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05:23 am: Retiring Mesirah

The prohibition of mesirah is well known among religious Jews. The severity of this issur becomes ever so clear when we read in Shulchan Aruch that a mosser is dino ke’akum with respect to writing a sefer Torah (Yoreh Deah 281:3) and with respect to shechitah ( Remah ibid 2:9). Even if the mosser is otherwise an observant individual, and is meticulous in fulfilling his religious duties, because he demonstrates his rejection of the unity of all of Klal Yisroel (by his act of mesirah), he is treated as an akum (see Rambam, Hilchos Teshuva 3:11 and Nefesh Horav pg. 235).

If, however, one is guilty of a crime, and according to the law of the land deserves a prison sentence, or will be put to death, even though according to Jewish law his punishment would not be as severe, this is not mesirah (see Ritva to Bava Metsia 83b; Dvar Avraham vol. I pg. 8). One would still not be allowed to hand this individual over to the civil authorities because this is the equivalent of returning aveidas akum, which is usually not allowed. In an instance of avoiding a chilul Hashem, just like we would be obligated to return the aveidas akum, so too we would be obligated to hand over this individual (see Rama, Choshen Mishpat 388:12).

From here. 

The Hebrew word is mesira, which means basically you are not allowed to be an informant," said Rabbi Shea Hecht, a well-known figure in Crown Heights.
"In essence, I am not allowed to snitch, period."  From here.


As society changes, halacha has also evolved. Many rules designed for a different era are essentially defunct, through loopholes or the like. For example, it used to be forbidden to drink wine with a gentile or to break bread with him. Now it's basically fine, as long as you drink mevushal wine and eat in a kosher establishment. It used to be forbidden to drink milk supervised by a gentile because we were afraid that milk from treife animals may be added in.  Now, in many countries, there are laws in place to prevent dairy manufacturers from adding anything extra into the product and cholov yisroel is a chumra.

The halacha of mesira also needs to be retired, in the same way as the rules mentioned above.
 
The laws of mesira were designed to prevent tyrannical and anti-semitic governments from harming innocent Jews.They were not designed to allow Jewish criminals to avoid punishment. Regardless of whether chillul hashem is involved or not, Jewish criminals only harm our communities and should be subjected to the justice system, just like anyone else.

Think about it. Do you really think that God wants Jews to be able to get away with crimes that everyone else would receive prison sentences for? Do you really think God expects botei dinim all over the world to handle the appropriate consequences for criminal activities in the frum world? Do you think cherem (excommunication) for a money launderer or a child molestor or a wife beater is enough?

I read these questions on imamother a lot. This and this happened to my child and I don't know what to do. The answer is always to call your local orthodox rabbi before speaking to secular authorities.

In most places, Jews do not live in countries with anti-semitic and tyrannical leadership. Jews have no less of a chance at a fair shake in the justice system than anybody else and there's really NO REASON TO CALL YOUR RAV when faced with a crime possibly committed by a frum person.

Just call the cops.

Mesirah is outdated and harms our community more than it benefits us.

 

Tags: criminals, hashkafa, rabbis

08:23 pm: Don't Worry. Be Happy.
 There are so many elements of Judaism that are designed to make us happier people. All of davening is supposed to teach us gratitude and bitachon.  Every bracha is supposed to teach appreciation for what we have. So many holidays are dedicated to remembering the good things that God has done for us and continues to do for us. There is even a specific exortation to be happy- Mitzvah Gedolah L'hiot BeSimcha Tamid. Chassidim, in general, place a greater emphasis on the importance of happiness in religion than other groups.

And yet, I don't think the rates of depression or  anxiety (or even subclinical dissatisfaction) in frum and chassidic communities are lower than those rates in the rest of the population. Why is that?

One option is that the frum Jewish lifestyle is considerably more difficult and more stressful than that of the rest of society. Tuition, lack of heteirim for birth control,  limited secular education, poverty, high cost of kosher food- these all stress us out. So davening and brachos helps but not enough and without those supports, frum people would be even more depressed. Do you think that's true? That frum people have a harder life than everyone else and that explains this discrepancy?

Another option is that davening and brachos and all of this just don't work. Do they not work because frum people don't do these things correctly- they don't have enough kavanah, they mumble their brachos, they don't learn chassidus before davening, they don't think about the meaning behind yomim tovim? Or is it because davening just doesn't work, period?  It's not yoga enough?

Is it because anxiety and depression are clinical disorders and prayer isn't going to help, much like praying isn't going to cure your cold? Is it because people tend to have set personalities and religious observance isn't going to change that personality trait much one way or the other?

Or am I totally wrong and frum people ARE actually more cheerful and less anxious than everyone else?

Those of you who daven and say brachos and learn chassidus before davening- do you find that this really affects how happy and content you are with your life?

Those of you who have experience with anxiety and/ or depression, how do davening and yomim tovim and brachos affect your condition? Do you feel more anxious and depressed at the thought of getting up for minyan at 6 am? Do you feel that davening calms and relaxes you? Or are you stressed out because it just makes you late for work? Is it a mix, with the negatives and positives balancing themselves out?
 
