With Shavuot starting Tuesday evening, I just wanted to address a point I see debated all over the Internet on blogs and biblical criticism sites everywhere. I don't know if I'm missing something, but it almost seems too obvious to me. I'll explain:
The argument about revelation at Sinai, when the Jews received the Torah, and were all witnesses to that fact, is that there is no proof to that. The logic goes that the Torah tells us that we were all there and saw it happen so because it says so in the Torah, it makes it true. The problem, as the argument goes, is that that is a circular argument. How can you use the very book in question to prove the book is indeed factual. In other words we say we were all there because the Torah says we were.
I don't think that is the proof. I think the proof inside the Torah is not so much that the Torah says we were there so therefore it must be true. I think that is the wrong argument/proof. I think the proof is the very fact that the Jews believed it is the actual proof. Let me clarify:
Everyone of us knows Jews. We know how pushy, obnoxious, overbearing and stubborn they/we can be. Moshe even addresses this point to Hashem when he complains that they are a stiff necked stubborn people. So let's put ourselves there for a moment. We have just left Egypt after a few hundred years of slavery and have witnessed countless miracles on our behalf, but still complain to our leader about everything under the sun. He goes away for awhile to rest and we create a new leader made of gold. Our leader returns and is a bit pissed about being replaced by a cow so he destroys the cow and goes away again. When he comes back, he brings with him a book that tells us of our history. In that book it says we went to this place and that place and did this and that. It says we were rescued in Egypt and it says we traveled in the dessert to XY and Z place.
We are all kind of sitting there listening to our history and taking it all in. Our leader tells us that we need to tell our children and their children about what is in this book because it speaks of our history and what we have been through. We accept it and do as it says which is now obvious from our very existance. Now, I ask you this as people who know Jews. Do you really believe if any of these things did not happen to them, that those stubborn people who first handed the Torah down to the next generation,would have done so? The Jews had no problems challenging Moshe and they did not do so in this case. The Jews I know would have been throwing stuff at Moshe telling him he was a nut and who was he Mr. Big Shot to tell us what we were to do. They would not pass down anything that he made up in order to enslave them just like the Egyptians did. They did not do that. They accepted what he gave them and passed it down.
So the argument isn't that the Torah tells us that we were there so we believe it because that's what the Torah says. The argument is that THE JEWS AT THAT TIME, ACCEPTED WHAT IS IN THERE ABOUT THEMSELVES AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM, WHAT THEY DID AND WHERE THEY WENT AND HOW THINGS HAPPENED and then passed that down to each generation, just like we all have had things passed down to us since the beginning of time. THE FACT THAT WE ACTUALLY ACCEPTED WHAT WAS WRITTEN AS TRUE AT THE TIME OF REVELATION is the actual proof-that we didn't argue the facts of the case but agreed that they were true because they had just lived and experienced them. In turn, they handed the Torah down to each subsequent generation afterwards as if to say-here is your history and you can believe from me it's true because I LIVED IT. That is what makes the Torah proof argument not only non-circular, but a solid proof to anyone who knows any Jews at all.
As for the argument that maybe the Torah was written and given generations later so there was no one to disprove what was written in it, it is an arbitrary argument. It is just as easy to say what I wrote above as it is to say the Torah was made up by some old guys 2000 years ago. So unless you can make that argument stick, I find myself going with the one I made above. Maybe the world was started in someones basement and just grew too big and we have what we have now. Whatever claims you can make about the Torah being written years later, I can make a stronger claim above because above is something tangible to base some facts on. Arguments to the contrary are simply arbitrary.
One thing is certain. Surely the Jews at the time of Moshe had more guts than we do today. They did not just accept his word blindly. They had experienced some bad things and were not just ready to follow him wherever he went. He had to prove things to them constantly and they became a thorn in his side at every turn. Yet, they accepted his Torah and the things that were written ABOUT EACH OF THEM PERSONALLY to be true and that alone is enough for me and should be for anyone who has an open mind.
For those who question this, look around you at Jewish leadership and our people today. Do you think we would have argued with Moshe or question the veracity of his claims? Of course not. We are a spoiled lot and we shiver at the site of anything different. I only wish that the people who left Egypt were alive today. They would stand up to a weak kneed leadership who would crumble at the pressure of their outrage. They would demand accountability from their leadership for cover-ups and violations of law both sceular and Torah and call for their ouster if they could not stand up to the pressure. They would ignore Rabbinical wanton orders and ask them based on what authority can they adopt such random edicts. I long for the survivors of Egyptian slavery who received the Torah at Sinai because they were history's greatest skeptics as their behavior indicates....and yet they accepted the Torah to be true and with open arms.
May this Shavout bring you peace, rest, happiness and a greater understanding of what the Creator of the World wants from you and all of us and may we live to see the final redemption with the coming of Moshiach speedily in our days.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Friday, May 18, 2007
Shidduch and the Gutless
If there is one thing that I cannot figure out, it's how we got here.
How did the Jews get to a point where it mattered what sort of table cloth you used on Shabbos?
How did the Jews get to a point where not having a job was a GOOD thing?
How did the Jews get to a point where the dress size of a girl was an important factor vis' a vi' marriage?
How did the Jews get to a point where a girl had to travel out of town so that she could go out on a date because the boy didn't want to travel?
