The Geniune Jew

Organ for Yiddish matters

DER WAHRE JUDE

Organ für die Gesammtinteressen des Judenthums

The Geniune Jew costs

In Austria-Hungary	Abroad
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For a half year - 6 "	For a half year - 10 "
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Lviv, March 25th 1904

Adverts are cheaply calculated

All letters and money send to:

Redaction "Der wahre Jude",Lviv, Sonnengasse 27

The Genuine Jew is published every Tuesday and Friday

Lemberg, den 25.März 1904.

The Jewish emigration from Galicia

According to a recently published report about Galician emigration, 104,758 Jews have emigrated from Galicia in the last ten years (1890-1900). Jews form 12 % of the population, but more than a third of the emigrants are Jews.

The great number of emigrants. Exclude those who didn’t move abroad but went to a bigger city in Austria - they go to America and other countries. It proves the great poverty in Galicia. As it is known, Jewish people don’t want to leave their home and their family, if there is still a possibility to survive. In reality, Galicia’s poverty in general and the Jewish one in particular is very great. Galicia is a poor country with an inability to create new livelihoods, new sources of income. The competition is strong, one rips the bite almost out of the other's mouth - and those who cannot withstand it, need to look for their bread out in the world.

In regards to this, it must be highlighted that too many Jews are emigrating from Galicia. This means, too many people who could work and sustain themselves, who have initiative and the means to live here, to safeguard their future - they emigrate to America or Africa because they can earn their money more easily there; many emigrate because others who have done so, write “nice letters”, send presents to their families and one might think they live happily ever after.

But not all of that is correct. Those who read the descriptions of the factories and workhouses in America, know how hard and bitter one must work there. There is not Sabbath, no holidays, no day nor night. If people here would only work half as hard, nobody would have to go to America, away from home, away from the family, away from the Jewry.

It is true that there aren’t as many possibilities to work in Galicia compared to other countries. But exactly that is the advantage, because here, everyone wants to earn their living with fictitious transactions and in America one has to do taxing work. We should also strive to create new sources of income (as explained in The Genuine Jew no. 1 in the article “New livelihoods”), to open up possibilities to work here and no one needs to go out into the world - Praiseworthy are those who sit in at home is a well-known Jewish idiom in which the truth lies.

We ask the subscribers of מחזיקי הדת (upholders of religion) and קול מחזיקי הדת (the voice of the upholders of religion) to send every letter and money to this address:

OSIAS H. WILF, LEMBERG Sonnengasse 27.

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Path of the Torah

(An appeal of big Rabbis about the education of Jewish children).

Praise the lord!

Holy Jews, the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! For thousands of years, the holy people of Israel sacrificed their lives for our holy Torah, which is the Jewish soul. Like the soul dies when it separates from the body, the same happens when Jews would, God forbid, separate from and leave the Holy Torah. This would mean the end of the Jewish people. This is why we always have sacrificed our whole life for our Torah, for our religious faith. It is to be implanted in our children, generation after generation and we have always raised our children in a Jewish manner as the Lord wanted us to, the Torah in reverence, and the observance of the Mitzvos in practice. As this is a mitzvah from the Talmud of the Torah, it is in the image of the Almighty God, that every Jew is obliged to teach his children the Holy Torah. And you will teach your sons, you as a Jew should teach your children the Torah and its commands so that your sons may speak among them. You should teach your children the Torah and its commands so they might always talk about the Torah, on Sabbath in your home and when walking alone, when lying, and when standing, and wearing tefillin, touching the Mezuzah and then their lips with their fingers on entering or leaving the house and say the Kriyat Shema three times per day.

The Holy Gemara says: As soon as the child can talk, the father is obligated to teach him the Torah: "The Torah that Moses commanded us is the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob" and Shema Yisrael, the child has to know the principles of faith and the foundations of religion since childhood which Moses, may he rest in peace, has brought us the Torah from the Lord. By learning the Torah he must know the meaning of the Shema, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, dedicating himself to the Lord and to the Holy Torah, fulfilling the commandments, doing good deeds, and being good and pious for the Lord and the people.

