By Yaakov Menken, on July 31st, 2009 For what it’s worth, I have never met any of those ensnared in the money-laundering scandal in Deal, NJ and Brooklyn, NY. Nonetheless, it’s always embarrassing when you have a scandal involving several rabbis. Rabbis are supposed to do better, right?
Of course, you have the defenders coming forward and pointing out that they were trying to help their institutions rather than personal gain, or even doing a favor for a guy who’d fallen on hard times — only to learn the hard way that he was an FBI informant. All of that will come out in court, and it’s pretty unlikely that some of them will see any significant time behind bars.
But all that doesn’t matter. Rabbis are supposed to do better.
Miriam, Moshe’s sister, also did something wrong. She spoke badly of her brother, and she was punished for it. And the Medrash Tanchuma says that those sent to spy out the land of Israel, on behalf of the Jewish Nation, “saw and did not take Mussar.” They didn’t learn. We can either look at what happened and make clucking noises, or we can learn from events.
Less than two years ago, there was a similar scandal involving a group of … Read More >>
By Avi Shafran, on July 31st, 2009 Even Jews who are not religiously observant have history on the heart. … Read More >>
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on July 31st, 2009 As we turn to HKBH to be menachem us, it might be an appropriate time to reflect on our parallel responsibility. If you are impatient, skip the next paragraphs of reflection and take advantage of a guide to consoling the bereaved that you will want to save.
Certain features of Torah life win accolades from outsiders, even those not willing to take on a greater amount of the yoke of mitzvos. Shabbos is one of them. I have had more non-frum Jews to my Shabbos table than I could count. Many have been open and candid about their view of Torah-true life and practice. None has ever opined that Shabbos is an anachronism that makes no sense or has little appeal. The modal reaction is, “I never knew that Shabbos was so beautiful. It’s too late for me in this life, but if I am reincarnated, the next time around I will certainly be a Shabbos observer.”
Practices surrounding death and bereavment are viewed similarly. From the way the body is treated, to the participatory closing of the grave, to the simplicity of the plain pine box and shrouds, outsiders usually have nothing but praise.
The greatest praise is reserved for the … Read More >>
By Guest Contributor, on July 29th, 2009 by CJ Srulollowitz
Tisha B’Av is right around the corner and the days and weeks leading up to it are structured by Halachah to evoke a certain sense of pain, sorrow, and yearning for better times. This is a difficult task for most of us. In 21st century America, it’s hard to “get in the mood” for Tisha B’Av. We live, more or less, in comfort. Some of us live in great luxury.
I imagine it was easier to be mournful in Nazi Germany, or in Stalanist Russia, or during the time of pogroms, or the Crusades, or the Spanish Inquisition. Yes, then Jews could sit on the floor and cry out to G-d to redeem us and bring us to a better place and time.
But today? You must be joking.
It is difficult to legislate emotion. Therefore, the halachic strategy (as a good friend of mine terms it) legislates behavior, which, through proper analysis and understanding elicits, one hopes, the requisite emotion.
Many of us have gone without shaving and bathing these past nine days. We have shut off our radios and iPods. We have curtailed certain joyous activities. But while these behaviors may make us uncomfortable, we are still far from grief-stricken. … Read More >>
By Guest Contributor, on July 28th, 2009 by Moshe Hauer
Jewish life throughout the generations has been punctuated by upheaval, by trends and events that threatened the basic fabric of Jewish life and family. The symptoms of these trends could be observed in the significant number of defections of young Jewish men and women from the community. These young people were disenchanted with their Jewish life and environment and were as such easily attracted by the “greener pastures” of very different ideals and lifestyles. As a community, we always had the choice to view the cause for these defections individually, as the particular issue of those involved, and address them accordingly. Alternatively we could view the problem as one of the environment from which they came, that same environment in which their more successful peers were growing and thriving. Perhaps something needed to be done not only to address the disenchanted youth by outreach efforts, but to reach inside to refine and enhance the environment from which they were choosing to escape.
The Baal Shem Tov in the eighteenth century and Rav Yisroel Salanter in the nineteenth found themselves in such periods. Each saw their community’s young being drawn away from the traditions … Read More >>
By Guest Contributor, on July 28th, 2009 by Daniel Feldman
[Editor's Note: We continue to receive quality contributions answering our call for material regarding the recent tragedy that has befallen us]
It has been an awful week for the Jewish people, an awfulness compounded and aggravated by the fact that what has happened is known to anyone on the planet with a newspaper, a radio, or an internet connection. It is further exacerbated by the fact that the events of this past week, while extreme, are certainly not the only causes of embarrassment in the eyes of the world that the Jewish community has suffered recently.
