10 — THE BULLETIN — Thursday, December 7, 1978
ASK THE RABBI
WORK BEYOND PRICE
A READER ASKS how it was that, if the early rabbis condemned Torah study without work, the East European system of maintaining sons-in-law through a lifetime of
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study came to be accepted?
The early rabbis did not exactly condemn Torah study without work. They advised against it on the grounds that if a man had no regular means of employmeiit he would be tempted to steal or cheat in order to keep himself and his family.
The rabbis had no objection to a patron of learning supporting students of the Torah and, indeed, they taught that such patrons have a share in the spiritual reward promised to those who study the Torah.
Men in Eastern Europe who supported their sons-in-law generally felt it to be a privilege to have scholarly sons-in-law. The latter were not held to be lay-abouts anxious for a sinecure but partners in a spiritual venture.
!t is notorious that the system was open to abiise. In some instances the poor wife would slave to provide the faniily its needs and here it was certainly unmanly of the husband to accept the situation. Generallyv however, the system was accepted ■with joy as enabling all Jews to have an intimate association with Torah learning.
It must not be forgotten that economic conditions in Eastern; Europe were frequently so adverse that without this isystei^ there Would have been few Jewish scholars of note. Patrons of learning and the arts coiitributed a great deal to the enrichment of the cultural life of their countries in former times. ;
Even today a student with a research felldwship at a university does not look upon hii^ a gpod-fbi^nptliing butv and rightly ' so, as one who contributes at least as
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much as he receives.
It is extremely unfortunate that the implications behind this kind of criticism is that the study of the Torah is not really work. It is. And very hard work, requiring skill, devotion, intelligence and complete application.
The average Eastern European son-in-law earned his keep. It should also be said that the usual arrangement was not for life but for a number of years. Since early marriages were the norm, the scholar would usually begin to fend for himself at an age when students today leave the university to take up a career.-
Can you explain the meaning of the episode about Moses and the Burning Bush in Exodus, Chapters?
A passage of this nature is richly and variously interpreted in Jewish thought. The most popular interpretation is to see the bush as a symbol of Israel's miraculous survival in spite;6f persecution. The bush burns with fire but the bush is not consumed. Another interpretation is that G-d appeared to Moses out of the bush to teach the lesson of humility, that G-d chooses lowly things like the bush to be His instruments. Some add that it was to give encouragement to Moses who thought little of his capacities for leadership.
The mystics see the burning bush as the symbol of G-d*s manifestation in ihe universe: "Earth's crammed withheaveh and every common bush afire with G-d; but oniy he who sees takes off his shoes.** Sometather more prosaic, commentators, however, see the bush as represents ing Pharaoh who, in spite of all the dire warnin^^ was too stubborn to let G-d's people go.
(C<^right JCN& FS)
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MS ROUND THE WORLD JEWSOFAMStEROM
THERE ARE ABOUT 30,000 Jews today in The Netherlands, most of whom still dwell in Amsterdam (12,000). The significant rote of Amsterdam in Dutch Jewish life is still evident today'in some of the stories involving such Dutch Jewish family names as Soetendorp» Mouwes, and Cardozo.
Rabbi Lopez C!ardozo, bom in Amsterdam but Hying today in Jerusalem, is one member of the prominent Cardozo family to have left the Sephardic commuiiity of Amsterdam for Eretz Yisroel.
Mrs. Leenike Mouwes operates Amsterdam's glatt kosher restaurant at De Lairessestraat 13; her brother runs a delicatessen in The Hague; and her parents operate a kosher sandwich shop and grocery store in Amsterdam. For more than 200 years the.Mouwes family has been in the restaurant and grocery business. Leenike Mouwes, hbw-ever, learned her tr^de at the restaurant school in iSfetanya, Israel.
Leah Soetendorp is a Dutch Jewess who came to Amsterdam in the early I950*s'wlien her father founded one of Amsterdam's Reform synagogues. After her father's death in 1976, her brother, Ayra-ham, continued the family rabbini-
PRESIDENT YITZHAK NAVON addressiiig an nimbly of rabbis at Boys Town In BertVegan. , (Jerusal^
'S VIEW
(Continued from page 2)
In the comer of theroom where we are talking Lilly notices a chess board and asks if anyone plays "Shach Mat^** Then she says she to know how to play the game and she^ re^^ that her fiatther once taught her the moves, back when she was about four years old; biit now she has forgotten them. She smiles, thinking hopefully
of the day in the future when her Daddy%ill teach " her to play chess once again.
In the meantime, what does Hillel Butman write to Eva?:
His letters never mention his health or ^
conditions in the prison. Instead they inspire her
and speak of his purpose in life.. .his recognition
that, his efforts took place at the very beginning of
the immigration movement and that while he has had to suffer for them, he knows he will have
served his purpose in the annals of the history of the Jewish people.
"This gives him hope," Eva says. *^ But it does
cal tradition and heads a congregation in The Hague at Stadth-Qurdenlaan 12.
JI^WS OF GREECE
FEW NORTH AMERICANS are aware of^he fact that since 1948, the Greek government has provided compensation for Jewijsh property losses caused by the Nazi invaders. During these years this property fund has restored ancient synagogues and built Jewish schools and communal centres throughout Greece.
Before World War Two 76,500 Jews lived in Greecebut today there are less than 5,000 Jews in the country.
This governmental property fund known as "Opaie" has been supervised by the Central Board of the Jewish Communities of Greece. The
legislative initiative in 1948^ came from an Athenian lawye^ Michael Pesmatzoglou, who was then secretary of state for finance. Annual receipts have exceedefl the equivalent of one million dollars.
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