When teaching the child the Torah, the Pentateuch, Prophets, Scriptures, and Gemara, one should also explain the holy declaration of the commentators which come from the Sages of the Mishnah and Talmud and the holy Midrashim which have been recorded by oral tradition until Moses our teacher, peace be upon him, received it from Sinai. Therefore, the child should be taught in faith until he gets to learn the Holy Gemara which is the real holy declaration of Holy Torah. It teaches us how to fulfill the commandments in practise and what the situation of the Jewish foundation and existence is and saying our prayers early in the morning: And furthermore, we place in our hearts to understand and comprehend, to hear, to learn, and to teach, to observe, to do, and to fulfill all the words of the teaching of Your Torah. It shall give us the judgement to comment, to be able to teach yourself and others, to observe and to fulfill the holy words of Your Torah, meaning the Gemara and the decrees.

And so have our parents always raised their children in the Lord’s way via Jewish classrooms, pious teachers who planted the child’s love for the Torah, morals and virtues to fulfill the commandments in practice and devotion to the authority of the Lord. Raising their children with self-sacrifice for the Torah, resulted in prominent men, righteous and devout Hasidic Rabbis and his followers. Until today we have remained Israelites as the chosen people in which we take pride and are proud of!

Unfortunately, lately a large breach and a horrible obstacle and stumbling block appeared caused by a new rotten manner of newfangled school and method, which some teachers and tutors pursue, which actually aligns with the Torah which the Lord has gifted us. This means: Others have stopped teaching the young students of the Torah the holy Pentateuch, Prophets, Scriptures, and Gemara which are the main foundation and observance of the commandments of Talmud Torah. They are being torn from fulfilling the commandments, they are not being raised in a Jewish manner to learn and to fulfill the holy words of Your Talmud Torah. Neither holiness nor piousness from the Torah as the Lord has given it to us are being instilled in them according to the tradition of the sages and the legacy of their ancestors. The collected holiness of the Talmud Torah has been replaced by only learning the holy language: The children of some parents think that the language of the Holy Torah is the Holy Torah itself and by learning the Hebrew language, the Holy language, they are learning the Torah itself. But this is a great mistake. The language alone is not the Torah in any way, just like the clothes alone do not substitute a human. The Holy language is only loved because of the Torah, which is wrapped in it. However, learning the holy language is essentially in no way enough to fulfill the duty of studying the Torah. This does not yield the fear of the Lord and observance of the mitzvah.

Now there are some teachers and tutors who teach some of the Pentateuch, Prophets, and Scriptures, but for them these religious books are also just a means to learn, to know the Hebrew language, but they do not teach the students the sanctity of the Torah and how to carry out their holy deeds. Instead they fabricate, condemn, and make the Torah into a theory work or history book to learn the Hebrew language. They throw out the Parashah and the Siddur from the Torah and sort it however they want, how they would wear unsuitable garments - because of trends. Against the truth that there is not a letter in the Torah that is excessive and every letter as well as vowel is holy as we were given by Sinai: Hundreds of people before have translated it into hundreds of languages and no word has ever been missing. However, our newly fangled teachers and tutors with their new schools and methods have become ashamed of the Torah and now dare to utilise the Torah like a nefarious piece of merchandise which teaches the children horrible comprehension that there are foul things in the Torah which the children take with them and they stay uneducated by the Torah, without fearing the Lord, without morals and good manners hating everything that is holy, God help us. And except how studying the Torah has been utilized to learn the language, which is only a secondary matter, there are more dangerous methods to learn the language. Tainted books full of heresy, making fun of the Torah and the sages of the Mishnah and Gemara, idle things and frivolity, novels which poison the child with dangerous influences, non-observant opinions, and bad morals. And because of this new education and its newfangled school can raise a generation of children who can under no circumstances know that there is an Almighty God who has gifted us the Torah, that we are obligated to believe in the Lord, to study, and to do good deeds, to fulfill the commandments of the Torah, to be honest and pious Jews, good for Heaven and Creation, good for God and for the people to be loyal soldiers in the Lord’s realm.

With one word, it is heartbreaking and bitter to watch the ruins of religion and the diligent extermination of the Holy Torah with which our new good friend seduces and persuades the people to search for the reanimation of our people and completely tear apart the Holy Torah. God, have mercy with us.

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And because the worries of the family and the soul are so great, the people are too busy with earning a living that they do not notice how their children are spoiled in today’s new schools. We are obliged according to Torah law to declare and announce all over the world for every father and mother to be wary of the debauched schools and methods which go against the Holy Torah and the legacy of our ancestors. The commandments of the Talmud Torah for children as our parents have learned them are:

The five books of the Torah, from Genesis to the prophets and writings, Mishnah Gemara with Rashi's commentary and other holy exegetes. That is how they always studied and learning the Holy Siddur leads to the Holy Gemara and Shulchan Aruch and Sefer Torah.

