Rabbi Ilan Feldman’s piece continues to dominate in the popularity race of the new issue, both in terms of numbers of downloads, and in the responses come in. One reader, whose identity I do not know, offered a striking parallel from the works of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch. Klal Perspectives editor, Rabbi Dovid Goldman, was kind enough to scan it. It is delectable enough to present to our readership, and adds one more reason why I am proud to consider myself to some extent a Hirschian. It is from The Collected Writings, Vol.2, Kislev IV:

There is one other particular danger which is to be feared by a Jewish minority. It is what we would like to call a certain intellectual narrow-mindedness. This danger becomes especially acute the more closely a minority clings to its cause and the more anxious it is to preserve that cause. We have already pointed out that, by virtue of its weak position, a minority depends for its survival on whether it can further and foster within all its members the spirit of the cause it represents. In order to prevail, a minority must be wholly imbued with the truth for which it … Read More >>

The second volume of Klal Perspectives begins with an issue that examines kiruv: where it is, and where it is going. Some of us thought that this would be a change of pace topic, more upbeat, easily digestible, controvesy-free, and inherently upbeat. It did not quite turn out that way, which is probably a good thing.

Previous issues have sometimes hosted contributions that fairly jumped off the pages, and became platinum favorites. Faigie Twerski’s piece in the Winter 2012 issue, and Rabbi Moshe Weinberger’s in the Spring 2012 issue come to mind. If you are looking for such an article in this issue, you will probably want to immediately print out Rabbi Ilan Feldman’s article. Pass it around to family members, and make it the discussion centerpiece at your Shabbos table.

That is not to say that it will substitute for reading the rest of the issue. To the contrary. Rabbi Feldman’s piece will make the most sense after reading what kiruv professionals write about what they are doing and why. A foreward provides capsule summaries of the articles, to make it easier to decide on the order than you may want to read the rest … Read More >>

All men, claimed Heinrich Heine, the apostate German-Jewish poet, are either Jews or Greeks. For traditional Jews, the very essence of Chanukah is bound up in the struggle between those civilizations. An “art” exhibit in Sweden that utilizes the stolen ashes of Jews murdered at Majdanek helps make the choice easier for all decent human beings.

Chanukah celebrates the successful Jewish resistance to Hellenic culture. Defining the parameters of the clash has not been so easy. To some, Athens vs. Jerusalem meant human reason as opposed to Divine revelation. Matthew Arnold, the British poet and critic, saw Hebraism as concerned with conduct and obedience, especially consciousness of sin. Hellenism, on the other hand, saw things as they really are and celebrated spontaneity of consciousness. (“Hebraism and Hellenism,” 1869). Similarly, Nietzsche also pointed to the importance of the moral impulse. He remarked that the Greeks blame the gods; the Jews blame themselves.

Elsewhere, Arnold came up with what may be the money quote about the difference: Greece, he said, found holiness in beauty. Jews found the beauty of holiness.

The attitude of Chazal is perhaps best summed up by Rav Yehuda ha-Levi in Kuzari. Yavan, he said, bore flowers but … Read More >>

A menorah stands atop the yeshiva in Sderot. No ordinary menorah, it is fashioned out of pieces of rocket happily donated by the neighboring communities across the border in Gaza, delivered by airborne express. Attempts to decline the gift having failed, Israel had to resort to a strong return-to-sender message to put the service on hold.

The menorah, however, stands, and will do what it does best next week. Is its message confusing? Is it mixing metaphors, comparing two historical epochs that are fundamentally different? An enigmatic gemara may shed light on this question.

Shabbos 60A tells us about the ban on wearing a hobnailed sandal. Said sandal is held responsible for the tragic deaths of Jews hiding in a cave. Spotting the impression left in the ground by the shoe set off a panicked response, with many killed in the rush for the exit. The incident occurred on Shabbos; therefore the ban applied only to Shabbos.

The superficial understanding of the gemara does not completely satisfy. Sandals don’t kill; panic kills. Why ban the messenger? Isn’t such a ban far-fetched? And if it isn’t, shouldn’t it apply on any day, even if the tragic incident took place … Read More >>

You will not enjoy reading Mourning Under Glass, which is exactly why you should read it. It is not meant to be enjoyed, but to drag you in to where you really do not want to go. You will feel pain, be moved to tears, and have to think the “what if it would have happened to me” questions that we all suppress, lest we descend into madness. You should read it because you will learn things about people dealing with sudden tragedy and its aftermath that you will not learn elsewhere. If you read on, you will have little choice. Guilt will compel you to read the book, so long as a Jewish heart beats within you.

Mourning Under Glass: Reflections On A Son’s Murder chronicles the snuffing out of the life of a precious neshamah in an Arab terror attack, and a full year of his father’s coping with the aftermath. Avraham David Moses was one of the eight kedoshim to perish in the Mercaz HaRav terror attack massacre in Adar2008. Naftoli Moses, Avraham David’s father, takes us on a rare journey into the unthinkable, the baring of a soul still raw and wounded.

