple Rebe Dov Ber (c.1704–1772), ‘Maggid of Mezritch’ (‘Preacher of Mezritch’);13 His disciple Rebe Elimelech of Lizhensk (1717–1786), ‘Noam Elimelech’ (‘Pleasures of Elimelech’); His disciple Rebe Yaakov Yitzchak Horowitz of Lublin (1745–1815), ‘Chozeh me-­Lublin’ (‘Seer of Lublin’); His disciple Rebe Moshe Teitelbaum of Ihel (1759–1841), ‘Yismach Moshe’; His son Rebe Eliezer Nissan Teitelbaum of Drubitsch (1786–1854); His son Rebe Yekutiel Yehuda Teitelbaum of Sighet (1808–1883), ‘Yetev Lev’; His son Rebe Hananya Yom Tov Lipa Teitelbaum of Sighet (1836–1904), ‘Kedushat Yom Tov’;14 Rebe Chaim Tzvi Teitelbaum of Sighet (1884–1926), ‘Atzei Chaim’, the oldest son of Kedushat Yom Tov; Rebe Yoel Teitelbaum (1887–1979), ‘Satmar Rebe’, author of Divrei Yoel and Va-­Yoel Moshe, the youngest son of Kedushat Yom Tov; Rebe Yekutiel Yehuda Teitelbaum of Sighet (1911–1944), son of Atzei Chaim and son-­in-law of his uncle Yoel Teitelbaum;

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• • •

Rebe Moshe Teitelbaum (1914–2006), the previous Satmar Rebe, author of the book Berach Moshe, son of Atzei Chaim; Rebe Aron Teitelbaum (born 1947), on the two contemporary Satmar Rebbes, the head of the community in Kiryas Yoel, the oldest son of Moshe Teitelbaum; Rebe Zalman Leib (Yekusiel Yehuda) Teitelbaum (born 1952), the other contemporary Satmar Rebbe, who lives in Williamsburg and is the head of the community there, the third son of Moshe Teitelbaum.

Notes   1 The anti-­Semitic mayor of Vienna, Karl Lueger (1844–1910), even called the Hungarian capital ‘Judapest’ in reference to its massive Jewish community (see for example: http://buecher.hagalil.com/mandelbaum/budapest.htm).   2 Satmar is the Yiddish name of the contemporary Romanian town of Satu Mare, which was then using the Hungarian name Szatmárnémeti. The city now lies on the northwestern borders of Romania near the frontier with Hungary. The Jewish community there still exists today. It manages two synagogues and two large cemeteries in the city.   3 The steep rise in the population of Kiryas Yoel came mainly in the 1990s: 1990 – 7,400 inhabitants; 2000 – 13,100; 2005 – 18,300; 2006 – 20,071; 2010 – 21,894.   4 For example, by Rav Moshe Aryeh Freund, Rav Yankele Peshevorker, Admor Toldot Avraham, the Admor of Bobov, Pupa Rav Pinchas Hirshprung, Rav Chaim Kreisworth and others.   5 In 132–136 ad Bar Kochba (Ben Koziba) led a civil uprising against the Romans and restored Jewish statehood for a short time. However, the rebellion was crushed by the Romans.   6 The Torah contains a total of 613 commandments, of which 248 are positive (‘you will do’) and 365 negative (‘you will not do’).   7 This verse (Jer. 27: 22) applies to the Temple vessels that were taken away from the Temple to Babylon.   8 This means that the nation of Israel must not wilfully enter the Land of Israel en masse and by force. According to this view, though, individual access to the Land of Israel is permitted.   9 According to Rav Yehuda, this second oath applies to individuals. 10 This phrase means ‘idolaters’. 11 Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch ben Moshe Teitelbaum was a rabbi in the Hungarian city of Ihel (Sátoraljaújhely). He was a supporter of the Seer of Lublin, and helped to bring Hasidism to Hungary. He is the author of Heishiv Moshe (‘Moses Replies’) and Yismach Moshe (‘Let Moses Rejoice’). His descendants became leaders of the communities in Sighet and Satmar. His grave is attended every year on 28 Tammuz by crowds of pious pilgrims. For this occasion the Satmar community built a mikveh (ritual bath) near his grave and other facilities. 12 Rabbi Yisrael (Yisroel) ben Eliezer was born on 27 August 1698 (1 Tishri 5459) in the town of Okopy Świętej Trójcy in Poland and died on the first day of the holiday of Shavuot, 22 May 1760 (6 Sivan 5520), in Medzhybizh in Poland (present-­day Ukraine). He is considered to be the founder of Hasidism. For his knowledge of the use of sacred names in healing, he was called ‘Der Heiliger Baal Shem’ in Yiddish – The Holy Baal Shem, or, most commonly, Baal Shem Tov. The literal translation of this name is ‘The Lord of the Good Name’, although it is more correct to translate it as ‘The Lord of His (God’s) Name’, with the word ‘Tov’ expressing respect. The acronym BESHT is very often used for this title.

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158   Guardian of the Jewish traditions from Satmar 13 Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritch, who was called the Maggid (Preacher) of Mezritch, was born around 1704 (some sources say 1710) in Volyn in western Ukraine and died on 15 December 1772 (19 Kislev 5533) in Mezritch in Poland. He was the first disciple of Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov. Rabbi Ber is considered to be the first proponent and interpreter of Hasidism and one of its most important propagators. His doctrine is contained in his book, Magid Devarav Le-­Yaakov. He had many students, including Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk, Rabbi Zusha of Anipoli, Rabbi Levi Yitzok of Berdichev, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady (founder of Chabad), Reb Shmuel Shmelke Horowitz of Nikolsburg and his brother Rabbi Zishe, and Rabbi Nahum of Chernobyl. His son was Rabbi Avrohom Ha-­ Malach – ‘Angel’ (1740–1776). 14 Kedushat Yom Tov was his work in which he commented on the Torah in light of Hasidic thought. He was the first Reb (admor) of Sighet, a title which later went to his son Chaim Tzvi Teitelbaum (Atzei Chaim), the brother of Reb Yoel Teitelbaum. This is the source of the strong connection between Satmar and Sighet Hasidism.

References Armstrong, Karen (2011) The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism. New York: Random, Ballantine Books. Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Collins, John Joseph (ed.) (2014) The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Finkel, Avraham Yaakov (1994) Contemporary Sages: The Great Chasidic Masters of the Twentieth Century. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, Inc. Granot, T. (n.d.) ‘Redemption in Radical Ultra-­Orthodox Thought’, The Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash. Online: http://vbm-­torah.org/archive/shoah/04b-shoah.htm. Green, David B. (2012, 7 December) ‘This Day in Jewish History/Satmar Hasidism Founder Is Saved’, Haaretz. Heilman, Samuel (1999) Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-­Orthodox Jewry. Berkeley: University of California Press. Landau, David (1993) Piety and Power: The World of Jewish Fundamentalism. London: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Langer, Jiří (1996) Devět Bran [The Nine Gates]. Prague: Sefer [In Czech]. Martin, Douglas (2001, 13 June) ‘Faiga Teitelbaum, 89, a Power among the Satmar Hasidim’, New York Times. Orthodox Union (2006, 15 June) ‘Teitelbaum, Rabbi Yoel: The Satmarer Rebbe’. Online: www.ou.org/about/judaism/rabbis/teitelbaum.htm. Rabinowicz, Harry (1982) Hasidism and the State of Israel. East Brunswick, NJ: Associated University Press. Rabkin, Yaakov (2006) A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Rubin, Israel (1972) Satmar, an Island in the City. Chicago: Quadrangle Books. Rubinstein, Aryeh (1975) Hasidism. Jerusalem: Keter Books. Rubinstein, Avraham (2007) ‘Teitelbaum’, in Encyclopedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 19. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Shneider, Chaim (2001) ‘The Roots of Satmar’, Hasidic News. Online: www.hasidic news.com/index.php/history/69-the-­roots-of-­satmar.html. Teitelbaum, Yoel (2006) Va-­Yoel Moshe. Brooklyn: Jerusalem Book Store.

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Weinfeld, C.B. (n.d.) ‘Rebetzin Alte Faiga Teitelbaum A”H’. Online: http://tzemach dovid.org/gedolim/rebbetzin.html. Weisshaus, Yechezkel Yossef (2008) The Rebbe: A Glimpse into the Daily Life of the Satmar Rebbe Rabbeinu Yoel Teitelbaum. Lakewood, NJ: Israel Book Shop. Wolpin, Nisson (1979) ‘My Neighbor, My Father, the Rebbe’, Jewish Observer, 14(4). Online: http://tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tpersonality/satmarrav.html.

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The righteous man who bribed the Devil Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl 25 October 1903–29 November 1957 4 Cheshvan 5664–6 Kislev 5718

After the Second World War, many European Haredi rabbis were criticized for failing to adequately motivate their supporters to flee from Nazi-­occupied Europe to safety (particularly to Palestine) while it was still possible because Zionism was in direct conflict with their faith.1 In any case, the Haredi Jews were one of the most vulnerable groups of the Jewish population during the war – they were vulnerable because of their pacifism and because they were often very poor (which limited their ability to emigrate); in addition, not only were they threatened by the Nazis, but they often did not enjoy the favour of the local population either. They were also – unlike the assimilated Jews – clearly recognizable by their appearance (for many non-­Jews, they were ‘often so similar’ to various anti-­Semitic cartoons) and, because of their intensively intellectual lifestyle they were usually not in particularly good physical condition, so they had a lower chance of surviving the hardships of war. During the war, however, it was not just the rabbis that erred, but also many politicians of countries which remained free, and mistakes were also made by Zionists outside Europe. The matter of rescues of and aid for Jewish refugees on the part of the free world (including pre-­war Czechoslovakia) is a somewhat dark side of Western history and also of the history of the Zionist movement. Because of the free countries’ immigration quotas, a number of Jewish refugees were returned to dangerous parts of Europe, and if there were attempts to rescue Jews, they were sometimes made in a very selective manner. But in Europe and elsewhere there also lived many outstanding personalities – both Jews and non-­Jews – who were sufficiently aware of the threat of genocide and showed great courage which helped to save many lives. One of them was Rabbi Michael Dov Weissmandl, who stands out among other rabbis of the time because of his activism. During the war he tried to save highest possible number of Jews, even at the price of having to negotiate with the Nazis and bribe them. This native of the Hungarian city of Debrecen spent much of his life in the cities of Trnava, Nitra and Bratislava, which today are Slovakian towns. His family belonged to a non-­Hasidic stream of Orthodox Judaism, the so-­called Oberlandish Jews.2 In Trnava, he married the daughter of his teacher Rabbi Samuel David Ungár (1886–1945), the last of the original deans of the Yeshiva of Nitra.3

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The young, educated Weissmandl became an expert on ancient manuscripts, and in his research activities he travelled a lot, visiting various libraries. On his research trips he also visited the University of Oxford (Bok and Šmok, 1994–1999, 1999); while in England he also built up good contacts (among them, the Archbishop of Canterbury), who later helped him in his rescue efforts. After the Anschluss of Austria, Weissmandl managed to help 60 rabbis whom the Nazis expelled from Austria – while Czechoslovakia was not willing to accept them, with the help of his contacts in England, Weissmandl managed to obtain British visas for them (Brackman, 2011).

The Second World War During the Second World War, Weissmandl intensified his activities, though only to the extent that this was possible in the conditions of the fascist Slovak state. During the war he was very active in the towns of Nitra and Bratislava, and his activities there continued until 1944, when he had to board a transport for Jews to a concentration camp. Also, from 1942 Rabbi Weissmandl, together with the Zionist Gisi Fleischmann, headed the secret ‘Working Group’ (Yad Vashem, n.d.).4 This was a very special alliance, as it involved an ultra-­Orthodox rabbi cooperating with women, leftist intellectuals and Zionists. During the war the Working Group tried to save the greatest possible number of Jews. However, the methods it used were considered ‘immoral’ by many people both during and after the war – for example, they bribed Slovak state officials or the Nazis themselves. After the war, Weissmandl claimed that if there was a greater willingness on the part of foreign Zionists to find enough money for a sufficiently large bribe at the right time, the transports to the concentration camps would have been stopped in 1942. He put his hope in the so-­called ‘Europa Plan’, through which the Jewish deportations would be halted after the paying of huge bribes to the Nazis, including SS officers (see Kranzler, 2000: 52; Bok and Šmok, 1994–1999, 1999). Weissmandl later accused the Zionists of having a policy in which they would not contribute to the rescue of the Jews if the rescued Jews would not later go to Palestine.5 During the war Weissmandl also directed his efforts at politicians in Allied countries and Zionist officials and tried to motivate them to take a greater interest in the fate of Eastern European Jews. Through Switzerland he sent numerous warning letters, such as those to the British Prime Minister Churchill, the US President Roosevelt, the Zionist leaders in Palestine and Pope Pius XII, which also had the aim of strengthening the leaders’ interest in the fate of the Jews. But he did not receive any relevant responses. He also failed in his calls for the bombing of railways leading to Auschwitz (see Landau, 1993: 141; Bok and Šmok, 1994–1999, 1999). On 15 May 1944 Rabbi Weissmandl sent the Zionist leadership in Palestine a letter in which he, inter alia, stated the following: And you, our Jewish brothers in all the free countries; and you, leaders of nations: How could you be silent in the face of this great murder? In it,

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162   The righteous man who bribed the Devil about 600,000 Jews have already been put to death, and every day now, tens of thousands are being murdered. With their devastated hearts those murdered Jews cry to you: ‘You are cruel murderers yourselves, because of your cruel silence. You have the means in your hands to avert and to stop these happenings at this very moment. For the sake of the blood of millions and the tears of hundreds of thousands, we ask you, we beg you, we demand, that you should act right now!’6 In Slovakia, Rabbi Weissmandl also came into contact with Jews who escaped from Auschwitz and gave him their horrifying testimonies of what they had endured. Weissmandl then attempted to spread information about their experiences to Switzerland, Turkey and Palestine, so that it would reach the people of the free world. However, at that time, only a few believed that such atrocities really happened (Kranzler, 2000: 70). At the end of the war the Bratislava ‘Working Group’ cooperated with the Zionist Rudolf Kastner (1906–1957), who, during the war, negotiated the fate of the Jews with, among others, the ‘architect of the Holocaust’, SS Obersturmbann­ führer Adolf Eichmann.7 One of the results of his work was the so-­called Kastner train (see chapter on Rabbi Teitelbaum). Kastner survived the war, and after the creation of Israel he became a state official there. Eventually, however, a fabricated trial was brought against him; in it, he was, inter alia, found guilty of allegedly ‘selling his soul to the devil’ during his wartime activities. (Blumenthal, 2009; see also Bok and Šmok, 1994–1999, 1999). He was later cleared of the charges by the Israeli Supreme Court, but soon afterwards, he was assassinated by Zeev Eckstein,8 a former member of the banned radical Zionist group Lehi. Until this very day, many people in Israel still have not satisfactorily come to terms with Kastner’s war activities, and his case still arouses emotions. During the war, Kastner received instructions from the ‘Working Group’ and Rabbi Weissmandl (Kanawada, 2010: 218). Given the fact that Weissmandl had a similar rescue policy to that of Kastner, the view of him in today’s Israel is also ambivalent. An evaluation of the effectiveness of the ‘Working Group’ is beyond the scope of this book. But we should add here that historians of the Holocaust still diverge in their assessments of it. But in any case, during the war the activities of the ‘Working Group’ were quite unique acts which led to the saving of many lives. Weissmandl was eventually almost killed during the Holocaust, as, in 1944 (after the German occupation of Slovakia), he and his family were forced to join the deportation to Auschwitz. During the train ride, the rabbi managed to open a door of the carriage in which he rode with the help of a hacksaw hidden in a loaf of bread and jump out while the train was in motion. He broke his leg during the jump, but he was able to seek help, not reveal himself and hide in a secret location in Bratislava. Later, due to Kastner’s activities he managed to have a lorry transport him to the safety of neutral Switzerland (Yad Vashem, n.d.).

