Suri Cruise.

Chicago Jewish News editor and publisher, Joseph Aaron, in his weekly column has quite an interesting perspective on the state of Jewry in the 21st century. I do not always agree with this Orthodox and somewhat controversial journalist but I do agree with him on a conclusion reached in his last column: Jewish is cool.

It is hard to escape, as Joe Aaron points out, the popularity of things Jewish in the general culture. In fact it is so pervasive that when Tom and Katie Cruise named their new daughter “Suri” (...I didn’t know he was a Chasid :)) it hardly raised an eyebrow. Their stated reason was that they liked the meaning of the name which is “princess” in Hebrew. Of course those of us “in the know” realize that “Suri” is a Chasidic affectation of the name Sarah which is our matriarch’s name... changed from Sarai which is where the translation really comes from. But it doesn’t matter. They chose a clearly identifiable Jewish name that is commonly used by Chasidic Jews. In fact if my Havarah was Chasidic, my own daughter Sari would be called Suri.

But the larger point to be made here is that Jewish culture is enjoying an unprecedented level in the US. People seem to be tripping all over themselves to adopt various aspect of Jewish culture. As Mr. Aaron points out:

“Madonna studying Kabbalah, not holding concerts on Shabbat, visiting Israel for Rosh Hashanah. Roseanne saying she was planning a bat mitzvah. Rabbi characters showing up on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." Two Orthodox contestants on "The Apprentice." A top pop star recording a hipped up version of "If I Were a Rich Man." Mattisyahu, clad in black hat and tzitzit, atop the rap music charts. And more. So much more.”

How does one explain it? I’m not sure. But one thing seems certain. If there is any real anti-Semitism in this country it is hard to find. Until recently there was a sort of stereotyping extant that was not quite anti-Semitic but did smack of pre-conceived notions based on half truths and prejudices of the past. But even that seems to have dissipated to almost nothing. It didn’t hurt that Evangelical Christians have so embraced the Jewish people of late. Nor did Vatican Two with their declaration of Nostra Aetate, hurt us. There seems to be a steadily increasing acceptance of Jews into the mainstream culture of America. So much so that it is now cool to be Jewish.

And it isn’t only acceptability into general culture that is going on. It is acceptability into the highest echelons of power. Aside from the almost universal acceptance of Senator Joseph Lieberman as a candidate for the Vice Presidency which is only a heart-beat away from the Presidency, there are more Jews in government positions than at any time in history. This was true for both the Clinton administration and the current Bush administration. Witness the appointment of Josh Bolten to replace Andy Card as Chief of Staff (arguably the most powerful position in the executive branch next to the President) and Joel Kaplan as deputy assistant to replace Karl Rove.

While this is all a wonderful and welcome development in my view there are enough things happening that counter this trend and should give us pause. Not that we need to worry that there will be a rise in ant-Semitic behavior in this country any time soon but enough to make us vigilant and keep our eyes wide open. The most troubling of these developments is the recent publishing of an essay claiming that Israel and its American "Lobby" control American foreign policy.

John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt, academic dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, have published a paper concluding that the US governement is being unduly influenced by the Israeli lobby. This of course is nothing new. We’ve all heard it before. The euphemism in the virulently anti-Semitic circles is “Zionist Occupied Government” or ZOG for short. But this time it has the mantle of respectability placed upon it. You can’t get more respectable than Harvard and University of Chicago. And that is what makes it a bit scary.

Former Ku Klux Klansman, David Duke, who ran unsuccessfully as the Republican candidate for US senator from Louisiana in 1990, has come out with a “So what else is new?” comment. “We’ve been saying this for years!” But when it comes from a Klansman, one can pretty much “consider the source”. Coming from two supposedly distinguished professors makes it an entirely different enterprise and worthy of note. ...and worthy of a “heads up.

But I suppose that in a weird sort of way, it is a good thing that these academics have come out with this essay. Even though it has been disavowed by the universities involved and the rest of academia it is a sobering reminder that we should never become complacent about our status in this or any other country. We need to remain vigilant. But in the meantime we should enjoy the incredible acceptance we have achieved in this country.

The Holocaust in Perspective: Final Thoughts

There is one area that I am intransigent on. I do not feel the Torah world has paid enough attention to the holocaust survivor community. I realize that there are many reasons for not participating in events not initiated by the Torah world itself. Many of my own heroes like Rabbi Joseph B Soloveitchik and my own Rebbe, Rav Aharon, boycotted these events. And even the Klausenberger Rebbe, I’m told did not attend these events. And no one could accuse the Klausenberger Rebbe of not caring. He dedicated much of his life to Holocaust issues.

But I can’t help it. Every time I see a documentary (as I did just, yesterday on PBS) about the holocaust where those black and white archival images of survivors are shown, I get almost physically ill. No matter how many times I’ve seen these images, it is as though I’ve seen them for the first time and I recoil in horror and tears. The response I have is emotional. I admit it. I am normally a very rational person and emotional arguments do not sway me. But I cannot help but be overcome by emotion when I see these images... every single time! And it isn’t because both of my parents and two older brothers lived through it. It is just the sheer horror of seeing so many living human skeletons that are so malnourished that they ultimately die.

And then I think... Why? Not, why did it happen. That is an unanswerable question, although I’ve asked it many times. But why has the Torah world not responded in a better fashion than they have? And it makes me angry. The fact that there are Halachic and Hashkafic problems seems so pale by comparison. The enormity of the holocaust is so beyond description that all arguments seem to fail. In my view the Torah wolrd has to stop having reflexive attitudes to the few remaining elderly survivors and just give them the little support they ask for by attending their memorials and not diminish them by boycott.

And this is true in any instance where the Torah world tries to re-define the holocaust in their own terms, no matter how much more accurate it may seem to them. I remember an article in the Jewish Observer by the great Gadol B’Yisroel, Rav Yitzchak Hutner, ZTL. He objected to the term “holocaust”. He thought a term more descriptive of the events of that period would be “Churban Europe”. That upset me as well. It may be a truer term but it in essence disparages a term that is universally recognized as THE term for what happened then. To change the term well after it has been established as such is wrong in my eyes. This is what survivors call it. That is how they see it. They lived through it. They are the ones who suffered. Respect that term. Let’s not get into questionable semantics.

But the Torah world still uses that term as though the word holocaust doesn’t exist. It’s just another slap in the face to the survivors who do not understand. Why? ...Why insist on that term? What purpose does it serve? What is the greater good?

It has been said that the reason for much of this posturing on the part of the Torah world is the fact that the holocaust has been blown way out of proportion because it is often been referred to as the greatest tragedy to befall the Jewish people in it’s entire history. That, they say is incorrect. The destruction of the Beis HaMikdash is the greatest tragedy to befall the Jewish people. But this fails to recognize the enormity of what happened. Without getting into the many reasons, it cannot be minimized and should never be compared to the Churban Beis HaMikdash.

On a spiritual level the Churban Beis HaMikdash was greater. But on a human level it would be impossible to imagine any other time in history where so many Jews were murdered and tortured. The entire Toachacha was lived out by the Jews of Europe. And perhaps equally important is the fact that the events of that time are so recent... so fresh in our memory. And there are so many survivors yet alive... almost all of them elderly. This has to be recognized and those who lived through it respected, not boycotted.

Of course it would be wrong to ask rabbinic leadership to participate in any holocaust rememberance that was anti-Torah in any way. But as I’ve said many times, the memorials I’ve attended do not have an ounce of Kfira in them. Never is a word spoken against Torah, or Mitzvos. Not once. It is all about memorializing loved ones and “never again”. Attending these ceremonies would only elevate them to a level where there could actually have a Torah perspective. Perhaps the founders of Yom HaShoa were rabid anti-Torah people. And perhaps their memorials consisted of K’fira and bashing Torah... I don’t know. If so they were properly boycotted. But I don’t believe that this is what the majority of them consist of today... certainly not the one’s I’ve attended.

In my view, these people should be supported on their day as long as even one of them remains alive. That said, I do not support memorializing this day in perpetuity. That is not necessary, in my view. The memorial should be folded into the Kinos of Tisha B’av. That should be its permanent and proper place.

One final note. Almost as upsetting to me as boycotting Yom HaShoa is the fact that to some Jews, it has become the sum total of their Yiddishkeit. The holocaust has become a religion to them. It is the only thing Jewish they observe and in some cases it is all they think about. This is wrong and should obviously be rejected. Unfortunately these poor souls have lost all perspective along with their Yiddishkeit. It is very sad but they cannot and should not be judged. But that attitude is obviously wrong.

As the Torah world consistently and correctly points out the focus of our daily lives should not be the holocaust but the Torah. And as many have also pointed out the best answer to the holocaust is living our lives as Torah Jews. And we have done that magnificently since the holocaust. More Torah learning now takes place than at any time in history. As a result there are more knowledgeable Jews than ever before. We are indeed a Goy Kadosh. This has been the focus of our educators and although there are many problems in the system, it is in essence the correct approach. The holocaust should never weigh in on our decisions in life. It should not be a motivating factor. But one must never use that as an excuse to boycott a “once a year” event that is so meaningful to the few elderly survivors... religious or not. They deserve better from us.

