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.”
