Responding to abuse - fight back or ignore?

One of the important questions is response to verbal abuse. Should one fight back verbally or physically? Should he ignore the insults? A related issue which is relevant also for physical or sexual abuse - should he/she forgive the assailant? The following quote from the Sefer Chinuch illustrates some of the tension.

Chinuch (#338)...However it would appear that it is not realistic to expect that if a Jew intentionally speaks badly about another person that the victim doesn’t respond. It is simply impossible that a person be like an immovable rock. Furthermore if the victim is silent in the face of the verbal abuse it is appears as if he agrees to the validity of the insult. In truth the Torah does not command that a person be as insensitive as a stone and be silent in the face of one who is insulting him - as he is to one who is giving him blessing.

Nevertheless the Torah has commanded us to distance ourselves from this situation and not to start to fight back and to insult others. We should simply avoid all of this. That is because someone who doesn’t fight will not be embarrassed by others – except by total fools and one should simply ignore fools.

On the other hand if someone is forced by the abuse to respond to his attacker – it is proper for a wise person to respond with temperance and not get overly angry. That is because anger is more appropriate for the uncultured. In this manner he will save himself from hearing insults and this will place the onus on the insulter. This is the good way for people to act.

It would seem that we could learn that it is permitted to respond to attack from the fact that the Torah permits one whose life is endangered to attack first and kill the one who threatens his life. There is no doubt that a person is not required to suffer physical harm at the hand of another person – everyone has the right to self defense. In a similar fashion he can save himself from verbal attack by replying in kind.

Nevertheless there is a type of man whose piety is so strong that he doesn’t want to be involved in this permitted activity of replying to insults. That is because he is concerned that their anger will get out of hand and they will get involved more than is appropriate. Concerning these pious people it says in Shabbos (88b): They are insulted but they don’t insult back. They hear the insults but do not reply. It about them in Shoftim (5:31): But they who love Him are as the sun when he goes forth in his might.

R' Tropper - proselytizing non-Jewish spouse is necessary for Jewish spouse to be observant

Regarding R' Tropper's rationale for what he is doing - please refer to my post from last January in which I translated an interivew with R' Tropper which had been published in Mishpacha Magazine.

Anonymous comments are rejected

I have just rejected a number of comments because they were anonymous. Make sure you pick a name and don't use the default setting of anonymous.

Bernie Madoff - Inspired faith - not scepticism

Globes - Laura Goldman writes:

When the first news of Bernard Madoff’s arrest hit me, I experienced a cacophony of emotions. For sure, I was not gloating. Anyone who has been in the brokerage industry for a long time has been preyed upon by one or more con artists. They are always the most charming guy in the room and seem to pounce on you at the exact moment that your guard is down. My main sentiment was relief that I had dodged this bullet.

I met Uncle Bernie in Palm Beach over 10 years ago. We both scoured Palm Beach for business. Bernie’s “office” was the Palm Beach Country Club which he drove to in his late model Mercedes. My workplace was more down market, the lunch counter at Green’s drugstore or the Breaker’s Hotel’s swimming pool, where I arrived on my bike.

I wish that I could say that I am totally brilliant and knew instantly that Bernie Madoff was a fraud. Being young and arrogant at the time, I can only claim that he rubbed me the wrong way. When we got together to discuss business, he told me that I was lucky he was considering letting me and my clients invest with him. The alarms bells immediately went off in my head.

Pocketbooks, perfume, and cars are sold on the whiff of exclusivity - not stocks. There was not any legitimate reason that Bernie needed to limit his portfolio size because he was trading large capitalization stocks by computer. While I tried to steer the discussion to stocks, Bernie, the former chairman of NASDAQ, went mute. He only grudgingly disclosed that he used a split conversion strategy that employed options.

Like everyone else, I was suspicious of the consistency of returns of Madoff’s fund and the structure of the investment, but they were not the ultimate deal breaker for me. Since my office was previously in the same building as the Philadelphia Options Exchange, I called some of the biggest option market makers and employees of the exchange. I asked them about Bernie. All of them knew Bernie, but none of them were handling his trades. That seemed strange to me so I passed on the investment after 45 minutes of detective work.

It was with great regret that I did not invest with Bernie. I knew that I could have made bucket-loads of money with him. The product that he “designed” was perfect for his clients. Those groups do not care about superior returns. They just do not want to lose money. I also would have had an easy time in my job. There is nothing worse than having to call clients and tell them that you lost money.

That was not the end of Bernie in my life. In prospecting for new clients, I often ran across Madoff clients. Though I urged diversification, all of them insisted on increasing their stake with Madoff. Trying to lure clients from Madoff was difficult and frustrating. I could not promise the same things.

Finally, in 2001, both Barron's and MAR/Hedge wrote articles sounding the alarm and trashing Madoff’s track record and operation. Barron's and Mar/Hedge are not tabloids reporting on Jennifer Aniston’s pregnancy, but examples of responsible financial journalism at its best. It piqued my curiosity that 2 publications raised questions about Bernie at the same time. These articles should have raised the suspicions of everyone but the illiterate.[...]

HaRav Eliashiv, shilta - Kiruv of intermarried couples

The following is an except of a letter that Rav Efrati wrote regarding Rav Eliashiv's views regarding kiruv where part of the audience consists of non-Jews. This is the beginning paragraph and the ending paragraph of the letter.

“According to the facts that I have received - the community being discussed here is one that is far from observing the mitzvos according to halacha. Recently talmidei chachomim have come to the community in order to encourage their observance. However they discovered that some of the members of the community are actually goyim who mistakenly think that they are Jews. However the entire community thinks that they are in fact Jews. It is very difficult to treat them differently than the rest of the community. Even concerning Torah lectures which these avreichim give to the community, these goyim are in the audience. According to the information that has been given, trying to separate out these goyim from the rest of the community at this stage and keeping them from attending the Torah classes will result in the cancellation of all the classes....

Rav Eliashiv, shlita has repeatedly said that those living as intermarried couples cut themselves off from the Jewish people. Furthermore he holds that we are obligated to distance ourselves from them and their society and to cut off all connection with them. However this community is different because its members mistakenly think that the non‑Jewish spouses are Jewish. Therefore it is permitted to maintain ties with the Jewish spouses in order to draw them closer through ties of love and to bring them under the wings of the Shechina.”

Genetic Testing - Conceal Information?

Jewish Week [referred by RaP]

A national medical expert charged this week that the head of the leading organization screening for Jewish genetic diseases is “playing God” by withholding information from people who have tested positive for Gaucher’s disease, a serious and often painful illness that effects one in 450 to 500 Ashkenazim, making it the most common of Jewish genetic diseases.

Dr. Stuart Ditchek, director of the Jewish Genetic Diseases Consortium, a nonprofit organization founded two years ago to increase education and awareness, and encourage genetic testing, told The Jewish Week that Rabbi Joseph Eckstein, the founder and director of Dor Yeshorim (Generation of the Righteous), the largest screening program of its kind, dissuades people from testing for Gaucher’s so as not to discourage young men and women who may be carriers from marrying each other.

What’s more, Ditchek charges that Rabbi Eckstein has acknowledged that he has not informed people who have tested positive for Gaucher’s that they have the disease.

“He is playing God,” Ditchek said of Rabbi Eckstein, asserting that there is no ethical or alachic basis for depriving such medical information from a patient.

Due to medical advances over the last two decades, enzyme replacement therapy has proven quite successful in treating and controlling Gaucher, with the best results occurring when it is detected before the patient reaches his or her late teens.

“Several medical experts and I have met with the rabbi and shown him the research, and explained that we can save these people from a life of suffering,” said Ditchek, a Brooklyn-based pediatrician. “We told him we know he has the information and that he needs to inform these people [of the results], but he resisted.” [...]
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Rav Moshe Feinstein psak concerning Dor Yeshorim

שו"ת אגרות משה אבן העזר חלק ד סימן י


אם יש לבדוק למחלת טיי סאכס קודם הנישואין.