The Debate over Attending Holocaust Memorials

There has been a debate over the years about whether to attend Yom HaShoah ceremonies. One of the reasons given for boycotting the event is the fact that it is held in the month of Nissan where Hespedim are not permitted. I find this to be a rather poor excuse. Even though the problem is a legitimate one under normal circumstances, it is blown away by the holocaust. The enormity of it... the sheer horror that any survivor went through far outweighs such minor Halachic concerns.

Yes, I said minor. Virtually every funeral I've ever gone to during the month of Nissan, a Maspid will say something like: I know it's Nissan and we aren't supposed to say Hespedim ... but I feel I must say at least a few Divrei Shvach about the Nifter. And then he proceeds to give a Hespid anyway.

That is why it is so upsetting when they use this kind of Ta’anah. These survivors went through the kind of hell that few if any rabbinic leaders alive today did. Even though they may not intend it as such, for them to now disrespect these holy survivors (whether they ended up Frum or not) by refusing to participate with them on their day, is just plain wrong.

Let's be honest. The problem for Charedim is not so much Nissan as it is participating with the Non-Frum. They refuse to join in anything they don't have complete control over. Witness the refusal by Agudah to take part in a mass rally in Washington a few years ago. It was a big Kiddush HaShem. But it was characterized as a Chilul HaShem by Rabbi Ephraim Waxman, a Rosh HaYeshiva and a rising star in Agudah circles because some non-O rabbi read a Kapital Tehilim (or something).

This is a gripe many holocaust survivors have against the Frum. They say they rarely see a Frum person participate in one of their memorials.

But it isn’t only the non-religious survivors who complained. There used to be many complaints from Frum survivors about Agudah not responding in any way to the holocaust. So, at some point (I think it was in the seventies) they decided the response would be to dedicate all future Daf-Yomi Siyumim as a fitting memorial tribute.

This is their response... to find a venue only once every seven and one half years that includes no non-Frum people and pays tribute primarily to the loss of the Torah learning Jews. I find that unacceptable for two reasons.

1) It disrespects all the holy survivors who unfortunately did not come out Frum after the war. We cannot judge them for they have suffered a holy suffering that none of the rest of us have. Many of their parents, sisters, brothers, children, grandparents, cousins... died Al Kiddush HaShem... and in so many instances they were tortured first. And of the survivors, they too were tortured whether through medical experiments, though starvation, or all manner of human degradation.

2) The purpose of the Siyum is to celebrate the completion of Shas,
NOT to mourn the dead.

Instead of finding their own niche to the exclusion of everyone else at seven and a half year intervals, Agudah types should join all the survivors at a time and place of their own choosing. Nissan may not be the best time to observe a memorial of the holocaust, but refusing to join those poor survivors who don't understand the reasons for our objections is a far worse error in my view.

If they would show a little more sympathy by attending and listening they would have far more influence on them. The survivors are not Reshaim. They are victims. Perhaps their questions can never be satisfactorily answered but their Kavod Shamayim could be improved if they would see Gedolei Yisroel attending their assemblies and addressing their issues.

If Rabbi Perlow, for example, would be willing to attend one of these, he could arrange to speak to the organizers who I believe would accommodate his concerns about appropriate messages delivered at the event. I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of survivors (if not all of them) would consider it an honor and privilege to have a great and honored rabbi addressing a holocaust memorial. He could be a healer of emotional wounds and be Mekarev many of them with just a few kind and conciliatory words. He would bring Torah content to this venue. They may not suddenly become Shomrei Shabbos but it could turn into a major Kiddush HaShem.

Is Lubavitch a Cult?

There is an interesting article in the Jerusalem Post by Rabbi Dr. David Berger about who really controls Lubavitch headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in light of a recent court ruling. To say the least, Dr. Berger is right on target as he always is on this subject. It is important reading for all. The issue is far from resolved and the Messianism there, whether it is overt or covert is as rampant as ever.

As I have stated many times, I think the Lubavitcher Rebbe was in large part responsible for the situation as it is. Lubavitch has in the past been accused of being as cult. I think that not only does this claim have some merit but that the Rebbe actually headed it in that direction.

The Rebbe in fact was a great man and did many great things. But I'm not so sure that he didn't actually want Lubavitch to turn into a cult, not that he would have thought of it that way. And I think that this, as much as anything else precipitated the problems Torah Jewry face with Lubavitch today.

If the Rebbe was anything, he was brilliant... a genius in fact. And he was a very charismatic figure. Most cult leaders have those qualities as well. In my view, one of the things that distinguish a movement from a cult is the ability to integrate and interact with the rest of society. Cults by contrast do everything they can to separate themselves from the rest of society.

Lubavitch may not be an extreme cult but it has enough characteristics of one to qualify at least minimally. The Rebbe's goal was to make Lubavitch... the entirety of Torah Jewry. His every move... his every action was designed to inspire loyalty to Lubavitch as defined by him so as to be able to control his flock. And he did so magnificently.

Some examples: He discouraged most Lubavitchers from eating anything other than Lubavitcher Shechita thus nearly eliminating an important socializing experience with Torah Jews outside of Lubavitch. His schools were separate and apart form other schools and rarely, if ever had any joint functions. Those schools emphasize Lubavitch Inyanim (their differences from Klal Yisroel) rather than Torah Inyanim (their commonalities with Klal Yisroel) His Kiruv was directed at Kiruv to Lubavitch first and Judaism later. His Shiddach system consists of Lubavitchers who marry only other Lubavitchers. While this is true in other streams of Chasidus too, I think Lubavitch is more insistent on it. They have their own organizations often duplicating what other organizations such as Agudah do. He inspired his followers to follow him unquestioningly... like any cult leader does.

This does not mean that his plans were evil. Quite the contrary. He was completely L’Shma. I truly believe that all his actions... in fact every fiber of his very being... was dedicated to Torah Judaism and Kiruv. But it was a Torah Judaism as dictated by Lubavitch which he defined.

In no way did he consider Lubavitch as a cult. He did not think of it that way. No cult leader ever defines their movement as a cult. Nor do the members of the cult think of themselves that way. And they will bring you proof after proof to show they are not. But they are, and if one looks at the way they were before the last Rebbe, one can see that.

Before the Rebbe, Lubavitch was not a cult at all. Thye were far more integrated into the Torah world than they are now. In the late fifties and early sixties, I had many Lubavitchers in my day school in Detroit and several Lubavitch teachers. They may have thought of themselves as a bit more "self important" than other streams of Torah Jewry, but that was hardly worth noticing. It was a matter of understandable pride to think of themselves that way, as any movement might. But the Rebbe changed all that. He knew what he was doing. He was successful beyond anyone's wildest imagination, probably including his own. But in the end he created one huge cult and he did it on purpose. Now that he is dead, his Messianist legacy prevails and is fueled by the cult-like loyalty of his flock.

Hekah Es Shinov? ...I Wish!

In an article on Cross-Currents discussing the vagaries of religious belief systems, Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein says:

"I’ve had to duck more times than I can remember as the academic world hurled salvos at us believers."

He was addressing the issue of challenges made by various academic disciplines against the Torah.

This line struck me. In fact it screamed out at me! On the one hand it is comforting to know that there are others out there who, like me, have had to “duck” these issues many times. But it is discomforting to know that as well. I would rather have heard a tour-de-force argument once and for all proving the legitimacy of the Torah narrative and the stupidity of her adversaries. In the words of the Haggadist (when the Rasha... the skeptic son... ridicules his believer father): “Hakeh Es Shinov”... answer him sharply! But instead I read that Rabbi Adlerstein ducks... just as I duck. Yet I believe B’Emunah Shelaima while I duck the critics.

Belief is a matter based not so much on facts, contradictory or otherwise, but primarily on experience and intuition. This usually comes in the form of Mesorah, the chain of transmission, father to son, which we believe extends back to Mamad Har Sinai. Physical proof has never been part of that transmission. For all their attempts at it, the proofs of various Rishonim seem to have big holes in them. No less a scholar than Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik recognized this. One of his most brilliant students, Rabbi Marc Gottlieb, once related that after Kant, the Rav basically just swept away all the Rishonic “proofs” of the Torah. Reason could not dictate belief. God is unknowable in the physical universe.

So questions remain: Why believe? Why not just assume... null... until it is disproved? Belief transcends fact. It is greater and more powerful than fact. One need not observe it order to know it. Fact, on the other hand can only be believed if experienced with at least one of the five physical senses. Belief has no such physical limitations.

