Recently, a book about the late Rav Moshe Avigdor Amiel, leader and ideologist of the Mizrachi and author of original works of the Talmud, came off the press in Jerusalem. He served for 16 years as rabbi of Antwerp and for the last nine years of his life, until his death in 1945, he was chief rabbi of Tel Aviv.
The book, which was published by Mossad HaRav Kook. was authored by Ge’ulah Bat Yehuda.
Geulah Bat Yehudah, the daughter of the late Rabbi Yehuda Leib Maimon (Fischman) and the wife of the late Dr. Yitzhak Raphael, is a well-known writer and translator. Her translations include Rabbi Dr. Isadore Epstein’s, The Faith of Judaism and the late Cecil Roth’s History of the Jews of Italy. She also translated into Hebrew Cecil Roth’s study about Elijah Menahem, the I3th-century London rabbi, communal leader, physician and financier who is the author of a commentary on the Mishna, Order of Zeraim and other rabbinic writings.
Cecil Roth was greatly impressed by Ge’ula Bat Yehuda’s translations especially by the fact that when she came across quotations, she just didn’t retranslate them into Hebrew, like many translators do, but looked up the sources and included the original Hebrew text in her translation.
Cecil Roth wanted her to translate his other works but her husband, Dr. Yitzhak Raphael, advised her to concentrate on her own writings rather than engage in translating books by others.
Ge’ula Bat Yehuda has written about rabbinic personalities and scholars as well as writers who were prominently associated with Religious Zionism.
She wrote a monograph about her father, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Maimon as well as the Hebrew writer Yechiel Michel Pines, who for a period served as representative in the Land of Israel of the Moses Montefiore Testimonial Fund of London and who authored books about Rabbi Yitzhak Yaakov Reines, the founder and first president of the Mizrachi.
In the most recent issue of the periodical Sinai she published a study about Rabbi Gedalia Schmelkes, rabbi of Kolamea and Premysl. who was a Mizrachi leader in Galicia.
Ge’ulah Bat Yehuda served as assistant editor of the Hebrew Encyclopedia of Religious Zionism, which was edited by her husband. She authored 19 articles in the sixth volume of the encyclopedia, which appeared several months ago. She wrote, inter alia, about Chief Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach. Rabbi Moshe Zvi Neriah. the father of the Bnei Akiva Yeshivot and girls’ seminaries in Israel; Rabbi Dr. Isadore Epstein, principal of London’s Jews’ College and editor-in-chief of the Soncino English translation of the Talmud; Avraham Meir Habermann, a well known bibliographer and researcher of Hebrew medieval poetry; and Rabbi Yehuda Leib Zlotnick (Avida). The latter published studies in various areas of Jewish scholarship, including folklore and the Yiddish language. He was active in Poland, Canada and South Africa. In 1949 he settled in Jerusalem where he died in 1962.
In the foreword to her new book, Ge’ulah Bat Yehuda states that it was prepared during a most trying period in her life. “It was begun when my only son Rabbi Shiloh Z”L was taken from me. It was finished after the death of the husband of my youth, Yitzchak Z”L. I have remained alone, mourning and grieving. My only solace are my grandchildren and great grandchildren. May the L-rd bless them.”
In the same foreword, the authoress observes on the timeliness of the publication.
“Rabbi Amiel was a very original thinker. His approach to various problems of Zionism and the Mizrachi was unique,” she writes. “At times you marvel at his far-sightedness and his courage to criticize the ways of Religious Zionism, even if you do not always agree with his views. No doubt in days such as ours, days of ideological confusion, we are in need of a person who will rebuke the movement for its deviations from its course and perhaps suggest solutions for the future. Rabbi Amiel foresaw after the establishment of the Jewish State, Zionism will lose much of its meaning and influence and he stressed the necessity of the continued existence of Religious Zionism and the fulfillment of its tasks during that time in order to strengthen and invigorate the State…..”
The Jewish Press, Friday, Sept 7, 2001
Continued from last week
Rabbi Moshe Avigdor Amiel was born in 1882 in Porozon, a townlet near Grodno, Poland. His father, R. Yaakov Yosef, was a Talmudic scholar, who engaged in commerce, dedicating all his free time to the study of the Torah. He wrote novellae on the Talmud, which were eventually published by his son.
Young Moshe Avigdor, the oldest of four children was tutored by his father and studied at a local Heder and Yeshiva Ketana. After his Bar Mitzah he continued his studies at the Yeshiva of Telshe. The Yeshiva’s head were greatly impressed with the boy’s knowledge and admitted him to the second grade, whose students were about 18 years of age. Before long, Moshe Avigdor became known in the Yeshiva as the Ilui of Porozon.