Those of you who do not daven, do not say brachos, do not care about chassidus or yomim tovim- do you feel more anxious and depressed about your life? When bad things happen ( ex. lose your job) do you start to think "Gam Zu Le-," and then remember, "oh, yeah, I don't really believe all that," and then get upset, secretly wishing you still had some sort of wellspring of helpful sayings to draw from?   

Tags: hashkafa, science, shabbos, shul

09:46 pm: The Beginning...and the End.

When I was young and naive, I thought that only wicked, selfish women had abortions. I even looked down on those who had to take birth control, thinking they were weak and spoiled.

Then I began to work in special ed. and saw children with severe, horrible disabilities and malformations and parents whose lives were forever changed. Children whose biggest accomplishment in life was going to be to learn to roll over or sit up. Or to survive until their first birthday. Parents who were wiped out from running from specialist to specialist searching for an impossible cure. Parents who owed hundreds of thousands of dollars for treatments that got them nowhere.  

Around that time was when I realized that if those mothers found out early and wanted to abort, they should have that option. Not one of us would know what we would do until we are in that situation.  And so not one of us should judge and pretend that we know what God wants. Not the doctors, not the congressmen in Washington, not Justices Scalia and Thomas, not the rabbonim.

Now I have a part-time job. Once or twice a week I do a night shift at an assisted living facility. My client is a 95 year old woman and I stay with her at night and clean her when she soils herself and calm her down when she starts crying. She cries a lot. She is constantly confused and scared. She often asks me where her mother is and who I am and where she is. She has cancer of the lungs and of the brain. Her uterus is disintegrating and she depends on the kindness of whoever is working that shift to clean her in a dignified way. She is always apologizing for her bodily functions, that is, whenever she is lucid enough to realize what happened.


The more I work with her, the more I can't imagine myself in that position. Humiliated, dependent, confused, anxious. With no end in sight.

We should all have the choice of opting out. We should be able to ask for an extra dosage of whatever pill will put us out of our misery or to plan for a doctor to help us do that when we cannot do it ourselves.   

Euthanasia is open to many problems and much potential abuse, but so is anything in life. Yes, it is possible that wicked children will try to skimp on grandma's care just to get into her will early. Yes, it is possible that wicked governments will set up death panels to save on healthcare costs. So what? Similar risks are inherent in any important decision- if you choose to have children, for example, there are so many things that could go wrong, so much potential for harm. Any decision carries risks.  

And the frum arguments just don't cut it. Life is precious and life belongs to Hashem and only He can decide when the game is over. Yeah, well, life is is not always precious. When you are anxious and dirty and helpless and have no where to go but down, life is not precious. Why would you think God wants people to live like this and not have a way out?  What if in addition to all of the above, the patient was in constant pain? What if no drugs could help her and she was literally in pain 24/7? Would it still be God's will for her to continue her painful existence? Would it still be wrong to help her die? Why?

Sorry this is all so depressing. I'll post something more amusing next time, maybe about girls who are getting paid not to wear make up. That's pretty funny.




Tags: hashkafa, morality

03:33 pm: Whose Fault Is It?

Say I am an average gentile woman. Maybe I'm a college student, maybe I'm a soccer mom or a physician. Anyway, I don't know anything about Jews and have no opinion of them one way or another.  For all I know, Jews are wonderful, friendly people who have contributed a lot to society. In high school, I had a Jewish boyfriend who celebrated Chanukah by having a Chanuka bush next to his Christmas tree.

One day, I'm bored at work so I'm surfing the internet and I come across False Messiah's post on how Daily Halacha would like Jews to wash their hands after touching a gentile because gentiles are all impure. This is a little unrealistic, the rabbis recognized and so, Jews are not actually required to wash hands after each and every handshake, but if they do so, they should do it surreptitiously so that enmity and ill-will is not increased between them and their gentile neighbors. Also, one lenient rabbinical opinion notes that there is probably no need to wash hands because tumah can only rest on something that has the potential for kedusha and since gentiles have no holiness in the first place, there's nothing to worry about. Yay!

Like I said, I'm just an average gentile lady and I don't know that this "halacha" is based on the Zohar and that non-chassidic Jews don't find the Zohar to be a reliable authority. In fact, I don't even know the difference between chassidic, non-chassidic and any other type of Jews and I've never heard of the Zohar before today.

So I walk away from this experience a little shaken up. Jews, it seems, are pretty bigoted and xenophobic, to say the least. They have really repugnant ideas about regular plain-vanilla folks like me, like my family. In fact, they don't seem all that different than Muslim extremists who hate infidels. Maybe consciously, maybe not, I gradually begin to generalize and stereotype about Jews and Judaism and eventually I end up espousing some pretty Anti-Semitic ideas.

So whose fault is this? Is it my own fault entirely for failing to educate myself thoroughly and adopting stereotypes?
Is it Failed Messiah's fault for bringing this Daily Halacha to us? Is it Daily Halacha's fault for not censoring themselves a bit?
All of the above? None of the above?
Or is it actually a good thing because freedom of speech is important and it's critical that Jews know "halacha" even if it might offend someone? Or is it all good because now gentiles will really know the truth of what some Jewish sects think of them?