As powerful as belief is, one cannot explain why one believes what one does. Furthermore, why do some of us do it with such conviction? Why one belief system over another? Why Judaism and not Islam? And intelligence has little to do with it. Was there ever a truer believer than Rabbi Elijah Kramer? And were there many with greater genius than he? Is it fair to say that because he was born into it he therefore believed it without question? Did he not have the questions I have? Were there no skeptics that challenged Rabbi Kramer’s faith? And he was not alone in his resolve. Throughout the millennia, there were many Gedolim who were great geniuses in every generation that believed unquestioningly in God and His Torah.

So in the end I remain as does Rabbi Adlerstein... ducking the tough questions. And I continue to believe in God and His Torah the way my forefathers did before me. Of course I consider it a sacred duty to pursue the answers as best I can. But questions?... I got a lot, and I’ve learned how to duck pretty well.

Faith After the Holocaust

April 25, 2006 is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, in Israel. I thought I might reflect on one of the many issues that the holocaust presents. One of those issues is the matter of faith.

The vast majority of survivors of the holocaust, who by and large were observant Jews prior to it, lost their faith because of it. On the other hand, those who passed the “test” of the Holocaust and maintained their faith are the very same one's who changed the face of Orthodoxy in America. Those who remained religious and immigrated to the United States sought a religious education for their children of the type that had been ingrained in them by their parents in Europe and sought to pass on. They thus helped to create the vast national network of religious day schools by populating them with their children. This has resulted in what we now have today... an incredible renaissance both qualitatively and quantitatively in Torah learning and Mitzvah observance unlike anything America has ever experienced pre holocaust.

One might think that surviving the horrors of the holocaust and remaining Frum means that these people were of the purest in their faith, untainted by doubt. Well, I’m sure that’s true in many if not most cases. But in a documentary feature broadcast several years ago on public television I learned that there are some people who survived with faith... but not an entirely intact faith.

Menachem Daum, an observant Jew in his mid fifties who is a television producer, by profession, presented a 10 minute documentary. In it he described his parent’s holocaust ordeal. They were from those who retained their faith. His father had been Moser Nefesh to put on Teffilin during the worst of times when he most certainly was Patur from doing so. Recently paralyzed, unable to move or speak, he is aided by his devoted son, Menachem, and who puts Talis and Teffilin on his father and Davens with him every day.

But Menachem's mother, who was scrupulously observant until the day she died, nevertheless, lost much of her faith on the day she arrived in Auschwitz and her young child was taken from her arms and executed. Menachem indicated that he, too, is more observant in practice than by conviction... mostly out of respect out of respect for his parents. But he does not understand his father's pure faith. He is perplexed by the events of the holocaust as are many of us who are children of the holocaust (...those whose parents lived through it).

It was that pure faith that caused a Mesiras Nefesh of a different kind. After immigrating to the US after the war, he settled in upstate New York, where and started a business. He soon realized the type of success that all Americans strive for. He was on the verge of achieving the American dream but saw that his young son's soul was in jeopardy in that there was no religious education available, nor was there any kind of religious environment in which his son could grow up. So instead of the relentless pursuit of the American dream he abruptly moved to Brooklyn where his son could attend Yeshiva.

Here we have a man, Menachem Daum, who was raised by the sincerest of parents, in a religious environment with a fine yeshiva education, who himself raised a religious family with two sons learning as Avreichim in Yeshivas Mir Yerushalyim, yet... he is a doubter and expressed that publicly. This was somewhat of an eye opener to me. It is one thing to be Orthoprax if one has little or no background. But here is a man who was raised in the most religious of homes and went to the finest of Yeshivos and leads a Frum lifestyle, scrupulous in his Mitzvah observance, and he questions his faith. And is an open doubter of God.

This makes me wonder hoe many other such people there are with similar profiles... observant, scrupulously so, yet flawed in their beliefs. Not from the questions so often raised in the blogosphere with respect to perceived contradictions between science and Torah but because of this unanswerable question: How could God let a “Tzadik V’Rah Lo” of such magnitude happen? ...Six million deaths.... many of them Tzadikim... and untold numbers of survivors who suffered unimaginable horrors!

Yet... I owe my very existence to the holocaust. My father’s first wife was murdered by the Nazis and I am a product of a second post war marriage.

Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof?

I don’t know what to say about this. Two Israeli newspapers: The Jerusalem Post and Ha’aretz are reporting that many of the most respected names in the Torah world have come to the conclusion that a young Charedi man in Israel is innocent of charges that he beat his baby to death... in spite of his admission of guilt. Not only did he detail the murder and other violent acts against his child but he explained his motive. Yet these Torah sages have decided to exonerate him citing as one of their reasons that his wife stands by his side. There has got to be more to the story because on the face of it, it seems ludicrous. Even the most elementary evaluation of this event cries out for a more thorough examination of the facts before declaring this man’s innocence.

I cannot understand it. These are venerable Torah sages. They are known for their great kindness to any member of Klal Yisroel and are said to be more sensitive to issues like this than the rest of Klal Yisroel. Yet they have declared innocence of this man without the benefit of trial and have completely ignored the father’s confession! One can perhaps understand how a compassionate individual can have mercy on one of their own in the context of the individual’s reputation here-to-fore as a kind a gentle person with no record of violence. One can additionally understand how seeing a grieving mother and wife stand up in defense of this young man might militate for a strong response on the part of these Gedolim proclaiming his innocence. Understandable, perhaps but... wise?

Granting him a blanket decree of innocence in the face of a detailed admission without the benefit of trial is to say the least quite troubling. How can these kind and gentle leaders of Klal Yisroel seem be so cruel... to be kind? How can they allow a potentially sick and violent man to be a father to future children and put them all at risk? How can they assume innocence without having all the facts that would be presented at a trial?

I would perhaps understand if they were demanding release of this fellow into their custody so as to have a Kosher Beis Din try the case. But that is not possible because since the era of the Beis HaMikdash, we no longer have a Beis Din of 23 required to try capital cases. I could understand how they might perceive a prejudice against Charedim by the Chiloni judicial system. But to come out with a decree of innocence without trial and to restore this young man to respectability after he admitted in great detail to the crime and explained his motives?! I don’t get it! Justice demands an explanation beyond what we’ve been given. Rachmana L’tzlan!

A Night of Shame... and an Apology

On April fourth, I wrote a very strong condemnation of the riots by young Chasidim which took place in Boro Park. In the comments section I said the following about a press report which seemed to indicate that Assemblyman Dov Hikind blamed the riot on the police:

“Contrast this and the wonderful way the victim, Arthur Schick reacted with the reactionism so typical of Assemblyman Dov Hikind who focused all of his venom against the police. What bothers me almost as much as the rioting Chasidim are the apologists for them.”

Well, I was wrong. Assemblyman Hikind does no such thing. An op-ed in the Jewish Press written by Mr. Hikind told quite a different story. He makes it perfectly clear that the exact opposite is true. He and I view this situation in exactly the same terms.

I want to first apologize to Assemblyman Hikind for my criticism of him as it was totally incorrect and based on incomplete and misleading information. His indignation of the events of April fourth is righteous and just. Even though I am sometimes on exactly the opposite end of the spectrum from him on some issues, on this one, his measure of the event and how it affects Klal Yisroel is exactly on target. To quote from the article:

“... people invoking the Holocaust. How dare they? What were they thinking? And to repeatedly yell the anthem of Al Sharpton, "No Justice, No Peace," was beyond what I would have believed our community capable of. To see our young people comport themselves in this disgraceful way was terribly painful, and innocent individuals are dealing with the repercussions.”

“Bystanders were harmed and had to be hospitalized because a situation that should have been contained only escalated. We all have to do some very serious soul-searching, because this was not an isolated group of troublemakers; there were hundreds in the streets – a mob in every sense of the word. Rabbis and religious leaders must deal with this as seriously as they do any other critical issue that arises in our community.”

To this I say, Amen.

Death Penalty for Chilonim?

Yesterday a poster on the Areivim e-mail list who lives in Israel wrote of a visit he had with some Charedi relatives. He characterized it as a “Disturbing conversation with Charedi re status of Chilonim”. I couldn’t agree more.

During the visit one of them, who claimed to be in the know (and is clearly very aware of what's going on) told him that just about all Charedim no longer follow the Chazon Ish's Psak that a Chiloni is a Tinok SheNishba (...a Jewish child captured by a non Jewish or non Torah culture and raised that way). Rather, Rav Elyashiv and others believe (but do not publicize in the media) that Chilonim have the status of the classic Mechalel Shabbos. Therefore, Hatzalah members are instructed to avoid being in the situation of having to be Mechalel Shabbos for Chilonim; however, if they are present, they should not refuse because of the din of Eivah.

The Charedi relative then said (on the very same day as a terrorist attack killed nine Jews and seriously injured many others) that many Charedim feel there is no reason to be sad when Chilonim die in a terrorist attack--after all, they are Mechuiv Sekilah anyway.

