Out of Step Jew

In its excellent YUdaica series of articles about YU past, the student newspaper The Commentator has a very interesting (and very long) article by Rabbi Yitz Greenberg on his years teaching there. The article is too long to summarize but it gives a very interesting history of the Torah u'Maddah debates that seem to never end.

Many people don't realize that in the period that he is writing about, the sixties, studying the effect of the Holocaust or even of the State of Israel on Jewry was considered passe not only by the rabbinic establishment but by the academic powers as well. These were just some of the subjects (some of the others were more directly related to his critical look at Orthodoxy) that made him and others persona non grata at YU during those years.

The article - for those who sympathize with him or those who don't - will lead to much interesting discussion and of course debate (and maybe blogging).
| Permalink

A Chelmenic decision likely to annoy everyone and solve no problems:

"In a ruling which may have far-reaching implications, the High Court of Justice on Thursday morning ordered the state to recognize 'leaping conversions,' non-Orthodox conversions in which the study process was conducted in Israel but was finalized overseas. Such individuals will be considered Jews according to the Law of Return."
| Permalink

From Ha'aretz:
"Escalating their campaign urging troops to refuse orders, a group of rightist anti-disengagement activists and rabbis is to circulate a statement Thursday calling on soldiers to fail to report back to their posts after the end of the vacation for the Passover holiday, an act which could consitute desertion."

Aside from the obvious question of who is supposed to defend us, don't you just love leaders who are always willing to send other people to jail for the cause?

NOTE: In Friday's paper (can't find it on the Internet edition), R. Shapiro denies being involved in the delcaration, noting that students in his Mercaz HaRav yeshiva have recently been drafted into the IDF.


| Permalink

Getting back to a theme we have discussed over the last few weeks – the difference between Anglo-olim and their landsmen back home – I would like to focus in a bit on the "year program" that has become as others have said, a "mass movement" in the modern-Orthodox community. The apparent success of these programs has filtered to the haredi community where learning in Israel has also become the "in thing" and according to a recent Jewish Week article, the Conservative and Reform movements have also caught on to the fact that a year of intensive study in a Jewish environment will produce more thoughtful, committed and educated young Jews.

I would like to focus in on a few articles that have found there way to the excellent Orthodox Caucus web site (the new site Torah Currents is wonderful). In addition to an extensive listing of the programs for boys and girls there is an article by Rabbi Jay Goldmintz as well as a few other essays and Q&A 's .

There are three main areas where the young boys and girls seem to benefit according to the essays: Talmud Torah, observance and commitment to Israel. While I would like to comment on the last of these benefits a bit later, I would like to comment on the one area that doesn't seem to enter the equation (although to be honest it is touched upon in the "Parent's Guide"). When I was young one of the prime motivations for going to Israel was the chance to mature and meet the challenges of life away from one's parents and comforts.

The passage into manhood or womanhood that went with our year's in Israel in the 70's included the challenge of seeing, living and experiencing a daily and religious life without the comforts of home – without the material comforts of our middle-class homes and without the safety and psychological comforts of our parents. This "challenge" created a special curiosity in us. We visited distant relatives, took our free time to visit places in Israel that we didn't get to see on our respective programs – we walked the streets of Jerusalem, or Tel-Aviv or Tzfat – looking for the best (or greasiest) falafel, schawarma or the cheapest grape drink. In short, we were curious about life in Israel, life away from our parents. We were curious about the grit and the grind of life not only in a different country, but in "our" different country.

Where has that curiosity gone? Some of your kids are more serious than others, some soak in the learning in the yeshivot, others soak in the Anglo night life in Jerusalem. Some can't wait to be taken to the next luxury hotel, some to be wined and dined by visiting parents. They are all different, yet they share one thing: A lack of curiosity. Whether they fall in love with the Beit Midrash or with Ben Yehuda neither group seems to have the slightest desire to go beyond their respective cocoon. Neither group is willing to risk a night without a comfortable bed and fancy restaurant on the one hand or the literal and figurative warmth of the Beit Midrash on the other hand. None have had to stand on a packed bus on a Sunday morning from Beit Shean to Tel-Aviv or Jerusalem or to find that out of the way humous place that doesn't always wash the dishes too well.

And this is exactly the reason why the connection and the commitment to Israel seems to be limited to the political sphere or to some vague religious feeling of Eretz Yisrael. This is why too many of these boys and girls don't know the food and music of Israel, let alone its language and culture. They spend the year in Gush Etzion and never heard of Netiv ha'Lamed Heh. They learn in Jerusalem and have not a clue where Agnon lived or what he wrote. They don't know what schawarma is made of and have no clue how to eat humous.

Without assigning blame I would like to list ten suggestions for you on their "year in Israel":

1. Don't come to visit them – and if you do, only once a year,
2. Make them stay in Israel for Pesach. Send them to a religious Kibbutz or to a private home (email me, I will set you up if you need help).
3. Don't call them every day! Leave them alone and make them face life in Israel without them telling you about their tummy ache. Limit their cell phone usage.
4. Don't let them spend shabbatot in fancy hotels. This "nice gift" does nothing for them except show them what life is not about.
5. Send them to a yeshiva/midrasha that is not in Jerusalem. They won't be learning the streets only the latest hamburger joints.
6. Send them to an Israeli yeshiva. The new American ones that have popped up lately might as well be in the Poconos (a belated credit of this comparison to Shelly of Ra'anana).
7. Make sure the yeshiva you send them to will teach them Hebrew. Its bad enough that 12 years of $15k a year yeshiva don't teach them Hebrew (Flatbush excepted) – but now a year in Israel and no Hebrew?
8. Make them take their own tiyulim when they have free time. Tell them to get an Israeli cousin, friend, etc their own age to take them. No hotels.
9. Make them spend free shabbatot away from their yeshiva.
10. Make sure they understand that important as their friends are, as important as their learning is, as important as their sensitive stomachs are – they are committing to a year in a different country, in their different country.

| Permalink

A number of years ago our family went to a small museum dedicated to the liberation of Jerusalem during the Six Day War. Along with a few secular and Religious-Zionists were a large group of haredi families. We all looked at the exhibits together and sat down intermingled and watched the half hour movie together. I realized then that the "haredi street" was eons ahead of the haredi leadership regarding Israel and Zionism.

The Shoah though seemed something else. A few weeks ago we wrote of the new effort by the haredi educational leadership to enlist Yad Vashem and others of the "Zionist establishment" to help in the effort to educate haredi children on the Shoah.

Now, Ha'aretz is reporting: "Not everyone was conscientious this Shushan Purim about 'abounding in happiness.' At least 4,000 people preferred to take advantage of the day off to visit the new museum at Yad Vashem, on the first day it was opened to the public. Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem directorate, says that hundreds of the visitors were ultra-Orthodox men, women and children."

| Permalink

Sometimes we actually get what we wished for ... and live to regret it.

The Israeli Supreme Court (supreme legislature?) is to rule tomorrow (Thursday) on recognizing non-orthodox conversions. As one who is uncomfortable with the Orthodox religious monopoly in Israel I should be rooting for a victory for the Reform and Conservative, but I am not. This is not only about "unity" this is about the best interests of the converts. The Chief Rabbinate's approach to conversions and to converts is, well, sinful. There are some people who are dealing with it though, like R. Haim Druckman and the IDF's chief chaplain, R. Weiss.

For the sake of their own communities and their own converts the Conservative movement and the Reform ought to stay out of the courts and work with these people. It will take alot of hard work and patience, but so does going to court.

The time has come to end the monopoly of the Chief Rabbinate and to come to a consensus as to conversions. If this means that the Orthodox have to accept non-Orthodox rabbis on a Bet-Din, so be it. If this means that the Reform have to give up on patrilineal (corrected from matrilineal, sorry) descent, so be it. My guess is that if we take the (government) money out of the equation, keep the politicians out of the decision making process and start thinking about the good of the individual - this can be solved.

