He has published a response (below) to the RCA resolution claiming it was political and not halachic. His arguments about Deborah and Bruria are well known and existed well before the RCA, so to claim them as proofs for his opinion is rather vacuous. Bruria is brought in a Tosefta in Kelim, but in the Mishna it is brought in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua (from memory chapter 2). Was that a political decision by Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi or was there more to it. Were the Rabbis afraid (despite Deborah et al) to name Bruria? If so, why is that? Was Rav Yehuda Hanasi a slave to social mores or were his social mores determined by Mesora which does not deny the Bruria’s of this world, but does deny them Sroro unless it’s a Horoas Sho-oh. I’m not aware of Rabbi Riskin’s appointment as a prophet, but I’d suggest he has bigger fish to fry. What is the divorce rate in Efrat compared to similarly sized towns in Israel? Why is that? That would bother me much more. Unfortunately, Rabbi Riskin doesn’t have Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik or the Lubavitcher Rebbe, both of whom he would have consulted today about such a pronouncement. I will take Rav Hershel Schachter as a Halachist over Rabbi Riskin any day of the week. By the way, does Rabbi Riskin consider Open Orthodoxy Conservative (like the Aguda pronounced yesterday)? Does he consider them conservative with a big C?
I have written to the Rabbinic Council of Victoria. So far, I have not elicited a response. I won’t let go though, till they issue their response. This issue is too fundamental for each Rabbi to make their own determinations. It’s a question about which group you align yourself with, and I suggest very strongly that the Rabbinic Council of Victoria align itself formally with the RCA.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the municipal chief rabbi of Efrat and one of the most prominent leaders of Modern Orthodoxy, has criticized a recent resolution adopted by the Rabbinical Council of America which banned its member rabbis from giving any form of ordination to women or hiring women in a role of religious or spiritual leadership.
The RCA resolution said its members may not “ordain women into the rabbinate, regardless off the title used” or “hire, or ratify the hiring of, a woman into a rabbinic position at an Orthodox institution.”
It appeared to be mostly aimed at institutions associated with the liberal Orthodox movement loosely defined as Open Orthodoxy, including Yeshivat Maharat in Riverdale, New York, founded by Rabbi Avi Weiss, which gives ordination to women to serve as spiritual guides and give rulings in Jewish law, or halacha.
Riskin, along with other rabbis in Israel, is himself an RCA member and oversees the Susi Bradfield Women’s Institute for Halachic Leadership (WIHL) at Midreshet Lindenbaum in Jerusalem, which gives women a qualification that amounts to ordination, although it is not labelled as such.
And Riskin has also appointed a graduate of WIHL to a position of spiritual leadership, the first such appointment to the Orthodox world in Israel, when he hired Dr. Jennie Rosenfeld last year to work as a halachic and spiritual guide in Efrat.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post earlier this week, Riskin said that the RCA’s resolution was “unfortunate” and argued that it was not based on the substantive issues of women’s ordination.
“I believe the resolution they made wasn’t halachic as much as it was political,” the rabbi said.
“As such it was quite unfortunate. There is no question whatsoever that throughout the generations women have often provided halachic and spiritual leadership as is shown from Sarah the prophetess to Deborah the judge, from Bruriah, the daughter of Rabbi Hananya Ben Teradyon of Talmudic times to the rulings of major halachic decisors of today including former chief rabbi Bakshi Doron, that state that women can become the great religious leaders of the generation, the ‘gedolei ha’dor’, and that they can provide rulings for halachic direction.”
Riskin also said he was “very taken aback by the inclusiveness of the resolution.”
The terms of the RCA’s resolution banning the ordaining and hiring of women appeared to include women who graduate from the WIHL.
Women at WIHL complete a program of Talmudic and halachic study comparable to ordination programs undertaken by men, and upon graduation are given the title of Morot Hora’ah and are certified to serve as spiritual leaders and arbiters of Jewish law.
“The guide must be halacha and not politics,” continued Riskin. “One can argue about the titles and what title to give, but halachic and religious leadership can certainly be given to women.
“The RCA certainly understand this, and their resolution makes no sense halachically since they accept yoatzot halacha. That’s why it seems to be a political decision and not one based on halacha.”
Yoetzet halacha are women qualified to give halachic guidance on issues pertaining to Jewish law in the field of family purity, and the position has become an accepted part of Modern Orthodoxy in the last 15 years.
The RCA’s resolution says explicitly that it does not apply to “non-rabbinic positions such as Yoatzot Halacha.”
Giving ordination, or equivalent qualifications, to women, and the adoption by qualified women of a role in making rulings on Jewish law, is a new development in the Orthodox world, and not widely accepted. The mainstream haredi world completely rejects it.
Speaking to the Post, Executive Vice President of the RCA Rabbi Marc Dratch said that the qualification given by WIHL did not come under the definition outlined by the resolution.
“Rabbi Riskin’s program does not ordain women to be clergy in the American sense,” said Dratch. “He has been an innovator in many ways and my hope is that this should not be a point of separation between Rabbi Riskin and the RCA.”
Talking more broadly about the resolution, Dratch said that he hoped it would not lead to further division, and noted that some members of the RCA leadership had publicly stated that they were opposed to the resolution, not necessarily because they disagreed with it but because they felt it was not the best way to deal with the issue.
“It’s a serious issue but we hope it will not come to a situation which will create an un-breachable divide. We need ways to engage in a better dialogue which requires patience and respect for the integrity of the Orthodox community.”
In terms of the practical impact of the resolution, Dratch said that if an RCA member rabbi were to act in contradiction of the resolution, a concern could be brought to the association’s executive committee which could then convene a mechanism to evaluate the concern and, if required and so decided, take action.
It would not lead to the automatic expulsion of the member he said, and noted that there had always been RCA members “who deviate from the mainstream” and that “only very, very rarely has a member been expelled.”
Meira Welt-Maarek, a recent graduate of WIHL who serves alongside a school rabbi as a spiritual leader in a high-school in the Alon Shvut settlement also under Riskin’s direction, labelled the RCA resolution as “political,” saying it was not presented with any sources to support it.
“A halachic argument has a textual frame of reference and they have none, it’s just an opinion which creates divisions,” Welt-Maarek told the Post.
“Women also stood at Mount Sinai, and halachic discussions can only benefit when more people share their perspective. The Torah goes beyond political divisions and barriers. My job is to allow everyone to have access to the Torah and create their connection and path to it.”
Will the Rabbinical Council of Victoria agree and accept this policy?
Oct 30, 2015 — Formally adopted by a direct vote of the RCA membership, the full text of “RCA Policy Concerning Women Rabbis” states:
Whereas, after much deliberation and discussion among its membership and after consultation with poskim, the Rabbinical Council of America unanimously passed the following convention resolution at its April 2010 convention:
The flowering of Torah study and teaching by God-fearing Orthodox women in recent decades stands as a significant achievement. The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) is gratified that our members have played a prominent role in facilitating these accomplishments.
We members of the Rabbinical Council of America see as our sacred and joyful duty the practice and transmission of Judaism in all of its extraordinary, multifaceted depth and richness – halakhah (Jewish law), hashkafah (Jewish thought), tradition and historical memory.
In light of the opportunity created by advanced women’s learning, the Rabbinical Council of America encourages a diversity of halakhically and communally appropriate professional opportunities for learned, committed women, in the service of our collective mission to preserve and transmit our heritage. Due to our aforesaid commitment to sacred continuity, however, we cannot accept either the ordination of women or the recognition of women as members of the Orthodox rabbinate, regardless of the title.
Young Orthodox women are now being reared, educated, and inspired by mothers, teachers and mentors who are themselves beneficiaries of advanced women’s Torah education. As members of the new generation rise to positions of influence and stature, we pray that they will contribute to an ever-broadening and ever-deepening wellspring of talmud Torah (Torah study), yir’at Shamayim (fear of Heaven), and dikduk b’mitzvot (scrupulous observance of commandments).
In light of the recent announcement that Yeshivat Maharat will celebrate the “ordination as clergy” of its first three graduates, and in response to the institution’s claim that it “is changing the communal landscape by actualizing the potential of Orthodox women as rabbinic leaders,” the Rabbinical Council of America reasserts its position as articulated in its resolution of April 27, 2010… The RCA views this event as a violation of our mesorah (tradition) and regrets that the leadership of the school has chosen a path that contradicts the norms of our community.
Therefore, the Rabbinical Council of America.
Resolves to educate and inform our community that RCA members with positions in Orthodox institutions may not
Ordain women into the Orthodox rabbinate, regardless of the title used; or
Hire or ratify the hiring of a woman into a rabbinic position at an Orthodox institution; or
Allow a title implying rabbinic ordination to be used by a teacher of Limudei Kodesh in an Orthodox institution; and,
Commits to an educational effort to publicise its policies to its members and community.
Republishing its policies on this matter; and,
Clearly communicating and disseminating these policies to its members and the community.
This resolution does not concern or address non-rabbinic positions such as Yoatzot Halacha, community scholars, Yeshiva University’s GPATS, and non-rabbinic school teachers. So long as no rabbinic or ordained title such as “Maharat” is used in these positions, and so long as there is no implication of ordination or a rabbinic status, this resolution is inapplicable.
Spread the word on Facebook etc
Kraft Heinz Australia is no longer supporting kosher supervision for its range of Golden Circle-branded juices and cordials. As one of the few widely available kosher certified juice companies, this presents a major inconvenience to kosher consumers.
Kraft Heinz may well reconsider its position if consumers complain. After all, KH management probably does not realise how important kosher certification is to consumers and that it is simply a good business decision to continue to cater to the kosher market.
A petition has been created to present to KH – I urge you to sign it –
Anyone who wants to know what divisiveness is, anyone who wants to know what love of a fellow Jew is NOT, anyone who wants to know why Haredim are derided, anyone who wants to remember Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, anyone who wants to know why Al Aqsa isn’t the Beis Hamikdash should read this outrageous, monstrous and contumelious post
The haredi Mishpacha newspaper created a social media firestorm on Thursday after it published an opinion article in which the first paragraph, printed in Arabic and in Hebrew, asked that since members of the haredi public do not go up to the Temple Mount “could you please stop murdering us.”
The article, written by Mishpacha Magazine deputy editor Aryeh Ehrlich, explained how the haredi community refrains from going up to the Temple Mount since the haredi rabbinic leadership prohibits visiting the site.
Almost all leading haredi rabbis and arbiters of Jewish law rule that Jews may not visit the Temple Mount since they may enter areas that are forbidden to enter without undergoing purification rituals which cannot be conducted today.
“Us, the haredi community, we have no interest in going up to the Temple Mount in our time,” Ehrlich writes. “We oppose this vehemently. Moreover, Jewish law see this as a severe prohibition – punished by spiritual excommunication.”
“So even if you have solid information on Israeli desires to change the status quo at the Dome of the Rock – something which is incorrect to the best of our knowledge – the haredi community has no connection to it. So please, stop murdering us.”
In the rest of the article, the Mishpacha deputy editor observed that several victims of the recent spate of terror attacks have been from the haredi community, and wrote that he was trying to understand why this was the case.
He went on to detail a conversation he had with an Arab worker at a Rami Levi store and he tried to convince him that members of the haredi public do not go up to the Temple Mount.
Ehrlich was subjected to fierce condemnation on social media once awareness of the article spread.
“How wretched and ghetto like can you be? Is this your version of ‘loving your neighbor as yourself’? Of loving your fellow Jew,?” asked one person on Twitter. “Are you are calling on Arabs not to murder haredim because they don’t go up to the Temple Mount but insinuating ‘go and murder those who do? Disgusting. What about just calling on them not to murder. It would be more humane and more Jewish.”
One talkbacker on haredi website B’hadrei Haredim exclaimed “What about other Jews who aren’t haredi, them you should kill?????”
“The Mishpacha newspaper is turning to murderers to ask them not to murder haredim…everyone else is okay apparently. (He forgot that the pogrom in 1929 was because Jews went to visit the Western Wall),” tweeted far-right former MK Michael Ben-Ari.
Following the outrage prompted by his article, Ehrlich took to Twitter and said that he was trying to explain in his article that the Islamic Movement in Israel was trying to create a religious war and has urged Palestinians to attack people with a religious appearance.
“My article in the Mishpacha Magazine says: This religious war is wild incitement based in imaginary rumors. Most people who observe the religious commandments don’t go to the Temple Mount, if only because of the religious prohibition. The article was trying, naively it must be admitted, to tear the away the mask from the murderous Palestinian aggression which has been going on for decades, and to neutralize the false Islamic incitement.”
It is beyond belief that these morons from Mishpacha think they can affect anything. As if the Arabs don’t know this. They know it’s a beat up. They dress up as Haredim wanting a lift so that someone will stop and give them a lift, and then pull a knife on the Jew loving driver who thought he was picking up a harmless Haredi.
These people need to find
מחילה ברקיע השמים אצל מלך מלכי המלכים, הקדוש ברוך הוא
The following is from the New York Times and is by Daniel Gordis. It says it all. It isn’t about 2 States, it isn’t about boundaries, it isn’t about apartheid, it isn’t about poverty. It isn’t about any of these issues. The following from Gordis says it all.
(c) New York Times
We have a young language instructor at Shalem College in Jerusalem, where I work. She’s a religious Muslim who wears a hijab, lives in one of the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem and is a graduate student at Hebrew University. She’s fun and warm, and a great teacher — the students like her a lot.
Late last spring, when things here were quiet, some of the students mentioned to the department chair that as much as they’d spoken with her over the past couple of years, they’d never discussed politics. They were curious what someone like her thought about the conflict in this region, especially now that she was teaching at an unabashedly Zionist college, had come to know so many Jewish students and had developed such warm relationships with them. How does someone like her see things here? How did she think we would one day be able to settle this conflict?
“So ask her,” the department chair said. “As long as you speak to her in Arabic (she’s on staff to help our students master the language), you can talk about anything you want.”
They did. They told her that since they’d never discussed the “situation” (as we metaphorically call it here in Israel), they were curious how she thought we might someday resolve it.
“It’s our land,” she responded rather matter-of-factly. Stunned, they weren’t sure that they’d heard her correctly. So they waited. But that was all she had to say. “It’s our land. You’re just here for now.”
What upset those students more than anything was not that a Palestinian might believe that the Jews are simply the latest wave of Crusaders in this region, and that we, like the Crusaders of old, will one day be forced out. We all know that there are many Palestinians who believe that.
What upset them was that she — an educated woman, getting a graduate degree (which would never happen in a Muslim country) at a world class university (only Israel has those — none of Israel’s neighbors has a single highly rated university) and working at a college filled with Jews who admire her, like her and treat her as they would any other colleague — still believes that when it’s all over, the situation will get resolved by our being tossed out of here once again.
Even she , who lives a life filled with opportunities that she would never have in an Arab country, still thinks at the end of the day the Jews are nothing but colonialists. And colonialists, she believes, don’t last here. The British got rid of the Ottomans, the Jews got rid of the British — and one day, she believes, the Arabs will get rid of the Jews.
That is one of the many reasons that this recent wave of violence, consisting mostly of deadly stabbings carried out by Israeli Arabs (not Palestinians living over the Green Line) and Arab residents of east Jerusalem, has Israelis so unsettled.
Yes, the reality on the ground is frightening. People are being stabbed on the street, on buses, in malls. Those being attacked are elderly men and women and young boys on their bicycles. No one is immune, and unlike the last Intifada, when suicide bombers sought high casualty counts so you felt safe away from crowds, now nowhere feels definitely safe.
But even that is not the most debilitating dimension of this new round of attacks on Jews. What’s most sobering is the fact that this new round of violence has made it clear, once again, that this conflict is simply never going to end.
What Israelis are coming to understand by virtue of the fact that the attackers are not Palestinians living in refugee camps but Israeli Arabs — who have access to Israeli health care, Israeli education, Israel’s free press and right of assembly, protection for gays and lesbians and much more — is that this latest round of violence is simply the newest battle in the War of Independence that Israel has been fighting for 68 years now.
The war began even before Israel was a state — Arabs attacked Israel not when David Ben-Gurion declared independence on May 14, 1948, but when the United Nations General Assembly voted — on November 29, 1947 — to create a Jewish state. When formal independence followed some six months later, the attacking Arab militias were replaced by standing armies of five Arab nations — Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and even Iraq (which joined the fray even though it did not share a border with Israel).
Over the years, the enemies have shifted (Israel signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but now there are the Palestinians and Iran is both pursuing a weapon of mass destruction and declaring that Israel must be destroyed) and the methods have changed (standing Arab armies have been replaced by terrorism at home and an international campaign to delegitimize Israel in the UN and beyond). But the basic goal of Israel’s enemies remains the destruction of the Jewish state.
Increasingly, Israelis (who, polls show, overwhelmingly would like to get out of the West Bank and live peacefully alongside a Palestinian State that would recognize Israel) fear that while for us this is a conflict that can be settled by adjusting borders and guaranteeing security for both sides, for our enemies this is an all-or-nothing battle in which the only end would be for Israel to disappear.
Israel’s iconic diplomat, Abba Eban, said in the early 1970s that “the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” It was, sadly, an apt observation. And it is still true. By joining the violence and responding to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ incitement (Abbas insists that he’s not inciting, but that is patently false — if nothing else, his ludicrous claim that Israel is planning to change the status quo on the Temple Mount proved sufficient to inflame an entire region), Israeli Arabs have foolishly put themselves on the wrong side of history.
Rather than take a page from Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps protesting peacefully on behalf of other Palestinians, a violent minority has chosen to show its support for the larger Palestinian cause by attacking innocent Jews. And by and large, Israeli Arab leadership has been silent.
Israeli Jews have taken note — and the consequences are likely to be longstanding. While Israelis are feeling vulnerable, they are also feeling abandoned. When Secretary of State John Kerry said that he would not “point fingers from afar” at who was responsible for the violence, and called the latest attacks part of a “revolving cycle that damages the future for everybody,” he convinced Israelis once again that the present American administration has abandoned any ability to distinguish right from wrong, just from unjust, wise from destructive. America is hopelessly irrelevant in the Middle East, which means that Israel is sadly very alone.
When Americans fret in the months and years to come that the peace process is stuck, Israelis hope that they will remember that when the violence broke out again, the world’s newspapers ignored it. When Abbas said Israel had murdered a 13-year-old Palestinian attacked and the Israeli press then published a photo showing the boy sitting in an Israeli hospital bed, Abbas did not retract and the world ignored his mendacity.
When the American secretary of state was asked to comment on why the new round of violence erupted, he refused to mention Abbas and said he would not point fingers. When Palestinians incited, Israeli Arabs (20% of Israel’s population) who picked up knives convinced many Israelis that they were enemies, not fellow citizens.
Israelis hope that people will remember all that, but we also know better.
Where all this will lead, no one can say. For the time being, though, the future in this region is going to be bleak. Despair and a sense of having been abandoned never bring out the best in anyone, never make them more likely to compromise. When Palestinians express their objections to occupation, to checkpoints, to mistreatment at the hands of Israelis, those protestations will fall on increasingly deaf ears.
Why? Is it because Israelis do not want peace? Is it because we do not understand that our future would be better if Palestinians could have a democratic, functioning state? Is it because we’re oblivious to their legitimate complaints?
No. It’s simply that we know, with no doubt, that for our enemies, this is a conflict not about borders but about our very right to be here. We know that, overwhelmingly, the Arab world is still committed to driving us out of this land. So we’ll stay, and tough it out — whatever the world thinks of the steps we have to take — for as long as it takes. For as Golda Meir put it decades ago with her characteristic wit, “Israelis have a secret weapon — we have nowhere else to go.”
SHIUR HARAV Y.D. SOLOVEITCHIK זצ’’ל ON פרשת LECH LECHA
(Shiur date: 1955) Based on tape #5126 available from Milton Nordlicht. (c) (1999) Josh Rapps & Israel Rivkin, Edison, NJ. Permission to reprint this summary, with this notice, is granted [lightly edited/corrected by me]
Avraham is portrayed as the great personality of Jewish History. The previous 2 parshios are a preamble to Avraham, the other patriarchs and the birth of Knesses Yisrael. Avraham’s life culminated at the time that he consummated a covenant with Hashem. He did this twice. The covenant was consummated many years before the birth of Isaac. The sole purpose for the birth of Isaac was to carry on the Bris. There ar e 2 covenants in this parsha. The first is Bris Bayn Habesarim. The Torah says Bayom Hahu, on that day Hashem made a covenant with Avram to give him and his children the land of. At the end of the Parsha there is another covenant, which included Bris Milah, and again the gift of the land to Avraham and his children is repeated. [It is interesting to note that at the Akeidah there was no new Bris, rather the original Bris was reaffirmed.] Hashem commands Avraham to include Ishmael and circumcise him, but the covenant will not be passed to his children.
The first covenant very clearly revolved around the gift of the land to Avraham. Why not have only one Krisas Bris? When thinking about the granting of the land to the Jewish People, we very often overlook the second Bris with Avraham and instead focus on the Bris Bayn Habesarim. Another question is why separate the 2 covenants with the story of Ishmael and Hagar? Why not juxtapose the 2 covenants immediately next to each other?
The Rav answered the first question that Bris Bayn Habesarim says that Hashem gave the land to the children of Avraham. It does not say for how long. The first Bris did not guarantee the eternal ownership of the land. The second Bris says that it is given to the Jewish Nation forever.
Jewish History is very perplexing to one who attempts to understand the continuity of the Jewish Nation. How were we able to survive tragedy and holocaust throughout the millennia? In fact there is a doubly fascinating aspect here. The first is based on the Bris Bayn Habesarim, that Eretz Yisrael has waited for us. The Midrash says Vhashimosi Ani Es Haaretz (And I will lay waste to the land), this is a good thing for Bnay Yisrael, for it means that the enemies of Israel will derive no benefit from the land and would never conquer it and claim it. If one would analyze the colonial periods of the 1600s through the 1800s we find that major portions of the world were colonised. The Americas, Australia etc. The non-Jewish world excelled in their colonising ability. However many countries attempted to colonise Eretz Yisrael. Germany which was well known as being expert colonisers failed to colonise Eretz Yisrael. It is interesting to note that many of the nations around Israel were much more developed than Eretz Yisrael through this period. Egypt and Iraq were much more developed than Eretz Yisrael. Eretz Yisrael remained untamed and barren, a land of sand, stones and sea. Had the land been colonised it would have been much more difficult for the Jews to return. Eretz Yisrael is Kolet, absorbs, its inhabitants. Eretz Yisrael also has the ability to expel, L’Hakey, those that it rejects.
The Beis Halevi says that when Jeremiah says “Al Har Tzion Sheshamem Shualim Hilchu Bo, Atah Hashem Lolam Teshev” it implies a blessing for the Jewish people. Many wanted to settle the land but were unsuccessful. This is a sign that the Kedusha is eternal. Its stones could not be colonised. The land remained loyal to the people. Reb Yehuda Halevi in his Kinos says “Tziyon Halo Tishali L’shlom Asirayich”. How do we know that Tzion inquires as to the welfare of its inhabitants, the Jews? It is written in the barrenness of the hills and land of Judah and Israel, the fact that no one else was able to colonise it.
In Judaism we have the concept of Agunah. It implies someone who is locked in limbo, who is constantly waiting for her husband to return even though she is ageing and realises that her chance to remarry is slipping away with each day that passes. Yet she waits. The land of Israel is an Agunah in this respect. It waits for its mate to return even though he has been gone for so many years. The Bris Bayn Habesarim guaranteed that the land would remain loyal to the people.
If the inanimate land elects to remain loyal to the people, it has the ability to remain loyal indefinitely. However the problem is how to ensure that the people remain loyal to the land? A husband can be an Agun as well, someone who waits for his wife to return. The Jewish Nation has been an Agun, waiting for the land. Achad Ha’am (someone far from religion) wrote that he came to Jerusalem and visited the Kotel on Tisha B’av and observed how Jews from Aydot Mizrach were mourning. He observed that the stones are witness to the destruction of our land and these people are witness to the destruction of our nation. He asked which is worse? He answered that a land that was destroyed can be rebuilt by those that return, like Ezra and Nechemia. But who will rebuild a nation that is destroyed?
Achad Haam’s mistake was that the group of people he observed were not witnesses to the destruction of the land. But the principle is correct. The question is how can a nation express its identity and live uniquely under such conditions? Everything about the Jew is different than the world around us. The way we write, the way we pray, the way we set our calendar are all examples of how we differ from those around us. Jews lived in Europe for a thousand years and remained loyal. Eretz Yisrael is another example of the uniqueness of the Jewish Nation. Rationally one should not support Israel, how can it survive against so many enemies? Yet this is the great wonder and power of our nation, our ability to wait for the land and to return to it. The same applies to the relationship of the Jew to Torah, especially Torah Sh’beal Peh. Just like one can’t learn and appreciate Mathematics by simply reading a book. It is a method that must be incorporated in the thought processes of a person. The same is true of Torah Sh’beal Peh, it is a method that becomes part of a Jew’s personality, distinguishing him from those around him.
The fact that people would wait for a land for so many years is based on Hashem granting us the land L’dorosam, forever. This eternal gift was granted in the covenant associated with Bris Milah and not in the covenant of Bris Bayn Habesarim. The second covenant grants the land eternally to a people that keeps Torah Sh’beal Peh, a people that rejoices differently and cries differently. This is the essence of Bris Milah. Milah is a Chasimah. Chasimah is not just a signature but rather it is the mark of the individual. It expresses the uniqueness of the individual that no one else can copy. Milah is called Chosam Bris Kodesh because the Jewish Nation is different and unique from all others. It is this uniqueness that guarantees our constant yearning for and connection to the land. Why is the story of Ishmael introduced between the two covenants? Because any nation can survive while they are on their land, even Ishmael. The distinguishing characteristic between Ishmael and Isaac is in their ability to maintain their uniqueness when they are removed from the land. That’s why Hashem says that He will transfer the Bris and its fulfilment to Isaac and not Ishmael. Because Isaac and his children will remain unique forever. Hashem retains responsibility to recognise and fulfil the Bris Bayn Habesarim so that the land maintains its loyalty to the people. However our job is to fulfil the covenant of the Bris Milah and to retain our uniqueness and identity as the Am Hashem.