I have long suspected that this is indeed the attitude of a great many Charedim about their Chiloni brethren. Perhaps it isn’t the majority. But the fact that someone who says he is "in the know (and is clearly very aware of what's going on)" claims this to be the general attitude makes me suspect that it is far from rare. I have personally heard denigration of Chilonim from the mouths of some Charedim. The very expression of the thought: "that there is no reason to be sad when Chilonim die in a terrorist attack--after all, they are Mechuiv Skilah anyway" is not only frightening but so clearly wrong!

How can Rav Elyashiv Paskin that a Chiloni has the Din of a classic Mechalel Shabbos? They were raised without any real Torah education and were instead raised in many cases by anti-Torah parents or at best by complete ignoramuses of any Torah knowledge. If anything is classic, it is their status of being Tinokos Shenishbu.

This attitude is one I heard before in another context which is just as bad.

A few years ago a very close friend of mine who is a Tamim V’Tahor was hired as a general studies principal at a Charedi Yeshiva high school. He told me that when he first got the job he was appalled at the behavior of these otherwise fine Bnei Torah of high school age. These kids had the kind of Derech Eretz for the Roshei Yeshiva and Rabbeim one would expect of them. But when it came to secular studies teachers, they berated and ridiculed them both behind their backs and to their faces. This, obviously created an enormous Chilul HaShem.

But it didn’t faze these kids one bit. They had the same kind of answer that this poster’s relative did: Since the death penalty is applied to a Ben Noach if he violates any one of the Sheva Mitzvos, they reasoned: Why not treat them like that? Min HaStam they stole something in their lives at one time or another and are Mechuiv Misah anyway!

What did the Roshei Yeshiva do about it? Well, after the prinicipal pointed this out to them they tried to stop it but their efforts were tepid at best. The principal eventually directed his efforts to correcting the attitude and I believe he was successful for the most part. But the following questions remain: How could these Roshei Yeshiva have ignored or not seen the problem? Where was the concern for Chilul HaShem? How did these boys pick up such an attitude in the first place? Are their parents responsible? ...their Rabbeim? If it was their Rabbeim, which ones instilled these attitudes in these boys and why? And are they still doing it?

A while back I wrote about the idea that human beings are created in the image of God. This is not a value specific to the Modern Orthodoxy. It is a universal Torah truth. Yet Bnei Torah are allowed to harbor such hateful views of fellow human beings... to the point of believing that they are all worthy of a death penalty! And now I hear the same attitude expressed about Jews who by any reasonable standard should be considered Tinokos Shenishbu!

I will close with a story I heard just today in the name of the Klausenberger Rebbe by an individual who heard it personally. The Rebbe told him that there is no such thing as a Goy who doesn’t want to murder Jews. One might ask, he said, “What about a primitive African native who never saw a Jew in his life and doesn’t even know what a Jews is?” They too are like that because their governments are all members of the UN who are all out to kill the Jews.

Maybe we can now understand why there is such baseless hatred for non Jews and Chilonim. The Klausenberger Rebbe is one of the most venerated people in the Jewish world and for good reason. Every thing I ever heard about him has only been of a most remarkable and inspiring nature... a truly selfless and giving individual to Klal Yisroel. If such a person can make an indiscriminatory remark like that, it must be true.

Suicide Bombings and the Liberal Mindset

More bloodshed in Israel. Once again I sit in anguish as I read the reports such as the one in the JTA about a suicide bombing in the old Tachana HaMerkazi of Tel Aviv. This time it was Islamic Jihad. But does it really matter? Islamic Jihad... Hamas... or any other Islamist group... they are all the same. And what did the governing body of the Palestinian parliament say? They did not condemn it. They said it was an act of self defense! Imagine that someone blows himself up for the sole purpose of killing innocent civilians and the elected officials of an entire people call it self defense.

How in heaven’s name can any sane person call it self defense even if their cause were just? (...which it isn’t!) And what’s worse is that there are sane American's who actually buy into this argument. The liberal mindset (with very few exceptions) buys into the argument that Israel is an oppressive occupier of the poor Palestinian underdog and that that is the root cause of the problem. How utterly stupid such thinking is.

But that is ultimately the way that kind of thinking works. Liberals do not look at all factors which give rise to conflict. They look at the situation only in the isolated myopia of the moment. They see a strong Israeli superpower and a Palestinian underdog and that automatically makes Palestinians more sympathetic in their eyes. They then come up with all kinds of justification or “understanding” for the most immoral of acts... the murder of innocent people. But it doesn’t stop with just an expression of sympathy. In some liberal circles it often becomes fodder for the worst kind of condemnation of the Israel government and even Jews.

Why? Not because of any real or justifiable reasons, but because of the overly simplistic analysis of the liberal thought process. The thinking goes: the underdog is always the victim and deserving of sympathy and support. The Palestinian is the underdog and little if any real thought goes into how just their cause really is. All that matters to a liberal is that he is the “oppressed” one. And the oppressors are the Israelis! And what makes this even more aggravating is that the much of such liberal thinking is on the part of Jews. Witness the likes of Rabbi Michael Lerner, or Noam Chomsky or playwright Tony Kushner. These people never waste an opportunity to paint Israel in the most negative light. Why? Because they look at the Palestinian as the poor oppressed underdog whose cause needs to be championed.

Liberal thinking has not always worked against us. It worked well for Israel when they were the underdog. Before 1967, when Israel was a fledgling nation of holocaust survivors surrounded by Arab nations vowing to drive them into the sea, the cause of Israel was championed by Liberals. When Jews were being slaughtered in the holocaust it was the liberal camp that spoke out the loudest. But it is the same people (or their spiritual heirs) that condemn Israel now.

I generally do not classify myself as politically liberal or conservative, although I tend to lean to the conservative point of view. But I take a liberal view on some issues. So I cannot be accused of being a "right wing" basher of liberals. But I cannot understand how any human being of any political stripe can ignore the savage butchery of the Islamist mindset which so dominates much of Arab culture in the Middle East. How can anyone “understand” a suicide bomber? How can they ignore the context of the conflict which must consider the history and religion of the two peoples in order to have a fair analysis? How can any sane person pay lip service condemnation to the suicide bomber and then immediately go on an extensive rant about “root causes” (translation: Israeli oppression of Palestinians)?

I don’t know the answers to these questions except to say that some people are just plain stupid! But that doesn’t help me sleep any better at night.

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s Place in History

Gil Student in a post in Hirhurim takes issue with an article in “Jewish Action” whereby Hillel Goldberg claims that Rav Soloveitchik was not really a posek for Orthodoxy as has been claimed many times by many of his students. Gil goes on to refute every point made by Mr. Goldberg but, which is all well and good but frankly I'm tired of all the bashing of the Rav from the right. I don't know if Hillel Goldberg is a Right Winger or not but it doesn't matter. If he minimizes the Rav's greatness in any way he might as well be. RYBS was one of the ten biggest influences of the last millennium in my view. Listed in one of my early posts on this blog the ten were:

1. The Rambam, Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon
2. Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki
3. The Beis Yosef, Rabbi Yosef Caro
4. The Rama, Rabbi Moses Isserles
5. The Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Elijah Kramer
6. The Baal Shem Tov
7. Rabbi Chaim Volozhiner
8. Rabbi Chaim Soloveichik
9. Rabbi Aharon Kotler
10. Rabbi Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik

One can debate if there were others. There probably are some I did not list who were as great as or greater than those I listed. Two immediately come to mind: the Ramban in his generation and R.Moshe Feinstein in mine. I had my reasons for choosing these ten, but even if one expands the list to include these two as well as others, the list isn’t going to be that long.

Was Rabbi Soloveitchik the greatest Posek of our time? I don't know but Psak alone is not what makes a person a Gadol (although it can be as it was with RMF). One has to look at the totality of the individual and what it is he contributed to the Torah world, the Jewish world, and even the entire of the world. There were few like him (if any) who were as brilliant, encompassed so much knowledge, both Torah and secular,and had so much influence. His knowledge of Torah had few peers. Even R Baruch Ber Leibowitz who was known to be the Talmid Muvhak of R. Chaim Brisker said that the Rav knew Meseches Gittin (his Mesechta of expertise) better than he did.

The fact that the Right Wing refuses to recognize this does not make this any less true. But it does prove how myopic and politicized the Right Wing is.

And now... For Something Completely Different...

A little change of pace.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for participating in this blog whether by just reading it or as a commentator. You have all helped to make it a success.

On this the day before Pesach, instead of my usual harangue, I am offering a short D’var Torah that anyone can use at the Seder. It is one of many that I hope to impart to my family this evening and tommorrow evening.

The following is taken from my favorite Sefer, Torah L’Daas by Rabbi Matis Blum Chelek #3, Moadim.

The Hagadah says, (loose translation):“In every generation we are required to see ourselves as though we were the ones saved through Yitzias Mitzrayim and therefore we are required to say Hallel. Let us say the Shira Chadsha, Hallelu-kah.”

Why is it important to consider it as though we ourselves were saved? And why is there this juxtaposition between this statement and Hallel?