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The post-­war period in the United States and biblical codes After the war Weissmandl managed to restore the yeshiva of Nitra with some surviving Jews (including his brother-­in-law, Sholom Moshe Ungár) directly in Czechoslovakia. But soon afterwards, he decided that he wanted to move the yeshiva to Palestine (which was then still under British administration), but his application was rejected and he eventually moved the yeshiva to the United States. Initially it was restored in Somerville, New Jersey, but later it was moved to Mount Kisco, New York. In this version, Rabbi Weissmandl conceived the yeshiva as a self-­sufficient farm (the ‘Yeshiva Farm Settlement’). In the United States Rabbi Weissmandl also re-­established his family, as his entire previous family had died in the Holocaust. He married Leah Teitelbaum (1924–2009) from the famous Teitelbaum rabbinical family, with whom he had other children. He also came under the influence of the teachings of Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum (see the chapter about him), and this caused his view of Zionism to become even more critical than before (Hamodia, 2009). It is known about Rabbi Weissmandl that he dealt with the so-­called ‘Bible Codes’. The rabbi was familiar with the Kabbalah. Based on the kabbalistic views, the Torah (the Five Books of Moses) is the text that was given to the Jews by Moses after he received it from God himself. According to kabbalists, the Torah preceded even the very creation of the world, and God even consulted the Torah before creating the world (Midrash Rabba, Bereshit 1: 1). According to this teaching the Torah text is therefore the basis for all of creation and, as such, covertly includes the essence of all existence in itself. The kabbalists developed many procedures for how to search the hidden levels of the Torah and extract ‘the hidden knowledge’ of the Torah text (Scholem, 1999: 41–42). Rabbi Weissmandl was very interested in this Torah research and tried to develop it even more. But he did not consider these methods to be more significant than the usual study of the Torah, the Talmud and halachic writings. Rather, he saw in them a confirmation of the sacred character of the Torah as the revealed text (Weissmandl, 1958: 48, 53). In that aspect he differs from the current, often dubious attempts to derive by similar techniques various sensational conclusions and ‘prophecies’ of biblical texts. For a clearer understanding of this, one can look at the following quotation from Rabbi Weissmandl’s book Torat Chemed: ‘The Holy One, blessed be He, the Torah and Israel9 are one.’ There is nothing to which the Torah would not refer. Our teacher, of blessed memory, said: There are wondrous signs at the beginning of the Torah, in its midst and at the end of it. Which ones are at the beginning? The name of God has the numerical value 26.10 [The word] Israel has the numerical value 541 in gematria. That makes 567 (= 26 + 541). When you go back 567 letters from the letter tav of the word Bereshit (‘In the beginning’), which is the first word in the holy Torah, you will reach the letter vav. From this letter (vav), go back a further 567 letters and you

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164   The righteous man who bribed the Devil will reach the letter resh. From this letter (resh) go back a further 567 letters and you will reach the letter he. Behold, the word Torah.11 (Weissmandl, 1958: 48) Rabbi Weissmandl similarly derived the names of biblical characters from the text of the Torah. But for him, what was always important was the meaning of the text. In his view, the Torah is in no way understood as an encrypted text to be deciphered. The Torah, its study and the observance of its commandments are, for him, the focal point of all his other efforts (Weissmandl, 1958: 53, 137). Due to the loss of his entire family during the war and his despair at the outcome of much of his efforts, he suffered from severe depression. It also worsened his health and his heart problems. The rabbi eventually died in the United States at the relatively early age of 54.

Rabbi Weissmandl’s written works •

•

Torat Chemed (‘The Teachings of Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl’, 1958) – the collected writings of Rabbi Weissmandl, his letters to his pupils and friends and his halachic interpretations. Part of the book deals with the so-­ called ‘Bible code’. Min Ha-­Meitzar (‘Out of My Distress’, 1960) – an account of the wartime experiences of Rabbi Weissmandl, which also includes his accusations of inaction during the Second World War directed at the Zionist representatives. The book title comes from Psalm 118: 5: ‘Out of my distress [min ha-­ metzar] I called on the Lord.’

Notes   1 The positions of a number of Eastern European Orthodox authorities were sometimes criticized by other Orthodox rabbis, such as the rabbi from Yisachar, Shlomo Teichtal (1885–1945).   2 The Oberlandish (Yiddish: ‘from Upper Land/Hungary’) Jews were Hungarian Jews who differed in some respects from the other Hungarian Haredim (‘Unterlandish Jews’, Yiddish: ‘from Lower Land/Hungary’). But this diversity in the Haredi world almost disappeared after the Second World War.   3 Rabbi Ungár was originally the Chief Rabbi in Trnava, he subsequently took over Nitra after Rabbi Katz left the position of Chief Rabbi there, and finally he became the Chief Rabbi of Nitra and later the Chief Rabbi of Slovakia. Weissmandl followed him as a faithful disciple from Trnava to Nitra, but unlike Ungár he later actively worked in Bratislava.   4 The fate of the ‘Working Group’ and the personality of Rabbi Weissmandl were depicted in a documentary film, Among Blind Fools (VERAfilm, 1994–1999), by the Czech filmmakers Martin Šmok and Petr Bok. Also, the Israeli-­Slovak filmmaker, Natasha Dudinski, made the documentary Gisi (2014), about the fate of Gisi Fleischmann.   5 During the war, however, Weissmandl allegedly took into account why the religious Jews had a problem with going to Palestine with the Zionists, and thus he focused instead mainly on rescuing Jews in the territory of neutral Switzerland. Weissmandl,

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however, unlike his pupils, accused only specific members of the Zionist movement of refusing to help European Jews, but not the ‘Zionists’ as a whole. His harshest criticism of the Zionists’ approaches to the European Jews was aimed at the influential American Zionist and Reform Rabbi Stephen Wise (1874–1949).   6 A selection from letters written by Rabbi M.B. Weissmandl during the war years, cited at the trial proceedings of Grunwald-­Kastner in Jerusalem (from Shalom Rosenfeld’s Criminal File No. 724/Tel-­Aviv, 1955). See: http://tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/ jo/tpersonality/rweissmandl.html.   7 In this context, various sources often claim that Kastner’s activities during the war were ‘controversial’. But in fact his activities actually contributed to saving many lives. More controversial was the fact that Kastner tried to save some Nazis from execution because of promises that he gave them during the war.   8 The motives of Kastner’s murder are closely examined in the documentary film Killing Kasztner (2008).   9 Here ‘Israel’ means ‘the people of Israel, the Jewish people’, not Israeli citizens. 10 In Hebrew, each letter also, at the same time, represents a number. This means that we can express the numerical value of any Hebrew word. This technique is called gematria. Rabbi Weissmandl used this technique here to seek to confirm the following statement from the book of Zohar: ‘The Holy One, blessed be He, the Torah and Israel are one.’ 11 In Hebrew the word ‘Torah’ is written with the letters tav, vav, resh and he.

References Bauer, Jehuda (2009) Úvahy o holokaustu [Rethinking the Holocaust]. Prague: Academia [In Czech]. Blumenthal, Ralph (2009, 21 October) ‘Once Reviled as Nazi Collaborator, Now a Savior’, New York Times. Online: www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/nyregion/22survivors. html. Bok, Petr; Šmok, Martin (1994–1999) Mezi zaslepenými blázny/Among Blind Fools [documentary film]. VERAfilm. See: www.verafilm.cz/projects-­fools-cz.html. Bok, Petr; Šmok, Martin (1999, 2 December) Projít tajnostmi a lží [To Pass through Secrets and Lies]. Reflex [In Czech]. Brackman, Eli (2011) ‘Rabbi Michael Weissmandl: A Rabbi from Oxford’s Bodleian Library Who Saved Jews from the Holocaust’, Oxford Chabad Society. Online: www. oxfordchabad.org/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/1378317/jewish/A-­R abbi-from­the-Bodleian-­Library-who-­saved-Jews-­from-the-­Holocaust.htm. Fuchs, Abraham (1986) The Unheeded Cry. New York: Mesorah Publications. Hamodia (2009, 23 April) ‘Rebbetzin Leah Weissmandl, a”h’, Hamodia, U.S. Community News. Kanawada, Leo V. (2010) The Innocence of the Just: Hungary and Slovakia. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse. Kranzler, David (2000) The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz: George Mantello, El Salvador, and Switzerland’s Finest Hour. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. Landau, David (1993) Piety and Power: The World of Jewish Fundamentalism. London: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Mac Mathúna, Seán (1999) ‘The Messages the Zionists Ignored: Rabbi Weissmandel’s Plea for Help’. Online: www.fantompowa.net/Flame/weissmandel_lublin.htm. Rothkirchen, Livia; Berenbaum, Michael (2007) ‘Weissmandel, Michael Dov’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 20. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House.

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166   The righteous man who bribed the Devil Scholem, Gershom (1999) Kabala a její symbolika [On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism]. Prague: Volvox Globator [In Czech]. Weissmandl, Chaim (1958) Torat Chemed. Yeshivah Press. Weissmandl, Chaim (1960) Min HaMeitzar. Jerusalem. Yad Vashem (n.d.) ‘Bratislava during the Holocaust: The Working Group’. Online: www. yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/communities/bratislava/working_group_activists.asp.

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The king of rabbinical politics Ovadia Yosef 23 September 1920–7 October 2013 11 Tishri 5681–3 Cheshvan 5774

Whenever parliamentary elections were approaching in Israel, in the streets you could often happen upon posters of a charismatic man in dark glasses, wrapped in an embroidered robe and wearing a hat that resembled a turban. However, he was not a Muslim dignitary from one of the parties of Israeli Arabs, as it may have seemed to an uninformed person. The man on the posters was Ovadia Yosef – probably the most influential rabbi to have ever been active in Israeli politics. The robe in which he most often appeared in public is a traditional ceremonial robe of the Chief Sephardi Rabbi, decorated with oriental embroidery. Just as the garments of ultra‑Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews resemble the ceremonial robes once worn in Eastern Europe, Sephardi Jews from the Arab world, including their highest authorities, sometimes wear clothes that are similar to Arabic apparel. Rabbi Yosef was honoured for his exceptionally deep theological knowledge as well as his significant political influence, which was connected to the fact that he was the spiritual leader of the strongest Israeli religious party, Shas, which will be discussed later in this chapter. Opinions on Rabbi Yosef differ, and it is important to point out that the contradictory perception of his personality is to be attributed mainly to him. For the secular Israelis, Rabbi Yosef is a tougher nut to crack than most of the Haredi rabbis, whom they mostly do not view particularly positively. The rabbi is widely known thanks to his inflammatory statements as well as his promises that the vengeance of Heaven would fall on this or that politician. It is no wonder that the secular press observed his speeches carefully, expecting juicy comments. One of his later controversial statements concerned Hurricane Katrina, which he delivered in September 2005: Rabbi Ovadia claimed that the disastrous impact of the hurricane was God’s punishment for the support by the US president George W. Bush of the evacuation of a bloc of settlements in Gaza (Alush, 2005; Haaretz, 2005). More similar utterances and bitter assaults by him on politicians could be mentioned in this respect. Though not all of his declamations deserve the attention that the Israeli and even the world media devoted to them, it is obvious that Rabbi Ovadia was a complicated personality. It is surprising that a man of such huge knowledge and spiritual potential was able to utter words that could compare with the statements of some radical politicians.

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168   The king of rabbinical politics

Jews from the Arab world The rabbi’s origin alone can be considered interesting to a Westerner: he came from the city of Baghdad, where he was born to his father Yaakov and his mother Georgia (Yaffa). Many people might assume that Iraq is entirely unconnected with a famous Jewish tradition. However, the opposite is true: for long centuries, Basra, Baghdad and other Iraqi towns (and Arab towns in general) were spiritual centres of the Jews scattered around various corners of the Middle East, and were also the places of residence of many famous rabbis. Among the Iraqi rabbis it is especially Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, also known as Ben Ish Chai (1832–1909), who had an impact on Ovadia Yosef. Even the rabbi’s birth name – Abdullah Youssef – probably draws the attention of Western readers. Arabic names that seem to be specifically Muslim names were not always carried solely by Muslims; they were also borne by Arab Christians and Jews. Their mother tongue and, at the same time, their most often used language had for long centuries been Arabic (just as European Jews spoke the Germanic language of Yiddish or the Latin language Ladino). They were by no means less proficient in Hebrew, but they respected it chiefly as the sacred language of their faith. Nevertheless, Abdullah Youssef spent only a short part of his childhood in Iraq, and when he was aged four (in 1924), he moved with his family to the then British Mandate of Palestine, where he later also changed his name to Ovadia Yosef, with Yosef being his new surname. There they settled in the Jerusalem quarter of Beit Yisrael, which was inhabited mostly by devout Jews. His father Yaakov Ovadia ran a grocery shop, from which he earned his family’s living. However, the shop was not profitable enough, and the family lived in very modest conditions. Abdullah thus had to help his father in the shop, even though he was still a young boy; despite this, however, he began to excel in his knowledge of the Torah at the Benei Tziyon School in Jerusalem’s Bucharian neighbourhood. Soon he was recognized as a child prodigy. At the age of ten, he was transferred to Yeshivat Porat Yosef. At this time, he devoted all his spare time to the study of the Torah and religious writings. He also started to be on friendly terms with the head of the yeshiva (rosh yeshiva), Rav Ezra Attiya (1885–1970), who taught him and became his spiritual father. Rav Attiya later entrusted him with the task of providing halachic lessons to Persian immigrants in their synagogue in Jerusalem. During his lectures, Ovadia Yosef went through topics from the books written by the above-­mentioned Ben Ish Chai. The rabbi, nonetheless, diverged from the author’s conclusions in several places, and put forward his own interpretations based on the Shulchan Aruch instead. The fact that a young student dared to publicly oppose an authority like Ben Ish Chai caused outrage among the Iraqi immigrants. However, Ovadia Yosef pressed his point, and his actions were even supported by Rabbi Attiya himself (Saks, 2007: 97; Shapiro, 2006: 9–10). Despite his young age he was proving to have courage and confidence in his halachic conclusions. At 17 years of age Ovadia wrote a short pamphlet which dealt with rather difficult halachic topics. This pamphlet became the

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kernel of his later extensive ten-­volume work Yabia Omer (Azoulay, 2013: 58). After that, he also began to put increasingly more effort into re-­establishing the legal Jewish code, Shulchan Aruch, as a final authority for Sephardic Jews in Israel.

