By Shira Schmidt, on September 29th, 2008 The place:Liberated Theresienstadt. Date: May 1945. Hanna, a survivor, recalls:
“I thought to myself: ‘I am now free. I am actually free to do whatever I want.’ But I had nowhere to go. I had no one. Where could I go? There was no one to guide me. I was completely detached. I belonged to no one. I had just turned 13. At that moment I decided to come to Eretz Israel. I wrote to the uncle, Yitzhak Rosner, who had come on aliya before the War, asking if he would take me in, as my family no longer existed. I wanted to belong to someone. I wanted to belong to my nation.”
These words were narrated by Hanna Rosner Bar-Yesha in a new film that can be purchased online in Hebrew or English from Yad Vashem (by contacting Naama Shik naama.shik@yadvashem.org.il tel.011-972-2-6443654).
I saw a preview of “She Was There and She Told Me:the Story of Hanna Bar-Yesha” at a summer study session initiated by the Zachor Holocaust Education Center of the Michlala, … Read More >>
By Toby Katz, on September 28th, 2008 An ad has run quite a few times on the radio over the past few days, and it goes something like this. A mother’s voice says, “Eight times a day I have to test my daughter’s blood sugar, because she’s diabetic, and eight times a day I pray [her voice deepens] I pray for a cure. Obama supports stem cell research, but McCain is opposed to the stem cell research that could cure my little girl.”
Wow, so many subliminal messages in one ad! Where do I begin? First of all, the ad is profoundly dishonest. McCain SUPPORTS adult stem cell research, which is very-well funded, and which does indeed offer great medical promise. He opposes embryonic stem cell research. The ad does not make this distinction. (As it happens, embryonic stem cell research has proven unsuccessful — adult stem cells are far more promising.)
Now to identify the hidden messages: #1. Liberals pray too (“Eight times a day I PRAY”) so religious people shouldn’t be afraid of Democrats. #2 Abortion is a GOOD thing — it can save children’s lives. #3 Ergo, pro-lifers do not hold the moral high … Read More >>
By Avi Shafran, on September 26th, 2008 The weeks before a presidential election provide spiritual fodder for the week between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
Throughout political campaigns, candidates and their handlers are keenly aware of the great toll a simple gaffe or misjudgment can take. Four years ago, Howard Dean, the then-governor of Vermont (today Democratic National Committee chairman) was a credible candidate for the Democratic nomination for President.
But he crashed and burned, according to many because of what came to be dubbed his “I Have a Scream” speech. After an unexpectedly weak showing in the Iowa caucus, Dr. Dean declared his undeterred determination to forge on, in a rousing address that culminated in a vocalization somewhere between a Zulu war cry and a locomotive horn. That single moment’s decision to let loose in that way at that juncture spelled the end of the doctor’s road to the highest office in the land.
There have been other such moments for presidential candidates: Edmund Muskie’s tears of pain, Gary Hart’s infelicitous mugging for his “Monkey Business” snapshot, Michael Dukakis’s donning of an ill-fitting combat helmet. Each unguarded moment, deservedly or not, brought a national campaign to a screeching halt.
Every one of us, too, … Read More >>
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on September 23rd, 2008 Music in the hands of the old masters, wrote R Yehuda Halevi (Kuzari 2:64-65) could change people’s moods and dispositions. Alas, by the modern times of the 12th century introduced cultural degeneracy such that music was now savored by the riff-raff, and its intended power was no longer evident.
One wonders what R Yehuda Halevi would say about YouTube and similar video presentations. Would he take a dim view of the recent shift away from prose to visual media? Would he see the explosion of streaming video as a product of the dumbing-down of a population too lazy and too uneducated to savor words? Or would he recognize its similarity to the music of an older age that could yank at our moods like a skilled puppeteer?
Rabbi Daniel Korobkin of Los Angeles makes a strong case for the latter, at least in the hands of someone determined to take us to a higher place. (Ironically, Rabbi Korobkin just happens to be the author of the best translation of Kuzari currently available.) His Who Shall Live is a video version of Unesaneh Tokef, and makes it come alive through dramatic photo images of the events … Read More >>
By Eytan Kobre, on September 22nd, 2008 Trying, as always, to do my small part to ensure media objectivity, I present below an e-mail exchange I recently had with a JTA reporter on a topic that ought to rank very high on the issues agenda of Orthodox Jewish voters when casting their ballots this November: the nominations that the respective candidates are likely to make for vacancies on the United States Supreme Court.