But alas, we are an "am kshei oref". Sometimes we get what we wish.
| Permalink

JPost reports:

"A thorough analysis of the Koran reveals that the US will cease to exist in the year 2007, according to research published by Palestinian scholar Ziad Silwadi."
| Permalink

The current issue of De'ot, the journal of Ne'emanei Torah va'Avoda has an interview with Rav Baruch Gigi, who along with R. Ya'akov Medan will take over from R. Yehuda Amital at Yeshivat Har Etzion. Insiders have mentioned that R. Moshe Lichtenstein will take over for his father in the future and the troika will replace the duo heading the largest and probably the most intellectually demanding of the hesder Yeshivot.

The interview, in Hebrew, covers many topics of interest. We will just bring some of the highlights here.

Q. Yeshivat Har Etzion is known as the "opposition" in many religious circles. Why? What is unique to this yeshiva?

Rav Gigi: We are not consciously an "opposition". We simply educate our students to be independent. We try to give them the ability to make decisions so that they will be capable of confronting contemporary problems and creating their own (religious) personality. At our yeshiva it is legitimate for students to come to different conclusions…

Q. Do you identify with the aspiration to create an Halakhic State? What should be the character of a "State of Israel"?

Rav Gigi: An Halakhic state where everyone who desecrates the Shabbat gets stoned to death is unrealistic. I don't think that is what we should be aspiring to now. Our aspirations should be to bring those who live according to the Torah and those who don't to live together as a people. That said, I would like to reach an understanding regarding the character of the Jewish state in the public realm…. For example, the opening of malls on Shabbat does not permit workers a day to spend with their families. This is something that should be acceptable in society, regardless of Halakhah. … If I would need to compromise on the Shabbat issue, I would rather the busses run and the theatres remain open so long as the malls and other workplaces remain closed.

Q. What is your opinion regarding the proposal to dismantle Hesder only army units?

Rav Gigi: In principal I think it is the correct thing to do. The integration of Yeshiva students in the army is important. First of all is imperative that in this "citizens army" our students come into direct contact with other soldiers. That said, the religious needs of our students must be taken care of. .. If because of this integration close relationships will be formed between the Hesder soldiers and the others we will see greater mutual respect and understanding. Each side will compromise and defer to the other …

Q. Where is the "red line" regarding the involvement of women in the world of Torah? Can a woman become a poseket?

Rav Gigi: In principle, since women are found in all walks of professional life we ought not to close the world of Torah to them. In fact, the opposite is true, we ought to open all the doors. Any woman who wants to learn any aspect or part of the Torah should learn and I am willing to teach her. We do have to remember that regarding a posek, the level of knowledge and understanding that needs to be attained is very high. In the yeshiva world in general there are few posekim. I have no problem in principal with a woman becoming a poseket. There are already women who have reached the required level in the area of taharat hamishpacha.

| Permalink

" 'The State of Israel still has religious meaning even after disengagement,' reads a press release issued in advance of a major conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday to be attended by hundreds of religious Zionist rabbis and educators."

Reports here and here on a declaration and conference on what was once the raison d'etre of religious-Zionism.

The good news is that the signees include not only the Har-Etzion/Soloveitcik religious-Zionists such as R. Yuval Cherlow and R. Aharon Lichtenstein but also Mercaz HaRav Kook stalwarts like the recently moderating voice of R. Shlomo Aviner as well as R. Haim Druckman and R. Ya'akov Ariel.

The article emphasizes the "hitnatkut from Gaza" (disengagement) as the key cause of the prospective split, but in all honesty this has been a long time coming as too many of the Kookian religious-Zionists have long ago lost their self-confidence and have looked to the haredi world for legitimacy.
| Permalink

Ice coffee and French Crap for sale on the streets of Kfar Saba ... 
| Permalink

... the Kinneret has started to reverse field.
| Permalink

Yair Sheleg writes of a small group of "young leaders" from the various religious denominations in Israel who recently met for a Shabbat on a religious kibbutz.

"About two months ago, an unusual event took place in the religious Kibbutz Shluhot: A group of young leaders - Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and secular - met for the first time to spend Shabbat together. It wasn't a simple matter, since as we know, the prayer customs in the various denominations do not coincide. The participants faced many dilemmas, with not only the Orthodox finding it difficult to give up their principles."

Recently I have come to notice the parochial upbringing that occurs in most of the religious denominations in Israel and in the US. I used to think that the ignorance was limited to the orthodox, but that is not the case. This US funded project is a very small start to broaden people's views of their co-religionists. It seems nice, its good its being done, but I fear it will lead to nothing.

Maybe I will be wrong.

| Permalink

Novelist, writer, Rosh Yeshiva, R. Haim Sabato on the meaning of the prohibition of chametz, both on Passover and on the mizbeach (alter in the Temple) - and why we are commanded to bring chametz for the korban todah (thanksgiving offering) and when bringing the bikurim (first fruit).

Books by Haim Sabato:
Adjusting Sights
Aleppo Tales
| Permalink

Haim Gouri is of the last of a great generation, the Palmach Generation of Hebrew poets and writers. Amongst the greatest names of this generation were S. Yizhar, Aharon Megged, Moshe Shamir and the poets Yehuda Amichai, Natan Alterman and Uri Zvi Greenberg. With a love of the land, the people and language, Gouri was a throwback to those times when writers, poets and their works were part of the life blood of the country.

Gouri was a poet, a writer, a soldier, a journalist, a statesman: A confidant and annoyance to many political leaders. Talya Halkin in the JPost writes a wonderful piece on Gouri at 82.

Translation by Dan Pagis of Gouri's poem Odysseus, also in the JPost.

Books in Translation:
Haim Gouri: Facing the Glass Booth: The Jerusalem Trial of Adolf Eichmann
Aharon Megged: Foiglman
Yehuda Amichai: Selected Poetry
Uri Zvi Greenberg: Selected Poetry
| Permalink

Aharon Appelfeld writing in Ha'aretz:

"In the Holocaust the Jew experienced all the recesses of the soul. The years of the Holocaust were years of horror, but also years of observing, absorbing and assimilating. Many years were needed to digest what the horrors wrought. Only now is the soul beginning to assimilate it. Now we must remove the horror from the general and the abstract, into the inner and the meaningful. The Holocaust must not be left in the realm of large numbers and generalizations. The witnesses and the historians laid the foundation and the framework, and now the time has come for creativity. Now the time has come to disintegrate the horror into images and words."



| Permalink

Another interesting Braita post (in spite of her insulting those of us with monotones). This time on her journey to become a shlichat tzibbur. Some of us just take certain things for granted and probably miss out because of it.
| Permalink

Last week in shul Carmel Wines put out a "hilchot Purim" sheet and this week Sharp Electronics had one on the "halachot of refrigerators" (I kid you not).
| Permalink

Esther 9:26:
עַל-כֵּן קָרְאוּ לַיָּמִים הָאֵלֶּה פוּרִים

...

| Permalink

Intro and part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4)

And now we come to the last of the poems of the tragic, brilliant and elusive figure known throughout the years as the Boorbona Illui, Reb Yankele Doniel. We have seen him write about his relationship with his first wife and his mother, his flirtation with Zionism and their girls, his reckless lifestyle surfin' through eastern Europe and the bitter break with his daughter.

Now, we can read of the Illui's fascination with mysticism as he writes of his own encounter with the Kavod as he entered the pardesim (orchards) of Kentucky. Rumor has it that Reb Yankele Doniel tried to commit suicide after this encounter, but in the letters exchanged between the Illui and his good friend Brian Wilson we know this not to be the case.


Good Vibrations
(Good Vibrations)
Music
Published Lyrics
Lyrics by: R. Yankele Doniel
Music by: Brian Wilson, Mike Love

I, I love the colorful crowns she wears
And the way the Shekhinah dances through her hair
I hear the sound that the angels sing
As the incense slowly burns on through the night.

