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(1

America,/ Parish Periodical Cotter

CLIFTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 20, OHIO

June 23, 1944

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Le al Chronicle

5

REB CHAIM HELLER ONE IN GENERATIONS Arabic

Original and with Rabbi that the entire structure of Bible the Bible, Reb Chaim is in posses-
Shlomo ben Joseph Ibn Job's trans- criticism resulted from lack of sion of invaluable manuscripts
lation and elucidated with notes knowledge of the Biblical Text, ready to print, which will revolu-
Editor's Note—Dr. Aaron Rosmarin, director of youth and education about which no less a scholar than ununderstanding of the
Spirit
the
Biblical
and
Talmudi-
department of Mizrachi, is author of a scholarly work, "Moses the late Professor Dr. D. Z. Hoff- the Bible and lack of sense of of
the Lionize
cal field
even
as did
Einstein
in
man wrote: "One
note
by Reb Biblical
language.
Im
Lichte
der
Agada"
(a
complete
biography
of
Moses
accord-
the
field
of
physics.
This
is
why
ing to Talmud and Midrash), contributor to Encyclopedia of Chaim is by fa r more important
J ew i s
is not, of course, within the Reb Chaim is known as the Ein-
h Knowledge and to various Hebrew, Yiddish, En gli s than a hundred closets full of scope It of
an epitomized a rticle to stein of Bible and Talmud, or as
h hooks." The late Hofetz Chaim, of dwell in detail on the above men- one of our prominent scholars
and
German
and ag popular periodicals. blessed memory,
said that no other toned works by Reb Chaim and characterized him the "Rashi of
Five
times
within scholarly
recent weeks
"Seer
r
e
when most minds begin to ted andh a-Mitzv oth," but that ed i- on his eh-ma
poc
the Jewish
annotat
•h public, scholars and show the effects of wear and tear should be used, ed by. Reb Chaim which we can't king contributions modern times."
even mention be-
literati in New York were treated of time, the former prodigy and
cause of lack of space. Suffice it,
r
p
to a singular phenomenon in the
While work
studying
and doing for
re- therefore, to relate a fact which
esent
"Gaon"
continues to dis- search
in preparation
BAY CITY NOTES
play,
both
in lectur
es and i n con- his "Sefer ha
would be of interest even to the
-
cultural
life
of
the
Jewish
com_
versations,
such
vast
erudition,
in-
on
Rabbi
Heller
that
the
whole
Literature.
Mitzvoth"
it
dawned
historian
of
Jewish
Culture
and
inanity in America. On five sep- geeous originality and phenomen
Mr. and Mrs. Theo. S. Fried.
rate occasions more than two memory as to leave one simply a with
man have as their guest their
l field its
of deviation
nuxlern Biblical criticism,
univer,ity
As
a
student
at
the
tahousand Jews attended a cycle of dum bfounded. Hypnotize(
mother, Mrs. A. Winstein of
s from orthodox- of
i by his conceived
1
Dr. Chahn Heller, Gaonic wisdom that guone
k Island
lecture s oy
. . , Germany, I was a fre- Roc,
III.
conce t . , might xt due (punt Berlin
concepts,
%
fort h
visitor at the homes of the
known as "Reb Chaim Gaon," on like the Nia g
r to lack text
o
ara
'alls
of
understanding.
Of
,
shes stan
Mr. and Mrs George Kahn had
ds the
study of late Dr. S;meon Berenfeld and Reb
the fallacies of modern Biblical and wonders how one human
mind
e'theoriginal
r to a reliance C halm. No miner had I learned s a their guests at their Killarney
criticism. More than
on
faulty
translations.
A
five thousand can contain so much wisdom and the subject convinced him
that they had never met, despite Beach cottage, during the past
peop le were turned away
for lack erudition. One is reminded of the moder
„.
that their residence in the German week ' thei r s s ister, Mrs. Mae
o f accommodons.
ati
;)ince the lee- words of our sages that God him-
n Bible critics have "aend
Grosslight and laughter, Marilyn,
m
-
lures vicare of a scholarly nature, self wits the teacher of our master
Bibli al p assa
r
that Berenfeld to visit Reb Chaim. Not- of Detroit.
they
did
not
understa
nd an in
requiring concentration and Bib- Moses, and is inclined to believe a point has been reached
