Drew Kaplan's Blog

QR Codes Flower in Israel

2012-01-24T12:04:00.001-05:00

Last January on our trip to Israel, I made a note to myself that quick response codes (QR codes in short) were nowhere to be found. Well, maybe I saw a couple of them, but it surprised me that, in a country where technology was, by and large embraced, QR codes were strangely absent.However, on our current Israel trip, I have been noticing them to a much greater degree, in many different places, whether in advertisements, stickers, or elsewhere. It seems that 2011 was a year of great growth for the blossoming of QR codes in Israel!

In Appreciation of "Epic Meal Time"

2012-01-16T02:56:00.004-05:00

Adding massive amounts of ground beef soil to a "Meat Garden"

Last month while speaking with students, a couple of them mentioned something called "Epic Meal Time". I saw a couple of their videos, found it interesting, but didn't continue watching them. That is, until this past week. I continued watching them and am making my way through them and love them.
What Epic Meal Time essentially is several twenty-something Montreal natives get together and concoct some massive meal. Now, it takes meals to the next level, usually involving meat and almost always involving bacon. This isn't a regular dish that they are preparing on the Food Network - no, they are preparing a feast with tens of thousands - if not hundreds of thousands - of calories. It is something that is totally within anybody's grasp to do and is essentially quite simple, yet, there is a simple brilliance to preparing gigantic amounts of caloric concoctions.

On occasion, they do desserts, too

Stylistically, it is well-done: not only is the quality of the footage excellent (they've got a good camera) and the editing also great, but the music is what really catches the viewer. In keeping with the name of the project, the music accompanying the footage reminds the viewer of music often heard during epic battles in movies and makes it seem as if there is, indeed, a massively epic culinary experience.
Also, while the preparation of the food is interesting, there are several further fascinating elements to what they do (in addition to the epic music): 1) They include a caloric counter and fat counter to show the viewer just how any calories are going into their meal; 2) They drink lots of alcohol (primarily Jack Daniel's Whiskey, but also beer and Patron), which makes it seem totally unpretentious; and 3) The tongue-in-cheek usage of Hip-Hop language (such as "haters", saying things are "stupid", and taking cooking to "the next level".

They make a lot of different elements, but eat it all

However, what is perhaps the best piece of what Epic Meal Time is the way in which their story comes together. Preparing a meal is basically taking different ingredients, cooking them together, and you have your dish. While that may sound simple enough, the Epic Meal Time folks seem to focus so closely on individual aspects of making the food, that the viewer has a growing sense that what is being prepared is a lot to eat, but only in a piecemeal fashion. However, as any individual episode continues, the viewer starts to see the food pile up and, similar to a good detective story, you don't get the full picture of what's going on until the climax and when they bring the disparate culinary concoctions together, it makes for an intense realization of what they are constructing is actually exponentially more massive than any of the individual elements combined were.
Thus far, I've seen a small fraction of the episodes, but the ones I have seen make me hungrier for more.

Purim Drinking II: Which Beverage(s) to Drink?

2012-01-11T12:47:00.000-05:00

Wine is mentioned several times in the book of Esther

Having begun a discussion of drinking on Purim, (and what got me re-interested in this topic), I wanted to do an initial post on which beverage one should drink in order to intoxicate oneself on Purim.

Curiously, in neither Rabbi Jacob, son of Asher's Four Divisions¹ nor in Rabbi Joseph Karo's Set Table² is any specific beverage mentioned in order to intoxicate, whether wine or not wine.

Maimonides, however, does specify that one gets drunk through drinking wine.³ I wonder why neither Rabbi Jacob, son of Asher, nor Rabbi Karo specified wine as Maimonides did, although I certainly don't know.

One reason mentioned why wine is the means to get drunk on Purim is articulated by Rabbi Abraham Danzig in his Person's Life that since the miraculous occurrences happened through wine (the party at the outset, as well as the small drinking parties that Esther arranged towards the end of the book), therefore, we were obligated to get drunk on wine.⁴

While I have certainly come nowhere near exhausting this topic, I did want to - for the time being - share a paragraph devoted to this topic:

Contrary to popular conception, the mitzva of drinking on Purim is intended to be performed exclusively with wine, to the exclusion of all other alcoholic beverages. It is also noted that drinking wine on Purim is meant to be reminiscent of the verse "wine gladdens the heart of man." Some authorities suggest that because wine was a much stronger drink in Talmudic times than it is today, it is permissible to drink whiskey and other alcoholic beverages in fulfillment of this mitzva as well.⁵

I hope to return to this topic....

-----

Notes:

1 - טור אורח חיים סימן תרצה

2 - שולחן ערוך אורח חיים סימן תרצה

3 - משנה תורה, הלכות מגילה ב:טו

4 - חיי אדם קנה:ל

5 - Rabbi Ari N. Enkin, Halacha Bilvad: Halachic Insights & Responsa (Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel: Dalet Amot Publishing, 2010), 52.

Saying a Statement in the Name of the Person Who Said It 3: Let's Just Call a Rabbi a Rabbi

2012-01-10T12:46:00.000-05:00

Books don't write themselves

I recently found the following that I had sent myself a couple of years ago and hadn't previously posted, but should be:

A previous entry of mine focused on the rabbinic notion of quoting the person who made a particular statement, which is important and I wanted to build upon it (for another similar entry, see here).
     When reading halakhic literature in Hebrew it can be a bit strange to see the title of a book referenced, rather than the author referenced (such as "and Book Such-and-Such wrote.."), but I've accepted it as an idiosyncratic characteristic of that genre of literature. However, what's annoying is when that is replicated in English. My being disturbed is on account of a few reasons:
           1) The principle of repeating the author's name (akin to the aforementioned article)
           2) Saying a book wrote something is nonsense (imagine reading that "Romeo and Juliet" wrote such-and-such rather than Shakespeare having written it), at least in English.
           3) The consideration of the English-reading audience: oftentimes (although not always), the people who are reading it are not only unfamiliar with the idiosyncratic form of halakhic literature, but also don't know what the book in question is. Moreover, for those and many others, it generally serves to promote ignorance of who these great rabbis of our tradition were.
           4) Lastly, I don't think it is respectful to not give these great rabbis of our tradition the proper כבוד (honor) - instead, they are mostly ignored: we should have respect for the forebears of our tradition and their books - not their bound words, alone.
     Therefore, when I translate into English, I make sure I attribute the writings to those who wrote them and not simply the books' titles.

Pre-Marital Sex as a Subcategory of Non-Marital Sex

2012-01-09T12:45:00.000-05:00

Although there may be other posts like this one out on the Internet, I've been thinking about this topic for years and finally just wanted to post about it. This post is about the semantics of the term "pre-marital sex" and differentiating it from other forms of non-marital sex.

Basically, there are three different categories of sex when it comes to marriage: 1) Marital sex - that is, sex within a marriage; 2) Extra-Marital sex - that is, sex by one marital partner with someone outside of their marriage; and 3) Non-Marital sex - that is sex by someone who is not married. While categories 1 and 2 need no further breaking down, category 3 has some breaking down to be done (it may be noted that extra-marital sex could be included within the non-marital sex category, I'm going to let it remain separate).

Non-marital sex is simply sex by an unmarried person, whether they had formerly been married (you could call this post-marital sex (whether it's with their former spouse (in cases of divorce (as opposed to being widowed (and, no, I'm not touching necrophilia))) or with someone else)) or not otherwise married. I hesitate to say not yet married because it presumes one will get married at some point. This problem remains with the term "pre-marital" sex, unless, of course, one is engaged. In such a case, one has a marriage on the horizon and knows they are to get married and has sex with their fiance. This is the only time that the term Pre-Marital sex makes any sense - they are having sex before their marriage. Otherwise, it is overly presumptuous that this person will marry. Whether they will die before getting the chance to get married, they have no desire to get married, or simply are forever unmarried.

I don't know if these distinctions amongst non-marital sex sub-categorizations will ever catch on in a widespread sense, but I do hope people think more intelligently about using the term "pre-marital sex".

Purim Drinking I: Prolegomenon

2012-01-08T12:32:00.000-05:00

With Purim occurring two months from today, my mind turned over shabbat towards one of the most well-known aspects of the festival: drinking. The amusing thing about drinking being a(n in)famous aspect of the holiday is that it was not initially a main part of the festival - it was not a Tannaitic element (the primary ones were reading the megillah, giving money to the poor, and sharing food with others), but rather an amoraic addition to our tradition (and the requirement to get drink might have even been later).

Furthermore, in regards to the locus classicus of the drinking requirement, I refer you to Rabbi Josh Yuter's now-classic post on drinking on Purim (to hear Rabbi Yuter speak on the topic, see here). For me, one of the key points he makes is

I don't read the anecdote as a response to Rava, but rather as an explanation of Rava's statement. Textually, Rava's statement precedes the story of Rabbah and R. Zeira. Chronologically however, Rabbah and R. Zeira lived in the generation before Rava. Therefore, it is unlikely for Rabbah and R. Zeira to be reacting to Rava.

Although I plan to return to the discussion of drinking and Purim in later posts, one of the thoughts that popped into my head yesterday was that I've always had wine to drink on Purim and remembered hearing/reading somewhere that one is to get drunk off of wine to the exclusion of other drinks. I never took any issue with that idea since I've liked wine and started to want to try to appreciate it ever since I saw Sideways with my family. However, with my recent interest over the past couple of months in mixing drinks, my thinking changed and wondered what in the tradition is there about wine-only?
That's not the only question on my mind about drinking on Purim, but I hope to tackle that one and more in posts to come....

Excited About Going to Tribefest 2012

2012-01-05T13:39:00.000-05:00

Having returned yesterday from spending the previous day and a half in Las Vegas, I am looking forward to going to Tribefest this year (and, yes, I made sure I registered today). I am not looking forward to it just because the weather should be great (of the four times I've been there it's either been winter or summer, whereas the weather should be excellent in March) and, plus, I'm not into gambling, card playing, etc., so that's also not why I'm excited for Vegas.
So why am I excited? The primary reason is the people. Jews [roughly] my age from all over the continent will be there, which will be great on its own and I love such gatherings (it's part of the reason I became a rabbi). First, it'll be great to reconnect with folks I haven't seen in a while; second, there should be new cool people to meet, which is super; third, professional networking; and fourth, making myself available as a rabbinic resource for young Jews all over and, of course, to young Jewish adults in Southern California.

Tribefest 2012 will be taking place at the Venetian

       Last year, I had wanted to attend, but, alas, our second daughter was about to be born.... So, this year, both my wife and I will both be able to attend :)
       Although I didn't hear such great things about last year's sessions at Tribefest, if there is anything decent, that'll be exceeding my expectations. Plus, maybe since it was the first Tribefest, there may've been some patches that needed smoothing over. Also, while the schedule was just released today, I also discovered there is a clergy track for sessions for rabbis and cantors, which should be awesome getting together with other young-ish rabbis!
       Lastly, though, it'll be awesome with all the alcohol that there is in Vegas, that'll be the icing on the cake to make it fantastic!

Rabbinic Popularity in the Tosefta V: סדר קדשים

2012-01-02T21:45:00.000-05:00

Continuing in my attempt to count up the most frequently mentioned sages in the Tosefta, I have now counted up the appearances in סדר קדשים (for previous posts in the Tosefta, see the following: סדר זרעים, סדר מועד, סדר נשים, and סדר נזיקין).

Unsurprisingly, Rabbi Yehudah once again is the most frequently mentioned sage in סדר קדשים, although surprisingly, Rabbi Shimon was close for the first time in appearances. Also of note is that Rabbi Eleazar breaks into the top ten of a seder for the first time thus far in the Tosefta.
For a comparison for this same סדר in the משנה, see here.

Top ten most mentioned sages in סדר קדשים:

1 - רבי יהודה

2 - רבי שמעון

3 - חכמים

4 - רבי אליעזר

5 - רבי מאיר

6 - רבי יוסי

7 - רבי עקיבא

8 - רבי

9 - רבי יהושע

10 - רבי אלעזר

For the most mentioned in each tractate, here is the listing:

זבחים - רבי שמעון
שחיטת חולין - רבי יהודה
מנחות - רבי יהודה
בכורות - רבי עקיבא
ערכין - רבי יהודה
תמורה - רבי שמעון ורבי וחכמים
מעילה - רבי עקיבא
כריתות - רבי שמעון

שלשים לכח: Introductory Comments

2011-12-28T20:34:00.000-05:00

Both before, during, and after turning thirty a few months ago, my mind turned to perhaps the most famous rabbinic statement regarding changing ages - that of Yehudah, son of Tema, found toward the end of the fifth chapter of tractate Avot, wherein he goes through every decade of ones life and a few other ages, as well and characterizes them. Regarding turning thirty, he says simply "שלשים לכח". It's not simple to translate it - there are multiple options: thirty to power, thirty to ability, thirty to strength, thirty to energy, etc. (or strength at thirty, ability at thirty, etc.).
     Now that I'm thirty, what does this mean for us aged 30-39? There's no simple answer; furthermore, inasmuch as traditional commentators have penned much regarding the earlier ages, there is very little written on 30. By the way, 30's an exciting age, so it should be a special one.
      In any event, here is what some traditional commentators have written on the matter:
Rabbi Menahem Meiri, wrote (in his Beit haBehirah): "כלומר שאז נתמלא כחו והוא בתכלית הכח יתבונן שלא יוציאנה רק לעבודת השי"ת כמו שנאמר בלוים שלא היו כשרים לעבודת משא אלא מבן שלשים ומעלה". Rabbi Shimon, son of Zemah, Duran wrote (in his Magen Avot): "למדנו מלויים, שמבן שלושים שנה היו מקימין המשכן ומפרקין אותו, וטוענין העגלות ונושאין בכת". Similarly, Rabbi Ovadiah, son of Abraham, of Bertinoro, wrote (in his commentary): "שהלוים היו מקימים את המשכן ומפרקין וטוענין את העגלות ונושאין בכתף מבן שלשים שנה ומעלה". Rabbi Israel Lipschitz wrote (in the Yakhin part of the Tiferet Yisrael) "כבר נתבשל כחו שבגופו בכל האפשרי".
      The upshot is that some of them say that hitting thirty is the apex of one's strength, and they commonly say that there is a connection with the levites who, at 30, are able to carry the implements of the tabernacle and generally serve there. It's interesting to me to consider the strength element, especially since I took a two and a half month hiatus from lifting, before getting back into it. For me, generally, I have enjoyed lifting weights and have seen it as an integral part of my identity. I was kind of sad that I let it go for a few reasons, but it has been reinvigorating to get back into it and I am totally enjoying returning to work on my strength-building, which is very much in line with the Mishnah!

An Excellent Place for QR Codes in Jewish Life: Kashrut Certificates

2011-11-22T15:38:00.001-05:00

While on vacation in Florida, a difficulty presented itself to us: we would see a kosher certificate with a rabbi's name on it, but know nothing about the rabbi. Thus, even when there is a kashrut certificate (תעודת כשרות), that gives the [potential] consumer very little information regarding either the kosher supervising agency or the rabbi providing the supervision. Although for big cities, people may frequently not know who the particular rabbis or certifying agency is, but especially so when travelling and one has no sense of the local rabbinate. Now while one could do a quick google search on one's smartphone while pondering the restaurant, there could be an easier way of informing the consumer.

Just as I have suggested for zoos and for Jewish communal agencies, it would be helpful if, on the kashrut certificate, it would include a quick response (QR) code (it looks like a two-dimensional barcode). The QR code that would appear on the kosher certificate would send the potential consumer to a webpage either on the supervising kosher agency's website, the supervising rabbi's website, or the restaurant/supermarket's website.

(As an aside, this would also be helpful in the case of the Tav HaYosher, which would send the potential customer to either a page with information about the Tav HaYosher in general, a Tav HaYosher page with information about the particular restaurant, or a page on the restaurant's website.)

The inclusion of a QR code (or Microsoft Tag or any other similar products) would be a quick and easy way for informing customers and it wouldn't be much more difficult to include on the kashrut certificate.

Rabbinic Popularity in the Tosefta IV: סדר נזיקין

2011-11-04T02:35:00.001-04:00

Onward on my quest to count up the most prevalent mentions of rabbis in the Tosefta, I finished yesterday on סדר נזיקין (you can see previous posts on סדר זרעים, סדר מועד, and סדר נשים). Of note, Rabbi Yehudah was, once again, far ahead of everybody else in the seder. After him were the חכמים, followed by a bundle of of the next three, all pretty close to each other. I am listing the top fifteen, all of which have double digit mentions or more. One peculiar note, though, is that עדיות was somewhat anomalous in that there were many more rabbis being mentioned than is typical when compared to others. (For a comparison of this סדר in the Mishnah, see here.)

1 - רבי יהודה

2 - חכמים

3 - רבי יוסי

4 - רבי מאיר

5 - רבי שמעון

6 - רבן שמעון בן גמליאל

7 - רבי עקיבא

7 - רבי שמעון בן אלעזר

9 - רבי

10 - רבי אליעזר

11 - בית הלל

12 - רבי יהושע

13 - בית שמאי

14 - רבי ישמעאל

15 - רבי אלעזר

For the most mentions in each tractate, here is the listing:

בבא קמא - רבי יהודה

בבא מציעא - רבי יהודה

בבא בתרא - רבי יהודה

סנהדרין - רבי יהודה

מכות - רבי יהודה

שבועות - רבי שמעון

עדיות - חכמים

עבודה זרה - חכמים ורבי מאיר

הוריות - רבי יהודה ורבי מאיר ורבי יהושע וחכמים

Reading Dani Shapiro's Devotion

2011-11-02T22:59:00.001-04:00

For our first gathering of Clal's Rabbis Without Borders Fellowship (of which I am among the participants of the cohort) next week, we are to read Dani Shapiro's Devotion: A Memoir. I am not used to reading such books - most of my reading consists of either the New Yorker or academic articles - in fact, this book is probably the first memoir I've read (unless there were some in college I read (but that's been a while)). This book was both interesting to a read because it was an unfamiliar genre as well as somewhat frustrating to read because of Mrs. Shapiro's perspectives. As this book was assigned reading to a bunch of rabbis coming together to discuss, my initial thought was that it was about a woman seeking to connect Jewishly and how we can learn from her and trying to reach out to Jews who are on the periphery - I was sort of correct.
Fortunately, due to my 2.2 mile walk to shul, I read 1/5th of it walking to shul on Thursday on the first day of Sukkot, the second 1/5th walking back, the third fifth walking there on Friday on the second day of Sukkot, the fourth walking back home, and finishing the last fifth on Friday afternoon before shabbat. It was nice to have such an enchanting walking partner as this book, for it was definitely a book who desires an attentive reader and I was certainly sucked in, even thinking about the book whilst in shul.
Shapiro presents herself in this book as seeking out an emptiness in her life - a spiritual emptiness which he has tried involving herself in yoga but still looking for more. The most salient expression of her place is found early on (10-11):

I needed to place my faith in something. I didn't want our family's life to speed by in a blur of meals, schools, camps, barbeques, picnics, vacations - each indistinguishable from the next. I wanted to slow it down - to find ways to infuse our lives with greater depth and meaning. My own childhood had been spent steeped in religious ritual. There were rituals for eating, speaking, sleeping, praying. I never knew why we did what we did - it was simply the way it was. I had fled this at the earliest opportunity, but replaced it with nothing.

        What greatly frustrated me about her telling her Jewish journey was how many lacunae there were! If a/the central point of this book is her trying to wrestle with incorporating Jewish practices into her life, her family and especially with her son, what happened on the opposite end, so to speak? How did she drop what she had Jewishly growing up? She mentions (frequently) that she grew up not only going to Jewish schools, but yeshivos, no less, so she presumably learned a lot about Judaism. Where did that go? She mentions that she learned by rote and understood nothing, but then what? That would seem to me to be a big crux of her story - how and why did she drop her Jewish upbringing? She briefly mentions going to college and changing things, but she doesn't mention what caused or underlied that decision....
      I wonder if a part of that lack of description of her drifting away isn't a part of a broader issue of her being somewhat - for a lack of a better term - fuzzy relationship with Judaism.   It seems that whenever it comes to Jewish matters, there is a fuzziness and uncomfortability with what is going on through her telling. Why is her relationship with Judaism so?It seemed throughout that she made decisions about guiding her life in certain ways and then doesn't understand why she arrives at such consequences in her life. It seems like she's gone through life worrying about a career and a husband and a child and hasn't really thought, aside from her yoga practice, much about her life.
   Anyways, she has plenty of frum family members and her Jewish identity is largely wrapped up in her parents. While she struggles throughout with her deceased mother, she loves her deceased father greatly. It is him to whom she largely attributes her Jewish practices and greatly admires. She views him as representative of Jewish tradition. It is a really dear and sweet relationship she has with her father, I must say.
     As a Modern Orthodox Jew, it was interesting to see that her family has a significant connection to the YU world. She mentions that Rabbi Zev Reichman and Rabbi Daniel Feldman are in her family (80), but the most significant piece was an excerpt about the Rav (195):

I remembered a story my aunt Shirley had once told me. A famous Orthodox rabbi, Joseph Soloveitchik, paid his respects to my grandmother during her convalescence after a massive stroke following my grandfather's death. My grandmother had already lost use of the left side of her body, and had lost most of her ability to speak. But through Shirley, she managed to convey her question to the rabbi. why, she wanted to know, would God visit such hardship on an ordinary woman? She understood the trials God inflicted on great men like Abraham and Isaac, but why on someone like herself? The rabbi's answer was this: Mrs. Shapiro, do you realize what you're asking? You're asking to have a dialogue with God.

