By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on June 28th, 2009 The deep global recession has forced many to reconsider the way they give their tzedakah. It is more than likely that some changes will stay with us even after the health of the world economy is restored, BE”H.
We can’t speak of a silver lining to storm clouds so ominous and dark that they have kept bread (literally!) off the tables of children.
Nonetheless, we must note with admiration that the Baltimore community has once again scooped the rest of the country, and come up with a protocol worth considering and copying.
The innovation is somewhat radical. Community rabbonim are urging that tzedakah be allocated according to the guidelines actually prescribed by halachah! Those guidelines state that local poor come before all others – including those of Eretz Yisrael.
(A topic for consideration some time should be why so many good and sensible ideas originate in Baltimore and only seem to succeed there.)
The Baltimore proposal has the approval of what looks like all the important rabbonim of the city, including the Rosh Yeshiva, R. Aharon Feldman shlit”a. It is not a takanah, but a list of people who have pledged to abide by the proposal. There is no enforcement; there … Read More >>
By Yaakov Menken, on June 26th, 2009 Rabbi David Mark of Temple Sholom in Pompano Beach, Florida, is anxious to fill a void. “There was a need out there among the public for something like this,” he said. “It hurt me so much to my very core that I could not help these people.”
Perhaps more to the point, though, Rabbi Mark was very anxious to help his Temple away from the old, stodgy, tradition-laden Conservative movement. The Temple “recently shed its ultra-conservative image” and now calls itself “progressive conservative.” I think there’s a confusion there between Conservative and conservative, because from a religious standpoint, it’s not the conservatives usually called “ultra-.”
And how better to prove how “progressive” they are by hosting the “first ever commitment ceremony in the county?” This refers, of course, to an alternate form of marriage for two people of the same gender. This was the “need out there” that Rabbi Mark found, that pained him so greatly while the Conservative Movement’s Committee of Jewish Law and Standards refused to give its blessing.
And now that that’s changed, he’s advertising. And advertising. And now it’s in the news: “Rabbi Searches in Vain for Kosher Gay Couple to Marry.” The Temple … Read More >>
By Avi Shafran, on June 26th, 2009 The relevant question in converting to Judaism is not prior behavior but sincerity of future Jewish … Read More >>
By Guest Contributor, on June 24th, 2009 by Dovid Landesman
I have an acquaintance in Los Angeles, a urologist who is also a well-respected talmid chacham. To establish his credentials let me say that he has completed three cycles as the maggid shiur in a local daf yomi. He told me recently that he received a call from a young man in Bnei Brak who was writing a sefer on hilchos k’rus shafchah and wanted to come to Los Angeles to consult on the medical aspects of the condition. The doctor agreed and when the mechaber arrived, they spent a week reviewing the material. One of the sources which they went through together was the Chazon Ish on Yoreh Deah.
My medical friend told me that he was absolutely astounded by the Chazon Ish’s mastery of anatomy as evidenced in his sefer and speculated what was the source of the Chazon Ish’s knowledge. Clearly he did not have a copy of Gray‘s Anatomy under his pillow. I raised the question to another friend, one of the local rabbonim, who showed me a teshuvah from Rav Wozner shlitah maintaining that the Chazon Ish had ruach kodesh. One of my more skeptical friends conjectures that since the Chazon Ish grew up … Read More >>
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on June 23rd, 2009 What happens when you mix the flair of a Southern Baptist preacher with a bit of Torah enlightenment?
Watch.
[Thanks to Dr. Shmuel Lebovics, Los Angeles]
By Avi Shafran, on June 19th, 2009 Decades, even centuries, of hatred do not preclude peace. But neither can peace be built on a foundation of hatred. … Read More >>
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on June 19th, 2009 Where do we set the bar of observance for would-be converts? The row over standards waxes and wanes, but never quite disappears. A recent article in Tradition did not make the waves it should have. In an understated manner, it placed – not threw down – a gauntlet in a simmering conflict between two approaches to halacha that just do not talk to each other. I wish the author (my friend, frequent disputant, and oftentimes writing collaborator, Rabbi Michael Broyde) had finished the job he ably began. Without consulting him, I will herewith attempt to do just that.