Rabbis Eliezer Gordon, Shimeon Shkop and Yosef Leib Bloch taught then at the Yeshiva, whose method of
study, based primarily on analytic reasoning, was different from that of most other Yeshivot in Poland and Lithuania,
in which the Pilpul was dominant.
Rabbi Amiel studied for three years at Telshe. Subsequently he studied for one year with Rabbi Hayyim Soloveichik in Brisk (Brest Litovsk) and for three-and-a-half years at the Kibbutz of Rabbi Hayyim Ozer Grodzenski in Vilna.
He was ordained by Rabbi Shlomo HaKohen of Vilna, who wrote that he had never before met a young man of
that age who was so erudite in Torah as Moshe Avigdor was. Other rabbinic personalities who conferred ordination
upon him included Rabbi Meir Simha HaKohen of Dvinsk (author of Or Same’ah and Meskekh Hokhma) and Rabbi
Yosef Rozin, the “Rogachover.”
Rabbi Amiel’s interest was not limited to Biblical, Talmudic and Rabbinic studies. He studied Jewish philosophical works, pored over Kabbalistic and Hasidic literature, read about Jewish history and even perused books by
non-Jewish thinkers. He also learned languages.
In 1923 he married Basha Baila, the daughter of a wealthy family of Bialystok, and two years later was chosen rabbi of Swieciany. He served there for about eight years. During that period he established a Yeshiva which was attended by more than 100 students.
His name spread among Jewish communal leaders and he came to the attention of Baron David Guensburg,
who suggested that he be chosen rabbi of the Jewish community of St. Petersburg. However, others objected to his
choice, claiming that Rabbi Amiel was too young for the post.
Baron Guenzburg is said to have commented on this occasion: “1 wish I suffered from the ‘shortcoming’ on account of which Rabbi Amiel was found unfit for the position I had recommended him for.”
In 1913 Rabbi Amiel was appointed rabbi of Grajewo, a small town in the province of Bialystok. The community
had suffered much during World War I, and Rabbi Amiel helped Grajewo’s Jews as much as he could. His sermons
inspired them with hope and confidence. In Grajewo, too, he established a yeshiva. He also served as president of a
branch of the Mizrachi which was then organized in the town.
Soon after the end of World War I, the Mizrachi movement of Poland began publishing a weekly journal called HaMizrachi, in Warsaw. Rabbi Amiel contributed to the paper and his name became well known among the
rank and file of the movement.
In the spring of 1919 a conference of the Polish Mizrachi was held in Warsaw. Rabbi Amiel was a member of the Presidium of the conference and lectured on the relations between the Mizrachi and the other Zionist parties as
well as a non-Zionist Jewish Orthodoxy.
The lecture — which is reproduced in its entirety in Ge’ula Bat Yehuda’s book -lasted about two hours and
was often interrupted by bursts of applause.
Rabbi Amiel declared inter alia: “Zionists feel the suffering of the Jews in exile. Mizrachists feel both the
suffering of the nation and the pain of the Skekhina in the Galut. Zionists aim at the revival of the Jewish people.
Mizrachists strive for the renaissance of both the Jewish people and Judaism. Zionists want to redeem the Jews from physical assimilation but they are not able to salvage their spiritual identity. Mizrachists want to save Jews
from both physical and spiritual assimilation and also prevent them from becoming a nation like other nations. Zionists want to build the House of Israel, Mizrachists want to build both the House of Israel and the Sanctuary; they
want to restore to our people its sanctity and purity…”
After the conclusion of the lecture, 40 delegates asked permission to participate in the subsequent discussion. Because of lack of time, only 13 delegates could be granted this right.
Early in 1920, the first post-war world conference of the Mizrachi was held in Amsterdam. Rabbi Amiel was one
of the seven delegates of the Mizrachi from Poland.
In his address he spoke, among other things, about a problem which then agitated religious Jewry: Should women be permitted to vote in the elections for Assefat HaNiv’harim (the “Elect Assembly” of Palestine Jewry)?
Rabbi Amiel suggested that a commission of rabbis of the Land of Israel and the diaspora decide the matter.
In the wake of his appearance at the Amsterdam Conference, Rabbi Amiel was invited to Holland where he
addressed meetings in several large-cities. He also received a call from the Jewish community of Antwerp, Belgium.
Several months after the Amsterdam Conference, Rabbi Amiel moved to Antwerp to become the community’s
spiritual leader and the head of its rabbinate.
