My Opa’s Jarhzeit
by: Schvach Yid

Today, the 17^th of Elul, is my paternal Opa’s (grandfather’s) jahrzeit. He died in 1968 at the age of 77 years of a cerebral hemorrhage. It seems all the men in my paternal line of descent suffered strokes. Opa developed a thrombocytopenia, stroked, and that was that. Regrettably, it was also my bother’s birthday – oy!

My grandfather was a native of Bremerhaven, Germany, descended from Gd-knows how many generations of German Jews. He served in the German coastal artillery during the First World War, and was shipped off to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp the day following Kristallnacht (Nov 10, 1938), on the eve of the Second World War. Them Deutschen! Fortunately, their entry visas to America came through in just a few weeks, and Germany, being in a slightly more altruistic frame of mind toward its Jewish populace (their German citizenship had previously been revoked) allowed my father, uncle, and paternal grandparents to sail to America.

My Opa’s wife, my Oma, was also a native German, born in Steele bei Essen. She died in 1996, at the age of 103 years (unberufen!).

My paternal grandparents had two children, both sons; my father is the younger. His older brother, my one and only uncle, died in 1990 of metastatic lung cancer at the age of 69 years; he was a life-long cigarette smoker, beginning in his early teens.

My father, nebich, suffered the fate of is paternal inheritance; three years ago he suffered a stroke. His stroke was preceded by the onset of senility. Two years ago, at a moment of neglect by his caretaker, he fell to the ground, knocking his crown, and the three neurological insults – progressive senility, the stroke, and the closed head injury – have left my father significantly debilitated, both physically and mentally.

There is almost nothing my father utters that is coherent. Rarely he recognizes a family member and answers the person by name. Other than that, not much. He’s confined to a wheelchair, with the exception of very brief walks with the aid of a physical therapist or caretaker.

Well, the other day I visited my folks and stayed for dinner. My father ate his dinner with the assistance of my mother. In the middle of the meal, as my mother reached for another spoonful of food to deliver to my father’s mouth, he paused and began to sing Avinu Malkanu.

Mind you, he almost never attended schul, although he was far from areligious.

He must be aware of the time of year. Good Shabbos!

Upping the Ante
by: Schvach Yid

Not so long ago, Ynetnews.com carried a story that reported King Abdullah of Jordan has announced plans to obtain a nuclear capability for his kingdom (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3442222,00.html) the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (not to be found in any old Negro spiritual, I’ll have you know!). This, says the Jordanian king, is exclusively for ‘peaceful’ purposes, eg., desalination.

The ruse is obvious and the current Israeli leadership should learn the lesson well. When faced with intransigence, raise the stakes. Make your adversary pay. The King of Jordan knows this ploy of brinksmanship.

Israel’s great mistake following its victories in the ’67 War was to place the conquered ‘territories’ on lay-away for eventual reclaim by the Arabs. The Arabs knew, and know, this, so they proceeded to play ‘rope-a-dope’ games with Israel. And why not; after all, Israel offered the Arabs a freebee. Just what did the Israelis demand in return from the Arabs? Peace? ‘Be good and you can have your toy back’, Israel condescendingly chided the conquered Arabs. ‘When you learn how to behave yourself, you can come back into the house and have your dinner’. The Arabs aren’t children, and they aren’t playing games.

Not so long ago, the American TV chef and jockey of Epicurean pursuits, Anthony Bourdain, chose to commemorate Israel’s fiasco of August 2006 with a replay of his experiences in Lebanon during that event, where he had located himself and his crew for a TV shoot (no pun intended) just prior to the onset of military festivities. After having been ushered around warring Lebanon by Israelis (‘Mr. Wolf’, et. al.) he and others were scooped up by a detachment of rescuing US Marines (Halls of Tripoli – Lebanon – is a US Marine ‘thang’), Bourdain narrated a telling truism; he commented (quote approximate): ‘it was so nice to be spoken to as adults again’.

The condescensions of Israel’s foreign policies have been self destructive for the Jewish State. Once conquered in 1967, ‘the territiories’ should have been annexed into Israel proper. There is not, nor would there have been, a ‘Greater Israel’ (this rubric sounds like a fabrication of the fundamentalist Left). Israel should have built settlements galore, as well as a couple of cities. Nabalus and Ramallah should have been ‘moved’ to Jordan. Then and only then, when the Arabs had been informed in no uncertain terms that they really had lost, would they have had a reason to negotiate in earnest with Israel concerning ‘peace’.

The same held true for the ‘status’ of Jerusalem. That the prospect of the presence of Jews on the Temple Mount constitutes, for the Moslems, anathema should define for Israel, and for the rest of the non-Moslem world, the identity of the problem for the absence of peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. How and why can the presence of Jews on Har HaBayit antagonize Moslems, and how can the Moslems ever expect peace with Israel if they adhere to this. A Jewish religious presence as source of antagonism for the Moslems means that peace can never exist between Jew and Moslem. This being the case, why should the Jews – Israel – capitulate by self-negation? Why should Judaism concede to Islam?

This was mistake number two committed by Israel’s vision-limited leaders upon their military victories in 1967. The keys to the Temple Mount belong in Jewish hands. ‘But this will lead to violence’, the anti-Jewish Jews will proclaim. So what, let the Jew-hating Moslems pay.

Israel is now faced with the prospect of a redemption-ushering event. Israel may now be able to do t’shuva for its error of 1967. Ynetnews.com has posted another article at http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3443895,00.html, and this time a Sheik has given Israel the key. Complaint doesn’t work; demands do, as do more substantial measures. Rubber bullets are like banishment to one’s room. They just don’t count, and they don’t achieve anything other than to inform one’s adversary that the rubber bullet shooters don’t mean business. The Arab Moslems do.

