“Total war should mean no aid to the enemy before he surrenders”

What’s Their Motive? [Poison Ivies / Issue 990]

I ate up the interview with David Magerman, except for a sentence that troubles me. He recommends that we “seek out places such as historically… Christian colleges where belief in G-d is still held as a value.”

I spent most of my childhood, aged six to 14, in the hands of Christians. They were active missionaries and were able to use my parents’ breakup to lure my mother into the church. (I began my own efforts to return to authentic Judaism at age 14, and I did succeed in getting my mother to leave the church and return to Torah Judaism many years later.)

My experiences with these missionaries led me to question the recommendation for Christian colleges. I know about the activities of some Christian supporters of Israel, and I appreciate their support, but very uneasily. Because some of these “supporters” are sending missionaries into Israel, where Jews who have been raised in irreligious environments often become ensnared. So my own experiences always lead me to question, “What’s their motive?”

Don’t many Christian colleges present as strong a threat to one’s Yiddishkeit as the Ivies are presenting to us with physical and emotional trauma? I think that competent Torah authorities must be consulted by anyone contemplating going to any college, and especially to Christian ones.

Aharon Tuvia Gladstone

Our Only Interest [Knesset Channel / Issue 990]

Avi Blum, Esq., quotes an Israeli politician who believes that providing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip is “an Israeli interest, first and foremost.” I beg to differ.

The US and Britain obviously did not believe that it was in their interest to provide such aid during World War II, because they did not allow the Germans and Japanese to receive any.

Hamas enjoys its pick of the “fuel, food, tents, and humanitarian aid” entering the Gaza Strip. Without them, Hamas would starve, die of thirst, and run out of fuel, which would shorten the war and save the lives of Jewish soldiers.

Hamas uses the “safe zones” created by Israel for shelter and shooting missiles at Israeli cities with impunity. Hamas terrorists use the “humanitarian corridors” to escape from places surrounded by the IDF, after which they can kill more Jewish soldiers.

“Humanitarian pauses” enable Hamas to regroup and kill more Jewish soldiers. Being “merciful” to the Gaza Strip means more dead Jewish soldiers.

Total war should mean no aid to the enemy before he surrenders. No one provided humanitarian aid to enemy civilians in World War II. The US dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities in order to save the lives of American soldiers, who otherwise would have had to invade Japan.

Beyond the defeat of Hamas, the only other consideration in this war should be saving Jewish lives.

Michael Greengard

Jerusalem

Gift of Time [For the Record / Issue 990]

Kudos for publishing the article about Rabbi Mattisyahu Strashun and his glorious library. I would like to share some anecdotes about him.

My father, the writer Rabbi Tovia Preschel, heard the following story from his rosh yeshivah in London, Rav Elya Lopian, who heard it from students of Rav Yisrael Salanter.

Rav Yisrael Salanter did not have a watch. Rabbi Mattisyahu Strashun wanted to get Rav Yisrael Salanter a gift, a watch, several times, but Rav Yisrael Salanter always demurred, saying, “Sonei matanos yichyeh — he who despises gifts will live.”

Rabbi Mattisyahu Strashun could not understand how Rav Yisrael Salanter could function without a watch when he gave several shiurim a day at specific times. “If you can’t afford it, and you won’t take a gift,” he asked, “then how will you ever obtain a watch?”

“I will daven for it,” Rav Yisrael answered. That was the start of a debate whether one could daven for something that is not a real necessity like bread.

When Rav Lopian related the story, he didn’t mention when it took place. But my father read about the story at a later date in a Hebrew translation (by M. Zvi, Netzach Publishers, 1968) of Choice Stories of Rabbi Dr. Naftali Hertz Ehrman, which originally appeared in German. When Rav Yisrael Salanter visited Germany, Rabbi Dr. Naftali Hertz Ehrman was “meshamesh” him, so it seems Rabbi Ehrman heard the story directly from Rav Yisrael Salanter.

Rabbi Ehrman writes the debate between Rabbi Mattisyahu Strashun and Rav Yisrael Salanter took place on the night of Nittel, when it is customary not to learn. Rav Yisrael Salanter and Rabbi Mattisyahu Strashun were “meikil” and met in the beis medrash of Vilna. They were only going to begin learning after midnight, so until then they decided to have a discussion on what may man pray for — may one pray to become wealthy, or only for bread to eat?

