As I mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter, it is important—even in this time of war and national danger—not to lose sight of cultural and religious matters. And perhaps no body of literature has contended with unfolding tragedy and horrors as Yiddish literature has. This was the case when Sholem Aleichem wrote of his most famous fictional character—Tevye the Dairyman—being expelled from his village even as such expulsions were actually happening in Russia. And it was the case when the poet and novelist Chava Rosenfarb wrote down her verses on the ceiling above her concentration-camp bunk with a contraband pencil. In conversation with J.J. Kimche (whose searing condemnation of Harvard’s moral cowardice in response to evil I mentioned last week), Ruth R. Wisse provides a concise overview of the history of Yiddish literature. The two then delve into one of the most powerful theological reckonings with the Holocaust: Chaim Grade’s novella My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner—Wisse’s translation of which was first published in Mosaic. (Audio 58 minutes.)

Examining the effects of Iran’s decision to launch nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1, Benny Morris takes stock of the Jewish state’s strategic situation:

The massive Iranian attack has turned what began as a local war in and around the Gaza Strip and then expanded into a Hamas–Hizballah–Houthi–Israeli war [into] a regional war with wide and possibly calamitous international repercussions.

Before the Iranians launched their attack, Washington warned Tehran to desist (“don’t,” in President Biden’s phrase), and Israel itself had reportedly cautioned the Iranians secretly that such an attack would trigger a devastating Israeli counterstrike. But a much-humiliated Iran went ahead, nonetheless.

For Israel, the way forward seems to lie in an expansion of the war—in the north or south or both—until the country attains some sort of victory, or a diplomatic settlement is reached. A “victory” would mean forcing Hizballah to cease fire in exchange, say, for a cessation of the IDF bombing campaign and withdrawal to the international border, or forcing Iran, after suffering real pain from IDF attacks, to cease its attacks and rein in its proxies: Hizballah, Hamas, and the Houthis.

At the same time, writes Morris, a victory along such lines would still have its limits:

An IDF withdrawal from southern Lebanon and a cessation of Israeli air-force bombing would result in Hizballah’s resurgence and its re-investment of southern Lebanon down to the border. Neither the Americans nor the French nor the UN nor the Lebanese army—many of whose troops are Shiites who support Hizballah—would fight them.