Square Root,
We should go back to the beginning. This is from a letter Rabbi Avraham Rice, the first “Real” (& for a while only) Ruv in America wrote to his Rebbe in Germany. (c.1840’s-1850’s)
“One more thing I wish to disclose to you my revered master and teacher�and my soul weepeth in the dark on account of it, namely, that the character of religious life in this land is on the lowest level; most of the people are eating non-kosher food, are violating the Shabbos in public�and there are thousands who have been assimilated among the non-Jewish population and have married non-Jewish women. Under these circumstances, my mind is perplexed, and I WONDER WHETHER A JEW MAY LIVE IN A LAND SUCH AS THIS.”