In thirty years when Jewish historians look back on the dark days of Post World War II Jewish history, they will marvel at the blueprint that the Jewish People laid out for the destruction of a culture and wonder aloud why no one was there to stem the tide of disaster. They will ask the question how such a supposed smart people, could be so stupid. They will ask why such successful business people were not able to apply the same principals and logic that made them so successful to their own lives and those of their children.They will ask why no one did anything about the impending disaster of poverty and loss of community and will only be able to draw one conclusion.
The people were gutless.
Most were like puppies who followed the master. Others knew better, but were afraid to say anything so as not to ruin Shidduchim for their children and still others dared to do something, but were censored in front of the masses by the master because their bark was actually as bad as their bite and the master and his minions (or minyans) ran afraid....
Rosh Ha'yeshivas have taken the place of the community Rabbi and in doing so, have elevated themselves, on their own, to arbiter and soothsayer. They want control of our children's lives because only they know the difference between right and wrong. How in the world can we allow our children to be manipulated by Rosh Ha'yeshivas and do or say nothing? What does that say about us? Them?
I, for one, will not pay for my children once they are married. My sister always says" I won't let my children starve" Oooppps...you can bet I will. My children have a 20 year head start. They have known forever that they are on their own as soon as they decide to marry and that is the way it should be.
I listen to everyone talk about how we need to love our children and THAT is the most important thing. BS! We need to teach our children to be independent. THAT is the most important thing. We have enabled our kids to lead us by the nose wherever they want to go and then send us with the bill...Well not in my lifetime-never gonna happen.
How did we get here?
We are basically one generation removed from the holocaust and now our children believe that they not only should be living on our dime, but they actually believe they're entitled to it. My cousins son in law told me HE makes 3400 a month. Here is his math...His wife makes 1200, my cousin gives him 1200, his parents give him 200 (thanks for carrying the load) and the government food stamp program gives him 800. He asked why he shouldn't be learning with that kind of income? I don't blame him. I pity him, but don't blame him. I blame us. I blame the Jewish people who have bought into this self destructive behavior.I blame the parents who have given their children away to yeshivas. I blame the yeshivas who endorse this attitude and won't be there to take responsibility when this all blows up and we have homeless yeshiva boys and their wives and 6 children heaven forbid.
I feel bad for the children who get suckered into this lifestyle because they are young and naive and so many of them truly mean well. The children are caught in a life brought upon them by gutless cowards who know better, but are not willing to give away the power that they have.
How much longer can this go on??
How did the Jews get to a point where it mattered what sort of table cloth you used on Shabbos?
How did the Jews get to a point where not having a job was a GOOD thing?
How did the Jews get to a point where the dress size of a girl was an important factor vis' a vi' marriage?
How did the Jews get to a point where a girl had to travel out of town so that she could go out on a date because the boy didn't want to travel?
In thirty years when Jewish historians look back on the dark days of Post World War II Jewish history, they will marvel at the blueprint that the Jewish People laid out for the destruction of a culture and wonder aloud why no one was there to stem the tide of disaster. They will ask the question how such a supposed smart people, could be so stupid. They will ask why such successful business people were not able to apply the same principals and logic that made them so successful to their own lives and those of their children.They will ask why no one did anything about the impending disaster of poverty and loss of community and will only be able to draw one conclusion.
The people were gutless.
Most were like puppies who followed the master. Others knew better, but were afraid to say anything so as not to ruin Shidduchim for their children and still others dared to do something, but were censored in front of the masses by the master because their bark was actually as bad as their bite and the master and his minions (or minyans) ran afraid....
Rosh Ha'yeshivas have taken the place of the community Rabbi and in doing so, have elevated themselves, on their own, to arbiter and soothsayer. They want control of our children's lives because only they know the difference between right and wrong. How in the world can we allow our children to be manipulated by Rosh Ha'yeshivas and do or say nothing? What does that say about us? Them?
I, for one, will not pay for my children once they are married. My sister always says" I won't let my children starve" Oooppps...you can bet I will. My children have a 20 year head start. They have known forever that they are on their own as soon as they decide to marry and that is the way it should be.
I listen to everyone talk about how we need to love our children and THAT is the most important thing. BS! We need to teach our children to be independent. THAT is the most important thing. We have enabled our kids to lead us by the nose wherever they want to go and then send us with the bill...Well not in my lifetime-never gonna happen.
How did we get here?
We are basically one generation removed from the holocaust and now our children believe that they not only should be living on our dime, but they actually believe they're entitled to it. My cousins son in law told me HE makes 3400 a month. Here is his math...His wife makes 1200, my cousin gives him 1200, his parents give him 200 (thanks for carrying the load) and the government food stamp program gives him 800. He asked why he shouldn't be learning with that kind of income? I don't blame him. I pity him, but don't blame him. I blame us. I blame the Jewish people who have bought into this self destructive behavior.I blame the parents who have given their children away to yeshivas. I blame the yeshivas who endorse this attitude and won't be there to take responsibility when this all blows up and we have homeless yeshiva boys and their wives and 6 children heaven forbid.
I feel bad for the children who get suckered into this lifestyle because they are young and naive and so many of them truly mean well. The children are caught in a life brought upon them by gutless cowards who know better, but are not willing to give away the power that they have.
How much longer can this go on??
