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Monday, May 28, 2012

Torat HaMelech: Case Closed!

Sanity prevails:
The Attorney General's office on Monday announced that it would not pursue charges against Rabbis Yitzchak Shapira and Yosef Yirmiyahu Elitzur, who authored the book that was considered controversial by some over claims that it incites against Arabs. The cases against Rabbis Yitzchak Ginsburg and Dov Lior, who gave a haskama - a stamp of approval- to the book will be dropped as well.
Interesting to note are the reasons for closing the investigation:
Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said that the investigation was being closed because there is not enough evidence that the book was published with the intention to incite racism. Weinstein wrote that the Torat Hamelech is written in a general manner and does not call for violence. 
Readers of this blog already knew that.  Such a shame that the police harassed leading rabbis for no reason at all.  

Friday, May 25, 2012

Shavuot and Teshuvah

The "time of the giving of our Torah" is near.  We count the days from Passover until Shavuot, connecting the physical freedom of the exodus from Egypt with the spiritual freedom of receiving the Torah: And it says (Exodus 32:16): "And the tablets are the work of G-d, and the writing is G-d's writing, engraved on the tablets"; read not "engraved" (charut) but "liberty" (chairut)---for there is no free individual, except for he who occupies himself with the study of Torah (Avot 6:2).  A couple of more days and we are there.

Time flies.  I'm over half a century old. and I've been a BT for over a quarter of a century.  At this age usually the hair is graying if not disappearing altogether.  The aging process is taking place before my very eyes.  The reality of death is much more tangible.  An inner voice cries, "Ribono Shel Olam, Al Tashlicheini Le'eit Zikna!"

On the other hand, with age comes the opportunity for retrospection.  I have the ability to look back at over three decades of adult life.  Many important and fateful decisions were made: what to learn in college, who to marry, to make aliyah, etc.  However the most difficult and most important decision that I ever made was the decision to do TeshuvahTo receive the Torah as is, unreformed, neither conserved nor reconstructed.

What was difficult about it?  Well, this was a radical idea, a move far away from my comfort zone.  For someone who grew up in suburbia, it meant giving up a lot of things that I was used to.   No, I will not list them!  It also meant being the object of ridicule and even pity to those that did not understand what I was going through.

Looking back, I had no idea of what I was getting into.  The Torah is so big! "Rabbi Chananya ben (son of) Akashya said: The Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to give Israel merit; therefore He gave them Torah and mitzvos (commandments) in abundance, as it is written: 'G-d wanted, for its [Israel's] righteousness, to make the Torah great and mighty' (Isaiah 42:21)." 

I was lacking Torah knowledge when I took upon myself the yoke of Heaven.  I must have known about as much as the average five year old here in Jerusalem.  However, what I was lacking in erudition I made up in instinct.  My soul sensed where it needed to go.  I had no idea of the depth of the spiritual treasures that awaited me.  After all of this time I have only scratched the surface!

We live in a time where moral clarity is lacking.  However, "... Thou dost light my lamp; the LORD my God doth lighten my darkness (Psalms 18:29)."  The Torah that we are about to receive is an everlasting light which guides us while others stumble and fall.  For instance, the whole controversy about gay marriage.  For us as Jews, the controversy does not really exist, for the Torah already had its say on the issue:
Lesbian relations are forbidden and it is among the “doings of Egypt” that we have been warned about as it is said, “After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do”. The sages said, “What did they do? A man marries a man, and a woman marries a woman, and a woman marries two men” (Maimonides, Laws of Forbidden Relations 21:8).
My forefathers left Egypt and I have no intention of going back!  Rather, I will rejoice in the Torah this Shavuot.  I am a truly free man, free from the lewdness of Egypt, free from being politically correct, free from those that have forgotten God.   Blessed is He, our God, who has separated us from those that go astray, and gave us the Torah of truth, and planted eternal life within us.

(Update: also posted on Beyond Teshuva)

Sunday, May 20, 2012

An Imaginary Continuation of a Famous Midrash

Shavuot, "the time of the giving of the Torah", is quickly approaching.  A famous Midrash (Sifri, Zot HaBerachah) associated with the giving of the Torah came to mind:

ויאמר ה' מסיני בא. כשנגלה המקום ליתן תורה לישראל לא על ישראל בלבד הוא נגלה אלא על כל האומות. בתחילה הלך אצל בני עשו, ואמר להם: מקבלים אתם את התורה? אמרו לו: מה כתוב בה? אמר להם 'לא תרצח'. אמרו לפניו: רבש"ע כל עצמו של אותו אביהם רוצח הוא שנאמר 'על חרבך תחיה'. הלך לו אצל בני עמון ומואב ואמר להם: מקבלים אתם את התורה? אמרו לו: מה כתוב בה? אמר להם 'לא תנאף'. אמרו לפניו: רבש"ע כל עצמה של ערוה להם שנאמר 'ותהרין בנות לוט מאביהם'. הלך ומצא בני ישמעאל, אמר להם: מקבלים אתם את התורה? אמרו לו: מה כתוב בה? אמר להם: 'לא תגנוב'. אמרו לפניו: רבש"ע כל עצמו אביהם לסטים היה שנאמר והוא יהיה פרא אדם  
Here is my translation of the Midrash:

When the Omnipresent revealed Himself to give the Torah to Israel He did reveal Himself  to just to Israel, rather (He revealed Himself) to all the nations.  At first he went to the children of Esau, and said to them, "Will you receive the Torah?"  They said to Him, "What's written in it?" He said to them, "Thou shalt not murder."  They said before Him, "Master of the Universe, our father's entire essence was that of a murderer as it is said, 'You shall live by the sword.'"  He went to the children of Amon and Moav and said to them, "Will you receive the Torah?"  They said to Him, "What's written in it?" He said to them, "Thou shalt not commit adultery."  They said before Him, "Master of the Universe, our  entire essence is lewdness as it is said, 'Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.'"  He went to the children of Yishmael and said to them, "Will you receive the Torah?"  They said to Him, "What's written in it?" He said to them, "Thou shalt not steal."  They said before Him, "Master of the Universe, our father's entire essence was that of a bandit as it is said, 'He will be a wild beast of a man.'"

