Shavuot Is Tough Sell in Digital Age

Forward by Rabbi Mendel Horowitz   When I began teaching in 1998, dormitory floors were littered with magazines and books. Back when notebooks came with pens, students could be encouraged to read and write, could be challenged to communicate. Those students, like students always, were hardly mindful of their studies. But unlike the case of today’s 4Gers, it was possible to engage with the minds of those digital neophytes.

That was then. Today’s dormitory is cluttered with wires and suffused with wireless, its occupants sharing files more than ideas. My current students communicate, relate — think — in bizarre combinations of lethargy and haste, clicking from friend to virtual friend and from page to virtual page without pausing to consider the people or books in sight of them. A text-based curriculum that relies heavily on commitment hardly stands a chance. [...]

Preferences for shortcuts and concision are not traits of a successful divinity student. The law of the Talmud is tricky, and students are expected to join in a boisterous dialectic to unravel its intent. Achieving transcendence through debate — conversing with God through the medium of His word — is as central to Orthodox Judaism as its precepts. Participation demands qualities not readily found online. [...]

Talmudic tradition maintains that the great voice of God on Sinai has never ceased — that it resonates, forever to be noticed. I would like to believe that in every generation, all can hear that sound, can identify its source, can appreciate its relevance. In truth, only some are moved by its echo; others strain for a chord, others may be not listening. For some there is only quiet.

Shavuot is about participation, not commemoration. About joining a community of listeners. About experiencing the resonance of His expression.

There can be no shortcuts to informed religious conduct. To pretend as much would be misleading. There can also be no substitute for earnest dialogue — with teachers, confidants and texts. Still, the challenge of amplifying that awesome sound to those who do not yet hear it depends on the sensitivity, creativity and patience of those who do. The same digitally distracted child can focus when the subject is of interest. The same digitally isolated soul can join a community when it matters to him most. [...]

Lapid's financial program is sabotaging his promises for universal draft

Times of Israel   One of the central campaign promises of the governing coalition parties was to institute a universal draft to the IDF or civil service for Israel’s ultra-Orthodox and Arab populations, but that promise is in jeopardy due to austerity measures sought by those same parties. At a Sunday meeting of the Peri Committee, tasked by the government with formulating a solution to the problem of the universal draft, a Finance Ministry representative told the committee members that under the current 2013-2014 budget draft there won’t be enough funding to implement wide-scale recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox and Arab populations into the IDF or civil service, Israeli media reported on Monday. [...]

The implementation of a true universal draft would require a wide budget outlay in several areas, including training and preparation for each recruit, regular payments for new IDF soldiers or civil service workers, and employment, educational programs and economic incentives aimed to entice the ultra-Orthodox community to enlist.

“The Finance Ministry doesn’t have the funding for this,” the representative said, according to Maariv. “We expect very heavy cuts… I doubt if there will be an additional budget so that we can give incentives and rewards.” [...]

Kolko Trial: Victim's father testifies

Asbury Park Press    The father of a former Lakewood boy who accused his camp counselor of sexual abuse wanted to handle the matter discreetly, within the Orthodox Jewish religious community, he testified in court on Thursday.

The man, formerly a prominent rabbi in Lakewood’s Orthodox community, said he just wanted to be sure the counselor, Yosef Kolko, quit working with children, sought therapy and stayed away from his son, the man told a jury.

But when months had already passed after he had brought the matter to the attention of a respected rabbi who promised to handle it discreetly, and learning that Kolko was still working at the summer camp where his son was molested, the father said he broke with Jewish tradition and sought justice with secular authorities. [...]

Father Gordon MacRae: Hope in a case of apparent grave injustice

Wall Street Journal    [...] That a great many of the accusations against the priests were amply documented, that they involved the crimes of true predators all too often hidden or ignored, no one can doubt.

Neither should anyone doubt the ripe opportunities there were for fraudulent abuse claims filed in the hope of a large payoff. Busy civil attorneys—working on behalf of clients suddenly alive to the possibilities of a molestation claim, or open to suggestions that they remembered having been molested—could and did reap handsome rewards for themselves and their clients. The Diocese of Manchester, where Father MacRae had served, had by 2004 paid out $22,210,400 in settlements to those who had accused its priests of abuse. 

