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<font size=3>At 04:09 PM 3/20/2014, R. Ben Waxman wrote on
Areivim:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Contrast this to a classic from
Rabbi Schwab:<br><br>
What ethical purpose is served by preserving a realistic historic
picture? Nothing but the satisfaction of curiosity. We should tell
ourselves and our children the good memories of the good people, their
unshakable faith, their staunch defense of tradition, their life of
truth, their impeccable honesty, their boundless charity and their great
reverence for Torah and Torah sages. What is gained by pointing out their
inadequacies and their contradictions? We want to be inspired by their
example and learn from their experience... Rather than write the history
of our forebears, every generation has to put a veil over the human
failings of its elders and glorify all the rest which is great and
beautiful. That means we have to do without a real history book. We can
do without. We do not need realism, we need inspiration from our
forefathers in order to pass it onto posterity.<br>
Selected Writings (Lakewood, 1988)</blockquote><br>
I knew Rabbi Schwab, ZT"L, personally. He was, IMO, one
of the great rabbonim of the last century. <br><br>
That being said, I have never understood his attitude toward Jewish
history that is espoused in what you have quoted. I find it all the
more difficult to understand in light of the fact that RSRH makes it
clear that the Torah points out the "shortcomings" of the Avos
and Emos and says that this is a plus, and the fact the Rav Schwab was a
Hirschian. For example, RSRH, following the RAMBAN,
says that Avraham committed a Chet when he said that Sarah was his
sister. He gives other examples such as the fact that Yitzchok and
Rivka made a mistake in how they educated Esav. <br><br>
I am fond of saying that there are Holocaust deniers and there are
Orthodox deniers. There are those within our community who refuse
to realize that there was much wrong with Judaism in Europe.
One thing that particularly disturbs me is the fact that the Cheder
system in Europe was an abysmal failure (See Saul Stampfer's article
about this.), yet they want to perpetuate this Cheder system.
<br><br>
YL <br>
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