י"ח אדר השני תשל"ג. למע"כ חתני כבני הרב הגאון מוהר"ר משה דוד טענדלער שליט"א.

הנה בדבר הילדים שנולדו שלפי הטבע חיים זמן קצר כשנתים ושלש ומתים הנקרא טיי - סאכס והם נולדים מאב ואם ששניהם יש להם סבה זו שאף שאין זה חסרון להם בעצמם אירע שנולדין מזה ילדים כאלו, ואם יש זה רק לאחד מהם לא אירע זה, ויש לידע זה מבדיקה בהדם של האיש והאשה, אשר אז כשידע הבחור או הבתולה שיש להם חסרון זה יראה ליקח לאשה בתולה כזו שאין בה חסרון זה, והבתולה שיש בה חסרון זה תראה להנשא לבחור שאין בו חסרון זה, ורוצים לידע דעתי העניה אם מן הראוי להבחור או להבתולה להשתדל לידע זה, ואם טוב לידע בזה אם לעשות בדיקה זו בקטנותם או רק כשיגיע זמנם להנשא, ואם לעשות זה באופן פרסום או בצנעא, עיינתי בזה וזהו הנראה לע"ד כי אף שהוא מיעוט קטן ילדים נולדים כאלו ושייך לומר על זה הקרא דתמים תהיה עם ה' אלקיך וכפרש"י בחומש שם שכתב התהלך עמו בתמימות ותצפה לו ולא תחקור אחר העתידות, מ"מ כיון שעתה נעשה זה באופן קל לבדוק יש לדון שאם אינו בודק את עצמו הוא כסגירת העינים לראות מה שאפשר לראות, ומכיון שאם ח"ו אירע דבר כזה הוא להורי הילד צער גדול מאד מן הראוי למי שצריך לישא אשה לבדוק את עצמו. ולכן טוב לפרסם הדבר ע"י עתונים ואופנים שידעו העולם שאיכא בדיקה כזו.

אבל ברור ופשוט שצריך להעשות הדבר בצנעא שלא ידע בחור אחד מחברו ובתולה אחת מחברתה, וגם הרופא אשר יעשה אצלו הבדיקה לא יגלה לשום איש כי אף שהרופאים מעידין שאם יקח אשה שאין בה חסרון זה וכן כשהיא תקח איש שאין בו חסרון זה אינו כלום לא יאמינו הרבה בני אדם ולא יוכלו להשיג שידוך שלכן צריך הדבר להיות בצנעא, ולכן לא טוב הדבר לעשות בקבוץ רב כמו בישיבות ובתי ספר וכדומה.

וגם כפי שידוע כחות הנפש שרוב בני אדם סובלין הרבה מהעצבים שלהם שנקראו נערוון שמצייר להאדם דבר קטן לגדול וחשש קטן לחשש גדול בפרט במדינה הזאת כידוע, שלכן ח"ו לעשות בדיקה זו לבחורים צעירים שעדיין אין חושבין בענין נישואין והרוב הוא שעד עשרים אין חושבין בזה ואין לדבר אליהם כלל בענין זה. וגם לבד זה מכיון שהדבר צריך להיות בצנעא שלא ידעו אחרים מזה, הוא דבר קשה מאד לפני בחורים צעירים להיות בעלי סוד וזה יזיק לעצמן ולאחרים. ובתולות שדרכן להנשא כשהן צעירות אין לעשות בדיקה זו לפחות מבת שמונה עשרה שנה, ואם יזדמן בבחור אחד או בתולה אחת ירצו להנשא קודם הרי הוא מיעוטא דמיעוטא שאין לחוש לזה וגם מכיון שהדבר נתפרסם הרי יותר נוטה שיודעין מזה.

ובענין הקרן (פאנד) לזה שהוא מנכרים ומיהודים שאינם שומרי תורה שיש להם שיטה אחרת שעושין הפלה להעובר שנבדק והוא ולד כזה, שזה הוא דבר אסור שרופאים שומרי תורה לא יעשו דבר אסור כזה איני רואה צורך ותועלת לרופאים שומרי תורה שיהיו ג"כ שייכין לקרן, ואם יש צורך ותועלת לענין דברים המותרים ליכא בזה איסור, אך יזהרו שלא יראה שגם הרופאים שומרי תורה מסכימים להתיר הפלת עוברים, אבל כל מה שאפשר שהרופאים שומרי תורה לא יהיו שייכין להם הוא טוב ביותר.

חותנך כאביך, אוהבך בלו"נ, משה פיינשטיין

Chabad - G-d erred in India / Chas v'shalom

שולחן ערוך חושן משפט סימן רכח סעיף ד

אם היו יסורין באים עליו, לא יאמר לו כדרך שאמרו חביריו לאיוב: הלא יראתך כסלתך זכר נא מי הוא נקי אבד (איוב ד, ו).

סמ"ע סימן רכח ס"ק ו

ו] כדרך שאמרו חביריו לאיוב כו'. והם שאמרו לו כן, מפני שהיה איוב מטיח דברים כלפי השגחת השם יתברך ומדותיו:

Hashem THE source of blessing! said:

I would like to post the words of the Rebbe in his letter where he states the need to put the trust in Hashem more than in a human of flesh and blood (even in a Tzadik like the Rebbe!).

The Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote:

עמוד 30 (הערה :נכתבה כז חשון ל"ד אשה שהפילה ר"ל לאחרי שקיבלה מענה וברכת כ"ק אדמור שאם ישמרו טהרת המשפחה לא תחשוש מלתהעבר וכפי דבריהם שמרו בכל הפרטים הפילה עוה"פ והאשה חזרה וכתבה לכ"ק אדמו"ר ולא קיבלה מענה על מכתבה וביקשה לשאול פירש הדבר שאחרי הברכה והמענה היה יכול להיות כזאת ):

“..., ד- הזוג שכחו שהשם הוא מקור הברכה ונותנה וכו' ובטחו רק בבן אדם בשר ואדם, בי...”.

KosherTube & Rabbi Tropper

Rabbi Tropper is on the rabbinic advisory board of KosherTube KosherTube is the official website of the Electronic Torah Educational Foundation,a nonprofit organization established in 2007 by Michael Kigel and David Ostriker.

Sex offenders - This is justice?

Haaretz reports:

A teacher who molested a student for two and a half years, starting
when the boy was 5, will perform six months of community service and
pay the boy NIS 2,000 in a plea bargain reached Monday.[...]

History - Hitler’s Jewish Prophet

R' Avraham Broide

By writer/editor/illustrator

http://www.amazingjewishfacts.com/

Hitler and his Nazi henchmen were great believers in astrology. Such as when U.S.A. President, Franklin Roosevelt, passed away towards the end of WW2, on April 5705/1945. Upon hearing the news, Nazi Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels, yelled out, “Bring out the best champagne! ...It is written in the stars that the second half of April will be the turning point for us. This is Friday, April the 13^th. It is the turning point!” Needless to say, he was wrong.

Early in the Nazi career, the Nazi craze for fortune-telling brought about one of the strangest symbiotic relationships in human history. During the 20's, Herschman-Chaim Steinschneider, had built up a career as a skilled magician and clairvoyant, covering his Jewish tracks by naming himself Hanussen. Suddenly, he reached the climax of his career by becoming one of Hitler's closest confidants.

This happened during March 5692/1932, when Hitler’s political future seemed doomed. The Nazis had lost seats in the Reichstag and their coffers were drained. Then Hanussen predicted that Nazi victory was just around the corner. Hitler would become Reichschancellor within the year. When Hanussen printed his startling “prophecy” in his weekly newspaper, the “Berliner Woshenschau,” Hitler became so excited that he invited the famous clairvoyant to meet privately with him at his headquarters in the Kaiserhof Hotel.

Hanussen met Hitler about a dozen times that year and became his favorite “hellseher” (clairvoyant). Hanussen used the Nazi power to raise his prestige and fame, while Nazi leaders used him as an endless source of private loans. He informed a fellow clairvoyant that his aim was to eventually convince Hitler that not all Jews were that bad.

