R' Tropper - Kiruv vs Geirus/ RaP's analysis

Guest Post by Recipients and Publicity: See previous posting on Rabbi Tropper

Kiruv process versus Geirus process: Source of Rabbi Tropper's dissonance.

Plony Almony 18 [makes some excellent and valid points that deserve more attention because they point to a huge dichotomy that lies beneath two huge and inter-related subjects: KIRUV and GEIRUS.

Kiruv and Geirus are as different as chalk and cheese. Making a yid become frum is not the same thing as being megayer a goy. Many (even kiruv rabbis) make a huge error in logic and metzius ("reality" and "fact") by thinking that there is a similarity between kiruv and geirus and they assume the same methods and tools of kiruv should and can be used for geirus. Only up to a point.

But what to do when confronted with interfaith couples where the Jewish one needs kiruv and the non-Jew needs conversion? This is not an easy quandary for all concerned but at rock bottom, regardless of what the interfaith couples are told or imagine, the gentile is NOT a "tinok shenishba" and has NO neshama while the Jew has a 100% holy neshama, which the converting gentile presumably desires. While male Jew can count for a minyan as would the greatest gadol on Earth, as would a 100% Halachically Jewish mother (even if she was anti-religious) give birth to a 100% Jew, on the other hand a goy MUST be excluded from a minyan. These are facts life and Jewish Law.

I have touched on some pertinent deeper issues in the posts that Dr. Eidensohn/da'as torah had kindly posted at http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2008/07/kiruv-end-of-kiruv-as-we-know-it.html

That:

"...the real wars are among the Orthodox themselves, manifested more than anywhere else in each faction's attititude to geirus/conversion and its sister-ship kiruv/outreach, because as we see in today's world of the 21st century, there is turmoil in both how to mekarev (to do outreach) and how to megayer (to do conversions) and they are inter-related in many ways and on may levels, most of all in the real world of real lives as we see from all the problems and issues facing Orthodox outreach rabbis and outreach workers..."

And at http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2008/07/kiruv-ii-paradigm-change-for-outreach.html

"...Rabbi Tropper is a venturer because with his EJF program to welcome in by doing outreach the non-Jewish spouses of interfaith couples under "strict" Beth Din auspices (actually fueling the flames of the process, as it were) he is doing a classical juggling act, that on the one hand he is trying to preempt and ward off attacks from the Haredi world he admires and respects and needs but at the the same time he is caving in to the interfaith flood at the gate and in this he is no different to ALL other Kiruv workers out there today trying to cope with the flood tide of interfaith students (meaning students from mixed marriages or intermarrieds themseleves, or those with non-Halachic conversions), and instead of calling a spade a spade and seeing the writing on the wall, that THE AGE OF KIRUV AS WE KNOW IT IS OVER and maybe even walking away from it, he tries to to finesse it (Dr. Tom Kaplan has lots of money and what else is there to do for a living if not helping millionares find solutions to their intermarried problems?), and that is why he was slapped by the BADATS who then sent out letters of warning to all those Recipients and asking for Publicity that Rabbi Tropper's agenda and methods were not part of the solution but were more part of the problem...."

While the two fields of KIRUV and GEIRUS over-lap and are inter-connected in our times, yet they are two separate and often contradicatory entities. What scholars call DISSONANT:

While KIRUV is all about "drawing closer" (literally "lekarev" or "to be mekarev") in contradistinction, GEIRUS is about "qualifying for Jewish citizenship" (lagur = to become a "dweller/sojourner/to live among" = "to become a 'national' of the Jewish people according to its laws, as defined by the Torah and the Halachah.)

GEIRUS requires a modicum or even a lot of RICHUK (pushing away/rejection), the opposite of "kiruv" and potential converts MUST first be STRONGLY encouraged NOT to become geirim. As an historical example, Rav Yitzchok Hutner used to like to tell over the famous story from Rav A.Y. Kook about "der ger fun Paris" about a Parisian gentile who sought to become a ger but whom Rav Kook succeeeded in convincing to become Ben Noach instead and who when he ever came to meet Rav Kook on a Shabbat would come with a lit cigar to prove that he had not converted and had preferred to remain a goy. Rav Kook and Rav Hutner took great pride in the fact that a gentile was persuaded NOT to convert! Too bad not too many modern rabbis think and act like this in the world's egalitarian melting pot poly-glot culture.

That is why dispassionate legalistic cool sceptical suspicious and scholarly dayanim on a reliable Bais Din are the ideal choice for deciding matters of conversion, and certainly NOT charismatic rabbis with magnetic hypnotic charming personalities and winning ways who have toiled all their lives in Kiruv.

The dayanim on a Bais Din convened to hear and decide upon cases on conversion do not (or should not) care about hurting a prospective convert's "feelings" by rejecting the application/s to convert. This modus operandi is very UNLIKE kiruv workers who are trained to recruit, lure, beguile, make happy with lots of smiles and free hospitality and "courting", and (for lack of a better word) "missionize" leshem shomayim (hopefully!) secular and non-Orthodox Jews to become frum.

Kiruv workers have a whole range of methods relating to "how to win friends and influence people" ranging from soft-sell to hard-sell, from those who practice a gentle moderate gradualist approach to those who believe in conjuring up ex-nihilo "overnight wonders" that are obligated in immediate compliance to a rebbe/rav/yeshiva.

