Meturgeman

The Ethics of Exodus

2010-03-21T00:17:00.005+02:00

Pesach is coming. The birth of Am Yisrael as a nation. All births are difficult and involve pain and suffering. But they do not involve injustice. Most especially, the birth of the Nation that is destined to bring Hashem's Torah to the world and thereby perfect it in His kingdom cannot possibly be brought about by injustice...but many seem to think that it can. There are three main aspects of Yetziat Mitzraim that are often misinterpreted in this light, and I want to discuss all three.

The Guiding Principle

Avraham Avinu set the standard way back in Parshat Va'yera. In debating with God to save the people of S'dom and Amora, he asked (B'reishit 18:25), "...Shall the Judge of all the Earth not do justice?"

Avraham won that debate with God...there is no other way to put it. If only there had been 10 righteous men in the cities of the plain they would have been spared. And the principle was established for all time...Hashem will only act justly. If something He does seems unjust, it is we who do not understand. This is the basis for our understanding of the Exodus story, as well as all the others in the Torah and later.

The Three-Day Request

Shmot 3:18: "...you and the elders of Israel will go to the king of Mitzrayim and you will say to him, 'Hashem, the God of Israel has called to us; and now let us please go three days journey in the desert, and we will sacrifice to Hashem our God.'"

That's all we asked for...a three-day vacation...with an unspoken implication that we would come back. Over and over again, that's what Moshe talks about. But when we finally packed up and left, we never came back.

Isn't that deception? We lied to Paro and then took advantage of it! Some of the commentators even say that when Paro was told "that the nation had fled" (Shmot 14:5) that it meant B'nei Yisrael had continued moving away from Egypt after three days, instead of turning around as expected. So what gives?

The answer is, three days was just an opening bargaining position. Even Paro understood that we wanted more; hence his attempts to limit who would go each time he was ready to concede after bad plague experiences. And the fact that even such a reasonable request was refused (three days off after over 200 years of service?) shows just how imperative it was for us to get out of there.

But the clincher is, the three day idea was dropped by the Mitzrim at the end! The horror of the deaths of the firstborn made them want to get rid of the Jews forever, and they kicked us out for good! Hashem told Moshe it would happen: "And Hashem said to Moshe, 'One more plague will I bring to Paro and to Mitzraim; after that he will send you from here. When he sends you, he will surely completely drive you away from here.'" (Shmot 11:1) After the plague, Hashem says, Paro himself will tell you to leave and never come back. Then in 11:8, Moshe tells Paro the same thing...when Paro's servants come to kick the Jews out, they will tell them to leave...period. No more discussion of a three-day pass...Moshe clearly tells Paro we are leaving for good. So there is no deception.

And in fact, in 12:22-23, we see that both Paro and the Egyptians only want to kick the Jews out...they don't say anything about returning. And finally, when Paro hears that the Jews are leaving (despite the commentaries I mentioned earlier), he doesn't complain that the Jews broke their word. He bemoans the fact "that we sent away Yisrael from serving us." (14:5) We told them to go away and never come back, and now I regret it. That's what Paro means here.

So there is no injustice here. We started with an opening proposition that would let Paro show if he would respect Hashem and Yisrael; when he failed the test we told him the deal was off and that we were going for good, and that is what happened.

The "Spoiling" of Egypt

(based in part on an original Meturgeman Drasha, Parshat Bo, 6 Sh'vat, 5762)

Shmot 3:21-22: "I will put the favor of the this nation in the eyes of Egypt, and it will be that when you go, you will not go empty. Each woman should ask of her neighbor and of the one in whose house she dwells vessels of silver and vessels of gold and clothing; you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters; ונצלתם Egypt." (See also 12:35-36)

The word I didn't translate is the stickler. It's usually translated, 'you will spoil.' As in, the spoils of war. Compare the Purim story, where we fought our enemies but did not touch the spoil. Our purpose is not to be common marauders, but to win/maintain our freedom as a Nation.

It's made worse by the fact that the Hebrew word for 'ask' is usually translated 'borrow.' It looks like Hashem is telling us to lie once again to the Egyptians...ask for a loan that we don't intend to pay back.

I don't know about you, but my God doesn't work that way. While it's true that the Hebrew word for ask also can be used for borrowing, it is anathema to say that is what happened here. It also goes against logic...we just explained that the Egyptians wanted to be rid of the Jews forever...why would they want to see them again, even to get their loans back?

Rather the Jews asked their Egyptian neighbors for fair and just compensation for centuries of slave labor. Just as the owner of a Jewish slave has to compensate him liberally when he releases him (D'varim 15:13-15,18), so too the Egyptians had to make good for the services they had received. And they did, willingly.

So what is ונצלתם? There is an excellent analysis in the Hertz Chumash...he makes it very clear that the word means, not spoil, but SAVE! There is no other place in Tanach or in modern Hebrew where the root נצל is translated any other way. (You've heard of Hatzolah, the Jewish volunteer ambulance corps...they SAVE lives, they don't spoil them.)

The Egyptians did a horrible thing to the Jews...and they received their punishment in full with the plagues. They didn't need additional punishment for not compensating their released slaves properly. Even more, they didn't need the continued hate and resentment of B'nei Yisrael. We are commanded not to hate them, and to allow them to convert (D'varim 23:8-9). How could we do this if, in addition to everything else, they had turned away empty handed? This is what they were saved from.

(I should note that in light of the clear meaning of the Torah text that the Egyptians gave willingly because Hashem made them like us at the end, I have great difficulty with the Midrash that says we used the Plague of Darkness to find all the things they had tried to hide from us.)

The Hardening of Paro's Heart

Shmot 7:3: "I will harden Paro's heart, and I will multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt."

This is the big one. It sounds like Hashem needs a straw dummy to prove His strength; so He keeps setting him up and knocking him down. Poor Paro, then, shouldn't be reviled. He should be pitied. Over and over again he was prepared to surrender, but Hashem wouldn't let him. He lost his free choice, and was punished for it. What kind of justice is that?

But the Ramban makes it all very simple. He says, God wasn't taking away Paro's free will, he was giving it back! The Plagues were so overwhelming, Paro had no choice but to admit to Hashem's power and give in...and being forced to be good is no less a loss of free will then being forced to do evil. So when he reached that point (it wasn't until the sixth plague), God restored the balance...He gave him enough strength/stubbornness to make his own choice as before! And he chose evil.

It was this ultimate evil of Paro...the basic nature that always went to the evil choice when given half a chance...that brought about the need for all ten plagues. And so, in the final analysis, his punishment was just and deserved, as are all punishments from God.

It seems clear to me from these three cases; if we only take the time to understand the situation, Hashem always is the God of Justice. Since we are commanded to imitate His attributes, it behooves us as well to increase our efforts to act justly; to drop the petty hatred and bickering, and to once again become a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation, and a true Light to the Nations. Only then can we truly bring the Geula.

Painful Reevaluations

2010-01-03T02:25:00.004+02:00

It has been raining here in Israel. A lot. I don't know if it's above or below average, and I'm sure it's not enough to completely alleviate the effects of five years of drought, but it's a phenomenal improvement over the past several years.

And when it started, I was upset. Here I had just written a 'fire and brimstone' post attributing the drought to Divine anger, and, in defiance of not only my post but the long-term forecasts of the Water Authority here, it looks like we have a respite.

I have had to admit to myself that I had become just like some of the people I complain about, who try to force every situation into their view of the Jewish version of Armageddon, gleefully anticipating the deaths of tens of thousands or millions (in the case of one person I know, possibly billions) of people in order to bring the Geula.

Between that and several other recent traumatic events in my life, I had been thinking of giving up this blog. However, I think it more important for me to continue...with some changes.

I have been forcibly reminded of a quote from Rav Yaakov Love of Passiac, NJ (which I heard indirectly from my good friend Alan Schleider): I am not God's CPA. We know the general guidelines that Hashem gives us for reward and punishment, but we are not the ones to determine how those guidelines are applied. We certainly don't have the ability to see all the ramifications of all of the actions of all the people in the world and how they impact on what will happen to one person, one group, or one nation. That's all up to Hashem, and while we can speculate and try to see how He is applying the guidelines in this world, it is absolute chutzpa to thing that we know.

The facts that I stated in that previous post are still the same. Drought DOES come to Israel because of the sins of the Jews, and there is much seriously wrong with our behaviour as "frum" Jews. But how this is applied to the real world, whether the drought was because of that or something else, and why we now have a respite, are much harder to pinpoint. I will still speculate about these things, but I will attempt to be far less pompous and certain about it, and I will certainly try to stop gloating. It hurts me when anyone suffers, even if they deserve it. I would much rather that everyone do T'shuva and we can end all of the punishments now.

I will attempt to return to my main focus, as I said in my very first post:

Most of what I speak about is towards that one goal: we need to get back on track. Stop blaming the goyim and the chilonim, stop blaming outside influences. Concentrate on ourselves and what we need to fix.

Because there is one thing of which I am still certain: If EVERY Jew can return to the ways of Hashem as He wishes, if we keep ALL the Mitzvot in joy and gladness, most especially the Mitzvot Bein Adam L'Chavero, if we return to being a true Or La'Goyim, a Light unto the Nations, then the Geula will come. No ifs, ands, or buts. במהרה בימינו

Wake up and Smell the Parched Earth

2009-08-09T00:29:00.003+03:00

As I have pointed out many times, people are all too willing to place the blame for our problems elsewhere. It's the chilonim, the eirev rav, the Arabs, the Americans, maybe even little green men from Mars. We concentrate on digging up obscure Midrashic references to prove that such and such an enemy is Edom, or Gog, or some other enemy that the Nevi'im predicted. After all, goes the argument, we are close to the time of the Geula now, and it will come whether or not we deserve it, so lets just try to fit the current situation into the prophecies so we will know what to expect, and whom to hate the most.

I suppose I should be comforted that so many people know what God is thinking, but I'm not. I also think I have some small inkling into His thinking, but it differs radically from the others.

Let's skip the obscure Midrashim and look at the simple P'shat in the Torah. We just read the second paragraph of the Sh'ma, in Parshat Eikev. The main difference between the first two paragraphs of the Sh'ma is that this one speaks quite clearly of the concept of s'char v'onesh, reward and punishment. And it is very clear (as the Hebrew version of the saying goes, black on white) in what it is saying: (D'varim 11:13-17)

If you do the Mitzvot, you will have plentiful rain and plentiful harvests. IF YOU SIN, THERE WILL BE NO RAIN AND YOU WILL BE LOST FROM THE LAND.

It doesn't say, if the goyim hate you. It doesn't talk about a few apostates. It is talking collectively to ALL of B'nei Yisrael, meaning especially US, the ones who actually believe and claim that we are keeping the Torah!

(You will tell me it talks about idolatry specifically; however it is clear from all the sources in the Torah and Chazal that any major failure to listen to the Torah works the same way.)

As I pointed out in regards to Tochecha, Israel is in the midst of it's worst drought in modern times. (Here's a recent audio link from Rusty Mike Radio with good information.) Yet I have barely heard a peep from the finger-pointers about it! You can't blame this on Dubya or Obama; Arafat and Abbas didn't stop the rain; and Sharon and Olmert didn't 'disengage' the rain clouds from our skies. So who is left to blame? They don't want to say it.

Drought comes to Israel because of the sins of the Jews. Period. Yes, there is global warming involved, and yes, water is wasted here, and yes, the government could do more towards desalinization, but the bottom line is it hasn't rained much in five years. There can only be one reason.

One other point. Last year was a Sh'mita year in Israel. One of the causes, according to Chazal, for the first Churban and Exile was the neglecting of Sh'mita...the Tochecha speaks of the land finally getting it's rest while we are gone. (Vayikra 26:34-35) The Sh'mita year we just passed through was rife with an increase of sinat chinam, poor Rabbinic decisions leading to forged Kashrut certifications, people being hoodwinked to go against the beliefs of their own Rabbis, and more Israelis eating actual forbidden produce than any time since the chalutzim started returning to the land. So while more people were able to follow the laws as they were done in the time of Chazal, it was at the cost of all that evil. I don't think Hashem was very pleased with us last year. (I will try to find time for another post on this subject.)

How many wake-up calls do we need? As long as we frum people are full of hatred, as long as we cheat in business, as long as we do all the other sins that we like to cover up, the situation can only get worse. We need to start changing, NOW.

Sh'ma Yisrael -- Back to Square One

2009-08-02T01:08:00.003+03:00

This week's Parsha, VaEtchanan, is the source of the Sh'ma, which we say in our davening at least twice daily...along with the Amida, it is the centerpiece. When we say it, we are supposed to concentrate on what it means, as well as on the fact that by saying it we are accepting upon ourselves Ol Malchut Shamayim, the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven.

So what exactly does this little phrase mean? The words seem simple enough "Listen Israel, Hashem is our God, Hashem is One." But there are many, many interpretations as to what it is actually saying to us.

I would like to share one that I heard from Rav Shlomo Riskin at one of his Motzaei Shabbat T'shuva drashot in Yerushalaim. (I may have heard it earlier in my life, but this is the time that it stuck.):

"Listen Yisrael, right now Hashem is OUR God, but someday Hashem will be One for the entire world."

Our task in the world is to MAKE Hashem One for the entire world. (Like the end of Aleinu, quoting Zechariah 14:9 "...On THAT DAY Hashem will be one and His name One.") It won't happen until we make it so! That is the charge that Moshe gave us in the Sh'ma. We have the Torah as our tool, and we must become a true Or LaGoyim to bring it about.

We are not doing that job very well. But worse, I think we have fallen back and are now failing at the FIRST part, "Listen Yisrael." Israel isn't listening to Hashem!

I'm not talking about the non-religious. I'm talking about the large number of frum Jews who keep the mitzvot for themselves, but could care less about anyone outside of their communities. Treif they won't eat, Shabbat they won't break, but anyone different from them they won't care about. Or more likely they look down on them. Not just non-dati Jews or non-Jews, but any dati group that has a different level of observance.

Many years ago in New York, before he made Aliya, Rav Riskin spoke of "Kitzur Shulchan Aruch Jews." They carry around a checklist, he said, of the behaviors that they think you should have. If you match up with the checklist, you're acceptable, and if not you are to be looked down on. They think, he said, that they have God in their back pocket!

People who think they are in control of Hashem, instead of the other way around, aren't listening. And if they are not listening, then Hashem isn't even One for the Jewish people. In that case, how are we supposed to make His Name One for the entire world? So the entire Sh'ma is cast aside and forgotten, no matter how loudly they shout it in shul.