She deals with other topics in the book, but the Jewish pieces were the real points of interest for me. I look forward to discussing it next week when our fellowship gathers :)

Watching "UN Me"

2011-11-01T23:43:00.000-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, as part of a Beach Hillel program, I saw the movie "UN Me". Now, while I attended partly because of my job and association with Beach Hillel, I was interested to hear criticisms of the UN. It wasn't a topic I had ever particularly given any thought, let alone any attention. So, I watched.
The movie, itself, discusses what the UN is supposed to be and provides several in-depth examples of how it is sadly incompetent/ineffective, such as peacekeeping operations in Rwanda & Cote d'Ivoire, the IAEA & Iran, and the terrorism specialist not dealing with terrorism, amongst others. The movie would've been horribly depressing were it not for the amusing string of humor woven throughout the movie by the "star" of the documentary, Ami Horowitz.

One of the cool things about the showing was that Mr. Horowitz was on-hand to take the audiences questions, both on-stage and off. Some of the students, it should be noted, were certainly tremendously appreciative of such an intimate audience with Mr. Horowitz.
Coming away from the movie, I felt two things: 1) Thankful to be informed about the dysfunctionality of the UN and, more strongly, 2) Frustrated and sort of upset about the whole situation with the UN. Although Mr. Horowitz said an important course of action that people can do is to contact our congressional representatives and express our concern with them, I wished more could be done directly. A severe issue is peacekeeping, which the peacekeepers often fail at doing - I wish I could bring a team or multiple such teams to an area such as either Darfur or Southern Sudan to enforce the peace and protect the innocent people there, whether by myself or, if I had millions upon millions of dollars, to provide for such personnel. Ah well, I am sure more can be done by people, but, ultimately, the simplest method is what Mr. Horowitz suggested.

I look forward to when the finished version is released in the springtime and hope it receives a large viewership.

PDF of Minhah for the Ten Days of Repentance

2011-10-05T14:59:00.001-04:00

These last couple of days during this time on the Jewish calendar known as עשרת ימי תשובה - the ten days of repentance - I was struck with a challenge: in the afternoons, I am typically somewhere out and about and I need to daven מנחה (the afternoon prayer). Now while during the rest of the year, I can do so by heart, there are several liturgical insertions for this time period and I haven't yet memorized them. But, I was thinking, what if there was an on-the-go version for which I wouldn't need a סידור (siddur - prayerbook). So, mostly going off of a Word document template I had been sent years ago, I put together a file of the prayers for minhah (also transliterated as minchah or mincha).
However, I know I am not the only one in the world facing this issue, so the pdf version of the file is online here and you can feel free to print it out, download it to your mobile device, etc....
I have two things I would like to note about it: 1) It is really a simple file and nothing fancy about it - it's just the straight Hebrew and 2) There are no choreographical directions, etc....
Enjoy and גמר חתימה טובה.

Rabbinic Popularity in the Tosefta III: סדר נשים

2011-09-27T02:38:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, I finished up going through סדר נשים of the Tosefta in counting up how frequently our sages appear (just as I've done with סדר זרעים and סדר מועד). Below, you will see the top fifteen sages (for a comparison of everything that follows below, see the posting for the same סדר in the Mishnah):

1 - רבי יהודה

2 - רבי מאיר

3 - רבי שמעון

4 - רבי יוסי

5 - רבן שמעון בן גמליאל

6 - רבי עקיבא

7 - רבי אליעזר

8 - חכמים

9 - רבי שמעון בן אלעזר

10 - רבי

11 - בית הלל ובית שמאי

13 - רבי יהושע

14 - רבי אלעזר

15 - רבי טרפון ורבי יהודה בן בתירה

For the most in each מסכתא:

יבמות - רבי יהודה

כתובות - רבי יהודה

נדרים - רבי יוסי

נזירות - רבי שמעון

סוטה - רבי יהודה ורבי עקיבא

גיטין - רבן שמעון בן גמליאל

קידושין - רבי מאיר

At this point, I've tackled half of the entire Tosefta, so I wanted to provide an update on who the most popular are thus far. What follows are the top twenty most frequently mentioned sages in the Tosefta in the first three sedarim. Of note is that the top ten all have been mentioned more than 100 times, whereas the next ten are mentioned between 30 and 73 times, so the top ten (and especially the top four) have quite some separation between them and the rest.

1 - רבי יהודה

2 - רבי יוסי

3 - רבי מאיר

4 - רבי שמעון

5 - רבן שמעון בן גמליאל

6 - חכמים

7 - רבי אליעזר

8 - רבי

9 - בית הלל

10 - בית שמאי ורבי שמעון בן אלעזר

12 - רבי יהושע

13 - רבי אלעזר

14 - רבן גמליאל

15 - רבי יוסי ברבי יהודה

16 - רבי אלעזר ברבי צדוק

17 - רבי אלעזר ברבי שמעון

18 - רבי טרפון

19 - רבי אליעזר בן יעקב ורבי נתן

Thus far (halfway through the Tosefta), the leaderboard for most references in most tractates looks like this

1 - רבי יהודה

2 - רבי שמעון ורבי מאיר

4 - חכמים ורבי יוסי ובית שמאי ובית הלל

8 - רבן שמעון בן גמליאל ורבי עקיבא ורבן יוחנן בן זכאי ושמעון בן אלעזר

9/11 Reflections Ten Years Later as a Student in Jerusalem

2011-09-19T13:35:00.000-04:00

On 11 September 2001, I had been in Jerusalem for two weeks, where I was studying at Ohr Somayach through Yeshiva University, where I had studied the previous semester. On the day in question, I had woken up late, although the planes didn't crash into the buildings for another couple of hours. It was actually still during our big lunch break that the planes went into the buildings. Now, although I had spent the previous spring in New York City, I wasn't familiar with what the World Trade Center buildings were (I grew up in central Ohio, after all), so I neither understood their significance nor how many people were there....
There are two other important pieces of the context of my experience of 9/11: the first of these was that there had been numerous bombings - suicide and otherwise - in Israel and we had to be careful about riding buses and going certain places because of Arab bombers. With these planes being led into the towers by Muslim extremists, this wasn't so peculiar, as we were acutely aware of Muslim/Arab terrorism in Israel. You could almost say that Arabs/Muslims wanting to do harm to do Jews and to the West was already on our radar.
The second of these was that, being at Ohr Somayach, we didn't have tvs around - so I never saw the news breaking about the planes hitting the Twin Towers. Moreover, to this day, I still have not seen the footage of the planes hitting the towers. Now, granted, I've seen a brief clip or two of the plumes of smoke emanating from the towers, although I've never seen either the full clips of them being hit, nor have I ever seen any of the coverage. Now, in our day, I'm pretty sure I can easily find coverage of it, but I feel somewhat weird about it, as it would simply be watching an historical event, almost like watching the Hindenburg go down or violence in Rwanda - it's trying to understand a historical event that happened somewhere.In the immediate aftermath of the attacks on September 11th, we heard (whether rightly or not) that America / President Bush had given essentially a carte blanche to deal with it's Arab terror issue, since America now understood, to some degree, what it's like to deal with terrorism.Now, having been at yeshivah, we didn't get newspapers nor have any tvs around (although we could go to Internet cafes and catch up on what was going on in the world, check email, etc.), so I wasn't terribly aware of how people back in the US were dealing with the events on 9/11. However, I remember a week or so following the attacks that I was on a bus (yes, I know not the safest activity...) and seeing a newspaper discussing it, but not having seen anything about it at all afterwards.
When I returned Stateside in January 2002, there were two strange things that I noticed: 1) there was a greater sense of nationalism/patriotism in the US, which was not simply strange, but was significantly different than when I had left. When going to another country, I know that things are going to be different than they are in the US, so I don't encounter culture shock. However, when I returned home, I experienced the most significant culture shock of my life: I didn't expect that my own country would be different when I returned(!).
The second thing that was peculiar to me was that the terrorist attacks in September were still in the newspapers(!). Every day, there was something being discussed about the attacks. In Israel, there were attacks, they got covered, and people moved on.
Anyways, I would say that we in yeshivah did not experience the same panic that gripped my fellow America citizens in the US at the time and that being aware of terrorist attacks by Arabs/Muslims was already part of our world. I also imagine that other college students studying abroad at the same time may also not have experienced 9/11 the same way those still Stateside did....

Some Reflections on the Second Annual Hillel Institute

2011-08-11T22:50:00.009-04:00

A week ago, I left and returned from attending the second annual Hillel Institute. In the spirit of some of my recent posts (including my conference anticipations), I'm going with ten reflections on the conference:
1) I was happy to see more tweeting (cf. picture to the right) taking place at this year's conference than at last year's conference. It seemed that not only that there were about twice as many people tweeting about the conference, but the plenary address by Wayne Firestone had some active tweeting, which was excellent, allowing even people not there to follow along with his address. I am hoping that next year's address will have an even more robust parallel conversation taking place!
2) The highlight for me was the rabbis sessions. It wasn't just hanging out with the other YCT graduates (which was great(!)), but engaging in discourse about delivering Jewish content to the students, which is a core element of Hillel. Moreover, one of the fascinating aspects of the rabbis' discussions was that we bring much different view of Hillel and the Jewish world than do engagement or programming associates, for instance. We are critical of Hillel because we want to see good Jewish identity growing - it's fascinating stuff :)
3) Once again, we visited the very trippy City Museum, which seems to get stranger and more random every step one takes in a mind-blowing way....
4) Wayne Firestone turned in another Steve Jobs-like performance.
5) The Richard M. Joel Exemplar of Excellence Awards and Milestones once again went smoothly, quickly, and excellently! (Pictured to the left: Wayne Firestone speaking at the awards ceremony)
6) When I read the paper that was sent out to conference attendees, I was enthralled and impressed by the author's understanding of leadership and how to employ that through the vehicle of narrative. Granted, my skills as a raconteur are lacking, but it's a tool I need to develop....
7) The bulk of our sessions were "Track sessions" which were based around the aforementioned paper. I think they weren't that great: they were based off of a good idea, but we didn't need that much time to deal with it (and it was a fair degree of writing). (For a more positive assessment of these, see this post.) Interestingly, over the weekend, I then realized it actually was more helpful than when I was in the moment (nevertheless, it was too much time...). Personally, it would have been nice to have a couple of sessions of didactic information (e.g. How-Tos)....
8) Now that I've sort of beaten up on the aforementioned sessions, we did develop a better sense of where we wanted to take Beach Hillel this coming year, which would not have occurred were it not for the conference.
9) There was some great networking there - whether it was with other Hillel professionals there or representative of organizations at the organizational fair. For some organizations and Southern Californian Hillels, it was how could we work together, which is eminently helpful. For some people, it was nice to meet such interesting and good people. For others, it was who I might want to work with me in the future.
10) I got to hear a tremendously simple, yet helpful guiding question of What are we trying to accomplish in any given activity, whether it is a shabbat dinner, class, or Rabbi's Hours? For me, sometimes the answers are so obvious I don't even think about it/them. However, re-investigating the questions and then articulating the answers can better serve me in being effectual.

Overall, the conference was good, once again, and I look forward to attending next year (if possible).

Once Again, Some Great YCT Representation at Hillel Institute

2011-08-10T22:15:00.004-04:00

Last week, during our last night at the second annual Hillel Institute of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, someone asked me about the seemingly numerousness of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT) graduates in Hillel. In truth, in no way were YCT graduates the majority of rabbis there, but it was noticeable. For one thing, when we began the Beit midrash session on Wednesday morning, Rabbi Andy Kastner opened it up while Rabbi Ben Berger framed it for everybody. There were lots of options of sessions, although I chose to go to the one led by another two graduates, Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz and Rabbi David Kasher.
I've already listed most of the YCT graduates at the conference, with the other three being Rabbi Seth Winberg, Rabbi Josh Feigelson, and myself. And while we have different positions,* we all are involved in our respective Hillels.
Having enjoyed not only the presence of YCT graduates last year, but also the responses regarding them, I was tremendously looking forward to seeing my fellow YCTers at the conference. I wasn't disappointed. Although the foremost reason for being excited to see them was having been trained in the same, special environment of YCT where there was not only a concerned discourse of general matters, but certainly when it came to Judaism (especially in (North) America), an intensive involvement with texts, and overall awesomeness. However, what may have contributed not only to seeing each other being special and catching up with each other, but also another matter: while at YCT, there is a feeling (largely unarticulated, but something that I felt nearly every day there) that we had a lot of potential in revitalizing the (North) American Jewish community; at the Hillel Institute, we got to hear and see some of the amazing energy being actualized by our fellow graduates. Not only that, but we got to hear further ideas and be inspired by each other.
By far, my favorite aspect of the conference was the sessions where all of the rabbis got together (which is another discussion altogether); however, again, the YCT graduates stood out, especially since three of them were Senior Jewish Educators at their Hillels. I could see how the person who mentioned to me that YCT guys were all over could get that impression....
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*Aside from me, there was Rabbi Ben Berger ('09), senior Jewish educator (SJE) at the Hillel at The Ohio State University, Rabbi Josh Feigelson ('05), previously campus rabbi at Northwestern Hillel; Rabbi David Kasher ('07), SJE at Berkeley Hillel; Rabbi Andy Kastner ('10), campus rabbi for Washington University; Rabbi Seth Winberg ('11), associate director at U. of Michigan Hillel; Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz ('10), SJE at the Hillel at UCLA.

Rabbinic Popularity in the Tosefta II: סדר מועד

2011-08-08T18:08:00.005-04:00

I have now finished going through and counting up the most frequently mentioned sages in סדר מועד of the Tosefta (see here for סדר זרעים). Once again, Rabbi Yehudah is the most frequently mentioned sage (if it were otherwise, it would be a surprise), although some rabbis who appear more frequently in the Tosefta than in the Mishnah are, just like with סדר זרעים, are Rabban Shimon, son of Gamliel, and Rabbi Shimon, son of Eleazar. Also, Rabbi Eleazar, son of Rabbi Zadok, appears with a surprising regularity. Also noteworthy is that Rabbi Eliezer appears much less frequently in the Tosefta than he did in the Mishnah.
Instead of the typical top ten, I figured it would be more interesting to see the top fifteen this time (see here for the Mishnah's top ten of סדר מועד):

1 - רבי יהודה
2 - רבי יוסי
3 - רבי מאיר
4 - חכמים
5 - רבי שמעון
5 - רבי שמעון בן אלעזר
7 - רבי אליעזר
7 - רבן שמעון בן גמליאל
9 - בית שמאי
10 - בית הלל
11 - רבי
12 - רבי עקיבא
13 - רבי יהושע
14 - רבי אלעזר
14 - רבי אלעזר ברבי צדוק

And now for the most frequently mentioned sage(s) in each tractate:

שבת - רבי יהודה
ערובין - רבי יהודה
פסחא - רבי יהודה
שקלים - רבי מאיר
כפורים - רבי יהודה
יום טוב - בית שמאי
סוכה - רבי יהודה
ראש השנה - רבי יהודה
תעניות - רבי יהודה
מגלה - רבי ינודה
מועד - רבי יהודה
חגיגה - בית הלל ובית שמאי ורבן יוחנן בן זכאי

Five Quick Thoughts on the OC Fair

2011-08-07T23:06:00.003-04:00

Having gone today to the Orange County Fair for the first time, I had some thoughts:
1) It was great that we were able to get in for only $2 instead of the regular price of $11. This rate is only good between 10-11am on Saturdays and Sundays, which is awesome and we did it, although I was surprised on our way out that the lines for getting tickets were long!
2) Not enough tables outside: whenever looking for a table at which to sit, they were typically full. Next year, they ought to put out more of them.
3) It's unfortunate that most of the really yummy food is not kosher, but that's not necessarily a bad thing - I don't need fried frog legs, pepperoni pizza rolls, or pork butts, amongst other items....
4) Although the tag line is "Let's Eat", my favorite part was the halls of vendors selling products (pictured above). Granted, this probably was on account of my not being able to eat most of the food there. OTOH, they did have the largest Dippin' Dots stand I'd ever seen (with different options).
5) People walk so slowly. This was crazy how slowly people were walking - I know people are taking their time and enjoying their surroundings, but when you are in a hurry to get to the restroom or meeting up with other people, it gets annoying how slowly people walk there.
I think I would go back (probably only with the $2 admission fee (I don't think I'd spend $11 to get in)), although in no way does it compare with the Ohio State Fair, which is what I grew up with....

Meeting Some of the Best & Brightest: Picking a Professional Dream team

2011-08-03T06:43:00.003-04:00

While staffing BBYO's ILTC last month, I met some staff members who impressed me in certain ways and I thought "If only I had the opportunity to start some sort of organization (or head up something), I know who I would choose to work with me and get things done." What struck me was that I had never had such a thought cross my mind of picking people to work together in an organization with me.
For the past few days, I have been at the second annual Hillel Institute (essentially a Hillel professionals' staff conference) and have met several people that, given the opportunity, I would love to hire certain people and create a team. Granted, I know neither the organization nor when nor how any of it would take place. Then, again, that's why it's a dream team - it's not in actuality....
I guess I haven't been used to being in such positions (although having put together some events this past year (most recently the Tikkun Olam Institute) might have influenced my thinking about finding people to be involved in running certain elements of programs and, more broadly, organizations), which makes it somewhat of a new ability to consider.

Some Anticipations, Expectations & More for This Week's Second Annual Hillel Institute

2011-07-31T21:11:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow, I am heading off to attend the second ever Hillel Institute and thought I would type out some things I am looking forward to and expecting, etc. Having attended last year's first ever Hillel Institute, which was a re-branded staff conference, I am excited to go back and have numerous thoughts about it.
1) It'll once again be ridiculously hot and humid in St. Louis, which won't be great. However, the air-conditioning was excellent last year and the Washington University campus is gorgeous.
2) I am stoked to re-connect with people from last year, from previous experiences in BBYO, and elsewhere. My favorites, though, are meeting and reconnecting with other rabbis, since we are a rare and unique breed. The best, though, is meeting up with my fellow YCTers, who represented nicely last year.
3) Twitter discussions. This includes not only conversations taking place on Twitter, but also conversations about Twitter. Last year, there were a dozen or so people tweeting at the conference, perhaps a dozen and a half. However, the real story was not only how little Hillel was tweeting about he conference, but how pathetic their tweets had been from the previous school year. However, they have really got their act together in the past year and picked things up in the fall, the highlight of which was their tweeting during the GA, which was certainly excellent. The rest of the year has also been good and my hopes are that Hillel does some tweeting about the conference from the conference. I also wonder how much I will get comments about my Jewlicious piece about Hillel's tweeting last year (linked above)....
4) This year's institute will be taking place during the Nine Days - I will be bearded up this year as opposed to last year and I hope I don't scare anybody off. Also, there won't be any meat served, aside from the first night where a siyyum will be taking place. So, that means a lot of dairy meals (poor lactards).
5) One really well done piece of last year's conference was the bar/beer night, where there were a selection of several beers along with cookies that they had a great supply of and it was a nice touch. I thought it was a splendid way to mingle and hang out in a very informal setting with our Hillel colleagues. I hope they do it again.
6) Another great plenary speech ....
7) Checking out the funky City Museum once again.
8) We'll be bringing our four-month old with us, which we will have babysitting handle for us, which shouldn't be a problem throughout the daytime, as she's pretty low maintenance. This is in stark contrast to last year when we came to babysitting on the second day last year of the new professionals institute to find our 16-month old crying on one of the couches in babysitting (needless to say, we did not bring her back there again) - babysitting for her there was a disaster! (We ended up scrambling and hired someone to take care of her during the day for the most part, but occasionally having to take turns miss out on sessions or events to take care of her.) I understand that there will be kinks with any event the first time it is run, but there were way too few babysitters for all the children that were at the conference last year. I truly hope that they fix that atrocious shortcoming. (Thank God we are able to leave our older daughter with family and not take her to the conference.)
9) Although I would like to see some discussion of the potential of QR codes and Microsoft Tags, etc., as I have previously written about, I doubt much of it will be discussed.
10) More social media: Last year, I was probably the only one or one of less than a handful of attendees using Foursquare - I hope there are more this year.... Also, last year, I came up with a Twitter hashtag for the conference, while Hillel FJCL has clearly been proactive in coming up with their own this year, which is a change and I imagine there will be more Twitter conversations going on this year, as there will [hopefully] be more tweeting going on this year....
Alrighty - I've gotta get going - my flight leaves in about ten hours....