On February 26, 5693/1933, Hanussen was displaying his fortune telling skills in front of a crowd including Nazi officials and VIPs, when he suddenly leapt to his feet and began screaming that he “saw a great house burning.” Not long afterwards, the Reichstag (German parliament) went up on in smoke. It is highly suspected that the Nazis had started the fire in order to declare a state of emergency and seize extraordinary powers.

Perhaps the Nazis resented Hanussen’s leaking of their secret plans. For one reason or another he was doomed, penning a note in invisible ink to a colleague, “"I always thought that business about the Jews was just an election trick of theirs. It wasn't." On the morning of March 25, 5693/1933, a car stopped next to him and he was ordered to get in. That was the last time anyone saw Hanussen alive. The Nazis seized his assets, IOUs recording debts of over 150,000 marks mysteriously disappeared, and Hanussen is remembered as one of Nazi Germany's first Jewish victims.

See the full-length story and more at:

http://www.amazingjewishfacts.com/

Bailout money - no accounting ?!

AP reports: [see also CNN]

WASHINGTON – It's something any bank would demand to know before handing out a loan: Where's the money going? But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they can't track exactly how they're spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it.

"We've lent some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it,'" said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to."

The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what's the plan for the rest?

None of the banks provided specific answers.

"We're not providing dollar-in, dollar-out tracking," said Barry Koling, a spokesman for Atlanta, Ga.-based SunTrust Banks Inc., which got $3.5 billion in taxpayer dollars. Some banks said they simply didn't know where the money was going.[...]

Chabad - Matisyahu's Journey

Forward reports: Referred by Michael Elkohen

[...]

“I’ve been through all these different phases in Chabad. Chabad has been a bit of a roller coaster for me. It was very pure in the sense that I totally divested myself from all of the confusion that I was living in. I wasn’t getting high, I wasn’t with women — I was waking up every morning and learning Torah all day. And so, in certain senses it was a pure process,” Matisyahu said.

“But there was a lot of alcoholism going on, in my experience, and a lot of borderline —” He interrupted himself. “I definitely lost myself, as well, in the process, in the sense that I somehow stopped thinking for myself. I became completely dependent on other people for my sense of what was right and wrong. I felt incapable of making my own decisions. I was borderline completely losing my mind.” And then, he said, he pulled himself out of Chabad.

It was during this period that he began working with the now Jerusalem-based therapist Ephraim Rosenstein, whom he now considers his personal friend and religious mentor.

“[Rosenstein] was able to help me come to some realizations that were really ground-breaking, and kept me from where I think I would have lost my mind in the state of being I was in at that time,” Matisyahu said. “After that happened, once my therapy came to a certain place, and I’d gotten pretty healthy, I wanted to continue with my spirituality. I guess the therapy to me was sort of getting to know myself as a valid means of spiritual growth. I wanted to take it from a personal to an intellectual kind of thing, so we started learning together. Instead of therapy, I was paying him to discuss ideas, basically.

“I’ve stopped identifying with any group of Judaism. I would now call myself an Orthodox Jew. I try to keep the tenets of halachic Judaism as strongly as possible, but I don’t identify with any one movement.”

He noted that he has not severed ties with the movement completely: “My kids go to a Lubavitch yeshiva and are named after rebbes. I have Lubavitch friends, and we stay with shlichim [emissaries] around the world. I feel I have some in-depth knowledge of Hasidus and Chabad philosophy, and close ties with Lubavitch. But I don’t feel the need to be any one thing.

“In Chabad, there was always the tendency to deify everything, whether it was the rebbes or the learning,” Matisyahu said. “[There was] this sense that you couldn’t ask questions about any of it, that if you didn’t accept it, you weren’t accepting the Torah. It was as if you weren’t religious, and that this was the one path and the true path and that anything outside of it, even if it was a different kind of Hasidim, was certainly looked down upon.” With Rosenstein, he said, Matisyahu relished a different mode of studying, which focused on placing teachings into historical and social contexts and then comparing them with other Hasidus and philosophies of Judaism. [...]

Psychology of Evil - Milgram study

The following is the video of the actual Milgram Study done in the 1960's.

The Milgram Experiment - Obedience 1/5

CNN reports:

If someone told you to press a button to deliver a 450-volt electrical shock to an innocent person in the next room, would you do it?

Common sense may say no, but decades of research suggests otherwise.

In the early 1960s, a young psychologist at Yale began what became one of the most widely recognized experiments in his field. In the first series, he found that about two-thirds of subjects were willing to inflict what they believed were increasingly painful shocks on an innocent person when the experimenter told them to do so, even when the victim screamed and pleaded.

The legacy of Stanley Milgram, who died 24 years ago on December 20, reaches far beyond that initial round of experiments. Researchers have been working on the questions he posed for decades, and have not settled on a brighter vision of human obedience.

A new study to be published in the January issue of American Psychologist confirmed these results in an experiment that mimics many of Milgram's original conditions. This and other studies have corroborated the startling conclusion that the majority of people, when placed in certain kinds of situations, will follow orders, even if those orders entail harming another person.

"It's situations that make ordinary people into evil monsters, and it's situations that make ordinary people into heroes," said Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford University and author of "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil." [...]

Rav Kaduri zt"l & Lubavitcher Rebbe zt"l

Madoff scam spurs online anti-Semitism

JPost reports:

In the wake of what police believe to be a $50 billion Ponzi scheme engineered by Wall Street insider Bernard Madoff, a flood of anti-Semitic comments have deluged the internet, being posted on various mainstream and extremist websites, the Anti-Defamation League reported.

"Jews are always a convenient scapegoat in times of crisis, but the Madoff scandal and the fact that so many of the defrauded investors are Jewish has created a perfect storm for the anti-Semites," Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, said in a press release published by the organization on Friday. "Nowadays, the first place Jew-haters will go is to the Internet, where they can give voice to their hateful ideas without fear of repercussions."

"Blogging and social media sites are changing the way people communicate their reactions to events in the news and interact with each other," Foxman continued. "More people are online than ever before, and many more Web sites offer users the ability to comment immediately and anonymously. Those who harbor anti-Semitic beliefs feel most comfortable expressing themselves in cyberspace, where they can provoke a reaction from others or find like-minded individuals to affirm their beliefs."[...]

Chareidi college - R' O. Yosef's daughter

Haaretz reports:

There was no happier moment in Adina Bar-Shalom's life than when she stood to recite the Shehechiyanu prayer, said on special occasions, at the first commencement ceremony of Haredi College. It was two years ago that the ultra-Orthodox institution she founded in Jerusalem graduated its first class of female social workers. She looked at her father, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. The spiritual mentor of the Shas Party sat in the VIP section of the Jerusalem Convention Center auditorium, together with Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Shas chairman Eli Yishai and other dignitaries. Rabbi Ovadia looked pleased. Bar-Shalom was overjoyed that Haredi women now had a path to higher education - in no small part thanks to her efforts - and that her father had been a constant pillar of support. [...]

Chabad - The Rebbe runs the world? II/ Defense

This is the video from "Chabad - The Rebbe runs the world? I". Refer to that for the previous comments. This post is specifically regarding AH Bochur's defense of Rabbi Cunin's comments

Rabbi Cunin: "They will understand and see that the Rebbe runs the world and will take us out of golus".

A H Bochur's Defense

The short answer is, that R. Kunin's words are in fact the Rebbe's words, verbatim (for instance here):

כיון ש"צדיקא דאתפטר אשתכח בכולהו עלמין יתיר מבחיוהי" [זח"ג עא, ב. הובא ונת'
בתניא אגה"ק ביאור לסי' ז"ך], "שגם בזה העולם המעשה אשתכח יתיר" [ראה תניא
שם] – בודאי שהרבי מנהיג את העולם כולו, ואנ"ש בפרט, ומעורר רחמים רבים
וכו', כמו שהי' עד עתה, ואדרבה, ביתר שאת וביתר עוז.