We need to go back to the beginning. Forget our own arrogant judgementalism (remember, I'm talking to myself here as well...I know what I sound like) and join with the rest of Yisrael in listening. That will make Hashem One for us again; then we can go on to make His Name One for the universe.

Trouble at the top (Tisha B'Av 5769)

2009-07-30T19:01:00.007+03:00

As I have said before, this blog is not a confessional (that's not how Jews deal with sins), but occasionally I feel the need to relate one of my own weaknesses, because it relates to the things about which I wish to talk

Today's weakness is k'vod harav. We are supposed to -- automatically -- give respect to Rabbis, as well as non-Rabbis who have reached a high level of Torah learning (including women.)

The trouble is, both real life and history show that just attaining that level of learning does NOT automatically confer judgement or wisdom. But the recognition of that learning often gives access to a 'bully pulpit' to allow wide dissemination of the owner's poor judgment.

My friend Ben Jacob sent me this once: (if anyone knows the source of the quote please email me so I can credit it properly)

The Komarna Rebbe, Yitzhak Eizik Yehuda Yehiel Safrin, relates an incredible story of the Ba'al Shem Tov, the founder of Hassidism, that he received from Yehiel Mikhel of Zlotchev:
On the road one day, the Besht went into the forest to pray minha (the afternoon prayer). His disciples saw him strike his head strongly against a tree and shout and cry strange cries and abundant tears. Seeing this they were stunned. They asked the holy man what was going on.
He replied that he saw, by means of his holy spirit, the generations which will exist just before the coming of the messiah. He saw that rabbis would be as plentiful as locusts, but that they themselves will be the ones to delay the redemption because they cause separation of hearts and baseless hatred.

It rings true, except for one thing. Sadly, it seems like this is so not only at the end but during every generation! Today is Tisha B'Av. According to Midrash this day is cursed because the Jews cried at Chet HaMeraglim. The 10 spies that caused this were all 'Heads of B'nei Yisrael.' (BaMidbar 13:3) And in Eicha(1:14 and 4:13) Yirmiyahu blames (among others) the false prophets and the Kohanim. (False the prophets may have been, but scholars they were.) Of course, the story of Kamtza/bar Kamtza and the second destruction is full of Rabbis. (Gittin 55b-56a) There were Rabbis sitting there when bar Kamtza was thrown out of the party and publicly humiliated. They did nothing. Either they didn't want to get involved, or they didn't care. And the end of the story has the Haredi stubbornness (euphemistically called "modesty") of Rav Zecharia ben Avkelos, which is what the Gemara blames for the destruction.

There are so many other examples. Korach was a talmid chacham, also, for instance. And Rav Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal, in his preface to his sefer Eim Habanim Semeichah, blames the frum Rabbis of Europe (himself included) for many of the deaths in the Shoah! Because they viciously opposed the Zionist movement and reviled any frum Jew who wanted to make Aliya, they kept all those Jews in Europe to die at the hands of the Nazis yimach sh'mam. Not only could hundreds of thousands of Jews have been safe in Israel, he writes, but with that many more frum Jews in the population, Israel could be a dati state today!

It goes on today. Disregarding the latest corruption arrests in the U.S., many of the public statements and actions of 'great Rabbis' seem designed to do nothing but set Jew against Jew, encourage sinat hinam against both Jew and non-Jew, and avoid facing the real problems that are keeping us from the Geula...all in the name of Torah.

So I am afraid I will continue to have difficulty in automatically giving Kavod to any talmid chacham. I will not mention anyone by name, but I am afraid sometimes you will figure out about whom I am complaining. All I can do is pray that those gedolim who really do deserve our respect can influence some of the others to return to the true responsibilities conferred upon them by their learning. Maybe then we can get back on the path to Geula.

This one speaks for itself

2009-07-26T00:53:00.004+03:00

I find it very hard to work without some background noise. From what I learned in Psychology many years ago, this is an adolescent phenomenon that I should have outgrown decades ago, but it seems I never did.

So, with the coming of the Nine Days, I switched from my favorite New York Oldies station to my favorite New York News station. (Yes, I know I'm in Israel but old habits die hard) That means I was listening Thursday as the news broke. First it was an FBI sweep of corrupt politicians. Then suddenly the word "Rabbis" started to pop up. Within hours it was clear that a number of frum people, including 5 Rabbis, were being rounded up as part of a major corruption scandal, including money laundering and even organ trafficking. (Here's one of the earliest articles.)

Of course everyone is proclaiming their innocence, and we don't know who is guilty and who isn't. But I find it hard to believe that they are all pure and innocent, and more importantly, the chillul Hashem damage is already done. One of the early on-line headlines read "Rabbis as crime bosses." And, not only did it quickly blow away the news of an American who had been helping al Qaeda and shooting at U.S. troops in Pakistan, when the imam of his mosque was asked about it, he was able to respond that you can't blame the mosque or Moslems any more than you can blame Synagogues or Jews for those Rabbis that just got arrested!

It's not a coincidence that this happened during the Nine Days. Not only is this the time of year when many bad things have befallen Am Yisrael, but it is another reminder from Hashem that we are still doing the sins that brought about the destruction!

Will this wake us up? Will we stop wasting our time blaming everyone else and start putting our own house in order? I would like to believe so, but past performances make me fear that it will not be so, and I fear for what else God has in store for us until we finally come to our senses.

Stop and Think...

2009-07-05T01:27:00.003+03:00

(Bamidbar 25:1-15)

Too often we hear of violence committed by 'frum' people, against non-frum Jews, and against non-Jews...especially Arabs. And too often we hear of calls for more of the same. Most of it is justified (no matter how deranged the attackers may be) in the name of Pinchas, the kanai (zealot) par excellence from the Torah. After all, Pinchas took the law into his own hands (according to most opinions), killing the Jewish Nasi Zimri and the Moabite princess Cozbi while they were mocking the entire congregation with their lewd behavior. And rather than suffering for his actions, he was rewarded! So we should all grab spears and go around impaling all the people we blame for our problems, right?

Wrong. It's not so simple.

I once knew a very wise man who was a Conservative Rabbi named Irwin Zimet z"l. The fact that he was not dati according to my way of thinking does not lessen my respect for him. Many years ago, in Temple Beth-El in Poughkeepsie, NY, he spoke about Pinchas and he made a very important point. When we read the story in shul, it stops in the middle! The Jews sin, the plague starts, the mockers come, Pinchas takes his action, the plague stops with 24,000 dead, and...

What? What happens next? According to Jewish law, Pinchas is a murderer! And you're just going to leave the story there?

Remember, the division into Parshiyot is not from the Torah, it was done by Chazal...and Rabbi Zimet said they had a reason to leave a cliffhanger ending here. They wanted us to THINK...for a whole week until the following Shabbat morning...did Pinchas really do right? Is it ever justifiable to take the law into your own hands, or in the end do you just make things worse?

And after we've pondered for a week, the answer comes...it depends on the motives of the person involved. Pinchas could have been feeling self-righteous anger and hatred towards the sinners. Or he could have been feeling personally offended since the main targets of the disrespect and mocking of the sinners was his father Elazar and his great-uncle Moshe. Any of those motives would have made him just another hoodlum. But Hashem, the Discerner of motives, said of Pinchas, "he was zealous in My zealousy"...his motives were absolutely pure. He saw evil, he saw Jews dying, and he said, "This isn't right. It has to be stopped." He made himself a pure conduit for Hashem's zealousy. And that is the only reason he was rewarded and not punished.

Only in the same circumstances can a person claim the protection of the Halachot of the kanai. Anything less and the person is a thug, at best a "naval bir'shut Hatorah, " a scumbag who yet doesn't break any Torah laws, and at worst a criminal at a lower level than the ones he attacks.

Most of the people who perpetrate, advocate, or defend such attacks today are, in my opinion, motivated by anger and hatred, not by the pure zealousy of Pinchas. (Some may have even more base or selfish motives.) When people like that take the law into their own hands, Hashem isn't happy and He only allows our situation to get worse.

And never forget, the lead sinner was a "frum" Prince of Israel. Once again, the evil starts from within out own community. Yes, there was a non-Jewish seducer involved, but it is WE who should know better and avoid the seduction.

So lets forget about attacking the non-Jews and non-dati Jews that we blame for all our problems, and once again turn our efforts to our own. For we know that if we set the right example there will never again be a need for acts of Pinchas.

Additional thoughts on Tochecha

2009-05-17T01:15:00.004+03:00

The prevailing minhag for the reading of the Tochecha in the synagogue is to read it faster and softer than the normal layning.This is because we don't want to be reminded of the bad stuff, and want to get it over with quickly. Whether or not it is a correct custom is irrevelant here...that's the way it's usually done. A good Ba'al K'riya will only be a little faster and a little softer than usual, because after all everyone still is required to hear every word clearly and distinctly.

In his weekly video D'var Torah this week, Rav Shlomo Riskin tells of the Klausenberger Rebbe in the early 1950's, having escaped from the Shoah, who insisted that the Tochecha be read out loud...he said the Jews had no more to fear. All the curses had happened, now it was time for the blessings. He then also told his people that the blessing would only come to Israel, and within six months had moved all his Hassidim to Netanya in Israel.

It's a moving story, and I can understand how someone who lost so much and escaped the Shoah would feel...and hope...that this must be the end of the punishments. And maybe it would have been so, as Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik wrote in Kol Dodi Dofek, if we had listened to Hashem's knocks on our door in 5708 (1948) and all packed up and moved to Israel.

But I can't believe it now. We continue to go against God in so many ways; sinat chinam and stubborn stiffnecked selfishness parading as frumkeit are rampant. So maybe we're wrong to read it quietly. Maybe we should tell the Ba'al K'riya to speak up loud, and maybe we should listen harder. Maybe then we can get some of the message through our thick skulls.

Another prevalant minhag is to consider the Aliya containing the Tochecha as 'bad luck.' To avoiding insulting anyone, rather than call up a member of the congregation, it is often given to the Ba'al K'riya since he is already there...in some shuls they don't even call him up by name.

Rav Chaim Wasserman was always opposed to this minhag, and when he was the Rav in Passaic he insisted on being called up (normally and by name) for the Tochecha. It is, after all, part of the Torah. And how do the two rebukes end?

B'chukotai: "These are the statutes and judgements, and the teachings which Hashem gave between Himself and the Children of Israel, at Har Sinai by the hand of Moshe. (Vayikra 26:46)

Ki Tavo: "These are the words of the Brit which Hashem commanded Moshe to make with the Children of Israel in the land of Moav, in addition to the Brit which He made with them in Horev." (Devarim 28:69)

The Tochecha is an integral part of our Brit with Hashem! You can't have one without the other. If you want to sign a business deal but refuse to accept any penalty clauses, the other side won't sign. If we had refused to accept this list of punishments, Hashem wouldn't have made the Brit with us! So we should be honored to be given this Aliya, with it's lofty closing sentiments.

The last time I layned a Tochecha at my shul here in Kochav Yaakov, the Gabbai gave me the Aliya and then apologized. I explained that I wasn't upset because of Rav Wasserman's reasoning. This past Shabbat there was someone else layning, because it was his Bar Mitzva parsha, and he was a Kohen...no way to give him the Tochecha. The Gabbai remembered what I had told him, and so he called me for the Aliya. I was honored and pleased.

If we could all open our ears a little more to the two Tochechot, if we could honestly examine our ways instead of rationalizing them and blaming everyone else, then maybe we can get back to the place the Klausenberger Rebbe had hoped we'd reached, and we can listen peacefully to the curses as we enter the blessing time of Mashiach.

Plenty of Warning

2009-05-17T00:27:00.005+03:00

(basedin part on the final Meturgeman Drasha, Parshat Behar-Bechukotai, 22 Iyar, 5762)

The Tochecha (Divine rebuke) in Parshat Bechukotai is unique because it comes in stages. Unlike the longer Tochecha in Parshat Ki-Tavo, which just keeps piling on more and more bad things, in this rebuke Hashem is giving us a piece at a time with a chance to do T'shuva.

There are five stages altogether. Each stage after the first begins by saying, IF we haven't learned our lesson from the previous stage but continue to rebel, ONLY THEN will we get the next stage, which is seven times worse.

In other words, we have plenty of chances to wake up and smell the beef-fry. If we can't figure out what's happening and mend our ways, then He will have to pound us some more. So whose fault is it? Our enemies? The politician? Nope. It's us. God is practically begging us to learn our lesson before it's too late, and we just don't get it.

Once again, I'm not the only one saying this. In this year's (5769) Torah Tidbits for the Parsha, Phil Chernofsky compares us to Par'o. We often comment about how seemingly impossible it was for Par'o to ignore plague after plague and stick to his stubborn evil ways. But we don't do any better! We ignore, we rationalize, we blame others for the bad things that happen. So Hashem has to smack us down, again and again.

There is a prevailing opinion in Jewish tradition that the first Tochecha refers to the destruction of the Bayit Rishon, and the second one to Bayit Sheni. This can seem very comforting, because it makes it seem as if it's all behind us. But I'm not so sure it's completely true. Certainly in a general sense, the warnings in the Torah about the cost of sin still apply. And there are frightening parallels from this Tochecha to the current time. I mentioned before, based on the insight of a friend, how the first stage of this Tochecha sounds a lot like the Hitnatkut from Gaza. That was nearly four years ago, and all the evidence seems to indicate that we are not listening yet to Hashem. And what is the second stage? (Vayikra 26:18-20) No rain leading to no crops.

Israel right now is in the midst of the worst drought in modern history. One of the places the government has cut back on water use is agriculture...leading to less crops and more imports.

Coincidence? Enough people seem willing to believe so that there is no attempt to correct our actions. Are we so willing to risk the next stage? (Which is to be overrun with wild animals; followed by besieging of the cities and resultant famine in stage four, and the final stage of cannibalism, destruction, and exile.) It would seem we are.

We need to change our ways; to work on the Spiritual lessons of Torah, to learn and to teach, and to lead others back to the correct path. If we can't do that soon, I fear we are in for more difficult times.

Torah Tidbits chimes in

2008-07-16T19:04:00.002+03:00

I always like it when someone else says the same thing I am saying (and usually better). If you live in Israel you are familiar with the weekly Torah Tidbits published by the OU Israel Center and edited by Phil Chernofsky. (You can read it online or subscribe by email here.) Part of each issue is an aliyah-by-aliyah summary, interspersed with SDTs (Short Divrei Torah.) This past week, Parshat Balak 5768, had this SDT for the last aliyah:

This final lesson of the sedra must be learned well by us today. What Balak and Bil'am discovered is that if Israel is in G-d's favor, it will be invincible from outside attack. No nation can succeed against Israel, when we are "on good terms" with G-d. That includes attacks by swords or words... If we, however, incur G-d's anger, by being unfaithful to Him, by disregarding Torah and mitzvot, then we are extremely vulnerable to our enemies. And they might not even have to actually fight against us (as in terror attacks) - we can, G-d forbid, destroy ourselves (as in road accidents, and more). This was true more than 3000 years ago; it is no less true today.

