Rabba bar bar Chana

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2010-12-15T13:22:00.002-05:00

the new blog is here

This blog is dead. Long live my new blog!

2010-08-31T10:32:00.002-04:00

I, Rabba bar bar Chana, have decided to stop blogging. However, there’s a new blogger on the scene who looks an awful lot like me. His name is Philo, and he blogs over at The Evolving Jew. Please take a look and add him to your blogroll.

Thanks and hope to see you there!

New blog

2010-08-29T17:24:00.002-04:00

I'm moving to a new blog, on WordPress, with a new name. I'm taking all my posts with me for continuity.

Details in a few days.

Boycott the Israeli Rabbanut

2010-08-02T10:35:00.000-04:00

Cross-posted on DovBear

The “who is a Jew” situation in Israel is getting preposterous. A granddaughter of holocaust survivors who wants to get married is being asked by the Rabbanut to provide 4 generations of ketubot on the maternal side to prove her Jewishness. And the Rotem bill, set to be taken up by the Knesset in the next few months, would solidify Rabbanut control over all conversions.

It's time to end the Rabbanut's power in Israel. We should call on all couples wishing to get married, even fully Orthodox ones with impeccable "Jewish" credentials, to get married in Cyprus in a civil ceremony, and then to have a private chuppah in Israel that has no Rabbanut sanction at all. All people should rise up and reject Rabbanut control over all their lifecycle events, not just when they fear being rejected by the Rabbanut.

Basically, we should call for a boycott of the Rabbanut. Do an end run around them to protest their abuse of power and increasingly extremist standards. By getting married within the rules of the Rabbanut, Modern Orthodox Israelis, for example, are helping perpetuate their Taliban-like regime.

Israel was founded as a haven for Jews and as a Jewish state. But why does that mean that the Israeli Rabbanut should have the right to dictate what Judaism is for everyone?

Let there be separation of shul and state in Israel. Israel can be a Jewish country in the sense that it provides a place for Jews and for Judaism to be safe. The Rabbanut can still exist, and be funded by the state, but only as an optional service for those who want it. And the heterodox movements should also have their own, optional streams within the Rabbanut.

Sadly, though, demographics in Israel make it likely the current official religious extremism will just get worse and worse.

What do you think of WordPress?

2010-07-28T15:30:00.002-04:00

I'm thinking of migrating to WordPress. It's just a much more elegant platform for blogging. Any thoughts or advice would be apreciated.

Is a "competent posek" competent in all areas?

2010-07-27T09:53:00.000-04:00

Cross-posted on DovBear

HSM recently posted on her blog about a problem between a lying mother and adult daughter. The subject matter is not relevant here, but suffice it to say that I agree with Hadassah and many of the commenters.

What I wanted to examine is the statement by several of the commenters that the daughter should bring her issue to a “competent posek”. This attitude is very common in the frum community, but I think it’s misplaced. Is it really the best thing to speak to a rav about the problem with her mother? Wouldn’t it make much more sense to ask a family counselor or psychologist? What makes a rav qualified to answer questions like this? He didn’t get training in dealing with such problems. He leaned gemara and shulchan aruch.

I would go to my rav for a question about whether a pot needs kashering. That’s his area of expertise. If I was having problems with a family member, I would ask advice from a therapist or family counselor. What’s behind the impulse to ask a rav about absolutely everything? I have a feeling that a lot of really bad decisions are being made because of this misplaced confidence in rabbanim.

Should we really be fasting?

2010-07-27T09:49:00.000-04:00

I originally posted this on DovBear a week ago. Sorry it's a little late on my own blog

In an article in Haaretz, Anshel Pfeffer claims that it’s wrong to still fast on Tisha B’Av:

“Tisha B'Av was never supposed to be an eternal day of mourning…

“For the first time in the history of the Jews, a majority of them are choosing not to live in an independent Jewish state in Zion - of their own free will…

“Mourning on the Ninth of Av in this day and age flies in the face of both secular Zionism and religious Zionism. It contradicts the right of Jews around the world to decide where they prefer to live. The exile is over, and the temple has not been rebuilt because we don't want to do it.”

He definitely has a point, (despite his silly implication in the article that we should remove the mosques from the Temple Mount.) It’s ironic to see people who live in fancy houses in Flatbush, travel to Israel on El Al several times a year, and have full religious freedoms in America begging Hashem to “end the terrible golus!”

But there’s another way of looking at it, and it’s the way I choose to look at many of our traditions. What we commemorate on Tisha B’Av isn’t just the loss of the Temple. It isn’t just a yearning for the Beit HaMikdash to be rebuilt and for sacrifices and a monarchy to be reinstituted. As DovBear pointed out a few days ago, how likely, practical, or even desirable does that really seem?

Instead, we fast because we’ve fasted for 2,000 years. We mourn for the very real people who died for being Jews throughout our long history. We fast because our parents, their parents, and their parents fasted. Looking at the tragedies of Judaism, we also gaze at our rich and varied history.

There’s a myopia sometimes, in the way that many frum people look at Judaism. It’s a focus on a history that ended 2,000 years ago, and a focus on a future that has not yet come. There’s a lack of internalizing the richness of our history and of how Judaism (and Jews) changed and evolved and grew for millennia. It’s as if all of that time was just a holding pattern and is only religiously significant in terms of what came before and the hope of what will come.

The exile created the Judaism we have today. It’s a far different religion, and we’re a far different people, than what we were in the year 70 AD. Part and parcel of that religion is fasting on Tisha B’Av. It’s not just about the destruction, it’s about who we are now, who we were 100, 500, and 1,000 years ago. The kinot we read aren’t just about the destruction. They’re also about the time they were written in, the beautiful poetry of Eliezer HaKalir in the early medieval period or the ones written in the wake of the tragedy of our times, the Shoah.

It’s also about hope. Anshel Pfeffer claims that since Eretz Yisrael is under Jewish control and we could rebuild the Temple should we choose, there’s no need to fast. But as I wrote above, yearning for the redemption isn’t just about the Temple and the monarchy. Instead, it’s about yearning and hoping for a world at peace, where war and hate are no more. It’s a vision that can transcend sectarian differences and is unencumbered by petty differences of theology. Instead it’s about hope.

And that’s why we fast.

Neglecting my own blog

2010-07-27T09:45:00.001-04:00

I’ve written a couple of posts on DovBear during the last 8 days, but contrary to my usual practice, I didn’t get around to cross-posting them on my own blog. I’ll do that today. Sorry if the Tisha B’Av one is a little late.

Who judged this award?! - Top 50 Judaism blogs

2010-07-16T10:21:00.002-04:00

The 2010 Top 50 Judaism Blogs

Who on earth judged this? It's a pretty terrible list. Yes, there are a few who deserve it, but there are some that have me utterly baffled. There's one blog especially which I think has no redeeming value and is one of the most juvenile and idiot blogs I've ever read. And that blogger doesn't even blog very often!

Nowhere on the site does it say who the judges are. Just this:

UPDATE July 19: Turns out that it was fake - I'm (obviously) not too surprised.

This award highlights the very best blogs about Judaism on the internet as selected by our judges, and is designed to thank the authors for their contribution toward the world wide web we all use & enjoy.

Awards candidates are selected using two methods:

- Audience nominations

- Our team of research associates scouring the web

After a list of candidates is compiled they are each scored by our panel of 5 judges. Each judge rates each blog across 20 different attributes providing it with a ‘subjective’ score. These ratings are combined into an aggregate, and the aggregates of the 5 judges are averaged to give the blog its final rating.

The ratings are then compared, and awards are given out to blogs in the 99% percentile (meaning the top 1% of blogs receive awards).

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Update July 19: Turns out it was fake:

http://badforshidduchim.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/whats-this/

Reform Judaism's 200th birthday

2010-07-14T15:27:00.002-04:00

Cross-posted on DovBear

Reform Judaism is something new under the sun. It isn’t “real” Judaism and will disappear as everyone in the movement assimilates, right?

Well, it’s worth noting that this Shabbat, the 17th of July, will mark the 200th anniversary of the first Reform Synagogue. It was established by Rabbi Israel Jacobson in Seesen, Germany. 200 years is hardly a flash in the pan, and shows that despite the hopes of many frum Jews, Reform Judaism is here to stay.

This may sound like I’m celebrating Reform Judaism, and in a sense I am. More on that below. But I certainly have a lot of issues with it as well, especially as it was practiced in the beginning. My biggest issue was the expunging of the any hint of yearning for Eretz Yisrael. Reform Judaism was meant to show loyalty to the country the Jews lied in. And the temple was decked out to look and feel like as much as possible like a church.

Over the years, American Reform Judaism softened their anti-Zionist stance, and today are usually strongly supportive of the state of Israel.

Interestingly, there was no gender egalitarianism in that first temple in Seesen. Men and women sat separately. Hmm – separate seating and anti-Zionism… was that first Reform temple charedi? (Yes, I’m aware that “Zionism” per se didn’t exist in 1810. I’m using term for convenience.)

One innovation that shocked and appalled more traditional Jews was the use of German to deliver the sermon, instead of the more traditional Yiddish so that the masses could understand. Today we think nothing of hearing a drasha in English in the most Charedi shuls.

And Reform certainly changed traditional Judaism in far larger ways as well. Opposition to Reform brought rapprochement between the Chassidim and Misnagdim and created a new movement called Orthodox Judaism. This wasn’t merely a gathering together under a new name, but a crystallizing of disparate practices and movements into one. Thus, in a sense, Reform Judaism preceeded (and created) Orthodox Judaism.

I still have problems with contemporary Reform Judaism. I think that a Judaism devoid of ritual is far poorer for it and loses much of its Jewish character. (Though ritual has been increasing in the movement in recent years.) But I still feel that there’s much to celebrate about the movement as well, as I mentioned above.

One common refrain among Orthodox Jews is that Reform Judaism has been a huge gateway to assimilation. That may be true, to a degree. But let’s pretend that Reform (or the other heterodox movements) didn’t exist. Do you really think that those 1.5 million American Jews that count themselves as Reform would have anything to do with Judaism at all today? It’s unlikely that they’d all be Orthodox. If anything, Reform has probably helped more Jews retain a Jewish identity than they’ve helped lose. That’s 1.5 million Jews who might have been lost to Judaism entirely. 1.5 million Jews who care about Israel. Yes, some of their Jewish identity may be superficial, but frankly, that could be said of some Jews in every movement.

So Happy 200th Birthday, Reform Judaism!

Failing the homeless

2010-07-12T10:39:00.000-04:00

Here's something I wrote on a discussion board this morning and felt was worth reproducing here:

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Homelessness is the biggest example in America today of how unfettered capitalism and the unregulated free market has failed the poor.

We have a huge surplus of housing in America today. And we have a huge group of people who need housing. Why can’t one problem solve the other? Because people raise the concept of the free market and private ownership to the level of a holy religion, and they resist any “tampering” of those market forces. Those market forces represent something intangible. It’s not like 1,000 years ago, when at least wealth could be counted in sheep or gold. Today it’s bank balances. And in most cases, the funds are electronic, or even anything you can hold in your hands. So because of some intangible concept of ownership and free markets, the conservatives (and most of the rest of us, frankly) are letting people starve and wander the streets.

Not to say that I don’t think capitalism is wrong. It’s the best system we have. Unfettered socialism has proven to be an even bigger failure. But there’s nothing wrong with having a healthy mix of the two. Some compassion for the poor and some redistribution of wealth in this country wouldn’t impoverish the rich. But it could certainly help the have-nots become at least have-a-littles.

Rabbi Ginzberg's article on Rabba Sarah Hurwitz

2010-07-01T15:22:00.002-04:00

Harry Maryles and DovBear have both put up posts today about Rabbi Aryeh Ginzberg’s article in the Five Towns Jewish Times in which he expresses his outrage at Rabba Sarah Hurwitz’s being invited to be a scholar in residence at a shul in the 5 towns area. Here’s some thoughts I had when reading the article.

From Rabbi Ginzberg’s article:

"In this case, I know many will not be pleased, some will even possibly be angry at me for stirring the pot. But I have been asked by one of the senior gedolei ha’dor, as well as by several of my distinguished colleagues, to bring to the attention of the general community the great bizayon haTorah, the degradation of the gedolei Torah, that took place in our community this past Shabbos."

Who is this super secret godol hador? Why can’t he be quoted? This is what’s sickening about the whole “daas torah” system. People are expected to faint in respect when even an anonymous “godol hador” is referenced. It’s absolutely ridiculous. And who are the “distinguished colleagues”? Why can’t they be named? I guess it’s good enough to say that they’re distinguished.

"[This article has been reviewed and approved by several other community rabbanim as well, whose names will be available from the editor upon request.]"

OK, so it’s nice that the names are available upon request. Why can’t they just be mentioned in the article? What are they all afraid of? If I wasn’t at work, I’d call up the editor right now. Can someone reading this undertake that?

"one maverick individual, a rabbi from Riverdale"

Is this along the same lines? We all know he’s referring to Rabbi Avi Weiss. Is there some fear that by saying his name he’ll legitimize Rabbi Weiss? Maybe this way he doesn’t have to capitalize “rabbi”.

"This unified call for condemnation of the breach of tzniyus and mesorah was unprecedented in that similar calls were heard from the Rabbinical Council of America (albeit in different words) and from the roshei yeshiva of Yeshiva University’s Rav Yitzchak Elchanan Seminary, led by the gaon and posek Rav Herschel Schachter, shlita."

See! I, Rabbi Ginzberg, bring in Rabbi Schachter, and call him a gaon (shlita!) in a brazen attempt to sway what I naively think is the modern orthodox world.

"The unprecedented public outcry at this breach in mesoras Yisrael that was heard from every Orthodox organization, including the National Council of Young Israel"

Another organization that R Ginzberg seems to think is Modern Orthodox, so drags in to bolster his case.

"Those words sent a loud and clear message to all who heard them: the unified words of our gedolei Torah and distinguished rabbonim mean absolutely nothing. The concept of da’as Torah, emunas chachamim, and kavod for talmidei chachamim are all ancient ideas that are to be tossed to the side, along with our ancient mesorah, all for the sake of feminism and perceived equality."

Right, deference should be given to a group of old, out of touch men who have no clue what it going on in the real world and want to just protect some idealized cloistered false version of the shtetl. Meanwhile, any rabbi who does support the Maharat program is automatically disqualified from being one of the “distinguished rabbonim”. Kind of a catch-22, no?

