Oral Law

Author's Preface to Russian Translation

I discovered the Jews of the former Soviet Union in December 1999 when I was invited to a ceremony to mark the return of the Sifrei Torah to the community of Moscow. I was amazed by the revitalization of the Jewish spirit, which I witnessed there. The schools, the kindergartens, the orphanages, the Yeshivot and the Synagogues - throngs of people young and old thirsting for the tradition, the religion and the learning which is their birthright and of which they had been deprived forcibly for some 70 years. I saw the chassed, the enthusiasm, and the happiness, which existed amidst a great deal of poverty and despair in the streets outside.I am on the whole a reluctant traveler but I was so impressed that within a few months I paid two more visits with my wife and friends, one to Kiev and one to Odessa and the message which was conveyed came over clearly - "the Jewish spirit is indestructible - AM ISRAEL CHAI"So when my friend Alan Goldblatt told me that Shvut Ami would publish my book in Russian and that the learned Nachum Purer would undertake the translation it gave me great pleasure.To be asked to play even a small part in this return to their roots of Russian-speaking Jewry is a great honour for me because my Russian readers can teach me more than I can ever teach them. I may know some of the theory of the oral tradition - but they have unlocked the secret of its continuity from the year........, to the present day – from the desert of Sinai to Moscow to Odessa to Kiev to.........

H. Chaim Schimmel