Esav and Rome

And so we may arrive by Talmud skill,
And profane Greek, to raise the building up
Of Helen's house against the Ismaelite,King of Thogarma, and his habergions
Brimstony, blue, and fiery; and the force
Of King Abaddon, and the beast of Cittim;
Which rabbi David Kimchi, Onkelos,
And Aben Ezra do interpret Rome.

--Ben Johnson, The Alchemist(1610), act 4, scene 3

A few years back, Bray, some others, and I, argued for months across multiple posts and comments about Esav and Rome. I don't remember the counterarguments, and have no wish to misconstrue them but my claim was that the famous and familair association of Esav with Rome was a late innovation, and an example of rabbinic polemics. As I explained in 2005:

Esav appears as a stand-in for Rome only after the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135 C.E.). Until then Esav was generally just a symbol of godlessness and bad stuff, inspired, most likely, by that verse at the beginning of Malachi. Before the Bar Kokhba Revolt, there's no specific equation of Esav with Rome.

Also, prior to the destruction of the Temple, we find a few agadot that don't view Esav negatively. One midrash remembers him as the expert at honoring his father; some others express sympathy for Esav, implicitily criticizing Jacob for stealing the blessing.

The other day, I suggested to @kosheracademic that Esav's association with Rome might make a nice Tisha B'Av study. She pointed me to Traditions of the Bible, by James Kugel, and the Kittim.

According to the genealogy in Genesis, the Kittim decend from a namesake founder who was Yavan's son, and the grandson of Noah's son Yafeth. The Kittim are mentioned in the Dead Dea Scrolls, and by Billam in one of his speeches. According to Kugel, the DSS scrolls clearly identify Rome with the Kittim, and you can deduce from various texts that the DSS authors did not think Rome and Esav/Edom were one and the same. Onkelos glosess the mention of Kitim in Billam's speech (Num 24: 24) as Rome, and Targum Psedeo Jonathan takes it as Italy.

I haven't been able to track down the Ibn Ezra and Kimchi (Radak) cites given by Johnson in his play, but find it facinating that the early modern English poet was so familiar with the writings of our medieval Rabbis.

Search for more information about my battles with Bray at 4torah.com.

Bizarro Nusach

If it's true that on the Temple Mount you answer blessings with Boruch Shem Kovod Malchuto L'olam V'oed rather then Amen we're in for some shleppy services post Moshiach.

Judging from this video from a service today at a shul that's technically on Temple Mount property, the custom adds a good ten minutes to the liturgy.

Search for more information about Bizarro Nusachs at 4torah.com.

LSK Asks about Eicha

Some questions from LSK:

(1) Does the third chapter have anything to do with anything? It doesn't mention Zion or Jerusalem, even once...Not even the Jewish people...Only references to YHWH! Was this really written by
Jeremiah? At this time? Huh?

2) On page XII-XIII of Artscroll's overview of Kinnos, it includes a story: "Rav Moshe Isserles, the Rama, wrote in Toras HaOlah, that when King Nebuchadnezzar came to do destroy the First Temple, the Greek philosopher Plato accompanied him. After the Destruction, Plato met the prophet Jeremiah near the Temlpe Mount, weeping and wailing bitterly over the temple ruins..."

OK, wait:

Plato lived from 428-348 BC or a year later, according to detailed and reputable Greek texts.
The temple was destroyed in 586 BC! So these three could never have met!

The story goes on to the seemingly absurd, elucidating two questions by Plato, referring to Jeremiah as the "preeminent sage in Israel," which is obviously false because Jeremiah was mocked by everyone in
Israel, and how after "Plato was dumbfounded," he said about Jeremiah: "I can't believe that any mortal man be so wise!" coming from the man who learned from Socrates, the Stoics, and taught Aristotle.

How do you reconcile Artscroll with history?

I would scan and upload the page, but that would violate Artscroll's copyright laws protecting Torah from the masses.

Search for more information about [topic] at 4torah.com.

When was the Temple Destroyed

Version 1

[2 Kings 25:8-11] And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem: And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire. And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about. Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away.