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
A religion of fear
Thinking back, I think I always knew it and felt it, but until it was articulated to me, I never understood it.
A few years ago I was talking to the daughter of a Chassidic Rabbi with a very famous last name and I mentioned that there was word out that the Rabbis in some cities forbid their people from using the internet and also forbid the bais yaakov girls from going to Miami on vacation. I was commenting how absurd I thought it all was when she quoted her father and said that the misnagdim have created a religion of fear.
Religion of fear. I never thought about that even though I probably always knew it. I thought back and retraced some decisions in my life where I'd asked for Rabbinical guidance and even decisions I made with my yeshiva education as my foundation.
Here's one I didn't figure out until I was 39 years old. I was studying Mesechta Sanhedrian and came across the description of Sraiyfah-swallowing of hot lead- as punishment for an adulteress. I thought it was rather harsh to be sure, but then the Talmud enlightened me on why that is needed. Sraiyfah burns the insides of a body, but leaves the outsides intact.
All of Israel has a portion in the world to come. The talmud teaches that sraiyfah is needed so that the woman can cleanse her soul and RETAIN HER PORTION IN THE WORLD TO COME by atoning for this sin this way, thereby cleansing the neshoma-soul-which gets burned up by the process. The Talmud states very clearly that the reason we have capital punishment in Judaism is because all Jews have a portion in the world to come. Hmmm...how come no one ever told me that?
How does this tie into the religion of fear?
When I learned Talmud and even Chumash when I was younger, I was always told there is a punishment for your bad deeds. It was always about "you did something bad, therefore you need to be punished. If you don't want to be punished, don't do anything bad". so we learned Torah that way in our lives and made our decisions with that somewhere in mind.
How ridiculous is that? Is there punishment? Yes. Is the reason we get the punishment because we were bad? No. The reason we get the punishment is to retain our portion in the world to come. Hashem is a G-d that loves all his creations and wants the best for them. The charedi world has locked G-d in a box and made him this unmoving, unwavering, unyielding, dictator who demands obedience at any cost. The followers of this logic bend over backwards to make life as uncomfortable as possible under the guise of "this is what G-d wants from me so I will suffer no matter the cost." Does that make any sense?
I remember asking a Rabbi about a job opportunity. I was young and naive and didn't quite get it. I told him about this job that paid very well, but I was not sure if wearing my kippah was the smartest thing. His response was that I should pass on the job because would I really want to take a job where my wearing a kippah was in question? He didn't tell me that the Mishna Brurah and the Chay Adom were of the opinion that it was no problem. I think I even knew that myself, but wanted some guidance just the same. Based on his advice I turned the job down and regretted it for years.
This past Sunday a man collecting for himself asked me for money. He started a kollel and it fell through and now he's 200k in debt. I asked why he started the Kollel and he said in his city in Israel there were only 5 kollels (im). Only five?? I told him that if a person really wants to learn he should learn as a single guy but should not be allowed to marry and effect other lives that will get entangled with his fantasy. He told me a man has to learn because it's dangerous out in the world. I agreed but asked him what is the big deal to G-d if you lock yourself in the Study hall and keep away from any outside influences such as say, I dunno, a job? Do you think the reward is greater for you than the man who enters the jungle and retains his foundation? Are you afraid that all the years of Torah study cannot combat the mean old world? I told him it's not logical...then told him logic doesn't always prevail that's why we had World War 1. He missed that reference because he never studied history. What a surprise....
I could go on and on. I am frustrated by the sheep who just follow Bo peep because he said it's bad for you and you need to be afraid. I long for the days of Ivdu Es Hashem B'Simcha...whatever happened to serving G-d in love...we are lost in fear and it has spiraled into a dogma that cripples anyone who is a bit different and paralyzes them into thinking they don't measure up because they need to have their thirst for answers quenched instead of being satisfied with a morsel of food because it is just the way it has to be.
Enough already. We need to find a Pinchas or Mattisyahu who will fight the Jews who are strangling the Torah and making it's adherents zombies and cowering nerds in the corner.
I, for one, will continue looking for those who have the will to stand up and be counted.
A few years ago I was talking to the daughter of a Chassidic Rabbi with a very famous last name and I mentioned that there was word out that the Rabbis in some cities forbid their people from using the internet and also forbid the bais yaakov girls from going to Miami on vacation. I was commenting how absurd I thought it all was when she quoted her father and said that the misnagdim have created a religion of fear.
Religion of fear. I never thought about that even though I probably always knew it. I thought back and retraced some decisions in my life where I'd asked for Rabbinical guidance and even decisions I made with my yeshiva education as my foundation.
Here's one I didn't figure out until I was 39 years old. I was studying Mesechta Sanhedrian and came across the description of Sraiyfah-swallowing of hot lead- as punishment for an adulteress. I thought it was rather harsh to be sure, but then the Talmud enlightened me on why that is needed. Sraiyfah burns the insides of a body, but leaves the outsides intact.
All of Israel has a portion in the world to come. The talmud teaches that sraiyfah is needed so that the woman can cleanse her soul and RETAIN HER PORTION IN THE WORLD TO COME by atoning for this sin this way, thereby cleansing the neshoma-soul-which gets burned up by the process. The Talmud states very clearly that the reason we have capital punishment in Judaism is because all Jews have a portion in the world to come. Hmmm...how come no one ever told me that?