Tags: gentiles, hashkafa, kabbalah fluff

06:15 pm: The Year of Living Biblically

Here's the book review part: This book is great. Funny, sad, clever, all you could ask for in a book about religion.

Here's the discussion part: The author, like me, does not understand why the Torah speaks in code. For example, he finds a halacha (Devarim 25:11-12) in which a woman who protects her husband from a beating (by grabbing the assailant by his balls) is punished by having her hand chopped off. He finds out that this is not meant to be taken literally and is just a rule against embarrassing people and the wife's hand is not actually chopped off, she just has to pay a fine. So the author is perplexed. Why does the Torah speak in code and couldn't have just said Rule #387: Don't embarrass people ? He searches and searches and the best he gets is an answer from Aish, from Noah Weinberg. Ready? Here's the answer: Life is a jigsaw puzzle. The joy and the challenge of life -and the Bible- is figuring things out. if a jigsaw puzzle came numbered, you'd return it to the store. 

Agh. Rabbi Weinberg.  
How many things are wrong with this argument? Let us count.

1. Is the Torah a jigsaw puzzle or an instruction manual? Let's get the analogies straight.  

If you are postulating that a Being created the world with a goal in mind and provided the world with an instruction manual as to how to achieve that goal, it is counterintuitive to accept that the Being is going to write the manual in code, which you are not going to understand without additional supplements. An instruction manual is written clearly and simply, so that an average person can understand and follow the directions. It is not written in code. In contrast, a jigsaw puzzle is for play, a hobby. It is not something to base your life on. People do not live their lives by jigsaw puzzles.

2. Writing that the woman gets her hand chopped off directly contradicts the assertion that she just has to pay a fine. If I bought a jigsaw puzzle where the numbers were opposite from what they were supposed to be to complete the puzzle, I would, um, return the puzzle and file a complaint.

3. There are so many things spelled out in great detail in the Chumash. Things that were relevant for only a tiny portion of Jewish history, such as rules about korbanos and tumah/tahara. Things that were never relevant to begin with, such as Eisav's genealogy or that each leader of each tribe brought the same exact offering for the mishkan. Why waste so much space on this and somehow miss out on writing important rules that everyone could potentially use?

4. Why does it seem again that everywhere I look,  the Frum God is trying to trick me? I look to scientists and they tell me the world is billions of year old and the dinosaurs died out ages ago, but this is a trick because the world is not even 6,000 years old and there never were any dinosaurs, Hashem just planted the bones in the ground to confuse the scientists. I look to chumash devarim where every other pasuk lists another death penalty crime, but that's also a trick, the sanhedrin very rarely condemned anyone to death because the laws regarding witnesses and evidence were so strict. Moreover, some of these crimes were just theoretical and there was never any case of a rebellious son for example. Now again. The chumash says her hand will be cut off, but really it just means she has to pay a fine.

Why should I assume God means anything that He says? He couldn't manage to dictate his word accurately, why shouldn't I believe all of halacha is just a game of broken telephone?

Thanks for playing Rabbi Weinberg. Please come again.

P.S. What is with this weird halacha? Ladies, if your husband/son is in a physical fight with someone, say an intruder, you wouldn't grab the assailant by whatever necessary? Is it better if I just shoot him?

Tags: book review, hashkafa, parshah

09:44 am: Women's Empowerment, Part Two
In my previous post, mindycl wrote:

I'm just a little surprised that you even think women are empowered in judaism. we're second class citizens. were totally not empowered. Its not something I mind, I'm not a feminist. But your very premise puzzles me...I guess because I was raised in this man-centric culture and we women are taught to never be seen, never be heard, stay in the kitchen yada yada yada and I'm so used to it, that if I were to explore it and become resentful i'd be in a terrible place in my community, be looked down upon by dh and parents etc - it's usually the start of a rebellion which leads to going OTCD. It's just not something I thinkn about. This is how I was raised, I'm cool with it, and it's totally fine. I'm so not a feminist. I'm content with staying in the kitchen...
 
I want to talk about her post. It threw me for a loop because I'm so used to people insisting Judaism treats women equally. I think Mindy is a kind, sincere person who is doing everyone a favor by being honest about her culture. So, in constrast to my usual policy, I will have to delete insulting comments about her and her derech. But I want to discuss what she wrote. So here are the questions I'm interested in, please feel free to respond or add:

1. Do you think this view of women is limited just to that particular branch of Orthodoxy? Mindy belongs to a non-chabad chassidic group, maybe Satmar, I'm not sure. Do you think only her group sees women as second-class citizens? Or do you think this is actually a perspective held by most Orthodox adherents and some of them hide it better than others? Or do you think that Judaism is changing, but some groups specifically choose to hold on to the social norms of  the pre-feminist days? How does halacha figure into this? How are halachos which reflect negatively on women's roles adhered to or minimized or changed?

2. Do you think God could condone a hierarchial system like this? In other words, if there is a God and He created the world, do you think that He could have set up a system in which women are meant to be subservient? Or does God create all people as equals and  this is a man-made invention, something men of all religions did for their own self-serving interests? How do you see the curses in Bereishis, if you believe the text is Divine or Divinely-inspired? Is it just that God was describing how the world would be and that men would dominate women, but that can change with time or is an inherent, immutable part of the overall cosmic plan? How is this different than the hierarchy with regards to cohanim and leviim, which clearly seems to be endorsed by Judaism?

