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From
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/njwrn2g" eudora="autourl">
http://tinyurl.com/njwrn2g</a><br><br>
<font size=2>There was a major difference, however, between the Bais
Yaacov of Williamsburg and the Bais Yaacov of Poland in pre-war Europe.
The Bais Yaacov movement in Poland emphasized the universal Torah
teachings of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, while the Bais Yaacov of
Williamsburg did not give Rabbi Hirsch's teachings the same emphasis. Why
were Rabbi Hirsch's teachings regarding the Torah's universal vision no
longer the main focus? Most of the teachers and students at the American
Bais Yaakov were Holocaust survivors who felt a need to turn inward after
experiencing the hatred of the Gentiles around them and the horrors of
the Holocaust. They knew that most of the "humanistic"
intellectuals and artists of Germany actively supported the brutal
persecution of the Jewish people. They also knew that most of the
"enlightened" countries closed their doors to Jews who were
trying to escape the Holocaust. In addition, they knew that most of the
Christian religious leaders of Europe did not protest the organized
murder of millions of Jewish men, women, and children; moreover, many
Christians in the countries occupied by the Germans actively assisted the
Germans in rounding up the Jews for the death camps. In fact, a number of
Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who returned to Poland after the war
were murdered in Polish pogroms! It is understandable that these
survivors felt the need to first heal themselves before worrying about
the world which had abandoned their suffering people. <br>
<br>
In addition, these survivors did not have the strong attraction to
secular western culture which an earlier generation of Bais Yaakov
students had once experienced, and their feelings are expressed in the
following memoir of Dr. Judith Grunfeld:<br>
<br>
"Almost seventy years have passed since, and we have today most
unfortunately an easy enough means of demonstrating that all cultures
which we then venerated have revealed themselves to be nothing but a
flimsy veneer covering over diabolical inhumanity. European humanitarian
ideas so prevalent then, so much on the tip of everyone's tongue,
preached by leading university representatives, have been proven utterly
hollow. For they did not succeed in preventing, and indeed could be said
to be frequently instrumental in strirring up the raging, terrible fire
of man's inhumanity to man." ("Rebbitzen Grunfeld" by
Miriam Dansky, p. 72)<br>
<br>
Nevertheless, our sages teach that Torah - the Divine wisdom - is the
blueprint of creation, and that the Creator looked into the Torah when He
created the world (Genesis Rabbah 1:1). If our Creator looked into the
Torah and created the world, then when we look into the Torah we can
rediscover this world. In addition, the Torah reveals that we have the
potential to become holy vessels with the spiritual power to transform
and elevate the world; thus, no matter how much we turn inward, the study
of Torah reminds us that we must eventually turn outward. This may be one
of the reasons why a growing number of Torah-committed Jews in our
generation are rediscovering the writings of Rabbi Hirsch, as a major
theme of his teachings is the universal goal of the Torah path. <br>
<br>
The Bais Yaacov High School of Baltimore, under the leadership of its
principal, Rabbi Binyamin Steinberg, gave renewed emphasis to the
universal vision of the Torah. Rabbi Steinberg himself was a Holocaust
survivor, and in one of his talks to his students about respect for other
peoples, he reminded them of the Compassionate One's promise to Abraham
that "through you all the families of the earth will be
blessed" (Genesis 12:3). The following is an excerpt from his
talk:<br>
<br>
"All the families of the earth," he declared. 'Who cares about
all the families of the earth?' you ask. Nevertheless, that's what the
Torah says...The people of Israel will be a blessing for all the families
of the earth. That means the Albanians, the Greeks, the Chinese, the
Indonesians, the African Americans - all the families of the earth.
That's what it says in my Torah! " (A Matter of Principal - a
biography of Rabbi Binyamin Steinberg by Hanoch Teller).<br>
<br>
Before we can become a blessing to others, however, we first need to turn
inward in order to develop our unique strengths. As Sarah Schneirer
realized, we first have to renew ourselves before we can renew the world.
As the Prophet Isaiah proclaimed to our people:<br>
<br>
"O House of Jacob: Come, let us walk by the light of Hashem! "
(Isaiah 2:5)</font> <br><br>
See the above URL for more. YL</body>
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