Rabbi Tropper is from those kiruv workers (his main stock in trade) who works using the hard-sell method and he is very good at what he does in kiruv and is famous for his heady, strong-willed, blusterry speeches meant to bowl over his listeners, and yes he can be very intimidating and insulting to his listeners who may not share his moods. (Guess what: This is actually good kiruv believe it or not, because it is prone to induce a mind-shift as a form of "shock therapy" in his listeners opening them up to new Torah ideas they had never heard before), although he can also take it slow and gentle when he works with very diverse audiences who he knows will not go for his shock tactics. And yes, he generally holds that those who become his disci[les must adhere to quick adherence to his utterances and rules.

Rabbi Tropper's kiruv methods as such are not an issue in this dialogue, nor do I think that his role in getting Rabbi Slifkin's books off the frum radar screen has anything to do with the current set of "Kiruv vs Geirus" issues that are riling Rabbi Tropper and confusing those who come face to face with him today because right now the man is a walking dichotomy. A sort of split personality, not fully conscious of the depth of his inner turmoil and extent of the self-contradiction he is spilling wherever he goes nowadays, as his kiruv side battles and tries to reconcile itself with the issues of geirus he has now immersed himself in for better or worse, and he is in over his head this time. While Rabbi tropper is agadol in the kiruv world, he is a zero in the world of dayanim and batei din. And yes, he is a big talmid chochme, but most rosh yeshivas (which he also claims to be of Kol Yaakov Yeshiva) are not involved in shimush lema'aseh and they are not dayanim. You do not go to a rosh yeshiva if you want to get divorced or are looking for a geirus. Rosh yeshivas are generally never poskim except for what goes on inside their yeshivas, and unlike a kiruv worker who can and MUST walk all over the range looking for people to mekarev, a dayan on the other hand, MUST contain himself and restrict himself to a very narrow venue, the Bais Din and its confines where he sits in judgment of cases and of others.

In short, how to reconcile Kiruv ("drawing people close") and Richuk ("distancing" people)? How to reconcile the need to be a sweet Kiruv Worker (who must always be winning JEWISH friends and influencing people to eventually become/morph into being Haredi/Yeshivish) and on the other hand with a conflicting task, the enforcing the rules and dictates of Batei Din in regard to conversions that requires, per force, the distancing and pushing away of people, certianly gentiles and if need be even the Jews attached to those gentiles.

Quite a Faustian predicament that Rabbi Tropper does not seem to have resolved for himself. While the Reform and Conservatives "have sold their soul to the devil" and are accepting gentiles to easily into the Jewish people ch"sh r"l and many in the Modern Orthodox and Religious Zionist movements are teetering on the edge of a slippery slope and look like they have thrown in the towel as they water down the halacha and make appearing before a Bais Din a mere formailty and an exercise in rubber-stamping by the Bais Din that has no standards, there are those poskim, dayanim and batei din alive TODAY like in the BADATZ/Rabbi Shternbuch/Rabbi Sherman/Rav Eliashiv/Rav Nochum Eisenstein & Beit Din Le'Inyanei Giur who INSIST on strict/er Halachic standards and are willing to oppose and fight against the tide of de facto and de jure assimilationism and intermarriage and not join it in any way shape size or form (while seemingly Rabbi Tropper THINKS and alleges he is speaking for them, but his actions at EJF over the years say otherwise).

So what Rabbi Tropper did or not do at the time that led to Rabbi Slifkin's books being banned in the frum world are essentially immaterial. For sometimes to catch a ganef one must act like a ganef, and ultimately the Torah world is better off without giving legitimacy to the pseudo-scientific makeover of midrashim, agadettes and Chazals by neophytes.

Indeed Rebbetzin Bruria Hutner David, principal of BJJ and the holder of a doctorate from Colombia University, see the full thesis at http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~spotter/david-chajes.pdf "THE DUAL ROLE OF RABBI ZVI HIRSCH CHAJES: TRADITIONALIST AND MASKIL." (Columbia University, Ph.D., 1971) shredded no less than the Maharitz Chiyas in her lengthy PhD thesis debunking as "Haskala" his non-traditional and anti-chazal views and interpretetions of agadattes. So if she could do that, what Rabbi Tropper did to Slifkin (minus a PhD) is peanuts, although his mthods were very devious and deceitful, but often that is how people are made frum, with all sorts of "tricks" -- sad to say but very true, and one hopes that the "victims" stay frum or all else all hell can break loose...

So Rabbi Tropper's past involvements with Slifkin and Gidon Busch and the Age of the Earth questions are really not so much the REAL issues as are his PRESENT state of conflict and lack of clarity about whether he wishes to be perceived as the biggest kiruv worker of the times or as the biggest enforcer of Halacha of Geirus in modern times and unfortunately HE CANNOT BE BOTH simultaneously and he cannot have it both ways. He cannot have his cake and eat it this time! And he and Dr. Tom Kaplan are having a hard time realizing this reality! Especially Dr. Kaplan who as a tycoon businessman is not used to seeing his EJF "business plan" go awry and shouted down from the left and right of the Orthodox and Haredi world. It is too much of an ego-deflator and both Rabbi Tropper and Dr. Kaplan take their egos VERY seriously.

Anyhow, there is not "one single way" to do kiruv and Rabbi Tropper has had many successes in this regard that he does not need to apologize to anyone for his kiruv work and successes, and with success there will come some failures which he is allowed to have as well. But his role as the Inquistor in chief of dayanim and batei din in the field of geirus brings out his darker side and now he is being told where to get off, and he even shows himself the door, knowing that it's bed time and curtains for bonzo the self-proclaimed EJF ubber geirus dayan who is lema'aleh mikol hadayanim since we already have one rashkebehag in the form of Rav Eliashiv shlit'a who does not need Rabbi Tropper and Dr. Tom Kaplan and their acorn-aspiring EJF a la Obama style politicking and steam-rollering and saying different things to different audiences and hoping noone either notices or dares to speak up.

