Jewish Action Summer 2010

■ Rav Aharon Lichtenstein and Rav Aharon Feldman’1 A Dialogue ■ Do Frum Couples?

Have HappieyÉÉÉN Marriages? J Ê Ê >■]

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FEA T U R ES 16

O f Faith and Fiction: Frum Novelists Go M ainstream

62

Remembering Dr. Lander Moshe D. Krupka

64

In His Own Words

Bernard Lander

Debra Goldberg COVER STORY

20 23

2

LETTERS

Kinot: The Language o f Loss

10

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Stephen J. Savitsky

13

CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE Gerald M. Schreck

14

FROM THE DESK OF RABBI STEVEN WEIL, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

TzviHershWeinreb

29

OU Marriage Survey: Do Frum Couples Have Happier Marriages?

Eliezer Schnall and David Pelcovitz 34 36

Major M arriage Challenges Steven Weil How to Make a Good Marriage Great

Barry and Chanie Holzer 40 45

Nahal Haredi Comes o f Age Jonathan Rosenblum Soldiers o f God: My Time in Nahal Haredi

Samuel Sokol 46

61

83

BOOKS The Beast That Crouches at the Door: Adam&Eve, Cain & Abel, and Beyond

By Rabbi DavidFohrman Reviewed by Hillel Goldberg 88

LASTING IMPRESSIONS A Quaint Prayer Makes a Comeback

Cover design: Yocheved Lefkovits

66

INSIDE THE OU Highlights o f the NAIM M ission to Washington

The painting, by artist Mildred Josefson, high­ lights the frieze from the Arch o f Titus in Rome. Entitled “Zecher L ’Churban Beit Hamikdash,” the painting includes references toEichah, which is read on Tishah B’Av.

69

New Books from OU Press

Gil Student

Photograph: Arthur Rubin, arubinstudios@yahoo.com

ISRAEL On and O ff the Beaten Track. .. in Herodium

Peter Abelow 72

Menachem Genack

Norene Gilletz

About the Cover

Jew ish Life in Egypt Ari Z. Zivotofsky andAri Greenspan

60 A Builder Par Excellence: Dr. Bernard Lander

THE CHEF’S TABLE Gather Around the Grill

Ali Schwartz

70

TRIBUTE

78

Charlotte Friedland PROFILE 48 M eet M ichael Borkow: A Comedy W riter Who Takes His Judaism Very Seriously

From NCSY to Nahal Haredi Bayla Sheva Brenner

PHOTO ESSAY

54

WELLNESS REPORT W eighing In on Eating Out

Shira Isenberg

D EPA R TM EN TS

M ourning the Churban w ith the Rav

SPECIAL SECTION

76

LEGAL-EASE What’s the Truth about. . . a Jew w ith a Tattoo Being Buried in a Jew ish Cemetery?

Ari Z. Zivotofsky

Dr. Lander’s Legacy

David Luchins • page 40

page 54

Jewish Action seeks to provide a forum for a diversity of legitimate opinions within the spectrum of Orthodox Judaism.

Therefore, opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the policy or opinion of the Orthodox Union.

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JewishAction

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ORTHODOX UNION www.ou.org/jewish_action

Editor

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Literary Editor

D aveners of All A ges ■ The article “A Shul for All Ages,” by Rabbi Hillel Goldberg (winter 2009), brought back memories for me. When I was eleven years old, I went to shul with my father every day while he was saying Kaddish for my grandfather. In shul there were many men who were of my grandfather’s generation (along with my parents’ generation). They were Eastern European immigrants, all born in the nineteenth century, who helped bring Orthodoxy to Amer­ ica. I learned how to daven, and how to be a Jew, from them.

Today, with both my grandparents and parents gone, I am becoming a member of the older generation my­ self. And fortunately, in my shul at least, I continue to see people of all ages, from the last remaining members of my parents’ generation to the chil­ dren young enough to be my grand­ children, all davening together.

DENNIS HALPIN Houston, Texas

nothing more gratifying to me than seeing, when giving a Gemara shiur, an eighty-four-year-old chemist sitting next to a thirty-two-year-old program­ mer learning Gemara together.

RABBI YAAKOVJAFFE Maimonides Minyan Brookline, Massachusetts

Hastening the Geulah ■ The wonderful rabbis and their families who are “frum on the fron­ tier” (winter 2009) are doing an excel­ lent job of rekindling the spark of Judaism, bringing many closer to Or­ thodox Judaism. Hopefully this is stage one. Stage two has to be educat­ ing toward and encouraging aliyah.

Just imagine what the State of Is­ rael would be like if thousands of reli­ gious families came on aliyah! This would be a great step towards hasten­ ing the Geulah. Can the leaders and rabbis lead the way? I hope so.

DEENASATTLER

Jerusalem/

Matis Greenblatt Y' A ssistan t Editor

Regina Avshalumova Contributing Editors

Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein Dr. Judith Bleich Rabbi Emanuel Feldman Rabbi Hillel Goldberg Rabbi Joseph Grunblatt Daisy Maryles Rabbi Sol Roth ' ^ Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter Rabbi Berel Wein A d vertising Director

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■ Kudos to Rabbi Goldberg on his fine portrayal of the sociology of the Amer­ ican Orthodox synagogue movement. I am also struck by how many shuls today advertise that their member­ ships only reflect a narrow cross-sec­ tion of ages, as if this were a good thing. “Only 10 percent of our mem­ bers are over age fifty,” an American shul recently boasted!

A shul is supposed to have a crosssection of many generations davening in one place, and celebrating births, Bar Mitzvahs and weddings together.

It’s about all of us growing with and learning from each other.

We are proud that our shul repre­ sents the full range of ages. There is 2 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

Inspiration Begins at Hom e ■ I read with interest your recent issue devoted to Jewish outreach (“The New Face of Jewish Outreach,” winter 2009). It is always encouraging to see that Torah Judaism remains an attractive option for those raised in an environment so antithetical to its val­ ues, but I believe that the emphasis on “making” ba’alei teshuvah and “mar­ keting” Orthodoxy may ultimately prove to be counter-productive.

The new approach to outreach ef­ fectively classifies all Jews into two camps: the/rum and the not-yet-frum, with our objective being to transform the latter into the former. What this

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mentality ignores is that once an indi­ vidual has reached the “promised land” offrumkeit, the challenge has only re­ ally begun. Imagine, for example, the newly Orthodox young woman in­ spired by the Torah’s vision of mar­ riage or its empowering message of modesty. What have we dpne to pre­ pare her for the not-infrequent crass­ ness and decided lack of menschlichkeit that she may encounter when she en­ ters the “shidduch market”? Will the in­ spiring vision of tefillah presented in kiruv seminars hold up when these ba’alei teshuvah enter a real-life noisy Orthodox synagogue? Yeshivot for the newly observant offer generous schol­ arships, charismatic educators and aes­ thetically pleasing surroundings; of course, when it comes to their own children’s chinuch, graduates are on their own. Once a bct’al teshuvah is suc­ cessfully “made,” is there an effort to facilitate his integration into a commu­ nity, or do we wish ourselves a yasher koach and rush off to the next prospect?

There is, of course, a third category that is often ignored: the no longer frum. Step into a bar in Jerusalem or New York, and you will likely find young Jews on temporary or perma­ nent hiatus from shemirat hamitzvot; sometimes one encounters the tragic irony of now-frei children of ba’alei teshuvah. Whether it is disillusionment or simply inertia that drives them away, it is clear that the message that ba’alei

teshuvah find so inspiring has not reached them. Unfortunately, Jews have been leaving observance in droves since the early modern era, and the en­ tire enterprise of outreach would be largely unnecessary were it not for the fact that 90 percent of American Jews who are non-observant are the descendents of people who were born into frumkeit and left it. We ignore this his­ torical trend at our own peril.

We can pat ourselves on the back that we have “inspired” others to shemi­ rat hamitzvot, but if that inspiration cannot be transmitted to their children, then the victory is a hollow one. If we have the resources for weekend-long kiruv retreats, elaborate multi-media outreach presentations and free trips to Israel for curious college students, can’t we place a bit more emphasis on insur­ ing that our own children are equally inspired?

IRATAUB University Heights, Ohio

Clarification ■ In the spring 2010 issue, we inadver­ tently implied that Rabbi Immanuel Bernstein teaches Gemara at Michlalah Jerusalem College. Rabbi Bernstein teaches many subjects to young women at Michlalah but not Gemara; Michlalah does not offer Gemara classes for women.

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Our spring edition included a review by Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein recent book, The Eye of the Storm. On these pages is a letter receivedfrom Rabbi Feldman together with Rabbi Lichtenstein’s response.

Dear Reb Aharon: he warm and friendly comments at the end of your in­ telligently wrought review (“Hands Across the Ocean:

T

you (and the headline writer who trumpeted your words) mistook for anger.

Even though I agree, as you argue, that the Zionists uti­ A Review of Rabbi Aharon Feldman’s The Eye o f the lized the wholly Jewish traits of self-sacrifice and chesed to Storm,” spring 2010) that were written directly to me com­ build the State, it is a non sequitur to conclude that because pel me as well to address you in the same way. of this, their definition of the Jewish People is correct. This I enthusiastically accept your invitation to go sledding, or definition makes no room for God or for Torah in Jewish at least meet together, once again. You deplore the fact that a life. Building the Jewish State with this definition is the wall separates us, which does not make this possible. I think equivalent of rebuilding the Jewish body while attempting you are being overly pessimistic. to remove its head.

If the wall consists of your criticisms of my book, I do not The Gaon Rav Yitzchok Hutner, your mori verabbi as think this will be much of a problem. After all, there were well as mine, told me that he feared that the Jewish People only two faults that you found with my book. First, in my ar­ will be taken to task for having concluded in the wake of the ticle on feminist halachah, you object to my statement that success of the Six-Day War that the Zionists were right all halachah solely depends upon the accepted decisions of pre­ along.

(Of course, forty years later no one entertains such vious generations, as “apodictic.” You argue that there have thoughts.)

This, Rav Hutner explained, is because Zionist been exceptions to this rule, such as the Sha’agas Aryeh, ideology is, in his words, “pure apikorsus.”This view, as you where later generations did not accept the rulings of previ­ well know, was shared by the vast majority of gedolei Yisrael ous generations. I accept your criticism and agree I should of the past hundred years. Your own esteemed father-in-law, have worded my statement to include these exceptions; the Gaon Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, said, “I remember my however, I have no doubt that you will agree (and you say as father used to say, ‘leum’us [Zionism] is apikorsus'” (taped much in your review) that the weak piskei halachos of the conversation in David Holzer, The Rav: Thinking Aloud book in reference are not quite in the same league as the ex­ [Miami Beach, Florida, 2009], 174), and, in his own opinion, ceptions that you cite. You have other minor criticisms; oth­ erwise you tend to agree with the rest of my article on this that “to equate Judaism with statehood is blasphemy” (ibid., subject, as well as with my conclusion that women should p. 178). And yet what they all considered beyond the pale of not wear tefillin. This can hardly constitute a wall.

Judaism, you describe as “certain lapses in religious motiva­ Secondly and more vigorously, you disagree with my tion.” This is quite a wall. contention that there is nothing Jewish about the ideology Nevertheless, I still believe we will be able to overcome of secular Zionism. This might well be a formidable wall, but it. Both of us grew up and have been nurtured in the laps of one that can be dismantled, once we get together to talk. gedolei Yisrael Both of us have spent our lifetimes in a quest When we do, I promise to speak in a calm voice—which for the truth of Torah. How long can this wall withstand I thought I employed in my book, but which you claim is such force? filled with “anger/’ something of which I have yet to be ac­ In the meantime, I am looking forward to our meeting. cused (with respect to my book, that is). Forgive me, how­ ever, if I will speak with passion, for I am quite passionate With affection and deep respect, about my contention—ki aichocho uchal veraisi be’ovdan AHARON FELDMAN moladti. I believe that it is this passion that, unfortunately, 6 I JEW ISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

Dear Reb Aharon was gratified by the tone and substance of your response to my review, and am particularly pleased by your evident readiness to engage in a measure of dialogue. As you note, given our joint background, commitments, and priorities, that would, hopefully, be conducted in a spirit which could focus, constructively, upon our ability, and that of our talmidim, to foster our common cause of advancing avodat Hashem, personally and communally, rather than upon re­ ciprocal and competitive fault-finding denigration.

I

characterizes our people. But what has this credo, indeed “pure apikorsus,” to do with our discourse? Need I cite chapter and verse from published writings, or citations from innumerable sichot at our yeshivah or elsewhere, to prove that this conjectured position is wholly contrary to my views? Does anyone even vaguely familiar with the Is­ raeli scene imagine the assertion you concoct is preached as gospel truth at Yeshivat Har Etzion or, for that matter, at scores of yeshivot hesder, as the ani ma’amin of Religious

As we, and our respective associates, acquire greater knowledge o f each other, we could deepen our understanding as well.

As to your remarks regarding presumed different per­ ceptions of Zionism and its place in the modern Jewish world, in Israel or in the Diaspora, I am, frankly, somewhat confused, and almost wholly astonished. Despite your use of the definite article (“the Zionists”), I don’t know to whom you are referring. Do you envision them as a homo­ geneous entity? Or, while recognizing that the movement is far from monolithic, are you nevertheless chagrined by everything every adherent to Zionism promotes or es­ pouses? Likewise, I am befuddled with respect to the spe­ cific “definition of the Jewish people,” to which all of “the Zionists” presumably subscribe.

I am inclined to conjecture that the alleged definition is a formulation which categorically refuses to ascribe any uniqueness to Jewry; which rejects religious commitment or, perhaps, spirituality in general, as an intrinsic compo­ nent of Jewish destiny and identity; and which affirms that geopolitical sovereignty is the unum necessarium, sole nec­ essary and sufficient element which, as with other nations,

Zionists? Why, then, must the memory and authority of gedolim be invoked, to refute what barely borders upon qualifying as fantasy?

In all likelihood, we do disagree with respect to the propriety and/or wisdom of acknowledging the partial merit of spiritual adversaries, or of cooperative endeavor in the pursuit of common cause. Surely, however, we harbor sufficient subtlety to differentiate between such limited recognition and a genre of total legitimization with which, out of misconception or passion, we are, evidently, occa­ sionally charged.

I regret the confusion but it in no way dims my enthusi­ asm for continued dialogue. Quite the contrary, as we, and our respective associates, acquire greater knowledge of each other, we could deepen our understanding as well.

Bevirkat haTorah vehamitzvah, In appreciation, AHARON LICHTENSTEIN

Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION

7

Thefollowing is a sampling o f other letters received. Rabbi Lichtenstein’s response to these letters appears on page 9.

■ In his review of Rabbi Aharon Feldman’s book, Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein wrote:

EmulatingRabbi YosefChaim Sonnenfeld, Rabbi Feldman as­ serts: “I, too, humbly submit that the criticisms in this book are directed towards those parts of the Jewish people which are not Jewish”(p. 4). In the interest of both accuracy andfairness, it should be added that the sequel reads, “My lovefor the Jewish people remains undiminished.”

This quote can give the impression that Rabbi Feldman is say­ ing that those Jews who follow the ideology of the World Zionist Organization are not Jews; however, this is a false impression. The quote was taken out of context, as the paragraphs preceding the quote reveal that Rabbi Feldman is referring to parts of the Jewish people that have an “ideology"’ that is not Jewish. Rabbi Feldman speaks of “ideological aberrations,” and this is the theme of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld’s remarks, as well as the theme of the chapters on Zionism in Rabbi Feldman’s book. In addition, Rabbi Feldman defines an “authentic Jewish perspective” at the begin­ ning of his book:

My definition is simple: this perspective is based on the definition of the Jewish People as a nation which entered into a covenant with God at Mt. Sinai to be “a kingdom ofservants of God and a holy nation.”' \ In the interest of both accuracy and fairness, I shall cite the full quote of Rabbi Sonnenfeld as it appears in the book Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld on theParashah [New York, 2002]:

In one ofhis dialogues with Moslem leaders, a certain sheikh turned to Rav YosefChaim and commented, “You know, you also oppose the Zionists. You toofight them. So we really have some­ thing in common! We both battle the Zionists!”, k “It is true,”answered Rav YosefChaim. “We both oppose the Zionists-butfor opposite reasons! You hate them because of the Jewish elements of their ideology. We oppose them because of the Gentile elements of their ideology! And thus there is a very great differ­ ence between us indeed.”

W hat I found missing in Rabbi Lichtenstein’s review was an expression of passionate anguish and pain at the very serious spiritual failings of the World Zionist Organization. These fail­ ings are due to the basic ideology of this organization, which adopted the following resolution in 1911: “Zionism has nothing to do with religion.”

These failings include the educational system which, with rare exception, fails to give young Jews a strong Jewish identity that in­ cludes an awareness of their spiritual heritage and of the strong spiritual bond we have with our sacred land.

There was also no expression of passionate anguish and pain over the very serious sins of the World Zionist Organization. For example, in the early days of the State of Israel, the Zionist estab­ lishment led by Ben-Gurion attempted to destroy the Torah culture of the Yemenite and Sephardic immigrants.

My love for our people includes an awareness of our great po­ tential to become “a kingdom of servants of God and a holy nation.”

I am therefore grateful for this new book by Rabbi Aharon Feld­ man, as it helps me to deepen this awareness and thereby deepen my love.

YOSEF BEN SHLOMO HAKOHEN Jerusalem, Israel

8 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

■ Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein’s erudite review touches in passing on a very central question of innovation: When can a contemporary authority argue with a Rishon? Rabbi Lichtenstein quotes Rabbi Feldman as stating:

It is afundamental principle—although often unknown or ig­ nored—in determiningJewish law that halachah is determined by the cumulative decisions of the generations ofcommentaries and decisors. Thus, an opinion of theRishonim, when codified by the major later authorities is inviolable.

To which Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein replies in this review:

I vividly recall hearing the summary of mori verabbi Rabbi Aharon Soloveitchik, zt”l, of this issue's parallel controversy between the Ba’al Hama’oer and the Rabad, as to whether Rishonim could disagree with Geonim: “I f one has broad shoul­ ders, he can contravene Rishonim. The Sha’agas Aryeh disagrees'with Rishonim in many places.”

It seems to me that this issue--how and when can we arrive at an understanding of halachah contrary to the ruling of the giants who came before us—is actually very central to many controversies raging within our community, and yet there is very little discussion of the classical or modern sources.

On this topic, I would like to highlight the view of the former foremost posek in America, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, in Iggerot Moshe, YorehDeah, vol. 1, chap. 101, s.y. “umashekatav yedidi.”

Setting the stage for Rav Moshe’s comments is worthwhile, as this is nearly the only time (other than in his introduction) that Rav Moshe explains to the reader his view of the halachic process in general. The discussion Rav Moshe has about the role of innovation (chiddush) in halachah and when can one argue with Rishonim ap­ pears in the third teshuvah in a sequence of six about whether a woman may immerse in a mikvah with earplugs inserted. Contrary to all prior analysis of this issue, he concludes that such an immer­ sion is permitted, in a situation of urgent need. In the course of the give and take with the questioner, Rav Moshe asks a surprising question: Is it proper (on a halachah lema’aseh level) to rely on Rav Moshe’s own understanding of halachah, since it reaches a novel result and all other authorities, including Rishonim, disagree?

Rav Moshe writes:

And that which my dear correspondent wrote asking how we are permitted to rely in practice on such innovative insights as those I havepresented, particularly when such a view contradicts the po­ sition ofsome latter-day authorities, I say: Has there already been an end or boundary setfor Torah study, Godforbid, that we should only rule according to what isfound in existing works, but when questions arise that have not beenposed in our traditional works we will not decisively resolve them even when we are able?

In my humble opinion, it isforbidden to say this, as certainly Torah study will continue toflourish now in our time; therefore, everyone who is able must rule decisively on each halachic ques­ tion posed to him, to the best ofhis ability, with diligent investiga­ tion in the Talmudic sources and the works of halachic decisors, with a clear understanding and validproof, even if it is a new ap­ plication of the halachah which has not been discussed in our Jewish law works. And evenfor a halachah which has been dis­ cussed in our Jewish law works, the one issuing a ruling must cer­ tainly understand the issue too, and reach a conclusion in his own mind before issuing a ruling, and not rule solely based on a ruling

that can befound on the topic in other halachic works, as that is considered as one who decidespoints of law merelyfrom reading law books, about which it is said, “Those who merely recite the Mishnah bring destruction upon the world, for they decidepoints of lawfrom their recitation of the texts" (Sotah 22a; see com­ mentary of Rashi there)__ Most of the responsa of the latter-day authorities indeed utilize innovative insights to decide numerous questions ofpractical im­ port However, one ought not be haughty in one's instructive rul­ ings—this should be avoided whenever possible, but in cases of great need, and certainly in serious matters regarding the ending of marriages as this case, we are certainly obligated to rule [le­ niently], even if we merely deem it plausible to be lenient, and it isforbiddenfor us to be among the “humble" and [thereby] cause Jewish women to remain unable to marry, or causefellow Jews to stumble in prohibited activities, or even simply cause a Jew's financial loss. See Gittin 56 which states, “Because of the humil­ ity ofRabbi Zecharya benAvkulas, the Beit Hamikdash was de­ stroyedwhy does it say “his humility" and what does that incident have to do with humility? See the comments ofMaharatz Chayot therefor a correct interpretation. This indeed is what results [from these types offailures to act], and we are compelled to rule [leniently] evenfor practical application when we deem it appropriate with evidence and clear understanding, andparticularly in a serious matter of leaving a woman without a husband or avoiding a severe temptation.

Rav Moshe presents a very important model of process, which goes to the heart of how halachah ought to work in his view. There has to be a balance between innovation and precedent, and inno­ vation should not be stifled in time of need, but no matter what the need, innovation can only be accepted when it is consistent with the Talmudic sources.

Rav Moshe’s citation of the Maharatz Chayot is central to un­ derstanding his view. Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Chajes ( Maharatz Chayot, Gittin 56a) states, when reflecting on the story leading to the Tem­ ple's destruction, that a well-known Ta’ana (Rabbi Zecharya ben Avkulas) had a solution to this problem and did not voice it and:

We seefrom this that the rabbis thought that the manner of Rabbi Zecharya was not proper, as hefelt that such sacrifices could be brought [and he should have so stated, saving the Land ofIsraelfrom destruction]. However, because ofhis great mod­ esty, he did not have the strength to act according to his views halachah lema'aseh [and save the Jewish people]; rather, he was afraid that other rabbis would accuse him ofpermitting activity prohibited by halachah, and he did not think ofhimselfas a great enough sage topermit people to act according to his understand­ ing of the halachah. He thought that these types ofdecisions were left only to the wisest of the generation (gedolei hador) [when infact, he should have acted].

The destruction of the Beit Hamikdash could have been avoided if the general rabbinic leadership at that time would have been more willing to assert what it thought the halachah really was, and not stay silent in the face of rulings or social condemna­ tion by others.

In times of urgent need, it is role of every Torah scholar to step forward and advance his ideas as to how to solve the urgent prob­ lems we confront. Silence-and particularly deference to greater posekim-is not a proper approach when urgent matters are at hand. Such is the view of Rav Moshe, It is neither the rigid prece­ dential system advocated by Rabbi Aharon Feldman where views

of Rishonim are “inviolable,” nor the more intellectually open re­ examination of halachah advocated by Rabbi Lichtenstein's metaphor of “broad shoulders.”

MICHAEL J. BROYDE Atlanta, Georgia

The writer is a lawprofessor at Emory University and a dayan in the Beth Din of America.

Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein Responds ■ As to the other responses, herein published, each raises serious questions about the halachic process, whether as elucidation or implementation. Precisely because of their gravity, however, the relevant issues lie beyond the scope of an en passant remark. The right or the duty of a posek to challenge the consensus of predeces­ sors or the prevalent view of contemporaries has been much de­ bated and continues to arouse controversy. In certain respects, it resembles the contretemps which obtains vis-à-vis this phenome­ non in the field of general law. However, in light of the theological and religious context, and the fundamental substratum of faith in Torah min haShamayim, the impact of our internal debate is both more significant and more vehement.

The discourse turns upon both the question of whether such a prerogative exists at all, and what, if it does, are the guidelines and parameters for its implementation. Broadly speaking, within the orbit of pesak, even the more liberally minded have been inclined to exercise restraint. Minimally, several variables require consider­ ation. Objectively, one notes the gravity of the issue as well as the potential impact of a deviant decision and the mode of its dissemi­ nation (although, due to technological innovation, the latter now carries less weight), and the degree and authority of prior consen­ sus; and, on the other side of the ledger, the web of practical sub­ jective circumstances which generate the need to cope with a social reality, personal or communal. In this vein, much depends on a posek's mindset, as regards his hashkafic attitude, tempera­ ment, and spiritual stature on the one hand, as well as the tradi­ tion-religious, intellectual, and sociological-within which he has been molded and the mores to which he subscribes.

This is, however, at most, a thumbnail sketch of our issue. My review, in contrast, related to the book and the accuracy and his­ torical veracity of some of its contentions, rather than to a compre­ hensive analysis and survey of this admittedly significant problem.

As to Rabbi Hakohen's critique, my response is essentially sim­ ilar, as, to my mind, it simply misses the mark. Obviously, any ini­ tiative, on my part, to assess Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld's stature, saintliness, or lamdut, would be nothing short of brazen; but that is in no way an item on my agenda. If, as my critic contends, the quote was taken out of context, so that an erroneous impression was conveyed, Rabbi Hakohen should ask himself, first, where the responsibility for the misuse of the source lies; and, second, , whether his correction nullifies the import of Rabbi Feldman's for­ mulation, in any way.

On the other hand, I do not plead “guilty” to the alleged sin of omission, the absence of any “expression of passionate anguish and pain at the very serious spiritual failings of the World Zionist Organization.” I fully agree that the failings are indeed serious; I reject, vehemently, the total W.Z.O. platform as a comprehensive credo. However, that assent does not preclude the enthusiastic adoption of any specific plank. In any event, my review was hardly the proper venue for assigning report cards to the cadre of Jewish organizations.

Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION

9

President’sM eSSage

By Stephen J. Savitsky

A W orld of Jew ish Resources in One Tiny Symbol

lemonade. As an entrepreneur, I was glad to see such enterprising kids, and I decided to buy a glass of lemonade.

As I got closer I noticed they had posted a little sign that stated, “Lemon­ ade: $1 a Cup.” At the bottom of the sign, there was the OU kosher symbol.

who can you trust?” At that point, it dawned upon me that this is the secret to the OU’s extraordinary success—trust.

Unfortunately, in the world in which we live, trust is almost a forgot­ ten word. However, there is still one

s North American Jews living in the twenty-first century, we take the widespread availability of kosher food for granted. We are accus­ tomed to walking into a typical super­ market and finding that more than 50 percent of the products are certified kosher. We at the Orthodox Union are proud that our organization is at the forefront of the explosion in kosher products. The OU has always been and will continue to be the gold standard in kashrut, after setting the bar high and The Harry H. Beren ASK OUKosherprograms have educated groups across the Orthodox creating an international kashrut su­ spectrum. Seen here: Rabbi YosefGrossman, OU director, Kosher Education, with students pervision agency that other organiza­ from the Denver Academy of Torah (DAT) at an OUkashrut seminar in June 2009. tions strive to emulate.

Indeed, it’s impossible to eat kosher I approached them and asked, 'W hat is symbol that depicts all that’s right in in America if one doesn’t trust the OU. that strange symbol, the O with a U in the Jewish world-the OU symbol. Rab­ This is because a large percentage of the middle?” binic Administrator and Chief Execu­ the ingredients that go into most “It means the lemonade’s kosher/’ tive Officer of OU Kosher Rabbi kosher products are certified kosher by one of the boys responded.

Menachem Genack often quotes his the OU “Just because there’s a symbol, rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik: I’ll never forget a lesson I once how do I know it’s really kosher?” I “The OU symbol affirms the vitality of learned. I was driving in Los Angeles asked him. the Jewish community.” We are ex­ on a hot summer day when I noticed He looked me straight in the eye tremely proud that the OU certifies two young boys wearing kippot selling and said, “If you can’t trust the OU, over 400,000 products manufactured

A

10 | JEW ISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

in eighty countries around the globe and that its symbol is the most trusted and recognizable kosher symbol in the en­ tire Jewish world.

OU Kosher is guided by two outstandingposekim: Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, shlita, and Rabbi Hershel Schachter, shlita. In addition to Rabbi Genack, whose moral standing and bril­ liance is well known, OU Kosher is blessed to have Rabbi Moshe Elefant, a man of incredible knowledge, as chief op­ erating officer. Thousands of people tune in every day to his DafYomi shiur on the OU web site. In addition, we must rec­ ognize the tireless dedication of the hundreds of OU rab­ binic coordinators and rabbinic field representatives who exhibit much mesirut nefesh overseeing food-manufacturing plants in all corners of the globe. Finally, Rabbi Dr. Simcha

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OUdelegates visit the Kiryas Joel Poultry ProcessingPlant, Inc. in Monroe, New York. From left, front row: Rabbi Moshe Hoffman, an assistant and aide to the SatmarRebbe; the SatmarRebbe, Grand Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum; Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO and rab­ binic administrator, OUKosher; and Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfiirter, who arranged the visit and is the editor ofa soon-to-be-launched Jewishfamily weekly.

Photo: S.O.S. IMAGES Katz, OU Kosher’s talented and capable lay leader, ensures that OU Kosher runs smoothly and with the highest level of integrity.

The world of kashrut today is far more complex than it was years ago. I recall reading food labels as a child, making sure that the vegetable shortening listed was “pure.” In those days, that was our way of discerning the kosher status of a product.

Nowadays, however, to understand the complexities of emulsifiers, chemicals, preservatives and the like, one must have an incredible knowledge of food technology and chem­ istry. In order to kasher a contemporary food plant, one needs to have an in-depth understanding of food manufac­ turing and plant engineering. Kashrut today is highly sophis­ ticated, and many mom-and-pop hashgachot simply don’t have the personnel or the requisite skills to meet the needs of the kosher-keeping public.

Moreover, kashrut is a global entity. The products found in your local supermarket contain ingredients from China, India, Turkey, Malaysia and a host of other countries. In order to safeguard the integrity of kashrut, we need one or­ ganization to set the standards for the industry, one organi-

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Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION | 11

Visiting the Satmar Rebbe in his home. Seated on the left: Mr. Meyer Hirsch, lay leader inKiryasJoel (seated closest to the Rebbe); Rabbi Frankfurter; Rabbi Chaim Loike, OU rabbinic coordinator. Seated on the right: Rabbi Genack; Rabbi Nosson Goldberg, OU rabbinic coordi­ nator and Rabbi Dr. Simcha Katz, chairman of the OUKashrut Com­ mission. Standing behind the Satmar Rebbe are Rabbi Chaim Shlomo Fisher, his assistant, (far left) and Rabbi Hoffman (far right).