Rabbi Broyde (together with Shmuel Kadosh) took sharp aim at a work that has proved nettlesome to many who engage in serious halacha, although most of them have never heard of it. When Rabbi Avraham Sherman, a member of Israel’s Supreme Rabbinic Court, invalidated some of Rabbi Chaim Druckman’s converts, he touched off a firestorm of criticism that has not abated to this day. At the eye of the storm was an assumption that if it could be determined by the later behavior of a convert that he or she had never fully accepted the yoke of mitzvos, then the conversion was of … Read More >>
By Eytan Kobre, on June 16th, 2009 An e-mail arrived today from the president of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency appealing for money to enable the agency to stay afloat. I must admit that as a free subscriber to JTA’s daily news bulletin, I felt a twinge of guilt upon reading the letter’s postscript stating that while it is “JTA’s mission to offer content for free, . . . it is not free to produce. We need everyone who relies on JTA to pitch in. . . . ” And so, I’ve decided to contribute in my own way, by posting at least once each week regarding some aspect of the JTA’s news coverage.
I trust my observations will pay great dividends to the agency in enabling it to fulfill its stated role as the “Global News Service of the Jewish People,” and will, ultimately be worth far more to its staff than the paltry monetary sum I’d otherwise be contributing. I take as my starting premise that as a self-described “Global News Service of the Jewish People,” the JTA is committed to a rigorously objective and non-partisan approach to its reporting, in both religious and political terms. So, here goes:
A June 15 news item headlined … Read More >>
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on June 15th, 2009 There is no gainsaying the beauty and appropriateness of Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zweibel’s letter to the son of Stephen Tyrone Johns. It demonstrates both the chochmah and lev of talmidei chachamim.
There is also no gainsaying that the perception of the attack by much of the rest of the world is different than the way many of our readers see it. We regard it as the next of a seemingly infinite series of anti-Semitic attacks. We have been used to them since Sinai, and expect them till Moshiach. Outside our community, however, the attack took on iconic value. Because the Holocaust looms so large in the way non-Jews – friends and enemies, each in their own way – look at Jews, an attack on the US Holocaust Museum was seen by them as a dagger in the heart of all Jewry. (It is the non-Jewish analogue to the way we saw the attack on Mercaz Harav, and the massacre of its kedoshim.)
Because of this, the eyes of the world will be upon our response. Will Jews reach out and support those who pay a terrible price for them, just as they are renowned for always taking care … Read More >>
By Guest Contributor, on June 15th, 2009 by Brian Schrauger
The war that Israel keeps losing is the war of world opinion, the war for individual hearts and minds. Consider recent stumbles.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza should have been named “8,000 is enough!” This would have communicated a determination to stop the barrage of missiles from Hamas, using surgical precision to destroy its arsenal, but destroying all of it, not just a part. Enough was enough: 8,000 missiles launched on the nation’s civilian population would no longer be tolerated.
Unfortunately the operation was dubbed, “Cast Lead.” The resulting image in the English-speaking world was not helpful. Lead is a soft metal associated with poison. The implication, then, was an unprofessional plan with ambivalent determination, biased motives and toxic methods.
Which is exactly how governments and media judge “the Gaza war.” Israel and her defenders respond by arguing, “Israel has the right to defend herself.” This is true, but flawed. Why? Limiting Israel’s self-defense to a right makes it an option. Little wonder, then, that Israel’s enemies portray her as a ruthless bully. In the matter of Gaza, for example, she could have chosen to refrain.
In fact, Israel has more than a right to defend her citizens and existence. Along with … Read More >>
By Yaakov Menken, on June 15th, 2009 In the wake of the shooting attack at Washington’s Holocaust Museum last week, many organizations issued public statements. Most of those were similar to these words from President Obama: “This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms.”