On a certain level, Parshat Balak is extremely simple and straight-forward, with an extremely powerful message - because of that simplicity. For 95 p'sukim, we feel the protection of G-d as Balak and Bil'am fail time and again in what almost looks like a comical farce. The Gemara says that Bil'am was in some ways superior to Moshe Rabeinu, that when he was around, G-d Himself was extra vigilant in protecting us. For those 95 p'sukim, we beam with pride at the grudging admiration of a unique nation as expressed by Bil'am.

And then comes the last 9 p'sukim of the sedra. Bil'am went back home. So did Balak. No danger anymore. WHAM! We did it to ourselves. G-d protected us from Bil'am by giving him his words. By not letting him speak on his own. And then we turned around and betrayed G-d. 24,000 fatalities. And the toll would have been greater, except for the bold action of Pinchas. The sedra is shouting its message to us. All we have to do is listen to it.

Thanks Phil...I hope we all can truly learn to listen to it.

Rav Riskin on the conversion scandal

2008-06-16T15:23:00.001+03:00

There's nothing I can add to this, so please just click here to read Rav Riskin's lament.

Raising the Bar

2008-03-30T21:57:00.006+03:00

(based on an original Meturgeman Drasha, Parshat Shmini, 24 Nisan, 5762)

In my very first post, I brought proof from the Torah that Hashem has a double standard, judging B'nei Yisrael more harshly than the other nations. I also made the claim, there and in other places, that within Am Yisrael He raises the bar for those that are (or claim to be) closer to Him...but I never brought proof. It's about time I did. (There are other Midrashic interpretations to these events, but here we are dealing with the simple pshat in the Torah.)

(Some of this pshat comes from the Hertz Chumash, which was a tremendous aid to my understanding in my early days as a Ba'al T'shuva.)

Parshat Shmini begins with high hopes; Aaron and his sons are about to assume their roles as the Cohanim in the Mishkan. And suddenly it changes to tragedy, as his two eldest sons, Nadav and Avihu, are stricken dead before him. Aaron has yet to say a word, but one can imagine what might come out of his mouth if given the chance: anger, bitterness, protest. Immediately Moshe says to him, "This is what Hashem has said: 'by those close to Me will I be sanctified, and in front of all the people I will be honored.'" And Aaron is silent. (VaYikra 10:1-3)

What's happening here? What were Nadav and Avihu doing, and why did they die? What would Aaron have said and why was he silent? And what does it mean for us?

Physically we know what they were doing. They took censers and brought "strange fire before Hashem, which He had not commanded them." On that miraculous day, all the fire was supposed to come directly from Hashem, and none of the Cohanim should have created any fire.

The Torah doesn't say why they did it, but from the context it would appear that they were trying to participate in the joy and celebration. They wanted to do that little bit extra to show their love of God. So what's the big deal? Why shouldn't they be allowed to do so? And even if not, is this a sin worthy of death? This was probably Aaron's first reaction; what he might have said if Moshe hadn't stopped him.

If you or I had done something like that, Aaron would have been right. It's no big deal. But what Moshe was reminding him was that he and his sons had reached the highest level of Kedusha, they had come closer to Hashem than anyone else except Moshe himself. And when you are that close, nothing less than perfection is expected or allowed, especially 'in front of all the people.' If they had not been punished, if Aaron had protested, or if he or his two remaining sons had mourned, Hashem would NOT have been honored in front of all of B'nei Yisrael, and the nation would have been doomed to perish -- just like every other nation where it is understood that the powerful are above the law.

And Aaron understood this, so he was silent.

And WE need to understand. In this day and age, the world sees everything that happens; there is no understanding for weakness that can lead to hypocrisy, only scorn and hatred for the hypocrites. When Jew with Kippot on their heads (or black hats or shtreimels) behave badly, it shows the world that our religion has no value...and Hashem is NOT sanctified and NOT honored. It doesn't matter that there are also great acts of chesed in the dati community; that gets buried under the bad.

The Gemara (Yevamoth 121b) says that Hashem judges Tzaddikim "to the degree of a hair's-breadth." In this day and age, EVERY DATI JEW IS CONSIDERED A TZADDIK! Until we learn to ACT as such, we will live in constant fear of 'fire from Hashem,' either delivered directly or through our enemies. Once we do learn the lesson, all the rest will follow and it will be time for Mashiach.

Ad D'Lo Yada:a Foundation Stone

2008-03-19T20:50:00.004+02:00

When I was still a relatively newly minted Ba'al T'shuva (over 30 years ago), I used to go almost every year to Rav Shlomo Riskin's first Purim Seuda (he made two...an early one for his talmidim, and a later one with his shul, Lincoln Square Synagogue.) Every year, he had a new p'shat for the mitzva of Ad D'Lo Yada; one of them had a profound effect on the way I look at the world; you could call it one of the foundation stones of my beliefs. I'd like to share it with you.

It's simple. Chazal tell us to drink until we can't distinguish between 'Baruch Mordechai' and 'Arur Haman'...between cheering for the good guy and booing the bad guy.

But why bless Mordechai? Was he really deserving of our cheering? After all, according to p'shat in the Megila, he was trying just as hard as all the other Jews to assimilate, even telling Esther to hide her affiliations! (I know, and I'm sure Rav Riskin knows, that the Midrash says Mordechai was a holdout from the assimilationists, but here we are going with p'shat, and I believe this is the reason that the text was written as it was.)

And why curse Haman? What brought about the salvation of the Jewish people? What woke them up to the fact that they are always a nation apart and they had better live up to it? It was Haman! If he had left us be there never would have been the greates T'shuva in history! Maybe he deserves some of the blessing!

We are our own worst enemies! And the outside foes are the TOOLS Hashem uses to punish us and to wake us up! This is what I have been saying in just about every post on this blog, and will continue to say.

(Note that in this year's D'var Torah, Rav Riskin speaks about part of this again; but he concentrates on the Haman part.)

I understand this interpretation to the core...and so, in light of my previous post on over-indulgence on Purim, I don't have to worry...I've fulfilled the Mitzva before I ever pick up a cup!

I wish everyone a happy and safe Purim, and may we all work to and come to the day when we no longer have enemies, neither from within nor from without.

Ad D'Lo Yada: the Danger and the Shtuyot

2008-03-19T19:59:00.002+02:00

Purim is here, and all over Jewishdom people are looking forward to getting stinking drunk.

Not a pretty picture.

But don't Chazal tell us to get drunk? It says one is required to drink Ad D'Lo Yada, until one can't distinguish, between 'curse Haman' and 'bless Mordechai." That sounds like a lot of drinking.

Not necessarily; and the prohibitions against all sorts of indecent behavior, such as the actions that could be brought about by too much drunkenness, are still in effect. We can't use the excuse of Purim joy to behave like animals.

And then there are the dangers -- the rise of alcohol and drug abuse in the frum community, as well as the teens who end up in the hospital or the cemetery from their Purim (and sometimes Simhat Torah) drinking. There is a clear and present danger here that, based on Pikuach Nefesh, overides Ad D'Lo Yada.

It's not just me saying this...read this article from Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Weinreb related to the OU's campaign against alcohol abuse in the frum world. Many other people are working towards this goal...while others just ignore it.

Many years ago I worked for a frum company in Boro Park. One of the very haredi young women who worked there, daughter of a well-known Rav, came in after Purim one year all excited that she had gotten to smoke a cigarette for Purim! And she said, "Next year, I'm going to try marijuana!"

Purim isn't about doing things that are wrong! Cigarettes and marijuana are both drugs that are forbidden by Torah law (not according to everyone, unfortunately.) Purim should be about relaxing enough to reach a high level of simcha; to celebrate our redemption. A little bit of drinking can help with that. (Never forget also the Ramban, who said you should just drink enough to make you sleeply and then take a nap, because when you're asleep you can't distinguish anything.)

Rav Shlomo Riskin one year quoted someone else (it might have been the Kotzker Rov but I don't remember for sure,) about the difference between drinking of drunkenness and drinking of the Mitzva. If you feel joy inside, and drink to help yourself express it, that is drinking of the Mitzva. But if you feel no joy, and drink to try to put joy inside you, that is the drinking of drunkenness. Too much of the behavior we see on Purim demonstrates the latter.

So have a wonderful Purim, but try to remember to be a mentsch, and express your simcha instead of drowning your neshama.

Or, as Rav Riskin put it another time, "Eat, drink, and be careful!"

God the Widowmaker

2008-02-06T21:20:00.000+02:00

(based on an original Meturgeman Drasha, Parshat Mishpatim/Shekalim, 27 Sh'vat, 5762)

I have repeatedly said it is a mistake to blame others for the suffering we are experiencing. It's easy to blame the Arabs, the Americans, the Europeans, and of course the chilonim and eirev rav (meaning any Jew that we don't agree with) for the suffering of Am Yisrael. But it's wrong. And nowhere is that made more clear than in this quote from Parshat Mishpatim (Shmot 22:21-23):

Do not opress any widow or orphan. If you surely oppress them so that they surely cry out to Me, I will surely hear their cry. And My anger will burn, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives will be widows, and your children orphans.

Can you say it any more clearly? If we sin, Hashem will take DIRECT action to punish us, mida k'neged mida! This is as direct as what it says in the Hagada, 'I and not a messenger.' Bear in mind what I said about that in this post: once God makes the decision in the Heavenly court, the person who does the action is irrelevant.

So when a suicide bomber blows himself up on a crowded bus and Jews die, making other Jews into widows or orphans, God sent him because of us. He never would have been brainwashed into believing it was the right thing, or he never would have made it through security, if it had not already been decided in Hashem's court. Hashem is the Widowmaker, no one else.

It hurts to realize this; and people get angrier at me for saying it than for almost anything else I claim; but it is unavoidably clear in the p'sukim. Note that Rashi on the first Pasuk says it applies to oppressing anyone; it uses widows and orphans as examples since they are perceived as weak and easy to oppress.

And there IS oppression going on in the dati world, as I have spoken about many times. Yes, there is also much that is positive, but that's not good enough. As the Or La'Goyim, the Light unto the nations, WE are expected to strive towards perfection...and to take care of our own who fail to reach it, instead of ignoring it or covering it up.

Look at Sefer Yehoshua (Perek 7). After the victory at Yericho, the Jews were defeated at Ai...the only defeat in the entire conquest...because ONE MAN secretly took from the spoils which were cherem, forbidden. The language throughout is PLURAL...'B'nei Yisrael sinned.' But it was only one man, and no one else knew? The answer is that we are expected to reach the level of perfection where it could not happen...only then are we worthy to take and hold the land promised to us.

We have to change ourselves first, and by the power of our adherence to both the letter and spirit of Torah, lift all of our fellow datiim to the level required; only then can we reach out to other Jews, and then to the rest of the world.

The REAL reason for eight days of Hanuka

2007-12-09T21:07:00.000+02:00

This is a bit of a departure from my usual postings, but I want to share something I learned from one of my teachers at Yeshiva University, Dr. Meir Herskovics z"l. (I also saw a similar posting here in the name of R' Aaron Levine zt"l.)

One of the perplexing questions of Hanuka, is, why is it eight days long? If they found enough oil for one day and it burned for eight, the actual miracle was only seven days!

You probably know some of the usual answers. The two most favored are: 1) The celebration is one day for the miracle of the victory, and seven for the oil; and 2) They divided the oil into eighths and only used one-eighth each day, so there was already a miracle on the first day. There are problems with both answers, but it is a difficult question we are dealing with.

Dr. Herskovics' answer, on the other hand, is simplicity itself. In the Gemara (Shabbat 21b) that speaks of the miracle, the standard texts say that the oil was ONLY enough for one day. (Hebrew elah.) But there is an accepted alternate version of the text that reads not EVEN enough for one day! (Hebrew afilu.) That means that already on the first day there was a miracle, which explains why there are eight days to celebrate!

So far, this sounds like a deus ex machina: 'gee, let's just change this word here, and we have an answer.' (Even though it is well known that over the years the text of the Gemara has not been as well preserved as that of the Torah, and there are many who compare different editions to try to discover the proper text.) But there are other pieces that come together very nicely to make this puzzle fit together.

The other crucial piece is one that everyone ignores: the Gemara says they found one container of oil with the seal of the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest on it. People usually gloss over this, or if they think about it they assume it was a hashgacha (Kosher certification.) But the Kohen Gadol was not in the hashgacha business! Even if he had the time, with all his other duties, within Yerushalaim, in this case he would have had to travel to the locations where they actually produced the oil, and that would have been extremely difficult. So what was this seal?

The answer is, the seal was a sign that the oil was the private property of the Kohen Gadol. The Kohen Gadol has a Mitzva (Vayikra 6:12-16) to bring a mincha, a flour-offering, made with oil, every day. The oil could have been of a lesser quality than that required for the Menorah, but according to Rav Levine it was the minhag at the time for the Kohen to use the highest quality oil, fit for the Menorah, as a hidur (beautification of the) mitzva. He had to pay for the ingredients with his own money, so of course the oil would have his name on the seal!

The daily amount of oil needed for the Kohen's offering is three logim. The amount required for the Menorah is one-half log per lamp, for a total of 3 1/2 logim. Do the math...if the oil they found in the Mikdash was the Kohen's daily measure, it was already 1/2 log short on the first day!

So now it all fits...the alternate text in the Gemara, why the oil had the Kohen's seal on it, and why, therefore, the miracle was on all eight days. The only thing I don't understand is why this solution is less well know...it is brilliant in it's simplicity.

Two other Random thoughts on Hanuka

Hanuka is about our resistance to outside influences; in this case the Hellenizers. But over the centuries we have absorbed many things from non-Jewish sources, some bad, but most of which have enhanced our lives. The difference is in what our priorites our, whether we put God and Torah first or the physical beauties first. I have seen several Divrei Torah about this this year, but the best is this one from Rav Riskin. I suggest you read it.

I have already mentioned, in my Hanuka and Purim essay, how many people use the Hanuka example to talk about civil war. I think maybe chazal knew that people would do that. That may be one of the reasons they chose the Haftara for Shabbat Hanuka that they did, from the Navi Zecharia, because the Haftara ends with (4:6) "...Not by military might, and not by strength, but by My Spirit, says Hashem of Hosts." As I will continue to say until I am blue in the face, while we need physical might to protect ourselves, unless and until we win the spiritual battle and win the support of the Spirit of Hashem, we can NEVER be victorious.