Given that a) the Court’s decisions, and those of other federal courts, play a significant role in setting the moral tone in this country, and b) Justice Stevens is 88 and by January 2009 five other justices will be from 69 to 75 years old, it’s hard to overstate the importance of this topic. There’s a great deal to say about this, but let’s begin with the following exchange:
Dear Eric,
Now that you’ve returned from covering the nominating conventions, I’m hoping you’ll be kind enough to respond to an e-mail letter I sent you a few weeks ago regarding a piece you wrote for JTA entitled “Obama, McCain Spar Over Supreme Court.”
You contrasted McCain’s statement at the Saddleback forum that he wouldn’t have nominated any of the current four liberal justices, thereby — … Read More >>
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on September 21st, 2008 In his new book Defending Identity, Natan Sharansky once again mines his nine years in Soviet prisons for crucial insights on the major issues of the day. Defending Identity complements and enriches Sharansky’s previous work The Case for Democracy.
The two works draw on different aspects of the political activism that led to Sharansky’s arrest and imprisonment: The Case for Democracy on his work as a human rights activist and spokesman for the Helsinki Watch group; Defending Identity on his work for Jewish emigration. The two roles coexisted easily enough in Sharansky, but colleagues in each movement doubted whether he was really one of them because of his involvement in the other.
The Case for Democracy argued that totalitarian regimes are inherently aggressive, while democratic societies are the opposite, since democratic leaders need to provide citizens with that which they value most – their own lives. Defending Identity adds the caveat that individuals and societies that value nothing above life cannot summon the resources to defend themselves against aggressive enemies.
IN PRISON, those with the strongest identity – such as Pentacostals – were the least likely to be broken by the KGB. For those with a strong personal identity, … Read More >>
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on September 19th, 2008 This is not what the title suggests. Different Pope. Different molesters. Different group of bad guys. Having come this far, you might as well read on.
The prevailing orthodoxy in the Jewish community is that wartime Pope Pius XII was an unfeeling and spineless pontiff who placed the Church above all else, and had little sympathy for Jews in the first place. Feelings have run so strongly in this direction since the publication of “The Deputy,” a scathing critique of Pius published a mere five years after his death, that the issue of Pius’ potential canonization has been an impediment in Jewish-Catholic relations.
A growing number of voices, including some in the Jewish community, have come to a very different conclusion. The debate is outlined in a recent article in the New York Jewish Week.
Some things are fairly well established. The Pope did save Jewish lives, in several places. He did provide sanctuary within the Vatican to some Jews. He was honored by Jewish groups after the War for his help.
Beyond that, the claims and counterclaims continue to mount. Former critics have reversed themselves and turned into supporters. Witnesses have come forward to testify that … Read More >>
By Avi Shafran, on September 19th, 2008 It’s never a good idea to analyze a joke. All the same, I recently found myself deconstructing a stand-up comedian’s one-liner quoted in a newspaper article. It may have been because Rosh Hashana was approaching.
“I used to do drugs,” the hapless performer had deadpanned. “I still do, but I used to, too.”
Why was the line funny? It could be that the comedian had simply found an amusing, absurd way to characterize his long-time substance abuse. But what I think he meant to communicate was something more: that he had once (perhaps more than once) quit his drugs, only to re-embrace them. When he was clean, he “used to do drugs”; now, fallen off the wagon, he does them once again.
And so my thoughts, understandably (no?), went to Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year holiday characterized by the Talmud as an annual day of Divine judgment. Its two days begin the ten-day period in the Jewish calendar – ending with Yom Kippur – that constitute the “Days of Repentance.”
No, I don’t abuse drugs. I take my daily blood-thinner responsibly, pop an occasional Tylenol and have a glass or two of red wine with … Read More >>
By Avi Shafran, on September 19th, 2008 Dear Cross-Currents Readers,
I apologize for inflicting this essay (albeit in a different form) on you once again.
But C-C has asked me to share this version of an article that, as originally written, was intended for observant Jews, to encourage them to reach out to Jews who have not had the benefit of a Jewish education or upbringing.
After it appeared, I received many requests to recast it in a form aimed at precisely those Jews, so that it would be suitable for sharing “as is” with them. So I edited it accordingly and it appears below in three parts.