Mr. Carter, Read This Wall
by: Schvach Yid

Last week CNN aired (cabled?) a 3 part series titled Gd’s Warriors. Former President of the United States James (Jimmy) Earl Carter was briefly interviewed and reference was made to his recent literary contribution to the world of Jew hatred, Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid (how dare he!). I haven’t read the book; I doubt I’ll ever bother to, but I’ve heard so many interviews in which he’s discussed his book that I feel like an expert.

Mr. Carter has made a positive reputation for himself, and deservedly so, for his efforts at international peace via his organization The Carter Center, as well as for his humanitarian work via his other organization The Jimmy Carter Work Project, affiliated with Habitats For Humanity International.

I thought his book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid was over and done with, but alas, CNN has resurrected it, so here I go.

Mr. Carter makes no secret of his religious faith, and has pursued a life as a Gd-fearing, Bible-believing person. He claims to have taught Christian Sunday school years ago. Perhaps having been born and bred in the briar patch of the American Bible Belt, Mr. Carter might recall a ditty from the Book of Deuteronomy (for us, Parshas Ki Tavo, for him Deut. 27:2): As soon as you have crossed the Jordan into the land that the Lord your Gd is giving you, you shall set up large stones, coat them with plaster and inscribe upon them all the words of this Teaching.

Yo, Jimmy! Israel, ie the Jews in Israel, are commanded to construct a physical wall between themselves and everyone else, display the writing of the Sefer Torah on that wall, and live according to its contents. It’s not apartheid Mr. Carter, it’s the Bible. Get it? It has nothing to do with the now extinct Berlin Wall.

More than a decade ago, when he was still a vital individual, Ariel Sharon came to the United States on a speaking tour. I had the good fortune of being in town when Mr. Sharon made a local appearance, and so I attended his talk. His knowledge of the English language did not serve him well on that occasion, but his message was, nonetheless, loud, clear, and appreciated by all in attendance. Ariel Sharon eventually left Israel’s Likud Party and founded Kadima, which instituted the construction of the partition wall (so lambasted by Mr. Carter) between Israel and the marauding Jew-murdering Arab Palestinians (who are so lauded by Mr. Carter). I can’t quote statistics, but I believe this wall, implemented by Kadima but commanded by HaShem in the Chumash (but perhaps not in its current location – maybe a bit farther East), has resulted in a drastic reduction in Arab homicidal bombings against the Jews of Israel.

Perhaps I’ve trespassed upon turf about which I’m not qualified to comment, but it seems to me that former President Carter’s remarks about Israel and the Palestinian Arabs are a bit uncalled for. You know, he’s wrong!

Good Shabbos
by: Schvach Yid

Arutz Sheva, the Israel National News service web site and radio source, has reported (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/132193) that the IDF held a workshop for some of its commanders this past week to prepare for, among other scenarios, the possible overthrow/demise of the Hashemite Dynasty of Jordan, placed into power by Britain during the 1920’s as the sovereign rulers of the then British-established (concocted) Kingdom of Trans Jordan, since renamed the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Should this occur, be’ezrat HaShem, the Palestinian Arabs will ‘at last’ have and enjoy(?) their own homeland. Needless to say, this would neither abate in the least their rabid campaign against the Jewish State, nor slake the assertions of their masters in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, and elsewhere (I wonder what England and Russia would contribute to this new construct of Middle Eastern horse jockeying – King Abdullah would then certainly have lost his bet, but undoubtedly not his credit standing in Monte Carlo). Poor King Abdullah. Life for him in Paris or Monaco would be such a bore. What a lovely prospect, and what a wonderful note on which to usher in Queen Shabbos.

One last note. A mere 10 days ago (I've never claimed to be current) YoYenta.com announced in her blog the posting of this year’s Jewels of Elul III (http://www.jewelsofelul.com/) , established by Craig Taubman, and featuring an aphorism a day for the entire month of Elul, to aid us in our introspective preparation for the Chagim. She was honored with the posting for 1 Elul, and her posting is class A - the Yenta certainly deserves to have initiated this year’s contributions to the site. Have a read, you’ll like it.

Good Shabbos.

America Foist
by: Schvach Yid

It has occurred to me that Ehud Olmert isn’t his own boss, nor for that matter is Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, nor was Menachem Begin, nor is any other dependent of my country, the USA. It has occurred to me that where our State Department’s policies are concerned, the marionettes dance aplenty. This is good for my country, America; it’s not so hot (oh yes it is!) for the recipient country of America’s foreign aid, supportive influence, and non-belligerence.

It’s not about altruism and never has been. Some countries are able to make it worth their whiles (wiles?). England, for instance; Saudi Arabia and China; Jordan. Others are more vulnerable and have few or no options. Israel qualifies for this second category.

Face it, dependency stinks, especially when the needs of the dependent are at odds with the insistencies of the provider. That which rules the American social/political scene not only is in opposition to the needs of Israel, it’s overtly injurious to the maintenance and existence of the Jewish State.

Anyone who works for a living, ie., goes into the American workplace every day, who enters the American marketplace, who watches and pays attention to the major American cable TV news channels knows what’s going on. This demand for Israel’s compliance with American social/political priorities passes the buck to a country for which such demands are ruinous. Foisting America’s social needs onto the Jewish State has to result in the termination of the Jewish State, since a single identity nationhood, based on a religious identity, is anathema to America’s national anthem, and to America’s laws - the US Constitution.