Photo: S.O.S. IMAGES

back many decades. This visit reminded us all of our respon­ sibility to emphasize the 95 percent that unites us rather than the 5 percent that divides us.

Finally, I would like to add that many people do not real­ ize that every penny that comes in from OU Kosher is in­ vested right back into the Jewish community. With the funds from OU Kosher, we provide services to synagogues in communities large and small across North America; we bring estranged youth back to Judaism through NCSY/JSU, the largest outreach program for teens in North America; we strengthen Jewish young adults through our phenomenally successful college program, the Heshe and Harriet Seif Jew­ ish Learning Initiative on Campus; we provide for the social, religious and other needs of individuals with disabilities through Yachad and Our Way; we advocate on behalf of Or­ thodox Jewish interests through our Institute for Public Af­ fairs in Washington; we provide jobs and a sense of dignity to the unemployed through our Job Board; and we provide extensive programming for English-speaking olim through our Seymour J. Abrams OU Jerusalem World Center. I could go on and on about the good work we do at the OU.

To understand the complexities of emulsifiers, chemicals, preservatives and the like, one must have an incredible knowledge of food technology and chemistry.

zation whose reputation is impeccable, one organiza­ tion that has the technical knowledge, halachic re­ sources and marketing clout to ensure that all products—even those made halfway around the world—meet the same high standards. That organiza­ tion is the OU. We also take great pride in the fact that our expert­ ise spans the Jewish world. Our Harry H. Beren ASK OU Kosher programs have delivered presentations to Jews across the Orthodox spectrum, from Yeshiva Uni­ versity to Lakewood’s yeshivah community, bringing the message of achdut to communities far and wide.

I’ve written about the need to bring all Jews together in previous columns. OU Kosher is just another way in which all segments of the Jewish world can unite under one banner.

Rabbinical studentsfrom Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theo­ logical Seminary learn about the intricacies ofkosher law at an OUsemi­ Recently Rabbi Genack and OU Kosher staff mem­ nar in 2008. From left: Rabbi Grossman; Rabbi Genack; Rabbi Yaakov bers visited a new chicken slaughterhouse opened by Luban, OUexecutive rabbinic coordinator and Rabbi Dov Schreier, OU the Satmar community in upstate New York. The Satmar community has, of course, its own local kosher cer­ foodservice rabbinic coordinator. tification, which is widely known for its impeccable Kashrut is the engine that fuels the system, and the Jew­ standards. However, the upstate Satmar community wanted ish community is the beneficiary of all the good work we do. to have the OU certification as well.

When you buy an OU-certified product, you not only have a During that visit, Rabbi Genack spent time discussing product that adheres to the highest standards of kas/irufy Torah thoughts with the Satmar Rebbe and shared beautiful you have also contributed to the growth and vitality of the divrei Torah from his rebbe. It was wonderful to see the arti­ Jewish community. ficial barriers of Jewish life melt away by the sublime words So the next time you find yourself in a strange city and of Torah. It was apparent that we were there not only to cer­ you pick up a product with the ubiquitous OU symbol on it, tify the plant but also to rekindle a relationship that goes say (<baruch Hashem” for this wonderful organization. ■ 12 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

j

Chairm an’sM essage

m m while more and more dailies mama throughout the country are W W shutting down, new frum publi­ cations keep cropping up, it seems, every few months.

Unquestionably, the proliferation of Orthodox print media is a welcome de­ velopment. It says much about the vi­ tality and dynamism of American Orthodoxy. It says much about our need for publications that offer a Torah perspective on the often-confounding events that take place in the world.

But even with the plethora of new frum publications, ranging from a daily newspaper to women’s magazines— Jewish Action continues to occupy a unique role.

Founded in 1984 as an Orthodox journal of thought, Jewish Action has always provided a “forum for a diver­ sity of legitimate opinions within the spectrum of Orthodox Judaism.” True to its mission, the magazine has, over the years, published articles on Ortho­ dox thinkers and leaders from Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook to the Chazon Ish, from Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitehik to Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner.

In the pages of Jewish Action, the Torah world is vast and endlessly fascinating; conflicting ideologies are merely differ­ ent interwoven strands on the tapestry called Klal Yisrael.

By Gerald M. Schreck

To its credit, and that of the Ortho­ dox Union, the magazine has always encouraged debate and dialogue leshem Shamayim, for the sake of fostering greater unity and respect, and for the sole purpose of bringing glory to God’s Name. Jewish Action's refreshing hon­ esty—its willingness to present both sides of a debate—remains, I believe, one of its greatest strengths.

But Jewish Action is not only known for its openness. While print media in America succumbs to blogs and Twit­ ter, Jewish Action remains a consistent voice of deliberation, intelligence and thoughtfulness. We take the time to consider, to reflect. Readers have come to expect more from our articles.

We do not publish articles merely to entertain or to inform. Our mandate has always been to inspire and to enlighten.

Oftentimes, we find ourselves delib­ erating over whether or not to publish an article. We ask ourselves: What does this particular article offer our readers?

What is its underlying message? Many times, we are forced to reject submis­ sions—even well written, intellectually superior submissions—because they do not fit our publication’s overriding mandate: to inspire and to enlighten.

This was Jewish Action's mandate back in 1984, and it remains its man­ date even as the journalistic landscape continues to change.

In this special issue, we celebrate our tradition of open, honest dialogue by presenting a rare exchange between two highly esteemed roshei yeshivah who are at different ends of the ideo­ logical spectrum: Rabbi Aharon Licht­ enstein of Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel and Rabbi Aharon Feldman of Ner Is­ rael Rabbinical College in Baltimore.

We are honored that these roshei yeshivah chose Jewish Action as the forum for this most meaningful dia­

logue in which they seek to “dismantle” the formidable ideological “walls” that separate them. I’m sure you will find this exchange to be exceptionally thought provoking.

This issue also focuses on the Three Weeks, the national period of mourning culminating in Tishah B’Av, by includ­ ing excerpts from the newly released The Koren Mesorat HaRav Kinot. Pub­ lished by OU Press and Koren Publish­ ers Jerusalem, The Koren Mesorat HaRav Kinot is a compilation of Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik’s profoundly stirring commentary on the Tishah B’Av kinot The excerpts selected high­ light Some of the poignant and recur­ ring themes in the Rav’s commentary.

To all those who made the effort to take the OU online survey on marital satisfaction back in 2009, well, the re­ sults are in. Dr. Eliezer Schnall, an as­ sistant professor of psychology at Yeshiva University, and Dr. David Pelcovitz, professor of psychology and education at Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administra­ tion, present some of the fascinating results (and their implications). At­ tracting 3,760 respondents from around the world, the survey was de­ signed to gauge marital satisfaction in the/rum community. The results may surprise you.

Finally, I would like to point readers to a magnificent photo essay of the once-thriving Jewish communities of Alexandria and Cairo and a moving tribute to the late visionary Dr. Bernard Lander, founder of Touro College.

Before signing off, I want to remind readers that Jewish Action is available online. Visit us at www.ou.org /jewish_action, and don’t forget to drop us a line! ■ Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION | 13

From the Desk of RABBI STEVEN WEIL, Executive Vice President

xhile many kashrut organiza\ / \ / tions do a good job ofuphold* " ing kashrut standards, we believe there is one factor that makes us unique in the kosher world: the fact that Klal Yisrael benefits from the funds generated by OU certification.

The OU is a non-profit organization; as such, all the income earned from com­ panies that pay for certification is rein­ vested back into the Jewish community.

The Jewish Student Union (JSU) is one such beneficiary of kashrut rev­ enue. The brainchild of Rabbi Steven Burg, OU managing director and NCSY international director, JSU started as a club for Jewish students in three pub­ lic schools in California. Targeting nonaffiliated Jewish teens, the club offered free pizza, a dynamic and energetic ed­ ucator and an opportunity to connect with fellow Jewish teens and explore Judaism in a way that is interesting, fun and relevant. The clubs were wildly successful, and thanks to the largesse of Jack Gindi, z% and his wife, Rae, who believed in Rabbi Burg and in the value of reaching out to these teens, the program was able to expand. JSU is currently in more than 250 schools, in over twenty-five states, and some 20,000 teenagers across the country at­ tend a JSU club each week.

14 | JEW ISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

JSU is addressing a dire need in our community. Tragically, thousands of young Jews, whether or not they live in Jewishly populated areas, have no rela­ tionship whatsoever with their Jewish heritage, religion or community. This isolation is not by choice. These teens simply have not been given an opportu­ nity to learn and see the beauty of be­ longing to the Jewish people. This is where JSU comes in. Free food brings teens in the door. A friendly, sincere club leader makes them feel welcome.

They become part of a social network of fellow Jewish students. And then the education begins. Week in and week out, they are introduced to the basics of Judaism. They explore four thousand years of Jewish history; they struggle with moral dilemmas and gain an appreciation for the wisdom behind the Torah’s system of morality. They learn Jewish theology and philosophy and are able to respond intelligently to important life questions.

JSU participants learn that what they see on CNN does not necessarily reflect the truth about Israel and the Middle East. Though the world works hard to delegitimize Israel, these teens get the facts about Israel and learn to counter the propaganda and negative images of the Jewish State. Some stu­ dents sign up for NCSY’s TJJ (The

Jerusalem Journey), a four-week sum­ mer program that literally transforms an unaffiliated teen into a passionate, committed member of Am Yisrael.

These students become leaders on their college campuses because of the Jewish education and inspiration they receive in their clubs.

The OU is proud of JSU-both of the teens who participate in the clubs and of the dedicated staff members who devote themselves wholeheart­ edly to stemming the tide of assimila­ tion. Our goal is to expand this program to 150 more schools in places like Stamford, Connecticut, Mount Kisco, New York, San Francisco, Wash­ ington, DC and additional parts of New Jersey. The reality is that when Jewish children grow up on the fringe, and the potential they have to contribute to the tapestry of our people is lost, we all suf­ fer. Finding these teens, bringingthem in, educating them to appreciate the depth, relevance and beauty of Torah, and inspiring them to grow and be­ come part of the Jewish community are responsibilities we all share.

So remember, every time you buy Tootsie Rolls or Gatorade or any of the thousands of OU-certified products, you can be proud that you have con­ tributed to JSU and to building the Jewish future. H

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M ovem ents&Trends

By Debra Goldberg

Frum Novelists Go Mainstream shoddywriters construction of their A growing number of frumfiction are nothomes to random Arab violence. only entering the mainstream, they are challeng­ The novel won the prestigious PEN Discovery Award (a “first” for an Or­ ing the widely held assumption that realistic thodox writer) and received high praise from New York Times critic Neil depictions of religious Jews don’t sell books.

Gordon, who referred to Miller’s prose an Orthodox novelists make it in the mainstream literary market?

Apparently they can. In today’s publishing market, where explicit scenes and violence reign, a new crop of talented Orthodox novelists have not only succeeded in creating award-win­ ning fiction, they’ve done so without compromising their religious values.

And, unlike Jewish novelists who have portrayed the world of Ortho-

doxy in an unflattering and superficial light, these authors reveal the rich­ ness, complexity and beauty of reli­ gious life. I recently spoke with a number of these literary trailblazers about the challenges they face bring­ ing their craft and their faith to the mainstream market.

Risa Miller published her first novel at the age of forty-nine. Entitled Welcome to Heavenly Heights and pub­ lished in 2003 by St. Martin’s Press, the Debra Goldberg is an author o f Jewish fiction novel focuses on the joys and sorrows of a group of families who move from and non-fiction currently teaching creative writing at the University o f New Mexico. Her the United States to a settlement in Is­ most recent fiction can be found in Inkwell rael’s West Bank. Her characters con­ magazine. front challenges that range from the

C

16

JEWISH ACT ON Summer 5770/2010

as “thoughtful, lovely language... with the lightest touch.. . poetic, deeply affecting.”

In a New York Times essay, Wendy Shalit, the well-known Orthodox writer, offered generous praise for Miller’s representation of the/rum men and women who populate her books.

“Miller doesn’t idealize her char­ acters: they have the same worries and petty jealousies as the rest of us,” she writes. “But she also presents them as people who aspire to tran­ scend their flaws.”

Miller’s second novel, My Before and After Life, published by St. Martin’s Press and released a few months ago, is about a Boston lawyer whose remar-

ried father moves to Israel and em­ braces Orthodoxy. The lawyer and her sister promptly travel to Israel, deter­ mined to change his mind. Pre-publi­ cation reviews called the book “witty, intelligent, and quietly powerful,” “heartwarming and thought provok­ ing,” “delightful and surprisingly pro­ found” and “gorgeously written.”

A native of Baltimore, Miller dis­ covered her joy for writing as a child and continued honing her talent through college, eventually attending adult education writing classes that led her to pursue an MFA. She currently lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, where she teaches at Emerson College and continues tp write.

Miller was raised in a very Jewishly identified home; her mother kept separate dishes, and her family at­ tended an Orthodox shul. But Miller became a follower of the late Bostoner Rebbe, z ”tl, and chose to take her ob­ servance further.

Sitting across from Miller in a cof­ fee shop near her home, I felt I was sitting in the presence of an author

Risa Miller published her first novel at the age o f forty-nine.

Photo: Bill Miles

I do self-censorship for metaphysical reasons, that’s what I do,” she says.

Although written for a secular audience, Welcome to Heavenly Heights has attracted many frum read-

to cover all her obligations-familial, communal and personal.

“When my children were younger, I would get up at 4:30 a m and write until 6:30 or 7:00 a m , ” she says, “Then I’d go about the rest of my day home­ making, carpooling and doing commu­ nity work.”

Unlike Miller, Ruchama King Feuerman grew up in an observant home. However, she became more strictly observant over time. “[Although] I attended Jewish day schools, and we kept Shabbos,” she says, . [her embrace of a more religious lifestyle] was definitely a process.”

Feuerman’s frum lifestyle inevitably influences her writing. “It’s like perfume, HH you’re surrounded by it, all of you... it naturally seeps into a person’s con­ sciousness. .. it’s just part

Kirkus Reviews de­ scribed Feuerman’s first

There are topics Risa Miller won't write about be­ cause they’re not a part of her way of thinking. “ I write from a solid, integrated place,” she says. who combines her deep faith with a writer’s solid commitment to her work. She claims that her strong reli­ gious values actually help shape her fiction. As for topics that press against her boundaries? Her Torah sensibility keeps her from writing on topics con­ sidered taboo. There are topics she says she wouldn’t write about because they’re not a part of her way of think­ ing. Her beliefs and practices inform her writing.

“I write from a solid, integrated place,” she says.

Does this self-censorship compro­ mise her fiction? She sees the self-cen­ sorship she engages in as no different than the forms of self-censorship that other writers engage in. In her view, all writers have personal boundaries. For instance, some may not want to reveal private moments from their own lives that might make for good fiction. “So if

ers. Miller is acutely sensitive to the needs of her community. Even though her book is free of explicit material, Miller cautioned a friend to “read it first” before giving the novel to her teenage daughter.

Miller’s priorities as a religious Jew are always in the forefront of her writ­ ing. “Is [my writing] purposeful?” This question always hovers over her head.

“I’m always looking for a reason and purpose in what I’m doing.”

Miller admits that writing is by na­ ture a grueling process. “You put in a lot of hard work and there’s delayed re­ sults,” she says. Most writers write without a guarantee their work will find publishers. A significant challenge for a frum woman who is a novelist is finding the time to write. Aware of the importance of discipline in an author’s life, Miller carefully schedules her days

novel as “a gentle evocation of love and faith in Jerusalem’s Orthodox commu­ nity.” Seven Blessings, published by St. Martin’s Press in 2003, centers around two modern-day Jewish matchmakers in Jerusalem. Feuerman demonstrates her gift for writing evocative prose in the opening passage of the novel: Tsippi Krauthammer noticed things about her customers__ She gravitated toward the difficult ones, the ones other matchmakers were reluctant to touch, those who had given up hope: a widow with seven young children, men missing parts o f their bodies from the wars, a professor who had twenty-seven rabbits and wouldn't let a single one go.

The recipient of the prestigious Christopher Isherwood Fellowship for In the Courtyard o f the Kabbalist, her second novel pending publication, Feuerman says that storytelling is “part of her narrative,” handed down by both

Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION | 17

parents. “Like they say, it's in my kishkes,” she says. She de­ scribes her father as a poet and painter and her mother as “a very dramatic person from Morocco.” She credits her “Sephardi-Ashkenzi combo” as providing a rich tapestry of creative gifts. Feuerman holds an MFA from Brooklyn Col­ lege and currently resides in Passaic, New Jersey, with her husband and five children. Prior to moving to Passaic, she lived in Israel for ten years, where she studied and taught Torah to college-age women.

Feuerman takes the responsibility of portraying Orthor doxy in fiction very seriously. She occasionally feels the need to ask for halachic guidance. “I kept on wanting to give my book to a rabbi to ask, Ts this permitted?’ I was very nervous [about it] because I don’t think writing thrives in ‘she’eilah atmospheres.’” The advice she received from her rabbi sharpened her focus and gave her confidence. She says she was told, “If writers are basically sincere in their religious beliefs and about their observance, they should just write, and not censor themselves; most of the time it’s probably going to be okay.”

She’s quick to point out that she’s not intentionally writ­ ing with outreach in mind, but feels gratified when people are inspired by her work. “I think [my religiosity] only inten­ sifies it,” she says. “It becomes the playground, or the arena, where I grapple with all these issues.” She likens the act of writing to the process of defining oneself. “One of the things that I miss about being single is th a t... I had to sort of ex­ plain my hashkafah. You know, T believe this, I believe that,’” she says. “And then [my outlook] would change and I would update it. Writing does that for me. Writing is like being on a constant date with myself, where I’m figuring out what I think and what I believe and what I’m impassioned about.”

Why does she want to write for the mainstream market?

“Would a lawyer or a doctor or dentist limit his practice to the religious community?” she asks. “Why should a writer?

A writer wants readers, period.”

Of course, a writer can’t find readers without interesting stories. Feuerman says she draws many of her ideas from the

18

JEW ISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

years she spent in Israel. “The problem with writing about Jerusalem is you have to tone it down to make it believable, because it’s just that extraordinary.” For her, it is not enough to use an idea that provokes an emo­ tional response in her readers. -Some people write stories to make people cry, laugh, think and re­ consider their lives.

For me, a story isn’t a story if it doesn’t give that shudder, a

Ruchama King Feuerman’s frum lifestyle inevitably influences her writing.

Photo: Alyssa Komarow

quiver of a transcendental chill, something that blows the cover off this world. If it does this in a funny, quirky way, all the better.”

Feuerman says she did her best writing when her chil­ dren were young. “I feared that I’d never write again, and that terror kept the stories coming. My whole world was ba­ bies and writing.” She concedes, however, that “life comes before art.” She claims her husband’s support helped her manage her professional and personal worlds.

In addition to writing novels, Feuerman conducts writ­ ing workshops for religious women. Feuerman also edited Everyone's Got a Story: 41 Short Stories from a New Generation o f Jewish Writers, a compilation of her students’ work, which was published in 2008. In 2009, she won an Artists’ Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, based on an excerpt from her forthcoming book.

“I didn’t always have the gumption to call myself a writer,” admits Feuerman.

“It felt too pretentious.

Now I say it without apol­ ogy. I worked very hard for this, and I feel an immense satisfaction.”

Altie Karper, editorial director of Schocken Books, the Judaica book im­ print of the Knopf Publishing Group, be­ lieves that writers such as Feuerman and Miller are successful because secular

readers are interested in reading about the way Orthodox Jews live. “People are fascinated with the Jewish lifestyle in the same way they are fascinated with the Mormon lifestyle,” she says. “IPs different!”

Karper, who describes herself as “Centrist Or­ thodox,” advises aspiring Orthodox writers to identify “what you feel comfortable about and what you feel uncomfortable about exposing” to a secular world. If you do that, she says, you might find yourself making a kiddush Hashem.

This is exactly what Rochelle Krich aims to do with her crime novels. Crime fiction and a kiddush Hashem? That might sound like an unlikely pairing, yet Krich’s Ortho­ dox detectives Molly Blume and Jessie Drake are beloved by thou­ sands of Jewish and non-Jewish readers in countries around the world including Britain, Iceland, Japan, France, Germany and Israel.

“Krich hasn’t lost what may be her greatest strength-her ability to invite readers into the world of Or­ thodox Judaism or to allow us to share vicariously in its rituals and the warmth of its community,” wrote Publishers Weekly about one of her latest novels, Now You See Me. “I wanted to write mysteries for a general audience,” Krich says, “to entertain readers and at the same time famil­ iarize non-affiliated Jews and non-Jews with the world of Orthodox Judaism and dispel the stereotypes.”

Krich wrote her first novel, Where’s Mommy Now?, in 1990. The book won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original and was filmed as “Perfect Alibi.”

Krich, who began writing when her youngest of six was a toddler, now has thirteen critically acclaimed novels under her belt. Early in her career, one afternoon, she found her

synagogue, I would sit next to her in my parents’ bedroom and we [would] read our books,” recalls Krich.

Like many authors, Krich struggles to maintain self-dis­ cipline. “I wish I had the disci­ pline of the writers who set strict schedules for them| selves-fnumber of words per day or number of pages,” she says. “I find it easier to attain those goals when I’m fully in­ volved in the story.”

She admits that writing Jewish characters is a chal­ lenge. “It’s easier to write about non-Jewish characters.

Then I don’t have the responj;sibility of representing Jews through my fiction,” she says.”

Nevertheless, her efforts have reaped rewards. “I get e-mails : from non-Jews who tell me my Molly Blume and Jessie Drake series have helped them to understand their Jewish neighbors,” she says. “I get let­ ters from people who say Molly’s Judaism has brought them closer to their own reli­ gion.” When writing, Krich takes pains to make her charac­ ter’s religion seem natural. She tries to “make Molly’s Orthodoxy like her skin color; this is who she is.”

She has received a variety of fan mail over the years, in­ cluding a twelve-page letter from a convict. There was also a letter that was “painful to read,” criticizing her for depicting a character who refused to give a get When it comes to praise, however, she says one phone call stands out above all the awards and accolades she has received. Rabbi Dr. Nor­ man Lamm, chancellor of Yeshiva University and rosh

Ruchama Feuerman takes the responsibility of portraying Orthodoxy in fiction very seriously. . . and occasionally feels the need to ask for halachic guidance.

toddler at her keyboard. He had deleted an entire chapter.

“We kept him anyway!” she says.

A Los Angeles resident, Krich taught English in the area’s religious high schools for eighteen years, chairing the English Department at Yeshiva University of Los Angeles High Schools. She received the Milken Families Foundation Award for Distinguished Educator of the Year and the Samuel Belkin Memorial Award for Professional Achievement.

Thé daughter of Holocaust survivors, she was raised in a frum household and credits her parents’ love of reading for setting her path as a writer. “My mother loved to read, too; on Shabbat mornings, while my father and brother went to

yeshivah of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, called her a few years back. “He told me that he thought my books were a kiddush Hashem,” she says. “It meant so much to me. I’ve had wonderful reviews and that’s great... but he told me that I was doing it right.”

Krich, Feuerman and Miller may vary in their literary styles, but they share an allegiance to representing Jewish characters and religious practices accurately and respect­ fully. One can only hope that more authors who share this commitment manage to get on publishers’ lists so they can reach religious and secular audiences seeking a “good fiction read” that both entertains and illuminates. ■

Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION

19

WITH THE

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JEW ISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

H arav K în o t ver the past several # fdee&des, the observance of Tishah B’Av has been transformed for many of us. Not long ago, we would attend shul, quickly and silently read kinot, which we didn’t under­ stand, and leave in search of appropriate ways to spend the many long, hot hours ahead. Nowadays, most con­ gregation rabbis deliver meaningful and moving running commentaries on ^ ^ ^ i n th^^ynagogue ^ ^

analyses of the kinot for the en­ tire Tishah B’Av day. His teach-* ings ranged from personal . recollections of the lost culture of EastemEurope to scholarly analyses of the kinot. Those who attended the long and inimitable Tishah B’Av sessions insist that it was an extraordi­ nary experience.

HMj I

^

...

■

veyed through lectures, sto­ ries, historical background and poems.

If this momentous change can be attributed to any one person, it is to Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik. Year’after year, in the 1970s and 80s, in Boston, he would assemble a group of students, and deliver brilliant explanations and

OU Press, together with Koren Publishers Jerusalem, has attempted to re-create those moments in its new edi­ tion of the kinot, entitled The i Koren Mesorat HaRav Kinot.

The kinot, edited by Rabbi \ Simon Posner, executive editor, OU Press, and with a com­ pletely new and emotion-evok­ ing translation by Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU executive vice president, emeritus, presents Rav Soloveitchik’s commen­ Excerpts from this epic commentary follow: been responsible.

There is a fatal quality to the day of Tisha tary in a manner that will give a new dimension B’Av-the day itself destroyed us. of relevance to theview day of oftime Tishah B’Av different and will from the view A D ay o f The Jewish is quite help the reader relate, not just to thè day, but to a day has no held by Kant and other philosophers. For them, D e s t r u c t io n the entire ongoing history of Jewish tragedy. substance of its own. It is nothing more than a frame of ref­ (From A'adeh ad Hug Shamayim) erence, part of a coordinate system, in which events can be I curse this day that twice destroyed me. It is as though the located, but one cannot speak of a “bad time” or a “lonely pay tan is saying that the day of Tisha B’Av itself has de­ time,” a “profane time” or a “blessed time.” For us, however, stroyed us. An awareness of the Jewish concept of time is es­ time itself is substantive and has attributes. There is such a sential for an understanding of the pay tan's point. When the thing as “good time,” as in a Yom Tov. The concept of keMishna (Ta’anit 26a) remarks that five events befell our an­ dushat hayom, the sanctity of the day of Shabbat and the fes­ cestors on Tisha B’Av, it is saying that there is something in­ tivals illustrates the Jewish concept of time. It indicates that herent in the day of Tisha B’Av which is responsible for there is substance to the day which can be filled with kethese tragedies. And, in fact, there are additional tragic dusha. The kabbalists, based on the Gemara (Shabbat 119a), events that occurred on Tisha B’Av subsequent to the time say the day of Shabbat is personified by the Sabbath Queen of the Mishna, such as the expulsion of the Jews from Spain because the day is not just a mathematical construct; it is a in 1492. As far as Jewish history is concerned, Tisha B’Av is creation in and of itself. Based on this Jewish concept of the day of tragedy, as though the day itself had somehow time, we can understand how Job can curse the day of his

Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION

21

birth (Job 3:2). There is a yom hoi, an ordinary day, and there is a yom kadosh, a day which is distinct and distin­ guished from others. And there can be a day filled with curses and profanity.

Tisha B’Av is a day which is satu­ rated with bitterness. In fact, it is not a date; it is a destiny. In correspondence between rabbis, Tisha B’Av is often re­ ferred to as yom hamar vehanimhar, the day which is mar and nimhar. Both mar and nimhar mean “bitter,” but nimhar is in the passive. I would sug­ gest that the phrase be translated as “the bitter day which is saturated and endowed with bitterness.”

standing of the child to whom it is, being told.

A D a y ©f D e s p a ir . . . an d H o pe (From Eikha Yashva Havatzelet HaSharon)

For we deserved extinction no less than the generation of the Flood. This pas­ sage sounds the recurring theme found in the kinot that the Beit HaMikdash served as a substitute, as collateral, for the Jewish people, and the physical structure of the Beit HaMikdash suf­ fered the destruction that rightfully should have been visited upon the en-

chairs rather than on the ground is per­ mitted in the afternoon, not the morn­ ing (ShulhanArukh, Orah Hayim 559:3). In Minha, one re-inserts in Kaddish the phrase i(dtkabel tzlothon uvaothon, accept our prayers and en­ treaties” (see Beit Yosef Tver Orah Hayim 559 s.v. veomer kaddish belo titkabel, with respect to the recitation of titkabel in Shaharit). This phrase is re­ moved from Kaddish earlier on Tisha B’Av because the assertion that ((satam tefilati, my prayer is rejected” (Lament tations 3:8) which prevails on Tisha B’Av, comes to an end at midday. Para­ doxically, the moment the Beit HaMik­ dash was set ablaze was a moment of

If the Beit HaMikdash was sacred, how much more sacred were entire Jewish communities which consisted of thousands of scholars. ^iMMÊfiÊSSÊIÊÈËÊÊ

A M it z v a t o M ourn (From A'adeh ad Hug Shamayim)

Just as it is a mitzva on Yom Tov to en­ courage everyone in one’s household to be happy and rejoice (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hil. Yom Tov 6:17-18), so too on Tisha B’Av, it is important for the head of the family to engender in the members of the household a sense of mourning. When one rejoices, one must try to share one’s joy with others, as reflected in the verse describing the festivals, “And you shall rejoice.. . you and your son and your daughter” (Deuteronomy 16:14). It is the responsi­ bility of the head of the household to explain to the family what happened on that day. So, too, when one is griev­ ing, one should share such feelings with others, as well.

Just as there is a mitzva of sipur yetziat Mitzrayim, the recounting of the story of the exodus from Egypt, so too is there a requirement of sipur hurban Yerushalayim, the recounting of the narrative of the destruction of Jerusalem. While the sipur hurban Yerushalayim is not a biblical obliga­ tion, the story should be told in the same manner as the story of the exodus from Egypt. In each case, the story should be related in a way that is con­ sistent with the intelligence and under­ 22

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

tire nation. The kina says that the Jew­ ish people are responsible and are deserving of punishment; we are guilty, and we should have been destroyed as was the generation of the Flood. God, however, in His mercy and grace, sub­ jected His throne, the Beit HaMikdash, rather than the Jewish people, to dis­ grace, abuse and destruction. It is for this reason that Tisha B’Av contains an element of mo’ed, a festival-God ren­ dered His decision on Tisha B’Av that Knesset Yisrael is an eternal people and will continue to exist. The Beit HaMik­ dash was humiliated, profaned and de­ stroyed in order to save the people.

This concept is expressed halakhically in the character of Tisha B’Av af­ ternoon. The second half of the day has a contradictory nature in halakha. On the one hand, the aveilut, the mourn­ ing, is intensified because the actual burning of the Beit HaMikdash com­ menced in the late afternoon of the ninth day of Av, and the flames contin­ ued throughout the tenth (Ta’anit 29a).

On the other hand, Nahem, the prayer of consolation, is recited in the Amida for Minha in the afternoon, and not in Shaharit of Tisha B’Av morning or Ma’ariv of the preceding evening (Shul­ hanArukh, Orah Hayim, Rama 557:1).