"Several months ago, when this issue came to the forefront and the gedolim all spoke in a unified voice as to the dangers that this brings to our community, some took a different position and publicly attacked the position of the gedolei Yisrael."

Who decided that those people (still unnamed) are the “gedolei yisroel”?

"I want to emphasize a thousandfold and to be very clear that this has absolutely nothing to do with the intellectual capacity or even book knowledge of Ms. Hurwitz (whom I never met). She may be proficient in the entire Shach and Taz (which I have no way of knowing, yet I am highly doubtful)."

Notice that in the same paragraph in which he supposedly is trying to show his fairness to Rabba Hurwitz, he also insults her and all women by saying that he’s “highly doubtful” of her torah knowledge. On what basis?

"Unfortunately, with my Rebbe’s passing over two years ago, I don’t have him to consult with on these types of issues."

So I have to try to think for myself, a novel concept to me.

It all goes back to the disengagement

2010-06-04T14:09:00.001-04:00

When Israel evacuated the Jewish communities in Gaza in 2005, withdrawing the army at the same time was big mistake. Sharon was right about the disengagement in theory. But the current mess, and the flotilla incident, would look very different had the army stayed and left in a piecemeal fashion, over time, contingent on peaceful conditions.
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Not the first flotilla - some recent history

2010-06-01T14:49:00.001-04:00

Some history to think about when considering the current flotilla incident:

Ehud Olmert was faced with an extremely similar situation:

Israel had told the activists to keep their boats away but ultimately decided to allow them to land, apparently to prevent a potentially more damaging public relations drama.

Arye Mekel, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the decision was made “to avoid the provocation they had planned at high sea,” and because the Israeli authorities knew exactly who was on board and what cargo they were carrying.

Bibi wasn't nearly as diplomatic in 2009. But to be fair, he probably expected this interception to go as well as the last one, with no loss of life:

Nineteen foreign activists of the pro-Palestinian Free Gaza Movement were being held in Israel awaiting deportation on Thursday, two days after the Israeli Navy seized control of their boat off Gaza.

A former United States Representative, Cynthia McKinney, and an Irish peace activist and Nobel laureate, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, were among those being held. Two additional Israeli activists were released without being charged on Wednesday, according to the group.

The Free Gaza Movement and other campaigners have sailed several boats to Gaza in the last year, saying they wanted to bring humanitarian aid and challenging the Israeli blockade. Israel has let some boats reach the coastal strip and forced others to turn back at sea.

Adam Shapiro's lies about the flotilla

2010-06-01T09:15:00.002-04:00

I just heard Adam Shapiro (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Shapiro) on the radio, saying that his wife, Huwaida Arraf, was on board the flotilla. According to Shapiro, the Israeli troops surrounded the ships. They boarded the first ship by descending from a helicopter, and unprovoked, started shooting at and killing the civilians below. The civilians only acted in self-defense.

Obviously, this is untrue, even were it not coming from a notorious Palestinian mouthpiece like Shapiro.

Netanyahu's version, which I'm obviously much more inclined to believe, is that they dealt with 5 ships peacefully, and as they were boarding the last ship, they were attacked.

The only point of agreement is that the Israeli soldiers were boarding a ship by helicopter, and there was some kind of violence between the parties.

I really hope that the Israeli version of events will be fully borne out. Obviously, it's definitely much closer to the truth than the Palestinian version, and will probably turn out to be the complete truth.

But Shapiro and his ilk are already spreading their lies, and I fear that as usual, those lies will take hold as the accepted version of events.

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The luxury of atheism

2010-05-31T21:11:00.000-04:00

This is the first era that has the luxury of atheism. Life was too short, with widespread cruelty, and early death too pervasive in earlier times. Life would have been unbearable without a belief in the divine and in some overarching purpose.

(No, I'm not an atheist. But I have a secret admiration for principled [a.k.a. thinking and non contemptuous] atheists.)

LOST finale review

2010-05-26T14:41:00.001-04:00

I’m a huge fan of Lost. This is my reaction to the series finale, which I watched on Monday night. I couldn’t watch it on Sunday, so I maintained a news blackout on myself the whole day Monday so the ending wouldn’t be spoiled.

First of all, I have to say that the ending was deeply emotionally satisfying for me. I didn’t feel disappointed or cheated out of anything. After further reflection, I wish some more things would have been answered, but I never expected all the mysteries to be explained.

Here’s what I wrote to some friends right after watching the finale. Forgive the shorthand:

---------------------------------

first impressions

the couldn't explain everything, too many details, etc, so went for deeply emotional ending instead. It worked. Very emotionally satisfying if very poignant,

miles can hear the dead's last thoughts

hurley chats up the dead

but it turns out that Desmond's really the one who can connect with the dead, since the whole sideways universe was a waiting room for the dead

in any case, what does reality really mean? What's real? The whole thing was just a TV show, so in some ways, sideways universe just as real.

I liked that it gives us space to imagine what the rest of their lives would have been like in real life (for those who lived):

Jack dies on the Island

Hurley & Ben spend years protecting the island then eventually die

They hopefully send Desmond home to Penny

Kate brings Claire home to Aaron & she raises him

Maybe Kate & Sawyer have a life together, since they both lost their main loves.

Kate says "I missed you so much" to Jack. Maybe means she died an old woman and now remembers it all & missed him her whole life.

Maybe it's not some standard afterlife, but is instead the light on the island. They're all inside the light somehow.

Leaves us a lot of space to create our own stories for the characters.

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Upon reflection, yes, there were a lot of dead ends that weren’t cleared up. There were storylines, like the temple, which were a pointless diversion. But that still doesn’t spoil the amazing feeling I had after watching the end. Jack dying on the island, happy to have fulfilled his purpose.

I’ve been reading a lot of reviews and comments about the finale online, and it amazes me how many people don’t get it. So many people seem to think that the ending meant that they all died in the crash initially and the whole story, of all 6 seasons, was some sort of purgatory.

It seems obvious to me that what happened on the island, happened. As Jack says, “What happened, happened.” The only part where they’re all dead is in the sideways universe, only introduced in season 6. If they had all died in the plane crash, why would Christian (Jack’s dad) say (paraphrased – I don’t have a transcript) “some died before you, some long after you”, and, explaining why they created the sideways universe together “the time you spent with each other was the most significant of your lives”. If they all died in the crash, they’d have been strangers. What was significant about sitting in cramped seats and eating crappy food together for a few hours? It obviously means the time on the island.

So all you Lost fans out there – what did you think?

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Update May 26, 3:25 pm:

I may keep adding to this post as ideas occur to me, especially ideas about explaining some of the mysteries. Here's the first:

Where did the numbers come from? (4 8 15 16 23 42)

They came from themselves, by way of Hurley. He won the lottery with them. He eventually becomes the new Jacob. Jacob had unexplained powers related to time & space. Hurley subsequently had the same powers. He wove those numbers into the fabric of the past of the island and the people related to it. So the numbers originated with themselves, sort of a mobius strip.

Why can't stores give accurate erev shabbat hours?

2010-04-27T12:58:00.001-04:00

In the past 2 weeks, I've encountered 2 kosher restaurants, one a sushi place, and one a pizza parlor, that closed early on Friday.

In both cases, the website (and in the case of the pizza parlor, a sign on the door as well,) clearly stated that they closed on Friday 2 hours before Shabbat. So why were they already closed a good 4 or 5 hours before candelighting?

Not a big deal in the scheme of things, but annoying nonetheless. How hard is it to write on the website: "please call before coming on Fridays to verify hours"??

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Happy Earth Day - we've come a long way, but there's still a long way to go

2010-04-22T10:47:00.000-04:00

There’s a lot to celebrate since the birth of the modern environmental movement some 45 years ago.

40 years ago, raw sewage and industrial waste was being pumped directly into rivers. Acid rain was falling. Smog blanketed most big cites. Forests were being cut down at an accelerating rate. Toxins were everywhere.

It was much easier for people to get involved. They saw the problems at their doorsteps.

40 years later, the rivers of the US are mostly clear, with abundant fish and wildlife in and around them. Acid rain? That’s a term many who were born past the 70’s know only from history class. Cities have much cleaner air. In LA there's still smog, but you can actually see the valley. Forests are still being cut down too fast, but at least in the US, clear cutting has slowed dramatically, and sustainable logging is growing, with new trees being planted whenever one is cut down.

The most often cited environmental problem today is that of climate change. But that’s something most people don’t see on a daily basis. It’s doesn’t prompt a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) response. And the skepticism of climate change is greater than ever, bolstered by overblown and inaccurately reported stories like “climate gate”.

How do we get back to that environmentalist enthusiasm and sense of urgency, the kind that prompted Republicans like Richard Nixon to sign major pieces of legislation like the Clean Water Act and extension of the Clean Air Act?

I’m not sure, but in the meantime, it’s important to remember what has been accomplished. But we have a long way to go.

Yom Hazikaron LaShoah VeLaGvura

2010-04-12T21:24:00.001-04:00

Over on DovBear, there's a discussion going on about whether having Yom HaShoah in Nissan is appropriate and possible reasons Charedim do not commemorate it. Rafi G relates the reason his Rav opposes commemorating it. According to his Rav, it's inappropriate that Yom HaShoah was established on the date of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, because that's only remembering those who died fighting back instead of those who submitted to the will of Hashem and became Kedoshim.

Here's what I wrote in response:

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Think of the reality of when Yom HaShoah was established. Less than a decade before, over 1/3 of our people had been murdered and almost the entirety of European Jewish life had been destroyed.

The fact that Jews were able to get up and stand proud, the fact that they established a Jewish state in their ancient homeland, and the fact that they didn't want to just remember their friends, relatives, and communities as martyrs but also as fighters is something to be celebrated.

Could you imagine telling those hundreds of thousands of survivors, in Israel, in the US, and elsewhere that their loved ones were only martyrs? They needed something to believe in, to hold on to. Incorporating the Warsaw ghetto uprising into Yom HaShoah gave them that.

In memory of the dead, and in respect for those who went through hell and survived, I think it is utterly approriate to commemorate Yom HaShoah as it was established, as Yom Hazikaron LaShoah VeLaGvura.

My approach to Kitniyot

2010-03-25T08:53:00.000-04:00

Cross-posted on DovBear

When I was younger, especially after I became a vegetarian at the age of 21, I railed against the utter nonsense of the Ashkenazi prohibition of eating kitniyot on Pesach. It seemed like unnecessary torture, especially today when the danger of grains ending up mixed if far less likely. Why couldn’t I have my tofu? Would wheat really end up in my rice, when cereals today are grown as monoculture crops (not near other grains) and sold in packages? It seemed to me to be ridiculous and a burden. The only reason I stuck with it was habit and family.

Over the last decade or so, my approach to Judaism has undergone somewhat of a sea change, and that has impacted how I view the issue of kitniyot. I now view Judaism not as a fixed revelation in time that established the form of Judaism we must follow forever, but as an evolving process, where halachot changed and developed over the past three millenia. The reasons for this have to do with study of history, archaeology, biblical criticism, and a critical analysis of Rabbinical literature. The specific issues are another post, and in any case have been discussed in detail on many, many blogs. This post is just to examine how this approach has changed my attitude to minhagim like kitniyot.

With this approach to Judaism, I don’t keep Torah and mitzvot just because I might feel it was part of a divine revelation in ancient times. I keep it because of the significance of my ancestors, of many different generations and eras, having developed these laws in their attempt to become closer to Hashem. Because the very history of these developments is significant and meaningful to my Judaism. So while the laws of Shabbat are meaningful to me, so are the Rabbinical decrees of the Talmud. And so is cherem Rebbeinu Gershom. And so is the prohibition of kitnoyot, which has been with Ashkenazi Jews for the greater part of a millennium. It’s not meaningful to me because of the minute permutations of the law. It’s meaningful to me because my grandparents, and their grandparents, and their grandparents, kept these halachot.

So with that approach, keeping the prohibition of kitniyot is honoring the evolving nature of halacha within Judaism. It’s acknowledging that, unlike the fundamentalist school’s belief, halacha has changed over time and that’s part of the Judaism I love.

However, for the same reason, recent additions to the list of kitniyot, and added stringencies, have no place in keeping the halacha. It’s honoring my ancestors and my conception of Judaism to avoid eating what they avoided 500, 300, or 100 years ago. It’s not honoring them, and it’s not in the spirit of this view of halacha, to suddenly declare that some new seed or vegetable that my grandparents would have eaten is suddenly prohibited on Pesach. If they could use peanut oil (or even peanuts), why will no hechsher organization give Pesach certification to it today? And certainly, there should be no problem with Quinoa. There is nothing religiously pious about adding chumrot that no one kept 100 years ago.

“Rav Moshe Feinstein zt’l (Igros Moshe, O.D. III:63) is of the opinion that peanuts are not Kitniyos. He reasons that Kitniyos is not a Halacha (official law) but a minhag (custom). While Minhagim often have the force of Halacha, Rav Moshe argues that the Minhag cannot be extended beyond what was actually included in the custom.”

(From Kashrut.com - Kitniyos in the Modern World by Rabbi Zushe Yosef Blech)

It’s interesting to note that my rationalist and critical approach to Judaism (though fundamentalists will call it a skeptical approach) has caused me to be more favorably disposed to minhagim, not less, and to find more meaning in keeping them.

So the bottom line is, I now can enjoy and feel I’m doing something meaningful by avoiding kitniyot on Pesach. Yes, it’s frustrating, but I’ll eat protein-rich vegetables like asparagus (yes, the tips too) and feel good about connecting with a tradition that goes back many, many generations. As long as they don’t try to take away my quinoa!

Can prayers time travel?

2010-03-15T17:01:00.000-04:00

Cross-posted on DovBear

This is a rather esoteric question that doesn’t have a “real” answer, (and the basis of the question itself is a bit unrealistic) but is still something interesting to think about.

The other day, I was cleaning off my desk at home in advance of Pesach. (Yes, I’ve eaten at my desk.) While going through papers, I came across a scribbled note in my handwriting that read “Zalman ben Sara Chana” obviously written to remind myself to say tehillim for the person for a refuah shelema.