I'm feelin' hoLY vibrations
She's sending me emanations
I'm feelin' hoLY vibrations
(Oom bop bop good vibrations)
She's sending me emanations
(Oom bop bop emanations)
Holy hoLY vibrations
(Oom bop bop)
She's sending me emanations
(Oom bop bop emanations)
Holy hoLY vibrations
(Oom bop bop)
She's sending me emanations
(Oom bop bop emanations)

Close my eyes
The AR"I seems closer now
He reads my eyes, I know he'll heal my soul
I'm a sinner, yes
He sends me to an ice cold mikveh bath

I'm feelin' hoLY vibrations
She's sending me emanations
My tikkun has indications
(Oom bop bop good vibrations)
She's sending me emanations
(Oom bop bop excitations)
Holy, hoLY vibrations
(Oom bop bop)
Sheckhinah's sending me cool flirtations
(Oom bop bop emanations)
Holy, hoLY vibrations
(Oom bop bop)
She's sending me ema-nations
(Oom bop bop emenations)

(Ahhhhhh)
(Ah my my what elation)
I don't know how but the Zohar makes me high
(Ah my my what a sensation)
(Ah my my what elations)
(Ah my my what)

Gotta keep the Shekhinah's emanations
A happenin' to me
Gotta keep those holy good vibrations
A happenin' to me
Gotta keep those holy good vibrations
A happenin'

Ahhhhh
Holy, hoLY vibratrions
(oom bop bop)
(She's sending holy vibrations)
She sending me emanations
(Emanations)
Holy, hoLY vibrations
(Oom bop bop)
She's na na …

Na na na na na
Na na na
Na na na na na
Na na na
Do do do do do
Do do do
Do do do do do
Do do do

| Permalink

(Intro and part 1, part 2, part 3)

When the Bourbona Illui, Reb Yankele Doniel learned at the Slobodka Yeshiva he was very careful not to be involved in the new excitement generated by Zoinism or look at or talk to females. Even when he went to eat at the houses of the wealthy patrons of the town he would be careful not to look at the girls of the house and not involve himself in the Zionist conversation. But then one year his rebbe sent him on a special mission to the major cities of eastern Europe to teach Torah and to raise money for the yeshiva. It was on this trip that the Illui not only started getting interested in Zionism but in girls. Its not clear from the following poem, the next to last that we have uncovered, which one influenced the other.

Tziyoni Girls
(California Girls)
Music
Published Lyrics
Lyrics by R. Yankele Doniel
Music by R. Yankele Doniel, Brian Wilson

Well, the Vilna girls are smart
I really dig those books they read
And the Warsaw girls with the way they cook
The boys they really like to feed

And the Yekke German daughters
Really keep their kitchens neat
And the Bundist girls with the way they strike
Their Yiddish poems just can't be beat.

I wish they all could be good Tziyoni
I wish they all could be good Tziyoni
I wish they all could be good Tziyoni girls.

Israel has the sunshine
Where the girls just work the land
They plow and hoe and they sweat so much
I like to hold their calloused hands

I been all around the Yiddisher world
And I seen all kinds of girls
But I miss the smoky voice and the ice cold stare
Of the BEST maideles in the world

I wish they are could be good Tziyoni
I wish they are could be good Tziyoni
I wish they are could be good Tziyoni girls

I wish they are could be good Tziyoni
(Girls, girls, girls, yeah I need the)
I wish they are could be good Tziyoni
(Girls, girls, girls, yeah I need the)
I wish they are could be good Tziyoni
(Girls, girls, girls, yeah I need the)
I wish they are could be good Tziyoni …
(Girls, girls, girls, yeah I need the)

...

| Permalink

(Intro and part 1 , part 2)
Amongst the phases that Reb Yankele Doniel went through in his life, the one that most worried his rabbis and his parents was when he left the fold and along with a number of other yeshiva bochers went from town to town, from yeshiva to yeshiva, "surfin" for girls. It even disturbed the Boorbona Illui as we can see from one of his letters to the Beach Boy's Brian Wilson. This poem, later made into the song "Surfin' Safari" shows the wild nature of some of the eastern European yeshiva bochers.

Surf with Me
(Surfin Safari)
Music
Published Lyrics
Lyrics by: R. Yankele Doniel
Music by: Brian Wilson, Mike Love

Just stop learnin' now
Your rebbe just disavow
Leave gemara, come surfin' with me

Early in the morning put your tefilin down
Some honeys will be waiting for us
Let's take off our suits and cut our payes off
Leave the Torah and don't make a fuss

Come on bocher wait and see, yeah
Come pick up some honey's with me
Yes good bocher wait and see, yeah
You won't go blind, no, come with me

Just stop learnin' now
Your rebbe just disavow
Leave gemara, come surfin' with me

From Vilna to Volozhin they're letting it loose
In Mir they don't lock the doors
The hasids in Ger they all swing in twos
In Lubab they do it in fours

Come on bocher wait and see, yeah
Come pick up some honey's with me
Yes good bocher wait and see, yeah
You won't go blind, no, come with me

Just stop learnin' now
Your rebbe just disavow
Leave gemara, come surfin' with me

The boys in Ponovich and way down in Brisk
Have been doing it with their eyes closed
I tell ya' Warsaw's mighty wild
The maideles treat you so good
You'll wake up without any clothes

Come on bocher wait and see, yeah
Come pick up some honey's with me
Yes good bocher wait and see, yeah
You won't go blind, no, come with me

Just stop learnin' now
Your rebbe just disavow
Leave gemara, come surfin' with me

| Permalink

(For introduction and part 1 go here)
"Ben shmoneh esreh l'chupah". At 18, one should stand under the huppah as a groom or bride.

Or so they told the Boorbona Illui.

But alas, not everyone is ready to get married at such a young age. As we see from the following poem, some boys just don't want to grow up. This is the story of the Reb Yankele Doniel's first failed marriage to a wife who was apparently too demanding and not quite accommodating enough. These are problems many good Jewish boys encounter as they leave the close, warm and comfortable confines of momma's womb for the great big world out there. We have heard these stories time and time again, where the new wife just doesn't understand what it means to be married to a great man, a wonder, a jewel, a genius, a lamdam, a healer, an angel, a visionary, confidant of the Shekhinah - a gift to the world.

You will know the poem below in a different form as Brian Wilson, the Boorbona Illui's good friend adapted the words to fit Brian's rebound as he sought help from his friend, Rhonda. Now, for the first time in a public forum, Reb Yankele Doniel's cry to "Help me, Momma".

Help Me, Momma
(Help Me, Rhonda)
Music
Published Lyrics
Lyrics by R. Yankele Doniel
Music by R. Yankele Doniel, Brian Wilson, Mike Love

Well, since she makes the soup with all too many greens
I come in after learnin' and the all that's on the plate are beans

Well, Momma you look so fine (look so fine)
I know it wouldn't take much time
For you to, feed me Momma
Feed me 'cause I'm still just a boy.

Feed me Momma
Feed, feed me Momma
Feed me Momma
Feed, feed me Momma
Feed me Momma
Feed, feed me Momma
Feed me Momma
Feed, feed me Momma
Feed me Momma
Feed, feed me Momma
Feed me Momma
Feed, feed me Momma
Feed me Momma yeah
'Cause I'm still just a boy

I know she's my wife
But she doesn't let me play with my toys
(Oy Momma)
But Momma why can't I
When I know it brings you so much joy
(Oy Momma)

Well Momma, just help me, see
My wife thinks that I should make her tea
You gotta, help me Momma
Help me make her serve me well

Help me Momma
Help, Help me Momma
Help me Momma
Help, help me Momma
Feed me Momma
Feed, feed me Momma
Feed me Momma
Feed, feed me Momma
Make her Momma
Make, make her Momma
Make her Momma
Make, make her Momma
Make her Momma, yeah
Make her serve me well.

