By Avi Shafran, on July 30th, 2007 One can’t help but feel sad for Noah Feldman. In spite of his considerable professional accomplishments – a law professorship at Harvard, three books, a slew of well-received essays and a fellowship at the Council on Foreign Relations, to name a few – the young Jew is clearly stewing. A bubble of his own imagining has burst in his face.
What he imagined was that, in its embrace of both Judaism and elements of contemporary culture, the “Modern Orthodoxy” of his youth granted Jews license to abandon as much of Jewish religious observance as they deem appropriate. Expressing his anger – coolly, to be sure, but the hurt seeps thickly through the poised prose – in a recent New York Times Magazine piece, “Orthodox Paradox,” Professor Feldman describes how the Boston Jewish school he attended as a child and teenager went so far as to crop a class reunion photograph to omit him and his non-Jewish Korean-American fiancée , whom he later married.
But the Photoshopped portrait is only the professor’s anecdotal hook. What he really resents is that his erstwhile school, along with some of his mentors and friends, spurn him for his decision to … Read More >>
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on July 27th, 2007 If the Orthodox were going to leave him out, then Noah Feldman was going to out the Orthodox. He might just have done us a favor.
His thesis was that there was nothing surprising in his decision to marry out, and he should not have been shunned. His tactic was a tell-all expose of the primitiveness and backwardness of Orthodoxy. He pointed to practices and attitudes towards the non-Jewish world that make us uncomfortable. We prefer to keep them under wraps, not always quite sure how to explain them to others, or even ourselves, but quite sure that others will hate us for them.
In making us face up to them, in the context of the changed times we live in, Noah Feldman did us a favor. We have dealt with “problematic” texts for roughly the same way for the better part of a millennium. The old way will not work any longer, and the sooner we realize and accommodate, the better.
The medieval church did a good job – often aided and abetted by Jewish apostates – in ferreting out what they saw as anti-gentile and anti-Christian nastiness in the Gemara. Modern antisemitic … Read More >>
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on July 26th, 2007 The New Yorker, that venerable favorite of generations of East Coast literati, has apparently decided to weigh in on the recent Cross-Currents discussion regarding the use of proper and nuanced English. It may be the first major publication to fully embrace the use of Yeshivish in common discourse.
David Remnick writes therein about Avrum Burg’s [expletives deleted] screed against Israel, Defeating Hitler. Among others, he cites former ambassador Dore Gold, who sums up Burg’s work as “crum pshat.”
I want to be moidia the oilam, however, that there is a groiser tous in the spelling. Dr. Gold mistomo has been hanging around maskilisher chevra, and ahzoi forgot the heimisher derech of how to spell “krum.”. Every bar bei rav dechad yoma knows that a “crum” is something you sometimes find on top of a Dunkin’ Donut, which a geviser mas of the modernisher are known to eat, rachmana litzlan, even though it is not cholov yisroel.
By Shira Schmidt, on July 26th, 2007 11 b Menahem-Av
Formerly Orthodox Professor Noah Feldman, writing in the New York Times Magazine , “Orthodox Paradox,” July 22 two days before Tisha B’Av, complains that the Jewish Day School he attended (Maimonides of Boston) does not accept with equanimity his marriage to a non-Jew.
R Shmuley Boteah defends his friend, Noah Feldman, in his Jerusalem Post oped “Stop Ostracizing the Intermarried” .(There are 224 talkbacks so far!)
An astute comment was made on Feldman’s NYTimes piece by a friend of ours who is an Orthodox rabbi, a Harvard graduate who lives deep in the haredi city of Bene Brak, is a professor of Greek and Classics at Bar Ilan, teaches daf yomi, and keeps abreast of current issues. Our friend himself is a person who embodies and personifies the ability to live in several worlds that Feldman describes as the goal of his Maimonides’ education. Apropos Tisha B’Av and commenting on Feldman’s piece, he quoted Midrash Rabba on Eicha, Ptichta 22.