People often … Read More >>

We are at war. While I have always shied away from purely political posts on Cross-Currents, wartime has its own exigencies. Some of our readers will be hearing from friends and acquaintances critical of Israel’s actions. Some of us have already heard from them. Where is the parity? How do you justify inflicting so much pain and suffering in response to a few oversized firecrackers that only land on the “unpopulated South” of Israel (so claimed a major Muslim talking head in England), or rarely hit their target, or “only” killed three people ר”ל.

Yossi Klein Halevi is uniquely situated among Israeli commentators. His credentials and instincts belong to the left, which he once called home, while his years of living in Israel have moved his political sensibilities a bit further to the right. He is also a wonderful writer, and a traditional Jew. He understands the concerns and assumptions of those on the left, and addresses them effectively, which is something that many of us cannot or will not do.

While some of us may have good talking points with which to respond, I have seen nothing that comes close to the following article, from Friday’s Globe … Read More >>

Almost from the beginning, people spoke about matzah. Indeed, the special hand shmurah baked each year by Rav Shmuel Lazer Stern z”l might as well have been his signature statement with which he announced himself. Each year, he flew to New York to supervise a chaburah that baked them. He had his list of subscribers who seized them with alacrity, even though they cost significantly more than other shmurah. In time, the entire baking became a fund raiser for Tomchei Shabbos of Los Angeles, and the price rose again. Still, people beat a path to the warehouse door to purchase Shmuel Lazer’s matzah, some because of all the hidurim that he imposed on the baking, some because he found a way to make them so incredibly thin and light (typically eleven to a pound, rather than six to eight) that eating the requisite shiur at the seder became a joy, rather than a jaw-breaker.

Listening to hespedim last Sunday evening after his untimely petirah just a few hours before, you could have thought that the matzah was one of the significant accomplishments of Rav Shmuel Lazer’s career. You could only think that if you were among the hundreds … Read More >>

No matter how they cast their ballots, many in our community feel confusion, vulnerability and fear in the aftermath of the election. As committed Jews, all feelings of helplessness could and should help our davening. We can contemporize our tefilah directly from the morning’s headlines. Our doubts and anxieties can not only sharpen our focus and kavanah during davening, but we can calm our troubled spirits by reminding ourselves that we are never, ever left without loving assistance and the possibility of a Divine bailout. We can provide our own spiritual stimulus package.

I offer a few thoughts on how a frum Jew who reads and cares might approach the middle section of Shemonah Esrei, the berachos of bakashah/request. Not all the issues relate to the uncertainties of the next political cycle. I have tried to make this exercise as non-partisan as I know how.

אתה חונן לאדם דעת We are terrified by the number of decisions we have to make in our lives. So many things can go wrong. We fear making the wrong choices in the chinuch of our children. We struggle to allocate time properly between our professional lives and our duties to family. By placing … Read More >>

I cried watching this film.

Not just because it is about three daughters who choose to break with the chinuch they received from their parents, from the ways of the Torah. Not just because of the additional irony and tragedy that each one is the daughter of a major figure in the Israeli dati Leumi world. [Warning to potential viewers. The daughters dress at times like dropouts, not like their mothers.]

I cried because so much pain was visible and palpable, because it slides off the celluloid so easily that the viewer is left with no choice but to hold on to it.

It is a disturbing film, for all the questions it raises without answering them. How did it all come to pass? How widespread is the problem? Can it end differently? What possessed the parents to allow their pain and shame to become part of the public domain? Did they do it as a concession to their daughters, or did they hope for an even greater good? Could parents in the haredi world (where dropouts are no less prevalent) bare their souls the same way?

Many things did become clear. The parents were not … Read More >>

A tragedy of epic proportions perhaps lends itself to stories of heroism, courage and altruism. All the more so when Sandy’s after-effects mock the ability of time to begin the process of healing. The opportunities to exhibit selflessness continue, and so, apparently, do the generous responses of so many ordinary good people in New York and New Jersey.

Against a backdrop of general compassionate intercession, the reaction of the frum community sparkles. Here is a vignette that captures much of the age-old capacity of a connected and caring community taking care of its own, even while its doors are open to all others:

So the FEMA people are now going door-to-door asking people what issues they have. The guy said to me – how many people are staying here. I said we had 11 on Friday night. He said the FEMA people are just amazed that everyone In Lawrence who got their power back have families staying with them, some they don’t even know. He said the entire team is mesmerized at how the Jewish community is taking care of their downtrodden. I [Phil Rosen of Lawrence] showed him an email that is copied below. He asked me … Read More >>

What if women no longer took it for granted that marriage was a good thing? What if they had the freedom to choose whether they wanted a relationship, and for how long? What if women learned to subject matrimony to cost-benefit analyses, and reduced potential husbands to performers of discrete, defined tasks?

We are already there, according to some recent books – at least for women who can be financially independent. The only questions, really, are what new configurations the shifting relationships between the genders will take, and whether any of them will make women happy. All this and more in a review essay by Sandra Tsing Loh in the October issue of The Atlantic. As usual, Tsing Loh is cutting edge, brutally honest about herself, and her thinking, from a Torah perspective, tragically outrageous. As usual, her writing may be an excellent bellwether of cultural trends just a few exits ahead on the freeway, trends that will impact the way all of us think, unless we are sealed off hermetically from the greater surround.

