The Jewish Worker

A one way street

2012-01-29T11:20:00.000+02:00

In his weekly Mishpacha magazine column Yonasan Rosenblum told the following story.

He was in South Africa for the first Sinai Indaba and he had a debate with R' Moshe Taragin a Rebbe from Gush (a product of YU and R' Lichtenstein and a big Talmid Chacham) on the Charedi vs Dati Leumi perspective. He writes that he was impressed that R' Taragin was very fair in the debate and even praised the Charedi community. A few weeks ago R' Taragin invited him to Gush to speak to the American Talmidim about the Charedi community given what was going on. The next day R' Taragin sent him a 9 minute video detailing all of the chesed work done by the Charedi community as a response to the media storm from the events in Bet Shemesh.

Now we come to a very interesting admission by Yonasan Rosenblum and I quote:

I was deeply touched by the gesture. But it also forced me to ask myself a question. Had the national religious community been under a similar assault in the secular press as it frequently is, would I have spent any time looking for videos highlighting the wonderful aspects of that community in order to lessen the public outcry? And if not why not?

I think the answer to his question is very clear. The YU/R' Lichtenstein world has never delegitimized the Charedi world. They have very clear ideological differences the role of secular studies and the significance of the State of Israel and other issues), but they have always said that while we may disagree on those we agree on so many other things, namely, limud hatorah and kiyum hamitzvos. They have never called the Charedi leaders kofrim or mocked them. People in the YU world give money to Charedi causes and go to hear shiurim from Charedi Rabbis.

However, the same can not be said for the Charedi world. There is a general attitude in the Charedi world of thoroughly delegitimizing all those who do not follow the one true Charedi way, and having no respect for such people. It is found in the leadership, in the charedi media, and in the street. The Charedi world insists that it has the one true path and everyone else is wrong. They delegitimize everything else. R' Shach made the statement that it is a disgrace to call Hesder yeshivos, yeshivos, he made a similar statement about Maarava. The Charedi world would mock RYBS and did not give him the respect that he deserves. RHS would never be invited to speak at a Charedi event. At the recent Aguda convention Modern Orthodox were compared to misyavnim.

So IMHO the answer to his question is very clear, he would not search for videos because that would legitimize the Dati Leumi position in some way and that cannot be done by a true Charedi.

The overwhelming majority of Jews in Israel believe in God

2012-01-26T11:21:00.000+02:00

YNet has published a comprehensive study about religious attitudes among Israeli Jews and the results should once and for all destroy the myth that the Chilonim are anti-religious and out to make the Charedim not religious.

Here are some of the important numbers:

How do you define yourself?

7% Charedi
15% Religious
32% Traditional (Masorti)
43% Chiloni but not anti-religious
3% Chiloni anti religious

Belief in God, reward and punishment etc.

80% believe in God
80% believe that people are rewarded for good deeds
77% believe that God intervenes in the running of the world (the hand of God)
74% believe that evil deeds are punished
72% believe that prayer is effective
67% believe that the Jewish people are the "Chosen People"

Life events (birth, marraige, death)

94% do a Bris Mila
92% sit shiva
90% say kaddish for parents

Observance of Shabbos

84% spend time with family
69% have a special meal
66% light candles
The bad news is that there still is a long way to go in terms of Shabbos:
65% watch TV
37% do sports
16% go shopping

Food

63% separate between meat and milk
76% eat kosher in their house
70% eat kosher outside their house
72% will not eat pork under any circumstances

I have to say that these numbers are in many ways a welcome picture. Most of the people believe not only in God but in reward and punishment, prayer, and in the uniqueness of the Jewish people. This should tell us that there are tremendous opportunities to bring people back to mitzvos if only we approach them in the right way. The basis/spark is there, we only need to figure out how to light it. Unfortunately the events of the past few weeks have only made things much harder.

Pre-Matan Torah Jews in RBS B

2012-01-25T16:09:00.002+02:00

Rafi has an eyewitness account from the woman who was attacked in RBS B.

Charedi sources are reporting accounts that she was a provocateur and that she picked up her shirt when the Avreichim yelled at her. I find that very hard to believe as she is a traditional Sefardic woman (just look at her last name Moshiach), just doing her job putting up posters.

In any case whatever she did there is absolutely no justification for what was done to her. Where in Halacha is there a justification to destroy her property (throwing rocks and damaging her car) no matter how she is dressed? What justification is there to physically assault her? These are serious issurim d'oraysa. It is very sad that there are so called Charedi Jews who believe that this is the behavior that the Torah wants from us. What kind of chinuch creates people who are ready to lynch a woman no matter how she is dressed? The fact is that this woman while wearing pants was not dressed in a revealing manner. The Chazon Ish once commented on the Kannoim in Yerushalayim that they were pre-matan torah Jews, meaning that their actions were not guided by torah but by emotion. Unfortunately nothing has changed in 60 years.

The people who did this call themselves kannoim, however the question that needs to be asked is can these people really be called kannoim? Please take a look at this post Who is a real kannoi? for the answer.

Taking responsibility for events that happen in a community

2012-01-12T15:47:00.000+02:00

R' Slifkin (An Example of a True Gadol), refers to a speech that Rav Aharon Lichtenstein gave after the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin where he does some serious introspection about the murder and what led to it. He doesn't blame anyone else and try to bury this under the rug. He deals with the issues head on and accepts some level of responsibility for events that happened in his larger community. The contrast between R' Lichtenstein's approach and the approach that we see today is startling.

It is also amazing how relevant this essay is to the events of today. Substitute spitting on little girls, violence, Nazi imagery, etc. for Rabin's murder and every word that R' Aharon wrote applies to the current situation. In the essay he brings out 3 points worth of reflection:

1. The self-confidence that arises from commitment and devotion to a world of values and eternal truths - whether in terms of Torat Yisrael or Eretz Yisrael - sometimes has led to frightening levels of self-certainty and ultimately to arrogance.
2. we have promoted simplicity and shallowness ([my addition]e.g. there is only one true Torah derech)
3. Sometimes we taught our students to belittle and suspect others. One who doesn't agree with us is criminal, not merely mistaken.Any opportunity to credit a public leader with good intention was rejected in order to credit him with alienation, with hostility, with malice - not a suspicion of evil, but a certainty!

The essay has a lot more to say and I highly recommend that you read the whole thing.

The Posek Hador is disconnected from the Dor

2012-01-11T15:24:00.000+02:00

This is the headline of an article in todays YNet (in Hebrew).

Basically the article says that many in the Charedi world believe that R' Elyashiv doesn't really know what is going on in the outside world and that access to him is tightly controlled. The last letter that was published in his name was basically no, (see R' Elyashiv's No's - No to Nachal Charedi, No to Charedi colleges, No to Charedi job programs), no to Nachal Charedi, no to Charedi colleges, no to Charedi job programs with complete disregard to the desperate poverty in the Charedi street. In fact, things have gotten so bad that some people took his last letters to a graphologist to see if the signatures were real (see גרפולוג: חתימתו של הרב אלישיב זויפה).

Here is one quote from the article:

במכתבו האחרון של הרב אלישיב, שזכה למעמד איקוני למרות הספקות הכבדים באמינותו - נשמעה בעיקר המילה "לא": לא לכל אמצעי שיעזור לאנשים מהמגזר להתפרנס בכבוד. וכשיש אלפי ילדים שרעבים ללחם, במובן הכי פשוט וישיר של המושג - יש משהו בלתי נתפס בהתעלמות הבוטה מהמצוקות שמשדר השטח. היא לא אנושית ובטח שלא יהודית, והיא מצביעה על כך שלא באמת ברור לו, לרב אלישיב, מצבו האמיתי של צאן מרעית

במסכת ברכות בתלמוד (דף כ"ח), מתוארת סיטואציה של מחלוקת בין שני רבנים. באקט של פיוס מגיע המנהיג

מביניהם ל"סולחה" אצל חברו, ומוצא את קירות ביתו שחורים - כיאה לייצרן פחמים בזוי. הרב-האורח הפטיר בתמיהה למארחו, כי לא ידע שזה מצבו. השיב לו בעל הבית: "אוי לו לדור שאתה פרנסו, שאי אתה יודע בצערן של תלמידי חכמים".

רב מתבקש להיות מעורב חברתית. הוא נדרש לאינטימיות עם הבריות - מתוקף תפקידו. לי לפחות (אוח, הגירודים האלה), לא ברור האם כבוד הרב אלישיב באמת נכנס לעומקם של אותם "בתים מושחרים"; האם פתח מקררים ריקים, לפני שהכריז את מה שהכריז קבל עם ועיתון - או שאין הוא יודע בצערם של תלמידי חכמים, או של יהודים בכלל. אני מאמינה יותר באפשרות השנייה. לצערי, אפילו חותמת עליה.

Can someone who spits on little girls, embarrasses women on buses, throws rocks, etc. be called a קנאי?

2012-01-07T22:29:00.000+02:00

Given everything that has happened in the past few weeks and actions by people who claim to be קנאים, the question that needs to be asked is can these people really be called kannoim?

After Shimon and Levi destroy the city of Shechem Yakov is very angry with them and asks them why they exposed their family to danger, they answer, הכזונה יעשה את אחותינו. Yaakov Avinu does not respond at that point but does respond when he gives the shevatim their berachos in this weeks parsha, ויחי. Yaakov says about Shimon and Levi, כלי חמס מכירותיהם, clearly negative and then he says אפיצם ביעקב אחלקם בישראל, that they will be spread around. However, Rashi comments that Yaakov was saying that they will be the מלמדים and סופרים for the Jewish people.

R' Yaakov Kamenetsky asks why should they be the כלי קדש? Yaakov Avinu was not happy with their actions. He answers that to be a כלי קדש you need to be a kannoi. Things have to bother you and you have to act on it.

R' Yaakov then pointed out that Levi fulfilled the beracha while Shimon did not. Levi rallied to Moshe Rabenu's side when he said מי לה' אלי by the עגל, however, Shimon did not. In fact, Shimon used his קנאות for bad in the מעשה of זמרי where the נשיא of Shimon was a kannoi against Moshe Rabenu and acted out his desires. And in fact, who killed Zimri, Pinchas from Shevet levi.

What was the difference between Shimon and Levi? R' Yaakov answers, Torah. Levi learned torah in מצרים and was therefore able to harness his קנאות to torah while Shimon was busy working and therefore his קנאות was not bound by torah and turned out to be a terrible thing.

The Chazon Ish once commented on the Kannoim in Yerushalayim that they were pre-matan torah Jews, meaning that their actions were not guided by torah but by emotion. This is a very bad thing which leads people to do terrible aveiros.

Unfortunately, this is the case of today's kannoim as well. They are pre-matan torah Jews like Shimon. Their קנאות is causing them to violate very serious aveiros for which they cannot do teshuva. They have been מזיק and stole from who knows how many people, an aveira from which there is no כפרה until you return the גזילה\היזק. There is absolutely no heter whatsoever to destroy public property to make a מחאה, it is simply גזילה from the ציבור. In addition, they have created a terrible chillul hashem, again an aveira with no kappara. Why? because their kanaus is not defined by Torah but by their emotions.

When R' Weiss was appointed the Av Beis Din of the Eidah Charedis people complained that he wasn't a big kannoi. The Satmar rebbe said that anyone can be a kannoi overnight, to become a Talmid Chacham like R' Weiss takes 20 years.

This is exactly the problem today, everyone is a kannoi but how many kannoim have their kanaus defined by the Torah?

R' Aharon Lichtenstein on Daas Torah

2012-01-05T12:12:00.001+02:00

R' Lichtenstein spoke on Chanuka about Daas Torah his talk has been transcribed and published here:
http://bit.ly/A1zsvv

His main point is that torah knowledge alone is not enough and a person needs to have daas as well as Torah to be a leader.

The Haredi State

2012-01-04T10:38:00.000+02:00

Have you always dreamed about living to see the establishment of two states for two peoples? The dream has long since come true. Fantasized about a welfare state? Look no further, it's here. Demonstrated for affordable housing? Behold, it is now reality. Striving for a country not drained by enormous security budgets? You've already got it. Demanded classes with few pupils, a long school day, and free higher education? All these dreams have come true in the Haredi State, living in peace alongside the State of Israel.
...
The Haredi State is a welfare state that would make the Scandinavians jealous. Most inhabitants are supported by pensions and stipends, and are almost completely exempt from income tax and municipal taxes.
...
Fortunately, the Haredi State has no army and needs none, thanks to the defense treaty with its closest neighbor.
...
The fiscal agreements between the two states, regulating funding of the Haredi state by Israeli taxpayers, are ironclad, as are the military agreements guaranteeing protection from the Israeli army and the judiciary agreement giving the Haredi State control over matters of matrimony, divorce and burial. However, the actual border line between the new states has never been clearly drawn. Therefore it is only natural that the rapid growth of the Haredi population causes the border line to be moved every so often, as part of a slow - and ultimately justifiable - annexation of Israeli lands. This process of Haredi expansion and Israeli retreats has only one danger: The Haredi State might eventually lose the hand that feeds it.

You can read the whole article here: The Haredi State

From a chiloni point of view this article really hits home.

A Charedi satirical response to the secular press

2012-01-04T10:06:00.002+02:00

Source: http://www.bhol.co.il/Article.aspx?id=36340

This is actually quite good although way over the top. This is a good indication of how serious the Charedi world thinks the situation is. They truly believe that the Chilonim are out to get them, in fact R' Shteinman said just that yesterday (see http://bit.ly/wJlMmb where R' Shteinman calls the Chilonim Erev Rav who hate the Jews). I think that they truly believe that the Chilonim want to wipe them out.

R' Shteinman's response to recent events

2012-01-03T09:47:00.000+02:00

I am not going to translate the letter word for word instead I will try to elucidate it's main messages. The letter has 3 main points:
1. Both the Gemara and Tur/Shulchan Aruch state explicitly that a man should love his wife like he loves himself and give his wife more respect then he gives himself and therefore it is clear that among the Charedim the honor and respect of women is paramount. However, the Gemara does say that a man should not walk behind a woman.
2. The No True Scotsman defense. Based on 1 if any events occurred that disrespected women the perpetrators do not represent the general Charedi population.
3. It is pointless to try to convince some people in the general population of this because some of them are doing this to attack the Charedi population.

This letter is clearly for internal consumption only. What is pathetic is the reaction of the Charedi press to the letter. Since it was written by one of the "Gedolim" they have to pump it up and make it seem as if this letter answers all of the questions raised by events of recent weeks. However, in truth, with all due respect to R' Shteinman this letter doesn't say anything new whatsoever and repeats the same defense that we have been hearing for days/weeks.

Mishpacha wrote the following describing the letter:

The publication of this letter was received with great satisfaction in all segments of the [Charedi] population because it contains an explanation and a clarification of a matter that is arousing disputes and arguments between torah observant Jews and those who are not yet observant.

R' Chaim Kanievsky: Is Bet Shemesh in America?

2012-01-01T19:51:00.001+02:00

This video shows how disconnected the "gedolim" are from what is going on and how dependent they are on "askanim" to get them the facts. Therefore it is hard to trust anything they say about contemporary issues. Does anyone believe that R' Elyashiv actually read the Mishpacha magazine/newspaper before banning it?