At first they used to worship idols in secret places, as it is stated, ‘Then said He to them, … Read More >>
By Avi Shafran, on July 25th, 2007 Tisha B’Av – which falls this year on July 24 – always brings back the personal memory of a conversation between two teen-aged cousins more than thirty years ago. It took place on the outskirts of a non-religious kibbutz in the Galilee, on a hill overlooking a lush valley.
The two boys, one born and bred on the kibbutz, the other an American newcomer to the Holy Land visiting before the start of his Jerusalem yeshiva’s academic term, had first met only days earlier.
They had been speaking about family, personal experiences, and sundry things their very different lives nevertheless had in common. And then, the observant boy mentioned, entirely in passing, the imminence of the Jewish fast day.
“We don’t observe Tisha B’Av on the kibbutz,” his cousin interjected. “The Temple’s destruction isn’t really relevant to our lives here.”
The American boy hesitated a long moment before asking, “Do you observe any Jewish day of mourning?”
“Yes,” came the reply. “Yom HaShoah.”
Another pause, this one even longer. The yeshiva student knew that Tisha B’Av is the national day of Jewish mourning – that it encompasses many a tragedy – in a sense, every tragedy – in Jewish history. Not … Read More >>
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on July 25th, 2007 I received the following letter from my friend Rabbi Dr Cardozo. The sentiments expressed therein will resonate with many. Some may cynically and perhaps correctly consider the notion a pipe dream. Yet it strikes me as close enough to the realm of possibility that it would be irresponsible not to make the attempt. Any effect, in whole or in part, it has upon the President could only be positive.
Rabbi Cardozo plans to run the open letter in Israeli publications, and is known to deliver on his announced intentions. We wish him well.
Dear President Peres.
There are moments in a man’s life when one needs to speak up. This is when something most dramatic has happened that necessitates a response. With your recent appointment as the President of the State of Israel, I felt I must speak my mind.
First some background: I am the child of a totally assimilated family and I grew up with both a Christmas tree and a Menorah. I found my way to Judaism after a great deal of struggle. It was a major upheaval in my life. I had to somehow become reborn and the “delivery” was hard and … Read More >>
By Guest Contributor, on July 24th, 2007 by Rabbi Doron Beckerman
Much virtual ink has been spilled in recent months over the acts of vandalism, hooliganism, and general bad Middos of various sub-sectors of Charedi society. One of the themes which one gleans from many of the comments decrying these actions, when coming from quarters other than internal, is that these actions show that the values of Charedi society are essentially rotten, and that a total reevaluation of the underlying messages given by the Rabbanim and Mechanchim of the Charedi world is in order.
Following this logic – of extrapolation from the actions of some members of a group to the nixing of its essential values – leads one to wonder how to relate to the values of the Torah itself, in light of Moshe Rabbeinu’s tongue lashing of the Jewish Nation. Moshe Rabbeinu, according to Rashi in last week’s Torah portion, tells his brethren that they are cumbersome, brazen people who have no respect for their leaders, as well as insufferable complainers. At one point Moshe felt that he was at risk of being pelted with rocks. Does this reflect poorly on the values that the Nation had received at Har Sinai? Was Moshe’s knee-jerk attitude to … Read More >>
By Harvey Belovski, on July 22nd, 2007 Certain key occasions in the Jewish calendar invoke strong memories of my seven years in Gateshead Yeshivah. One of my teachers assured me that by spending Yomim Tovim and other special moments in the Yeshivah, I would have a store of powerful experiences on which to draw in later years: I am truly grateful for that advice. I constantly try to recreate those powerful moments in my community, something from which I know my congregants have benefited, perhaps without realising. And even when that isn’t possible, I can retreat into the realm of inspirational memory and lift almost any occasion for myself and my family.
Tisha B’Av is one such day: each year, from Rosh Chodesh Av, two memories are especially vivid, each associated with Kinnos (dirges read on Tisha B’Av lamenting the destruction of the Temples and other Jewish calamities). The Kinnos are perhaps the most demanding texts of our entire liturgy: many of them are written in difficult Hebrew, and are replete with obscure scholarly references that require considerable Talmudic and Midrashic background to appreciate fully. Indeed, rather than plough through all of them, many Shuls (including my own) elect to read only a … Read More >>
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on July 22nd, 2007 “I believe with a perfect faith in the coming of Moshiach. And even though he tarries, I still await his arrival every day.” Those words form one of the 13 basic principles of faith of the Rambam. Yet, as I write barely a week before Tisha B’Av, I find myself doubtful that this Tisha B’Av will be filled with festive rejoicing.