Version 2

[Jeremiah 52:12-15] Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem, And burned the house of the LORD, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire: And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about. Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive certain of the poor of the people, and the residue of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.

So what's pshat? Was there a scribal error? Or what?

These passages, aside for the date are remarkably similar in their details and descriptions. In every sense, save the date-discrepancy, these are parallels texts. So why don't they agree on the date of the destruction? What happened? And, if nothing happened, and no error was introduced, how should we understand the passages?

Did the destruction occur on the 7th or the 10th? Is the Torah telling us what happened, or is the Torah deliberately making a false statement?

If I went back in a time machine, would I see the Temple being set on fire on 7 Av or 10 Av? (and try not to worry that we commentate the fire being set on 9 Av)

Search for more information about this at 4torah.com.

Are some secular on 9 av like some haredi on Yom HaZikaron?

A Guest Post by Rafi G

Dan Meridor, a minister in the Israeli government, was spotted today, on Tisha B'Av, eating in a restaurant in Tel Aviv. His response was that he does not think it should be a day of mourning.

Follow my thread and train of thought for a moment as I work this out..

1. Dan Meridor is a minister, and not a specifically private person. Anything he does is representative of the government.
2. Even if he is to be looked at as a private person, he is breaking the spirit of the law, if not the law itself (the law does not allow eateries to be open, but I do not know if people eating there are also breaking the law).
3. Aside from the law about restaurants not being open, there is a law that declares Tisha B'Av as a day of national mourning. Going out to eat in a restaurant with other people is not exactly mourning.
4. When some religious people do not respect the siren and spirit of the day publicly on Yom HaShoah/Yom HaZikaron, the secular go crazy talking incessantly about how wrong they are (and they are wrong).
5. Why is Tisha B'Av any different from Yom HaShoah in this regard? i.e. why is it ok for some secular to open restaurants and eat out on Tisha B'Av, but not ok for some religious to not stand during the siren on Yom HaZikaron/Yom HaShoah?
   

Search for more information about restaurants that open on 9av at 4torah.com.

The truth about Eli Zion

First, I was an idiot to refer to it as Kaylee Zion. As pointed out, on the threads and by email, the word Eli here means "Wail" and has nothing to do with the God of the Hebrews, or the God of the Cannaites who also was called "El"

Second, the famous tune, as many suspected, is not originally from a Jewish source. Scholars have linked it variously with a 15th-century German court ballad called Die Frau zur Weissen Burg, 14th and 17th-century Catholic songs, a 17th-century Spanish folksong, and a Czech song of the same period. Says the Virtual Jewish Library:

Since all these comparisons are based upon resemblances of isolated motives or melodic phrases, and a direct prototype has not been identified as yet, it seems more probable that it represents a particular instance of a widespread European "migrant" tune or melodic pattern.

Third, "the earliest notated evidence of the melody found so far is in the manuscript manual of Judah Elias of Hanover (1743), for Lekhah Dodi" (Virtual Jewish Library)

So, the custom denounced as a "modernishka" tradition is, in fact, older than Chabad Lubovitch (its founder Shneur Zalman of Liadi was born in 1745) and also older then Velozhin, "mother of all Yeshivot: (1803) Considering the Bal Shem Tov was still living in 1743, a case might be made that this scorned and disdained "Young Israel" custom of using Eli Zion on Shabbos Chazon is even older than the whole of Hasidic Judaism

Related

HT: Lkvod Shabbos Kodesh

Search for more information about things said by know-nothing Jews that I find annoying at 4torah.com.

The Temple and Jewish dis-unity

Consider this. The Temple was destroyed not because the good, kosher, Torah True Jews hated one another, as most presume, but because the various different Jewish sects were always and forever at each others throats.

Take for instance, the Hellenists, who sparked the Great Revolt by defiling a shul in Ceasrea. Or, the Zealots who murdered the entire leadership of the southern command, and terrorized all of Jerusalem. Or, the Scarii who tried to provoke the Jews to fight by burning all the food in Jerusalem, and so terrified Yochana ben Zackai he was forced to escape Jerusalem in a coffin. Or the Jewish-Christians, who had a strong Jerusalem community (led, at one time by James, brother of Jesus) and were already circulating the books that would become the New Testament. In particular, John, the most anti-Semitic of the gospels, is believed by conservative scholars to have been published between 65 and 90, by proto-Christians who were still marginally a Jewish sect.