She came out publicly in the Guardian against the BDS.
Perhaps most interesting is the list of people who HAVE put themselves on the record in the British Guardian Newspaper as supporting the BDS. What I found fascinating is that they all seem to be tree hugging writers, artists, film makers,poets, directors. There seem to be few if any scientists or people with that bent of mind. What does that tell you? Here they are. JK Rowling signed onto this group.
Mark Aaron designer, artist, composer
May Abdalla documentary filmmaker
Hanan Abdalla documentary filmmaker
Khalid Abdalla actor, filmmaker
Hassan Abdulrazzak playwright/screenwriter
Leo Abrahams producer
Tom Adams musician
Martin Adams printmaker sculptor
Beverley Adams Stack artistic director Faceless Arts
Susanne Adebayo playwright, actor, director, producer, teacher
Olugbenga Adelekan dj/producer
Joseph Adesunloye director
Zahra Ahmadi actor
Raisah Ahmed writer/director
Rizwan Ahmed actor
Mediah Ahmed playwright
Peter Ahrends architect
Hamja Ahsan artist / curator
Akkas Al-Ali director
Hanan Al-Shaykh, writer
Catherine Alexander director, teacher
Kirsty Alexander dance artist and curator
Jane Alexander singer
Clem Alford musician
Seif Alhasani designer
Tariq Ali writer, film / television / broadcaster
Zulfqar Ali art consultant
Khyam Allami musician/composer
Candace Allen writer
Deniz Allport librarian story-teller
Will Alsop OBE architect
Tayo Aluko writer, actor, singer
David Ambrose storyteller, festival organiser
Chiara Ambrosio filmmaker, visual artist
Amir Amirani filmmaker
Tahmima Anam novelist
Anthony Anaxagorou poet
Adjoa Andoh actor
Ben Annesley artist
Charlotte Anstey ceramic artist
Alexander Anthony journalist
Frankie Armstrong singer, voice teacher Anti-Capitalist Roadshow
Barby Asante artist and curator
Richard Ashcroft musician
Simon Ashdown film composer, music producer
Oreet Ashery artist, visiting professor
Adeeb Ashfaq artist
Peter Ashlock artist, writer
Kevin Atherton artist
Jean Atkin poet
Tim Atkins poet
Ed Atkins artist
Anne-Marie Atkinson artist
Diane Atkinson writer
Liane Aukin scripts, drama
Franko B artist
Lekan Babalola artist
Ben Bailes lighting designer
Giles Bailey artist/lecturer
Roy Bailey folk singer
Una Baines songwriter/musician
Richard Olatunde Baker percussion
Syd Baker singer/songwriter
Patrick Baladi actor
Jayne Baldwin author
Nigel Ball design lecturer
Sue Ball producer
Steven Ball artist, academic
Nadia Ballan sculptor
Alison Ballance artist
Paul Ballard poet WAVE
Ben Ballin theatre / performance in education worker
Debbie Ballin producer/director
Nathalie Banaigs artist
Tom Bancroft musician
Ros Barber writer
Shahidha Bari teacher
Chris Barlas writer/presenter
Phyllida Barlow artist
James Barrett producer
Richard Barrett composer
Neil Bartlett author and director
Jeanie Barton musician
Linda Bassett actor
Max Batty designer
Samirah Baurtally arts marketing
Stephen Bean photographer
Oliver Beck writer, artist
Sarah Beddington artist
Cezary Bednarski architect/designer
Saleha Begum poet
Henry Bell writer
Jono Bell singer songwriter Jono & The Uke Dealers
Emilia Benjamin musician
Ishia Bennison actor
Paul Bennun executive, games and interactive
Dzifa Benson artist
Lina Bentley tutor
John Berger writer, artist and critic
Josephine Berry Slater writer and lecturer
Alessandra Bettolo architect, designer
Kavita Bhanot writer, teacher, editor
Aleksandra Bilic producer
Alice Birch writer
Norman Bissell writer
Brighid Black artist and writer
Joan Blackburn singer, songwriter, musician, event organiser
Bernard Blake musician
Kelvin Bland chartered architect
Nicholas Blincoe writer
Penni Blythe musician
Russell Bolam director
Sean Bonney poet
Leah Borromeo journalist/filmmaker
Bette Bourne actor
Michael Bovo classical guitarist
Charlie Boyer musician
Susan Bradburn agent and promoter
Paul Bradshaw curator / journalist / publisher
Andrea Brady poet, publisher and academic
Michael Bravo singer/songwriter Magic Sufi
Louis Brehony musician Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!
Lindsay Bremner director of architectural research
Brid Brennan actor
Haim Bresheeth filmmaker
Victoria Brittain writer
Nicholas Broadhurst opera director
Sheena Brobbey digital designer
Scott Bronstein writer
Lez Brotherston designer
Mark Brown theatre / performance critic (scotland)
Ray Brown writer director
John William Brown artist, poet, performer, dramatist
Patricia Bryden former teacher, literature/
Pavel Buchler artist, research professor in art
Niall Buggy actor
Carrie Bulley musician
Jess Burke musician
Mark Burnhope poet
Michael Burns singer song writer, musician, composer
Ellen Burroughs artist, project coordinator, art educator
Jonathan Burrows choreographer
Margaret Busby writer, publisher
Justin Butcher playwright, director & musician
Brad Butler artist
Daniel Bye writer, performer
Patricia Byrne artistic director Sole Purpose Productions
Amelia Bywater artist
Antonia Caccia director
David Calder actor
Colin Callan sound engineer/producer
Carmen Callil publisher & writer
Stuart Calton composer
Ramiro Camelo independent curator
Hazel Cameron writer
Allan Cameron author
Leigh Campbell screenwriter
Ray Campbell comedian, lecturer
Dave Campbell artist
Sophie Carapetian artist
Razanne Carmey writer and director
Hayley Carmichael actor
Ele Carpenter curator
John Carruthers tour manager / events manager
Martin Carter visual artist Lawrence Street Workshops
Anna Carteret actress
Maude Casey writer
Lucy Cash artist/filmmaker
Rob Castro musician
Dean Cavanagh screenwriter
Julia Cazorla practitioner/writer
Jonathan Chadwick director, writer
Lula Chapman artist/illustrator
Tchaik Chassay architect, designer
cris cheek poet
Tarik Cherkaoui music producer/dj
Anna Chetwynd architect
Danny Chivers performance poet
Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso performer
Julie Christie actor
Ian Christie curator & cultural historian
Dominic Christie muralist
Caryl Churchill playwright
Ansell Cizic artist
Ami Clarke artist, facilitator, teacher
David Clinch musician
Jarvis Cocker musician
Norma Cohen actor
Will Coles sculptor
David Collins artist, teacher
Nick Collins filmmaker
Steve Conlan photographer
Kris Connolly artist
Paule Constable lighting designer
Feimatta Conteh theatre / performance sustainability manager
Fraser Cook artist
Dominic Cooke CBE director & playwright
Dee Coombes singer
Eliane Correa composer & pianist
George Costigan actor
Tony Coult teacher and writer
Joseph Coward artist
Paula Cox artist/printmaker
Ailsa Cox writer, lecturer
Donna Coyle artist
Sacha Craddock critic, writer and curator
Jacob Crichlow singer / songwriter
Felix Cross composer, writer, director
Ruth Cross artist Cross Collaborations
Tim Crouch theatre / performancemaker
Greg Cullen playwright/artistic director
Darren Cullen artist Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives
Keira Cullinane photographer
Liam Cunningham actor
Tracey Curtis songwriter
Ryan D’Souza technologist
Selma Dabbagh author
Andreas Daegelow painter, activist
Tariq Dajani photographer
Zeyad Dajani artist
Urszula Dajerling studio manager / visual director
William Dalrymple writer and historian
Dan Dan Blackett musician Landshapes
Jon Daniel designer
Jill Daniels filmmaker
Isa Darby singer, songwriter and author Cynical Renegade (band)
Lauren Dark producer
Colin Darke artist
Michael Darlow writer and retired tv director producer
Paula Darwish vocalist, musician, composer
Jareh Das curatorial
Rana Dasgupta author
Phil Davey author
Emma Davie director
Molly Davies playwright
Sam Davies musician
Ross Kristian Davis musician
April De Angelis playwright
Daniela De Armas artist/musician
Josephine de Kerpel artist
Pia de Keyser actor
Andy De La Tour actor and writer
Teresa De Miguel artist
Hans de Winter artist
Stephanie De-Sykes artist/musician
Barry Dean artist
Tam Dean Burn actor, vocalist, theatre / performancemaker
Janie Dee actor
Daniela Delerci dancer
Pucci Dellanno musician and promoter
Ivor Dembina writer and performer
Shane Dempsey director Fragments
Anne Dennis director, writer
Natalja Derendiajeva theatre / performance administrator, arcola energy
Neil Devlin choir member
Sam Dexter textile artist
Morag Deyes artistic director
Leena Dhingra actor, writer
Elaine di Campo vocalist Ultra Vinyl
Josephine Dickinson poet
Hope Dickson Leach writer / director
Veronica Diesen arts organiser, lecturer and writer in art theory and philosophy.
Stephen Dillane actor
– Dizraeli rapper & musician
Christine Dobbin artist, illustrator
Roy Dodds musician
Elyse Dodgson MBE international theatre / performance director
Audrey Doherty performance artist & fashion designer Casbah Cafe Community Arts & Cultural Events Ltd.
Eoin Donnelly artist
Phil Dooley musician
Noel Douglas artist, designer
Noel Douglas artist, designer, senior lecturer
Corin Douieb dj and producer
Ed Dowie performer/composer
Alison Down writer
Aidan Doyle painter
Laurence Dreyfus chamber musician Phantasm Viol Consort
Carol Drinkwater writer/actress/filmmaker
Han Duijvendak director/producer
Nicholas Duke musician Trojan Horse
Lawrence Duke musician Trojan Horse
Hugh Dunkerley writer
Dempsey Dunkley-Clark artist
Shahnequa Duprey actress
Samantha Dye dancer, teacher, actor
Geoff Dyer writer
Theresa Easton artist
Steven Eastwood artist-filmmaker
Houda Echouafni actor
David Edgar playwright
Essam Edriss artist
Michael Edwards writer & musician LTCC
Corrine Edwards artist
Steve Ehrlicher arts management
Sally El Hosaini filmmaker
Aser El Saqqa curator, producer, arts manager
Suhayla El-Bushra writer
Nancy Elan violinist
Yasmin Elderby film curator and jewellery designer
Kathryn Elkin artist
Inua Ellams artist
Lucy Ellinson actor and theatre / performancemaker
Esther Ruth Elliott actor
Samuel Ellis designer
Hannah Ellul artist
Brian Eno composer
Kodwo Eshun artist The Otolith Group
Samir Eskanda musician
Julian Evans writer
Gareth Evans producer, curator
Amina Evans writer
Bernardine Evaristo writer
Gavin Everall editor, publisher, writer
Allan Ewart artist, screenwriter, music producer
Tom Faire architect Thomas Faire Architects
Isabelle Farah actor
Gareth Farmer teacher
Saeed Taji Farouky director
Angus Farquhar public art, creative director
Marcia Farquhar artist
John Fay writer
Vicky Featherstone artistic director
Yasmin Fedda filmmaker, programmer Highlight Arts
Stella Feehily playwright
Mark Fell artist
Sylvia Ferreira dance artist
Matt ffytche teacher
Sharlaine Fincham arts co-ordinator, teacher
Deborah Findlay actor
Deborah Fink soprano & singing teacher
Sylvia Finzi artist
Annie Firbank actor
Allen Fisher poet and artist
Jean Fisher artist, writer
Rob Flanagan drummer
Christina Fletcher artist
Poppy Flint designer
James Floyd actor
Aminatta Forna writer
William Fowler curator
Naomi Foyle writer
Sarah Frankcom artistic director
John Frankland artist
Sylvie Franquet designer, writer, artist
Olivia Fraser artist
Jane Frere artist
Anna Furse artistic director, athletes of the heart
fermot fynn musician
Penny Gaff artist
Niki Gandy lecturer
Sandra Garbutt choral singer
Francesca Gardiner writer
Nina-Marie Gardner writer
Lynn Gaspard publisher
Dick Gaughan musician
Yolanta Gawlik artist
Carlo Gébler writer
Maggie Gee novelist
Abla George actor
Saadeh George artist
Phil Gerrard actor
Tina Gharavi film director / screenwriter Bridge + Tunnel
Alan Gibbons author
Bob Giles architect, forrmer vice president of riba
Nick Gill playwright and musician
Joy Gilleard artist
Julian Gillespie artist
John Gillet actor, director, teacher, writer
Tracy Gillman artist
Harry Gilonis poet
Murat Gokmen documentary filmmaker
Pauline Goldsmith actor, writer, director, comedian
Sally Goldsmith poet, song and script writer
Jonas Golland composer, drummer
Jake Goode performer/actor/workshop leader Other Half Productions
Mel Gooding writer, curator and critic
Francis Gooding writer
Mary Gordon-Smith artist
Daniel Gorman musician
Richard Gott writer, historian
Orlando Gough composer
Stephen Gouldin sculpture
Tony Graham director
John Graham Davies actor and writer
Paula Stanley Grainger painter
Ellen Graubart painter
Tony Green writer
Bonnie Greer playwright, author
Dan Gregory actor
Mark Gregory collector, working songs and poems
Isabel Griffin project manager/artist
Cameron Griffiths musician, performer
Trevor Griffiths playwright
Patrizia Grilli visual artist
Roz Grimshaw teacher
Rebecca Gross composer/singer/community musician
Duncan Gunn architect
Karin Gunnarsson artist
Rahila Gupta writer
Julius Guzy painter
Saleem Haddad author
Mark Haddon author
Tala Hadid writer/director
Hans Haenlein architect
Salim Haidrani author and teacher
Matthew Hamilton literary agent
Omar Robert Hamilton filmmaker
Nathan Hamilton poet and publisher
Nicky Hamlyn artist, lecturer, writer
Kit Hammonds independent curator, senior tutor contemporary art
Robert Hampson professor and poet
William Hanna author
Sandy Harb dj
Rob Harding sculptor
Jeremy Hardy comedian
Laura Harling actress
Sue Harris member of community choir
Barbara Harrison director
Lee Harrison musician
Judith Harry executive director Site Gallery
David Harsent poet
Douglas Hart director
Joshua Hart artist, gallery director
Graham Hastings vocal / production Young Fathers
Mona Hatoum artist
Andrew Hawkins actor/director
David Hawkins visual artist
Mark Haworth-Booth writer
Abe Hayeem architect Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine
David Hayman actor, director
Danny Hayward writer
Jordan Hayward sound engineer
John Haywood promoter
Malcolm Hecks architect
John Heffernan actor
George Hencken filmmaker
Louis Henderson filmmaker
Janet Henfrey actor
Matthew Herbert musician Accidental Records
Nick Hern publisher
Seán Hewitt poet
Joan Hewitt poet, theatre / performance event organiser, ne people’s assembly
Melvyn Higson guitarist/ukulelist
Laurel Hill producer
Mischa Hiller writer
Nigel Hilton designer/maker
Bhavesh Hindocha film maker Loud Minority
Sam Hoare actor/writer
Wieland Hoban composer —
Peter Hobday actor
John Hodge architecture, artist and filmmaker
Mike Hodges film director
James Holcombe artist technician no.w.here
Rick Holland poet
Rachel Holmes writer
Doug Holton theatre / performancemaker
Lizzie Homersham writer
Gordon Hon artist, writer.
Adrian Hornsby writer
Jacqueline Horswill visual artist
Ian Hough musician
Liam Hourican comedian
Lucille Howe actor & author
Bill Hoyland actor
Daniel Hubbard casting director
Leon Samson Hudson artist
Richard Hughes graffiti artist, web and graphic design
Patrick Hughes artist
Paula Hughes edit assistant
Natalie Hughes writer
Kieran Hurley playwright and theatre / performance maker
Nesreen Hussein lecturer, performance maker
Waris Hussein film, television & theatre / performance director
Richard Hutchinson sound engineer
Amanda Huxtable director
Sarah Hymas poet
Riccardo Iacono artist
Ashley Inglis screenwriter
Alessio Ippolito musician
Sarah Irving writer, translator
Rose Issa curator, producer and writer
Gemma Jackson production designer
Vanessa Jackson artist and lecturer
Nick Jackson musician
David Jacques artist David Jacques
Peter Jaeger poet
Abu Jafar visual artist Abujafar Ltd
Clemmie James project co-ordinator
Paul Jamrozy artist Jamedia
Velika Janceva artist
Stephen Jeffreys playwright
Sarah Jewell choir leader, composer Songlines Choir
Rosko John vocalist/producer/dj
Darren Johns singer, guitarist, songwriter Crazy Arm
Deniz Johns filmmaker
Val Johnson singer
Robb Johnson songwriter
Joan Johnston writer, teacher
Chris Johnston director Fluxx
Leslie Johnstone artist
Vivien Jones writer & early musician
Chris Jones dj / music producer
Cliff Jones writer
Tim Jones artist
Isabel Jones artistic director
Anita Jones art facilitator
Trevor Jones composer
Catrin Jones artist
Ann Jungman witer
Remi Kabaka consultant
Sohan Kailey dancer
Rita Kalnejais writer
Dafni Kalokairinou photographer
Asif Kapadia writer/director
Rachel Karafistan actor, director COSmino
Amalia Karlsson author
Simon Katan artist, academic
Richard Katz actor
Miriam Kavana musician
Jackie Kay writer
Gary Kaye musician
John Keane artist
Brigid Keenan author
Patrick Keiller artist
Reem Kelani musician and film / television / broadcaster
Dee Kelly musician
Mark Kelly writer & performer
Tricia Kelly actor
Dennis Kelly playwright
Mary Kelly teacher
Alex Kelly artist
Mercedes Kemp writer/theatre / performance maker
Peter Kennard artist
Mary Kennedy song leader
Caroline Kennedy author
Anthea Kennedy artist/filmmaker
Francis Kennedy actor
Frank Kennedy performer A Date With Dickens
Mel Kenyon literary agent
Margareta Kern artist
Sandra Kerr artist
Steve Kettley saxophonist / composer
Hannah Khalil writer
Mimi Khalvati writer
Shahid Khan producer (naughty boy)
Yasmin Khan curator
Shama Khanna curator
Bharti Kher visual artist
Richard Kilgour artist
Michael Kindellan researcher, teacher
Ucef Knight artist
Judith Knight producer
Mark Knoop pianist and conductor
Steve Komarnyckyj translator and poet
Peter Kosminsky writer/director Stonehenge Films
Ash Kotak writer / curator Palestinian Arts Festival
Kristen Kreider poet & architect Kreider + O’Leary
Frances Kruk artist
Hari Kunzru writer
Mary Kuper illustrator
Chris Lafferty musician
Martina Laird actor
Desmond Lambert musician Some Velvet Morning
Bob Lamoon visual story-teller
Clare Lane teacher and artist
David Lang musician
David Lang musician
Diane Langford novelist
Kal Lavelle musician
Paul Laverty scriptwriter
Pamela Lawton ceramic artist
Alisa Lebow filmmaker
Suzy Lee film student
Linda Lee community choir leader
Nadjib Lefleurier sculptor
Malcolm Legrice film and video artist
Mike Leigh writer, director
Vincent Leleux artist
Emma Lennox writer
Tom Leonard poet
Lucy Lepchani poet, writer
Les Levidow violinist in ensembles
Deborah Levy writer
Louise Lewarne filmmaker
Sylvia Libedinsky architect and designer
Robin Licker musician The Restarts
Daniel Light lighting technician
Sonja Linden playwright
Dominic Lindesay-Bethune producer
Francesca Lisette poet
Pippa Little poet
Phyllida Lloyd director
Ken Loach director
Liz Lochhead playwright, and national poet of scotland
Alistair Logan clarinettist
Kiko loiacono tour manager dr kiko tours ltd
Viviana Lombardi actress, director, author
Amber Lone writer
Kim Longinotto filmmaker
Lynn Loo artist
Gerry Loose poet
D. Wayne Love musician Alabama 3
Adam Lowe writer, publisher, performer
Lesley Luckin singer
Ed Luker poet
Ben Lunn composer, conductor and musicologist
Victoria Lupton producer and curator
Omar Lyefook musician
Alexis Lykiard author (poet, novelist, translator)
John Lynch musician
Chloe Lynch musician, sound engineer
David Mabb artist
Grant Macdonald designer
James MacDonald director
Hettie Macdonald director
Sheree Mack writer
James Mackay producer & curator
Chris Mackin musician
Rohan Madison artist
Lee Maelzer artist
William Mahfoud music producer
Sabrina Mahfouz writer
Abid Mahi filmmaker/actor
Jamal Mahjoub author
Linda Maitland manager
Maitreyabandhu poet
John Maizels editor
Sulaiman Majali artist
Vincent Makowski graffiti writer, artist, graphic designer
Bob Malston artist
Bidisha SK Mamata journalist, film / television / broadcaster and author
Nina Mangalanayagam artist
Guy Mannes-Abbott writer
Jane Manning artist/academic
Miriam Margolyes actress
Jehane Markham poet
Kika Markham actor, writer
Ami Marsden sculptor
Katharine Marshall musician
John Marshall artist
Helen Marten artist
Tim Martin designer/lecturer
Sian Martin actor, writer
Angela Martin editor, filmmaker, ex-teacher
Andrea Mason actor
Ahmed Masoud artist, director, writer Al Zaytouna Dance Theatre / Performance
Nariman Massoumi filmmaker and academic
Cherie Matrix bellydancer
Mira Mattar writer
D W Mault filmmaker
Sophie Mayer writer
Julian Maynard Smith director Station House Opera
Judy Mazonowicz community artist, tutor
Andrew McAvoy architect
Simon McBurney actor, director, writer, theatre / performancemaker
Julie McCalden artist
Mike McCarthy producer Lakin McCarthy Entertainment Ltd
Annie McCartney playwright
Fred McCormick singer, songwriter, author
Sarah McDade artist, ceramics
David McDonald poet, writer, music producer, events manager
Beth McDonough poet
Elizabeth McDowall writer
David McDowall writer
Amanda McDowell artist
Jimmy McGovern writer
Teresa McGowan writer
Jon McGregor writer
Kathleen McKay writer, teacher
Paul McKee visual artist
Tom McKennan singer/songwriter
Beverley McKeown musician
Hilaire McLeish writer
Ewan McLennan folk singer
Caitlin McLeod theatre / performance director
Hilton McRae artist
Pauline Melville writer
Qalandar Memon editor Naked Punch Review
Noe Mendelle producer Scottish Documentary Institute
Peter Mennim artist
David Mercatali director
James Merry assistant
Iain Michael theatre / performance technician
Roger Michell theatre / performance, tv and film director
China Miéville writer
Chris Miley sound engineer Strange Reality Music Productions
Sam Millar author
Jonathan Miller director
Robert Miller technician
Russell Mills artist
Anthony Mills theatre / performance technician
Karen Mirza artist No-w-here
Mitch Mitchell bass player, vocalist The Wild Angels
Toby Mitchell writer/director
Giuliano Modarelli musician, composer Kefaya
Carel Moiseiwitsch visual artist
Lawrence Molloy artist, arts technician, event organiser The Superposition
Nina Moniri actor
Grazyna Monvid actor, writer, director
Robert Moon visual artist
Stephen Mooney poet and teacher
Mary Moore set and costume designer
Hubert Moore
Celt Islam Moore musician, artist, cultural director association of british muslims Celt Islam
Christopher Morahan, CBE director and executive producer
Aron Morel publisher Morel Books
Ray Morgan painter.