Rabbi Yitzchak Zev HaLevi Soloveitchik provides us with an interesting answer. There are two kinds of Hallel: 1) Hallel Shel Kriyah and 2) Hallel Shel Shira. Hallel Shel Kriya is what was established for us by the “men of the great assembly” and is what we say 18 times a year during Shachris: The eight days of Sukkos, the first day of Pesach, Shavuos, and the eight days of Chanukah. Hallel Shel Shira is what we say when we experience salvation from excessive pain and suffering. But only the individual or individuals experiencing the salvation are the ones permitted to say Hallel, not anyone else even if they witness it. The Hallel that we say in the Haggadah is Hallel Shel Shira. The only way we are permitted to say it is we were the ones saved. So the Baal HaHaggada informs us that before we say Hallel we are required to consider ourselves as though we ourselves personally are saved. And only then are we permitted to say the Hallel of the Haggada which is the Hallel Shel Shira.

I wish everyone a Chag Kosher VeSameach

More Charedi Hooliganism

Once again we see the arrogance and now... even the stupidity... of some of our Orthodox brethren.

There is an article in today's Ha'’aretz about a young Charedi man that was arrested for killing his infant son... something that he later admitted to. But his Charedi community, refusing to accept his admission of guilt, immediately threatened violence if this "dear gentle young man" wasn'’t released. They are calling his arrest an "evil conspiracy" devised by the "evil regime". So what else is new?

When is the Torah world going to realize that not all is well in Camelot? When are they going to understand that the government isn't always automatically wrong? When are they going to realize that their society produces the same percentage of aberrant behavior as the rest of society? And most importantly when are they going to do something about the hooliganism that passes for rightous indgnation? Please note the police officer who is handcuffed to the defendant. He is pretty Charedi looking. Apparently he didn't think there was an injustice here. Don't these Charedi hooligans realize how stupid they look and what a Chilul HaShem they are making?

The Charedi system is broken and Charedi leadership knows it. They ought to face the facts, admit the problems exist and stop trying to spin their way out of it. But most importantly they have to impress upon the Charedi masses to stop acting like a bunch of primitive savages every time they don't like something the government does.

The Central Rabbinical Congress

There is an interesting article in the current issue of The Jewish Observer describing the events that took place last year in New York City with respect to the issue of Metzitza B’Peh. My purpose here is not to discuss the pros and cons of Metzitza B’Peh. Been there and done that. It is to once again show an instance of public Chilul HaShem that could have... and should have been avoided.

During the course of those events there were various meetings between Orthodox groups and city health officials as well as the Mayor to try and resolve a conflict between the city’s health safety concerns on the one hand and the religious concerns on the part of the ultra Orthodox on the other. In my view the New York health department took the appropriate and responsible action in handling the issue. They abandoned original plans to ban Metzitza B’Peh and settled on just issuing a fair warning to the community about the dangers involved and conceding that the instances of Herpes infection through Metzitza B’Peh are quite rare.

In the course of describing the events which took place, the author of the article Chaim Dovid Zwiebel wrote about the negative behavior of one particular group involved with this issue, the Hisachdus HaRabbanim (...otherwise known as the Central Rabbinical Congress which I believe is a rabbinical association of some very right wing Chasidim). The approach taken by them was not only alarming but counter-productive and a Chilul HaShem. After they and Agudah had vigorously argued for the government to not interfere in what they consider to be an obligatory part of Bris Milah saying that it would be a violation of the free exercise clause of the first amendment, they succeeded in preventing the government from outlawing Metzitza B’Peh.

But in a later attempt to restore the rights of the Mohel who health officials say was responsible for the deaths of three babies, members of the Hisachdus HaRabannim had a campaign which consisted of inflammatory posters egging on their community members by characterizing new York city health officials as monsters trying to destroy Torah Judaism. One poster accused the city government of attempting to “burn down the house of God”. Others called for massive demonstrations. They threatened to disrupt the inauguration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg by wearing yellow Mogen Dovid arm bands of the type worn by Jews during the holocaust... implying that city officials, who are in reality just trying to protect public health are akin to Nazis.

Is it really wise to portray city officials ...to put it the way Mr. Zweibel does... as the “second coming of the KGB” ...or to portray the campaign to inform the public about the dangers of Metzitza B’Peh akin to “flushing the Koran down the toilet”? They accomplished nothing except raise the ire of the media who reacted by portraying Metzitza B’Peh as threatening the lives of all babies undergoing circumcision. This is once again nothing short of a Chilul HaShem which did nothing except to create and exacerbate tensions between Chasidim and well meaning city officials. It also made ultra Orthodox Jewry look like a group of primitive religious fanatics not too much different from Islamic fundamentalists.

Once again we see a community who crossed the line of propriety and caused great harm to our image, just as the recent events with Arthur Schick and the police in Boro Park did. Only in this instance it was Chasidic rabbinic leaderhip, not just a random angry mob. What's the matter with these people?

The Iraq Mistake

This is a bit off topic for this blog but I want to get off my chest some thoughts I have had in recent weeks.

I have come to the conclusion that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. I say this with a sad heart and as a big supporter of President Bush. This is not to say that I didn’t support the war at the outset. I did. Nor is it to say that we should pull out. We shouldn't.

The fact is that Sadaam Hussein’s regime was one of the most anti Israel in the Middle East. There is no question that he at one time had WMDs and used them on his own people. And the best intelligence estimates at the time were that he still had, and was hiding such weapons and his penchant for attacking neighboring states and perpetrating near genocide against his own people all argued for the kind of immediate action that the President took. It should also not be forgotten that Iraq was one of the countries that rewarded successful Palestinian suicide bomber’s families with cash payments.

Nor should anyone think for a minute that withdrawing troops now, is a good idea. The fact is that the insurgents there now, whether they are Al Qaida or rivaling religious factions is more than enough reason to stay the course. Leaving now would create chaos and open up Iraq for a takeover by Islamist fundamentalists that would make the Taliban look like a bunch of boy scouts. So even though it was a mistake to go to war in Iraq based on what we know now, it would be an even bigger mistake if we left. We have to see the job through no matter what it takes. If 911 taught us anything, it is that.

So why was it a mistake to attack Iraq based on current information? Because in the end they posed no real danger to the world, or even to the region. They were being contained and had no WMDs at all. And most importantly we attacked a secular government not an Islamist government of the type we attacked in Afghanistan. True, Hussein was a tyrant, bigot and dictator but he was not an Islamist. And he ruled his people with an iron fist. He did not abide dissent... particularly the dissent of Islam. Islamists were afraid of him and with good reason. He held the country together. And if you were an Iraqi citizen... as long as you didn’t oppose him you could live a relatively quite, peaceful, and prosperous life. Of course he was evil and would have wiped Israel off the map. But that was at best a remote possibility. Israel had little to fear from Iraq because he simply did not have the means to do anything more than control his own people.

So what’s wrong with getting rid of this dictator? It opened up a Pandora ’s Box of violence, chaos and civilian strife that seems to be spiraling into a civil war between Shia and Sunni Muslims that can end up becoming another Iran, or worse.


And Iran is the real problem. It is Iran that should have been attacked. They are the kind of fundamentalists who attacked us on 911, not the formerly secular Iraq of Sadaam Hussein. It is Iran who speaks of wiping Israel off the map. It is Iran who spouts the kind of theology spouted by the Taliban and by Bin Laden. They are the ones with the desire to develop weapons of mass destruction. Had the US attacked Iran instead of Iraq and just continued containment of Iraq as they had since the first Gulf was, the fight would have been indeed taken to the terrorists.

But instead we are in Iraq fighting a war that we should be fighting in Iran. We could have had a secular dictator remain in Iraq who was not interested in forcing Islamist ideals onto the world. Hussein was only interested in controlling his people, and enriching himself through fear and intimidation. Any ambitions to foment war against his neighbors through military means had been thwarted by the first Gulf war and he was being prevented from doing so again. Iraq was neutralized for practical purposes and this would have freed up American forces to attack Islamism in its bosom, Iran. Unfortunately we are now stuck in Iraq and we are stuck with a militant Iran threatening destruction to Israel and forging ahead with their nuclear program thumbing their noses at the US and the rest of the world.

Like I said at the outset, there is nothing that could have been done given the information we had and nothing we can do now to leave. But I definitely think that with 20/20 hindsight, the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. But one thing is certain. We cannot ignore Iran. They are the spiritual fathers of 911 and the real enemy.

OK. I feel better now.

Lessons from a Chasidic Rebbe... and a Chasid

A member of the Areivim e-mail list related the following story:

“A little early for Yom Haatzmaut but our rabbi (in a pesach shiur) mentioned a story of the Sadugerrer Rebbe. When he was in Vienna in 1938 the nazis made him put a Nazi flag on a pole. He decided then that if he ever made it to a Jewish state he would hoist a Jewish flag. Then next made him sweep the streets and he said that if he ever survived he would sweep the streets of a Jewish town.”