...

| Permalink

For those of you who know me you know that in my free time I am an amateur cultural anthropologist. Last year, after some painstaking research we uncovered the Jewish roots of some of the most important figures in American culture. Although it is known that the George and Ira Gerhswin were Jewish, we were able to uncover the Jewish themes in their opera "Porgy and Bess". Then of course through our connections with a Midwestern farm family who moved east, we came into possessions of some of the original, Jewish lyrics of some of Buddy Holly's great songs.

This year, in spite of this being Purim week, we bring you the story of a tragic figure in Jewish history – Reb Yankele Doniel, also known as the Boorbona Illui. Reb Yankele Doniel came to America from eastern Europe in the early 1930's. He was from the small Lithuanian town of Boorbon and was known from a young age as an "illui" – a child prodigy. As often happens with child geniuses his life took sharp and rocky turns. He dabbled in hasidus and had heavy mystical visions, became a Zionist, then a Bundist. He was involved in musar and studied in Brisk. He finally moved to America where this talmid chocham was shunned by the great American Yeshivot until he finally found a home in state of Kentucky.

While in Kentucky he again had his ups and downs. He went from being a master teacher and Rabbi to a drunk. He founded a whiskey company, the Reb Yankele Doniel, Boorbona Ilui Spirit Company that he lost in a poker game. That company, now one of the most famous in the world is the main reason why Kentucky whiskey and only Kentucky Whiskey, is called bourbon. He also traveled throughout America. There were rumors that he met Woody Guthrie in his train hopping "bound for glory" days; that he met a young Bob Zimmerman on his way to New York City from Minnesota.

But it was during his trips to California during the 1960's and 1970's that, as an old man, he was at his most creative. We have uncovered some of his poetry written in that era as he walked the beaches of that state and influenced popular music probably more than any other rabbi.

From the "kitvei yad" (hand written documents) of poems that we have uncovered we see the tragic and often painful aspects of a most mis-understood man. We cried as we read his verse that deal with the issues he had to bear as the great but very young Boorbona Illui the yeshiva bocher. We wept uncontrollably as we read of the father of a wayward daughter; we understood the pain of the young yeshiva bocher raging with desire; we were amazed at the genius and madness that were his mystical visions.

What is fascinating about Reb Yankele Doniel in his California period is the friendship that he formed with one of the greats of that era's rock 'n roll musicians – a man who was also cast out by the "serious" musicians of his own era because he dared to have fun, fun, fun. Brian Wilson of the group once known as the "Beach Boys" befriended Reb Yankele Doniel during a period when the great Rabbi was lonely and desperate and needed a close friendship with someone who could see him for himself, not for what he was supposed to be.

We even have discovered Brian's letters to Reb Yankele Doniel when he would go back to drink his life away in Kentucky after following Brian and his friends on surfing safaris and drag races in Brian's new deuce coup. The letters discuss Reb Yankele Doniel's admiration for California girls and how he was so proud of his Yeshiva back in Lithuania. We now know for sure that some of the most popular Beach Boys tunes were in fact influenced, if not quite written by the Boorbona Illuy.

The Jewish community in Kentucky clearly remembers the great misunderstood Rabbi. Some refuse to talk about him - the embarrassment, yet others still speak of his wonderful lectures and classes and of his tasty whiskey.

What follows over the next few days are some of the poems that Reb Yankele Doniel wrote in his California period - poems that were later adapted to music with new lyrics by Wilson and his sidekick Mike Love. We have to warn everyone of the delicate and personal nature of the poetry – and apologize for bringing such a tragedy before to the eyes of the public in this week of Purim. The first poem we will bring you deals with one of the most tragic moments of this troubled gadol's life – when his daughter rebelled and he threw her out of the house into the arms of an apikores. You can feel the pain in the words as he deals with this most painful moment.

We were able to get in touch with the daughter of Reb Yankele Doniel, the Boorbona Illui and she was glad that we were working on her father's writings. The daughter, who wishes to remain anonymous, is a professor of the Philosophy of Science at a small Midwestern university. She still has a great love for him spite of the fact that she lost all touch with him until she visited him in his Kentucky hospital dying from alcohol induced liver disease.



Here then is the first poem of the Boorbona Illui's California period. As with all the poems, we have put the name of the more popular Beach Boys version in parentheses and have included a link to the music (which according to our research Reb Yankele Doniel wrote in conjunction with Brian and Mike) and recorded (but far from original) lyrics.



Learn, Learn, Learn
(Fun, Fun, Fun)
Music
Published Lyrics
Lyrics by R. Yankele Doniel
Music by R. Yankele Doniel, Brian Wilson, Mike Love

Well she got her daddy's car and she cruised to the new college quad now
Seems she forgot all about the shiduch date
Like she told her old man now
And in the Jewish stacks
She's learnin' just as fast as she can now

And she'll just learn, learn, learn
'Til her papa takes her Rambam away.
(Learn, learn, learn 'til her papa takes her Rambam away.)

Well the girls can't stand her
'Cause she learns Torah just like a bocher
(You learn like a bocher, you learn like a bocher.)
She makes the daf-yomi boys look like they're still in the cheder
(You learn like a bocher, you learn like a bocher.)
A lotta guys try to catch her
But she laughs when they can't learn the tosfos
(You learn like a bocher, you learn like a bocher.)

And she'll just learn, learn, learn
'Til her papa takes her Rambam away.
(Learn, learn, learn 'til her papa takes her Rambam away.)

Well you knew all along
That your pop was getting' wise to you now
(Your such a shanda, your such a shanda)
And since he took your set of books
You've been thinking that your learnin's all through now
(Your such a shanda, your such a shanda)
But you can come along with me
'Cause we gotta a lot of Plato to read now
(Your such a shanda, your such a shanda)

And we'll just learn Darwin's stuff now that papa took your Rambam away
(Learn, learn, learn now that papa took your Rambam away.)
And we'll just learn Darwin's stuff now that papa took your Rambam away
(Learn, learn, learn now that papa took your Rambam away.)

...
| Permalink

When you get a situation like the "metzitzah b'peh" (yes, theoretically its 'b'feh" - but for some of us Hebrew is an actual spoken language) controversy that allows you to win a theological battle - both on its merits and on the morally bankrupt response from the haredi community ....

From the Forward:

"According to Tendler, prank callers have inundated his home phone and vandals have struck at the synagogue in Monsey, N.Y., where he serves as religious leader.
Tendler cited the alleged harassment when he explained why he skipped the March 1 ceremony at New York City's Madison Square Garden that celebrated the completion of the cycle of daily Talmud study. 'Because of the harassment, I realized that it could very well be that there would be a few crazies there,' Tendler said. He avoided the event, which was organized by the ultra-Orthodox group Agudath Israel of America, 'not out of physical fear, but because I felt it would detract from the really majestic event, and that the newspapers like yours would pick on that element.'

Tendler painted the controversy as a wider theological conflict, extending beyond the issue of metzitzah b'peh. The real target, Tendler said, is what he represents as a rabbi and scientist working at Y.U., the flagship institution of Modern Orthodoxy."

Indeed.
| Permalink

Maybe more stories like this will convince the Orthdox to allow (demand?) that citizens provide their own religious services. Of course for that to happen they would have to vastly lower the tax rate .... Never happen.

"Yozma wants to become the first Reform congregation in the country to get municipality-distributed Construction and Housing Ministry funds for constructing a synagogue, a battle it's been waging for six years. It is the first Reform congregation to have turned to the High Court of Justice over the matter, and this winter it went to court a second time to demand that it get what at least six Orthodox groups in Modi'in have already received: NIS 1 million in public financing."
| Permalink

... Well, like, duhhh!!!