The paydays did not come without effort. Thomas Grover—a man with a long record of violence, theft and drug offenses on whose claims the state built its case against Father MacRae—would receive direction for his testimony at the criminal trial. A conviction at the priest's criminal trial would be a crucial determinant of success—that is, of the potential for reward—in Mr. Grover's planned civil suit. [....]

A New Hampshire superior court will shortly deliver its decision on a habeas corpus petition seeking Father MacRae's immediate release on grounds of newly discovered evidence. The petition was submitted by Robert Rosenthal, an appellate attorney with long experience in cases of this kind. In the event that the petition is rejected, Father MacRae's attorneys say they will appeal.

Those aware of the facts of this case find it hard to imagine that any court today would ignore the perversion of justice it represents. Some who had been witnesses or otherwise involved still maintain vivid memories of the process. 

Debra Collett, the former clinical director at Derby Lodge, a rehabilitation center that Mr. Grover had attended in 1987, said in a signed statement for Father MacRae's current legal team that she had been subject to "coercion and intimidation, veiled and more forward threats" during the police investigation because "they could not get me to say what they wanted to hear." Namely, that Mr. Grover had complained to her of molestation by Father MacRae. He had not—though he had accused many others, as she would point out. Thomas Grover, she said, had claimed to have been molested by so many people that the staff wondered whether "he was going for some sexual abuse victim world record." [...]

Cleveland kidnappings: Emotional Recovery Seen Possible for Victims of Prolonged Abuse

NYTimes   Day after day, it was his voice they heard, his face they saw.

He was their tormentor and their deliverer, the one who — at his whim — could violate their minds and bodies, the keeper of the keys and the source of food and water. His dominion was a ramshackle house with boarded up windows. His control was absolute. 

For the women he is accused of kidnapping and holding prisoner for a decade in a home on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland, their captor was for all intents and purposes their world. 

David A. Wolfe, a senior scientist and psychologist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health at the University of Toronto, said that in situations of long-term sexual abuse and threat to life, victims inevitably develop complicated and ambivalent emotions toward their abuser in order to survive. 

“You turn the devil into something you can handle,” he said, adding that the first thing he would want to know from someone who survived such an ordeal would be “What was your feeling about this person during the captivity?” 

Dr. Wolfe and other therapists noted that all traumatic experiences are different and that many details of the women’s ordeal have not been made public; some experts argued that for the women’s sake, they should not be. 

But they said many people can and do rebound from even the most extreme abuse, aided by the support of family and friends, the use of specifically tailored therapies and the privacy, safety and time to digest and come to terms with their experience. It is important, some therapists said, that the women not be turned into a spectacle, their identities as individuals diminished to “kidnap victims.”

“We know that resilience exists and that recovery is possible,” said Dr. Judith A. Cohen, medical director of the Center for Traumatic Stress in Children and Adolescents at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. “For people who believe that it’s inevitable that a horrific experience like this would leave lasting scars, the evidence does not necessarily support that.”

Kolko case: Trial update

YNET   Kolko has denied the charges, which include sexual assault and child endangerment.

The boy's former therapist testified Thursday that the boy told her in late 2008 he no longer needed help with his social skills because had had made a new friend, Rabbi Kolko.

"He's my best friend. He's the only one who understands me," Dr.Tsipora Koslowitz recounted the boy telling her.

Koslowitz said she told him that best friends were typically around the same age but he didn't understand.

At the end of a therapy session in February 2009, she said, the boy told her he had a secret. She said she had another patient coming in, so told him to tell her father. She said she thought it had something to do with bullying.

But that night, she said the boy's father called her to say it was about sexual abuse. [...]

The boy took the witness stand Wednesday on the first day of the trial, testifying how he wanted to remain close to Kolko, even though his actions made him uncomfortable, because Kolko was his friend and he had no friends in school or camp. [...]

Women of the Wall provoke a riot

Open Letter to Rabbi Dov Lipman : The inside view of why Chareidim don't want & don't need secular training for parnossa

Rabbi Dov Lipman,

With all due respect to your American "yeshiva" training (i.e., Ner Israel), it seems to have left you ignorant and unacquainted with the Israeli Chareidi world. As an act of chesed I have written this to help you out before you make another disastrous proclamation regarding internal Israeli charedi affairs.