וכשם שעד עתה הי' מונח ("אָפּגעלייגט") אצל כאו"א מאתנו שהרבי יוליכנו לקראת משיח צדקנו – צריך להיות מונח כן גם עתה.

--משיחת ש"פ תרומה, פ' זכור, ח' אדר, ה'שי"ת

Since the Rebbe was someone who authored a prolific amount on the topic of Achdus Hashem, and since the Rebbe is familiar with more philosophic Kabbala than the rest of us, that alone is enough for R. Shlomo Kunin, and that is why that isn't shocking.

---

The long answer is that Kabbala has all sorts of forces "running the world", with the innovative distinction that they are b'achdus with Hashem; this is in fact what Kabbala is mostly here to accomplish: to define the status of the ייחוד various עולמות and ספירות. There are some who lose sight of the point, and get involved in lengthy pilpulim on the exact "direction" זרועות דאריך אנפין are facing; that may have importance, but the essential point of Kabbala remains the gauging of the increasing unity of the material and then spiritual forces the closer G-d is approached.

But while that certainly suffices for someone who is familiar with Kabbala and it's ideas (and not only strictly it's technicalities), I'll note for now an explicit source which deals specifically with people running the world. It is from a famous letter penned by a leading disciple of the Maggid of Mezerich, R. Mendel of Vitepsk.

At the moment I don't have a copy of the entire letter, but I'll provide that as soon as I get a copy of Pri Ha'aretz.

R. Mendel had received a letter requesting that he bestow the author with children. R. Mendel replied that he doesn't control the world, although the Baal Shem Tov did:

בושת פני כסתני, כי התחת אלקים אני – היו
היה דבר ה' ביד הבעל שם, ויגזור אומר ויקם. אחד היה, ומהקדמונים לא קם
כמוהו, ואחריו לעפר מי יקום.

that translates roughly, "I am throughly embarrassed because I cannot stand in G-d's stead. The Baal Shem [could, for he] had the word of G-d in his power, and he would decree and it would be. He was unique, since the ancient there were none like him, and who could be after him?"

So R. Mendel has stated that the Baal Shem is תחת אלקים and can control the world. This actually is alluded to in the Yerushalmi (

תענית פ"ג ה"י):

ותגזר אומר ויקם לך, אפילו הוא אומר הכין ואת אמר הכין, דידך קיימא דידי לא קיימא

Furthermore, the reference to דבר ה' is in fact to the עשרה מאמרות which are Kabbalistically the spiritual force upon which all existence exists. So R. Mendel has stated that the Besht's powers derived from the fact that he could manipulate the very core of existence.

While it is impossible to teach these extremely detailed concepts in the comments to a blog, I'll suffice by explaining that all normative Jewish though and philosophy is seen by Kabbala to apply only within the סדר השתלשלות
העולמות which begins with the עשר ספירות דאצילות. Whereas what is higher, for instance בחינת הכתר, has complete power of veto over any "worldly" notion.

Kabbala and Chassidus entertain the possibility of man "reaching" that level, and then they indeed may "control the world". That is peshat in the Yerushalmi.

P.S. there are more sources on the topic of התחת אלקים אני which I'll hopefully post soon.

Beit Shemesh - Ready to explode against Chareidim

YNET reports: [Warning - problematic pictures] English version here

חשש בבית שמש: "דתיים יצאו לנקום בחרדים"

שלוש נערות דתיות הותקפו בשבת שעברה על ידי אנשי העדה החרדית בעיר, שטענו כי הן מכניסות לשכונה "ערווה ופריצות". חבר מועצה דתי: "לא ניתן לאנשי סדום לגור בתוכנו". תושב חרדי ל-ynet: "יש מידע על מסע נקם שהם מתכננים להערב האברכים שלנו ערוכים לקרב ומוכנים להיכנס על זה לכלא"

קובי נחשוני

בית שמש בוערת:
תושבים דתיים בעיר מדווחים כי בתקופה האחרונה הותקפו כמה פעמים על ידי שכניהם, אנשי העדה החרדית, הטוענים כי הם מכניסים "פריצות וערווה" למקום ומשפיעים לרעה על ילדיהם. במקרה האחרון, שאירע בליל שבת שעברה, תקפו כמה מהם שלוש נערות שחלפו בשכונתם - שתיים הצליחו לברוח כשהן מוכות וחבולות, והשלישית יצאה בשלום מהמקום רק אחרי שהסכימה לעטוף את עצמה בחלוק ארוך בסגנון חרדי. בקהילה החרדית טוענים כי דווקא הדתיים הם ש"התחילו" וכי בידיהם מידע על פעולת נקם שהם מתכננים להערב (ליל שבת). "האברכים פה לא יעברו על זה בשתיקה", מזהיר אחד התושבים החרדים, "יש פה הרבה שמוכנים גם לשבת בבית סוהר".

בעקבות אירועי השבועות האחרונים פנו בעניין אנשי הקהילה הדתית-לאומית בבית שמש לראש העיר ולנציגיהם במועצה ואף הגישו תלונה במשטרה. במקביל הם
מקיימים מגעים עם גורמים בעדה החרדית ובהם הרב

....

Growing tensions between ultra-Orthodox and religious residents in the town of Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem, have recently escalated into violence as three teen girls were beaten up by haredim who claimed they were "immodestly" dressed. [...]

According to reports, the three 15-year-old girls went for a walk after the Shabbat dinner last Friday, and passed through a haredi neighborhood. At some point they noticed that they were being followed by several men. A Few minutes later the men entered one of the buildings and then came back outside accompanied by dozens of people who then stormed the girls.[...]

Meanwhile the members of the Haredi Community stream in Beit Shemesh present a different version for the state of affairs in town. Moshe, a haredi resident, said that young religious boys and girls often pass through the haredi neighborhood together, and that on occasion yeshiva students have to "drive them away by force." "Boys and girls laughing together is forbidden. This shouldn't happen in a secular neighborhood, let alone an ultra-Orthodox one," Moshe stated.[...]

Throwing Shoes - Butterfly Effect & Middle East

Time Magazine:

Beware of people throwing things at you in the Middle East, even shoes. Think David and Goliath or the Palestinian intifadeh — a rebellion set off by a thrown rock. Or better yet, think of the rocks thrown in Nabatiyah, Lebanon, on Oct. 16, 1983.

On that fateful day, a routine Israeli military patrol cut through a Shi'a religious procession, rocks flew, and the Israelis fired back. Two Lebanese were killed. The Israelis expected little to come of it, understanding too late just how frustrated the Lebanese Shi'a were — frustrated by their own government, by the Palestinians, by the Americans, by the French, as well as by the invading Israelis.

Nabatiyah quickly metastasized into a vicious 17-year guerrilla war. It would turn out to be Hizballah's Boston Tea Party, and led to Israel's first defeat in the field of battle when Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000.For us, though, Nabatiyah should be a crucial lesson in how a small act of defiance can turn into a viral contagion. (See the top 10 awkward moments of 2008.).

The man who threw the pair of shoes at President Bush on Sunday was a Shi'a Arab who for years has expressed his bitter frustration about the way things have gone in Iraq. Contacts in Iraq told me that the man came to despise the al-Maliki government because he believes it sold out not just to the U.S. but to Iran as well. He was furious that the al-Maliki government is fabulously corrupt and incompetent. How else can you explain the $100 billion of development money that disappeared down the rat holes in Washington and Baghdad? Or how the electricity and water shortages continue, as do the car bombs in Shi'a neighborhoods? And he is furious that the U.S. intends to abandon Iraq in three years, leaving a mess behind.[...]

Father's Jewish - try to convert?

This is an excerpt from R' Aryeh Ginzburg's sefer [pp 266-267.] As a young man he went around to gedolim with many important questions. He compiled this sefer from the answers. I personally find the sefer very frustrating since these are not teshuvos written by gedolim. Consequently there is no context or clarity. In other words you can't rely on these halacha le'maseh. It is also not valid to make diyukim in what he says. On the other hand he had very solid haskomas. Bottom line this material is thought provoking and encourages further study of the matter. The full sefer itself is available at Hebrew Books

There is a fundamental difference between what Rabbi Tropper is doing and the possible heter of a number of gedolim. As Rabbi Fuerst of Chicago has pointed out.