Reflections on Starting A New AZA Chapter

2011-07-26T22:17:00.000-04:00

Having been at BBYO's ILTC recently gave me some consideration about my BBYO experience, primarily because participants would ask me "Were you ever in BBYO?" and, if so, how involved I was. So, I would say I had been and that I was chapter Aleph Mazkir, Aleph Godol and Aleph S'gan followed by Regional Aleph Mazkir and Regional Aleph S'gan, the latter of which are pretty good and in which I expended a good amount of energy. However, what brought a smile to my face was when I described having started my own AZA chapter. Moreover, there was an opportunity one afternoon for participants to go around and talk to staff who had been in BBYO and a particular experience of theirs. I chose to speak about my experience of starting my own chapter. (As an aside, one of the interestingly unforeseen aspects of it was that many of those teens who decided to attend my particular discussions (there were three rotations) were either interested in starting their own chapters, wanted to start another chapter elsewhere in their regions/councils, or wanted to know how to deal with the chapter off of which their chapter had split and there was not such great relations there.)
In speaking about the chapter I started, I realized there were several animating reasons that I did it: 1) Every week at the same time and the same place at the JCC, the AZA and BBG chapters would have their meetings. While this provided a nice opportunity to meet other BBYOers and there would be the occasional program for everybody to join in, most chapters just had meetings at that time. What Heart of Ohio would do is pretty much have meetings on those evenings and perhaps an occasional program here or there. The problem with that modus operandi is that having meetings is not the point of joining BBYO - they are meant to support the activities (primarily the programming) of the chapter, which are to be more primary. In other words, teens don't want to go to lots of meetings - they want to be involved in activities, programs, etc. We shifted the focus in my new chapter to having programs on a fairly weekly basis on Sunday afternoons and whenever we would have the occasional meeting, we would go and do something afterwards. This approach yielded us having the most programming of any AZA chapter within the region that year, which was satisfying.
2) When I finished my term as Regional Aleph S'gan, I wanted to invest the knowledge and experience of BBYO I had into Heart of Ohio, so I figured the best position would be Aleph Moreh. When elections came around a few weeks after Regional Convention (which I had co-coordinated) and didn't win, I realized that my efforts would be better expended elsewhere. However, not getting elected by the chapter was really reflective not so much of me, but of a pervasive ideology of electing underclassmen in order to give them experience and, more significantly, to give them a better opportunity to make it on to regional board. One problem with this approach is that it sacrifices the chapter for the sake of the individual's gain. Rather than letting members gain experience before getting onto chapter board in order to use their experience or any training (especially LTI or other regional conventions (or ideally CLTC, but not many people from Columbus BBYO went, probably because there was never an established desire for it to be attended)) to bolster their term serving the chapter and, by extension, their chapter, the idea was to get them on board to get "experience". This "experience" was primarily, albeit not exclusively, having been on board and could be used to get onto board for a higher position later on and hopefully regional board. Oftentimes, once elected, these board members wouldn't necessarily know what was to be done due to their lack of training and/or experience. They might get some things accomplished but not as much as otherwise.* Gain experience perhaps through planning programs or on committees and chairs, then through that earn their way on to board with experience. If there are members who are particularly talented or good, they can make it up the ladder, by not giving preference to younger (read: inexperienced and not knowledgeable about BBYO) members
3) Heart of Ohio AZA #55, the chapter in which I had been for my first three and a half years in high school, had members who were primarily in Bexley and got together there and also had their own social networks there, etc. In starting my own chapter, I had known other guys in my town of Gahanna and surrounding areas who would be interested in joining our new chapter.
4) One innovation I made was by rethinking the board positions and duties. Whereas a standard chapter may have an Aleph Godol, an Aleph S'gan, Aleph moreh, Aleph Shaliach, Aleph Gizbor, Aleph Mazkir and Aleph Kohen Godol, I felt that the positions could be a little different and also the duties could be better split up. From this, I merged some positions, resulting in a board that had an Aleph Godol, Aleph S'gan and Aleph Moreh as per usual, and an Aleph Shaliah whose duties were the Jewish programming solely (no community engagement), Aleph Mazkir, whose duties included note-taking and money tracking. Aleph Sofer for the newsletter and website; Aleph Modia, whose job was to inform the members of what's going on in the chapter, inform local media (primarily the local Jewish newspaper) of upcoming events (and past events). These last two were a bit novel in my KIO region and I liked it because it made sense and because I had created it, I felt a special connection to it.
5) A last reason was to set up from the outset certain activities or other practices (such as an annual or semi-annual AIT overnight or chapter convention) that might have received pushback or rejection from an already existing chapter due to "not having done it before". Thus, we were able to get those set up.
The question that I would receive, though, after talking about having set up my own chapter would be "What happened to it? Is it still around?" Sadly, the answer is no. I think it lasted 2-3 years afterward, but ultimately folded. Although, on the one hand, I feel like I had graduated and was no longer in high school and, by extension, AZA, I needed to move on and no longer involve myself with it, I also felt, on the other hand now that I probably could have checked in with the chapter and offered my assistance more than I did. That's life. I didn't have any further involvement with BBYO until I staffed two KIO RCs (2001 and 2002) and LTI in 2002 as well as international programs in 2002-2004.

* This really occurred originally on account of less than optimal circumstances: prior to my joining Heart of Ohio (in 1995-1996), he chapter had had a very strong senior class and a freshman class. I'm not sure how much the seniors passed along heir knowledge to the freshmen. When I joined the next year, the freshmen who had become sophomores were doing what they could, although they didn't totally have their act together. Less than a month after joining, I became the Aleph Mazkir (really because no one else wanted to take notes at meetings and I was fine with stepping in and doing so (despite never having done so and without any training (as a result, they weren't properly formal or adhere to any particular standards (but hopefully they had the important information)) (later, when I saw how the Regional Aleph Mazkir took notes, I was impressed by how it was done))). While at KIO's Regional Convention that December (1999, which I co-coordinated), I realized we weren't having any programs which was why I had joined in the first place and wanted sports stuff, which was kind of tough with our current chapter make-up, but I realized that we could have a Super Bowl party the following month. So, we did :) By the time the next election came up, I ran for and won Aleph Godol (I did run against someone this time, but I think because I did a good enough job and put in work at Aleph Mazkir), they trusted me to take over (I think they were also largely apathetic, probably largely because they didn't want to have to work on the chapter, having had the seniors run it. Anyways, the following year, it was primarily sophomores and freshmen and a junior here or there, with heavier underclassmen involvement.

Rabbinic Popularity in the Tosefta I: סדר זרעים

2011-07-25T14:48:00.004-04:00

Having gone through the entirety of the Mishnah and counting up how frequently various sages were mentioned, I decided I would turn my attention to the Tosefta and do similarly (both because of curiousity and because I had developed a nice system for it (creating grids and working פרק by פרק in tallying them up (yup, old-fashioned(!)))).
So, I started off with סדר זרעים and found that, once again, Rabbi Yehudah is the most frequently mentioned sage and that his colleagues are also up there (if you would like to compare/contrast this with the Mishnah, see here). This סדר also prominently featured the two houses along with the חכמים. However, Rabban Shimon, son of Gamliel featured much more prominently than he did in the Mishnah (and his primary בר פלוגתא, Rebbe). The special honorary mention goes to Rabbi Shimon, son of Elazar, who seemingly came out of nowhere and was pretty frequently mentioned - the twelfth most mentioned in this סדר (the 11th was Rabbi Akiva). Here is the top ten:

1 - רבי יהודה
2 - רבי יוסי
3 - רבן שמעון בן גמליאל
4 - רבי שמעון
5 - חכמים
6 - רבי מאיר
7 - רבי אליעזר
8 - בית הלל
9 - בית שמאי
10 - רבי

As to the most frequent mentions in each מסכתא, voila:

ברכות - רבי יהודה
פאה - רבי יהודה ורבי שמעון
דמאי - רבי יוסי
תרומות - רבי יהודה
שביעית - רבי יהודה
כלאים - רבי מאיר
מעשרות - חכמים
מעשר שני - בית חלל
חלה - חכמים
ערלה - רבי יהודה ורבי שמעון בן אלעזר
בכורים - רבי שמעון

Some Physical Changes at B'nai B'rith Perlman Camp

2011-07-06T11:41:00.001-04:00

Fence by LTC Dorm 6 (which is now not in use)

As mentioned previously, I am staffing BBYO's International Leadership Training Conference currently and already discussed some of BBYO's summer programming changes at B'nai B'rith Perlman Camp (BBPC); additionally, there have been some physical changes, as well, to the grounds. One noticeably apparent change has been the addition of a fence between the camp and the adjacent road, extending from the camp's main entrance all the way up to just past dorm 6 [of the Bernard Ehrenreich Youth Leadership Village (henceforth, Leadership Village)]. This fence also has a gate which is typically closed/locked at the adjacent road's entrance into the Leadership Village (which is frustrating for us who drive in and out of the Leadership Village, as we now have to drive around and out through the main gate, rather than just out of the one right by). In addition to whichever security advantages the fence affords, it also serves as a huge part of the eruv surrounding the Leadership Village. Also, the gateway into the Leadership Village has been taken down....*
I remember the ILTC I attended was one of the fullest they've had in a while: they used all 9 dorms of the Leadership Village as well as a "tenth dorm", putting those participants in the Adult Lodge ("A-Lodge"), and there were certainly a lot of participants! This year's ILTC is also really large, perhaps larger than the one I attended in 1998, with 198 participants. However, for some reason, Dorm 6 has been condemned or shut up for some reason (one rumor I've heard is that there's a rare tree in there (although I'm not sure about that)), so they have one less dorm available for use. So, instead of leaving four participants to a room with five participants' rooms per dorm, they have now put more bunk beds in each room, with most Leadership Village rooms containing 3 bunk beds to hold six participants each - along with cubbies for them. In order to help with the cramped quarters, the program stores the participants' luggage elsewhere. (If there is a concerned [potential] donor out there, I'm sure BBYO/BBPC would welcome a donation of a dorm or two....)

CLTC Classroom 1 now with exercise equipment inside

A new addition to the campgrounds has been the addition of a new soccer field that replaces dozens of trees that were adjacent down the huge hill to dorms 8 and 9 of the Leadership Village. While it's gorgeous, I remember staffing ILTC in 2004 and sadly watching those trees being cut down to make room for it.... Nevertheless, they basically took away the goal posts that were in the Leadership Village soccer field between the baseball field and tennis courts and now have new ones up at the new soccer field (along with some powerful lights there).
Also, due to the awful smell and dirtiness of the carpeting in the Music and Performing Arts Center (commonly referred to as the Performing Arts building), it was ripped out and simply concrete flooring in the building....
Since the sessions of the Chapter Leadership Training Conference (CLTC) are no longer being held there (the last one was held there in 2005), the four CLTC classrooms are now available for use by ILTC and Kallah, which is great for spreading out. However, for some reason, staff from the Perlman kids camp has moved in a bunch of their workout equipment into CLTC classroom 1 (pictured).... Although it's a bit odd that they would take over a room of BBYO's use, it is, nevertheless, a boon to those of us who would like to get in a few reps (it's perfectly located next to the Adult Lodge, where I'm staying, and en route to the dining hall - perfect for some pre-meal lifting...)....
One random thing: since BBYO's International Convention is now no longer taking place at BBPC, I wonder what will happen to the time capsule that was "buried and Dedicated on August 19, 1999 in honor of AZA's 75th Anniversary To be opened at International Convention 2024, on AZA's 100th Anniversary" (the caption was from the plaque above the time capsule (which I wrote down eight years ago), although I haven't seen the plaque anywhere this summer....
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*According to the plaque on the gateway (which now no longer stands), the Bernard Ehrenreich Youth Leadership Village was "presented and developed by the Boys' and Young Men's Apparel Lodge No. 2460" in July 1973. As to after whom it was named, the plaque continues: "Bernard Ehrenreich represented a perfect example of a three "c" man - he cared. He was concerned. He was committed. And these words sum up his long devotion to public and community service. He gave of himself to many worthy causes and was a lifelong foe of suffering, iniquity and inhumanity... a proud son of Israel.... A true son of the covenant." Although I am not definite, I believe this is the same Bernard Ehrenreich as Rabbi Bernard Ehrenreich, who was one of the founding members of Zeta Beta Tau and also started Camp Kawaga.

Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah VII: Top Ten Overall [Final Tally]

2011-07-05T10:10:00.001-04:00

As mentioned previously, I went through the Mishnah and counted which sages were mentioned the most times (see I, II, III, IV, V, VI for previous posts on individual סדרים), tallying them up yesterday and here is the list of the top ten sages mentioned the most times throughout the Mishnah:

1 - רבי יהודה

2 - חכמים

3 - רבי מאיר

4 - רבי שמעון

5 - רבי יוסי

6 - רבי אליעזר

7 - רבי עקיבא

8 - בית שמאי

9 - בית הלל

10 - רבי יהושע

Rabbi Yehudah was clearly at the top of the list, with nearly 650 references - he was the most referenced in each of the six סדרים of the Mishnah and was frequently the most commonly appearing rabbi in the tractates. The חכמים were all alone in second place, with no one near them at more than 450 references (see the earlier post in which they are mostly voicing their opinions against fourth and fifth generation tannaim). Then, Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Yose, and Rabbi Eliezer were all pretty close in positions 3-6. Rabbi Akiva wasn't too far behind them with more than 300 references throughout. The two houses of Shammai and Hillel were pretty close to each other (which makes sense since they mostly appeared together) above 200. Closing out the top ten as well as the last rabbi to receive over 100 mentions in all of the Mishnah is Rabbi Joshua/Yehoshua.
Basically, Rabbi Yehudah and his colleagues' generation (Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Shimon, and Rabbi Yose) were the most frequently mentioned, in addition to Rabbi Eliezer and his colleagues' generation (Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yehoshua), along with the two houses....

Some Changes to BBYO Summer Programs at B'nai B'rith Perlman Camp

2011-07-04T10:18:00.007-04:00

As mentioned before, it's been seven years since I've been to B'nai B'rith Perlman Camp (BBPC) and, while here, there have been changes that have occurred. In this post, I wanted to discuss some changes to the summer programs taking place here (for some background to this, see here).
The first is that no longer is there four weeks of Kallah, three weeks of International Leadership Training Conference (ILTC), followed by International Convention (IC), nor are there any Chapter Leadership Training Conference (CLTC) sessions. First off, the last time there were any CLTCs held here were 2005, one year after I staffed two CLTCs here.
Also, 2005 was the last time IC was held here, when it was held in Atlanta and has switched cities around since.* And since ILTC usually led into IC, there's no more reason for ILTC to follow Kallah, so they switched it, as the mood from Kallah to ILTC often was a sense of a Jewish let-down (allowing for increased Jewish learning and living from ILTC to Kallah). Moreover, instead of ILTC lasting three weeks and Kallah four, they have reduced their lengths to two weeks for ILTC and three for Kallah.
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* Since 2005, the cities in which BBYO's International Convention has taken place are as follows:
2006 - Atlanta, GA
2007 - Bruceville, TX
2008 - Chicago, IL
2009 - Long Branch, NJ
2010 - Dallas, TX
2011 - Los Angeles, CA

Against Whom the חכמים Were in the Mishnah [Top Ten]

2011-07-03T17:25:00.004-04:00

As mentioned previously, I went through the Mishnah and counted which sages were mentioned the most times (see I, II, III, IV, V, VI for previous posts on individual סדרים) and discovered an interesting element: sometimes sages were mentioned and then חכמים disagreed with them. Although I don't have any particular speculations as to anything about them (I would love to see what people have to suggest), I wanted to list the most frequent amongst the sages against whom the חכמים had a different opinion:

1 - רבי מאיר
2 - רבי אליעזר
3 - רבי יהודה
4 - רבי עקיבא
5 - רבי שמעון
6 - רבי יהושע
7 - רבי
8 - רבן גמליאל
9 - רבי ישמעאל
אדמון ורבי יוסי

Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah VI: סדר טהרות

2011-06-27T17:52:00.004-04:00

While flying last week, I finished up my project of counting the most referenced sages in The Mishnah with סדר טהרות (see previous posts on זרעים ,מועד ,נשים ,נזיקים, and קדשים). Once again, as with the other five orders of the Mishnah, Rabbi Yehudah was, by far, the most commonly referenced sage (and, thus, the most throughout the entirety of the Mishnah). Without further ado, here are the top ten most referenced sages in סדר טהרות:

Top Ten

1 - רבי יהודה

2 - חכמים

3 - רבי יוסי

4 - רבי שמעון

5 - רבי מאיר

6 - רבי אליעזר

7 - רבי עקיבא

8 - בית שמאי

9 - בית הלל

10 - רבי יהושע

For the most commonly referenced in each tractate, here is a listing:

כלים - רבי יהודה

אהלות - בית הלל

נגעים - רבי יהודה

פרה - רבי יהודה

טהרות - חכמים

מקואות - רבי יוסי

נדה - בית שמאי ובית הלל

מכשירין - רבי יהודה

זבים - רבי שמעון

טבול יום - רבי יהודה

ידים - חכמים

עוקצין - רבי יהודה

I am glad and quite happy that I finished this project; next up: tabulating the results....

Back to B'nai B'rith Perlman Camp for ILTC

2011-06-22T16:15:00.004-04:00

I am heading off tomorrow to Pennsylvania to be one of two Judaic Educators at B'nai B'rith Youth Organization's 53rd annual International Leadership Training Conference, taking place at the B'nai B'rith Perlman Camp. This will be my fifth time at ILTC, as I went as a participant in 1998 (my first ever international BBYO program (followed by three International Conventions and Kallah (in 1999))) and then returned as administrative staff in 2002, 2003, and 2004. It has definitely been a while since I've been back (seven years), plus I've not been much in touch with BBYO or even thinking about it, but I imagine it will be nice to be back in that environment, especially as a rabbi.

Selling Sahara's Stuff

2011-06-21T19:13:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, before departing from Las Vegas, having visited for my third Father's Day, we checked out the liquidation sale going on at the Sahara. The sale was going on at the Sahara, which closed a little over a month ago, and begun five days ago previously to sell off everything on the premises. We were there the first day that admission was free, as National Content Liquidators charged $10 for entrance the first four days. I had never heard of NCL, but it kind of felt nice, as they had brought employees from Ohio with them, my home state.
I had only stepped in briefly last August to get some half-shot glasses, so I was largely unfamiliar with the hotel and casino. However, walking around, I could tell why it was time for the hotel to go: it wasn't particularly nice and several decades behind the time decoratively-speaking.
In the end, I got a dozen half-shot glasses at 50 cents a piece and a couple other glasses for the same price. Many items from the guest rooms were decently-priced, as they had hundreds to sell off, especially the credenzas with tvs attached to them, selling for $25 a piece. However, there were also numerous items that were priced higher than they should've been. I'm glad we were able to check it out.
The sale will be going on for another 52 days and they will still probably have lots of things for sale....