How does this tie into the religion of fear?
When I learned Talmud and even Chumash when I was younger, I was always told there is a punishment for your bad deeds. It was always about "you did something bad, therefore you need to be punished. If you don't want to be punished, don't do anything bad". so we learned Torah that way in our lives and made our decisions with that somewhere in mind.
How ridiculous is that? Is there punishment? Yes. Is the reason we get the punishment because we were bad? No. The reason we get the punishment is to retain our portion in the world to come. Hashem is a G-d that loves all his creations and wants the best for them. The charedi world has locked G-d in a box and made him this unmoving, unwavering, unyielding, dictator who demands obedience at any cost. The followers of this logic bend over backwards to make life as uncomfortable as possible under the guise of "this is what G-d wants from me so I will suffer no matter the cost." Does that make any sense?
I remember asking a Rabbi about a job opportunity. I was young and naive and didn't quite get it. I told him about this job that paid very well, but I was not sure if wearing my kippah was the smartest thing. His response was that I should pass on the job because would I really want to take a job where my wearing a kippah was in question? He didn't tell me that the Mishna Brurah and the Chay Adom were of the opinion that it was no problem. I think I even knew that myself, but wanted some guidance just the same. Based on his advice I turned the job down and regretted it for years.
This past Sunday a man collecting for himself asked me for money. He started a kollel and it fell through and now he's 200k in debt. I asked why he started the Kollel and he said in his city in Israel there were only 5 kollels (im). Only five?? I told him that if a person really wants to learn he should learn as a single guy but should not be allowed to marry and effect other lives that will get entangled with his fantasy. He told me a man has to learn because it's dangerous out in the world. I agreed but asked him what is the big deal to G-d if you lock yourself in the Study hall and keep away from any outside influences such as say, I dunno, a job? Do you think the reward is greater for you than the man who enters the jungle and retains his foundation? Are you afraid that all the years of Torah study cannot combat the mean old world? I told him it's not logical...then told him logic doesn't always prevail that's why we had World War 1. He missed that reference because he never studied history. What a surprise....
I could go on and on. I am frustrated by the sheep who just follow Bo peep because he said it's bad for you and you need to be afraid. I long for the days of Ivdu Es Hashem B'Simcha...whatever happened to serving G-d in love...we are lost in fear and it has spiraled into a dogma that cripples anyone who is a bit different and paralyzes them into thinking they don't measure up because they need to have their thirst for answers quenched instead of being satisfied with a morsel of food because it is just the way it has to be.
Enough already. We need to find a Pinchas or Mattisyahu who will fight the Jews who are strangling the Torah and making it's adherents zombies and cowering nerds in the corner.
I, for one, will continue looking for those who have the will to stand up and be counted.
Monday, May 14, 2007
He got it right....
Thank you to http://jewess.canonist.com/?p=370 and failedmessiah.com for mentioning this blog on their website.
I will never forget it. Growing up in a small town, there were not a lot of religious people around and/or coming through there on a regular basis, so when my father's chavrusa from the Mirrer Yeshiva came to visit for a few days, I was pretty interested to what and who he was and what he was saying even though I was all of about 8 years old. I remember it, however, like it was yesterday.
He spoke about the Jewish people and what they had to do to move forward. He spoke about the Jewish people no longer sitting still and taking all the crap that the world was heaping on us for centuries and he spoke about Israel. He was passionate and very well spoken, but he waved off weakness with a Jewish wave of the hand while he squinted his eyes and made that "zteh" noise that Israleis make when they are short on patience. My father is basically a pacifist, but he could not help getting taken in by his Chavrusa's words and then let me know that he had heard it all before during their yearlong study of Kiddushin and their travels together to Columbia University. Only now it was louder and clearer and more people were hearing his message and seeing his defiance.
My father's Chavrusa was Rabbi Meir Kahane-ZTL.
Now before anyone get's all beat up about the ZTL after his name, let me just explain why it's there. I believe the ultimate witness to the truth, is the passage of time. I think it's all well and good for Al Gore to suggest that we are melting away, but like the early seventies when the Ice Age was going to freeze the earth because of xy and z, ultimately, time will be the loudest witness to the alarmist claims of the group think scientists that believe we are destroying the earth and scortching it into oblivion.
Time made a hero out of Menachem Begin when he made the sole decision against world opinion to destroy Iraq's Nuclear reactor. He was scorned and lambasted like a criminal and yet some ten years later during Gulf War 1, it was easy to see just how many lives he saved, but acting alone and in the best interests of the Jewish People. Time has proven that the left in America was wrong about Russia and Reagan was right and now time has proven that Rabbi Kahane was right on point, but the cowardly, arrogant and pompous Israeli government was wrong.
Let's review just a bit for those who are lost in the propaganda of the Israeli and American press. Kahane did not say he wanted to kill every arab. He did say that if an arab wanted to live inside Israel, he would have to pledge allegiance to the state and forsake any ideas of trying to destroy from within. Kahane did say that if you did not want to live there as an arab, you should be deported much in the same way that the arab countries of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Jordan etc. sent all it's Jewish citizens on their way after the establishment of the Jewish State in 1948-a population exchange is how Kahane put it. Kahane wanted theaters closed on Shabbat-I can live with that-I can go to the theatre the other six days of the week-and Jewish law to be the predominant law of the land-WHENEVER POSSIBLE. He also said that the Jews wanting to be a Jewish state and a democracy at the same time, could not sustain itself because at some point the Jews will be out numbered democratically and the country will have to choose between a democracy or a Jewish state. It seems like that time is near.