Are we dealing with someone who views themselves as Jewish? Someone who views themselves as Jewish and is enrolled in a Jewish school or attending kiruv meetings - is a serious problem for intermarriage. Rav Moshe Feinstein also suggests converting non-Jewish children who are attending a day school. He also says a similar heter regarding the Ethiopians in Israel who view themselves as Jewish.

On the other hand Rabbi Tropper is targeting non-Jews who have no doubt that they are not Jewish and are married to Jews. He claims that conversion is necessary for the sake of kiruv for the Jewish spouse.

Non of the gedolim mentioned advocated running after intermarried couples. In fact Rav Eliashiv explicitly stated concerning kiruv that the time honored practice has always been to ostracize such couples. Rav Eliashiv also makes an exception for a Jew who is married to a non-Jew who mistakenly thinks he/she is Jewish.

Gedolim oppose R' Amar's new organization

Dei'ah veDibur: [forwarded by RaP]

December 18, 2008

Gedolei Yisroel shlita voiced their staunch opposition to Merkaz Rabbanei Eretz Yisroel, noting it poses a dire threat to the conceptual and halachic independence of rabbonim in Israel and could herald a takeover attempt that would foist certain opinions on all rabbonim and the entire public in Israel.

A short time ago Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar founded and became president of an organization called Merkaz Rabbanei Eretz Yisroel, which seeks to unite all rabbis in Israel. The aim of the organization is to serve as a supreme rabbinical body in the State of Israel and it threatens to place itself in a position to determine halacha and hashkofoh in every area for the entire public, including kashrus, mikvehs, conversion, etc.

Letters sent to all rabbonim in Israel intended to persuade them to join the organization listed the names of prominent rabbonim supposedly slated to serve on the presidential board without first seeking their consent.

Many rabbonim, including prominent rabbonim, declined to join whereas others have joined the new organization, which ostensibly seeks to uphold the Torah and the rabbinate without any ulterior motives. Others joined because they were concerned they might be targeted if they refused.[...]

Russian immigrants attack Chareidim in Haifa

YNet reports:

The ultra Orthodox community has recently expressed concerns that the crime rate in the Hadar area of the northern Israeli city of Haifa is on the rise. Those concerns have been compounded by several violent attacks on residents of the area's religious neighborhoods.

Avi Weizmann, head of the Shas faction in the Haifa Municipality warned Thursday that unless the police crack down on crime in the area, local community members will have no choice but to take matters into their own hands. We will take to the streets and establish our own Orthodox patrols," he said. "We've come to a point where dozens of people have been brutally attacked in the Hadar Neighborhood. We cannot accept this violence and if the police won't take care of it, we will."

Most of the violent incidents have reportedly taken place in the area's Shtrug Park, which is frequented by the local Orthodox community, as well as the secular one, which is made up of many Russian immigrants. "The park is the center of a violent turf war, between the haredim, who are an innately closed society, and the immigrants, some of whom are not Jewish, who view them as the enemy," said a local resident. [...]

Anusim - Ashenazim more accepting

Aryeh wrote:

I am a Bnai Anusim, and it's been a struggle not only for my ancestors, but for me too. We faced hundreds of years of persecution by Catholics, only to have many modern day Jews reject us. There is a story of Moroccan Sephardi Jews coming back to Portugal in the 20th century and establishing a Sephardi synagogue. When the Anusim hiding in Portugal for hundreds of years came out and reached out to their Sephardic brothers they were rejected.

The Moroccan Jews felt remorseful that the Anusim's ancestors stayed behind in Portugal during the expulsion. When Polish Jews established an Ashkenazi synagogue in the same place, they accepted the Anusim. When the Ashkenazi Jews went out of their way to teach the Anusim about their unique Sephardi minhag, the Anusim wanted to learn only Ashkenazi traditions because it was the Sephardi Jews that rejected them.

Rabbi's in Israel estimate that there are up to 60 million people of Jewish descent in Latin America. They also estimate that 10% of the Portuguese population is of Jewish descent. These are people that want to be religiously Jewish, and I feel can be an answer to the problem of a declining world Jewish population.

My family left Portugal in the late 1700's/early 1800's. They kept Shabbat, they refused to eat blood, they would cover the mirror when someone dies, they were extremely weary of the evil eye, they would light candles every day instead of just on Friday nights to throw off the inquisitors and they would get together every thursday at sunset and pray in the basement, purposefully not praying on Friday at sunset so they wouldn't get caught.

Although I am a male, I have a purely matralineal line going back to these Portuguese ancestors yet I would be hard pressed to find any Orthodox Rabbi in the world willing to say I'm Jewish. Despite how hard we fought to remain so.

Chanuka - Jewish Christmas? /Aish HaTorah

http://www.aish.com/movies/TwasChanukahNight.asp

EJF - revised video

Videos -Eternal Jewish Family - Preservation Of The Jewish Culture

Video about EJF's dedication to promote the concept of universally accepted conversions in intermarriage as a way of preserving the Jewish family.

Rav Soloveitchik's lectures III - Commensurability

Rav Meir Triebitz writes:

We have already hinted that the Rav views halacha as the central basis for a philosophy of Judaism. This theme appears over and over again in the Rav’s writings, and in particular in lecture XII where he declares:

Whether an idea is typically Jewish can best be judged by the halacha – not the Aggadah – to understand any work as the authority meant to convey and you must have lived in the same social environment and cultural forces as the author. Mankind is changeable in its cognitive adventures, and to say that I understand Aristotle means in the tradition of Aristotle, which, of course, has been subject to change. In halacha there is a masoret, a tradition as to method, but if I give an interpretation to Maimonides, it does not necessarily mean that Maimonides meant just that. If measured by halachic standards it is correct. That suffices. But as to Aggadah, there is no tradition, nor in philosophy do we have a tradition. In halacha there is a certain kabballah without any missing links, while in Aggada and certainly philosophy there are many such missing links.

It appears to me that the Rav’s remarks concerning evolution are an attempt to achieve what I would call ‘halachic commensurability’ and not, merely, ‘scientific commensurability’. While Judaism views man as the “bearer of a divine image” and therefore endowed with the capacity for transcendence, this transcendence, in the Rav’s words, “was always seen against the background of naturalness. The canvas was man’s immanence; transcendence was just projected on it as a display of colors” (Emergence of Ethical Man p. 9). The Rav is clearly speaking from the standpoint of the halachah. In contradistinction, “Christianity succeeded in isolating them and reducing the element of naturalness to a state of corruption” (ibid.). This has to be seen as a consequence of Christianity’s rejection of the halacha.

Bernard Madoff II - Impact on Jews

JPost reports: ---- [See previous post]

At least $600 million in Jewish charitable funds have been wiped out by the collapse of Bernard Madoff's Wall Street investment firm, a partial review by The Jerusalem Post revealed Monday.

Yet much is still hidden about what may amount to the most spectacular financial disaster to hit Jewish life since the Great Depression, with unconfirmed losses totaling up to $1.5 billion.

Furthermore, the Post's figures do not include billions of dollars lost to individual and family investors, many of whom were the primary donors to Jewish schools, synagogues and communal charities.[...]

For the worldwide Jewish community, the fact that the man at the heart of what may be Wall Street's worst-ever fraud was an active member of the community could be the worst news yet in a bad recession period.

Not only could Madoff's alleged dishonesty increase anti-Semitic feeling in a time of worldwide economic downturn, said many Jewish leaders, but his close involvement with the Jewish community has exposed vast amounts of Jewish communal assets to his scheme.[...]

"This is a tidal wave, a tsunami," said a veteran advisor to Jewish nonprofits, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "You can live with a downturn in the economy, because there will be an upturn. But now we're talking about foundations that have been wiped out completely, money that's not recoverable."[...]

T.V. & the Israeli "soul"

YNET reports:

A school in central Israel decided to postpone an educational trip scheduled for Tuesday evening because the date clashes with the final episode of the hugely popular reality show "Big Brother."