Similarly, tefillin are put on in the after­ noon, not the morning (ShulhanArukh, Orah Hayim 555:1), and sitting on

relief. At that moment, it became clear that God decided to take the collateral, the Beit HaMikdash, instead of pursu­ ing the real debtor, the Jewish people.

Paradoxically, once He took away the Beit HaMikdash in the afternoon of Tisha B’Av, the nehama, the consola­ tion, could begin. Tisha B’Av is a day of limitless despair and boundless hope and faith.

T h e D eath o f t h e R ig h t e o u s (From Im Tokhalan Nashim)

After being tied to racing horses. This phrase is an allusion to the story told by the Midrash about Miriam bat Baytos (Eikha Raba 1:47). She was bound to the tail of a horse, and when the horse began to gallop she was killed.

This atrocity was perpetrated not only nineteen hundred years ago, but in our own time as well, during the Holo­ caust. In fact, it happened to a cousin of mine, Yeshayahu Glikson, whose fa­ ther was Rabbi Hirsch Glikson and whose mother was the daughter of Rav Hayim Brisk. I knew Yeshayahu, who was slightly younger than I, very well. He was a righteous person and a great scholar. When the Nazis con­ quered Warsaw and found him and his wife, it was the first week after their

V i y birthday is on Purim. But my A Adestiny seems to be linked with Tishah BAv. For more than twenty years I have had the privilege of leading pre­ sentations of the kinot every Tishah BAv morning. Initially I conducted these programs in my former syna­ gogue, Shomrei Emunah of Balti­ more, Maryland. There the attendance grew by leaps and bounds, and I became aware that there was a great need for programs that made the reading of the kinot more meaningful and relevant.

Some of those sessions were ed­ ited and distributed by the Orthodox Union before I became its executive vice president. Since then, and for the past eight years, the Tishah BAv morning program I have led has been webcast to an international audience of thousands.

I have, of course, been humbled by the enthusiastic response to the program, and have come to under-; stand that part of my rabbinic voca­ tion is to teach and expound upon this unique set of poems of lament.

It therefore felt most appropriate for me to respond affirmatively to the invitation of my dear friend Rabbi Menachem Genack, who, in his ca­ pacity as general editor, OU Press, asked me to author a new translation of kinot This new translation, co­ published by OU Press and Koren Publishers Jerusalem, would accom­ pany a commentary upon the kinot drawn from the works of Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, Rabbi Genack’s revered mentor.

Although this was my first expe­ rience working on an extensive translation, I have long been aware of the particular difficulties of trans­ lating any text into another language.

Each language has its unique expres­ sions and reflects the idiosyncrasies

of its culture or nation of origin.

Translating medieval Hebrew poems, written for a Jewishly learned audience thoroughly familiar with Biblical references and Talmu­ dic lore, would, I knew, surely pres­ ent formidable difficulties.

As I plunged into my task I did in­ deed find myself facing the usual challenges of translation as well as the particular complexities involved in translating such powerful poems.

As those familiar with the kinot know, a great many of them were composed by Elazar HaKalir, whose very identity is shrouded in mystery.

Despite this, his poems carry his per­ sonal imprint and are organized around the Hebrew alphabet in a va­ riety of configurations. They assume that the reader is familiar with the subtleties of a wide range of ancient texts. An expert knowledge of midrashic literature is a sine qua non for even a superficial understanding of his complex lamentations.

I began translating with the assis­ tance of the standard editions of the kinot in pamphlet form, some recent translations in Modern Hebrew and the scholarly volume prepared by Daniel Goldschmidt and published by Mossad HaRav Kook. In order to as­ sure the freshness of my translation, I avoided consulting the two available English-language translations by ArtScroll and by Rev. Abraham Rosenfeld of Great Britain. I did find the Yiddish “Ivreh teitsh”translation especially helpful.

It soon became apparent to me that I would have to make a sharp distinction between translation and commentary. Since our publication would include the comprehensive commentary of a master of the field, Rav Soloveitchik, I felt free to try to convey the emotional impact of the poetic texts and not elaborate upon

the many layers of meaning embed­ ded in the kinot.

I recommend reading my transla­ tion aloud on Tishah BAv day, and attempting to empathize and identify with the feelings that the poets struggle to convey. All the kinot, re­ gardless of who the author may be, express strong feelings of loss, grief and despair. On Tishah BAv day, the reader must come away from a read­ ing of the poems with similar feel­ ings, for that is the purpose of reciting them. The analytical study of the scholarly references, literary nuances and allusions to the Bible and Talmud is not necessary on Tishah BAv day, and may even be in­ appropriate. In my translation, I therefore felt justified in eschewing erudition in favor of emotion.

As I lived with these texts for many hours daily over the course of several months, I began to feel an overwhelming sense of depression, darkness and desperation. I soon re­ alized that I could not expect to live with the intricacies of these heart­ breaking poems without deeply expe­ riencing heartbreak myself.

I found myself spiritually ex­ hausted by the process, and held on to those few phrases of hope with which almost all the kinot conclude. Some­ times, I discovered, these conclusions had a ring of artificiality, almost as if the poet felt obligated to tack on words of consolation at the conclusion of his poem. These “forced” conclud­ ing sentiments did little to dispel the darkness I experienced.

While working on the translation, it became clear to me that the authors of the approximately fifty kinot differ greatly in style and, frankly, in talent.

Elazar HaKalir was brilliant in the in­ triguing manner in which he organ­ izes each of his poems, each one differently. He is certainly characterSummer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION

23

ized by originality, while some of the lesser-known authors simply imitate their predecessors.

The unique gifts of Solomon ibn Gabirol and Judah HaLevi become all the more apparent as one translates their few contribu­ tions to the kinot corpus, espe­ cially when compared to some of their lesser rivals.

Rabbi Solomon ben Aderet, the Rashba, wrote in a responsum that Judah HaLevi was the chief of Jewish poets. How accu­ rate are his words! Nearing the end of the translation process, I encountered the first of the kinot dedicated to Zion by Judah HaLevi. The sadness in which I was mired throughout the process of translation began to lift as I read his moving descrip­ tions of the beauties of the Land

are beautiful, appropriate and impactful, they seem to lack the ardor and depth of the kinot of old. They inspire sadness, anger and images of catastrophe. But I come away from them wanting more. It is as if their authors tried their best but could not ade­ quately express all, or even close to all, of the horrors of our cen­ tury’s Churban. I certainly do not fault them for this, but I could not bring myself to translate their efforts. I felt that had I done so, I would have done a disservice to the poets of old who deserve the special reverence that history has accorded them.

Now I better understand the Rav’s objection to premature at­ tempts at lamentation. The pas­ sage of years, even of decades, is not enough. With very few ex­

All the kinot, regardless of who the author may be, express strong feelings of loss, grief and despair. of Israel. Although he writes mournfully about the lost Zion, somehow, his imagery instills not grief but longing, not despair but hope.

As I concluded my onerous assignment, our editorial com­ mittee faced a difficult decision: Would we include recent kinot occasioned by the Holocaust?

The Rav, we knew, frowned upon the recitation of any but the tra­ ditional kinot But our people seem to have spoken in favor of the inclusion of some Holocaust lamentations; the inclusion of modern-day kinot has become prevalent if not universal in the years since the Rav’s passing. We decided to respectfully diverge from the Rav’s opinion and to in­ clude several contemporary kinot related to the Holocaust. But I felt compelled to decline to translate them, and so someone else translated them.

Although all the Holocaust kinot that we eventually selected

24 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

ceptions, the kinot that I trans­ lated are written from the perspective of history by individ­ uals who lived long after the events they describe.

Although Tishah B’Av pre­ sentations have become a part of my inner self for more than twenty years, my presentation this year will come from an even deeper place. Living with the words of these profound poets these past few months has inten­ sified my sense of the tragedy of Jewish history. It has taught me a lesson that often eludes the in­ tellectual “yeshivah bachur”that is part of my identity. It has taught me that there is a power­ ful emotional component to Ju­ daism that must be experienced if one is to really feel a part of our people.

How true it is: All who mourn, passionately mourn, for Jerusalem, will be privileged to see her in her joy.

wedding. The Nazis tied him to one au­ tomobile and his wife to another, and then drove off at high speed, which, of course, resulted in their gruesome deaths. This is precisely the same story as related by the kina.

(From Haharishu Mimeni)

In a sense, this kina is a continuation of the kina “Arzei HaLevanon.” In both kinot, the deaths that are described rep­ resent a double catastrophe. Thousands of Jews were killed during the Crusades.

But the tragedy was not just the murder of ten people during the Roman times or the myriads during the Crusades. The tragedy was also the fact that the greatest scholars of the Jewish people were killed. In this kina, the mourning that is expressed is not just for the inhuman act of the massacre. Rather, the principal emphasis is on the destruction of the Torah centers in Germany.

The dates of these massacres are known to us. The Crusaders generally started out on their journey in the spring, and the massacres took place in the months of Iyar and Sivan, around the time of Shavuot. Even though these events did not occur on Tisha B’Av, they are included in the kinot and are com­ memorated on Tisha B’Av because of the principle, already noted in connection with other kinot, that the death of the righteous is equivalent to the burning of the Beit HaMikdash. If the Beit HaMikdash was sacred, how much more sacred were entire Jewish communities which consisted of thousands of scholars. These communities were also, collectively, a Beit HaMikdash in the spiritual sense. If the kinot speak about the Hurban Beit HaMikdash in the material sense, they also mourn the Hurban Beit HaMikdash in the spiritual sense, the destruction of centers of Torah and the killing of great Torah scholars. In fact, sometimes the death of the righteous is even a greater catastrophe than the destruction of the physical Beit HaMikdash.

There is an additional reason for in­ cluding these kinot dealing with the massacres in Germany in the Tisha B’Av service. Hurban Beit HaMikdash is an all-inclusive concept. All disasters, tragedies and sufferings that befell the Jewish people should be mentioned on Tisha B’Av. Rashi says (II Chronicles

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35:25, s.v. vayitnum lehok) that when one has to mourn for an event, it should be done on Tisha B’Av. When these kinot relating to the Crusades are recited, one should remember that the tragedies being described happened not only in 1096 but in the 1940s as well. These kinot are not only a eulogy for those murdered in Mainz, Speyer and Worms, but also for those mur­ dered in Warsaw and Vilna and in the hundreds and thousands of towns and villages where Jews lived a sacred and committed life. The kinot are a eulogy not only for the Ten Martyrs and those killed in the Crusades, but for the mar­ tyrdom of millions of Jews throughout Jewish history.

T h e W o rth o f t h e I n d iv id u a l (From Oholi A sher Ta'avta)

I see an image-an image of a carpenter.

He was called Elya der Stolier. He was a plain Jew, a simple carpenter, and not particularly learned. However, he knew Psalms by heart, and he used to recite certain verses at particular times.

When he finished a table, he would re­ cite the last verse of the Book of Psalms “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord” (150:6); he would recite a dif­ ferent verse when he started work on a project. My father used to say that Elya der Stolier was one of the lamed-vav nistarim, one of the thirty-six hidden

IS 26

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

recognized each other and, distraught at their fate, died in an embrace.

The placement of this kina in the sequence of the kinot initially appears odd. The order of i(Haharishu Mimeni” following “Arzei HaLevanon” is logical and proper. However, one would have expected that the kina following “Haharishu Mimeni,” which commemo­ rates the martyrs of German Jewry, would have been “Mz Yiten Roshi Mayim,” the second kina pertaining to the Crusades in which Speyer, Worms and Mainz are mentioned by name and (From Ve'et Navi Hatati) the dates of their destruction are This kina is based on the tragic story (Gittin 58a; Eikha Raba 1:22) of the son recorded. Instead, the story of the death of Rabbi Yishmael’s son and and daughter of Rabbi Yishmael, each of whom was taken captive by a differ­ daughter is interjected, interrupting the series of kinot about the destruc­ ent Roman slave owner. Because the tion of the Jewish communities in son was very handsome and the Germany. To compound the question, daughter very beautiful, the two slave one could also ask why it is necessary owners decided to marry their two to interrupt the description in the slaves to each other with the expecta­ kinot of major national catastrophes tion that the union would produce with a story of a young man and beautiful and talented children who woman who suffered as a result of the could then fetch a high price on the Hurban of Jerusalem, but whose slavje market. The son and daughter deaths did not change the course of were told they would be married the Jewish history or the routine of daily next day, she to a slave, and he to a Jewish life. The narrative flow of the slave-girl. They were locked together kinot mourns the destruction of the for the night in a dark room, and nei­ state, the land and the Beit HaMikther could see the other. She cried all dash-zll of which changed Jewish his­ night, “How can the daughter of the tory-then the martyrdom of the ten High Priest be married to a slave?” He cried all night, “How can the son of the greatest scholars of the Talmud, and then the massacre of thousands of High Priest take a maid-servant for a people and the destruction of the most wife?” As the morning dawned, they important communities in the Middle Ages, both spiritually and numerically.

In the midst of this national commem­ oration of the tragedies that befell the community, the sequence of kinot is interrupted with the story of the death of two individuals. . The answer is that Judaism has a different understanding of and apIproach to the individual. We mourn for »he individual even if he or she was not | i significant person. Rabbi Yishmael, fcife father of these youngsters was al­ read y killed, and they were orphans. In p light of the major calamities, who is re¡Jsponsible to remember a story about an individual young man and woman who Ivere taken captive by some slave mer­ chants? The answer is that we are. We have a special kina dedicated just to them, as if one hundred thousand peo­ ple were involved, not just two individ-

righteous ones. Surely his home was a Beit HaMikdash, and there were thou­ sands and thousands of Jews like him.

Tisha B’Av, the day of avelut, is the day we should tell the story of the most significant experience of our lives in the last two thousand years. But the focus should not be limited to the de­ struction of the Holy of Holies. The focus should be every Jewish home that was destroyed, each of which con­ stituted a Beit HaMikdash.

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uals. Their lives and their deaths may not have changed Jewish history, but we suffer and remember. We do not forget the faceless, nameless individual even in the midst of national disaster and upheaval, even when telling the story of the greatest of all the disasters in our history, the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. In this kina we mourn not for the Jews of Worms or Mainz, not for the Hurban Yerushalayim, and not for the Beit HaMikdash. We mourn for a boy and a girl who were not lead­ ers or scholars and who did not play any major public role. They are as im­ portant as the greatest leaders. Some­ times we become so engrossed in the national tragedy that we forget the in­ dividual, and the sequence of the kinot is interrupted to highlight the worth of the individual.

A D a t TO C o m m em o rate A ll T r a g e d ie s (From Mi Yiten Roshi M ayim)

The main motif of this kina, a motif found in some of the prior kinot, is that the death of the righteous is equivalent to the burning of the Beit HaMikdash.

If we are to mourn for the Beit HaMik­ dash, we must also mourn the death of the great Torah scholars. Since the tragedy of the destruction of the Torah centers in Germany is equivalent to the Hurban Beit HaMikdash, we are justi­ fied in thinking that a special fast day should have been established to mourn for the martyrs of those massacres.

However, the kina declares, we are not to add any fast day beyond Tisha B’Av to commemorate any other catastro­ phe, massacre or destruction.

It is interesting that a fast day was instituted on the twentieth day of Sivan

by Rabbeinu Tam to commemorate an attack against the Jews, unrelated to the Crusades (EmekHaBakha of Rabbi Yosef HaKohen; MagenAvraham, Orah Hayim 580:9; Sha’arei Teshuva ibid., 9).

Centuries later, when the Khmelnitsky pogroms occurred in 1648, the twenti­ eth day of Sivan was proclaimed to be a fast day for both the persecutions against the German Jews and the Khmelnitsky persecutions. There are selihot, penitential prayers, composed for that day. Notwithstanding the tradi­ tion of observing the twentieth day of Sivan, this kina declares that Tisha B’Av is the exclusive fast day that com­ memorates all of the tragedies that be­

Suitable for Fram ing & Rem em bering lost of us have a tough time picturing the destruction of the Beit HamikMe dash. Milton Pfeiffer came up with an effective and even inspiring way to do so.

After attending a Torah class discussing the importance of remembering the Destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, Pfeiffer, a seasoned accountant and avid philanthropist from New York, came up with an artistic way to fulfill the obligation to remember our national tragedy: the Zecher L’Churban project.

Pfeiffer commissioned fourteen artists from across the country to paint visual renderings of the Churban to be displayed in people’s homes.

His novel idea produced a unique collection, at once exquisite and heartrending. To date, the Zecher UChurban project has sold hundreds of pieces of artwork. What’s more, each sale (at the affordable cost of $100 per painting) goes directly to help Nachas Unlimited, a non-profit organization that raises funds to aid Jewish children in the United States and Israel suffer­ ing from illnesses. The organization, launched by Pfeiffer two decades ago, distributes over hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover medical expenses as well as clothing, food and more.

May the zechut of remembering Klal Yisrael’s loss while helping our brethren in need hasten the building of the Beit Hamikdash. Please visit www.nachas.org/artwork.html to learn more.

28 | JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

fell the Jewish people, and that no other fast day should be instituted for this purpose*

U n e n d in g M o u r n in g (From Eli Tziyon)

Like a maiden girt in sackcloth for the husband of her youth. Just as it would be foolish to tell a woman in labor not to cry, so, too, it would be the height of insensitivity to tell a newly-wed bride whose young husband has just died, to stop shedding tears. So, too, let Zion continue to mourn over the Hurban, and do not tell her to stop.

The concept of continued, unend­ ing mourning is a special, unique as­ pect of avelut yeshana, mourning for a tragedy that occurred long ago, as op­ posed to avelut hadasha, mourning for the recent bereavement. In the case of avelut hadasha, there are limits, and Maimonides says (Mishneh Torah, Hil. Avel 13:11) that one who mourns “too much” is acting foolishly. But with re­ spect to avelut yeshana for the Hur­ ban, the concept of “too much” does not apply.

The message of this kina is that the kinot for Jerusalem have no end. It is for this reason that certain prayers are sung to the unique somber melody of “Eli Tziyon.” We use this haunting melody when we want to express the intensity of our loneliness and longing for the Beit HaMikdash and the strength of our faith that the redemp­ tion will come. Thus on Friday night of Shabbat Hazon, the Shabbat immedi­ ately preceding Tisha B’Av, Lekha Dodi is sung to this melody. The phrase “Enter in peace, O crown of her hus­ band, even in gladness and good cheer,” not only refers to the coming of Shabbat, but also alludes to the re­ building of the Beit HaMikdash. Simi­ larly, we use this melody for the phrase in the Yom Tov Musaf Amida, “Rebuild Your House as it was in the beginning.”

Our waiting for the arrival of the Mes­ siah and rebuilding of the BeitHaMikdash has no limit. We will never be satisfied with any gift God bestows upon us if the Beit HaMikdash remains in ruins. May it be rebuilt and restored soon, in our day.pl

SpecialSection

Do Frum Goüples Have

s part o f the Ortho­ dox Union's ongoing commitment to strengthen the Jewish family, the OU re­ cently conducted an online in­ ternational survey on marital satisfaction in the Orthodox community. The anonymous Aleinu Marital Satisfaction Survey, which took place from January to March 2009, targeted the Orthodox community and focused upon the many facets of marital satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The survey was coordinated in conjunction with Aleinu Family Resource Center, a program of the Jewish Family Service o f Los Angeles and the Rabbinical Council o f California.

Raw data were collected by OTX, a California in­ stitute o f the behavioral sciences.The study ex­ panded upon a similar project conducted in March 2008 by Deborah Fox, director o f Aleinu

MM

OU MARRIAGE SURVEY

Family Resource Center at Jewish Family Service o f Los Angeles.

The OU survey[ organized by Frank Buchweitz, OU national director, community services and spe­ cial projects, broadened the original inquiry, with questions regarding the impact of such issues as at-risk children, infertility and birth control. The OU, which has sponsored numerous marriage re­ treats on both the East and West Coasts, will use the results to create new programming aimed at strengthening marriages andfamilies within the frum community.

Dr. Eliezer Schnall, assistant professor of psy­ chology at Yeshiva College, and Dr. David Pelcovitz, Straus professor o f psychology and education atAzrieli Graduate School o f Jewish Education and Administration, both of whom were responsiblefor analyzing the data, explain the findings and their implications in the pages ahead.

Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION | 29

Analysis & Interpretation:

What the Data Reveal (Excerpted from remarks made by Dr. Eliezer Schnall at a presentation delivered at the Orthodox Union in November 2009.)

he survey attracted 3,760 re­ spondents from around the world, a large number relative to similar studies of marriage and family. The vast majority of the re­ spondents—83 percent—were from North America, mostly from the United States. Some 11 percent were from Israel. Of the total respondents, 59 percent were women and 41 per­ cent were men.

When asked to rate their marriages overall as “Excellent,” “Very Good,” “Good,” “Fair” or “Poor,” 72 percent of men and 74 percent of women rated their marriages as “Very Good” or bet­ ter. In contrast, only a small minority— about 13 percent—responded that their marriages were “Fair” or “Poor.” In­ deed, many studies—for example, data from the National Survey of Families and Households—indicate that fre­ quent participants in religious services or activities experience greater marital

T

Marital Rating I

70% 60% 50% 40% 30%

20% 10%

■jV.vi

0%

Excellent/Very Good

contentment, and may even have lower risk of divorce, compared with others. In fact, almost 80 percent (of both men and women) in our sample said that their spouses meet their ex­ pectations. Furthermore, in a similar question, respondents were asked

Almost 80 percent o f both men and women report that their spouses meet their expectations.

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

Fair/ Poor

72 percent o f the men and 74 percent o f the women rated their marriages as excellent or very good.

Overall, does your spouse meet your expectations of marriage?

30

Total

whether they would marry the same person if they could “turn back the clock,” knowing all that they do now.

Most wives and husbands will be happy to hear that so many (74 per­ cent) of their spouses would marry them all over again if they could.

Debra Umberson, a professor at the University of Texas, recently wrote that “as early as the 1950s, sociologists concluded that marital quality dimin­ ishes following the birth of the first child, and does not begin to improve until children leave the parental home.” Many in the academic world have taken note of this roller-coaster­ like continuum of marital satisfaction, calling it a “U-shaped curve,” with the happiest subjects being newlyweds and those married for thirty years and longer. Norval Glenn, also of the Uni­ versity of Texas, referred to this U-J| shaped finding with this strong statement: “It’s as close to being cer­ tain as anything is in the social sci­ ences.” Our study of Orthodox Jews, although cross-sectional, maybe con-

sistent with these findings. Those married only one to two years, for example, reported higher marital satisfaction than those married ten to twenty or twenty to thirty years.

(See graph on page 32.) However, those married thirty or more years reported higher satisfaction than those married twenty to thirty years.

Obviously, all is not rosy. Within Orthodox marriages there are cer­ tain stressors. What are they? Re­ search on the general secular community has identified certain areas where conflict is common: children, money, household tasks, time, sexual issues, in-laws, and whether to have a child or to have another child. What were the most common in our Orthodox sample? The five areas most commonly identified as extremely or somewhat stressful were financial issues, lack of communica­ tion, problems with intimacy, lack of relationship or time together and con­ flicts with in-laws. Other problems that were identified include excessive time on the Internet, a twenty-first-century problem, and the use of “inappropriate Web sites,” a new manifestation of an age-old issue. Both of these problems seemed more stressful to those earlier in their marriages, as did decisions about use of birth control and dealing with possible infertility. Later in mar­ riages, stressors such as family illness or behavioral problems with “off-thedèrech” children were more prominent.

What about some other ways of breaking our sample into subgroups?

Respondents with household incomes between $25,000 and $50,000 reported significantly less stress from an “offthe-derech” or “at-risk” child compared with those earning $100,000 or above.

This may be consistent with other re­ search identifying higher risk among more affluent adolescents. Those di­ vorced and now remarried also identify more stress from “off-the-derec/i” chil­ dren than those in a first marriage.

Moreover, while conflicts with in-laws tend to be more problematic in first marriages, financial issues come to the fore more prominently in cases where there was a divorce and a remarriage.

Ba’alei teshuvah report greater mar-

Most commonly identified as extremely or somewhat stressful were financial issues, lack of communication, problems with intimacy...

ital stress from the following: “at-risk” children, conflicts regarding chinuch of children, lack of communication, lack of relationship and intimacy, religious differences, finances and lack of social network. But a word of caution is in order: In large samples, even small dif­ Note: In the question-and-answer session that ferences can be statistically significant. followedDr. Schnall discussed methodological Thus, while these findings likely did issues and limitations associated with this and other study designs. Relatedly, hepointed out not occur by chance, the absolute dif­ ferences between ba’alei teshuvah and that the current research included analyses that adjustedfor such potential confounders others regarding these stressors were not huge. However, the implications as gender, income and education.

are nonetheless important. As rabbis, mental health professionals, commu­ nity leaders or even as caring relatives and neighbors, we need to show special sensitivity to those issues that may es­ pecially impact ba’alei teshuvah.

If we’re going to take the findings of this survey to the next step, one of thé important questions to ask is, “Where do Orthodox people get their ideas as to what they should expect in a mar­ riage?” Respondents were asked this very question and were invited to select as many responses as they wished. In­ terestingly, those married less than five years are far more likely to be looking to religious figures to guide their ex­ pectations. At the same time, though, it’s remarkable how very few of those married thirty years or more mention rabbis as a source for their current ex­ péditions—only about one in ten.

Those married for less than five years are also more likely to mention “family,” “community” and “friends” as sources, a valuable piece of information in terms of possible points of interven­ tion. And finally, although the absolute numbers are not huge, it’s noteworthy that those married less than five years are far more likely to consider Holly­ wood, magazines and other sources from popular culture to guide their ex­ pectations in marriage, perhaps not the wisest choices. |

Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION | 31

■■I

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W hat the Data Mean (Excerpted from remarks made by Dr. David Pelcovitz at a presentation delivered at

'WÈÈtMsk ?S ■■■ i ■■ ■■■■I

the Orthodox Union in November 2009.)

e live in an age where, unfortu­ perts on marriage, finds that if couples don’t fight at all, it’s actually a risk fac­ nately, many people who are tor for a marriage. Couples have to dating have the bizarre view fight—that’s the way the inevitable dif­ that life is without stress—that some­ ferences are resolved. But couples how they’re going to get a “Problemneed to learn how to fight.

Free Mate.” The reality is that every marriage will have stress and conflict; It’s important to realize that every­ one’s level of marital satisfaction and, as this survey attests, the conflicts in Orthodox Jewish marriages are dips—especially as couples experience the stresses of raising children and fi­ pretty similar to those found in mar­ nancial pressures. However, as one ex­ riages in the general public. What is periences that dip in marital most important is educating the public

W M arital Rating

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20% 0%

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1-2

3-5

6-10

11-20

20-30

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Length of Marriage (in years )

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Data reveal that marital satisfaction is particularly low between twenty and thirty years of marriage. The decline ofsatisfaction and its resurgence after 30 years result in a “U-shaped curve,”shown above. about how to negotiate the inevitable stresses because these stresses have to happen. Dr. John Mordechai Gottman, one of the leading evidence-based ex32

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

satisfaction, it is essential to under­ stand that it is normal, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, The training implications derived

from the survey are also important. Ef­ fective premarital training programs (or chatan and kallah classes) can re­ ally make a difference. Catholic coun­ tries that require a premarital counseling program before a priest will marry individuals tend to have lower divorce rates than similar Catholic countries that don’t have such a requirement. The need for such training is clearly emerging from the survey’s data.

One area in particular that is im­ portant to address is stress related to intimacy issues. Close to half of the re­ spondents cited some problems with intimacy issues and lack of sexual edu­ cation. There isn’t necessarily a lan­ guage on sexuality that we’re teaching to couples. Moreover, there’s some­ thing missing in the way we convey values about sexuality to our children.

As mentioned earlier, the survey also reveals some fascinating findings on at-risk kids and on ba’alei teshuvah.

We find evidence of “affluenza” in our data, that is, an increased risk among youth in the more affluent segments of the Orthodox world—a phenomenon that is equally true in the general pop­ ulation and about which much has been written. Dr. Suniya S. Luthar, professor of psychology and education at Teachers College, Columbia Univer­ sity, finds that when you compare wealthy adolescents to adolescents from lower socio-economic back­ grounds, there’s about triple the rate of depression, a higher rate of substance and alcohol abuse, and a higher rate of

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anxiety problems among the wealthy adolescents—which is totally contrary to what one would expect.

Dr. Luthar identifies the causes of the pathologies behind “affluenza,” all of which have implications for the Or­ thodox community as well. The first is that in more affluent neighborhoods, it’s never enough just to be average. H for example, rarely hear a father come to shul on a Shabbat morning and say, ‘"You know, my kid got in the fiftieth percentile on the SATs.” One just doesn’t hear that. Secondly, Dr. Luthar notes the tremendous time pressure in families. Oftentimes parents, even though they are physically present, they are not there. They’re there, and they’re not there. In the age of the cell phone and the BlackBerry, this is a very real issue. We know that there’s a direct linear correlation between par­ ents really being present with their children, really being there as opposed to being distracted, and the likelihood that their children will grow up to ac­ tualize their dreams and aspirations, and not succumb to negative influ­ ences. Finally, Dr. Luthar claims that affluent children very often are not asked to go beyond themselves to give to others. There is, generally speaking, no required helpfulness in their homes.

True, some students engage in com­ munal service to be able to add volun­ teer work to their college applications.

However, research shows that when a student has to do the service for

I Top Five Stressors: Personal/Fam ilial (Extrem ely/Som ewhat Stressful) ■ Total 29% 28%

JS

27% 26% 25% 24% 23%

22% Significant financial issues

Lack of com m unication

Problem s w ith physical intim acy/sexuality

Lack of relationship. not enough tim e together

The leading “triggers”to cause conflict in marriage arefinancial stress, communication dif­ ficulties, problems with physical intimacy/sexuality, not enough time to spend together and conflict with in-laws. school, it does very little good. When giving to others and gettingpast one­ self is something required of adoles­ cents, when it’s part of the culture, youth tend to come alive, and the probability of their becoming at-risk is significantly diminished.

All of these observations obviously require much more explanation and analysis. This article is hopefully the first of many on the important points brought out by the survey.

While there are no hard data, there is certainly a perception that there seems to be more and more divorces taking place in our community. On a

positive note, however, what this sur­ vey shows is that even with the rising divorce rate within the Orthodox com­ munity, the overall message is positive: Our satisfaction rates are quite high.