"For we have no actions"

2007-10-02T20:30:00.000+02:00

The season of T'shuva is drawing to a close; the final sealing of the Book of Life comes in a few days on Hoshana Raba. It has been a difficult season for me for many reasons; I'd like to share some of them with you. As I have said, this blog is not about my personal life, but I have also said it's me talking to myself...so please listen in.

The very first time we said Avinu Malkenu on Rosh Hashana, as we were singing the last line, it occured to me what it means. We ask Hahem to show us mercy, כי אין בנו מעשים. This is usually translated, 'for we have no good deeds,' but the word good isn't in the Hebrew! It's just assumed. It occurred to me--it's not enough to have good thoughts and beliefs. Torah is about putting them into action. There are, thank God, people who are actively working for the good. But too many of us, myself often included, are arm-chair generals. I talk the good talk; I think that what I say reflects what the Torah really wants of us. But through lack of time, lack of organization, and too much temerity, I rarely have the chance to DO anything. (Although there have been times that I have been able to effect some change and I am grateful for those.) I am not the only one; if all of us could try a little harder to actually DO something, it can make a big dent.

Another thing that struck me this year (not for the first time) is the lack of genuine asking for Mechila, forgiveness. We all know that for sins between man and man, Hashem will not forgive until you ask forgiveness of the person you wronged. Far too many people (again I am talking to myself) feel that, when they look back on the year, they haven't really wronged anyone. As Rav Riskin likes to quote from Freud, everyone is a genius at self-deception. They have justified to themselves everything they have done, so there is nothing for which they need be forgiven. As I mentioned in my very first post, many also feel that all good frum Jews will automatically forgive anyone who has wronged them before Yom Kippur starts. Anyone who doesn't do that, either with Tefilla Zaka or with a less formal declaration, doesn't count anyway.

So most people either don't do anything, or satisfy themselves with the silly running from one person to the next asking, "You'll mochel me?" and moving on without waiting for an answer.

If we could truly understand that we can and have hurt others, and that they need more than just a pro forma apology, we could begin to effect a change for the better.

Another thing bothering me this year is the fact that I work for a 'frum' company, in the heart of Yerushalaim Ir HaKodesh, which epitomizes what the Ramban calls Naval Birshut HaTorah, "a sleazebag with the permission of the Torah." This is true both in the way they treat their customers and in the way they treat their employees. Both right before and right after Yom Kippur I was assigned to billing customers for a service they thought was free...because the charge was buried deep in the legal disclaimers. This is EXACTLY the kind of evil business practice that helps bring Amalek and it makes me feel like a hypocrite; but since I have a family to support I have no choice but to do it. (If it was actually illegal, I would legally be able to refuse.) So, you say, why don't I quit and trust that Hashem will sustain me? Because of the principle that we do not rely on miracles. But it sure makes it harder to ask forgiveness on Yom Kippur when I know I will be doing the same bad thing the day after.

Right before Neilah, the Rav of our shul spoke for a few minutes, and he spoke about doing the Mitzvot for their own sake, not for selfish reasons. This also hit a nerve; I will not deny that sometimes I like to layn because of the compliments I get; there is also always the hope that, with this blog and other outlets, I will not just be able to effect some change but also become famous doing it. This is normal, of course, and it is not necessarily a bad thing--Chazal talk about serving Hashem with 'both' your hearts, meaning the Yetzer Tov AND the Yetzer haRa. But you certainly have to watch yourself carefully to make sure you don't cross the line.

This is one of the reasons, when I quote someone else here, I generally say they say it better than me...despite my desires for fame and fortune, it's more important to me that the message gets out than that I am the messenger. One of my sons tells me this may cause people to believe me and quit reading my blog in favor of the others. That's fine with me. If I knew, for example, that everyone was reading Rav Riskin's divrei Torah on a regular basis and skipping mine, I would be extremely happy. So I will continue to say that there are others who say it better than me.

One final observation...we are, as I said, at the end of the season of T'shuva...but EVERY season is appropriate for T'shuva...EVERY day can be a 'Day of Repentance.' It's not OK to sin now because we have over 11 months before the next round...and the world can't wait for next Rosh Hashana for thing to change. We need to keep working, in any way possible, to bring about changes NOW. The third part of Hillel's famous Mishna ('If i am not for myself...'--Pirkei Avot 1:14) is, 'If not now, when?'

When indeed. Let's try to make 5768 the year we REALLY being to change the ourselves and the world. Shana Tova and G'mar Chatima Tova.

Pay heed to my rebbe

2007-07-25T18:54:00.000+03:00

In a lecture series many years ago about various movements in Judaism, both legitimate and not, Rav Shlomo Riskin said at one point, "The problem with Mitnagdim is that they think they don't need a rebbe. The problem with Chassidim is that they think they have one."

Well, I have a rebbe, and his name is Rav Shlomo Riskin. Without boring you with personal details, he was a tremendous help to me when I was a struggling Ba'al T'shuva, and he was a tremendous influence on me philosophically. Like others that I have quoted, he says what I say, only much better. Here is his D'var Torah for this year's Shabbat Chazon.

If only the voices of Rav Riskin and those like him would be heeded a bit more, maybe we could finally get on that elusive path t0 the true Geula.

Random thoughts on Tisha B'Av; "It's still broken"

2007-07-25T18:45:00.000+03:00

I have trouble being extra gloomy on Tisha B'Av; I guess that's because I'm so gloomy all year round about the state of Am Yisrael and the behavior that brings it about. As I said once before in another blog, after 120 years when I face the Divine court, when I am asked, 'Tzipita L'Yehoshua?' (Did you anxiously await the Redemption?), I will have a lot of trouble answering yes to that question. To be sure, every day I hope for the coming of Mashiach; but deep down I don't believe conditions are favorable for the foreseeable future. So Tisha B'Av for me is just another reminder of everything that bothers me year-round.

One thing that I miss about my old days in Galut; in the Young Israel of Passiac-Clifton, we didn't just SAY the Kinot, but every year either Rav Chaim Wasserman or Rav Yaakov Love would give detailed EXPLANATIONS of what we were saying. Since the Kinot are full of obscure references to Biblical events and Midrashic stories, without the explanations much of the meaning is lost. I can sit for a lot longer time with that kind of Kinot-study. (I know it happens here in Israel in some places, too, but not in my shul.)

Rav Love also gave a shiur before Mincha every Tisha B'Av. His theme one year was that the Geula can't come until we fix all the reasons for the Destructions...and we haven't. He went through a number of the faults pointed out by Chazal and for each one showed that in our day, as he said, "it's still broken." We are STILL faced with Sinat Chinam and with pious hypocrisy in the dati community. So how can we expect Hashem to restore us?

We are still blaming everyone but ourselves for our suffering...the one-two-three punch of the Shabbat Chazon haftara (see my next post), Eicha, and the learning we do on the day of Tisha B'av of the story of Kamtza bar Kamtza (Gittin 56) all point the the fact that it is hypocritical frum Jews that bring about the destruction. Yet we persist in blaming anti-Semites and chilonim. We have put the cart before the horse...our behaviors CAUSE Hashem to DELIVER us into the hands of those enemies.

I noticed an excellent quote about this in one of our Kinot today; the Kina called Sh'churat V'lo MiYayin, Drunk but not with wine, by Solomon Gerondi. This translation is from the Rosenfeld edition of Kinot, page 151. Zion is lamenting her destruction, and the payyatan says, "...why should you complain, o Zion, seeing that your guilt is known? It is for the abundance of your iniquity, want of knowledge (of God's ways), for abandoning your seers and enquiring of the (false prophets who worshipped) idols, your people were exiled!" Exactly.

One last random thought. In my shul in Kochav Yaakov this year, they handed out an extra Kina mourning the Hitnatkut. This did not make me happy. People have gone way too far in their reaction to the Hitnatkut...it truly upsets me, for example, when I hear it described as a crime against humanity. As I described in a previous post, this, too, we brought upon ourselves. I am not denying it was a horrible thing...but NO ONE died, and although people were removed from their homes and STILL do not have new permanent homes (including my cousin and her family), they are STILL IN ISRAEL. So we have to keep a sense of proportion! Meanwhile, I noticed in one of the Kinot a mention of a martyrdom in Medieval Europe that caused the death of 10 Jews. A lot more than that have died at the hands of terrorists since Intifada II started; and even move have died defending our land since the modern Zionist movement started in the 19th century. It would be much more appropriate to add Kinot for them first.

It's time to really learn the lessons of Tisha B'Av; to fix the things that are broken; then we can turn it into the Yom Tov it is destined to be.

Update...Some bad news, some good news.

2007-06-21T19:07:00.000+03:00

Well, I didn't get a direct answer to my email, but this short article shows that the Sanhedrin sees things differently. They did not say anything about violence, merely calling for prayer, and protest. But when it says they determined that Israel is "sinking into the defilements of the land of Canaan," it shows that they are not looking to what I have claimed are the root causes.

On the other hand, this article is about a call by many hareidi Rabbis NOT to riot. They said a lot of the same things I have been saying about destruction of property and the ends not justifying the means. They called for peaceful demonstrations and prayer. I was very pleasantly surprised by this, even if they, too, did not talk about root causes.

It seems to have worked. The demonstrations, the riots, and the trash burnings were MUCH more subdued than last time. The parade is over now, so hopefully things will quiet down for a while. (The rest of the year, if there are hareidi riots over various issues they at least confine them to MeaSha'arim and Geula.)

But if we don't face the root problems, the REAL reason that God sends us these events, it will just keep happening again and again.

The real Toeva, continued

2007-06-14T20:47:00.000+03:00

I apologize to my handful of readers for the latest hiatus; unfortunately the struggle to feed my family here in Israel still continues, and that has to take precedence.

But once again the issue of a Gay Pride parade in Yerushalaim has reared it's ugly head; the papers carry stories about organized resistance, and the street rioting has already begun.

I felt I needed to do more than just 'preach to the converted' readers of this blog...so I went to a higher authority. As you may know, there is an attempt being made to re-establish the Sanhedrin as it was of old. The people involved readily admit that it is not yet THE Sanhedrin, but that they hope it will grow and develop towards that end.

So I went to the top. Following, in it's entirety, is a letter I sent to Rav Adin Steinzaltz, Talmid Chacham par excellence, creator of the well-known Steinzaltz edition of the Gemara, and Nasi (President) of this Sanhedrin under construction:

Dear Rabbi Steinsaltz,

I am writing to appeal to you and the other members of the Sanhedrin to do whatever you can to put a stop to a major Chillul HaShem B'farhesia. I am referring to the planned and unplanned disruptions in Yerushalaim to protest the upcoming Gay Pride parade.

As I explain myself I apologize if I seem to be disrespectful; I have nothing but respect for you, but I have very strong feelings about the error of the path the dati community is taking in regard to this and similar issues.

I understand that homosexuality is a toeva and that it is shameful to have it paraded in the streets of Ir HaKodesh. But rioting, wanton destruction, and violence on the part of dati people is also shameful; and the world sees it and says, "This is how the Torah teaches people to act."

In addition, there is always more than one way to look at a situation. Everyone is blaming the homosexuals and the chilonim for this problem, and saying that they are BRINGING this impurity to the city. But, if dati people are righteous, how could Hashem allow that to happen? Isn't it possible it's a punishment instead? Indeed, the way I see it it could be a mida k'neged mida punishment for the way we, the Torah community, are behaving!

There are deep problems within the dati community, and until we deal with them we cannot expect the rest of the world to listen to us, let alone respect us. There are other toevot as well...cheating at business, for example (Devarim 25:13-16.) Rashi says on the spot that such behavior is the cause for the coming of Amalek...but it goes on every day in the Torah world.

And if that is not enough, if, as someone once told me, the toeva of homosexuality is worse than the toeva of stealing, then we STILL do not have a leg to stand on. We ignore it, we cover it up when it surfaces, but deep down we can't deny that there is homosexuality in the dati world! No one wants to address it, but there it is. How can we, who openly say how much of a sin it is and still don't deal with it, expect chilonim and non-Jews to listen to our preaching?

I also hear a lot in regards to this parade about S'dom. I'm sure I don't have to remind you that the preponderance of stories about S'dom related by Chazal speak NOT of homosexuality but of VIOLENCE AND THEFT. That other toeva, cheating in business, is more Midat S'dom than is homosexuality. And if a dati man stabs a parade marcher, without benefit of Beit Din and without even being sure it the person is homosexual or just a "liberal" supporter, he, too, is the one that can be compared to S'dom.

I have stated in the past, and I continue to maintain, that if the only crime of Anshei S'dom was homosexuality and there were no crimes of violence and theft, then at the very least, like Ninveh, they would have been offered the chance to to T'shuva before being destroyed.

Dati people have to be made aware of all this.

There are many other problems among our own that we need to deal with before we can truly be an Ohr La'Goyim. Sinat Chinam is also rampant between segments of our community. Eilu v'eilu divrei Elokim Chaim has been replaced by, "If you don't hold like me, you're an apikoros!" Even, it sometimes seems, among the public pronouncements of the new Sanhedrin, and even more so among the private pronouncements by members of the Sanhedrin.

And there is a poison in our midst; the same poison, it seems to some, as that which caused Chazal to add a nineteenth blessing to the Shmone Esrei. Again, for the most part it is being ignored.

Faced with all this, how can we expect a bunch of tinokim sh'nishbeu to really understand that homosexuality is wrong?

So I ask you again, help stop this madness. The Sanhedrin should be leading us to clean up our own acts; then, based on our shining example and the help that we will EARN from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, parades such as this will be permanently stopped and we will be ready for Biat HaMashiach.

Once again, I apologize for any seeming lack of Kavod.

Sincerely,

Tzvi S. Anolick
Kochav Yaakov

I do not know if I will get any response; for all I know the mail is filtered and Rav Steinzaltz will never see it. But I will do my best to let you know if I do hear something; and once again I will try to find time to make other posts on this blog.

The REAL Toeva

2006-11-14T02:15:00.000+02:00

The balagan is over for now; the Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem was canceled last week because of the security situation and replaced with a mass rally. I don't know if the hareidi "March of Beasts" was also cancelled or if it went on as scheduled.

But much damage has been done; and it will potentially recur in the future...so we need to understand what really went on and what the REAL toeva is.

I have already spoken about homosexuality; I pointed out there that even with the 5 books of the Torah there are other things, sins between man and man, ALSO described as toeva ("abomination") as is homosexuality. I have also spoken about the fact that God judges us frum people much more strictly than he does those that are less knowledgeable.