I have no idea when I wrote the note, but judging by the pile of mail it was in, it was sometime in past few months. I also have no idea who the person is. Someone must have asked me to say tehillim for this Zalman, or perhaps I saw it in an email. Either way, I obviously intended to say tehillim for him. But did I ever do so? It was lost on my desk, so there’s a fair chance I never did get to daven for his recovery.

For all I know, he may have passed away in the meantime, or, hopefully, had a full recovery. So the tefillot may no longer be needed. But just in case, I decided to say a perek of tehillim anyhow in his name.

Here’s the esoteric part. Since I don’t know what happened to Zalman, and Hashem isn’t bound by time, can my tefillot somehow zoom back in time to when it was needed and help Zalman then? Would my prayers be added to all the others who davened for him several months ago and have an effect in the past? In effect, can tefilla time travel?

Think of it like quantum mechanics. In quantum mechanics, a particle’s state isn’t fixed until we observe it. In Erwin Schrödinger’s famous experiment, a cat in a box is neither alive nor dead (based on the poison released in the box depending on a quantum particle’s possible state). According to the weird rules of quantum physics, the cat is only fixed into its state of being alive or dead when we open the box and see it. So in a sense, the past only becomes fixed when we know what happened. Until then, either possibility is real.

So in Zalman’s case, the fact that I don’t know what happened to him can, in effect, make the possibility of his full recovery several months ago a real possibility. His past, at least from my own perspective, is not fixed. And as long as his state of health isn’t fixed, my prayers can still have an effect.

As I wrote above, there’s no real answer, but it’s an interesting way to think about it, and it feels good to daven for someone feeling that my prayers can still make a difference even after the fact.

So what do you think – can tefilla time travel?

Great line from The Righteous Rasha

2010-02-15T10:23:00.000-05:00

Awesome quote from Tova's interview over at Daas Hedyot:

"I can't relate much to the men of TaNaCh, though, as most of them were polygamists on power trips"

Not that I necessarily fully agree with the sentiment, but it's a great & brilliantly succinct observation nonetheless!

Backtracking on "Don't Ask Don't Tell" repeal

2010-02-14T16:48:00.001-05:00

Cross-posted on DovBear

This is such bull****. According to this Associated Press article, despite the public progress made on the issue in recent weeks, a repeal of DADT is probably years away.

This is an utterly discriminatory policy, with no moral or practical basis whatsoever. It's about blatant homophobia, plain & simple. It's not like we're discussing gay marriage here. It's about witch hunting soldiers simply because of the sexual attractions they have. Maybe the military should also question soldiers about what sexual positions they prefer? Or how about what fetishes they have? Maybe any soldier that doesn't engage in plain vanilla missionary position sex isn't fit to be a soldier! What the hell does a soldier's sexual orientation have to do with his or her ability to serve?

"The protracted time line is about more than giving military leaders time to assess the impact on troops and put new rules in place. The multiyear process also is a strategic way of getting troops used to the idea before they have to accept change. Politically, the time line puts off congressional debate over lifting the ban until after elections this fall."

The only line in that paragraph that has the ring of truth is the final one. It's about politicians never having the courage to fight for what's right, always worrying about what's going to get them reelected.

I'm including President Obama in that assessment. He made a promise to repeal DADT. And he reiterated it in the State of the Union address last month. As the Commander in Chief, Obama could easily sign a stop-loss measure that effectively ends the policy till it's repealed legislatively. But he doesn't seem to have the political courage to do so. Shame on you, Mr President!

And as for assessing the policy and the effect that it will have on troops, what are we dealing with here, kindergarten? Where we have to be very careful how hearts & minds will be affected? These are soldiers, who follow orders! They're sent into wars they may not agree with, but they go anyway. Do we conduct a "multiyear process" before issuing those orders, to see how the soldiers will feel about it?

This is about bigotry, pure & simple.

A Scott Brown win: Good for health care reform?

2010-01-19T12:44:00.000-05:00

In the face of a possible (though once unthinkable) US Senate win by Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts today against Democrat Martha Coakley, Democrats have begun scrambling and racing against the clock to save health care reform.

In the event that he wins, Brown has promised, as the 41st Republican senator, to support a filibuster that would derail the bill. With no votes to spare, that would effectively mean the end of all the work of the past year to produce some version of health insurance reform. Right now, the two bills, one passed by the House and one passed by the Senate, are in conference committee. Whatever results from merging the two bills will need to be passed again by both the House and the Senate. Without 60 votes in the Senate, the bill will surely fail. And with Republicans united against any version of the bill, the Democrats will only be able to muster 59 votes at most.

So some Democrats have come up with a couple of contingency plans:

1) Pass the Senate’s version of the bill in the house with no changes or compromises, discarding the House version entirely. While House Democrats aren’t exactly thrilled with this idea, it would avoid the need for another Senate vote. The original vote there would suffice.

2) Pass the bill really quickly before Brown’s win is certified, which may take a couple of weeks. The conference committee would have to produce a final bill in record time to take advantage of the current 60 vote Democratic Senate majority.

In either case, there would be a sense of tremendous urgency. The bill would be passed quickly and be sent to Obama for signing. There would be a lot of frustrated lawmakers out there and even more frustrated citizens, but they’d prefer half a loaf to none.

Whatever the flaws of the health care bill, and they are many, the basics are still the same. It would protect consumers from most of the current abuses by insurance companies, and would extend health coverage to tens of millions of Americans. It’s important not to let that get away.

So in the event that Brown wins, I predict passage of a bill within a few of weeks.

But what if Brown loses and Democrat Martha Coakley wins?

The Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, not to mention the Obama administration, breathe a sigh of relief. Then they get back to the conference committee, to try to hammer out all the compromises between two pieces of legislation that barely passed their respective chambers. Squabbling ensues and the resolution of the committee drags on and on. Eventually they come up with something not really any better than what they have now. But by that time it’s March or April and Blue Dog Democrats, in the election season, begin to drop off supporting the bill. And instead of losing just the senate, the bill might not even be able to pass the House. And after the election, the Democrats lose even more seats, ensuring that the dream of health care reform is dead for the time being. And consumers are left with more of the same, of increasing premiums, of denial of coverage as a routine matter, and of having their tax dollars go towards providing health care to millions of uninsured.

So which scenario is better?

That’s why a Scott Brown win today might guarantee passage of health care reform.

Earthquake in Haiti - the Jewish connection

2010-01-13T10:29:00.002-05:00

Cross-posted on DovBear

Actually, there isn't really much of a Jewish connection. Port-au-Prince doesn't even have a Chabad house. (I think the nearest one is in the Dominican Republic.)

But as Jews, we should all be thinking about this horrible tragedy affecting fellow human beings. Unfortunately, a look at my blogroll this morning revealed no posts on the Jblogosphere about the earthquake. So I figured I'd put one up here. There's not much that I can add to the news, except to urge everyone to give tzedaka to relief organizations helping out there. And if you feel more comfortable giving to a Jewish organization, and find one that is helping out in Haiti, please post that information in the comments so others can give too.

And for those of you who need a Jewish/Israeli connection, see this article. Israel is sending relief workers to Haiti, and several Israelis are missing. Also see this history of Jews in Haiti.

2010-01-04T15:24:00.000-05:00

Cross-posted on DovBear

According to an article in the New York Times:

Israel’s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a major access highway to Jerusalem running through the occupied West Bank could no longer be closed to most Palestinian traffic.

As usual, when it comes to these issues, I’m of two minds. On the one hand, I’m concerned for the safety of settlers, including members of my immediate family, who regularly travel the roads over the green line. On the other hand, as always, I feel tremendous pride that the Israeli Supreme Court stands up for civil rights.

But I’m not surprised by this predictable reaction:

Israeli settler leaders expressed alarm at the court’s decision, saying it would endanger Jewish travelers. They charged that the justices “never missed an opportunity to blame Jews for racism and provide Arabs with convenient conditions for the next terror attack.”

Is the ideal of democracy not one that Israeli citizens, of any stripe, hold dear? The refusal of the right wing in Israel to even acknowledge civil rights of Palestinians is something that is unsurprising, given what they’ve endured, but unfortunate nonetheless. But imagine how refreshing it would be if we’d seen this instead:

Israeli settler leaders expressed concern at the court’s decision, saying it might endanger Jewish travelers. They said that the justices “while making a valid point about civil rights of all residents of Yesha, may not be fully taking into account the safety of Jewish travelers. If the decision does stand, we hope to work together with the army and the Palestinian Authority to ensure safety and fairness for all who will use the road.”

Comments on DovBear

Commenting advice, please!

2009-12-22T17:43:00.000-05:00

So it looks like Haloscan is going bye-bye. I've seen Echo, the new system that Haloscan's parent company, JS-Kit, is promoting as a replacement, on several other blogs. I initially liked the look, but it has too many negatives.

I'm thinking of going back to Blogger comments. Simple & straightforward.

Is there any way to migrate all my old Haloscan comments to Blogger comments? Or will my old Haloscan comments stay where they are for old posts?

Tropper's an easy opponent

2009-12-21T22:55:00.000-05:00

Cross-posted on DovBear

The JBlogosphere for the last week has been obsessed with the Tropper scandal. And there’s no doubt (assuming the allegations and tapes are real) that the revelations are disgusting and shocking, exposing Tropper for a complete and utter hypocrite and fraud. After all the book banning, conversion revocation, and strong-arming of the RCA into capitulating to the Israeli Rabanut standards, there’s something satisfying in seeing that it’s all fake, that he’s a disgusting excuse for a human being.

But the thing is, for every Tropper out there, there are thousands of sincere Charedi individuals who are just as sickened as anybody by his behavior. They are just as shocked and appalled. But that doesn’t mean that they’ll turn their backs on the hashkafa that Tropper espoused. They still believe that conversion should be according to the strictest Charedi standards. They still feel that wearing only skirts, covering hair and sending kids to approved yeshivas are among the minimum criteria for conversion. They still believe that the world is exactly 5,770 years old and that books even hinting otherwise should be banned.

And those sincere people aren’t just in the super-insular Chassidic communities. The vast majority of the Yeshivish community, even in the US, agrees with these fundamentalist notions. Flatbush and Monsey are chock full of them.

So ultimately, it’s not the ideas of a Leib Tropper that need to be opposed. Self-destruction of hypocrite perverts takes care of that. But the hundreds of thousands of Charedim, (whose numbers keep growing despite an increasing rate of “dropouts”) are not so easily opposed. There’s no dirt on most of these people, no hypocrisy waiting to come to light. They’re sincere people, generally kind and generous too, who simply believe deeply in a fundamentalist version of Judaism.

So how do those of us with a more open approach combat their increasing influence in all sectors of public Orthodox life?

Comments over on DovBear

First they came for the Conservative & Reform

2009-12-16T14:35:00.002-05:00

Many ae familiar with Martin Niemöller's famous poem about the passivity of the German intellectuals in the face of the Nazi's rise:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.

There seems to be tremendous outrage this week at Rabbi Malkiel Kotler's alleged statement comparing Modern Orthodox Jews to Esav. But there was previously very little concern about such hate being preached by Charedim against Conservative & Reform.

Harry Maryles writes:

How in Heaven's name does any Jew, let alone a respected Rosh Yeshiva of the largest Yeshivos justify preaching hate? That is exactly what he and others like him do when they say things like this. What is it that makes modern Orthodox Jews a bunch of Esavs - that have to be fought like Conservative and Reform Jews? How can anyone condemn God fearing Jews who observe Torah and Mitzvos and believe in Torah Min HaShamyim ? What does he gain with this?

How about writing:

What is it that makes Conservative and Reform Jews a bunch of Esavs - that have to be fought like Christians and Muslims?

Tweets 11/26 - 12/12

2009-12-13T11:12:00.003-05:00

So I've been on Twitter for a few weeks. Still not used to it & having a hard time trying to figure out how to follow conversations, so it's been slow.

Here are a few of my tweets that may be blogworthy (i.e. may stimulate discussion):

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My namesake was sort of the Jewish Sinbad. Probably really existed, but adventures just fables. Do charedim take aggada like them literally? 7:44 AM Nov 27th from web

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Just finished "In Defense of Food" (http://tinyurl.com/2wv2zu) & found this article in the NYTimes today ( http://tinyurl.com/ygmpqao) 8:32 AM Nov 27th from web

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Does God intervene with the world? Since the world around us affects our decisions, and we're supposed to have free will, how could he? 4:36 PM Nov 28th from web

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Psych Halloween episode - the brother & sister backstory would be from frum family, rebelled and got into goth/wiccan stuff. 9:12 AM Nov 29th from web

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(in reference to davening shmoneh esrei on a plane)

@gldmeier What to do when plane in holding pattern and going around airport and you're davening amidah? Keep feet together but rotate to Jm! 9:23 AM Nov 29th from web in reply to gldmeier

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Don't businesses realize saving $ by having no windows in an office costs them more in productivity? Humans need light! 11:38 AM Dec 1st from TwitterBerry

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There's some women's speakers program in Brooklyn called Chachmos Nashim. Name sounds condescending. 6:14 AM Dec 8th from TwitterBerry

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Obama has 45% approval rating in Israel? (http://tinyurl.com/y8n9tj9) How do Israeli polls get 3%? Even w/Israeli Arabs discrepancy too big. 8:48 AM Dec 10th from web

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Follow me on Twitter

Winter wonderland

2009-12-06T10:18:00.000-05:00

What I woke up to this morning

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

DYS is now Rabba bar bar Chana

2009-11-29T10:03:00.002-05:00

This post is mainly so that the above title will appear in blogrolls where Torat Ezra is listed, so that my bloggish friends will know who Rabba bar bar Chana is when I comment on their posts. For the name change reasons, see the previous post.

Some changes + Twitter

2009-11-26T09:06:00.005-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

A few changes to this blog and my method of blogging:

Reasons for these changes:

1) The best thing about blogging, for me, has been the conversations on well traveled blogs, (such as DovBear). But lately the conversations's been moving to Twitter, leaving slow comment threads.

2) My current job doesn't allow for a lot of long posts. I did most of my previous blogging during little breaks in my workday.

So I've decided to try out Twitter. It'll allow me short observations and, by all accounts, good conversation on all sorts of topics. But I wanted a more memorable name for Twitter than "DYS", so I signed up as "RabbaBarChana", after the Talmudic rabbi Rabba bar bar Chana who had many fantastic adventures. I've also changed my name on this blog to match. (What's funny is that it rebranded all my previous posts as having been posted by Rabba bar bar Chana. Talk about revisionist history!)

