A real pity that Jews have to wait for a crisis to remind them that they are Jews. But it's better than nothing. Because maybe all of life is a crisis. And during all of life we need our Jewish identity, our Jewish commitments to God, to Israel, to Torah. The Arabs, with the connivance of the Russians, struck on Yom Kippur. They thought they caught us unaware. Militarily, maybe. But in other ways, no. Yom Kippur teaches us that we can survive without eating and drinking. Without bathing. Without shoes. Without sex. But not without God. Not without a word of prayer. Not without a thought of Torah. Not without each other.Israel is going to win, if only because it can't afford to lose. Of course, we are all going to help to the limits of our ability. But we have got to win the other war too, the one that will continue long afterwards: the war against our self-expression as Jews. The attack against the dignity that allows us to observe our Judaism without embarrassment. The battle against our pride - not arrogance - in our tefillin, kippah, kashrut, Shabbat. The war of attrition by a phoney liberalism-humanism-internationalism that tells us that the only way to save the world is for the Jews to give up being Jewish. It's phoney because only by being themselves can Jews be of service to others. Because only by loving Israel can Jews learn to love mankind. Because only by being truly Jewish do we become genuinely humanitarian. Be-cause only by serving the God of Israel do we come to know the God who created and loves all men and all nations.What can you do? Go to Israel as a civilian volunteer. Contribute to U.J.A.. Buy a bond. Attend a demonstration for Israel or Soviet Jewry. Wear a kippah proudly as a symbol of your Jewishness. Attend services - and walk, don't ride. Seek out an observant Jew and ask him to help you put on the tefillin. Even just once. Or ask him to invite you to his home for a Shabbat meal. Above all - read, study, learn. The shooting may be over soo…

The war prompts me to a confession. During the past several years I wavered on the issue of Israel sitting in the occupied territories. True, I was suspicious of the doctrinaire quality of the dove’s line, but I was even more irritated at the stridency of the hawks. I could not quite be convinced of the cogency of the annexationists’ argument that the defense of the Israeli heartland proper required extended borders. They sounded too nationalistic. Their jingoist rhetoric irked me. Appropriate to the Yom Kippur War, I and many others like me will have to say Al Chet, and confess our errors. No longer may we judge vital positions by subjective reactions to style or taste. The hawks may sound reactionary, militaristic, and strident, but (without subscribing to their entire line) I now appreciate the simple point they have been trying to make all along. Not jingoism, not historical motives, not halakhic pronouncements, but the simple doctrine of pikuach nefesh – survival – demands the margin of safety which, had we not had it on Yom Kippur 1973, Tisha B’av 1974 would have come much, much earlier.A second confession that I urge upon those whose guilt is now exposed: Al Chet — for the sin of premature Messianism. This presumptuousness is common to two disparate groups — those whose Messianism is primarily nationalistic, and those to whom it is completely internationalist. In 1967 a large number of Israelis, and some Americans, were convinced that the Six Day War proved we were in a definite pre-redemp-tive Messianic era, and some even said so in the prayers we recite for Israel — at’chalta di’geulah (“the beginning of redemption”).The secularized version of this theological hubris was a cockiness about Israel’s power. After Yom Kippur 1973, I am more skeptical than ever. A Messianic war would have been on the Six-Day style. Let us talk no more of tagging current history with labels that are symptoms of nothing more than our superficiality and superciliousness. Messiah w…

The events of the Yom Kippur War and its aftermath are so traumatic, that we do not yet have the mental equanimity to assess the situation in the psychological calm requisite for such judgments. Perhaps an halakhic analogy is apt: the avel (mourner after the deceased has been buried) is expected to grieve over a situation which he then begins to perceive and perhaps even understand. But the onen (mourner before interment) is released from all religious obligations to mourn because he is assumed to be so stunned that he has not absorbed the gravity of his predicament and its implications. Nevertheless, certain moods have already made themselves felt. Reactions of Intellectuals Among the intellectuals, in which group I include the more thoughtful American journalists, the moral issue appears to have three aspects. Some have been beguiled by Arab arguments, and build their case around earlier insults to Arab manhood and dignity, the need to acknowledge the national aspiration of the Palestinians, and the imperative to return territories won by military action. Underlying this is the question of the legitimacy of the Jewish claim to a national homeland in the Middle East. A second group is amoralistic, preferring to deal with the political issues purely on a pragmatic basis, with the major consideration being America’s national interest, however that interest may be defined. A third group dismisses the amoralist position as untenable and as inconsistent with American foreign policy over the years, and sees Israel as mostly or altogether in the right. I suspect that a good part of the uncharacteristic silence of the intellectuals derives from their acute dilemma 49 50 THE YOM KIPPUR war Israel and the Jewish People regarding the Third World. In their own way, intellectuals can be more conformist than hoi polloi. They are waiting to see how their colleagues will react to the astounding conduct of the non-aligned nations who have solidly joined forces with the Arabs. Thir…

Dear Norm, Was very pleased to hear of your selection as a member of the select group that met in December in Israel. If a copy of your comments on “The Mood in Israel” is available, I’d greatly appreciate receiving one. If all is well I’ll be going to Israel with the RCA on Jan 14. Perhaps I’ll have the pleasure of seeing you. Kindest regards to your family.

For me – a valedictory or farewell sermon. Essence this festival = מעבדות לחירות. Need to understand עבדות. Begin w Q addressd t a Rabbi (when I first read – wept): הרב אשרי, שו"ת ממעמקים, עמ' נ"ו-נ"ז: נשאל ע"י יהודי בגיטו קובנה בליטא איך יוכל לברך "שלא עשני עבד" בזמן שהיהודים בשבי ובצער ורחוקין נאוד מהיות בני חורין. השיב על פי אבודרהם שהברכה אינה על העדות עצמה אלא על שעבד כנעני שאינו שייך במצוות. Wht courag's/magnft ans! Wht dignty in vry pit humn degrdn!

The mood in Israel has changed somewhat, as we hear from press reports and as those of us who were there recently can testify from personal experience. The somber, disheartened, and gloomy mood of the twelve or thirteen months since the Yom Kippur War has lifted perceptibly – but not radically. The mood is no longer black, just gray. There is no longer fear, just anxiety; no longer anger, just resentment. Circumstances may suddenly improve, but that does not seem likely. The defense, diplomatic, and economic realities do not promise to change for the better in any unexpected manner.What a way to enter the festival of Purim! “When Adar comes, one should increase his joy.” How – with prices soaring, Arabs rattling sabers, the Russians holding back their Jews, and the U.S. blowing hot and cold?How shall we be authentic in celebrating Purim – the only time Jews are permitted a bit of controlled abandon – in a year of such depressed morale?But it can be done. Purim itself, despite the joviality and occasional jocularity, is not an exercise in detached fantasy. There is a healthy realism underlying all the joy and happiness.Why, the Talmud asks, do we not recite Hallel on Purim? One answer offered is that the Hallel begins with, “Praise the Lord, you servants of the Lord.” This, however, we cannot recite on Purim – “because we are still the servants of Ahasuerus.” Only those who are completely free can qualify as “servants of the Lord” and extol Him for it. But the triumph commemorated on Purim was not a complete one: we are still the servants of Ahasuerus.No self-delusions here – no mistaking the avoidance of Haman’s genocide for ultimate freedom. No impetuous conclusions about a temporary relief from oppression constituting the “beginning of redemption.”Yet, despite these limitations – and notwithstanding the qualified nature of the victory – we must be happy in Adar. We must surrender to joy on Purim, even if we have to force it on ourselves. No Hallel yet – but fun a…