When filling out this survey, most peo­ ple are saying, “Well, you know some­ thing? If I had to do it over again, I’d marry the same person.” If seven out often people are saying that, that’s pretty good. Of course, our work is not done; we should always strive to im­ prove. Gathering and analyzing data is an important first step, but we must follow up by training rabbis, educators and the community. |

Reserve the date and plan now to be at the

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j

Conflicts in relationship w ith in-laws

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•

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ORTHODOX UNION îiiïami

Orthodox Umon National Convention Sunday, January 16 ,2 0 11 W oodcM Lake Hilton, N J

Full day program ofshiurim, workshops, seminars and plenary discussions, elections and resolutions.

W atch W W W .O U .o r g for updated inform ation

Summer 5770/2010 JEW ISH ACTION | 33

Major Marriage Challenges BY

STEVEN

WEIL

È I

B“ »

m u s t th an k th e w o n ­

S tra u s p ro fe sso r o f p sy c h o l­

d erfu l p e o p le w h o d e d i­

og y a n d ed u ca tio n a t th e

c a te d m u ch tim e a n d

A z r ie li G radu ate School o f

effo rt

to

b rin g

th e

OU-

J ew ish E d u ca tio n a n d A d ­ m in istra tio n ; a n d Dr. E liezer

sp o n so red A lein u M a r ita l

Survey

S a tisfa c tio n

and

'its'" '■ V iqhm

Schnall, a s s ista n t p ro fesso r o f

fin d in g s to fru itio n : F rank Buchw e itz ,

p sych o lo g y a t Yeshiva College. T h ey

O U n a tio n a l director, c o m m u ­

n ity se rv ic es a n d sp e cia l p ro jects; D eborah Fox,

a ll in v este d a trem en d o u s a m o u n t o f tim e a n d concern in to th is ex tra o rd in a ry p r o je c t I w o u ld

d ire c to r o f A lein u F a m ily R esou rce C e n ter a t J e w ish

like to p a rtic u la rly ackn ow ledge D eborah F o x fo r th e

F a m ily S e rvice o f L o s A n geles; Dr. D a v id P elco vitz,

visio n a n d in sigh t to in itia lly c rea te th is survey.

e often have the ten­ dency to look for the “tzuris.”There cer­ tainly are enough problems to go around, and because the negatives tend to tug at our heartstrings and play into our fears, they become our focus and preoccupation. Fortunately the recent OU-sponsored Aleinu Marital Satisfac­ tion Survey has given us something very positive to focus on: the state of marriage in our communities.

The OU survey attracted 3,670 re­ spondents, over 2,000 more than the original survey conducted in March 2008. (As mentioned in the previous article on the study, the OU survey ex­ panded upon an initial survey con­ ducted by the Aleinu Family Resource Center, a program of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles and the Rab­ binical Council of California.)

The most positive finding of the OU survey is that 72 percent of Orthodox Jewish men and 74 percent of Ortho-

S

Rabbi Steven Weil is executive vice president o f the Orthodox Union.

34 | JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

dox Jewish women rate their mar­ riages as “excellent” or “very good.”

This is especially significant when con­ trasted with the overall US population where only 62.9 percent of men and 59.5 percent of women say they are happy, according to a General Social Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center. Nearly 80 percent of Orthodox Jewish men and women feel that their spouses meet their expectations of marriage, and over 70 percent would marry their spouses again knowing what they know now.

All of this is wonderful news. The foundation of a strong and vibrant Jew­ ish community is neither the shul nor the yeshivah (though both institutions play a vital role); it is the family. The fact that a majority of marriages in the Orthodox community are rated “excel­ lent” means that our foundation is sturdy and secure.

However, challenges exist even in excellent marriages. When analyzing the results of both surveys, it becomes apparent that there are six significant stressors in Orthodox marriages. Each

of these stressors was identified as being significant by more than 20 per­ cent of the respondents. Interestingly, both divorced and happily married re­ spondents identified the same issues as being obstacles in their marriages.

In this article, i will attempt to ana­ lyze the six stressors from the perspec­ tive of a pulpit rabbi working with couples and families. My goal is to raise awareness about the issues that strain Orthodox marriages. While I offer some helpful pointers and advice, I am fully aware that these challenges are serious and complex. Thus, the tips I offer are not meant to be one-size-fitsall solutions; they are meant to be prac­ tical suggestions for navigating the immensely rewarding relationship known as marriage. Finally, I must add that although I am neither a therapist nor a mental health professional, the following analysis was corroborated by such professionals who have worked extensively in the Orthodox world.

M ARI TA L I N T I M A C Y Couples who took the survey say that keeping the laws of tdharat hamish-

pachah is not necessarily a guarantee that the physical component of their relationship will be free of challenges.

Men and women are physically, psy­ chologically and emotionally different from each other, and these profound differences often manifest themselves in how both husband and wife view their intimate relationship. Men by na­ ture tend to view the physical relation­ ship as just that—physical—whereas women do not compartmentalize the physical and the emotional. This dis­ crepancy causes challenges during the time the couple can be intimate with each other, when the husband may be very attentive to the physical needs of his wife, but not necessarily sensitive to her emotional needs. It also can cause strife during the time the couple is not allowed to be together.

TIP : NURTURE YOUR R E L A T I O N S H I P IN ALL R E A L M S A marriage is the totality of an intel­ lectual, emotional and physical rela­ tionship, and couples in a healthy relationship will be actively develop­ ing all three of these components. Ob­ viously, during the time that the wife is

a niddah, the physical dimension of the marriage is put on hold, but the expec­ tation is that the rest of the marriage should not be. Unfortunately, all too often, we find that during the period when intimacy is forbidden the hus­ band may spend more time working late or putting in longer hours at the beit midrash. The message communi­ cated to the wife, perhaps uninten­ tionally, is that his interest in her is purely physical and that she is an ob­ ject, rather than a thinking, feeling person with whom he wants to engage in a relationship.

Rebbi Meir’s well-known statement in the Gemara that keeping the laws of niddah will keep a couple as dear to each other as the night that they got married is predicated on the fact that the couple spend time with each other even and especially when they can't be intimate. Paradoxically, it is the time they spend together not being physical that creates the deep and subtle bonds in the marriage, and ultimately en­ riches the intimacy and makes it both satisfying and meaningful.

R E L IG IO U S O B SER V A N C E

Couples also reported problems with differences in religious observance. It can be assumed that when couples marry, they are familiar with and ac­ cepting of each other’s level of reli­ gious practice. What cannot be assumed is that two, five, ten or twenty years down the road both husband and

wife will still be in the same place reli­ giously. People grow and change, and the individual one marries may become more or less religious over the years.

T I P : A GR E E ON H O U S E RU LE S These diverging paths create real gaps and vacuums in a marriage, because the food we eat, what we do on Satur­ days and which schools we send our children to are serious issues that re­ quire some level of agreement on the part of both husband and wife. Need­ less to say, when parents do not con­ vey a consistent message to their children, the children will likely be stressed and confused about what is right and wrong, and what is expected of them. Couples who are not “on the same page” religiously tend to have a lot of resentment (“How could you change the rules?”) and to act disre­ spectfully (“I thought you were a more spiritual person”) towards each other, which obviously affects the health and functionality of the marriage. A couple may not agree on everything, but they must have house rules with regard to issues such as Shabbat, kashrut and other areas, or they risk creating “a house divided.”

I N T R U S I V E IN - L A W S

We love our parents and grandparents; they add much to our lives, but some­ times they can unintentionally con­ tribute toward an unhealthy dynamic.

We all know some good mother-inlaw jokes, but the negative effect intru­ sive in-laws can have on a marriage is

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QUALITY TIME IS WONDERFUL, BUT IT CANNOT SERVE AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR QUANTITY TIME, JUST SIMPLY BEING THERE ON A REGULAR BASIS,

Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION

35

How to Make a 1

1. SPEN D TIM E TO G ETH ER

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Even ten minutes a day of uninter­ rupted time to touch base builds con­ nection. Spending more time when available and setting aside time to be together (e.g., date nights) are just as important. The key is beingpresent, fo­ cusing only on the person in front of you, to the exclusion of all other dis­ tractions. This builds connection and closeness.

strong. This is a special kindness that helps your spouse feel that she is not alone. Show your concern by doing the little things that your spouse will ap­ preciate. Go beyond the call of duty and help your spouse without letting her know. Do the shopping and stock the refrigerator without announcing it.

Do the things that only you will know are meaningful and appreciated by your spouse.

yourself being contemptuous of your spouse, it’s time to recall all the posi­ tive things about your relationship. If you’re too upset to talk about it at that moment, make a time to continue the conversation; don’t just walk away. Ar­ guing is better than no communication.

8. M AKE UP

2. LISTEN AND SU PPO RT EACH O TH ER

5. RESPOND TO YO U R SPO U SE

It is essential to learn how to actively listen to each other and express support for your spouse’s day-today life issues, no matter how small and mundane.

Never ignore even seemingly trivial conversation with your spouse. Giving each other the gift of attention shows that your partner is important to you.

Practice and learn how to fix things during and after a fight. “Love is never being afraid to say I’m sorry.” Using humor, changing the subject and avoid­ ing sensitive issues are all expressions of your concern about the relationship and making sure arguments don’t dam­ age it. Remember, kindness counts.

6. BE INFLUEN CED

9. CREA TE RITU A LS

3. EXPRESS G RATITU D E

Don’t be afraid to listen to your spouse and change your ideas or opinions on issues big and small. Insisting on your way may feel right at the moment, but that is not healthy for a marriage. Be open to what is important to your spouse. Being right has little value in marriage; making your spouse happy is what counts.

Create times that are touchstones of your relationship to help keep it healthy—whether it’s bike riding Sun­ day mornings or going to Starbucks every Thursday night. Couples connect to each other by engaging in rituals, by sharing purposeful activities together.

Remember to say “thank you” for the little things you often take for granted.

Even though you expect your spouse to take out the garbage, cook dinner, and pick up the dry cleaning, it is important to express your appreciation as often as possible. If you would do it for a stranger, why not for your spouse? Ex­ pressing gratitude increases the posi­ tive feelings you will have regarding your relationship.

4 . BE KIND TO EACH O TH ER

Express compassion and understand­ ing. Learn to listen to your spouse’s pain, validate it and help her stay Rabbi Barry Holzer is a psychiatrist and his wife, Chanie, is a certified social worker.

They live in Lawrence, New York.

36 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

7. ARG U E RESPECTFU LLY

Conflict is ubiquitous in relationships, not a sign of trouble. How you argue is the key. You don’t have to yell to be heard. Criticism, defensiveness, con­ tempt and stonewalling destroy mar­ riages. Address the issue, don’t attack the person. Don’t overreact if your spouse is upset; he is probably looking for support, not a fight. If you find

10. SH ARED M EANING

Doing meaningful things together makes your relationship more special.

You and your spouse should get in­ volved in a chesed activity that you both are passionate about. Volunteer to work with developmentally dis­ abled youth or visit the lonely people at the local nursing home. Be adven­ turous. You’ll both benefit from the experience, and your relationship will blossom.

no laughing matter. This is especially challenging for Orthodox couples be­ cause frum society places such a strong value on family ties and honor­ ing our parents.

T I P : DRAW B O U N D A R I E S Grandparents should certainly be an integral part of our and our children’s lives, but our immediate family—chil­ dren and spouse—is our nucleus. The immediate family is the sun around which everything else revolves. When the grandparents become part of that nucleus, and everyone else must re­ volve around them, this could result in unhealthy family dynamics as well as tension and stress. This problem arises either when the adult son or adult

daughter is unable to cut the proverbial cord, or when the mother or father re­ fuses to let it be cut. Either way, the delicate balance of the family is offset, and all members of the family are af­ fected by the stress. Within a marriage, the priorities must be clearly defined.

The Torah teaches “A/ kain ya’azov ish et aviv ve’et imo v’davak beishto—there­ fore, one must leave his/her father and mother and cling to his/her spouse.” If one wants a healthy marriage, clear boundaries must be drawn.

F IN A N C IA L C H A L LEN G ES Financial struggles, especially in this day and age, are common. Human be­ ings for the most part are incredibly re­ silient. We can respond to a trauma,

crisis or tragedy and usually find a way to bounce back. What breaks us is a chronic condition, one that presents a constant, unending anxiety that we have to confront day in and day out, without respite. Economic hardship, for the most part, is a chronic condi­ tion. The cost of living in the United States is high, and it is especially high for an Orthodox Jew. Between day school tuition, high-priced homes? making Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and wed­ dings and supporting children in learn­ ing or graduate school, frum families, even those with dual incomes, often find it is a struggle to make ends meet.

Unfortunately, the issue of not hav­ ing enough money is not a short-lived crisis; save for winning the lottery, it

ou wouldn’t consider entering your chosen pro­ “It’s a wonderful opportunity for married couples to fession without the proper knowledge and expect learn how to communicate and relate on a deeper, to succeed. Yet, countless couples stand beneath more gratifying level while enjoying a Shabbat away,” the chuppah relying solely on trial and error as their guide. ! says Buchweitz.

Acknowledging this critical educational gap and the rising On Motzaei Shabbat, couples can participate in “The divorce rate in our community, the OU launched its wildly Not the Newlywed Game ... Or How Well Do You Really popular Marriage Enrichment Retreat, an annual week­Know Your Spouse After All These Years?” Couples end with workshops and sessions devoted to strengthen-from across the Orthodox spectrum, longtime marrieds ingmarriages in Orthodox communities. The program, and newlyweds, clamor to sign up for the fun and re­ which focuses on key areas such as effective communica­ warding retreats. tion, conflict resolution, finances and intimacy, has cou­ According to Buchweitz, couples who attend the re­ ples singing its praises, as well as each other’s. treats consistently express their heartfelt appreciation.

“A healthy marriage is the backbone of the Jewish “At the close of a retreat, a woman approached me with family,” says Frank Buchweitz, OU national director, com­ tears in her eyes,” he says. “She had convinced her hus­ munity services and special projects. “Skills-based mar­ band to come; their children were all grown and married, riage education is the best divorce prevention strategy and and they were worried they would have nothing to talk can keep a relationship strong.” about. Not only did they realize they had a good marriage, Held at a hotel with luxury accommodations, the retreat they found out that others are goingthrough the same ex­ enables couples to take a few days to relax while mental perience.” health professionals impart sure-fire ways to enhance their The next OU Marriage Enrichment Retreat will take married lives within the context of Torah law. Initiated in place July 9-11 at the Woodcliff Lake Hilton and Spa, 2006, the retreat includes workshops on topics such as Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. To register, call 212.613.8188 “Communication Strategies that Really Work,” “Power and or log onto www.oucommunity.org.

Control Issues in Marriage,” “Telling Your Spouse You’re Really Angry in a Non-Combative Manner,” and “Successful Remarriage and Blended Families.” among others.

B

I

Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION

37

does not usually go away. The chronic stress of drowning under financial pres­ sure can take a toll on a marriage.

TIP: RIDE OUT THE ROUGH TIMES Sadly, there is no magic cure-all to financial woes. The past few years have been tough for many and global or indi­ vidual circumstances ensure that at some point or other, there will be fami­ lies facing economic hardships. Couples must be aware of this painful reality and agree to ride out the tough times to­ gether. What this entails will vary on a case-by-case basis, from cutting out cer-

T I P : BE AWARE OF T H E DIFFERENCES The wrong kind of communication happens any time one spouse speaks to the other as if she or he were the same gender. A man should not talk to his wife as if she were one of the guys and a woman should not expect to engage her husband in conversation as if he were one of her girlfriends. The Torah says, “ko tomar lebeit Yaakov vetageid lebnei Yisrael”; Moshe was instructed to address the men and women differ­ ently, in the manner most appropriate to each gender.

A couple establishes communication

able. This is false.

Our grandparents did not know psy­ chology. They didn’t have books ex­ plaining the differences between men and women. Yet they seem to have had happier, more fulfilling marriages than our “enlightened” generation. Their se­ cret? Quantity time.

Our grandparents worked hard, but when the workday was over, they came home, ate dinner as a family and spent evening after evening with their loved ones. They didn’t have the array of dis­ tractions and diversions that we have; they had their living rooms, where par­ ents and children talked about their

T H E C H R O N I C S T R E S S O F D R O W N IN G U N D E R F IN A N C IA L P R E S S U R E C A N T A K E A T O L L O N A M A R R IA G E .

tain luxuries to the more drastic move of relocating to a community more within one’s means. (Incidentally, there are some very fine Jewish communities in the US outside of major metropolitan areas that are well worth investigating.

Housing and tuition costs in these com­ munities tend to be far lower than they are in many major metropolitan areas.)

C O M M U N IC A T IO N Couples admitted to having problems with either the lack of, too much of or the wrong kind of communication. It is obvious that in order to have a success­ ful marriage partnership, there has to be good communication. To run a home, manage a family and build an emotional relationship, couples have to be able to talk to each other, hear each other and understand each other. If the communi­ cation breaks down, the whole system is liable to collapse.

A lack of communication may stem from a lack of time (see section on quantity time), a lack of interest or the different approach men and women generally have towards communication.

Men tend to act to resolve an issue and avoid talking about it, whereas women will address an issue repeatedly to fig­ ure out the best approach to dealing with it. This can also contribute to the problem of too much communication.

38 | JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

patterns early on in a marriage, and once a practice becomes a habit, it is much harder to break. Being aware of the differences men and women have in their communication styles is a good first step in improving communication with one’s spouse.

Q U A LITY VS. Q U A N T IT Y T IM E .

A final stressor that emerged from the survey is the lack of time couples spend with each other and with their children.

Couples reported that the stresses of life prevent them from properly investing quantity time into their marriages. Peo­ ple legitimately need to put a certain number of hours per week into their jobs. In addition, they need time to de­ vote to the mundane activities of home­ making as well as time to volunteering for the school and the shul or the tzedakah organization. With such full schedules, many are simply exhausted by the end of the day and have little time or energy left to give to their families.

T IP : MAKE TIM E FO R W H A T’S TRULY IM PO R TA N T We have created a myth that if we spend some good quality time together with our spouses and children, we can make up for the time we have not been avail-

day and where husbands and wives shared their goals and dreams with each other. A marriage is like anything else: The more we invest in it, the greater its value.

We need to cut out the extracurricu­ lar from our lives. Do we really have to attend every wedding we are invited to?

Do we have to participate in every fundraiser or social event? Make family time a priority. Quality time is wonder­ ful, but it cannot serve as a substitute for quantity time, just simply being there on a regular basis.

••• Despite the various stressors and chal­ lenges respondents identified, the over­ all picture the OU survey provides is rosy, with a significant majority of peo­ ple happily married. This survey has granted us at the OU a better picture of the issues and challenges couples face in the twenty-first century, enabling us to focus on providing the right kinds of services and education to address these needs. Going forward, we hope to be able to better serve, engage and prepare our community to help all marriages reach a level of ahavah, achvah, shalom v’reiut-B. love born of giving, unity, completeness and the pinnacle of friendship. I

Orthodox Union Marriage Enrichment Retreat 1

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In fo rm a tio n and R e g istra tio n : Frank B u ch w eitz, National D irector, Co m m unity Services and Special Projects, (2 1 2 ) 6 1 3 - 8 1 8 8 , fra n k @ o u .o rg fo r a com plete schedule and registration info rm atio n, w w w .o ucom m un ity.org

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ORTHODOX UNION Enhancing Jewish Life

Positive Jewish Marriages and Positive Jewish Parenting are programs of the Orthodox Union, Department of Community Services. For information on programs, workshops, and retreats for your community, synagogue, or school, please contact (212) 613-8188, or frank@ou.org.

By Jonathan Rosenblum WKÊÊmmBÊUm

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s our Jeep bounces violently through a valley somewhere in the Jordan Valley, we spot a group of about fifteen khaki-clad soldiers on a nearby hill. The soldiers have been stationed on the hill for the last five days while conducting various training exercises. We arrive just be­ fore the start of a live ammunition drill; this group must fire smoke bombs in the direc­ tion of some nearby hills, where a large number of troops are simulating the capture of an enemy stronghold.

40

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

The soldiers in the group are all mem­ bers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Nahal Haredi battalion, and Fm visit­ ing them in the field. My guide, Rabbi Yitzchok Bar Chaim, was one of the moving forces behind the establish­ ment of Nahal Haredi. For him, live ammunition drills are old hat. Every other day, he travels over an hour from Jerusalem to one of the five bases where Nahal Haredi soldiers are stationed-three in the Jenin sector and two in the Jordan Valley-or to one of the training courses in which they are participating.

Rabbi Bar Chaim is received warmly as he exits the Jeep. Although there are more than 900 young men currently in Nahal Haredi, he greets most of the members of the unit by name, and they are clearly happy to see him. While waiting for the live am­ munition drill to begin, he calls the group together for an impromptu shiur on the week’s Torah reading, Chaye Sarah. Everyone joins, and there is soon a lively back and forth of questions and answers. The degree of participation would be the envy of many teachers in a more conventional classroom setting. In the course of the discussion, a number of young men pull Ghumashim from their backpacks that contain everything they will need for their week in the field.

The Birth o f Nahal Haredi Nahal Haredi began a little over a decade ago, after about a year and a half of ongoing discussions between a group of Chareidi educators led by Rabbi Bar Chaim and the IDF. At the time, Rabbi Bar Chaim was work­ ing with Chareidi youth who were falling between the cracks of the yeshivah system.

The phenomenon of such youth, whose ranks were already swelling at an accelerating rate, reflects larger so­ cial processes within the Chareidi world. In the 1950s, in Bnei Brak there were less than 100 families of tradi­ tional Lithuanian yeshivah stock. From their ranks were drawn most of the idealists who answered the Chazon Jonathan Rosenblum is a columnist for the Jerusalem Post and Israeli director o f Am Echad.

Ish’s call to rebuild the vibrant Torah life of pre-war Europe. That small flock of intense idealists, willing to adopt the simplest standard of living in order to pursue full-time learning, has today swelled, against all odds and all predic­ tions, to a community of nearly threequarters of a million souls.

Today’s larger community is not just the original group of intense ideal­ ists writ large, but something much dif­ ferent. It includes individuals of all spiritual and intellectual levels. The standards that could be followed by a small flock of intensely committed ide­ alists cannot be successfully imposed on such a large community. The at­ tempt to do so has resulted in many ca­ sualties including numerous yeshivah bachurim in their teens or early twen­ ties who do not derive sufficient satis-

partment of Youth Activities and Na­ tional Vision. The IDF agreed to treat a third year of study-either spent obtain­ ing a high school equivalency certifi­ cate or some form of vocational training-as fulfilling the third year of the national service requirement.

Netzah Yehuda, a non-profit organ­ ization, was created to serve as the offi­ cial liaison to the IDF and the Defense Ministry. The organization is responsi­ ble for everything connected to the spiritual development of the Nahal Haredi recruits: supplying the rabbis who give Torah classes to the troops; providing Rosh Chodesh gatherings; assisting Nahal Haredi soldiers in dire financial circumstances, and recruiting new soldiers. Rabbi Bar Chaim and his partner, Rabbi Dovid Fuchs, field dozens of phone calls every day.

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All photos courtesy o f Friends o f Nahal Haredi Archives, unless indicated otherwise.

faction from their Talmud learning to spend their entire day in yeshivah. At the same time, they are effectively barred from gainful employment by their lack of army service and, in most cases, any marketable skills.

Rabbi Bar Chaim wondered whether the IDF might be a solution for many of these young men. The ini­ tial response from the IDF was posi­ tive. The IDF was represented mainly

by General Yehuda Duvdevani, then the head of the Defense Ministry’s De­

Relations between Netzah Yehuda and the IDF have generally been excel­ lent. All the food is glatt kosher, with recognized Chareidi hechsherim; the rabbis of Netzah Yehuda work closely with the battalion rabbi to minimize chillul Shabbat not connected to actual combat; and no women soldiers are found at the Nahal Haredi base.

Netzah Yehuda has proven crucial to the development of the Nahal Haredi. To become a full combat unit, for instance, the initial Nahal Haredi Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION | 41

battalion needed medics attached to the unit. But since many of the training drills in the medic course involve sim­ ulating situations in which the “wounded” are largely undressed, it was necessary to arrange for a com­ plete separation between the all-male course, in which the Nahal Haredi sol­ diers trained, and those in which the trainers were mostly young women soldiers. After a great deal of investiga­ tive legwork, Netzah Yehuda was able to make suitable arrangements with the IDF. Upon occasion, Netzah Yehuda has raised private monies to supply equip­ ment that the IDF could not afford for the battalion members. Its executive director, Rabbi Tzvi Klebanow, is cur­ rently working on the final draft of an IDF handbook of policy and proce­ dures concerning the Nahal Haredi to ensure continuity in the face of the rapid turnover of IDF personnel.

Communal O pposition When Nahal Haredi was first intro­ duced a decade ago, it encountered fierce opposition within the Chareidi community replete with the usual wall posters and demonstrations. Even Mishpacha, considered one of the most

42 | JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

progressive of the Chareidi weekly publications, printed a lengthy attack on Nahal Haredi. So intense was oppo­ sition to Nahal Haredi in Meah Shearim that Rabbi Yoel Schwartz, one of the original backers, eventually had to leave his apartment there. At the same time, Nahal Haredi enjoyed the tacit support of some of the major Torah leaders of the Chareidi commu­ nity, who recognized the need for an alternative for young men who had left the yeshivah system altogether.

Underlying much of the opposition to Nahal Haredi was the fear that the opportunity to serve in the IDF would result in a mass exit from the yeshivot.

Those fears proved unfounded. Nahal Haredi has not resulted in a complete about-face in Chareidi attitudes to­ wards army service. Even today, only a handful of those from Chareidi back­ grounds in each recruiting class opt for army service out of an idealistic de­ sire to contribute to the defense of the Jews of Israel. That idealistic commit­ ment develops with service-usually quickly-but does not precede it.

Nahal Haredi neither triggered a large-scale exodus from the yeshivot nor prevented the development of a whole network of yeshivot dealing

with those who experienced failure in the mainstream system. As a conse­ quence, the opposition to it has also withered away.

D evelopm ent o f Nahal Haredi Nahal Haredi has grown dramatically from the first group of thirty soldiers, and changed in a number of other im­ portant ways. The last recruiting class of 180 was the largest yet. (The IDF inducts new recruits three times a year.) As of this writing, more than 2,000 young men have completed Nahal Haredi.

Though the original impetus for Nahal Haredi was the problem of drop-out Chareidi youth, relatively early on the decision was made to also take recruits from the National Reli­ gious world who prefer the stricter re­ ligious standards of Nahal Haredi.

Those recruits drawn from the “Chardal” (Chareidi Dati Leumi) com­ munity comprise about 30 percent of Nahal Haredi, a limit strictly enforced by the IDF. The rest of the recruits (with the exception of a little more than 10 percent who come from abroad and serve a shorter time) tend to have spent time enrolled in various Israeli Chareidi educational frame-

works, including Chabad and those for the newly religious.

The recruits from Chardal homes are, in many respects, coming from the opposite direction from their Chareidi counterparts. Most of them have grown up with a strong ethos of IDF service.

And far from struggling with religious observance, they are seeking a level of observance often higher than that of the communities from which they come. Yet by all accounts the combina­ tion has worked out well. Nahal Haredi has become the venue for the closest interaction between those from Chareidi and those from National Reli­ gious backgrounds.

Another crucial change over the last ten years has been the transforma­ tion of Nahal Haredi to a full-fledged combat unit. General Udi Shani, the former commander of the division of which Nahal Haredi is a part, describes Nahal Haredi as “the nekudat ha!or, the point of light” of his division. Though non-religious, Shani once told a group of American visitors, “We understand that the combination of Torah, tefillah and soldiering experience combines to produce an invincible soldier.”

Nearly every day of the week, around 5:00 p m , a Nahal Haredi unit begins preparing for an early morning raid to nab terrorists in Jenin. Those who will be participating begin laying out their equipment, usually totaling fifty pounds or more. They then are briefed on the mission and practice their plan of execution. Around 3:00 a m , the unit will sweep into Jenin in an armored personnel carrier. Usually within a few minutes, they succeed in capturing the wanted terrorist.

One soldier from Australia, proudly sporting his newly affixed sergeant stripes, told me that he has seen more action than the average unit stationed on Israel’s northern or southern bor­ der. “They are basically sitting and waiting for something to happen. I can go night after night arresting terrorists in their beds in Jenin.”

The development of Nahal Haredi into an active combat unit has in­ creased the quality of recruits. It took time for Nahal Haredi to prove its mil­ itary prowess to skeptical command­ ers, and as a consequence the initial assignments ten years ago were lower on the IDF totem poll. The increased

prestige of Nahal Haredi as a serious combat unit has made it more attrac­ tive to young men from Chareidi back­ grounds eager to prove themselves, sometimes after years of being made to feel like failures.

Certain slow but clearly discernible changes in the attitude of the Chareidi world towards the IDF have also made it somewhat easier to attract recruits from traditional Chareidi backgrounds.

In the last couple of years, the IDF has become a major employer within the Chareidi world. Over 500 young men, many of them married kollel students, have enlisted in training programs in computers, quality assurance, airplane maintenance and intelligence. This group currently has the highest rate of sign-up for officer training courses of any group within the army.

While the trade-off is largely pragmatic-the IDF is provided with a large pool of talent to draw from and the Chareidim are provided with training in highly sought after fields-the result is that it is no longer rare in Chareidi strongholds, like Bnei Brak or Kiryat Sefer, to see young men who, a few months ago, were respected kollel

Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION | 43

avreichim now wearing IDF uniforms.

That makes it much easier for younger Chareidi recruits to contem­ plate enlisting.

Im pact on the Chareidi Com m unity What has been the impact of Nahal Haredi on those recruits from Chareidi backgrounds who were already far re­ moved from most mitzvah observance by the time that they enlisted?

Nahal Haredi addresses this prob­ lem in two ways. The first might be called “turn from evil:§ The hermetic environment of Nahal Haredi removes the recruits from an environment in which a host of temptations were con­ stantly before them. The second is to provide them with the emotional tools to sustain a life of mitzvah observance

have been very few recruits who were not transformed for the better on the scale of menschlichkeit in the course of their army service.

Becoming a mensch makes possi­ ble the return to religious observance, sometimes even to the beit midrash, but there is nothing automatic about that return. Many of the Chareidi re­ cruits bear heavy scars and feelings of failure and rejection, which they asso­ ciate with their religious upbringing.

Rabbi Bloch observes that in those Chareidi families in which the parents take an interest in what their sons are doing in the IDF and do not show em­ barrassment about their service, the percentage of those who return to full religious observance is very high. In short, the army can help break the bad habits that develop once a boy drops

again. Early on, one of the gedolim who advises Nahal Haredi enunciated its goals for the soldiers from Chareidi homes currently alienated from reli­ gious observance: First be a mensch, then a tzaddik.