The real issue is the dichotomy in Rabbi Tropper's inner psyche that he has not and cannot bridge: How to be a famous and successful kiruv worker and at the same time be an enforcer of strict bais din standards for geirus functioning as some sort of ubber dayan deciding which batei din and dayanim are strict enough, when he himself as a 100% kiruv worker does not in essence think and function in those terms. For heaven's sakes, he is married to a baalas teshuva, and he belongs in the Baal teshuva movement and must learn to leave issues of geirus to the batei din and dayanim to muddle through and sort out and not be so condescending and paternalistic towards them. "Let go, and let G-d"!
____

Plony Almony 18: I think the comment about Gideon Busch Z’L is more appropriate to be on your post regarding various keiruv approaches but I can understand why the commenter chose to put it here.

RaP: This tragic chapter should not be dragged into the discussions here because no one knows the true facts of the true state of Busch's mind and personality. Seems he was not an emotionally healthy person and every kiruv organization, indeed every college and high school has its share of horror stories and suicides, and Busch basically frazzled the cops to fire on him. NY cops are sometimes over-cautious and ready to fire and do not take chances and they cannot be blamed so quickly for what happened and neither should Rabbi Tropper be dragged into this tragic matter. It's like asking that Busch's relatives, pediatrician and pyschiatrist also be liable for not taking good enough care of him.

Plony Almony 18: She probably wanted to call attention to Tropper all-or-nothing approach to keiruv, an approach which requires total transformation, cutting off any non-orthodox connections (which includes family), shunning secular studies and arguing that you cannot be a talmid chochom and having a college degree in the some time...

RaP: So again, no need to drag the Busch saga into this. Rabbi Tropper is not unique in this regard because there are many rabbis and some institutions all over the world who do what he does. Rabbi Tropper's success stories in kiruv are far, far greater than the few failures and EVERY kiruv rabbi has many, many people who he did not make frum and went off... It is an occupational hazard.

Plony Almony 18: An approach which in cases of married couples when the couple is not on the same page, the more observant spouse is encouraged to divorce the less observant spouse instead of finding some middle ground and waiting for him or her to catch up.

RaP: This is a very touchy area and again there is no consensus and each case has to be evaluated and judged on its merits. Not just among BTs but among the frum and in the world at large every day rabbis and therapsist bring couples apart and also split them up. That is the reality. And it's no different in kiruv situations which usually involve a whole range of issues that have nothing to do with religion. This is a very complex area of life that requires great expertise and can be easily abused even by the greatest professionals, so don't blame Rabbi Tropper for another occupational hzard of being a susccessful kiruv rabbi who is forced into couples counseling.

Plony Almony 18: Many keiruv organizations (which the noted exception of Chabad) do not realize that for some people adopting stringent lifestyle, dropping out of college, adopting penguin dress would not be beneficial. Making them swallow more than they can chew would end up with disastrous results.

RaP: Why do you exempt Chabad? That shows you do not know what is happening. Chabad is a huge enterprise. The policies and methods they use in Crown Heights are not the same as in Beverly Hills. Chabad in Kefar Chabad and in Tzefas is more extreme in all areas is anything you will see in many other places. So yes, while over-all Chabad is more patient, once they feel they have won over someone they do exactly what people like Rabbi Tropper does, don't fool yourself and do not create false impressions. There is no "one way' to make people frum nor is there "one way" for how BTs should be frum. There never has been nor will there ever be. It is as varied as the human condition. And as the saying goes there will always be a need and a market for: "Different strokes for different folks"!

"Progress" - Dating site successfully sued by gays

Michelle Malkin reports

So, this is “progress?” eHarmony, a Christian-targeted dating website, gets sued by a gay man demanding that the business match him up with a same-sex partner. The New Jersey Attorney General intervenes on behalf of the gay plaintiff and forces eHarmony to change its entire business model. To be clear: The company never refused to do business with anyone. Their great “sin” was not providing a specialized service that litigious gay people demanded they provide. This case is akin to a meat-eater suing a vegetarian restaurant for not offering him a ribeye or a female patient suing a vasectomy doctor for not providing her hysterectomy services. Sadly, eHarmony has settled . I wish they hadn’t, but I understand the decision given the chilling antics of the anti-Prop. 8 mob. The company agreed not only to offer same-sex dating services on a new site, but also to offer six-month subscriptions for free to 10,000 gay users.

Denmark to ban mila?

YNet Reports

At a time where anti-Semitic acts seem to be on the rise in Europe, a bill was proposed in Denmark that will affect mainly Jews – the banning of male child circumcision. Denmark's National Council for Children has recommended the legislation of a law banning circumcision of boys under the age of 15.The passing of this law would make the Jewish mitzvah and tradition of circumcising a child on his eighth day a crime.

The country's Ethics Council supported the proposal and now only the parliament's medical committee can intervene and prevent the proposal from being heard."Circumcision is the irreversible damage to a child's body before he is given the chance to object," the National Council for Children argued.The Council further claimed that the banning of male child circumcision was a matter of equality among the sexes. "Just like female circumcision was banned five years ago, male circumcision should be banned," the Council said.

The new proposal caused a storm among the Jewish and Muslim populations in Denmark, with 95% of the 7,000 Jewish population circumcising their sons. [...]

King David's city of Sha'arayim identified

YNet reports

The Elah Fortress excavation, being developed by Foundation Stone under the direction of Professor Yosef Garfinkel, Yigal Yadin Chair of Archeology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has announced the discovery of a second monumental find in as many months.

