Reading the Tisha B'Av news
Reading the daily news is a good thing to do. It goes well with a cup of coffee.
Reading the news most days is enough to remind us of the churban. You can read about corruption in government, the rabbi stabbed by the guy unsatisfied with the bracha he got, the men who won't give gitten and the schools forced to close due to lack of funds. And that's considered a good news day, a day with no really bad news.
Most days we read these articles, krechtz, and move on because we have to. We have to bring home a paycheck, pay our bills, walk the dog and celebrate our kids’ birthday.
Going into Tisha B'Av this year it occurred to me how grateful I am for the halachot that we don't greet each other. I found myself in a beit knesset with a number of people who I hadn't seen in a while and not having to socialize allowed me to focus on my thoughts and on the issues of the day. In the same way that everyone understands that Yom Kippur is a day where we focus on teshuva and our connection with God, the halachot that free us from socializing allow us to be those mourners who, if they so choose, can wrap themselves in their own thoughts and in the sorrow that they feel.
I am also grateful that I live in a society that my boss understood when I told him that I was taking Tuesday off. I know that no matter what he won't think of calling me to discuss some technical problem or client (even though he would if I were home sick for the day). I can take the day and read the newspaper and not have to move on because today there is nothing more important than those articles.
תוויות: History, Israel, Jewish Society, Torah
Yom Hazikaron - two wars we are winning
Today is Yom HaZikaron, where Israel remembers all of the brave men and women of the Israeli Defense Forces who gave their lives defending the people, land, and Torah of the great and divine Nation of Israel. The IDF is as highly professional, civilized, skilled, ethical, and humanitarian as an army comes, and they fight on the clearest of front lines between good and evil.
The above was written by my good friend Jason Pearlman. Throughout the day I've been hearing similar statements of remembrance and pride. What caught my eye about his comments was his closing note "the clearest of front lines between good and evil". In thinking about it, I'm not sure that is right. War never has "clear front lines between good and evil". That is a large part of the struggle. To kill and yet keep your humanity. To be compassionate while still being guarded.
I am bothered by people who in looking to make liberaler-than-thou statements go out of their way to find the photo shoot or the news story of the IDF soldier beating up an old man or keeping an ambulance from crossing a checkpoint. They are seeing the exceptions and they think that it is the rule.
In a similar fashion I am bothered by those who think that the wars we fight are cut and dry. That we are obviously right and the Arabs are obviously wrong. All Arabs are terrorists who will kill you if only given the chance and every action done for the cause of securing our claim to the land is a just one. Life doesn't work that way. We all know this from our own lives - why is war any different?
Part of what makes the IDF great is that they fight the fights anyway. Both fights. They fight for safety and survival and they fight to raise up banner of compassion and morality. In my service I have seen so many times and places where soldiers, officers, and army policy struggle with the dilemmas of how to keep people safe and maintain the highest moral standards. It doesn't always work and we don't win every battle. But fighting those fights, to my mind, shows the beauty of Am Yisrael and it's army.
תוויות: Israel, Jewish Society
Yom Ha'atzmaut Emunah
Emunah that God would redeem us used to be easier.
If one were to ask a Jew in Hungary or Iran 300 years ago if they believe in God’s redemption they’d say yes. If you were to ask them how they will be redeemed they would say that God will redeem them and the details are unknown. There might be some eagles and wings involved.
The Zionists messed it all up for us. It is now a lot messier a topic and a harder question to answer. Today only the truly anti-Zionist Jew can give the answer his great-great-grandfather gave. For him, the world is in the same state and as such we wait for the redemption as we always have. The challenge is presented to those who view the events of 1948 as game-changing.
An Israeli family we know sent us an email invitation to their Yom Ha’atzmaut barbecue. In the body of the email they wrote that they were pleased to invite us and that dinner was called for 5pm. There was also an attached document which I assumed was a repeat of the email text in a nicer font along with a picture or two.
Opening the attached document opened my eyes both to them as individuals and showed me a different type of emunah.
Most unusually, the invitation opened with recognition of a challenge. They wrote that it is not so clear that we should be celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut anymore. Many people are unimpressed by the current situation in Israel. We've given it our best shot and the government we have is no better than the others out in the world and more corrupt than many. We have no clear plan to build God’s temple or to establish a Torah-based society. The great hopes of those who said Shechiyanu in 1948 have not been fulfilled and it doesn’t look like we are on a path to do so.
