The Science of the Sages

Posted on April 24, 2011 | 15 comments

      My recent piece on “Jewish Accomplishment,” especially the parts detailing our Sages’ knowledge of science even in the ancient world, elicited some derisive comments from Jews who apparently have difficulty with religious authority. It is strange how nominally Orthodox Jews can be contemptuous of Chazal, whose words sustain us and whose ideas guide us until today. To take just one example, who can contemplate a Pesach without the contributions of Chazal ? The whole seder is a tribute to their divinely-inspired wisdom and prescience. Most of the hagada consists of verbatim selections from the Mishna, Gemara and Midrashim, and remain both relevant and inspirational after thousands of years. Can the critics claim similar accomplishments ? Of course not. Can they even aspire to those accomplishments, with their theme sedarim of environmentalist/feminist/unionist/etc. hagadot? To judge their success, talk to me in about a thousand years. (Actually, I would like that – talk to me in a  thousand years.)

     Part of their ridicule was based on certain scientific errors that the Talmudic Sages allegedly made, which to them, completely discounted and trivialized the knowledge of science they did have. But the critics make a conceptual error, likely out of ignorance. We should be rightly proud and astonished at Chazal’s knowledge of science, but that is not to say that scientific knowledge is a legacy of Sinai and part of the Mesorah of Torah. All it means is that intelligent people have an obligation to study the science of the times, and to keep current on the latest developments in all spheres of knowledge. From that perspective, their correct conclusions are astounding, and their “errors” were simply based on the flawed scientific information of the day none of which played a direct role in the realm of psak. (Bear in mind that formulations such as “spontaneous generation” were not only consistent with the science of the times, but with another basic halachic corollary – for purposes of halacha, physical phenomena are as we see them in their natural and unaided state. “The Torah speaks the language of man,” as do human beings generally in colloquial discourse. That is why the halacha, and normal people, refer to “sunrise” and “sunset” even though technically the “sun” is neither rising nor setting. So, too, “spontaneous generation” is perceived by the naked eye, even if it is not actually occurring.)

   Are there individuals who can derive scientific knowledge from the Torah ? I imagine there might have been, and might be, but I do not know any. We have no scientific mesorah, only an obligation to seek wisdom from every source and acknowledge the truth regardless of its spokesmen. Hence, the great Rebbi Yehuda HaNasi had no qualms about conceding that on a certain scientific matter (involving the sun’s rotation) in which the “wise men of Israel” disputed the “wise men of the nations” that “their view is preferable to ours,” i.e., the view of the non-Jewish scholars should prevail (Pesachim 94b). For that comment, Rebbi was not dismissed as Prince of Israel, nor was his official Tanna Society card confiscated. He is merely praised by us as a person of integrity.

    The critics should be gratified by such statements, and intellectual honesty, which was unheard of in the ancient world, through medieval times and even today, especially in “religious” circles. Jews never entertained persecuting a Galileo Galilei figure, whose scientific conclusions aroused the enmity of the 17th century Catholic establishment. (He recanted. Fortunately, he was pardoned by Pope John Paul II in 1992, and he received a posthumous apology from the Church.) The point is that persecution of scientists was and is unknown in Jewish life, except, I suppose, when scientists exceed their areas of expertise and begin pontificating on matters of morality and mesorah.

     The Torah was not given to us as a book of science, history, archeology or any secular realm but rather as divine wisdom that governs how man should live and pursue spiritual and intellectual perfection.

     How is it that some Jews cannot take pride in the mindboggling scholarship of our spiritual shepherds, then and now ? For example, one should marvel at the fact that the length of the solar year (according to Rav Ada bar Ahava) is 365 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes and 25-25/47th seconds, while the US Naval Observatory calculates it as exactly the same, except for 25.439 seconds. It doesn’t matter whether it was Rav Ada’s calculation or derived from the science of the day; it is clear from the dispute in the Gemara that he did not simply parrot an opinion but did his own independent research – as Chazal did regarding the conduction of electricity through metal, or (what became known as) Halley’s Comet, or that Chazal perceived the earth as “a ball” (Bamidbar Rabba 13:14) and verified it experientially. (Many such fascinating tidbits about the wisdom of the Sages in all areas of life are found in “A Book of Jewish Curiosities” published in 1955 by my wife’s grandfather, David M. Hausdorff a”h.)

    It might be that the resentment of the critics stems from their discontent with some of the Sages’ moral mandates, especially when they conflict with the modern agendas over which so many obsess and through which they sit in judgment of the qualifications of the Talmudic masters and their descendants. Or, it could simply be a testament to the dearth of Torah knowledge among some Jews, who have never learned with a Torah master and so cannot distinguish between mesorah, halacha, homiletics and general knowledge.

