Can we Really be this Stupid?

If our enemies only knew how stupid we really are.

I have said that for the last 20+ years and as evidenced by the illogical Oslo Accords, our enemies figured it out and we have been on center stage making stupid decision after stupid decision ever since.

This morning's headlines scream out-"We are still the dumbest country on the planet"
"The government, in its Sunday morning weekly session, approved the release of 250 convicted Arab terrorists from prison, as a goodwill gesture to PA chief Abu Mazen. Only terrorists without “blood on their hands” are to be released."

We are doing what? Why?

I am stunned that the Israeli people-my people-have lived with this gutless sell-out for the last 12 months. His lawyerese gave Israel it's first Viet-nam last summer on the premise that we will not stop until we get our soldiers back. That lasted until George Bush told him to stop. Any sign of backbone? None.

Today he works to lift up a true Sonai Yisroel-Abu Mazen-who is a modern day Aisav-he gives us a kiss but it is really a bite. Does Olmert demand anything in return? No. Instead he has agreed to release terrorists "who have no blood on their hands". Why do they have no blood on their hands. BECAUSE THEY ATTEMPTED TO KILL JEWISH MEN WOMAN AND CHILDREN AND FAILED. Now Olmert will hand them a second chance to finish what they started.

But my question is deeper than that. My question is not why the Jewish people have stood by and let him destroy their country from within. My question is what about the religious parties? How have they stood by and become willing participants in a government that disdains them and all that they are supposed to stand for? How have they stood by and watched the imbeciles that are making decisions in Israel and VOTED WITH THEM on matters that they know are anti-Torah?

The answer of course is very simple.

They have stood by with their hands out and their "kadoorim" exposed. They are criminals by the purest of Torah definitions. They wear the garb and act the part, while underneath they make shady deals with the Aruv Rav just so they can line their pockets and remain in power. I ask again, in light of last weeks Parsha, where is Pinchas? Where is Judah Macabee? Where are the Jews who will stand up and say enough is enough??!! We cannot sit by and watch you kill our children through your cowardice, greed and thirst for power!!

Hashem is testing our people and we are not only failing, but I fear we are setting ourselves and our children up for a tragedy that we have not heard of in seventy odd years...What are we doing to our people? What are we doing to our children?

This is and always has been about power, greed and corruption.

Lest the religious amongst us in America act above it all. This past winter, the Torah Academy for Girls-a Bais Yaakov School on Long Island, sent home an edict which in a nutshell said as follows. All children who are with their aunts, uncles and or GRANDPARENTS, without parental or SCHOOL supervision, are subject to immediate suspension and or expulsion. In other words it's us or you. No Grandparents can be left alone to supervise your child(ren).

HUH?

What had this world come to? Not only can the grandparents, your parents, not be supervisors of your children, but we will be in their stead and in yours-En Loco Parenti.

What a Chutzpah!! Who thinks of these things? What kind of sick twisted individuals, think that they are not only the arbiters of their Torah, but yours and more importantly YOUR PARENTS Torah? Do you really think if the parents can't cough up the 10-15k it takes for tuition, that these righteous purveyors of Torah won't be calling on the very pasul grandparents to pay the bill? These people turn my stomach and they should sicken our whole nation and on top of that, the entire Bais Yakov movement, which in due time will all fall in goosestep, should be stripped of the very privilege we have entrusted them with-educating Jewish Children-and their leaders exposed for the self righteous, greedy, bullies that they are.

These people at TAG need to be called out. What message of Kibud AV are we sending? How does one tell his parents that their children cannot visit this summer because their Torah way of life, some of it lived from out of the ashes of the holocaust, is not good enough according to the leaders of today's Bais Yakov movement? This is Daas Torah? This is the nachas they get for sacrificing their lives for Torah? What message are we teaching the future woman of Klal Yisroel? This is a scandal of epic proportions and I am stunned that these so called educators are allowed to get away with this?

Where is the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah-the self proclaimed leaders of Klal Yisroel? Where is Agudas Yisroel? This is how we treat our parents? This is the thanks they get? You call this Torah? Kibud Av V'am?

You people disgust me!!

I'm not even sure who I am disgusted with more. The Leadership and board of TAG or the numb parents who allowed this ridiculousness to happen....

We cry about the abuse of power of Ehud Olmert and Ariel Sharon and then DO NOTHING when the very same thing is happening in our own backyard. This is all about power and the ability, through fear, to control people's lives.