Israel’s Constitution is the Hebrew Bible – Tanach. Israel’s accession to demands for its abandonment of the Jewish way – Judaism – in favor of an artificial construct of people at loggerheads ‘getting along’ ain’t a solution for Israel, simply because no one wants to get along with Jewish Israel. Everyone wants to replace/obsolesce/destroy/ Israel.

This is the plaque of hatred – of being the object and subject of hate, and the demands of other interests that lie outside Israel and Judaism offer the antithesis of a Jewish State that will live in peace.

The demands stipulated by detractors and opponents snowball quickly. We’ve seen this with the Palestinians: first, the release of prisoners (terrorist murderers of Jews); then, once accomplished, additional and varied demands: land, a return to the pre-1967 borders, demands for military training (disclosure of Israel’s military strategies and tactics), money, even the Dead Sea Scrolls. It doesn’t end until the enemy – Israel – is gone. Ally to this the demands made by Israel’s only ‘friend’ and benefactor in the world – demands for social structuring that will ensure the eradication of Jewish Israel, and the future of Israel is bleak indeed.

Zachor!
By: Schvach Yid

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We all know the old quip attributed to perhaps the greatest of all Jewish heroes, Albert Einstein (just kidding folks): ‘Gd doesn’t play dice with the universe’, and in an ‘einsteinian’ have-to-be sort of way, it seems that the political leadership of Israel should stop gambling with the prospect of Israel’s future existence.

Haveil Havalim, hosted this week by Soccer Dad , has provided links to Israel Matzav and YID With LID, both of whom have posted blogs about Ehud Olmert’s newest piece of brilliance – supposedly he’s considering relinquishing authority of the Temple Mount to the Palestinian Authority (I thought the PA/Jordan were given possession of Har HaBayit five minutes or so after the IDF chased the Jordanians off the Mount in ’67). What some people will do for a photo op with President Bush and Secretary of State Rice. Of course, many Israelis undoubtedly schmerchl from ear to ear upon seeing their PM on TV in the company of Bush and Rice, and at no small price. After all, prestige rules, and down the pike – the Palestinian ‘right of return’.

Under Yasser Arafat it was the ‘return’ of the Dead Sea Scrolls – I thought that was chutzpadik, but Jewish surrender of Har HaBayit, which occurred decades ago, is intolerable. So too is the surrender of Hevron, the cave of Machpalah, Yesha.

Olmert has good company in Rabbi David Rosen of the American Jewish Congress, who appeared on the PBS production Three Faiths, One Gd, where Rabbi Rosen declared that Islam is the final recipient of Gd’s last revelation. I thought that people who accept Islam’s claim of revelation are Moslem.

Here’s a blast from the past, a photo of Ariel Sharon in 1967 as a Major General in the IDF laying tefillin at the Kotel upon the IDF’s victory in re-establishing Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem (well, not quite all of Jerusalem). His schmerchl may be an expression of joy, or it may instead suggest that laying tefillin was a somewhat unique experience for one of Israel’s future Prime Ministers (no LH intended). No matter. The sages of the Talmud teach us that a person who wears tefillin even only once in his life is assured a place in the World to Come (Olam Habah).

Ariel Sharon went on to other feats in his life, one of which was the founding of Israel’s Kadima Party in 2005. He then served as his party’s first PM until his devastating stroke in 2006. He was replaced by Ehud Olmert (does he daven with tefillin each morning?). The new President of Israel is Shimon Peres. Boy, this is old.

So what’s the point? Rabbi Nathan Lopes has written an open letter to Shimon Peres on the on-line edition of Arutz Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/7337 encouraging him to serve by example, and that the needed example is Judaism. Bravo! Not politics, not kitch, not me-too prestige chasing, not surrender to the demands of foreign powers, and not capitulation to the Jew haters. The answer to Israel’s melancholy is in its (our) religion. No kidding! Israel means Jewish, and Jewish means Torah. It’s not an option – just look what’s happened to Jews as conformists and placation artists. The big news is that Jews without Judaism are miserable.

If you don’t want to listen (read) to a rabbi, just read Dennis Prager’s columns in Moment Magazine, in the current Aug/Sept issue and in the April 2006 issue. As far as I know he’s not frum, but grew up attending yeshiva. He’ll tell you all about the worth of being Jewish, and it’s based on Torah. His columns can be accessed free on line at the Moment Magazine website.

So what’s the problem? Simple. The Israeli voters vote for their national leadership, and their leadership isn’t ‘into’ Judaism. The Jewish Homeland is about living Jewishly in the only Jewish environment on planet Earth. Living Jewishly doesn’t mean locking oneself away with a minyan in a basement in Brooklyn to the exclusion of non-Jews. It means living lives of Torah and mitzvot in a place where living this life is normative and self governed, rather than in a place where it is merely tolerated. Without this, the Jewish people have nothing, and that’s exactly where Israel is headed. We’re barreling headlong into Jewish oblivion chutz le’aretz (out of the Land of Israel), and now it has arrived in Israel.

My unqualified opinion of Israel’s political and social tzuris is that Israel is in the midst of a giant crap-shoot and doesn’t realize it. Their leadership, elected into office by the Israel’s Jewish electorate, has ‘lost its way’. The compass, of course, is Torah, not international competition, emulation, and surrender.

Another Death in the Family
by: Schvach Yid

Thanks to the New York Jewish Week, to which I have a print subscription (rather than an on-line subscription, and I hate newspapers – go figa), I’ve just learned (yesterday) of the death of Raul Hilberg on August 4, 2007, at the age of 81.