"Germany's Fischer calls Holocaust 'ultimate crime against humanity' "
| Permalink

Twice in a month I get to write about a book written by a friend. I guess I am keeping good company these days. This time Jeremy Cohen of Tel-Aviv University has written Sanctifying the Name of God: Jewish Martyrs and Jewish Memories of the First Crusade about the Jewish liturgical and literary responses to the First Crusade – written after the crusades by survivors full of guilt. Reading survivor responses to the Holocaust makes this interpretation of their writings easy to understand.

The reviewer writes:
In Sanctifying the Name of God, Jeremy Cohen brings a fresh perspective to these tantalizing questions. A medievalist at Tel Aviv University, Cohen contends that these chronicles, long perceived as reverential elegies, actually narrate with literary symbols and intertextual allusions. More than records of heroic victims, the chronicles reveal the guilt, trauma and reservations of their authors' descendants, who survived through fortune or temporary conversion.
… Cohen contends that the chroniclers subtly, if not sub-consciously, grope with their own guilt for surviving, sometimes through temporary conversion. He notes, for example, that the chronicles repeatedly describe many victims not immediately dying from their wounds, who despite the continued efforts of the crusaders to baptize them, chose martyrdom for a second or third time. Cohen posits that in addition to highlighting the sacrifice of the Jewish martyrs, this dramatization of 'multiple deaths' also reflects the 'indecisiveness and self-doubt haunting the Jewish survivors.' "
| Permalink

There are apparently negotiations going on in Israel between the Health Ministry, the Medical Association and representatives of various rabbinic posekim – sepcifically R. Elyashiv and R. Ovadia Yosef regarding the definition of death and the process of organ donation and transplantation.

As is known, there is an Halakhic problem with declaring brain death as opposed to cardiac death as the definition of death and this effects which organs can be harvested and transplanted. There is also a major problem in Israel of getting usable organs – a problem a bold Halakhic decision could alleviate. A compromise was reached years ago that would include a rabbi on the team that declared "death" but the Medical Association balked at the idea.

Now, we are at a similar crossroads with a proposal that "while only physicians will serve on the committee to declare time of death, there will be a supervision committee that will examine their decisions in retrospect."

But there are objections even to this compromise by the Avinoam Reches, chair of the Medical Association's ethics board: " 'They want to subject us to examination by a non-medical organization,' Reches says. 'This represents complete lack of faith. This will expose the system to politicization.' He also opposes the Rabbinate's demand that the training course include lectures on time of death in Halakhah, and that a representative of the Rabbinate will sign the physicians' certificates of agreement pertaining to declaration of time of death."

There is, so to speak, a crisis of faith here where the doctors don't trust the rabbis and the rabbis don't trust the doctors to make decisions where Halakhah is a concern. Not being a medical or Halakhic expert I don't know if the rabbis should be more lenient or not in their acceptance of brain death as death (although common sense tells me yes) but in the case of trust, in spite of the often cynical behavior of Israeli rabbis, I have to come down on their side.

Having inside knowledge of the ethical behavior of some prominent doctors – specifically regarding drug experimentation, abortion as well as treatment - I would have to agree with the fear that most doctors would subscribe only the utilitarian ethical code so prominent in Israeli society leaving any other moral system out in the cold.
| Permalink

The Kinneret:
"Altogether, the level of the lake has gone up by 1.16 meters since the beginning of last December but it is still 86 centimeters under the maximum "red-line" mark of 208.80 meters below sea-level.The upper limit is the point at which the Deganya sluice gates would have to be opened to prevent flooding around the lake by allowing water to flow into the southern reaches of the Jordan River and down to the Dead Sea. "
| Permalink

Barefoot Jewess on her conversion, synagogues, Israel, Shabbat ....
| Permalink

Ismar Schorsch is concerned about loosing the best that the Conservative movement has trained:

"Jewish Theological Seminary chancellor Rabbi Ismar Schorsch said the exodus of young Conservative Jews with strong religious educations is a key reason the movement is floundering.
'I deem that to be the most critical loss,' he said, in a phone interview from the meeting, titled 'Reinventing Conservative Judaism.' Schorsch partly blames the trend on the poor quality of worship in Conservative synagogues, which he says are so geared toward 'entry-level Jews' that those with more religious knowledge leave for the stricter Orthodox congregations. Schorsch says he often worships at an Orthodox synagogue on Friday nights because of the beauty of the service. 'There is really a fatal disconnect,' he said. 'There is not enough attention being paid to advanced Jews.' "
| Permalink

Caroline Glick on the late General Amir Drori a hero of the Yom Kippur War:

"Amir Drori was my hero and my friend. Since I met him 10 years ago, Amir had been a rock of stability for me, as he was for anyone who was lucky enough to be close to him. Just knowing he was here, in Israel, on this planet, helped maintain my faith in the justice of the universe.
And so it was with shock and a sense of irretrievable loss that I received the news on Saturday night that he had died suddenly, at the age of 68, of a heart attack after spending the day hiking through the Negev with his wife, Tzila, and friends. "

Read on.


By Abraham Rabinovich: The Yom Kippur War : The Epic Encounter That Transformed the Middle East
| Permalink

The first "official" Kfar Saba women's tefilla was a great success this past Shabbat. About 35 (cain yirbu) women and girls came. The OOS daughter read the Torah and Haftorah - a friend of hers also read the Torah (as did the OOS wife and a friend of hers and a wonderful guest from America). Two other girls were of the sh'lichot tzibur. They only had one Torah, which forced an abundance of "rolling".

The first of many, we hope.
| Permalink

Hillel Halkin has written an article on the differences between Jews in Israel and Jews in America. It has been many years since his famous Letters to an American Jewish friend: A Zionist's polemic where he explains to a friend the reasons for his aliya. It was a standard of Zionism in the English language back at a time when even Saul Bellow wrote books about things like that (To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account).

But Halkin sees a growing divide between the Jews of Israel and those of the Diaspora. We tried to write about this last week and didn't quite say what we wanted to. Maybe, because we weren't sure what we wanted to say. Halkin is very clear though as he ends his essay by saying that: "Ultimately, that's what it comes down to. We don't live the lives of American Jews and they don't live ours. That's a gap nothing can bridge".

Is this true? Are we fading away from each other? A good part of the reason why I started to write this blog was to re-connect the Jews of the Diaspora with the Jews of Israel. I also felt and still feel this gap. I often try to explain life here in personal and religious terms and highlight the reasons why an Israeli Jew might think in a certain way about a certain topic. I certainly can't be accused of sugar coating life here - I have always felt that intellectual honesty and not propaganda is what will form lasting concern and lasting relationships.

If his conclusion is quite depressing though he does offer a solution earlier in the essay – a solution which he claims was tried and failed in America – "cultural Zionism". Halkin writes: "Changes in Israeli policies or priorities, much less promotional gimmicks like the much-heralded birthright Israel program, with its recruitment of young American Jews for whirlwind Israel tours, are not going to make a great difference. At bottom, we are talking about the inevitable failure in American Jewish life of the project once known as 'spiritual' or 'cultural' Zionism."

But this is the one failure that can be reversed. We have written all too often of this in the past and we will say it one more time: We need to speak the same language in order to reconnect. And the best place to start is in the commitment of American Jewry to learn Hebrew and Tanach. These are the two cultural-religious disciplines which all Jews no matter where they live on the geographical, religious or ideological plain can share. Halkin is right in that Birthright may bring some short lived "identification" with Israel or with the Jewish people and that only a real commitment to our shared culture will bring us to a point where even if we are not living the same lives, we can at least share the same language. That may be the only way we can narrow the gap that Halkin says, we cannot bridge.

See also, by the "father " of cultural Zionism: Selected Essays of Ahad Ha'am
| Permalink

It is sometimes amusing to read the works of anti-Semites – especially when they write in Israel's leading newspaper. Gidon Levy is one such writer. Judaism and Israel are never right, never good. His latest tirade is against aliya as he calls for closing down the Jewish Agency. Now, I am not one to defend the incompetence's and arrogance of the Jewish Agency but that is not his problem. His problem is that they encourage Jews to make aliya. But according to Levy "Israel doesn't need more Jews to ensure its existence".