I'm afraid this will only get worse as the blind sheep worry about the shidduch of their children.

Will someone please tell me what ever happened to principles? What ever happened to doing the right thing? What ever happened to leading a genuine life?

My heart aches for the torture that we are going through as a nation and it is all being brought upon us from within, destroying the intestinal fortitude that once made us special, and turning us into a weak, blind, and principle-less people.

I am pained to say this and never thought I would.

Today, I am ashamed to be a Jew.

So What's the Answer?

After some discussion on Friday's blog, some issues were raised as to what to do about the problems we are facing in our communities and it just seems that we a blowing in the wind.

Well, yes and no.

I don't think there is anything lost by addressing this issue in this forum or anywhere else. That is certainly one way to get this issue front and center.

Are we a small group? Yes.

Do we have a long arm? I am inclined at this point to say, no.

Are we fighting an uphill battle? Yes.

Are we whistling in the wind? I don't think so just yet.

Some have posted that we need the Modern Orthodox to fill this void. I strongly disagree and mostly for the same reasons I rail against the Kollel wing-because they are as closed minded-yes closed minded-and arrogant about Torah U'madah as the Kollel is about their way. Don't get me wrong. I am not against the Torah U'madah derech per se' just as I am not against Kollel in all cases. But please don't fool yourself into thinking that the far left-yes not centrist-(I don't even know what that means) is any better than the far right. I will try and address that soon.

Here, however is my attempt at an answer.

I am adamant about not using the term orthodox because the moniker was laid on us by the reformers in Germany and it was not meant to be a compliment. I am in favor of the word Torah Jew. Someone who lives their life based on Torah. Period. Let the other guys keep the labels and do what they want with them. I think they're silly and mean nothing.

Here is what I propose. We should all try and live a genuine life. We don't need a new movement. We just need some common sense and people who are not concerned with their own Kavod and power. We need to get rid of any leaders who are slighted that they were not placed on the dais when someone else who is not as " important" as they are had been placed there. We need to hold our leadership accountable. We need to stop concerning ourselves with who gets what honor. It's so silly and the cause of so much strife and hatred.

We need to follow the example of a nineteen year old girl that I know. She davens every day-because she wants to even though she may not be obligated to. She speaks respectfully to all people no matter their age. She leaves the room when she hears Loshon Horah. She reads the parsha every friday night and learns the haftorah-because she wants to learn about Hashem. She does not judge anyone nor advocate for any one thing or any one way of life. She just wants to be a Jew. She attends Shiurim because she just wants to be a Jew. She helps the terminally ill twice a week because she just wants to be a Jew. She didn't buy into th eIsrael thing or the fancy clothes thing. She just wants to be a Jew.

What is wrong with that? Why can't we start a movement to just be a Jew. A G-d fearing do our service out of love Jew? We don't need to re-invent the wheel. The answer is already out there. We just need to be Jews.

How do we convey that to the masses? Any way possible, but we have to offer something they can sink their teeth into and I think this girl and the way she lives her life is the answer. The MO have an agenda and it is to NOT be charedi. That alone is as dangerous as the charedi agendas. Think about that carefully and understand that I have sent FIVE children to Torah Umadah schools so I know about which I am writing. Anyone who denies this fact is being intellectually dishonest.

Fact is there is a way and it has nothing to do with labels. It has to do with being G-d fearing Jew and living a life as it is defined by Torah. Our words men nothing. Our clothes mean nothing. Our hashkafah means nothing.

Our actions mean everything.

Can Anyone Save us from Ourselves?

I apologize for my tardiness from this blog. Between family issues, weddings, work and life, time to write has been scarce and even now I am overloaded with work so I will be brief.

A little over a week ago I was in Boro Park for the wedding of my cousin. It was very nice to see everyone, yet very sad at the same time. I sat at a family table with the son-in-laws of all of my cousins and surprise, surprise, they all were in Kollel in Lakewood. Follow me here...they are all nice people and I enjoy their company, but what the hell are we doing here? I could not help but wonder who was going to pay for the weddings of their children?