Dr. Hilberg was renowned for his study and analysis of the Holocaust in his famous 2 volume work The Destruction of the European Jews (1961), which was followed by a 1 volume student

paperback edition. He appeared as an analyst and commentator in Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah, which aired in the US on PBS in 1987.

Viewing his interviews on that TV series (actually a film divided into segments for TV broadcast) I took an instant liking to Prof. Hilberg’s style. It wasn’t until a later date that I learned he was a native of Vienna, like my mother. Evidently, some sort of personality vibe courses along with the TV broadcast signals between the Jewish Viennese and their immediate descendents.

Prof. Hilberg was a graduate of Lincoln High School (Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY), and Brooklyn College. He received a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

May his memory be for a blessing.

Shabbat Shalom
from Schvach Yid

To all the ‘queens of Judaism’, I offer flowers for Shabbat.

It’s an Israeli custom I learned when I visited the Jewish Homeland back in the mid-‘80’s. I hope it’s still in practice; if not, then it should be. Good Shabbos.

Hell On Earth
by: Schvach Yid

For all my fellow Jews who believe Buddhism, and its progenitor Hinduism, are religious faiths of peace, love, understanding, self-fulfillment, enlightenment, illumination, self-actualization (a term given to us by Abraham Maslow), and everything else that is about self-discovery and self-improvement, I offer this blast from the past. Contrary to the ways of salesmanship, mass media marketing, and hype, the truth ‘will out’ (Chaucer – sorry!).

Back in the days when Vietnam was a key name in upcoming American political concerns – second only to The Soviet Union, but not yet America’s number 1 political ‘challenge’ (as was the USSR) – American TV viewers were treated to this on-screen view. It killed the TV commercials of the day.

This piece of social/political protest schtick passed quickly from the American public view, but established in the American mind a picture of the then up and coming Vietnam (then two countries – North and South) as a place where ‘I’ would rather not be. This photo didn’t belong on a travel brochure, but it did make it onto a page of Life magazine, which back then was ‘numero uno’ among weekly picture mags. Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish film director and writer who passed away just a couple of weeks ago in July, found this televised drama sufficiently convincing that he included this scene in one of his movies (I don’t recall which one), as the actress Liv Ullman watched in horror as her character viewed it on TV.

And just a few years later, Eastern religions became all the rage. And guess who jumped onto the bandwagon like crazy. Yup, Jews - teenagers and young adults. They should have probed a bit further.

Self immolation is okay in a Wagnerian opera - but in real life?

The burning gentleman’s name was Thich Quang Duc. He was a monk, folks, an acolyte. Do you know what that means? An underling, a subordinate – disposable. He wasn’t a priest, and he certainly wasn’t the head (roshi?) of a Buddhist temple. He wasn’t big and powerful and full of authority. If you want to read a fictional account about those, just read Yukio Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, or take a job with my former place of employment – you’ll meet some of them there. You can also read Roger Kaminetz’s The Jew in the Lotus, but you’ll have to be alert, for it’s only the very rarest of lines in that book that hints at some of the ‘realities’ of Buddhist life.

If my memory serves me well, and it rarely does, this human candle-for-protest at first sat very still, and then slightly ‘lost it’ – he fell sideways, righted himself again - and then collapsed. And no napalm was used. We Americans used that stuff to similar effect a little later on, in the same place.

I wish all my fellow Yiddin who dabble in various Eastern religious pastimes, and who sing their praises, would consider the flip side of Buddhism. It ain’t pleasant. A woman who splatters boiling oil onto her face for the purpose of obviating the desirous advances of hungry men, in her attempt to attain super-human spiritual status, has in fact chosen the wrong ‘path’ in life.

It goes way beyond silly - it’s self abusive. It’s the emotional/spiritual analog of tattooing one’s skin. It isn’t the smart thing to do. And it’s a lousy paradigm for emulation.

May Thich Quang Duc rest in peace. He should have attended yeshiva instead.

Here’s the piece from Wikipedia:

Thich Quang Duc, 1963
Thích Quảng Ðức photographed during his self-immolation. The photographer Malcolm W. Browne won the 1963 World Press Photo of the Year for this image.^[1] Another reporter that witnessed the event, David Halberstam, remembers "As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound".

When It’s Your Conscience That Comes Knocking
by: Schvach Yid

Tamar Yonah, a contributing blogger to Arutz Sheva, has posted a doozy at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/3#2258, titled I Had A Dream.
Perhaps the current leadership of Israel should note the progression of the graphics displayed in this piece - I doubt they ever bother to take the time to read.

In the mid 1980’s I spent a lengthy period of time on a kibbutz – a member of the TAKAM kibbutz movement - a kibbutz movement that's secular and non- communist. Present on the kibbutz was a small group of non-Israelis who were affiliated with the Conservative Movement of Judaism; basically, they were pariahs among the non-Dati (non-religious) kibbutz members. Basically, in Israel, plenty of the non-religious Jews hate the frumies. These Conservative Movement Yiddin were no where close to frum, and basically, they weren’t wanted just the same. The Christian kibbutz volunteers from Europe were pretty-much ‘in’ on that kibbutz – the kibbutz men got to ‘schtup’ the volunteer women, and so all went well with that community. The situation for the semi-religious Jews from abroad was entirely different.

The number one lesson I learned in Israel concerned domestic politics: the non-religious despise the datim. It’s an odd lesson to be learned by a Jew who traveled to the Jewish State of Israel – the ‘Holy Land’. The rules of group dynamics combined with Israel’s public relations propaganda had me hooked on Jewish brotherhood, and mutual support and love based on our common Jewish identity – having had the shit kicked out of us during the 2^nd World War.