Tsing Loh (TL) opens with a one-liner from The Times of London in 1868, in opposing property rights for married women: “The … Read More >>

It was a memorable speech, a moment of truth and clarity after the degredation of the human spirit through the unvarnished evil of Ahmadinejad. The Prime Minister’s presentation before the General Assembly touched on familiar themes: the millennia of continuous Jewish presence in the Land; the miracle of the return and the dividends it has brought mankind; the survival of the Jewish people while its former oppressors have vanished. (One wishes, of course, that he would have mentioned the name of G-d explicitly – as he has in the past.) He spoke with both passion and elegance.

On the other hand, we might wonder why many of us were so delighted and even excited by the address. Other than the red-line cartoon, there was nothing really new in any of his arguments. Why, then, were we so pleased?

One answer may come from a remarkable piece in Pachad Yitzchok (Yom Kippur, Maamar 9). Rav Hutner opines that a key line in parshas Haazinu should, at first glance, “rob us of our tranquility.” Concluding a relatively long section on the sins of Israel and the Divine wrath they will ignite, the pasuk (Devarim 32:26) says, “I have said ‘I … Read More >>

A monastery in Israel is desecrated, almost certainly by nationalist extremists. The Catholic Church turns the heat on whom? Haredim! Sadly, however, I can’t be as critical of the finger-pointers as I would like to be.

The doors of the Trappist monastery at Latrun were set on fire. Graffiti indicated a “price-tag” attack, and also used language about Jesus that I won’t publish. The Israeli reaction was swift and substantial, just as it had been after the recent near-killing of an Arab by a crowd of young Jews in Yerushalayim. The desecration was condemned by the Prime Minister, and others in the government. Chief Rabbi Metzger called it a “heinous deed.” The Internal Security minister did not hesitate to use the word “terror,” and announced the formation of a special police unit to combat it. Many people travelled to the monastery to personally apologize, including Rabbi Dov Lipman of Beit Shemesh, who took brush in hand to help scrub the offensive words from the walls.

Micky Rosenfeld of the National Police told CNN that it was a “criminal incident with nationalistic motives.” Public suspicions turned to a settlement that was recently evacuated forcibly. Yet members of that settlement … Read More >>

It was a moment that was, shall we say, biblical. G-d had made it back into the Democratic platform, in a way that would have pleased the ancient prophets.

The day before, the platform glaringly elided all references to G-d. It proclaimed strong support for Israel as a democratic and Jewish state – which was certainly welcome – but left out important pro-Israel statements that had been fixtures of the last two platforms, including asserting Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and labeling Hamas (the progeny of the Muslim Brotherhood now in power in Egypt) as a terrorist organization.

The omissions were noticed, and Democrats scrambled to explain, and later to restore some (but not all!) of language that had been included in the past.

The vote did not go as they anticipated. Listening to the playback, it was clear that leadership thought that the required two-thirds majority would be secured on a voice vote. Indeed, the call for ayes from those in favor of the measure was answered by strong chorus of voices.

But so was the call for nays. Taken by surprise, the session chairman tried twice more, hoping that the delegates had … Read More >>

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik’s invocation this evening at the Republican National Convention masterfully and elegantly highlighted themes and values that resonate with both Torah Jews and with a probable majority of Americans. In a brief two minutes, he credited G-d and faith for what is great about America. He spoke of a national mission and purpose, embracing the American exceptionalism that so many yearn to see restored. He left room to ask Divine assistance for those in the path of the weather system that threatens to engulf them.

He spoke with pride and confidence, as one who wished to join with all assembled in building a better society, not as a diffident outsider. Convention planners should be complimented for bypassing senior rabbis of other denominations (who grumbled about the choice in advance of the invocation) in favor of one who would have something of substance to say, and still not embarrass them. And Rabbi Soloveichik should be saluted for delivering a kiddush Hashem.

Most significant, however, was Rabbi Soloveichik’s sense of Jewish responsibility, in sharp contrast to a different group of rabbis. Rabbi Soloveichik, with so little time allocated to him, and with the eyes of the world … Read More >>

Several different strands are intertwined in trying to ties a noose around bris milah and shechitah on the Continent. They include classic anti-Semitism (which has lost its moral opprobrium), but are not limited to it. A member of Gert Wilder’s party supports a ban on shechita, even though Wilders himself is pro-Israel. The target is the Muslim community. General disdain for all religion also enters the picture. In any event, I had a rare opportunity to speak directly to the German people in an op-ed I coauthored with Rabbi Abraham Cooper, my colleague at the Simon Wiesenthal Center. It appeared in today’s edition, in German, in Die Zeit, which is the German equivalent of the New York Times. I have to admit feeling some self-satisfaction in being able to cite the gemara and R. Akiva to the German public.

The last time a Jewish couple celebrating the circumcision (brit milah) of their baby boy had reason to fear a knock at the door from a government agent, Joseph Stalin and his followers controlled the Soviet Union. Thankfully, 2012 Germany is not a Cold War dictatorship but a vibrant democracy, but the recent ruling by a judge in Cologne banning … Read More >>