Does anyone realize the kind of crisis we are creating? Please have some vision. NEVER BEFORE IN THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE HAVE WE HAD SO MANY PEOPLE IN KOLLEL. This is not a good thing. Who will pay for them if G-d forbid they lose their parents-their only source of income-section 8 and the Independence card/WIC notwithstanding? WHERE ARE OUR LEADERS TO STOP THIS??? Can we actually rely on a group of rabbis who CALL THEMSELVES gedolai hatorah? Does anyone in a rabbinical leadership position have the guts to stop this? I think not and I am ashamed of my people. The leadership today has spit on the graves of Pinchas and Mattisyahu, the Rambam, the Ramban, Rebbi, Rebbi Akiva, Shimshon Raphael Hirsch--all the men who stood up for what was right and took on the wrongs in their communities even when they were dressed up as Torah. WHERE ARE YOU????????????

I'll end today with a small story in case you think that only our sons suffer from mis-information overload. A friend of ours has a daughter who had planned for years to go to law school when she came back from Israel. All was well and good. She became engaged and went back to Israel whereupon she met up with her Rabbi who told her a lawyer-is that really what you want to be? Is that what a bas Torah should be? So she has come to the conclusion on his urging to be a paralegal. Huh? Instead of being her own boss as a lawyer, this brilliant rebbi told her to be a paralegal-in other words work for a lawyer who needs you at a moments notice and that will be easier on her family than working for yourself?? Did he get this insight from Ruach Hakodesh? Is his das torah power taking over?

We are in crisis and need to open up the eyes of all the naive parents who have bought into this broken system and have been sold a bill of goods that has no basis in Halacha...if it sounds frummer, it must be...

On that note...have a great shabbos.

What is this Torah that you Speak of?

It never fails.

You can start a clock by it.

Question the present day Yeshivish/Kollel lifestyle and you will get blasted-personally attacked. Be called an idiot and a know nothing-anti-Torah.

This is the way it works with the Jews of the 21st century.

Suffice it to say there are two camps. One camp believes that the current yeshiva structure of today is the way to go. This camp believes in the study of Torah, living a Torah lifestyle, with Torah, Avodah, and Gemilos Chasadim. However, they also are subjecting our naive, idealistic, children to a life of struggle and poverty and listening intently for the next restrictive edict from a Rabbinical leadership starving to hang on to it's power. Not so much because they believe it's the way to go, but because that's just the way it is done.

The second camp believes in Torah, Avodah, and Gemilos Chasadim. They believe in a Torah lifestyle. They do not believe in the canard of modern orthodoxy as it's defined by the far left wing on that spectrum, just as they reject the leanings of the far right wing in the yeshiva structure. They just long to be Torah Jews who service Hashem out of love and call out the evil of all who have other agendas.

I myself am lost. I like to think I am in the second camp, but unfortunately, there are not many people there with me. I used to believe in the infallibility of Rabbinical leadership. Those days are gone now. I have witnessed too much. I get a chuckle out of seeing advertisements for a camp where, under the picture of each Rabbi involved, is a caption like Adom Godol or Talmud Chacham. I turn the page and see pictures of more Rabbis who USED TO BE WITH THE others from the previous page, but are now on their own in a new camp, due to a fight between the groups. I used to think that someone earned the name Gadol Ba'Torah-I didn't think you got invited to become one.

Interestingly enough, talk to any Rabbi nowadays, and he'll tell you that we are definitely at the end of days, all the while wanting us to ignore that at the end of days, the Talmud says, the rabbis will be like a pig with a golden ring in it's snout, as if to say check out my Torah and how much I know. The rest of you know nothing.

I believe the study of Torah is a beautiful and spiritual pursuit. I also believe like Abaye, Ravina, Rava, Rambam, Rav Ashi And Rav Shmuel before me that MY NUMBER ONE JOB AS A TORAH TRUE JEW, IS TO FEED MY FAMILY. For support on this issue, I find solace in the Gemmorah Kesubos around 40 blatt in as well as hilchos Talmud Torah from the Rambam, 3rd perek, where he states that a person should find a job, find a house, find a wife. WHAT? The Rambam said that? Doesn't he understand how hard it is in this society? Like living in Egypt was a day at the beach. Today we do the exact opposite. Find a wife, find a house find a job. I'm amused by Kollel and Bais Medrash students who constantly quote the Rambam, but seem to ignore his prescription for life.

I'm told now that a young man needs to learn longer in this brutal society to get a foundation for life. I do not disagree. Here is my answer to fix all of it. Learn to your hearts content if that is how your parents have raised you, but do not involve our daughters and grandchildren in your selfishness. Let me be very clear. It is extremely selfish to demand of one's parents and in-laws that you be supported. It is extremely selfish to demand of your wife, that she supports you for x number of years and after that you'll see where you are at. Yes, the study of Torah is very important. IF YOU BELIEVE IN IT SO MUCH, DO SOMETHING SELFLESS AND WAIT TO GET MARRIED UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO SUPPORT A WIFE AS THE TORAH AND TALMUD SAYS.