"Plants Versus People?": Considering Environmental Concern As a Social Justice Issue

2011-06-20T17:14:00.001-04:00

Six and a half years ago, while walking in El Salvador with Rabbi Sid Schwarz, the topic of our trip came up. I was among a couple dozen rabbinical students who were there for ten days as part of the second Rabbinical Student Delegation trip of the American Jewish World Service, which focuses on social justice. I hadn't been aware of "social justice" before going to rabbinical school, but in my first semester there, I heard of this neat winter trip to engage with "social justice work" and classical Jewish texts related to it. While there, we spoke a lot about helping people(s) in the world, which didn't resonate much with me, but was an interesting idea (although I found the idea of doing it as Jews an amazing kiddush hashem). The thing that did tremendously interest me was the environment - having heard in school growing up about the terrible things humans have been doing to our environment and how sad it was to see the oceans becoming dirtier, the ozone layer depleting, etc.
So I let him know that the trip was interesting, but social justice just did not compel me, whereas the environment did and I phrased it by apologetically saying, "It's not that I necessarily think plants are more important than people....".
However, I was thinking Thursday night about this exclusion of interest in the planet's health to my interest in helping people around the world and realized, aside from how simply awful it was to see the world changing for the worse, what animated me about this concern - it's really about the condition of the world and worrying about how our living conditions will be in the near future, let alone in our children's and grandchildren's lives(!). By air quality getting worse, it affects our breathing; by water being worse, how much of it can we drink without being adversely affected; with decreasing amounts of fish, how can we feed people as adequately (or fishermen make a living)?
I realized, my concern for the environment isn't instead of people, it's for people. What this means, I believe, is that helping achieve a healthy environment is fundamentally a social justice issue: I believe that humans should be able to live in the world God gave us - it is something that people deserve.

A Second Introduction to the Stammaim: A Description by Michael Chernick

2011-05-30T01:18:00.004-04:00

I have discussed the stam(maim) before and found this fantastic description by Michael Chernick within a pedagogical context:*

Dividing the sugya into its chronological components helps the student see how historical forces may have influenced the development of talmudic law and rabbinic thought, and how talmudic law and rabbinic thought have influenced the history of Jewry and Judaism. The identification of a redactional level in the Talmud also means that we can help the student account for the Talmud’s discourse style—and take control of it—by separating the original material from the redactional matrix into which it has been placed (or forced)

While I have mentioned the redactional level of the Talmud, I have not yet offered a detailed picture of what its redactors did. There are a number of redaction theories, but for clarity’s sake I will present only one. It proposes that originally the “proto-Talmud” consisted of more or less chronological lists of tannaitic and amoraic material closely or loosely connected to the Mishnah. The basic elements of these lists generally had attributions and were formulated in Hebrew. The anonymous redactor(s) (the stam) took the elements of these lists and transformed them into a running argument called in Aramaic sugya. The connectives necessary to create this argument were in Aramaic, which is one of the identifying marks of stammaitic intervention, and were anonymous. Once we remove the redactional “glue” holding together the individual pieces of tannaitic and amoraic material, we restore the original extra-mishnaic tannaitica and amoraic dicta in Hebrew and the basic infrastructure of what became a sugya. This has the effect of showing that the Talmud’s discourse was, without its redactional level, more linear, and therefore more understandable. For those familiar with mishnaic Hebrew, a talmudic passage’s essential content becomes immediately visible. Students not familiar with Hebrew can have a similar experience if we take the time to use separate fonts or colors for the tannaitic, amoraic, and stammaitic strata in a translated sugya.

Once we are in a position to recognize how the Talmud’s redactors created a discursive matrix out of individual tannaitic and amoraic teachings, we can reverse the process and separate those strands of teachings out of the Talmud as a completed product. This allows us to consider what might have been the original meaning of tannaitic or amoraic teachings, independent of the meaning anonymous later interpreters assigned to them. This contributes to a less mythical, more historical understanding of Jewish law and rabbinic thought. Once students see clearly that halakhah and aggadah are developing and changing entities, re-interpreted over and over, teacher and student can consider together the developments in Jewish practice, ethics, and thought that have taken place throughout Jewish history, as well as the paths that Judaism might take today as it tries to navigate between the Jewish past, present, and future.

* In pages 9-10 from his "Neusner, Brisk, and the Stam: Significant Methodologies for Meaningful Talmud Teaching and Study" as part of the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education's Initiative on Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy in Jewish Studies (previously mentioned in January and in March).

JSpace beta Housewarming for AJWS

2011-05-09T09:13:00.001-04:00

On Friday morning, JSpace beta hold a housewarming gathering for its newest member to move in to its office, American Jewish World Service.
Although AJWS' west coast office is in San Francisco, this new space gives them a presence in Southern California.
Shawn Landres, co-director of Jumpstart, welcomed AJWS in with some opening remarks, "For me, this is wonderful, because we look for ways to do good in the world Jewishly. Because being Jewish for us, I think, is not just a noun and it’s not just an adjective, it’s an adverb – it’s a way of being in the world. And AJWS gives us a way of doing in the world that’s very powerful. "
Joshua Avedon, the other co-director of Jumpstart, then remarked on what JSpace beta is, saying that "Jumpstart undertook with a number of partners throughout the LA Jewish community to create a center that would allow emerging non-profits and established non-profits that were working within the Jewish space to find a place to have a hub where they can work together, think together, think creatively, and find new collaborations. "
Then Ruth Messinger, the executive director of AJWS, spoke, remarking that, "With great happiness, we are now building these partnerships by getting in on the ground floor, as it were, of shared space in a Jewish community which is a vibrant Jewish community with lots and lots of interest in social justice." Messinger continued:

As an organization, this is part of our challenge, because, as you all know, our work is thousands and thousands of miles away. And that means we have a tremendous amount to do to decide when a country for an in-country consultant; how often to take donors or supporters to actually visit our extraordinary grassroots, social change partner projects who are, in fact, changing the world. But as we focus energies there, we have this other huge responsibility, which is to grow a sense of global social justice in the Jewish communities of North America. And part of figuring out how to do that is, of course, figuring out where to rely on friends, where to actually put staff, and how to grow ourselves in the United States. And we've tried to do that in a minimalist way, so we save most of our resources for Ghana, Burma, and Peru. But, we have a west coast office in San Francisco. And, since the founding of that office, which has a handful of staff people, the notion was "How can we tackle LA?" The first big piece of that answer came literally with Allison Lee. And we are very happy to say that our commitment to LA means that we are now doubling the size of our LA staff.
But I think, most importantly for us, is not just getting a physical space, but getting a physical space that has meaning, that is about the Jewish commitment to social justice, that is about Jewish commitment to growing our community so that it has a variety of new progressive points, out of which more and highly relevant and pertinent Jewish community for the 21st century will grow.

Messinger finished off by saying "So we are honored to be here."
Lastly, Rabbi Sharon Brous, the senior rabbi for Ikar, shared a devar Torah, including describing the importance of AJWS' work:

In a world of immense brokenness, of terrible human suffering, and great tragedies that unfold on a daily basis. So it's ultimately completely irresponsible to just thrive in our freedom. And, for many, many years, that's where the Jewish community was in this country: just living in a place of abundant privilege and great pleasure and not really knowing how to connect what was happening, brewing in our hearts when we hear about terrible things with what we could actually do to help make the world a better place.

Following the speeches, everyone in attendance proceeded down the hall to AJWS' new space, where a mezuzah was affixed to its doorpost, followed by singing.

More pictures of the event are here.

Creating a Poster with which to Protest Neturei Karta

2011-05-04T13:22:00.006-04:00

Yesterday, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss of Neturei Karta came to a campus at which I work and spoke. Yes, that sucks, but fortunately, there weren't too many people there listening to him. Nevertheless, we still protested. Anyways, I knew that once I saw the sign announcing his coming to campus, I had to do something. Although initially I didn't know what to do, I realized we had to at least have signs made up protesting him. After searching around and looking for other peoples' signs - which, by the way, I figured that I wasn't the first person to protest Neturei Karta, and that other people surely had to have prepared signs against them - and coming up with nothing, I did see plenty of pictures of Neturei Karta protesting with signs of their own. Amongst these, I came up with an idea to make my own version of a sign of theirs (pictured here all the way to the left) and put it against the backdrop of an Israeli flag (without the Jewish star). It's simple, gets the point across that Neturei Karta do not represent general Jewish opinion or world Jewry.
Anybody who likes may download the sign and print it out and use it - totally free :)

Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah V: סדר קדשים

2011-04-29T04:44:00.000-04:00

Continuing my project to see which rabbis get the most mentions in the Mishnah (see previous posts on זרעים ,מועד ,נשים, and נזיקים), I perused through סדר קדשים. Once again, the most commonly appearing rabbi was Rabbi Yehudah, followed by Rabbi Shimon, and the Sages. One sage who popped up here and hadn't seemed to be prominent in the earlier four sedarim was Rabbi Eliezer son of Ya'akov. Also interesting is how prominent Rabbi Yehudah haNasi (רבי) appeared, as well. Also noteworthy is how frequently Rabbi Shimon is mentioned, since he hasn't been that frequently cited in the first four.
Here we go - the top ten most frequently mentioned sages in סדר קדשים:

1 - רבי יהודה
2 - רבי שמעון
3 - חכמים
4 - רבי מאיר
5 - רבי עקיבא
6 - רבי אליעזר
7 - רבי יוסי
8 - רבי יהושע
9 - רבי
10 - רבי אליעזר בן יעקב ורבי טרפון

As to the most frequently mentioned rabbis for each מסכת, here they are:

זבחים - רבי שמעון
מנחות - רבי שמעון ורבי יהודה
חולין - רבי יהודה
ערכין - רבי יהודה
תמורה - רבי שמעון
כריתות - רבי עקיבא
מעילה - רבי עקיבא
תמיד - רבי אליעזר בן יעקב
מדות - רבי אליעזר בן יעקב
קנים - (שמעון) בן עזאי

Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah IV: סדר נזיקין

2011-04-04T13:16:00.004-04:00

Continuing on the project I begun last week of counting up the most commonly appearing rabbis in the Mishnah (previously: סדר זרעים ,סדר מועד & סדר נשים), next up in the series is Seder Nezikin. Once again, unsurprisingly, Rabbi Yehudah is, again, the most commonly appearing rabbi within this seder. However, a caveat is in order: מסכת עדיות is rather anomalous, so I'm going to list the top ten without Eduyot and then the top ten with Eduyot (and I'm omitting Avot from this counting).
Top ten (without Eduyot):

1 - רבי יהודה
2 - חכמים
3 - רבי מאיר
4 - רבי שמעון
5 - רבי עקיבא
6 - רבן שמעון בן גמליאל
7 - רבי יוסי
8 - רבי אליעזר
9 - רבי ישמעאל
10 - רבן גמליאל

Now the top ten with Eduyot:

1 - חכמים
2 - רבי יהודה
3 - בית הלל
4 - בית שמאי
5 - רבי מאיר
6 - רבי עקיבא
7 - רבי שמעון
8 - רבי אליעזר
9 - רבן שמעון בן גמליאל
10 - רבי יוסי

Now the most appearances within each tractate:

בבא קמא - רבי יהודה
בבא מציעא - רבי יהודה
בבא בתרא - רבי יהודה
סנהדרין - רבי יהודה
מכות - רבי יהודה
שבועות - רבי מאיר
עדיות - בית הלל
עבודה זרה - חכמים
הוריות - רבי שמעון

How the "Cohen Brothers" Changed Retail in the South

2011-04-01T09:11:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, while doing some cleaning, I came across some things I had read and wanted to throw up on the blog. So, here is one of them: coming from Stephen J. Whitfield's "The Missing Piece: Jewish Shopkeepers in the American South" in the Fall 2009 AJS Perspectives, wherein he discusses something rather fascinating - Jewish retailers "modernizing" the American South. Whitfield writes that "Jacob Cohen may have been the first merchant in the South to put price tags on merchandise" in Jacksonville, Florida, which "even if the claim was inflated or apocryphal, Cohen Brothers helped to scuttle the barter system that had been customary before the twentieth century."
Whitfield continues that both the

company and its imitators thus activated transactions of trust between the customers and the sales force, and helped to reduce the power of the unscrupulous, there’s-one-born-every-minute hucksters. Eventually, instead of haggling and bargaining, came the assurance and the probity of “satisfaction guaranteed,” based on fixed prices and the right of customers to return what they had purchased and to get their money back.

Eventually, other stores tried to keep up and compete, causing other stores to follow in their footsteps. Thus, change occurred on a larger level for retail stores in the South:

The department stores and the specialty stores encouraged a consumerist ethos that would eventually bury the agrarian tradition that had so decisively shaped the mind of the South. The balance sheets on which the merchant princes depended can be understood as the death warrants of the old order. Such tradesmen helped their neighbors cultivate a taste for the products of the modern world, and thus altered the atmosphere of towns.

An Optimistic, Intelligent, & Poetic Conversation: Elie Wiesel Speaks with OC Rabbis

2011-03-31T17:43:00.006-04:00

Yesterday, I went to the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education at Chapman University and joined along with another dozen rabbis in Orange County in an informal conversation with Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel. It was a special opportunity afforded us through Dr. Marilyn Harran, the director of the center.
For those who are unaware of the Rodgers Center, it's the best Holocaust center on any campus in Orange County (just as Chapman has the nicest Interfaith Center around) and perhaps generally in Orange County.
This was made possible in Elie Wiesel's third visit to Chapman (the first was several years ago on the 60th anniversary of his liberation, the second was last spring (which I attended)), as part of a week-long visit of his. In the sit-down, Mr. Wiesel fielded questions and responded in a thoughtful, intelligent, and what I would describe as almost a poetic way.
Moreover, he was optimistic about Jewish life. One of the first questions he fielded regarded Jewish identity, to which he responded, Be who we are - seeing Jews who are authentically Jewish. That is, not saying what we want in order to be accepted, but who we are. Moreover, learning is a central and key component to Jewish identity. Instead of despairing over American Jewry these days and even more broadly, he said, "the passion for learning has never been so strong" numerically. Also, he said, "anti-semites have never shaped our identity." "Anti-semitism is not fashionable nowadays."
Another interesting piece was that of one rabbi who inquired about rising anti-Muslim sentiments, to which he said, "I'm against collective indictments." "If we say they're all bad, we lose before we start."
But the larger theme of his talk was really about the learning (maybe because he was in the company of rabbis...): "Whenever I have a problem, I go back to learning."
Also, even though he is in his eighties, he is still optimistic, as he said he is working on two books simultaneously: a book on the Baal HaTanya and a work on the Rebbe.
One interesting anecdote (amongst others) he shared with us was that he was slated to speak at the end of a meal at a UJC General Assembly in the 1970s (I don't remember specifically which year) and he heard the head of the organization yell that he would resign if something happened. Wiesel asked him what the matter was: he said some people wanted to do birkat hamazon (by the way, Wiesel noted that, out of the entire gathering - the biggest annual gathering of organized Jewish leadership in North America - there were only a couple kosher tables). To this, Wiesel said, it not only wasn't worth it to resign over something like that, but why was he upset? To this, the head replied that it wasn't on the schedule! So, the compromise was that, since Wiesel was up to speak, they announced that their speaker had requested to do it. Afterwards, Wiesel said, the head met with him in his hotel room and thanked him for that and asked what he could do - any requests. One of them, of course, was about more Jewish stuff (Wiesel noted also that there was no davening, etc. - it really wasn't much of a Jewish event(!), especially considering it was for the leadership of organized Jewish communities in North America; he said the following years (and years to come) the GA was actually Jewish(!)), but also making sure that Soviet Jewry became an issue. Sure enough, it became an issue that the UJC got behind.

Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah III: סדר נשים

2011-03-30T23:13:00.002-04:00

Continuing on from the posts from the previous two days of looking through The Mishnah and seeing which rabbis are the most commonly referenced and also those who are most common in each tractate (סדר זרעים & סדר מועד), I now present סדר נשים:

1 - רבי יהודה
2 - רבי אליעזר
3 - חכמים
4 - בית הלל
5 - בית שמאי
6 - רבי מאיר
7 - רבי עקיבא
8 - רבי יוסי ורבי שמעון
10 - רבן שמעון בן גמליאל

Thus far (halfway through the Mishnah), the top ten looks like this:

1 - רבי יהודה
2 - רבי אליעזר
3 - חכמים
4 - רבי יוסי ובית שמאי
6 -בית הלל
7 - רבי מאיר
8 - רבי עקיבא
9 - רבי שמעון
10 - רבי יהושע

And the most commonly referenced in each tractate:

יבמות - בית הלל ובית שמאי
כתובות - חכמים
נדרים - חכמים
נזיר - בית הלל
גיטין - רבי יהודה
סוטה - רבי יהודה
קידושיו - רבי מאיר

Thus far (halfway through the Mishnah), the leaderboard for most references in most tractates looks like this:

1 - רבי יהודה
2 - חכמים, בית הלל, בית שמאי
5 - רבי אליעזר
6 - רבי יוסי, רבי עקיבא
7 - רבי שמעון, רבי מאיר, רבי יהושע, רבן גמליאל

Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah II: סדר מועד

2011-03-29T14:59:00.002-04:00

Building off of yesterday's post, I went ahead and counted up rabbinic mentions in סדר מועד and these are, again, the most commonly referenced rabbis in the משניות of סדר מועד, along with who the most commonly referenced in each tractate is (and, once again, Rabbi Yehudah comes out way on top):

1 - רבי יהודה
2 - חכמים
3 -רבי אליעזר
4 - רבי יוסי
5 - בית שמאי
6 - בית הלל
6 - רבי מאיר
8 - רבי שמעון
9 - רבן גמליאל
10 - רבי יהושע

Now, for each tractate:

שבת - רבי יהודה
ערובין - רבי יהודה
פסחים - רבי אליעזר
שקלים - רבי יהודה ורבי עקיבא
יומא - רבי יהודה
סוכה - רבי יהודה
ביצה - בית שמאי
ראש השנה - רבן גמליאל
תענית - רבי יוסי ורבי יהושע
מגילה - רבי יהודה
מועד קטן - רבי יהודה
חגיגה - בית הלל ובית שמאי

Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah I: סדר זרעים

2011-03-28T20:16:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, I seized the opportunity - partially while I was watching over my new daughter - to begin looking at the Mishnah to see who appears most frequently. It was a new curiosity of mine: I hope to look through the entirety of the Mishnah and see who appears most frequently. If I somehow find the time, I would also like to go through the Tosefta. (By the way, if somebody has already done this work, I would very much appreciate a reference to said work or listing.)
So yesterday, I went through סדר זרעים and found that Rabbi Yehudah was the most mentioned rabbi throughout the סדר. What follows is a listing of the Top Ten most commonly mentioned rabbis (or groups of rabbis) in סדר זרעים as well as a listing of each of the tractates with the most commonly referenced rabbi (or set of rabbis) within them:
Top Ten:

1 - רבי יהודה
2 - רבי אליעזר
3 - חכמים
4 - רבי יוסי
5 - רבי שמעון
6 - בית שמאי
7 - רבי מאיר
8 - בית הלל
9 - רבי עקיבא
10 -רבי יהושע

And here are the tractates:

ברכות - רבי יהודה
פאה - רבי יהודה ורבי עקיבא
דמאי - רבי יהודה
כלאים - רבי יוסי
שביעית - רבי שמעון
תרומות - רבי אליעזר
מעשרות - רבי יהודה
מעשר שני - בית הלל ובית שמאי
חלה - רבי אליעזר וחכמים
ערלה - חכמים
בכורים - רבי יהודה

I don't know yet what all this means....

Academic Talmud & Lomdus Contrasted

2011-03-27T11:58:00.001-04:00

An interest of mine is academic Talmud, as mentioned previously (III, II, & I), which is why I found the following a neat, concise distinction between academic and lomdus approaches to learning Talmud. At the outset of Rabbi Dov Linzer's "Ownership or Partnership: A Source-Critical and Conceptual Analysis of the First Sugya in Kiddushin" (delivered at YCT's 2010 Yom Iyun on Talmud and Torah She Baal Peh on 24 January 2010), I found his contrast of the source-critical method with the lomdus perspective of learning Talmud to be of interest:

In general, what has dominated for the last 150 years in the world of the yeshivot is a process of learning called לומדות, which is loosely translated as an analytical, conceptual approach. And what has dominated in roughly the same last 100-150 years in the academy has been academic Talmud, which consists of many components, but the one that I think is most interesting and most fruitful in the type of learning that would normally go on in the high school or the yeshiva level is the source-critical approach.
Now these approaches have very different assumptions in their goals. The לומדות approach – the conceptual approach - looks at the text, as the text has pretty much always been looked at for the last 1500 years: ahistorically. It does not look for – is certainly aware that the Mishnah comes before the Gemara and so on – but it assumes that pretty much all of the ideas, all of the material, all of the statements are true; at the same time, it does not look to sort of mark out how ideas might have developed over the course of history, over the course of time. And it does not try to see signs for that in the text. What it is interested in is in hearing the different voices in the text or at looking at a topic, at a sugya and asking, "What is the conceptual way of understanding what is going on here?" Meaning, it’s not just the statement that’s being made, but how would we more precisely conceptually define the issue and, through a clear, conceptual definition of the idea that will help explain to us the different opinions, the different consequences, based on sort of our theory of this particular law. And then the לומדות approach developed in its higher terminology to be used for more precise definition of these conceptual differences. …
The source-critical approach is very different. The source-critical approach, as the name indicates, recognizes that not only is the Mishnah earlier than the Gemara, but the Mishnah could be made up of layers, the Gemara could be made up of layers, and it looks, with a critical eye, towards these sources or these layers of the text and tries to understand what was at the earliest layer, what came next, how did the text develop to where it got. Now, already in the academy, for some, it’s just tracking the historical changes; but already in the academy, you do have some, like Shamma Friedman and others that try to bring in from this world of the yeshivah and ask, "Well, as the text developed and different ideas came at different times in history, how did the concept of the law change? What was the intellectual history? How was the way this law was perceived change over time?"
But, if that could be used in the academy to create a type of intellectual history, and not just a marking of changes, it could also be used in the yeshivah as well. We could ask our לומדות questions, our conceptual questions, but not just from an ahistorical lens, but actually try to find out maybe ideas changed over time. And maybe we can bring both of these disciplines together.