In short, Jerusalem, in the late 60s, was a wreck. I have very little doubt that all of this - and more - is what the rabbis meant when they said that baseless hatred destroyed the Temple.

A tale of two perspectives

It was Shabbos Chazon, and I was in a new shul for Friday night services. The Kabbalas Shabbos proceeded as usual, but when we reached Lecha Dodi something unexpected happened. The Chazan used the wrong tune.

The Shabbos Chazon custom I know from childhood camps and shuls is to chant Lecha Dodi to a hauntingly simple dirge-like tune, that heaves like a sigh in (what I think is) minor key. This tune is also used for Kaylee Tzion, the final dirge (kinah) recited on Tisha B'Av morning. Using it on Shabbos Chazon sets the mood for the entire week, and announces that the day of great mourning is on the horizon.

In this shul that custom was unknown. Instead of using Kaylee Tizon, the chazan chose a bouncy Calbachian song. I'm sure my features registered some disapointment, but the faces of the congregation as they clapped and tum tum tumed told me this selection was not unexpected.

Afterwards, I cornered a shtreimal-wearing old-timer, and asked him about the Kaylee Tzion custom.

"Bah," he said. "That's a modernishka custom. You want that, go to a Young Israel."

Ok, so a few years later, on another Shabbas Chazon, I did.

After that Kabalas Shabbas the rabbi, a YU grad with a black hat and a trimmed beard, presented a little talk. His topic was the parsha, but before he got going, he had a few words of introduction.

"I'm sure I speak for many of you," he said, "When I tell you that sitting in shul on Shabbos Chazon singing Lecha Dodi to the traditional tune of Kaylee Tzion is an emotional experience. As I sing, I think of the years gone by, and how my father and grandfather before me, and their fathers and grandfathers before them -stretching all the way back to the beginning - all sang this song on this night. I think how it means we're back again at another Shabbos Chazon, and how we still have so much more work to do."

Too true. Let's start by teaching our friends and neighbors the truth about Jewish customs, in particular the custom of using Kaylee Tzion on Shabbos Chazon. The little lies people know and tell each other about the origins and development of customs -- bah modernishka; oooh it goes back to creation -- is the source ofway too much Orthodox sectarianism. If you wish to eliminate baseless hatred, you can begin by eliminating the errors that propel it.

Scamming The Government and Scamming God

A Guest Post By E. Fink

You may think you are far from a money-laundering, tax evading, kidney-dealing, FBI snitching, tax-evading, knucklehead. You may even have the cleanest books on Wall Street and third party audits to prove it. Yet, our entire generation is infected with the same virus that the "knuckleheads" are carrying.

The instant gratification / no effort, big payoff virus. (Yeah, I know, the name needs work, help me out in the comments.)

We, as a group are all looking for shortcuts. For some folks, the shortcuts are business shortcuts. Those are the "knuckleheads" who are going to jail. For others, the shortcuts are in the form of Jewish Magic (sometimes known as Segulos).

We have become overly reliant on the practice of Segulos. We want instant answers, we want instant gratification, we want an incantation to make things better, we want protection from evil and all with minimal effort.

(There is a place for Segulos in Judaism. What irks me is the proliferation of pop-Segulos. I may have mentioned this with regard to Kupat Ha'ir as well.)

Case in point: The Brachos Party (aka the Amen Party). Women (usually younger women) gather on a weekday evening. A little bit of food from each of the Brachos categories are brought to the table, beginning with some grape juice and ending with a jelly bean. Prior to each blessing a kabbalistic interpretation is provided including ideas like "making a mezonos will provide parnasa" and "making a haetz will bring children". Then the blessing is made, a resounding amen is heard. People really do this. I am not kidding.

