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The following is from the article <b>The Ish Haemes, A Man of
Unimpeachable Integrity, Rabbi Shimon Schwab </b>by Eliyahu Meir
Klugman that appeared in the Jewish Observer , Summer 1995
issue. One may read the entire article at <br><br>
<a href="http://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/jo_r_schwab.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/jo_r_schwab.pdf<br><br>
</a><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b><i>Revision, For the
Sake of Truth<br><br>
</i></b></font>H<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>is [Rav Shimon
Schwab, ZT"L] adherence to </font><i>emes
</i><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>was<br>
such that he was willing to<br>
revise long held views. even </font>if<br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>that meant a reassessment of
publicly<br>
stated positions. His views on the relevance<br>
of </font><i>Torah <font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>im
</font>Derech Eretz </i><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>are
a<br>
case in point With the rise of Nazism<br>
in the l 930's, Rabbi Schwab was convinced<br>
that </font><i>Torah <font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>im
</font>Derech Eretz
</i><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>as<br>
expounded by Rabbi S.R Hirsch </font>was<br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>no longer relevant, not as an
educational<br>
program and certainly not as a<br>
<i>Weltanschauung. </i>The barbarity of the<br>
</font>Nazi <font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>beast (even before
World Warm.<br>
the virulent anti-Semitism in Germany,<br>
and the total failure of the ideals<br>
of enlightened humanism and<br>
Western culture to change the essential<br>
nature of gentile society led him to<br>
conclude that the only path for the Torah-<br>
observant German Jew was to return<br>
to the 'Torah </font>Only»
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>approach,<br>
and to shun Western culture and the<br>
world at large as much as possible.<br>
Rabbi Hirsch's </font><i>Torah
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>im </font>Derech Eretz<br>
</i><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>ideal, he averred, was
only a </font><i>hora'as<br>
sha'ah, </i><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>a temporary
measure for a<br>
temporary situation. </font>In
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>1934, he aired<br>
these views in a slim volume entitled<br>
</font><i>Heimkehr ins Judentum
</i><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>(Homecoming<br>
into Judaism), which caused a sensation<br>
in German Orthodoxy.<br><br>
But after coming to America, he<br>
concluded that the realities of the<br>
ghetto and the shtetl where one could<br>
spend all one's life in the local </font><i>beis<br>
hamidrash, </i><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>with its total
dissociation<br>
from the rest of society, was a way of<br>
life that had also been consumed in<br>
the flames of the Holocaust. The realities<br>
of life in the United States and<br>
other Western countries. where the<br>
Jew traveled in non-Jewish circles<br>
and could not live totally apart from<br>
around him, were not essentially different from the situation<br>
in the Western Europe of Rabbi<br>
Hirsch. Furthermore, a careful study<br>
of all of Rabbi Hirsch's writings led<br>
</font>him <font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>to the inevitable
conclusion that<br>
he had never meant </font><i>Torah
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>im </font>Derech<br>
</i><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>Eretz as a
</font><i>hom'as sha'ah at all.
</i><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>It was<br>
not a compromise, a <i>kula, </i>or a </font><i>hetter.<br>
</i><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>Although Rav Hirsch did
not insist<br>
that it was for everyone, he certainly<br>
did not see it as time bound. Rabbi<br>
Schwab then publicly retracted his<br>
earlier insistence on 'Torah </font>Only"
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>as<br>
the sole way of life for the Torah Jew<br>
in Western society. (Rabbi Schwab always<br>
viewed the situation in </font><i>Eretz<br>
Yisroel as </i><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>essentially
unique, but that<br>
is beyond the purview of this article.)<br>
To that end he published in 1966 a<br>
booklet entitled <i>These </font>and
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>Those {Eilu<br>
</font>v'Eilu), </i><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>wherein he
set forth the
</font>argu<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>ments<br>
and counter-arguments for<br>
both positions, with the conclusion,<br>
as the title indicates, that both, in<br>
their proper time and place, are legitimate<br>
ways of life for the Torah Jew in<br>
Western society.</font></body>
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