The IDF provides these young men, who have in most cases been doing nothing with their lives after dropping out of yeshivah, with the dis­ cipline and ability to take responsibil­ ity for their lives. Rabbi Dovid Bloch, one of the rabbis on the rabbinic board of Netzah Yehuda, insists that there

out of the yeshivah system and can give him back his self-respect, but the IDF cannot cure the bitterness of re­ jection by family and community. Only the family and community can do that.

Prior to their IDF service, few of the boys from Chareidi backgrounds were employable in anything but the most menial jobs. But what they gain in discipline and responsibility in the IDF, in conjunction with their third year of academic or vocational studiesenables them to enter the workforce on an equal footing. Recently, the

44 | JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

Jerusalem Post reported that almost 100 percent of those who completed the three years of Nahal Haredi serv­ ice are currently employed.

Impact on the Secular-R eligious D ivide One major new development in Nahal Haredi has immense long-range impli­ cations. In response to a petition from former Nahal Haredi soldiers, the IDF has responded affirmatively to the re­ quest for a Nahal Haredi reserve bat­ talion. Until now, Nahal Haredi graduates were freed from reserve duty because of the lack of a suitable framework within the IDF for a largenumber of Chareidi soldiers. Now, it would appear, the army is prepared to work towards creating such a frame­ work for a much larger number of sol­ diers than previously.

That represents a crucial step. The issue of the Chareidi community’s fail­ ure to share in the burden of army service is poised to explode. So long as Chareidim were a small percentage of the country, their non-service did not undermine the IDF’s ability to serve as a source of social cohesion.

But the Chareidi community is growing rapidly. Over the last decade, enrollment in Chareidi primary schools increased 49 percent, while enrollment in the government system dropped 1 percent. Within a generation, Charei­ dim will constitute 30 percent of the draft cohort, and together with Israeli Arabs, who also rarely serve in the army, over 50 percent. If less than 50 percent of the citizenry serves, the IDF can no longer provide any degree of so­ cial glue in a society already beset by among the highest disparities of in­ come in the Western world. Nor will non-Chareidim continue to serve under those circumstances. As the head of one of Israel’s leading think tanks re­ cently told a Chareidi Knesset member: “My children will not be your chil­ dren’s mercenaries.”

By providing the catalyst for the creation of frameworks in which much larger numbers of Chareidim can serve without compromising their religious standards, Nahal Haredi may have pointed the way to defusing a ticking societal time bomb. I

Soldiers o f God: My Time in Nahal Haredi s a new immigrant to Israel, I volunteered for a two-year stint in Nahal Haredi. During the course of my service I discovered just how different a truly Jewish unit is from the army you see in the movies.

After only being in Israel for two months, I joined the Nahal. I did not yet speak any Hebrew and barely un­ derstood what was being said around me. Before I knew what was happen­ ing, I had been issued an assault rifle, been rated as proficient in its use (hav­ ing fired five-count ’em, five, bullets) and was sent home for my first leave.

As I wandered the streets of Jerusalem in a daze, unsure of what to do with the instrument of death on my back, I realized just how special the IDF is. I cannot imagine any other country in the world where there is such a basic level of trust in the aver­ age citizen that he would be allowed to wander the streets armed to the teeth as I was.

Returning to the base, I got used to the Nahal Haredi routine. Every morning we would go for early runs by platoons and then pray together as a company. One morning, soon after I joined the Nahal, after the final Kaddish was recited, one of the company NCOs barked, “Zeman limud esrim dakot!” “Learning time, in ten min­ utes!” Sergeants patrolled the syna­ gogue, giving a tongue-lashing to anyone not learning Torah.

Such occurrences were frequent, with instructors yelling for divrei Torah from their soldiers during evening muster, at meals and after davening.

One evening, after a scathing and vituperative rebuke of my platoon’s performance, our Ma”k (drill instruc-

■

Samuel Sokol is a reporter with the Israel Resource News Agency.

Sam uel believes th a t no m atter how m uch m esirut nefesh an ordinary soldier m ay exhibit; nothing can come close to the level attained by a sim ple yeshivah bachur who decides to defend his country. Courtesy o f Samuel Sokol

is in disgust, claiming that we worth teaching and that we ver make proper soldiers. ninutes later his head popped ' inside the door flap of our be called, “Sokol outside!” I fied. What had I done? What ms I in for? “Sokol, have I got you. . . ” It was a shidduch ly in a Jewish army will your mctor offer you a shidduch ites after chewing you out. wer, there is one incident ds out in my mind as an ex‘what it truly means to be a lier. on kitchen duty with the as>the battalion rabbi. As we lied a massive metal concalled an agalat chimum, used ng food warm in an industrial my companion’s fingers were between the agalah and a b. Bleeding profusely-we nd out that his bone had been

ground to powder-he ran, with me trailing behind, desperately trying to find a medic. He was in intense pain, and there was more blood than I care to remember. But the moment that the medic began to treat him and he was no longer required to take an active role in the matter, he immediately began to learn Torah. He removed a small volume of the Zohar from his pocket with his uninjured hand, and started swaying back and forth in intense concentration, Unable to restrain myself, I yelled, “How can you learn at such a time?”

He calmly put down his book and looking me in the eye said, “Gam zu letovah/f “This too is for the best,” and immediately returned to his sefer.

Since then, I have come to realize that no matter how much mesirut nefesh a regular soldier may exhibit, nothing can come close to the level attained by a simple yeshivah bachur who decides to defend his country. H

Summer 5770/2010 JEW ISH ACTION | 45

From N CSY to Nahal Haredi

By Bayla Sheva Brenner

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osh Tresser, nineteen, of Cleveland, Ohio, had plans to graduate public high school, go off to college in Colorado and snowboard to his heart's de­ light. Becoming a Torah-observant Jew and a soldier in the Israeli army was definitely not on his itinerary. As the saying goes, God laughed.

Josh's life dramatically changed direction at the end of his junior year of high school. While working at ?, a sports event, he bumped into a long-lost childhood friend, Raphael (Raffi) Glickman, who was participât- ii ing in the game with a group of NCSYers. Josh hit it off with the friendly assemblage, who convinced him to come to the next Shabbaton. He went, loved it and signed up for NCSY's The Jerusalem Journey (TJJ), a program which took him to Israel for the summer. He came back home with the resolve to return to Israel to learn in a yeshivah for a year and then sign up for the IDF. “It was the best summer of my life,'' he says. “It gave me a greater appreciation for Judaism. And when I saw the soldiers, I knew I wanted to help fight for and protect my country." That fall, he returned to public school wear­ ing a kippah.

Josh's parents supported their son as he took each new step on his Jewish journey. “When I told my mother that I was going to join the Israeli army, she was nervous," says Josh. “My Dad figured it out by himself [that I was inter­ ested in joining]. He said, ‘Listen, if you are thinking about joining the army, I'm totally supportive of it and think it's a great decision.' I was so surprised and happy."

After a year of learning at Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem, Josh enlisted in the IDF through the Nahal Haredi track.

Initially, things didn't run as smoothly as anticipated. “I went into the army not knowing a word of Hebrew," he says.

“The three months of basic training were difficult; it's hard enough on soldiers who speak the language. It didn't matter what you did; you were always doing it wrong and had to pay the consequences, like doing scores of pushups for com­ ing one minute late, when they set it up so that it was in­ evitable you'd come late. I wouldn't want to go through that

■

Bayla Sheva Brenner is senior writer in the OU Communications and Marketing Department.

46 I JEW ISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

a

“I owe my life to NCSY” says Josh Tresser, nineteen, a soldier in Nahal Haredi. Courtesy o f Josh Tresser

again." He now appreciates the method behind the seeming madness. “Out of stressful situations people either shine or they don't," he says.

Apparently, this soldier shined. By the end of basic train­ ing, he felt he was in the right place. “I love it here," he says.

“Everyone is religious in the unit, so you don't feel weird putting on tefillin; there are a lot of good chavrutot. I've maintained my Yiddishkeit, whereas in other units, my Yiddishkeit would have suffered."

“I joined the army hoping to mature, to fend for myself and gain life experience," says Josh. “I hope to become a better person from this. You grow more by giving than by taking. By giving to my country and to the Jewish people, I am forming a bond that I'll have for the rest of my life. It's a powerful experience; I don't think anything else will com­ pare." He plans to make aliyah one day.

When Rabbi Betzalel (“Tzali") Freedman, Central East NCSY regional director, brought a group of NCSYers to Is­ rael recently, Josh grabbed the chance to join them at a Shabbaton. “I owe my life to NCSY," he says. “I don't know where I'd be without it—probably in Colorado going to a secular college." He plans to attend Yeshiva University when he returns to the US after he completes his army serv­ ice this fall.

“Here was a goodhearted Jewish kid who had a limited Jewish education, lost in a sea of secularism," says Rabbi Freedman. “All it took was a kiddush Hashem by a group of NCSYers, and he was ready to soar." H

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A Comedy Writer Who Takes His Judaism Very Seriously

■

mack dab in the middle of a prolific Hollywood career, writing and pro­ ducing such monster-hit shows as Friends, Roseanne and Malcolm in the Middle.

Michael Borkow decided to create a brand new episode in his life-one that featured Torah study, Shabbat and shul. He had long sensed the wisdom and beauty in Judaism, but wasn’t yet sure he believed in God. Keep­ ing his faith issues at bay, he chose to test the waters. He’s glad he did.

Photo: Tim Sullens

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Borkow first began thinking about God when he was an undergraduate at Harvard. “I was in an environment with a lot of bright young people examining all sorts of ideas about the world,” he says. “We’d ask, W hat is true? Is there an absolute right and wrong?’ I didn’t have a religious yearn­ ing or focus.”

Despite his lack of spiritual focus, Borkow felt very Jew­ ish. He reports that starting from childhood he kept “kosherish.” “I would be at a Chinese restaurant with high school friends and when we’d order food to share,” he says, “I’d tell them, ‘I can’t have the pork or shrimp.’” Choosing to differentiate himself in that way paved the path for every “Jewish choice” he’s made since.

Judaism, however, took a back seat while Borkow set out to find his place in the work world. Halfway through his final year at Columbia Law School in Manhattan, Borkow realized he had a problem; the prestigious corporate law firm where he had interned during the summer offered him a high-paying position. Why was that a problem?

“I knew I wouldn’t be happy in that job,” says Borkow.

“And I knew that if I graduated, I would take it.” He took a leave of absence to explore other career possibilities. Hear­ ing that some of his friends from Harvard had landed TV writing jobs on shows like The Late Show with David Letterman and In Living Color, he thought he would “give that a shot.”

Borkow’s been hitting bulls-eyes ever since. His first net­ work job was on Flying Blind, a short-lived sitcom about a Jewish young man from New York who graduated college and didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. Borkow says he had a “great experience” writing for the show and, unlike the show’s protagonist, he felt he had found a viable career option. But his two-year leave of absence from Co­ lumbia was about to expire. It was time to make a decision.

Should he continue writing or complete his law studies?

His show’s executive producer suggested that he enroll in a law school in Los Angeles as a visiting student for his last semester, and continue writing for the series. Borkow informed him that it wouldn’t be possible; the application deadline had passed. “This is Hollywood,” declared his ex­ ecutive producer. “Anything is possible.” Borkow called his agent at William Morris who found out that one of the assis­ tants there knew somebody who knew somebody who knew the assistant dean to admissions at USC Law School.

Borkow was staying in LA. He finished an intense semester juggling law school as­ signments and script writing, picked up his degree in New York and flew west again. “My parents wanted to know when I was going to take the bar,” he says. “A lot of people were asking me that question.” Truth was he was very busy with the bar-Roseanne Barr, that is. His first breakthrough TV job had arrived in the form of executive story editor for Roseanne, a top-ten show at the time. By the time he started working for Friends, as a supervising producer and ulti­ mately executive producer, even his grandmother stopped asking him about the bar.

“My goal was to have a job that was fun, that I could do well,” he says. “I sat in what they call the ‘writers’ room,’

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where I spent the day with a bunch of smart, funny people working on some­ thing creative. I was very happy.”

With his career flourishing, Borkow noticed that every once in a while a writer or agent friend would rave to him about a local course of­ fered called “Introduction to Ju­ daism,” a kind of “Hebrew school for adults.” He decided to go. He learned about Shabbat and immediately took to the idea. “It reminded me of my ex­ perience in Hawaii,” he says. “I re­ member lying on the beach; I felt incredibly relaxed and wondered why I had such a hard time creating that state of mind in my own home. I kept Shabbat one Friday night and there was that feeling.” He was hooked.

The class also “reignited” his inter­ est in Israel. In the fall of2001, while writing for Malcolm in the Middle, he found himself deeply upset over the news of the intifada in Israel, reading reports on the country’s decline in tourism, and the damage done to its economy and morale. He had a week’s vacation due him and wanted to use the time to volunteer in Israel. Unfor­ tunately, he couldn’t find an organiza­ tion willing to train someone who was only going to stay a week. All was not lost. His friend and colleague David Sacks (whose writing and producing credits include The Simpsons; Third Rock from the Sun and Murphy Brown), recommended he spend the week studying Torah at Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah in the Old City.

50 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

“It was a bit of a culture shock,” says Borkow. “I sat down with the managing director of the yeshivah, him with his beard and black hat and me in my shorts and polo shirt.” The director told him all he had to do was keep an open mind and they would take care of the rest; they would set him up with teachers and a learning partner.

Borkow responded that he didn’t think he could keep an open mind.

“My big concern about coming here was that I imagine you guys believe some stuff that I don’t necessarily be­ lieve,” he explained. “And if you are going to try to convince me of that stuff, I know this is not going to go well.” The director reassured him.

“Here’s the deal,” he said. “We believe the Torah is the word of God and that God gave the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai. We believe every word of it. We don’t care what you believe.” Borkow liked the approach and decided to give it a try.

“I enjoyed every moment,” he says.

“I learned how Judaism works-the Torah, the Written and Oral Laws, halachah.” He also got an unexpected, close-up look at Jewish faith in action.

He happened to be at the yeshivah on September 11,2001. “It was a very powerful experience,” says Borkow.

“The rosh yeshivah came in and said: Tf Hashem allowed this to happen, we must not be doing our job.’ Everyone buckled down and became even more highly motivated and focused on their learning. I remember thinking: I don’t

know if I agree with a single premise he just asserted. I don’t know if there is a God. I f there is a God, I don’t know if He had anything to do with 9/11. And if He did, I don’t know if He’d make that deci­ sion based on whether people are learn­ ing Gemara in Jerusalem.

But everyone I knew in New York and Los Angeles spent the week watching CNN, staring at the same im­ ages over and over again, feeling de­ spair, while these people were motivated and hard at work; it just seemed like a much healthier response.

I thought-true or not, there is clearly wisdom here.” m ..Jr

If It's Saturday, * It Must Be Borkow's When Borkow got back to LA, he shared his newfound excitement about Torah learning with his friends Adam Miller, president and CEG of Corner­ stone OnPemand, an award-winning software company, and Jeff Astrof, a fellow TV comedy writer whose cred­ its include Friends, Groundedfor Life and The New Adventures o f Old Chris­ tine. He told them he’d discovered the world’s longest-runningbook club-Ju­ daism. “For the last few thousand years, every week Jews all over the world have been reading the same pages of text,” he said, “and getting to­ gether on Saturday to talk about it.”

Miller suggested they start a club of their own. Borkow promptly offered his home for the following Saturday.

It was an instant hit. Every week, they would study the parashat hashavuah and meet to discuss it. “There was no rabbi; no one pushing any agenda/’ says Borkow. “It was just a bunch of people sharing their thoughts and reac­ tions.” Word of the club spread, and by the following year, dozens of Jews from a variety of backgrounds joined in stimulating discussions while partaking of Borkow’s multi-course Shabbat seudah. “Even though none of us were religious, we formed something of a Jewish commu­ nity,” says Borkow.

The book-club-turned-community strengthened many Jewish identities and impelled Borkow to start keeping Shabbat. In 2003, he moved from Brentwood to a home in Beverly Hills on the outskirts of the Torah-observant neighborhood of Pico-Robertson. Every Shabbat, he walked to Beth Jacob Congregation. Astrof also took the halachic leap; he gave up driving to the gatherings at Borkow’s home and, instead, found an Orthodox synagogue in his own LA community of Hancock Park.

Shabbat may have changed Borkow’s Saturday sched­ ule, but in a TV writer’s world, Friday night was still a work night. He felt increasingly uneasy about working into Shab­ bat, but didn’t feel ready to make an outright commitment.

“To come out and say I don’t work on Friday night anymore felt like a public declaration of something I wasn’t particu­ larly comfortable being public about,” he says. “I hadn’t kept Shabbat fully before and I thought, W hat if in six months I don’t like it? What if I want to go out to a movie or to a restaurant Friday night? If I’m going home from work because I keep Shabbat, obviously I can’t do those things.’”

Despite his qualms, he took the plunge, and met surpris­ ingly calm waters. “You want to keep Shabbat?” asked the show-runner, the TV series supervisor. “More power to you. I envy your faith.” Relieved, Borkow thought it wise not to bring up the fact that he wasn’t sure how one can truly know there is a God. “That was an extreme act of mesirut nefesh” says Rabbi Steven Weil, executive vice president of the Ortho­ dox Union, then rabbi of Beth Jacob Congregation. “The decision didn’t just affect him; it affected the whole writ­ ing team on the show. When he took that on, it was pretty significantJfed Borkow’s move to his new community led to some unanticipated frustration. While attending Rosh Hashanah services that first year, he found himself totally unfamiliar with the Hebrew liturgy and hightailed out of the shul after fifteen maddening minutes. Borkow applied his creativity to finding a solution. The following year, with Rabbi Weil’s support, he launched “The ‘I Wish I Got More out of Serv­ ices’ Services,” sponsored by Beth Jacob and held across the street from the shul. He sent an e-mail out announcing the new “explanatory” High Holiday services to all the Torah book club members and enlisted two friends to serve as rabbi and chazzan.

"The first day of Rosh Hashanah services went well, with one complaint,” says Borkow. “A lot of people ex­ pected that I would be involved in leading the service. I didn’t tell them that the whole point of the service was that I didn’t know what was going on either.” He spent the next

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Summer 5770/2010 JEW ISH ACTION | 51

twenty-four hours cramming all he could find on the topic of Rosh Hashanah so that he could properly colead the next day’s service. “It went pretty well,” says Borkow. Apparently so. When Yom Kippur rolled around, close to one hundred participants filled the room. The service was so popular, he is in the process of establishing a Shabbat version of the minyan.

Finding God in the Mitzvah-Gym By 2006, Borkow found himself at yet another crossroads. He had been working on Joey (a spinoff of Friends) and when the show finished its run, Borkow knew that the obvious next step would be to pitch a new TV pilot idea. On the other hand, he had been actively keeping up with his learning, flying to Israel to attend Bircas HaTorah during his breaks from writing/producing and continuing to learn Torah over the phone. At this point he felt the need to fill in the gaps in his Torah knowledge. “Being so depend­ ent on others to tell me what was in the Talmud was frustrating,” he says.

“I didn’t have the skills to access it myself and knew it would take a lot of effort to develop them. It occurred to me that I could take time off and work on it.”

often would spend night sedarim try­ ing to figure out what had been going on during the day.” While immersed in deciphering God’s laws, he came face to face with a dilemma he had been avoiding his entire life up to that point.

“I never understood how anyone could be certain there was a God,” he says.

“We can’t see Him, feel Him; there is no logical proof. The only position that made any sense to me was agnos­ ticism. It’s hard to be comfortably ag­ nostic in yeshivah.

“One of the hardest things for me and a lot of people raised in a secular environment is that you are taught that truth is relative,” says Borkow. “I have my truth and you have yours. I found this to be very much at odds with Jew­ ish thought, which asserts there is a God and the Torah is true. But I felt, if you can’t prove these things, how can you ‘believe’ in them? Through my study of Chazal on this topic I learned a believer isn’t necessarily someone who is 100 percent certain there is a God. He can be someone who strives for the courage to act and think faithfully de­ spite living in a world that doesn’t offer absolute scientific proof.”

We believe the Torah is the word of God and that God gave the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai; we believe every word of it We don't care what you believe

"I hadn't kept Shabbat fully before and I thought, 'What if in six months I don't like it?

What if I want to go out to a movie or to a restaurant Friday night? If I'm going home from work because I keep Shabbat, obviously i I can't do those things.

He told his agent he was consider­ ing taking off six months to a year to travel and study. To his surprise, his agent urged him to make it two years.

“He told me: ‘That’s life; this is just work; two years from now you should be able to slide back in without a prob­ lem,”’ tells Borkow. “I went for it.”

He focused on mastering Talmud study. “The yeshivah is a unique place; if you’re coming for just a week, they do a great job of holding your hand,” he says. “Being there full time, they did a great job of not holding my hand. I

52

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

of shape.’ The same way the gym is de­ signed to get you into shape-prayer and mitzvot are the tools for strength­ ening one’s belief.” In 2009, Borkow returned to LA a “believer,” Proving his agent right, soon after Borkow’s re-entry into “the industry,” he sold a new TV pilot. His commu­ nity also gladly welcomed their “Shab­ bat show-runner” back. “There was a definite void when he left,” says Miller. “People would say, T miss Borkow’s.’ As his commitment to lead a Torah life grew stronger, those around him couldn’t help but be af­ fected by his understated ability to in­ spire. “When Michael came back from Israel, people referred to him as ‘re­ fined,’” says Astrof. “In Hollywood, they look at those who become reli­ gious as fringe people who need a crutch or who’ve burned out. Here’s a normal guy who is extremely smart and extremely successful and deeply into Orthodox Judaism; he’s saying that he can be part of this world and have a higher purpose. By virtue of the fact that he is able to do both, [he is making] a big kiddush Hashem”

You might say that while in yeshivah, Borkow discovered an anti­ dote to agnosticism. “The impossibil­ ity of scientific certainty about God isn’t a glitch in God’s plan. It isn’t a challenge to faith; it’s the essential starting point for faith,” he says. “If one is having doubts, that can, in fact, be a reason to practice. It doesn’t make sense to say ‘I’m not going to pray be­ cause I’m not sure there’s a God,’just as it wouldn’t make sense to say ‘I’m not going to the gym because I’m out

Traversing the starkly different worlds of Hollywood and Torah can pose some hefty challenges. “There’s a small community offrum writers here; it’s good to have people to turn to,” says Astrof. “Michael asked me how I handle being in the writers’ room, where a lot of gossip goes on and the language can get salacious.

The line I have to walk has become much narrower. Despite that, I believe I can bring kedushah to my work by keeping Shabbat and keeping kosher in a room full of Jews who don’t. I think Michael would agree that it’s a huge opportunity.”

Some say Borkow has become more thoughtful about the content of his writing. “In any job, a Jew has to conduct himself within the bounds of halachah,” says Borkow. “Then the question is: Is my work consistent with

my values? Is it strengthening my values, or undermining and challeng­ ing them? As I became more obser­ vant, I refined my understanding of right and wrong. My writing has al­ ways been, to some extent, values driven. I’ve always wanted it to be meaningful. In TV comedy, some­ times that happens, a lot of times it doesn’t.”

His friends and admirers will at­ test that in “real life,” Borkow exem­ plifies the highest values-and the meaningful parts happen more fre­ quently than not. “In a town where it’s what can you do for me, he asks what can I do for you,” says Astrof.

“People become very jealous of oth­ ers having contacts. Michael won’t hesitate to introduce me to people he thinks could benefit me. He’s truly out to make the world a better place.”

Known for his many acts of quiet generosity, Borkow lends his leader­ ship talents to many organizations including AIPAC and the Ma’aleh School of Television, Film and the Arts in Jerusalem. A Wexner Her­ itage Foundation Fellow, he initiated the Israel Volunteer Corps and he lectures to students in the States and in Israel about his unique Jewish journey.

“This is a guy who was at the cut­ ting edge of his industry and has be­ come a serious ben Torah,” says Rabbi Weil. “There’s a tolerance for being one’s own person in Holly­ wood, being distinct, expressing oneself differently; that’s how these writers can survive.”

Astrof concurs. “People do terri­ ble things here and they’re forgiven,” he says. “I was very happy when Michael got back from Israel and was able to sell a pilot. He’s treated with respect; I imagine since people have a good experience with him they’re willing to overlook the fact that he left to do something crazy like be­ come closer to God.” Borkow asserts that what God wants of him is what He wants from every Jew, “to live according to Torah, to do it well and commit to it fully.” It’s an ongoing script he relishes and intends to follow for a rewarding, mitzvah-filled 120year run. ■

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The Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue, Alexandria, Egypt| 1994. The synagogue on Nabi Daniel Street once served as the central synagogue o f Alexandria.

NCE PROUD AND FLOURISHING, THE JEWISH COMMUNITIES OF EGYPT ARE TODAY ON THE VERGE OF EXTINCTION. WITH A GENEROUS RESEARCH GRANT FROM THE ORTHODOX UNION, DR. ARI GREENSPAN AND RABBI DR. ARI Z. ZIVOTOFSKY RECENTLY VISITED THE DWINDLING EGYPTIAN JEWISH COMMUNITIES OF ALEXANDRIA AND CAIRO TO OFFER HOPE AND ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE FEW REMAINING JEWS AND TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE RICH JEWISH LIFE THAT ONCE WAS.

Dr.Greenspan (right) and Rabbi Dr. Zivotofsky with two o f the four Egyptian policemen who ac­ companied them during their visit to Alexandria.

Courtesy ofAri Z. Zivotofsky

54 | JEW ISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

I ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT

Jews have lived in Alexandria since 332 shortly after the city was first founded. Alexander the Great encour­ aged Jews to move there, and they did in great numbers. Indeed, the Talmud discusses the massive synagogue of Alexandria in which those sitting in thé back could not hear the cantor, so large was the synagogue. Centuries later, in Maimonides’ day, Cairo’s Jewish com­ munity was a center of Jewish com­ merce and scholarship.

BCE,

Dr. Ari Greenspan, a US-trained dentist with a practice in Jerusalem, is a cofounder o f the Ptil Tekhelet Association.

He is also a mohel, shochet and sofer, and has spent more than twenty years collect­ ing Jewish traditions from far-flung Jew­ ish communities.

Rabbi Dr. Ari Z. Zivotofsky; a Jewish Ac­ tion columnist, is on the faculty o f the Brain Science Program atBar-Ilan University. He is also a shochet, has a master's in Jewish history, and writes widely on topics o f Jew­ ish interest.

Even in modern times, Jewish life flourished in Alexandria. Up until the 1940s, as many as 80,000 Jews lived in Egypt,, significantly contributing to the country culturally and economically.

But after the birth of Israel in 1948, and in the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli wars, thousands of Jews fled Egypt.

The shuls were sold, torn down and built over or locked up. Today, there are fewer than fifty Jews—most of whom are intermarried, elderly and poor—left in all of Egypt. Insecure and afraid^ the few Jews left are careful not to draw at­ tention to themselves.

While making travel arrangements we discovered that Israel does not exist on the Egyptian airline web site. De­ spite Egypt’s peace treaty with the Jew­ ish State, relations between the two countries remain tense. The demoniz­ ing of Israel and of Jews is common in the Egyptian press.

A policeman approached us when we arrived at the Alexandria airport, and we soon realized that a police es­ cort had been arranged for us for the

duration of our stay. With the rise of Is­ lamic fundamentalism in the country, we were not ungrateful for the protec­ tion. (In fact, the security situation in Egypt is such that all shuls are heavily guarded at all times.) Interestingly, the locals we met were consistently friendly and gracious. Throughout our day-and-a-half stay in Alexandria, four policemen did not leave our side, not even at 2 : 0 0 a m when we went for a stroll in the still-bustling souk (market): Yosef Gaon, the head of the tiny Jewish community in Alexandria, gave us a fascinating tour of what Jewish Alexandria was like decades ago.

Today, the sole intact shul in Alexandria is the 150-year-old Eliyahu Hanavi Sephardic synagogue. One of the largest synagogues in the Middle East, the magnificent building sits within a courtyard that once contained the Jewish school, the mikvah and the various communal offices.

A viable Jewish community needs a variety of institutions, and Alexandria has at least one very useful one: a well-

Photos* exce p t w here nested otherw ise, w ere taken % Sh kxn o

The form er B et D in o f the Jew ish com m unity in Alexandria.

Taifz* Is ra e l (B e k' H a tfitiso t Photo A rch iv e ).

Entrance to Sha’a r H asham ayim synagogue, Cairo, The site is protected by Egyptian security guards.

stocked and organized Jewish library.

It is unfortunately not used much (al­ though we greatly enjoyed leafing through the tomes), and the Egyptian government prefers that it remain locked. But there are over a dozen bookcases full of Jewish books includ­ ing Gemarot, the ShulchanAruch and hundreds of books of responsa. How­ ever, you will not find books published

within the past fifty years. Everything in the library is older than that; many are 150 years old and older. The exis­ tence of such an impressive library in­ dicates that the kehillah in Alexandria was once vibrant and learned.

We noticed roll-on stampers used to designate kosher meat among the ar­ tifacts our guide showed us. Not too long ago, Alexandria had its own

kosher slaughtering house under local rabbinic supervision, but sadly, today, there is no one left in Alexandria to support such an enterprise.

We had another capable, if un­ usual, guide, in addition to Gaon: Abed Al Nabi, a Muslim from southern Egypt, who has worked for the Jewish community for decades and speaks flu­ ent Hebrew. Nabi took us to see the mikvah in the community compound, which still exists but is no longer in use. He also showed us the matzah­ making machinery, which is rusty and old, but still in the community’s pos­ session. The communal offices include a “court room” where the beit din used to convene and a large communal school building, which is today used as a Muslim school. The guided tour through the once Jewish buildings led by a Hebrew-speaking Egyptian was somewhat surreal.

Sixty sifrei Torah from all the shuls in Alexandria have been collected by the government and are now housed in the Eliyahu Hanavi Sephardic syna­ gogue. The only other remaining shul

Alexandria’s Jew ish cem eteries are in vari­ ous states o f disrepair Courtesy o f Art Z. Zivotofsky

56

JEW ISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

TheTeva(detail),

Synagogue, Cairo.

in town is run down and, although still guarded fry police, appears slated for destruction. The city has three Jewish cemeteries in various states of disre­ pair. Many tombstones are cracked, but the cemeteries are not entirely neg­ lected. Non-Jewish caretakers tend to the cemeteries and live on the ceme­ tery grounds. The vastness of the cemeteries and the magnificence of many of the tombstones attest to the impressive size and affluence of the community that once existed.