From Egypt to Israel When Ovadia Yosef was aged 20, he received his ordination (smicha) from Rabbi Ben-­Zion Meir Hai Uziel (1880–1953). Around 1944, at the age of 24, he married Margalit Phatal (1944–1994), who was a great source of support for him throughout his life. In 1947, the couple moved to Cairo, where Rabbi Ovadia served as a Deputy Chief Rabbi and the head of the rabbinical court. He also taught at the Ahava V’Achva yeshiva there (Pomerantz, 2007). Later he assumed the position of Chief Rabbi of Cairo. During this period, Rabbi Ovadia displayed great courage, since living in Egypt in 1948 (the time of the formation of Israel, which was attacked by the Egyptian army shortly after its formation) as a Jew and also as a spiritual authority was definitely not easy. Egyptian authorities demanded loyalty from Egyptian Jews, and the authorities also demanded that they criticize Israel’s moves. Nevertheless, Rabbi Ovadia refused to do this. He personally ordered the Jews to stop giving contributions to charities in cases where the money would be used to buy equipment for the Egyptian army, and insisted on his right to preach in Hebrew. But eventually, amid deepening Egyptian–Israeli hostility, Rabbi Yosef finally left Egypt in 1950 and headed for Israel (Reuters, 2013).1 In Israel, he became a member of the rabbinical court in the city of Petah Tikva, and later, in 1958–1965, he held the same position in Jerusalem district religious court. Then he was appointed a member of the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Appeals in Jerusalem, and in 1968, he was appointed the Chief Sephardi Rabbi of Tel Aviv-­Jaffa (Azoulay, 2013: 58). In 1970, he was awarded the Israeli Prize for literature dealing with the Torah. Two years later (more precisely, on 16 October 1972), Rabbi Ovadia reached one of the highest state positions that an Israeli rabbi can attain: he was elected the Chief Sephardi Rabbi of Israel (Rishon Le-­Zion). Because of his tense relations with the previous Chief Sephardi Rabbi, Yitzchak Nissim (1896–1981), his candidacy came in for a lot of criticism (Shapiro, 2006: 4). Rabbi Yosef thus continued to prove himself to be a very strong but rather confrontational personality. In the same year as Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was elected the Chief Sephardi Rabbi, the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel was also elected. The new Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi was Rabbi Shlomo Goren (see the chapter about him). Rabbi Ovadia was, needless to say, not on good terms with him either (Saks, 2007). In fact, since Shlomo Goren led the Chief Rabbinate Council, Rabbi Ovadia initially did not even attend its meetings. Meanwhile, many ultra‑Orthodox Jews who never acknowledged the authority of the Chief Rabbinate (e.g. the Eda Haredit organization) had started to despise Rabbi Yosef. In 1983, he ceded the post of the Chief Sephardi Rabbi to the newly elected Chief Sephardi Rabbi

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170   The king of rabbinical politics Mordechai Eliyahu (see the chapter about him). In spite of this, he refused to stop wearing the traditional clothes of the Chief Rabbi, wearing them in public until his death.

The spiritual authority of the Shas party In 1984, Rabbi Ovadia became one of the main spiritual leaders of the Israeli political party Shas, whose name is an abbreviation of Shomrei Sfarad, which can be translated as ‘Sephardi Guardians [of the Torah]’. The Shas party is an interesting phenomenon since it originated as a party with a notable intra‑ethnic (Sephardi) accent, combining elements of both a religious and a protest party. For many Israeli Sephardis who, until then, voted for secular parties such as Likud, Shas suddenly became an attractive political alternative. The key role in its formation was played by the Ashkenazi Rabbi Shach (see the chapter about him), who was assisted by Rav Ovadia Yosef at the time (Rabkin, 2006: 39). At the time, Yosef still held the post of the Chief Sephardi Rabbi, but his term was, nevertheless, expiring, and Agudat Yisrael did not want to support him in another one. The formation of Shas is thus a consequence of rabbinical antipathies and tensions between faithful Jews. Rabbi Shach was already an important authority in the Agudat Yisrael party (which predominantly united Hasids) before the formation of Shas, but the ‘Litvak’ Shach was encountering bigger and bigger problems with the Hasidic rabbinical authorities in the party. These were brought to a head when Rabbi Schneersohn, the leader of the Lubavitcher Hasids, supported Agudat Yisrael in the late 1980s. Rabbi Shach thus left Agudat Yisrael before the 1984 elections and started to work on creating new political platforms (Joffe, 2001). One of them was Shas, which was focused on Sephardi Jews, and another was the Degel ha-­Torah party, which was focused on non-­Hasidic Haredim. Many Sephardim welcomed the creation of the new Sephardi religious party because Agudat Yisrael rabbis refused to place enough Sephardi candidates on the 1984 Agudat list (Arian, 1997: 131). At the beginning, Rabbi Shach assumed the role of the religious authority of the Shas party. Rabbi Yosef and several other Sephardi rabbis were ‘merely’ in the second place in terms of rank. However, the role of Ovadia Yosef in the party gradually rose and overshadowed other rabbis’ influence. Shas showed its political power as early as 1988. When Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s rightist government was defeated at that time, it appeared that a left‑wing government headed by Shimon Peres would be formed and that Agudat Yisrael and Shas would support it. However, the parties surprisingly changed their decisions and supported a right‑wing government instead (Beilin, 1992: 237). Shas later proved to be an enormously successful political formation. By combining Sephardi religiousness, an emphasis on social aspects (Shas developed a sophisticated social system for its voters) and populism, it became one of the most important players in Israeli politics. Already in the party’s first elections, in 1984, Shas managed to gain four parliamentary seats (in the 120-member

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Knesset), and its electoral gains have kept growing since then. In the 1990s, when it became the largest Israeli religious party, it started to be invited regularly to join government coalitions, and gained control of some important ministries (e.g. the Ministry of the Interior). Shas achieved its greatest electoral triumph in the elections of 1999, when it gained the support of no less than 13 per cent of Israeli voters (approximately 430,000 votes), which was only 1 per cent less than Likud won, and only 7 per cent less than the coalition, with the Labour Party at its head, received. Shas also reached a level of support that was almost equal to those of the two traditionally strongest Israeli political parties in these elections. After 2000, its popularity slightly decreased, but it still maintained its position as the third or fourth strongest Israeli party, and it was thus very hard to form a government without it (see Lehmann and Siebzehner, 2006). Rabbi Yosef incontestably had a role in the success of the Shas party. However, his political activity not only increased his influence and prestige, but also contributed to the fact that he was perceived as a very politicized religious authority. The fact that Shas started to be associated with the biggest corruption scandals in Israel (predominantly due to the scandal in which the Minister of the Interior from the Shas party, Aryeh Deri, was involved) also decreased his credibility in many people’s eyes. Until the death of Rabbi Yosef in 2013, Shas had a dual leadership – a political and a spiritual (theocratic) leadership. The political leadership is exercised by the party’s chairman and its executive board. But after the death of Yosef there was a clash between the two top Shas politicians – Aryeh Deri and Eli Yishai – when the latter split from the party and formed a new one. The elections in 2015 showed that in the future, the Shas party under Deri’s leadership and without the charismatic Rabbi Yosef will probably be much more modest.2 As for the party’s spiritual leadership, during Yosef ’s life the spiritual leadership of Shas was exercised by the so‑called Council of Torah Sages (Moetzet Chachamei Ha-­Torah) – just as in Ashkenazi parties. Until quite recently, its head was Yosef, who was also regarded as the spiritual leader of the party and simultaneously as its wholly unshakable authority. Before Rabbi Yosef, this role was played by the late Rabbi Shach. Unlike the Ashkenazi Council of Torah Sages of Agudat Yisrael, however, where big rabbinical disputations take place, the Council of Torah Sages of Shas was considerably monolithic and basically served as a cover for Rabbi Yosef ’s unshakable authority (Elazar and Mollov, 2001: 73).

A contradictory rabbi? Within the remit of both his religious and his political activities, Rabbi Yosef commented on many issues that motivated Israeli politics, such as the Israeli– Palestinian conflict, the peace process, the dispute between secular and religious Israelis or the country’s home affairs. Israeli and foreign journalists sometimes gave a disproportionately high amount of coverage to these statements. However, despite lots of uncertainties and a number of disputes concerning the rabbi’s

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172   The king of rabbinical politics statements, it should be said that journalists often pass judgement on issues despite lacking deep knowledge of them (in this case, knowledge of the deeper context of the rabbi’s thinking), and their opinions can sometimes be considered to be biased (one reason for this is that they often come from Israel’s secular environment, where many things connected with religion and/or religious authorities are a priori viewed with suspicion) (Zohar, 2004). Now let us look at some of the rabbi’s statements that drew a great deal of attention in Israel. •

Within Yosef ’s political engagement, his attitudes to the Palestinians and Arabs generally raised questions. In the 1990s, at the time of the peace process started by the treaties in Oslo, he pragmatically sided with the Israelis who supported peace. His opinion that it was allowed to give up the Land of Israel if it would mean that human lives would be saved and true peace maintained comes from this period.3 Rabbi Yosef literally said, We cannot risk war: our sins can cause our failure . . . the [Palestinian] territories should be returned so that war could be avoided . . . until God returns them to us again with great additions, as is written in Deuteronomy 11:24: Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours. (Yosef, 1990) Also, in 1998, Rabbi Yosef attended celebrations on the occasion of the end of Ramadan and the Muslim festival of Eid al‑Fitr in several Israeli Arab villages. However, in his speeches after 2000 (when Israeli–Palestinian violence broke out again), he started to criticize Arabs more often, sometimes even in their mother tongue, labelling them as enemies of Israel. His announcement of 2001 provoked controversy in Israel as to whether it expressed the rabbi’s attitude to the Arabs as a whole, or just his stance on Arab terrorists. Rabbi Yosef had claimed that It is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable . . . The Lord shall return the Arabs’ deeds on their own heads, waste their seed and exterminate them, devastate them and vanish them from this world. (BBC News, 2001)

•

The rabbi’s attitudes to Arabs were not in the least improved by the fact that the radical left‑wing People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine made an attempt on his life. Ovadia Yosef ’s attitude towards Zionism occasionally caused confusion. By accepting a number of important posts he effectively declared his loyalty to Israel. Moreover, he was a good friend of the Israeli president Shimon Peres. On the other hand, he repeatedly criticized Zionism. In addition, his disregard for the Israeli anthem, which inspired other rabbis from Shas, is also well known (Haaretz, 2015).

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•

•

Yosef ’s attitude to the Holocaust resembles, at least according to some of his utterances, the opinions of anti‑Zionist rabbis who speak about the Holocaust as God’s punishment for Zionism. Ovadia Yosef stated that ‘The six million Holocaust victims were reincarnations of the souls of sinners, people who transgressed and did all sorts of things which should not be done. They had been reincarnated in order to atone’ (Berman, 2013). According to Yosef ’s view, the Holocaust was principally a punishment for the sins of previous incarnations of the victims and also for the sin of the golden calf. In line with Israeli prime minister Sharon’s plan to evacuate Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, he claimed in 2004 that: Thirty years ago I said I am in favour of land for peace, made with someone you can trust, so it can save lives. But now, when there is war, when there is no partner, and when there is no one to talk to, there is no reason to abandon territory. (Lehmann and Siebzehner, 2006: 131)

•

• •

In 2005 he was even tougher, and he said about Sharon, in connection with the evacuation: ‘May God punish him . . . he is the tormenter of the Israeli nation . . . he will sleep and never wake up.’ Not long afterwards, Sharon fell into a coma from which he never recovered (BBC News, 2005). Although Rabbi Yosef often talked about mutual love and understanding among Jews, he said about the secular minister Shulamit Aloni: ‘There would be a great celebration and banquet when this wicked woman dies.’ He also imposed an interdict on Yossi Sarid, the Meretz party leader (Sharkansky, 1996: 111). Ovadia condemned the yearly pilgrimages of Braslav Hasids to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Braslav in Uman (Ben Chayim, 2007). Even after the emergence of the suspicion that the Ethiopian immigrants in Israel had not converted to Judaism properly, Rabbi Yosef found them to be rightful halachic Jews. However, his view on this was questioned by other major halachic authorities, such as Rabbis Elyashiv, Feinstein and Auerbach (Shalom, 2013).

The teachings of Rabbi Yosef Rabbi Yosef was respected as an extraordinary scholar, a great halachic authority and the highest arbiter in halachic issues (posek ha-­dor) of Sephardi Jews. His lifelong efforts can generally be summarized in two central points that are strongly interconnected: •

The effort to create a united halachic code based on the codification of the Shulchan Aruch4 by Rabbi Yosef Karo (1488–1575) and the attempt at unifying the Sephardi Halacha. His efforts here spring from, among other things, the unfortunate experiences of newly arrived immigrants from

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174   The king of rabbinical politics

•

various corners of the world. All of them brought with them their local customs and traditions, which were often out of accord with those followed by other immigrants. Rabbi Ovadia therefore stipulated that the immigrants had to abandon their customs and return to the unified rite given by the code of the Shulchan Aruch. This process was helped by the widely used siddur that Rabbi Ovadia compiled according to the tradition based on the above‑mentioned code of the Shulchan Aruch (Saks, 2007: 97). It could generally be said that here the rabbi’s efforts met with huge success. He managed to do what seemed impossible to many: he got the newly arrived Sephardi communities to gradually relinquish their customs that were in conflict with the Shulchan Aruch. Nevertheless, Moroccan Jews were the exception here – in their case, Rabbi Ovadia’s efforts represented an impulse for maintaining and defending their ancient traditions halachically. A rich literature on this topic started to emerge by virtue of this dispute. However, the disagreement did not prevent the Moroccan Jews from considering Rabbi Ovadia a real gadol ha‑dor (an authority of a generation). One Moroccan rabbi who was able to make use of his authority and take a stand against Rabbi Ovadia was Rabbi Shalom Mesas (1909–2003), the former Chief Rabbi of Morocco and, from 1978 until his death, the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem (Shapiro, 2006: 13). Despite their rivalry, however, both rabbis were able to maintain a mutual respect and a warm friendship. In addition, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu (see the chapter about him), who served as the Chief Sephardi Rabbi after Rabbi Ovadia (i.e. in 1983–1993), also opposed Rabbi Ovadia’s efforts to create a unified Sephardi nosach. Rabbi Eliyahu represented the old school of the Iraqi community and advocated Ben Ish Chai’s interpretation of Halacha. Nevertheless, he could not compare to Rabbi Ovadia in terms of popularity and erudition. The improvement of the position of Sephardi and Oriental Jews in relation to Ashkenazi Jews. After 1948, discrimination against the ‘backward’ Sephardi Jews by the ‘developed’ Ashkenazi Jews often occurred in Israel. Rabbi Yosef tried to improve the Sephardi Jews’ position mainly by contributing to the formation of Shas and creating its social system. This was also one of the reasons why Israeli Sephardis were willing to forgive many of his misdeeds (see Lehmann and Siebzehner, 2006).