Mishpacha has been banned by R' Elyashiv

2012-01-01T15:11:00.000+02:00

Shortly after coming out with a free Tuesday paper distributed in Charedi neighborhoods, Mishpacha has been banned by R' Elyashiv for distorting/falsifying the torah haskafa. It will be very interesting to see Mishpacha's response as well as the impact that this has on their readership.

Eli Yishai (Interior Minister): A Charedi only city will have no income and will not be able to survive

2011-12-31T22:22:00.000+02:00

In a radio interview to Kol Brama, Eli Yishai explained his opposition to splitting Bet Shemesh into a Charedi city and a non-Charedi city. He explained that a Charedi city has little or no tax base, cities raise much of their money from property taxes (arnona). However, 80% of Charedim receive a very large discount paying very little. In addition, in a Charedi city there is little or no industry.The bottom line is that a Charedi city with no Chilonim will be bankrupt.

What does this say about the viability of the Charedi world as constituted?

Source: http://bit.ly/v4vLSK

What should we do with contradictory medrashim especially when Rashi quotes both?

2011-12-29T17:30:00.000+02:00

When Yosef reveals himself to his brothers the medrash says that he "proved" his identity by showing them his mila. Yet, in last week's parsha (Miketz) the medrash on the Pasuk

ויאמר פרעה לכל מצרים לכו אל יוסף אשר יאמר לכם תעשו

says that Yosef forced all the מצרים to do a מילה and therefore if even the Egyptians had a מילה what proof was Yosef trying to bring by showing them his מילה?

There are a number of answers offered but I believe that this raises a more fundamental question, do we need to assume that medrashim are not contradictory especially when Rashi quotes both? I can't offer a definitive answer but I would suggest that the answer is no. The purpose of medrashim is not necessarily to tell us the pshat in the text but rather to bring out certain lessons and therefore even if the medrashim conflict the lessons are still valuable.

Noted Charedi Mechanech: Banning The Internet Is Not The Answer

2011-12-28T13:44:00.001+02:00

London - Noted Charedi Mechanech: Banning The Internet Is Not The Answer

Rabbi Osher Shapiro explained how the internet is not the reason for the ever growing problem of at risk teens that plagues society. Rabbi Shapiro, who lives in Stamford Hill London, is the son of the Naroler Rebbe Rabbi Berish Shapiro Shlita, in addition to being a well known mechanech and founder of Kol Bonayich, a United Kingdom based outreach organization.

In fact, Rabbi Shapiro placed the blame for the younger generation’s fascination with the internet squarely on the shoulders of those who issued internet bans and said that the act of banning something such as the internet or a concert only increases its appeal. According to Rabbi Shapiro the internet, like the telephone, the radio or the cell phone, is an instrument that was, at first, met with great trepidation by many in the Jewish community, but when used properly can become an integral and appropriate part of our lives.

Finally someone in the Charedi world who is willing to say the emperor has no clothes. There is no question that the internet is not going away any time soon and in fact is becoming more and more ubiquitous. More and more services are going online and soon there will be many things that are only accessible on the internet (e.g. making an appointment at the US Embassy in Israel). It is simply not workable to ban the internet in modern society.

R' Elyashiv's No's - No to Nachal Charedi, No to Charedi colleges, No to Charedi job programs

2011-12-28T13:06:00.000+02:00

The following letter from R' Elyashiv was printed on the front page of yesterday's Yated Neeman:

... We must protest and warn of all sorts of trends from outside to harm the pure cruse of oil, who found 'special frameworks for Haredim,' which will be under their full control and spirit, included in this are: programs of national service, army service,
...
They also are encouraging all kinds of institutes and colleges for job training and academic degrees which bring in foreign ambitions absorbed from the outside, and their goal is to bring a change in the spirit and essence of the Haredi public, and act to introduce all sorts of other aspirations, national and enlightenment which our forefathers did not know; and to integrate and connect them with the nonreligious life and the culture of evil people.

The question that needs to be asked is where will the money come from? If job training, secular studies etc. are prohibited how will people make a living? Live on handouts? Is that really the traditional Jewish way? Given the recent events in Bet Shemesh things are coming to a head and the secular majority is not going to give the Charedim money for much longer. In any case in 20-30 years the Charedim will be the majority and there won't be any money for the government to give.

The Charedi world has this idea that everyone is out to get them, that the secular want them to become irreligious. IMHO, from my experience working in Israel (with mostly Chilonim) this is simply not true. In fact, my experience is that they respect the religious people that they interact with at work. The average Chiloni has no interest in making anyone irreligious. They do however want a number of things:

1. Freedom from religious coercion
2. Army service for Charedim
3. No money for people sitting and learning

Another fascinating picture of R' Ovadya Yosef and his family

2011-12-22T13:22:00.000+02:00

This time as a young child, the adults are his mother and father.

Source: http://www.y-or.co.il/blog/2011/12/21/%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%9C-%D7%9E%D7%99-%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%90-%D7%9E%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9F-%D7%9B%D7%9E%D7%94-%D7%94%D7%A7%D7%A6%D7%A0%D7%95-%D7%9160-%D7%A9%D7%A0%D7%94-%D7%94%D7%90%D7%97%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%95/#.TvMRFdU27bw

When to daven mincha this Friday?

2011-12-22T08:00:00.000+02:00

What is different about this Friday? This Friday we will be lighting Chanuka candles. Usually on Friday, most peoples wives light Shabbos candles and then they go to daven Mincha. The minhag on Shabbos Chanuka is that we light Chanuka candles before Shabbos candles (this needs a post by itself to explain why). Davening mincha after lighting Chanuka candles is problematic for 2 reasons:
1. The Chida writes that since Chanuka candles are זכר למקדש, they should be lit after Mincha because in the Beis Hamikdash the menora was lit only after the תמיד של בין הערבים. Nowadays, Mincha is instead of the תמיד.
2. There is a machlokes what is the nature of the mitzvah of lighting candles on Chanuka? Is it a mitzva of לילה? Or is it a mitzva of פרסומי ניסא? According to some Rishonim (the Rashba and others) it is a mitzva of night (see What is the nature of the mitzvah of lighting candles on Chanuka?, for a lengthy explanation of the machlokes). Based on this, when we light before sunset on Friday night, it is the regular din that you can do a mitzva of night starting from plag hamincha. If so, when we light we are designating the time from plag hamincha until shkia, night, and therefore it is inappropriate to daven mincha then (this is similar to the early Shabbos problem of davening Mincha and Maariv between plag and shkia).

Based on these 2 reasons, the minhag in many places has become to daven Mincha this Friday early (mincha gedola time) so that Chanuka candles will be lit after mincha.

A Jewish Santa puts on tefilin for the first time

2011-12-21T11:49:00.000+02:00

Free private Mehadrin buses for 6 million shekel a month

2011-12-20T14:48:00.002+02:00

The incident with Tanya Rosenblit seems to be the straw that broke the camels back (Tanya Rosenblit Is The Straw That Broke The Camel's Back) and it is clear that Egged will not be able to continue the Mehadrin bus lines.

Therefore a group of Charedi askanim have come up with a plan to set up free private mehadrin bus lines. Why free? Because by law a private company cannot run a fee for service bus line without a permit from the Ministry of Transport which they won't get. Therefore, to get around this the buses will be free, however, there will be pushkas on the bus for anyone who wishes to contribute.

This is expected to cost 6 million shekel a month. As I wrote here, The real cost of mehadrin standards, you have to question whether this is the best use of such a large sum of money. The Charedi population is very poor (see Poverty in Israel - some disturbing statistics about the Charedi world) and I am sure that the money could be used for more pressing needs then Mehadrin buses.

Different laining in חו"ל and ארץ ישראל on Chanuka?

2011-12-20T09:04:00.000+02:00

Every year this amazes me.

On Chanuka we read the parsha of the נשיאים, every day the נשיא for that day. Each נשיא is 6 pesukim and we have 3 aliyas. The miniumum number of pesukim for an aliya is 3. therefore we are 3 pesukim short. From where do we get the extra 3 pesukim? This is a machlokes the Mechaber and the Rama. The Mechaber writes that we simply read over that day. In other words, tomorrow morning Kohen will read the first 3 pesukim of the 5th נשיא, Levi will read the next 3, and the third aliya simply repeats all 6 pesukim of the 5th נשיא. The Rama on the other hand says, that for the third aliya you simply read the next day. In other words, tomorrow morning Kohen will read the first 3 pesukim of the 5th נשיא, Levi will read the next 3, and the third aliya reads the 6th נשיא. In חו"ל the minhag is like the Rama and in EY the minhag is like the mechaber.

The Gra points out that this is לשיטתם by chol hamoed succos. On chol hamoed succos the problem is greater, each day is only 3 pesukim and there are 4 aliyos. According to the Mechaber in חו"ל kohen and levi read the 2 days of sefeka d'yoma and then the next 2 aliyas simply repeat them. The Rama writes that שלישי reads the next day, meaning if today is the first day of Chol Hamoed, the first 2 aliyas read days 2 and 3 and the third aliya reads day 4, even though it is clearly not day 4 even with the sefeka d'yoma, and רביעי goes back on the first 2 days. In EY the machaber writes that we simply repeat the same thing 4 times. Here also the minhag in EY is like the mechaber.

The machlokes would seem to be does the next day have any connection to today and does it make sense to read it.

Interestingly enough the Ashkenazim in EY are noheg like the Mechaber both on Succos and on Chanuka.

Colored strollers prohibited? No it's a fraud - UPDATED

2011-12-13T11:43:00.001+02:00

I saw the following pashkevil that colored strollers are prohibited, I don't if it is a joke or real.

According to Kikar Shabbat the pashkevil is a fraud.

However, that fact that so any people believed it or at least thought that it could be true says it all.

The IRS is going after me and other Americans in Israel

2011-12-11T12:25:00.000+02:00

There have been articles in Hamodia for months about how the IRS is cracking down and is auditing people in Israel who claimed the child tax credit. However, I never thought it would happen to me. Last week I received a letter from the IRS stating that I owed tens of thousands of dollars in taxes and penalties. I was quite surprised as I file a tax return every year and get a refund every year. It took me a while to figure out why they thought I owed all that money but I finally figured out what they did. I immediately went to an accountant who specializes in these things and he told me that I am not alone, many people have gotten such letters.

Here is the IRS's modus operendi. Let's take as an example someone who made $100,000 in salary working in Israel and paid $40,000 in Israeli taxes with 6 kids. The taxes that they paid in Israel more then cover what their US tax liability and since the child tax credit is refundable they would get between $5000 - $6000 as a refund. What the IRS does is they believe that you made $100,000 but throw everything else away. (Very similar to teh idea of פלגינן דיבורא in halacha). They deny that the foreign taxes were paid and the fact that you have 6 children. From their perspective it is all a fiction to cheat the US government. Therefore, from the IRS's perspective you made $100,000, paid no taxes, and in fact got $6000 in illegitimate child tax credits. Oh, and by the way you have 30 days to answer them otherwise they start taking your assets.

Proving that I made what I said I made and paid taxes in Israel like I said, is not difficult, I have my pay stubs and year end (tofes 106) statement. However, how do you prove that your children are your children and that they live with you? What kind of proof can you bring? The accountant suggested going to our family doctor and getting a letter from him attesting that these are our children. We did that and it turns out we were not the first to ask him for it.

The accountant needs to get my Israeli pay stubs etc. translated and then he will respond to the IRS. Hopefully it will go well.

One lesson that I learned, never throw out things like pay stubs, etc. You never know when you may need them.

Maintaining a pure Torah outlook

2011-12-08T11:26:00.000+02:00

The following letter appeared in today's Hamodia and to me epitomizes the issues that I have with the Charedi world.

Can you believe this? No matter how much Torah is learned how many mitzvos are done, it is all worthless if you don't have the pure Torah outlook. Of course the big question is who decides what the pure Torah outlook is? In the book Harav Mibrisk Volume 3, there is a discussion of the Aguda convention before WWII where the question of the partition of Palestine was discussed and in fact the majority opinion was in favor. The book describes how R' Elchonon got up at the convention and expressed the pure Torah view against Zionism, partition etc. and that this was the Brisker Rav's position as well. What is amazing is that the author describes R' Elchonon's position as the pure Torah position and dismisses all of the other Gedolim's opinions as non-pure Torah positions. Based on what? Why was R' Elchonon's position more pure Torah then the other Gedolim who were at the convention? How do we decide? In fact a bigger question is whether there is such a thing as the 1 pure Torah outlook? Was R' Akiva not propounding a pure Torah outlook when he declared that Bar Kochva was Moshiach? Was R' Saadya Gaon not expressing a pure Torah outlook when he dismissive the idea of gilgulim? I could go on with any number of example, the fact is that on just about every major theological issue there is a fundamental machlokes starting with who does hashgacha pratis apply to, to the source of machlokes. Is 1 side not expressing a pure Torah outlook?

IMHO this is the biggest problem in the Charedi world today. The inability to admit that there may be more then 1 path, that everything is not black and white. As R' Elyashiv was quoted as saying "They could say it we can not". Since the end of the Sanhedrin there have always been multiple opinions in Judaism, the Charedi world's attempt to deny this is simply revisionist history.

The mystery of the ninth year is solved

2011-12-07T11:04:00.000+02:00

A few days ago I posted about Kupat Hair's big campaign of the 9th hour of the 9th day of the 9th month of the 9th year and I (among others) asked the question how is this the 9th year? This morning in shul I saw a whole booklet put out by kupat hair where they explain this "segula" and have an FAQ. Question number 4 is our question, the sefer says the ninth year and yet this year is not the ninth year? The answer given in the name of R' Wosner is you are right, it isn't the ninth year but it doesn't matter. In fact any 9 is good.

Here is the actual text from the booklet:

So when you really think about it, according to R' Wosner the whole Kupat Hair's campaign was a fraud. There is no 9 minutes of grace, as according to R' Wosner any 9 is good, just like it doesn't have to be the ninth year who says it has to be the ninth hour. Maybe all day on the 9th day of the 9th month is good. In fact maybe even the whole month?

The bottom line is once you say R' Wosner's answer that the 9th year is לאו דוקא where do you stop?

Some interesting statistics about the Mir Yeshiva in Yerushalayim

2011-12-05T16:07:00.001+02:00

Number of students: 7200
Number of Batei Medrash: 20
Number of Yeshiva students: 3400
Number of Kollel avreichim: 3000 (I know the numbers don't add up)
Number of staff members: 200+
Number of shnitzel pieces served on Wednesday's: 10,000+
Number of students served lunch every day: 6000
Monthly budget: 10,000,000 NIS
Monthly stipend budget: 3,000,000 NIS
Yearly budget: 120,000,000 NIS
Debt owed: 54,000,000 NIS

Source: Mishpacha magazine in Hebrew ה' כסלו תשע"ב

What is the significance of the 9th hour of the 9th day of the 9th month of the 9th year? - Updated

2011-12-03T20:46:00.001+02:00

This ad is all over the Charedi press this week.

I understand the 9th day of the 9th month but how is this the 9th year? What is it the 9th year of?

Someone suggested that 9th year is the 9th year after Yovel. However, that is impossible for a number of reasons.
1. This is the 4th year of the shemitta cycle so there is no way that this is the 9th year of the Yovel cycle the math doesn't work out.
2. There is no Yovel nowadays so there can't be a 9th year in the Yovel cycle.

