Drew Kaplan's Blog

10 May 2006

The Blogs "A Rabbi Must Follow" Listing

09 May 2006

Shalom in the Home posting No. 2

After having posted last night my posting on Shalom in the Home, I realized that there were some addenda I should mention. First of all, for those who have never seen the show, the way it works is that Rabbi Shmuley Boteach visits a family who have been having problems and tries to do what he can in five days to help them. He does so from his base of his "Shalom mobile home" trailer, which has AV equipment that he uses in order to mainly review tapes of what occurs within the house/home of the respective family. He meets with the family, usually focusing on the parents, and tries to deal with the problems going on.
It is certainly ambitious, though he seems to do decently well. One of his general methodologies that strikes me is that he seems to go for the jugular in situations, which may be a more aggressive technique than may work for me, for instance, though it is interesting. Also, I realized, his level of interactions with these families are different than most family counselors, and certainly rabbis, as most will not have video tapes to show these families or be so actively involved on premises with the family, and especially not with earphones into which he makes suggestions remotely.
A couple of other things: someone has commented to me that Reb Shmuley only tells them what to do in certain cases (casuistics?), but doesn't give general principles all the time.
My mother has also suggested that he ought to have a box of tissues in his trailer as people are often crying.
If you want, there is a Shmuleyisms page.
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Tags: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Shmuley Boteach, Shmuley, Reb Shmuley, Shalom in the Home, marriage and family therapy, family therapy

Computer News in Drew

Three recent things:
1) My computer is back from its "vacation".
2) I started up a Yahoo! Groups for me to be a biweekly or perhaps even weekly update in my life. See below if you are interested in joining.
3) I signed up for myspace (at the suggestion of a high school classmate), though I don't, aside from connecting with high school classmates, for instance, see much of a point to joining. Who knows? Perhaps I will at some point remove myself from it.
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08 May 2006

Mid-Season Review of "Shalom in the Home"

Now that Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's show "Shalom in the Home" has passed its halfway mark for its first season, I thought it would be appropriate for me to weigh in. My interest in this show is three-fold: 1) as a future family leader, 2) as someone who is interested in family dynamics in general, stemming initially from my senior year in high school, and even giving rise to thinking of becoming a family and marriage counselor whilst in college, and finally, 3) as a future rabbi.
My apprehension, however, before having watched any of the episodes, was that he would be emphasizing his conceptions of gender roles, which he described in an article in the WJD.
However, after watching the first episode (which someone noted the lessons gleamed therefrom), I was still slightly leary, but he hasn't really said much about being a man, etc. I have grown to like it quite a bit and found it enriching. One thing that is particularly interesting, which especially came through in this last episode, was his focus on the parents in order to effect change in the child(ren) (also previously noted by someone else).
A recent lecturer for our pastoral counseling class, Dr. Bruce A. Birnberg (I couldn't find a good link for him, but I did find a paper of his that he co-authored), who is a family medicine person, noted what makes Reb Shmuley interesting is that even though Reb Shmuley is working within a very small time-frame (whereas successful therapy usually involves longer periods of therapy), he utilizes a variety of theories/approaches - about three of them, roughly.
Anyways, it has been interesting and I'm excited for the second half of this first season. Oh yeah, and I think he's making a kiddush hashem (lit. sanctification of the Name, though more colloquially, something that makes Jews look good).
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Tags: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Shmuley Boteach, Shmuley, Reb Shmuley, Shalom in the Home, Bruce Birnberg, marriage and family therapy, family therapy, kiddush hashem

Blog Mentioned at RCA Convention

Ben reported to me today that my blog got mentioned at the RCA annual convention today in his presentation on What A Rabbi Needs To Know About Blogs (outline here) by R' Student. Yay!!! A big thanks to R' Student.
As an aside, I attended the Sunday sessions at last year's convention, but I didn't choose to go this year top the convention.