Jenny Morgan director
Carol Morley director
Sara Moroza-James writer
Fiona Morris executive producer
Darrell Morris photographer
Richard Morris actor/author/playwright
Alan Morrison poet, writer
Michael Mould performer/director
Laura Mulvey writer, filmmaker
Peter Mumford lighting designer
Jonathan Munby director
Gareth Murphy actor, director, writer
Lora Murphy artist , theatre / performance design
Sai Murray poet, designer, facilitator
John Murray architect
Caroline Murtagh painter
Haldun Musazlioglu comedian
Linda Mutawi producer
Larion Myakicheff artist
Tom Mycock musician the Splitters
Simon Mylius director Feeding the Fish
Daniel Naddafy actor
Rayna Nadeem filmmaker
Nadia Nadif actor, producer
Sara Naim artist
Paddy Nash musician
Orson Nava director
Pablo Navarette journalist, filmmaker
Leyla Nazli executive producer
Anthony Neilson writer/director
Helena Nelson publisher and poet HappenStance Press
Daniel Neofetou writer & editor
Esther Neslen artist
Judy Neunuebel artist
Patrick Neville actor Dialogue Productions
Courttia Newland writer
Kriss Nichol author and drummer Booktown Writers
Marilyn Nicholson painter
Janie Nicoll artist
Matthew Noel-Tod artist, filmmaker
David Owen Norris musician
Christopher Norris philosopher, poet, lecturer, singer (cor cochion caerdydd)
Barney Norris writer
Lizzie Nunnery playwright, song writer, singer
Dr Joseph O’ Neill artist
Rebecca O’Brien producer
Treasa O’Brien film director
Shivaun O’Casey director of the sean o’casey estate
Francis O’Connor theatre / performance designer
Joseph O’Neill artist
Andrew O’Hagan writer
Kirsty Ogg director
Earl Okin musician
Janice Okoh playwright
Abby Oliveiraz writer/performer
Caleb Oluwafemi poet
Gill Ord artist
Uriel Orlow artist, academic
Sean Orr artist
Sharon Dodua Otoo writer & editor
April Owens artist Pebble Design
Ian Pace pianist
Maysoon Pachachi filmmaker
Jeremy Page writer, teacher
Georgina Paget producer
Tom Paine filmmaker
Maria Palacios Cruz curator & lecturer
Eddie Palladio set artist, writer & guitarist
Claire Palmer artist/editor International Times Magazine
Kate Parkin publisher
Robin Parmar composer
Pratibha Parmar film writer & director
Alun Parry singer and songwriter
Rebecca Patenon writer
Harry Paterson author and journalist
Andy Patterson musician, songwriter, engineer
Maxine Peake actor
Eve Pearce artist
Jason Pearce artist
Eve Pearce actor
Edgar Peltenburg art historian
Alexander Penley solicitor for artists Penley Global Law
Miranda Pennell artist/filmmaker
Follett Pennell musician
Laurie Penny author
Ian Pepper artist
Jeff Perks artist and filmmaker
Holly Pester artist
Jeremy Peyton Jones composer, artistic director regular music ii
Annie Pfingst artist
Annie Pfingst artist
Steve Philbey visual artist – subvertiser
Christine Physick artist
Andy Picci painter, video maker, musician, actor, writer
Francisca Picon actor
Winsome Pinnock writer
Scoobius Pip musician
Nancy Platt docmentary director, teacher
Alison Playford actor and writer
Vanda Playford artist and doctor
Olivia Plender artist
John Pole songwriter
Alison Poltock arts director
Ben Ponton musician, composer :zoviet*france:
Erika Poole artist
Tabitha Pope architect
Olumide Popoola author
Daniel Potter musician
Tim Pottier orchestrator
Steve Pottinger poet
Jimmy Powdrell Campbell writer and composer
Audrey Powell music festival organiser
Jeremy Poynting editor and publisher Peepal Tree Press
Lucy Prebble writer
Richard Price writer
Judy Price artist
Iris Priest artist, artist’s assistant, essayist
Sunil Puri drama teacher
Clare Quinn theatre / performancemaker
Aun Qurashi architect
William Raban artist-filmmaker
Virginia Radcliffe artistic director, playwright
Michael Radford film director and screenwriter
Maha Rahwanji presenter
Gabi Rajchel dancer & tutor
Ravinder Randhawa author
Mark Ravenhill playwright
Tom Raworth poet, graphic artist
Carmen Rayavargas painter
Eddi Reader MBE singer/songwriter/musician
Siobhan Redmond actor
Sian Rees performer
John Rees writer, film / television / broadcaster
Natasha Rees artist, writer
Chris Reeves camera/sound/editing/directing Platform Films
Petra Regent printmaker and photograher
Lynne Reid Banks children’s novelist
Hugh Reilly author
Christian Reilly musical comedian
Lotte Reimer chorister
Dave Rendle poet
Ali Rhind artist
Patricia Richards chorister
Sam Richards musician and teacher
Guy Richardson composer
Ian Rickson director
Keith Ridgway writer
Keith Ridgway writer
Robin Rimbaud composer
Bill Risebero teacher. writer, actor
Alison Ritchie production manager
Ben Rivers theatre / performance director
Ben Rivers artist/filmmaker
Philip Roberts drama teacher
Douglas Robertson photographer
Eliza Robertson writer
Crispin Robinson musician, teacher
Pablo Robledo documentary-maker, cultural writer
Jenny Rodwell artist
Nick Rogers writer
Barnaby Rogerson writer & publisher
Jacqueline Rose writer
Alison Rose teacher
Steve Rose project manager, record label Secretly Canadian
Michael Rosen writer, professor
Leon Rosselson songwriter/children’s author
Jane Rossiter-Smith writer
Lee Rourke novelist
Paul Rowan musician
Hazel Roy theatre / performance director Artists for peace
Tara Rudder musician The Free Spirits
David Rushmer writer
Fiona Russell writer
Janet Russell singer, performer, teacher
Mark Rylance actor
Anjalika Sagar artist The Otolith Group
Yara Salahiddeen singer
Minna Salami writer, blogger, african popular culture
John Salway singer, actor, writer
Kareem Samara artist, musician
Andrew Sames artist, ceramisist, teacher/technician
Joel Samuels actor, playwright
Kevin Sanders sound artist
Leila Sansour filmmaker
Donald Sassoon professor of history (emeritus), writer
Stephanie Saulter writer
Dominic Saunders pianist
Camilla Saunders musician, composer
Ian Saville performer
Alexei Sayle comedian, author, actor
Prunella Scales actor/director
Alke Schmidt artist
Stanley Schtinter filmmaker, curator
Grace Schwindt artist
Mary Scott choir member
Julia Scott artist Glasgow Open Dance School (G.O.D.S)
Matt Scott composer
Jennie Scott artist
Matthew Scott editor The London Magazine
Jim Scott poet, author
Pauline Scutt visual artist
Helen Sear artist
Peggy Seeger musician, teacher
Colin Sell artist, composer, teacher
Seni Seneviratne poet
Kadija Sesay (George) publisher and writer
Sara Shaarawi playwright
Nabil Shaban actor, editor, author, film maker, artist
Julie Shackson artist
Mim Shaikh film / television / broadcast presenter
Khaldoun Shami filmmaker & lecturer
Kamila Shamsie writer
Roger Shanahan interior designer
Yasmin Shariff architect DSA
Farhana Sheikh writer
Anna Sherbany artist
Rachael Sherbourne digital artist 80 Stepney road
Anouche Sherman poet, multimedia artist
Guy Sherwin film artist/performer and teacher
Adrian Sherwood producer Onu Sound records limited
Eryl Shields writer
Kevin Shimwell actor
John Shrapnel actor
Christopher Shutt sound designer
Sigmatron dj/sound creator
Corinne Silva artist
Cate Simmons artist
Vannessa Simon singer/songwriter
Andy Simons musician, archivist
Nicky Singer writer
Tanya Singh writer, artist
Eyal Sivan filmmaker
Pam Skelton artist
Poppie Skold filmmaker
Gillian Slovo writer
Alicia Smedberg writer
Les Smith playwright
Calum Smith musician Calum Smith
Mick Smith musician, playwright, producer.
Michael Smith artist
John Smith artist filmmaker
Bob and Roberta Smith artist
Amy Smith artist
Cherry Smyth writer
Deniz Soezen artist
Samuel Solomon poet/critic
Chris Somes-Charlton artist manager
Gabriel Sotiry musician, sound engineer
Ahdaf Soueif writer
Abbie Spallen playwright
Ian Spink choreographer, director
Patrick Staff artist/choreographer
Max Stafford-Clark theatre / performance director
Siobhan Stamp teacher
Michael Start artist and craftsman The House of Automata
Danny Stead musician
Maggie Steed actor
Val Stein singer/songwriter
Amanda Stekly production designer
Polly Stenham playwright
Simon Stephens playwright
Gary Stevens artist
Liz Stirling artist
Jennie Stoller actor
Susannah Stone historical researcher/archivist
Degna Stone poet
Del Strain comedian-writer-film / television / broadcaster Del Strain Comedy
Em Strang poet & teacher
Jack Strange artist
Sarah Streatfeild violin
Paul Stroud composer
Dacia Stroud sculpture
Jenni Stuart-Anderson designer/maker
Alia Syed artist/filmmaker
Soraya Syed Sanders lettering artist
Mitra Tabrizian artist
Rebecca Tamas poet UEA
Stefan Tarnowski writer and curator
Julia Taudevin actor and playwright
Olly Taylor designer
Emilia Teglia artistic director Odd Eyes Theatre / Performance
Kate Tempest musician/poet
Julien Temple film director
Subash Thebe artist Central Saint Martins UAL
Cyril Thomas production manager
Mark Thomas comic, writer, political activist
Chris Thomas director
Patrick Thomas musician
Norma Thompson community arts development
Carolyn Thompson painter/drawer
Cathie Thomson agent
David Thorpe actor
Steve Tiller artistic director OperaMachine
Maija Timonen artist, writer
Cara Tolmie artist / musician
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I don’t know whether the JCCV or ZFA or Mizrachi consider him as bad as Moshe Feiglin, but I’d hope that anyone and everyone boycott this person. He was listed in a letter to the Guardian supporting the boycotting of Israeli goods from Yehuda and Shomron (otherwise known as the BDS campaign).
I had never heard of him but this is what wikipedia tells us although wikipedia notes it contains information from someone close to Sivan. Maybe he self-promoted himself?
I was lucky. In both houses that we lived in, we were literally 3-4 minutes walk from the Shule. I had a policy that if a child was to come to Shule and end up playing in the playground, then they would not assimilate the purpose of Shule. I therefore waited until a certain age (and that can change from child to child) and would rush out after Haftora and bring them to Shule to sit next to me quietly until the end of Davening. I don’t know whether my approach had any effect. I sometimes saw people come to Shule with toddlers and even babies and I wondered whether they were coming to Daven, or whether theirs was a combination baby sitting service so Mummy could recover perhaps on Shabbos morning with a good sleep. I never thought it was right. I used to get annoyed when little ones were making noise and the father was not even trying to control the child, or if the child couldn’t be controlled wouldn’t remove them from Shule until they had calmed down.
And yes, I know that there are opinions that in a year of Hakhel even the tiny children would come to hear the Torah recited.
With that in mind, I came across a responsum of Rabbi Re’eim Hacohen
Rosh Yeshiva and Chief Rabbi, Otniel, whom I don’t know. I copy it below for any comment. There is a Brisker Torah on Hakhel which I learned and have forgotten, I will look it up and follow-up with it tomorrow hopefully.
Question: Are we allowed to bring small children with us to a synagogue, or should this be avoided because they will often disturb the congregation?
Answer:
Everybody participated in the gathering at Mount Sinai and on the occasion of making the covenant in the book of Devarim, including the small children. It is written in the Torah portion of Yitro, “Be ready for the third day, for on the third day G-d will descend before the eyes of the entire nation on Mount Sinai” [Shemot 19:11]. And as is described in detail later on, “You are all standing today before your G-d… Your small children and your wives… from your woodchopper to the one who draws your water.” [Devarim 29:9-10]. In the passage of the mitzva of Hakhel, it is also written, “Gather the nation – men, women, and small children… so that they will hear and they will learn, and they will fear your G-d” [Devarim 31:12].
Happy is the One who Gave Birth to Him
The Talmud Yerushalmi expands the idea of Mount Sinai, and explicitly views the bringing of young children to the Beit Midrash favorably:
“It happened that the sages came to see Rabbi Dossa Ben Herkines… He saw Rabbi Yehoshua and declared, ‘Who will teach knowledge… [those who have been weaned from milk, grown old from the breasts]’ [Yeshayahu 28:9]. I remember that his mother would bring his crib to the synagogue so that his ears would be influenced by the words of Torah.” [Yevamot Chapter 1].
The Meshech Chochma uses this as a basis to explain why Rabbi Yehoshua was so fond of a lesson taught by Rabbi Elazar Ben Azaria:
“We have been taught – It is said about Rabbi Yochanan Ben Beroka and Rabbi Elazar Ben Chassma that they went to greet Rabbi Yehoshua in Peki’in. He asked them what novel idea was discussed in the Beit Midrash that day. They replied, We are your students, and we drink from your well. But he replied, No matter, give me an answer… And they said the passage of ‘Hakhel’ was studied. And what did Rabbi Elazar Ben Azaria say? He said: ‘Gather the nation, the men and the women, and the young children’ – The men come to learn and the women come to hear, but why do the children come? The answer is, to give a reward to those who bring them. And he replied to them: You had a precious jewel in your hands, how could you try to keep it from me?” [Chagiga 3a].
Tosafot expanded Rabbi Yehoshua’s idea to include bringing young children to any synagogue. “To give a reward to those who bring them – and this is the reason that people bring young children to the synagogue.”
It is logical to assume that the reward given to those who bring children with them is not merely in return for the direct effort involved, but that there is also an educational benefit for the children themselves. Their ears get used to hearing Torah words and prayer, as we learn from the story about Rabbi Yehoshua.
This can also be seen from the words of the Maharsha, who explains that these comments even refer to children who have not yet reached the formal age of being taught the mitzvot:
“‘Women come to hear, why do the children come?’ – This should be studied further, since after this it is written, ‘and their children who do not know will listen and learn’ [Devarim 33:13]. Does this mean that even children who do not know anything will also hear and learn? We can say that this last verse is relevant for small children who have reached the age of being taught… This means that the small children in the verse of Hakhel must refer to… very young children who have not reached the age of being taught and therefore are not expected to learn. Why are they brought? The only reason is to give those who bring them a reward…
“And the word ‘taf’ – little children – can be viewed as a hint of the benefit. The letters before and after the letter ‘tet’ are‘ chet’ and ‘yud,’ and the letters before and after ‘peh’ are ‘ayin’ and ‘tzadik’ – which spells ‘etz chai,’ a tree of life. The little children who are brought to the Temple in order to support the tree of life…”
The Limitations of the Shelah
However, the Magen Avraham quotes the words of the Shelah: “With respect to small sons, the father must teach them to stand with fear. But those who run around and play in the synagogue should best not be brought.”
This is similar to what is written in the Mishna Berura:
“With respect to the small children, they must be taught to stand with fear. And the very small ones who run around and play in the synagogue should best not be brought, since a habit becomes second nature later on, and they also interfere with the prayers of the congregation. In addition, it is important for a father who brings small children to the synagogue to watch over their sandals and their clothing, to make sure that they are clean, in order not to cause a problem for those who are praying within four Amot of them.”
The Shulchan Aruch also rules: “It is a good custom to bring little boys and girls to hear the reading of the Megilla” [689:6]. And the Magen Avraham adds here too, “To bring children – but not to bring the very smallest children, who can confuse the people who are listening.” The Mishna Berura quotes this and expands on it.
Biur Halacha explains that the “good custom” mentioned by the Shulchan Aruch is referring only to children who have reached the age when they should be taught. It might have been thought that it would be best to leave them at home too and to read for them in private, but in order to publicize the miracle of Purim as widely as possible it is a good custom to bring them to the synagogue.
In Practice
In my humble opinion, it is clear, as the Maharsha wrote, that the Talmud quoted above is discussing bringing very small children who have not yet reached the age of teaching. Thus, the custom of bringing small children to a synagogue even includes these very young children. The reason is that the encounter with the atmosphere of the synagogue and the Beit Midrash will be a good influence on them, in the way that happened to Rabbi Yehoshua. Thus, in practice, there is clearly value in bringing even very small children to a synagogue.
On the other hand, there is no doubt that if a baby causes a disturbance in the prayers, he or she should be taken out of the synagogue. According to the law, this should also be done during the silent Amidah, as can be understood from the words of the Shelah, the Magen Avraham, and the Mishna Berura. However, it seems to me that the words of the Shelah and his followers do not mean that the synagogue should remain free of all babies and thereby lose its connection to the events at Mount Sinai and to the Temple.
Somebody sent me this link from chabad.org and noted that the one thing missing was actually being part of the non spiritual army, and fight and protect. I couldn’t agree more. That being said, I’m in Chutz La’aretz and therefore hypocritical. I also imagine that link was directed to those in Chutz La’aretz.
At the end of the day, the Rambam which was quoted by the LR and which is often repeated, says that you GO OUT TO MILCHOMO even on matters of Straw and Produce. B’Pashtus, as is the Pashtus of the Rambam in Hilchos Melachim, is that this is physical war (albeit assisted by good deeds and mitzvos and tefillos)
Avraham didn’t fight those kings with Kaballa or Chassidus. He SMOTE them AL PI CHAREV.
Ben Dror Yemini from Yediot published the following: (emphases are mine)
From Wikipedia, Yemini used to work for Ma’ariv. Yemini is Zionist and describes himself as a left winger. While considered by some to be conservative, Yemini defends the rights of critics of academic leftists[8] and claims he has been mislabeled as a right-winger and has a “long track record in the Israeli peace camp”; he also claims to have met with Yasser Arafat in Tunis, as well as having several friends who are PLO officials. He is a long-time believer in a two-state solution, and believes Israel should have the same right of self-determination as the Palestinians. In 2012, while being fully supportive of Israel’s motive behind Operation Pillar of Defense, Yemini expressed his support in “[making] a move which no one expects – follow a unilateral cease-fire by inviting Hamas to peace talks.”
No doubt Yemini is too right wing for the delusional New Israel Fund, J-Street, and Ameinu. Bah! Those three organisations should relocate to Uganda as per an original proposal.
Another self-deception produced by the free world
The young man approached the group of police officers, pulled out an axe and managed to hurt two of them, who were lightly wounded. He was immediately shot, in the head, by other cops who were in the area. He was killed on the spot.
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It didn’t happen in East Jerusalem. It happened in October 2014 in East New York, in the borough of Queens. The terrorist was 32-year-old Zale Thompson, an American who had converted to Islam.
No one thought for a minute that the police officers hadn’t done the right thing. No one said that “both sides are required to exercise restraint.” But that’s exactly what the American administration’s spokespeople, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, have been saying in the past week.
Why the hell is the free world finding it difficult to understand that the calls for murder and for the annihilation of heretics, Christians too, are a regular thing in the global jihad’s propaganda. The use of a knife in the religious war is not random. Slaughtering has become trendy. That’s what the incited fanatics know how to do, regardless of whether they are members of the Islamic State of members of one of the jihad’s branches in the world.
Scene of stabbing attack in Jerusalem. ‘As far as the American administration is concerned, there is no Islamic terror. There are poor people acting out of distress’ (Photo: AFP) Scene of stabbing attack in Jerusalem. ‘As far as the American administration is concerned, there is no Islamic terror. There are poor people acting out of distress’ (Photo: AFP)
The Palestinians have taken it one step further. It’s not individual and disconnected preachers who are spreading the hatred. It’s Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who said that “the Jews are soiling” the Temple Mount; it’s the Palestinian Authority’s television broadcasts and educational system, not to mention Hamas, which is spreading the slanderous propaganda; and it’s the Arab leadership in Israel which is walking hand in hand with the biggest inciter, Sheikh Raed Salah.
That is not what is happening on the Israeli side. There are hooligans. There are racists. There are despicable comments. But we are talking about thousands, not about hundreds of thousands and not about an official policy. Here the fanatics failed to cross the election threshold; the Palestinian fanatics are in the government. So the European Union and American administration’s calls for restraint “on both sides,” without placing responsibility on any side, are another self-deception produced by the free world.
There is no comparison between al-Qaeda and the United States. If anything, there is a comparison between al-Qaeda and the Ku Klux Klan. Because al-Qaeda represents murder and racism, and the US is a democracy which also has racists in it. There is no comparison between those who committed the murder at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine and the cartoon drawers, and the EU didn’t think for a minute that there was any room for comparison between the two sides, although the cartoons did hurt jihadist feelings. According to the logic of Kerry and other spokespeople, the US should be condemned for its bombings against the Taliban and ISIS, because “both sides must exercise restraint.”
The same applies to the American State Department’s announcement that Israel is using excessive force. Excessive? Compared to what? Compared to police officers in Ferguson and in Queens? Compared to the US planes which hit a hospital in the city of Kunduz in Afghanistan, killing dozens?
Why Martin Dempsey, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asserted that Israel protects human life more than any other army. He even sent military delegations to learn from Israel. Why in the targeted assassinations carried out by the US, most casualties are citizens. Why unlike the US, Israel has only hit terrorists in recent weeks. And if there was a mistake, and there may have been one, it was one case out of dozens.
As far as the American administration is concerned, there is no Islamic terror. There are poor people acting out of distress. That is, of course, complete nonsense. The perpetrators of the terror attacks were not poor. Africa’s poor don’t turn to terror. There is one religion in which 5 to 20 percent of believers are in a state of insanity. There is no need to hide it. The insane minority usually murders members of its own religion. It has nothing to do with poverty. It has to do with incitement and brainwashing.
When the US administration spokespeople, including Kerry, justify the perpetrators of terror, they are not advancing peace and reconciliation. On the contrary, they are hurting the sane Muslim majority. They are encouraging the minority which has chosen the way of terror. We should and are allowed to say that – even to our friends.
Due to the incorrect, exaggerated and inflammatory reaction to Moshe Feiglin’s visit to Melbourne, his Sydney trip was a resounding success. One person I am reliably advised immediately wrote out a cheque for 150,000
Not too many amongst Melbourne Zionists do that. There was no rabble, and no rousing. Feiglin now has a strict policy that he only gives live interviews so that his words can’t be abused by the Jewish Zionist Left, religious or otherwise.
Global warming aside, Noach needed to know when to leave the ark. He sent a raven, a dove, and then another dove. Finally, he was convinced that it was safe to leave the ark. Yet, we find that Noach did not leave the ark until such time as God commanded him explicitly. The question is obvious. If you know you aren’t going to leave the ark until God tells you, why would you send out weather scouts?
An answer is that Noach was never going to leave the ark based on what his eyes saw. He was completely governed by what God told and promised him. He waited for Hashem’s command but was active before that.
We find similarly that King David was informed by Nathan the prophet, that King David would not build the next temple and yet the Midrash tells us in numerous places that David continued his efforts to build that which he was not going to end up completing.
While the world bleats about Al Aqsa we know that there is a temple that needs to be rebuilt. We may not be the ones to build it, but it does not absolve us (like Noach or King David) from making all efforts to doing so. Apart from doing God’s will there is a practical thing that every Jew should be doing: simply, scream from the roof tops
“Liars, liars, liars. This is the TEMPLE mount. Al Aqsa is a latter manifestation of a foreign religion.”
There is no room in a democracy for a system called “status quo” that says only a Muslim can pray there. If YOUR competent Orthodox Rabbi permits you go to certain spots near the Temple Mount, why does the State of Israel FORBID you to pray?
This, my friends is what is called diaspora WITHIN Israel.
Good Shabbos, and may the Temple be speedily re-dedicated in our time.
Protecting Ourselves from the Destruction and Confusion of Our Times
Shiur on Parashas Noach by Adina Becker (based on the Nesivos Shalom)
During the last week, I was in the vicinity of two terrorist attacks, and experienced first-hand the gut-wrenching fear for my life, for my future, for my family. The fear of physical danger was accompanied by a feeling of confusion, as if the purpose of the world suddenly became cloudy and almost impeded my ability to function. I read the statements of the gedolim in Israel, exhorting us to increase Torah study and acts of chesed, and to take Shabbos in earlier. Nevertheless the feeling of confusion remained.
When preparing a shiur on Parshas Noach, I came across the Rashi that interprets the word mabul (flood) as either flood, destruction or confusion (bilbul).” Most of us in Israel have been living in a cauldron of destruction and confusion, and of course our friends and relatives overseas feel it as well.
Hashem saw fit to include the Noach and the Mabul narrative in great detail in the Torah, particularly regarding the building of the teivah (ark). This inclusion is not arbitrary. According to the Nesivos Sholom, the teivah was both a means of surviving the deluge and a tikkun (rectification) of the cause of the destruction, which would stop it spreading and enable future rebuilding. The concept of teivas Noach is more relevant than ever, particularly in these times.
The Nesivos Sholom (Rav Sholom Noach Berezowsky, zt”l, the previous Slonimer Rebbe) elucidates three aspects of teivas Noach as applied both to the individual and the world.
Noach = Shabbos
According to the Zohar, Noach parallels or hints at the Shabbos. How are we to understand this? Firstly there is a clear connection between the name Noach, and the fundamental concept of “menuchah – resting” from productive work on Shabbos (Vayanach bayom hashevii).
Further, Noach’s essential nature parallels the idea of Shabbos. Chazal compares Noach’s tzidkus with that of Avraham Avinu. While Noach didn’t exhibit the drive to exceed his potential like Avraham Avinu and influence positively those around him, Noach stood firm whilst living in three highly corrupted generations and did not become sullied.
In fact the Midrash on Tehillim interprets the first few pesukim in Sefer Tehillim as referring to Noach.
“Ashrei ha’ish asher lo halach be’atzat reshaim -happy is the man who has not walked in the ways of the wicked)” – this refers to Noach not being negatively influenced by dor Enosh (idolatrous generation of Enosh).
“Ubederech chataim lo amad – nor stood in the ways of the sinners” – this refers to Noach not being negatively influenced by the dor hamabul (generation of the flood).
“Ubemoshav leitzim lo yashav – nor sat in the seat of the scornful” – this refers to Noach not being negatively influenced by the dor haflagah (generation of the dispersed builders of the tower of Bavel).
Noach represents stability, standing firm, not being corrupted by outside influences. He was a constant. The Zohar parallels Noach with Shabbos that is a constant in the world, a gift of kedushah fixed in time that comes every week and is incorruptible and accessible no matter what is going on around it.
Shabbos, according to the Nesivos Sholom, can be understood as a “teivah” that Hashem put into the world to both protect us from danger and reconnect us to Hashem in times of great spiritual confusion.
How does Shabbos protect and reconnect? As Chazal tell us (Gemara Shabbos daf 118), “Whoever keeps Shabbos properly, even if he worshipped idols like in Enosh’s generation, he will be forgiven.” This is astounding! The power of Shabbos is so great that it protects Jews even in the worst of times. As we sing in the Shabbos zemiros, “Ki eshmera Shabbos kel yishmeraini – since I keep (preserve) the Shabbos Hashem will watch over (preserve) me.” Or to paraphrase: more than the Jews have kept Shabbos, Shabbos has kept the Jews!
How does Shabbos reconnect us? According to Chazal, the root of the degenerate behavior of dor hamabul (that ultimately led to their destruction) which is also the root of all aveiros is bilbul hadaas – confused/scattered/upside down thinking. Since their thinking, and subsequently their actions was so upside down and inside out, the midah keneged midah consequence was that the whole world was turned upside down. If bilbul hadaas is the root of all aveiros, then the tikkun to stop destruction, reconnect to Hashem and rebuild the world is the opposite: yishuv hadaas – clarity of thinking and peace of mind.
How can one find yishuv hadaas while terrorist attacks and pernicious spiritual influences abound? If we think about the words we use to mekadesh the Shabbos on Friday night, we will have a glimpse of the answer. “Vayechulu Hashamayim vehaaretz vechol tzeva’am – and the Heavens and the earth were completed and all of their host.” According to the Midrash Rabba, while Hashem was still in the midst of creating, there was still the concept of tohu vavohu (pre-creation chaos and emptiness), and only after everything was completed and tohu vavohu erased, could the world actually be defined as “Shamayim veHaaretz”.
In other words, the point in time where the purpose of creation and its Creator became clear was on Shabbos. Shabbos, according to the Nesivos Sholom, is the root of the ultimate yishuv hadaas where we disconnect from all the outside influences and worries that cause bilbul hadaas and we can reconnect to the Creator and see clearly the purpose of Creation. To understand the power of this yishuv hadaas, ask any Jewish mother the difference in her composure two minutes before candlelighting and one minute after! Shabbos has arrived, and the stressful mundane matters of a moment ago are now irrelevant.