I could not help but think of a imaginary continuation of the Midrash, based on my experience posting at a certain "liberal" blog:

He went to the children of "the liberal" and said to them, "Will you receive the Torah?"  They said to Him, "What's written in it?" He said to them, "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination."  They said before Him, "Homophobe! Kahanist!   !  Downding! Downding! Downding! Downding! Downding!"

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Did You Ever See a Loquat Tree?

Do you know what a loquat tree is?  I didn't, that is to say that I did not that in English it is called loquat.  In Modern Hebrew it is called "shesek", and it is now in season.

Here's a close up:



I've Been Downdinged to Death!

This was my latest and final post at LGF.  I would link to it, but it has been "hidden" by the powers that be over there:

The verdict is in: I have been down-dinged to death.  100 percent of the people here disagree with what I write.  (Or if anyone here agrees, perhaps he/she id afraid to speak up for fear of being down-dinged himself.) I certainly did not expect to everybody to answer "Amen" to my posts.  Nor did I expect the majority to agree with me.  However, if everybody disagrees with me, 100 percent from wall to wall, it's a sign that I really should not be posting here.   I am not a martyr, neither am I a masochist.   I can always retreat back to my own little blog, or search for a different forum where my views will be better received.

My email is available on my Blogger profile for anyone who is interested in being in contact with me.

All the best to each and every one of you.
 Like I said, here (and perhaps elsewhere) I plan to continue posting my thoughts from time to time.  Shavua Tov and Happy Jerusalem Day! 

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Wash Your Keyboard Out With Soap

What separates man from the animal world? There are probably a variety of different answers for that question. I would like to offer one answer from this verse: “Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). The words for living soul in Hebrew is Nefesh Chaya. Targum Onkelos translates this into Aramaic as Ru’ach Memalela, a speaking spirit. This extra vitality that is in man is expressed by his speech, for better or worse.

If a person’s speech is littered with profanities, he is abusing this precious gift. The same goes for the written word. Perhaps some of you remember how embarrassing it was during the “Watergate” scandal when the phrase “expletive deleted” appeared on the transcripts of conversations in the White House. Unfortunately, this sense of shame seems to be getting rare. The expletives, not deleted, are all over the Internet. What happened to class and decorum?

People talk about keeping the environment clean: using less fossil fuels, recycling etc. Let’s try to keep our Internet clean as well. That would be a great improvement in the standard of living.

(Crossposted here.)

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

America, Whither Go You?

Who will win the elections in November, Obama or Romney?

The elections remind me of what the Talmud says (Sanhedrin 109B) about On Ben (the son of) Pelet and his wife. On Ben Pelet was one of the leaders of Korah’s rebellion against Moses’ leadership (see Numbers ch. 16). He appears at the beginning of the story but is not mentioned later on. What happened? The Talmud says that his wife saved him from the fate of Korah and his followers, from being swallowed up by the earth. She asked him, “What benefit will you derive from the insurrection? If Korah wins, he will be the master and you will be the student. If Moses wins, he will be the master and you will be the student. ” There’s more to the story, but the main thing is that On’s wife, with her great wisdom, saved her husband. The Talmud says of such a lady, “Every wise woman buildeth her house…” (Proverbs 14:1).

So who is going to win in November? Does it really matter if you are not a party hack? Are the two candidates really that different? Are they the ones who will decide our future?

On the micro level the future of America is more dependent on the average Joe than the guy who sits in the Oval Office. I recall a telephone conversation that I had with my father. It must have been about five years ago. A little bit of background first. I live in Israel and my father lives on the East Coast of the U.S.A. He is not an Orthodox Jew. The conversation went something like this:

My Dad: Everything is kaput over here in America.

Me: What do you mean?

My Dad: No families here anymore. Young people are not getting married. Television is disgusting. People are talking about the most intimate things on television. You would not believe it. Everything is kaput.

Could things really be that bad? I hadn’t been in the U.S. for over 20 years. After that conversation I wondered what the neighborhood that I grew up in looked like today. Were the little girls still playing jump-rope? Were there still children there riding bicycles, doing “wheelies”, playing touch-football and running-bases in the street? Or were the few children in the neighborhood communicating with their friends through their computer keyboard? What else were they viewing on the WWW?

I don’t really think that my father thought that everything was “kaput”. He was looking at his surroundings from the vantage point of 80 years of life experience, and was pained by the decay of the family unit and the lack of decency in the public domain.

I believe that America has a great future. I believe that future is more dependent on the behavior of the individual than who he votes for in November. We may not be able to determine foreign or domestic policy, but we can sure decide what our homes will look like. We can certainly improve the way that we act with our friends and our loved ones.

(Also posted here.)

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Legalizing Gay Marriage: Progress or Regress?

From Maimonides, Laws of Forbidden Relations 21:8 (my translation):
Lesbian relations are forbidden and it is among the “doings of Egypt” that we have been warned about as it is said, “After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do”. The sages said, “What did they do? A man marries a man, and a woman marries a woman, and a woman marries two men.”
What would Maimonides say?

(Also posted on LGF.)
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