the forced rav

I have watched many people take on a person as their personal leader, or rav, simply because the local synagogue committee appointed him to be the guy who sits in the front of the room, tell over a few brief thoughts on the parsha, and make minor decisions on shul decorum.  It's the rare person we call rabbi that has any training in counseling. And it's just as rare for anybody who is called rabbi to have studied any more than a small portion of the Talmud. He could have gone to yeshiva for decades and worked only on a few chapters of a few tractates. The Talmud consists of over 5,400 pages. He might have looked superficially at 10% of it, and in many yeshivas they skip over the aggadata, the parts containing wisdom for life. Rather, they engage in abstract argumentation over the derivation of halachas, and don't even discuss practical halacha. He might have studied 15 minutes of musar a day, and he probably didn't even do that. You hear that he studied at the Mir and just assume that makes him a scholar. The MIr has 5,000 students who study by themselves with the benefit of a class a week. They sit at their schtenders and study a few pages of the Gemara on their own. How is he equipped to be in charge of your life? People assume if a Jewish man is employed as the rabbi of a shul or as a teacher in a school that he is a true talmid chochom, a student of Torah wisdom, and the typical person likewise assumes that whoever he is married to is qualified to be a rebbetzin or counselor of women. All he has to do is get people to call him rabbi or rosh yeshiva and he's got the authority. People fall to their knees when they hear those titles, but they are not necessarily deserved. Iin our generation, they do not automatically indicate qualification for mentorship or authority over your life. People just toss around the lingo, the popular phrases and sentiments that they heard in yeshiva and around town, and pose as authorities. The new baal teshuvah usually can't see through this. Even people who have been frum all their lives can't see through it. They have been beaten down for so long, told to obey, ordered to not question. They may have literally been slapped around when they were in school for daring to question, threated with gehennom. This is not uncommon. So because they follow, you follow. 

it becomes small

 If you say that the Torah is big, but then submit yourself to someone who is familiar with only a small piece of it, then it effectively becomes small. Now if that person knows more than you or something that you don't, he can be helpful, but there's a difference between someone who is helpful to you and someone you look at as everything. Every soul is different. How can one person encompass another? Maybe it's different with the handful of Torah giants, particularly of prior generations. But the average person has access only to the average rabbi, who is not capable of encompassing other people. Today, many people think of a rav as a master. He is in charge of your decisions and your thoughts. You have to filter everything through him. And they are obsessed with this idea of "having a rav." It's the first question they ask you. "Do you have a rav?" I have heard more than one rabbi say to young women, "If he doesn't have a rav (a master) forget him." So this shomer mitzvos young man is suddenly discredited, outcast, and rejected because he doesn't have this one person to rule over him. It's a cynical notion. But it might be something worse. It might be a way of taking people away from the Torah. If every young man has to obey men who know a sliver of Torah, then you have torn them away from Torah and handed them over to conventional constructs. And if, as it is said, most rabbis in the era before moshiach are eruv rav, then you have handed him to erev rav. He's not even allowed to say that something violates the Tanach. No, you must listen to your rav, not to the Tanach, they'll say. Read this as, you must listen to the erev rav. 

The yeshivists who aren’t as bad

Parasitic wasps inject their eggs into a host, often accompanied by venom and a virus. Their larvae grow and emerge from the unwitting host — usually killing it. Some wasps control their host’s behaviour, effectively “zombifying” them to help the larva survive. (Jo Adetunji)

The yeshivists who aren’t as bad are worse. They are the ones who won’t rage against the idea of a man getting a job or who might reluctantly say something a tad positive about a very nice goy or who might raise an eyebrow at a more ridiculous comment from a rosh yeshiva. These not-quite-as-bad yeshivists are worse because they get you to lower your guard so yeshivish poison can seep into your kishkes. Without them, you'd run and find another way to be Torah observant. But they keep you around as they pretend to be cool. But in the end, they are just as elitist, just as hostile to any ideology other than their own, just as mocking and obnoxious, just as skilled at the putdown, just as foolish about shidduchim and marriage and secular interests and gentiles and Chassidim and Sefardim and every Torah topic there is. They are no different where it counts and like parasitic wasps take over your behavior and lead you to destroy yourself.  

More on the topic:

A new study in the Journal of Experimental Biology documents one such disturbing example of wasp larvae that takes control of their unfortunate spider hosts.

The Japanese scientists behind the study thought the host-parasite relationship between the wasp Reclinervellus nielseni (most wasps have only a scientific name) and its orb-weaver spider host Cyclosa argenteoalba could help us understand how parasitic organisms alter their host’s behaviour.