I have also spoken (although I shouldn't have to) about the concept of Chillul Hashem b'farhesia, the public profanation of God's name, but it often seems that we just don't get it. The world is watching us...and what they see determines whether they think of us as an Am Kadosh...or as a gutter religion.

Recent events have swung the balance way over towards the gutter.

That we oppose homosexuality is fine; that we complain that the marchers often seem more interested in mocking us than in their own pride is also fine. If we protest quitely, peacefully, and with dignity, few rational people have a problem with that.

That is NOT what has been happening. There has been rioting and wanton destruction. The world sees scenes that are little different from the race riots in America in the 60's, or than the Moslems riots in France and elsewhere a few short months ago. I was in Geula during the week; with the trash on the streets and the smashed and burned-out bus shelters, I indeed thought I was back in 60's Harlem.

Then there were the open calls for violence. Some people were calling for there to be attacks on participants in the parade; just as at last year's parade one hareidi man stabbed several people. Even though it is true that under a Torah society homosexuality is a death penaly offense, it MUST be administered by a properly sanctioned Bet Din with all of the rules of Halacha applied. MOB VIOLENCE IS NOT A PART OF TORAH! Those who compare any of these actions to Pinchas when he killed Zimri and Kosbi, or those who compare it to Matityahu at the beginning of the Chanuka rebellion, understand neither of those stories.

But wait, you tell me. It was only a small minority, Satmar and Neturei Karta types, that advocated the violence. Maybe so, but it is much more shocking to me, based on my conversations during the week with many people, how many others either approved, or were indifferent! Not just hareidi, but dati leumi as well! After all, it finally helped to stop the parade, didn't it? Such a "toeva" has to be stopped at all costs, right?

Wrong.

We have stooped to a new low in our attempts to stop this parade. We have lost sight of what is important, and we have Profaned God's name in front of the entire world.

For all the fact that homosexuality is a toeva, it is still between man and God; there are worse aveirot going on, between man and man, every day WITHIN the frum community, including toevot, since, as I pointed out, Devarim 25:16 says that cheating at business is ALSO a toeva. How can we point fingers when we are covered in shmootz ourselves?

It is appropriate that the hareidi community planned a "march of beasts" for the same day as the parade. Because WE ARE ACTING LIKE A BUNCH OF BEHEIMOS!

There is a reason for everything. We complain that allowing such a parade in Yerushalaim Ir HaKodesh defiles the city. But perhaps the real truth is that we, the Am Kadosh, are the ones who have defiled the city, leaving it ripe for such activites!

WE HAVE BECOME TOEVA! The parade is just a symptom of the corruption we have caused by not truly following the ways of Hashem.

Let us stop attacking the gays and others who stray. If we clean up our own act, if we set the proper example as a truly Holy Nation, the next parade will never happen and we can pave the way for Mashiach.

Yishmael: the star of Rosh Hashana?

2006-10-08T17:32:00.000+02:00

Everyone knows that we read the story of Akeidat Yitzchak on Rosh Hashana, and the symbolic meaning thereof: just as Abraham suppressed his fatherly love for Yitzchak and was ready to kill him to do (what he thought was) God's will, so we ask God to suppress His anger towards us in our sinfulness and let mercy triumph.

But we can't read that BOTH days; so we divide the appropriate part of Parshat Va'yera into two; the actual Akeida is read on the second day.

As I was layning on the first day this year, though, it suddenly struck me...almost the entire first day's story is about Yishmael! The person whose descendants are now seen as Israel's worst enemy is the star of the show!

The reason for this is that there is a connection between Yitzhak and Yishmael that cannot be broken, and that influences the ultimate Geula. Rav Shlomo Riskin speaks about the connection, and about Yitzchak's obsession with Yishmael, in this d'var Torah.

There is more. Rav Risken has also spoken of the opinion of HaRav J.B. Soloveitchik zt"l, that the Akeida was a PUNISHMENT for Avraham for the near death of his first-born! Avraham had to send Yishmael away, but he should have given him a gala farewell, with wealth and provisions, as befitted a prince; for as the son of Avraham that is what he was. Instead, Avraham gave Hagar a little food, a little water, and sent them off in the desert to face almost certain death. So, says Rav Soloveitchik, just as Hagar was forced to watch her son almost die, mida k'neged mida, Avraham was sent to Har HaMoriah to see his son almost die. (There are numerous parallels in the stories that bear this out.)

In part the connection between the two sons is a reflection on Avraham's goodness. Yishmael did not turn out to be the Tzaddik of a son Avraham had hoped for. But when God tells him Sara will bear him another son, his first hope is, "Would that Yishmael would live before You." (B'reishit 17:18) Instead of hating his son for his aveirot, Avraham prays for him to do T'shuva. After assuring Avraham that he will indeed have a new son, Yitzhak, Hashem goes back (v. 20) and tells him "And as for Yishmael I have heard you: behold, I have blessed him, and I have made him fruitful and have multiplied him very greatly; he will bear 12 princes, and I have made him a great nation."

So Yishmael's power is a result of Avraham's wishes. But wait a minute, here. What Hashem promised is not what Avraham asked for! Most commentators agree that what Avraham prayed for was for Yishmael to do T'shuva--to "live before God" is to live in a righteous manner. But what was given was greatness and power!

The answer is, he got both. When God says, "I have heard you," the Targum translates, "Kabeilit T'zlotach--I have accepted your request." (The same language as we use to God during the full Kaddish...Titkabel T'zlot'chon.) IN ADDITION, as the son of Avraham, God promises all of the rest. (Note that the Or HaChaim says the next part of the pasuk, "I have blessed him," refers as well to his being blessed with the ability to do T'shuva.) And the commentators tell us that Yishmael indeed did T'shuva, based on the fact that he came together with Yitchak to bury their father (B'reishit 25:9.)

We have a principle in the story of the Avot, "the deeds of the Avot are a sign for the children." I believe it applies here as well to this relative of the Avot, Yishmael, and his children. Since our entire purpose in the world is "to perfect the world in the Kingdom of the Almighty," we must try to bring ALL of the world into the realization of Hashem's Kinship...INCLUDING Yishmael! This promise that Yishmael will do T'shuva, then, is also a prophecy for the end of days; only when we have been able to teach the descendants of Yishmael the truth of God's ways will be able to bring about the ultimate Geula.

In all fairness I must point out that Rav Riskin gave a possibly conflicting view in the same D'var Torah I linked to above. He says there is at least one Midrash that interprets Bilaam's words in BaMidbar 24:23-24 as saying that Yisrael will destroy Yishmael in the time before the Mashiach.

My answer to this comes from another d'var Torah of Rav Riskin's that I saw in the Jerusalem Post; unfortunately I don't remember what Parsha and I haven't been able to locate it. I know he mentions Bilaam's prophecy about Yishmael and he may also have mentioned the Divine promise that Yishmael will do T'shuva. But in a more general sense he spoke of the fact that some of our prophecies about the time of the Geula seem to contradict; the final outcome depends on us and how well we fulfill Hashem's Divine mission.

It's a famous contradiction in Yeshayahu 60:22, which we read in the Haftara for Parshat Ki Tavo. It is one of the 7 Haftarot of Consolation after Tisha B'Av, so it is speaking of the ultimate Geula, and it ends, "Ani Hashem, B'Ita Achishena--I am Hashem, in it's time I will hasten it." If it's on time how can it be hastened? Or if it's hastened, how can we say it is on time? Chazal answer that it is a multiple-choice offer. If B'nei Yisrael EARN the Geula by doing everything they can to bring it about, God will bring it early. If we fail, He still has a planned date when He will bring it about. (I have much to say about this particular concept, but not in this post.)

That is where the conflicting prophecies come in. If it is Achishena, if we earn it, the transition to Geula should be much easier and all the horrid account in the writings of the prophets about how many Jews have to die will not happen. If we fail, we will have to endure another "forge of iron" to deserve the Geula, and all those bad things will happen.

With Yishmael, I can see it going both ways; but you know by now I don't ever want to see anyone have to die unnecessarily. So it seems to me, if we fail, God will have no choice but to destroy Yishmael to save Yisrael, just as Bilaam predicted. (And it will be on our conscience: just as Hashem was upset when He had to drown the Mitzrim in the Red Sea.) But if we succeed, if we truly become an Or La'Goyim, then Hashem's promise to Avraham will come true, and Yishamel and all the other nations will truly live before Him.

The way of Aaron, distorted...but we have to understand

2006-09-18T22:19:00.000+03:00

A number of years ago, before he made Aliya, Rav Chaim Wasserman made one of his frequent visits to Israel; as usual he spoke about it in the Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton, NJ when he returned. One of the things he spoke about was how war-weary many Israelis are; and our need to understand that before we criticize. Many Israelis have lived here there entire lives; there are still plenty who are older than the State itself. During the past 58 years, they have sent many loved ones to war; spouses, children, parents. Many never came back; others came back missing arms or legs or with other lifelong injuries.

Is it any wonder so many of them don't want to see it happen any more? Don't want any more Korbanot? And is it any wonder that it makes them so desperate for peace that they will grasp at any straw, make any compromise, in order to get it?

It made sense to me at the time; I believe I was able to understand those feelings. Now that I have children in the IDF, and one has been in combat while the other's commander was killed at a checkpoint, I can feel it on a deeper level. I would do anything within reason to protect my boys; I worry both for their own safety, and, as I have already pointed out, for the possibility that they would have to kill others.

The key is "within reason." If we let our desperation and despair make the decisions, we will end up signing our own death warrants for a few short moments of illusory peace. This is true of the leftists who would have us go back to the 1948 partition lines, and also of the frum people I mentioned who want to make a hudna with Hamas.

Deep in the heart of every Jew runs the desire for peace. We are all striving to follow Hillel's advice (Avot 1:12) to be talmidim of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace. But here the anguish of suffering has distorted it to an unhealthy willingness to give away the baby with the bathwater.

But we MUST understand, not hate. Too many frum people simply choose the path of hate. They call such people eirev rav or worse; they call for Chanuka-style civil war (sometimes only metaphorically but sometimes far too literally.) I have heard someone who agonized about the missiles falling in the North during the war say, at the same time, that if they have to fall they should at least only fall on the houses of those who voted for Kadima!

Because we know where the blame is. None of this would be happening if WE, the frum world, were doing what we should to perfect the world in the Kingdom of the Almighty. If we stop the hate and bring on "love your neighbor as yourself," if we champion the downtrodden and emphasize the Mitzvot between man and his fellow, we can bring about the true peace of Aaron and bring the true world of peace and Mashiach for all Jews and the entire world.

Making "deals" with terrorists?

2006-09-06T20:13:00.000+03:00

I was upset but not at all surprised, shortly before the war, when I heard that people from the newspaper HaAretz had been in contact with Hamas, which offered a 50-year hudna (mistranslated as "cease-fire" but more appropriately rendered as "hoodwink") in exchange for Israeli withdrawl to the 1947 U.N. Partition lines. The paper was in favor of the proposal! (I did not see this in print, I was told by friends. Unfortunately, I could not find any articles about it on their English site.)

But I was much more upset, a few weeks ago, when I learned that some Rabbis, both Haredi and non-Haredi, ALSO want to talk hudna!

And the reason?

"The Islamic world has deep concerns about the penetration of liberal, secular values and lifestyles into the Middle East. A major factor in the conflict between radical Islam and the Western world is Islam's opposition to secular lifestyle and ideology.

"The haredi community understands their sensitivities and mentality and feels threatened by the same phenomena. The haredi community could play a key role in dialogue between the West and Islam because we live in two worlds, one deeply religious and the other liberal and pluralistic. We understand that the secular mind is different from the religious mind."

We frummies are just like the Islamic terrorists, so we can communicate! That's what it says.

The sad truth is that in some cases it is true. Fanaticism in the Hareidi AND the religous Zionist world is increasing; one recent example is the calls from a small (hopefully) minority of frum people for actual bloodshed if the Jerusalem gay pride parade is allowed to happen. The "hate and kill" attitude that I have recently spoken of is a more general example, and the hating and blaming of non-religous Jews for all our problems. We also know of the large amount of hate and animosity between different types of frum Jews; haredi vs religious Zionist, Kahane vs non-Kahane, Chassid vs Mitnaged, one Chassidic sect vs another.

These Rabbis apparantly feel that anything that would stop Jews from dying NOW is a good thing (the desire for peace at any cost will IY"H be the subject of my next posting.) What they don't realize is that, however long the hudna period is, when it is over even MORE Jews will die. Maybe they are among those who are so convinced that Mashiach will be here any day that they figure he will come before the hudna ends. If so, no matter how much we are obligted to anticipate the coming of Mashiach, the rule "we do not rely on miracles" still applies.

As I have mentioned previously, the only way to truly end the violence for ever is to win the battle in the Heavenly court. Meanwhile, our Army has to continue it's flanking action to protect us from the physical enemies. During this season of T'shuva especially, we should be concentrating on ending all the hatreds and animosities mentioned above; that is the only answer.

I'm not the only one

2006-08-10T20:28:00.000+03:00

It's always nice to see others that say the same thing I say (usually better and more calmly.) More so because of where this piece was printed. I have to admit, since it talks about respect, that I have very little for the Jewish Press. If they have more stuff like this I will be glad to revise my opinion.

I have 2 boys at risk

2006-07-23T01:04:00.000+03:00

It was never my intention to make this a diary-type blog; in fact I really wanted a website instead. But for the way I would want to do my website, the amount of storage I would need and my insistence upon it being ad-free, it wasn't an option on my current budget. Hence this blog was born.

If you're interested in the goings-on of my family, you are welcome to check out my wife's blog. But here, I don't plan to talk much about family.

In this case though, it's relevant. I have two boys in the IDF; both are preparing for war. One, who just finished his training, was already sent once to the border with Lebanon for a day until he could be relieved by more experienced troops; now he is on alert in case he is needed again. The other is about to be sent into Lebanon in a tank.

Why are my boys suddenly in much greater danger? Some would say Hamas and Hizbullah. Some would say Dubya and Condy. Some would say Olmert and the Left. All of them have a part, but the basic truth of Torah says it is the God-fearing frum Jews who, by misbehaving, bring all of these troubles on the world! This is what I have been saying all along, and will continue to say.