There also less formal, impromptu amen parties. Like in a summer camp, when everyone goes to wash netilas yadayim, girls calls over all of their friends (waiting for them to come, motioning and making a halachic hefsek) so they can hear her blessing and say amen.

Sounds pretty harmless, right? I disagree.

This is another shortcut.

Chazal reported that there are special benefits to a blessing and an amen recited properly. The point of this is to remind us to take our blessings seriously and to constantly include God in our physical lives. In fact this is a main theme throughout Torah. We are physical beings with the ability to transform the mundane into the sublime by our actions. One of the beautiful parts of Judaism is the constant tension and connection between our physical and spiritual existence. Blessings are a major part of that connection.

By relegating blessings to magic tricks, we lose the whole point of the blessing.

Further, the Aruch HaShulchan writes that one may not use "tricks" to get to the 100 blessing a day threshold mentioned in halacha. It must come organically. Additionally, he writes, saying amen to an "unnecessary blessing" is a terrible thing to do. These are not "unnecessary blessings" but a random drink of grape juice on a Wednesday, purely for the sake of making a blessing is awfully close.

When challenged, an "on the fence Brachos Party participant" told me that she learned that the whole reason we eat is to make blessings, so it is harmless to make more.

That really got me. The reason we eat is to live. When we are eating to live we make blessings. This integrates spirituality into our physical life as stated above. Further, the food "belongs to God", making a blessing gives us the right to enjoy His world as per His instructions to us.

Eating so we make brachos is like going to the bathroom so we can make an Asher Yatzar. We go to the bathroom because otherwise we would burst. When we go successfully we acknowledge and thank God.

Here's an idea. When you are done eating and drinking at the brachos party, go make an Asher Yatzar party!

I truly believe this is another symptom of the instant gratification / no effort, big payoff virus. We want to reap the benefits of the blessing so we invent ways to try and get those benefits.

It doesn't work like that. There are no freebies in Judaism. Judaism is about working hard to follow the Mitzvos and refine one's character. If the bored women want to do something to help the world, volunteer at Tomche Shabbos or homeless shelter, or go to a Torah class, or even say some Tehillim.

You can't fool God. You can try and scam the government, you can try and scam your business associates and you will probably get caught or turned in, but please do not try and scam God.

Search for more information about Brachos Parties and Scamming God at 4torah.com.

Psalm 137

Read it in Hebrew

Psalm 137 is the famous elegy of exile which contains the immortal lines about our right hands and the memory of Jerusalem. The following annotated translation is based mostly on Robert Alter, with a litte of me tossed in.

By the steams of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.
The opening verse alone should silence those who say that King David wrote or published the whole entire book of Psalms. (If you're the type who won't accept the obvious unless it has the blessing of a Rabbi, please refer to the Ibn Ezra, who says this Psalm was written during the exile.)

We hung our harps upon the poplars there
For there our captors requested words of song; and our conquerors demanded rejoicing , saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land?
Meir Gruber points out that from the perspective of the Babylonians the songs are thought to be secular and possibly nationalistic ("songs of Zion"); to the captives, however, the same music is sacred. ("the Lord's song".)

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget
The plain Hebrew does not tell us what the right hand should forget. Some say this is a scribal error and substitute tikhash, "wither" (a difference only in the order of consonants.) Others say the Hebrew word tishkach (forget) is meant to pun on tikhash (whither), while refering back to the earlier eshkochaych (future, or perfect present, tense of forget); still others say "let my right hand forget" was a familiar idiom with a widely understood meaning like "losing my mind."

If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
The right hand would have been used to pluck the cords of the previously discarded harp; the tongue would have been used to sing. When the psalmist suggest he is willing to forfeit the use of his hand and tongue, he is dramatically resigning from the occupation of music-making. An athlete might say, "I'm hanging up my sneakers."

Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. Daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
The Hebrew, here, is a problem, because it puts the destruction of Babylon in the future. Either the psalmist is longing for the destruction of his enemy, or this is another scribal error: Reversing the order of the consonants yields "The despoiler." (I find the first solution, eg that the Psalmist is expressing a wish, to be perfectly plausible; many do not.)