All Twitter updates will also be posted here on Torat Ezra, so I'll probably be posting more often in shorter form. Occasionally, I'll still do longer posts and link to them on Twitter.

So wish me luck! And follow me on Twitter @RabbaBarChana!

Update @ 10am Nov 29: As I'm getting to use Twitter more, I realize that posting every tweet as a blog post isn't practical or desirable. Instead, I'll post a compilation of my more interesting tweets every couple of days or so.

Is same-sex marriage a civil right?

2009-11-06T12:09:00.002-05:00

Cross-posted on DovBear

On Tuesday, voters in Maine struck down a law that had been passed by the legislature allowing gay marriage. In an off-year election such as this, the ones coming out to vote were the conservative "values voters" whose opposition to gay marriage drove them to the polls in modest, but large enough, numbers to overturn the gay marriage law.

Voters have now voted to maintain the legal definition of marriage as between a man and a woman in over 30 states now. But these are undoubtedly only temporary setbacks for gay marriage rights activists. The youth of this country overwhelmingly support the right to same-sex marriage. They essentially feel "what's the big deal?" As older voters disappear from the voting pool and younger voters enter it, gay marriage will eventually become protected in all 50 states, either by court action and insufficient opposition to change that legislatively, or in the legislature, or through ballot initiatives in the first place. But it may take a couple of decades before we get to that point.

As you can guess from the tone of this post so far, I support same-sex marriage rights. But some 16 months ago, I wrote a post supporting civil unions for everyone, and doing away with official government sanction of marriage entirely as a violation of the church-state divide.

I still believe that as an ideal. But in the real world, the institution of marriage as registered by the state isn't going to disappear anytime soon. American society isn't going to let go of state recognized marriage for a long, long time. So insisting only on the route of civil unions for everyone is a nonstarter and will deny rights to same-sex couples for years to come. For the meantime, however, there can certainly be a concept of civil marriage that is entirely divorced (if you'll pardon the term) from church sanctioned marriage. Civil, secular marriage has a long history in this country, going back to the Puritans. "For them, marriage was a civil union, a contract, not a sacred rite." (Mark A. Peterson: "Civil Unions in the City on a Hill")

As a practicing Jew, I don't demand that the government recognize the rules of my religion as state law, for example having shabbat on Saturday, so why should I, or any person of any faith, have a veto over who can get married?

That certainly doesn't preclude any private religious group from maintaining that a marriage is between a man and a woman and restricting membership in their own group to those who believe and practice the same. But they shouldn't be allowed to make that definition the civil definition of marriage as well and impose their will on a secular society.

Comment over on DovBear

Can you vote in a church?

2009-11-04T07:40:00.000-05:00

I just did, yesterday. As far as I'm concerned, it's not an issue. I was going there to vote, not to worship. Plus, I don't think a contemporary Lutheran church is idolatrous.

Not that I have any problem going into any sort of church for any reason other than my own worhiping. I went into Notre Dame in Paris. I went into a Catholic church for a friend's funeral.

But what of those frummer souls who feel it's forbidden to enter a church? Do they feel they have to ask a Rav? What if this is their only valid opportunity to vote?

Have any readers come across this problem? How did you resolve it? What did your posek say?

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Yated Ne'eman favor

2009-10-28T16:51:00.003-04:00

While in a frum store yesterday in New Jersey, I happened to glance at the Yated Ne'eman for sale and noticed that they had an article about the secrecy of negotiations on the health care bill. I decided to write a blog post about it and figured that I'd find the article online.

Well, it turns out that Yated doesn't have a website. And I don't live in the kind of community where Yated is sold. So if anyone would like to do me the favor of scanning that article in and emailing it to me (toratezra at gmail dot com) you will have my thanks and hopefully an insightful article on why the Yated advocates against legislation that would only help their community. The article was on the front page, left land column.

Thanks!

Frum Jews and RV's

2009-10-27T22:48:00.000-04:00

RV's don't usually conjure up images of frum Jews, but an enterprising business has found a way to make them a perfect fit!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Why don't the women dance?

2009-10-14T08:31:00.006-04:00

I just spent Simchat Torah in one of the frummer neighborhoods of New York City. You know the type, every block a shtibel, an Agudah, and even the Young Israels are no longer modern. Black hats abound. There are plenty of centrist Orthodox, but they kind of blend in with the Yeshivish crowd. And in no shul do the women actually dance during hakafot on Simchat Torah. Instead, they watch the men.

I actually grew up with that model. When hakafot came around, the mechitza would be opened up so the women could watch the men dance. When I was little, I used to dance & happily wave to my mother. But even in my late teens I started doing my own thing for Simchat Torah and went to more modern neighbrhoods and more modern shuls where the women always danced. This was the first time I'd been back to my old neighborhood for ST in like 20 years.

I didn't go to my parents' shul for hakafot - instead I went to a more modern minyan that always used to have women dancing. But that minyan isn't what it used to be. Except for one part of one hakafa when the women made a half-hearted circle on the other side of the mechitza, there was no dancing at all. I felt very uncomfortable, as if we were performing for an audience of the women.

Why don't the women dance? Is it just habit, carried over from Eastern Europe? And if so, why didn't the women dance there? I understand the dispute over whether women should carry a sefer torah while dancing - while I think there's nothing wrong with it (a sefer torah isn't mekabel tumah), there are some weak arguments against that. But dancing at all? Women dance up a storm at the frummest weddings, as long as there's a mechitza. There's certainly a mechitza in shul. And this isn't just celebrating a bride & groom, it's celebrating the Torah itself!

Is there any halachic basis in keeping the women from dancing? Is it just a strange carryover minhag? Or are the frum communities terrified that it would smack of feminism? And why don't they dance in the Young Israels and other centrist shuls that were Modern Orthodox in the 1970's and in many case still think of themselves as Modern Orthodox?

Why don't the women dance?

Cross-posted on DovBear - please leave your comments there

Life is crazy, who has time to blog?

2009-09-28T22:02:00.001-04:00

When I got laid off recently, I thought that one silver lining would be that I'd catch up on a lot of blogging, on my own blog, and commenting on others. But it didn't turn out that way. Somehow, the lack of a regular schedule removed my little quiet pockets of time I used to have throughout the work week to spend blogging.

This week is the craziest of all. I'm travelling home after Yom Kippur tonight (2 hour drive), and this week I have job interviews in 2 states, neither of which I live in, have to finish building my sukkah, buy schach and buy a lulav & etrog.

I'll be doing a lot of sleeping on sukkot :-)

Shana Tova!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

God does not exist

2009-09-16T12:25:00.000-04:00

I have emunah in God. And yet, he doesn’t exist. Let me clarify.

What’s the common definition of existence? Something that has a tangible reality as defined by empiricism. God doesn't meet that criteria, at least not the contemporary idea of an incorporeal god. Through much of the early middle ages, Jews believed that God had a body.

But now, we believe Him to be intangible and incorporeal. So he doesn't exist.

That's why I think "belief" is such a poor translation of "emunah". I have emunah in Hashem. I feel that outside of the reality of our world there is a spiritual realm and it is in that spiritual realm that God is. I use "feel" because that's what it is. It's about an emotional connection, not an empirical one.

That's why I feel that those who try to "prove" God are on the wrong track. You can never prove God's existence, because by all standards of measurement that we use in our physical plane, God doesn't exist.

JBlogger convention

2009-09-14T14:29:00.001-04:00

Wasn't that supposed to be yesterday? I totally forgot. Seems to be a lot less discussion of it on the blogs I frequent than there was last year. Did anyone attend? (Either live or online) How was it?

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

CNN: Let's represent Maine voters with lobsters

2009-09-14T12:10:00.002-04:00

Talk about gimmicks! Couldn't they just use apples? Or how about being really radical and just using numbers?

The yeshivish life treadmill

2009-09-13T15:07:00.003-04:00

On Her Own writes about a young woman she knows who seems unhappily trapped in the yeshivish lifestyle:

"(she) cried to me for half an hour about how she hated wearing her sheitel (she said it pulled her hair out), how she felt like she'd thrown away her life, etc., etc...

...stood before me in her snood, shlumpy clothing covering a slouching and unhealthy looking figure, telling me in a monotone voice about her kids and the yeshiva in which her husband is learning"

Here's my comment to her post:

I feel for that girl, and unfortunately know so many people just like her, both men & women.

I think that the treadmill of seminary-marriage-kollel is a bit of a game. The people on this treadmill don't really think about the permanent ramifications of the treadmill until it's too late, until they're stuck in that life. The turning point is children and that usually happens pretty fast. Once kids are involved, there's rarely any turning back.

Perhaps that's why the yeshivish world urges this path - they know that marriage & kids are the quickest way of locking (very) young adults into the "torah true" lifestyle.

Where I am now

2009-09-08T12:55:00.000-04:00

Ahhh, it's nice to be taking a nice lunchtime hike :-)

The woods clear my brain.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

I said no to a tzedaka plea

2009-09-03T11:50:00.001-04:00

I was walking in the old city of Jerusalem today when a yeshivish guy, around 30 years old, asked me for some monetary help for Shabbat.

I said no.

The thing is, I used to always give to anyone who asked. Not just Jews. When I lived in NY, unless it was shabbat or I had no change on me, I gave something to any panhandler who wasn't an obvious junkie. Not much, just a dime or a quarter, or in Israel, a shekel. But something.

However, I moved away from New York a few years ago. A few states away. And ever since I've lived in places with very few panhandlers, so I'm out of practice.

So today was my first experience for quite a while. And when I was approached by a healthy looking guy without any apparent disabilities, I immediately thought "kollel guy".

My second thought was "why should I help to perpetuate a system I disagree with? I see nothing noble in learning Torah full time if it means having to turn to tzedaka for your family to buy food for shabbat."

So I said no. He walked on and I immediately felt guilty. After all, maybe he's not a kollel guy. Maybe he's a poor guy who can't find a job? But based on his look, my initial instinct was probably correct. But even if he was a kollel guy, in the old days I would never have said no to someone asking for help for shabbat.

Maybe I read too many blogs complaining about the kollel system...

So what do you think? Was I being smart or just stingy?

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

I'm driving by the security barrier

2009-09-02T09:44:00.000-04:00

The left hates it - they see it as a land grab.

The right hates it - they don't want any future border defined.

I wholeheartedly approve of it. I regret that it makes Palestinians' daily lives more difficult, but not having daily attacks on Israelis makes their daily lives easier, and that's my primary concern.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Eliyahu, Yosef, Porush: If you sell land to Arabs, you can't be counted in a Minyan

2009-09-02T04:35:00.001-04:00

Ridiculous

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251804468650&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Speed bumps in Israel

2009-09-01T12:38:00.001-04:00

Sitting in the Nesher sherut to Jerusalem, I have come to the following conclusion about the purpose of speedbumps in Israel vs. In the US.

US:
Drive slower.

Israel:
Between each set of speedbumps, even if they're only separated by 10 feet, test the car's ability to accelerate to 80mph and test the brakes' ability to come to a screeching halt.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Live blogging Israel - sort of

2009-09-01T11:54:00.001-04:00

Just arrived in Israel for a family wedding.

I'm not usually prone to "only in Israel" stories, but I have to relate a couple of small things.

1) The young female ElAl employee at JFK who asked me the usual "who packed your bags?", "did anyone give you a package?" questions also, after examining my Israeli passport, demanded to know why, if I had made aliyah, was I living in America. She then proceeded to strongly urge me to uproot my family immediately and return to Israel to live.

2) I caught a nasty cold on the plane. Hundreds of people in an enclosed space for 9 hours...
At Ben Gurion Airport, I approached the passport control desk. The woman at the desk, seeing me sniffling, immediately pulled out a roll of toilet paper (I guess she had no tissues) and sympathetically placed it in front of me.

It's nice to be home.

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Unfinished posts

2009-08-27T14:41:00.002-04:00

On this blog, I have about 30 unfinished posts saved as drafts. Various ideas and thoughts that I never finished. I intend to finish them, of course, but somehow never do.

Maybe I should twitter more. Put the thought out there in 140 characters or less. That would ensure that I actually complete what I want to say.

Ted Kennedy

2009-08-27T12:00:00.003-04:00

H was a steadfast friend of Israel, and champion for Soviet Jewry. I hope that the more conservative domestic politics of much of the American Orthodox Jewish community won't get in the way of remembering that.

The great bee massacre of August 2009

2009-08-11T11:24:00.003-04:00

I just mowed the lawn. And probably massacred a whole bunch of bees.

There were little yellow weed flowers all over the grass. And the bees were happily doing their pollen thing on quite a few of them. But I had to mow the lawn. You'd think that the bees would fly away when a loud lawn mower engine is less than a foot from them, but no. I hope I scared away as many as possible. I don't think bees have ears, but you'd think they could feel the vibrations! I hate to kill bees, especially after the bee die off of the last few years.

My wife & have talked about how we'd love to plant native flora instead of a lawn. Or perhaps use moss instead of grass. Unfortunately, we're renters, and our lease requires us to maintain the grass lawn and mow it. But maybe in the future. Maybe I'll become a beekeeper as well.

And then maybe bee society won't remember me as the perpetrator of the great bee massacre of August 2009.

Glad to be on the bride's side

2009-08-04T15:26:00.001-04:00

Ok, this is going to sound shallow, but I'm writing this with tongue slightly in cheek.

Whenever I go to frum weddings, I like to spend as much time at the smogasboard as possible. But at weddings when I'm good friends with the groom, I feel like I have to hang out at the chatan's tish. With the food that's been transported from a 1970's kiddush. Stale sponge cake and shnapps.

So I don't have food before the chuppah. And at the meal, I, a strict vegetarian, watch unhappily as my wife and friends chow down on dead animals. Even when there's a veggie option, it's a pretty bad imitation of meat instead of good vegetarian food.

Which is why, for the wedding I'm going to tomorrow, I'm happy to be an old friend of the bride. I only met the groom once, at the engagement party. Seems like a great guy and they seem like a great couple. Still, since I don't know him very well, I only have to make a short appearance at the tish. The rest of the hour before the chuppah I can hang out at the smorg. Which, judging by the food at the engagement party, should be pretty good and have some decent vegetarian options...