COMING TO JUDAISM
Rabbi Avi Shafran
1
A long, long time ago, when I was much younger, even more foolish and living in California, I used a motorcycle for personal transportation. I remember once riding my mid-sized Honda, tzitzit-fringes flying behind me, into a cycle shop for a part. As I entered a parking space and cut the engine, I heard a roar from behind and knew, even before it pulled up next to me, that a Harley had arrived. The behemoth’s rider, a man much older than I, with flowing white hair and dark sunglasses, clad in jeans … Read More >>
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on September 17th, 2008 In Elul, we each have to search for inspiration – an idea to focus on, a model to which we can aspire – wherever we can. Anything that wakes us up, scares us a bit, makes us think about the approaching judgment and must be grabbed.
In his newest book Defending Identity, Natan Sharansky once again mines his experience of nine years in Soviet prisons for universal lessons. At the beginning of his interrogation, the KGB offered him the possibility of being reunited with his wife Avital in Israel if he would just condemn the Jewish emigration movement. If not, he would be executed as a traitor and a spy.
The KGB’s trump card, Sharansky realized, was his fear of the firing squad. The only way to resist was to overcome the fear of being killed with a countervailing fear even more powerful. Though he then knew little of his Judaism, Sharansky called that fear the Fear of G-d.
“[T]he fear of not being worthy of the divine image, not the fear death, was what I was most afraid of in my interrogations with the KGB,” he writes. At that moment the KGB lost its power over him. … Read More >>
By Avi Shafran, on September 12th, 2008 (The Jewish Observer, September, 2008/Elul 5768)
According to Chazal (Nedarim, 40a), ideas that on the surface seem entirely constructive can in truth be quite the opposite. A contemporary case in point is the effort calling itself “Hekhsher Tzedek,” or “Justice Certification.”
Conceived by the rabbi of a Conservative congregation, and now endorsed by that movement’s rabbinic arm, the “Hekhsher”’s promoters insist that it is not really a hekhsher, or kashrus certification, at all. It is, rather, an “enhancement” of such certification, an indication that a kosher product was also “made in compliance with a set of social justice criteria.”
Needless to say, a kashrus certifier certainly has a right, and in many cases a responsibility, to ensure that a food-producing company or food-service establishment seeking its certification hew not only to the laws of kashrus but to other requirements of halacha. Thus, a bakery that is open on Shabbos, a slaughterhouse that violates the dictates of tza’ar ba’alei chayim, or a restaurant where tzenius is lacking would all be rightfully subject to a machshir’s insistence that the business bring itself within the bounds of halacha.
And, of course, there are “social justice” issues, too, like the forbiddance of an employer … Read More >>
By Yaakov Menken, on September 12th, 2008 In an election season, every candidate needs to appear pro-Israel — especially the Democratic candidates most beholden to Jewish donors in order to get elected. Snide words from a politically conservative Jew? Not really. The Arab-American and global Arab press has made this point repeatedly, in order to explain the “transformation” of Barack Obama — who as recently as the 2000 election cycle (when he failed in his bid for a congressional seat) “was forthright in his criticism of US policy and his call for an even-handed approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” and in 2004 called Israel’s security wall an “example of the neglect of this Administration in brokering peace” [demonstrating a lack of both global and domestic political knowledge in a single sentence]. Hamas “unendorsed” Obama after his AIPAC speech, although Obama backtracked on his commitment to an undivided Jerusalem a day later.
But there is a big difference between platitudes and positions, and the Jewish community cannot afford to be deceived. Obama offers up the glib generalities we want to hear while simultaneously raking in Arab cash as well (including tens of thousands of dollars illegally sent in from … Read More >>
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on September 11th, 2008 New York Times columnist David Brooks made a trenchant observation last week concerning John McCain’s selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate: McCain represents more an attitude than he does a well-thought out political philosophy or a particular set of policies. And in Palin he found someone who shares the same attitude, without in any way complementing him.
Brooks is right that not every issue can be reduced to an axis of public service versus narrow self-interest, or virtue versus vice. “The facts” do not dictate a single correct policy with respect to any issue. But certainly a knowledge of the facts, and the ability to anticipate the likely consequences of different policy choices is essential for public policy making.
Brooks’ observation, however, would be more telling if there were any evidence that the Obama-Biden team had substantive knowledge of disciplines like economics or energy policy that McCain-Palin lack. There isn’t. Neither Senator Obama nor Senator Biden claim or evince any knowledge of the dismal science. And on the issue of energy independence, Governor Palin is way ahead of the field. Nuclear energy and tapping America’s own vast oil reserves, not futuristic technologies or keeping our tires … Read More >>
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on September 11th, 2008 Many decades ago, when I was still young and cocksure, a professor asked me, “Don’t you ever agree with anything I say.” I replied that I almost always agreed, but didn’t see any point in saying so. Afer all he was the professor, and I was just a sophomore.