Happy is he who seizes and dashes your infants against the rocks.
This is one of the worst lines in the Hebrew Bible but the sentiment is perfectly understandable: The psalmist is expressing legitimate, honestly-felt outrage. It should not be understood as a biblical endorsement of genocide. It's simply one poet expressing anger. Interestingly, my wife reports that during the three weeks, her moderately-haredi, childhood camp sang Psalm 137 three times per day before bentching but dropped this line.

Search for more information about How Haredi Camps Recite Psalm 137 at 4torah.com.

Dwek Gets Disowned

The New York Post is reporting that Solomon Dwek, the canary who sang a song that led to the unraveling of SYNG and the arrest of half -a-dozen rabbis, has been publicly disowned.

A lot of people might like to wring his neck, but the sleazy real-estate mogul who ratted out everyone from politicians to rabbis in a massive corruption case is apparently already as good as dead to his father. Israel Dwek -- the father of Solomon "Shlomo" Dwek, who helped the feds nail three New Jersey mayors and several rabbis in Brooklyn last week -- plans to sit shiva for his son because he is so disgusted with his turning on other Jews, reported the Web site PolitickerNJ.com. The father -- citing "the Talmudic Law of Moser that prohibits a Jew from informing on another Jew to a non-Jew" -- renounced his son from the pulpit at his synagogue in Deal, NJ, on Saturday, the site said.

Shlomo needn't worry. There are boatloads of excellent Jews from some of the other Orthodox sects who would be glad to adopt him. (Though I confess to being unsure if I'd call him a hero. He did rat out Jews, and there is something sleazy about saving your hide by turning in your friends.)

Moderates – Stand Up!

A guest post by Fozzie

This is a critical moment for Moderate Jewish Public Leadership.

The Orthodox Jewish world has lost its integrity.

Orthodox Judaism now stands for scandal, violence, ignorance and bigotry.

Too many of the Orthodox institutions have failed. The NCYI stood by AgriProcessors. The Syrian Jewish community has self-destructed. The Chareidi community has descended into violence. Its economy is in tatters and their children are being failed by their education system.

We are now seeing the results of the right-wing Orthodox policies and practices of isolation and insularity. By cutting themselves off from wider society, they came to feel superior to it. They failed to see how they were ruining themselves and Orthodox Judaism by their ignorance and bigotry.

How can anyone have thought that the Chareidi school system would not create a generation of ‘graduates’ unable to live productive livelihoods? Who did not realize that the Jewish education preached in the Yeshiva system fails to create adults who are able to understand or practice a socially responsible lifestyle?

By leaving moral public leadership to the insular strands of Judaism, we have paved the road to moral, economic and social ruin.

The time has come for the Centrists to stand up.

There are still Orthodox religious leaders whose voices carry respect and integrity. Thankfully we have Rabbis Jonathan Sacks, Shalom Carmy and Benjamin Lau. Thankfully, there are many others.

We need to hear these voices louder than ever.

We need to hear them now.

They need to be setting standards for acceptable moral behavior.

They need to be constantly reminding us what is fundamental about being a good Jew.

Rabbi Sacks’ book ‘A Letter in the Scroll’ is of great importance because it puts the elements of ‘Ben Adam le’Chavero’ front and center. It points out that it is human relationships that are the key to being a good Jew. This is the point we need to be reminded of. This is what we need our Jewish public leadership to focus on.*

We cannot allow those whose focus is on the ritual element at the expense of the moral element to be our leaders.

We need strong moral Jewish public leadership now. We, the lay-people, need to turn to our leaders and demand moral public leadership now.

This is a critical juncture for Orthodox life. Will we allow criminals to destroy our integrity or will we take responsibility for fixing the damage that has been done? Will we make sure that improvements are made?

We must.

Please contact your rabbi and ask them what can be done in order that Judaism will once again be seen as force a Kiddush Hashem? We cannot allow Orthodox Judaism to become a synonym for ‘Chillul Hashem”. We are too close to that already.

Please act now.

*His new book “Future Tense” is an incredibly timely statement. It is an example of the type of leadership we need.