(Continued next week)
The Jewish Press, Friday, Sept. 14, 2001
Continued from last week
Not long after his arrival in Antwerp, Rabbi Amiel’s presence began to be felt in all areas of Jewish communal
life in the city. The rabbi, who was a brilliant orator, spoke in the synagogue every Shabbat as well as on the festivals.
In his sermons he dwelt not only on various aspects of our religious heritage, but expressed his opinion on events on
the international scene affecting the Jewish people.
In cooperation with the local branch of the Mizrachi, whose membership had increased greatly since he began
serving as rabbi of the community. Rabbi Amiel established Tahkemoni, a national-religious day school which was
attended by many students. The rabbi helped Tze’irei Mizrachi, the youth section of the movement, institute evening
classes in which Hebrew and a variety of Jewish subjects were taught. These classes attracted a large number of
participants. In the course of time he also founded a girls’ school, a Talmud Torah as well as a Yeshiva. He was instrumental in the establishment of several new prayer houses and of a modem well-equipped mikveh and in the
opening of a home for the aged. He also assisted in the formation of various charity organizations. He strengthened Sabbath observance and Kashruth supervision. As a result of his efforts, the city’s diamond bourse and diamond
club were closed on Sabbaths and Jewish holidays.
He was also of help to the Jewish conummity of Brussels in organizing its religious activities and assisted in the establishment of Jewish communal bodies and religious facilities in other Belgian cities.
In 1924 Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, the Hafetz Hayyim, wrote to Rabbi Amiel that he had learned that the Jewish
community of Antwerp was blossoming, that its members were engaged in Torah and Mitzvot, and strictly observed
the laws of Kashruth and family purity, and that all this was the result of his — Rabbi Amiel’s — involvement.
During the period between the two world wars, the Jewish communiy of Antwerp, on account of its religious
character, became known among Jews as the ‘Jerusalem of Belguim” or of Western Europe.
Rabbi Amiel continued to be active in the Mizrachi world movement. He contributed to its publications, attended its conferences and served as one of its delegates to the Zionist Congress.
At the 14th Zionist Congress, which was held in Vienna in the summer of 1925, Rabbi Amiel criticized bitterly the education of the young in the Land of Israel.
“True, the young people speak Hebrew, but it is not enough that they speak the language of our fathers, they must also
think like the fathers of our nation,” he declared. He expressed his pain and dismay that Bible criticism is taught
in the schools and that there is no instruction in Talmud at all.
A year later, a Mizrachi world conference was held in -Antwerp. The preparatory committee, which was composed
of members of the Antwerp branch of the Mizrachi, was headed by Rabbi Amiel.
Rabbi Amiel opened the conference, participated in the general discussion and was one of the speakers at the
conclusion of the conclave.
Speaking in the discussion. Rabbi Amiel lamented the fact that the Mizrachi had only little influence in the
World Zionist Organization and in the life of the Yishuv in the Land of Israel. There is only one remedy for this state
of affairs, he said: The Mizrachi must turn from a minority into a majority, and this can be achieved by gaining the
support of the greater part of Orthodox Jewry.
In his speech at the conclusion of the conference he declared: “On Yom Kippur, at the end of the Ne’ilah
prayer, we call out seven times the verse: (Melakhim 18:39) ‘The L-rd — He is the G-d,’ and only once do we say:
“Next Year in Jerusalem.’ This teaches that we must proclaim incessantly our belief in the L-rd. As for our return
to Jerusalem, we should talk little and do much, and begin immediately with the rebuilding of the House of Israel.”
At the Antwerp conference Rabbi Amiel was elected a member of the leadership of the World Mizrachi.
To be continued
The Jewish Press, Sept. 21, 2001
Continued from last week
In 1931 and 1932, Rabbi Amiel published a series of articles in HaTor, the Jerusalem Mizrachi weekly, in
which he strongly criticized the ideology of secular Zionism and castigated the World Zionist Organization for its failure to implement its promises to the Mizrachi to further religious education and strengthen Jewish religious observance in the public life of the Jews of Palestine. He also
reproached the Mizrachi for co-operating with secular Zionist parties in certain areas, such as elections to Jewish
community boards in Poland, where collaboration with
Agudath Israel would have been preferable. He expressed
the hope for a harmonious and mutually understanding
relationship between Agudath Israel and Mizrachi in matters which were sacred to both.
In the summer of 1932 a Mizrachi world conference was held in Cracow. It was attended by 250 delegates,
including more than 100 rabbis. In bis address, Rabbi Amiel again attacked the ideology of secular Zionism,
“which represents a denial of Rabbi Saadiah Gaon’s dictum that the Jews were a nation only on account of the Torah”
— and rebuked the World Zionist Organization for its lack of respect for the Mizrachi. He also mapped out new policies and activities for the Mizrachi, noting, “It is not enough to establish new settlements in the Land of Israel…
New places of Torah studies must be set up throughout the world; literature which will bring home the light of the
Torah to the many must be created.” He suggested that Mizrachi and Agudath Israel collaborate in building the
Land of Israel in the spirit of the Torah.