It is obvious to any chareidi Jews that aside from the kedusha and avoidance of pritzus  - yeshiva education is in fact superior to anything that Princeton or Yale has to offer. Harvard business school graduates are no competition against an avreich who learned 20 years in the Mir. Everyone know that a yeshiva bachur or avreich does not need secular education or training. That is because the analytic skills honed by years of Talmudic dialectics - makes him super‑smart and super‑adaptable. Furthermore his daily utilization of multiple languages makes him readily adaptable to all language problems - including computer programming language. His intense interaction with people - with his many siblings and chavrusos and community in general - has made him a genius in reading non-verbal clues and body language. Thus he quickly picks up whatever language he needs and is capable of communicating in cogent, closely reasoned prose. In fact his skills are vastly superior to those who wasted years in college. The fact that he can't spell properly is no problem today with spell-checkers.

The fact he has no math skills and that he needs to count on his fingers and toes when he doesn't have access to a calculator is no problem. Everyone has a calculator today- including kosher phones. The more advanced stuff like geometry or algebra or even calculus – is no big deal. He just needs a week or two with a text book to pick it up. Everyone knows that the Vilna Gaon was a math genius and created Kramers Rule - without any formal math education. No reason that anyone else can’t pick up math when needed – why waste precious time from gemora to learn it?

It is known that the typical chareidi Jew can succeed in any field he applies himself to. This is obviously true because in addition to the mental sharpness  and knowledge of reality from gemora study - it is known that all wisdom is found in the Torah. After all what Chassidic rebbe needs to go to medical school before he paskens on medical treatment and operations? Even in the Litvishe world - everyone know that the Chazon Ish told brain surgeons how to operate. This surely applies to less technical fields such as psychology or business.

Furthermore even without being a genius - a yeshiva product has native cunning with incredible fast grasp of reality. A frum Jew has a major advantage over those rigidly trained in college by goyim. Everyone knows that those ridiculous theories of business, teaching or psychology have to be unlearned before a person can succeed. A frum Jew does not have all that nonsense to unlearn - he just needs to run the business. Everyone know about the Korean and Japanese who are dying to learn Talmud because of their immense respect and recognition of the superiority of the Jewish mind.

Everyone of us knows frum people who aren't very bright - and yet they are multimillionaires. That  is because we know the secret that money is not obtained by one's own efforts and talents - it is a gift from G-d. It is simply the result of bitachon – which we obviously have more of then non-charedim. All G-d asks from us is that we do our hishtadlus. Because of this the Chofetz Chaim told people not to leave Europe where they were starving and go to America. He said that G-d can give paransso just as easily in Europe - so why move?

We know that science and medicine is nonsense. Don't we read in Mishpacha amd HaModiah every week how a new scientific study concluded just the opposite of what doctors were doing for years? Besides Holistic medicine works better without side effects. We all have friends who who were cured after suffering for 10 years with regular medical treatment. A friend of a friend recommended a natural treatment that combined with avoiding sugar made all the symptoms disappear. Everyone knows that doctors are in it for the money. A person who is a tzadik has wisdom that transcends ordinary biology. Any frum holistic practitioner - who got his degree after a 6 month correspondence course - is the match of any medical doctor. We know that not everyone is G-d messenger for a cure - and it is obvious that G-d will pick a frum person rather than a mechallel Shabbos or a goy to bring about a cure.

In addition because of the close knit family and community connections – a frum Jew doesn’t really need to worry about financing. His father-in-law is always available to invest in a new business. He also knows he always has a financial safety net from the many gemachs. Besides after years of living off a wide range of government programs – he can survive with minimal income. In fact he knows his willingness to work for slave wages makes him more attractive to employers. His wife has been working for minimum wage for 20 years already – and they have managed. Besides being satisfied with little is a key Torah value.

I hope this has been an eye-opener for you. You really live in a fantasy world. Why did you ever think that a Torah observant Jew could work together with that kofer ben kofer? You also need to realize that Israel is not America. Instead of coming to teach us natives how to live - it would really be best if you joined a kollel for a few years until you come to understand how things work around here.

       kol tuv,
Daniel Eidensohn

Women of the Wall hope to avoid showdown at historic Kotel prayer service

Haaretz   Anticipating provocations by ultra-Orthodox individuals and groups at their monthly prayer service at the Western Wall on Friday, Women of the Wall have instructed supporters and activists planning to participate in the event not to “engage in conflict – verbal or physical” with any of the protesters. 

