Conference taveng::bagels

424.0. "The Pharaoh's of Russia" by BOLT::MINOW (Je suis marxiste, tendance Groucho) Mon Jan 11 1988 11:39

This was posted to the Usenet soc.culture.jewish newsgroup.  You might
find it interesting.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Path: decwrl!decvax!mcnc!gatech!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!occrsh!erc3ba!alu
Subject: D'var Torah: Sh'mot: Rabbi Riskin
Posted: 8 Jan 88 14:25:01 GMT
Organization: AT&T Engineering Research Center
 
 
SHABBAT SHALOM: Shmot -- The Pharaohs of Russia
 
                              by Shlomo Riskin
 
     EFRAT, Israel -- Some twenty years ago, the plight of Soviet
Jewry  was  just  beginning  to echo across the cities of America
with large Jewish populations,  and  the  Soviet  Government,  in
trying  to quell the rumors which yoked the status of the Jews in
modern  Russia to the status of the Jews in ancient  Egypt,  sent
the Chief Rabbi of Moscow to New York. I very much wanted to meet
with Rabbi Levin. In the hotel where he was  staying,  the  Essex
House  in  N.Y.  a minyan gathered every morning, which I joined.
Lincoln Square was located within walking distance of the  hotel,
and  at  some  point  I  was  introduced  to  Rabbi  Levin as the
neighborhood rabbi. Although I was quite young at  the  time,  he
greeted  me warmly, and invited me to have breakfast with him the
following morning, a Friday.
 
     I was terribly anxious to learn about Jewish life in Russia.
Could  one find kosher food in Moscow? Were there synagogues with
active membership in Russia?  Were  there  yeshivas?  Did  people
learn  Torah  and  study  Talmud?  And  Rabbi  Levin,  instead of
answering directly, repeated my questions. Could one find  kosher
food  in America? Were there synagogues with active membership in
New York? Were there yeshivas in America?
 
     Joining us for breakfast was a man dressed like a  typically
religious  Jew,  and  at  the time I figured he was Rabbi Levin's
assistant, but I soon found out otherwise. When he got up  to  go
to the men's room, Rabbi Levin suddenly said to me that we should
see sing a zemiril, and the song he chose came  from  the  Friday
night  zemirot.  When  he got to the words, "Prok yat anach mipum
aryavata...." (Take your sheep out of the mouth of the lion,  and
remove  your  nation  from  the midst of the exile), he sang that
line repeatedly, tears streaming down his face.
 
     When the man returned  from  the  men's  room,  Rabbi  Levin
composed  himself  but not before he was asked why he was singing
zemirot when it wasn't the Sabbath. Without batting  an  eyelash,
Rabbi Levin answered that the young rabbi wanted to know how they
sang this particular song in Slobodka,  the  well  know  Talmudic
academy where Rabbi Levin had once been a student.
 
     Nothing could have spoken louder than those tears. I had  my
answer. Russia was a land that swallowed its lambs.
 
     Not long afterwards I went to Russia to see the lion with my
own eyes. There I discovered that the new edition of prayer books
which Rabbi Levin had brought along as an example of  the  Soviet
Union's  liberalizing policy toward Judaism was, in fact, a sham.
The prayer books were kept behind locked doors in the  synagogue,
available only to tourists.
 
     My journey took me to Leningrad where I sought out the chief
rabbi  of  the  city.  A  man no longer young, he'd also suffered
under the Communists,  having  spent  time  locked  in  jail.  He
apologized  quietly  under  his  breath  for not inviting me to a
Shabbat meal at his home; it was impossible to do so.
 
     While still in New York, I'd been asked to deliver  a  photo
of  the  chief  rabbi's  daughter,  her  husband  and grandchild.
Somehow she had gotten out of Russia and  lived  in  Israel.  The
first  chance I felt it was safe, I whispered to Rabbi Lubanov in
Yiddish, "Ich hub a bild foon aier tochter."
 
     His face turned white. And then he  asked  me  to  drop  the
photo to the ground as inconspicuously as possible. While he kept
the photo hidden  with  his  shoe,  he  asked  me  the  following
question:  In  Tractate  Moed  Katan (26a) of the Talmud, it says
that if one is present where a Torah scroll is destroyed,  Heaven
forbid,  then  one  must  rend  his  garment twice --once for the
actual Torah, the parchment,  and  once  for  the  holy  letters.
However,  he  continued,  in  Tractate  Avoda Zara (18a) the text
tells us  that  during  the  Hadriatic  persecutions  when  Rabbi
Chanina  ben  Tradyon  was burned at the stake wrapped in a Torah
scroll, his students cried out, "Master, what you  do  you  see?"
And  he  answered  that  despite  the  actual  scroll burning and
turning to ash, the holy black letters were flying up to heaven.
 
     Rabbi Lubanov, in  a  hurried  voice,  continued.  If  Rabbi
Chanina saw the letters flying up --meaning that they could never
be destroyed-- why did the Talmud in Moed Katan tell us to  mourn
for  the  letters separately. He grabbed my hand and said that it
all depends on who is destroying the Torah. If only the enemy  is
destroying  it,  then  the letters can never be destroyed. But if
the Jew is collaborating with the enemy, then  not  only  is  the
parchment destroyed, but the letters are destroyed as well.
 