Reports out of Jerusalem indicate that the mayor is worried about a non Jewish majority in the very near future and is calling for drastic steps to ensure the tragedy does not, in fact, happen. Seems like Kahane had it right...all of it. He predicted that the Hellenists would be lost for an answer and thousands of Jews would die because of their confusion. He was amazed by the ignorance on the left and the silence by the Charedi on the right. He felt the religious sold him out-and he was right-all in the name of power. It was more important for the Chardei to have power in a government coalition, than to agree with him and back him in public, even though they agreed with him in private. It was a shame how the religious treated him and almost criminal how the government-in a democracy no less-outlawed him and now that same government is looking for answers to the hard questions he proposed to them some 20+ years ago. His international public spanking of Ahud Olmert on Nightline is a classic and can be found here http://youtube.com/watch?v=G0v1To8B4_A (I would provide the video myself if I knew what I was doing)
Do I agree with everything Rabbi Kahane said? I am sure not.
Do I appreciate his honesty and candor? Absolutely.
Do I think he had all the answers? No, but at least he was willing to offer solutions-albeit unpopular in the political and media arena-while most others would not...they elected to kick the can down the road...and now you see where it has led us....
Kahane may not have been popular in his life, but he has been proven correct in his death.
I will never forget it. Growing up in a small town, there were not a lot of religious people around and/or coming through there on a regular basis, so when my father's chavrusa from the Mirrer Yeshiva came to visit for a few days, I was pretty interested to what and who he was and what he was saying even though I was all of about 8 years old. I remember it, however, like it was yesterday.
He spoke about the Jewish people and what they had to do to move forward. He spoke about the Jewish people no longer sitting still and taking all the crap that the world was heaping on us for centuries and he spoke about Israel. He was passionate and very well spoken, but he waved off weakness with a Jewish wave of the hand while he squinted his eyes and made that "zteh" noise that Israleis make when they are short on patience. My father is basically a pacifist, but he could not help getting taken in by his Chavrusa's words and then let me know that he had heard it all before during their yearlong study of Kiddushin and their travels together to Columbia University. Only now it was louder and clearer and more people were hearing his message and seeing his defiance.
My father's Chavrusa was Rabbi Meir Kahane-ZTL.
Now before anyone get's all beat up about the ZTL after his name, let me just explain why it's there. I believe the ultimate witness to the truth, is the passage of time. I think it's all well and good for Al Gore to suggest that we are melting away, but like the early seventies when the Ice Age was going to freeze the earth because of xy and z, ultimately, time will be the loudest witness to the alarmist claims of the group think scientists that believe we are destroying the earth and scortching it into oblivion.
Time made a hero out of Menachem Begin when he made the sole decision against world opinion to destroy Iraq's Nuclear reactor. He was scorned and lambasted like a criminal and yet some ten years later during Gulf War 1, it was easy to see just how many lives he saved, but acting alone and in the best interests of the Jewish People. Time has proven that the left in America was wrong about Russia and Reagan was right and now time has proven that Rabbi Kahane was right on point, but the cowardly, arrogant and pompous Israeli government was wrong.
Let's review just a bit for those who are lost in the propaganda of the Israeli and American press. Kahane did not say he wanted to kill every arab. He did say that if an arab wanted to live inside Israel, he would have to pledge allegiance to the state and forsake any ideas of trying to destroy from within. Kahane did say that if you did not want to live there as an arab, you should be deported much in the same way that the arab countries of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Jordan etc. sent all it's Jewish citizens on their way after the establishment of the Jewish State in 1948-a population exchange is how Kahane put it. Kahane wanted theaters closed on Shabbat-I can live with that-I can go to the theatre the other six days of the week-and Jewish law to be the predominant law of the land-WHENEVER POSSIBLE. He also said that the Jews wanting to be a Jewish state and a democracy at the same time, could not sustain itself because at some point the Jews will be out numbered democratically and the country will have to choose between a democracy or a Jewish state. It seems like that time is near.
Reports out of Jerusalem indicate that the mayor is worried about a non Jewish majority in the very near future and is calling for drastic steps to ensure the tragedy does not, in fact, happen. Seems like Kahane had it right...all of it. He predicted that the Hellenists would be lost for an answer and thousands of Jews would die because of their confusion. He was amazed by the ignorance on the left and the silence by the Charedi on the right. He felt the religious sold him out-and he was right-all in the name of power. It was more important for the Chardei to have power in a government coalition, than to agree with him and back him in public, even though they agreed with him in private. It was a shame how the religious treated him and almost criminal how the government-in a democracy no less-outlawed him and now that same government is looking for answers to the hard questions he proposed to them some 20+ years ago. His international public spanking of Ahud Olmert on Nightline is a classic and can be found here http://youtube.com/watch?v=G0v1To8B4_A (I would provide the video myself if I knew what I was doing)
Do I agree with everything Rabbi Kahane said? I am sure not.
Do I appreciate his honesty and candor? Absolutely.
