Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, writes a story in his book “Listening to God–Stories for My Grandchildren.” Rabbi Riskin once attended a funeral in the town of Kfar Hasidim with his acquaintance, Yehuda N. The funeral was one which was attended by two very different crowds of people –kibbutzniks and yeshiva students. Rabbi Riskin recounts a dialogue between the town’s Rosh Yeshiva and Yehuda N., which occurred during this event. The following is an excerpt:
The Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Elya Mishkovsky, came out, viewed the assembly from the higher yeshiva portico, and seemed to have noticed my friend Yehuda N. He then addressed him in Yiddish, “Yudke? Yudke iluy (prodigy)?”
Yehuda, whom I knew as a rather shy and humble individual, turned red, blushed deeply, and responded in Hebrew, “Yes Reb Elya, that’s what they called me in the yeshiva of Rav Shach in Petah Tikva, where we studied together.”
The Rosh Yeshiva’s eyes narrowed. He asked in Yiddish, “But what happened to you? I know you left the Yeshiva, but how did Rav Shach allow you to leave? You, too, could have been a Rosh Yeshiva.”
Yehuda answered in Hebrew, and by this time everyone from both groups was listening to the conversation intently. “Rav Shach sent me many letters urging me to stay.”
Reb Elya, the Rosh Yeshiva, seemed to rise to his full height, literally looking down on my friend, and said strongly (but not harshly) in Yiddish, “And those letters of our Rebbe will serve as a prosecuting attorney when you stand before the throne of God after a hundred and twenty years.”
I felt very sorry for Yehuda. I didn’t think my laid-back and self-effacing friend would give any answer at all. But he responded immediately, decisively, and in Hebrew, “And the kibbutz that I helped build, and the guns that I used in the wars that I fought, and the souls of the many Israeli Jews whose lives I protected–they will be my defense attorneys. And they will win the day and exonerate me before God.”
The Rosh Yeshiva took a step backward. He realized that he had lost that first round, and apparently decided not to continue the debate. Again, he said in Yiddish, but this time with a smile on his face and in his voice, “You remained the same Yudke, the same prodigy.”
My friend didn’t let it rest. He responded in Hebrew, “No, Reb Elya, I didn’t remain the same Yudke that I was in the Yeshiva. I changed. I saw the changes in history. I saw what our generation demanded. I think I even saw what God expected of me. I looked around myself at the ravages of the Holocaust. I understood that our era demanded that the kibbutz, and the battleground of war, had to serve as the infrastructure for the establishment of the Jewish State, the first Jewish State in close to two thousand years. I didn’t remain the same because Jewish history didn’t remain the same. You remained the same. You didn’t change.”
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In my humble opinion the chutzpah gumption of Yehuda was unjustified. Klal Yisrael needs Kibbutzim and an army but without Torah we are nothing. Just another nation like all others. So we need both and should be very relieved that there are people who don't want to change. They want to perpetuate 3,300 years of history, starting with Avraham Avinu, through Har Sinai and the giving of the Torah, to our very days. We need people who speak Yiddish to remind us of our incredible ancestors who were moser nefesh for a thousand or so years in Eastern Europe under the most harsh and cruel conditions to keep the flame burning.
Judaism didn't start in 1948.