Teivas Noach had three levels: the upper level for people, the middle level for animals and the bottom level for waste matter. In Teivas Hashabbos, this is represented by three spiritual floors that we can gain access to, depending on our level of emunah. The bottom level is represented by keeping a halachic Shabbos or refraining from doing melachos.
The middle floor is for those for whom the Shabbos permeates their speech – “Let your speech on Shabbos be different to your speech during the week” (Gemara Shabbos 113). This could be manifest by not talking lashon hara, mundane matters or politics on Shabbos at the Shabbos table, or by being careful to compliment and not criticize those around us. In previous generations in the Diaspora, many families maintained the custom of only conversing in lashon hakodesh or Yiddish on Shabbos and not the language of the country in which they resided.
The upper level of Teivas Hashabbos is for those for whom Shabbos permeates their thoughts, which will lead to a true feeling of the pleasantness and sweetness of Shabbos. According to the Nesivos Sholom, the more we have clarity of emunah, the more accessible this level becomes to us. The three levels of Shabbos are also manifest in the three levels of the soul, the nefesh, ruach and neshamah. As we sing in Rav Aharon of Karlin’s Kah Echsof, “Hashabbos noam haneshamos vehashvii oneg haruchos veden hanefashos.”
Torah = Teivas Noach
Like the Shabbos, the Torah also functions as a teivas Noach. Chazal tell us “barasi yetzer hara barasi torah tavlin – I created the yetzer hara and I created the Torah as the antidote for it” (Gemara Kiddushin daf 30). This means that the merit of learning and keeping the Torah protects from descending to the level of the dor hamabul. The Nesivos Sholom parallels the three floors in the teivah to three stages in a person’s life: youth, middle age and old age. Each stage has different nisyonos, distractions and obligations that require continuous mental adjustment. The Torah is a constant, a slice of kedushah and taharah that is incorruptible. When a person sets a fixed time for learning Torah, he is actually creating a safe place for kedushah to enter and ensure he doesn’t fall prey to impure influences. The only advice for surviving the different stages in life is to ensure one has a connection to Torah.
According to Chazal, Hashem set a condition for creating the world, that the Jewish people would keep the Torah. If not, He would return it to the state of tohu vavohu. Thus Torah also represents the power of maintaining the clarity of purpose of the world, the yishuv hadaas, and the tikkun for the tohu vavohu-like bilbul hadaas that causes physical destruction and spiritual confusion.
Chesed = Teivas Noach
There was no shortage of options for the means of saving Noach, his family and the animals from the flood. Chazal tell us that Eretz Yisrael wasn’t destroyed in the flood. Hashem could have sent the Noach family and the animals to create the first biblical zoo in Yerushalayim and wait out the deluge in comfort. Instead he threw together the people and the animals in an enclosed space for a year. Noach’s family even had to share the upper floor with the birds. Just as there was no private space, there was also no private time. The family spent the entire time feeding and looking after the animals.
Why was keeping out of harm’s way not enough? As aforementioned, the teivah functioned as a tikkun to stop the spread of destruction and enable rebuilding. While the dor hamabul were idolatrous, adulterous and murderous, the point of no return occurred when the earth was full of robbery. In most criminal systems, robbery would not require a life sentence or a maximum security prison. Yet we learn out from Parshas Noach that if everyone is a thief, society cannot continue. A thieving society is no longer a society as the worldview of that society is totally self-centered. Each person is only for themselves, their needs, their desires. There is no room for others. Ultimately this leads to chaos and destruction.
Noach’s family needed to rebuild the world on different lines, a world of giving. Thus they were encapsulated in a crucible of achdus and chesed for 12 months, where they had to share space, accept everyone and live with them with all their foibles and give to others constantly. Avraham Avinu once asked Shem the son of Noach how they merited to survive the flood. The very question implies that even Noach’s tzidkus did not guarantee survival. In times of great destruction and hester panim, as we all know, the righteous are destroyed along with the wicked.
Shem answers Avraham Avinu: “We were worthy to survive by merit of constantly being involved in chesed!” Thus chesed not only protects from great destruction, it is also the ultimate tikkun to rebuild the world.
Through increasing Torah study, acts of chesed and shemiras Shabbos, we are building our own teivos to protect us from danger and confusion, and hopefully enable the ultimate tikkun of Moshiach to come. Bimheira beyameinu Amen.
I knew him as Aaron Layzer. He always stood out. As a boy at Yeshivah College (Chabad) in Melbourne, Australia, he was bigger than life like. I was tiny. On my Bar Mitzvah I had to stand on a crate so that I could layn the Parsha. In my eyes, back then, the only person who was bigger, was the late Rabbi Groner.
Aaron Layzer, spoke with a deep baritone voice in keeping with his size. He was one of the first group of emissaries of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe to Yeshivah Gedola. A voice that was deep, but a demeanour that was gentle and all embracing.
We were encouraged to have at least one extra shiur during the week with one of the “Shluchim” as they were known, and in between my forays between attending Messibos Shabbos and later B’nei Akiva, I’d often have a shiur with one of the Shluchim over the years. They would come for two years, and it was always a big event to see who they were and what type of personality they exuded. That was one highlight, the other highlight was the “new song” that would be written לכבוד the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s birthday using words from the Tehillim corresponding to the year after (in age)
Aaron Layzer was one who exuded his entire מהות his essence. His English was atrocious, his smile was effusive, and his warmth radiating. He was a מדקדק במצוות כחוט השערה — punctilious in his observance of Jewish Law. This meant that he was not just one who had a relationship with God, but his relationship with people was infectious.
Like all Shluchim, after two years he left. Unlike all shluchim, however, Aaron Layzer never left. He told me later that he was living in צפת עיר הקודש, Tzfat, and his new Shlichus was to build and expand the kindergarten and primary network of schools in Tzfat.
I hadn’t seen him in some years, and then bumped into him consistently, at least once a year. I remember the first year we met him after some time. Many years had passed. My band Schnapps was gracing a Simcha, and in front of me, dancing, I saw his visage. He’d become bigger (and so had I) but he was still much larger than life. I am quite intense on the band stand, as I have musicians to coordinate, and perfection is what I seek even today, so I didn’t react immediately. The next time the gyration crossed the band stage, he waved to me and I waved back with my violin bow.
At the first break, I just had to find him. He gave me a big hug and we spoke about old times. R’ Aaron told me that he had a picture of me in the front row of the Yeshivah Choir singing solo and it was one of his favourite pictures of his time at Shlichus. I think my mother may have that picture, I’m not sure. It would have been taken by Sam Cylich ע’’ה at one of the annual Yeshiva Dinners. When I asked him what he was doing in Melbourne, I gave him money, and from that time on I assumed a completely different approach from the Band Stand.
Each year, at a Simcha, Aaron Layzer would suddenly materialise. Only henceforth, I jumped off the band stage until I caught up to him in the circle and surreptitiously put money into his hand.
from JEM and collide
I had no idea; the Aybishter works in strange ways. One year he gave me regards from our son Tzvi Yehuda in Sydney, who was doing Smicha at the time. Later Tzvi Yehuda married Leah Moss, daughter of Meir and Devora. I was not to know but Aaron Leyzer was very very close to Meir back from the times of Shlichus through to Aaron Layzer’s untimely demise. He also became close to Tzvi Yehuda who lived in Sydney initially when he married. He would tell me about החלטות (good resolutions) that he had made with Tzvi Yehuda, and I was amazed. I was the father and had zero influence (by now). Aaron Layzer would sit and farbreng and mesmerised with his stories of yesteryear and current events and had Tzvi Yehuda eating out of the palm of his hand.
Aaron Layzer came to Tzvi Yehuda’s wedding in Sydney, and I can still see him commandeering a Sheva Brachos later held in Melbourne in Chelsea, and saying the Dvar Torah.
From that time, he would now come to our house in Melbourne and there were more than a few times he made L’Chaim with Tzvi Yehuda and I (who lived in Melbourne in our house for a time) after marriage. I loved talking to him. He was from Tzfat. I remain anti meshichist. Tzfas is known as a hot bed of paranormal Meshichisten, they even have a name — “Tzfatim”. One sees them en masse in 770 in Crown Heights and they are largely responsible for the sad split between upstairs and downstairs in 770.
(I will go out on a limb here and state publicly that I don’t think a real chosid of chabad can ever wear meshichist paraphernalia, scream Yechi, etc … I believe those people are overtaken by their delusional self-importance)
Aaron Leyzer used to complain about the “meshugoim” as he called him were destroying the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s work.
Alas, on his last visit, in a way that was quite unlike him, he was bemoaning a pain in his leg and asked for a cold drink. He found it hard to walk. We sat in the lounge room. He told me how many different types of treatment he tried on his leg, and I expressed light anger. I suggested that before one has treatment, one should be diagnosed. We have all types of scans, and yes, if diagnoses suggests a particular treatment or if there is a clear scan and blood test, then by all means, try what you will. He told me he was going to see the doctor, in the end, in Melbourne. I have no idea whether his leg problems were at all related to the illness which captured his life, far too early. He left me with חוברת of letters and divrei torah from the Lubavitcher Rebbe about Tzfas. For some unknown reason, I didn’t file it in my bookshelf, but kept it in my top draw.
On Friday night, I found out about his passing. I had sent him an email in the week before with no reply. I was and remain heartbroken by his most untimely departure from our world. I took out a bottle of my best whisky, and suggested to my family who were at the table, that in addition to drinking L’Chaim to Aaron Leyzer, we should each make a החלטה because that is what he would have wanted.
I ran to my study, opened the top draw, and staring at me was the חוברת he had left me. I undertook to learn it in his memory.
יהא זכרו ברוך
המקום ינחם את בני משפחתו בתוך שאר אבלי ציון וירושלים
My foray began in the early ’80’s when many of my readers wouldn’t even have been born. I was connected, as a PhD student at the University of Melbourne, via ARPANET (and yes, prior to these halcyon days I used punched cards as well on a PDP8 and a Cyber (one run a day)). In the 80’s AARNET adopted TCP/IP and because we had at the University of Melbourne, one of the gurus of Berkley Unix, one Kevin Robert Elz, whom I knew just as Robert, and who wrote lots of the BSD distribution (before you Linux types) I had access to a great resource.
I remember the halcyon days when I was up all night trying to debug a program with a malloc leak (don’t worry if you don’t understand) and when I has to use Yacc and Lex before anyone had used them around me. My only source of knowledge was Robert Elz. His answer was often cd /dev/src when the source code was readily available for scrutiny.
He came to work about 7pm at night. He was always bare footed, unkempt, and had a long beard. He came at night so he wouldn’t be disturbed by foolish questions during the day. If and when he had a hair cut, his beard was also trimmed. It was often long.
One thing we shared in common (and that was not our Unix knowledge because he was a גאון in Unix)”, and Unix was not my religion) was a love of cricket. He had three TVs around him. One on the left, one on the right, and huge one behind him. If a wicket fell he’d swing around and watch it on the bigger screen. He was as addicted as I was to cricket. In order to get him to help me with some buggy code, I used to start off an email with a cricket comment and then he’d also respond to the PS.
I remember when we learned the C programming language. He was assigned as our tutor, We were given a 50 minute tutorial on C and that was that! That’s a cruel joke.
I remember one night there was this multi-user game I think it was called civilisation, that has just been released. It was about building towns, agriculture, armies etc … because Robert would come in at night he would often wipe out our villages and towns overnight. One night all the postgrads decided to stick around all night and gang up and wipe out Elz’s infratrsucture. At about 4am he saw all was lost and we were going to over-run him. What did he do? He was the super-user. He simply pulled the electric plug out of the Vax 11/780 and went home. We were so close yet so far. He didn’t suffer fools lightly, so if you asked him a question you had better have gone over all your code 100 times before you asked him for a hint.
Why do I mention this. I also co-wrote a book at that time with a black american called Koenraad Lecot. I had never met Koenraad, but should look him up. We never saw each other but put together a serial book on the area of Logic Programming which was an important resource for researchers. I found a way to hack the Melbourne Uni servers so that my emails were delivered instantaneously.
This morning I listened to a live shiur out of the North of America. After the shiur, a Yid, older than me, who is a Mashgiach and who takes his work very seriously, skyped and asked if I wanted to learn and go over the shiur. I responded that he should contact me when ready, and if I was availabl,e of course, I would learn with him. I don’t know him from a bar of soap but we were learning some יורה דעה and he had a קושיא which was bothering him. He was in Seattle late a night and I was in Melbourne Erev Shabbos. We ended up learning twice via Skype, and I introduced him to the בדי השולחן …. he only had 3 seforim in Seattle. I read and translated the בדי השולחן and in the end we ended up with the בדי השולחן remaining with a צריך עיון on the question he raised.
Watching him, he was so happy. I went upstairs with a hop, skip and jump and told my son צבי יהודה that THIS is the תחלית of the internet. When a Yid in Melbourne learns יורה דעה with a guy stuck in Seattle, and I left him with a big smile on his face. I felt fulfilled. This is the פשט in מעלה קליפת נוגה
People who think God only puts the good in this world are seriously mistaken. Despite my history, above, this was more important than all of that.
To hear this video and to continue to support Obama as a US Jew, is simply unfathomable.
In Melbourne, we have the NIF patrons
from simonstudio
: Martin Indyk and Ronni Kahn. I know Ronni, from doing gigs in Sydney where she worked to collect left over food. Martin Indyk, unlike Dennis Ross has shown himself on many occasions to be out of touch with reality.
In Melbourne, we have Ameinu: Ostensibly led by my friend Johnny Baker (although their web site could do with some fixing)
Of course the old Habonim, Hineni Reform, Conservative, Deconstructionist, and other left wing groups that have been around for eons, and now the all singing Shira Chadasha strain of conservadox judaism.
Watch this video and tell me if you detect any sign that the Obama administration is fair. Or, do you share my opinion that they are left-wing apologists for Muslim terrorism unless it affects their uber strategic assets.
This is a good article if you can get your hands on it.
I am not a Rabbi, let alone someone who ought to be making definitive statements about this issue. I sit in relative comfort in Australia with the threat of terrorism, but without the threat of survival.
It was in the last year that I discovered, via Kurd tactics, that for a Muslim to be killed by a female soldier in combat, implies that this Muslim doesn’t acquire their mythical ‘olam haba’ let alone the bevy of virgins supposedly assigned to him as a result of his death during Jihad.
I do not think the following religious girls were motivated by such, but one can think of it as burying their dead in pig skin, although our world of political correctness which would demand that women have the same right to defend Israel as the LGBT rainbow movement, ought to be more comfortable with this concept.
Accordingly, I would argue that for יחידות who have a specific היתר from their parents and רב המובהק, who would need to be an outstanding Talmid Chacham, I make no comment except that every time they succeed, they will be putting the fear of being killed by a female, firmly in the mind of the terrorist who is hell-bent on the destruction of our State and People.
This is from Yediot by Dr Ruchama Weiss and Rabbi Levi Brackman. Note: Ruchama is Reform, to my knowledge, whereas Levi is the real mccoy.
In 2010, 935 young religious women joined the IDF. In 2013, the number jumped to 1,616. Every year, the army receives more and more religious female recruits, who are not only enlisting for traditional roles in the Education Corps, but are also joining combat units.
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This new trend should not be taken for granted, given the fact that one of the main statements issued by the Chief Rabbinate Council when Chief Rabbis David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef took office was that the Rabbinate “forbids IDF enlistment in any way, continuing the tradition of the previous chief rabbis.”
Serving with Pride
A woman of combat who will find? / Yossi Yehoshua
Thought religious women skip the draft or rush to get married? Meet married women who are insisting on completing their mandatory service.
But it seems reality is stronger than halachic rulings. Meet Ornella, Sari and Hila, three religious female fighters who are convinced that despite the many difficulties, a religious girl who wishes to contribute to her people belongs in the army.
A fighting family
When 21-year-old Sari Michael of Netanya joined the Caracal Battalion in March 2013, she received surprised reactions from her close and distant surroundings. She studied at the Bar-Ilan religious girls’ school, where she says the educational staff conveyed a clear message that the best place for a young woman from the national-religious sector is national service.
Sari Michael. Serves in the Caracal Battalion (Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)Sari Michael. Serves in the Caracal Battalion (Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
“I come from a fighting family,” Michael says. “My grandfather was an instructor in the Navy’s Shayetet 13 special forces unit, I have an uncle in the Givati Brigade, another uncle who is a combat medic, another relative in Intelligence Unit 8200, and they each contribute as much as they can. I have a female cousin who joined the Caracal Battalion a year before me, and when we meet on Saturdays we share our experiences from the service.”
At her parents’ request, Michael began doing national service at the Defense Ministry, but realized after several months that her goal was significant combat service. So she left and joined the IDF, where she was sent to serve in the Air Force. “I said to them, ‘I want to be a combat soldier. I want experiences.'”
‘I became more religious in the army’
She got her share of experiences at the Caracal Battalion, which mainly deals with securing the Israel-Egypt border. About two-thirds of its soldiers are women.
Asked whether she experienced any crisis following the move from convenient national service to an exhausting basic combat training, Michael replies sincerely: “There isn’t a single combat soldier who doesn’t experience a crisis, but I received support from Captain Einat Cohen, who is responsible for the enlistment of religious girls in the army. “She fought for my rights. She also gave me her personal cell phone number, and I know that even if I call her at 2am – she will pick up the phone.”
And what do you do when you have religion-related questions?
“There is the battalion rabbi, and I also consult my father. There are clear orders in the army. One of them deals with human dignity. It doesn’t matter if you’re religious or not, Jewish or Christian or Druze; you respect your fellow man and he will respect you. My friends are considerate. They don’t listen to loud music on Shabbat, but use headphones. In my unit there are many traditional people and five religious girls – which is a lot.”
As for her difficulties as an observant Jew, she says: “It’s clear that during action it’s more problematic and harder to implement, but I believe that any soldier who wants to be religious can be religious. It all depends on you, and I have actually become more religious in the army.”
This may sound strange to some soldiers, but Michael doesn’t have a hard time when she is forced to stay in the army on Shabbat. “My mother always told me that on Shabbat a person has an elation, and I enjoy Shabbat in the army. There is the Kiddush, there are prayers in the synagogue, we sit through the meals and laugh. We also have time for ourselves, and Shabbat is really good for the soul.”
‘Israel means more to me than anything’
Ornella, 21, immigrated from France a little over a year ago in order to join the IDF. Her father was born in Israel, her mother in France, and her family lives in 15th arrondissement of Paris. As there was no Jewish educational institution near her home, she studied in a public school with many Muslim students.
Ornella. Serves in the Lions of Jordan Battalion (Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)Ornella. Serves in the Lions of Jordan Battalion (Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
“I am familiar with anti-Semitism,” she says. “I was the only Jewish girl in school. I didn’t hide the fact the I was Jewish and walked around with a Star of David medallion. Many of the students didn’t like it, and they were always looking for a fight.”
Asked whether she hesitated before making aliyah and joining the IDF, she replies decisively in an enchanting French accent: “I have been very Zionist ever since I was a little girl. The State of Israel means more to me than anything.”
Ornella’s brother, who also immigrated to Israel, didn’t serve in the army, so her decision to sign up for combat service raised eyebrows in her family. “It scared them. They don’t know any girls in combat service. But now I’m about to end my military training, and they are proud of me and believe that religious girls can also serve in combat roles.”
3 religious soldiers out of 80
Ornella says God helped her with the basic training difficulties. “My faith helped. As they say, ‘Think positive and things will be positive.’ If I want to, I can.”
She joined the IDF in November 2014, and began her basic training in March in the Lions of Jordan, a new infantry battalion where men and women serve side by side. Asked about her service alongside secular soldiers and how she deals with the issue of desecrating Shabbat for operational reasons, she replies: “My commanders always let me pray the morning and afternoon prayers, and let me leave the light on before I go to sleep so that I can read the Shema prayer. Although we are three religious soldiers out of 80 in the battalion, the boys know I am religious and respect me. “The Shabbat problem is less problematic right now, because I am in advanced training and we haven’t reached the line yet. But the question of desecrating Shabbat began with securing communities, when we have to travel by car. Every time I had a question, I turned to the Paratroopers’ base rabbi and he answered me. I also consult my brother.”
‘You can’t please everyone’
Hila Lev Ari, 20, from Moshav Bareket, serves in the Home Front Command’s rescue battalion. These days, she and her fellow soldier have been stationed in one of the hottest areas in Samaria. She studied in the Sha’alvim religious girls’ high school and later in Yigal Alon High School.
Hila Lev Ari. Serves in the Home Front Command’s rescue battalion (Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)Hila Lev Ari. Serves in the Home Front Command’s rescue battalion (Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
She was motivated to join combat service following a terror attack in 2002, in which terrorists fired at hotels in Netanya, murdered two and injured many. She experienced the incident as a little girl, but says it changed her.
“My family wasn’t hurt, but these are the kinds of things that build you. I decided that if there was something I could do to prevent others from going through what I did, and turn the country into a safer and better place, I would devote myself to it.”
Lev Ari is an only child. “At first, my parents tried to convince me to do national service, but I realized that this is my life and that I can’t please everyone. My parents understood, and now they are proud of me.”
While Moshe Feiglin was shunned, and was a previous Deputy Speaker of Knesset, so is Naomi Chazan, a previous speaker of Knesset, except she is most welcome in Melbourne. Feiglin and Chazan both see the problem except Chazan’s eyes are now in the back of her head, after 20 years. She has added nothing of value or new ideas to the debate. She’s be better off making Shiva calls.
The only comment I can make to Chazan is very simple: there was a thing called the (failed) Oslo Accords. Yasser Arafat, whose wife lives in lavish a plenty, decided he didn’t want to sign. My guess is he, like Mazen, would be dead 24 hours after they signed! They would be killed by the Hamas and its ancillary organisations. Guess what Naomi: that was 20 years ago. If Arafat had signed, do you think you would have a blog to write? My answer is perhaps surprisingly yes. The difference would be that you would be moaning and groaning about the existence of “settlements” (a euphemism for towns) only on one side of the green line, and quite comfortable with Arab Palestinian settlements on the other side, within Israel. There is no united Jerusalem. There cannot be until Chazan and her ilk stand up for democracy and INSIST that Jews have a right to pray at the Temple Mount. I’m not sure Chazan asks a Rabbi for permission or if she prays, but I’m sure she’d defend the right of a Jew to do so?
I don’t think she ever will and for that, to me, she will always be a flawed left winger like the rest of them, albeit an academic one.
Win-win is the most viable solution
by Naomi Chazan
The current spiral of violence between Israelis and Palestinians is profoundly detrimental to all involved. The passions and actions it unleashes now radiate well beyond their point of origin in Jerusalem. By its very nature, this cycle defies deep-rooted assumptions and cannot be mitigated by the institution of methods employed in the past. It requires a thorough reassessment of by-now disproven guiding assumptions and the formulation of a new, and substantially different, approach. The alternative is a regression into uncontrollable clashes which will only wreak further havoc and engender nothing but anarchy.
The biggest — and least sustainable — illusion of the Netanyahu era has been that the status quo is durable and can be maintained indefinitely. This assertion has never been acceptable to Palestinians, who continue to reject Israeli overrule and insist on the right to determine their own future. Since 1967 they have pursued this goal by almost every means conceivable: from passive resistance, popular uprisings, terror and random violence to negotiations, diplomacy and repeated appeals to the international community.
Israelis, too, have lived with the ambiguity of their own creation without really believing that it can last forever. A good portion of the population (polls still point to a majority) seek an end to the conflict through the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel; others — heavily represented in the present government — have never really given up on the dream of a greater Israel. For all, the present is merely a necessary holding operation on the road to a more permanent state down the road.
It follows, therefore, that the notion of conflict management which has guided Israeli policy in recent years is thoroughly detached both from the aspirations of the two peoples and from realities on the ground. For many Israelis it is at best a convenient default option; for Palestinians it is a daily reminder of the challenges they face. It persists because it serves the short-term interests of the Netanyahu coalition: it allows it to continue to exercise control, to contain tensions as much as possible and, above all, to defer any serious attempt to find a solution to the conflict.
The major prop in the implementation of this situation has been the threat and, when necessary, the use of force. In lulls between cycles of violence in the West Bank and Gaza, various forms of security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority or brokered understandings with the Hamas have bought periods of relative quiescence. When these have been punctured by violence, they have been met with strong-armed measures — set in motion to deter further escalation. Over the years the result has been a series of (ever-shortening and constantly rising) spurts of violent engagements.
The present round — emanating from Jerusalem but now spreading rapidly not only into the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but also into the heart of Israel — is on the verge of taking on more massive proportions. Propelled by extreme religious sentiments and by deep-seated frustrations stemming from the absence of any prospects on the negotiation front, it is nevertheless characterized by a shift from a spattering of random individual acts to a steadier, more organized, increasingly frequent and broader stream of outbursts which have felled a growing number of innocent victims on both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli divide.
Raw nerves and heightened emotions frame the current storm. Many Palestinians have given up hope: some (especially the youth) are unwilling to resign themselves to this condition, lashing out not only against Israeli repression but against the passivity of their elders. Hatred, despair, idealism and honor intermingle to spur on violent action. Israelis, in turn, combine fear with uncertainty, a quest for security with a desire for retribution, paranoia with pride, and no small measure of arrogance with vengeance to fuel the flames. As more people are drawn into the maelstrom by their leaders and the engaged media, rational analysis and associated policy calibration have fallen by the wayside.
Nobody has emerged untainted from the events of recent weeks. Leaders on both sides have fine-tuned mutual provocations. Incitement is rampant: in official quarters, on the streets, in the press and, most viciously, on the web’s social networks. Abu-Mazen, the self-proclaimed champion of nonviolence, has fallen unusually silent. Netanyahu has declared an all-out assault on Palestinians — once again in the name of the need to restore a semblance of calm. The Old City of Jerusalem has been cordoned off to non-resident Palestinians and an effective closure of the West Bank has been imposed — backed by a stream of additional forces on the streets and the hilltops, massive administrative detentions, an easing of restrictions on the use of live fire, stepped-up house demolitions and expanded punitive measures. This is the stuff on which more violence thrives.