Daughter #2 Named

2011-03-24T17:39:00.004-04:00

Following on the heels of yesterday's birth of our second daughter, I went to shul this morning and named her. Her Hebrew name is שושנה רייזעל and her English name is Lillian Rose.
Lillian is my paternal grandmother's mother's name and Rose is my maternal grandmother's mother's name. Interestingly, after pointing that out, both sides of my family said that we have Lillians and Roses on both sides of our family :)
Amusingly, after announcing her name on Facebook, one of my wife's friends jokingly said, "I feel like Sophie and Lillian will have a great time playing Mahjong together! =)"

New Baby Daughter!

2011-03-23T21:15:00.001-04:00

With appreciation to The Almighty, my wife and I were blessed with the birth of our second daughter this morning. It was really excellent to, after having gone in to the hospital early yesterday morning and waiting out the entire day and first part of the night, to have our new daughter emerge healthily. Not only that, but my wife is also, thank God, doing well :)
Although being a father is nothing new, since my wife gave birth nearly two years ago, it is still a very wonderful feeling to be a new father again :)

Oy - You couldn't list the URL?

2011-03-22T09:55:00.000-04:00

When seeing advertisements in papers, magazines, and elsewhere, a seemingly common convention is to include a Twitter, Facebook, and perhaps another one or two logos. This is nice for the marketing folks to let us know that they have a social media presence, but how do we get there? Granted, if you have a laptop or desktop, it's not too hard to search around, but it's kind of annoying and a lot of tapping to search around to find the advertised on Twitter. Even if you don't have the space to include a QR code or Microsoft Tag to link to your social media pages, please at least include the name - such as including the Twitter handle next to the Twitter logo.
As far as I know, there may already be other postings on this very same topic, but I wanted to add to the voices pushing for more than just little icons indicating your social media existence....

Considering Larger Issues of Jewish Identity: Rabbi Korn book review

2011-03-21T22:14:00.001-04:00

In the most recent issue of Meorot, Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn writes an interesting review, touching on important issues regarding Jews and the larger world. What jumped out to me, amongst other parts of the review was the following significant passage about the Jewish people in the present day (p. 6):

After Auschwitz and Israel's wars, we are indeed a nervous people feeling that Jewish destiny is determined by fate, not faith. To use R. Soloveitchik's dichotomy, berit goral (the covenant of fate) has overwhelmed berit yi’ud, our covenantal destiny of sacred purpose. Fate has seduced us into seeing ourselves as objects, robbing us of moral agency and our covenantal calling. This is spiritually deflating as well as existentially self-defeating, for in the open and autonomy oriented cultures in which most Jews live today, a Jewish identity built on fear and the specter of persecution will convince few Jews to cast their lot with Jewish destiny. Committed Orthodox Jews may do so, but if it is only Orthodox Jews who remain Jewish, we will cease to be a people and become a sect—much to the dismay of God, who demands in His Torah that we be “a kingdom of priests and a holy people.” Sacks is convinced that King Solomon was correct: “Without a vision, a people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18)

One thing that reading the above reminded me of was Rabbi Avi Weiss' descriptions of "Positive" and "Negative" Judaism.
Before getting to this paragraph, he wrote (p. 6):

The Jewish people has turned inward, sustained by neither hope nor purpose, but by the common cause of defending ourselves against perceived anti-Semitism. The Other is hostile and ubiquitous, be he the Christian, the secular liberal or the Middle East Muslim. Jewish politics has become the politics of fear. Contrary to our rabbinic tradition, the pagan Balaam's observation that Jews are “a people that dwells alone” (Num. 23:9) has become an ideal: We are a people that ought to dwell alone.

Rabbi Dr. Korn has a few more gems in his review piece, one of which is his discussion on the proliferation of books on Jewish practice, where he was "struck that the sefarim—both Hebrew and English—consisted overwhelmingly of volumes dedicated exclusively to" Jewish law, which is interesting as "the shelves mirror where Orthodoxy is today." (p. 2) But this isn't bad, indeed, "Halakhah has always been the essential mode of Jewish religious expression and a necessary stabilizing force for our lives as a people" (p. 2). But, he says, it's not enough:

Even the consummate halahkic man, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, recognized early in life that an exclusive diet of halakhah leads to “a soulless being, dry and insensitive.” In the end, no amount of elaboration on the rules can nurture a spiritual personality or satisfy deep spiritual hunger; and no amount of technical logical analysis can soothe one troubled after a dark night of the soul.

He goes on (pp. 2-3):

There are also sociological and ideological implications. Like the eruv, halakhah is meant to fashion a closed communal space that is carefully circumscribed by formidable barriers. In addition to acculturating Jews to the culture of the beit midrash, it creates a private, often esoteric, language that undermines shared communication with those outside the halakhic community.

The larger problem that then arises is that (p. 3):

Orthodoxy's current pan-halakhism seems to have lost interest in the human condition per se, and is rapidly losing the language to discuss universal human concerns like ethics, justice, spirituality and human purpose.

However, he continues, "a joy to note, therefore, two recently published books that reveal the theological reflections of Rav Soloveitchik and Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom."

-----
The essay: Eugene Korn, "Windows on the World - Judaism Beyond Ethnicity: A Review of Abraham’s Journey by Joseph B. Solveitchik, edited by David Shatz, Joel B. Wolowelsky and Reuven Ziegler (Jersey City: KTAV, 2008), and Future Tense by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (New York: Schocken, 2009)," Meorot 8 (September 2010).

A Purim Drinking Story: Might "עד דלא ידע" be a Stammaitic Addition?

2011-03-20T14:46:00.004-04:00

Today is Purim - Yay! It's the merriest day of the Jewish calendar :) Purim is the celebration based off of the events of the book of Esther, in which - facing annihilation in the Persian empire - the Jews survived and, to this day, celebrate.
One of the leitmotifs of the book is drinking and partying and that is also reflected in the holiday's celebrations. Around the turn of the fourth century, a couple of prominent Babylonian rabbis, Rabbi Zeira and Rabbah had a Purim meal together and they got so drunk that Rabbah, so the story goes, killed his friend; however, he prayed for him and he was revived. The following year, Rabbah suggested they get together again for the festive meal, to which his friend said, "Miracles don't happen every year." (Megillah 7b).
A few decades later, Rava declared - perhaps basing himself off of the earlier example of his rabbinic predecessors - "מיחייב איניש לבסומי בפוריא" - "A person is obliged to get drunk on Purim." One of the peculiarities of this statement is that while it's stated in somewhat of a formal halakhic fashion, it's in Aramaic (as opposed to a few lines later on the same page (Megillah 7b), where he states "סעודת פורים שאכלה בלילה לא יצא ידי חובתו").
What follows in the text of the Talmud then turns to Hebrew and may very well be a later addition: "עד דלא ידע בין ארור המן לברוך מרדכי" - "until one does not know between cursed is Haman and blessed is Mordechai." Typically, these two statements are read together as part of Rava's statement, but two problems present themselves: 1) The linguistic issue of switching from Aramaic to Hebrew & 2) Drinking on Purim is well and good, but to get so plastered to be unable to distinguish between extremes of morality is A LOT.
Even if one were to say the linguistic issue isn't that significant, since it could have been something changed in the oral transmission, how can one drink that much? Even when I'm so drunk on Purim that I'm throwing up, I can still distinguish between such matters.
Just some food for thought on this merry day :)

Choosing Texts for Jewish Adult Education Courses

2011-03-18T14:42:00.001-04:00

Although in my current position I mostly teach young adults, I came across Jeffrey Rubinstein's "From History to Literature: The Pedagogical Implications of Shifting Paradigms in the Study of Rabbinic Narratives", part of the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education's Initiative on Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy in Jewish Studies (of which I've previously mentioned) and found his discussion on Jewish adult education interesting, particularly what he sets out as its function:

I see the main function of Jewish adult education as a type of intellectual “keruv” drawing the audience into the world of rabbinic study as a step to further study and involvement in Jewish life. I have always in this context found it easier to teach Talmudic stories than legal sugyot, with their complex argumentation, specialized terminology, and halakhic details. Likewise, midrash with its unfamiliar exegetical assumptions and, in many cases, requirement of detailed knowledge of Hebrew language, can be daunting to the neophyte. Stories, in contrast, are much more accessible.¹

Therefore, he sees as his goals in doing so to be

(1) Familiarizing lay people with rabbinic texts, including the Talmudim
(2) Providing an interesting and engaging learning experience such that the audience will find rabbinic texts worthy of future study
(3) Teaching some Jewish values, topics and general content²

I found it fascinating, especially since I don't think I would've considered it in such a clear fashion. Something for me to consider in the future....
---
Notes:
1 - Jeffrey L. Rubinstein, "From History to Literature: The Pedagogical Implications of Shifting Paradigms in the Study of Rabbinic Narratives," The Initiative on Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy in Jewish Studies, Working Paper No. 26 (April 2010), 6.
2 - Ibid.

The Next New Idea for Zoos and Aquaria: QR Codes

2011-03-16T23:39:00.001-04:00

What's missing in this picture? In my mind, a QR code. Best buy already puts QR codes on the signs for their products, so why can't zoos and aquaria put qr codes on their animal signs? I got this idea when, last week, I went with my family to the San Diego Zoo. While there, it occurred to me that there could be a new opportunity for zoos and aquaria: QR codes! Although I love reading the signs, sometimes I wonder a little more about certain animals, such as the Sichuan Takin featured above. For some animals, they seem so interesting, I want to know more about them than is listed on their information sign; for other animals, I am curious as to what is causing their demise. While thinking about it, I thought QR codes could also be used to direct one towards further information about helping particular animals or efforts underway to do so. Another possibility could be using a QR code to direct the user to a video or videos of the animals in action (especially if they are snoozing in the exhibit or if they are particularly swift animals, yet the exhibit doesn't yield for such a showing of the animal's swiftness).
After coming up with these ideas, I did see that the San Diego Zoo has used QR codes in the past, although the Santa Barbara Zoo has employed this idea in using QR codes to point to videos of the animals (press release). Further searching has also yielded someone else having suggested the idea.
In any event, one possibility could be coming up with a QR code that points to pages for animals that have lots of different options: such as videos, further information about them, about their endangerment, etc. And although probably only the bigger zoos might be able to allot web designers to come up with the material, it's also possible for an organization such as the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to design and allow their constituent members utilize on their signs....

Abandoning Judaism for Religion

2011-01-30T14:16:00.004-05:00

Last night, while reading in bed, I came across the following passage that certainly was something that has been on my mind, but was nice to find an articulation of Jews abandoning their heritage because of "religion":

If Judaism was presented in an immature manner during a youth's earlier years, he has an obligation to himself and to four thousand years of stubbornly proud ancestors to boldly seek out his roots. No sensitive, enlightened youth should reject Judaism because of the way assimilated regions of American Jewry have corrupted it.
It is not intellectually honest to abandon the Jewish faith because it was presented foolishly during childhood years. It is an insult to every cherished principle of enlightened inquiry to dissociate oneself from Judaism because "other religions" are chaotic, devoid of reason, and frequently counter-productive in terms of the bloodshed they occasion. It was Christianity which perpetrated the crusades, inquisitions, and blood libels "in the name of God." It was not Judaism. What a tragedy it would be if, in addition to the millions who died martyrs' deaths at the hand of Christian zealots, future thousands of Jewish youths will forsake their heritage because those bloody massacres have tarnished the reputation of "religion"!

- Dov Aharoni Fisch, Jews for Nothing: On Cults, Intermarriage, and Assimilation (Jerusalem & New York: Feldheim Publishers, 1984), 312.

A Note on Two Different Activities for Students and Their Results: A Lesson From Michael Satlow

2011-01-28T18:43:00.003-05:00

While ellipticalling today, I read through a piece of Michael Satlow's from the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education's Initiative on Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy in Jewish Studies and came across an interesting breakdown of his on what worked and didn't work pedagogically for him in two separate activities with his students. For me, as I have now been at my job for a little over a year and doing some teaching, this was relevant; however, with the recent day and a half-long Torah learning event I put on last week, teaching is certainly more on my mind. Anyways, here is Dr. Satlow's observation that interested me:

I laid out well-defined criteria for the summit; I told them what I wanted from them, when I wanted it, and how to do it. I gave them means, a vision of the outcome, and a deadline. The Wiki was far more open, as I was asking them to develop these things on their own. Such project indeterminacy is of course common in the real world, sometimes by design and sometimes due to poor management, and some of my students were excited by it. Most, however, found it too overwhelming. Similarly, the small group discussions always improved when I posed sharper questions. This might seem rather obvious, but it emphasizes for me the importance of the teacher’s (and manager’s) role in setting the most advantageous conditions for collaboration.

Michael L. Satlow, "Teaching Ancient Jewish History: An Experiment in Engaged Learning," The Initiative on Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy in Jewish Studies, Working Paper No. 16 (July 2009), 14.

Poetic & Difficult Language of Iyov

2010-12-26T15:37:00.003-05:00

I posted a couple of months ago on a lecture given by Rabbi Eric Levy at this year's YCT's Yemei Iyun in Tanakh and thought I would share another great quote from him at the same conference. Speaking on "Job: How Does One Understand God's Ways?", Levy responds to a question about the difficulty of the language in the book of Job (or Iyov (איוב), in Hebrew), saying "The language of Iyov is unbelievably difficult." He then provides an example:

That happens actually quite a few times in Iyov, where, for instance, הנותן לשכוי בינה, so לשכוי everybody just assumes means the rooster, but, in Iyov, it’s clearly not. לשכוי is like the heart or another part of the body. So, with Iyov, you just sort of have to use context, because the words he’s plucking….

And then he goes onto an excursus on language use:

Poets always use the most ancient forms of language. A poet always reaches out. Whether he’s writing English poetry or whatever, they’re always reaching out to the most obscure words, because they need to really fine-tune their message. I doubt there’s a finer poet than the author of Iyov. And the words he reaches out to are words that can only be understood from the Arabic; there are words there that are clearly Aramaic. He is really reaching out to into the farthest reaches of the Hebrew vocabulary.

And, of course, as Ibn Ezra tells us, don’t forget Hebrew was a dead language. Hebrew died out; half of the Jews in the Second Temple spoke Greek and half of them spoke Aramaic, but essentially nobody spoke Hebrew, which means that our entire vocabulary of Hebrew is limited to the books of Tanakh and a little bit of Mishnah. In Mishnah, sometimes they use words like “Where’d that word come from?” So, scholars will tell you they just made it up and people with a little more faith will say Judaism had some vocabulary beyond the Tanakh. But we are kind of limited – there are a limited number of words in Tanakh because, as a dead language, you’re stuck with what you have there. And, in Iyov, apparently there’s some usages that are just a little bit beyond our ability to understand, otherwise, from context.

AJS 2009 Day 3

2010-12-24T14:21:00.002-05:00

With the 2010 conference of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) having occurred this week, I realized I still hadn't posted my summaries of the third and last day of last year's AJS conference (I posted the first day and the second day much earlier). As much as I had wanted to go this year, making it the third straight AJS conference for me (and I could've stayed with my sister and her husband in Boston), we decided that I would stay here in California instead. Nota bene that this isn't exactly the best written, as it is primarily the notes I took whilst the sessions were in progress.

- - - - -

For the third and last day of the conference, after arriving and some schmoozing, I first went to the session on "Orthodoxy Revisited". The first paper delivered was “Samson Raphael Hirsch: The Chimera of ‘Self-Explanatory’ Scripture” by Alan T. Levenson, although I showed up about a halfway through, so I didn't quite catch everything from it. Levenson said that Hirsch found Mendelssohn philosophically wanting.
Hirsch advocated reading the Bible in its original versus in a German (vernacular) language. When he was in Frankfort in 1860s and 1870s, worked on his translation. Differences in keri and ketiv, trop, and big and small letters. He resisted Christian readings throughout. It was unique – pronouncing universalism. It appears as culmination of the study of bible. Hirsch was not haredi – he stands within German tradition of elevating Torah study.
The second presenter was Martin I. Lockshin, who spoke on “Dueling Prayerbooks: ArtScroll, Koren, and Contemporary Orthodox Values”, which, he said, arose from a book review about the Koren siddur. The “Artscroll Takeover” took place 25 years ago and the best known product, published 1984 is their siddur. Many orthodox shuls have them, even MO, but notes are haredi. But now there is competition in the prayerbook market with the Koren-Sacks siddur. Professor Lockshin (who was one of three IRF members [that I counted] at the conference (him, Professor Don Seeman and me)) spoke on the differences between the Artscroll Siddur and the Koren-Sacks siddur, success of the Artscroll siddur, as well as the broader shift to the right, the resulting liberal shift and his conclusion on The Siddur Wars of 2009. In the q and a:
The translation wasn’t done solely to sanitize the language, but also in a fashion to effectuate strangification, that is, the language used is not the same usage we use in a daily fashion, so it was successful in what it was trying to do.
Artscroll came out at a time when Modern Orthodoxy was not lekhathilah, but as an outreach method for haredi Jewry; it was “nicely timed” as presenting haredi values to a modern audience.
The third paper(”A Woman on the Bima means an ignorant man”?) Jessica Rosenberg “’Blessed is he who says and does’: Jewish Law, Gender, and Communal Identity”
Turning to theoretical models outside of halakhah to give us a better understanding of response literature

Strangification
Successful in what it is doing
Not a sanctifying factor but differentiating discourse

How do they set their boundaries? How do they …agenda
Creating communal narrative versus community deciding
An ingroup attempting to redefine the nomos is seen as attempting to create a new one
Opened up attacks from both sources and goals – Shapiro
Undergird with own notions of halakhic legitimacy Jessica second half and conclusion. Jerome Chanes said – 2 Riskins: 1969 – courageousness – 2009 – conservative mostly off the deep end
Artscroll came out at a time not when MO was לכתחילה but as outreach method. It was “nicely timed” as presenting haredi values to a modern audience.

After speaking with some of the presenters and others following the first session, I then went to the second session, "Social Attitudes and Cultural Constructions in Biblical Israel", albeit missing the first half of Elaine Goodfriend’s “Another Look at Animals in the Hebrew Bible”.
Names of people with animal names; Animal life central to the concerns of Israel; Humans dependant upon animals
Dung for fuel; Food, leather, wool; Shared habitation.
The second paper delivered was “The Assembly of Yahweh’s People: Judahite Pilgrimage and Israelite Muster” by Stephen Russell. I don't have anything to note from that paper....
The third paper was given by Esther Fuchs on “Intermarriage in the Hebrew Bible: Gender, Exogamy, and Nation”.
Intermarriage is legally proscribed.
Performance of identity is gendered – endogamy is feminine, the body of the nation; exogamy = masculine
When there are foreign men and Israelite women, the men are violently dealt with, such as the King of Gerar and Avimelekh, so, too, with Shkhem. In Genesis 34, rape is racialized. Realizing the gravity of the sexual laws. The story pokes fun at Shkhemites for their sexual mores – to have sexual intercourse first and then to take her is not the proper way, that is the way of prostitutes. “Exogamy with an Israelite woman leads to mayhem and violence.” Proscription of exogamy w/ Shkhem may not just be sexual transgression, but also national. Domestic space versus foreign nation.
Book of Esther implies that only in national crisis is it permitted - no mention of legal, political, etc. stuff with her. Mordechai giving her over in keeping with.
Exogamy with erasure.
Israelite woman is neither inside or outsider ; she has potential to deconstruct rather than produce binary. Focusing on Israelite women’s endogamy and problematic of exogamy for them; men different.
The fourth paper, “Impurities and Gender in Ezra-Nehemiah”, was delivered by Elizabeth Goldstein.
Niddah as nation in Ezekiel and then now with Impact of foreign women. Collective impurity affects how we think of gender. Woman’s body as useful for reproducing, but when menstrual, not (expendable). There's always a link between niddah and gender. Moral impurity seen with having these foreign women. Collective nature of the impurity makes it important for us to consider.