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Papers from the sky on 9/11

2009-08-02T12:49:00.001-04:00

I don't know why, but I was thinking about this today:

On the afternoon of 9/11/2001, I remember walking in Brooklyn on the way to a cafe with a few friends. We were getting together to try to make sense of what happened, and keep each other company in our shock. While we were walking, a great cloud of paper came over the neighborhood, fluttering down to the street. I think it was from 7 WTC, which collapsed in the afternoon. I picked up a few pages and saw that it was financial balance sheets from some company. Some of the pages were slightly singed. I kept them, and thought that I would return them to the company whose name was printed on the bottom. In the end I never got around to it and I'm not sure where they went - probably in the garbage. I'm sure that it wouldn't have made a big difference to the company after losing their entire office, but I've always regretted it nontheless. It would have been symbolic, perhaps, but symbolism counts.

Tisha B'Av

2009-07-29T20:15:00.002-04:00

Meaningful and comfortable fast to all. May we mourn whatever aspect of galut we find meaningful to mourn, but do it together. That's the most important thing.

Watch Obama's news conference at 8PM

2009-07-22T19:54:00.001-04:00

It's about health care reform and it's important for every American

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Doctors vs Moneylenders

2009-07-15T11:35:00.002-04:00

This morning, while looking for the weather channel, I came across a segment about the Israeli medical system. It turned out to be a segment of The 700 Club, with Pat Robertson. They were praising how good a system of medical care Israel has.

Then Pat mentioned how wonderful it is that when you look at the US medical system, the top ranks are heavily populated with Jews. Wait a second, isn't that major stereotyping?

Well, if so, I'm happier with that stereotype than the old one, where we're all greedy moneylenders.

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Yehudi Hilchati

2009-07-14T15:45:00.005-04:00

I used to blog under the name "Yehudi Hilchati" on a blog of the same name. Around a year ago, I wrote there:

Should I blog under my own name?

I've always been a little uncomfortable with anonymous blogging. But I do it anyway, for the reasons outlined below.

I've written stuff here that I probably wouldn't want my family or some members of my community to know of. Though I'm not a full-blown skeptic, I've expressed enough opinions on the documentary hypothesis and the origins of Judaism to earn the title of "apikores" by strictly traditional standards. I've also written some left-of-center opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian issue that while relatively moderate, would provoke massive arguments with my right wing (on that issue) family if they knew about it. So all in all, blogging anonymously allows me to express my opinions without fear of repercussions.

On the other hand, blogging anonymously keeps me from extending the discourse of this blog to real life. If I blogged under my own name, I'd be able to make the blog simply an extension of my ideas in real life, which I could discuss with people verbally and then simply refer them to my blog. Therefore, I've been thinking about dispensing with the "secret identity" and blogging as myself.

But if I did, I'd probably just start a new non-anonymous blog and just let this one go dormant, with no identifying link between them, for the reasons mentioned above. I just don't need arguments and tension with parents, siblings, and some friends. (My wife is aware of this blog.) The new blog would probably avoid some topics I've dealt with here.

Although I don't have a huge number of readers, over the past 1+ years, I've developed connections to a number of other blogs and have commented in many places, all under the name "Yehudi Hilchati".

So do I leave it behind and start a new blog under my own name and rebuild a readership with no base?

Should I just stay put and leave aside my need to express my opinions under my own name?

Or should I be really daring and go public on this blog and let the chips fall where they may?

Obviously I went with the first option, above, and started a new blog, this one. So why am I revealing this now, when that's precisely what I said I wouldn't do?

Because I've realized that this blog has become almost exactly what the old one was, with similar opinions and ideas. I even took the best of the old blog and reposted them here, with slight updates. And while there is a little less of the "apikorsut" and politics about Israel, I've commented on many other blogs under this name without censoring my opinions at all. And after a few weeks of having my real name listed in my "DYS" profile when I first started blogging under those initials (my real ones) I removed my last name, because I felt a little too exposed.

So in almost every way, this blog's exactly like the old one. I guess that someone starts a blog because they have something to say. And that something is hard to constrain.

In any case, now that I've gotten to know more bloggers, I realize that I'm far from radical compared with many others. And some friends who I spoke to about my hashkasfic doubts didn't seem surprised or disturbed, nor did they have issues with the kashrut of my food.

So what's the point of this whole post? I'm not sure, except maybe to free myself of any remaining dual-identity constraints. So keep reading!

Is meat slaughtered by women kosher?

2009-07-07T13:03:00.003-04:00

Cross-posted on DovBear

Gil Student, over at Hirhurim, recently posted “a loose translation of notes from lectures by R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik” examining the issue of whether women can be slaughterers (shochatot). Gil, in his introduction, links it to the issue of women Rabbis and concludes that if shochatot are not allowed, neither are female Rabbis.

The Rav brings a number of sources that essentially prohibit women slaughterers based on the fact that a shochet is a communal position and women cannot hold communal positions. But the Shulchan Aruch writes that women can be shochatot. The Rama, however, says that they may not serve in that capacity because the custom is that they haven't been doing so. That seems like an extremely poor and circular argument. We don't allow it because we haven't been allowing it. So all the arguments against women slaughterers seem to be based only on social considerations, not solid halacha. And many do allow women to slaughter for themselves, just forbidding it for the community. So Gil is right in a way, by tying female rabbis to female slaughterers. The argument against both are based only on social considerations and there seems to be plenty of halachic room to permit them now when social circumstances have changed.

(By the way, since the Shulchan Aruch permits women slaughterers, and Sephardim follow the Shulchan Aruch without the supplement of the Rama, do they allow shochatot today? If not, why not?)

So should shochatot be permitted? Basically, even according to those who forbid it, it seems to me that they would probably permit it b’dieved, after the fact. Meaning, if someone ate meat slaughtered by a woman skilled in all the halachot of shechita, there was no sin. The meat was kosher.

But despite my progressive stance on most issues relating to women and Judaism, I'm going to invoke social considerations to explain my opinion that except in limited situations, it probably would be unwise to institute it as a general custom at this time.

Let's first be clear about what we're asking and who would care about such an innovation.

There are several type of people who keep kosher. There's the "kosher by ingredients" crowd. There's the "any hechsher, as long as it's on the package" crowd. And then there's the Orthodox standard, meaning hechsherim generally accepted by the community.

Let’s break it down by denomination. The Reform movement doesn't have any official kashrut standards, though some individual members may keep some personal strictures.

The Conservative movement has official standards, but doesn't have a kashrut supervision infrastructure of their own. So they generally rely on Orthodox hechsherim, but will use ones that aren’t widely accepted in the Orthodox community. For example, while the Conservative movement officially endorses Hebrew National as acceptable for consumption, they do so on the basis of HN's new Orthodox hechsher, Triangle-K. (While T-K isn't accepted in much of the Orthodox community, the Rabbis there are Orthodox. The issue of T-K certifying HN's non-glatt meat is another post.)

That leaves the Orthodox community, which will only consume meat certified by communally accepted agencies.

What if the Conservative movement had its own kashrut supervision agency? Then I see nothing wrong with their using women slaughterers. Orthodox people wouldn't be eating that meat anyway, no matter what gender slaughtered the animal.

But within the world of Orthodox hechsherim, it's a different story. What if Rabbi Avi Weiss decided to create a kashrut agency? (Please note that the following scenario is totally hypothetical and is just to illustrate my point and does not represent any known plans of Rabbi Weiss)

He has already created the new female equivalent of Rabbi, the Maharat, a development of which I wholeheartedly approve. And I presume that to receive smicha, a Maharat must study the same traditional curriculum as a male Rabbi, which would include Yoreh Deah, the volume of Shulchan Aruch that contains the laws of kashrut, including shechita.

So what if this hypothetical kashrut agency started using shochatot?

The institution of the Maharat is already controversial. But its effect is limited to the communities in which these women serve and doesn't spill over. But kashrut is a social intitution as much as a halachic one. People eat in one another's homes and celebratory affairs based on shared assumptions of kashrut reliability. Were Rabbi Weiss, or any figure in Left Wing Modern Orthodoxy to institute the practice of shochatot, there would immediately be a split in the social fabric of Orthodoxy. The implicit assumption of reliable kashrut upon entering the home of someone who was LWMO or observant Conservative would be gone. And the uproar would cause fissures and public discord on a huge scale. The unspoken social compact of kashrut would be broken. It is for that reason that I would be wary of such an innovation at this time.

However, what if Rabbi David Silber, of Drisha, (again, totally hypothetical) decided that a shochetet was halachically permissable, but rather than endorse the practice for the wider community, decided to have a special event at Drisha with meat slaughtered by a shochetet. If he was comfortable of the halachic permissibility, why not?

Social reasons should not hold back halachically permissible practices. However, extreme social disruption should be considered before moving too far, too fast.

Comments over at DovBear

Tunisia - an Arab democracy?

2009-07-02T15:39:00.005-04:00

Who says the Arab world has no democracies?

"Since 1987, Tunisia has gradually reformed its political system, it has abolished life presidency and opened up parliament to opposition parties."

And despite the fact that they hosted the PLO for so many years, it seems like they have a history of friendliness towards Israel:

"President Bourguiba was the first Arab leader to call for the recognition of Israel in a speech in Jericho in 1965."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisia#Present-day_politics

In the 90's they even had good ties towards Israel, but that's deteriorated since 2000. Maybe it'll improve again, as their democratic values would seem a natural way to provide motive for rapprochement.

Is the ketchup kosher?

2009-06-23T17:54:00.002-04:00

A few weeks before Pesach, I moved to a new desk at work. The previous occupant had left a lot of junk in the desk. I didn't realize one of the drawers had food in it under the files and didn't get around to cleaning it till this week. I found a whole bunch of ketchup and mayo packets inside, the kind that you get from fast food places.

Not that I have a great need to consume these condiments, but it made me wonder - are they kosher or are they chametz she'avar alav achar hapesach (CSAAAHP)? They are Heinz, and have an O-U on them. But they were in my desk over Pesach and weren't sold with my other chametz. On the other hand, I wasn't aware of their existence till this week. Plus, the desk doesn't belong to me, it belongs to my employer. So were the packets halachically considered to be in my possession over Pesach?

So what's the halacha?

A second question: if they are CSAAAHP, do I need to throw them out (rather than leave them in the office kitchenette) to avoid the chance that someone else Jewish in my office might eat them inadvertantly? Or if it's a safek that it's CSAAAHP, and a safek that a Jew would eat them, is that a sfek sfeka and it's ok to leave them in the kitchenette? Or does sfek sfeka not apply to possible chametz?

Just some "food" for thought.

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To tweet or not to tweet

2009-06-18T22:06:00.001-04:00

Now that I've started blogging from my phone, I've given some thought to joining twitter, which I imagine is a somewhat similar experience. But before I do join, I have to ask; what the heck is it? And how is it better than blogging or Facebook? And am I too old to tweet?

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PETA's mission

2009-06-18T21:10:00.002-04:00

Over on DovBear's blog, JS posted about Obama's swatting of a fly during an interview and PETA's protest against it.

In the comments to that post, the incident of PETA's controversial letter to Arafat a few years ago about the use of a donkey in a terrorist attack was raised. Here's what I wrote there in response:

I'm not a fan of PETA and their sometimes distasteful tactics and their complete lack of a sense of perspective. They think in absolutes and that's where most extremists come from.

That being said, their protest of terrorists using a donkey is consistent with their mission. They're not about protecting human life. There are other organizations that do that. They're about protecting animals and protesting what they see as cruelty to them. They were idiots and made themselves look bad for picking that particular battle. But they were being consistent.

Moth in ATM

2009-06-18T15:17:00.000-04:00

At the ATM this morning, there was a moth under the glass.

Very surreal...

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I work for a giant rat!

2009-06-17T18:14:00.001-04:00

At least according to the protesters outside my office. Apparently my employer, a huge financial services firm, is using a company for its moving and storage needs that is unfair to workers.

For argument's sake, let's say this is true. Obviously I'm not quitting my job over it. But it raises food for thought: what threshold would a company have to cross to cause you to quit? A division that produces porn? Toxic dumping? Sweat shops in Guatemala?

It's not an easy decision, especially when jobs are as scarce as they are now.

What do you think?

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One more from the ferry

2009-06-16T18:07:00.000-04:00

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The Staten Island Ferry

2009-06-16T17:16:00.001-04:00

This is my first post from my cellphone. Hope this works!

I moved to eastern Pennsylvania a few months ago and have been commuting to NY on a semi-regular basis.

It's a brutal commute. If I didn't have to cross the Hudson, I could do it in half the time. But as it is, ot usually takes me at least 3 hours. It normally involves some combination of driving, NJ Transit trains, and PATH.

Today, I tried something new: the Staten Island Ferry. It didn't make the commute any shorter, but it was immensly more relaxing. The open water and air was far better than a cup of coffee ever could be! I'm looking forward to the evening commute, coming up soon!

I took a video from the ferry. As I said above, this is my first mobile post. Hope the video posts...

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My first post criticizing Obama (no kidding)

2009-06-03T22:54:00.005-04:00

Disclaimer first:

As I maintained he would in a number of posts during the campaign, I still think Obama’s turning out to be a darn good president in general. And I still think he’ll be a great friend to Israel. But as I indicated in this post, he’s not above criticism. However, the below criticism is in the same vein as those right-wingers who thought GW Bush was Israel’s best friend but criticized him during his second term for publicly supporting a two-state solution. Obama’s still my man. Now on to the criticism.

Obama left today for a trip to the Middle East. He’s trying to repair ties with the Arab world, and the greater Muslim world, which Bush shredded during his two terms. He’s going to speak from Cairo, a symbolic move to indicate that the Arab & Muslim states do not need to have an antagonistic relationship with the US and the US is willing to listen to what they have to say.

Fine, I support that. Even seen from a Israel-centric standpoint, Bush’s “us” and “them” cowboy diplomacy didn’t exactly help Israel, it only made her more hated, if that were possible. And with the threat of Iran, Israel needs friends in the region, or at least what passes for friendship around there, grudging cordiality and willingness to cooperate on some things, even if only through US mediation. So basically, Israel needs the US to have good relations with Arab countries. That’s the only way anything has ever been solved around there, and it increases Israel’s security.

