"Preparedness" means preparation--to prepare for the future, to provide against a rainy day, as the old Jewish saying goes: "One who prepares on the eve of the Sabbath will have what to eat on the Sabbath".

In private life we constantly practice the theory of preparedness. We are always preparing for the struggles of life, and when we step into the business world, we are always at arms with our competitors. In the trade market, we plunge into open war--one against another. Sometimes we fortify ourselves in the store, factory, office and even in the university. Our trenches can be found everywhere. We are submerged in the battle for existence, and we see that he who prepares himself best, is triumphant in the end. Consequently, none of us can be opposed to "preparedness".

A government must be prepared for an attack by another country. If [it is] not, its independence is not secure. Its wealth, and the lives of its millions of citizens are in jeopardy. Every man must do for his family that which a government does for the entire country.

Just as a government is obligated to provide for its citizens, so are parents obligated to their children. The parents must prepare their children for war, for the struggle for life. If the parents neglect this, and send their children out into the world to struggle for their existence without being prepared, the children will surely fall in battle. The blame will rest upon the parents who were opposed to "preparedness".

Every nation has its own language, its popular idioms, its own mode of life. The spirit of nationalism is imbedded within everyone, as well as reflected on one's countenance. Every person has his own ideas, his own convictions, his own aesthetic values, the basis of which was inherited from his people, 3and the remainder derived from his environment. Just as every Kingdom combats the enemy who desires to confiscate a piece of its territory, so every nation fights to protect its national character, its prestige in the world and its spiritual treasures.

The spiritual war is carried on with the same bitterness as is the physical war. The weapons and the means alone are different. Instead of cannons, universities are engaged; instead of bullets--inventions; instead of gunpowder--the intellect. The war, however, is a relentless one.

In no other nation of the world has genius occupied so high a pedestal as among the Jews. All other nations have first of all provided themselves with a country, with secure grounds for their [physical] existence, and afterwards have made laws. The Torah was given to the Jews first in the wilderness, in desolation, and [only] afterwards was land given.

Rabbi Yochewin Ben Zachi was not desperately frightened when the walls of Jerusalem began to crumble. But he was worried about Jewish culture, about the 4Jewish soul--about the Jewish Torah. "Give me Schools and Knowledge", he said, and this became the sacred slogan among the Jews in the Diaspora. Wherever there happened to be a handful of Jews, there was found a small Talmud Torah.

Such [things] happen unto this very day in Russia. The large theological seminaries move from place to place to gether with the Russian Jews. Picture how in the midst of chaos, a committee is organized in Odessa and one in Petersburg to devise plans for the instruction of the children of the Diaspora who have been forced to flee to the most remote parts of Russia. They found the time and patience to discuss methods of instructing the children. And let us not forget that this is taking place in the midst of destruction. And our [local] welfare workers say that we must not speak now of erecting a new Talmud Torah when destruction is so widespread in Europe. Shall we assume that our welfare workers are now pious than the Jewish welfare workers in Russia? No. This sounds incredible. Because if they could be compared with those welfare workers in "Yiddishkeit," [Editor's note: Jewish culture, spirit, attitudes] 5they would at least build Talmud Torahs in times of peace!

The truth is that in Russia they look after his spiritual being, and here they look after his physical being. There the civic leaders covet the Torah and education--here our leaders reveal greater interest in physical sustenance. For this reason, our leaders are opposed to spiritual preparedness.

These leaders, who protest against the erection of a new Talmud Torah in the time of a European holocaust, fall into the same error as did the critics of Rabbi Yochenin Ben Zachi.

Here in Chicago, our spiritual condition is becoming demoralized. Thousands of Jews are repudiating Judaism each day. Further, we must not forget the thousands of Diaspora children who will soon be brought to our shores from Europe. We must build large Talmud Torahs where Jewish children can acquire 6a typically Jewish education. Neither by bread, nor by meat, nor by wine will you sustain the Jewish spirit. You must also prepare spiritual food.

This is quite a different [type of] "preparedness", to which even the most irreconcilable anti-militarist will nod assent.