Interpersonal Inyanim

By the Bray of Fundie

POST DELETED PREEMPTIVELY IN A DESPERATE REFLEX RESPONSE TO MY SELF-PRESERVATION INSTINCT.

Kneeling at the Temple of Moolah

Long time readers may remember the magical moment in 2006 when Eytan Kobre of Cross Currents accused the New York Times of running too many underwear ads. His contention was that it happens every day (disproven here, here, and here; he finally got one here) and also that the Times was demonstrating "inexplicable moral obtuseness" by publishing those ads.

As he clarrified in a comment: "[The Times] sees itself, and particularly in Section One, as a font of intellectual and moral gravitas, and for it to run really large and provocative ads of half-clad women in that section with great regularity is passing strange."

I disagreed at the time, and still disagree. As I argued at the time, "Is there a magazine or newspaper anywhere in the world that seeks to match its ads with its news items? And do you really imagine that [any publication] would ever turn down the chance to run an underwear ad - or any legitimate ad for the matter?"

Three years later, I see Cross Currents is just as ordinary as everyone else, and no less susceptible to the lure of lucre. Bracketing a serious and surprising article about why its wrong to throw bleach on immodestly dressed women, there appeared an advertisment for something as frivilous as a klezmer concert featuring a halachicly half-clad woman. [Screen grab]

Do I care? No. Am I surprised? No. Do I think Cross Currents did something wrong by accepting money for an ad that was inconsistant both with halacha, and their own stated values? No. Was it mistake to allow the ad to run above and below a serious and important article? Absolutely not. I don't think Cross Currents did anything wrong.

But, here's the rub: I'm not the blog that previously argued such choices were a sign of "inexplicable moral obtuseness."

Finally, a trump card reply for too pious people

It's happened to you, I'm sure. You're minding your own business, and some too pious moron saunters over and says, you know, it's an inyun to do/not to do [something.]

For instance....

You know DovBear, its an inyun

- to DIP your bread in salt, and to put the salt on the table
- to dip your bread in the salt exactly three timess
- not to make kiddish between certain hours on Friday night
- to hold your kiddush cup in the palm of your hand
- to pour some water into the wine bottle before you pour the wine into your cup
- to loop your tefillin around your arm 9 times so that you get 7 FULL loops (see, the first and last loops are half loops)
- not to bring your kid to shul until he is three years old
- not to let your kid wear a kippa until he is three years old
- to wear two coverings on your head
- not to wear blue shirts
- to eat cholent on shabbos
- to eat two meals on erev yom kippur
- to go to the mikva every Friday
- to eat a dairy meal, followed by a meat meal on shavuous
- to eat beef on yom tov
- to eat egg salad with onions on shabbos
- to eat beef at the purim sudah
- to eat fish on shabbos

and so on.

In the past, I've always just nodded my head and/or clenched my fists, but finally I have the perfect rejoinder. Next time something like this happens to you, look the guy flat in the eye and turn the tables with this answer:

It's an inyun not to tell someone a rule you know he won't follow!

Together but Separate

A Guest Post by Rafi G
(originally posted on LII)

Revach.net quoted an interesting psak by Rav Elyashiv:

In order to say Birchas HaMazon with a Mezuman the people in the Mezuman must eat together. Rav Elyashiv points out two cases on Pesach night where people eating together do not qualify for a Mezuman and must say Birchas HaMazon as individuals without a Mezuman.

The first is two people that eat the seder together but one uses only machine matza while the other only eats hand matza. Despite that this is only a Chumra and technically l’halacha each one is permitted to eat the other one’s matza, nevertheless they are not considered eating together for the sake of mezuman.

The second case is people who eat the seder together but each one eats their own food and have a minhag not to eat from anyone else’s food other than their own. Here also says Rav Elyashiv, they cannot make a mezuman together. (Kovetz Tel Talpiyos - Piskei Shmu’os Pesach)

I don't understand how this is applied, because pretty much anytime I am eating with other people, nobody is going to be eating from each others food. If I am at work, sitting at a lunch table eating my lunch that I brought from home (or even lunch that I bought), nobody else is going to eat from my food, and I am not going to eat from anybody else's food. If I am sitting with other people and we are talking to each other and eating together, should we not be making a zimun when we bentsch? According to the above psak it would seem that we should not.

Even at home I will only eat from my kids' plates, but if we have guests I would not eat from their plates. So perhaps even at home with guests we should not be making a zimun.. Maybe if the food is put out in serving dishes and everyone takes from the serving dish to their own plate, then maybe that would qualify for a zimun..

What is especially interesting is that these people, in the shailoh Rav Elyashiv is discussing, are sitting at a Pesach seder together. Not 2 random people sitting in a cafeteria just by chance at the same table. These are friends, relatives, host-guests - they are clearly eating together. yet one has a chumra/minhag the other does not. And still, despite the "kirva" and the definity of them eating together, they are still considered to be eating separately.

And one more point - it is clear from the discussion that just because one person has a chumra the other does not keep is not a reason to avoid eating together. The one guy in the story above could have said I cannot come to your seder because I only eat machine matza and hand matza is chametz to me, or vice versa. You have your chumra, and I have my chumra, but we should try to work it out and eat together...

(HatTip: Matzav.com, via the Wolf)


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The Facebook Haggadah

See it here

Great concept, and smart execution but the actual jokes are too far and few between.


HT: AKO

Related: Sixty Second Seder and THE BIGGEST THREAT TO JUDAISM TODAY

Yoetzet? Nice, but Maharat is better

Somehow it escaped our notice that Sara Hurwitz has been appointed a full member of the (Orthodox) clergy at the the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. Her title is Maharat, not Rabbi, but in an interview with TJC, she suggests that's just semantics.

"Maharat means Rabbi" she said.

What do I say? Rely upon her if you like, for any matter you wish. I won't - mostly because I have very little use for Rabbis, but also because I'm lamentably old fashioned: Maharat Sara, as she says she wishes to be called, is both too young and too female for me, but that's a personal preference, not an objective disqualification.

Sidenotes: The left seems grumpier about this then the right. The worst Avi Safran had to say was that Mahart Sarah's congregation was "misguided"; more middle of the road Orthodox said nothing. Meanwhile, a Rabbi-Doctor from JTS expressed her displeasure that the Maharat wasn't given the title "Rabbi." I see the point - if she trained as a Rabbi and functions as a Rabbi let her be called Rabbi - but some taboos die hard.

Additional sidenote: If Maharat Sarah has a husband, and he had a blog, specifically about his place and role in his wife's congeration, what would he call it? What's the word for a Maharat's husband? And does renegade have a synonym that starts with "M"?

Still more side-noting: Avi Shafran is teflon. I'd love to be able to call whole hunks of Judaism "misguided" and still be worshipped and admired by the people who read Cross Currents.

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Previous Featured Vid

I really like this song and I am sorry to replace it but the time has come to add a new vid to the side bar.

Making a case for Yoetzet Halacha

A guest post by Frum Satire


[DB: It'll be interesting to see if any of the agenda-driven whiners who complained when I put up a similar post, will object to FS's argument. In particular, I'm curious to see if they'll line up to complain about how FS also neglected to refer to the Rabbi by his title. Some say this is deeply disrespectful. I deeply disagree, and remain convinced it is only perceived as "deeply disrespectful" when perceiving it as deeply disrespectful provides an opportunity to complain about yourfavoriteblogger. Let's see if I'm right.]

While spending shabbos in Washington Heights several weeks ago, the residents were in the process of trying to find a new Rabbi for the shul. On Friday night the shul organized an Oneg Shabbat question and answer session with the prospective Rabbi, it wasn’t interesting until the topic of women’s participation in communal and synagogue life came up. The silence and snickers and small conversations between the questions could be felt by everyone. The prospective Rabbi was not really for the hiring a Yoetzet Halacha, and I myself had no idea what that was.