When midnight came and they were about to begin to learn, Reb Sholom Atlas, who was the gabbai of the Chevra Kaddisha, approached them. He had been called to the military hospital to say Vidui with a Jewish soldier who had no family. The soldier asked him before his passing to please give his gold watch to a talmid chacham.

“Rabbi Strashun,” the gabbai said to Rabbi Mattisyahu, “I know that you have a watch already. So I am offering it to Rav Yisrael Salanter.”

Rav Yisrael Salanter gladly accepted it.

Rabbi Mattisyahu Strashun looked at him in surprise. “How can you accept the watch?” he asked. “Didn’t you say that he who despises gifts will live?”

Rav Yisrael Salanter answered, “It is a mitzvah to adhere to the request of a man on his deathbed.”

Another interesting anecdote about Rabbi Mattisyahu is that he came to know and admire the Ridbaz, Rabbi Yaakov David Willovsky, from the latter’s visits to Rabbi Strashun’s library. Rabbi Strashun was so impressed that he recommended the Ridbaz be appointed as a maggid of the community of Vilna.

In 1882 the Ridbaz was in fact appointed maggid of the community of Vilna. Though he was quite successful in his new position, he left Vilna after a year and a half. His heavy schedule, which required him to deliver sermons and funeral orations, did not leave him as much time as he desired for the study of Torah.

In 1872, Rabbi Mattisyahu Strashun and his wife Chana hosted and took care of the famous talmid chacham, bibliographer, and traveler, Rav Yaakov HaLevi Ibn Sapir, for 75 days when he had a broken leg.

In gratitude to the Strashuns, the second volume of Rav Yaakov HaLevi Ibn Sapir’s travelogue Even Sapir is dedicated to them. It was published by Yechiel Brill, son-in-law of Rabbi Sapir and editor of the periodical Halevanon in Paris.

The second volume includes an appendix with extracts from some of the manuscripts Rabbi Yaakov had acquired on his travels. To support himself, he sold some of his manuscripts, one to the Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon IV of France. The empress deposited the manuscript in the Hebrew section of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris. He sold another manuscript to Baron Naftali Herz (Horace) Gunzburg of St. Petersburg.

Pearl Herzog

Lakewood, NJ

A Changed Classroom Climate [All Our Children / Issue 990]

I am writing this letter in response to the Counterpoint article, “All Our Children.” I have been an elementary school morah for 30-plus years. I have always taught on a high level, feeling it important to teach to the top of the class, aiming for the middle of the class to “work up” to higher levels, and working with the few on the lower level of the class through modifications, resource room, etc. This had always been a strong working model, and I found much sippuk hanefesh over the years. During the last ten years, however, the decline of the percentage of high-average to strong students has been sharp.

I now have a large low-average and even larger weak-to-extremely-weak percentage in my class, leaving me a few strong students, and very rarely, a gifted student. The administration continually asks its teachers to lower the standard in order to reach as many students as possible. I speak less Hebrew in class, the tests and work are simplified, etc.

On top of this reality, which is happening in most schools, the curriculum changes every couple of years. Teachers are asked to pivot constantly in order to acclimate to new realities. The teacher is then asked to adjust this new curriculum to fit the population of the school, usually meaning that the work provided is too difficult for the general level of the students. I won’t even discuss the fact that teachers’ salaries have not increased at all (my salary capped around 18 years ago).

All this being said, trying to address gifted students in the current classroom climate is truly a Herculean challenge. While a longtime teacher like me is more than happy to cater to strong students, it is extremely difficult under present circumstances.

If schools really want to reach “all our children,” funds must be allocated, support and enrichment staff must be hired, and classes should be homogeneous (not heterogeneous). It is unfair to compare the yeshivah model to public schools with a gifted track, as those students are not sitting in the same class as their weaker counterparts. Furthermore, standard yeshivos are not set up for mixing different grades.

It is extremely difficult to balance the needs of the gifted and the weak under regular circumstances, but under current circumstances, it is not that realistic.

I appreciate how difficult it must be for parents of gifted children — who understand that their children need to stay at their grade level for social development — to hear their children complain that they are “bored” in the classroom. Many of us have tried creative solutions, but please understand that a teacher can only stretch so far.

Respectfully,

A Caring Morah

Question of Priorities [All Our Children / Issue 990]

I read the Counterpoint column by a mother and daughter regarding gifted children with much interest. As I read, though, I noticed two glaring points.

