A Frum Off the Derech?

I offer you two simple lines:

Speaker at the siyum haShas: "Torah study isn't just another mitzvah."  - Reform Judaism? Antinomianism? Do we not value mitzvot anymore?

"Everything else in the world is imaginary." - Hinduism? Hashem didn't make a real world where our actions matter? When I was in India I become quite upset by how the Indians ignored all the poor street kids running around in their filth and bare feet. "It's all imaginary," my Indian coworkers assured me. That's how they view the world. It's an illusion so pain isn't really pain, injustice isn't really injustice. Your job is to see how it's imaginary. That's what they'll tell you.

But such are the ways of antinomian outlooks. Torah is different. The Lord is One means that He is not divorced from the world. Rather He cares about it and runs it. Just as He is involved with the world so should we be. We just channel our actions through mitzvot that all. All mitzvot are wonderful. Torah study is one of them. Rabbi Joseph Solvoeitchik explained the meaning of "Talmud Torah c'neged culam" is meaning that Torah study connects you to the other mitzvot by teaching you about them.

Beautiful Thought from Tim Tebow

"I believe everything happens for a reason. I don't know what my future holds, but I know who holds my future and in that there is a lot of peace and a lot of comfort."


http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_/id/8865345/tim-tebow-forced-new-york-jets-owner-woody-johnson-ted-sundquist-says

ALL the Mitzvot

Wandering between two worlds, one dead

The other powerless to be born,
With nowhere yet to rest my head

Like these, on earth I wait forlorn.

     Matthew Arnold

In our times, we are divided into groups, maybe as never before. Each group has mitzvot it keeps, those it ignores, and those it rejects. Some ignore tzniut, staying away from the gentiles in their negative ways, seriousness of demeanor, kedushah, marrying young, and dressing with dignity. Some ignore humility, greeting people with a smile, compassion and compassion for all of God's creatures, betzelem elokim in the sense of respect for people's individual minds as God created them, stumbling block in the sense of not giving people bad advice, bearing grudges, and using the seichel. I don't accuse everyone of course just widening swaths of the groups.

Increasingly the right is giving all the impression that Torah study is the only mitzvah. There are 613 mitzvahs. We need them all to become complete people.

Across the Spectrum: Nahum Rabinovich

Nahum Eliezer Rabinovich (born 1928) is a prominent Israeli Orthodox rabbi and posek, and head of Yeshivat Birkat Moshe in Maale Adumim. Rabinovich began studying with Rabbi Pinchas Hirschsprung at age 14. At age 20, he studied in Yeshivas Ner Israel, Baltimore, where he received Semicha from Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman. He also obtained a masters degree in mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. In 1951 he married Rachel Malka Shuchatowitz, the niece of Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman. (Wikipedia)

Text and Tradition Entry by Gidon Rothstein  
"he has written extensively, in particular his 14 volume יד פשוטה on Rambam’s Mishneh Torah.  What makes שיח נחום stand out for me is that it gives us a sense of how he, as a rabbi and posek, approaches halachic issues, not only how he goes about interpreting and understanding others’ works. And that sense is extraordinarily pleasant, since it shows us a man in control of significant swaths of Rabbinic literature, who operates with the substance, tone, and tenor of traditional sources to seek their most proper application to the pressures of everyday life. "

on youtube  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoLASlOVCwo

Accross the Spectrum: Yaakov Ariel

Yaakov Ariel

Rabbi Yaakov Ariel (Hebrew: יעקב אריאל) is the chief rabbi of the city of Ramat Gan, Israel and one of the leading rabbis of the religious Zionist movement. Ariel had served as the rosh yeshiva of the yeshiva in the abandoned Israeli settlement of Yamit in the Sinai desert until 1982 and is currently the president of the Ramat Gan Yeshiva (rosh yeshiva is Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira). He also served as the rabbi of Kfar Maimon for about 25 years.

wikipedia entry

from Marc Shapiro: "I have to say that the more I read by Ariel the more impressed I am, as everything he writes is carefully formulated and full of insight. He strikes me as very open-minded with a good grasp of Jewish philosophy. He is, of course, also an outstanding posek."