The adult wasps lay an egg on the outside of the spider’s body. The wasp larva hatches out and attaches itself to the spider’s abdomen, where it feeds on the fluids within, while the spider goes about its normal life. At a certain point though, the larva causes the spider’s behaviour to change. It’s as though the larva takes control of the spider and forces it to create the perfect environment for the wasp larva to transform (or “pupate”) into an adult.

Under normal circumstances, this species of spider spins two different types of web: a “normal orb web” that looks like a typical spider’s web with a spiral of sticky thread that is used for catching prey, and a “resting web” which lacks the sticky spiral that is spun just before the spider moults its old exoskeleton.

But the parasitised orb-weavers spin a web just before the wasp larvae transform into adults and kill the spider. This “cocoon web” looks very similar to the resting web. In fact, the wasp larvae had induced the spiders to build a modified resting web as it would create a safer environment for the larvae to pupate – just as a resting web creates the perfect conditions for the spider to moult.

To test their theory the researchers observed spiders building webs with and without wasps for company, they examined the structures of the webs and tested the strength of the silk fibres within them. The wasp cocoon webs had similar strength and structure as the regular resting web. They even had similar “decorations” of tiny fibrous threads which reflect UV light which may help to prevent other insects and larger animals disturbing the web, thus increasing the larva’s chances of pupating successfully. They also found that the cocoon webs have extra reinforcement to make them stronger, further increasing the likelihood of the wasp’s survival.

The spiders are forced to abandon their normal behaviour to create the cocoon web, either by altering their normal orb web or by creating one from scratch. The spiders then sit in the middle of the web motionless, until the larvae kill it.

The scientists suggest that this control over the spider could be caused by the wasp larvae injecting hormones into the spider which mimic hormones that control the spider’s moulting behaviour. In effect, the spiders have been drugged by the wasps into doing their bidding.

Mind-controlling wasps enslave zombie spiders to build them a perfect nest (theconversation.com)

In sum, the parasitic wasps inject the spider with chemicals that mimic its own hormones and cause the spider to build a web that is used by the wasp to grow other wasps that kill the spider. 

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Spider Molting

What is Molting in Spiders

Molting is a biological process in which spiders (and other invertebrates) shed their exoskeleton – the flexible outer covering of their body – and form a new, larger covering during their developmental stages.

Why do Spiders Molt

Spiders shed their skin simply to grow in size. They have an exoskeleton, which is quite strong due to the presence of various protein molecules, and a long-chain polysaccharide called chitin. Although this structure is flexible enough to allow the spider to move, it does not expand or grow as the spider’s internal organs do. Therefore, spiders need to form a new exoskeleton and shed the old one so that they can increase their size.

Spider Molting: What is it, Why and How Does it Occur, Video (spideridentifications.com)

 

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pupate /pyoo͞′pāt″/

intransitive verb

1.      To become a pupa.

2.      To go through a pupal stage.

verb

1.      Develop into a pupa.

 

 

A pupa is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages thereof being egg, larva, pupa, and imago. Wikipedia

 

Yeshivism and Christianity

 Yeshivism and Christianity

5 Tenants of Christianity: 

 

1. Antinomianism – abrogation of the commandments
2. Original sin – man is born sinful 
3. A man as god 
4. Redemption through faith to this false god 
5. Jews no longer chosen people. 
   
    
   Parallels to Yeshivism 
   
    

1. Torah is described relentlessly as the greatest mitzvah and is emphasized to the point where mitzvos are grotesquely minimized into near oblivion (“You gotta do what you gotta do,” as one yeshivist rabbi said). The term tzidkas as used almost as ridicule, only being a gaon is truly respected. 
2. Bochurim and baalei batim are described as having only yetzer hara, no yetzer hatov. 
3. Rabbis as are considered infallible and clairvoyant. You aren’t allowed to argue with them even with the arguments of other rabbis. Only they are allowed to do that. Go to them for all decisions even though they know nothing about the relevant issues.  
4. Have faith in the Torah. The Gemara is god some actually say. Redemption through Gemara pilpul.  
5. Massive condescension of anybody but yeshivish ‘gadolim’ and rabbanim. Baalei batim, Chassidim, Sephardim are looked upon almost as another class of people, like Gentiles to Jews.  

The big difference between them is that Christianity preaches love and Yeshivism preaches hate. However, as yeshivish rabbis tell us constantly, Christianity actually resulted in hate. Don't picture American Protestantism but European Catholicism with all that burning at the stake. 