Fascinating picture of R' Ovadya Yosef and his family in Egypt

2011-12-01T11:09:00.003+02:00

Source: עדינה בר-שלום, בתו של הרב עובדיה: הדרת נשים – לא לפי התורה

R' Shteinman - Life insurance is not worth it, it is better to rely on tzedaka

2011-11-27T11:31:00.000+02:00

Shas has been working on a plan to provide life insurance for all kollel students. The plan is to take 30 shekels from their stipend each month and use it to buy life insurance at a discounted group rate.

The Mishpacha newspaper has an article this week that R' Shteinman is against the plan. He is reported saying, life insurance is not worth it, as the merit of giving tzedaka to the widows and orphans is what is saving this generation from destruction. Here is the article in full:

I find this very hard to understand for a number of reasons:

1. Is there no shortage of tzedaka that needs to be given? Even if every person had life insurance there would still be plenty of poor people who needed tzedaka. As I pointed out in this post, Kupat Hair - Marrying off your children puts you on the tzedaka rolls , according to Kupat Hair the profile of the recipient of Tzedaka has changed dramatically in recent years. Most of the people who now get money from Kupat Hair are regular people who are poor because they married off their children. To marry off their children they had to buy them apartments and that put them under water. They borrowed money that they could not repay and now they need tzedaka. Unfortunately, these people are poor because of their lifestyle and will not be helped by life insurance. In fact, if everyone had life insurance, maybe there would be more money to help these kinds of people. In addition, let's not forget that the Mir yeshiva has a $10 million debt. In short, מרובים צרכי עמך and even if everyone had life insurance there would still be plenty of opportunities to give tzedaka.
2. If we really think about it, what this is saying is let the widows and orphans suffer so that we can have a chance to do a mitzva by giving them tzedaka. There is no question, that without life insurance these people suffer. They have no money and have to worry if the tzedaka campaigns will bring in enough money for them to live on. In addition, tzedaka campaigns are done right after the person dies, what happens a year 2 years down the line when there a whole bunch of new widows/orphans that get the tzedaka campaigns and the widow of 2 years has no money to feed her kids. Is it fair for us to tell widows/orphans to suffer so we can do a mitzva? Would it not be a bigger זכות for us to set up a system where everyone is provided for if someone dies? Wouldn't that be the highest form of tzedaka?

Rashi believed in mermaids

2011-11-24T11:28:00.000+02:00

On Tuesday the Daf Yomi learned Bechoros 8. At the top of the daf the Gemara says הדולפין פרין ורבין מבני אדם (Rashi's גירסא is מבני). Rashi explains this as follows. דולפין is a sea creature that looks half like a person and half like a fish, they are called sereine in Old French. Rashi clearly refers to mermaids (the French sereine derives from the Latin siren, meaning mermaid). The Gemara is saying that if a man and a mermaid have relations the mermaid can get pregnant.

The truth is that the simple pshat in the Gemara is that it is referring to dolphins and the Gemara is saying that dolphins reproduce like people ( הדולפין פרין ורבין כבני אדם).

However, Rashi for whatever reason had a different girsa (see Tosafos there) and believed that the Gemara was talking about mermaids.

What we see clearly from Rashi is that he took the mythology of his time and believed it and used it to understand the Gemara.

The Mir Yeshiva is virtually bankrupt

2011-11-10T10:29:00.001+02:00

With the unexpected death of R' Nosson Tzvi Finkel the Mir Yeshiva has become front page news. In this weeks Mishpacha newspaper the main front page headline is that the Mir Yeshiva has no money and that they are trying to raise millions of dollars during the shiva of the Rosh Yeshiva, to save the Yeshiva.

The Mir Yeshiva is the biggest yeshiva in the world with approximately 7600 students in many locations. The operating costs are staggering and due to the world financial situation the money has stopped flowing in. Because of this, the Yeshiva has not paid stipends to the Kollel Avreichim or salaries to Rebbes for the last 5 months and the Yeshiva has a 10 million dollar debt.

Could Avraham Avinu have been as tall as 74 men?

2011-11-08T12:32:00.001+02:00

Parsha blog quotes the following from the end of Maseches Sofrim:
"The man [who lived in Chevron] was the greatest of the giants" (Yehoshua 14:15) -- This refers to our forefather Avraham, whose height was equal to that of seventy-four men. The amount of food and drink he consumed was enough for seventy-four men, and he had the strength of that many men as well.

R' Chaim Kanievsky is his sefer on Tanach (טעמא דקרא) takes this medrash literally and in fact offers an explanation of the source. However, from a strictly rationalist/scientific viewpoint it is very difficult to take this medrash literally.

On one of my trips to the US I bought a fascinating book called, The Physics of Superheroes, which explains many of the basic principles of physics using examples from comic book superheroes. One of the superheroes that he discusses is Giant Man, his power being that he could increase his size when needed. In his discussion in the book he points out that the size that a person could grow to is limited by the strength of materials (particularly bone) and gravity. A person's size is ultimately limited by the cube square law. For simplicity's sake let's model a person as a box. A box's volume is a product of length x height x width so a box that has a length, width and height of 5 feet (our person model) will have a volume of 125 feet cubed. Now assume that he grows to 4x times these proportions (20x20x20). He will now have a volume of 8000 cubic feet, in other words quadrupling his length increases his volume by a factor of 64. Now we need to consider density and mass. It makes sense to say as a person grows his density stays the same (otherwise he would simply thin out into nothingness). To maintain a constant density means that mass must increase at the same rate as volume so quadrupling height increases weight by a factor of 64. The problem is that as weight increases the ability of the skeleton to support that weight does not. The strength of an object depends on how wide it is, it's cross-sectional area. In our case here volume and mass increase much faster then the cross -sectional area of the bones.

Let's take the following simple example of someone who is 6 feet tall and 185 pounds. A single vertebra can support approximately 800 pounds. Now lets increase his height by a factor of 10 to 60 feet. His volume and mass grow by 1000 while his cross-sectional area only grows by a factor of 100. His vertebra can now support 80,000 pounds but his weight is now 185,000 pounds, meaning that his skeleton can no longer support his weight.

The bottom line is that if Avraham Avinu was 74 times taller then the average man (between 370 and 444 feet tall) his body would collapse of it's own weight (well before 74 times). It is a matter of simple physics.

Of course we could come up with all kinds of miracles and believe anything, but we know that Hashem tries to limit miracles and the world works with nature (the laws of physics). Therefore it doesn't make sense to assume that Avraham simply being able to stand (against the laws of physics) was a miracle. In fact, there are many interpretations of this medrash in a non-literal sense (see for example http://www.dafyomi.co.il/parsha/mishpat3.htm) which very nicely explain the medrash without having to believe that Avraham was literally 350 feet tall.

Can you daven too slowly?

2011-11-06T14:30:00.000+02:00

Most people would answer no, if you want to daven slowly with kavana good for you. However, there are circumstances where it is not the correct thing to do.

I daven in a vasikin minyan where some days we have exactly a minyan and other days we have 11 or 12. What this means is that in order to start chazaras hashatz we need to wait for everyone (or almost everyone) to finish shemoneh esrei so that we have a minyan of people answering. In this situation if the minhag of the shul is to allot 6 minutes for the silent shemoneh esrei and you take 12 which causes everyone else to wait for you, your behavior is not correct. The person who is davening with great kavana is causing a tircha d'tzibura and making everyone wait for his frumkeit.

Simchas Torah - How long should Hakafos be?

2011-10-23T11:11:00.000+02:00

Many shuls drag out the davening/hakafos on Simchas Torah and finish very late. The shul where I usually daven started at 7AM and finished around 2PM (I believe since I was not actually there). IMHO this is not working and people are starting to vote with their feet. I have been davening vasikin on Simchas Torah for the past few years (at least 5) and every year more and more people are joining me at the vasikin minyan. This year the vasikin minyan that I attended was packed to the gills, not a seat available. A friend who davened at a different vasikin minyan in the neighborhood reported the same at his minyan. More and more people are rebelling against being held against their will in shul until ridiculously late hours. These people have no problem with dancing and hakafos, they just don't want to be held hostage from 7AM until 2PM, they want to have some control of how long they are in shul and when they eat their yom tov meal.

The fact is, if you look around most shuls you will see a small core group of people who are dancing and everyone else is basically hanging out waiting for hakafos to finish. The average person (even in a shul of Bnei Torah) does not want hakafos to drag on forever. The truth is that, in dragging out the hakafos shuls end up adopting a number of questionable halachic practices to do this:
1. Making Kiddush before Mussaf and eating more then a כביצה
2. Not davening Musaf before mincha gedola and therefore getting involved in a question of which should come first mincha or musaf
3. Not davening musaf before 7 hours (around 12:30 this year in Israel).

These are not the biggest issues but why get involved in these halachic issues.

In many yeshivas (including my son's) they have a much better system. They start davening earlier and have short hakafos (max 5-10 minutes each) and finish davening by 11. People can then go home and eat and enjoy the Yom Tov. They then daven mincha early and have hakafos from after mincha until Yom Tov is over, approximately 2 hours.

IMHO the above is a much better solution for a number of reasons:
1. It solves all of the halachic problems mentioned above
2. People can have a nice Yom Tov meal with their family at a reasonable time
3. Hakafos and dancing can be done at a time when no one is forced to stay, those who want to dance will dance and those who don't can go home

The bottom line is that people are voting with their feet. More and more people are simply opting to daven vasikin and if the shuls don't adapt those minyanim that drag things out may find that their minyan is growing smaller and smaller every year.

Some halachic considerations when building a succah

2011-10-11T11:19:00.000+02:00

As now is succah building time I would like to post some common halachic issues that come up when building a succah.

Here are 2 posts from previous years which deal with many of the main issues encountered when building a succah.

Some halachic points regarding building a succah
Some halachos of building a succah

What were you doing during Chazaras Hashatz on Yom Kippur?

2011-10-09T11:14:00.000+02:00

If the shul I was in is at all representative it wasn't paying attention to every word that the chazan was saying.

Looking around during davening over Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur I noticed 3 different types of people doing 3 different things during chazaras hashatz

1. Learning - Many people come prepared with various seforim and spent much of chazaras hashatz learning. I definitely fall into this category.
2. Daydreaming/sleeping - Some people are simply bored and have nothing to do and therefore daydream or fall asleep during chazaras hashatz
3. Paying close attention to the chazan

I don't know the exact percentages, but in my experience 3 is by far the smallest group, a very small percentage. There are very few people who pay attention to every word of the chazan. Of course, the truth is many people fit more then 1 category. I for example, spend a lot of chazaras hashatz learning but there are times when I do listen to the chazan and participate, it depends on what is being said etc.

The bottom line is that there is a major problem here. Most people simply do not really pay attention to chazaras hashatz on the Yomim Noraim. The chazaras hashatz simply does not speak to them as a religious experience.

In fact, I believe that this is a problem all year round, as well. It is just that chazaras hashatz on a regular weekday and shabbos are relatively short, so you don't see it. However, even on a regular Monday very few people actually pay attention to chazaras hashatz.

The reason is really simple, we just davened and therefore it is hard to see the relevance of chazaras hashatz to us. We don't feel a connection/need to have the chazan repeat what we just said.

I don't know what the answer is but we need to acknowledge that it is a problem.

Steve Jobs death, how should it affect our יום כיפור?

2011-10-06T11:49:00.001+02:00

I don't claim to know why Steve Jobs died and why he died now. However, the time of his death does give us an opportunity to learn a powerful lesson for Yom Kippur.

Steve Jobs death should be a lesson that Hashem is ultimately in control. Steve Jobs was a billionaire who changed the world, yet he died at the age of 56, all of his money and brilliance could not save him. All of the technological progress, all of his money could not stop his death at a relatively young age. Hopefully his death inspires us to realize that רבות מחשבות בלב איש but ultimately עצת ה' היא תקום. We need to realize that as much as we think we control events, we don't, and that our fate for the next year is being decided on Yom Kippur.

Unfortunately this is not an easy thing to do. Over the last hundred years there has been so much technological progress that we have lost our connection and fear of Hashem. We get sick and we go to the doctor and we believe that he cures us. The temperature outside is 100 degrees, we turn on the AC and sit comfortably in our chairs. Night falls and we turn on the lights, and the list goes on. Life expectancy in the Western world has gone from 36 in 1800, to 52 in 1900, to 78 in 2000. Our standard of living is unimaginably higher then even the King of England 200 years ago. This leads to a feeling of hubris and a feeling that we are in control of our lives. We have gained a lot from the technological advancement but we have also lost a lot. We no longer have a real connection to Hashem in our everyday lives. We feel that we are in control not Hashem.

Dr. Chaim Soloveitchik describes this phenomenon better then I can in his essay Rupture and Reconstruction.
In 1959, I came to Israel before the High Holidays. ... The prayer there was long, intense, and uplifting, certainly far more powerful than anything I had previously experienced. And yet, there was something missing, something that I had experienced before, something, perhaps, I had taken for granted. Upon reflection, I realized that there was introspection, self-ascent, even moments of self-transcendence, but there was no fear in the thronged student body, most of whom were Israeli born. Nor was that experience a solitary one. ... I have yet to find that fear present, to any significant degree, among the native born in either circle. The ten-day period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are now Holy Days, but they are not Yamim Noraim—Days of Awe or, more accurately Days of Dread –as they have been traditionally called.

I grew up in a Jewishly non-observant community, and prayed in a synagogue where most of the older congregants neither observed the Sabbath nor even ate kosher. They all hailed from Eastern Europe, largely from shtetlach, like Shepetovka and Shnipishok. Most of their religious observance, however, had been washed away in the sea-change, and the little left had further eroded in the "new country." ... Yet, at the closing service of Yom Kippur, the Ne'ilah, the synagogue filled and a hush set in upon the crowd. The tension was palpable and tears were shed.

What had been instilled in these people in their earliest childhood, and which they never quite shook off, was that every person was judged on Yom Kippur, and, as the sun was setting, the final decision was being rendered (in the words of the famous prayer) "who for life, who for death, / who for tranquility, who for unrest." These people did not cry from religiosity but from self- interest, from an instinctive fear for their lives. Their tears were courtroom tears, with whatever degree of sincerity such tears have. What was absent among the thronged students in Bnei Brak and in their contemporary services and, lest I be thought to be exempting myself from this assessment, absent in my own religious life too- was that primal fear of Divine judgment, simple and direct.

I hope that Steve Jobs death can inspire us to recapture some of that primal fear of Divine judgment, simple and direct this Yom Kippur.

Creative solution for selichos and vasikin

2011-10-05T18:32:00.000+02:00

I have been davening vasikin for the past year, but this week with selichos it is simply too early. Selichos start around 4:50 in the morning and I simply can't get up at 4:30 AM.

However, someone suggested that I do the following. I should get up for the vasikin minyan (which starts around 5:20) and then go to selichos after davening (around 6 - 6:15). This way I can daven vasikin without getting up at 4:30 and still say selichos at a reasonable time. The only drawback is that I would be saying selichos after davening, however, I don't think that it is a serious problem as once you aren't saying selichos before alos hashachar it is bdieved anyway. I really don't see a problem saying selichos at 6 (which I have been doing and davening at 6:30) after davening.

I am thinking about doing this tomorrow. If I do it I will report back how it went.