That glum thought was triggered by watching From the Ashes, a new offering from Aish HaTorah scheduled to be screened in Jewish communities around the world this coming Tisha B’Av. The documentary basically follows Rav Noach Weinberg, founder of Aish HaTorah, on a visit to the death camps in Poland, together with 60 Aish HaTorah rabbis, interspersed with various participants discussing the experience.
The central metaphor of the documentary – one that is pounded home relentlessly in various ways – is that there is a spiritual Holocaust facing the Jewish people today no less devastating in its implications for the Am Hashem than the physical extermination of six million Jews in the Holocaust. Those six million constituted approximately one-third of the Jewish nation. At least two-thirds of Jews today have little connection to the Jewish people, certainly … Read More >>
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on July 22nd, 2007 Three weeks ago, Rabbi Marc Angel, the retiring spiritual leader of Manhattan’s Congregation Shearith Israel argued in the Jewish Press (“Conversion to Judaism: A Discussion of Standards“) that: (1) there is a multiplicity of standards for conversion within halacha; and (2) the determination of what standards to apply is best left to the discretion of every individual rabbi. Both claims are dubious.
The most widely revered contemporary poskim – Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, and yblch”aת Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv have all written explicitly that a full acceptance of the yoke of mitzvos is the fundamental requirement of geirut (conversion). Without the acceptance of mitzvot, the various technical requirements of conversion — milah (circumcision) for men; tevilah (immersion in a mikveh) for men and women in front of a qualified beit din – are meaningless.
A convert need not know every mitzvah, but he or she must accept the entirety of the halachic system as binding upon him or her. As the Gemara in Bechorot (30b) makes clear, the rejection of even one mitzvah at the time of conversion renders the would-be convert unfit.
The view of the poskim cited above is not, as Rabbi Angel suggests, a … Read More >>
By Shira Schmidt, on July 19th, 2007 See my comment at the end of this posting for an update on the actual fining of stores that opened on Shabbat.
3 bMenahemAv
Only in Israel would the hourly news report a storm brewing over whether book stores will indeed violate the Shabbat closing laws and open for sale late Friday night. The cause celebre is the world launching of the final Harry Potter book at 12:01 am July 21 British time, which comes out in Israel on the morning of Shabbat Hazon, at 02:01 am. Eli Yishai, the haredi Shas minister for the Ministry of Industry and Labor, “warns stores over Harry Potter book launch.”
It is within Yishai’s purview to send out non-Jewish (usually Druze) inspectors to fine, indict, and possibly imprison Jewish store owners who open on Shabbat in contravention of the law. (There is a dual prohibition: against opening stores, and against employing Jews on Shabbat).
This led me to ruminate on the subject of religious coercion, a topic treated soberly this week in the Jerusalem Post by YU mashgiach (spiritual guidance counselor) Rabbi Yosef Blau in his op ed … Read More >>
By Shira Schmidt, on July 18th, 2007 3 b Menahem Av
Remember the party-crashing in the Kamtza and Bar-Kamtza episode? Well, I had my own experience last week.
Jonathan Rosenblum describes below what he would have told the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI).
In a quixotic gesture to share some insights from the haredi sector, I actually went there. I traveled from the hassidic neighborhood where I live in Netanya to the conference in Jerusalem. I sat quietly through two workshops, and then asked the organizers formally to participate in the conference. I was politely and firmly asked to leave -they claimed that this was only for professional planners. Even my informing them that I had a Master’s degree in Planning from the Technion did not sway them and I understood that they were not interested in hearing from that sector (the haredim) that arguably has had the most success in fighting assimilation.