Every father is obliged to raise his children with tutors and proficient honest, and holy work, faithfully worshiping and observing and fearing the Lord which they need to provide for the young and pure child’s heart. They should plant love for the Lord into them, to the Torah and to the commandments and to pray from childhood on and to recite every blessing, respond with Amen, His name is great, holiness, blessings and the like.

The teacher and tutor needs to be an expert and teacher, he must be a devout person. He therefore needs to be a mirror for his students. With a tutor like this, the parents can be assured that their child will become an honest, good, pious Jew and also a scholar like the teacher.

The teacher must educate the child in mitzvot in action and practice, observing Sabbath, etc., honouring their parents, respecting the elders, fear of God and King.

As it is the duty of every Jew to keep to the established times for prayer and Torah reading, is it the duty of every father to visit the classroom often, to take care of the Siddur, question the child himself or ask each other to question the child. Every father and mother needs to know that their classroom is educating their children to honest Jews and this cannot happen without the Torah. The Holy Torah is eternal and does not change with time or fashion. As we say: I believe with complete faith that the Torah will not pass away, and there will be no other Torah from the Creator, blessed be His name. And with the Torah, the Jewish people will survive all ages and fashion.

This is the summary of all important rules as every Jew is obligated to educate on and mentor their child. This is detailed in The path of the Torah, which has been found necessary to aim at the Jewry as a whole. The privilege of obligating their children in the Law of God like our parents will be materialised by us and all your children will be taught by the Lord, and live in peace.

Following people have signed the appeal:

Rabbi Eliyahu Feinstein, Head of the Rabbinical Court of Pruzhany.

Rabbi Eliyahu Gardán, Head of the Rabbinical Court of Teli.

Rabbi Eliyahu Rabinovitz of Minsk.

Efraim Shlomo Zalman, head of the rabbinical court in Lipno.

Rabbi Bentsyon, Head of the Rabbinical Court of Bilsk.

The Gaonim of Grodno, the rabbinic geniuses who were the crushers and judges.

Rabbi Solomon Shapira, from Grodno.

Rabbi Avraham, son of Rabbi Moshe, of blessed memory, from the aforementioned town.

Rabbi Gavriel Zev Margolis, from the aforementioned town.

Zerah, son of the great Rabbi Morenu Binyamin, of blessed memory.

Rabbi Chaim Berlin of Yelisavetgrad and the surrounding region.

Rabbi Chaim Meir Noach Levin, highly respected rabbi and financial administrator of the Vilnius community.

Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, the Levite of Navardek.

Rabbi Yitzhak Blazer, former rabbi of the Holy Land and Navardek.

Rabbi Yehoshua of Zaritsk.

Rabbi Yitzhak Yaakov, son of Rabbi Shmuel Levi Rabinowitz, of Panevėžys.

Rabbi Yehuda Leib Riff of Zagier Chadash.

Rabbi Moshe Danishevsky of Slabodka.

Rabbi Moshe, son of the great and true Rabbi Yehoshua Eizik of Slabodka.

Rabbi Meir Amlers of Kavrin.

Rabbi Meshach Shmuel, son of the great Rabbi Eliyahu Leib Shapira, of blessed memory, of Babruysk.

Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Broyda of Zagier Yeshen.

Raphael Shapira of Volozhin.

Rabbi Shimon Dov Ber An-Olnik of Shedlitz.

Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim Meisel of Lodz.

Rabbi David Friedman of Karlin.

Hirsh Rabinovitch, Rabbi of the Jewish community of Kaunas.

Hillel Aryey Libshitz, Rabbi of the Jewish community of Lublin.

Chaim HaLevi Soloveitchik of Brisk-Dlitta.

Chaim Ozer Grodzinski of .

Yosef Shlopfer, Rabbi of the Slonim community.

Yosef Razin, Rabbi of the Dvinsk community

A new tax!

The local cultus board called a meeting last week which several citizens were attending. The chair H. Sholem Grosskopf announced that the district authority asked him whether he would agree to double the register fees. This means: paying for birth and death costs two crowns instead of the current one crown and for a legal marriage four crowns instead of the current two crowns.

The chair H. Sholem Grosskopf did not agree for which we tell him “well done!” as he could have done whatever he wanted without an assembly. The assembly unanimously voted against raising the fees.