“He survived the war and moved to Tel Aviv. On yom haatzmaut he got up at 4am to sweep the street in Tel Aviv (he felt that it was not kavod for a rebbe to sweep streets in the middle of the day). He also hoisted an Israeli flag and attended a local yom haatzmaut minyan so he could dance. This was all described in a book many years ago.”

“Recently a book appeared on the sadugerrer rebbe. They brought the story with the sweeping of the street but "forgot" the story with the Israeli flag.”

Isn’t hagiography wonderful? It angers me when the RW goes out of their way to avoid any positive spin on the Jewish State.

I have another story to tell along these same lines. My wife's uncle, "Uncle Avaraham” survived the holocaust but not before his entire family, wife and children, parents and siblings... were wiped out. But though he personally escaped, he did not do so unscathed. He was one of the victims of the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele who did medical experiments on him and in the process was sterilized.

After the holocaust he came to Israel. He lived in Tel Aviv and became a very successful businessman. He was also a devout Gerrer Chasid and became very close to the Gerrer Rebbe. He was quite an honored man when he went to the rebbe... always commanding more time with him than most other Gerrer Chasidim.

But on Yom HaAtzmaut, he left the Gerrer Shteeble in Tel Aviv and Daven'd in the local Mizrachi Shul so that he could say Hallel on that day. He too understood the importance of the existence of a Jewish state.

There is a very strong point to be made here that should not be missed. Those like the sadugerrer rebbe and "Uncle Avrahom" understood what it means to have a Jewish state...far beyond any theological reasons. People like "Uncle Avrahom" and the sadugerrer rebbe who lived through the holocaust understand why Hakaras HaTov should be expressed in this way. They knew the value of the existence of a Jewish state and they expressed support for it in spite of the “nay sayers” who refused to do so for "religious" reasons or because of the evil they saw in them. Sure... many of these people were anti Torah and did some harm in that area. But that is by far over-ridden by the irrefutable fact that Israel was a haven for Jewish holocaust survivors when few other nations were.

And during the one of the most Horrific periods in Jewish history, the holocaust itself, all the nations of the world were not as good as they should have been to the Jewish people. From collaborating with the Nazis to just closing their borders to immigration the record is a sorry one. It is only a Jewish state that would have opened its doors completely and unequivocally. The sadugerrer rebbe knew this as did "Uncle Avrahom" and probably every other Jewish survivor who had the Zechus to make it through the war and come to a land that they could call their own.

Unfortunately this is not the case today. There are far too many people who look at the creation of the State of Israel as an abomination that is being run by a bunch or Reshaim... to be disparaged at every turn. Rarely do I hear from those quarters any good spoken about the state. That's because they have not experienced what life for a Jew can be if there was no state, borders are closed, and laws put in place to annihilate you and every single member of your family and your people. And torture you while you wait to die.

God forbid that we are ever put into a position to wish we had a State of our own. We have one now and we ought to recognize those who founded it and those who maintain it.

Science, Torah, Perceptions, and Reality

There has been a lot of discussion in the blogosphere about science, Torah and whether they are compatible. In my view they are not only compatible but they are intertwined.

Until last year the following would have been well within the framework of a Torah Hashkafa. But now it has been deemed Kfira by certain Gedolim. But I happen to believe it isn’t K’fira at all. And I believe ...in fact I know... that there are many others who are Yereim and Shelemim and think along these lines also. Of course some of these individuals have been forced into the closet. And worse... others who have relied on Gedolim to define Judaism for them have become skeptics because of it. But it needn’t be the case. Science and Torah are compatible. Here is why I think so.

Back in the sixties, long before anyone thought about synthesis between Torah, evolution, and concepts like “Intelligent Design", I was taught the Theory of Evolution by a completely Orthodox Jewish college professor I had at Roosevelt University. He was quite an interesting fellow and had actually done work on discovering DNA. He told us that he completely believed in the Theory of Evolution including the randomness factor. Yet he was a Shomer Torah and Mitzvos and definitely not a Kofer. He was a respected member of Academia AND the Torah world.

Many of the Frum students in his class were shocked that a Frum Jew could believe in something like this as we were all indoctrinated to believe evolution was a completely false theory invented by atheists. But he convinced us that Torah and evolutionary science is quite compatible. This changed my entire perspective on Science and Torah and I realized at that time that indeed Science and Torah are not only compatible, but they are inseparable. The Torah was written for the real world... the very thing that science studies... the one which exists in Metzius. And that, after all is what science is: the study of Metzius and nothing else.

The wonderful thing about science is that it has at its core no underlying belief system. Nothing is sacrosanct in science. A fact that is proven today can be discarded tomorrow with the discovery of new facts. So, for a time in my life I was a believer in the theory of evolution in all its radiant glory including the randomness factor which I thought did not deny anything in the Torah. And the closer I looked at the Torah narrative the more I saw a harmony of sequence between the order of evolutionary process and the order of creation. Thus indicating compatibility

At about the time I had developed my own synthesis of the Torah narrative and evolution, I came across the book by Rabbi Avigdor Miller trashing the theory of evolution. I was very upset by the poor arguments he made and I still feel the book was harmful to the search for Emes. His rejectionist attitude would in the end turn off serious students of Science. He rejected and ridiculed scientific evidence and denied human intellect.

But now after many years of continued searching for Truth, I have come to my own conclusions that while evolution may indeed be the process by which God created the species, the chances of random sudden mutation is a highly unlikely proposition. Not that it is impossible, just that it is unlikely. What I believe in firmly now is the concept of Intelligent Design. That God for His own reasons created a universe that followed a natural evolutionary path but that it was purposefully guided by Him. In this way one can deal with scientific evidence on the one hand and on the other hand, the rational deduction that something does not come from nothing and that there must be a Creator.

But evolution is not the only issue between science and Torah. What about other apparent contradictions? Well I can’t deal with all of these problems since that would make this essay way to long. Besides I am not equipped to deal with any and all problems that one may have. But let me deal with at least one, the Mabul.

Doesn’t the fact that there is absolutely no evidence of a worldwide flood in the geological record indicate that there really was no flood? Isn’t this a contradiction between science and Torah? The answer is, I don’t know if it is or it isn’t but I also believe that Torah and Metzius cannot contradict each other. So how do I resolve this apparent contradiction?

In my view when there seems to be a contradiction between Torah and science it means one of three things:

1) We don't know all the facts about the Metzius.

2) We don't understand the Torah properly, or

3) Both

To illustrate these points I would posit that we cannot always rely on what we see as fact. Sometimes what we perceive is incomplete and there are other factors that make what we see a lie.

The flat earth society thinks the earth is flat. Why? Because they go outside and look toward the horizon and see that it looks flat. But they don't know all the facts. The more information you have the closer you are to reality. Do we have all the facts pertaining to the Mabul? One might think so. We look at the lack of evidence and say we see the facts... but do we know all the facts? I don’t think so. We only see what we have now. We do not see beyond the “horizon” of the facts at hand. Based on what we see, the earth is flat. The technology to measure any evidence of a flood has perhaps not yet been invented. To automatically presume that it didn’t happen is to be intellectually dishonest and to predispose oneself to a conclusion based on possibly incomplete information.

The same logic can be employed in the entire Torah narrative when we seem to have a contradiction. One need not reject the Torah narrative just because there is no evidence of its occurrence. We can believe in the Torah narrative and still maintain out intellectual honesty as long as we realize that it is in the very nature of science that nothing is sacrosanct. The only thing that IS sacrosanct is thee Torah.

Chasidic Hooliganism

I am not bashing Chasidim. Most Chasidim do not act like this but the following story illustrates that some Chasidim do. And to whatever extent this kind of behavior is condoned or tolerated, is the extent it should be publicly condemned.

Once again a great Chilul HaShem was made by Frum Jews. Yesterday in the Boro Park section of New York city a group of Chasidim who generally claim to be the most religious of Torah Jewry and who are almost universally seen as such by the rest of world acted like an unruly and criminally violent mob.

The New York Times and other newspapers are reporting an incident where a 75 year-old Chasidic driver was arrested for talking on his cell phone while driving. Apparently the police were a bit rough on this gentleman considering his elderly status. It was also likely that the fellow charged was deaf in one ear contributing to the circumstances of the arrest. Apparently not realizing this, the police officers thought man was being uncooperative.

To a passer by in the street of this overwhelmingly Orthodox neighborhood, this might have seemed like a shocking sight. How often is anyone arrested for such a relatively minor traffic violation, let alone a 75 year old Chasid? What happened next in response to this sight, however, is nothing less than a complete Chilul HaShem. Instead of expressing indignation and perhaps filing a complaint to the police department and maybe taking some legal action in the future, a huge riot broke out which included the kind of acts perpetrated by Palestinians against soldiers in the West Bank. From the NY time article:

“Hundreds of Hasidic Jews surrounded a Brooklyn police station Tuesday night, chanting "No justice - no peace," lighting bonfires, and eventually torching a police car.”