The show provides viewers with 24/7 access to the lives of a group of participants locked up in a house monitored by multiple TV cameras and completely isolated from the outside world.

In the three months it has been broadcast, "Big Brother" has swept large audiences in Israel, with a substantial proportion being glued to the screen most hours of the day. The show has also been the focus of much controversy lately, due to its blatant content and its allegedly negative influence on teenagers and TV culture in Israel. [...]

Reality - Israeli-American gap of perception

JPost - R' Jonathan Rosenblum writes:

No subject so divides the Jews of Israel and America as that which once bound them most closely: Israel itself. To appreciate the gap, try telling an American Jew that George W. Bush was the president who best understood Israel's predicament and watch his jaw drop.

American Jewry is lining up behind a return to the hyperactive American peacemaking of the Clinton years. The Jewish Alliance for Peace and Justice, according to an article in New York's Jewish Week, recently obtained the signatures of 800 rabbis on a petition to President-elect Barack Obama urging him to make the Israeli-Palestinian peace process an early priority, beginning with the appointment of a high-level envoy to the region. And the new left-wing group, J Street, contacted the Obama transition team to argue that American Jews want a more active peace process and that large Democratic majorities in Congress provide the incoming administration with the power to push an aggressive peacemaking agenda.

J Street is likely right. For many American Jews, Israel has become a drag. If they were to wake up tomorrow and find that Israel had bloodlessly disappeared and its Jews had found safe haven elsewhere, they would be relieved. That includes the 50 percent of American Jews under 35 who told sociologists Steven Cohen and Ari Kelman that they would not view the destruction of Israel as a personal tragedy.

Others, such the Jewish Alliance for Peace and Justice and Americans for Peace Now, are intensely concerned with events in Israel. But it is their cherished image of the Jew as the bearer of universal justice, not concern with the lives of Jews of Israel, that primarily drives their Middle East agenda. So long as Israel does not have peace with its neighbors and is the subject of widespread obloquy, that image is tarnished.

Even among the 3% of Reform Jews and 6% of Conservative Jews for whom Israel is the crucial issue driving their voting choices (according to a May study conducted by the American Jewish Committee), there are many who would not protest intense American pressure on Israel, as long as known "pro-Israel" figures like incoming secretary of state Hillary Clinton, and prominent American Jews such as Dan Kurtzer, Martin Indyk and Rahm Emmanuel, are the ones turning the screws.

And who can blame them, when Israel's prime minister himself says Israel's future depends on the speedy achievement of a peace agreement with the Palestinians? For all Ehud Olmert's venality, nothing so reveals his soul-deep corruption as having deliberately handed any future American president the club to pressure Israel without doffing the mantle of "a true friend."

THOSE AMERICAN Jews who still fret about the safety of their brethren in Israel should at least ask themselves: Why do the majority of Israel's Jews view matters so differently? Why are they poised to elect as their next prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the bete-noire of the Clinton administration in the heady days of Oslo? Is it that Israelis are an anomaly in Jewish history - fanatic warriors craving permanent warfare? Or is it rather that they learned something over the
past 15 years?[...]

$50 Billion rip off - Bernard Madoff

NYTimes reports: [See Time Magazine link]

The zoning lawyer in Miami trusted him because his father had dealt profitably with him for decades. The officers of a little charity in Massachusetts respected him and relied on his advice.

Wealthy men like J. Ezra Merkin, the chairman of GMAC; Fred Wilpon, the principal owner of the New York Mets; and Norman Braman, who owned the Philadelphia Eagles, simply appreciated the steady returns he produced, regardless of market conditions.

But these clients of Bernard L. Madoff had this in common: They chose him to oversee much of their personal wealth.

And now, they fear, they have lost it.

While Mr. Madoff is facing federal criminal charges, accused by federal prosecutors of operating a vast $50 billion Ponzi scheme, many of his clients are facing an abrupt reversal of fortune that is the stuff of nightmares.

“There are people who were very, very well off a few days ago who are now virtually destitute,” said Brad Friedman, a lawyer with the Milberg firm in Manhattan. “They have nothing left but their apartments or homes — which they are going to have to sell to get money to live on.”

From New York to Palm Beach, business associates of Mr. Madoff spent Friday assessing the damage, the extent of which will not be known for some time. Many invested with Mr. Madoff through other funds and may not know that their money is at risk.[...]

Mr. Madoff has resigned from his positions at Yeshiva University, where he was treasurer for the university’s board and deeply involved in the business school.

“Our lawyers and accountants are investigating all aspects of his relationship to Yeshiva University,” said Hedy Shulman, a spokeswoman for the university.

The most recent tax filings for the university show that its endowment fund, a separate charity, was heavily invested in hedge funds and other nontraditional alternatives at the end of its fiscal year in 2006.

The school paper, the Yeshiva Commentator, recently reported that its endowment’s value had dropped to $1.4 billion from $1.8 billion — before the scandal broke.

Kastner - unresolved controversy

Haaretz reports:

More than 50 years after the murder of Israel (Rudolf) Kastner, the de facto head of the Jewish Aid and Rescue Committee in Budapest, the controversy surrounding him is being rekindled.

Kastner, who made a deal with Adolph Eichmann in 1944 to allow between 1,600 and 1,700 Hungarian Jews to leave for Switzerland in exchange for money, gold and diamonds, was convicted in Israel in 1955 for collaboration with the Nazis. The court ruled that Kastner had indeed "sold his soul to the devil."

Two years later he was murdered outside his home in Tel Aviv.

The affair has spawned more than 10 books, a theater play and a television film. Now a storm has been raised again after the documentary "Killing Kastner" by the American director Gaylen Ross was screened at the Haifa International Film Festival two months ago.

Gideon Levy wrote in Haaretz about the movie that it was time to beg for Kastner's forgiveness. Ten letters to the newspaper in response helped rekindle the 50-year-old controversy. Even today, five decades later, Baruch Tzahor refuses to forget the injustice that was caused to Kastner, who, as Levy wrote, saved more Jews by negotiations than the partisans, Warsaw ghetto rebels or other heroes. At the age of 83, Tzahor, who lives with his wife in moshav Zofit, is still troubled by the affair that shook the young Israeli state.

"All the accusations against Kastner were lies," he says. "I know because he tried to save me." [...]

EJF - The issue is lack of transparency

Roni has left a new comment on your post "EJF - Proselytizing Advertisement":

DT: "I don't think you have the context quite right. Nobody is saying that these or other involved rabbis are doing thing which they think violate their principles for the sake of money".

So why that don't you challenge the publicitities publicity where he actually insinuates an at times states so explicitly?

DT: No one is going to a rosh yeshiva and saying - if you do will violate halacha I will give you big bucks. The issue is much more subtle. I would suggest you search through this blog for the Achiezer 26 and Achiezer 28 - twenty years separated these two statements".

Exactly! look for those responsa and you will see why there was and is a need to create an organization like EJF for there were/are numerous charlatans (some of them hailed in this blogs as good conversion rabbis) who made hundreds and maybe thousands (collectively) of fake conversions where there was no kabbalat hamitzvot.

Look, even the critics of EJF, or even good rabbis who do not presently associate with the EJf (like HaRav H. Shechter) felt the need and importance for such an organization and part of his alignment with that idea was the chaotic state of conversions where they converted without any serious intention to keep Torah an mitzvot and did not show one iota that they would want change their lifestyle.
==========================

Roni you have raised some solid issues 1) there is a need for improvement in the geirus issue - perhaps even stopping it as the Achiezer stated. Rav Moshe Feinstein stated that he himself is not involved because the success rate is so low. 2) How could all these important rabbis be involved in an organization if it weren't 100% kosher 3) There are some major rabbinical figures who were associated with EJF and have dropped out - such as Rav H. Shechter, Rav Dovid Feinstein and Rav Eisenstein and perhaps Rav Eliashiv himself. 4) The Bedatz issued a condemnation of the EJF after failing to receive any explanation from Rabbi Tropper for his proselytizing activities.

