“In the hour of a man’s decease, not silver nor gold nor precious stones and pearls accompany him, but Torah and good works alone, as it is said, ‘When thou walkest, it shall lead thee, when thou liest down, it shall watch over thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.’ ‘When thou walkest, it shall lead thee’ – in this world. ‘When thou liest down, it shall watch over thee’ – in the grave. ‘And when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee’ – in the world to come.” (Chapter of R. Meir, Pirke Abot 6).Men and women of vision and understanding do not shirk from stopping in the midst of the hustle and bustle of life, to pause for a moment and think of the ultimate hour. The average man engaged either in securing or in enjoying wealth is too timid and in most cases unwilling to approach a problem which he cannot avoid. This timidity has deplorable consequences in many a case. The ultimate hour, the occurrence of which can never be determined, foretold or delayed, often finds the individual unprepared and many a cause which he cherished, for which he lived and for which he would be ready to die if need be, suffers most. The things for which he was most anxious to care in good health and with his appreciation undiminished are often neglected in that awful, short space of time which ends the earthly existence.
To the Jew and to the traditional Jew in particular who is urged by his religious loyalty to take frequent stock, to measure his deeds, to weigh his means, to divide and to provide for present and future needs, this often-observed timidity and unwillingness to pause is an unnatural state of mind. To the Jew the life Thereafter is no jump into the unknown, it is decidedly a continuation in a form inconceivable to the human mind, unseen by the human eye but felt strongly and commandingly by the human heart.
This command of the Jewish heart which views the universe as a Oneness and life Here and Hereafter as a continuity, the latter depending upon the first, has made its indelible impression on the Jewish mind and has outlined a way and a method for the Jewish individual to pursue for the best interests of his own, his immediate family, and those causes of the Jewish community, of society and mankind at large to which he is bound and which he cherishes.
One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the Jewish mode of thought and life is that recorded of Abraham the Patriarch. The Bible tells us that one of the chief reasons for the Almighty’s choice of Abraham to bring before him the Divine Revelation as a Book of Life was the knowledge that the Patriarch would transmit – and thus fortify – this knowledge to his children, that he would leave a will.
“For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him.” (Genesis 18:19)
Beginning with the Patriarchs, the fathers of the Hebrew race, down through the centuries it has been an unbreakable custom for Jews to command their children while alive so as to ensure their conduct when their parents are no longer with them. The most stirring scenes that have impressed themselves on the mind of humanity are those depicting the parting hours of the leaders of the Jewish people from their families. Many a permanent ethical thought which has raised the moral standard and has guarded the tradition, the loyalty and the learning of the race, owes its origin to this age-honored and awe-inspiring custom.
Jewish literature, in comparison with the literatures of all the peoples of the world, has the distinction of having a branch all its own. It is the literature of ethical wills. These wills, handed down by parents to their children, in oral or in written form, are indeed the pearls of wisdom based on life experience and are in everlasting testimony to Jewish experience and to Jewish foresight under all possible conditions. In fact, the Hebrew word for will, “Zavash,” means “command” and derives its origin from that Biblical description of Abraham the Patriarch’s innate quality “to command his children and his household after him.”
A man’s life is judged by his will. There is no legal obligation resting upon the individual to make bequests in his last will. There is, however, a moral urge to provide in his will for the needs of his family and for that cause which has been the nearest and dearest to him in his lifetime and to which his loyalty is bound.
Our sages have defined this moral obligation in simple and convincing terms.
“In the hour of a man’s decease, not silver nor gold nor precious stones and pearls accompany him, but Torah and good works alone, as it is said, ‘When thou walkest, it shall lead thee, when thou liest down, it shall watch over thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.’ ‘When thou walkest, it shall lead thee’ – in this world. ‘When thou liest down, it shall watch over thee’ – in the grave. ‘And when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee’ – in the world to come.” (Chapter of R. Meir, Pirke Abot 6).
The collections of Jewish ethical wills, those that are published and those that are still kept in the archives of the world’s courthouses and museums, constituting a pride to Jewish tradition and a manifestation of Jewish foresight and generosity, in the majority of cases unfailingly contain clauses providing for bequests to those Jewish institutions which are the chief characteristic of Jewish communal life.
The leading beneficiary in these bequests and the greatest emphasis in the ethical wills that were left by the leaders of the old is the institution of Jewish learning, the Yeshiva, the fortress of the Torah. The Torah, as is obvious, being the background for the distinct Jewish [mode of] life, is the foundation and the Giver of Life to all other branches of Jewish activity.
The inclusion of such a clause in one’s will makes all the difference in the world. It accentuates the distinction between a technical will and what is rightly termed an ethical will, making it eligible for that precious heritage of Jewish literature.
