The main events reported in “Chronicles” are based on the Bible, ancient historical narratives and on the results of archaeological excavations. Naturally, many of the minor items as well as details of the descriptions of the major events are fictitious, they reflect, however, the social, religious and cultural conditions of the period described. “They could have been true” – as the saying goes.
The editors of “Chronicles” have presented us not only with living descriptions of historical periods but have also succeeded to acquaint the reader with the spirit of those ages, and with the feelings and thoughts of the people, who participated or witnessed the events reported.
Jews of Lithuania used to say: “ The Shulchan Aruch has four volumes – and there is also a fifth to it: Sechel (common sense). Similarly, we may say that historians need in addition to knowledge of events of the past – also Sechel, meaning hereby insight: Insight into the events of the past, and the ability to detect the thoughts and feelings of the people of the periods they describe. Such insight one can only gain by being wide awake to the events of one’s own time and by feeling the “beat of the pulse” of one’s fellow men. To our great regret, many Jewish historians of our day, though they know to amass large quantities of historical data, are divorced from the lives and strivings of their fellow Jews, do not know their desires, wants, hopes and dreams. They are completely unaware of the happenings of men who are disinterested in the events of their own time and cannot possibly judge and truly interpret events of the past, and for this reason their historical studies cannot give us a correct picture of the period they described.
“Chronicles” was not written by professional historians nor did its writers aim to present us with a “scientific history.” It was written by journalists and publicists who, while remaining awake to the events of their own time, immersed themselves deeply in historical studies and research. Thus they succeeded in giving us not only “living picture” of many periods of the past of our people, but also to reveal to us – through a variety of conjectures based in great part on the insight gained by their participation in contemporary events – the inner world of the people of these periods. “Chronicles” is thus, though it is not a history in the accepted sense of the word, a most valuable means to introduce us to the life of Israel and to that of other peoples of the ancient Near East.
Through the many years of its existence, “Chronicles” has had several editors. I had the good fortune to know two of them and was able to watch them at work. Fighter-philosopher Israel Eldad, about whom I wrote in this column several weeks ago, was for several years the editor of the Hebrew edition. The editor for the English edition for about six years was brilliant Moshe Aumann. Born in Frankfort, Germany, he was brought up and educated in New York City where he graduated from Yeshiva Jacob Joseph and City College. After the establishment of the State of Israel he settled in Jerusalem where his journalistic activity included in addition to his work on “Chronicles” also the editing of a fine English-language weekly by the name of “Here and Now”. In 1956 he joined the staff of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Last November he returned to “his” New York as Israel Consul in charge of research and publications. May I also mention here that Mrs. Poly Van Leer, the Dutch Jewish lady who conceived the idea and financed the publication of “Chronicles”, assisted the editor in their research with many a fruitful suggestion.
As I have already mentioned, the editors of “Chronicles” have adhered strictly to our tradition. In many an issue you might also detect a news item or article written explicitly for the purpose to answer and to refute critics of the Bible.
Space does not permit me to quote at length from the news items, reports and the thought-provoking leading articles of the brilliant English issues. However, I would like to conclude with a few passages from one of the editorials in the issue describing the death of Moses. These might give the reader an inkling of the high literary standard and of the “spirit” of “Chronicles”.
MAN OF G-D
“How shall we say it?
How are we to find words big enough, warm enough, sad enough – to express that which fills our hearts to overflowing?
How are we to face up to the death of this great man?
Moses is gone.
Forty years he was with us, above us and yet among us. We shut our eyes and we knew: His eyes were open; he would see us through whatever lay ahead. And when we wearied and stumbled, he kept us going. His step never faltered.
He was very much the man. But he was the Man of G-d. He saw the Al-Mighty face to face. He spoke with Him.
We have often wondered, as surely all of us have, just what it was that Moses saw when he lifted himself up beyond the material world, when he ascended above the people, above all men, when he neither ate nor drank nor slept. But the answer eludes us. What Moses saw and experienced in those forty days and forty nights on Mount Sinai – what it means to see G-d “face to face” – that we do not know, cannot grasp.
What we can see and know and learn to understand are the fruits of the vision and this intercourse with the divine: the Torah, the Teaching of Moses – laws and statutes and commandments for man.
This is the teaching of G-d, and it will live on. It will live on in us and in those who come after us until the end of time.”
Jewish Press
Friday, March 2, 1962
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