How Much I Am Offered? by Rabbi Y R Rubin Shlita

This week has seen one of the most fascinating auctions of recent history. In New York City (where else?) a prestigious auction house sold off all the contents of the home of the late Duke and Duchess of Windsor. I speak not just of the major articles such as tables and chairs, but of even the smallest of shmattes such as old jackets, handbags and golf balls. The auctioneers were dumbfounded at the prices they were getting. Things valued at one hundred pounds were going for thousands. Handkerchiefs previously touched by the royal nose were sold for one thousand dollars — and most of them were in urgent need of a darning needle. What sort of madness is this?

Simply put, it’s just poor folk in search of a piece of glamour. There are many who will pay for something that once belonged to some celebrity; they think that in so doing some of that glory will rub off on them. They do not feel in themselves worthy of note, and so seek fame through others. In the case of the Windsors this is particularly strange in that their celebrity was born from a wasted lifetime spent flirting with despots and enemies of our country. Be that as it may, one can’t but be astounded at how sad people are, who willingly part with their money just for the ethereal promise that they are buying into posterity.

Having heard all this I thought, “Hey, one minute, I have some old tattered talleisim floating about our shul, perhaps I can auction them off for some desperately needed shul funds.” Of course, I realize I wouldn’t make anything close to the price paid for the Duke’s old handkerchiefs but is it not a greater yichus to own a tallis worn by some old Yidel who probably davened with all his heart, than some hoi polloi’s rag? Unfortunately to many Jews the answer is no. They have no pride of whom they are and what their destiny is, so they rush after the idols created by an insecure world.

Reb Nachman of Breslov ztl once gave a chosid his old tallis. “Be careful,” he warned, “as many threads as there are in that tallis, that’s how many tears I have shed just trying to fathom how holy a tallis is.” Such is the inherent yichus of our heritage. However, we are witnessing a terrible calamity among our people, thousands are being lost to assimilation. Many are the ‘wise men’ who are trying to figure out what should be done. They issue reports, make studies, yet, day by day, more and more Jews disappear. Those worthies refuse to admit the one truth:

Jews stay Jews if they find their identity as Jews within themselves. This comes only through living as Jews, as Torah Jews -nothing else will work.

In Terumah we find Hashem’s instructions on how the Oron was to be crafted. It is interesting to note that, in this one instance, we are told that two statuettes were to be crafted from the gold of the Ark. These two angelic symbols were called Keruvim and Chazal tell us they had wings that covered the Oron and their faces were those of children. Nowhere else are we permitted to make statues, only here in the Holy of Holies.

The Keruvim hold many hints for us. There are two of them each representing five of the Ten Commandments whose tablets lay in the Oron below. To safeguard our heritage one must give our children our understanding of Hashem’s will, both between man and Hashem and between man and his fellow man. The Keruvim were made of one piece with the Oron itself, Torah must be part and parcel of the child’s lifestyle — not added on later, after the child has matured.

In this way, hovering over our essence, the future of Klal Yisrael can be vouchsafed. Yet, all the new ‘studies’ tell us differently. They insist we must be ‘pluralistic’, accepting the destructive forces of Reform and secularism as a valid form of Yiddishkeit. This all in the name of saving numbers in the game called Jewish Demographics. It makes one angry, because all these nostrums have been proven worthless; yet, here we have so called experts telling us of their value. Over the last few decades the Reformists have accepted more and more non-Jews into their ranks, saying that in this way we will save their children. So where are all these children? They aren’t in shuls, nor even in their temples, they have just disappeared in the fire of assimilation. Jews without Torah don’t last more than a couple of generations, there’s just too much outside that grabs them away. To keep Jews awake we must give them a Torah identity, not one built on nationalism or folk culture.

There is a new expression making the rounds of late: ‘Dumbing Down’ as in dumbing down of history or the dumbing down of maths. It expresses a new outlook on the part of communicators; they try to find the lowest common denominator so as — to appeal to more and more folk. This is a condescending attitude that in the end makes for great disillusionment. Some would have us chas vesholom dumb down our Yiddishkeit so that everyone could feel comfortable. It’s an illusion that has no merit, we are speaking of neshamas, and they need promise not condescension. Yes, it’s right and proper to seek ways of communicating Torah at a level that the uninitiated can accept, but this doesn’t mean discarding principles that are vital to Torah sensitivity.

Last week I read how one pundit feels that for “central orthodox’ communities to grow they have to offer more than just shul or education. His idea is that we mimic our American cousins and build “Jewish Cultural Centres”. As a Yankee I can tell you a bit about JCCs. The idea was that by erecting Jewishy sport centres that would have all sorts of social activities including a disregard for Shabbos, Jewish kids would gather around in salubrious surroundings and do non-Jewish things, but with Jews. This would make intermarriage a thing of the past; all good Jewish boys would meet only good Jewish girls. It was a disaster. It never worked. Many of those sporting centres now cater to only non-Jews and where they operate in Jewish communities, they succeed only if the kids are tied to a proper shul and Orthodox school. Jews don’t stay Jewish by doing non-Jewish things with other Jews. It only whets their appetite to go further away from their roots. I have seen this in my own community, some “chachomim” felt they would develop a youth centre away from any shul, after all kids don’t want to be in an establishment built by religion. They would meet other Jews and thereby stay on the strait and narrow. Garbage! The building is hardly used; the kids don’t want to know. The parents were willing to spend big money on this enterprise, do anything in fact, but be Jewish themselves and hence teach by example.

There is a Sefer entitled Eish Kodesh, which consists of droshos given by the Peasnetzna Rebbe ztl in the Warsaw Ghetto. It is a unique Sefer, through it one can see the tragic circumstances that faced our people and how a great Tzadik persevered and gave courage to his people. At one point, he speaks of how tragedy causes one to become mute, wordless, in the face of destruction. Then he says, “At first I wanted to succumb and live a life of muteness, but when the muteness threatened to prevail, I could no longer bear it, so I took hold of myself then, crying out to Hashem, You my people too, found strength through me”. The Rebbe had suffered greatly, he evidently found it almost impossible to speak, but he found strength within himself to cry out, and through this others found strength as well. Those were days of great darkness. Jews were shattered by what they were living through. Somehow, miraculously, a few were saved and it was that Shearis Hapleita under the leadership of Gedolei Hatorah that gave life to our Torah future.

Now we are witnessing another type of darkness, one inspired by our own ignorance and lack of self-worth. Youngsters leave a Jewishness that never made contact with their souls, and we as a people weep. We cannot however be muted, we must cry out and give courage. So much can be done; I personally have witnessed young secular Jews becoming engaged in their Jewishness for the first time. Not by Jewish centres for sport, or disco dancing but by talking to their neshamas. Anyone in doubt can come to a shalosh seudos in our community on any given Shabbos. Listen to the singing, hear the stories, and see the awakening.

It is almost Purim time; the ness came through a reclamation of Torah values, not a fudging of our heartfelt truths.