07 May 2006

On the Grammatical Question of WomenRabbis

Much discussion on the JBlogosphere has erupted on the topic of Orthodox women rabbis since the Jerusalem Post reported the ordination of a woman by an Orthodox rabbi a few days ago (for a runthrough of many blogs discussing this issue, scroll to the bottom of this post). As I really don't know what to make of the permissibility, necessity, or prohibition of such a thing, I would like to discuss a separate point. That point is a grammatical point.
The main term is rabbi, which means "my master". As Hebrew is a gendered language, the root is Rav, which is masculine. If one were to feminize it, the result would be rabbah, thus resulting in the equivalent of rabbati to rabbi.
While some would like to discount this pragmatic possibility, there are others who would also like to discount this semantic possibility, probably on grounds that it would distinguish the women, assuming that the women would be automatically placed in a second-rate category.
Nevertheless, I wanted to offer up this issue.
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JBlogosphere discussions: Not the Godol haDor, Hirhurim, Jewschool, Jewlicious, On the Fringe, Seth Chalmer, Harry Mayles, Jewish Adoption Blog, Purim Hero, Alexis (no, not my sister), InContext
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Tags: Judaism, rabbi, rabbis, grammar, hebrew grammar, dikduk, rabbati, rabbah, hebrew, women rabbis, woman rabbi

04 May 2006

More on the Kashrus Status of Malt Beverages

Moshe Barouk of the Aleph Institute sent me the following e-mail concerning the kashrus of flavored alcoholic beverages of which I have previously posted:

Hi. I read your article regarding the Kosher status of Smirnoff Ice and other malt beverages. I too, was very interested in finding out the Kosher status of Smirnoff Ice and Mike’s Hard Lemonade. While I was not able to find out anything specific on Smirnoff Ice, I DID find out about Mike’s Hard Lemonade. I found out at the time of my investigation (late 2004) that concurrent with your findings the ingredients in Mike’s Hard Lemonade are in fact Kosher. HOWEVER, after pressing further and speaking WITH the Mike’s Hard Lemonade executives, I ALSO found out that they produce other drinks which DO contain grape juice in the same plant and utensils as the Hard Lemonade. They are not washed and also go through a heating process in the cooking. In fact, the reps at Mike’s were very aware of this Kashrus problem. This fact makes Mike’s Hard Lemonade undeniably not Kosher.

Also, with regard to Smirnoff Ice, you’re probably now aware (as I see your article was written in September ’05) that several of the Smirnoff Malt Beverage flavors are now certified under the KSA (good California Hashgocha). These flavors include Green Apple, Raspberry and Orange. I am sure that if Smirnoff “Ice” was Kosher, it would also be certified under them. Incidentally, the watermelon, grape and black cherry flavors of these Smirnoff malt beverages DO NOT have the certification the other above mentioned flavors do.

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Tags: Kashrut, kosher, malt beverages, Mikes Hard Lemonade, Smirnoff Ice, hard lemonade

My Computer Takes A Vacation

My computer decided not to turn on at my request last night nor this morning, so I'm guessing it's decided to take a vacation. I'm going to have to take it in to get inspected.

01 May 2006

Yesterday's Darfur Rally & The Holocaust

I went to the Save Darfur rally yesterday in Washington, DC as part of a group of YCT students (there were roughly 10-12 YCTers there). There were a lot of people there, especially Jews, surely making a קידוש השם (lit., sanctification of the Name, but colloquially, something that makes Jews look good) showing that many Jews are concerned about the plight of the people of Darfur who are being slaughtered, raped, etc. by the Janjaweed militias.

I first heard about what was going on in the Darfur region two years ago (when I was in Israel) when I read a blurb about it in the Economist (and I felt cool that I knew about it while many people didn’t). In the past year or so, fortunately the situation there has had its profile raised along with the public’s conscience being raised about it (unfortunately, there are still some people who are in the dark about it), culminating in various efforts to help the people there.