Rabbi Ovadia was also famous for his photographic memory. He mastered all important responsa,5 and as soon as a new one appeared, he memorized it. He was well‑versed in the teachings of both Sephardi and Ashkenazi authorities. Despite this, it is important to say that the rabbi’s approach to deciding halachic cases was totally different from the approaches of Ashkenazi or Lithuanian (Litvak) rabbis. Lithuanian yeshivas placed strong emphasis on independent and logical thinking. Within their approach, conclusions could hardly be refused just because they were in conflict with the teachings of another group of scholars. According to the Lithuanian tradition, it was necessary to employ evidence and search for veracious conclusions. If a posek thereby came to a conclusion of

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whose truthfulness he was convinced, then it was completely irrelevant that previous scholars held different opinions. By contrast, Rabbi Ovadia was more of an encyclopaedist – though one of unprecedented erudition. His conclusions did not produce any radically new thoughts (hidushim). He usually summarized the quotations of significant sources in relation to a given topic and reached a conclusion on the topic on their basis. On the other hand, it should be stressed that Rabbi Ovadia’s aim was not to ‘recycle’ what he learnt from his teachers. He rather strove for a kind of cultural renaissance whose goal would be the unification of contemporary Israeli Jews under a homogeneous tradition in accordance with the Shulchan Aruch. The rabbi’s motto – ‘Returning the crown to the ancient tradition’ – corresponds with this aim. However, Ovadia himself occasionally changed his stances in his responsa without making clear what had led him to do so (Shapiro, 2006: 14–15). Rabbi Yosef was inarguably a contradictory rabbi, and it is not possible to characterize him in a simplified fashion or to express an unequivocal condemnation of him. Countless times he showed good will and tolerance,6 only to say things on other occasions that another person may well have been prosecuted for. Rabbi Yosef was a complex personality, and in order to have a fair view of him, it is necessary to learn more about him or try to view him from various perspectives and carefully observe his thinking and actions in different periods of his life. Ovadia Yosef died on 7 October 2013, and his funeral was the biggest in Israeli history. Hundreds of thousands of people took part in it (some sources estimate that the number of participants was almost one million), and some rabbis hold the view that it was probably the greatest Jewish gathering since the times of the Second Temple (Lev, 2013).

The most important works by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef •

•

•

Yabia Omer and Yechaveh Da’at 7 – responsa in which Rabbi Ovadia deals with halachic issues. These works have been published in several shorter volumes since 1954. The whole work comprises ten volumes. In the sixth volume, Rabbi Yosef published the famous decision that the wives of missing soldiers who disappeared during the Yom Kippur War were exempted from the commitment of abandoned women (hatarat aguna in Hebrew), which meant they were allowed to re‑marry. Under the supervision of his father, Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef published his father’s individual halachic decisions, and in these editions they were ordered according to the Shulchan Aruch. The series was released under the name of Yalkut Yosef (‘Yosef ’s Anthology’). Yalkut Yosef was designed for Sephardi and Oriental Jews (nosach Mizrahi) as a detailed guide to the practice of Halacha. At present, it numbers 24 books and two summaries, and is currently being translated into English as well as other languages. Chazon Ovadia (‘Ovadia’s Vision’, 1952) – halachic analyses of Jewish holidays.

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176   The king of rabbinical politics • • • • • •

Halichot Olam (‘The Customs of the World’) – in this work, Rabbi Yosef defends, among other things, his controversial views that went against some halachic conclusions of Rabbi Ben Ish Chai (see above). Maor Yisrael (‘The Light of Israel’) – a commentary on the Mishnah, the Mishneh Torah and Jewish festivals. Livyat Chen (‘The Diadem of Mercy’) – this work deals with halachic instructions regarding the Sabbath. Taharat ha‑Bayit (‘Purity of the Home’) – this work deals with the issues of women’s menstruation (nida) and purifying baths (mikveh). Anaf Etz Avot (‘A Branch of the Fathers’ Tree’) – a commentary on the Pirkei Avot.8 At the request of the descendants of the famous Baghdad Rabbi Yaakov Chayim Sofer (1870–1939), Rabbi Yosef finished his work Kaf ha‑Chayim (specifically the section titled ‘Yoreh De’ah’).

Notes 1 In 1956, shortly after the Suez Crisis (in which Israel fought together with the British and French against Egypt), Egypt expelled a large part of its Jewish population (approximately 50,000 people) and confiscated Jewish property. 2 In the elections to the Knesset (17 March 2015) the Shas party won only seven seats (in the previous elections in 2013 it won 11 seats), which was its lowest total since 1992. 3 The halachic principle of pikuach nefesh – preserving human life since it represents the highest value according to the Torah. 4 Rabbi Ovadia does not consider later departures from the code of the Shulchan Aruch as authoritative as the code itself. Despite this, it is interesting that Rabbi Ovadia diverges from the Shulchan Aruch in a couple of cases too (Shapiro, 2006: 10). 5 Responsa – Sheelot U‑Teshuvot in Hebrew, literally ‘questions and answers’. It is a genre of rabbinical literature that gathers together statements and conclusions of halachic authorities (posek) in regard to the issues of Jewish law. 6 For example, Rabbi Yosef was known for always being at the disposal of anyone who needed to meet him in his house in the Har Nof quarter of Jerusalem. 7 Both names come from Psalm 19: 2: ‘Day unto day uttereth speech [yabia omer], and night unto night sheweth knowledge [yechaveh da’at]’. Moreover, the word ‘yabia’ (yod, beth, yod, ayin) is formed by the initials of Rabbi Ovadia’s whole name: Ovadia Yosef ben Yaakov. 8 Pirkei Avot – Chapters of the Fathers. One of the tractates of the Mishnah.

References Alush, Zvi (2005, 7 July) ‘Rabbi: Hurricane Punishment for Pullout’, Ynetnews. Online: www.ynetnews.comarticles0,7340,L-­3138779,00.html. Arian, Asher (1997) The Second Republic: Politics in Israel. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, Inc. Azoulay, Yehuda (2013) ‘The Life of Hacham Ovadia Yosef zt”l’, Community Magazine, 13(2), 57–72. Azoulay, Yehuda (2014) Maran: The Life & Scholarship of Hacham Ovadia Yosef. Lakewood, NJ: Israel Bookshop.

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BBC News. (2001, 10 April) ‘Rabbi Calls for Annihilation of Arabs’. Online: http://news. bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1270038.stm. BBC News (2005, 9 March) ‘Rabbi Says God Will Punish Sharon’. Online: http://news. bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4333099.stm. Beilin, Yossi (1992) Israel: A Concise Political History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Ben Chayim, Avishai (2007, 20 August) ‘HaRav Ovadia Yossef: Do Not Visit the Grave of Rebbe Nachman in Uman’, Maariv. Berman, Lazar (2013, 9 October) ‘5 of Ovadia Yosef ’s Most Controversial Quotations’, The Times of Israel. Online: www.timesofisrael.com/5-of-­ovadia-yosefs-­most-controversial-­ quotations. Čejka, Marek (2009) Judaismus a politika v Izraeli [Judaism and Politics in Israel]. Brno: Barrister & Principal [In Czech]. Elazar, Daniel Judah; Mollov, M. Benjamin (2001) Israel at the Polls, 1999, Vol. 3. Portland, OR: Psychology Press. Haaretz (2005, 7 September) ‘Shas Rabbi: Hurricane Is Bush’s Punishment for Pullout Support’, Haaretz. Haaretz (2015, 22 February) ‘Shas Spiritual Leader Calls Israeli National Anthem “Stupid” ’, Haaretz. Heilman, Samuel (1999) Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-­Orthodox Jewry. Berkeley: University of California Press. Heimowitz, Yehuda (2014) Maran HaRav Ovadia: The Revered Gaon and Posek Who Restored the Crown of Sephardic Jewry. Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications. Joffe, Lawrence (2001, 6 November) ‘Rabbi Eliezer Schach: Orthodox Jewish Leader Whose Manoeuvrings Kept the Israeli Right in Power’, Guardian. Online: www.theguardian.com/news/2001/nov/06/guardianobituaries.israel. Landau, David (1993) Piety and Power: The World of Jewish Fundamentalism. London: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Lehmann, David; Siebzehner, Batia (2006) Remaking Israeli Judaism: The Challenge of Shas. New York: Oxford University Press. Lev, David (2013, 7 October) ‘Police: Rabbi Yosef ’s Funeral Largest in Israel’s History’, Israel National News. Online:www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/172608#. VMlfWsmHuLl. Medding, Y. Peter (ed.) (2007) Sephardic Jewry and Mizrahi Jews: Vol # XXII. New York: Oxford University Press. Pomerantz, Batsheva (2007, 28 March) ‘The Second Jewish Exodus from Egypt’, Jerusalem Post. Rabkin, Yaakov (2006) A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Reuters (2013, 7 October) ‘500,000 Throng Streets of Jerusalem at Funeral for Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ’. Online: http://forward.com/articles/185180/-throng-­streets-of-­jerusalemat-­funeral-for/#. Saks, Jeffrey (2007) ‘Review Essay: The Making of an Iconoclast’, Tradition, 40(2) [review essay on Binyamin Lau, ‘MiMaran ad Maran’ on Rav Ovadia Yosef]. Shalom, Sharon (2013, 10 August) ‘Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and the Ethiopian Jews’, Jerusalem Post. Shamah, David (2013, 7 October) ‘Ovadia Yosef, Outspoken Spiritual Leader of Israel’s Sephardi Jews, Dies at 93’, The Times of Israel. Online: www.timesofisrael.com/ ovadia-­yosef-outspoken-­spiritual-leader-­of-israels-­sephardi-jews-­dies-at-­93.

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178   The king of rabbinical politics Shapiro, Marc B. (2006) ‘Review Essaay Mi-­Yosef ad Yosef Lo Kam ke-­Yosef ’, Meorot, 6(1), A Publication of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School. Sharkansky, Ira (1996) Rituals of Conflict: Religion, Politics, and Public Policy in Israel. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Yosef, Ovadia. (1990) ‘Ceding Territory of the Land of Israel in Order to Save Lives’, in Crossroads: Halacha and the Modern World, Vol. 3. Jerusalem: Zomet. Zohar, Zion (2004) ‘Oriental Jewry Confronts Modernity: The Case of Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef ’, Modern Judaism, 24(2), 120–149.

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4 A collection of shorter profiles of several rabbis

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180   Arik W. Ascherman

Arik W. Ascherman

The Reform rabbi Arik Ascherman is originally from the United States, but lives in Israel. He studied at Harvard University and received rabbinic ordination at the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion. He currently heads the Rabbis for Human Rights organization and works in the field of dialogue and cooperation between Jews and Arabs. In Israel he lived in the Arab village Tamra, among other places, and also served as a rabbi in the Reform kibbutz Yael. The rabbi’s wife is Einat Ramon, who was the first Israeli-­born woman ever to receive rabbinic ordination. The Aschermans are thus the only rabbinic couple currently living in Israel.

Recommended sources The Bruno Kreisky Forum (2007) ‘Arik W. Ascherman: “A Rabbinic View of Human Rights in Israel” ’. Online: www.kreisky-­forum.org/pdfs/2007/2007_05_10.pdf. McGreal, Chris (2005, 25 March) ‘The Rabbi Who Pricks Israel’s Conscience: Zionism Is Moral, Not Military, Says Activist Convicted of Blocking West Bank Bulldozers’, Guardian. Macintyre, Donald (2010, 1 November) ‘A Rabbi Struggles to Protect his Palestinian Flock’, The Independent.

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Yehuda Leib Ha-­Levi Ashlag   181 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Yehuda Leib Ha-­Levi Ashlag (1886–1954)

Rabbi Ashlag, one of the most significant kabbalists of the twentieth century, was born in Warsaw and received a traditional Jewish education in Hasidic schools. He was a disciple of Shalom Rabinowicz of Kalushin (1851–1901) and also of his son Yehoshua Asher of Porisov. Reportedly Rabbi Ashlag also had a kabbalist teacher who did not want his name to become public. One of Ashlag’s later remarks, however, indicates that his secret teacher was some Warsaw merchant (letter of 3 January 1928, addressed to his brother-­in-law Rabbi Avraham Mendel Braunstein). In 1920 Ashlag moved to Palestine and settled in the Old City in Jerusalem. There he established a yeshiva called Beit Ulpana le-­Rabanim. In the early 1940s he moved to Tel Aviv, where he finished his famous commentary on the Zohar (which is a fundamental kabbalistic work written largely in Aramaic), together with its Hebrew translation titled Ha-­Sulam (‘The Ladder’). Ashlag integrated some socialist and communist ideas into his kabbalistic system. One of Ashlag’s basic ideas was the need to transform the human egoistic ‘will to receive’ to the divine altruistic ‘will to bestow’. He believed that the altruistic state of community which is connected to the latter concept correponds to the coming of the Messiah. He also believed that Kabbalah should not be a set of esoteric teachings, and in this respect he strove to disperse his kabbalistic teachings to the public in the hope that it would help people to reach the altruistic state of consciousness. After his death his work was continued by his sons. Currently, there are several kabbalist groups that follow Ashlag’s legacy. Ashlag wrote numerous books, many of which have attracted attention in kabbalistic circles: Panim Meirot and Panim Masbirot (1927–1930) – a commentary on a crucial part of the Lurianic Kabbalah work, Etz Chaim by Rabbi Chaim Vital; Talmud Eser Sefirot (1955–1967) – an interpretation of the teachings of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria; and Ha-­Sulam (1945–1960) – a commentary on and a translation of the Zohar.

Recommended sources Ancestry of the Ashlag family. Online: www.ashlag.com/shoshelet.asp?idd=4. Brandwein, Yehuda Ẓevi; Huss, Boaz (2007) ‘Ashlag, Yehudah’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 2. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Tzadikim list (n.d.) ‘Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag’. Online: http://rabbishimon.com/tzadikim/ showz.php?p=ashlag.htm.

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182   Ezra Attiya

Ezra Attiya (1887–1970)

Ezra Attiya was one of the greatest scholars of Sephardic Jewry in the twentieth century. He was born in Syria, which was then under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. At the age of 16 he moved with his parents to Jerusalem. As the family had no money, Ezra studied under very poor conditions. At the outbreak of the First World War, Rabbi Attiya and his wife fled to Egypt, where he founded the yeshiva Ahavah Ve’Achvah. Under his leadership, the yeshiva flourished, and it retained its fame even after his return to Jerusalem after the war. There Rabbi Attiya began teaching at Sephardic Porat Yosef Yeshiva, and in 1925 he was elected the dean of the yeshiva (rosh yeshiva). Over the course of the more than 40 years that he headed the yeshiva, he trained thousands of students who now form, together with their students, the intellectual elite of Sephardic Jewry. His most famous students include Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, Rabbi Ben Zion Abba Shaul, Aryeh Deri and Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri.

Recommended sources Reisman, L.M. (1998) ‘Rabbi Ezra Attia: Builder of Torah’, in The Torah Profile: A Treasury of Biographical Sketches. New York: Mesorah Publications. Silber, Dovid (2004) Noble Lives Noble Deeds, Book 3: Captivating Stories and Biographical Profiles of Spiritual Giants. New York: Mesorah Publications.