It is always amusing to me how the hatred of things Jewish and Zionist turn people on the left into sniveling fascists. In most countries it would be the socialist left who would object to taking away the worker's only day of rest – but not in Israel. In most countries it would be the left who would oppose the effort to turn away new immigrants – but not in Israel.

For Levy, aliya, the main "…Zionist activity sometimes borders on subversion". Levy's great understanding of Zionism leads to this: "Is Israel really a better place than the United States from an economic perspective? Is social welfare really superior here in comparison to Britain? Do Israel's citizens enjoy more liberties than those in France?". As the feminists used to say – you just don't get it, do you?

Ah, but then again you would have to assume that Levy is a Zionist or believes in the legitimacy of a Jewish state, which he does not. Gidon Levy is a plain old anti-Semite who happens to speak and write in Hebrew.
| Permalink

Talya Halkin on the coming of a child messiah this Purim at a synagogue near you.

"The window of store owner Naima Abaliya's family-owned (costume) business contains a single item – a messiah riding a white donkey. 'This is our latest hit,' said Abaliya. 'The child wears the donkey's hind legs, and can gallop away.' Dyed a garish canary yellow, the messiah's curly wig is topped with a kippa inscribed with the Hebrew word 'Mashiah.' "

But will Chabad sue for copyright infringement?
| Permalink

Ha'aretz reports:
"Israel Defense Forces reserve Major General Amir Drori, who was the commander of the Golani Brigade during the 1973 Yom Kippur war, died on Saturday during a trip in the Negev Desert. "
| Permalink

Jerusalem is not only the battle zone of the Palestinian issue but is symptomatic of the Haredi divide with the rest of Israel. Although in many ways Jerusalem is more secular than ever – more cafes and restaurants are open on Shabbat today than were 20 years ago – haredi families have moved into and form a plurality in more and more neighborhoods.

This in itself is not necessarily a problem except when the haredi population infringes on its neighbor's rights or the non-haredi residents are insensitive to the haredi way of life. This happens all too often.

The JPost has an article on one of the "seam line" (really "Fault line") neighborhoods, Shmuel Hanavi Street.
"Most of us are familiar with the term "seam line" as it applies to those areas of Jerusalem where the Arab and Jewish populations meet. But there is another seam line in this city, where the haredi and non-haredi populations rub up against one another. An intense, passionate struggle is waged along these seam lines, sometimes violently.
Often, the struggle is ostensibly over public space. In Shmuel Hanavi, it is a struggle over control of the community center. A few months ago, in Ma'alot Dafna, the struggle was over a school building. In Ramot, it's over kindergartens. And at the Bar-Ilan intersection, it's over control of the road…."
| Permalink

Credit for the now famous "Siyum HaShas/Racetrack" photo apparantly goes here. Good job.
| Permalink

Poet and writer Meron Isaacson reviews two pamphlets published by the Israel Democracy Institute by Aviezer Ravitsky of Hebrew U. and Yedidya Stern of Bar-Ilan. We discussed a shorter version of the Ravitzky piece that appeared in De'ot.

"As Ravitzky indicates, Judaism is interested, for internal reasons, in cooperation with national mechanisms in all matters related to judicial arrangements. A halakhic state need not be considered a threat, because even the halakha itself does not perceive it in the way people have been led to believe. On the other hand, a Jewish state that is not linked to its religious heritage and to Hebrew law would be a failure. Stern shows halakhic authorities not only today's major lacunae from the halakhic standpoint and the halakha's inevitable irrelevance in many fields, but also the difficult but practicable alternatives that could enable the halakha to effectively deal with these lacunae."
| Permalink

"There's a special feeling on Shabbat, so I try not to do things that I do on weekdays, especially not anything creative," says the singer (Mika Karni), who lives in Moshav Amirim ..."

Here.
| Permalink

... and Miriam has it.
| Permalink

... and some violin music for Emily Hauser, please.

I have to admit, this whole "everybody hates me because I criticize Israel" bit is getting tiresome. Everybody criticizes Israel, the left, the right the religious and the secular. Sabras, olim, yordim and everyone in between.

So when Emily Hauser in the Forward whines that "I am not always welcome in Jewish circles here in Chicago" because of some op-eds she wrote in the Chicago Tribune criticizing Israeli governmental policy, I can't but get a bit annoyed. I think we ought to put a quota on articles about people who criticize Israel and claim martyrdom because "you're not allowed to criticize Israel".

Well, Emily, you are a has-been. Jews have been criticizing Israel for decades now and no one has done anything to them. No "cherem", no financial penalties, no physical violence, nothing. If some people don't like you for it – grow up and get a thicker skin or stop writing.

If you don't like being Jewish anymore and if you don't want to return to Israel so your son won't have to go to the army because Israel is so evil – then don't. Criticize all you want, make whatever excuses you want to alleviate your guilt about leaving Israel, but please – just stop whining!
| Permalink

I honestly didn't think I would touch this story again, and maybe everyone in the US knows of it, but I think that the official haredi world has truly gone mad. YU's student newspaper Commentator has a long article on the "metzitzah" during brit milah controversy which erupted after the death of a baby from herpes. As was reported earlier, Rabbi Tendler strongly opposes direct contact from the mouth of the mohel during metzitzah.

According to the article: "Rabbi Tendler's comments were pounced upon by the right wing newspaper, Yated Neaman. The newspaper attacked him for being an 'informer' (mesir) on the Jewish community. The paper claimed that Rabbi Tendler reported Rabbi Fischer to the health department and blamed him for governmental interference with ritual circumcision. The situation erupted and pamphlets were published claiming that Rabbi Tendler wants to abolish ritual circumcision in America, resulting in the vandalism of Rabbi Tendler's synagogue in Monsey, New York."

R. Tendler denied reporting the mohel but stated to Commentator that " 'if I had had all the information that Fischer had been involved in three cases of herpes and continued to perform direct oral suction, I would have been halachically required to report him to the authorities. But I did not have to do that, the hospital did'. Rabbi Tendler went even further, remarking 'classifying this as a matter of mesirah (informing) reflects a primitive understanding of halacha.'

I am sitting way over here. But is there at least a sense of rage in NY at what is going on or is this just turning into one more "who can quote more teshuvot" academic exercises where you demonize those who understand the world as it actually is, a bit more than you?

Primitive, indeed.
| Permalink

YNET:

"The data ... show that in 2003 there were more women than men in Israel, with the number of single women exceeding the number of single men in every age group above 30."

But don't forget this:

"... the average life span of the Israeli woman is 81.5 years, while the average for the Israeli man stands at 77 years. "

Some more stats:
Avg. age for women to marry: 24.2
Avg. children per woman: 2.9
Jewish women in wokforce: 50%
Women Judges and Attorneys: 46% of total
| Permalink

This shabbat will mark a milestone in Kfar Saba. It is the first gathering of the Kfar Saba Women's Tefilla which unofficially started at the Bat Mitzva of our daughter a few months ago (here and here) and of a friend of hers last year. This is an important step for a number of reasons.

First, Kfar Saba is hardly an "Anglo" town as is Ra'anana or certain neighborhoods of Jerusalem and although most of the women expected this Shabbat will be English speakers, its success will depend on the presence of Israeli born women.

Second, two of the chazanot and two of the ba'alot keriah will be young girls of 12 and 13. For two of them this will be the first time they will have the opportunity of really taking a look at the "workings" of a tefilla – something many of us men and boys just take for granted.

Third, maybe, just maybe this will lead to an increased awareness of tefila itself amongst the women and girls and of the religious seriousness of women amongst the men.

Lastly, maybe the young girls who are participating will start to take themselves a bit more seriously when it comes to both limud torah and asiyat mitzvot and that the community will expect more of them than it does today.

B'hatzlacha.
| Permalink

"EU Plans anti-Semitism Seminar"
| Permalink

Pro-Western Communists Win Moldova Vote !

What world did you say we are living in?
| Permalink

I have always found stories of conversion as interesting, if not bewildering. I was raised as Orthodox Jew in (mostly) small towns and communities where our family was a minority of one or two or at most a handful. Either because of that or in spite of that I never really found another religious –belief system or way of life as even remotely attractive. I have never been tempted by the haredi or Conservative creeds nor by the Christianity of my neighbors. I have never been tempted to leave religion altogether.

That is not to say that to this day I don't constantly question and re-examine my theological and practical religious positions. That is not to say that I have not changed my views, sometimes radically over the years. Yet, I have always stayed within my family's religious tradition. That is why I have found conversion stories so interesting.

About twenty odd years ago I taught a Jewish history course to prospective converts on a religious kibbutz. Most of the candidates were engaged to be married at one or another of the secular kibbutzim - but some of the young people, mostly women were converting because of some inner reason. No matter the discussion they were not really ever able to explain why they wanted to be Jews. In the strange interview we mentioned a few days ago of an orthodox man who converted to Orthodox Christianity, he too, was not able to give a good reason.

In a recent issue of First Things there is an account by R.R. Reno of his conversion from the Episcopal Church to the Catholic Church. Towards the end of his account, when he realizes that he hasn't really given a good reason for his conversion he brings in an interesting point which I will quote in full here:

"In the end, my decision to leave the Episcopal Church did not happen because I had changed my mind about any particular point of theology or ecclesiology. Nor did it represent a sudden realization that the arguments for staying put are specious. What changed was the way in which I had come to hold my ideas and use my arguments. In order to escape the insanity of my slide into self-guidance, I put myself up for reception into the Catholic Church as one might put oneself up for adoption. A man can no more guide his spiritual life by his own ideas than a child can raise himself on the strength of his native potential."

More than anything, I think, a religion has to provide not only "a guide to living good" but a serious intellectual framework where one can work out one's life within a system that takes itself seriously and therefore can be taken seriously by its adherents. I don’t really know why people choose to leave the faith of their family and to convert to another. But as Reno points out – if you don't take yourself seriously, intellectually, then neither will your children: And if they are thinking children, they will find someone (or some group) who does.
| Permalink

I have been blogging for about a year and a-half now and have been reading Jewish blogs for a bit longer than that. I only read English language blogs and write in English so I guess I belong to the English language Jewish "blogosphere". For the most part this "community" is made up of Anglo olim and American Jews. There may be some Brits and others out there, but the two dominant groups are the olim and the Americans.

Is there a difference between the two? We have modern-Orthodox/Religious-Zionists, we have haredim, we have those who are somewhere in between. We have card carrying Conservative Jews who blog and those who are close to Conservative views but for one reason or another don't want to be associated with that movement. There are some true-blue Reform bloggers and all too many New Age/mystical attempts to make Judaism light and fluffy.

There are intellectually serious blogs from all angles and personal blogs and those that mix the two. There are gossipy ones and those who are journalistic in nature.

But this religious blogosphere (I am not counting the political blogs here) consists not only of the writers of the blogs, but of the readers and the "commenters" too. So my question is: Do the Israeli and American branches of the English language Jewish blogosphere treat religion differently?

I am not talking about the "keeping" of the mitzvot or of the intellectual quality of learning or even of the spiritual nature of the kavanah (intention) of the mitzvot.
Rather, is religion as "a part of the person's life" treated differently? Now, if this were an academic paper I would have researched the entire blogosphere, categorized it and done the usual academic mumbo-jumbo to "prove" my conclusions. But this isn't. My conclusions are based purely on my own reading of this blogosphere as well as my first hand knowledge of the American and Anglo-Israeli Jewish.

My reading of the blogs and the communities shows a more naturalistic approach towards religion from the Isreali olim and a greater desire to show and expound on source material (mekorot) from our North American brothers and sisters.

In the US, the approach towards Judaism is entirely more rational and seems to form a part of the person's life. There is work, there is politics and there is religion. There is a time for everything and while I don't deny that religion can and does influence the way a lawyer or a doctor may approach a certain problem, the categorization involved in rational discussion seems to be same way religion is approached.

A religious problem is often treated abstractly even when dealing with practical Halakhah (Halakhah l'ma'aseh). Conclusions seem to be much more direct and straightforward and its application more mechanical. This is not surprising as much of American Jewish intellectual thought from R. Soloveitchik to the haredi darhsanim, from Mordecai Kaplan to the JTS Halakhah committee can be interpreted in that way. That is not to say it’s the only way to interpret their thought, or that they would agree with its application, but it is clear to me that religion has been taken out of the personality and into the mind.

Is that the difference then? Does the Diaspora part of this blogosphere represent a community with a Jewish mind and soul and the Oleh part represent a community with a Jewish personality?

What do we mean by having a Jewish personality instead of a Jewish mind/soul? We don't mean that one group is more intellectually or spiritually sound, that one is more caring about mitzvot and Torah – rather, that Judaism is part and parcel of their life. For the Jewish personality there is no real separation of religion from the regular and not so regular aspects of life. This is not a conscious "Halakhic Man" personality where the sight of a bubbling stream triggers "the complex laws regarding the Halakhic construct of a spring". This is an unconscious personality where the holidays - or the Jewish life cycle – for example, is not something that is thrust upon us but is something that naturally affects our behavior. This is obvious for both the major and the minor holidays.

The naturalness of Purim and Lag B'omer for example where the Jewish personality always (unconsciously) notices small pieces of material that are a potential costume or a wood pile sitting there, waiting to be collected and burnt. On Shavuot, where strange new dairy products just "appear" in your refrigerator. For the Diaspora Jew, Lag B'omer and Purim are about haircuts, tachanun and hearing every word of the megillah – the needs of a Jewish mind but not the results of a Jewish personality. For Shavuot they are about making blinches because they represent the Ten Commandments.

This is not to say that the Oleh doesn't have a Jewish mind/soul and that the intellectual and the spiritual aren't important. I just think that the Jewish personality allows the mind or the soul to approach religion from a different perspective. This is true I think in both the Hasidic and mitnagdic branches of the Jewish community (and if you think that modern-Orthodoxy, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionists don't have Hasidic and mitnagdic streams, then you aren't paying attention ot the Jewish world around you).

Is it good that we have this "Jewish personality" that seems to be unavailable in the Diaspora? I don't really know. I don't know which is the "true Torah Judaism". I don't know if it is better if Purim just happens or if it is better if we need to consciously prepare for it psychologically and Halakhically.

Any thoughts?
| Permalink

Okay, I have a weakness for genuises - maybe becuase no matter how much I understand, I know that I really don't understand what it is they are talking about. It also amazes me that no matter how hard people try, when the serious issues are discuused, they can't escape religion.

A highly readable article (via A&L Daily) on Godel, Einstein and the problem of time ...
| Permalink

Is there something I am missing here:

"The Jewish community is facing resistance as it attempts to intensify pressure on the Sudanese government to ease the violence that has killed tens of thousands.
Several Jewish community activists said they were not finding much interest in the issue when they tried to partner with African-American or church groups."
| Permalink

If you have ever attended a synagogue in Israel you will have had the plessure of sifting through what seems like thousands of "parshat hashavua sheets" most of which are garbage, some of which have some tidbits of acutal Torah and very few can be said to be on a level where you could bring it home, learn it and discuss it.

I found one such sheet in shul. It is called 'Midah Tova' and it is the real thing. Each week it uses one or more of the 13 middot of R. Ishmael - or a related principal in limud torah and discusses a small part of the week's parsha.