Having had trouble parking at the nearby mall (presumably due to it being heavy shopping season as Xmas occurred during that week), I missed the first twenty minutes of Richard Hidary’s “Indeterminacy and Codification in the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds in Light of Roman and Sassanian Legal Cultures” during the third and last session of the day, Rabbinic Worldview.
One of the causes for the difference in deciding law between the two Talmuds seems to be the different cultural contexts. He also stated that another difference is that, in Babylonia, there was a greater geographical distance between the communities, which allowed for a greater amount of diversity, versus in Israel, where they were closer together.
Jonathan Crane then spoke on “Shameful Ambivalences: Legal and Ethical Dimensions of Rabbinic Shame (בושה)”
Shame simultaneously damns and redeems. Because of time, he only dealt with the ethical dimension. He focused on how shame is described my focusing on Maimonides and Levinas, not so much the rabbis, themselves. He said they tried to avoid shame, but they needed it, just the same.
Trying to avoid, while needing it

Then, the conference was over.

Radio Shack Promotion Fail

2010-12-19T23:35:00.004-05:00

Last week, while on an errand at a Home Depot, I saw that a nearby Radio Shack had a Special Offer on Foursquare. I checked it out and found that just by checking in, one gets a discount and can get a further discount by being the mayor of that store and even a further discount by unlocking the Holiday Hero badge. That sounded really exciting. I looked up further and RadioShack posted online further details about their promotions on Foursquare.
So, I went to the Radio Shack, unlocked the badge, then went to purchase the small battery I had gone there to get. The screen on my phone said that I had unlocked it and would be eligible for the discount (screen showed at right). I showed it to the sales associate and he would not give me the discount. Clearly, a communication fail between corporate RadioShack and the individual stores. Fortunately, it was just a battery, so I wasn't being cheated out of dollars worth of discounts. But it was still frustrating.... Note to businesses thinking of running social media marketing strategies involving stores: communicate.

Some Rabbinic Position Ideas as a Rabbinical Student

2010-11-14T23:29:00.005-05:00

A couple of years ago, while still a student in rabbinical school, I was talking with my mother and came up with three different positions that would be interesting to take:
1) Disney World Rabbi - This position would be to supply a rabbi for Disney World primarily for providing kosher supervision on making various foods around the theme parks (probably primarily confection shops, but there may be a number of other possibilities that could easily be made kosher (aside from the meals that are kosher)), for officiating at weddings on Disney property, for helping put together prayer minyanim for travellers visiting the parks, and general availability for consultation/counselling. I haven't let go of this dream yet and it doesn't hurt that my current position has me living only 20 minutes away from Disneyland....
2) Work for Rabbi Shmuley Boteach - I didn't think there would be any sort of likelihood of this happening, but in the spring of my last year in rabbinical school, a position opened up in his organization and, lo and behold, I got an interview with Rabbi Shmuley! But I wasn't picked - I imagine that that was a smart decision: I probably wasn't ready for it yet. At least I hope I made a positive impression on him that he would think of hiring me down the road.
3) Director for the Center for Modern Torah Leadership - After having spent my summer of 2006 in Boston for the Summer Beit Midrash of the CMTL with Rabbi Klapper, I not only grew to appreciate him and his intelligence, but also generally the thrust of his initiative. For over a dozen years, his Summer Beit Midrash existed as the only program that he did aside from teaching. However, he then decided to branch out and create the CMTL, which had the SBM as its cornerstone and has since had several summer conferences of educators. I know that Rabbi Klapper has a vision of publishing a journal as well as, perhaps, a year-long learning program. That would be awesome, although he would need someone to direct those activities to free him up to work on his scholarship. That would be me. And although I did my last year of rabbinical school's internship with the CMTL - including running a program for it - there would need to be funding for such a position. Drumming up that much money in this economy: not going to happen. I'm still keeping this one in mind, as long as Rabbi Klapper would hire me (and money suddenly appears, as well).

Anyways, those are the three positions I had in mind but did not come to fruition. Ah well, I'm in sunny California, meeting lots of great people and working for the Jewish people :)

Abraham Picking Up and Moving On

2010-10-31T23:25:00.002-04:00

Gad Dishi does an excellent job of describing Abraham's picking up and moving to Gerar after the destruction of Sedom - something about which I had not previously given thought:

Abraham must feel quite surreal as he hears God's intent and proceeds to see two of his guests arise and embark to carry out the mission. He realizes that he has hosted the very destroyers of Sodom. His nurturing of these destroyers and their circuitous pit stop at his tent may symbolically represent Abraham's nurturing of Sodom's treachery. Abraham's complicity in Sodom's treachery may be attributed to his allowing Lot to depart from his company earlier in favor of encamping at Sodom (13:8-14) as well as Abraham's failure to seize control and reform Sodom after his successful campaign to free Lot from the four kings (14:15-24). As such, God is now turning to Abraham to demonstrate the results of his actions and inaction. Abraham's contemplative overlook at the destruction the morning after his failed attempt to save the cities (19:27-28) crushes him and Abraham is too pained with the memories of his failure in Hebron and decides to travel in a southerly direction and moves to Gerrar to open a new chapter in his life (and perhaps to see if Lot survived) (20:1).¹

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1 - Gad Dishi, "Saving Zoar: How Did Lot Succeed?", Jewish Bible Quarterly 38, no. 4 (October-December 2010), 218, n. 7.

Biblical Prophecies as Op-Eds

2010-10-22T13:23:00.003-04:00

Found this interesting quote from Rabbi Eric Levy describing Biblical prophecies (From his "Hoy, Ariel, Ariel: Isaiah 28-35 - Politics and the State of the Union in Judea"):

...politically, we're getting a picture: there's treaty-making going on. See, normally, you don't see this - you just see the words of the prophet. And the prophet is like the op-ed pages of the New York Times: if you haven't read the first pages, you don't know what the op-ed pages are talking about. Because sometimes they allude to things you just assume that we know. And, a lot of times, when you read the prophecies, you only get the allusion, because the prophet is assuming that everybody knows what the historical background is here.

Are We Doing Enough About Darfur?

2010-10-05T18:37:00.003-04:00

A month ago, a schoolmate of mine, Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, wrote a piece in the Jewish Journal of LA entitled "A Jewish Apology to the World", in which he points out some things for which the Jewish community has come up short. One of these is "only 65 years after the Holocaust, we have not done enough to try to stop the genocides in Darfur, the Congo and other countries around the world."
When I went to a big rally in DC over four years ago on the issue of Darfur, it was a big showing regarding the issue and there was a lot of hope that some diplomatic pressure could yield some positive results on the plight of the Darfurians. However, there wasn't a whole lot of headway and, still to this day, not a whole lot has been successfully pulled off. People can still go to rallies or give money, but how much good do either do? The rallies probably aren't going to accomplish much and the money, even if it isn't handled improperly, will go to food that hopefully will get to the right mouths, but it still could get stolen or the Darfurians could still have horrible things happen to them.
So what is left to do? Yes, as Rabbi Yanklowitz has pointed out, we have not done enough - but what is enough? I think that the one thing that will succeed will certainly take a lot of money, but it will be a more efficient use of money than has gone on thus far. It would effectively be an insertion of mercenaries functioning as peacekeepers to defend the Darfurians from the Janjaweed. That way, they could be certain to be safer than they have been for most of the past decade. Granted, the concern could be that the small force could be seen as a threat to the Janjaweed, which the Sudanese government could then try to bring in bigger and better weaponry....
In any event, does this fall on the Jewish community's shoulders that we have fallen short? I don't think so.

Harsh Repercussions for Debtors (In 17th Century Poland)

2010-10-05T15:42:00.001-04:00

This morning, while ellipticalling, I read the following regarding Jewish debtors in 17th century Poland:

When the circumstances of the debtor made it impossible for him to obtain a moratorium from the king or a lesser official, he renegotiated the loan or declared bankruptcy. Therefore, the kahals and the Council of Four Lands evolved elaborate and harsh provisions for bankruptcies. Among these was the requirement that the bankrupt person swear a solemn oath before the open Ark of the Torah stating that he was, in fact, without resources. Similarly, his wife had to make such a declaration before the beadles of the community. All his property was seized by the elders to be sold within six months for the benefit of his creditors. A ban was pronounced against him in the synagogue and he, his wife, and his children were required to be present. If he failed to surrender his property or was otherwise recalcitrant despite the ban, he might have been jailed by the community for periods ranging between eight and thirty days. The bankrupt person might be placed in the stocks (kuna) at the entrance to the synagogue for three days prior to his imprisonment. If he held a position in the kahal he was immediately removed from office, and, even more severely, he lost the "right of settlement" in his community. These provisions applied to persons who were without funds because of business losses. If someone could not pay his debts because he had expended large amounts to provide dowries for his children, he was treated as a thief and subject to imprisonment for a year.¹

Wow - that would be considered practically barbaric nowadays! Hundert further explains that

the procedures outlined were clearly intended to deter fraudulent claims of bankruptcy which might have had serious consequences for the community as a whole. Even legitimate bankruptcies might have reduced the credit available to the community. Further, despite royal edicts warning against the practice, the kahals were often held responsible for the debts of defaulting Jewish individuals.²

Thought it was interesting....

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1 - Gershon David Hundert, "Jews, Money and Society in the Seventeenth-Century Polish Commonwealth: The Case of Krakow," Jewish Social Studies 43, numbers 3/4 (Summer-Autumn 1981), 267.
2 - Ibid., 268.

Not the Way the Jewish Community should be operating

2010-09-16T01:07:00.002-04:00

I found the following excerpt particularly on-point about the ills of Jewish organizational life:

We have been living on yesterday's fumes for too long. Old fashioned anti-anti-Semitism, unrealistic Zionism, superficial and, in the end, meaningless congregational life (including painfully unspiritual Bar and Bat Mitzvahs) are finally taking their toll.

- Michael Steinhardt, "Counterpoint," Contact 12, number 3 (Spring 2010), 15.

Foursquare on the Rise on College Campuses (at least in my area)

2010-09-03T17:42:00.004-04:00

The number of Foursquare check-ins on college campuses is on the rise this fall. Since starting to use Foursquare in January, I saw how infrequently people were checking in on campuses in the Southern California area (primarily CSULB, CSUF, UCI, Chapman, UCR, and a few others) in the spring. Not so in the first week or two of classes this fall - I have seen many people checked-in on campus at a time, sometimes at multiple places. Also, at CSUF, I've noticed places offering specials and to check-in, typically restaurants, which I don't think I would've seen in the spring. I believe that the rise in Foursquare use may primarily be attributed to the rise in smartphone use amongst students. Granted, there could also be a greater awareness of Foursquare, especially after its first birthday in the spring, or even people seeing their friends' check-ins being sent to Facebook, but for whichever reasons, it's starting to grow on campuses.... Fun :)

Shorter Davenings & "Siddur Baseball"

2010-08-17T11:06:00.003-04:00

In this past weekend's issue of the Jewish Journal, Dennis Prager wrote a column entitled "Siddur Baseball", in which he bemoaned how lengthy shabbat morning services are - they are not only long, but boring, etc. The shul I attend here in Long Beach has figured out how to handle shortening services. The shul is called Shul by the Shore and the structure is that from 10-11, the rabbi has a discussion on the weekly parshah; then from 11 and onwards, Torah reading is held, followed by musaf and then kiddush, with those who daven shaharit as well as pesukei dezimra and Shema and its blessings doing so beforehand. Now, if I were to start a davening like this, I would be called non-Orthodox or otherwise trying to ruin the tradition; however, it is led by a Chabad rabbi, primarily for a non-observant constituency. I enjoy the set-up of it and, for the rest of the time that we are here in Long Beach and can continue walking to it will continue to enjoy.

Hillel & Twitter Follow-Up

2010-08-16T18:48:00.004-04:00

Apropos of my post on Jewlicious last week regarding Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life not operating a solid Twitter account, I asked around and about why Hillel's Twitter account was so lacking. The answer I basically got from having discussed it was that the resources just aren't there, as opposed to Hillel:FJCL just not recognizing either the significance of social media or understanding how Twitter can factor into their PR. In better times, the department that handled these matters had a few more staffers, but, as with the rest of the economy and many other non-profits, staffers are on the short side of the budget (especially for social media). So, even though I got many people agreeing with my online as well as at the conference, but it doesn't seem like this will change Hillel's social media strategy on account of the economy (unless a donor out there decides that it's important (c'mon, you know you're out there - Hillel is a 501(c)3...)).
As an aside, during the last night of the conference (held at the awesomest museum), there was a presentation held in recognition of some of the Hillel professionals for having served for such a long time. For a visual, they put up a screen behind the speakers with a Twitter feed for Hillel Institute. But here's what's peculiar, although there exists a Twitter feed for HI, it only includes one post. Which means, instead of actually inputting and actually tweeting, they created a computer simulation of the HI account tweeting about such and such person (pictured above).
I don't know whether that indicates that they get Twitter, in that they are using it in a presentation, or the opposite: that they get that it's hip, but don't know how to use it. Either way, it was still strange and I think that they haven't realized how they can harness Twitter to work for them yet.
While talking this over with someone afterwards, I realized they should incorporate what they are doing, much like what goes on in some classrooms and at other conferences: which is to put up a screen with a live feed of a certain Twitter hashtag that is germane to the discussion. This allows not only a fuller conversation to take place (because there are more people contributing to the conversation than simply the people speaking in the room), but the speaker(s) can reference some discussion points taking place in the Twitter hashtag feed. Moreover, not only does the conversation in the room become more robust, but also people not in the room can participate or at least be aware of the discussion underway.
Hopefully, Hillel will catch up soon....

Shepping Nahas for Rabbi Weiss: Musing on "Kiddush Open Orthodoxy" at the Hillel Institute

2010-08-12T00:52:00.005-04:00

This week, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life is holding its inaugural Hillel Institute, along with a Pre-Hillel Institute for new Hillel hirees that took place prior to the conference, which I am attending. One thing that has struck me is that a few people to whom I've introduced myself have remarked, once I identify which rabbinical school I attended, "I've not met a YCT guy I didn't like" or something along those lines. Although at first I caught myself wanting to facetiously say "You haven't met many have you?", I realized YCT does graduate good guys (which I like to call a 'kiddush Open Orthodoxy'). But it's not simply that, but also specifically within a Hillel context: that YCT graduates are excellent for enriching the lives of Jewish college students.
Moreover, there has recently been an explosion of YCT rabbis going into the campus rabbinate: there have been more graduates in the last two classes in the field than there were in the previous four. If you want numbers, out of the total 62 guys who have gone through the program and graduated, of the 20 graduates in the last two years, 7.5 of them have gone into the campus rabbinate (one of them is splitting his time between working in a shul and on campus), while six of the first 42 graduates went into it (and four remain in it at present).
And those numbers have been showing a little bit this week: the YCT guys are bringing a robust Judaism to the table. Interestingly, the primary theme for guided discussions this week has been balancing breadth and depth and, although Hillel has been working on the breadth aspect for years, the latter of which is something to where YCT graduates are poised to bring Jewish knowledge, wisdom, and tradition. What's fascinating to me is that, while a YCT student, I thought many times while in the course of discussions being held at school, speakers talking to us, or certain topics being tackled, we were at the forefront of rabbinic education and poised to lead the Jewish world to greater heights - but, at the time, it also seemed like mere pie-in-the-sky musings. However, seeing the YCT graduates here is definitely starting to make it seem a little bit more realistic.

Tabling for Hillel at the ZBT Convention

2010-07-16T15:35:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, my wife (who is the Director for Beach Hillel) and I manned the table representing Hillel at the national ZBT convention in the Marriott in Manhattan Beach. Hillel was one of a half-dozen organizations tabling, most of whom were Jewish (Young Judea, Chabad on campus, and Maccabi World Union along with OmegaFi and Movember).
ZBT, which are the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew initials צב"ת, stands for ציון במשפט תפדה - "Zion shall be redeemed with justice" (from the first half of Isaiah 1:27),¹ is the first Jewish fraternity, which makes sense why there would be so many Jewish organizations represented. However, over time it became simply a historically Jewish fraternity (or, as it was described to me, a non-sectarian Jewish fraternity).
Although we were situated next to Chabad (yes, they had tefillin and were ready to help the Zebes wrap), the interesting ongoing amusing interaction took place at the table across from us. The lady at the Young Judaea table was primarily trying to get the Zebes to sign up for Birthright Israel trips, in which many brothers were interested. However, when she asked if they were Jewish, many of them said they weren't, whereupon she asked if they could pass on the word to their Jewish fraternity brothers. I found it amusing, but probably somewhat confusing to the gentile Zebes.
One further thought: an organization which was not subtly founded as a Jewish-Zionist organization, as mentioned above (and with an inspiringly hopeful phrase behind it, to boot), one would hope that it would be the same today. Although there was a ZBT chapter at the university from which I graduated, I wasn't very familiar with it. But, when I was looking recently into ZBT, I discovered what it's acronym stood for and thought that it was not simply a Zionist/pro-Israel group, but could be an advocate for Israel. Moreover, especially in light of what's been happening recently (e.g. the Goldstone Report), it would be a group that would yearn for Israel to be justified and advocate for it. Moreover, amongst the three Jewish fraternities (AEPi and SAM being the other two), it would be the one to attract students who would advocate and defend Israel on campus, perhaps being partners with either pro-Israel groups (e.g. Anteaters for Israel) or Hillel to strategically deal with anti-Israel activities, speakers, or other such matters (such as the traveling "Apartheid Wall"). However, just because that's the organization's name, doesn't mean that that's what they stand for, as they took out the Zionist part of it shortly after starting up.² Nevertheless, it will still be interesting working with the local ZBT chapter, as a minority of the Zebes are Jews - but it should be fun :)

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Notes:
1 -

The initials ZBT and the group's chosen Hebrew motto, Zion be-mishpat tipadeh (Zion shall be redeemed with justice), a quotation from the book of Isaiah, well-known in learned circles, had been the suggestion of the men's Bible instructor, Rabbi Bernard Drachman (1861-1945). The ancient phrase had already been taken up by the budding Zionist movement, and the full quote - Zion be-mishpat tipadeh ve-shaveha be-tzedaka (Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and they that return of her , with righteousness) - is emblazoned in Hebrew on the delegate's badge, which Gottheil himself wore to the fourth Zionist Congress in August 1900 in London."

Marianne Rachel Sanua, Here's To Our Fraternity: One Hundred Years of Zeta Beta Tau, 1898-1998 (Hanover, NH: Zeta Beta Tau, 1998), 11.
2 - "The group's formal objectives, according to its first charter, were "to promote the cause of Zionism and the welfare of Jews in general; and to unite fraternally all collegiate Zionists of the United States and Canada." - Ibid., 12. However, soon, the Zionist part was taken out:

As one of the founders, Maurice L. Zellermayer, reported, in an early history of ZBT, "Zeta Beta Tau: The First Twenty-Five Years, 1898-1923," "It was found that it would be for the best interests of the Fraternity not to limit ourselves solely to the question of Zionism, that, as a Jewish College Fraternity, we ought not to shut out those Jewish college men who were desirous of entering our Fraternity, but had not, as yet, taken any definite stand on the Zionist question." Within a year (November 1901), ZBT's administration had revised its charter to eliminate the goal of promoting Zionism and had resolved that the new object of the fraternity would be simply the "promotion of Judaism."

- Ibid., 13-14.

Excerpts from David Patterson's 2009 May Smith Lecture on Redemption, Anti-Semitism & the Messiah

2010-07-15T08:08:00.001-04:00

On Sunday morning, while ellipticalling, I read David Patterson's lecture "Though the Messiah May Tarry: A Reflection on Redemption in Our Time,"¹ and I wanted to select a few interesting passages from it: one on belief, one on anti-semitism/anti-messianism, one on redemption, and one on time and the Messiah. The selection of his regarding anti-semitism is, I believe, the most novel of these quotes (although time and the Messiah is also neat).
Here is an interesting quote regarding belief (17-18):

The word faith appears in the Christian Scriptures one hundred times more frequently than in the Hebrew Bible, and the Hebrew Bible is about six times longer than the Christian Scriptures. Because of this accent on the faith of the individual, Christians generally view redemption in terms of a personal salvation, so that salvation belongs to the individual believer. And it rests at least as much upon the content of belief - on accepting Jesus as the Savior in accordance with John 3:16 - as it does upon the actions of the believer. This is not to say that from a Christian standpoint actions are meaningless; rather, it is to say that belief is essential.