So Obama is bending over backwards to show the United States’ good intentions to the Arab countries. But in a bizarre move, he’s decided not to stop in Israel during this trip. Now, I’m not one of those Jews who craves a visit to Israel by the US president for some sort of validation. But to go to the Middle East & not stop in Israel, a close ally, is a slap in the face, given the precedent of almost all previous presidents. I get that he’s staying away from Israel to make a point to underscore his overture to the Arab world and avoid undercutting his message of evenhanded friendship. But then, I would understand Obama stopping only in Egypt, making his speech & going back to the US.

But that’s not what he’s doing. Instead, he stopped in Saudi Arabia for a day first. If his trip is so carefully orchestrated to avoid insulting the Arab world by avoiding Israel, you’d think he would also carefully orchestrate NOT stopping in Saudi Arabia and lavishing praise on the country’s dictators, as he did, to avoid insulting Israel. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he didn’t stop in Riyadh solely to insult Israel. The news media reports that the trip to SA was a last minute add-on. But he and his advisors should have realized how that would look. If he’s already tooling around the region, going to more than one country, it’s an insult to ignore Israel.

And why do I have the feeling that a stop in Israel more likely would have been on the agenda if Ehud Barak or Tzipi Livni had formed the government instead of Netanyahu? Or even if Netanyahu had formed a broad coalition with Kadima & Labor instead of with right-wing and religious fringe nuts? I’m no supporter of Netanyahu and his coalition, but it strikes me that if Obama can meet with and lavish praise on the Saudi royal family, who have, like most Arab “moderates”, made hateful and false statements about Israel, and at least indirectly supported terrorism, he could swallow meeting with Netanyahu, who is the Dalai Lama in comparison, in Jerusalem.

Values and ethics and morals, oh my!

2009-06-03T18:48:00.004-04:00

What is morality? And what are ethics? Or values?

In my discussions with Charedim, (and some Centrist Orthodox and even Modern Orthodox) both online & offline, we often come to an impasse when I realize that one of the basic assumptions they’ve made is that I, as a kipa wearing Jew, take all my cues for morality, ethics, and values from the Torah, and that there can be no other standard.

Even if one accepts that premise, there are far reaching disagreements on what the Torah has to say when it comes to value judgments. But leaving that aside, in any case I reject the basic premise. I see no reason that the Torah should be the only arbiter of my moral being. I may be a Jew, but that’s not the only thing I am. I’m also a human being.

When the Charedi I’m talking to realizes that I’m not on the same wavelength when it comes to this issue, he will often engage in circular arguments:

“How can you not see the Torah as the final word on every issue? The Torah says you’re supposed to see it that way, and therefore, as a Jew, that’s what you must do!”

Aha – that’s one of the very (supposed) “Torah values” that I reject, that the Torah is my only moral guide. So that argument holds no water with me.

I am a committed Jew. I keep kashrut & shabbat, daven, study Torah, wear a kipa, etc. But that’s not all I am. I’m also a human being who attended college, reads voraciously, has friends who have all sorts of beliefs and lifestyles, and is affected by contemporary western moral values.

An example: recently I was talking to a relative, and she referred to a cousin who “nebach”, married a non-Jew. As is her wont, she said this in a low voice as if mourning a tragedy. I used to think the same way. Anyone who intermarried was destroying the Jewish people, and voluntarily doing Hitler’s work.

But as an adult, I got to know people who were intermarried. And you know what? Most of them are happy, raising well adjusted kids, and leading a meaningful lifestyle in their own way. Many of them even raise their kids with a strong Jewish identity, with the non-Jewish spouse attending synagogue along with the rest of the family.

And so I realized, why is it my place to judge these people and say that they’ve taken the wrong path in life? Am I so arrogant that I know the one and only true path and that they’ve abandoned their only route to some heavenly salvation? Why not just be happy for them that they’ve found happiness, something that’s hard to find in this world for so many people?

So what do I do with the halachic opposition to intermarriage?

One possible solution is to dig down deep into the mists of early Judaism and argue that the Torah doesn’t really prohibit intermarriage and that it’s all a Rabbinic innovation. And there may be some truth to that. But I’m a firm believer in Judaism as an evolving religion. And as such, it would be disingenuous to claim that traditional Judaism hasn’t had a major problem with intermarriage for at least 1 ½ millennia. And in any case, if I use that sort of argument, I’m boxing myself in and making it a requirement to find some sort of historical-religious justification for any personal moral value I hold that on the surface disagrees with tradition.

Instead, I prefer to concede that, yes,Rabbinic Judaism prohibits marriage to a non-Jew who hasn’t sincerely converted. But that’s irrelevant. I’m not intermarried and so it’s not a personal issue. And the Torah’s opposition? It is what it is. But I, as a human being with values that are a result of my almost 40 years of life experience, see nothing wrong with it for other people who’ve chosen that path. I don’t uphold it as an ideal, but once they’ve chosen such a romantic partnership, let them be happy! So I’ve gone to weddings and danced for Jewish brides and non-Jewish grooms and vice versa, and celebrated their unions. The Torah may say it’s wrong, but so what? Not every one of my values has to be from the Torah.

I have a similar attitude towards homosexuality. Admittedly, I’m not gay, so I can’t really understand the struggle that a gay Jew who was raised Orthodox must go through. Still, I can’t deny that the Torah calls homosexuality “toevah”, often translated as “abomination.” But when it comes to my gay friends? As long as they’re happy, I’m happy for them.

A few years ago, a co-worker to who I was close died young. Her funeral was held in a catholic church. I felt no need to ask a Rav whether I was allowed to enter for the funeral, because the answer would have been irrelevant. It was far more important to attend her funeral and be there to say goodbye in the manner her family chose.

It seems to me that giving over all of one’s decisions to what the Torah says (or some Rav’s interpretation of what it says) makes one a poorer human being. Struggling with ethical dilemmas and thinking for oneself, based on the richness of one’s own experience is part of life. And I think even most Charedim absorb ethical ideals from contemporary notions even as they deny it. For example, the Torah talks about slavery (yes, yes, I know the apologetics, it’s indentured servitude, not much better), but do any Charedim believe in slavery? Wouldn’t most recoil at the idea? We all get our morals, values, and ethics from various sources, often unconsciously.

So where does your value system come from?

The incredible shrinking God

2009-05-21T15:47:00.004-04:00

This week, they found the missing link.

The missing link has long been a major problem with the theory of evolution. Darwin himself acknowledged that fossil evidence of transitional forms between species had not been found, but assumed they would be, in time. However, while many have been found, many others have not. Biologists have proposed a number of solutions, one of the most promising being “punctuated equilibrium”, in which a species stays rather static for a long time and then undergoes rapid evolution in a relatively brief time in response to dramatic environmental changes.

Religious fundamentalists have long pointed to these gaps as evidence that evolution is untrue. But science & Torah reconciliators (or their corresponding thinkers in other religions) have been more than happy to see God in the missing places. This is sometimes referred to as the “God of the gaps” concept. Where science can’t explain something, that is evidence for God.

I’ve never been happy with inserting God as an explanation where science falls short. That’s not to say that I don’t see God’s hand behind all of creation and its infinite complexity. But I don’t feel the need to glean “proof” for God’s existence from those presently inexplicable scientific gaps. Emunah shouldn’t need science to back it up. Emunah shouldn’t be empirical – it’s belief on a spiritual, intangible plane. And when empiricism is mixed with spirituality, both suffer.

But it’s more than that. With the “God of the gaps” concept, God’s existence is made susceptible to the progress of science. What happens when science fills one of those gaps? God is immediately less remarkable, less all-powerful.

That’s precisely what happened this week, when scientists announced they had found the missing link that “bridges the evolutionary split between higher primates such as monkeys, apes, and humans and their more distant relatives such as lemurs” in a 47 million year old fossil nicknamed “Ida”. With that discovery, it’s yet another weakening of the argument that we could not have evolved naturally from apes.

So for all those science & Torah reconciliators who insist on seeing God in every nook & cranny of science, I ask, doesn’t this diminish God? Doesn’t this make Him smaller and less significant? What happens when science explains everything? Will you discard God as yesterday’s news?

As for me, my faith will remain strong, because I never saw Hashem in the questions of science. He just is.

My Blackberry Pearl, Z"L

2009-05-19T13:39:00.002-04:00

Recipe

Ingredients:

1) 2 phones (mine & my wife's) that needed to be charged over Shabbat while at my parents house

2) Only one available outlet, in a room not frequented on Shabbat

3) A plastic bin next to that outlet, a seemingly good place to leave the cellphone charging , with an indented surface perfect for water to pool in

4) A pipe that happened to spring a leak sometime over shabbat, directly over that bin, dripping rusty water

Result: marinated cellphones, served on a bed of rice

Verdict: RIP :-(

Shabbat Shalom U'Mevorach

2009-05-15T14:35:00.001-04:00

OK, I have nothing to post. But I didn't want the title of the last post to stay on top of the blog for the weekend.

Shabbat Shalom, everyone!

White, blonde, teenage girl murdered!!!

2009-05-12T09:41:00.006-04:00

Let's all voyeuristically watch 24 hour coverage dissecting every aspect of her life and especially any hint of her sexuality!! It's news, after all.

Oh, and by the way, a bunch of black & latino kids have been murdered lately. There, we covered it.

See Bob Herbert's piece on this in the NY Times.

A very Charedi Lag Ba-Omer

2009-05-11T23:33:00.004-04:00

I am firmly left-wing Modern Orthodox, with Conservative tendencies. And since I left NY a few years ago, I haven't really been to any Charedi events at all. But tonight I found myself in NY on business, staying in Brooklyn. And there was a big Lag Ba-Omer celebration going on outside on the next block, cordoned off by the police. So I decided to go.

I think there's been enough time and distance that I didn't feel the need to mentally criticize the Charedi community for things I don't agree with at such a benign event. So I just decided to go in Anthropologist's mode and enjoy. And I did. I think I was the only kipa sruga in a sea of black.

It was a little startling to me to hear them announce, in the middle of the singing and dancing:

"We respectfully request that all women get onto the sidewalk so the men can continue dancing around the fire"

Yes, it's not my style, and I have objections in principle to the marginalization of women, but hey, nobody there seemed to mind, and everyone was having a good time. And it's not my community anymore. I don't really belong to the same denomination anymore ("Orthodox" encompasses way too wide a range.) So I decided for tonight to just see it as quaint and I put aside my issues and danced.

Chag Sameach.

Star Trek movie review

2009-05-10T23:12:00.002-04:00

Here's my spoiler-free review of the new Trek movie:

Good, but...

Click here for my review with major spoilers. I would advise seeing the movie first before clicking that link.

Who were the Tzidukim? (Sadducees)

2009-05-02T22:05:00.007-04:00

When I was a kid in Yeshiva, we learned in the Gemara about the "Tzidukim". They were always presented in a negative light. My rebbeim took relish in relating tales about those troublemaking tzidukim, always challenging the chachamim and trying to subvert Torah-True Judaism, and how the chachamim defended the Torah against these evidoers.

As an adult, I absorbed peripherally, through related materials, that there had been an ancient Jewish sect called the "Sadducees". It wasn't till sometime in my early 20's, I'm embarassed to admit, that I realized that the Tzidukim and the Sadducees were one & the same. But having not studied them more closely, I still accepted the traditional view and assumed that they were just some fringe group bent on undermining true Judaism.

I've learned a lot since then, of course. But I was doing some reading this Shabbat afternoon about them and it struck me how integral a part they were to 2nd temple Judaism. They sat in Sanhedrin, they served as Kohanim in the Beit HaMikdash (their leaders were of the family of Zadok HaKohen, hence the name), and were closely associated with the Chashmonaim. Hardly a fringe group of troublemakers, they were simply one of two main religious schools (or 3, if you count the less influential Essenes) that emerged during the 2nd temple era, and rather than watering down traditional Judaism, they developed alongside the "Perushim" (Pharisees, considered to be the forerunners of Rabbinic Judaism.)

The Perushim were more populist than the Tzidukim, and thus won more hearts & minds of the people. Perushi traditions placed more focus on everyday life, as opposed to Tziduki practices, which focused more on temple worship. So it's no surprise that the populist traditions won out and evolved into normative Judaism. And of course, history is written by the victors. So the Talmud writes about them negatively. But the fact that they are mentioned so often, especially in connection to halachic disputes with the Perushim, implies that they were very central to national religious life at one time.

I just grabbed the nearest Arscroll Gemara I have in my house, tractate Chagigah, and the help of Mechon Mamre and the search feaures of Firefox, quickly found a reference to the Tzidukim (16b). Artscroll, in the commentary, describes them thus: "The Sadducees were a heretical sect active during the Second Temple era. They denied the validity of the Oral Tradition, maintaining that only the literal sense of the Torah was binding." Just as I was taught in Yeshiva! Had the Artscroll Talmud been around when I was a kid, the only thing I might have learned was that the Sadducees and the Tzidukim were one & the same.

The other main source for information about the Tzidukim is Josephus. I'm going to do part 2 of this post when I read precisely what Josephus had to say, in his original words (OK, in a translation), rather than the synopses that I've already read.

Final thought for tonight: it's a shame that Minsha & Gemara are taught to kids so devoid of historical context. I know I'd have been much less prone to stare out the window if I understood the larger context of what was being discussed in class!

Cheating revisited - what would you do?

2009-04-22T21:38:00.005-04:00

A few months ago, I wrote about my disgust when another blogger of college age expressed the notion that there was nothing wrong with cheating in school. Her rationale was a whole host of mitigating circumstances.

Recently, I was speaking to some others of a similar age to the aforementioned blogger and they expressed similar sentiments. While I haven't changed my mind, one scenario that came up in the conversation provided food for thought:

What if a test was stolen before the final exam and the entire class got hold of it. Let's say you are offered the exam as well. Normally, you would refuse, but in this case the professor grades on a steep curve, and if you get less than an A in the course you will lose your hefty scholarship and that scholarship is the only way you can afford college. Let's say further that you cannot inform the administration anonymously of the theft. If you tell, your role will become public knowlege.

Do you:

A) Rat out everyone else, and live with the consequences, and gain many enemies?

B) Take the test honestly and hope that though unlikely, you'll still get an A and not have to drop out of college?

or

C) Cheat

Personally, I would do either A or B, never C, but I can understand that there can be a gray area. Things are rarely black & white.

What would you do?

So what if Birchat Hachama isn't "true"?