Despite our efforts to give the day spiritual significance and a religious nature, Yom Ha’atzmaut is little more than a day off from work, in a first-world, western society, where the celebrants happen to be Jews. Nu. Is this really a reason to have a religious holiday? This was the challenge posed by their invitation.
The response was a very honest and very religious one. Emunah – faith. The tradition passed down to us says that the exile of Edom is the last exile. If we see the events of 1948 as removing Jews from the exile of Edom by granting us self determination, then our faith in our tradition allows us to grant religious significance to those events. We will not return to wandering the earth, subject to the whims of other nations. This is the beginning of God’s redemption.
But as I wrote at the beginning of this letter, it is a different and perhaps more challenging type of emunah than that of eagles and wings. While in the past emunah in the redemption was in spite of the world beating us up, celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut today requires an emunah in redemption in spite of our own flaws.
I can understand those who disagree with the above position that 1948 was the end of the exile of Edom. In that case, today should be a lovely day for a picnic and they can continue to have faith that God will redeem us from exile at some point in the future. But for those who point to the current problems of the state of Israel and say that the Zionist enterprise has failed or that Yom Ha’atzmaut no longer has religious significance... Well, they may just be lacking a bit in their emunah.
So I called up my friend and thanked him for his letter and I bless us all with emunah to celebrate despite the flaws.
תוויות: History, Israel, Jewish Society, Torah
Asking Moses, God, and Yeshivas about Halacha, Hashkafa, and IVF
So the internet provides alot of anonymity. And it's great! I can search for anything and everything.
Among the few remaining challenges are: how to learn to find the needle in the haystack and what do you do when your needle ain't there.
Today's linkdump will include a few interesting things that I've found recently. To you they may be old hat but I feel they are good contributions to the online Jewish community.
First off is a
blog of a New York simcha musician. He gives wonderful insight to what goes on behind the bandstand at your wedding, the frustration of being a musician, and a bit of an insight into being a religious artist.
Next is an alternative to
AskMoses.com (the Chabad run ask-a-rabbi site). The BeitEl Yeshiva has open
halachic Q&A forums with a Modern Orthodox bent. There were a few other such sites I wanted to highlight but for some reason many were down.
A project that (I think) was just opened is a set of
information about fertility treatment and halacha. The Puah Institute has created a site with articles about
IUI and halacha,
ovulation testing on Shabbat, and the highly identifiable
"halachic infertility" (ovulation before mikvah). I think it's a good idea that someone is finally putting all of this information in one place. Warning: it does say that it is currently in beta-test.
I'll close out this post for now with one truly strange little yiddel. A fellow by the name Jonathan Rose has created a news service about himself. So he shares his thoughts, reviews and daily schedule with the world at the
JRNS (Jonathan Rose News Service). It seems he even has other people writing articles about him for this news service. Yet again, the internet shows us the best, the worst, and the strangest.
תוויות: Jewish Society, Music
Vayishlach, universalism and the non-Jewish world
So I'm looking to avoid my mistake from last year - forgetting to post this until the parsha passed. As such it's going up now, a week early. I hope you enjoy this thought. It was based on an idea by
Rav Aaron Leibowitz and became a devar torah for Shir Chadash (
R' Ian Pear's shul).
So...
--
Understanding Yaakov and Eisav is not so easy. In the text we have precious little information regarding the relationship of Yaakov and Eisav. For all the stories that revolve around them and the stories that medrashim give us, we have only two dialogs between the brothers. One, the selling of the bechorah and two the reconciliation in parshat Vayishlach.
In the reconciliation story, after Eisav accepts Yaakovs gift and things seem settled he makes Yaakov an offer. “Let us travel forth from here together” says Eisav. Yaakov responds that he can't travel quite as fast due to his children and flocks of sheep and tells Eisav that he will go at the pace dictated by his family but will catch up with him down the road in Sei'r. Eisav offers the services of his men, Yaakov politely refuses and Eisav moves on.
So Eisav really tried and tried to work with Yaakov. What was the issue? Why did Yaakov turn him down?