In Judaism, belief is not so essential, at least not in the same way. Hence, in Judaism, we have the concept of the Righteous among the Nations, people who are near to God, even though they are not followers of Judaism. Because the Jewish accent is on living in such a way as to assume responsibility even for the actions of others, redemption is a matter that concerns the community. Because redemption is not about me - because it means serving others in spite of myself - it require getting rid of the one thing most precious to me: my ego. Perhaps here lies the key to waiting and working for redemption, both for Christians and for Jews. Here, too, lies one key to the animosity that both face in the effort to bring about the redemption of humanity, from left-wing intellectualism to Islamic Jihadism.

One on anti-semitism/anti-messianism (pp. 18-19):

...in the contexts of the Jewish wait for the Messiah, we discover the essence of anti-Semitism: it is an anti-messianism. The "wandering" Jew turns out to be the waiting Jew and, therefore, the hated Jew, for the Jew's wait unsettles those who would have things settled through the totalitarian rule of one worldview. The presence of the Jew is a constant reminder that we are forever in debt and that no payment will do, because payment is always due. And so, among the anti-Semites, it is a truism that the Jews control the ledgers of the world. The hatred of the Jews is the oldest hatred, because the challenge from the Jews is the oldest challenge to the ego that would curl up in the comfort of looking out for Number One. Both the religious and the ideological forms of anti-Semitism seek a final solution in matter of redemption. In their totalitarian appropriation of the other, both would either assimilate or annihilate the Jew, whose very existence disturbs their sleep with the insistence that the wait for the Messiah is an interminable service to the other person.

One on redemption (p. 20):

...the Jew waits not for the world to adopt a certain creed, but for the world to take on a certain character. One thing is clear, at least from a Jewish standpoint: the matter of redemption is not settled. What is clear to Judaism, however, may create some confusion in Christianity, where, according to traditional understanding, the redemption was accomplished with the Resurrection. Where redemption is concerned, most Christians believe there is nothing to wait for.

And, finally, one on time and the Messiah (pp. 20-21):

...in the Talmud, it is written that there will be no Messiah for Israel, because those days have already passed, in the time of Hezekiah (Sanhedrin 99a); the point is not to put an end to the wait and the expectation, but to underscore its endless duration. The Talmud also maintains that all the dates for the ultimate redemption have passed (Sanhedrin 97b). Once again, the teaching is not that we should leave off with waiting; rather, it is that now only we can bring the Messiah, for only we can wait infinitely, through the continual effort to meet an infinite responsibility to and for the other person. Only we can wait, and not God, because only we operate within the narrow confines of time. Time is the tarrying of the Messiah; that the Messiah tarries is what gives meaning to life, for the dimension of meaning is the dimension of time.

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Notes:
1 - Delivered on 26 January 2009 as the May Smith Lecture on Post-Holocaust Christian/Jewish Dialogue (published as a booklet in 2009, with an introduction by Alan L. Berger, Administrator for the May Smith Lecture Series at Florida Atlantic University)

Crown Heights Riots, Protesting, and Harmony

2010-07-14T08:52:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, Shemspeed released a press release that starts off with the title "20 Years After the Crown Heights Race Riots, Black and Jewish Community Leaders Endorse DeScribe's "Harmony" Music Video as a Constructive Tool for Unity and Racial Harmony in Brooklyn" with a link to the aforementioned music video. One of the paragraphs contained within include the following background:

It's been almost 20 years since the Crown Heights riots showed the ugly face of racial tension that exists between the Black and the Jewish communities in this Brooklyn neighbourhood. Many efforts since then have been made to create multi-cultural programming and social structures to work towards peace and mutual understanding between the two communities, but still today the lack of real communication remains, and most of all, the tension still remains. In a recent wave of violence and rising crime in Crown Heights it has become obvious that we must push for "raising an awareness of the need for racial harmony in Crown Heights and in the world."

Reading the press release in my inbox along with just having finished reading Rabbi Avi Weiss' Spiritual Activism, compels me to quote from that book regarding the Crown Heights issue. But before I get to that quote, let me quote a more relevant one first from an earlier book of his:

In August of 1991..., when Yankele Rosenbaum was murdered during the Crown Heights riots, we went directly after the big guy. We accused New York City mayor, David Dinkins, of holding the cops back in order to allow the raging mob to vent. Our language was precise: The mayor, like all of us, saw what was happening. If he remained silent, he - not a lower level official or police captain - is culpable.

There's no question that our accusations got through to Dinkins. In one of the most successful rallies we ever mounted, a mock coffin was brought to Gracie Mansion, the mayor's official residence, as our way of placing accountability at the mayor's door. The mayor was incensed, and, that evening, on the local news, accused me of racially dividing the city. But an important point was made: The man at the top was responsible. Over the ensuing period of time, a large group of activists, mostly from non-establishment grassroots organizations, led by Yankele Rosenbaum's brother, Norman, militated against the mayor until he was voted out of office.¹

Now, on to the quote from the book I just finished (and recently quoted on my blog):

The propensity to not listen, to discourage and stifle dissent, is by no means the exclusive characteristic of the right. At times, some of the most liberal and reputedly most tolerant voices in the Jewish community are equally guilty of refusing to listen.

In the fall of 1992, for example, I vigorously protested former New York City mayor David Dinkins's handling of the Yankel Rosenbaum case. Dinkins was the scheduled speaker at the Conservative rabbinic school, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) in New York. From my seat in the front row, I rose to shake Dinkins's hand as he entered the auditorium. This was my way of communicating to him, in my mind, at least, that our conflict was not a personal one.

Throughout his talk, however, and particularly when criticizing some in the clergy for inflaming racial tensions, Dinkins, as the New York Post described it the next day, "stared directly at Rabbi Avi Weiss, one of his harshest critics in the case." When Dinkins completed his talk, the chancellor of JTS, who was chairing the event, invited questions from the audience. The chancellor obviously saw my raised hand, a clear indication to him that I had no intention of disrupting the proceedings. However, he refused to acknowledge me. He knew I disagreed with the mayor and, therefore, my views could not be tolerated. For good measure, the next day New York Newsday quoted him as labeling me "the Jewish Al Sharpton."²

------
Notes
1 - Avraham Weiss, Principles of Spiritual Activism (Hoboken, NJ: Ktav, 2002), 54.
2 - Rabbi Avraham Weiss, Spiritual Activism: A Jewish Guide to Leadership and Repairing the World (Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2008), 148.

Some Elements of Jewish Spiritual Activism

2010-07-09T12:49:00.003-04:00

One of my job responsibilities is to be an activist, primarily on campuses. The amusing thing is that even though I went to YCT, I was one of the least inclined students to attend rallies, etc. Nevertheless, one of the factors (as I understand it) as to why I was hired was on account of having attended YCT, which Rabbi Avi Weiss founded and was supposed to be a social activist rabbi. In any event, I've been trying to figure out how best to utilize my resources and achieve results on campuses in the area, primarily with regard to anti-Israel occurrences. So, to that end, I started reading Rabbi Weiss' book Spiritual Activism a month or so ago, although I had put it on hold to read other things. However, recently, when I saw Rabbi Weiss at the IRF conference, he suggested I read it - so I recently resumed reading it. Although there have been a variety of interesting pieces in the work, I wanted to pull out a couple of particularly interesting points: one on "positive" vs. "negative" Judaism and one on speaking out for others and for ourselves.
With regard to his idea of "positive" vs. "negative"Judaism, he wrote that it is important

to recognize that the essence of spiritual activism is to ignite the Jewish spark within each of us. The activist who is grounded exclusively in physical defense - demonstrations, rallies, protests, political lobbying - doesn't understand the higher purpose of activism. If I am a Jew only to fight anti-Semitism, that is negative Judaism. If, however, I am a Jew because I appreciate the Sabbath, I treasure the Jewish laws and rituals that ennoble the life of the Jew, and I devote time to reading Jewish books and to Torah study, that is positive Judaism. Negative Judaism will not endure; positive Judaism will.

Yediat Yisrael, "Jewish knowledge," including the Torah education, is inextricably bound with ruach Yisrael, "the spirit of Israel." Yediat Yisrael is crucial to Jewish identity, Jewish activism, and Jewish survival. In its absence, Jews are in danger of forgetting who they are, of ceasing to stand up for Jewish causes, and of casting away Jewish values and rituals, which become meaningless without learning and understanding. The inevitable result is assimilation and loss. Yediat Yisrael, "Jewish knowledge," and ruach Yisrael, "the spirit of Israel," together encapsulate positive Judaism.¹

And here is what he wrote upon the topic of speaking out for others and speaking out on behalf of one's self:

Speaking out for others carries relatively little risk and even brings acclaim and approval from the larger community. Speaking out on behalf of our own interests, on the other hand, touches upon our insecurities and heightened sensitivity to what others may think of us - insecurities and sensitivities that we, as Diaspora Jews, have acquired and absorbed over the years. As a result, we feel strong and unhampered when fighting for others, yet deferential and afraid when fighting for ourselves.²

Rabbi Weiss continues on and writes

As Jews, we have a responsibility to be both universalists and particularists. While our spiritual activism shares the universalist agenda, it can never be at the expense of the commitment to our own people. We easily remember that our sage Hillel asked, "If I am only for myself, what am I worth?" Yet we too often forget his more important question that immediately precedes it - "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?"³

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Notes:
1 - Rabbi Avraham Weiss, Spiritual Activism: A Jewish Guide to Leadership and Repairing the World (Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2008), 36-37.
2 - Ibid., 56.
3 - Ibid.

Gahanna & Gehenna

2010-07-08T13:35:00.003-04:00

I grew up in a suburb of Columbus, OH called Gahanna and it was a nice place. Gahanna, in the local native American language means "three in one", since there are three rivers that converge into one river.
When I got to high school, I would tell people where I live and would sometimes snicker, saying "Like Hell?" Although at first, I had no idea what they were talking about, but they said Gehenna. It's also been weird to tell people I'm going back home to visit my parents and people say, "You're going back to Hell?" since it's actually a pleasant place. In any event, whenever I've told people where I grew up and/or where my parents live, I've said "The city where I grew up rhymes with 'banana'" and then proceed to say "Gahanna."
Since I'm on the topic of Gehenna, I thought I would quote a couple of articles regarding its name:

The Greek noun gehenna, usually translated as hell in the English New Testament, is used in a bewildering variety of ways in ancient sacred literature. In the Bible and related literature, it occurs in three senses: as an ordinary geographical location in Jerusalem; as an extraordinary place of punishment for the wicked, located in the area of Jerusalem; and as an otherworldly place of punishment for the wicked after death. Eventually, the name Gehenna for the geographical valley became a term for the underworld.¹

and

The New Testament renders Gê...Hinnōm by Γεέννα, "Gehenna," a term which has become a name for hell. Both Old and New Testaments use other terminology, such as Hades, Sheol, the Pit, the Grave, and so on. By the time of early Christianity, they seem to have more or less coalesced in meaning, though they will have had slightly different shades of meaning. While Gehenna occurs 10 times in the gospels (Matthew 5:22, 29, 10:28, 18:9, 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5 and also in James 3:6), occurs 11 times (Matthew 11:23, 16:18; Luke 10:15, 16:23; Acts 2:27, 31; I Corinthians 15:55; Revelation 1:18, 6:8, 20:13, 14). This suggests a conception, probably still fairly fluid, which shares elements of contemporary Greek and Roman cosmology, themselves heirs to the Mediterranean koine, together with Jewish elements, which themselves seem to have absorbed earlier Egyptian or even Zoroastrian ideas (such as the Lake of Fire).²

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Notes:
1 - Lloyd R. Bailey, "Gehenna: The Topography of Hell," The Biblical Archaeologist 49, no. 3 (September 1986), 187.
2 - N. Wyatt, "The Concept and Purpose of Hell: Its Nature and Development in West Semitic Thought," Numen 56 (2009), 180.

IRF Conference 2010

2010-07-06T13:37:00.003-04:00

While away on my recent trip out east, where we attended a couple of friends' weddings, a bris milah of a baby boy of our friends', and saw friends and family, I also attended the annual conference of the International Rabbinic Fellowship (IRF). It was held at the Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center in Reisterstown, MD, which was a very lovely facility - I would definitely like to return there for any conference, it was just that pleasant. The conference itself was a good time and I am certainly glad I attended. Although for the content of the conference, I will simply defer to the press release issued by the IRF about it, which can be seen below, I enjoyed the conference for both getting together with rabbis who were either in YCT with me or I had known elsewhere and getting to catch up with them, as well as being with and discussing issues with fellow Open/Modern Orthodox rabbis, which provided for an excellent atmosphere. I'm not sure when I will be able to go to the next IRF conference, but I look forward to when I can return.
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Press Release:

International Rabbinic Fellowship

347 West 34th Street

New York, NY 10001

Press Release

Contact: Rabbi Jason Herman, Executive Director

Phone: 917.751.5265

Email: jlherman@jlherman.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

9 A.M. EDT, July 2, 2010

ORTHODOX JUDAISM’S NEWEST RABBINIC GROUP, INTERNATIONAL RABBINIC FELLOWSHIP (IRF), CONVENES CONFERENCE TO FORGE ITS FUTURE, ADOPT CONVERSION POLICIES, OUTLINE ROLE OF WOMEN AS SPIRITUAL LEADERS

The International Rabbinic Fellowship, an organization of over 150 American, Israeli, and world rabbis met this past week at the Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center outside Baltimore, Maryland to strengthen collegial relationships, study torah, and discuss ideas that impact rabbinic practice. The group voted on and adopted several policies and resolutions that will guide Orthodoxy’s future.

A highlight of the conference was the presence of Rav David Stav, Rabbi of the Shoham community in Israel, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Hesder Petach Tikva and founder of Tzohar, a large Israeli Rabbinic group. Conference attendees were privileged to discuss at length with Rabbi Stav critical issues facing the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

Resolutions that were discussed in depth and adopted by the IRF included the official establishment of the IRF’s conversion committee (Va’ad Giur) that will oversee, guide, and ensure the thoroughness of conversions performed by IRF members. The committee consists of several American and Israeli well known rabbinic scholars and has been constituted as a body not to centralize conversions but to help guide the group’s members in conversions that they may effect for their own congregants and constituents.

Said Rabbi Barry Gelman, IRF president, "The IRF's Vaad Giur will serve to ensure that each rabbi retains the proper ability to care for and guide their own candidates for conversion. The IRF Giyur process, which includes a very important mentorship component, guarantees that candidates for conversion will be well prepared and that the Rabbis are provided with ongoing guidance and support."

Orthodoxy’s broadest resolution yet outlining the role of and opportunities available for women working in Orthodox synagogues in Rabbinic capacities was also adopted at the conference.

The following is the text of the resolution as adopted by the International Rabbinic Fellowship:

IRF Resolution on Women in Communal Leadership Roles

The International Rabbinic Fellowship is thankful and grateful to the Almighty and to a cadre of visionary educators, rabbis and communal leaders of the Modern Orthodox community for the amazing growth of Torah learning for women, in all its forms, which has transformed the face of the Orthodox community for the better in the last fifty years.

We strongly support the work and efforts of the myriad of Torah learning programs and institutions for women, both long-established and new, both in the Diaspora and in Israel. We hope that these institutions continue to grow and that even more opportunities for talented women who would like to continue on to the next level of Torah scholarship, involving multi-year opportunities for serious Torah learning, will emerge in the years to come.

We express our support for the sincere desire of the graduates of these learning programs to contribute their spiritual talents to the Jewish people as teachers, spiritual guides and mentors. We also affirm the dedication and sacrifice of so many women in our community, and their desire to serve their congregations and their people in formal leadership capacities, while affirming the specific areas that Halakha delimits.

We strongly encourage communities and their rabbinic leaders to create opportunities to discuss this important phenomenon in an open and reflective manner, in order to enable continuing progress in a spirit of shalom and communal harmony.

In an effort to outline some practical guidelines that we believe our communities should consider – recognizing that each community and its rabbinic leadership retain the authority to determine what is appropriate for their communal context – we affirm that:

Observant and committed Orthodox women who are learned, trained and competent should have every opportunity to fully serve the Jewish community:

1. As teachers of Torah, in all its breadth and depth – Shebikhtav, Shebe‘al Peh and Practical Halakha – to both men and women.

2. As persons who can answer questions and provide guidance to both men and women in all areas of Jewish law in which they are well-versed.

3. As clergy who function as pastoral counselors – visiting the sick, helping couples work through relationship difficulties, taking care of the arrangements for burial, speaking at life-cycle events and giving counsel to individuals and families in distress.

4. As spiritual preachers and guides who teach classes and deliver divrei Torah and derashot, in the synagogue and out, both during the week and on Shabbatot and holidays.

5. As spiritual guides and mentors, helping arrange and managing life-cycle events such as weddings, bar- and bat-mitzvah celebrations and funerals, while refraining from engaging in those aspects of these events that Halakha does not allow for women to take part in.

6. As presidents and full members of the boards of synagogues and other Torah institutions.

For more information about the International Rabbinic Fellowship or its conference contact any of the following IRF officers:

Rabbi Barry Gelman, tel. 713.723.3850, email

Rabbi Hyim Shafner, tel. 314.583.4397, email

Rabbi Nissan Antine, tel. 301.279.7010 x 209, email<rabbiantine@gmail.com>

Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky, tel. 310.276.9269, email

Rabbi Marc D. Angel, tel. 212.724.4145, email <mdangel@jewishideas.org>

Rabbi Jason Herman, IRF Executive Director, tel. 917.751.5265, email

Father of the RaMA: An Excerpt about Rabbi Moses Isserles' Father from a PhD Dissertation

2010-06-30T17:18:00.007-04:00

From Rabbi Asher Siev, "The Period, Life and Work or Rabbi Moses Isserles" (PhD diss., Yeshiva University, 1943), 8-10 (the endnotes from the original dissertation are at the bottom):

R. Israel, son of Joseph, the father of R. Moses Isserles was a descendent of a prosperous family in Kracow. His father, R. Joseph, was a leader and Parnas (פרנס) in the city. His mother, Gitel, was daughter of R. Moses Auerbach, a wealthy leader in the Kracow community.²³ Through marriage, R. Israel was tied to another wealthy family whose members were leaders in Israel. His father-in-law, R. Eliezer Shrentzil, married Drezil, daughter of R. Yechiel Luria, first Rabbi of Brisk. R. Luria, mentioned often by Mahari Bruna and Maharam Mintz, was a most famous Rabbi, claiming descent from Rashi.²⁴
R. Israel was a very wealthy Jew in his day. His business affairs were not confined to Cracow. They extended to Wilna and other cities. Reinstein (? - DK) claims that the document of 1551 in which the king of Poland permitted two Jews, R. Simon Doktorowitz and R. Israel b. Joseph of Kracow, to do business in Wilna referred to the father of "R. Isserles who was the only prominent Jew by the name of R. Israel, son of Joseph of Dracow (sic - DK)," at the time. The privileges thus extended to R. Israel enabled him to deal in Wilna, even through representatives, and to hire storage houses and stores without hindrance. R. Israel, as testified by his son R. Moses, traveled on boats, no doubt for business purposes. He came in contact with non-Jews who often addressed to him difficulties in the Bible. His son, R. Moses, speaks of him as a leader and Parnas in Kracow. His charitable deeds and sound leadership are praised highly in every document available, including his monument. His wife, Dina Malka, brought in additional wealth from her family. All this wealth both husband and wife used for the purposes and benefit of the community and its needs. Dina Malka was a business woman and, at the same time, most active in aiding every needy person in the community, while R. Israel devoted a great deal of his time and money to the multiplicity of duties vested in a leader and Parnas of the community.
In the year שי"ג, R. Israel built a synagogue in memory of his wife, who had died the year before. This synagogue was built with the money that Dina Malka left him. Subsequently, this house of worship became known as the Ramo Synagogue....²⁵ R. Azulai is in error again when he states that this synagogue was dedicated by R. Moses Isserles, as the inscription on its wall as in the synagogue book testify.
As a leader of the Jewish community, R. Israel was respected not purely for his wealth and good deeds. He was highly regarded for his scholarship was well. The titles גאון וחבר given him testify to the high esteem in which he was held as a learned man. For, in those days, titles were not conferred indiscriminately. R. Joseph b. Moses, pupil of R. Israel Isserlin and author of לקט יושר, writes in the preface that he reached the age of forty and, as yet, was not privileged to be known even as a חבר. In addition, many learned men are mentioned in the פנקס החברא קדישא without any titles whatsoever, as, for example, R. Simcha Bunem, son-in-law of R. Isserles, and R. Jekuthiel Zalman, son of R. Moses Landau. R. Moses, too, does not fail to indicate this of his father and always refers to him as "my father and teacher". In two places, he quotes his father in matters of law.²⁶
R. Israel had five children: 1. Rabbi Moses (named after his father's grandfather, R. Moses Auerbach), known as the Ramo (composed of the first letters of his Hebrew name, i.e. Rabbi Moses Isserles); 2. Isaac;²⁷ 3. Rabbi Eliezer,²⁸ (named after his father's father-in-law, R. Elizer Shrentzil), son-in-law of R. Solomon Luria; 4. Joseph²⁹ (named after his father's father); and 5. a daughter, Miriam³⁰ (probably named after the mother of R. Yechiel Luria, who was the grandfather of R. Israel's wife), wife of the well-known leader of the Kracow community and in the ועד ארבע ארצות, R. Pinchas Hurwitz....