d that withstanding the fact that Beren-
heal
the that
listeners,
that, as if from on High, every- field of study where almost no fold was more than two decades will
Air.
and the
Mrs A. B. Roman
attend
it was knowledge
astonishing from
to find
the thing
wilS
' graduation exert
older than Reb Chaim
audience that came to h ear oReb
revealed to Rob Chaim. Biblical verse
is been
stone- cises of their son, Robert, at
11' ) I in( a t t h
a Biblical
verse
.
h ' and
eit
Res
Chaim" consisted not only of rab- a Mention
split second
you will
hear and
an in some sort of an "operationsp„red
nevert
elAnn Arbor on Saturday,
"
privil ge to
vis .1) Reb
, ' ca
Likewise
''' ise
(lid
• his two bulky
did
vol- deemed it a
bis
and rabbinical students, but array of all the passages where umes ik
"le-Ifikre
Halakhoth"
o f laymen,
ta
cl radical
• Chaim
first,
and
off
we
went.
Mrs.
Joseph
A.
Schwartz is a
journalists, ar- this particular expression appears,
am-
fy
For over two hours Reb Chaim patient at St. Joseph's Hospital
tists, university teachers, labor how it is translated in the
numerous
things
in
the
field
of
'
_ s law.
leaders and social workers,
Ara- J Jewish
Each of the four h ° spoke in Hebrew and proved the at Ann Arbor.
,
Syriac, Latin, and
Arabic
At a time when Jewish leaders mak,
and Greek,
other translations,
he Bred and forty items is oscillati un- shallowness, falsity and fallacy of
ng Bible criticism, while Dr. Bergin-
OBITUARY
are bemoaning the general indif- will show you black on white all . with unequal genuineness.
1Vord has been received here
The Jewish scholarly world, t'„ fell listened with the closest at-
ference to cultural programs, when the errors of the translators and
tendon. At the second meeting , of the sudden death on Sunday
whom
hom holy,
the honor
of our Iy To
an educational
audience can
not be even
lured with
to even
point t•
out
innnediat
sensed
rah is ” too, Reb Chaim was the lecturer, of Max Biller, a former resident
an
program
mistrInsl.
... the cause for the deal and
'
e
and Dr. Berenfeld the student. of this city. He is survived by
Ref) Ch. i'.o
the promise of "stars and enter-
colossal, epoch-oak_- The result of these two meetings one son, Harold, of Detroit;
No less a personality tha thaa_ ing con
inment," it was refreshing to dimir
tri
Zabotinsky once said
bution
in
the
Biblical
se thousands of Jews drawn to a had Red Chaim have li ve „ that t field. No less a personality than was a letter from Dr. Berenfeld , three brothers, Abraham, Thomas
avetz to Reb Chaim in which he states: " (1 Mot
Monty
t of this city; three sis-
d in me- the famous historian Z.
series of lectures of such aca- dieval (lays he would have been wrote "Reb Chaim saved the Book
Y
4 F
e r s, Ms
.. r.•
K. ' Miller of
demic specialty as offered by !tab- executed as a magician, for they
I still
had
health
r.. .
of Books from a destruction which when
"Would,
I had
seen
your y books
eyes; t„e
I' t tro t .,,is d Thonsla.
ML.
B.
B Il s bo on
bi Heller. While credit for the phe- would have argued that no
Of from now on I shall submit to you and Miss in mi
r a
n n is ! t e t Biller oif t° this
nomena must go to Rabbi Heller, being can be possessed of so mortal is greater than the destruction
everything I shall write about the el(
u, n i evices
s
1
r will be
h lyi . T Funeral
much
the major credit for the unique wisdom and erudition, except
by the first and second Temples
fternoon
at the
Bible.
phenomenon must be given to the magic.
There the enemy destrovNI mere-
'
Callender
Funeral
Home, and
B esi • d es h•
magic power which Jewish schol-
ly stone and wood, w'h
his recent t book
b k (ea
1 mg:,
l• ' held
ues( 1
Y a
wherea
s
burial
will
•
-
•
Dr. Heller, or as he prefers to case of Bible
la the
be in the Temple of
Mand elkerns Condordance to Abraham Cemetery.
arship of the traditional mould be called, Reb Chaim, is the au-
cr i sm "eas
theitci
th ey aim to w'
annihilate
still wields in our midst.
spi rit of
the Jewish
thor of
number
of and
epoch-making
stood '°
The question of the psychologi- books
in a the
Biblical
Talmud- People; against this curse