Agudath Israel, the Jewish communal organization representing the interests of traditionally Orthodox Jews, issued a statement as well. Its statement, though, was different — it consisted solely of an open letter to the young son of the security guard who gave his life defending the visitors to that Museum.
This letter’s personal touch reminds us all that this was not only an outrage against the national consciousness, but an acutely personal tragedy as well.
To the Young Son of Stephen Tyrone Johns:
Your name wasn’t mentioned on the ABC-Nightline report where you were briefly interviewed after the tragic death of your father. But what mattered were your words, that your Dad was “a loving father” and your “hero.”
I want you to know that he is a hero to us too.
Your father died protecting people, young and old, of many races and religions, who had come to a very special place: the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. … Read More >>
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on June 15th, 2009 Upon his first visit to one of the liberated death camps, Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “There are those who ask what are we fighting for. Let them come here and see what we are fighting against.” Eisenhower’s remark contains an important insight: Sometimes it is more essential that one define the nature of evil than that one define what is good. About the latter, there will inevitably be many opinions. But they need not prevent a consensus from coalescing around the definition of evil.
I was reminded of that point last week as I watched The Third Jihad, the third in a trilogy of documentaries on the threat of radical Islam produced by Raphael Shore and Wayne Kopping. Towards the end of the documentary one of the experts interviewed, former CIA intelligence officer Clare Lopez declared, “The real war is between the values of freedom and barbarism. If we are not willing to recognize the battle as one for our civilization, we might as well give up right now.”
The last time the West faced such a civilizational threat, many refused to recognize the nature of the conflict. In Troublesome Young Men, Lynne Olsen offers a gripping account … Read More >>
By Yaakov Menken, on June 12th, 2009 While I contemplated writing this article before hearing from Rabbi Oberstein that he wanted to send his remarks as well, I believe that our two perspectives together provide yet more fodder for dialogue. Here, then, is where I stand on President Obama and Israel, in the wake of a visit to the Middle East that has the Israelis frowning, and its Arab enemies crowing.
It’s not always enjoyable to be proven right. Sometimes you’d much rather be wrong. My early assessment of President Obama’s attitudes towards Israel — which was joined, of course, by many other pro-Israel writers — is a case in point.
In advance of the election, when Obama called for “an even-handed approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” I was sharply criticized for terming that “an inability to discern between good and evil.” Similarly, when I questioned why the President-elect refused to support Israel during the recent Gaza conflict — unlike so many of his colleagues in the Senate — I was accused of a “desire to assume the worst about Obama.” When Rabbi Avi Shafran posted words of hope about Obama, that same commenter asserted that “those who once vilified our incoming president are now scurrying … Read More >>
By Guest Contributor, on June 12th, 2009 by Rabbi Elchonon Oberstein
Last year I wrote about Obama on Cross-Currents . I recently received an email from a friend, who wants me to publicly repudiate everything I wrote and admit that I was wrong. I am not as scared as some that Obama is selling Israel down the river. I do think he is pressuring Israel more strongly than Bush Jr. ,but so did other Presidents and Israel is still around. I share this with the lively experts of Cross- Currents. On matters such as these, we truly live up to the phrase in the Hagada “Kulanu chachamim,Kulanu nevonim…” (We are all wise, we are all insightful) What do you think?
Dear Rabbi,
Another day, another indication that your Messiah’s “strong support” of Israel isn’t quite what you were hoping for. To be quite honest, I find your silence on this matter quite disturbing and wholly inappropriate. You predicted last year that Obama would be a strong supporter of Israel. You had nothing, absolutely nothing to base it on and no evidence to back it up; now that the opposite seems clearer and … Read More >>
By Avi Shafran, on June 12th, 2009 Electroencephalographs measure electrical activity in the brain but nothing more. Who can possibly know what might be happening in the soul of a living human … Read More >>
By Guest Contributor, on June 10th, 2009 by Rabbi Dovid Landesman
I hate to always be the harbinger of discomforting tidings, but the older I get, the more pessimistic I become. Instead of being proud of the unprecedented growth of the olam ha-Torah, I find myself increasingly critical of its shortcomings and that is enormously disconcerting.