Maharal Derus Al Hatorah 17:1 in Sefaria.org

 Maharal Derus Al Hatorah 17:1 in Sefaria.org

שוב אמר (שמות יט, ה) "ועתה אם שמוע תשמעו וגו'". בהיות שהתורה קשה על האדם, הן מתחלה לקבל המצות, הן לקיימם אחר הקבלה שלא יבא לידי חטא בזמן מהזמנים, אמר על אלו שני דברים שני ענינים האלה; א', "ועתה אם שמוע תשמעו בקולי". ב', (שם) "ושמרתם את בריתי". כי על שלא יקשה עליו לקבלם מתחלה אמר "אם שמוע תשמעו", ודרשו במכילתא (שם) שומע האדם מצוה אחת, משמיעים אותו מצות הרבה, כי מצוה גוררת מצוה (אבות פ"ד מ"ב). והטעם הזה בארנו בספר דרך חיים (שם), כי כל המצות הם דבר אחד, כמו שיבא בסמוך, וכל דבר גדול ורב שהוא כולו כאחד ביחד, אם האדם שומר קצתו, נמשך אחר זה לשמור בנקל את כולו, במה שכולו אחד. והגודר בשדהו, אם ימשוך בגדרה אמה אחת, בקל יגדור עוד יותר מאשר בתחלה. וכן תמיד, כל עוד שימשוך בגדר יותר, נקל עליו לגדור גם הנשאר אחריו. לכן אין קשה על האדם לקבל המצות, זהו "אם שמוע תשמעו".

Neo-Hasidism

 Neo-Hasidism, Neochassidut, or Neo-Chassidus, is an approach to Judaism in which people learn beliefs and practices of Hasidic Judaism, and incorporate it into their own lives or prayer communities, yet without formally joining a Hasidic group. Over the 20th century neo-Hasidism was popularized by the works of writers such as Hillel Zeitlin, Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Lawrence Kushner, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and Arthur Green.

Neo-Hasidism is not a denomination of Judaism, but rather an approach to Judaism which can be found in all movements of Judaism, Orthodox and non-Orthodox. Among non-Orthodox Jews one can find adherents of neo-Hasidism in Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionism, and Aleph: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal.

In the 1970s and 1980s a similar movement amongst baalei teshuva— within more "traditional" Orthodoxy—was observed in the US, [1] influenced by Shlomo Carlebach, Aryeh Kaplan, Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld and others, and reflecting the prevailing counterculture movement. To some extent, it has persisted to this day in such phenomena as the Carlebach minyan and the growth in the Breslov movement.

wikipedia

a verboten subject

 I became Torah observant, but I had questions. People at shul said, you have to go to yeshiva for that. I was supposed to go for one year. I went but they wouldn’t answer any questions. We just studied Baba Matzia all day. [A tractate of the Gemara.] And then they wouldn’t let me leave. They treated leaving yeshiva as if that was the worst thing you could do, an act of near apostasy, as if it would be the end of my life. I’d be taken in by the world they said. “Why would you want to leave this beautiful environment,” they said, as if there was nothing else in life worth doing. They wouldn’t even talk about job training or any kind of careers. That was a verboten subject. I asked how I was going to earn a living. I was told, “You don’t need to, other people will give you money.” The rabbi who told me that lived in a house that is now valued at $850,000. I said, “Really? Is there someone who will pay for my medical insurance right now?” He told me that I didn’t need health insurance. If I got sick, the community would pay for my treatment. Well guess what, I got sick, and nobody was there to pay for it.

Shlomo

Jews without mitzvos

 Who is the rudest celebrity you have met, and who would be the nicest?

Rudest: Milton Berle. [Runners up: Valerie Harper, Richard Dreyfuss.]

Nicest: George Wendt, Robin Williams (tie). Honorable Mention: Lynn Redgrave, Maurice Gibb, Sandy Dennis, Richard Kiley, William Conrad, Jack Guilford, John Astin, David Selby, Teresa Wright, Willie Nelson…

biggest mistake

 The biggest mistake I made in become Torah observant was getting involved with yeshiva people because they are lunatics. They see the entire religion as being about Gemara lomdus. A baal teshuvah has more important things to do such as learn how to observe the mitzvos, learn about their meaning, get an understanding of some basic hashkafa, find a place to live, get a parnassah where they can keep Shabbos, and get married to a suitable match. Yeshiva people don't want to bother with any of that. They take it all for granted because it was all handed to them. At this point in their lives they are focused on Gemara study and they assume you are like them. They also operate this view that every problem in life can be solved with Torah study. You have an ingrained toenail, you need to study Tosfos. I'm exaggerating only a bit. They lack empathy. They lack sensitivity. And many of them are vicious. If you even hint at discomfort with anything they do, they become pit bulls. They spend so much of their day feeling superior to all of humanity and Jewry, that they can't turn it off. There are BTs with a gentile parent, gentile uncles and aunts, gentile friends. What do you want them to do, despise everybody they have known all their lives because you are going to become their family. But you are not going to become their family. You might sit and go over a Rashi with one of them once or twice. You want  them to despise colleges? They spent their entire childhoods planning for college. Not everybody adores Gemara study and certainly not at the start and certainly not with the way its is usually taught, i.e. without any educational methodology. A Gemara is not a magic hat that you pull rabbits out of. But many yeshiva guys act like it is. Just open to any page and feel the wonder exploding from the page. That's what they think and they are fools. I'm sorry that I ever stepped foot into a yeshivish institution. My life would be completely different if I had never exposed myself to these people and by that I mean it would be incomparably better. I'd be more religious and much saner. 