If I could have stayed, I would have made four points. 1) Practice what you preach. If Jewish tradition is so precious, begin every session at such a conference with some relevant text from Jewish tradition. I brought with me the text of … Read More >>
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on July 18th, 2007 The inaugural conference of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute convened last week in Jerusalem. Academics, philanthropists, and Jewish educators from around the world gathered to discuss threats to Israel ’s security, anti-Semitism around the world, Israel-Diaspora relations, and issues of Jewish continuity and identity.
Only one group was not represented: the chareidim. In the four years of planning leading up to the conference, it apparently did not cross anyone’s mind that it might be a good idea to seek figures from the chareidi world to participate.
When challenged about the lack of any chareidi representation on the working groups, a French delegate explained that there is “a nearly unbridgeable cultural gap between the types of people attending the conference and members of the chareidi community” and that it is impossible to find a chareidi representative with “a good grasp of geopolitical realities.” For good measure, he added, that chareidim tend to use violent language.
This conscious exclusion of chareidim is an old story. I cannot remember a single member of the chareidi community ever being asked to address the biennial General Assembly of Jewish Federations or even to participate in one of its panels. About a decade ago, Commentary … Read More >>
By Dovid Gottlieb, on July 17th, 2007 The story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza is perhaps the most well known rabbinic text associated with the destruction of the Second Temple. And yet, perhaps it’s our very familiarity with the episode which causes us to gloss over important subtleties embedded in the Talmudic account.
To recap, briefly: There was a man – never identified in the story – who threw a party and intended to invite his good friend Kamtza. His servant, however, erred and mistakenly invited his enemy, Bar Kamtza. When the host realized the mistake he immediately and very publicly demanded that Bar Kamtza leave the party. Obviously embarrassed, Bar Kamtza made a series of offers – even, ultimately, offering to pay for the entire party – hoping to persuade the host to allow him to remain. Unmoved, the host callously throws him out of the party. The Gemara recounts that Bar Kamtza was so offended, not only by the host, but also by the silence of the guests – some of whom were great rabbis – that he slandered the Jewish people to the Caesar. One thing leads to another and the result of this sad story is, ultimately, the destruction of the Beit Ha-Mikdash (Gittin … Read More >>
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on July 15th, 2007 Comments to Rabbi Shafran’s recent piece were so wildly all over the place, that I thought a few thoughts from someone who sits on a regular beis din (one of the few entirely accepted by the Rabbanut) for gerus might be helpful. What follows is not a thorough halachic analysis, which is more suitable for venues other than popular blogs. I will just share some food for thought, and perhaps a few personal observations. I will break with CC’s usual standards, and deliberately not translate most halachic terms, since the piece will be appreciated only by those with at least some familiarity with the sources. (It is not meant to be a commentary on the decision by the Israeli beis din to retroactively strip a conversion of its legitimacy; I have no familiarity with the case. Nor is it meant to comment on the work of the two Bar-Ilan profs; I haven’t read it.)
1) It is a common mistake to believe that, once performed, a gerus is valid even if there is backsliding by the ger. Intent is everything with regard to gerus. When it is apparent that the ger, despite what … Read More >>
By Harvey Belovski, on July 15th, 2007 A while ago, a feature article published on the website of the UK Telegraph newspaper asked, ‘what is the most annoying phrase in the English language?’ Suggestions included ‘chill out’ and the replacement of ‘now’ with ‘at this moment in time’. The posting, before it disappeared, elicited over 2000 comments from readers, each of whom mentioned a pet hate. A random glance at them yielded such expressions as ‘all intensive purposes’, ‘fell pregnant’, ‘blue-sky thinking’ tautologies such as ‘potential risk’ and the use of the soccer-player’s favourite phrase ‘at the end of the day’, which, it was claimed, actually means nothing at all.
The observant world is blessed with a number of eloquent speakers and writers who are outstanding advocates for Judaism. Their sensitive and lucid writings have drawn many hearts towards authentic Judaism and, when necessary, they articulately defend the Torah from outside attack: we would be a poorer community without them.
