My friend Shira Schmidt’s May 18 post about an English barrister who made derogatory comments about Moslems at a dinner party provoked a great deal of comment. Notably absent, however, was much curiosity about what he had actually said. Without that information, I’m at a loss as to how to evaluate his remarks or Shira’s response.

In general, it strikes me that there is too much political correctness in what is said about the Moslem or Arab world rather than too little. After 9/11, For instance, President Bush was at pains to stress that Islam, like the other great monotheistic faiths, is “peace-loving.” Perhaps, but as Mark Steyn noted at the time, if one were to examine any of thirty or so hotspots around the world where people are busy blowing one another to smithereens, often starting with themselves, one is sure to find a Moslem male between 18-30 at the center of the action.

The U.N. itself put together a report by Arab academics on the Arab world, which detailed the major deficits — deficits of information, of democracy, etc. — that characterize virtually every Arab country. By any measure of human achievement, Moslem countries, and particularly Arab countries, … Read More >>

If you would like to read a glowing description of the haredi sector in the U.S. and the Agudath Israel of America, to the detriment of that sector in Eretz Israel, read the op-ed essay by Jerusalem Post editorial page editor, Elliot Jager in Monday’s (21 bIyar) opinion section. In a well-written historial survey titled American Haredi Triumph, he compares the different trajectories taken by Agudah (i.e. haredim) in America and here in the Middle East. He concludes by comparing the Titanic sinking in 1912 (about the same time that Agudath Israel was founded) with the disaster he predicts for Israel’s haredim.
I’d like to believe that today’s Torah sages are not unaware of the disaster that awaits haredi Israel if it does not rethink its response to modernity. I’d recommend along American haredi lines.

Jager gives accolades to the
healthy haredi lifestyle that has taken root in America, one that balances steadfast commitment to religious ultraconservatism with dutiful responsibility to the wider society. Haredi America is raising a future generation of accountants, lawyers, physicians, and businesspeople – many of them also Torah scholars.

It is surprising that … Read More >>

Sometimes you get quick answers in CyberSpace, but I didn’t expect Ralphie to be answering my question about Rabbi Shafran’s article, before I’d even published it. [You may need to read my previous posts, "Anatomy of a Smear" and "The Detail Omitted", to understand what I'm talking about.] Yes, a Reform Rabbi was both consultant and actress on a recent episode of “Grey’s Anatomy”, and no, her character never set the audience straight that Judaism not merely permits, but requires insertion of a valve from a pig, if needed to save a patient’s life.

An article in The Forward explains how much more realistic the show was, thanks to the Rabbi:

[Her] participation ensured that the Orthodox character’s jean skirt was the right length (long), that she prayed in the right direction (east) and that any confusion about whether rabbis typically bless heart valves was dispelled (no, emphatically).

How about the fact that Jewish law requires that any and all modern medical life-saving procedures be done, even when many doctors would withhold care (think of Terri Schiavo)? And what about the silliness over the use (rather than consumption) of … Read More >>

Once again, something from Toby Katz fits well with a post I was planning to make. She wrote:

Nowadays even many of the clergy in the heterodox movements are in the category of “tinok shenishba”—a child raised among non-Jews who, according to halacha, cannot be blamed for his ignorance of Jewish law.

While in general I enjoy Rabbi Avi Shafran’s essays, and agree with much of what he writes, I learned after posting his most recent article that he had omitted what I regard as an important detail: the woman who played the observant girl’s Rabbi is, in fact, a Reform Rabbi — and was a consultant for the show as well as an actress. If so, and if the descriptions provided are accurate, she provided living proof of Mrs. Katz’s point.

Did any reader see the show? Could someone clarify what, precisely, the Rabbi advised the young baalas teshuva? At least as described, it was not that Jewish law mandates saving lives, but I’d like to hear from someone who knows before commenting.

In my recent “empathy” post, I wrote:

The notion that only blacks can understand blacks, only women can understand women, and so on, undercuts the bedrock of our common humanity.