    And that is a crying shame. Ignorance of our heritage is the bane of Jewish existence, but does not stop Jews from weighing in on many subjects beyond their current capacities. In a world in which Koreans have fallen in love with Talmud study (www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143192) as the fount of all Jewish wisdom, should Jews willfully deprive themselves of their own heritage ?

     The secret of Jewish life is summed up by two words from the hagada of the Sages:  Tzei u’lmad – “Go forth and learn!” Then we will all take pride in our origins and heritage, in our commitment to wisdom and intellectual honesty, and in the special blessings that G-d bestowed upon His people on Pesach, this holiday of our founding.

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

Self-Sacrifice

Posted on April 21, 2011 | 4 comments

One of the more obscure tourist sites for American Jews is the Museum of American Jewish Military History, an interesting – if relatively small – historical attraction located in the nation’s capital. There, the stories of generations of American Jewish soldiers are told, from the Revolutionary War through the liberators of the concentration camps until today – each fascinating and illuminating vignettes of courage, heroism and self-sacrifice.

Of the millions of Americans and thousands of American Jews who have borne arms in defense of the United States, 14 identified Jews have won the military’s highest award, the Congressional Medal of Honor. The last, in 1969, was John Levitas, an Air Force officer in Vietnam whose transport plane was struck by a mortar shell. Injured in one leg, and bleeding from other wounds, he grabbed from the backpack of another injured soldier an activated, smoking flare that was in danger of exploding. Hugging the device, and crawling to the rear of this wobbly plane, Levitas threw the smoking flare outside the cargo door. Five seconds later, the device exploded free and clear of the plane. Levitas survived, having saved the entire crew from certain death.

Another Medal of Honor was awarded posthumously to Captain Ben Solomon, a World War II medic in the Pacific theatre. Solomon’s clinic was attacked by Japanese infantrymen on one of the Pacific islands. Solomon, who was usually unarmed, grabbed a machine gun, and began mowing down the enemy. By the time the fog of war was lifted, Solomon was dead, surrounded by the 98 Japanese soldiers whom he had slain. Most of the wounded in his clinic were safely evacuated.

These vignettes, and many others, raise the question: what induces man to make the ultimate sacrifice ? What cause is so just and so noble that it is worth risking or terminating one’s earthly existence in its furtherance ? Granted that some acts of courage are coerced by circumstances, and others arise out of a simple, selfish will to live. But many others – some depicted in the Museum – are of the “falling-on-the-grenade-to-save-one’s-comrades” variety. If life is the paramount value, how could one sacrifice one’s life to save another, or to advance a cause, or to gain a temporary and temporal edge ?

It must be noted that dying for a cause is not inherently virtuous. Indeed, the world today is populated by countless Moslems who are willing and eager to kill themselves, as long as they can kill others in the process. Untold millions of soldiers have been killed in history’s wars, often fighting for causes they did not believe in or even fully understand. So what is self-sacrifice ? How do we distinguish the honorable self-sacrifice from the dishonorable ?

Certainly, part of the answer will focus on the justness of the cause. There are causes which are innately just, and others which are patently preposterous or immoral. But this is too subjective to be a proper guide, as many iniquitous, ignominious causes have avid supporters and self-immolators. Having a moral compass is essential, but are there objective criteria which distinguish admirable from pointless sacrifice ? Since effective soldiering requires not only physical training but also proper indoctrination as to the rightness of the mission or struggle, how can we assess which causes are worthwhile ?

Perhaps the true definition of self-sacrifice is “living beyond the self”, i.e., perceiving events not in terms of their benefit to the individual but only in terms of their benefit to the community at large and its permanent set of values and ideals. The suicide bomber who anticipates an eternity of bliss in the company of virgins (what’s in it for the virgins anyway ?) cannot be said to be sacrificing himself for a greater cause, but exchanging one “pleasure” for another “pleasure”. It is not a selfless act, but a selfish (not to mention despicably cruel) one.

Those who fight for freedom (theirs or others), who risk their lives for the welfare of others, or who struggle for Torah or for the settlement of the land of Israel are living beyond themselves. Many residents of YESHA have told me that they are living for future generations, not for themselves; just like prior generations sacrificed for the Galil or Tel Aviv, they are sacrificing for the heartland of Israel.

Living beyond oneself is not only the task of the soldier or pioneer, but indeed of every Jew. Every person should have at least one area of life in which pure altruism, with no expectation of return or reward, governs one’s conduct. Helping the downtrodden or needy, assisting in shidduchim for marriages or jobs, or even dispensing baseless friendship on another all define the person as selfless and considerate, and enables him to partake of eternity. Eternal life is attained primarily by those who live on that plane, where their own needs are secondary to those of the community.

Certainly, this attitude was exemplified by Esther, who risked her life, her home, and her family by approaching Achashveirosh unasked and uninvited, “and if I perish, I perish” (Esther 5:16). Life, in fact, is not our paramount value. Service of G-d and the promotion of His will and value system on earth transcends even life, and renders our lives meaningful and complete.