Yesterday’s rally (and others across the country) was certainly a strong showing of people’s showing of their concern for the situation. Hopefully, there will be more UN troops to be sent in the region to defend the people who are being persecuted there. Anyways, as to my thoughts on the rally: I thought that it got very repetitive and that one only needed to be there for maybe a half hour to absorb the central messages (although one would have had to have been there longer to hear important speakers (one guy came up to me and asked if “the two main speakers – Clooney and Obama” had yet spoken)) of “Never Again,” “Not on my watch,” and others, raising the specters of previous genocides and massacres, such as the Holocaust, Cambodia, Armenia, and especially the most recent one from the last decade what went on in the Balkans.

My thought here will focus on the appropriation of language used in reference to the Holocaust as well as ideas therefrom, especially considering that Holocaust Rememberance Day occurred last week. It was clear that not only was the social justice idea of saving these people and protecting them driving so many Jews to be concerned about what was going on, but also the memory of the Holocaust seared in their memories. While that’s fine, I would like to discuss Jews and the Holocaust.

For a couple of years now, I have been unhappy with the unusual obsession of Jews with the Holocaust. This [non-sexual] fetishization of the Holocaust has resulted in being the focus of classes and so forth in the field of Jewish Studies. While I accept that the Holocaust was a watershed in Jewish history, in terms of demographics (both in numbers and in geographic movement), and its influence on theology, eschatology, and philosophy, and even in popular thought, I disagree with the idea that it should be studied as something that is Jewish. Let me state this more clearly: The Holocaust was not Jewish. For clarification, yes, six million Jews died, but so did five million gentiles, so it was clearly not an event that affected only Jews. In terms of uniqueness, yes, Jews have been the most specially affected by it, but that shouldn’t license them to a monopoly on the tragedy.

So what do I think of it? I think it’s a human issue. When one studies the Holocaust, I think it is an issue which one can learn about human life, similar to other genocidal actions (that is, unless one studies the effects of the Holocaust on Jewish life and thought) and not about Jewish life or thought, thus my view of its inappropriateness in courses or even minors in Jewish Studies apartments.

Nevertheless, as the recent AJC report shows, the Holocaust holds a profoundly deep connection for many Jews to Judaism, but I find it horribly sad that people are trying to cling onto past national tragedies rather than onto living a Jewish life – if Jews are maintaining a connection to the dead through some sort of feeling for them without living in the present either for them or themselves in some sort of reificatory manner (to say nothing of God), what good does it do? Aside from satisfying some sort of psychological need, that sort of thing will not last past one or two generations and is ultimately an empty one. (The underlying moral here is that the while the Holocaust is a powerful emotional tool for encouraging a connection to Jewish tradition in some sort of fashion, it is eventually insufficient.)

Oh, lastly, I would like to say that it's my wish that what's going on over in Darfur end this moment, unfortunately, that's not how the world works. Even if there were to be a UN force assembled, even that would still take time.
(While I could have included copious amounts of links to other blog postings about the rally, I will only post the link to my classmate, Ben, on his thoughts on the rally.)

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Tags: Darfur, Darfur Rally, Holocaust, Holocaust Rememberance Day, Judaism, Jewish life, Yom hashoah

News in Drew

Just a couple of things to note in this posting:
-One of my guinea pigs died over shabbas. (It's the one remaining from my initial guinea pigs purchase in August, the one my sister named Butterscotch ("Butters" for short).) Now I only have one left (the one pictured in the posting about the other one dying).
-I got accepted to the Summer Beit Midrash in Boston. This is certainly good news, though it should be challenging. While I pointed out thoughts earlier about how to spend my summer, I still hope to get some researching & writing in, as I haven't been very productive in putting out scholarly articles this year, and certainly not this semester.
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Tags: Summer 2006, summer, guinea pig, guinea pigs, Summer Beit Midrash