Search for more information about Rabbis Jonathan Sacks at 4torah.com.

Housekeeping

Offline, I've been given all sorts of excellent advice about moving YourFavoriteBlog (TM) to wordpress. My advisor says the archives and comments will come with me, and that all the great GoogleJuice this blog has built up over the last 4 years will also be mantained. However, moving takes time and effort, and its not perfectly clear to me what the payoff is.

Do YouThePeople have any thoughts on the subject?

Search for more information about wordpress at 4torah.com.

Why was the Temple Destroyed?

Previously posted in 2005 and 2008 (both threads are wonderful)

Why was the Temple Destroyed?

:: Isaiah's explanation (King James version) This is the passage read on Shabbath Chazon
:: Listen to the passage in English

A crackling exegesis by Rabbi Mendel Hirsch:

"For the Shabbat which precedes the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple, the Haphtarah is taken from that first chapter of Isaiah which in broad strokes makes clear to us... the nature and calling of Israel, its place in the midst of mankind, the loftiness of its mission, and the depth to which it has sunk. Its depravity, which made the destruction of the state and of the Temple necessary as the sole means of saving Israel for its everlasting calling. Thereby the mourning of the ninth of Ab is given its sharply defined limits. The Jew does not mourn that thousands of years ago the Temple was destroyed, but that it had to be destroyed. Not over the destruction, but over the causes of the destruction.

[snip]

For demoralization, not morality, estrangement from, and not approach to, God-fearing was what was effected by Temple visits, praying, and the festival gatherings which were not practiced as means for the true Divine Service which is to be performed in life devoted to duty but as substitutes for it. [v. 11-15] Boundless selfishness, greed for profits, misuse of power in service of their own interests on the part of those in authority and greed for lucre in all classes of the people, the oppression of the defenseless widows and orphans [v.23] was what made the prophet give the people the resounding appellation of "the Lords of Sodom and the people of Gomorrah." [v.10] The people... to whom money and possessions are only to be valued as means of living life in the fulfillment of the God-ordained duties of justice... sunk to the level of Sodom where poverty is considered a crime! Of Sodom, the original picture of cold, smooth, external respectability under which the most complete selfishness, the utter lack of consideration for others, the most pitiless harshness of heart...

Therefore every recurring ninth of Ab, is to pose the question to every generation: Is our... present... deeply imbued with the Jewish spirit, so filled with the Jewish way of thinking.. that it could form a worthy environment for a Temple of God to be erected in its midst?"

A sweet summary by DovBear:

The Temple was destroyed because the leaders of Jerusalem were pious frauds, who used the Temple to justify their selfish behavior.

They were glad to assemble at the Temple for Festivals, Sabbaths and New Moons, to bring fatted rams and the blood of oxen and lambs and he-goats for sacrifice, but none of it meant a thing because (as MH puts it) they also tolerated "social crimes which undermined the happiness and life of their neighbors."

In the language of the Prophet, they did not "Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, [or] plead the case of the widow." They didn't protect the vulnerable or defend the rights of the innocent. Instead they just kept showing up on the Temple Mount, day after day, with their fat bulls and incense. While vulnerable people went exploited and unprotected, the leaders of Jerusalem gathered on a mountaintop to pay lip service to God. (I'll leave it to you to decide if this goes on today, and to determine if this behavior is more prevalent on the left or the right side of the current political divide.)

Finally, God said "enough," and took the Temple away, not as a punishment, but to prevent its continued misuse as a crutch and a dodge, and to force the people to realize that all prayers and offerings are in vain if the law of the Torah is not kept, that the sweetest odors from sacrifices would not save the altar, the Temple, and the State, if they were permitted to take the place of the rest of God's statutes.

Not incidentally, the Hirsch exegesis, coincides with what I wrote last Friday: "God has redeemed us by giving us the power to redeem ourselves -not through hours of prayers, nor through personal stringency, nor through pilpul, nor through conquering Yesha, but through good works." Or as Isaiah himself puts it in the last verse of the Haphtarah: Zion will be redeemed through justice and by those who return to her with righteousness.

Search for more information about Jewish morality at 4torah.com.