Virtuous causes abound, and our history is replete with examples of such altruists on whose shoulders we stand to this day. They are found on the walls of a Jewish military museum in Washington DC, in Har Herzl in the Holy City, in homes in Judea, Samaria and elsewhere in Israel, in our Tanach and Talmud, and in the annals of our people.

They are all forever close to our hearts, and we are as close to them as we wish to be.

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Current Events

Real Questions

Posted on April 15, 2011 | Comments Off on Real Questions

    Imagine your son asks a simple question at the seder, like “why must you have such a long discussion of the Exodus from Egypt?” and you respond: “rasha, evil child, you said ‘why must you have ?’ Does that mean that you are not part of the seder ? You deserve to be shunned, ostracized, and banished from the family, if we don’t knock your teeth out altogether.” And then you tell him how you really feel: “you don’t deserve to be redeemed, if you had been in Egypt, we would have left you behind, you’re just no good.”

     This colloquy must sound familiar to some people – because that is how we treat the “wicked” son. He just asks a simple question – “what is this service to you?” – and he is lambasted for it. But on the surface, it doesn’t seem like such an aggressive, antagonistic, heretical question. He did say lachem (you) – but that is not much different from the “wise” son’s style of questioning, who also said you (etchem). And are we trying to drive away the wicked son, who at least came to the seder ? Shall we assault his dignity –  tell him we will break his teeth, call him an atheist, tell him he wouldn’t have been redeemed?” Why are we so hard on him?
    The whole seder revolves around questions – so how wise is it to rule some questions out of bounds? Undoubtedly – and this has been verified statistically – young Jews have been turned away from a life of Torah because their questions were ridiculed, or dismissed, or not answered – or worse – their questions generated a vicious counterattack on the part of the person question – whether Rabbi, teacher, parent: “Only a heretic would ask such a question!”

    And at the end of the day, that question of the wicked son – “what is this service to you?” – was never answered. So why are we so harsh on this child ?

     Rav Meir Simcha Hakohen of Dvinsk (the Meshech Chochma) explained that the answer can be found in the verses themselves. The Torah emphasizes the “wise” son’s question: “When your son asks you ‘what are these laws and testimonies, etc.’”(Devarim 6:20) Concerning the “simple” son’s query, the Torah relates: “When your son will ask you tomorrow, ‘what is this?” (Shmot 13:14) But the “wicked” son’s question is not really a question: “And it will be that your sons say to you, what is this service to you?’” (Shmot 12:26)

     What a difference! The wise and simple sons ask – and then “leimor,” saying – they anticipate and desire a dialogue, they want an answer. The “wicked” son doesn’t ask – he says. Sure, he puts his statement in the form of a question, like on Jeopardy, but he doesn’t really want an answer. It is “ki yomru”, he says it – and there is no “leimor,” saying – there is no sense that this is a discussion or a dialogue. His mind is already made up. He doesn’t ask – he makes pronouncements.

     A heretic once visited Rav Chaim Brisker and said that he has some questions on Judaism he would like answered. Rav Chaim said to him: “if you really had questions, we could answer them. But you don’t have questions – to you, your questions are really answers. You have teirutzim, not kushyot. You don’t want to observe Mitzvot, so you look for “questions” that for you constitute “answers,” rationalizations for your lifestyle. There is no answer for that.”

     That is why the Hagada says “because he separated from the group, he denied G-d” – not that he denied G-d and then separated from the group. His ideology is b’diavad, post-facto; it just seeks to justify the decisions he has already made.

      There are many people who ask questions – and don’t really want answers. Answers can be very limiting, very inhibiting, and even very challenging. Answers can cause us to re-think, re-evaluate, perhaps admit error, and even sometimes to change. Some people are more comfortable with questions than with answers.

    The true servant of Hashem is not the person without questions – such a person might not be a servant of Hashem at all. The true servant of G-d has questions – and seeks answers. He looks for solutions. With such a child – and adult – we can dialogue, interact, fall and rise together, and embark on the lifelong quest of Torah study. Through such children, Jewish communities are built; and through such communities, the nation redeemed 3333 years ago reminds itself why Hashem chose us, and sanctified us from among all the nations, and prepares itself for our own journey from servitude to redemption, speedily and in our days.

 A happy and kosher Pesach to all !

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Holidays, Machshava/Jewish Thought

Tales of the Rabbinate, Part I

Posted on April 13, 2011 | 3 comments

    An enterprising and concerned individual just brought the following to my attention. The short story is about me, but the longer story is about how Rabbis deal with recalcitrant husbands (who capriciously and maliciously refuse to give their wives gittin)and the perils of modern life. One such evil husband was a Givon (Harland) Zirkind, who made his wife an aguna over ten years ago, prompting back then a local Rabbinic and lay demonstration outside his home which did not ultimately succeed in persuading him.