3. Do you think women can be truly happy and fulfilled in this sort of system? Do you think that most adherents of a group who are considered second-class citizens are just socially conditioned to adhere to the rules, not to rock the boat? Or do you think people can find real satisfaction from that kind of life? What about Untouchables in the Hindu caste system?

I personally think that the basic premises of Judaism is that women are second class citizens, because this was the social norm way back when halacha was codified. Most sects still follow that mode today, although some groups, like chabad, are very inventive in the explanations and rationales that they come up with. Some sections of Modern Orthodoxy openly reject some of these premises and have women's minyanim and so on, but they are considered fringe, a bit on the conservative side of things. I think God created people equal and all the hierarchies are man-made. But I think that people can convince themselves that God allows for these hierarchies because their social norms support that. So, in other words, if you have grown up in a culture which treats women as subservient and second-class, it's not difficult to believe that God set it up this way. What do you think?



Tags: hashkafa, women

03:56 am: Evolution of Religion- Technology, Wealth, etc.


So my Kallah teacher told us that if a woman does not examine herself with a mirror before tevillah, her toiveling is invalid.

I was thinking about this recently and wondered whether every woman in the history of civilization always had a full-length mirror  or if those were invented at some point maybe. What did people do if they didn't have mirrors?

What about strawberries? Apparently they all have bugs in them, which are observable with magnifying glasses or the like. What did people do if they didn't have magnifying glasses or any glasses at all?

What did people eat before the OU and other hechsherim popped up? Did they, (gasp, shudder) just look at the ingredients? Or did they actually make everything at home, including sugar and flour?  

I know they didn't have aluminum foil in the shtetl. What then? How did they make Pesach? No aluminum foil, no nifty fridge liners. Oy.


Okay, seriously, how many of our halachos are actually chumros developed in response to advances in technology and increasing affluence?

Tags: hashkafa, pesach

08:28 am: My New Kiruv Program : First Do No Harm.

I read a lot of Off-the-Derech blogs. A lot. 
Most have at least one thing in common. Someone frum acted like a jerk. More than once and more than twice. This led the blogger to thinking that maybe frum people were full of crap in general. And once they started thinking, they saw that the data could easily be interpreted against orthodoxy, against Judaism, against religion in general.

So here is my advice for all kiruvnicks, chabad or Aish or anyone else, not that you asked for it.

( Read more... )

Tags: hashkafa, kiruv, rabbis

01:06 am: Conservadoxy

With several notable exceptions,  Orthodox Jewish law has been frozen for the past 1600 years.

There is no Sanhedrin and no governing body and no one leader can take it upon himself to authorize important and needed changes. Instead, we all just cling to traditions passed down over the centuries and convice ourselves that this is authentic Judaism, this is Ratzon Hashem, because it is what survived and it is what makes us stand out. And then we teach this to our children who will in turn pass it on to their offspring. Presumably this whole situation is because our leaders today are so humble and modest. Two thousand years ago, Hashem's presence could rest upon 71 rabbis and they could decide the law and interpret the texts. Now, all our leaders are not worthy and God doesn't impart His will to anyone and we are all just stuck with whatever the last 71 rabbis decided was the correct interpretation of the law.

Imagine that American law has been frozen for 1600 years. No?  Um, okay, how about 150 years. Imagine that American law has been frozen since 1858. That means that you are right now living in a country where blacks people are considered property. Where women cannot vote and birth control is illegal. Where females are not allowed entry to universities and child labor laws do not exist. Where you can be fired for not working on Shabbos and where housing can be denied to you because of your religious beliefs or skin color or marital status. You'd like to change some of these rules because they seem unfair. Maybe re-interpret some of the texts. But you can't. Because it's frozen so too bad. You make yourself feel better by saying that you accept "the whole system"- there are parts that you like and parts that you like less and it's a trade-off.  

Is that the will of God? A frozen system? Or does the will of God somehow change as society evolves? Why does Judaism fail to evolve and change while retaining its unique characteristics, whereas other systems, such as American law, seems to be able to do so with relative ease? Would Judaism fall apart completely if women were permitted to be rabbis? Or if  "do not light a fire on the sabbath day" was not interpreted to include electricity? Why?

 

Tags: hashkafa, rabbis, shabbos, women

09:57 pm: And here come the explanations...

So Jesus didn't die to atone for our sins, but apparently the Holtzbergs did.


To be honest, as explanations go,  it's no worse than any of the other ones. 
The simplistic answers are all useless and any decent spiritual leader should just reply that we don't know and are not going to find out anytime soon.

Tags: bad things to good people, hashkafa, news

08:14 pm: Why are You Religious...

Chaya Welner has finished her second year of studies at Machon Chana. She gave a speech at the Neshei Chabad Chof Bais Shvat convention in January 2008 and the content of the speech was reprinted in the most recent Neshei Newsletter. So here are Chaya's thoughts on why we choose religion.