But this doesn’t just concern our brothers, children of Israel in Galicia. Last year, the Galician Jewish registry office in Lviv consulted each other and decided to ask the ministry to raise the taxes. The ministry ordered all district authorities by government decree, from December 17th 1903, number 54820, to request every cultus board to agree to raising taxes. -

To answer this question, every board was allowed to answer without calling a meeting. It may be possible that no one knows about it in many cities, but our brothers would have to pay double as time goes on. This would be a new tax for the impoverished population.

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Hence, we want to call this to the attention of every Jewish community of Galicia to not see this become reality.

Rava-Ruska, Rosh Chodesh Nisan 5664, an honest man.

The political state of Austria.

Peace and quiet has set completely in the Hungarian parliament. The recruitment act for 1903 and 1904 as well as the budget for 1903 and a temporary six month budget for 1904 have been finished in only a few days. The government has overcome all hurdles and can send the parliament home for the holidays. After the holidays, the parliament can focus on new tasks and pass important laws for the people.

During this time, the Austrian parliament only dealt with obstruction after obstruction. No law has been passed, not a single motion was dealt with. The parliament was sent home for the holidays on Thursday as the representatives were not able to serve their voters, they didn’t do anything, didn’t achieve anything. The parliament didn’t do anything for either the state and the country or the people.

The minister president Dr Koerber, who was known for motivating the parliament to at least settle the most important issues, was not able to move anyone this time. As nothing was done the whole sitting, he at least wanted to elect the delegation needed for settling the joint budget for 1905. But the Czechs didn’t even want to do that for his sake. Whatever he did, nothing worked. He turned to the Polish for help to mediate and vote for a delegation. The Polish, who usually support every government, positioned themselves as the opposition this time. They didn’t want to relent and claimed they fear that if the delegation is elected now, the government would call the Imperial Assembly after the holidays. When the minister president urged them to give in and told them that the Polish situation needed them to elect the delegation at once, they went to the minister of foreign affairs Gołuchowski to ask him whether the political situation is really that serious and whether electing a delegation is actually needed right now. The minister answered that it isn’t essential for him as the delegation will only convene in May anyways. Whether it is elected now or after the holidays doesn’t make a difference. On the contrary, if they should be elected in a hurry now, it will reflect negatively on the parliament. Everyone would assume that they are preparing for political enmeshment. After this reply, the minister president Dr Koerber couldn’t say anything else and gave his demand a miss.

Meanwhile, the days in parliament were passed in obstruction. Several scandals also occurred; until Tuesday when the president read a letter written by the minister president according to which the session would be postponed. The recruitment act will have to pass with § 14.

In the meantime, the Czechs and Germans debate peace. The Polish are the mediators. The Czechs have abated from their position a bit, although they still demand a lot. A university should still be constructed in Moravia, but they do not insist on the capital Brno anymore, but another city would be acceptable as well. It also doesn’t have to happen right now, but at a later point as well. Regarding the official language in Bohemia, they would be satisfied with everything remaining as it is right now and the court language doesn’t have to be changed. The Germans only have to agree to it now and not complain later on. The Germans have new demands responding to the claims, but hope persists that an agreement can be made, if both countries want to.

The government is not permitted to be present at the peace negotiations. The Czechs explained that as soon as the minister president intervenes, they will abort the negotiations. If peace is established, the minister will surely have to be exchanged - or the parliament will dissolve.

Jewish News.

(Lviv). The Rabbi, great man, Gaon, etc. Yitzhak Leib Shmelkes, Shlita of Lviv will hold a sermon on the Halakha in the small local school on the day of Sabbath.

(Sasiv). Close to our city in the forest two murdered Jews were found. Their identity is not known, they seem to be foreign, impoverished people. The murderer didn’t leave any traces.

(Vienna). The local university offers 4,000 crowns to a professor who should go to the land of Israel to research the country.

(Paris). The criminal division of the supreme court dealt with the Dreyfus-trial on Wednesday. General Gonse, an enemy of Dreyfus, was interrogated for five hours. He answered every question evasively.

(St Petersburg). The antisemites chevy Jews again by claiming that they sell horses for the Japanese.

(Odessa). According to a report by the Kimcha De Phischa society, there are 45,000 impoverished Jews in Odessa who have to be supported during Passover. The poverty is horrible.

(Vilnius). The military administration forbade military bands to play at Jewish weddings.