moshe

wow does this sound like the entire yeshivist world

There was a time

 There was a time, I looked away

I gave my fears the final say

Wish I could now, take back the day

There was a time, so long ago

There was a fire, there was a glow

And there was you, I didn't know

There was a time

And in that time, you looked at me

I wondered then if it could be

I didn't hope, I couldn't see

There was a time

There was a time, I looked away

I gave my fears the final say

Wish I could now, take back the day

There was a time

In photographs, I can see it now

I couldn't see it then

I want yesterday for my tomorrow

But it won't come again

In memory, I still hold

The sweet momеnt when free

There was a timе, I could've won

A life of love, a rising sun

But what should be, was not begun

There was a time

There was a time, so long ago

There was a fire, there was a glow

And there was you, I didn't know

There was a time

There was a time I could've won

A life of love, a rising sun

But what should be, was not begun

There was a time

Songwriters: Dion Di Mucci / Mike Aquilina

Dion - "There Was A Time" with Peter Frampton - Official Music Video - YouTube

The Rabbi of Oz

 

“Power

 “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” 

― George Orwell, 1984 

Part 3, Chapter 3

Another reason not to make aliyah

Boys have two choices - the army or yeshiva. It's a Sophie's choice. Pick your tyrant. In America, you have many other options. 

settle!

 I figured out fairly early that the yeshiva world was not for me. Actually, I deemed it unhealthy for anybody, but that's their business. The problem was sex. The Modern Orthodox world is a world for women. Over there, every breath that's not for Zionism is for Feminism. Women are catered to on every level. It's not just the obsession with what they call agunas, which 95% of the time are women who throw their husbands out of their houses for ridiculous reasons, it's nice fulfilling careers for women while the men go out and make money and obsess over money, it's lowering modesty standards in every way they can, it's young women sleeping until noon and married women getting maids and big houses, it's husbands quitting their jobs so their wives can go to graduate school for theater (I know an actual case like this). It's husbands moving an hour from their workplace so their wives can live across from graduate school (I know a case like this.) The Modern Orthodox world is not a safe place for any man with religious aspirations or commitment to halacha. But the Yeshiva world isn't a safe place for any man with creativity, individuality, or religious yearnings because it's a concentration camp. Makes you want to live in the forest. But you need sex, and the Torah is very strict about how you get it. So back into these horror shows you must go and figure out a way of finding one woman who doesn't tear your life to shreds. It ain't easy. You go back into those Yeshivish shuls and the rabbis crush your mind and your self-esteem. It's brutal. You go back into the MO world and drown in the secularity and focus on the welfare of women. Either way, you lose yourself. But I'll give you a tip, don't be picky. If you find a decent hearted girl who you are marginally attracted to, don't let her go. They all become homely after fifty anyway and not so great after 40. Don't worry how many kids she can have. Don't worry about how charming she is or isn't. If she's a decent hearted shomer mitzvos woman who doesn't hate men and doesn't see the Torah as patriarchal, hold on to her. If you are a BT, particularly if you are a Cohen, settle!

Grand Rabbi Gershon Chanoch Henech Leiner of Radzyn

 

Gershon Henoch Leiner

Grand Rabbi Gershon Chanoch Henech Leiner of Radzyn (1839 – December 15, 1890) was a rebbe of the Izhbitza – Radzin dynasty, and the first to be known as "the Radzyner Rebbe".

at the age of sixteen, the Rebbe had already formulated a spectacular idea: he would compose a "gemara" of a sort on the mishnayos of Seder Taharos, as there is no Talmud Bavli on those tractates. In order to accomplish this, he gathered all the relevant material from the whole Talmud Bavli, Talmud Yerushalmi, and all other Braysos etc., and presented them in chronological order in a sefer he called Sidrei Taharos on Maseches Keilim. He later did the same with all the other tractates of Seder Taharos. However, only his works on Keilim and Oholot were published, as Sidrei Taharot. (The other tractates were lost during the Holocaust.) The task took him ten years to complete.

I'll stick with Chabad.

In the past few years, I wrote 5 letters to rabbis complaining about something they said or did. Two were Litvish/Yeshivish, two were Modern, one was Chabad. The Litvish fired back angrily and accused me of being disrespectful. The Modern gave some twisted answer that attempted to say that what they did isn't what I thought. The Chabad rabbi apologized. 

I'll stick with Chabad.