     I never saw him again, but I never forgot what he said.
 
     Historically, the leaders of Jewish communities  have  found
it  extremely  difficult to ignore an enemy's tantalizing promise
that collaboration will, in the long run,  mean  more  lives  and
institutions  saved. The culmination of this approach was reached
in WW2 when the Judenrat worked with the  Germans,  acting  as  a
liaison  between  the  Nazi  war  machine and millions of Jews in
their towns  and  cities.  They  meant  well.  Under  threats  of
wholesale  murders,  one  of  their  jobs  was to supply lists of
names, far fewer in number than the Nazis swore they'd kill.
 
     In  this  week's  Torah  portion  we   read   of   Pharaoh's
destructive  edict  ordering  Shifra  and  Puah, the chief Hebrew
midwives, to ensure that all male children would be  thrown  into
the  Nile  while only females were allowed to live. What we don't
see in the text, although it  could  easily  have  been  part  of
Pharaoh's message, was that if the midwives didn't listen to him,
then both males and females would be killed.
 
     Had Shifra and Puah been members of the Judenrat, they might
have  listened  to  Pharaoh,  but  the  Torah  tells us that that
"...the midwives feared G-d and didn't do as the  King  of  Egypt
commanded."  [Genesis  1:17]  Looking  at  the  arc  of  recorded
history, from Pharaoh to Hitler, we see that it's  impossible  to
successfully  execute  genocide  unless  there  is  help from the
inside, and when Shifra and Puah don't listen to  Pharaoh  (Rashi
identifies  them  as the mother and sister of Moses, Yocheved and
Miriam) they set a standard for the  correct  behavior  with  the
enemy.  Unfortunately,  not  everyone has been able to live up to
the standards of Shifra and Puah, but today,  in  modern  Russia,
we're  witnessing  something incredible. What is unique about the
new refuseniks is  that  they  refuse  to  collaborate  with  the
Russian powers on any level.
 
     In one sense, Pharaoh  telling  the  midwives  to  save  the
females while killing the males might be compared to a government
saying we'll save your bodies but kill  your  souls  --which  has
been  the predicament of Jews in 20th century Russia. And just as
Shifra and Puah saved the life of Moses,  maybe  the  next  Moses
will  be  born  in  Russia,  saved  from  certain spiritual death
because of the refuseniks Shifra and Puah and Ida  who  stood  up
again and again and again to defy the Russian Pharaohs.
 
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
 
Copyright Ohr Torah 1987.
This essay is distributed by Kesher --the Jewish Network. For information 
regarding its use, contact the Kesher BBS at 312- 940-1686
 
For more information, call (212)496-1618.
 
-- 
               		Alan Lustiger
    |_ | |             	AT&T Engineering Research Center
     /   |( 		Princeton, NJ
			{AT&T Machines}!pruxc!alu
 
========================================================================
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I wanted to share with you the following  response which appeared in
the Christian conference. The writer draws some interesting parallels
for both Christians and Jews who have the freedom to practice their
religion according to their faith but find themselves taking that freedom
for granted. Perhaps you, too, will see the parallels. 
        
    Irena
      -------------------------------------------------------------

               <<< IOSG::LIB0:[NOTES$LIBRARY]CHRISTIAN.NOTE;1 >>>
                    -< The New Christian Notes Conference >-
================================================================================
Note 361.1               INTERESTING NOTE FROM BAGELS                     1 of 1
HYDRA::CHICOINE                                     148 lines  15-JAN-1988 13:52
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



    I found this note hauntingly poignant to both modern day Christians 
and Jews, in America. The connection is not so clear so as to say that 
the oppression of Religion in the Soviet Union is the same in America, 
but I do believe that as far as True religious conviction is concerned,
the results of life in America and Russia, are no less detrimental to
both religions. 

    In Russia the oppressor is obvious and tangible. It is easy to know
who and what your enemy is. Religious conviction is a serious matter and
is never entered into lightly. When practicing your belief can cost you
your life, you take time to asses the value of that conviction to your-
self. And like a precious possession, you guard it from deterioration
and devaluation. You keep it from thieves and swindlers, and protect
it with your life.

    When Rabbi Levin sang the phrase "take your sheep out of the mouth 
of the Lion, and remove your nation from the midst of exile", it became
clear to me, that, must be our song also. More than a song, a fervent
prayer! GOD. Take your sheep out of the mouth of the lion.

    Here in America (Christians and Jews) are free to worship as they
choose. There is no religious persecution so strong so as to stop any 
of us from attending a worship service, reading our Scripture, or even 
preaching our beliefs to whom-ever will listen. So what's my problem? 

    My concern began to come into focus with the reading of this next
paragraph of the text.