(Holland). A new law concerning Sunday rest has been passed in Holland. It determines that every workshop and every factory has to close on Sunday. Only those workers resting on

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another day may work on Sunday. This is a relief for Jewish workers who keep Sabbath.

Telegrams

The war

between Japan and Russia.

St Petersburg. Japan bombarded Port Arthur again on Tuesday. 18 Japanese battleships battered the harbour and the fortress for over four hours. They fired over 200 missiles and did damage. The Russian battleship and the fortress returned fire. Afterwards, the Japanese sailed away.

London. The Japanese who bombarded Port Arthur on Tuesday wanted to make sure whether the Russian battleships were in the harbour or somewhere else. The Japanese reached their goal. As the Russians returned the fire it is certain that they are back in the harbour.

Tokyo. The news that 1,800 Japanese were captured during a clash between the Russian and Japanese military is not true.

London. The transport of the Russian military in East Asia by Lake Baikal is very difficult now. The ice has melted a bit hence why it cannot be crossed by sleds anymore. However, the ice in the middle is still thick as to why it cannot be crossed by ship. Therefore, the military has to travel around the whole lake on the other side.

St Petersburg. As crossing Lake Baikal has turned out to be very difficult the government has been prompted to quickly build tracks around the lake. The train will be completed in May and will be the most expensive one in the world. One kilometer costs over 200,000 roubles. The whole track costs over 60 million roubles. On the short route of 244 verst 19 tunnels have to be broken through, 189 bridges have to be built. Only the railroad minister alone knows how all of this should be finished by May. It is almost impossible.

Beijing. The Chinese are ready for battle and are prepared to attack the Russians at the first possibility. The imperial court wants to go away from the capital Beijing and go deep into the country. The powers discourage this as new persecutions of foreigners in Beijing could break out and the powers would have to intervene.

St Petersburg. The military staff discovered that the cavalry captain Ivkov was a Japanese spy. He had already sold the Russian battle plan to Japan for 16,000 roubles. He had already received 600 roubles, but was hung now.

Vilnius. The revolutionaries are starting. There is a small church in Vilnius which was built in memory of repression of the January Uprising of 1863. The Polish have always looked at the church with hostility. These days, the church was bombed with a dynamite bomb.

St Petersburg. As the government fears dynamite assassinations on their military trains, it has introduced an armoured train in Manchuria. Similar to what England had in the Second Boer War.

Port Arthur. The Russians made all preparations in case the city fell in Japanese hands. Everything should be burnt down completely like the Russians burnt down Moscow in 1812 during the war with Napoleon.

St Petersburg. The people are dissatisfied that the tsar sits at home and doesn’t go to the battlefield in East Asia.

German defeat in East Africa.

Berlin. A revolution by the natives in German East Africa started a fight between the revolutionaries and the German military. The military lost greatly. Some officers and a lot of soldiers were killed, even more were wounded.

The war and the finances.

Why do France, Germany, Belgium and generally Europe ally with Russians in the current war and England and America with Japan? The writer of the last “Weekly economy report” in the Berlin newspaper “Vorwärts" reveals an interesting cause for this division. According to them, French capitalists invested almost 7,000 million francs in Russia - 6,000 million of that in Russian state bonds, this means simply lended it. Comparing it to the French investment in Japan, which is not more than 12 million. Germany similarly so. It has invested at least 3,000 million mark in Russian commerce while Japanese investments are barely 80 - 90 million. Trade between these two countries and Japan is also quite insignificant. Germany exports 50 million mark in total worth of merchandise per year, and France merely 10 million. This accounts to not even 1.5 % of the Japanese import. By contrast, England exports 9.5 million pound sterling of merchandise per year and America - even 13 million pound sterling. Unsurprisingly, the former stick with Russia and the latter - with Japan. All the solidarity is built on hard cash.

What impact the Russian defeat can have on foreign capitalists, is not apparent on the Paris stock market last week. The total loss of the stock market capitalists has been calculated to 84 million pounds.

The softening of the human race.

Mitigation of the world, decline, - these words travel from person to person lately and scare us with an unfortunate outlook of the future. The human - as it is said - are becoming weaker, smaller, their lives become shorter and therefore a time must come when the whole

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world consists of small, weak dwarfs which cannot find a solution in the battle of life and the world has to end. The proof is…?