The insignificance of baseball

2011-10-02T11:39:00.000+02:00

I have been a baseball fan for a long time, since I was about 8 years old. For better or worse, the internet has made it possible to continue following baseball even when living in Israel.

This year Rosh Hashana came out on the last day of the season and continued into the playoffs. It also happened to be that both wild card races went down to the last day (as did the race for second place in the AL) and going into Rosh Hashana none of these were decided.

If not for Rosh Hashana this would have generated a lot of interest, speculation etc. on my part. However, due to Rosh Hashana from Wednesday until Saturday I was completely tuned out of all this. In Israel where I live, there is no outside information, period on Yom Tov. WW III could have started but if the bombs were not falling in Israel we wouldn't know about it. In a way this makes it easy to tune out the outside world and forget it because you know that simply aren't going to get any information for 3 days so you can simply shut it out and concentrate on what is important. I am very happy that over the 3 day Yom Tov I was able to do this regarding baseball. It's significance paled in comparison to what was going on. It was the Yom Hadin so who cared whether the Red Sox or Rays made the playoffs. Life or death, poverty or riches, health or sickness, etc. was being decided and therefore I had no time or energy to think about the Red Sox or the Rays. In fact, it didn't matter, when you really think about it baseball is silly, it is a game played by adults but it doesn't really matter.

Whether the Yankees win or lose is irrelevant on the larger scale of things, namely what we are doing in this world. When we die (after 120), no one in the next world will care whether the Yankees won the World Series or finished in last place. We will be asked much more important questions. If baseball helps us unwind and relieve some tension then it is fine, it is helping us in our ultimate purpose, but when it takes on a life of it's own, becomes important in and of itself, we need to take a deep breath and take a step back. We need to realize the place of things like baseball and what it's role is.

It is all too easy to get sucked into professional sports and take it very seriously. There are people who almost literally live and die with their teams. In NY there are 2 all sports radio stations that talk sports 24x7x365. We need to be able to take the good from sports (teamwork, passion, beauty, exercise, etc.) and not get sucked in to the all encompassing nature. We need to be able to put sports into perspective and I believe that this 3 day yom tov helped me do this.

Selichos and sleep (or lack of it) - Updated

2011-09-27T12:45:00.002+03:00

This week and next are two of the toughest weeks for me of the year. I don't get that much sleep normally and with selichos a half an hour before davening my sleep time is cut even further. I have been davening vasikin for a while and while this week is tough (selichos starting around 5:50) next week is insane. After we change the clock netz is going to be around 5:40 with selichos starting around 4:50.

What is even more depressing is that even getting up this early I am not saying selichos at the real proper time. In fact, there are very few people who actually say selichos at the proper time. The shulchan aruch in siman 581 states that the minhag is to get up early in the morning before alos hashachar and say selichos.

The Mateh Efraim discusses saying selichos after Alos and says that b'dieved this is fine and that it is better to say selichos after Alos then not say them at all.

In other words, the proper time to say selichos is before Alos Hashachar, saying selichos after Alos Hashachar is only b'dieved. Considering that next week in Israel Alos Hashachar is before 4:30AM (depending on how exactly you figure it), there will be very few people saying selichos before Alos.

It is interesting how it has become completely acceptable to say selichos not only after Alos but after netz and no one says boo about it. Why by selichos are we so accepting of doing things in a b'dieved way?

Update

One of the comments mentions what has become a common practice, saying selichos in the first half of the night. While it certainly appeals to my sense of sleep, all the sources that I saw do not recommend it (to say the least).

Here are some sources in the acharonim discussing the issue:

Mishnah Berurah 565:12, selichos should not be recited before midnight.

Sha'arei Teshuvah 581:1 quoting Birkei Yosef, one who finds himself in a shul where selichos are being recited before midnight, should not recite the Thirteen Attributes along with the congregation.

Igros Moshe O.C. 2:105, R' Moshe is very against the practice of saying selichos before midnight.

Yechave Da'as 1:46, prohibits saying selichos before midnight, instead he advises reciting selichos before Minchah.

R' Willig told us that based on the above, that instead of saying selichos at 10:30PM, a better choice is to daven mincha a little early and say them between mincha and maariv at the end of the day before sunset.

Some Rosh Hashana posts from years past

2011-09-25T17:12:00.000+03:00

Here are some interesting posts from over the years that relate to Rosh Hashana.

1. The process of din on Rosh Hashana
2. Why is Rosh Hashana before Yom Kippur?
3. What sound is a תרועה supposed to be?
4. The קולות השופר
5. What does המלך הקדוש mean?

The real cost of mehadrin standards

2011-09-22T16:26:00.000+03:00

In the Charedi world today, Mehadrin is the buzzword. Everything is mehadrin whether it is food, tefillin or buses.

At first glance this is a good thing. Why shouldn't people want to do the best that they can for Hashem? Why shouldn't we have the highest standards for food, tefillin etc.?

The answer is that there is no free lunch and mehadrin standards cost money, a lot of money.

A few days ago I posted (Entitled to tzedaka?) about R' Shlomo needing/accepting tzedaka to buy his son's tefillin. R' Shlomo didn't have money to buy tefillin and yet with the tzedaka money he bought the best mehadrin tefillin. The difference between the best mehadrin tefillin and non-mehadrin tefillin can be over 2000 shekel. Does it really make sense for someone who doesn't have the money to buy tefillin to use tzedaka money to buy mehadrin tefillin? Clearly R' Shlomo is poor. Wouldn't that 2000 shekel be better served using for more essential needs like food?

The same goes for food. Mehadrin chicken and meat is significantly more expensive. Does it make sense for people to go hungry or not eat chicken at all because they are buying mehadrin chickens?

I recently was solicited to donate money to build a mehadrin mikva. In Israel, mikvaos are built by the government. However, again, what the government builds is not mehadrin enough and therefore they are trying to raise millions of dollars to build a mehadrin mikva. Is this really the best use of millions of dollars of tzedaka money when people have no food, shelter etc.?

The fact is that I would guess that many people who eat only mehadrin, buy mehadrin tefillin etc. do so because of social norms and not because of any real religious reason. The average person has no idea what is the difference between a mehadrin chicken and a non-mehadrin chicken and is only buying mehadrin because that is what is socially acceptable. They are doing it by rote not any deep seated religious feeling. One of the unfortunate byproducts of the modern era is that it is very easy to find chumros. You can do a Bar Ilan search and find all kinds of chumros on every issue and the various hashgachos are competing on how many chumros they can follow.

The Gemara and Shulchan Aruch have a concept of יוהרא (see for example בבא קמא נט ב) that a person should not do things that make him look like he is super frum. For example the shulchan Aruch says that the average person shouldn't put on R' Tam tefillin because of יוהרא. Unfortunately this idea is gone today. No one cares about יוהרא, rather everyone wants to out frum the other person.

Imagine you take your 5 year child on a test drive of 2 cars, a Toyota Corolla and a Lexus. The child will not appreciate the leather seats, the superb handling, the quiet ride, etc. of the Lexus. From his perspective the 2 cars are basically the same. In many ways the same applies to most people regarding mehadrin, they don't appreciate the difference because they have no idea what the difference is and why A is better then B.

In a number of places the Mishna Berura writes בעל נפש יחמיר על כעצמו. Today everyone is מחמיר on these. However, that is not what the Mishna Berura wrote. He wrote that these chumras are for certain people, a בעל נפש, the fact that the average person considers himself a בעל נפש is the height of arrogance.

The bottom line is that mehadrin standards for everything cost a fortune of money that the Charedi world doesn't have today. Sometimes it is יצא שכרו בהפסדו. If eating only mehadrin chickens means that you can't afford chicken for Shabbos and therefore your oneg shabbos suffers, that is a steep price to pay. If buying mehadrin tefillin means you need to go into debt and can't buy food we need to ask whether it is worth it.

There needs to be a return to some kind of balance. Someone who follows the עיקר הדין should not be looked down upon like a second class citizen. On one hand, no one wants to eat non-kosher food, on the other hand we don't need to be חושש for every דעת יחיד.

Pagan Sacrifices - Sacrificing our children for our honor

2011-09-19T09:00:00.001+03:00

Two weeks R' Moshe Grylak wrote a fantastic editorial in the Mishpacha magazine in English. He accused many parents of sacrificing their children on the altar of family honor. He pointed out how many parents try to get their children into the top yeshiva for all the wrong reasons. The reasons range from, if their son is in a top yeshiva he will get a better shidduch with an apartment, their daughter will get a good shidduch, to the fact that the father will be embarrassed if his son is not in a top yeshiva. Unfortunately, for many of these kids this results in them being sacrificed as they do not succeed in the top yeshiva and either go off the derech or simply don't succeed in the yeshiva and end up hating learning.

This week he published a follow up column where he published some responses that he received:

So what do you want me to do? Not fight to get my son into a prestigious yeshiva? True, he won't really fit in there.
...
What you say is logical and true but it's almost impossible to apply in today's environment.

Furthermore the issue of shidduchim for girls is serious issue.
...
I stand to suffer serious damage and you tell me to ignore it?
...
I feel that you are right but I have no choice -- the social pressure and my family's image are stronger then me

The letter which was one of many, shows that while people talk a lot about emuna when push comes to shove they have none.

R' Grylak's answer is that we need to take a lesson from Avraham Avinu and do what is right even if the whole world is against us.

I was very impressed with these 2 columns and highly recommend them.

However, if we take R' Grylak's thesis to it's logical conclusion then it is really an indictment of the Charedi educational system in Israel as a whole. Just like he bemoans parents sacrificing their kids in the name of family honor, we should bemoan the many children in Israel sacrificed on the altar of no secular studies, no army, no work. How many kids could grow up to be wonderful Jews if they were given the chance to succeed outside the Beis Medrash? Imagine if they were given the chance to learn a trade or a profession instead of whiling away hours in the Beis Medrash doing nothing? Let's face it, not everyone is cut out to sit and learn all day, the Charedi world's insistence on every boy sitting and learning with no alternatives is sacrificing a lot of kids.

Entitled to tzedaka?

2011-09-18T13:33:00.002+03:00

The Hamodia magazine published a tribute to someone who died recently and the story highlighted his generosity specifically in how he provided tefillin to bar mitzva boys who couldn't afford them.

However, the story was very troubling on another level. The recipient of the tzedaka seemed to feel entitled to the gift and had no sense of shame in taking it and felt no need to try to do anything to avoid needing the tzedaka.

The story is as follows.

Reb Nosson was a middle aged single man (no wife no children) who made aliya from Brooklyn. He learned in a yeshiva with Reb Shlomo "a very chashuve yid, a tremendous talmid chacham and a real masmid". When Reb Shlomo's oldest son was approaching Bar Mitzva Reb Shlomo had no money to buy him tefillin. A few months before the Bar Mitzva Reb Nosson gave him an envelope full of cash, enough to buy the best teffilin.

The next year was his second son's bar mitzva and again he had no money for tefilin. "I had no idea whether Reb Nosson's generosity would repeat itself this time around and with little alternative I waited to see what would happen. And in fact a few months before the bar mitzva the same scenario reoccurred. The story repeated itself four more times."

As you can see from the story already from the second son he felt a certain entitlement. He simply waited to see what would happen if the money would appear. Was there really nothing he could do? Why didn't he feel the need to try something so that he wouldn't need to take Reb Nosson's tzedaka?

The story goes on. "When my fifth son's bar mitzva was approaching Reb Nosson had already taken ill and hardly came to Yeshiva. I wondered whether this was the end of his generosity to me. After all out of sight means out of mind, didn't it?

Well it didn't ..."

Can you believe it? Reb Nosson is dying, alone, childless, and his friend (Reb Shlomo) is worried that Reb Nosson won't give him money so that he can buy tefillin for his son? How selfish is that? In fact, Reb Shlomo says that he was out of sight of Reb Nosson and he was worried that Reb Nosson forgot about him. Imagine, the man had no children, he is dying, and his chavrusa for whom he has done tremendous chesed for doesn't visit (otherwise why does he consider himself out of sight?)???

Contrast this to the following story about the Brisker Rav (published in במחיצתם). R' Shlomo Lorincz (the author) was traveling in America when he got an urgent letter that the Brisker Rav was sick and needed to move out of his small dark and dank apartment for health reasons. R' Lorincz immediately went to a rich relative and got a check for $20,000 to buy the Brisker Rav an apartment. However, before taking the check he said that he had to check with the Brisker Rav. He sent a telegram explaining things, and the Brisker Rav immediately responded "absolutely not". When he returned to Israel he went to the Brisker Rav to discuss the matter. The Brisker Rav asked him, how could you even consider that? How could I walk in the street living in someone elses house?

What a difference, the Brisker Rav was embarrassed to take charity while Reb Shlomo not only took it not once not twice but 5 times, but expected to get it and felt entitled to it.

This is a very big issue in today's world. everyone feels entitled. Boys who get married feel entitled to get an apartment from the girl's parents. They feel entitled to be supported. Today's Yeshiva Bachur has no compunction and feels no shame to take things for free even if he could do it himself. The idea of נהמא דכיסופא (literally free bread), which means that Hashem put us on this world so that we could earn our עולם הבא so we wouldn't be embarrassed by being נהנה מזיו השכינה for free, is a completely foreign concept to today's Yeshiva Bachur.

See these posts
Bnei Torah and a sense of entitlement
Why are you turning into a schnorrer?
for a similar theme.

Delta's alliance with Saudi Arabian Airways

2011-06-26T20:52:00.000+03:00

Delta is entering into a partnership with Saudi Arabian Airlines through its SkyTeam Alliance, beginning next year. Delta planes don’t actually fly there, but Delta customers will be riding on Saudi Arabian through an interline agreement.

A lot of people have made a big deal about this saying that Delta would comply with Saudi requirements regarding who can arrive in the country, which could lead to the exclusion of Jews.

IMHO this is really idiotic. The Saudi government only allows in non-Saudis who have a visa. To get a visa you need to apply with the Saudi government. The Saudi government will not issue a visa to anyone who has an Israeli visa stamp in their passport nor to anyone who they think is Jewish. No airline can fly you to Saudi Arabia without a visa, agreement with Saudi Arabian Airways or not. In fact, today, you can fly on Continental through Frankfurt to Saudi Arabia and on American Airlines through London to Saudi Arabia. The problem is with the Saudi Arabian government not with Delta.

The Wall Street Journal seems to agree with me Blame Saudi Arabia, not Delta, for Policy on Jews

Should we go to the best doctor?

2011-06-26T10:59:00.000+03:00

Last week R' Elyashiv had heart surgery and the Charedi press had extensive coverage. Mishpacha (Hebrew) had a number of articles about the surgery including a profile of the surgeon. They flew in the top cardiac/blood vessel surgeon from Cleveland (a religious Catholic) to do the surgery.

The question I would like to ask is why was that necessary? The prevalent (only?) Charedi hashkafa today is that not even a leaf falls without it being a גזירה מו שמים and that השתדלות has no effect, it is just an illusion. השתדלות is just so that we avoid ניסים גלוים (see מכתב מאליהו, חזון איש אמונה ובטחון and others). If so, shouldn't bringing the top surgeon be too much השתדלות and a lack of בטחון? After all, Hashem is doing the healing not the surgeon and once we have done our השתדלות, going to the doctor and having the surgery, why should it matter whether the surgeon is the best in the world or simply Joe surgeon who is competent? As long as we do our השתדלות to avoid requiring a נס, the rest is a גזירה מן השמים. If the גזירה is that the surgery will be successful, then it will be successful even if done by the average surgeon, and if the גזירה is that it won't be successful then it won't help that you have the best surgeon.