Do I think he had all the answers? No, but at least he was willing to offer solutions-albeit unpopular in the political and media arena-while most others would not...they elected to kick the can down the road...and now you see where it has led us....
Kahane may not have been popular in his life, but he has been proven correct in his death.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Well, as long as they look frum....
A little background on this story....
A boy about 12 years old is struggling at his yeshiva because the English is overwhelmed with nothingness and there is no respect for adults and teachers. His parents are professionals. Father is very learned and a well respected national attorney-A very righteous man doing huge amounts of work on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people.
Parents end up sending the boy to a co-ed day school where he does very well, but as he enters 9th grade, they would prefer he go back to the yeshiva where his two older brothers are. A few days before his summer interview at the yeshiva, something happens. The mother of a former classmate at the yeshiva-let's call her Yenta-sees the boy talking to a girl who happens to be in his class at the day school. Yenta the mother, knowing of the boys upcoming interview, grabs her cell phone and places an urgent call to the principal and because her husband is a board member at the yeshiva, she feels she can call the principal at any time. So on his summer vacation, she calls the principal and demands he turn the boy away from the yeshiva, because even though her son and the boy are the best of friends, she does not want his influence of talking to girls around her son. Her son is a true ben Torah and he does not need this kind of bad apple in the yeshiva. The one thing the mother has forgotten to mention to the principal is that she is making the phone call to him FROM A LOCAL (not jewish) PUBLIC POOL WHERE MEN AND WOMAN ARE SWIMMING TOGETHER. She, of course, SELF-APPOINTED ARBITER OF FRUMKEIT THAT SHE IS, can be there because she has covered herself up more than those "others" at the pool who clearly do not understand teh lessons of right and wrong that she administers.
Understand this. This self righteous mitzvah doer is relaxing her day away at a public swimming pool when she notices on the sidewalk some few hundred feet away, this boy, who, passing by a girl he is in class with, stops to say hi and she takes it upon herself to make sure the boy is not in her sons class at the yeshiva because her son does not need this awful influence in his life-being the true ben Torah that he is.
Fast forward two years. The boy is thriving in the day school after the parents resented the yeshiva's treatment of their son based on him being spotted talking to this girl by Yenta and her subsequent reporting of it to the Principal. He is a leader and a mentsch on his way to being a masmid. This past Wednesday, Yenta's son is caught by his principal at the local JCC leaving the building with his brand new girlfriend. The irony is so rich you have to wipe it away from your face with both hands. Of course there were no repercussions for Yenta's son because the father and Yenta are now both board members and the president of the school is their best friend...
So where does this leave us?
I don't really know when it started, but sometime in the past twenty five years, the religious Jewish people made style over substance the most important criteria in life. Funny thing is, it was this very thing that Rabbeim railed against when they gave their Thursday night schmoozes, decrying the non religious for the manicured lawns and their fancy cars, wondering why they turned their backs on Torah. How could they choose style over substance? They need to learn Torah to understand the shortcomings of their life decisions. Now, we have embraced their philosophy even though our people study Torah every day. Funny how that happens....
A few times each week now, I have men knocking at my door collecting for their yeshivas. My one question to each of them is, would I, in my three button polo shirt and kakis, be allowed to study Torah in their yeshiva if I was 18 years old? Invariably, they hedge the answer until, when pressed, they say no, I would have to conform to the standard white and black fare. When asked why, they cannot give me anything better than this is how a ben Torah dresses. Really? The Chofetz Chaim dressed like that? How many of these great Torah scholars know that we stole this get-up from the polish and russian nobleman. Chas V'Shalom is their response when enlightened.
It no longer matters what you are, it matters what your look like you are. And therein lies the rub...
I have so much more on this, but I will stop here for now because I have made my own stomach turn and another shamas is at my door....and just In case you're wondering, I do give all the men Tzedakah, but I always wonder why....
A boy about 12 years old is struggling at his yeshiva because the English is overwhelmed with nothingness and there is no respect for adults and teachers. His parents are professionals. Father is very learned and a well respected national attorney-A very righteous man doing huge amounts of work on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people.
Parents end up sending the boy to a co-ed day school where he does very well, but as he enters 9th grade, they would prefer he go back to the yeshiva where his two older brothers are. A few days before his summer interview at the yeshiva, something happens. The mother of a former classmate at the yeshiva-let's call her Yenta-sees the boy talking to a girl who happens to be in his class at the day school. Yenta the mother, knowing of the boys upcoming interview, grabs her cell phone and places an urgent call to the principal and because her husband is a board member at the yeshiva, she feels she can call the principal at any time. So on his summer vacation, she calls the principal and demands he turn the boy away from the yeshiva, because even though her son and the boy are the best of friends, she does not want his influence of talking to girls around her son. Her son is a true ben Torah and he does not need this kind of bad apple in the yeshiva. The one thing the mother has forgotten to mention to the principal is that she is making the phone call to him FROM A LOCAL (not jewish) PUBLIC POOL WHERE MEN AND WOMAN ARE SWIMMING TOGETHER. She, of course, SELF-APPOINTED ARBITER OF FRUMKEIT THAT SHE IS, can be there because she has covered herself up more than those "others" at the pool who clearly do not understand teh lessons of right and wrong that she administers.