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Shlomo Zalman Auerbach   183 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (1910–1995)

Shlomo Zalman Auerbach was a significant Jerusalem rabbi of the Ashkenazi Haredi community and a recognized halachic authority (posek). His father, Rabbi Chaim Yehuda Leib Auerbach (1883–1954), was a well-­known scholar and the founder in 1906 of the kabbalistic Yeshiva Shaar ha-­Shamayim, whose name can be translated as ‘Heaven’s Gate’. In turn, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach headed the Yeshiva Kol Torah. In his works he dealt with various practical aspects of the relationship between Orthodox Judaism and modernity, and in this pursuit, he even utilized experiments, for example. He deals with such matters in his works Meorei Eish (‘Firelight’, 1935; the first book to deal with halachic regulations on the use of electricity on the Sabbath) and Ma’adanei Eretz (‘The Spices of the Earth’, 1946; a book on agriculture). He also wrote a large collection of rabbinic responsa and commentaries on the Talmud (Minchas Shlomo – ‘Shlomo’s Sacrifice’). Rabbi Auerbach had close relationships with the rabbis Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, Chazon Ish and Elazar Menachem Shach. His funeral in 1995 was attended by around half a million people.

Recommended sources Auerbach, Shlomo Zalman (2012) Sefer Meorei Eish. PublishYourSefer.com in partnership with HebrewBooks.org. Lichtenstein, Aharon (2014, 20 February) ‘A Gentle Giant: Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zt”l’, Orthodox Union. Online: www.ou.org/jewish_action/02/2014/gentle-­giantrabbi-­shlomo-zalman-­auerbach-ztl. Mashiach, Amir (n.d.) ‘Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach’s Halakhic Philosophy in a Dynamic Era of Socio-­Technological Transformation’. Online: www.academia. edu/1554838/Rabbi_Shlomo_Zalman_Auerbachs_Halakhic_Philosophy_in_a_ Dynamic_Era_of_Socio-­Technological_Transformation.

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184   Meir Bar-­Ilan (Berlin)

Meir Bar-­Ilan (Berlin) (1880–1949)

Rabbi Bar-­Ilan (his original last name was Berlin) was a leading authority in religious Zionism. He was born in the Russian town of Volozhin (now in Belarus). His father was the well-­known Talmudist Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (1816–1893), who was called Netziv, and served as the dean of the renowned Volozhin Yeshiva. Meir also studied at this yeshiva until his father’s death. Then he deepened his studies at the yeshivas in Telz, Brisk (Brest) and Novogrudok (Novardok), where he was taught by his maternal grandfather, Rabbi Yehiel Michel Epstein (1829–1908). After he received rabbinic ordination in 1902, he travelled to Germany, where he became acquainted with more modern streams of Orthodox Judaism. He also began attending the University of Berlin at this time. In 1905, he joined the Zionist Mizrachi movement, and was appointed its secretary in 1911. He then further rose through the ranks of Mizrachi and in 1915 was named the president of the US Mizrachi; accordingly, he moved to the United States. In 1925 he became a member of the Committee of Directors of the Jewish National Fund, which dealt with the financing and restoration of the Jewish homeland in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine. In 1926, Rabbi Bar-­Ilan settled in Jerusalem, where he served as a president of the World Mizrachi Center and as a representative of the organization in Zionist and settling institutions, including the secret defence committee. In the years 1929–1931 he was a member of the Zionist Executive Committee. In 1937 he was a leading opponent of the Peel Plan for the partition of Palestine, and in 1939, he similarly opposed the British government’s White Paper which greatly restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine on the eve of the Second World War. Bar-­Ilan subsequently advocated civil disobedience and Jewish non-­cooperation with the British administration. After the establishment of the State of Israel, he founded a committee of scholars whose task was to examine the legal issues of the new state in the light of Jewish law. He was also the initiator of a religious-­ political formation called the National Front, which was a group of religious parties which constituted a single religious-­political platform in the first election to the Knesset. Rabbi Bar-­Ilan was also the editor of the Zionist newspapers Ha-­ Ivri (‘The Hebrew’, 1910–1921) and Ha-­Tzofe (‘The Visionary’, 1938–1949). In 1947 he initiated and organized the publication of the Encyclopedia of the Talmud. He also founded an institution for the release of a new complete edition

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Meir Bar-­Ilan (Berlin)   185 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

of the Talmud. After his death in 1949, the following year, the US Mizrachi opened a religious university in Ramat Gan (near Tel Aviv), which was named in his honour.

A selection of his works Kitvei Rabbi Meir Bar-­Ilan (‘Writings of Rabbi Meir Bar-­Ilan’, 1950) – his collected works. Mi-­Volozhin ad Yerushalaim (‘From Volozhin to Jerusalem’, 1939/1940) – Bar-­ Ilan’s memoirs (originally published in Yiddish). Raban shel Yisrael (‘Rabbi of Yisrael’, 1943) – a book about Bar-­Ilan’s father, Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin.

Recommended sources Bar-­Ilan University (n.d.) ‘Rabbi Meir Bar-­Ilan’. Online: www1.biu.ac.il/indexE.php?id= 13682&pt=1&pid=35&level=3&cPath=35,13682. Jewish Action Magazine (2014, 8 September) ‘Rabbi Meir Bar-­Ilan: Forgotten Pioneer of Jewish Activism’, Orthodox Union. Online: www.ou.org/jewish_action/09/2014/rabbi-­ meir-bar-­ilan-forgotten-­pioneer-jewish-­activism. Jewish Agency for Israel (2013, 2 October) ‘Meir Bar-­Ilan (1880–1949)’. Online: http:// jafi.org/JewishAgency/English/Jewish+Education/Compelling+Content/Eye+on+ Israel/Gallery+of+People+%28Biographies%29/Bar-­Ilan+Meir.htm.

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186   Yehuda Berg

Yehuda Berg

Berg is a very popular American rabbi who became famous especially due to his spreading of a highly superficial and Americanized (mis)interpretation of Kabbalah among pop-­culture celebrities such as Madonna and Britney Spears. His father, Rabbi Philip Berg, was a student and friend of Rabbi Yehuda Zvi Brandwein, who was a leading disciple of the famous kabbalist Rabbi Ashlag. Philip Berg founded an institute called the ‘the Kabbalah Center’, which is now headed by his sons Yehuda and Michael Berg. The institute uses the popularity of some of its celebrity followers in its self-­promotion. Under the guise of handing out ‘secret knowledge’ and ‘the key to a happy life’, in an unfortunate example of trading on gullibility the centre collects a lot of money from its followers. The Kabbalah Center uses all sorts of modern media to spread its teachings throughout the world.

Recommended sources Berg, Yehuda (2011) The Power of Kabbalah: Thirteen Principles to Overcome Challenges and Achieve Fulfillment. Kabbalah Publishing. The Kabbalah Center. Online: http://kabbalah.com. Lappin, Elena (2004, 11 December) ‘The Thin Red Line’, Guardian. Online: www.theguardian.com/world/2004/dec/11/religion.uk. Lewis, James R. (2004) Controversial New Religions. New York: Oxford University Press. Merkin, Daphne (2008, 13 April) ‘In Search of the Skeptical, Hopeful, Mystical Jew That Could Be Me’, New York Times. Online: www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/magazine/ 13kabbalah-t.html?_r=0.

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Elmer Berger   187 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Elmer Berger (1908–1996)

An American rabbi who is indeed a representative of the classical tradition of Reform Judaism, but Elmer Berger is rather atypical in his rejection of Zionism, which is especially characteristic for Haredi streams of Judaism. In 1942 he wrote the essay Why I Am a Non-­Zionist, which determined the subsequent development of his thought. In 1945 he published another well-­known book, The Jewish Dilemma: The Case against Zionist Nationalism, in which he states that Zionism is actually succumbing to the racial prejudices against Jews and advocates Jewish assimilationism as the main way of dealing with Jewish problems in the modern world. He later became vice-­president of the American Council for Judaism, which defined itself against Zionism from the perspective of Reform Judaism. For his anti-­Zionist views he often came into conflict with pro-­Zionist American Jews, especially after the Six-­Day War in 1967. In 1969, Berger founded an organization called American Jewish Alternatives to Zionism.

Recommended sources Berger, Elmer (2005) The Jewish Dilemma. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing. Pace, Eric (1996, 9 October) ‘Elmer Berger, 88, A Foe of Zionism as Well as Israel’, International New York Times. Online: www.nytimes.com/1996/10/09/world/elmer-­ berger-88-a-­foe-of-­zionism-as-­well-as-­israel.html. Ross, Jack (2011) Rabbi Outcast: Elmer Berger and American Jewish Anti-­Zionism. Washington, DC: Potomac Books.

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188   Joseph Samuel Bloch

Joseph Samuel Bloch (1850–1923)

Bloch, a native of Dukla in Galicia (now in Poland), was a prominent Austro-­ Hungarian rabbi. He acquired an Orthodox education after graduating from yeshiva. He was a student of the rabbi and posek Joseph Saul Nathanson (1808–1875), among others. He studied in Lemberg (present-­day Lviv, in Ukraine), Magdeburg and Liegnitz (Legnica, in Poland), and finally received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Zurich. After his rabbinic ordination, he also served as a rabbi in Brüx (today’s Czech town of Cheb). His rabbinical career ended in the district of Florisdorf in Vienna. He was a harsh critic of Austrian anti-­Semitism and a fighter for the rights of Jews. He considered himself as an Austrian patriot, and as such, he was an opponent of Zionism because he emphasized the universal character of Judaism.

Recommended sources Berkley, George E. (1988) Vienna and Its Jews: The Tragedy of Success, 1880s–1980s. Lanham, MD: Madison Books. Encyclopaedia Britannica (n.d.) ‘Joseph Samuel Bloch. Austrian rabbi, politician, and journalist’. Online: www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/69507/Joseph-­Samuel-Bloch. Jewish Encyclopedia (n.d.) ‘Bloch, Josef Samuel’. Online: www.jewishencyclopedia. com/articles/3390-bloch-­josef-samuel.

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Shmuel (Shmuley) Boteach   189 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Shmuel (Shmuley) Boteach (b. 1966)

Boteach is an American Orthodox rabbi who received rabbinic ordination after his completion of the Chabad yeshiva in Los Angeles and the Jerusalem Yeshiva Torath Emeth. His father is from an Iranian-­Jewish background. Rabbi Boteach is known for his self-­promoting media activity, and for his books dealing with love relationships and various social ‘pop-­themes’ – the most famous of these books is Kosher Sex (1999). He also wrote other publications, such as Kosher-­ Sutra (2009), Kosher Adultery: Seduce and Sin with Your Spouse (2002), Ten Conversations You Need to Have With Your Children (2006), The Broken American Male: And How to Fix Him (2008) and Kosher Jesus (2012). Some of those books attract harsh opposition and criticism from the Jewish community, including Chabad, to which he belongs. Boteach also became friends with several celebrities, such as Michael Jackson. He unsuccessfully ran as a Republican candidate in the Congressional elections in 2012. Boteach is a staunch supporter of Israel, including its controversial settler policies, and a critic of US foreign policies towards Israel, especially those under Barack Obama.

Recommended sources Isquith, Elias (2015, 23 January) ‘  “No, it doesn’t work like that!”: Inside the Mind of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’. Online: www.salon.com/2015/01/23/no_it_doesnt_work_ like_that_inside_the_mind_of_rabbi_shmuley_boteach. Jacobs, Jill (2015, 4 March) ‘Shmuley Boteach Isn’t “America’s Rabbi”: Here Are Some of Judaism’s True Moral Leaders’, Washington Post. Online: www.washingtonpost. com/posteverything/wp/2015/03/04/shmuley-­boteach-isnt-­americas-rabbi. Shmuley Boteach Pages: www.shmuley.com. Sommer, Allison Kaplan (2014, 18 May) ‘Could Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Please Get out of Our Beds Already? Jewish Sex-­pert’s New Book “Kosher Lust: Love Is Not the Answer” Is Exploding in His Face With Charges Ranging from Closeted Misogyny to Promoting Rape Culture’, Haaretz.

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190   Moshe Feinstein

Moshe Feinstein Also called ‘Rav Moshe’, ‘Reb Moshe’ (1895–1986)

Feinstein was a major halachic authority (posek) and generational authority (gadol ha-­dor) in the Orthodox Litvak (non-­Hasidic) Jewish world of the twentieth century. He was born in the village of Uzda in the Russian Empire (present-­ day Belarus). He graduated from yeshivas in Slutsk, Shklov and Mstislaw and then served as rabbi in Lyuban (near Minsk). He spent the greater part of his life in the United States, where he managed to emigrate in 1937. He settled in New York, where he became dean of Yeshiva Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim. He published many theological works. Two very famous works by him are his collection of halachic decisions and response, Igros Moshe (‘Letters of Moshe’), and his Talmudic commentary, Dibros Moshe (‘Words of Moshe’). Moshe Feinstein died in New York, but his body was transported to Jerusalem, where his funeral at the cemetery Har HaMenuchot was attended by hundreds of thousands of people.

Recommended sources Hevrat Pinto (n.d.) ‘Rabbi Moshe Feinstein’. Online: www.hevratpinto.org/tzadikim_ eng/174_rabbi_moshe_feinstein.html. Orthodox Union (n.d.) ‘Great Leaders of Our People: Rav Moshe Feinstein’. Online: www.ou.org/judaism-­101/bios/leaders-­in-the-­diaspora/rav-­moshe-feinstein.

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Yihyah Kafih (Kafach, Kapach, Qafih)   191 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Yihyah Kafih (Kafach, Kapach, Qafih) (1853–1932)

Yosef Kafih (1917–2000)

Yihyah and Yosef Kafih were the most significant religious authorities of the Jewish community in Yemen and the Yemeni Jews in Israel (Taymanim). Yihyah was the chief rabbi of the Yemenite Jewish community in Sana’a from the second half of the nineteenth century until the 1920s. He was also the founder of the movement Dor Dea, which did not recognize the Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) as an authentic part of Judaism, and considered it heretical. On the basis of this argument, Yihyah got into a dispute with many rabbis, including, among others, Rabbi Avraham Kook. Yihyah’s grandson Yosef became one of the leaders of the immigrant wave of Yemenite Jews to Israel. In 1943 he migrated from Yemen to Palestine, began studying at the religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav and became a staunch supporter of religious Zionism and the teachings of Tzvi Yehuda Kook. In Israel, he served as a Dayan (religious judge) and as one of the principal religious authorities of Yemenite Jews. Rabbi Yosef Kafih also translated a number of works by prominent Sephardic rabbis from Judaeo-­Arabic into Hebrew. He and his wife Bracha Kafih received the Israeli State Prize.

Recommended sources Barry, David (2015) Yemen 386 Success Secrets: 386 Most Asked Questions on Yemen – What You Need To Know. Emereo Publishing. Carlebach, Alexander; Derovan, David (2007) ‘Kafah (Kafih), Yosef ’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 11. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. Greenblatt, Matis (2000) ‘Rabbi Yosef Kafach: A Life Fulfilled’, Jewish Action (Winter). Online: http://ou.org.s3.amazonaws.com/publications/ja/5761winter/kafachpr.pdf. Ratzaby, Yehuda (2007) ‘Kafah (Kafih), Yihye Ben Solomon’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 11. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House.