Modern Orthodoxy and Academia

Modern Orthodoxy has close ties to academia and often looks to it for wisdom and style. Often this has good results. This is nearly impossible for people on the right to understand, that something goes on in colleges other than fornication and teachings about evolution. I won't explain here why this show ignorance about the true chochmah and maddah that can be found in academia. But what the Modern world often forgets is the problems of the elite university upper west side of Manhattan kind of world. Even the liberal side of that world often forgets just how much big business and big aggressive government is tied into universities. Nearly all the famous ones have big bucks and that shouldn't be surprising. At the University of Michigan nearly all the great buildings were donated by rich guys: Rackham is from Ford money, the Law school from a Wall St. lawyer, Clements from Panama canal money. I'm not trying to sound anti-business and I'm not criticizing wealthy people for donating money to the school. I'm just saying that sometimes academic types live in a bubble and pretend they live in some cloud lined fantasy land. They are above money. Oh yeah sure.

The universities themselves take the life savings and future earnings of millions of kids that really have no interest in being intellectuals and only want to make a living, something schools don't really try to give them, despite appearances and promises otherwise. This whole fantasy effete quality of academia seeps into Modern Orthodoxy, often with very bad results. It's fine for the well paid leaders but not so good for the average Joe. Pre-nups are an example. This is a glamour issue, everyone loves to write papers about it. Does it really help the average couple to start off with a divorce plan? Does it really help every couple to start off life with massive debt from graduate degrees they'll never use? This is a problem with the typical American. How much worse for people living under the frum tax. Same with marrying late for the sake of that graduate degree. Academia feels like a religion. It all seems so holy and truthful. Some of it is truthful. Never forget though, it's built on money to a large extent and where there's big money, there's big untruths and selfishness.

Insensitive and Over-sensitive

[Many people today]...act like children and experience religion like children. This is why they accept all types of fanaticism and superstition. Sometimes they are even ready to do things that border on the immoral. They lack the experiential component of religion, and simply substitute obscurantism for it....After all, I come from the ghetto. Yet I have never seen so much naïve and uncritical commitment to people and to ideas as I see in America....All extremism, fanaticism and obscurantism come from a lack of security. A person who is secure cannot be an extremist. (Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, from a talk with social workers).

And how much worse it is today. He was talking 40-50 years ago. The extremism today in secular politics and the Orthodox world is frightening. Do you really have to advocate either oil wells on every beach or abortions in every home? Are there no other options, something in the middle perhaps. Likewise in the frum world it's either black suits or lady rabbis leading Friday night davening. Every time I enter a shul I feel the pull one way or another.

We can talk long and hard about the elements to this. One of them is that the right tends to be insensitive and the left over-sensitive. Many on the right don't yield for anything, don't work the halacha for the person's situation even when they can. Certainly Moshe Feinstein was known to find heterim for people. I'm talking about today's leaders and middle-management rabbis in particular. On the left, they can be too accommodating. Let's not offend anyone ever. I heard of an interesting case where a moslem was interested in Judaism but the shuls were afraid he was a terrorist. I suggested, have him eat pork. If he respects Judaism, well Judaism sees no problem in a goy eating pork. If he's a secret Moslem he won't eat the work (we hope). People on the left said to me, you can't make him eat pork he was raised a moslem. But the whole point is that he no longer wants to be one, so if he thinks it's false there's no problem. They said it will offend his Jewish leanings. I said it's like having the gentile violate shabbos during his conversion process. A rabbi told me I don't make people do that, it's silly. I think he means also it's insensitive. I say, it's better than pushing him away. The over-sensitiveness actually causes a greater hardship on the guy. I couldn't get these people to understand this.