A Yoetzet Halacha is a full time women’s halachic advisor, someone to advise women in questions and issues that they would otherwise feel uncomfortable discussing with a male Rabbi. Upon learning what exactly a Yoetzet Halacha was, I immediately wondered why this prospective rabbi would appear flustered or even against the option of helping women talk about their issues in a more comfortable environment. There isn’t much literature on the subject; I did find one article and a response letter both in the Five Towns Jewish Times.

The initial article, titled Rave Reviews for Manhattan Yoatzot Halacha Program, is basically explaining which congregations in the New York had hired these women’s halachic advisors and how the Rabbis were thrilled to have them along. I should note that according to Nishmat (which is one of the only programs I could find that certifies Yoetzet Halachot) it is quite hard to get certified and according to some friends that attended their other women’s study programs they are very “frum.”

The response letter, titled We Do Not Need Yoatzot Halacha, was a different story. Written by Rabbi Yaakov Feitman, it is an angry argument against such a wonderful program which he says was “conceived out of concern and kindness” which he believes is “an insidious incursion into our time-honored mesorah.” Which is always and in this case as well, followed by some sort of claim that anything that allows women to leave the kitchen for the study hall to be evil and breaking down our morals.

Feitman goes on to make what I could only call a fool of himself with the following paragraph:

“Here is an irony to the “creation” (their word) of a yoetzet at this stage of Jewish history. In ancient times, women were in fact very private people, rarely venturing forth into any kind of public venue. Many halachos, in areas such as tzedakah, inheritance, and business law took this fact into consideration. Yet, women were comfortable asking a she’eilah of their rav or sending their husbands. Today, when women are full members of every area of commerce and society, when they travel the world and are elected to the highest positions in government, it seems a bit incongruous to belatedly claim discomfort with a man. A rav is as much a professional as a physician or attorney, and conducts himself with discretion and consideration. One cannot help but detect an influence of modern feminism and societal pressure rather than a true problem in the comfort level of 21st-century Jewish women.”

My first reaction was that Rabbi Feitman is full of crap. He fails to note that many women new to orthodoxy may not feel comfortable talking about such personal issues as Taharat Mishpacha (family purity) with a man she hardly knows. Besides, talking to a Rabbi whom you may see every week can make things a bit awkward. Just because women feel comfortable with society doesn’t mean they talk about sexual issues with everyone they meet. Who is Feitman fooling?

I would like to ask Rabbi Feitman if he ever thought about the women who may now ask questions that they never felt comfortable asking before, allowing them to observe the laws on a better level. I would also like to now, how the ultraorthodox community can tell women to be so modest their whole lives and once they get married to just feel comfortable talking about these detailed issues with a stranger?

Related

No good deed goes unpunished

A guest post by JS:

Palestinian children put on a concert for Israeli Holocaust survivors: click here.

And the inevitable result: click here.

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More cruel customs

Looks like I am on a roll. Last Monday, I posted the NYT article from 1897 about birchas hachama in NYC, and two days later VIN picked it up. (He credited me; unlike certain other mega News aggregators, VIN is a mentch.)

Last week, I also wrote about the horribly cruel custom of banning women from Jewish funerals. Tonight, YNET has an article on the subject.

Rabbi: Satan dances as women attend funerals: After a woman innocently rose to lament her father, a rabbi blocked her way to the podium with his body insisting that it would be disrespectful to the dead if she was allowed to speak. And what about his own display of bad taste, bad manners and bad judgement? It amazes me that some value the dignity of the dead over the dignity of the living. The woman wanted to mourn her father (at a funeral where she and/or her family were likely paying the bills) in a way she found meaningful. Who is this rabbi to say no, and to impose upon them his uninivited, and undesired views?

HT: The Beadle

Why a sheep?

A guest post by JS:

Over in the comments on this post, Bray is relating the common idea that the reason the Passover sacrifice is a sheep, is that the sheep was revered in Egypt. Thus, when the Israelites sacrificed the sheep not only was it a "judgment against the gods of Egypt," but it was a gigantic slap in the face to the Egyptians who were powerless to stop the Jews.

However, I can't find any textual support for this idea whatsoever. Yes, the line about "I will execute judgment against the gods of Egypt" is said in the same breath as the Passover sacrifice, but they're not connected - instead the line is related to the plague of the first born. Furthermore, the idea that because the Egyptians found shepherds to be an abomination (Gen 46:34) similarly has nothing to do with this. If it did, presumably they would have prevented the Jews from owning sheep after the Jews were enslaved.

Rather, I think the reason a sheep was chosen is the exodus is a rebirth of the Jewish people and an essential part of that process is going back to the start of the Jewish people. Avraham is told that his descendants will be enslaved and then freed. Almost immediately afterward, he is given the Jewish people's first commandment to circumcise himself. Only when Avraham is circumcised does he merit the birth of Yitzchak. It is through Yitzchak that the defining moment of the Jewish people arises: the akeida. At the akeida, Yitzchak repeatedly asks "where is the sheep intended for slaughter?" Finally, at the last second, Yitzchak is spared and a ram (part of the sheep family) is slaughtered instead.

Thus, when the prophesy related to Avraham is about to come true, when the Jews are about to leave Egypt, we see a return to this theme. Once again, the act of circumcision is intimately tied into the sacrifice of a sheep. Once again, the people are commanded to circumcise themselves and once again they are told to sacrifice a sheep (this time for the Passover offering). In fact, Hashem repeats several times that one who is uncircumcised may not eat from the Passover offering.

As further proof: The sheep for the Passover offering must be male - just like the ram that replaced Yitzchak.

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Competing versions of the same midrash

Why do we bring sacrifices? Continued....

As discussed yesterday the Rambam thought sacrifices were commanded only to wean us from idolatry [Note to Chardal: I said ONLY(see #1 below)]

Attempting to defend the Rambam, his wingman Don Issac Abrabanel cites a midrash:

"It's analogous to the case of a prince who turned villainous(?) and acquired the habit of eating disgusting food [נבלות וטרפות] Said the king: Let him eat the disgusting food at my table [יאכלם על שולחני ] and he'll come to break the habit" [Continues Don Issac] Likewise, the Israelites were steeped in idol worship, including sacrifices... Said God: Let them bring those sacrifices to me at the Tent of Meeting, and from this they'll come to break the habit..."

Unfortunately as pointed out later by R. Dovid T. Hoffman, it appears the Abrabanel text had a mistake in it. The text used by Abrabanel says the King invited his son to bring his disgusting food to the royal table, whch fits with Rambam's idea that the Jewish order of sacrifice was created to wean us from the disgusting habit of bringing any kind of sacrifice. If we must bring sacrifices, the midrash seems to say, at least let us bring them for the glory of the one God, rather then for the glory of idols.

However, Arabanel's text appears damaged in a way that would obviate the Midrash's support for the Rambam's idea.

Where Abrabanel had יאכלם על שולחני / eat it at my table, RDTH has זה יהיה תדיר על שולחני / he should become a regular guest at my table and, presumably, eat proper royal food, rather then the disgusting food. This change in language changes the message. In Abrabanel's version the king is making a concession - "eat your disgusting food if you must, but at least do it at my table." In RDTH's version the king is saying: "Come to my table, and leave your disgusting food behind."

The difference? In A's version sacrifices are seen as a concession, and something that should not exist under ideal circumstances, but if you have to do it, do it for God. In RDTH's version sacrifices are a perfectly approriate way to worship, so long as they are directed to God and not to idols.

