Category Archives: Contemporary Life

Undoing the Past

Posted on September 26, 2019 | 6 comments

Rosh Hashana is the first day of the ten days of repentance, but the repentance of Rosh Hashana is different than on the other days. There is no Viduy recited, no confessional prayer and no selichot. It is a day of Malchiyot, the acceptance of G-d’s kingship; we focus not on ourselves but on G-d. So, if there is no overt repentance on Rosh Hashana, how is it part of the ten days of repentance? What is the teshuva of Rosh Hashana?

Rav Eliyahu Lifschitz, in his “Selichot Mevu’eret,” questions the very nature of the mitzvah of teshuva. It is, indeed, a strange Mitzvah, for what does it really add to the Torah? It is a fascinating entry-level question to the Yamim Noraim:  I may want to eat a cheeseburger, but the Torah says I may not. The Torah says I have to observe Shabbat, so I must. If I breach the Torah’s norms, I have sinned, and must comply next time. So what then does teshuva accomplish?

He explains that the Torah’s mitzvot are focused on the future. There is always something to do or not to do. In fact, mitzvot are generally rooted in objects or actions that demand the appropriate response. But teshuva is less concerned with the future than it is with the present. Of course, we regret the squalid past and commit to a more virtuous future, but repentance is oriented in the present.

Said another way, if we sin and do not do teshuva, what have we really lost? We are still obligated not to sin again or to perform the proper positive commandment. So, just do it, or don’t do it! There is always another mitzvah to do and another sin to eschew. What, then, does teshuva add?

Teshuva presupposes that at present there is a new obligation on the sinner: to repent. The gavra (individual) now has the status of a sinner, and that status has to be uprooted. The fact that the sin is over and in the past only has meaning in terms of the future, but in the present, the status of sinner has to be removed.

If Mitzvot can only be done in the future, and Teshuva is a phenomenon of the present, what about the past? Is the past really past, and what happened in the past is irredeemable and unrectifiable? Should we just not cry over spilled milk? No.

The past, too, can be undone, which is important if only because the past remains an integral part of our personality. How can we change the past?

We cannot, but G-d can, and this is what is called kapara, atonement. Human beings live within limitations; there really is no time machine in which we can travel to the past and reverse bad decisions. Only G-d, who is infinite and beyond time and space, can do that. G-d can change the past, and that capacity alone strengthens our resolve to return to Him.

But man is only able to access that divine attribute by surrendering to Him, to anoint G-d our King in every facet of our lives. And this elicits G-d’s boundless compassion that enables us to continue in His service. An avaryan (literally, a sinner), someone once said, is a person who is too rooted in the avar, the past, obsessing over what was and thus paralyzing himself for the future. Those who think the past cannot be undone harm both their present and their future.

This, then, is the purpose of the Kabbalat Ol Malchut Shamayim, the acceptance of the yoke of G-d’s kingship that is at the heart of Rosh Hashana and the Yamim Noraim. It is the only way to change the past and redeem the present so that we can be worthy of the glorious future. Mitzvot perfect the future, teshuva perfects the present, and kapara perfects the past. And the only prerequisite is to join in the coronation of G-d, and then we will be the beneficiaries of His blessings for a year of life, good health, prosperity and peace, for us and all Israel.

On behalf of Karen and our entire family, I wish all of us a Ktiva vachatima tova!

 

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Current Events, Holidays, Machshava/Jewish Thought

Speech Therapy

Posted on September 10, 2019 | 4 comments

Asked what a Jew should do in order to grow spiritually, the Gaon of Vilna responded that there should be two areas of emphasis: the study of Torah and the guarding of one’s speech. The former provides us with the intellectual and moral framework of G-d’s system – the values of Torah – and the latter, so overlooked today even by Jews who consider themselves observant, is an essential method of implementing those values and measuring one’s moral progress. But Shemirat Halashon (guarding one’s speech) involves so much more than eschewing gossip, tale-bearing and the like; it requires monitoring one’s speech to avoid the obscene, the lascivious, the offensive, and the foolish. And that is a fundamental obligation of every Jew and a staple of the preparatory month of Elul.