R' Aaron Leibowitz mentioned to me the Zohar's comments on this story and they are indeed worth sharing. The Zohar (172a) on these verses writes that this discussion has a subtext of world history. (The following is a paraphrase of the Zohar:)
Eisav (the nation of Edom) offers Yaakov (the nation of Israel) to go out in the world together - “Your brains and my looks. Together we'll be quite a team.” Yaakov responds that right now he has other priorities. He has children and flocks and must go according to their needs.
What needs? These children and flocks are the mission of Yisroel in this world. The children are the people who do the job and the nation's continuity. The flocks of sheep are the work to be done. Yaakov has different priorities than his brother. He looks at this world and sees he has a job to do and must move at a pace appropriate for that job.
Yaakov tells Eisav that in the future they will meet up. The Zohar notes the place (Sei'r) and reminds us of the posuk in Ovadiyah (1:21) “Volu moshiim b'Har Tzion lshpot et Har Eisav – Vhayah la'Hashem hamelucha”. Har Eisav is Har Sei'r, his inheritance. This is a prophetic reference to the end of days when we can be together - Yisroel and Eisav.
The Zohar offers us here our response to the world around us. The world offers us assimilation and wants us to join forces with them. It's a good idea and there is a time and place for it but not yet. For now we go at our own pace with our own values. For now, as Jews, we still have work to do.
--
So that was the vort that I shared two years ago at Shir Chadash. I'm glad I am able to share it with you here as well. This blog is a wonderful little outlet for all my different sides. Thank you for listening. Whoever you are.
תוויות: Jewish Society, Torah
Kids at risk of what????
"Kids at risk" usually refers to a population marked not only by abandoment of observance but also by engaement in socially delinquent activities such as vandalism, theft, substance abuse, promiscuity, and running away from home.
- Margolese, Off The Derech
Over the past few years one of the hot topics in the Orthodox Jewish community is that of kids-at-risk. Half of the people are talking about the problem itself and how we can deal with it and half the people are talking about how wonderful it is that we are no longer denying this long-standing problem and are facing up to the challenge. How nice.
After seeing many articles in newspapers and magazines about this phenomenon and being involved in chinnuch and with "troubled teens" of different sorts for close to a decade I have a question.
Why do all the articles/books written on these topics link breaking from religion to drug and alcohol abuse? The story is always about the high school kids from (Golders Green / LA / Monsey / Englewood) who stop keeping shabbos and are soon found shooting heroin in an abandoned house. Or at the very least smoking a joint Friday night behind the pizza parlor. Why do we not address each issue separately?
Fact: There is a problem of drug and alcohol abuse in our frum communities. This is true. This is a challenge faced, as in all communities, by teenagers and adults, by parents and children, by college students and by lawyers. As it does in most societies, substance abuse leads to disconnect from life, family and traditional values. We are no different, but in our community the early warning signs may express themselves as not going to minyan.
Fact: There is a problem of youth growing up and not connecting to out traditions. This is true. As they get older they feel that they are able to shed their facade and act as they want in public. This means that they are able to turn to their parents and so to speak, come out of their (irreligious) closet. They no longer keep shabbos or kashrus. This does not mean that they are using drugs!
The two are not connected! Yes, the problems overlap and coexist but correlation does not imply causation. (Just because lots of people eat gefilte fish and eat cholent does not mean that eating gefilte fish causes the eating of cholent)
There are two maskonos I will suggest here.
One, there is a reality of boys and girls who grow up in the frum world who never really connected and as adults walk away. This is a flaw in our chinnuch system and in our community. The response given to these children, teens, and adults must not only come from the substance-abuse community. It may not be as intuitive a response because the problem is less blatant, but these neshomos deserve appropriate help for their challenges.
Two, there is a problem with substance-abuse in our community as in all communities. The shuls that are banning “Kiddush clubs” should not only be doing it because it is bad chinnuch for our children. There should be an acknowledgement of these challenges for all ages. Perhaps community leaders and educators need to be even more vigilant regarding the adults in our communities who have the resources to both buy and use alcohol and drugs easily and discreetly.
Stopping drug use will stop drug use.
Proper Jewish education will raise educated Jews.
Please stop confusing the issues!
תוויות: Jewish Society, Torah
A blog is a writer clearing junk out of his head by bouncing around the room of chipmunks that we call society.