The scientific proof for that begins with an American scholar. Not long ago, he published a hypothesis that the world was once inhabited by giants: giant people, giant cows, giant trees, and plants. With time, the giant types disappeared and were replaced by smaller ones, after that even smaller ones and so on. This decline and weakening of the world is happening continuously and the world is slowly but surely marching towards its tomb.

This academic has not found out anything new. His hypothesis has, as one says, had a long life already. Like the heroes of the Roman poet Virgil who lived 1900 years ago, were tortured with the thought that they are unearthing giant bones of their great-great-grandparents.

But is this opinion correct? The oldest sentiment is not always the correct one. We want to make our readers familiar with the views of various academics who thought about this question.

The latest research proves with certainty that early, prehistoric tribes and oldest civilisations were not taller than us. Mummies, that is embalmed bodies, in Egypt which date back 5,000 years, convinced researchers that the old Egypts were not a particularly strongly built people. Moreover, Pettenkofer proved that the people living at the time of the Greek poet (some 2,000 years ago) were even smaller and weaker than we are. Hippe also proves that the bodies at that time were not taller than ours are.

According to the works of ancient writers we know that the old Romans were 1,725 metres tall which we cannot see as particularly small because up until this day 10 % of the Italian population is not smaller than that. The scholars Kohn, Lindemann, and Krause proved that in the past 1,000 years the growth of the German population has not really changed. Topinard and other French scholars did the same in regards to the French.

Truly - going into the armoury and witnessing the iron weapons, armour, and clothes of the heroes back then, one might think at first glance that those who wore these weapons and clothes were giants. Twice as tall and twice as strong as we are.

However, in reality, as Dr Waitz rightfully declared, these clothes fit a mediocre German man today. Everyone is also aware that if Queen Victoria of England went on her honeymoon, the Scottish aristocracy wanted to welcome her in their National knight garments. It turned out that the clothes from previous knights were too tight for them and they had to acquire new ones.

The best proof of people having been the same height is the statistic of recruits, although it is only viable for a short time, but at least it’s useful to have a vision of the last millennial. Numbers and facts prove that neither height nor strength of the body became smaller. This means that the number of soldiers being rejected thanks to their weakness did not increase. The academics Bretano, Bindewald, Blum, and others found out that the citizens in the countryside are stronger than the citizens living in the city and that the healthy people from the villages leave their home and move to the city to work in the factories.

In any case, we cannot ignore the sad truth that a person lives on average shorter than before. But this stems from the usual calculations being skewed by child and infant mortality which increased massively. The cause of that of course lies in the sad fact that living in these times became harder. According to Bollinger, the child mortality is caused by a part of women suffering from a lack of milk. For example, in Germany 23 % of women suffer from this illness. Every year, the sickness spreads more and more, the newborns are being artificially fed resulting in, for example, in Germany, for example, 25 of 100 children die before their first birthday.

In previous times, this illness wasn’t even known. The old writers don’t write about artificial food even once. Therefore, we can certainly say that the Persians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans did not know about that, just like Arabs, Turks, and Armenians in our times.

Child mortality is of course not the only cause of the decreasing average lifespan. One of the main reasons for Professor Ballard are the different “industrial diseases” which multiply severely. However, these only constitute exceptions and the statistics prove that these reasons do not influence the general result. At large, the life span has changed little and today’s people live almost longer than the generations before. Indeed, as Mayrhofer proves, the birth rate in bigger cities has decreased. Hence we have in Berlin, for example, the following numbers:

In 1886, out of 1,000 women, 230 gave birth.

-”- 1891 - 220

-”- 1896 - 188

On average, the number of births in 1896 were

in the big cities 264 (of 1,000 women)

- medium - 292 -”-

- small - 291 -”-

- villages - 332 -”-

With these numbers we can see that the birth rate did not change in total. The statisticians, who constantly cry and moan at the world's devastation, make the mistake of only looking at the small number from the city and jump to conclusions. The better academics however prove that distress and hardship bring sad results, but this is no reason to claim devastation and

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debilitating of humankind, - the devil is not as horrible as he is being described.

Feutellion

Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg

(A historical retelling)

(Continuation)

“Daughter! I have to discuss something urgent with you. You are my last solace and hope. Out of everything you alone are what’s left. My duty does not allow me to have a conversation with you, but today is the most important time during which I can talk to you. When your late mother was still alive, I passed this on to your mother. Unfortunately, now I alone have to cover for her. By chance, I heard what happened to you with Kneppe when you went to your aunt. I know that you are very distressed and I am astonished that you did not tell me anything about it.”

