JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

1983 he reportedly returned to his Jewish roots and was said
to have observed the Jewish holidays.
Widely regarded as America’s greatest living popular
songwriter, Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame in 1988. In 1990 he received France’s highest cultural
award, the Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
In 2001 he won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for
Best Original Song, “Things Have Changed,” for the film
Wonder Boys.
The 1967 documentary Don’t Look Back chronicles
Dylan’s 1965 tour of England, which includes appearances
by Joan Baez and Donovan. Martin Scorsese’s 1978 film The
Last Waltz is a documentary about Dylan and The Band performing
their last concert after 16 years on the road. Among
Dylan’s publications are Bob Dylan in His Own Words (with C.
Williams, 1993); Tarantula, a book of poetry (1994); Younger
Than That Now: The Collected Interviews with Bob Dylan
(with J. Ellison, 2004); and his autobiography, Chronicles,
Vol. 1 (2004).
Beginning in the mid-1980s Dylan hit the road full-time,
performing all over the world. His albums were not as successful
as those of his early years, but he continued to perform
and sing in his nasal twang through the early years of the 21st
century. He rarely granted interviews, refused to explain the
meaning of his songs, and remained a significant but enigmatic
figure. He had millions of fans – he played in Rome at
the behest of Pope John Paul II – and inspired hundreds of
articles, books, and websites. In December 2004 he was one
of five recipients of one of the highest awards for artistic excellence,
the Kennedy Center honors.
[Stewart Kampel (2nd ed.)]
DYMOV, OSSIP (pen name of Joseph Perelman; 1878–1959),
Russian and Yiddish author and playwright. Dymov was born
in Bialystok, attended a Russian gymnasium and the Forest
Institute in St. Petersburg, and at 16 began publishing humoresques
in Russian satiric journals. The first collection of his
stories, Solntsevorot (“The Sun Cycle,” 1905), artistically blending
symbolism, irony, and wit, placed him in the mainstream
of Russian literature. The motif of Jewish suffering became
predominant in his plays Slushay, Izrail! (“Hear, Israel!” 1907;
Heb., 1913) and Vechny strannik (“Eternal Wanderer,” 1913),
which were staged in Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish, and other languages
in Europe and in the U.S., bringing Dymov substantial
fame. He settled in New York in 1913 and over decades contributed
hundreds of stories and humoresques to the Yiddish
press and wrote dramas and comedies for the Yiddish theater.
He also reworked classical texts for Yiddish screenplays,
published two volumes of memoirs, and worked in Yiddish
radio. His most popular play, Yoshke Muzikant (“Yoskhe the
Musician”) is included in the volume Dramen un Dertseylungen
(“Dramas and Stories,” 1943).
Bibliography: LNYL, 2 (1958), 502–4. Add. Bibliography:
Z. Zylbercweig, Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater, 1 (1931), 557–62;
The Encyclopedia of Russian Jewry, 1 (1994), 448–9.
dynow, Ẓevi elimelech
DYMSHYTS, VENIAMIN E. (1910–1993), Soviet economist
and engineer who became a deputy premier of the Soviet
Union in 1959. He was a grandson of the Hebrew writer
A.A. Rakowski. Born in Theodosia (Crimea) he qualified as
an engineer at the Moscow Technical Institute and began
working as a construction engineer in 1931. By 1950 he was
deputy minister of construction enterprises in the metallurgical
and chemical industries. Later he went to India as chief
engineer of the Bhilai steel plant which was erected with Soviet
aid. Dymshyts became chairman of the State Planning
Committee in 1959 and simultaneously was appointed deputy
premier, the only Jew in the upper echelon of the regime. He
was promoted to head of the National Economic Council in
1962, with responsibility for dealing with the daily problems
of overall economic management. Later he assumed the leadership
of the new state committee to centralize the distribution
of industrial products. Dymshyts was a member of the
Communist Party Central Committee for 1961 and a deputy
to the Supreme Soviet. He was awarded the Stalin Prize twice
(1946, 1950). On March 4, 1970 he was the main representative
of Soviet Jewry in a press conference about the situation
and strongly criticized the State of Israel.
[Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)]
DYNOW, ẒEVI ELIMELECH (1785–1841), ḥasidic ẓaddik
in Dynow, Galicia, often known after his main work as “the
author of Benei Yissakhar” (Zolkiew, 1850). He was a disciple
of Ẓevi Hirsch of *Zhidachov, *Jacob Isaac “ha-Ḥozeh” (“the
seer”) of Lublin, and the Maggid Israel of *Kozienice. Ẓevi
Elimelech served as rabbi in Strzyzow, Halicz, Dynow, and
Munkacs. His total opposition to Haskalah and philosophy
was evidenced in both his devotion to Kabbalah as the essence
of Judaism and his statement that “there is no knowledge,
either in the realm of science or philosophy, which is not
alluded to in the Torah [which is higher than the intellect]”
(Benei Yissakhar, Sec. 2:88). He considered philosophical enquiry
a waste of time and of soul. Rational reason should not
be sought for the mitzvot, but they should be observed with
love, as divine decrees, whether rational or not, without questioning
or seeking proofs. Man must have faith “even in two
opposite [commands of God] where the intellect cannot solve
the contradiction” (ibid., Sec. 1, 73). The task of the ẓaddik is of
utmost importance since by means of the high spiritual level
he attains he may help to unite the upper and lower worlds.
Ẓevi Elimelech differentiated between two types of ẓaddikim:
the perfect one, “the servant of God” (eved adonai) and the
one who only “worships God” (oved Adonai). Worship of God
must combine both love and fear. Fear corresponds to ẓimẓum
and love corresponds to hitpashetut (“expansion”). Just as there
can be no stability or survival for worlds without ẓimẓum,
so if it were not for fear, man would dissolve in ecstasy “and
the light of the soul would depart from its earthly container.”
Fear of Divine Majesty – in contradistinction to fear of punishment
– is the acme of faith. A man “to whom God gives
knowledge (binah) is enabled to retreat within himself direct-
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 79