If the past is any indicator, today’s spiral will eventually subside when fatigue with the present human devastation sets in. The parties will pause, take stock, reorganize and then try again — a clear signal that the force of familiar habits — however destructive — will prevail unless a different logic is designed and implemented. It is harder to disentangle entire societies from the spell of their operative truisms than perhaps anything else. But this is undoubtedly, more than anything else, what is needed at this juncture.
The starting point for such an undertaking is a cold, clear-headed, revision of working assumptions. The first — and by far the most vital — is the jettisoning of the adversarial premise of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship in favor of the rather counterintuitive yet systematically manifest understanding that the two peoples are locked in a binding symbiotic relationship. What happens on one side of the equation affects the other; a mutual dependence (too often of a destructive nature) underlies their very existence. Recent history has been replete with multiple instances of lose-lose situations.
This does not mean, however, that a win-win formula cannot be found. Acknowledgement of the mutual dependence between Israelis and Palestinians is a precondition for the resurrection of hope — that elusive ingredient so necessary for halting the inexorable pattern of ongoing confrontation. Along with hope must also come its essential corollary: a commitment to the resolution of the historical conflict between the peoples who — almost in equal numbers — reside on the land. No amount of management in the short or long-term can begin to relieve the profound animosity that exists. With the opening of a realistic, time-bound, equitable possibility of a restructuring of the relationship, it might just be possible to set out on a new course.
This is the foundation for the creation of that restraint which is so absent under present circumstances. The vehicle for its realization is a non-violence pact (to which both Abu-Mazen and Netanyahu are ostensibly committed) which could facilitate the launching of a workable diplomatic process under a reconstituted international umbrella consisting not only of the Quartet, but of regional actors as well.
This is not a pipe dream. It is an imperative that depends on the courage and conviction of true leaders and the backing of all those Israelis and Palestinians who — above all else — aspire to live normal lives and give themselves and their offspring that predictability which will enable them to survive and to thrive. It also rests on the capacity to abandon the winner-takes-all mentality that has polluted the air and replace it with an understanding that if both sides don’t benefit everybody will suffer. A studied, determined, principled reorientation is the best way to avoid further violence and avert a descent into frightful chaos. It can be put in place now. The alternative is unspeakable.
“A day doesn’t go by when I don’t think about my father”,
after their father (or mother) has departed this world. I don’t doubt them. Thinking about my father ע’’ה is scratching the surface. I don’t think about him 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There isn’t a day, however, that doesn’t pass wherein I don’t reflect, either during the day, or as I try to fall asleep. I sometimes reflect on things I may or may have not done which would have met with his approval or disapproval. At other times it is surface tension.
The irony is that we have been married for more than 3 decades. During that time, I couldn’t put my hand on my heart and say I listened to everything he suggested. There were times we disagreed. However, I rarely over-argued my position, and if I we chose to take a slightly different path, I did so without fanfare or disrespect. I tried to make him unaware, but that was nigh on impossible. He had a sixth sense, and could simply tell from my voice on the phone in the car, if I had a good day.
What I have become acutely aware of during his physical void from this world, is a magnification and perhaps even the creation of my own frailties. It is true that some of those frailties were born because of the vacuüm connected to the history from whence they germinated.
A good analogy might be marking your own test. Until then, I may not have been aware or concerned to compare my test results with those of my fathers. It just wasn’t on the agenda. I was living life from day-to-day, navigating through morass and happiness (comprising much more of the latter). Comparison of test results or similar weren’t remotely registered or on any agenda.
It is only now that there are occasions where I am sure that
I know how my father would have wanted me to react and pass on the values of the Mesora/tradition;
there are instances where I am not sure, and indeed, others are also not sure.
the remote: the new situation that he may not have encountered where one needs to extrapolate.
That is the most difficult of all because subjective influences will doubtless infiltrate what might have been a logical or historical process.
Professor R’ Chaym Soloveitchik, the son of the Rav, wrote a seminal essay in Tradition magazine, many years ago, about the mimetic (think mime) tradition. I tended then to look at his thoughts through a more prism vis a vis Halacha recorded and the growing paper trails versus the מסורה/tradition handed down manually from family to family (and sung so well by Topol in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’). Tradition can subsume technico-legal aspects of Halacha and extends to Middos and behavioural mores.
One of my teachers, R’ Nochem Zalman Gurewicz ע’’ה had an uncompromising view of Halacha. He also had an uncompromising love of Jews. Although we were ostensibly learning Gemora with him in Year 12, the refrain, often accompanied by a bang on his desk was that we needed to self-imbue ourselves/become acquainted with the so called “missing” tome of Shulchan Aruch, known as the “Fifter Chelek”. This mythical tome, of course doesn’t exist in writing. R’ Chaym Soloveitchyk would probably identify some of the fifth tome as osmosis from one’s parents and grandparents.
I have heard (to the best of my recollection) Mori V’Rabbi, R’ Hershel Schachter talk about the fifth chelek of Shulchan Aruch. Likely he used that terminology as it is the terminology that is common today.
Again, to the best of my recollection, the Rav, Rav Soltoveitchik, didn’t use this terminology as much if at all. His main language: and the main language if R’ Hershel was the terminology of
והלכת בדרכיו
Go in His ways
Based on the Ramban, this is an onus we carry each day. We are to conduct ourselves in ways that God would conduct himself. We know many of God’s traits (values is probably a better word). These are enunciated. The Rav and his father R’ Moshe and his father R’ Chaim of Brisk (after whom Professor R’ Chaym was named) held that the contents of the fifth chelek if you will, are in-between the lines of the other four chalokim. One needs to develop an acute sense of how to read a line of anything: be it Shulchan Aruch and Gemora (for which the Rav did have a formal Mesora passed down to him) and even Chumash (for which the Rav bemoaned that he never went through the exercise of reading between the lines with his father or Grandfather (The Rav does identify the Ramban, though, as the most outstanding pirush in that direction).
So, you are probably wondering why I am allowing a conscious and personal stream burst forth onto the internet about my father ע’’ה all of a sudden.
To be honest, I was re-arranging pictures, and each time his visage confronted me the פסוק of והלכת בדרכיו based on the foundation of מסורה confronted me and disturbed my status quo.
Davening at Tzemach Tzedek this forthcoming Shabbos, Parshas Noach – Adass and Tzemach Tzedek will be welcoming Moshe Feiglin.
Moshe Feiglin is the past deputy speaker of the Knesset and founder of the Zehut party.
After davening, our members, with Tzemach Tzedek and Bet Yosef members are invited to a combined Kiddush to listen to and welcome him.
Moshe Feiglin has a unique insight into the problems facing Israel and their solutions.
For further details regarding his Sydney visit contact Sreuvi Lazarus Ph: 0415850245
Biography
Moshe Feiglin is the head of the Zehut political movement, dedicated to providing Israel with authentic Jewish leadership based on Jewish identity and liberty and imbuing every facet of Israeli life with the meaning of Jewish destiny.
In 1993, Moshe Feiglin co-founded the Zo Artzeinu (“This [is] our Land/Country”) movement with Shmuel Sackett to protest the Oslo Accords. In 1996, he established the Manhigut Yehudit movement to foster Jewish leadership for Israel. In 2000, the movement joined Israel’s Likud party as a faction dedicated to the same goal. Mr. Feiglin declared that he would be a candidate for chairmanship of the party as a springboard for premiership of the State of Israel. Mr. Feiglin was Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and Likud MK from 2013 – 2015.
Moshe Feiglin advocates human rights and liberty, family values, free market economy tempered with the Jewish values of kindness, Israeli sovereignty over all the land in its hands, Jewish rights on the Temple Mount and much more. He is determined to provide Israel with the authentic Jewish leadership that it so desperately needs. His goal is to be prime minister of Israel and to lead the nation to its Jewish destiny with authentic Jewish values.
In particular, The JCCV is opposed to any homophobia, biphobia or transphobia by whomever or whoever expresses it. It has no place in our community. Everyone of any sexual orientation or gender identity should be respected and be given equal opportunity to participate in and contribute to the community.”
Homophobia (Oxford Dictionary): Dislike of or prejudice against homosexual people.
Dear Jenny, I have received feedback from Homosexuals that they do not consider Moshe Feiglin as Homophobic. They consider him libertarian. If your definition of Homophobia means that Orthodox Jews must accept קידושין or the act of homosexuality of ייחוד between homosexuals, then I dare say that there are many in the JCCV that would need to disaffiliate immediately.
Biophobia: (Oxford Dictionary): (not Biphobia) (Especially among social scientists) a refusal or marked reluctance to consider or accept biological (especially genetic or evolutionary) factors or theories in relation to human life. Dear Jenny, I see this issue as orthogonal to the first. The reason or reason(s) why one has certain proclivities is still a matter of debate. Indeed, there was an article in today’s paper that said Scientists had a 70% chance of predicting homosexuality based on DNA. I assume you know that proclivities go back to, and were recognised by Maimonides. A proclivity alone, no matter at what level we understand it in 2015 as compared to 2020 isn’t going to change the Torah’s view on acting on such proclivity any more than the Torah considers it unacceptable for a married man/woman to have a torrent of one nighters because of a high libido.
Transphobia: (Oxford Dictionary): Intense dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people: Dear Jenny, again, I saw no hate, dislike or prejudice against people born with or who have acquired such traits or behaviour.
Frankly, I don’t know where and when the JCCV decided to redefine Jewish standards of bedroom behaviour let alone mischievous conclusions of hate towards people who might describe themselves as such.
It was an ultra orthodox view that public Shabbat desecrators (and the topic needs to be expounded properly before any of the halachic categories this may apply to are germane) were denied honours. Personally, and I have spoken to a number of Rabbis and Presidents of Orthodox Shules, none have ever witnessed the various above phobias which you through the JCCV have latched onto.
I’m afraid, that ignorantianon excusal, really is no excuse here. Frankly, the JCCV should have sent along ONE of its respected balanced people to listen to Feiglin and made some conclusions about the various mantras of his new political party.
Curiously, Israel allows it, but the JCCV does not.
In a previous article, I questioned why a religious zionist (modern orthodox) congregation such as Mizrachi would apparently not permit Moshe Feiglin to speak at Shalosh Seudos, prior to his main talk the next day at the Werdiger Hall. In response to some who have suggested “why don’t you ask your brother-in-law”, which is a valid question, my answer is simple: Whilst he is President of Mizrachi, and has been for many years, and from what I have witnessed has done a sterling job (I might be biased),
I suspect it would/should have been a committee decision
He may have a personal opinion which he may not wish to share
Simply because he is married to my sister ought not mean that my questions shouldn’t be asked in my blog
I don’t particularly want to put him on the spot, as he is משפחה at the end of the day
Now, Moshe Feiglin is certainly not the most controversial figure to speak in Melbourne at a Jewish Organisation. The left seem to be able to bring any and every type of anti-Jewish, questionably Zionist, type here with impunity. Ironically, the Holocaust generation, would have nothing of such people, but their tree hugging, reformulated Judaism as תיקון עולם not necessarily with the מלכות שד׳י that follows it, children are exactly those who are comfortable sitting with those who want to make Israel like “all the nations”.
Israel will never be like “all the nations”. As long as it follows the constant הלכה of והלכת בדרכיו where we are meant to emulate God, through his values, his published traits, his wishes, and his admonishments, we will share lots with many good countries, but we will depart on various issues. Indeed, this is why Jews and Judaism have survived. A Talmud that allows an Amora to say אין משיח לישראל doesn’t strike me as a Talmud that is afraid. Yes, I’m aware of the different explanations for this statement, my point being that, and not leaving it out, דרוש וקבל שכר …. listen and learn and understand and you will at least be rewarded for that.
The annual learnathon conducted in Melbourne has included people with views far more radical (of course to the left, never to the right) than Moshe Feiglin. Moshe Feiglin is above all a libertarian. I would now describe him as a radical libertarian. He has his own unique views on the crises facing Israel, and that Zionists, religious or otherwise basically abandoned him at the Werdiger Hall on Sunday night, is a blight on their Zionism.
The people happiest about such a phenomenon are the Benedict Arnold movements, Ameinu and J-Street, both of whom pander to left wing Western “sensibilities and politics” in the arcane belief that this will solve or should I say dissolve the problems.
I heard first hand what Moshe proposed, and although I was unwell and unable to attend, none of it shocked me or made me think he was a radical. We as a community need to ask ourselves some questions:
Is the view that the Oslo Accords are dead, and that a two state solution is not the answer, that of a Zionist heretic? Is it necessarily the view of someone who is violent? Can one be a pacifist and subscribe to the notion that there already is a Palestinian State and its name is Jordan
Is it anathema for someone whose Rabbi permits them to go to parts of the Temple Mount (note the Jewish Temples which preceded Al Aqsa) to be forbidden to pray! What sort of (Western) democracy is this? How do the magic words “status quo” which we see right at this minute with the lying induced violence conjure up an “Abracadabra” spell on thinking people? Why? Is it because we will lose American support? That’s the only reason I can think of. Surely thinking people would recognise that it makes no sense that a Jew cannot pray but someone from another religion can throw rocks, create fires, and destroy archeology?
Moshe Feiglin has his views. He was asked by an Arab MK when he was Deputy Speaker, and still a member of Likud, “What are the borders of Israel” and Feiglin replied quoting the Chumash, implying a wider, larger Israel. Is he not entitled to have or express such a view? The two state solution is the biggest lie we have seen. There is no partner, there is nobody serious on the other side. They are just a group of bickering tribesmen who are politically at each others throats and far away from even having a semblance of freedom.
I saw an article in the paper that was “shocked” because kids as young as 5 were shown programs about carrying guns in ISIS and their “friends”. Well, hello. Anyone who follows memri.org and I highly recommend it, will know that Palestinian Arabs have done this for decades. It is in an Australian paper because Australians have unfortunately also suffered at the hands of “radicalised ones”. Someone define what non radicalised means? Is that 1/2 Sharia or is it Australian Law?
Feiglin’s philosophy is very similar to that of many Australians. In fact, I read Prime Minister Turnbull make the same statement. There is Australian Law. There may be other legal systems. If you are uncomfortable with living in a country under an Australian legal system, then by all means go to a country that conforms with your definition of law.
Let it not be concluded that I necessarily agree with Moshe Feiglin’s views willy nilly. I’d need to read more and then form my own views. However, not allowing him to speak, is to me a great בזיון for this community which people like Isi Leibler laud as huge Zionists. Unfortunately, Leibler is long gone and doesn’t realise how that the old boat is sliding to the left more and more, while the sanguine views of the previous generation, are buried in Springvale and Lyndhurst.
If anyone felt that Feiglin said something that should preclude him from speaking, or from being granted a Visa, pray tell me why.
I hear there are powerful forces that insisted that Moshe Feiglin’s talk at Mizrachi’s rather tame Shalosh Seudos, be cancelled. He was due to speak there by error or naturally. Mizrachi in Melbourne have certainly allowed right-wing revolutionaries from Ateret Cohanim to speak there, but Moshe Feiglin was cancelled. Was it because of the marxist left wing conservadox organisations like Shira Chadasha or is that Hadasha who had the Chutzpa to join the Reform and others and advertise their opposition to free speech. To them, I say go hug a tree. You will feel fulfilled. Go find a rabbi who fits your pre-defined view of Zionism and Judaism and give it a logo. Off you go. What was so damned offensive about Moshe Feiglin, someone tell me. I heard him on Friday night and knew little about him. He sounded fine to me. Are these the same dark forces that considered Rabbi Sprung too right-wing and who complain bitterly when Rabbis (for whom they have no respect) decide that certain whisky should be avoided. These are people who think they own Judaism. Guess what? They don’t. Ex nihilo is nonsense. The world was always filled with God. It was a matter for him to form a world such that והלכת בדרכיו not the ways of the humans who decide what is and is not moral, what is left and what is right.
So, I looked him up. I found this. Nothing objectionable:
Although Manhigut Yehudit is an educational organization that does not endorse political candidates, we believe that you will find Moshe Feiglin’s words at the Zehut Founding Conference to be enlightening and inspiring:
Dear Friends,
I must admit that I am very moved. I have participated in quite a few events in my life and have made quite a few speeches. But when you begin to understand the depth of the crisis and upheavals facing Israel and the world; when you understand that what we are doing here this evening is laying the foundation for the only leadership that is capable of understanding reality and thus, for dealing with it; when you understand that – you understand that tonight’s event is formative; it is an historic event.
A New Leadership Movement: From Zionism of Existence to Zionism of Destiny
Make no mistake. This is not a group of a few hundred Israelis who have decided to form another political party. What is happening here tonight is nothing less than a revolution.
Tonight, we are founding a new leadership movement for the Nation of Israel. Tonight, we are founding the only leadership that has the tools to truly deal with the approaching tsunami – from within and without!
Tonight, we are creating national leadership that will bring the State of Israel from one era: Zionism of Existence, to a completely new era: Zionism of Destiny.
The Vision: Identity, Meaning, Liberty
Everything so sorely lacking in Israeli politics can be found in this movement. First and foremost, what we have completely forgotten:
We have vision!
Our vision includes:
Loyalty to our identity
A message of meaning
A battle for liberty.
True answers can only be found within this vision:
Answers based on liberty to deal with all our current challenges: Housing, education, cost of living, health and of course security and foreign relations.
Only those who have vision and know the answer to ‘why?’ can provide the true answers to ‘how’.
Without Destiny, Existence is Endangered
Seventy years ago, the crematoria of Europe were extinguished and our Nation began to rise from the ashes. The State of Israel’s first seventy years are also about to be completed.
There is no doubt that the State of Israel is a success story. It has realized the vision of the prophets and has been the conduit for the unequaled historical miracle in which all parts of the Nation of Israel have participated.
But it is specifically the physical success that has made us vulnerable to a gnawing, paralyzing weakness that threatens all the achievements of the Return to Zion.
From a physical standpoint, we have never been greater and stronger; both economically and militarily. But internally – we have never been so weak.
Sometimes I feel that I should apologize to my children: I had so much fun growing up in this country. Israel was a country that radiated security and faith in the justice of its cause. What confusion and lowliness we are bequeathing the next generation – exactly at the most critical time!
Our parents, the generation of the War of Independence and the Six Day War, the generation of the Yom Kippur War and Entebbe, gave us a state that stood proud. They gave us a state in which a drizzle in Sderot meant that autumn was coming – not rockets coming out of the sky.
Missiles on Tel Aviv? Who would ever have thought?
Our parents gave us a state in which there was no need for security guards at the entrance to every shopping mall and train station.
They gave us a state whose existence was not questioned by any cultured person in the world.
They gave us a state in which every soldier in uniform understood what he represented and nobody dared attack him.
They gave us a state that would immediately obliterate any entity developing nuclear weapons to destroy us – with no warning, no speeches and no lobbying the Congress.
Our parents gave us a state in which every young couple could afford housing; a state that no matter what school you attended, you emerged an Israeli patriot.
They gave us a state in which little girls could play hopscotch on the corner unguarded.
A state without ‘protection’.
A state in which every Jew could walk freely – everywhere.
And what are we giving our children?
A threatened, helpless community that begs the world and the US air force for help?
A state that has lost its faith in the justice of its cause, a state that – more and more – the world considers a mistake?
A state in which young couples can only dream of owning their own home.
A state in which the schooling falls far short of our potential.
A state in which parents are forced to guard their children while they play outdoors.
A state in which personal liberties are being eroded.
The world is not exactly waiting patiently while we return to ourselves. The entire old order is crumbling before our eyes.
ISIS is replacing the Arab states.
Nuclear ayatollahs set the world agenda.
Europe is quickly becoming Moslem.
America stands by those who attempt to destroy us.
Where is the leadership of old? Leadership that would know how to present a vision and strategy in the face of the existential challenges falling upon us?
This is the new leadership that we are building today, here in Tel Aviv.
No more state that flees its message
No more state that flees its meaning and history.
Today, we are heralding the connection of all of these to the liberty of man.
Dear friends,
The era of religious and non-religious is over!
The era of Right and Left is finished!
All the ridiculous molds that divided us time and again are a thing of the past.
The Israeli young people yearn for the meaning taken from them.
They crave to dig deeply into their identity and liberty.
Israel’s young people desire leadership that will give them all these things. Leadership that will truly solve:
The housing shortage, the collapsing educational system, the high cost of living – leadership that will restore security to our streets.
We have all those gifts – and more – to give:
Housing: We know that liberty means that the land belongs to the citizens – not to the state. Land must be allotted by lottery to all army veterans in Israel.
The bureaucratic red tape must be cut and people must be allowed to build as they please on their land. And most important of all, we know that this is our Land and we should build throughout our country.
Education: We know how to truly solve the problem with education in Israel. Because we know that liberty means that we are responsible for the education of our children- not the State. The State will give vouchers to the parents of every child and the parents will decide where to redeem them.
Just imagine countless ‘boutique’ schools competing for your vouchers – just like the maternity wards compete for the social security funds that they receive for every new mother who gives birth in their hospital.
Every teacher will be a private tutor. And every student will be a king!
Cost of living: We know how to truly deal with the high cost of living and how to propel the economy forward. Simply, we must:
Open the Israeli market to competitive imports
Close the Standards Institute
Cut down the government mechanism to at least half
Nullify the tax on companies
Return the state payment for army veterans to social security
Stop funding our enemies.
War can never be over when the Israel Defense Force vocabulary does not include the word ‘victory’.
It is impossible to win when it is not clear who the enemy is (The rocket? The tunnel? Terror?)
If you cannot figure out who you are, (A Jew? An Israeli? A citizen of an amorphous state?) you will clearly not discover who your enemy is. Maybe we were sent here by the UN?
Now we can understand that a person or country that has no identity will never enjoy peace.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen: Only Zehut will bring peace!
We have the answer to the ‘why’? And thus, we can provide all the answers to the ‘how’?!
Dear friends, now it is in our hands!
The energies, the people, the clear plan and the will and preparedness to lead are all in this hall. They are in no other place and so, the responsibility is on our shoulders. We have all the tools with which to bring about a true revolution.
We have a year – not more – to reach every corner of this country.
Now friends, it is in our hands. And we have good reason to be excited at the eve of the New Year. To be excited and to thank the Creator, Who has brought us to this momentous and historic time, in which we have merited to establish leadership with vision for our Nation.
Shanah Tovah
I heard in Shule that he’s “homophobic”. Sorry, what does that mean. Does that mean that he beats up gay people or does it mean that he happens to accept Torah that the act of homosexuality is a SIN. Are the politically correct anonymous powers behind Mizrachi afraid to say the word תועבה … if so, they should join Shira Chadasha, the “Shule of Song”. Too far? Uncomfortable seats? Only for the young? Do me a favour people get a life.
Okay, so I looked for more, and found this.
While other Knesset members will ride off into the political sunset after their successors are sworn in to the parliament Tuesday, outgoing Likud MK Moshe Feiglin will go to the Party Registrar’s Office to officially create his new political home.
Feiglin left the Likud after he failed to get selected for a realistic slot on the party’s list for the new Knesset. He announced that he would form a party at an event held at the same time that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated with his party’s new candidates.
Feiglin’s faction will be called Zehut, which means identity in Hebrew. It will push for Israel to decide what it means to be a Jewish state.
Speaking at the Knesset after he received his “former MK card,” Feiglin boasted how people waited in line to pay NIS 500 to join the list of party founders that would be submitted to the registrar. He said 60 percent of the initial 500 founders were not religious and that Zehut would not be sectarian.
“Establishing Israel’s identity is the key to its future,” Feiglin said. “The loss of its identity is the problem, and returning it is the solution.”
Feiglin said he turned down offers of realistic slots on multiple party lists, preferring to sit out the current Knesset and build a new party from the bottom up.
“The Likud is not the answer to anything,” he said. “I prefer to advance my ideas on my own. My ideas attract curiosity and appreciation. I didn’t need a stage. What I want is to provide an alternative of leadership.”
Feiglin said that if MK Yair Lapid could start a new party and win 19 seats and Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon would win 10, he could win 20 in the next election, which he believes will take place soon after what he called a “Pyrrhic victory” for Netanyahu.
His political predictions proved right in the past. He wrote on Facebook ahead of the 2013 election, when Bayit Yehudi was polling 16 seats, that it would fall to eight when the Likud would warn its voters that the Left could come to power.
Zehut will be registered as soon as the Interior Ministry verifies the Israeli residence of everyone on its list of founders in accordance with the law.
Feiglin hopes the current Knesset will pass a bill allowing Jews abroad who are not citizens to join Israeli political parties.
Many secular people attended a pre-Passover toast Feiglin hosted Sunday night in Jerusalem.
Uri Noy of Petah Tikva, who was one of them, said he was surprised to see so many people not wearing kippot.
“The upheaval is really happening,” he said. “I came to Feiglin because I saw that in the [2006] Second Lebanon War, Israel did not fight back. I got turned on by him, and I’ve supported him since then.”
Noy said he was in Likud with Feiglin and he was glad they left because the Likud has not been true to its political platform that calls for keeping and settling the land of Israel.
He said there was nothing wrong with a secular Jew supporting the building of a Third Temple, noting that Zionist founder Theodore Herzl wrote in favor of it in his book Altneuland.
“Leaving the Likud is not giving up,” said Binyamin Nakonechny, a former Likud central committee member who was the first person who joined Zehut. “Feiglin has faced political setbacks throughout his career but he hasn’t given up. He has just started over.”
Okay, I can’t see anything that would cause the Marxist tree huggers to try and muzzle free speech. Then I saw he was sentenced to prison for opposing the Oslo Accords (sounds like Russia to me). Well, even the left-wing moustached types cannot say anything good about the useless 20 year old Oslo Accords. They were and are bullshit. Sorry, that is fact. Try a few stabbings to remind you. Then I thought to myself, maybe he was into religious coercion etc and I found this on wikipedia
Feiglin, responding to a report that Israel’s first permanent Arab Supreme Court judge Salim Joubran had refused to sing Israel’s national anthem, asserted Joubran: “must return his Israeli ID card and make do with the status of ‘permanent resident.’