   He recently wrote a self-published and tendentious account rationalizing his misdeeds, and attacking every rabbi who sought to have him divorce his wife as the Torah obligates divorcing men to do. In his attempt to impugn me, he wrote: “The Lanner affair is still a big scandal. What surprises me about how the community reacted to Lanner was that Rabbi Pruzansky; of Teaneck NJ and the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County; was never forced to resign for his complicity and remains the pulpit rabbi of the largest synagogue in Teaneck. Teaneck is a very wealthy, densely populated Jewish community. The community was incensed over the scandal. Synagogues stopped paying their dues to the OU as a boycott demanding action. But, Rabbi Pruzansky, who with his rabbinical court, had actively been involved in covering up Rabbi Lanner’s sexual abuse of children, had not been forced to resign !”

     The “exclamation point” at the end is a little over-heated, and I cannot figure out why he used the two semi-colons the way he did. The sad part is that I remember this Zirkind as a real mental case, which is often the situation in aguna matters. The libelous part is that almost every assertion in the paragraph he published is false, blatantly false. Lies. If he weren’t utterly destitute, I would sue him for libel. If he actually belonged to a community, or the community of the sane, I would seek to have him banned. But he is already banned.

     Here’s the truthful part of the statement above: I am the “pulpit rabbi of the largest synagogue in Teaneck.” Here are the falsehoods:

1)      I was never involved in the Lanner case in any capacity, formal or informal. There was no “complicity” on my part. Lanner’s crimes preceded my tenure in Teaneck. The accusations against him took place while I was living in Queens. Zirkind, in his delusional state, apparently has me confused with some of my colleagues who have lived here for more than 30 years and knew Lanner both personally and professionally.

2)      My “rabbinical court,” far from being “actively…involved in covering up” the abuses, has only been in existence for three years and deals exclusively with matters of conversion. It is not even “my” rabbinical court, but the Bet Din of the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County, founded in 2007, almost a decade after Zirkind’s contemptible treatment of his wife and two decades after the Lanner crimes in Bergen County.

3)      Far from being “complicit” or “covering up,” I barely knew Lanner. I do not think I have even seen him more than a half-dozen times in my life, and I might have said “hello” once. My “involvement” in his matter was limited to denouncing him publicly, urging children in our shul who have been abused to inform their parents, and informing parents that, in such cases, to bypass me and go right to the police – the correct address for criminal charges. I was completely uninvolved in his prosecution, defense, the original accusations, the later accusations, the Bet Din, the informal discussions, etc. – simply uninvolved.

4)      Teaneck is not at all “densely populated.” The homes are very evenly spaced, with plenty of land for all residents.

         He went on to write that he heard a rumor that I got “flack” from my Board for getting involved in this case. Sorry, Harley. It was never mentioned to me; I received not even a fleck of flack.

     One tragedy of modern life is that I am forced to address this at all. In years past, I would have ignored it, remembering the psychological instability of the author. But the Internet has dramatically changed the way we live. News travels fast, and Mark Twain’s quote (attributed to him, at least) that “a lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes” is exponentially truer today. The Internet has a way of making a public record and ruining reputations almost instantaneously, and ignoring what is written just feeds the beast. The greater tragedy, then, is that people will read and believe what they read, without endeavoring to find out more information or background as to the provenance of what they read. That is how I even found out about this – someone read it and brought it to my attention.

    So, this is a correction of the public record – a complete and utter denial of all charges level against me by a tragic individual with grudges against many Rabbis. There are rabbis who are intimidated into eschewing involvement in aguna issues because the reaction of the recalcitrant spouse is often publicly vindictive and threatening; I trust those rabbis are few in number. It is better to do the right thing, and then respond to the vitriol and abuse that invariably follows. That is sometimes the price for doing the right thing, and it is a price that most rabbis are willing to pay.

      After the initial demonstration in this matter, and repeated efforts to induce Zirkind to give his wife a get, the local Rabbis withdrew when the wife-in-question rejected our advice on how to proceed, and followed other rabbinic advice. This was over a decade ago. They were not members of my synagogue, and I do not know whether in fact the couple is reconciled, divorced, estranged, etc. Somehow, the author here surfaced again in the last year or so with bundles of grievances against the rabbis who tried to get him to do the right thing.

     In summary, I was not even remotely connected to the Lanner scandal as a principal, a bit player or through the OU. Zero. Nada. Gornisht.  My OU involvement at the time was restricted to consuming the products whose kashrut they supervised.

      Consider this a repudiation of everything Zirkind wrote – and a challenge: Is it too much to expect that even a sad and demented individual should be able to recognize his error and publicly apologize ?

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Machshava/Jewish Thought