Well, in Israel, it seems, (well actually, it’s overtly stated by enough Israelis) this kind of Jew or that kind of Jew is responsible for this or that. So the embittered Holocaust survivors had it out for those who hadn’t paid their price for Jewish existence and the establishment of the Jewish State. The non-religious weren’t coy in the least for blaming all of Jewish experience during our millennia-long sojourn on the Jewishly religious. They were not to be emulated; they were not to serve as the paradigm for Jewish existence in Herzl’s version of Brave New World - Der Altneuland (sorry Aldous). Don’t you know, in a sick introvertedly directed reversal of Jew hatred, there appears a pathological distain for frum Yiddin levied by a not so small proportion of non-religious Israelis. Go figa!

The Jew who hates his fellow Jew for being ‘too Jewish’ needs to have his/her head examined.

Ehud Olmert and company need to make clinical appointments – pronto. On their current tack, not too much time remains for them to reverse course and avoid another Jewish catastrophe – no Ehud, not a religiously frum Israel – that’s not a catastrophe. Far from a catastrophe, frumkeit is the way Israeli life should be. Among the comments I heard in Israel about the Datim was that they’re ‘crazy’. I think any Jew who thinks about Jewish commitment in this way is the crazy one. Regrettably, this seems to be the opinion of Ehud Olmert and his pals.

Perhaps Olmert’s wish may come true. When US Secretary of State Rice finally realizes her dream of becoming the manager of a professional football team (American football), Olmert may obtain a new position of self-perceived importance for himself here in America. Waterboy sounds about right. Cheerleader might be even better, but I think he lacks the required physical attributes for this position.

When a Jewish government sets its Jewish military against its Jewish populace, then crazy has been achieved, and that Jewish government needs therapy.

Photo credit: Arutz Sheva

The Flip Side of Reactionary Judaism
by: Schvach Yid

Thanks to the YoYenta.com blog site, I’ve been introduced to David Suissa’s article for Jewish Journal.com titled Dumbing Down Judaism at: http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=17984

I would have left a comment to this post, but to do so one must open a login account (or whatever it’s called), and that’s far beyond my ability. Besides, signing on implies some sort of membership, and that’s absolutely not for me – I hate group dynamics, in any form. I flunked it repeatedly in school, on the job, in the Boy Scouts - you name it. So, in lieu of savvy, I’ll comment here.

Of all the points made in this article, the one that hit home the hardest is about the cost of a Jewish education. The old quip states ‘it’s expensive to be Jewish’ (a play on ‘it’s hard to be a Jew’). No kidding – a frozen kosher chicken is over seven bucks; only Jahrzeit candles are affordable. Jewish philanthropists should indeed throw their money into providing every Jewish child (whose parents so wish) a quality Jewish education, with a strong emphasis on reading and translation of the siddur and Chumash. Without this all important component of a Jewish education, there can be no Judaism.

So what happened? We all know – the Holocaust, and our reaction to our resulting humiliation.
That’s right Jadies and Jents, if you’re just a wee bit perplexed about today’s state of the Jewish mentality, it’s called humiliation. The State of Israel, in its focus on social engineering, has reacted to this defining event of modern Jewish history in ways that have been destructive to that all important goal of the modern Jewish social thinker – Jewish continuity. You know, let’s make it meaningful; how do we adapt Traditional Judaism to the demands of life in the modern world; how can one make this archaic ‘stuff’ meaningful?

Oops – you lose. This approach has demonstrated itself to have been the wrong tack, for what we now have as a Jewish community is nothing of the sort. Like it or not, Judaism is the ‘old stuff’ – the stuff the Israelis rebuke as weak, impotent – the ‘stuff’ of losers. Throw it away, along with its accoutrements – Yiddish, davening, living lives of Torah and mitzvoth, and the old bearded men begging for handouts who never should have had to. Living a Jewish life should never consign its follower to poverty, not BHS (before HaShoah) and not now.

There’re plenty of worthy projects for Jewish philanthropy, and none should include ostentation. Soto Voce is an Italian virtue, and certainly not something we developed in the shtetls. We don’t need large lavish synagogues and halls for our religious functions. These have been surrogates for the real components of Jewish life. My apologies to the ‘sub-Orthodox’ movements of Judaism; you know, the Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Humanistic, and what ever else we’ve dreamed up. Their emphasis has been entirely wrong, for these alternatives to Judaism offer substitutes, not the real thing, and the longer they’ve been at it, the farther they’ve strayed.

By the way, since when is Judaism supposed to be ‘challenging’? I haven’t found that in the Chumash. ‘Challenging’ is not a substitute for Talmud, and no one has to be a ‘Talmud chochom’ – pilpul – to have learned Talmud and live a Jewish life. The Ba’al Shem Tov didn’t teach Judaism as a challenge or as a platform from which to chase ‘Jewish issues’, he taught his followers to become enwrapped in it – the joy and pleasure of living Jewishly, of davening with devikut (connection to Gd). Those who attend a ‘sub-Orthodox’ synagogue/temple should remember this the next time they go to ‘services’ and begin their version of avoda with Eastern-style meditation. Foy, have they missed the boat!

It’s all here folks. It’s a pity we’ve walked away from it, and now we’re paying the heftiest of prices. So to the Jewish philanthropist I say spend your money on Jewish education, not on Jewish buildings. Don’t give your gelt to Jewish universities, and certainly not to the cash- grubbing health care field. No more Jewish names on the sides of hospitals and biomedical research institutions. If you want your names on display, buy garish tombstones for yourselves. Your cash should educate Jews of all ages in traditional Judaism, without the ‘challenging’ social bs. The world Jewish community will be much improved, and stronger, as a result of your generosity.