Firstly, the mother references her own education and her teaching now in public school as a great example of how to stimulate children to reach their potential. As a teacher, I do offer different levels of tests and extra knowledge perks according to academic level. Yet unlike public school teachers, our teachers are not compensated for preparation time, and our salaries are nowhere near theirs. We also focus on the heart of our teaching, as opposed to viewing our job as a career to pump as much knowledge as possible into our students.

Yes, I spend some of my precious evening hours altering test levels and marking extra credit reports — yet when I talk to a struggling student or discuss solutions with a mother regarding her child’s progress, I know my time is better spent. Would you rather a teacher use her last available hour to create civilization projects and bury artifacts in the yard, or to send a cake for the student whose mother is sitting shivah, make a birthday phone call to a student, and write an encouraging note on a test paper?

Whenever my husband hears me saying that I have eight children kein ayin hara, he quips that I really have 31. My students are at the forefront of my mind, and I love them like my own — something I’m not so sure you’d receive in public school.

The other point that caught my attention was that the mother’s and daughter’s experiences took place quite a number of years ago. While I understand that the importance of education shouldn’t be minimized, it is crucial to realize the differences in today’s classrooms.

Out of my 23 students in a mainstream Bais Yaakov in an in-town community, I have one student recently diagnosed with PANDAS, one with severe anxiety, one with emotional regulation issues, and one with a recent divorce in the family. And that’s besides the academically gifted child, the student struggling to keep up socially, and the bully/class queen/manipulator. There are those leaving twice a week for tutoring or OT, and the school social worker has a full schedule — including several of my beloved students.

Today’s teachers are learning to cope with so much more going on in the classrooms. In my decade plus as a teacher I have seen more and more areas that I need to address, and feel privileged to be tasked with. One of the very important ones is helping the gifted child reach her potential. It’s just not the only one.

Imagine it was your beautiful daughter who became an emotional wreck every time there was a change in routine — would you be so passionate about building websites and science labs for gifted students? Yes, it’s vital for their overall success, but there are more and more things going on in today’s classrooms that make it the teacher’s job to prioritize and keep all goals in mind.

I could go on, but the hour is late, and I still have to mark an extra report I created for one single student about Rosh Chodesh — what’s the significance, why especially for women, and how is it different now that there’s a calendar set up.

A teacher who wants every student to shine

A Keeper [Magazine / Issue 989]

I don’t often save my issues of Mishpacha, but the Chanukah edition was a keeper. As I was reading it, I kept saying out loud to my husband, “You have to read this article” and then “Wait, you have to read this one, too.”

The calming words of Rav Yaakov Hillel, the feature on the Chazon Ish, Yonoson Rosenblum’s fascinating piece on Beri Reichmann, the powerful piece on Amichai Schindler — all of these in a single issue! And of course, I’m a sucker for the Trust Fund serial (is it embarrassing to admit it’s the first thing I read?).

Yasher koach.

A Happy Reader

The True Way Forward [No Left Turn / Issue 988]

When Gershon Baskin states that he thought Ghazi Hamad was someone who could be trusted to work with to bring a better future for both Israel and Gaza and that he realizes, in the aftermath of the Simchas Torah massacre, that he was wrong and that neither he (Hamad) nor his organization (Hamas) “have any right to exist,” he expresses disillusionment with one person and one group. He thus misses the basic underlying obstacle to peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs/Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza: the prevailing ideology that glorifies death, destruction, and eradication of Jews in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and globally.

The way forward is not by reform of existing Arab/Palestinian institutions such as the Palestinian Authority, but rather by an organic movement of the general public residing in Gaza and the West Bank who seek to live with moral clarity.

The people who want a better future and are intent on building a stable, normative, moral society must begin the process now, in midst of war and chaos and even with risk of great danger to themselves, by demonstrating their disgust for the evils perpetrated in their name, demanding an immediate release of all prisoners, immediate removal of all rocket launchers and ammunition from their homes, hospitals, schools, and other civilian areas, immediate cessation to the shelling of Israeli cities, destruction of all the terror tunnels, and by proclaiming their rejection of a system that radicalizes their youth and teaches them to glorify hatred and death.

Some may say that this is a pipe dream. It is possible, however, that the current war and devastation present the best opportunity yet for the Arab/Palestinian people to search for existential truth, clarity, and universal moral standards — the Seven Noachide Laws. And as the nation who has been tasked with being the “light unto the nations,” we should prepare ourselves for when the people show, through words and action, that they are ready.

Ruchie Akerman

Brooklyn, New York

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 992)