Here are two examples. I was having an argument with a friend at work on a related subject, which is whether or not we should hate our enemies. To me, hate is a pointless emotion which always gets in the way, and always spreads beyond it's original target...often including any of our fellow Jews that don't think like us. (I'm not saying I don't hate anyone...on the contrary, I admit to a problem with anger and hate, but I try my best to control it.) But our discussion also strayed to the above topic, who is to blame for the current crisis. In the middle of a tirade against the arabs, the Americans, and the leftist government, he suddenly went off on a tangent and told me a story about a frum family on his frum yishuv that was refusing to pay his wife for some child-care she did for them. They went to one Rav, who told the family that they had to pay, so the family said, "We don't hold by that Rav." So now they're going to a 'bigger' Rav, and my friend said to me, "They'll probably say that they don't hold by that Rav either."

Hello!?! Frum Jews trying to cheat other frum Jews in a frum town, and refusing to listen to frum Rabeim that tell them they are wrong? Does anyone see a problem with this? This is NOT an isolated situation...too many things like this happen in frum communities all over the world. If the people that not only are supposed to know better, but also brag that they know better and are therefore the holy ones, act this way, what do we expect God to do? Give us Mashiach on a silver platter? I don't think so.

(I know a lot of wonderful things and tremendous Midot are also practiced in frum communities. But that is not enough if we ignore and deny the bad parts. I have hesitated to spend too much time in this blog discussing specific incidents of which I have verified and in some cases personal knowledge, cases ranging from theft to arson to child abuse and murder, but maybe I will have to bring some of them up.)

The second example involves my son the tankist. On Shabbat when I told people he would be sent into battle in a few days, 2 people in a row were happy because he would get the chance to kill Arabs. But his life is in danger? "Everybody dies sometime. He could die here, too."

About the only thing they didn't say was that if he gets killed, God forbid, he will get 72 (4 times chai!) virgins in Olam Haba.

By showing utter callousness to my anguish as a parent these people show a lack in personal Midot. And by thinking that the answer to our problems is to hate and kill, hate and kill, and glorify in those killings, in my opinion they are going against the entire spirit of Torah.

Sometimes, like now, we have no choice but to fight and kill. (We never have to hate.) But no matter how evil are the ones we are destroying, something inside of us must still feel anguish at the destruction of those who are still, after all, images of God. (I hope to squeeze in enough time soon to talk about Pinchas and the broken Vav in Shalom.) Before starting peace talks with Anwar Sadat, Golda Meir told him, "We can forgive you for killing our sons. But we will never forgive you for making us kill yours."

So my anguish for my boys is double. I fear for their safety, of course, but I also fear that they will be forced to take other lives. No amount of describing the evil of those they may have to kill will change that.

When children misbehave and get caught, the first thing they do is blame everyone but themselves. The wise parent sees through this and does what is necessary in punishment. (Although, as father of five I can tell you it's not always so easy to figure out.) The child-like adults Adam and Chava tried to do the same thing when they got caught misbehaving; Adam blamed both Chava and God Himself ("the woman YOU gave me") and Chava blamed the snake. But God saw through it and each was punished according to their share of the sin. Can you imagine what would have happened if each had stepped up and admitted their guilt? We may never have had to leave Gan Eden!

It's time for us children to grow up. It's time for us to admit the truth and start REALLY working on the ills within our own community. Only then can we begin on the true path to Mashiach.

I'm still here

2006-05-01T21:46:00.000+03:00

I would like to apologize to my 2 or 3 readers (see, I'm an optomist!) for being away so long. Im ein kemach ein Torah...if there is no grain there is no Torah; and the struggle for basic sustenance for me and my family has been taking up a tremendous amount of time. Add to that a daughter who is getting married in New Jersey in a few weeks, 2 boys in Tzaha"l, 2 younger girls, a very old dog and a cat with kittens, and I barely have time to breathe, let alone blog. I have a long list of posts I have wanted to do, but iy"h I will get to them in the future. After I return from the U.S., I hope that I will once again have time to return to posting on a regular basis. Meanwhile, I will try to squeeze in one or two as time permits.

Chag HaAtzmaut Sameach.

Chanuka and Purim

2006-01-01T21:41:00.000+02:00

(originally distributed by email, July 2005)

Chanuka and Purim are related in many ways, especially in that they both relate to our freedom from oppression, but in many ways they are two opposite sides of the same coin.

Every Chanuka we indulge in a lot of rhetoric against our brethren of a less-religious bent (and now we spread it around so it is Chanuka all year long). In speeches and drashot, letters and emails, we all remind each other that the fight and the victory on Chanuka was against mityavnim, the ancient version of today's chilonim. We are reminded that the rallying cry "Mi LaShem Ali" was used twice in Jewish History, at the Golden Calf and at Chanuka, before Jew killed Jew in the name of God. Some of those things we hear and read sound frighteningly not like metaphors but like actual calls to bloody civil war. The eagerness and enthusiasm that some of us have to kill Arabs, seems to be transferred to our fellow Jews; we try to justify it in other ways as well, for example by redefining them as "eirev rav" and therefore not really Jewish. And we ignore the many ways in which our current situation does NOT parallel the Chanuka story, as well as the danger that could come if we are wrong. (We also ignore the fact that some of the soldiers who die on the front lines will be dati'im who decided on their own, or received P'sak's from their Rabbis, that obeying orders and participating in the disengagement is less evil than the chance of destroying the nation.)

But then comes Purim, and there is a different paradigm. Purim is another story about assimilated Jews. Virtually the entire Jewish population was chilonim! (And you can bet, some of those who went to Achaveros' party didn't just go IN SPITE OF Kelim from the Mikdash being there, but DAVKA to drink from them.) And unlike Chanuka, NO ONE DIED! Instead, the entire nation did T'shuva! This became the greatest generation of all; even greater than the Jews who left Mitzraim and were present for Matan Torah. For according to Midrash, first of all, 80% of the Jews weren't even worthy to leave Mitzraim, and of those who made it, they only accepted the Torah as an alternative to being buried under Har Sinai! On the other hand, ALL the Jews of Shushan survived, and they all VOLUNTARILY accepted the Torah with Kimu V'Kiblu.

All those chilonim, all those antis, and they all did Tshuva and became holy. Kind of makes you think, doesn't it?

If we truly are, as many believe, approaching the final Geula, and if we truly believe, as we must if we are frum Jews, that we have a hand in shaping that final end, then we must ask ouselves how we wish to see that end come: drenched in the blood of our fellow Jews, or uplifted by the voices of those same Jews crying from the heart, "Na'aseh V'Nishma."

Avraham and Avimelech

2005-12-06T21:16:00.000+02:00

(B'reishit perek 20)

I want to thank my friend Dov Bar-Leib for bringing this to my attention. I admit when I think about this story I always concentrate on one aspect, the Ramban's criticism of Avraham for thinking it's ok to lie by only telling part of the truth.

Avimelech does something very wrong by taking another man's wife; only he doesn't know she is married. It doesn't matter; God punishes his whole family as a result. But he doesn't even know it's a punishment! Today's "Katrina, etc., are punishments" crowd think he should have figured it out himself; after all, how often does the same strange malady affect everyone in the family at once? But he didn't; he didn't realize what was going on until he had a Private visit. And then his defense argument was accepted!

Still, God tells him he will die if he doesn't return Sara to Avraham. He does, and he gives Avraham many gifts. But according to Dov, the last gift, the thousand pieces of silver, was meant as a curse! (It was "a covering of the eyes": a curse that the Yitzhak would go blind.)

So here you are: you're Avraham...this guy stole your wife, ignored the obvious Divine nature of his punishment, copped a plea, and then tried to curse you! What do you do? B'reshit 20:17: "Avraham prayed to God, and God healed Avimelech, his wife, and his concubines, and they gave birth."

Avraham forgave him! He didn't rant about how evil he was and deserving of his punishment, he didn't gloat about his moral superiority, he just forgave. Avimelech did as he was Told, and so Avraham did as Hashem promised he would.

Because that is the Torah way. Not to gloat at the defeat of our enemies; not to say, "I told you so." To accept the T'shuva and move on. Dov says Hashem turned the curse into a blessing (so that Yaakov could then get the Bracha from Eisav), and so Avraham could move on. If there were any more punishments due Avimelech, God would take care of it.

And did he do right? Dov also says that the enabling of Sara to bear Yitzchak at the age of 90 was a REWARD for Avraham's prayers for Avimelech. So it seems he did.

(I must point out that the Ramban's interpretation of B'reishit 20:16 is that Sara did NOT forgive Avimelech, and the Ramban praises her for it. Based on this analysis, I must humbly disagree with that opinion.)

And the final clincher? The ultimate level of T'shuva is to be placed in the same situation and not to the same sin; 40+ years later, Avimelech had the chance to do the same thing with Rivka, and he did not. (Maybe his longevity was a reward, too.) So Avraham was right to believe he would learn his lesson.

Our job is to help bring about the T'shuva of the entire world. When we fail, or in those cases where the best efforts cannot help, then Hashem will eventually punish; but it is not then our right to gloat. We must move on the the next task, for there is still much more to be done.

Betach Nislach...surely we WILL forgive

2005-12-05T19:50:00.000+02:00

The Hitnatkut was not quite over; most of the people were out but the homes were not yet demolished; and it was almost Elul. I was on my way back from Malcha Mall with one of my children, when I saw some Gush Katif supporters set up with their new slogan: "Lo Nishkach V'lo Nislach." "We will not forget and we will not forgive."

I was sickened. What do you mean, we won't forgive? At the eve of the season of repentence, of SLICHA, do you mean to say that if Sharon suddenly and sincerely realized he was wrong, apologized, and set out to make amends, we would spit in his face and tell him too bad, he was already condemend for eternity? If we treat our fellow man, and in this case our fellow Jew, that way, how can we turn around and ask Hashem to forgive US?

It sounds to me like we are trying to fit into our enemies' stereotypes of us. Religious "fanatics", "ayatollas", preaching "fire and brimstone" like the best Bible Belt preachers. This is NOT the Torah way.

(I have had several apologists try to explain to me. One view is, only if "they" are not repentant will we not forgive. Well of course not. And only if I stand up will I be standing. It's a pointless statement. The other view is that it is talking politically, about not forgiving when it is election time. Well that proved false almost immediately; Netanyahu tried to move up the Likud primary and lost the vote to Sharon supporters.)

The lesson that is repeated over and over again on Yom Kippur is that ANYONE can do T'shuva, and that Hashem waits with open arms until the moment of our death. This is the way we, too, are expected to treat our fellow human beings.

(I will IY"H have another post shortly about the ability of the worst evildoers to do T'shuva.)

Our job is, not through hate and confrontation, but through love, to bring our fellow Jews back (including and most especially the ones within the frum community who are not truely frum) so that we can gladly forgive them and then turn to complete the work of bringing about the true Geula.

And now a word from someone else

2005-11-27T21:57:00.000+02:00

It was early December, 2003. I was at a Shiva minyan between Mincha and Maariv, and a young but respected Rav gave a D'var Torah on Parshat VaYishlach which I would like to repeat for you here. Unfortunately, I can't tell you his name. I have asked several people who were there, and gotten several different guesses, but no one remembers for sure. All I can tell you is that he was Israeli, he lived in Kochav Yaakov, and as I said he was well respected. He was NOT a Massachusetts-born liberal like me.

Before he began, he pointed out that it is usually not allowed to give a regular D'var Torah on the Parshat Ha'Shavua in a Shiva house, but it is permitted for an IMPORTANT D'VAR MUSSAR (emphasis mine). (If I had tried something like that I would have been shouted down as an apikoris.)

At the beginning of the Parsha, Yaakov hears that Esav is coming with an army. He is afraid and so he makes elaborate plans: he prays, he sends gifts, and he prepares for war. But the next day, when Esav actually arrives, gone are all the preparations; he basically just walks up to him (with a few bows.) Why? What happenned to all his fear?

To answer this question we have to look at a paradox we encounter on Pesach. At the Seder, we make a big deal out of the fact that it is Hashem HIMSELF who kills the firstborn Mitzrim. "I and not a messenger..." But the Torah seems to contradict that! Shmot 12:23: "...He will see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts and He will not allow the destroyer to come to your house to strike." Who or what is the destroyer? It sounds like a Shaliach, a messenger! So what gives?

The answer is that the most important part of a Divine judgement is not the final execution, but the decision in the Heavenly court. THAT is the decision that Hashem will not delegate to any Shaliach. Once that decision is made, the carrying out of that decision is automatic so it doesn't matter if Hashem does it directly or sends a shaliach.

Similarly by Yaakov. When he first heard Esav was coming, he was afraid and took precautions. But that night, he had a fight with the angelic representative of Esav, and won. In other words, he won the spiritial battle in the Heavenly court! Once that decision was final, he had nothing to fear in the physical world. (My own note: now I understand why some of Chazal criticize Yaacov for bowing 7 times...there was no longer any need.)

Similarly today: the important thing is not how many planes or guns we have to fight our enemies, but how we present ourselves in the Heavenly court. We have to change our emphasis to win THAT battle, and the rest will take care of itself.

Let me add one thing. I am not saying, nor I'm sure was this Rav saying, that we should NOT fight our enemies, that we should put aside our weapons and simpy rely on Hashem. That's nonsense. As long as people are trying to kill us, we have to do whatever we can to protect ourselves. The difference is the emphasis. When an army is fighting a war, it must protect its flanks, but the commanders must never forget that the front line is the main war. Our external enemies -- Arabs, Chilonim, Dubya, and Western pseudo-liberals -- are the flanking attacks. The MAIN enemy is ourselves! (Walt Kelly, author of the political comic strip Pogo, said it years ago: "We have met the enemy and he is us.") We MUST concentrate on winning the SPIRITUAL battle in Bet Din Shel Ma'ala or Hashem will just keep throwing more enemies at us, and if we DO win, then none of them will be able to touch us, as I have said before.

So let's turn the main force of our efforts to the home front, to the main battle to make our own people truly once again an Or Lagoyim (light unto the nations.)

Ashrecha Yisrael

2005-11-13T21:12:00.001+02:00

(based on the second Meturgeman Drasha, Simchat Torah shel Galuyot, 23 Tishrei, 5762)

I'm often rather negative and gloomy (you noticed?), but I am still an optimist because I know that, no matter how long the road may be, the Geula will be at the end and it will all be worth it. All Hashem asks of us is to behave like mentschen, and then He will fulfill all His promises, do our fighting for us, and make sure we will never have to fight again.

So we come on Simchat Torah, the pinnacle of Z'man Simchateinu, to the pinnacle of the K'riya, the Chatan Torah. And what does it say? (D'varim 33:29) "Happy are you, Israel, who is like you? A nation saved by Hashem, the Shield of your help and the Sword of your pride; your enemies will oppose you, but you will tread on their high places."

It can't be put any simpler than that. The task that has been laid on us is never easy, but it can be done. Once it is, we will have earned the ultimate Simcha.

Got Milk?