2009-04-06T17:12:00.002-04:00

DovBear points out, here and here, that Birchat Hachama, the blessing over the sun, recited once every 28 years, and which falls on this Wednesday, isn't accurate in its claim that it happens when the sun is in the same place in the sky at the time of the creation of the world, 5,769 years ago.

But does that matter?

Even before reading his first post on the topic, and before looking into the background, I assumed that the stated reason for Birkat Hachama was not literally true. It can only be true if one believes in a literal sheshet yimei bereishit (6 days of creation).

But like many other practices in traditional Judaism whose origins may not be "true" in a literal sense, I will still say the bracha without any discomfort or loss of emotional significance. Judaism is an evolving religion - it always has been. Therefore, every evolving tradition is meaningful in the history of its very practice, not just in its origins.

And a tradition going back 2 millenia, where Jews gathered to say a bracha honoring the Borei HaOlam every 28 years, is significant enough. It is an event - an opportunity to gather with other Jews and acknowlege in a deep sense that Hashem created the world. So what if it's not literally accurate in its astronomical claims?

Chabad online sale of chametz - question

2009-03-31T13:17:00.005-04:00

I've just moved to Eastern Pennsylvania. More on that in another post. But I had a question that I was hoping some of my blog visitors had some insight into.

I left some chametz in a storage unit in Ohio. I did leave a key to the unit with someone local to it so it's theoretically accessible by the purchasing non-Jew during Pesach. I also have chametz in my new house, in PA.

Should I use one Rav to sell the chametz or two, one in each locale?

More importantly, can I use the Chabad website to sell my chametz online? How halachically valid is that? And even if it's fully halachically valid, what about with my situation? Can an online contract handle the complexity of my multistate chametz locations in a halachically valid manner?

REALLY glad I voted for Obama!

2009-03-11T23:14:00.005-04:00

On Monday, when signing the order to reverse Bush's policy and allow federal funding of stem cell research, Obama said:

This Order is an important step in advancing the cause of science in America. But let's be clear: promoting science isn't just about providing resources -- it is also about protecting free and open inquiry. It is about letting scientists like those here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it's inconvenient -- especially when it's inconvenient. It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda -- and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology.

By doing this, we will ensure America's continued global leadership in scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs. That is essential not only for our economic prosperity, but for the progress of all humanity.

And that's why today, I am also signing a Presidential Memorandum directing the head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop a strategy for restoring scientific integrity to government decision making. To ensure that in this new Administration, we base our public policies on the soundest science; that we appoint scientific advisers based on their credentials and experience, not their politics or ideology; and that we are open and honest with the American people about the science behind our decisions. That is how we will harness the power of science to achieve our goals -- to preserve our environment and protect our national security; to create the jobs of the future, and live longer, healthier lives.

Yet another example of America's return to sanity after the long national nightmare of Bush.

Blast from the (recent) past - reinvigorating my idealism

2009-03-10T13:42:00.005-04:00

About 5 years ago, when my wife & I were first considering moving away from the NYC area to some "out of town" location, I started & moderated a Yahoo Group list (remember those?) called “Moving On Out” to search for and encourage more LWMO communities in "out of town" areas. Specifically, I was looking for "open orthodox" type shuls, but in places way out of the usual cities they'd be found in. This was in the days of fresh excitement about Edah, YCT, etc.

The list ended up focusing on any shul of this type, irrespective of location, and had some lively discussions for about a year or so. After that, the blogosphere really came into its own and those Yahoo Groups saw much less traffic. The list still exists and is still officially active, but it gets a post only once every few weeks.

I just looked back through some of those old posts and there’s some good stuff.

What I wanted to post here today was what I wrote about what I considered the ideal shul. I still consider this to be the ideal place and re-reading it, I'm reinvigorated to find or found such a shul.

Here’s what I said in July, 2004:

Are we here to promote a particular brand of Orthodoxy or simply to serve as a resource where one was needed? The members of this list probably self-define their religious affiliations across a relatively wide range. This is a natural result of the constituency this list is attempting to address. Were this a list about standard Orthodoxy, as defined by say, Young Israel, or the OU, there would naturally be much narrower definitions. The key thing about the sort of communities that we are trying to promote is their willingness to embrace diversity of opinions and ideas, albeit within a halachic structure. "Halachic" in itself is an amorphous term, defined in different ways by different people.

That said, I think that we can mostly agree that the sort of communities we wish to encourage fall in this general pattern:

A place that strives towards egalitarianism within the elasticity of traditional Halacha.

A place that is concerned with Tikkun Olam, with social justice, the environment, etc.

A place that encourages participation in the greater Jewish community, dialogue and friendship and a sense of community with Jews of whatever religious affiliation.

A deep commitment to Israel without marginalizing those who disagree politically with the future direction the State of Israel may take, whether in the realm of security or socially. People may disagree with one another respectfully and have debate these issues based on merits, rather than with insults ("Anti Israel, Self- hating Jew" and the like.)

A lay led congregation. This is not to negate the role of a Rabbi, but to encourage as well the participation of individuals in running the shul or minyan. Most traditional congregations, of whatever stream, have a "top-down" style where congregants defer to the Rabbi and board in most ways. One common factor in the energy and vitality in most of the new minyanim and chaburot around the country has been the enthusiastic involvement of individual members that really foster a sense of community.

An intellectual center where classes and group discussion are encouraged. Being intellectually inquisitive about one’s Yahadut is what leads to greater involvement, not just waiting for the rav to give his latest drasha. Within that intellectual realm, there should be an openness to ideas from all sectors. It should be the kind of place where no question is looked at as being sacrilegious. The answers may fall within a certain context, but rarely, if ever, should a question be off limits. An intellectualism that acknowledges that outside of classical Judaism there can be valuable scholarship that can make our understanding of our Judaism ever richer.

And finally, a place where people come to truly daven. Where tefilla is not just a ritual obligation to get through. Something that has been noted in many of these new minyanim is the lack of noisy chatter that pervades so many Orthodox congregations. This is because everyone really wants to be there and really cares about the Tefilla. If the davening is beautiful, more people will participate and sing, which will cause it to grow even more beautiful.

Exposing myself

2009-03-10T10:18:00.003-04:00

On this Purim day, I have decided to remove my mask and reveal myself! No more will I hide behind the mask of blogger anonymity!

Ready? Here it is!

My name is Mordechai Ishyemini. I live in Shushan, Illinois, and I am 95 years old. To give you a bit of my background, I was born in Atlantis, in the yeshivish community there. When it sank, we all came to America. My parents sent me away to learn at Yeshivas Shem V’Ever in Mesopotamia. I had a hard time there, so I transferred to Hogwarts, where I excelled in turning sticks into snakes and back. After I graduated, I became a kofer and converted to Modern Orthodoxy. There’s too much to tell, so I’ll skip ahead. After the Mars Chabad house incident, I left NASA in the 70’s and settled in Shushan to begin a career in blogging. However, the internet hadn’t been invented yet, so I teamed with Al Gore to invent it and then, with nevuah, I wrote advance posts to reflect the events of 30 years in the future, and waited for blogging to be invented.

I am now a successful blogger, with many highly popular blogs. In addition to this blog, where I receieve an average of 7 billion hits a day, I author many others under pen names. Here are a few of them:

- I am both the author and all the collaborators of the popular blog ZeevWolf, where I defend a torah-true viewpoint and bash those ignoramuses who doubt any story written by Artscroll with a no-holds-barred style.

- The blog Emes Ve’sheker under the pen name Mary Harryles, where I attack the centrists from both the left & right

- Suburban Krechtz as Pessi Estertanowitz, where I write about the quirkiness of married life and wait for the day I become single.

- Modern Yeshivishprax as ZGH where despite my desire to live a normal yeshivish life, I cannot quite shake my doubts that Moshe Rabbeinu was not actually 20 feet tall, but was rather only 18 feet tall instead.

And many others! Actually, I'm the entire J-blogosphere, all bloggers and commenters. It's very hard work, talking to myself day & night! In fact, I'm very tired now, so I'm going to take a nap.

!HCAEMAS MIRUP GAHC

TEJ overview - please add suggestions!

2009-03-01T10:48:00.007-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote:

I’m going to start posting a series on this blog soon entitled “My Judaism”. Call it Torat Ezra Judaism, currently a sect of one person. In it I’ll outline all my beliefs, practices, and opinions in my Jewish life and my reasoning behind them. Who knows? Maybe we can form a new sub-movement if enough people agree with me!

Here's a draft overview of the topics that form my Judaism. This is a work in progress, so please add suggestions! They can be category suggestions, topic suggestions, revisions, etc. I look forward to your input!

I. Basics

God
Creation
Divinity of Torah
Miracles
Torah she'ba'al peh
Binding nature of halacha
Aggadita

II. Theology

Shabbat
Kashrut
Eschatology
Superstition
Rabbinic authority (i.e. “Da'as Torah”)

III. Social religious

Role of women
Tzniyut
Sexuality
Dating & marriage
Homosexuality
Torah study
Prayer
Synagogue
Secular studies/knowlege
Israel – peace process
Contemporary “frum” life
Kiruv
Conversion
Insularity/Racism
Relations with non-Jews
Materialism

Destroying a friendship because of an interpretation of halacha

2009-02-17T15:21:00.007-05:00

I don't understand why the OU posted this article on their website. Is it supposed to be inspiring? I was left with a sour taste in my mouth after reading it and sadness for the author's loss of ability to make her own decisions.

When a co-worker to who I was close died young, I went to her funeral, in a Catholic church, and mass was part of the service. I didn't feel any need to ask a rav if it was permitted. Liza was my friend and I didn't have to think twice about attending.

The article makes Judaism seem uncaring and closed-off. It's definitely not my Judaism.

Torat Ezra Judaism isn't Orthodox

2009-02-13T11:30:00.006-05:00

While wrapping up our tefillin in shul yesterday after davening, a group of us started discussing the Israeli election results.

One individual, a man I like & respect, started saying that he hopes Netanyahu gets to form the government and leaves out Yisrael Beitenu, since they want civil marriages. He took it for granted that all of us standing there would want to see the religious parties’ representation in the government maximized. And he was mostly right. Most of the men there either agreed or stayed silent to avoid an argument.

I ventured a comment that I think the religious parties in Israel have harmed religion there much more then they’ve helped it and most of my fellow minyan-goers looked at me strangely. It struck me then how far out of the mainstream Orthodox my opinions on such issues have moved. I support civil marriage in Israel, support pluralism when it comes to Jewish movements, and find myself hoping the Orthodox rabbinate loses much of its power.

That’s just one small issue in which my opinions differ from most American Orthodox Jews. At this point, my opinions seem so natural and obvious to me, that I find myself surprised when so many around me toe the party line.

I don’t think I’m really Orthodox anymore, if Orthodoxy is a social construct. I’m an observant Jew who affiliates with Orthodox for the most part and whose religious philosophy is closest to Conservative and whose political opinions are extremely liberal.

I’m going to start posting a series on this blog soon entitled “My Judaism”. Call it Torat Ezra Judaism, currently a sect of one person. In it I’ll outline all my beliefs, practices, and opinions in my Jewish life and my reasoning behind them. Who knows? Maybe we can form a new sub-movement if enough people agree with me!

Flatbush, Ohio

2009-02-02T09:41:00.004-05:00

My mother grew up in Borough Park and my father on the Lower East Side.

Borough Park, back then in the 40’s and 50’s, was FAR more modern than it is now. My grandmother grew up there too, and remembered farms there when she was a girl. But as relatively modern as it was, it still represented the older establishment.

The Lower East Side was decidedly “old world”, filled to the gills with immigrant Jews.

My parents, after getting married in 1961, being a young, modern, and hip Jewish couple, who were into B’nai Akiva, after a couple of stops in Manhattan, eventually moved to Flatbush, Brooklyn in the late 60’s. Flatbush was the young up & coming hood, where the modern families moved. They took an even bigger step in the mid 70’s when they bought a house in the East 20’s in Flatbush. That was the frontier then.

Of course, that area is now filled with black hats. And while my parents still see themselves as modern, it’s of the decidedly yeshivish leaning type. That’s still different from many of their formerly modern peers, who jumped into the yeshivish world with both feet as their children frummed out.

“Flatbush” once represented the young, hip, quasi suburban modern Orthodox Judaism. But as time went by, Flatbush was forced further & further out. Flatbush has tried to make a stand in Riverdale, and in a handful of communities in New Jersey, such as Teaneck, or Highland Park, but the yeshivish influence is never far behind, and has made its presence known. Flatbush doesn’t just represent what the actual Flatbush was like in the 60’s and 70’s, but what it might have become, the natural evolution of the attitudes that once prevailed there, such as evolution of greater roles for women, from the roots of the original Flatbush women’s minyan, for instance.

I currently live in Flatbush. Not geographically, as I’m over 500 miles away. But in one of the small communities of the vast middle of the USA, places where the day schools, the mikvaot, the va’adei ha’ir, and the eruvin are all run by the firmly Modern Orthodox, where the MO community dialogues and cooperates with Conservative and Reform, where women’s participation is given more than just lip service. Those places are where Flatbush has gone.

I live in Flatbush, Ohio. Do you live in a Flatbush? If so, tell us about it!

The mouse? It'll never catch on!

2009-01-18T09:27:00.003-05:00

Famed computer industry analyst and commenter John C Dvorak on the new Apple Macintosh computer, 25 years ago, in 1984:

The nature of the personal computer is simply not fully understood by companies like Apple (or anyone else for that matter). Apple makes the arrogant assumption of thinking that it knows what you want and need. It, unfortunately, leaves the “why” out of the equation — as in “why would I want this?” The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I dont want one of these new fangled devices.

Surreal hero worship

2009-01-16T16:45:00.003-05:00

Has the press gone nuts?

In the wake of the Hudson River plane crash, in which no one was killed, the press is falling over itself to anoint the pilot of the plane, Chesley Sullenberger, for sainthood.

At one point, an interview with his wife, standing in the driveway of her home with her daughters by her side, was the featured video front & center as the main story on the MSNBC website. What was revealed in the interview? That he wife was shocked by the crash and is waiting her husband’s return home.

Sometime around midmorning, New York’s Mayor Bloomberg dubbed Sullenberger a “hero” (before even preliminary results of the crash investigation have been revealed) and the press jumped on board headfirst.