Torching a police car?! This ...is how they react to a Jew being a bit rough handled by police who thought a man might be resisting arrest?! Even if the police were wrong or should have known better, this in no way can be characterized as a justified response! It is outright hooliganism. Torching police cars is not the Jewish way and not the Torah way. It is the Palestinian Intifada way. If these Chasidim are going to act like this they ought to move to Ramalah!

Damage to the Honor of Torah

The following is an e-mail sent to the Areivim e-mail list by a member who wishes to remain anonymous. I think it demonstrates as much as anything I’ve seen the fallout created by the ban on Rabbi Slifkin’s books. Shortly after the ban a letter was circulated by Ner Israel Rosh HaYeshiva, Rabbi Aharon Feldman on this issue which was very troubling and in my view only adds to the problem. But I do agree with him on one thing:

“Probably the public issue most damaging to the honor of Torah and to its leaders in recent memory is what is known as the Slifkin affair.”

This is definitely true. But I disagree with him on the cause. He blames Rabbi Slifkin. But Rabbi Slifkin is as much a victim as anyone else. The real culprits are those who speak in the name of the Gadol who dictateded this ban and manipulate his actions. What they have done is unleash an explosion of doubt amongst some of the most sincere Torah observing people in Judaism... thinking people, some of the brightest we have... many of them RW or Charedi in orientation.

There are of course many amongst them who don’t care and simply say “Write them off.” “Kfira is Kfira.” “Who cares how many there are?!” They will have to give Din VeCheshbon for their actions. They will have a lot to answer for indulging in their zealotry. Read the following letter and see why:

Regarding the Emunas Chachamim issue as a result of the Slifkin affair Etc. I would appreciate it if you can post this anonymously, as I think it is very important to make clear to people that there IS a crisis of faith, yet most people will not talk about it publicly. I speak to my very close friends about it - but that's it - as I see what the Chareidi Kannai Reshaim can do - and I don't want to be subject to that kind of hell on this earth.

This email may seem harsh, and I generally try to tone myself down, but I think I'm just going to let it all out - if you want to edit it, feel free - if not, you can leave it as is so that people know how others feel.

I grew up in a TIDE home in the USA and was educated in mainstream Chareidi yeshivos. I was educated there to believe in the infallibility of the Gedolim, and although I did not accept it totally - as I understood that it is obviously possible for people to be mistaken here and there, I did accept most of it. Eventually, I moved to Eretz Yisrael, married and settled down. I began studying sciences in a local University for parnassah reasons, and as will ultimately happen, questions started popping up. I purchased two books that were quite good in defending Torah - one was the book by Prof Yehudah Levi "The Science In Torah" and the book by Nosson Slifkin "The Science of Torah". Although I did not agree with everything in the book, it gave a very good overview of the situation and possible solutions to the issues raised, as well as the personal view of Nosson Slifkin.

Some time later, bans started appearing, calling the book Kefirah and forbidding the reading of the book. I'm sure everyone knows this, so I won't get into this in detail. I had BIG problems with the actual ban - so I went to a number of prominent Rabbis to try to help me understand it.

There were three answers:

1) The Gedolim are the Gedolim - just rely
on them and ignore everyone else, including your own puny brain.

2) The Gedolim are the Gedolim - but in this case they are mistaken, but they
Are usually correct - so just ignore this psak and follow them in everything else.

3) The Chareidi community is insane and you have to understand that they are insane - try not to take it personally - maybe eventually they will once again regain their senses. The cause of the insanity is the holocaust - from which the moderate branch of Orthodoxy never recovered, and mostly the Kannoim survived.

I'm not going to name the Rabbonim I went to, as they spoke to me privately and probably would not have wanted their names plastered all over the internet, but suffice it to say that they were not 35 year old high school Rebbeim (no offence meant to any high-school rebbe - but I wouldn't go to them for my Hashkafic issues).

Additionally, information about HOW the process of the banning worked started coming through over the internet, and suffice it to say that my Emunas Chachamim was not benefiting.

Lastly, a number of "Gedoley Hador" published articles over the
Internet - namely R' Moshe Shternbuch and R' Feldman - which unfortunately made the issue worse. They either promised to give their version of how Torah/science mix - but they never did, or they showed their absolute lack of knowledge in scientific theory and methodology. The lack of receiving any type of theory whatsoever that made any sense was the Makeh B'patish for me, and internally, I started thinking of many Rabbis as utter fools who have phenomenal memories and have learned much Torah.
The Torah has not affected their morality nor has it made them become more intelligent people. Was it wrong of me to think like that? Probably, yet any person that would look at the facts presented to them would either have to rely on blind faith in Gedoley Hador or come to the conclusion that the emperor has no clothes.

No, I have not taken off my yarmulka or stopped wearing tzitzis or stopped keeping Shabbos, but until today I have great nisyonos with regard to Judaism and Mitzvos that have a deep impact upon my soul. I don't know if it is possible to put how I feel in writing, but those who have gone through such nisyonos know what I mean. B"H I have a wonderful wife who has stood with me and strengthened me throughout the process, and it is probably due to her alone that I remain frum today. The Gedoley Hador have turned me off to Judaism - if the MOST RESPECTED RABBIS IN JUDAISM CAN ACT LIKE THIS, HOW CAN I BE EXPECTED TO FOLLOW THEM???

The simple answer is "Don't judge Judaism by the way the Jews act", but please see "Off the Derech" by Faranak Margolese - Page 49-50: "Based on my experience and the hundreds of off the derech stories I have heard, I am convinced that when people say "you should not judge a religion by its practitioners" they are mistaken. We say Torah lo bashamayim hi - the Torah is not in Heaven. It is here on earth, in our interpretations of it, in our commitment to it, in our love for it. We believe that Torah is not a theory to be studied, but a way of life to be lived. Judaism is ultimately about the way we live it. The Judaism that exists in books may be intellectual stimulating and essential to our observant lives. But what impacts us most dramatically in terms of our commitment to observance is the reality we create with it here on earth. And what impacts us most in terms of our feeling toward Judaism is the relationships and experiences we have with observant Jews. Negative relationships and their painful experiences push us away from both Torah and Jews"

The feeling that I feel most strongly toward Judaism (or as Faranak Margolese puts it - towards the practitioners of Judaism) is a feeling of betrayal. Much of the good that I was taught exists in Judaism has been utterly destroyed by the actions of a few extreme individuals - who are the ones who should be leading the flock in the correct direction.

Each person must come to his own personal peace with what happened, but for some of us, the path is very, very difficult.

A Tale of Two Students: Funding Torah Education in Israel

In trying to counter my argument that the source of the problem of poverty is the lack of proper education of the Charedi school system, my good friend David Brand references an article entitled A Tale Of Two Students by Rabbi Avi Shafran written a few years ago. In the article Rabbi Shafran tries to compare the relatively positive attitude of society for one who studies many years for a PhD in an obscure field in a university... to the highly negative attitude society has for one who studies Torah for many years in a Kollel. He complains that Torah study is at least as valuable as, say, Scottish Literature (in the example quoted) and should be treated with no less respect. And this argument is used to advocate for at least equal government financial support for an advanced Torah student as is provided to an advanced student of Scottish literature. This is an argument I have heard many times and in fact, I have used it myself.

On the surface it seems fair. But let’s consider the facts. The relative numbers of Scottish Literature students in comparison to the entire community from which those students are drawn is relatively small. An argument can be made that a few experts in Scottish Literature can indeed be beneficial to society at large. But no one would make the argument that every male member of that particular society should be studying Scottish literature and be subsidized for it. That is the reality of what Charedi society asking for. They encourage every male member of their society to seek a life of learning Torah for as long as possible and demand that the government
subsidize it. This is wrong. It should not be subsidized to this extent.

Rabbi Shafran would be right if he was asking this for the best and brightest of the Torah world who seek to become “experts” in their field. They should be supported. There should be no less support for Torah learning then there is for supporting a few experts in Scottish literature. But to support everyone... forever is unfair and counterproductive. It should be discouraged.

And this is why I have stopped supporting Chinuch Atzmai, the financial agency responsible for collecting money for Torah schools for Israel. The argument, which I bought into for many decades is that Chinuch Atzmai is the only Torah true educational system and does not get anywhere near enough funding from the secularist anti-Torah Israeli government. And this may be true, but the product they produce is not the one they advertise. Yes, they produce knowledgeable Bnei Torah with great potential for greatness, but they also produce masses of mediocrity that are otherwise unproductive and unable to properly support their families. Chinuch Atzmai is responsible for perpetuating this system by funding it unquestioningly. Of course that isn’t what you hear when they come knocking on your door. They only talk about the anti-Torah bias of the Knesset claiming that Chinch Atzmai is the only way to save Yiddishkeit.

To be clear, I do not support the destruction of Charedi education, Chas VeShalom. I support the goals of educating our young people in Torah and Mitzvah observance. I even support the goals of producing Gedolim... with all the intensive study that takes. But what I do not support is a system that promotes poverty and refuses to do anything about it; a system that doesn’t even acknowledge a problem ...or if it does... refuses to do anything about it. It is not enough to just know a problem exists when there is no willingness change. For Chinuch Atzmai to continue promoting itself as the savior of Yiddishkeit without ever mentioning its serious flaws is disingenuous at best.