2005-11-03T22:30:00.000+02:00

This is a true story told to me by Rav Chaim Wasserman, now of Jerusalem. I may not remember the details correctly, but the story speaks for itself.

There was a man who worked at a Yeshiva in America. He used to bring his own milk with him for his coffee and such, and it kept disappearing. He thought maybe people thought it was supplied by the school, so he put notes on it saying it was private property. It still kept disappearing. So he upgraded the notes to say he did not give anyone r'shut (permission) to take it. It still kept disappearing. Then he changed the notes to say that taking the milk was g'neiva (theft). It still kept disappearing. Finally, he put a new note on that said, "Not Chalav Yisrael." His milk was left alone.

Did you laugh? Did you cry? Do I need to say anything more? Apparently I do; I'm willing to bet more of you laughed than cried, and most everyone shrugged it off as an unfortunate situation...but nothing more.

This is one very small example of the deep problems we have WITHIN the frum community that are the source of all our suffering. Far too many people will kill themselves to be machmir on mitzvot bein adam laMakom (between man and God); but bien adam lachavero? The way you treat your neighbor? Who cares? Either he is frum like you, in which case he will say T'filat Zaka before Yom Kippur. In that prayer, among other things, he forgives anyone who has wronged him in the past year, so you're ok. Or else he is an eirev rav and not really Jewish, so we can do whatever we want to him anyway.

I learned many years ago from Rabbi Binyamin Blech, that when the non-Jew came to Shammai and Hillel asking to learn the Torah while standing on one foot, he was really asking, which leg of Torah is more important, our relations with Hashem or with our fellow humans? Shammai would not answer, but Hillel answered, "That which is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor." The golden rule in it's original form. Bein Adam Lachavero is the essence of Torah. (Not that you can stand on one leg all your life, which is why Hillel told him to go out and learn the rest.)

That non-Jew converted because of Hillel. The whole world doesn't need to become Jewish, but if we can honestly demonstrate in our lives the same dedication to Mitzvot Bein Adam Lachavero, we can teach them all to recognize Hashem, which is as much a part of bringing the Mashiach as our own redemption.

Time for US to wise up.

2005-11-03T22:10:00.000+02:00

(based on the first Meturgeman Drasha, Parshat Ha'azinu, 12 Tishrei, 5762)

Too many of us seem to forget the cause of our problems. God knew that we would forget, so he had Moshe teach B'nei Yisrael a song to bear witness (see Parshat Vayeilech, D'varim 31:16-21). Ha'azinu is that song. It tells of Israel sinning and being punished. It tells of "Hester Panim," which we all talk about...bad things happen to the Jews because God has withdrawn, hidden His face from us. But it doesn't stop there. There is a more serious level. D'varim 32:29-30 is ostensibly aimed at our enemies, but remember who this song is for. It says, if THEY were wise they would only understand, but WE need to relearn that wisdom, too.

"How can one chase a thousand, or two cause 10,000 to flee? If not that their Rock has sold them out, and Hashem has shut them out."

Wow. That's not Hester Panim, it's much worse. God goes knocking, as it were, on our enemies doors, saying, "You want to destroy this nation? It's yours, I've locked them out."

How can your average non-Jew refuse such an offer? He certainly has never had much in the way of high moral example, say from the Jews around him for example. Just as God hardened Pharoah's heart, He puts these ideas into our enemies' heads. If we defeat an enemy without doing the T'shuva He expects, He can and will find another.

No, there is only one way. That's the whole point of Ha'azinu; we are reminded of the reason we are suffering and also the cure. We have to cure ourselves; STOP DOING all the things that brought about the problem. That's the whole message of the season of Rosh Hashana around which we read this Parsha: if we fix ourselves, Hashem will immediately accept us and all of our enemies will be as nothing. If not, we have ONLY ourselves to blame.

Beat the chest lightly

2005-10-11T21:42:00.000+02:00

One of the things that bother me is when we pick up bad ideas from other religions or societies. There are some very good things to learn, but over the centuries some very un-Jewish ideas have crept into our religion.

One of those is the Christian idea of self-flagelation; that we must physically punish ourselves to atone for our sins. In A Treasurey of Jewish Folklore there are even stories from Europe of Chassidim going to their rebbes to confess their sins and be assigned specific penance. This is extremely far from the concept of T'shuva, which concentrates on restitution (if another person is involved), sincere regret and sincere resolve to do better.

When we say Vidui on Yom Kippur, we tap our chest lightly near the heart. This is symbolic of telling Hashem that it is our Yetzer Hara, as symbolized by the lusts of our heart, that has caused us to sin, and we ask Him to forgive, as well as to help us strenghten our resistance to those urges. But I hear people every year hitting themselves so hard that they MUST wake up the next morning with a bruise the size of an ostrich egg. This is not the intent at all.

So let's try to remember how the whole thing works; as we enter Yom Kippur let's concentrate on trying to make ourselves and the world a better place.

G'mar Chatima Tova

L'Shana Tova Ticatvu V'Tichatmu

2005-10-02T22:01:00.000+03:00

If there is one thing that our tradition emphasizes over and over, it is that we always have the chance to change our ways. T'shuva is basic to our beliefs; otherwise we would all be lost, for all of us make mistakes and do things we know we shouldn't. And it's not even three strikes and you're out; Hashem gives us many, many strikes; we will see over and over again in the Machzor that He waits until the day of our deaths, hoping we will repent. Along with that is the implied promise that we have the ABILITY to change; it is not the impossible goal it may at times seem to be.

This is my wish for all of this in this time of T'shuva; that we all can find the strength within ourselves to make those changes that need to be made, and that together we can join L'takein Olam B'Malchut Shakai, to perfect the world in the Kingdom of the Almighty. Chag Sameach.

Katrina nonsense

2005-09-27T20:15:00.000+03:00

I barely know where to begin on this one. Over 1,000 people died, many more suffered, and there are self-satisfied frum people cheering that it is Divine punishment for the hitnatkut, and waiting to see how high the body count will go? What kind of nonsense is this, really?

When people point "punishment" fingers, I constantly refer back to Avraham's defense of S'dom and Amora (B'reishit 18:23ff.) Avraham jumps right in and tells Hashem He can't destroy the righteous with the wicked! And God agrees!

There are other examples, too. In the rebellion of Korach, before the earth swallows Datan and Aviram and their followers, Hashem tells Moshe to give people who don't want to participate in the evil a chance to get away, and he does (Bamidbar 16:23-26.) And when Shaul HaMelech goes to destroy Amalek, he gives the Keinites the chance to leave before he attacks (Shmuel I, 15:6.)

There are times it seems the good are swept up with the bad, just as we face the problem of Tzadik V'ra Lo. But the the basic pattern is that in a direct punishment of evil people, good people should not suffer.

But this is not even what happened here! How were ANY of the people of New Orleans involved in the Hitnatkut that they should be punished? I'm willing to bet that most of the poor people who suffered worst were Democrats, and despite the fact that some frum people hate all Dems, it was Conservative Republicans named Dubya and Condaleeza who pushed Sharon into the hitnatkut. How did they suffer? In fact, since Bush is an oilman, when you look at the price of oil how can you say he suffered at all? True, his ratings are down; but he is in his last term anyway, and plenty of other things he has done are contributing even more to his ratings drop.

So why are the people of New Orleans being punished? Because they are black? That opinion is beneath contempt. Because they are homosexuals? I've dealt with that already, and as someone pointed out in another blog, in that case San Francisco should have been hit. Because of the licentiousness of Mardi Gras? In that case, Rio should have been hit. Because, as one person said, they don't know Torah? They're not Jewish! And where are the Sh'lichim being sent to teach them at least the B'nei Noach? If it's that important and it's not being done, Torah centers are to blame and should be hit.

According to one report I heard, as many as 12,000 Jews were affected by the devastation of Katrina. Are they being punished, too? Maybe because they didn't make Aliya. Or maybe analysis will reveal that they are all eirev rav (today's favorite excuse for hating our fellow Jews), not "real" Jews, and deserve whatever they get. Or maybe because they chose to live so near a center of evil like New Orleans (of course Lot did the same thing, and he was rescued twice, once by Avraham and once by God.) In other words, there is no logical reason to say they were punished.

The fact that the earth is bursting to the seams with people means that the normal course of physical changes to the Earth, driven by the physical rules with which Hashem created it, will cause more catastrophes than in previous ages. The strong possibity that mankind is stirring up the atmosphere with global warming makes it even worse and makes it, at least in part, a self-inflicted punishment.

There is nothing wrong with looking for reasons that things like this happen; Rav Shlomo Riskin spoke about the tsunami in his pre-Pesach shiur in Yerushalaim. He quoted a Gemara (sorry, I don't have the source) that spoke of tsunamis as caused by God's tears over the suffering of His people. NOT as punishment, and not to say that our suffering will stop just because He is crying; like any good parent, the punishment may hurt the parent more than the child, but it still has to be done.

When we look for reasons, it should be within that positive moral context: we should try to derive from it more of what Hashem requires of us in the world and how to fix it, not rejoice at the suffering of others.

Mazal Tov, I'm Eirev Rav

2005-09-27T17:48:00.000+03:00

The owner of another blog recently posted a request to his posters to tone down the invective; he said we should direct our anger at the eirev rav, not at each other. I posted a response that nothing would change; each person would define anyone who doesn't agree with him or her as eirev rav and go on hating. Within hours, to prove my point, someone posted this:

'"...anyone who does not participate in the battle against the Erev Rav becomes, de facto, a partner with the k'lipah of the Erev Rav, and was better off not being born in the first place." (Kol HaTor, Chapter 2, Section 2, Letter 'bais')'

I don't and won't battle against the eirev rav; and I refuse to define any Jew as a non-Jew because I don't like them. I guess that means this person is calling me eirev rav; I'm not overly surprised and actually somewhat pleased, in a dark sort of way.

(There IS a point to statements from various gedolim about eirev rav, Givonim, and so on, which I will probably bring up again, but the point is NOT to take away the Jewishness of anyone, but to remind us all that being a Torah-true Jew as Hashem intended involves far more from us each second of our lives than just the fact that we were born of a Jewish mother or converted by a Beit Din.)

This accusation had definite implications in Jewish law. First of all, as it says, I have to be battled against. Once I am defeated, I would have to be offered 3 choices: become a Ger Toshav (Ben Noach) and stay in Israel, leave the land (Yehudi M'garesh Yehudi, as long as he's redefined as not Yehudi), or die. At least I have options.

And my neighbors had better be warned. I can't count in a minyan anymore, they can't trust my Kashrut, and they can't listen to me layn anymore, among other things. On the other hand, it's always nice to have a Shabbos goy on the block...

If our enemies were smart, they would back off completely...at the rate we're going we will all kill each other off for them in no time.

I'm really talking to myself

2005-09-26T00:29:00.000+03:00

It was a great Rav in America (whose name of course I don't remember) who first told people when he gave Musar D'rashot, that he was really talking to himself and inviting them to listen in. The same is true in my case; even though I may sound high and mighty (yes, I know how I sound sometimes) many of the things I criticize are flaws that I have not yet purged from myself. Not in every detail, obviously, and this is not a confessional (wrong religion!) but I do have issues that I need to work on.

So maybe I should go to the opposite extreme, as some suggest? Maybe I should retire from any debate, contemplate my own navel until I can emerge pure and perfect. Well, among other reasons, I would then be violating two other Mitzvot, the ones not to stand idly by the blood of my brother, and the one to rebuke (properly and politely) my fellow Jew if I see him doing something wrong (VaYikra 19:16-17.) Not to mention I feel the need to counter some of the nonsense that is being put forth B'shem HaShem. So I will keep on as I am.

Why do I bring this up now? We just read the Tochecha in Parshat Ki Tavo. Buried in the middle of it all (thanks again to Rav Chaim Wasserman for pointing this out to me many years ago), in the midst of the description of all the evils that will befall us, is the phrase, "Because you did not serve HaShem your God with Simcha and with Goodness of Heart from the abundance of everything." (D'varim 28:47.)

Wow. Even if you do the Mitzvot, but don't do them with joy, you're in trouble! Rav Wasserman's favorite example of this is Pesach cleaning. Do you throw yourself into it with vigor, cheering that this is how you are preparing for the joyous YomTov to celebrate our freedom? Or is it more like, "I hate this cleaning, it's too much, why do we have to do this stuff?"

I personally have a big problem with this one; not just Pesach cleaning (I get around some of that by shifting my griping to anger at myself for not doing more preventative cleaning the rest of the year), but in general. It's sometimes hard not to see Mitzvot as a burden, to gripe instead of rejoice. So when I tell you this, I for sure am talking to myself first.

You may wonder, this sounds more like a Mitzva Bein Adam LaMakom, between man and God, and I keep saying between man and his fellow man is more important? The truth is, this is very much an interpersonal issue. Your own attitude determines how you interact with other people; whether you act like a mentsch or a louse. It changes how you influence people about the quality of the Torah you claim to believe in. For parents and teachers, it has a direct effect on how you pass on the heritage to the next generation. In short, in every way it is an interpersonal problem that must be dealt with.

In addition to the high-and-mighty charges, I am often accused of being downright gloomy. This is also true. Although in the long run I believe firmly that Mashiach will come and the promise of redemption will be fulfilled, and though I concede that by the concept of "B'ita" (in the Haftara we just read) Mashiach could come at any time, I don't see us as EARNING that redemption any time soon. As I said on another blog, if the Geula DID come today, we would all have to enter it with our heads hung in shame for the lousy mess we have made of God's world, and for the fact that we are such losers that we have to be bailed out without even beginning to fulfill the most important aspects of our mission.

I want the Geula to come on the Purim model, not the models of Chanuka or Y'tziat Mitzraim, where lots of Jews had to die before the others were saved. On Purim, all the Jews did T'shuva and no one had to die. (I plan to post my "Chanuka and Purim" piece here on the blog when Chanuka arrives.) I don't even want to see non-Jews die, not in New Orleans, not in the Far East, not even in Ramallah and Gaza City. Three times a day I say the Aleinu at the end of davening, in which I ask Hashem to TURN ALL THE EVIL PEOPLE OF THE EARTH TOWARDS HIM, NOT to kill them; just like happened in Ninveh when He sent Jonah to save an entire city.

And when even the frum people are wasting all their energies in the wrong directions and not listening to the true moral imperatives of Torah, I don't see all this happenning so quickly. That's why I get gloomy. So I say, to myself with the rest of you listening, serve Hashem with Simcha, help bring His joy and love to the world, and we can start to reverse the tide of suffering and begin the (possibly long) road to true Geula.