...A life without Torah and Chassidus is really a life of fear. Imagine a world where no one is in charge. Life has no ultimate meaning or significance. it just happens: either because you made the wrong choice or you're a shlemazel. Good guys finish last. Cheaters do prosper and criminals suffer no consequences as long as they're smart enough not to get caught. All the good or bad in your life is a result of human activity; your own choices, good or bad and the charity or malice of those around you. The world is unstable and uncertain, and it is impossible to make sense of the terrifying things happening to you and around you. A person can become arrogant or bitter, but never happy. Happiness is for fools. Is it hard to understand why there is an epidemic of anxiety or depression, selfishness, chutzpah and fear? Young people drink, take drugs, starve themselves, overeat and abuse themselves and sometimes others in unimaginable ways. Doctors keep prescribing tranquilizers, anti-depressants, and anti-psychotic drugs, but nothing helps. 

The Torah, on the other hand, teaches us to fear nothing but Hashem...every event has meaning...everything that happens is from Hashem... Now life can be relatively peaceful and calm. It is a pleasure to be alive. 

So that's Chaya. She sees the secular world as a horrible, unhappy place where everyone tries to drug or drink or eat themselves out of anxiety and depression. She sees making choices as scary and morality, of course, is non-existent without Torah. 

What about you? Why are you religious? Are you also disgusted by the big bad secular society? Do you also practice religion because it frees you from making major decisions and worrying about their consequences? Is religion for you a simple system of rewards and punishments which ensures that the world is a warm and fuzzy place for all those who do mitzvos and study chassidus? 

Of course not, you will say. Religion for me is all about truth. I believe that Torah-true Judaism is the will of Hashem and that is why I am religious. Nothing to do with warm fuzzies or the scary secular world. But here's the kicker. How do you know? Maybe you are just telling yourself that line. Would you really follow Judaism if it left you feeling anxious and depressed? Would you keep Torah and Mitzvos if there was no Olam Habah and no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? 

Essentially, I think Chaya is right. For most of us, religion is the opium of the masses. Feels good and I get a nice chunk of Olam Habah/Geulah at the end.  What else could you ask for?

Tags: hashkafa, theology

05:56 pm: Visiting the Ohel
In the latest Neshei Chabad Newsletter, there is an article (pp.12-16) entitled, "The Ohel of a Tzaddik: A Gate to Heaven." 

As the title promises, the article discusses why davening at kevarim is an important, time honored tradition. It doesn't stop there, however, but goes on to explain that "we need the tzadik to intercede for us, because the illumination directly from Hashem is too great for us to endure...Hashem's presence is found within the tzaddik...a tzaddik in whom Hashem dwells, is compared to the Beis Hamikdash... this means that the tzadik of the generation possesses the same power to convey our prayers to Hashem as did the Beis Hamikdash." 

Okay, so if you are okay with the whole idea of intermediaries, the article is not bad. It compares the tzaddik, whether before or after his passing, to the Beis Hamikdash and then explicitely emphasizes that "you are not speaking to the dead; you're not speaking to the body inside the ground. You're speaking to the tzaddik's neshamah and to Hashem through your presence at that location. Just like when we stand by the Wall in Jerusalem, we're not speaking to the stones; we're speaking to G-d."

But as with all ideologies, the proof is in the behaviors, not the lofty explanations. On page 54 of the same issue, Neshei Chabad printed a story of the Chabad community of Daytona Beach and how they got a new building for their shul in 1998. Apparently, at a critical farbrengen (after the petirah), one man banged on the table and demanded silence. He began to talk very slowly with tears rolling down his cheeks. He cried out: "Rebbe... we know you are here and you are listening... as the nosi hador who feels the pain of every Jew and you do not leave your flock, please, we need your brochos now more than ever. For our future Chabad Center, we need a miracle now that we should not lose the property. Help us to realize our dream for  a new building!"  Needless to say, the shul got the new building. 

I just wanted to know if anyone here has ever addressed the Kosel in that way, asking the Kosel directly for a bracha or a miracle. Or maybe if anyone knows whether in the times of the Beis Hamikdash people addressed their requests directly to the building itself. Because it would seem that if you are addressing a dead person directly in your prayers, it kind of weakness your argument that  you are actually trying to speak to Hashem.

Tags: chabad, hashkafa, meshichism, rebbe

09:23 pm: Am Hanivchar, again
 
There is a popular argument for the veracity of Judaism and it goes something like this. 

The Jews have survived for so long in galus. A small nation, a tiny fraction of the world's population, statistically speaking, the Jews should have long ago been assimilated or destroyed. And yet, through all the Crusades, Inquisitions, Pogroms and Holocausts, they still survive and even flourish! All the while, the nations who have persecuted them vanish into the pages of history books. Where is the great Roman Empire? Where are the mighty Greek rulers? All gone, while the Jews survive. Here is another version of the same.

 I am sure you have heard this argument in many forms over many years. It is quite appealing emotionally. The Jews are a small nation who defy all odds and survive. This somehow proves that they are indeed the Chosen Nation and that the Torah is true. Presumably because it is impossible for the Jews to have survived under these conditions if God did not will it to be so and the only reason God could will the survival of the Jews is because they are to be a beacon of light for everyone else.  Some people like to tack on something about how this also means that Orthodoxy is the way to go because the Conservatives and Reform movements will become completely assimilated over the next few decades. 