Another example is not putting pressure on young people to get married (not necessarily to any one person but to somebody). You have to remind them that going through life alone generally (not always) is a disaster. This seems so insensitive to them. But isn't it worse to let them ruin their lives?

Make For Yourself A Rav

A prominent scholar did me a big favor recently when he commented to me that the yeshiva world exaggerates about everything. I had been asking him about a tendency I have observed for parts of the yeshiva world to reduce the Torah to one mitzvah - Torah study. Yarsheit drashot of gadolim these days seem usually to talk exclusively about hasmada in learning, to bizarre degrees at times, such as bombs are falling and while everyone else prayed for safety he prayed for life so he could study more Torah. Stuff like that which to me don't seem like healthy or appropriate acts. Additionally, you'll hear nothing about honesty, chesed, care with mitzvos - just Torah study. So we were discussing the Mishnah "Talmid Torah c'neged culam", which typically is given as a source for this attitude. (Note, I don't see a basis for the attitude in this source since it says Torah is equal to the mitzvot not greater. Also, ceneged suggests a relationship and Rabbi Soloveitchik says indeed that the Mishnah is saying Torah study brings you to the mitzvot.) At this point, this distinguished rabbi said that the yeshiva world exaggerates this concept, they exaggerate about everything.


And if you think about it, my goodness, they really do. Take for example the admonition to have a rav. Today, it's out of control. My rav this, my rav that. Did you ask your rav. I don't have to elaborate. I tell people that it's doubtful in Rashi's day that people could consult with their rav all that often given that lack of electronics and the distance between farms. People didn't necessarily go to shul everyday. Didn't Rav Chaim Volozhin see the Vilna Gaon once a year or something like that?


Well today you don't get much time with rabbis either. They have no time and often they have no interest. I'm not even getting into the question of whether or not they have something to offer. I think back on my time at yeshiva and at shuls. I approached the rabbis there and elsewhere on countless occasions and usually got half-answers, no answers. Now and again, someone would spend 5 minutes with me. On a few occasions, a bit more than that. It is what it is. What bothers me is how the reality of little time rabbis have conflicts with the right wing model of not thinking for oneself and going to the rav. What it really means is following the crowd that thinks it's following the rav because you never really speak to the rav. And then it isn't a rav because it's not personal. When I was first becoming frum and fearing that I might be entering a cult people told me, don't worry, the rabbis customize halacha for your case. They see into the person. I can believe that the great ones could do it when necessary. But I can't believe that it applies to people who never talk to you.

Modern Orthodox rabbis don't have much time for people either but at least in that world people generally don't say that you can't make a move without your rav. What goes on in the right wing world is unreasonable. You can't make a move without consulting somebody who won't talk to you. That's crazy. The result is that you just follow the crowd in all things and that's unhealthy.

Normal

According to Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, the goal of the kiruv professional should be to help the baal teshuvah take on the mitzvos. He should not impose conformity or eradicate the essence of the person. Rav Yaakov said that it is important that the BT feel normal. He said that the typical BT will not feel normal if he does not complete his or her college education. Thus, he or she should not be discouraged from doing so. In my view, many BTs will struggle to feel normal in a charedi environment. Heard from Leib Tropper.

Something that doesn't work

Said my coworker to me on the subject of our workplace: It's hard to figure out how something that doesn't work, works. Same can be said for contemporary Judaism. You come in cold to a crazy environment and try to figure out how it works. But in many ways, it doesn't work. So, don't expect to figure it all out and sound like an expert. You'll always carry some confusion or even a lot. Someone else said to me, you can't be passionate about something you don't understand. Many BTs try to be passionate and get into trouble because they don't even know what they are dealing with.