“Ah! Dear father, my grievances with what the prince threatened you with are greater than my grievances about what Kneppe said to me. Because I see the danger looming over you. The prince will not let go of his desires until everything is fulfilled. How then, shall I think about myself in times like these?”

“We are both well aware what the prince is and the danger looming over all Jews and especially over me. But why should we be afraid while we are guided under God’s principles and He will without a doubt protect us from everything that’s bad, because without God’s will, nobody can do anything.”

“I am aware of that, dear father, that the Holy Creator leads the world and if a man already has a knife on his throat he shall still not renounce God’s help and that He is willing to cure the plague. However, I am asking whether He is indeed ready for the solution that you survive the danger with every Jew while I fall into the apostate’s hands. I think it is a holy duty to sacrifice myself for you and all Jews. Your lives are worth more than my felicity and my life. I am aware I will be shredded in darkness and bitterness, leading my whole life with a criminal, but what other option do we have to save the lives of you and the Jewish people. I cannot watch after myself and I am ready to tell him that you will agree.”

“Only tell me dear daughter - the rabbi answered - tell me, I ask of you, did you contemplate and calculate the dishonor and the shame which I and you will be put to if you take this stept. That you will have a wedding with one of those who has let himself be publically baptised. How will you be able to lift your eyes again with all this shame?”

I have indeed calculated all of that, dear father, I know very well that my whole life will be resentful. As long as I live I shall cry and moan because of my misery and shame. But there is no other option as the life of every Jew is on the line. I have to relinquish my life and my honour. You alone, dear father, taught me that every human has the duty to sacrifice their life for the Jewish people…”

The rabbi was very satisfied with what he heard from his daughter. He was now convinced of the love she has for her people that she would sacrifice her own life and happiness for them. After a short break he said to her: “You know very well that God said to Abraham he shall sacrifice his only son Isaac and Abraham was ready to do so. Then, an angel said to him: You shall not touch your son as I am convinced that you are god-fearing, because you were ready to do so. Our scholars learned from that, that everybody who plans to do a good deed, even if he has not done it yet, is a good with God as he had done it already. The same applies to you as well, my dear daughter. For you, it is already a done deal that you will sacrifice yourself for the Yiddish people, but I can not approve of that. I have sworn your dying mother to look for people according to your values. And I am doing this to honour your mother in her grave who shall find peace. Leave these horrible thoughts behind, my dear child…”

“But my dear father, what shall we do?” - trust me - the rabbi answered - "you can know that this terrible Kneppe has done to us once before is lost - he can not do like he is saying. The emperor demands this huge sum of money from us which Kneppe cannot pay out of his own pockets since he doesn’t have that kind of wealth. And his mere words will not change anything. The only thing he can do is run away with you and help you escape like that - Is it possible then to leave my brothers in danger and let them see how to escape on their own? I know for certain that you will not advise me to do so, but if I want to escape, I can do that without Kneppe as well. But what utility do these empty words have? I need to look for a plan how I can save you from the danger put onto you by the apostate Kneppe. However, I am too old and weak and my duty does not allow me to watch over you at all times.

I found a way to protect you from the danger. I know that you are in debt to my student Asher. He risked his own life to save you from peril. This shall be a sign of God, that he saved you for his sake. Now, my dear child, imagine your blessed mother standing in front of you and asking you to be wed to Asher. He truly is a precious child. What would you say? I, for one, cannot force you to agree to this engagement, but I truly want to know your answer, whether your heart is drawn to him?”

With a soft, but composed voice, Sarah answered: “I accept.”

After Sarah’s words, the rabbi stood up from his chair and put both his hands on Sarah’s head and blessed her to leave a happy life. On the very same day, the rabbi talked to Asher and told him about his resolution to take him as a son-in-law with Asher’s consent and they shook hands as a sign of agreement. However, the rabbi ordered to keep it a secret and the wedding as well, so the scoundrel Kneppe will not get wind of it and bring Sarah in danger.

After the wedding, the rabbi said to his children: my dear children! You know very well of our current hardship and who knows what can still happen. Now it is my wish for you to go to Barcelona (Spain) to the local rabbi. He is my best friend and I am certain he will welcome you although he doesn’t know Asher personally. However, I have written about you several times and he already knows your handwriting because of the responsa which you have sent him. Moreover, I will give you a letter to know when you have arrived there and the Lord will help you as well and you will be able to make a living there.

(To be continued).

[7]

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