Ultra-Orthodox protesters have made a practice in recent months of taunting the women as they approach the Western Wall plaza on their way to the women’s section and jeering loudly at them during their prayer service from across the barrier separating the men and women’s sections. The protests are expected to grow even louder tomorrow, following the recent landmark ruling by the Jerusalem District Court that it is not a violation of “local custom” for women to wear prayer shawls at the Western Wall. 

As opposed to instructions delivered in previous months, participants in Friday morning’s service have been told to arrive at the Western Wall already wearing their prayers shawls. Until now, police had acted on the assumption that it was a violation of “local custom” for women to wear prayer shawls at the wall, routinely detaining those who engaged in this practice. In a posting on their Facebook page, Women of the Wall said they did not foresee “problems with police” this month.  [...]

An unusually large group of women is expected to participate in tomorrow morning’s event, many joining the service as an act of solidarity with the women’s organization, whose cause has become a rallying point for advocates of Jewish pluralism worldwide. Typically, several hundred women have participated in the service, which is held on the first day of the Jewish month, known as Rosh Chodesh. 

This could end up being not only the first but also the last time in the foreseeable future that the women’s prayer group will be able to hold its service without participants being ushered away by police. Earlier this week, it was reported that Minister of Religious Affairs Naftali Bennett plans to present new regulations for Jewish holy places that could restrict the right of Women of the Wall to pray as they see fit in the future.[...]

FBI claims right to read your e-mail, just like other federal agencies

ars technica   If we’ve told you once, we’ve told you a thousand times—the feds can (and do) easily access your e-mail. In fact, sending materials through the United States Postal Service is legally more secure than e-mail.

On Wednesday, as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request, the American Civil Liberties Union has published the first public copy of the 2012 edition of the FBI’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide. And this document clearly draws that distinction. The new disclosure shows that the FBI believes it does have the authority to open your e-mail essentially whenever it wants:[...]

Here’s what all that means: under the much-maligned (but frustratingly still-current) 1986-era Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), law enforcement must get a warrant to access e-mail before it has been opened by the recipient. However, there are no such provisions once the e-mail has been opened or if it has been sitting in an inbox, unopened, for 180 days. In March 2013, the Department of Justice acknowledged in a Congressional hearing that this distinction no longer makes sense and the DOJ would support revisions to ECPA.

If that weren’t complicated enough, one United States circuit court of appeals decided that federal authorities do need a warrant before accessing e-mail. The case, known as United States v. Warshak, has created a split as other circuits haven’t yet taken up the issue, including the United States Supreme Court. (Google has since taken the public stance that it will follow the Warshak standard.) [...]

Stephen Hawking boycotts major Israeli conference

Irish Times   In a major victory for the Israel boycott movement, British theoretical physicist Prof Stephen Hawking has pulled out of next month’s prestigious presidential conference in Jerusalem.

Wheelchair-bound Hawking (71), who had agreed to headline the conference, Facing Tomorrow , alongside other major international personalities, informed Israeli president Shimon Peres of his decision last week. Pro-Palestinian groups said he took the decision to respect the boycott “based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there”. [...]

Either way, Israel is not pleased. “This is an outrageous and wrong decision,” said Yisrael Maimon, the chairman of conference’s steering committee. 

“The academic boycott of Israel is outrageous, especially by someone who preaches freedom of thought. Israel is a democracy, where anyone can state his case, whatever it may be. Imposing a boycott goes against the principles of holding an open and democratic discourse.” [...]

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of the Israel Law Centre, criticised Hawking’s decision, noting that the cosmologist uses Israeli-developed technology to cope with his motor neurone illnesse.

“Hawking’s decision to join the boycott of Israel is quite hypocritical for an individual who prides himself on his own intellectual accomplishment. His whole computer-based communication system runs on a chip designed by Israel’s Intel team. I suggest that if he truly wants to pull out of Israel he should also pull out his Intel Core i7 from his tablet.”

TONIGHT: Rav Meir Triebitz: Mussar Movement & development of psychological sensitivity

Rav Triebitz will be speaking this Thursday  regarding the Seridei Aish's discussion of the development of the Mussar Movement and Dr. Steven Pinker views on the reduction of violence and increased empathy. It will take place at 8:30 at the home of Dr. Baruch Shulem. I am sending out the source material to those who have notified me that they are attending.