One last point. I think Yo Yenta is right when she suggests that philanthropists, and others, should concentrate efforts on Jews who are in Judaism rather than chasing those who have chosen to reject it. Many, many Jews have opted out of Judaism - they see no value in it. Lot's of comments have been made to me by disaffected Jews against our religion and community. So be it!

More on The Queen of Judaism
by: Schvach Yid

Who can say enough good things about the role of the Jewish woman? Here is a ditty I’ve just come across from Malka Trouger of Chabad Lubavitch, originally published in Sichos in English. The URL is here:

http://www.sichosinenglish.org/books/partner-in-the-dynamic-of-creation/12.htm

Become enlightened!

A Partner In The Dynamic Of Creation
Womanhood in the Teachings of
the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson

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A Lifetime Renewed - Descent for the Sake of Ascent

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by Malka Touger

Published and copyright © by Sichos In English
(718) 778-5436 • info@SichosInEnglish.org • FAX (718) 735-4139

The [1] Biblical simile, [2] "As a rose among the thorns," refers to the soul as it descends into this material world; on a larger scale, it also refers to the existence of the Jewish people within exile.

For both the soul and the Jewish people, this involves a formidable descent, a descent fraught with danger.

At times, the path of life appears to be obstructed by brambles: events sometimes occur which our limited human intellect cannot comprehend.

Paradoxically, however, it is through this very process of descent that both the soul and the Jewish people as a whole ultimately climb to their most complete level of perfection.

This is not to imply, heaven forbid, that the world is in itself evil.

Quite the contrary: [3] "I have come into My garden" is a metaphor that describes the return of the Divine Presence to this world.

This indicates that the world is G-d's own garden, a place which grants Him pleasure and satisfaction.

Though we are often unable to perceive this positive quality, the Jewish people have been charged with a task and a mission:

Holding aloft [4] "the lamp of a mitzvah and the light of the Torah," they illuminate the world and reveal the good which is concealed within it.

Women as Luminaries

In particular, this quality is manifest in those mitzvos that are associated with producing actual light; for example, the kindling of Shabbos candles.

The visible light which they generate reflects how every mitzvah, and in a wider sense, every positive activity a Jew undertakes, brightens the G-dly light within the world.

The mitzvah of lighting the Shabbos candles has been entrusted to Jewish women; [5] it is they who draw G-dly light into every Jewish home, and suffuse it with the inimitable Shabbos atmosphere of tranquil joy and spiritual enlightenment.

On a cosmic scale, the world has been described as G-d's dwelling [6] - His home, as it were, and the Jewish people have been described as His bride. [7]

Developing these analogies: Just as the Shabbos candles are lit before the actual commencement of the Shabbos, our present performance of mitzvos in exile kindles the light that will illuminate the world in [8] "the Day which is entirely Shabbos, and repose for life everlasting" - the Era of the Redemption.

This connection also highlights the role of Jewish women, for the prophecies associated with that age [9] point out the superior qualities which Jewish women possess.

Eternal Life in this World

The eternality which will characterize the Era of the Redemption is likewise reflected in every individual Jewish soul.

This applies not only to the soul as it exists in the spiritual realms, where it enjoys eternal life in the radiance of the Divine Presence, [10] but also to the time it spends in our physical world.

In this spirit, our Sages state in regard to the Patriarch Jacob, [11] "Our father Yaakov did not die: just as his descendants are alive, so too is He alive."

The same is true of each of Yaakov Avinu's descendants, the Jewish men and women of all subsequent generations.

When a person's children continue the positive activities which characterized his own lifetime, then even after that person's passing, he or she is still alive. For that life has activated a dynamic which continues to produce positive changes in the world in the generations to come. And there is also a reciprocal effect: the positive activities performed by one's children can compensate for any time by which a person's life may have been cut short.

Even when a mother is now in the World of Truth, the daughters whom she brought up, and her sons likewise, can replenish the divine service which is now lacking, and which ordinarily would have been completed by her. [12]

The Pinnacle of Our National History

The eternality of the Jewish soul within the context of our material world will be fully expressed in the Era of the Redemption, when the souls of all the Jews of all generations will be resurrected. [13]

Here too the analogy of a wedding can be used to describe the unification of the body and the soul.

The ultimate Redemption of our people and of the world at large is not a remote promise.

On the contrary, the Jews of our generation have been granted complete atonement and are now at the highest pinnacle ever of our national history. All the divine service necessary to bring about the Redemption has been completed. All that is needed is that we open our eyes and perceive that the Redemption is indeed a reality.

Our Sages state [14] that the tzadikkim of all past generations will arise in the early stages of the Redemption, before the resurrection of our people as a whole.

Surely, this applies to the Previous Rebbe, the leader of our generation. He never perceived himself as a private individual and dedicated himself totally to the welfare of his people. [15]

It can thus be readily understood that he will share this privilege too (just as throughout his lifetime he always shared his insights) with all the members of his generation, [16] particularly with those who dedicated themselves to disseminating his teachings and furthering the outreach activity which he inspired.

And when that time comes, we will all proceed together - to Eretz Yisrael, to Jerusalem, and to the Beis HaMikdash, where the Kohanim will offer sacrifices celebrating [17] "our redemption and the deliverance of our souls."