Rabbi Y.L. Maimon (Fishman), who shared Rabbi Amiel’s view that Agudath Israel should be Mizrachi’s
principal partner, proposed at the conference that as a first step toward collaboration between the Mizrachi and Agudath Israel, a religious congress devoted to the advancement of Torah and the building of the Land of Israel be
convened in Jerusalem. The proposal was enthusiastically endorsed by the conference and it was decided that the
religious congress be held in two years.
Agudath Israel rejected the idea of a religious congress as long as Mizrachi remained part of the World Zionist Organization. In a series of articles, Rabbi Amiel wrote that he appreciated Agudath Israel’s point of view. For as
long as the Mizrachi would be bound by the decisions of the Zionist Congress more than by the decisions of the
planned religious congress, there was no hope for a lasting and fruitful cooperation between the two religious organizations. To pave the way for such cooperation, the status of the Mizrachi in the World Zionist Organization had to be changed.
Ge’ula Bat Yehuda writes that for years afterwards Rabbi Amiel continued to advocate close collaboration between the Mizrachi and Agudath Israel. In 1938, in an article in the Mizrachi daily HaTzofeh, Rabbi Amiel suggested that Mizrachi and Agudath Israel establish in the Land of Israel a non-political world rabbinical council,which would serve as the spiritual guide of Jews throughout the world.
In 1935 Rabbi Amiel visited the Land of Israel, where he was received with great honor. Receptions were held in the country’s three major cities. He spoke in the Hurva synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv’s Great Synagogue, and lectured in all the large Yeshivot. He met with Chief Rabbi A.Y. Kook, who told his intimates that even before he had come to know Rabbi Amiel in person, he had felt a spiritual kinship with him after reading his books.
In the spring of 1935, Tel Aviv’s Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Shlomo Aaronson, passed away. Rabbi Y. L.
Maimon was the first to propose Rabbi Amiel for the vacant position, although there were other candidates as
well. Rabbi Amiel was backed by the world center of the Mizrachi and he was elected. He arrived in Palestine, via
Egypt, at the beginning of 1936. At the Egyptian border he was welcomed by delegations of dignitaries and large
crowds of people who accompanied him all the way to Tel Aviv, where he was met by thousands of schoolchildren
carrying flowers. In the Jewish community center where the installation took place he was greeted by Rabbi BenZion Meir Hai Ouziel, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of the city.
In his greetings to the Yishuv, which are reproduced in their entirety in Ge’ula Bat Yehuda’s book, Rabbi Amiel
said that to his great regret, the building of the Land of Israel had not gone hand in hand with the true renaissance of the nation. The Land of our Fathers must not be built only as a place of refuge for Jews, but also as a sanctuary of the G-d of Israel, but he was confident that the L-rd will redeem the Jew’s soul from captivity and revive it in the Holy Land. The Jews will be a beacon to the nations. All of us will walk together in the light of G-d.
Conclusion next week
The Jewish Press, Friday, Sept. 28, 2001
Conclusion
In his capacity as chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, Rabbi Amiel also served as head of the city’s rabbinical court, supervised the religious services of the community and represented the community in religious matters vis a vis the British authorities.
He devoted much effort to the strengthening of Sabbath observance and the supervision of Kashrut, but regarded the dissemination of Torah among young people and adults as his principal task. He regularly spoke at synagogues and gave Shiurim. In 1937 he established a Yeshiva which combined intensive Torah studies with a high school program. The nucleus of the Yeshiva was the “Tel Aviv Yeshiva” which had been founded by his predecessor, Rabbi Shlomo Aaronson. Rabbi Amiel enlarged it and added higher classes. The new Yeshiva, whose language of instruction was Hebrew, was called Yeshivat HaYishuv HeHadash (Yeshiva of the new Yishuv) and was first located in Tel Aviv’s Great Synagogue. In the course of time it moved into a beautiful building of its own and was attended by hundreds of students. Rabbi Amiel not only lectured at the Yeshiva but also raised the funds for the upkeep of the institution and its dormitory. His Rebbetzin looked after the needs of the Yeshiva students with motherly care. Rabbi Amiel’s Yeshiva served a s a model for the network of Bnei Akiva high school- Yeshivot, which changed the Mizrachi educational system in the country as a whole.
