OTHER VIEWS

Tidal Waves

New York
n Sept. 1, 1923, one of the most
powerful earthquakes in record-
ed history hit the Kanto plain in
Japan and laid waste to Tokyo,
Yokohama and surrounding cities and
villages. Well over 100,000 people died.
Although it was before the advent of
modern communications, news of the
disaster reached distant places — even
the Polish town of Radin, the home of
the Chofetz Chaim.
His real name was Rabbi Yisroel Meir
Kagan, but the sainted Jewish scholar
came to be known by that snippet of a
Hebrew verse — it means "one who
wants life" — after the name of one of
the 21 works he authored on Jewish
law, this one on the prohibition of
improper speech like gossip and tale-
bearing. He was one of the (if not the)
most important authorities of Jewish
law of the 20th century (he died in
1933 at the age of 95), renowned
worldwide not only for his scholarship,
but also for his kindness, righteousness
and modesty. He and his wife subsisted
as the owners of a small grocery store,
whose finances he carefully scrutinized,
on alert always for any possible over-
charging of a customer.

O

Rabbi Shafran is director of public affairs
for Agudath Israel of America. His column
is syndicated through Am Echad Resources.
His e-mail address is
shafran@agudathisrael.org

When a student informed the elderly
sage of the mass deaths in Japan, he was
visibly shaken, immediately undertook a
partial fast and insisted that the news
should spur all Jews to repentance.
Japan could as well have been
Neptune to any early 19th century
Polish Jew It was a place that existed
only on newspapers' pages and in sto-
ries. And the inverse relationship
between distance (cultural and religious,
as well as geographic) and empathy is a
well-recognized part of human nature.
Yet the Chofetz Chaim's dismay and
resolve were genuine. Although there
were not likely any Jews directly affected
by the tragedy in Japan, the 13th centu-
ry Spanish Jewish luminary Rabbeinu
Yonah of Gerundi, in his commentary
to Avot 3:2, describes how "the way of
the righteous" is to "... pray for the
peace of the entire world and feel the
suffering of others."

Linked With God

But there is something more in the
Jewish sources, something that might
surprise many contemporary Jews: the
idea that catastrophes, even when they
do not affect Jews, are nevertheless mes-
sages for them, wake-up calls to repen-
tance. Insurers call such occurrences
"Acts of God"; for Jews, that description
is precise indeed and demands a
response.
It is, to be sure, a very particularist
idea, placing Jews in a central place

in Israel, Rabbi Aharon Leib
within humankind. But, while
Steinman, was reported to have
Judaism considers all of
humanity to possess potential
remarked shortly after the
recent devastation in Asia:
holiness and while its prophetic
tradition foretells the eventual
"Everyone sits in his own home
and feels good — 'Where I am
movement of all of humanity
everything is fine, it's over there
to service of God, Judaism
that people are dying' — ... we
does, in fact, cast the Jews as a
have to learn [from such
chosen people. That election
RABB I AVI
tragedies] the extent of what sin
includes the responsibility to
SHAF RAN
perceive divine messages in the
causes, and it is up to us to ana-
Spe cial
trials of humankind.
Comm entary lyze and learn ... [so that we
will] repent."
And so that is an additional
layer to the Chofetz Chaim's
That repentance goes far
beyond donations to relief agencies.
reaction, the conviction that the distinc-
tive nature of the Jew demanded a
What the Jewish sources teach is that
tragic events like the one we have just
meaningful Jewish response to the catas-
witnessed must spur us to not only
trophe that had occurred.
The impetus for recalling that event
address global events, but also to focus
on the microcosm that is the self. To
and those thoughts, of course, is the
recent horrific disaster in southeast Asia.
work, in other words, on our interac-
tions with those around us; on — as the
The death toll, astounding even in the
Chofetz Chaim taught — our responsi-
days immediately following the tsuna-
mi's devastation of the coasts of several
bility to use the power of speech careful-
ly and properly; on being more obser-
countries, has grown more shocking still
vant of the Sabbath and holidays, of
with the passage of the days.
Nations have responded with aid, and
kashrut and all the laws of the Torah; on
dedicating more time to its study.
countless hearts, including Jewish ones,
That is the secret of how we can cre-
have ached at the images and reports of
ate a better world and vanquish evil —
parents seeking or mourning children;
the source of all tragedy — at its very
of children seeking or mourning par-
ents; of lives altered radically and terri-
roots.
For when we do such things, the
bly; of others snuffed out in seconds.
seeming tiny quanta of our collective
But, at least from a truly Jewish per-
merits can combine and swell, no less
spective, there is a special reaction to
than drops of water that make up an
those events that Jews must feel and act
ocean, into a tidal wave of goodness,
upon. Mass destruction has visited the
ushering in the day when, as the
world, and that cannot be something a
Jew simply takes note of before moving
prophet Isaiah 11:9 foretold, "the earth
will be filled with knowledge of God,
on.
like the water that covers the oceans."
A revered contemporary Jewish sage