Notes:

1. (Back to text) The above essay first appeared after the farbrengen of Shabbos Parshas Bo, 5752 [1992], which took place four days before Yud Shvat - the anniversary of the passing in 5710 [1950] of the Rebbe Rayatz, the saintly Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn.

On this occasion, the Rebbe spoke of the ultimate purpose for which souls descend to this world, which is one of the dominant themes of the Previous Rebbe's farewell maamar, entitled Basi LeGani (English translation: Kehot; N.Y., 1990), and related it in particular to the souls of women.

2. (Back to text) Shir HaShirim 2:2, and commentaries there.

3. (Back to text) Op. cit. 5:1. This verse is the subject of the above-mentioned maamar entitled Basi LeGani.

4. (Back to text) Mishlei 6:23. On the analogy of a lamp for mitzvos, see footnote 19 to the above essay entitled, "A Partner in the Dynamic of Creation."

5. (Back to text) Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Shabbos 5:3; the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch 263:5.

6. (Back to text) Midrash Tanchuma, Parshas Naso, sec. 7; Tanya, chs. 33,

36. (Back to text)

7. (Back to text) E.g., Yeshayahu 62:5.

8. (Back to text) Tamid 7:4.

9. (Back to text) Cf. Yirmeyahu 31:21, as interpreted in the teachings of Chassidus.

10. (Back to text) Cf. Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Teshuvah, ch. 8.

11. (Back to text) Taanis 5b.

12. (Back to text) In addition to the above explicit statement, this farbrengen included a mystical exposition of a liturgical phrase in which the people of Israel are referred to poetically as a rose, and a mention of the fact that the Sages extol the Kohanim for the vigor with which they traditionally carry out their priestly duties.

Though personal allusions of this kind are not common, these phrases collectively were an apparent reference to Rebbitzin Reizel (Rose) Gutnick, the wife of a Kohen and the mother of a family of Kohanim - an exemplary chassidic wife and mother who lost her life in a traffic accident two days before the above address. (Publisher's Note.)

13. (Back to text) Cf. Sanhedrin 10:1.

14. (Back to text) Zohar I, 140a.

15. (Back to text) This concept was once expressed by his daughter, the

Rebbitzin Chayah Mushka, of blessed memory, in these words: "Not only the Rebbe's library, but also the Rebbe himself belongs to the chassidim."

16. (Back to text) Ch. 11 of Basi LeGani describes a king confronted by a formidable and ultimate battle. In order to secure victory he will even distribute the "hidden and sealed treasures,... the precious resources that have been accumulated over the generations," to his rank-and-file soldiers.

The Rebbe has commented that these words aptly describe the activities of their author, the Previous Rebbe.

He fought fiercely to overcome the challenges brought about by the darkness of galus. He risked (and sacrificed) his own life and revealed the ancient treasures of the kingdom - the deepest secrets of the Torah.

These were then entrusted to the rank-and-file soldiers; i.e., they were expressed in a manner that could be understood and appreciated by all.

17. (Back to text) From the Haggadah of Pesach.

Yerida L’Shem Aliyah

by: Schvach Yid

According to the Miami New Times, Rabbi Levi Brackman’s blog, and the Life of Rubin blog, Chassidic Reggae chief Matisyahu has blown off Chabad Lubavitch – but not frumkeit – because he supposedly doesn’t want to feel ‘boxed in’. Face it, he evidently loves his fellow Jews; you know, ahavas yisroel. It’s a standard Lubavitch teaching found throughout the written teachings of the Alter Rebbe Schneur Zalman zt’l and his Chabad disciples. Plenty of this teaching is encountered in the Friedike Rebbe’s (Rav Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson) tome HaYom Yom (Daily Sayings). The report also states Matisyahu claims to enjoy kicking back with a bit of wine (kosher?; mevoshal? – these reports don’t specify).

Not that I’m such a chochom, but I’ll cut the guy a little slack. Who am I to judge? But he’s probably OK compared to others, such as Bob Dylan, who left Judaism altogether, became a ‘born again Christian’, only to return to Judaism and become somewhat of a follower of the Lubavitcher Rebbe to the extent that he would stand on line to receive a dollar from the Rebbe. Singer/poet Leonard Cohen left Judaism and so far has chosen to stay out (see his recently published collection of original poems Book of Longing - not for the derech hatznius - in which he laments his chosen loss).

Gd forbid any of these three should go the path of Madonna!

Not so fast, not so fast - Matisyahu is not gone. In the world of the Ba’alei T’shuva there exists the well recognized phenomenon of yerida l’shem aliyah – descent for the sake of assent (also called yerida l'tzorech aliyah). Don’t worry so much.

Why Judaism is Important
by: Schvach Yid

The next time someone – anyone – does a dentist's routine on your cerebrum concerning Israel, ‘the Jews’ (get it?), and the Palestinians, just remember this photo, return his/her wind, and walk away. I assume this photo is the real thing, although it appears to have been cleaned up a bit – notice the missing body part. We don't do this sort of thing to anyone, for any reason. It's not due to education or wealth - it's due to moral and ethical values. We know what's right and what's wrong.

Photo credit: Tzvi Fishman, Arutz Sheva

The Peacock Speaks
by: Schvach Yid

Last night (July 24, 2007), NBC TV news had a curious item. According to their report, it seems that Church attendance by Christian men is a little down, so much so that one clergyman has organized a ‘guy’ religious meeting (on Sundays, I guess), complete with rock band and pizza. Another Christians’ male religious group was shown cutting and collecting bramble in the bush – as a religious function.