I’ve mellowed somewhat over the years, but the critical gene has not been completely suppressed. Like the proverbial Jew, who washed up on an island, builds two shuls – the second because one also needs a shul in which one does not daven – I sometimes become too focused on what needs fixing in our community.
That critical streak is modulated by the fact that I also write for the secular public, and in that role I consciously try to explain how radically different a life connected to Hashem through Torah is from one without Torah. That helps me not lose the forest for the trees.
But when writing internally, the critical streak quickly returns. All the various communities in Israel tend to avoid addressing their own shortcomings by pointing to the failures of the others. And I have no interest in joining that trend by becoming the cheerleader for the Torah … Read More >>
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on September 7th, 2008 The first shofar blasts of Elul have sounded. Those blasts are associated with fear: “Can the shofar sound in the city and the people not tremble?” (Amos 3:6). That fear, however, is not the helpless, numbing terror felt by those waiting for a hurricane to hit or a missile to fall. Rather it is the high tension felt by soldiers going into battle or athletes before a major competition. The tension comes from knowing that a great deal is at stake, and that one will either rise to the challenge or fail.
That is why Maimonides, in his code, associates the shofar blasts of Elul with an awakening from slumber. If we pay attention to blasts, Elul becomes a time of exhilaration, of rejoicing in trembling, as we recognize the opportunity that lies before us, the chance to make a fresh start of our lives.
Our sages identified a number of verses in which the first letters of four consecutive words spell out E-L-U-L. The best known, of course, is the verse: “Ani l’dodi v’dodi li - I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me.” Repentance starts with taking careful stock of ourself, our “ani – I.” … Read More >>
By Avi Shafran, on September 4th, 2008 I received a good amount of mostly encouraging feedback on my lengthy “Oversize Posting” of last week, and several suggestions that I reformulate the essay for a non-believing reader.
I have indeed done that, at least in part, and shared the first of a three-part series of essays on the topic of the veracity of the Jewish mesora with the general Jewish media that Am Echad Resources services.
In coming weeks, I hope to share with those outlets the second and third installments of the rewritten essay.
Rather than burden Cross-Currents with what is, at least in content, essentially a re-run of a previous posting, I will suffice to simply let readers know that should they wish to receive a copy of the reformulated three-part essay, they need only send me an e-mail requesting the same, to shafran@amechad.com
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on September 4th, 2008 Last week I wrote about the strain of poverty on chareidi society. Don’t feel bad if you forgot, I often can’t remember what I wrote about a week ago. I only remember in this case because over Shabbos I happened to read A. Amitz’s story in the same issue of Mishpacha on the identical theme: how perpetual financial pressures can lead to a draining obsession with money no less than the pursuit of riches.
The “hero” of her story drops dead shortly after the wedding of his third daughter from the pressure of revolving loans from one gemach to another. But, in a reprise of a grim joke I heard many years ago from a father in the process of marrying off his children, the fathers’ death proves to be the solution to marrying off the remaining children – glossy pamphlets can now be printed for a fund for the orphans.
Amitz details shekel by shekel how even someone living without luxuries, and who has a decent job, finds himself falling inexorably into debt as the children grow. That struck me as far more powerful than my column.
Chareidi fiction has become one of the best venues for the discussion of pressing … Read More >>
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on September 1st, 2008 Boruch Hashem, they found the body a short while ago.
Tranquil water, clear blue skies, and clean air, all but an hour’s drive from Los Angeles. The beauty of the place clashed so ironically with the grim task of our visit to Lake Piru. For a week now, we had been coming. Some for four hour shifts in various watercraft, others digging in for eighteen hours at a time, or an entire Shabbos. From all parts of the city, and from all walks of Jewish life. We are not there to catch some rays, but to snatch a body from the lake that took life from it. We would have liked to still believe in some miraculous outcome, but we were prepared for the worst as well. We were not prepared to allow life to go on as usual while a young family sat in anguish that we did not want to contemplate. And we refused to abandon the friend we loved and admired to the whims of the lake without struggling with it, without being there to honor him at the first available opportunity.
So we continued to come in small convoys, with binoculars, sunscreen, water and pizzas, … Read More >>
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