Archeologists digging at the site have uncovered a second gate to the city. This “two-gate” feature is the only one of its kind found in the Kingdoms of Judah or Israel to date and is understood by Professor Garfinkel as revealing the Biblical name of the city: “Sha’arayim” – literally meaning two gates.

The second gate was discovered in recent weeks as part of ongoing excavations at this site which has already yielded numerous historic finds. The gate faces an easterly direction, towards Jerusalem. Already proven to be a Judean city, this latest find lends further credence to the assumption that it was part of a regional governing system connected to King David. The gate is comprised of massive stones, each weighing about 10 tons, leading archeologists to conclude that the fortification of the city was orchestrated by some form of centralized government. [...]

Rabbi Tropper & Prague - what happened?

There was a recent conference of European rabbis in Prague. The focus of the conference was officially on two things - remembrance of the Holocaust and Kiruv. But there was also a discussion of conversion Rabbi Tropper had been invited to speak - however the strong negative reaction to his speech resulted in his leaving in the middle of his drasha. Ostensibly Rabbi Tropper was interested in investing some of EJF's money in European kiruv efforts. Why would anyone be upset about a wealthy benefactor?

Some of what I am saying is conjecture but it is built upon solid facts. The facts are not in dispute - but my interpretation might be. This is also not a tale about the good guys vs. the bad guys. Everyone involved wears a black hat and dark suit.

If you will remember back a few years there was a turning point that will probably be remembered in history books as the Slifkin affair or by others as the Making of a Gadol affair. R' Slifkin raised questions from Science against our Mesorah and presented answers. He dealt with such things as the age of the universe. His approach and explanations were at one time very welcome in the world of kiruv. But then they migrated into the mainstream. Gedolim such as Rav Moshe Sternbuch and Rav Moshe Shapiro were disturbed by the familiarity with which R' Slifkin spoke about our sages and their supposed fallibility in knowledge. Similarly there were many gedolim who were outraged about Rav Nosson Kaminetsky's stories about gedolim which conveyed their human foibles. The awesome barrier which separated us from the gedolim was breached. The enemy was no longer outside but were people honored as insiders. Both of these rabbis were viciously slandered. [Rav Nosson Kaminetsky asked me to clarify that the rabbis who are against R' Slifkin are not necessarily against him. In particular he has a very close relationship with Rav Sternbuch who greatly appreciates his book - while saying that there are clearly changes that need to be made]

One of the most dedicated crusaders against R' Slifkin was Rabbi Tropper. He convinced Rav Dovid Feinstein and others that R' Slifkin's approach was dangerous by describing two of his students who had gone off the derech because of their reading of his books. While the students in fact did not go off the derech because of R' Slifkin - they served their purpose. Rabbi Tropper is a zealot. A man driven by a vision of the way things should be, must be. A man who is driven by a pure and simple understanding of Truth - and his indispensable role in achieving it.

Let's go forward in time to last year's EJF conference in Washington D.C. It was massively publicized with cover photos and large articles describing in detail who was there as well as the speeches. The conference will go down in history for the speech given that said that whoever believes that the world is more than 6000 years old - can not be a dayan for geirus. A rabbi who wore colored shirts was not to participate in a beis din for conversion. Here was a major weapon to be wielded against those who didn't share Rabbi Tropper's vision of Yiddisheit - i.e. the Modern Orthodox as well as many American Chareidim. The point of the conference was geirus and the universal standardization according to the standards of Rabbi Tropper. Rabbi Tropper had and has a lot of money due to his backing by billionaire Tom Kaplan. Many of the participants in fact went primarily to receive a significant amount of money from R' Tropper. Rabbi Tropper drew a line in the sand and said, "If you want to participate in my universal conversion program - you must accept my beliefs in these matters." Ignored or not noticed was Rabbi Tropper's advocacy of proselytization for intermarried couples and their non-Jewish kids. This was strongly denounced by Rav Moshe Sternbuch as well as all the other members of the Bedatz. But I digress.

Last year there was also the surrender of the RCA - the Modern Orthodox American Rabbis to the Chief rabbinate or to Rav Eliashiv's standards of geirus. Something which even many Modern Orthodox rabbis realized was necessary. None the less it represented the serious submission of a significant number of rabbis to a handful of Israeli authorities who don't share the same vision of Yiddishkeit or the world.

It is now November 2008. So now we have Rabbi Tropper - a world famous rabbi with a lot of money. A lot less power as the result of the strong criticism of the Bedatz against his approach - but still a force to be reckoned with.

He is invited to speak in Prague. He comes with the resources, desire and need to invest money in kiruv [?] in Europe. All are waiting anxiously to hear what he wants to do and how. But instead of a reasoned discussion of the issues and the various views and what he would like to do and what he would like to learn from them - he starts lecturing them. He lectures them about their shortcomings and failures.

But most of all he attacks the Modern Orthodox rabbis - those who don't share his vision of Yiddishkeit. He attacks all those who don't accept his standards of geirus. There were many people who were greatly embarrassed by his rudeness and insensitivity. He is perceived as the proverbial bull in a china shop. There are many who are furious. He comes not to work together with the Europeans rabbis but rather to dictate to them. He is lecturing them as the old school master to a bunch of kids who just got caught violating the rules.

He becomes aware of their anger at his comments. He defends himself - but it is too late. He loses it and walks out of the angry assembly in the middle of his presentation in great irritation. There is even a petition circulated to ban his future attendance of the meetings. He came to conquer and command and instead he was rejected.