 So this past Shabbos, I was at a table where someone mentioned the Karaite moshavim in Israel. I looked it up a bit and found that the Karaite sect, the small minority who took the Torah literally and discounted the entire Talmud, managed to survive throughout the diaspora just fine and are now doing well in Israel. They apparently have 11 shuls and 30, 000 members, if this article is accurate.  

So now let us apply the logic of the previous argument to the Karaim. They are even a smaller fraction of the Jews. They were rejected by Orthodox Judaism itself.  They were persecuted right along with the other Jews. And hey,  despite all the negative press and extreme adversity, they survived! This must mean that the Karaite way is the Chosen Derech. Right?

Tags: chosen nation, gemara, gentiles, hashkafa, rabbis

01:18 pm: Mysticism in Halacha
 
Chapter 33 of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch is entitled: Things Forbidden Because They Are Hazardous. 

Body sweat is poisonous, according to the kitzur. It is also dangerous to smell food and then swallow the saliva in your mouth; instead you must spit it out. It is forbidden to place food or drink underneath a bed because of evil spirits. And so on. It also emphasizes that the sins involved in dangerous things are more strict than regular aveiros. There are so many halachos like this. There's another one about how if you delay peeing, you will become sterile and anytime you don't go right away, you are violating a grave prohibition.

Now, I know that there are frum Jews who are not adherents of mysticism and do not believe in evil spirits and don't worry if a drink is left under a bed. Some of these people consider themselves modern orthodox and others are yeshivish or whatever. My main question to them is as follows: 

How do you differentiate between the different simanim of the shulchan aruch? How do you say, well there aren't any evil spirits anymore under our beds, but there still are evil spirits on our hands so we must wash negel vasser in the morning? Moreover, how do you know that although some things in the kitzur no longer apply, others still do? So clearly in 2008,  the gentiles no longer milk piggies and mix in their milk with regular cow milk. And yet people argue about cholov yisroel and many maintain that it is a strict halacha and Rav Moshe gave a heter for those people who have a difficult time acquiring cholov yisroel and we cannot rely on this heter in New York and other places where CY is readily available.  I just don't understand why you can't say that this whole issur doesn't apply anymore, just like the whole issur of swallowing saliva doesn't apply. 

How do you decide whether something still applies?  Presumably, if the rabbis could be wrong about the dangerous of body sweat or saliva or delayed urination, they could also be wrong about Cholov Stam. Or you could even argue that they were not wrong, but nishtanu hateva, times have changed and neither issue is applicable anymore. Same with women's roles in the community and other hot button topics. How do you differentiate?  Do you say that all these medical issurim are just advice? It doesn't really look like it from the language of the shulchan aruch, it is pretty clear that these things, swallowing saliva, delaying peeing, placing food under a bed, these are all forbidden, not just not recommended.  

 Also, is there anyone here who actually is makpid upon spitting out saliva after smelling food?  Are there people who don't take long road trips because they will inevitably have to wait for a restroom break? I don't know any of these people. I haven't even read any debates on this topic. Why not? How do people, rabbis, whomever choose which halachos of the shulchan aruch to ignore completely and which ones to fight about tooth and nail?

Tags: hashkafa, rabbis, science

10:07 am: A Story
Here's the story, in all its glory.

A woman nebech was niftar and left a house filled w yesoimim. The father as a zechus to the mothers neshume decided that the kids in the house - the yesoimim - should never say a beracha w out someone answering amen. One day, a daughter was home alone, poured herself a drink and then realized that nobody is home to answer amen. She poured back the drink and waited 2 hrs for a family member to come home. She then said a bracha and drank.
That night the mother came to her in a dream and told her daughter that her restraint of not drinking w out an amen being answered caused a ra'ash in shamayim. And that a girl in her class who has been diagnosed w a terminal illness will now be cured.
The girl awoke and shared her dream w her father. The father then goes to the diagnosed girls father and asks if his daughter is ill. The father shockingly asks how do you know this? Nobody knows. He tells the father the dream. the father says that his daughter is to begin chemo today. The father of the ill child runs to his rebbe who says do not start chemo - go for test again and they go and all is bh fine.
This story has been verified by rav yaakov meir schechter. Amazing.

From here, not surprisingly. 

So, as far as I know, there is no mitzvah to delay eating until you can make a bracha when someone else can say amen. No mitzvah like that whatsoever.  Therefore, I have just a few questions about this story. Please feel free to answer which ever question strikes your fancy as we have such an abundance to choose from.

Why would this be a zechus for the mother's soul, if it is never a mitzvah in the first place? Also, why end there? I mean, surely having ten men say amen to your bracha is better than one family member, who could even be female. So what if this girl would resolve never to eat any food unless a minyan was in her home to say amen? Would that cure all cancer in the world? What if she only ate foods that are mezonos or hamotzi and skipped the lower-level blessings all together? Would that help everyone in her class find their shidduchim as soon as possible? What if she went to the mikvah and dunked herself three times before eating anything ever? Would that help all barren women conceive? 