During our visit, we heard a fasci­ nating story about a Jewish Anussah, or Marrano, who was taken by a Muslim man as a young girl and wed to him against her will. Although she had to convert to Islam, she stubbornly kept her Jewish soul alive for all sixty years of her married life. During that time, she could not live a Jewish life and even her three daughters do not know that they are Jewish. However, ever since her husband died, she began at­ tending shul. Unfortunately, as she lives among Muslims, she was too afraid to meet with us.

to complete. The mikvah in the base­ left of their own accord, hoping for a ment is still in a terrible state of disre­ brighter future elsewhere. pair. The restoration of the women’s Within this crowded city, one can still find a number of synagogues. We gallery is in progress, and visitors are not allowed in. However, the president CAIRO visited the oldest and most famous We left Alexandria via train and of the Cairo Jewish community, Car­ synagogue in Cairo: the Ben Ezra headed to Cairo, a filthy, noisy metrop­ men Weinstein, graciously arranged Synagogue, thought to date back to olis of close to seven million people.

882, located in the Fustat area of Cop­ for us to visit the women’s gallery and Cairo is home to one of the world’s see the entrance to the “attic” where tic Cairo, the old Jewish neighbor­ oldest Jewish communities. It is not the genizah was found. hood. Today no services are held known exactly when the Jewish com­ While we were there, many groups there. The Rambam used to pray and munity of Cairo was first established, hold court in this shul, and but it was certainly many centuries in 1896 the famous “Cairo ago. Currently, no more than a score of Genizah,” one of the most elderly women comprise the Cairo valuable troves of historical Jewish community. The majority of documents ever discovered, the city’s Jews were driven out was found in its women’s decades ago by mob Violence and state-sponsored persecution related to gallery.

For the better part of the the Israeli-Arab conflict. Many Jews twentieth century, the build­ were evicted or arrested; their bank ing was left to deteriorate. accounts were frozen and properties However, in 1983, following were seized. Reverberations from the Camp David Accords, the some of these seizures are still being Egyptian government real­ felt. (An example is the ongoing litiga­ ized the historical value of tion being handled by Nathan Lewin the shul and began to restore on behalf of Refael Bigio, an Egyptian it, down to its marble pillars The Egyptian Jewish Heritage Library. Cairo.

Jew who is accusing Coca-Cola of ille­ and ceiling painted in muted The portrait ofpresident Hosni Mubarak, is displayed gally benefiting from his factory that in the library, which is located in the Sha’ar greens and reds—a project was nationalized in 1962 by Nasser s Hashamayim synagogue. that took more than ten years regime.) Many other Egyptian Jews Summer 5770/2010 JEW ISH ACTION | 57

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ORTH O DO X U N IO N nimn Enhancing Jewish Life

Lcom

The Orthodox Union Family w ill pay tribute to the historic contributions o f

z n me

15th Annual Zakkai Honor Society National Scholarship Reception Sunday, Januaiy 30,2011

1940s, upper-class Jews would fill its pews on Shabbat. On a recent Shabbat, it was empty. On rare occasions, such as when the Israeli embassy makes a request, minyanim are held there. The government uses it for all Jewish “functions” and thus it was there that Israeli POWs were paraded in the af­ termath of the Yom Kippur War. This past February, a makeshift bomb was thrown at the historic shul, but fortu­ nately it failed to detonate.

Kosher food is not available in Cairo. The Jewish school ceased func­

tioning over fifty years ago, and we were told that it is dangerous to visit the Jewish cemetery—not a promising future for a Jewish community.

What is left of this once-grand Jew­ ish community? Books. There are three significant Jewish libraries in Cairo.

Books from many of the now-de­ stroyed shuls were collected and in 1989, a 7,000-book library was estab­ lished. In 1997, a 3,000-volume library was inaugurated next to the Ben Ezra Synagogue, and a smaller library exists next to the large Karaite synagogue. H

W e w ill also present our inductees and honorées, and celebrate a half century o f sustained involvem ent w ith NCSY by four 1961 NCSY’ers: RIVKAH 8 . (RABBI) ZEV LEFF Ezra Ben-Zion Lightman M emorial Award VIVIAN 8 . DAVID LUCHIN S Sarah Rivkah 8 . Dr. Bernard Lander M emorial Award

of tourists—mostly Asian and Euro­ pean-flowed in and out. Interestingly, we did not see any Jewish, American or Israeli tourist groups.

In recent years, the Egyptian gov­ ernment has come to accept that pre­ serving the country’s rich Jewish heritage and religious sites is its re­ sponsibility since the tiny Jewish com­ munity there lacks the funds to do so.

A yeshivah and shul known as “Rav Moshe,” one of Cairo’s most historic synagogues, and the grand-looking Karaite synagogue of Cairo were re­ cently restored by the Egyptian gov­ ernment and rededicated. The government pledged to restore six more synagogues in the next two years. There are several other shuls in Cairo, but most are dilapidated and closed to the public. The one excep­ tion is the Sha’ar Hashamayim syna­ gogue, also known as the Adli Street Synagogue, founded more than one hundred years ago. A structure of gray stone, the synagogue has carpeted floors and gold-painted walls. In the The Ashkenazi Synagogue, Cairo.

Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION | 59

T rib u te

By M enachem Genack

A Builder Par E xc

Dr. Ben Lander.

I 9 1 5 - 2 O IO

L

ifty years ago, when I was in high school and Dr. Bernard Lander was the dean of Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel Graduate School, we would often ride together to the YU campus.

During the drive, Dr. Lander would often speak about building his own college. Even as a teenager I thought, “He is a dreamer ”A proud father, he would talk about his children and share divrei Torah from his very preco cious son, Doniel.

A former US senator was the first person to call me with the news that Dr. Lander had passed away. He told me he had never met a person of such character.

Rabbi Menachem Genack is rabbinic administrator and CEO, OUKosher.

60 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

Courtesy o f Tomo College Archives

What defined Dr. Lander?

A rare individual, Dr. Lander was willing to take on every challenge. In Washington Heights, bordering the YU campus is the Palisades, which many YU students used to try to climb. The precipice is so steep that, tragically, one student died trying to climb it. As a col­ lege student, Dr. Lander would runup the cliff—the steeper the mountain, the greater the challenge. Dr. Lander was always there to carry on the challenge.

Dr. Lander was perpetually youth­ ful. As Rabbi Abraham Besdin once re­ marked, Dr. Lander was the founder and president of a university, and yet he played marbles with his children.

He was like Merlin. Merlin never aged—he only became more youthful.

Dr. Lander was so brilliant, and yet so unpretentious. A Yeshiva College

graduate, Dr. Lander received semichah from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theo­ logical Seminary in 1938. Soon after, Rav Moshe Soloveichik asked the young Dr. Lander to come to Boston to be the rav of a shul in the kehillah that Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik oversaw. At the time, Dr. Lander had been accepted to Harvard Law School. In the end he decided that he couldn’t afford the tu­ ition at Harvard; he also felt that his Yiddish wasn’t good enough to serve as rav of a shul where the Rav would oc­ casionally daven.

He went on to become a significant scholar, earning his PhD in sociology from Columbia University. Yet, he was­ n’t a pie-in-the-sky academic in an ivory tower; he was an academic who built an ivory tower. He was, as he once said of himself and as was quoted in his New York Times obituary, “a visionary with his feet on the ground.”

He loved Torah. He was a prized talmid of Rav Moshe Soloveichik. He took pride in the fact that Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik would say that when he came to these shores, Dr. Lander was one of his first friends. The Rav and Dr. Lander had a lifelong friendship.

Dr. Lander had an extraordinary prophetic quality. He was always situ­ ated in the future. He was at the crucial meeting with Dr. Pinchas Churgin when Bar-Ilan University was first conceived of. He was instrumental in starting many of YU’s graduate schools.

He founded Yeshiva Rabbi Dov Revel in Queens and was one of the founders of the Queens Jewish Center.

Dr. Lander created Touro College four decades ago, an institution that educates more than 17,000 students in twenty-nine locations around the world. But he was grossly underpaid.

As a board member of Touro College, I know how absurdly low his salary was, but he refused to accept a significant raise. He lived simply, and money was unimportant to him.

OU Senior Vice President Rabbi Dr. Simcha Katz, from Teaneck, tells how he was once with Dr. Lander on a cruise to Alaska. At one point, the ship Continued on page 63

■ D r. T.fin d e r’s none of these giants were involved for as many years as Dr. Lander, whose last OU convention in 2006 in Jerusalem was sixty-six years after his first one in Atlantic City in 1940.

Of all of Dr. Lander’s many achievements at the OU, the served as a director or officer since 1938 (at his death he had served on the Union’s Board for sev­ one he was proudest of was his role in creating and nurturing NCSY He often spoke of the 1954 OU Convention enty-two of the organization’s one where he helped Harold Boxer convince hundred and twelve years). I knew a skeptical plenary session to endorse the that he had played a pivotal role in the concept of a nationwide Orthodox syna­ creation of NCSY in 1954.1 had heard ■I gogue youth movement. He served for that he had used his extensive con­ over twenty years on the Joint Youth tacts in the Civil Rights movement Commission, fightingto ensure that (he had been New York’s City’s first NCSY received die support it needed to human rights commissioner) to help i ■ f survive, including the historic decision to ensure that Martin Luther King’s his­ i hire Rabbi Pinchas Stolper in 1959 and toric 1963 March on Washington ■ l backing his insistence on uniform halachic would be held on a Wednesday in­ pm I S standards at all NCSY programs (how stead of on Shabbat. I would later m MÊÊÈ strange it is to remember when mixed learn that he had been a prime force ■ dancing and mixed swimming were burn­ in crafting the Maclver Report of H ing issues in NCSY).

1951 that helped create the current As soon as Touro College opened in structure of local and national Jew­ 1970, Dr. Lander insisted on providing ish community councils. However, I K “NCSY Leadership Scholarships” to enable had no way of suspecting in 1964, NCSY officers to attend the new college. that within a few years, I would be From left: OU Honorary Vice President Dr. Over 200 NCSY graduates have received joining Dr. Lander in his audacious Bernard Lander; OU Senior Vice President Dr these scholarships during the past forty dream of creating Touro College, David Luchins and Hubert Humphrey, the years.

And he ensured that Touro cospon­ an adventure which continues to 38th Vice President of the United States, who sored and helped fund numerous NCSY provide me with both employment served under President Lyndon B. Johnson, at programs, including Machon Ma’ayan Sem­ and intense personal satisfaction. the 1973 OU National Dinner/ inary in Israel, the annual weeklong Yarchei Dr. Lander was the last survivor Courtesy o f Dr. David Luchins Kallah learning program in December, Yom of an intrepid band of AmericanNCSY in Jerusalem for summer program born Jewish children of the De­ participants and specific projects in almost every NCSY re­ pression who would boldly assume the mantle of lay gion from coast to coast. leadership of American Orthodoxy in the post-war era.

One evening in the spring of 1997,1 received a phone call Tested by privation, tempered by the twilight struggle against from Dr. Lander urging me to call my rebbi, Rav Ahron fascism and communism, they would succeed in building a Soloveichik to wish him a happy eightieth birthday. I was de­ vibrant Torah community in the very North American envi­ lighted to do so and promptly called Rav Ahron who asked ronment in which so many “experts” had declared it could me how I was aware of this occasion, which he assured me never survive, much less flourish. he had never publicized.

When I told him that Dr. Lander Harold H. Boxer, Samuel Lawrence Brennglass, Moses I. was the source of my “inside information,” he began to laugh Feuerstein, Nathan K. Gross, Harold Jacobs, Dr. Bernard and declared “historians in future generations will have Lander. They all became involved in the OU in the years just heated arguments over how many people named Bernard before or just after the Second World War, and they are now Lander were active during the last half the twentieth century. all gone. But what a legacy they leave! How they defied all No one will even consider that it was just one man-rather odds and helped create and shape the contemporary Ortho­ they will postulate that there was a Rabbi Bernard Lander dox Union: OU Kosher; NCSY; a vigorous Orthodox voice in who allocated yeshivot and Jewish colleges, a Dr. Bernard public policy; an Orthodox presence on college campuses; Lander who founded law schools and medical schools and a the Seymour J. Abrams OU Jerusalem World Center. And lay leader named Bernard Lander who was deeply involved in communal affairs.”

Dr. David Luchins, a senior vice president of the OU, is professor “But,” said Rav Ahron, “I must add a fourth person for and chair of the Political Science Department at Touro College in them to ponder-Dov Beresh Lander, who remembers his New York, and was a senior advisor toformer US Senator Daniel classmates’ birthdays sixty years after they sat together in my Patrick Moynihan. father’s shuir”

■

first met Dr. Bernard Lander at the Orthodox Union’s 1964 Biennial Convention in Washington, DC. He was already a legend in OU circles, having

—

J Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION

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g jW ü iP l

|T

1929 class photo, Rabbi Jacob Joseph School Dr. Lander is in the second rowfrom the

top, thefourth person from the right Courtesy o f Touro College Archives

By M oshe D, K rupka

abbi Elazar ben Shamua was asked by M H lI " discipks to explain his exceptional longevity. He told them, “In all my days I never took a shortcut through a syna­ gogue; I never stepped over the students [who sat on the floor to listen to his dis­ cussions], and I never raised my hands [for Birkat Kohanim] without first recit­ ing a berachah” (Megillah 27b).

This Talmudic passage came to mind when I was asked to contribute my thoughts about Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander. Rabbi Elazar ben Shamua was a Historic figure-one of the five young students whom Rabbi Akiva ordained after the defeat of Bar Kochba and the deaths of his 24,000 beloved talmidim.

Rabbi Elazar lived a long and produc­ tive life transmitting the mesorah, the oral tradition of Rabbi Akiva, to the generations that would finally commit it to writing under the leadership of Rabbi Yehudah HaNassi.

Dr. Bernard Lander played a simi­ lar role. He lived a long and extraordi­ narily productive life, providing an Rabbi Moshe D. Krupka is senior vicepres­ identfor college affairs at Touro College.

62 | JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

essential link between the struggling Orthodoxy of pre-war America and the flourishing Torah community, for which he did much to nurture and sus­ tain. Over the decades, he was the liv­ ing link between a world that had been and the magnificent new world he was helping forge.

I first met Dr. Lander over thirty years ago when I became active in NCSY, the OU’s international youth organization, which he helped create in 1954.1 came to know him well dur­ ing my years as associate national di­ rector of NCSY and then as national executive director of the OU. For the past three years I was privileged to work closely with him at Touro Col­ lege as his senior vice president of col­ lege affairs.

I never took a shortcut through a synagogue

Dr. Lander came of age in a world set on making “shortcuts” through our tradition. Many, if not most, of his generation came to the conclusion that only compromises and conces­ sions would enable Orthodoxy to sur­ vive, albeit in a watered-down version. Dr. Lander rejected this atti­

tude. Inspired by his father’s mesirut nefesh to keep Shabbat during the darkest hours of the Depression, re­ sponding to the message of his rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik, he never deviated from uncompromising com­ mitment to Torah values. To Dr. Lan­ der, submission to halachah and mesorah was not a catch phrase. It was at the core of his being, work ethic and vision for Klal Yisrael.

In Touro College’s early days, at a time o f financial crisis, a wealthy board member demanded that Dr. Lander merge the Men’s and Women’s Divisions o f the College. “I will meet your entire deficit,” he said. “But if you don’t do so, I am re­ signing.”Dr. Lander, to whom sepa­ rate gender classes was a matter of principle, calmly told him that his resignation was accepted.

I never stepped over the students Dr. Lander’s kevod habriyot, his re­ spect for every human being created b’Tzelem Elokim, was legendary. From his days serving on Mayor LaGuardia’s first Human Rights Commission to his work on behalf of the Civil Rights movement to his creation of creative

Continuedfrom page 60 educational programs to reach un­ ity to find creative ways to allow derserviced segments of the Jewish others to assist themselves. and general communities, he was Whether it was Touro College’s pio­ governed by a compelling desire to neering programs in the Chassidic treat every person with dignity Community or the Machon Lander and respect.

School servicing the Chareidi keWhile visiting with Dr. Lander; a hillot in Eretz Yisrael, this message non-Jewish visitor from a Euro­ of self-empowerment of the disen­ pean country complained o f se­ franchised has transformed thou­ vere headaches. Dr. Lander sands of families throughout the immediately called a leading world. Most recently, when girls Manhattan physician, a member from the former Soviet Union o f his vast circle o f contacts. needed a place to study in the New Within minutes the visitor was on York City area, Dr. Lander arranged the way to the physician's office for a fully-subsidized academic pro­ in Dr. Lander's car and from there gram geared to their special needs. to Mount Sinai Hospital, where a A decade ago, Chechnya terrorists life-saving procedure was carried attacked a theater in Moscow. The out. The visitor's health insurance daughter o f an employee at did not cover costs overseas. Dr. Touro's Moscow campus was Lander instructed that all med­ killed in this tragedy, and her body ical bills be sent to his attention. was flown to the United States for • •' • burial. Dr. Lander quietly under­ When Yachad/The National Jew­ wrote the funeral arrangements, ish Council for Disabilities, the sent a minyan o f college employ­ Oil's program dedi­ ees to the ceremony, cated to addressing the and, a participant reneeds o f all individu­ j ports, eulogized the als with disabilities, l young woman, whom needed a home for its l he had never met, “as vocational training though she were his program for special own daughter." needs young adults, The SefatEmet Dr. Lander was ap­ explains that Rabbi proached to house the Elazar ben Shamua program at the Lan­ never performed der College o f Arts Birkat Kohanim by and Sciences in rote. Even though he Brooklyn. He gra­ Bernard Lander at age 13. conferred his blessing Courtesy o f Touro College ciously housed the on Knesset Yisrael Archives program for years, each day it never be­ free o f charge. His one came mundane, proviso: “Make this an excellent rather, his concentration and intent program; give these developmenwere squarely fixed on the task be­ tally challenged members o f our fore him -to bestow the Almighty’s community every opportunity to blessing upon his people. This was integrate and succeed within the probably the greatest talent that Dr. Jewish and general communi­ Lander possessed. His entire focus ties." For Dr. Lander, enabling was to use each and every day to its - the individual" was his life's fullest potential. No task was mun­ mission. dane, no issue trivial, no detail in­ significant. He was consistently I never raised my hands [for fully focused on the task at hand, and in particular, to enhance all Birkat Kohanim] without first that he did on behalf of the Jewish reciting a berachah [levarech et people and humanity, like Rabbi Amo Yisrael b'ahavah] Elazar ben Shamua, with the bless­ Dr. Lander’s love for other Jews was ing of “b'ahavah." reflected in his extraordinary capac­

passed Sitka, an Alaskan city accessible only by air or sea.

Dr. Katz turned to Dr. Lander.

“I don’t see a Touro College here,” he said.

“Not yet,” Dr. Lander replied.

There was nothing denominational or small about Dr. Lander. He was spread over many communities. He didn’t recog­ nize divisions. He was close with Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, who encouraged him to start Touro, and with the Bobover Rebbe. At the same time, he was friends with Nobel Prize-winning scientists.

A few years ago Touro College invested millions of dollars to create a new proton machine to cure cancer. The project cost a quarter of a billion dollars. I asked him: How are we going to do this? How are we going to get the resources? But nothing stopped him. He thought big, and he wanted to make a significant contribution for mankind. There were a lot of hurdles and, ultimately, the project was aban­ doned. Nevertheless, about two years ago, Dr. Lander and I attended a parlor meet­ ing for Senator Blanche Lincoln from Arkansas. Dr. Lander sat down next to the senator and started discussing the cancer machine, and ways to procure funding. He never gave up. Like Churchill said: Never give in—never, never, never, never.

Dr. Lander was also a man of great courage. A few years ago, Touro was em­ broiled in a controversial issue that at­ tracted national attention. The college was not at fault. But I was very concerned about the negative publicity and how it would affect us. Dr. Lander didn’t flinch. It was as if he had ice water in his veins. We were simply going to move forward.

Chazal say that Hadrian, the Roman emperor who destroyed the BeitHamikdash and attempted to destroy Jewish reli­ gious life, was once passing through Eretz Yisrael on his way to war (Tanchuma, ParashatKedoshim). He saw an old man planting a fig tree and called out, “Old man, why are you planting a tree? You will never live to see its fruit.” The old man, a devoted Jew, replied that if he merits it, he will live to see the figs; if not, his children will enjoy them. Three years later, Hadrian returned from war. The old man filled a basket with figs from the tree and brought it to the emperor. Hadrian, im­ pressed, instructed that his basket be filled with gold coins.

Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION | 63

Jewish destiny; that's why he kept planting.

That old man was Dr. Lander's an­ tecedent. It is, in part, because of Dr. Lander that Jewish life in America is flourishing. He was the kind of person who could climb cliffs, meet chal­ lenges and build Torah.

Even after half a century, he was the Rabbi YosefDov Soloveitchik, Rabbi DovidLipshitz, Rabbi same Bernie Lander.

Yerucham Gorelick, and Dr. Bernard Lander at Rabbi Menachem He still spoke glow­ Genack’s wedding,; March 1976. ingly about his son Courtesy o f Rabbi Menachem Genack and daughters—but, in his later years, he When reprimanding the old man, would also boast about his grandchil­ Hadrian was implicitly saying that dren. Well into his nineties, he was the Jewish history is at an end and has no same adoring father and grandfather, future. But the old man believed in a

the same dreamer, the same builder.

He kept building and building and building. Though macular degenera­ tion had robbed him of his sight, it did not diminish his vision. He would say that in America, the secular college campuses are the crematoria of Jewish religious life. It took courage, guts and a sense of mission to start Touro Col­ lege at the age of fifty-five. It was be­ cause of that sense of mission that he built Touro, against all odds. Of course, he accomplished all that he did with the support of his devoted wife, Sarah Rebecca.

Out of his sheer genius, he built Torah and built to preserve Jewish life.

W hen he started, others prophesied that the effort would be stillborn. But he created Touro, not with Merlin's magic, but with courage, stamina and faith.

He was a man of historical propor­ tions, He will be sorely missed. HI

In His Own W o rd s. . .

By Bernard Lander have attended almost thirty OU biennial conven­ tions over the past sixty-five years but none, in retrospect, was as significant as the Thanksgiving weekend of 1954 when two hundred delegates gathered in Atlantic City.

It was not an easy time to speak of an Ortho­ dox Jewish future in North America. Changing demographics, the rush to suburbia and the devastating im­ pact of the college campus were all taking their tolls.

Teenagers and young adults were leaving Orthodox syna­ gogues in droves-despite the desperate efforts of wellmeaning individuals who tried to water down Torah Judaism in an effort to adapt and survive. It was against this background that a new generation of leadership took charge of the OU that weekend. My college friend Moses I. Feuerstein of Brookline, Massachusetts, was elected president; Samuel Lawrence Brennglass of Massena, New York, and I were elected as vice presidents; Harold H. Boxer, an attor­ ney from Queens, New York, was elected national secretary.

All four of us knew things had to change if the OU was to re­ main relevant.

It was Harold Boxer who had first raised the issue of a national youth movement. He, and his wife, Enid, had travThis e ssa y is re p rin te d fro m th e jo u rn a l p u b lish ed f o r N C S Y ’s Ben Z a k k a i H o n o r S o ciety D inner; Jan u ary 2010.

64 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

eled around the coun­ try and knew that there were function­ ing youth groups af­ filiated with Orthodox synagogues in the South and in the Midwest, in Dr. Bernard Lander speaking at the Chicago, in Eastern 2008 OUNational Dinner.

Pennsylvania and in Upstate New York.

Gould we not create a national youth movement using these existing groups as our charter members? At the con­ vention, the New York City delegates were skeptical [about the resolution to create such a movement], but the dele­ gates from out of town were outspoken and enthusiastic.

One by one they rose to tell of how badly they needed such an effort, of how Orthodox Judaism would not survive in their communities if it did not happen.

The OU's new President Moses Feuerstein weighed in, as we knew he would, with his strong support, reminding the cynics that his father Samuel had faced similar criticism when he started Torah U'Mesorah a decade earlier. The reso­ lution passed by a significant majority, and Harold Boxer was appointed the first chair of the NCSY Youth Commission. The rest, as they say, is history...

SERVING THE GREATER NEW YO RK AREA

with Parkside Memorial Chapels and the Chevra Kaddisha of the Vaad Harahonim o f Queens, N Y

CALL 1-877'L E V A Y A -O U .8 0 0 .5 3 8 .2 9 2 6 * Faharain Brooklyn is performed by the Chevra Kaddisha of the Va ad Harrabonim of Fiatbush

ORTHODOX U N IO N rmyfti Enhancing Jewish Life

H ig h lig h ts o

Mission to Washington his past February, representatives of Yachad/National Jewish Council for Disabilities traveled to Washington, DC to advocate on behalf of the Jew­ ish disabled population and to educate legislators about its educational, social and other needs. The trip, coordi­ nated by the OU’s Institute for Public Affairs (IPA), was part of Yachad/NJCD?s NAIM (North American Inclu­ sion Month) initiative.

“The primary purpose of the mission was to connect with key movers and shakers to help them understand what the needs of the disabled community are and why it is so vital to respond to them /' says Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman, Na­ tional Director of Yachad/NJCD. The mission aimed at promoting the passage of various pressing bills that directly affect the special needs popula­ tion’s quality of life. Prior to the trip, Congress had passed a resolution, introduced by Congressman Edolphus Towns (D-NY), designating February as North American Inclu­ sion Month.

Some of the issues participants raised include increas­ ing federal funding for special education, which hasn’t seen an increase in two decades; ensuring that optimal ed­ ucational services are provided and encouraging busi­ nesses to employ individuals with special needs—a population suffering from an 80 percent unemployment rate—by offering tax incentives.

The Yachad/NJCD advocates, who came from around the country, consisted of Yachad staff, Yachad members and their family members as well as high school volunteers.

T

N A I M a rticip a n ts m ee t w ith S en a to r Ben C ardin (D -M D ) to discuss p re ssin g issu es in th e Jew ish d isa b led com m un ity. A aron K inderlehrer, O U N a tio n a l A sso cia te Vice P residen t an d Y achad B oard C hairm an; Dr. Jeffrey L ich tm an , N a tio n a l D irecto r o f Y ach ad/N JC D ; S en ator Cardin a n d R abbi Steven B u rg O U M a n a g in g D irecto r an d N C S Y In tern a tio n a l Director.

After meeting NAIM participants, Congressman Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ) agreed to sign on to one of the mission’s targeted bills that would allow families with special needs children to set up a tax-free trust account to cover health care, and other vital life expenses.

“Congress was very receptive to the participants on this mission,” says Maury Litwack, Deputy Director, IPA. “Over one hundred members of Congress participated in NAIM through the Congressional resolution and individual meet­ ings with YACHAD participants and staff. It is rare in Washington to make a positive introduction and get some­ thing done, but this mission excelled at both. We still have elected officials calling our office as a result of this mission: Photos: L lo y d W o lf

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

I ¡Ü

' I ISS 1 1 D U

'' H I

H 0£&£B

Dr. L (D-B Suss> and I

:Jonatl C hairr n, Yacl Vlembe

Yachad P rogram D irecto r o f Vocational Services Toby S c h w a rtz explaining th e need to p ro v id e g re a ter em p lo ym en t op portu n ities f o r those w ith special needs. P ictu red above: From left: M ichaeleen E arle C row ell, L egislative D irector o f C ongressm an John L ew is (D -G A ); Mr. Suss; Mr. P iltz, an d M s. S ch w artz.

M a u ry L itw a ck , D e p u ty Director, O U In stitu te f o r P ublic Affairs, briefin g N A I M p a rticipan ts.

Ôtiàim '§îeibermcfhjrpm Brooklyn.

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“When I was told about the mission, 1 knew I needed to | go”says eighteen-year-old Samantha Barth, Chair of the } Yachad Youth Leadership Council, and one o f the youngest members of the NAIM mission to Washington. “Lwanted the congressmen to see that I ’m taking time offfrom school be­ cause this is something I’m passionate about. I believejust being there and showing that you care makes a difference.” k Above, Eliana Porath, Director of School Programs, Yachad/NJCD’s Individualized Vocational Development Unit (IVDU) Schools; Dr. Michelle Orgel, Yachad Coordinator, Family and Clinical Services, and Ms. Barth.

Congressman Scott

joys a moment with Mr. Gleiberman.

Some of the NAIM participants meet with Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL). From left: Nicole Bodner, Program Director, Rayim Yachad; Esther Schlanger, Yachad Board of Directors; Yehuda Charm, Director of New York Yachad; Mr. Kinderlehrer; Mr. Gross; Congress­ man Diaz-Balart; Rachel Mendelson, Board Member of Yachad’s Youth Leadership Council; and Ruth Gross, Yachad parent.

68 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5 7 7 0 / 2 0 Î0

N EW BOOKS FR O M

OJ

OUPRESS

interest in that extensive study and you simply want to learn quickly what Tanach is all about, this is still the book for you. Call it the Cliffs Notes to the Jewish Bible. It’s the short and interesting version, which will hopefully whet your appetite and draw you to intensify your study of the greatest book of all time.

OPENING UP THE TORAH

THE BIBLE IN BRIEF

The Nadi Yomi Companion

The Nach Yomi Companion, Volumes 1-2

Volume 2; Kesuvim - W ritings

Xlibris; OU Press hen I was young I received as a gift a book called The Children's Bible that was a thousand-or-so page condensed version of Tanach. I found it fascinating and read the thick booknot once but twice. Its attraction was due to its simple lan­ guage. It certainly lacked the thee’s and thou’s of old translations but also much of the complexities of the narra­ tive and poetry that make navigating Tanach difficult. It was a simplified and shortened Bible that was easy to digest and even entertaining. The closest you can find to that today is The Living Torah (Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan) and The Living Nach (Rabbi Yaakov Elman), both of which contain an idiomatic translation of Tanach into contemporary English. But even these works provide a word-by-word translation so they con­ tain—forgive me for expressing something we have all guiltily thought at some time—the less engaging parts as well.

Rabbi Jack Abramowitz’s recent books, The Nach Yomi Companion, Volume 1: Neviim—Prophets and Volume 2: Kesuvim—Writings, are chapter-by-chapter summaries of the Prophets and Writings sections of the Bible. Rabbi Abramowitz, associate director of the Pepa and Rabbi Joseph Karasick Department of Synagogue Services at the OU, has a keen sense of readers’ abilities to absorb material and attention spans. He knows when to be brief (i.e., skip) and when to give details. Aside from condensing the text, he also briefly explains the meaning of the contents, often uti­ lizing a variety of commentaries. The key to his success, ) however, is not in his summarizing and explaining but rather in his understanding of what speaks to people today. His writing is filled with tasteful puns and pop-culture refer­ ences, and also with lessons that are very relevant to our daily lives. What emerges is not just a summary of the Bible or a commentary on it. It is an application of Tanach to today’s world, a lesson in the eternal value of the Bible.