A parallel event was happening with Chief Rabbi Amar who similarly was deliberately held at arm's length by the European rabbis. They now see their salvation from within - and resent the condescension of outsiders who have no understanding of Europe and what impact Israeli chareidi rules have on this foreign place.

EJF - Conference in Philadelphia

YWN reported

This is the official publicity release of EJF regarding their Philadelphia conference held November 2-4. Strange that they would just be releasing 2 weeks after the event - as opposed to last year when it had massive coverage in the major chareidi publications. Also Rav Eisenstein is not mentioned - even though he was there according to Hamodia and the Yated [see RaP's comments at bottom of post].

---

Just a few years ago, it would have seemed impossible to bring together distinguished dayanim from throughout the world to explore issues regarding universally accepted conversions in intermarriage in the 21st century. Yet on Sunday, November 2nd, in downtown Philadelphia, the Eternal Jewish Family once again reached beyond any barriers of this challenge and convened some of the greatest dayanim and rabbanim of our times.

The esteemed group travelled from numerous cities around the world to Philadelphia’s downtown Marriott Hotel. Present were such notable dignitaries as Harav Shmuel Kaminetzky, Rosh Yeshiva of Philadelphia, member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah; Dayan Chanoch Ehrentrau, Rosh Beis Din of London; Harav Binyomin Weiss, lead dayan of the beis din of Montreal; Harav Reuven Feinstein, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Staten Island and chairman of the EJF halachic committee; Harav Betzalel Tuvia Wettenstein, the Belzer Dayan; Harav Dovid Olewsky, Rosh Yeshiva, Yeshivas Ger of Brooklyn; Harav Eliyahu Levine, Rosh Kollel of Lakewood; and Harav Elya Ber Wachtfogel, the Rosh Yeshiva of South Fallsburg.

The conference was also honored with the presence of Harav Avrohom Sherman, head of the Bais Din Hagadol in Jerusalem, who communicated the brocho of Maran Harav Eliyashiv for his participation. Also from Israel came Harav Shlomo Pappenheim of the Eida Hachareidis and Harav Eliyahu Eisherik, lead dayan of the beis din of Tel Aviv and author of Toras Haribis. Harav Eisherik is also the emissary of the Gerrer Rebbe in all areas of geirus and concerns regarding botei din.

Together these spiritual giants delved into such topics as the standards of legitimate botei din, family and marital issues, the importance of determining a successful conversion candidate, and numerous other vital issues. The presence of the gedolei Torah, as well as the scope and breadth of their lectures and discussions, gave testimony to the Torah world’s recognition of the important accomplishments of Eternal Jewish Family.

The dayanim shared their experiences with conversions in intermarriage, leading to a yeshiva-like atmosphere as the distinguished participants exchanged divrei Torah. The consensus was clear that relaxation of conversion standards only leads to complex issues in the arenas of marriage, children’s chinuch, and integration into communities. The dayanim concurred that sincere conversion candidates must make commitments to live within communities that have the infrastructure of shuls, yeshivos, mikvaos and kosher food. Harav Leib Tropper, Chairman of the EJF Rabbinic Committee, outlined some of the recent successes of EJF in working with the growing network of botei din that subscribe to the standards of the gedolei haposkim who guide EJF’s policies.

An intriguing dimension to this revolutionary gathering was that, simultaneously in the same location, another EJF seminar was being held exclusively for the mentors of female candidates for conversion. Travelling from Oregon, Texas, Arizona, California, Maryland, and New York, the women received inspiration from an esteemed group of rabbanim who, while addressing their questions and concerns, also defined their challenging role as mentors of conversion candidates. More than this, the rabbanim conveyed heartfelt brachos that encouraged the participants to continue to be exemplary role models for other women who are on their way to conversion or already integrating into a community after the conversion process.

(Rochel Weinstein - Lubicom)

Livni - Israel not a monopoly of rabbis

JPost reports:

International acceptance of Israel's right to exist is not enough, the world must accept Israel as a Jewish state, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Wednesday to the thousands of Jewish American leaders who had come to Jerusalem for the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities.

"The world is willing to defend the right of the state of Israel to exist, this is the part of the requirement that the [Mideast] Quartet demands [of] Hamas. But I would like to add two more words to this demand of the quartet: They need to accept the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state," she said.

Livni went on to clarify that there were international leaders who support such a right, expressly mentioning US President George W. Bush.

Moving on to the Jewish nature of the state, Livni said, "It's not about learning Hebrew or about joining the army, it's about Jewish tradition, Jewish history… We need to keep the nature, the character of the state of Israel as a Jewish state because this is - excuse me for using the French - the raison d'etre of the state of Israel."

"A Jewish state is not a monopoly of rabbis, it's what each and everyone feels inside," she added.

Livni also announced that Israel would become the second country to boycott the so called "Durban II" conference to be held in Geneva the spring of 2009.

It followed Canada, which announced its decision in January of this year. "I decided that Israel will not participate and will not legitimize the Durban II conference," Livni said.

The foreign minister in February stated Israel's intention not to attend the follow up conference to the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance which met in Durban, South Africa.[...]

Child Abuse & Psychiatric medication?

NYTimes reports:

WASHINGTON — Powerful antipsychotic medicines are being used far too cavalierly in children, and federal drug regulators must do more to warn doctors of their substantial risks, a panel of federal drug experts said Tuesday.

More than 389,000 children and teenagers were treated last year with Risperdal, one of five popular medicines known as atypical antipsychotics. Of those patients, 240,000 were 12 or younger,according to data presented to the committee. In many cases, the drug was prescribed to treat attention deficit disorders.