The institution of the will is a late development among the peoples of the world. But it is not so with the Jewish people. The institution of the will is based on the assumption that the man who lives today has a will of his own, a free will which he is able to exercise. The testament is a legal device to assure the continuity of this exercise of one’s will. It has served and is serving as an instrument to maintain and often to strengthen a loyalty and devotion to one’s life ideal.
Bequests to charitable institutions are praiseworthy. Hospitals, orphan asylums, and the other institutions caring for the material needs of mankind are necessary and desirable. However, their longevity is limited to locality and durability.
Perpetuation can be assured only by a bequest to that institution in Jewish life upon which the very life of the Jewish people is contingent: the preservation of Jewish learning or the maintenance and expansion of the study of the Torah.
One can find by a perusal of Jewish testamentary documents in all countries for many centuries repeated emphasis of individuals to the executors of their wills that care be given chiefly to the Yeshiva, that perpetual standard-bearer of Jewish learning and Jewish tradition.
American Jews have a particular reason to remember the Yeshiva in their wills.
In the first period of the transplantation of Jewish life to America, the spiritual and cultural needs of the people were neglected, the material requirements being of a pressing nature. The institutions caring for the material needs of the community are at present provided for. The need of the hour and the hope of the future Jewish generations depend on securing the foundation of Jewish learning.
There is an inspiring example in the non-Jewish environment. All the leading American universities, including Yale and Harvard, were founded and owe their development to the generosity of far-visioned individual citizens. The conduct of these universally respected American seats of learning and their continuous expansion is being made possible through large benefactions or through testamentary bequests. Untold millions were left by these men whose appreciation and zeal for learning were high and whose patriotic devotion was unequaled. These funds go for the making of America in the fields of learning and science. Not less than twenty colleges were founded by Catholics in the United States. Greater still is the number of institutions of learning maintained by the various Protestant denominations. These institutions are generously and permanently supported through individual donations and bequests, placing their existence on a secure foundation.
American Jewry, and particularly traditional Jewry, will inscribe itself in the Book of Jewish Life by similarly providing funds for the maintenance and expansion of Jewish learning in this land. Every Jew, by his foresight and devotion, who will add to the funds of the Yeshiva, will inscribe himself and American Jewry in the Book of Jewish Life. Let there be a new addition to the collections of Jewish ethical wills.
The Yeshiva, the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, the oldest institution of higher Jewish learning in the United States, is now in the process of expansion through the erection of a series of buildings for the Yeshiva College. It is in need of endowment funds to secure its maintenance today and its continuation in the future. It is in need of large funds for the completion of the Yeshiva College buildings.
American Jews of vision and understanding, of loyalty and devotion to the age-old Jewish tradition of Torah, have an opportunity for accomplishing a great deed for Torah and for Jewry. Simultaneously they have a great opportunity for inscribing themselves perpetually in the Book of Life. An endowment of $10,000 to the Yeshiva will bring interest sufficient to support one senior fellowship at the institution forever. A bequest of $5,000 will provide permanently for the support of a junior student. A contribution of . . . . . . . will secure the naming of a room in the new Yeshiva College building.
A bequest of . . . . . . . will secure the placing of a memorial tablet in the auditorium of the institution. (add propositions)
Those who make possible such a perpetual continuation of Jewish learning will have their names entered in the Sepher Ha’chaim, the Book of Life of the Yeshiva, and their Jahrzeit will be observed by the students of the Yeshiva.
It does not matter how much or how little you provide in your will. “Bequests for a good cause are diamonds, the small ones are just as true and as precious in the eyes of God, for in them sparkles the faith of the giver, his devotion to God and the eternal idea of the Torah,” declared Dr. Bernard Revel, President of the Faculty of the Yeshiva.
In outlining the need of the Yeshiva for bequests, the President of the Faculty stated:
“Depending as it does now upon the sporadic generosity of individuals, struggling continuously for the meager budget that hardly enables it to exist, the Yeshiva expends much of its energy in the very effort to continue its existence, and its work is vitally affected both in scope and in calm of spirit. The Yeshiva must be placed upon a more secure and upon a more dignified financial basis, by those who wish Torah-true Judaism and Jewish learning to be perpetuated and advanced.
“As throughout the ages our fathers have always liberally supported our great centers of Torah and learning, which transmit from generation to generation the supreme message of Jewish culture and idealism, maintaining them through years of martyrdom, through all conditions and by every sacrifice keeping alive in its historic home, the light of the Torah, so must those today who bask in the sun of freedom and prosperity in this land remember and maintain in effective power the Torah home in this land today. By contributing to the endowment fund and by remembering it in their wills, they may become partners in the holy work and make possible the continuance of the expansion of the work and the influence of the Yeshiva and its ideals.”
A bequest to the Yeshiva either in a separate instrument or in a codicil may be made in the following forms:
(add forms, to be submitted by Mr. Zar)
(Text taken from a typewritten manuscript. The date must be sometime during October 1927 because the manuscript was attached to the following letter from Bernard Revel, President of the Seminary.)
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