Albert's younger son, Eduard, was a
romantic. Witty, well read, and a
highly skilled pianist with ambitions of
becoming a psychiatrist (he kept a
photograph of Freud over his bed), in
1929 he began the study of medi-
cine at Zurich University.
After a failed romance with an
older woman, he was profoundly
depressed. His behavior became
erratic and unusual, and it soon
became apparent that he was suffer-
ing from schizophrenia. His disease
may have had genetic roots. His
mother, Mileva, was prone to bouts
of depression, and Mileva's sister,
Zocka, had symptoms of severe
mental illness.
After many vicissitudes, Eduard
was admitted to the psychiatric hos-
pital in Burgholzli, Switzerland, and
remained there until his death in
October 1965.
While not halachically (legally)
Jewish, Einstein's sons apparently
were brought up to think of them-
selves as Jews. Einstein, though him-
self far from religious, reportedly was
furious when he learned in the
1940s that Hans Albert joined the
Christian Science church.
Eduard never married, but Hans
Albert married twice (we do not
know if his first wife, Frieda Knecht,
was Jewish; his second wife, Eliza-
beth Roboz, was). By his first wife,
Hans Albert had two sons and one
adopted daughter. It's unknown
whether his daughter, Evelyn (born
1941), married.
The younger son, Klaus, died in
1938 at the age of 6. The older son,
Bernhard Caesar Einstein (born
1930), married Aude Ascher and
had five children. Among them was
Thomas Martin Einstein (born 1955),
who, by the mid-1990s, was a physi-
cian living in Connecticut.

.

0: I know what "modern"
means and I know what
"Orthodox" means. Several
times in recent years, I have

come across the term "Mod-
em Orthodox." It seems to
me an oxymoron. Now we
have Sen. Joe Lieberman
claiming to be "Modern
Orthodox," yet he appears to
be associated with a Conser-
vative synagogue. Could it be
an attempt to retain the
Orthodox label while espous-
ing Conservative principles?
From reader MB in West Bloomfield

A: If you believe that Orthodox
Judaism, by definition, is anachro-
nistic or obsolete and best belongs
to another time and place, then
"Modern Orthodox" would be an
oxymoron.
Orthodox Jews will tell you, howev-
er, that their faith is rooted in the
enduring concept that the Torah is the
direct, literal, incontrovertible word of
God, and that Jews are obliged to
obey the Torah's 613 mitzvot (corn-
' mandments). You will have to decide
for yourself if such a belief has a
place in today's world.
Modern Orthodoxy is not a hybrid
1 religion of Orthodox and
Conservative.
Whoever invented the term, "Mod-
i ern Orthodox," made a poor choice
of words, for it suggests that Orthodox
Judaism's place is best suited to times
past. Until fairly recently, this religious
movement was called (mostly in acad-
emic circles) "neo Orthodoxy," or
"enlightened Orthodoxy," but those
terms, also, are misleading.
1 Modern Orthodoxy stems from the
philosophy espoused by Rabbi Sarn-
i son Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) of
Germany. His basic message was
expressed by the Hebrew phrase,
I Torah im derech eretz, meaning a
way of life at once fully compliant
with Torah and compatible with con-
: temporary society. How this played
out in. real life followed Rabbi Hirsch's
view (which he contrasted with the

TELL ME WHY

on page 62

It To

is he

chamsah

really a Jewish syrn poi?

Elizabeth Applebaum
AppleTree Editor

. ,._

F

,

first comes the Star of David.

inen there's the ehait the Ten
. Commandments and some-
times even a mezuzah cover. EciCh
:& had its moment in t spotlight

er. Some
even have

Israel. Of course, they didn't want
their chamsahs viewed as the hand
of Fatima, so they inscribed various
Jewish verses on their amulets, usually
made of some kind of metal. (Later,
artists began including diagrams
from the Kabbalah, along with the
names of angels, on chamsalls).
The most popular inscription
recalls YaaKov Lacob) who gave a
blessing to his son recounted in
Genesis 49:24 and includes the
words: "The fingers of his hands
were IKept firm by the hands of the
Mighty One dJacob."
Yet not all would be especial y
happy to see such prolific
use of a hand on Jewish
terns. In fact, the Talmud
specifically says that one
should not use the image.
of a hand on anything
Jewish, because.the
Tanach so frequently cites
the word in coniuncfion
with God. Numbers
11:23 speaks of God's
hand with an out-
e: Exa-

68,61:

al

powers (a decidedly
undewish idea), offering protection
from the evil eye.
But does the chamsah really have
a Jewish connection?
Yes and no.
In fact, the word llchamsah" likely
takes its name from the Arabic hams,
or five (as in five fingers). Long
before theievvs discovered it, the
chamsah was a popular amulet
among Arabs, who see it as a sym-
bol of the hand of Fatima, daughter
of the prophet Mohammed. And
long before the Arabs discovered it,
the chamsah could be seen among .
the Carthaginians, who probably
took the design from the Phoenician
community, where it often was found
on tombstones.
In modern times, the chamsah was
pOpular among residents of North
Africa, and its likely that. North
African Jewish immigrants brought the
design with them when they settled in

han

e

s out

of Egypt, among others.
Additionally, images of hands can
be seen in important stories through-
out the Tanach, suc -1 as when Rivkah
tells Jacob that angels will carry him
with their strong hands, and the
angel Gabriel makes milk flow from
Avraham% right hand.
Perhaps even more significant
than the image of the hand, howev-
er, is the number five. There are five
fingers on a chamsah, of course,
and also the Five Books of Moses.
Yet there are many negative "fives"
in the Tanach, including the five
Angels of Destruction, the five sins
that caused the Great Flood and
the fact that Moses died five years
before his time.
Naturally, mystics have a great
deal to say about the number five,
as well. According to the Zohari the
lines on the palm reveal five different
kinds of human character.

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