But Risperdal is not approved for attention deficit problems, and its risks — which include substantial weight gain, metabolic disorder sand muscular tics that can be permanent — are too profound to justify its use in treating such disorders, panel members said.

“This committee is frustrated,” said Dr. Leon Dure, a pediatric neurologist from the University of Alabama School of Medicine who was on the panel. “And we need to find a way to accommodate this concern of ours.”

The meeting on Tuesday was scheduled to be a routine review of the pediatric safety of Risperdal and Zyprexa, popular antipsychotic medicines made, respectively, by Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly& Company. Food and Drug Administration officials proposed that the committee endorse the agency’s routine monitoring of the safety of the medicines in children and support its previous efforts to highlight the drugs’ risks.

But committee members unanimously rejected the agency’s proposals,saying that far more needed to be done to discourage the medicines’growing use in children, particularly to treat conditions for which the medicines have not been approved.

“The data show there is a substantial amount of prescribing for attention deficit disorder,and I wonder if we have given enough weight to the adverse-event profile of the drug in light of this,” Dr. Daniel Notterman, a senior health policy analyst at Princeton University and a panel member, said when speaking about Risperdal.

Drug agency officials responded that they had already placed strongly worded warnings on the drugs’ labels.

“I’m a little puzzled about the statement that the label is inadequate,” said Dr. Thomas Laughren, director of the agency’s division of psychiatry products. “I’m anxious to hear what more we can do in the labeling.”

Kara Russell, a spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson, said,“Adverse drug reactions associated with Risperdal use in approved indications are accurately reflected in the label.”

But panelists said the current warnings were not enough.

While panel members spoke at length about Risperdal, they said their concerns applied to the other medicines in its class, including Zyprexa, Seroquel, Abilify and Geodon.

The committee’s concerns are part of a growing chorus of complaints about the increasing use of antipsychotic medicines in children and teenagers. Prescription rates for the drugs have increased more than fivefold for children in the past decade and a half, and doctors now use the drugs to settle outbursts and aggression in children with a wide variety of diagnoses, even though children are especially susceptible to their side effects.

A consortium of state Medicaid directors is evaluating the use of the drugs in children on state Medicaid rolls to ensure that they are being properly prescribed.

The growing use of the medicines has been driven partly by the sudden popularity of the diagnosis of pediatric bipolar disorder.

The leading advocate for the bipolar diagnosis is Dr. Joseph Biederman, a child psychiatrist at Harvard University whose work is under a cloud after a Congressional investigation revealed that he had failed to report to his university at least $1.4million in outside income from the makers of antipsychotic medicines.

In the past year, Risperdal prescriptions to patients 17 and younger increased 10 percent, while prescriptions among adults declined 5 percent. Most of the pediatric prescriptions were written by psychiatrists.

From 1993 through the first three months of 2008, 1,207 children given Risperdal suffered serious problems, including 31 who died. Among the deaths was a 9-year-old with attention deficit problems who suffered a fatal stroke 12 days after starting therapy with Risperdal.[...]

Christian funding comes of age

JPost reports:

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, got the thanks he's been looking for from the organized Jewish world on Monday at a reception at the United Jewish Communities General Assembly.

Eckstein, who started the fellowship 25 years ago, has raised some $500 million from Evangelical Christians to give to impoverished Jews, Jewish groups and Zionist causes.

The relationship has often been one of contention, as the Jewish community has long been wary of receiving Christian money,especially for Zionist purposes.

But Eckstein has become a strategic partner of both of the federation system's overseas arms, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

The fellowship has long been a donor to the JDC, giving the organization $9m. last year and $7m. this year, according to the JDC's executive vice president, Steve Schwager. Eckstein sits on the major boards of the JDC.

Most recently Eckstein pledged $45m. to the Jewish Agency in exchange for a seat on the agency's highest governing committee.

In May, that deal almost fell apart because Eckstein felt that the agency was not honoring him as a full partner; in particular, hewas upset that the fellowship was not listed on JAFI's letterhead along with its primary funding organizations, the UJC and Keren Hayesod,which raises money from Europe and Canada for the agency.

But Monday, Eckstein said he finally felt "vindicated" and officially accepted by the organized Jewish community.[...]

Chareidi post-election violence continues

Jpost reports:
n another incident demonstrating the escalating tensions between rival camps within the haredi community, the son of United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush was beaten and knocked to the ground Monday.

Yisrael Porush confirmed that he had been attacked but added that he did not want to provide details of the incident for fear it would lead to the desecration of God's name.

The Ger hassidic sect, the nation's largest, has been embroiled in a serious dispute with a constellation of smaller hassidic sects represented by Porush's Shlomei Emunim faction in Agudat Yisrael.

The tension between the two groups intensified after Rabbi Ya'acov Aryeh Alter, the Gerer Rebbe, did not support Porush in the Jerusalem mayoral elections. Many Ger hassidim actually voted for his secular rival, Nir Barkat, helping him win.

Porush's followers, who feel the Ger hassidim broke an unwritten rule to uphold haredi unity, have called for a revamping of Agudat Yisrael's political leadership. Currently Ger effectively controls Aguda.

Porush's followers are also trying to establish a new haredi daily to compete with the Ger-controlled Hamodia.

Ger hassidim say that Porush forced himself on the haredi public without receiving rabbinic backing for his candidacy. The Lithuanian rabbinic leadership has also criticized Porush for the same reason.

The tension between the camps has led to violent incidents. UTJ faction chairman Ya'acov Litzman was beaten and had food thrown at him during a family event in Me'a She'arim on Shabbat.

