Friday, June 2, 1967, six o’clock in the morning the Israel radio announced that a new national government composed of the major parties had been established.
The news was received with great relief. The country was in a state of siege. Arab troops were massing on her borders, poised for invasion. The threat of war loomed heavily over the Middle East. For weeks the people had clamored for the establishment of a united leadership to meet the Arab challenge. Finally a cabinet of National Unity had been formed!
Rabbi Yehoshua Hutner was also pleased, but he felt sad that the new government did not include the Agudat Yisrael.
Rabbi Hutner, the energetic director of “Yad Harav Herzog” (The Jerusalem Higher Institute for Talmudic Research) and of the Talmudic Encyclopedia, has been a leading member of Mizrachi for many years. However, he was never a “party man” in the narrow sense of the word. In his communal and scholarly work he has cooperated with and enjoyed the friendship and support of rabbis, scholars and laymen, and the promotion of unity within the religious camp has always been one of his principal endeavors.
Agudat Yisrael participated in Israel’s first coalition governments. In the first years of the State, The Agudah formed part of the United Religious Front. Now, that a Cabinet of National Unity had been established in Israel for the first time, Rabbi Hutner thought it was only fair that Agudat Yisrael should participate. The time was also appropriate for the reconstitution of the United Religious Front.
Rabbi Hutner immediately sent cables to Moshe Chaim Shapiro, Mizrachi leader and Minister of the Interior who had been the chief architect of the Cabinet of National Unity and to Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Levin, Agudat Yisrael’s leader, urging them to do all they could to include the Agudah in the new government.
Rabbi Levin replied that his party had not been approached but they were ready for negotiations. Shapiro asked Rabbi Hutner to visit him the following Monday in his offices.
The following Monday morning at 7:45 a.m., Rabbi Hutner telephoned Shapiro to confirm the appointment. At that time, the Israeli Air Force was already bombing Egyptian airfields. Israel’s population, however, were not yet aware that the war had begun. Minister Shapiro, of course knew. He did not mention a word to Rabbi Hutner- he just told him that he expected to see him soon.
At 8:10 a.m. the Israel radio announced “that fighting had broken out in the Negev.”
Shortly after 10 o’clock, Rabbi Hutner arrived at Shapiro’s office. The Minister greeted him with the good news that all Egyptian airfields had been bombed and that according to the latest reports 109 enemy planes had been put out of action. They then discussed Agudat Yisrael’s participation in the Cabinet. Rabbi Hutner said with tears in his eyes: “this is a war of the L-rd.” Nasser, when told that the Israelis were packing the synagogues and reciting Psalms, declared on Cairo radio: “We will see whether the G-d of Psalms will help them.” Therefore, what we needed was not merely a Cabinet of National Unity, but one which all religious parties were represented. Minister Shapiro revealed that after the formation of the new government he had approached Prime Minister Eshkol on the matter asking Agudat Yisrael to join and said he would continue his efforts in this direction. Yitzchak Refael, a ranking Mizrachi leader, gave Rabbi Hutner a similar promise.
During the next few days events moved fast. By the following Sunday Israel had united the Old and New sectors of Jerusalem and they occupied the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank of the Jordan and the Golan Heights in Syria.
Fear and worry which had prompted the formation of the Cabinet of National Unity, gave way to joy and jubilation. Israel was still faced with many grave problems, but they were different from those before the war. Partly as a result of the new situation, the efforts to bring Agudat Yisrael into the government did not make much headway.
Rabbi Yehoshua Hutner is presently in the United States on behalf of the institutions he heads.
The Talmudic Encyclopedia is a great enterprise of Jewish scholarship. It represents a digest of Halachic views and concepts, from the earliest times until the present. Between its covers are condensed the contents of hundreds of volumes written throughout the generations. Well arranged and composed in the beautiful Hebrew, it has attracted thousands of subscribers throughout the world and has added immeasurable to the study and understanding of Halacha. In the last twenty years, twelve of the projected thirty volumes have appeared. The thirteenth volume is now in print.
In order to make the work accessible to larger circles, the publication of an English edition was begun. The first volume of the edition is scheduled to appear after this year.
In addition to the encyclopedia, “Yad Harav Herzog” has published many other important works of Talmudic scholarship.
“The study of the Torah unifies the Jewish people,” Rabbi Hutner, who is always in search of unity, declared after his arrival in New York.
Jewish Press, January 26, 1968