The books were conceived as companions to the OU’s Nach Yomi regimen, in which followers study one chapter of Bible a day. The OU web site contains short lectures by great teachers corresponding to the Nach Yomi schedule, all of which are archived for future use. But even if you have no

»

R a b b i Gil S tu d en t is m an agin g e d ito r o f O U Press.

Unlocking the Torah Text, Volumes 1-3 OU Press and Gefen rofessor Nechama Leibowitz was a ground-breaking pedagogue who revolutionized the way we teach and study Tanach. She changed not just how we look at the sacred words of the Bible but also how we understand the relationship between the classic commentators and the text. Consistently in her teaching and writing, she surveyed various views of the commentators, discussing the textual bases for their comments and occasionally adding her own thoughts to the conversation. Very often, she also placed the discussion within an ethical and theological perspective, teaching timely lessons to her audience.

There is a writer today who I think is stylistically very close to Nechama. Rabbi Shmuel Goldin has published three volumes of Unlocking the Torah Text: An In-Depth Journey Into the Weekly Parsha, Bereishit and Shemot in prior years and most recently, Vayikra. On reading Rabbi Goldin’s books, I have found that he follows Nechama’s approach fairly closely, albeit making his steps more obvious and therefore his methodology more transparent.

In each of the several essays per Torah portion, Rabbi Goldin briefly describes the context of the narrative, pro­ ceeds to a number of questions on the text, and then offers multiple approaches (sometimes as many as seven) to resolv­ ing these problems. Generally, each approach is based on at least one midrash or commentator and Rabbi Goldin shows how the interpreters) reacts to the text in formulating his explanation. Occasionally, Rabbi Goldin will offer his own original approach. Finally, very often he concludes an essay with a section called “Points to Ponder,” where the educator in him tries to help readers think about the contemporary relevance of the text and commentaries. This is particularly prevalent in Vayikra, where he manages to take arcane topics and subject them to a philosophical analysis that uncovers lessons that are relevant to our lives today.

Rabbi Goldin uses an exciting language that is intelligent but not obscure and focuses on telling the story of the text and commentaries. He takes readers by the hand and shows them not just the results of his study but every step of the way. I call this style “Nechama Leibowitz made accessible” because it ac­ complishes everything she tried to do with her published studies but in a more transparent and easy-to-use way. ■

P

Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION | 69

Herod, an architectural genius, built the Herodium, a luxurious and magnificentfortress in the Judean Hills. Nowadays, many Jews flock to Herodium on Tishah BAv evefor the reading of Eichah.

Photos: www.sassontiram.com

fter the fall of Jerusalem on Tishah B’Av in the year 70 c e , three fortresses were still held by the Jews: Masada, Machaerus (located in Jordan) and Herodium.

Today, dozens of Jews flock tq Herodium on Tishah B’Av eve to read Eichah, the Book of Lamentations.

From the summit of Herodium, they gaze toward the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, eight miles to the north, much as our forbearers must have gazed in horror at Jerusalem in flames from this same spot 1,940 years ago.

Most of what we know about Herodium and Masada is from the writings of the well-known first-cen­ tury historian Josephus Flavius (the Jewish general turned Roman who chronicled the Great Revolt against Rome from 6 6 c e t o 70 c e ) . Both

A

PeterAbelow is a licensed tour guide and the as­ sociate director ofKeshet: The Centerfor Educa­ tional Tourism in Israel Keshet specializes in creatingand running inspiringfamily andgroup tours that make Israel come alive “Jewishly.”He can he reached at 011.972.2.671.3518 or at peter@keshetisrael.co.il

fortresses were built by King Herod, who ruled in Judea a little less than a century before the Jews’ Great Revolt.

Herod, an architectural genius, chose an amazing spot for Herodium, a luxurious and magnificent fortress.

This desert retreat, built on a spectacu­ lar cone-shaped artificial mountain, included a fortified palace, administra­ tive buildings, bathhouses and gardens.

Herod obviously felt a strong attach­ ment to Herodium: he named the place after himself and insisted that he be buried there.

In the words of Josephus: This fortress, which is some sixty stadia distant from Jerusalem, is natu­ rally strong and very suitable for such a structure, for reasonably nearby is a hill, raised to a (greater) height by the hand o f man. ...A t intervals it has round towers, and it has a steep ascent formed o f two hundred steps o f hewn stone.

Within it are costly royal apartments made for security and for ornament at the same time. A t the base o f the hill there are pleasure grounds built in such a way as to be worth seeing, among

other things because o f the way in which water, which is lacking in that place, is brought in from a distance and at great expense. The surrounding plain was built up as a city second to none, with the hill serving as an acropolis for the other dwellings (Wars of the Jqws 1:10, 31; Antiquities 14:323-325).

Herodium is now part of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority network.

From the entrance gate, it is a short walk up a gradual steep path around the perimeter of the mountain that as­ cends to the top. As you walk up the mountain, try to imagine the impres­ sive marble staircase that was posi­ tioned alongside the cone-shaped fortress 2,000 years ago.

When you reach the top, the views are spectacular in every direction. To the north, Jerusalem; to the east, the Dead Sea Valley; and, on the Jordanian side, the Hills of Moab. To the west is Bet Lechem and to the south, the mod­ ern city of Tekoa and the Judean Hills.

Clearly the king chose this location for its strategic value, in addition to any aesthetic considerations.

The circular top of the cone is over 200 feet (sixty-five meters) in diameter and was surrounded by a double wall.

There was a massive circular tower at the eastern corner-fifty-five feet in di­ ameter and seven stories high; its re­ mains can still be seen. Archaeologists believe that this tower contained the main section of the royal palace. Three other semi-circular towers, about fortyeight feet in diameter, were located at the three other compass points.

To assure a constant supply of water in the middle of the Judean Desert, Herod’s engineers dug three large cisterns into the bedrock of the original mountain, under the fortress. They were peri­ odically filled by channeling rainwater from over the large surface area of the top.

During the Great Revolt against Rome, seventy years after Herod’s death, the site was taken over by Jewish rebels. It was apparently during this time that the Jews transformed the original hall of Herod’s palace into a syna­ gogue. It is specifically in this room where many of us gather each Tishah B’Av. This synagogue is of critical im­ portance, both religiously and archaeologically, as it is one of the three oldest synagogues to have been discovered in Israel (the other two are in Masada and in Gamla, in the Golan Heights). These synagogues were in use while the Second Temple stood.

One of the most exciting aspects of visiting Herodium is descending into the tunnels of the ancient water system.

Originally developed by Herod and used by Jews during the Great Revolt, the water system was dramatically expanded sixty years later when the site was once again used as a Jew­ ish stronghold during the Bar Kochba Rebellion (132-135 c e ) .

When exploring the tunnels, there is no need for flash­ lights; electric lights illuminate the way. The exit from the tunnels leads back to the main path. However, instead of turning left to return to the entrance gate and parking lot, turn right to see the recently discovered tomb of King Herod.

In addition to depicting Herodium in great detail, Jose­ phus describes King Herod’s funeral and burial, which took place at the site. Professor Ehud Netzer, one of Israel’s lead­ ing archaeologists, has worked on the site since 1972. His dream was to locate the sepulcher of the king, a dream that eluded him for over a quarter of a century... until 2007. Net­ zer was a student of Yigael Yadin, who conducted the exca­ vations on Masada from 1963 to 1965. At the time, Netzer had worked side by side with his mentor. In May 2007, Netzer excitedly reported that he and his team of archaeologists had discovered Herod’s Tomb. At the time of the discovery, Net­ zer noted to the press that . the location and unique na­ ture of the findings, as well as the historical record, leave no doubt that this was Herod’s burial site.” A visitor’s platform over the tomb has been opened, and the site is in the process of being made more accessible.

From the tomb, you also have a magnificent view of the remains of Herod’s royal “country club,” replete with a mag­

nificent colonnaded swimming pool. After seeing Herodium, it is clear why Herod was considered the master builder of the ancient world; it is also apparent as to why when the Talmud expressly praises the physical grandeur and magnificence of Jerusalem, it is referring to the period of Herod.

Herod built edifices to last and indeed, so much of what Herod built has lasted two millennia. (Masada, Caesarea, Herodium, the building over the Me’arat Hamachpelah in Hebron, and of course the Western Wall are just a few of his ar­ chitectural accomplishments.) Herodium is an impressive site, one that I believe should not be missed. Yet even as we marvel at the impressive engineering and architectural feats of the ancient world, we should never lose sight of the fact that as Jews we should be striving for spiritual greatness.

Herod introduced Roman culture into the life of ancient Judea. I often remind the high school and college groups I bring to places like Herodium that there is a profound reason that the centers for Jewish life on college campuses are called Hillel Houses and not Herod Houses!

The drive from Jerusalem to Herodium is approximately fifteen minutes via a new wide road past the neighborhood of Har Choma. The site is also accessible from Efrat and Gush Etzion via the Tekoa Road. |

The tunnels of the ancient water system at Herodium.

Summer 5 7 70/2010 JEWISH ACTION

71

What's the Truth about . . . a Jew with a Tattoo

|

Being Buried in a Jewish Cemetery?

MISCONCEPTION:1A Jew with a tat­ too may not be buried in a Jewish cemetery.

FACT: This belief has no basis in Jew­ ish law. Just as a Jew who violated other Torah laws may be buried in a Jewish cemetery, so too may one who violated the prohibition against being tattooed.

BACKGROUND: This misconception is widespread amongst American Jews. References to it are often found in general American culture;2 for ex­ ample, it was mentioned on the TV show The Nanny.3 Tattoos are Biblically prohibited.4 The Torah states (Vayikra 19:28): “You shall not make gashes in your flesh for a dead person; you shall not etch a tat­ too on yourselves. I am God.” The Torah uses the term ketovet ka’aka when referring to a tattoo; ketovet is derived from the root letters kaf, tav, vet, which means to write, while the second word, ka’aka, is difficult to translate as this is the only time it ap­ pears in the Bible.5,6Onkelos translates the term as “rushmin charitin, inci­ sions.” The Septuagint translates it as “grammata stikta, tattooed writing/drawing.”

Clarifying the Biblical prohibition, the Mishnah (Makkot 3:6) and Gemara (Makkot 21a; Yerushalmi, Makkot 3:6) state that it only applies if the individ­ ual performs a two-step process: perfo-

Rabbi Dr. Ari Zivotofsky is on thefaculty of the Brain Science Program at Bar-Ilan Uni­ versity in Israel.

72 | JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

rating the skin and filling the resulting hole with ink. Injecting ink into the deep layers of the skin causes the mark to become permanent. Rashi (Leviticus 19:28; cf. Rashi on Makkot 21a) explains that the writing is done with a needle that yields a mark that is permanent.

Rabbi Shimon, as explained by Bar Kapparah in the Gemara, claims the prohibition only pertains to a tattoo that includes the name of an idol.

Tosafot (Gittin 20b, s.v. beketovet ka’aka; see Beit Shmuel, EH 124:16) as­ serts that there is a rabbinic prohibi­ tion against applying temporary writing that appears like a tattoo and the Minchat Chinuch 253:1 prohibits permanent marking of the skin even if no ink is applied. Rambam and ShulchanAruch rule that in order to vi­ olate the prohibition one needs to pierce the skin and apply color, in ei­ ther order (HilchotAvodatKochavim 12:11; YorehDeah 180:1; Shach 180:1; Kitzur ShulchanAruch 169:1). They both rule that the one being tattooed is not culpable, the tattoo “artist” is. If, however, the person being tattooed as­ sists in the tattooing process, he is cul­ pable, similar to the laws regarding the shaving of one’s beard and peyot (Ram­ bam ibid.; ShulchanAruch, YorehDeah 180:2). Some rabbinic authorities main­ tain that the one who is tattooed is guilty of violating the prohibition and should receive lashes (KesefMishnah 12:1, Shach, Yoreh Deah 180:4).

It is not known how prevalent tat­ tooing was in Biblical times. Rambam (HilchotAvodatKochavim 12:11) says that tattooing was customary among

pagans as a means of declaring the in­ dividual indentured to a certain idol.7 However, with regard to the prohibi­ tion, intent is immaterial.

The prohibition against tattooing has many ramifications in modern times. Tattooing has become very pop­ ular, both in Israel and the US, and many Jews are not even aware that such a prohibition exists. W hat hap­ pens when someone with tattoos does teshuvah? Is he obligated to have the tattoos removed, an often difficult and painful process? There would seem to be no obligation to have them removed, although one may wish to do so as a middat Chassidut; all the more so if the tattoo is of either an immoral or idola­ trous nature. Nowadays, there are creams that can fade a tattoo oyer time.

Laser removal is also an option. Under­ going plastic surgery to remove tattoos is, halachically speaking, questionable because it involves inflicting wounds upon oneself.8Another method of re­ moval involves “covering up” the tattoo by injecting new dye. This method is also halachicalfy questionable as it is possible that the removal process itself is considered tattooing.9A woman once asked Rabbi Ephraim Oshry (19142003), the well-known posek who wrote responsa during the Holocaust, if she could remove her concentration camp tattoo via plastic surgery. He ad­ vised Holocaust survivors not to re­ move their tattoos, but rather to wear them as badges of honor (Teshuvot Mima’amakim 4:22).

Much rabbinic discussion sur­ rounds the relatively new semi-perma-

nent cosmetics (also known as cos­ the halachah states that one should not response (Chelkat Yaakov, 2:4), Rabbi metic tattooing) that are applied via bury an evil person near a tzaddik, nor Mordechai Yaakov Breisch ruled in needle*10 Several leading rabbinic au­ even a very wicked person near a 1957 that it is better to be buried in a thorities believe that if the cosmetics mildly wicked person, nor a good per­ non-Jewish cemetery than to be cre­ are indeed long lasting, and applied to son near an outstandingly pious indi­ mated. This truly highlights the nega­ the deep layers of the skin, it is prohib­ vidual (Sanhedrin 47a; Rashi, ibid.; tive attitude halachah has towards ited to use them.11Others note that Shulchan Aruch, YorehDeah 362:5).14,15 cremation.

Rashi emphasizes in both his com­ This law is derived from the incident Oftentimes uninformed Jews think mentary to the Chumash and to the in II Kings 13:21, where the body of a that because they violated various Gemara that in order for a tattoo to be false prophet was thrown into the Torah laws (such as having a tattoo), prohibited, it must last a lifetime, and Prophet Elisha’s grave and then arose they will be denied a Jewish burial; semi-cosmetics do not. Rabbi Yaakov from the dead because God did not they therefore conclude that they Ariel, chief rabbi of Ramat Gan, wrote want the rasha buried with Elisha. The would like to be cremated, since they in an online responsum that the prohi­ Gemara explains that there were prefer cremation over a non-Jewish bition is with regard to writing words therefore different cemeteries even for burial. However, there is a terrible or pictures, but mere color on the skin different levels of rishut, evil. For ex­ irony here. For almost no one is ex­ does not constitute a tattoo and is, ample, there were different burial cluded from a Jewish cemetery due to therefore, not prohibited. Despite this, areas for those killed by belt din via lack of halachic punctiliousness. When the general consensus among posekim stoning and those killed by sword.16 one is cremated, however, one denies is to prohibit semi-permanent makeup This halachah led to the formation oneself the privilege of having a Jew­ for a variety of different reasons.12 of burial societies—groups of people ish burial. In fact, cremation is one o f Rabbi Shmuel Wosner also raises with common values who purchase the only ways to guarantee that one will some philosophical problems with re­ burial plots near each other. Thus, only not have a Jewish burial gard to semi-permanent makeup. In a in a Jewish cemetery does one find Another related misconception is discussion unrelated to tattoos (Tes/zu- separate burial sections for societies of that suicides are buried outside of the vot Shevet HaLevi 6:33), he discour­ like-minded individuals. Indeed, a hacemetery. In fact, they are not buried ages women from putting on too much lachically conscious person should be outside of a Jewish cemetery, although makeup and cites the Gemara (Shabbat alert to this issue when purchasing a they are buried at a distance from the 62b) that states that one reason for the burial plot, and should try to purchase other deceased, sometimes in a sepa­ destruction of the Beit Hamikdash was one with a group that is particular rate section of the cemetery (Gilyon the excessive use of cosmetics.12He about whom they accept. Burial soci­ Maharsha, Yoreh Deah 345; Sidney brings this argument up again with re­ eties were created specifically for this Goldstein, Suicide in Rabbinic Litera­ gard to semi-permanent makeup, and purpose. Membership in such a society ture [New Jersey, 1989], 60-61). In insists that makeup, when appropriate, ,is different than membership in, for other cultures, such as the Greek and should be used in moderation. example, a shul, which does not neces­ Roman cultures, suicides were ex­ The question of whether a tattoo is sarily guarantee the religious obser­ cluded from cemeteries. However, considered by halachah to be a chatzvance of its members. there is no Talmudic source for ex­ izah with regard to hand washing be­ In general, a sinner is not excluded cluding suicides from being buried in a fore eating bread or with regard to from a Jewish cemetery on the basis of Jewish cemetery, and this practice was bathing in a mikvah is also raised, but his having violated certain laws, and discouraged by halachic authorities most authorities determine that a tat­ thus Shabbat desecraters are buried in (see TzitzEliezer 10:41 and Benjamin too does not constitute a chatzitzdh.

Jewish cemeteries. There are, however, Gesundheit, “Halakhic and Moral Other rabbis have questioned—and ul­ rare exceptions. Since cremation was Analysis of Masekhet Sem ahotT radi­ timately permitted—the writing on the introduced in the late 19th century, tion 35:3 [2001]: 40 and sources on 48). skin by a doctor to mark the location there has been a great deal of rabbinic Ab initio, those of similar religious discussion about how to deal with a where surgery should be performed and moral stature should be buried Jewish person’s cremated ashes. Some (Rabbi Avraham Sofer Avraham, Nishnext to each other. If, however, a tzad­ authorities maintain that excluding mat Avraham 5:67-8). Mishpitei Uzie1 dik and a rasha are buried next to each them from a Jewish cemetery will help (II Yoreh Deah 22) ruled that for a other, it may not be necessary to move discourage the practice of cremation. need, tattooing is permissible. the rasha, although some separation, Since tattooing is Biblically prohib­ Three different positions emerged: ex­ such as a halachic partition, is usually clude the ashes of cremated Jews from advised (see Gilyon Maharsha, Yoreh ited and has a possible connection to a Jewish cemetery, permit their intern­ Deah 362:5; Shu”t Chatam Sofer, Yoreh idolatry, one can easily understand ment in a Jewish cemetery, or permit Deah 341; Minchat Yitzchak 6:136; where the misconception comes from. the burial but in a separate section (see Shevet HaLevi 7:193). If, however, There is a Biblical obligation to bury a e.g.,SerideiAish 2:123-124; Melamed fraud or bribery was involved in ac­ dead Jew (Sanhedrin 46b; Shulchan L ’hoil 2:113-114; and Gesher Hachaim quiring the desirable plot, then the Aruch, YorehDeah 348:2; 357:1-2; 1:16:9). Cremation is so frowned upon rasha should indeed be moved (Shu”t 362:1), even an evil one (Shu”t Chatam in rabbinic literature that in a lengthy Maharsham 7-Al\ Although moving Sofer, Yoreh Deah 341). Furthermore, Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION I I t

graves is for the most part discour­ 2. Geraldo Rivera, interview, TV 12. For an excellent summary of this aged,17it is sometimes recommended.

Guide, 13 May 1989,21; Curb Your En­ topic, see Rabbi Chaim Jachter, Gray Rabbi Shmuel Engel (Shu”t Maharash, thusiasm, HBO, season 3, episode 6, Matter, vol. 3 (New York, 2008), 67-78.

3:65) permitted one to move his wife’s “The Special Section.’! o 13. For a discussion of many reasons grave when it was discovered that she 3. The Nanny, CBS, season 4, offered for the Temple’s destruction was mistakenly buried in a section of episode 9, “Tattoo,” aired November see: Ari Z. Zivotofsky, “What’s the the cemetery reserved for Shabbat 20,1996.

Truth about... the cause of the De­ desecraters.

4. Rabbi Itamar Machpud wrote Ke- struction of the Beit H am ikdashJew ­ Despite the lack of any halachic dushat Yisrael, a book on this prohibi­ ish Action (summer 2004). basis, the misconception about tattoos tion. The book does not mention that a 14. Because death and burial atone continues to prevail. The Jerusalem tattooed individual cannot be buried in for sins, rabbis have questioned Post Magazine (“In the Flesh,” by Maa Jewish cemetery, and in a personal whether the deceased, irrespective of lina Sarah Saval, March 21,2003,12-13) conversation I had with the author, he who he was, could be deemed fully reported: “True, in past generations said he knows of no source for such a righteous after death such that anyone rabbis responded to the biblical in­ claim. This misconception seems to be can be buried next to him (Sha’agat junction by denying the tattooed a predominantly American and is not Aryeh, new Shu% 17), For a similar dis­ taharah [purification]—the traditional well known in Israel. cussion, see Maharsham 3:343. cleansing and preparation of a Jewish 5. Rashi points out similar words in 15.

Regarding burying a non-Jew in body for burial. However, in today’s Bamidbar 25:4 and II Samuel 21:6. a Jewish cemetery, see: Gittin 61a; predominantly secular society, where 6. See Ralbag on the verse for a Rambam, Avel 14:12 and Melachim tattoos are usually acquired for deco­ summary of positions. Ibn Ezra says 10:12; Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah rative and not idolatrous reasons, that that there are those who interpret ke367:1; KesefMishnah, Melachim 10:12; sanction has been unofficially lifted.” tovet ka’aka not as a prohibition against Megillat Ruth 1:17; Targum, ibid.; and The author quotes an individual who tattooing but as a prohibition against Yevamot 47b. performs taharot in Los Angeles as having a procedure done with fire, i.e., stating that no chevrah kadishah today 16. Based on this, the Chatam Sofer branding, as was done with cattle or would deny a taharah to someone was asked the following interesting slaves. Seforno says that there should merely because he had a tattoo. The question (Shu”t Chatam Sofer; Yoreh only be one physical mark on one’s article also states that taharot had his­ body—circumcision.

Deah 333, cited in Pitchei Teshuvah, torically been denied to those with tat­ 7. See Steve Gilbert, Tattoo History Yoreh Deah 362:4). The Talmud (Sotah toos because of their association with (2001); many ancient cultures tat­ 8b; Sanhedrin 37b) states that the four idolatry. I managed to locate the jour­ tooed, often for the purpose of brand­ types of death penalty that a beit din nalist who wrote the article and the in­ ing. The Greeks in Plato’s time can mete out still exist and that if, for dividual quoted in the article. Neither marked slaves so that if they escaped example, a person is guilty of a capital of them could provide a source for the they could be recognized. Ancient Ro­ crime warranting stoning, he will fall assertion made regarding taharot mans tattooed mercenary members of off of a building. The Chatam Sofer was The bottom line is that just as those the army to prevent desertion. thus asked whether a murder victim who ate treif, violated Shabbat, took in­ Samoans tattooed the noses of crimi­ may be buried in a regular cemetery. terest on loans or cheated on taxes can nals. In eighteenth-century Japan, After all, a person put to death by beit be buried in a Jewish cemetery, so can criminals had a pictograph of a dog din was not buried in a regular Jewish those who violated the prohibition of marked on their foreheads. cemetery. The Chatam Sofer re­ tattooing. If sinners were excluded 8. For interesting discussions on the sponded that he may be buried in his from Jewish cemeteries, our cemeter­ topic, see B’mareh Habazak 5:78 family plot for a variety of reasons [al­ ies would be empty. A person with a (Jerusalem, 5765), 164-5; Dayan Weiss, though note that this was often not the tattoo is buried in a Jewish cemetery, Minchat Yitzchak 3:11; Rabbi Eliyahu practice].

One reason is that the rabbis no questions asked. | Bakshi-Doron, Techumin 22:387-391. were careful about their words. Ac­ 9. See Rabbi Ezra Batzri, Techumin cording to the Talmud, a person guilty N otes 10:282-287 and Rabbi Betzalel Stern, of a capital crime gets the due punish­ 1.1 thank Rabbi Joel M. Finkelstein, B’tzel Hachachmah 5:82 who discusses ment.

Thus, one deserving of stoning rabbi of Anshei Sphard-Beth El Emeth many aspects of the prohibition. may fall off a tall building. But the rab­ Synagogue in Memphis, Tennessee, for 10.1 thank Rabbi Professor Aryeh bis did not state that all those who fall alerting me to this misconception and Frimer for pointing me to many of off of buildings are necessarily guilty of Rabbi Elchonon Zohn, chevrah these sources. a capital offence. kadishah director of the Vaad 11.

See Rabbi Ezra Batzri, Techumin 17. It is not always prohibited and Harabonim of Queens and national di­ 10:282-287; Rabbi Baruch Shraga, rector of the National Association of when there is a need, a grave may be Techumin 18:110-114; Rabbi Shmuel Chevra Kadisha, for his helpful com­ transferred. See Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, Wosner, ShevetHaLevi 10:137; and ments on the presented material.

Techumin 18 (5758): 254-273.

Bfmareh Habazak 2:81.

74 | JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

'lhTt<UDGXUMOJ* ORTHODOXbMOKPSEbi-N| o A k presents

Ï ^UnexploredFrontiers * with Rabbi Yisroei Belsky

INSECT-F1BB ÄGuide lo Home Vegetable Inspection

GET AN ENTERTAINING KOSHER EDUCATION in the convenience of your home, synagogue or school with these six invaluable DVD's: K O S H E R K ID Z Takes children on an engaging tour through the basics of kosher certification T H E K O S H E R F IS H P R IM E R

Show kosher consumers the ins and outs of identifying kosher fish

K O S H E R B IR D S : W H O A R E T H E Y ? Show kosher consumers the ins and outs of identifying kosher birds K O S H E R M E A T : U N E X P L O R E D F R O N T IE R S W IT H R A B B I Y IS R O E L B E L S K Y Elucidates how the laws of kashrut interface with the biology of animals and kosher meat preparation IN S E C T - F R E E : A G U ID E T O H O M E V E G E T A B L E IN S P E C T IO N in which viewers are guided expertly in the fine art of ensuring that their vegetables are kosher.

W H A T 'S W R O N G W IT H T H IS C H IC K E N A practical guide to identifying the kashrus red-flags related to raw chicken.

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W ellnessReport

By Shira Isenberg

on Eating Out Weighing In ___________ nraraHHESHREEraNEmral

. Lately, w e’ve been eating out f several tim es a week, and I feel . it in my clothes-everything is getting tighter! How do 1 stop this w eight gain w ithout com pletely avoiding restaurants?

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mon in most restaurants. Try following this plan of action.

Before you arrive at the restaurant: • Resist the urge to starve the 250 J 750 w hole day to “save” calories for your ann 300 j p , .700 CAP. 1kg GRAD.Sg dinner out. It will only work against 350 ¡1 ML It sounds like you may be 650 you: you’ll be super hungry and will overeating at restaurants-and 600 500 400 probably attack the bread basket or 550 you’re not alone. Many people d. appetizers when they arrive. Instead, see going out to eat as a time to in­ eat healthful foods throughout the dulge, a “vacation” from their regular day, and you’ll have the m ind-and healthy diet. But when you’re eating the stom ach-to order right. out as often as several times a week, • Call ahead. If you know which it’s no longer a “special occasion.” Ameri­ restaurant you’re headed to, find out if healthy options are cans seem to be eating out more than ever-according to re­ available. Ask if the chef will honor special requests like cent research, as much as a quarter of our meals are eaten cooking a dish without oil. Have a menu faxed or e-mailed to away from home and almost half of our food dollars are you so you can browse the selections beforehand. spent on restaurant/takeout foods. True, kosher restaurants • Dress the part. Wear something that’s “just-just.” You account for a tiny fraction of these statistics, but if you’ve will be less likely to indulge if you’re feeling pressure on ever stopped at the pizza place on a Thursday night, you your waist. know exactly the kind of indulgence I’m talking about.

• Avoid buffets. It’s more difficult to control your intake Get back your control by changing your focus. No morewhen you are free to keep going back for more. The cost to going out with the mindset of splurging. Instead, remind your health-because of the extra calories and saturated fatyourself that a restaurant is just a place to get food to eatisn’t worth the money you think you’re saving. and while it tastes good, it’s still only food. Actually, appreci­ When ordering: ating food for its ability to sustain us, keep us healthy and • Look for key words on the menu. Stay away from yes, satisfy us with its delicious taste, too, is a Jewish thing to menu items listed as fried, creamy, crispy, breaded, au.gratin, do (Rabbi Paysach Krohn, “Eating, Living, and Enjoying rich or jumbo. Instead look for items that are baked, grilled, Life” [lecture, available at www.torahanytime.com]). broiled, boiled, steamed, seared and roasted.

It can be tricky to achieve a balance—enjoying food with­ • Ask for m ore inform ation: How big is that steak? Can out overeating—especially when confronted with enormous I get grilled vegetables or a baked potato instead of fries? portions and the plethora of fat- and sugar-laden foods com• Consider starting your m eal w ith a salad or a brothbased (not cream-based) soup. Research shows that salads and soups help fill one up so that one ends up eating less of Shira Isen b erg is a registered d ietitia n a n d w riter. She has a m a s­ the main course, which is typically higher in calories and fat. ter's degree in p u b lic h ealth n u trition fro m H u n te r College in N e w Be sm art-in restaurants (and at some Shabbat tables), actual York. S en d y o u r n u tritio n -rela ted qu estion s to ja @ o u .o r g .

76

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

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vegetables are not always a requisite! Crouton-loaded, sug­ ary and mayonnaise-y concoctions do not count as a healthy choice. Memorize this request: “Dressing on the side please:” • Watch “liquid calories.” People tend to eat more when they drink alcohol with meals. (This is especially relevant to those who frequent the shul kiddush week after week.) Even a regular soda or juice will tack on 100-plus calories to an al­ ready heavy meal. Stick with plain water and save your taste buds for the main event-the food.

When the food arrives: • Eat slowly. Research has consistently shown that peo­ ple who eat more slowly eat less. So put down your fork, take a sip of water, join the conversation-anything to put the brakes on shoveling food into your mouth.

• Skip the freebies. A recent report in the Journal o f the American Dietetic Association found that, on average, “free” side dishes that come with an entrée contain more calories than the main dish.

• Don’t clean your plate. IPs not bad manners to leave uneaten food on your plate. Restaurant portions are notori­ ously large-often enough for more than one person-so do not feel obligated to finish everything you were served, even if you chose the healthiest item on the menu. In fact, chal­ lenge yourself to leave over a bit of everything on your plate.