Chinuch Atzmai is harming Klal Yisroel with the good intentions of funding Torah education and producing Gedolim. But the cost is too high and the exclusivist "Torah only" approach totally unnecessary.

Rav Schach Assur'd a school like Maarava which is basically a Charedi type Yeshiva high school modeled after those in America that have Limudei Chol as part of their daily schedule (...like Philly and Telshe). He explained that any studies that take away from learning undermines the very foundation of our Torah society and its educational system. Bnei Torah have no business doing anything other than learning Torah full time from the time of their Bar Mitzvah onward. But he did not see the Nolad of such a policy. He saw that it was viable... it was working. Those who end up needing Parnassa would leave and... find a way to earn a living somehow.

But he was wrong. He ...did not see this Nolad. But we can now see the next: large families growing exponentially in coming generations with no realistic Parnassa opportunities for lack of preparation. ...and no parents “back home” who can help them out because as I said in my last post, parents and even grandparents will all be in the same ill prepared Parnassa boat.

It is time to demand accountability from the Yeshiva system. We can no longer afford to perpetuate the system by funding it unquestioningly.

Roosting Chickens

An article in today’s Jerusalem Post was quite revealing. We are witnessing in our time the Nolad of the policies of the Yeshiva world. The poverty in the Torah world in Israel is now at epidemic proportions. Families are growing exponentially with every successive generation and income is nearly non existant. Jobs for the unskilled are the best a family head can hope for since he has no learned skills or professional training. And the old “fallback” of relying on help from working parents is no longer tenable. That’s because the current parents aren’t working either. They are in the same boat of no preparation for the workforce having themselves been victims of the Yeshiva system. They can at best work at menial jobs that pay a very low wage while having very large families to support.

This is what recent research conducted by the Economic and Social Program at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute points to. So what will be the answer to this situation from Charedi leadership? If history is any indicator it will be silence... silence plus complaining that the government doesn’t provide enough help to the poor and indigent. There is no attempt at all to change the status quo which is the real source of the problem. There is only resistance to innovations in the Charedi curriculum in the high schools that might make their situations better. So far any real attempt to introduce secular subjects that would help prepare young Charedi men for Parnassa has been rebuffed by Charedi Rabbinic leadership. Is the desire to keep the Yeshiva environment “pure and pristine” any kind of legitimate justification for producing a Torah nation of dire poverty? I don’t think so and the chickens are now coming home to roost.

Thanks to Marty Bluke for pointing this article out to me.

Jewish Education: Chinuch Al Taharas HaKodseh

I finally had an opportunity to read Marvin Schick’s column dealing with the “kids at risk” phenomenon in the Jewish Press yesterday.

I didn’t think I would find anything that I didn’t already know, and for the most part that’s true. But Dr. Schick did an excellent job at pointing out the true source of the problem in a way that Agudath Israel's magazine,the Jewish Observer, failed to do in their recent issue. The JO did acknowledge in one of its articles that the source of the problem is not so much the culture we live in, but rather in a child’s individual problems. And that the various stumbling blocks like the internet were just a means to an end of “opting out” of religious observance, or worse. But the JO’s overall approach seemed to focus more on those “stumbling blocks” as the culprit than they did on the real causes of a child at risk... as though the stumbling blocks were the problem.

Dr. Schick on the other hand was quite clear that the issue was not in the modalities for opting out but in the Yeshiva system itself. That system is in large part responsible for what is happening now. Because instead of trying to bring children into Yiddishkeit which was one of the early hallmarks of the day school movement, they are currently turning good kids away... and for the wrong reasons. And for those that are in the system the threshold of acceptable behavior is so high that all but the most conforming of students become worthy of consideration of expulsion.

Even those who have good behavior patterns can easily fall through the cracks because they cannot “keep up” with the learning standards and goals imposed by the school. If you add it all up... there are a lot of children exposed to the lure of “opting out” of Yiddishkeit. These children’s sense of self worth is virtually destroyed. It is impossible to be successful at anything when there is no self esteem.

I am a product of the early years of the day school movement and I can attest to the type of students that were there. We were drawn from all parts of the Jewish community. The school was as much about Kiruv as it was Torah education. This was indeed the mandate of R. Shraga Feivel Mendelowitz, founder of Torah uMesorah and perhaps the most important figure in the establishment of American Chinuch. The school I attended in Detroit was the first of its kind and a prototype of all day schools in this country. It was founded by Reb Shraga Feilvel’s top students: Rabbi Joseph Elias, Rabbi Sholom Goldstein, and Rabbi Avraham Abba Friedman. There were no minimal religious standards. Many of the parents were non-Frum holocaust survivors or secular American Jews with little or no background. But all of the students were treated with equality and loving kindness. Learning Torah, although obviously the main staple of the classroom was second to the way each student was treated. Every single student was valued and felt successful at their own level. There was no judging one child as superior to another. We students knew who the Masmidim were, who the brilliant ones were... but we all had respect for one another because this is how our Rabbeim treated us. Not every child remained Frum but many of those that came from non-Frum homes flourished and in some cases became great Talmidei Chachamim and in some cases leaders in the Torah world. There was no such thing as a child without self-esteem then... to the best of my knowledge. If there was, it wasn’t because of the school.

It is very telling to read the wonderful story in Dr. Schick’s article about Rav Yitzchok Hutner, who even by the most Charedi of standards was considered one of the Gedolei HaDor of that generation. Here is the pertinent paragraph:

“Thirty years ago, in response to my question whether the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School should admit students from marginally observant homes, Rav Yitzchak Hutner, zt"l, the great rosh yeshiva of Chaim Berlin and a genius in understanding students, responded that he had encouraged such students to go to the movies and even take their parents along because this approach would benefit them and make their transition to fully observant Jews more likely.”

Can anyone imagine a Gadol telling this to a Yeshiva high school today? Lest anyone say that movies are far worse today than they were 30 years ago, I would remind them that R and X rated fare was pretty common by 1976.But this is the mark of a true Gadol. He was a man who did not rely on consensus. He did not jump on any bandwagons so as to be identified with another Gadol. He did not say anything like...”Well the Gadol HaDor (...perhaps R Aharon Kotler or Rav Moshe, in his time...) has spoken.” “I don’t need to know what he said.” “I can just sign on knowing that whatever he said is good enough for me.” No! Rav Hutner was a leader... a Gadol, unlike anyone we have today.

Today, instead of accepting students from varying religious backgrounds and trying to accommodate them, we have edicts that threaten expulsion at the slightest variance of unrealistic and false standards, such as forbidding entry to a day school of children who have internet access in the home.

Chanoch L’Naar Al Pi Darko does not really exist in practice. It exists only as an unpracticed and ill defined concept that is only paid attention to in lip service. And this is in large part what is creating a pool of children at risk. In effect by trying to artificially have a standard of Chinuch Al Pi Taharas HaKodeh (which is an oft heard phrase in RW circles) they have created an institution which produces a radical rejectionist society with exclusionary attitudes about the rest of Torah Jewry.

Perhaps we should thank God that some of these Kids at risk have come home to roost in some of homes of RW Roshei Yeshiva. These are strong words but I can only conclude that had it not permeated the walls of this isolationist community it would have just been whisked away and attributed to children from bad homes... and not their problem. But it has permeated the sanctity of the homes of some of our finest Roshei Yeshiva. And now they have to face the results of the exclusionist attitudes and policies that are so conducive to destroying self esteem.

There is one more paragraph that stands out in Dr. Schick’s article:

“Is it any wonder that today there are more defections from Orthodoxy than there are those whom we are attracting through kiruv?”

If this is true, it is an astonishing fact. With all the Kiruv that goes on in the Jewish world, to say that more people are opting “out” then are opting “in” is frightening.

It is time to stop blaming external causes for our problems and look at ourselves. It’s time to abandon the idea of creating a school Al Tharas HaKodesh. It would be wise to see how the Gemarah uses that phrase. It refers to eating Chulin (non consecrated food) in a state of spiritual purity that does not even apply to it. There were many Jews who decided to keep Chulin isolated from levels of Tumah that only apply to Hekdesh (things consecrated to the Beis HaMikdash). They watched their Chulin so that it would not come into contact with items that could only contaminate Hekdesh. They wanted that level Taharah even though it had absolutely no Halachic application to Chulin. Is this the kind of world we want to produce? People that are so detached from the rest of the world that they seek a level of Kedusha that doesn’t even apply to them?

I recommend that everyone read Dr. Schick’s article carefully and then urge their school boards to reject the elitism that is causing so much damage to Klal Yisroel. Their intentions may be to produce a society Al Taharas HaKodesh but the road that it is really paving is strewn with Jewish souls and leads somewhere else ...not quite so holy.