While many facts are not yet known, and we can certainly hope and pray that the truth will prove to be less egregious than it seems, it is undeniable that, in the aggregate, we of the Jewish community have been given an overwhelming call to introspection and self-assessment, as in any case is called for with particular urgency as we approach Tishah B’Av.
The terrifyingly explicit relevance of the haftarah of Shabbos Chazon is one part of a thematic link that unifies the entire liturgy of this period. Linguistically, Chazal noted that the word Eichah – which is in literal translation an innocent “How?” but … Read More >>
By Guest Contributor, on July 27th, 2009 by Doron Beckerman
[YA - Some quite good and quite varied responses are coming in after my call for essays last week. I hope that they will add some clarity and nechamah, some focus to our avodah, and expose our readers to some new voices (as well as some familiar ones), including important rabbonim as well as motivated lay people. Baruch Hashem, we have no shortage of people who think, and people who can write.]
He who increases his fortune through usury and interest, gathers it on behalf of the gracious to the poor. (Mishlei 28:8)
On its face, this verse is a riddle – it doesn’t seem to teach the right lesson. Lending with interest is a very serious transgression, and one who does so is in denial of G-d and of the Exodus (Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah 160:2). Here, we’re told that the illicit funds end up in the hands of a charitable person or organization. Is this meant as a deterrent? Many, sadly, would consider it the best address for such income…
The Gemara (Bava Metzia 70b) educates us as to the true import of this dictum:
“What is meant by ‘the gracious to the poor’? Rav said – like … Read More >>
By Yaakov Menken, on July 26th, 2009 Several weeks ago, I wrote a short post providing an example of Israel’s media twisting the words of Charedi protesters, turning a quote from Torah and Halacha into a perverse call for the death of other Jews. The most frequent nay-saying comments said one of two things: “yes, but they did say such and so,” or “yes, but their behavior was abominable” — as if either justified the media’s bad habits — and why didn’t I criticize those?
It has become obvious by now that those “on the inside” in Israel, those with sufficient stature that their voice actually makes a difference, are coming forward and making the necessary and well-deserved statements of condemnation of the violent demonstrators. I did say their behavior was abominable and inexcusable, but also knew that Israel’s Torah leadership does not need the voices of American writers telling them what to do or the hooligans how to act [the idea of me sharing my opinion alongside that of Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel or Rav Moshe Shternbuch is frankly laughable]. As I expressed in a recent comment, I concur that there is internal soul-searching to be done, and not just at the individual but the … Read More >>
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on July 24th, 2009 With Meah Shearim resembling a war zone last week, and the top headline in every newspaper blaring, “Chareidim . . .,” I felt the need for a voice of sanity. I found him in the person of Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, one of the veteran leaders of the Eidah Hachareidis. Our conversation on Erev Shabbos left me feeling like a parched traveler who finds a desert oasis.
My talk with Rabbi Pappenheim was part of my efforts to get the inside scoop on the rioting in Meah Shearim over the arrest of a pregnant mother of four from the Toldos Aharon community on charges of having interfered with the medical treatment of her son. Even before I reached Rabbi Pappenheim, I had spent hours on the phone with various askanim who have been involved in negotiations with the police and welfare authorities. Each of them left me with an extremely positive feeling that our community has askanim of such mesirus nefesh and sophistication. They have built up relationships over the years that allow them to explain elements of the chareidi community to governmental authorities and the latter to the community.
A resident of Meah Shearim for seventy years, Rabbi Pappenheim founded Beit … Read More >>
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on July 24th, 2009 After every demonstration that turns violent in Jerusalem, there are inevitably a spate of frantic calls from American parents whose sons have been arrested at the demonstrations, sometimes after having been beaten badly by the Israeli police. And in almost every case, the story is the same: “My son just went to see what was happening out of curiosity, when the police jumped him.”
In most cases that is exactly what happened. Yet it is unfortunately not the case that every American bochur learning in Eretz Yisrael was innocently minding his own business when jumped by the police. Credible reports reaching those askanim who deal with these matters in recent weeks point to a leading role of at least some American bochurim in the recent demonstrations. Those demonstrations turned into riots, with stone throwing at police and burning garbage cans, which caused Meah Shearim to resemble a battle zone or downtown Newark circa 1964.