Guess what, I agree with him. It’s a joke. The Marxist libertarian left wingers in our Jewish people are so self righteous that they don’t understand basic logic.
If someone supports a Kahane policy that doesn’t make them Kahane!
Try and get that through elementary logic.
Feiglin said:
Feiglin referred to U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden as a “diseased leper” in a 2010 op-ed column published by Israel’s third largest news outlet, Maariv.
Was he wrong? Is Obama any different? What good has Obama done for Israel except kiss the orifices of Iran since he came to power.
Then I heard he was a homophobe because:
“”Throughout history,” Feiglin explained, “from Rome to Europe in our day, the approval and spread of homosexuality presaged the decline of nations and cultures. If one reads the Torah portion ‘Noah’ – this comes as no surprise. . . .The organizers of a pride parade do not wish to gain rights. They strive to force homosexuality as a culture upon the public sphere. . . . A minority has no right to take over public assets. Let the marchers kindly go back to their individual closets. And let them do it without whining, because no one interferes with their affairs in there. Let them give up their attempts at takeovers, and leave the public sphere to normal people. . . .Feiglin added in an additional post: “I have no problem with homosexuals, most of whom are, most likely, good and talented people and no one wants to interfere in their private lives. I have a problem with homosexuality as a culture. This culture subverts the status of the family. And without the family there is no nation, and without a nation there is no civilization.”
Okay, he has no problem with what people do in their private lives, but opposes Pride parades and the creation of Pride cultures. Guess what. So do I. Does Shira Chadasha or Mizrachi embrace Parades in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. I don’t tell people what to do in their bed rooms.
But then I found the answer. It’s got to be the pathetic political correctness of our good tree hugging leftists.
Feiglin is banned from entering the United Kingdom due to a decision by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, made public in March 2008, excluding Feiglin on the grounds that his presence in the country “would not be conducive to the public good.” A letter to Feiglin from the Home Office said that Smith based her decision on an assessment that his activities “foment or justify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs; seek to provoke others to terrorist acts; foment other serious criminal activity or seek to provoke others to serious criminal acts and foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK.”Feiglin responded, “Seeing that renowned terrorists like Hizbullah member Ibrahim Mousawi are welcomed in your country in open arms, I understand that your policy is aimed at encouraging and supporting terror.”
So what terrorism has Feiglin fomented. Since when do we follow anti-Semitic Britain? To all you libertarian democrats and supporters of free speech I say hang your heads in shame. There are far worse right wingers in the Likud, and Mizrachi would haven did let them in to speak, that was when old Mr Lamm ע’’ה was alive. Alas, his son, Danny obviously no longer has influence. As to my own views, I am outside Israel, but as long as he isn’t advocating terrorism (like the Muslims who advocate terrorism AND live in Australia) what is wrong with free speech? I was also gob-smacked when Australia wouldn’t allow that anti-abortion campaigner in. Unless there is something about him that I don’t know, we are heading towards totalitarian Russia, where if you have charisma, they certainly won’t let you in to talk.
Rabbi Cardozo is an exceedingly smart and erudite man; if not sometimes controversial. Without wanting to sound flippant, my family in Israel had a strong connection with the two murdered Henkins. My cousin is a Yoetzet Halacha (also an anti feminist) with strong roots to Nishmat. Another cousin, who is a Rabbi discussed Halachic issues with the murdered Rav Eitam Henkin and described him as a young genius beyond his years who was another yoresh of the famous Rav Henkin ז’’ל of the USA for whom Reb Moshe Feinstein ז’’ל used to put his hat and jacket on, when he received a call from Rav Henkin.
Rabbi Cardozo asks in his blog the question(s) we all have asked and which Jews have asked for so many damned years, and I use the word damned advisedly.
What I’d like to hear from Rabbi Cardozo is how he understands two concepts
אהיה אשר אהיה
הסתר פנים
If I sound flippant, I don’t mean to. I know someone who works as a researcher for Rabbi Cardozo and may ask him to get answers to these two questions.
By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times
As of this writing, about 145,000 have seen it on Youtube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixxd5DUW5VM] and probably several million have seen it on television.
His name is Shneur Freeman and he is a 31 year old carpet cleaner. He attended Yeshiva in Crown Heights. He answered a call for an estimate and asks for a name. The Italian man answering says that he prefers no names. They show him a huge red stain on a carpet and ask if he can clean the carpet without telling anyone. Shneur asks what it is. One Italian answers red wine. Another answer Marinara sauce.
Then they ask him if he can entirely get rid of another carpet. It is rolled up and there are shoes sticking out from the middle of the rolled up carpet.They slip him money, saying, “Dis is fer youse.”
He answers that he can do it, and that he is Jewish, from Brooklyn, and that he knows what’s going on.
Ultimately, it turned out to be a highly sophisticated Jimmy Kimmel prank utilizing his Cousin Sal, who has appeared in such pranks before. It also looked like Shneur Freeman was actually going to help them dispose of the body and clean the carpet.
At first glance, this may appear to be a Chilul Hashem. But the Five Towns Jewish Times contacted Shneur, and soon realized that poor Shneur the Carpet Cleaner was frightened for his life.
So the question is what are the halachic issues about getting rid of a dead body?
There is a fascinating Gemorah in Nedarim (22a), which deals with Ulla, a student of Rabbi Yochanan who travelled back and forth to Bavel. It is unclear whether he did so to teach the lessons that Rabbi Yochanan’s Beis Midrash used to teach or to raise funds for Eretz Yisroel, or both. Regardless, it explains why Shneur’s actions are, in fact, not a Chillul Hashem at all.
When ‘Ulla arose [back] to Eretz Yisroel, he was joined by two inhabitants of Chozai, one of whom arose and murdered the other. The murderer asked of Ulla: ‘Did I do well?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied; ‘moreover, cut his throat clean across.’ When he came before Rabbi Yochanan, he asked him, ‘Maybe, G-d forbid, I have strengthened the hands of transgressors?’ He replied, ‘You saved your life.’
Both the Rosh and the Ran understand this Gemorah as saying that were it not for Ulah’s life being in possible danger, it would have been prohibited to respond in this manner.
This prohibition is called Machazik Yedei Ovrei Aveirah – strengthening the hand of evil-doers. We find this prohibition (Shulchan Aruch CM 356:1) in purchasing items from thieves, which is a grave sin. It causes the person to steal more.
There are some situations where strengthening the hand of an evil-doer is a full-blown Biblical prohibition called “Lifnei Iver.” Other situations are considered Rabbinic violations. The difference lies in whether the person could have managed by himself without the input of the other party.
There is also a fascinating Targum Yonasan Ben Uziel on the Commandment not to murder found in parshas Yisro. He writes, “My Nation Israel shall not be murderers, nor friends or partners with murderers, nor shall there appear within the congregation of Israel murderers, and your sons shall not follow them and learn from them also to be murderers. For in the sin of murder destruction comes to the world.
Rav Avrohom Grodzinsky zt”l (1883-1944) the Mashgiach of the Slabodka Yeshiva explained this Targum Yonasan (Toras Avrohom – Netzach HaAdam) to mean that any partnership with a murderer is considered as if that partner did the murder itself.
Thus, unless there is a question of one’s own life being in danger, lending assistance to a murderer is tantamount to murder itself according to Rav Grodzinsky!
The Shaarei Teshuvah of Rabbeinu Yonah (Shaar 3:50) writes on the verse Do not follow the masses to do evil (Shmos 23:2), we are therefore warned not to strengthen the hand of evil-doer in words nor to be associated with those who agree to do evil. Even to do a Dvar Mitzvah it is forbidden to befriend an evildoer.
In conclusion, the actions of Reb Shneur are, in fact, not a Chilul Hashem, but were warranted in light of the circumstances.
For those who are curious, we did manage to ask Shneur a few questions and were able to clarify some points.
• He has been in the carpet cleaning industry close for 8 years and started his own company in 2013.
• This events in this video took place a few weeks before Shavous, in May.
• The Jimmy Kimmel people did not unwrap the “dead body” for him – even afterward. They were doing their best just to show the feet, and succeeded.
• He walked out of that house with a few hundred dollars.
More questions:
What were your thoughts?
What was I thinking?…. so much … At first, before they brought in a rug with a dead body I was actually pretty calm. I thought: maybe they had a fight with some unfortunate fellow and this was the outcome. This was not the first time I have been called to clean up a blood situation (nothing like this situation at all though). But once that big guy walked in, I tell you he scared me (I did not see the legs hanging out of the rug until they asked me to put the rug on my car). He had this look of, “Do what I say or you’re next..”
Were you davening?
So, at this point, I am thinking to myself, “Oh boy, what did I just get myself into? You can bet all your money I was praying. I was praying that I can do whatever they want so I can go home in one piece.
So where were you going to dump the body?
That is a good question. I really don’t know. I’m so glad the situation didn’t go that far.
What did you tell your family afterward?
I don’t think I really told my family much about it (I had to sign a waiver). I just called in to say, “I love you” to them all. For a minute
I thought I was going to die. I think a near death situation reminded me how much I miss my family.
PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING: Shneur, by the way, is 31 years old, single, and owns CARPET CLUB LA in Los Angeles, California. Cousin Sal is not a Mafioso. Jimmy Kimmel does not ask shailos before he scares people half to death. And the Five Towns Jewish Times is being distributed on Friday instead of Thursday this week – on account of the Yom Tov schedule.
I noticed a fan wrote a populist but sourceless response in the Jewish News. They say where there is a Rabbinic will there is a Halachic Way. In that spirit, I bring you some more open tents of Abraham as per the simile of Rabbi Genende, [Hat tip anonymous]
What I’d like the Caulfield Board and/or Rabbi Genende to answer is whether they see themselves as affiliated with the RCV or the Open Orthodox breakaway of Chovevei Tzion. I know the president of Caulfield reads my blog. I’d love a clear answer. I believe this is a reasonable and respectful question to ask.
Hevre,
As this email reaches your inbox, Dr. Elsie Stern, our vice president for academic affairs here at RRC, is notifying our rabbinical students that on September 21, 2015, RRC’s faculty voted to no longer bar qualified applicants with non-Jewish partners from admission to RRC, and to no longer ban RRC students in good standing from graduating as rabbis, because they have non-Jewish partners. As you are likely already aware, this policy change is the result of many years of discussion within the Reconstructionist movement.
Why have we taken this step? We no longer want to prevent very wonderful and engaged Jewish leaders from becoming rabbis. After years of study, research, and discussion with many members of the Reconstructionist community, we have concluded that the status of a rabbinical student’s partner is not a reliable measure of the student’s commitment to Judaism—or lack thereof. Nor does it undermine their passion for creating meaningful Judaism and bringing us closer to a just world. The issue of Jews intermarrying is no longer something we want to fight or police; we want to welcome Jews and the people who love us to join us in the very difficult project of bringing meaning, justice, and hope into our world.
As many of you asked us to do, we have strengthened our admissions standards on reviewing an applicant’s commitment to Jewish continuity in their personal, familial and communal life. We make this change while also revising our curriculum in major ways, focusing intensely on how to train rabbis (and other leaders) on practices and teachings of Jewish distinctiveness, even as we are preparing them for leadership in a multicultural world.
It has been a long journey to come to this place. No one in the process takes this historic decision lightly. We do feel that it reflects some of the realities in Jewish communities today. Our congregations have members with non-Jewish partners, and we need rabbis who can provide them with role models for vibrant Jewish living. Reconstructionism has always been predicated upon changing as Jews and Judaism change, even when these changes are emotionally challenging.
In this season of Sukkot, we can’t help but think of the theme of the ushpizin, the guests we welcome into our sukkah each year. Some of them are family, and some of them are temporary strangers. Each of them has a life story to share with us. As we continue to welcome guests further into the inner sanctum of Jewish life and into our own families, we are humbled. Know that our faculty has wrestled with this issue for many years, on our own and in conversation with many of you.
In the coming days and weeks, we will schedule calls to discuss this further with congregations, rabbis, board members, supporters, and congregational and communal leaders. Stay tuned for details.
Please join me in moving ahead into the new season.
L’shalom,
Deborah Waxman
Rabbi Deborah Waxman
President, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities
Of course in Melbourne, we have solved this problem with Super Rabbis, able to clear halachic practice with a single huff and puff. We need more Rabbi Aryeh Sterns around the world.
Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem Rabbi Shlomo Amar has recently refused to implement a proposal designed to reduce corruption in the arena of kashrut supervision in the capital, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Severe questions have been raised about the integrity and reliability of the kashrut supervision provided by the Jerusalem rabbinate in recent months, with concerns that some kashrut supervisors do not properly execute their supervisory duties.
One problem in particular is a phenomenon in which supervisors are awarded supervision over more restaurants and food businesses than they can physically supervise in one day.
Kashrut supervisors get paid either directly by the businesses they supervise, or in some instances by a manpower organization that provides the supervisors to the different businesses.
The more establishments a supervisor is responsible for, the more money he is able to make.
However, regulations of the Ministry of Religious Services stipulate that a supervisor spend at least one hour, and many cases two or three hours, in each restaurant, supermarket, catering company or other food business they supervise, per day.
According to sources within the Jerusalem rabbinate, there are several supervisors within the Jerusalem religious council’s kashrut department who are registered to supervise more than 10 businesses each.
It appears unlikely that a supervisor could maintain this workload and at the same time comply with the stipulations of the Religious Services Ministry for a supervisor to be present for at least one hour in every supervised establishment.
Allegations of possible corruption in the Jerusalem Religious Council were reported to the police earlier this year.
During a hearing of the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee on July 29, Supt.
Isaac Simon of the Jerusalem fraud squad said that an examination was being made of the requirement to hold an investigation.
In recent months severe deficiencies have been found by staff in the office of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem Rabbi Aryeh Stern, including supervisors who did not turn up to the establishments under their supervision and serious kashrut issues at some restaurants and businesses with kashrut certificates from the Jerusalem rabbinate.
In one of the restaurants, a well known cafe in central Jerusalem, it was discovered that the designated supervisor visited the site approximately once a week. The establishment in question requires three hours of supervision a day.
At the cafe, Stern’s staff discovered that the flour used for baking bread and other products was not generally sifted and that there were insects present in the flour, which would be a clear violation of kashrut laws.
In order to try and tackle these issues, Stern recently proposed that, as is common practice in many other major cities, the names of each supervisor should be printed on the kashrut certificate that is displayed in restaurants and businesses in Jerusalem with kashrut supervision.
This would help prevent abuses, since if a supervisor would have more businesses to supervise than is feasible in one day such a situation would be readily apparent.
Amar, however, refused to implement such a system. Although local religious councils have administrative authority over such policies, municipal chief rabbis sign kashrut certificates and could theoretically refuse to sign if certain policies are not implemented.
The secretary of the Kashrut Department of the Jerusalem Religious Council, David Malka, said in response: “The Kashrut Department and the Office of the Chief Rabbi do not conduct Jerusalem’s kashrut policy through the press or media. This is how we have acted for years and how we will continue to act.
“Despite the fact that in the current quarter the names of supervisors do not appear on kashrut certificates, the kashrut certificates are signed by both municipal chief rabbis.”
Kashrut certificates are issued four times a year, but Stern has refused to sign more than 100 certificates, out of the approximately 1,500 certificates issued to kosher establishments in Jerusalem, for the latest quarter. Some of these certificates are currently on display with only Amar’s signature.
Stern is insisting on interviewing the supervisors of the establishments in question, primarily supermarkets, before appending his signature to their certificates.
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Rav Aryeh Stern (pic from JPOST)
The non halachic oaths that are the hallmark of the philosophy of the holy Samar Rebbe, R’ Yoel, included the injunction that we don’t “aggravate the nations of the world” a loose translation of שלא יעלו חומה
Strictly speaking, this is talking about aggravating entities like the UN by forming a homeland for the Jewish people. Consider now the inevitable population explosion and the resultant aggravation and all that goes with it occurring in the preferred proxy to the land of Israel for Satmars, the (holy) United States of America. This is the latest, below. You can see the original from the Times of Israel here
MONROE, New York — When the Town of Monroe voted to allow Kiryas Joel, a densely populated Satmar Hasidic village located 55 miles from New York City to annex 164 acres of its land to alleviate a housing shortage, it wasn’t a surprise. But neither was the Orange County Legislature’s reaction: to join nine municipalities in a lawsuit against the annexation.
“The Village of Kiryas Joel is filled with good people living their lives, but for the past several years their government has been ignoring how things are done in New York State. That was a real tipping point,” said Orange County executive Steven M. Neuhaus.
Among the contentious practices performed in Kiryas Joel includes attempts at sex segregation in public playgrounds and sidewalks, and an alleged widespread $40 million in Medicaid fraud among the village’s residents. For Neuhaus there are also additional concerns involved in the annexation.
“We’re concerned about the impact an annexation of 164 acres, zoned for single family use, could have, because if it’s annexed it will be rezoned to high density housing for 1900 units. And where would all the extra sewer lines and water come from? Who is going to pay for that?” asked Neuhaus.
More than a property dispute, the annexation and subsequent legal challenge tells a story of diametrically opposed communities trying to preserve their ways of life. Add to the need to balance conservation against development, charges of government obfuscation and anti-Semitism, and one gets a sense of the delicate situation in this Hudson Valley locale.
‘Finally, I thought, there would be a Jewish community, a place to buy kosher food. Instead it has come to be a terrible, terrible curse’
“I’m Jewish, and so my problem with them has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. In fact I was here when Kiryas Joel first started and my first feeling was one of such joy and happiness,” said Rochelle Marshall, who has lived in Monroe for 50 years. “Finally, I thought, there would be a Jewish community, a place to buy kosher food. Instead it has come to be a terrible, terrible curse.”
The seeds for the dispute date back to the late 1970s when the Grand Rabbi of Satmar, Joel Teitelbaum founded Kiryas Joel, or KJ. Today about 22,000 people reside in the insular community, which to outsiders resembles a European shtetl. Women don’t drive and other than their immediate family members, they don’t socialize with men.
And, as is the norm in an ultra-Orthodox community, young people marry between the ages 18 and 19 and have between six to 10 children. This high birth rate means about 200 new housing units must be built annually for a population in which some 21% require public assistance.
If Kiryas Joel continues on its current trajectory there will be 42,497 residents by 2025, and 96,000 by 2040, according to the U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program. From Kiryas Joel’s perspective, protecting and nurturing their way of life means vastly increasing the size of their village.
“In addition to meeting the needs of a growing population, the Village hopes to draw up plans for a number of new initiatives that go beyond its efforts to keep up with growth. This growth spells concomitant expansion of the communities infrastructure, including water, sewer, roads, sidewalks, streetlights, and transportation,” according to KJVoice.com, a news source which was created “to assist the community in transmitting its message and dispelling the myths that surround Kiryas Joel,” according to the website.
One of those myths is that Kiryas Joel initiated the annexation. That’s simply not true, said Josh Poupore, Senior Vice President for Corning Place Communications, which represents Kiryas Joel.
“The homeowners living on the 164 acres [up for annexation] petitioned the village for annexation,” Poupore said. “They want to become part of KJ. They want to get sidewalks, and sewer lines, and streetlights. Although public safety officers and a volunteer fire department exist in Monroe, English is not the first language of many of the Hasidic residents. But if they were to call the KJ Fire dispatcher, he speaks Yiddish. Those kinds of cultural things are very important.”
Orange Country’s Neuhaus said the issue of a language barrier for the people living in the 164-acre area is groundless. There’s no reason they need be annexed in order to get Yiddish speaking emergency personnel. The Hassidic residents living there could simply work out a mutual assistance agreement between the respective emergency services, he said.
On the other hand for the more than 22,000 residents of Monroe, annexation means even more high density housing on land originally zoned for single family homes, increased congestion, lower property values, and undo stress on the environment.
As these residents, and neighboring communities see it, preserving their way of life means ensuring expansion happens methodically and in keeping with existing zoning laws.
Leading the charge against annexation stands the non-partisan United Monroe, an all-volunteer grass roots organization created in 2013.
“I’m a progressive liberal who moved here eight years ago. I knew about KJ, and I thought it would be great to expose my kids to different cultures,” Emily Convers, United Monroe’s director, said, adding that annexation wasn’t something anyone anticipated at the time.
Then about two years ago Kiryas Joel publicized its intention to expand by either 507 acres or 164 acres. It submitted both petitions to the Town of Monroe whose three-member council rejected the first one, but approved the latter.
‘They seem to think they can just build it and worry about the permits and the legal stuff later on’
It also announced plans to tap into New York City’s water supply to guarantee future growth and set about constructing a 13.5-mile pipeline so it could send water to future homes in the area. Kiryas Joel is waiting for the requisite permits to draw water from the city’s aqueduct.
“They started to build the pipeline without the proper review or permit. The County isn’t allowing them to build it,” said Rich Cannava, co-founder of Preserve Hudson Valley, a non-profit environmental group that also plans to mount a legal challenge to annexation. “They seem to think they can just build it and worry about the permits and the legal stuff later on.”
Poupore, Kiryas Joel’s spokesperson, said the village has taken posted documents relating to environmental review online.
“They have followed everything to the letter of the law and they’re not required to open its meetings,” he said.
Not true, said Orange County’s Neuhaus. Like every municipality in the state of New York meeting and minutes of meetings are public information and must be accessible.
“They have a lot of work to do regarding open government. They need to adhere to the open meetings laws,” he said.
Indeed, while Convers has visited Kiryas Joel to distribute leaflets and speak with residents, United Monroe hasn’t attended a KJ board meeting. Not for want of trying, she said.
“We’ve tried to go and look to see when they’re scheduled. We get there and the doors are locked and the lights are off,” she said.
Preserve Hudson Valley’s Cavanna said it has filed several Freedom of Information Act requests with Kiryas Joel. However, as frustrated and concerned about the annexation as Cavanna is, he said he’d rather it hadn’t come down to legal action.
“There’s a better way to do this. We’d love them [KJ] to come to the table. We’ve extended that olive branch,” Cavanna said. “We understand they have their culture but it’s not fair to just say we will do what we need to for the betterment of our culture to the detriment of others.”
Cavanna isn’t the only one championing dialogue. So does a Center for Governmental Research report that was commissioned by Orange County.
“Instead of settling these matters in the courts, Orange County leaders would better serve taxpayers by working to establish a climate in which growth can occur with the cooperation of municipal, county, regional and state agencies,” according to the report.
Nevertheless, dialogue between the two sides remains virtually nonexistent. And when public hearings in Monroe occurred they were ripe with rancor.
Even so, annexation opponents bristle at the notion that anti-Semitism is a factor in the dispute. While United Monroe’s Convers acknowledges that some social media commentary has been anti-Semitic, she said it’s small scale.
‘We’re talking about corrupt leaders who keep their citizens in the dark and that the leadership are serial violators of environmental laws’
“There are always fringe nuts who will say the stupidest things. But United Monroe is nothing about that. Nobody is doubting the beauty of the Satmar culture, nobody is arguing that they shouldn’t live their lives the way they want,” said United Monroe’s Convers. “The issues are that KJ operates under cover of darkness, we’re talking about corrupt leaders who keep their citizens in the dark and that the leadership are serial violators of environmental laws.”
As the case heads to court each side Orange County’s Neuhaus said litigation might result in something positive.
“I think one of the successes would be that Kiryas Joel gets more involved in the community. Another would be to get a roadmap to whatever expansion they are thinking of,” he said. “Both sides want to live here, they both care for their families and they have to learn to live next to each other and coexist. Far worse places in the world have done it, we can do it here.”
Background: it is a critique of Chabad seeking to put Tefillin on soldiers, or any Yidden who haven’t worn them on that day …
“I’m only saying this, because this [putting on tefillin] became a fad.
The frauds and the evil ones’ have attached themselves to this particular mitzvah to advertise to the world, “I’m wearing Tefillin.”
I don’t believe any of this [that this made anyone frum], and even if it should be true, …..
Shabsai Tzvi made Baalei Teshuves in the tens of thousands …
It is brought down from the books of Reb Yaakov M’emdin and others, that there were Jews that distributed their total wealth and went to Shul to learn and they said “Moshiach is already here” and they did Teshuvah!
I have to admit to liking a drop. Strangely however I’ve never been able to take part in the rather heavy “straight to the head on an empty stomach” that occurs on Shemini Atzeres during or before Hakofos. I don’t know why, but if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say I appreciate that people have been generous, but the “barn like” atmosphere affects half of me. the Brisker side, and not the Amshinover side. That’s speculation. I don’t really know. My disposition on Simchas Torah is laboured. I tend to look at the Sefer Torah and find it harder as I get older to muster Simcha because the older I get the more I realise that there is much more that I don’t know than I do know. I tend to stand, and look in a Sefer, and probably appears (unintentionally) pompous or remote. It’s my issue. I heard I nice vort today from Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Groner where he said the מחשבה … cognisant thinking are the same letters as בשמחה and that through מחשבה of good things as opposed to wallowing in one’s “I haven’t yet achieved where I should get to” one may get to בשמחה. This is of course quite consistent with modern-day psychology which exhorts parents et al to concentrate on the achievements and the good things. Likely, I am still affected by the hole in my life, that is my father, but should concentrate on the wonderful new additions of our four beautiful grandchildren כן ירבו בדרך התורה והמצווה על פי המסורה הקדושה.
The following two videos are presented in this blog as food for thought. I think there may be a part 3. I’m not sure. I will post it, if I see it.
and
Enjoy.
Personally I have a long way to go to get past “going through the motions”. When one is younger, especially returning from higher Yeshivah, one is convinced that they have the Torah. The Brisker influenced part of me, especially from the Rav, and then realising what an ant I am listening to HaGaon Rav Hershel Schachter שליט’’א, has turned me into something more sanguine. It’s not humbleness. It’s just reality. I can’t hide reality.
CHURCHES and religious organisations would lose millions of dollars in tax breaks, concessions and hand outs under a radical plan to force priests, rabbis and imams to sign up to a national faith register.
Under the bold proposal clergy would for the first time be forced to undergo government-specified training and security checks and would be monitored by a national body, or risk losing government funding.
Former premier Ted Baillieu has backed the plan that has been put to federal and state leaders including the Prime Minister’s office, and Premier Daniel Andrews.