This latter question is the crux of our problem. I contacted EJF with the simple question - you claim to base yourself on the views of Rav Moshe Feinstein - what did he say because it is clearly not in the Igros Moshe. Rabbi Tropper himself responded and we went round and round - and he did not answer the question.

He refused to answer a rather elementary question - what is your justification from Rav Moshe Feinstein or Rav Eliashiv to spend millions of dollars on conventions to convince intermarried couples to convert? He said - what is the issur? The basic rule is who ever changes has the burden of proof. We have a very long history of rejecting proselytization.

In addition he felt it necessary to slander me in a correspondence with someone I referred to him regarding a geirus problem.

He insulted Rav Sternbuch in a letter he sent him regarding the geirus issue - and despite R' Tropper's promise to me that he would send an apology - he never did.

Theoretically my question could have been answered in 25 words or less. Theoretically there should be a kuntres describing the goals, techniques and halachic justification - so that EJF can be openly discussed by poskim. Rabbi Tropper told me there had been a manual in the beginning but it was discontinued because it wasn't clear. Why hasn't a new manual be issued?

Bottom line when someone acts suspiciously and dodges elementary questions, throws big bucks around in problemtaic activities as well as hands out big bucks to big rabbis for attending his program - and feels the necessity of insulting others such as Rav Sternbuch and the Modern Orthodox - that person loses his chezkas kashrus.

If R' Tropper is what you think he is - he could have cleared this issue up in five minutes - a year ago. I myself have repeatedly asked him to do just that. Maybe if he is your good friend you will give him this post - since he claims not to be involved with the internet - and maybe you can convince him to be more transparent and less "omnipotent fearless leader".

Chabad - The Rebbe runs the world?

The following link was forwarded to me

see the first video

http://www.thecooljew.net/2008/11/rabbi-cunin-and-lubavitchers-in-la-say.html

An alternative link

Rav Solveitchik & Commensurability II

Taken from Daas Torah page 53

Rav Yosef Ber Soloveitchik (The Halakhic Mind): the problem of evidence in religion will never be solved. The believer does not miss philosophic legitimation; the skeptic will never be satisfied with any cognitive demonstration. This ticklish problem became the Gordian knot of many theological endeavors. Philosophers of religion would have achieved more had they dedicated themselves to the task of interpreting concrete reality in terms and concepts that fit into the framework of a religious world perspective.

Rav Yosef Ber Soloveitchik (Lonely Man of Faith): I have never been seriously troubled by the problem of the Biblical doctrine of creation vis‑à‑vis the scientific story of evolution at both the cosmic and the organic levels, nor have I been perturbed by the confrontation of the mechanistic interpretation of the human mind with the Biblical spiritual concept of man. I have not been perplexed by the impossibility of fitting the mystery of revelation into the framework of historical empiricism. Moreover, I have not even been troubled by the theories of Biblical criticism which contradict the very foundations upon which the sanctity and integrity of Scriptures
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Rav Yosef Ber Soloveitchik (Unpublished 7th Lecture on Bereishis): Indeed, one of the most annoying scientific facts which the religious man encounters is the problem of evolution and creation. However, this is not the real problem. What actually is irreconcilable is the concept of man as the bearer of a divine image and the idea of man as an intelligent animal in science. Evolution and creation can be reconciled merely by saying that six days is not absolutely so, but is indefinite and may be longer. Maimonides spoke of Creation in terms of phases and the Kabbalah in terms of sefiros, the time of which may be indefinite. However, our conflict is man as a unique being and man as a friend of the animal. Science can never explain how being came into being, for it is out of the realm of science, while the Bible is concerned with the problem of ex nihilo. Aristotle could not accept evolution because he believed in the eternity of forms. (Lecture XII).

The Emergence of Ethical Man, pp. 4-5:[from R' Gil Student]

Indeed, one of the most annoying scientific facts which the modern homo religiosus encounters and tries vainly to harmonize with his belief is the so-called theory of evolution. In our daily jargon, we call this antinomy "evolution versus creation." The phrase does not exactly reflect the crux of the controversy, for the question does not revolve around divine creation and mechanistic evolution as such. We could find a solution of some kind to this controversy. What in fact is theoretically irreconcilable is the concept of man as the bearer of the divine image with the equalling of man and animal-plant existences. In other words, the ontic autonomy or heteronomy of man is the problem.

Father can ruin daughter's life

שו"ת משנה הלכות חלק יד סימן קצה

רק הערה קטנה בדבר מה שאמרו חז"ל דביד האב למסור את בתו הקטנה למנוול ומוכה שחין וכמ"ש ז"ל דאי בעי מסר לה למנוול ומוכה שחין, ולכאורה פלא אמאי לא תקנו חז"ל קנס ועונש להעושה כן שאם יבא אב וימסור את בתו למנוול יענשו אותו הב"ד וימתחו אותו על העמוד, אבל לא מצינו כן אלא מצינו ההיפוך שכיון שחששו ז"ל שאפשר שיעשה לה כן וימסרנה למנוול אם יכעוס עליה באופן שתמצא מציאה וכיוצא בו ויחייבו אותו לזונה והיא תקבל המציאה והמעשה ידיה ולכן תקנו לו לאב מציאתה ומעשה ידיה עיין תוס' כתובות (דף מ"ז) זכאי במציאתה משום איבה ופי' בקונט' וכו' ולר"י נראה איבה דמציאתה היינו שלא יקדשנה למנוול ומוכה שחין ובקטנה אפילו אינה סמוכה על שלחנו ואינו מפרנסה ואפ"ה תקנו מציאתה לאביה משום איבה שלא יקדשנה למנוול ומוכה שחין

ובזה ישבתי קושית הב"י והב"ח על הרמב"ם בפ"ג מהל' אישות הי"א האב מקדש את בתו שלא לדעתה כל זמן שהיא קטנה וכו' וקידושיה לאביה וכן הוא זכאי במציאתה ובמעשה ידיה וכו' והב"י א"ע סי' ל"ז והב"ח תמהו דמאי שיטא דמציאה לכאן ולא הי' לו להזכיר כאן מדיני מציאה ע"ש ולפמ"ש נראה לישב דהא בהא תליא דכיון דזכתה התורה לאב לקדשה ולקבל כסף קידושיה ואכתי א"כ באב שירצה בכסף קידושין ימסרנה למנוול ומוכה שחין בשביל להוסיף כסף קידושין לו וע"ז הוסיף דחז"ל תקנו לו שזוכה במציאתה ולא יהיה לה איבה ולא ימסור אותה למנוול ומוכה שחין.

ומבואר דיש חשש איבה בין אביה לבתה אפי' במציאה ומעשה ידיה אם לא יתנו לאביה וחיישינן שלא ימסרנה למנוול ומוכה שחין כ"ש שאם יגרמו לו איבה לשנאת את בתו בפועל ע"י שיקחו אותה בע"כ ממנו בערכאות וכיוצא בו שאז יקחו מציאתה ומעשה ידיה ממנו ח"ו שיש לחוש שימסרנה למנוול ומוכה שחין, שזה בכלל גזילה ממנו שגזלה הבת מה ששייך לו ואח"כ עוד יתבענו להחזיקה ולזונה בע"כ של הערכאות וגם יקחו את המעשה ידיה והמציאה שתמצא שבודאי יהי' לו איבה ואם עוד האם שמחזיקה הבת ילמדה לדבר נגד האב בודאי ובודאי שיהי' לו איבה ואיבה, וילך וימסרנה למנוול ומוכה שחין ויקבל כסף קידושין הרבה ממנו ויוכל עם כסף זה לשלם החוב מה שהוטל עליו השופט בע"כ שלא כהלכה.