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192   Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky

Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky Also called ‘Steipler’, ‘The Steipler Gaon’ (1899–1985)

Rabbi Kanievsky was an important figure and halachic authority (posek) of twentieth-­century Haredi Judaism. He was born in what is today the Ukrainian village of Hornostaipil. Due to the turmoil in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century he had a difficult youth. During the Bolshevik Revolution he was drafted into the Red Army, where he was subjected to bullying and beating because he did not want to shirk his compliance with mitzvot. He managed to be released from the army, and after the war he lived in the Polish city of Bialystok, away from communism. There he published his first major work (Sha’arei Tevunah, ‘Gates of Understanding’). Later he married Miriam, the sister of Rabbi Chazon Ish. Soon after he was appointed as a dean of the Novardok Yeshiva in Pinsk. Before the Second World War he followed his brother-­in-law and moved to Palestine. He settled in Bnei Brak and devoted himself fully to the spiritual life, writing and teaching. Among his other works he published there his multi-­volume Talmudic commentary Kehillos Yaakov (‘The Assembly of Jacob’). He was considered by many Haredi Jews as gadol ha-­dor – ‘the greatest authority of the generation’. His funeral was attended by more than 150,000 people.

Recommended sources Salant, Meir Baal Haneis (n.d.) ‘Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky (1899–1985)’. Online: www.rabbimeirbaalhaneis.com/Rabbi%20Yaakov%20Yisroel%20Kanievsky.asp. Teller, Hanoch (1986) The Story of the Steipler Gaon: The Life and Times of Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky. New York: Mesorah Publications.

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Harold Kushner   193 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Harold Kushner (b. 1935)

Harold Kushner is a major rabbinical figure of conservative Judaism in the United States. He was born in Brooklyn and graduated from Columbia University, and later was ordained as a rabbi at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. Rabbi Kushner is the author of the bestseller When Bad Things Happen to Good People, which deals with the problems of evil, human suffering and God’s omnipotence. Kushner is also the author of many other popular theological books. Together with Chaim Potok he published the book Etz Hayim: A Torah Commentary, which acts as an official commentary on the Torah for the Jewish Conservative movement.

Recommended sources Bushnell, Davis (1981, 19 October) ‘In Grief, Rabbi Harold Kushner Discovers a Reason Why Bad Things Happen to Good People’, People, 16. Online: www.people.com/ people/archive/article/0,,20080483,00.html. Kushner, Harold (n.d.) ‘When Bad Things Happen to Good People’. Online: www. myjewishlearning.com/beliefs/Theology/Suffering_and_Evil/Responses/Modern_ Solutions/When_Bad_Things_Happen.shtml.

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194   Berl Lazar

Berl Lazar (b. 1964)

Berl Lazar is a member of the Chabad movement and has been the Chief Rabbi of Russia since 2000. He was born in Milan, Italy but completed his Jewish studies in the United States. In 1990 he was sent by the Lubavitcher rebbe to the Soviet Union. There, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he contributed to the significant influence of Chabad in present-­day Russia, and later he also established a close relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin. He also developed a number of contacts with the new Russian oligarchs, many of whom are of Jewish origin (e.g. Lev Leviev, Boris Berezovsky, Roman Abramovich). In 2000 he was granted Russian citizenship, while also retaining his American citizenship. Lazar is accused by his opponents of direct connections with the political and economic influence of the Kremlin, and at the same time he is considered as one of the main proponents of the expansionism of the Chabad movement at the expense of other Jewish communities.

Recommended sources Biography of Berl Lazar. Online: http://lenta.ru/lib/14161409/full.htm. Chazan, Guy (2007, 8 May) ‘In Russia, a Top Rabbi Uses Kremlin Ties to Gain Power’, Wall Street Journal. Online: www.wsj.com/articles/SB117858672536595256. JTA (2014, 27 March) ‘Russia Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar Slams Vladimir Putin’s Critics: Ukraine Confrontation Doesn’t Directly Affect Jews’, Jewish Daily Forward. Online: http://forward.com/articles/195341/russia-­chief-rabbi-­berel-lazar-­slams-vladimir-­puti.

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Michael Lerner   195 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Michael Lerner (b. 1943)

Michael Lerner is an American reform rabbi originally from New Jersey, and is known especially as the chief editor of the Jewish critical magazine Tikkun (Tikkun: A Bimonthly Jewish Critique of Politics, Culture and Society). In his youth he was a student of Abraham Yehoshua Heschel and a student activist. He studied philosophy, and later taught a number of related disciplines. He received rabbinic ordination in 1995. He advocates a ‘positive Judaism’, conciliatory inter-­religious attitudes and a peaceful solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and he criticizes some radically pro-­Israel lobby groups in the United States. His conciliatory and non-­conformist attitudes have many followers, but also harsh critics from different sides of Jewish and non-­Jewish society. He is the author of Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation (1994), The Politics of Meaning (1997) and The Left Hand of God: Taking Our Country Back (2006).

Recommended sources Handler, Judd (2003, September) ‘Michael Lerner: The Most Controversial Jew in America’, San Diego Jewish Journal. Online: http://web.archive.org/web/20061231071732/http:// sdjewishjournal.com/stories/sept03_4.html. Lerner, Michael (2007, 2 February) ‘There Is No New Anti-­Semitism’, Baltimore Chronicle. Online: http://baltimorechronicle.com/2007/020207LERNER.shtml. Tikkun Magazine (n.d.) ‘Biographical Notes on Rabbi Lerner’. Online: http://web.archive. org/web/20080107085329/www.tikkun.org/rabbi_lerner/bio.

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196   Dov Lior

Dov Lior (b. 1933)

Dov Lior is an Israeli Orthodox rabbi from the community of religious Zionists. He currently serves as Chief Rabbi of Hebron and Kiryat Arba and also leads the ‘Rabbinic Council of Judea and Samaria’. He is a significant figure in the contemporary settler community in the West Bank and is known for his uncompromising and often extreme positions not only against Palestinians, but also against any signs of compromise on the part of the Israeli government. Lior is accused of disseminating racist attitudes and supporting Jewish extremism, among other things. He is known for various controversial halachical decisions – e.g. he was behind the decision that justified the assassination of the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Recommended sources i24News (2014, 30 November) ‘Extreme Right-­Wing Rabbi to Move to East Jerusalem. Dov Lior, Once Arrested for Inciting Violence, Hopes to Strengthen Jewish Character of City’. Online: www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/52845-141130-extreme-­right-wing-­ rabbi-to-­move-to-­east-jerusalem. Levinson, Chaim (2011, 27 June) ‘Kiryat Arba Chief Rabbi Arrested Following His Support of Book Which Justifies Killing of Non-­Jews’, Haaretz. Rachlevsky, Sefi (2013, 5 November) ‘The Extremist Rabbi Who Reigns Unobstructed’, Haaretz. Sprinzak, Ehud (1999) Brother against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics. New York: The Free Press.

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Michael Melchior   197 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Michael Melchior (b. 1954)

Rabbi Melchior is a well-­known figure, partly because of his recent activities in Israeli politics, and partly for his inter-­faith activities. For eight years he headed the moderate religious Zionist party Meimad (‘Dimension’), which, although relatively small, became a partner of several Israeli governments. He also served in several governments as a minister or a deputy minister. His most influential inter-­faith activity was an inter-­faith summit in Alexandria in 2002, where influential religious authorities of Judaism, Christianity and Islam put their names to a declaration opposing the abuse of religion in the cause of conflict, asserting the shared interest of the three monotheistic faiths in a joint quest ‘for a just peace that leads to reconciliation in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, for the common good of all our peoples’. Rabbi Melchior comes from Denmark, where his ancestors were Chief Rabbis of Danish Jewry for generations. He migrated to Israel in 1986, and there he started to work for the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity and became involved in politics before the elections in 1999. Then he formed together with Rabbi Yehuda Amital the political party Meimad, which was based on the already existing movement of the same name. Meimad merged into a coalition with the Labour Party, which created the government coalition. In Israeli politics, Rabbi Melchior was active until 2009, when Meimad, after a decade in Israeli high politics, did not get into parliament. Melchior continues in his inter-­faith activities outside Israeli politics and is willing to meet religious radicals from other religions.

Recommended sources Horovitz, David (2012, 16 September) ‘Islam Is Ready for Peace With Israel, Says Rabbi Who Has Met With “Whole Strata” of Radicals’, The Times of Israel. Online: www. timesofisrael.com/islam-­is-more-­than-ready-­for-peace-­with-israel-­says-rabbi-­who-has-­ met-with-­the-whole-­strata-of-­radicals. Jeffay, Nathan (2015, 19 February) ‘Interview: Michael Melchior “Engage with Muslims to Isolate the extremists” ’, Jewish Chronicle. Online: www.thejc.com/news/world-­ news/130201/interview-­michael-melchior. Michael Melchior Pages: www.rabbimichaelmelchior.org.

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198   Chaim Nahum

Chaim Nahum (1872–1960)

Rabbi Nahum was a very important and immensely educated rabbinic authority of Sephardic Jewry in the twentieth century. Moreover, during his lifetime, he held very important positions in very turbulent times. Between 1909 and 1920 (the period that culminated with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War), he held the office of Chief Rabbi of the Ottoman Empire (Hakham Bashi). Soon afterwards, in 1925, he became the Chief Rabbi of Egypt and remained in that position until his death – even in the period of great Jewish– Arab tensions after the creation of Israel in 1948. Rabbi Nahum was born in Smyrna (today’s Izmir, Turkey), which was, at the time of his birth, a very multicultural town (besides Turks and Jews, a large Greek and Armenian community lived there as well). He studied at the yeshiva in Tiberias, but he also graduated from a French lyceum and studied Muslim Sharia law at the academy in Istanbul. Then he attended a rabbinical academy in Paris, where he received an ordination (smicha). Concurrently, he studied history, linguistics and philosophy at the Sorbonne. Later, in Istanbul he taught at the local military academy, and due to the title of his post and his prestige he was appointed a member of the Turkish delegation which participated in the post-­war negotiations in Lausanne. For his services for the Ottoman Empire he was awarded the right to use the title of effendi. Later, in Egypt, he was a co-­founder of the Royal Academy of Arabic and was very active academically. In Egypt he always supported and protected the large local Jewish community, which, with the strengthening of Zionist activities and the creation of Israel, sometimes found themselves in great difficulties. In the 1950s he completely lost his sight, but still continued his work since he knew a number of theological texts by heart. He took the consequences of the Israeli– Egyptian conflict and the related expulsion of the Egyptian Jews very hard. His funeral was attended by thousands of people – Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Recommended sources Benbassa, Esther (ed.) (1995) Haim Nahum: A Sephardic Chief Rabbi in Politics, 1892–1923. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.

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Chaim Nahum   199 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Matossian, Bedross Der (2014) Shattered Dreams of Revolution. From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Sanua, Victor D. (n.d.) ‘Haim Nahum Effendi (1872–1960) Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Egypt’, Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture. Online: www.sephardicstudies.org/haim.html.

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200   Yitzhak Nisim

Yitzhak Nisim (1896–1981)

Although Rabbi Nisim came from Baghdad, his approach to the study of Judaism closely resembles that of the Lithuanian Ashkenazi rabbis. He often led scholarly debates with them. He also had ties to leading rabbis and scholars from Israel, Germany and Poland. In 1925 he settled in Jerusalem, where he soon established contacts with local leading scholars, such as Rabbi Avraham Kook HaKohen and Rabbi Ben Zion Uziel. Rabbi Nisim was known for his warm and friendly approach, which was particularly evident at the time when he held the office of the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel (1955–1972). His strenuous efforts to bring people together led to many fruitful discussions between different and sometimes conflicting groups. His home became a place where people from different social circles met: from public figures, politicians and scholars (e.g. Gershom Scholem) to lawyers, teachers and diplomats. Rabi Nisim used a bright and modern language when he spoke, so that his words were understandable to all sections of society. His most famous pupils include Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu and Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Hillel.

Recommended sources Greenspoon, Leonard J. (ed.) (2014) Who Is a Jew? Reflections on History, Religion, and Culture. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press. Jewish Agency for Israe (n.d.) ‘Yitzhak Nissim’. Online: http://jafi.org/JewishAgency/ English/Jewish+Education/Compelling+Content/Eye+on+Israel/Gallery+of+People+ (Biographies)/Yitzhak+Nissim.htm. Jewish Telegraphic Agency (1981, 11 August) ‘Yitzhak Nissim Dead at 85’. Online: www.jta.org/1981/08/11/archive/yitzhak-­nissim-dead-­at-85.

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Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto   201 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto (b. 1973)

In terms of his origin Pinto is a Sephardic rabbi and the great-­grandson of the Moroccan rabbis Baba Sali and Chaim Pinto. He graduated from Hasidic and Lithuanian yeshivas in Jerusalem. He is also known as a kabbalist. He comes from a privileged economic background, he owns the international organization Mosdot Shuva Israel and he also has the charisma of a tzadik. Rabbi Pinto supports a number of yeshivas and Jewish social institutions in Israel and the United States. He currently lives in New York, and in addition to his religious activities he is also engaged in the real estate business. Pinto is generally considered one of the most influential rabbis of the Israeli-­American community, and has numerous religious, economic and political contacts. In 2011, however, Rabbi Pinto came to the attention of the police on suspicion of economic crime.

Recommended sources Estrin, Daniel (2014, 17 September). ‘Celebrity Rabbi Takes Plea Bargain Over Bribery’. ABC News. Fishman, Steve (2014, 30 July) ‘The Trials of the Kabbalah Capitalist’, New York News and Politics. Online: http://nymag.com/news/features/rabbi-­yoshiyahu-yosef-­pinto-2014-7. Nathan-­Kazis, Josh (2010, 23 June) ‘Charismatic Moroccan Kabbalist Draws Crowds and Questions’, Jewish Daily Forward. Online: http://forward.com/articles/128944/ charismatic-­moroccan-kabbalist-­draws-crowds-­and-qu/?. Website of Rabbi Pinto: www.shuvaisrael.com.

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202   Aharon Roth

Aharon Roth Also called ‘Reb Arelleh’, ‘Reb Arele’ (1894–1946)

Rabbi Roth was a native of the Hungarian town of Satmar (Satu Mare in today’s Romania). He was a son of a pious Jewish greengrocer, rather than a descendant of a Hasidic dynasty, but he became the founder of three prominent Hasidic dynasties: Shomer Emunim (‘Guardian of Fidelity’), Toldos Aharon (‘Generations of Aharon’) and Toldos Avraham Yitzhok (‘Generations of Avraham Yitzhok’). Rabbi Roth was very critical of the lifestyles of some Hasidic rabbis and communities – including Satmar Hasidim and Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum – and rejected all compromises with modern views and ways of life. He called for repentance, and demanded complete adherence to simple faith and an ecstatic mode of praying. He also expected his Hasidim to support themselves by their own labour. Today his followers reside in the Meah Shearim and Batei Ungarin neighbourhoods in Jerusalem, and they are staunchly anti-­modern and anti-­ Zionist. During his life Rabbi Roth wrote several important books: Shomer Emunim (‘Guardian of Fidelity’), Taharat Ha-­Kodesh (‘Holy Purity’) and Shulchan ha-­Tahor (‘Clean Table’), among others.

Recommended sources Ferziger, Adam S. (n.d.) ‘Roth, Aharon’, in The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. Online: www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Roth_Aharon. Heilman, Samuel (1999) Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-­Orthodox Jewry. Berkeley: University of California Press. Meijers, Daniël (1992) Ascetic Hasidism in Jerusalem: The Guardian-­of-the-­Faithful Community of Mea Shearim. Leiden: E.J. Brill. Steinsaltz, Adin (2007) ‘Roth, Aaron’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 17. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House.