In fact, what does it actually mean that someone is considered the best surgeon? After all, הכל בידי שמים, our success is actually an illusion to make it look like it is our skill. In fact, our success in worldly matters is simply a גזירה מן השמים so the fact that he successfully operated is not due to his skill but due to the גזירה מן השמים.

R' Sternbuch's response to the Segula Ring

2011-06-23T11:04:00.000+03:00

The original ad in last week's Mishpacha listed R' Sternbuch as endorsing the ring. Mishpacha this week printed the following disclaimer from R' Sternbuch's son.

It is interesting that R' Sternbuch seems to accept the segula, he just says that he doesn't know if these rings meet the criteria for the segula.

Some of the segula type ads that I have seen in the past

2011-06-21T12:13:00.001+03:00

Here are some of the ads that I have posted about in the past.

For the first time since Moshe Rabenu ...

Kupat Hair never stops

Historic event in Vilna taking place today

Here is the schedule for today's big event:

Important information for all Daf Yomi Learners

The tzedaka wars are escalating

Here is the latest Kupat Hair ad:

R' Chaim Kanievsky and tzedaka organizations

The Tzedaka campaigns are working overtime

These are all from 1 edition of Yated Neeman in October 2008.

Believe it or not this is just a drop in the bucket, there is literally a campaign a week.

This time it's "Segula Wine"

2011-06-20T11:15:00.000+03:00

The following ad for segula wine was a full page on the back of last week's Hamodia.

I don't know what to say anymore, what's next?

Judaism or Avoda Zara? Updated with contact information

2011-06-19T16:38:00.002+03:00

I could not believe an ad that I saw in this past week's Mishpacha magazine. It was for a "Silver Segulah Ring". Is this what we have come to? Believing that wearing a "magical" ring can get us a shidduch, money, health, etc.?

For anyone who actually wants to find out more and maybe buy one here is the contact information:

The Yated continues the war against Mishpacha

2011-05-18T11:34:00.000+03:00

For the last few weeks Yated Neeman has been waging a war against the weekly Charedi magazines especially Mishpacha. Last week they published a pashkevil from R' Nissim Karelitz saying that it is prohibited to read Mishpacha. According to Mishpacha (who printed a handwritten letter from R' Karelitz last week), R' Karelitz was misled and has since retracted his ban. Today Yated Neeman printed the ban again with the notable exception that R' Nissim Karelitz is no longer on the ban. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as Mishpacha has a large readership in the Charedi world.

The NY Times has sunk to an all time low

2011-05-17T11:18:00.001+03:00

They printed an op-ed today from Mahmoud Abbas which has brazen out and out historical lies. Opinion is one thing but I don't understand how they can print something which completely and utterly distorts history.
The Long Overdue Palestinian State
the question posed to the international community was whether our homeland should be partitioned into two states. In November 1947, the General Assembly made its recommendation and answered in the affirmative. Shortly thereafter, Zionist forces expelled Palestinian Arabs to ensure a decisive Jewish majority in the future state of Israel, and Arab armies intervened. War and further expulsions ensued.

Arab armies intervened ??? This is such drivel it is ridiculous but unfortunately the average NY Times reader will believe every word.

What is even more egregious is that the NY Times own archives unmask the lies of Abu Mazen.

The New York Times, Nov. 30, 1947: While the Jewish leadership and population in Palestine accepted partition, all of the Arab members states of the UN - Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen- voted against it. Upon the resolution's adoption, the Arab delegates declared partition invalid

The main headline of the NY Times on May 15th 1948 was as follows: Zionists proclaim new state of Israel ... Tel Aviv is bombed, Egypt prepares for Invasion

I"m in kollel but my life is a sham

2011-03-14T15:30:00.000+02:00

This was the headline of an article in the English Mishpacha magazine a few weeks ago (repeated last week in hebrew). The article details how the author met a yungerman who was learning in kollel for years who doesn't believe in God and he has no one to talk to about it. Anyone who brings up these types of emuna questions is immediately labeled an apikorus. Here is an unbelievable quote from the article:
A group of teachers came to consult with this talmid chacham who is also a prominent figure in chinuch. One of the issues they raised was what to do about students who voice doubts about emuna.
"How do you answer them?" the gadol inquired.
"We silence them, and tell them that such such questions are not to be asked."
"Why don't you just answer the questions?"
Are there any answers to those questions?

Can you believe it? The teachers themselves doubt that their are answers.

The fact is that for the Charedi world there may not be answers. The questions in emuna that are raised are not new and have been dealt with in the classical Jewish sources like the Moreh Nevuchim, Sefer Haikkarim, Ralbag, R' Crescas, etc. However, many of the answers given in those seforim do not fit the current Charedi hashkafa and would be considered apikorsus today. They could say it we cannot and therefore unfortunately the teachers may be right.

I am planning on writing a series of posts about which will outline some of the major questions and the various answers found in the classical sources.

Have we become Amish?

2010-12-27T13:15:00.000+02:00

Hamodia this past week printed a letter where the letter writer was very upset that an article a month ago seemed to promote computer use among students. He writes:

there are numerous Gedolei Yisrael who have clearly stated that it is wrong for children to use any form of technology

The Author responds that yes the letter writer is right, however out in the field we can't say this.

This is unbelievable. It is wrong for children to use technology? How do their kids get to school? By horse and buggy? Do they not use electricity? Where do you draw the line?

Below is the complete text of the letter and the response.

Advertising to Charedim

2010-12-09T13:38:00.000+02:00

Ynet has a very interesting article on the subject Tapping into haredi ad market

This is a good follow on to my post from a few days ago.

One of the most interesting points is all of the restrictions.

The restrictions in the ultra-Orthodox advertising world are many and varied. Every newspaper has its own Rabbis committee and a head censor who works for them called 'the auditor'. His is in charge of making sure the content published in the newspaper is suitable for the readers' moral values. He approves or disqualifies commercials and makes sure they are photo-shopped, incase there is any hint of femininity.
Women are not allowed to be shown at all, not even little girls. "We take security precautions because man is born evil," explains Eitan Dovkin, director of Habetzefer's haredi satellite. Publishing women's first names is also not allowed. For example, the opposition leader Tzipi Livni is referred to as Mrs. Livni and pregnancy is referred to as "the time before giving birth" or "when you are expecting".
...
"Using only the Yiddish language is not a good idea and neither is showing a skullcap in every situation. An ultra-Orthodox watching a doctor with a skullcap will think: 'Do they think I'm stupid? My doctor is secular", says Menachem Eichler, co-CEO Cultures McCann for the ultra-Orthodox sector.

Touch screen kosher phone???

2010-12-08T08:27:00.010+02:00

This is why I can't take the whole kosher phone thing seriously. If all you are supposed to be doing with your phone is making calls, then a touch screen phone is completely unnecessary and is in fact a step backwards. What exactly do you need a touch screen for? In fact why do you need 3G if you don't have a data plan? In fact, for actually making phone calls a touch screen can be quite annoying. It is clear that this is being done to keep up with the Jones's and is a money making idea from Pelephone (they charge a lot more for the phone) and the Vaad Harabanim went along, why, I don't understand.

Fascinating insight into the Charedi view of various professions from children's books

2010-12-07T08:15:00.000+02:00

We bought my 4 year old son a set of books (in Hebrew) written for the Charedi public in Israel. The books teach safety rules through stories about a little boy called Eli.

It was very interesting to see how the various professionals were portrayed. When Eli got hurt and had to go to the hospital, the paramedic and the doctor were both Charedi (big black Yarmulka and beard). When he had cavities and went to the dentist the dentist was likewise portrayed as Charedi. However, when he went to the zoo, both the zookeepers and the head of the zoo were portrayed as Chilonim as was a house painter and a firemen. Of course, they were all men.

It is fascinating that even though the current hashkafa is torah only certain professions are still portrayed as Charedi. You also get a clear picture of how the Charedi world looks upon the various professions. Even though no Israeli Charedi can become a doctor or dentist (as University is absolutely forbidden), they are still portrayed as Charedi as if to say, if you do work these are worthwhile professions. On the other hand, for professions such as zookeepers, firemen, painters the clear implication is that these are not professions that are worthwhile.

Kupat Hair - Marrying off your children puts you on the tzedaka rolls

2010-11-28T13:53:00.000+02:00

According to Kupat Hair the profile of the recipient of Tzedaka has changed dramatically. In the past most of the people who needed tzedaka were people who had undergone some tragedy, someone died, got sick, divorce etc. the average Charedi was not rich but did not need support from Kupat Hair.

In the last few years this has changed dramatically. Most of the people who now get money from Kupat Hair are regular people who are poor because they married off their children. To marry off their children they had to buy them apartments and that put them under water. They borrowed money that they could not repay and now they need tzedaka (source Michpacha newspaper).

This just strengthens my feeling that the Charedi system is falling apart and cannot go on much longer.

Did the Avos keep all 613 mitzvos?

2010-11-28T13:52:00.001+02:00

The You Tube video that everyone is watching has brought this question to the forefront.

R' Hoffman wrote a response The Avos and the Mitzvos, where he claimed that there are 3 opinions, minimalist, middle and maximalist, where he recommended teaching the maximalist position. He also claimed that the video mocked both the maximalist position as well as R' Elyashiv.

IMHO, the video mocked neither. The video mocked those who take the maximalist position to ridiculous extremes.

The fact is that even the maximalist position is not so maximalist.

The same Radvaz who R' Hoffman claims is a maximalist discusses a similar question in a teshuva. He discusses what does it mean that the Torah existed before creation. He quotes Chazal who describe the discussion between the Moshe Rabenu and the Malachim when Moshe went to get the Torah. The Malachim asked how can Hashem give the torah to man? Moshe answered it says in the Torah לא תנאף does that apply to Malachim? It says לא תחמד does that apply to Malachim? etc.

The Radvaz asks what was the Malachim's question and what was Moshe's answer? They didn't know that it says לא תחמד in the Torah? He answers that the Malachim understood Torah on a different plane. They saw Torah as a description of אלוקות, they didn't know about the mitzvos that relate to man. Moshe explained to them that the Torah has another level of meaning where it requires certain mitzvos that only apply to man. He explains that before matan torah the letters of the Torah existed but not in the same order/words that we have. In fact, the Ramban in his introduction to his commentary on Chumash makes the same point. The Gra also is quoted as saying this. The Gemara in Bava Basra has a discussion about who wrote the last 8 pesukim in the torah. One opinion is that Moshe wrote it בדמע. The regular pshat is tears. The Gra however is quoted as saying that דמע is from לשון דמאי, something that is mixed up. He says that Moshe wrote the letters but not the way we read them today. In short, they all say that before Matan Torah the Torah existed in a different state then what we received at Har Sinai.

It is clear that the same thing applies to those who hold from the maximalist position. The Avos were mekayem the mitzvos based on their understanding of how to serve hashem. How to serve Hashem was different then it is now. That is why Yaakov could build a מצבה, Yehuda could perform Yibum with his daughter in-law, Amram could marry his aunt, etc. They fulfilled those mitzvos that made sense to fulfill.

I would like to make another point. Just because Rashi quotes a midrash doesn't mean he holds from it. Rashi quotes midrashim to explain the text, if a midrash explains the text well Rashi will quote it. There are places where Rashi quotes Midrashim that contradict each other.

A few quick examples. In ויצא Rashi quotes Chazal that Dina was conceived as a boy and Leah davened and a נס happened and she turned into a girl. Yet Rashi quotes in Vayigash on the pasuk ואת דינה בתו that the man is responsible for conceiving a daughter. The Maharsha in Nida points out the contradiction and answers that the Gemara in Nidda had a different pshat in ויצא (see my post The interesting story of Dina and Yosef for a full explanation). Yet, Rashi quoted both. Similarly Rashi says that Avos kept all of the Mitzvos yet Rashi says in Vayigash that Shimon married Dina which is clearly prohibited. The Maharal there answers that he saw ברוח הקדש that it was permitted. We see that things are not as simple as they appear.

My point is that it is impossible to take a completely literalist/maximalist approach to the Gemara in Yoma 28b. There are too many examples of things that the Avos did contrary to halacha.

R' Hoffman claims that the majority opinion is the maximalist one. I am not sure where he got that from. In any case, I happened to see that the Meshech Chochma (33:18) seems to take a minimalist view. He explains the Gemara in Yoma 28b that Avraham kept Eruv Tavshilin as a מליצה (an expression) to mean that Avraham was involved in הכנסת אורחים. So we find a 20th century mainstream Acharon taking the minimalist view.

Here is the video that is causing the storm.

Fascinating letters in yesterday's Yated

2010-11-24T15:31:00.000+02:00

The letters in the Hebrew Yated Neeman are always interesting. I would like to share 2 of them with you.

An Avrech writes about how he was swindled by a get rich scheme. Someone approached him and told him he could make 20,000 shekel a month basically doing nothing. All he had to do was make some initial investment. Well, he fell for it, he paid his initial investment (a large sum of money) and of course the 20,000 a month never materialized.

Now I understand that many people fall for scams and Madoff had some very savvy and rich investors. However, there is no question that the average Charedi Avrech is very vulnerable to these kinds of scams for a number of reasons:
1. They are poor and desperately need money so they are willing to take chances.
2. They are sheltered and have no idea how the economy really works. They don't understand that there is no way that you can make 20,000 shekel doing nothing.

The next letter complains about how Charedi women now need to work 8-9 hours a day to support their husbands in kollel. The letter goes on to say how the husbands are now taking care of the kids in the afternoon getting up at night etc. because the wives are working so many hours. He asks, why can't they only work for 4-5 hours a day instead and work in shifts? Instead of 1 women 8 hours have 2 for 2 4 hour shifts.

This letter also betrays the ignorance of the letter writer about the economy and the workplace. There are 2 reasons why his suggestion is silly:
1. If they only work 4 hours they won't make enough to support their husband learning
2. The jobs that he is talking about are in high tech, knowledge worker jobs like computer programming. It is no problem to have shifts for cashiers, cashier A works 4 hours from 8 - 12 and cashier B works the next 4 hours from 12 - 4. There is little or no loss of productivity. However, that is not the case for computer programmers. 1 person working 8 hours is much more productive then 2 people working 4 hours. In The Mythical Man Month Fred Brooks illustrates a similar fallacy with the following example: If one woman can produce a baby in nine months, then nine women should be able to produce a baby in one month. The reason that this is false is that gestation is a sequential process, whose stages cannot run in parallel. If nine women get pregnant at the same time, in nine months they will produce nine different babies.

A similar principle applies here, many if not most times it is not practical to split up the work between 2 people and therefore you simply have the work proceeding at half the pace. In addition you now have twice as many people who need to synchronize/communicate which slows everyone down.

In short, it simply won't work.

The common denominator of these 2 letters is the fact that the writer has no clue how the economy/workplace really works. This is sad, because if these people ever do leave kollel and go into the workplace they are woefully unprepared for it.