I had to laugh. I thought of schul, most of which is a ‘guy thing’. If you’ve read my earlier blog The Queen of Judaism (May 27, 2007), then you get my point. Ten men make a minyan (try to get one together outside B’nai Brak).

My 'Bible Belt'-located neighbors are the sort who were reported in this news piece. The guys aren’t into church. They like their guns, and their pickup trucks; they like sports and beer and smoking. They like Harley’s. And they don’t like me.

They also like to fantasize about attractive women because their wives pretty much look just like their husbands, except of course, for the slightly longer hair. Almost all, male and female, are obese.

But the non-religious ploys attempted by Church clergymen to bring the men into the fold is humorous when compared to the enthusiastic practices of the adherents to Jewish Orthodoxy.

That’s all folks.

The Perils of Free Association
by: Schvach Yid

I can’t drop names – too many bloggers are getting sued for posting their minds (does this sound like a parody of Dylan?). But I can unload about my peculiar sense of free association.

So there I was, surfing the J web, and I picked up a link from the comments section of an extraordinarily popular J blog site. The link connected to the blog site of a young woman, a Jady of the world – well, at least of 4 cities on 3 continents, or so she advertises. She uses her blog to describe her international jaunts (no, not Jewish haunts!) and her attraction to what sounds like an ever-increasing level of Jewish observance. Hazak! Good for her. She’s even searching for a shomer Shabbos shidduch.

Why mention? Because, as I read her blogs my mind wandered (when doesn’t it?). I began to have images of Reese Witherspoon’s portrayal of the character Elle Woods in the flick Legally Blonde.

Elle Woods is at first portrayed as a frivolous, light-hearted, not-altogether-bright sorority girl who in the end graduates from Harvard Law School and is offered employment at a class A law firm in Boston. Not bad – I should only achieve such things! Frivolous ‘air-head’ thus develops into significant substance, and all in the context of a love story.

But after concluding my first reading of this new (for me) blog site, I took stock of the probable significance of this Jewish freelance on-line hobby-writer. She lives and flies all over the place, and that costs, so either she has a rich daddy (oy!), or a rich sugar daddy (oy vavoy!), or, I hope, she’s independently successful. I’ll pick the last case – after all, she portrays herself as a career woman and she's entitled. And boy, does she manage to get around.

So first impressions may count, but further and kinder considerations are more important. And I hope she ‘goes frum’, finds her Shabbos observant shidduch, and has lots of Jewishly committed kinderloch. As a Lubavitch rabbi (no, not the Lubavitcher Rebbe) once said to me: ‘every Jew is precious’, so the more imbued with Yiddishkeit she becomes, the better.

Post-Trauma Blues
by: Schvach Yid

Thank Gd for haircuts!

Now then, now that Tisha B’Av has ended, I hope your fast was not easy – it’s not supposed to be (I only fast on Yom Kippur). The Shabbatot of chastisement, followed by Tisha B’Av and then the 7 Shabbatot of conciliation mimic a parent/child event: first the parent’s anger, then the malchus (beating), and then the post-event consolation. But the 7 Shabbotot of compassion

that follow Tisha B’Av are in turn followed by the Day of Judgement (Yom HaDin) – also called the Day of Remembrance (Yom HaZicharon), ie, Rosh HaShana – which is quickly followed by Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement (actually the Day of lot).

The closing of Tammuz through the first 10 days of Tishrei is painful; thankfully, this period is quickly followed by Succos, and Simchas Torah, and then by Chanukah, Purim, Pesach, and Shavuos - all are commemorations and observances of joy. Baruch HaShem, most of the Jewish calendar is filled with Torah observances of happiness; but for perhaps one quarter of the year we ‘catch it’. We really must remember – it’s required.

Not so long ago I downloaded a piece of freeware. Attached, and unsolicited by me, appeared a file titled Evil and Suffering, - a ditty on Isaiah 45:7 - ‘I make peace and create evil’. This piece harps on how a ‘good and loving Gd’ could have possibly created evil. It’s an old philosophical debate to which I won’t attempt a contribution – I’m not qualified. But ‘once upon a time’ there lived a rabbi named Aryeh Kaplan (may he rest in peace) who was fond of pointing out this bit from Isaiah.

Rabbi Kaplan was a prodigious translator of Kabbalistic texts (Sefer Bahir, Sefer Yetzirah, works by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (the Ramchal), works of Reb Nachman of Breslov), and authored his own original works, some of which center on the connection of Judaism and meditation (Jewish Meditation – A Practical Guide, The Bible and Meditation, Meditation and Kabbalah). He died in 1984 at the age of 48.

Through the course of the Jewish year we oscillate in a sense, or better yet, we get flipped. First it’s sunshine – very nice; then it’s sunburn – oy! Not to worry about evil; it’s all about how we conduct and comport ourselves, or as we are taught in Pirkei Avos – a chapter of which is read every Shabbos afternoon after Mincha at this time of year – ‘good deeds must exceed one’s wisdom’ (quote is approximate).

Evil, of course, is not necessarily the issue. Throughout the Chumash we are told that HaShem has attributes that mirror human emotions and function. His 13 Attributes list His various components of Chesed, but there’s much more. He judges, He kills, He brings plagues and famine. He takes revenge (it belongs exclusively to HaShem – just read Mishle). Sometimes it seems that HaShem’s revenge appears personal and petty, but with hefty results, as in ‘you’ll eat meat until it disgusts you; until it comes out of your nostrils’ (quote approximate).

The point is that accountability is the issue, not ‘evil’. Beyond love and compassion and miracles and forgiveness there’s our accountability, as individuals and as a Nation.