S'dom: a major misinterpretation

2005-09-21T22:27:00.000+03:00

There has been a lot of talk lately, linked to Katrina, about the people of S'dom. Much of it is based on a major, but very common, misinterpretation of P'shat in the story of the destruction. I'd like to set it straight.

Rape is a crime of violence, NOT of sex. The reason that it uses sexual means is to increase the effect to the maximum. Anyone can punch someone in the face. To violate them sexually is the ultimate in domination and humiliation, thus providing the maximum satisfaction to the aggressor. In fact, if you take a confirmed homosexual and put him in a barbarian army, he will join in raping the women as fast as any of the others.

The Torah narrative of the visit to S'dom by the Malachim (B'reishit 19:4-11) is a story of RAPE, NOT homosexuality. If the people of the town just wanted an orgy they could've propositioned the strangers directly. Everything about their actions, from the demand that Lot throw his guests out of his house to their attempt to break in shows that violence was the motive.

If you look at the Midrashim associated with the people of S'dom, you see the same thing. A significant percentage speak about violence and robbery, not sex, when illustrating the crimes of the cities of the plain. THIS is why they were destroyed. Once again, crimes against one's fellow man are the highest level of evil. I would go so far as to say that if in their dealings with each other they were good, honest, people, that they would NOT have been destroyed for homosexuality. At the very least, like Ninveh, they would have been offered the chance to to T'shuva first.

But wait, you tell me. Homosexuality is a Toeva (usually translated as abomination) so it MUST be punished, and we absolutely must have to spend tremendous efforts condemning it!

There are a lot of things the Torah called Toevot; it's true that homosexuality is one. But so is cheating at business(Devarim 25:13-16)! And what comes right after those P'sukim? Zachor! Rashi right on the spot (Pasuk 17) says the REASON that Amalek comes is because we cheat in business! NOT because of homosexuals in New Orleans or San Fransisco, not even because of (whisper it...we don't want to admit our own hypocrisy when we scream about secular homosexuals) homosexuals in Boro Park!

The Torah and Chazal return us once again to the same points: our problems stem primarily from offenses between man and man, and especially from those offences when commited by our own. Maybe we should start to listen.

This is Not a Miracle

2005-09-18T21:54:00.000+03:00

Anybody lately hear Dubya talking about how wise and understanding the great nation of Israel is? How about Tony Blair? Mahmoud Abbas? No? Well, you ask, why should they?

Here's why: D'varim 4:6: "And you should keep and do [the Torah], for it is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the nations; for they will hear all of these laws, and they will say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'"

This pasuk is a statement of simple fact, NOT a promise of a miracle after the days of Mashiach. But it is conditional on one thing. IF B'nei Yisrael keep the Torah PROPERLY, the overwhelming truth of it's wisdom will FORCE people to recognize it. Whether they like it or not! And THAT will bring Mashiach.

There is historical proof. Take a man who hates the Jews, who is doing his best (according to Chazal) to circumvent a direct Divine order and imbed hidden curses in all his blessings. The one time he simply looks, really looks, at the Jews living in accordance with the Torah, all those thoughts are driven from his mind and he is forced to proclaim, "Ma Tovu Ohalecha Yaacov, Miskenotecha Yisrael." (BaMidbar 24:5)

Didja ever wonder why the first thing you say when you walk into a shul each day is a blessing composed by a non-Jew? This is why! The ideal we must always strive for is to reach the level of proper Torah observance that will force the world to echo the blessing of Bilaam and to proclaim the wisdom and greatness of Yisrael! Because if we can permanantly reach that level, none of our enemies will be able to touch us.

They won't even want to. Shmot 34:24 says we can just leave our homes to go to Yerushalaim for the Shalosh Regalim and no one will want our land! It doesn't even say we have to set guards.

This is not miraculous; it is merely the power of Torah. When the world sees us properly observe it, they have no choice but to fall in line; respect us and look up to us.

But it is not what they are seeing now. When non-Jews and non-dati Jews have any contact with the frum world, far too often it is very negative. Granted the news media is biased against ANY religion and ignores the good apples, but we give them too many bad apples to choose from in any country where there are Jews. Over the years we have seen money laundering and murders, child sexual abuse and prostitution, business lawbreaking and epithets...just to name a few. All from people labeled as, or calling themselves, "Orthodox" or "Chasidic." Not to mention the spectacle of Rabbis meeting in public to curse people they don't like, from Rudy Giuliani (before 9/11) to Sharon...it didn't work in either case. Or cases ranging from the dance-hall collapse a few years ago to Katrina today, where instead of showing sympathy for human beings that are hurt, there are Rabbis who blame the victims.

There is a collective term for this: Chillul Hashem. How can we educate the world, how can we lead them to the ways of Hashem, when some of us make His name look so bad? It's not just that they don't understand our beliefs...in most of the cases there are actual violations of those fundamental beliefs that make us all look like hypocrites. In other cases it is people not violating any specific Halachot, but fitting perfectly into the Ramban's description of "naval bir'shut HaTorah" (a scumbag within the parameters of the Torah.)

We need to stop, now. We may not be able to control everyone, but we can control ourselves. We can speak out against those that set these examples. We can try to force our own institutions to exert pressure on individuals who behave like this to stop BEFORE it becomes public (sometimes now the institutions just try to cover it up, making it worse when the scandal finally breaks.) We can refuse to patronize establishments involved in these scandals. On a personal level, we can try even harder to behave towards each other as if the next action we took could make or break the coming of Mashiach, today.

Because when we all start behaving towards each other like Hashem intended, that Pasuk will come true, and Mashciach WILL come, today.

Why the disengagement is happenning

2005-08-17T21:37:00.000+03:00

As I write this, the disengagement is well underway. Many people are still working, hoping and praying to stop it, but right now it there is a chance it will complete on schedule. Instead of exploding in hate for those that we love to blame, let's try to see why it is happennning and what we need to do to prevent the next one, and hopefully reverse this one.

This past Parshat Bechukotai, over lunch, I was giving a D'var Torah based on one of my original Meturgeman speeches; the concept in that Parsha's Tochecha of levels of Divine anger/punishment, each one to take effect if we don't listen to the warning of the previous levels. I mentioned, from Vayikra 26:17, that at the first level we would lose some battles but not yet be conquered. One of my guests (who until recently was in a tent in Gaza) immediately said that that sounds like losing Gaza but not the rest of Israel! This is not a person who would agree with a lot of what I say; but the logic of the comparison just struck her. It's even more striking if you read the previous verse, 26:16, which speaks about sewing your seed in vain for your enemies will eat it...and guess who's getting those greenhouses and the produce in them?

What does this show? The Palestinians are not getting Gaza because of some evil chilonim in the government, and not because of the pressure of the rest of the world, but because Hashem is angry with us for not listening to him!

But, you ask, how can that be? We are all good, frum people! Why, in the last several years, observance and Torah learning have risen to incredible levels. Even so-called Modern Orthodox are more observant than they used to be. So where's the problem?

Was anybody awake and listening last Shabbat to the Haftara? Chazon Yishayahu, for which the Shabbat was named? What does the Navi say to us B'shem Hashem? We make Him sick with our empty ritual observance! We are not persuing justice, helping the widow and orphan. This is the reason destruction comes. There is, to be sure, much chessed and caring in the dati community; but there is much else to be ashamed of, much of which we ignore or rationalize away. Hashem does not ignore and does not rationalize.

We are coming up on the Yamim Noraim; one of the things we will say, and everyone will comment on, are the three things that take away the evilness of the Divine decree: T'shuva, T'fila, and Tzedaka. There have been many calls for prayer, including the mass prayer at the Kotel, but I have not heard any calls for mass repentance, and the only calls I have heard for charity have been for food and supplies for the people camping in Gaza...none for additional support for the many, many people in need in this land. Demonstrations and prayer are wonderful, but they don't meet the Divine requirements by themselves.

God also doesn't like chutzpa; and we have shown plenty of that lately (He doesn't mind when we argue or challange Him, but with respect.) In general, in our self-righteous convictions that we are right and everyone else is not only wrong, but beneath contempt. More specifically, all the people who are telling us, "God won't allow the hitnatkut to happen." I didn't know there were any Neviim among us today! He certainly doesn't think so, because it appears that so far He is ignoring their false promises in His name. And as I said once before in another location, there have been great leaders promising the same thing before every major disaster in Jewish History.

Finally and most important for this particular case. No advance in the so-called "peace process", including the hitnatkut, has ever happenned without one or more religious parties in the government voting for it. In general, they join/stay in the government because of large extra piles of money budgeted for their Yeshivas. When we criticize, they always have two excuses: 1) someone else will join the coalition instead of us so it makes no difference, and 2) it is a big mitzva to get extra funding for Jewish education.

Number 1 has never been proven, because there has never been a time when ALL the religious parties refused to join the government. As for number 2, in the long run there is no extra money; at best it comes from the yeshivas of the other parties. This time, the government is spending two billion dollars (almost 9 billion shekels!) on the hitnatkut; eventually that will mean reductions of all our services, including education.

But on a more important level; I'm sure the people making the decisions to join the government are all Chachamim and Tzaddikim (I'm not being facetious, I mean it). But what does the Torah tell us twice? (Shmot 23:8 and D'varim 16:19.) A bribe blinds the eyes of the Chachamim and confuses the words of Tzaddikim! Which means they can't even judge on themselves and say the money is not a bribe! (It may not be a bribe D'Oreita, but it is surely a very strong Safek, and it teaches the chilonim in government that there are always datiim who have their price.)

When some of our own people vote for the hitnakut, how can we blame anyone else? Maybe if we really started cleaning up our own house, we could reverse this setback and truly set ourselves on the road to the Geula.

A ray of hope

The afternoon of Tisha B'Av the atmosphere starts to lighten; we begin to look forward to the building of the final Beit Mikdash that will not fall. This year on Tisha B'Av in the afternoon, I was at Tzomet Bar Ilan in Yerushalaim, and I saw a new poster there on the Haredi posting board. The message was, "Yehudi M'karev Yehudi", a Jew brings a Jew close. There was a large picture of a Haredi man with his arm around a chiloni man. This is the correct way to go, and to see such a thing in a Haredi neighborhood makes us realize that there are sensible people out there working in the right direction.

The Story of the Meturgeman

2005-08-01T20:01:00.000+03:00

In the time of the Gemara, the vernacular for most Jews was Aramaic. This means that many people did not understand the Hebrew they heard during davening; most especially during the Torah reading. Since the Torah is the center of our lives, a means had to be found to help people understand what was being read. This led to the institution of the Meturgeman (translator), who actually interpolated an Aramaic translation between each Pasuk read by the Ba'al K'riya. The translation was basically literal but obviously included the interpretation of the translator; we can still see that today when, for example, Rashi quotes one of the written Targums to help explain what a Pasuk may mean.

So how did I come to call myself the Meturgeman? I was the Ba'al K'riya at the Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton, in Passaic, NJ for many years. I had to layn for 2 minyanim every Shabbat morning. At the earlier minyan I was one of many people who took turns giving Divrei Torah. On Sept. 8, 2001 (20 Elul, 5761), I was supposed to speak for Parshat Ki Tavo. As you will no doubt see as you read my postings, Tochecha is something I often talk about, and I had a lot to say that day. However, one of my children ended up in the emergency room (thank God, everything turned out all right) and I ended up not being in shul at all.

That left me very frustrated, with much that I hadn't been able to say. Then, three days later the World Trade Center lay in ruins. Despite how quick we are to see the Divine hand in natural disasters and terrorist attacks when many goyim die, I seem to be the one of the few who realize that, A) 9/11 happened only three days after the reading of longest Divine rebuke in the Torah, and B) More Jews died at Ground Zero in New York than in the entire Intifada up to that point! (And much beyond...possibly even the entire Intifada II so far; I have been unable to find a breakdown of 9/11 deaths by religion.)

A few weeks later, in Parshat Haazinu, another Parsha full of rebuke, I interrupted the gabaim between aliyot and said a short D'var Torah, based on the simple meaning of part of the coming Aliya; similar to what the Meturgeman used to do. (I will reproduce it later on in another posting.) That set the pattern; for about six months after that I would occasionally do the same thing. It was always short, and only once did I do it twice in the same Parsha. Most people liked it, and Rabbi Chaim Wasserman approved. However, there were a few people (I was never told who) who objected so violently that, as the Rabbi put it, the gain was cancelled by the loss, so I had to stop. Since then I have wanted a place to share my observations; so here I am today.

May your ears hear what your ears are hearing

You may have heard stories of famous Rabbis where the punchline is, "May your ears hear what your mouth is saying." In other words, if you apply the logic of the last thing you said to your original complaint, everything is clear. I am looking for something even simpler. People hear the Torah reading in shul, and some even pay a bit of attention to the Haftarah, but most of them are not really listening to the meanings. Some don't understand, some are looking only at commentaries but ignoring the text itself, and some are only busy looking for errors that they can correct (especially those errors that are not required to be corrected!) The simple text of the Torah and the rest of Tanach are the basis for everything we believe in; of course we often need the Oral Law to help us understand it, but we cannot escape the P'shat! Before the Rabbis of the Mishna or Gemara quoted a verse, they understood it in context. Now, too many of us only know the verses from where they are quoted. And it is essential to understand it in context before we can really know what God wants of us.

Since I began to layn, I always made it a point to understand what I was reading before I got up there to actually read it. I can't always translate every word, but I have an excellent idea of what is going on. It is from this concentration over many years on simple P'shat that I have come to realize what God really wants and expects of us and where we have gone astray. Most of what I speak about is towards that one goal: we need to get back on track. Stop blaming the goyim and the chilonim, stop blaming outside influences. Concentrate on ourselves and what we need to fix. That's what I will be talking about here.

God's double standard

Hashem has a double standard for B'nei Yisrael; we would be wise to pay heed to it. Within the nation, He raises the bar the more Dati we are. If we understand that, we see more of where our problems lie.

There is much evidence for this double standard, but here's a simple example. When we are good, 5 of us will be given the strength to vanquish 100 of our enemies, and 100 can chase 10,000 (Vayikra 26:5). But when we sin and are being punished, only 1 of our enemies can vanquish 1000 of us, and 2 can chase 10,000 (Devarim 32:30)! Look at how lopsied that is; He helps our enemies a lot more than He helps us (up to a 50:1 ratio.) The reason is because we should know better. Simarlarly, those who have fully accepted His Torah are held to a much higher standard than those who were born and raised in a non-religous or anti-religious environment. So let's quit blaming them and look at ourselves and what is being done wrong "B'shem Hashem." (Or as one writer once put it, "Shifty B'beit Hashem".) I will continue with this topic in later posts.