It is understood a number of high-profile politicians have also privately backed the proposed reforms saying ministers of religion should be subject to more stringent compliance.
The proposals have been tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse amid concerns about the lack of scrutiny of some religious institutions.
The proposals would see clergy accredited in the same way as lawyers, doctors and teachers by an independent federal statutory body charged with registering all clergy for practice in Australia.
They would be subjected to government-specified training in Australian law, child sexual abuse, family violence, women’s rights, and children’s rights.
They would also be forced to renew a “licence” to practice annually, which would require meeting ongoing educational training requirements.
A complaint process through an independent third party would be setup for any complaints against any minister of religion.
Only accredited ministers would be entitled to current special tax benefits and exemptions afforded to religious practitioners.
And religious institutions would be required to employ only registered ministers or lose government funding.
Mr Baillieu, who launched a parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse while Premier, said a national code of conduct could also be introduced.
“I think there’s a strong case for ministers of religion to be regulated in the same way as workers in other professions,” Mr Baillieu said.
The plan also has the backing of leaders from Melbourne’s religious community.
Leading Melbourne Rabbi James Kennard said greater professionalism for clergy would bring great benefit to both the priests, rabbis, imams and others and to the congregations they serve.
“A key element of such a strategy would be for an independent and external body to grant registration to members of the clergy conditional on their adhering to a set of professional standards,” he said.
“To make the current tax benefits for clergy dependent on such registration is an idea that has much merit.”
A Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne spokesman said the church would have no trouble complying with a national faith register.
He said Catholic schools were already regulated, priests received seven years of training, and child protection education was non negotiable.
Bit of a silly comment from the Catholic Archdiocese. So you had seven years of training when you were 21 and that means that non yearly professional development is unnecessary. I think the wake up call for clergy all around the country, with the exception of Muslims and marriage of minors, has been well and truly brought into the spot light, and I can only see things getting better, both in educational terms and in terms of vigilance. We need to now look into Family Abuse and the things this can cause. That’s on our front pages, daily.
More importantly we have a band of merry men and women, who act as COUNSELLORS and I dare say some of them are recidivist abusers of varying nature. They do not come under any umbrella, and are in the perfect position to groom people who are not in the know and are vulnerable. It’s time for there to be a formal association for which counsellors have to answer questions of their own alleged abuse. Is it not?
I must admit not hearing about it, but it flew across my desk, and I feel it requires some comments. I reproduce it below, adding my comments.
And every day the world grabs you by the hand and says: “This is important” and “this is important.” “This is where you should be putting your energy” and “This is where you should be directing your priorities.”
No it is the Torah that yanks you by the hand and gives direction to your heart and your hands about what you prioritise and how
And every day you’ve got to yank your hand back and put it up against your heart and say – “No this is important, this is what really counts! I will be guided by my heart, directed by my principles, driven by my faith.”
Actually, it is Shulchan Aruch which does that. In the rare cases, where one doesn’t see how the Shulchan Aruch should direct him, man does not go to his heart, he goes to his Rav Hamuvhak, which in my case is Rav Schachter, Head Posek of the RCA, Rosh Kollel of YU, and Head Posek of the OU. Who is Rabbi Ginende’s Rav Hamuvhak? I am interested to know. I assume it’s not his heart.
Life isn’t just about getting the logic right although clarity of mind and clear thinking are of course critical. It’s about getting your heart and mind in synch.
Is this a Pasuk or a Seif in Shulchan Aruch? What came first, the chicken or the egg. I don’t get it. My heart sometimes tells me A, but Shulchan Aruch says B. The latter is based on logic and clear thinking. Which should I follow?
At the beginning of recorded history Noah stood up, built an ark despite the cynics and sceptics. He was a righteous man, (ish tzadik bedorotav – איש צדיק בדרתיו) a Tzadik for his time and generation.
The Rabbi has seemed to not mention that it took Noah hundreds of years to convince people of the impending flood. The people were depraved. They didn’t listen. Noah Miktanei Amono Hoyo Ma’amin. He believed in even those of little faith. His generation, though, was depraved and if not for this Hero, there would have been no Avraham or Sarah!
Ten generations later the first Jew, Abraham, burst onto the world scene. He too dared to be different.
Yet we are told he used his logic, not his heart. He considered the Buddha’s and idols and inane entities so ridiculous that he SMASHED them in his father’s house. Would Rabbi Genende’s heart allow him to SMASH these today?
He was called an עברי a Hebrew, someone who chose to live on the other side, the word עברי comes from עובר as in מעבר לים on the other bank; He wasn’t transgender but he was a trans-Jew!
Call him a Chabadnik. He went to any corner and opened every door to every Jew and indeed tried to convince the non believer to believe. Guess what? We don’t hear any more of those converted by Avraham and Sarah except that they might have been the Erev Rav? Why is that?
Both were heroes, but it’s Abraham that we are named after, that we remember today in our Torah reading.
We actually descend from Noah’s son Shem. His one depraved son Cham was condemned as a violent animal and the other one Yefes, was the man of political correctness
It’s Abraham not Noah who was the first Jew.
And without Noah, Abraham wouldn’t have existed. Why is that, Rabbi?
He is our founding father, our hero. Abraham isn’t remembered for an ark but for his tent, a flimsy fragile temporary structure open with entries in all directions like a Chuppah.
Source please: Where do we know it was flimsy and fragile? What is this allegory to the Chuppa? Is this poetic license being employed?
There are two ways, two approaches to the world – the way of Noah, the ark-method, building yourself a secure and sealed structure to protect yourself from the wild waves and violent storms out there: It’s a sensible path but one based more on logic of the mind than language of the heart.
There are two approaches that must be taken according to generation and circumstance. Sometimes we must be firm as per God’s command to Noah, and other times we need to enfranchise, but Avraham only did so according to the Sheva Mitzvos B’Nei Noach. Dear Rabbi, did you ever wonder why they aren’t called Sheva Mitzvos B’Nei Avraham? Avraham wasn’t teaching them about Eiruvin. He was teaching them about monotheism
Then there is the way of Abraham, the tent open to and welcoming the winds of change but firmly planted on the ground with a strong tent pole and pegs like a steady moral compass.
So you have gone from a flimsy tent to a strong one with a moral compass. Avraham was certainly known as Midas HaChesed. Are you going to condemn Yitzchak because he was Midas HaYirah? What is your poetic meaning to gentle openly orthodox Abraham ready to Shecht his only son?
An open tent, an open heart and an open mind. Abraham is the model of compassion, he pulls his hands back to his heart. He is a massive intellect but in the end we remember him not for his magnificent mind but his exquisite heart, his creative chesed.
Open Mind? Are you calling someone who goes into his Dad’s shop and elsewhere, and smashes every modern idol “an open mind with compassion”. Indeed he was. But, when it came to fundamentals, he didn’t dangle his toes in political correctness.
You can insulate yourself in an ark, oblivious to the world and its problems, protective of your own family and the property or you can open yourself to the world out there, embrace it, let it change you as you change it.
The kind of Judaism I believe in has always understood that you can’t stop the winds of change, but as Bob Dylan put it in Forever Young, you can ensure that you have a strong foundation, a firm tent, when the winds of change shift
Pray tell, who was the Rabbinic influence in your life that told you not to withstand the winds of change through the loving Mesora of our generations?
An open Orthodoxy as opposed to a closed one knows what it is to be a global Jew that the world’s problems are our problems that we can’t go on using our planets’ resources as if they were infinite.
Here Rabbi Genende needs to come clean. Is he a member of the Open Orthodoxy movement that embraces various unmasoretic principles and is rejected by the Rabbinic Council of America whose Posek was Rav Soloveitchik and whose Talmid Muvhak is without any doubt whatsoever Rav Hershel Schachter? The RCA has ruled that Open Orthodoxy are not to be admitted in the RCA. Tell us Rabbi Genende where are you in this equation?
We Aussies are almost as wasteful, reckless and feckless in our consumption of natural resources as the Americans. Our footprint is clumsy and large.
Our ingenuity and ability to correct the correctable is also famous.
Oscar Wilde’s acerbic retort could be applied to us – America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilisation between…
You see that as acerbic. Perhaps you should point to the current “infallible” Pope and his communist method of converting to Xtianity. His people slashed our chests with the cross in no less a barbaric way than D’aesh does with its opponents (or friends). That’s far more to the point than Oscar Wilde
We were given this earth לעבדה ולשמרה to work it
Interesting. Who was given that command? Abraham? Nope. His forebears, who you have placed as irrelevant to our times.
and protect and safeguard it for future generations (Genesis 2:15). So remember: Reduce, reuse, recycle and eat less red meat – it’s good for you and your planet.
What is a Rabbi doing telling us to eat less Red Meat? He knows he should eat Red Meat on Yom Tov, and wash it down with fine wine. He also knows that Korbanos were full of red meat. The jury is out on various diets and fads. Rabbis do have a duty to tell us what is not good for us. חמירא סכנתא מאיסורא but if one’s motive is to modernise, become a vegan?
And open Orthodoxy knows you can’t close the ark against the world’s most pressing global challenge today: The mass displacement of people, the greatest number of refugees since War World 2. All these dreadful images etched on to our collective minds, seared into our consciousness from the lifeless pitiful body of the 4 year old Syrian Kurdish boy Aylan Kurdi washed up on the beach in Turkey, to the chaotic scenes at the at the railway station in Hungary.
This is the only way? Closing the Ark? Rabbi Genende is often pictured with Muftis and Priests. I’d like to know whether he has asked them to take in their people. They have the space, the money and the resources to do so very quickly. Has he? Would he go on the public record as being critical of them for not advocating such? Perhaps he’s not aware of this
I would be taking that message to the tree huggers. I’d also point out this
They have sparked an intense, important and long overdue debate in Australia about our responsibility to respond to the cargoes of hapless people and to rethink our policies on asylum seekers.
I don’t know, the last I saw Labor was claiming that they stopped the boats, so is the Rabbi advocating for “Israel hating” Greens?
In Australia as across the world the people led the way and our government responded positively. I am heartened by the wave of compassion that has swept the world but the issues are complex, the problem growing and it’s going to take resilience and determination to sustain goodwill and not to suffer compassion fatigue. And to apply the same kind of compassion to those now stranded on Nauru or Manus Island. People of all faiths and ethnicities have to continue to make space for one another, to honour our shared humanity. Fail this and we will have failed one of the fundamental tests of humanity. Fail this and we have failed the command, “Love the stranger because you were once strangers” something close to Jewish hearts.
This is an incorrect translation and I will take it as poetic license to further Rabbi Genende’s political bent
Of course part of the complexity is that a large part of these refuges will be Muslim and while I’m afraid of and oppose a Muslim caliphate fear of all Muslims isn’t a defence. If we are not part of the solution in reaching out to moderate Muslims, of helping integrate Muslim refugees and migrants into our lifestyle and helping find a way to reach young disaffected Muslims, then we are part of the problem. Stereotyping Muslims is as bad as stereotyping Jews. We are after all the “People of the Book”, nuanced readers of reality.
Which part of Sharia is unclear? What percentage is required for you to give them credence. Try this
I draw strength from the leadership of the ICV, I draw strength from the young thoughtful Muslims I meet, from the young American Muslim leaders leading regular visits to the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem to learn about Zionism and Israel. They assure us it’s not too late; we can still stem the tide of Islamic anti-Israel sentiment and anti-Semitism. I pray they are correct because it’s going to take all the positive good-will and ingenuity we can muster.
You take their assurances. Just like Neville Chamberlain.
It’s easy to resort to black and white responses but that’s the way of Noah – you are in the Ark or you are outside.
Again the Rabbi seems to have missed the point. Noah was OUTSIDE his ark for hundreds of years more than he was in the ark. I dare say, he was more involved in ICV than the good Rabbi and for far longer. His generation, like ours, the Holocaust generation isn’t ready to have the wool pulled over our eyes by tree hugging political correctness manifestos.
That’s not the way of Abraham who from the beginning of his mission reached out to the world around him, converting and accepting his neighbours while remaining resolute in his pursuit of justice, compassion and righteousness.
Judaism since Avraham has always resisted the easy way – Just as we prefer a twisty Shofar, a כפוף to a straight one. Gimme a twisty curly shofar any time! Give me the long and winding road – a straight line may be the shortest path between two paths but it isn’t necessarily the best way between two moral poles.
Some more poetic esoterica? What has this to do with a Shofar. The best Bris Milah, which Avraham was the first to perform, was short and sharp, in the straightest line. Could you have used that line?
And being straight may be easy and comfortable but it doesn’t mean we reject Jews who aren’t straight but GLBTI.
Kindly define your terms. What does rejection mean? I’ve seen homosexuals getting Aliyos in plenty of Shules. They don’t walk in wearing a rainbow coloured Tallis nor should they need to advertise their proclivity. Do you want your congregants to come in with “I drove to Shule on Shabbos but my Rabbi still loves me” on their tee shirts or should they wear “I ate pork yesterday, but it’s okay, it was before Yom Kippur”. What the heck? What’s wrong with being like everyone else. I don’t ask people about their sexual proclivities especially in Shule. The only people I’ve heard talk about this are raucous ones, none of whom I actually know.
One of the fundamental challenges today is that of the inclusion of GLBTI individuals in the Jewish tent.
Really. A much BIGGER problem is People going off the Derech, Shabbos and Modern Orthodoxy, and the Shidduch Crisis and the need for Gimmicks in Shule to get people to come because their Jewish Education is vacuous and synagogue based. While I’m at it. Which authority allowed a Shule, your Shule Rabbi Genende to be transformed into a concert hall. Rav Soltoveitchik wouldn’t allow a Chuppa in a Shule because it was unbecoming to Kedushas Beis Haknesses!
Orthodox Judaism has always embraced the traditional and Biblically-based definition of marriage as that between a man and woman; and that homosexuality is forbidden. Does this mean that there is no place for the gay person in Jewish life or for the Orthodox gay couple in the Orthodox community? Is it only Adam and Eve? Is there any place for Adam and Steve?
It’s easy to say – “It’s against the Bible and Judaism, that’s it.”
But you’re comfortable with public shabbos desecration about which the concept of Tinok Shenishba has been well and truly debunked by Rav Asher Weiss in Minchas Asher, quite honestly and convincingly. Do you honestly think people haven’t learned or been denied the lessons of Shabbos. That doesn’t worry you, but Adam and Steve sitting together in Shule? What do I care. There is nothing forbidding it. However, there is al pi Shulchan Aruch, and I challenge you to debate this with me, an absolute prohibition of Yichud between Adam and Steve, as there is for Adam and Eve before they perform Kiddushin. And, as a matter of fact, there is no existential Kiddushin according to either Noah’s laws or Abraham’s laws in respect of Adam and Steve, or Jill and Gill.
It’s a lot harder to say that to a sincere gay individual, to your son who has come out or to your sister who is living in a gay relationship. It’s a fearsome challenge, because if homosexuality is genetically wired as overwhelming evidence suggests how can a caring God demand they go against their nature?
I’m sorry to point out to you that you will not understand God’s way, irrespective of which morality your heart adopts. Furthermore, Rabbi Genende, what would you say if there was some Gene Therapy developed in 10 years time which obviated this “carelessness” of God? God put it there. Would you advocate it’s use to repair the אנוסים?
Indeed it has been suggested that the verse may only apply if the individual is acting out of free choice not compulsion ( אונס).
And that’s not a gun at his head? Please quote your sources?
And we need to recognise the vulnerability of young gay individuals, to affirm their right not to be alone לא טוב היות אדם לבדו , not to be driven to despair and suicide, but to establish loving relationships even as we ask of them and their heterosexual peers to show restraint in the public expression of their sexuality.
Rabbi Soloveitchik understood that Pasuk very differently to you, and he had plenty of cases, just as “cruel” like the Cohen who wanted to marry the convert etc. But, Halachic Man is bound by the Meסorah, and I dare say, Rabbi Genende, so are you. This is what makes the flimsy tent not fly away.
I don’t know why God created us differently and why the Torah decreed homosexuality forbidden. But I do know that the reality of the 21st century is that there are GLBTI Jews, that there are practising Orthodox Jews living in same-sex relationships.
Oh boy, it’s only the 21st century that has publicised this effectively. It’s always been there. If it wasn’t why is one of the Sheva Mitzvos B’nei NOACH
I do know that Orthodox Jews don’t stone sinners today even if they are desecrating Shabbat or committing adultery. In our shule we don’t ask people if they ate the abominable (to’evah) shrimp cocktail or had their name on the Ashley Madison site before we give them an Aliyah.
There are very good reasons for that, and it has NOTHING to do with your Shule. But what are your reasons? Are they halachically based on הוכיח תוכיח את עמיתך or is it a matter of “heart or constitution”.
So who knows what the future holds? Being flippant I could remind you that in the certain states in the USA gay marriage and marijuana were legalised on the same day. After all, Leviticus 20:13: If a man lies with another man he should be stoned. We have just been interpreting it incorrectly all these years…
Fair enough, old joke but a good one
Being serious I would rather err on the side of compassion than be a religious warrior without compunction. I will leave it to God to judge who is right.
Why are you a Rabbi? What morality do you impart to the masses. Are you limited to those parts of Shulchan Aruch that “fit your heart?” I haven’t seen anyone beat up a gay person in any Orthodox Shule by words or even invocation. Why would they? I had a great moral dilemma, but I dare say, I went about it in a different way to you, Rabbi Genende. We had a pedophile on bail in our Shule. I was troubled by his presence, which should have been quiet in a corner awaiting his trial (personally, in his position I wouldn’t have been able to go to Shule, but I digress). I discussed it with the Rabbi and I sensed he found this a “too hard issue” like the one you are grappling with. I rang Rav Schachter, and he said to me immediately, that I had no right to even imply that the eventually convicted pedophile should not come to Shule. He had a CHIYUV to daven like any body else, however, he should be quietly spoken to and asked to come and leave quickly and make himself unobtrusive. Is he also someone you consider an אנוס Rabbi Genende, the DNA may even indicate it. What then?
There is a fascinating Talmudic discussion about whether women can blow the shofar. While the Halachik debate focuses on obligation and responsibility there is another debate going on in Orthodoxy today about inclusion, leadership and spiritual role models.
The debate is within Avi Weiss’s break away group. The RCA aren’t debating the role of Rabats, or whatever you want to call them. They are very clear and their statements freely available.
While the ultra-Orthodox’ s position is generally that Noah steers the ark and Mrs Noah doesn’t even have a name, the Open Orthodox position is look to Sarah. When Sarah fearlessly challenges Avraham and he appeals to God (like many a Jewish husband may be tempted to), God’s response is simple and unequivocal: כל האמר לך שרה תשמע בקולה – Whatever your wife says – goes! (Genesis 21:12)Listen to her voice!
And today across the Jewish world – especially in Israel and USA we are doing just that today. We are paying attention to the learned and thoughtful voices of religious women who are achieving the same and even superior levels of Jewish knowledge to their male counterparts.
And pray tell how you extend this Drush to a Siman in Shulchan Aruch, and which commentators? NON Ultra Orthodox (and here I do mean RCA) couples listen to their wives and Na’ama as the wife of Noach is known.
While the title these women deserve may be debatable – rabbi, rabbah, Maharat – they are taking on positions of religious leadership in shules across Israel, Canada and the USA.
Do me a favour. I have a cousin who is a Yoetzet Halacha. She knows Shas and Poskim very well. She is anti feminist, as was Rav Moshe Feinstein. When she needs she consults with Rav Henkin, who by the way doesn’t approve of Shira Chadasha. Do you approve of Shira Chadasha as Orthodox Rabbi Genende? Would you advocate it being a member of the RCV or whatever new group forms?
There is still a way to go; even YU (Yeshiva University) the bastion of Modern Orthdoxy is opposed to women being ordained in any form.
Really? YU are against Yoatzot? Where did you get that from?
In my mind the debate is not about Jewish law but the power to define and control the franchise of Orthodox Judaism, about women sharing the right to decide on our collective future! I look forward to welcoming these women into Australia and in our Shule, into positions of spiritual leadership.
Well, you’d be well aware of the Rambam on this issue, wouldn’t you. He was very forward thinking. Do you know his wife’s name? I’m sure you are aware that a (male) King can’t give testimony. Let’s seek equality here too?
They are our “Women of Gold” and a women’s reading of Torah and Halacha can surely only enrich and enliven Judaism for all of us.
We have had women Prime Ministers in Australia and Israel, women running for President of the USA, women occupying highest positions in society, from COO of Facebook Sheryl Sandberg to CEO of Yahoo Marissa Mayer and Susan Wojcicki of YouTube. Surely the time has come for us to embrace women leaders in our Orthodox shules and institutions…after all they will still remain safely behind the mechitza.
The challenge Orthodoxy faces today is will it focus on the small (and laudably) totally committed 10% of the Chareidi ultra Orthodox or will it reach out to the fractured, bleeding majority, the Jews who are marrying out and walking away. It will be judged in the 21 century by how it responds to these challenges. This is not just a challenge for the religiously committed but for you and me – do you want your grandchildren to be and stay Jewish? How and what kind of Jewish?
We’ve also had our Madonna’s and Bar Rafaeli’s and young Ms Clinton and all those who do no service to Jews or Israel. I guess you forgot them, and forgot that Tel Aviv is the capital of the LGBTI World Mardi gras. Can you tell us in plain language whether you are opposed to the holy city of Jerusalem featuring a “Pork eating rights March” or are you governed more by Western Sensibilities than Modern Orthodoxy.
When you open the doors like Abraham and Sarah you let in all kinds of influences, some sweet breezes and some toxic winds. It’s a dangerous path because you don’t always know who you are welcoming in and Lionel Trilling has warned if you become too open-minded your brains can fall out…
But I would take the tent of Abraham any day over the ark of Noah hermetically sealed and separated by high walls from the rest of society, from my fellow human beings.
So when the world comes pulling at me and says: “This is important and this is important” I will definitely and unequivocally pull back my hand, turn it to my heart and say: “No this is important, the kind of heart I have, the soul I am growing is one that is guided by the way of positive passion wider inclusion and recognition, driven by my unerring belief in the God and the truth of Torah of Israel and the rich values we continue to share with the world.”
So I will sow the winds driving through my tent with seeds of love and scatter on them our values of dignity and equality, freedom and family, community and connectedness.
I expect you meant sew. I said enough about this above, but I will remind you that the Torah doesn’t tell us what happened to all those people Abraham and Sarah converted. Did you ever wonder why?
I was discussing a topic at Shule concerning why I wasn’t a regular purchaser of Hamodia. He asked me what I didn’t like. I suggested that I always felt like I was reading Disneyland when I read Hamodia’s description of any living or departed “Gadol” from yesteryear. Sure, I’m known to be a cynic. That’s different from being cycnical per se and is probably the wrong word in context. Being a cynic is probably a precursor or post effect from being a scientist of sorts. I have found that I see or notice things some do not. That’s unlikely to be a brain thing, but rather a training thing. I’ve been taught for so many years to dissect each word and scrutinise what’s written it’s invaded by mode of processing information. It’s a good invasion.
Consequently, when I read all the incredible stories about Great Rabonim and the occasional Rebbetzin? I am left with a feeling that “between the lines” there is much missing. What is missing? For me, it is the struggles, the emotions, the human side: the good and triumphant verses the struggles which weren’t always triumphant. I feel cheated. I know, as we all do, that there isn’t a family with a closet hidden and where some skeleton hangs proverbially. With Hamodia I am being treated with a menu of historiography and/or not well researched history. This extends way beyond Hamodia itself. Why, the (not so Holy) Artscroll translation decided they had jursidiction over the words of Rashi’s eynikel, the great Rishon, the Rashbam of the early 1000’s and chose to omit various things he “said wrong” or “should be hidden today”. No doubt, that was with permission of a “Choshuve” Rov or three, but I still don’t buy it. To me this consititites Olam HaSheker, the world of lies. Lies by commission and sometimes commission. He, a Gerrer Chossid, opined that he could see nothing wrong with positivity as motivating force. I took his point, but countered that unlike former times, one simple can no longer escape the “real world”. If a child/talmid is imbued with brains and if they are also pursuers of truth and rigor, I think that the “world would come down” on such and they may cease to believe or start to doubt. They then separate into two types:
those that go through all the motions even with all the chumros, but deep down because they have felt they have been lied to, no longer believe anything . Social, Economic and other pressures make it too hard for them to break away
those who have either experienced a bad incident or whose mind is too fertile to ignore the truth when they eventually discover it, either through interaction with a library, the internet, work and plain life and choose to leave the world of their parents and are banished and shamed as a result.
I’m reminded of a story which Mr Sperling of Elwood Shule used to tell me every Yom Kippur (in the days when Elwood had characters). In Yiddish he would relay how his father was very frum but his sons ranged in their frumkeit. One brother was completely not religious and was a card carrying member of the Communist party. This was not as uncommon as many people would have you believe. Yet, on Kol Nidrei night he had respect for his father and stood with all his brothers alongside their father. When the Chazan genuinely started saying (no choirs, organs, guitars and all the shticks people use today) Or Zarua LaTzadik אור זרוע לצדיק the communist boy’s leg went into an incontrollable shake. Mr Sperling used to rib him in the elbow each year and say “Nu, so you discovered God one night each year and you tzittered (trembled with awe) because your let always gives it away”.
To be sure, choosing what to expose one’s kids to it’s a delicate balancing act. It is one each parent and School considers. There are extremes and middle grounds and hilly grounds. There are a number of Schools that censure text books or story books or censor these in part. Do they think that the kids don’t notice glued pages or redacted texta? They do, and in many cases it makes them want to see the original so they know. People have a thirst for knowledge. The key is to quench the thirst in a meaningful way. Does anyone believe all the non Jewish books in the famous Lubavitch library fell in by carrier pigeon?
Defining what a “meaningful way” is complex. To give a comparison: It isn’t meaningful for anyone to give lower precedence to Tzniyis, be it for a male or female. At the same time, when one introduces laws (especially for women) that make them uncomfortably hot on a summer’s day, one really is using up מסירות נפש for the secondary, and not the primary. I’m not of course suggesting they prance barefoot in the gardens in white on Tu B’Av (would any Rav allow that today?) watched on by potential suitors. Yes, males and females should keep the עיקרים of Tzniyus. In terms of חומרות however, it is a very brave person who can pretend that their entire Kehilla are בעלי נפש people who are quietly and surreptitiously מחמיר on themselves across the gamut of Torah.