In a previous post, I had written:

Indeed, there is something pornographic about the obsessive study of the gruesome details of the Holocaust, without context, without history, without a sense of the whole flow of Jewish life through the centuries.

Juxtaposing these two quotes of mine, “Chana” commented:

So apparently whites can understand blacks, and men can understand women, but secular Jews would have no grasp on an Orthodox Jewish view of life/ understanding the Holocaust. Even though claiming only blacks or women can understand themselves would undercut our common humanity.

But apparently we don’t “undercut our common humanity” if we say that secular Jews cannot understand Orthodox Jews or that Jews who understand the Holocaust without a sense of history are indulging in something “pornographic” and “obsessive.”

I would claim that you are not being consistent in your definition of common humanity.

On the one hand I say that men can understand women, white people can understand blacks, because we share a common … Read More >>

by Avi Shafran, via Am Echad Resources

I don’t own a television and so have never seen an episode of the popular program “Grey’s Anatomy,” which has been described as a contemporary, R-rated soap opera set in a hospital.

I have, though, become somewhat familiar with a recent episode of the show – through the reactions it elicited from a good number of people – on ABC internet message boards, and in e-mails and phone calls to me.

The episode, according to all the descriptions, presents an aspect of Jewish law in an inaccurate way, and an Orthodox Jewish character in an unsavory one. As television goes, it would seem a textbook example of one of the medium’s many malignancies, its ability to propagate misinformation and misleading stereotypes.

The character in question is a newly observant 17-year-old girl who has a potentially fatal heart condition. Offered a lifesaving heart valve from a pig, she shuns it on religious grounds. That Jewish law in no way forbids such use of pig parts (only their consumption – and not even that when life is endangered) is not noted; quite the contrary, the viewer is led to believe that the girl’s refusal would … Read More >>

What does an MP3 player have to do with my esteemed fellow bloggers? Not much, perhaps, but I can attempt to explain the stream of thought that led to this post.

Recently, I was studying in a local Bais Medrash (study hall), listening to a pre-recorded class, when I stepped away to speak with someone on his way out. I spoke with him for ten minutes, escorting him halfway up the block in the process. As I turned back, it occurred to me that I had left my MP3 player out in full view, on the desk. And given that I had read several recent articles about the rampant theft of iPods and other MP3 players, it occurred to me that I’d just left out an open invitation in the Jewish equivalent of the public library — and I wasn’t at all concerned.

I would like to second what Eytan Kobre wrote so movingly in his post “As Thyself” :

There is a Jewish angle to this topic as well; specifically, regarding the tendency of some in feminist quarters to question the ability of “the rabbis” to evince sufficient empathy for female concerns….

The empathy of our greats didn’t, and doesn’t, issue forth from within gated compounds and phalanxes of handlers and acolytes….Theirs, instead, is a caring rooted in a deep love of both humanity in general and of Jews in particular….

The notion that only blacks can understand blacks, only women can understand women, and so on, undercuts the bedrock of our common humanity.

Gedolim rise to an exceptionally high level of refinement, but all humans

The other day, the local public radio station aired an interview with the author of a book about the talented American musician Bruce Springsteen. Mr. Springsteen is renowned, it seems, for his ability to identify with and convey to his listeners the real life situations of working class and middle class folk, their aspirations, fears and frustrations.

Not surprisingly, the conversation turned to the question of whether a multi-millionaire celebrity like Springsteen, whose lifestyle is about as divorced from the reality of middle-class American life as one can imagine, can accurately and sincerely depict that reality in song. The interviewer and interviewee concurred that empathic identification of that sort is indeed achievable and is precisely what makes actors and actresses successful in their roles on stage and screen.

I found it interesting that this exchange took place on a station that frequently airs discussions about ethnic and cultural diversity in various societal settings. The following issue is often at the heart of such discussions: Should a particular position, e.g., a Cabinet post, a board of directors seat, a professorship, be awarded to a member of an ethnic minority that is underrepresented in that field, notwithstanding that merit alone would not … Read More >>

When I was a university student, there was a professor who joined the Orthodox daily minyan (services) for a time in order to say Kaddish for a relative. He commented that he felt that Judaism “got it right” when it came to mourning rituals — that Jewish mourning practices were reassuring and comforting during that difficult time.