Even if the American bochurim present just wanted to see the “action,” rather than trigger it, their presence at the demonstrations would raise questions about their judgment, especially since every yeshiva in the vicinity posted signs warning talmidim against participation in the demonstrations. In addition, their arrests emphasize … Read More >>
By Jonathan Rosenblum, on July 24th, 2009 The lead paragraph of a front-page story in Monday’s Jerusalem Post describes “the entire haredi public as having formed “a united front . . . to support the Jerusalem mother who allegedly starved her three-year old boy.” That statement is grossly misleading, as the article itself makes clear.
It would be accurate to say that the haredi public is united in its resentment of being tarred with the violence in Meah Shearim. It is also true that few haredim can understand why a pregnant mother was jumped and shackled by police as she left a meeting with her social worker, and then held without bail for three days in the most primitive prison conditions. (The municipal social workers in Jerusalem’s Bukharian Quarter social service office were besides themselves over the police action.)
Hadassah Hospital could easily have started with a civil proceeding to prevent the mother from seeing her child, which is what the mother was told was going to happen before her visit to the social worker. The police used imprisonment to force the woman to confess or submit to psychiatric examination by a psychiatrist of their choice (rather than a neutral court-appointed psychiatrist). None of the conditions for a denial … Read More >>
By Avi Shafran, on July 24th, 2009 Destroying another’s property – or communal property or, for that matter, one’s own property – is also forbidden by the Torah. No exceptions have ever been made in halachic codes for instances where a government policy or action is not to one’s liking. … Read More >>
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on July 24th, 2009 מה נאמר ומה נצטדק
R. Chaim Volozhin writes that by right, we ought not daven for ourselves, but for צערה דשכינה, the pain of the Shechinah, as it were. Chazal pointedly describe the Shechinah as pained whenever we are pained. When we are anguished, we can be sure that the Shechinah is as well – and we daven for a change in circumstances so that the Shechinah need not experience, kivayachol, that anguish.
R. Dessler writes that this is a beautiful concept – but beyond our grasp. We can and should daven in good faith for our own needs, as they apply to us directly.
The events of Thursday, July 23rd may be exceptional. I believe that R. Dessler might concede that we can and should feel the pain of the Shechinah. We should be davening first and foremost that the terrible black mark on Torah Jews should not cause the Shechinah any more pain and embarrassment. The images shown on television screens and computer monitors around the globe today are a huge setback to the mission of Klal Yisrael to project to the world an image of what a mamleches kohanim v’goy kadosh is supposed to be. They empower all the … Read More >>
By Yaakov Menken, on July 19th, 2009 “In the Mix” is the name of a monthly column by Julie Wiener, carried by the NY Jewish Week. Ms. Wiener describes herself as “married to a lapsed Catholic — one who has encouraged me to become more involved in Jewish life.” But in her most recent column, she nonetheless grapples with her own discomfort at the thought of a Rabbi entering into a relationship exactly like her own. As she puts it, “there’s something that feels, well, not kosher to me about intermarried rabbis.”
I am tempted to joke that I have been gifted with prophecy for the following prediction, but it is no laughing matter. I do predict that the HUC will be ordaining intermarried Rabbis within the next decade — and my main concern, in terms of accuracy, is that I’m giving them too much time by half — but that just stems from common sense and seeing the writing on the wall. To my knowledge, there has yet to be a deviance from Jewish law and tradition concerning which “a debate has swirled in progressive Jewish circles” which has not become normative “progressive” Judaism sooner or later, and usually sooner.
While Ms. Wiener’s husband may be … Read More >>
By Guest Contributor, on July 19th, 2009 By Doron Beckerman
The tongue of the wise will approve of good sense, and the mouth of imbeciles will cause folly to flow. (Mishlei 15:2)
When I’m not writing pieces for Cross-Currents, I’m involved in face-to-face education. As my years in the field pile up, it is inevitable that I expand my repertoire beyond just knowing how to teach Torah, to developing techniques for dealing with the students who are less motivated. This lack of motivation can be attributed to various causes. One critical area of concern is general lack of belief in oneself as a valued person, as one who has the potential for greatness. This feeling is one of the primary indicators of an at-risk child.
It is well known that one of the basic lessons of education, for parents and teachers alike, is the necessity of positive reinforcement. Focusing only on the negative, while being blasẻ when something good happens, is often a recipe for bitterness and despondency.