We should learn to control our speech. Problems arise when external controls are enforced, especially when those restraints are not intended to refine our character but rather to promote an agenda and upend the traditional value system of the Torah.

Case in point: there are certain words that are now rightfully taboo in society, known euphemistically as the E-word, the G-word, the K-word, the N-word, and probably one for every other letter of the alphabet. They occasionally even bring offense to the privileged victims in today’s society. But for the life of me, I cannot fathom why certain words are permitted to certain groups and prohibited to others. Many blacks, for example, routinely use the N-word but take great offense when others use it. That is puzzling.

Can a word be situationally offensive? That is to say, repugnant when uttered by some speakers but innocuous, even funny, when uttered by others? I find that hard to accept. Truth be told, I’m from the generation of “sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never harm me” generation, so I have never been offended by anything anyone has said to me. I adopt the “who cares”? attitude, and brush it, and the speaker, off. I have never had a slur make the slightest impact on me.

These days, of course, the use of some words will send otherwise grown people running for their safe spaces, if they don’t run first to social media, complaining about micro-aggressions and other puerile, pseudo-psychological fabrications.

I am not endorsing or encouraging the use of any odious, hateful or unpleasant language, and language does evolve from generation to generation. In fact, I oppose it strongly. But I do wonder how it came about that the same word can be tasteful or distasteful depending on the color of one’s skin, the religion one professes, or the nationality to which one subscribes? It is interesting that the vulgarities once shunned on television or in polite society are now voiced regularly in public and broadcast, especially among the politicians and athletes, and replaced by a new set of forbidden words coined by a cadre of scathing, and not always sincere, scolds. Only that the new words are not universally forbidden, just to some people. How did that come about?

It recalls the variety of ways in which African-Americans have been referred to – none inherently impolite or meant as an affront – even during my lifetime, with changes demanded every two decades or so. Imagine if Jews woke up one day and insisted on being called Hebrews, and then Mosaic’s, and then Israelites, and we kept adjusting our designation of choice based on … nothing really. When I was younger, referring to a black as a “colored person” was insulting, the NAACP notwithstanding. But how is the disfavored “colored person” different from today’s favored “person of color”? It is ridiculous. If anything the latter is more impertinent, as if the “color” is the essence and the “person” is the accidence and the adjective. I choose to use neither expression as both attempt to define a human being by something relatively inconsequential. So how do these things come about?

I wish I could believe they came about because of a sincere attempt to show sensitivity, kindness, brotherhood and friendship. The African-American is far from the only group that frequently changes its reference of choice, but it all comes down to one quest: the desire for power. When you control someone’s speech, you are not far from controlling their ideas, their actions and their values. These unwritten speech codes have emerged from the naked pursuit of power and thus provide a useful club to whack or intimidate non-conformists into silence or infamy.

Thus Ilhan Omar and company attempt to immunize themselves for their patent Jew hatred by attributing any criticism of them, not to their abhorrent ideas but to their skin color. Has anyone given white Jew haters a pass? Not to my knowledge. So what does skin color have to do with anything? The accusation of “racist!” has lost its potency because it is used as a shield against legitimate criticism and a tool to gain power. It is as if one is not allowed to judge the content of their character because of the color of their skin, a new take on Reverend King’s ringing declaration.

Similarly, anyone who opposes same-sex marriage or deems homosexual conduct a sin (like, for example, any Jew who is faithful to the Torah) is automatically tarred with being homophobic. The discussion is over (over!), an odd assertion for those who insist that every controversial issue and even many sins be re-evaluated in the context of “starting a conversation.” (Incidentally, I have found that people who want to have “conversations” on these matters invariably want to subject their audiences to their monologues that resemble diatribes. Once upon a time, conversations were reciprocal expressions of thought.)

Similarly, anyone who even alludes to a connection between Islam and terror when a Muslim commits a terrorist act is guilty of Islamophobia. For sure, this accusation is not meant to persuade or reason but to embarrass and intimidate, but such has become the norm of public discourse. The effect is to send truth-seekers underground while the great majority succumb to the prevailing dogma or are expelled from the society of the decent and cowardly.

Some jurisdictions have banned the use of the word “convict” to refer to…convicts, much like the Obama administration eschewed the word “terror” in favor of “man-made disaster.” Even Major League baseball surrendered – changing its “disabled list” to the “injured list,” cowing to the demands of the disabled but apparently insensitive to the lobby of the injured. The list was not a slight to the disabled; these players are disabled. That is why they are on the list.

This is political correctness run amok but the ramifications are broad.

Note how the inability to articulate certain ideas will in due course be reflected in the prevailing culture. It will literally change a society’s value system. And it will certainly undercut any notion of objective truth. Note further how the suppression of speech and thought as an expression of power and control has engendered the fanciful idea that there are multiple truths or no single truth, that truth is not an absolute but simply an expression of one’s personal narrative.

That is not normal (which is, by the way, another word said to cause grievous offense today), it is not healthy for a society, and it is clearly undesirable for Jews who reflect repeatedly on G-d’s “truth” in our prayers and studies. Ultimately, this speech control is nothing less than bullying, and the scolds are bullies who have been given a pulpit in an age when the ease of instant communication, and its relative anonymity, has given license to too many people to become nasty, spiteful and malicious, which is just one small step short of violent.

We would be wise to adopt the Vilna Gaon’s emphases, especially regarding our speech – to speak pleasantly, disagree amicably, and interact amiably with all human beings. The only controls on our speech should come from the propriety of Torah and our never-ending quest to be better people. It should not come from brazen, aggressive outsiders, nor should we ever have to stifle the true ideas and values of Torah in order to comply with the ever-shifting mores of the agenda-driven nags.

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Current Events, Machshava/Jewish Thought

Mirror Image

Posted on August 29, 2019 | 7 comments

We often have the tendency, probably born of centuries of hardship and persecution, of focusing on the dark side, of seeing the worst in others, sometimes ourselves, and even anticipating untoward consequences in every endeavor or association. Occasionally it is warranted, usually it is not, but it does color our perspective on events.  And during those times of the year when we address our shortcomings – the Omer, the Three Weeks or the Yamim Noraim (come to think of it, that’s a good part of the year!) – we can misconstrue and even overlook the greatness of Klal Yisrael. It helps to dwell on how others see us. It turns out that maybe we are not as bad as we think.

Last month, I visited the Friends of Zion Museum in Yerushalayim, which depicts the history of Christian Zionism. Located in Nachalat Shiva, and right across from where the new Museum of Tolerance is being constructed, the museum details the efforts of Christian Zionists to spearhead the re-establishment of a Jewish State in the land of Israel. For sure, the most famous and arguably effective Christian Zionist, was Arthur James Balfour, who as British Foreign Secretary in 1917, issued his eponymous declaration that “viewed with favor” the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Israel, and pledged His Majesty’s support for that effort. That the British reneged was not the fault of Balfour, who acted from a keen awareness of the biblical prophecies that foresaw the return of the people of Israel to the land of Israel.

An even more famous name (for other reasons) was the 19th-century New York preacher George Bush, whom the museum mischaracterized as a direct ancestor of the presidents. (He was actually a cousin to a great-grandfather of GHW Bush. Apparently, the family lacks creativity in its names.) But Reverend Bush was outspoken in his support of the Jews’ return to Israel, and long before political Zionism was extant. They and the others portrayed loved the Bible and believed in it, and thus loved Jews as well.

Many Jews have always been suspicious of that support, fearing that it is all a surreptitious front to infiltrate the Jewish community and convert us all. There are such groups – but they are not the Christian Zionists, and dreading this support betrays a lack of self-confidence (and ingratitude) on our part more than it does the execution of nefarious schemes on theirs.  Such modern Christian Zionists such as Rev. John Hagee or the supporters of the late Rav Yechiel Eckstein’s International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (still active after his untimely passing) are motivated by their love of G-d’s people. As was this incredible family whose story is also told in the museum: the Ten Boom family about whom I knew nothing until last month.

Elizabeth and Willem Ten Boom lived in Haarlem, about 12 miles west of Amsterdam, in the mid-19th century. He was a clockmaker by profession, but in 1844 they opened their home to Christian prayer. The essence of their mission was based on the verse in Tehillim “Seek the peace of Yerushalayim” and they began to advocate for the Jewish people, for their return to Zion, and for the establishment of a Jewish state.

Their son Casper and his wife continued the tradition, as did their children. And for exactly 100 years, the family held these prayer services for the Jewish people. Why did it end? Because in 1944 – exactly 100 years later – Casper Ten Boom and his daughters Corrie and Betsie were arrested by the Gestapo and charged with hiding Jews. Indeed, they had turned their home into a refuge for Dutch Jews, eventually saving the lives of almost 800 Jews, and others from the Dutch underground. The Jews would stay for a while, and then be sent to another safe house or smuggled outside the country.

When Casper was arrested, he was 84 years old. In prison he said he would continue to help Jews if released, and when threatened with death by the Nazis, he responded, “It would be an honor to give my life for G-d’s ancient people.” He died in prison after just ten days of incarceration.

Corrie and Betsie were sent to several concentration camps, the last being Ravensbruck about 60 miles north of Berlin, the infamous women’s concentration camp. There, Betsie died – but Corrie survived, and she continued to tell her story and that of the Jewish people, and was honored by Yad Vashem before she died in 1983, on her birthday, aged 91.

To what do we owe such self-sacrifice? What did we do to deserve that? She – her family – owed us nothing, and yet four Ten Booms gave their lives fighting the Nazis to save Jews.

One answer might be that we are not as bad as we sometimes think we are or as sinful as we think we are when we remind ourselves that, yes, “because of our sins we were exiled from our land.” That is all true but our sinfulness is relative to the high standard the Torah sets for us. There is a better answer that we would do well to contemplate because it shapes our lives even today. There remains a segulah that the Jewish people have, a special quality with which we were endowed by our Creator. We remain connected to G-d even in our worst moments.  We are chosen and precious to Him even when the nations scorn us and persecute us – even when Jew hatred becomes acceptable in the halls of Congress and the diplomatic salons of the world. There remains something unique about us that the righteous Gentiles perceive, and so should we.

A new book was published a few months ago commemorating the 50th yahrzteit of R. Aryeh Levine, the great tzadik of Yerushalayim, which related the following story. After the Six-Day War, R. Aryeh was once at the Kotel when Rav Avraham Neriah (son of R. Moshe Zvi) approached him and said, “if Hashem could do such wonders for us, even though we are not worthy, then He can give us even more.”

And R. Aryeh cut him off. “Never say that we are not worthy. A person can say about himself ‘I am not worthy,’ but we can’t even calculate the merits of the Jewish people.”

If only we saw ourselves as the righteous Gentiles see us, we would have a better appreciation of who we are and our children would better understand who they are and what is expected of them. That is also at the core of the Jewish experience, and should be the focus of Jewish education, and something we should never forget. That itself will bring closer the days of redemption, for Israel and the world entire.

 

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Current Events, Jewish History, Machshava/Jewish Thought

Time Warp

Posted on August 19, 2019 | 5 comments

There was a time when banning overt, unabashed Jew haters from the land of Israel would have been uncontroversial. It is now more complicated since some of those Jew haters have found residence in the Democrat Party that is reluctant to rein them in, chastise them, or otherwise distance itself from them. Thus the kerfuffle – to be over moments after this is posted – over Israel’s denial of entry visas to Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, which has ignited the toxic brew of religion, politics, Jew hatred and Jewish timidity.

It used to be obvious that every nation has the fundamental right to control its borders and admit or deny admission to any person. This notion is today challenged by those Americans and Europeans who seek open borders and even a dilution of the distinction between citizen and non-citizen. Most nations still exercise that right, to the consternation of illegal immigration activists, as even the United States did in 2012, when the Obama administration refused to admit the Israeli Member of Knesset Michael ben Ari on the grounds that he said some not unkind things about an alleged terrorist group that was by then long defunct. Banning foreign parliamentarians with troubling views to the governing authorities has a long history. Israel’s President Rivlin vehemently protested this affront to Israel’s democracy, and was ignored. So let’s get real.

The ban made sense based on the Rabbinic dictum: “Who is wise? He who foresees consequences” (Masechet Tamid 32b). If the disruptive duo had come – their itinerary reported a visit only to “Palestine,” refusing even to recognize Israel’s sovereignty anywhere – and they had provoked riots at a checkpoint, bloodshed on the Temple Mount, and death, injury and mayhem wherever they went, it is certain that the same critics of Israel’s ban would be criticizing Israel’s permission to admit them. Clearly they were not traveling this long distance to enjoy Israel’s food or tourist sites or learn about the Jewish people’s inherent and eternal connection to the land or Israel’s security needs. They were coming to make trouble. The fact that Tlaib refused a humanitarian visa after pleading to see her grandmother vindicated Aryeh Deri’s career with his one tweet: “Apparently she hates Israel more than she loves her grandmother.” Indeed.

If either congresswomen had joined in throwing stones at Israeli soldiers – as the late, unlamented Columbia professor Edward Said did years ago – would they have been arrested? Ignored? And then what?

The broader point is what this ban says about the Democrat Party and American Jews’ long infatuation with it. For sure, President Trump has here (like in many other areas) made them crazy, veering from overreactions to slight provocations to no reactions where a strong response would have been warranted. To the latter point: the inability of the Democrats in the House to denounce Jew hatred alone without supplementing the resolution with a laundry list of professional victims groups is shameful and doesn’t bode well for the future. It is the result of a party determining its policies simply in relation to the President: whatever he supports, they are against. Whatever he is against, they support.

It is not rational, although it does give new meaning to the term “opposition party.” They indiscriminately oppose whatever Trump does.

It is equally shameful that Rep. Omar remains on the House Foreign Relations Committee, with access to classified material that can do real harm to America’s and Israel’s interests. It is known that intelligence leaks from the Obama administration to Israel’s enemies precluded several military operations. That is not how allies operate.

But Jewish Democrats who now fear repercussions have to account for the shift in their party and its attitude towards Israel. It is not the same and hasn’t been for years, but the failure to acknowledge that has made their position in the party more precarious and has led to a diminution of their influence. Support for Israel has long been touted as a bipartisan proposition, and it largely but by no means universally still is. The Dems have changed.

In the rawest analysis, the policies of the Dems do not comport with where the people of Israel are today. They can blame Obama or Netanyahu all they want – but the Israelis keep confounding Thomas Friedman and his ilk and voting in right-wing parties. That is where Israel is. That is not where the Democrats are. That is the first problem.

The second problem was already noted. President Trump is the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House – in terms of policies, advisers and appointees. It really can’t get any better than this, but the opposition party is just forced to oppose, even this. It is as if it would behoove the US to embrace failed policies – like the two-state illusion, like haggling over the embassy in Yerushalayim, like endlessly debating the annexation of the Golan Heights – just because that is where the diplomatic positions froze a decade ago. That is also senseless. The trope of several decades – “everyone knows what the final solution will look like; just do it” – turned out to be empty words that casually detonated a decade of terror. I suppose this was one final solution that Israelis rejected and for good reason.

Something else has changed over the years that Jews – never adept at reading historical trends – would do well to ponder. Much of the discussion about Jews and Democrats today reminds me of the Israel-Turkey dynamic in the last 16 years, since Erdogan became Prime Minister and then President. Too many Israelis wondered, hoped and assumed that relations between Turkey and Israel would return to their pre-Erdogan state because, after all, Turkey and Israel were longtime friends, even allies to a certain extent, and Turkey prided itself on being the only Muslim country to have diplomatic relations with Israel.
The fact that Erdogan was a rabid Jew-hater and explicit enemy of Israel and Jews was just ignored as an inconvenient fact, as if he would one day come around because, after all, Turkey long prided itself on being the only Muslim country to have diplomatic relations with Israel.
This illusion was maintained even after the Mavi Marmara debacle. It’s only in the last few years that Israel recognized that the old Turkey is not coming back as long as Erdogan is there. We would do well to remember the adage of Lord Palmerston,  a 19th century British prime minister: “There are no permanent alliances, only permanent interests.”  Things change. One might as well talk glowingly of Israel’s future relations with Iran, because, after all, the late Shah was also close to Israel.
Much has changed in the Democrat party, even if a core of traditional supporters of Israel still retains some power in Washington. Their hearts are in the right place, even if their policy preferences don’t always reflect it. But it is foolish to believe that nothing has changed and the old party is one Trump defeat away from reconstituting itself. The identity politics fetish of the modern Democrat hurts Jews, as does the constant Dem attack on the successful who, apparently, only achieve success by exploiting everyone else. The Democrat obsession with unlimited abortion rights – sad to say, the real source of its consistent Jewish support –its embrace of biblically ordained sins and immorality as cherished freedoms, concomitant with attacks on genuine religious liberty by people of faith also clash with the true Jewish value system. Its acceptance of the modern madness of gender choice and dozens of pronouns should not resonate with Jews whose Torah provides a clear and compelling insight into human relations.

When it comes to Israel, the harsh truths need to be recognized. Hubert Humphrey is gone. Scoop Jackson is gone. The Dem support for Israel the last 25 years has been mainly providing military assistance through Congress while indulging Israel’s worst instincts (like Oslo), and pouting (Clinton) or protesting (Obama) when Israel acted in its own interests as a sovereign nation should. They and others have become accustomed to an Israel that is constantly surrendering and compromising and the key to “peace” lies in endless Israeli concessions.
Let’s face it. Israel has fared well or poorly under both Democrat and Republican administrations. Truman was not the greatest fan of Jews but to his credit overcame tremendous opposition and threats from within his own administration to recognize the nascent State of Israel. Eisenhower was unfriendly and perceived Israel as a nuisance or a vassal, depending on the circumstances. Kennedy was the first to sell arms to Israel (Hawk missiles); thus for the first 15 years of Israel’s existence, tenuous years of wars and constant struggles, the US provided no military aid, and didn’t even sell it. Johnson refused to enforce America’s commitment to keep open the Straits of Tiran and then threatened Israel not to strike preemptively in 1967; Israel wisely ignored him and took matters into her own hands. Nixon, even less friendly to Jews than Truman, bailed out Israel with massive weapons transfers during the darkest days of the Yom Kippur War. Ford had his reassessment when Israel didn’t concede fast enough for his taste and Carter bludgeoned Israel into concessions at Camp David.

Reagan was balanced and serves as a good contrast to the others. He was supportive of Israel, both publicly and privately, and some of his public criticisms were staged, and Israel knew it. But he sold AWACS to Saudi Arabia because he saw that as an American interest – even though Israel opposed it at the time – and it turned out to be a positive move.

Bush 1 was not friendly to Israel (overall), Clinton was better but certainly not good (his relations with Israel soured when Netanyahu stopped the concessions; no foreign leader visited the Clinton White House more than did the mass murderer Yasser Arafat), Bush 2 was better, Obama was horrible, and Trump is fantastic, to the utter horror of most Jews and Democrats.

The mainstream Dem party in Congress is still supportive of “Israel” in the abstract but supportive of the concessionary, compromising Israel they grew to love in the 1990’s, the Israel that buried thousands of terror victims and thereby evoked flowery sympathies from all.  They still cling to the “two-state delusion” and thus it is not possible to say they are supporters of a strong Israel.
Only Republicans today support that strong Israel. But wishing for the old Israel is as delusional as wishing for the old Dem party, the old Turkey or the old Iran. You can’t live in a time warp.
Of course, there is some value in maintaining the pretense that support for Israel is bipartisan. It is to some extent, but less and less and we shouldn’t deny that, blame Israel, blame Trump or blame Republicans. We should blame the Dems for abandoning their values and not renouncing the Jew haters in the midst.

Finally, we should bear in mind that just like the Dems today are not like the Dems of the past, the Jews today are not like the Jews of the past. Intermarriage is rampant in Jewish life and we not be astonished at the number of “Jews” – born of one Jewish parent – not having the same feelings towards Israel as did their fully Jewish grandparents. Do not expect them to demand that a Dem or progressive party or politician they favor also support Israel as in the past.
I can understand why other policy interests will always lead some Jews to support the Dems – but then make demands on the leadership. Don’t acquiesce to second class treatment. Don’t accept the prominence given to bigots, racists and Jew haters. Don’t let them take your votes for granted. Don’t betray your people or your principles. Don’t live in a time warp.

As the great baseball manager Sparky Anderson once said, “Don’t live in the past. There’s no future in it.”

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Current Events, Israel