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Jonathan Henry Sacks   203 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Jonathan Henry Sacks (b. 1948)

Rabbi Sacks is currently the best-­known British rabbi. He is very active in the media and has been involved in the field of inter-­religious dialogue and commenting on current events (e.g. anti-­Semitism, materialism and secularism, events in Israel, etc.). In addition to his Jewish studies, he is also a graduate of the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and King’s College, London. He received rabbinical ordination at Jews’ College and Yeshiva Etz Hayim in the​​ Golders Green neighbourhood in London. His approach to Judaism falls within modern Orthodoxy (but his attitudes are attacked by some Haredi rabbis – for example, by Yosef Shalom Elyashiv). In 2005, Rabbi Sacks was knighted and until 2013 he was the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and the Commonwealth. He has also written numerous books.

Recommended sources Mark, Jonathan (2011, 29 November) ‘The Chief Rabbi and the Rebbe’, The Jewish Week. Online: www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/chief_rabbi_and_rebbe. Pfeffer, Anshel (2013, 1 September) ‘U.K. Jews Bid Farewell to the Teflon Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks’, Haaretz. Rabbi Sacks website: www.rabbisacks.org. Sacks, Jonathan (2014) The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning. New York: Schocken.

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204   Yedidia Shofet

Yedidia Shofet Also called ‘Hakham Yedidia’ (1908–2005)

Rabbi Shofet was one of the most prominent Iranian Jews of the twentieth century. In Iran there still lives a relatively large Jewish community (approximately 10,000–20,000 Jews), and at the time when Shofet lived in Iran, it was even greater. He was born in Kashan to a famous Iranian rabbinical family. He reached the position of the Iranian Chief Rabbi in the time of the Shah and often defended the interests of the Iranian Jews before the Iranian politicians and Muslim religious authorities. He was considered to be very religiously knowledgeable and was generally popular. He left Iran after the Islamic revolution in 1979 and moved to California, where he spent the rest of his life.

Recommended sources Books LLC (ed.) (2010) Iranian Rabbis: Menahem Shemuel Halevy, Yedidia Shofet, Uriel Davidi, Yousef Hamadani Cohen. Memphis, TN: General Books LLC. Cohn, Ronald; Russell, Jesse (2012) Yedidia Shofet. Saarbrücken: VSD Publishing. Melamed, Karmel (2005, 22 September) ‘Iranian Community Mourns Its “Anchor” ’, Jewish Journal. Online: www.jewishjournal.com/high_holy_days/article/iranian_community_mourns_its_anchor_20050923.

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Adin Steinsaltz   205 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Adin Steinsaltz (b. 1937)

Rabbi Steinsaltz was born in Jerusalem and is considered to be one of the greatest scholars of contemporary Judaism. He is a member of the Hasidic movement Chabad, and, following the example of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Schneersohn, he completed his studies in both the Torah and several secular disciplines such as mathematics, physics and chemistry at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His most famous work is his monumental translation of the Talmud from Aramaic into modern Hebrew, which was simultaneously translated into many other languages. Rabbi Steinsaltz began work on it in 1965 and finished it in 2010. Rabbi Steinsaltz is also the author of about 60 books on subjects ranging from zoology to theology (including Kabbalah and Hasidic themes) to social commentary. There was some controversy about his works, however. Some Orthodox rabbis, headed by Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach, placed a ban on several of Steinsaltz’s books. There are also some controversies about the new system of pagination and the replacement of Rashi’s commentary by Steinsaltz’s own commentary in his translation of the Talmud. In spite of these controversies, though, Steinsaltz’s works enjoy great popularity in the Jewish world. In 1988, Rabbi Steinsaltz was awarded the Israel Prize. Under the auspices of a number of educational and scientific institutions, he also took part in the expansion of the Chabad movement in Russia.

Recommended sources Abrams, Judith Z. (1999) A Beginner’s Guide to the Steinsaltz Talmud. Jason Aronson Incorporated. Online: www.steinsaltz.org/Biography.php; www.ranaz.co.il/articles/article 3071_19890804.asp; www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Adin_Steinsaltz. html.

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206   Menachem Mendel Taub

Menachem Mendel Taub Also called ‘Kaliver Rebbe’ (b. 1923)

Among the Hasidic tzadikim living in Israel today, one man is made conspicuous by his appearance. It is the rabbi Menachem Mendel Taub, who now heads the Hasidic dynasty of Kaliv (the Yiddish name of the Hungarian town of Nagykálló). While the faces of prominent rabbis are generally adorned with huge beards, the Kaliver Rebbe has long white earlocks, but on his cheeks and chin there is only a very thin beard. It is a memento of his imprisonment in Auschwitz, where he was transported in 1944, during which the infamous doctor Josef Mengele, among others, experimented on him. The rabbi’s brother did not survive Mengele’s brutal pseudo-­scientific practices. After the war, Rabbi Taub moved to Sweden, where he married, and later he moved to the United States. In 1980 he settled in Bnei Brak, Israel, where he founded the Center of Kaliver Hasidim (a similar centre had been founded earlier in Rishon LeZion). Then in 2002, Rabbi Taub moved to Jerusalem. The Kaliver Rebbe often recalls the horrors of the Shoah, which he experienced not only in Auschwitz, but also in the Warsaw ghetto. He focuses mainly on the suffering of the Haredi, who wanted to follow all the mitzvot to the very end. For him, a special system of spiritually remedying the consequences of the horrors of the Shoah is reciting the Shema Yisrael prayer at the end of each service. The rabbi is also currently working on the construction of an alternative Shoah Memorial. He is also the author of the Encyclopedia of the Shoah and the 13-volume theological work, Kol Menachem (‘The Voice of Menachem’). The Kaliv dynasty was the first Hasidic dynasty in Hungary. The current Kaliver Rebbe is the seventh tzadik in a direct paternal line from the founder of the dynasty Rebbe Isaac Taub (1751–1821).

Recommended sources Sharon, Jeremy (2012, 10 May) ‘Sparks of Love This Lag Ba’omer’, Jerusalem Post. Online: www.jpost.com/Jewish-­World/Jewish-­Features/Sparks-­of-love-­this-Lag-­Baomer. Sontag, Deborah (2000, 3 May) ‘Jerusalem Journal: More Than One Way to Remember the Holocaust’, New York Times. Vos Iz Neias (2014, 25 March) ‘In Moving Speech at Holocaust Commemoration Kalever Rebbe Warns Obama and Putin of Dangers Ahead’. Online: www.vosizneias. com/159496/2014/03/25/budapest-­in-moving-­speech-at-­holocust-commemoration-­ kalever-rebbe-­warns-obama-­and-putin-­of-dangers-­ahead.

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Ben Zion Meir Chai Uziel (Ouziel)   207 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Ben Zion Meir Chai Uziel (Ouziel) (1880–1953)

Rabbi Uziel was born in Jerusalem, where his father, Yosef Rafael Uziel, was the chairman of the tribunal (av beit din) of the Sephardic community. At the age of 20 he began to teach at Yeshiva Tiferet Yerushalayim. Later he founded the Yeshiva Machazikei Torah, which was focused on young Sephardic students. In 1911 he was appointed rabbi of the Sephardic community in Yaffo. Here he established friendly relations with Rabbi Kook, who was then the rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Yaffo. In many ways, both rabbis maintained the same or similar positions on many issues, which also contributed to the convergence of the Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities of the time in this part of Palestine. During the First World War he was forced to flee from the Turks to Damascus, but before the arrival of the British troops he was back in Palestine. Gradually, he came to serve as chief rabbi of the city of Salonika (today’s Thessaloniki in Greece) and Tel Aviv. In 1939 he was appointed the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Palestine, and held the position until his death in 1953. During his life he held many important political and religious functions. For example, he was a member of the Vaad Leumi (the National Council of Jewish Communities in Palestine, which was active during the British Mandate) and actively participated in meetings organized by the Jewish Agency (Ha-­Sochnut ha-­Yehudit). He also contributed to various religious periodicals, touching upon both religious and secular themes. He is also the founder of the Jerusalem yeshiva Shaar Zion.

A selection of his works Mishpetei Uziel (‘Uziel’s Decisions’) – a collection of responsa. Shaarei Uziel (‘Uziel’s Gates’) – halachic laws relating to orphans and widows, and various other discourses. Hegyonei Uziel (‘Uziel’s Considerations’) – philosophical considerations.

Recommended sources Goldshlag, Itzhak (2007) ‘Ouziel, Ben-­Zion Meir Ḥai’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 15. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House.

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208   Ben Zion Meir Chai Uziel (Ouziel) Ratzabi, Shalom (2008) ‘Jews, Nationality, and Judaism: The Case of Ha-­Rishon Le-­ Zion, Rabbi Meir Ben Zion Hai Uziel’, in Liwerant, Judit Bokser; Ben-­Rafael, Eliezer; Gorny, Yosef; Rein, Raanan (eds), Identities in an Era of Globalization and Multiculturalism: Latin America in the Jewish World. Leiden: E.J. Brill. World Mizrachi (n.d.) ‘Rav Ben-­Zion Meir Hai Uziel (1880–1953)’. Online: http://mizrachi. org/rav-­ben-zion-­meir-hai-­uziel-1880-1953.

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Elchonon Wasserman   209 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Elchonon Wasserman (1875–1941)

Rabbi Wasserman was born in the Lithuanian town of Biržai, and became one of the most important disciples of Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik; he is considered to be the spiritual successor of Rabbi Chofetz Chaim, whom he met for the first time in 1907. During his life Rabbi Wasserman was the dean of the yeshiva in Brisk (in today’s Belarus). After the First World War he relocated to Poland, where he headed the Novardok Yeshiva (also now in Belarus). He was also active in the Agudat Yisrael movement. At the beginning of the Second World War, Rabbi Wasserman sought opportunities for his European students to live in the United States. When he visited the country for this purpose, he had the chance to stay in the United States and avoid the danger which threatened him in Europe. But the rabbi never really considered this option because he wanted to be a source of support for his students until the end. In 1941 he was murdered by the Nazis in Lithuania.

Recommended sources Finkelman, Shimon (1984) The Story of Reb Elchonon: The Life of Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman. New York: ArtScroll/Mesorah. Hacohen, Mordechai (2007) ‘Wasserman, Elhanan Bunim’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn, Vol. 20. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House.

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210   Yisroel Dovid Weiss

Yisroel Dovid Weiss (b. 1956)

Rabbi Weiss is the spokesperson of the American branch of the anti-­Zionist platform Neturei Karta, and due to his activism and speeches he is probably the best­known personality of this platform. Theologically he holds a similar opinion on Israel and Zionism as the other anti-­Zionist rabbis featured in this book (especially Rabbis Moshe and Yisroel Hirsch and Rabbi Amram Blau). Weiss and other Neturei Karta rabbis are sometimes criticized by other anti-­Zionist Jews for going too far in their excessive politicization of Jewish anti-­Zionism, for meeting with controversial individuals (e.g. people from Hezbollah, from the Iranian government, etc.) and for their participation in controversial activities (e.g. the ‘International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust’, which was organized by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2006). Rabbi Weiss resides in Monsey near New York.

Recommended sources Al-­Jazeera (2012, 10 March) ‘Weiss: Zionism Has Created “Rivers of Blood” ’. Online: www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2012/03/201231083221669780.html. Rabkin, Yaakov (2006) A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Santos, Fernanda (2007, 15 January) ‘New York Rabbi Finds Friends in Iran and Enemies at Home’, New York Times. Online: www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/nyregion/15rabbi. html?_r=0.

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Shalom Dovber Halevi Wolpo   211 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Shalom Dovber Halevi Wolpo Other variants of name: Shalom Dov Wolpe, Sholom Ber Wolpe (b. 1948)

sRecommended sources Fiske, Gavriel (2014, 11 March) ‘Rabbi Accused of Inciting Troops to Disobey Orders’, The Times of Israel. Online: www.timesofisrael.com/rabbi-­accused-of-­inciting-troops-­ to-disobey-­orders. Odenheimer, Micha (2006) ‘We Do Not Believe. We Will Not Follow’, Guilt and Pleasure, 2 (Spring). Online: www.guiltandpleasure.com/index.php?site=rebootgp&page=gp_article &id=17. UPI (2007, 7 December) ‘Rabbi Threatens Secession from Israel’. Online: www.upi.com/ Top_News/2007/12/07/Rabbi-­threatens-secession-­from-Israel/UPI-­56021197065549.

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5 Some final thoughts instead of a conclusion

Despite the fact that Judaism is the smallest of the three Abrahamic religions in terms of the number of its followers, it does not lag behind Christianity or Islam in terms of variety and complexity, as has been demonstrated throughout this book, and maybe even exceeds the other two faiths in this respect. It is also interesting to observe the various tendencies within the modern Jewish world. As is evident from this volume, the spread of rabbinical thought in the context of the globalized world is faster than ever, and today rabbis and their adherents influence each other a lot more dynamically than in the past; however, globalization and modernity engenders a watering down of the traditional authorities of Judaism and, potentially, their decline. In this respect, we are thinking of significant rabbinical personalities of the twentieth century, such as Rabbis Shach, Kook, Schneersohn, Teitelbaum and Yosef. It has become evident that, after their passing, there are few followers of theirs who could reach their level of impact and unshakable respect. As suggested, we are instead witnessing the tendency to dilute both their thoughts and the authority of rabbis as a whole. Furthermore, the interests of rabbinical authorities are often combined with various economic interests (which is possible to observe, for example, within part of the Chabad movement and in the case of the famous contemporary Rabbi Yoshiyahu Y. Pinto), which can also in some respect devalue their role. From this point of view, it will be very interesting to observe the development of the thought of the authorities of Judaism in the twenty-­first century and its overall impact on this religion. The decline of traditional authorities that is characteristic of the globalized world, together with the absence of a unified hierarchy in Judaism, can create various new tensions. However, these should ultimately transform Judaism so that it is able to maintain the traditional values based on the Torah even in the new geographic, historical and political environment, since similar patterns of Judaism surviving great social changes have already occurred many times in history. The Talmud itself is full of debates, discussions and clashes between various scholars, and these disputes are sometimes linked to transformations of historical situations. Probably the most famous of these is the controversy between Hillel and Shammai, two remarkable scholars of the first century ce, who differed in

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almost all essential details when it came to the interpretation of the Law. The Pirkei Avot tractate (5: 17) says the following about them: Any argument that is for the sake of Heaven will have a constructive outcome. And any argument that is not for the sake of Heaven will not have a constructive outcome. What is an example of an argument for the sake of Heaven? The arguments of Hillel and Shammai. What is an example of an argument that is not for the sake of Heaven? That is the argument of Korach1 and his congregation. (Pinto, 2011: 448) Being in a rabbinical dispute is therefore not necessarily something negative, as long as both parties are joined by a common interest – i.e. the values and principles of the Torah.

Note 1 For the wider context, see Num. 16.

Reference Pinto, David Hanania (2011) Kerem David: Pirkei Avot. Modi’in Illit.