Moreover, who is this girl's deity? Why is He so arrogant that He demands to be acknowledged in this way and so craves people agreeing that He is indeed Lord of the Universe by saying amen? What's with the self-esteem problem? Why would He cure random people of cancer because someone else waited two hours before eating? Why doesn't He cure everyone who has AIDS and malaria because I had cholov yisroel milk with my coffee this morning? What if the poor girl eats something one day by accident and no one is there to say amen? Who will get a horrible disease? 

What if you had a parent, sadly, who was completely irrational and whimsical? One day the parent would beat  you senseless for not saying good morning in the proper tone of voice and the next day he would give you five hundred dollars for turning on his favorite television program? Wouldn't you put that parent in a nice nursing home, in a distant galaxy far, far away and let the caretakers on planet Krypton deal with him? Why are we still trying to please God, if He is so illogical and random?   

What does this story mean to you? Would you want your children exposed to a version of Judaism that thrived on miracle tales like these? 



Tags: bad things to good people, hashkafa, stupidity, theology

08:59 pm: Women in Judaism, Again, Sorry.

A woman sees a stain on her bedika cloth. She knows from past experience that this color is fine. She does not need to ask a rav. She simply continues her count. She needs to ask no shailah, despite the fact that she is essentially paskening for herself and she is nogeah badavar, a biased party.

This scenario is common and this course of action is accepted in all frum circles, even the most chareidi among us. 

So here is my question. If women can be trusted to pasken for themselves based on prior experience and knowledge, why can't they pasken for others or even for themselves in other areas? Many piskei halacha are just that, deciding something by comparing it to prior experiences and knowledge. Is this chicken kosher? Is this type of birth control permissible? Is this action allowed on shabbos? Rabbis don't have any special magical powers. They just look in a book and recall their experiences, like everyone else.

I know that there is an institute in which women are training in hilchos niddah in Israel.  From what I understand, it is considered very modern and many groups do not allow women to get their answers through them. Also, as far as I know, there is no such group in America. 

In any case, my question still stands. If women are too stupid to pasken for others, they certainly should not pasken for themselves and every stain needs to be brought to the rav, regardless of how he paskened last time on the very same question. If they are intelligent enough to pasken for themselves, why can't they do so for others?  If the problem is that women should not take a public role, that is also difficult to defend in this day and age. Some of those women who are prohibited from taking public roles as rabbis, end up as public speakers, doctors, lawyers, ceos, shluchim, principals, school directors and so on.

Tags: hashkafa, rabbis, tznius, women

05:57 pm: Dinner and a Movie?

This lovely article in Mishpacha magazine extols the virtues of the chassidishe dating system. At the mature age of 18, Zissy meets her intened for forty-five minutes and  they chat  awkwardly about his learning schedule. Her parents schedule a vort  to follow their next meeting and Zissy gets engaged to a complete stranger.  They meet again at the tenoyim and then again at the wedding. 

Of course, it is a wonderful marriage. They are blessed with 7 children and they live happily ever after. The system, the article explains, works wonderfully. No shidduch crisis. No burned out shadchonim. No suffering the inevitable humiliation that comes with still remaining single at the age of 23. Almost no divorces. Mammeh and Tatteh know best and if they pick out a boy for you, he is most likely your basherte. You just have to get to know him, but that can wait until after the chuppah.

Some questions, then. 

1. If going out only once before getting hitched is not more likely to lead to false impressions and inflated expectations, these posts that I constantly read on womens' blogs, the ones about abusive husbands, addicted husbands,  husbands with anger management issues, sexually incompatible husbands - those are statistical anomalies, right?  Those people who write about how they were misled by the shidduch system are all lying, probably. Or just not chassidish enough. Maybe they are yeshivish or modern orthodox, lo aleinu.

2. The low divorce rate in these communities couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that  many women are discouraged from getting a higher education, well-paying jobs and even driving a car, in some communities, right?  It couldn't have anything to do with the difficulties of obtaining a get or figuring out how to provide for 7 children, those are just coincidences, right? 

3. When chassidishe mother-in-laws ask for the prospective kallah's dress size or  for a picture or other physical attributes, we can assume that this is part of the thorough spiritual screening for a chassidishe maidel, right? These kinds of questions have nothing to do with the rising rates of anorexia in orthodox females, correct? The meat market in the secular world has nothing, nothing in common with the meat market in the chassidishe world, right? 
 
Ok, now seriously. Do you think chassidishe marriages are more successful or do they just hide their problems better? My own position on this is quite clear, I think. I remember all the guys I was set up with and I shudder to imagine what would have happened if I had married some of them after the first date. As it was, I got married at 21 and sometimes wonder how more mature I would have been if I was encouraged to wait a few more years. Maybe some problems could have been avoided.

On a related note, I recently read about a Beis Yaakov school which set up a tehillim roster for its recent graduates. All of the girls in 11th grade make sure to complete the entire tehillim daily so that the recent graduates will be zoche to find their basherte soon, in our days, amen, selah. Reading that reminded me of why I am never going to encourage my daughter to go through this system. Can you imagine someone praying for you to get married at 18 so you shouldn't have to wait until you are off the shelf at 23? Ugh. 
 

Tags: hashkafa, shidduchim

07:21 am:  From a recent mailing to my home:

Chaim and Yehudis.  Chaim and Yehudis felt the pinch as the price of leben, milk, eggs, butter and bread kept rising. Reb Chaim, the author of two seforim, is trying hard to avoid cutting out any of those foods from his children's meager breakfast, and so, he skips breakfast.