והנה מה נאמר ראה ראינו מה קרא בעונ"ה אם המעשה אמת מהאב שקידש את בתו קטנה ולא ידוע לי אם אמת הדבר או לא כי לא שמעתי מהבעל כלום רק מה ששמעתי מבחוץ ועכ"פ הרי האב נאמן לומר קדשתי את בתי והוא הלכה מפורשת בלי חולק, אבל בין כך ובין כך הדבר מכאיב מאד וכנראה שכל גדולי ישראל דואגים על הדבר וחוששין ח"ו על קלקול הדור, אבל האמת שצריך לירד למקור המחלה הזו, כי אין אני רוצה פה לאשם או לנקות את הבעל או את האשה כי לזה יש דין בישראל ושמוע בין אחיכם כתיב, ואם הם רוצים להיות ככל הגוים וללכת במשפטי עכו"ם האחריות עלינו למונעם אם יכולים, אמנם לעצם הענין פשוט שמחמת האיבה שנעשה בין האב לבתו עשה מה שעשה וגם אנחנו כנראה לא יצאנו ידי חובתינו שעד עכשיו לא רבני קאנאדא ולא רבני מפה לא עשינו שום פעולה ולא דאגנו לא על מעשה אשה זו ולא על נשים אחרות או אנשים אשר הולכים בערכאות ולא הוציאו חרם ונדוי על האשה שהלכה לערכאות או על הבעל ועדיין לא חזרה בה, ולא הוציאה המסירה מהבית משפט שלהם לבא לב"ד או לזבל"א ולהבטיח להבעל שלא ילכו ולא יביאו עוד לידי עכו"ם.

וידוע מה שאמרו חז"ל (גיטין נ"ז) במעשה דקמצא ובר קמצא ומדשתקי להו רבנן ש"מ מינח קניחא להו והלך ומסר את כלל ישראל והחריב את בית מקדשינו וגלה את ישראל ופלא שחז"ל לא האשימו כלל אותו מוסר בחורבן הבית אלא אמרו ענותנותו של זכרי' בן אבקילוס חרבה את מקדשינו וכו' וצ"ב ח"ו לשום אשמה גדולה כזו על הצדיק וענו ר' זכרי' וליקחה מהאשם והמסור באמת, אבל כנראה ששתיקת החכמים גרמה לזה וגם כשבאו כבר חכמי ישראל ושאלו את ר' זכרי' שהי' ראש ב"ד כדת מה לעשות עם המסור והוא השיב יאמרו בעלי מומין קרבין א"כ נהרוג אותו והשיב יאמרו המטיל מום בקדשים ולכאורה הצדק אתו ומה הי' לו לפסוק ואטו הי' לו לפסוק שלא כהלכה ואמרתי בס"ד שהחסרון הי' כשבאו לר"ז ואמרו לו יש כאן מסור הי"ל לר"ז מיד לומר מסור מצוה להרגו כדיני מסור ובפרט לכלל ישראל ולא ליכנס יאמרו מטיל מום בקדשים ואטו משום מטיל מום הורגים אותו והלא מסור אבל הקילו בדין מסור ולכן הטילו כל האשמה עליו.

ולכן נלפענ"ד דגם ידינו אינם נקיים אם נוסיף להטיל איבה בין אב לבתו ולא נעקר ונשרוש את הרע להחרים על כל ההולכים במסירות לערכאות הן איש והן אשה שדינם נפסק בש"ע ח"מ שם ולא להניח כן שיקחו הילדים מאבותיהן ע"י כח השופט וערכאות שנותנין הילדים להנשים וכיוצא בו ועוד יותר בלי להתחשב עם תורתינו הקדושה כלל, שחייבים לחנך הבנים וזה שייך להבעל ומצוה שלו הוא וחיוב על האב ואין להם להאבות רק להחזיקם בממונם וגם לא לראותם כרצונם ואינם סומכים על שלחנם כלל ואפילו לראותם בלבד רק מתי שיתרצה השופט או הגרושה שהביאתו לבית המשפט והאיבה גדולה ולא די לו להבעל שקנסוהו השופט ואשתו המרשעת שהביאתו לבית המשפט שבאופן שהולכת לערכאות ולוקחת הבנים מבעלה אינו מחויב ע"פ התורה לשלם אפי' פרוטה ואדרבה הרי גזלה הכל מבעלה הבנים והמשפחה והרכוש שלו בבית המשפט ועכשיו גם אנחנו נוסף עליו חרמות וקנסות על אשר בצערו עשה מה שהתירה לו התורה וחששה לו
שו"ת משנה הלכות חלק יד סימן קצה

בקיצור עכ"פ לא מצינו שיקנסו את הבעל אם קדש את בתו למנוול ומוכה שחין אלא תקנו חז"ל דרכים שלא יבא לידי זה, ולכן לפענ"ד הגם שודאי צריך לגנות הדבר וכן לא יעשה לנקום בבתו מחמת איבה אבל החוב קדוש מוטל עלינו ועל כל מי שיש בידו להסיר הרע הזה מלילך לערכאות וליקח הבנים וילדים אשר חנן ה' את האב וליתנם בידי אכזרים אשר על זה נאמרב בניך נתונים לעם אחר ואין לאל ידיך ואפילו לראותם בלבד רק להחזיקם וליתן הרבה כסף כמו שיפסוק השופט העכו"ם הרשע לפי רשעתו השם ירחם.
[..].

Rav Soloveitchik's lectures I - Commensurability

Rav Meir Triebitz writes:

The Rav’s position on commensurability can be gleaned from two statements of his, one from these lectures and one from the aforementioned essay u-Bikashtem Misham. The Rav opens his second lecture by stating:

“The Torah is not interested in disclosing any scientific data to man. Revelation was only the revealing of the will of God… Therefore if the Bible employed the Ptolemaic description of the cosmos, it was only to present to the people of its time and not to present the true scientific view…” (Lecture II).

The essence of revelation for the Rav is therefore not ontological but ethical. Ontology demands commensurability with scientific facts. Not only is ethics not in need of such commensurability, ethics is often more safely anchored in previous ontologies which science has long discarded. We discussed above that Kant’s revolution in Western thought was to restore a ‘Copernican’ like view of the world. While not claiming a Ptolemaic description of scientific reality, the Rav’s whole philosophy of ethics rests upon an anti-Copernican conception. The halachic process, he writes, “cannot free itself from its subjugation to the initial a priori assumptions. It begins with those and concludes with them.” (u-Bikashtem Misham p. 206) This is in contradistinction to science which can free itself of previous assumptions and create new paradigms. On the other hand, “Halachic thought which is rooted in revelation cannot command absolute authority over its axioms.” (ibid.)

The halacha must combine both revelation and reason in a dialectic process in order to remain bound to both tradition and continuity. The dialectic of revelation and reason, which is rejected by the scientific method, is the basis of the incommensurability of the two systems of thought. [...]

Rav Soloveitchik's Lectures on Bereishis

I would like to share with you a problem that has bothered me for a while. Most of you are aware that Rav Soloveitchik gave public lectures on many topics through the years. In the 1940's he gave lectures on Bereishis which involved his views on science and evolution as well as halacha, kabbala and philosophy. One of the students who took notes of some of these lectures, requested that they be edited and given a proper introduction and critical notes be provided to expand and place the lecture in context.

This has been done concerning the lectures on Bereishis by a good friend - Rav Meir Treibitz - who is not only a master of the Torah literature but is also intimately acquainted with kabbalah and philosophy - as well as having a Ph.D. in physics etc etc. He also wrote an introduction to my sefer Daas Torah.

The sponsor of the original process - due to his many difficulties has not been able to pay for the work nor is he prepared to publish it as originally intended. The person who produced the notes - has no money to pay for anything - but insists on his ownership of the notes he took. A major Orthodox organization as well as various members of the family have expressed great appreciation for the tremendous work which has been done - and they look forward to more such efforts. But they seem preoccupied and after 6 months despite promises - nothing is happening.

In sum, the brilliant exposition of Rav Solveitchik's notes on Bereishis is finished. But there is no obvious path for the work to be published. Lawyers who have been consulted have said the issue could stay in courts for many years - assuming that one can afford the legal expenses.

I will publish excerpts on this blog. Anyone who has a solution for this painful problem - should please contact me.