Islamic courts in Britain

NYTimes reports:

LONDON — The woman in black wanted an Islamic divorce. She told the religious judge that her husband hit her, cursed her and wanted her dead.

But her husband was opposed, and the Islamic scholar adjudicating the case seemed determined to keep the couple together. So, sensing defeat, she brought our her secret weapon: her father.

In walked a bearded man in long robes who described his son-in-law as a hot-tempered man who had d his daughter, evaded the police and humiliated his family.

The judge promptly reversed himself and recommended divorce.

This is Islamic justice, British style. Despite a raucous national debate over the limits of religious tolerance and the pre-eminence of British law, the tenets of Shariah, or Islamic law, are increasingly being applied to everyday life in cities across the country.

The Church of England has its own ecclesiastical courts. British Jews have had their own “beth din” courts for more than a century.

But ever since the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, called in February for aspects of Islamic Shariah to be embraced alongside the traditional legal system, the government has been grappling with a public furor over the issue, assuaging critics while trying to reassure a wary and at times disaffected Muslim population that its traditions have a place in British society.

Boxed between the two, the government has taken a stance both cautious and confusing, a sign of how volatile almost any discussion of the role of Britain’s nearly two million Muslims can become.[...]

Conversion - Join IDF & become a Jew

JPost reports:

Like thousands of other young immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Ukrainian-born Igor Lermont always considered himself Jewish, even though his mother is not Jewish.

"When I was young, I thought I was Jewish," the 22-year-old IAF technician told a small delegation of North American Jews attending the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities in Jerusalem on Tuesday. "I thought it did not matter that my father is Jewish and mother is not."

When he arrived in Israel four-and-a-half years ago, Lermont soon discovered that according to Jewish law, a person's religion is determined by the mother - regulations that are strictly followed by the government, as the Orthodox have a monopoly on religious affairs.

After enlisting in the army, Lermont heard of an educational Jewish-Zionist educational program, offered in conjunction with his military service, which culminates with official conversion performed by the IDF Rabbinate.

The program, called Nativ, offers soldiers and officers who are not Jewish according to Halacha a seven- or 11-week intensive course in Judaism to prepare them for conversion.

After completing the course and being sent back to their bases, soldiers interested in proceeding with the conversion process are then invited to two two-week seminars, with a month off between them, before undergoing the official conversion by three rabbis of the IDF Chaplaincy.

The programs, which are a joint project of the IDF Education Corps and the Joint Institute for Jewish Studies, are made possible with the support of the Immigrant Absorption Ministry and the Jewish Agency for Israel. They offer thousands of IDF soldiers an opportunity to convert in an Orthodox-recognized process with like-minded peers in a friendly environment, bypassing the rigid civilian conversion system.

"I enlisted in the army specifically to take this course," said Cpl. Sophie Shapira, 19, who immigrated to Israel as a baby from Moscow, never knowing she was not considered Jewish by her adoptive country. She is now nearing the end of the course.

"Back in Lithuania, I knew that I would not be considered Jewish in Israel, and I thought it was a joke," said Lt. Dalia Desiatnik, 21, a basic training platoon commander. "When I got here, I understood it was no joke."

One million Jews from the former Soviet Union have immigrated to Israel over the last decade and a half, but about a third of them are not Jewish according to Halacha.

Today one out of every five soldiers is a new immigrant, with one of four new immigrants serving in a combat unit.[...]

Molad - Moon's Race against Earth

From articles written for the Yated Neeman (USA) by Avraham Broide

(Jerusalem based translator and journalist. phone: 02-5856133; email: broide2@netvision.net.il) 

==================================================================================

The moon is an erratic traveler, sometimes zipping through its monthly circuit at high speed, and sometimes gliding along at a more leisurely pace. Because of this, the difference between a long month and a short month is sometimes as long as thirteen and a half hours.

Why does the moon speed and slow down with such maddening irregularity?

Let us explore what the Molad, or "New Moon."

About every 29.5 days, the moon begins a new month at the Molad, soon after it passes directly between the earth and the sun. Sometimes, the moon blocks the sun's light from earth during this maneuver and we experience a solar eclipse. Why does the moon take varying times to run this monthly race?

The answer is based on the difference between circles and ellipses. If the moon and earth traveled in perfectly circular orbits, Molads would always arrive with (almost) perfect regularity, since objects traveling in circular orbits never alter their speed.

However, since the moon and earth have elliptical orbits, and objects move in elliptical orbits vary their speeds, the earth and moon constantly slow down and speed up depending on their place in orbit.

Illustration: The earth moves slowest when it is furthest from the sun on the left, and speeds up as it moves nearer the sun towards the right.  

This is why the moon has irregular molads!

If the moon is moving slowly towards the end of the month and the earth is moving faster, the moon takes longer to catch up with the sun-moon-earth axis and you have a longer month. The opposite happens when the moon is moving fast and the earth is moving slowly. In such a circumstance, the moon catches up with the sun faster and you have a shorter month.

Illustration: In this example, the moon is near earth and moving faster, while the earth is far from the sun and moving slower.

Some time after the Churban, Hillel II created the modern calendar which avoids the irregular-month problem by using the average month-length mentioned by Raban Gamliel (Rosh Hashana 25a): "So I received from the house of the father of my father; the renewal of the moon is not less than 29 and a 1/2 days, 2/3 of an hour, and 73 parts (1/18^th of a minute)."

With this average molad, it is very easy to calculate the average molad of any month of the past or future.