FOOTNOTE
1. Why only? Here's the Rambam: It is impossible to go suddenly from one extreme to the other; the nature of man will not allow him suddenly to discontinue everything to which he has been accustomed.... the general mode of worship in which the Israelites were brought up, consisted in sacrificing animals in temples containing images, to bow down to those images, and to burn incense before them. It was in accordance with the wisdom and plan of God, as displayed in the whole creation, that He did not command us to give up and to discontinue all these modes of worship; for to obey such a commandment would have been contrary to the nature of man... For this reason God allowed these rituals to continue: He transferred to His service that which had formerly serves worship of created beings, and things imaginary and unreal, and commanded us to serve Him in the same manner; viz., to build unto Him a temple... I know that you will at first thought reject this idea and find it strange; you will put the following question to me in your heart: How can we suppose that Divine commandments, prohibitions, and important acts, which are fully explained, and for which certain seasons are fixed, should not have been commanded for their own sake, but only for the sake of some other things; as if they were only the means which He employed for His primary end. [Read the rest.]

A rational explanation for the "miracle" of Jacob's sheep

A guest post by NOYAMG

In the comments to this post by Chaim G. Le Brai de Fundie I, Chaim used Jacob’s sheep as an example of an overt miracle produced on demand, writing:

What about Yaakov? [Gen 30:37-28]

And Jacob took him rods of fresh poplar, and of the almond and of the plane-tree; and peeled white streaks in them, making the white appear which was in the rods
And he set the rods which he had peeled over against the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink; and they conceived when they came to drink.

or was that all Gregorian [sic] genetic engineering?

In response, I said that, in fact, I think it was all genetics (I didn’t point out that the term is Mendelian, but it is), and that my frum Bio prof in YU very adroitly pointed out that this was very easily predictable through knowledge of genetics.

Someone asked “how.”

Here’s how:

Whiteness in sheep is dominant, color is recessive. What that means, essentially, is that there are sheep that will appear white that nevertheless carry a gene for color. They are called heterozygous. What Yaakov realized, being smart, astute and living with sheep and breeding them for years, is that even "pure" white sheep that bred sometimes had colored offspring (as would be expected in heterozygous white sheep).

Where this diverged from accepted breeding knowledge of the time was that the farmers thought that white was "pure" and that color would "spackle" the white, so to speak. Lavan thought that by removing all the colored sheep from the flock, there would be no color to "depurify" the white sheep. This was a mistake. In fact, had Lavan wanted to strip Yakov of all ability to profit, he would have made white sheep the payment, and removed all the white sheep from the flock. At that point, another white sheep would never have been born.

As Yakov selectively breeded (through the use of aphrodisiacs) the white sheep with the colored, he increased the incidence of heterozygous genotype/white phenotype sheep, which, in turn increased the incidence of colored offspring, until the majority of the sheep were colored, and there were no homozygous dominant left in the herd.

Think of this in terms of eye color, which may help explain it: Brown is dominant, blue recessive (this isn't entirely accurate, because eye color is controlled by more than one gene, but go with it). You can have a blue-eyed child born to parents who both have Brown eyes; if both parents are hybrid/heterozygous brown (Bb), an estimated 25% of their offpsring will be bb, and have blue eyes.

The same of the sheep. Pure White (W) is dominant. Taking out the ww sheep (the homozygous recessive spotted ones) still left Ww sheep in the flock. Heterozygous sheep tend to be stronger and more virile breeders. So, when Yakov mates the stronger sheep together, he’s mating heterozygous Ww. The expected result of such a pairing it that only one in four offspring will appear colored, but only one in four offspring will actually be “pure” white. The other three carry the recessive gene

Now, in the next generation, mate a Ww with a ww, and you get a 50% chance of ww offspring and 50% chance of Ww offspring, and 100% chance that you have NO WW (pure white) in the litter.

Over time and (sheep) generations, you can essentially eliminate the pure white WW from the flock, and continually increase the number of ww spotted sheep in the gene pool.

Finally, side point, even if you want to say that Yaakov didn’t know any of this, and he really thought his rods were having an effect (as opposed to just used as aphrodisiacs to selectively breed), still, that’s not a miracle produced on demand, since at no time does Yaakov call out to God to increase his sheep.

Primogeniture-Palooza Digest II

By the Bray of Fundie

Well guess what? There isn't going to be a Primogeniture-Palooza Digest II or III. Sorry Cubbies... but 9 non Bray comments on a post I worked so long and hard on just doesn't cut it. You guys aren't interested in reading/commenting? Then I'm too exhausted to write.

I hope that Dov is right and that Esav really was a nice guy as you are walking in his footsteps.

וַיֹּאכַל וַיֵּשְׁתְּ, וַיָּקָם וַיֵּלַךְ; וַיִּבֶז עֵשָׂו, אֶת-הַבְּכֹרָה="and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way. So Esau spurned his legacy. "

To paraphrase President Nixon: "My wife is a respectable Kharedi Cloth-coat. You're not gonna have 'ol Bray's Primogeniture-Palooza Digest posts to kick around anymore"

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Rav Elya Svei Z'L BDE

Who? The Rosh Yeshiva of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia

Much Ado About Almost Nothing Alert

See some hillbilly GOP State Senator from TN call his Jewish colleague a "nutritional Nazi."

Noteworthy, only because some are omitting to include the word "nutritional" as they retell the story, and also because of the cringing and other facial acrobatics performed by the man sitting behind the offending senator.

HT Scazon from here on Twitter

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Primogeniture-Palooza Digest I

By the Bray of Fundie

As a follow up to this post I offer a digest about what the Mefarshim say re: these P'sukim:

(Exodus 4:22-23)
כב וְאָמַרְתָּ, אֶל-פַּרְעֹה: כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה, בְּנִי בְכֹרִי יִשְׂרָאֵל.22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh: Thus saith the LORD: Israel is My son, My first-born.כג וָאֹמַר אֵלֶיךָ, שַׁלַּח אֶת-בְּנִי וְיַעַבְדֵנִי, וַתְּמָאֵן, לְשַׁלְּחוֹ--הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי הֹרֵג, אֶת-בִּנְךָ בְּכֹרֶךָ.23 And I have said unto thee: Let My son go, that he may serve Me; and thou hast refused to let him go. Behold, I will slay thy son, thy first-born.'--

In no particular order:

Ibn Ezra: As a Bekhor is a firstborn so too the ancestors of the Hebrews were the first to worship Me (sayeth HaShem). I love them and have compassion for them as a father would a son who serves him. You took (usurped) them as eternal slaves and so I will kill your bekhor.

Hamek Davar (Netzi"v of Volozhin): HaShem is not messaging a commoner but a King. A Kings sons are all princes, not mere sons, and his eldest is not a mere prince, but the Crown Prince. This position/office has significance even while the father Pharaoh lives. The Crown Prince is groomed for his assumed primogeniture succession by assisting his father in administration of the kingdom and in matters of state.

The Hebrews are MY crown Princes (sayeth Hashem). They assist me in administering MY Kingdom. (cp. Haamek Davar on the verse of
ג אַף חֹבֵב עַמִּים, כָּל-קְדֹשָׁיו בְּיָדֶךָ; וְהֵם תֻּכּוּ לְרַגְלֶךָ, יִשָּׂא מִדַּבְּרֹתֶיךָ.
3" Yea, He loveth the peoples, all His holy ones--they are in Thy hand; and they sit down at Thy feet, uplifted by leading". tamtzis : A Jews actions has far greater effect, for better or worse, on world affairs than all the geopolitical machinations of the non-Jews combined).

Thus the threat of Makkas Bekhoros is not one of visiting a personal tragedy for the Egyptian Pharaoh as a man, but to undermine his Kingdom as a King...tit for tat for his undermining the Kingdom of Heaven by enslaving the Divine Kings Bekhor/ Crown Prince. This is one King threatening another Kings err ...kingdom.

Rashi P'shat One: Bekhora is an expression of greatness and preeminence, not a literal expression of first in a chronological birth sequence. We find a precedent for this simile in the verse of: (Psalms 89:28) כח אַף-אָנִי, בְּכוֹר אֶתְּנֵהוּ; עֶלְיוֹן, לְמַלְכֵי-אָרֶץ. =28 "I also will appoint him first-born, the highest of the kings of the earth" describing David's preeminence among ANE Kings:

Rashi P'shat Two: This verse is a reference to Yisrael/Yaakov the Historical personage not the nation that sprung from his loins. It is as if HaShem is speaking through Yitzchaks larynx. (Gur Aryeh dryly comments, "so it would not be HaShem's Bekhor that we are referring to but Yitzkhaks") To use Rashi's idiom "Here G-d G-d affixes his signature (the seal of G-d is truth) on the sale of the primogeniture by Esav to Yaakov." [So much forYaakovs heel-grabbing and amoral approach to business ethics!]

Why this would be included in a warning to the Egyptian Pharaoh who, at first glance, doesn't seem to have a horse in the race of the Yaakov Esav primogeniture dispute, remains a mystery.

Rashi concludes; HaShem is unlike a flesh and blood king relying on an element of surprise to wreak vengeance on his enemies. This is the last of the strikes/plagues yet he warns Pharaoh about it first. Why? because G-d is more interested in the repentance of evildoers than in vengeance.

Ay... we don't find that Moshe actually delivered this message to Pharaoh in his first meeting or at all. At the very earliest, according to some readings of the Midrash /Rashi, he alluded to the plague of the firstborn when warning Pharaoh about the plague of Hail. Another unsolved mystery.

Qedusha-Havdala...have you gotten yours today?

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Why did God tell us to bring sacrifices? (Summary of Sources)

Let's leave aside the fact that most all ANE societies had rituals similar to what's described in Leviticus. Let's forget that long-room tripartite temples (like the one our ancestors constructed in Jerusalem) were prevalent throughout the region. Let's likewise pretend we don't know that scholars imagine Leviticus was written by Temple priests seeking to justify, explain, and legislate their various practices and prerogatives. Instead let's turn to the classic sources...

Why did God tell us to bring sacrifices?

Vayikra Raba 42:5: To wean us off idolatry (presumably the idolatry practiced by other ANE cults using similar rituals, as mentioned above.)

Menahot 110a: As an (arbitrary) method of atonement. (Rahi's gloss, there)

Rambam: Only for the purpose of weaning us from idolatry

Ramban: To make the supplicant realize that as that "having sinned against God with his body and soul, he would deserve to have his blood spilled and his body burned." Plus kabbalistic reasons, not easily understood.

Kuzari: Its a necessary prereq for prophesy.

Commentary: I know we ask all the time for the order of sacrifice to be restored, but if these are the reasons behind the rite... honestly, what for? We can't say they do God any good (see Menachot 110a, and the Rambam) We've already been weaned from idolatry; and we have a new method of atonement (i.e. Yom Kippur) which seems to work. So why bother?

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ideas of special chumros for Pesach

A Guest Post by Rafi G
(originally posted on LII)

My daughter came home from school yesterday with an unusual homework project. She has to write down a special chumra we do for Pesach.

I am kind of at a loss of what to tell her...

my choices are:

1. cleaning for pesach the way we do is a big enough chumra
2. machmir on bein adam l'chaveiro and treating others respectfully in tense times.
3. we are (at least I am) makpid to not measure our matzos and maror, so that our mitvos are not measured and limited.
4. Make something up, like only holding matza in plastic bags to eat from and not in hands, because our hands might have sweat on them or other moisture that would make the matza into chametz.
   

That was all I could think of. Any better ideas? I actually like #4, but I know my daughter would never be willing to take that in as her homework....

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Last year's look

The photos appeared here in 2008; the overall look, however, is a bit older and can be seen in its original iterations here, here, and here.

Fashion pics supplied by BigPhil. [If they ran on your blog first tell me, and I'll add you to the credits.]

Festival of Freedom... or Primogeniture-Palooza?

By the Bray of Fundie

From Rebbish to Reconstructionist and from Dayenu doyens to nabobs of Negro spirituals, Pesach is universally understood as the Festival of Freedom. The Haggadah basically begins with “We were slaves to Pharaoh down in Egypt land” and concentrates on the suffering and injustice of slavery and the consolation, empowerment and injustice redressed of liberation.

But could it be that we are missing the forest for the trees? Here JS complained about the limp-wristed siyumim summarily ending the Fast of the Firstborn. But absent that fast we would have little or nothing concretized in our ritual Pesakh observances that deal with the issue of Bekhora. Yet when Moshe finally accepts his mission as redeemer of Israel he was instructed to deliver this message to Pharaoh: (Exodus 4:22-23)

כב וְאָמַרְתָּ, אֶל-פַּרְעֹה: כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה, בְּנִי בְכֹרִי יִשְׂרָאֵל.
22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh: Thus saith the LORD: Israel is My son, My first-born.
כג וָאֹמַר אֵלֶיךָ, שַׁלַּח אֶת-בְּנִי וְיַעַבְדֵנִי, וַתְּמָאֵן, לְשַׁלְּחוֹ--הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי הֹרֵג, אֶת-בִּנְךָ בְּכֹרֶךָ.
23 And I have said unto thee: Let My son go, that he may serve Me; and thou hast refused to let him go. Behold, I will slay thy son, thy first-born.'--

Counterintuitively it seems as though Pharaoh’s main crime was not enslaving the Hebrews. If this were the case (and if I were G-d) then the obvious poetic justice threat ought to have been “You are unjustly enslaving the Hebrews. Liberate them or I will enslave the Egyptians”. It seems as though the evil of the slavery inhered in its capacity to impede, suppress, and even “kill” the Bekhora of the Children of Israel. Hence the midah k’neged midah = quid pro quo threat of slaying Pharaoh’s firstborn.

Let’s face it. Our contemporary sedorim are meant as surrogates of the Seder akheelas korban Pesakh= the order of consumption of the Paschal lamb. The mezuzos on our doors are stand-ins for the blood smeared door-posts and lintel of the night preceding the Exodus that protected us from the Plague of the Firstborn. Yet we seem to concentrate exclusively on freedom and fail to accord any primacy to, well, our own primacy.

In the coming days I hope to bl”n share with you my humble adaptations of what the great meforshei HaMiqra say about the passage that I cited. But in the meantime; how do YOU understand it? What do we mean when we say that Yisrael is kavayakhol, the Bekhor of HaShem? Why is this emphasized rather than the slavery itself? How does slavery compromise primogeniture? And/or how is slavery antithetical to primogeniture?

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the call up to the Big Leagues

A Guest Post by Rafi G
(originally posted on LII)

Can you imagine a player on a Minor League team rejecting the call up to the Big Leagues? He has been playing for years, working, training, all for the day he would get that call saying we think you are ready for the Big Leagues. He finally gets the call - how often do you think it happens that he says "No thank you"?

Well, it happened in Israel. A religious footballer, Shahar Moshe, in the "minor leagues" - the A League - playing for HaShikma Ramat Chen (HaShikma means Sycamore) got the call up to try out for HaPoel Tel Aviv in the premier football league.

While Ramat Chen plays their games on Fridays, the jump to the big leagues means playing on shabbos. Shahar Moshe asked his Rosh Yeshiva of the yeshiva he learns in what to do. Rav Eliyahu Malka recommended he stay and play for the Sycamores in Ramat Chen and not be mechalel shabbos.

And so he chose to do.

Shahar Moshe:

The Torah is more important to me than football. If that is what my rav told me to do, that is holy in my eyes. Shabbos is the source of all blessings.

A great kiddush hashem for doing the right thing, and making what must have been a difficult choice.

(source: Mynet)


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Let the computer pray for you

Unwilling to hire the local Rabbi to recite a daily mourner's prayer on your behalf? Now you have an alternative:

Information Age Prayer is a subscription service utilizing a computer with text-to-speech capability to incant your prayers each day. It gives you the satisfaction of knowing that your prayers will always be said even if you wake up late, or forget.

The site offers major prayers for all religions. Jews can hire the computer to recite the Shma, Kaddish, and various Mee Shebayrachs. The whole Jewish package is just $26 per month, and as an added bonus the speakers will be faced toward Jerusalem when Jewish prayers are articulated. Unfortunately, the prayers are voiced in English, not Hebrew, which suggests this unscrupulous attempt to make a buck off desperate/ignorant Jews is a little half-baked. Related

Other unscrupulous attempts to make a buck off desperate/ignorant Jews
1. Chai Rotel
2. Uman
3. Selling miracles

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First Mention: Birchas Hachama, the Sun Blessing

In this new and occasional feature, DovBear looks at the New York Time's first mention of various subjects of interest. Previously

Today: Birchas Hachama, the blessing made once every 28 years, which will be made again on April 8, 2009

First Appeared: April 8, 1897

Read the whole article here

Neat things to notice and remark upon:

1. The paper's near-Himalayan condescension to the Irish police officer. I love snootiness.

2. Speaking of Himalayan condescension, do you think the fact that so many NY Jews kept this ritual in EIGHTEEN NINETY SEVEN will do anything to blunt Bray's constant claim that Judaism in America was non-existent before his holy shtel dwellers arrived after World War II?

3. Also, be sure to catch the paper's polite regard for the Jews, and their ceremony.

Puzzled about Birchas Hachama? Wondering why Jews make a blessing once every 28 years? Find answers to all your questions about the sun blessing here.

A Havdala Tidbit

By the Bray of Fundie

Besides the overt quantitative gulf separating the two, there are subtler qualitative differences distinguishing the 613 incumbent upon the Bnei Yisrael from the 7 Mitzvos incumbent upon Noahides.

One of these may be that while on both a national level (Na'aseh V'nishma) and on a personal level (Qrias Shma AKA "accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven") Jews perform the commandments only following an informed consensual commitment to do so no parallel prerequisite commitment obtains for the "set" of the 7 Noahide Mitzvos. When it comes to the Bnei Yisrael HaShem Kavayakhol, the Divine Governor, derives His power to govern from the consent of the governed

Also, TTBOMK there is no idea of Khinukh=training of children for the Noahide Mitzvos either. Whatever binds adult Noahides to perform these commandments does the same for the underage children. For Noahides there is no rite of passage, no transformation from an aino metzuveh=un-commanded to a metzuveh=commanded that parallels the Jewsih Bar/Bat Mitzvah.

We associate the age of consent with legal adulthood. IMO the havdala described above means that Bnei Yisrael enjoy a riper, more mature relationship with G-d than the balance of humanity.
Qedusha-Havdala...have you gotten yours today?


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Pesach Gripes

A guest post by JS:

With birchat ha'chodesh this past Shabbat, the imminent arrival of Pesach becomes that much more real. In the spirit of the coming chag, I'd like to share a couple things that bug me each and every Pesach:

1) Ta'anit Bichorot (Fast of the First Borns) - Any fast day that you can "get out of" by sitting around half-asleep while listening to a 5 minute mumbled shiur is not a real fast day. Just abolish this farse already. We've already sucked all the meaning out of it anyway.

2) Bedikat Chametz (Checking for leaven) - Again, another ritual that has been rendered pointless. We've been cleaning our houses for weeks already. There is no chametz left. And yet we need to purposefully hide little packages of chametz so we can make a bracha and ensure it won't be in vain. How ridiculous is that? Either we're all cleaning too much or Chazal had different ideas about what it meant to make Pesach. Which brings me to my next point...

3) Pesach Cleaning - If you're going to clean your house to OCD levels looking for microscopic particles of chametz, just call it spring cleaning already and stop mislabeling what you're doing as being "machmir" (stringent) or having any semblance of holiness. Between the selling of the chametz, the "kol chamira" (nullification of chametz), and the myriad other steps we take to negate ownership of chametz this is just not necessary, stop pretending you're doing God's work.

4) The Feather and Candle - This is way up there on the gripes list. We use vacuum cleaners, HEPA filters, caustic chemicals, carpet cleaners, and a whole slew of modern 21st century cleaning technologies, and then suddenly we pull out a feather and a candle to search for chametz? Are you kidding me? Forget about the dangers of a lit candle - does anyone actually believe this is ritually required? Does anyone believe their bedikat chametz is incomplete without this?

5) People's Complaining about Matzah/Pesach Food - You'd think the world was coming to an end that for a whole 8 days people can't have chametz and/or have to eat matzah. There are still other food groups, you know. Have you never heard of a salad? Potatoes? Chicken, meat, turkey? And btw, matzah isn't bad either. Besides, it's only 8 days!!! Do you really need to spend a small fortune on disgusting kosher for passover substitute "pasta" and "cereal" and all the other overpriced stuff that you couldn't pay people enough money to eat the rest of the year but suddenly people will pay any amount to eat for Pesach?

6) People who pull out measuring charts to make sure they eat EXACTLY enough matzah and marror (bitter herbs) - First of all, get a life - the seder is about a heck of a lot more than this nonsense (the fact that this is a modern thing just adds to this point). Secondly, since when is this shiur (measurement) so freaking large? Lastly, am I the only one disgusted by watching people stuff their faces with these enormous quantities in the name of a mitzvah?

7) People who don't sell their chametz - What is up with this? What everyone else does isn't good enough for you? You want to really experience the suffering of our slave ancestors by having to throw out large quantities of food and/or make random and bizarre meals for days/weeks before Pesach so you can get rid of that package of cheese and that container of rice?

8) Announcements at the end of Pesach about Chametz - Number one, why the heck does it take several hours for the rabbi to buy back the chametz from the non-Jew it was sold to? Number two, why does it seem that every year I keep hearing more stringencies relating to "chametz sh'avar alav ha'pesach" (Chametz that was owned by a Jew over Pesach and is thus forbidden). Last year I was basically told the following by the rabbi on the last day of Pesach, "Please no one buy any chametz from any non-frum store until Shavuot because I have heard that a distributor's cousin's brother-in-law is Jewish and we can't be sure what products they distribute or to what stores in the area, and thus to be safe, it's better if we waited."

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Tsk. How dare a Jewish blogger poke fun at Republican kolel students

The Jewish blogger in question. Get those pitchforks ready.

Rabbinic Committees and Marrying off Kids..

A Guest Post by Rafi G
(originally posted at LII)

The problem of the finances of marrying off children, specifically in Israel among the yeshiva crowd, is well known. The "custom" has been that aside from paying for the wedding, the parents also often have to buy the children an apartment. Generally that obligation has been of the parents of the bride, but even in the best of situations it is split 50-50.

Recently, in the past few years, the issue has come to a head. The problem with the scenario is that few can afford it. Those that can, fine. But overall, the social group that is using that method is the one that is among the lowest socio-economic levels in the country. It has been widely discussed in the haredi press, and many attempts have been made in the last few years to try to alleviate the problem and remove the pressure, even if just a bit.

The problem really is that because most cannot afford it, they travel the world trying to raise money as they go collecting for "hachnassas kallah". It takes a toll on their lives, on the health, on the family. They go into serious debt to marry off the kids and provide them with a home.

BHOL is reporting on a new attempt to alleviate the problem. A group of avreichim from Ponevezh who are in the stages of marrying off children have realized that what they made their own parents do is just not possible anymore. Maybe their parents were working people and could take out another mortgage or dip into savings to buy them apartments (I have no idea why people think that just because you have a job you are able to afford extra apartments - maybe a different post). But they learn in kollel and barely make it to the end of the month and that is with just the bare minimum of basics. There is no way they will be able to buy their kids apartments.

So these avreichim have gotten together and decided they would agree among themselves to spend no more than $60,000 on their kids weddings. What that includes I don't know - the wedding itself? Also part of the price of an apartment? Gifts? I don't know - the article does not go into detail on that, but I will be staying tuned looking for more info on this.

As well, they are going to be going around the country trying to sign up 10,000 avreichim to agree to the same commitment.

Where they will get $60,000 is another problem, but it is better than a parent having to dish out $150,000 he does not have. So it relieves some of the pressure. And by signing up a large number of people, it lessens the social pressure that forces parents to take on all that debt - if others are not doing it, I will not feel obligated to do it. If they are only doing so much, I will only have to do so much.

The group went to Rav Shteinman to get his haskama that what they are doing is ok. Rav Shteinman agreed, and decided to set up a rabbinic committee to head the initiative.

I think the idea is great, and hopefully this is just the beginning of working solutions being found. What I find funny is that people want to spend less money, go less into debt, make weddings that cost less, buy cheaper apartments, buy apartments in cheaper neighborhoods, etc, and they feel they need the haskamah of a rav to do so. And we all know what happens once rabbinic committees get involved. You had a great idea - just follow through and spend less money. Why get others involved?Celebrate Passover 2009 with Magnificent Passover Gift Baskets from Oh Nuts.

Upcoming book alert

Now, this should be good:

Stolow has recently completed his latest book Orthodox By Design, a volume 15 years in the making. The forthcoming book, with the University of California Press, closely examines Brooklyn-based ArtScroll, the largest and most important Orthodox Jewish publishing house in the English-speaking world. His investigation probes methods ArtScroll has used to shape the ways readers interact with the books: how books are acquired by communities, their extensive catalogue (which includes cookbooks, adventure novels and legal guides), all the way down to typesetting and illustrations.

My objection to Artscroll is that it did to Judaism what the grocery store did to the tomato. All the delicious and perfectly authentic heirloom varieties were marginilized while instead a bland, insipid mass market version was held up as the ideal of what a "tomato" is and always was.

An exciting, yet moderately priced post, in which the outstanding products and services of a brilliant DovBear sponsor are both lauded and celebrated.

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More information

Breaking: Rav Elyashiv allows civil marriage

Rav Elyashiv allows civil marriage for non-Jews

Cool.

I do have a sneaking suspicion that, perhaps, the civil marriage people sent in a smooth-talking kanoi who kept restating and rephrasing his questions until Rav Elyashiv provided the desired answer, but lets wait for the video.

Manipulating Rav Elyashiv?

Good old Rafi has pointed me to the video of someone I don't recognize interrogating Rav Elyashiv. You can see it here.

Though I confess to much uncertainty about what -if anything- the video tells us about either Rav Elyashiv or about how halachic decisions are made, the sky-scraping arrogance of the interrogator is obvious. Sometimes the man appears to grin with self-satisfaction. At other times, he pounds the table impatiently, or shoots the camera an "I told you so" look. Often he appears more interested in getting Rav Elyashiv on the record, and less interested in listening to what the Sage actually has to say. His manner is brusque and condescending, and his questions suggest, and sometimes contain, the answers he purports to seek. For instance, instead of asking:

Why might a student behave rudely to his teachers? He asks:
Can we tell his mother, that the true explanation for her child's bad behavior is that it is her fault [for not dressing modestly?]

He also, at times, seems unwilling to accept an unexpected reply. For instance, he asks:

Should a female principle dress modestly in the manner of any righteous woman, or does she need to be more stringent because she is setting an example? After Rav Elyashuv replies that it is more than sufficient if she merely follows the law, the man rephrases the questions in such a way that the Rav has no alternative but to answer "of course."

I'm an uninitiated observer, but to me it seems as if the man came in with an agenda, and attempted to use the leader of Torah Jewry as a rubber stamp. No doubt, the man will now go off into the world reporting that Rav Elyashiv said this or that, with the utterances stripped of all context.

[As Harry Meryles reports, this sort of thing has happened before].

[If you've already discussed this video on your own blog, let me know, and I'll link you]
[The comment that explains all: The guy is a total nut (and probably crazy extremist). His agenda is getting a psak that would allow wholesale firing of any female teachers who he deems as dressing inappropriately, any male teachers whose wife dresses inappropriately, and throwing out any yeshiva students whose parents dress inappropriately. He is obsessed with tznius, to the point where it's obvious he needs psychiatric intervention. In other cultures, he would be taken for an evaluation and prescribed effective drugs.]

Want to learn more about Rav Elyashiv? Search here.

Torah vs. Science Clashes? Meh...it's all Semantics!

guest post by A12.
mined and truncated by the Bray of Fundie

...and comment mining begets more comment mining. This one is causing me some major cognitive dissonance. It seems (I emphasize seems) to provide a sober dispassionate argument for believing in BOTH Science and Torah.


...First - It makes no sense to hate science. That is like saying that you hate screwdrivers, calculators,....Science is a tool. ...you dislike science because (some) of the findings made by using science do not square with a literal reading of the Torah. However, you are posting your comments using a computer: the product of the use of science. I'm sure you consult with your physician and take prescribed medications for illnesses: again, science. ....It would appear that there is much, where science and its findings are concerned *not* to hate - yet you make a blanket statement that you "hate" it.

Second -...If you're balancing your finances monthly, paper, pen, and calculator in hand - or spreadsheet program - and you crunch the numbers and they tell you that things will be tight - or you don't have enough to cover all of your expenses - do you hate your calculators or spreadsheets because you do not like the outcome they are giving you? (as a matter of fact I do. everything is personal) That's what you are doing to science. Science is based on the data, and it gives the outcome it has to, just like your calculator - and it doesn't do so for any nefarious version, it doesn't try to make you mad, it's just where the data leads it. ...

Fourth (sic, this is third..or did I lose count?)-Why is science "hated" for giving outcomes different from the literal words of the Torah, when other discrepancies are overlooked? For example - isn't a fish considered halachically dead once it is taken out of the water? However, we all know that if you put the fish back in soon enough, it swims away, perfectly alive. We also know that if someone cooks a brisket in a pot, wash it thoroughly and then cook potatoes in the pot, the potatoes have the status of meat. However, a person looking at the potato - who didn't know the pot's status - would not consider the potato to be meat, they would consider it a potato. ...So, my question to you is why is it different when it comes to science?If science looks at the world and says the earth is 4.5 billion years old, why can't it be 4.5 billion years old the way a fish plucked out of the water and then put back was still alive, even though it was halachically dead before? If science finds that humans evolved, why can't that be acceptable, just as it is not offensive to anyone that a potato is still biologically a root vegetable, but takes on the status of meat after being cooked in a meat pot? Why can't it be that, just as a fish is halachically dead, but not scientifically dead, they earth is halachically 6000 years old, but not scientifically 6000 years old? That halachically humans were made from the dust of the ground, but scientifically, humans evolved? Fish swimming away after being caught and potatoes remaining potatoes after being cooked in meat pots don't raise anyone's ire and don't seem to contradict Torah . . . but that is another facet of science presenting things one way and Torah/halacha presenting it another. If you can be okay with one and find nothing offensive about it, why not the same for the other?


Whole comment here

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Do not let them give your child an inferior education.

A GUEST POST WRITTEN BY A LONG TIME READER

Subject: Do not let them give your child an inferior education.

I am currently a student in a prominent (but becoming very inferior) haredi yeshiva. I had big dreams. But then I saw what their secular studies department was. Instead of teaching some secular subjects they taught Judaic studies, which is illegal in their funding laws. Most, if not all haredi institutions do not offer high school courses that will help your son get into college. I know somebody (I am related to him) who had straight A's, not a B on his record, and where did he go to? TOURO COLLEGE! Not because he wanted to go there, because he did not have a choice because of his inferior high school education.