Getting stranger, Sullenberger’s grade school in Texas improperly released his school records to the public in the rush of interest today. In a staggering display of hypocrisy, Fox News reported on this story, reported some of the grades, displayed a picture of his transcript, and then chided, in a caption next to the image: “his school district gets an "F" for making his academic records public.”

I’m not denying that this pilot’s quick thinking may have saved lives. But this bizarre wholesale coronation of the ultimate hero, with no pause to find out anything of substance about what happened, is surreal to say the least. Is it any wonder most Americans don’t trust the press?

Dismayed at death in Gaza

2009-01-13T13:49:00.005-05:00

I support the Israeli action in Gaza. There is very little moral gray area in the necessity of doing this. Israel has been attacked again and again by an entity which targets her civilians and wants to destroy her. There is no moral equivalence here. Hamas targets civilians in unprovoked attacks as a strategy and hides behind its own civilians. Israel is simply trying to protect herself and makes every attempt to minimize civilian casualties on the other side while doing so.

Unfortunately, much of the world doesn’t see it that way. And so the patriotic spirit of Jews worldwide has risen and voices have been raised strongly in defense of Israel, as they need to be. But there is one unintended casualty of such strong defense of Israel. It is our own sense of horror at the death and destruction that Israel is being forced to cause.

We can understand Israel’s reasons for the airstrikes and troop incursions. And we must defend her against those who have a skewed view of the situation. But we should not forget, in the midst of our pride and patriotism that a real human tragedy is happening in Gaza on a daily basis. Hundreds of civilians have been killed. Hundreds of children have been killed or wounded. Israel has to do what it is doing. She has no choice. And the blood of those children is morally on the hands of Hamas, who has forced Israel into this and hides behind children. But we must remember that war is hell. It’s a slippery slope from saying that one doesn’t care about the civilian casualties on the other side, to cheering on those casualties, as I’ve seen some of the more right-wing voices have been doing on the internet.

May Israel be successful in this military action against her enemies. But may we not forget to be shocked and dismayed at each death of an innocent Palestinian, a human being created בצלם אלוקים, in the image of God.

Sex trafficking in Israel

2009-01-04T07:14:00.003-05:00

This morning, I was reading Nicholas D Kristof's article on sexual slavery of teenagers in Cambodia. To his credit, Krostof has made this issue, one that we'd all like to pretend doesn't exist, his personal crusade. It's hard to read the article. It's even harder to view the accompanying video, but it's important to be aware of such cruelty in the world.

The problem is, we often mentally and emotionally relegate such horrible things to far-off places like Cambodia & Thailand, where it seems strange and foreign to most Americans anyway. But the truth is, sexual slavery goes on the world over, even in western democracies.

And shockingly Israel is one of the worst among those democracies. I don't even need to provide a link. Just google "sexual slavery Israel" to see article after article outlining the disgusting and shameful truth, with women being brought into Israel under false pretenses, and are tortured and forced to "work" under terrible conditions. Most Israelis don't notice, or choose not to notice, this going on right under their noses. And for those who actually frequent these "businesses", a special place in hell is reserved for you. The best I can say is that perhaps these men are not aware that these are not voluntary prostitutes but rather slaves, with their entire lives in the hands of their pimps.

Thankfully, Israel has improved in this regard. According to this article:

Israel was among 23 nations placed on a US 'Watch List' regarding trafficking in human persons in 2005, the second lowest category on an annual State Department report. This year, in an assessment of the issue in 2006, Israel was one of 10 nations to succeed in rising to a higher category.

But the problem still remains huge.

Some will question my bringing this up now, when Israel is in danger and fighting a war against Hamas. But it is precisely at times like this that we cannot allow this repulsive underside of Israeli society to be forgotten and lost in the shuffle.

If Israel & the Jewish people are "Or LaGoyim" (A light unto the nations), this is hardly the way to show it.

Shame on Illinois Democrats

2008-12-31T10:39:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, scandal-ridden Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich did what many feared he would do - he appointed someone, (Roland Burris) to serve out Obama's US Senate term. The hue and cry is enormous - everyone on both sides of the aisle are condemning this appointment as illegitimate. There are threats by the state attorney general to refuse to certify the appointment and threats by the Democrats who control the US Senate to refuse to seat Burris. But it's far from guaranteed that they will be able to legally exercise that authority and the courts may overrule them and Burris will be seated anyway. And by deliberately picking an African American, Blagojevich has cynically put race into the equation as well. This environment is the last thing the new Obama administration needs as they come to Washington.

But the Illinois state legislature had a chance to do the right thing, and the majority Democrats balked. They had the chance to strip the governor of the power to appoint someone to vacant US Senate seats and organize a special election instead. Legislation was brought forth to do just that. But Democrats, fearing that a special election, right after this scandal, would possibly grant victory to a Republican, balked at the move and defeated the bill.

My politics are decidedly left of center, and generally, I prefer a Democratic controlled Senate. But they already have that control and this is only one seat. The Illinois legislature Democrats all condemned Blagojevich and vowed to stop him from appointing anyone to Obama's Senate seat. But when they had the chance to do so, they allowed petty partisan politics to enter the equation.

If they had supported the legislation, they, and any Democratic Senate hopefuls could have claimed the moral high ground. Their rejection of Blogojevich and his legacy would have been beyond reproach and the Democratic candidates would have had a better chance of winning. Instead, they played games and shot themselves in the foot.

And beyond that, they put petty politics over doing the right thing. Shame on them!

My first meme – 7 facts about me

2008-12-29T13:54:00.017-05:00

I was tagged by Jessica with this meme - my first one :-)

The Rules:

a) Link to your blogger and list these rules on your blog

b) Share 7 facts about yourself, some random, some weird

c) Tag 7 people (if possible) at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs

d) Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs

1:
I have a really good voice (I’ve been told), love singing and used to sing in a choir. But I have no talent for art whatsoever. If you ask me to draw a picture, it’ll look like a kindergartner drew it.

2:
I am a cyborg. I have a metal plate and 9 pins in my ankle as a result of a hiking accident at the aptly named Breakneck Ridge in 1996. (And am glad it wasn’t my neck!) I still set off some metal detectors.

3:
I travelled to France with some friends to see a total solar eclipse in 1999. Unfortunately, clouds rolled in just before totality and we missed it. But it was still eerie to see day turn into night so abruptly. Next convenient chance: August 21, 2017, across the continental US.

4:
I have an obsession with counting US states I’ve been to. There are even some arbitrary rules I made up, for instance, you have to stop in that state – you can’t just drive through a corner of it. Rest stops with stores count, but a porta-potty on the side of the road doesn’t. I’m up to 27 states so far. Most out of the way of them so far? Utah.

5:
I didn’t plan my career in IT. I sort of just fell into it when I was working as an administrative assistant back in the early 90’s and kept having to fix the code of a balky database. After the first few times on the phone with tech support, I didn’t need their help anymore. I still wonder what I’ll do “when I grow up.”

6:
Distressed by the massively increasing premature gray in my goatee I dyed my beard before my nephew’s wedding a few months ago. Nobody seemed to notice (maybe because, living far away, my family doesn’t see me that often) and a few days later it washed out. I don’t think I’ll be doing it again – too much trouble. At least I have all my hair.

7:
I’m a strict vegetarian. I haven’t eaten any meat, fowl, or fish, or derivatives of them (knowingly), since 1991.

Bloggers I've taggeed with this meme:

On Her Own

frum single female

Not much sympathy for Gazans

2008-12-28T07:03:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, after Hamas ended the ceasefire (apparently, lighter rocket fire for months is a cease-fire) and was pounding Israeli civilians with rockets, Israel began heavy airstrikes against Hamas in Gaza. Over 200 people were killed yesterday.

Generally I try to see the human side of the conflict even on the aggressors' side. The New York Times writes:

The center of Gaza City was a scene of chaotic horror, with rubble everywhere, sirens wailing, and women shrieking as dozens of mutilated bodies were laid out on the pavement and in the lobby of Shifa Hospital so that family members could identify them. The dead included civilians, including several construction workers and at least two children in school uniforms.

By afternoon, shops were shuttered, funerals began and mourning tents were visible on nearly every major street of this densely populated city.

(Please note that I'm quoting only one part of the NY Times article - I'm not one of those who sees unfairness in every article on Israel they publish. As a news outlet, they have a responsibility to report on all sides, and this article was fair.)

But back to my main point. I read the words above, and while I feel bad for any innocent victims of Israel's response in some generic sense, I'm finding it very hard to muster any real sympathy. Most of my emotions center around concern for Israeli victims of rocket attacks and a feeling that it's about time the IDF did this. Let's not forget a fact that cannot be repeated enough.

Hamas targets civilians. That is terrorism, pure & simple. Israel merely attempts to defend itself and has never, in the entire history of the IDF, has deliberately targeted civilians.

That is the moral divide here. That is why Israel stands on the high moral ground, no matter how many civilians tragically die in the cross-fire and no matter how the UN security council sees it. Let us never forget that.

I wish I could be sure that this response will actually work, but I'm not sure what other choices Israel has. May this come to a swift and successful resolution, with minimal loss of innocent lives, on either side.

Latkes vs. Sufganiyot

2008-12-24T13:44:00.006-05:00

The Jerusalem Post has this amusing article about the lack of latkes (or levivot) in Israel in favor of sufganiyot (fried jelly doughnuts). Some of the comments are funny too.

The author quotes someone's story on how sufganiyot became popular in Israel:

"It was the Histadrut guys, you know the ones from way back... They were bothered by levivot being homemade and not something that was sold in grocery shops or kiosks, and felt that something was needed to keep workers busy - particularly during the slow months between the hagim and the time dried fruits start moving. So they began to look for an alternative, you know, something that you need oil for but also something that people - and especially kids - would spend money on. Someone real smart came up with the idea of making sufganiyot a Hanukka treat, and bingo, a star was born."

Personally, I think both are a recipe for indigestion. Instead, I'll be making some zuchinni levivot later fried in olive oil spray. Actually quite good!

Whatever you choose to eat, have a Chag Chanukah Sameach!

NY Times article on how YU is dealing with the Madoff scandal philisophically

2008-12-23T13:54:00.003-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/nyregion/23yeshiva.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Interesting article on how faculty & students at YU are dealing with the scandal.

One non-sequiter: The picture of students in the beit midrash is labelled "Students in the library." I guess that's close enough - does anyone use the term "study hall" these days?

A giant Fonzie scheme?

2008-12-15T08:07:00.005-05:00

So it seems that Bernard Madoff invested all his clients' money in his own wealth and depended on his being as cool as "the Fonz" to get him through it. But unfortunately, he was caught by Mr. Cunningham. Joanie was so disappointed in Bernie, that he decided to turn himself in...

Well, someone I know really did think it was called a "Fonzie Scheme".

In actuality, Madoff's crime is his pulling off a giant "Ponzi scheme", named after Charles Ponzi, who pulled the wool over his investors' eyes in the early 20th century. For more, see the Wikipedia entry here.

Anti-Semitism under every rock

2008-12-10T20:15:00.004-05:00

Noam Shpancer writes a column in my local Jewish paper. He's an Israeli living in my city and he has strong opinions, usually to the extreme left of Israeli politics, and more often than not, I think he's gone off the deep end. But his latest piece is excellent, albeit written in his confrontational style. He decries the tendency to see antisemitism around every corner. I agree. sometimes it seems like fighting antisemitism has replaced the richness of our actual tradition for some organizations.

Here's his article on the local paper's website or on his blog.

I once knew a guy named Ze'ev Maghen. I haven't seen him in many, many years but a quick google search found him teaching at Bar-Ilan. Anyway, way back when, I think around 1990, he wrote an article on how to fight anti-semitism. Its main point was that we shouldn't moan and wail about anti-semitism but go ahead and live rich Jewish lives and that's the best answer. I found a link to the article but the link is broken. However, this site quotes part of the article:

"Surely none of you will tell me that down four millennia, and through the wrenching vicissitudes and savage depredations of exile, it was our appeals, protests and screams for equitable treatment that sustained us, kept us in life, and brought us to this season. No, my friends, our history teaches us a different lesson: that those who, rather than appealing and screaming, choose to build, to educate toward cultural and national revival, to defy anti-Semitism not with Jewish pleas and Jewish hand-wringing but with Jewish learning, Jewish observance, Jewish strength and Jewish achievement-such are those who bring our people survival, salvation, a future."

Orthodox single mothers by choice

2008-12-08T10:41:00.008-05:00

I have several female friends who are Orthodox and single, all near the age of 40, (give or take a couple of years,) who had babies, are pregnant, or are trying to get pregnant.

It’s a tough decision to become a single parent, but I see no reason why that decision should be stigmatized by Orthodox Judaism. These women are opting for artificial insemination. While there may be some halachic issues, they’re not an insurmountable barrier. These women felt their biological clocks ticking and decided to go for it. They're successful professionals who can afford to do this financially and they have support systems of friends.

Instead of this being something that is talked about in hushed tones, the Orthodox community should relax its obsession with the supposed “singles crisis” and create an environment where such decisions are celebrated rather than looked down upon.

While there are many reasons aside from community pressure that a single woman might shy away from this path, community pressure and stigmatization shouldn’t prevent those who are ready to become single mothers.

How about an organization to help older single Orthodox women with this decision? If bringing children into the world is such a Jewish ideal, why not assist women to do so rather than closing off all choices other than perhaps marrying the wrong men because they’re so panicked about their biological clocks? This organization can help them financially, create support systems so they don’t have to do this alone, and guide them through any halachic problems and the process of artificial insemination.

I know a number of Modern Orthodox women who have mentioned over the years that if they reached, say, age 40, they would take this route. But now that they have reached this age, they’re not taking that step. It’s one thing to talk about it when you're years away from making that decision, but another entirely to make a move that they know will be looked down upon by most of their communities and even many of their friends.

One of these friends, whose baby I was admiring recently, said to me, with a look of happiness: “Best decision I ever made!”

Why should irrational community pressure keep potential mothers from enjoying that aspect of existence and bringing Jewish children into the world? I think it’s time for the Orthodox Jewish community (or at least the Modern Orthodox community) to make a sea change in the way this issue is approached.

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Update: TikunOlam, on DovBear's blog, references this post and examines an aspect of this discussion: whether having children is an altruistic act.

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