I can already hear those who will complain that my words should not be publicized because they represent rechilus about an entire community, an enormous sin. I can only respond to them that I am confident in this case that my words are meant completely l’toles and I will be as careful as possible to hide the identities of those involved.
Others may feel that I am blowing the problem way out of proportion, that it concerns only a insignificant minority of the subject population. To them I reply that none of has real statistics. Moreover, if what I say is only true of one small group of yeshiva students, it is still too much and must be dealt with.
This past Sunday I had occasion to attend a wedding. Let us ignore the wedding itself; my feelings about the lavishness of the spread can be left for another posting. Rather, … Read More >>
By Guest Contributor, on June 10th, 2009 by Rabbi Doron Beckerman
In a previous post, I alluded to the fact that the current implementation of Kollel has “significant drawbacks”. Not being the focus of that essay, it seems that that that statement was construed by some as a mere afterthought to a critique of broad ideological opposition to Kollel.
That was not my intent. As I clarified in the comment section, my criticism was aimed toward those who use the Rambam as a springboard for principled antagonism toward Kollel per se, which, in my opinion, is both factually incorrect and should be a catalyst for introspection. I fully recognize, though, that there are flaws. In our world of limited resources and widespread Kollel, there is a need for some sort of accountability, for a number of reasons.
Even if we were to turn a blind eye to extrinsic factors, there is a glaring deficiency in the present state of affairs – the detrimental effect of the lowering of standards within the Beis Medrash itself
To quote R’ Elya Weintraub (HaTekufah B’s’arat Eliyahu) -
When the matter of Kollel was a new idea, and there was a great sacrifice of the ways of the outside world, then being in the Beis Medrash was … Read More >>
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on June 8th, 2009 Obvious, you say.
Perhaps to us. But these are the words of Justice Antonin Scalia, in a dissent from the Court ruling on the legal need for a judge to recuse himself from a case involving a major donor to his election effort:
A Talmudic maxim instructs with respect to the Scripture: “Turn it over, and turn it over, for all is therein.” The Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Aboth, Ch. V, Mishnah 22 (I. Epstein ed. 1935). Divinely inspired text may contain the answers to all earthly questions, but the Due Process Clause most assuredly does not. The Court today continues its quixotic quest to right all wrongs and repair all imperfections through the Constitution. Alas, the quest cannot succeed—which is why some wrongs and imperfections have been called nonjusticiable. In the best of all possible worlds, should judges sometimes recuse even where the clear commands of our prior due process law do not require it? Undoubtedly. The relevant question, however, is whether we do more good than harm by seeking to correct this imperfection through expansion of our constitutional mandate in a manner ungoverned by any discernable rule. The answer is obvious
[Thanks to Dr. Irving Lebovics, Los Angeles]
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on June 5th, 2009 Sometimes one hears a story that does not, at first, seem so remarkable, but the more one reflects upon it, the more lessons one discovers.
A rosh yeshiva recently told me about an avreich who had come to discuss a problem with him. The avreich, an exemplary ba’al middos, described a chavrusah (study partner) who not only argued with everything he said, but did so in an extremely aggressive fashion, as if determined to destroy him.
On the one hand, the avreich did not want to lose the chavrusah, whom he said was the best he had ever had. On the other, the chavrusah’s aggressive stance was causing him a severe case of nerves.
By Avi Shafran, on June 5th, 2009 The awe-inspiring is all around us, if we care to look and think, and are not fooled into imagining that nature’s fantasticalness is a phantasm, the meaningless yield of random meetings of molecules. … Read More >>
|
|