Now you may ask, but if you get good grades and SAT scores why would it make a difference where you go for high school?

Answer: Some schools require certain course be taken in high school. For instance, this is how I stack up in "classes taken" for NYU's admission requirements.

I am very happy to see new Jewish "public schools" or better known as charter schools in Florida and New York. Thank God my school is losing students by the year (soon to be me), and I hope before you consider sending your son or daughter to a haredi yeshiva, to think how you will be making their college search tougher, and more emotional then it is for every other student in this country. Think, maybe co-ed is not anti-Torah (which it surely is not), and offer a better gateway to life, because the world is not separate!

I hope you have taken my advise, and do not make the same mistakes my parents did.

Today's internet time waster

99 percent of the men I meet in the street should do this before leaving home... and some of the women, too.

Travel is Broadening (and G-d is Great)

By the Bray of Fundie

Where I normally daven, Yotzros are omitted except during the Days of Awe.

But I had yet another rare treat last Shabbos.

My "host Shul" was a Nusakh S'fard Bais Medrash where the Yotzros for Parshas Parah were said. However, the congregation did omit the last long piece beginning with the words אין לשוחח right before Qedusha*. By then my curiosity had been piqued and in perusing the omitted passage I found the paytan/liturgical poet waxing euphoric about the "uniting opposites" peculiarities of the Torah.

Inspired by the self-contradictory power of the Red Heifer to purify the impure while simultaneously defiling the pure, he cites a long list of similar Mitzvos.

In no particular order, here is a partial list of the paradoxical peculiarities described by the paytan:

1. Yivum The levirate Marriage vs. the default prohibition of one's brothers wife.
3. Shatnez Garments of wool+linen mixtures vs. T'keles b'sadin (i.e. woolen strings in a linen Tallis, not sure why he skipped the avnet=the gartel of the Kohanim)
3. Dam nidah vs. dam besulim
4. Generic married women vs. Eshes Y'fas Toar
5. Partial negah impurity vs. complete coverage purity. (edit shkoyakh to Product and Lakewood Guy)
6. Meat and milk vs. kosher udders.

I'm not sure why, but Cherubim vs. prohibited graven images did NOT make the list.

Re-reading it and the quasi-Sabbatean, yet not antinomian lyric: מתיר מאסורות מותרות-נותן מטמאות טהורות I wondered if this might possibly be a secondary kavanah when we make the daily blessing of matir asurim. A kind of continuation of Birkas HaTorah.

In any event the paytan's poetry reminded me of the overt covertness of the Torah and of the Rambam's famous line in the (desert) sand for khukim/ irrational Mitzvos. Insoluble mysteries and enigmatic conundrums in the Torah abound. In fact, they are front and center for anyone not deep in denial. It also reminded me that a basic idea of our monotheistic theology is that HaShem alone can unite all opposites and be the One source for all things, even for what is (apparently) mutually exclusive. All of this doesn't RESOLVE Predestination vs. Free-will or theodicy but at least it gives one a framework in which to "file" them.

Bonus discovery for parochial me: the lyrics of the Belzer hit כי אתה מלך מלכי המלכים--מלכותו נצח וכו' come from this past week's Yotzros! (I had not known this previously...live and learn) ___________

* Oddly this long passsage appears in the Artscroll All Hebrew Ashkenaz but not in the bilingual edition...HMMMM...

Open thread on blog manners

If you want to comment about this, please do it here. If not, well that's ok, too.

Bailouts, bailouts everywhere

A guest post by (the artist formerly known as) TikunOlam

Everywhere I look someone is getting bailed out. Whether it is people at shul on reduced membership dues, the folks who get tuition assistance at the day schools (even when it is the grandparents footing the bills) or the big companies giving out bonuses to their top employees from government bail out money, everyone seems to be getting a handout.

You see, all of these years, my husband and I have been fiscally responsible. We did not get a risky mortgage on a house that we couldn’t afford. We don't have credit card debt. We stopped at two kids to ensure that we could pay for their tuition, orthodontic bills and shabbos shoes. When we first moved into our current home and we were tight on money and our heating system broke down and our water heater’s life came to an end, we made it work by putting off getting rid of the disgusting old carpeting and managed without buying furniture for the living room and dining room until we could afford to.

No one bailed me out. I didn’t expect anyone to. And now, years later, with relatively successful careers and a number of years of being able to afford two cars and family vacations, we are cutting down on expenses just in case next year’s income goes down. We are making sure that next year our children’s tuition will be paid and we won’t need a bailout from anyone in order to keep our house.

You see, I think that I am starting to understand Republicans. I am finding my once generous do-gooder self getting tired of watching as shul membership dues go up, tuition for my children goes up, real estate taxes go up, in part, so people like me can help the folks who “need” bailouts. Why am I paying increased tuition so the children from the family of 6 with the stay-at-home mom can go to private school? Like I would not have wanted to be a stay-at-home mom with the luxury of having as many children as my heart desired?

I am tired of feeling punished for being responsible. It almost makes me want to go back in time and buy that new crib for my kids instead of taking the hand-me-down one, hire the nurse when my children were born so I could get some desperately needed sleep, buy the house with the fireplace and Jacuzzi tub instead of the modest home with the 500 year old kitchen. Why should I be the sucker? Why not let someone else just bail me out?

Think I will do an experiment. I am going to go out today and buy a pair of those ugly, overpriced “Uggs” and maybe one of those awesome iPod Touch things and see if I can get someone else to pay for them. Let you know how it goes.

Celebrate Passover 2009 with Magnificent Passover Gift Baskets from Oh Nuts.

DovBear

As the more astute readers have noticed, I've added "featured content" to my blog (That's just a fancy name for golden oldies)

Wonder how many of you were present when these were new?

So much for godless Hollywood

New England surpasses West Coast as least religious region in America

HT: Eliyahu, the excellent

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Custom Query-(Closely) Reading the Golden Calf

By the Bray of Fundie

I was a guest for Shabbos in one of the great bastions of Torah Truth. The Baal Qoreh in the Shul where I davened gave the Khet HaEgel=the sin of the Golden Calf portion of the reading the Tokhakha=chastisement/rebuke treatment. I.e. he read that portion more swiftly and in an undertone compared to the rest of the Parsha. To me this was an innovation. I've never heard another Baal Qoreh read it that way. I thought it was cool. After all, if you're going to terror-infuse the effect why not terror-infuse the cause?

I complimented the Baal Qoreh on his creativity. He claimed that he wasn't being creative, that "it's brought in poskim" to read it that way. Engrossed (and I do mean gross) as I was in the post-service Kiddush the man had absconded before I could obtain a source. Minhag curiosity is one thing but Matjes Herring and a piping hot Chulent swimming in grease is quite another.

Do they lein it that way in your Shul? Anyone know which (if any) poskim cite this cutom? Is this an ancient custom making it's way back into the vogue or just another egregious example of G-d's Cossacks "improving" Yiddishkeit again? Does anyone read the Khet HaMeraglim=the sin of the spies this way? At the very least I'd expect Mar Gavriel to pipe in and my gracious host, the Ba'al HaBlog, to provide us with the historically accurate cultural osmosis that's behind this minhag de jour.

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Best Purim Costume Ever

Note: I think its a photoshopped fake, but can't prove it and don't care: Still funny.
HT: On request
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When a Jewish Girl Intermarries a Crucifix....

By the Bray of Fundie

When a Jewish girl intermarries a Crucifix (not a X-tian, not someone wearing a crucifix around his neck but the shesee 'v'eyrev itself) who officiates? A Rabbi a Priest or a carpenter? Is this even intermarriage?

Think that it couldn't happen? Think again!

