[Avodah] Rav S. Schwab on (not) Saying Aleinu

[Prof. Levine]

The following is taken from Rav Schwab on Yeshayahu.

48: 20 Assemble and come, come close together, you who have escaped 
from the nations who do not know, who carry the wood of their
graven images, and who pray to a god that cannot save.

Rav Schwab writes in part:

And who pray to a god that cannot save. They pray to lifeless idols 
who cannot possibly help them.

While the subject here is the rejection of the old-fashioned "idol 
worship," this
phrase also alludes to Christianity which has, as its central theme, 
a human being - a
Jew, no less - who is looked at as a Moshiah, savior. Yeshayahu 
foresaw the rise of
this religion, which began some 600 years after his death. and 
rejects it here together
with other forms of idol worship.

The phrase, umispallim el ale lo yoshiah, was incorporated into the 
tefllah of Aleinu,
in which we give thanks to HaKadosh Baruch Hu for forming us into
His special, chosen nation. And in it, we confirm our emunah in Him 
as the One and
Only God, to the exclusion of all others gods and forms of belief. 
The original text
of Aleinu included this sentence:  that they bow to nothingness and 
emptiness, and they pray to a god who does
not save. This clear rejection of all other forms of religion, 
including the Christian
concept of a savior other than HaKadosh Baruch Hu, eventually became a sore
point for Jews who lived in Europe because the Christians considered 
it offensive. It
was therefore removed from the official written texts of most 
siddurim in Germany
and other parts of Ashkenaz (although many people did, and continue to, recite
it anyway). The omission is quite obvious when one carefully reads the amended
text.

On a personal note, I remember that in Frankfurt, Aleinu was said quietly and
unofficially; and no Kaddish was said afterwards, so that if there 
were troublemakers
present they would not focus on it. In fact, many people would skip 
it altogether
and begin to leave shuI while others would quietly be reciting it. I 
remember one
of my friends from Telshe who was visiting me in Frankfurt remarking about the
uncharacteristic lack of decorum during Aleinu in the otherwise 
highly dignified and
organized tefillos of K'hal Adas Jeshurun.

Yitzchok Levine
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