Understand this. This self righteous mitzvah doer is relaxing her day away at a public swimming pool when she notices on the sidewalk some few hundred feet away, this boy, who, passing by a girl he is in class with, stops to say hi and she takes it upon herself to make sure the boy is not in her sons class at the yeshiva because her son does not need this awful influence in his life-being the true ben Torah that he is.
Fast forward two years. The boy is thriving in the day school after the parents resented the yeshiva's treatment of their son based on him being spotted talking to this girl by Yenta and her subsequent reporting of it to the Principal. He is a leader and a mentsch on his way to being a masmid. This past Wednesday, Yenta's son is caught by his principal at the local JCC leaving the building with his brand new girlfriend. The irony is so rich you have to wipe it away from your face with both hands. Of course there were no repercussions for Yenta's son because the father and Yenta are now both board members and the president of the school is their best friend...
So where does this leave us?
I don't really know when it started, but sometime in the past twenty five years, the religious Jewish people made style over substance the most important criteria in life. Funny thing is, it was this very thing that Rabbeim railed against when they gave their Thursday night schmoozes, decrying the non religious for the manicured lawns and their fancy cars, wondering why they turned their backs on Torah. How could they choose style over substance? They need to learn Torah to understand the shortcomings of their life decisions. Now, we have embraced their philosophy even though our people study Torah every day. Funny how that happens....
A few times each week now, I have men knocking at my door collecting for their yeshivas. My one question to each of them is, would I, in my three button polo shirt and kakis, be allowed to study Torah in their yeshiva if I was 18 years old? Invariably, they hedge the answer until, when pressed, they say no, I would have to conform to the standard white and black fare. When asked why, they cannot give me anything better than this is how a ben Torah dresses. Really? The Chofetz Chaim dressed like that? How many of these great Torah scholars know that we stole this get-up from the polish and russian nobleman. Chas V'Shalom is their response when enlightened.
It no longer matters what you are, it matters what your look like you are. And therein lies the rub...
I have so much more on this, but I will stop here for now because I have made my own stomach turn and another shamas is at my door....and just In case you're wondering, I do give all the men Tzedakah, but I always wonder why....
Friday, May 11, 2007
Why?
Why have I started this blog?
I am a religious Jew who is deep inside and I watch in horror as our people are torn apart from the inside and I can no longer be a silent observer like my friends and neighbors who resign themselves to the rally cry that "you can't fight city hall"
I'm here to say I can and will....I hope you'll join me....
Please feel free to leave your comments.
I am a member of the Jewish Community and until very recently a very proud one. My father is a graduate of the Mirrer Yeshiva and Columbia University. (bet that doesn't happen too much anymore) He has smicha (Rabbinical Ordination) from the Mirrer and has finished Shas (Talmud) 4 times. He is not Chassidish but would qualify, as would most of my extended family as Charedi. I have loads of relatives living in Lakewood (double digits) and "learning" in Kollel there. For the life of me I don't get it. What I do know is that my dad, the Columbia graduate, who spent zero days in Kollel, can learn my lakewood relatives under the table. I don't get it.
I don't get why we are allowing our greatest assets-our future-to go door to door asking for hand-outs. Rabbi Berel Wein points out that at it's height in Europe, there were less than 150 men in ALL OF EUROPE learning in Kollel. The back corner in Lakewood has FIVE HUNDRED. Think about that for a second. 150...why? Because KOLLEL WAS NOT MEANT TO BE A PARKING LOT FOR EMOTIONALLY IMMATURE KIDS WITH NO DIRECTION. It was meant to form, train, sustain, and protect the future leaders of their communities. Men who will be learned Rabbis and teachers so the communities that supported them will gain from that support as those men came back to lead and teach there. That WAS what Kollels (im) where set up for and nothing else. Ravina of the Talmud was a wealthy man who worked all day-no one today could withstand his Torah questioning. Rav Shmuel had a job, as did Rav Ashi, Rava, Abeye, Rashi, The Rambam, I do not believe I need to go on... This is a horrid joke. This is a crisis of epic proportions and the defenders and enablers of this practice will have a lot to answer for at 120.
Understand this please and read carefully...THE STUDY OF TORAH, not Torah, THE STUDY OF TORAH has become the Avodah Zarah of our generation. We must do something as a people to stop the destruction of our communities. We need to stop demanding that our daughters be mother, partner, caretaker, emotional supporter, and bread winner of a young family all before she reaches 25. We need to demand that our children be given an honest account of what life will be like on their own, without the support of their parents-will the Roshei Hayeshivas support our children if G-d forbid something happens to us or will our children have to learn the hard way that life is not easy on your own with no source of viable income. If that means we need to call out our leadership and hold them accountable for their failures, WE MUST DO SO-as uncomfortable as that may sound.
Lakewood will never return Charles Kushner's money. I would warn them to study in a few places in Shas, where the honor of the Kohein Gadol was bought and sold...I used to wonder how the Jewish people could let such corruption flourish at the time of the Bais Hamikdash, but unfortunately I have witnessed exactly how it was done.