• Be proud o f yourself. If you stuck to your plan and did not overindulge, you can give yourself a pat on the back-but don't celebrate by whipping out the leftover cake from Shabbat. On the other hand, if you overdid it at the restaurant, don't feel bad-we're only human, after all, and we do slip up.

To avoid gaining weight, you don't have to stop eating out, and you certainly don't have to stop enjoying food. But you do need to modify the way you eat in restaurants-or get back to the kitchen and start cooking for yourself! ■

Your Never-Fail Healthy Restaurant Meal Whether you eat out fre­ quently for business or pleas­ ure, you can find these selections at almost any restaurant. If they're not on th e menu, ju st a s k -th e c h e f may be willing to prepare them for you anyway.

Appetizer: Broth-based soup or garden salad with olive oil-based dress­ ing on the side (dip your fork in the dressing to spread it on the salad) Entrée: Grilled, baked or broiled chicken (no skin) or fish Steamed or grilled vegetables Small baked potato or 1/2 cup rice Dessert: Fresh fruit with tea or coffee

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he incredible aroma of food cooking on the grill is a sure-fire way to spark your appetite. Here are some ways to sneak some nutrition onto the plate the next time everyone gathers around the grill.

Make burgers with lean ground beef, veal, chicken or turkey. Add finely minced carrots, celery and onions to the mixture; bind with some rolled oats or breadcrumbs. Don't over-handle the mixture or your burgers will be tough. To prevent burgers from falling apart during grilling, chill them first.

Veggie burgers or marinated portabella mushroom caps are great vegetarian alternatives. Serve them on whole­ wheat rolls or pita bread topped with sliced tomatoes, let­ tuce, roasted red peppers and grilled onion slices.

Grilled vegetables are always a winner. Grilled veg­ etable skewers are also fun and are full of flavor. Arrange the veggies on separate skewers from the meat or chicken and grill until tender and golden.

Add a salad or two to the menu and you've got the mak­ ings of a healthy, fabulous feast.

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fore drizzling it over the cooked food. Marinate meat or poultry for 1 to 2 hours (or up to 48 hours) in the refrigera­ tor. Marinate fish or tofu for 1 hour. Marinate vegetables (e.g., asparagus, green beans or broccoli) for 30 minutes to 2 hours.

•To keep poultry moist and prevent it from drying out during grilling, remove the skin after it is cooked.

•Ground beef needs to be cooked until it reaches an in­ ternal temperature of 160°. Cook chicken to an internal temperature of 165° throughout. Large cuts of meat, such as steak, should be cooked from 145° (medium-rare) to 160° (medium). Check the internal temperature by insert­ ing a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the meat or poultry. w •You can precook meat or poultry in the oven ahead of time, and then complete the last-minute cooking on the grill. This helps save time.

• Don't grill over direct heat. Place food around the hot coals, not directly over them.

TIPS FOR HEALTHIER GRILLING •Marinating meats and poultry before cooking makes them more tender and flavorful. If making an acid-based marinade, use a non-reactive container (glass, ceramic, stainless steel or a heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag). Mari­ nate either at room temperature or in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour. For longer marinating, cover and re­ frigerate the food overnight.

•Drain the marinade before grilling. If you want to re­ serve the leftover marinade for basting or to use as a sauce, be sure to bring it to a boil, then simmer it for 5 minutes be-

T e n y a k i M arin ad e

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JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

Source: Norene’s Healthy Kitchen Makes about 3/4 cup, enough for 2 to3 lbs o f meat, fish, chicken or tofu This terrific marinade is guaranteed to bring rave reviews from family and friends. It also does double-duty as a sauce and is delicious on meat, poultry, fish, tofu or vegetables.

1/4 cup orange juice (preferably fresh) or mango juice 1/4 cup soy sauce (low-sodium or regular) 2 tablespoons lemon juice (preferably fresh) 3 cloves garlic (about 1 tablespoon minced) 1 slice peeled fresh ginger (about 1 tablespoon minced)

Combine all the ingredients in ajar and shake well. Store, covered, in the refrig­ erator, until ready to use.

Note: Keeps for up to 1 week in the re­ frigerator. Freezes well for up to 3 months.

Teriyaki Sauce Prepare marinade as directed above.

Place in a saucepan and heat until boil­ ing. Dissolve 1 tablespoon cornstarch in 2 tablespoons water or orange juice.

Stir the cornstarch solution into the boiling marinade and cook, stirring constantly, until smooth and thickened, about 2 minutes. Serve as a sauce.

Great Grilled Vegetables Source: Norene’s Healthy Kitchen Makes 8 servings “Veg-out” at your next barbecue with this easy Mediterranean-style dish.

1 large red onion, sliced in rings (e.g, Vidalia) 3 colored bell peppers (red, orange or yellow), cut in chunks 2 cups mushrooms, halved (or 8 portabella mushrooms) 1 small eggplant, ends trimmed, sliced into 1/2-inch thick rounds 2 zucchini and/or yellow squash, trimmed, sliced diagonally 1/2-inch thick 1 bunch asparagus spears, ends trimmed 4 cloves garlic, crushed (about 4 teaspoons minced) 1/4 cup olive oil (preferably extra-virgin) 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste 1/4 cup lightly packed chopped fresh basil (see Note) 1 tablespoon fresh oregano (see Note) In a large bowl, combine onions, pep­ pers, mushrooms, zucchini and as­ paragus. Add garlic, olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper; mix well. Marinate at least 30 minutes (or cover and refrig­ erate overnight).

Transfer vegetables to a perforated grill basket, reserving any leftover

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Summer 5770/2010 JEW ISH ACTION

79

marinade. (If you don’t have a grilling basket, use heavy-duty foil that has been slashed in several places.) Grill over medium-high heat for 15 minutes, or until nicely browned, stirring two or three times.

Remove from grill and transfer veg­ etable mixture to a large bowl. Add re­ served marinade, basil and oregano.

Mix well.

Note: If using dried basil and oregano instead of fresh, add them to the vegetable mixture before marinat­ ing, along with the salt and pepper.

Thyme and rosemary also make flavor­ ful seasonings.

4 salmon steaks (11/2 to 2 lbs) 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon paprika 1 teaspoon dried thyme 1/2 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 lemon, sliced Preheat grill. Sprinkle both sides of salmon with seasonings. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and lemon juice. Place fish in a lightly greased grill basket.

Grill 3 to 4 minutes per side. Grill lemon slices quickly. Use as a garnish.

Chimichurri Chicken

Grilled Moroccan Salmon

Source: Norene9s Healthy Kitchen Makes 6 servings

Source: Healthy Helpings

by Norene Gilletz Makes 4 servings

Chimichurri is a bold-flavored herb sauce that is as common in Argentina as ketchup is in North America.

If you would rather broil the fish in your oven, spray the broiler rack with nonstick spray to prevent sticking.

6 boneless, skinless single chicken breasts Salt and freshly ground black pepper 3 cloves garlic

1 medium onion, cut in chunks 2/3 cup packed fresh parsley leaves 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/3 cup red wine vinegar (or sherry or rice vinegar) 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Rinse the chicken breasts and pat dry with paper towels. Trim the excess fat.

Lightly sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper to taste, then place in a large, zip-top plastic bag.

In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, process the garlic, onion^ and parsley until minced, about 8 to 10 seconds. Add the olive oil, vinegar, oregano, cayenne, salt and pepper; process for about 5 seconds to blend.

Transfer the sauce to a large glass measuring cup.

Pour half the sauce over the chicken in the plastic bag. Seal the bag tightly and shake well to thoroughly coat the chicken in the sauce. Let the chicken marinate in the sauce for 30 to 60 minutes at room temperature or for up to 48 hours in the refrigerator. Place the remaining sauce in a gravy boat or serving bowl; cover and refrigerate to serve with the cooked chicken.

W hen the chicken is marinated, preheat the grill and set to medium high. Remove the chicken from the marinade in the bag; discard the mari­ nade. Grill the chicken over indirect heat for 5 to 6 minutes per side, until grill marks appear and juices run clear. Serve immediately with the re­ served sauce.

Note: Keeps for up to 3 days in the refrigerator; reheats well. Freezes well for up to 3 months. Sauce may discolor slightly if frozen.

Chimichurri Beef Instead of chicken, use 2 to 3 lbs. lean London broil or steak. Grill the meat over indirect heat for 8 to 10 minutes per side or until medium (pink juices will come to the surface of meat). Re­ move from the grill and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Slice thinly across the grain and serve with reserved sauce.

80 | JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

ra d is h Please use responsibly.

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go to w w w .goldshorseradish.com for recipes and information

The Beast That Crouches at the Door: Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel, and Beyond

By Rabbi David Fohrman Devora Publishing Jerusalem, 2007 216 pages

Reviewed by Hillel Goldberg

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1 Biblical Exploration i bx Rabbi David Fohrman

Macro and M icro A few times in a person's life, a book comes along that truly makes a differ­ ence. Rare is the book that unveils something genuinely fresh and exciting about eternal themes, and that has style and verve to boot The Beast That Crouches at the Door is one of these rare books, a provocative reading of Torah like none I have read in many a year. At the same time, it is a page-turner. My advice: Do not pick up this book unless you have time ahead of you, for you will not likely put it down once you begin.

Quality commentary on the Torah usually falls into one of two frames, the “micro" or the “macro." The micro R a b b i H illel Goldberg, execu tive e d ito r o f the I n te r m o u n ta in J e w is h N ew s, is a co n trib u t­ in g e d ito r o f J e w is h A ctio n .

82

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

level embraces the perception of a dou­ ble entendre or a new layer of meaning in a Scriptural word or phrase; a new question on a verse or on a traditional commentator, and a penetrating an­ swer; a dazzling take on a Scriptural in­ cident; or a nuanced reading of a line of Biblical poetry. The skills of the writer of Torah commentary on the micro level tend to be close cropped, finely at­ tuned to detail and language. The macro level takes the broader view. It may offer a comprehensive exploration of a Biblical personality or narrative, or of the links between many narratives. It may offer a philosophy, theology or psy­ chology of an entire book of Torah. The skills of the writer of this kind of com­ mentary tend to be expansive, sensitive to ideas and to the issues of life.

Rare is the writer who possesses both skill sets-who focuses on the nu­ ances of the text; who asks questions that at first glance may appear small, even insignificant; and who then builds from his small insights, one by one, to paint a broad canvas. Rabbi David Fohrman is multi-skilled, a master of both the micro and the macro, of the details of the text and of the complexi­ ties of life. In this analysis of the stories of Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel, Rabbi Fohrman blends the micro and macro into a glorious vista of ideas. Nu­ ance by insightful nuance, he uncovers powerful Torah teachings.

Rock-a-bye Baby A graduate of Ner Israel Rabbinical College and a talmid of the late rosh yeshivah RavYaakov Weinberg, Rabbi Fohrman titles his introduction, “Be­ yond the Lullaby Effect: Reading the Bible with Open Eyes." He cites: “Rocka-bye baby on the treetop, when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall, and down will come baby, cradle and all."

Who's listening? To the words, no one.

For if they were, not sweetness and dreams but terror and perplexity would seize both mother and child. Who left his child on the top of a tree? How is a child falling out of a tree soothing to a baby? Rabbi Fohrman maintains that some of the most important narratives of the Torah have fallen prey to the “Lullaby Effect." We are so familiar with many of the Biblical stories that we stop listening, can no longer see the big questions, and have trouble learning from them.

Questions that Rabbi Fohrman poses are right in front of our noses, so to speak. For example: After God com­ manded Adam not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, how could Adam be punished for doing so?

Doesn't his action presuppose that he knew his action was wrong? “If Adam and Eve already understood the cate­ gories of good and evil before reaching for the fruit, well then, they already possess what the tree was supposed to give them. What, then would be the purpose of the tree? It's a catch-22."

And so the questions unroll: Why is the Tree of Life fine to eat from before partaking from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but not after? Why do cherubs with a flaming sword guard the way back to the Tree of Life-but also, in their only other appearance in the Torah, guard another “tree of life"— the Torah? Is there a relationship be­ tween the two “trees"? Moreover, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil seems to tell us that man would origi­ nally have lived forever, because “on the day that you eat from it, you will surely die." But the Tree of Life seems to tell us that man was originally a being that would die, for if he ate of the Tree of Life, he would then live forever.

And the questions are not just logi­ cal. They are textual. Here is the snake's approach to Eve: “afki amar

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Elokim lo tochlu mikol etz hagan” Writes Rabbi Fohrman: Most translations render these words: “Did G-d really say that you may not eat from any o f the trees o f the Gar­ den?”But that’s not a precise translation o f the Hebrew. A better; more literal translation would read: “Even if G-d said do not eat from any o f the trees o f the Garden.. .’’’Note that’s not even a sentence. It just trails o ff into nothing­ ness. What is being said here? Besides, what’s so bad about eating o f the Tree o f Knowledge o f Good and Evil? Wouldn’t knowledge o f right and wrong make a person more godly, not less? Wouldn’t G-d want us to have this knowledge?

A ttention Chocolate Lovers These questions, ripped from context, do not convey the systematic unveiling of critical issues that Rabbi Fohrman finds in the story of Adam and Eve. These questions, however, do convey the sense that the story can slip right past us, familiar as it is, leaving us bereft not just of the challenges the Torah presents, but of the answers, teachings and lessons it conveys.

Nor do these questions begin to capture the author’s alluring, engag­ ing, cannot-put-it-down style. When reading this book, a critical teaching of Reb Yisroel Salanter came to mind: The Torah must be conveyed with parables and dazzling language-it must be conveyed in a way that is at­ tractive to people, a way that excites you. Rabbi Fohrman has met Reb Yisroel’s criteria, indeed.

At the beginning of Part II of the book-on the relationship between Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel-the chapter title is “So Whose Picture Do You Like Better: Mine or Debbie’s”?

The subject is the way that God-or so it seems-pits Cain against Abel. God accepts the offering of one but rejects the offering of the other. Here is how Rabbi Fohrman pulls you in: I f parents did that to their own chil­ dren, blatantly favoring Debbie’s picture over Bobby’s admittedly inferior one, what would we think o f those parents?

Stop. Is this what God is actually doing?

I f you reread the story o f Cain and Abel carefully, you should be able to spot the flaw; you should be able to see why Bobby and Debbie’s sorry circumstance 84 | JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

actually has little to do with the story o f Cain and Abel.

We’ll compare notes in the next chapter.

Or, when referring to the Gemara that says that after a pious person dies his yetzer hara appears to him as a mountain, but after the wicked person dies his yetzer hara appears to him as a lowly hill, Rabbi Fohrman entices: Stop thinking that the pious person has a greater or lesser yetzer hara than the wicked person, but this: the wicked succumbed to the evil inclination, the pious did not. Looking backward, after death, the pious person sees how much desire of his that has not been sated, while the wicked sees what desire

Rabbi David Fohrman is multi-skilled, a master o f both the micro and the macro, o f the details o f the text and o f the complexities o f life. looks like after he has given in to it.

When desire has yet to be sated, it looks like a mountain. Just before you eat the chocolate macadamia fudge torte, you can’t imagine anything more delicious. But through the rear view mir­ ror, desire gives a different appearance.

Once you’ve finished o ff the last crumbs, the mountain is gone, and you see reality for what it really is: the torte tasted good for all o f thirty seconds, and now you’ve got two hours ahead o f you in the gym to work it off.

Spicing Things Up I have not yet even hinted at Rabbi Fohrman’s beautiful capacity to etch an aggadita literally From Kiddushin 30b: “The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Israel: 'My son, I have created the evil inclination; and I have created the Torah, its antidote. If you involve your­ self in the Torah, you will not be deliv­ ered into its h a n d s.^/ Problem: Although Torah is the so­ lution to the sickness of the evil incli­ nation, the translation is poor-in fact, plain wrong. The Hebrew for “anti­ dote” is tavlin, and tavlin means spices.

“If you go to Israel today and walk into a shop and ask for tavlin,” writes Rabbi Fohrman, “they won’t direct you to the medicine counter. Instead, they’ll walk you over to the spice rack.”

Spice is placed on food, on meat, for example. “What, exactly does spice do for meat?” asks the author.

It gives direction to meat, makes it taste one way rather than another....

The Torah gives direction to our most basic, most powerful drives.... the Torah is designed not to extinguish pas­ sion, but t o ... provide spice-direction for it; to make desire taste like something. The Torah’s commands are designed to direct passion toward pro­ ductive ends, toward worthwhile, even holy, endeavors— Not a new idea, but certainly a beautiful demonstration that the lan­ guage of aggadita and midrash is pre­ cise, best understood if respected and least understood if dismissed as mere fancy or vague metaphor.

The Unbridgeable And so, what is Rabbi Fohrman saying in this book? Putting aside the alluring language, and most of the exegeses and even many of the central points, his commentary on the Adam and Eve story runs something like this: The good and evil that the tree by that name conveyed to Adam and Eve was not a case of writing on a blank slate.

The tree transformed, rather than cre­ ated, the moral sense of the progeni­ tors of humankind. Following Rambam, we may say that before Adam and Eve ate of the tree, they had a sense of truth and falsehood-they judged moral questions absent a deepseated, psychic capacity for passion.

After they ate of the tree, passion en­ tered their moral calculus. Desire and subjectivity came to rule them.

God prevented them from return­ ing to the Garden of Eden because the absolute, dispassionate sense of right and wrong were impossible to regain.

Rather, Adam and Eve and their de­ scendants needed to turn to another tree of life, the Torah, whose teachings would not uproot their newly acquired desires, but could guide, control and ennoble them. “From Eden’s Tree of Knowledge to the posLEden Tree of Life (the Torah),” might summarize

the human, historical and psychologi­ cal journey.

The snake, Eve’s tempter, originally appears as a walking, talking, upright being, suggesting an absence of differ­ ence between the human and the ani­ mal kingdoms. The snake asks Eve, “Even if God said, do not eat from any of the trees of the Garden... so what?”

The snake claims that it is not what God says that counts, it is what one de­ sires that counts, since God placed de­ sires in man and animal. Claims the snake: Ignore God’s words; instead, fol­ low the desires God put in you. Accord­ ing to midrash, the snake seeks to marry Eve, for, to the snake, there is no line dividing human from animal. As the story plays out, and both Eve and the snake are punished; the snake is re­ duced to a crawling creature, no longer able to speak. The Torah conveys a message: Yes, man has an animal side, but his human side is not his capacity for speech per se, nor even his intelli­ gence; but his capacity to distinguish between the moral imperative and the base instinct, between the God Who speaks through the Torah and the God Who speaks through one’s desires.

The snake is arom, which means both naked and cunning. The snake is naked in the sense that he knows only the given, only the obvious, which, to him, is the equivalence of both the human and the animal since both are ruled by God-given desires. But the snake cannot see beyond that. He can­ not perceive the higher side of the human being, and that inability is what makes him an animal. And so, for all his cunning, his clever influence over Eve, he cannot bridge the unbridgeable: the line between man and animal.

“The temptation of loneliness is to seek solace where it ought not to be sought,’’ writes the author.

For Adam, this would mean seeking companionship among the animals, pre­ tending, i f only he could, that he is one o f them. . . . I n allowing Adam to name and search for a mate among the animals, God was seeking to inoculate humanity from the temptation it would soon face, to convince Adam through experience that he could never really be one with the animal world. Only after such a trial could Adam truly appreciate the unique compatibility o f Eve.

Lest this seem an issue settled al­ ready at the dawn of humanity, some contemporary “ethicists” claim that animals have more inherent worth than some humans-those born with major defects, whom we ought to kill.

The struggle for humanity continues.

Not Shame, But Fear Adam passes the test, marrying Eve, establishing the inerasable line be­ tween man and animal, but both fail the second test when they eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, acquiring passions and desires which, yes, they may and must work to ele­ vate, but which, before they disobeyed God’s command, they already tran-

We are so familiar with many of the Biblical stories that we stop listening, can no longer see the big questions, and have trouble learning from them. scended. And so, after eating from the Tree of Knowledge they become con­ scious of their nakedness. They hide, but not out of shame; rather, they hide out of fear of the power of their newly acquired passion.

God asks Adam, “Where are you?”

Why would God ask a question he al­ ready knows the answer to? The au­ thor observes that there are two Hebrew words for “where”: eiphoh and ayeh. Eiphoh simply seeks a location.

This is not the word the Torah uses when it records God’s question, “Where are you?” Ay eh does not seek a location. It connotes something else: not to find out where something is, but to express wonder that the thing is not here. As in Isaac’s question to Abraham when they trek to Mount Moriah: “Here’s the fire, but where is the lamb for the offering?” Isaac knows that there is no lamb. His point is not to ask if it was left back at the shack. His point is, there is no lamb here when, by rights, there should be.

This apparently innocuous remark

by Isaac packs emotional punch, because in it Isaac begins to realize the terrifying

truth-there is no ram here, after all, and that maybe, therefore, he is the ram.

And so, when God asks Adam, “Where are you?” God means: What happened to the Adam who possessed a moral capacity, the ability to distin­ guish between truth and falsehood?

Where is the crown of My creation?

What happened to him? In Hebrew, this “where” can also mean “lament.” It is the opening word in the Book of Lamentations, read on Tishah B’Av. “Where are you?” is, in this instance, less a question than a lament.

Not Two Stories, But One With this, I have reviewed half of The Beast that Crouches at the Door. Linder the masterful arc of Rabbi Fohrman, the Cain and Abel story is not merely that which follows the Adam and Eve story. Rather, the two are integrally linked, and, in fact, the second intensi­ fies the first. Cain struggles with the desires that now rage within the human being, due to Adam and Eve having eaten of the Tree of Knowledge.

Except that Cain’s struggle is harder.

Because Adam and Eve faced a chal­ lenge and failed, the new challengethat of Cain-is more intense.

The abundance of parallels be­ tween the stories of Adam and Eve and of Cain are not, strictly speaking, paral­ lel. Cain’s challenges are more severe than even those of Adam and Eve, who, after all, were expelled from Paradise.

Rabbi Fohrman unfolds the levels of Cain’s challenge this way: Both Adam and Cain hear the Divine ques­ tion, “ayeh,” but while in the Garden of Eden, God seeks the whereabouts of a temporarily missing person (Adam); in the story of Cain and Abel, the person God seeks (Abel) is gone for good.

Both Adam and Cain express fear and hide from God, but while Adam hides from God momentarily, Cain intuits that he will spend his whole life hiding from God. Both Adam and Cain suffer exile, but while Adam and Eve will have to leave Paradise to build their home elsewhere, Cain will never be able to call any place home. Both Adam and Cain are condemned to ex­ perience difficulty farming, but while Adam will have to wrest bread out of the ground “by the sweat of his brow,” in the end he will have his bread. Cain, Summer 5770/2010 JEWISH ACTION | 85

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however, is told that even if he works the land with mighty toil, “it will not continue to give its strength to you.”^ Cain will experience a fundamental loss of agricultural potential. The land simply won’t produce anymore what it once did.

Cain Is Never Named All this is hinted at by the mere fact that Cain is never named. “And Eve conceived and bore C ain.. .’’-he is just born Cain. Why? “Kain in Hebrew connotes acquisition, and Cain wishes to acquire the fruit of the ground.

There is nothing more real than real estate, and when Cain becomes a | worker of the earth, he relentlessly seeks to share in its permanence. He seeks to become “grounded,” both in the sense of partaking of its nourish­ ment, and in the sense of having a place to be. Cain is not a woman; he cannot share in the fruit of the womb.

But he can do the next best thing. He can cultivate the fruit of the land. He can do through land what Eve does through her body. “There is great joy to be found in farming,” writes Rabbi Fohrman, “a joy that many of us mod­ erns have become too jaded to see.”

For his murder of Abel, Cain is cursed through the ground-why? “If Abel’s blood had fallen on the kitchen floor instead, would Cain have been cursed through linoleum tiles?”

Hardly so. Cain is cursed through the ground because Cain desires the ground, desires acquisition and “grounding.” Cain’s act of murder is severe, and the punishment fits the crime. “And Cain said to God: 'My sin is greater than I can bear. Here you have cast me away today from upon the face of the earth and from Your face I will hide; I will be a wanderer in the land, and everyone who finds me will kill m e ...” (Gen. 4:13-14).

Cain is denied everything he wants; indeed, everything he is.

We may now return to God’s ac­ ceptance of his brother’s offering and rejection of Cain’s. Abel offered the best of his fruits, yet, in fact, God never compares Cain to Abel. The Torah merely notes that Cain gave of some of his produce to God and that Abel gave his best. Perhaps Cain’s av­

erage was better than Abel’s best. We simply do not know. When God re­ jected Cain’s offering, it was not be­ cause Abel’s was better. God compared Cain to Cain, and found Cain’s offering wanting. Cain, who had the spiritual genius to discover the religious gesture of an offering, nonetheless did not give of his best.

“Go and Learn” Why? Because Cain was born Kain, in deep lust after land and grounding.

Cain dicLnot give a gift to God; rather, he made an offering as a prudential, if glorified, insurance policy. Cain gave to God because Cain wanted security in return. With that, Cain distanced himself from God, rather than the other way around. God rejected Cain’s gift: masquerading as gratitude, but of­ fered valuable guidance along with the rejection. If Cain “does well,” as God puts it to Cain, if Cain directs his passions properly, then, “lift up!” says Genesis.

Cain can lift up his face and look at himself in the mirror in the morning.

But if he does not do w ell-if he fails to direct these passions, i f he stays neutral and lets them run wild in his soul-well, that itself may not be a sin, but sin lies crouching at the door. It is only a mat­ ter o f time before the engine we call passion... drives its rider over the nearest cliff...

Cain is contending with a deep pas­ sion, a force o f dizzying power, that wishes, so to speak, to bond with him and fill him with its life-affirming power. Cain, for his part, must realize that as benevolent and tantalizing as this force is, he is not the same as it; he is distinct from it. He must affirm his identity outside o f it, and somehow, he must rule over it. He must direct its power. “ ... its desire is unto you, yet you can rule over it,” God tells Cain. That, in a nutshell-minus beautiful sup­ porting insights and brilliant readings of associated verses in the Torah-is Rabbi Fohrman’s argument.

As my namesake said some 2,000 years ago: Zilgemor. Go and learn.

Go through this book; find joy in the study of Torah.

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Lastinglmpressions

By Charlotte Friedland I

A Quaint Prayer Makes a Comeback

s I looked out the window of the El Al jet, the plane was lifting off the runway. The fellow beside me was already snoring. A tall, denim-clad woman sprawled on the seat across the aisle watched with interest as I whipped out my siddur. When I began whispering Tefillat Haderech, she arched her eyebrows and asked aloud, “Do you actually believe that if this plane goes down, you will survive be­ cause you said that—and I will die be­ cause I didn’t?” Her smile was twisted in amused derision.

“Yes,” I said, meeting her gaze. She rolled her eyes. “To be more precise, I believe that now that I’ve said it, we’ll both be safe because the plane won’t go down at all.”

“Ha! As if God is listening! Re­ mind me to thank you when we reach New York.”

This is going to be some trip, I thought. Rip Van Winkle on one side of me, Spinoza on the other.

There was a tap on my arm. 'You’re not like all the others,” Spinoza intoned slowly. “I like you—or at least, I’ll talk to you.” Oh, goody.

With that inauspicious opener, we began our trans-Atlantic discussion of prayer, what’s wrong with Jewish so­ ciety, what went wrong in her yeshivah education, all of her sins, and

Â

C h arlotte F riedlan d is a fo rm e r ed ito r o f J e w is h A c tio n a n d also se rv e d as a book e d i­ to r a t M esorah P u blication s, L td . She cur­ ren tly has her ow n w ritin g /e d itin g / con su ltin g fir m in S p rin g Valley, N e w York.

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JEWISH ACTION Summer 5770/2010

the immorality of buying leather goods. I have to admit [that for a couple of women with totally opposite lifestyles, we hit it off.

But her original question got me thinking. The wording of the prayer evokes quaint images of days long ago, when brigands roamed the high seas and bandits ruled the treacherous roads connecting oases. Travelers then were primitive and vulnerable, not civi­ lized creatures with GPS, Wi-Fi and mezonot rolls.

Who can deny that when we were kids, Tefillat Haderech was, at best, an afterthought? In Dad’s Chevy, the invo­ cation was to save us from flat tires, carsickness and drunk drivers. As an adult, I regarded it as nothing more than insurance against flight delays and losing our luggage.

But over the last few years, the clock has turned back w ith alarming rapidity: our brief hiatus of safety is over, a mere blip on the screen of his­ tory. Gone are the days when we could skip merrily down the yellow brick road.

Now, shocking headlines warn of bombers and pirates and cutthroats (Oh, my!) and every word of Tefillat Haderech jumps out at me with strik­ ing relevance. I’ll be honest with you: As I make my way up the security line at the airport, my tendency is to eye my fellow passengers through a dark lens.

Dear God, I think furtively, “rescue us from the hand of every foe and am­ bush ....” Wait! W hat was that fellow slipping out of his pocket just now? Oh,

it’s a candy bar. Aha! Is it really a candy bar, or does it just look like a candy bar?

He’s eating it. Diabolically clever.

“Save us from robbers and wild animals . . . ” That woman with the bulging tote bag looks a little nervous to me; why does she keep checking her cell phone?

And that character over there has a ter­ rorist face if ever there were one-oh, he’s the pilot. A guy with a terrorist face is the pilot! Maybe he’s just pre­ tending to be the pilot. It’s a fake uni­ form! He just smiled at me in a reassuring way. Smart. Very smartthinks he’ll throw me off his tra il...

Where is Security when you need it?

I haven’t gotten on the plane yet, and I’ve said Tefillat Haderech six times. That’s overkill, I chide myself, then cringe at the word. No need to panic. God will take care of the candyeater, the tote-bagger and the shifty pilot. I don’t have to trust Security. I have my own protection. After all, isn’t that what prayer is for? Why be afraid?

Why worry?

It occurs to me that it’s time for Moshiach. Maybe even before this flight takes off. I calm myself reflecting that when he finally comes, a lot of people will be thrown out of work: first to go will be that beady-eyed girl with the clipboard at the El Al terminal (“You understend why I esk you ziss questions?”); doctors will head for the nearest kollel; the entire military will retrain in driving tractors. When that big shofar blows, x-ray scanners will be cast aside and we will dance onto the planes taking us to Eretz Yisrael, as baggage handlers cheerfully, gently load our belongings aboard.

No doubt, we will be hard-pressed trying to explain to our great-grand­ children about life in the Pre-Messianic Era. What it felt like to be on the lookout for danger; how we had to swear that we packed our luggage our­ selves. I have a hunch, though, that in time we might have trouble remember­ ing why we needed Tefillat Haderech and her sister, Birkat Hagomel. Someday-hopefully before my next tripthey will be outmoded relics of the past. And yes, I actually believe that. H

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