Rabbi Amiel rendered great assistance to Talmud Torahs and Yeshvot Ketanot in Tel Aviv and its vicinity. He also established a special committee for the promotion of Torah classes among adults.
He initiated the Kinnus Soferim project, whose goal was to publish works modeled after Rabbi Betzalel Ashkenazi’s Shita Mekubbetzet, featuring commentaries as well as novellae by earlier and later authorities on various tractates of the Talmd. Under his guidance, a group of young scholars prepared a volume on Tractate Pesahim which was published after his death.
Rabbi Amiel also helped in the establishment of the Ezrat Torah fund to aid rabbis and Talmudic scholars who had recently immigrated into the country.
Despite his many official and unofficial tasks and his strong involvement with the Mizrachi and a variety of communal activities. Rabbi Amiel managed to find time to pursue the research on which he had embarked while still very young.
As a matter of fact, it was while living in the Land of Israel that he wrote his HaMiddot Leheker HaHalakha (vol. 1 Jerusalem, 1939, vol. 2-3 Tel Aviv, 1942-1945), which he regarded as his magnum opus.
In the preface of the first volume he states that this book was his life’s work, his “Sefer Hayyei Adam,” representing decades of toil in the fields of Torah. However, its actual composition and writing, from start to end, was a product of the Land of Israel, whose very air — according to the Talmud — bestows wisdom on man.
Since it is impossible to write at length about this monumental work in this column, we will confine ourselves by quoting from Rabbi Amiel’s description of it in the aforementioned preface.
Rabbi Amiel tells us about his studies as a young boy in the Yeshiva of Telshe, which was already known then for its novel method of study. When his great teachers would expound various Sevarot (conclusions by reasoning) on different Talmudic topics, he had the feeling– which was perhaps not shared by the teachers themselves– that many of these Sevarot though they related to different subjects and varied in detail, had a common axis around which they revolved, that is they were based on a shared general principle of logic.
The book– which also carries an extensive introduction in which Rabbi Amiel discusses, interalia, the Talmudic Pilpul, differences between the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud as well as the different methods of study of the Spanish and French scholars– is devoted to a clarification of these general logical principles and their roles in Talmudic and Rabbinic thought. Such clarification is of course of great help in understanding the Talmud and its commentaries as well as the Codes.
Rabbi Amiel also writes that his previous Halakhic books– Darkei Moshe— Derekh HaKodesh (vol. 1, Antwerp, 1928, vol. 2, Bilgoraj, 1931) were based on the recognition of such general logical principles. Rabbi Amiel’s Halakhic words were extremely well received in the Torah world.
Separate chapters in Geulah Bat Yehuda’s biography are devoted to each of Rabbi Amiel’s books. The long chapter about HaMiddot LeHeker HaHalakha was contributed by Rabbi Nathan David Shapira, a son in law of the late Rabbi Shilo Rapahel, the only son of the authoress.
Rabbi Amiel’s collections of sermons, Derashot El Ami (vol. 1 Warsaw, 1923, vol. 2-3 Antwerp, 1926-1929), achieved great popularity. All three volumes were reprinted. The first volume which appeared in three editions, was also translated into English (London , 1936).
Hegyonot El Ami (vol. 1, Antwerp, 1933, vol. 2 Jerusalem, 1936) features ideas, reflections and opinions relating to the High Holy Day season and the weekly Torah portions of Bereshit.
Other works of Rabbi Amiel include a collection of essays addressed to the “Perplexed of our ’Time.” ’The book,-
which carries a foreword by Rabbi Y.L. Maimon, contains 72 brilliant essays on a variety of topics. Some of the titles
are; Man’s Free Will; Thie Ethics of Religion and the Ethics of Culture; Judaism and Hellenism; Belief and Inquiry;
Torah and Nature; The Epoch of Moses Mendelssohn; Assimilation and Secular Nalionalism, ‘
Rabbi Amiel died of a heart attack on the 13th of Nissan. 5705 (1945). His physician had advised him to rest
frequently because of his heart condition, but he ignored the warnings. He was buried on the eve of Passover, with
thousands of mourners attending the funeral.
Ge’ula Bat Yehuda did not content herself with describing Rabbi Amiel’s life and activities, his ideas, his
views and his writings, but chose to present also, in a separate section of the book, selections from his writings. ’This
section was edited by Dr. Yitzhak Alfasi.
Ge’ula Bat Yehuda’s Ish HaHegyonot — Rabbi Moshe Avigdor Amiel, which is illustrated with many
photographs, is a great book about a towering rabbinic personality.
The Jewish Press, Friday, Oct. 5, 2001