The professor wasn’t observant in general — he went to synagogue on occasion, but that’s all. But nonetheless he found the customs provided a framework for getting through his grief. His son (with whom I went to high school) has no Jewish attachment today, as far as I know, and more’s the pity.

That, however, is a pattern we see reproduced across Jewish America — the comfort in ritual only lasts for a generation or so. Practices must have meaning in order to have permanence.

And, indeed, it is not just the practice of Jewish mourning that is comforting. The entire Jewish belief system provides a framework of support. Marx called religion the “opiate of the masses” — and while it is easy to dismiss his comparison of religion to a drug, religious faith certainly alleviates pain in situations like mourning. I look at the reverse: … Read More >>

[The following is from the Iyar/May RJJ Newsletter. It has elicited a considerable response, including the suggestion that it receive wider circulation and that is the reason why I am posting it.]

It has been evident for many years that if somehow Rebbi Akiva and Rebbi Eliezer were transplanted into contemporary religious Jewish life at the time that they were beginning their study of Torah, it is highly unlikely that they would be admitted to our best yeshivas. They would be sent to a kiruv school or perhaps one of the weak day schools that dot our communal landscape. Only after they were thoroughly cleansed of the baneful effects of bad parentage and background might they be accepted by our strongest schools.

It is also true that children of many Talmudic sages and Torah scholars of subsequent generations, including the recent period, would also be turned away from some yeshivas and Beth Jacobs. Although these parents were transcendent scholars and spiritual giants, alas they had the serious defect of earning their livelihood outside of the four cubits of Torah, perhaps by being in business or a professional or working for government or a private employer. … Read More >>

Please convey condolences, Yaakov Menken, to your brother-in-law; May Hamakom comfort him with the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

We were recently invited to a dinner with friends where the discussion turned most unpleasant. The guests were a mixture of modern Orthodox, haredi and non-observant. At one point a former British barrister made sweeping derogatory generalizations about Muslims. This was from a highly articulate and gentle person, who had earlier in the conversation given a sophisticated, nuanced explanation of often-misunderstood talmudic concepts such as “slavery”. His Muslim-bashing continued, and I made a few attempts at quiet rejoinders. I pointed out the problem of generalizations. I reminded my interlocutor that another guest, who had grown up in Morocco, had told us about the ups and downs in the relations between the Jews and their Muslim neighbors, and especially about the help the Jews received from their neighbors during Pesah and the post-Pesah Maimuna observances. But the barrister reiterated his negative stereotyping and I sat glumly through the meal.

A few days later, I thought of something I should have said.

UPDATED 9 Iyar, Wed., May 18

The funeral of Aaron Rosenfeld (he was my nephew, the son of my wife’s brother Elie) took place at 1:30 pm Tuesday. He was eighteen. Thank you for your tefillos (prayers) and, more recently, condolences.

The comments section of this post is offered to those who knew Aaron and would like to share their remembrances and reflections.

Our Torah provided the symbol of the medical profession: a snake wrapped around a pole. You find this symbol used by medical schools, hospitals, and the American Medical Association. The source is the following passage in the Book of Numbers:

And G-d sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit the nation, and many perished of the people of Israel. And the people came to Moshe, and they said, “we have sinned, because we spoke against G-d and against you; pray to G-d that He take away from us the snakes.” And Moshe prayed on behalf of the nation.

And G-d said to Moshe, “make for yourself a snake and put it on a pole, and it will be that anyone bitten will see it, and live.” And Moshe made a copper snake, and set it on a high pole, and it was that if a snake bit a man, and he stared at the copper snake, that he lived.