Unfortunately, the latest kollel scandal doesn't surprise me

2010-11-22T13:35:00.000+02:00

It is an explicit gemara. The gemara in Kiddushin 30b states:

ר' יהודה אומר כל שאינו מלמדו אומנות מלמדו ליסטות ליסטות ס"ד אלא כאילו מלמדו ליסטות

My translation:
R' Yehuda said whoever doesn't teach his son a trade is teaching him to be a robber. [The Gemara asks] teaching him to be a robber? [The Gemara answers] it is as if he is teaching him to be a robber.

The Gemara states explicitly that if you don't teach your children to make a living they will eventually steal because they have no way of supporting themselves. Due to everything that is going on (financial crisis etc.) the Charedi population and institutions are in dire straights and need money. With no other alternatives to make money some turn to robbery exactly as the Gemara predicted.

There is another factor as well. When your whole chinuch is predicated on dismissing everyone else and saying that everyone else is worthless, wrong, a sinner, etc. it is very easy to justify stealing from them. After all, if the government is רשעים etc. there is nothing wrong with stealing from them.

What bothers me most about the latest Kollel scandal

2010-11-22T13:08:00.000+02:00

If you haven't heard, a number of kollels were raided yesterday on the suspicion that they were cheating the government.

Police: Haredim embezzled millions in ID fraud
Jerusalem Police on Sunday raided the offices of three ultra-Orthodox non-profit organizations, which operate yeshivas in the capital and nearby towns of Beit Shemesh and Beitar Illit. Officers believe that the organizations embezzled millions from the State.

The haredi institutions are suspected to have produced fake IDs in order to receive monthly stipends from the Education Ministry for alleged yeshiva students.

More than a 1,000 fake ID cards were discovered in the raid, along with computers and machines for printing and laminating the cards, and other equipment.
...
Police officials said they monitored the organizations in question for quite some time. "The organizations presented a false record of hundreds of students who attend each yeshiva, and received money for these students," one official explained.

What is most bothersome is that many of the Charedi sites (Take a look here for example) are focusing on who turned them in and how they are going to get back at those people. The fact that they stole money from the government isn't important or bad. The real sin is that someone turned them in.

The electricity is back on in the New Square Main Beis Medrash, for now

2010-11-18T12:32:00.001+02:00

They gave Orange and Rockland Utilities Inc. a check today for $46,450 toward the unpaid bill nearly 30 hours after the utility shut off power for lack of payment.

They still owe another $31,882, the amount paid today represented the minimum payment for restoration of power.

New Square main synagogue pays $46G to get power back

New Square Deputy Mayor Israel Spitzer said earlier today that he and other community members were negotiating a payment plan with the utility to get power restored.
...
Spitzer blamed the tough economic times cutting into the donations from supporters to pay for the utility costs.

It doesn't sound like this is over by a long shot. I can see a recurrence of this in a few months when they again don't pay.

New Square Main Bais Medrash Has Power Cut For Not Paying $78,000 Electric Bill

2010-11-17T12:17:00.000+02:00

Financial Meltdown: New Square Main Bais Medrash Has Power Cut For Not Paying $78G Bill

Mispalilim coming to Skver’s main Bais Medrash have been Davening in the dark since Monday morning after Orange and Rockland Utilities cut off power when bills were not paid.

Congregation Zemach owes the utility $78,332 dating to late 2009 and payment negotiations have been ongoing for several months, a utility spokesman told LoHud.

The congregation must pay a minimum of $46,500 for power to be restored, O&R spokesman Michael Donovan said

When you combine this with the Girls School in Brooklyn being evicted for non-payment of rent and all of the other financial crises in the Charedi world, this may be the beginning of the end. I just don't see where the Charedi world is going to get the money to continue as is.

Kupat Hair's tactics are gezel gamur

2010-11-15T11:08:00.001+02:00

This is not me talking (although I have certainly criticized their tactics, see for example, Another historic event from Kupat Hair Bnei Brak and Kupat Hair never stops ) but R' Matisyahu Solomon.

Kupat Ha’ir’s Over The Top Advertising

The Lakewood mashgiah Rav Mattisyahu Solomon, shlit”a, did term some of the solicitation techniques of Kupat Ha’ir as “gezel gamur”/ theft in the true sense of the term.

I wonder if this will make any difference.

Poverty in Israel - some disturbing statistics about the Charedi world

2010-11-11T09:19:00.000+02:00

Hamodia published an article today summing up the poverty report with a focus on the Charedi population. Here are some of the highlights:

1. A staggering 56% of Charedim in Israel live in poverty.
2. The average gross income for Chiloni families is 12,000 shekel a month while for Charedim it is only half, 6,100 shekel a month supporting a much larger family.
3. Only 52% of Charedim work at least 35 hours a week versus 71% of Chilonim.
4. One more interesting statistic, only 38% of Chareidim use computers.

Not only Orthodox Jews don't shake hands with women ...

2010-11-10T13:23:00.000+02:00

neither do some Muslims. A conservative Muslim government minister shook hands with Michelle Obama when she was welcomed to Indonesia. "I tried to prevent (being touched) with my hands but Mrs. Michelle held her hands too far toward me (so) we touched," Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring told tens of thousands of followers on Twitter.

It is fascinating that this is the heter that many Jew use to shake hands with women as well.

Poverty in Israel

2010-11-08T11:50:00.000+02:00

Every November in Israel the government publishes a report on poverty and the press makes a big deal about how people are becoming poorer and poorer and more children are falling under the poverty line.

What everyone forgets to mention is that a large percentage of the poor people in Israel are Haredim and Arabs who are poor by choice.

The numbers show that 70% of large families (5 or more kids) are poor. Guess what, families with 5 or more kids are overwhelmingly Haredi or Arab.

The fact is that the Haredi population is poor by choice, large families and little or no secular education means that there is little chance of not being poor. Because of this, there is very little that the government can do to help them.

If you exclude the Haredim and the Arabs the poverty numbers in Israel are not bad. I understand that these groups need to be dealt with as well, but they need to be dealt with differently since they are poor by choice.

Economic slowdown = Shidduchim slowdown

2010-10-24T13:05:00.000+02:00

This weeks Hebrew Mishpacha magazine had a very depressing article that because of the economic downturn and the rising apartment prices the shidduch market has slowed down dramatically in Israel. The reason is very simple fewer and fewer parents of girls can afford to buy an apartment for the couple. Many/most of the boys are still holding out for an apartment and there are very few parents of girls who can afford it.

The article says that the dormitories in the Yeshivas are full because the older boys who should be getting married aren't. One Rosh Yeshiva said that usually around 30 boys a year get married, this year only 10 got married. The head of a post high school seminary said that in the past half the girls were engaged or married by the end of the year, last year it was only 10%. The reason is very simple, the boys are holding out for an apartment and the girl's parents simply can't afford it.

The bottom line is that the average Charedi family size has gone up to over 6 kids per family and the income sources have gone down. In previous generations people had war/holocaust reparations from Germany, people actually worked, the cost of living in Israel was much lower, people had money from grandparents, and people lived much simpler life styles. All of these things have gone away. We now have the second or third generation of kollel only parents marrying off their daughters and the money is simply not there. There is simply no way that people can afford to pay $150,000+ to marry off their daughter.

The big question is what is going to happen? IMHO this is a much bigger issue then concerts, internet, etc. This goes to the heart of things marriage and family. It is disappointing that more hasn't been done by the Charedi leadership on this issue.

It's hard to be a בן נח II

2010-10-11T11:46:00.000+02:00

My wife sent me a fascinating link Noahide Halacha 101 or Meet the Adams Family which details a conversation with someone who tries to keep the ז' מצות בני נח. You can see from the conversation how complicated it is. Here is 1 excerpt:

“This problem went even further,” John continued. “Could we eat in a restaurant where forbidden meats may have contaminated their equipment?”

I admit that I had never thought of this question before. Must a gentile be concerned that a restaurant’s equipment absorbed eiver min hachai? Does a Noahide needs to “kasher” a treif restaurant before he can eat there? Oy, the difficulty of being a goy!

“How did you resolve this dilemma?” I timidly asked.

“Well, for a short time our family stopped eating out,” he replied. “You could say that we ate only treif at home. My wife found the situation intolerable – no MacDonald’s or Wendy’s? Although I know that observant Jews do not understand why this is such a serious predicament, but please bear in mind that we made a conscious decision not to become Jewish. One of our reasons was that we enjoy eating out wherever we can.

“So I decided to ask some rabbis I know, but even then the end of the road was not clearly in sight.”

“Why was that?”

“I had difficulty finding a rabbi who could answer the question. From what I understand, a rabbi’s ordination teaches him the basics necessary to answer questions that apply to kosher kitchens. But I don’t have a kosher house – we observe Adamite laws. As one rabbi told me, ‘I don’t know if Noahides need to be concerned about what was previously cooked in their pots.’”

What a fascinating question, does the din of טעם כעיקר apply to a גוי? This is just 1 example. These kinds of questions come up on every facet of life.

Why were 11 sifrei torah burned in the Vihznitzer Beis Medrash in Bnei Brak?

2010-10-10T13:44:00.002+02:00

It seems like it is a machlokes. R' Wosner said it was because they did not treat the Beis Knesses with respect.

It is the obligation of every individual to maintain the sanctity of the Beis Knesses. Do not eat, do not use phones and do not talk about trivial matters while in a place of such holiness. There are Shuls that will turn half the Beis Medrash into an Ezras Nashim for a simcha. This is completely forbidden.

source Vos Iz Neias

On the other hand R' Chaim Kanievsky is reported as having said that the reason the Sifrei Torah were burned is because they disrepected the Chazon Ish. 50 years ago the Chazon Ish asked the Vihznitzer Rebbe not to use electricity from the electric company on Shabbos but rather to use a generator. Recently, they have started to use the regular electricity on shabbos and that was disrepecting the Chazon Ish who was like a sefer torah so the sifrei torah were burned.

source Kikar Hashabbat

What are we supposed to make of this? How does this fit in with Daas Torah?

As an aside R' Wosner made a startling comment about the holocaust as well:

Our gedolim have already explained why Sefardim were not affected by the Holocaust,” Because they are extra stringent when it comes to showing proper respect for a Beis Knesses.

It always bothers me when someone says that they know why the Holocaust happened or why certain people died and certain people didn't. It is clear that the Holocaust was a time of הסתר פנים and like the age old question of צדיק ורע לו we will never know why.

It's hard to be a בן נח

2010-10-10T13:08:00.000+02:00

I started thinking about how hard it is for a בן נח to properly observe theז' מצות בני נח. Where is their shulchan aruch? Who paskins for them?

Believe it or not there are many disputes about the ז' מצות בני נח. Here are a few examples:
1. Is pikuach nefesh דוחה one of the ז' מצות בני נח? It is a machlokes the Chazon Ish and the Minchas Chinuch.
2. Is there divorce? The Pnei Yehoshua claims that divorce is a chiddush and therefore doesn't apply to בני נח, others argue that they don't need divorce, if either party wants they can just leave and that ends the marriage.
3. When does a בן נח become a גדול? The Minchas Chinuch claims that shiurim are a הלכה למשה מסיני and therefore don't apply to בני נח, he postulates that whenever they have דעת they are a גדול.

What we see from here is that there are fundamental disputes about major issues with no resolution. What is a בן נח to do? They have no poskim and can never have poskim as they are not allowed to learn torah and in fact are חייב מיתה if they learn torah. It is a little strange that they are obligated to keep these mitzvos but there is no framework for them to do so.

Some post Simchas Torah thoughts

2010-10-04T15:23:00.000+02:00

Many shuls drag out the davening/hakafos on Simchas Torah and finish very late. IMHO this is not working and people are starting to vote with their feet. If you look around the shuls you will see a core group of people who are dancing and everyone else is basically hanging out waiting for hakafos to finish. I have been davening Vasikin for the past few years on Simchas Torah and every year the minyan keeps getting bigger as more and more people do not want to be stuck in shul until 1,2, or even 3PM. This year the minyan was enormous with people coming from many different shuls. In addition, shuls adopt a number of questionable halachic practices to do this:
1. Making Kiddush before Mussaf and eating more then a כביצה
2. Not davening Musaf before mincha gedola and therefore getting involved in a question of which should come first mincha or musaf
3. Not davening musaf before 7 hours (around 12:30 this year in Israel).

These are not the biggest issues but why get involved.

In many yeshivas (including my son's) they have a much better system. They start davening earlier and have short hakafos (max 5-10 minutes each) and finish davening by 11. People can then go home and eat and enjoy the Yom Tov. They then daven mincha a little early (4PM) and have hakafos from after mincha until Yom Tov is over, approximately 2 hours.

Some thoughts on the Yomim Noraim davening experience

2010-09-21T14:57:00.000+02:00

Given that we just recently finished the Yomim Noraim I would like to express some thoughts about my experience.

I. Very few people pay attention to all of Chazaras Hashatz. It is simply too long with too many arcane and complicated piyutim.

There seem to be 4 groups of people
1. Those who actually pay attention to the whole chazaras hashatz, a very small minority
2. Those who try but can't focus for the whole time so they bring a sefer and look at it at various times
3. People who are bored and either fall asleep or daydream
4. People who keep themselves busy with various things (e.g. on Yom Kippur walk around with smelling salts), go in and out, etc.

I admit that I belong to group 2. I try to pay attention but I find it very difficult to stay focused on many of the piyutim etc.and always bring a sefer to look at it.
I don't have a solution for how to make the situation better, but I see with my own eyes that it is definitely a problem. If only a small percentage of the people in the shul are paying attention to Chazaras Hashatz then what is the point?

II. I like the idea of setting a fixed amount time (e.g. 15 minutes) for the silent shemoneh esrei. It makes it possible to pace your silent shemoneh esrei so that you can finish in time to hear chazaras hashatz (if you want), and if you daven a little quicker, you know exactly when chazaras hashatz will start so that you can go to the bathroom, learn something, whatever, knowing how much time you have.

III. No speeches. The davening is long enough and people have a hard enough time focusing on it, adding a speech is counterproductive. Davening on Rosh Hashana was almost 6 hours, to add a speech to that (especially along one) is too much. In addition, on Rosh Hashana many shuls announce that shofar blowing will not be before X AM so that the women know when to come. The speech has to be before shofar blowing because afterwords you can't be mafsik. Therefore, in my experience what happens is that the women come at X AM and the Rabbis is speaking and they need to wait who knows how long until the speech is over. if there is going to be a speech it should end exactly at X AM no matter when it started (even if it started 2 minutes before).

Some halachic points regarding building a succah

2010-09-20T14:09:00.001+02:00

I have a post that deals in depth with many of the issues that come up when building a succah.

Some halachic points regarding building a succah

Starting Shacharis early the day after Yom Kippur

2010-09-19T11:41:00.000+02:00

The acharonim (see the Mateh Efraim and Aruch Hashulchan at the end of Siman 624) bring down a minhag to get up early to daven the day after Yom Kippur so the Satan will not be able to complain.

Somehow this has turned into a minhag to start davening 5 minutes earlier. The 6:30 minyan starts at 6:25 the 7:00 minyan starts at 6:55 and even the 8:00 minyan starts at 7:55.

IMHO I don't see how this is mekayem the minhag at all. There is no way that going 5 minutes early to an 8:00 minyan is called משכימים. This is just another instance where the spirit of the minhag is completely ignored for a doubtful mechanical kiyum.