We have allowed our leadership to work unfettered as we did at the time of the BH...we have allowed them to issue edicts whether right or wrong-and swallowed them full just because they are from supposed "das Torah" and therefore if it sounds frummer it must be frummer-just as we did at the time of the BH...we have allowed them to bring idols into holy places ie illicit money from evil doers with no remorse-just as we did at the time of the BH....we have allowed them to elect their own cronies and blood lines to sustain and fortify their own unholy behavior-just as we did at the time of the BH...we have allowed them to cover up their illegal deeds and those of their friends-just as we did at the time of the BH...we have allowed their defenders to out shout, dismiss, intimidate, and marginalize those with the courage to point out that the emperor has no clothes-just like we did at the time of the BH...I no longer wonder how well meaning G-d fearing Jews allowed corruption to take hold of their people without doing anything to stop it, because I witness it every day and now I know what Disraeli meant when he said, those who fail to learn from history and destined to repeat it.
We need to hold our leaders accountable as it says in Chaggiga regarding Acher-the sins of the "righteous" are held in far greater contempt then the sins of the regular man for they know better and still sin against G-d...We need to clean up our house post haste for if we just sit back and let the foxes rule the hen house, our fate and the fate of the Jewish people will be far more fatalistic than that of our forefathers...G-d have mercy on our souls...and by then the excuse of " but my rav said..." will be of no significance...
I am a religious Jew who is deep inside and I watch in horror as our people are torn apart from the inside and I can no longer be a silent observer like my friends and neighbors who resign themselves to the rally cry that "you can't fight city hall"
I'm here to say I can and will....I hope you'll join me....
Please feel free to leave your comments.
I am a member of the Jewish Community and until very recently a very proud one. My father is a graduate of the Mirrer Yeshiva and Columbia University. (bet that doesn't happen too much anymore) He has smicha (Rabbinical Ordination) from the Mirrer and has finished Shas (Talmud) 4 times. He is not Chassidish but would qualify, as would most of my extended family as Charedi. I have loads of relatives living in Lakewood (double digits) and "learning" in Kollel there. For the life of me I don't get it. What I do know is that my dad, the Columbia graduate, who spent zero days in Kollel, can learn my lakewood relatives under the table. I don't get it.
I don't get why we are allowing our greatest assets-our future-to go door to door asking for hand-outs. Rabbi Berel Wein points out that at it's height in Europe, there were less than 150 men in ALL OF EUROPE learning in Kollel. The back corner in Lakewood has FIVE HUNDRED. Think about that for a second. 150...why? Because KOLLEL WAS NOT MEANT TO BE A PARKING LOT FOR EMOTIONALLY IMMATURE KIDS WITH NO DIRECTION. It was meant to form, train, sustain, and protect the future leaders of their communities. Men who will be learned Rabbis and teachers so the communities that supported them will gain from that support as those men came back to lead and teach there. That WAS what Kollels (im) where set up for and nothing else. Ravina of the Talmud was a wealthy man who worked all day-no one today could withstand his Torah questioning. Rav Shmuel had a job, as did Rav Ashi, Rava, Abeye, Rashi, The Rambam, I do not believe I need to go on... This is a horrid joke. This is a crisis of epic proportions and the defenders and enablers of this practice will have a lot to answer for at 120.
Understand this please and read carefully...THE STUDY OF TORAH, not Torah, THE STUDY OF TORAH has become the Avodah Zarah of our generation. We must do something as a people to stop the destruction of our communities. We need to stop demanding that our daughters be mother, partner, caretaker, emotional supporter, and bread winner of a young family all before she reaches 25. We need to demand that our children be given an honest account of what life will be like on their own, without the support of their parents-will the Roshei Hayeshivas support our children if G-d forbid something happens to us or will our children have to learn the hard way that life is not easy on your own with no source of viable income. If that means we need to call out our leadership and hold them accountable for their failures, WE MUST DO SO-as uncomfortable as that may sound.
Lakewood will never return Charles Kushner's money. I would warn them to study in a few places in Shas, where the honor of the Kohein Gadol was bought and sold...I used to wonder how the Jewish people could let such corruption flourish at the time of the Bais Hamikdash, but unfortunately I have witnessed exactly how it was done.
We have allowed our leadership to work unfettered as we did at the time of the BH...we have allowed them to issue edicts whether right or wrong-and swallowed them full just because they are from supposed "das Torah" and therefore if it sounds frummer it must be frummer-just as we did at the time of the BH...we have allowed them to bring idols into holy places ie illicit money from evil doers with no remorse-just as we did at the time of the BH....we have allowed them to elect their own cronies and blood lines to sustain and fortify their own unholy behavior-just as we did at the time of the BH...we have allowed them to cover up their illegal deeds and those of their friends-just as we did at the time of the BH...we have allowed their defenders to out shout, dismiss, intimidate, and marginalize those with the courage to point out that the emperor has no clothes-just like we did at the time of the BH...I no longer wonder how well meaning G-d fearing Jews allowed corruption to take hold of their people without doing anything to stop it, because I witness it every day and now I know what Disraeli meant when he said, those who fail to learn from history and destined to repeat it.
We need to hold our leaders accountable as it says in Chaggiga regarding Acher-the sins of the "righteous" are held in far greater contempt then the sins of the regular man for they know better and still sin against G-d...We need to clean up our house post haste for if we just sit back and let the foxes rule the hen house, our fate and the fate of the Jewish people will be far more fatalistic than that of our forefathers...G-d have mercy on our souls...and by then the excuse of " but my rav said..." will be of no significance...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)