By DR. AARON ROSMARIN

11

up endless
our master
Reb Chaim with
cal motives behind this phenome- ical field. His first book waspub- his
knowledg
is one for students of that lished four decades ago, when he
e
and
clea
r ly proves and wisdom
science. We here are chiefly con- was still a mere youngster. The
basel
/less
corned
and fa lsity of the
th e imbecile
cerned
critic-
Heller• with the man-Rabbi Chaim book, entitled "P'ri Chaim" and creature known as Bible
dealing with complicated problems ism." And no less a Personality
Reb Chaim Heller, one of the in the Halachic field, was so over- than our Poet Laureate, the im- y
greatest minds the Jewish people abundant with original explana- mortal Ch. N. Bialik, said that
ever had and an outstanding au- tiara and ingeneous observati
ons
the Jewish
should
"na-
thority
on literature
Biblical, in
Talmudic
and
that it astounded the Rabbinic tionalize"
Reb people
Chaim—its
greatest
Medieval
almost. all
wo•ld.
son
modern lane uages and
in generat ions.
a
a n cient
Later he published his
tongues, climes to these shores
o f the Bible critics
"Sefer
ha-Mitzvoth"
or
the
Book
of
the
several years ago.
is Trihttehenti.e.tvhe°1;1, staple.
i
sple.
As soon as
commandments, a corretted text t tbwe' reh nitt ly upoa
tr n
At the age of ten, when his of the "Sefer ha-Mitzvoth" writ-
t hh ei c h s. e ti ) s.
nsalattltvridn w
sharp mind gained for him the t•n by Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, tuagint. in the Peshita, in the Vul-
cognomen
the prodigy
of War-
known
as Maimonides,
in Arabic
saw," the greatest
scholars
of the
and translated
into Hebrew
by gate (the Greek, Syriac, and Latin
time came to him to discuss Tat- Rabbi
Moses Ibn Tibon. The first translations respectively), they im-
mediately infer that the Hebrew
mudic problems and left astound- "Sefer ha-Mitzvoth" was printed text, used by the translators, con-
cd at the vast knowledge and deep in Constantinople from an erron-
understanding of the youngster
tabled a word different from that
eons text, and all subsequen t e
di_ in our present text, but Reb Chaim
and at the easiness with which the tions contain even more mistakes
proves the falsity of this
mere In swam in the "Sea of the and errors to the extent that even a cs.
Talmud."
le slu lim
l ; tion
lu .
The fate of "child prodigies" is the Ra11113a M himself would not
Reb Chaim's theory is that all
not always a happy one. In many, have recognized his own work..But •translators of the Bible at all
in fact in most cases, children die- Reb Chaim with his lxtundless eru- Vines had before them the Bibli-
pla ing sparks of greatness or dition of Rabbinic literature, and 17(1,1 i
y
master
of the entire RaMBaM lit-
t( o x y tes "s itw( ti „h dls
genius often peter out before
.
vie ti a t btlo 3 n, " hTsi
ni
t
gave
reaching adolescence. Fortunately ,'nature,
live the world a genuine German book "Studies in the Pe-
.
thi; was not the case of the young Ibn 'Tibon text of the "Sefer ha-
shita" he refutes the false the-
"Warsaw
rides
the Bible
prodigy." Today, at an Mitzvoth," comparing it with the proves o f that
tics, a nd
in thosecr i 'cases in
which the translators deviated
from our text it is not because
they had a different text, but be-
cause it was their intention not
to render a verbal translation but
AMERICAN :EW:Si; CONFERENCE
to give the spirit
of the Biblical
521 "fifth Avenue, New York 17, N. Y.
word. This is precisely the reason
why those Biblical translations are
replete with Talmudic interpreta-
tions or traditions which were
popular among the Jewish people.
Furthermore, Reb Chaim shows
black on white that R. Sandia
Goan, too, deviates from our text
OF ITS
in his Arabic translation, and he
surely had before him the Bible
text we have now!
Even more convincingly Reb
Chaim proves the fallacy of Bible
criticism in his monumental work
Acting under the authority vested in it by the American
"Peshita" on the Books of Genesis
and Exodus and in his "Samari-
Jewish Conference, the Interim Committee established by the
tan Text." Where the Bible critics
Conference voted to convene the second sessien of the American
advance the theory that Deuter-
Jewish Conference, at the Hotel Stevens in Chicago, Ill., begin.
onomy was written in the days of
fling on Saturday evening, September 2nd. The session will
Ezra the Scribe, Reb Chaim proves
continue through September 3rd, 4th and 5th.
by numerous Biblical passages
New elections of delegates will not be required inas-
that even the prophet Jeremiah,
much as the Conference is in recess and the forthcoming session
who lived at the time of the first
Temple, had before him not only
is convened by the Interim Committee under the authority
Deuteronomy but the enure Pen-
vested in it by the delegates of the first session.
tateuch as we have it today.
The delegates elected by the communities c.rz herewit%
The Septuagint, as is well
requested to notify the offices of the Conference, before June
known, plays a vital role in the
30th, whether they will be in a position to serve - forth-
array of Bible translations, but
coming session, in order that steps may be taken to provic:e for
in his German book "Untersuch-
ungen Zur Septuaginta" Reb
alternates if necessary, in accordance with the Rules of Election.
Chaim shows behind the cavil of
The amended rules with regard to the filling of vacancies of
a doubt that the transcription the-
delegates for the first session will govern the filing of vacancies
ory of Professor Wutz and his
for the second session.
colleagues is false from beginning
The national organizations affiliated with the Confer-
to end. And no less an authority
ence are requested to notify the Administrative Committee,
than Professor Balls of the Uni-
before .tuno 30th, of such substitutions as may be made in the
versity of Marburg, Germany,
list of their representatives.
stated that Dr. Holler's work on
the Septuagint makes null and
LOUIS LIPSKY, CHAIRMAN
void all the books written on the
Ado 'ilistrative Committee
subiect.
With the exactness of scientific
approach, and with healthy analyt-
ical logic, Professor Heller proves

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