>     Rabbi Lubanov, in  a  hurried  voice,  continued.  If  Rabbi
> Chanina saw the letters flying up --meaning that they could never
> be destroyed-- why did the Talmud in Moed Katan tell us to  mourn
> for  the  letters separately. 
>>>                               He grabbed my hand and said that it
>>> all depends on who is destroying the Torah. If only the enemy  is
>>> destroying  it,  then  the letters can never be destroyed. But if
>>> the Jew is collaborating with the enemy, then  not  only  is  the
>>> parchment destroyed, but the letters are destroyed as well.

     This was it!  The enemy in America is within, and as Rabbi Lubanov
said, this is the only thing that can destroy God's word. We don't have
a military or governmental oppressor, but you had better believe we have 
oppressors within our lives that are just as detrimental to living out our 
faith.

 Now when I read:
>     I was terribly anxious to learn about Jewish life in Russia.
> Could  one find kosher food in Moscow? Were there synagogues with
> active membership in Russia?  Were  there  yeshivas?  Did  people
> learn  Torah  and  study  Talmud?  And  Rabbi  Levin,  instead of
> answering directly, repeated my questions. Could one find  kosher
> food  in America? Were there synagogues with active membership in
> New York? Were there yeshivas in America?
  
    The questions repeated by Rabbi Levin have the same relevance here in 
America as they do in Russia, But not for the same reasons. There, people 
have a government that stops them from living in the full commitment of 
their faith, here, it is our comfortable life-styles, and our assimilation 
into society that has been the demise of strong religious convictions. The 
result is the same.

>     Nothing could have spoken louder than those tears. I had  my
> answer. Russia was a land that swallowed its lambs.
 
>     Not long afterwards I went to Russia to see the lion with my
> own eyes. There I discovered that the new edition of prayer books
> which Rabbi Levin had brought along as an example of  the  Soviet
> Union's  liberalizing policy toward Judaism was, in fact, a sham.
> The prayer books were kept behind locked doors in the  synagogue,
> available only to tourists.
 
     I doubt that God looks down upon the religiously oppressed in Russia 
with as discontented an eye as He does upon those that have religious 
freedom, and neglect to earnestly seek His face. I suspect that to God the 
prayer books kept behind locked doors cause less grief than the ones lost 
in someone's private library collecting dust, or the ones used  to cast
God's words upon hardened hearts and deaf ears. And that the sham set up 
for outward display to pacify tourists, is no more degrading than the out-
ward display of religiosity set up in our hearts only to pacify God Himself.
    
>     Historically, the leaders of Jewish communities  have  found
> it  extremely  difficult to ignore an enemy's tantalizing promise
> that collaboration will, in the long run,  mean  more  lives  and
> institutions  saved. 
 
     Hard as it might be to accept, this is still true today. We find
it extremely difficult to ignore an enemy's tantalizing promise that
collaboration will in the long run, mean more lives and institutions
saved. So we see our religions flexing and conforming to the world's
ever decreasing moral standards. In an effort not to stand out or to
be ostracized by society, our theological leaders slowly allow the Word 
of God to be destroyed. We see individuals walking away from "extreme" 
philosophies, and embracing liberalism. Participation in, and interest 
in long established matters of religious conviction are scoffed at and 
philosophically relegated out of our lives. In Christianity we see such 
things daily devotions, fasting, tithing, attendance of mid-week services, 
or religious holiday services, fading out of the picture. Our children 
have very few differences in life styles and attitudes, interests and 
dress than any other "nice" child with no religious background. Discipline 
is a dirty word, and conviction is out dated.

>     Had Shifra and Puah been members of the Judenrat, they might
> have  listened  to  Pharaoh,  but  the  Torah  tells us that that
> "...the midwives feared G-d and didn't do as the  King  of  Egypt
> commanded."  [Genesis  1:17] 

     Is it God we fear? Or is it self sacrifice? Are we looking for God's
blessing or the blessing of men? Do we dare to follow the word of God as
the HOLY SPIRIT leads or will we adopt a new way, that which has been
deliberated over and contrived by men to conform in a man made religion. 
Are we storing up riches in heaven, or seeking after our reward here on
earth. Are wealth, leasuer, and pleasure the gods of today? 
 
> Looking  at  the  arc  of  recorded
> history, from Pharaoh to Hitler, we see that it's  impossible  to
> successfully  execute  genocide  unless  there  is  help from the
> inside,

   AMEN!!!!

> and when Shifra and Puah don't listen to  Pharaoh  (Rashi
> identifies  them  as the mother and sister of Moses, Yocheved and
> Miriam) they set a standard for the  correct  behavior  with  the
> enemy.  Unfortunately,  not  everyone has been able to live up to
> the standards of Shifra and Puah, but today,  in  modern  Russia,
> we're  witnessing  something incredible. What is unique about the
> new refuseniks is  that  they  refuse  to  collaborate  with  the
> Russian powers on any level.                         
 
    These people are the hope of the world, that God will once again
move His hand and stop the moral decline and persecution of His people.

    I feel a calling to God's people to seize the time while we still can
and to consecrate the Holy nation. A time for the remnant to arise.

                         *** May God Bless ***
                             John Chicoine