This trend was uncovered by the Rosh Kollel in Yerushalayim, Rabbi Yosef Aryeh Deutsch. One day, during the midmorning session, he politely asked his scholars in residence if they had eaten breakfast. He was shocked to learn that 85 percent hadn't eaten at all. Why? They didn't want to take away food from their children. 

The Rosh Kollel immediately took action. He realized that full time Torah learning was never meant to be a way of life for thousands of people. He realized that many women (and men) entered the kollel lifestyle under false impressions and that when they figure out that they actually didn't want to starve, it is usually too late to do anything about a solid education and job. He immediately  cancelled his kollel and had all of his students enroll in a vocational program which would enable the young men to support their families in a respectable manner. The program also had a nightly shiur and the young men were expected to attend 1-2x weekly. Many of his students learned computers or other skills and began providing breakfast for their own families, as well as lunch and supper. This program has been so successful that we wanted to replicate it with your help! Please send your checks to...

Okay, just kidding. A little humor for your day. No, the Rosh Kollel did not dismantle his yeshiva and send everyone to get vocational training. Instead he started a breakfast program which gives the young men breakfast, thereby energizing them and maximizing their abilities for productive Torah study. And the letter went to say that they respectfully request I increase my level of support for their kollel and breakfast program.  

I just thought I would give an example of a letter from a yeshiva which would not go immediately into the trash.  

Tags: hashkafa, kollel

09:47 pm: My Simple Plan to Save the World
 
This blog has a faithful reader who is worried about me. Specifically, the reader is worried about the copious amounts of loshon horah I spew forth on a weekly basis. The reader occasionally sends me books or pamphlets on loshon horah. I have found these to be most enlightening.  A recent set of divrei torah, for example, pointed out that when Jews speak Loshon Horah, this gives power to the Soton. The Soton then channels this energy into... drum- role, yes, you guessed it, Science!  

From here:

Where did all this come from? As Rabbi Kessin has pointed out, if the Jews sin, then the Soton receives the flow of Divine energy, twists it into a physical caricature of its spiritual form, and gives it to the nations. In this case, the light of Moshiach, a divine wisdom which gives insight into the spiritual worlds, was converted into a body of knowledge that shows the mechanics of the physical world. And what is that? Science....

Since all the advances in science came ultimately from the Soton, who had taken the ohr Moshiach that had been meant for us, had twisted it into a force for understanding the physical world, and had given it to the nations, we must take another attitude every time that we visit one of those big-box electronics stores to buy yet another appliance. As we gaze in wonder at the latest super-small, yet super-speedy computers (far faster than last year’s model) and marvel at the latest that technology has wrought, a sad thought must cross our minds: “All this is but a perverted shadow of what was really meant – for us!” 

Says Rabbi Kessin: Look at the damage done by loshon hora. Not only does a Jew’s speaking or believing loshon hora enable the Soton to prosecute him and then punish him, but this sin also gives the Soton the ability to take the kedushah which was meant for us, pervert it, and give it to the nations, who then can use it against us. Furthermore, when the Soton is able to take from the ohr Moshiach, the advent of Moshiach is delayed, and he is able to continue his destruction in ways never imagined before...

So my simple plan to save the world is that we should all take great care to speak lots of loshon horah every day. That way, science will advance rapidly, much quicker than now. Cures for horrible diseases will be found, technology will find new ways to grow plentiful crops for starving people in third world nations, natural disasters will be predicted and averted, the environment will be cleaner, foreign policies will change and people will be much happier. Gas prices will go down. The housing market will finally bounce back. All because of the loshon hora that you and I speak, imagine that! 

So let's divide up the day. I will be happy to take the 9am-12pm slot and talk loshon horah for at least those three hours every day. Anyone else? Come on, I know it's hard, but it is for the greater good.

Tags: hashkafa, science

06:31 am: Abstinence
On  a women's forum, there was a recent discussion about birth control. A chassidic ( non-chabad) poster explained that her rebbi does not allow IUDs for halachic reasons and pills because they are not healthy. So what this woman does is (on the advice of her rebbi) go for multiple ultrasounds a month, monitors her fertility level in this way and abstains when the ultrasounds indicate that pregnancy may occur.  When asked whether she has any concerns about the safety of ultrasounds, she replied:  I don't have to be concerned about getting many ultrasounds for the simple reason that if the XXXX Rebbe told me to do it, it is not harmful.


Out of all the stupidities in this story, which one bothers you the most? Or are you not concerned at all? 

Personally, I am pissed off that rabbis make up their own rules and then try to circumvent them and make their blind followers crazy in the process. There is nothing wrong with using birth control. But listen, Honorable Rebbi,  even if you think that birth control is halachically problematic, why would you make the woman abstain? Do you not understand that this amounts to birth control? Do you think that is healthy for the relationship? Do you think that having multiple ultrasounds a month is somehow healthier than taking birth control pills? 

In my next life, I am going to be a rebbi like that one, with many simple followers. I just want that kind of control.



Tags: hashkafa, sad and funny at the same time, women