In the words of Michael Avraham and Gavriel Chazot, the editors: "The goal of 'Midah Tova' is to raise the awareness of the 13 midot by which the Torah is expounded, from the structural, philosophic and hermenuetical (parshanut) persepctives and to orgainze a group that will intensively and methodically research these perspectives."

If you would like to get these weekly sheets (in Hebrew) by email, send a request to: midatova@netvision.co.il
| Permalink

Movie night for Shevet Ma'apilim (7th grade), Kfar Saba at the OOS household 
| Permalink

... and one more 
| Permalink

Israel and its people are in mortal danger for the past four years, yet a study shows "a drop in support for Israel among U.S. Jews, especially among youth and university students".

It used to be that Jews in danger meant Jews caring. But now amongst young American Jews "Forty-three percent of those asked agreed with the statement that 'Israel feels to me more about my parents' and grand-parents' generation than to me and my generation.' " This at a time when they are living through history: When their country is involved in a war on terror and their people is on the front lines in that war.

We have always argued here that freebies such as Birthright will have no long term effect on the depth of American Jewish connections to Israel and Judaism. From anectodal evidence I think that even the post high-school year programs (for the Orthodox, at least) leave little extra long term love for Israel.

What works?
| Permalink

"What caused a former Orthodox Jew and son of Holocaust survivors to join the Orthodox Christian priesthood and serve Israel's Christian immigrants? "

This interview does not really give the answer, but this strange man comes across as both sympathetic and well ... creepy.
| Permalink

What do you do if you are haredi and get turned down at a trendy Tel-Aviv night club? Well, you buy it of course and make it "the sleaziest in town".

"Last week, at 4:30 on Friday morning, Katan (from Kfar Chabad) gave a guided tour of his crowded kingdom. 'That one over there is a senior officer in the most important Tel Aviv police unit,' he boasted, 'and beyond the bar are yeshiva students who are resting at the moment from their labors. Do you see that girl? A former call girl....The one who came in right after them makes his living as a Chippendale, and the three who just left are Haredi girls from Beitar Illit."

Huh?
| Permalink

During the recent membership drive the National Religious Party (NRP) registered more new members (59,000) than the Labor Party during their last registration drive (46,000). This is not bad considering you have to pay actual money in order to join a political party in Israel.

I am not sure what this says about the NRP, but its pretty clear what it says about Labor.
| Permalink

Right in the middle of a great (and long) Braita post on many things:

"The other day, since I was calling the local Judaica store anyway about my book order, I thought I'd ask the nice man who runs it he knew of any women's Daf Yomi classes starting up (he's Chabad and tends to be reasonably up on local Orthodox education options). What I got was an explanation of what gemara is and a suggestion that I attend a women's class on -- I kid you not -- challah-baking and women in midrash. I was momentarily tempted to point out that I could actually teach both of the class topics in a pinch, and if I was asking about Daf Yomi classes I'd darn well better know what gemara is -- but he was clearly trying to be helpful, so I said some combination of 'thank you' and 'goodbye' instead. And he really didn't need to know the part where I fantasized about baking peasant rye instead of traditional challah this coming Friday -- because the challah I occasionally make is delicious but rather soft -- and whapping him over the head with a nice big braided loaf of it."

Grab a cup of coffee and read the whole post (in context).
| Permalink

Let me get this straight:

• The mainline protestant churches are vehemently anti-Israel.
• The evangelical protestants are pro-Israel.
• The mainline protestant churches hate the culture, politics and theology of the evangelicals.
• Israeli and other Jews have befriended the evangelicals.

So, in order to punish the Jewish state for this friendship, the mainline Protestants insist on divestment from Israel. I guess, if we didn't befriend the evangelicals, the mainliners would just oppose us on every other possible front - but not bring up divestment.

That the mainliners are anti-Semitic is a given. That they hate the evangelicals is a given. That they despise people to the right of the political divide is a given. So, when they tell us that our price for befriending those who like us is divestment I know the source of their hypocracy and hooliganism.

What does the WCC stand for anyway, the World Council of Casuists?

| Permalink

With the demise of the Ministry of Religious Affairs a special committee (surprise) has been authrorized to come up with a plan for the dispersal of religious services in Israel. Ha'aretz reports on the controversy as rumors are flying that the new agency will be situated in the Prime Minister's office.

What is amazing is that even Shinui doesn't get it: "Ronnie Brizon (Shinui), who has been closely following the team's work, wonders what the likelihood is that a professional and non-political service will be set up to meet religious needs."

Has the idea that each individual or community provide their own services as needed never entered their minds?
| Permalink

Amnon Rubenstein wonders why all of the (Jew on Jew) political violence in Israel comes from the religious-Zionists:

"But if I were a rabbi, I would ask myself a probing question: How did it happen that all the political violence has come from the national-religious end of the scale? Where did it spring from? How could Jewish religious law have been mobilized to justify the assassination of a prime minister? "

... while Michael Freund writes on "religious-Zionism's bright future":

"... wherever one seems to look, Religious Zionism appears mired in ideological crisis, political discord and deep-seated theological disputes, simultaneously contending with an array of challenges that is both daunting and unprecedented.
That, however, is precisely why I am so optimistic about the movement and its future.It may sound trite, but the fact is that the impassioned debate taking place within Religious Zionism today is a sign of its vibrancy and strength. After all, if people did not care about the ideological nuances of various issues, there would be no dispute.How many other movements can still generate a similar level of intellectual zeal and rhetorical enthusiasm?"
| Permalink

Talya Halkin on a street theater protest of the hitnatkut on Tel-Aviv's "hip" Shenkin Street and a review of the religious-Zionist poetry review "Mashiv HaRuach" - dedicated to the same subject. A publication party of the new issue included a reading by some of the poetry in the issue by the poets R. Menachem Forman of Tekoa and MK Yossi Sarid.

Disengagement art from all sides.
| Permalink

The NY music critics could wait for him to leave the NY Philharmonic some years ago, but he is one of our best friends.

"The inauguaration of the Buchman-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University will take place on March 15 with a gala concert conducted by Zubin Mehta, who is making a lightning visit to Israel for the occasion."

Read on.
| Permalink

From the JPost:

"In an unusual encounter by the standards of interfaith dialogue, Orthodox rabbis and a candidate to be the next pope met this week at an interfaith conference in New York.
Organized by the World Jewish Congress, the conference drew rabbis from across the Jewish religious spectrum and Jewish and Catholic religious leaders from six continents, including Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice,considered to be among a handful of frontrunners to succeed Pope John Paul II."

Unfortunately, officials from the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) stayed away. Shame. I guess they didn't read this or this.
| Permalink

It always amazes me when a group of people with a specific outlook on life adopt the worst habits of their ideological nemesis instead of the good the group has to offer. I never really understood how rabbis allowed the magical transformation of completely non-kosher hotels into a week of "mehadrin min hamehadrin" - but the haredi world is quickly catching up to the worst materialistic habits of the modern orthodox community.

"During the Passover holiday some unexpected guests will be vacationing in Costa del Sol: a group of ultra-Orthodox from Israel and other countries who will enjoy 'an elevated Torah atmosphere, amazing trips, gourmet glatt kosher l'mehadrin food and 1,500 square meters of ultra-modern spa facilities,' according to Ma'agalim, an ultra-Orthodox travel agency that is organizing the trip.

The luxurious boutique hotel, Grand Elba Estefona, part of the Best Small Hotels in the World chain, will be converted into a strictly kosher facility before the arrival of the guests. Each one will pay 4,780 euros for a week, including meals, Torah classes, entertainment, spa facilities, a a health club and heated swimming pool (flights not included)."
| Permalink

... I'd laugh. Regarding yesterday's little boy and girl school strike, Ha'aretz reports:

"Twenty percent of the junior high and high school students, some 120,000 of them, did not go to school because of something they either read on the Internet or as an SNS message, or through an instant messaging service."

I wonder if striking is replacing army service as the way to "serve your country". I hope the teacher's unions are proud of themselves.
| Permalink