However, incredibly accurate as Raban Gamliel's average month-length may be, it is gradually becoming less precise due the "stretching of time."

What is the "stretching of time?" Not some obtruse, Einsteinian concept, but simply the gradual lengthening of the day due to the moon's constant tugging on the world's oceans. Friction caused by the tides' flow and ebb is slowing down the world's spin, lengthening the days by about 0.00175 seconds per year, and due to this our modern days are about 1.75 seconds longer than the days of a thousand years ago.

Since Raban Gamliel's average month-length is tailored for the shorter days of the past, the lengthening days have gradually pushed Chazal's molad so far backwards that unlike the time of Hillel II when it was accurate to milliseconds, it is now off by about 0.6 of a second per month. These small differences have added up and nowadays, on average, the average molad calculation runs about two hours late!

This does not matter, since the Chazon Ish lays down a general rule in connection with a similar issue that Chazal's measurements do not have to absolutely coincide with reality. Also, using a chelek (1/18 of a minute) as his smallest unit, Raban Gamliel could in any case not have expressed the molad average with more accuracy.

DIFFERENT MONTH MODES

We mentioned that the Molad calculation began ticking from the time of Ma'asei Bereishis. If so, what is the meaning of Hashem's command in Egypt (Shemos 12:2), This month shall be for you the first of months?

In his fascinating discussion of this verse, the Ramban not only explains this point, but also resolves a triple contradiction.

First, he explains that This month shall be for you the first of months is saying that just as it is a mitzvah to constantly remember Shabbos by calling the days rishon b'Shabbos and sheni b'Shabbos, so it is a mitzvah to start the counting of the months from Nissan, in order to remember the redemption from Egypt.

But how can one say that the count begins in Nissan? The year begins with Rosh Hashana in Tishrei as it says (Shemos 34:22), And the festival of ingathering [Sukkos] at the changing (tekufas) of the year? The Ramban answers that although we call Nissan the first month and Iyar the seventh month, this does not mean that they are the first or seventh months of the year, but that they are the first or seventh month since our redemption.

The Ramban now raises another difficulty. How why do call the months by the names Nissan, Iyar, etc? Isn't this a violition of the Torah's command to name them Rishon and Sheni after Yetzi'as Mitzrayim?

To answer this question, he cites the Yerushalmi (Rosh Hashana 1:2) that states, "The names of the months came with them from Bavel." In other words, the Jews innovated a new month innovation system after returning from the second galus. Why? In order to fulfill the verse (Yirmeyahu 16:14,15), It will no longer be said, as Hashem lives who raised bnei Yisroel from the land of Egypt, but, as Hashem lives who raised bnei Yisroel and who took bnei Yisroel from the land of the north [Bavel].

"We reverted to called the months the names they are called in Bavel to be a reminder that we were there and that Hashem, may He be blessed, raised us from there," the Ramban concludes. "Because these names, Nissan, Iyar, and the rest, are Persian names, and are only mentioned in the sefarim of the prophets who were in Bavel (Zechariah 1:7, Ezra 6:15, Nechemiah 1:1) and in Megillas Esther (3:7). ...And until today, the nations in the lands of Persia and Madai, so they call them Nissan and Tishrei and all of them, like us. And so we make remembrance, with [these] months, of the second redemption, as we had made until now of the first [redemption]."

Actually, the people in Bavel pronounced them a little differently, for example, Simanu instead of Sivan, Du'uzu instead of Tamuz,  and Arakhsamma instead of Marcheshvan. Also, they counted Shevat before Teveis. But our version is close enough to eternally remind us of our redemption from the land of Nevuchadnezer and Haman.

THIRTY DAYS HATH SEPTEMBER

In light of the Ramban's statement that the Hebrew month-names and their numerical symbols serve such important functions, how can we use non-Jewish month names such as January and February, that remind us neither of Yetzias Mitzrayim, nor of our escape from Bavel?

One intriguing answer is that, in the Torah view, non-Jewish months are not months at all as their timing is purely arbitary and has nothing to do with the Molad. In fact, the earliest Roman calendar created in about 3008/753 BCE by the mythic first king of Rome, Romulus, did not even have twelve months, but only ten! This early ten month system helps explain a surprising incongruity connected with these month's names.

Most of the first four months are named after false gods, raising a sha'alah how we are permitted to use them. Martis was the god of war, Aprilis probably refers to hog raising, Maius was an Italian god, and Junius was yet another god.

By the time he reached the fifth month, Romulus' imagination seems to have ran dry as labeled the remaining six months as 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th, or, in Latin, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December.

Since this ten month year had a miniscule length of only 304 days, far less than the solar year of 365 days, in about 3061/700 BCE, the Romans tacked two more months to the year, Januarius and Februarius, stretching it to 355 days.

Centuries later, Julius Caesar, made the names of the last six months a joke when he shifted the beginning of the year from March to January, so that the names September, October, etc., no longer make any sense. Also, Quintilis was renamed Julius after Julius Caesar, and Sextilis was later renamed Augustus after Augustus Caesar, bringing the month's name to their present form. 

All this makes it obvious that the secular months have nothing to do with our lunar year. They are not months in the Torah meaning of the word, and thus one can argue that using them does not constitute a substitute for the names of the Hebrew months.

Of course, it is no big mitzvah to use them either.

(Sources: Duncan David Ewing, "The Calendar," 1999, Fourth Estate, London. Source of molad information: Dr. Bromberg Irv of University of Toronto, Canada, "Moon and the Molad of the Hebrew Calendar." )  

Third Year Seminary cancelled

Chedrei Chadarim reports: