Category Archives: Contemporary Life

Lulav: Spine of Israel

Posted on October 19, 2011 | Comments Off

We don’t really make as much use of the four species during Succot as we could. The Gemara (Succa 41b) relates that in ancient times, the custom of the men of Yerushalayim was to take their lulavim everywhere, and carry it while they went about their daily business. They would take it to shul, hold it during Sh’ma, carry it while visiting the sick and comforting the bereaved, etc. But why ? What would be the purpose of taking a lulav to visit the sick?
The only time they would relinquish their lulavim more than temporarily would be when they entered the House of Study; then, they would give it to their son or some other person. As Rashi explains, we are afraid that since he is engrossed in his learning, he will accidentally drop the lulav. But should we not be afraid that the same thing might happen while he walks in the street, or goes to visit the sick ? Why must he give his lulav to another person in the Bet Midrash ?
And the Gemara continues with a story that, as the persecution of Rome intensified after the destruction of the Bet HaMikdash, four great Tannaim, Rabban Gamliel, R. Yehoshua, R. Eleazar ben Azaria and R. Akiva all traveled in a ship on Succot – and only Rabban Gamlielhad a lulav, and one that cost him 1000 zuz, and they each took turns holding that lulav. But why is this important – why would we think they would not have a lulav on Succot ?
No doubt the people of Yerushalayim were on a high level, but there is more to their persistence with the lulav than their love of the mitzva. Rav Soloveitchik explained that the lulav is a symbol of the nitzchiyut – the eternity – of the Jewish people – our indestructibility. The lulav resembles the spine of the human being – straight, durable and resilient. Therefore, in the Gemara’s tale, only Rabban Gamliel, the Nasi, carried a lulav with him – but each one held it, in order to strengthen each other, to lift each other’s spirits, and to ensure that they should lose heart as a result of the churban and the harsh decrees that followed.
Jews are stubborn – like the lulav – and that stubbornness, despite its occasional downside, also affords us the strength to persevere, even in the face of personal difficulties. So when they went to visit the sick or comfort the bereaved, they carried their lulavim with them. When a Jew needs to be strengthened, because of illness or grief, the men of Yerushalayim would carry their lulavim as a sign that all difficulties can be overcome – that just as we as a nation overcome our troubles, so too the individual can overcome his as well.
The men of Yerushalayim carried their lulavim everywhere – on the streets (where we encounter challenges everyday), during the recitation of the Sh’ma (as a sign of our unbreakable faith in G-d), during davening (where we need strength and courage to resist distractions and worse), and to visit the demoralized. The lulav invigorates us – and is only unnecessary in one venue – the House of Study. There, a Jew is revived by the living Torah – there a Jew does not need any props – even holy props. The Torah itself strengthens us – Chazak Chazak v’nitchazek.
On Shmini Atzeret, we put away our lulavim – because the accumulation of Torah and mitzvot, tefila and good deeds for the last seven weeks gives us the power to sustain ourselves – in the face of rabid and maniacal enemies, and in the face of personal ordeals. On Shmini Atzeret, we stand alone – like the lulav– but with the Torah, and we comfort ourselves that our lives have improved over these Days of Awe, because we have grown closer to G-d, and closer to understanding what He asks of us.
And in so doing, we merit the true blessings of Yom Tov as the catalyst for spiritual growth, and return to our lives grateful for all the good G-d has done for us, and will do for us, in the present and the future.

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Holidays, Israel, Jewish History

Well-Meaning Folly

Posted on October 12, 2011 | 19 comments

That the announcement of an impending deal to exchange the IDF soldier Gilad Shalit for more than 1000 hard-core Arab terrorists has unleashed raucous celebrations in the Arab territories and restrained relief in Israel demonstrates the winners and the losers in this awful ordeal. Israel – which once boasted that it never negotiates with terrorists, and mocked the Europeans for doing the same – now is the only country in the world that negotiates with terrorists, and does it quite poorly to boot.

Two questions that are not being asked are: first, how long will it be before another Israeli is taken captive by Hamas et al, in order to exchange for more prisoners ? My guess is months, although a few weeks is also a possibility. Second, how many Israelis will be killed in the future by this latest batch of freed terrorists ? The organization Victims of Arab Terror reports that approximately 200 Israelis have been murdered in the last 20 years by freed
terrorists. Based on past results, and logic, Israelis should start preparing
both fresh graves, and new organizations to memorialize those future victims.

Certainly, I have no complaints at all against the Shalit family, and they acted as any family would and should – prioritizing the life of their child, an individual, over the lives of the public and the community. If I were in their predicament, G-d forbid, I would be doing the same thing. But it is at that moment – when emotion and sympathy provoke the desire to free the innocent captive at all costs – when the cooler heads who govern the nation are supposed to have the national interest at heart and do what is in the interest of the nation, and not the individual. And I would be told that the consequences of this transaction – politically, emotionally and militarily – are just too grave. But the Prime Minister, who has a smooth tongue but often seems to function without a spine, caved. It is a populist act, until, of course, the real price is paid.

Politically, it is a victory for Arab terror and can only provoke more terror. The bar has been lowered still further for those who want to kill Jews. Jewish blood – past and future – has become cheaper, and future terrorists will be even more emboldened that they can murder Jews with impunity. Those who will pat themselves on the back that the trade demonstrates how Jews value life are, in fact, misguided and short-sighted; it is further proof of how the will of many Jews has been broken by terror and they can no longer even think beyond the present. (It is not speculation that freed terrorists will murder Jews; it has been proved 200 times already.) It is not even a small comfort to recognize that, indeed, the life of a Jew is more valuable than the life of an Arab; about 1000 times more valuable according to the prevailing market rate.

Emotionally, it must be devastating for the families victimized by the Arab terrorists who will now be eyewitnesses to those murderers returning to their homes amid heroes’ welcomes and parades, and watching them walk the streets and plot more mayhem against Jews. When will the butchers who carved up the Fogel family be released? Not now – maybe next time, or the time after that. After all, we can’t bring back the dead, so why punish the living hostage and his/her family.

Militarily, it is a security catastrophe as one thousand hard core terrorists re-enter Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Israel proper (for the Israeli Arabs who will be released) to sow the seeds of the next rebellion. (Remember, the first civil war in Israel – in 1987 – erupted a little more than one year after the infamous Jibril exchange released more than 1000 poisonous terrorists into the Israeli bloodstream. Reportedly, this latest group includes about 1/3 currently serving life sentences. And many of these terrorists were captured in undercover operations in which soldiers and security personnel risked their lives, and in some cases were killed. But why risk one’s life to capture a terrorist today who will be freed tomorrow ?

Prisoner exchanges outside the context of an end to hostilities undermine any deterrence that might have existed. Every future terrorist can go about his ghastly business expecting to be released at some point, and be feted and handsomely rewarded when he is released.

Imagine, for a moment, the parents of a sick child whose life could be saved for ten billion dollars of medical care. They demonstrate, rally, petition and pressure the government – and even call the government immoral for rejecting their entreaties. Instead, the “callous” government responds that all life is precious, but the government does not have ten billion dollars to spend on one child, sad to say, and that money can instead be used to spare the lives of thousands of other children. Rational, yes, but small comfort to the parents of that child. But governments – and hospitals – makes such triage decisions all the time.

One might well argue that the Shalit case is different – it is not an individual illness but a soldier sent to do his duty on behalf of the nation for whom the nation than always has an obligation to redeem at any cost. After all, Israel boasts of its mantra that it will never abandon soldiers on the battlefield. But that tripe is obviously untrue. At least three Israeli governments have negotiated with Syria over the disposition of the Golan without first demanding the release of (or information about) the three captives from the Sultan Yaakob battle in June 1982 – Yehuda Katz, Zachary Baumol and Zvi Feldman). And even more Israeli governments abandoned Jonathan Pollard on his battlefield, with Ehud Barak even preferring the pardoning by Bill Clinton of Marc Rich over the pardoning of Pollard. So the cliché is inspiring but ultimately meaningless. It is the type of contention that is made and appreciated but subjected to rational cost-benefit analysis before actual implementation. (Israel also vows never to leave a body in the field, but they would be fools to have half a platoon killed in order to retrieve a body.)

By way of contrast, there are currently American soldiers captive in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US is not exchanging Arab terrorists for those captives. Those who conclude that is evidence that the US does not value life should at least consider the alternative; perhaps that is proof sufficient that the US does value life, and perhaps even more than Israelis do. They value not only the life of their captive soldier, but more broadly the lives of the soldiers who captured those terrorists and the lives of the citizens that will be snuffed out by those released terrorists.

What does Jewish law say about such grisly ransoms? Unfortunately, we have too much experience in this field. The Talmud in Masechet Gittin (45a) states that we “do not ransom captives for more than their value…because of tikkun olam” (the betterment of society), and the Sages offered two reasons, both of which resonate now: either because it will impoverish the community (i.e., endanger their future well-being) or because it will just encourage more hostage-taking by the wicked. Both are true in this context, and Jews have traditionally heeded such guidance. The Torah values life, but life is not our highest value, and the life of an individual does not supersede the welfare of the community. If that were the case, one should never go into battle, in which individual lives will be sacrificed for the good of the community and nation.

Why now? Why wait five years when a similar deal could have been done – at lower cost – five years ago ? Chalk that up to another blundered negotiation by the Israelis, and a persistent inability on the part of much of the populace to recognize – and to retain the reality – that they are in a war that has no end in sight. Certainly, there are political benefits that will accrue to Hamas, which will emerge from this looking like a reasonable interlocutor with whom the world can – and should – do business. (After all, the Israelis shopped in their marketplace.) The real change seems to be a harshening of the conditions of imprisonment for those Arab terrorists now in Israeli prisons. Until this past summer, terrorists were entitled to family visits, cell phones, library and educational privileges, and probably Cable TV and spa treatments. PM Netanyahu ended that when he suddenly realized – just this past July – that Arab murderers were living well on the Israeli shekel and Gilad Shalit had not even been afforded a visit from the Red Cross. That country club lifestyle ended; perhaps that amped up the pressure on Hamas to deal. And deal they did, and they must be enjoying their triumph.

It is certainly possible that the deal will yet fall through. Hamas in the past has raised expectations and upped the ante by asking for more prisoners at crunch time. But it seems as if they have made a reasoned decision to quit while they are ahead.

The feeling here is joy commingled with sadness, sort of like the reaction of a family whose relative survives a terrorist attack that kills ten people. One grieves for the victims but is quietly happy that one’s relative survived.

It is a gruesome image we dare not forget in the weeks and months ahead.

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Current Events, Israel

Nobel Jews

Posted on October 5, 2011 | 1 comment

As of this writing (Wednesday, October 5), five of the seven Nobel Prize winners already announced are Jews. That is not normal.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Bruce A. Beutler,
Jules A. Hoffmann, Ralph M. Steinman, in Physics to Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, Adam G. Riess, and in Chemistry to the Technion Professor Daniel Schechtman. Beutler, Steinman, Perlmutter, Riess and Schechtman are all Jews, and for all I know, the Luxembourg-born Hoffmann is Jewish as well (making six out of seven). The Australian Schmidt is the outlier, literally and geographically. With the Economics Prize winners often Jews, the tribe is doing quite well this year. But it is still not normal. What do we make of all this ?

I remain as astonished as Mark Twain, when he wrote of the Jews:

”…If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the
human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of
the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard
of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other
people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in
literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are
also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a
marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and had done it with his hands
tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it.

The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with
sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”

– Mark Twain

(“Concerning The Jews,” Harper’s Magazine, 1899

Not that Twain was necessarily a lover of Jews, as some of his other writings are sprinkled with the traditional prejudices of his time. But his question remains a good one: what is our secret ?

For sure, we are beneficiaries of the kindness of the Creator who has preserved, protected and sustained us for thousands of years in the most inhospitable and hostile corners of the globe. Our survival is as unique as our consistent contributions to mankind. And, truth be told, our success and survivability has often engendered even more, and more belligerent, enemies, notwithstanding our contributions to mankind. If only the world would allow the Jew to live in peace and tranquility, and especially to build a model, just society in the land of Israel, who knows what blessings would flow to the entire world ? And that is part of the eternal frustration of the Jew, and the diabolical ignorance of our enemies, ancient and modern.

Additionally, the love of knowledge is paramount among Jews, and even Jews
far from the world of Torah seem to bear within them the questioning, probing,
analytical style of Talmudic-study. Creativity, innovations in thought and investigation, and an unwillingness to settle for theories or conclusions that are deficient are typical of the Jewish mode of study, and therefore quite typical of Jews. Breakthroughs come to minds that are trained or geared to look beyond the shibboleths of any field, and Professor Schechtman’s statement of his own
discoveries (that so challenged accepted notions in his field that they were originally rejected and he was expelled from his research group!) underscores that point.

But there is a broader and nobler point as well, and it all goes back to
the blessing that Yitzchak bestowed on his son Yaakov thinking he was Esav.
Yaakov certainly merited the blessings of Avraham, which were G-d’s to grant in
any event: the blessings of Torah, Israel and the special covenant with G-d.
But Yitzchak assumed that Esav – more materially grounded than Yaakov – could assist Yaakov in his mission by providing him with both muscle and sustenance. Rivka intervened because she realized that Esav’s nature was such that his wickedness would be used against Yaakov, and not to support him.

Yaakov our father therefore merited, in addition to the blessings of
Avraham, the blessings of the material that can be used to advance the divine
will – in other words, civilization. Yaakov would not only transmit the truths
of G-d to his descendants and to all nations but he was also blessed with being
a civilizing influence in every society in which his family would dwell. Yaakov’s
heirs would contribute to the welfare of all nations – their prosperity,
health, morality, knowledge and culture – and indeed that has been the destiny
of the Jewish people in every society in which we have lived. (Not always successfully: we have too often contributed to the tawdriness of modern life, but that too is a consequence of the divine gift of prominence.)

That Jews are a civilizing, stabilizing and usually unappreciated
influence across the globe should be undisputed. That Jews are still being
celebrated for our achievements to mankind in such disproportionate numbers
that the word “disproportionate” does not fully convey the asymmetry is itself
remarkable and worthy of celebration. And more: it is worthy of repeated mention in a world community that is, again, increasingly hostile to Jews and Jewish national life. That evil short-sightedness endangers not only Jews – but is also destructive to the future and well-being of our detractors.

May they soon see the light, and continue to benefit from the gifts of
the Jews to the world community.

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Current Events

Listening

Posted on September 28, 2011 | Comments Off

The Baal Shem Tov offered a parable. There was a king who, through some very adept magic, built a palace that appeared to have many walls that protected him from his people. The walls were very high, straight and curved, one higher than the other in a maze leading up to a mountain. And from the outside, through this sleight-of-hand, it also appeared that the palace had many rivers and moats, and armed guards, and bears and lions and other wild animals. And so no one dared approach the king, and the king was feared throughout his kingdom, and his glory filled the provinces.

One day, the king issued a proclamation that whoever enters the palace to greet the king will be granted honors and riches, and serve the king as a trusted minister. Some people came, saw what appeared to be the multiple walls, were intimidated and retreated. Others penetrated the first and second layers, and despite seeing no great obstacles – no rivers, no walls, no ferocious animals, and the king’s retinue dispensing great riches to all visitors, they still shied away from approaching further.

Only one person persisted – the king’s son, who yearned to see his father. And so he forced his way into the palace, past the magical walls and the bears and the lions and the guards – he fought and struggled until he arrived at his father’s inner sanctum. When the king saw his son’s dedication, he removed his
sleight-of-hand, and the son saw that there were really no walls, nor any
partitions or separations – just gardens and orchards and all the delights one
could imagine – and the king sitting on his throne, surrounded by his retinue.

And the son cried out to his father – why did you hide from me ? Why did you conceal yourself – “you concealed Yourself and I trembled” (Tehillim 30:8)? And the king answered that it was all done for you, to test you, to reveal
what is in your heart, the extent of your love and reverence for me.

There are times when we sense a distance between us and G-d – when G-d appears remote and inaccessible, when we feel forlorn and abandoned to a chaotic and unruly world. “You concealed Yourself and I trembled” – we tremble at the distance, at the concealment. It is when we call out to G-d – “to You, G-d, I call out, to G-d, I supplicate” (ibid 30:9) – that we realize that the barriers
are illusory and the obstacles are all of our own making. G-d is wherever we
let Him in.

Why does man build walls – why does man resist surrender to G-d’s will ? Primarily fear. Fear that our lives will be less enjoyable, fear that we will have fewer friends, fear that we will lose our jobs and our money, fear that the nations of the world will oppress and persecute us. We run from the covenant, or we attempt to re-define it on our terms.

We conclude – “I can’t learn Torah (no background, no time, no fun); I can’t observe Shabbat as a complete day of sublime holiness for 25 hours (I have to commingle it with the activities and deportment of the weekdays); I can’t give charity, I can’t make aliya, I can’t avoid speaking lashon hara, I can’t dress appropriately, I can’t behave in shul, I can’t treat others with respect and courtesy, or I can’t feel G-d’s presence in my life…” Each “can’t” is a wall, a moat, a roaring lion, a mighty soldier that blockades the door to the palace. King David said “my soul thirsts for G-d” (ibid 42:3). We might say – “I don’t want to thirst for G-d; I want to retain my autonomy, my independence – I don’t want to surrender, I want to engage G-d on my terms. I don’t want to feel a spontaneous gratitude to G-d – too limiting, too demanding.”

But, if we choose, we can dismantle these barriers on our own – one by one. Or, sometimes, the barriers fall away by themselves, because we are left with no choice. We fear the consequences of sin, we’re adrift, we sense something is amiss, and we finally want to enter the palace. Our fears are replaced by a yearning – “as a father has compassion on his children, so too G-d has compassion on us.” And we finally admit that “there is nothing but Him” (Devarim 4:35).

The Rogatchover Gaon said the blessing for the commandment of shofar is “to hear the sound of the shofar,” rather than to “blow the shofar” because we don’t all hear the same thing. And it is not the technical “hearing” of the shofar
that fulfills the mitzvah, but rather the mitzvah is to listen to the sound of
the shofar that breaks through the walls of our creation, the figments of our
imagination, the sources of our rebellion. If one hears the shofar and is not
moved, and the walls don’t crumble, and the heart is not bent, then there is no
mitzvah. It is the sound we hear, each and every one of us, that defines the
mitzvah, and our surrender to G-d on the day of judgment.

Rav Saadia Gaon wrote that we listen to the shofar and surrender to G-d, because that is the nature of the shofar, the instrument of coronation.

May the sounds of the shofar this year cause G-d to ascend, and enable us to break down all the barriers, and confer the blessings of life and health, prosperity and tranquility, on us and all Israel.

Shana tova to all !

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Holidays, Machshava/Jewish Thought