ָAnother example: we’ve over focussed on the claim that there can be nothing can be good in secular studies (unless you make a quick buck thereafter). This is simply untrue. Many of the greatest Rishonim and Acharonim disagreed. So you will say, yes, but that’s because they were on a Madrega, and we are not. I will counter that aside from the study of philosophy, where one would really need to be a learned בעל מדריגה if they were to cope with it, most University studies actually perform the side effect which allows one to see just how much צלם אלוקים they own. It is almost a פרוזדור to the real world, but one where you are learning as opposed to being bossed and working for someone else. You aren’t about to encounter כפירה if you study accountancy, computer science, law, medicine, architecture, mathematics, and much more. And if your bent is biology and those sciences, you would do well to be well acquainted with Rabbi Natan Slifkin’s books, as well as his interlocutor Rav Moshe Meisselman, beforehand. You will be equipped. I’ve seen kids grow in their Yiddishkeit בדווקה because they are exposed to the חושך and are much more able to discern the אור and radiate within it and grow.
I remember the days when just about every Adass graduate who didn’t join their father’s business, went to Prahran Tech (as it was then known). It was normal. They used a short series of English names: George and Peter made up over 50% of them. (I will never understand how Hungarian Adassniks of yesteryear and today chose Peter of all names!). I think that was the Adass of the Germans and Oberlanders. Today it’s the world of Chassidim.
It is with this that I come to Rav Ya’akov Emden who is universally acclaimed as an outstanding Talmid Chacham. The son of the famed Chacham Tzvi, he didn’t need to even come second to his father. His entire mantra was truth which is why a healthy dose of skepticism had him at loggerheads with R’ Yonasan Eybesheutz. Most will never be told that he wrote an auto-biography. That of itself tells you lots about the man and that he did what he thought was right; not what others were doing “as right”. That Sefer is known as Megilas Sefer. I believe there have been three editions. Why so many editions? Of course, the answer is that people “greater and holier” than Rav Ya’akov Emden censored the Ya’avetz (as he is known) because “it was the right thing to do” and never allowed the whole thing to be printed.
I mentioned it a while ago in a learning hall and one צורבא דרבנן contacted me privately and asked if he could borrow my new english translation. I left it for him to pick up, and I assume he will read it and eventually give it back. Alas, many of my Seforim go walk about because I rely on a faulty memory and end up blaming myself for misplacing.
I got so much out of that Sefer as well as the banned (shock horror) “Making of a Gadol” by the Rosh Yeshivah Harav Noson Kaminestsky as relayed to him by his own father the famed R’ Ya’akov Kaminetzky. (By the way R’ Ya’akov was actually related to very well-known Chassidim from Chabad, and there is a famous picture I had which I can’t put my finger on, with him an Rav Mendel Futerfass and I forget the third)
Why do I write on this topic? Well, we have the “going off the Derech phenomenon”. I’ve read at least one wonderful book on that topic. I don’t believe that the problem is with the kids. The problem is with us. How much אמת do we exude, and when we do, how much אמת do we hide when we don’t allow them to also see חכמה בגויים תאמין. There isn’t one answer. There is a multifaceted approach, and its starts with every kid. They see our faults and they see what’s important to us. Their respect for us and יהדות stems largely from this.
I’m reminded of a story, when then Prime Minister Begin used to come to the USA he visited the Rav, HaRav Yosef Dov Halevi Soltoveitchik (warning: anyone who calls him JB (especially Lubavitchers) don’t say it near me because I will give you a severe tongue lashing) because Begin’s father was R’ Chaim Brisker’s Shamash (some will try to change this fact, of course). Once Begin felt he wanted to discuss world politics and bounce his views off the Rav. He emerged from his meeting of an hour shaking his head. They asked him “how was the meeting” and he said “this man deeply knows as much if not more about Israeli and American politics than I did”. The Talmidim asked the Rav how he knew such things. He answered that the prime lesson he learned from his Zayda, R’ Chaim Brisker, and his father R’ Moshe, was: reading the lines of anything be it a Rambam or a mere newspaper, was only half the work. One had to work out the line that was missing that wasn’t written. Consequently, when he read the paper, the Rav used to intuit that which was purposeful elided by reporters and editors and then work out why, and based on this and his genius, develop a view on what the Emes really was.
And here we are today: we have picture books for kids with Moshe Rabenu dressed like someone from B’Nei Brak. What narishkeit is that? Do you think Moshe Rabenu wore boots? I’d say he didn’t. Do you think he wore a turban like hat. I’d say he did. How many people (aside from poosteh Mizrachi) do you see in B’Nei Brak wearing sandals? No, it’s strictly forbidden. It’s an almost יהרג ואל יעבור
That reminds me of another story. In the days I went to Bombay, Rav Gavriel Holtzberg הי’’ד had one of those questions. None of the remaining Iraqi Jews were Cohanim, and the Bene Yisrael had no Cohanim (especially if you believe they came from another lost tribe). In fact there were no Leviim either. One day, there was an Israeli guy, frum, who was a Cohen (I often had to Duchen on Shabbos and learned the Baghdadi chant by imitating the B’aal Tefilla). The Israeli took of his sandals and the oldest Baghdadi Jew took offence, saying how can one Duchen in bare feet. There was a back and forth, and this Baghdadi Jew who was normally very quiet (he has passed on now, and I have fond memories of his Middos) said they should not have Bircas Cohanim if the Cohen wasn’t wearing socks. Rav Gavriel in a stroke of genius suggested that the Baghdadi Jew give the Israeli Cohen his own socks and the problem would be solved. I will leave the rest to your imagination.
We’ve been taken in by the פרט or purposely erased it.
Check out this article. While we have the politically correct, Orthodox incorrect group of “Rabbis” or whatever pseudonym they want to be called (I specifically exclude the anti-feminist Yoatzot Halacha who don’t seek non Jewish politically correct equality), we now have a non Jewish court in Portland Oregon telling us who can say what and who is what. Mind spinning.
A Female Rabbi? Just Don’t Call Her That
7 SEPT 27, 2015 11:00 AM EDT
By Noah Feldman
Is what you tell the rabbi’s wife a secret that she can’t be required to reveal in court? The Haredi Jewish newspaper Yated Ne’eman has reported on a fascinating decision by a judge in Portland, Oregon, holding that the answer is yes.
The twist is that the women who successfully asserted the privilege were members of a branch of Orthodox Judaism known as “yeshivish,” which staunchly denies that women can be rabbis or even rabbinic advisers. Their argument was that the rabbi’s wife is, practically speaking, a kind of adjunct clergywoman in whom female members of the community confide in the expectation of privacy.
The judge’s decision required weighing informal norms against official doctrine. It raises many questions, including whether, very much against the intentions of these rabbis’ wives, the decision might mark a step toward the eventual acceptance of female rabbis within orthodoxy.
The issue arose in the course of a divorce proceeding. The husband subpoenaed the testimony of two women, each of whom was married to a rabbi. Their husbands weren’t ordinary congregational rabbis employed by a synagogue to teach and perform pastoral work. They were employees of the Portland Kollel, an organization funded by national donors in which rabbis teach and study Torah as a form of educational and social outreach.
The kollel phenomenon is itself part of the changing face of American Judaism, especially orthodoxy. For most of the 20th century, religiously observant Jews in America, like other affiliated Jews, organized their religious lives around synagogues and sometimes children’s schools. Over the last several decades, however, an increasingly large number of Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, Jews have formed their affiliations around yeshivas, the traditional Talmudic academies where adults study classical Jewish legal sources. The phenomenon has given rise to a new term, yeshivish, which describes a class of Orthodox Jews who see the yeshiva and the full-time study of Torah as the center of their spirituality.
The Portland Kollel, like others around the country, is an outpost of yeshivish Judaism. Its rabbis study on their own, but they also intend to attract unaffiliated or non-Orthodox Jews to their way of life. In this explicit goal, the kollels owe much to the outreach of Chabad Hasidism, as pioneered by the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
The sociological details help explain why the rabbis’ wives in Portland identified themselves as “rebbetzins,” the Yiddish word for a communal rabbi’s wife, not simply as women who happened to be married to men who happened to be qualified as rabbis. In the kollel, as in Chabad missions, the rabbi’s wife often serves as the outreach point for women — a logical model in a community that insists on separation of the sexes.
Given this context, the judge was probably right to treat the rebbetzins as clergy for purposes of the privilege against testifying. They would certainly have provided counseling and advice in much the same way their husbands might have done for men — indeed it’s possible they did more counseling than the rabbis, who tend to focus on teaching.
When the women asserted the privilege of clergy, they were apparently unworried about validating the ideal of female rabbis, which yeshivish Jews unqualifiedly reject. From their perspective, the role of a rebbetzin was clearly not that of a rabbi, and the state of Oregon’s clergy protection has no implications for their religious beliefs.
Yet in the world beyond the yeshivish, the question of female rabbis within orthodoxy is hotly contested. Yeshivat Maharat in New York recently became the first self-described Orthodox yeshiva ordaining women to the serve as clergy. To avoid violating Orthodox sensibilities, the yeshiva doesn’t calls its graduates rabbis, but it trains them in the same way Orthodox rabbis are trained at peer institutions that describe themselves as “open Orthodox.”
Unsurprisingly, more religiously conservative authorities have condemned Yeshivat Maharat, as indeed they’ve condemned open Orthodoxy. But more liberally minded Orthodox congregations and schools have employed its students and graduates. The struggle over women as clergy is thus on the way to becoming a definitional one within American Jewish orthodoxy.
Will the Oregon court’s decision affect that struggle? It won’t change the minds of yeshivish Jews. But the decision will be used by advocates of Orthodox Jewish female clergy to support the argument that contemporary Judaism demands that women play a significant, visible, formalized role in the Orthodox community.
The Portland rebbetzins do in fact show that women play a central part in contemporary yeshivish Judaism, especially when the goal is outreach to the broader Jewish world. In practice, the women are acting as clergy of a sort.
What divides the yeshivish community from open Orthodoxy is the latter’s willingness to formalize women’s leadership roles within the framework provided by traditional Jewish law. The goal of formalized equality is identifiably contemporary and American. The more the yeshivish world reaches out to contemporary American Jews, the more it will encounter the imperative to formalize. This is a new challenge for the movement — but as perhaps the fastest growing strand of American Judaism, it has the resources to address it.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
To contact the author of this story:
Noah Feldman at nfeldman7@bloomberg.net
This statement most certainly includes me. When writing my blog posts, I’ve occasionally unintentionally upset someone or have been misunderstood given the fact that perhaps I unwisely tend not to spend too much time actually writing my posts or proof-reading them.
Sometimes people send me a private email, and I act on it. Other times they send me a fake comment and when I try to reply, it bounces because there is no such address. Given that it’s Erev Yom Kippur, if there is a current or past post that you feel is unfair or has stepped over a halachic boundary, I ask you sincerely to email me, and most certainly, if it is a real email address and doesn’t bounce, I will reply accordingly.
I chanced across a comment about two? years ago where someone said I had it in for Rav Beck of Adass. Let me be very clear. Rav Beck is a holy man, a Yirei Shomayim, who has never done anything to me and I do not seek to belittle him in any way. I do have differences between the views of my Rabonim and his Shita on some things, and I do not resile for those. That should not be confused with a “personal vendetta” which I think I saw someone on the internet describe it.
So, for the sake of the record I will state those things (some of which also apply to Satmar, Toldos Aron and various other extreme groups within Adass)
I utterly and completely condemn their approach to the state of the Israel, and consider Veyoel Moshe, not Halacha and not LeMaaseh and it has been taken apart as a Sefer many times by people more learned than I. It’s also just reminded me of a story:
In the early days, Rav Kook זצ’’ל was the then Chief Rabbi, and he was informed that there were some Jewish Builders working on Rosh Hashono. What did he do? He didn’t send people to scream at them and throw stones at them etc This were before the State came to be. He immediately called his Shamash and a few others and instructed them to go to the building site, and blow the mandatory number of notes of the Shofar with a Brocha to be Motzi the Builders. The builders were bewildered. They asked who are these people. They were told these are the direct emissaries of the Chief Rabbi, the Holy Tzadik, Rav Kook. They asked what are they doing here on Rosh Hashono. They were told that Rav Kook has personally requested that they be given the opportunity to share in the Mitzvah of Tekias Shofar. The Builders were bewildered but stayed silent. They put down their tools. The Shofar was blown. Rav Kook’s emissaries then quietly left the building site and returned to Rav Kook. What transpired was the approach that I subscribe to. The builders were overcome. The sound of the Shofar and the care and indirect admonition of Rav Kook left them in a state of shock. They downed their tools, went home, and many of them apparently changed clothes and attended Shule.
I utterly condemn anyone who quietly visits and stays in contact with his brother Moshe Ber Beck. For those who don’t know this is the “personage” who went and continues to kiss Arafar, Ahmadinejad and all שונאי ישראל and give us the “problem” of we aren’t against Jews (like moshe ber beck) just Zionists. Well everyone should answer them truthfully. EVERY Jew is a Zionist. Every Jew believes that the Land of Israel is the Land of Jews. Some might differ with timing and method, but we pray this three times a day and more. Don’t anyone ever fall for the trick that a Jew is not a Zionist. EVERY JEW IS A ZIONIST. There is no need to go into Rashi and Tosfos on when, how, etc. To the שונאי ישראל there is NO difference. All you are doing is giving them hate fodder.
I utterly condemn and person who fails to alert authorities about a danger in our midst (e.g. a pedophile, a wife basher etc)
I utterly condemn anyone who on the basis that somebody reports such a danger, discriminates against such people. We must encourage those affected to get all the help they need to cope with what in some cases is a life long struggle.
I utterly condemn the infamous blog authored by Scott Rosenberg which is spite filled hate for Torah.
That being said, I am sure I have made someone unhappy and may have crossed a line in one of my many posts. If so, please feel free to email me personally or if you like write a comment and I won’t publish the comment.If on reflection (and I will reflect) I will apologise one way or another,
My blog posts are there mainly to help me. They are therapeutic. I write what’s on my mind, and I also have an outlet to spread Torah. At all times I try to be fair, but I far from perfect. If you are unhappy and don’t tell me some way (even write me a hand written letter and drop in my letter box) please do so. My email address is very easy to find i s a a c @ B A L B dot IN … just don’t send to my RMIT address as I am on leave at the moment and not reading those emails.
Wishing EVERYONE כתיבה וחתימה טובה בברכת כהן מוחזק
May all your Tefillos go straight to where they have to, and be successful, and may we all be Zoche to שופר גדול לחירותנו
Rabbi Benny Lau, a cousin of the more famous Lau family, has written an article in the Jerusalem Post which has two glaringly obvious errors.
a) He claims that if a person has a Gay sexual proclivity that this person has no free choice. This is arrant nonsense. The Rambam opens up with people who have “tendencies” inborn and what they should do about them. Never does he claim they have no choice. He suggests didn’t activities.
b) Proclivity does not mean imperative. They are different words with different meanings
c) The Shulchan Aruch clearly PROHIBITS Yichud between two men where there is a high chance of hanky panky. I do not understand how Rabbi Lau didn’t folliow Shulchan Aruch when he proposed “Couple Partnerships” – the Clayton’s Marriage. Does he not see this is Lifnei Iver or Mesayeah L’idvar Aveyroh as well.
d) I do agree that these people should not be subject to any ridicule. At the same time they invite such by forming cloisters which are only for the LGBT movement. I have no problem with Gay people. They are Jews like everyone else.
Rabbi Lau tries to be all things to all people. He ends up not playing the role of Rabbi, populist or commentator. He strikes me as a man torn.
To refresh memories, this unfortunate 16 year old girl was murdered because she attended a rally. It is true that the rally’s agenda was against the ethic and laws of the Torah, without any question. This is to my knowledge the position of all Orthodox Movements. I would imagine the more right-wing Conservative and Conservadox movements (such as Shira Chadasha) also share this view. Reform of course don’t believe the Torah was the word of God, dictated to Moshe, let alone the primacy of Mesora through Tannoim, Amoraim, Geonim, Rishonim and now Acharonim so it’s undoubtedly not an issue for them.
Shira Banky attended the rally to support the views of a friend. She was 16. I might not agree with Shira’s views and condemn those views with vigour, but the minute feelings translate to violence and in this case an unnecessary murder which created nothing more than more hatred for Orthodoxy, especially Ultra Orthodoxy is there anything more that Orthodox Jews can do to palpably show their distance from despicable murder which is not only against the laws of Israel, they are against the laws of the Torah. Her murderer, Mr Shlissel, is a recidivist. In my view, he should never be released and treated in a home for psychopaths. Apparently a number of Shules have performed the following to express their revulsion at murder “in the name of God”
My thanks to R’ Meir Deutsch for drawing this to my attention. Wouldn’t it be a great expression of regret if every Shule in Melbourne did the same? I call on the RCV to recommend such an action. The picture says it all.
Removed immediately at the request of the poor girl who had to suffer this HELL
I was SO incensed by the lies revealed by the judge from so called frum yidden, that I initially just cut and pasted. That was a mistake; poor judgement due to my disgust at the “Klei Kodesh” and the “Askonim” and then forgetting there was a name in there as well. If Rabbi Telsner resigned, there are PLENTY at Adass/Beis HaTalmud who should also resign immediately. They won’t, is my bet. To think there are schools who have “teachers” who aren’t registered with VIT is outrageous. This is not the 1700’s and neither are the kids from that era. Get your qualifications and THEN teach. There is more to it than translating Chumash and Rashi. If you don’t like it, go to Israel, the country you love to hate. And how do they get around דינא דמלכותא דינא here in Australia? Through lies and games?
Thanks to those who noted what I had missed in my haste and alerting me.
It’s not just the anti-Jewish News otherwise known as the AJN that is guilty of poor journalism. I won’t expand on that.
What I will say is the following (and these are my personal views)
Rabbi Telsner is highly versed in Torah
Rabbi Telsner and his wife have worked tirelessly often behind the scenes to help anyone in a rut
Rabbi Telsner and his wife have a home which supports people who don’t have a place to sleep or eat, any time any day
Rabbi Telsner and his wife have no car, and walk by foot to perform outstanding pastoral care at all times of the day and night
Rabbi Telsner was born to be either a Rosh Yeshivah or Rosh Kollel, I am not sure why he didn’t go down those lines.
Rabbi Telsner is NOT the Rabbi of the Shule. He was appointed as a Dayan (Judge). I don’t know the Beth Din, but that’s the title.
There are many Shules at the Yeshivah Centre. In fact the main one probably has one of the smaller attendances. His approach isn’t followed uniformly by any stretch.
Rabbi Telsner is an emotional man, He cares.
Rabbi Telsner cries at the drop of a hat when he talks about things affecting the community, Jewry, or about his father in law
Rabbi Telsner is not a diplomat
Rabbi Telsner is not a politician
Rabbi Telsner is not a singing and dancing pulpit Rabbi.
Rabbi Telsner gives a good shiur but is not what one would call an orator of note.
Rabbi Telsner is prone to old-fashioned responses to halachic issues. The Responsa literature makes him look mild* in comparison. The AJN wouldn’t know what Responsa are. That’s too Jewish for the AJN.
Rabbi Telsner is fully devoted to Torah and Mitzvos. The notion of a Chilul Hashem made him resign. I have no doubt whatsoever. He put himself second, and the Yeshivah first.
Rabbi Telsner is a Meshichist who believes that the Lubavitcher Rebbe of blessed memory is the only person who can redeem Jews as the Messiah
Rabbi Telsner hasn’t got a bad bone in his body. He sometimes shoots back too quickly before an extra moment of contemplation would be better advised. I suffer from the same.
Rabbi Telsner protects the rights of women with vigour.
Rabbi Telsner cares about Jews and Judaism with enormous passion
Rabbi Telsner over-worried that some people might succeed in destroying the Yeshiva Centre. Those people cannot and will not. They do have their legitimate issues, and those will and should be dealt with. Some may have already. Others need to be. The centre will flourish once more. There is no doubt whatsoever.
Rabbi Telsner is often misunderstood because he is goaded by those who know he can be goaded
I have goaded Rabbi Telsner on Halachic issues and he has yelled and screamed at me in Shule. I don’t get offended. I’m not thin-skinned and I know where he comes from. He screams Torah, but some take it as insults.
Rabbi Telsner and his wife have done more than plenty of good. I doubt many Rabbis in Melbourne have the open home that they do. He doesn’t quote Plato or fancy poets: his is the Torah only way. It’s an approach. It may not be everyone’s approach, but I’d be embarrassed if my Rabbi quoted more poets and philosophers than he did real Torah.
There is, to my knowledge, zero evidence that has been tendered that Rabbi Telsner sent Malka Leifer away (as the AJN wrote). The courts may decide how that happened, but I don’t believe Rabbi Telsner opined that she should be sent away. The AJN of course knows better.
Rabbi Telsner has always supported women’s activities and shiurim and ensured they are accorded respect through their own functions at Yeshivah mirroring ones which in the past were just the domain of males.
It is not a sin to hold a view that same gender preference is something that may be addressed (successfully or otherwise). There are a few respected experts in the field who do have such a view under particular conditions and have a PhD and peer-reviewed papers in the area, including people who see them. One can disagree with such approaches, but one can’t condemn a person for subscribing to such (unless they are Fascists or Communists who condemn discourse and dialogue and want to shut up everyone’s mouth). Only a fool thinks that advances in Science and Medicine are frozen in 2015.
Rabbi Telsner should have a special Kiddush thanking him for the many fantastic things that he has achieved, and for putting himself second when he could easily have revealed some troubling things in context.
On the matter of the sharpness of Rabbinic tongues, check this out from a great of the greats, Rav Yaakov Emden. He would have been sacked in a minute!
“One time I heard a learned chazzan who wanted to show off the great precision with which he led the prayers. When he reached the blessing of ‘Hashkiveinu’ he said ‘shemor tzei’atecha‘ (meaning ‘your excrement’ instead of ‘your travels’). I said to him, ‘You watch over what comes out of your mouth, and ‘go back and cover your excrement’ [Devarim 23:14].“
He has made a few mistakes, and it makes interesting reading seeing the different reports from the Age Newspaper versus the Sun. They obviously have different sources whispering in their ears. The anti-Jewish News will have the story just in time to splash on the front page and triumphantly blow its horn as the harbinger of morality (sic).
The Yeshivah Centre is undergoing change, no doubt. However, I’m not going to say any thing on the Rabbi Telsner issue because if I do, some will certainly misunderstand my words and it will make no different how I state them.
I am sure Rabbi Telsner has learned from this, and will contribute in a way using the gifts God gave him.
Rabbi Telsner is a card carrying Meshichist, as is his brother in law, R’ Chaim Tzvi Groner. There is no place in a Shule for screaming signs that no longer belong. There is no Mesora for placards in Shules, and it’s also a failure of Maimonides 13 principles of faith which clearly imply that we believe in Mashiach coming. Mashiach is a term for someone God chooses, it is not a euphemism for one and only one holy person in the Garden of Eden. Denying God this choice is in my opinion Kefirah. Meshichisten will not, cannot, and do not believe it is remotely possible for God to decide whomsoever He chooses from the physically living. That is pretty close to Kefirah. It is also a pseudo Kefirah for them to even entertain that there may well be someone else chosen because they won’t appear as a loyal Lubavitcher.
As for me, as I have said many times I couldn’t care less who it is. Eliyahu HaNavi will tell us.
Yeshivah has lurched to the right. It needs to bounce back to the centre and concentrate on quality education. It cannot afford to be a front for a Mesivta. There is obviously a need for a Mesivta. Let them find premises and build themselves on certain backers finances. The School itself needs to stress the qualities unique in Chabad, and there are many. Let the students be known for being fine examples of the Midos that are imparted by this philosophy. By all means it needs to stay a Chabad school, but one grounded in the realities of Melbourne. Failing that it should stop marketing itself as a community school.
Ironically, the School failed dismally to effectively educate Russian immigrants, years ago, and no longer does it serve many who are not religious. That’s their raison detre!
Too many New Yorkers have infiltrated and married in and tried to turn it into a fancier version of Oholei Torah in Brooklyn. Bad mistake. This is not New York.
I think it’s also time to pull down the rather pointless Yechi sign at the back of the Shule. Those who feel the need to scream this message to the world can bounce on the corner of the street, or wear a yarmulka (which they can’t then wear in a bathroom) wave yellow flags, wear cheap badges and all manner of paraphernalia not mentioned in Shulchan Aruch.
It does turn people off, and I include people from outside the Yeshivah centre. Those who really want to experience that type of experience can just go down the road to Dudu Leider’s Israeli Chabad house. They will love it. I’m told they chant Yechi more times than Shma Yisroel, over there, by a factor of 100.
Most kids are only too quick to grab the Yerusha (inheritance) from their parent(s). It’s not a Mtizvah to do so, but if you do, then you must give Tzedaka from it (that’s a Mitzvah).
They take Shiva (SEVEN days) and convert it to one minyan or two. That’s not seven days mourning. Don’t worry, they will take seven or six or five figure inheritance without asking the Rabbi much quicker. It’s just “too much” to sit for seven days and mourn the loss of a parent etc
With this in mind, I noticed the Jewish News had an advertisement stating it was a MITZVAH to say Kaddish. I’m not learned, but I don’t know of any Mitzvah to say Kaddish. It’s a well known Minhag to say it at least once a day. I don’t like the idea of taking money for Kaddish when that doesn’t also include trying to educate and carry out the idea that Shiva and Shloshim are Halochos Beruros (clear Mitzvah) and teach these. Earn your money.
Perhaps this is an old-fashioned approach, it needs to be a less opportunistic “chasing coffin” exercise and actually involve doing something about teaching people the Jewish way in Death and Mourning. It’s a Dying Minhag, unfortunately. “Give a few dollars to someone to say Kaddish” and all is good.
Oh yeah, Minhag Yisroel, Din. You can do better than that.
from JEM and collide
(c) Jewish Journal
pitputim 
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