What did the Rabbis Say About the Scandal?

Before shabbos, a friend told he hoped his rabbi would speak about what I've decided to call the SYNJ Scandal. He wanted to hear a strong condemnation of the Jews who were arrested last week and a denouncement of the culture that celebrates ostentatiousness and winks at crimes like fraud and money laundering.

I replied: We're more likely to hear about how the evil media is dragging the Jewish community through the mud. Sample expected quote: "Why did the (evil anti-Semitic Jew hating) New York Times put two Jews in handcuffs on the cover of Friday's paper?! Weren't there enough arrested goyim to choose from?"

Turns out I was wrong. Instead of deflecting attention from criminal rabbis by attacking the newspapers, my LOR preached against the cooperating witness. He's a moser, you see, and, apparently, snitching on another Jew is the worst thing a Jew can do, especially when all the Jewish felon did was rip off the tax man. From what the rabbi said, I gather this is also worse than tricking desperate people into selling their kidneys and taking a $100,000 profit on the deal.

Our religion is over, I tell you. Over. The internal rot runs too deep. Our morality is corrupt and twisted. The idea that Jews are to be a light unto the nations is gone and forgotten. We're grubby and selfish. We've delayed justice and withheld rightuousness. We celebrate criminals and respect frauds who charm us with their hats and segulot and lips that drip with nonsense and superstition. And when the history of this once proud religion is written, I expect the epitaph to read, "But all he did was steal from a gentile."

Search for more information about SYNJ Scandal 2009 at 4torah.com.

Because he isn’t Jewish….

A long overdue guest post from HSM

We all know we are not supposed to speak Lashon Hara. This nasty sin is defined by torah.org as

“..any derogatory or damaging statement against an individual. In Hilchot Deot 7:5, Maimonides supplies a litmus test for determining whether something is or isn't Lashon Hara: Anything which, if it would be publicized, would cause the subject physical or monetary damage, or would cause him anguish or fear, is Lashon Hara. “

Whether it is the truth or not, doesn’t really matter. One should not be talking about others. Period. It is even a sin to listen to it.

I am not perfect, but I try not to speak Lashon Hara. I try not to listen to it. As anyone knows when you have kids they are always telling you the bad things the others did to them. But kids and adults are very different.

What really ticks me off more than anything is that you will often hear religious people talking about certain non-Jewish people in a defamatory way, and when you tell them they shouldn’t be speaking this way, the Lashon Hara-ite will say “it’s ok, he isn’t Jewish”. Wait a sec. He isn’t Jewish therefore you can say what you like? It doesn’t count? That’s baloney. That’s the same thing as saying I can dress bareheaded in a bikini on the beach because there are no Jewish men around to see me. That I can steal from my neighbour because he isn’t Jewish. (oh wait, is that how some people are maskim for you to cheat on your taxes, because it’s a non Jewish government???)

If we are not supposed to talk badly about people, in my view, we should make it our habit to not speak that way about anyone. If you justify gossiping about one person, then what’s to stop you getting used to gossiping and forgetting and then badmouthing everyone. If you are in the habit of dressing in a tzanua way, you don’t give that up when you are in a different habitat. You don’t give up eating kosher when there are no other Jews around. As far as I know there is no halachic suspension clause for when we want / need it. Our Torah, our halacha, our minhagim – they are all about living our life in a certain way. No exceptions. People died to uphold our way of life, and we allow it to be cheapened this way?

Search for more information about slanderous gossip HSM has repeated or heard at 4torah.com.

Name that Scandal

Can anyone supply a short pithy name for the money laundering and corruption scandal involving the Syrian Jewish community, various high ranking rabbis, and several NJ elected officials? I ask because I'm writing a post about it, and having to refer to it as "the money laundering and corruption scandal involving the Syrian Jewish community, various high ranking rabbis, and several NJ elected officials" is a pain in the rear.

A pile of DovBear dollars and a dinner date with Bray to the best entry.



Search for more information about the money laundering and corruption scandal involving the Syrian Jewish community, various high ranking rabbis, and several NJ elected officials at 4torah.com.