Interesting passage from Marc Angel on postures in halacha:

Rabbi (Ovadia) Yosef, drawing on a passage from the Hidah (Rabbi Hayyim Yosef David Azulai), suggested a distinction between the Ashkenazic and Sephardic approaches to halakha. Historically, the Hidah noted, the Ashkenazim tended toward the quality of “gevurah,” strength. They viewed halakhic stringencies as a positive expression of love of God. The stricter the demands of halakha, the more self-sacrifice and heroism were entailed in fulfilling the commandments. In contrast, the Sephardim tended toward the quality of “hessed,” compassion. They viewed halakha as a loving means of serving God. Whereas Ashkenazim veered toward halakhic stringency, Sephardim tilted toward halakhic leniency. As Rabbi Yosef said: “The Sephardic rabbis are of the school of Hillel, tending toward hessed, and they do not have stringencies; they walk on the ‘king’s highway.’ However, Ashkenazic rabbis tend toward gevurah, and are from the school of Shammai who were strict.” Rabbi Yosef assured his audience that he himself was of the school of Hillel, and wished that “the Ashkenazim would be in order as we are. http://www.jewishideas.org/marc-d-angel/models-sephardic-rabbinic-leadership

Fire and brimstone

The gehonim talk is powerful medicine and it has side effects, said Rabbi Miller. One of them is it doesn't work in the long haul. I did all kinds of things in my frum career for fear of going to hell. I became miserable because I lost all touch of my needs and my interests. I just didn't want to go to hell. Thus, I started wishing I were dead because I was so miserable and wanted to just die clean. I knew I couldn't hold out much longer. No, hell talk is not enough. Besides that, Christians and Moslems also threaten me with hell. Hindus do as well. Even Nietzsche did it with his theory of eternal re-occurrence. One must present more than threats of hell to attract people to religion. Of course, I sense many, even in kiruv, don't really care if they attract anyone. They just enjoy terrifying others with threats. Copyright 2012. You may link or copy.

A 'Gadol' Came to Town

Today a 'gadol' came to town. That's what the ad promised. So I came and listened for an hour and walked away with the usual sense of shame and guilt I get from these encounters. I won't say that the guy was horrible. He spoke halacha. He was reasonably articulate for a guy from Brooklyn. He was knowledgeable about halacha and the technology behind the kashrut topics that dominated his talk. He made a few attempts at sardonic jokes. He didn't yell. Not terrible.

But we got the usual condescension towards all kinds of parties. Rabbis who give heterim where he feels they shouldn't want one. It's not the criticism I object to, it's the supercilious scorn. Then there's the snide remarks about the baal habatim and their excuses and pursuit of the easy way out. On the topic of showers on a three day yom tov in the summer he said you can't take a shower. He said in the old days they didn't and today we have air conditioning so we have even less of a reason.

If they were taking questions I'd pose three factors that are different: 1) For the past 400 years, when all the halachic literature go down to these details, we were in much cooler climates, granted without AC 2) For the past 50 years, in NYC at least, people lived in brick buildings which are much cooler. 3) Today there is a new standard of hygiene. I for example don't like showering every day, but my coworkers and wife wouldn't accept anything less. Today, we must smell like roses at all times. So we are used to daily showers and we feel a social pressure to have them.

But we don't get to ask questions. This is common today in shiurim. Even in Teaneck and YU, public talks are not followed with Q & A anymore. The feeling I get is, hey lowly baal habyit, your job is to take orders. So for me, it was a disappointing morning. The promise of wise leaders who are not afraid of your questions, who understand your needs, well it still remains unfilled. But I recalled Rabbi Soloveitchik's adage that klal yisrael is a nation of free men and women who are joined together with a common set of goals. Thus, it doesn't matter who the oilam puts before me as authorities and saints. I am not here because of the greatness of men. I am here for the greatness of God and klal yisrael as a general historic entity.

Last point, I'm not discrediting here the idea of gadolim. I believe that people like Moshe Feinstein, Yaakov Kamenetsky, Joseph Soloveitchik, and Shlomo Zalman Auerbach were gadolim. I'm just saying that just because someone names a guy to be a gadol doesn't mean you have to believe it. I'm actually trying to protect the concept of gadolim. I'm also protecting the people who are special but aren't quite great because the over-promising leaves you disappointed and even critical of the person.