Thomas Friedman gets it half right

2010-06-02T23:12:00.000+03:00

First the part he gets right (When Friends Fall Out).

I have a big problem when people get so agitated by Israel’s actions in Gaza but are unmoved by Syria’s involvement in the murder of the prime minister of Lebanon, by the Iranian regime’s killing of its own citizens demonstrating for the right to have their votes counted, by Muslim suicide bombers murdering nearly 100 Ahmadi Muslims in mosques in Pakistan on Friday and by pro-Hamas gunmen destroying a U.N.-sponsored summer camp in Gaza because it wouldn’t force Islamic fundamentalism down the throats of children.

That concern for Gaza and Israel’s blockade is so out of balance with these other horrific cases in the region that it is not surprising Israelis dismiss it as motivated by hatred

Unfortunately he offers the same old tired solution based on a Palestinian that is doomed to failure.

Amos Oz is such an idiot

2010-06-02T23:07:00.000+03:00

He wrote a typical left wing editorial in the NY Times today. The following statement is typical of his idiocy:
No idea has ever been defeated by force — not by siege, not by bombardment, not by being flattened with tank treads and not by marine commandos. To defeat an idea, you have to offer a better idea, a more attractive and acceptable one.

Really??? What about the Nazis in WWII? I am sure that Amos Oz and his ilk would have been all for a negotiated peace with Hitler in 1941. After all, you don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies. What about slavery in the US? The Civil War? The list goes on and on.

His solution is typical left wing idiocy as well.

...quickly reach an agreement with the Palestinians on the establishment of an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as defined by the 1967 borders, with its capital in East Jerusalem. Israel has to sign a peace agreement with President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah government in the West Bank — and by doing so, reduce the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip. That latter conflict, in turn, can be resolved only by negotiating with Hamas or, more reasonably, by the integration of Fatah with Hamas.

What world is he living in? This is a complete and utter fantasy. Why not throw in peace with Iran as well?

What hypocrisy

2010-06-02T13:40:00.000+03:00

It is amazing how hypocritical the world is. The flotilla departed from Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus. Since Cyprus became independent in 1960, there has been tension between the Greek majority (80%) who are Orthodox Christians and the Muslim, Turkish minority that lives in the northern part of the island. In 1974, the Turkish army invaded the island to aid its Turkish "brothers". In 1983, the Turkish-Cypriots declared an independent state in the northern part of the island. Turkey’s occupation of half of Cyprus is deemed illegal by the European Union and the United Nations. If the government of Turkey feels so strongly about ending disputed occupations, why does it not start with the disputed occupation it is operating itself? Where is the outrage from the world? What about the Kurds in Turkey? Why don't they have their own state?

The world is in an uproar about the deaths of 9 so called "peace activists", yet around 500 civilians were killed in Thailand, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and India in just the month of May with nary a peep from the UN.

Israel needs to truly disengage from Gaza

2010-06-02T13:31:00.000+03:00

I was against the disengagement when it happened, but now that it happened Israel needs to fully disengage, and in fact should have done this from day 1.

Israel needs to tell the world, we are leaving Gaza, closing the border, cutting off electricity, water etc. You want to turn the clock back to June 4, 1967, fine, we have NO responsibilities to Gaza.

Let the Palestinians in Gaza figure out how they will get electricity etc. Let them get everything from Egypt,by sea, however they want. Let's see how their fellow Arabs the Egyptians would treat the Palestinians in a situation like that.

Believe it or not Aluf Benn from Haaretz wrote a column today suggesting exactly this.

ויקרא משה להושע בין יהושע

2010-05-31T17:12:00.000+03:00

Last year I had 2 posts about this (ויקרא משה להושע בין יהושע and ויקרא משה להושע בין יהושע II) where I discussed the difficult Rashi.

I just saw that Torah Temima has a similar answer to the Keren Ora. He says that Moshe davened for Yehoshua because Yehoshua was from Yosef and it says in וישב that ויבא יוסף את דבתם רעה אל אביהם and therefore the sin of lashon hara was something that Moshe thought Yehoshua needed special protection from. He also explains that the derasha in the Gemara is using 20/20 hindsight. Moshe really just davened that Hashem should save Yehoshua, he had no idea about what the Meraglim would do. Later the Gemara looking back added on that he should be saved from the עצת המרגלים.

In truth, this answer is also very difficult. To say the Gemara is looking back with 20/20 hindsight and Moshe didn't say that is very difficult. In addition, according to the Torah Temima why didn't Moshe daven for the representative of Menashe as well as he was also from Yosef.

I saw that others ask, how could Moshe daven for Yehoshua not to sin? הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים and therefore you can't daven for someone else not to sin, it his choice.

The bottom line is that for me עדיין צ"ע how to understand the Rashi and the Gemara in Sota.

Mishpacha Editor: Everyone knows Kollel only is a הוראת שעה

2010-05-30T09:39:00.001+03:00

In this weeks English Mishpacha magazine Rabbi Moshe Grylak wrote the following:

...we have constantly heard from gedolei yisroel since the time of the Chazon Ish, who insisted that that universal torah learning was obligatory for several generation in order to rebuild the Torah world that was destroyed in the Holocaust. The reconstruction has succeeded beyond all expectations and legions of torah scholars have filled the Earth. Our Gedolim knew however, that full time learning is not for everyone. Even Maran Harav Shach ztz"l the great disseminator and defender of Torah in our times, said on many occasions that Klal Yisrael consists of Torah scholars and balabatim who support Torah learning. "Everyone is required to serve Hashem," he said, "but not everyone can do so by means of learning all day."

What refreshing words, I hope that it is really true.

What should we daven for, עולם הזה or עולם הבא?

2010-05-24T08:00:00.000+03:00

The impression I get from many people, articles, etc. is that a person needs to daven for spiritual things for himself and his family.

The fact is that there is an explicit Gemara that says the opposite.

The Gemara in Shabbos (10a) states:
רבא חזייה לרב המנונא דקא מאריך בצילותיה אמר מניחין חיי עולם ועוסקים בחיי שעה

Rava saw that R' Hamnuna was davening for a long time, he told him you are neglecting olam haba and spending time on olam hazeh

Rashi explains:
חיי עולם תורה, תפילה צורך חיי שעה היא לרפואה לשלום ולמזונות

chayei olam is torah, tefilla is chayei sha'ah as it is for health, peace and money

You see explicitly from the Gemara that tefilla is considered dealing with worldly matters (peace, health, and money) and only torah is chayei olam haba. If Rav Hamnuna was davening that he should understand the sugya or that is children should succeed in learning why is that called חיי שעה? You see from the Gemara that Rava had no hava amina that Rav Hamnuna was davening for that but Rava understood that R' Hamnuna was davening for worldly matters and that is why he rebuked him.

Charedim and working in Israel

2010-05-23T14:07:00.000+03:00

The Mishpacha newspaper had pages upon pages of articles about Charedim working. The gist of the articles was that Charedim want to work and that the chilonim/government don't want them.

I would like to give my take on this.

One of the more effective claims that the Chiloni politicians and media have made in the past few weeks is why in Brooklyn can Charedim be doctors, lawyers, accountants etc. but not in Bnei Brak. The Charedi representatives only answer has been discrimination.

There is no question that there is discrimination against Charedim but the fact is Charedim can't get jobs for other reasons. Here are some of the differences that I see between Brooklyn and Bnei Brak.

1. In Brooklyn, Charedim go to real Universities whether it is Touro, Brooklyn College, Queens, etc. These are regular accredited universities with decent reputations. In Israel, Charedim will not go to University. They go to to all kinds of special Charedi programs that offer some kind of degree, the equivalent in NY of going to a place like Devry's. Many employers in Israel want a degree from a recognized University which the Charedim don't have.
2. In Brooklyn Charedim are much more open to the world. Guys who learn in the Mir, Chaim Berlin, etc. follow sports and generally know what is going on. Chafetz Chaim Yeshiva in Queens (certainly considered a Charedi Yeshiva), when they built their new building included a beautiful gym, that would never be done in Israel.They see non-Jews in the neighborhood and interact them. They see women dressed not so tzniusly. Therefore when they go to work, they have something in common with their co-workers. They can talk about sports, politics, technology, or whatever. In Israel, Charedim are very very sheltered. If you live in Bnei Brak, Kiryat Sefer, Beitar, many neighborhoods in Yerushalayim, RBS, etc. you basically hardly ever see a non-Charedi person let alone a woman dressed non-tzniusly. Their also is no openness to sports or anything else in the general culture. Therefore, it is very hard for a Charedi person to fit in, they have absolutely nothing in common with the other people and have no idea how to interact with them.
3. Jews in America are stereotyped as smart and non-violent. This helps in the job market. Charedim in Israel are thought of as violent (rioting all the time) and ignorant.
4. In Israel, the Charedi parties are constantly pushing for religious coercion, whether it is not selling chometz on Pesach, no public buses on Shabbos, mehadrin buses etc. This causes the general public to worry that the Charedim are trying to take over and create a Taliban like state. In Brooklyn, there are no worries about religious coercion.

The bottom line is that the Charedim want to have their cake and eat it too. On one hand, they want to have the freedom to educate their children however they want, but then when it comes to getting a job, they want their education to be considered. It doesn't work that way. If you want to join the world you need to play by the rules and one of the rules is education.

Girls should not go to the Kotel Shavuos night for tznius reasons

2010-05-18T12:55:00.002+03:00

My translation

We have been asked by the Gedolei Yisrael to publicize the following in their name:

כה תאמר לבית יעקב ותגיד לבני ישראל

Yisrael are holy and many go to the Kotel on Shavuos night, especially to daven at vasikin.

Since the route to the Kotel is through narrow streets and alleys, it creates a serious mixture (men and women) and the pitfalls are many until the bad outweighs the good.

Therefore we are calling on the girls who are pious and holy not to go to the kotel on Shavuos until 10AM on Shavuos morning.

(Those who must go should go through the Jaffa gate).

The route using the Nablus gate is for men only

It ir preferable that boys do not go by themselves but rather should be accompanied by an adult because of off the derech kids and other people who are hanging around.

The rest discusses the separation of the sexes at the Kotel.

The big question is going to be what happens to girls/women who decide to go tonight and go through שער שכם (probably not even knowing about this)? Are they going to be harrassed/attacked? Is this going to create another big controversy?

Why do we need to keep dinim d'rabbanon?

2010-05-17T17:14:00.001+03:00

This seems like a pretty obvious question but the answer is not so obvious. The Rambam in the Sefer Hamitzvos explains that we need to kepp dinim d'rabbanan based on לא תסור. In other words there is a חיוב מן התורה to keep dinim d'rabbanan. The Ramban there disagrees and asks on the Rambam, if there is a חיוב מן התורה then why are we מחלק between dinim d'rabbanon and d'oraysas? If every din d'rabbanan is really a d'oraysa then why do we say ספקא דרבנן לקולא?

We see clearly from the Ramban that he holds that there is no חיוב מן התורה to kepp dinim d'rabbanan. If so what is the מחייב?

R' Elchanan in קונטרוס דברי סופרים has the following fascinating suggestion. He suggests that there really is no מחייב. He says that why do we keep d'oraysa's? Because we want to do the רצון hashem. The same applies to dinim d'rabbanan. we assume that whatever the חכמים were מתקן is the רצון hashem and therefore we keep them because we want to do the רצון hashem.

A refreshing take on the business of Tzedaka

2010-05-13T09:10:00.001+03:00

http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/hamodia/yissachar_zevulun.pdf

Indeed, these false values have already begun to leach into our thought processes, and the partnership arrangement” described in the article is symptomatic of a creeping trend toward facile religious devices that are expected to yield instant and foolproof gratification. It is akin to other contemporary manifestations of the same disease: seeking “segulos” as a “push-button” means to achieve desires, consulting “mekubalim” in the expectation of immediate results, responding favorably to flyers from tzedakah organizations filled with “case studies” of people who, with disaster staring them in the face, make desperate pledges and are miraculously and instantly saved.

Israel is accepted into the OECD

2010-05-12T11:28:00.000+03:00

This was the big news yesterday as everyone was very happy and congratulatory. I thought the most interesting reaction was from Yated Neeman. They were 100% positive stating how it is a good thing for Israel, etc. They quoted Moshe Gafni (MK from Degel Hatorah) taking a little credit as head of the Knesset Finance Committee.

Why is this so interesting? Because acceptance into the OECD was only possible because of all of the economic reforms that were put into place by Netanyahu and his successors which the Charedi world fought tooth and nail against. It was also only possible because Israel has a good University system and produces top quality graduates who can produce on a level equal to or above the rest of the world. If Gafni and friends had had their way Israel would not be an OECD member.

In short, if the Charedi world had it's way Israel would have had no chance of joining the OECD yet the Charedim are perfectly happy to reap the benefits.

It is patently clear that a Charedi society could never be self sufficient and that is clearly not what the Torah wants from us. The Torah is supposed to be a blueprint for an independent religious state that can be self sufficient not a ghetto relying on other Jews and Goyim. This was exactly the dispute between Rivka and Yitzchak regarding giving teh Berachos to Esav. Yitzchak thought that Yaakov didn't need to be self sufficent that Esav would provide for him and Rivka felt that Yaakov needed teh berachos of gashmius as well. We all know who was correct.

The tzedaka wars are escalating

2010-05-12T11:12:00.000+03:00

In the past few years the fight for tzedaka money has become a never ending series of escalations. The Kupat Hair Beni Brak started with having Kvitelach for special days, now every one is doing that. The Kupat Hair Beni Brak has escalated again. Now they are promising that someone will daven at the Kever of Rashbi for a whole year for anyone who donates. I can't imagine what will be next.

Here is an ad from a local Kupa:

Here is the latest Kupat Hair ad:

It is absolutely unbelievable that Misnagdim are now talking about giving Kvitelach to Rabanim.

Charedim work and education

2010-05-10T14:04:00.000+03:00

For the past week this has been a major topic of discussion in Israel. IMHO the Charedi responses have been disingenuous at best. Eli Yishai (Head of Shas) was interviewed a umber of times about this, his answer was come visit our Shas school in Ramat Gan where we had the highest test scores in the country. That answer, while true, is very misleading and not indicative of the state of Charedi education. That Shas school teaches secular studies at a high level because the clientele demands it. Ideally, all Shas schools would be Torah only like the Ashkenazi schools. However, since Shas appeals to a much wider audience they have schools which have a high level of secular studies. Other Charedi spokesman have made similar comments. The bottom line is that the Charedi ideal is Torah only and anyone who says anything else is lying.

When it comes to working and jobs, again the Charedi spokesmen want to have their cake and eat it too. You can't provide no secular education and then complain you are shut out of jobs because they require a degree.

There is no question that a lot of what is learned in secular studies in high school is a waste and can be skipped. However, there are core subjects that are very important. The Charedi world thinks that in a few months people can learn what is needed to get a job. That is true for some things but not for many and certainly not for the jobs of the future. They seem to believe that secular knowledge is easy to acquire and there isn't much of it. As R' Aryeh Kaplan described Another approach is that which many Chassidim have. They say, “What do scientists know? Do they know what’s happening? Do they know what’s going on? They’re a bunch of phonies, a bunch of bluffers, a bunch of stupidniks! Do they really have a way of finding out the truth? They find a bone and they think it’s from a monkey.” But, I think to somebody who knows what science is, this is a very unsatisfactory approach. much of the Charedi world has no clue about how much knowledge there is out there.