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An Anti-Christian bit of Parshanut

Exodus 32:32, “And now, lift their sin, and if not, erase me please from Your book that You wrote."

According to Rashi, the "book" is the Torah, and Moshe is demanding to have his name removed from it, if God won't forgive the people for the sin of the golden calf. This follows Shmos Raba.

The Ramban (and others) follow the Michilta, and say Moshe is asking to be killed in Israel's place, to bear her sins, to die for her sake. And just in case the Christian connection isn't clear enough, the Ramban makes it crystal by quoting the Suffering Servant passage! [Is 53:5] However, as the Ramban concludes, God rejects Moshe's offer, saying, "Only those who have sinned will die, and not you who hasn't sinned."

I'm absolutely certain the man who stared down Pablo Christiano at the Disputation at Barcelona (where the Suffering Servant passage was discussed in depth) was making an anti-Christian point here, saying that God would never let a blameless man take someone else's punishment.

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Thars Gold in Them Thar Comments

Mined and edited by the Bray of Fundie

First exposure to "Peleg" and I like what I read. As a man of both Science and Faith he brings to the table a lot more cache and credibility than I can. I bolded what I consider to be the "money" quotes. Displaying a very well developed Havdala/Qedusha consciousness he waxes clear and eloquent about the natural and the miraculous (and, to be candid, advocates for Torah Umadah, not my hashqafa):

"I started out life wanting to become a nuclear chemist. Got darn near there, but it wasn't in the cards for me. Still, I think I learned my science well. And along the way, I also got religious. For a while, I thought I'd have to maintain a sort of double-think because the two bodies of knowledge seem to be in conflict in so many ways. After much thought and living and learning was expended on the problem, I think I've finally found a way to live comfortably in both worlds.

What I came to realize is that, not only can Torah and Science comfortably co-exist, in the world, and in my mind, they aren't even in conflict. In order for there to be a conflict, you first have to be contending over the same territory and, in the case of knowledge systems; they have to have a common epistimologic foundation.The epistimologic foundations are totally different.

First, what each system regards as truth turns out to be completely different concepts. In science, a truth is essentially a theory, something empirically determined. It is not immutable nor is it eternal. In Torah, a truth is something derived from Torah, is immutable and eternal. Empirically testing of a Torah truth is neither necessary nor relevant. So, since they cannot even agree on what a Truth is, there isn't any basis for any sort of comparison. Furthermore, what each knowledge system considers to be valid evidence isn't at all the same thing, but I won't belabor that point.Science is about what can be perceived and measured and verified by experiment. Torah is about what is right and wrong, why we are here, and what we are supposed to do. If you want to build an atom bomb, you won't find much relevant information in Torah, but if you want to know, given certain circumstances, if using the bomb is the right thing to do, Science isn't going to provide much help.They just aren't dealing with the same problems and questions. They both provide valuable knowledge about the world, but not the same knowledge. Even more, you can't evaluate the usefulness or veracity of one system using the rules of the other. They don't intersect in any significant ways. They stand separate. So, as a scientist, I have trouble explaining or even accepting miracles and such things. As a frum Jew, I have no doubt that there have been and there are such things. ….

Torah doesn't help me make a living -- I'm a computer programmer -- but science and a scientific way of thinking does. We put men on the moon with science, and there is nothing miraculous about it. It is a fantastic accomplishment, but it’s not any way a miracle. Nothing in Torah helped those rocket scientists to shoot those guys up there and bring them home. That Torah can't put a man on the moon doesn't diminish Torah one bit. It would if it makes any serious claims to being a source of knowledge for such an endeavor, but no reasonable person makes such a claim. Sure, I've heard those claims made, but never from a person who truly understands both Torah and Science.

I'm happy with what I believe. I now have two very powerful tools for living my life. The trick is knowing when to apply which tool. I think I am better off than someone who only has one set of tools to deal with the world. Either a person finds the physical world a complete enigma (those that only admit to Torah knowledge) or a person finds life rather flat and empty of true meaning and purpose (those that only function according to science). My world is wondrous because I have at least some sense of how it works at a physical level (I am still amazed that a machine as big and heavy as an airplane can actually fly, ...) and wonderful because I have a way of connecting and experiencing something, in some way, at some level, the reason for my existence. Some people can't see miracles in their own lives. Neither could I a while ago. It's simply a matter of learning how to look. "

To read the entire comment click here.

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Plot holes in Esther

First seen here

Why wasn't the first party co-ed?

Why didn't the Greeks, Persia's traditional rival, take over the kingdom when everyone important was partying in Shushan?

Why didn't the king blink when Haman asked for permission to murder millions?

Why didn't the King take Haman's bribe? After throwing all those parties, he didn't need some spare change?

Why did Haman need to build a gallows for Mordecai? Couldn't he just hire the firm of Two Guys Named Vito to settle the score quietly?

Why didn't Esther accept the King's offer of half the kingdom. He made it twice, so we can assume he was serious.

Why did Esther drag Haman and the King to a second party? Couldn't she have ratted out Haman at the first party?

Why did Charvonah have such a big mouth? And if he had it in for Haman, why did he wait until the last minute?

Why did Mordecai get Haman's job? What were his qualifications? Is that how it worked in Persia? If someone plotted to kill you and your people, did you automatically take his position when the plot was foiled?

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In which the Rashbam calls Jerome a moron

The statue at the right, and others like it, depict Moses with horns because of Jerome's translation of Exodus 34:29. The verse employs two words - keren and or - that led most ancient interpreters to suggest that Moses' face beamed with light when he descended from Sinai. This is the view found in the LXX, Targum Onkelos, Targum Neophyti, and the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. It is also the reading accepted by the committee that produced the King James Version.

Only Jerome disagrees. In his reading keren or is not "rays of light," but "horned skin." The translation, though later misused by anti-Semites, is not entirely unreasonable. Keren is a homonym, with horn being one of its meanings; also horns were often used by the ancients as ornaments or as a sign of distinction; alternatively Jerome may have thought the horn, or toughing of the skin, was a disfigurement of some kind caused by direct exposure to God.

I bring all this up, because tonight I doscovered the Rashbam's response to Jerome, which I loved because it was short, terse and rude -- exactly like a good blog post. Here is what he says:

[Keren] is an expression of majesty as in Habakkuk: "rays from his hand to him." Whoever compares it to the "his horns are the horns of a wild ox" is a moron(shoteh). Most biblical words are homynyns. Menchem b Seruk read it this way,
too.

Related: One of my all time favorite posts


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Ot Yomit

Ot Yomit or ois yomis for those of you who are too traditional for your own good.

New template (maybe)

Look at it here: http://dovbearsandbox.blogspot.com/ then come back and post a comment on this post.

(Notes: I'm not married to the picture. Consider it a place holder)

Update: Picture changed

Why do we masquerade on Purim?

If one more person tells me that we hide our faces on Purim as a way of paying homage to the hidden miracles, or to God's hidden face, my eyes are going to roll right out of my head.

People. We masquerade on Purim because once upon a time masquerading was how the world demonstrated joy. You can still see vestiges of this in current Mardi Gras celebrations or Carnival. The first Jews to wear masks were the Jews of Italy, who were copying the practice of the local gentiles.

There's no deeper theological reason. In fact, the custom of masquerading was entirely unknown among Persian and Arab Jews.

Previously
A shrill Purim protest
Things about Purim that bother me
How Hasidim sing the grogger song?
The truth about the "Purimfest 1946" bible code (all time great post!)
The REAL reason (maybe) we rattle noisemakers at Haman's name.

Parodies
The GOP Jew's Megillah (all time great post!)
Plot holes in the Book of Esther

More
Meat at the Seudah?
Re: Mishloach Manot (are you a lunatic or a lazy bones?)
Stuff we got (and liked) (all time great post!)
Post Purim Worries