– Numbers 21:6-9

But here is something of which many are unaware: King Chizkiya, a pious king who was fourteenth after King David, destroyed the snake — and the Sages praised him for doing so … Read More >>

Please learn, Daven and say Tehillim (Psalms) for the speedy recovery of Refael Aharon Elimelech ben Penina Liba, a young man who is very seriously ill. May he have a speedy healing b’soch sha’ar cholei yisrael.

[UPDATE: At about 4:00 p.m. they changed his name to Refael Aharon Elimelech.]

Just when I thought we were ready to move on beyond all the Siyum stuff, I’ve found something new to complain about.

Some of the observers of the Garden event who hailed from beyond the borders of our community remarked how eerie it was to sit there without the hawkers of pennants and peanuts. They may have spoken too soon.

Some enterprising entrepreneurs waited till after the event to capitalize on the enthusiasm for the Daf, and are now pushing the pop-culture accoutrements of Daf participation: bumper stickers and t-shirts that proclaim “I do the Daf!” for all the world to hear. What better way to proudly announce one’s joining the local team of long-distance learners?

Actually, the better way might be to not announce at all.

Living in laid-back LA, I’m usually pretty tolerant (i.e. too tolerant) of such vacuous but well-intentioned displays. The ads, though, jarringly reminded me of something I heard from Rav Bulman z”l many years ago.

Today, no self-respecting family concerned for the shidduchim of their kids would admit to eating anything but glatt. It was not always so. Rav Bulman cited the Tzelemer Rov, z”l, who claimed that in Tzelem itself there were … Read More >>

An acquaintance, A.M., stopped attending one Orthodox shul and joined a different Orthodox synagogue because the young rabbi in the first shul said something that A.M. found offensive. The novice rabbi, newly ordained at a very traditional yeshiva, had said that because the majority of Jewish women in pre-WWII Europe had stopped covering their hair, then during the Holocaust their hair was shorn in the concentration camps. I agree with A.M. that we cannot know the ways of the Creator and Judge, especially in the realm of reward and punishment.

However, there is a way to consider this subject that comes under the rubric of “middah kneged middah” (measure for measure) . We cannot purport to know the exact correlation between a tragedy that befalls us and our sins of omission or commission. But when tragedy strikes, we can look introspectively at our behavior for areas to improve (“baim issurim, yfashpesh b’maasayv“).

I ruminated on this during the week here in Israel that began last Thursday on Yom Hashoah vHagvurah (Holocaust & Heroism Remembrance day) and ended today on Yom Atzmaut (Independence Day). I considered the problem of “middah kneged middah” through the prism of an … Read More >>

Concerning Jonathan Rosenblum’s post this morning on the topic of non-Jews wearing Yarmulkes, I think the brouhaha over the Turkish Prime Minister not wearing one is a symptom of a larger issue. I think it’s less a matter of Jewish pride than Jewish insecurity.

We see the same thing when Jews get very, very exercised over the Mormon penchant for post-mortem baptism, which they have reportedly done on behalf of Albert Einstein and a host of Holocaust victims, among others. The Mormons believe that if they do a baptism ceremony on someone long buried, then that individual will get into Heaven (whereas otherwise they would not). We (news flash, here) do not share this belief.

The Mormons, the Jews indignantly announce, are continuing to conduct these baptisms despite previous agreements to stop. And I have a simple question: why should we care? The Mormons believe this is an act of love. They express their love for Jews by baptizing them. On a 0-10 scale of harmful things Christians have done to Jews in the past two millenia, I would have a tough time imagining this offense rising to 0.2. And, on the other hand, I … Read More >>

Last week a venerable rabbi pleaded guilty to having amassed a fortune by selling non-existent insurance policies to trucking companies. Many prominent figures in the Orthodox community testified as character witnesses to his many acts of chesed and the like.

My question is — and I really don’t know the answer — was there a chilul Hashem (disgrace of G-d’s Name) involved in Orthodox Jews providing such testimony in the hope that the judge would impose a mild sentence? Does such testimony imply that we think it is o.k. to steal from “the goyim” if the proceeds go to good Jewish charities? I assume that there are two sides to this issue.