----------
Endnotes:

Can't Believe She's Serious

2010-06-08T00:41:00.002-04:00

By now, many people have seen Helen Thomas' OUTRAGEOUSLY ignorant recent comments. What is utterly appalling, aside from the amazing ignorance she displays, is that for someone who has been reporting on international events for decades in the White House press corps, she should have a sense of international history. However, she believes that the origin of the Jews came from Europe and America and colonized Israel and that they should leave. Now, the only way that she didn't know any better was because she is an Arab, but that's really no excuse.
Anyways, what's worse is that she didn't make anything better with her "apology" from Friday:

I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.

If you want to properly apologize for not understanding the history of the area or the conflict (or even just the amazing amount of insensitivity to the Jewish people), which was the crux of the problematic of her statement, that'd've been sensical. However, she believes that peace will come to the Middle East - what does that have to do with her mistaken sense of history and how that influences current-day events and how she has reported on them? Thanks for an "apology" in which you don't actually deal with the problem, Helen Thomas.

Mikraot Gedolot (מקראות גדולות)

2010-04-13T09:44:00.001-04:00

In the first issue of the Jewish Review of Books (which was nicely sent to me for free (thanks!)), Professor Azzan Yadin (whom I heard speak at the AJS conference) wrote on מקראות גדולות (mikra'ot gedolot):

In 1517, four years before he would produce the first printed edition of the entire Talmud, Daniel Bomberg, the great Christian publisher of Hebrew books, published Mikraot Gedolot, containing the text of the Pentateuch together with several influential translations and commentaries.

The innovation of Bomberg’s Mikraot Gedolot was typographical, elegantly displaying the different commentators and the biblical verses they interpret on the same page. But, of course, it was not merely typographical. Like the printed Talmud, Mikraot Gedolot offers a synopsis in the most literal sense of the word—a seeing together—of commentators who lived generations and worlds apart.

First, placed immediately alongside the biblical text is an Aramaic translation by Onkelos (2nd century). Beneath it, we see the French contingent, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (known by his famous acronym, Rashi) and his grandson, Rabbi Shlomo ben Meir (Rashbam). Rashi’s commentary combines linguistic brilliance with an unflagging commitment to classical rabbinic midrash. He is the indispensable commentator to the Torah (and, amazingly, to the Talmud as well). Rashbam is deeply committed to the plain sense, or peshat, of the Torah. Further down the page, we find the great Spanish writers: Abraham Ibn Ezra, a contemporary of Rashbam, who was born in Muslim Spain but wandered throughout Europe and the Middle East, and Nahmanides (Ramban), whose expansive commentary investigates the biblical text in relation to its plain sense, to rabbinic midrash, and to kabbalistic interpretations. In addition, we have Rabbi David Kimchi (Radak), the outstanding representative of the Provençal philosophical tradition of exegesis, and Obadiah ben Ya’akov Sforno, the late Renaissance Italian doctor and commentator. The innumerable editions of Mikraot Gedolot that followed Bomberg’s collected these commentaries (and others besides, depending on the interests and whims of the publisher) and put them on the same page as the biblical text on which they commented.

The result was that "they created a new experience for the reader: the illusion of entering a timeless realm of conversation, a set of nested hyperlinks as it were, reaching all the way back to revelation."
As to how it got it's name, Professor B. Barry Levy explained

מקראות גדולות is the Hebrew translation of a latin term magna biblia. Magna Biblia means a big bible. It used to be the Hebrew term was מקרא גדולה – not מקראות....
מקרא is a masculine noun – not a feminine noun. So how could it be גדולה and קטנה? Because in latin, biblia is feminine. And so it’s literally a calque of the latin. Gradually, they cooked up a better term and called it מקראות גדולות, which is at least grammatically consistent. Around the time they did that, the size of these things started to shrink....

Drew 3.0: Now Wearing Contacts

2010-03-25T02:52:00.000-04:00

After spending the last 19 years of my life with glasses, I decided that I wanted to make the switch over to contacts. Although I had tried at some point during adolescence to try contacts, I had immense difficulty getting my finger near my eye and gave up quite quickly. However, I've been feeling for a while I wanted to move beyond glasses. Although my physical therapist (back when I went to physical therapy after my second knee surgery) had had Lasik surgery and loved not having to have any eye device (glasses or contacts), I haven't felt so great about the idea.
So, recently, I tried contacts for the first time, then got them and liked not having glasses on my face, although it took me a few hours to get the contacts out the first night. Also, the next day, it took me some time to get them in and out, but after several days, I started figuring out ways to get them in and out, though getting one's fingers near/on one's eyes is really a mental barrier. The other issue was that my contacts prescription left me still seeing things somewhat blurrily. When I went in for my check-in after a week, I then had them checked out and fortunately, ended up getting a better prescription, albeit not quite as sharp as my glasses, but still sufficient. Anyways, I'm liking them and it's a new look!

Red Sea, Reed Sea, or Something Else?

2010-03-21T20:55:00.000-04:00

Once again, in the recent issue of Jewish Action (Spring 2010), Ari Zivotofsky has an excellent brief article. This one is "What’s the Truth about . . . the Translation of Yam Suf?" There are three points I want to mention about it: 1) His excellent conclusion about translations, 2) About Artscroll's translation consistency, and 3) An error in a footnote.
His amusing yet informative conclusion about translations, both specifically and generally:

In summary, Yam Suf in the Bible refers to multiple places, many of which were translated by the ancients as Red Sea. Similarly, specific bodies of water were referred to by multiple names, such as the Mediterranean Sea, which seems to have at least three names: Yam Plishtim (Exodus 23:31), Yam Hagadol (Numbers 34:6, 7) and Yam Ha’acharon (Deuteronomy 34:2). This leaves a translator in a serious quandary. But it is important to remember that translations are not always meant to be literal but rather to inform the reader of the target language what was intended in the source language. Thus, in general, Yam Hagadol is translated in English as Mediterranean Sea and not as Great Sea; Moshe is called Moses and not “drawn forth,” Yam Hamelach is referred to as Dead Sea and not as Salt Sea, and Sha’ar Ha’ashpot is translated as Dung Gate and not Refuse Gate.

Thus, it is possible that the name Yam Suf has nothing to do with suf and was simply the name of the body of water. The name need not have any meaning beyond that, similar to other names of locations (there are not and have never been buffalo in Buffalo, New York, and Beit Lechem, a hilly region, is not known for either its bread or its wheat).

While no one today can state definitively which body of water God split so that the Israelites could pass, the most ancient translations translate Yam Suf in the Exodus story as Red Sea. I would argue that despite the fact that reeds cannot grow in the Red Sea, we should accept the tradition of the Septuagint and of the Geonim and translate Yam Suf as the Red Sea. For those who cannot tolerate anything but a literal translation, they can always simply refer to Yam Suf as the Cattail Sea.

His note 16 on Artscroll's consistency in translations:

One has to credit ArtScroll for being consistent in its policy of translating places literally. It translates Yam Hamelach as Salt Sea (Genesis 14:3, Numbers 34:3 and 34:12) and Yam Hagadol as Great Sea (Numbers 34:6, 7). In truth, while the Yam Suf translation may be justifiable because of the ArtScroll policy of translating according to Rashi, the other two translations cited are inexplicable. Even ArtScroll does not translate Abraham’s two sons as “He is rejoicing” and “May God listen.”

The error Professor Zivotofsky makes is found at the very end of his article in footnote 17, where he says

This, is in fact, the subject of a Tannaic dispute. In the context of the infant Moshe story, Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani says that suf refers to a marsh with reeds and willows. But Rabbi Elazar opines that suf was shorthand for Yam Suf, and the Torah was not describing the physical surroundings but the actual location (Shemot Rabbah 1:21; Sotah 12a-b).

First, Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahmani and Rabbi Elazar are both third generation amoraim, so they shouldn't be appearing in tannaitic texts. Secondly, although there is a tannaitic text (a beraisa) just above where their discussion is found, commenting on the same verse on which they are commenting, they are not part of that beraisa:

תנא: חמר מבפנים וזפת מבחוץ, כדי שלא יריח אותו צדיק ריח רע.
ותשם בה את הילד ותשם בסוף.
רבי אלעזר אומר: ים סוף
רבי שמואל בר נחמני אמר אגם, כדכתיב קנה וסוף קמל

Eye for an Eye for Something Else?

2010-03-12T09:58:00.001-05:00

Coming across the verse עין תחת עין - "eye in place of an eye" (Ex. 21.24 & Lev. 24.20), I would always read in commentary nearby that it would be barbaric to understand it literally (along with the other surrounding statements).
Indeed, as Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman recently wrote, "The Rabbis simply dismissed its Draconian possibilities by explaining that every person’s eyes are different: who can compare what your eyes mean to you with what my eyes mean to me? Unable to exact theoretical justice, we settle for monetary compensation."¹
However, at some point, I came to realize that the original intent of the Biblical text was indeed, meant to be taken literally - it's certainly a more significant deterrent of bodily harm to people in such a society! Indeed, as Hoffman continues, "the Torah’s legislation remains in place lest we forget its theoretical lesson: no amount of money can truly compensate for mayhem. The human body is sacred. Its damaged parts are beyond financial recompense."²
On another note, I came across Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's description of this verse, where he wrote "the Talmudic interpretation of this verse, 'an eye for an eye', has always been that this does not mean that the eye of the offender must literally be extracted, but rather he must pay monetary compensation. Our rabbis' tradition that 'an eye for an eye' means monetary restitution has preoccupied the commentaries throughout the generations."³ I was surprised to see that Rabbi Shmuley was so adamant about it. Why?
Having begun to read the NT, I came across, quite early on, the statement attributed to Jesus "'You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." But I tell you, don't resist him who is evil; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also'" (Matthew 5:38-39). I began to realize that there must have been a Christian polemic against Jewish Scriptures.... Who knows what else I will find and answer those questions.

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Notes
1 - Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, "Ethical Truths Within 'Harsh' Legalisms," The Jewish Week, 12 February 2010, 51.
2 - Ibid.
3 - Rabbi Shmuel Boteach, Moses of Oxford: A Jewish Vision of a University and Its Life, vol. 1 (London: André Deutsch, 1994), 15.

Driving Driving

2010-03-11T14:19:00.005-05:00

Having spent very little of the past 5+ years driving in New York City (aside from the occasional rental car for a trip), a big facet of my life out here in California is driving around. Yes, I not only grew up living in an Ohio suburb where driving was the modus operandi, but also spent a fair amount of time driving in high school and some in my last semester of college, when I finally had a car on campus. Nevertheless, driving around is a big component of my new job.
After starting out driving a minivan for the first few months of work, I am now riding around in my company's car, a Hyundai Accent (pictured at left) (pretty much half the size of the minivan), which is so much easier to park and maneuver and much better at fuel mileage.
The interesting thing with driving around so much with my job is that it reminds me of when I was on regional board for BBYO in KIO. When I was the regional מזכיר and the regional סגן, I visited every chapter/city (Munster, IN, Indianapolis, IN, Louisville, KY, Cincinnati, OH, Dayton, OH, and, of course, Columbus) and some of them I visited more frequently than others (especially Dayton), which included a lot of driving. However, a big difference is that the cities were further spaced out than they are here in southern California. Anyways, I was reminded of all that driving with my current job - it was good highway driving experience :)

Rabbi Zadok?

2010-03-07T22:17:00.003-05:00

רבי צדוק אומר, לא תעשם עטרה להתגדל בהם, ולא קורדום לחפור בהם
Rabbi Zadok says, "You should not make them a crown to be embiggened with them, nor a spade to dig with them" (Avot 4.7)

The sage of the statement above, Rabbi Zadok, who lived in the first century CE is not a sage about whom I know much, which is why it was interesting, albeit random, when I came across an article about him recently.* From that article, I've excerpted two sections. The first is about his traditions (p. 139):

As was mentioned in our Introduction, Sadoq may be deemed a minor figure for precisely the same reason the minor prophets were so designated. There are extremely few extant traditions of Sadoq in the rabbinic literature. Neusner lists two hundred and nineteen legal traditions for the Houses, and two hundred and twenty-eight for Eliezer b. Hyrcanus. The legal corpus of Sadoq, on the other hand, totals only fourteen traditions. It is preposterous to imagine that the body of Sadoq’s traditions preserved in the literature represents the totally gamut of legal issues with which Sadoq concerned himself. We must have in our possession only a fraction of his legal rulings. Moreover, we can have no idea of what processes of selection (if any) were brought to bear in the preservation and transmission of those traditions of Sadoq which are extant. There is no reason to assume that the distribution of fourteen sources over various areas of concern in fact represents the relative concern of Sadoq about different issues. For example, that of the fourteen traditions none deal with tithes, heave-offering, pe’ah or the like, is hardly firm evidence that Sadoq was unconcerned with these issues or that he never expounded any legal opinions regarding them. In short, the connection between the extant legal agendum and the man is tenuous indeed.

The second is the conclusion about who he was (pp. 142-143):

The study of Sadoq’s traditions has revealed very little of the man himself. Most sources which purport to be of biographical significance appear to be quite late, and cannot be traced to earlier sources. Hence, they are virtually of no value in reconstructing the events of Sadoq’s life, his attitudes and personality. The legal traditions, which, relatively speaking, are earlier, still cannot be shown with certainty to date much before the beginning of the third century. They are, nevertheless, the “best” data available to us. But even here the extreme paucity of the tradition makes it impossible to formulate any detailed picture of the man supposedly behind the tradition. Any statements concerning trends in policy and thought extrapolated from some dozen or so sources could have little claim to reliability. The claims which have been made are that Sadoq was a Pharisee at Yavneah, a contemporary of Joshua and Gamliel II, and seemingly a figure of considerable worth to the patriarchate of the latter.
In our study, we have pointed out where the often repeated notions of Sadoq’s priestly descent and Shammaite leanings find their basis. The first appears to underly an Amoraic periscope in b. Bek. 36a, and is explicitly mentioned in ARNa 16, a relatively late compilation. The second notion, that Sadoq was a Shammaite, solely relies upon possible implications of Tos. Suk. 2:3. No better evidence for these claims can be adduced; they deserve, therefore, to be forwarded only with severe qualifications.
Oddly enough, however, what is a hindrance in uncovering “the man” is of significance in other areas of concern, namely the formulation and transmission of Sadoq’s traditions. Since, as has been proven by Porton, the tradition channels through the ‘Aqivan redactional circle, the paucity of Sadoq’s traditions indicates that, at least for the ‘Aqivans, Sadoq was an unimportant and peripheral {143} figure. Our study of the forms assumed by the traditions of Sadoq serves to support this claim. The sources show a general tendency to forms utilizing indirect discourse such as testimonies, and particularly to narratives. The lemma and its use in dispute form, the “hallmark” if the ‘Aqivan redactional circle, is much less common in the corpus of Sadoq’s traditions. Hence, on formal grounds alone, we were able to claim that Sadoq’s traditions are peripheral to the ‘Aqivan tradents.
Since the traditions of Gamaliel II exhibit the same penchant for narratives as opposed to lemmas and disputes, and since several sources represent Sadoq as having strong ties with the patriarchate of Gamaliel II, we have suggested the circle of patriarchal redactors as an origin for the body of Sadoq’s traditions. This was further confirmed by a correlation of the narrative mode of expression with pro-Gamaliel substance.
If any traditions may have originated from a circle with closer ties to Sadoq (such as a circle of his disciples), we have suggested the testimonies. We have also adduced some evidence for a claim that at least these traditions entered the redactional mainstream through the circle of Joshua’s disciples. It is particularly with these traditions that we find the concerted effort to demonstrate Sadoq’s alignment with the opinions of the sages. Such an effort is quite consistent with our notion that some strong relationship existed between Sadoq and Gamaliel II. Moreover, it would lead one to suspect that the relationship was historical as well as redactional.

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* - Jack Nathan Lightstone, “Sadok the Yavnean,” in Persons and Institutions in Early Rabbinic Judaism, ed. William Scott Green (Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press, 1977), 49-147.

Starting to Read the NT

2010-03-04T02:38:00.004-05:00

After arriving to the great sunny land of California, my benefactor handed me a bunch of literature with information about what proselytizing Christians might say, including many quotations from the NT. After reading some of it, I realized that all the scriptural verses were not in their context. Moreover, how could I discuss, with any knowledge, what the NT or Christianity believed about various matters? So, I set aside that literature and began to read the NT, itself. So far, it's been good - I'm progressing. Although there's a lot in there that, for lack of better phrasing, I just don't believe, nonetheless, I've found reading it interesting on three accounts:
1) Seeing how it/Jesus uses Biblical verses (that is, from the Hebrew Bible) that aren't necessarily the way that we Jews read them. On the other hand, it is also interesting to see how the NT is describing certain Biblical laws being followed in that time.
2) Getting a better sense of the origins of certain ideas that have trickled down to our day in contemporary America, but more interestingly, phrases, as well.
3) Reading about certain social circumstances as well as outlooks that would also be reflected upon rabbinic literature as well as similar statements (or dissimilar, for that matter).
This last one is something that may not appeal to a lot of people, but is the most intellectually fascinating aspect to me. Although I may be reading it on account of needing to know this stuff for professional reasons (whether that would be confronting missionaries, contrasting NT statements to Jewish positions, or even just to discuss with Christian clergy), it's this third reason that really keeps me going, as someone who enjoys reading and studying rabbinic literature.

Purim Costume Provenance

2010-02-25T14:28:00.002-05:00

With the holiday of Purim coming up this weekend, one of the common practices associated with the holiday is dressing up in costume. It was never clear to me how this came about, although having read an article last year on the topic (see Herman Pollack, "An Historical Inquiry Concerning Purim Masquerade Attire," Proceedings of the World Congress on Jewish Studies 7 (1981): 217-235) helped me understand where it comes from. It is interesting to consider that "by the sixteenth century, the parsuf (פרצוף), as the Purim mask was called, had become popular in Italy, Germany, and Poland" (p. 217).
The mask - or rather - the Purim mask was what was first developed from "the carnival celebration," Pollack writes, "derived from the commedia dell'arte. The carnival, which was accompanied by processions and parades, was associated with the demonic and 'souls of the dead' (anime del morte)" (p. 232). He continues:

First, the mask was a means of mocking and ridiculing prestigious members of the community. Second, through their antics, the masked clowns and jesters contributed to the festival gaiety. Third, and as already suggested, the disguise enabled a person to assume "the role of another" by pretending to be someone else. Herein is a release and escape from being continuously the same person.
The masquerades, parades, and carnival festivities must have appealed to individuals of the Italian Jewish community, otherwise during the time of repression religious and civil authorities would not have required them to wear the "badge" so as to differentiate them from non-Jews. Leon da Modena, for example, was among those who would participate in a non-Jewish masquerade.
The commedia dell'arte was also called the "comedy of masks" in that masks were worn for "stock characters" given a "fixed role". Jewish comedy was influenced by social types portrayed by the mask in the commedia dell'arte. Among the personalities adopted and made part of the Purim celebration through the mask were the paltoniere, the "beggar"; the arlecchino, the "clown"; the capitano, the "blustering soldier"; the pantalone, the "pantaloon". (pp. 233-234)

Brief Interview with Patrick Aleph of Punk Torah

2010-02-23T15:41:00.004-05:00

Below is my interviewing at Jewlicious Festival 6.0 of Patrick Aleph of Punk Torah & Indie Yeshiva.