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Glossary of terms

admor – (Heb.) (pl. admorim)  an acronym of adonenu morenu ve-­rabenu – ‘our Lord, Teacher and Rabbi’. This title is used to address Hasidic rabbis (tzadiks). Its meaning corresponds to that of the term rebbe. aggadah – (Heb.)  the narrative (non-­halachic) passages of the Talmud and the Midrash. They do not have a legal character. Agudat Yisrael – (Heb.)  the name of an international organization representing the interests of ultra-­Orthodox Jews (mainly Hasids) and also the name of a religious party in Israel. aliyah – (Heb.)  literally ‘ascent’. This term is used to refer to the immigration of Jews to Israel. Amalekites –  a people of the Negev and the adjoining desert that were a hereditary enemy of Israel from wilderness times to the early monarchy. Some rabbis refer, rather expediently, to current groups of people as ‘Amalekites’ as well – e.g. the Nazis or Palestinians, and anti‑Zionist Jews even view the Zionists as Amalekites. Ashkenazi Jews –  Jews originally from Central Europe, especially Germany. av beit din – (Heb.)  a rabbi who presides over the religious court (beit din). ba’al teshuva – (Heb.)  literally a repentant or penitent individual. This term refers to a person who has returned to live according to the halachic commandments after a period of not doing so. beit din – (Heb.)  a religious court that is presided over by at least three qualified people – usually rabbis. beit midrash – (Heb.)  a study hall, in some cases one that is situated in a yeshiva. bekish (pl. bekishe, beketsche) – (Yid.)  a Hasidic coat. B’nai B’rith – (Heb.)  literally ‘Sons/Children of the Covenant’. An international Jewish non-­profit organization. bracha – (Heb.)  a blessing. Chabad – (Heb.)  an acronym for the terms chochma, bina and daat (wisdom, understanding and knowledge). An intellectual stream of Hasidism whose founder was Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady (1745–1813). chacham – (Heb.)  literally ‘a wise man’. The title of a great scholar. Chacham Bashi – (Turk. Hahambaşı)  the title of the rabbis who stood at the head of the Jews living in the Ottoman Empire.

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Glossary   215 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

chametz – (Heb.)  leavened foods that are forbidden during Passover. Chardal – (Heb.)  an abbreviation for Charedi Leumi. Haredim supporting religious Zionism. cheder – (Heb.)  a traditional Jewish elementary school. cohen – (Heb.)  literally ‘priest’. A member of the Levi tribe, and a descendant of Aaron and his sons, who held the post of a priest. dati (pl. datiim, the root is the noun dat) – (Heb.)  literally ‘faithful’. A title of a devout or Orthodox Jew. See also haredi. dayan – (Heb.)  a religious judge. dunam – (Turk.)  sometimes also dönüm – a unit of land area of about 0.1 ha that was used in the Ottoman Empire. It has been in use up to the present in the countries of the Middle East that were under the Ottoman influence. Eda Haredit – (Heb.)  a rabbinical organization based in Jerusalem that regards itself as the opposition and alternative to the Chief Rabbinate. ehrlicher Yid – (Yid.)  literally ‘a Jew of true integrity’; a Yiddish title that ultra-­Orthodox Jews use to refer to themselves. Eretz ha-­Kodesh – (Heb.)  literally ‘the Holy Land’; a synonym for Eretz Yisrael. Eretz Yisrael – (Heb.)  literally ‘the Land of Israel’. The name of the whole biblical land of Israel. Its borders are different from the borders of the current State of Israel (Medinat Yisrael in Hebrew). eruv (reshuyot) – (Heb.)  an enclosure of public space in which things can be carried during the Sabbath. etrog – (Heb.)  a citrus fruit used during the rituals of the festival of Sukkot. gadol ha-­dor – (Heb.)  ‘the greatest Torah sage of the generation’. A title used to refer to the most revered rabbis. galut – (Heb.)  the Jewish Diaspora. gaon – (Heb.)  a title given to some extraordinarily knowledgeable rabbis. Gartel – (Yid.)  a belt used by Hasids during prayer. Gemara – (Aram.)  literally ‘completion’. The name of the second part of the Talmud, which contains extensive discussions and commentaries regarding the first part, i.e. the Mishnah. gematryah (gimatriyah) – (Heb.)  the interpretation of the Torah based on the numerical values of Hebrew letters. Haggadah (Shel Pesach) – (Heb.)  literally ‘the telling of the Passover story’. A book consisting of the order of household divine service for the festival of Pesach (the so‑called seder). Halacha – (Heb.)  literally ‘the way to go’. The legal part of the Talmud. In the broader sense, it represents the whole legal system of Judaism. Haredim (sg. Haredi) – (Heb.)  literally ‘one who trembles (before God)’ (Isaiah 66: 5), or ‘god-­fearing’. The term is used for the most religiously conservative part of the Jewish community (i.e. ultra-­Orthodox Jews). Hasid – (Heb.)  literally ‘pious one’. A follower of the mystically oriented movement Hasidism (Hasidut in Hebrew) within Orthodox Judaism, whose founder was Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760).

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216   Glossary Haskalah – (Heb.)  the Jewish Enlightenment, an intellectual movement that lasted roughly from the 1770s to the 1880s. hiloni – (Heb.)  literally ‘the secular ones’. The title of secular Jews. Ivrit – (Heb.)  the modern Hebrew language. Kabbalah – (Heb.)  literally ‘tradition’. The name for Jewish mysticism (see also Zohar). Kashrut – (Heb.)  ritual purity. From this word comes the term kosher – ritually pure, eligible, in accordance with the commands of the Torah. Knesset – (Heb.)  literally ‘assembly’. The present-­day parliament of the State of Israel. kohen –  see cohen. kosher –  see Kashrut. Ladino –  the language of Sephardic Jews, which is primarily a mixture of Hebrew and Spanish. lashon ha-­ra – (Heb.)  literally ‘bad language’; slander, gossip and defamation. Levi, Levite – (Heb.)  a member of the priestly caste. The term is derived from Levi, the third son of Jacob and Leah, and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Levi or the Levites. Litvak – (Yid.)  a Lithuanian Jew. At one time also a synonym for an opponent of Hasidism (a Mitnaged). ma’amar – (Heb.)  literally ‘a statement or a speech’. It is a traditional speech by a rebbe or a tzadik addressing the Hasids in which Hasidic teachings are discussed. Machzor – (Heb.)  literally ‘cycle’. A special prayer book for Jewish festivals. madrasa – (Arab.)  an Islamic religious school. Mafdal – (Heb.)  the National Religious Party – an Israeli political party of religious Zionist Jews. Meah Shearim – (Heb.)  literally ‘a hundred times’ (Gen. 26: 12: ‘Isaac farmed in the area. That year, he reaped a hundred times . . .’). A Jewish religious quarter in Jerusalem. melamed – (Heb.)  a teacher at a cheder (a Jewish elementary school). midrash – (Heb.)  literally ‘teachings or interpretation’. (1) a method for the interpretation of the Torah; (2) literature based on this kind of interpretation. mikveh – (Heb.)  a ritual bath. minhag – (Heb.)  a habit, a custom or a convention. minyan – (Heb.)  literally ‘number’. The quorum of ten Jewish adult men that is required for a public religious service to take place. Mishna – (Heb.)  literally ‘revision or study’. The first major written redaction of the Jewish oral traditions, which was arranged and edited by Rabbi Yehudah Ha-­Nasi around 200 ad. This text serves as the basis of the Talmud. Mitnagdim, Misnagdim (sg. Mitnaged) – (Heb.)  literally ‘opponents’. Jewish religious opponents of Hasidism. mitzvot (sg. mitzvah) – (Heb.)  Jewish religious commandments derived from the Torah and the Talmud. Mizrachi (Mizrahi) – (Heb.)  a religious Zionist movement in Palestine.

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mujahid – (Arab.)  ‘jihadist’, radical-­Islamist guerilla fighter. Nakba – (Arab.) literally ‘disaster or catastrophe’. The term relates to the proclamation of independence of the State of Israel, which symbolizes for the Palestinians their exodus from Palestine. Neturei Karta – (Aram.)  a Jewish religious organization that opposes Zionism and Israel. nosach (nusach) – (Heb.)  literally ‘version’ or ‘variant’. A variant of the liturgical practices of specific groups of Jews. The two main current traditions are the Ashkenazi tradition (this is further divided into the Polish and Italian minhagim) and the Sephardic tradition (Yemenite, Persian and North African minhagim fall under this category). ordination (smicha in Heb.) –  a ritual in which rabbinical authority is transmitted to a Jewish scholar, or in other words, a ritual in which a Jewish scholar becomes a rabbi. Passover (Heb. Pesach) –  a holiday that acts as a reminder of the exodus of Jews from Egypt. peot (also peyot or peyos in Heb.) –  sidelocks, sidecurls or sideburns. Patches of hair in front of the ears, which, according to the Torah, cannot be cut or shaved with a razor. Perushim – (Heb.)  a part of the Mitnagdim; disciples of the Vilna Gaon and their descendants, who left Lithuania to settle in Palestine. phylacteria – see tefillin. Pikuach Nefesh – (Heb.)  the respect for human life that should override most other religious concerns. According to the principle that the Torah was given for the purposes of life (Lev. 18: 5) and not death, it is possible – in cases of threats to life – to overstep or fail to observe any mitzvah except for these three taboos: murder, incest and idolatry. posek – (Heb.)  an important rabbinical scholar who issues binding decisions on the basis of Halacha. Posek Ha-­dor – (Heb.)  a leading halachic authority of a generation. rabbanit – (Heb., rebbetzin in Yid.)  a rabbi’s wife. rabbi – (Heb.)  literally ‘my lord’. A scholar appointed by ordination to interpret the Torah and apply Halacha. Rav – (Heb.)  a synonym for the term rabbi. rebbe – (Heb.)  a rabbi standing at the head of a Hasidic group or a dynasty (a tzadik). See also admor. rebbetzin –  see rabbanit. responsa (she’elot u-­teshuvot in Heb.) –  ‘questions and answers’. A specific genre of rabbinical literature. Written authoritative answers to religious and legal (halachic) queries. Rishon Le-­Zion – (Heb.)  a Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel. Rosh Yeshiva – (Heb.)  lit. the head of a yeshiva. The dean of a Talmudic academy. Sephardim – (Heb.)  Jews deriving their origin from their ancestors who lived in Spain and Portugal until their expatriation in 1492–1497.

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218   Glossary Shabbat – (Heb.)  the seventh and the holiest day of the Jewish week. Shacharit – (Heb.)  a morning prayer. shamash (shames in Yiddish) – (Heb.)  a synagogal servant. shaytl (also sheytl, sheitel) – (Yid.)  a wig of a Haredi woman. she’elot u-­teshuvot –  see responsa. Shekhinah (also shechinah, shechina, schechinah) – (Heb.)  God’s presence. Sheva Berachot – (Heb.)  literally, ‘the seven blessings’. This blessing is recited during a wedding ceremony and also during the wedding reception. shidduch – (Heb.)  the pre-­arrangement of a wedding. It is often a task of a professional matchmaker (shadchan). shiur (plur. shiurim) – (Heb.)  a lesson on a topic related to the Torah (Mishna, Gemara, Halacha, etc.). Shlita – (Heb.)  an abbreviation appended to a name which means ‘May he merit a good and long life’. shmita – (Heb.)  the name of the seventh year (the sabbatical year) of the Jewish seven-­year cycle, when soil should be left fallow according to the Torah. shofar – (Heb.)  a musical instrument made out of a ram’s horn that is used for Jewish religious purposes. shtreimel – (Yid.)  an Ashkenazi Jewish fur hat. shul – (Yid.)  a synagogue. Shulchan Aruch – (Heb.)  literally ‘set table’. The code of Jewish law written by Rabbi Yosef Karo (1488–1575). siddur – (Heb.)  literally ‘order’. A prayer book in which prayers are organized according to a given order. sideburns, sidelocks –  see peot. smicha – see ordination. spodik – (Yid.)  a type of rabbinical hat made out of heavy fur. Sugya – (Aram.)  a category of Talmudic argumentation of the Gemara. tallit – (Heb.)  a Jewish prayer shawl (tallit gadol – a big shawl used during prayers; tallit katan – a small shawl worn on the body). Talmid Chacham (pl. Talmidei Chachamim) – (Heb.)  literally ‘student of the wise’. A Jewish scholar. Talmud – (Heb.)  literally ‘instruction or learning’. An authoritative collection of Jewish laws and traditions. It consists of two parts: the Mishna and the Gemara. The Gemara is a deeper interpretation of the teachings of the Mishna. Generally, the Talmud represents the oral law (the written law is represented by the Torah). The Talmud was written in two versions: the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli) and the Jerusalem (or Palestinian) Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi). tefillin – (Heb.)  leather straps with small boxes that are wrapped around the left hand and the head during prayer. Torah – (Heb.)  literally ‘teaching’. The traditional name of the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch). In a broader sense, the term Torah can represent the whole Bible or it can bear the meaning of the entire body of Jewish teachings.

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tzadik – (Heb.)  literally ‘righteous one’. The title of a Hasidic rabbi. See also admor and rebbe. tzitzit – (Heb.)  the prayer fringes attached to the four corners of a tallit. wunderrebbe – (Yid.)  a rabbi who is believed to possess miraculous abilities. yartzeit (yortzeit) – (Yid.)  a Yiddish term denoting a death anniversary (of a relative, an important rabbi, etc.). yeshiva – (Heb.)  literally ‘session’. A higher education academy for the religious education of devout Jews, especially the study of the Talmud. Yiddish – the language of Ashkenazi Jews, which is primarily a mixture of Hebrew and German. Yishuv Ha-­Yashan – (Heb.)  literally ‘the old settlement’. The name of Palestine’s Jewish population before the Zionist activities began. In contrast, Ha-­ Yishuv is a term for a modern settlement inspired by the Zionist movement. Zionism (tzionut in Heb.) –  a school of thought within Western Jewish political thought whose aim is to create (and subsequently build) a Jewish homeland or, more precisely, a Jewish state in Palestine. It is possible to briefly characterize it as a modern Jewish national and emancipatory movement or as a type of modern Jewish nationalism. Zohar (Sefer ha-­Zohar) – (Heb.)  literally ‘the Book of Light’. This work is ascribed to Rabbi Shimeon bar Yochai (second century ad). It is a mystical (kabbalistic) midrash on a greater part of the Torah and some other parts of the Bible.

Honorifics for the dead in Judaism A”H – alav/aleha ha-­shalom (Heb.)  ‘May peace be upon him/her’ (used for a non-­rabbinical figure). HY”D – Hashem yinkom damo/a (Heb.)  ‘May God avenge his/her blood’ (used for martyred Jews or Jews killed by anti-­Semites). ZK”L – zekher kadosh livrakha (Heb.)  ‘May the memory of the holy be a blessing’ (used for a righteous martyr). Z”L – zikhrono/a livrakha (Heb.)  ‘Of blessed memory’ (used for a non-­ rabbinical figure). ZT”L or ZTz”L – zekher tzadik livrakha (Heb.)  ‘May the memory of the righteous be a blessing’ (used for a rabbinical/holy figure).

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Index

Copy to be supplied

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Incex   221 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

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222   Index 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

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Incex   223 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

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224   Index 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

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