It used to be in years past when a boy was in yeshiva his rebbe would quote him that a person who is kovayah iitim l'Torah is like a person who learned all day. The Rebbe assumed that the boy would follow in the footsteps of his Jewish ancestors. Today they are told that a person can't really be Koveah iitim because he would have to do it the same time each day blah blah blah...What are we doing?? When will this stupidity end??

I wish I could learn Torah all day. There is nothing better for a man to do. I cannot. The Torah commands me to feed my children and take care of my wife and that is what I must do. In the meantime, I will continue to learn at least a daf a day in Bavli and dabble in Yerushalmi, as I have for the last 10 years and find my peace in that. While I understand that the Yeshiva world looks down upon Daf Yomi, I will live with their ridicule and their arrogance. In the meantime, I will do my best to make sure we straighten out the lives of the starry eyed youth who have bought into this broken and dangerous system and hope and pray that I don't get a knock on my door in 22 years from now because my relatives don't have enough money to pay for the first of the ten childrens' wedding. Habait M'shmayim oraeeyh....

Devorah? Not in my Lifetime....

I apologize for not posting a new blog sooner but with the holiday and some family issues, I was a bit overwhelmed...nevertheless I am back and had a few questions....

Before I start a few mazel tov's. My cousin has a daughter getting married in two weeks and she is moving to....you guessed it, Lakewood where her husband will be....you guessed it, learning in Kollel. But wait-there's more. Her brother just got engaged two days ago...he'll be moving to...drum roll please...Lakewood where he will be....learning in Kollel...anyone see a pattern? Ahh but in case you have not had enough, my brother's nephew from his wife's side also just got engaged...his is moving to....do I need to say??

What are we doing to our children??? Does this make any sense to you?? Someone please explain this utter stupidity to me and additionally, tell me how this lunacy is good for the Jewish people and how it is actually the way of the Torah??


A thought about learning all night on Shavuos....

Where did we get this and by we I mean the religious Jewish community? What source can we look to for this minhag? Rashi? Nope. Rambam? Nope. Abarbanel? Nope. Ramban? Nope. Now it seems to me that none of the above partook in this nobel excersize, or at the very least they didn't advocate it for the masses. Now please feel free to correct me on these aforementioned bastions of yeshivish thought, but I can't find one place in their writings where they even hint to staying up all night to learn on Shavuos. How did we get here?

It seems that the Mogen Avraham is really one of the first to mention this idea of staying up all night referring to a recent happening as if to say that around his time in the early 1600 or late 1500's, people started to stay up all night. I find it interesting to note that coffee was introduced to that region around the same time frame. Could it be without the introduction of caffeine back then, we would not have this minhag today? I seem to think so. Now for the Yeshiva guy this is an uncomfortable thought-do you mean to tell me that no one stayed up on Shavuos before then? Uhhhh...for the most part yes. Except of course if you read the Zohar who has a whole miggilah on how a few Kabbalists stayed up to prepare the bride-Klal Yisroel-for the groom-Hashem and Torah-and it explains there the very obscure and esoteric meanings behind this idea.

The yeshiva guy will point to the Chofetz Chaim who states the medrash and we stay up all night because we needed to be woken up...blah blah blah...I believe even the CC knew this was way off, but he did not want to mention Kabbalah b/c he knew how the misnagdim hated the chasidim so....and that tradition has been handed down to the yeshiva world who has an almost disdain for Kabbalists as if only the yeshiva world has true insight to Torah....I wonder if the yeshiva world knows how much Kabbalah they have in their lives...ana b'koach, lechu nerannina, Lecho dodi just to name a few....

The other question I wonder is do you think there is any chance that had she lived in today's world, Devorah would have been allowed to rise into a leader of Klal Yisroel? I say no shot..Can you imagine the self proclaimed moetzes gedolei ha'Torah differing to a woman? I am confident that the Rosh Ha'Yeshiva's would ban her speeches and attack her as a rodef and rebel rouser who was not a good example for our daughters and b'nos Torah...

Anyone doubt that?

What a shame that Torah Judaism has been squeezed into a very small narrow box and anyone who dares to question it's non halachic laws is attacked and abused in the name of Torah. What a shame...

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.

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....

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...