There is an educational approach known as “The Nurtured Heart Initiative,” or “The Inner Wealth Initiative,” developed by Dr. Howard Glasser, that takes the above to the next level, inverting the equation altogether. The concept is that “difficult children seek intense relationships, … Read More >>
By Avi Shafran, on July 17th, 2009 The “Endlösung” – the “Final Solution” – was for “der Judenfrage” – “the Jewish Question.” There was no “Romani Question” or “Homosexual Question.” … Read More >>
By Guest Contributor, on July 17th, 2009 by Dovid Landesman
Reportedly, when the Munkatcher Rebbe, the Minchas Elazar zt”l, returned to Hungary after visiting with the Alfandri in Yerushalayim, his chassidim asked him: “Rebbe, is there anything new in Eretz Yisrael?”
He replied: “Baruch Hashem, nothing has changed. There was sinas chinam two thousand years ago and there is sinas chinam today!”
The gemara tells us that Bayis Sheni was destroyed because of sinas chinam, yet does not give us details as to what that means. We are left on our own to determine what qualifies as baseless hatred and what might constitute justified hatred. Perhaps we can shed some light on the question by examining the social conditions at the time of the second churban.
Klal Yisrael was factionalized and there was a great deal of active animosity between each of the sectors. Society included the remnants of the Hellenists who were allied completely with the Roman oppressors of Judea, determined not to be identified as Jewish. There were the Tziddukim who had created a different form of Judaism, loudly proclaiming that the tannaim had falsified historical Judaism with the introduction of all types of legislation meant to preserve the rabbinical power base. There were Isiyim who preached an extreme, … Read More >>
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on July 17th, 2009 [Warning to readers. If you believe that you have no valid reason to read details about approaches to halacha best described as kefirah, please go no further. This piece is not for you, and you will miss nothing by skipping it.]
The academic view of halachic literature that we discussed in an earlier post is just one of several competitors to traditional methods of approaching rabbinic texts. Two others should be understood by thinking Torah Jews. These deal with reaching halachic conclusions when the gemara, rishonim, and acharonim do indeed (unlike the kabbolas mitzvos issue above) yield different halachic conclusions. In the absence of a Sanhedrin, or a firm conclusion in a gemara, how are we supposed to sort things out and come to some sort of practical determination?
With much simplification, you can take hundreds of years of responsa literature and detect a modal methodology for dealing with halachically weighty issues. Roughly, an author will inventory earlier halachic literature for principles and sources that are relevant to a question. He will offer a tentative solution, based on some of them. Let’s assume that he came up with what he felt was a strong case based on Tosafos. … Read More >>
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on July 17th, 2009 Many of us here in the United States continue to have a hard time processing the protests in Yerushalayim. As we try to comprehend, we can note some positive signs.
The Mirrer Rosh Yeshiva – a long time Parkinson’s sufferer – rarely pens a letter in his own handwriting. He changed his practice, and posted a letter addressed to his entire yeshiva (not just the Americans as others reported) instructing that no one in the yeshiva position himself in the midst of a protest, and that there was no room for any exceptions, period.
Reports have it that Rav Moshe Sternbuch, hardly a stranger to the Eidah, has also spoken out against the protests. He is also quoted as saying that Hadassah personnel acted properly in alerting the police in regard to the cause célèbre that has started a second wave of protests. (A mother, a member of the Toldos Aharon community, stands accused of starving her son and was captured on hospital security cameras of purportedly tampering with his feeding tube. The case has been the lead item in secular Israeli media.)
Pinny Lipschutz’s job as apologist in Yated continues to get harder. He succeeds, … Read More >>
By Yaakov Menken, on July 13th, 2009 Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, has been appointed a Life Peer by the House of Lords Appointments Commission. A life peer is given the rank of Baron among British nobility, and a seat on the House of Lords.
Rabbi Dr. Immanuel Jakobovits zt”l, Rabbi Sacks’ predecessor as Chief Rabbi, was also given peerage during his tenure, but Rabbi Sacks’ nomination comes at a time when there’s a lot of anti-Israel agitation in Britain. The Jerusalem Post also says that the Chief Rabbi’s office is underscoring the fact that the appointment was an apolitical recommendation from the Lords Appointment Commission, rather than from PM Gordon Brown’s office (the PM and the Chief Rabbi are said to have a close relationship). The appointment is notable in its own right, but the time and the source both speak to British high esteem for Rabbi Sacks.
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