❑

Where Are The Arabs?

Jerusalem
have been watching with growing
amazement how the Americans are
being criticized for the disaster in
the Indian Ocean.
First, the United Nations (Americans
are the largest financial contributor to
the organization with 3 billion dollars in
2003 alone) called America "stingy."
Then President Bush, who made a poli-
cy statement 72 hours after the disaster
while U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan was still on Christmas vacation,
and the Swedes, who had thousands of
citizens feared dead, had nothing to say.
But no one has said a word about
Saudi Arabia's $10 million aid package.

I

Naomi Ragen is a New York City

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1/ 7

2005

32

author who made aliyah in 1972.
Her e-mail address is
Naomi@NaomiRagen.com

Wow! Considering the billions they have
funneled into terror groups, that's really
big of them.
Almost exactly a year ago, on Jan. 1,
2004, Americans also went to Iran to
help when an earthquake killed 30,000.
According to CBS News, one Iranian
cleric greeted the help with the following
statement: "We hate the arrogance of the
Americans, and we are sure that they
haven't come for humanitarian reasons,
but for other things like spying," said
Abdullah Irani, a mullah from Qum, the
main center for Shia Muslim clerics in
Iran."
And just try to Google Syrian aid for
tsunami victims. See what you come up
with — zero.
Given the fact that Indonesia is 78
percent Moslem and has lost more than
100,000 people, Sri Lanka is 8 percent
Muslim, and India is 11 percent

darity of the Islamic world
Muslim, one would think that
when it comes to their "pride"
Arab nations would now show
or their touchy religious sensi-
an outpouring of support and
bilities doesn't extend to
sympathy.
humanitarian aid when thou-
After all, isn't that the excuse
sands of Muslims lay dead in
they always use for backing the
the streets? Where are the
"poor Palestinians" — that they
much-touted "Muslim
are fellow Moslems, and their
Benevolent Funds" when you
solidarity is a given? And does-
NA OMI
really
need them for something
n't the West tiptoe around
RAG EN
other
than
guns to kill Israelis
Muslim sensibilities whether it
Spe cial
and
blow
up
planes?
be the Americans who are terri-
Comm entary
Makes one think, doesn't it,
fied of entering a mosque (even
that perhaps all these years their
one being used as a shelter for
concern for the plight of the Palestinian
terrorists), or Parisians who dare to ask
"refugees" wasn't based on purely
girls not to wear Islamic head coverings
humanitarian grounds. Let's just see how
to class, or Brits, who allow local imams
charitable Moslems will be to the mil-
to give hate sermons in London
lions of Muslim refugees in Asia now —
mosques?
people who, unlike the Palestinians, real-
Isn't the Western belief that to hurt or
offend one Muslim is to hurt and offend ly don't have a roof over their heads or a
them all? So, how is it that the great soli- way to earn a living. Let's just see. ❑