Yet the standard of their written and spoken English is scarcely reflective of the majority within the observant community; even in English-speaking countries, low standards abound. À la Telegraph, one could prepare a list of the most annoying phrases used by members of the … Read More >>
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on July 15th, 2007 The term “collective punishment” conjures up images of Nazis executing entire villages in retaliation for a partisan ambush. No wonder Jews are acutely sensitive to charges of imposing collective punishment or targeting civilians.
And we hear those charges a lot: last summer in Lebanon; every time Israeli artillery hit back at the source of Kassam fire from Gaza. Were Syria to fire missiles at Israeli cities, and Israel to strike back at Syrian cities with even greater force, the international community would undoubtedly condemn Israel.
Accusations of war crimes by states attempting to defend against terrorist attacks have become a major weapon in the terrorist arsenal. In the words of Boaz Ganor of the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, so-called customary international humanitarian law (CIHL) is a “force multiplier” for terrorist groups, who think nothing of putting civilians in the line of fire.
That requires some serious rethinking of the laws of war predicated on an outdated model of opposing armies facing off on an open field far removed from civilian populations. Modern warfare inevitably implicates civilian populations.
The doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), which protected against nuclear conflagration during the Cold War, for instance, is predicated on the threat of … Read More >>
By Toby Katz, on July 13th, 2007 Any attempt at candor about problems within the charedi community seems to open a can of worms. Few indeed — even among Orthodox Jews — are the people who can see how overwhelmingly the good outweighs the bad within the charedi community. The comments to my post about “Charedi hooligans” have been very disheartening and depressing to me, running ten to one against charedim.
I cannot imagine any other group within the Jewish world — not Mizrachi, or MO, or Reform or Conservative or secular Jews or Federation or any other group you can think of — who would be vilified on any website the way charedim are, with no one coming to their defense — and if one person does try to say something nice about charedim, a lot of others turn on him and attack him for daring to defend the indefensible.
If one person attacked and criticized Reform or Modern Orthodoxy on a website, a bunch of other people would quickly pile on to counter-attack and accuse that person of intolerance, bigotry and so on, or at least to say that it’s counterproductive to say mean things about Reform, you catch more … Read More >>
By Toby Katz, on July 11th, 2007 R’ Rosenblum made a passing reference in his post, “The Choice is Ours,” to the juvenile delinquents who plague some of our beautiful charedi communities. Although I admire his soul-searching candor, I take issue with one sentence of his:”But one thing is not emphasized: the interrelationship of all Jews, and the responsibility of Jews for one another”
Even in the most insular chassidishe communities, little boys didn’t used to throw stones at cars for entertainment. I don’t know when we started having this plague of young hooligans somehow sprouting up from our most charedi communities.
The division between those who emphasize the “hen am levadad yishkon” aspect and those who emphasize the “ohr lagoyim” aspect of Yiddishkeit is a division of long-standing. But the production of young hooligans has never been a goal or byproduct of EITHER emphasis.
I don’t know where we’ve gone wrong, but could it be that maybe something of the Modern Spirit has somehow crept into even the most insular of our charedi ghettoes? I refer to the Modern Spirit of totally spoiling and indulging young children, so that they become uncontrollable brats.
[For those who need translation: Hen am levadad yishkon = "It is a … Read More >>
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on July 11th, 2007 1) When Mishpacha published last week’s post “On Making Money” they wisely decided to edit out most of the lawyer jokes. I considered doing the same, and unwisely decided that given that I am a member of the club — three years of law school, two years of major firm practice — readers would cut me a little bit of slack. As I thought I made clear, had I not decided to move to Israel and spend my days irritating readers of Cross-Currents, I would probably have lived out my days practicing law as well.
In any event, I appreciate all those who wrote to let me know that not all lawyers are shysters and that many professionals are very generous. I’m grateful as well to those who clued me in on the fact that there are dishonest businessmen, and that there are many good reasons why a frum Jew might prefer the professions to business. I never knew any of those things.
Generalizations when used to make judgments about individuals are odious. But that does not mean that general comparisons have no place. Not all smokers die young; nor do all non-smokers live to a ripe old age. But … Read More >>
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