There is a very elitist attitude that if someone can learn a sugya in Bava Kama he can surely learn x (x being any secular discipline). This is simply not true. Learning Torah definitely is helpful in teaching certain modes of thinking but is certainly not the be all and end all of knowledge.

I am back

2010-05-09T16:30:00.000+03:00

For the past few months I have been working almost non-stop on a very big project at work and therefore have had no time or energy to blog. Things have finally calmed down a little and I hope to be back blogging.

One thing I learned over this period is how important Shabbos is. This project was being worked on by people all over the world (India, Israel, US East Coast, US West Coast), which meant that someone was working on it 24 hours a day. This made the project a 24x6 job for me as I had to keep track of people all over the world and interact with them. Shabbos allowed me to get away for 25 hours and not think about work, check e-mails etc. On Shabbos I could truly get away. I feel bad for the othe rpeople on the project who don't have that. They were literally on call 24x7 for a few months, at least I had 1 day a week off.

Not a Zero-Sum Game

2010-01-10T13:44:00.000+02:00

Jonathan Rosenblum has printed some really interesting columns lately, Not a Zero-Sum Game is another one.

For the record, I made a very similar point 5 years ago in this post The Charedi view of the government and money.

I would like to make a few comments on some of what he wrote:

From an economic point of view, Israel has no interest in chareidim performing menial work when they are capable of much more productive labor. As a professor of computer science at Bar Ilan University commented recently, “Anyone who can hold kop in Rabbi Akiva Eiger can be taught to be a highly skilled computer programmer.”

This is a myth that the Charedi likes to perpetuate, that Charedim are smarter then everyone else. It is simply not true. There are smart Charedim and not so smart Charedim. חכמה בגויים תאמין and there are some very smart chilonim as well. This idea that any Charedi who wants could become a professional is silly. Some certainly could, others definitely could not.

Both arguments implicitly accept the necessity of higher and better paid chareidi employment. In his interview with the English Mishpacha two weeks ago, Bnei Brak Mayor Yaakov Asher spoke of the upsurge in vocational education in the wake of dramatic cuts in child allowances.. Still, according to the article, there are only 13,000 employed individuals in Bnei Brak, a city of 165,000 souls. Clearly, it is a rare salary that can support 12.5 individuals.

There are 2 very important points here.
1. He can say that there is a necessity for higher Charedi employment but until the "Gedolim" say it it is meaningless.
2. It is unbelievable that in a city of 165,000 only 13,000 people work. Believe it or not money doesn't grow on trees. This relates back to the post that I quoted at the beginning. Many Charedim view the government as a cash machine, give us money and leave us alone. The budget is a zero sum game, whatever we can save and get for us great whatever doesn't go to us is basically lost.

Why did Yaakov say Shema when he met Yosef?

2009-12-23T09:00:00.000+02:00

It seems really strange that after 20+ years of not seeing Yosef, when he finally sees him he says Shema.

I saw 2 very different approaches in the mefarshim.

The Maharal explains that Yaakov felt a tremendous outpouring of love and wanted to direct it towards Hashem. He felt tremendous gratitude and love to Hashem for returning his son alive and therefore wanted to show it by being מקבל עול מלכות שמים.

The Netziv has a very different explanation. He explains as follows based on the Targum Yonasan. The Targum explains that Yosef wanted to fulfill his dream (that his father would bow down to him) and therefore he came to his father dressed in his royal garb so that his father would not recognize him and bow down to him. Yosef's plan worked, however, Yaakov was annoyed with Yosef for forcing the dream to come true in that way and making him bow down. Therefore to stifle his annoyance he said Shema. Yosef, realized that he had made a mistake in making his father bow to him and therefore cried on Yaakov's shoulders.

Yosef's revelation to his brothers

2009-12-22T09:00:00.000+02:00

When Yosef reveals himself, he asks אני יוסף העוד אבי חי. It is a very strange question. After all Yehuda just finished telling Yosef the whole story including that his father is alive, so what exactly was Yosef's question? Did Yosef think that Yehuda suddenly got a nevua that Yaakov died? In addition, Rashi quotes the medrash that this was a great תוכחה. What exactly was the תוכחה?

The Beis Halevi explains as follows. Yosef was asking a rhetorical question. Yosef told his brothers you claim that you are so concerned about your fathers health, yet, I am Yosef is my father still alive? Meaning, he asked them if you really cared for your father how could you put him through the pain of of my disappearance. He exposed the hypocrisy of Yehuda's claim that they were concerned about their father's well being through Yehuda's own actions.

Now we can also understand why this is called a תוכחה as well. This is exactly what will happen when a person goes up to שמים after 120. Whatever excuses he gives for not doing mitzvos or doing aveiros will be shown to be hypocritical by his own actions.

In previous generations it may have been hard to imagine playing back your life after you die to see what you did wrong. However, for us this should be easy to believe. After all, we see how modern technology can record every action and play it back in color with sound. We see it happening all the time when people get caught on video or on audio doing things they shouldn't be doing and the embarrassment and damage that it does (e.g. Tiger Woods, Tropper etc.). Therefore, we should understand that everything is being recorded and will be played back at the appropriate time and there will be no excuses.

Is R' Shteinman one of the Gedolim?

2009-12-21T17:08:00.001+02:00

R' Shteinman recently met with the Rav Yoel Cohen, the Chozer, a prominent Chabadnik who was very close to the Rebbe. Because of this 2 pashkevilim were circulated late last week. One was a 4 page screed about how we need to be pure in hashkafa etc. and which basically said that R' Shteinman is not a Gadol. The second was 2 pages with a list of quotations from various "Gedolim" against the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

This reminds me of a story that I read about the Brisker Rav. A number of kannoim came to him to get his support for a protest against something. They said that he was the Gadol Hador and they wanted his approval. He answered, you only call me the Gadol Hador because you think I support your position. As soon as I say something you don't like I will no longer be the Gadol Hador.

The same or worse applies today and is exactly what happened to R' Shteinman. Yonasan Rosenblum (Kollel is not always forever) said it best:

There is another reason that there will be no such public statements. Any such statement would be met with vicious attacks by the “kenaim,” who would say about the gadol in question precisely what KollelGuy asks me: Who are you? The Chazon Ish did not say what you are saying; Rav Shach did not say it.” Perhaps KollelGuy remembers the attacks on one of the Sages he mentions for his tacit support of Nahal Chareidi. (Even Rav Shach used to say that he was afraid of the stone-throwers.) One of the members of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of the United States told me recently that the gedolim cannot even discuss questions surrounding poverty because if they did the “street” would just label them fake gedolim.

R' Herschel Shachter is on the front cover of the Mishpacha magazine - Updated

2009-12-17T07:51:00.006+02:00

There is a very long positive article about R' Shachter, RYBS and YU. They actually call YU a "fortress of Torah" and R' Shachter is described as "average height but colossal stature".

R' Belsky who works with R' Shachter at the OU said the following about R' Shachter:

he is a gadol in Torah, Yiras Shamayim and Midos, and I couldn't do this without him.

Very high praise indeed.

For anyone who learned at YU this article is a must read.

I have to say I am stunned that a Charedi magazine would publish such a positive article about a YU Rosh Yeshiva. I can't wait to see the letters in the next few weeks.

Different laining in חו"ל and ארץ ישראל on Chanuka?

2009-12-15T08:25:00.000+02:00

Believe it or not the answer is yes. Most people don't notice because the difference is not that great, but there is a difference.

On Chanuka we read the parsha of the נשיאים, every day the נשיא for that day. Each נשיא is 6 pesukim and we have 3 aliyas. The miniumum number of pesukim for an aliya is 3. therefore we are 3 pesukim short. From where do we get the extra 3 pesukim? This is a machlokes the Mechaber and the Rama. The Mechaber writes that we simply read over that day. In other words, tomorrow morning Kohen will read the first 3 pesukim of the 5th נשיא, Levi will read the next 3, and the third aliya simply repeats all 6 pesukim of the 5th נשיא. The Rama on the other hand says, that for the third aliya you simply read the next day. In other words, tomorrow morning Kohen will read the first 3 pesukim of the 5th נשיא, Levi will read the next 3, and the third aliya reads the 6th נשיא. In חו"ל the minhag is like the Rama and in EY the minhag is like the mechaber.

The Gra points out that this is לשיטתם by chol hamoed succos. On chol hamoed succos the problem is greater, each day is only 3 pesukim and there are 4 aliyos. According to the Mechaber in חו"ל kohen and levi read the 2 days of sefeka d'yoma and then the next 2 aliyas simply repeat them. The Rama writes that שלישי reads the next day, meaning if today is the first day of Chol Hamoed, the first 2 aliyas read days 2 and 3 and the third aliya reads day 4, even though it is clearly not day 4 even with the sefeka d'yoma, and רביעי goes back on the first 2 days. In EY the machaber writes that we simply repeat the same thing 4 times. Here also the minhag in EY is like the mechaber.

The machlokes would seem to be does the next day have any connection to today and does it make sense to read it.

Interestingly enough the Ashkenazim in EY are noheg like the Mechaber both on Succos and on Chanuka.

If I break your window do I need to pay?

2009-12-14T09:00:00.000+02:00

At first glance the answer is of course, I damaged you and therefore I have to pay. However, R' Sternbuch and others point out that it is not so simple.

The Gemara in Bava Kama (48b) learns out from a pasuk that if my animal eats fruits that are growing in your field I don't pay for the actual fruits that were eaten, rather I pay for the devaluation of the field. Lets take a simple example. You have a field that is worth $1000 which has orange trees. My animal comes and eats 50 oranges and each orange is worth $1. The damage I caused you is $50, however, I don't pay you $50. Instead, I pay how much the field is devalued by the fact that my animal ate 50 oranges. Lets say that the field was originally worth $1000 including all of the oranges and now that my animal ate 50, the field is only worth $990. Since the value of the field has only gone down $10 all Ii have to pay is $10 (not $50). The Gemara says that the same din applies if I do the damage myself (I eat the oranges or I uproot the tree).

Based on this it is quote din the name of R' Chaim, the Chafetz Chaim and others, that the same din should apply if I break the window of your house. I don't pay for the damage I caused, rather, I need to pay the amount that your house has been devalued. The fact is that price for a house that has 1 broken window is the same as the price of the house with no broken windows. If I am asking for $300,000 for my house, the extra $50-100 for a broken window is simply not taken into account. The buyer is not going to change his offer to $299,900 because there is now a broken window. Therefore, the person who broke the window doesn't need to pay me anything because there is no damage the way the Gemara says to figure it, the value of the house is still $300,000.

The Chazon Ish (Bava Kama siman 6 sif 3) argues and says that you have to pay the replacement value. The Chazon Ish says that a house is more similar to מטלטלים. Everyone agrees that if instead of breaking the window of my house you broke my car window, you would have to pay for the damage. Damage to non-property is figured based on the actual damage and therefore if it costs $50 to replace the window that is what you owe me. The Chazon Ish thinks that the same din would apply to a house window and you would need to pay for the actual damage.

הלכה למעשה you have a machlokes haposkim. R' Sternbuch paskens like R' Chaim etc. that the damager doesn't have to pay and others pasken like the Chazon ish, it depends on the Beis Din.

I have to say this machlokes really surprised me in a number of ways. First of all, none of the Rishonim or early Acharonim discuss this question. It is only in the last 100 years that this question is being discussed. Second of all, the Gemara in Bava Kama says that we don't want to be hard or easy on the מזיק. In this situation it seems we are being way too lenient on the מזיק by allowing him to get off scot free. Intuitively, the Chazon Ish's approach seems right, why should the guy get off scot free, yet the Chazon Ish is against the simple reading of the Gemara.

Some questions for Kollel only supporters

2009-12-13T13:01:00.003+02:00

These are not my questions, rather Yonasan Rosenblum asked them of the Kollel only crowd.

(1) Do you think there are any differences of kind, not just magnitude, between the homogeneous group of idealists who rallied to the Chazon Ish’s banner and today’s chareidi community of three-quarters of a million nefashos?
(2) Do you have any idea of the degree of poverty in the chareidi world, including among avreichim? Do you see the chareidi world today as vulnerable? What, for instance, would happen if the Israeli Supreme Court ruled definitively that the state cannot fund schools that do not teach a common curriculum? Israeli welfare payments have grown twice as fast as gross family income over the last two decades. What do you think the impact would be if the Israeli government decided that disparity is unsustainable and imposed another dramatic cut in welfare payments, like the cut in child care allowances under Prime Minister Sharon (with Netanyahu as Finance Minister)?
(3) Do you see any cost to traditional Torah family structure from the assumption that the wife will be both the primary breadwinner and primary caregiver to very large families? Do you think most women are capable of sustaining both roles?
(4) Do you think the Gemara knew what it was talking about when it said that the primary source of marital strife is the lack of money? Do you see poverty having an impact on shalom bayis in the Torah community?
(5) What do you think happens to a eleven-year-old who is already struggling and falling behind in cheder when he asks his father what he is going to be when he grows up and his father tells him his only option is to be an avreich?
(6) Is there any point at which the communal cost in terms of drop-outs and broken families is too great to be sustained without being addressed at its core?

I have been asking many of these same questions (and others) myself and the answer is clear that kollel only is not the solution for everyone.

Must read article by Yonasan Rosenblum

2009-12-13T12:54:00.002+02:00

In response to the comment that I quoted here Different messages for different people, Yonasan Rosenblum wrote a long response, Kollel is Not Always Forever. He said things that I have not heard anyone in the Charedi world explicitly say.

...In a similar vein, the Chazon Ish is also widely reported to have said that two generations of full-time learning were necessary to rebuild from the ashes of Europe. Those two generations have now come and gone.

And if KollelGuy asks, so why no announcements in Yated Ne’eman, I suspect he already knows the answer, or should. Ori, a non-Orthodox Jew in Austin, Texas, knows it: The last thing the gedolei HaTorah want to do is destroy the striving for greatness in Torah learning that characterizes the Israeli chareidi community. And any such public announcement would be interpreted as a statement that everything we did, everything we have built over the last sixty years was a mistake. (I emphasized in “Living with Complexity” that just the opposite is the case.) In other words, it would lead to an overreaction more dangerous than the situation it sought to cure.
There is another reason that there will be no such public statements. Any such statement would be met with vicious attacks by the “kenaim,” who would say about the gadol in question precisely what KollelGuy asks me: Who are you? The Chazon Ish did not say what you are saying; Rav Shach did not say it.” Perhaps KollelGuy remembers the attacks on one of the Sages he mentions for his tacit support of Nahal Chareidi. (Even Rav Shach used to say that he was afraid of the stone-throwers.) One of the members of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of the United States told me recently that the gedolim cannot even discuss questions surrounding poverty because if they did the “street” would just label them fake gedolim.
...
especially when one remembers that there are no historical precedents for a Torah society built around the ideal of full-time learning for every man forever – an entire society of Rabi Shimon Bar Yochai’s. (The number of those learning full-time in Eretz Yisrael dwarfs by many times the numbers of those doing so in pre-war Europe.) The denigration of “working” that one sometimes hears in the Torah community in Eretz Yisrael has scant support in the Torah, and countless sources refuting it
...